Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/408

 FOURTH PERIOD - 392 - MAINS OR FINTRY CASTLE The staircase tower is of very unusual height, and is finished in a remarkable manner. The castle lies low, and the ground to the south rises rapidly from it. Probably the tower has been carried up to its present height in order to obtain a wide view over the surrounding country, and thus serve as a useful watch-tower. The corbel table is old, but the straight skews of the gablets suggest more recent work. The general effect, however, is as striking, as it is rare in Scottish Architecture, which has generally a less aspiring character. The eastern gable of the north range is finished with gabled crow-steps, a form which is occasionally found in domestic buildings of this and previous periods. The eastern range of buildings has the appearance of being of more modern origin. These probably contained the private dining-room and drawing-room of the family, so frequently added towards the end of the sixteenth century. One room on the ground floor was the kitchen. The entrance doorway and staircase were at the south end (see Plan). Over this doorway is the panel for a coat of arms, shown in Fig. 835, with early Renaissance shafts and cornice, and the following remarkable inscription underneath,, with the date 1582 PATRI.E ET POSTERIS GRATIS ET AMICIS. The buildings which stood along the south side of the quadrangle have been almost entirely demolished. That to the eastwards has some remains of an oven, and may have been a bakehouse. The others were probably offices. The site of the latter buildings was excavated out of the hill-side, which rises quickly from the south wall. They are therefore not likely to have belonged to the early part of the castle, which would be built with some view to defence, as this was clearly out of the question with erections the roof of which was on a level with the outside ground. PINKIE HOUSE, MIDLOTHIAN. This well-known mansion-house, the residence of Sir John D. Hope, is situated at the east end of Musselburgh, and, with the exception of an addition, made about the beginning of this century (shown in outline on the Plans, Fig. 836), it still retains the characteristics of a Scottish man- sion of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The mansion, as it now stands, forms two sides of a square, having had the square completed with high ornamental walls, enclosing a court- yard of about 120 feet north to south by 140 feet east to west. As will be seen from the ground plan, only a part of these walls now exists.