Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/253

 ELPHINSTONE CASTLE 233 THIRD PERIOD ELPHINSTONE CASTLE, MIDLOTHIAN. This is one of the most remarkable and best preserved of the Scottish keeps of the fifteenth century. Situated on the southern brow of a hill overlooking Ormiston and the valley of the Tyne, a wide prospect is obtained from its windows and battlements. It is a simple oblong on plan (Fig. 192), 50 feet 5 inches long by 35 feet wide, and 58 feet 3 inches in height to the top of the parapet. The tower contains a basement floor covered with a round vault (having _ corbels for a joisted intermediate floor), a first floor with a high pointed vault, and two stories above, which appear to have had wooden floors, thus making five floors in all. It is quite usual for towers of this period to have chambers and closets in the thickness of the walls, but in this case that arrangement is carried to an extreme length, all the walls being honey- combed with a perfect labyrinth of small mural chambers. We have endeavoured to make the following description of this rather intricate building as clear as possible by complete plans and sections, to which the reader may refer. The entrance doorway, which is round-headed, is on the north side, and up a few feet from the ground. In the thickness of the north wall a straight stair, with roof arched in compartments (see Section along north wall), leads up, first to the upper floor of the lower vault, and then con- tinues up to the level of the great hall floor. To the right of the entrance to the keep a few high steps lead to a wall chamber, raised thus to give room for another chamber sloping down from the basement floor, the door to which is seen on the Section looking west. These were probably the guard-room and prison. A wooden trap leads down a few steps to the basement floor from the raised entrance. The great hall occupies most of the first floor, and measures 29 feet in length by 20 feet in width, and 23 feet high to the top of the vault. It is a noble apartment lighted by two side windows, with wall chambers leading off each (Fig. 193), and by two high windows, also in the side walls, shown by dotted lines on the plan. At the west end is a large fireplace, sadly mutilated ; adjoining this fireplace a door, now built up, led to a small private room, also reached by a door from the north window recess, while a narrow newel stair between the room and window led to a similar room above, both being contained within the height of the great hall (see Section along north wall). There is a very peculiar arrangement connected with this upper private room (Entresol Plan). It contains a fireplace, alongside of which a door leads into a window recess in the west wall ; this window opens into the chimney-flue of the great hall fireplace, and in the breast of the flue, opposite the window, and at the same level, is a large splayed inner window overlooking the great hall