Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/208

SECOND PERIOD 188 NEIDPATH CASTLE great hall was on the second floor, immediately above the central vault, and was 40 feet in length by 21 feet 6 inches in breadth. The angles of the building- are all rounded, and the parapet is also rounded like the angles, without projecting bartizans, in the same way as at Drum. This tower was greatly altered in the seventeenth century, but is still interesting as showing how it was rendered available for the requirements of that period, without entirely losing its ancient character. A fore court is built in front of the east side (Figs. 149, 150) with a portion cut off to contain the offices, and the entrance is changed to the centre of this front. It is thus on the first floor, which is on the same level as the fore court. A wide square stair is intro- duced in one corner for access to the upper hall and private apartments. The top story is heightened, and the battlements are partly carried up so as to contain small apartments and give increased accommoda- tion ; the parapet fronting the courtyard, however, is left open, partly for defence and [FIG. i52.-Neidpath Castle. Section. partly &s & peasant balcony or gallery. Fig. 151 shows the details of the additions and alterations executed in the seventeenth century, with the crest of the Hays of Tweeddale (a goat's head) carved over the entrance gateway. KEEPS EXTENDED INTO COURTYARDS. Although some of the keeps above described have been greatly altered they still retain the original simple form of plan. We shall now consider some fourteenth-century keeps which form the nucleus round which extensive castles have been built in later times. These extensions are generally made in such a manner as to convert the simple keep into a castle with buildings surrounding a courtyard. The additions were almost invariably so designed as to include the old keep as an essential part of the new edifice. Hence it follows that it is scarcely possible to describe the old part of these castles without reference to their later condition. It has therefore been thought best to complete the description of each at once, although we thus have to deal with buildings of a much later date than those of the period imme- diately under consideration, of which the original keeps are the repre- sentatives.