Description

1807 for Thomas Young. 2-storey with attic and basement, 3-bay rectangular-plan country mansion with slightly advanced central entrance bay; central bowed bay to rear and later single storey bowed and stilted outshoot. Whinstone rubble with dressed sandstone ashlar tabbed margins and long and short quoins. String course at ground floor; mutuled eaves course.

E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: essentially 2-storey, 3-bay on basement with slightly projecting central bay with pediment surmounting. 6 stone steps leading to pilastered door surround supporting entablature, 2-leaf timber entrance door (with 5-light glazed fanlight) leading to semi-glazed panelled inner door; window to outer bays. To 1st floor, 3 regularly placed bays; triangular pediment rising above central bay forming attic with elliptical window in tympanum. To basement, window to outer bays, central bay concealed by entrance steps but boarded door within right return. Inset ashlar ogee curved wing walls form passage to front of basement; wrought-iron railings with fleur-de-lis and pinecone heads surmount wall and follow line of wall and flank stairs of ground floor entrance, stone obelisk terminating piers to outer of railings with wrought-iron urns surmounting.

N ELEVATION: 2 regularly placed bays to each floor; two diagonally placed 2-pane Carron lights to attic. Inset retaining wall forming passage at basement level accessed by flight of ashlar steps to right of elevation.

W (REAR) ELEVATION: essentially 3-bay with regular fenestration to basement, ground and 1st floor on outer bays; tripartite windows to central bay of upper floors (glazed middle light, outer lights blind) contained within a projecting bow rising into crenellated wallhead; smaller windows to returns of basement bow. Later single storey, semicircular ended outshoot to right re-entrant angle of central bow at ground floor level, resting on retaining garden wall; windows to end and right return; crenellated wallhead. Door directly below offshoot at basement level.

S ELEVATION: 2 regularly placed bays to each floor. Inset retaining wall forming passage at basement level accessed by flight of ashlar steps to left of elevation.

12-pane timber sash and case windows; 8-pane windows to later stilted offshoot. 2-pane cast-iron Carron lights to N elevation of attic with further roof light partially concealed by castellated bow. Piended grey slate roof to outer bays, pitched roof to rear of central bay behind castellated bow; lead ridging to all with slates forming flashings. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods. Paired ashlar roofline stacks flanking central bay with plain neck copes and 6 plain cans each.

INTERIOR: central lobby with timber panelled door leading to dining room (left) and drawing room (right). Dining room has service room to rear; drawing room runs full length of house. Oval smoking room to rear of house, contained within bow. Marble fireplaces to principal rooms, cast-iron fireback in drawing room earlier than house. Central geometric stone stair case with plain cast-iron balustrade leading to 1st floor (bedrooms) and basement (kitchen and service rooms).

Statement of Interest

Part of a B-Group with Rosetta Stables, walled garden and lodge. This small mansion house stands to the north of Peebles. Set within wooded grounds, now a caravan park, the house has its own stables and walled garden (listed separately). In the 18th century, the site to the west of the road was known as Acrefield, and was owned by John Borrowman. Land to the south was owned by Francis Gilbert (Provost of Peebles) and called Acrefield Govan, as it once belonged to the Govans of Cardrona. John Robertson, a silversmith from Newcastle, bought both parcels of land in 1740 and renamed them "Acrefield". In 1807, he sold them to Thomas Young of Chapelhouse, East Lothian for ?3500. The new house, Rosetta, was erected for Young, a military surgeon and his new bride Violet Burns, the daughter of James Burns of Barns. Young had been on the Egyptian expedition led by Sir Ralph Abercromby who, after the capture of Alexandria in 1801, had secured the Rosetta Stone for Britain. A plaster copy of the stone is built into the entrance lobby. In 1823, Young improved the entrance to the house by acquiring part of the adjacent Elliot's Park land from Miss Ann Elliot in exchange for land to the west of the Rosetta estate. He died in 1836 and Trustees of the estate bought further land to the west of the Eddleston Water. The estate was sold in 1867 for ?9500 to Coutts Trotter of Melville Street, Edinburgh. The estate was then sold, in 1873, to the M'Gildowny family of Woodfold Park, Lancs. The house suffered fire damage in the later 20th century, although it has now been refurbished. The estate of Rosetta is in use as a caravan park with the house as its centrepiece.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17844902

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990