Arniston House Gates

As a relief from Mr Flum's helping B with DIY and my fiddling with fabric we went out for coffee and by clever navigating passed this gateway, which has been in the blipbank for a long while.

On first sight I thought the animals were pug dogs but, as the Dundas coat of Arms includes a lion, I now see the resemblance, despite their anguished expression. A pair tops decorated pillars framing monogrammed wrought iron gates as an imposing entrance to Arniston House, the home for four hundred years of the Dundas family.

In much the same way as Traquair's Bear Gates, this is not used as the principal entrance but clearly intended to impress the guests in times gone by as they passed through to descend an avenue of beech trees to the house.

Edit: Have just found a disused entrance with one great big proper lion - surely another blip in the offing...