192 CAWDOR CASTLE 



bell, son of the second Earl of Argyll. Fourth in 

 descent from these came John Campbell of Cawdor, a 

 lunatic, to whom his brother Colin was appointed tutor- 

 at-law, to administer the estates. 



This Colin, having determined to build a large 

 addition to the castle, set about it in a very amateurish 

 way, employing no regular architect, and working 

 without any regular plan. The contract made in 

 October 1639 with the brothers Nicholson, ' meassounes ' 

 (masons) in Nairn, is refreshingly vague: they are to 

 ' bvild upe and ovtred (clear out) the entrie yet 

 (entrance gate) just vpone the lewelling of the rest of 

 the sydwallis (side walls), withe ane licht (window) to 

 the east and ane tother licht quher the saidis meas- 

 sounes can best haue the samen.' But it was stipulated 

 that ' the armes, names, and siferis (cyphers) vpone the 

 windocks (windows) sal be weill and sufficientlie wrocht 

 to the said Coleine Campbell, his contentment.' 



Colin's confidence in the ' meassounes ' was not mis- 

 placed : the work is rough, but substantial ; the general 

 effect is very grand; and the 'entrie yet,' where the 

 drawbridge still swings between two circular towers, is 

 so fine that one is tempted to wish for the removal of 

 four huge wych elms that have been allowed to grow up 

 in the moat, obscuring the view of the north face of the 

 building. Colin's son, Sir Hugh, succeeded his uncle 

 the lunatic, and built the south part of the edifice as 

 it now stands, and as it appears in Billings's well-known 

 engraving. This Thane was an industrious correspon- 

 dent, and some of his letters contain vivid pictures of 



