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.

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.

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.

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,

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:

Lyndsay, in his Complaynt of the Papingo, written in 1530, thus also alludes to it:

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:

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:

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

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.

Some attention yet remains to be paid to the delightful walks which pervade these most interesting localities. The public walks in Stirling are quite matchless in Scotland. The oldest of them is one which was begun in 1723, along the top of the rock which skirts the town to the south-west, and immediately under the wall which formerly fortified the town in that quarter. It was a Mr Edmonstoun, of Cambus-Wallace, who had the taste and public spirit to commence this work, which the magistrates completed about the end of the century. Since then, the walk has been extended round the back of the castle rock, and along the skirts of the Gowlan Hills, so as to make them a sort of inverted amphitheatre for seeing all the objects around Stirling. It is thus possible to see an amazing multiplicity of interesting objects within the space of about a mile of walk. Beginning at the old walk under the town-wall, the spectator sees, first, Bannockburn and Gillies Hill, the scenery of Bruce’s famous victory, and the field of Sauchie, which terminated the reign of the unfortunate James III.; near at hand, the steeple of Ninian’s church, deprived of its attendant place of worship, in 1746, by Prince Charles’ Highlanders, who blew it up after using it as a powder magazine; farther to the west, Touch House, still the seat of a branch of the Seton family, who were the King’s armour-bearers; then Craigforth, a beautifully wooded hill, rising abruptly from the plain, and having a bold precipice presented to the west (Plate V.); then the Teith, the Allan, and the Links of the Forth in all their windings. In the remoter parts of the scene, the spectator sees Benlomond, and his grand fraternity of lesser brothers, including Benledi, and Benvoirlich, which give an inconceivably magnificent air to the picture. Here it is curious to consider, that, from the castle above you, you can see, on one hand, the towers of academic, polished, intellectual Edinburgh, a place where civilization may be said to be carried to a pitch of exquisite perfection, while, on the other, you gaze on an alpine region where the people yet wear part of the dress, and mostly speak the language which obtained in Europe, before even the early ages of Grecian and Roman refinement. It is strange, thus to link together the extremes of human society,—thus to associate the nineteenth century before Christ, and the nineteenth century after him, for no less remote from each other, in reality, are the ideas arising from a view of Edinburgh and of the Highlands. But, it is not alone the objects at a distance from Stirling, that constitute the pleasure of a promenade over its walks. The objects more nearly at hand, come in for an immense share of this pleasure. ‘Who can look,’ says a citizen of Stirling, in an eloquent letter upon this very subject, ‘who can look upon our castle, and its palace, and noble park, upon the Royal Gardens and their celebrated Table, upon the Ladies’ Hill and the Valley below it, and upon our fine old Franciscan tower, so remarkable for its simple majesty, without being carried back in his imagination to the splendid scenes of other times;—to the reigns of the gallant and accomplished Jameses, to the days of tilt and tournament, and courtly pomp, to the feats of a brave and knightly nobility, to the chivalry and romance, in short, of Scottish history. No man of taste, or lover of his country, ever traversed our walks without pleasure, or left them without regret.’