3-046-973 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Crichton Royal Institution, Dumfries, [Scotland], 1872. 'A retreat for mental and nervous invalids of the middle and higher classes...has just been completed according to a plan furnished by Mr. W. L. Moffat, architect...a low octagon tower [gives] unity and additional beauty to the edifice. The entire building is in the Italian style; its doors, windows, perforated parapets, and other features of ornamentation are copied from the designs of Palladio. The airy galleries running up the middle of each division have dormitories on one side, with elegant parlours and sitting-rooms for the richer class of patients, and on the other side large open balconies for exercise when the weather renders this less convenient out of doors...It is probable that no similar institution in the United Kingdom commands such a glorious prospect of mountain and plain, hill and glen, river and firth, wood and wold...The inclosed grounds consist of forty acres beautifully laid out with walks, croquet and bowling greens, and flower gardens; and adjoining is a farm of seventy acres, which affords supplies to the house and exercise to the patients. Immediately adjacent is the Southern Counties Asylum, built and endowed by the same benevolent gentleman'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.