Bute's acquisition in 1887 of the estate of Falkland, carrying with it the hereditary keepership of the ancient royal palace, gave him even more scope {221} than Mountstuart for indulging what some one once designated his "passion for stone and lime," or, as the phrase would run in England, for bricks and mortar. Falkland appealed to him not only as an architect, but as an antiquarian. The varied beauty of its sadly-dilapidated buildings, and the long and romantic story of the palace and its occupants, were to him of equally absorbing interest. He spared neither time nor money in his work of restoring the historic pile to something of its ancient grandeur; and it was said that for a number of years he devoted the whole available income of the estate to his building operations at the palace. The corridors and floors were laid with oak and teak; many of the rooms were elaborately panelled in oak, and their ceilings emblazoned with heraldic and other devices; while in the Chapel Royal, the royal pew and ancient pulpit, and the magnificent oaken screen, were completely and carefully restored.[6] Besides the costly interior work, mostly in the main or southern block, Bute executed much judicious excavation in and about the palace; and it was a great satisfaction to him to discover in the garden the foundations of the great twelfth-century round tower, dating from the time when Falkland was in the possession of the Earls of Fife. Another interesting work was the restoration of the old royal tennis-court, which Bute was accustomed to say had been, he believed, last used for play in the reign of James V., the father of Mary Queen of Scots. {222} Mention has already been made of Bute's purchase of the site and remains of the Augustinian priory of St. Andrews, where he did a great deal of careful excavation and made many valuable discoveries. At Elgin, too, as has been seen, he was able to acquire the interesting old monastery and church of the Greyfriars; and it was a particular happiness to him, as it has been also to his youngest son, who inherited his property in the county of Elgin, that this unpretending sanctuary--now a convent of Sisters of Mercy--should have been once again, after more than three centuries, made available for the religious worship to which it was originally dedicated. [Sidenote: 1899, Catholicity of taste]