Seton Palace

[15] As the war with England known as the Rough Wooing continued, Regent Arran came to Seton in March 1549 because the English were at Haddington.

[19] She became a frequent visitor, and in January 1562 New Year's Day was celebrated with a poem by Alexander Scott filled with "advice for princes" for just rule in Scotland, Ane New Yeir Gift to Quene Mary.

[26] James VI stayed at Seton Palace in September 1589 waiting in vain for Anne of Denmark to arrive in Scotland.

[28] James VI made a hunting trip to the Merse area in February 1595, planning to visit Dunglass, Spott, Beil, Waughton, and Seton.

[29] On 31 May 1597 Anne of Denmark travelled to Seton in a litter, despite the rain, while James VI went to Falkland Palace.

Above the fireplace in the Great Hall were the Seton heraldry quartered with the Earl of Buchan encircled with a collar which Nisbet claimed to represent the Order of the Thistle.

The ceiling of another room, called "Samson's Hall" incorporated 28 armorial achievements of families of France, Scotland and Lorraine, "curiously embossed and illuminated.

"[35] Viscount Kingston mentions seeing a mural painting on the end wall of the Long Gallery which he believed showed the 7th Lord Seton driving a wagon during his years of exile in France following the abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots.

He came back and gave the Earl of Winton a rare sea shell, a turbo pica from the West Indies.

[42] The Seton family, who had acquired the title "Earl of Winton" had their estates confiscated after the Jacobite rising of 1715.

[45] In 1789 the owner of the site, Lt Col Alexander Mackenzie of the 21st Dragoons, commissioned Robert Adam to build a mansion that would become Seton Castle.

[46] Some of the walls of the famous formal gardens of the 16th and 17th century remain, with rounds or lookout turrets at the corners.