Bowhill: The House, Its People and Its Paintings

Bowhill, in the Scottish Borders, started life as a modest Georgian villa, but over generations was transformed into a huge mansion. The art collection was consolidated when Henry, the enlightened 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, and his wife, Elizabeth, united the three families of Montagu, Douglas and Scott circa 1800. The exterior of austere greywacke stone belies rich interiors filled with great treasures - the 4th Duke's Library, with its views of the Ettrick Valley so beloved of his friend Sir Walter Scott, the damask Drawing Room with its masterpieces by Claude and Ruysdael, the Boudoir and its Chinese wallpaper, the Dining Room with its Canaletto of the Thames at Whitehall, the Mortlake tapestries of Mantegna's Triumphs of Caeasar, and the Buccleuch collection of miniatures, second only to that of the Queen.