Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/101

 DRUMCOLTERN 85 FOURTH PERIOD corbelling suggests the idea of having been built against boarding applied as a mould, and removed after the masonry had set. The conical roof of this turret has been taken down. FROM N.E FROM S.V FIG. 550. Drumcoltem. Views from the North-East aud South- West. Above the entrance doorway are some vacant panels. A stone now built into the farmhouse, and said by the occupants to have been taken out from one of the panels, is inscribed in raised letters with the follow- ing maxims : SEELA SERETA LOQVERE PAVE A VERAX ESTO A VINO CAVE MEMETO MORI MISERIEORS ESTO 1 In the year 1550 Sir John Maxwell, second son of the fourth Lord Maxwell, married Agnes, eldest daughter of Lord Herries of Terregles, and with her the barony of Drumcoltern passed into the Maxwell family, after having been in the possession of the Herrieses since 1368. There seems to be no information as to the date of the erection of the tower of Drumcoltern, but we are of opinion that it must have been about the middle of the sixteenth century. After having been in the successive possession of families of the name of Irving, Hynd, and Heron, from 1668 till 1875, it again became, in the latter year, the property of the family whose ancestors reared its walls, the Maxwells of Terregles. 1 Conceal secrets, be timid of speech, be truthful, beware of wine, remember death, be pitiful.