Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 28 on 20/09/2006.

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A beautifully preserved family seat

Charles Douglas travels to Mellerstain, near Kelso, home to the Earl of Haddington

It is widely acknowledged that the library at Mellerstain House, at Gordon in Roxburghshire, is the finest surviving example of the work of that great Scottish architect Robert Adam.

It contains one of the best of his decorated ceilings in the original colours from the 18th century – mauves, greens and terracottas.

Mellerstain House is the home of the 13th Earl of Haddington and his family, the estate having been acquired in 1642 by his ancestor George Baillie of Jerviswood, the son of a flourishing merchant.

Through marriage, the property then passed to two earls of Haddington who in 1725 employed first William Adam to build the two wings, then his son Robert Adam, to design the central block and subsequently supervise the magnificent interior decoration.

The heroine of Mellerstain has to be Grisell Hume, daughter of Sir Patrick Hume, later Earl of Marchmont. Aged 12, she was called upon to visit her father’s friend and fellow Covenanter, George Baillie, who had been imprisoned in the Tolbooth accused of treason. With her, the little girl carried a letter from her father which would have caused outrage had it been discovered.

For their Covenanting sympathies, the Humes were exiled from Scotland to Holland, where Grisell, somewhat older, was courted by George’s son, another George, penniless after his father’s execution in 1684. But when Prince William of Orange acquired the British throne in 1689, the situation changed overnight.

Large numbers of confiscated estates we.....

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By Charles Douglas

Section : Historic Houses

Page number : 16