House of Dean near Edinburgh

Category

Library Item

Item no

714

Title

House of Dean near Edinburgh

Description

The House of Dean, with a view of Edinburgh in the background. The building is situated behind a wall in its own grounds and is surrounded by trees. A man enters the garden through a gate. The sky is blue but with clouds moving in.

Artist / maker

Skene, James

Date

1826

Size

20 x 30 cm.

Type

Watercolour

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

James Skene's watercolour depicts the rambling and romantic House of Dean, which, until its demolition in 1845, lay on the western bank of the Water of Leith, two miles from the centre of Edinburgh. On the skyline, looking south-eastwards, one can make out Edinburgh Castle and Arthur's Seat. The Dean valley and the former milling village of Dean are out of sight, and lie southwards beyond the House and gardens.

During the 17th century, the House of Dean was associated with the Nisbet family. Sir William Nisbet, a prosperous merchant, bought the barony in 1609, and the surrounding Lands of Dean, the following year. As laird of the Lands of Dean, he acquired the associated title of "Poulterer to the King". Nisbet built the house shortly afterwards, as evidenced by a 1614 date stone located above its eastern doorway The House was notable for its sculptured stones. As the historian James Grant observed, the house "was covered with dates, inscriptions and armorial bearings, it was literally a history in stone of the proud but now extinct race to which it belonged"(1) . Later, when the house was demolished to make way for the Dean cemetery, stones were removed from the house and incorporated in the southern facing wall of the cemetery where they can be seen to this day. Stones include Nisbet coats of arms, the 1614 date stone and, memorably, a graphic depiction of a man using a pole to grasp onto a goat which is being simultaneously attached by a bear. The House of Dean, with its heraldic devices and ornamental beasts, was one several houses on the outskirts of Edinburgh which influenced Sir Walter Scott in his creation of Tully-Vealen in his 1813 Novel Waverley (2).

(1) Grant, James, Old and New Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 1883, Vol.III, 64
(2) Scott, Sir Walter, Waverley, 1814, Ed P D Garside, Edinburgh University Press, 2007, 38: "It must not be forgotten, that all sorts of bears, small and large or in full proportion, were carved over the windows, upon the ends of the gables, terminated the spouts and supported the turrets&"

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Related subjects

Homes > Residential buildings > Castles and palaces

Homes > Residential buildings > Mansions

Landscape > Landscape architectural facilities > Gardens

Places > Edinburgh areas > Dean

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

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