CRAIGSTON CASTLE. THIS broad square mass of building has some features in common with Fyvie, from which it is but a few miles distant. The high deep arch joining the two towers, or wings, is one of these points of resemblance; but, in the general outline, Craigston wants the multitudinously spiral summit which gives so light and rich a character to its neighbour, and is conspicuous for a massive plainness of outline, which appears to have been a prevailing aim with the architect, as he had laid in the corbels of square turrets at the corners, but appears to have changed his mind, abstaining from conferring on the building the light aërial effect of these terminations. Though thus severe in its outline, however, the edifice is not unadorned. Over the top of the arch, and from the one tower to the other, stretches a border of grotesque statuary. "The inside of the castle is remarkable for a spacious hall, now converted into a handsome drawing-room, containing numerous specimens of curiously carved oak paneling, of the same age as the building, and the remains of its original decoration. These present the effigies of a very miscellaneous assemblage of heroes, kings, cardinal virtues, and evangelists. Among others, one room contains the sovereigns of the Stuart family down to James VI.; and another, the carved likeness of Prince Henry, the heir to the crown when the castle was erected; also of his brother Prince Charles, both being represented as children. Among the pictures in the castle are three by Jamieson; of these, one is a portrait of General David Leslie; another, that of William Forbes, Bishop of Edinburgh; and the third, that of Sir Alexander Fraser of Philorth. There are also portraits of the last four members of the family of Stuart, namely, James, Prince of Wales, and his princess Clementina Sobieski, with their sons, the Prince Charles Edward, and Henry, Cardinal of York; these, with full-length pictures of the last Earl Marischal, and of Captain John Urquhart of Cromarty and Craigston, are originals, and painted about the year 1735, by Francesco Trevisani, an eminent portrait-painter of Rome." 11 The domain of Craigston appears to have belonged of old to the family of Craig, from which Sir Thomas Craig, the celebrated feudal lawyer, was descended.† Of the building of the castle there is a very distinct account cut in a stone in front, in the following terms: "This vark fovndit ye fourtene of March ane thousand sex hounder four zeiris, and ended ye 8 of Decemb1 1607." Before this event, the estate appears to have passed from the family of Craig to a cadet of that of Urquhart of Cromarty. It appears to have been erected by the same John Urquhart, to whom Arthur Johnstone dedicated the following epitaph: "Occidit Urchardus, quo nemo beatior, ævi Jam fatur, et famulas quas sibi fecit, opum. The proprietor of Craigston, at the time when the castle was built, is frequently mentioned in local history as "The Tutor of Cromarty." So complete a supremacy attached to the * Hay's Castellated Architecture of Aberdeenshire, 100, 102. Tytler's Life of Craig, p. 2. Collections on the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, p. 481. Delitiæ Poet. Scot. i. 618. CRAIGSTON CASTLE, 1-2. |