, the longstanding and the architecture of scotland 1660

Cover image: Arniston House entrance hall. Photography by kind permission of Althea Dundas-Bekker. Image © Nick Haynes, 2019.

Cover design: Bekah Dey and Stuart Dalziel

Th

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Scotland, 1660–1750

Edited by

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The Architecture of Scotland, 1660–1750

Edited by Louisa Humm,John Lowrey and Aonghus MacKechnie

‘With the publication of The Architecture of Scotland 1660–1750, the longstanding and artificial cultural barrier between pre-1707 and post-1707 Scottish architecture has finally come crashing down, vividly highlighting the overpowering continuities within Scottish building and landscape design of the early modern era, and re-emphasising its strong links to contemporary continental Europe.’Miles Glendinning, Scottish Centre for Conservation Studies

A richly illustrated, revisionist overview of Scotland’s early Classical architectureThis volume tells the story of Scotland’s unique and influential contribution to the Age of Classicism during a period of major political and architectural change. Interposed between the decline of the Scottish castle and its revival as Scotch Baronial architecture, proto-Enlightenment Scotland straddled the age of ‘Glorious Revolution’ and union with England.

This beautifully illustrated book documents the architectural needs and developments of a transformational period in Scottish history as the country emerged from a decade of military occupation. It draws on a wealth of primary sources, including family, institutional and national archives in Scotland, England and France, to evidence the architectural ambitions of Scotland’s new elites in the ages of the last Stuart kings and of the new monarchies. It also analyses some of Scotland’s best-known architectural sites, as well as reference points from further afield including Parisian apartment blocks, Roman precedents and English parallels.

Broad in scope, The Architecture of Scotland, 1660–1750 covers private and public/civic architecture, as well as the architecture and design of both the urban scene and country estate in the era before Edinburgh New Town.

Key Features

• Highlights and contextualises the work of Scotland’s first well-documented major architects, including Sir William Bruce, Mr James Smith, Colen Campbell, James Gibbs and the Adam dynasty

• Provides a fresh resource for architectural, documentary, cultural and Enlightenment historians

• Showcases Scotland’s early Classical architecture as a distinct yet significant strand of Europe’s broad mainstream

• Beautifully illustrated with 300 drawings, maps, photographs and paintings

Sir William Bruce by John Michael Wright, c. 1664. National Galleries of Scotland, PG 894. Purchased 1919.


Edited by Louisa Humm, John Lowrey and Aonghus MacKechnie

Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com

© editorial matter and organisation Louisa Humm, John Lowrey and Aonghus MacKechnie, 2020© the chapters their several authors, 2020

Edinburgh University Press LtdThe Tun – Holyrood Road12 (2f) Jackson’s EntryEdinburgh EH8 8PJ

Typeset in Miller Text by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshireand printed and bound in Malta at Melita Press

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 4744 5526 8 (hardback)ISBN 978 1 4744 5528 2 (webready PDF)ISBN 978 1 4744 5529 9 (epub)

The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).

Contents

List of Abbreviations ixList of Contributors xiAcknowledgements xivList of Figures xviList of Tables xxix

I Setting the Scene

Introduction 3 Aonghus MacKechnie

1 Political Economy and the Shaping of Early Modern Scotland 15

Allan I. Macinnes

II Classicism and the Castle

2 The Paired Columned Entrance of Holyroodhouse as a Solomonic Signifier 39

Ian Campbell

3 Exiting Europe? The Royal Works in the Age of 1689 Revolution and 1707 Union 51

Aonghus MacKechnie

4 Sir William Bruce: Classicism and the Castle 72 John Lowrey

vi Contents

5 A Classic Looks at the Gothic: Sir John Clerk, Ruins and Romance 98

Iain Gordon Brown

III The Business of Building, Trades, Materials and Pattern Books

6 Scottish Ironwork, 1670–1730 121 Ali Davey and Aonghus MacKechnie

7 Thomas Albourn, William Bruce’s Plasterer: ‘An Englishman and the Best Plaisterer that was ever yet in Scotland’ 141

William Napier

8 The Roof Structure of George Heriot’s Hospital Chapel and Roof Design in Scotland During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 156

Anna Serafini and Cristina González-Longo

9 Colen Campbell, James Gibbs and Sir John Vanbrugh: Rethinking the Origins of the British Architectural Plate Book 170

James Legard

IV The Country House

10 The Architectural Innovations of Mr James Smith of Whitehill (c. 1645–1731) within the European Context 191

Cristina González-Longo

11 From England to Scotland in 1701: the Duchess of Buccleuch returns to Dalkeith Palace 213

Sally Jeffery

12 Women Patrons and Designers in Early Eighteenth-century Scotland: Lady Panmure and Lady Nairne 233

Clarisse Godard Desmarest

13 Architectural Works by Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun 253 Rory Lamb

14 Mannerism in the Work of John Douglas in Eighteenth-century Scotland 269

Dimitris Theodossopoulos

Contents vii

V Gardens

15 ‘The Inexpressible Need of Inclosing and Planting’: Country House Policies in Scotland, 1660–1750 293

Christopher Dingwall

16 The Terraced Garden in Scotland in the Seventeenth Century 308

Marilyn Brown

17 Alexander Edward’s European Tour, 1701–2 322 John Lowrey

18 William Adam and Formal Landscape Design in Scotland, 1720–45 346

Louisa Humm

19 William Adam and Antiquity: an Arcadian retreat at Arniston? 379

Nick Haynes

VI Urban Architecture

20 Town Housing and Planning: Alexander McGill, James Gibbs and Allan Dreghorn in Early Georgian Glasgow 407

Anthony Lewis

21 Interpretation of European Classicism: Three Eighteenth-century University Libraries 429

Deborah Mays

22 Edinburgh and Venice: Comparing the Evolution in Communal Living in Geographically Challenged Mercantile Communities 442

Giovanna Guidicini

23 Living Horizontally: the Origin of the Tenement in Paris and Edinburgh 455

Clarisse Godard Desmarest

24 William Adam’s Public Buildings 483 David W. Walker

VII Conclusion

25 Was Scotland a ‘Narrow Place’? 517 Ranald MacInnes

Notes 530Index 613

viii Contents

Abbreviations

BL British LibraryBOEC The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club

(Edinburgh: The Old Edinburgh Club)BoS: Borders Cruft, K., Dunbar, J. and Fawcett, R.

The Buildings of Scotland: Borders (New Haven, CT and London: Yale, 2006)

BoS: D&G Gifford, J. The Buildings of Scotland: Dumfries and Galloway (London: Penguin, 1996)

BoS: Dundee Gifford, J. The Buildings of Scotland: Dundee and Angus (New Haven, CT and London: Yale, 2012)

BoS: Edinburgh Gifford, J., McWilliam, C. and Walker, D. The Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984)

BoS: Fife Gifford, J. The Buildings of Scotland: Fife (London: Penguin, 1988)

BoS: P&K Gifford, J. The Buildings of Scotland: Perth and Kinross (New Haven, CT: Yale, 2007)

Colvin, Dictionary Colvin, H., A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 3rd edition, 1995; 4th edition, 2008)

CUP Cambridge University Press

x Abbreviations

DSA Dictionary of Scottish Architects, www.scottisharchitects.org.uk (all refs accessed May 2019)

EUP Edinburgh University PressGTCM Glasgow Town Council Minutes, Glasgow

City ArchivesGUA Glasgow University ArchivesHES Historic Environment ScotlandMUP Manchester University PressMylne, Master Masons Mylne, R. S., The Master Masons to

the Crown of Scotland and their works (Edinburgh, 1893)

NLS National Library of ScotlandNRAS The National Register of Archives for

ScotlandNRHE National Record of the Historic

EnvironmentNRS National Records of ScotlandODNB Matthew, H. C. G., et al. (eds) Oxford

Dictionary of National Biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000, 62 vols (Oxford: OUP, 2004)

OUP Oxford University PressPSAS Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries

of ScotlandRCAHMS Royal Commission on the Ancient and

Historical Monuments of ScotlandRPC Burton, J. H. et al. (eds) The Register of

the Privy Council of Scotland (Edinburgh: Register House, 1877–1970)

SAS Society of Antiquaries of ScotlandSBRS Scottish Burgh Records SocietySCA Scottish Catholic ArchivesSHR Scottish Historical ReviewSHS Scottish History Society

Contributors

Louisa Humm has been employed by Historic Environment Scotland since 2002, first in their listing team and more recently as a Senior Casework Officer, responsible for listed building consent casework in Glasgow and other parts of south-west Scotland. Her job involves researching and protecting buildings of all types and dates. This is her first publication.

John Lowrey is an Edinburgh University academic who specialises in Scottish architectural history. He has published widely on urban architecture and urban design, the country house and on landscape history and theory in relation to both the city and the country house estate.

Aonghus MacKechnie is former Head of Historic Buildings and Monuments Casework, Historic Environment Scotland, and a pro-fessor at the University of Strathclyde. He has published widely on the architectural history of the Renaissance and later periods in Scotland, on Romanticism and on the architecture and culture of the Scottish Highlands.

* * *

Iain Gordon Brown was Principal Curator of Manuscripts in the National Library of Scotland, where he is now an Honorary Fellow, and Curator of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a Trustee of the Penicuik House Preservation Trust.

Marilyn Brown is a garden archaeologist and historian.

xii Contributors

Ian Campbell is Honorary Professor of Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh.

Ali Davey is a project manager focusing on traditional skills and materials at Historic Environment Scotland.

Christopher Dingwall is a freelance heritage consultant with a special interest in historic gardens and designed landscapes.

Clarisse Godard Desmarest FSA Scot is a lecturer in British Studies at the University of Picardie Jules Verne (Amiens) and a fellow of the Institut Universitaire de France.

Cristina González-Longo RIBA SCA RIAS FHEA FRSA is a Chartered Architect and the Director of the MSc in Architectural Design for the Conservation of Built Heritage at the University of Strathclyde.

Giovanna Guidicini is a Senior Lecturer in the History of Architecture and Urban Studies at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art.

Nick Haynes is a freelance historic environment consultant

Sally Jeffery is an architectural and garden historian.

Rory Lamb is a PhD candidate in Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh.

Anthony Lewis is the curator of Scottish History for Glasgow Life Museums.

James Legard is an architectural historian at Simpson and Brown, Architects, Edinburgh.

Allan I. Macinnes is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Strathclyde.

Ranald MacInnes is Head of Place and Publishing at Historic Environment Scotland.

Deborah Mays IHBC, FRSA, FSASCOT, FInsTILM is Head of Listing at Historic England.

William Napier is a Chartered Building Surveyor and Architectural Historian with Adams Napier Partnership Ltd.

Anna Serafini is a freelance conservation architect.

Contributors xiii

Dimitris Theodossopoulos is a lecturer in architectural technology and conservation at the University of Edinburgh.

David W. Walker is the author of Aberdeenshire: North in the Buildings of Scotland series, co-author of Aberdeenshire: South and a contributor to Lanarkshire.

Acknowledgements

This book is essentially the proceedings of a conference we held in 2015. Because of its scope, the book’s creation has required the help, support and advice of a large number of individuals and organisations, colleagues, family and friends, and it is a pleasure to record their names here: Keith Adam, Peter Auger, Malcolm Bangor-Jones, Steven Blench, Daniel Bochman, Peter Burman, Clare Brown, the Duke of Buccleuch and his archivists Crispin Powell at Boughton, and Gareth Fitzpatrick at Drumlanrig, Desmond Chang, Sir Robert Clerk, Bill Coltart, John Crae, Barbara Cummins, Joanna de Giacomo Aravjo, Althea Dundas-Bekker and Henrietta Dundas, Richard Emerson, Marcello Fagiolo, John Frew, Glasgow Museums, Miles Glendinning, John Goffin, Eric Graham, Richard Hewlings, the Earl of Hopetoun, Jessica Hunnisett, Fraser Hunter, Catherine Kent, Robin Kent, Caroline Knight, Jim Lawson, Grace McCombie, Lyndsay McGill, Barbara and Arthur MacMillan, Eddie McParland, Andrew Martindale, David Mitchell, Nick Mols, the Duke of Montrose, Sam Moorhead, Hugh Morrison, Tom Parnell, Dara Parsons, Vincenzo Piscioneri, Martin Roberts, Joe Rock, Juliette Roding, Donald Rodger, the late Treve Rosoman, Murray Simpson, Andrew Skelton, Pete Smith, Vanessa Stephen, Andrew Stevenson, Margaret Stewart, Joanna Swan, Pieter Vlaardingerbroek, David M. Walker, Diane Watters, Patty Watters and Marion Wood; and, of course, the front-of-house staff in both the National Library of Scotland and the National Register of Archives, as well as the numerous families and others who have been good enough to have made their archives available to researchers.

Acknowledgements xv

Sourcing nearly 300 photographs has been a considerable undertaking, requiring the kindness and co-operation of staff and volunteers at many archives, institutions, libraries and picture libraries, as well as property owners and private photographers – too many for us to mention individually, but we have done our best to ensure that all images are properly credited and traceable to their source. Especial thanks are due to Nick Haynes, who has been extremely obliging in going out of his way (including while on holiday) to take photographs for several chapters in this book. In addition, he arranged to photograph the Arniston copies of Vitruvius Britannicus and Vitruvius Scoticus for us and we are par-ticularly grateful for that.

Above all, we wish to record our gratitude to the University of Edinburgh, The Strathmartine Trust and Historic Environment Scotland. Without their support, financial and otherwise, this book could not have been produced.

Louisa Humm, John Lowrey, Aonghus MacKechnieEdinburgh, July 2019

Figures

Frontispiece: Sir William Bruce by John Michael Wright ii1.1 Culross Palace (1597–1611), 1835 171.2 Craigievar Castle (1610–26) 181.3 West Quay, Port Glasgow 211.4 Glamis Castle, engraving published 1790 221.5 Greenhill Farmhouse, a former Covenanter’s house at

Wiston, near Biggar 231.6 Parliament House, Edinburgh, drawn by James

Gordon of Rothiemay 261.7 The Porteous Mob in Edinburgh, painted by James

Drummond, 1855 281.8 Gourlay’s House, Old Bank Close, Lawnmarket,

Edinburgh by James Skene, 1827 301.9 Duff House (1735), engraving from 1797 sketch 321.10 Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll. Painted by

Allan Ramsay, 1749 331.11 Gardenstown, a planned fishing village founded

c. 1720 by Alexander Garden of Troup 352.1 Holyroodhouse entrance (c. 1676) 402.2 Alexandre Francine, Livre d’Architecture (1631),

plate 11 412.3 Alexandre Francine, Livre d’Architecture (1631),

plate 20 422.4 Stirling Castle Chapel Royal (1594) 442.5 Tomb of William Schaw, Dunfermline Abbey (1604) 472.6 David Loggan, ‘Arch of Concord’, in John Ogilby,

Entertainment (1662) 49

Figures xvii

3.1 Holyroodhouse. Plate 5 from Vitruvius Scoticus: section drawing looking east 52

3.2 Holyroodhouse. Bird’s eye view of 1753 looking east 533.3 Parliament House, Edinburgh by John Elphinstone 543.4 Plan of Fort William with the country adjacent,

c. 1710 593.5 Blackbarony House 613.6 Melville House 623.7 Family tree showing family connections within the

Mastership of Works 653.8 John Urquhart of Meldrum (d. 1726). Portrait by

Sir John Medina 663.9 Meldrum House 673.10 Argyll Lodging 683.11 Dundarave 694.1 Glamis Castle (Thomas Winter, 1746) 744.2 Holyrood Palace (c. 1690) 794.3 Jan Slezer, view of Dunkeld, Theatrum Scotiae 814.4 Leslie House, plan. Vitruvius Scoticus, plate 66 824.5 Argyll’s Lodging, courtyard entrance gate (c. 1674–5) 844.6 Alexandre Francine’s Livre d’Architecture (1631),

plate 2 854.7 Argyll’s Lodging, courtyard gateway from rear

(probably 1630s) 864.8 Balcaskie, view from courtyard (north elevation)

(c. 1668) 864.9 Balcaskie, view to Bass Rock from terrace 874.10 Methven Castle, Perthshire (1678–82) 884.11 Hatton House, Ratho (c. 1660s–1690s) 894.12 Jan Slezer, front view of Thirlestane Castle, Theatrum

Scotiae 924.13 Jan Slezer, side view of Thirlestane Castle, Theatrum

Scotiae 934.14 Sir William Bruce/Alexander Edward, design for

Melville House (1697) 954.15 Craighall Castle, Fife (1697) 964.16 Serlio, Book 3 (1540), Poggio Reale 975.1 Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, 2nd baronet (1676–1755) 995.2 Waltham Cross, engraved by George Vertue after a

drawing by William Stukeley, 1721 1045.3 Durham Cathedral, etching and drypoint, by John

Clerk of Eldin 106

xviii Figures

5.4 Salisbury Cathedral from Wilton Park, etching and drypoint, by John Clerk of Eldin, 1772 107

5.5 Rosslyn Castle, after a painting by James Phillips 1095.6 Rosslyn Chapel, after a drawing by Francis Grose.

Detail showing John Baxter’s roof 1105.7 Old Penicuik House (‘Newbiggin’), after a drawing by

John Clerk of Eldin 1145.8 Sketch design for Gothic ‘eye-catcher’ ruins by Sir

John Clerk 1155.9 Sketch design for castellated tower cum pigeon house

on Knight’s Law by Sir John Clerk 1165.10 Sketch design for castellated tower cum pigeon house

by Sir John Clerk 1176.1 Window grill at James V’s palace, Stirling Castle

(c. 1540) 1226.2 West Gate at Panmure House (c. 1672) 1246.3 Detail of Glamis Castle roof cresting (c. 1673) 1256.4 Glamis Castle roof cresting 1256.5 Stair balustrade leading to the Picture Gallery,

Holyrood Palace (c. 1673–6) 1266.6 Courtyard screen and gates at Traquair (c. 1695) 1306.7 Gate at Traquair – detail of overthrow

(c. 1695–1705) 1306.8 Railings at Hopetoun House (c. 1701) 1316.9 Staircase at Hopetoun House, William Aitken

(c. 1699–1704) 1336.10 Staircase at Newhailes, William Aitken (c. 1686) 1346.11 Staircase at Raith House, James Horn (c. 1695) 1356.12 Caroline Park House, north stair, attributed to

Alexander Gairdner (c. 1685) 1366.13 Drumlanrig Castle external staircase, James Horn

(c. 1684) 1376.14 Drumlanrig Castle external staircase, James Horn

(c. 1684) 1376.15 Craigiehall staircase, possibly James Horn

(c. 1708) 1386.16 Hampton Court Palace screen: section representing

Scotland, Jean Tijou (c. 1689–92) 1397.1 Dalry House, first-floor hall (1660s) 1427.2 The House of the Binns, King’s Room (c. 1630) 1437.3 Wemyss Castle, Kings Room (c. 1671) 1447.4 Harden House, Drawing Room (c. 1672) 145

Figures xix

7.5 Menzies Castle, Withdrawing Room (1660s) 1477.6 French Ambassador’s House, Linlithgow (1660s) 1477.7 First floor, east room, Law’s Close, Kirkcaldy (early

1670s) 1487.8 Balcaskie House, Ante-Room (1674) 1507.9 The Palace of Holyroodhouse, Queen’s Ante-chamber

(1671–2) 1517.10 The Palace of Holyroodhouse, Morning Room

(c. 1675–6) 1527.11 Prestonfield House, Edinburgh, Cupid Room (c. 1690) 1537.12 Kinross House, Great Stair (c. 1679) 1548.1 The common rafter roof covering the chapel of George

Heriot’s Hospital (1628–74) 1578.2 The trusses in the central part of the roof of George

Heriot’s Hospital chapel (1628–74) 1588.3 Parliament Hall, Edinburgh (1631–40) 1598.4 Tron Church, Edinburgh (1636–48) 1608.5 The development of Scottish timber roof structures 1618.6 The common rafter roofs at Pinkie House’s painted

gallery (1613) and Cockenzie House (1680–3) 1628.7 The roof structure of Holyrood Palace (1671–9) 1638.8 The roof structure of Yester House (1729–48) 1648.9 The roof structure of the Trades Hall in Glasgow

(1791–4) 1658.10 Alterations over time to the roof structure and ceiling

of George Heriot’s Chapel 1668.11 Alterations over time to the roof structure and ceiling

of George Heriot’s Chapel 1679.1 Colen Campbell, design for a house dedicated to the

Earl of Halifax, Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. 1 (1715), plates 29–30 172

9.2 L. Aubert, The Front of Blenheim Palace Towards Ye Gardens (c. 1710–11) 176

9.3 Sir John Vanbrugh, south front of Castle Howard, Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. 1 (1715), plates 69–70 180

9.4 Colen Campbell, west front of Wanstead III, Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. 3 (1725), plates 39–40 180

9.5 Sir John Vanbrugh, design for south front of Castle Howard, Yorkshire, with inset plan, c. 1699–1700 (detail) 181

9.6 Colen Campbell, drawing for a great house related to Wanstead House 181

xx Figures

9.7 James Gibbs, Earl of Mar’s Lodge (design for Comeley Bank Lodge, Alloa, Clackmannanshire) (c. 1710–14) 183

9.8 James Gibbs, design for Dupplin Castle, Perthshire (c. 1710–14) 184

10.1 Letter dated 10 January 1676, from Christopher Irvin, Paris to John Irvin, Rome 194

10.2 Holyrood Palace, James Gordon of Rothiemay view c. 1649 197

10.3 Holyrood Palace, west front and entrance 19710.4 Drumlanrig Castle balustrade 20110.5 Caramuel’s Barbaric Doric, as used at Drumlanrig

Castle 20210.6 Hanging Gardens of Semiramis, as depicted in

Kircher’s Turris Babel (1679) 20310.7 Entrance to the building in front of the icehouse,

Newhailes House (c. 1705) 20410.8 Plate 33 from G. B. Vignola, The Regular Architect

(1669) 20510.9 Canongate Church. James Smith, 1688 20610.10 Oratory of St Philip Neri, Rome. Francesco

Borromini, 1637–50 20710.11 Tomb of Sir George MacKenzie of Rosehaugh,

Greyfriars Kirkyard. James Smith, c. 1690 20810.12 Chapel of Reginald Pole, Via Appia Antica, Rome

(1539) 20910.13 Hatton House Gate. Dated 1692 21010.14 Hatton House Pavilions. Built some time between

1664 and 1691 21010.15 Farnese Gardens, uccelliere 21111.1 Dalkeith Palace from the south. James Smith, 1700–10 21311.2 Ship entering the harbour at Leith (c. 1710) 21711.3 Bill of lading for Captain Bapty’s ship, The Ouners

Goodwill, bound for Leith, 5 August 1702 21811.4 The King’s Bedchamber at Hampton Court (1690s) 22211.5 Ground floor plan of Dalkeith Palace. Plate 22

from Vitruvius Scoticus 22311.6 Chimneypiece in the Great Closet, Dalkeith with

marble relief of Neptune and Galatea by Grinling Gibbons, 1701 224

11.7 Chimneypiece in the Picture Closet, Dalkeith 22611.8 Chimneypiece from Lodge Low, Dalkeith, now at

Drumlanrig 227

Figures xxi

11.9 Plan of Buckingham House in St James’s Park. Plate 43 from Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. 1 228

11.10 The staircase hall at Dalkeith 22911.11 The staircase hall at Dalkeith photographed for

Country Life, 1911 23011.12 Portrait of Ann, Duchess of Buccleuch and her two

sons, James, Earl of Dalkeith and Lord Henry Scott, later Earl of Deloraine, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, c. 1685 231

11.13 Portrait of the Duke of Monmouth on horseback, unknown artist, c. 1672–3 232

12.1 Panmure House. Front elevation from Vitruvius Scoticus 236

12.2 Panmure House, attic, principal and ground floor plans. Plate 130 from Vitruvius Scoticus 237

12.3 Prospect of the town of Brechin. Jan Slezer, Theatrum Scotiae (1693) 238

12.4 Main façade of Brechin Castle. Completed in 1711 after a design by Alexander Edward 239

12.5 Plan of the second storey and west front of ‘Brichen Castle’ 240

12.6 Brechin Castle, ground floor plan, 1704. Drawing attributed to Alexander Edward 240

12.7 Brechin Castle, ground floor plan 24112.8 Brechin Castle, first floor plan 24212.9 ‘The House of Nairne of Strathord, built by William,

Lord Nairne and destroyed by his nephew, James, Duke of Atholl (1747)’ 244

12.10 Draft of the new garden at Nairne. Included in a letter from Margaret Nairne to the Earl of Breadalbane, dated 22 February 1709 245

13.1 Reconstructed plan of a house for Henry Fletcher (1699) 255

13.2 Front and rear elevations of a house (c. 1707) 25613.3 Principal floor plan (c. 1707) 25713.4 Upper floor plan (c. 1707) 25813.5 Basement plan (c. 1707) 25913.6 Section of Fletcher’s house design 26013.7 Stills of Fletcher’s house design from 3D model 26113.8 Sketch of a roof design by Christopher Wren, redrawn

by Dr Gregory Lether (1707) 26314.1 Map showing location of John Douglas’s main

buildings 272

14.2 Timeline of John Douglas’s major projects 27314.3 Galloway House, front elevation (late 1730s) 27414.4 Lochmaben Town House (1743) 27514.5 Archerfield, the restored façade (c. 1747) 27614.6 Archerfield, original design attributed to Douglas 27814.7 Archerfield: plan showing original tower and

Douglas’s additions 27914.8 Archerfield: south elevation showing the original

house incorporated into Douglas’s design 28014.9 Finlaystone, first floor plan by Douglas 28214.10 Finlaystone, west elevation, by Douglas (1746–7) 28214.11 Finlaystone, west elevation with later additions 28314.12 Interpretation of Douglas’s design with dotted lines

showing the succession of later additions 28414.13 Ground floor plan of Wardhouse 28514.14 Wardhouse elevation (1757–8) 28614.15 Campbeltown Town Hall (1758–60) 28714.16 St Andrews United College, north building 28815.1 Edzell Castle, panel depicting Geometria 29515.2 John Reid’s ideal garden, from The Scots Gard’ner

(1683) 29615.3 Kinross House garden plan, attributed to Alexander

Edward (c. 1685) 29815.4 Glamis Castle by Thomas Sandby (1746) 30015.5 Title page of John James’s The Theory and Practice of

Gardening 30115.6 Title page of Thomas Hamilton’s A Treatise on the

Manner of Raising Forest Trees 30315.7 Detail from General Roy’s Military Survey of

Scotland showing Binning Wood 30516.1 Aerial view of Clunie Castle in the Loch of Clunie

built for Bishop Broun of Dunkeld in the early sixteenth century 309

16.2 Reconstruction drawing of the gardens at Aberdour Castle in the mid-seventeenth century 311

16.3 Moray House and its terraced gardens depicted on the 1647 plan of Edinburgh by James Gordon of Rothiemay 312

16.4 Terraces at Balcaskie House laid out by Sir William Bruce to face the Bass Rock 315

16.5 Leslie House as it was depicted on the manuscript map of Fife by John Adair in 1684 316

xxii Figures

16.6 The terraces at Drummond Castle showing the double staircases 317

16.7 Hatton House from the engraving in Theatrum Scotiae by Jan Slezer 318

16.8 Detail from Slezer’s engraving of Hatton House showing the use of the terrace wall for growing espaliered fruit trees 319

16.9 Plan for Thirlestane Castle and its gardens by Jan Slezer and Jan Wyck (c. 1680) 320

17.1 Alexander Edward’s notebook 32417.2 Map showing places visited by Edward and

conjectural route 32617.3 Transcription of two commemorative tablets from

the Antonine Wall recorded in Alexander Edward’s notebook 328

17.4 Sketch survey of St James’s Park 33217.5 Plan for a Palladian House 33617.6 Extract from the list of engravings purchased by

Alexander Edward in Paris 33717.7 Edward’s plan of Château de Pont 33817.8 Château de Pont, from Manière de bien bastir by

Pierre Le Muet (1647) 33817.9 Alexander Edward, topiary designs 34217.10 Topiary designs for Versailles from the royal

collection at Versailles 34317.11 Alexander Edward, topiary designs 34417.12 Topiary designs for Versailles from the royal

collection at Versailles 34418.1 William Adam, General Plan of the Gardens of

Newlistone, 1736 34818.2 Dezallier d’Argenville, Designs of Woods of Forrest

Trees 35018.3 Niddry Castle at the head of the cascade walk 35118.4 Plan of Newliston (1759) marked to show alignments 35218.5 John Watt, detail from survey plan of Johnston

Estate, Renfrewshire (c. 1729) 35518.6 North Merchiston, as shown on Robert Kirkwood’s

Plan of the City of Edinburgh (1817) 35718.7 Blair Cranbeth as Adam bought it in 1733 35818.8 Blair Cranbeth at William Adam’s death in 1748 35918.9 House, avenue and rond-point at Drum (1760s) 36318.10 William Adam’s proposals for Buchanan (1745) 364

Figures xxiii

18.11 Plan of Dalkeith Parke 36518.12 Gateway at Dalkeith supplied by William Adam,

c. 1734 36518.13 William Adam’s plan for La Mancha (c. 1732) 36618.14 Dezallier d’Argenville, Designs for Groves of Middle

Height 36718.15 Airth Garden. William Adam, c. 1730 36818.16 Garden buildings shown on William Adam’s

Hopetoun Plan 36918.17 Garden pavilion at Hopetoun, believed to

incorporate the pediment of William Adam’s bowling green pavilion of 1732–3 370

18.18 William Adam, A General Plan of Hopetoun Park and Gardens (c. 1731–2) 371

18.19 Fishing Pavilion, Duff House. William Adam (c. 1735) 37218.20 William Adam, garden pavilion at Brunstane (c. 1735) 37318.21 Chatelherault. William Adam, 1731–4 37519.1 The General Plan of Arniston House Parkes and

Gardens, 1726 38019.2 Arniston Designed Landscape, c. 1720 39019.3 Arniston Designed Landscape, c. 1750 39119.4 Plates 42 and 39 from William Adam’s Vitruvius

Scoticus showing the north elevation, c. 1730 39419.5 Arniston House entrance hall 39519.6 Detail of Roman emperors’ heads on the underside

of the entrance hall arches 39619.7 Detail of the entrance hall showing an acanthus

leaf capital and antique-style basket of fruit and flowers 396

19.8 Plate 41 from William Adam’s Vitruvius Scoticus showing the internal elevations of the library, engraved c. 1730 397

19.9 Detail of The General Plan of Arniston House Parkes and Gardens, 1726 400

19.10 Plan of Arniston Inclosures, survey’d March 1752, Dd Dundas 402

19.11 Plan of the Arniston and Shank Inclosures, dated 1758, by an anonymous surveyor 403

20.1 Shawfield, Colen Campbell (1711–15). Plate 51 from Vitruvius Britannicus II 409

20.2 Trongate, Glasgow. Charles Ross, ‘A Map of the Shire of Lanark’ (1773), detail from Glasgow inset 411

xxiv Figures

20.3 Detail from John McArthur, ‘Plan of the City of Glasgow’ (1778), showing location of Montrose lodging 413

20.4 The Duke’s Lodgings, Drygate, view at the back, 1843. Watercolour painted by William Simpson (1823–99) in 1897 414

20.5 Alexander McGill, site plan of proposed house for Duke of Montrose (1717) 415

20.6 Alexander McGill, plan and elevation of house for the Duke of Montrose (1717) 416

20.7 Town Hospital, Glasgow. Elevation drawing by Jack Russell (1841) 418

20.8 View of Trongate from the east by Robert Paul 42020.9 Somerset House. Plate 16 from Vitruvius

Britannicus I 42120.10 Architectural model of Glasgow Town House by

Alan Dreghorn (c. 1756) 42220.11 A view of St Andrew’s Church at Glasgow from the

battlements of the Old Town House. After Robert Paul (1769) 423

20.12 Dreghorn Town House. Detail taken from The Old Town’s Hospital and residence of R. Dreghorn Esq. Thomas Fairbairn (1849) 426

21.1 Trinity College Library, Dublin by Thomas Burgh, 1712–32. The more capacious roof by Deane and Woodward, 1856–61 429

21.2 Glasgow University Library, William Adam, 1732–44 (now demolished). Photograph by Thomas Annan 430

21.3 King James I Library, North Street, St Andrews. John Gardner, 1764–7, extended by Robert Reid in 1829 430

21.4 James Malton’s view of the interior of the Long Room (Trinity College Library) 433

21.5 William Adam’s design for the decorative ‘End Prospect towards the North’ of Glasgow University Library (1732) 435

21.6 Internal elevations of the College Library of Glasgow from Vitruvius Scoticus (plate 157) 436

21.7 Detail from Joseph Swan’s engraving of Glasgow Old Library (1828), from John M. Leighton, ‘Select Views of Glasgow and its Environs’ 437

Figures xxv

21.8 John Gardner’s Classical design for the north elevation of the King James I Library (1764) 438

21.9 John Oliphant’s drawing of the King James I Library on completion (1767), with the gateway to the quad and entrance behind 439

21.10 Interior of King James I Library showing Gardner’s columned gallery 440

22.1 James Gordon of Rothiemay, map of Edinburgh (c. 1647) 443

22.2 Jacopo de’ Barbari, View of Venice (c. 1460–70) 44322.3 Detail of Figure 22.1 44422.4 Detail of Figure 22.2 44522.5 Gladstone’s Land, Edinburgh (1617–20) 44722.6 Ca’ Loredan, Venice 44822.7 Milne’s Court, Edinburgh (1690) 45222.8 Edinburgh New and Old Towns. John Laurie, 1766 45323.1 Section, elevation and plans of a house 12ft wide and

21ft deep. Pierre Le Muet, Manière de bien bastir (1623) 458

23.2 Map showing location of 14 rue Tiquetonne. From Vasserot and Bellanger, Atlas général (1827–36), vol. 1, plate 46 459

23.3 Elevation of a house at 14 rue Tiquetonne 46023.4 Ground and upper floor plans of a house at 14 rue

Tiquetonne 46123.5 Elevation of a house at 6 rue Tiquetonne 46223.6 Ground floor plan of a house at 6 rue Tiquetonne 46423.7 Plan of the upper floors of a house at 6 rue

Tiquetonne 46523.8 Plan of the cemetery of the Saints Innocents. Claude-

Louis Bernier, 1786 46923.9 Elevation to the rue de la Ferronnerie, 1669 47023.10 Elevation to the cemetery of the Saints Innocents,

1669 47023.11 Floor plans for two houses on the rue de la

Ferronnerie, 1669. 47023.12 Sections of a house on the rue de la Ferronnerie, 1669 47123.13 View of the illuminations on the rue de la

Ferronnerie in 1745 47123.14 Map showing the rue des Blancs-Manteaux and rue

Vieille du Temple. From Vasserot and Bellanger, Atlas général (1827–36), vol. 2, plate 53 472

xxvi Figures

23.15 A project for seven houses with shops on the corner of the rue des Blancs-Manteaux and the rue Vieille du Temple, 1640 473

23.16 Map of the rue Childebert showing houses built for the Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés. From Vasserot and Bellanger, Atlas général (1827–36), vol. 2, plate 97 474

23.17 Elevation of houses to be built for the Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés, south side of the rue Childebert 474

23.18 and 23.19 Ground and first floor plans of houses to be built for the Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés, south side of the rue Childebert 475

23.20 Gladstone’s Land, Edinburgh (1617–20) 47623.21 Contract drawing for a flat in Writers’ Court,

Edinburgh (1695) 47924.1 Conjectural reconstruction of Aberdeen Town House,

c. 1760 48324.2 Robert Gordon’s College, preliminary scheme,

principal elevation (1731). Vitruvius Scoticus, opposite plate 107 485

24.3 Robert Gordon’s College, principal elevation as altered by John Smith in 1829–33 487

24.4 Dundee Town House, principal elevation and floor plan (1731–5). Vitruvius Scoticus, plate 104 489

24.5 Sanquhar Tolbooth (1736–9) 49224.6 Hamilton (Old) Parish Church (c. 1729–34), 49424.7 Glasgow University Library, entrance gable and

east elevation (1732–44). Vitruvius Scoticus, plate 156 49724.8 The Orphan Hospital, Edinburgh, principal elevation

(1734–6). Vitruvius Scoticus, plate 140 49824.9 Design for completion of the Orphan Hospital,

Edinburgh, published by Thomas Tod, 1781 50024.10 George Watson’s Hospital, Edinburgh, principal

elevation and floor plans (1738–41). Vitruvius Scoticus, plate 151 502

24.11 The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, principal elevation (1737–48). Vitruvius Scoticus, plate 150 505

24.12 The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, central pavilion photographed by Thomas Begbie 506

24.13 The Charity Work-house, Edinburgh, preliminary scheme engraved by Paul Fourdrinier, 1739 or 1740 510

Figures xxvii

xxviii Figures

24.14 The Charity Work-house, Edinburgh, executed design without courtyard wings, engraved 1820 510

24.15 The Surgeons’ Hospital, Edinburgh, Dean of Guild drawings, attributed to William Adam, dated 1738 512

25.1 Robert Adam’s inscription above entrance to Old College University of Edinburgh 528

Tables

7.1 Late seventeenth-century decorative schemes which share older-style decorative features 146

18.1 Newliston alignments 35318.2 Blair Adam alignments 361

Part I Setting the Scene

IntroductionAonghus MacKechnie

It’s a matter worthy of ones enquiry, how a Nation, as SCOTLAND, so much addicted to Military Arts, and so constantly ingaged in both Foreign and Domestick Wars, should have been in a Capacity to erect such superb edifices as that Kingdom abounds with. There is no Country in Europe that can brag either of greater Piles of Buildings, or a more regular Architecture in its Ancient Churches . . . You may receive this Impartial Account from me as a Foreigner, who am now settled in this Nation.1

Military engineer Captain Jan Slezer, 1693

As well as young Scottish students and noblemen going to France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and elsewhere, many of their counterparts, eager to enhance their experience, travelled throughout Scotland, visited its universities, its royal palaces, the houses of its nobility and of its learned gentlemen and there found a cordial reception within a cosmo-politan society with which they were already familiar throughout the continent.2

Historian James K. Cameron, 1986, concerning the late Renaissance-early modern periods

This book is a story of Scotland’s early Classical architecture. We ask where, within the European context, does Scotland’s early

Classical architecture sit? And we address that question by provid-ing this platform both for established scholars and for a new genera-tion of scholars who have original things to say. These authors each have their own individual and fresh perspectives, and they highlight Scotland’s place as both an integrated and a contributory part of

4 Aonghus MacKechnie

contemporary Europe – and yet also a place which has retained its own individuality.

It could be argued that interest in our topic was invigorated – initiated, even – by the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain’s annual conference in 1983 where early Classicism in Scotland was the conference theme. A scholarly guidebook was produced under the direction of Kitty Cruft, and visits were made to buildings designed by Sir William Bruce (c. 1625–1710), Master James Smith (c. 1645–1731), William Adam (1689–1748) and others, examining not simply architectural design but also the craftsman-ship displayed in the stone, timber, plaster and ironwork. There were specialist contributions from (amongst others) John Dunbar, John Gifford, Bruce Lenman, Colin McWilliam, James Simpson and David M. Walker. The numerous overviews and academic papers which have since followed have transformed the state of scholarship in this area, but no modern books on Bruce and Smith exist yet; nor has a dedicated book on this early Classical period been produced, until now. So the following pages present an unprecedentedly broad coverage of our topic, with a combination of not simply ‘orthodox’ architectural and garden history, but also more discrete aspects such as craftsmanship and roof construction.

Another context for this book’s European theme is that, over recent years, outside interest in Scottish architecture has resulted in our welcoming a fresh generation of scholars from Europe who have studied or domiciled in Scotland. These individuals inevitably bring welcome new perspectives to the subject, and the book is profoundly the richer from having their contributions.

We have also sought to consider the architecture within the wider and dramatically changing political environments of our period, a framework for which is in the narrative below. The broader politi-cal/cultural interface of Scotland with the wider world is described by documentary historian Allan Macinnes in Chapter 1.

The political context within the seventeenth to early eighteenth centuries in Scotland

For the reader new to Scottish history, we must highlight some of the key political factors which drove the events and fortunes of our period. A good place to start is with King James VI (r. 1567–1625), who in 1594 provided northern Europe with one of its earliest Classical buildings – his Chapel Royal, in Stirling. It was designed by his Master of Work, William Schaw, as a replicate of the Biblical

Introduction 5

Temple of Solomon, and was created to celebrate the baptism of James’s son in a ceremony and setting calculated to present the Stuart dynasty as appropriate to succeed England’s childless Queen Elizabeth. In 1603 James duly inherited as James I, King of England and Ireland. In that same year the monarchy emigrated, thereby inaugurating the process of Scotland becoming a satellite terri-tory; because, immediately, Scotland’s monarchs – having resisted waves of English military invasion and attempted annexation from 1296 – now, as a united monarchy, wanted Union with England and conformity to English norms. James, and then his successors, Charles I and Charles II, worked autocratically towards these ends. The increasing frustration with Charles I’s policies became open defiance from 1637 when he sought to impose an English Episcopal prayer book. In exasperation, Covenanters (Presbyterians) devised and signed the National Covenant in 1638, from which came their name. They took control of parliament and government in defiance of the king and the royal interest; civil warfare followed, and an alliance with English Parliamentary forces which collapsed when the latter executed Charles I and opposed the Scots crowning his son as Charles II. All this concluded in conquest and English military occupation from 1651 to 1660, along with the resultant destruction or militarising of many of Scotland’s major buildings.

At the restitution of the monarchy in 1660 the country had to rebuild. Parliament rather meekly allowed its gains to return to the Crown (the opposite to the position in post-Commonwealth England). And Charles II immediately picked up where the likewise non-consensual Charles I had left off, issuing directions for Scotland, demanding obedience, creating societal divisions and igniting another unnecessary phase of civil warfare. Charles’s brother and heir, James, Duke of Albany and York, had meanwhile converted to Catholicism, which turned English opinion against him. James was sent to Scotland where, at Holyroodhouse, intermittently between 1679 and 1682, he held a satellite royal court, encouraging and invigorating the arts and sciences, and promoting architecture. He inherited the thrones of the three kingdoms in 1685, reigning as James VII/II until the ‘Glorious Revolution’ in England. That was in 1688, when, at the invitation of disgruntled English Protestants, William of Orange was invited to invade England. James left for France, and William was crowned England’s King William III – as joint monarch with his wife Mary, James’s daughter.

Back in Scotland, the 1689 Convention (parliament in a variant form), composed of an anti-Catholic majority, declared James


forfeit and (copying England) William and Mary were offered and accepted the throne. The dramatic new environment meant difficult decisions for the ruling elites, desperate to be on the winning side, whichever that would be: the Earl (and future first Marquess) of Annandale, for instance, that year changed sides five times in as many months; the Duke of Hamilton, three times. The old Catholic ascendency, such as the Chancellor Earl of Perth and his brother, Secretary of State Melfort, was replaced by supporters of King William (see Chapter 3).

What the Privy Council called the 1689 ‘alteratione of the government’ was a turning point in Scotland’s history. To its pro-moters, it had been born of desperate measures; but it burned divisions in society perhaps even more searingly than the Stuarts had achieved, giving birth to ‘Jacobitism’ – supporters of the for-feited Stuarts – and it inaugurated Scotland’s longest (intermit-tent) civil war which ended only in 1746 on Culloden’s battlefield. The formerly downtrodden Covenanters were now in charge, and Jacobites were the new downtrodden. In the Highlands, the ‘alteratione’ created a vast, militarised landscape, a venue for the state/Crown terrorism exemplified by the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692 – an attempt to exterminate a clan which had shown insuf-ficient attachment to the new monarchy. Unlike in 1660, parlia-ment this time (that is, from 1689) retained much of its new status and power, albeit Scotland’s soldiers were placed in what was a de facto ‘British’ army under King William in his wars against the old ally, France, warfare that was both damaging and irrelevant to Scotland’s political priorities. Then, in 1707, Scotland entered into incorporating Union with England (see Chapter 25), thereby formally exiting from international politics. On the other hand, the new order and the Union, in time, presented opportunities, as we shall also see.

This book shows that these two political events – the ‘alteratione’ of 1689 and the Treaty of Union in 1707 – impacted upon architecture. Royal architectural patronage effectively ended in 1689, together with what over the previous two centuries had been architectural leadership from royal architects. The palaces, created over centuries in a spirit of showy optimism and national self-confidence, became all but unwanted. Best placed amongst these (the other palaces all fared significantly worse) was Holyroodhouse, which retained a ceremonial role. But it essentially became an ill-maintained block of superior houses of multiple occupation, with what would soon be declining ruins attached to its eastern corners – the medieval Abbey

Introduction 7

Kirk and a matching 1670s neo-Gothic kitchen built on a royal scale, but useless by the eighteenth century and demolished.3

The revolutionary political changes meant that the royal archi-tects William Bruce (in post 1671–8) and – the postholder in 1689 – James Smith were suddenly problematised, being Jacobite. We highlight aspects of their careers in the chapters below, in addition to the careers of others whose fortunes were dictated by changing politics. Amongst the latter was gentleman architect John Erskine, 6th and 11th Earl of Mar (1675–1732), exiled in 1715 for leading a Jacobite army against the government forces, exposing the latter’s vulnerability and threatening the overturn of the still-new settle-ment. From numerous bases in France and elsewhere, Mar designed and sometimes sent home architectural designs including some for royal palaces. His story is told elsewhere by Margaret Stewart.4

Renaissance–early modern relations with Europe

People have for centuries been Scotland’s primary export, and of course they took their culture with them to their new surround-ings. Merchants, academics, shipbuilders, masons – vast numbers of people found new lives elsewhere.5 On a much smaller scale, people immigrated to Scotland – French weavers, for instance, from Picardy to the new-made Picardy village near Edinburgh, in 1730, which was Alexander McGill’s and probably Scotland’s first Classical terrace.

It seems clear that Scotland in the earlier part of our period imported more architectural expertise than it exported. This impor-tation was restricted to craftsmen and excluded architects. The primary source for this expertise was the English royal works, a pattern which simply replicated that established in the 1610s when specialists – notably carvers/sculptors and plasterers – from there were engaged at the Scottish palaces. (Expertise was seemingly at that time brought from no other foreign country – save for a French gardener at Stirling.)6 Their expertise doubtless helped inspire the new architectural and sculptural excellence which from then onwards developed its own character under the leadership of Master of Work/royal architect Sir James Murray of Kilbaberton (d. 1634), only to be stifled by the wars. All this was a contrast with the royal court of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries where Italian, English, Low Countries and French excellence was imported (more exotically still, James IV even had African drummers).

Regarding our own period, the imported specialists themselves had amongst them people from not only England, but also the Low


Countries. The plasterers John Houlbert and George Dunsterfield were brought from London to help decorate Holyroodhouse (1670s), and their skills were exploited by patrons including Bruce at his own Balcaskie, Lord Lauderdale at Thirlestane, Lord Hatton at Hatton House, and Lord Tarbat at Caroline Park and Tarbat. Dutchman Jacob de Wet (1640–97) represented another category of foreign specialist, namely those who appear to have reached Scotland inde-pendent of the English royal works. He executed a series of royal portraits for Holyroodhouse (1684), as well as private commissions such as the 1688 chapel at Glamis. The carver Henry Manners, of unknown origin, was employed from the royal works by Lauderdale, and also at Lord Perth’s Drummond Castle (1688). Jan van Santvoort carved timber decoration in Holyroodhouse in the 1670s, and in the following decade Peter Paul Boyse and Cornelius van Nerven carved decoration in stone on the main façades of Kinross House and Drumlanrig Castle (1686).

Other imported specialists included Jan Slezer, quoted above, who had a lengthy career as a military engineer and who also dabbled in house design – as at Kinnaird (Angus) in 1689, for example (unexecuted). Two other Low Countries sculptors, Arnold Quellin and Jan van Nost, both worked for Scottish clients; Quellin executed statuary for Glamis (1686), while van Nost provided the tomb of the Duke of Queensberry and Dover (‘the Union Duke’ – d. 1708) at Durisdeer. Possibly these works were shipped north after completion, as may also have been the case with the monument in Holy Trinity Church St Andrews to Archbishop Sharp (assassinated 1679), said to have come from the Netherlands. The baldacchino in Durisdeer’s Queensberry aisle is a clear copy of the St Peter’s formula; it also rather exemplifies the vigorous interest in marble imports (for example, see Chapter 11). Scotland’s ancient Baltic timber trade is of course well known, while for New Tarbat House in 1688 Lord Tarbat wanted timber imported from Holland for his sash windows.

As regards external Scottish architectural influence, this was strongest at first through colonisation. After 1603, Scots-type build-ings were built in Ireland for Scots clients (Malcolm Hamilton’s Monea, for example) as part of an anti-Catholic and anti-Gael colonisation programme. Isolated documented instances of non-Scots patrons elsewhere included Norway’s Erik Rozencrantz, whose tower in Bergen was built by ‘muremestre oc stenhuggere af Skotland’ (Scots masons and stone hewers) in 1563.7 Hardly surpris-ingly, Scots masons were in occasional demand nearer to home.

Introduction 9

Some early modern Cumbrian houses (Crakeplace Hall, for example, or Johnby) have distinctive Haggs-Kenmure-type neo-Romanesque detailing of 1560s–80s character,8 and Berwick has a plethora of crowsteps and skewputts of various dates, all illustrating people favouring Scottish design in provincial northern England. More usually, particularly in the early modern period, Scottish buildings elsewhere – such as the Scots merchant houses at Veere, or the Stuart Château de la Verrerie – were in the local style.

But regarding our period, Scottish architects seem at first to have had little presence externally – though as we shall see, this situation was to reverse from the 1710s. The Episcopalian minister-turned-architect and landscape specialist Alexander Edward (1651–1708) was remarkable in that he travelled abroad for the specific purpose of conducting research for others into contemporary French archi-tectural fashion and landscape design (see Chapter 17). This perhaps underlined the dissemination rather than exchange of ideas, as prestigious French culture was, simply, attractive to others. That said, John Reid’s book A Scots Gard’ner (1683) disseminated ideas from Scotland, while, at the close of our period, Thomas Blaikie was gardener at the French court and to courtiers until ruined by the French Revolution in 1789 when payment from his rich clients abruptly ended.

Here we must make a slight detour to remind ourselves that Scottish patrons and architecture existed far beyond Europe, notably in the colonies. Scots in Jamaica, for instance, built them-selves new houses while missionaries strove to save the souls of those whose bodies and lives the house-building slavers destroyed. For his house-cum-observatory in Kingston (built early 1740s), slave-owner Alexander MacFarlane (1702–55), benefactor to Glasgow University of the MacFarlane Observatory, chose a Classical design, with loggias on two levels.9

But to return to Britain. It is important to stress that politically, and just like Scotland, England was a separate European country until 1707 when the two merged. While the Treaty of Union created the new, integrationist state of Great Britain, there was an inde-pendent cultural continuity on either side of the border, and a rather two-way flow of cultural influence. Off to England, where the power and richer patronage lay, went architects Colen Campbell (1676–1729) and James Gibbs (1682–1754), soon to be followed by Robert (1728–92) and James (1730–94) Adam, and Robert Mylne (1733–1811), all of whom feature amongst the foremost architects working in eighteenth-century England. Both James ‘Athenian’


Stuart (1713–88) and William Chambers (1722–96), though English-based, were half-Scottish.

From the other direction came a range of English cultural norms – possibly most evidently, the English form of the English language and deletion of Scots from formal use, while English architects and military engineers now arrived in Scotland as part of the anti-Jacobite militarisation programme that was to continue until the end of the century.

This context of English architects and anti-Jacobite militarism helped bring about the next sea-change in Scottish architecture. The Classicism documented throughout this book can be considered as bringing the end to the country’s First Castle Age, because clients now more frequently decided to build in a Classical style. However, at 1740s Inveraray, the Second Castle Age of the Scotch Baronial was inaugurated by an Anglo-Scot client, the 3rd Duke of Argyll. Here, a Gothic-windowed new castle was begun, complete with a protective deep and wide fosse. The design emerged from a grouping or committee of architects and specialists including William Adam and military engineer Dougal Campbell (d. 1757), with the executed design being that of Englishman Roger Morris (1695–1749), itself a version of an unexecuted 1720s project by his fellow-countryman Sir John Vanbrugh (1664–1726).10 By the time the castle’s foun-dation stone was laid on 1 October 1746, the Jacobite ‘threat’ was gone, the fosse consequently redundant. But a new fashion for neo-castellation had begun.

The architectural historiography of Scotland in Europe

If it is a truism to state that ‘everything’ is political, then the story of Scotland’s architecture certainly complies. Scottish historiogra-phy (and accompanying martial architecture) at the start of our period was shaped by the triumphalist Scottish nationalism of the Scotichronicon (compiled from the fourteenth century and influen-tial over the centuries, first published 1759), while by our period’s end, that paradigm had somersaulted to a British nationalism with an accompanying new ideology of pre-Union Scotland having been a failure, rescued by Union. The new ideology was promulgated from the mid-eighteenth century by already-inferiorised Scots: historians such as David Hume (1711–76) and William Robertson (1721–93), who set a new and contrasting tone that dominated, arguably, into the mid-twentieth century and is seen sometimes with us still. Establishment historians sometimes presented Scotland’s past as a

Introduction 11

sequence of glorious Unions – 1603 and 1707, of course – but now added to this (and contradicting their own sources) a rhetoric which re-presented the Scots ninth-century conquest of Pictland as the ‘union’ that created Scotland.

From the latter half of the twentieth century a new generation, taught by people such as Gordon Donaldson, and learning docu-mentary discipline from luminaries such as Ronald Cant and John Durkan, provided a new framework. These were historians such as Allan Macinnes and Michael Lynch who determined to avoid Scottish or British partisanism, setting Scotland within her own, her United Kingdom, European and global contexts. The topic of ‘Scotland and Europe’ was mainstreamed, to be followed by apprais-als of Scotland within a global context, and addressing external aspects such as, more recently, the humiliating and dehumanising aspects of colonialism and Scottish slavers – another somersault, upending the triumphalising norms boasted by British nationalist/imperialist writers such as W. H. Fitchett (1841–1928).

The architectural story fits broadly into this pattern; for an outline overview of Scotland’s fluctuating architectural historiog-raphy, readers are referred to Scotland’s Castle Culture.11 Earlier accounts of Scotland, such as that by Spain’s Don Pedro de Ayala (1498), noted that Scottish buildings tended to be ‘built of hewn stone’ (that is, dressed stone),12 which is to say there was a dis-tinguishing national architectural tradition upon which visitors remarked. English visitors gave Scotland’s buildings mixed reviews. Jan Slezer, quoted above, was in 1693 particularly careful to praise Scottish architecture, and to emphasise that he was doing so from an informed, European standpoint. Presumably, this was the sort of opinion Scots wanted to hear and would enjoy, and he knew it.

The change in tone came quickly after the Union of 1707, in Colen Campbell’s Vitruvius Britannicus, published from 1715. Where Slezer had been anxious to praise Scotland’s historic architecture, Campbell instead published a manifesto for a new British architec-ture. This would lionise Inigo Jones, and present England’s cultural achievement as that of Britain, an imagined common heritage that Scots could – and in time, did – celebrate as their own.13

Campbell gave Scotland little presence (although approximately a quarter of volume I’s subscribers were Scots), and the only ‘tradi-tional’ Scottish castle (Drumlanrig) was presented in naïve perspec-tive whereas everything else was in professional two-dimensional sharpness. The Scottish castellated tradition was thus made to seem – intentionally or not – at best rustic or quaint, but Campbell’s


real point was to create a new architectural paradigm for the new Britain. James Gibbs’ Book of Architecture (1728) avoided political rhetoric, perhaps because Gibbs was a Catholic Scot seeking a career in anti-Catholic England. On the other hand, the Whig, pro-Union Presbyterian William Adam was making a pro-Scottish statement by compiling a riposte to Campbell with his projected Vitruvius Scoticus – where, ironically, the only naïve perspective design was that of Bruce’s super-sleek Classical Kinross House.

Mention of Drumlanrig (rebuilt from c. 1675) diverts this story once again towards the Scottish castellated tradition, a tradition which seems during the First Castle Age to manifest in stone the ide-ology, or cult almost, of Scottish martial excellence. Castles were still being built in contemporary Europe during our period, so to that extent 1670s Scotland was unremarkable; the strength or persis-tence of that culture here, even as the classicising castellation it had now become (notably at Holyroodhouse), did however set Scottish architecture apart from Europe’s mainstream. This changed in the decades around 1700, when the new Classicism became ubiquitous, thereby making Scottish architecture as mainstream European as could be, only for the castellated tradition to return with a venge-ance – the Second Castle Age – under Robert and James Adam, fol-lowing, as argued above, the design of Inveraray, from 1743, and the impact which that building had both within Scotland and beyond.

But to conclude this section on the new historiography: this was accompanied, as we saw, by the quest for a European context. England, of course, for long after 1707, was de facto almost as cultur-ally ‘foreign’ as anywhere else in Europe, as shown in Glendinning et al’s 1996 A History of Scottish Architecture. Charles McKean dashed forward in 2001 to emphasise the French connection with his The Scottish Chateau. Historians discovered they could be upbeat without losing objectivity, and even the lightweight prejudice from within the sedate Oxbridge world of Howard Colvin could be attacked for his alleged disrespect of a Scotland ‘different from us’ by declaring loftily his Anglocentric presumption that the Scottish ‘tower-house was an anachronism’.14

The architects

The third of the ‘star’ architects repeatedly highlighted below along-side Bruce and Smith is William Adam, though there is new work too on the first generation of Scottish architects welcomed into England – Campbell and Gibbs (see Chapter 9). As a pupil of Carlo

Introduction 13

Fontana, Gibbs must have made a mark on early eighteenth-century Roman buildings. That topic awaits research, and here only his book and British context is considered. Lastly, further mention is required here of Alexander McGill (d. 1734), whom we met above. McGill, son of a Presbyterian minister, was by 1699 part of the architectural circle of Bruce, Edward and Smith. From the 1710s, he partnered the ageing Smith in projects such as Yester, characterised by its French-inspired horizontally channelled façades.

William Adam (baptised 1689, the year Scotland’s new king was appointed William II) superseded Smith in the 1720s as the fore-most architect. Gifford’s 1989 book on Adam has not been super-seded,15 though here Adam’s work as a garden designer and designer of public buildings is particularly highlighted as being simultane-ously innovative, yet within the national tradition. Adam, who had travelled to England and the Low Countries, was in that sense simply another of Scotland’s premier early Classical architects who were talented, and who had travelled within Europe, which instantly confirms an architectural cosmopolitanism to their understanding and to their work.

Conclusion

Our conclusion takes us back to the historiography, its shaping and reshaping by successive political agendas up to the modern age of today’s more determined search for dispassionate scholar-ship. Mainstream historiography has stepped beyond the postwar problematising of Scottish architecture by Anglocentric writers led by Sir John Summerson and (notwithstanding the scholarship of, say, John Dunbar) forefronted by some government archaeologists within Scotland. But has the dragon of inferiorism really been finally slain? That question is addressed in our concluding chapter, which strongly reaffirms today’s academic position: that the politically inexistent post-1707 Scotland, deprived for the longest time ever of royal architectural patronage, withstood the loss only to continue its individual programme or ‘national tradition’ – one that would flour-ish triumphantly in the nineteenth-century Scotch Baronial until subsumed within the international architectural environment that came after the First World War.

Our period ends with Robert Adam, creator of superlative Classical buildings, but, as we saw, significant too as a key deviser of a new, revived national architecture – a new type of castellated Classicism – as inaugurated by Inveraray where he had worked,


and exemplified by Seton and Culzean, in a style drawing from the architecture of his own country. Ultimately, the Scoto-European connections were, and had always been, a strong aspect of Scotland’s culture, and were of course, if inconsistently, a two-way process. Precisely that point was made by James Cameron, as quoted at the start of this chapter: that while Scots travelled to Europe, bringing with them their experiences and ideas, ‘many of their counterparts, eager to enhance their experience, travelled throughout Scotland . . . and there found . . . a cosmopolitan society with which they were already familiar throughout the continent’.16

, the longstanding and the architecture of scotland 1660

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