Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/411

 PINKIE HOUSE 395 FOURTH PERIOD imposing than the eastern, and is not quite at right angles to it, may be a little later than the latter. The principal entrance into the courtyard was through a flat arched gateway and passage under the southern block, and led straight to the old doorway. This entrance is now done away with, and converted into a room. A new scale and platt staircase was subsequently built in the centre of the eastern main building, beneath which a small door leads out to the extensive walled gardens, while two wheel staircases on the inner side of the south wing lead to the upper floors. Several of the upper-floor rooms in the eastern block are of consideraole size and im- portance, especially the fine painted gallery (Fig. 836) measuring 85 feet long by If) feet wide. It has a curved ceiling of timber, elaborately Fxa. 838. Pinkie House. View from the North-West. painted with mythical and allegorical subjects. In a centre panel are the Dunfermline arms, and the initials A. E. D., Alexander, Earl Dun- fermline. The painting was continued down the walls, but was probably removed when the wall of the east front was heightened (as seems to have been done in the eighteenth century), thus converting what was formerly the top story, with dormer windows, into a full story. The