Isabella Christie

Isabella "Ella" Robertson Christie (21 April 1861 – 29 January 1949) was a pioneering Scottish traveller and explorer, landowner, gardener and author.

Early life Christie was born on 21 April 1861 at Millbank in Cockpen, near Bonnyrigg, to Alison (née Philp, c.1817–1894) and John Christie (1824–1902), a Scottish industrialist and landowner. Christie had an elder brother, John Coldwells who died in childhood in his 12th year in 1872, and a younger sister, Alice Margaret.

Travels After her father's death Christie's travels became more ambitious and she began to travel more widely. From 1904 to 1905 she travelled with her maid, Humphries, initially to India and then on to Kashmir, Tibet, Ceylon, Malaya and Borneo. Being well connected and carrying letters of introduction she attended a banquet with the Maharaja of Kashmir and dined with Lord Kitchener. Her adventures saw her camping in the snow at Chorbat Pass, sailing in a cargo ship full of pigs, travelling by pack horse and cart in the Kashmir wilderness and trekking by foot for in the Desoi mountains. The café that Christie managed was staffed by five Scottish women and served the soldiers fighting at the Battle of Verdun. From 1918 to 1919 Christie oversaw another 'LOuevre de la Goutte de Café at Mulhouse.

After Christie's death in 1949 the garden was maintained by workers on the Cowden estate. In 1963 it was vandalised and the tea-houses and bridges were burned, and the lanterns and shrines knocked into the loch.

In 2014 Christie's great great niece Sara Stewart started a fundraising campaign to raise £1,000,000 to restore the garden. Japanese garden at Cowden opened in 2019.

Fellowships Christie was a fellow Royal Geographical Society of Scotland, she was a Member of Council and in November 1934 she became a vice-president of the Society. She was also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Death

Christie died of leukemia on the 29 January 1949 at Strathearn Road, Edinburgh.

Books Christie authored and co-authored several books about her travels, two of which she wrote with her sister, Alice. Fairy tales from Finland / Zacharias Topelius, Ella R. Christie, Ada Holland. London : Unwin, 1896. Fare and physic of a past century / Ella R. Christie and Alice M. Stewart. Edinburgh : David Douglas, 1900. A summer ride through western Tibet / Jane Ellen Duncan, August Hermann Francke, Hayward Porter, Herman B Marx, Ella R. Christie. London : Smith, Elder & Co., 1906. Ratione receipts [of ye great warre] : in aid of the Scottish Red Cross / Ella R. Christie. Edinburgh : Thomas Allan, 1918. Through Khiva to golden Samarkand; the remarkable story of a woman's adventurous journey alone through the deserts of Central Asia to the heart of Turkestan / Ella R. Christie. London : Seeley, Service & Co., 1925. Ration recipes / Ella R. Christie. Edinburgh : Thomas Allan, 1939. A long look at life : by two Victorians / Ella R. Christie and Alice M. Stewart. London : Seeley, Service & Co., 1940.