Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/479

 RUTHVEN CASTLE 43 FOURTH PERIOD work, and other details. But whether these architects had to do with the design of Caroline Park, it is now impossible to say. BALNACRAIG, ABERDEENSHIRE. The Chalmerses of Balnacraig were an ancient and honourable family of Aberdeenshire, some of them being specially distinguished as clergy- men and Professors in the University during the seventeenth century. The existing mansion (Fig. 897) probably occupies a site in the vicinity of the ancient residence. It is pleasantly situated at the base of a wooded knoll, with a southern exposure, lying on the south side of the river Dee, about one mile from Kincardine O'Neil. Although erected as a mansion-house, it has now been reduced to the condition of a farm- steading, and is partly occupied as cow-byres, etc. It is built on the plan of a central main building, with a wing projecting at each end, so as to form three sides of a quadrangle. An enclosure composed of a stone parapet with ornamental pillars at intervals, and an open wooden railing between, prolongs the courtyard to the road, where there is a central entrance gateway with stone pillars. Altogether it forms a good specimen of a perfectly plain mansion, erected probably about the beginning of last century. It shows how completely every reminiscence of the Scottish style had by that time disappeared even in the plainest buildings, and how the Renaissance spirit had entirely superseded it. Even the crow-steps, so long adhered to, have now yielded to the straight skews. Here we have perfect symmetry, although almost destitute of ornament a central block, with two exactly corresponding wings, a doorway with a porch, and a small gable above to mark the centre, and two exactly similar windows on each side. The pillars and gates of the enclosing fence balance one another on the opposite sides ; in short, the whole conception realises what Pughi calls the style composed of "two of everything." RUTHVEN CASTLE, INVERNESS-SHIRE. From a distance this ruin, standing out as it does on the top of a detached hill in the valley of the Spey, has a grand and imposing effect, which however is unfortunately not maintained on closer inspection. The castle is situated in the Badenoch district of Inverness-shire, about one mile from Kingussie, the chief place of the district, and on the opposite side of the Spey. The site is an alluvial mound of considerable size standing detached from the rising ground which bounds the level part of the valley on the south side of the river. Being composed of sand and gravel it would lend itself conveniently to the early system of fortification, and was probably the site of an ancient primitive castle surrounded with ditch and fosse. It is said to have been a castle in the