Perth - 3 locations

Perth was an important place for Ruskin. He had both family there and was married in the adjoining township of Kinnoul. Kinnoul is now a part of Perth which spans both sides of the River Tay.

The locations are; Bowerswell where he and the daughter of family friends, Effie Gray were married,  a house on Tay View, and a house on Rose Terrace.

Bowerswell

Bowerswell is an imposing house set in its own grounds. Although now a home for the elderly it was the family home of his bride, Effie Gray. In Scotland it was possible to be married at home and in 1848 Euphemia Chalmers Gray and John Ruskin were married there.

On my visit I was lucky enough to be shown around the inside and the rooms where the marriage would have taken place.

Bridge-end (Tayside on map)

Tayside was the first house of Ruskin's Aunt, variously refered to as 'Aunt Jessie' or the 'Scottish Aunt'. She was married to a tanner, Peter Richardson [H&H.34].

The aunt who gave me cold mutton on Sundays was my father’s sister: she lived at Bridge-end, in the town of Perth, and had a garden full of gooseberry-bushes, sloping down to the Tay, with a door opening to the water, which ran past it, clear-brown over the pebbles three or four feet deep; swift-eddying,—an infinite thing for a child to look down into.

[Wks.35.16]

Bridgend House has been re-fronted since Ruskin's time and now is rendered, white and sports columns. Ruskin would NOT have approved! The original style can be seen on the building next door.

The building now homes Strang & McClagan Funeral Directors (shown incorrectly on theGoogle Map). It can be accessed via a narrow entrance from the main road.

By coincidence the view from the garden, across the Tay, is of Rose Terrace, the next location in Perth.

Rose Terrace

After the death of her husband, Aunt Jessie moved to No. 10, Rose Terrace, Perth.

As pointed out above, this is straight across the River Tay from Bridge-end. It fronts onto a wide, grassed area and is easily accessible.