craigdarroch castle - 5

craigdarroch 1, 2, 3, 4

Another descending staircase takes us down the other side of the house to see a few more rooms the Dunsmuirs would have used.

Maud's Bedroom

This is the room of the Dunsmuir's youngest daughter Maud (24). She is wearing a two-piece 'walking out" wool dress with a seal cap, seal fur muff, fur cape and gloves and she's ready to go skating on the frozen pond at Beacon Hill Park.



Servant's Room

What! No stained glass? No fireplace?


Smoking Room

After Joan was moved into Craigdarroch, sons James and Alex began the long negotiation to get control of the company holdings. For the next nine to ten years, Joan conveyed shares in the three major companies to James and Alex. The new company was called R. Dunsmuir's & Sons. This smoking room was installed as a place for the men to relax and entertain male acquaintances. This was a male-only domain as females were forbidden to smoke.

Usually men would remove their dress jackets and change into smoking jackets, even putting on a hand-embroidered smoking hat.



Breakfast Room

What's on the menu? Bacon and eggs, fried smelt, leg of lamb, snowballs (poached apples covered in rice), potato straws, fresh fruit with marmalade, jam, butter and bread with tea, coffee, hot and cold milk.




And that's it for the castle tour. Come back tomorrow for one more Craigdarroch post where we find out what eventually happened to the Dunsmuir's and their Victoria castle.