Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/310

 THIRD PERIOD 290 ROSYTH CASTLE FIG. 244. Rosyth Castle. Section of Keep and Elevation of West Window of Hall. walls, and projecting 5 feet. The height from the ground to the top of the battlements is 57 feet 6 inches, and about 68 feet to the ridge of the gables. It contains four stories (Fig. 244), the basement and the first floor or hall being vaulted. The walls throughout are of consider- able thickness, varying from 6 feet to 10 feet 6 inches. The entrance doorway, with elliptic arch, is on the south side towards the Firth, adjoin- ing the staircase tower (Fig. 245), and leads directly by a passage through the wall to the ground floor, which is two or three steps down. From this passage the corkscrew stair, un- like the arrangement found in most other keeps, goes to the top. The lower vault is sub- divided into two stories, the up- permost of the two floors being reached by a stair down from the hall on the first floor. The hall (Fig. 246), which is 27 feet long by 20 feet wide, and 20 feet high, is vaulted. It is lighted by three windows, the large ones at each end, which have mullions and transoms, being insertions. The original end windows, which can still be partly traced, were small, and high up from the floor. The lower compartments of the inserted windows (Fig. 244) were closed with shutters, the upper compartments having been glazed. On the outside of the under transom of the west window is the inscription, much wasted, E. I., an anchor, S. M. N., ANNO 1635 or 55. The E. is doubtful, the rest fairly legible. The fireplace is in the south wall, and has had a flat arch, moulded on edge, and the moulding is continued down the jambs. Adjoining the fireplace there is a mural chamber. Half-way up to the second floor a garde-robe is formed in the east wall, the small window of which has a curious upright division in the ingoing, as shown on the plan, probably for the purpose of enabling one loop to light both the garde-robe and the adjoining passage, which contains a stone basin and drain. The upper hall, which is of the same size as that just described (Plan, Fig. 243), has the fire- place in the west end. It contains two mural chambers and a garde- robe, and is entered through a porch from the stair. The top story in the roof is quite ruinous. The additions to the castle extend westwards and southwards from the keep, and formed a courtyard (Fig. 243). Of these buildings only the north and part of the west walls now remain, in a very ruinous condition,