Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/33

 STAIRCASES 1? FOURTH PERIOD This was 110 doubt the wine-cellar, from which supplies could by this means be brought directly up to the hall. The first floor always contains the hall or dining-room, and the owner's private room. There is also generally a withdrawing-room, situated either on the first floor, when the mansion is of sufficient extent, or, in the smaller houses, on the second floor, immediately above the hall. The rest of the house is divided up into bedrooms, of which the number necessarily varies according to the size of the mansion. Arrange- ment is generally made by means of several staircases to give separate access to each apartment. The extent and variety of accommodation provided in these L and Z houses is frequently considerable, while in others it little exceeds that of the pele towers. These buildings were the residences of the lesser pro- prietors and nobles. The castles surrounding courtyards are of course the largest in extent, and, as above mentioned, they contain suites of galleries and reception-rooms such as could scarcely be attempted under any of the other forms of plan. In several instances, however, galleries are intro- duced in mansions of the L plan, usually in the top story, and partly in the roof: such are those above referred to at Crathes, Earl's Hall, and Pinkie House. The design of the courtyard-castles of the Fourth Period is thus essentially distinct from that of the corresponding buildings of the previous time, such as Doune or Dirleton, and contained almost all the arrangements considered requisite in a modern mansion, as will be more fully apparent when we come to consider each example separately. FOURTH PERIOD Staircases. Amongst the other improvements in the planning of castles which took place about this time was the enlargement of the principal staircase. In the earlier keeps, as we have seen, the staircase was either a narrow straight flight in the thickness of the wall, or a narrow circular newel staircase in the angle. The first improvement was the introduc- tion of a separate break or tower in the re-entering angle of the L plan, as at Balvaird, etc. During the Fourth Period this tower became considerably enlarged, so as to admit of a wide circular staircase from the entrance door to the landing on the first floor leading to the hall. Above this level, access to the upper apartments was obtained by small newel stairs, generally partly corbelled out in a re-entering angle of the building. In cases where the house was built on the plan with square or circular wings at the diagonally opposite corners, one of these wings was not VOL. II. B