Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/305

 EARLSHALL _ 289 FOURTH PERIOD arms, above which are the initials of William Bruce, and beneath the letters M.M., with the following inscription : HAC EXTRO EBAT D.W.B. AN 1546 EXTRUXIT TANDEM W.B. EIVS PRONEPOS ANNO 1607. Beneath the shield with the arms, is the motto of Bruce of Earlshall : _ CONTEMNO ET ORNO MENTE MANY. We thus see that the house was begun by Dominus William Bruce in 1546, and finished by his grandson. The initials M.M. are those of Margaret Meldrum of Seggie, the wife of the latter. The date 1620 occurs on the ceiling, with the initials W.B. and D.A.L. These are explained by the inscription on a tombstone in the neigh- bouring Norman church of Leuchars, which runs, " D. Agnes Lyndesay, Lady of William Brvce of Erlshall, who in her life was charitable to the poore, and profitable to that hovse, dyed 1635, of her age 68, and waiteth in hope. D.A.L." She was Sir William's second wife, and evidently had her share in the finishing of the house, as her initials occur again, with those of her husband, on the west dormer window, and on two entwined heart-shaped shields over a garden gateway (Fig. 74-6). Some of the entresol rooms have also been profusely decorated in colour, but they are now in a very faded condition. It is most unfortunate that the beautiful ceiling of the gallery, con- taining as it does quite a treatise on Scottish Heraldry, and throwing, with its wise proverbs and quaint conceits, many side-lights on Scottish character, should be allowed to fall piecemeal to utter ruin. A good deal of it is entirely gone, and the remainder is in a very fragile condition. The wood-work of the ceiling and roof is rotting from the effects of damp, while the whole has been most rudely patched up with wooden straps nailed across the ceiling in the most unsightly fashion. Before it entirely disappears, it would be well that an exact copy of it should be made by some competent artist, for reproduction in the publications of one of our Archaeological Societies. There are a few old relics lying about the house worthy of better preservation, such as the works of a clock dated 1600, a very primitive billiard-table, and various pieces of old panelling. About one mile distant from Earlshall stood the castle of Leuchars (of which not one stone remains standing upon another), supposed to have dated from the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, and to have been the residence of the Earls of Fife. Hence the name of this house. It is probable that the old castle latterly became known by the same desig- nation, for in 1497 (that is, fifty years before this house was begun) VOL. II. T