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| The American and British legations of Seoul, circa 1890s. The Moffett Collection courtesy of Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA |
By Robert Neff
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| A rose by any other name ― Rose Foote, circa 1880s. Robert Neff Collection |
When the first American minister to Korea, Lucius Foote, and his wife Rose, arrived in Seoul in the spring of 1883, they brought with them flower seeds from California. Rose and her servants dug up the grounds to create gardens ― it was no easy task as, if we are to believe her biographer, the ground was littered with the bones of the compound's former inhabitants who had been murdered during political unrest ― in which she grew roses, spring violets, and azaleas.
One early visitor in 1884, described Rose's improvements to the grounds and particularly her garden:
"All the flower beds are bordered with tiles, and, in addition to the already existing shrubbery, many fine plants have been set out, including a larger number of California rose-bushes. Amongst the numerous improvements, they have located a lawn tennis ground, and near it is a pretty pagoda-like building which will eventually be a sudatorium where the wrestlers can take a bath and wash off the sweat of the conflict. The whole place looks very pretty. The quaint little buildings are all touched up 'brightly,' the paths and stone walk are in good order, the spring violets and azaleas, with other early flowers, are in bloom, and the peach, plum, and apricot trees are heavy with blossoms."
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| The American legation in 1884. Robert Neff Collection |
Rose was a frequent visitor to the palace and liked to use her flowers as "distinctive messengers to royal friends."
When the Footes left at the beginning of 1885, Ensign George C. Foulk became the acting Charge d'Affaires. Foulk had little time (or money) to spend on gardening and likely the improvements Rose had made quickly disappeared.
William Parker was the next American representative in Seoul and arrived in June 1886. Despite being a former professor at Maryland Agricultural College, he did very little gardening ― if any ― due to his near-constant state of intoxication.
When Augustine Heard, the American minister resident and consul general arrived in 1890, he was dismayed with the horrible conditions of the legation. In a letter to his daughter he wrote:
"By next year I hope we shall get the Legation into habitable condition. Now it is a ramshackle collection of dilapidated Corean buildings ― which do well enough now, but which give me an anticipatory chill & thrill as I think of what they must be with the thermometer at 5o below zero, as I am told it sometimes is. The walls are simply lattice work of wood ― with paper pasted over & the paper is old & ripped & dirty & hangs in lumps."
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| The American legation in the summer of 1903. Robert Neff Collection |
He applied for and received (although not as much as he wanted) money from the State Department to make repairs to the legation and grounds. Much of the work was done by his wife who made curtains and planted vegetables and flowers in the garden. It was a good start but Heard often traveled around the peninsula and to China (his youngest daughter surprised him when she broke the news that she was in love with the much-much-older German Minister to China). He had little time to devote to gardening, especially when he was busy navigating the politics of his daughter's love and subsequent marriage.
His replacement was John M. B. Sill, who arrived in Seoul in the summer of 1894. Sill loved to garden and as soon as the weather permitted he got his hands dirty. The following spring, his wife, Sally, wrote in her journal-letter to her daughter:
"Spring is really here and your father works from twelve to sixteen hours a day in the garden. I am really troubled about him sometimes for fear he will overwork, but he is so full of interest and the soil here is so rich that he expects wonderful results. Everyone is greatly interested, too, for they all know John well enough by this time to feel sure that they get their share of the blossoms when they come."
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| The American legation, circa 1900s. Robert Neff Collection |
Sill was extremely generous with the products from the garden. He gave away more than 4,000 asparagus plants that he had raised from seed. He was also very accommodating to visitors:
"Your father's flowers are quite celebrated in Seoul. An old Korean was here today and he seemed to be perfectly entranced with them in the court. He walked around it several times, got down on his knees to smell of them and appeared more than happy when we gave him a large bouquet to take home. He said he had lived more than sixty years and he had never seen such a sight before."
Sometimes the American legation's flowers made their way into the Korean palace. Sally took five large baskets of flowers of different varieties to the palace and was later informed by a Korean court official that the queen was so "greatly pleased that she sat down on the floor beside them and could not enjoy and admire them enough."
Horace N. Allen, succeeded Sill in 1897 and later ― after hearing of the death of his former boss ― wrote, "[Sill] took diplomacy very much to heart for a man who spent his time gardening…"
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| The American ambassador's residential compound in 2019. Robert Neff Collection |
Allen continued the tradition and planted as many different trees and plants as possible. He was extremely proud of "his" garden:
"I have been having a lazy time lying out under the trees smoking my morning cigar. It is nice warm bring spring morning and our compound is one mass of loveliness. [My niece] says when she comes through our front gate it is like entering a new country. We have had a perfect mass of beautiful azaleas, yellow jasmines, lilies, peach, cherry and pear and apple blossoms, and the trees I planted are now full twenty feet high and a beautiful mass of green. I have trimmed them to the top of the eight foot wall all around and they make it three acres of delightful seclusion... The wisteria on the arbor in front of the veranda are just beginning to bloom. My garden is doing nicely and besides things to eat I have some American forest trees coming up from seeds."
Allen, unlike Sill, was very particular about maintaining his privacy:
"I have put up a new folding door inside of the front gate to shield the gate and servants as well as the sightseers from the view of the compound. One man said it reminded him of the swinging doors in front of saloon entrances at home."
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| A pathway in the American ambassador's residential compound in 2019. Robert Neff Collection |
Allen was not the only one to enjoy the "delightful seclusion' of the legation's garden, so, too, did the legation's secretary, William Franklin Sands, who later wrote:
"That garden bungalow was the most attractive place I had in the East and one of the most charming I have had in all my wanderings in far places. There is a peace in a Korean garden such as I do not know in any other part of the world. It is not silence, for the clear air is full of voices; there are birds all about in the trees and bushes, magpies on the rook and always kites swinging in the sky, whistling to each other. It is a perfect calm over everything, the sort of thing you get from the Irish legends of the land of the Shee [Sidhe] or the holy place."
Later, after Sands resigned from the State Department on November 18, 1899 to become advisor to the Household Department of the Korean government, he ruefully noted: "I was sorry to leave it [the garden] when I changed from the legation to the palace."
Despite Sands' professed love for the garden Allen was convinced otherwise. In a letter to his sons he recounted Sands' replacement, Edwin V. Morgan, took "a great interest in his pretty compound and wishes it were just as we left it, for Sands did his best to spoil everything."
One can imagine the bitter taste in Allen's mouth when, somewhat unexpectedly, he was cast out of his Garden of Eden by the turbulent winds of politics and replaced by Morgan.
Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books including, Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.
