The architectural history of Scotland does not date from a very remote period. The Roman occupation of the country was partial and of short duration, and left behind few or no buildings which might serve as models for the native inhabitants. Nor had the inhabitants been long enough under Roman rule to have acquired the art of imitating Roman skill and workmanship.
It was not till the returning tide of civilisation had reached Scotland from the South, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, bringing with it the revived arts, especially that of Architecture, that we find any traces of the building art in this country. It is therefore desirable, before entering on the consideration of Scotch Architecture, to trace shortly the rise and progress of the castellated and domestic architecture of the middle ages in the places of its birth, and thereafter to mark the steps by which it was gradually introduced from other countries into Scotland.[1] We will therefore first consider shortly the rise and progress of the mediæval civil and military architecture of France and England.
When the Romans retired from Gaul, during the fourth and fifth centuries, they left in that country many structures indicative of their capacity as builders and engineers, as well as numerous examples of their style of decorative architecture. The remains of the amphitheatres, aqueducts, gateways, and other works still existing in the centre and south of France, serve to show the size and extent of the edifices erected by the Romans in this part of their dominions. Although the number of the Roman buildings still surviving is comparatively small, there can be no doubt that at the time of the various invasions of the Goths and Franks the country was to a large extent covered with towns, villages, country houses, and castles, all built on the Roman model. Up to the tenth century the old Roman buildings continued in many cases to be occupied, while others were built in imitation of them, although in certain districts modifications were introduced by the Franks and other foreign invaders. As the Romans gradually withdrew their troops, they built several chains of castles and forts for the defence of the provinces they still retained. These are supposed to have served as models for the earliest of the mediæval towers. Although the northern races who invaded France used earthen mounds, and ditches with wooden superstructures, as their defensive works, still the Roman standing camp, with its ditch and mound, probably also contributed to the design of the earthworks which formed the principal defences of the earlier fortresses of the middle ages.
In the south of Gaul the Visigoths were the successors of the
- ↑ In the following summary the authors have freely availed themselves of the interesting works of Viollet-le-Duc and De Caumont on the Architecture of France, and of the equally interesting and very careful and comprehensive volumes of G. T. Clark and John Henry Parker on the Castles and Domestic Architecture of England.
