Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/236

 FOURTH PERIOD 220 NOTLAND CASTLE the rye-grass ornament above referred to, and various other embellish- ments. But the initials of Thomas de Tulloch, Bishop of Orkney, with the kneeling figure of a bishop mentioned by Mr. Billings as ornamenting the capital of the pillar, are not to be seen, although the capital,, which however is not quite entire, exists now as represented by him in the Baronial Antiquities. Nor is the guard-room at the top of the stair " per- fectly unique," as supposed by Mr. Billings. Guard-rooms in this posi- tion are of frequent occurrence, that at the top of the great staircase at Fyvie being almost identical with the one at Notland. Indeed, the whole arrangements of the termination of the stair newel, with its capital and the guard-room, so closely resemble those at Fyvie, that we may safely assign them to the same age and to the same school. At Fyvie the capital is of a rude Gothic design. At Notland it has more of a Renaissance character, being in outline not unlike an Egyptian design, but in both cases the whole idea is the same. What Mr. Billings calls the guard-room, was probably on ordinary occasions used as a waiting-room for servants. In the sills of each of the windows of this room is a hole about 1 1 inches square, now filled with rubbish, with a checked rebate for a lid. It is not possible to say what these apertures were used for. They do not resemble the ordinary sinks found in kitchens and service rooms. The quatrefoil shot-hole from the guard-room, shown restored in the view of the stair, looking up (Fig. 676), does not exist ; there is now merely a rough opening. The buildings of the second period consist of a large courtyard to the south, measuring about 71 feet from east to west, by about 57 feet from north to south, enclosed by walls 3 feet to 4 feet thick, with an arched entrance gateway in the east wall. Along the south wall there was a range of buildings, with two fire- places. Although now very ruinous, the apartment at the south-east corner remained entire till about the beginning of this century, and was used as the schoolroom of the district. The round turret at the top of the wall at the south-west corner has its centre at the outer angle of the wall, after the manner of the seventeenth century. Its corbelling is peculiar from the absence of mouldings, a straight slope being used instead. Notland is said in the Baronial Antiquities to have been begun by Thomas de Tulloch, who was Bishop of Orkney from 1422 to 1455, and that his initials, etc., occur in the staircase. We have already seen that there is no foundation for the latter statement, and we have not seen any evidence in support of the former. The whole plan and style of the castle forbid such a conclusion. Bishop Tulloch may possibly have had a castle here, but, if so, it was not the one now existing. The plan of the castle is of the Z form, so frequently met with in the latter half of the sixteenth century. The advanced style of planning, the spacious stair, the numerous shot- holes, the beaded windows, with the string moulding carried round