STIRLING. — ANCIENT FAMILIES. 171 



Although the limits of the present notice are full, and we reluctantly pass over 

 many facts and anecdotes in the civil and military history of Stirling — which 

 the reader wiU find detailed with various interest in the national history, and in 

 chronicles of the town and castle* — still, as a description of Stirlingsliire without 

 a glance at the field of Bannockburn would be like that of Attica without its 

 Marathon — Boeotia without its Leuctra — or the mountains of Switzerland without 

 their Morat and Morgarten — we annex a brief chronicle of that glorious day, 

 and regret that we cannot, like the patriotic Swiss at the anniversaries of their 

 battles, pronounce the names of evei'y combatant with the eulogium it 

 deserves.f 



The field of Bannockburn, conspicuous from the Castle ramparts, is situated 

 between the village of that name and St. Ninians ; but without indulging in 

 any minute description of the locality, we proceed at once to the facts of the 

 day — the theme of many bards, and that which inspired tlie immortal lyric of 

 Burns. J To the magnificent description in which the achievements of the 

 day have been more recently embodied by Sir "Walter Scott, in his " Lord of 

 the Isles," it is superfluous to advert. In that poem the subject may be con- 

 sidered as having received its last touches from the hands of a master — one who 

 was essentially the poet of chivalry. 



In preparing for the momentous conflict in question, Bruce had to provide 

 against three great disadvantages.§ Of these, the first was his great deficiency 



been repeatedly allied to the royal family, and the latter was descended from the Lords of the Isles. Among 

 the names more prominent in science, literature, or intellectual acquirements, several are deserving of 

 honourable mention ; but of these none are more universally known than those of George Buchanan, Napier 

 of Merchiston, the inventor of logarithms, Dr. Moore, and James Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller. The 

 latter was born at Kinnaird, on the 14th December, 1730. To his Travels, which produced so extraordinary 

 a sensation in the literary world, it would here be superfluous to do more than simply advert. His death 

 was the result of a sudden and melancholy accident ; while handing a lady down stairs, he slipped a foot, 

 and was precipitated from tlie sixth or seventh step to the floor, and died the following morning. His 

 monument, as already noticed, is in the churchyard of Larbert, and is one of the most ingenious works ever 

 executed in this or any other country. 



• In her national and provincial records, Scotland has long felt the irreparable blank occasioned by the 

 loss of her state documents. When General Monck reduced this fortress in 1651, be became master of the 

 principal registers of the kingdom, which, on the surrender of Edinburgh Castle the year before, had been 

 conveyed to Stirling. By Cromwell's orders they were afterwards forwarded to London, and deposited in 

 the Tower, where they remained until the restoration of Charles II., when, by the royal mandate, they were 

 stowed into numerous hogsheads and shipped for Scotland ; but the vessel being overtaken in a violent 

 tempest, was cast away, and its precious cargo consigned to the deep. — Vide County Hist. 



f The Swiss, it will be remembered, give additional interest to these solemnities, by reading aloud the 

 names of those who fought and fell in the struggles for liberty : thereby preserving their names from obli- 

 vion, and stimulating their descendants to imitation by keeping their example fresh before their eyes. 



X The well-known song, " Scots wha lia'e wi' Wallace bled," &c. 



§ Sir Walter Scott. 



