Chapter II: Part 2

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.

_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)

_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.

It is perhaps a more interesting fact than any of the above, that Stirling gave a welcome to Charles II., when he visited it in the course of his unhappy pilgrimage in Scotland, in 1650–1, for the recovery of the kingdoms lost by his father. There are many things in the council records to denote, that the magistracy, at that trying period, and even during the dominancy of the commonwealth, retained a strong feeling of loyalty for the descendant of their ancient kings. Stirling was one of the Scottish burghs which Cromwell disfranchised, for not consenting to the union he desired to effect betwixt Scotland and England. A somewhat amusing anecdote is handed down by tradition, in reference to Charles the Second’s residence at Stirling. It seems that he thought proper to pay a personal visit to the Reverend Mr Guthrie, the puritan minister of the town; nothing at that period being practicable without the good will and influence of the clergy. When Charles entered the manse, Mrs Guthrie bustled about, with the officious kindness of a housewife, to get a chair for the king. ‘Never mind, gudewife,’ said the cynic; ‘the king’s a young man, and can tak a chair for himsel.’ We can scarcely suppose that Charles would be much offended at this singular piece of rudeness, which must have been too characteristic to fail in tickling a mind like his. Yet it might make him less anxious to save Guthrie from the death to which he was doomed, for his distinguished disloyalty, after the Restoration.

Stirling appears to have lent a good deal of money to this sovereign, during his misfortunes, besides performing other acts of service in behalf of himself and his friends. It is a pleasure to add, that he retained a grateful sense of the kindness of the citizens of Stirling, and, on arriving at his period of power, extended and confirmed their former privileges.

The town was honoured in 1681, by the visit of James, Duke of York and Albany, (afterwards James II.,) who then resided in Scotland, in a sort of honourable banishment, to escape the hostility of the Monmouth and Shaftesbury party, who were endeavouring to procure his exclusion from the throne. The magistrates and council, under date, October 21, 1680, ‘recommendis to the dean-of-guild and conveiner, to speik to thair respective incorporations, anent the provyding of partizans agane his Royal Highnes reception, and to report thair opinions to the magistrats, Saturday nixt.’ On the 4th of February 1681, the magistrates and council, in full convention, received and admitted to the honours and privileges of their burgh, ‘James, Duke of York and Albanie;’ besides a great number of his attendants, among whom is conspicuous, ‘Collonel John Churchill, attending on his Royall Highness.’ This person, at the time in question, was page to the Duke; but, in after times, reached the pinnacle of greatness and fame as Duke of Marlborough. It would appear that the magistracy presented the freedom of the town to his Royal Highness, in an expensive gold box, as the following entry occurs in the register, under date, March 14, 1681: ‘Ordains the thesaurer to pay William Law, goldsmith, thrie hundreth eightin pundis, fiftein shilling, for the gold-box he furnished to his Royall Highnes burges ticket.’ [This Law must have been the father of the celebrated projector of the Mississippi Scheme.]

As a farther testimony of the loyalty of the town at this period, the following entry may be quoted: ‘The seavint day of October 1681, admittis and receaves Captain John Graham of Claverhouse, Sir Andro Bruce of Earlshall, Mr David Grahame, brother to Claverhouse, James Montgomerie, ane of the corporalls of Claverhouse troupe, Alexander Scott, writer in Edinburgh, William Dickison, son to ________ Dickison, proveist of Forfar, David Buchanan, servant to Claverhouse, John Cuming and Adam Galloway, Claverhouse trumpetters, burgesses and guild brethren of the said brugh gratis; and they present made faith, as use is. And also admittis and receaves David Neve, Robert Kerr, William Sluthers, and John Purveis, servitors to Claverhouse, John Simpson and Alexander Watson, servitors to Earleshall, John Wallace and Alexander Luggat, servitors to William Grahame, cornet of Claverhouse troupe, and John Watson, servitor to Robert Murray, ane of the said troupe, neighbours and burgesses of the said brugh, and that gratis; and ilk ane made faith, as use is.’

No other royal personage visited Stirling till Prince Charles Stuart, grandson to the ill-starred prince who was received with so much gratulation as above, forced his entrance into the town, with his army of Highlanders, on the 8th of January 1746. The town was, on that occasion, held out with considerable spirit, for two days; but was forced at last to capitulate. The letter which Charles sent to summon the magistrates to surrender, is yet extant in the town-clerk’s office.

NOTE 3. p. 9.—ACCOUNT OF THE STIRLING JUG.

By an act of the Scottish Parliament, in 1437, various burghs in the Lowlands were appointed to keep the various standard measures for liquid and dry goods, from which all others throughout the country were to be taken. To Edinburgh was appointed the honour of keeping the standard Ell—to Perth the Reel—to Lanark the Pound—to Linlithgow the Firlot—and to Stirling the Pint. This was a judicious arrangement, both as it was calculated to prevent any attempt at an extensive or general scheme of fraud, and as the commodities, to which the different standards referred, were supplied in the greatest abundance by the districts and towns, to whose care they were committed; Edinburgh being then the principal market for cloth, Perth for yarn, Lanark for wool, Linlithgow for grain, and Stirling for distilled and fermented liquors.

The Pint Measure, popularly called the Stirling Jug, is still kept with great care in the town where it was first deposited four hundred years ago. It is made of brass, in the shape of a hollow cone truncated; and it weighs 14 lb. 10 oz. 1 dr. 18 grs. Scottish Troy. The mean diameter of the mouth is 4.17 inches English—of the bottom 5.25 inches,—and the mean depth 6 inches. On the front, near the mouth, in relief, there is a shield bearing a lion _rampant_, the Scottish national arms; and near the bottom is another shield, bearing an ape _passant gardant_, with the letter S. below, supposed to be the armorial bearing of the foreign artist who probably was employed to fabricate the vessel. The handle is fixed with two brass nails; and the whole has an appearance of rudeness, quite proper to the early age when it was first instituted by the Scottish Estates, as the standard of liquid measure for this ancient bacchanalian kingdom.

It will be interesting to all votaries of antiquity to know, that this vessel, which may in some measure be esteemed a national palladium, was rescued, about eighty years ago, from the fate of being utterly lost, to which all circumstances for some time seemed to destine it. The person whom we have to thank for this good service, was the Reverend Alexander Bryce, minister of Kirknewton, near Edinburgh, a man of scientific and literary accomplishment much superior to what was displayed by the generality of the clergy of his day. Mr Bryce (who had taught the mathematical class in the College of Edinburgh, during the winter of 1745–6, instead of the eminent Maclaurin, who was then on his death-bed,) happened to visit Stirling in the year 1750; when, recollecting that the standard Pint Jug was appointed to remain in that town, he requested permission from the magistrates to see it. The magistrates conducted him to their council-house, where a _pewter_ pint jug was taken down from the roof, whence it was suspended, and presented to him. After a careful examination, he was convinced that this could not be the legal standard. He communicated his opinion to the magistrates; but they were equally ignorant of the loss which the town had sustained, and indisposed to take any trouble for the purpose of retrieving it. It excited very different feelings in the acute and enquiring mind of Dr Bryce; and, resolved, if possible, to recover the valuable antique, he immediately instituted a search; which, though conducted with much patient industry for about a twelvemonth, proved, to his great regret, unavailing. In 1752, it occurred to him, that the standard jug might have been borrowed by some of the coppersmiths or braziers, for the purpose of making legal measures for the citizens, and, by some chance, not returned. Having been informed that a person of this description, named Urquhart, had joined the insurgent forces in 1745—that, on his not returning, his furniture and shop utensils had been brought to sale—and that various articles, which had not been sold, were thrown into a garret as useless, a gleam of hope darted into his mind, and he eagerly went to make the proper investigation. Accordingly, in that obscure garret, groaning underneath a mass of lumber, he discovered the precious object of his research.

Thus was discovered the only standard, by special statute, of all liquid and dry measure in Scotland, after it had been offered for sale at perhaps the cheap and easy price of one penny, rejected as unworthy of that little sum, and subsequently thrown by as altogether useless; and many years after it had been considered, by its constitutional guardians, as irretrievably lost.

Mr Bryce, being permitted to take the valuable utensil with him to Edinburgh, there subjected it to a variety of experiments, from which he deduced the following facts:—

The weight of the contents of the Stirling Jug, in ‘clear water,’ is equal to 26,180 grains, English Troy.

There are 103⁴⁰⁴⁄₁₀₀₀ cubic inches in the standard Scottish pint.

It being ascertained, from an act of Parliament, 1618, that the wheat and pease firlot was statuted to contain 21¼ pints, and the bear and oat firlot 31 pints of the Stirling jug; and it being likewise ascertained that there are 103.404 cubic inches in the standard Scottish pint; Mr Bryce found that there are 2197³³⁵⁄₁₀₀₀ cubic inches in the wheat and pease firlot, and 3205⁵²⁴⁄₁₀₀₀ cubic inches in the bear and oat firlot; and so on in the smaller measures.

The excess of a boll of bear (_barley_) above a boll of wheat was found to be precisely 5 pecks bear measure, and 1 mutchkin, without the difference of a single gill; or a boll of bear is more than a boll of wheat by 7 pecks 1½ lippy, wheat measure, wanting 1 gill.

For ascertaining these and many similar facts, and for his ‘good services’ in recovering the Stirling Jug, Mr Bryce was presented with the freedom of the city of Edinburgh, January 1754. The canons which he thus instituted for public measures, continued in use till the late general change of weights and measures throughout the United Kingdom.

NOTE 4. p. 10.

It also comprises the lands of Raploch belonging to Cowan’s Hospital, and Southfield belonging to Spittal’s Hospital, neither of which are burgal, and the village of Cambuskenneth, and farms of Hood and East and West side of Abbey, which belonged to the abbot. It is very doubtful whether it includes the constabulary of the castle, or crown lands, viz. the greater part of the site of the Castle, the Gowlan Hills, Butt Park, King’s Park, and the Royal Gardens; all which are without burgh. It is likewise very doubtful whether it includes the Ladies’ Hill, the Crandy Hill, and the Haining, lands which were gifted by the Crown to the Mar family, and which are likewise undoubtedly without the burgal territory.

NOTE 5. p. 12.

Mary is stated by tradition to have established a regular garrison corps for the protection of Stirling Castle; the dress of which, according to the same uncertain authority, was the Lorrain uniform. Certes, till the year 1802, the Castle was garrisoned by a corps of about a hundred men, who were commanded by a lieutenant and ensign, and wore a dress decidedly different from all other British uniforms. The men had a small French-looking cocked hat, a long red coat, with green facings, red breeches, and long black leggens. The officers wore clothes of superior material, but of the same hue and fashion; the drummer alone having a short coat of a different colour—namely, of green. At a former period, the breeches were blue, and the belts black; latterly, the breeches were as stated, and the belts white. The arms were latterly a musket and bayonet, with a sword; but, at a remoter time, they are said to have carried Lochaber axes, like the town-guard of Edinburgh. The only objection to the popular theory of their having been instituted by Mary of Lorrain, and dressed to her taste, is, that in each of the other three fortresses, appointed by the act of Union to be kept up in Scotland, there was a corps of the same description. The whole were broken up in 1802, when the government found it necessary to substitute veteran battalions in the Scottish fortresses. It is to be regretted that so conspicuous a memorial of the old times of Scotland’s independence should have been permitted to perish, even for so good a cause as that of protecting the country against French invasion.

⁂ Perhaps it is worthy of being remarked, that the dress of the governor of Stirling Castle, which is now turned up with blue, was formerly faced, like that of the garrison corps, with green.

NOTE 6. p. 15.—THE BALLANGEIGH ADVENTURES.

‘JAMES V. was a monarch whose good and benevolent intentions often rendered his romantic freaks venial, if not respectable, since, from his anxious attentions to the lower and most oppressed class of his subjects, he was, as we are told, popularly termed the _King of the Commons_. For the purpose of seeing that justice was regularly administered, and frequently from the less justifiable motive of gallantry, he used to traverse the vicinage of his several palaces in various disguises. The two excellent comic songs, entitled, ‘The Gaberlunzie Man,’ and ‘We’ll gang nae mair a-roving,’ are said to have been founded upon the success of his amorous adventures when travelling in the disguise of a beggar.’—_Scotsman’s Library._

‘Once upon a time, when he was feasting in Stirling, the king sent for some venison from the neighbouring hills. The deer were killed and put on horses’ backs, to be transported to Stirling. Unluckily they had to pass the castle-gates of Arnpryor, belonging to a chief of the Buchanans, who had a considerable number of guests with him. It was late, and the company rather short of victuals, though they had more than enough of liquor. The chief, seeing so much fat venison passing his very door, seized on it; and to the expostulations of the keepers, who told him it belonged to King James, he answered insolently, that if James was king in Scotland, he, Buchanan, was king in Kippen, being the name of the district in which the castle of Arnpryor lay. On hearing what had happened, the king got on horseback, and rode instantly from Stirling to Buchanan’s house, where he found a fierce-looking Highlander, with an axe on his shoulder, standing centinel at the door. This grim warden refused the king admittance, saying that the Laird of Arnpryor was at dinner, and would not be disturbed. ‘Yet go up to the company, my good friend,’ said the king, ‘and tell him that the Gudeman of Ballangeigh is come to feast with the king of Kippen.’ The porter went grumbling into the house, and told his master that there was a fellow with a red beard, who called himself the Gudeman of Ballangeigh, at the gate, who said he was come to dine with the king of Kippen. As soon as Buchanan heard these words, he knew that the king was there in person, and hastened down to kneel at James’ feet, and ask forgiveness for his insolent behaviour. But the king, who only meant to give him a fright, forgave him freely, and, going into the castle, feasted on his own venison, which Buchanan had intercepted. Buchanan of Arnpryor was ever after called the king of Kippen.’—_Tales of a Grandfather._

It is melancholy to add to this story, that the last king of Kippen was hanged at Carlisle, in 1746, for fighting in behalf of the ill-fated descendant of the Gudeman of Ballangeigh, Prince Charles Stuart.

‘Another adventure, which had nearly cost James his life, is said to have taken place at the village of Cramond, near Edinburgh, where he had rendered his addresses acceptable to a pretty girl of the lower rank. Four or five persons, whether relations or lovers of his mistress is uncertain, beset the monarch, as he returned from his rendezvous. Naturally gallant, and an admirable master of his weapon, the king took post on the high and narrow bridge over the Almond river, and defended himself bravely with his sword. A peasant, who was threshing in a neighbouring barn, came out upon the noise, and, whether moved by compassion or by natural gallantry, took the weaker side, and laid about with his flail so effectually as to disperse the assailants, well threshed, even according to the letter. He then conducted the king into his barn, where his guest requested a basin and towel, to remove the stains of the broil. This being procured with difficulty, James employed himself in learning what was the summit of his deliverer’s earthly wishes, and found that they were bounded by the desire of possessing, in property, the farm of Braehead, upon which he laboured as a bondsman. The lands chanced to belong to the Crown; and James directed him to come to the Palace of Holyrood, and enquire for the Gudeman of Ballangeigh. The poor man came as appointed, and, as the king had given orders for his admission, he was soon brought into the royal presence. James, still dressed in his travelling attire, received him as the Gudeman of Ballangeigh, conducted him from one apartment to another, by way of shewing him the palace, and then asked if he would like to see the king. John Howison—for such was his name—said that nothing would give him so much pleasure, if he were only sure that he might be brought into the king’s hall without giving offence. The Gudeman of Ballangeigh, of course, undertook that the king would not be angry. ‘But,’ said John, ‘how am I to know his grace from the nobles who will be all about him?’ ‘Easily,’ replied his companion, ‘all the others will be bareheaded—the king alone will wear his bonnet.’

‘So speaking, King James introduced the countryman into a great hall, which was filled by the nobility and officers of the crown. John was a little frightened, and drew close to his attendant, but was still unable to distinguish the King. ‘I told you that you should know him by his wearing of his hat,’ said his conductor. ‘Then,’ said John, after he had again looked round the room; ‘it must be either you or me, for all but us are bareheaded.’

‘The king laughed at John’s fancy; and, that the good yeoman might have occasion for mirth also, he made him a present of the farm of Braehead, which he had wished so much to possess, on condition that John Howison, and his successors, should be ready to present an ewer and basin, for the king to wash his hands, when his Majesty should come to Holyrood Palace, or should pass the bridge of Cramond. Accordingly, in the year 1822, when George Fourth came to Scotland, the descendant of John Howison, who still possesses the estate which was given to his ancestor, appeared at a solemn festival, and offered his Majesty water from a silver ewer, that he might perform the service by which he held his lands.’ _Tales of a Grandfather—Notes to Lady of the Lake._

Another of James’ frolics is thus related, by Mr Campbell, from the statistical account. ‘Being benighted when out a-hunting, and separated from his attendants, he happened to enter a cottage in the midst of a moor, at the foot of the Ochil Hills, near Alloa, where, unknown, he was kindly received. In order to regale their unexpected guest, the goodman desired the goodwife to fetch the hen that roosted nearest the cock, which is always the plumpest, for the stranger’s supper. The king, highly pleased with his night’s lodgings and hospitable entertainment, told mine host, at parting, that he should be glad to return his civility, and requested that, the first time he came to Stirling, he would call at the castle, and enquire for the Gudeman of Ballangeigh. Donaldson, the landlord, did not fail to call on the Gudeman of Ballangeigh, when his astonishment, at finding that the king had been his guest, afforded no small amusement to the merry monarch and his courtiers. To carry on the pleasantry, he was henceforth designated by James with the title of the King of the Moors, which name and designation have descended from father to son ever since, and they have continued in possession of the identical spot, the property of the Earl of Mar, till very lately, when this nobleman, with reluctance, turned out the descendant and representative of the King of the Moors, on account of his Majesty’s invincible indolence, and great dislike to reform or innovation of any kind; although, from the spirited example of his neighbour tenants on the same estate, he was convinced that similar exertion would promote his advantage.’

To give something like historical authority to these stories, which are in a great measure mere matter of tradition, I may mention, that a clergyman, writing a letter to James the Sixth, in 1597, within fifty-five years after the death of their hero, says, ‘Wald your Majesty hazard to imitat King James the Fifth, of famous memorie, and travell as a privat and unsuspected man, alone, through the country, ye wald get more information of your Majesties subjects affection towards you, and that in half a-year, nor hitherto ye have done in all your life long.’ _Calderwood’s Church History, M.S., Advocates’ Library, vol. 5, p. 158._

NOTE 7. p. 19.

These letters, in the Saxon character, and arranged in a peculiar way, form a common ornament on the corners of the gothic pillars, and on other parts, of our principal old churches throughout the country. They seem to have escaped the pious fury of the Reformers, by virtue of their unintelligibility.

NOTE 8. p. 21.

In Herbertshire House, the seat of William Morehead, Esquire, is an old painting, representing the Gardens and King’s Park in their original state. A lady is seen walking in the gardens; and a deer is poking its head over the wall which divided them from the park.

NOTE 9. p. 23.

This wall is of greater antiquity than that around the King’s Park at Edinburgh, which was built by James V. It appears to have existed so early as 1505; and, in all probability, it was built many years earlier than even that remote date. It is thus alluded to in a charter granted by James IV. to the magistrates of Stirling in 1505:

‘Quia, pro singulari favore quo gerimus erga dilectos nostros burgenses et communitatem burgi nostri de Striveling, et in recompensatione pro terris suis communibus de _Gallohillis_, dicto nostro burgo per ipsos nobis concess., et nunc wallo per nos. castro et peke [_q. d. park_] de Striveling inclusis; dedimus et concessimus hereditarie dictis burgensibus et communitati, totas et integras acras nostras terrarum quae olim fuerunt de le _auld park_ prope Striveling, jacen. INTER MURUM LAPIDEUM nove peke nostre antedict. ex parte occidentali, et terras nuncupatas _Bennies Croft_,[B] ac croftam leprosorum, ex parte orientali, et terras nuncupatas le _Southfield_ pertinen. abbati et conventui monasterii nostri de Dumfermling ex parte australi, et terras nuncupatas le _Rudecroft_ ex parte boreali; una cum jure patronatûs et donatione capillanie altaris Sancti Michaelis,[C] per quondam Magistrum Thomam Carmichaell vicarium de Striveling, intra ecclesiam parochialem fundat. ad nostram dispositionem et donationem quotiens vacaverit nunc spectan.’

[B] _Bennies Croft_ is now the well known field of _Allan Park_.

[C] The parish Church of Stirling, prior to the Reformation in 1559, was attached to the Monastery of Dominicans or Black Friars, near the foot of Friar’s Wynd. This Monastery, again, was dependent upon the Monastery of Benedictines or Black Monks at Dunfermline. Hence the circumstance of the lands of Southfield having belonged to the Abbot and Convent of Dunfermline; and hence, too, the circumstance of the first minister of Stirling’s glebe having been originally situated in Southfield, and of Southfield being still in the parish of Stirling, and not in the parish of St. Ninians.

NOTE 10. p. 35.

Immediately behind Mar’s work, is a garden surrounded by an old wall, in the west part of which there appears to have been an arched gate; but, besides this garden, the Mar family had other pleasure grounds in the vicinity, to which the gate alluded to led. Annabella, the widow of the Regent, obtained from the crown, a charter of the ‘Parkhill of Stirling,’ on the 16th April 1582, and a charter ‘_de rupe lie Heugh et Brae de Parkhill de Stirling, &c._’ on the 29th of August 1588. These grounds appear to be those now known by the name of the Ladies’ Hill, Crandy Hill, and the Haining, still belonging to the family; and, at this time, they were undoubtedly connected with the Royal Gardens, and the King’s Park, which are immediately adjacent to them. In that part of them, beside the Butt-well, may still be seen the remains of a garden in a very warm and delightful spot; part of the beautiful public walk, lately formed there, runs upon the very terrace; and, in various parts of the hill above, were decayed fruit trees within the memory of old people still living. At the south corner of the Crandy Hill, now so tastefully enclosed by Dr Patrick Doig, stood a small house [depicted in Slezer’s views of the castle,] which was inhabited by the Earl of Mar’s gardener, previous to 1715. This gardener, probably, had charge not only of the Earl of Mar’s grounds, but of the Royal Gardens and King’s Park, beyond them; for the Mar family were generally captains or constables of the castle of Stirling, and keepers of his Majesty’s Gardens and Park, down till the union of the two kingdoms; and even appear to have retained their connexion with Stirling Castle, from 1705 till 1714; Colonel John Erskine having been, during that period, deputy governor.

In Mar’s Work, while in the possession of Annabella, James the Sixth and his Queen took up their abode in December 1593, while the castle was preparing for their reception, a fact which we state on the authority of Moyse’s Memoires of the affairs of Scotland; and here, according to Sir Robert Sibbald, the Earl who headed the first Rebellion lived, in 1710, in great splendour. This Earl first introduced the wilderness mode of planting into Scotland; and his gardens at Alloa, in that style, were much visited and admired. It may reasonably be supposed, that he gave some share of his attention to his grounds in the Parkhill of Stirling; but the splendour of this residence sunk with the catastrophe of 1715; and from that æra, so fatal to his name, do we date the utter neglect into which the Parkhill, the Royal Gardens, and King’s Park, still so beautiful amidst all their desolation, have fallen.

* * * * *

[Transcriber’s note—the following changes have been made to this text.

Page 32: harguebussiers to harquebusiers.

1751 to 1571.

Page 39: govenor to governor—“governor of the castle”.

Page 43: Missisippi to Mississippi—“Mississippi Scheme”.

garrrison to garrison—“established a regular garrison”.

batallions to battalions—“substitute veteran battalions”.]