Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/351

 BARNES CASTLE 335 FOURTH PERIOD building corresponding to the kitchen, there has been a fireplace in the end wall, where now broken down, of smaller dimensions than that of the kitchen. There are no other fireplaces on the ground floor. In the north-west wall, on the opposite side of the passage from the kitchen door, a cell-like recess will be seen on the plan, measuring 8 feet long by 3 feet 2 inches wide, and about 6 feet high. It is on the floor level, lighted by a slit, and has an arched roof; the large window shown on one side is really above the arch. The recess is enclosed next the passage by a low wall 1 8 inches thick, and open above to the arch. One is at a loss to know what this carefully constructed recess, unlike anything else in the place, was meant for. The most remarkable features connected with the structure are the six square projecting towers which surround the walls, each measuring on the face outside about 18 feet 4 inches, while their projection varies from 8 feet 7 inches to 15 feet. These towers are provided with shot-holes which enfilade the walls. They give the ruins a thoroughly military character, and it is this combination of the characteristics of feudal architecture, with an advanced symmetrical style of domestic planning, which makes this a most interesting and valuable plan. The four towers on the north-west side face the line of the top of the precipitous bank. It was clearly from this side that an attack was dreaded. An enemy could, under cover of the trees and the irregularities of the ground, with comparative safety, and unperceived, draw on to within 30 or 40 yards of the house ; but on all the other sides the open and unprotected nature of the country rendered this more difficult. Several of these towers exist to about two stories in height. The north tower contains a sunk floor reached by a sloping pathway from the apartment adjoining 011 the ground floor. The floor between is arched. The vault is lighted by a window sloping downwards in the east wall. There is a door in the south-east corner of the building which may have led into a tower at that point, now demolished. Whether the opening shown 011 plan, at the north-west end of the passage between the two towers, was a postern or window cannot now be determined. Most probably it would be the latter, this being the side from which attack was to be feared. From the Lamp of Lothian we learn that this place was built by Sir John Seton, ancestor of the Seatons of Barnes. He was third son of the fifth George, Lord Seaton, by Isobel, daughter of Sir William Hamilton of Sanquhar. He lived a good deal in Spain, and at the Court of Philip ii. various high honours were conferred on him. James vi. recalled him to Scotland, and created him Treasurer of the Household and Extraordinary Lord of Session, in room of his brother Alexander, Earl of Dunfermliiie. He married Ann, daughter of William, seventh Lord Forbes, and died in 1594. In the " Historic and Cronicle of the Hous and Surname of Seytoun,