Field Visit

Date 30 August 1920

Event ID 1115556

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1115556

RCAHMS County Inventory: Midlothian and West Lothian

Brunstane.

The old mansion of Brunstane stands within the remains of its wooded parks rather more than half a mile south of Joppa. The public approach from the northwest to the house was originally an avenue enclosed at its farther end by a gate, of which the channelled piers remain although the gate itself has perished. The approach crosses the Brunstane burn by the bridge, locally known as the "Roman Bridge," although its workmanship is not earlier than the 18th century.

The house is large and commodious, and to-day comprises two separate tenancies, the fabric remaining much as it was in 1673 after extensive alterations by Sir William Bruce, architect for the Earl of Lauderdale. Some correspondence between the Earl and his architect in 1672, quoted in The King's Master Masons (Mylne), throws considerable light on the operations and shows the owner's care and interest in his property.

The house looks homogeneous, for the setting out is symmetrical and the elevations are balanced, yet it is not all of one period. On plan it forms three sides of a square which is open to the north-west. The north-eastern angle contains masonry which may date from the16th century; incorporating this nucleus a new house was erected in 1639 by John Maitland, second Earl of Lauderdale, on an L-plan, comprising a main block 40 feet by 23 feet, which forms the eastern portion of the present north block, and a wing, 44 ¼ feet by 19 ¼ feet, returning southwards; within the re-entrant angle the present semi-octagonal tower projected and housed a spacious wheel-stair on which the entrance opened. When the house was extended in 1673, the wing was pierced towards its southern end by a pend, centrally situated, off which were entered stores or cellars, shutoff from the remainder of the house; the western opening of the pend is now closed. The structure was three storeys high aboveground, and to this elevation Sir William Bruce adhered in his extension, but he provided a range of subterranean cellars beneath his new south wing. He seems to have extended the main block of the existing building 29 feet westwards, and the wing 39 feet south-wards, and to have provided a new south wing to match the extension of the main block. Within the new re-entrant angle he placed a stair-tower, similar to that on the north, and also added small square towers at the eastern angles. The north towers have slated pyramidal roofs, while the south towers have slated his plan, to modern ideas, is defective in that there were no passages and that, on the ground floor, access from one wing to the other could be gained only by crossing the open courtyard. This latter defect necessitated the relatively modern porch, but apparently the Earl approved the original arrangement, for his instructions to Sir William (1) are very clear, while his ideas are very definite, particularly with regard to the interior arrangement. He was insistent that the "great chamber" should be to the north-east side, that from this room his "great stair" should lead down to the garden and that there should be "no bed chambers on the 1st storey" (i .e. ground floor), a prejudice which lingers to the present day. His "great stair," supported on arches, still remains. The house is built of rubble and has been harled, but the dressings at voids have been exposed; those of the original entrance, which is situated in the north stair-tower, are moulded; elsewhere on the building the jambs and lintels have chamfered arrises. When he extended the building, Bruce probably enlarged the existing windows to their present dimensions, and it is interesting to note that the majority of these retain the 17th-century woodwork and in some instances the original glazing. The basement chamber of the main block extension is ceiled with a series of small vaults supported on timber joists, but this is apparently a later construction. The heavy west gable probably contained a large fireplace.

The entrance in the north stair-tower has a boldly moulded architrave and cornice, the latter surmounted by a moulded panel, above which is a semicircular pediment bearing in monogram the initials I. M. for John Maitland, second Earl of Lauderdale, and A. H. for Anna, daughter of the first Earl of Home, his first wife; flanking the monogram is the date 1639. The panel is armorial and contains a shield, above a cherub's head at base, representing Lauderdale impaling Home : dexter, a lion rampant couped at all points within a double tressure flory-counter-flory; and, sinister ,quarterly 1st and 4th, a lion rampant, for Home, 2nd and 3rd, three papingoes, for Pepdie of Dunglass, over all an inescutcheon charged with an orle, for Landell. The shield is supported on the dexter side by an eagle and on the sinister by a lion gorged and chained.

Internally, while the public rooms retain old plaster and woodwork, mostly in excellent preservation, the provision of modern partitions in many instances robs these chambers of their fine proportions, but an exception is the octagonal parlour on the ground floor at the southwest angle, which is quite unaltered. It is panelled, apparently in Memel pine, which is now painted and grained, while over three of the doors there are romantic landscapes in oils. On the ceiling two enriched beams intersect cross-wise: the mantelpiece, which is well detailed and proportioned, is surmounted by an elaborately modelled over mantel bearing atrophy of warlike insignia. On a banner there is a shield charged with a cross flory between four escallops, for Fletcher of Saltoun. Above and below the shield are labels, the lower bearing the Fletcher motto Dieu pour nous, the upper Festina lent[e]. The arms are those of Andrew Fletcher, Lord Milton, Lord Justice Clerk, an intimate friend and coadjutor of Archibald, Duke of Argyll, an owner of Brunstane after 1786.

In the one-storeyed range of outbuildings attached on the south-east one chamber appears to have been a bath-house but is to-day a milkhouse. The floor is of red and white marble quarries, and the walls and ceiling are plastered. The ceiling is coved and is enriched on the coving with 18th-century garlands and on the moulded cornice with the egg-and-dart ornament.

HISTORICAL NOTE. This house, once known as Gilberton (in 1691 "Gilbertoun, commonly called Brunstane ") (2) belonged to the Crichtons, who also possessed Brunston in Penicuik. As Gilberton, belonging to the laird of Brunston, the house was ordered by the Privy Council in 1547 to be cast down, the laird, Alexander Crichton, having given assistance to the English invaders. The older part may be the relic of this treatment. By 1609 the property had passed from the Crichtons to the Maitlands (3), and the date 1639, as above, denotes the first reconstruction.

RCAHMS 1929, visited 30 August 1920.

(1) Cf. The King's Master Masons, Mylne, pp. 182-6; (2) Inquis. Spec., Edinburgh, No.2893; (3) Ibid., No. 283.