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Fasque House

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48-587: Fasque , also known as Fasque House or Fasque Castle , is a mansion in Aberdeenshire , Scotland, situated near the village of Fettercairn , in the former county of Kincardineshire . Fasque was the property of the Ramsays of Balmain , and the present house was completed around 1809, replacing an earlier house. It was purchased in 1829 by Sir John Gladstone, 1st Baronet , father of Thomas Gladstone and William Ewart Gladstone , later Prime Minister of

96-855: A "mansion house" (e.g., by the Revd. James Blair, Commissary in Virginia for the Bishop of London, 1689–1745, a term related to the word "manse" commonly used in the Church of Scotland and in Non-Conformist churches. H.G. Herklots, The Church of England and the American Episcopal Church). As the 16th century progressed and the Renaissance style slowly spread across Europe, the last vestiges of castle architecture and life changed;

144-664: A business empire in property and international trade that by the 1820s had made him extremely wealthy. Via his ownership of slave plantations in the West Indies , by the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833 Gladstone was one of the largest slaveholders in Scotland. He received £106,769 in compensation (equivalent to £13.7 million in 2023) under the Slave Compensation Act 1837 for

192-583: A countryside estate in the U.S. was demolished in 1980, along with its extensive gardens, to make way for suburban developments. In Paris, London or Rome , many large mansions and palazzi built or remodeled during the era still survive. Grand Federal style mansions designed by Samuel McIntire inhabit an area that, in 2012, is the largest collection of 17th- and 18th-century structures in the United States of America. This district in Salem, Massachusetts ,

240-503: A function hall (named for Alexander Hamilton) and a church for the town's merchant class. McIntire also designed the former Salem Court House and Registry of Deeds. After 1793, Samuel McIntire worked exclusively in the architectural style developed by Robert Adam in Great Britain and brought to America by the great Boston architect, Charles Bulfinch. The delicate Adam style , which emphasized decorative elements and ornamentation,

288-704: A number of homes for Derby and members of his extended family. McIntire also worked occasionally on Derby's vessels, and would fix a wagon or build a birdhouse if his patron desired. Hamilton Hall is a National Historic Landmark at 9 Chestnut Street in Salem, Massachusetts . Hamilton Hall was built in 1805 by Samuel McIntire and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. "King" Derby's stamp of approval opened many other doors for McIntire, who went on to design and build mansions for John Gardner, Jerethmiel Peirce, Simon Forrester, and other wealthy Salem shipowners. He also built on Chestnut Street

336-516: A plan for the house which is illustrated in his Vitruvius Scoticus , although it was never executed. By 1790, the house was increasingly prone to damp, and was demolished only forty years after completion. Sir Alexander, by then known as Alexander Ramsay-Irvine, died without heir in 1806, and the estate passed to his nephew, Alexander Burnet , who was made a baronet in 1806, and adopted the Ramsay surname. Although begun by Sir Alexander Ramsay-Irvine,

384-597: Is a category A listed building . The property is managed by Inverlochy Castle Management International. ICMI also manages the luxury hotels Cromlix House in Perthshire , Greywalls Hotel & Chez Roux in East Lothian and Inverlochy Castle Hotel in Fort William . 56°52′14″N 2°34′36″W  /  56.87056°N 2.57667°W  / 56.87056; -2.57667 Mansion A mansion

432-520: Is a copy of Wollaton Hall . Other mansions were built in the new and innovative styles of the new era such as the arts and crafts style: The Breakers is a pastiche of an Italian Renaissance palazzo ; Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire is a mixture of various French châteaux . One of the most enduring and most frequently copied styles for a mansion is the Palladian – particularly so in

480-455: Is a large dwelling house . The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word mansio "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb manere "to dwell". The English word manse originally defined a property large enough for the parish priest to maintain himself, but a mansion is no longer self-sustaining in this way (compare a Roman or medieval villa ). Manor comes from

528-549: Is an example of American Renaissance revivalism. During the 19th century, along with other streets in major cities, Fifth Avenue in New York City had many mansions. Many of these were designed by the leading architects of the day, often in European Gothic Revival style , and were built by families who were making their fortunes. However, nearly all of these have now been demolished. Whitemarsh Hall ,

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576-487: Is called the McIntire Historic District with the center being Chestnut Street. McIntire's training came from his father and from books. He and his brothers, Joseph and Angler, began their careers as housewrights and carpenters while in their teens but, early on, Samuel's work caught the eye of Salem's pre-eminent merchant, Elias Hasket Derby. Over the next quarter century, McIntire built or remodelled

624-587: Is geographical, deriving from a farmstead near Biggar in Lanarkshire; it comes from the Old English for " kestrel stone". John Gladstone was succeeded by his eldest son, the second baronet. He represented several constituencies in the House of Commons and served as Lord Lieutenant of Kincardineshire . His son, the third baronet, was briefly Lord Lieutenant of Kincardineshire in 1926. He never married and

672-622: The Ancien Régime . Until World War I it was not unusual for a moderately sized mansion in England such as Cliveden to have an indoor staff of 20 and an outside staff of the same size, and in ducal mansions such as Chatsworth House the numbers could be far higher. In the great houses of Italy, the number of retainers was often even greater than in England; whole families plus extended relations would often inhabit warrens of rooms in basements and attics. Most European mansions were also

720-658: The County of Kincardine , is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom . It was created on 18 July 1846 for the Scottish businessman slave-owner and politician John Gladstone , father of four-time prime minister William Ewart Gladstone . Born John Gladstones, the son of the merchant Thomas Gladstones , John assumed by royal licence the surname of Gladstone (without the "s" at the end) in 1835. The name Gladstone

768-540: The Mediterranean old world, whereas where estates were founded in the sparsely populated remote areas like the Pampa of Argentina or Uruguay, where iron pillars, doors, windows, and furniture had to be brought from Europe by ship and afterwards ox cart, buildings were smaller, but normally still aspiring to evoke a stately impression, often featuring, like their earlier Italian counterparts, a morador . In Venezuela,

816-464: The 15th century onwards, a combination of politics and advances in weaponry negated the need for the aristocracy to live in fortified castles. As a result, many were transformed into mansions without defences or demolished and rebuilt in a more modern, undefended style. Due to intermarriage and primogeniture inheritance amongst the aristocracy, it became common for one noble to often own several country houses . These would be visited rotationally throughout

864-478: The 1840s. The drawing room was expanded in 1905, and some servants' quarters were added before the beginning of the First World War. Innovative use of electricity meant that Fasque was possibly the first house in Scotland to be lit by electric lights, and had an electric buzzer system as early as 1890. It was also noted for having innovative firefighting and health and safety equipment in the 1920s. The house

912-452: The 1890s. After Thomas' death, William did not visit his nephew's estate again, and himself died in May 1898. Fasque House remained a working home until 1932, when Lady Mary, who had survived her brother John by six years, passed on. At this point, Fasque House became disused, with much of the furniture covered with sheets, and rooms locked up for decades. The estate itself operated as before, but

960-591: The 18th century. However, the Gothic style was probably the most popular choice of design in the 19th century. The most bizarre example of this was probably Fonthill Abbey which actually set out to imitate the mansions which had truly evolved from medieval Gothic abbeys following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century. Mansions built during and after the 19th century were not supported by

1008-525: The 2,508 slaves he owned across nine slave plantations, more than any single other plantation owner. Following the death of their eldest daughter, Anne, in 1829, it took four years for the Gladstones to move up to the new property, from the now-demolished Seaforth House on the shores of the Mersey . In the winter of 1833, John, his wife Anne McKenzie and their youngest daughter, Helen, moved into Fasque for

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1056-518: The Fasque and Glen Dye Estate, which is still owned by the Gladstone family. The house is a large sandstone building, in a symmetrical castellated style, with octagonal towers at the centre and corners of the main facade. The structure remains relatively unchanged since its completion. Sir John Gladstone added a third storey to the central tower in 1830, and built the portico of rusticated pillars in

1104-533: The Glynns) visited his elder brother many times, and practised his hobbies of walking and tree-felling across the moors of the estate. The estate lands had slowly expanded during Thomas's tenure to encompass 80,000 acres (320 km), bordering Balmoral to the north. Sir Thomas died in 1889, passing the Baronetcy on to his eldest son John , a bachelor soldier, who came home to run the estate with his sister Mary in

1152-465: The United Kingdom , who often stayed there. Fasque was a family home of the Gladstones until the 1930s, and was open to the public during the last quarter of the 20th century. In 2010 Fasque House was bought by Fasque House Properties Ltd and restoration work was begun. The name comes from the Gaelic word fasgadh , meaning "safety", or "dwelling place", and for reasons of potential tautology , "house"

1200-466: The central points of these great houses became redundant as owners wished to live separately from their servants, and no longer ate with them in a Great hall. All evidence and odours of cooking and staff were banished from the principal parts of the house into distant wings, while the owners began to live in airy rooms, above the ground floor, with privacy from their servants, who were now confined, unless required, to their specifically delegated areas—often

1248-429: The current house was not completed until about 1809. Approximately £30,000 was spent on the project. The house took over ten years to construct, with contemporary guide books describing its central hallway as open to the elements, as the world's largest indoor double spiral staircase was being constructed at the back of the hall. After his death in May 1810, the younger Alexander's 2nd son, also Alexander Ramsay, inherited

1296-509: The development of the modern mansion. In British English, a mansion block refers to a block of flats or apartments designed for the appearance of grandeur. In many parts of Asia, including Hong Kong and Japan, the word mansion also refers to a block of apartments. In modern Japan, a "manshon" ( Japanese : マンション ), stemming from the English word "mansion", is used to refer to a multi-unit apartment complex or condominium . In Europe, from

1344-589: The eldest brother of William. Thomas's sibling rivalry had been strong over the years, but now, as the second Baronet (and from 1876, Lord Lieutenant of Kincardineshire ), Thomas Gladstone and his wife Louisa Fellows, a relative of Queen Victoria , ran Fasque as an effective house for nearly 40 years, adding servants' quarters to the building itself, along with a school in the grounds. During that time, William Ewart Gladstone (who had come into possession of Hawarden Castle in North Wales, through his wife's family,

1392-517: The estate and the baronetcy, and kept Fasque for 19 years before having to sell it in the face of rising costs of its upkeep. In 1829, the house was sold for £80,000 to John Gladstone , a Scottish merchant from Liverpool whose family (originally called Gledstanes) had been farmers in Biggar, South Lanarkshire , before becoming wine merchants in Leith in the years following 1745. John Gladstone built up

1440-545: The first time. Their arrival coincided with one of the worst spells of weather ever recorded in Kincardineshire, with many of the trees to the north of the house (which had been planted originally in 1745) being blown down by high winds. The cold and the damp of the new house had a detrimental effect on Anne McKenzie Gladstone's health, and she died in 1835. Ten years later, in 1845, the Baronetcy of Fasque and Balfour

1488-452: The ground and uppermost attic floors. This was a period of great social change, as the educated prided themselves on enlightenment. The uses of these edifices paralleled that of the Roman villas . It was vital for powerful people and families to keep in social contact with each other as they were the primary moulders of society. The rounds of visits and entertainments were an essential part of

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1536-575: The hub of vast estates . The 19th century saw the continuation of the building of mansions in the United States and Europe. These mansions were often smaller than those built by the old European aristocracy. The new builders of mansions at the time explored new styles other than the Gothic tastes in architecture which were used often. They experimented with 19th-century versions of older Renaissance and Tudoresque styles; The Breakers in Rhode Island

1584-655: The large estates of their predecessors. These new mansions were often built as the week-end retreats of businessmen who commuted to their offices by the new railways, which enabled them to leave the city more easily. In Latin America, the grand rural estate , the Hacienda , Estancia, in Portuguese speaking Brazil Fazenda or Estância, with the mansion as its stately center, is a characteristic feature. Mansions tended to follow European architectural styles . Whereas until

1632-432: The main house was empty, although it remained "immaculately well preserved". Eventually, the Baronetcy passed through various family lines to end up with the 7th Baronet, Sir William Gladstone , great-grandson of the prime minister, and a former Chief Scout . In 1978, Sir William's younger brother, the naturalist Peter Gladstone , redecorated Fasque, apparently whitewashing almost every wall surface himself, and opened it to

1680-510: The public for the first time in September of that year, partly capitalising on the then-current popularity of the TV show Upstairs Downstairs . Fasque House remained open to summer visitors for over two decades, with the house's east wing almost entirely open to the public, and the west wing providing a home for Peter's family. A large auction of items from the house gained much publicity when it

1728-588: The same root—territorial holdings granted to a lord who would "remain" there. Following the fall of Rome, the practice of building unfortified villas ceased. Today, the oldest inhabited mansions around the world usually began their existence as fortified houses in the Middle Ages . As social conditions slowly changed and stabilised fortifications were able to be reduced, and over the centuries gave way to comfort. It became fashionable and possible for homes to be beautiful rather than grim and forbidding allowing for

1776-419: The second half of the 19th century, Portugal and Spain as the colonial (or former colonial) powers were the eminent models for architecture and upper-class lifestyle, towards the end of the 19th century they were sometimes replaced by then more dominant powers like France or England. In comparably developed, densely populated countries like Mexico, feudal estates and their mansions were as grand and stately as in

1824-463: The societal process, as described in the novels of Jane Austen . State business was often discussed and determined in informal settings. Times of revolution reversed this value. During July/August 1789, a significant number of French country mansions ( chateaux ) were destroyed by the rural population as part of the Great Fear —a symbolic rejection of the feudal rights and restraints in effect under

1872-402: The title. As of 2018 the title is held by his grandson, the eight baronet, who succeeded in that year. Several other members of the Gladstone family have also gained distinction. Robertson Gladstone , second son of the first baronet, was a merchant and politician. John Neilson Gladstone , third son of the first baronet, was a politician. William Ewart Gladstone, fourth son of the first Baronet,

1920-498: The traditional Spanish mansions with a garden in the center of the property are usually referred as " Quinta ". Some realtors in the US term mansions as houses that have a minimum of 8,000-square-foot (740 m ) of floor space. Others claim a viable minimum could instead be 5,000-square-foot (460 m ) of floor space, especially in a city environment. Gladstone Baronets The Gladstone Baronetcy , of Fasque and Balfour in

1968-510: The year as their owner pursued the social and sporting circuit from country home to country home. Many owners of a country house would also own a town mansion in their country's capital city. These town mansions were referred to as 'houses' in London, ' hôtels particuliers ' in Paris, and 'palaces' in most European cities elsewhere. It might be noted that sometimes the house of a clergyman was called

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2016-514: Was bestowed upon the elderly Sir John Gladstone, and to commemorate this, he built the Fasque Episcopalian Church in the grounds of the house, which is still used to this day. In its first decade, the Church also saw the burial of one of William Ewart Gladstone 's offspring who died in childhood, and in the same year as its founding. In December 1851, Sir John Gladstone died, passing the house on to his oldest son, Thomas ,

2064-406: Was held in the grounds in 1997. Peter died in 2000, with the estate now being run by Charles Gladstone, son of Sir William, the 7th Baronet. In 2003, the house was closed to the public, and since then specially arranged coach parties and wedding services have also been discontinued. In August 2007, Fasque House was sold to a local developer who intended to convert the building into flats. However, it

2112-422: Was never officially added. The name is a baroque , eighteenth-century corruption of the original Gaelic word. A previous house, known as Fasque, or Faskie, was located roughly 50 yards (50 m) north of the present site. In about the 1750s, Sir Alexander Ramsay, 6th Baronet of Balmain , who had been a local Member of Parliament, planted the beech avenues that survive today. William Adam (1689–1748) prepared

2160-588: Was preferred for McIntire, who was efficient in design and proportions and had skill as a woodcarver. Swags, rosettes, garlands, and his signature sheaths of wheat were carved in wood surfaces in McIntire homes built between 1793 and his death in 1811. In Europe, some 19th-century mansions were often built as replicas of older houses; the Château de Ferrières in France was inspired by Mentmore Towers , which in turn

2208-402: Was quickly put back on the market, with an asking price of £1.9 million. In May 2009 it was still being marketed, though at the reduced price of £1m. In 2010 Fasque House was bought by Fasque House Properties Ltd, and a complete restoration of the house was begun. The building's use as a wedding venue was reinstated, alongside conference facilities and cottage rentals. This sale did not affect

2256-410: Was succeeded by his cousin, the fourth baronet. He was the son of John Neilson Gladstone , third son of the first baronet. He had no sons and was succeeded by his cousin, the fifth baronet. He was the son of Reverend Stephen Edward Gladstone, second son of William Ewart Gladstone, fourth son of the first baronet. He never married and was succeeded by his younger brother, the sixth baronet, who did not use

2304-473: Was the distinguished statesman who served four times as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom . William Henry Gladstone , Lord Gladstone of Hawarden , and Viscount Gladstone , were all younger sons of William Ewart Gladstone. William Glynne Charles Gladstone , son of William Henry Gladstone, was a politician. The family seat was Fasque House , near Fettercairn in Kincardineshire . They still own

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