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The
architecture of Heriot's Hospital is a delightful mixture of Gothic,
neo-classical,  and
English domestic work. A notable feature of the Old Building is the
strong definition of the successive storeys by prominent string courses.
This is in the true Scottish fashion and has a parallel in Winton
House - an earlier work of William Aytoun.
The
four corner towers finish in a flat roof with protecting parapets
ornamented and pierced at intervals. Originally, Aytoun had built
the south-west tower with a pavilion turret, and the south-east quarter
had not been finished. In 1692, determined to complete the building
in a uniform and regular fashion, the Governors had the south-east
and south-west towers replaced with  platform
roofs similar to those on the north-east and north-west towers.
At
each external angle of the corner towers a small circular false turret
carried out on the corbelling breaks the abrupt skyline of the flat
roof. The chimneys command attention: these tall separate stacks are
English in origin. As originally built, the grouped octagonal chimneys
rose from bases in the form of gablets, with two plain astragals near
the top, between which, and on the hollow of the fluting, are alternately
placed the Rose and Star taken from the crest of the Heriot family.
On
the north front the wallhead has been raised so as to absorb or seal
up these gablets, but towards the Quadrangle the original arrangement
remains unimpaired. The roofs on the east, south and west sides are
sloping, while that on the north  side
is flat. Originally it was sloping too, but this was changed in the
1640s.
When
the Governors appointed William Wallace their Master Mason early in
1628 he was at the peak of his profession. He was renowned as a skilful
carver and had already many major commissions in Scotland to his credit.
The work shows Wallace, whose mason's mark was a X with a heart by the top right arm,
to have been a leading exponent of a vigorous Anglo-Flemish style
of decoration with elaborate strap work pediments, convex cornices,
panelled pilasters and the richly fluted chimneys that form such prominent
elements in the Heriot's design. It is here on the north side that
we see most markedly the influence of this style. Wallace died suddenly
in 1631. A new contract for the building was drawn up by the Governors
in December of that year, with William Aytoun as Wallace's successor.
This was an obvious choice, as Aytoun had been trained by Wallace
and had assisted him in other projects. It was Aytoun who brought
the building to a state of near completion before his death in the
late 1640's.
The
completion of the gateway tower on the north face took some years.
In December 1644 the Governors  drew
up a contract with William Aytoun to add 22 feet to the height of
the tower, with two great windows on each side, but this work was
not carried out.
The
Hospital minutes for 3rd May 1675 indicate that the master mason Robert
Mylne, nephew of John Mylne, was "to think on a drawing" to complete
the Tower and report back to the Governors. Nothing was done for another
eighteen years but on 6th March 1693 Robert Mylne did present drawings,
which he agreed to build for 3,100 merks. This
was done, and to this day the octagonal cupola with shell niches and
a stone dome dominates the north face of the building.
The
Renaissance features seen in the rich classical details of the doors
and windows are elements grafted on to the main stem of Scottish native
architecture. Much of the applied decoration and other enrichment
on the pediments has its origin in the work of Flemish and Low German
masons.
Here,
then, we have a real synthesis of styles such as the Scottish master
masons were working out for themselves in the generation that followed
the Union of the Crowns.
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