Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/183

 PEFFERMILL HOUSE 167 - FOURTH PERIOD PEFFERMILL HOUSE, MIDLOTHIAN. This picturesque mansion, now a farm-house,, is situated about one mile south-east from Edinburgh, on the road to Craigmillar Castle. The interior has been altered very much to suit modern requirements, but externally it is a good specimen of a Scotch house of the early part of the seventeenth century. The annexed plans (Fig. 626) show its original arrangements. It is three stories in height, with attics, and is on the L plan, with a circular stair- case at the re-entering angle. The building is long, high, and narrow in its proportions (Fig. 627), each room extending the full width of the house, and all entering through each other. The kitchen is on the ground floor, and, along with the room adjoining, is vaulted. The kitchen fireplace, as it now stands, is peculiar. Behind the fireplace there is a small chamber in the thickness of the wall, reached by a door from the kitchen. This cham- ber measures about 20 feet long by from 3 feet to 4 feet wide, and is lighted by two small windows. It is most likely that this is an alteration, and that the whole space formed the original fireplace. The history of this house seems to have fallen out of sight, as from none of the ordinary sources of infor- mation regarding Edinburgh and its locality can anything be learned of it. The Rev. Thomas Whyte, in his account of the parish of Liberton, states that it was built by "one Edgar," probably Edward Edgar, in 1636 (the date on one of the dormers). At that time, and for about a century before, the lands of Peffermyle, in the barony of Craig Millar, belonged to the Edgars, an offshoot of the Edgars of Wedderlie in Berwickshire, and, accordingly, we find the arms of that family carved over the beautiful entrance doorway, Fig. 628 (sable, a lion rampant, argent), impaled with those of his wife, A. Pearson of Kippenross (argent, two swords issuing from the dexter and sinister chief points, their points downwards, con- joined in base, piercing a man's heart, proper, and a cinquefoil sable in FIG. 626. Peffermill House. Plans.