Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/490

FOURTH PERIOD 474 ABERDOUR CASTLE The south-west tower is continued higher than the main, building, having an entresol floor with a separate stair, as shown 011 the first-floor plan. After the first additions were made, the old hall probably con- tinued to be used as the dining-room, and the rooms in the new wing served as private rooms or bedrooms. The second addition consists of a long narrow building two stories in height, at the south-east corner of which there is a square projecting wing also two stories in height, with an entresol, entering from a turn pike stair in the re-entering angle. The ground floor of the main building is divided into two apartments, entering from each other, and from the outside by three doors to the east and north and south, and having no internal communication with the other parts of the building. These were doubtless offices for household purposes, and in connection with the extensive pleasure-grounds and gardens, still partly remaining. The stair at the re-entering angle seems to have been a private stair, and communicated with a room in the wing on the ground floor, which was probably a business room, or speak-a-word room, such as exists at Caroline Park, Drum, etc. Another stair, projecting on the north side, led to the upper floor, and appears to have been the public entrance. This floor (Fig. 902) is a long gallery, measuring 64 feet by 15 feet, having windows all round, a fireplace in the south wall, and a recess pro- jecting out on the north side about 8 feet square. Such galleries or withdrawiiig-rooms are of frequent occurrence at this period. This gallery communicates with the other parts of the building through a room. One of the rooms in the south-east wing has considerable traces of painting on the walls and ceiling. Along the south front is a terrace 30 feet to 40 feet wide, and about 276 feet long, with a stair at each end leading down to a lower terrace. The south-west view is taken from outside the lower terrace wall. Fig. 903 gives a view of the additions from the north-east. At the west end of the keep is a range of low ruinous buildings, probably used as a brew-house or bakehouse. They are of inferior con- struction, with no architectural style. The entrance to the courtyard, which lies to the north of the house, is through a quaint angle-arched gateway (Fig. 904) 9 feet 9 inches wide, somewhat similar in design to the gateway of Gowrie House, Perth, now destroyed. Part of the old walls, with shot-holes and heavy coping, still exists along each side of the gateway, with the lodge at the north-east corner. From the south side of the gate lodge a high wall runs south- wards, as seen on the ground plan, enclosing the courtyard on the east. On the other side of this wall is the old-fashioned garden, surrounded with high walls, in which are several quaint doorways. That to the eastwards, of which a sketch is given (Fig. 905) has the date 1 632, with a monogram EWM and LA, surmounted by an earl's coronet, and a star