Grand Masters of Scotland - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic ...

Edinburgh artist John Ainslie was commissioned by the 4th Duke to paint a series of portraits of his
household staff at Bowhill. The series included a celebrated portrait of his French chef [1817], Joseph
Florance, which was exhibited at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
http://www.boughtonhouse.org.uk/htm/others/houses.htm
BOWHILL, Selkirk
Originally the seat of the Douglas family, it later became the home of the
Scotts and was then reunited with the Douglases. The present house dates
from [the 4th Duke in] 1812 and was built to the designs of William Atkinson
(1773 - 1839), William Burn (1789 - 1870) and David Bryce (1803 - 76).
Bowhill is the centre of an estate covering some 46,000 acres (including nonadjoining
areas such as the Eildon Hills, East Buccleuch and Eckford). The
House itself lies approximately one mile above the confluence of the Ettrick
and Yarrow Rivers, two of the tributaries of the River Tweed. It stands in
beautiful scenery, surrounded by mixed woodland and farmland - "the Scott
properties".
The ancient Ettrick forest which embraced the Bowhill Estate of today, was for hundreds of years, a favourite hunting ground for the
Kings of Scotland. Newark Castle, some one mile north of Bowhill, was used as a hunting lodge. The present house dates mainly
from 1812, with no visible trace of the original building of 1708. There were many additions to the house during the 19th century and
it gradually became the base of the Scott family in preference to Dalkeith. The grounds around the House were extensively
landscaped during the early to late 19th century. This included the creation of two lochs. In terms of enterprise and income, the
three main sectors at Bowhill are farming (including in-hand and tenanted farms), forestry and game. In hand farms cover
approximately 15% of the Estate. Tenant farms cover 75% and forestry covers 9%.
Built in the early 18th C., Bowhill underwent two major face-lifts; firstly into a classical villa at the hands of William Atkinson, who
was the architect at Sir Walter Scott's Abbotsford, and later by William Burn (1789 - 1870). Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), who
was a close friend and remote relation of the 4th Duke of Buccleuch, gifted the original manuscript of his book The Lay which can
be found in the study at Bowhill.
The estate had been owned by the Scotts since the 12th C. However, it briefly passed to the Murray family in 1690, who built the
original house, but was bought back by [Francis Scott] 2nd Duke of Buccleuch [GM Premier GL 1723] in 1745. The 4th Duke
added substantially to the house from 1812, asking architect William Atkinson initially to build on to the south aspect, but then add
new flanking wings (1819). The 5th Duke commissioned William Burn to further remodel and extend the house (1831) and indeed
Burn continued to tinker with the house until his death. The result was an extensive if somewhat rambling house with an enormous
133m (437 feet) frontage.
The house includes a fine collection of French furniture, porcelain (including Meissen and Sevres) and portraiture by Reynolds,
Gainsborough, Van Dyck, Raeburn and Lely. One room includes memorabilia relating to the Duke of Monmouth, the son of King
Charles II, who married the Duchess of Buccleuch but was executed in 1685. The furnishings and art have been enhanced by items
drawn from the Buccleuch's former homes of Dalkeith Palace and Montagu House (London) which have been put to other uses.
Notably 'General Monk's Bed' has come from Dalkeith.
Sir Henry Raeburn's 1823 Portraits of Sir Walter Scott
http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/portraits/paintings/raeburn1823.html
In 1819, Charles Montagu-Scott, 4th Duke of Buccleuch, asked Scott to sit to Raeburn for a portrait destined to hang in the library
of the Buccleuch family home of Bowhill. Scott replied:
Respecting the portrait I shall be equally proud and happy to sit for it & hope it may be executed in some degree worthy of the
preferment to which it is destined. But neither my late golden hue for I was coverd with jaundice nor my present silver complection
looking much more like a spectre than a man will present any idea of my quondam beef-eating physiognomy. I must wait till the age
of brass the true juridical bronze of my profession shall again appear on my frontal. I hesitate a little about Raeburn unless your
Grace is quite determined. He has very much to do works just now chiefly for cash poor fellow as he can have but a few years to
make money and has twice made a very chowderheaded [i.e. clumsy- or thick-headed] person of me. I should like much (always
with your approbation) to try [Sir William] Allan who is a man of real genius and has made one or two glorious portraits though his
predilection is to the historical branch of the art. (15 April 1819, Letters, V, 349)
Scott's reservations relate to the stolid appearance that he believed Raeburn had given him in his portraits of 1808 and 1809. His
letter, however, did not reach the Duke who died on 20 April 1819. In 1823, the Duke's brother [Henry James, 1776-1845] Lord
Montagu of Boughton [2nd Baron] asked Scott to fulfil the engagement. Scott undertook to make arrangements with Raeburn but,
before he could do so, was himself contacted by Raeburn who wished to paint the writer for his private gallery of friends and
associates. It was agreed that Scott would sit for two portraits simultaneously, one for Lord Montagu, the other for Raeburn in
exchange for a series of carvings from the ancient Mercat Cross of Edinburgh then to be found in the painter's gothic rockery. There
is no evidence as to when the pictures were begun, but Maria Edgeworth reported both to be in a relatively advanced stage on 12
June 1823 when she and her sisters visited Raeburn studio. Two hours after this visit Scott and Raeburn set out together for the
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