Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/524

 THIRD PERIOD 504 FALKLAND PALACE (Fig. 431) contains the original large hall, about 80 feet long by 24 feet 6 inches wide. There was probably originally a turret stair at the west end of the corridor, near the entrance to the courtyard, giving access to the hall and to the rooms over the gateway ; but this would be removed when James v. added the corridor along the inside of the building. It was no doubt intended to erect a stair turret at the west end to correspond with that at the east end, but this part of the building does not appear to have ever been completed. The large apartment on the first floor seems to have been the hall of the palace, from its having " the screens " at the west end. The oak screen separating the passage from the hall still exists (Fig. 432), and is a good specimen of the wood-work of the seventeenth century. Over the screens is the gallery for musicians. The hall is well lighted with four large mullioned windows, and the ceiling, which is of about the same date as the screens, is of wood, and is ornamented with wooden ribs and mouldings. Some traces of painting of a rather coarse kind are still observable. The door shown in Fig. 432 belonged to the collection of antiquities formed by the late Mr. Paton of Dunfermline, where it was simply marked as from Falkland Palace. The rooms over the entrance gateway may have been used by the attendants. The stair in the eastern turret adjoining the gateway runs from the basement to the battlements, and may have been in connection with the kitchen on the ground floor ; but the remains are so fragmentary that the dispositions of the building cannot now be certainly ascertained. Turning to the elevations, it has been often remarked that the entrance, with its towers, bears a strong resemblance to the north-west part of Holyrood. We have also seen that in plan and elevation this portion is very similar to the gateway at Stirling, thus showing a striking resemblance in the design of these three royal abodes, which were pro- bably all erected about the same time. It will be observed that the cornice of this portion of the building is continued along the whole of the south front, which is supported with buttresses in a rather unusual manner. These buttresses are ornamented with canopied niches and pinnacles similar in style to the earlier parts of Linlithgow. There can be little doubt, from all these indications, that the gateway and hall are of one date, which was probably in the reign of James iv., towards the end of the fifteenth century. PIG. 432. Door from Falkland Palace.