How much does a cultural connection – with Austen, Elgar or Dickens – add to the value of a home?
By Ruth Bloomfield 'The Telegraph'
With a thick armour of ivy clinging to its ancient stone façade and its fairy-tale tower, Peffermill House, just to the south of Edinburgh, looks almost too enchanting to be real. The beauty of the house, which was built in 1636, certainly ensnared Sir Walter Scott.
The writer stayed at nearby Duddingston Manse while working on Heart of Midlothian, his 1818 novel, and had a clear view of Peffermill across the icy waters of Duddingston loch. It is thought he admired the property so much that he made it the model for the home of one of his key characters, the hard-living Laird of Dumbiedyke, who falls in love with his working-class heroine, Jeanie Deans.
Fast-forward a couple of centuries and the house is for sale, for only the third time in its history, for £1.25 million (savills.co.uk). The question is: will its literary connection do anything to entice buyers in an extremely sticky property market?
Article Continued in 'The Telegraph.'
