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Purpose
Signed and dated
- 1772-77
Notes
The 3rd Duke had succeeded his father in 1755. He was a bibliophile and collected a library of 10,000 books. These were sold in 1812, and the Roxburghe Club was founded in commemoration of the dispersal of this great collection. Roxburghe became a member of the Society of Dilettanti in 1765, and FSA in 1797. Moreover, he formed a close friendship with King George III, doubtless owing to their shared interest in books. As a result, Roxburghe became a prominent courtier, serving as Lord of the Bedchamber in 1767-96, Lord-Lieutenant of Roxburghshire in 1794-1804, and Groom of the Stole and First Lord of the Bedchamber in 1796-1804, and was created Knight of the Thistle in 1768, and Knight of the Garter in 1801.
Roxburghe's vast library was housed in London, but Adam provided enough space for the collection when he made designs to remodel Floors. Indeed, one of Adam's plans for the principal storey of the house (Adam volume 37/16) includes a large library. Adam's schemes, however, were not executed. Floors Castle was finally remodelled in 1837-45 by the 6th Duke in the Jacobean style, and to designs by William Henry Playfair (1790-1857). The house survives in the ownership of the 10th Duke of Roxburghe, and is open to the public.
Literature:
A.T. Bolton, The architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1922, Volume II, Index pp. 13, 86; M. Binney, 'Floors Castle, Roxburghshire - I-II', Country Life, 11-18 May 1978, pp. 1298-1301, 1370-73; D. King, The complete works of Robert & James Adam and unbuilt Adam, 2001, Volume II, pp. 161, 228, 244, 247, 257; J. Ingamells, A dictionary of British and Irish travellers in Italy: 1701-1800, 1997, p. 826; K. Cruft, J. Dunbar, and R. Fawcett, The buildings of Scotland: Borders, 2006, pp. 284-85; 'Ker, John, 3rd Duke of Roxburghe (1740-1804)', Oxford dictionary of national biography; 'Floors Castle', British listed buildings online
Frances Sands, 2013
Level
Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.
Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing process).
Contents of Floors Castle, Kelso, Scottish Borders: unexecuted designs for the house and a gateway and cottage for the 3rd Duke of Roxburghe, 1772-77 (23)
- Designs for a Classical house (1st scheme), 1772, unexecuted (5)
- Designs for a castle-style house (2nd scheme), 1772-73, unexecuted (7)
- Designs for a rustic cottage, 1773, unexecuted (3)
- Alternative preliminary design and designs for a gateway and lodges, 1775, unexecuted (3)
- Designs for a castle-style house (3rd scheme), 1777, unexecuted (5)