Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/551

 HERMITAGE CASTLE 531 THIRD PERIOD recessed in the adjoining wall, there is a singular stone boiler or tub, built of most careful masonry, and fashioned exactly like the coppers used in washing-houses for boiling clothes ; it measures about 3 feet 7 inches in diameter, and has an aperture beneath on the floor level. This structure and the oven are situated in the south-west angle, and are contained under a diagonal arch, shown by dotted lines on plan, Fig. 45 1. This has obviously been the bakehouse. It has a good stair lead- ing down to it from the western entrance door hereafter described. The upper floors have large windows, more ornamental than usual (Fig. 454), and there seems to be no doubt that these were the principal family apartments. The vents of the fireplaces are curiously all carried up in one corner. Owing to the entire gutting of the interior, no trace is found of the kitchen or the hall. The latter must originally have occupied one of the divisions of the central castle, but would probably be on the first floor of the south-west wing after it was built. The arrangement for the garde-robes or latrines at this point is peculiar. An aperture in the thickness of the wall receives the vents, which conduct through an arched opening to the outside, where there is a carefully built and vaulted cesspool with door, and there no doubt was a drain to the river. The drain from the bakehouse also leads into this cesspool. The north-west tower contains an access by a carefully constructed doorway on an upper floor into the space between it and the south-west wing. A pointed vault still remains at the roof level over the south- east and north-west towers, and it seems likely that the whole top story was vaulted and covered with a stone roof. One of the most striking features of the building externally is the great pointed arches which unite the two eastern and the two western towers. Such arches were not uncommon over gateways which entered between towers, but here there are no such gateways, the only opening on the ground level in any of the towers being the small postern in the south-east tower already referred to. The arrangement seems to have been in connection with the defences. These were principally situated at the top of the building. It will be observed that there is a row of openings like gargoyles all round the castle, about the level of the floor of the top story, exclusive of the attic in the roof. Each opening has a large projecting corbel under it, and has undoubtedly been intended for the insertion of a putlog to carry a hoarding. There are doors also leading from the top story to the hoarding at the proper level, and the FIG. 454. Hermitage Castle. Upper Windows of South-West Wing.