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Congleton or Congalton, East Lothian: Designs for a house and stables for William Grant, Esquire, 1790, unexecuted (6)

In 1790, Robert Adam was commissioned to design a house in Congalton for the potential purchase of the site by William Grant. There is very little known about William Grant. He sat for a portrait in 1782 by the American painter Gilbert Stuart in which he decided to skate on the Serpentine River in Hyde Park. His eldest daughter married Sir Adam Hay, 7th Baronet of Smithfield and Haystoun.

The designs include a two-storey, three-bay house with flanking wings and a stable block, though none of these were executed. The office drawings are dated 30 April 1790 and prepared in Albemarle Street, London but must have been taken to Scotland at a later date by Adam as there is an inscription on the back of SM Adam volume 45/81 ‘from Edinb. 22 July 1796’. Rowan suggests this inscription relates to Mrs Drysdale’s actions in sending the contents of the Edinburgh office to London after Robert and James’s deaths. According to the New Statistical Account of Scotland, William Grant did eventually acquire the estate in c.1804.

Literature:
A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, Index, 1922, pp. 7, 73; J. Gordon (ed.) The New Statistical Account of Scotland, Volume II, 1845, p. 210; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 2, 2001, pp. 116, 119-120, 124, 216; A. Rowan, Designs for Castles and Country Villas by Robert & James Adam, 1985, p. 80

Louisa Catt, 2022
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