The Earl of Mansfield actually lives in Scotland, at Scone Palace. In 2000, a hundred people from Mansfields all over the world descended on the palace as part of the Millennium Celebrations. This is the text of the guide book they received:
The Earl of Mansfield
Scone Palace has been the home of my family for nearly 400 years. During this time the house has seen many changes, but each generation has cared for it and cherished the treasured possessions within it. In these days of heavy expense and taxation it would be impossible to maintain the house and grounds in the manner which they deserve were it not for your contributions - so that by your presence at Scone you are helping to preserve part of Scotland's priceless heritage.
But it is not only because of this that you are welcome. It gives me pleasure to share with you in the beauty of this place. When you look at the splendid examples of French furniture, or the ivories or some of the collections of porcelain you will appreciate that every piece reflects the taste of some member of this family during its long history.
I hope that you will spend a few minutes in the Estate Exhibition Room, where we try to show you how the Estate which surrounds the house also plays its part in the preservation of Scone. Because although my home is old I hope that you will agree that the Estate is run on thoroughly modern lines with the object of providing a secure livelihood for as many people as possible, for maintaining intact and unspoiled a piece of beautiful Scottish countryside, and with your help, to generate enough money to keep Scone as it is today in the years ahead.
The Stone of Scone
The Stone of Scone was kept here for nearly 500 years, possibly brought here from Dunstaffnage in A.D. 838. Kings of Scotland have been made upon this Stone for more than a thousand years, our present Monarch included. The Queen fulfils, through her ancestor James VI of Scotland - I of Britain (1603) that ancient prophecy:
Except ald seers do fei~n And wizard
wits be blind The Scots in place must
reign Where they this stone shall find.
This fabled Stone has an obscure history. Traditionally it is said to have been 'Jacob's Pillow' or it may have been the Royal Stone of the Belgic Kings brought from Antrim to Argyll, possibly it may have been the Royal Stone of the Picts, or an altar stone to some awesome but long forgotten god. We know the Stone was taken by King Edward I from Scone Abbey to Westminster Abbey in 1296, and subsequently returned to Scotland in 1996. Some say that the Stone there is the Stone of Destin , others that it is not Scone's famed Stone, but one quickly hacked out by the monks and palmed off on the King, the real and greatly treasured Stone being hastily hidden in an underground chamber. A tantalising mystery it may always remain.
Our British Queen, Elizabeth II, was crowned on the Stone in 1953. So the Stone of Scone still performs its ancient duty, and to far greater effect, making not only the Monarch of the Scots but of all Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In 1298 the famous Wallace rode into Scone and routed Edward I's Justiciar who was holding his court here.
Again a succession of kings were crowned at Scone but no longer on the Stone. The heroic Bruce became King of Scots here in 1306. Slowly without the Stone of Destiny the glory of ancient Scone began to fade, until, on 27th June 1559 soon after an inflammatory speech by John Knox, the Abbey was destroyed by the crowd.
The remnants of the Royal City and monastery were given to the powerful Gowrie family. Their mysterious part in the `Gowrie Conspiracy' (when the life of King James VI was threatened but was quickly saved by Sir David Murray and his family), led to their downfall. So this is where the history of the Murray family joins with the history, and the House, of Scone. Thus, Sir David Murray in 1604, the King's Ceremonial Cup-bearer, Master of the Horse, Comptroller of Scotland (and later, Captain of the King's Guard) was given the Palace and the lands of Scone in reward. He was also created Lord Scone and later Viscount Stormont.
The Palace
The First Earl was too busy to visit Scone and when his town house in Bloomsbury, London was burnt in the Gordon Riots he made his marvellous out-of-town house, Kenwood in Hampstead, his home.
The Second Earl found Scone too damp (the walls literally ran with water) for comfort, but it was the Third Earl, aged 19, having inherited Scone Palace, who gave us the Scone we now enjoy.
On entering by the State Door (situated on the east front and facing down towards the ancient gateway) one is now in a house carefully Gothicized, adapted and enlarged in 1802 by William Atkinson, the architect (a pupil of Wyatt). The monastic history of Scone makes this restrained Gothic style a most suitable one. For some one thousand years Scone had been the site of the monastery of the Culdees, then a Priory and Abbey of Augustinian Canons.
The Abbey of Scone and Bishop's House were sacked and burned in 1559 by a wild mob who had been greatly inflamed by John Knox's sermon in Perth. The 'Palace of Scone', residence of the Abbot, and where the Kings of Scots lodged for their Coronations and peregrinations, got off lightly and still forms the main structure of the present-day house.
The Dining Room
In order to make a tour of the State Rooms it is most convenient for the visitor to see first - the dining-room. This very fine south-facing room with its unique collection of large European ivories, quite takes the breath away. Here there are no less than seventy pieces.
The dining-room table is sometimes spread with a damask cloth specially woven to incorporate the Mansfield coat of arms with Murray Stars and Crescents. It is laid with three large Monteith bowls which were given to Lord Mansfield by his maternal grandmother, Lady Carnegie, for his coming-of-age. A rich but enchanting dessert service of Chamberlain Worcester is painted with a profusion of beautifully executed fruit and flowers contained with a deep blue border overpainted with a gilded design. The crystal glasses were made in the 184~0s.
The Empire clock on the mantelpiece is by Ledure of Paris, showing Psyche crowning Apollo. On either side are representations of the Chevaux de Marly, French nineteenth-century bronzes after Venus and Cupid.
Coustou, another fine clock standing on a boulle pedestal is by Alexandre Becket of Paris (between the windows). These t~- clocks form a small part of the collection of interesting and unusual clocks from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries spread throughout the Palace.
The Chippendale design chairs, the Gothic cabinets and tables in oak are by Ballingals of Perth. Between the window are two very intricately carved ivory mirrors bearing the monogram 'CR'.
An Old Master The Denial of St. Peter 1 Gerard Seghers (1591-1651) hangs over the Gothic sideboard as one enters. Salamon Koninck's (1619-88)
The Philosopher hangs over the fireplace. On its right is a portrait of the First Ear of Mansfield, while still the Hon. William Murray, by Hudson (1701 -79). This is t first of several portraits in the Palace of t; famous man, lawyer and politician.
The Emperor of Japan kindly planted the Acer worleei seen from the window in 1976, and the Crown Prince an oak in 1991.
The Ivories
This fabulous collection came from Bavaria, Flanders, Italy and France. They were carved in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in elephant and walrus tusk, and collected mostly by the Fourth Earl of Mansfield. They make an amazing sight and great pleasure can be derived from each one. Truly beautiful is the Holy Family (French seventeenth century), between the far windows. In another group Venus balances in a graceful if unlikely way on the shoulder of Cupid. This group is carved from one tusk. A standing cup and cover (Italian) carved with its date, 1624, is one of the earlier ivories.
The Ante-Room
This enchantingly pretty little Gothic room painted in white, silver and gold contains, in its niches, four vases of the Chien Lung Period (1736-95).
There is also eighteenth-century Ambassador'stable and a magnificent nineteenth-century Bureau Plat with its unique chair, both in boulle work.
The Chinese Chippendale chairs are made in padouk wood (this is a very hard wood). The contemporary oil on wood portrait is of Sir David Murray who was created first Lord Scone, then Viscount Stormont, having been Cup-bearer, and Master of the Horse and Captain of the guard to James V1I of Scotland. He later accompanied King (who had become James I of Britain) to London; having saved the King's life in the Gowrie Conspiracy.
This intelligent and redoubtable man was awarded with the lands and the Palace of Scone, which had been Gowrie property, and the Murrays have been here ever since.
The Drawing-Room
In the eighteenth century this beautiful room was the dining-room. The walls are clad in early nineteenth-century Lyons silk and hung with a huge pair of Royal portraits by Allan Ramsay (1765) of King George III and Queen Charlotte. A gilded fire screen frames Queen Charlotte's 'Apron', an exquisitely embroidered and totally non-utility accessory.
At the far end is hung the First Earl of Mansfield (by Reynolds, 1776) and his Countess. He is dressed in the robes and wig of Lord Chief Justice of England. This high position he held for the record period of thirty-two years. Having been born the Hon. William Murray (son of the Fifth Viscount Stormont) he rose to being a man of enormous power, respected as the greatest lawyer of all time. He virtually created the commercial law of Great Britain and of the United States of America. He was successively Solicitor General, Attorney General and Lord Chief Justice of England. He is the only man to have been twice Lord Chief Justice and Chance(lor of the Exchequer at the same time! F-ie personified the well-known 'Wind of the Murrays', his elegant and magnetic eloquence earning him the name of Silver tongued Murray'. While he was still an M.P. a normally noisy House of Commons would listen to him 'with such attention that one might have heard a pin Fall!'.
