Melville House

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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M

elville House, a four-story mansion of 1692, with extensive and beautiful grounds, in Monimail parish, Fife, 3 miles N by W of Ladybank. It contains portraits of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and Sir Alexander Leslie, General of the Covenanters, Field-Marshal of Sweden, and first Earl of Leven. Sir Robert Melville (1527-1621), a distinguished diplomatist in the reigns of Mary and James VI., in 1616 was raised to the peerage as Lord Melville of Monimail; and George, fourth Lord Melville, who played an active part in the Revolution times, in 1690 was created Earl of Melville -a title conjoined with that of Leven since 1713. At the death in 1860 of the eighth Earl of Leven, the estate -2157 acres, of £3090 annual value-went to his eldest daughter, Lady Elizabeth Jane Leslie-Melville, who in 1858 had married Thomas Cartwright, Esq. An ancient standing stone, ½ mile SW of the house, rises upwards of 9 feet from the ground, and measures 6 feet in circumference.—Ord. Sur., shs. 48, 40, 1868-67.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer.