Marlefield House
Country House (17th Century)
Site Name Marlefield House
Classification Country House (17th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Marlfield
Canmore ID 58235
Site Number NT72NW 23
NGR NT 73719 25708
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/58235
First 100 images shown. See the Collections panel (below) for a link to all digital images.
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Eckford
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Roxburgh
- Former County Roxburghshire
Marlefield House was built for Captain William Bennet of Grubet c.1695-1717. A three-storey double-pile block with corner towers. In 1754 George Paterson made alterations and additions for Wuilliam Nisbet of Dirleton probably including the the west elevations Venetian doorway and the pavilions in their present form. These may have replaced earlier pavilions. In the 1890s the house was remodelled by Kinnear & Peddie for Athole Stanhope Hay and his wife Caroline Margaret Cunard. Therir work included the addition of a new pedimented front doorcase, dormer windows and the large bay on the south front. The panelling in the hall is reputed to have come from a Cunard liner and the frontdoor lock comes from Robert Adam's Calton Jail, Edinburgh. In the later 20th century it was used run as a hotel but is now a private house.
Information from RCAHMS (STG)
NT72NW 23 7372 2570.
Marlfield. At some date before 1677 the estate of Marlfield, formerly called Mowmaynis (Prof Cooper 1903), came into the possession of the Bennets of Grubet. J Hardy 1882). The mansion, however, does not seem to be older than the reign of Queen Anne. For some years before its reconstruction in 1891 it had stood abandoned, and it had to be practically gutted before it could be made habitable once more. (See RCAHMS 1956, Pl.17, fig.70).
It is three storeys and a garret in height, and on plan consists of a large oblong block running N and S with a short square wing projecting from each angle, a modern addition now occupying the space between the two N wings. From the outer angles of the two E wings curved screen-walls ran E to terminate in two storeyed offices, each screen-wall having a central round-headed doorway surmounted by stone lions. The N doorway is built up, but the S one still opens to the garden. A built stone area, apparently an original provision, runs underground round three sides to protect the house from ground-damp.
The masonry is rubble throughout, in the service blocks uncovered and on the main building harled, but with the dressings exposed. The windows have backset and chamfered margins, the one immediately above the entrance being surmounted by an armorial panel which still shows traces of tinctures. The shield is charged, for Sir James Bennet: A chief, between three mullets, two and one, a cross patty. It is surmounted by helm and mantling, with a hand holding a cross for crest. The principal entrance is centred in the E front. Originally there was a second entrance in the back, directly opposite the front door and opening from the quarter-landing of the main staircase; this was in the form of a Venetian window from the first and is now no longer an entrance, the steps that led down to it from the garden having been removed. Above it is a rusticated round-arched window to light the upper part of the staircase. The slated roof is mainly modern.
There has been so much alteration inside the house that the only surviving original features of interest are the main staircase and a dressing-room on the first floor of the NE tower. The simple but elegant stair, which local tradition states to have been designed by Sir Christopher Wren, is of stone on the lowest flight and of oak above, all three flights having baluster posts alternately twisted and plain, of mahogany like the handrail. The dressing-room, which is simply panelled in pine, has an angle fireplace and a coved ceiling with a circular painting in the centre.
A collection of carved stones unearthed in the neighbourhood of the house includes the following:
(1) A fragment of a sculptured panel inserted above a modern door in the S wall, in front of which it was found. It shows the head and torso of a cherub holding a bunch of foliage in the left hand.
(2) The laureated head of a fully life-sized caryatid figure now standing loose upon one of the front window- sills. The face shows both a beard and a moustache. The hair falls upon the forehead in twisted curls and is confined by the wreath, which is tied by a ribbon at the occiput. The top of the head shows a circular seating 3 3/4in in diameter.
(3) A 17th-century bowl of red sandstone resting on a modern pillar which stands in the garden. The bowl measures 3ft 8in in diameter by 1ft 5in in height, the basin hollowed in the upper surface being 2ft 10 1/2in in diameter and 11in in depth. The outside is divided equally by an encircling astragel, above which appear at equal intervals four inverted grotesque heads with hands pulling the moustaches. The probably represent the four Winds. A similar bowl (RCAHMS 1956, No.938), now at Abbotrule, was originally at Marlfield.
RCAHMS 1956, visited 5 October 1933.
NT 7372 2570 The house is generally as described by the Commission. The shell of the majority of the present building is 17th century and occupies the site of a 13th c. building. (Information from Mrs Goodson, {Owner}, Marlfield). The 17th c bowl in the garden, together with
the one at Abbotrule and another at Kalemouth (NT 709 274) were found when the mere to the east of Marlfield was drained.
Visited by OS(RD) 14 November 1967.
NT72NW 23 73719 25708
NT72NW 23.01 73772 25955 Coach house and stables complex
NMRS REFERENCE
Sale c. 1775. Portrait of Sir William and Lady Bennet purchased. Suit of armour and some valuable engravings bought by tenant. [See paper catalogue.]
Gutted by 1891, when it was restored.
EXTERNAL REFERENCE:
SCOTTISH RECORD OFFICE
Prints. Decoration of a room at [Marlefield]. Letter from Patrick Edmonstoune to Sir William Bennet of Grubet. He wishes to know the number and size of panels in the room for which the prints are required. The prints may then be chosen to fit them. He considers the small ones depicting 'Scripture History' to be much the finest and they must be 'interlarded with others.'
GD 205/Box 37/Portfolio 7 1723
Claim by George Paterson, architect at Edinburgh for payment for repairing and altering houses at Marlefield for the late laird of Dirleton. [1754 pencilled in margin.]
GD 6/2240 1743-1792
Duty payable on window lights. Answers for surveyor to appeal of William Nisbet of Dirleton concerning the assessment upon the house of Marlefield. [The assessment for the 73 windows was £7.7.0.]
GD 6/2260 1775
'I do not know for sure when Thomson first visited Marlefield House. He was probably acquainted with the Bennets of Grubbet at an early age; his mother, Beatrix Trotter Thomson, owned lands on the Kale Water adjoining the Bennets' estate (her lands were called 'Widehope' or 'Wideopen'). Thomson first wrote verses on Marlfield when he was a teenager (probably c. 1715-1719): the juvenile verses 'Lines on Marlefield', 'A Poetical Epistle to Sir Wm. Bennet', and 'To Miss Elizabeth Bennet' (the 1st and 2nd of these appear in the standard edition of Thomson's 'Poetical Works', Oxford Standard Authors, ed. J Logie Robertson, 1908 et al.; the 3rd is in MS). Thomson was born in 1700, so he could have visited Marlfield as a child, very early in the 18th century. I wish I had a more specific date for you.'
Reference: letter from Mrs Mary Jane Scott, 23/02/1980
Photographic Survey (8 May 2008)
Part of the north service range of Marlefield House was recorded by the Threatened Buildings Survey prior to its demolition. This work was carried out as a supplementary record to the RCAHMS survey carried out in 1983. The opportunity was taken to record the panelled entrance hall and the extensive bellboard.
Information from RCAHMS (STG)
Standing Building Recording (24 January 2018 - 26 January 2018)
NT 73733 25680 An enhanced historic building survey was
undertaken, 24–26 January 2018, of the South Pavilion. The
survey identified various architectural features demonstrating
the different phases associated with the structure’s use.
Except for the exterior, and possibly the fireplace in one of
the ground floor rooms, all visible aspects of the pavilion
date from either the end of the 19th century or the early 20th
century.
Archive: NRHE (intended)
Funder: Smith and Garratt
Dave McNicol – GUARD Archaeology Ltd
(Source: DES, Volume 19)
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding building.
Information from Scottish Borders Council.
