Field Visit

Date 15 April 1921

Event ID 1115553

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1115553

RCAHMS County Inventory: Midlothian and West Lothian

The Inch.

This house stands on the south-eastern outskirts of Edinburgh, almost 2 ½ miles from the General Post Office, in a cup bounded by the hills of Arthur's Seat, Blackford, Liberton, and Craigmillar; so low, indeed, does it lie that, until the middle of the 18th century, much of the ground surrounding the higher spit of land on which the mansion is placed and from which the property is named, was sub-merged or was at least liable to floods .The original house forms the eastern angle of the present mansion; it was an L-planned structure of three storeys and an attic, with its main block running north-east and south-west and its wing returning in a north-westerly direction in alignment with the north-east gable; within the re-entrant angle was placed a rectangular stair-tower. James Winram was the founder, and above the entrance is recorded the date of erection, 1617. In 1634 Winram erected a low outbuilding of two floors in extension of the wing, but of less width. Early in the last century the main block was extended south-westwards, while other structures were added on the north-west and west.

The old building is of rubble and is rough-cast. Several of the windows have been inserted, and others have been enlarged: all have exposed back-set and chamfered margins; the dormers have pediments, of which one only, that on the wing looking south-west, is inscribed. It bears on a shield a serpent coiled in an S-shape round an arrow, barbs downwards, bordered by the motto Festina lente. The gables are crow-stepped, and the chimney copes moulded. The stair-tower rises considerably higher than the roofs and terminates in a crenellated parapet above a continuous moulded corbel-table. The dormers facing south-weston the outbuilding have pediments inscribed with the initials of James Winram and his wife, Jean Swinton (l), singly on the outer pediments and assembled on the centre pediment in monogram with the date 1634.

The outbuilding is not vaulted and has been greatly altered internally. Its only feature is a stone fireplace in the upper room at the north end, which has a wooden surround of about the early 18th century with characteristic lugs or shoulders and moulded cornice; above is a panel bordered by a heavy moulding.

The house has its entrance in the north-west wall of the stair-tower; the doorway has a boldly moulded stone architrave, small cornice and raking cornice enclosing a pediment inscribed 1617. The turnpike-stair rises from the basement to the attic floor, and from this level a turret-stair, corbelled out on the north-east, rises to a chamber within the tower, above the staircase, and to the parapeted look-out. The turret has a conical roof of overlapping and moulded flagstones.

The main stair being spacious, the entry is less constricted than usual. The stair-well forms a fair-sized lobby, from which doors open into the basement chambers, one in the wing and a second in the main block. These retain their vaults, but are now utilised as the dining room and smoking-room and for this purpose have been remodelled. The fireplace of the dining-room is part of the original house, having been removed from an upper room of the wing. An access has been opened to the modern extension, and within the dining-room is a handsome stone doorway of early 18th-century type. At the west-south-west corner of the dining-room a narrow mural service-stair ascends to the floor above.

On the first floor one chamber lay within the wing and two within the main block, but to-day the south-western chamber has been curtailed to provide a bathroom. The wing chamber has a garderobe without flue at the north-western angle. The stone fireplace is modern, but its wooden surround is probably of the late 17th or early 18th century. Within the main block the north-eastern chamber was probably the Hall. There is a large fireplace in the gable, the lintel being a single stone 26 inches high and 9 feet long; the jambs are well moulded and definitely show Renaissance feeling; the mouldings are repeated on the other fireplaces throughout the house. The south-western chamber, which probably opened off its neighbour, has, in the gable, a fireplace, smaller than that of the Hall, flanked by two windows, the northern of which remains, while the other has been filled up. At the southwest angle there is a garderobe like that in the wing chamber, while recessed within the corresponding angle is the upper end of the cellar stair. This arrangement of rooms occurs on each of the upper floors. Several of the upper rooms retain traces of their panelling in Memel pine, while in a window of the second-floor wing chamber, the upper half of which is glazed and the lower portion shuttered, the shutters appear to be original, although considerably repaired. The attics, like those of the wing at Pinkie House, have coved ceilings.

The following armorial panels are built into the wall of the modern hall and staircase:

(1) A panel, 2 feet 11 inches high by 1 foot 7 inches broad, has thistles at the two lower corners and at the upper the initials I. and Q.(Quartus) for James IV. The panel contains, beneath a crown, a shield bearing the Royal Arms of Scotland. This was brought from Bridge-end, a farm on the estate.

(2) From the same place came a panel 2 feet 8 inches broad by 1 foot 8 inches in height, which bears the three towers of the Edinburgh arms; flanking the gatehouse are two shields; the dexter is charged with three unicorns' heads couped, for Preston of Craigmillar, and the sinister with a gyronny, for Campbell.

(3) A third panel, brought from Canonmills in Edinburgh, has the same three towers, in this case flanked by the initials G. H. and the date 1642 .

Built into the east wall of the garden, beside the cottage about 250 yards east of the house, is a 17th-century armorial panel 1 foot 6 ½ inches square; its shield is charged : On a bend two fleurs-de-lys, in the dexter base a pelican vulned feeding its young. The shield is flanked by the initials G. T. and is surmounted by a helmet with plumes. Within a shrubbery immediately north of the mansion lie several architectural details from the town house of an ancestor of the present proprietor in the Cowgate, Edinburgh (2).

(1) The lintel of the entrance inscribed WILLIAME . 1570 . LITIL .

(2) Six skew-puts bearing on a shield the initials V. and L. for William Little.

(3) A gable finial initialled S. D. or D. S. in monogram.

(4) Several stones from a stair or turret wrought with a bold cable ornament.

The Inch is inhabited and in good repair

HISTORICAL NOTE. James Winrame of Nether Liberton was Keeper of the Great Seal in 1623 (3). His son, George, possessed the barony of Liberton, comprehending the lands and baronies of Nether and Over Liberton (4).

RCAHMS 1929, visited 15 April 1921.

(1) Reg. Mag. Sig., s.a. 1629, No. 1463; (2) Liberton in Ancient and Modern Times, George Good, pp. 31-2; (3) Reg. Mag. Sig., s.a., No. 516; (4) Ibid., s.a. 1629, No. 1463.