Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/469

 EDINBURGH CASTLE 449 THIRD PERIOD enceintes of their castles. We know that this course was pursued by the Jameses at their other castles, such as Stirling and Linlithgow, and the same plan seems to have been followed here. From the Exchequer Accounts for 1433, 1434, etc., we find that considerable sums were expended for the construction of a " magna camera," or great hall, for the King. In 1438 lead for the roof of the King's great chamber is brought from Berwick to Leith, and in 1458 there are payments for repairing the hall of the Castle, and providing linen cloth for the windows and other decorations, in preparation for the meeting of Parliament. The hall referred to is situated on the south side of the Palace yard. James 11. when a boy resided in the Castle, in the custody of the Chancellor, Crichton, when the well-known incident of the entertainment of Lord Douglas and his brother before their slaughter is said to have taken place in this hall in the year 1440. In consequence of that event Crichton was besieged in the Castle for nine months, but held out successfully. Considerable additions were made to these Royal apartments at various times, especially during the reigns of Queen Mary and James vi., some of which still remain, and will be afterwards referred to ; but in Mary's time the Castle also sustained immense injury, and almost all traces of its earlier form were at that time obliterated. In 1572 the Castle was held for Mary against her son's Government by Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange. The drawing (Fig. 390) of the east part of the Castle, restored by Dr. R. Chambers as before 1573, shows his idea of the appearance which the east front of the Castle then presented. On the left (or south) stands the Palace (part of which still remains), then comes David's Tower and the high curtain wall, with the Constable's Tower at the north end, and a smaller tower in the centre. The Constable's Tower was 50 feet high, and was approached by a flight of steps, forming the only access to the upper platform of the rock, and was provided with a portcullis. This drawing shows, no doubt, in a general way, the positions of these various buildings, but the restorations are to a large extent imaginary, and it must not be sup- posed that they give a reliable representation of the demolished towers. Fig. 391 also shows the Castle as it existed before the siege of 1573, while the drawing (Fig. 392) is traced from a facsimile, published by the 2 F FIG. 391. Edinburgh Castle. From Wilson's Memorials of Edinburgh.