Duddingston.] DUDDINGSTON HOUSE 317
Commissioner for the Plantation of Kirks and Valuation
of Benefices in 1672; but the title is now
extinct, and in 1674 the barony had become the
property of the atrocious Duke of Lauderdale,
from whom it passed with a daughter of his first
duchess, as pin money, to her husband, Archibald,
tenth earl, and first Duke of Argyle.
This lady was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Lionel
Talmash of Helingham, and her mother was the
daughter and heiress of William Murray, Earl of
mansion house upon it. It was completed in
1768, from designs furnished by the architect of
Somerset House, in the Strand, Sir William Chambers,
the son of Scottish parents, but born in
Stockholm in 1726. It cost ~30,000, and is an
elegant edifice .of a somewhat Grecian style, surrounded
by plantabons, canals, and gardens, but
in a situation too low for any extensive vien-.
Duddingston House was for years the favourite
residence of Francis, Earl of Moira, a veteran of
PRINCE CHARLIE?S HOUSE, DUDDINGSTON.
(From Uu Engraving in I& Roxburgh Edition of ?? Waverky,?? puhlirkrd b9 Mesm. A. & C. BZack.1
Dysart. The celebrated John and Archibald,
successively Dukes of Argyle, passed much of their
time here, and it is said received most of their
education from their mother, who resided constantly
in this, then, secluded village prior to 1734
In 1745 Duddingston was sold by Archibald,
Duke of Argyle, to James, Earl of Abercorn, whose
ducal descendants still hold it; but if was not
until 1751 that this beautiful and valuable estate
was subdivided, enclosed, and improved by
James, the eighth earl, who built commodious farmhouses,
planted hedgerows and coppice in places
where the land, prior to 1746, rented at only ten
shillings per acre !
In 1763, after the estate had been thoroughly
enclosed, the earl began to build the present
the American War, who, in 1803, was appointed
Commander-in-chief in Scotland, where he was
long deservedly popular with the people, and
where he married, in 1804, Flora Mina Campbell
(in herown right), Countess of Loudon, who was
the first, north of the Tweed, to introduce those
laconic invitation cards now so common, and the
concise style of which-? The Countess of Loudon
and Moira at Home?-so puzzled the Edinburgh
folk to whom they wete issued.
On the 14th of June, 1805, one of these ?At
Homes ? is thus noticed in a print of the day :- .
?On Friday evening the Countess of Loudon
and Moka gave a grand fSte at Duddingston
House, to receive three hundred of the nobility
and gentry in and about the city-among whom
