[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.]