Newhailes House
Newhailes House is a Palladian style country house which stands in 80 acres of parkland on the edge of the small town of Musselburgh in East Lothian, Scotland. It is a Category A listed building which is now occupied and maintained by the National Trust for Scotland.
The current building comprises the original 7-bay frontage flanked by later extensions.
The stable block is also a Category A building.
Newhailes, the Dalrymples and the Scottish Enlightenment
The origins of the house date back to 1686, when the Scots architect James Smith purchased the lands of Whytehill, where Newhailes now stands. James Smith is believed to have studied for the Catholic priesthood in Rome as a young man, but after being inspired by the works of Andrea Palladio, he returned to Scotland in 1675, and instead pursued a career as an architect. Smith had intended to profit from the coal seams below Whytehill and had patented machinery for this purpose, but his venture failed and in financial difficulty, he sold the land to John Bellenden, 2nd Lord Bellenden, in 1702, for 40,000 Scots Merks. He also accepted a commission from Bellenden to build a villa on the grounds, to be named Broughton House, which was built using the foundations and ruins of an earlier structure. This original villa comprised only the central core of the current Newhailes House – the two extensions, the Library and Great Apartment wings, were added later by the Dalrymple family.Sir David Dalrymple, 1st Baronet, of Hailes (1665–1720)
After the death of Bellenden in 1707, his wife, Mary, Countess of Dalhousie, could no longer afford to keep the house, and in May 1709, sold the property to Sir David Dalrymple, 1st Baronet and his wife, Janet Rochead. He renamed the house New Hailes in recognition of Hailes Castle on their family estate at East Linton, and added the first of the two major extensions to Newhailes, the Library Wing, which was completed in 1721, the year after his death. This anticipated the beginnings of the Enlightenment culture, based on close readings of new books, and intense discussions at intellectual gathering places in Edinburgh and in societies such as The Select Society in the 1750s. Sir David was a Scottish advocate and politician who sat in the Parliament of Scotland from 1698 to 1707 and in the British House of Commons from 1707 to 1721. He served as Lord Advocate, and eventually Auditor of the Exchequer in Scotland in 1720. The Dalrymples were to become a wealthy Edinburgh legal and political dynasty; the Enlightenment would become the golden age of artistic and intellectual development in Scotland.Note: His older brother, John Dalrymple, 1st Earl of Stair, became one of the darkest figures in Scottish history when he organised and authorised the 1692 Massacre of Glencoe.
Sir James Dalrymple, 2nd Baronet (1692–1751)
On his death in 1721 the house passed to his heir Sir James Dalrymple, 2nd Baronet, a Member of Parliament for Haddington Burghs and the Principal Auditor of the Exchequer in Scotland. Sir James extended and reshaped the house, adding a balancing west extension, the Great Apartment wing, and re-orienting the entrance from the north-east to the south-west. The gardens were probably laid out at the same time. In the pediment over the front door are the heads of a male and a female in profile with the inscription laudo manentum, a quote from Horace referring to 'fickle fortune' and translating as 'I praise her while she stays'. Over the north door of the house is inscribed another Horace quote sapienter uti which relates to the happy man who wisely uses whatever he has been given to work with. It is considered by many that the carved heads that can be seen over the main entrance were inspired by the famous and controversial Edinburgh 'Netherbow Heads' that were at the time considered to be of Roman origin, representing the Emperor Septimius Severus and his consort Julia Domna. While less is known about the life of the 2nd Baronet than of his father and his heir, he and his wife Christian Hamilton were responsible for much of the decoration and adornments that may be seen now in the central spaces of the house.Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, 3rd Baronet of Hailes (1726–1792)
The house then passed to Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, 3rd Baronet of Hailes. He became an advocate, judge and historian. Lord Hailes continued the Scottish tradition of completing his legal education in The Netherlands, studying in Utrecht before being admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1748, where he demonstrated an interest in books by becoming a curator in 1752. 'He moved normally in the highest ranks of Edinburgh Society' and appears to us as a textbook character of the Scottish Enlightenment. He attended the theatre and dancing assemblies, the profits from which went to charitable causes, and between 1750 and 1774 took a prominent part in many of Edinburgh's most famous cultural activities. Hailes was highly active in the club life of Edinburgh, being a member of, amongst others, the Select Society. The Society, founded in 1754 by Allan Ramsay, had a membership composed of socially prominent members of the city's elite, featuring many of the important figures of Scotland's Enlightenment. Although set up as a debating club, the importance of maintaining polite society was recognised by the rule that anything could be discussed 'except such as regard Revealed Religion, or which may give occasion to vent any principles of Jacobitism'. Hailes' nature and interest in his fellow man is shown by his involvement in an offshoot of the Select Society, known as the Edinburgh Society, one of the best examples of the improving spirit of the age.Following their return from the Highlands, Samuel Johnson and James Boswell met Lord Hailes at dinner in Edinburgh on 17 August 1773. It would be later declared by Dr Johnson, "the most learned drawing-room in Europe". Boswell records that Lord Hailes 'pleased him highly'. We know Johnson respected Hailes's intellectual prowess as manuscripts of his Annals of Scotland were submitted, via Boswell, to Johnson for his literary opinion. Johnson claimed 'I never before read Scotch history with certainty' and wrote to Boswell calling them 'a new mode of history which tells all that is wanted... without laboured splendour of language, or affected subtilty of conjectur'. Sir David inherited the house in 1751, and in 1970 added the stable block, designed by James Craig. But the most important room at Newhailes is the library. From the 1750s as head of the family, Sir David Dalrymple, the judge Lord Hailes was a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, along with Adam Smith and David Hume who borrowed extensively from the library. At the mahogany desk which stands in the shuttered gloom of the two-storey library he wrote the 'Annals of Scottish History', known as the first "modern" history of Scotland. After his death the house passed to Christian Dalrymple: Hailes had believed, fought for in his career, for the right of primogeniture - his specific belief was that the first born child, and not the eldest male child, should inherit.
Miss Christian Dalrymple of New Hailes (1765–1839)
In 1792, Miss Christian Dalrymple of New Hailes daughter of Anne Broun and Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, inherited the Newhailes estate in East Lothian, Scotland, unexpectedly. She never married and lived there for 46 years. She lavished attention on the surrounding estate and developed the designed landscape, notably adding in 1827 a flower garden, designed by John Hay. She also used the library as a ballroom, and was an able manager and socialite hosting glittering dances and soirées long into the night. She kept a diary discussing and reflecting on the minutiae of her day. It is forms part of Newhailes collection at the National Library of Scotland. She died at the age of seventy-two, leaving the estate to her nephew, Charles Fergusson, with whom she had a close and long-standing relationship, evidenced by correspondence between the two.Sir Charles Dalrymple Fergusson, 5th Baronet (1800–1849)
Sir Charles Dalrymple Fergusson, 5th Baronet of Kilkerran FRSE was a Scottish lawyer. He was educated at Harrow, and became an advocate in 1822, practising at the Scottish bar until his father's death. He was a member of the Speculative Society, and at its meetings read two essays, one on the 'Origin and Progress of Criminal Jurisprudence', and the other on the 'History of Painting'. In 1829 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1837, Fergusson succeeded to the estates of his grandfather, Lord Hailes, in East and Mid Lothian, and in 1838 to those of his father in Ayrshire. He lived mainly at Kilkerran with his family, but did spend periods at Newhailes; he also rented out Newhailes at times when he did not need the property. He inherited Newhailes, and the Lordship and Barony of Hailes in 1839, on the death of his aunt, Miss Christian Dalrymple. Fergusson married Helen, daughter of the David Boyle, lord-justice-general of Scotland, by whom he had nine children. He died at Inveresk 18 March 1849.The last Dalrymples – 19th–21st century
Sir Charles Dalrymple, 1st Baronet (1839–1916)
Born Charles Fergusson, Sir Charles Dalrymple, 1st Baronet was the second surviving son of Sir Charles Dalrymple Fergusson, 5th Baronet, and grandson of Sir James Fergusson, 4th Baronet, and his wife Jean, daughter of David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes. Sir James Fergusson, 6th Baronet, was his elder brother. On the death of his father in 1849 he assumed the surname of Dalrymple in lieu of Fergusson. He was educated at Harrow school and Trinity College, Cambridge, became a Scottish Conservative politician. He was created a baronet, of New Hailes in the County of Midlothian, in 1887, and sworn of the Privy Council, in 1905. He was married to Alice Mary Hunter Blair daughter of Sir Edward, 4th Hunter-Blair baronet. They divided their time between London and Newhailes. The house was substantially modernised in 1907.In the late 1890s Newhailes entertained politicians such as the Speaker of the House of Commons Arthur Peel, 1st Viscount Peel. Frequently Joseph Chamberlain best known as the leading imperialist of the day in Britain, as a Liberal Unionist before he joined the Colonial Office, and John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, a landed aristocrat, industrial magnate and philanthropist. He was related to the Royal House of Stuart and the Coutts banking family. His visit coincided with his involvement with a notable company law case, relating to the insolvency of the Cardiff Savings Bank concerning a duty of care to which he was acquitted.
The Times would typically report the arrivals and departures of prominent people, as they did on 25 October 1901: "Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlain arrived in Edinburgh yesterday evening, the right hon. gentleman having engaged to address a meeting there today. The Colonial Secretary was received by Sir Charles Dalrymple, M.P., whose guest he will be at Newhailes, Musselburgh, during his visit, and after being introduced to several prominent members of the local Unionist party he drove away with his host amid cheers." Much later in 1926 and again in 1935 the house hosted Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, Queen Victoria's granddaughter on her way to Balmoral. She was guest of Archibald Kennedy, 4th Marquess of Ailsa styled Earl Cassilis until 1938, and David Dalrymple's sister in law, Frances Countess Cassillis who were renting the house at the time.
Their first daughter, Christian Elizabeth Louise, was born in 1875, their son David Charles Herbert Dalrymple born in London 1879, and their youngest daughter Alice Mary born in 1884. Five years later, Alice Mary, Charles's wife, died. In bereavement, feeling unable to offer a family environment, he sent his children away to relatives. Alice was sent to her Aunt Eleanor, wife of the Rector of Hartlebury in Worcestershire. David and his older sister Christian were sent to his mother's sister Aunt Dorothea, who had married a career naval captain David Boyle, who had fought at the Crimea, later becoming David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow at Shewalton House in Ayrshire.
Around 1901, the two daughters were reunited with their father, taking up residence at his London house in Onslow Gardens, where he died in June 1916. Christian married a Royal Naval officer Commander John Saumarez Dumaresq, in 1907. The wedding was held at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Musselburgh. She had five children and died in 1932.
Alice never married, and became the sole beneficiary of her brother David's will. She lived quietly at Halkerston Lodge in Inveresk Village where she died in 1959.
Sir Charles' Will was carefully drawn up under Scottish law by the old established firm of Messrs. Hope, Todd & Kirk W S from their offices in Charlotte Square Edinburgh. The Will was published testate later that year on 19 December 1916. It began, "I, the Right Honourable Sir Charles Dalrymple of Newhailes Baronet, Privy Councillor, being desirous of settling the succession to my means and estate after my death, and of securing as far as I can that my said lands and estate of Newhailes shall not be sold, it being my desire that they be retained in the family,..." Clearly aware of his only son's character, his will was specific in its terms. The estate was to be held in trust by four trustees Sir Charles Fergusson, 7th Baronet, Forbes Hunter Blair, Honourable George John Gordon Bruce Lord Balfour of Burleigh, seventh Lord Balfour of Burleigh, a cousin, and his son David. On his father's death Sir David became a relatively wealthy man. Sir Charles had left around £90,000 in cash and stocks plus Newhailes House and its estate, together with his house in London.