Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/9

 PREFACE.

A of the sketches and plans which form the illustrations in the following pages were exhibited a few years ago in connection with papers on "Scottish Castles and Houses," read before the Edinburgh Architectural Association, when the attention they received suggested the idea of the present work.

No book has hitherto been published which deals systematically with the history of Scottish Castellated and Domestic Architecture. The late Mr. Billings' valuable work on the Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland is an important contribution, and his beautiful drawings are a charming record of the edifices he illustrates. Mr. Billings has also the merit of being amongst the very first to recognise and draw attention to the importance of our Scottish Domestic Architecture. But the absence of plans is a serious drawback, and the descriptions of the buildings, although full of interesting matter, do not deal in a systematic manner with the history of our Architecture, especially with the domestic portion of it.

Mr. Fergusson has also touched slightly, in his History of Architecture, on the subject of Scottish Domestic