From Waterloo to Water Closet

1814 to 1817

By 1814 the latest Earl of Dumfries turned 21 years old and succeeded to the Bute Estate and titles becoming 2nd Marquess of Bute, choosing to live at the Mountstuart seat of his family.

This is not to say that he neglected or forgot about Dumfries House, quite the opposite in fact. The house, although frequently empty of residents was still maintained by staff should the House need to be used as a stop off point on journeys south, for example.

Not actually residing in the House day to day also meant that any works or extensions could be undertaken without disturbing the family! In 1816, the Waterloo Bridge was constructed on the Estate, so named to commemorate the Duke of Wellington’s recent victory over Napoleon Bonaparte, followed the next year by a rather more telling victory over cold, discomfort and hygiene with the installation of the House’s very first water closet! Not a bad addition, even considering the invention of the water closet in this guise took place over 40 years previously! 

A Woman’s Touch

1848 to 1897

1848 saw John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, become 3rd Marquess of Bute inheriting Dumfries House as well at the tender age of 6 months old. By the age of 20, eager to add his own mark to the House’s history, and very much in keeping with the popular Victorian maxim “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”, he oversaw the installation of the very first Turkish Bath in the United Kingdom in 1867. The bath may well have had more use than was originally intended, for ten years later the main part of the House at Mountstuart on the Isle of Bute was devastated by fire. The Marquess and his wife moved into Dumfries House temporarily. During this time further cosmetic changes were made to make the House more to Lady Gwendolen’s tastes – most notably the application of colour and gilt decoration to the ceiling fixtures in the entrance hall which can be seen to this day.

The grandest modification to the House, however, has to be the pavilions extended to either side of the House, begun in 1897. Designed by the renowned Arts and Crafts architect, Robert Weir Schultz, the sensitivity to the original style and layout of the house is quite obviously a labour of love, as well as a mark of respect to the history and heritage of the House – a tenet we applaud and wish to echo with our own plans for the Estate.