MORAY HOUSE 535 FOURTH PERIOD are similar in their style of decoration to many other plaster ceilings throughout the country executed about the end of the sixteenth, and during the seventeenth centuries, but differ from most in their vaulted form. A fine view of the one towards the Canongate is given by Billings, but he shows the knobs at the points of the arches as being round instead of square ; he also shows a cornice quite different from the existing one, which however we understand is modern. It will be FIG. 957. Moray House. Top of Staircase. observed that the panel ribs or styles in the one room are of consider- able width, with running ornaments in addition to the ornaments in the compartments, while the other room has narrow ribs, and is orna- mented in the compartments only. This arrangement is quite charac- teristic of the period, as may be observed at Wintoun and other places, where more than one room has decorated plaster ceilings.
