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NMS / Carberry House

National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh - - Ross 437-8

.Ross thought this 'one of most quaint and interesting dials we possess'. I agree wholeheartedly.

What immediately strikes me about this dial is it the support - a short rounded column with a female bust as a capital. It has one female facing North and one facing South. There are 13 dials in all but the North face is strangely left blank though being framed so beautifully.

After the novelty of the female busts wore off I now see how harmoniously the elements flow into each other. The column is proportioned as a young lady while the ionic volutes appear almost as a furtherance of her hairstyle or some forgotten renaissance hat. Even the dials, which at Lennoxlove are so distinct from the sculpted figure, flow down to her shoulders. Rather than the rigid, geometric forms of some dials here they have their corners elegantly shaped in harmony with the whole.

Carefully conceived, harmonious and beautifully carved.

Visited 01 Sept 1986 ? - A. R. Somerville

Visited 21 Jan 2006 - Author

I think I must have something for dials balanced on ladies' heads. Before I was obsessed with Lennoxlove/North Barr I was entranced by Ross' engraving of this dial formerly at Carberry.

This dial is almost too easy to see. Anyone living or visiting Edinburgh can simply nip into the (new) Museum of Scotland and see it in the Renaissance Scotland section. Unfortunately it (and those dials around it) are back lit by a wash of light cascading down one of the canyons that divide the museum. Exhibits that are so dependent on directional light for their effect - not to have any direct light upon them is surely an error of the exhibit designer, curator or architect. Perhaps I am being too single minded.

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	National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh - - Ross 437-8 .Ross thought this 'one of most quaint and interesting dials we possess'. I agree wholeheartedly. What immediately strikes me about this dial is it the support - a short rounded column with a female bust as a capital. It has one female facing North and one facing South. There are 13 dials in all but the North face is strangely left blank though being framed so beautifully. After the novelty of the female busts wore off I now see how harmoniously the elements flow into each other. The column is proportioned as a young lady while the ionic volutes appear almost as a furtherance of her hairstyle or some forgotten renaissance hat. Even the dials, which at Lennoxlove are so distinct from the sculpted figure, flow down to her shoulders. Rather than the rigid, geometric forms of some dials here they have their corners elegantly shaped in harmony with the whole. Carefully conceived, harmonious and beautifully carved. Visited 01 Sept 1986 ? - A. R. Somerville Visited 21 Jan 2006 - Author


	I think I must have something for dials balanced on ladies' heads. Before I was obsessed with Lennoxlove/North Barr I was entranced by Ross' engraving of this dial formerly at Carberry. This dial is almost too easy to see. Anyone living or visiting Edinburgh can simply nip into the (new) Museum of Scotland and see it in the Renaissance Scotland section. Unfortunately it (and those dials around it) are back lit by a wash of light cascading down one of the canyons that divide the museum. Exhibits that are so dependent on directional light for their effect - not to have any direct light upon them is surely an error of the exhibit designer, curator or architect. Perhaps I am being too single minded.