stirling-1963-vol-1/05_083

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : THE MIDDLE AGES AND LATER
The finest of the more substantial 18th-century mansions is undoubtedly Touch (c. 1750
No. 345), the design of which may be ascribed with some probability to William Adam. The
south façade is a dignified composition notable both for its good proportions and for the careful
execution of the ornamental detail. At Wrightpark (No. 335), a house of 1750, a comparable
design has been handled with much less success. Some of the carved detail at Wrightpark
appears to have been left unfinished, and this contributes to the somewhat bleak appearance
of the principal façade. Powis House (c. 1746, No. 288) is less ambitious in conception
than Touch and Wrightpark; nearly square on plan and three storeys high, it is somewhat box-like
in appearance, but the careful spacing of the windows and the discreet use of ornamental
detail give interest to the elevations. At the Old Place of Balgair, near Fintry, are the ruins of a
house (No. 333) of quite modest size to which the architect has nevertheless attempted to give
something of the grand manner of the larger Georgian mansions. The attempt was not, perhaps,
altogether successful, but the house is interesting because of its comparatively early date, its
erection being ascribed to the year 1721.
Among the later 18th-century mansions of conventional Classical design may be mentioned
Laurelhill (No. 291), Quarter (No. 298) and Parkhill (No. 313), and also the south façade of
Gargunnock (No. 215), which has been skilfully incorporated with the older buildings that lie
behind it. Airthrey Castle (1791, No. 287) is an example of Robert Adam's castellated style,
while the north front of Airth Castle (1807), No. 199) and Lennox Castle (1837-41, No. 324)
were both designed by David Hamilton, the first in castellated Gothic and the second in
castellated Romanesque. Dunmore Park (No. 301), a substantial mansion in the Tudor Gothic
style by William Wilkins, dates from the same period.
Finally, mention should be made of the great stone Pineapple (No. 302) erected by the
4th Earl of Dunmore in 1761. Its bizarre design and ingenious construction make the Pine-
apple one of the most remarkable follies in Britain.

SMALL HOUSES AND COTTAGES
The Rev. Patrick Graham, writing apparently of the later 18th century, states ¹ that "the
houses of the peasantry" - i.e. tenants of farms who were under the necessity of providing
their own houses and offices- "were wretched huts, thatched with fern or straw; having two
apartments only, the one a kitchen -- the other a sort of room -- where strangers were
occasionally received, and where the heads of the family generally slept. The byre and stable
were generally under the same roof, and separated from the kitchen by a partition of osiers,
wrought upon slender wooden posts, and plastered with clay. A glass window and a chimney
were esteemed a luxury, and were seldom to be met with." By the date of his writing (1812),
however, these conditions had been improved by the general introduction of the farmyard, ²
with the lay-out of farm-buildings that is familiar everywhere today. The introduction, at the
turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, of the mechanical threshing-mill ³ produced a characteristic
feature of many or most of these farms - the shed, adjoining the barn, in which a horse walked
round and round to turn the machinery. These sheds are typically circular or octagonal on
plan, with open sides and a pointed roof (Pl. 205B).

1 General View, 77.
2 Ibid., 79.
3 Ibid., 114.

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