Beasts and butterflies

Castell Coch, Cardiff In the care of Cadw

IN 1848, at the age of only six months, John Patrick Crichton-Stuart succeeded to his father’s estates as 3rd Marquess of Bute. In the process, he unconsciously became one of the richest men in the world, with property and industrial interests divided between Scotland and South Wales. The young Marquess was educated at Harrow and Oxford and grew up as a retiring figure with a strong sense of social obligation. He was also intellectually voracious, with particular interests in language, liturgy and history, notably that of the Middle Ages.

In 1865, at the age of 18, he met William Burges, the son of a wealthy engineer. Burges was another figure of intense intellectual interests, but convivial and about 20 years older than the Marquess. Fired by an enthusiasm for the Gothic Revival—he received a copy of A. W. N. Pugin’s architectural polemic (1836) on his 14th birthday—Burges had trained as an architect and his independent wealth allowed him to travel widely. This experience informed a highly eclectic and idiosyncratic architectural style that combined Gothic precedent with ancient, Classical,