Hopetoun House, interior. View of state dining room.

Description Hopetoun House, interior. View of state dining room.

Date 3/1962

Collection Records of the Scottish National Buildings Record, Edinburgh, Scotland

Catalogue Number WL 324

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 766871

Scope and Content State Dining Room, Hopetoun House, West Lothian This shows the mid-18th-century state dining room, with its elaborately carved window pelmets and richly gilded cornice and sunray ceiling rose. The deep windows have shutters, and heavy fringed curtains to ensure the room stayed warm in winter. The fireplace is carved from variegated marble, and family portraits hang on the walls in heavy gilded frames. Along the back walls stands a large sideboard from which food would be served to guests by the footmen during the elaborate dinners which were popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. The oval dining table can be extended by the addition of extra 'leaves' (wooden boards which can be slotted into the centre of the table) to seat extra guests. Hopetoun House, the seat of the Marquis of Linlithgow, was built 1699-1704 to designs by architect Sir William Bruce (c.1630-1710). Between 1721 and 1748 architect William Adam (1689-1748), and his sons Robert (1728-92) and John (1721-92) designed extensions to the central block, flanked by curving colonnades leading to advanced pavilions containing stables (north) and a ballroom (south). Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/415799