CARNOCK 



portant innovation and improvement, all provisions having 

 been previously cooked in the hall or in the open air. But 

 in the seventeenth century people have become so refined that 

 the kitchen, with what was formerly considered its sweet per- 

 fumery, must be banished out of doors. The domestics are 

 now quite separated from the hall, while the proprietor and 

 his family, no longer huddled up in one room, enjoy the 

 delights of the modern dining-room and drawing-room, private 

 sitting-rooms and bedrooms, all provided with separate doors." 1 



Those who sigh for the good old times and repine 

 because their lot was not cast "in days of old when 

 knights were bold/' may incline to think that the 

 domestic discomfort of a sixteenth century Scottish 

 mansion is exaggerated in the passage above-quoted. 

 They may agree that the knight and his family 

 dined at the same table with the servants ; what 

 could be more picturesque and in keeping with 

 feudal custom? But surely the lady had her bower, 

 where she worked embroidery with her maidens, 

 while a pretty page or sadly attired clerk read 

 aloud some romaunt of chivalry say the stirring 

 adventures of Ferambras and Oliver or the story 

 of Sir Eglamour of Artois. She would also have 

 her parterres, spending much of her time in tending 

 her favourite flowers. Alas ! if you would learn the 

 naked truth from an eye-witness, hear how Fynes 

 Moryson described his entertainment in a Scottish 

 country house of the seventeenth century. 



"My self was at a Knight's house, who had many servants 

 to attend him, that brought in his meate with their heads 



1 Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, ii. 496. 



157 



