1.     See HM Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840, (John Murray, second edition 1978), p.982.  Robert Adam resigned in 1769, and James held the post from 1769 to 1782.

2.     See HM Paton, "The General Register House," The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, Vol.17 (1930), p.149.  The full article is pages 147-175.

3.     For the scheme proposed by the Earl of Morton and Robert Baldwin, see AA Tait, "The Register House: the Adam Building", Scottish Historical Review, Vol.53 (1974), pp.115-23, especially pp.118-9 and plate 3.

4.     M Sanderson, Robert Adam and Scotland: Portrait of an Architect, (Scottish Record Office and HMSO, 1992), p.94.

5.     HM Paton, "The General Register House," The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, Vol.17 (1930), p.154.  Four of the Trustees met on 14th August 1765, and resolved that the best site would be within the grounds of Heriot’s Hospital.  The Lord Clerk Register, who was deputed to approach the Governors of the Hospital, met with them four days later, already armed with a plan showing the area which would need to be feued and a plan of the building to be erected.  The Governors were willing to agree to the proposal, but because of the objections, the Trustees, at a further meeting on 14th December 1765, agreed to look for a new site.

6.     See letter from Lord Morton to Lord Mure in The Caldwell Papers, (Maitland Club, publication No 71, Glasgow 1883), Part 2, Vol.1, pp.258-60, and letters from the Lord Privy Seal to Lord Mure, Ibid., pp.257-8 and 263, referring to correspondence received from Lord Morton on the same subject.

7.     Act of the Town Council, 13th September 1769, quoted in AJ Youngson, The Making of Classical Edinburgh, 1750-1840, (Edinburgh University Press, 1966), p.66.

8.     AA Tait, "The Register House: the Adam Building", Scottish Historical Review, Vol.53 (1974), p.117.  HM Colvin does not refer to either Ardincaple or Combe Bank with reference to Robert and James Adam in his Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840, (John Murray, second edition 1978).

9.     AT Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, (Country Life, 1922), Vol.2, p.222.

10.    See S Milliken, "The Tribune in English Architecture," The Burlington Magazine, Vol.112 (1970), pp.442-6.

11.    For a history of the domed central hall in public buildings, see J Mordaunt Crook,  The British Museum: a Case-study in Architectural Politics, (Pelican, 1972), Chapter 5 (pp.151-193).

12.    J Gifford, C McWilliam and D Walker, The Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh, (Penguin, 1984), p.286.

13.    Soane Museum, Volume 30, Drawings 1-5

14.    In The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Vol.1, part 4 (1776).

15.    National Monuments Record of Scotland, B/78027-B/78030, engraved for the Report on the Public Records of the Kingdom, 4th July 1800.

16.    Scottish Record Office Records, Trustees’ Minute Book, 12th October 1773, quoted in AJ Youngson, The Making of Classical Edinburgh, 1750-1840, (Edinburgh University Press, 1966), p.66.

17.    All the visible work is in stone, but the vaults are apparently formed in brick: see Scottish Record Office Records, Trustees’ Minute Book, 23rd December 1784, quoted in AT Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, (Country Life, 1922), Vol.2, p.230.  The work to be done in 1785 included the completion of "the whole brick arches in the rooms and passages."

18.    See HM Paton, "The General Register House," The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, Vol.17 (1930), p.163, quoting H Arnot, The History of Edinburgh, (Edinburgh, 1788).

19.    See HM Paton, "The General Register House," The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, Vol.17 (1930), p.165.

20.    RCR Barder, The Georgian Bracket Clock, 1714-1830, (Antique Collectors Club, 1993), p.93.  According to C Clutton, Britten’s Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers, (8th edition, 1973), Justin Vulliamy had retired as early as 1775, although Barder suggests that he was active until c.1790.

21.    J Gifford, C McWilliam and D Walker, The Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh, (Penguin, 1984), p.286.

22.    AT Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, (Country Life, 1922), p.221.  According to J. Gifford, C. McWilliam and D. Walker, The Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh, (Penguin, 1984), p.287, there is a grey marble chimneypiece in the room, but presumably this is of later date.

23.    See D Stillman, The Decorative Work of Robert Adam, (Alec Tiranti, 1966), p.105 and plate 147.

24.    Scottish Record Office Records, Office Record, discharged account, Messrs Adam to Register House Trustees, 4th September 1786, quoted in AA Tait, "The Register House: the Adam Building", Scottish Historical Review, Vol.53 (1974), p.116, note 4.

25.    D. King, The Complete Works of Robert and James Adam, (Butterworth, 1991), p.48.

26.    Such working drawings would originally have vastly outnumbered the presentation-drawings which form the bulk of the collection in the Soane Museum.  For instance, the account which Adam sent to the Duke of Northumberland for providing designs for a folly near Alnwick Castle, Brizlee Tower, refers to 27 working drawings "at large" (presumably meaning at full size), plus some others.  Three presentation drawings survive in the Soane Museum collection (J Macaulay, The Gothic Revival, 1750-1850, (Blackie, 1975), pp.78-80).

27.    AT Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, (Country Life, 1922), p.221.

28.    The Minute Book, working drawings, receipted bills and other papers survive in the
Scottish Record Office.

29.    Soane Museum, Volume 38, Drawings 45-49.

30.    Soane Museum, Volume 1, Drawing 97, and Volume 46, Drawings 56-60.

31.    Soane Museum, Volume 30, Drawings 12-13.

32.    HM Paton, "The General Register House," The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, Vol.17 (1930), p.165.  Alan Tait (AA Tait, "The Register House: the Adam Building", Scottish Historical Review, Vol.53 (1974), p.121, note 1), quotes MK Meade in saying that the guardhouse was not built at this time, but the layout of the site suggests that it was here that Adam’s triangular guardhouse was intended to stand.

33.    Quoted in AT Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, (Country Life, 1922), Vol.2, p.232.

34.    J Gifford, C McWilliam and D Walker, The Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh, (Penguin, 1984), p.286.