KING’S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. I49
which had been broken away. We furnish an engraving of this apartment also, in the
dilapidated state in which it existed in its latter days, with the large fireplace concealed,
all but one clustered pillar, by a wooden partition.’ This apartment had also been finished
with highly carved ornamental work, considerable portions of which had only been
removed a few years previous to the entire destruction of the whole building. One
beautiful fragment of this, which we have seen, consists of a series of oak panellings,
about eight feet high, divided into four compartments by five terminal figures in high relief,
and the panels all richly finished in different patterns of arabesque ornament of the
finest workmanship. The demolition of this house. in 1845 brought to light a curious
small concealed chamber on the first floor, lighted by a very narrow aperture looking
into Nairn’s Close. The entrance to it had been by a movable panel in the room just
described, affording access to a narrow flight of steps, ingeniously wound round the wall of
a turnpike stair, and thereby effectually preventing any suspicion being excited by the
appearance it made. The existence of this mysterious chamber was altogether unknown to
the inhabitants, and all traditiou had been lost as to the ancient occupants to whom it
doubtless afforded refuge.
Another apartment in this portion of the house, on the same flat with the fine Gothic
fireplace described above, was called the Queen’s Dead Room, where the noble occupants
of the mansion were said to have lain in state, ere their removal to their final resting-place.
The room had formerly been painted black, to adapt it to the gloomy purpose for which
it was set apart, and the more recent coats of whitewash it had received very imperfectly
veiled its lugubrious aspect. The style of the fittings of this room, however, and indeed of
the greater portion of the building, was evidently long posterior to the date of erection, and
the panel over the mantelpiece was filled with a landscape, painted in the manner of Old
Norie. The inhabitant of this part of the house, when we last visited it, was a respectable
old lady, who kept her share of the Palace in a remarkably clean and comfortable condition,
and took great pride in pointing out its features to strangers. She professed an intimate
knowledge of the original uses of the several portions of the house, and showed a comfortable-
looking room on the first floor, commanding a very fine view to the north, which
she called the Queen’s bedroom. Two round arched or waggon-shaped ceilings were
brought to view in the progress of demolition, richly decorated with painted devices, in a
style corresponding with the date of erection, and both concealed by flat, modern, plaster
ceilings constructed below them. One of these, situated immediately above what was styled
the Queen’s bedroom, had been lighted by windows ranged along each side of the arched
roof, and in its original state must have formed a lofty and very elegant room. The roof,
which was of wood, was painted in rich arabesques and graceful designs offlowers, fruit,
leaves, &c., surrounding panels with inscriptions in Gothic letters. On one portion all that
could be made out was, ge arbbili$ OF tt aigfitfob& On another was perfectly
dehed the following metrical legend :-
e
1 These remains are mentioned in Chambers‘s Traditions, with thin addition-‘#At the right-hand side is a pillar in
the wme htg on the top of which there formerly, and till within theae-few years, etood the statue of a saint presiding
over the font.” The author had doubtless been misled in this by the traditions of the neighbourhood, and the appearance
of the jamb of the ancient fireplace partially exposed. We may remark that, except where it appears absolutely
necessary for preventing confusion or error, we have avoided directing attention to those points on which we differ from
previous writers.
