Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/542

 THIRD PERIOD 522 BISHOP'S PALACE, KIRKWALL entrance (now blocked up) on the east side near the projecting fire- place. A narrow wheel staircase in the angle of the tower led to all the upper floors, with doors of communication between the tower rooms and the other parts of the building. The rooms of the tower are all square on plan internally, and each is provided with a fireplace, except that on the fourth floor. The square chamber on the top of the tower is remarkable. It is provided with corbels all round, which have evidently supported a lean-to roof, which covered in the parapet walk. We have here, therefore, an admirable example of the process by which the parapets came to be raised, and the eaves of the roof rested on them, so as to convert the space occupied by the parapet walk into rooms. From a minute description of the palace by Sir Henry Dryden, Bart., it appears that in the upper chamber of the palace there is a panel con- taining a shield bearing the Reid arms, a stag's head, and over it a mitre and the letters R.R. On the north face of the tower outside is an arched panel containing a wasted statue, and beside it another panel with a shield and mitre. This, taken in connection with the shield and initials inside, tends to confirm the popular belief that the statue represents Bishop Reid, the builder of the palace, who occupied the See between 1540 and 1558. The main part of the palace has been divided into three apartments, which have evidently undergone various alterations, such as the enlarg- ing of windows and alteration of floor levels. Two of the windows on the west side are, it will be seen, very small, and set very high, a plan frequently adopted to admit of furniture, such as a sideboard, being placed beneath them. In the thickness of this wall are two projecting garde-robes, entering from the rooms at a level two or three feet above the ground floor ; one of these has been absorbed into a large buttress, as shown in illustrations. How the upper floors were divided nothing remains to show. The inhabited part is two stories high, and there are indications, as will be seen on Fig. 447, that part of this, as well as the portion we have called the entrance hall, had been continued higher, the oriel, it will be observed, being broken off. The great square buttresses seen on this view and on the plan are late additions.