"As
we left Tomich, we thought of the uniqueness of Guisachan
- its isolation and its beauty - and the strength of
character and purpose of the Scottish nobleman who bred
the first Golden Retrievers and who could not have dreamed
of how much his experiment would imprint the world of
dogs, or the generations of dog fanciers who would be
forever in his debt."
by Tom Rutland and Sarah
Rutland
The
sun hid above a low, gray blanket. A light mist filled the
air as we departed the inn on the eastern shore of Loch Linnhe
and drove along the shoreline through Fort William, at the
foot of Ben Nevis, Scotland's tallest mountain.
We steered
the rented Fiat past fields of sheep that grazed on rolling,
grassy hills, along Highway A82, traveling northeastward,
into the North West Highlands in search of the birthplace
of the Golden Retriever breed.
About
10 miles from our destination, the road narrowed to a single
lane. It wound upward through dense, enveloping forest that
only occasionally yielded a glimpse of the River Affric below.
We turned
south onto a road with no number, a pencil-thin gray line
on our large, detailed road map. Our worries about the road
quickly disappeared, however, as it proved to be hard surfaced.
It was definitely "single carriageway," or one-lane, but
provided frequent turnouts where cars meeting each other
could pass. Signposts pointed the way to Tomich, our destination.
We arrived
there two hours after leaving Fort William. The next few
hours brought us a magical, almost reverent, experience.
We found
the entrance to the village marked clearly by its largest
structure, the two-story Tomich Hotel, where we stopped and
asked directions.
The
old kennel building, the innkeeper said, lay only a quarter
of a mile ahead on the right, the second-to-last structure
at the edge of town. It was a white building with dark shutters
and had been in use until fairly recently, but now stood
vacant and was for sale. The ruins of Lord Tweedmouth's mansion
were just beyond the old kennel, and to the right when the
road forked, he said.
On our
way toward the old kennel building, we were delighted to
see a light-colored Golden Retriever walking beside a gray-haired
man and a child, and we stopped to speak. The child was his
granddaughter, the man said. We asked the dog's name and
the man replied, "He is Dileas." When we repeated his name,
Dileas trotted across the road, jumped up on the side of
the car and stuck his head inside to be petted. Dileas (pronounced
JEE-less), we later learned, means "faithful" in Scottish
Gaelic. And Dileas, owned by Hamish Ross, is Tomich's only
Golden today.
We drove
on and quickly found the old kennel building. The white stucco-like
structure appeared to be in good repair. A fence prevented
close inspection. The immediate grounds were spacious, probably
a little less than an acre.
We walked
along the fence and saw as much of the building as we could.
We tromped through tall, damp grass in the field across the
road to take photographs.
We drove
on in search of the mansion. Several minutes of driving took
us past a couple of occupied residences, but we failed to
find the mansion. It surely was not within easy walking distance
from the kennel building, as we thought.
We returned
to Tomich and stopped first at a large stone monument with
a semicircular stone horse trough and fountain. The inscription
read:
"To
the memory of Sir Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks Bart: 1st Lord
Tweedmouth. Born Dec. 29, 1820, Died Mar. 4, 1894, whose
home was at Guisachan 1854-1894 who built the village of
Tomich and whose chief delight was to work for the improvement
and development of this district and also to the memory of
Isabel Lady Tweedmouth who was as a mother to the people
on the Guisachan property from 1854 to 1905. This fountain
is erected by their children Edward 2nd Lord Tweedmouth and
Ishbel Countess of Aberdeen."
Above
the monument is the inscription "Advantage with Courage." The
right side bore a sculpted portrait of Lord Tweedmouth, the
left side Lady Tweedmouth's likeness. A sculpted canine head
is just beneath each portrait.
A few
hundred yards farther on we stopped at the post office, just
across from the hotel, to again seek different directions
to the mansion.
Inside
we found a charming lady who answered several of our questions,
then picked up the telephone and dialed. "There's someone
here about the Golden Retrievers," she said to the person
on the other end. "Do you want to talk to them?"
Sarah
found herself talking with Col. James Fraser, who had purchased
Guisachan, the remains of the Tweedmouth estate, in 1966.
He gave us more specific directions to the mansion. (Guisachan
is pronounced KUSH-g'n. The accent is on the first syllable,
which rhymes with push. The second syllable sounds
like the ending of Michigan, and the word is pronounced quickly,
in a clipped manner.
Later
that morning, we learned that the postmistress was Christina
MacDonald, fondly known as Mulaidh, Gaelic for "darling." Mulaidh
(pronounced MU-lee) is in her late 80s. She and her family
ran the Tomich Hotel for many years. She opened the post
office in 1937 and has run it ever since.
Recently,
Queen Elizabeth II awarded Mulaidh the title MBE - Member,
Order of the British Empire - to honor her 61 years as postmistress.
The Queen was scheduled to send an emissary to present the
award in Tomich, since Mulaidh's health prevented her from
traveling to London, the innkeeper said.
We set
off again for the mansion. Still, we did not readily find
the ruins. But finally, as we drove further, we went up a
hill and around a gentle bend in the road and came upon the
crumbling but still grand house.
As we
walked all around the majestic mansion ruins atop a grassy
hill, and looked out over lush meadows, it was easy to imagine
the grand lifestyle of Lord Tweedmouth and how this noble
sportsman and his friends had hunted with his Goldens across
the surrounding countryside.
Part
of the pleasure of the moment was seeing the birthplace of
our breed. Part was simply the serenity and beauty of Guisachan
and the whole experience of Scotland.
This
is an ancient country immersed in colorful, proud history,
whose principal industry today is tourism. A visitor from
the United States quickly appreciates the absence of advertising
billboards and, indeed, signs of any kind other than road
markers. There is solitude all around outside the cities,
and the northwest region is particularly sparsely populated.
At Tomich and Guisachan, 45 minutes from Inverness, we felt
almost removed from modern civilization. In the village there
is no grocery store, no gasoline station, no video rental.
It is remote and classically rural.
Guisachan
goes back much further than Lord Tweedmouth. Members of the
Frasers of Culbokie owned and resided at Guisachan estate
from the 16th century, probably the year 1520.
A lengthy
succession of resident Frasers is recounted in Donald Fraser's
self-published book, Guisachan - A History. Donald
Fraser, a local farmer, is among the current owners of Guisachan
House and sole owner of Tomich Hotel. He is the son of Col.
James Fraser, with whom we spoke.
But
it was Lord Tweedmouth who developed Guisachan to its glory
after he purchased the estate in 1854. He was an avid hunter
and often would visit the owners of this grand estate. It
is said that Sir Dudley Marjoribanks, subsequently known
as Lord Tweedmouth, was at a dinner party at Guisachan. The
man (a Fraser) who was hosting the dinner said, "If anyone
gave me 60,000 pounds for Guisachan I would sell it tomorrow." "Done!" came
a voice from the end of the table. Although the owner approached
Lord Tweedmouth the next day and told him he had not been
serious about the offer, Lord Tweedmouth insisted "a gentleman's
word is his bond" - and the sale was completed.
Lord
Tweedmouth set about building a palatial home and a residential
community to provide support. Within a few years he had built
Guisachan House, the mansion; new farms; a dairy; the model
town of Tomich; kennels; stables for the riding horses; a
laundry; a brewery; a mill to make meal; a school; and other
lodges and dwellings.
The
farm became well known for its purebred cattle, Highland
and Aberdeen Angus, and for its Highland ponies, which were
crossed with a Thoroughbred sire to produce good riding horses
for guests at the mansion.
"And
finally there were his dogs," Fraser wrote, quoting Lord
Tweedmouth's daughter Ishbel: "In addition to the Golden
Retrievers - there were pointers, celebrated for their prowess
on the grouse moor, his favorite deer hounds, and last but
not least, his little Cairn terriers."
The
origin of the Golden Retriever is not as obscure as most
other breeds of dogs. We know the breed definitely was begun
by Lord Tweedmouth, as shown in his private stud book and
notes, first brought to light by his great-nephew in 1952.
In 1868, Lord Tweedmouth mated a yellow Wavy-Coated Retriever
("Nous") he had purchased from a cobbler to a Tweed
Water Spaniel ("Belle"). These Tweed Water Spaniels
were said to be rare except in the Border Country. They looked
like a small retriever, liver-colored and curly-coated. Tweedmouth
methodically linebred down from this mating using another
Tweed Water Spaniel and outcrosses of two black retrievers,
an Irish Setter, and a sandy-colored Bloodhound. He had finally
bred the hunting dog he so loved and the dog we have grown
to love.
Lord
Tweedmouth was a member of Gladstone's government, and during
the annual six-month parliamentary recess many famous and
influential people visited the family at Guisachan. In 1897
the Duke and Duchess of York, who later became George V and
Queen Mary, stayed there as guests of the Tweedmouths.
In 1873,
Lord Tweedmouth's son, Edward, married Fanny Spencer Churchill,
daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and sister
of Lord Randolph Churchill. Fanny's nephew, Winston Churchill,
spent holidays at Guisachan and learned to drive a car there.
Lord
Tweedmouth died in 1894, and his widow in 1905.
After
Fanny, the second Lady Tweedmouth, died in 1904, Edward suffered
financial losses and declining health. He was forced to sell
Guisachan in 1908. He died the following year. His estate,
however, retained "Tomich House," now the Tomich Hotel.
The
Tweedmouth line ended with Edward's son, Dudley Churchill
Marjoribanks, who became 3rd Lord Tweedmouth in 1909. He
and his wife had two daughters, but no male heir. For the
next 27 years, the estate was owned by Lord Portsmouth's
family. The property, then consisting of 22,000 acres (more
than 34 square miles), was sold in 1935 to a Mr. Hunter,
who resold the deer forest to the west and a large area of
grazing land to the Forestry Commission. All efforts to sell
Guisachan House failed. It was said that its 15 family rooms
and 16 servants rooms were too many, and its five bathrooms
too few. In spite of a price tag of £3,500 for the mansion
standing on 150 acres, no purchaser could be found.
In 1937,
Ishbel, now Lady Aberdeen, the daughter who was responsible
for erecting the monument to her parents, once again used
her influence to persuade the Northern Regional Committee
of the National Fitness Campaign to rent it as a training
center for young leaders. In 1938 it became the first Keep
Fit Summer School in Britain. The training offered for men
was in athletics, gymnastics, boxing, Highland dancing and
minor games. Women received exercise games and dancing lessons.
The
end of the mansion came in 1939 when a Lady Islington purchased
the house for £1,500 and began to strip it in preparation
for demolition.
Meanwhile,
the estate was split up and sold. This was disastrous for
sporting-minded people because the forest fences segregated
the hill ground from wintering and gave the deer no shelter.
This caused the deer to overgraze the hill ground. The remainder
of the estate - the "home farm" and a small part
of the hill above it, now known as Guisachan - was sold to
Michael Waddel after World War II. Mr. Waddel died in 1960
with no heirs.
In 1961
the estate was again placed on the market. Euan Fraser bought
it. Finally, and after 107 years, the estate was once again
in the hands of the Frasers. Part of the estate is now owned
by Col. James Fraser's younger son, Donald.
Margaret
Baumont purchased the kennel building, located about three-quarters
of a mile down the hill from the mansion house, restored
it, and for a while operated a bed-and-breakfast there. It
later was closed and, at the time of our visit, was for sale
for approximately £150,000 ($247,000). It reportedly was
sold in November 1998. We were unable to learn the identity
of the buyer.
Before
leaving Tomich, we ate lunch at the Tomich Hotel, where we
enjoyed a cordial visit with the innkeeper, Iain Coulter.
Coulter and his partner, Elaine MacDonald, run a spotless,
charming hotel with seven guestrooms.
As the
fireplace in the cozy bar warmed us from the damp chill outside,
we discovered two large pictures in the short hall leading
to the dining room. The pictures showed the floor plans of
the Tweedmouth mansion.
As we
ate our hot soup and freshly made sandwiches, Coulter told
us that Tomich has about 100 residents, mostly retirees.
A few folk work in Inverness, about 45 minutes to the north,
where Tomich residents shop for groceries and other necessities.
The
Tomich Hotel is almost completely booked from March through
November each year for various sporting activities. In winter,
the temperature sometimes reaches 10 degrees below zero,
but lows normally hover around the freezing mark, with very
little snow because it lies in a valley.
As we
left Tomich, we thought of the uniqueness of Guisachan - its
isolation and its beauty - and the strength of character
and purpose of the Scottish nobleman who bred the first Golden
Retrievers and who could not have dreamed of how much his
experiment would imprint the world of dogs, or the generations
of dog fanciers who would be forever in his debt.
Inverness
lies due north of Glasgow, on the North Sea coast at the
tip of Moray Firth. Just below Inverness, the famed Loch
Ness extends southwestward like a long, skinny finger. Highway
A831 runs from the little town of Beauly, west of Inverness,
southwest to Cannich, and from Cannich due east to Drumnadrochit
and A82, a major highway that runs along the west side of
Loch Ness. Tomich lies below Cannich.
Guisachan - A History
by Donald Fraser, was a source for some of the historical
material recounted in this article.
Interested readers may
contact the authors at srutla1@c-com.net
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