Since 1885, this mansion has been the home of the Scotland Office, a government department under the umbrella of the Department of Justice dedicated to the needs of the Scottish people. Which is mainly whisky and umbrellas. The house was built in 1755 by Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh, a Member of Parliament. Fetherstonhaugh died in 1774 - possible from a lifelong illness called "Having to Constantly Keep Spelling Out My Name for People Fatigue" - and his widow sold the property to Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, thirteen years later. The Prince renovated the mansion, giving the mansion its signature portico and circular hall, before trading the property for Lord Melbourne's home in Piccadilly in 1792.
The mansion, which was then known as Melbourne House, wasn't given the name Dover House until 1831, when George James Welbore Agar-Ellis, another sufferer of name spelling fatigue who had just purchased the mansion the previous year, was given the much-easier title Baron Dover. Agar-Ellis and his son would be the last private owners of Dover House before the government made it the Scotland Office.
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