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This enlightening, lavishly illustrated architectural and historical tour explores the unique flavor of Scotland’s great houses. Written from a perspective that is at once personal and scholarly, this unique book examines Scotland’s distinctive country-house architecture. Illustrated with more than 200 photographs, drawings and plans, the book guides the reader through the singular features of Scottish noble homes: the stately setting, the balanced facade, the formal appointments and fashionable furnishings, explaining how each was achieved. Architectural historian Charles Wemyss investigates the aspirations of the Scottish nobility and explores the underlying reasons for such a multitude of castles: Scotland’s close cultural relationship with France and northern Europe, the military origins of the nobility and the vital role of the Scottish Treasury. The book also profiles the country’s leading architects: William Bruce, James Smith, William Adam and his celebrated sons, John, Robert, and James. Utterly engaging as well as informative, this book brings a fresh dimension to the study of Scotland’s country houses, placing their achievement in the context of the country’s economic, political, and social history.
A unique and fascinating look at Victorian society through the remarkable lives of an enlightened and philanthropic aristocratic couple, the Marquess and Marchioness of Aberdeen, who tried to change the world for the better but paid a heavy price. This is a true tale of love and loss, fortune and misfortune. In the late 19th century, John and Ishbel Gordon, the Marquess and Marchioness of Aberdeen, were the couple who seemed to have it all: a fortune that ran into the tens of millions, a magnificent stately home in Scotland surrounded by one of Europe’s largest estates, a townhouse in London’s most fashionable square, cattle ranches in Texas and British Columbia, and the governorships of Ireland and Canada where they lived like royalty. Together they won praise for their work as social reformers and pioneers of women’s rights, and enjoyed friendships with many of the most prominent figures of the age, from Britain’s Prime Ministers to Oliver Wendell-Holmes and P.T. Barnum and Queen Victoria herself. Yet by the time they died in the 1930s, this gilded couple’s luck had long since run out: they had faced family tragedies, scandal through their unwitting involvement in one of the “crimes of the century” and, most catastrophically of all, they had lost both their fortune and their lands. This fascinating family quest for the reason for their dramatic downfall is also a moving and colorful exploration of society in Victorian Britain and North America and an inspirational feast for history lovers.
26 houses photographed in colour and accompanied by informative text about their history.
Even in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was conventional for humanist writers and their Enlightenment successors to regard the nobility which dominated early modern Scottish society and politics as violent, unlearned, and backward - at best conservatively bound to feudal codes of behaviour; at worst, brutal, corrupt and anarchic. It is a view that prevails still. Keith Brown takes issue with this.The author draws on extensive research in the rich archives of the Scottish noble houses to demonstrate that the conventional view of the Scottish nobility is wrong. He shows that the nobility were as steeped in contemporary European debates and movements as they were rooted in local society. Far from holding back Scotland's economic and cultural development, they embraced economic change, seized financial opportunities, led the way in the pursuit of Renaissance ideals through their own learning and in the education of their children, and were partners in religious reform. Professor Brown makes extensive comparisons with the noble societies elsewhere in Europe to reveal how the differences and above all the similarities between the lives of Scottish nobles and their peers abroad.Elegantly written and illustrated with a wealth of contemporary incident and anecdote, the book presents an intimate and vivid picture of noble life in Scotland. It challenges and will change perceptions of early modern Scotland. Noble Society in Scotland is the first of two related books on the subject. The second, on noble power and the relations between the nobility, state and monarchy, will be published by EUP in 2003.
Robert de Bruce, scion of one of the most noble houses in Scotland, is propelled into rebellion by the "Hammer of the Scots." Edward Plantagenet, king of England, who uses Scotland's inherently unstable clan system to seize power and claim the disunited country as his own.
Analyses the relations between nobility, crown and state, first in Scotland and then in the first courts of the unified kingdoms.