Interior. View of basement corridor. Digital image of C 43635.

Description Interior. View of basement corridor. Digital image of C 43635.

Date 25/5/1994

Catalogue Number SC 769804

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 43635

Scope and Content Basement corridor, Arniston House, Midlothian This shows the servants' corridor in the basement of the house. The stone walls are plastered and painted with a simple border and two-tone colour scheme. On the end wall is a bell board with revolving drums to indicate which rooms were calling for attention in the house above. Against the wall is a wooden frame for carrying casks and other heavy loads to the larder for storage. Servants in large houses in both the town and country were expected to live and work out of view of the family they served for most of the day. Whilst the family rooms were lavishly furnished and well lit by large windows, servants' bedrooms were usually in the cold attic spaces, and they worked during the day in dark basement kitchens. 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.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/769804

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap