In the 20 years that Walter Archibald Elliott presided over the Scottish Land Court, he is said to have dealt with all who came before him with rare courtesy and understanding. Elliott was a war hero, law lord and scholarly author. The secret of his much-admired equanimity is to be found in the garden of his former home — Morton House, a sublime Georgian villa on the southern edge of Edinburgh.

“My husband loved the contrast of being in court during the day and then being able to go out into the garden, lopping down shrubs,” says his widow, Lady Elliott. “When he came back from court, he’d strip off his stripes, put on his jeans and go gardening, and feel so much better.”

Lord Elliott, who retired from the bench in 1992, died last summer at the age of 85. Now Lady Elliott has decided to downsize, and is selling the sixbedroom home that the couple bought 46 years ago.

It dates mostly from the 18th century and was once a substantial walk or horse ride from the heart of Scotland’s capital. But although suburbia has long since made its way to the garden wall and the No 11 bus stop to the city centre is no more than a few minutes’ walk away, it manages to retain its sense of isolation.

It helps that it is surrounded by five acres of gardens, which the agent’s brochure trumpets as “enchanting”. A magnificent, framing gateway, drive and inner courtyard enhance the grandeur of the surroundings. The house is A-listed, stands in Edinburgh’s sacrosanct green belt and is part of a conservation area.

Elliott bought the house when he was still a relatively young lawyer. He had grown up in Broughton Place, the Peeblesshire house his scientist father had commissioned Sir Basil Spence to design.

He served in Africa during the second world war with the Scots Guards. Three days after his 21st birthday, he was captured by the Germans during a landing in Salerno, Italy. However, he escaped and was able to rejoin his company for the push up through Italy, France and Germany.

His family home was a world away from the horrors of war.

“The house appears on all the old maps, and there clearly was once a bowling green,” says Lady Elliott. “There’s a dear little belvedere in the garden that my husband wanted to convert into a study — but we never did — so he could, as he would say, ‘work in peace’. It has never been used for any purpose other than parties. It has magnificent all-round views, including across to Berwick Law.”

The large garden led Lady Elliott’s parents to suggest that buying the house might not be such a good idea. “They were horrified, because they thought it would require so much work,” says the 79-year-old.

“But my husband loved gardening and we had a gardener working for us nine hours a week.

“We embraced the garden with vigour and would occasionally have visits from interesting groups of gardeners. Walter always said to them that he ran the garden with minimum labour and I would always say that I was the minimum labour.”

The best view of the garden is from the upstairs bathroom at the front of the house. “Walter had laid out the front garden formally, down to the gates,” says Lady Elliott. “He wanted to make it look like a distant Italian garden. Much of it was in the mind, but it still looked good. It is so peaceful.”

Two nearby cottages, not for sale, are occupied by the couple’s former gardener and cleaner. “Our gardener mostly worked at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh but he also worked a few hours for us, and he got accommodation for it,” says Lady Elliott.

It was on the day that her eldest son, Peter, was celebrating his fifth birthday that the Elliott family moved in, having bought the property from a local land-owning family, who had death duties to pay, for £27,500.

“We had Peter’s 50th birthday party here last year and there were a lot of architects among the guests. So many of them just didn’t know of the house; they didn’t know there was this wonderful property in this part of the city,” says Lady Elliott.

“It is a joy, a lovely family house, and it’s tranquil. When the Edinburgh bypass was built, we were initially worried, but when the leaves are on the trees, you hardly hear it, and it does mean the house is convenient for the airport.

“The house was big enough to allow the children to have a ping-pong table in an old back hall, which later was used for all their terrible teenage parties. It’s ideal for a family. The children can run around safely.”

Morton House is being sold by Savills, 0131 247 3710. Offers are invited in the region of £1.85m

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