STIRLING.
Stirling Castle crowns the summit of a rocky hill, which rises on the
banks of the Forth, in the midst of a vast extent of level and
richly-cultivated country. It is, of course, a very conspicuous object
from all the region around.
The hill is long and narrow. The length of it extends from north to
south. The northern end is the high end. The land slopes gently towards
the south, but the other sides are steep, and in many places they form
perpendicular precipices of rock, with the castle walls built on the
very brink of them.
The town lies chiefly at the foot of the hill, towards the south, though
there are one or two streets, bordered by quaint and queer old
buildings, that lead all the way up to the castle.
In front of the castle, at the place where these streets terminate, is a
broad space, smoothly gravelled, called the esplanade. This is used as a
parade ground, for drilling and training the new soldiers, and teaching
them the manoeuvres and exercises necessary to be practised in the
war.
On Sunday morning, after breakfast, Mr. George and the boys went out, to
go to church. Bells were ringing in various parts of the town. They were
drawn, by some invisible attraction, up the hill, in the direction of
the castle. They soon found other people going the same way; and
following them, they came, at length, to a very ancient-looking mass of
buildings, which, Mr. George said, he should have thought was an old
abbey, gone to ruin, if it were not that the people were all going into
it, under a great arched doorway. So he supposed it was a church, and he
and the boys went in with the rest.
There was a man at the door holding a large silver plate, to receive the
contributions of the people that came in. Mr. George stopped to get some
money out of his pocket. The man then seemed to perceive that he was a
stranger; so he said to him, speaking with a broad Scotch accent and
intonation,--
"Ye wull gae into the magistrates' seat. Or stay--I wull send a mon wi'
ye, to show ye the wa'."
So he called a door keeper, and the door keeper led the way up stairs,
into a gallery. The gallery was very wide, and was supported by
enormous pillars. The whole interior of the church had a very quaint and
antique air. The magistrate's seat was the front seat of the gallery. It
was a very nice seat, and was well cushioned. Before it, all around, was
a sort of desk, for the Bibles and Hymn Books to rest upon.
There were three pulpits--or what seemed to the boys to be pulpits--one
behind and above the other. The highest was for the minister; the next
below was for what in America would be called the leader of the choir;
though in Scotland, Mr. George said he believed he was called the
precentor. There was no choir of singers, as with us, but when the
minister gave out a hymn the precentor rose and commenced the singing,
and when he had got near the end of the first line all the congregation
joined in, and sang the hymn with him to the end. The third pulpit was
only a sort of chair, enclosed at the sides and above. What the man did
who sat in it the boys could not find out.
All the people in the church had Bibles on a sloping board before them,
in their pews, and when the minister named the text or read a chapter,
they all turned to the place, and looked over. Waldron said he thought
that this was an excellent plan.
Mr. George and the boys all liked the sermon very much indeed, and when
the service was ended, they walked a little way around the esplanade
before the castle, and then went home to dinner.
In the course of their excursion, however, they had observed that a
great many walks had been made at different elevations on the west side
of the hill, and that seats were placed there at different points, for
resting-places. These seats, and indeed the walks themselves, commanded
charming views of all the surrounding country. The boys wanted to run up
and down these paths, and explore the sides of the hill by means of them
in every part; but Mr. George recommended to them to wait till the next
day.
"We shall come up to-morrow," said he, "to visit the castle, and then we
will come out here, and have a picnic, on one of these stone seats.
After that I will find a place among the rocks to read or write, for an
hour, and while I am there you may climb about among the rocks and
precipices as much as you please."
The next morning the boys set out with Mr. George, soon after breakfast,
to go up to the castle. When they reached the esplanade they found
several small parties of soldiers there, under instruction. They all
wore red coats--that being the ordinary uniform of British soldiers.
Officers were marching them about, and teaching them how to handle their
muskets, and to keep step, and to wheel this way and that, and to
perform other such evolutions. A great many of the soldiers looked very
young. They were lads that had been recently enlisted, and were now
being trained to go to the war in the Crimea.
After looking at these soldiers a short time the party went on. At the
upper end of the esplanade there was a gateway leading into the castle
yard. There was a sentinel, in a Highland costume, keeping guard there.
Mr. George asked him if the public were allowed to go into the castle.
He said, "O, yes, certainly;" and so Mr. George and the boys went in.
As they went in they looked up, and saw a great many cannons pointed
down at them from the embrasures in the surrounding ramparts and
bastions.
"Those guns must be to keep the enemy from coming in," said Waldron.
Presently the party passed through another arched gateway, and came into
a large inner court, which was surrounded with various buildings, all
built of stone, and of a very massive and solid character. The palace
was on one side. It was adorned with a great many quaint and curious
sculptures and images. The palace itself, and all the other buildings,
were used as barracks for soldiers. A great many soldiers were standing
about the doors, and some were playing together about the court. Some of
them were dressed in the common British uniform, and some were in the
Highland costume.
While the boys were looking at the palace front, a soldier advanced
towards them in a very respectful manner, and said to Mr. George,--
"If you and the young gentlemen are strangers in Stirling, I will walk
about the castle with you, and point out the objects of interest to you,
if you desire it."
Mr. George accepted this offer, and the young soldier accordingly walked
with them all about. He pointed out all the different buildings, and
mentioned the dates of the erection of them, and referred to the most
important historical events that had transpired in them. Finally he led
the party through a gate into a small garden, and thence out upon the
rampart wall, from which there was a very extended and extraordinarily
beautiful view of the surrounding country.[E] To the north-west were
seen the Highlands, with the peaks of Ben Lomond, Ben Venue, and Benan,
rising conspicuously among them. On the east were other hills, rising
abruptly out of the smooth and smiling plain, and covered with dark
plantations of evergreen. All around the foot of the castle, and
extending to the distance, in some directions, of many miles, the
country was level and fertile, and it presented every where the most
enchanting pictures of rural beauty. Some of the fields were of the
richest green, others were brown from fresh tillage, with men ploughing
or harrowing in them, or plants just springing up in long green rows,
which, partly on account of the distance, and partly through the
exquisite neatness and nicety of farmers' work, looked so smooth, and
soft, and fine, that the scene appeared more like enchantment than
reality.
[E] For engraving of Stirling Castle see page 10.
On one side of the mountain was seen the River Forth, winding about
through meadows and green fields with the most extraordinary turnings
and involutions. The boys had seen winding rivers before, but never any
thing like this. The whole plain was filled with the windings of the
river, which looked like the links of a silver chain, lying half
embedded in a carpet of the richest green. Indeed, these windings of the
river, and the vast circular fields of fertile land which they enclose,
are called the Links of Forth. The view was diversified by villages,
hamlets, bridges, railway embankments, and other constructions, which
concealed the river here and there entirely from view, and made it
impossible to trace its course. The richness and beauty of these Links
of Forth appeared the more surprising to the boys from the contrast
which the scene presented to the dreary wastes of moss and heather which
they had seen in the Highlands. There is an old Scotch proverb that
refers to this contrast. It is this:--
"The lairdship of the bonnie Links of Forth
Is better than an _earldom_ in the north."
The course of the Forth could be traced for a long distance towards
Edinburgh; and Arthur's Seat, a high hill near Edinburgh, could be
distinctly seen in the south-eastern horizon.
At one place, in an angle in the wall of the rampart, was a stone step,
so placed that a lady, by standing upon it, might get a better view. The
soldier said that Queen Victoria stood upon that stone, when she visited
Stirling Castle, a few years ago, on her way to Balmoral. Balmoral is a
country seat she has among the Highlands, far to the north, in the midst
of the wildest solitudes. The queen goes there almost every summer, in
order to escape, for a time, from the thraldom of state ceremony, and
the pomp and parade of royal life, and live in peace among the mountain
solitudes.
The soldier pointed to the coping of the wall, where the figure of a
crown was cut in the stone, and the letters "V. R." by the side of it.
This inscription was a memorial of the queen's having stood at this spot
to view and admire the beauty of the scenery.
After Mr. George and the boys had seen all that they wished of the
castle, Mr. George gave the soldier a shilling, and they went out as
they had gone in, under the great archway. They passed across the
esplanade, and then came to a small, level piece of ground, with a high
rock beyond it, overlooking it. The level place was an ancient tilting
ground; that is, a ground where, in ancient times, they used to have
tilts and tournaments, for the amusement of the people of the palace,
and of the guests who came to visit them. The ladies used to stand on
the top of the rock to witness the tournaments. There was a large, flat
area there, with room enough upon it for twenty or thirty ladies to
stand and see. The rock was called the Lady's Rock. The tournaments and
tiltings have long since ceased, but it retains the name of the Lady's
Rock to the present day.
"Let us go up on it," said Rollo, "and see where the ladies stood."
There were a number of children playing about these grounds, and several
of them were upon the top of the Lady's Rock. They looked ragged and
poor. Rollo and Waldron climbed up to the place. The path was steep and
rugged. When they reached the top they looked down to the level area
where the tournaments were held.
"I don't think the place is big enough for a tournament," said Rollo.
"What is a tournament?" asked Waldron.
"A sort of sham fight of horsemen," said Rollo, "that they used to have
in old times, when they wore steel armor, and fought with spears and
lances. They used to ride against each other with blunt spears, and see
who could knock the other one off his horse. What are you laughing at,
uncle George?"
Rollo perceived that Mr. George was smiling at his very unromantic mode
of describing a tournament. "Is not that what they used to do at the
tournaments?"
"Yes," said Mr. George, "that is a pretty fair account of it, on the
whole. And now, boys," he continued, "I have got a plan of having a
picnic to-day, out under the castle walls here, instead of going to the
hotel for dinner; and we will go and find a good place for it."
The boys said that they would like this plan very much. "But then,"
said they, "we have not got any thing to eat."
Mr. George then explained to them that the plan which he had formed, was
for them to go down into the town, and buy something at the shops for a
picnic dinner, while he remained on the rocks, or on some seat on the
side of the Castle Hill, writing in his journal.
"Well," said Waldron, "we will do that. But what shall we buy?"
"Whatever you please," said Mr. George. "Walk along through the street,
and look in at the shop windows, and whenever you see any thing that you
think we shall like, buy it."
"Well," said Rollo, "we will. But how much shall we spend?"
"As much as you think it best," said Mr. George. "I leave every thing to
you. You see, our dinner at the hotel would not be less than seven
shillings, and that we shall save; so that if you don't spend more than
seven shillings you will be safe."
The boys were sure that they could procure very abundant supplies for
less money than that; and they very readily undertook the commission.
They accordingly left Mr. George at a seat near one of the walks on the
side of Castle Hill, where, as he said, he could look right down on the
famous field of Bannockburn, and they then began to run down the walk,
on the way towards the hotel.
They first went to the hotel to get a knapsack. They told the waiter
there that they should not be at home to dinner. They then walked along
the street, looking out for eatables. They soon found various shop
windows where such things were displayed, and in the course of a quarter
of an hour they had laid in an abundant supply. They bought some small,
flat cakes of bread at one place, and a veal and ham pie at another, and
two oranges apiece at another, and a bottle of milk at another, and
finally, for dessert, they got a pound of raisins and almonds mixed
together, which they chanced to see in a fruiterer's window. The cost of
the whole, the boys found, when they came to foot up the account, was
only two shillings and fourpence.
With these supplies the boys went up the hill again; not through the
street, but by the walk under the trees, outside the town wall. They
found Mr. George in the seat where they had left him. He had just
finished his writing. He was very much pleased with the purchases that
the boys had made, and they all sat down together on the stone seat, and
ate their dinner with excellent appetites.[F]
[F] See Frontispiece.
While they were eating the raisins and almonds Mr. George pointed down
to a beautiful field, yellow with buttercups, and said,--
"There, boys, do you see that field?"
The boys said they did.
"It is the field of Bannockburn. Look at it, and remember it well. When
you are five years older, and read the history of Scotland, you will
take great pleasure in thinking of the day when you looked down from
Stirling Castle on the field of Bannockburn."