THE BUILDINGS, THE PARK AND THE BRIDGE.
The castle that stands on Stirling rock to-day is not the building
that was the home of Alexander I. and William the Lion. Their royal
dwelling was thrown into ruins in the days of the devastating War of
Independence. Robert the Bruce’s invariable policy was to destroy all
fortresses that fell into his hands, lest they should be captured again
by the English and made the seats of oppression; so that most of the
castellated buildings that had escaped destruction before Bannockburn
were cast down or dismantled soon after that battle. In 1336, when the
Southrons were again overrunning distracted Scotland, King Edward III.
ordered the castle to be repaired and fortified, and it is possible
that some of the work then done has lasted to the present day. A
portion of the north-west structure, overlooking the steepest part of
the rock, may date from the time when Thomas de Rokeby held Stirling
for Edward III.
Throughout the reigns of the Stewart monarchs money was spent on
mason-work at the castle, but it is impossible to say with certainty
for how much of the building each king was responsible. It seems clear,
however, that the ancient gateway, afterwards built up, leading to
Ballengeich, was erected by Robert II., for the _Exchequer Rolls_ of
1380-1 mention the construction at Stirling Castle of a barbican and a
northern gate. This was apparently the main entrance to the fortress;
but either because the approach to the inner ward was found to be too
steep, or because a later building--perhaps the Parliament Hall--partly
obstructed the way, a new gateway was made beside the older one, and a
twisted tunnel was boldly cut through the lower storey of the Mint--a
building which was probably the “cunyie-house” of the early Stewarts,
and which seems to have been erected at the same time as the original
archway. There is little doubt also that important additions were made
during James III.’s reign. Certainly the castle wall was rebuilt in
1467,[91] and the likelihood is that it remains to the present day
in the part above the Prince’s Walk and in the portion of similar
construction overlooking Ballengeich.
[Illustration: THE OLD MINT.]
The splendid building called the Parliament Hall indicates by its style
of architecture that it belongs to a period corresponding to the reign
of James III., and tradition is doubtless correct in ascribing its
design to the ill-fated Cochrane who was hanged by the nobles at Lauder
Bridge. This great hall unfortunately suffered at the hands of the
military authorities when they converted it into barracks towards the
end of the eighteenth century, but even with all its defacements it is
still a building of noble proportions. Taylor, the Water-Poet, who saw
it in 1618, wrote that “it surpasses all the halls for dwelling-houses
that ever I saw, for length, breadth, height and strength of building.”
On the east and west sides the windows have been ruthlessly modernised,
but those in the south end remain unaltered, showing their simple
moulding and remarkable deep recesses. The oriel facing east, towards
the south end of the hall, preserves much of its former beauty, its
most interesting features being the interlacing of the moulded jambs
of the now built-up side lights. The tower on the east side containing
the stair is still a prominent feature of the building, although it is
not now crowned by its steep-pitched conical roof. A covered passage
formerly extended along the west side of the edifice, but--like the
majority of the figures that filled the niches on the walls--it has
not survived the harsh treatment to which the Parliament Hall was
subjected. The corners of this great pile were formerly adorned with
turrets, but these with the rest of the building were allowed to go to
decay, and were removed when the hall was repaired for use as barracks.
The stones of the south gable bear numerous scars like bullet-marks,
which possibly date from the siege of 1746. The Highlanders on that
occasion climbed to the roofs of the houses in the town, and thence
discharged their small arms at the fortress that so resolutely kept at
bay the enemies of King George.
[Illustration: PORTCULLIS IN JAMES IV.’S GATEWAY.]
The portcullis gateway leading to the lower courtyard from the outer
works was erected by James IV.[92] This fore-entry is not now so
imposing as it was in the days of the Stewart sovereigns, for instead
of the two stumps of towers now remaining there were formerly four high
bastion-like structures. This part of the castle received some damage
from the guns of General Monk, but although the towers suffered at the
time of the siege, they were standing many years afterwards. Gradually,
however, they crumbled into ruins until repairs were undertaken to
prevent further decay at about the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The lowest chamber in each of these great towers was a dark and noisome
dungeon. The vaulted passage of the gateway was provided at both the
outer and the inner ends with portcullises, one of which still hangs
in the small archway at the side of the principal entrance.
It has been thought that the Palace, the most important part of
Stirling Castle, owes its origin to James IV. True, it is always spoken
of as James V.’s building, but several extracts from the _Treasurer’s
Accounts_ have led many to believe that the work was begun by the
knight-errant monarch who fell on Flodden Field. Certainly, in 1496,
Walter and John Merlioun, masons, were employed on the King’s house
in Stirling, and in the following year the master-mason of Linlithgow
rode over to give his advice. If the Palace, however, had been merely
begun by James IV. the _Treasurer’s Accounts_ would not have contained
references to glass for the windows and to other furnishings for a
nearly furnished building;[93] and it is obvious by the style of the
architecture, which is the earliest Renaissance work in Scotland, that
the work could not have been completed before the fifth James succeeded
to the throne. The house that was being erected by John and Walter
Merlioun may have been the tower called the Keep, an older and plainer
edifice than the Palace to which it has been joined.
This building, then, was raised in the time of James V., the monarch
during whose troubled reign the Renaissance style was introduced.
The King’s visit to France for his marriage with Princess Madeleine
in 1537, may have increased his interest in the architecture of the
day, but the royal dwelling at Stirling was probably designed before
the date of that alliance, as Sir James Hamilton of Finnart, who
was James’s principal architect, and who is known to have worked at
Stirling Castle,[94] had seen the French Renaissance structures twenty
years before.
[Illustration: JAMES V. AS “THE GUDEMAN O’ BALLENGEICH.”]
The Palace is an ornate edifice, showing a blending of the Gothic and
the Classical designs. It is roughly in the form of a square, having
a courtyard in the middle called the Lions’ Den, where tradition says
the royal animals were caged. The third and fourth Jameses certainly
owned lions, and it is likely that their successor kept a specimen
of the King of Beasts as much for his amusement as for an emblem of
royal power. On the exterior of the Palace, between the windows--each
of which is surmounted by a stone showing I 5 for James V.--are
shallow niches containing ornamental pillars supporting statues which
are now much defaced. The figure at the north-east corner of the
building is thought to represent the King disguised as the “Gudeman
o’ Ballengeich,” as above the head a lion holds the crown and a
tablet inscribed I 5. Running round three sides of the Palace
is an elaborately-carved cornice, upon which rests a series of short
pillars, each one intended to bear a small statue, although some on the
north are wanting. Towards the west the building presents an unfinished
appearance; obviously it was meant to have additions on that side. The
interior of the Palace has been greatly changed since the days of James
V., but one or two noble fire-places still exist in the rooms that are
now given over to the soldiers. More than one ancient door studded
with iron has survived the alterations; but the beautiful carved oak
panels, representing members of the Royal Family and persons about
the Court, and known as the Stirling Heads, were removed towards the
end of the eighteenth century because one of them fell from its place
in the ceiling and seriously injured a soldier. Tradition asserts,
doubtless with truth, that the gratings were placed in the windows for
the protection of young James VI., in the stormy days when raids on
Stirling were events against which it was well to be guarded.
[Illustration: THE PROSPECT OF THEIR MAJESTIES’ CASTLE OF STIRLING.
From Engraving by Captain John Slezer, 1693.]
On the north side of the inner square stands the Chapel rebuilt by
James VI. in 1594. This was the Chapel Royal of Scotland before King
James carried out Queen Mary’s wish and transferred the endowments
and the epithet “Royal” to the chapel of Holyroodhouse. It is a
somewhat plain Renaissance structure, having externally much the same
appearance as when it was newly finished for Prince Henry’s baptism.
The Chapel, however, has been put to so many secular uses that the
interior now bears no resemblance to a place of worship, and it is hard
to believe that within these walls a brilliant congregation of nobles
assembled to witness the christening of an heir to two crowns.
The _Exchequer Rolls_ and other sources of information contain many
entries referring to the payment of chaplains in Stirling Castle,
and some of those records imply that for a considerable period two
ecclesiastical buildings were maintained on the top of the rock. The
Collegiate Church of Stirling was not the same edifice as that which
was known as the Old Kirk in the castle. The truth seems to be that
when James III. determined to erect a Chapel Royal and Collegiate
Church he chose a new site for this building, and not the one occupied
by the Kirk of St. Michael, where he and his fathers had worshipped.
There were two chapels in Stirling Castle as late as the second half of
the sixteenth century,[95] but to-day no walls remain above the ground
to point out the position of old St. Michael’s Church. Its site was
probably the high part of the rock near the north-west angle of the
Palace. The building that James VI. re-erected in 1594 doubtless rests
on the foundations of James III.’s Collegiate Church.
The part of the castle containing the Douglas Room was largely
destroyed by fire in the middle of the nineteenth century, and has
been restored in a style out of keeping with its surroundings, but the
closet with the window through which the Earl’s body was flung did
not share the fate of the neighbouring apartments on the night of the
conflagration.
The present outer gateway of Stirling Castle is a comparatively modern
structure. It was probably erected in the first half of the eighteenth
century in view of the expected Jacobite rebellion. The inner barrier
with the initials of Queen Anne is naturally supposed to date from that
monarch’s reign, but the probability is that the fortifications were
only strengthened in the early eighteenth century, for Slezer’s views
of the castle in 1693 show walls and turrets similar to those now known
as Queen Anne’s, and as Slezer records that the battery was at that
time in course of erection, it is unlikely that it would have needed
rebuilding only some ten years later. This bulwark of William and
Mary’s reign probably succeeded an earlier fortification in nearly the
same situation, for the French or Spur Battery would not likely have
been erected beyond the outer gate of the castle, and the Prince’s
Walk, with the adjacent lawn, was almost certainly protected by a wall
before the last decade of the seventeenth century.
The Nether Bailey was never much built upon, and does not now contain
any interesting structures. The name, meaning the “lower fortified
enclosure,” is derived through the late Latin _ballium_, from _vallum_,
a fortification or rampart.
As a water supply within the walls was essential to every medieval
castle, the well in many fortresses is the oldest piece of work that
has come down to the present day. Stirling Castle possesses two wells,
both of them of great antiquity, but the probability is that the one in
the Outer Square is older than that in the Nether Bailey. The earliest
stronghold doubtless occupied only the higher part of the rock, and
when in later times the lower ledge was enclosed the additional well
would be made. Both founts are known to have been used before the
middle of the fourteenth century, but the older one must have been hewn
out of the rock many hundreds of years earlier than the days of David
Bruce. To-day the wells in Stirling Castle are not exposed to view, but
it is likely that in the near future one at least will be uncovered,
and will remain open as of yore.
The first mention of a royal park connected with Stirling Castle occurs
in the reign of King William the Lion. That monarch, as has already
been stated, acknowledged in a charter to the monks of Dunfermline
that he had appropriated some of their land when he first enclosed
the chase. This piece of ground, to the south-west of the castle, was
afterwards known as the Old Park to distinguish it from another royal
hunting-field made by Alexander III. The New Park of King Alexander lay
to the south of the other, and its position brought it prominently into
history at the time of the Battle of Bannockburn.
Towards the end of his life King Robert the Bruce granted the lands of
Old Park and New Park to his faithful servant, Adam the Barber;[96] but
during David Bruce’s reign the estates by some means became for a time
Sir Robert Erskine’s property. The King resumed possession of the royal
domains by giving Erskine in exchange the lands of Alloa and others,
but soon afterwards David bestowed the New Park on Alexander Porter,
who was obliged to present to the King every year _arcum cum uno
circulo pro alaudis_--a bow and apparently a snare for catching larks.
A portion of the Old Park was granted by James IV. to the burgesses
of Stirling in compensation for the lands of Gallowhills (or Gowan
Hills), which they had allowed him to enclose.[97] The table-land lying
to the south-west of the castle rock is known to this day as the King’s
Park, and, along with the Gowan Hills, is still the property of the
Crown.
As a short cut to the Park and to the King’s Stables, which lay not
far from the village of Raploch, a path was made in 1531 down the
steep hillside from the north-west angle of the castle. The built-up
doorway can still be seen in the wall of the Nether Bailey, and it was
doubtless by this postern that the boy James VI. passed out to hunt on
the summer day of 1579 when his wardens allowed him to go forth without
a guard.
It is not until the latter half of the fifteenth century that the
Royal Gardens at Stirling become important enough to demand attention.
In earlier days there was probably a piece of ground set apart for
horticultural purposes on the top of the castle rock, but not before
the reign of James III. do gardens on an extensive scale appear to
have been laid out. In the _Exchequer Rolls_ of that King’s time there
are numerous entries of payments to James Wilson, the keeper of the
garden at Stirling Castle; indeed, the unfortunate _dilettante_ monarch
was almost as much interested in his plants and fruit-trees as in
architecture, music and astrology. This King and his successor, James
of the Iron Belt, wrought great improvements in the pleasure grounds
at Stirling. The father made a new royal garden, which probably lay on
the sloping land close to the old Round Table; and the son extended the
horticultural area by including a portion of the adjoining meadow and
thus embracing the ancient mound. James IV. was more versatile than his
father, and he showed his warlike nobles that devotion to gardening
and other peaceful occupations was not incompatible with interest
in military affairs. The new enclosure was stocked with plum-trees,
pear-trees, vines and vegetables, as well as strawberries and flowers.
There was in the Park a small natural loch to the south of the Round
Table, but James IV. seems to have made ponds or canals beside his
new beds and terraces, for the garden was not only an orchard, it was
also a pleasant retreat for the King and the lords and ladies of the
Court. The clergy of the Chapel Royal took over the charge of the
horticulture, and sent men to different parts of Scotland to procure
the best seeds and plants.
The Round Table which formed the middle point of James IV.’s new garden
was probably in ancient days a place for holding tribal assemblies. In
early feudal times it seems to have been the centre of the King’s Ward,
which was the muster-ground where armed vassals presented themselves
to their sovereign. The _Exchequer Rolls_ of James IV. state that the
King changed the ward into a garden, and it was doubtless after this
alteration that the place came to be spoken of as the Knot, although
the old name continued to be used, for Sir David Lyndsay in James V.’s
reign wrote of the “Tabyll Rounde.” The Town Council of Stirling,
thinking that the mound and terraces were in danger of becoming
obliterated, repaired and slightly altered the King’s Knot in the
latter half of the nineteenth century.
The site of the tournament ground at Stirling has been a matter of
dispute, some holding that the jousting took place on the flat land
near the King’s Knot, others maintaining that the hollow called the
Valley, between the castle and the Ladies’ Rock, was the scene of
these chivalric encounters. The truth seems to be that although the
Valley was used for games in the time of James VI.,[98] the level
ground below the hill was the place where the lists were set in the
period of the early Stewart kings. This opinion is supported by the
fact that the ground now covered by houses to the south-east of the
King’s Knot was formerly known by the significant name of the Justing
(or Justin) Flats. It must have been on this level tract that the
Douglases fought with the knights of Burgundy in the presence of James
II., for in the Valley there would have been too little space for the
lists, the champions’ tents, the King’s pavilion and the four thousand
retainers brought by the Douglases to witness the encounter. The rock
where tradition says the ladies sat to view the games and combats is
much nearer to the Valley than to the Justin Flats, but it is probable
that the high-born dames of the Court sat in the royal pavilion beside
the lists, and that the rock was occupied by gentlewomen to whom the
privilege was not granted of sitting beside the King. It may be,
however, that the Ladies’ Rock did not receive its name till Queen
Mary’s time or even till 1594, when the Valley was the scene of the
sports which were held in celebration of Prince Henry’s baptism.
The surroundings of the castle, like the buildings themselves, have
undergone considerable changes since royalty resided in Stirling. No
beds of flowers and fish ponds are now to be seen in the gardens of
the Jameses: that piece of ground is somewhat like what it was before
the Round Table became the King’s Knot. Villas now stand on the once
famous Justin Flats; the small Park Loch has been drained away; and the
Ladies’ Rock has suffered partial demolition to make room for the new
cemetery that occupies the Valley. Ballengeich, or the “Windy Pass,”
on the other side of the castle, was deepened at the north-west end to
afford a more gradual ascent for the road; and the Back Walk, leading
from Ballengeich round the rock, although it had been begun a number
of years before “Prince Charlie’s” siege, was not completed till the
eighteenth century had almost come to a close.
* * * * *
The old Bridge of Stirling, although half a mile distant from the
summit of the rock, has been too closely associated with the history
of the castle to be overlooked in even a brief description of the
buildings and their surroundings. The fortress watched and guarded the
bridge for three centuries and a half, as it had watched and guarded
the earlier bridge which crossed the Forth about one hundred yards
above the site of the later structure. The early edifice, which seems
to have been a platform of wood on piers of stone, was the scene of
Wallace’s victory in 1297. During that great battle the beams gave way,
plunging many soldiers into the river; and although Edward I. in 1305
issued a writ for the repair of the bridge,[99] it was apparently never
rebuilt, as throughout the fourteenth century a ferry was in use at
Stirling.
[Illustration: STIRLING OLD BRIDGE.]
The stone bridge of four arches, which is still to be seen, was
erected in the early days of the fifteenth century, but in the course
of many ages it has undergone repairs and alterations. Under Robert
III. the building was begun, and was finished by his brother, the
Regent Albany, about the year 1415. Its appearance to-day is slightly
less imposing than it was before the middle of the eighteenth century,
for in former times the road passed through an archway at each end
of the bridge--the northern one containing an iron gate--and the
buttresses of the central pier rose above the parapet and were made to
form small guardhouses for those who kept the gate. On the southern
bank of the Forth, at the end of the bridge, stood the Chapel of St.
Marrock or St. Roch, in which in pre-Reformation days kings and others
made their offerings before passing over the stream. As the road
approaches the river from the north, it is made to take a double twist,
the object of this arrangement doubtless being to throw into confusion
any body of cavalry intending to force a passage at this important
spot. Probably for the same defensive purpose the bridge is not
straight but is somewhat bow-shaped; it seems to sag as if it had felt
the current’s strain, for the centre is about a couple of feet further
down the stream than the ends.
It may truly be said that Stirling Auld Brig has borne more men
and women famous in Scotland’s history than any other bridge in the
kingdom. Every Scottish monarch, from James I. to Charles II., nine
sovereigns in all, has crossed the Forth by those arches. To most of
the kings and queens, as to the majority of the Scottish nobility, the
bridge was as familiar as the castle. Because of its being a clasp
connecting the north with the south, this structure was almost as
valuable a military post as the stronghold which overlooks it. When
the rebels closed the gates of the castle against King James III.,
they at the same time placed a force at the bridge in order to cut off
communications between the sovereign and his northern friends. The
royal forces, however, with more spirit than they showed a few days
later at Sauchieburn, drove this company across the Bridge of Forth and
pursued them as far as the house of Keir.
In later times, the Privy Council in Edinburgh, realising the
importance of the bridge, ordered that it as well as the castle should
be in a state of defence, for Montrose had won the battle of Tippermuir
and his Scoto-Irish soldiers were expected to pass by way of Stirling.
The Marquis, however, on his way to the south, avoided crossing the
Forth near the castle, but his enemy, Baillie, the Covenanting general,
led his troops over the river by this bridge before his defeat by
Montrose at Kilsyth. Again, on the outbreak of the Fifteen Rebellion,
Wightman, the Hanoverian general, took possession of both bridge and
castle, placing sentries in the former’s guardhouses, as the object of
the Government was to prevent the Highland Jacobites from joining their
friends in the south. The bridge was prominent in military history
for the last time during “Prince Charlie’s” war. Its proximity to the
garrisoned castle caused the Highlanders to cross the Forth at Frew,
some eight miles up the river, and before they returned from England
to the neighbourhood of Stirling, Blakeney had cut the south arch, so
that when Cumberland pressed on their rear they could not retreat by
the bridge. By throwing beams across the breach the Hanoverian soldiers
were able to take the nearest way to the north, but three years elapsed
before the broken arch was restored to its former condition.
The Forth is now spanned by many bridges, including a comparatively
new one at Stirling, but from the days of the Regent Albany until the
middle of the eighteenth century all traffic between north and south
that went not by ford and ferry was supported by the four medieval
arches. The Old Bridge of Stirling, although closed to vehicles, still
bears passengers on foot; but its great days all belong to the past,
though “Time, which antiquates antiquities,” and has long ago given to
it a venerable appearance, will not destroy the fabric for many years
to come and will cherish its story for ever.