Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/379

EDZELL CASTLE - 359 - THIRD PERIOD THIRD PERIOD KEEPS ENLARGED IN VARIOUS WAYS BY ADDITIONS. The keeps of this period, like those of the previous century, were frequently added to and enlarged. This was generally done by erecting buildings round the courtyard, so as to convert the keep into a castle surrounding a quadrangle, as at Edzell, Balgonie, etc. Sometimes detached buildings were added, and only connected with the keep by means of a drawbridge or otherwise, as in the case of Ruthven Castle and Dean Castle. The keeps were also sometimes so enlarged by additions made to the keep itself as to convert it into an enlarged mansion, as at Fallside. We shall now give some examples of the various methods adopted for utilising the keep in connection with buildings of a later period. First, KEEPS ENLARGED INTO CASTLES SURROUNDING A COURTYARD. EDZELL CASTLE, FORFARSHIRE. This castle, the seat of the Lindsays, Earls of Crawford, was the most extensive baronial residence in Forfarshire. It is situated near the West Water, at the point where the plain of Forfarshire terminates, and the hills begin to rise. The castle is of considerable extent, and comprises an original fifteenth-century keep, which was enlarged in the sixteenth century into a castle built round a quadrangle, and at the same date a large pleasure garden was enclosed with a remarkable and highly ornamental wall, with a garden-house and bath-house attached. The oldest part of the edifice is the keep (Fig. 312), situated at the south-west angle of the principal courtyard, and called the " Stir- ling Tower," from the family through whom the estate came to the Lindsays by marriage in the middle of the fourteenth century. The keep probably dates from the latter half of the fifteenth century. The shape of the port-holes for guns, the projection for the comparatively wide staircase (breaking the simple square form), and the design of the corbels under the parapet (Fig. 313), are features which point to that date. The corbels are specially worthy of note. This is a striking and early instance of corbels used purely for ornament. There are two tiers of apparent corbels in the cornice under the parapet, but the lower tier is entirely useless. In the older corbelling there were sometimes several tiers of corbels, but they were always one above the other, the upper ones being supported by those below. But here the corbels are placed, not over one another, but alternately, so as to produce a chequered effect,