Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/453

 TANTALLON CASTLE 433 THIRD PERIOD does not seem to have been an open timber roof, as there are windows in the side wall which appear to have belonged to small rooms in the roof. There were also numerous rooms in the angle towers. The buildings were probably continued all round the quadrangle. There are distinct tracers of them on the south side, but those on the east or seaward side have been undermined by the waves, and are now washed away. There is a historical event con- nected with Tantallon which is very interesting in relation to its archi- tecture and defences. In the year 1528 the castle belonged to the Earl of Angus. James v., who hated the Douglases, by whom he had so long been held in subjection as a youth, laid siege to Tantallon with all the artillery he could command, but he found it useless against the great strength of the walls. The castle was however soon afterwards yielded up by its commandant to the King, who immediately enlarged and fortified it. Lindsay of Pit- scottie relates that " the King gart garnish it with men of war and artillery, and put in a new captain, to wit, Oliver Sinclair, and caused masons to come and ranforce the walls, which were left waste before as trances or through passages, and made all massey work, to the effect that it should be more able in time coming to any enemies that would come to pursue it." This work of James y. is very visible to the present day. His object has been to make the walls as solid as possible, by building up all the passages and apertures in the thickness of the walls, so as to prevent them from being breached by cannon. Thus the entrance tower (Figs. 376 and 377) has the fine ancient gateway blocked up with a wall in front of it, with only a small door and narrow passage left, while embrasures for guns are formed at each side to sweep the ditch and protect the curtains. Similar embrasures have been inserted in the north and south towers. The west front of the central tower has been entirely cased with new masonry. There is no difficulty in distinguishing the new work from the old, as the latter is of a fine hard-grained free- stone, while the newer work is of a softer greenish tufa, which was pro- 2 E FIG. 378. Tantallon Castle. Entrance Gateway.