Arniston House is a

historic house A historic house generally meets several criteria before being listed by an official body as "historic." Generally the building is at least a certain age, depending on the rules for the individual list. A second factor is that the building be i ...

Midlothian Midlothian (; ) is registration county, lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh council ar ...

, Scotland, near the village of

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

. This Georgian mansion was designed by William Adam in 1726 for

Robert Dundas, of Arniston, the elder Robert Dundas of Arniston, the elder, 2nd Lord Arniston (1685–1753) was a Scottish lawyer, and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1722 to 1737. In 1728 he reintroduced into Scottish juries the possible verdicts of ''guilty' ...

, the

Lord President of the Court of Session The Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General () is the most senior judge in Scotland, the head of the judiciary, and the presiding judge of the College of Justice, the Court of Session, and the High Court of Justiciary. ...

. The western third of the house was added by John Adam, son of William and brother of

Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (architect), William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and train ...

, in 1753.McWilliam, pp.79–82

History

The Arniston Estate lands were a royal hunting park in the Middle Ages, and were later owned by the

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

, who gave the nearby village of Temple its name. The estate came into the Dundas family in 1571, when it was bought by George Dundas of

Dundas Castle Dundas Castle is a 15th-century castle, with substantial 19th-century additions by William Burn, in the Dalmeny parish of West Lothian, Scotland. The home of the Dundas family since the Middle Ages, it was sold in the late 19th century and is c ...

. He left the estate to a younger son, James, who built a house and a walled garden here around 1620. The estate was expanded, and improvements were made by James' grandson Robert Dundas (died 1726) in the late 17th century. His son Robert, later the Lord President, continued the improvements, and built the present house. Robert Dundas (1685–1753) was a lawyer and politician. He served as

Solicitor General for Scotland His Majesty's Solicitor General for Scotland () is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, and the deputy of the Lord Advocate, whose duty is to advise the Scottish Government on Scots Law. They are also responsible for the Crown Office and P ...

from 1717 to 1720 and as

Lord Advocate His Majesty's Advocate, known as the Lord Advocate (), is the principal legal adviser of both the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolution, devolved powers of the Scottish P ...

from 1720 to 1725. He was also a Member of Parliament from 1722 to 1737. In 1726, he commissioned the architect William Adam to design a new house at Arniston. Adam was then working on Sir John Clerk's nearby house at Mavisbank, but Arniston was to be a somewhat larger house. It was built over the foundations of the original 17th-century house, but Dundas ran out of money during the building works, which were only completed after 1753. By this time, William Adam was dead, and the design for the western part of the house was provided by his eldest son John Adam (1721–1792), for Robert Dundas' son

Robert Dundas, of Arniston, the younger Robert Dundas of Arniston, the younger, FRSE (18 July 1713 – 13 December 1787) was a Scottish judge. He served as Solicitor General for Scotland from 1742 to 1746, as Lord Advocate from 1754 to 1760, and as Member of Parliament for Edinburghsh ...

(1713–1787). In 1872, a new entrance hall was added to the north front by the architects Wardrop and Brown. The house is still occupied by members of the Dundas family who, in the summer months, open the house to the public and lead guided tours.

Architecture

The house is of three storeys over a basement. The entrance front of the house faces north, and comprises nine

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

. The central bays have a colossal order of Ionic columns, topped by a pediment, while the outer two bays at each end stand slightly forward. Pavilions, connected by diagonal corridors, flank a forecourt to the north, into which the 19th-century entrance hall projects. The south, garden front, is plainer, having a pediment but no columns. The

Royal coat of arms of Scotland The coat of arms of Scotland, colloquially called the Lion Rampant, is the coat of arms historically used as arms of dominion by the monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland, and later used within the coat of arms of Great Britain and the present co ...

in the pediment may have come from

Parliament House Parliament House may refer to: Meeting places of parliament Australia * Parliament House, Canberra, Parliament of Australia * Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament of South Australia * Parliament House, Brisbane, Parliament of Queensland * P ...

in Edinburgh, which was refaced at the beginning of the 19th century, around the same time that the porch and stair were added. Overall, the design of the house shows the influence of

James Gibbs James Gibbs (23 December 1682 – 5 August 1754) was a Scottish architect. Born in Aberdeen, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England. He is an important figure whose work spanned the transition between English Ba ...

, and particularly his Down Hall, Essex. The most significant interiors are William Adam's two-storey, galleried saloon, with decorative plasterwork by Joseph Enzer, and the

Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

dining room and drawing room, by the Adam brothers. There are family portraits by

Sir Henry Raeburn Sir Henry Raeburn (; 4 March 1756 – 8 July 1823) was a Scottish portrait painter. He served as Portrait Painter to King George IV in Scotland. Biography Raeburn was born the son of a manufacturer in Stockbridge, on the Water of Leith: a for ...

and

Allan Ramsay Allan Ramsay may refer to: *Allan Ramsay (poet) or Allan Ramsay the Elder (1686–1758), Scottish poet *Allan Ramsay (artist) Allan Ramsay (13 October 171310 August 1784) was a Scottish portrait Painting, painter. Life and career Ramsay w ...

Park

William Adam designed a semi-formal park around the house, building on the late-17th century formal landscape. This was gradually changed during the 18th century to a more informal layout. The landscape gardener Thomas White (1736–1811) planned a new park in 1791, in the informal style of

Capability Brown Lancelot "Capability" Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783) was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. Unlike other architects ...

, and planting continued into the 19th century. A 19th-century formal garden occupies the site of the 18th-century

wilderness Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plurale tantum, plural) are Earth, Earth's natural environments that have not been significantly modified by human impact on the environment, human activity, or any urbanization, nonurbanized land not u ...

References

* G.W.T Omond, ''The Arniston Memoirs: Three centuries of a Scottish house, 1571-1838, Edited from the family papers'', Edinburgh: D. Douglas, 1887. *''Country Life'' magazine, issue 19 June 2003 *Gow, Ian (1977) ''Scottish Houses and Gardens from the Archives of Country Life''. Aurum Press, London. *McWilliam, Colin (1978) ''Lothian, except Edinburgh''. The Buildings of Scotland. Penguin Books.

External links

Website of Arniston House
{{Authority control Country houses in Midlothian William Adam buildings Category A listed buildings in Midlothian Listed houses in Scotland Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes Gardens in Midlothian Historic house museums in Midlothian Houses completed in 1726 1726 establishments in Great Britain