St Ronan's Wells was built by the 7th Earl of Traquair in 1826 to provide somewhere where the leisured classes could take the waters at their ease without getting their boot wet and dirty. Before then it was a muddy field with a bench. It transformed Innerleithen from a hamlet with 400 people to a bustling town in the summer with nearly 1500 people. Courtesy of Catherine Maxwell Stuart, a few weeks ago some of us paid a visit to Traquair House to look at some letters that he wrote concerning The Wells and Innerleithen. Margaret Fox is the archivist and showed us a treasure trove of documents. Here is a sample from the Earl to his sister on October 20th 1826. (Note the elegant handwriting and his huge enthusiasm. The underlining is his.): Traquair House, October 30th 1826 Dear Sister, I should have written long before the receipt of your last letter, had I not been expecting to have heard from you sooner in answer to my two former epistles which I wrote previous to your leaving London for the country. In my last letter I mentioned that I intended to be in the South about June, but I afterwards found there were several things to do on the estate that I had wished to see finished before I went to England which detained me much longer than I expected. Among other works that have been made this summer I must mention the building of a new house at the celebrated mineral spaw of Innerleithen; for the accommodation of the water drinkers who resort during the season for this salubrious spring. The building stands on a rising ground facing the Pirn Hill at the bottom of which runs the impetuous river Leithen. In front of the house is a veranda or portico 30 feet long supported by 5 impressive wooden columns painted imitation oak, and at each end are mock Venetian blinds. Behind the portico are two small rooms one for the Ladies and the other for the Gentlemen with a glass door that leads to the cabinet d'aissance pour les Dames et .... and at the opposite side of the rooms is a similar door that opens into the shrubbery and the orange grove, which diffuses its fragrant smell all round the premises. Between the two rooms is a passage leading to the kitchen and the bedroom of the keeper of the well. The windows in the different apartments are in the Venetian cottage style; the walls of the building are white washed and the roof is covered with blue slates projecting easings as likewise lead ... to carry off the rainwater. On looking down from the portico you see in valley the picturesque village of Innerleithen with its blue slated roof glittering in the sun. And casting your eyes a little to the right you behold at a mile's distance the majestic towers of Traquair Castle rearing their lofty spires from among the stupendous oaks and cedars that adorn the grounds round the mansion. Betwixt the trees you perceive the silver and limpid stream of the Tweed slowly gliding along the fertile meadows that extend beyond the reach of the eye; then moving a few paces farther your attention is taken up with the rumbling noise of the impetuous river Leithen dashing its foaming billows beneath the Pirn crags, and after many windings through the valley falls exhausted into the Tweed at the foot of the Carron bank wood; which is tethered to the summit with large pines hiding their majestic tops as it were among the sky that seems to touch the top of the mountain and terminate the boundary of this picturesque landscape. ......... For my money, he gives Sir Walter Scott a run for his money. This letter is displayed courtesy of the Traquair House Charitable Trust and by the generosity of Catherine Maxwell Stuart and the assistance of Margaret Fox, Traquair curator.
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