Mellerstain House
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-> Kelso
-> Mellerstain HouseSix miles northwest of Kelso off the A6089, Mellerstain House (Easter & May-Sept daily except Sat 12.30-5pm; www.mellerstain.com; £5) represents the very best of the Adams' brothers' work: William designed the wings in 1725, and his son Robert the castellated centre fifty years later. Robert's love of columns, roundels and friezes culminates in a stunning sequence of plaster-moulded, pastel-shaded ceilings, from the looping symmetry of the library ceiling, adorned by medallion oil paintings Learning and Reading on either side of Minerva, to the whimsical griffin and vase pattern in the drawing room. The art collection, which includes works by Constable, Van Dyck, Gainsborough, Ramsay and Veronese, is also noteworthy. It takes an hour to tour the house; afterwards you can wander the formal Edwardian gardens, which slope down to the lake.
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