Castle Gordon
Dog Willing
So this week’s rabbit hole took me all the way across the Atlantic to a “vast stone pile with castellated wings” about a 1 mile north east of Fochabers near the river Spey. I was drawn down the hole by Nathanial Parker Willis, a famous American writer and close friend of Edgar Allen Poe. In 1827 Willis travelled to London, hung out with Charles Dickens, then travelled to Scotland to visit a famous Duke who just happened to love dogs. Among the Duke’s dogs were greyhounds, bloodhounds and a strain of black and tan setter that would eventually become famous around the world when they were named after the Duke and his Castle. Today, we call their descendants Gordon Setters.
In a letter published in the 1830s, Willis described his visit to Castle Gordon and painted a vivid picture of life among the British elite. However, behind the scenes, and unbeknownst to Willis, the Duke’s estate had been bleeding money for decades. In fact, shortly after Willis’ letter was published, the Duke died, his estate declared bankruptcy and all his dogs were auctioned off at Tattersall’s.
In 1840 William Howitt wrote a review of Willis’s description of Castle Gordon, its inhabitants and dogs saying that it was…
“…one of the most perfect and graphic descriptions of English aristocratical life in the country, which was ever written. It is, indeed, on the highest and broadest scale, and is not to be equalled by every country gentleman ; but in kind and in degree, the same character and spirit extend to all such life... Nothing, were a volume written on the subject, could bring it more palpably and correctly before the mind of the reader ; and I think that if there be a perfection in human life, it is to be found, so far as all the goods of providence and the easy elegances of society can make it so, in the rural life of the English nobility and gentry.”
Gordon Castle back in the day. If you squint hard enough you can imagine that one or two of the dogs in the scene are black and tan setters, now known as Gordon Setters.
Castle Gordon in 1827 as described by Nathaniel Parker Willis.
The immense iron gate, surmounted by the Gordon arms; the handsome and spacious stone lodges on either side; the canonically fat porter, in white stockings and grey livery, lifting his hat as he swung open the massive portal, all bespoke the entrance to a noble residence. The road within was edged with velvet sward, and rolled to the smoothness of a terrace walk ; the winding avenue lengthened away before with trees of every variety of foliage; light carriages passed me, driven by gentlemen or ladies, bound on their afternoon airing ; a groom led up and down two beautiful blood-horses, prancing along with side-saddles and morocco stirrups; and keepers with hounds and terriers, gentle men on foot, idling along the walks, and servants in different liveries hurrying to and fro, betokened a scene of busy gaiety before me.
I had hardly noted these various circumstances, before a sudden curve in the road brought the castle into view, — a vast stone pile with castellated wings ; and in another moment I was at the door, where a dozen lounging and powdered menials were waiting on a party of ladies and gentlemen to their several car riages. It was the moment for the afternoon drive. The last phaeton dashed away, and my chaise advanced to the door. A handsome boy, in a kind of page's dress, immediately came to the window, addressed me by name, and informed me that his Grace was out deer-shooting, but that my room was prepared, and he was ordered to wait on me. I followed him through a hall lined with statues, deers' horns, and armour, and was ushered into a large chamber looking out on a park, extending with its lawns and woods to the edge of the horizon. A more lovely view never feasted human eye.
Nathaniel Parker Willis, author, poet and clearly a fan of man-bun hair styles
' Who is at the castle ?' I asked, as the boy busied himself in unstrapping my portmanteau. ' O, a great many, sir' — he stopped in his occupation, and began counting on his fingers a long list of lords and ladies. ' And how many sit down to dinner ?' ' Above ninety, sir, besides the Duke and Duchess.' ' That will do;' and off tripped my slender gentleman, with his laced jacket, giving the fire a terrible stir-up in his way out, and turning back to inform me that the dinner hour was seven precisely.
It was a mild and bright afternoon, quite warm for an English September, and with a fire in the room, and a soft sunshine pouring in at the windows, a seat at the open casement was far from disagreeable. I passed the time till the sun set, looking out on the park. Hill and valley lay between my eye and the horizon ; sheep fed in picturesque flocks ; and small fallow-deer grazed near them ; the trees were planted, and the distant forest shaped by the hand of taste; and broad and beautiful as was the expanse taken in by the eye, it was evidently one princely possession.
A mile from the castle-wall, the shaven sward extended in a carpet of velvet soft ness, as bright as emerald, studded by clumps of shrubbery, like flowers wrought elegantly in tapestry; and across it bounded occa sionally a hare, and the pheasants fed undisturbed near the thickets, or a lady with flowing riding-dress and flaunting feather, dashed into sight upon her fleet blood-palfrey, and was lost the next moment in the woods, or a boy put his pony to its mettle up the ascent, or a gamekeeper idled into sight with his gun in the hollow of his arm, and his hounds at his heels. And all this little world of enjoyment and luxury and beauty lay in the hand of one man, and was created by his wealth in those northern wilds of Scotland, a day's journey almost from the possession of another human being ! I never realized so forcibly the splendid results of wealth and primogeniture. "
Willis’ host, George, 5th Duke of Gordon seen here with what appears to be a Pointer.
The sun set in a blaze of fire among the pointed firs crowning the hills; and by the occasional prance of a horse's feet on the gravel, and the roll of rapid wheels, and now and then a gay laugh and many voices, the different parties were returning to the Castle. Soon after, a loud gong sounded through the galleries, the signal to dress, and I left my musing occupation unwillingly to make my toilet for an appearance in a formidable circle of titled aristocrats, not one of whom I had ever seen, the Duke himself a stranger to me, except through the kind letter of invitation lying on the table. I was sitting by the fire, imagining forms and faces for the different persons who had been named to me, when there was a knock at the door, and a tall, white-haired gentleman, of noble physiognomy, but singularly cordial address, entered with a broad red ribbon across his breast, and welcomed me most heartily to the castle. The gong sounded at the next moment, and in our way down, he named over his other guests, and prepared me, in a measure, for the introductions which followed. The drawing-room was crowded like a soiree.
The Duchess, a tall and very handsome woman, with a smile of the most winning sweetness, received me at the door, and I was presented successively to every person present. Dinner was announced immediately, and the difficult question of precedence being sooner settled than I had ever seen it before in so large a party, we passed through files of servants to the dining- room. It was a large and very lofty hall, supported, at the ends, by marble columns, within which was stationed a band of music playing delightfully. The walls were lined with full-length family pictures, from old knights in armour to the modern dukes in kilt of the Gordon plaid; and on the sideboards stood services of gold plate, the most gorgeously massive, and the most beautiful in work manship I have ever seen.
There were, among the vases, several large coursing-cups, won by the Duke's hounds, of exquisite shape and ornament. I fell into my place between a gentleman and a very beautiful woman, of perhaps, twenty-two, neither of whose names I remem bered, though I had but just been introduced. The Duke probably anticipated as much, and as I took my seat, he called out to me, from the top of the table, that I had on my right, Lady , ‘the most agreeable woman in Scotland.' It was unnecessary to say that she was the most lovely. I have been struck everywhere in England with the beauty of the higher classes, and as I looked around me upon the aristocratic company at the table, I thought I had never seen ' Heaven's image double-stamped as man, and noble,' so unequivocally clear.
Another Duke, this time the 4th, Alexandre, with another Pointer. Drop me a line if you are aware of any portraits of any of the Dukes that clearly show black and tan setters.
The band ceased playing when the ladies left the table ; the gentle men closed up, conversation assumed a merrier cast, coffee and liqueurs were brought in when the wines began to be circulated more slowly, and at eleven there was a general move to the drawing room. Cards, tea, music, filled up the time till twelve, and then the ladies took their departure, and the gentlemen sat down to supper. I got to bed somewhere about two o'clock ; and thus ended an evening, which I had anticipated as stiff and embarrassing, but which is marked in my tablets as one of the most social and kindly I have had the good fortune to record on my travels.
I arose late in the morning, and found the large party enter ing, with the different air of the room. The deep windows open ing out upon the park, had the effect of sombre landscapes in oaken frames; the troops of liveried servants, the glitter of plate, the music, that had contributed to the splendour of the scene the night before, were gone. The Duke sat laughing at the head of the table, with a newspaper in his hand, dressed in a coarse shooting-jacket and coloured cravat ; the Duchess was in a plain morning dress and cap of the simplest character; and the high-born women about the table, whom I had left glittering with jewels, and dressed in all the attractions of fashion, appeared in the simplest coiffure and a toilet of studied plainness. The ten or twelve noblemen present were engrossed with their letters or newspapers over tea and toast, — and in them, perhaps, the transformation was still greater. The soignd man of fashion of the night before, faultless in costume and distin guished in his appearance — in the full force of the term — was enveloped now in a coat of fustian, with a coarse waistcoat of plaid, a gingham cravat, and hob-nailed shoes, for shooting ; and in place of the gay hilarity of the supper-table, wore a face of calm indiffer ence, and eat his breakfast, and read the paper in a rarely broken silence. I wondered as I looked about me, what would be the impression of many people in my own country, could they look in upon that plain party, aware that it was composed of the proudest nobility and the highest fashion of England.
Breakfast in England is a confidential and unceremonious hour, and servants are generally dispensed with. This is to me, I confess, an advantage it has over every other meal. I detest eating with twenty tall fellows standing opposite, whose business it is to watch me. The coffee and tea were on the table, with toast, muffins, oat-cakes, marmalade, jellies, fish, and all the parapher nalia of a Scotch breakfast; and on the sideboard stood cold meats for those who liked them, and they were expected to go to it and help themselves. Nothing could be more easy, unceremo nious, and affable, than the whole tone of the meal. One after another rose and fell into groups in the windows, or walked up and down the long room, and, with one or two others, I joined the duke at the head of the table, who gave us some interesting parti culars of the salmon-fisheries of the Spey. The privilege of fishing the river within his lands is bought of him at the pretty sum of eight thousand pounds a-year.
The ladies went off unaccompanied to their walks in the park and other avocations; those bound for the covers, joined the game keepers, who were waiting with their dogs in the leash at the stables ; and some paired off to the billiard-room. Still suffering from lameness, I declined all invitations to the shooting parties, who started across the park, with the dogs leaping about them in a frenzy of delight, and accepted the duke's kind offer of a pony phaeton to drive down to the kennels. The duke's breed, both of setters and hounds, is celebrated throughout the kingdom. They occupy a spacious building in the centre of a wood, a quadrangle enclosing a court, and large enough for a respectable farm-house. The chief huntsman and his family, and perhaps a gamekeeper or two, lodge on the premises, and the dogs are divided by palings across the court. I was rather startled to be introduced into the same enclosure with a dozen gigantic bloodhounds, as high as my breast, the keeper's whip in my hand, the only defence. I was not easier for the man's assertion, that, without it, they would 'have the life out of me in a crack.'
Willis wrote that “The rare tan and black dog of this race, with his silky floss hair, intelligent muzzle, good- humoured face, and caressing fondness, quite excited my admiration.” This painting by William Henry Hopkin’s shows that the black and tan setters of the period were often tricolour, white, black and tan.
They came around me very quietly, and one immense fellow, with a chest like a horse, and a head of the finest expression, stood up and laid his paws on my shoulders, with the deliberation of a friend about to favour me with some grave advice. One can scarce believe that these noble creatures have not reason like ourselves. Those slender, thorough bred heads, large speaking eyes, and beautiful limbs and graceful action, should be gifted with more than mere animal instinct. The greyhounds were the beauties of the kennel, however; I never had seen such perfect creatures. The setters were in the next division, and really they were quite lovely. The rare tan and black dog of this race, with his silky floss hair, intelligent muzzle, good- humoured face, and caressing fondness, quite excited my admira tion. There were thirty or forty of these, old and young, and a friend of the duke's would as soon ask him for a church living, as for the present of one of them. The former would be by much the smaller favour. Then there were terriers of four or five breeds ; of one family of which, long-haired, long-bodied, short- legged, and perfectly white little wretches, the keeper seemed particularly fond to make it.
Between breakfast and lunch, the ladies were generally invisible, and the gentlemen rode or shot, or played billiards, or kept in their rooms. At two o'clock, a dish or two of hot game and a profusion of cold meats were set on the small tables in the dining-room, and every body came in for a kind of lounging half-meal, which occupied perhaps an hour. Thence all adjourned to the drawing-room, under the windows of which were drawn up carriages of all descriptions, with grooms, outriders, footmen, and saddle-horses for gentlemen and ladies. Parties were then made up for driving or riding, and from a pony-chaise to a phaeton-and-four, there was no class of vehicle which was not at your disposal.
In ten minutes the carriages were usually all filled, and away they flew, some to the banks of the Spey, or the sea-side, some to the drives in the park, and with the delightful consciousness, that, speed where you would, the horizon scarce limited the possession of your host, and you were everywhere at home. The ornamental gates flying open at your approach, miles distant from the castle ; the herds of red-deer trooping away from the sound of wheels in the silent park; the stately pheasants feeding tamely in the immense preserves ; the hares scarcely troubling themselves to get out of the length of the whip; the stalking gamekeepers lifting their hats in the dark recesses of the forest, — there was something in this, perpetually reminding you of privileges; which, as a novelty, was far from disagreeable. I could not at the time bring myself to feel, what perhaps would be more poetical and repub lican, that a ride in the wild and unfenced forest of my own country would have been more to my taste.
The second afternoon of my arrival, I took a seat in the carriage with Lord A., and we followed the duchess, who drove herself in a pony-chaise, to visit a school on the estate. Attached to a small gothic chapel, a five minutes' drive from the castle, stood a building in the same style, appropriated to the instruction of the children of the duke's tenantry. There were a hundred and thirty little creatures, from two years to five or six, and like all infant schools, in these days of improved education, it was an interesting and affecting sight. The last one I had been in, was at Athens, and though I missed here the dark eyes and Grecian faces of the JSgean, I saw health and beauty, of a kind which stirred up more images of home, and promised, perhaps, more for the future.
Gordon Castle as it appears today.
The number at the dinner-table of Gordon Castle was seldom less than thirty; but the company was continually varied by departures and arrivals. No sensation was made by either one or the other. A travelling-carriage dashed up to the door, was disburdened of its load, and drove round to the stables, and the question was seldom asked, 'Who is arrived?' You are sure to see at dinner— and an addition of half a dozen to the party, made no perceptible difference in any thing. Leave-takings were managed in the same quiet way. Adieus were made to the duke and duchess, and to no one else, except he happened to encounter the parting guest upon the staircase, or were more than a common acquaintance. In short, in every way the gine of life seemed weeded out, and if unhappiness or ennui found its way into the castle, it was introduced in the sufferer's own bosom. For me, I gave myself up to enjoyment with an abandon I could not resist.
With kindness and courtesy in every look, the luxuries and comforts of a regal establishment at my freest disposal ; solitude when I pleased, company when I pleased, — the whole visible horizon fenced in for the enjoyment of a household, of which I was a temporary portion, and no enemy except time and the gout, I felt as if I had been spirited into some castle of felicity, and had not come by the royal mail-coach at all.
Aerial view of the grounds of Gordon Castle.