Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/142

 FOURTH PERIOD 126 KELLIE CASTLE thirteenth and part of the fourteenth centuries. In 1360 Helena Seward, Lady of Kellie (domina de Kellie), resigned the place in favour of her cousin., Walter Oliphant, the eldest son and heir of Sir William Oliphant, the " Knight of Aberdalgie," Perthshire, who played so dis- tinguished a part in Scottish history in connection with King Robert the Bruce, whose daughter his son ultimately married. Kellie remained, with various fluctuations of fortune, in the hands of the Oliphants for the next 250 years, or till 1613, when it was sold to Viscount Fenton, not easily recognisable under this title. He in his time bore many names and titles, being first of all Sir Thomas Erskine of the Gogar family, then Lord Dirleton, changing into Viscount Fenton, and last of all appearing in 1619 as the first Earl of Kellie. He was an early com- panion and friend of James vi. Being present at the Gowrie conspiracy in 1600, he rendered assistance to the king, and slew Alexander Ruthven on the staircase. In consequence he rose high in regal favour, and was rewarded with the lands and lordship of Dirleton, and obtained, says Nisbet, "a special concession" to carry in his arms an imperial crown within a double tressure. "After the death of the seventh Earl in 1797 Kellie Castle, on which he had bestowed so much self-denial, love, and care, was abandoned by its noble owners." But it seems not to have been entirely dismantled, as occasional attempts were made to let it as a country house, but with small success. In the course of a few years the place gradually became ruinous. On the death of the tenth Earl in 1829 the Earldom descended to the Earl of Mar, whose family residence being at Alloa, Kellie Castle was allowed to fall into decay. There are two portions of the castle dated. These are, first, the upper part of the east tower (Fig. 585), which bears the date 1573 and the initials M. H. It was built by Laurence, fourth Lord Oliphant, who succeeded in 1566, and died in 1592. He married Margaret, daughter of the Earl of Errol, hence the initials M. H. (Margaret Hay). Secondly, the date 1606, with the Oliphant arms, occurs on one of the western dormers, and shows that this part of the building was erected by the fifth Lord Oliphant. The castle is of the T form on plan (Fig. 586), not a common one, as will be found on examining the many plans given in this work ; indeed, unless it be the plan of Elcho Castle in Perthshire, built about the last quarter of the sixteenth century, we do not remember any other plan of similar disposition. In the exterior of the two buildings, as seen in Fig. 566 of Elcho, and Fig. 588 of Kellie, there is also apparent a certain similarity of treatment. But while Elcho Castle is a building of one date, Kellie Castle has been erected and added to at different times. The order in which the various parts have been built, we believe, with Professor Lorimer, to have been as follows, viz., " The north tower is very much older and of ruder construction than any