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.