Transactions. 137 
by two semi-circular stone stairs, which evidently form ‘the front 
stair” mentioned in the letter of 28th December, because in the 
draft the word ‘‘ front ” is interlined, and immediately after the 
word “stair” the words ‘“‘upon the front of the house” are 
deleted, and this was therefore the stair up which, according to 
Mr Fergusson’s statement, the Highlanders ‘made a shift” to 
get their horses. The main door opens off the above-mentioned 
terrace into a corridor, which originally communicated with the 
inner court by several arches which have now been filled in with 
glass. Over this corridor was a large apartment originally used 
as a picture gallery, and I therefore fix upon the corridor as the 
place ‘‘under the gallery ” where the Highlanders stabled their 
horses after getting them up the front stair. The court is now 
partly occupied by a chapel, but originally it was quite open, 
and there was a large doorway on the opposite side from the front 
door entering into an apartment, from the other side of which 
access was obtained to the garden by a stone staircase. This 
apartment, I think, is the “vestibule” where the sheep were 
killed, because there was originally adjoining it a large staircase 
which led to a fine apartment on the next floor, now used as a 
drawing-room, but which was then probably the main banqueting 
hall. It is rather dificult to determine what was the “low 
dining-room ” mentioned by Mr Fergusson, but it was probably 
the room to the west of this staircase, which had originally direct 
communication with the kitchens. The space occupied by this 
staircase has now been formed into a service-room, and the 
vestibule and a room to the east have now been thrown together 
and form the dining-room, and a room still further to the east is 
now occupied by the present main staircase. The basement 
storey is occupied by the kitchen premises and servants’ apart- 
ments, and there is access from it to all parts of the house by 
four circular stairs, which ascend at each of the four corners of 
the inner court. The stair at the south-west angle formed the 
access from the kitchens to the room which I have indicated as 
the low dining-room, but the doorway between that room and the 
stair has now been built up. With regard to the pictures at 
Drumlanrig, there is a tradition that the Highlanders cut the 
portraits of King William, Queen Mary, and Queen Anne with 
their swords and dirks, and certainly these pictures do bear 
evidence of some slight ill-treatment of this kind, but it is curious 
that in his letters Mr Fergusson does not mention this fact (if, 
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