There is a building in Craiglockhart in Edinburgh that frequently comes up in property listings (as it is now converted to a lot of retirement homes) with the romantic and ancient sounding name of Perdrixknowe .
The name is straightforward enough, Perdrix- is the French for Partridge, –knowe is the Scots for a hillock or a mound (from the English Knoll). Often a knowe specifically meant a gathering place for fairies. James Steuart, in his history of Colinton Parish, records that the Partridge Knowe, or Patrickes Know (Perdrix frequently became Patrick in Scots placenames) was the rise in the ground to the north of the Craiglockhart and Craighouse hills.
There are a couple of othr –knowe place names in the general area, e.g. Broomieknowe just to the south, Kingsknowe to the west etc. John Thomson helpfully records the name in his 1830s “Atlas of Scotland”.
But the name Perdrixknowe, ancient as it may be, was only given to the house in 1990 when it was converted to retirement flats. When the house was built in 1884, by the genius architect, local politician and quarrymaster that was Sir James Gowans, it was known as Waverley House.
It was not that unusual to give something a referential name to the works of Sir Walter Scott at the time, except all is not quite what it seems. The house was built for local fountain pen magnate, Duncan Cameron.
Duncan Cameron and his brothers owned the printing and stationery firm Macniven & Cameron. Duncan joined the business in 1850 and in 1862 patented a new fountain pen nib, “The Waverley”, with a fine, upturned point so as to better write on rougher papers.
The name was of course taken from the works of Walter Scott, as just about everything popular in Scotland seemed to be at the time, and the tin in which the nibs came even had his image on it.
The Waverley nib was a smash hit success, it was affordable, it was effective and because it could write on cheaper papers its utility was wide, “A luxury for the million” as the testimonial from the Argus newspaper says on the tin. With its stable mates The Owl and The Pickwick, Macniven & Camerons became one of the names in pens and the Camerons became fabulously wealthy. From the names of their best selling pens, the Company took their slogan, “They came as a boon and a blessing to men, The Pickwick, The Owl and the Waverley Pen” and this became seen all around the British-influenced world. Macniven & Cameron supplied pens to the British Government, and were much in demand in India amongst the Imperial civil servant, indeed their Hindoo nib of 1894 may have been deliberately aimed at it.
Such was the demand for Macniven & Cameron pens, which were made for them by specialist subcontractors, that in 1900 they acquired a factory in Birmingham to bring production in house in the sort of volumes required. The reason for production being in Birmingham was that it was the epicentre of this very specialist production in Britain; it housed 11 of the top 12 manufacturers of pens in the 1930s, the city producing 10-15 thousand pens per week.
The company advertised widely and was quite canny, it made sure adverts for its wares were prominent in main line railway stations, and a certain generation of rail traveller may yet recall the enamelled signs that used to prominently greet the travelling public.
Back to Duncan Cameron, like all self respecting Victorian businessmen, he had himself built a fabulous villa – and James Gowans was one of the top local architects, certainly one of the most creative and distinctive. The house itself heavily referenced the source of Cameron’s wealth; look at the fountain pen mouldings around the pediments and cornicing and also those chimney pots. The stepped detail around the main window is distinctively Gowans.
The grand staircase balusters are apparently based on fountain pens, but I can’t find a photo however. Duncan senior died in 1901, and his son Duncan junior took over the business but did not keep on Waverley House; by 1903 it is being lived in by the “Misses Geikie”.
With plenty of money to spare, Duncan senior had also bought himself a newspaper, The Oban Times, and put Duncan junior in charge. When the latter returned to Edinburgh to join the pen business, Cameron placed another son, Waverley (named after the pen), in charge. Waverley drowned in a tragic yachting accident off nearby Lismore in June 1891 when their boat was swamped by a sudden squall. Waverley’s hat was all that was recovered. His friend, Donald Campbell later succumbed to his prolonged immersion and only Allan MacDonald survived. Duncan Senior had a large Celtic cross built on the Lismore shore at a spot close to where the boat went down.
In 1911, the Oban Times editor’s chair was filled by Flora Anne Cameron, Duncan Cameron daughter, when she and her husband retired to Oban. The Macaulay’s lived above the Oban Times offices in a 2nd floor apartment.
Flora remained involved in the running of the Oban Times for the final 47 years of her life. She was a supporter of Highland culture and the Gaelic language, and in 1947 helped establish the Macaulay Cup for Camanachd (Shinty), which is still going. She died in Oban in 1958 at the age of 99, still working on the paper despite having been invalided in an accident and confined to her home since 1952. She was returned to the Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh to be buried alongside her first husband and near the Cameron family plot, a vast Celtic cross marking the spot.
When Duncan Cameron senior died, his son Duncan junior took over. Duncan junior kept the pen side of the business going, but massively expanded the manufacturing stationery side of things and new factories were opened in Leith and London. He ran the company from London until he retired to Oban, his son Waverley B. Cameron taking over. He was chairman of the family paper, the Oban Times, until his death in 1954.
Duncan Cameron (senior)’s daughter Mary Cameron, who painted the portrait of him earlier in this post, was a renowned artist. She was sister of Duncan (junior), Waverley and Flora. She travelled to Spain in 1900 to study and fell in love with the country, becoming known for her Spanish scenes. She had a particular skill for painting animals, having practised using her own horse as a model and taking classes at the Edinburgh Veterinary College to better understand animal anatomy.
In the late 1939 Waverley House was taken over by the Scottish Wayfarer’s Welfare Society as a boys home. It took in boys from “broken homes” – usually turned over by the authorities – who found themselves in the city “penniless, tattered, despondent and hungry” and could house around 25 to 30 at a time. Boys typically stayed for 6 months before moving on to employment or the forces. The Society had only been established in 1935, starting off with £10 and use of an abandoned police station in Stockbridge by Miss Dorothea Maitland.
It was very progressive for the time and while it was initially just a night shelter, it soon took on a wider purpose as a reactionary response to the ill effects of institutionalisation in reformatories and orphanages at the time. It sought to provide its boys with a caring, family atmosphere, with each resident being assigned a “Mum” and a “Dad” from amongst the staff. It sought to re-integrate wayward youths back into society with a sense of purpose and self-worth instilled in them and was reported as having had a good success rate, with 51 out of 55 boys cared for in 1957 passing successfully on from the house. Even after they left, the boys were encouraged to treat Waverley House as their home. The Wayfarer’s Society were still at Waverley House as late as 1979 when they advertised for a new “Housefather” and “Housemother” for the establishment.
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