Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016174
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016174
Manderston was rebuilt between 1903 and 1905-an outstanding country house designed by John Kinross, restorer of Falkland Palace in Fife and the Franciscan Friary in Elgin. Sir James Miller, whose family had made a fortune trading with Russia in hemp and herring, spared no expense-"it simply doesn't matter"!
To the original Georgian House, built in the 1790s, a north front portico and rather inept French Renaissance roof had been added in the later 19th century. These were removed when the house was deepened, and a new wing and service area added along with a full-height entrance portico. Like the earlier house, however, the present exterior betrays a somewhat severe front-though the Lion's head bellpushes in the entrance colonnade indicate a continuing flair for the idiosyncratic!
Inside, the house also continues to show a neo-Georgian face, in particular the influence ofRobert Adam who had designed Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, the house of Sir James Miller's wife, sister to Lord Curzon, viceroy ofIndia. The hall, dining room, library and ballroom are all early 20th century, their fine stuccoed ceilings specially commissioned from French and Italian craftsmen. That it is difficult to distinguish them stylistically from the drawing room, morning room and tea room-all along the garden front and all part of the original late 18th century house-is a tribute to the kill of John Kinross. The first-floor corridor, imposingly wide and with columnar screens, is reached by a staircase modelled on that in the Petit Trianon at Versailles and fitted with a silver-plated balustrade topped with brass rails.
Below stairs at Manderston, and true to its Edwardian sophistication, are the atmospheric kitchens, housekeeper's room and manservant's room. They are complemented outside, at a discreet distance, by a remarkable set of courtyard stables, 1895; also by the elegant, vaulted, marble dairy in the style of a Roman cloister set around a fountain, and by a neo-Scots Baronial head gardener's house. Such historical and theatrical eclecticism is echoed nearby in a mock Border tower-house-an aristocratic retreat in the manner of Marie Antoinette's rustic hideaway at Versailles.
Information from 'Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Lothian and Borders', (1985).
