Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/198

FOURTH PERIOD _ 182 DALCROSS CASTLE proprietor. The upper floors are now inaccessible. The well is in the courtyard near the entrance cloor. The wing, added to the north, bears the date 1703 (Fig. 638). It seems to have been intended for a barn, for which purpose it is now used, and the attic floor above was entered from the hall through the small staircase. A range of buildings for stables and byres has been erected along the east side of the courtyard, but these being compara- tively modern are omitted in the illustration (Fig. 639). Externally the building is plain but effective, and is a good example of the tower-built castles of the beginning of the seventeenth century, showing one of the modifications of plan which were then introduced. BALBYTHAN HOUSE, ABERDEENSHIRE. This house is a specimen of the mansion of the latter half of the seventeenth century. It still retains the ancient L form of plan, with the entrance and staircase in the re-entering angle, and some turrets at the angles. But the forms of the windows, the level eaves of the roof, without dormers, and the disposition of the plan within, all belong to the latest phase of the new style, which was gradually pushing out the old one. FIG. 640. Balbythan House. View from the North- West. The house is greatly modernised, but in the eastern wing, to the right in the sketch, Fig. 640, may still be distinguished the position of the large dining-room or hall, having a stair to the cellar, and a large bow win- dow, with private room at the north end. In the west wing (to the left in the sketch) was the drawing-room, with a bedroom beyond it, and on the ground floor of this wing is the kitchen, with a scullery and back door.