Scotsbrig is a farm near Ecclefechan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, and a Category B listed building. Thomas Carlyle lived there with his family in the summer of 1826 before moving to 21 Comely Bank, Edinburgh. Scotsbrig remained a residence of the Carlyle family for decades.[1] The farmhouse underwent numerous additions and renovations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.[2]
| Scotsbrig | |
|---|---|
 Scotsbrig, no later than 1904 | |
| Coordinates | 55°04′49″N 3°13′55″W / 55.0803°N 3.232°W |
Listed Building – Category B | |
| Official name | Scotsbrig Farmhouse and Steading |
| Designated | 4 October 1988 |
| Reference no. | LB16955 |
Carlyle recorded his first impressions in a letter to his brother John:
The house is in bad order; but we hope to have it soon repaired; and for farming purposes, it is an excellent "shell of a house." Then we have a linn [waterfall] with crags and bushes, and a 'fairy knowe [knoll]' tho' no fairies that I have seen yet; and, cries our Mother, abundance of grand thready peats, and water from the brook, and no reek and no Honour[a] to pester us! To say nothing, cries our father, of the eighten yeacre [acre] of the best barley in the country; and bog-hay, adds Alick,[b] to fatten scores of young beasts!
In fact making all allowance for newfangledness, it is a much better place, so far as I can judge, than any our people have yet been in; and among far better and kindlier sort of people. I believe of a truth they will find themselves much obliged to his Honour for persecuting them away. Long life to his Honour! I myself like the place considerably better, tho' I have slept but ill yet, and am billus enough. But I have mounted your old straw-hat again; and fairly betaken me to work; and should, as we say Aberdeen-awa, "be bauld to compleen."[3]
Notes
editReferences
edit- ^ Cumming, Mark, ed. (2004). "Scotsbrig". The Carlyle Encyclopedia. Madison and Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 422. ISBN 978-0-8386-3792-0.
- ^ Stuff, Good. "Scotsbrig, Middlebie, Dumfries and Galloway". britishlistedbuildings.co.uk. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
- ^ Carlyle, T. "TC TO JOHN A. CARLYLE". The Carlyle Letters Online. 4 (1): e6. doi:10.1215/lt-18260530-TC-JAC-01. ISSN 1532-0928.