Melville 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.
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