stirling-1963-vol-1/05_236

Transcription

No. 192 -- CASTLES AND TOWER-HOUSES -- No. 192
16th-century N. range presumably contained the Queen's
apartments until it was rebuilt by James VI. At Lin-
lithgow the site is level and the upper floors are reached
by the turnpike stairs contained in the four corners of
the courtyard; there is a corridor or gallery only on the S.
side of the courtyard, but there may once have been
another gallery on the opposite side also. At Stirling the
site is very different, with the rock upcropping steeply
on the N. side, so steeply indeed that it was uneconomical
to form an undercroft at the NW. corner and in the
adjoining part of the N. side. But this inequality in
ground levels was not wholly detrimental to the plan.
Indeed, it was turned to advantage, and the plan was so
contrived that both the basement and the principal
floor could be conveniently entered without making use
of a stair. The uppermost floor, however, had to be
reached from a staircase. The present NW. staircase
serving the top floor dates only from the turn of the
17th and 18th centuries, as neither the small stair
in the gallery of the E. quarter nor the turnpike stair
in the Prince's Tower seems to give adequate access to
this floor there may originally have been a stair in the
missing W. quarter. If so, the spacious scale-staircase at
the NW. corner of the Palace, which was begun in 1710
but never finished (cf. p. 189), must have been intended
to replace this earlier stair, which no doubt disappeared
with the rest of the W. quarter in the 17th century.
On the ground floor (Fig. 73) the small doorway at
the N. end of the E. side opens into a cellar situated at
the NE. corner of the Palace, an apartment which served
as the Governor's Wine-cellar in 1719. ¹ This cellar is
vaulted from N. to S., and towards its W. end the under-
lying rock rises and encumbers the floor. The cellar is
lit by a single window looking out on to the courtyard.
There is an inserted doorway in the S. wall, and to the W.
of it an original doorway, now blocked, which formerly
led into a transe on the lowest floor of the gallery that
runs between the E. quarter of the Palace and the court-
yard. The central doorway in the E. façade of the Palace
opens into an angled transe which has doorways opening
off it to N., S. and W. Some of this work is older than the
Palace, as shown on Fig. 73. The W. doorway opens into
the transe in the gallery. This is vaulted, and originally
opened both into the Governor's Wine-cellar on the N.
and into two other cellars on the S., but all these
openings are now blocked. Towards the S. end of the
transe there is a doorway in the W. wall, which was
blocked up when the Palace was built. In the E. wall of
the transe may be seen the sill of a window, which was
no doubt blocked at the same time as the doorway just
mentioned. The doorway on the N. side of the angled
transe leads into a store-room. This compartment is
vaulted from E. to W. and is lit by two windows facing
E., one of them of the date of the Palace, although sub-
sequently enlarged, and the other wholly modern. Two
fireplaces have been inserted in the W. wall. The door-
way on the S. side of the transe opens into the first of two
intercommunicating cellars which served as sutling rooms
in 1719. ² Both cellars are vaulted from N. to S. and each
is lit by a window facing E. The windows have both been
enlarged. The N. cellar has a doorway in its W. wall,
which formerly gave access to the transe in the gallery
but has now been converted into a cupboard. There is an
inserted fireplace in the N. wall, a blocked-up cupboard
in the S. wall, and a service hatch, also blocked, in the
W. wall.
The wide archway at the S. end of the E. façade of the
Palace stands within a recess, framed by a bold angle-
roll. It admits to a vaulted passage, already known in
1633 as "the nether transe under the pallace", ³ which
runs W. below the S. quarter and debouches on the
rampart walk known as the "Lady's Hole" (p. 186). This
transe, angled and irregular, shows obvious signs of
alteration, partly due to the fact that it has been contrived
within the older building that stood on the site of the
Palace. In the S. wall of the transe there is an opening
which leads to a gun-loop in the Forework, now blocked
up externally. Beyond, a doorway leads into the lowest
apartment of the Prince's Tower and another gives
access to the turnpike stair in the NW. angle of the tower.
The two arched openings in the S. wall at the W. end of
the transe have already been described (pp. 197 f.). In
the N. wall of the transe, a doorway at the E. end, now
blocked, formerly gave access to a cellar in the E.
quarter. Beyond, there is a range of five cellars occupying
the ground floor of the S. quarter and each entered from
the transe. These cellars are lit by windows which over-
look the Lion's Den, but some of the cellars formerly had
windows to the S. which acted as borrowed lights to the
transe. These openings have now been blocked and some
of the doors giving access to the cellars have been altered.
Beyond the first cellar from the E. a passage runs at right
angles to the Nether Transe to communicate with the
Lion's Den. In the E. wall of this passage there may be
seen the jamb of a window, evidently forming part of a
wall which must at one time have run from E. to W.,
i.e. parallel to the Forework; when the Palace was built
in 1540-2 this older wall was partially incorporated within
it (cf. Fig. 73). At the W. end of the Nether Transe an
opening on the N. gives access to another transe in the
gallery of the old W. quarter; this is lit by windows to the
E., none of them original.
As mentioned above, the Palace is planned round its
first or principal floor, devoted to the State Apartments of
James V. This floor (Fig. 74) has its own entrance from
outside, situated at the NW. corner of the building and
approached from the Upper Square. Although concealed
since the early 18th century by a porch, this entrance was
intended in the first instance to be an architectural
feature and consequently is on a great scale. As the formal
entrance to the State Apartments, it is situated con-
veniently both for the King's suite and for the Queen's
and opens into the gallery of the W. quarter. The N. part
of the gallery is now partitioned off to form an entrance-
lobby within which there are three doorways. The one
on the S. leads into the gallery of the W. quarter, while

1 National Library of Scotland MS. 1645, Z 2/18.
2 Ibid.
3 M. of W. Accts., ii, 364.

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