{"id":169,"date":"2011-07-22T08:03:26","date_gmt":"2011-07-22T08:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/?p=169"},"modified":"2011-07-22T08:05:19","modified_gmt":"2011-07-22T08:05:19","slug":"melrose-house-pretorias-romantic-scottish-link","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/2011\/07\/22\/melrose-house-pretorias-romantic-scottish-link\/","title":{"rendered":"Melrose House – Pretoria’s romantic Scottish link"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
“If thou would’st view fair Melrose aright, <\/dt>\n
Go visit it by the pale moonlight;” – from Canto Second of the “Lay of the Last Minstrel” by Sir Walter Scott.<\/dt>\n
It is not really necessary (though not a bad idea either – though you would not be able to go inside the house then) to visit Melrose House<\/a> in Pretoria by “pale moonlight” as Sir Walter Scott proposed in “The Lay of the Last Minstrel<\/a>“.<\/dt>\n
\n
It was built in the late 19th Century by wealthy Pretoria businessman George Heys, who had started to make his fortune as a trader in the Kimberley diamond fields.<\/dt>\n
Heys and his wife Janie visited Scotland and were deeply impressed by their visit to Melrose Abbey<\/a> and so decided to call their Pretoria home after it.<\/dt>\n
\n
The scene is:<\/dt>\n
\n
The way was long, the wind was cold,<\/address>\n
The Minstrel was infirm and old;<\/address>\n
His wither’d cheek, and tresses gray,<\/address>\n
Seem’d to have known a better day;<\/address>\n
The harp, his sole remaining joy,<\/address>\n
Was carried by an orphan boy.<\/address>\n
The last of all the Bards was he,<\/address>\n
Who sung of Border chivalry;<\/address>\n
For, welladay! their date was fled,<\/address>\n
His tuneful brethren all were dead;<\/address>\n
And he, neglected and oppress’d,<\/address>\n
Wish’d to be with them, and at rest.<\/address>\n

– from the Introduction to “The Lay of the Last Minstrel” by Sir Walter Scott<\/p>\n<\/dt>\n

\n
The treaty was signed in this house because it had been commandeered after the occupation by the British forces as their headquarters.<\/dt>\n
The house was bought from the Heys Family Trust in 1968 and has been meticulously restored.<\/dt>\n
Today Melrose House is one of the best-preserved Victorian mansions in South Africa and as such offers an intriguing glimpse into the lives of wealthy Victorian families.<\/dt>\n
The architectural style of the building can best be described as “eclectic”. <\/dt>\n
The house is in Jacob Mar\u00e9 Street opposite the main entrance to Burgers Park, which Heys had a large hand in designing.<\/dt>\n
The gardens of Melrose House itself have been re-developed to reflect the style of garden popular in the Victorian era. A gift shop and tea garden complete the experience for the visitor. <\/dt>\n
\u00a9 Text and photos copyright Tony McGregor 2011 <\/dt>\n
<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“If thou would’st view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale moonlight;” – from Canto Second of the “Lay of the Last Minstrel” by Sir Walter Scott. It is not really necessary (though not a bad idea either – though you would not be able to go inside the house then) to visit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1,12],"tags":[17,4,27,242],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pretoria","category-south-africa","category-things-to-do-in-pretoria","tag-anglo-boer-war","tag-architecture","tag-history-2","tag-pretoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}