On this Valentine’s Day, did you know that Paxton House was built on one the most romantic yet tragic love stories Georgian Scotland has ever known?

Paxton House was designed by brothers John and James Adam in 1756 and is considered one of the finest examples of Palladian architecture in the country. It was commissioned by Patrick Home (1728 – 1809) as a grand and stylish country villa on the banks of the river Tweed. Paxton House was built by a young man in love and is not just a story of bricks and mortar, it is a tale of passion, foreign adventure and ultimately, heartbreak.

Patrick Home met Sophie de Brandt in 1750 at the Court of Frederick the Great in Berlin, Prussia, after leaving Leipzig University. Sophie was lady-in-waiting to King Frederick’s wife, Queen Elizabeth Christina. The young Scot was attractive, charming and easy mannered and a courtier of King Frederick’s described Sophie as “in short, a very pretty girl without being exactly beautiful’ but it was her personality, intelligence, gaiety and warm heart which gained her the nickname ‘Bella Dea’ – which translates as ‘Beautiful Goddess’.

When Patrick and Sophie met they immediately fell in love. Patrick (aged 22) and Sophie (aged 18) wanted to marry but the King would only allow the ceremony to go ahead if Patrick transferred his entire fortune to Prussia. King Frederick assured Patrick both a title of nobility and military commission but Patrick’s mother – Margaret Home of Billie – was outraged and threatened to dis-inherit Patrick if the wedding went ahead. The affair soon became public so Patrick was obliged to leave court and set-off on a grand tour around Italy.

On the evening of Patrick’s departure Patrick and Sophie lingered long into the night until they were alone when Sophie gave him a ring together with her gloves pronouncing “I desire you’ll accept of this as a token from me. Keep it for my sake. If you love me you’ll return here again. If not, ther is no help for it:…thou I do not blame you entirely for what has happened …with a little more temper on your part things might have turned out otherwise. However …I have too good an opinion of you to believe you can ever forget what has passed betwixt us.’

To which Patrick recounts in one of his memoirs ‘…laying hold of both her hands I assured her that her remembrance would ever be dear to me…that she might depend upon it, and I now pledged my honour to her I should never marry while she remained unmarried.’

Patrick and Sophie continued to write to each other until Patrick returned to Scotland in 1752 when his mother was murdered. After inheriting the family fortune, it is believed Patrick then built Paxton House for his continental bride whom he still hoped to claim.

Patrick remained true in his pledge of love for Sophie for 21 years, writing numerous letters, but sadly ………. Patrick and Sophie never saw eachother again. Sophie De Brandt continued to work for Queen Elizabeth Christina and died unmarried in the late 1760s. Some years after Sophie had died Patrick decided to dispose of Paxton, selling it to his cousin Ninian Home, unfinished and un-decorated. He didn’t want to live in it without Sophie. In 1771, Patrick married a Scottish girl, Jane Graham of Dugalstone. But in a moment of weakness his confession of undying love for another at so sensitive a time ruined their relationship and dogged him for his remaining days. Patrick died in 1808 alone and unmarried.