The architect he chose, William White, is almost forgotten: He features, if at all, in books on Victorian architecture as the designer of two fine churches in London and one in Hampshire. Humewood, sadly, proved to be his only major country house. Having exceeded his budget by more than 50 percent, White, along with his client, was sued by the builder. The case, won by the builder, became a landmark in architectural case law. White’s career suffered, and he never received another important commission. But, as historian Mark Girouard, author of The Victorian Country House, observes, the loss was really architec-ture’s, “for this odd, original, gifted, cranky, over-sanguine and unconventional architect had designed one of the most remarkable of Victorian country houses.”

White had worked in Gilbert Scott’s office before setting up on his own in Cornwall. Although a Gothicist, he was also a rationalist, believing that architecture was a science as well as an art. “In all design,” he wrote, “it is of far greater consequence that the laws of fitness should be followed than that a rigid uniformity should be observed. The end of nature and of necessity must be first served, and then the ends of art." White considered the equilateral triangle to be the basis of good proportions. Both the main house and the stables at Humewood involve the elaborate interplay of triangular forms with crenellated ga-bles, turrets and pinnacles echoing each other at different levels, gradually building up to a massive central tower. Though the outline is quintes-sentially romantic, especially at dusk or when the Irish rain emphasizes the stark granite walls, the arrangement was not just aesthetic. As White explained to his colleagues at the Royal Institute of British Architects, the old house had withstood siege during the 1798 uprising, and it was “desirable to build a house capable of defence in case of an attack... although we may hope that such disturbances have now become a thing of the past.” Un-characteristically for a Victorian Gothic house, there is a basement, which lifts the first floor off the ground, improving security and enhancing the exterior elevation, while raising “the ‘living’ part of the house above the cold and damps of the country.”

“The living room ceiling is stenciled with Tudor roses, Irish shamrocks and Scottish thistle – symbols of the Hume family’s English, Irish and Scottish heritage,” says Coleman. The principal rooms, which were built above a high basement to keep the house dry and for security, offer views of the grounds.

The last of the Humes, Hume Dick’s granddaughter, Catherine Marie-Made-White referred to the 60,000-square-foot house as “a family mansion not above the average size." Commissioned by Hume Dick as “an occasional resort in the summer recess or the shooting season," Humewood remained in the family until the death of the last descendant, Catherine Marie-Madeleine Hume-Weygand, in 1992.

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