east-lothian-1924/05-189

Transcription

PRESTONPANS.] -- INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS IN EAST LOTHIAN. -- [PRESTONPANS.

block and about 4 feet thick in the wing, are
built of a soft reddish sandstone with grey
dressings in 14 inch courses of stones 18 inches
long, but the lower portion of the south wall,
where a softer stone has been used, is much
eroded.
The body of the building is 67 feet high and
contains six storeys, while the jamb contains
seven. The upper storeys, which rise 21 feet
above and within a parapet walk, which returns
round the building except at the north wall
of the shorter wing, are an addition of the
early 17th century, built in a lighter coloured
stone and exhibit Renaissance mouldings on

[illustration inserted]
FIG. 151.-Preston Tower (No. 156).

the jambs and entablatures of the windows.
The remaining semicircular pediments of the
uppermost windows bear the following initials.
On the south side the initials S.I.H. are for
Sir John Hamilton (1565-1644), and on the next
a monogram which may be read S.I.D.K.H.
apparently represents Sir John Hamilton and
his second wife Dame Katherine Howieson.
Their married life covered the years 1620-9,
and it is said that below the monogram was
the date 1626, of which only the first two
figures now remain.1 A painted heraldic panel
of wood, with round arch and fluted column
decoration, which came from the old church of
Prestonpans but is now in private ownership,
bears the same initials (cf. Proc. Soc. Ant.
Scot. vol. 26, pp. 241-50). Thus we get name
and date for the builder of this upper portion

101

of the tower. Of the eastern pediments one
has its initials reduced to the letters S.T., and
what may be the lower part of an H., while on
the other survivor are the initials D.R.B.,
which seem to have been recut. The latter
probably stand for Dame Rachael Burnet third
wife of Sir Thomas Hamilton (1618-c.1672)
and sister of Bishop Burnet, so that the other
initials were apparently those of Sir Thomas.
We should thus have a record of the repair
of this part after its burning in 1650 and the
novodamus charter after the Restoration (See
below). Sir Thomas married Rachael Burnet
after 1662.

[illustration continued]
FIG. 151.-Preston Tower (No. 156).

The parapet and angle rounds are contem-
porary with the upper storeys, but the corbelling
appears to be earlier and might date from the
16th century. The windows, where unaltered,
have a small chamfer worked on the jambs ;
the later windows have moulded jambs or
backset margins or both.
The entrances to the tower are in the east
wall and not within the re-entering angle.
A great corbel, at the level of the parapet
corbels, and a vestige of a neighbour show where
a machicolated projection served these as a
defence. The basement is entered through a
round-headed doorway, which had two doors,
the outer of timber, the inner an iron yett.
Above the lower entrance, but nearer the
south-east angle, there is a second, from which
the Hall is reached. In form it has been similar