Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub
[graphic][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed]
[blocks in formation]

resquely situated on basaltic rocks six hundred feet in height, and united with the 'sland by an artificial dam) and Foria, on the west coast.

A tour through this beautiful island, which can only be performed on foot, or on asses, there being no carriages or roads, will be productive of the highest enjoy. ment, as every step offers new beauties and fresh panoramic views. In the church of Saint Restituta, in Lecco, are deposited some antique remains, not far from the ruins of the palace of the Emperor Augustus. There are two other extinct volcanoes besides the Epomeo, viz. Mount Notaro and Mount Vico.

STIRLING CASTLE.

"Ye towers within whose circuit dread,

A Douglas by his sovereign bled,
And thou, O sad and fatal mound!
That oft hast heard the death-axe sound,
As on the noblest of the land

Fell the stern headsman's bloody hand."

THE LADY OF THE LAKE.

“Adieu, fair Snowdoun,* with thy towers high,
Thy chapel-royal, park, and table round;
May, June, and July would I dwell in thee,
Were I a man, to hear the birdis sound,
Whilk doth againe thy royal rock rebound.”
SIR D. LINDSAY

THE Castle of Stirling, is equally celebrated in the historical and picturesque annals of Scotland. It may vie in varied beauty with the finest scenery in the world. To the east, the winding Forth meanders through an extensive and fertile plain, diversified with woods, country-houses, and villages. The distance from Stirling is, in a direct line, only six miles; but the stream turns so often, that it makes a circuit of twenty miles, imitating, in this respect, the intricate windings of the river Moselle. At Alloa, the Forth expands, and its estuary may be said to commence. From the battlements of Stirling Castle, the stranger can behold most

Stirling Castle is called Snowdoun by some writers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This term is supposed to be derived from some romantic legend connecting Stirling with King Arthur. VOL. II. T

of the cities on the coasts as far as Edinburgh. To the north lie the beautiful Ochils and the field of Sheriff Muir, the scene of the battle between the Pretender and the King's forces in the year 1715. To the south, the sudden steeps and tableheights of the Campsie Fells, diversify the view; while to the west, equally beautifu with the view towards Alloa, the vale of Monteith stretches to the foot of Ben Lomond and Ben Venue. But the most magnificent features of the prospect are presented by the Grampians, from Ben Lomond to Ben Voirloch, for this comprises the Arrochas Hills, Ben Ledi, Ben More, and an amphitheatre of bold and lofty mountains.

The city of Stirling contains about 10,000 inhabitants. Like most cities that can boast of any great antiquity, it may be divided into two parts; the old streets being narrow and inconvenient, the more recent additions displaying that improved sense of comfort that forms a characteristic feature of modern times. The Castle-hill is on the north-west side of the town, and the Castle presents a singular assemblage of ancient buildings, but changed and adapted to modern use. The original date of its erection is not known; but its history is intimately connected with the earliest events of Scottish story. Its importance as a military position is very great, as commanding the most direct communication between the north and south divisions of the island; and hence it has always played a prominent part, not only in the civil wars of Scotland, but likewise in the wars of this country with England. Mention s made of the Castle as early as the ninth century, when the Scots razed it to the ground, wishing to destroy all memorials of the Picts whom they had subdued. The Northumbrians obtained from their captive, Donald V. a grant of all the land to the south of the river Forth, and retained possession of it for about twenty years, when, being hard pressed by the Danes, they restored their new acquisition as the price of an alliance with the Scotch. In the next century, Kenneth III. marched with his army from Stirling Castle to the defeat of the Danes, at the battle of Luncarty. In 1174, this fortress was one of the four that were surrendered to the English as the ransom for the captive king, William the Lion: Richard Cœur de Lion restored them to their original possessors. It was about this time that it was selected as the residence of the sovereigns, and it long continued to be their favourite place of abode. When Edward I. of England invaded Scotland, Stirling was abandoned by the Scots and occupied by the English, 1296. Wallace advanced to Cambuskenneth on the Forth, at the head of 40,000 men, to oppose the English army, which was advancing to Stirling, under the command of the Earl de Warrenne, and of Surrey, Guardian of Scotland, and of the ecclesiastic, Hugh Cressingham, whom Edward had made Treasurer of Scotland. At Stirling-Bridge the English were utterly routed, September 11, 1297, and the whole of Scotland re-asserted its free

[blocks in formation]

dom from the English crown. But in the next year Edward entered Scotland at the head of 80,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry, oesides a body of Gascons, and defeated Wallace, whose forces, weakened by disunion and treachery, did not amount to more than 20,000 men. The Scots lost three-fourths of their army, and retreated to Stirling, which city they reduced to ashes. Wallace resigned his office as guardian ; but the subjugation of the kingdom was not complete. The English, who had left a garrison in Stirling Castle, were compelled by hunger to surrender in the year 1299; but it was retaken by the English, after a most gallant defence by Sir William Oliphant, the governor. In 1303, when Edward again conquered Scotland, Stirling Castle was again besieged, and the garrison, small in number, sustained for three months the assaults of the English, who fought immediately under the eye of their warlike sovereign. The brave Sir William Oliphant resumed the command. The walls were battered most furiously by artillery, using stones of two-hundred weight as balls, which made vast breaches in their ramparts. The garrison, gradually diminished by the casualties of war, were insufficient for the further defence of the place; and Stirling Castle was the last fortress that surrendered in Scotland. seems to have remained in the hands of the English until it was beseiged by Bruce in the reign of Edward II. The English advanced with an army of 100,000 men to relieve it; but Bruce, with 40,000 men, encamped between Stirling and Bannockburn, (a small rivulet flowing eastward south of Stirling, and falling into the Forth below that town. The celebrated battle ended, as is well known, in the utter defeat of the English. During the wars of Edward III. it was successively taken and retaken. In the reign of James II. the Earl of Douglas was assassinated in this castle, 1451. James VI. was crowned at Stirling, 1597, when thirteen months old, and his eldest son, Prince Henry, was born here, 1594: the baptism was performed in the Castle with great pomp. In 1651 the fortress was besieged and taken by General Monk; the marks of this siege are still discernible in the Castle and the steeple of the church. In the last rebellion Stirling Castle was besieged in 1746, and gallantly defended by General Blakeney. General Hawley, who advanced to relieve it, was defeated by the rebels, who, however, retired on the approach of the Duke of Cumberland. It is one of the four Scottish forts (the others are Edinburgh, Dumbarton, and Blackness) which by the articles of the Union are to be constantly garrisoned.

GHUZNEE; OR GAZNA.

"The smell of death

Came reeking from those spicy bowers,

And man the sacrifice of man,
Mingled his taint with every breath
Upwafted from the innocent flowers.
Land of the Sun! what foot invades
Thy Pagods and thy pillar'd shades-
Thy cavern shrines and idol stones,

Thy monarchs and their thousand thrones?
'Tis he of Gazna, fierce in wrath,

He comes and India's diadems

Lie scattered in his ruinous path.-
His bloodhounds he adorns with gems
Torn from the violated necks

Of many a young and lov'd Sultana;
Maidens within their pure Zenano,
Priests in the very fane he slaughters,
And choaks up with the glittering wrecks
Of golden shrines the sacred waters!"

LALLA ROOKH.

THE recent expedition to Cabool (apart from the policy or impolicy of the measure) was eminently calculated to excite intense interest throughout the civilised world. The inhabitants of a small island in the far west, not content with ruling over a hundred millions of their fellow-creatures by means of a smaller army than is possessed by the weakest of the five great powers of Europe, and coming from the opposite quarter of the globe, to which Alexander the Great cast his longing eyes, and wept that there were no more worlds within his reach to conquer, crossed the sacred river, and, after a succession of extraordinary successes and reverses, after a victorious campaign, evacuated this celebrated land, which is now probably closed to the present generation of Europe. Of all the remarkable events of this adventurous expedition, the siege and sudden conquest of Ghuznee, perhaps, most arrested the public attention, from the ancient fame of this fortress and its boasted strength. The Emperor Baber has left us a description of this city. mean place; and I have always wondered how its princes, who possessed also

"Ghuznee is a poor,

« ÎnapoiContinuă »