Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/24

 FOURTH PERIOD 8 DETAILS AND supported on simple corbels. In the later work the corbels become gradually less useful, and, as we have seen, are employed merely as applied ornaments. At a still later date the parapets and turrets are ornamented with a multiplicity of diminutive corbellings and mouldings, which are really of no use but for ornamentation. This is notably the case in Aberdeenshire, where the corbels are most profusely ornamented with a kind of imitation of battlements. At Drochil we have an example of what the great corbels of the earlier parapets are finally frittered away to, so as in the end to form a mere chequered band. In connection with these details it is observable that in late Domestic, as in late Ecclesiastical Architecture, there is a strong tendency to revert to Norman enrichments, such as the cable, the billet, the chequer, and the dog-tooth, as at Castle Fraser, Amisfield, Crichton, Traquair, etc. The parapets, originally so useful for defence, become in later times absorbed into the walls of the dwelling. We saw, at Ruthven Castle, that the parapets were beginning to be roofed in, and in later work this is usually the case, the eaves of the roof being at the top of the parapet, with dormer windows rising into the roof above it. The above ornamental features are all clearly derived from the early useful forms, of which they are, in fact, the degenerate representatives, and there can scarcely be any question as to their being a gradual growth from the seed originally planted in the soil. The early defensive features of the French and English castles, as has already been pointed out, were also similarly degraded into mere ornaments. But although this change was effected in the same way in Scotland the result was different. The Scottish ornamentation is undoubtedly peculiar and distinct, and the transformation can be traced through all its stages from first to last. There were unquestionably hints taken from other countries, but the foreign ideas were not simply copied ; they had to pass through the process of assimilation with the native elements before they could be incorporated with Scottish Architecture. A number of other and alien features of a novel character were how- ever introduced about this time, showing the slow and timid steps by which the Renaissance crept into the place of the old style. Thus, when parapets are really employed as such in late work, they are gener- ally composed of classic balusters and pedestals, as at Castle Fraser and Craigievar. The O.G. form of the turret roofs of these castles is also a sure indication of late work. Loopholes of the lying-horizontal kind, being for guns, were neces- sarily used after the introduction of artillery, about the middle of the fifteenth century, but they are sometimes insertions in older work. The small shot-holes for muskets so common under window sills were also introduced after that date. The earliest loopholes for guns have generally immense splays to the