The castle has a secret chamber or “lug,” in which the master of the house could over-hear the conversation of his guests in the dining-hall. Nothing could better illustrate the treachery and cunning which had been bred by the difficulty of the times. Mr Skene, the friend of Sir Walter Scott, minutely investigated this contrivance as it exists at Castle Fraser, and no doubt his account of this ingenious but dishonourable device for gaining illicit information suggested King James’s “Lug,” so happily described in _The Fortunes of Nigel_. [Illustration: Castle Fraser] Castellated buildings of this class are so numerous in Aberdeenshire that it is possible to name only a few. One of the finest is Fyvie Castle on the banks of the upper reaches of the Ythan in the very centre of the county. It is not like many others a ruin, but a mansion-house modernised in many respects, but still retaining all the picturesque features of the olden time. It occupies two sides of a quadrangle, with the principal front towards the south, one side being 147, the other 137 feet in frontage. At the three corners are massive square towers, with angle turrets and crow-stepped gables. Besides these towers, there are in the centre of the south front two other projecting towers, which at 42 feet from the ground are bridged by a connecting arch, eleven feet wide, the whole forming a grand and most impressive mass of masonry called the “Seton” tower, a magnificent centre to what is perhaps the most imposing front of any domestic edifice in Scotland. At the south-east corner is the “Preston” tower, built by Sir Henry Preston, and the earliest part of the building, dating from the fourteenth century. In the south-west stands the “Meldrum” tower, so-called from the succeeding proprietors (1440-1596). They erected this part and the whole range of the south front except the “Seton” tower already referred to, which is a later addition. The Setons succeeded the Meldrums and it is to Alexander Seton, Lord Fyvie and Earl of Dunfermline, that the castle owes its greatest splendours. Besides planning this tower, he ornamented the others with their turreted and ornate details. He also built the great staircase, which is a triumph of architectural skill. It is a wheel or newel staircase of grand proportions, skilfully planned and as skilfully executed. [Illustration: Fyvie Castle, South Front] The Gordon tower on the west was not added till the eighteenth century, by William, second son of the second Earl of Aberdeen. Its erection necessitated the destruction of the chapel. Here one may see how the Renaissance ideas were creeping in, especially the desire for balance and symmetry. Two of everything was beginning to be the rule. One wing must have another to balance with it; one tower another to make a pair. 20. Architecture—(_c_) Municipal.