The "Scottish Country House" chronicles a
remarkable group of houses and castles that have survived the vicissitudes of
Scotland's turbulent history and are still in the hands of their original
families. From breakfront cabinets filled with generations of monogrammed
heirloom china to canopy beds keeping the chill of a Scottish winter at bay to
cabbage-rose slip-covered sofas nestled under tall Gothic windows, this book
takes the reader on a tour of these residences, providing an intimate look at a
marvellous hotchpotch of rooms and decoration. Specially commissioned
photographs by James Fennell show inviting living rooms and tousled bedrooms,
print- lined hallways and well-trampled mudrooms. Telling details capture the
eccentric personalities of their owners Scottish chieftains, lairds and nobles
drawn from the pages of Walter Scott; charming decorative details, such as a red
silk bell-pull against green floral wallpaper, a drawer full of two-
hundred-year-old love letters, or the curve of a wonderfully carved antique
chair. In his anecdotal text, James Knox tells the tale of the more colourful
inhabitants of these homes, both past and present. The houses are not the
instant creation of trendy decorators they have evolved over generations,
furnished with heirlooms and cherished hand-me-downs. This is a book for lovers
of Scotland, history or decoration.
The Scottish Country House in “Country Life”
James Knox (Thames & Hudson, £28 *£25)
I spent a great deal of time rummaging in the attic,' says
Clare Macpherson-Grant, recalling the late 1970s, when she and her husband,
Oliver Russell, took on the castle that has been in her family since 1546. Her
father, Sir Ewan, who kick-started Ballindalloch's revival after ‘naughty Uncle
George' left the bulk of his will to his boyfriend, happened to mention that
‘there are some ghastly paintings up there, but before putting them on the
bonfire, you might just show them to the experts from the auction houses'.
Britain's earliest and most important collection of 17th-century Spanish
paintings is now on view again, although what visitors really love is the
corridor of family photos.
Soon after the Russells took over, a friend took me to
dinner at Ballindalloch and I remember enthusing about pinenuts, then a
fashionable culinary novelty. From my host's flurry of questions about the
potential of planting pinenut groves in the Spey valley, I realised how daunted
a High-
land laird must feel by the challenge of making a sprawling
castle with 25,000
acres earn its keep. Happily, the Russells have
triumphed at Ballindalloch and, over the past few decades, they have turned its
fortunes around with the aid of Aberdeen Angus beef and whisky, not pinenuts.
The energy and innovation of owners past and present is a
recurring theme of this splendid book, with formidable lady lairds making a
strong appearance. Having played a key role in the 11th-hour rescue of Dumfries
House, James Knox is interested in the ongoing survival, as well as the
history, of the houses he features, and he gives many of their current owners a
voice.
We hear from the 10th Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry
about the influence on his forebears of ideas on estate management pro-pounded
by their friend, kinsman and neighbour Sir Walter Scott; from parliamentarian
Tam Dalyell, who lives up to his family values of ‘high-mindedness, courage,
intellect, and enterprise, with a dash of stubbornness and swashbuckling thrown
in'; and Toby Anstruther of Balcaskie, whose holidays with his mother comprised
‘a cultural tour abroad with Bannister Fletcher's bible of world architecture
to hand' and who, ‘in a romantic twist', married Pevsner's granddaughter.
Too often, books on this subject fall into one of two
extremes: the shortbread-tin fantasy or the dry, often politically prejudiced,
architectural discourse. Aimed at a general audience, this volume straddles the
divide with a spiri-ted blend of architectural and decorative detail, social
context and evocation of place, fluently delivered in a vivid and engaging
style. The Americanisation of spellings is deceptive, as Mr Knox is a Scot and
is a trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland, the National Trust for
Scotland (NTS) and Dumfries House.
His selection of 10 houses, all but one still privately
occupied (the Munros, who found a box containing legal writs dating back to the
early 14th century, have been at Foulis for 1,000 years), spans four centuries
and illustrates the changing tastes and influences that their owners-mostly
enterprising merchants, lawyers, soldiers and statesmen aspired to as they
built their family seats. Many set precedents in the way they responded to
landscape, as at Balcaskie and Lochinch, ‘the ultimate Scottish Baronial
house-a massing of ranges and wings... above the shoreline of the White Loch'.
James Fennell's sumptuous photography brings these houses
alive. Focusing on interiors, he captures the texture of fabrics, the
virtuosity of plasterwork, the fall of light on timber panelling. Architectural
shots are juxtaposed with atmospheric details, from gilded pelmets to curling
stones; spectacular portraits, family snaps and images of boudoir ephemera add
to the rich mix.
The selection ranges from the ducal treasurehouses of
Drumlanrig and Bowhill, and the cause célèbre of the Adams' Dumfries House,
‘one of the most complete documents of Enlightenment taste in Scotland', to
houses that have never featured before, such as The House of the Binns, the
first to be given to the NTS; Balcaskie, former seat of Sir William Bruce,
father of Scottish Classicism; and Monzie Castle, Perthshire, remodelled by
Lorimer after a fire destroyed all but two suits of armour in 1908. ‘Fire can
never be anything but an enemy, but full insurance and wisdom in reconstruction
are, to say the least, cheerful compensations,' Country Life commented wryly.
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