Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/187

STENHOUSE 171 FOURTH PERIOD sketch (Fig. 629) will show that it has been considerably modernised, the large windows, flat-roofed dormers, and depressed roofs of the turrets being all signs of modern improvements. The general plan still retains the original outline (Fig. 6.30), viz., that of the L plan, with a wide staircase in the wing to the first floor, and corbelled turret in the re-entering angle containing the stair- case to the upper floors. The existing; entrance door is modern, FIG. 630. the original one having probably been in its usual position Block Plan. in the re-entering angle. The stair turret at the north-west angle is also a feature of frequent occurrence in late houses, such as Craigievar. Another indication of a late date is the carrying up of the "wing" in the form of a tower. The ornamental corbelling under the turrets is also indicative of the beginning of the seventeenth century. Erchless is the seat of The Chisholm, to whose family it has belonged from the fifteenth century. Situated as it is in a fine park, surrounded with wooded hills and mountains, and occupied by its ancestral chief, it remains as it were a living example of a Scottish mansion of the olden time. STENHOUSE, LARBERT, STIRLINGSHIRE. Situated about Ij mile from Larbert Station, this mansion was FIG. 631. Stenhouse. originally a house on the L plan. It has been greatly modernised