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10 Dec 2019

Scraps of the past – Violet Brodie’s photo albums: Part I

Written by Lily Barnes – Morton Project Documentation and Digitisation Officer
A single page in a scrapbook album. In the bottom left corner of the page are two oval photographs, showing the Walter Scott Monument and Princes Street Garden, Edinburgh. Above this is piece of pale blue notepaper. This has ‘LUFFNESS, Aberlady, NB’ printed on it in black ink, and three handwritten signatures. In the top right corner of the page is a black and white photograph of Luffness House. Beneath this is a black and white photograph of Mount Stuart, a large stately home on the Isle of Bute. Vines have been painted across the page in green watercolour.
Between 1898 and 1904, Violet Brodie (then Violet Hope) recorded her movements in a series of scrapbook photo albums. Over the next year, we’ll be sharing photographs of these albums so that you can retrace her steps. We begin 121 years ago in December 1898 ...

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A single page in a scrapbook album. In the bottom left corner of the page are two oval photographs, showing the Walter Scott Monument and Princes Street Garden, Edinburgh. Above this is piece of pale blue notepaper. This has ‘LUFFNESS, Aberlady, NB’ printed on it in black ink, and three handwritten signatures. In the top right corner of the page is a black and white photograph of Luffness House. Beneath this is a black and white photograph of Mount Stuart, a large stately home on the Isle of Bute. Vines have been painted across the page in green watercolour. A single page in a scrapbook album. A piece of pale blue notepaper is pasted onto the centre of the page. ‘MOUNT STUART, ROTHESAY, ISLE OF BUTE’ is printed in red ink in its top right corner, and several signatures have been written across it in black ink. The notepaper is bordered with red watercolour, which extends to the previous page to border the photograph of Mount Stuart. ‘1898 December 6-10’ is painted in blue watercolour along the left edge of the page. A single page in a scrapbook album. Two black and white photographs showing Burghley House, a stately home in Lincolnshire, are pasted into the top left and bottom right corners. The rest of the page is covered in signatures, which have been handwritten in black ink. ‘December 12–16 1898’ is written at the centre of the page. A single page in a scrapbook album. A piece of pale blue notepaper is pasted across the top half of the page. ‘BLACKADDER, ADROM, BERWICKSHIRE’ is printed in blue ink in the top right corner of the paper. To the left of this, ‘January 3–5 1899’ is painted in blue watercolour. The rest of the paper is covered in signatures, which are handwritten in black ink. A piece of newspaper is pasted into the top left corner of the page and a black and white photograph showing ‘Blackadder House’ a stately home in Berwickshire. A single page in a scrapbook album. A piece of blue notepaper is pasted into the centre of the page. ‘Saltoun Hall, Pencaitland, NB’ is printed in gold in the top right corner of the paper. The rest of the paper is covered with signatures, which have been handwritten in black ink. Three small black and white photographs of women are pasted onto the paper. A black and white photograph showing a woman, Gladys Fletcher, is pasted near the top right corner of the page. A single page in a scrapbook album. A pink playbill is pasted across the right half of the page. A black and white photograph showing Saltoun Hall is pasted into the top right corner of the page. The left hand side of the page is covered by three black and white photographs. The top photograph shows two spaniel dogs sitting on a step. Below this is an image of a woman seated in an interior, and at the bottom of the page is a photograph of three women seated on a stage. A single page in a scrapbook album. A black and white photograph of a woman, Eleanor Fletcher, is pasted into the top left corner of the page. She wears a pale dress and a large decorative hat. Below this is a photograph of a man, Robert Fremantle. Robert wears a suit and cap, and has a moustache. Two newspaper cuttings are pasted across the right half of the page. A single page in a scrapbook album. Two black and white photographs of women wearing pale dresses and large decorative hats are pasted onto the top left corner of the page. They are identified as Violet Hope and Violet Harford. There is a third black and white photograph of Eleanor Smith pasted into the bottom left corner of the page. Eleanor wears a straw hat and holds a cane in her right hand. Two newspaper clippings are pasted across the right half of the page. A single page in a scrapbook album. A piece of white paper with ‘Stoke Court, Stoke Pogues, Bucks.’ printed on it in blue ink is pasted into the top left corner of the page. At the centre of the bottom half of the page is a black ink sketch of a women wearing a bonnet and holding a bunch of flowers. A playbill for a dramatic performance is pasted across the right half of the page. The rest of the page is covered in signatures, which have been handwritten in black ink. A single page in a scrapbook album. A black and white photograph of Stokes Court, a stately home in Buckinghamshire, is pasted across the left half of the page. At the centre of the bottom right quarter of the page is a black and white photograph of Dorothy Allhusen. Dorothy has dark hair, and wears a pale necklace and a pale dress. The rest of the page is covered with signatures, which have been handwritten in black ink. ‘1899’ is written in black ink across the top left corner of the page. A single page in a scrapbook album. A black and white photograph of Petworth House, a stately home in Sussex, is pasted at the centre of the right half of the page. Below the photograph is a small black ink sketch of a boy sitting in a shoe. A piece of paper with ‘Petworth Hall, Petworth’ printed on it in black ink is pasted across the top right corner of the page. ‘January 28’ is painted in red watercolour near the top right corner of the page, and ‘February 6’ is painted next to it in blue watercolour. The rest of the page is covered in signatures, which are handwritten in black ink.

Read next

Collage of black and white photos and handwritten signatures

Introducing Violet Brodie: Part I – the Brodie Castle albums

Learn about the Morton team’s next project – a collection of photographic albums from Brodie Castle.

Black and white photo of an Edwardian woman holding a baby and a small child with a white dog

Introducing Violet Brodie: Part II – at home with the Brodies

Find out more about the fascinating albums compiled by Violet Brodie of Brodie Castle.

Page from a photo album with six black and white photos

Introducing Violet Brodie: Part III – Violet’s last album

Read the final part in our series on the albums of Violet Brodie of Brodie Castle.

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The decorations at Castle Fraser are made with plants grown in the castle garden, then cut and dried in time for Christmas. Enjoy this festive celebration of the garden inside the castle.

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