Historic Houses of the United Kingdom; Descriptive, Historical, Pictorial (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892 edition. Excerpt: ...the notorious Simon, Lord Lovat, found shelter after the Rebellion of 1745. Access to this is obtained from the wing which connects the tower with the outer envelope of buildings. Over the entrance-staircase is a vaulted chamber, in which is kept the rich collection of charters and other papers of the Cawdor family. Above it, under the rafters, is a small room with a window near the floor, and reached only by a kind of man-hole, a passage along the outer gutters, and a stone staircase ascending the slope of the roof; and to this singular place of concealment Lovat is said to have retreated when the search for him grew hot after Culloden, returning again to the lower apartments as soon as pursuit drew off. The great western wing, extending for 220 feet along the margin of the stream, and rising to a height of three storeys, flanked by turrets and gables, ranks next to the Tower of Cawdor in point of age. The Thane's Kitchen suffered descent from the attics of the keep to the basement of this wing. It is a long, low, crypt-like chamber, with an uneven floor partly formed of the solid rock; and the strong lights and shadows from its range of deeply recessed windows, falling on vaulted walls and kitchen ware, would have delighted an old Dutch etcher. The Morning Room ahove is hung with fine Dutch and Gobelins tapestries, the latter containing almost life-size figures, representing the adventures of Don Quixote; and it has a beautiful modern carved mantel-piece decorated with the Cawdor and allied arms. Much more noteworthy is the mantel-piece of another tapestried and wainscoted chamber--the adjoining Dining Room. Among the grotesque figures in this ancient piece of sculpture is one which has been a sore puzzle to archaeologists, for it represents a...