A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain III

A TOUR THROUGH THE WHOLE ISLAND OF GREAT BRITAIN III

decessor, Edward I., or Edward III. his more glorious successor, never lost such a battle. But let the fault be where it will, this is certain, that the English lost the day, and were horribly massacred by the Scots, as well after as in the fight, for the animosity was implacable between the two nations, and they gave but little quarter on either side.

Sterling was our next stage, an antient city, or town rather, and an important pass, which, with Dunbarton, is indeed the defence of the Lowlands against the Highlands; and, as one very knowingly said, Dunbarton is the lock of the Highlands, and Sterling-Castle keeps the key. The town is situated as like Edinburgh as almost can be describ’d, being on the ridge of a hill, sloping down on both sides, and the street ascending from the east gradually to the castle, which is at the west end; the street is large and well built, but antient, and the buildings not unlike Edinburgh, either for beauty or sight.

The church is also a very spacious building, but not collegiate; there was formerly a church, or rather chapel, in the castle, but it is now out of use; also a private chapel, or oratory in the palace, for the royal family: But all that is now laid aside too. The castle is not so very difficult of access as Edinburgh; but it is esteem’d equally strong, and particularly the works are capable to mount more cannon, and these cannon are better pointed; particularly there is a battery which commands, or may command the bridge; the command of which is of the utmost importance; nay, it is the main end and purpose for which, as we are told, the castle was built.

They who built the castle, without doubt built it, as the Scots express it, to continue aye, and till somebody else should build

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another there, which, in our language, would be for ever and a day after: The walls, and all the outer works are firm, and if no force is us’d to demolish them, may continue inconceivably long, at least we have reason to believe they will; for though the other buildings grow old, the castle seems as firm and fair, as if it had been but lately built.

The palace and royal apartments are very magnificent, but all in decay, and must be so: Were the materials of any use, we thought it would be much better to pull them down than to let such noble buildings sink into their own rubbish, by the meer injury of time: But it is at present the fate of all the royal houses in Scotland; Haly-Rood at Edinburgh excepted: It is so at Lithgow, at Falkland, at Dumfermling, and at several other places.

In the park, adjoining to the castle, were formerly large gardens, how fine they were I cannot say; the figure of the walks and grass-plats remains plain to be seen, they are very old fashion’d; but I suppose the gardens might be thought fine, as gardens were then; particularly they had not then the usage of adorning their gardens with ever-greens, trimm’d and shap’d; trees espalier’d into hedges and such-like, as now: They had, indeed, statues and busts, vasa, and fountains, flowers and fruit; but we make gardens fine now many ways, which those ages had no genius for; as by scrouls, embroidery, pavillions, terrasses and slopes, pyramids and high espaliers, and a thousand ornaments, which they had no notion of.

The park here is large and wall’d about, as all the parks in Scotland are, but little or no wood in it. The Earl of Mar, of the name of Ereskin, who claims to be hereditary keeper of

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the king’s children, as also hereditary keeper of the castle, has a house at the upper end of the town, and very finely situated for prospect, but I cannot say it is so for any thing else, for it is too near the castle; and was the castle ever to suffer a close siege, and be vigorously defended, that house would run great risques of being demolish’d on one side or other; it stands too near the castle also for the site of it to be agreeable.

The Governor’s lady (who was the Countess Dowager of Marr, when we were there, and mother of the late exil’d Earl of Marr), had a very pretty little flower-garden, upon the body of one of the bastions, or towers of the castle, the ambrusiers, serving for a dwarf-wall round the most part of it; and they walk’d to it from her Ladyship’s apartment upon a level, along the castle-wall.

As this little, but very pleasant spot, was on the north side of the castle, we had from thence a most agreeable prospect indeed over the valley and the river; as it is truly beautiful, so it is what the people of Sterling justly boast of, and, indeed seldom forget it, I mean the meanders, or reaches of the River Forth. They are so spacious, and return so near themselves, with so regular and exactly a sweep, that, I think, the like is not to be seen in Britain, if it is in Europe, especially where the river is so large also.

The River Sein, indeed, between Paris and Roan, fetches a sweep something like these some miles longer, but then it is but one; whereas here are three double reaches, which make six returns together, and each of them three long Scots miles, or more in length; and as the bows are almost equal for breadth, as the reaches are for length, it makes the figure com-

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pleat. It is an admirable sight indeed, and continues from a little below the great bridge at Sterling to Alloway, the seat of the present, or rather late Earl of Marr, the present Earl being attainted for treason, and so dead, as a peer or earl, though alive in exile. The form of this winding may be conceiv’d of a little by the length of the way, for it is near twenty miles from Sterling to Alloway by water, and hardly four miles by land.

One would think these large sweeps, or windings of the stream, should check the tide very much: But, on the contrary, we found the tide of flood made up very strong under Sterling-bridge, even as strong almost as at London-bridge, but does not flow above seven or eight miles farther: The stream of the river growing narrow apace, and the rapid current of all rivers in that country checking the tide, when it comes into narrow limits; the same is the case in the Tyne at Newcastle, and the Tweed at Berwick; in both which, though the tide flows as strong in at the mouth of the rivers, yet the navigation goes but a very little way up, nothing near what it does in this river.

The bridge at Sterling has but four arches, as I remember, but they are very large, and the channel widens considerably below it; at Alloway ’tis above a mile broad, and deep enough for ships of any burthen. So that the Glasgow merchants cannot but be in the right to settle a ware-house, or ware-houses, or whatever they will call them here, to ship off their goods for the eastern countries.

I was, indeed, curious to enquire into the course of this river, as I had been before into that of the Clyde as to the possibility of their waters being united for an inland navigation; because I had observ’d that the charts and plans of the country

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brought them almost to meet; but when I came more critically to survey the ground, I found the map-makers greatly mistaken, and that they had not only given the situation and courses of the rivers wrong, but the distances also. However, upon the whole, I brought it to this; that notwithstanding several circumstances which might obstruct it, and cause the workmen to fetch some winding turns out of the way, yet, that in the whole, a canal of about eight miles in length would fairly join the rivers, and make a clear navigation from the Irish to the German Sea; and that this would be done without any considerable obstruction; so that there would not need above four sluices in the whole way, and those only to head a bason, or receptacle, to contain a flash, or flush of water to push on the vessels this way or that, as occasion requir’d, not to stop them to raise or let fall, as in the case of locks in other rivers.

How easy then such a work would be, and how advantagious, not to Scotland only, but even to Ireland and England also, I need not explain, the nature of the thing will explain itself. I could enter upon particular descriptions of the work, and answer the objections rais’d from the great excess of waters in these streams in the winter, and the force and fury of their streams: But ’tis needless, nor have we room for such a work here; besides, all those who are acquainted with such undertakings, know that artificial canals are carefully secur’d from any communication with other waters, except just as their own occasion for the navigating part demands; and that they are so order’d, as to be always in a condition to take in what water they want, and cast off what would be troublesome to them, by proper channels and sluices made for that purpose.

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Those gentlemen who have seen the royal canal in Languedoc from Narbon to Thoulouse, as many in Scotland have, will be able to support what I say in this case, and to understand how easily the same thing is to be practis’d here; but I leave it to time, and the fate of Scotland, which, I am perswaded, will one time or other bring it to pass.

There is a very good hospital at the upper end of this town for poor decay’d tradesmen merchants. They told us it was for none but merchants, which presently brought Sir John Morden’s Hospital upon Black-Heath to my thoughts; but I had forgotten where I was: And that in Scotland every country shop-keeper, nay, almost every pether is call’d a merchant; which, when I was put in mind of, I understood the foundation of the hospital better.

There is a very considerable manufacture at Sterling, for what they call Sterling serges, which are in English, shalloons; and they both make them and dye them there very well; nor has the English manufacture of shalloons broke in so much upon them by the late Union, as it was fear’d they would. This manufacture employs the poor very comfortably here, and is a great part of the support of the town as to trade, showing what Scotland might soon be brought to by the help of trade and manufactures; for the people are as willing to work here as in England, if they had the same encouragement, that is, if they could be constantly employ’d and paid for it too, as they are there.

The family of Ereskin is very considerable here; and besides the Earl of Marr and the Earl of Buchan, who are both of that name, there are several gentlemen of quality of the same

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name; as Sir John Ereskine of Alva, Colonel Ereskine, at that time Governor of the castle; and another Colonel Ereskine, Uncle to the Earl of Buchan, a very worthy and valuable gentleman, who, tho’ he does not live at Sterling, has a considerable interest there, and was at that time Honourary Lord Provost of the town.

We had here a very fine prospect both east and west; eastward we could plainly see the castle of Edinburgh, and the hill call’d Arthur’s Seat, in the Royal Park at Haly-Rood House, also the opening firth presents all the way from Alloway to the Queens-Ferry, mention’d above. North we could see Dumfermling, and the field of battle, call’d Sheriff-muir, between it and Sterling; and some told us we might see Dumbarton castle west; but it was hazy that way, so that we could not see it, the prospect south is confin’d by the hills.

But our business was not to the north yet; still having a part of the border to view, that we might leave nothing behind us to oblige us to come this way again: So we went from Sterling, first east and then south-east., over some of the same hills, which we pass’d at our coming hither, though not by the same road. The Duke of Argyle has a small house, which the family call’d the Low-land House, I suppose in distinction from the many fine seats and strong castles which they were always possess’d of in the Highlands: this seat was formerly belonging to the earls of Sterling, and the country round it, south of the Forth, is call’d Sterlingshire, or Strivelingshire, and sends a member to parliament, as a shire or county. The family of the earls of Sterling is extinct, at least, if there are any of the name, as is alledg’d, they live obscurely in

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England. They make great complaint at Sterling, which they derive from the Papists, that the old Earl of Marr, who built the family-house under the castle, as I have just now said, was a clergy-man and prior, or abbot of the famous monastery of Cambuskeneth, a religious house, of the Order of the Augustines, which stood not far off.

That upon the Reformation the said abbot turn’d Protestant and married, and was created Earl of Marr: That he was so zealous afterwards for the change of religion, that he set his hand to the demolishing of his own monastery; and that he brought away the stones of it to Sterling, and built this fine house with them; upon which the Romanists branded him with sacrilege and avarice together, and gave him their curse, which is not unusual in Scotland; which curse, they tell you, now fell upon even the house itself, for that the family being hereditary governors of Sterling Castle; and besides, having another house at Alloway, four miles from it, the new built house was never inhabited to this day, at least not by the family to whom it belong’d, and is at last forfeited to the crown.

This clamour, however, did not hinder him from going on with his house, which he finish’d, as you see; but ’tis suppos’d those reproaches occasion’d his setting up several inscriptions, as well without the house as within; some of them are worn out with time, others are legible; whereof this distich in a Scots dialect, I think, points at the case.

Speak forth, and spare nocht, Consider well, I care nocht.

The words seem to want a paraphrase, which I shall make as short almost as the lines, though not in rhime; I take it to

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import much like the Duke of Buckingham’s inscription on the frize of his new house in the Park at St. James’s, Spectator fastidiosus sibi molestus: The builder had heard the rumours and reproaches of the people, but bids them speak out plainly, and say their worst; for that, if they consider’d well, and would say nothing but what was true, he had nothing to be concern’d at.

From Sterling, as I said, we came away west, and went directly to Lithgow, or Linlithgow, and from thence to Clydsdale, that is to say, the country upon the banks of the Clyde; in doing which last we pass’d the old Roman work a second time, which I still call Severus’s wall, because we are assur’d Severus was the last that repair’d it, though he might not make it; and more especially, because the men of learning there generally call it so; the remains of it are very plain to be seen.

There is nothing remarkable between Sterling and Lithgow but Bannockbourn, which I have mention’d already, and some private gentlemen’s seats, too many to repeat.

Lithgow is a large town, well built, and antiently famous for the noble palace of the kings of Scotland, where King James VI. and his queen kept their Court in great magnificence. This Court, though decaying with the rest, is yet less decay’d, because much later repair’d than others; for King James repair’d, or rather rebuilt some of it: and his two sons, Prince Henry, and Prince Charles, afterwards King of England, had apartments here; and there are the Prince of Wales’s Arms, over those, call’d the Princes’ Lodgings to this day. Here it was that the good Lord Murray, the Regent, who they call’d good, because he was really so, as he was riding through the town into the palace, was

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shot most villainously from a window, and the murtherer was discover’d. He dy’d of the wound with the utmost tranquillity and resignation, after having had the satisfaction of being the principal man in settling the Reformation in Scotland in such a manner, as it was not possible for the Popish party to recover themselves again; and after seeing the common people over the whole kingdom embrace the Reformation, almost universally, to his great joy, for he was the most zealous of all the nobility in the cause of the Reformation, and unalterably resolv’d never to give way to the least allowance to the Popish Court, who then began to crave only a toleration for themselves, but could never obtain it; for this reason the Papists mortally hated him, and, at length, murther’d him. But they got little by his death, for the reformers went on with the same zeal, and never left, till they had entirely driven Queen Mary, and all her Popish adherents out of the kingdom, yet we do not find the true murtherer was ever discover’d: But this is matter of history.

At Lithgow there is a very great linnen manufacture, as there is at Glasgow; and the water of the lough, or lake here, is esteem’d with the best in Scotland for bleaching or whitening of linnen cloth: so that a great deal of linnen made in other parts of the country, is brought either to be bleach’d or whiten’d.

This lough is situate on the north west side of the town, just by the palace; and there were formerly fine walks planted on both sides, with bordures and flowers from the house to the water’s edge, which must be very delightful.

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