Pictured above is the receipt book for the rents, water rates and feu duties paid to Lundin Estate from Martinmas 1881 to 1883. The receipt stubs provide details of the individuals who made payments. Among them are the following:
- Builder Archibald Muir White for water rates for three houses on Crescent Road (Firpark 1 and 2 and Elphinstone).
- Misses Rigg for the water rates of Aithernie House (now the Old Manor Hotel).
- Miss Mary Dalyell Haymes of Aithernie House rent of the "Old School House", which was the old Emsdorf School, at the corner of Emsdorf Road and Crescent Road where she ran her Sabbath School.
- Colonel Alaric Robertson's widow for the water rates of Murree Lodge on Crescent Road.
- Andrew Greig Anderson for the rent of Lundin Salmon Fishing Station for year 1883 (payable at Whitsun).
- Robinson Crusoe Lodge of Good Templars water rates for the Good Templar Hall in Lundin Mill.
- Henry Petheram for the feu duty and water rates for Haworth on Leven Road.
- North British Railway £5 feu duty for half a year.
- Rent of the Quarry at Carlhurlie.
- Rents for the farms of Bankhead, Blacketyside, Nether Pratis and Annfield (below are notices of Lundin Estate farms for let from the Fifeshire Journal around the same time).
Note that Martinmas (11 November) was traditionally the day when contracts and leases began and ended, when rent was due and when staff were hired. Along with Candlemas (2 February), Whitsunday (15 May) and Lammas (1 August), Martinmas was one of the Scottish quarter days in the legal year.
Mr Mudie, mentioned in the notice above was the factor for Lundin and Montrave estates at the time. Theodore Eulenstein Mudie, was born in Nelson Street, Dundee in 1857, the son of a merchant's clerk. Interestingly, he was named after a neighbour of the family in Nelson Street - German microbiologist and talented musician Theodore Eulenstein. Mudie began his two decades as estate factor in the early 1880s and lived at Greenside House. He emigrated to Canada in 1905 with his wife and family and sought to establish a 160 acre homestead. He became Principal Assistant to the city engineer of Brandon, Manitoba in 1906 but became ill shortly afterwards and died in 1909 aged 52.
The stationery used by the Lundin Estate at the time came from A. & D Padon - Stationers and Account Book Manufacturers. Their premises at 13 St Andrew's Square, Edinburgh, is pictured above (from the Canmore Collection). Their account books, rent receipt books, etc. often featured classic marbling patterns such as the examples at the start and end of this post. To achieve the effect, paints are floated on water and swirled or combed before paper or card is laid on top. Marbling reached the peak of its popularity during the nineteenth century before increased mechanisation and availability of cheaper materials resulted in its decline. Read more about the technique here and here. Further peeks into these records from the Lundin Estate to follow at a future date.