Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/251

Rh Mr. Skene continues: "Since writing the above, I have learnt that a huge mushroom tenement like a cotton manufactory has been raised up by the proprietor in front of this beautiful antique gem, by which the singular merits of so pure a specimen of ancient art are now smothered up in modern masonry."

"One of the most striking features of Cluny is the great circular tower, which preserves this form from the base to the third floor only, whence it becomes polygonal, and ultimately rises to a bevelled pediment surmounted by a chimney.

"Near the top of this tower, on the obtuse angle from which it is bevelled, is attached a sort of small ornamental tribune (II. Fig. 685) of solid masonry all round, which externally appears to be merely a piece of architectural decoration (Fig. 686) corresponding to the grotesque character of the whole building, but which internally serves a singular purpose, and to which intent it was probably contrived. The angular form of the front of the tower occasions an additional thickness of wall at that point. As the apartments within are circular, the flues from the