Thomas Carlyle's Birthplace

Last updated

Thomas Carlyle's Birthplace
Arched House, Ecclefechan (Thomas Carlyle's birthplace).jpg
Thomas Carlyle's Birthplace in 2014
Thomas Carlyle's Birthplace
Location Ecclefechan, Dumfries and Galloway
Coordinates 55°03′33″N3°15′51″W / 55.059144°N 3.264246°W / 55.059144; -3.264246
Listed Building – Grade A
Official nameArched House including Carlyle's Birthplace
Designated3 September 1971
Reference no.LB10065
The house before 1904 Ecclefechan at the Birth-House.jpg
The house before 1904
Interior Larger Room in Carlyle's Birth-House.jpg
Interior

Thomas Carlyle's Birthplace is a house in Ecclefechan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, in which Thomas Carlyle, who was to become a pre-eminent man of letters, was born in 1795.

The house was built in 1791 by Carlyle's father James and James' brothers John and Tom, stonemasons all. [1] It is owned by the National Trust for Scotland, registered as a Category A listed building. [2] Architecturally, the home exemplifies 18th-century Scottish Vernacular. [3] It first opened to the public in 1881 and remains much as it was then. Many of Carlyle's belongings are housed along with a collection of portraits and photographs relating to his life. [4] Carlyle lived here with his brother John Aitken Carlyle who would go on to translate Dante's Inferno into English (1849). [5] It was from here that Thomas Carlyle walked nearly one hundred miles in order to attend the University of Edinburgh at the age of 13, intending for the ministry. [6]

References

  1. Sloan, John MacGavin (1904). The Carlyle Country. London Chapman & Hall. p. 30.
  2. Historic Environment Scotland. "ECCLEFECHAN VILLAGE, HIGH STREET, ARCHED HOUSE INCLUDING CARLYLE'S BIRTHPLACE (LB10065)" . Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  3. Scotland, National Trust for (3 March 2022). "Thomas Carlyle's Birthplace". National Trust for Scotland. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  4. "National Trust for Scotland, Thomas Carlyle's Birthplace | Art UK". artuk.org. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  5. Dante Alighieri (1849). Dante's Divine comedy: The Inferno. Translated by Carlyle, John Aitken. New York: Harper & Brothers.
  6. Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Carlyle, Thomas (1795-1881)"  . Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 9. London: Smith, Elder & Co.