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Croft Angry or Croft an Righ
Skene, James, 1827, Watercolour
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Croft Angry or Croft an Righ
Croft Angry or Croft an Righ
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Category
Library Item
Item no
1113
Title
Croft Angry or Croft an Righ
Artist / maker
Skene, James
Date
1827
Size
17 x 22 cm.
Type
Watercolour
Location
Edinburgh and Scottish Collection
Croft Angry or Croft an Righ, meaning King's Croft, is a 17th century mansion house lying in the north-western corner of the grounds of Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh. In the bottom right hand corner of the painting, the artist James Skene has noted "Croft an Righ at Holyrood was occupied by the Duchess de Gramont during the residence of the French Court. She died there".
In January 1796, Charles Philippe, the Compte d'Artois, younger brother of Louis XVI of France, arrived at Holyrood. The Count, who had funded an émigré army during the revolutionary wars was heavily in debt. Holyrood, a well-known sanctuary for debtors, represented an attractive haven for the count (or "the Monsieur" as he was known) and his entourage. James Skene describes how some of the families of the French nobles inhabited the small houses in the area surrounding Croft an Righ(1). The count's mistress, Louise de Polastron, lived in a cottage in the lane approaching the larger house.
The Duchess of Gramont was Aglaé Louise Françoise Gabrielle de Polignac, niece of Louise de Polastron and daughter of Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, Duchess of Polignac. In 1780, she had married the Duc de Gramont et Guiche becoming the Duchess of Gramont et Guiche - "Guichette" to family members. The Duchess, as Skene notes, was well known for her beauty (2). She died on 30th March 1803 and her coffin interred at Holyrood. On 20th October 1825, following the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, the Duchess's remains were exhumed, with great ceremony, in preparation for their return journey to France. A contemporary newspaper report (3) records how the coffin had been found to be partly decayed and a new oaken one made, "it was very elegant being covered with crimson velvet, with gold mountings and ducal coronets". James Skene, although mistakenly dating the event to 1823, records how, "every mark of respect was paid by the magistrates who in their robes accompanied the hearse which conveyed the body to the shore, which as then received by the French officers, the foreign consuls, and all the boats from the British vessels&"(4).
Croft - an -Righ may have been owned by William Graham, Earl of Airth, in the early part of the 17th century. In about 1680, the house was rebuilt following a fire.
(1) Skene, Reekiana, 1836, Edinburgh Central Library Archive, 142
(2) Skene, Reekiana: 142 "the beautiful and amiable Duchess de Guiche&."
(3) Caledonian Mercury: The exhumation of the Duchess of Guiche, 26th October 1825: Skene mistakenly suggests that the event occurred in 1823
(4) Skene, 143
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