Crossroads and Characters

11. DOWNSTAIRS, OUTDOORS.

Duncrub House had at one time 38 servants. Some lived-in, others stayed in tied cottages or came from the nearby village. There was a suite of rooms called 'the parsonage' for the Episcopalian priest who each morning conducted a service in the chapel for family and servants. The large grounds required several gardeners. And imagine the maid labour needed to keep polished just the brass knobs and finger-plates on 400 doors. When the house was demolished in 1950, most of these knobs and fretwork plates 'with a crown in bold relief on each' wound up in America. Fireplaces and panelling, timber and slates were soon scattered in buildings up and down the country, and much of the stone is said to have been used to extend Morrison's Academy in Crieff. Only the chapel stands today, a reminder of how large this stately home once was.