Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/254

 FOURTH PERIOD 238 FORDELL CASTLE HAN OF GROUND FV.OOR PIG. 691. Fordell Castle. Plans. The two entrances and the two stairs are rather unusual features in buildings of this class and date. The ground floor, which is all vaulted, contains three chambers,, the eastmost being the kitchen, the full width of the building, from which a passage leads to the other apartments. From one of these a private stair leads up in the thick- ness of the wall to the dining-room or hall, as is almost universally the case, indicating that this was origi- nally the wine-cellar. On the first floor, the hall, 27 feet 6 inches by 15 feet 8 inches, has a fireplace in the north wall, and is lighted by three windows. Beyond it is another chamber, occupying the remainder of this floor, and con- taining a garde-robe. There is no fireplace visible in this room, but it may be concealed by the modern alterations. An angle turret stair- case is corbelled out at the south-east tower, and both of the towers contain rooms in their upper stages, the north-west one having an open battlement on the top, reached by a turret stair, seen in the north- east view (Fig. 6'92). The grouping of this turret with the tower and chimney closely resembles the north-east view of Duntarvie House, some seven or eight miles distant on the opposite side of the Forth, in Linlithgowshire, and as a matter of detail, the coat of arms over the doorway, drawn to a large scale, has a carved Gothic bracket above with the string moulding projected wedgewise over it, as at Pitreavie House, three miles distant. The arms, in a beautifully carved pointed frame, are those of the Hendersons, who have been for a very long time, and still are, the proprietors of Fordell. The arms are gules, three piles issuing out of the sinister side argent, and on a chief of the last a crescent azure between two spots of ermine, and for motto SOLA VIRTUS NOBILITAT. Below this is a monogram of the letters IMH. In the upper part of the panel or frame the Henderson arms occur again quartered with others. In the centre of the base of the panel is the date 1567, with the letters H.E. on one side, and I.H. on the other, these letters being con- nected together with a wavy angular wreath similar to what is found in like circumstances at Pitreavie. Beneath the bracket above referred to will be seen on the sketch the letters IH. On the north-east skew stone is the date 1580, which is repeated over the doorway in the south-