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Title: A picture of Stirling
a series of eight views
Author: Robert Chambers
Engraver: John Gellatly
Illustrator: A. S. Masson
Release date: January 27, 2026 [eBook #77794]
Language: English
Original publication: Edinburgh: John Hewit, 1830
Credits: Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PICTURE OF STIRLING ***
[Illustration:
A
PICTURE OF
STIRLING
A series of
Eight Views
_Drawn by_
ANDREW S. MASSON.
Engraved by
JOHN GELLATLY.
A. S. Masson Del^t. J. Gellatly Sculp^t.
STIRLING BRIDGE.]
STIRLING.
Published by John Hewit. Bookseller.
John Anderson Jun^r. 55 North Bridge. William Hunter 23 South Hanover Street.
and J. Gellatly West Register Street.
EDINBURGH.
1830.
* * * * *
PICTURE OF STIRLING:
A SERIES OF
EIGHT VIEWS,
ENGRAVED BY JOHN GELLATLY,
FROM
DRAWINGS BY ANDREW S. MASSON;
WITH
Historical and Descriptive Notices,
BY ROBERT CHAMBERS,
_AUTHOR OF “THE PICTURE OF SCOTLAND.”_
STIRLING:
PUBLISHED BY JOHN HEWIT, BOOKSELLER;
JOHN ANDERSON, JUN., 55. NORTH BRIDGE STREET;
WILLIAM HUNTER, 23. SOUTH HANOVER STREET; AND
JOHN GELLATLY, WEST REGISTER STREET,
EDINBURGH.
M.D.CCC.XXX.
* * * * *
JOHNSTONE, PRINTER,
104. HIGH STREET, EDINBURGH.
* * * * *
[Illustration:
_PLATE. I._
A. S. Masson Del^t. J. Gellatly Sculp^t.
VIEW OF STIRLING
FROM the FORTH.]
GENERAL ACCOUNT
OF
STIRLING.
_PLATE I._
STIRLING, the capital of the county of the same name, the seat of a
presbytery, and one of the oldest royal burghs in Scotland, is a town
of about nine thousand inhabitants, situated upon an eminence near
the river Forth, thirty-five miles north-west of Edinburgh, and about
twenty-seven north-east of Glasgow. It is in 56 degrees 12 minutes
north latitude, and 3 degrees 50 minutes west longitude from London.
It is a place little noted for manufacture or commerce, although not
altogether destitute of these advantages, the weaving of carpets,
of tartans, and of cotton goods, having long flourished in it to a
considerable extent, and the Forth being navigable up to the town for
vessels of small burden. It is chiefly for its antiquities and the
interesting historical associations connected with them, together with
the singularly delightful circumstances of its situation, that Stirling
is remarkable, in the eyes of either the native of Scotland or the
foreign tourist.
_First_, as to Situation. It occupies a central place in the southern
moiety of Scotland, where the rivers Forth and Clyde contract the
country into a narrow isthmus, the greater part of which is rendered
impassable by a barrier of mountains, and which the Romans at one
time completely fortified by a ditch and wall. Situated, with its
castle, on a hill overlooking the only place where the mountains and
river permitted this isthmus to be traversed, Stirling was, at an
early time, a place of such importance as to be dignified with the
epithet of ‘the Key of the Highlands,’ implying that it could open or
obstruct the passage to that region at its pleasure. For this reason,
the neighbourhood of the town abounds in fields of strife; at least
a dozen, some of them the most remarkable in Scottish history, being
pointed out from the walls of the castle. It used to be remarked
of Stirling, that it was the only place in Scotland which could be
approached, in any thing like a direct line, from any other part
of the country, _without crossing an arm of the sea_; a fact which
will be made plain to the reader by a glance at a map of Scotland,
where he will not fail to observe, that all the principal roads of
a longitudinal direction, have a confluence at Stirling, parting
off at no great distance in all other directions. But, perhaps, the
importance which the town formerly derived from this circumstance,
could not be better illustrated than by a reference to the events of
the insurrection of 1715, the whole of which turned upon the successful
defence of the bridge by the Duke of Argyll; who thus, with only about
fifteen hundred men, prevented an army, supposed, at one time, to have
numbered ten thousand, from descending upon the low country.
Stirling enjoys the distinction, in local antiquities (which Edinburgh
does not) of having been a Roman station. It is situated about ten
miles to the north of the wall which Lollius Urbicus, the lieutenant
of Antoninus, built between the firths of Forth and Clyde, to restrain
the remoter barbarians; and the vestiges of a road of incursion, or
military causeway, which the Romans afterwards led north by Ardoch,
have been discovered in such a direction on both sides of the town,
as to prove that the castle was upon its line. On the south side of
the town, in particular, near the village of Newhouse, traces of this
road were distinctly seen not many years ago, in improving a piece of
marshy ground in the field called Clifford Park, immediately behind the
house of the proprietor. At the conclusion of the seventeenth century,
a stone near the castle bore this inscription: ‘_IN EXCU. AGIT. LEG.
II._,’ which being extended into ‘_In excubias agitantes legionis
secundæ_,’ means, that the soldiers of the second legion there held
nightly and daily watch. (1)[A]
[A] The figures refer to Notes at the end.
During the middle ages, when this country, like the Saxon heptarchy,
was divided among various small parcels of people, Stirling was upon
the confines of the Scottish empire on the south, and of the British
on the north; that is to say, the predecessors of the present royal
family of Britain were at the head of a tribe of Scots occupying the
country north from this, while the three nations of provincial or
Romanized Britons or Bretts, occupied various longitudinal stripes of
what is now called the south of Scotland, and the north of England,
having the Forth for their boundary. This fact seems to be alluded to
by the insignia which figure on the obverse of the ancient seal of the
corporation of Stirling—a bridge, with a crucifix in the centre of it,
men armed with bows on the one side of the bridge, and men armed with
spears on the other, and the legend, _Hic armis Bruti et Scoti stant
hac cruce tutt_. While thus placed in command of a pass between the
countries of two or three different savage nations, each of which was
disposed to aggress upon the other, it may be supposed, notwithstanding
the peaceful announcement darkly insinuated by this legend, that the
bridge and fields of Stirling were often drenched with native blood.
Stirling seems to have been made a royal burgh, some time after the
Scottish sovereign, Malcolm the Second, pushed his empire across the
Forth, in the early part of the eleventh century. In 1119, less than
a hundred years after this extension of the kingdom, Alexander the
First granted the town its earliest known charter as a burgh which,
however, is only a confirmation of some one which had been granted
before. Stirling thus ranks with Edinburgh, Berwick, and Roxburgh, in a
list which Chalmers presents of the four earliest institutions of this
kind in Scotland; an association, by the way, which for some centuries
enjoyed a sort of superiority or jurisdiction over the other royal
burghs of Scotland, in the shape of a commercial Parliament, styled the
_Curia Quatuor Burgorum_, (the earlier form of the present Convention
of Scottish Burghs.) It is a circumstance strongly characteristic of
the time when Stirling procured its first known charter, that the four
royal burghs of Scotland were the appendages of the four principal
fortresses. This is proved by the fact that King William the Lion was,
in 1175, ransomed by his subjects from the English, who had taken him
prisoner, by delivering up ‘the four principal fortresses, Stirling,
Edinburgh, Roxburgh, and Berwick.’ From what different sources do the
wealth and dignity of towns now arise!
As it was the importance of its castle which caused Stirling to
become a royal burgh, so does the town seem to have been extended in
proportion to the value or use of that fortress. We have few data for
ascertaining the progress which the town has made from age to age in
size, prosperity, or population. It must have been benefited by the
establishment of the neighbouring Abbey of Cambuskenneth in 1147, and
by that of the Convent of Dominican Friars in 1233. In the reign of
Bruce, when the castle was so considerable a place that that sovereign
fought the battle of Bannockburn, mainly that he might get it into
his possession; the town could not fail to have become larger than it
was at the time of its receiving burgal honours. After the accession
of the house of Stuart, when the castle became a royal residence, its
prosperity must have received a great impulse. There is a tradition
that at one time Stirling had a keen struggle with Edinburgh, for the
honour of being pronounced the capital of the kingdom, and only lost
the object of contention by a sort of _neck heat_, the provost having
unluckily ceded the head seat, at a grand public banquet, to the
provost of Edinburgh, which was held decisive of the matter at issue.
Of course, the tradition is a vague one, and cannot be set forward as
authority; yet such an impression could only have been made upon the
popular mind, in consequence of a strong conviction, long entertained,
of the eminence of Stirling in the list of Scottish burghs. Throughout
the successive reigns of the Jameses, as they are called, the town must
have increased very considerably in wealth and trade. We can see from
the books of the royal treasurers, which are preserved in the Register
House at Edinburgh, that Stirling then possessed tradesmen and artists
of a high order, who purveyed articles of luxury to the court, such
as could not now be produced in Stirling. Without some considerable
resources, the town could never have produced citizens able to found
such hospitals as those of _Spittal_ in the reign of James V. and
_Cowan_ in the reign of Charles I. Yet, it is probable that what trade
it enjoyed in these reigns, was chiefly the result of its being the
residence of the courtiers, and of the noblemen and gentlemen of the
country around. Spottiswood the historian, characterises it, in 1585,
as a town, ‘little remarkable for merchandise.’ It had then a number
of booths or shops, formed of the vaults on which all houses were
built in those days; and what is a remarkable enough feature, all
the shop-windows were defended by stauncheons, as in some places of
Ireland at the present day. The border thieves, who accompanied the
expedition of the banished protestant lords in the year just quoted,
made but little, Spottiswood says, of the ‘_booths_;’ it was in the
stables of the nobility that they got their best prey. It was easy to
conceive, however, that at the time when the houses of the courtiers in
Broad Street were comparatively new; when the houses of the Earls of
Mar and Stirling were occupied by their respective proprietors in the
splendid style of those days; and when the buildings of the castle and
the adjacent royal gardens were in their first and best state, Stirling
must have been a very handsome town, without the assistance of shops;
but, in all probability, the town never possessed, throughout those
times of its greatest splendour, above three thousand inhabitants.
It was found, in 1755, to contain only 3951; and assuredly, when the
circumstances of the country at large are considered, the number must
have rather encreased than decreased, during the preceding hundred and
fifty years. This is rendered the more probable by the fact that, in
1792, the population had encreased to 4698, and that it is at present
supposed to be nearly double that number.
In external appearance, Stirling bears a striking resemblance, though
a miniature one, to Edinburgh; each town being built on the ridge and
sides of a hill which rises gradually from the east, and presents
an abrupt crag towards the west; and each having a principal street
on the surface of the ridge, the upper end of which opens upon the
castle. The truth is, the hills on which Edinburgh and Stirling are
situated, are evidently the peculiar result of some strange convulsion
of nature, which has suddenly projected them above a level surface. Of
the same order of hills are Arthur’s Seat, Salisbury Crags, and the
Calton Hill, near Edinburgh, and the hill of Craigforth, and the Abbey
Crag near Stirling; the whole of which present a precipice to the west,
and decline gently towards a low plain on the east. The interior and
more ancient streets of Stirling, present rather a mean appearance,
being generally long, narrow, and containing many old fashioned and
decayed houses. The High Street, however, or Broad Street, as it is
now less happily called, has long furnished an exception to this
remark, its appearance being spacious and imposing, and its houses
lofty, though, in various instances, antique. Since the commencement
of the present century, several of the other streets, such as Baker
Street, King Street, and Port Street, have been much improved, and
filled with shops, which formerly were scarcely to be seen out of the
limits of Broad Street; a very striking proof, if any were wanting,
of the prosperity of the neighbouring agricultural district, on which
Stirling, in these times, mainly depends. Every road, too, which leads
out of the town, is now lined with neat modern villas, which speak
towards the wealth and comfort of the inhabitants; many of these are
occupied by persons of fortune, or annuitants, who have retired, after
an adventurous life, to spend the conclusion of their days in their
native town. The stranger is apt to exclaim against the pavement of
the streets of Stirling, which is very uneasy and irregular; but
at the more open parts of the town, there is a flag pavement for
foot passengers. The town has been lighted of late years with a very
brilliant gas. One circumstance in its environs is much to be admired,
the prevalence of gardens and orchards, which serves to give an
inexpressibly pleasing air of comfort to the _tout ensemble_, as seen
from any point. The stranger, moreover, will scarcely fail to envy the
citizen of Stirling, for the delightful walks which are laid out for
his convenience, along the south-west side of the town, and around what
are called the Gowlan Hills. These I can safely pronounce, so far as
_prospect_ is concerned, to be _matchless in Scotland_.
Stirling has its affairs administered by a town-council, consisting of
fourteen merchants or guild brethren, and seven trades councillors or
deacons, who are all annually chosen. The office-bearers in the council
are, a provost, four bailies, a dean-of-guild, treasurer, and convener.
The present _set_, or burgal constitution, was granted by his late
Majesty, with advice of his privy council, on the 23d of May 1781. It
is characterised as one of the most _liberal_ in Scotland; but, in the
opinion of the intelligent and respectable men of all parties in the
burgh, few if any beneficial consequences have resulted from it, and it
still calls loudly for amendment.
The provost and bailies have a very extensive civil and criminal
jurisdiction, in virtue of a charter granted to the town by King
James IV., which erected the burgh into a separate sheriffship:
they had previously gratified the hereditary sheriff of the county,
for the cession of this part of his right. The jurisdiction of the
dean-of-guild has latterly been much circumscribed. His being called,
along with the bailie of the quarter, and the convener of the trades,
to inspect and report, in disputes between conterminous proprietors,
relative to their properties, is almost the only remnant of his
former authority. Anciently, the provost wore a black gown and bands;
now, his only mark of distinction is a gold chain, which is only of
modern date (2). The dean-of-guild, when installed into office in the
guild-hall, has a ribbon thrown round his neck, at which is suspended a
very ancient gold ring, set in precious stones, with the inscription,
‘Yis for ye Deine of ye Geild of Stirling.’ Of late years, the guildry
have presented him with a splendid gold chain, to which is attached a
medal, bearing the more modern arms of the town. The costume of the
town-officers or sergeants, who are four in number, is evidently very
ancient. It consists of a cocked hat, turned up with broad silver lace;
a long scarlet coat, richly decorated, and having a white button, on
which are engraved the town’s arms; scarlet breeches, buckled at the
knee; white stockings; a basket-hilted sword, and the ancient Scottish
halbard (3).
Besides its burgh court, Stirling is the seat of a sheriff, a
commissary, and a justice of peace court. The circuit court of
justiciary meets in it twice a-year; and the jury court occasionally.
It contains two churches of the establishment, one episcopalian chapel,
and five other places of worship for different orders of Christians.
Stirling is remarked by the inhabitants of neighbouring towns, to be a
place of extraordinary sanctitude. The principal sect which has parted
from the church of Scotland, since its establishment at the revolution,
began here about eighty years ago, under the auspices of the Reverend
Ebenezer Erskine, who was originally minister of what was called the
third charge of the parish of Stirling. The place of worship occupied
by this divine, after his secession from the church, continued in use
till lately, when a new one was erected behind it. It is now proposed
to erect a monument to Erskine on its site, exactly at the spot where
he was buried. The parish of Stirling comprehends the burgh, properly
so called, and all its extensive burgal domains, with the exception of
Spittal and Causewayhead (4).
STIRLING CASTLE.
_PLATE II._
THE CASTLE, to which, as already mentioned, Stirling owed its first
existence and its early prosperity, and which is still decidedly the
most important feature of the town, naturally assumes the second
place in this series of sketches. The view here presented is from
the low ground by the south-west shoulder of the town, formerly the
royal gardens; and it represents that part of the fortress, where
the rock is most precipitous and picturesque, and the buildings most
interesting. The history of this stronghold can be traced back to the
early times when the Romans here surveyed, perhaps from the bare rock,
the boundless forests which then stretched away to the north. We also
find Stirling Castle to have been a frequent object of contention among
the various minor nations which, under separate sovereignties, occupied
the central part of the British Isle, during the first ages succeeding
the retirement of the Romans from Britain. It is unnecessary, however,
to present a detail of transactions which are at once obscure and not
generally interesting. The only circumstance which seems worthy of
notice in regard to this part of the history of Stirling Castle, is,
that it seems to have then been a mere tower, like an ordinary baronial
fortalice, such being the appearance it bears on the more ancient seal
of the burgh.
[Illustration:
_PLATE. II._
A. S. Masson del^t. J. Gellatly Sculp^t.
STIRLING CASTLE.
FROM THE KINGS PARK.]
In the twelfth century, as already stated, Stirling Castle had reached
the distinction of being one of the four principal fortresses in the
kingdom. Such it continued to be during the celebrated wars which
Edward I. of England carried on for the subjugation of Scotland,
when it was frequently taken and retaken, after protracted sieges,
and under circumstances which go to prove its great strength at that
period. It was the last part of the kingdom which Bruce reduced to
his obedience; a feat which he only performed by gaining the victory
of Bannockburn. It first became a favourite royal residence about the
reign of James I., whose son, James II., was born in it, and also kept
for some time during his minority. James III. was extremely partial
to Stirling Castle; he increased the buildings by a palace, part of
which is supposed to be still extant, and by founding a Chapel-royal
within the walls. James IV. gave Stirling and Edinburgh Castles to his
queen, Margaret of England, (daughter of Henry VII.) as her jointure
houses; on which occasion, she was infeoffed in her property by the
ceremony of the Scotch and English soldiers marching in and out of the
two castles alternately—perhaps as a token of that mutual wish of peace
on the part of the two countries, from which the marriage had sprung.
James IV. frequently resided here during lent, in attendance upon the
neighbouring church of the Franciscans, where he was in the habit of
fasting and doing penance on his bare knees, for his concern in the
death of his father. The poet Dunbar writes a poem in allusion to
this circumstance, which is entitled, ‘his Dirige to the King bydand
oure lang in Stirling,’ and is to be found in Sibbald’s Chronicle
of Scottish Poetry. James V., who was born and crowned in Stirling
Castle, further adorned it by the erection of the present _Palace_. It
was also occupied by the widow of this prince, Mary of Guise, queen
regent, who erected the battery towards the east, called the French
Battery from having been built by her French auxiliaries (5). Mary,
daughter of this princess, here celebrated the baptism of her son,
afterwards James VI.; on which occasion there was a prodigious display
of courtly hospitality. James, whose baptism took place in December
1566, was removed in February 1566–7 to Edinburgh, but was soon after
sent back to Stirling, where he spent the years of his childhood till
he was thirteen years of age. The apartments which he occupied, with
his preceptor, George Buchanan, and where that learned man, in 1577–8,
wrote his History of Scotland, are still shewn in the Palace, though
now degraded into the character of a joiner’s work-shop. James did not
make Stirling the jointure-house of his queen; that honour was reserved
for Dunfermline. Here, however, he baptised his eldest son, Prince
Henry, for which purpose he built a new chapel on the site of the
old one. The fortress continued afterwards in considerable strength.
In 1651, when employed by the Scottish Estates, in the honourable
service of keeping the national registers, it was besieged and taken
by General Monk. In 1681, James, Duke of York, afterwards James II.,
visited Stirling, with his family, including the Princess, afterwards
Queen Anne. A scheme was formed, in 1689, by Lord Dundee, and other
friends of this monarch, for rescuing the Castle for his service from
the revolutionists, but in vain. In the reign of Queen Anne, its
fortifications were considerably extended, and it was declared to be
one of the four fortresses in Scotland, which were to be ever after
kept in repair, in terms of the Treaty of Union with England. Since
then, it has experienced little change in external aspect, except its
being gradually rendered more and more a barrack for the accommodation
of modern soldiers. It formed a capital _point d’appui_, as already
mentioned, for the Duke of Argyll in 1715, when he encamped his little
army in the park, and resolutely defended the passage of the Forth
against the insurgent forces under the Earl of Mar. In 1745, Prince
Charles led his Highland army across the Forth by the fords of Frew,
about six miles above Stirling; but he made no attempt upon the castle
till the succeeding year, when, in returning from England, he laid
siege to it in proper form, but was obliged to retire to the Highlands,
without being able to make any impression upon it.
Such being the chief general _memorabilia_ connected with Stirling
Castle, I shall proceed to point out the various particular objects
which successively occur to a stranger in visiting it, together with
the various historical facts connected with them individually.
The visiter first passes under two archways, which give access
through two several walls of defence, the external fortifications
of the castle. These were erected at the expence of Queen Anne, who
at the same time caused a deep fosse to be dug in front of each.
The outer fosse is passed by a draw bridge. We learn from Slezer’s
view of the castle, taken in the reign of King William, that the
external fortifications of the castle formerly consisted of two
large block-houses, or double towers, like the north-west angle of
Holyroodhouse, or the western part of Falkland Palace. These are taken
away, except the lower part of one, through which a double-doored
gate-way yet gives access to the interior court-yard. That the strength
of the castle was improved by the demolition of these block-houses, and
the erection of the two exterior walls, cannot reasonably be doubted;
but the writer of the additions to Slezer’s descriptions in the second
edition of the _Theatrum Scotiæ_, 1718, informs us that the Jacobites
believed Queen Anne to have secretly entertained a design of weakening
the castle by these operations, in order that it might the more easily
become a prey to her brother when he should make his expedition into
Britain for the recovery of his crown.
Immediately after passing the last gate-way, which was formerly
defended by a port-cullis, a battery, called the _Over_, or _Upper
Port Battery_, is found to extend to the right hand, overlooking the
beautiful plain through which the river takes its winding course, as
also the distant Highlands, and a multiplicity of other objects. The
ground on this side of the castle is not precipitous, but gradually
descends, in a series of rocky eminences called the Gowlan or Gowan
hills, towards the bridge. On the ridge of the nearest hillock, the
remains of a low rampart are still to be seen, extending in a line
exactly parallel with the battery. These are the vestigia of the works
which Prince Charles caused to be erected against the castle, in 1746.
The situation, as may be easily conceived by the spectator, was very
unfortunate. The castle, as we are informed in a print of the time,
overlooked the besiegers so completely, that the garrison could see
them down to the very buckles of their shoes. Accordingly, they were
able to kill a great number of their Celtic assailants. The Prince made
no impression whatever on the fortress.
Between the castle walls and the Highland battery, a road may be seen
leading down the hill towards the village of Raploch. This is called
the Ballangeigh road, from two words, signifying the windy pass. At the
same time, a low browed archway, passing out of the court-yard, near
the Parliament House, and which formerly was connected with a large
gateway through the exterior wall, is called the Ballangeigh Entry.
According to many distinct traditionary stories, (6) it was the custom
of King James Fifth to travel in disguise among his subjects, under the
title of the Gudeman of Ballangeigh, assuming a name from this minute
part of his property, upon the same fashion, I presume, with that
which still makes the Earl of Morton popularly known as the Gudeman of
Aberdour, and the Duke of Gordon as Gudeman of the Bog. At the bottom
of the Ballangeigh road, adjacent to the village of Raploch, there
is a house (lately rebuilt) and a small triangular park (now partly
intersected by the road leading from the village to the bridge), which
James V. gave by letters under his signet, to one John Adamson and
his wife, for the service of ‘keeping the washers’ tubs, and setting
furms, binks, and other plautery for the washers, and drying of their
clothes;’ in other words, for the service, of taking care of the tubs,
and providing all necessary articles for the washers of the King, while
washing and dressing his Majesty’s clothes at the Raploch Burn. Mary of
Guise, the widow of James, confirmed this grant by a charter, granted
by her to the descendents of Adamson and his wife, at her Castle of
Stirling in 1550, for the additional service of ‘the daily prayers to
be said by them for umquhill our deceist spouse, the Kingis grace, and
us.’ James VI. again confirmed it by a charter, granted by him, at his
Castle of Stirling in 1594. Both these charters are still extant.
The Palace of James V. has its eastern aspect towards this court-yard.
It is a quadrangular building, having three ornamented sides presented
to the view of the spectator, and a small square in the centre.
The accompanying view (_PLATE III._) represents its southern side,
being taken from the gateway under the block-house, through which
the court-yard is entered. On each of the ornamented sides of this
building, there are five or six slight recesses, in each of which a
pillar rises close to the wall, having a statue on the top. These
images are now much defaced, but enough yet remains to shew that they
had been originally, like every other part of the palace, in a very
extraordinary taste. Most of those on the eastern side are mythological
figures—apparently Omphale, Queen of Lydia, Perseus, Diana, Venus,
and so forth. On the northern side of the palace, opposite to the
chapel-royal, they are more of a this-world order. The first from
the eastern angle is unquestionably one of the royal founder, whom
it represents as a short man, dressed in a hat and frock-coat, with
a bushy beard. Above the head of this figure, an allegorical being
extends a crown with a scroll, on which are the letter I. and the
figure 5, for James V., (which are also seen above various windows of
the building,) and the Scottish lion crouches beneath his feet. Next
to the king is the statue of a young beardless man, holding a cup in
his hand, who is supposed to be the king’s cup-bearer. Besides the
principal figures, there are others springing from the wall near them;
one of which is evidently Cleopatra with the asp on her breast. The
visiter may derive a very good hour’s amusement from the inspection
of these curious relics, some of which are valuable as commemorating
costumes.
[Illustration:
_PLATE. III._
A. S. Masson Del^t. J. Gellatly Sculp^t.
PALACE
STIRLING CASTLE.]
The small square within the Palace is called the Lions’ Den, from its
having been the place, according to tradition, where the king kept his
lions. It presents nothing remarkable in appearance.
The apartments of the Palace were formerly noble alike in their
dimensions and decorations. Part of the lower flat of the northern side
was occupied by a hall or chamber of presence, the walls and ceiling
of which, previously to 1777, were adorned by a multitude of figures,
carved on oak, in low relief, and supposed, with much probability,
to represent the persons of the king, his family, and his courtiers.
The walls were stripped of these most beautiful and most interesting
ornaments in 1777, in consequence of one having fallen down and struck
a castle soldier, who was passing at the time. Fortunately, at the
very juncture when they were about to be condemned for fire-wood, an
individual of taste observed a little girl going along the castle-hill
with one in her hand, which she was carrying towards the town. Having
secured possession of it for a trifle, the individual mentioned,
immediately busied himself to collect and preserve as many of the rest
as yet remained. Strange to say, this person was no other than the
keeper of the jail of Stirling; and it was to that house of care that
he carried the beautiful carvings which he had rescued. They were kept
there for upwards of forty years, when, having attracted the attention
of the lady of General Graham, deputy-governor of the castle, drawings,
not only of these, but of others, which had found their way into the
possession of Henry Cockburn, Esq., advocate, and other individuals,
were made by her and an artist of the name of Blore, and then given
to the world, in a series of masterly engravings, published by Mr
Blackwood of Edinburgh, in an elegant volume, entitled, _Lacunar
Strevilinense_. Those which were in the jail of Stirling have now been
transferred to the justiciary court-room, adjacent to it; but they
have been much disfigured by the paint with which the civic taste has
covered them. The lofty hall which they formerly adorned is now, alas!
a mere barrack for private soldiers; but it is yet designated by the
title of _The King’s Room_.
The buildings on the western side of the square, adjoining to the
palace of James V., are of a much plainer and more antique character.
It is supposed that they are of a date antecedent to the reign of
James II.; a room being still shown, where that monarch is said to
have stabbed the Earl of Douglas. James II. was exceedingly annoyed,
through the whole of his reign, by this too powerful family of nobles,
which at one time had so nearly unsettled him from his throne, that,
in a fit of disgust, he formed the resolution of retiring to the
continent. William, Earl of Douglas, having entered into a league with
the Earls of Crawford and Ross against their sovereign, James invited
him to Stirling Castle, and endeavoured to prevail upon him to break
the treasonous contract. Tradition says, that the King led him out of
his audience-chamber (now the drawing-room of the deputy-governor of
the castle,) into a small closet close beside it, (now thrown into the
drawing-room,) and there proceeded to entreat that he would break the
league. Douglas peremptorily refusing, James at last exclaimed in rage,
‘Then, if you will not, I shall,’ and instantly plunged his dagger
into the body of the obstinate noble. According to tradition, his body
was thrown over the window of the closet into a retired court-yard
behind, and there buried; in confirmation of which, the skeleton of
an armed man was found in the ground, at that place, some years ago.
Some of the less credible chronicles of these early events affirm,
that Douglas came to Stirling upon a safe-conduct under the King’s
hand, and that his followers nailed the paper upon a large board,
which they dragged at a horse’s tail, through the streets of Stirling,
threatening at the same time to burn the town. The King’s closet, or
Douglas’ Room—for it is known by both names—is a small apartment, very
elaborately decorated in an old taste. In the centre of the ceiling
is a large star having _radii_ of iron; and around the cornices are
two inscriptions. The upper one is as follows, ‘JHS (7) _Maria salvet
rem pie pia_’—which may be thus extended, constructed, and translated,
_‘Pie Jesus, hominum salvator, pia Maria, salvete regem’—Holy
Jesus, the saviour of men, and holy Mary, save the King_. The lower
inscription is _‘Jacobus Scotor Rex’—James, King of Scots_.
[Illustration:
_PLATE. IV._
A. S. Masson Del^t. J. Gellatly Sculp^t.
PARLIAMENT HOUSE.
STIRLING CASTLE.]
The eastern side of the square, opposite to this range of ancient
buildings, is the _Parliament House_, (_PLATE IV._) a structure
erected by James III. in the Saxon style of architecture, and which
formerly had a noble appearance, though now rendered plain by the
alterations necessary for converting it into a barrack. The hall
within this building was a hundred and twenty feet long, and had a
magnificent oaken roof. Parliaments were frequently assembled in
it. It is a somewhat remarkable circumstance, that Linlithgow and
Stirling, two of the Scottish King’s private palaces, had each a
parliament-hall connected with it. James III. also erected within the
castle a chapel-royal or college of secular priests, consisting of a
dean or provost, an archdean, a treasurer and subdean, a chanter,
a subchanter, and various other officers. This chapel he endowed
most liberally. The original register of it is still preserved in
the Advocates’ Library, along with the chartulary of the Abbey of
Cambuskenneth.
The northern side of the square is occupied by the new chapel, which
James VI., as already mentioned, erected, in 1594, for the scene of the
baptism of his son Prince Henry. The ceremonial which distinguished
this affair, was one of extraordinary magnificence and cost, being such
as to be suitable in the eyes of the father, for the heir-presumptive
of three great monarchies. A very full account of it is yet extant;
and a more splendid piece of pageantry was never seen in Scotland,
till the visit of his present Majesty in 1822. There existed, till
lately, in the chapel, the hull of a boat, eighteen feet in length,
and eight across the deck, which had been drawn on four wheels into
the banquet-hall, with confections and other dainties for the company
assembled. The chapel is now converted into an armoury; but less damage
has been done to its exterior than to that of the other buildings in
the castle, by the ruthless hands which have been at work upon them
for a series of years. Previously to its being made an armoury, the
roof was a species of pannelling without much ornament; but, from the
centre, there hung, in one piece of wood, figures of the castles of
Edinburgh, Stirling, Dunbarton, and Blackness, surmounted by a crown,
which is still preserved in the building.
Such are the objects usually pointed out to strangers as most worthy
of notice in Stirling Castle. It is now necessary to attend to those
objects of interest in the neighbourhood, which are historically or
locally connected with it.
_The King’s Gardens_ merit the first notice. They lie immediately to
the south-west of the Castle-hill, and to the south of the Castle.
Their present condition is that of a marshy piece of pasture-ground;
and it cannot be said of them, as of the gardens of the deserted
village,
‘And yet where many a garden flower grows wild.’
This interesting monument of the taste of our national sovereigns is
completely desolated, so far as shrubs and flowers are concerned. The
utmost exertion of the memory of the present generation, can only
recollect an old cherry-tree, which stood at the corner of one of the
parterres, and which was burnt down by the wadding of a shot, which
some thoughtless sportsman fired into its decayed trunk, as he happened
to pass it on his way home from the fields (8).
It is yet possible, however, to trace on this desolate spot, the
peculiar form into which the ground had been thrown by its royal
proprietors. In the centre, a series of concentric mounds, of a
polygonal, but perfectly regular shape, and rising above one another
towards the middle, is yet most distinctly visible. An octagonal mound
in the centre, is called _the King’s Knote_, and is said, by tradition,
to have been the scene of some forgotten play or recreation, which the
King used to enjoy on that spot with his court. In an earlier age,
this strange object seems to have been called ‘the Round Table;’ and,
in all probability, it was the scene of the out-of-door’s game of that
name, founded upon the history of King Arthur, and of which the courtly
personages of former times are known to have been so fond. Barbour, in
his heroic poem of ‘the Bruce,’ which he wrote at the conclusion of the
fourteenth century, thus alludes to it:
‘And besouth the Castill went they thone,
Rycht by the _Round Table_ away;
And syne the Park enweround thai;
And towart Lythkow held in by.’
Lyndsay, in his Complaynt of the Papingo, written in 1530, thus also
alludes to it:
‘Adieu, fair Snawdoun, with thy towris hie,
Thy Chapill-Royal, Park, and _Tabill Round_;
May, June, and July, would I dwell in thee,
Were I ane man, to hear the birdis sound,
Whilk doth against thy royal rocke resound.’
To give further countenance to this supposition, we have the
ascertained fact that James IV., with whom Stirling was a favourite
and frequent residence, was excessively fond of the game of the Round
Table, which probably appealed, in a peculiar manner, to his courtly
and chivalric imagination.
It is a circumstance not to be omitted, that a piece of ground to the
west, not so distinctly marked as this, but within the limits of the
gardens, is called the Queen’s Knote. It should also be observed, that
‘King Villyamis Note,’ is the name of a song or ballad, quoted in ‘The
Complaynt of Scotland,’ as popular in 1549, and which was probably
descriptive of some game played here.
A canal is still visible at the east end of the gardens. It flowed on
the north by the wall, marching with the ground now belonging to the
Earl of Mar, and discharged itself into another canal or reservoir,
which is still very perceptible at the west end, adjoining the King’s
Park.
_The King’s Park_ lies beyond the gardens, towards the south and
south-west. It is about three miles in circumference, is surrounded by
a wall of great antiquity, (9.) but is now almost entirely divested of
wood, being chiefly pasture and cultivated ground. Here the king hunted
the deer when disposed to enjoy the pleasures of the chace. A small
oblong enclosure, which lies between the Castle and this territory, is
called _the Butt Park_, having been the place where the court formerly
enjoyed the sport of shooting at the butts. It is a somewhat remarkable
circumstance, that the king and his attendants were in the habit of
reaching these parks, not by the gradual descent of Ballangeigh, as
might be supposed, but by a steep zig-zag path, which was led down
the south-west face of the Castle-bank, (from a postern now built up,
but still visible,) and immediately within the park wall, which there
ascends the hill to the external fortifications of the Nether-bailiary
of the Castle. This path is hardly to be now discerned.
_The Gowlan Hills_, which lie between the Castle and the Bridge, form
another of the objects, in the immediate neighbourhood, most deserving
of notice. The most northernly eminence of these hills, is called
the _Mote-hill_, which implies that, like various other eminences of
the same appearance throughout Scotland, as at Scone in Perthshire,
Dalmellington in Ayrshire, Carnwath and Biggar in Clydesdale,
Minniegaff in Galloway, &c. &c. it was used at an early time as a
place for the administration of justice—mote signifying law,—hence the
phrase _moot point_, expressing a case at issue in law. The Mote-hill
of Stirling is still observably marked at top with the benches of earth
on which the jurors sat: in the centre there is a mound somewhat like
the King’s Knote. In later times, this hill was used as a place of
execution. In 1424, James I. here caused to be beheaded, his cousin,
Murdoch Duke of Albany, together with Walter and Alexander, the sons of
that prince, and the Earl of Lennox, his aged father-in-law, all in the
course of two days, in retribution, it is supposed, for the exertions
which they had made to get him kept prisoner in England, while they
enjoyed the management of his kingdom. The author of the Lady of the
Lake thus apostrophises the Mote-hill:
‘And thou, O sad and fatal mound,
That oft hast heard the death-axe sound,
As on the noblest of the land,
Fell the stern headsman’s bloody hand!’
At a later period still, the early part of the sixteenth century, this
mount was used by James V., in his minority, for a much more agreeable
purpose, to wit, that of amusing himself by sliding down its steep
sides on the bone of a cow’s head. On this account, probably, it was
called the Hurly Hawky, (_hawky_ being a familiar word for _cow_ in
Scotland,) a name which is still sometimes applied to it. Lyndsay, in
his ‘Complaynt,’ written _anno_ 1529, stating what he had himself done
for James in his childhood, to amuse and instruct him, and bewailing
the efforts made by the less grave companions of his boyhood, to
mislead his mind, says:
‘Ilk man after thair qualitie,
Thay did solist his Majestie;
Sum gart him ravell at the rakket,
Sum harlit him to the _hurly hacket_,
And sum, to shaw thair courtlie corsis,
Wald ryde to Leith, and ryn thair horses,
And wichtly wallop ouir the sandis,’ _&c._
At present, the Mote-hill forms a delightful part of the public walks,
already mentioned with such high praise.
The only other objects, connected with Stirling Castle, which fall to
be noticed at this place, are _the Valley_, and _the Ladies’ Hill_.
The Valley is an enclosed and somewhat hollow piece of waste ground,
now belonging to the burgh, lying a little below the south side of the
esplanade formed in front of the Castle. It is about a hundred yards
in extent, either way; but is said to have been much larger before the
erection of the Earl of Mar’s house in 1570, when the garden attached
to that edifice was taken off its length. The use of the Valley in
former times was that of a tournament ground; while the Ladies’ Hill,
(which was formerly considerably broader,) rising by one of its sides,
was a sort of theatre for the female spectators, whose bright eyes, in
the words of Milton, here
‘Rained influence and judged the prize.’
A remarkable conflict took place in the Valley during the reign of
James II., who revived the sanguinary species of the tournament, which
his father had suppressed. Two noble Burgundians, named Lelani, one of
whom, Jacques, was as celebrated a knight as Europe could boast of,
together with one squire Meriadet, challenged three Scottish knights
to fight with lance, battle-axe, sword, and dagger. Having been all
solemnly knighted by the king, they engaged in the Valley. Of the three
Scotsmen, two were Douglasses, and the third belonged to the honourable
family of Halket. Soon throwing away their lances, they had recourse to
the axe, when, one of the Douglasses being killed, the king threw down
his baton, to put a stop to a combat which had then become too unequal
to furnish proper amusement. Before this, the remaining Douglas and
one of the Lelanis, had had such a tough encounter, that of all their
weapons none remained save a dagger in the hand of Douglas, which,
however, he could not use, as the Burgundian held his wrists together,
and whirled him in the struggle round the lists. The other Lelani had
fought well; but, being comparatively unskilled in the use of the
battle-axe, he had his vizor, weapons, and armour, beat almost to
pieces. The Douglas who was killed, fell by the battle-axe of Meriadet
the squire.
Among the festivities which attended the baptism of Prince Henry in
1594, were tournaments and running at the ring in the Valley. On that
occasion, it was surrounded by guards finely apparelled, to prevent the
crowd from breaking in, and a scaffold was erected on one side for the
queen, her ladies, and the foreign ambassadors; to which illustrious
group the performers uniformly made a low obeisance on entering. This,
however, was but the silver age of chivalry, and no blood was shed in
these amusements.
[Illustration:
_PLATE. V._
A. S. Masson Del^t. J. Gellatly Sc
VIEW FROM THE CASTLE WALKS, STIRLING.
BEN LEDI & BEN LOMOND IN THE DISTANCE.]
Some attention yet remains to be paid to the delightful walks which
pervade these most interesting localities. The public walks in Stirling
are quite matchless in Scotland. The oldest of them is one which was
begun in 1723, along the top of the rock which skirts the town to the
south-west, and immediately under the wall which formerly fortified
the town in that quarter. It was a Mr Edmonstoun, of Cambus-Wallace,
who had the taste and public spirit to commence this work, which the
magistrates completed about the end of the century. Since then, the
walk has been extended round the back of the castle rock, and along
the skirts of the Gowlan Hills, so as to make them a sort of inverted
amphitheatre for seeing all the objects around Stirling. It is thus
possible to see an amazing multiplicity of interesting objects within
the space of about a mile of walk. Beginning at the old walk under the
town-wall, the spectator sees, first, Bannockburn and Gillies Hill,
the scenery of Bruce’s famous victory, and the field of Sauchie, which
terminated the reign of the unfortunate James III.; near at hand, the
steeple of Ninian’s church, deprived of its attendant place of worship,
in 1746, by Prince Charles’ Highlanders, who blew it up after using it
as a powder magazine; farther to the west, Touch House, still the seat
of a branch of the Seton family, who were the King’s armour-bearers;
then Craigforth, a beautifully wooded hill, rising abruptly from the
plain, and having a bold precipice presented to the west (_PLATE
V._); then the Teith, the Allan, and the Links of the Forth in all
their windings. In the remoter parts of the scene, the spectator sees
Benlomond, and his grand fraternity of lesser brothers, including
Benledi, and Benvoirlich, which give an inconceivably magnificent air
to the picture. Here it is curious to consider, that, from the castle
above you, you can see, on one hand, the towers of academic, polished,
intellectual Edinburgh, a place where civilization may be said to be
carried to a pitch of exquisite perfection, while, on the other, you
gaze on an alpine region where the people yet wear part of the dress,
and mostly speak the language which obtained in Europe, before even
the early ages of Grecian and Roman refinement. It is strange, thus
to link together the extremes of human society,—thus to associate the
nineteenth century before Christ, and the nineteenth century after him,
for no less remote from each other, in reality, are the ideas arising
from a view of Edinburgh and of the Highlands. But, it is not alone the
objects at a distance from Stirling, that constitute the pleasure of
a promenade over its walks. The objects more nearly at hand, come in
for an immense share of this pleasure. ‘Who can look,’ says a citizen
of Stirling, in an eloquent letter upon this very subject, ‘who can
look upon our castle, and its palace, and noble park, upon the Royal
Gardens and their celebrated Table, upon the Ladies’ Hill and the
Valley below it, and upon our fine old Franciscan tower, so remarkable
for its simple majesty, without being carried back in his imagination
to the splendid scenes of other times;—to the reigns of the gallant and
accomplished Jameses, to the days of tilt and tournament, and courtly
pomp, to the feats of a brave and knightly nobility, to the chivalry
and romance, in short, of Scottish history. No man of taste, or lover
of his country, ever traversed our walks without pleasure, or left them
without regret.’
EAST AND WEST CHURCHES.
_PLATE VI._
THE EAST and WEST CHURCHES are here represented as seen from a spot
behind the Ladies’ Hill, the spectator being supposed to look in a
south-east direction.
These Churches, though anciently one, are now separate places of
worship; but, being attached to each other in the way represented, they
are only distinguished in modern times by the epithets here applied to
them. The division took place in 1656.
[Illustration:
_PLATE. VI._
A. S. Masson Del^t. J. Gellatly Sc
EAST & WEST CHURCHES STIRLING.
FROM THE LADIES HILL]
The WEST CHURCH was originally the place of worship connected with the
Franciscan or Grey Friars’ Monastery, which was founded in Stirling
by James IV., in 1494. It cannot, therefore, be of an older date. It
appears to have had a projecting square building at each corner. One
of these at the north-west corner was, according to tradition, the
chapel of Margaret, daughter of Henry the Seventh, James the Fourth’s
queen. The interior was of beautiful architecture; and on the arch (now
converted into a window) which formed the entrance to it, may still be
seen, from the outside of the church, the rose of England and thistle
of Scotland. Another of these projections at the north-east corner,
is now an aisle belonging to the family of Moir of Leckie. Another at
the south-east corner, on the left hand of the present entrance to the
church, became the burying-place of the Earls of Stirling; Sir William
Alexander, the first Earl, having been brought from London and buried
in it. The remaining projection, situated at the south-west corner, was
at one time an entrance to the church. All these excrescences, with the
exception of that now belonging to the family of Moir of Leckie, were
lately taken away, when the West Church was repaired. On that occasion
the church was very tastefully fitted up. In the West Church are the
monuments of Lieutenant-Colonel Blackadder, of the Cameronian Regiment;
and Dr David Doig, Rector of the Grammar School of Stirling. Blackadder
was Deputy-Governor of the Castle in 1715, and wrote memoirs of
himself, which possess considerable interest. Doig was one of the first
scholars of his day, and wrote the articles, Philology and Mysteries,
in the Encyclopædia Britannica, and some very learned letters on the
savage state, addressed to Lord Kames.
The EAST CHURCH, at least the chancel, was built by Cardinal Beatoun;
but, though a later, and in external appearance a more magnificent
structure, it is not, in reality, of such elegant architecture as its
more aged neighbour. Its east window is tall and handsome, the mullions
fortunately being still preserved. Around the exterior of the building
are eleven buttresses, each having a vacant niche, which are supposed
to have been filled, before the Reformation, with statues of the
apostles, Judas of course excepted. In the chancel of the East Church
was a tomb-stone bearing this inscription, in Latin:—‘In memory of
Margaret Steuart, grand-daughter of James V., King of Scots; daughter
to the Earl of Murray, regent, and Anne Keith, a lady of quality; wife
to the Earl of Arrol. She died of a distemper upon Sabbath, the 2d
April, in the year of our Lord 1586, in the 16th year of her age. The
Lord, who alone united us, has parted us by death.’
The church of Stirling is remarkable in Scottish history, as the place
where the regent Earl of Arran, in 1543, abjured the Catholic faith,
and avowed the Protestant doctrines; which, however, he afterwards
renounced. Here, also, on the 29th of July 1567, James VI. was crowned,
at the age of thirteen months and ten days, John Knox preaching the
coronation sermon, and Lords Lindsay and Ruthven, who extorted the
resignation of the crown from the unfortunate Mary, being among the
nobles who assisted at the ceremony. In 1651, Monk took possession of
the tower, or steeple, from which he proceeded to batter the castle.
The Highlanders, in 1746, assumed the same station, for the purpose
of celebrating their victory at Falkirk, which they did by ringing of
bells, and discharging fire-arms from the battlements. On both of these
occasions, the steeple suffered from the shot of the castle; and
hollows are still pointed out on its sides, which are said to have been
occasioned by the bullets. The steeple is distinguished by a majestic
simplicity, which, without elaborate ornament of any kind, renders it
an object of no inconsiderable interest to the spectator.
The building seen to the right of the churches, in the annexed view, is
Cowan’s Hospital, built in 1639. John Cowan, a merchant in Stirling,
between the years 1633 and 1637, left forty thousand merks, to endow
an hospital, or alms-house, for twelve decayed brethren of the
guild or mercantile corporation of Stirling. The money was invested
in the purchase of lands, which now yield a revenue of upwards of
£3400 sterling _per annum_. From this fund about a hundred and forty
persons, at present, receive relief. The front of the house exhibits
a full-length statue of the founder, which will be looked upon with
interest as a memorial of the costume of the better order of Scottish
burghers, in the reign of Charles I.
[Illustration:
_PLATE. VII._
A. S. Masson Del^t. J. Gellatly Sculp^t.
BROAD STREET.
STIRLING.]
BROAD STREET.
_PLATE VII._
THE HIGH STREET, or BROAD STREET, as it is now commonly called, is the
principal street in Stirling. It lies, in the shape of a parallelogram,
on the upper part of the hill whereon the town is built; and, what with
the height of the houses, their substantial, and, in various instances,
antique architecture, the steeple of the town-house, and other
favourable circumstances, it makes a very respectable appearance. The
present draught represents it as seen from the bottom, looking upwards
to the castle, the view at the top being closed by the ruins of the
house of the regent Earl of Mar.
In the centre of this street, opposite the town-house, once stood a
market-cross, of beautiful workmanship. It was a lofty stone pillar,
to the base of which there was an ascent on all sides, by flights of
steps. On the top of this pillar sat a figure of the Scottish unicorn,
extending the shield of the royal arms of Scotland, surmounted by
the crown. This cross was barbarously pulled down about thirty-five
years ago. The unicorn, however, was preserved, and is, at present,
to be seen in front of the building in Spittal Street, containing the
fire-engine.
At the time when Stirling was an abode of the court, Broad Street
appears to have been chiefly occupied by noblemen. The situations of
the houses occupied by the Earls of Morton, Glencairn, Lennox, and
other bold figurants in the history of Mary and James, are all here
pointed out; as also, a house at the bottom, now the office of a branch
of the Bank of Scotland, which is said to have been the residence,
successively, of Darnley, and of the young Prince Henry, his grandson,
when at nurse. On the site of the present weigh-house, was the house of
the family of Lennox.
Broad Street was the scene of an incident very remarkable in Scottish
history, which occurred in 1571. The party which espoused the falling
interest of Queen Mary, was then in possession of Edinburgh, while
the Protestant faction, which supported her infant son against her,
had Stirling for its head-quarters. The whole of the leading men of
the king’s party were assembled at Stirling, early in September 1571,
to attend a parliament, when the queen’s men at Edinburgh projected
a daring enterprise against them. In the dead of night, a band,
several hundred strong, consisting chiefly of borderers, was led off
from the capital towards Stirling, under the command of Lord Claud
Hamilton, and the Lairds of Buccleugh and Fernieherst, being guided
to their destination by a man of the name of Bell, who was a native
of Stirling. They entered the open, defenceless, unwatched town, long
before day-break, and immediately planting a guard at the door of
each slumbering noble, soon had the whole in their power. The Earl of
Lennox, regent for James, surrendered at discretion, and, with many
of his friends, was placed on the back of a horse behind a sturdy
borderer, to be carried off prisoner to Edinburgh. Unfortunately for
them, the Earl of Morton repelled their assault for such a length of
time as gave occasion to a counter-surprise. The noise having disturbed
the Earl of Mar in the Castle, he brought down sixteen harquebusiers
into his lodging at the head of the street, (then in the process of
building,) and, having planted them securely, he commanded a volley to
be fired down the street at the enterprisers, who, without stopping
any time to ascertain the force of this contemptible enemy, at once
took to their heels, crowded through the narrow pass at the bottom,
where many were trodden to death, and instantly left the town. Many of
the queen’s men, on this occasion, yielded themselves prisoners to the
very men who had been seated behind them in that capacity a few minutes
before. The Earl of Lennox, however, did not thus recover his freedom.
He was cut down, by an invidious enemy, at the village of Newhouse,
about half-a-mile from the South Port, on the way to Edinburgh. This
was altogether an affair very characteristic of the time when it
happened,—a time when the bravest exploits were sometimes rendered
naught by the want of a little discipline, and surprise was almost sure
to be attended by success.
The house of the Earl of Mar is almost the only one of the private
palaces of that age, now surviving in any shape. It faces down Broad
Street, from any part of which it must have had, when entire, a fine
appearance. It was, originally, a quadrangular building, with a small
court in the centre. We are now only left the ruins of the front of the
square. In the centre of this front are the royal arms of Scotland,
and, on the two projecting towers on each side, those of the regent
and his countess, all in a state of fine preservation; but a number of
figures jutting out from the rest of the wall, are in a most mutilated
state, and only remain to give us some idea of the costumes of the age
when the house was built. The date on the building is 1570, the year
before the Earl of Mar became regent. He procured the greater part of
the stones from the ruins of Cambuskenneth Abbey, of which he had got
a grant. John Knox exclaimed against this as sacrilege, and prophesied
the consequent ruin of his family, not remembering, apparently, what
share he himself had had in the demolition of these fine buildings. The
Earl, either to disarm the criticism which might be directed against
the curious taste in which his house was built, or to deprecate the
charge of sacrilege, put the three following inscriptions over various
door-ways giving entrance to the building:
Esspy. speik. furth. I cair. nocht.
Consider. weil. I. cair nocht.
* * * * *
The moir I stand on oppin hicht,
My faultis moir subiect ar to sicht.
* * * * *
I pray al luikaris on this luging,
With gentle e to gif thair juging. (10)
[Illustration:
_PLATE. VIII._
A. S. Masson Del^t. J. Gellatly Sculp^t.
CASTLE WYND
STIRLING.]
_PLATE VIII._
A narrow street leads off from the upper end of Broad Street towards
the Castle, and is called the Castle Wynd. It has been thought proper
to give a sketch of this alley, both on account of the interesting
character of the historical objects which it contains, and their
strikingly picturesque effect, when fore-shortened by a view from the
upper end. The nearest object, on the left side of the plate, is the
front of Argyll’s Lodging; the house, with the projecting stair-case,
is a very ancient one, which has a coat-of-arms on the front of the
wall, now nearly obliterated. Farther on, is Mar’s Work; and, in the
extremity of the view, is the north side of the chancel of the East
Church. Such a picture of antiquity, we believe, is nowhere now to be
seen in Scotland; but, a few years ago, it was even more striking than
it is at present, another curiously antique house having then stood on
the east side of the street, between Mar’s Work and the Church.
Argyll’s Lodging is a large quadrangular house, built in the lordly
style which prevailed during the reigns of James, and the first
Charles. It was erected at the expense of Sir William Alexander, a
personage who rose, in consequence of his genius and courtly qualities,
from the condition of being Laird of Menstrie, (a small estate to the
north-east of Stirling,) to immense wealth, and high title. Prince
Henry, who was baptised in the castle, honoured him with his particular
notice, and introduced him at the Court of England, where James the
Sixth knighted him, and made him master of requests. He addressed a
Parœnesis to the Prince, which is said to be his master-piece, and
wrote an elegy on his death, in 1612, in strains nowise inferior to
those of Drummond of Hawthornden, who bewailed that mournful event
in an ‘elegy on the death of Mœliades,’ a name by which the Prince
was known. King James appointed him preceptor to Henry’s brother,
Charles; and Charles, coming to the throne in 1625, gave him a right
of appointing the hundred baronets of Nova Scotia, from each of whom
he received £200 sterling; raised him to various high offices of state
in succession; and, finally, on the occasion of his coronation at
Holyroodhouse, in 1633, created him Earl of Stirling, Viscount Canada,
and Lord Alexander of Tullibody. Nova Scotia, and Canada, he is said to
have discovered and colonised; and he had other extensive possessions
in America. James the Sixth used to call him his philosophical
poet; Ben Johnson, who travelled to Scotland to visit Hawthornden,
corresponded with him; and Addison said of his whole works, which
are not a few in number, that ‘he had read them with the greatest
satisfaction.’ His prosperity not being continued to his offspring,
this splendid house, which must have been the wonder of its day, fell
into the hands of the Argyll family. Here the unfortunate Earl of
Argyll received and entertained the Duke of York and his family, in
1680, when they came to visit Stirling Castle. Only five years after,
he suffered death at the instance of his royal guest, who had then
become James II. By another singular vicissitude of fortune, John, Duke
of Argyll, in 1715, here held his counsel of war, when employed to
break the interest of the son of the same James. Sir William Alexander
built the centre and northern wing in 1633; and over the principal door
of the centre, leading by an oaken staircase to the grand hall, is
his full coat-of-arms, with the motto ‘_per mare per terras_,’ still
perfectly entire. Over the windows of these parts of the building too,
may still be seen the initials of William, Earl Stirling, and Jane,
Countess Stirling, surmounted by a coronet.
From the Argyll family, the building passed successively into the hands
of other individuals. In 1799, the crown purchased it, and converted
it into a military hospital, and apartments for the barrack-master
and his serjeant. No other damage, however, has been done, than that
of removing a balcony above the outer gate, or entrance from the
Castle Wynd, which added considerably to the effect of the building.
The roof being somewhat in a state of disrepair, it is now proposed,
we understand, to _modernize it_. May such a piece of sacrilege be
averted! May the baronial taste of Sir William Alexander, one of the
most accomplished men of his age, and the favourite of Princes, be
respected! The southern wing appears to have been added by some of
the Argyll family, as one of the doors of entrance to it from the
court-yard, is dated 1674, and the crest of the Campbells (a boar’s
head), is observable, in ludicrous multiplication, over the windows of
all that part of the building.
The Castle Wynd was, on the 17th of March 1578, the scene of the death
of John, Lord Glammis, a sagacious nobleman, who held the office of
Chancellor of Scotland. He had a ‘deidly feid,’ as it was called,
with David, Earl of Crawford. The two happened to pass each other in
the Castle Wynd, very nearly opposite to the Earl of Mar’s house.
No collision took place between themselves; but, unfortunately, two
fellows who went in their respective retinues quarrelled and began to
fight; on which a pistol was fired, the ball of which went through Lord
Glammis’ head. He immediately expired.
STIRLING BRIDGE.
_VIGNETTE._
THE BRIDGE over the Forth at Stirling, is by far the most noted
structure of the kind in Scotland. Being the first convenience of
the sort, which occurs on the Forth for fifty miles upwards from
the mouth of its estuary, and having been, till lately, almost the
_only_ access for wheeled carriages into the northern department of
Scotland; there can be little wonder that it is so. Furthermore, it
is old; furthermore, it is conspicuous in the history of the country.
Altogether, it is one of the most notable public objects in the kingdom.
At a very early period, there was a wooden bridge across the Forth,
about a mile above the present stone structure; probably it was at
first the work of the Romans. It is this bridge which figures on the
obverse side of the ancient seal of the town. It was, on the 13th of
September 1297, the cause of a decisive victory gained by Sir William
Wallace, over the English, under Cressingham and De Warenne. By
permitting half of the southern army to cross over, the Scottish hero
and his companions destroyed them with great ease. It is said, by
tradition, that he gave a blast on his horn, as a signal for the onset,
from the top of the Abbey Craig, and that, by causing a man to saw
through the bridge below the feet of his enemies, he greatly increased
the slaughter. The remains of this bridge are visible at low water, and
the place is still a ford. Montrose led his army through the water at
this point, when on his march to fight the battle of Kilsyth, in 1645.
It is near the mill of Kildean.
The age of the stone bridge is unknown; but it must be at least as old
as 1571, when Archbishop Hamilton was hanged upon it, by the King’s
faction, under the Regent Lennox. It is of very antique structure,
being narrow, high in the centre, and composed of arches. Formerly,
it had a gate leading through two small flanking towers, near the
south end, and another gate leading through two similar towers, near
the north end: there were also two low ones in the centre. A painting
over the door of one of the rooms of the Town House, represents the
bridge in this state. General Blakeney, the governor of the castle in
1745, caused the south arch to be destroyed, in order to intercept
the Highlanders, both in their march south, in parties, to reinforce
Prince Charles, and in their retreat northwards on desertion. On this
account, when the royal army came to follow Charles to the north, in
February 1746, the Duke of Cumberland was obliged to supply the place
of the deficient arch, by logs and boards of wood; which was one of the
reasons why he never overtook, or came near his enemy, till the battle
of Culloden.
For some time, it has been proposed, to substitute a new structure for
this venerable one, at some place in the immediate neighbourhood. How
many ages must elapse, before it shall acquire the same quality of
interesting associations, which our memories connect with the subject
of this plate!
NOTES.
NOTE 1. page 3.
This stone is near the highest point of the western brow of the Gowlan
Hills, facing the farm-house of Raploch, and of course, to the north
of the old gate which entered the Nether Bailiary of the castle, from
the Ballangeigh Road. The inscription may be said to be now wholly
obliterated; but the fact rests on the authority of Sir Robert Sibbald,
Timothy Pont, and other antiquaries.
NOTE 2. p. 9.—ROYAL VISITS TO STIRLING.
The magistracy of Stirling have, at various periods, exerted themselves
to receive, with befitting honour, the descendants of those royal
personages, who formerly rendered their castle the scene of a permanent
court.
James VI., of whose boyhood it was the well-remembered scene, visited
the town, in the course of the tour which he performed through his
native kingdom, in 1617, after he had been fourteen years absent in
England. The Council Register yet bears witness to the exertions of the
civic dignitaries on this occasion. On the 12th of May, they ordained
‘the treasurer to buy some leaves of gold to gilt his Majesties armes
on the croce,’ and statuted that ‘the Burrow Yett’ (that is, the gate
of the town, at what is called the South Port) and also the bridge,
should be repaired, preparatory to his Majesty’s arrival. On the 26th
of May, they appointed ‘Mr Robert Murray, (commissary of Stirling,) to
mak and deliver the speech to the Kingis Majistie, at his first entry
in the towne, conform to the direction of the counsell.’ On the 15th of
July, they authorised the Treasurer ‘to borrow £100 for the townes use,
agains the tyme of his Majesties cumyn;’ they soon after borrowed five
hundred merks, besides, to be a _propine_, or present to the king.
Charles I. was the next royal personage who honoured Stirling with a
visit. On the 13th of May, 1633, ‘the Provest, Baillies, and Counsall,
being convenit, concludis and agreis for a propine aganis his
Majesties cuming to yis town, viz., a silver cup, to be maid in gude
fassioun, sett with a cover overgilt with gold, at the sicht of the
magistratis, on ye townis chairges, to be payit out be thair Thesaurer,
quhilk sall be allowit to him in his comptis.’ On the ensuing 4th and
8th of July, it is observable, from the Register, that the whole of his
Majesty’s household were admitted burgesses gratis. Among the number,
which is not a small one, were William, Lord Bishop of London, (the
famous Laud,) William, Lord Bishop Elect of Hereford, and John, Bishop
of Ross.
It is perhaps a more interesting fact than any of the above, that
Stirling gave a welcome to Charles II., when he visited it in the
course of his unhappy pilgrimage in Scotland, in 1650–1, for the
recovery of the kingdoms lost by his father. There are many things in
the council records to denote, that the magistracy, at that trying
period, and even during the dominancy of the commonwealth, retained a
strong feeling of loyalty for the descendant of their ancient kings.
Stirling was one of the Scottish burghs which Cromwell disfranchised,
for not consenting to the union he desired to effect betwixt Scotland
and England. A somewhat amusing anecdote is handed down by tradition,
in reference to Charles the Second’s residence at Stirling. It seems
that he thought proper to pay a personal visit to the Reverend Mr
Guthrie, the puritan minister of the town; nothing at that period
being practicable without the good will and influence of the clergy.
When Charles entered the manse, Mrs Guthrie bustled about, with the
officious kindness of a housewife, to get a chair for the king. ‘Never
mind, gudewife,’ said the cynic; ‘the king’s a young man, and can tak a
chair for himsel.’ We can scarcely suppose that Charles would be much
offended at this singular piece of rudeness, which must have been too
characteristic to fail in tickling a mind like his. Yet it might make
him less anxious to save Guthrie from the death to which he was doomed,
for his distinguished disloyalty, after the Restoration.
Stirling appears to have lent a good deal of money to this sovereign,
during his misfortunes, besides performing other acts of service in
behalf of himself and his friends. It is a pleasure to add, that he
retained a grateful sense of the kindness of the citizens of Stirling,
and, on arriving at his period of power, extended and confirmed their
former privileges.
The town was honoured in 1681, by the visit of James, Duke of York
and Albany, (afterwards James II.,) who then resided in Scotland,
in a sort of honourable banishment, to escape the hostility of the
Monmouth and Shaftesbury party, who were endeavouring to procure his
exclusion from the throne. The magistrates and council, under date,
October 21, 1680, ‘recommendis to the dean-of-guild and conveiner,
to speik to thair respective incorporations, anent the provyding of
partizans agane his Royal Highnes reception, and to report thair
opinions to the magistrats, Saturday nixt.’ On the 4th of February
1681, the magistrates and council, in full convention, received and
admitted to the honours and privileges of their burgh, ‘James, Duke
of York and Albanie;’ besides a great number of his attendants, among
whom is conspicuous, ‘Collonel John Churchill, attending on his Royall
Highness.’ This person, at the time in question, was page to the Duke;
but, in after times, reached the pinnacle of greatness and fame as
Duke of Marlborough. It would appear that the magistracy presented the
freedom of the town to his Royal Highness, in an expensive gold box, as
the following entry occurs in the register, under date, March 14, 1681:
‘Ordains the thesaurer to pay William Law, goldsmith, thrie hundreth
eightin pundis, fiftein shilling, for the gold-box he furnished to his
Royall Highnes burges ticket.’ [This Law must have been the father of
the celebrated projector of the Mississippi Scheme.]
As a farther testimony of the loyalty of the town at this period,
the following entry may be quoted: ‘The seavint day of October 1681,
admittis and receaves Captain John Graham of Claverhouse, Sir Andro
Bruce of Earlshall, Mr David Grahame, brother to Claverhouse, James
Montgomerie, ane of the corporalls of Claverhouse troupe, Alexander
Scott, writer in Edinburgh, William Dickison, son to ________ Dickison,
proveist of Forfar, David Buchanan, servant to Claverhouse, John
Cuming and Adam Galloway, Claverhouse trumpetters, burgesses and guild
brethren of the said brugh gratis; and they present made faith, as use
is. And also admittis and receaves David Neve, Robert Kerr, William
Sluthers, and John Purveis, servitors to Claverhouse, John Simpson and
Alexander Watson, servitors to Earleshall, John Wallace and Alexander
Luggat, servitors to William Grahame, cornet of Claverhouse troupe,
and John Watson, servitor to Robert Murray, ane of the said troupe,
neighbours and burgesses of the said brugh, and that gratis; and ilk
ane made faith, as use is.’
No other royal personage visited Stirling till Prince Charles Stuart,
grandson to the ill-starred prince who was received with so much
gratulation as above, forced his entrance into the town, with his army
of Highlanders, on the 8th of January 1746. The town was, on that
occasion, held out with considerable spirit, for two days; but was
forced at last to capitulate. The letter which Charles sent to summon
the magistrates to surrender, is yet extant in the town-clerk’s office.
NOTE 3. p. 9.—ACCOUNT OF THE STIRLING JUG.
By an act of the Scottish Parliament, in 1437, various burghs in the
Lowlands were appointed to keep the various standard measures for
liquid and dry goods, from which all others throughout the country
were to be taken. To Edinburgh was appointed the honour of keeping the
standard Ell—to Perth the Reel—to Lanark the Pound—to Linlithgow the
Firlot—and to Stirling the Pint. This was a judicious arrangement,
both as it was calculated to prevent any attempt at an extensive or
general scheme of fraud, and as the commodities, to which the different
standards referred, were supplied in the greatest abundance by the
districts and towns, to whose care they were committed; Edinburgh being
then the principal market for cloth, Perth for yarn, Lanark for wool,
Linlithgow for grain, and Stirling for distilled and fermented liquors.
The Pint Measure, popularly called the Stirling Jug, is still kept with
great care in the town where it was first deposited four hundred years
ago. It is made of brass, in the shape of a hollow cone truncated; and
it weighs 14 lb. 10 oz. 1 dr. 18 grs. Scottish Troy. The mean diameter
of the mouth is 4.17 inches English—of the bottom 5.25 inches,—and the
mean depth 6 inches. On the front, near the mouth, in relief, there
is a shield bearing a lion _rampant_, the Scottish national arms; and
near the bottom is another shield, bearing an ape _passant gardant_,
with the letter S. below, supposed to be the armorial bearing of the
foreign artist who probably was employed to fabricate the vessel. The
handle is fixed with two brass nails; and the whole has an appearance
of rudeness, quite proper to the early age when it was first instituted
by the Scottish Estates, as the standard of liquid measure for this
ancient bacchanalian kingdom.
It will be interesting to all votaries of antiquity to know, that this
vessel, which may in some measure be esteemed a national palladium,
was rescued, about eighty years ago, from the fate of being utterly
lost, to which all circumstances for some time seemed to destine
it. The person whom we have to thank for this good service, was the
Reverend Alexander Bryce, minister of Kirknewton, near Edinburgh, a
man of scientific and literary accomplishment much superior to what
was displayed by the generality of the clergy of his day. Mr Bryce
(who had taught the mathematical class in the College of Edinburgh,
during the winter of 1745–6, instead of the eminent Maclaurin, who was
then on his death-bed,) happened to visit Stirling in the year 1750;
when, recollecting that the standard Pint Jug was appointed to remain
in that town, he requested permission from the magistrates to see it.
The magistrates conducted him to their council-house, where a _pewter_
pint jug was taken down from the roof, whence it was suspended, and
presented to him. After a careful examination, he was convinced that
this could not be the legal standard. He communicated his opinion to
the magistrates; but they were equally ignorant of the loss which the
town had sustained, and indisposed to take any trouble for the purpose
of retrieving it. It excited very different feelings in the acute and
enquiring mind of Dr Bryce; and, resolved, if possible, to recover the
valuable antique, he immediately instituted a search; which, though
conducted with much patient industry for about a twelvemonth, proved,
to his great regret, unavailing. In 1752, it occurred to him, that the
standard jug might have been borrowed by some of the coppersmiths or
braziers, for the purpose of making legal measures for the citizens,
and, by some chance, not returned. Having been informed that a person
of this description, named Urquhart, had joined the insurgent forces
in 1745—that, on his not returning, his furniture and shop utensils
had been brought to sale—and that various articles, which had not been
sold, were thrown into a garret as useless, a gleam of hope darted
into his mind, and he eagerly went to make the proper investigation.
Accordingly, in that obscure garret, groaning underneath a mass of
lumber, he discovered the precious object of his research.
Thus was discovered the only standard, by special statute, of all
liquid and dry measure in Scotland, after it had been offered for sale
at perhaps the cheap and easy price of one penny, rejected as unworthy
of that little sum, and subsequently thrown by as altogether useless;
and many years after it had been considered, by its constitutional
guardians, as irretrievably lost.
Mr Bryce, being permitted to take the valuable utensil with him to
Edinburgh, there subjected it to a variety of experiments, from which
he deduced the following facts:—
The weight of the contents of the Stirling Jug, in ‘clear water,’ is
equal to 26,180 grains, English Troy.
There are 103⁴⁰⁴⁄₁₀₀₀ cubic inches in the standard Scottish pint.
It being ascertained, from an act of Parliament, 1618, that the wheat
and pease firlot was statuted to contain 21¼ pints, and the bear
and oat firlot 31 pints of the Stirling jug; and it being likewise
ascertained that there are 103.404 cubic inches in the standard
Scottish pint; Mr Bryce found that there are 2197³³⁵⁄₁₀₀₀ cubic inches
in the wheat and pease firlot, and 3205⁵²⁴⁄₁₀₀₀ cubic inches in the
bear and oat firlot; and so on in the smaller measures.
The excess of a boll of bear (_barley_) above a boll of wheat was found
to be precisely 5 pecks bear measure, and 1 mutchkin, without the
difference of a single gill; or a boll of bear is more than a boll of
wheat by 7 pecks 1½ lippy, wheat measure, wanting 1 gill.
For ascertaining these and many similar facts, and for his ‘good
services’ in recovering the Stirling Jug, Mr Bryce was presented with
the freedom of the city of Edinburgh, January 1754. The canons which
he thus instituted for public measures, continued in use till the late
general change of weights and measures throughout the United Kingdom.
NOTE 4. p. 10.
It also comprises the lands of Raploch belonging to Cowan’s Hospital,
and Southfield belonging to Spittal’s Hospital, neither of which
are burgal, and the village of Cambuskenneth, and farms of Hood and
East and West side of Abbey, which belonged to the abbot. It is very
doubtful whether it includes the constabulary of the castle, or crown
lands, viz. the greater part of the site of the Castle, the Gowlan
Hills, Butt Park, King’s Park, and the Royal Gardens; all which are
without burgh. It is likewise very doubtful whether it includes the
Ladies’ Hill, the Crandy Hill, and the Haining, lands which were gifted
by the Crown to the Mar family, and which are likewise undoubtedly
without the burgal territory.
NOTE 5. p. 12.
Mary is stated by tradition to have established a regular garrison
corps for the protection of Stirling Castle; the dress of which,
according to the same uncertain authority, was the Lorrain uniform.
Certes, till the year 1802, the Castle was garrisoned by a corps of
about a hundred men, who were commanded by a lieutenant and ensign,
and wore a dress decidedly different from all other British uniforms.
The men had a small French-looking cocked hat, a long red coat, with
green facings, red breeches, and long black leggens. The officers wore
clothes of superior material, but of the same hue and fashion; the
drummer alone having a short coat of a different colour—namely, of
green. At a former period, the breeches were blue, and the belts black;
latterly, the breeches were as stated, and the belts white. The arms
were latterly a musket and bayonet, with a sword; but, at a remoter
time, they are said to have carried Lochaber axes, like the town-guard
of Edinburgh. The only objection to the popular theory of their having
been instituted by Mary of Lorrain, and dressed to her taste, is, that
in each of the other three fortresses, appointed by the act of Union to
be kept up in Scotland, there was a corps of the same description. The
whole were broken up in 1802, when the government found it necessary to
substitute veteran battalions in the Scottish fortresses. It is to be
regretted that so conspicuous a memorial of the old times of Scotland’s
independence should have been permitted to perish, even for so good a
cause as that of protecting the country against French invasion.
⁂ Perhaps it is worthy of being remarked, that the dress of the
governor of Stirling Castle, which is now turned up with blue, was
formerly faced, like that of the garrison corps, with green.
NOTE 6. p. 15.—THE BALLANGEIGH ADVENTURES.
‘JAMES V. was a monarch whose good and benevolent intentions often
rendered his romantic freaks venial, if not respectable, since, from
his anxious attentions to the lower and most oppressed class of his
subjects, he was, as we are told, popularly termed the _King of
the Commons_. For the purpose of seeing that justice was regularly
administered, and frequently from the less justifiable motive of
gallantry, he used to traverse the vicinage of his several palaces
in various disguises. The two excellent comic songs, entitled, ‘The
Gaberlunzie Man,’ and ‘We’ll gang nae mair a-roving,’ are said to have
been founded upon the success of his amorous adventures when travelling
in the disguise of a beggar.’—_Scotsman’s Library._
‘Once upon a time, when he was feasting in Stirling, the king sent for
some venison from the neighbouring hills. The deer were killed and
put on horses’ backs, to be transported to Stirling. Unluckily they
had to pass the castle-gates of Arnpryor, belonging to a chief of the
Buchanans, who had a considerable number of guests with him. It was
late, and the company rather short of victuals, though they had more
than enough of liquor. The chief, seeing so much fat venison passing
his very door, seized on it; and to the expostulations of the keepers,
who told him it belonged to King James, he answered insolently, that if
James was king in Scotland, he, Buchanan, was king in Kippen, being the
name of the district in which the castle of Arnpryor lay. On hearing
what had happened, the king got on horseback, and rode instantly
from Stirling to Buchanan’s house, where he found a fierce-looking
Highlander, with an axe on his shoulder, standing centinel at the door.
This grim warden refused the king admittance, saying that the Laird of
Arnpryor was at dinner, and would not be disturbed. ‘Yet go up to the
company, my good friend,’ said the king, ‘and tell him that the Gudeman
of Ballangeigh is come to feast with the king of Kippen.’ The porter
went grumbling into the house, and told his master that there was a
fellow with a red beard, who called himself the Gudeman of Ballangeigh,
at the gate, who said he was come to dine with the king of Kippen. As
soon as Buchanan heard these words, he knew that the king was there in
person, and hastened down to kneel at James’ feet, and ask forgiveness
for his insolent behaviour. But the king, who only meant to give him a
fright, forgave him freely, and, going into the castle, feasted on his
own venison, which Buchanan had intercepted. Buchanan of Arnpryor was
ever after called the king of Kippen.’—_Tales of a Grandfather._
It is melancholy to add to this story, that the last king of Kippen was
hanged at Carlisle, in 1746, for fighting in behalf of the ill-fated
descendant of the Gudeman of Ballangeigh, Prince Charles Stuart.
‘Another adventure, which had nearly cost James his life, is said to
have taken place at the village of Cramond, near Edinburgh, where he
had rendered his addresses acceptable to a pretty girl of the lower
rank. Four or five persons, whether relations or lovers of his mistress
is uncertain, beset the monarch, as he returned from his rendezvous.
Naturally gallant, and an admirable master of his weapon, the king
took post on the high and narrow bridge over the Almond river, and
defended himself bravely with his sword. A peasant, who was threshing
in a neighbouring barn, came out upon the noise, and, whether moved
by compassion or by natural gallantry, took the weaker side, and laid
about with his flail so effectually as to disperse the assailants, well
threshed, even according to the letter. He then conducted the king
into his barn, where his guest requested a basin and towel, to remove
the stains of the broil. This being procured with difficulty, James
employed himself in learning what was the summit of his deliverer’s
earthly wishes, and found that they were bounded by the desire of
possessing, in property, the farm of Braehead, upon which he laboured
as a bondsman. The lands chanced to belong to the Crown; and James
directed him to come to the Palace of Holyrood, and enquire for the
Gudeman of Ballangeigh. The poor man came as appointed, and, as the
king had given orders for his admission, he was soon brought into the
royal presence. James, still dressed in his travelling attire, received
him as the Gudeman of Ballangeigh, conducted him from one apartment to
another, by way of shewing him the palace, and then asked if he would
like to see the king. John Howison—for such was his name—said that
nothing would give him so much pleasure, if he were only sure that
he might be brought into the king’s hall without giving offence. The
Gudeman of Ballangeigh, of course, undertook that the king would not be
angry. ‘But,’ said John, ‘how am I to know his grace from the nobles
who will be all about him?’ ‘Easily,’ replied his companion, ‘all the
others will be bareheaded—the king alone will wear his bonnet.’
‘So speaking, King James introduced the countryman into a great hall,
which was filled by the nobility and officers of the crown. John was
a little frightened, and drew close to his attendant, but was still
unable to distinguish the King. ‘I told you that you should know him by
his wearing of his hat,’ said his conductor. ‘Then,’ said John, after
he had again looked round the room; ‘it must be either you or me, for
all but us are bareheaded.’
‘The king laughed at John’s fancy; and, that the good yeoman might
have occasion for mirth also, he made him a present of the farm of
Braehead, which he had wished so much to possess, on condition that
John Howison, and his successors, should be ready to present an ewer
and basin, for the king to wash his hands, when his Majesty should come
to Holyrood Palace, or should pass the bridge of Cramond. Accordingly,
in the year 1822, when George Fourth came to Scotland, the descendant
of John Howison, who still possesses the estate which was given to his
ancestor, appeared at a solemn festival, and offered his Majesty water
from a silver ewer, that he might perform the service by which he held
his lands.’ _Tales of a Grandfather—Notes to Lady of the Lake._
Another of James’ frolics is thus related, by Mr Campbell, from the
statistical account. ‘Being benighted when out a-hunting, and separated
from his attendants, he happened to enter a cottage in the midst of a
moor, at the foot of the Ochil Hills, near Alloa, where, unknown, he
was kindly received. In order to regale their unexpected guest, the
goodman desired the goodwife to fetch the hen that roosted nearest
the cock, which is always the plumpest, for the stranger’s supper.
The king, highly pleased with his night’s lodgings and hospitable
entertainment, told mine host, at parting, that he should be glad to
return his civility, and requested that, the first time he came to
Stirling, he would call at the castle, and enquire for the Gudeman
of Ballangeigh. Donaldson, the landlord, did not fail to call on the
Gudeman of Ballangeigh, when his astonishment, at finding that the king
had been his guest, afforded no small amusement to the merry monarch
and his courtiers. To carry on the pleasantry, he was henceforth
designated by James with the title of the King of the Moors, which name
and designation have descended from father to son ever since, and they
have continued in possession of the identical spot, the property of the
Earl of Mar, till very lately, when this nobleman, with reluctance,
turned out the descendant and representative of the King of the Moors,
on account of his Majesty’s invincible indolence, and great dislike to
reform or innovation of any kind; although, from the spirited example
of his neighbour tenants on the same estate, he was convinced that
similar exertion would promote his advantage.’
To give something like historical authority to these stories, which
are in a great measure mere matter of tradition, I may mention, that
a clergyman, writing a letter to James the Sixth, in 1597, within
fifty-five years after the death of their hero, says, ‘Wald your
Majesty hazard to imitat King James the Fifth, of famous memorie, and
travell as a privat and unsuspected man, alone, through the country, ye
wald get more information of your Majesties subjects affection towards
you, and that in half a-year, nor hitherto ye have done in all your
life long.’ _Calderwood’s Church History, M.S., Advocates’ Library,
vol. 5, p. 158._
NOTE 7. p. 19.
These letters, in the Saxon character, and arranged in a peculiar way,
form a common ornament on the corners of the gothic pillars, and on
other parts, of our principal old churches throughout the country. They
seem to have escaped the pious fury of the Reformers, by virtue of
their unintelligibility.
NOTE 8. p. 21.
In Herbertshire House, the seat of William Morehead, Esquire, is an old
painting, representing the Gardens and King’s Park in their original
state. A lady is seen walking in the gardens; and a deer is poking its
head over the wall which divided them from the park.
NOTE 9. p. 23.
This wall is of greater antiquity than that around the King’s Park at
Edinburgh, which was built by James V. It appears to have existed so
early as 1505; and, in all probability, it was built many years earlier
than even that remote date. It is thus alluded to in a charter granted
by James IV. to the magistrates of Stirling in 1505:
‘Quia, pro singulari favore quo gerimus erga dilectos nostros burgenses
et communitatem burgi nostri de Striveling, et in recompensatione pro
terris suis communibus de _Gallohillis_, dicto nostro burgo per ipsos
nobis concess., et nunc wallo per nos. castro et peke [_q. d. park_]
de Striveling inclusis; dedimus et concessimus hereditarie dictis
burgensibus et communitati, totas et integras acras nostras terrarum
quae olim fuerunt de le _auld park_ prope Striveling, jacen. INTER
MURUM LAPIDEUM nove peke nostre antedict. ex parte occidentali, et
terras nuncupatas _Bennies Croft_,[B] ac croftam leprosorum, ex parte
orientali, et terras nuncupatas le _Southfield_ pertinen. abbati et
conventui monasterii nostri de Dumfermling ex parte australi, et terras
nuncupatas le _Rudecroft_ ex parte boreali; una cum jure patronatûs et
donatione capillanie altaris Sancti Michaelis,[C] per quondam Magistrum
Thomam Carmichaell vicarium de Striveling, intra ecclesiam parochialem
fundat. ad nostram dispositionem et donationem quotiens vacaverit nunc
spectan.’
[B] _Bennies Croft_ is now the well known field of _Allan Park_.
[C] The parish Church of Stirling, prior to the Reformation in 1559,
was attached to the Monastery of Dominicans or Black Friars, near the
foot of Friar’s Wynd. This Monastery, again, was dependent upon the
Monastery of Benedictines or Black Monks at Dunfermline. Hence the
circumstance of the lands of Southfield having belonged to the Abbot
and Convent of Dunfermline; and hence, too, the circumstance of the
first minister of Stirling’s glebe having been originally situated in
Southfield, and of Southfield being still in the parish of Stirling,
and not in the parish of St. Ninians.
NOTE 10. p. 35.
Immediately behind Mar’s work, is a garden surrounded by an old wall,
in the west part of which there appears to have been an arched gate;
but, besides this garden, the Mar family had other pleasure grounds in
the vicinity, to which the gate alluded to led. Annabella, the widow
of the Regent, obtained from the crown, a charter of the ‘Parkhill of
Stirling,’ on the 16th April 1582, and a charter ‘_de rupe lie Heugh et
Brae de Parkhill de Stirling, &c._’ on the 29th of August 1588. These
grounds appear to be those now known by the name of the Ladies’ Hill,
Crandy Hill, and the Haining, still belonging to the family; and, at
this time, they were undoubtedly connected with the Royal Gardens,
and the King’s Park, which are immediately adjacent to them. In that
part of them, beside the Butt-well, may still be seen the remains of a
garden in a very warm and delightful spot; part of the beautiful public
walk, lately formed there, runs upon the very terrace; and, in various
parts of the hill above, were decayed fruit trees within the memory of
old people still living. At the south corner of the Crandy Hill, now so
tastefully enclosed by Dr Patrick Doig, stood a small house [depicted
in Slezer’s views of the castle,] which was inhabited by the Earl of
Mar’s gardener, previous to 1715. This gardener, probably, had charge
not only of the Earl of Mar’s grounds, but of the Royal Gardens and
King’s Park, beyond them; for the Mar family were generally captains
or constables of the castle of Stirling, and keepers of his Majesty’s
Gardens and Park, down till the union of the two kingdoms; and even
appear to have retained their connexion with Stirling Castle, from 1705
till 1714; Colonel John Erskine having been, during that period, deputy
governor.
In Mar’s Work, while in the possession of Annabella, James the
Sixth and his Queen took up their abode in December 1593, while the
castle was preparing for their reception, a fact which we state
on the authority of Moyse’s Memoires of the affairs of Scotland;
and here, according to Sir Robert Sibbald, the Earl who headed the
first Rebellion lived, in 1710, in great splendour. This Earl first
introduced the wilderness mode of planting into Scotland; and his
gardens at Alloa, in that style, were much visited and admired. It
may reasonably be supposed, that he gave some share of his attention
to his grounds in the Parkhill of Stirling; but the splendour of
this residence sunk with the catastrophe of 1715; and from that æra,
so fatal to his name, do we date the utter neglect into which the
Parkhill, the Royal Gardens, and King’s Park, still so beautiful amidst
all their desolation, have fallen.
* * * * *
[Transcriber’s note—the following changes have been made to this text.
Page 32: harguebussiers to harquebusiers.
1751 to 1571.
Page 39: govenor to governor—“governor of the castle”.
Page 43: Missisippi to Mississippi—“Mississippi Scheme”.
garrrison to garrison—“established a regular garrison”.
batallions to battalions—“substitute veteran battalions”.]
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