Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/506

 FOURTH PERIOD - 490 - ALDIE CASTLE be seen, of old, finely cut in the house of Aldie, and for crest, the head and neck of a heron, holding in its beak an eel, with the motto on an escrol, THE GRIT POUL, being the slughorn of the family." The arms are still at Aldie in a panel over the doorway (see Fig. 917). CARNOCK CASTLE, STIRLINGSHIRE. This mansion occupies a pleasant site in the midst of the level country lying to the south of the Forth, and about one mile from Airth Road Station. It is interesting in several points of view. The plan is very unusual. The house was built in the middle of the sixteenth century, and was altered during the first half of the seventeenth century, the original building bearing the date of 1 548, and the alterations that of 1634. We have thus an opportunity of studying a peculiar design of the former period, and of comparing it with the modifications found requisite in the latter period, as of the method adopted in carrying these changes into execution. The building has undergone various alterations, and received some additions in more modern times, but the general arrangements are unaltered,, and the principal rooms still retain their ornamental plaster ceilings, and other features of the seventeenth century. In the sixteenth century the property belonged to Sir Robert Drummondj whose arms, impaled with those of his wife, Margaret Elphinstone of Dunmore, are carved on a shield, along with their initials, and the date 1548. This shield is now inserted over the modern doorway, but there is every reason to suppose that it has been removed from over the original entrance doorway, which is now enclosed within the entrance hall. On the same stone, under the coat of arms (Fig. 919:, lower central panel), is the following inscription, in the characters of the period : put no pi - soe in - te off- pi- len? anD gif ge - Do ge sel repent Unfortunately the first line is so elliptical and enigmatic that modern readers cannot easily ascertain what danger it warns them against. In the seventeenth century the property was acquired by Sir Thomas Nicolson from Sir John Drummond. The former came of a family of Edinburgh lawyers. He was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1637, and married Isobel Henderson, daughter of Walter Henderson of Granton. Early in the eighteenth century the property passed by mar- riage to the Shaws of Greenock. The present proprietor is Hugh Shaw Stewart, Esq., whose grandfather made the most recent alterations on the house, shown by unshaded lines on the plans. The plan of the