Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/516

 FOURTH PERIOD 500 MEGGINCH CASTLE enough remains of the north front (Fig. 925) to show that Megginch still presents,, externally at least, some striking features of the sixteenth- century mansion-house. The cor- belling by which the central round tower is brought to the square near the top is, like that at Gardyne, somewhat peculiar (Fig. 926). It is not done in the usual way by courses of corbels parallel to the front and sides of the square, gra- dually diminishing in size as they descend under one another, until they die away into the circle (as at Claypotts and elsewhere), but by a series of corbels all parallel to the front of the square, gradually over- lapping and diminishing till they die away at each side of the circular part of the turret. There is such a resemblance between the style of work here and at Elcho in the neighbourhood as to justify the belief expressed to us by Mr. Drummond, the present proprietor, that both buildings were designed by the same architect. Here fortunately we are not left, as at Elcho, in doubt as to the date of the erection of the building, as at Megginch there is over one of the windows the inscription shown on Fig. 925, "PETRUS HAY, AEDIFI- CIUM EXSTRUXIT AN: 1575." The Hays of Megginch were a branch of the Hays of Errol, and retained Megginch for sixty-five years after the erection of the castle, when it was sold to the ancestors of the present proprietor. So far as can now be ascer- tained, this building has been a simple oblong in plan like Farnell FIG. 926. Megginch Castle. Side view Qr Q ar( ly ne . of Central Turret. *