DOUNE CASTLE 271 



were added, evidence of a growing desire for refine- 

 ment, and of a revival from the extreme poverty of 

 the fourteenth century, when the national exchequer 

 and private resources had been drained to the 

 lowest ebb, in the long struggle for Independence. 

 Still, one is struck, even in a pile of the importance 

 of Doune, by the vast inferiority of the workman- 

 ship, whether constructive or decorative, applied to 

 Scottish domestic architecture of this date, to the 

 magnificence of design and excellence of handiwork 

 shown in contemporary ecclesiastical buildings. 



Doune Castle was never finished ; probably the 

 works were interrupted by the execution of the un- 

 lucky Murdoch; still, the green promontory between 

 the confluent streams of Teith and Ardoch bears a 

 noble mass of masonry, enough to show the scale 

 of the original design. Some of the rooms are of 

 noble proportions. The common hall in the keep 

 measures forty-four feet by twenty-six; but the 

 banqueting-hall in the west wing, entered from 

 the courtyard by an outside staircase, is sixty-eight 

 feet long by twenty-seven wide, and once had an 

 ornamental open roof. It was constructed with an 

 eye to business as well as to beauty, for there is a 

 serving-room handy, communicating with the great 



