Penicuik House
Penicuik House survives as the shell of a grand estate house in Penicuik, Scotland. The 18th-century palladian mansion was built on the site of an earlier house by Sir James Clerk, 3rd Baronet, it was destroyed by fire in 1899 and a major restoration was completed in 2014 by G Brown Stonemasons. Old Penicuik House and New Penicuik House are both designated Category A listed buildings by Historic Environment Scotland, it was John Clerk of Pennycuik who, returning to Scotland from France in 1646, purchased the estate and barony of Penicuik, the Penicuik Policies. The estate became the title of his descendants. Penicuik House was built in 1761 by the 4th Laird of Penicuik and 3rd Baronet. Clerk had travelled especially in Italy, had studied Italian architecture. Now a roofless shell, it is constructed of ashlar, it has a central hexastyle portico with two-way stair, piano nobile and Palladian windows; the interior was gutted by fire in 1899, but had many fine rooms. The house was a great meeting point for figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, who came to view its collection of paintings, including a noted ceiling painting of Ossian's Hall, by Alexander Runciman.
The deliberate destruction of Arthur's O'on so appalled Sir James Clerk, that in 1760 he decided to have a dovecote built, as an exact replica of the temple, on his stable block at Penicuik House. Clerk baronets Alexander Gordon List of Category A listed buildings in Midlothian List of country and estate houses in Scotland List of listed buildings in Penicuik, Midlothian Official website
Stockbridge, Edinburgh
Stockbridge is a suburb of Edinburgh, located towards the north of the city centre, bounded by the New Town and by Comely Bank. The name is Scots stock brig from Anglic stocc brycg. A small outlying village, it was incorporated into the City of Edinburgh in the 19th century; the current "Stock Bridge", built in 1801, is a stone structure spanning the Water of Leith. The painter Henry Raeburn owned two adjoining estates, Deanhaugh and St Bernard's, which he developed with the assistance of the architect James Milne. Milne was responsible for the fine St Bernard's Church in Saxe Coburg Street. Ann Street, designed by Raeburn and named after his wife, is a rare early example of a New Town street with private front gardens; the eastern route into Stockbridge is marked by St Stephen's Church. This stands at the north end of St Vincent Street, its tower visible from the first New Town on the higher slope to the south. Intended to stand in the centre of Circus Place, it was redesigned and squeezed into its current restricted site on ground which falls at the southern edge of the Silvermills area.
It was designed by the architect William Playfair in 1827. It is unusual for its main church being raised by a storey, accessed by a tall but narrow flight of steps at its frontage, its clock pendulum is the longest in Europe. The church stands at the eastern end of St Stephen Street, a curving Georgian street of inhabited basement flats with ground floors accommodating a series of antique shops and offices. A small spur on its north side, St Stephen Place, leads to the old Stockbridge Market, of which the original entrance archway still stands. Parallel to St Stephen Street, to the south, lies Circus Lane, a mews lane, integrating both old and new buildings; the main road through Stockbridge is Raeburn Place, a street of mixed character, with numerous small shops at ground-floor level. The link from this street to the New Town is via North West Circus Place. Saunders Street, south of the bridge, was built in 1974 as part of a "slum clearance" programme; the medical centre to its east is part of the same scheme.
Gloucester Lane marks the line of the medieval road from the village to St Cuthbert's Church at the west end of Princes Street. One building close to the Stockbridge end, predates the New Town, it is a merchant's house built about 1790 from the stones of demolished buildings in the Old Town and was the birthplace of the painter David Roberts, who worked as a scene painter at Edinburgh's Theatre Royal and London's Covent Garden. Leslie Place, dating from the late Victorian period, joins the village to the western sections of the New Town: St Bernards Crescent. To the north of this is a less formal area of narrower streets: Dean Street; the north-eastern route out of the area, towards Leith, runs along Hamilton Place. Dean Bank spurs off this road, running alongside the Water of Leith. Hamilton Place holds both primary school. Saxe Coburg Street, a small Georgian cul-de-sac just to the north, leads to the small and bow-ended square of Saxe Coburg Place; this formal space was never completed due to ground level problems and Glenogle Baths were instead built on the corner of the square.
To the north, St Bernard's Row leads out past another little Georgian cul-de-sac, Malta Terrace, to Inverleith and the Botanic Gardens. Between Glenogle Road and the Water of Leith are eleven parallel streets, collectively known as the "Stockbridge Colonies", built between 1861 and 1911 by the Edinburgh Co-operative Building Company to provide low-cost housing for the artisan class; the streets are named including geologist and writer Hugh Miller. The colony houses are now coveted properties, due to their location near the Royal Botanic Gardens and Inverleith Park, ease of access to the city centre; this mineral water well is on the south bank of the Water of Leith, on an estate once known as St Bernard's. Just below a footpath is St Bernard's Well; the waters of the well were held in high repute for their medicinal qualities, the nobility and gentry took summer quarters in the valley to drink deep draughts of the water and take the country air. In 1788 Lord Gardenstone, a wealthy Court of Session law lord, who thought he had benefited from the mineral spring, commissioned Alexander Nasmyth to design a new pump room and ornate structure over.
The builder John Wilson began work in 1789. It is in the shape of a circular Greek temple supported by ten tall Doric order columns, based on Sibyl's Temple at Tivoli. In 1884 the lands were purchased by the edinburgh publisher William Nelson, who commissioned the current statue of Hygieia from David Watson Stevenson and presented the improved well to the city as a landmark. St Bernard's F. C. a once successful Scottish team but now defunct were named after the famous well and played in Stockbridge. The mosaic interior is by Thomas Bonnar; the superiority of much of the St Bernard's estate was purchased in the 1790s by Sir Henry Raeburn, who immediately began selling it off by feu charters, although he continued to live in St. Bernard's House until his death in 1823.. In the opening years of the 19th century George Lauder of Inverleith Mains acquired parts of these lands as evidenced by a charter whereby "Henry Raeburn, as retoured heir to Sir Henry Raeburn, Portrait Painter, his father, was seised on the 19 March 1824 in a p
George Heriot's School
George Heriot's School is a Scottish independent primary and secondary school on Lauriston Place in the Old Town of Edinburgh, with over 1600 pupils, 155 teaching staff and 80 non-teaching staff. It was established in 1628 as George Heriot's Hospital, by bequest of the royal goldsmith George Heriot, opened in 1659, it is governed by a Scottish charity. The main building of the school is notable for its renaissance architecture, the work of William Wallace, until his death in 1631, he was succeeded as master mason by William Aytoun, succeeded in turn by John Mylne. In 1676, Sir William Bruce drew up plans for the completion of Heriot's Hospital, his design, for the central tower of the north façade, was executed in 1693. The school is a turreted building surrounding a large quadrangle, built out of sandstone; the foundation stone is inscribed with the date 1628. The intricate decoration above each window is unique. A statue of the founder can be found in a niche on the north side of the quadrangle.
The main building was the first large building to be constructed outside the Edinburgh city walls. It sits next to Greyfriars Kirk, built in 1620, in open grounds overlooked by Edinburgh Castle directly to the north. Parts of the seventeenth-century city wall serve as the walls of the school grounds; when built the building's front facade faced the entrance on the Grassmarket. It was the only facade fronted in fine ashlar stone, the others being harled rubble, but in 1833 the three rubble facades were refaced in Craigleith ashlar stone; this was done. The refacing work was handled by Alexander Black the Superintendent of Works for the school, who designed the first Heriot's free schools around the city; the north gatehouse onto Lauriston Place is by William Henry Playfair and dates from 1829. The chapel interior is by James Gillespie Graham, to have been assisted by Augustus Pugin; the school hall was designed by Donald Gow in 1893 and boasts a hammerbeam roof above the mezzanine floor. The chemistry block to the west of the site was designed by John Anderson in 1911.
The science block is by John Chesser and dates from 1887 incorporating part of the former primary school of 1838 by Alexander Black. The grounds contain a selection of other buildings of varying age. On his death in 1624, George Heriot left around 25,000 Pound Scots – equivalent to several tens of millions today – to found a "hospital" to care for the "puir, faitherless bairns" of Edinburgh; the construction of Heriot's Hospital was begun in 1628, just outside the city walls of Edinburgh. It was completed just in time to be occupied by Oliver Cromwell's English forces during the invasion of Scotland during the Third English Civil War; the hospital opened with thirty sickly children in residence. By the end of the 18th century, the Governors of the George Heriot's Trust had purchased the Barony of Broughton, thus acquiring extensive land for feuing on the northern slope below James Craig's Georgian New Town; this and other land purchases beyond the original city boundary generated considerable revenue for the Trust long after his death.
In 1837 the school founded ten "free schools" in Edinburgh, educating several thousand pupils across the city. One of them, with a copy of several of the features of the original Lauriston Place building, is at the east end of the Cowgate. In the 1880s, it began to charge fees. In 1846 there was an insurrection in the hospital and fifty-two boys were dismissed. In 1979 it became co-educational with the arrival of the first girls, now has around 1600 pupils. Today, the school is Edinburgh's best performing school by Higher exam results with leavers attending the country's most selective and prestigious universities including St Andrews and Edinburgh in Scotland and Oxford, Cambridge and King's College London in England; the school provided funds for the establishment of an institution which merged with the Watt Institution in the 1870s to form Heriot-Watt College, a technical college that became Heriot-Watt University in 1966. Chronological list of the headmasters of the school, the year given being the one in which they took office.
Thereafter, the title of Headmaster was changed to that of Principal. 2014 Gareth Doodes 2014 Cameron Wyllie 2014 Cameron Wyllie 2018 Mrs Lesley Franklin James Craik Classics Master c.1822 to c.1832 John Watt Butters Maths Master 1888 to 1899 James Stagg, Science Master 1921 to 1923 Pupils at the school belong to one of four houses: Lauriston Greyfriars Raeburn Castle (blue, after E
Mortonhall
Mortonhall is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland, on the south edge of the city. The area is along the western end of the Frogston Road between Gilmerton; the area was the estate of Mortonhall House, a fine country mansion house of 1769, with an exceptional interior It is thought to be designed by the Edinburgh architect, John Baxter, with interior work added by Thomas Bonnar. The main house has been converted into flats; the stable range dates from around 1780 and is particularly fine, including an intact cobbled courtyard. The immediate grounds of the Hall contain a garden centre. To the north, the land has been developed as Mortonhall Golf Club; the land to the south, on the far side of Frogston Road, is farmland. Some half a mile to the west, on Frogston Road lies the Dower House to Mortonhall; this is smaller and less ornate but still impressive, sitting in a small group of historic properties all connected to the estate. Being built in 1702, it predates the current Mortonhall House; this is because the current main house replaced an earlier house marked on early maps from the 17th century.
The area is best known for the Mortonhall Crematorium, designed by Sir Basil Spence, considered to be an outstanding example of Scottish modern architecture. It is based on the same design as his work at Coventry Cathedral; the crematorium opened in 1967. It has a lush woodland setting, acts as a local park; the land to the north-west acts as a Garden of Remembrance. The large expanse of open ground to the west acts as a Cemetery, but owing to a policy of all stones having to be laid flat, it has a rather sterile appearance; the Mortonhall scabbard was recovered nearby. This scabbard is from a sword dating to the first century AD from around the time of the first Roman invasion of Scotland; the land of Morton and of Mortonhall, part of the Moor of Pentland, was granted to Sir Henry St Clair of Rosslyn in 1317 by Robert I. In 1630, Morton came into the ownership of one William Rigg, whose son sold it to the Porterfield family of Comiston, they built a modern house on the land, Mortonhall House, in 1769, improved in 1835
London
London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans; the City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of the London Assembly. London is considered to be one of the world's most important global cities and has been termed the world's most powerful, most desirable, most influential, most visited, most expensive, sustainable, most investment friendly, most popular for work, the most vegetarian friendly city in the world. London exerts a considerable impact upon the arts, education, fashion, healthcare, professional services and development, tourism and transportation.
London ranks 26 out of 300 major cities for economic performance. It is one of the largest financial centres and has either the fifth or sixth largest metropolitan area GDP, it is the most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the busiest city airport system as measured by passenger traffic. It is the leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. London's universities form the largest concentration of higher education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted three modern Summer Olympic Games. London has a diverse range of people and cultures, more than 300 languages are spoken in the region, its estimated mid-2016 municipal population was 8,787,892, the most populous of any city in the European Union and accounting for 13.4% of the UK population. London's urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census.
The population within the London commuter belt is the most populous in the EU with 14,040,163 inhabitants in 2016. London was the world's most populous city from c. 1831 to 1925. London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London. Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and The Shard. London has numerous museums, galleries and sporting events; these include the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library and West End theatres. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world. "London" is an ancient name, attested in the first century AD in the Latinised form Londinium. Over the years, the name has attracted many mythicising explanations; the earliest attested appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written around 1136. This had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had taken over the city and named it Kaerlud.
Modern scientific analyses of the name must account for the origins of the different forms found in early sources Latin, Old English, Welsh, with reference to the known developments over time of sounds in those different languages. It is agreed; this was adapted into Latin as Londinium and borrowed into Old English, the ancestor-language of English. The toponymy of the Common Brythonic form is much debated. A prominent explanation was Richard Coates's 1998 argument that the name derived from pre-Celtic Old European *lowonida, meaning "river too wide to ford". Coates suggested that this was a name given to the part of the River Thames which flows through London. However, most work has accepted a Celtic origin for the name, recent studies have favoured an explanation along the lines of a Celtic derivative of a proto-Indo-European root *lendh-, combined with the Celtic suffix *-injo- or *-onjo-. Peter Schrijver has suggested, on these grounds, that the name meant'place that floods'; until 1889, the name "London" applied to the City of London, but since it has referred to the County of London and Greater London.
"London" is sometimes written informally as "LDN". In 1993, the remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found on the south foreshore, upstream of Vauxhall Bridge; this bridge either reached a now lost island in it. Two of those timbers were radiocarbon dated to between 1750 BC and 1285 BC. In 2010 the foundations of a large timber structure, dated to between 4800 BC and 4500 BC, were found on the Thames's south foreshore, downstream of Vauxhall Bridge; the function of the mesolithic structure is not known. Both structures are on the south bank. Although there is evidence of scattered Brythonic settlements in the area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans about four years after the invasion
Leith
Leith is an area to the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, at the mouth of the Water of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of Holyrood Abbey in 1128; the medieval settlements of Leith had grown into a burgh by 1833, the burgh was merged into Edinburgh in 1920. Part of the county of Midlothian, Leith is sited on the coast of the Firth of Forth and lies within the council area of the City of Edinburgh; the port remains one of its most valuable enterprises, handling over 1.5 million tonnes of cargo in 2003. Previous to the bridge being built in the late 15th century, Leith had settlements on either side of the river, lacking an easy crossing. South Leith was larger and was controlled by the lairds of Restalrig: the Logan family, it had many merchants' houses and warehouses. This was where ships offloaded their cargoes at The Shore where they were collected by Edinburgh merchants. Leithers were explicitly forbidden by statute to participate directly in the trade at the port, to ensure that landed goods were not sold elsewhere.
North Leith was proportionately richer, coming under the jurisdiction of Holyrood Abbey. It was a fishing village consisting of one street, now Sandport Street and Quayside Lane. Burgage plots ran down to the river from each house; this has traditionally been the shipbuilding side of Leith with several wet and dry docks built over time. The first dry dock in Scotland was built here in 1720. A small peninsula of land on the east bank came under the same jurisdiction on what is now Sheriff Brae/Sheriff Bank; the first bridge to link both banks of the river was built in 1493 by Abbot Bellenden, who controlled the church at North Leith. The bridge was the revenue supplementing the church's income. Reputedly Leith's oldest building, it was demolished in 1780 to allow ships to sail further upstream; the earliest evidence of settlement in Leith comes from several archaeological digs undertaken in the Shore area in the late 20th century. Amongst the finds were medieval wharf edges from the 12th century.
This date fits with the earliest documentary evidence of settlement in Leith - the foundation charter of Holyrood Abbey. Leith has played a prominent role in Scottish history; as the major port serving Edinburgh, it has been the stage on which many significant events in Scottish history have taken place. Mary of Guise ruled Scotland from Leith in 1560 as Regent while her daughter, Queen of Scots remained in France. Mary of Guise moved the Scottish Court to Leith, to a site, now Parliament Street, off Coalhill. According to the 18th-century historian William Maitland, her palace was situated on Rotten Row, now Water Street. Artifacts from the demolished residence are held by the National Museum of Scotland, her sculptured coat of arms, dated 1560, can be seen in South Leith Parish Church; when the large French garrison stationed in Leith was attacked by Scottish Protestant lords, reinforced by troops and artillery sent from England, Mary of Guise was forced to shut herself in Edinburgh Castle.
In June 1560, Mary of Guise died, the Siege of Leith ended with the departure of the French troops in accordance with the Treaty of Leith known as the Treaty of Edinburgh. Two mounds on Leith Links, known as "Giant's Brae" and "Lady Fyfe's Brae", identified as Somerset's Battery and Pelham's Battery are believed to be artillery mounds created for the siege in April 1560 and are listed as scheduled monuments. Stuart Harris was of the opinion, based on the contemporary Petworth map, that Pelham's Battery was built on the slope to the south of Leith Links and Somerset's Battery was located adjacent to the present Pilrig House, he notes that the "tradition" that these batteries were situated on Leith Links is spurious, going no further back than Campbell's "History of Leith" 1827. Lent authority by the Ordnance Survey map of 1852, this attribution saved the mounds when several other hillocks on the links were removed in the 1880s; the best documented day of the siege was 7 May 1560, when the English and Scots charged the walls of Leith with ladders that turned out to be too short.
John Knox records the delight of Mary of Guise at the failure of the attack, English sources report 1000 casualties. Late in 1561, Queen of Scots, arrived in Leith and, finding no welcoming party to receive her, made a brief stop at the "house of Andro Lamb... beit the space of ane hour", before being collected and escorted by coach to Holyrood Palace, to begin her ill-fated six-year-long reign. The Protestant reformer, John Knox, explained the lack of preparation thus. A century Leith was a prospective battleground when the Army of the Covenant, led by General David Leslie, threw up an earthen rampart between Calton Hill and Leith to defend the northern approach to Edinburgh against Oliver Cromwell's forces; this rampart became the line of one of Edinburgh's longest streets, Leith Walk. After Cromwell's victory at the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 and subsequent occupation of Scotland, a fort known as Leith Citadel was erected in 1656
Newbattle Abbey
Newbattle Abbey was a Cistercian monastery near the village of Newbattle in Midlothian, which subsequently become a stately home and an educational institution. It was founded in 1140 by monks from Melrose Abbey; the patron was King David I of Scotland. Its church was dedicated in 1234; the abbey was burned by English royal forces in 1385 and once more in 1544. It became a secular lordship for the last commendator, Mark Kerr in 1587. Newbattle Abbey was a filiation of Melrose Abbey and was situated, according to Cistercian usages, in a beautiful valley along the River South Esk. Rudolph, its first abbot, a strict and severe observer of the rule, devoted himself energetically to the erection of proper buildings; the church, cruciform in shape, was 240 feet in length, the other buildings in proportion. The abbey soon became prosperous and famous for the regularity of its members, several of whom became well-known bishops, it was dear to the kings of Scotland, scarcely one of whom failed to visit it from time-to-time, they were always its generous benefactors.
One of the principal sources of income was the coal mines in its possession, for these monks were among the first, if not the first, coal miners in Scotland. The earliest mention of coal in Scotland is to be found in a charter of an Earl of Winchester, granting to them a coal mine. In 1526 King James V granted them a petition to build a harbour at Morrison's Haven, it is from this date that Aitchison's Haven Lodge was established as a stonemason's lodge. In 1531, the Abbot of Newbattle agreed with the Abbot of Dunfermline to work his coalmine at Prestongrange so that it would drain water from the neighbouring mines to the sea. Newbattle suffered much from English incursions at various times in 1385 when the monastery and church were burned, the religious either carried away or forced to flee to other monasteries. A part of the monastery was again destroyed by the Earl of Hertford, but the destruction seems to have been chiefly confined to the church. At the time of the Reformation but few of the monks remained, these were pensioned by the commendator, Mark Kerr.
Kerr was able to retain the lands around the abbey. His son Mark, became Lord Newbattle in 1596 and Earl of Lothian in 1606; the monastery site, including burial grounds, traces of the chapel and cloisters and some associated buildings, is now a designated scheduled monument. Part of the abbey was converted into a house; the house incorporates part of the south end of the monastic range, with the dorter undercroft intact. The house was modified and rebuilt successively by John Mylne in 1650, William Burn in 1836 and David Bryce in 1858; the drawing room represents one of Scotland's greatest rooms, decorated by Thomas Bonnar around 1870. The 19th century chapel was created in a vaulted undercroft that may date from the original abbey buildings; the chapel includes a 16th-century font and a fine parquet floor, made using wood from the estate, in the style of original tile-work. The library features a 17th-century moulded ceiling; the garden to the rear of the house includes a pair of large octagonal 17th century sundials.
The main abbey remains lie buried to the north of the original house. King George IV visited during his Scottish tour of 1822 and the King's Gate was built in his honour. Newbattle Abbey remained the home of the Marquesses of Lothian until being given to the nation in 1937 by Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian, to be used as a College of Education; the College was established under trustees from the four ancient Scottish Universities for adults returning to education. New residential building was added in the 1960s and funding came through the Scottish Education Department. In 1987 the Secretary of State for Scotland announced the intention to withdraw funding, threatening the college with closure. However, new forms of financial support have enabled the college to survive. Marie de Coucy Abbot of Newbattle, for a list of abbots and commendators Scheduled monuments in Midlothian Registrum S. Mariae de Neubotle, Bannatyne Club Newbattle Abbey charters 1140-1528, & rentals. Cowan, Ian B. & Easson, David E.
Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland With an Appendix on the Houses in the Isle of Man, Second Edition, p. 77 Herbermann, Charles, ed.. "Newbattle". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Newbattle Abbey College website This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed.. "Newbattle". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton
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