Stirlingshire

“ In Stirlingshire he lives at hame.’
It would be useless to say whether the wide term ‘Stirlingshire’ bore reference to Raploch, or to Campsie, as has been suggested; but the verse may fairly be considered, by the prefix ‘poet’ to the author’s name, to give countenance to the inference that Graham was not quite a tyro in the art of verse-making, and that previous to the publication of his History he was regarded by his intimate friends, at least, as having qualified for the title. However that may be, Dougal seems now to have made Glasgow his home. ”

“ STIRLING, JAMES (1692–1770) , mathematician, commonly called ‘The Venetian,’ born at Garden, Stirlingshire, in 1692, was the third son of Archibald Stirling of Garden by his second wife, Anna, daughter of Sir Alexander Hamilton of Hoggs, near Linlithgow. Stirling was educated at Glasgow University and afterwards proceeded to Balliol College, Oxford, whence he matriculated on 18 Jan. ”

“ My father was the laird and farmed the small property I speak of, in the lowlands of Stirlingshire, but he was unfortunately cut off in early life, and long before his young family were capable of appreciating the extent of their loss, and I may add, to the universal regret of the community to which he belonged; and in no country have I met, in the same walks of life, a body of men to equal in intelligence, prudence, and respectability, the small lowland Scotch laird. ”

“ There is no doubt she would be received in the most friendly manner, which she would heartily reciprocate, for it is more than probable that her visit was consequent upon an invitation given her by Helen M‘Dougal and Burke when they were in Stirlingshire during the summer. But may not that invitation, given in all apparent kindness, have been simply a snare to draw the poor woman from her home so that she might be a more convenient, victim in Edinburgh? may Burke not have given it so that he might make Ann M‘Dougal a sacrifice instead of his paramour, as had been suggested to him by Mrs. Hare? ”

“ Hare coolly replied—“We can never be absolutely at a loss while our two wives remain, but that will only be when we are hard up.” This was overheard by one of the women, and is another particle of evidence showing they were not so ignorant of the desperate nature of the enterprise engaged in by the men. When M‘Dougal finally left Edinburgh she went towards the home of her relatives in Stirlingshire, but they would having nothing to do with her, and drove her away. ”

“ The stink-pot is a favorite weapon of the Chinese. Under the more elegant title of asphyxiated shell, the French and other modern nations have experimented considerably on this mode of harassing an enemy.
Stipendium. The amount of pay for soldiers, a term in general use among the Romans.
Stirling. An ancient town of Scotland, the chief town of Stirlingshire, 31 miles northwest from Edinburgh. During the Danish invasion in 1009, it was the headquarters of the Scottish army. In the vicinity was fought the battle of Stirling in 1297. ”

“ This system of paving I originally proposed for the main street of Linlithgow, forming part of the great western road from Edinburgh to Stirlingshire, and a correct idea of the proposal will at once be acquired by examining Fig. 13. By using tracks of this description—giving the stones a proportionally broad bed, and laying them upon a firm foundation (which is indispensable) —we should have our streets and the acclivities of our highways rendered smooth and durable, avoiding the expense and inconvenience of the common road, and also the irksome noise and jolting motion of the causeway. ”

“ The Earn flows out of Loch Earn and enters the Firth of Tay 6 1/2 m. below Perth. The Forth, the principal natural boundary of the shire on the south, properly belongs to Stirlingshire, in which it rises, but its leading left-hand affluents are Perthshire rivers, namely, the Teith, the Goodie, issuing from the lake of Menteith, and the Allan, rising in the Ochils near Sheriffmuir. All the lakes are narrow, scarcely one exceeding a mile in width. ”

“ The only resource of the government was to appoint some considerable man of the disturbed district to raise a force among his tenants and dependents, for the execution of the laws against the delinquents. Thus, we find a small military party under the Marquis of Montrose appointed (April 5, 1666) , under the name of a Watch, to keep the peace in the district of Cowal, in Argyleshire. Another watch of sixty men, under Mungo Stirling of Glorat, was appointed for Stirlingshire and Dumbartonshire. ”

“ In the morning we were stirring betimes, and found Stirling to be a pretty large town, of rather ancient aspect, with many gray stone houses, the gables of which are notched on either side, like a flight of stairs. The town stands on the slope of a hill, at the summit of which, crowning a long ascent, up which the paved street reaches all the way to its gate, is Stirling Castle. ”

“ The great battle that established the freedom of Scotland was fought almost under Stirling rock. Indeed, to reach the castle itself was the object of the English invasion. The events leading up to the conflict are well known. In the spring of 1313, Edward Bruce, brother of King Robert, invested Stirling, but growing impatient with the long-protracted siege, he imprudently agreed to the one-sided bargain which Mowbray audaciously proposed. The compact was that the fortress should surrender if not relieved by June 24th, Saint John the Baptist’s Day, in the following year. ”

“ Many tales of James V.’s adventures in disguise must at one time have been current in the neighbourhood of Stirling, but unfortunately most of them have passed beyond recall. One story concerning the Gudeman of Ballengeich runs, however, as follows: Once when the Court was in residence at Stirling Buchanan of Arnprior commanded a carrier, who was journeying from the Lennox with commodities for the royal household, to leave him the entire load, for which a just price would be given. ”

“ The Earl of Arran was appointed Governor of the realm; but in July, 1543, his rival, Cardinal Beaton, rode from Stirling with the Earls of Lennox, Argyll and Huntly, at the head of several thousand men, in order to secure the person of the Queen. Arran, reckoning the troops at his disposal insufficient to enable him to frustrate their designs, sent messengers to treat for peace, and allowed the infant Mary and her mother6769 to be carried to Stirling Castle. The two Queens were placed in the charge of four nobles, the chief of whom was John, Lord Erskine, the constable of the fortress. ”

“ But for more than two centuries before the Union of the Crowns the only wars which troubled Stirling were those which Scots themselves stirred up when they found themselves at variance with their rulers. Dumbarton, again, lay open to invasion only from the sea, but this route was made use of by the traitor Earl of Lennox, when he sailed in the pay of Henry VIII., though he failed to induce the patriotic garrison to hand over to the English King the castle of which the Earl himself was governor and practical owner as well. ”

“ Stirling was held to be the safest place of residence for James V.’s daughter, the child Queen Mary. In this case grasping nobles were not so much to be feared as King Henry VIII. of England. Edinburgh lay too near the Border, and was subject to devastation at the hands of the English soldiers, while the ruthless Tudor’s agent, the Earl of Lennox, was ever seeking to capture Dumbarton. The death of the dreaded Henry did not put an end to Scotland’s fears. ”

“ When Queen Mary was scarcely one year old, he audaciously proposed, in his scheme for uniting her with Edward, his heir, that she should be sent to England for her education, and that English garrisons should hold the castles of Edinburgh, Stirling and Dumbarton. The King therefore looked upon the fortress on the Clyde as one of Scotland’s three most important strongholds, thus differing from an earlier Henry, who did not demand Dumbarton in the Treaty of Falaise, but stipulated for three Border castles along with Stirling and Edinburgh. ”

“ On June 23rd, 1314, Edward II., with his vast feudal host, amounting, perhaps, to fifty thousand men, came in sight of Stirling Castle, but between him and his goal lay Bruce’s Scottish troops, relying not upon their numbers but upon their valour and the skill of their commanders. The main body of the English army apparently kept to the low ground near the Forth, while the advanced guard marched on the higher land to the south, and encountered the Scots on the border of the New Park. ”

“ The Earl of Mar and the Master of Glamis had retired to the north of Ireland, but in the spring of 1584 they stealthily crossed the Channel, and on the 17th of April, with five hundred96 horse, they seized the Castle of Stirling. James at once raised an army in Edinburgh and marched to attack the rebels. No fighting of any sort took place, however, for the insurgent lords, taken aback by the King’s swift action and disappointed in the support of their friends, fled towards the Border before the royal army appeared. ”

“ Now when Sir Philip Mowbray, the governor of Stirling, came to London to tell the king that Stirling, the last Scottish town of importance which remained in possession of the English, was to be surrendered if it were not relieved by force of arms before midsummer, then all the English nobles called out it would be a sin and shame to permit the fair conquest which Edward the First had made to be forfeited to the Scots for want of fighting. It was, therefore, resolved, that the king should go himself to Scotland, with as great forces as he could possibly muster. ”

“ After the death of the Bruce, Stirling Castle was captured, in succession, by Edward Balliol and for King David. When the House of Stuart had evolved from a family of Norman barons, emigrants from Shropshire to improve their fortunes, and, acting as stewards in the new land, had reached royalty, Stirling Castle became the king’s dwelling-place. For centuries afterward, it was their favorite residence and the place of coronation of the Scottish kings. Here James II and James V were born and here James VI of Scotland and I of England was baptized. ”

“ During the wars with England, in the period of the Stewart sovereigns, the Borders and the neighbourhood of Edinburgh were the principal scenes of operations; but Stirling Castle was the centre of hostilities in the stirring days of Wallace and Bruce. Edinburgh, though an important fortress and town, was not the capital of the country at the time of the War of Independence. In later years, the armies of England did not need to advance any further than Lothian. The heart of Scotland lay south of the Firth of Forth; a blow struck there was felt throughout the kingdom. ”

“ Coming events do not always cast their shadows before. As the heir-presumptive to the British throne walked round the castle with Mar he did not foresee that soon, as King, he would curtail the privileges which the Earl enjoyed as governor of Stirling, and that the hereditary office would be fully restored by the supporters of the man who was to tear his crown from his brow. Nor could he picture to himself his grandson, a disinherited prince, striving to recover this bulwark of the north from the servants of an alien sovereign. ”

“ As a fortress Stirling possesses a history which places it first among the castles of Scotland; as a palace its record entitles it to rank above Dumbarton and Edinburgh. Its double use as stronghold and as dwelling-place of kings gives it a unique position among the royal houses, for Falkland and Linlithgow were pleasure palaces erected upon the sites of ancient castles, and Holyrood was built as a kind of extension to a defenceless, low-lying abbey. ”

“ The early kings, such as William the Lion, Alexander III. and Robert the Bruce, will seem to have passed like ghosts before him, but he will almost persuade himself that he has seen the Regent Morton in the flesh, crossing from the Palace to the Parliament Hall, and George Buchanan, old and infirm, ascending the stair to the schoolroom in the Keep. It may be that he will fancy he has seen some other outstanding figures belonging to the past, for Stirling Castle is not given over to the shades of one or two personalities. ”

“ Stirling more often than the other two castles has been sought by kings as a tower of refuge. When the party of the Comyns, in Alexander III.’s minority, stealthily carried the King from Kinross, it was to the fortress above the Links of Forth that they bore their rescued charge. The faction favouring England, from whose power the sovereign was snatched, did not attempt a counter-surprise; but although the walls of the castle secured Alexander’s person, for a number of nights he must have quivered in his bed lest his former guardians should attempt to storm the fort. ”

“ Standing upon its wind-swept battlements—I can never think that the wind dies down on the heights of Stirling—one looks upon the panorama of Scottish history. The Lomonds lie blue and far to the east, the Grampians gray and stalwart to the north, and on the west the peaks of the Highlands, Ben Lomond and all the hills that rampart "The Lady of the Lake." All around the sky were ramparts of low-lying clouds, lifting themselves here and there at the corners of the world into splendid impregnable bastions. Stirling looks a part of this ground plan, of this sky battlement. ”

“ At first he obeyed when his suzerain summoned him to court, but soon he renounced his allegiance and opened negotiations with France, thus forming a friendship that developed into a close alliance to last till the reign of Queen Mary. Edward invaded Scotland with a powerful army to punish his perfidious vassal. The town of Berwick was mercilessly sacked, the Scots were defeated by Surrey at Dunbar, and the English monarch made a triumphal procession through Scotland, arriving at Stirling in the middle of June, 1296. ”