Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/465

DRUMLANRIG CASTLE 449 FOURTH PERIOD plan and elevations of the castle in Campbell's Vitrumm Britcmmcits, published early in the eighteenth century. We may mention that the above plan seems to have been taken from a first design, and not from the building, the plan as actually executed (Fig. 882) being different in many respects. From the porch the principal doorway leads directly into a great entrance hall or vestibule, 52 feet by 20 feet, having an arcade of five arches in the south wall, which seems originally to have been open to the courtyard, although the arched openings are now enclosed with glass. This entrance hall is now provided with a handsome mantelpiece, but probably it had originally no fireplace, being intended for an open vestibule, such as is common in Renaissance buildings. The entrance doorway is secured with an iron grated gate, and there are two other similar "yetts" on the doors of the basement floor, all fine specimens of these old iron gates. Through the arcade of the vestibule, and on the opposite or south side of the courtyard, the great door of the hall or dining-room was formerly seen, but is now enclosed within a chapel erected within recent years in the court, and shown by dotted lines on plan. In each angle of the court, and entering from it, are projecting circular stair turrets (Fig. 884), with doorways ornamented with fluted pilasters and Renaissance entablatures. These turrets, where they rise above the courtyard, bear on each floor the date of its erection cut on the window lintels. Thus on the north-west tower are the dates 1684 1687 1687 * 1688, and on the north-east tower, which is the oldest, are the dates 1679- 1679, and on the top story 1689, thus giving an interval of ten years for the building of the castle above the level of the area floor. At this rate of progress, three or four years earlier, or about 1676, does not seem .out of place for the date of commencement of the building, when we consider that the area floor with the projecting cloisters or arcade are vaulted in stone, and must in consequence have taken a considerable time to build. The doorway of the dining-room is of good Renaissance design, very similar to that of the outer door on the opposite side of the room, which opens on a south terrace and staircase conducting to the extensive terraces and beautiful flower gardens on that side of the castle (Fig. 885). The dining-room is 50 feet by 23 feet 4 inches, with four windows to the south. It is provided with two fireplaces, and the ceiling is enriched with plaster panelling and ornaments. The drawing-room is immediately over the dining-room, and is similar in design, with walls hung with old tapestry. Adjoining the dining-room to the east is the principal staircase, which is constructed in oak, with good spiral balustrade. At the south-east angle of the building is the morning-room, with plaster ceiling ornamented with heart-shaped panels, possibly in allusion VOL. II. 2 F