Not a member?
Register and login now.
0 Items in your basket
Visit the Store

Issue 17 - Reminder of a golden age

History & Heritage

This article is available in full as part of History & Heritage, visit now for more free articles and information.

 
Scotland Magazine Issue 17

Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 17 on 29/11/2004.

 

This article is 5 years old and some information provided may be time sensitive. Please check all details of events, tours, opening times and other information before travelling or making arrangements.

Copyright Scotland Magazine © 1999-2010. All rights reserved. To use or reproduce part or all of this article please contact us for details of how you can do so legally.

Reminder of a golden age

Charles Douglas visits the lavish Paxton House in Berwickshire

Reminder of a golden age (Issue 17)
The latter part of the 18th century was a golden age for many people living in the south of Scotland.

Money for some was plentiful, and there were those prepared to spend it. This period saw the building of Edinburgh’s glorious New Town, and a number of families of wealth and position (north and south), lavished their wealth on building spectacular new houses.

The Kinross-based Adam family, with their distinctive skills, began to design buildings which today comprise some of our most admired stately homes and palaces.

Patrick Home was a friend of John Adam, and was studying in Leipzig in 1751 when he received the news that his mother had been stabbed to death by the butler in her Berwickshire house while paying out the staff wages. The result of thistragic event was that at the age of 20, Patrick inherited a very sizable fortune and the ancient Home estate at Wedderburn, in Berwickshire.

Choosing not to return home immediately, the young man set off for Berlin where he was warmly welcomed into the Prussian court by a group of exiled Jacobites. It was here that he met and fell in love with Charlotte de Brandt, a natural daughter of Frederick the Great.

Their betrothal was not opposed, but the conditions were that Patrick must first move his fortune to Prussia, and be prepared to take up a commission in the Prussian Guards.

These terms were quite unacceptable to him, and the young man returned to Scotland heartbroken but determined, declaring to Charlotte that he would never marry anyone else without her written permission. The gloves thatshe removed and pressed into his hands on their parting remain at Paxton to this day.

And so it was that Patrick Home decided to build himself a home fit for a princess. Paxton was designed and decorated between 1756 and 1772, and although there is no documentary evidence that the Adams were involved, Home’s close friendship with John Adam, the Palladian style so strongly associated with the Adam brothers, and the exquisite ceilings suggest involvement.

In 1770, almost 20 years after their separation, news arrived from Prussia of Charlotte’s death. There is no record of Patrick’s reaction, but the
following year he married Jane Graham of Dougaldstone and sold the unfinished Paxton to his cousin Ninian for £15,000.

Ninian was, at the time, a planter in the West Indies. On his next visit to Scotland he commissioned the famous furniture-maker Thomas Chippendale to furnish the entire house and announced that he was retiring to Paxton. This was not to be for in 1795, after he had become
Governor of Grenada, he was murdered by slaves who had been incited into a rebellion.

Paxton next passed to Ninian’s brother George, and it was this laird who commissioned Robert Reid of Edinburgh to add on the fine library and
spectacular picture gallery we see today.

George ordered the furniture for these roomsfrom William Trotter of Edinburgh, and Paxton now boasts some of the finest examples of Trotters
work to be found.

George died unmarried in 1820 and his estates were inherited by his cousin William Forman, whose eldest daughter and heiress married
Admiral Sir David Milne, who fought alongside Admiral Nelson.

The estates then passed through his descendants to John Home Robertson, who is currently Member of the Scottish Parliament for
East Lothian.

Sixteen years ago, the Home Robertson family took the decision to make over Paxton to a charitable trust set up by the National Heritage
Memorial Fund. The house was opened to the public and features a dazzling collection of publicly-owned art on loan from the National
Galleries of Scotland.

There are Scottish masterpieces by Sir Henry Raeburn and Sir David Wilkie amongst many of local interest such as Sam Bough’s Berwick upon Tweed and the Rev John Thomson’s Fast Castle. Surrounding the house are 800 acres of wood and parkland, an adventure playground and picnic areas within the grounds.

With a mile long stretch of the River Tweed to walk beside, there is something to preoccupy visitors of all ages.

CONTACT
Open daily, April to October.
Shop and Tea Room:
10.00am to 5.00pm
House: 11.00am to 5.00pm last tour 4.15pm.
Garden: 10.00am to sunset.
Booking for parties of twelve or more is advisable.
Paxton House, The Paxton
House Trust, Paxton House,
Near Duns, Berwickshire,
Scotland, UK

Tel: +44(0) 1289 386291
Fax: +44 (0)1289 386660
Web Site: www.paxtonhouse.com.

Email: Director: john@paxtonhouse.com
Access Officer: patricia@paxtonhouse.com
Administration: helen@paxtonhouse.com
General: info@paxtonhouse.com