THE Scottish Borders is a green and gentle place of rolling hills, rich farmland and historic stone towns on the northern bank of the fine fishing river Tweed, the name of which, indeed, means ‘border’. The area is home to some of Scotland’s greatest estates and grandest houses, whose owners also built fine, smaller country houses, each with its own distinctive Borders character.
One such is Category A-listed Crailing House, which overlooks Oxnam Water, four miles north-east of Jedburgh; for centuries, the ledge on which it sits stood guard over the bridge linking Jedburgh with Kelso, 11 miles away.
The striking Regency-style house was built in 1803 for James Paton of the East India Company, by the Scottish architect William Elliot, still well regarded in the Borders for the elegance and simplicity of his Georgian buildings. Generally recognised as one of his most sophisticated works, Crailing House remained in the hands of the Paton family until 1948, when Peter Kerr, 12th Marquis of Lothian, bought it and commissioned the Scottish architect Reginald Fairlie to reconfigure the interior.
Having been let to a long-term tenant of the Monteviot estate, the house was in need of substantial repair when, in 2009, James Denne of Knight Frank oversaw its sale to the impressionist and writer Rory Bremner (Interview, October 11, 2017) and his sculptor wife, Tessa Campbell Fraser.
The couple, who were both born in Edinburgh, were looking to return to Tessa’s Borders roots with their young daughters, Ava and Lila. Tessa had visited the house as a child and, seeing it again, she and her husband fell in love with it.
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