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Fife / Re: Fifeshire Cavalry
« on: Wednesday 03 April 13 22:09 BST (UK) »
jf99, that's really interesting about the derivation of the name. I am adding it to my notes.
To make matters even more confusing, there were THREE houses with similar names, but they were related through the Watson family. The Watsons had sold off or dowered (still trying to sort out the lines of transfer) the east part of their lands called Saughton to the Moodie family in the 1600s. In 1660, a Moodie daughter sold that land to Robert Baird who built a large manor called Saughton Hall and gardens on it. The building later became a private asylum, then was bought by the Edinburgh corporation to be developed, but it also burned down in the mid 1950s. There was evidently (and may still be) a Rose Garden, and the Scottish National Exhibition opened 1st May 1908 on the grounds there.
To make matters even more confusing, there were THREE houses with similar names, but they were related through the Watson family. The Watsons had sold off or dowered (still trying to sort out the lines of transfer) the east part of their lands called Saughton to the Moodie family in the 1600s. In 1660, a Moodie daughter sold that land to Robert Baird who built a large manor called Saughton Hall and gardens on it. The building later became a private asylum, then was bought by the Edinburgh corporation to be developed, but it also burned down in the mid 1950s. There was evidently (and may still be) a Rose Garden, and the Scottish National Exhibition opened 1st May 1908 on the grounds there.