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The House of the Binns (or simply The Binns) is an historic house near Linlithgow in Scotland, and seat of the Dalyell family. It dates from the early 17th Century, and is currently in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. The estate is situated on two hills (or "Binns" / "Bens" in Celtic) from which its name is derived.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=House of the Binns )〕 It is set in of parkland, and the house enjoys panoramic views of Central Scotland: to the north, across the River Forth to the Highlands, and south over the Pentland Hills. The house contains a collection of porcelain, furniture, and portraits tracing the family's lives and interests through the centuries.〔National Trust for Scotland, A Guide to Properties, 2007〕 ==History of the Estate== Perhaps inhabited since prehistoric times, Binns Hill may have been the site of a Pictish fort. Written records begin in 1335, and record a land of the "Bynnis". There was certainly a manor house here by 1478, when records indicate the owner was an Archibald Meldrum, son of the late James Meldrum of the Bynnis. In 1599, it was owned by James, Lord Lyndsay, who sold it to Sir William Livingston of Kilsyth. Then in 1612, estate was purchased by a wealthy and well-connected Edinburgh burgess, Thomas Dalyell. Dalyell was a butter merchant, who had become prosperous importing from Orkney to Leith (to be sold as axle grease). In 1601, he had married the daughter of Lord Kinloss and, when the Scots King James VI ascended to the English Throne and Kinloss was made his Master of the Rolls in London, Dalyell obtained the lucrative post of deputy. In that senior position, he acquired enough of a fortune to return to Scotland and join the landed gentry. He bought "the lands of Bynnis and Croceflattis wirth the manor place thereof", and the Dalyell family have lived there ever since. Between 1621 and 1630, this Thomas Dalyell rebuilt the original house, and parts of the interior still reflect that period; in particular the north-west portion of the present entrance front, and decoration of the High Hall and King's Room (created in the hope of a visit from Charles I, which never came to be).〔 These rooms still contain examples of some of the earliest cornices and mouldings in Scotland. Thomas Dalyell's more famous son, the Royalist General Tam Dalyell of the Binns continued the development of the house, adding the first of the towers, and the western range.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=House of the Binns )〕 However, today the house principally reflects extensions of the mid 18th and early 19th century.〔 In the 1740s, Robert Dalyell added the dining-room and a morning room, whilst around 1810, the architect William Burn (1789–1870) adapted the building to the Scottish baronial style, adding further towers and mock battlements. Some of the Gothic exterior decoration was inspired by Walter Scott, who was a friend of the Dalyell family.〔 Today, the building is three-storey at the main north facade, with two-storey wings. In 1944, the house, its parkland, its contents, and an endowment for its upkeep were given to the National Trust for Scotland by Eleanor Dalyell. The charter she granted states that the "history, legend and memory of the family of Dalyell of The Binns, shall be preserved..." for the benefit and enjoyment of the nation.〔 However, the right of the family to reside in the house was retained.〔 Today the former MP for Linlithgow and "Father of the House", Sir Tam Dalyell (b. 1932), still lives in the western range of the house, his full title being "Sir Thomas Dalyell of the Binns, 11th Baronet". His wife, Kathleen Dalyell, is the National Trust's representative for the House of the Binns and heavily involved in its maintenance. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「House of the Binns」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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