Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/225

 CLAYPOTTS 209 FOURTH PERIOD rooms, but they are a great improvement on the wall-chambers of the earlier plans, which served the same purpose. The double tower also gives an extraordinary amount of accommodation. We have here on the basement a kitchen and three storerooms or cellars, one large public room in the main block on each of the upper floors, and eight smaller apartments in the towers. The main building is four stories high, while the towers contain an entresol in addition. The eaves of the roofs depart from the traditional arrangement of the keep plans, and have no defen- sive battlements and walk round the top of the walls ; but, at the same time, there is a slight reminiscence at the two angles of the main block which are without round towers, of the old defensive style of keep, now beginning to be super- seded. The battlements at these corners (Figs. 668 and 669) are reached from the room on the top story. They are narrow, and the length of the open walk is about 10 and 12 feet respectively. The protect- ing parapets, which rested on the continu- ous corbel course shown on the sketches, are in both cases gone. But, while the upper floors show an advancement in the style of house architecture, the ground floor of Claypotts is still massive and severe, the rooms being all vaulted, and mostly lighted with gun-holes instead of windows. Indeed, in this floor there is only one win- dow, and that a small one, for the kitchen in one of the towers. These shot-holes have splays to the exterior, but they are small compared with the enormous open- ings of the early embrasures, such as those of Spynie. At Terpersie and Coxton we have met with small shot-holes without external splay of any kind. Both the Ter- persie and the Claypotts forms were in use at this period for fire-arms. The large hall on the first floor has at one time been divided so as not to enter directly off the stair, but from an antechamber or " screens," which would be useful both for service and also in protecting the hall from the draughts of the stair. The socket of the corner post of the screen still remains in the pavement floor of the hall. The floors above are all of wood, and in a very unsound state. The roof is old, and may be the original one. It is put together with mortises and wooden VOL. n. F.G. 667. Claypotts. Plans.