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Largo House and the Durham Coat of Arms

25/2/2022

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The previous post looked at the life of General James Durham (1754-1840) and noted that one of the changes he made to Largo House was the addition of a coat of arms on the tympanum above the central upper windows. 'Coat of arms' is the popular term for what is more accurately a 'full heraldic achievement'. This post attempts to 'read' the heraldic achievement displayed on Largo House and understand the significance of the various elements of it. The component parts of the full heraldic achievement, including the shield, supporters, crest, and mottoes, will be described. 

Heraldic visual designs have been used by families, places and organisations for centuries to symbolise their identity. The origins of such designs date back to medieval times when a warrior dressed in a full suit of armour including a helmet would have been entirely anonymous without some visible symbol to identify him. His shield provided a large flat surface upon which to display a pictorial means of identification. 
A family's arms can evolve through the generations to reflect lines of descent, adoption, alliance, etc. General Durham registered his own coat of arms in 1792 and it carried variations from the arms of his Durham predecessors. It must have been after the death of his father in 1808 that he had his own arms mounted on the frontage of Largo House. Below is an annotated image of it as it appears on the tympanum of Largo House (which being stonework does not reflect colour aspect of the arms).

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​The full heraldic achievement of General James Durham bears two mottoes: Victoria non praeda (Victory not booty (or loot)) above the crest; and below the arms: Per mare per terras (Through the sea, through the lands).

Central to the coat of arms is a shield quartered. 
Quartering in is a method of joining several different coats of arms together in one shield by dividing the shield into equal parts and placing different coats of arms in each division.

The first and fourth quarters of the shield represent the Durham family (see full Durham shield below) and have a crescent topped with three mullets (stars with straight sides, typically having five or six points - five in this case).

The second quarter bears the Calderwood family shield - a saltire with five mascles (diamond shaped objects) on ermine with palm leaves. This represents the family of General Durham's mother, Anne Calderwood, and is the key variation from his father's arms.

The third quarter reflects the Rutherford family - 
an orle below three martlets (mythical birds without feet which never roost from the moment of birth until death as they are continuously on the wing). The Rutherford shield, which can be seen below was quartered with the Durham shield when the Rutherford of Hunthill line ended with Margaret Rutherford, wife of General Durham's great grandfather, James Durham. 

The quartered shield is flanked by two supporters: horses saddled and bridled. These are known as 'supporters' or 'attendants' which are usually as close to 'rampant' in attitude as possible. Horses represent readiness for all employments for king and country. Above the shield is a dolphin haurient (depicted swimming vertically, typically with the head upwards). In heraldry, the dolphin is an ornamental creature that takes the form of a large fish. It bears little resemblance to the true natural dolphin, which is a marine mammal. A dolphin represents swiftness, diligence, salvation, charity and love. This dolphin sits atop a Baron's coronet (small crown). Such a crown would have six pearls, only four of which are visible on the arms.

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Below is a representation (from a medal) of General Durham's father's coat of arms. Its shield bears only the Durham and Rutherford quarters. This medal, which was awarded to James Durham for archery around 1752, is held at St Andrews University Special Collections and can be viewed on-line in detail here. General Durham's younger brother Philip Charles Henderson Durham had his own coat of arms registered in 1818. The full heraldic achievement featured the same shield layout as his father's (i.e. the one on the medal below) but had different elements added that were more personal to him. More on that some other time. 

​Despite all the variations in the Durham arms over the centuries, it is the arms of General James Durham (1754-1840) that has been displayed in Largo for around two centuries and can still be seen (albeit obscured by trees) on the tympanum of the ruins of Largo House. As it is difficult to view the ruins today, here is a link to a short drone film over the Largo House ruins from the Vintage Lundin Links and Largo YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/IS6jlq8dPAc

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General James Durham (1754-1840)

18/2/2022

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James Durham was born in Edinburgh in January 1754 - son of James Durham (1732-1808) and Anne Calderwood (1734-1797). He is pictured above in a painting by George Watson (1767-1837). James had four younger siblings - Thomas, Philip, William and Margaret. He entered the army aged fifteen in 1769, joining the Second Dragoon Guards as a Coronet The extract below from the 22 February 1840 Naval and Military Gazette charts his army career from that point, until he obtained the rank of General in 1830. Notably, in 1794 Durham raised the Fife Fencibles, an early military force based in Fife. With them he served chiefly in Ireland. ​

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​Durham married Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel Sheldon of Flitwick, Bedfordshire in 1779. It was in 1808, upon the death of his father, that a fifty-four-year-old James Durham inherited the Largo Estate. Now at a less active stage in his military service, he resided almost constantly at Largo and was involved in many practical improvements to the estate. He also set about making improvements to Largo House itself. In 1815 he had the stable block built to designs by Alexander Leslie and James Leslie.

After the death of his wife Elizabeth in 1826, James married for a second time in 1827 to Margaret, eldest daughter of Colonel John Anstruther Thomson of Charlton. The pair made significant additions to Largo House in 1831 by extending extensively to the rear of the building and adding the conservatory to the west. Another significant, if smaller scale, change made during General Durham's era was the addition of a coat of arms to the tympanum on the frontage of Largo House (more on that in the next post).

Durham had a great interest in antiquities and was responsible for the restoration of Largo's Pictish Stone within the grounds of Largo House, the saving of a portion of the Norrie's Law Silver Hoard and the placing of a plaque on Sir Andrew Wood's Tower in 1832. In 1837, he had a cannon brought to Largo from the sunken HMS Royal George following salvage work on the wreck. The loss of the ship had been the worst naval disaster in British home waters since the Mary Rose, 237 years beforehand. James's brother Philip was one of four lieutenants saved from the Royal George. The cannon, which had lain for over half a century (since 1782) on the seabed, was brought to Largo House where it was displayed right in front of the house, drawing much interest.  Durham also owned an original manuscript of John Lamont's Diary which went missing from his library around 1830 (see 25 March Fife Herald entry from that year below). This 17th century diary contained much every day information about the Lundin family of Lundin. Lamont's brother Allan was factor and chaplain to the family. 
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Among the other roles carried out by James Durham was a stint as Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club in St Andrews. He fulfilled the role of Convener for the County of Fife for a spell right up until his death. General James Durham is pictured below in his later years. He died at Largo House 6 February 1840 at the age of 86. Having left no heir, he was succeeded in the estate of Largo by his nephew Thomas Durham Calderwood of Polton. James Durham's second wife Margaret died at 44 Moray Place, Edinburgh in 1847. Both James and Margaret were interred in the family vault at Largo Kirk. James was arguably the last custodian of Largo House who truly cared for the building and had a strong personal connection to it, given that he spent his childhood years there and that it was his father who had it built. He certainly invested heavily in caring for and extending the house and adorning it with meaningful artefacts. Perhaps the story of the decline of the mansion really began with the death of General Durham in 1840.

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The Norrie's Law Silver Hoard

11/2/2022

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Two centuries ago, a hoard of silver was discovered at Norrie's Law - a cairn on the northern edge of the farm of Bonnyton within the Largo estate, close to the boundary with Teasses estate. The find is now known to be one of the largest hoards of Pictish silver ever to be found and has been dated to 500-600 A.D.. Unfortunately, back in circa 1819 the unnamed person who unearthed the finds was an unscrupulous individual who, rather than report the find to the appropriate authorities, sold the silver to an intermediary allegedly named Forbes who sold the pieces on to silversmiths. The objects, reportedly including a full suit of scale-armour, a shield, a helmet and a sword handle were melted down and recycled by the purchasers. Thus important historical artefacts, and the knowledge that they could have unlocked, were forever lost. 

Word of the event eventually reached land owner General James Durham of Largo House. He had the site rechecked and further silver items were recovered, having escaped the notice of the original finder. Although General Durham had succeeded in preserving an important subset of the hoard,
a mix of intact objects and hacksilver (fragments for recycling), he did not immediately share the news of his discovery. It was not until around two decades later that a man named George Buist brought the story into the public domain. Buist was a journalist and keen antiquarian. While researching sculptured stones, he heard of a stone recently rediscovered by General Durham (now known as the Largo Pictish Stone). While learning about the rediscovered stone at Largo House, Durham presumably told Buist about the silver.
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George Buist aged around 40 years, captured in a ​Hill and Adamson calotype in late 1845 during a visit of a few months to Scotland following the death of his wife.

George Buist (pictured above ) was born in Forfarshire in 1804. At the age of twelve, he enrolled at St Andrews University to study Theology. From 1826 he spent six years as a preacher, following in his father's footsteps. In 1832, a career change saw George became editor of the Dundee Courier. After two years, he left to set up the Dundee Guardian on his own account, as well as the Scottish Agricultural Magazine. He later edited the Perth Constitutional before spending six months in London in 1837, working in the library of the British Museum where he undertook historical and antiquarian research. A particular line of investigation of his was ancient cross-stones.

This interest, coupled with a return to Fife to become editor of the Cupar-based Fifeshire Journal, led George Buist to General James Durham. Buist re
cognised the similarity between the imagery on the Largo cross-stone and on a silver plaque amongst the hoard (what we know now as the Pictish double disc and Z-rod). George Buist's journalistic curiosity led him in 1838 to investigate the backstory of the original find and the lost majority of the hoard. He became convinced that more facts (and possibly even further pieces from the hoard) could be unearthed by bringing it to the attention of the public. Part of his strategy was to have pewter casts made of nine of the key objects. These could be taken with him while making his enquires to perhaps jog memories. The pewter replicas are pictured below (and were later donated to the museum at St Andrews).

The maker of the pewter replicas was Robert Robertson (1793-1877), a Cupar jeweller who lived and worked
 at 35 Bonnygate. He was a deacon of the Hammermen Trade (that is craftsmen working with metal, including silversmiths, goldsmiths, armourers, blacksmiths, wheel-wrights, cutlers and pewterers, saddlers and lorimers). He also became Chief Inspector of Weights and Measures for the County of Fife and was highly respected. So it is surprising that he was also one of those who had also illegally purchased some of the original hoard two decades before (he paid £35 for his items). Robertson was able to provide some more information that helped Buist gain a better understanding of the fate of the original portion of the hoard, including his recollections of the appearance of some of the lost objects and what he knew of other purchasers of the silver. He described a shield featuring a man on horseback and sword handle which appear in the illustration further down the post as items 8 and 9.
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14 July 1859 Fife Herald advertisement for Robert Robertson, Jeweller, Cupar
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​Incredibly, Buist reported that, as a consequence of his investigations, one additional plate and one pin, both matches for existing pieces, (items 4 and 5 in the image above) were 
"recovered from hands from which they might, like so much of what preceded them, have passed into the crucible of the silversmith". He stated that these recovered pieces had now "been added to the collection of General Durham, in connection with which they will hereafter be noticed without further distinction from the others". He also bemoaned the "absurd law in reference to treasure trove, which has occasioned the secretion and destruction of so many valuable relicts". In other words he believed that the law encouraged the type of action carried out by the man who found the Norrie's Law hoard - the speedy destruction of evidence.

​Buist went on to publish a report to the Fife Literary and Antiquarian Society late in 1839 entitled "Silver Fragments in the Possession of General Durham, Largo - commonly called the Silver Armour of Norrie's Law" (which can be viewed in full here). However, just at the point that this was published and interest was high, Buist left Scotland to take up a new post as editor of the Bombay Times in India. General James Durham was one of the many to write a testimonial for Buist to ease his settlement there. The letter of introduction (further below) was written on 7 December 1839.  James Durham died two months later on 6 February 1840.

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So with General Durham deceased and Buist in India (where, aside from a couple of brief return visits to Scotland, he would live out the rest of his life), investigations into the hoard were discontinued. The surviving silver remained in the possession of the Durham family. In 1856 Mrs Dundas Durham sent the relics to an exhibition of antiquities and in 1864 she gifted part of the collection to the National Museum of Antiquaries of Scotland in Edinburgh. The remainder of the silver was donated to the same museum in 1883, following her death.

For over a century the 170-piece silver collection was assumed to be one cohesive group of medieval artefacts. The additional items 'rescued' by Buist's efforts in 1838-39 were treated as a genuine part of the hoard. However, in recent years the objects and their origins have been re-examined as part of the Glenmorangie Research Project on Early Medieval Scotland. Project findings have thrown up a surprise and cast doubt over the authenticity of a couple of the key objects. The writings of George Buist have played a key part in unravelling the truth.

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Pictured above are two pairs of virtually identical objects from the hoard. Recent analysis has revealed that these pairs of objects are each made up of a worn original and a direct copy. Where there were areas of damage on the original, these were also present on the copy. The silver composition of the copies was examined and the copies were found to be refined silver that lacked the trace elements one would expect to be present in antique silver. These items were different from the rest of the hoard and the question arose of when these copies were made. 

The story of Robert Robertson making the pewter copies was widely documented. He would have had the necessary moulds. Could he have made the silver copies too? Was George Buist misled about the unearthing of these 'lost' pieces'? Or could have been in on the creation of the silver copies? Arguably both Robertson and Buist had something to gain by the miraculous 'finds'. For Robertson, being able to add to the surviving silver hoard could have eased his guilt over his involvement in the earlier illegal destruction of the lost items. For Buist, having something tangible coming out of his intense investigations into the hoard would have provided both success and closure prior to his departure from Scotland. The source of the 1838/9 supposedly-rescued pieces was never specified and Buist had seemed keen that "
they will hereafter be noticed without further distinction from the others".

The full facts will likely never be known but certainly we understand more now than we did before and perhaps further information will come to light in the future. In the meantime, you can see the surviving hoard including the imposter pieces at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, where they are part of the Early People gallery. As for George Buist - after 20 years at the Bombay Times, he retired from journalism in 1859 to take up a government appointment at Allahabad. He died from dysentery while at sea, en-route to Calcutta on 1 October 1860.

Read more on the recent findings in this NMS blog - blog.nms.ac.uk/2015/03/19/the-glenmorangie-research-project-norries-law/ and also in this video - 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9CtTmpaQCM&list=TLGGW4HYcdAgKhEwOTAyMjAyMg&t=98s


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Illustrations of the key silver pieces featured in the 1856 'Sculptured Stones of Scotland' book by John Stuart. Note that this does not include the 1838/9 additional items only the key pieces retrieved around 1819 from Norrie's Law.
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Largo's Pictish Stone

4/2/2022

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The Picts were an ancient people who lived in what is now eastern and north-eastern Scotland from Caithness to Fife from around the 3rd to the 10th century. Much of what we know about them has been deduced from the Pictish stones that survived from that era. Above is a plate from John Stuart's 1856 publication 'Sculptured Stones of Scotland' - a seminal work that sparked great interest in Scotland's Pictish stones. The image was created at the firm of Keith & Gibb, Royal Lithographers and Engravers. It shows in detail the symbols carved into the Pictish stone which is now much deteriorated and resides in a shelter to the right as you enter Largo Kirk churchyard through its west gateway.

Sometimes referred to as the 'Largo Cross' or the 'Largo Stone', the upright cross-slab of red sandstone is shaped to a rectangle with a rounded top. It is carved in relief on both sides. On one side is a ringed cross that fills the full dimensions of the slab. The head of the cross is equal-armed with rectangular terminals. The shaft of the cross is set into a rectangular base. To the right of the shaft is a pair of entwined sea-horses and to the left is a large human figure. Indistinct traces remain of ornamentation on the ring and of a flat circular boss at the intersection. The cross arms once had an interlaced pattern and a spiral or interlaced design once covered the shaft.

The opposite face depicts a hunting scene in the upper half, with three horsemen and at least two hounds, all facing to the left. There are traces of some creature behind the lower rider. In front of the two lower riders is a double disc and Z-rod symbol set vertically. Below all of that is a Pictish beast facing left and further below a deer looking back at another deer. Below are two alternative illustrations of the stone, which measures 6 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 6 inches and is 5 ½ inches thick. The upper one, in sepia, is from an 1840 book by J.M. Leighton called 'History of the County of Fife. The lower illustration is from 'Early Christian Monuments of Scotland' by J.R. Allen and J. Anderson (1903).

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The stone dates back to the 8th or 9th century but little is known about its early history. At some point it was moved from its original (unknown) site, broken in two and forgotten about. Its rediscovery happened around 1838. The story goes that one piece was discovered during quarrying on the north side of Norrie’s Law. The other part, roughly equal in size, turned up almost a kilometre away, having been used as a drain cover. A variation of the story is told in the extract from Stuart's 1856 'Sculptured Stones of Scotland' (see above) - where it is stated that it was "taken from a wall forming part of or contiguous to old Largo House".  Either way, the 1830s discovery involved General James Durham. The two pieces reunited, they were cemented together and erected in the grounds of Largo House on a plinth inscribed with the year 1839, when it was fully restored and re-erected. The 1854 map below shows the 'monumental stone' situated on the right of the west entrance to Largo House. General Durham died in 1840 - the year after the stone's restoration.
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At some later point, possibly when Lilias Dundas Calderwood Durham sold the Largo estate and moved to Polton House, near Dalkeith in 1868, the stone was moved. It was positioned in the kitchen garden at Polton, in among the greenhouses and growing produce. A painting dating from 1840 of Polton House is shown above. The pair of detailed maps below from around 1912 show the stone still in place at Polton and, on the other map of Largo, a note stating 'sculptured stone (site of)' indicating that the stone was no longer in its former spot at Largo. This relocating of the stone created an anomaly - a Pictish stone standing beyond the south boundary of where the Picts had ever been, as they were never south of the Forth.

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The timing of the stones return to Largo (at its new site at the Kirk) is a little unclear. Historic Environment Scotland states that "by 1933 it had been taken back to Largo" however a 1938 map shows it still in the grounds of Polton House. The latter could however be an error, given that the 1938 map series has a footnote stating that these were "surveyed by rapid methods as an emergency measure". Perhaps an assumption was made the the stone was still there. After all it would have been a rare occurrence for Pictish stone to be moved. Further investigation shows that the 1933 date relates to a report published that year - 'The Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments and Constructions in Scotland Eleventh Report'. Within that it states that the stone at Largo was actually visited in August 1925, when it had apparently "recently been returned".

Pictish stones are classified into three groups. Class I stones are the simplest and oldest, with symbols cut into the stone. These date to the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries and do not include Celtic crosses.  Class II stones have both Pictish symbols and Celtic ornamentation. These 8th and 9th century stones are dressed, so that the imagery stands out in relief. Class III stones also date to the 8th and 9th centuries but have none of the original types of Pictish symbols. These are typically decorated with crosses and scenes involving people and animals.

The stone at Largo is a Class II stone and is a complex blend of a cross, a hunting scene and some of the earlier Pictish symbols such as the pictish beast and the double disc and Z-rod symbol. It is a cross-slab rather than a free-standing cross and incorporates both Christian and pre-Christian symbolism. After a millennium and having been uprooted from its standing place more than once, Largo's Pictish stone understandably looks a little worse for wear now. Yet it is worth a visit to see this remarkable piece of history in its roofed and grilled enclosure at Largo Kirk.

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