Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/536

 THIRD PERIOD 5l6 DUNFERMLINE PALACE The palace has been greatly demolished, the only part now remain- ing being the south-west wall, which overlooks the ravine below, and some ruins at the east end containing the King's kitchen, etc. It was adjoining the latter that the connection between the monastery and the palace was situated. The kitchen still contains two fireplaces and traces of vaulting, and there are also the ruins of a scullery adjoining. In this easteni part of the building, and under the above, there is a vaulted and groined chamber supported on two octagonal pillars. This was probably used as a storehouse. It is 44 feet long, 24 feet broad, and 14 feet high, and from the style of the sculptured work may be even older than Bruce's time. All this part of the building (on the right in Fig. 444) is, from its style, clearly ancient. The mixture of round and pointed arches seems to point to the "transition" period from Norman to Early English, or the beginning of the thirteenth century. The lower part of the walls of the whole south front most likely represent the work done by Bruce, and perhaps continued by his successors during the fourteenth century. The upper part of the south wall is in a totally different style. The large mullioned windows, with buttresses between (Fig. 445), recall the designs of Falkland and Linlithgow, and there can be no doubt that this portion belongs to the latter half of the fifteenth century. There is 110 trace of the Renaissance details which James v. introduced at Stirling and Falk- land. It rather resembles the earlier work of James in. and James iv. The whole length of the wall overlooking the glen is 205 feet. It is 60 feet high externally, but the wall of the palace next the courtyard is only about 30 feet in height. On the level of the courtyard, and at the eastern end, was situated the hall, 92 feet long by 28^ feet wide, while the western end was occupied with another large apartment, 51^ feet long, containing a large projecting oriel. This may have been the salon or withdrawing-room. On the upper floor were bedrooms, the fire- places of some of which still remain. All the other parts of the palace, which formed a court to the northwards, have entirely disappeared ; and from the grand design of the south wall we may infer that the loss of the rest of the palace is greatly to be regretted. The lower story, of which the pointed windows are visible, no doubt formed the cellars of the palace, but they are now choked with rubbish and quite inaccessible. The Rev. Mr. Chalmers, in his History of Dunfermline, has a long dissertation on a sculptured stone (of which he gives an illustration), exhibiting a representation of the Annunciation of the Virgin, and having on it the date 1100 in Arabic numerals ; but from the style of the sculp- ture, and also from the fact of the stone containing the arms of Abbot Dury (1530-41), there can be no hesitation in assigning its age to the latter date. Mr. Chalmers also explored a subterranean passage which runs from