Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/570

 FOURTH PERIOD 554 FOUNTAINHALL landing,, as seen in the view (Fig. 972), contains one room, 43 feet long by 16* feet wide. This was the favourite sitting-room of Sir John Lauder, one of the Lords of Session, well known to readers of Scottish history as the author of FountainhalT s Decisions. This apartment is still called the reception-room. Some notice of this subject will be found in Sir Thomas Dick Lauder's Scottish Rivers. Tradition reports that this large room was also used by his Lordship as an occasional hall of justice, and latterly as the ball-room of the house. It will not surprise those who are conversant with the neglect which has fallen on too many of our old buildings, to know that this historic apartment is now used as a hay-loft, and the rooms below as a stable. On the dormer window over the staircase of this room (of which a sketch is given, Fig. 974), is the date 1638, and the monogram M.D.P. On the south skew stone, on the east side of this building, is the date 163 8, and beneath it the letters R. R., and on the north stone, on the same side, the letters M. I. R. P. occur. The gardens adjoining the house, on the north and east, still remain intact, surrounded with high walls. In all likelihood these walls were continued so as to form a courtyard in front of the house to the south, as was usual in houses of this period. Similar instances occur at Pinkie, Midhope, and Prestonfield, near Edinburgh, where, as here, the walls have been removed. From this court the gardens would enter through the doorway shown in Fig. 974, which still remains in situ. What was the courtyard is now a shrubbery, with grass plots, entered from the highway through a gateway having stone pillars, ornamented with cast-iron panels of good design. CRAIGHALL CASTLE, FIFESHIRE. The ruinous condition of this castle exhibits a striking result of the destructive forces at work which are steadily bringing our castles and old houses to the ground. The latest portion of the building is not yet two- centuries old, and it now stands a naked, melancholy ruin, and has been so for many years, while there has been no deterioration in the character of the neighbourhood to make it less suited for a gentleman's habita- tion. It is beautifully situated on a small plateau on rising ground about three miles south from Cupar in Fife. The building originally consisted of a Scottish mansion of the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century type (Fig. 975), probably measuring about 93 feet long, with two wings projecting westwards at the north and south ends, and thus leaving an open space towards the west. In 1691 these wings were connected with a Renaissance front, placed in advance of the old front, and nearly filling up the open space between the wings. This addition had a rusticated basement, above which was introduced an arcade two stories in height,