You, Herbert and Luffness, alight, To seek fresh horse and fitting weed. XVIII. "Stand, Bayard, stand!"-the steed obey'd, But wreath'd his left hand in the mane, Then like a bolt from steel crossbow Still at the gallop prick'd the Knight, And Deanstown lies behind them cast; They bathe their courser's sweltering sides, 3 [The ruins of Doune Castle, formerly the residence of the Earls of Menteith, now the property of the Earl of Moray, are situated at the confluence of the Ardoch and the Teith.] 2 [MS.-" Blair-Drummond saw their hoofs of fire."] 3 [It may be worth noting, that the Poet marks the progress of the King by naming in succession places familiar and dear to his own early recollections-Blair-Drummond, the seat of the Homes of Kaimes; Kier, that of the principal family of the name of Stirling; Ochtertyre, that of John Ramsay, the well-known antiquary, and correspondent of Burns; and Craigforth, that of the Callenders of Craigforth, almost under the walls of Stirling Castle; all hospitable roofs, under which he had spent many of his younger days.-ED.] Grey Stirling, with her towers and town, XIX. As up the flinty path they strain'd,1 Mark'st thou the firm, yet active stride, With which he scales the mountain-side? 2 Know'st thou from whence he comes, or whom ?”—"No, by my word;-a burly groom He seems, who in the field or chase 1 [MS.-"As up the steepy path they strain'd."] 2 [MS." With which he gains the mountain-side."] 3 [The Edinburgh Reviewer remarks on " that unhappy couplet, where the King himself is in such distress for a rhyme as to Away, away, to court, to show The near approach of dreaded foe: The King must stand upon his guard; Then right-hand wheel'd their steeds, and straight They won the castle's postern gate. XX. The Douglas, who had bent his way For He, who gave her, knows how dear, And now my business is-to die, -Ye towers! within whose circuit dread A Douglas by his sovereign bled; be obliged to apply to one of the obscurest saints in the calen dar." The reading of the MS. is "'Tis James of Douglas, by my word. The uncle of the banish'd Lord.” And thou, O sad and fatal mound!1 Fell the stern headsman's bloody hand,— 1 [An eminence on the north-east of the Castle, where state criminals were executed. Stirling was often polluted with noble blood. It is thus apostrophized by J. Johnston: ---"Discordia tristis Heu quoties procerum sanguine tinxit humum! Hoc uno infelix, et felix ce era; nusquam Lætior aut cœli frons geniusve soli." The fate of William, eighth Earl of Douglas, whom James II. stabbed in Stirling Castle with his own hand, and while under his royal safe-conduct, is familiar to all who read Scottish history. Murdack Duke of Albany, Duncan Earl of Lennox, his father-in-law, and his two sons, Walter and Alexander Stuart, were executed at Stirling, in 1425. They were beheaded upon an eminence without the castle walls, but making part of the same hill, from whence they could behold their strong castle of Doune, and their extensive possessions. This "heading hill," as it was sometimes termed, bears commonly the less terrible name of Hurly-hacket, from its having been the scene of a courtly amusement alluded to by Sir David Lindsay, who says of the pastimes in which the young king was engaged, "Some harled him to the Hurly-hacket;" which consisted in sliding, in some sort of chair, it may be supposed, from top to bottom of a smooth bank. The boys of Edin. burgh, about twenty years ago, used to play at hurly-hacket, on the Calton-hill, using for their seat a horse's skull. |