The House
Morning-Room Passage
The former
Ante-Room to the Drawing-Room was reduced
to a passage when the organ was installed. The
Regency style cupboard cost the large sum of
£2,400 in 1905, though, unlike most furniture, it
has not gained in value and is perhaps worth no
more than that amount today.
The costume
jewellery in the ormolu mounted kidney-shaped
display cabinet belonged to Lady Miller, who
loved giving fancy dress soireés – when she would
often dress as the Czarina of Russia.
The Morning-Room
This completely
circular room has a superb view over the lake
and woodland garden, reaching as far as the
Cheviot Hills on a clear day, making this
feminine room one of the most delightful. In it,
something of the sense of the old house survives,
and the ceiling and chimneypiece are probably
original. The fact that no one is quite sure, says
much for the quality of Kinross’s work. Yet
another concealed door leads from the niche
in the morning-room to the tea-room.
The Tea-Room
Inspired by the
eighteenth-century fashion for ‘chinoiserie’, this
room is furnished with lacquered cabinets,
Chinese Chippendale chairs and a long case
clock and screen in the same style. Family
portraits hang on the walls. A charming family
group by Charles Lutyens – father of the famous
architect Sir Edwin Lutyens – shows Sir James
Miller and his sisters and brother gathered
around a dog called ‘Lion’ whose birthday it was.
The figure of ‘Lion’ was painted by Sir Edwin
Landseer. Sir James Miller is the child on the
left standing by his pram. Above the cabinet
containing Russian figures made by Gardner,
Moscow, is a portrait of Sir James dressed in his
uniform as a Captain in the 14th Hussars in
which he fought the Boers in South Africa,
painted by Cumming.
