Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/310

 FOURTH PERIOD 294 NEWTON open valley of Strathmore. The house is built on the Z plan. The south-east angle tower, which contains the staircase, is square, and the north-west tower is circular below and brought out to the square form on the top story with corbelling (Fig. 750). The interior has been somewhat modernised, but contains many of its old features, the rooms opening through one another, and the walls being finished with wooden panelling, etc. The exterior is a fair example of a seventeenth-century Scottish house of this form of plan. The date of erection is not certain, but in 1687 George Drummond, a well-known merchant, was born here. He was six times elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and it was during his term of office, and greatly through his influence, that the North Bridge was erected, uniting the Old Town with the open country to the north, where the New Town now stands. FOURTH PERIOD CASTLES WITH COURTYARDS OR QUADRANGLES. The castles and houses of this period which we have hitherto con- sidered, although very interesting from the variety of their plans and general design, are for the most part of secondary importance as regards extent. There are some remarkable exceptions it is true, such as Glamis and Castle Fraser, the former built on the L plan and the latter on the Z plan, but both were attached now or formerly to courtyards. Speaking generally, however, the simple keeps, the L castles, and the Z castles, represent the smaller mansions or manor-houses of the period, while the castles built round a quadrangle indicate the more extensive and ambitious edifices of the time. In treating of the corresponding plans of the Third Period, we drew attention to Dunnottar Castle, as representing in itself an epitome of nearly the whole history of Domestic and Castellated Architecture in Scotland, and we then took occasion to refer to the great development of the accommodation considered necessary in a large mansion of the seventeenth century, compared with that of the previous epochs of our history. We then saw how the " hall," with all its customs, had fallen into disuse, and had given way to the modern dining-room, and how other apartments had increased in importance and number. The early and modest withdrawing-room had now become the spacious gallery, and ball-rooms, libraries, and extensive suites of apartments, comprising parlours, bedrooms, and dressing-rooms were gradually coming into use. Such views we shall now find fully supported in the following descrip-