Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/250

 THIRD PERIOD 230 LIBERTON TOWER straight staircase leading up to this floor at the east end of the building, from which a watch could be kept on the proceedings in the hall. There is no properly formed stair to the parapet, which must have been reached by a wooden inside stair leading to the door in the east gable. The access to the battlements would thus also be under the owner's eye. The parapet, as at Craigmillar, is carried up flush with the walls (Fig. 190), and has no corbels or projecting mouldings. - Almost the only thing in the form of ornament in the tower is the sideboard of the hall in the south wall (Fig. 189), which has an ogee-headed opening clearly indicative of the fifteenth century. In the south elevation, near the top, there are traces of a human figure in a panel, which may have been a patron saint or part of a coat of arms. The history of this tower is not recorded, but according to the Rev. Thomas White, in his account of the parish of Liberton in the first volume of Transactions of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland, " The Dalmahoys of that Ilk possessed Upper Liberton as early as the year 1453, and continued in possession of it, at least of a part of it, for almost two hundred years." This tower was in all probability built by that family. MEARNS TOWER, RENFREWSHIRE. Mearns Tower (Fig. 191) is about seven miles south-west from Glasgow, and stands in an upland district overlooking the valley of the Clyde. It is situated on a small knoll having a level platform round the build- ing, which at the west and north-west is narrow, and has precipitous slopes about 25 feet high. The tower is oblong on plan, measuring 44 feet from east to west by 29 feet 6 inches from north to south, and 45 feet high to the top of the corbels. It contains three floors, the two now remaining being vaulted, as shown on the section. The entrance doorway is at the east end, and leads directly into the basement or lower vault, which is lighted by two widely splayed slits. The existing outer doorway has evidently been enlarged in modern times. The eastern wall is here 10 feet in thickness, and the other walls are about 8 feet thick. From the entrance passage a straight flight of steps leads to the first floor, and in continuation a "corkscrew" stair leads to the top. Immediately over the entrance to the basement is the separate round arched doorway, forming the principal entrance to the castle on the first floor ; the height from the ground to the door sill is 1 1 feet, and was reached by a ladder. This doorway enters directly into the hall, which occupies the whole of the first floor as a single apartment, measuring 27 feet 9 inches long by 16 feet 6 inches wide, and 21 feet high. This vault is loftier than