Description:Many letters amongst Duchess Harriet’s papers demonstrate her active role in the design, building and management of her estates.
In addition to numerous letters from the Leveson-Gower family's Chief Estate Agent James Loch, letters from Mr. Flemming, a gardener employed by the Leveson-Gowers survive in the Sutherland Papers.
One letter from Flemming, dated September 20th 1854, informs Duchess Harriet about the Gardens at Trentham. Flemming writes ‘The Portugal Laurels in the corner…of the garden at Dunrobin are not so suitable for the situation as spiral plants would be.’ He suggests that ‘the good spiral plant in the centre, and a group of white Hollyhacks in each angle of the bed would look well, and not hide the garden too much’. He also adds that ‘the rest of the ground would be best covered with Chinese roses’.
Flemming’s letter also informs the Duchess about a colleague named Mathieson who was reluctant to leave ‘Trentham’ to go to work at Dunrobin. Mathieson is reported to have told Flemming that ‘he would return if he got a cottage to live in’. Flemming’s letter indicates that both he and the Duchess herself were concerned about Mathieson’s health, and considered it better for him to be moved to Dunrobin. Flemming writes ‘His wife very truly says that she would be better at Dunrobin if her husband was taken from her’. Flemming informs the Duchess that ‘Mathieson seems cheerful and goes about his work very actively in the bright part of the day.’ However, he comments that ‘the damp of the mornings and evenings affect him a good deal, and as the autumn advances he will feel it more.’ Flemming concludes that ‘the sooner he goes the better on account of the weather’.