by Claire Potter
An English Lady in the Roaring Twenties: The Honorable Mrs. Richard Norton Jean Mary Kinloch made her debut in London in 1916 while World War I was still raging across the channel. She was the daughter of Sir David Kinloch,
Young Dunksy and Oscar Wilde: Friendship and Conversion From an early age, Oswald Hunter Blair had an earnest, spiritual inclination. He read the romantic adventure stories of Sir Walter Scott for hours on end, forever fascinated by Scott’s descriptions of
Shipwreck: Disaster Strikes off the Coast of Dunskey Castle Sir Edward Oswald Hunter Blair and his young wife, Elizabeth Wauchope, married at a small church in Edinburgh on June 1, 1850. Edward and Elizabeth eagerly escaped to his family home
The Matriarch of Cluny Castle (1282-1323) Mary Bruce was supposed to be safe at Kildrommey, her brother’s only fortress. Her brother was the rebel king of the Scots who had seized the throne and dared to challenge England for his
The Spirits of Dunskey Castle The sun of the Scottish Enlightenment broke slowly in the 18th century. While leading intellectuals in Edinburgh denounced religion and superstition alike, belief in witches, demons, and a devil who walked among us died slowly
Thomas Bellingham and the Protestant elite gained power in Ireland during the rule of Cromwell in the late 1600s by displacing Catholic landowners. In 1649, Irish Catholics rose up and murdered the Protestant landowners sparking violence. Thomas Bellingham’s father was rewarded with an estate in County Louth, during Cromwell’s Conquest of Ireland, where they constructed Bellingham Castle. When William and Mary, the Protestant king and queen, took the throne, Catholic Jacobites attacked the Protestant elite, burning Bellingham Castle in an attempt to regain power. Thomas Bellingham joined the king’s army in the Battle of Boyne and his knowledge of the terrain helped give William and Mary the upper hand and ensured victory for the Protestants. The Battle of Boyne marked the last significant challenge to Protestant Ascendancy that defined Irish life for centuries. Thomas Bellingham rebuilt his castle as a symbol of Protestant power and Protestants built monuments to commemorate their victory. When the Irish War of Independence broke out, Catholics tore down the monuments in an act of defiance.
A Rebels’ Bomb Factory at Fitzpatrick Castle Fitzpatrick Castle, once known as Killiney Castle, is a bucolic country retreat from Dublin. But in the late 1930s, it overflowed with dismembered alarm clocks and explosives stowed away in flour bags. Teenage
Ostrich Feathers, Diamonds, and White: Debutantes Arrive at Buckingham Palace The Rubens at the Palace overlooks Buckingham Palace Road, where in centuries past, shivering debutantes in short-sleeved white dresses once sat for hours in carriages waiting for their presentation at
From Slave Ships to Regattas: A Self-Made Man Presides over Storrs Hall John Bolton, the teenage son of a rural druggist, arrived in the West Indies with no money to his name and only a sailor’s shirt on his back.
Fenton Tower, a Castle Built for Anarchy Patrick Whitelaw and his wife, Margaret Hamilton, built Fenton Tower to defend themselves from the anarchic violence of the Borders. For nearly four centuries, men called “reivers” dominated the swathe of the ungovernable
A Family Divided: Dalmunzie Castle and the Jacobite Uprisings The MacKintosh Clan stood divided when the Jacobites rose up against the British crown in the 1700s. The Stuarts, a Scottish dynasty that ruled over all of Britain, had been toppled
An Irish Dynasty at Dunskey Castle Robert Fitzgerald landed on the shores of Scotland without family, friends, or money. He was the banished son of a powerful, Norman family in Ireland, but he broke the sacred laws of chivalric hierarchy
Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was born with his father’s reputation for treason hanging over him; when the Tudors came to power, his family regained favor with the monarchy, though Buckingham was seen as dangerous due to his partial royal blood. Buckingham was known to be wealthy, and hosted extravagant parties; he was granted a license to fortify his manor at Thornbury Castle, and began building there in 1511. The castle was designed with crossbow loopholes and gun ports, in the style of a Medieval fortress, and he had planned to include four towers, but he was not able to complete it due to his untimely death. Buckingham and his wife lived in luxurious apartments overlooking an ornamental garden.
Sir Archibold Gordon Kinloch was the son of a Scottish baronet and joined the military at age 20. He served the British empire with distinction, but was sent to the West Indies where he contracted a fatal fever, later named St. Lucia Fever. After recovering, Gordon returned to Scotland and was not the same as before. He had become sullen, irascible and jealous and his intelligence had declined. Dr. William Farquharson attended to him to help his recovery.
John Murray, Scottish landowner and Member of Parliament, commissioned Joshua Reynolds to paint his portrait in a fashionable style. To build his home, Cally House, Murray worked with an architect who he met on a Grand Tour of Italy and designed it in the classical style with granite pillars to evoke the Parthenon.
Resisting Tyranny at Billesley Manor The Trussel family was never afraid to challenge the power of the crown. A Trussell stood among the barons who forced King John to sign the Magna Carta and curtail his own power in 1215.
Remembering Shelley at Elcot Park At Elcot Park, the Shelley family cherished the memory of a brilliant mind and tragic life. Lady Elizabeth bought the Retreat at Elcot Park in 1844. Her son, the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, drowned
A Royal Visit at Great Fosters Elizabeth I’s 1598 crest adorns the entryway of Great Fosters and likely marks the year when the queen visited. In the summer, she and her court toured the English countryside for months at a
Fighting for Polish Independence from the Rubens at the Palace Even in the luxurious enclave of the Rubens, high society fêtes had no place during World War II. In the hotel rooms where debutantes had pinned their hair and chosen
A Bluestocking’s Refuge: An Early Feminist’s Salons at the Royal Crescent “I never invite idiots to my house,” quipped Elizabeth Montagu. She invited only the brightest minds to the intellectual salons she hosted at the Royal Crescent in Bath. Montagu
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