Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/475

 EDINBURGH CASTLE 455 THIRD PERIOD indicating where the original access to the upper platform by the Con- stable's Tower probably was. Advancing further we pass on the right the Argyll Battery, and see before us the Governor's house, built in Queen Anne's time, and a passage flanked with two quaint vases leading to the Armoury and Stores. These small plain buildings are of the eighteenth century. The great block containing the soldiers' barracks was built at the beginning of this century. The position of these buildings on the Castle rock may be seen by reference to the plan (Fig. 388). In Gordon's view the ground occupied by these buildings is shown as entirely open, with only a battery of two guns at the west, and other two guns at the south-east corner. It will be observed that the walls of the enceinte on Gordon's plan are quite different in form from those of the views before the siege (Figs. 391 and 3.92). They are broken, with re-entering angles and bastion-shaped projections adjusted for mutual defence in a manner such as might be expected to be erected about the end of the sixteenth century. We now ascend to the upper platform on which the principal parts of the Castle have always stood. Commencing with the quadrangle or Palace yard, we find the oldest portions at the south-east corner, imme- diately over the most precipitous parts of the rock. These consist of the private apartments of the Palace, already referred to as belonging originally to the fifteenth century. Dr. Chambers thinks he can trace the remains of an ancient tower at the south-east angle, which may have been the primitive palace of Malcolm Canmore ; but as we have seen that the Castle was entirely dilapi- dated at the time of Bruce, we cannot fix on an earlier date than that of the Jameses for the building of any part of this palace. The breadth of the platform of the courtyard seems to have been widened at an early date by building extensive vaults to the southwards, in some places two stories in height, so as to raise the pavement of the courtyard to near the top of the wall of enceinte. Above part of these vaults the great hall, called also the Parliament House, was erected, apparently at a subsequent date, for it should be noticed that the hall does not occupy the full width of the vaults, its north wall being partly built on the arches of the vaults, J which extend further northward under the pavement of the courtyard. X0 1 ' i T^ 16 hall * s 84> feet long by 33 feet wide, and seems to have been FIG. 395. Edinburgh Castle. Corbel in Staircase of Parliament Hall.