Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/576

FOURTH PERIOD 560 DRUM HOUSE the kitchen and other offices,, with bedrooms on two upper floors, all connected with the more modern house. The kitchen is peculiar in construction. It seems originally to have occupied the whole length of the south front, and to have had two central wooden pillars supporting a groined ceiling. It has been subsequently divided by a partition, as shown on the plan, but the arched ceiling and one of the pillars still remain. The design of the exterior of the mansion is very effective, and is evidently founded on the palaces of Vicenza and other designs by Palladio (Fig. 979). The interior of Drum House is finished in plaster-work of a very elaborate kind, of which some idea may be formed from Fig. 980, showing the plan of the dining-room ceiling, and Fig. 981, giving a view of the same room. From these it will be seen that there is a service recess, cut off from the main room by three arches, being undoubtedly a survival of the "screens" of the ancient "hall." The entrance hall and drawing-room (Fig. 982) are equally rich in effective and delicate work. It is quite evident from these examples that at this period the men who executed the fine plaster-work which we see here were accomplished artists ; and that, at all events, in this kind of work, the modellers of the nineteenth century may learn something from those of the eighteenth. The architect of this house, and of many edifices throughout Scotland, was William Adam of Maryburgh, near Kinross, the father of the celebrated architects, Robert and James Adam. He was born in 1689, and died in 1748, and practised in Edinburgh. He held the appointment of King's Mason, and was the architect of numerous noble- men's mansions throughout Scotland, many of which, drawn by himself, are illustrated in a folio volume entitled Vitrumus Scoticus, which was published after his death. In looking at the designs in this volume, one would almost fancy he was turning over the pages of " Palladio." His fame has been eclipsed by that of his sons, but it is open to doubt if he was not at least their equal. From the time of Bruce down till the beginning of this century, the estate of Drum, with other lands in the neighbourhood, belonged to the Somervilles of Cowthally. From the quaint pages of the Memorie of the Somervills, written about 1679 by James, eleventh Lord Somerville, we learn that the Castle of Cowthally, which was situated near Carnwath in Lanarkshire, and must have been one of the grandest in Scotland, was their principal residence. It seems to have been a keep, having enclosing walls and towers, with fosse and drawbridge, to which extensive additions were made in the course of successive generations, and in the sixteenth century was a large castle, in which the King himself was sometimes entertained by his friend, Lord Somerville. It was not till the sixteenth