stirling-1963-vol-1/05_243

Transcription

No. 192 -- CASTLE AND TOWER-HOUSES -- No. 192

[Plans Inserted]
Fig. 78. Stirling Castle (No. 192); upper floors of the Great Hall

This suggests that there may have been a pause in the
building operations while the Hall was under con-
struction, a suggestion which agrees with the available
documentary evidence (pp, 182 f.). The stair contains an
offset-course that runs along the E. side of the Hall, a
moulded string-course returns round the stair-tower,
and one course below this a second. Immediately below
this second string-course there is an original window on
the E., now built up and replaced by a later window on
the SE. The older window has carved stops at its upper
corners, each in the form of a human head (Pl. 89 E, F).
A third string-course returns round the tower at the
sill level of the original windows of the Hall. Immedi-
ately below this string-course an original window faces
E.; it has carved stops at its upper corners, the dexter
one showing a male figure but the sinister one being
too much wasted for identification. At the same level
a small inserted window, now blocked, faces NE. At a
lower level an original window, now blocked, faces SE.,
and has a straight hood-mould with carved stops in
the form of armorials. Each stop bears a crown in its
upper part; the device below the dexter crown cannot be
identified while the sinister stop has a shield not now
showing a recognisable charge. Above the uppermost
string-course there are four original windows, two of them
now blocked; they have moulded jambs and lintels which
contrast sharply with the plain splayed arrises of the
windows in the lower part of the stair. The stair-tower
originally rose above the level of the parapet and
finished in a conical roof. Slezer indicates that the tower
interrupted the parapet (cf. Pl. 57), but as the corbel
course at the wall-head of the tower appears to be
original it is more likely that the parapet returned round

-- 208

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