TOFTFIELD HOUSE.(No Image available at present). This house is situated near Melrose. It was purchased by John Usher (b 1710) in 1753 from a a Melrose lawyer called Wilkinson. John Usher's grandson, also John Usher, sold Toftfiled in 1819 to his neighbour, Sir Walter Scott, who had recently built his famed mansion house of Abbotsford. On acquiring Toftfiled Sir Walter Scott said: "I have closed with Usher for his beautiful patrimony which makes me a great Laird (Scots for Lord)". John's family were very upset by the sale of Toftfield as there did not appear to be any need to sell it. Sir Walter changed the name of Toftfield to Huntlyburn, by which name it is still known to-day. The Borders General Hospital which serves the whole Borders region is now located just below Huntlyburn. Huntlyburn itself was used for administrative purposes for the hospital until very recently when it was turned into a home for the mentally handicapped by the Scottish Borders Council.
OLD WELLS HOUSE, ROXBURGHSHIRE, SCOTLAND. This mansion house was built in the first half of the 19th century. It replaced another large house which had stood on the same site since that house was built in the 18th century. OLD WELLS HOUSE was built by the then proprietors of Wells estate -- the Elliots of Stobs and Wells. The house was found to be "inconvenient and uncomfortable" by Sir Robert Usher of Norton and Wells who inherited it from his father, Sir John Usher in 1904. He razed it to the ground and built NEW WELLS HOUSE in its place in the years 1906-1908.
NEW WELLS HOUSE (built on the same site as OLD WELLS HOUSE). This mansion house was designed by the architect Thomas Leadbetter who was Sir Robert's brother-in-law. It was constructed out of pink sandstone. It incorporated the very latest of Edwardian technology. For example it had trap doors on every floor in the walls near the floor into which all dust and rubbish was placed. From there it was sucked down into a huge bag in the basement. It contained nine bathrooms. It was heavily panelled with Oak from Wells estate. 200 tons of Wells oak were placed in the foundations as a precaution against movement of the foundations. It had its own electricity generating plant some distance away from the house so that the noise could not be heard. Wells was surrounded by 80 acres of policies consisting of gardens, woodlands and permanent pasture. It became the favourite residence of Sir Robert and Lady Usher. On Sir Robert's death in 1933 Lady Usher continued to live at Wells until her own death in 1948. Thereafter it stood empty for a while and was dynamited in 1951 despite the efforts of my father to save it for an Usher posterity. In 1999 a modern bungalow was built on the site by a family called Mactaggart.
Drawing Room.
Library
DUNGLASS HOUSE, EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND. This estate was purchased by Sir Robert Usher's youngest brother, Francis James Usher, in 1919 from Sir J Ronald Hall. This most beautiful mansion house was built in the early 1800's by the Hall family. Before that the estate was owned by the Earls of Home. The heir to the Earls of Home is always known as Lord Dunglass. A stone's throw away from Dunglass House is situated the Dunglass Collegiate Church, built in the 14th century, -- still standing. Sadly Dunglass House was also was dynamited in the late 1940,s. A new house was built on the site of the ruins of Dunglass in the 1950's by Francis James's grandson, also Francis. He has lived there ever since.
Dunglass from rear.
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