Scottish Architecture from the Reformation to the Restoration, 1560-1660.

Deborah Howard is the author of this volume, the second in a series (edited by her and Charles McKean) devoted to the architectural history of Scotland. As the author admits of these hundred years, 'the first 20 years and the last 20 years ... receive relatively little attention'. We are left, however, with a crucial 60 years divided by the transfer of the Scottish court to London in 1603.

The book is serious, scholarly (there are no less than 38 pages of footnotes and bibliography), methodical and, above all, nationalistic in outlook. This period of architectural history is set within the general culture of the European Renaissance and the arguments for a distinct Scottish contribution are made with conviction. The links to Holland, Denmark, Italy and France are traced with great fervour: those with England are generally taken for granted.

Of all the buildings analysed, the tower houses of the north-east of Scotland represent the architectural high-water mark of the post-1603 period. Howard reduces the impact of these wonderfully dramatic buildings by eschewing analyses of complete buildings and their contents in favour of a step-by-step progress through 'approach, defence, roof-top display, geometry and form, plan, symmetry, entry, ground-floor accommodation, the staircase, the great hall, the apartment, the gallery, oriel windows, ceilings' and so on, citing examples under each heading. The result is systematic and full of information but rather dull to read.

Much of the other architecture surveyed by Howard is, by European standards, plain and unostentatious. It is this quality that she describes so well. The Royal building projects before and after 1603, the houses and public buildings of the Scottish Burghs, the churches and their monuments all possess that fatness for purpose and seriousness which is often mistaken for dourness by the English. MALCOLM HIGGS

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