stirling-1963-vol-1/05_230

Transcription

No. 192 -- CASTLES AND TOWER-HOUSES -- No. 192
between the D-shaped tower and the Prince's Tower is
complete. The base of the wall is offset; the masonry
below the splayed offset-course is of rubble, while that
above it is ashlar work, eighteen courses high, and
surmounted by a chequered corbelling. Above this
corbelling, which is four courses high, there is a
crenellated parapet with a moulded cope, four courses
high at the crenelles and six at the merlons (Pl. 66). At
its E. end this parapet rose, probably in order to return
round the adjoining D-shaped tower, and in this higher
part there is a small window, built up on the inside,
which served the cap-house at this end of the Upper
Terrace (cf. p. 197).
The base of the Prince's Tower (Figs. 73, 74, 75;
Pl. 65 A) is built of rubble up to a maximum height of
4 ft. above the Lower Terrace, and the remainder is of
ashlar. On the S. side the ashlar work is set back from
the face of the rubble work, the difference at the W. side
being about 4 in. and on the E. 2 ft. 6 in.; this
suggests that the base may represent a building earlier
than the existing one. The W. side of the tower shows
obvious signs of alteration on the three lowest storeys
(cf. p. 196). The tower rises through four storeys to its
parapet walk, within which there is a gabled garret,
considerably altered. The parapet, which has been cut
down to the level of the base of the crenelles, rests on
chequered corbelling identical with that of the fore-wall,
and it has rounds at the SE. nd SW. angles borne on
conoidal corbelling of slight projection. The last vestiges
of the corbelling of what was probably a cap-house are
seen at the NW. corner, where the tower abuts on the
Palace block behind it, and there is also evidence for a
round at the NE. angle, now almost entirely removed;
the upper part of the tower must therefore once have
stood free. Of the various windows only two remain
unaltered; these are both on the second floor, one facing
S. and the other, now blocked, facing W. The other
windows are later insertions, or enlargements of older
openings. The doorway in the E. wall of the tower,
giving access to the Upper Terrace, has a groove within,
perhaps a frame for the posts of an iron door; there is
also provision for an inner wooden door. It is uncertain
whether this is an original opening. On the W. side of
the tower there is an original opening. On the W. side of
the tower there is a modern screen-wall running W.; this
replaces the S. wall of an earlier building which stood in
the re-entrant angle of the Prince's Tower and the W.
end of the S. quarter of the Palace (cf. p. 196). There is
some older masonry at the W. end of the wall, where the
early 18th-century rampart on the W. side of the Bowling
Green abuts it. An older rampart-wall of 16th- or
17th-century date, part of which runs S. from the S. wall
of the Prince's Tower, formed the W. boundary of the
outer defences of the Castle until the alterations of
Queen Anne's reign were carried out (cf. Pl. 59). At
this time the earlier rampart-wall was largely removed
except at its N. end, where about 20 ft. of walling remains
abutting the S. wall of the Prince's Tower. Neither the
height nor the width of this remaining part of the wall
appears to be original, and the 17th-century balustrading
of the Lower Terrace has been incorporated in its S.
termination. On the wall a detached dormer-pediment
has been set up for preservation; it has thistle finials,
and the tympanum contains a pelta-shaped panel sur-
mounted by a crown and bearing the initials MR.
This is presumably one of the dormer pediments noted
on the upper floor of the Palace in 1887, ¹ but whether
the initials are those of Mary, Queen of Scots, or of her
mother, Mary of Guise, is uncertain.
The arrangement within the Forework is as follows.
In the gatehouse (Fig. 72) the central transe has a
stone bench at each side. The E. transe opens into a
circular vaulted chamber within the E. tower and also
gives entry, by means of a hatch in the floor, to a pit
situated in the undercroft of the tower. The transe has a
loop of dumb-bell shape facing E., in the embrasure of
which a mounting for a hand-gun has been formed at a
later time. The corresponding transe to the W. gives
access to a vaulted chamber and pit within the adjoining
tower. In the original arrangement there was a window
in the W. wall of the transe, to the N. of which there was
a fireplace and beyond it an aumbry. Subsequently a new
sill and lintel were inserted in the window, a smaller
fireplace was substituted for the original one and the
aumbry was remodelled. Lastly both window and fire-
place were blocked up. The two rooms in the frontal
towers are obviously prisons, with pits below them,
Their vaults are flat. Each has a garderobe with a vent,
as well as an aumbry, and each is lit by three loops of
dumb-bell shape. Each of the pits derives its light from
two loops; the W. pit has a garderobe with a vent. Each
pit opens into a larger vaulted rectangular chamber
situated within the main block of the gatehouse; these
rooms, which must also have served as prisons, are unlit.
The central transe is sufficiently lofty to rise a storey
higher than those at its sides, above which the arrange-
ment is generally similar to that of the ground floor and
comprises an oblong vaulted apartment which opens into
a circular vaulted chamber in the adjacent tower. These
apartments were originally reached from twin turnpike
stairs respectively at the NW, and NE. angles of the
gatehouse (cf. Pl. 59), but these stairs have now been
removed and only a few traces of them can still be seen in
the masonry. The E. apartment is entered at its NE.
corner. Beside the entrance there is an embrasure with a
slot for a portcullis in its sole. In the E. wall there is a
plain fireplace, and also what was evidently a window,
with a seat in each jamb, now blocked up and not visible
externally. The S. wall has a small window with a slot
for the portcullis in its sole. The room in the tower is
vaulted and is circular on plan; it has a garderobe with a
vent to the SE., on either side of which there is a loop of
dumb-bell shape. There is an aumbry immediately
opposite the E. slot. A similar arrangement exists on the
W. side of the gatehouse. Nothing now remains of the
original upper storey or storeys.
The surviving part of the Elphinstone Tower (Fig.
71) is entered from a modern stair which leads down
beneath the Three Gun Battery, and opens through a

1 Cast. and Dom. Arch., i, 475 (but cf p. 216, n. 3).

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