Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/370

FOURTH PERIOD FYVIE CASTLE It has been frequently said that Lord Dimfermline employed a French architect to carry out his work at Fy vie, but no evidence for this has ever been produced beyond the alleged resemblance between Fyvie and the Chateau de Montsabert on the Loire, to which reference has been made in the Introduction to the Fourth Period. If a French architect designed this building, he must have changed his style very much to suit his Scottish patron, as the architectural style of Fyvie has almost no resemblance to French work. All the details are most decidedly Scottish in their character, and bear a close resemblance to those of nearly all SMALL DRAWING I* 1 ROOM DRAWING DINING flRST TLOOR PLAN FIG. 802. Fyvie Castle. Plan of First Floor. the castles and mansions erected about the same time in Scotland. No one will surely maintain that all the Scottish castles were designed by French- men, although the assertions in Mr. Billings' work amount to almost this assumption. Yet if Fyvie was the work of a French architect, we do not see how any other Scottish building of the period can be claimed as of native design. Doubtless the architecture of Scotland was influenced by that of France, but at this particular period the foreign influence (as above pointed out) seems to have come much more from the Low Countries. If an example were to be selected of any build- ing in which the work is more peculiarly character- istic of the Scottish style than another, we do not think a better instance could be adduced than Fyvie Castle. In the south front we have all the distinguishing features of the style plain walls below the parapet and exuberance of enrichment above; corbelling freely used where the central round towers change to the square as well as to support the angle turrets ; sharp-roofed turrets perched on every corner ; dormer windows raised on the top of the parapet ; gables finished with crow-steps, and plain chimney heads; minor details all equally