top and bearing aloft a lantern of crossed rib arches, surmounted by
a beautiful imperial crown with finial cross, somewhat resembling
St Giles’s in Edinburgh. The difference is that King’s College has
four ribs while St Giles’s has eight. The whole is of freestone
from Morayshire. The entire building is a mixture of Scottish and
French Gothic styles, and retains in the large western window the
semi-circular arch, a peculiarity of Scottish Gothic throughout all
periods. The canopied stalls and the screen of richly carved oak,
Gothic in design and most beautifully handled, take a place among the
finest pieces of mediaeval carved work existing in the British Empire.
Their beauty and delicacy, according to Hill Burton, surpass all
remains of a similar kind in Scotland. The chapel contains the tomb
of Bishop Elphinstone. It was once highly ornamented, but meantime is
covered with a plain marble slab. Its restoration is in prospect.
St Nicholas Church, Aberdeen (now the East and West Churches) contains
in its transepts and groined crypt and in its wood-carving, interesting
relics of twelfth, fifteenth and sixteenth century work. The nave was
rebuilt in the Renaissance style of the time (1755).
Greyfriars Church, removed a few years ago to make way for the new
front of Marischal College, was a pre-Reformation church, built by
Alexander Galloway, Rector of Kinkell, early in the sixteenth century.
Its chief features were its range of buttresses and a fine seven-light,
traceried window.
The Protestant churches that succeeded these ancient buildings were
inferior as architecture. It was only in the nineteenth century that
taste began to revive and some attempt at grace and embellishment
was made. Architects began to study old styles, and this combined
with the increasing wealth of the country created a new standard in
ecclesiastical requirements. To-day our churches tend to grow in
architectural beauty.
19. Architecture—(_b_) Castellated.
The earliest fortifications in Scotland were earthen mounds, surrounded
with wooden palisades. They were succeeded by stone and lime “keeps”
built in imitation of Norman structures. The presence of the Normans
in England during the eleventh and twelfth centuries drove the Saxon
nobility northwards, and they were followed in turn by other Normans,
who obtained possession of great tracts of country. The rectangular
keeps of the Normans have in consequence formed the models on which
most of the Scottish castles were constructed. In the thirteenth
century there were castles at Strathbogie, Fyvie, Inverurie and
Kildrummy. These have mostly been rebuilt in recent times and the more
ancient parts have disappeared. The general idea in them all was a
fortified enclosure usually quadrilateral. The walls of the enclosure
were 7 to 9 feet thick and 20 to 30 feet high. The angles had round or
square towers, and the walls had parapets and embrasures for defence
and a continuous path round the top of the ramparts. The entrance was a
wide gate guarded by a portcullis. The comparatively large area within
the walls was intended to harbour the population of a district and to
give temporary protection to their flocks and possessions in times of
danger. Some of the finer examples, such as Kildrummy, closely resemble
the splendid military buildings of France in the thirteenth century.
One of the towers is usually larger than the others and forms the
donjon or place of strength, to which retreat could be made as a last
resort, when, during a siege, the enemy had gained a footing within the
walls.
[Illustration: Kildrummy Castle]
Kildrummy Castle is one of the finest and largest in Scotland, and
even in its present ruinous condition gives an impression of grandeur
and extent such as no other castle in Aberdeenshire can rival. It
was built in the reign of Alexander II by Gilbert de Moravia, Bishop
of Caithness. Situated near the river Don, some ten miles inland from
Alford, and occupying a strong position on the top of a bank which
slopes steeply to a burn on two sides, and protected on the other sides
by an artificial fosse, it was a place of great strength. Its plan is
an irregular quadrangle, the south front bulging out in the centre
towards the gateway. It had six round towers, one at each angle and
two at the gate. One of the corner towers—the Snow Tower—55 feet
in diameter, was the donjon and contained the draw-well. The castle
possessed a large courtyard, a great hall, and a chapel, of which the
window of three tall lancets survives. It was built in the thirteenth
century, and therefore belongs to the First Pointed Period. The stone
used is a sandstone, probably taken from the quarries in the locality,
where instead of the prevailing granite of Aberdeenshire a great band
of sandstone occurs.
This famous castle passed through various vicissitudes. It was
besieged in 1306 by Edward I of England and was gallantly defended,
but, in consequence of a great conflagration, Nigel Bruce, King
Robert’s brother, who was acting as governor, yielded it to the
English, he himself being made prisoner and ultimately executed.
Some of the buildings date from this period, when it was rebuilt by
the English, but it soon fell into Bruce’s hands again. Twenty years
after Bannockburn it was conferred on the Earl of Mar. The rebellion
of 1715 was hatched within its walls. Thereafter being forfeited by
Mar, it eventually came into the hands of the Gordons of Wardhouse.
Recently it was purchased by Colonel Ogston, who has built a modern
mansion-house close by and crossed the ravine with a bridge, an exact
replica of the historic Bridge of Balgownie near Donmouth.
During the fourteenth century, Scotland, exhausted with the struggle
for national independence, was unable to engage in extensive building.
Beside, Bruce’s policy was opposed to castle building, as such edifices
were liable to be captured by the enemy and a secure footing thereby
obtained. His policy was rather to strip the country, and to destroy
everything in front of an invading army, with a view to starving it
out. The houses of the peasantry were made of wood and could easily be
restored when destroyed. The houses of the nobility took the form of
square towers on the Norman model and all castles of the fourteenth
century were on this simple plan—a square or oblong tower with very
thick walls and defended from a parapeted path round the top of the
tower. The angles were rounded or projected on corbels in the form of
round bartizans. At first these parapets were open and machicolated. As
time went on, the simple keep was extended by adding on a small wing
at one corner, which gave the ground plan of the whole building the
shape of the letter =L=. The entrance was then placed as a rule
at the re-entering angle. Such keeps are usually spoken of as built on
the =L= plan. The ground floor was vaulted and used for stores
or stables and as accommodation for servants. The only communication
between this and the first floor was a hatch. In early castles the
principal entrance was often on the floor above the ground floor and
was reached by a stair easily removed in time of danger. Access from
one storey to another was by a corkscrew or newel stair at one corner
in the thick wall. Thus constructed a tower could resist siege and
fire, and even if taken, could not be easily damaged.
Of this kind of keep Aberdeenshire has many excellent examples, the
most perfect, perhaps, being the Tower of Drum. It stands on a ridge
overlooking the valley of the Dee. To the ancient keep built probably
late in the thirteenth century was added a mansion-house on a different
plan in 1619. The estate was granted to William de Irvine by Bruce
in recognition of faithful service as secretary and armour-bearer.
Previous to that, Drum was a royal forest and a hunting-seat of the
king. The keep, which stands as solid and square to-day as it did six
hundred years ago, is quadrilateral and the angles are rounded off.
The entrance was at the level of the first floor. The main stair is a
newel. In the lowest storey the walls are twelve feet thick, pierced
with two narrow loops for light. In a recess is the well. On the top
of the tower are battlements, the parapet resting on a corbel-table
continued right round the building.
Hallforest near Kintore is an example of a fourteenth century keep.
It was built by Bruce as a hunting-seat and bestowed on Sir Robert de
Keith, the Marischal. It still belongs to the Kintore family but is now
a ruin.
The fifteenth century brought a change in castle-building. The
accommodation of the keeps was circumscribed and the paucity of rooms
made privacy impossible. One way of extending the space was, as we
have said, by adding a wing at one corner. Another mode was to utilise
the surrounding wall, for the keeps were generally guarded by a
wall, which formed a courtyard or barmekin for stabling and offices.
This was often of considerable extent and defended by towers. As the
country progressed and manners improved, buildings were extended
round the inside of the courtyard walls. In the sixteenth century the
change went further and developed into the mansion-house built round
a quadrangle. The building was first in the centre of the surrounding
wall; ultimately the courtyard was absorbed and became the centre of
the castle.
Balquhain Castle in Chapel of Garioch, two miles from Inverurie, was
originally a keep like Drum, but being destroyed in 1526, it was
rebuilt. Very little of it now remains but its massive, weather-stained
walls have a commanding effect. The barmekin is still traceable. Queen
Mary is said to have passed the night prior to the Battle of Corrichie
at Balquhain. It was burned in 1746 by the Duke of Cumberland.
Many other castles on the same general plan are dotted up and down
the county. Some are in ruins, some have been altered and added to on
other lines, but the original keep is still a marked feature in most
of them. Cairnbulg—recently restored—on the north-east coast has a
keep of the fifteenth century with additions of a century later. Gight,
now ruinous, but formerly celebrated for its great strength, occupies
a fine site on the summit of the Braes of Gight, which rise abruptly
from the bed of the Ythan. It also is a fifteenth century edifice
built on the =L= plan. It has a historical interest as having once
belonged to Lord Byron’s mother, from whom it was purchased by the Earl
of Aberdeen. Another of the same kind is Craig Castle in Auchindoir.
It was completed in 1518 and is also on the =L= plan. So too is
Fedderat in New Deer.
[Illustration: The Old House of Gight]
In the sixteenth century the troubled reign of Queen Mary was
unfavourable to architecture, but towards the end of it the rise of
Renaissance art began to exert a decided influence, especially on
details and internal furnishings, and in the next century gradually but
completely dominated the spirit of the art. Another influence at work
was the progress made in artillery. The ordinary castles could not
now resist artillery fire, and all attempts at making them impregnable
fortresses were abandoned, and the only fortifications retained
were such as would make the buildings safe from sudden attack. In
consequence, what had before been grim fortresses were now transformed
into country mansions, whether on the keep or on the quadrangle
plan; and sites were chosen as providing shelter from the elements
rather than defence against human foes. The Reformation, too, which
secularised the church lands and gave the lion’s share to the nobility,
was a notable influence in revolutionising architecture. The nobility
being now more wealthy were enabled either to extend their old mansions
or to build new ones. Hence the great development that took place in
the quiet reign of James VI. The effect of the Union in 1603, which
drew many of the nobility to England, was civilising and educative, and
raised their ideas of house accommodation as well as their standard of
comfort and domestic amenity.
The change was of course gradual. The old keeps and the castles built
round a courtyard were still in evidence, but picturesque turrets
corbelled out at every angle of the building, slated, and terminating
in fanciful finials, became the rule. The lower walls were kept plain,
the ornamentation being lavishly crowded only on the upper parts. The
roofs became high-pitched with picturesque chimneys, dormer windows
and crow-stepped gables. All these features so characteristic of the
mansion-houses of the fourth period (1542-1700) are well marked in
Craigievar, which is one of the best preserved castles of the time. Its
ground plan is of the =L= type, but the turrets
[Illustration: Craigievar Castle, Donside]
and gables are corbelled out with ornamental mouldings and the upper
part of the castle displays that profusion of sky-pointing pinnacles
and multifarious parapets which mark the period. The same is seen at
Crathes and at Castle Fraser. The last is altogether an excellent
specimen. It consists of a central oblong building with two towers
at the diagonally opposite ends, one square and the other round, and
is therefore a development into what has been called the =Z= plan or
stepped plan—induced by the general use of firearms in defence. Here,
as at Craigievar, gargoyles originally used to carry off rain water
from the roof are brought in as a piece of fanciful decoration, apart
from any utilitarian purpose, and project from the walls at places
where rain-spouts are irrelevant.
[Illustration: Crathes Castle, Kincardineshire]
The castle has a secret chamber or “lug,” in which the master of
the house could over-hear the conversation of his guests in the
dining-hall. Nothing could better illustrate the treachery and cunning
which had been bred by the difficulty of the times. Mr Skene, the
friend of Sir Walter Scott, minutely investigated this contrivance as
it exists at Castle Fraser, and no doubt his account of this ingenious
but dishonourable device for gaining illicit information suggested King
James’s “Lug,” so happily described in _The Fortunes of Nigel_.
[Illustration: Castle Fraser]
Castellated buildings of this class are so numerous in Aberdeenshire
that it is possible to name only a few. One of the finest is Fyvie
Castle on the banks of the upper reaches of the Ythan in the very
centre of the county. It is not like many others a ruin, but a
mansion-house modernised in many respects, but still retaining all
the picturesque features of the olden time. It occupies two sides of
a quadrangle, with the principal front towards the south, one side
being 147, the other 137 feet in frontage. At the three corners are
massive square towers, with angle turrets and crow-stepped gables.
Besides these towers, there are in the centre of the south front two
other projecting towers, which at 42 feet from the ground are bridged
by a connecting arch, eleven feet wide, the whole forming a grand and
most impressive mass of masonry called the “Seton” tower, a magnificent
centre to what is perhaps the most imposing front of any domestic
edifice in Scotland. At the south-east corner is the “Preston” tower,
built by Sir Henry Preston, and the earliest part of the building,
dating from the fourteenth century. In the south-west stands the
“Meldrum” tower, so-called from the succeeding proprietors (1440-1596).
They erected this part and the whole range of the south front except
the “Seton” tower already referred to, which is a later addition. The
Setons succeeded the Meldrums and it is to Alexander Seton, Lord Fyvie
and Earl of Dunfermline, that the castle owes its greatest splendours.
Besides planning this tower, he ornamented the others with their
turreted and ornate details. He also built the great staircase, which
is a triumph of architectural skill. It is a wheel or newel staircase
of grand proportions, skilfully planned and as skilfully executed.
[Illustration: Fyvie Castle, South Front]
The Gordon tower on the west was not added till the eighteenth century,
by William, second son of the second Earl of Aberdeen. Its erection
necessitated the destruction of the chapel. Here one may see how the
Renaissance ideas were creeping in, especially the desire for balance
and symmetry. Two of everything was beginning to be the rule. One wing
must have another to balance with it; one tower another to make a pair.
20. Architecture—(_c_) Municipal.
After a period of declining taste in architecture, a revival began
early in the nineteenth century under the guidance of architects of
genius such as Archibald Simpson and John and William Smith. A great
improvement was thereby effected in the general aspect of the city
of Aberdeen, and their good work has been enhanced by that of their
successors. It is necessary to repeat that it was long before the local
granite came to its own. The earlier buildings of importance were
all of sandstone; to-day he would be a bold architect who suggested
a sandstone building in Aberdeen. The use of granite exercises an
indirect effect on architectural design. It lends itself to broad,
classic, monumental and dignified effects, while its stubborn quality
is a check against over-exuberance of detail, and fanciful, gimcrack
trivialities. The plainness of the buildings was often remarked upon
by strangers twenty years ago. The newer buildings are not without
adornment.
The County and Municipal Buildings (or the Town-House as it is
familiarly called) on the south side of Castle Street were opened in
1870. They form a magnificent pile which takes a high place amongst
provincial town-halls, as regards both vigour and originality of
treatment. The line of elliptical arches on the ground floor and of
small arcaded windows in the floor above make an imposing front. The
great tower, which rises to a height of 200 feet and dominates the
whole city, has the castellated turrets which we have seen to be
characteristic of Scottish architecture. It is curious to see how
latter-day architects have not been able to get away from this feature.
It is conspicuous even in such buildings as the Grammar School and the
new Post Office. The Municipal tower, if somewhat heavy-looking, is
on the whole effective. The small tower and spire on the east is the
old Tolbooth tower, of the seventeenth century, preserved by being
incorporated in the modern building.
[Illustration: Municipal Buildings, Aberdeen, and Town Cross]
The next public building that should be mentioned is Marischal College,
recently enlarged at a cost of nearly
[Illustration: Marischal College, Aberdeen]
£250,000. This is undoubtedly the finest piece of modern architecture
in the north of Scotland, and one of the most handsome and graceful
in the kingdom. The College at the end of the nineteenth century was
a work of the Gothic revival occupying three sides of a quadrangle,
with a tower in the centre of one side. This tower has been remodelled
and greatly heightened so that it is now a rival to the Municipal
tower in the same street. It is known as the Mitchell tower, in
compliment to the donor, the late Mr Charles Mitchell of Newcastle,
whose name is also associated with the public or graduation Hall of the
University. The old frontage of Marischal College was a desultory line
of commonplace houses, through which by a narrow gateway entrance was
gained to the quadrangle. These have all been cleared away and now a
stately pile bristling with ornate pinnacles that sparkle in the sun
fills the whole length of 400 feet.
No less impressive than the delicately chiselled front is the back
view of the College from West North Street, where a dip in the ground
displays to advantage the great mass of building, the Mitchell Hall
with its great Gothic window, its angle-turrets and lofty buttresses.
The Northern Assurance Office stands at the angle between Union Street
and Union Terrace. The clean surface and clear-cut lines of the granite
masonry are very pleasant to the eye. Union Terrace contains some of
the best modern buildings in the city—the Grand Hotel, the Aberdeen
Savings Bank, which though very simple is an admirable specimen of a
front specially designed for granite; the Offices of the Parish Council
and the School Board, original and striking, the Public Library, the
United Free South Church with its graceful dome, and His Majesty’s
Theatre—all serve to illustrate the changes that are being rung on
granite fronts in recent years.
The contrast between these more ornate buildings and the severely
classic simplicity of the Music Hall, a square block with a portico
of Ionic pillars, belonging to the early nineteenth century, shows
what a change in sentiment has taken place. The feature of all the
Aberdeen architecture is the careful, conscientious workmanship, which
always gives the impression of lasting solidity. The material is so
irresponsive that without hard labour, no effect is produced.
[Illustration: Union Terrace and Gardens, before widening of Bridge]
[Illustration: Grammar School, Aberdeen]
We can do no more than mention some of the other notable edifices
in the city. The Grammar School, erected in 1863, is a successful
application of castellated Gothic to a modern building—all the more
effective that it is well set back from the street. The contiguous Art
School and Art Gallery are modern buildings, each with an order of
columns and a pediment which break the long low line of the façade. The
elliptical arch that unites
[Illustration: Gordon’s College, Aberdeen]
them gives access to Gordon’s College, the centre portion of which is
a piece of sober eighteenth century work. The wings and colonnades
were added subsequently. The Head Office of the North of Scotland and
Town and County Bank at the top of King Street has its entrance porch
at the angle with a colonnade of pillars. Near it is the Town Cross,
a hexagonal erection with Ionic columns and a tapering shaft rising
from the centre of the roof, with a heraldic unicorn as terminal. It
dates from the end of the seventeenth century. In the panels of the
balustrade are half-length portraits of Scottish and British Kings
(including the seven Jameses). It is a fine example
[Illustration: Bridge of Don, from Balgownie]
of its class and was the work of a local mason. The royal portraits are
real and authentic. The Ionic screen or façade between Union Street and
the city churches gives some idea of the severely classic architecture
that was the vogue in Aberdeen nearly a century ago.
[Illustration: Old Bridge of Dee, Aberdeen]
A word must be said about the chief bridges. Union Bridge has a span
of 130 feet, and was built in 1802 to facilitate the making of Union
Street. It was originally narrower than the street and has recently
been widened to meet the requirements of increased traffic. The Bridge
of Don (Balgownie), probably built early in the fourteenth century if
not earlier, throws its one Gothic arch over the deep contracted stream
of the river. A small bequest in the seventeenth century for its
maintenance has been so well husbanded that out of its accumulations
the cost of the new Bridge (£17,000), and other buildings has been
defrayed, and the capital value of the fund—called the Bridge of Don
fund—is to-day £26,500. The new bridge, much nearer the sea and with
five arches, was designed by Telford and completed in 1830. The Old
Bridge of Dee (with seven arches) was founded by Bishop Elphinstone and
completed in 1527 by Bishop Gavin Dunbar. In 1842 it was widened 11-1/2
feet. The New (Victoria) Bridge, a continuation of Market Street, was
opened in 1882, since when quite a new and populous city has sprung
up on the south side of the river, entirely eclipsing the old fishing
village of Torry which formerly monopolised this side of the water.
21. Architecture—(_d_) Domestic.
The mansion-houses of the county, whether they are ancient fortalices
modernised by later additions or entirely modern buildings erected
within a century of the present time, deserve more space than can
be allotted to them here. They are of all types of architecture,
classical, renaissance, and composite, but there is no doubt that the
castellated, Scotch baronial, the traditional type so common in the
seventeenth century, still predominates.
[Illustration: Balmoral Castle]