Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/441

NEWARK CASTLE 425 - FOURTH PERIOD upper floor plans, and carried 011 the pillar above referred to in the larder. He also seems to have built the return of the south wing with the stair turret as far as the high building which projects into the court- yard, and shown on Fig. 859- The initials of Earl William., and those of his wife, Countess Janet, are carved on some of the pediments, with coronets over them. The Earl died in unfortunate circumstances, bankrupt in fame and fortune, in 1640, and the house then seems to have passed into the pos- session of the Argyll family. By them it was completed as it now stands about 1 674, this being the date over the door of the south-west turret (Fig. 860). The entrance gateway (Figs. 858 and 860) is probably also of this date. It is a good example of the Renaissance features introduced about that time, and strongly resembles similar designs in Germany. NEWARK CASTLE, RENFREWSHIRE. Newark Castle is situated at Port-Glasgow, on the southern bank of the Firth of Clyde, and is now closely surrounded and hemmed in by ship- building yards. The building is quite entire, and is partly inhabited by several families, but the uninhabited portion is in great dilapidation and disorder. This is much to be regretted, Newark being such a fine specimen of our Scottish Domestic Architecture of an advanced type. It is built round a courtyard, and forms three sides of a quadrangle (Fig. 865), being open towards the south and partly to the west, the latter side not extending so far south as the eastern side. There are indications of the former existence of an enclosing wall at the west side, and doubtless the courtyard was enclosed,, as the entrance is through an arched passage in the west range of buildings with a guard-room entering off it. The castle is of three periods, the earliest being the keep at the south-east corner, tinted dark 011 the ground plan. It measures 29 feet by 23 feet 1 inch over the walls, and 48 feet high to the top of the present parapet, which has been raised so as to obtain an additional story, thus making three stories above the vaulted basement (Fig. 866). The present entrance doorway to the keep from the lobby of the more modern buildings is the original one. The ground floor only is vaulted, and contained two floors in the height of the vault, both being lighted with wide splayed narrow slits, some of which have been widened in after times. The same process has been carried out in the upper floors, where large Renaissance windows have been inserted, to correspond with those of the new buildings. A corkscrew stair in the north-east corner leads to these floors, which contain the usual features of wall recesses, garde-robes, and fireplaces. The building of the second period is that at the south-west corner,