Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/27

ANGLE TURRETS 1 1 - FOURTH PERIOD native growth, and its development can be traced through all its stages from its birth to its death. We saw it in process of transition from the open bartizan to the roofed turret at Ruthven Castle, and at Comlongan another good example occurs illustrative of the same process. At Airth Castle (as Mr. Billings notices) the open bartizan and roofed turret occur together on the same tower. During the latter half of the sixteenth century the angle turret reigned supreme,, and gradually increased in size and importance till it reached its full development at Castle Fraser, the Earl's Palace at Kirk- wall, and numerous other castles of James vi.'s time. The gable was then almost entirely drowned by the turrets, which sometimes extend across the gable till they almost meet. The gable is thus reduced to very small dimensions, and if finished as a gable would look ridiculous between the two great turret roofs on each side of it. At Elcho, Glenbucket, and Fordel the turrets are large, and the gable is reduced to little more than a chimney-stack between the enlarged turrets, some of which are square in form and of dimensions sufficient to contain a small room. So completely was the gable swamped that in some examples, such as Glamis Castle, the proper finish of the wall at the roof in the form of a gable is done away with, and a small parapet is substituted. In such examples as East Coates House, Edinburgh, Gilbertfield, Lanarkshire, and Brackie, Forfar (which is a very complete and unaltered specimen of 1581), we see indications of an opposite tendency. In these instances the turret roof, instead of standing out clear, is almost lost in the house roof, and the gable again begins to assert itself. After this period the turret began to decline,, and the gable gradually got the better of it, and went on growing and flourishing at the expense of the angle turrets until the latter were altogether driven out of the field, the gable being rendered complete so as to include the whole width of the w r all from eaves to eaves, while the discarded angle turret, shorn of its high pitched roof, has to cling as best it can to the angle of the wall below the eaves of the roof. At Ballone Castle and Cawdor Castle good instances occur of the turret degraded and swamped by the gable, which is there entire, the turret being pushed entirely down below the skew-puts, so as to allow of the completion of the gable. A similar example occurs at Kelty House, and another in the Canongate of Edinburgh. At Tilquhilly the rounded angles of the building are brought to the square with corbels near the eaves in such a manner as to preserve the idea so familiar to the Scottish mind of a projection where the turrets used to be. This is the last indication of the influence of the turret, and in later examples it entirely disappears.