Glen Tana, Deeside, Aberdeenshire

ARCHITECTURE ON DEESIDE. We lately had an outing up Deeside, and took the opportunity of visiting number of architectural works, lately executed, or in course of construction, all by one architect —Mr George Truefitt, of 5, Bloomsbury Square. London; but while we now give a description of these works, be it known that it is not for the purpose of puffing up this gentleman, and hope, upon future occasions, to give descriptions of works by our own local architects, and which we shall naturally have even greater pleasure in doing than in noticing those by one who is a stranger to us.

Our first visit was to Borrowscone, Kincardine O’Neil— Captain Hart’s residence. Here, some three years ago, Mr Truefitt altered the old house, adding a new dining and drawing room, some more bedrooms, bath, &c., and joining the new to the old work by a low wing— fortunately, for a fire occurred this spring, and burnt the whole of the old place to the ground, the low building being the means of preserving the new. The rubbish has now been cleared away, and new works are in progress, in the same style the rooms erected three years ago. may here remark that, in Mr Truefitt’s buildings, we do not get that horridly cold appearance which we have in our Union Street, where the chief aim seems to be to get every stone as white as possible and as smooth. He, on the contrary, gets his stones as varied in colour as he can, and, with the exception of the “dressings,” the work is as rough as possible —not rough work, but stones of random sizes, and rough on the face. The result is that he gets a great variety of colour, and deal of light and shade, even on a plain wall. The paint of his frames and sashes is of a warm yellowish colour, which adds much to the general effect, and again gets rid of cold appearances.

The second place visited was Aboyne Castle, the seat of the Marquis of Huntly. Here Mr Truefitt, about five years ago, pulled down the old kitchen department, which was in a ruinous condition, and erected new buildings in their place, all in granite, with stepped gables, very simply done, but effectively. We notice the total absence of mouldings, everything done being square in the edges, and which seems to be the most reasonable way of using granite certainly the best way of saving client’s pocket. We have often seen in polished work that square members look better than moulded, and cost nothing at all compared with the latter. We now see the same result in unpolished work.

On the Green, Aboyne, we noticed that this same architect had just commenced new schools, under the local School Board, and, on examining the plans, we found the same style is intended to carried out stones of varied colour, high roofs; and here may mention that Mr Truefitt never seems to have a show front to his buildings. He carries the same work all the way round, and distributes his gables, &c., so that his outlines look well from any point of view. We can point out some buildings in a certain great northern city of which we are proud, where have the cold white granite front, every block square as possible, while the sides are done roughly with variegated stones and we have thought to ourselves what a pity they did not mix up the lot together, and use squared ones equally all round, and rough ones equally also. The cost would have been no more, and the effect doubled.

From Aboyne we went to Glen Tanar; and here Mr W. Cunliffe Brooks liberality and taste has allowed our friend plenty of scope for his designs in all kinds of works. At the Bridge of Tanar, on a flue rock, is a tower—the entrance lodge of the estate. Here there is no show front: the windows of the different floors are dodged about, so that each front has only about one window; and the stones have been very carefully selected, of various colours, in stages. The lower portion of the tower is well “battered” down into the rock; staircase runs up inside one corner, and has a projecting turret at the top, covered with lead. This is one of the most effective buildings we have seen here, while we noticed that there was nothing in it which we could point to being expensive, as work which was not absolutely needed, or which could have been done at less cost, but all done well and properly. From the tower we pass by the side of the River Tanar till we come to another lodge at the deer fence. This building is square, with roof hipped all ways. The entrance at the corner is under an internal rustic porch. The chimney stalk projects out of the centre of the roof. This lodge externally looks as though it had not more than a couple of rooms in it, but it contains a sitting-room, larder, scullery, stairs, and two bedrooms. It is a great thing to be able to make building look as small as possible, and to get the greatest amount of space inside. We then pass on to what was a tumble-down old cottage of one storey only. A wing has been added at the end at right angles to it, and with gable in front. The old part has had a projecting window added, and new frames and sashes. So, with the addition, also, of some shrubs and flowers, this looks a delightful little cottage. The new wing contains a scullery, etc. ; and here, as in all the cottages erected Mr Brooks, he has had the water laid on from the hills in pipes, and taken to the sinks, where there are no taps, but the water is always running day and night—a right regal “constant supply.” The population of Glen Tanar having increased some 50 per cent, since Mr Brooks landed in it, the consumption of whisky, we presume, has not decreased; but if it be true that less per head is consumed, we presume it must be from Mr Brooks having done away with the excuse the men had of, when at home, having nothing to mix with the genuine article. The next place is a house perched up above the road the old farm house. This was a dreadful blot on the landscape; but, by erecting a picturesque dairy at one end, with low walls, high roof, and verandah - which verandah is carried in front of the house - the whole gets quite right. The dairy walls all round internally have white glazed tiles above the shelves, with various monogram devices dates, and subjects relating to dairy matters, all done by the hand. There is also a white marble fountain, with a constant supply of water, in which the butter is deposited. We next reach the kitchen garden, with its high wall, at the corner of which, forming as it were part of the wall, is the gardener’s cottage. One would expect a couple of rooms here, as only a corner window and a couple of small ones besides, are to be seen ; but inside we find kitchen, scullery, sitting room, and three bedrooms, etc., the entrance door and most of the windows being towards the garden. Mr Truefitt seems to be great in corner windows. Wherever he can with propriety put one, there find it; [and it not only is most pleasing externally, but it is exceedingly nice inside the room to be able to see in two directions. The corner window to this cottage is a triple one : the corner of the room is cut off, and the window extends also on each side —so it is a three-light window in three different planes.

We now turn off to the stabling, which is very extensive. Stables, loose boxes, coach-houses, harness-room, cleaning-places, etc.—all with plenty of room and of good height; also two cottages. The stables have water always running, and the buildings are in the same simple but effective style all the other buildings in the Glen. We see the architect likes to keep his walls low and roofs high a sure way of getting effect when the proportion is good. Near the stables, we find the deer and game larders, with well stuffed roofs, to keep them cool, overhanging eaves, ornamented tiles on the walls, with appropriate devices, birds, etc.; and, as we hear, well stocked, according to the seasons. A little beyond, we come to the dog-kennels, perfect in arrangement, and as picturesque as all the other works, with constant flow of water through the yards for drinking and bathing, We then see two houses, in one of which lives Mr Brooks’ great deer-stalker, and if he does not appreciate his home, where he has plenty of room, his out of-door seats, and his water, he ought to, as we daresay he does. WE must now make off to the House itself of Glen Tanar. This originally was one of the little Scotch cottages—two rooms on the ground floor and two attics in the roof. The Earl of Southesk then had the shooting for a time, and erected a wing, containing dining-room, drawing-room, and some bedrooms; but when Mr Brooks came, these were all made into bedrooms, and in six weeks Mr Truefitt designed and had three large reception rooms built, 30 by 22 ft. each. As time was an object, these rooms were erected of timber, and harled outside; but they have since had an external casing of granite. Another large wing has been built, consisting of servants’ hall, bedrooms, etc., new kitchen department; and the old part of the building has been altered and added to, and made to agree with the new work. We here get a large verandah and porch combined in rustic work, and other bits of rustic work about the building. Internally, the principal rooms have pine dados and panelled ceilings, and we notice in all the bedrooms ornamental glass of quaint design, every pattern different, and designed by the architect. This glass is in the lower panes of the sashes, and while it gets rid of the usual short white blinds, gives a cheerful effect to the rooms, and adds to the external general effect. Sitting and bedrooms are papered with tinted-glazed plain papers, of quiet tints they do not, therefore, interfere at all with , the pictures, engravings, water colour drawings, &c., with which the whole of the walls throughout the house are well covered.

Lately, a nobleman in the West End of London put his house into the hands of a “Decorator,” and it was decorated from top to bottom. Drawing-room and dining-room all done in panels —Cupids, birds, flowers, &c., were in abundance all over the walls. It all looked very nice so long as the rooms wore empty, but directly the furniture went in, nothing would go right—-this could not come in the centre of that panel, something would come in nearly, but not quite; altogether, they were in a regular muddle, and as to hanging the pictures, not only would they not come in in their right places, on account of this horrid panelling, but the decorations were being covered up and lost to view. My Lord, therefore, actually was induced to send his pictures off to a dealer for sale, in whose shop the writer saw them. They were, therefore, actually sacrificed to give way to the “Decorator’s” work. This is fact. Our advice, then, to all our readers, is to cover your walls with such quiet tints that you may put up your pictures, or old China, or anything you like, and in whatever position you choose. To return to the House :

Carpets are the same everywhere—sitting-rooms, bedrooms, staircase, etc. This adds greatly to the repose of the place. The bedrooms are purposely all small, but there are plenty of them. One idea was to keep the house as small in appearance as possible. Besides, here in Scotland, when on visit, a man would rather be in a cosy room, with a fire which will warm it, than in a great barn of a place where a fire makes no impression. Wash-stands and dressing tables, looking-glasses and writing-tables, are all designed purposely, and mostly made fixtures. Wherever a shelf or bracket could be put up, there it is. The beds are so nice, that one does not like to get up, and the Duke of Teck once said they were so comfortable that “it was worth a guinea a minute to be in one.” Throughout the house, Mr Brooks has no end of fine antique furniture, ivories, bronzes, etc. but the charm of the whole is the comfort which prevails everywhere in this his Scottish home, even to his bedroom, which is perhaps the most perfect and delightful room in the house. From the house we crossed the Tanar by a rustic bridge, and in few minutes came to the Church of St Lesmo. There were the ruins here of a small laird’s house, with an ancient archway. The latter was left intact, the old walls covered in, and now we find a charming little church. The roof, seats, choir seats, and pulpit, are all rustic pine, from the Forest. Between the rafters the roof is “powdered” with lead stars, gilt, and with small mirror in centre of each; the floor is granite—a granite font, the most simple one we ever saw--and all the windows, which are very small, are filled with ornamental glass. The whole of this little Church is most effective, and, of course, is visited by all who go to Glentanar. Making now over the hill, and by the Queen’s Road to the Dee, we soon come to a building on its banks, called Fasnadarach. This is a fishing lodge, which has just been erected. Here Mr Truefitt gives us his stepped gables, high roofs, verandah, and bay windows, his heart’s content. It also has a terrace overhanging the river, and a great river wall going right down to the river. Every care seems to have been taken to make this, with its garden, fences and all, as perfect as possible. We should have liked to have gone up the Glen, and into the Forest, but we found a notice which showed that tourists, if they went without leave, might get accidentally shot in the Forest” and as we did not wish our friends to mourn for us quite so soon, or the proprietors of this paper to appoint someone in our place, we thought would not venture, not having the required pass. We were told, however, that the same architect had been putting up quaint little stables and huts, etc., in out-of-the-way places, and that Mr Brooks, besides 30 miles of deer fencing, had made miles of new roads, and straightened and levelled miles of old ones, also had put up stone bridges, iron bridges, wooden rustic bridges, attended to the water courses, and, in fact, had done everything that could be done in reason and with good taste. After passing Dinnet Bridge, we came to Cambus O’May, a lovely spot, and where, through Lord Huntly’s exertions, the good railway folks are going make a station. Here, on the hill, or some distance up, our architect is putting up a capital house for Mr H. L. Gaskell—dining room, drawing room, library, billiard room, and lots of bedrooms. As in all the other works mentioned, the whole the interior woodwork will be pine varnished, dados, ornamental glass to the windows, &c. There will be three gables in front towards the road, the centre one stepped, and below it a large bay window, with verandah around it. This will be important-looking house from road, rail, and river. It will be perceived that we have not merely been describing a number of buildings, but from what we have seen, we have given our readers several practical hints which many may profit by, and we hope they will. As to the architect who has designed these works, he has to thank his clients for giving him such a capital opportunity of leaving his mark on Deeside. We may add that our townsmen, Messrs Warrack & Daniel, have been engaged in carrying out the greater portion of the above works; and that Messrs Burgess & Son, of Aboyne, have done the greater portion of the masonry. Mr Stuart has been resident Clerk of the Works nearly all the time at Glentanar. [Aberdeen Journal 9 September 1874 page 8]

Reference  :  Aberdeen Journal 9 September 1874 page 8