Paxton House is a

historic house A historic house generally meets several criteria before being listed by an official body as "historic." Generally the building is at least a certain age, depending on the rules for the individual list. A second factor is that the building be in ...

at Paxton,

Berwickshire Berwickshire ( gd, Siorrachd Bhearaig) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. Berwickshire County Council existed from 1890 until 1975, when the area became part of th ...

, in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...

, a few miles south-west of

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

, overlooking the

River Tweed The River Tweed, or Tweed Water ( gd, Abhainn Thuaidh, sco, Watter o Tweid, cy, Tuedd), is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the R ...

. It is a country house built for Patrick Home of Billie in an unsuccessful attempt to woo a

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n heiress. Attributed to James Adam (possibly in concert with John Adam), it was built between 1758 and 1766, under the supervision of James Nisbet, with extensive interiors (c1773) by Robert Adam, as well as furniture by Thomas Chippendale. The East Wing was added in 1812-13 by architect Robert Reid to house the library and picture gallery. Other inhabitants were Alexander Home and his son George Home WS

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(of Wedderburn and Paxton). In 1852 the wife of David Milne inherited the house and he renamed himself David Milne-Home. Formerly the seat of the Paxton family, who became Forman-Home, Milne-Home, and finally Home-Robertson as the direct male lines failed and the inheritance progressed through a female. In 1988, the last laird,

John David Home Robertson John David Home Robertson (born 5 December 1948) is a retired Labour politician in Scotland. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick and East Lothian and East Lothian from 1978 to 2001 and a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for ...

, a socialist member of Parliament, placed the house and grounds into the Paxton House Historic Building Preservation Trust. It is now open to the public and is a Partner Gallery of the

National Galleries of Scotland National Galleries of Scotland ( gd, Gailearaidhean Nàiseanta na h-Alba) is the executive non-departmental public body that controls the three national galleries of Scotland and two partner galleries, forming one of the National Collections o ...

Paxton House Gallery

Inside the halls of the Paxton House lies a gallery. In the year 1780, Patrick Home of Wedderburn returned from his eight-year-long

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

with an extensive collection of British and European paintings. Unfortunately, he died even before the paintings were unpacked. Later on, Miss Jean Home, who was to inherit the house and the paintings, employed the Master of Work to the Crown of Scotland, architect Robert Reid (1776–1856), to build what is now the East Wing of Paxton House to accommodate a

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

and a gallery. The gallery is now the only room housing a collection of paintings. The Paxton Trust in association with The National Galleries of Scotland have carefully restored the Gallery to its original colour scheme, and although Patrick Home's pictures are now dispersed, an important collection from the National Gallery has been hung in their place in the 19th-century manner.

References

''Borders and Berwick'', by Charles A Strang, Rutland Press, 1994, p. 54,

External links

Official site
{{Coord, 55, 45, 40.12, N, 2, 6, 35.93, W, type:landmark, display=title Country houses in the Scottish Borders Category A listed buildings in the Scottish Borders Neoclassical architecture in Scotland National Galleries of Scotland Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes Art museums and galleries in Scotland Museums in the Scottish Borders Historic house museums in the Scottish Borders

Paxton House Gallery

See also

References

External links