Argyll's Lodging (HS)

This superb Renaissance town house was built about 1633 by the poet, courtier, and statesman Sir William Alexander, first Earl of Stirling. In 1621, the year after the Pilgrim Fathers sailed for North America, Sir William Alexander obtained a charter from the King to found a Scottish colony in the New World to be known as New Scotland or Nova Scotia.The colony was eventually established in 1629 only to be ceded to the French in 1632. Sir William did not abandon his interest in North America. A few years later he received from the Council of New England a large part of the ‘Maine Land’ and all of the island of Matowack or Longe Island, hereafter to be called by the name of Isle of Sterlinge’. Long Island did not change its name and its ownership did not benefit Sir William. He died, heavily in debt at Covent Garden in London, in 1640.The house was acquired by the Earl of Argyll, and further extended in 1670. The principal rooms, including the laigh hall, dining room, drawing room and bed chamber, have all been magnificently restored and are furnished as they would have been in 1680.Shop and exhibition.