The Marquesses of Bute are an ancient Scots family who rose to prominence during the eighteenth century. Judicious marriages brought wealth and by 1860 industrial enterprise had made them one of the richest families in the Empire. The scholarly third Marquess was a great architectural patron. His extraordinary and intensely personal buildings include two romantic Welsh castles and Mount Stuart, his own home in Scotland, once memorably described as being; 'like a head on collision between the Taj Mahal and a Victorian railway hotel' This lecture looks at both personalities and buildings, and examines the Bute's of crafts and creativity.