170 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



vessels as they pass up and down the river, tacking to right and left, are highly- 

 picturesque. 



The Castle-wynd is peculiarly interesting, on account of the many picturesque 

 groupings and antique features which it presents ; among these, the ruins 

 of a remarkable edifice, called Marr's Walk, are conspicuous. It was built 

 in 1570, by the Regent, earl of Marr, out of the wreck of Cambuskenneth 

 Abbey, the carved materials of which are here profusely employed as orna- 

 ments for a structure very different from that of-' their original destination. 

 " Argyll's Lodging" is in the immediate vicinity of tliis " sacrilegious fabric ;" 

 and not far from these is an ancient square building, mth central court, and 

 " extinguisher turrets" shooting up from the interior angles, which belonged 

 originally to the earls of Stirling, and afterwards to the Argyll family. Near 

 the first of these domestic palaces is the Gray Friars, a handsome gothic church, 

 built by James IV., and to which the chancel was added by Cardinal Beaton. 

 Here, it is said, the royal founder spent habitually much of his time in com- 

 punctious exercises for the part he had so unhappily taken in tlie events wliich 

 occasioned his father's death. As one of the acts of penance and mortification 

 to which he voluntarily subjected himself on these occasions, he is represented 

 to have limited his diet, during the season of Lent, to bread and water, and to 

 have received the allowance upon his knees. This church is remarkable as the 

 scene of various historical events. 



The town of Stirling contains a population of about nine thousand, and is 

 honourably distinguished by the number of its charitable institutions for the sup- 

 port of decayed tradesmen, guild brethren, and their children. It is said, however, 

 that these institutions are prejudicial to the growth of industry, and serve rather 

 a? premiums for indolence, among a certain class, than as incentives to dihgence 

 and frugality. They who have a public provision laid up for old age or misfor- 

 tune, are less hkely to make the same exertions during the season of youth and 

 health than those who have no prospect of comfortable maintenance but what 

 their own personal earnings may secure. Stirling, however, is a thriving town, 

 and, with its rich suburbs, enlightened citizens, and industrious mechanics, 

 presents many features on which the stranger will reflect with pleasure ; and 

 not a few which might be selected as models for imitation.* 



• Tliis county is remarkable for tlie number of ancient families who have flourislied, and continue to 

 flourisli, within its limits. Those who had risen into rote previous to the thirteentli century, and after- 

 wards became more particularly distinguished, were the Levenax, the Callendars, the Livingstons, the Erths, 

 the Mores, the Siirlings, the Buchanans, the Drummonds, and the Napiers. The Grahams, the Erskines, 

 the Elphinstones, the Murrays, and the Hays, who, at a later period, settled in the shire, had been all 

 previously distinguished in other parts of the country. Of the Ednionstons and Alexanders— tlie first had 



