Marchmont House
Marchmont House lies on the east side of the village of Greenlaw, and near to a church in Polwarth in Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland.
His portrait by William Aikman, c 1720, and framed by a George II period gilt mirror, hangs above the chimneypiece in the drawing room.
[1] The king's gratitude was symbolized by his granting Sir Patrick permission to place an orange, bearing the Imperial crown, in his coat of arms.
This can be seen on the carved coat of arms on the east gable of Polwarth church restored by, and once a self-imposed prison of, Sir Patrick.
The family's prosperity in the late 17th century, brought about by the reward of loyalty to the Crown, made it possible for grand ideas of Marchmont House to be conceived.
The Saloon was decorated between 1753-7 with military trophies on the ceiling and walls and family heraldry above door lintels detailing monograms of the 3rd Earl and his second wife.
This theme is echoed in the contemporary carved marble chimney piece decorated with the sun's rays seeming to emanate from the heat of the fire.
The last of the Hume family to live in the house was Sir John Hume Campbell who sold it to Robert Finnie McEwen, father of Captain Sir John Helias Finnie McEwen, who inherited a considerable fortune from his uncles who had built the harbor at Rio de Janeiro.
From 1914-17 he commissioned Sir Robert Lorimer to make various alterations: a top floor was added and given dormer windows in a steeper pitched roof; the flanking pavilions were connected to the house internally; by lowering the ground at the front of the house the entrance was relocated on the ground floor with the addition of a porch, and the former entrance, now the central window of the first-floor saloon, made redundant.
A grand double-storey music room, originally designed by Lorimer for Rowallan Castle,[4] was made out of the stable wing in the north pavilion.
One of the outbuildings has been converted for the use of furniture makers practicing the craft of turned rush-seated ladder-back chairs following the designs of Philip Clissett and Ernest Gimson.
Thoughts of replacing the family seat of Redbraes Castle with a new and grand house started long before the foundations were laid.
Still in existence, (albeit with other trees, mostly beech, planted after the great gales of 1881) it leads northeast from the front of the house and terminates at the Doocot, built in 1749 by James Williamson.
In addition to the Doocot already mentioned, other interesting constructions are the steading built around a courtyard, which dates to the 17th century; the yard clock dated 1746; the associated but later three-story tower; the arched concrete span over garages, and the William Adam designed balustraded bridge of 1759, which connected the main entrance route from the north (named the Green Ride) to the approach to the house.
The walled gardens laid out in the 18th century to the south of the house incorporate a magnificent greenhouse and associated structures built by Mackenzie and Moncur in 1915[6] after designs attributed to Lorimer.
