Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/130

 FOURTH PERIOD 114 GLAMIS CASTLE the firs change to limes, and another oblique avenue goes off on either hand towards the offices. The third gate delivers you into a court with a broad pavement., and grass plots adorned with statues of the four Stuart Kings, bordered with old silver firs and yew-trees alternately, and opening with an iron palisade on either side to two square old- fashioiied parterres surrounded by stone fruit walls." Pennant visited Glamis a few years after Gray, in 1772, and from a view of the castle givtn by him, we can see that in the interval of seven years a work of destruction had been going on. The second and third gates with the outer court, into which the latter " delivers you," have all disappeared, along with the square old-fashioned parterres. Between his time and the present still further alterations have been made. The existing gravel walk up to the front door Pennant shows as of pavement. The roof has been taken off each of the wings, and the stone gables and gablets, with which they were then finished, together with the attic story, have been removed, and the present horizontal carpenter's Gothic cornice, with crenellated parapet put up instead (Fig. 577). Pennant's view corresponds with an engraving preserved in the castle, with the inscription : " The frontispiece of the Castle of Glamis given by King Robert, the first of the Stuarts, in 1376, with his daughter, to John Lyon, Lord Glamis, Chancellor of Scotland, as it is now reformed by Patrick, Earl of Strathmore, his lineall heir and successor. Ano Dom. 1686. R. White, sculptor." The latter view is taken close to the building in violent or forced perspective, and in all likelihood the court referred to by Gray was behind the spectator, and therefore not visible in the picture, while Pennant's view, taken at a considerable distance, shows nothing of it, the court having probably been removed in the interval. The " R. White " who signs the drawing just referred to was employed by Captain Slezer to engrave certain of the plates in his Theatrum Scotice, which appeared in 1693, and undoubtedly White's drawing is a representation of the castle as it existed in his and Slezer's time. Probably it was meant for one of the plates of the future volumes of Slezer's book, which volumes unfortunately never appeared. The view shown in the Theatrum Scotice does not represent Glamis as it was when Slezer saw it, and may be either a copy of an older drawing or else an attempt to represent what existed before the time of Patrick, ninth Lord Glamis, and first Earl of Kinghorn, who was in possession from 1578 till his death in 1615, and who seems to have been the man who gave to Glamis its distinctive existing characteristics. Before his time the castle consisted of a main central building or keep, with a wall of enceinte provided with towers and outbuildings. The main castle, which still exists, is on the familiar L plan (Fig. 578), the principal block measuring 71 feet by 38 feet, and the wing 29 feet 6 inches by 21 feet over the walls, which are 10 feet thick, and were four stories