Part 7

No mention of Deer is possible without reference to the famous _Book of Deer_—a manuscript volume of the highest value, emanating not from the Abbey but from Columba’s monastery in the same region. The book was brought to light in 1860 by the late Mr Henry Bradshaw, University Librarian at Cambridge. It had lain unrecognised in the Library since 1715. It contains the Gospel of St John and other portions of scripture in the writing of the ninth century; but of even greater importance is the fact that on its margins it contains memoranda of grants to the monastery, made by Celtic chiefs of Buchan and all written in Gaelic. These jottings are of the highest historical value.

Some traces of the Early Pointed style are found in St Machar Cathedral (the greater part of which, however, is much later). The old church of Auchindoir close to Craig Castle has a good doorway and other features of this period.

[Illustration: From _The Book of Deer_]

From the middle of the fourteenth to the middle of the fifteenth century (1350-1450) is in Scotland the _Middle Pointed Period_. The windows were made larger, the vaulting and buttresses less heavy. The Cathedral of St Machar belongs in part to this time. The legend goes that St Machar in obedience to the commands of Columba, of whom he was a disciple, journeyed to Scotland and at Old Aberdeen founded a church. This church in the twelfth century became the seat of a bishopric founded by David I. The original church was superseded probably about 1165, the only relic of this Norman period being part of the abacus of a square pier. All other traces of earlier work have vanished. In the fourteenth century Bishop Alexander Kyninmonth II rebuilt the nave, partly of red sandstone with foliated capitals of great beauty and decorated with naturalistic imitation of leafage, one capital representing curly kail (colewort). The same kind of decoration is seen in Melrose Abbey. Later on the two impressive western towers, which are to-day conspicuous objects in the eastern landscape to all travellers northward-bound from Aberdeen, were added. They form a granite mass of solid and substantial masonry, and, being finished with machicolation, parapet-paths and capehouses, were really like a castle in Early English architecture. Still later on, in the sixteenth century, Bishop Elphinstone, who founded the University of Aberdeen, who built the first Bridge of Dee, and gave a new choir to St Nicholas Church, completed the central tower and placed in it fourteen bells “tuneable and costly.” The sandstone spires over the western towers were added by Bishop Dunbar early in the sixteenth century, in place of the original capehouses. The central tower fell in 1688, crushing the transepts.

[Illustration: St Machar Cathedral, Old Aberdeen]

[Illustration: St Machar Cathedral (interior)]

In 1560 the government ordered the destruction of the altars, images and other monuments of the old faith, and this cathedral suffered with the rest. It was despoiled of all its costly ornaments and the choir was demolished. The roof was stripped of its lead and the bells were carried off. All that remains to-day is the nave (now the parish church), a south porch, the western towers and fragments of the transept walls, which contain tombs of Bishop Lichtoun, Bishop Dunbar, and others. This is the only granite cathedral in the country, and, though dating from the Middle and late Pointed periods, has reminiscences of the Norman style in its short, massive cylindrical pillars and plain unadorned clerestory windows. Another feature is the great western window divided by six long shafts of stone. The finely carved pulpit now in the Chapel of King’s College is a relic of the wood-carvings destroyed in 1649. The whole is extremely plain but highly impressive and imposing. Its flat panelled oak ceiling decorated with heraldic shields of various European kings, Pope Leo X, and Scottish ecclesiastics and nobility (48 in all) is worthy of mention. This heraldic ceiling was restored in 1868-71.

[Illustration: King’s College, Aberdeen University]

Of later date is King’s College Chapel, at no great distance from the Old Cathedral. It is a long, narrow but handsome building begun in 1500, shortly after the foundation of the University by Bishop Elphinstone. The chapel and its graceful tower are the oldest parts of the College buildings which had originally three towers.

[Illustration: East and West Churches, Aberdeen]

The surviving one is a massive structure buttressed nearly to the 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]