The great hall of this palace is now
partitioned off into two or three rooms, and the whole edifice is
arranged to serve as barracks. Of course, no trace of ancient
magnificence, if anywise destructible, can be left in the interior. We
were not shown into this palace, nor into the Parliament House, nor into
the tower, where King James stabbed the Earl of Douglas. When I was here
a year ago, I went up the old staircase and into the room where the
murder was committed, although it had recently been the scene of a fire,
which consumed as much of it as was inflammable. The window whence the
Earl's body was thrown then remained; but now the whole tower seems to
have been renewed, leaving only the mullions of the historic window.
We merely looked up at the new, light-colored freestone of the restored
tower in passing, and ascended to the ramparts, where we found one of the
most splendid views, morally and materially, that this world can show.
Indeed, I think there cannot be such a landscape as the Carse of
Stirling, set in such a frame as it is,--the Highlands, comprehending our
friends, Ben Lomond, Ben Venue, Ben An, and the whole Ben brotherhood,
with the Grampians surrounding it to the westward and northward, and in
other directions some range of prominent objects to shut it in; and the
plain itself, so worthy of the richest setting, so fertile, so beautiful,
so written over and over again with histories. The silver Links of Forth
are as sweet and gently picturesque an object as a man sees in a
lifetime.
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