Please note: This is an edited version of a fuller survey with notes and sources which may be read here.
The Palladian house at Newhailes, designed by the Scottish architect James Smith (1645-1731), was acquired in 1709 by Sir David Dalrymple who developed the surrounding estate, creating 'a perfectly integrated house and landscape'. It is interesting to note that by the middle of the eighteenth century, Newhailes had its own extensive pleasure gardens, with ponds, waterfalls, walks and grottos.
The Collection and its UseThe music collection of Newhailes is held at the National Library of Scotland and comprises 78 volumes. A few contain only one or two major compositions, but many are compilations with a variety of works making up over 1,000 items. Most of the music is printed, though there are some manuscripts which include original items. The earliest volumes date from the 1720s, while the latest come from the end of the nineteenth century. Though the collection runs from composers Purcell and Corelli to Wagner and Strauss, most of it comes from a period of sixty years or so, straddling the turn into the nineteenth century. This is very much in line with other similar collections, suggesting that it is representative of the main-stream music of the time. The range of operas, songs, sonatas, symphonies, piano duets and Scottish music is similar to what was performed at musical societies in major Scottish cities, and at pleasure gardens such as Vauxhall, Ranelagh or Marylebone, The majority of the music was printed in London, but some of it comes from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Paris and Leipzig.
There is much evidence of use of the music with signatures, ornaments, fingerings, corrections, crosses and comments added to the majority of copies (only 17 of 78 volumes have no added marks). There is a list of all the signatures that appear on the copies. But because of the lack of a comprehensive family tree, ownership between generations is sometimes a matter of guesswork, especially as forenames passed quite freely between generations, often making it difficult to be certain which particular generation is being referenced by a particular signature. Through the progression of signatures, we are sometimes able to trace how certain people moved into the family through marriage.
There is also evidence to suggest that volumes from other houses came to be amalgamated into the Newhailes collection. 'Miss Montgomeries Annick Lodge no. 4', is an inscription on a volume of Clementi Piano Sonatas with a signature of Miss Cunninghame. Annick Lodge had important gardens, but any link to Newhailes is at present unclear. The signature of Miss C. Montgomerie, who lived at Annick Lodge, also appears on the outside of Hook's Guida di Musica. She was presumably a daughter of Captain Alexander Montgomery, another of whose daughters, Elisabeth, married Rt Hon. David Boyle. Gow's Third Collection carries the signature of H. Hepburn on its title page. There are eight volumes with the signature of Christian E. L. Dalrymple, which carry the inscription: 'One of the many volumes of music belonging to the Misses Smollett at Cameron'. Cameron House was on the banks of Loch Lomond and was the home of the Misses Smollett, who were personal friends of the family. We have no information as to why so much of a wide-ranging musical collection came to Newhailes at the end of the nineteenth century.
Signatures and OwnershipThere are just over 30 signatures on various copies of music. But a detailed attribution of ownership to the various family members through the interpretation of these signatures is a tricky matter. There are, however, certain names which occur regularly, suggesting that at least four generations were closely involved with music; and assumptions can be made using this information, for which I am indebted to the researches of Antonia Lawrence-Allen.
Christian Dalrymple (1764/8-1838), the daughter of Sir David Dalrymple, 3rd Bart Lord Hailes (1726-92), and Anne (née) Brown (d.1768), remained unmarried. She became the Laird on the death of her father in 1792, and from her Journals we have a clear impression of what it was like to run such an estate at the beginning of the nineteenth century. We also have a fascinating diary which she kept on an extended tour in the early 1800s to the south of England ending in Exeter and London. She also visited the north of Scotland during 1834 when, in September, she stayed at Cameron House. There are also two volumes of music with her signature present, from which we can see something of her musical taste.
Helen Boyle (1808-69) married Sir Charles Dalrymple Fergusson, 5th Bart of Kilkerran (1800-49), and three volumes with her signature show a penchant for Italian and French opera by Rossini, Meyerbeer, Vaccaj and Bishop. There is also piano music – character pieces, dances, divertimentos and variations, including the variations from the keyboard Suite in E by Handel (the so-called Harmonious Blacksmith), and some ballads (Nha.Mus.61). A similar mix of repertoire occurs in another volume which also includes Rossini, but with a preponderance of variations for piano, and includes excerpts from Der Freischütz by Weber and several Quadrilles.
On a volume with 'Mida Fergusson 1840' on its cover, there are two books of studies by Charles Czerny with some well-worn pages and added fingerings, suggesting that much practice took place. Though there is no-one recorded as having been given that name, it appears that this might be a family name for Mary Jemima Dundas Adamina Fergusson, youngest daughter of Sir James Fergusson of Kilkerran and his second wife Henrietta (née) Duncan. Christian Dalrymple's father, David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, had remarried, in 1770: his second wife was Sir James Fergusson's younger sister, Helen Fergusson (1741-1810).
However, the Henrietta D. Fergusson, mentioned on an inscription on the title page of Les Huguenots by Meyerbeer 'from her brother JF', written in a volume dated 1857, is hardly likely to be the same person as above. Maybe this is the Fergusson who added signatures to some of the dances in Nha.Mus.66?
Who were the musicians of the family?From the information that is included in the music collection at Newhailes, it is impossible to be sure which members of which branch of which particular families played what instruments. What is evident is that there was a good appreciation of keyboard playing, which, in the eighteenth century, would have meant harpsichord or square piano, yielding to the Piano Forte as the new century approached. From many of the marks on the keyboard parts, and especially from well-worn pages of technical exercises and virtuosic passages in various tutors, it seems entirely possible that some professional tuition took place. Many copies with Helen Boyle's signature suggest that she was a piano player of some skill with a fondness for arrangements and variations on themes from Rossini and the Italian school of opera (Nha.Mus.61).
There would undoubtedly have been singers as the large amount of vocal music suggests. This vocal music crosses many boundaries, with opera very much at the forefront and many operatic extracts and arias being well represented. But there are also many independent songs – canzonets and ballads. There is no evidence to suggest whether a tutor was ever engaged, but from many of the annotations, corrections and added ornaments it seems entirely likely that there could have been some professional tuition. From the increasingly proficient efforts at song writing in Nha.Mus.76 it seems plausible that there might well have been some professional musician involved with Catherine Fergusson – the fourteenth child of Sir James (b.1765) and Henrietta Duncan? – over an extended period of tuition in the mid nineteenth century. Reading the various journals and diaries of the family, Edinburgh was considered to be close by, and there was a ready willingness to go there frequently.
© Roger B. Williams April 2020