Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/371

 BALCOMIE CASTLE 355 FOURTH PERIOD Scottish, including the small corbel ornaments under the turrets, the cable and billet patterns, and the whole form and application of the mouldings. The staircase, too, is an admirable example of Scottish work. That the essential difference between this Scottish example and the French work of the corresponding period (when the Renaissance was beginning to influence the old style in either case) may be seen at a glance, we introduce a drawing of the staircase of the Chateau de Chaumont, on the Loire (Fig. 800). The one is as unmistakably French as the other is palpably Scottish in every feature. When Fyvie was building, Renaissance ideas were making themselves felt in Scotland. Of this we have an illustration in the design of the south front, in which the great object has been to produce a symmetrical effect (Fig. 801). To obtain this the east and west towers have been operated on so as to make them almost identical in appearance, and thus form balancing masses at each end of the composition, while the double Seton Tower has been erected as the great central feature of the design. This has clearly been done for the sake of effect, because the great entrance, which passes through the Seton Tower, is at a very inconvenient distance from the principal staircase, which no doubt always had a separate entrance door adjoining it for use, the tower entrance being chiefly for show. Nor does the plan of the Seton Tower make a good house internally, as shown on the plan of the first floor (Fig. 802), where it will be observed that the two drum towers are very inconveniently situated as regards the large room from which they enter. The principal rooms are all in the west wing, the main staircase giving access to the hall (now the drawing-room) and to the original drawing-room, which was probably on the floor above it. The present dining-room, as already mentioned, is of more recent construction. Of the early castle of Fyvie, the " Fywie Chastel " where Edward i. stayed in his northern invasions in 1296 and subsequent years, nothing now remains. But the tradition of the visits of the great " Hammer of the Scots " still lingers in the locality, and finds a local habitation in one of the rooms of the fifteenth-century Preston Tower which is con- fidently pointed out as Edward's bedroom. BALCOMIE CASTLE, FIFESHIRE. This castle stands about two miles from Crail, in the extreme eastern district of Fife, familiarly known as the " East Neuk," and about a quarter of a mile inland from the sea. It has been a building of great size, and of very considerable richness of detail. Its extent may be judged of from the plans (Fig. 80S), in which the parts tinted black show the