Skene, James, 1775-1864 (lawyer and artist)

Content Description This is an album of sketches by Sir James Skene of Rubislaw (1775-1864), comprising approximately 420 sketches. A talented amateur artist, James Skene of Rubislaw was a close friend of Sir Walter Scott who accompanied him on riding excursions to localities that Scott planned to feature in his novels and poems. There, at Scott’s suggestion, Skene made sketches of landscapes and buildings that Scott then used as an inspiration and aide-memoire for his own work. Many of the sketches in this album...

Scope and Contents Framed print of a pen and ink watercolour, a copy of a drawing by James Skene of Rubislaw. The Earl of Haddington's House was built and occupied by the Earl of Haddington; approximately on the site of the “Cunzie House” or the Old Mint, and later of George IV Bridge. The building was sometimes referred to as “The French Ambassador's House”. See Robert Chamber's "Traditions of Edinburgh" (1868) in which there is a small picture of a house, identical with this item, which is described as the...