Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/25

 ORNAMENT 9 FOURTH PERIOD exterior, so as to allow the smoke to escape, as at Tantallon and Spynie ; but, as above pointed out, it was soon discovered that great guns were inapplicable in private castles, and the result was that in later work only small shot-holes for musketry occur, as is the case in every castle of the time of James vi. As time advanced the early splay and the later bead gave way to pro- jecting mouldings and architraves round windows and doors. Renaissance entrance doorways were also frequently introduced, or inserted in older work. Horizontal cornices, pediments over windows, and other details which have a distinct feeling of the Renaissance naturally followed at a later period. A still later date is shown by the absence of dormer windows breaking the roof line, and the introduction of the unbroken horizontal classic cornice at the eaves (as at Aberdour, Moray House, etc.), the absence of angle turrets, a tendency to balance of plan, so as to produce a sym- metrical arrangement, classic mouldings in cornices and strings, and classic ornaments and enrichments, of all which features we have admir- able examples in Drumlanrig Castle and Caroline Park. The insertion of numerous panels in the walls containing coats of arms and inscriptions of mottoes and texts of Scripture are also characteristic of late work. These are of frequent occurrence, but we may refer to the fine gateway at Balcomie as a good specimen. Among the strange revivals of old forms adopted at this time was that of the re-introduction of groined vaulting instead of the plain barrel vaults which had for centuries been almost universally employed in domestic work. The hall of Towie Barclay is a well-known example of this late groining. There is another good and somewhat similar example at Balbegno, in Kincardineshire. At Delgaty Castle, Aberdeenshire, the original hall has groined vaulting ; and at Gight, Towie Barclay, Inverugie, and elsewhere, it is usual to vault the small entrance lobby with a ribbed and groined roof, and (as we saw above) the garden house at Edzell is similarly vaulted. This revival seems however to have been limited to Aberdeenshire and the north. In this district the old religion had not been so entirely obliterated as in the south of Scotland, and still retained many powerful adherents ; while the Episcopalian form of Church-government, so much encouraged by the King, was chiefly favoured in preference to the Presbyterian form. This led to the retention, and in many cases to the revival, of the old forms of architecture along with the old forms of worship. Early in the seventeenth century many churches and chapels were erected in the revived Gothic style of that period, a style which combines some common features of the Pointed style with many details of that of the Renaissance. This revival seems to have had an influence on the