The Earl of Buchan's Second Summer: Dryburgh (1785–1829)

Abstract

After over a century of relative neglect, the activities of David Steuart Erskine, the eleventh Earl of Buchan, on his Dryburgh estate between 1785 and 1829 have come under increasing academic scrutiny. The Earl’s retirement to Dryburgh has been seen less as a retreat from his high public profile as the founder of the Society of Antiquaries and more as a continuation both of his antiquarian and political interests. Indeed, landscape features such as the Temple of the Muses to the poet James Thomson and especially the giant statue to William Wallace have been viewed recently as part of a highly political nationalist-historic romantic landscape. While confirming the essentially political nature of these monuments, this article will explore an alternative whig and unionist reading of them. At the same time, although highlighting the continuity of Buchan’s antiquarian agenda, it will attempt to show how this gradually merged with a wide range of the Earl’s more personal enthusiasms such as Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill, classical antiquity and the beaux arts of London’s Royal Academy to form a distinctive second summer to his career.