Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/391

 ROSSLYN CASTLE 371 THIRD PERIOD would create recesses (such as are sometimes met with over the piers of bridges), and would thus represent the "fair chambers," while the parapet walk at the wall-head would form the "galleries." Sir William succeeded his father, Henry, just referred to, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and died about 1484. He was a great builder, and founded the famous Collegiate Church of Rosslyn in 1450. There are small windows between the " rounds " on the ground floor, having widely splayed jambs and a flat arch on the inside, with shutter recesses cut in the former. In one case there is a door, finished in the same way as the windows on the inside, with a sloped tabling outside above the door (Fig. 320). Near the top of this wall, on the inside, there is a round moulded corbel at the position shown on the plan, which was in some way doubtless connected with the parapet walk or gallery (see sketch, Fig. 321). There are no indications of any buildings having stood where Father Hay describes the church to have been ; and there is no appear- ance of there having been either cross partitions or floors to divide it into stories. Sir William is further said by Father Hay to have built the fore-work on the north side of the entrance gateway and the bridge crossing the river, and in all probability the gatehouse containing the entrance was also his work. The tower or fore-work on the east side of the gateway, along with the under part of the wall extending eastwards, seems to be older than Sir William's work, and may have been erected about the same time as the keep, as part of the walls of enceinte which probably surrounded the whole castle area. Owing to the almost perpen- dicular configuration of the rocks, this wall and the tower on its two outer extremities rise from a considerable depth below the court level. There are remains of a wall running along the west and south sides of the keep, at a distance of about 13 feet from the wall. It probably con- tinued along in front of the " rounds " till it reached the high retaining wall at the roadway (Fig. 318). In a drawing, dated 1700, in the Advocates' Library, a wall is shown in this position, with rounded towers at the south-western end, as indicated on the plan. There are also great fragments of walls at the bottom of the hill round the north-west and part of the south sides, which may have fallen from above. The castle seems to have been of the extent above described when, in 1544, it was burned by the Earl of Hertford. The next builder at Rosslyn was also a Sir William, who constructed the large addition shown on the plan at the south-east side of the courtyard. This consists (Fig. 321) of three stories below the level of the court, with about 10 feet of additional depth of bare rock to the surface of the ground, being a depth altogether from the. courtyard to the ground of about 52 feet. Owing to the confined nature of the site, it was necessary, in order to preserve a good courtyard, to bring up the outer wall of these new buildings from near the base of the rock, which was scarped below the foundations for security (Fig. 321). The three