Leslie House

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Leslie House

Leslie House is a country house in the village of Leslie in the Scottish county of Fife . It is considered to be the first and largest house in Fife from the time of Charles II of England . Historic Scotland has listed a number of buildings on the property as Historic Buildings. Sir Robert Spencer Nairn bought the house in 1919 and bequeathed it to the Church of Scotland in 1952 . In 2009 the building was seriously damaged in a fire.

history

John Leslie, 1st Duke of Rothes , had Leslie House built from 1667 to 1674; it became the seat of the Rothes family . The house, known as "Villa De Rothes", was the center of village life and could once be compared in size and splendor to Holyrood Palace . William Bruce designed the extension, which was built in 1667. The north, east and south wings were destroyed in a fire in 1763. Only the west wing remained and was restored from 1745 to 1747. From 1904 to 1919 Noël Leslie, Countess of Rothes , a well-known philanthropist who became famous as the heroine of the Titanic disaster in 1912, lived in the house. During the First World War , Lady Rothes had a wing of Leslie House converted into a hospital for wounded soldiers who had become disabled at the front. Leslie House was again seriously damaged by fire in February 2009. There are proposals for renovation and conversion into 17 luxury apartments but the property is currently listed on the Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland .

Architecture and furnishings

Historical sketch of Leslie House by John Claude Nattes (1804)
John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale, and his wife, Elizabeth Murry, Duchess of Lauderdale

The architecture of the house was described by Leighton in 1840 :

“It was originally a four-sided building that included an extensive courtyard, but three sides burned down in December 1763. The fourth side was repaired and forms the current house. The picture gallery in this part of the building, which has portraits of people related to the family, is three feet longer than the one in Holyroodhouse. "

Among the paintings in Leslie House mentioned by Leighton in the mid-19th century “were those of the 5th Earl and his Comtess (of Jamieson ), the Duke and the Duchess of Rothes, the revered Duke of Lauderdale and his Duchess, the Princess of Modena , General John, Earl of Rothes, (by Joshua Reynolds ), Archbishop Tillotson, and a portrait by Rembrandt (by himself). ”A large number of family portraits were also mentioned.

Various pictorial works were found in the house , e.g. B. the story of Leander, the story of the journey of the children of Israel through the wilderness and the anointing of Saul. In the middle of the 19th century, the relics in the house included B. the dagger with its scabbard, which was used by Norman Leslie in the murder of Cardinal Béthune , and the state sword, which the Duke of Rothes wore at the coronation of Charles II of England in Scone .

park

Painting of Leslie House and Estate

Blackwood noted in 1836:

“The park at Leslie House is very beautiful. The species that thrive best appear to be the ash , elm , beech , oak, and silver fir . The larches don't grow that well (...) The avenue of beeches at Leslie House is remarkable: the trees are around 200 years old, many of them are 4.6 meters in diameter at 1.2 meters above the ground. "

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Leslie House with Conservatory, Garden and Walls, Leslie . In: Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland . Retrieved November 7, 2017.
  2. ^ A b c Raymond Lamont-Brown: Fife in History and Legend . Birlinn Publishing, Edinburgh 2002. pp. 157-158.
  3. ↑ a b c Keith Ferguson: A History of Glenrothes . Glenrothes Development Corporation, 1982. p. 17.
  4. ^ Charles Wemyss: Merchant and Citizen of Rotterdam: The Early Career of Sir William Bruce in Architectural Heritage . Issue XVI (2005).
  5. ↑ Randy Bryan Bigham: A Matter of Course: The Story of Noelle Rothes, Titanic's "Plucky Little Countess" . In: Encyclopedia Titanica . Retrieved November 7, 2017.
  6. ^ A b History of the County of Fife: From the Earliest Period to the Present . William Blackwood & Sons. S. 188, 1836. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  7. ^ A b William Blackwood: The New Statistical Account of Scotland . William Blackwood & Sons. P. 114, 1836. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  8. ^ William Blackwood: The New Statistical Account of Scotland . William Blackwood & Sons. 113, 1836. Retrieved November 8, 2017.

Web links

Commons : Leslie House  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 56 ° 12 ′ 11.9 "  N , 3 ° 11 ′ 41.6"  W.