The case of the phantom manse...
At a meeting yesterday, the Vice Principal shared this photo showing a large granite manse on the College Lawn. Today, the college lawn is treated with the same reverence as the sections of the college which date back to 1525, it's funny to think the lawn has only been as it is since around WW1 (shortly before the Elphinstone Hall was built to replace the Common hall in the 1930s). As a result, I've been enjoying a bit of digging into the History of King's (given it's now my place of work). After a trawl through old maps on the National Library of Scotland website, I found this 1847 map ( https://maps.nls.uk/view/ 115109637 ) showing Principal Jack's manse in approximately the same location (it also names a few other academic manses from that time), and it lines up beautifully with https://www.electricscotland. com/history/statistical/kings. htm . Given the timeframe, and the second document, we can safely assume...