History
The house itself was built from 1490 onwards, featuring a fine wooden gallery and hand-painted ceiling. It belonged to the Mossman family of Edinburgh goldsmiths who refashioned the crown of Scotland for James V. James Mossman remained loyal to Mary, Queen of Scots when she was exiled in England. He worked in Edinburgh Castle making coins for her supporters who held the castle during the 'lang siege' on her behalf. When the Castle surrendered in August 1573, Mossman was charged with counterfeiting, hanged and beheaded. The house was forfeit for the treachery, and was given in the name of James VI of Scotland to James Carmichael younger of that ilk.
The carvings date from 1850 when the building was restored. They are by Alexander Handyside Ritchie. The building was restored again in 1984.
Over the next few centuries many decorations and paintings were added, and the house and its contents are now a museum. The building is owned by the Church of Scotland and is now administered as part of the new, adjacent Scottish Storytelling Centre.
Read more about this topic: John Knox House
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)
“The history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations ... all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)