The Crichton - Mary Smith

THE CRICHTON

STATE OF MINDIn 1839, the Crichton opened its doors to its first psychiatric patients. More than 150 years on, the site is now home to a host of facilities ranging from a campus to a hotel.

Mary Smith charts the history of this fascinating Dumfries institution Photography by Phi Rigby

The Crichton Hall was the first building built on the site

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Mention the Crichton to almostanyone in Dumfries & Gallowayand they will have a tale to tell:

either of family members who used to workthere; memories of visiting relatives who werepatients there; stories (not necessarily true) offamous people who have been treated thereand, latterly, of people who have studiedthere. It is a Dumfries ‘institution’ in moreways than one.

Elizabeth Crichton initially wanted to usethe legacy her late husband, Dr JamesCrichton, had left to found a university inDumfries. He had returned from a lucrativecareer in India and bought Friars Carse, acountry estate north of Dumfries. When hedied he left around £100,000 (the equivalentof over £4million today) for charitablepurposes of his wife’s choosing. When theexisting Scottish universities prevented herfrom carrying out her wishes, Elizabethdecided instead to build a lunatic asylum.This, too, met with strong opposition fromthe public and in the local press, not least forthe “disproportionate magnitude” of theplans. But she was not to be thwarted asecond time. In June 1839, The Shipping andMercantile Gazette ran an advertisementinforming its readers that The CrichtonInstitution for Lunatics, Dumfries, was openand receiving patients.

The advert made much of the asylum’ssituation and fine views of Criffel and theSolway Firth, its extensive grounds andgardens and of how it would be run on thelines of “justice, benevolence andoccupation”. Readers were assured that theattendants, whose duties were to “soothe,encourage, amuse, or employ”, had beenchosen with great care. The description of theaccommodation read almost like an advertfor a superior hotel. For patients from thehigher ranks of society, the accommodationincluded parlour and bedroom – “elegantlyfurnished” – and their meals included winesand seasonal game. Carriage driving wasavailable, as were many other leisure pursuitssuch as piano, billiards and various outings.At the lower end of the social scale eachpauper (there was, in the 19th century, noconcern over the appropriate use of language– impoverished people were ‘paupers’ andpeople with mental health problems were‘lunatics’) was to be given a separate bedroomand share a public room with 10 others. Soupwas provided every day and meat three timesa week, with the additional luxury of tea forthe women and tobacco and beer for the“industrious males”.

All this seems a far cry from the popularimage of the conditions in which mentally illpeople were kept in the 19th century: a timewhen the ‘insane’ were objects of fear andridicule, incarcerated in appalling conditions,often in chains, and when whipping andplunging into cold baths was believed to curemadness. These changes heralded a newapproach in the treatment of mental healthproblems and the man who so strongly

Morag Williams, the Crichton’s retired archivist, in front of the Crichton Memorial Church,completed in 1897. Below: the new Aston Hotel, which incorporates the Victorian building

formerly known as Johnston House, seen in the background

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influenced those changes was Dr WilliamAlexander Francis Browne, who hadpublished a series of lectures under the titleWhat Asylums Were, Are, and Ought to Be.Elizabeth Crichton was so impressed by hisideas that she immediately drove, in heryellow and black C-spring carriage, fromDumfries to the Montrose Royal LunaticAsylum where he worked to offer him thepost of resident medical superintendent at theCrichton. He was to be paid the notinconsiderable sum of £350 a year.

Dr Browne advocated what he called“moral treatment” in which the patient wastreated as an individual. “Its secret,” hedeclared, “lies in two words – kindness andoccupation.” What has come to be known asoccupational therapy was then somethingcompletely radical. What was equally radicalwas Dr Browne’s determination that thepresence of a well-trained staff wouldminimise, or even remove entirely, the needfor physical and mechanical restraint. Toimprove the knowledge of the attendants, heintroduced a series of nursing lectures – sixyears before Florence Nightingale started hertraining school in London.

Keeping the patient occupied toprevent “morbid thoughts” was a keyto the new moral treatment; for the

paupers there was work in the laundry, or asdomestic servants, farm labourers orgardeners. Privileged patients could takeregular carriage drives and there was lawntennis, putting, bowling and picnics. Indoorpursuits included reading, drawing andpainting, embroidery, concerts andtheatricals.

The first theatrical performance ever to begiven in a mental hospital took place at theCrichton in 1843. Raising the Wind, a farceby James Kenney, was produced entirely bythe patients who also acted in it. Suchproceedings, according to Dr Browne’s son,Sir James Crichton-Brown, himself aneminent psychiatrist “were looked at askanceby Calvinistic circles in Dumfries. But theperformance was under the immediatepatronage of Mrs Crichton of Friars Carse,and the Minister of St Michael’s Church… DrWallace, who was on the Board of Directorsat the time; so that settled the matter.”

The original playbill remains among theCrichton’s extensive archive, along with what survives of patients’ artwork from thoseearly years.

Recently retired archivist Morag Williams,writing in her History of Crichton RoyalHospital, which was published tocommemorate the hospital’s 150thanniversary in 1989, says: “One can onlyregret the loss of almost all of the work by aprofessional Cumbrian landscape artist, whoearlier in his career illustrated some earlyeditions of Scott’s Waverley Novels.”

Morag probably knows more than anyoneabout the history of the Crichton asylum.Formerly a secondary school history teacher,

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The pioneering doctor William Alexander Francis Browne was the Crichton’s superintendent from 1838-1857. Below: teatime for the nurses. Pictures courtesy of NHS Dumfries & Galloway and Dumfries Archive Centre

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she took a break until her children startedschool before returning to work. After sometime as a supply teacher she decided on achange: “In 1983 I took up a one-year part-time, temporary post as archivist cataloguingthe Crichton artefacts and early patients’library. Although the post was always part-time it became a permanent one and I endedup staying for 26 years.”

The books she initially dealt withbelonged to the oldest mental health hospitallibrary in Scotland.

“Dr Browne started it in 1839. Heappealed to the public to donate books andcompiled a catalogue, printed in 1853,making use of a patient who had been aprinter by trade. When I started work, thebooks were scattered all over the place; inEasterbrook Hall above the swimming pool[which had been used for hydrotherapy] andbelow the stage and in the damp crypt of thechurch,” says Morag.

She was also responsible for establishing amuseum, which told the story of theCrichton Royal Hospital (it received the‘Royal’ status a year after opening). Themuseum was situated in a wing ofEasterbrook Hall until the CrichtonDevelopment Company required thepremises. “The general manager, WillArmour, was in favour of a museum beingestablished and Easterbrook Hall was chosenin 1988 with a view to opening the museumin 1989 for the 150th anniversary,” Moragexplains.

“The health board management wrote tothe Lord Lieutenant of Dumfriesshire askingif Prince Charles would open the museumand I received a phone call in February 1989from Will saying that if the museum could beready in six weeks we could have PrinceCharles. Chris Lyon and the worksdepartment generally applied themselveswholeheartedly. John Taylor, manager ofSolway Industrial Unit, prepared the captionsand arranged the framing of many pictures.

“We worked all hours with lots ofvolunteers helping. At night, after the canteenclosed at 9pm, it was really creepy; lots ofcreaks and groans. I used to bring my dog tobe with me when I was working late. MissMarion Paterson, head of occupationaltherapy, and Miss Christian Paterson,director of nursing services (midwifery) hadgreat hand working skills, useful in thepreparation of information boards. It was the50th anniversary of Cresswell the same yearso we had special showcases prepared by DrGeorge Gordon of the maternity hospital.

“We finished at 2pm on Thursday, April6, and Prince Charles was due at 3pm. It wasa pouring wet day but the visit went off quitesuccessfully. He had no idea of the lastminute preparations that had gone on.”

Prince Charles’ visit to open the museumwas also Morag’s first, but not the last,experience of sniffer dogs brought along inadvance of the Prince’s arrival.

“The dog kept going back to the

An aerial shot of Crichton Hall in the Fifties. The ivy was removed in 1958

Morag Williams in the central tower in Crichton Hall, which has been caged to prevent suicide attempts. Below: the Crichton had its own farm, which provided work for the patients

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The Crichton’s phases of development

The beginning: Under Dr Browne’ssupervision (1838-1857) the Crichtonbecame one of the foremost mental healthhospitals both here and abroad. He also didmuch to meet the needs of pauper patientswith the building of a separate asylum – theSouthern Counties – in 1849.Expansion: Under Dr James Rutherford,superintendent from 1883-1907, andcontinued by Dr Charles Easterbrook (1908-1937) a huge programme of expansion tookplace with the building of Browne,Rutherford, Eskdale, Nithsdale, Carmont,Annandale houses and Easterbrook Hall.The Southern Counties was demolishedand the hospice built on its site. A three-department system kept the upper, middleand lower classes separate.NHS: On July 5, 1948 the Crichton becamepart of the National Health Service. Thethree-department system became one withDr McCowan as physician superintendent.May Houliston became the matron of theentire hospital.Final: With the introduction of newpsychotropic drugs the number of patientsrequiring long-term hospitalisation wasreduced and the growth of care in thecommunity saw the gradual emptying ofwards and the Crichton, eventually, began awhole new era as university campus andbusiness park.

Easterbrook Hall, built in 1938, is now a conferenceand events venue. Below: an octagonal pavilion

used as a shelter and viewpoint built in 1884

Patients from the higher ranks of society had comfortable accommodation, such as this lady’s sitting room

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figures being patients in more recent times,but on those Morag retains a discreet silence.Records are not available for public perusaluntil 75 years after the death of a patient.

Over the years, the Crichton expandedconsiderably and at one point extended tosome 1,000 acres. It had its own water supplyand power station and with its own farm andgardens it was almost self-sufficient. It gainedan international reputation and throughoutits history was at the forefront of what Moragdescribes in her book as “the psychiatricrevolution”. Dr Willi Mayer-Gross, a refugeefrom Heidelberg University in Germany,became director of clinical research from1939 to 1954, at a time when new therapieswere being tried and tested: insulin comatherapy, electro-convulsive therapy and pre-frontal leucotomy, and the introduction ofdrug therapies which were to change the faceof psychiatric treatment.

Morag gives brief accounts of all thosechanges in her book and in a postscriptrecords how ‘off-site’ developments with thenew emphasis on care in the community ledto emptying houses on the Crichton site.

It may seem unfair to Dr Browne’ssuccessors to dwell so much on those earlydays of the Crichton Royal, but the archivesshow that he was very much at the forefrontof new, enlightened ways of treating mentalillness. Even today, so many years later, asense of wonder and excitement remains atwhat he set out to do. He laid the foundationson which others could build.

Although officially ‘retired’ Morag findspeople still consult her: “Two months ago Ireceived an email from India from two roseexperts trying to trace any descendents of SirGeorge Watt. He was the convener of thegardens committee and one of the mainmoving forces behind the design of the

Cresswell display case and the handlers askedif I could explain why,” she says. “It turnedout that when preparing the display, DrGordon had broken a phial of amyl nitrateand it must have seeped into the wood.

“On another occasion I was handed someSemtex and asked to hide it before the dogwas brought in. I put it inside a tin in a metalcabinet at shoulder height in the back storeand the dog made straight for it.”

As well as establishing the library, DrBrowne also encouraged patients towrite for the New Moon, a monthly

literary journal which was produced until1937. In Morag’s History of Crichton RoyalHospital, she says: “This monthly magazinewas so profitable that by 1846 a printingpress was purchased from the profits, as weresome fresh stocks for the library.”

New Moon contained stories, essays,poems and lists of the various entertainmentspatients took part in, including the annualChristmas Ball at which many of the greatand the good of the county mingled withthose patients well enough to attend. On oneoccasion an ‘inmate’ was once overheard toremark: “You can scarcely recognise our ownpeople from the rest.”

Among the patients who found asylum atthe Crichton were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’sfather; the daughter of artist Helen Allinghamand her poet husband William; and AngusMackay, who became Queen Victoria’sofficial piper. He published his Collection ofAncient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Musicin 1838 and it soon became a standard work.By 1853 he had become ‘insane’ and wastransferred to the Crichton from BethlemHospital in London. During an attemptedescape in 1859 he drowned in the River Nith.Rumours abound of other well-known


The might of Elizabeth Crichton

Elizabeth Crichton (1779-1862) was thedaughter of Sir Robert Grierson of Lag andRockhall. In 1819 she married Dr JamesCrichton who had spent several years inChina and then India, where he wasphysician to the Governor General.

Dr Crichton also had business interestswhich some have suggested may haveincluded an involvement in the opium trade.Mrs Crichton, however, denied suchrumours, maintaining: “The rewards of hislabours were acquired solely by the greatblessing of God upon his honest industry.”

Elizabeth wanted to use her husband’sfortune to bring a university to Dumfries butScotland’s existing universities blocked theidea and the legacy was used for a mentalhospital instead. Little is known about whatshe was like as a person, though given howshe battled to use her husband’s legacy asshe saw fit, she must have been a verydetermined woman.

Elizabeth’s godson, Sir James Crichton-Browne, son of Dr Browne, the first medicalsuperintendent at the Crichton, describesher in his foreword to The Chronicle ofCrichton Royal, as “a prim little lady in ablack gown with a frilled collar and frilledwidow’s cap… genial and kindly withal,highly intelligent and well-informed… I recallpicnics she arranged at Friars Carse whenparties of patients were hospitablyentertained and personally conducted toBurns’ hermitage…”

In 2000 Prince Charles unveiled a bronzestatue of Elizabeth by sculptors Bill Scottand John Brazenall, which stands in theCrichton grounds close to the church.

A fascinating account of Elizabeth’s fightto establish the Crichton Asylum is told byAlexandrina Anderson in CrichtonUniversity: A Widow’s Might. The book,priced £6 (plus £1.50 p&p) is available fromthe Crichton Foundation or the SavingsBanks Museum in Ruthwell. Seewww.crichtonfoundation.org/shop.asp andwww.savingsbanksmuseum.co.uk/education.html.

The rear of the Rutherford-McGowan building, which now houses the University of Glasgow

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Crichton gardens,” she explains.Girija and Viru Viraraghavan had read

about a rose that Sir George had discoveredin the state of Manipur in India in the 1880swhen he was marking the border betweenIndia and Burma. They had undertaken ajourney to find what he had called the Rosagigantea and after successfully growing therose from seeds and cuttings, the coupledecided to name it Sir George Watt.

“Sir George had retired to Lockerbie andhis son and grandson were both GPs inLangholm,” says Morag, who was able tohelp the couple track two great grandsons,one in New Zealand and one in Carlisle; andamazingly enough, a great granddaughter inKirkmahoe where Morag lives. Moragarranged for Girija to send some cuttings tothe Barony, Logan Gardens and to a couple ofrose experts, and she is crossing her fingersthat they grow.

In her role as archivist, no two days wereever alike for Morag and as well as runningthe museum and conducting research forpeople tracing their relatives, she even lookedafter the Crichton’s collection of furniture.

When a group of 4th year Honoursstudents from the University of Glasgow’sDumfries Campus undertook research intothe history of the Crichton, the archives in themuseum were an invaluable resource. Morag,indeed, was made an Honorary ResearchFellow by Professor Rex Taylor and the 2004closure of the museum – which won an awardin 1990 – is a huge loss. There are hopes thatone day a new interpretation centre will be setup – possibly in the crypt of the CrichtonChurch – to which end some large and specialitems have been retained on the site.

“Despite the difficulties of meeting

archival storage criteria that would beencountered, I should like to see SolwayHouse, a very attractive, spacious A-listedbuilding, converted for use as DumfriesArchive Centre,” says Morag. “There is a carpark just outside the building and many ofthe would-be users are already on site.”

In the meantime the Health Board archivesare held in the archive centre on Burns Street,Dumfries and can be viewed by appointmentby calling 01387 269254.

Morag has also written severalhistories of hospitals in the regionincluding Cresswell; Thomas

Hope Hospital in Langholm; Kirkcudbright;Moffat; Garrick Hospital in Stranraer;Lochmaben, and Thornhill.

“I’m also very proud to have written MrsCrichton’s entry in the BiographicalDictionary of Scottish Women,” Morag says.“I have a lot of admiration for what she did.In her prayer of blessing for the building shedescribed herself as weak and feeble –something she definitely was not.”

One-hundred-and-seventy years after shefirst proposed a university for Dumfries,Elizabeth Crichton’s vision came true. Now,there are not only one, but two universitieswith the addition of a college of furthereducation on the site.

■ To learn more about the Crichtoncomplex as it is today, and the CrichtonDevelopment Company’s ambitious plans forits future, read Mary Smith’s following twofeatures on Gordon Mann of the CrichtonTrust, and Professor David Clark, director ofthe University of Glasgow’s DumfriesCampus.


The Crichton - Mary Smith

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