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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
In the 1720s the family of Dundas of Arniston,1 already long distinguished at the Scottish bar, entered on the three generations of their greatest achievement and influence. Their estate of Arniston had been acquired in 1571. Here, in about 1620, their mansion was built by the founder of the family’s law dynasty, James Dundas, who was knighted by King James. In the next six generations their protagonists numbered two knights (Sir James and his son), six MPs for Midlothian, four Lords of Session, two Lords President of the Session and a Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. While not, it was generally felt, particularly remarkable for intellect they were admired for equally important qualities, notably a strict regard for justice — to the extent that the second Sir James, created a Lord of Session in 1662, felt unable to compromise over the Test Act even under the liberal interpretation allowed by Charles II, and his seat was therefore suspended. He lived retired on his estate, dying in 1679.
1 Apart from the Arniston manuscripts, the chief source for the family and house is George W. T. Omond, The Arniston Memoirs. Three Centuries of a Scottish House 1 ¡71-1838 (Edinburgh, 1887). The fruit of modern research is contained in several articles, notably Alan A. Tait, ‘William Adam and Sirjohn Clerk: Arniston and “The Country Seat” ’, in The Burlington Magazine, cxr (1969), 132-40; and Sheila Forman, ‘The Dundases of Arniston’, Scottish Field, June 1953; together with Kitty Cruft’s notes on Arniston for the SAHGB’s Edinburgh Conference in 1983, and James Simpson’s notes compiled for use during his restoration work at Arniston.
2 Sedgwick, Romney The House of Commons 1715-1754 (London, 1970), 1, 629.Google Scholar
3 Sir Walter Scott relates in note vn to Guy Mannering how one day Dundas, as Lord Advocate, was on the point of leaving his chambers in Fishmarket Close for Arniston, when he was persuaded to discuss a certain law case over a bottle at a tavern. The discussion ended in a prolonged and drunken dinner, after which the Lord Advocate, still at the tavern, called for writing materials and dictated the appeal between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. It was then sent instantly to London, ‘a chef-d’oeuvre of its kind ... it was not necessary on revisal to correct five words’.
4 Arniston, MSS, Letters Vol. 2, 63 Google Scholar (13 November 1733); quoted in Omond, op. cit.
5 Adam had a better cause for gratitude to Walpole than had his Arniston client, for Sirjohn Clerk was attempting to secure for him the Surveyorship to the King’s Works in Scotland, but was foiled by the death of King George I in Germany in June. The following year Adam was to some extent compensated by his appointment as Clerk and Storekeeper of the Works in Scotland, and shortly afterwards, as Scotland’s Mason to the Board of Ordnance.
Information on Adam’s, William early career is summarized fromjames Simpson’s introduction to the reduced facsimile edition of Vitruvius Scoticus (Edinburgh, 1980) , pp. 2-3, 6-7 Google Scholar, and from the Adam entry in Colvin, Howard A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 (London, 1978).Google Scholar
6 Britannicus, Vitruvius 111 (1725), pi. 33.Google Scholar
7 In the caption to a drawing of the north front before the addition of the 1870s porch, Omond (op. cit., p. 248) remarks: ‘Adam, who had drawn his inspiration from Italian sources, had overlooked one material fact, the differences between an Italian and a Scotch climate. His outside flights of stairs, though very handsome, were unsuited to Scotland, and in many instances, Arniston included, have of late years been replaced by covered porches — less handsome, but better suited to a Scotch winter’.
8 Personal communication.
9 Omond, op. cit., p. 75. An unsigned, undated drawing in the plan chest shows alternative designs for the ‘portogo’ which Robert Bell, mason in Clerkington, and Benjamin Gray rebuilt in 1817, ‘puting up a Stair and altering Portico’, removing existing work to do so. (Accounts for Improvements 1810-20, Box 23, Vol. 9, p. 29). The same elevation shows the three windows above the oak room as rounded and so heightened as almost to touch the sills of the attic-floor windows.
10 The rooms in the east jamb suite were extensively altered in 1866-68, when Thomas Brown and Adam Lumsden created the present north-east library, and a much-needed access passage to the rooms behind.
11 At the Arniston visit during the Edinburgh SAHGB Conference, 1983. I am grateful to him for further personal discussion on this.
12 The relevant accounts in the MSS for this period are in Wooden Box 20, Vol. 5 (Accounts 1717-37); Personal and Household Accounts 1734-44, and Box 19 and 20 (Miscellaneous C18 Legal), 1727-39 accounts. The Enzer renewal contract is in Box 23, with Leases, Agreements, and Farm Valuations, 1677—1838.
13 In 1736 a chimney-glass was sent by sea from London. In 1738 a mahogany clock case at seven guineas, ‘carved & guilt for the Hall att Arnistoun’ was among furniture purchased from the Looking Glass and Cabinet Warehouse off Lawnmarket — the shop of Edinburgh’s leading cabinet-maker Francis Brodie, later the city’s Deacon of Wrights, and father to the notorious Deacon William Brodie. Another noted Edinburgh cabinet-maker supplying (unspecified) furniture was Alexander Peter (1735), and in the same year and 1749 Lady Arniston was buying bedroom equipment and bed furniture from the upholsterers Young and Trotter (B 29 and 116 — see infra).
The late Francis Bamford’s invaluable work on Edinburgh cabinet-makers, which appeared while this article was being drafted, supplies information about several of these craftsmen. His own researches at Arniston a few years ago uncovered much though not all of what has now come to light, and it is especially sad that these further discoveries should have been made after his death. See Francis Bamford, ‘A Dictionary of Edinburgh Wrights and Furniture Makers 1660-1840’, ed. Ann Bamford, Journal of the Furniture History Society, xix (1983).
Grates and fenders were bought for Arniston in 1736 from William Macauly at £24 17s., glasses from ‘Mr Murray’ (possibly John Murray & Co.) [B 91], and ‘Mr Chalmers’. In 1737 three carpets were bought from William Dick [B 59]. Another craftsman was Andrew Good, Deacon of Wrights 1741-43, for a walnut-tree desk (1738).
The painter James Norrie was employed at Lord Arniston’s new Edinburgh lodging (1738) and probably at his ‘vacance’ house at Drumsheugh (1743); he may also have worked at Arniston, being first named in 1735: see also n. 17.
14 Dmond, p. hi.
15 Wooden Box ‘A’, Accounts, John and James Adam with Robert Dundas of Arniston ... for Mason work at Arniston I7june 1754 — 26July 1758, etc. The accounts are continued up to 1761.
16 Fleming, John Robert Adam and his Circle (1962), pp. in, 232.Google Scholar For Hugford, Ignazio (1703-78) see Fleming’s note on p. 348 Google Scholar, and his article ‘The Hugfords of Florence’ in The Connoisseur, 136, November 1955.
17 Robert Adam’s description and account, with John Adam’s receipt, are in the Hopetoun MSS, NRA(S) 888, Box 135/5. I am grateful to Miss lerne Grant for showing me this important document when it was found. Mr Duncan Bell, Assistant Keeper, National Gallery of Scotland, identified the painters.
Robert Adam wrote to his sisterjanet (28 May 1757, NS) that Lord Hopetoun’s commission was his chief reason for lingering in Florence; ‘as to the pictures over doors they are difficult to be found for which reason he can’t do better than make Old Norie (if Yet alive) paint 3 a purpose for the pannels, & pray to the Earl of Heaven & Earth to prevent the French seizing the 4 I am to send him from this Town’. Penicuik MSS, SRO GD18/4838.
The paintings were long ago removed from the dining-room and two must have been sold, but ‘Hagar and Ishmael’ now hangs in the false gallery above the hall, and St Jerome or Girolamo even less accessibly, high on the walls. Mrs Dundas-Bekker informs me that the presence of these ‘uncharacteristic’ paintings among the family portraits had long been a mystery.
18 In 1737 Robert 11 had bought at auction several subject pictures from Gavin Hamilton, at very low prices, ranging from 55. to £2 10. These pictures are not now in the house.
19 ‘A China shelf of Chippendale’, also bought in April 1757, is no longer at Arniston. Christopher Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale (London, 1978), p. 128; Francis Bamford, op.cit.,p. no.?
20 Bamford, op. cit., p. 86. The name of Thomas Welsh, ‘Carver’, is recorded in Adam’s accounts in April 1757, but only in connection with dispatching to Arniston some ‘Carved Stone work broke coming from Bath’. The accounts also show a stone brought from Hailes quarry in April 1758 ‘for part of a Vase’, on which an unnamed foreman mason worked for a fortnight in Edinburgh. It is notable that no accounts have yet been found for quarrying or for the supply of stone for the buildings, other than the marble for chimney-pieces.
