Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016180
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016180
The Hopes came to West Lothian in 1657 to extend silver- and lead-mining interests acquired by marriage a little earlier. They acquired land at Abercorn in 1678, transferring the name of , Hope to un', formerly associated with the village ofLeadhills. Mining, linked increasingly with progressive approaches to agricultural improvements on their many estates across southern Scotland, provided the wealth to build one of the most palatial mansions in Scotland.
Sir William Bruce, (c 1630-1710) was the founder of the classical school in Scotland and a pioneer in garden design and planting. He worked on the reconstruction of the Palace ofHolyroodhouse in 1671-79, and Hopetoun House (1698-1702; extended 1706-? 10) represents his grandest country house. The Bruce house consisted of a centrally-planned main block (most of which survives); angle pavilions linked to office wings by convex colonnades (which do not: and the colonnades may never have been built). The fonnal gardens associated with this period, laid out with the help of Alexander Edward, can be picked out from the roofin a dry summer as crop-marks' in the green lawns sweeping down to the fountain.
In 1721, the then inexperienced William Adam (1689-1748) was invited to enlarge the house and to provide a palace for the Earl. The work was completed in the 1750s, reputedly by both his sons, John and Robert Adam, but in practice by John.
The marriage of the two great houses, however, is uneasy. The new attic floor and balustrade simply stops when it reaches the older west front; and some of the blind or false windows suggest a strain in blending new interiors to a partly-existing exterior. A "reluctant centrepiece" the Bruce house has been called, in the later, elongated, west elevation. Moreover the new colonnades, without the imposing central portico and double curving staircase planned for the east front but never built, hardly measure up to the elegant steeple-topped pavilions (one with a clock, the other a weather-vane), or to the magnificent facade. This elevation incorporates massive Corinthian pilasters, a rash of horizontal string-courses drawing it all together, and a rich variety of rustication breaking up the solid front of large angular masonry.
Internally the relationships between the houses are much happier. The elaborately ornate and formal state-rooms fitted out by the Adam brothers after 1752 are far removed from and contrast with the relative simplicity and domesticity of the Bruce rooms-which include a tiny vaulted strongroom. The octagonal Bruce stone staircase incorporates oak panelling richly carved by Alexander Eizat (who also workd at Holyroodhouse).
Elsewhere the wide range of ancillary buildings and servants' quarters emphasises the symbiotic relationship of an intensive labour force required to maintain an aristocratic life-style-whilst gradations of quality and expense in the the laying-out of stables and stable courts reflect a strict hierarchy as much amongst horses as amongst humans!
Information from 'Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Lothian and Borders', (1985).
