Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/517

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

LINLITHGOW PALACE 497 THIRD PERIOD A good deal of the external work seems to have been painted and gilded as late as the time of James vi. There is an entry in 1629, " For painting and laying over with oyle cullour, and for gelting with gold the haill foir face of the new wark " the north side. The south side of the palace (Fig. 426) is marked by the long deeply recessed and cusped windows of the chapel, and by the rather dwarfed porch, with its small round towers and loopholes. Internally this side is remarkable for the corridor on each floor, with windows of a more decidedly English character than those of any other building in Scotland (Fig. 418). They are decidedly "perpendicular" or Tudor in style, and probably later than the building to which they are attached. As above suggested, the south porch is an addition, and these corridors were possibly built at the same time. Fig. 427 shows the entrance to the courtyard by the above porch, and the details of the corridor windows. At Falkland Palace there are corridors added in the same way, which contain windows somewhat similar in style, and these we know were built by James v. The upper niches (Fig. 418) contained the Salutation of the Virgin, whose statue still stands, together with her pot of lilies, but the angel is gone. The west side is very plain, both externally and internally (Figs. 426 and 423). It should be noticed that the corbels carrying the parapet (both inside and outside) are of an older type than those of the other sides of the square. The north-west angle turret (Figs. 423 and 428) is the best pre- served, and was the highest. This and the south-east or Tyler's Tower (Fig. 425) served as the watch-towers, the top being heightened with a smaller tower crowned with battlements, to which access was got by a winding outside stair. The north-west tower contains, in the inside of the heightened part, a small octagonal room, vaulted with groins, with loopholes on each side, and a stone seat round the wall. It is called " Queen Margaret's Bower " and is referred to by Scott as the seat in which James iv.'s queen kept fruitless vigil for her lord's return from Flodden. Mr. J. H. Parker thinks that this was probably the Queen's oratory, and refers to several similar examples in England. The interior is well illustrated by Billings. The north side is an excellent specimen of the style of James vi. The interior (Fig. 423) has a strong affinity with the style of Heriot's Hospital, which was designed about the same time, and may have been by the same hand, perhaps William Wallace, the King's Master Mason for Scotland at the time. The external view (Fig. 417) of this front, owing to the great height of the building, is massive and imposing, and although so late in date, harmonises well with the earlier work. Fig. 428 is a view taken from the battlements of the west side, and shows the north-west tower crowned with Queen Margaret's Bower and 2 i