Calder 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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Calder House, a mansion in Midcalder parish, Edinburghshire, in the southern vicinity of Midcalder town. Standing on an elevated lawn, and surrounded by ornamental walks, it adjoins an extensive and romantic wood intersected by Murieston and Linhouse Waters. It is in part a very ancient building, with walls of 7 feet thickness, and includes a great hall, upborne on arches, and modernised into a drawing-room. This seat is historically famous for the celebration of the Lord's Supper in its great hall by John Knox in 1556. The hall contains a portrait of the Reformer, which, long regarded as authentic, was, in 1875, pronounced by the late Mr David Laing to be only a ` bad copy; ' in the same apartment there is also a portrait of Mary Queen of Scots. For more than five centuries a seat of the Sandilands, Calder House is now held by Jas. Walter Sandilands, twelfth Baron Torphichen since 1564 (b. 1846; suc. 1869), and owner of 1880 acres in the shire, valued at £3794 per annum, including £500 for minerals.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

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

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