Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/400

 THIRD PERIOD 380 - BALGONIE CASTLE leads to the upper floors and the battlements. On the second floor is the principal hall, with a large fireplace on the north side, which has been reduced in size during the later occupancy of the castle. Adjoin- ing this is a projecting garde-robe with a sloping stone roof, and on the floor above a similar garde-robe projects right above this one. The battlements, with projecting circular open bartizans at three of the angles, and the parapets and gargoyles, which are all in perfect pre- servation, indicate fifteenth-century work (see Plan of Roof, Fig. 326, and Fig. 329). Over the fireplace of the upper room there is an ornamental panel, containing what seems to be a coat of arms, but, the room not being accessible, it cannot be described. From the battlements a narrow stair leads up to a cape house, or watch turret, at the north-east angle, over the wheel stair, which is seen rising above the parapet in the view from the courtyard. When the later additions came to be made in the seventeenth century, the keep was somewhat modernised to suit the altered times. A scale stair was built alongside, serving for the old and new buildings. The latter extend eastwards, and southwards to the south curtain, with a range of one-story offices outside the latter. There was thus formed a quadrangle surrounded with buildings, and measuring 130 feet from east to west by 80 feet from north to south. The buildings along the north side, and half-way along the east side, are three stories high (Fig. 327), and are in ruins. The remaining half of the east side is two stories high, and is still inhabited as labourers' cottages, which contain some of the original plaster decorations, such as arms and monograms. The entrance doorway to the staircase was originally in the east wall, at the projection of the staircase into the courtyard (Fig. 326), with a moulded architrave outside, having the shouldered lintel characteristic of the period (Fig. 329). The shallow projecting porch on the south face, with its doorway, is an addition. The first floor contained suites of rooms leading through each other, after the manner of the seventeenth century, the sleeping apartments being on the floor above. On the ground floor the buildings shown with a dotted semicircle on the plan are vaulted in fine masonry. The kitchen adjoins the main staircase. The two rooms beyond communicate with each other through a fine arched doorway with bead mouldings. The first of these apartments, which is only lighted by the doorway, seems to have been a stable, while the room beyond, feebly lighted, contains the water-supply from the outside through a stone conduit, with an outward drain. From the adjoining room in the east range a stair leads up to the first floor. In the range of low buildings outside the south curtain there is a second kitchen opening into the courtyard.