The restoration and partial rebuilding of Cardiff Castle was the earliest work of the kind undertaken by Bute. The lofty tower conspicuous on the southwest of the castle enclosure, the restoration of the great southern curtain wall, with its covered way, and the erection of the noble staircase were among the most important of his building operations at Cardiff, which included also the discovery and partial restoration of the old Roman walls and gateway, the re-excavation of the moat, and the clearing and re-marking the sites of the mediæval friaries of the Dominicans and Franciscans. Most of the work at Cardiff was carried out under the direction of the distinguished architect William Burges, who was responsible for the whole of the fanciful and elaborate interior decoration both of the castle and of Castell Coch, the thirteenth-century fortress some five miles north of Cardiff. This castle, which was in a completely ruined condition, was restored by Bute, under Burges's direction, to its original state; and experts in such works have pronounced it one of the most perfect restorations ever carried out.
Two anecdotes of Burges, whose personality and genius were both somewhat of the eccentric order, may be here related on the authority of a distinguished and venerable member of his own profession, who knew him well. Bute invited him to come and see his new house at Mountstuart, then nearly complete, and took him into the great drawing-room, where he called his attention to the ceiling with its lining of panelled mirrors, on which were painted clusters of grapes and vine-leaves. Burges looked up, shrugged his shoulders, muttered "I call that damnable," and walked on.
Burges was accustomed to keep with him in his office a favourite terrier, which made itself occasionally disagreeable to visitors who called. When it was pointed out that the effect of this might be to keep away possible clients, Burges only grumbled out, "A good thing too! I have far too many as it is." Once a sporting friend came in to see him, bringing his own terrier, which he boasted was the best ratter in the country. Burges would not hear of this, and the matter was at once put to the test. The office-boy was sent out to some neighbouring purlieu for a sack of rats: a rat-pit was extemporised out of drawing-boards, architectural folios, and other paraphernalia of the office; and an elderly and distinguished client who chanced to call, intent on business, found the rat-hunt in full cry, and the eminent architect and his friend in their shirt-sleeves, hallooing on their respective champions to the slaughter.
Restorations in Bute
Bute contributed handsomely to the restoration funds of such historic edifices as St. John's Church at Cardiff and others on his Glamorgan estate; and he re-roofed and put in complete repair the small twelfth-century church of Cogan, near Cardiff, which had fallen into decay. It may be of interest, in this connection, to quote a letter which he addressed to his brother-in-law and fellow-Catholic, Lord Merries, who had consulted him as to the propriety of his subscribing to the restoration fund of Selby Abbey, which had been in great part destroyed by fire:
The question is one of some delicacy; but its solution is facilitated by the circular which you have sent me, which specifies various objects for which subscriptions are invited. I can only advise you in accordance with my own practice in such matters. You may reasonably decline to provide such adjuncts or accessories to Anglican worship as pulpits and litany-desks, service-books and altar-cloths, lecterns and candlesticks. But to give a donation towards the actual rebuilding of a most venerable monument of Christian piety (which your ancestors probably helped originally to erect) is a thing which, I conceive, you may very properly do—and all the more so in view of your official connection with the county.[[3]]
Bute's native and titular island, which within its comparatively small area contains perhaps as many interesting remains of feudal and ecclesiastical antiquity as any district in the kingdom, afforded him, of course, many opportunities of applying his archæological and architectural knowledge to the congenial task of repairing and preserving these venerable fragments of the past. Prominent among them is the ruined eleventh-century castle in the middle of Rothesay, of which Bute was hereditary keeper, and of which he restored the gateway, drawbridge, and moat, clearing away the mean modern tenements abutting on the castle, and also re-building and re-roofing the great hall. The ruined church of St. Blane, also of the eleventh century, was likewise partially restored by Bute four years before his death, when a large number of interesting objects were discovered among the foundations of the early Celtic buildings.[[4]] Bute also restored the ancient castle of Wester Kames, and rebuilt the wall round the venerable chapel of St. Michael in North Bute, to preserve it from further depredations.
The greatest architectural enterprise undertaken by Bute in his native island, or, indeed, anywhere else, was the erection, from the designs of Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Rowand Anderson, of the palatial house of Mountstuart, which replaced the plain old mansion burned down in 1877. This great pile of pink sandstone, with its curious upper storey of brick and oak, vast marble hall and staircase, high-pitched roofs, corbelled oriel windows, and beautiful private chapel with vaulted crypt, was begun in 1879, and at Bute's death twenty-one years later was still unfinished. His characteristic slowness in completing any architectural work which absorbed him is treated of, with much else of interest in the same connection, by Sir R. Rowand Anderson in his valuable appreciation of Bute in his relation to architecture and architects.[[5]]
Work at Falkland Palace
Bute's acquisition in 1887 of the estate of Falkland, carrying with it the hereditary keepership of the ancient royal palace, gave him even more scope than Mountstuart for indulging what some one once designated his "passion for stone and lime," or, as the phrase would run in England, for bricks and mortar. Falkland appealed to him not only as an architect, but as an antiquarian. The varied beauty of its sadly-dilapidated buildings, and the long and romantic story of the palace and its occupants, were to him of equally absorbing interest. He spared neither time nor money in his work of restoring the historic pile to something of its ancient grandeur; and it was said that for a number of years he devoted the whole available income of the estate to his building operations at the palace. The corridors and floors were laid with oak and teak; many of the rooms were elaborately panelled in oak, and their ceilings emblazoned with heraldic and other devices; while in the Chapel Royal, the royal pew and ancient pulpit, and the magnificent oaken screen, were completely and carefully restored.[[6]] Besides the costly interior work, mostly in the main or southern block, Bute executed much judicious excavation in and about the palace; and it was a great satisfaction to him to discover in the garden the foundations of the great twelfth-century round tower, dating from the time when Falkland was in the possession of the Earls of Fife. Another interesting work was the restoration of the old royal tennis-court, which Bute was accustomed to say had been, he believed, last used for play in the reign of James V., the father of Mary Queen of Scots.