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The Garden History Society

Forgotten Gardeners, II: John GraeferAuthor(s): Alice M. CoatsSource: The Garden History Society Newsletter, No. 16 (Feb., 1972), pp. 4-7Published by: The Garden History SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1586242 .

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Arrangements were made in September for a passage to Naples for Graefer,his three sons and a servant (no female is mentioned but they may have followedlater: a wife and one daughter survived him), but these first bookings fellthrough, and eventually with much difficulty accommodation was found for them ona vessel bound for Leghorn. Here Graefer had to wait three weeks for a ship forNaples; he was accompanied on this part of the journey by Dr. John Sibthorp, onhis way to the Greek islands, with his draughtsman Ferdinand Bauer. They weredelayed for a long time by bad weather at the island of Ponza, and employed thetime in making a thorough botanical survey of the island. The gardenereventually reached Naples on 18th April 1786. Less than three months later SirWilliam reported that "a beautiful plant called Emma has been transplanted fromEngland" - Emma Hart, the protegee of his nephew Charles Greville, later tobecome Lady Hamilton. Another English visitor was Dr. (later Sir) J.E. Smith,who called at Naples in March 1787 in the course of a Continental Grand Tour.Graefer took him botanising and showed him Daphne collina (which he hadpreviously found on Ponza) growing beside "shelvy Volturno" in such profusion asto resemble "the celebrated rose-gardens of Paestum". (Smith's description.)

Meantime, the new garden was making progress. A site of 50 acres had beenpurchased adjacent to the existing garden, and was to include a vegetable garden,a botanic garden and a bowling-green. Graefer soon had 80 men at work, besidesmany masons building the walls. But he was beset by difficulties. The Italiangardeners were intensely jealous, and so were the palace servants, who did allthey could to blacken his character; he was overcharged for his lodgings, andmonies due to him were not paid. Half-a-dozen times he would have given it allup and returned to England, if it'had not been for Hamilton's backing andassistance. He was not helped by the character of his employers. King Ferdinand,(a Spanish Bourbon) was capricious, vindictive and tyrannical; he enjoyed ridingon fairground roundabouts and consorting with the riff-raff of Naples. (Haydnwrote for him a Divertimento in C Major incorporating two hurdy-gurdies, the Kingbeing fond of these instruments.) He had married at seventeen Maria Carolina ofAustria, sister of Marie Antoinette, who had a nature even more domineering thanhis own; Napoleon called her "the only man in Naples". So long as the new gardenwas Maria's plaything, the King disliked it; indeed, at one time he threatened tohave it ploughed up and sown with corn. But after two years the Queen was obligedto give it up on account of the expense; Ferdinand then began to take an interestin it, and before long was walking with Graefer arm-in-arm. Graefer was given apension by the Queen, and employed on advantageous terms by the King; a house wasbuilt for him in the grounds and he was sent all over the kingdom to collectplants - some of which he introduced to England. But in 1795 the royal favourwas again withdrawn and for two years no supplies were forthcoming; Graefer was athis wits' end till the Queen came forward with a donation to keep the gardensgoing. In spite of difficulties Graefer managed to create a garden which the criti-cal J.C. Loudon many years later called "as perfect a specimen of the Englishpleasure-ground as we have seen on the Continent. The verdure of the turf ismaintained by a partially-concealed system of irrigation, and parts of the wallswere originally laid with Kensington gravel. Every exotic which could at the timebe purchased at the Hammersmith nursery was planted, and many of them form nowvery fine specimens." (Neither Loudon, nor later William Robinson, had a goodword to say for the earlier formal gardens, which seem to have been both preten-tious and dull.) Several noblemen of the locality employed Graefer to lay outtheir grounds.

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In 1789 Graefer published (in England) a Descriptive Catalogue of upwardsof eleven hundred species and varieties of Herbaceous and Perennial Plants etc.,a manual which has been described as second in usefulness only to Miller'sDictionary. In the foreword he claims to have been "publicly celebrated in theannals of the Admiralty" for his "Invention of Prepared Vegetables". This refersto a patent which he took out in 1780 for "drying and preparing green and brownborecole, Scotch or other kale, so that it will retain for a year or a longerperiod its natural flavour as an excellent food, or its virtue as a preventativeof scorbutic disorders". After scalding in salted water the plants were hung ina room heated by "a buzaglo or any other stove", but after being completelydried they were allowed to re-absorb sufficient humidity to prevent them fromcrumbling to pieces in packing.After the Battle of the Nile on 1st August 1798, Admiral Nelson was atNaples as much, or rather more than, his duties would permit, first recuperatingfrom a head-wound and then pursuing his affaire with the fascinating Emma. TheFrench had already occupied Rome, and at the end of the year (Nelson being thenat sea) they took Naples, and set up the short-lived Parthenopian Republic. Theroyal family took refuge in Sicily, but in the following July, largely throughNelson's help, Ferdinand was restored to his throne. He rewarded Nelson with thedukedom and estate of Bronte in Sicily, under the shadow of Mount Etna; andwithin a month the Admiral had brought Graefer and his family from Caserta toserve as steward on his new property. (One wonders whether Nelson, alwayssolicitous for the health of his crews, knew about the "Invention of PreparedVegetables".) Nelson was pleased with his title and thereafter signed himself"Nelson and Bronte"; his fame induced an eccentric clergyman of Irish descentcalled Prunty or Brunty to change the spelling of his name, which he handed onas "Bronte" to his talented daughters.

The estate was then in a derelict condition; its ancient fortress ofManiace was in ruins and the only habitable building of any size was a farmhousecalled La Fragila. Nelson was anxious to improve the standards of agricultureand to demonstrate to the downtrodden peasantry the benefits of having an Englishlandlord. He had great confidence in Graefer, whose "character for honesty/was7 unimpeachable and his abilities as an agriculturist undeniable", andauthorised him to employ the first two years' revenues in fitting up a house andimproving the estate. Graefer seems to have exceeded his instructions, forinstead of putting the farmhouse in order, which was all that had been intended,he busied himself converting Maniace into a "perfect Palace", worthy of theresidence of the glorious Duke of Bronte. Nelson received little financialreturn during his lifetime, and the estate only benefitted his heirs. MeantimeGraefer died at Bronte on 7 August 1802, just over three years before theAdmiral's death at Trafalgar.J.C. Loudon gives a different, and apparently circumstantial, account ofGraefer's death. He says that he remained at Caserta throughout the occupationof Naples by Napoleon's brother-in-law, Murat (1808-1815), and died, or "was, inpart, murdered" in 1816, having been set upon and mortally stabbed by hostilepeasants when stunned by an accidental fall from his gig. It seems certain,however, that the victim of this partial murder was another John Graefer, perhapsone of the gardener's three sons, as the evidence for the death of the originalJohn in 1802 is irrefutable. It is pleasant to record that "one of the Graeffers"was still head-gardener at Caserta in 1835.

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Principal references:-Aiton, W., Hortus Kewensis, 2nd ed. (1810).Dawson, W.R., The Banks Letters (1958).Graefer, J., A Descirptive Catalogue .... of Herbaceous PerennialPlants 1789).Loudon, J.C., Encyclopaedia of Gardening (1822).Nicholas, Sir N.H. ed., The Dispatches and Letters of ....Lord Nelson (1845).Oman, C., Nelson (1947).

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Principal references:-Aiton, W., Hortus Kewensis, 2nd ed. (1810).Dawson, W.R., The Banks Letters (1958).Graefer, J., A Descirptive Catalogue .... of Herbaceous PerennialPlants 1789).Loudon, J.C., Encyclopaedia of Gardening (1822).Nicholas, Sir N.H. ed., The Dispatches and Letters of ....Lord Nelson (1845).Oman, C., Nelson (1947).

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The Conservatory, Hesketh Park, before restoration in 1971. Some roof bearersand corbels were completely rusted through.The Conservatory, Hesketh Park, before restoration in 1971. Some roof bearersand corbels were completely rusted through.Hesketh Park, Southport, and its Conservatory,esketh Park, Southport, and its Conservatory, by John A. Harrison, F.I.B.D.y John A. Harrison, F.I.B.D.

In Hesketh Park, Southport, we have what has been described by a leadingmember of the Victorian Society as "an outstanding important example of mid-victorian landscape design". I would like to think the hand of Paxton wasresponsible (as many authors and authorities do) but feel it was"the ghost" ofPaxton through his former pupil Edward Kemp of Birkenhead, for Paxton had died in1865 before Hesketh Park was completed in 1868. I have been back through all theold written minutes of the Council and can find no reference whatsoever to Paxton,although it has always been a local tradition that he was involved - rather likethe tradition of Mary, Queen of Scots at Hardwick Hall. But alas' it just wasn't

In Hesketh Park, Southport, we have what has been described by a leadingmember of the Victorian Society as "an outstanding important example of mid-victorian landscape design". I would like to think the hand of Paxton wasresponsible (as many authors and authorities do) but feel it was"the ghost" ofPaxton through his former pupil Edward Kemp of Birkenhead, for Paxton had died in1865 before Hesketh Park was completed in 1868. I have been back through all theold written minutes of the Council and can find no reference whatsoever to Paxton,although it has always been a local tradition that he was involved - rather likethe tradition of Mary, Queen of Scots at Hardwick Hall. But alas' it just wasn't

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