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:--

"The lairdship of the bonnie Links of Forth Is better than an _earldom_ in the north."

The course of the Forth could be traced for a long distance towards Edinburgh; and Arthur's Seat, a high hill near Edinburgh, could be distinctly seen in the south-eastern horizon.

At one place, in an angle in the wall of the rampart, was a stone step, so placed that a lady, by standing upon it, might get a better view. The soldier said that Queen Victoria stood upon that stone, when she visited Stirling Castle, a few years ago, on her way to Balmoral. Balmoral is a country seat she has among the Highlands, far to the north, in the midst of the wildest solitudes. The queen goes there almost every summer, in order to escape, for a time, from the thraldom of state ceremony, and the pomp and parade of royal life, and live in peace among the mountain solitudes.

The soldier pointed to the coping of the wall, where the figure of a crown was cut in the stone, and the letters "V. R." by the side of it.

This inscription was a memorial of the queen's having stood at this spot to view and admire the beauty of the scenery.

After Mr. George and the boys had seen all that they wished of the castle, Mr. George gave the soldier a shilling, and they went out as they had gone in, under the great archway. They pa.s.sed across the esplanade, and then came to a small, level piece of ground, with a high rock beyond it, overlooking it. The level place was an ancient tilting ground; that is, a ground where, in ancient times, they used to have tilts and tournaments, for the amus.e.m.e.nt of the people of the palace, and of the guests who came to visit them. The ladies used to stand on the top of the rock to witness the tournaments. There was a large, flat area there, with room enough upon it for twenty or thirty ladies to stand and see. The rock was called the Lady's Rock. The tournaments and tiltings have long since ceased, but it retains the name of the Lady's Rock to the present day.

"Let us go up on it," said Rollo, "and see where the ladies stood."

There were a number of children playing about these grounds, and several of them were upon the top of the Lady's Rock. They looked ragged and poor. Rollo and Waldron climbed up to the place. The path was steep and rugged. When they reached the top they looked down to the level area where the tournaments were held.

"I don't think the place is big enough for a tournament," said Rollo.

"What is a tournament?" asked Waldron.

"A sort of sham fight of hors.e.m.e.n," said Rollo, "that they used to have in old times, when they wore steel armor, and fought with spears and lances. They used to ride against each other with blunt spears, and see who could knock the other one off his horse. What are you laughing at, uncle George?"

Rollo perceived that Mr. George was smiling at his very unromantic mode of describing a tournament. "Is not that what they used to do at the tournaments?"

"Yes," said Mr. George, "that is a pretty fair account of it, on the whole. And now, boys," he continued, "I have got a plan of having a picnic to-day, out under the castle walls here, instead of going to the hotel for dinner; and we will go and find a good place for it."

The boys said that they would like this plan very much. "But then,"

said they, "we have not got any thing to eat."

Mr. George then explained to them that the plan which he had formed, was for them to go down into the town, and buy something at the shops for a picnic dinner, while he remained on the rocks, or on some seat on the side of the Castle Hill, writing in his journal.

"Well," said Waldron, "we will do that. But what shall we buy?"

"Whatever you please," said Mr. George. "Walk along through the street, and look in at the shop windows, and whenever you see any thing that you think we shall like, buy it."

"Well," said Rollo, "we will. But how much shall we spend?"

"As much as you think it best," said Mr. George. "I leave every thing to you. You see, our dinner at the hotel would not be less than seven shillings, and that we shall save; so that if you don't spend more than seven shillings you will be safe."

The boys were sure that they could procure very abundant supplies for less money than that; and they very readily undertook the commission.

They accordingly left Mr. George at a seat near one of the walks on the side of Castle Hill, where, as he said, he could look right down on the famous field of Bannockburn, and they then began to run down the walk, on the way towards the hotel.

They first went to the hotel to get a knapsack. They told the waiter there that they should not be at home to dinner. They then walked along the street, looking out for eatables. They soon found various shop windows where such things were displayed, and in the course of a quarter of an hour they had laid in an abundant supply. They bought some small, flat cakes of bread at one place, and a veal and ham pie at another, and two oranges apiece at another, and a bottle of milk at another, and finally, for dessert, they got a pound of raisins and almonds mixed together, which they chanced to see in a fruiterer's window. The cost of the whole, the boys found, when they came to foot up the account, was only two shillings and fourpence.

With these supplies the boys went up the hill again; not through the street, but by the walk under the trees, outside the town wall. They found Mr. George in the seat where they had left him. He had just finished his writing. He was very much pleased with the purchases that the boys had made, and they all sat down together on the stone seat, and ate their dinner with excellent appet.i.tes.[F]

[F] See Frontispiece.

While they were eating the raisins and almonds Mr. George pointed down to a beautiful field, yellow with b.u.t.tercups, and said,--

"There, boys, do you see that field?"

The boys said they did.

"It is the field of Bannockburn. Look at it, and remember it well. When you are five years older, and read the history of Scotland, you will take great pleasure in thinking of the day when you looked down from Stirling Castle on the field of Bannockburn."

CHAPTER XI.

LOCH LEVEN.

"And where are we going next, uncle George?" said Rollo, as they were all coming home to the hotel, from their last walk up to the castle.

"I am going to Kinross," said Mr. George.

"What is there at Kinross?" asked Rollo.

"There is a lake," said Mr. George, "and in the lake is an island, and on the island are the ruins of an old castle, and in the castle Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned."

"Yes," said Waldron, "I have heard of Mary, Queen of Scots, but I do not know much about her."

Waldron, it must be confessed, was not much of a scholar. He had read very little, either of history or of any thing else.

"What was she remarkable for?" he asked.

"In the first place," said Mr. George, "she was very beautiful, and she was also very lovely."

"That is the same thing; is it not?" said Rollo.

"No, not by any means," said Mr. George. "There are many beautiful girls that are not lovely, and there are many lovely girls that are not particularly beautiful."

"You mean lovely in character, I suppose," said Rollo.

"No," said Mr. George, "I mean lovely in looks. There is a great difference, I think, between loveliness and beauty, in _looks_."

"I think so, too," said Waldron.

"Now, Mary, Queen of Scots," continued Mr. George, "was beautiful, and she was also very lovely; and while she lived she charmed and fascinated almost every body who knew her.