168 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



the feat cost him a broken limb. This, however, as he ingeniously contended, 

 arose not from want of skill on his part, but from the ignoble quality of 

 certain portions of the feathers which composed his wings ; for the said wings, 

 he averred, being partly formed of the plumage of mere barn-door fowls, by an 

 irresistible sympathy, tended earthward ; whereas had they consisted of eagle's 

 feathers, his flight, like that noble bird's, would have been high and heaven- 

 ward. The argument was allowed its full weight by the public ; and it 

 being difficult, perhaps, to obtain a sufficient quantity of eagle's feathers, the 

 experiment was not repeated. The fact is but one instance, among many, of 

 the extreme credulity of the times ; but it appears equally certain that the 

 alchemist was himself the dupe of his own excited imagination, and what was 

 attempted by the winged " Freyre of Tungland" has been occasionally revived 

 in modem times, though with no better success. The poet Dunbar, who had 

 vntnessed this crafty foreigner raised to a preferment to which he had himself 

 so long and so vainly aspired, commemorates the fall of the rival Deedalus in 

 a strain of characteristic ridicule.* 



Closely adjoining to the Valley, on the south, is tlie Ladies' Hill, a rocky 

 eminence, where formerly the royal family and ladies of the court sat to witness 

 the exhibitions of chivalry, and from which they could observe the various 

 actors, as if from the upper circle of an amphitheatre, while the valley itself 

 represented a fine spacious arena. Another noted locality is that opposite the 

 castle, on the north, and known as Gowlan-hiU, at the extremity of which is 

 a small mount, called Hurley-Hawkey,f encircled with an earthen parapet, 

 and showing other remains of artificial arrangement. On this spot Duncan, 

 the aged Earl of Lennox, Murdoch, Duke of Albany, some time regent, and 

 his younger son, Alexander (the elder having suffered in like manner the 

 previous day), were beheaded in May 1425, but for what crime is not recorded. 

 The last distinguished personage who suffered in Stirling by the hand of the 

 public executioner, was John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews,| who had 



• See "The Fenyet Freyre of Tungland," " Some held he had beene Dedahis," &c. 

 t A compound term, wliicli perpetuates the ancient pastime of sliding down the declivity on a cow's 

 skull, an inverted stool, or other smooth substance, used by school-boys. 



J To the gibbet where the ill-fated prelate paid the forfeit of his deeds, some one, with classical 

 sarcasm, affixed the following distich : — 



" Cresce diu, felix arbor, semperque vireto 

 Frondibus, ut nobis talia poma feras.' 



Which on the following night was answered thus : — 



" Infelix pereas arbor ; sin I'orte virebis 

 In primis utinam carniinis auctor eat." 



