History & Haunting Traquair House, ,Peebles, Scotland Is claimed to be the oldest continually inhabited house in Scotland While not strictly a castle, it is built in the style of a fortified mansion. It predates the Scottish Baronial style of architecture, and may have been one of the influences on this style. It contains a brewery which makes Jacobite Ale and House Ale. It is built on the site of a hunting seat used by the Scottish kings from the 12th century, though no part of the present building can be dated with certainty before the 15th century. Alexander I was the first Scottish king to stay and hunt at Traquair. At that time it was a remote castle, surrounded by forest. Upon Alexander IIIs death, in 1286, the peace of the Borders region was shattered and Traquair became a key link in the chain of defense that guarded the Tweed Valley against English invasion. Over the next two centuries, Traquairs ownership changed often, at times coming under the control of the English, and at others, the Scottish throne. In the 1460s, James III conferred the estate on Dr. William Rogers, an eminent musician, and one of his favourites. After holding the lands for upwards of nine years, Dr. Rogers sold them for an insignificant sum, in 1478, to the Earl of Buchan. The Earl gifted the estate to his illegitimate son, James Stuart (1480-1513), 1st Laird of Traquair, in 1491. James Stuart obtained letters of legitimation, and married the heiress of the Rutherfords, with whom he received the estates of Rutherford and Wells in Roxburghshire. He was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field. His daughter, Lady Jane Stuart, became involved with the married Earl of Angus, by whom she had a daughter out of wedlock, Lady Janet Douglas (d.1552). Janet married Patrick Ruthven, 3rd Lord Ruthven and produced several children and the main Ruthven line. Traquair remained the family seat of the Earls of Traquair for the next four centuries. In 1875 Traquair passed to a cousin of the Stuarts, Henry Constable Maxwell. He was a direct descendant, but via the female line. Presently, Traquairs laird is a woman, Catherine Maxwell Stuart. Traquair is a 50-room house. The rooms include The Drawing Room, containing ancestral portraits and photographs of the current residents; The Dressing Room, which is decorated to demonstrate life in former times; The Museum Room, containing a mural dating from 1530, one of the oldest to survive in a secular building in Scotland, as well as charters stamped with the royal seals and signatures of the Scottish Kings; The Kings Room, where Mary, Queen of Scots stayed in 1566 and which contains some relics belonging to her and the Jacobites, such as her rosary, crucifix, purse, a silk quilt, and letters bearing her signature; The Still Room, where breakfast is taken among the 18th century porcelain that decorates the shelves; and The Dining Room, one of the last additions to the house, built in the late 17th century. There is a Roman Catholic chapel built in 1829, following the Catholic emancipation. The 18th century library contains more than 3,000 volumes. Although three lairds made alterations to the house, prior to the 17th century, Traquair has changed little, architecturally, since then.en.wikipedia.org A portrait of Lady Louisa Stewart, sister of the 9th Earl of Traquair, and the last Stewart lady to live there, can be seen inside the house. She died in 1896 a few months short of her 100th birthday. Perhaps it was the disappointment at not reaching her centenary that brought her ghost back in the early years of the 20th century? One day a grounds man was ploughing in the fields when he saw a lady in old-fashioned clothing come drifting towards him. He watched in astonishment as she walked by him, passed effortlessly through a closed gate into the wood beyond and disappeared. He was later able to identify the fabric of the dress that his ghostly visitor was wearing from a book of fabrics shown to him by a woman who had been Lady Louisa’s dressmaker. L Connell - Walter Scott, Border Antiquities, 1814. Photo 1 Traquair House, 1814Public Domain L Connell - Walter Scott, Border Antiquities, 1814. Photo 2 by davidhenry panoramio/photo/18712487 Photo 3 by Eowyn of Rohan panoramio/photo/36637246 Photo 4 by eddiefsharp.blogspot-
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 13:55:30 +0000
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