Clan Scott Reunion - SOON

September is here and the Clan Scott Gathering is set to start on the 26th. Hosted at Bowhill the family seat of the Chief of Clan Scott - Richard, the 10th Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, KBE, the event will be the first international gathering of Clan Scott held in the traditional home region of the clan.

We are headed there soon as part of a family group of 5 meeting up at the site and are very much looking forward to this exciting event.

Check out the Bowhill site for details.

Our doors are open to to all Scotts, says Duke of Buccleuch | STV Video

A video including the Chief of Clan Scott, the Duke of Buccleuch along with a clansman from another era - "Sir Walter Scott" - send a grand greeting to all Scotts worldwide.

Check it out
http://video.stv.tv/bc/scotland-gathering-20090725-clan-scott/

Clan Scott Society Gathering - 2009 - Bowhill - Scotland

New items were recently added to the schedule of events.

The following item is now showing in the calendar of events:

Sunday 27 Sept 2009 11.30
Open Air Ecumenical Service - admission free (collection)
Above St Marys Loch

as well details regarding an event the same afternoon is now more complete

Sun 27 Sept 2009 1pm Walks round Estate,
display of Buccleuch Fox Hounds, Ox roast BBQ to bid farewell to the Scotts.
- £10 location - Bowhill Courtyard

Booking for this event can be made through the booking site
http://www.thebooth.co.uk/

Provisional Programme for Clan Scott Gathering—Wed 23rd—Sun 27th September

NOTE :
On-line booking of tickets will be available from 9th January, 2009 through the Bowhill website.

There has been an addition to the Bowhill House and Country Estate site. Including a Provisional Programme that may be of interest to those planning a trip to the Clan Scott Gathering in Scotland between the 24th and 27th September 2009.

The Bowhill House & Country Estate site now has the details in pdf format through the following link.
The details have been copied (without the original formatting) below

Bowhill House and Country Estate
www.bowhill.org

Provisional Programme for Scott Clan Gathering at Bowhill

24 – 27 September 2009

Wednesday September 23, 2009
Evening Welcome with traditional music and light supper for overseas guests - location: County Hotel, Selkirk
Free to overseas Clan Scott members on application to bht@buccleuch.com
Tickets limited to 50 people

Thursday September 24, 2009 10am-5pm
Bus Tour of Scott Country - visits to Abbotsford, Melrose, Aikwood Tower and Dryburg
£10, including light lunch of local produce.
- location: Around the Scottish Borders

Thursday September 24, 2009 7:30 pm
Theatre Performance The Ragged Lion presented by Rowan Tree Theatre Company
£10 (numbers limited to 70)
- location: Bowhill Theatre

Friday September 25, 2009 2-5 pm
Tours of Bowhill House - Bowhill House and tea with 10th Duke of Buccleuch. 4 tours with tickets limited to 20 per tour.
£15 80 tickets in total Timed Tickets
- location: Bowhill House

Friday September 25 1:30-4:30
Ranger led tours of Bowhill Woodlands. 3 tours with tickets limited to 40 per tour
£5 120 tickets in total Timed Tickets
- location: Bowhill Country Estate

Friday September 25 7 pm
Reception Dinner at Abbotsford for overseas guests
£40 Limited to 40
Abbotsford House, Melrose. Transport provided to and from Selkirk

Friday September 25 7:30 pm
Theatre Performance The Ragged Lion presented by Rowan Tree Theatre Company
£10 (numbers limited to 70)
- location: Bowhill Theatre

Friday September 25 7:30 pm
Concert and Ceilidh Dancing, singing, entertainment.
£10
- location: Victoria Hall, Selkirk

Saturday September 26, 2009 10 am - 4 pm
Tented Village: local crafts, Genealogy, Clan Parade, Storytelling, Re-enactment of Carterhaugh Ba’ Game and much more
£10 per car, Free for overseas Clan Scott members on application to to bht@buccleuch.com
- location Bowhill Gardens and Estate

Saturday September 26, 2009 7:30 pm
Evening Concert with SCOCHA – traditional Scottish folk rock band
£10
- location Bowhill Gardens

Saturday September 26, 2009 7:30 pm
Theatre Performance The Ragged Lion presented by Rowan Tree Theatre Company
£10 (numbers limited to 70)
- location: Bowhill Theatre

Sunday September 27, 2009 1 pm
Walks round Estate, display of Buccleuch Fox Hounds, Ox roast BBQ to bid farewell to the Scotts. For Scott Clan members.
Free to overseas Clan Scott members on application to bht@buccleuch.com
- location Bowhill Courtyard

Local Accommodation Providers - near Bowhill Country House & Estate

There has been an addition to the Bowhill House and Country Estate site. Including a listing of local accommodation providers that may be of interest to those planning a trip to the Clan Scott Gathering in Scotland between the 24th and 27th September 2009.

Selkirk Area (Approx 2.8 miles)

Hotels

The Glen Hotel http://www.glenhotel.co.uk/ Tel. 01750 20259

B&B’s/Guesthouses

Cross Keys Inn http://www.cross-keys-inn.co.uk Tel. 01750 52224
Ivy Bank B&B http://www.ivy-bank-bed-and-breakfast.co.uk/ Tel. 01750 21270


Galashiels Area (Approx 10 miles)

B&B’s/Guesthouses

Craigielea Guest House http://www.craigieleaborders.co.uk Tel. 01896 753838
Sunnybrae B&B http://www.sunnybrae.co.uk/ Tel. 01896 758042

Melrose Area (Approx 10 miles)

Hotels

Burts Hotel http://www.burtshotel.co.uk Tel. 01896 822285
The Townhouse http://www.thetownhousemelrose.co.uk Tel. 01896 822645

B&B’s/Guesthouses

Braidwood B&B http://www.braidwoodmelrose.co.uk/ Tel. 01896 822488
Fiorlin B&B http://www.melroseaccommodation.co.uk
Fauhope House http://www.fauhopehouse.com Tel. 01896 823184

Hawick Area (Approx 14 miles)

B&B’s/Guesthouses

Hizzy’s Guest House http://www.hizzys.co.uk/ Tel. 01450 372101

Additional information on Clan Scott Gathering in Scotland

There has been an addition to the Bowhill House and Country Estate site. Including a revision to the

• Provisional Programme of Events, and
• Local Accommodation

As well the date on which registration will begin has been announced, on-line booking of tickets will be available from 9th January 2009

Bowhill - site of Clan Scott 2009 Gathering

The choice of Bowhill House & Country Estate as the location of the Clan Scott 2009 Gathering is most appropriate for a clan with strong roots in the Borders.

The Scott surname in both the current century and historically is most prevalent within Scotland in the areas just north of the Firth of Forth (including County Angus) and throughout most of southern Scotland.


The Borders are the homeland of the clan in both legend and reality and Bowhill is one of the homes of Clan Chief, Richard Scott, the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry. Described as the first international gathering of Clan Scott at Bowhill, it will also be an inaugural opportunity for the new chief since Duke Richard succeeded his late father John Scott, the 9th Duke of Buccleuch, in 2007, who had also served as clan chief.

Buccleuch Memorial to be Restored

as published by Edinburgh World Heritage

note - the Dukes of Buccleuch, serve as the Titular Chiefs of Clan Scott

Edinburgh World Heritage has announced that the memorial to the 5th Duke of Buccleuch in Parliament Square will be conserved, as part of the on-going programme of conservation of the city’s key statues and monuments.


The project will cost around £40,000, shared equally between Edinburgh World Heritage and the current Duke of Buccleuch. Works are expected to take around 4 weeks to complete, and will include treatments to the sandstone plinth and selective re-pointing in lime mortar, a light conservation cleaning of the bronze panels to reveal the original patina using a laser, and treatment of corrosion to arrest further deterioration.

The category A listed memorial commemorates the life of the distinguished politician Walter Francis Montague Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch and the 7th Duke of Queensbery (1806 - 1884), and was paid for entirely through public subscription. The statue of the Duke shows him in the robes of the Order of the Garter, while bronze panels depict incidents from the Buccleuch family history and scenes from the life of the 5th Duke himself.

The memorial is now regarded as hugely significant in art history terms because some of the most important names in Scottish sculpture and design worked on the statue and the bronze panels. Sir Joseph Boehm (who designed the head of Queen Victoria for coinage) was the sculptor for the statue, the plinth was designed by Sir Rowand Anderson (the architect for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery) and the bronze figures and panels were done by Clark Stanton, Birnie Rhind, Stuart Burnett and D.W. and W.G. Stevenson.


The Memorial was officially unveiled on the 7th February 1888, by the Earl of Stair. It had cost around £6,700 paid for through 1,200 public subscribers. It has been cared for by the City of Edinburgh Council ever since.

Walter Francis Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch was born 25th November 1806 and died 16th April 1884. Inheriting the Dukedom as a minor, one of his guardians was Sir Walter Scott who organised the visit of King George IV to Edinburgh in 1822, when the King stayed at the family’s Dalkeith House just outside the city. Buccleuch was a leading Tory, and served as Lord Privy Seal and Lord President in Sir Robert Peel’s government in the 1840’s. A great Scottish magnate, he took a progressive approach to the management of his estate businesses, most notably in the development of the harbour at Granton.

Sir Walter Scott wrote on 25 August 1826 that he "has grown up into a graceful and apparently strong young man... I think he will be well qualified to sustain his difficult and important task. The heart is excellent, so are the talents... With perfect good nature, he has a natural sense of his own situation, which will keep him from associating with unworthy companions."

Notes from the Life of an Ordinary Mortal records that "his great position and vast estates made him something of a grand seigneur, though his habits were simple, and his appearance rather that of an Elder of the Kirk. He always wore a dark grey cutaway coat, shepherd's plaid trousers, and a cap with a large peak, and out of doors carried a plaid over his shoulder. His manner was brusque, and he was fond of a rough sort of chaff, but no one had a kinder heart."

Princess Elizabeth portrait found in Duke of Buccleuch (Chief of Clan Scott) Collection

A rare portrait of Queen Elizabeth I as a young princess has been discovered in a private collection at a stately home in Northamptonshire. The portrait, dating from 1650 to 1680, was found in the Duke of Buccleuch’s collection at Boughton House.
It shows Elizabeth with siblings [later to be] Edward VI and Mary I, father Henry VIII and his jester, Will Somers.

Full story

Duke of Buccleuch (Chief of Clan Scott)

From SCOTT Digest, Vol 2, Issue 80


A Special Update web page for information about the recent passing of the Duke of Buccleuch (Chief of Clan Scott) has been put together on the Clan Scott Society web site (www.ClanScottSociety.org).  The link to this new web page is prominently located below the scrolling marquee at the top of the home page.


The Special Update link takes you to a page which lists links to several online obituaries for the late Duke of Buccleuch.  Additionally, this page has links to announcements and news items relating to his funeral and memorial.  This page is

expected to be updated as new information becomes available.  (Please feel free to send web addresses of any updates you know about that are not listed.)


From this page, there is a link to a web form where you can send your condolences to the Duke's family.


Please feel free to pass the information about these new pages to anyone you believe might be interested.



David Scott

Surname List Administrator for the Clan Scott Society

Genealogy of the Chief

The genealogy of the new Chief of Clan Scott - Sir Richard Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott, the Earl of Dalkeith, can be traced at the Peerage.com site

The line can be followed back through the Earls of Dalkeith and the Dukes of Queensberry to the family of Charles II and beyond.

The Chief of Clan Scott - Obituary by BBC

from BBC NEWS: Sept 4, 2007

Landowner duke dies at age of 83

One of Scotland's biggest landowners, the Duke of Buccleuch, has died at the age of 83.

The former Conservative MP died after a short illness at his Bowhill House home in the Scottish Borders.

The duke, who used a wheelchair after a riding accident in the early 70s, was a strong supporter of country pursuits.

Lord Steel, the former Lib Dem leader and a near neighbour, said his family would be "immensely proud" of his "long and distinguished public life".

His Drumlanrig Estate in Dumfries and Galloway hit the headlines in 2003 when two men stole a Leonardo da Vinci painting, Madonna With The Yarnwinder.

His personal courage, vigour and humour after he was confined to a wheelchair was remarkable Lord Steel

Police renewed their appeal for information about the theft earlier this year.

As recently as 2005, the duke was believed to be Britain's biggest private landowner, owning 270,000 acres, mostly in the Borders.

The Sunday Times Rich List estimated his wealth at £85m.

Born in 1923, the oldest son of the eighth duke - whom he succeeded in 1973 - Johnnie Buccleuch was educated at Eton and Oxford.

After the war he studied agriculture and forestry and became director of the Buccleuch Estates in 1949.

He married Jane McNeill in 1953 at a wedding attended by the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh and most of the Royal Family at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.

He later became a Tory councillor in Roxburghshire and subsequently MP for North Edinburgh.

However, he fractured his spine when a horse somersaulted and his career as an MP was cut short when he succeeded to the dukedom.

The duke worked with various bodies on behalf of disabled people and also sat in the Lords, speaking on rural, disability and constitutional issues.

In 1978 he was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Thistle - the highest honour in Scotland.

After Lords reform in 1999 the duke declined to stand as an elected hereditary peer.

A statement from his company - the Buccleuch Group - paid tribute to its former chairman.

'Much-respected'

It said he had "lived a life of extraordinary richness and courage" and would be remembered for his "commitment to the countryside and inspirational leadership in rural affairs".

Lord Steel said he and Lady Steel were "deeply saddened" at the death of the duke.

He said he was "a highly public-spirited man, an effective Edinburgh MP" as well as "a much-respected and innovative landlord".

"His personal courage, vigour and humour after he was confined to a wheelchair was remarkable," he added.

The duke is survived by his wife and four children.

He is succeeded by his eldest son, the Earl of Dalkeith.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/south_of_scotland/6978528.stm

Published: 2007/09/04 16:53:27 GMT

The Chief of Clan Scott - Obituary

from BBC NEWS: Sept 4, 2007

Landowner duke dies at age of 83

One of Scotland's biggest landowners, the Duke of Buccleuch, has died at the age of 83.

The former Conservative MP died after a short illness at his Bowhill House home in the Scottish Borders.

The duke, who used a wheelchair after a riding accident in the early 70s, was a strong supporter of country pursuits.

Lord Steel, the former Lib Dem leader and a near neighbour, said his family would be "immensely proud" of his "long and distinguished public life".

His Drumlanrig Estate in Dumfries and Galloway hit the headlines in 2003 when two men stole a Leonardo da Vinci painting, Madonna With The Yarnwinder.

His personal courage, vigour and humour after he was confined to a wheelchair was remarkable Lord Steel

Police renewed their appeal for information about the theft earlier this year.

As recently as 2005, the duke was believed to be Britain's biggest private landowner, owning 270,000 acres, mostly in the Borders.

The Sunday Times Rich List estimated his wealth at £85m.

Born in 1923, the oldest son of the eighth duke - whom he succeeded in 1973 - Johnnie Buccleuch was educated at Eton and Oxford.

After the war he studied agriculture and forestry and became director of the Buccleuch Estates in 1949.

He married Jane McNeill in 1953 at a wedding attended by the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh and most of the Royal Family at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.

He later became a Tory councillor in Roxburghshire and subsequently MP for North Edinburgh.

However, he fractured his spine when a horse somersaulted and his career as an MP was cut short when he succeeded to the dukedom.

The duke worked with various bodies on behalf of disabled people and also sat in the Lords, speaking on rural, disability and constitutional issues.

In 1978 he was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Thistle - the highest honour in Scotland.

After Lords reform in 1999 the duke declined to stand as an elected hereditary peer.

A statement from his company - the Buccleuch Group - paid tribute to its former chairman.

'Much-respected'

It said he had "lived a life of extraordinary richness and courage" and would be remembered for his "commitment to the countryside and inspirational leadership in rural affairs".

Lord Steel said he and Lady Steel were "deeply saddened" at the death of the duke.

He said he was "a highly public-spirited man, an effective Edinburgh MP" as well as "a much-respected and innovative landlord".

"His personal courage, vigour and humour after he was confined to a wheelchair was remarkable," he added.

The duke is survived by his wife and four children.

He is succeeded by his eldest son, the Earl of Dalkeith.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/south_of_scotland/6978528.stm

Published: 2007/09/04 16:53:27 GMT

The Duke of Buccleuch - Obituary - The Telegraph

The 9th Duke of Buccleuch and 11th Duke of Queensberry, who died yesterday aged 83, was Scotland's grandest aristocrat and the largest private landowner in Europe.

The 9th Duke of Buccleuch: his was the only Leonardo in private ownership

Laid end to end, the walls and fences that bounded his 280,000 acres would have stretched from Drumlanrig, his castle in Dumfriesshire, to San Francisco. The management of such a demesne was, as the Duke maintained, "every bit as much a business as running a chocolate factory or a chain of shops".

Yet such abundant means inevitably aroused envy, speculation and the disapproval of the Left. The Duke seemed a natural target for Labour politicians, and Jack Straw ventured before the 1997 general election to ask how he could possibly represent the common man.

The Duke genially replied that he could teach the future Home Secretary, whose career was almost exclusively confined to the closed world of Labour politics, "a little about life with a capital L".

Buccleuch had served as an ordinary seaman in destroyers during the Second World War, had been an MP for 13 years and had championed the increasingly neglected countryside while representing an Edinburgh constituency. He was closely involved in numerous charitable and regional bodies.

Although one of only 24 non-royal dukes, he was a member of a larger minority group, the disabled, as he had been in a wheelchair since breaking his back in a hunting accident. As for the charge that he was out of touch with ordinary people, the Duke maintained that the management of his estates brought him into contact with the 1,000 people who lived on them.

Each year his lands produced some 127,000 sheep, 13,500 cattle and 50,000 tons of timber, and his sensitive stewardship brought him several countryside awards and much admiration from his fellow landowners.

For good measure, he personally supervised the introduction of his own malt whisky, Spirit of Douglas. This was intended to help tourism in south-west Scotland, but he gave most of it away to friends, designing the packaging to suggest an antiquarian book so that a clergyman or temperance society director could have "the odd snifter" without anyone suspecting.

Journalists hazarded wildly that the Buccleuch estates, which run in an almost unbroken line across southern Scotland, were worth upwards of £300 million, but the Duke was swift to counter the notion that the extent of his property implied Gulbenkian riches: "It is seldom realised that one acre of windswept hill, typical of my family estate, is worth about as much as the space occupied by a wastepaper basket in a Fleet Street office."

The ducal coffers were further strained by the cost of maintaining the family's three houses, the upkeep of which was exacerbated by the cost of opening them to the public; the 17th-century tapestries at Drumlanrig were particularly susceptible to the effluvium of human breath. Keeping the castle open to its 40,000 visitors each year cost him £100,000 more than if he had kept it shut; in the depths of winter he contented himself with a two-bar electric fire in his study.

The Duke divided his time equally among his houses, driving between them in a Volvo painted in the black and gold Buccleuch livery. The autumn was spent at Drumlanrig, a 120-room pink sandstone castle with 17 turrets and four towers; it housed a Holbein and Rembrandt's Old Woman Reading; and the hall is dominated by a chandelier weighing nine stone.

At New Year, the Buccleuchs moved down to Bowhill, in the Borders, essentially a large hunting lodge which had been extensively remodelled in Victorian times. The 100-room house, sited in wooded country between the Ettrick and Yarrow rivers, holds portraits by Gainsborough, Reynolds and Van Dyck.

In the spring, they travelled on to Boughton, Northamptonshire, an 11,000-acre estate that included five villages. The house, originally a monastery, was turned in the 1660s into a complex replica of a French mansion; there are seven courtyards, 12 entrances and several acres of roof. Among its art treasures were 40 Van Dyck oil portrait sketches. The only Leonardo still in private hands, The Madonna of the Yarnwinder, which used to accompany the Duke on his annual progress around the houses, was stolen in August 2003 from Drumlanrig by two thieves posing as tourists.

A fourth Buccleuch house, Dalkeith Palace, just outside Edinburgh, is now occupied by Wisconsin University.

The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry

As published by The Independent - Sept 6, 2007
Formidably well-informed Conservative MP for Edinburgh North who inherited vast private estates.

Walter Francis John Montagu Douglas Scott, politician and landowner: born Edinburgh 28 September 1923; styled 1935 The Earl of Dalkeith; MP (Conservative) for Edinburgh North 1960-73; PPS to the Secretary of State for Scotland 1962-64; succeeded 1973 as 9th Duke of Buccleuch and 11th Duke of Queensberry; Lord-Lieutenant of Roxburgh 1974-98; Lord-Lieutenant of Ettrick and Lauderdale 1975-98; KT 1978; married 1953 Jane McNeill (three sons, one daughter); died Bowhill, Selkirk 4 September 2007.

As Conservative Member of Parliament for North Edinburgh from 1960 until 1973, when he succeeded his father as 9th Duke of Buccleuch and 11th Duke of Queensberry, and one of Britain's largest private landowners, Johnny, Earl of Dalkeith was my friend, political opponent and parliamentary pair. Well-liked by Harold Wilson for his cheeky, droll, but pertinent, polite and somewhat deferential questions to the Prime Minister, Dalkeith was popular right across the political spectrum.

Dalkeith was to cross swords – perhaps épées is a better word – with Wilson on many occasions during his premiership. A taste of his style came on 30 March 1965, when there was a great Commons hullabaloo initiated by questions from the MPs Russell Johnston and Ted Rowlands (now Lord Rowlands) to the Prime Minister about a book, Crisis: the inside story of the Suez conspiracy, by the Canadian Terence Robertson. They demanded that the Prime Minister should authorise the preparation of an official history of the Suez affair by independent historians.

The octogenarian Emanuel Shinwell weighed in with a pompous question which Wilson answered. Then, the Speaker's eye was caught by the smiling face of the Earl of Dalkeith. "Has the Prime Minister ever in his life come across so virtuous a being as an independent historian, as referred to in Rowland's question on the order paper?" he asked. Wilson responded:

As to having an official historian to do this, I think we must draw a distinction – the distinction has been drawn in past cases – between the case where the efficiency of a government operation is in question – and there could be little doubt about the efficiency or inefficiency of this one – and one where the good faith of the Government is concerned. It has always been held, and stated by a former prime minister, that where good faith is involved, it is a matter for the House rather than for official historians.

In 1971 Dalkeith had a terrible hunting accident and was paralysed from the chest down. When, the following year, he returned to the Commons with his neck in plaster, the former prime minister, by then opposition leader, walked across the floor of the House to shake his hand, when he came in before Prime Minister's Questions. None of us had ever seen such a gesture before or until Margaret Thatcher, to her credit, crossed the floor to welcome back the obviously ailing Eric Heffer.

In the Commons, there was a general belief that Buckingham Palace had earmarked Dalkeith for the hand of Princess Margaret as a most suitable consort and that he, as a supremely eligible bachelor, had tactfully but firmly resisted any entry into the royal family. This perception gained him considerable credit. When, many years later, I felt in a position to ask Johnny outright whether this idea was true he responded that this was one subject he would never, ever discuss.

Above all, his multitude of friends admired in some awe Buccleuch's resilience and cheerfulness during the many years he spent confined to a wheelchair as a result of the neck injury sustained while hunting with the Buccleuch hounds. He never let such a grievous injury, that would have felled most men, interfere with his numerous activities and the running of his vast estates. Courage, and lack of self-pity, was his particular quality.

Walter Francis John Montagu Douglas Scott was born into the aristocratic purple in 1923, son of the 8th Duke of Buccleuch, a considerable figure in Scottish life, and Vreda Lascelles, granddaughter of the 10th Duke of St Albans. Johnny, styled the Earl of Dalkeith from 1935, was sent to the Eton house of W.N. Roe, MC, who Johnny told me was difficult and severe.

But Roe did require his boys to gain a knowledge of science subjects, unusual in Eton in the 1930s. This proved of great benefit when, as a 17-year-old at the beginning of the Second World War, Dalkeith went straight from school to serve in a non-commissioned capacity in destroyers. His experience of the lower deck, the comradeship and danger, was never to leave him. In 1942, on his merits, he was given a naval commission and for the rest of his life was actively involved in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, to whose cadets in Scotland he was enormously generous in an unsung manner.

Having survived U-boats, he went to Christ Church, Oxford and read Modern History. Although he was persuaded to become a member of the supremely toff Bullingdon Club, his experience in the Navy made sure that his life would be far fuller than that of a ne'er-do-well aristocrat.

He became chairman of the Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles Conservative Association, and could have had the candidacy for the asking, since the sitting Conservative incumbent, Commander C.E.M. Donaldson, could have been easily persuaded by the association to yield his seat to the Earl of Dalkeith. But, as Dalkeith succinctly put it:

A wise bird does not foul its own nest. The last thing I wanted to do was to be Member of Parliament for the area where my family owned many of the houses and much of the land. Any complaint would have become a nightmare had I been the MP. What should I have done. Come to myself and complained to myself that I had no case!

In 1960, death created a vacancy in the North Edinburgh constituency and the association selected two candidates in the run-off, W. Forbes Hendry, a very active Scottish Conservative politician of the day and later to be an Aberdeenshire MP, and the Earl of Dalkeith, untried in Parliament. To no one's surprise, the Edinburgh Conservatives opted for the Earl, with his scintillatingly beautiful young bride, the model Jane McNeill.

I remember the election on 19 May of that year very clearly, as I was a canvasser for the Labour candidate Ronald King Murray, who gained 6,775 votes to Dalkeith's 12,109. Lady Dalkeith was, indeed, a factor.

In 1964 Dalkeith held the seat by 17,094 votes to the Labour postman Alec Reid's 12,264 and in 1970, with 13,005, he saw off the young chairman of the Edinburgh housing committee, Robin Cook, with 9,127. Actually, his contests were good-natured and, later, Dalkeith and Cook were brought together by their mutual interest in horse-riding. Cook told me how in a hustings meeting with the Earl he had won every single argument, on every single subject, but was aware that Dalkeith's benign smiles and chuckles would win the vote.

As an MP one of Dalkeith's strengths was that he never opened his mouth unless he quite clearly knew about the subject that he was discussing. I remember the second reading of the debate on the Harbours Bill in 1963, when he declared his interest as a director of one of the harbour undertakings on the Firth of Forth and then proceeded to give to the Commons many hard facts in support of the recommendations of the report of the Rochdale Committee on ports. He contributed significantly to harbour-development plans and evoked considerable interest from the then transport minister Ernest Marples, who stayed on the front bench to listen to him on the problems of the small fishery ports.

In January 1962, Dalkeith was made Parliamentary Private Secretary to Jack Maclay as Secretary of State for Scotland and then to Maclay's successor, Michael Noble, after "the night of the long knives" of July 1962.

The following year, Alec Douglas-Home, as Prime Minister, told Dalkeith that he really had to make up his mind as to whether he wanted a ministerial career or to become the 9th Duke of Buccleuch, and that he couldn't do both. Dalkeith would have been a good, sound, undogmatic Conservative minister. In those far-off days 40 years ago, the House of Commons was replete with people who had expertise in the outside world and weren't unduly worried as to whether or not they became ministers. An example of this expertise came in Dalkeith's formidably well-informed contribution to the debate on the Forestry Commission in 1965. "Sometimes landowners have been unfairly blamed for not producing more land for the state to plant," he began. "This criticism is merited in some cases, but generally speaking landowners have been unjustly blamed."

Dalkeith asserted that it was quite often the occupier of the land – the farmer – who was most averse to allowing the planting of trees, and was able to come up with a personal example:

Only this morning I received a letter from a tenant farmer on whose farm I was hoping to plant a shelter belt of 30 acres. This land was solidly covered with whins. It was of no use to man or beast.

But the farmer immediately replied that this was the very best part of his farm and that he could not allow me to plant 30 acres. This was even though I had made it clear that I would undertake, by chemical sprays – possibly by helicopter – to reclaim another area of his land which was also covered with whins, as a quid quo pro. He was still reluctant to allow me to plant a wood of a size which would be an economic proposition. The harmonising of forestry and agricultural interests is of immense importance, but it is a matter which presents some difficulty.

Willie Ross, the acerbic Labour Secretary of State, always maintained that if there had to be lairds, then the Buccleuch estates were the best-managed of any laird's in Scotland and that Dalkeith's contributions were always worth listening to. The House of Commons was the richer for having information straight from the horse's mouth. It also helped that Dalkeith took trouble over his personal relations with Labour MPs and, for instance, invited the MP for the Gorbals, Alice Cullen, to stay with him at his great houses of Bowhill and Drumlanrig, partly so that she could have the opportunity to learn about countryside problems.

Dalkeith, in July 1965, and for years until his accident, made valuable contributions on agriculture, farm sales and Capital Gains Tax problems. It never occurred to any of us that in tackling such issues he was trying to feather his own, soon to be, ducal nest.

He became President of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society in 1969 and of the East of England Agricultural Society in 1976, the latter as a consequence of being the owner of the wonderful Northamptonshire house of Boughton.

My last conversation with him was when he invited me to lunch at Bowhill and showed me not only his wonderful collection of miniatures, but the Canalettos, which had proved enormously important in a practical sense, in allowing engineers who were renovating the streets of London near the Houses of Parliament to ascertain exactly where the drains of a century and a half had been laid.

The twinkle in his eye was undimmed until great old age. In the last years, and particularly in the last few weeks of his life, he was enormously courageous.

Tam Dalyell

Madonna back To Buccleuch - Chief of Clan Scott

Police on Thursday recovered a painting credited to Leonardo da Vinci that had been stolen from a Scottish castle four years ago by thieves disguised as tourists.

Police said four men had been arrested. The painting was recovered in the Glasgow area.

also…

Detectives arrested four men yesterday when they recovered a stolen 30 million GBP Leonardo da Vinci painting in a raid on the offices of a prestigious law firm.

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Chief of Clan Scott

The chief of Clan Scott has many names, telling of his Montagu and Douglas heritage as well as his Scott ancestry.

Sir Walter Francis John Montagu Douglas Scott, also has more than one title including the 9th Duke of Buccleuch, Duke of Queensberry, Marquess of Dumfriesshire, Earl of Buccleuch, Earl of Doncaster, Earl of Dalkeith, Earl of Drumlanrig and Sanquhar, Viscount of Nith, Torthorwald and Ross, Lord Scott of Buccleuch, Lord Scott of Quhitchester and Eskdaill, Lord Scott of Whitchester and Eskdale, Baron Scott of Tindall, Lord Douglas of Kinmont, Midlebie and Dornock and Chief of the Name and Arms of Scott.

His entry at Burke's Peerage & Gentry has additional details as does the Wikipedia entry on the office of Duke of Buccleuch and on the encumbent.

The Duke's companies operate under the Buccleuch Estates banner with 655 employees and have holding from Texas to Australia, as well as activity from bio energy to management of heritage houses. One of the largest landowners in the UK, with over 1,000 individual properties, the website includes both biographic information on the chief and his family history.

Several properties are open to the public including

• Boughton House
• Bowhill
• Drumlanrig Castle
• Dalkeith Country Park