Interior. Detail of kitchen railway track and cart. Digital image of C 43642.
SC 769801
Description Interior. Detail of kitchen railway track and cart. Digital image of C 43642.
Date 25/5/1994
Catalogue Number SC 769801
Category On-line Digital Images
Copy of C 43642
Scope and Content Detail of railway track and cart for moving food, Arniston House, Midlothian This shows the interior of the tunnel which links the basement kitchen to the ground-floor dining room. Dishes of food were placed in the metal-lined wooden cart and pulled along the tracks on pulleys. Buffers were positioned at the ends of the tracks in an attempt to stop any accidental spillages! Keeping food hot between the kitchen and the dining room of a country house, and between courses during lengthy dinners, has always been a problem. Various lifts, railways and dumb waiters were invented to move dishes quickly, and food was kept warm in heated cupboards or on hot water-filled hollow metal plates before being served. Arniston House, the seat of the Dundas family, was built in the Palladian style from 1726 onwards by architect William Adam (1689-1748) on the site of a c.1600 U-plan tower-house. His son John (1721-92) added the west wing and orangery in 1753. The house was further altered during the 19th century, and comprises a central three-storeyed block with flanking two-storeyed service pavilions joined to the main building by two-storeyed links. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.
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File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap
Attribution: © RCAHMS
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