11 Moray Place
March 10th 1861
My dear Henry
you will remember saying to me before you left Edinburgh that I had better be on the watch for such a house s as might be likely to suit us for the Summer season I have enquired of various persons & learn from those who are the most competent to judge, how exceedingly difficult it is to meet with a really nice country residence Many of the houses mentioned as large in the N B. Advertiser, prove on enquiry to be much too small for us We went to see one at Hawthornden, knowing the locality to be so pretty Judge then of our disappointment when the house was discovered in the middle of an ugly field, half [illegible] by a few miserable trees, with no private grounds belonging to it and just out of sight of the beautiful glen of Hawthornden!! The exterior of the house frightful the interior sufficiently large & commodious but the furniture in ruins; & the walls, ceilings & every part of the interior as dirty as possible. The house requiring to be new painted & completely new furnished. It is a disgrace to any proprietor to offer a house in such a state. Discouraged by the failure of this first assay, we did not feel in a hurry to view another; especially as the weather has been rather stormy for country excursions. But yesterday being very fine & having a visit to pay at Lady Gibson Craigs, about a mile across country from Millburn Tower,<1> we went (Rd, Goodwin, & myself) to view the latter place, which is to be let during the minority of its owner, (Sir Liston Fowles). We happened fortunately to meet one of the Trustees of the estate, Mr Grieve, a gentlemanly & very intelligent man, who told us the whole story of the place & of its late owner. Rosamond will give you as much of this as she can recollect as there is much of interest attached to it. This Millburn Tower is a house that I am persuaded you would like. It possesses considerable architectural beauty more so than is generally met with in a moderate sized house I wonder whether I shall convey the slightest idea of it by calling it Gothic Elizabethan? yet there is something of a cottage air about it too. The original corps de bβtiment contains the Entrance, Dining & Drawing rooms ante room 2 bedrooms dressing rooms &c &c To this there is added quite a modern wing, containing a sufficient number of very pleasant bedrooms, bath room, dressing rooms &c &c All the Servants apartments are in the s[illegible]k story and very convenient. There is an excellent kitchen garden and a very good vinery or forcing house, of a circular form with plenty of space for raising choice plants The back wall of this glass edifice is part of the front of a range of three rooms on one side of the enclosed court next the offices. I cannot give you so good an idea as I could wish of these rooms They are light & dry & the centre one (formerly used as a Ball room) has a large fireplace in it and would make an admirable place for you to work in. It is spacious enough to hold any amount of bottles Instruments and Books At one end there is what might answer as a small Painting room for Monie and the corresponding room at the other end is locked up, and full of most interesting & curious writings which Mr Grieve offers to show you, should you feel disposed to look at them. Now this large room seems to offer such facilities for all the various experiments & studies that you may wish to carry on, that we feel it to be quite an unlooked for piece of good fortune to have met with such a thing I am glad you talk of coming back to Edinburgh about the end of this month for I so much wish you could see this house before the present tenant returns from Bath, where he is now staying with his Wife. He gives up Millburn Tower at next Whitsuntide. Mr Grieve has many applications for letting the place for the Summer season but he intends to let it for a longer period. Terms are £200 per annum £40 and some small perquisite to the gardener. I believe the Cow & the cows pasture are included in the rent. Stables & coachhouse & coachmans house are detached & at a convenient distance from the dwelling house. The gardener is a very intelligent & good sort of man. and [sic] the private grounds are spacious & very pretty. I omitted to say that the house is very prettily furnished & everything clean & in good repair. The drawing room especially is very handsomely fitted up with rich ornamental ceiling &c. double windows to many of the rooms We might have this place (if we liked it) for the seven years minority of the young Baronet or a private understanding with Mr Grieve might set us free at the end of the twelvemonth, as was the wish of the present tenant. At any rate the rent is moderate, even if we did not wish to reside the whole of the 12 months or perhaps he could give us the privilege of under letting it. I would have spared you all these suggestions had you been on the spot to judge for yourself Houses are letting very fast and my only hope of your being in time to view this, rests on the circumstance of Mr Grieve declining to let it for the Summer Season only.
I had a very few lines from Charles this morning he writes but little now
All here are well
Your affectionate
Constance.
Notes:
1. Millburn Tower, Gogar, just west of Edinburgh; the Talbot family made it their northern home from June 1861 to November 1863. It is particularly important because WHFT conducted many of his photoglyphic engraving experiments there. The house had a rich history. Built for Sir Robert Liston (1742-1836), an 1805 design by Benjamin Latrobe for a round building was contemplated but in 1806 a small house was built to the design of William Atkinson (1773-1839), best known for Sir Walter Scotts Abbotsford. The distinctive Gothic exterior was raised in 1815 and an additional extension built in 1821. Liston had been ambassador to the United States and maintained a warm Anglo-American relationship in the years 1796-1800. His wife, the botanist Henrietta Liston, nιe Marchant (1751-1828) designed a lavish American garden, sadly largely gone by the time the Talbots rented the house .