"WALDRON."
CHAPTER X. STIRLING.
Stirling Castle crowns the summit of a rocky hill, which rises on the banks of the Forth, in the midst of a vast extent of level and richly-cultivated country. It is, of course, a very conspicuous object from all the region around.
The hill is long and narrow. The length of it extends from north to south. The northern end is the high end. The land slopes gently towards the south, but the other sides are steep, and in many places they form perpendicular precipices of rock, with the castle walls built on the very brink of them.
The town lies chiefly at the foot of the hill, towards the south, though there are one or two streets, bordered by quaint and queer old buildings, that lead all the way up to the castle.
In front of the castle, at the place where these streets terminate, is a broad space, smoothly gravelled, called the esplanade. This is used as a parade ground, for drilling and training the new soldiers, and teaching them the manoeuvres and exercises necessary to be practised in the war.
On Sunday morning, after breakfast, Mr. George and the boys went out, to go to church. Bells were ringing in various parts of the town. They were drawn, by some invisible attraction, up the hill, in the direction of the castle. They soon found other people going the same way; and following them, they came, at length, to a very ancient-looking mass of buildings, which, Mr. George said, he should have thought was an old abbey, gone to ruin, if it were not that the people were all going into it, under a great arched doorway. So he supposed it was a church, and he and the boys went in with the rest.
There was a man at the door holding a large silver plate, to receive the contributions of the people that came in. Mr. George stopped to get some money out of his pocket. The man then seemed to perceive that he was a stranger; so he said to him, speaking with a broad Scotch accent and intonation,-
"Ye wull gae into the magistrates' seat. Or stay-I wull send a mon wi' ye, to show ye the wa'."
So he called a door keeper, and the door keeper led the way up stairs, into a gallery. The gallery was very wide, and was supported by enormous pillars. The whole interior of the church had a very quaint and antique air. The magistrate's seat was the front seat of the gallery. It was a very nice seat, and was well cushioned. Before it, all around, was a sort of desk, for the Bibles and Hymn Books to rest upon.
There were three pulpits-or what seemed to the boys to be pulpits-one behind and above the other. The highest was for the minister; the next below was for what in America would be called the leader of the choir; though in Scotland, Mr. George said he believed he was called the precentor. There was no choir of singers, as with us, but when the minister gave out a hymn the precentor rose and commenced the singing, and when he had got near the end of the first line all the congregation joined in, and sang the hymn with him to the end. The third pulpit was only a sort of chair, enclosed at the sides and above. What the man did who sat in it the boys could not find out.
All the people in the church had Bibles on a sloping board before them, in their pews, and when the minister named the text or read a chapter, they all turned to the place, and looked over. Waldron said he thought that this was an excellent plan.
Mr. George and the boys all liked the sermon very much indeed, and when the service was ended, they walked a little way around the esplanade before the castle, and then went home to dinner.
In the course of their excursion, however, they had observed that a great many walks had been made at different elevations on the west side of the hill, and that seats were placed there at different points, for resting-places. These seats, and indeed the walks themselves, commanded charming views of all the surrounding country. The boys wanted to run up and down these paths, and explore the sides of the hill by means of them in every part; but Mr. George recommended to them to wait till the next day.
"We shall come up to-morrow," said he, "to visit the castle, and then we will come out here, and have a picnic, on one of these stone seats. After that I will find a place among the rocks to read or write, for an hour, and while I am there you may climb about among the rocks and precipices as much as you please."
The next morning the boys set out with Mr. George, soon after breakfast, to go up to the castle. When they reached the esplanade they found several small parties of soldiers there, under instruction. They all wore red coats-that being the ordinary uniform of British soldiers. Officers were marching them about, and teaching them how to handle their muskets, and to keep step, and to wheel this way and that, and to perform other such evolutions. A great many of the soldiers looked very young. They were lads that had been recently enlisted, and were now being trained to go to the war in the Crimea.
After looking at these soldiers a short time the party went on. At the upper end of the esplanade there was a gateway leading into the castle yard. There was a sentinel, in a Highland costume, keeping guard there. Mr. George asked him if the public were allowed to go into the castle. He said, "O, yes, certainly;" and so Mr. George and the boys went in.
As they went in they looked up, and saw a great many cannons pointed down at them from the embrasures in the surrounding ramparts and bastions.
"Those guns must be to keep the enemy from coming in," said Waldron.
Presently the party passed through another arched gateway, and came into a large inner court, which was surrounded with various buildings, all built of stone, and of a very massive and solid character. The palace was on one side. It was adorned with a great many quaint and curious sculptures and images. The palace itself, and all the other buildings, were used as barracks for soldiers. A great many soldiers were standing about the doors, and some were playing together about the court. Some of them were dressed in the common British uniform, and some were in the Highland costume.
While the boys were looking at the palace front, a soldier advanced towards them in a very respectful manner, and said to Mr. George,-
"If you and the young gentlemen are strangers in Stirling, I will walk about the castle with you, and point out the objects of interest to you, if you desire it."
Mr. George accepted this offer, and the young soldier accordingly walked with them all about. He pointed out all the different buildings, and mentioned the dates of the erection of them, and referred to the most important historical events that had transpired in them. Finally he led the party through a gate into a small garden, and thence out upon the rampart wall, from which there was a very extended and extraordinarily beautiful view of the surrounding country.[E] To the north-west were seen the Highlands, with the peaks of Ben Lomond, Ben Venue, and Benan, rising conspicuously among them. On the east were other hills, rising abruptly out of the smooth and smiling plain, and covered with dark plantations of evergreen. All around the foot of the castle, and extending to the distance, in some directions, of many miles, the country was level and fertile, and it presented every where the most enchanting pictures of rural beauty. Some of the fields were of the richest green, others were brown from fresh tillage, with men ploughing or harrowing in them, or plants just springing up in long green rows, which, partly on account of the distance, and partly through the exquisite neatness and nicety of farmers' work, looked so smooth, and soft, and fine, that the scene appeared more like enchantment than reality.
[E] For engraving of Stirling Castle see page 10.
On one side of the mountain was seen the River Forth, winding about through meadows and green fields with the most extraordinary turnings and involutions. The boys had seen winding rivers before, but never any thing like this. The whole plain was filled with the windings of the river, which looked like the links of a silver chain, lying half embedded in a carpet of the richest green. Indeed, these windings of the river, and the vast circular fields of fertile land which they enclose, are called the Links of Forth. The view was diversified by villages, hamlets, bridges, railway embankments, and other constructions, which concealed the river here and there entirely from view, and made it impossible to trace its course. The richness and beauty of these Links of Forth appeared the more surprising to the boys from the contrast which the scene presented to the dreary wastes of moss and heather which they had seen in the Highlands. There is an old Scotch proverb that refers to this contrast. It is this:-