Plant label stake
Category
Agricultural and horticultural equipment
Date
Unknown
Materials
Collection
Cotehele, Cornwall
NT 347840
Caption
This item was found in a box in a garden store by Head Gardener, Dave Bouch, on 3 October 2014. The date is interesting - 1857 - when Lady Ernestine would have been 14 years old. From the evidence available, it has always been supposed that the development of the Victorian gardens at Cotehele commenced when Dowager Countess Caroline Edgcumbe, and her daughter Ernestine, took up residence in or around 1862. The date of the oak - or 'sown' acorn - suggests their interest in the garden pre-dates their period of residence at Cotehele.
Summary
Plant stake, iron with an oval-shaped lead label, inscribed: "OAK / SOWN BY LADY ERNESTINE / EDGCUMBE / DEC'R 10 1857".