Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/512

 FOURTH PERIOD 4>Q6 - CARNOCK CASTLE as those of the houses above mentioned. In these, and some other examples, the enrichments are frequently mere repetitions, but here there is some novelty in the design of the details. The reason why Sir Thomas removed the old kitchen is not at first quite apparent, but it probably arose from its being too near the prin- cipal rooms. Ladies and gentlemen were now becoming refined and delicate, and the odours from the kitchen were felt to be offensive. Hence Sir Thomas had a new kitchen and range of offices built (as shown on the Plan) at a distance of about 30 feet from the main house, and entirely detached from it. This old kitchen, with its large fireplace, is still used as the kitchen of the house, but it is now connected with it by a covered corridor. The other office buildings, we are informed by Mr. Shaw Stewart, were formerly stable offices, but were altered, as we now see them, into wash-house and laundry by his grandfather, who likewise built the entrance hall and the corridor leading to the kitchen. The small hatched rooms at the north-east and north-west angles of the main building are probably of Sir Thomas Nicolson's time. We now see that there are several points of interest connected with this mansion, illustrative of the different stages of development of the architecture, and with it, of the manners and customs of our ancestors. What a distance has been travelled over in the three centuries which have elapsed from the time when we found the Scottish nobles content to live in towers containing three apartments only, a ground floor for cattle, a first floor for a hall in which the retainers lived and slept, and a top story for the lord and his family ! The introduction of a kitchen we have seen was at first hailed as an important innovation and improve- ment all provisions being previously cooked in the hall, or in the open air. But now, in the seventeenth century, people have become so refined that the kitchen (with what was formerly considered its sweet perfumery) must be banished out of doors ! The domestics are now quite separated from " the hall/' while the proprietor and his family, no longer huddled up in one room, enjoy the delights of the modern dining-room and drawing-room, private sitting-rooms and bedrooms, all provided with separate doors. Little has been done to the house for the last 250 years, but it is still found to be suitable as a gentleman's residence.