Falkirk

“ Again the colour bloomed up.
'You would know, if you were a woman, Mr. Falkirk, how it feels to have a man sit and question you with such an air. Ah,' she said, dashing off the tears which had gathered in her eyes, 'if you really think I can take no better care of myself than that, you should not have said I might go with those people to-morrow!—A rose's thorns are for protection, sir!'— And away she went, out of the room and up the stairs; and Mr. Falkirk heard no more till Dingee entered with fruit and biscuits. ”

“ Falkirk, didn't you say there would be cats?'
'Let him alone—he is deep in your book,' said Rollo, as Mr. Falkirk made some astonished response. "I meant, what do you remember of the place? we are almost at the gate.'
'I'll tell you—nothing yet. Ah!'—
Through some lapse in the dense woodland there gleamed upon them as they swept on, the top of an old tower where the sunbeams lay at rest ”

“ Fal ́kirk, a parliamentary burgh of Scotland, in Stirlingshire, 211⁄2 miles west by north of Edinburgh. The older portion of it is old-fashioned and irregularly built. There are several modern suburbs. In the town or its vicinity are the Carron Ironworks, the Falkirk Foundry, and others works, collieries, chemical-works, and distilleries. Falkirk is connected with the port of Grangemouth by a railway 3 miles long. The Trysts of Falkirk, held on Stenhousemuir, 3 miles to the N.N.W., are the largest cattle-fairs in Scotland. ”

“ Turner says that Dougald was “a bit wee gash bodie under five feet.”’ ‘John Falkirk’ is believed to have been a nickname assumed by, or applied to, Graham upon various occasions, and this description of him is prefixed to one of the editions of John Falkirk’s Cariches, published soon after his death:—‘John Falkirk, commonly called the Scots Piper, was a curious little witty fellow, with a round face and a broad nose. None of his companions could answer the many witty questions he proposed to them, therefore he became the wonder of the age in which he lived.... ”

“ You could buy drapery, china, wool, iron, or whisky. There, too, someone would bring his fiddle to a big room, and they would dance Scotch reels. They would gather from miles away, both the lads and their lassies. There were no law courts in Slamannan, so if anyone broke the law they were taken to Falkirk to be dealt with. There was only one policeman. He wore a tall hat and a queer kind of uniform, and he was well liked, for he did not take many to Falkirk if he could help it. There was a post-office, but such a thing as a telegram was then unknown. ”

“ The Clyde has supplied an unusually rich store of illustrations of primitive ship-carpentry; but the disclosures of another Scottish locality also merit notice here. The carse of Falkirk is intimately associated with some very memorable events of Scottish history. It is traversed by the vallum and chain of forts reared by Lollius Urbicus the Roman proprætor of Antoninus Pius in the early part of the second century, and is rich in memorials of many later incidents. ”

“ Falkirk. 'Poor child! So the old guardian is better than the young one, my dear?'
'It used to be supposed,' said the girl, dancing off out of the room, 'that twice one is two. But I am inclined to think that twice one is six!'—Which was all the satisfaction Mr. Falkirk got.
CHAPTER XXXIV. FRIENDLY TONGUES. Yes, it was very hard for her; much harder than any one knew but herself. The joke was too striking to be passed by, even in the case of an ordinary person; but when it was Miss Kennedy,—heiress, beauty, and queen of favour,—all tongues took it up. ”

“ At the battle of Falkirk I never received an order or message from his Royal Highness after I passed the water at Dunipace till the battle was over. I could say much more on this subject; all I shall now add is, that at the time we returned from Kilravock there was no officer of any distinction with the prince, (except Sir Thomas Sheridan be reckoned one,) they being all in the van. ”

“ Falkirk. 'But I can't conceive what possessed him. What does Rollo know of the mill business?'
'Nothing at all, of course,' said Prudentia. 'Nor of any other business. And he has shewed his ignorance—did Arthur tell you, sir, how he has shewed it?'
'In buying three mills to begin with,' said Mr. Falkirk. 'A modest man would have begun with one.'
'But my dear sir, that isn't all. What do you suppose, Miss
Kennedy, was his first move?'
'One is prepared for almost anything.'
'He will learn the business, before long,' said Dr. ”

“ Notwithstanding that general societies have grown up all round the town of Falkirk, this society continues to maintain a separate and flourishing existence, its latest balance-sheet showing a membership of 4,733 and an average output of 371 sacks per week. ”

“ Ignoring the lesson of Falkirk (q.v.) , the mounted men rode through the morass and up the slope, which was now crowned by the three great masses of the Scottish pikemen. The attack of the English failed to make any gap in the line of defence, many knights and men-at-arms were injured by falling into the pits, and the battle became a mêlée, the Scots, with better fortune than at Falkirk and Flodden, presenting always an impenetrable hedge of spears, the English, too stubborn to draw off, constantly trying in vain to break it down. ”

“ We were at a loss to conceive why he should interest himself about us, till he said he had passed us on the Black Mountain, near King’s House. It was pleasant to observe the effect of solitary places in making men friends, and to see so much kindness, which had been produced in such a chance encounter, retained in a crowd. No beds in the inns at Falkirk—every room taken up by the people come to the fair. ”

“ These observations the writer has thought it expedient to make, in support of the relation given of the battle of Falkirk by the ancient historians of Scotland. As the talents, however, which Lord Hailes has displayed in his researches into Scottish history, are held by the public in high, and in many instances, deserved estimation; and though it is with reluctance that we differ from one whose opinions in general are entitled to credit ”

“ The Highland weapons gave opportunity for many exertions of personal courage, and sometimes for single combats in the field; like those which occur so frequently in fabulous wars. At Falkirk, a gentleman now living, was, I suppose after the retreat of the King’s troops, engaged at a distance from the rest with an Irish dragoon. ”

“ The view from the hill of Falkirk, immediately behind the town, is remarkably extensive, varied, and beautiful. Hence, the spectator may behold the Ochil Hills, forming part of the ridge which extends from the German Ocean to the banks of the Clyde; and through an opening in the chain for the passage of the Forth, may discover, in fine weather, several isolated rocks, on the highest of which stands Stirling Castle. Beyond, over the Vale of Monteith, appear the Grampian Hills, including the conical-shaped summit of Benledi, as well as Benvoirlich ”

“ The intention of the author, however, seems to have been amusement purely and simply, for in the title-page of an undated edition, published by C. Randall, of Stirling, there are these lines, which, it may be assumed belong to the original work:—
‘’Twill please the bairns and keep them laughing,
And mind the goodwife o’ her daffing.’
‘John Falkirk,’ it has already been mentioned, was a cognomen used by Graham ”

“ The three great battles of the independence were fought in the shire—Stirling Bridge (1297) , Falkirk (1298) , Bannockburn (1314) . James III. was stabbed to death in a cottage in the village of Milton after the battle of Sauchieburn (1488) , but apart from the disastrous defeat of the Covenanters at Kilsyth (1645) an< l the transitory triumph which Prince Charles Edward won at Falkirk (1746) , the history of the shire practically centres in that of the county town. ”

“ By this time sure tidings were brought to Alloa, that the Earl of Angus, the Lords Drummond, Hailes, and Home, Sir William Stirling of the Kier, Sir Patrick Gray, and many others, had set up the standard of REVOLT at the town of Falkirk, in the fertile Carse of Stirling, where all the discontented lords and landholders of the three Lothians, Galloway, and the Borders, had joined them, with all the armed men they could collect ”

“ Did not Falkland's look turn also to that spot? Lady Emily was sitting by the harp which Mrs. St. John appeared to be most seriously employed in tuning: her countenance was bent downwards, and burning beneath the blushes called forth by the gaze which she felt was upon her.
There was in Falkland's character a peculiar dislike to all outward display of less worldly emotions. He had none of the vanity most men have in conquest; he would not have had any human being know that he was loved. He was right! No altar should be so unseen and inviolable as the human heart! ”

“ We are like children in the dark; we tremble in a shadowy and terrible void, peopled with our fancies! Life is our real night, and the first gleam of the morning, which brings us certainty, is death.
Falkland sat the remainder of that night by the window watching the clouds become gray as the dawn rose, and its earliest breeze awoke. He heard the trampling of the horses beneath: he drew his cloak round him, and descended. It was on a turning of the road beyond the lodge that he directed the carriage to wait, and he then proceeded to the place appointed. Emily was not yet there. ”

“ If I can persuade Falkland to aid us, it will be by the influence of his name, his talents, and his wealth. It is not of him that we can ask the stern and laborious devotion to which we have consecrated ourselves. The perfidy of friends, the vigilance of foes, the rashness of the bold, the cowardice of the wavering; strife in the closet, treachery in the senate, death in the field; these constitute the fate we have pledged ourselves to bear. Little can any, who do not endure it, imagine of the life to which those who share the contests of an agitated and distracted country are doomed ”

“ Lying under the northern brow of a mountain, and so situated as to be concealed from the sun during a considerable portion of the winter, Falkland is a quaint-looking place, removed from any great thoroughfare, and still inhabited by a primitive race of weavers, who have, generation after generation, followed the same trade as their fathers. Their dwellings are thatched; each cottar has his kailyard; and, with much of our old Scottish simplicity and contentment, they jog through life as their "forbears" did before them ”

“ That great, though somewhat bombastic, historian, Lord Clarendon, tells us that Falkland was "a person of such prodigious parts of learning and knowledge, of that inimitable sweetness and delight in conversation, of so flowing and obliging a humanity and goodness to mankind, and of that primitive simplicity and integrity of life, that if there were no other brand upon this odious and accursed Civil War than that single loss, it must be most infamous and execrable to all posterity." ”

“ He thought too, at moments, of those bright climates beneath which he designed their asylum, where the very air is music, and the light is like the colourings of love; and he associated the sighs of a mutual rapture with the fragrance of myrtles, and the breath of a Tuscan heaven. Time glided on. The hour was long past, yet Emily came not! The sun rose, and Falkland turned in dark and angry discontent from its beams. With every moment his impatience increased, and at last he could restrain himself no longer. ”

“ An eternity would scarcely atone for the horror of that moment! One great characteristic of Falkland was his presence of mind. He turned to the man who stood beside him—he gave him a cool and exact description of the spot where he had left Emily. He told him to repair with all possible speed to his home —to launch his boat—to row it to the place he had described. "Be quick," he added, "and you must be in time: if you are, you shall never know poverty again." The next moment he was already several yards from the spot. ”

“ Falkland was silent for a few moments: he did not seem to hear the question; his eyes dwelt upon vacancy; and when he at last spoke, it was rather in commune with himself than in answer to her. "I have watched," said he, in a low internal tone, "over the tomb: I have called, in the agony of my heart, unto her—who slept beneath; I would have dissolved my very soul into a spell, could it have summoned before me for one, one moment the being who had once been the spirit of my life! ”

“ We can mock at the fury of the elements, for they are less terrible than the passions of the heart; at the devastations of the awful skies, for they are less desolating than the wrath of man; at the convulsions of that surrounding nature which has no peril, no terror to the soul, which is more indestructible and eternal than itself. Falkland turned towards the house which contained his world ”

“ Night came on again, with her pomp of light and shade—the night that for Falkland had no morrow. One solitary lamp burned in the chamber where he lay alone with God and his own heart. He had desired his couch to be placed by the window and requested his attendants to withdraw. The gentle and balmy air stole over him, as free and bland as if it were to breathe for him for ever; and the silver moonlight came gleaming through the lattice and played upon his wan brow, like the tenderness of a bride that sought to kiss him to repose. ”

“ Falkland stooped to kiss him; and Mrs. St. John said, in a low voice which just reached his ear, "Judas, too, kissed before he betrayed." Falkland's colour changed: he felt the sting the words were intended to convey. On that child, now so innocently caressing him, he was indeed about to inflict a disgrace and injury the most sensible and irremediable in his power. But who ever indulges reflection in passion? He banished the remorse from his mind as instantaneously as it arose; and, seating himself by Emily, endeavoured to inspire her with a portion of the joy and hope which animated himself. ”