The 3rd Marquess of Bute
James Pittendrigh MacGillivray (1856-1938)
Unveiled 1930
Bronze on a granite pedestal with bronze inscriptions and heraldry
Friary Gardens, Cardiff
Listed in the city's Public Art Register as "Commemorative" (31) this is one of the most important of the Scottish sculptor MacGillivray's few public monuments. The voluminous robes make the figure look especially impressive.
Photograph and text by Jacqueline Banerjee, 2009.
The 3rd Marquess of Bute (1847-1900) was only an infant when his father died, leaving him, through his trustees, "the greatest landholding and property rights of mid-nineteenth-century Britain" (McLees 14). The family was of noble Scottish descent, but the 1st Marquess had married well (first into the Windsor and then into the Coutts families), augmenting the family fortunes and interests, particularly in South Wales. The 2nd Marquess had not only married equally well, but developed the coal resources of South Wales: the Bute West Dock was completed in Cardiff in 1839. The 3rd Marquess grew up to be something of an eccentric. A convert to Catholicism, he immersed himself in medievalism and developed a keen interest in building. He commissioned the architect William Burges to make Cardiff Castle and nearby Castell Coch into sumptuous "medieval" residences for him. The Marquess's early life inspired Disraeli's novel Lothair.
References
Cardiff Public Art Register, 2nd ed. Cardiff, 2008. Available through Cardiff Council's Public Arts site.
McLees, David. Castell Coch. Cardiff: Cadw (Crown Copyright), rev. ed. 2005.
Last modified 1 November 2009