166 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



Da\-id Erskine of Dryburgh, and Adam Erskine of Cambuskenneth. The 

 first parliament summoned to Stirling, after James had taken the government 

 into his own hands, assembled in the great hall already mentioned. After 

 eighteen years' residence in England, as sovereign of the two kingdoms, James 

 once more returned to visit the scenes of his infancy, and in the Chapel Royal 

 at Stirling held the great philosophical disputation alluded to in a former page 

 of this work. 



During the pestilence of 1654, Stirling, though noted for its salubrious 

 climate, afforded little immunity from this terrible visitation. From July till 

 October of that year, the town-council held their meetings in the open 

 fields, called the Cow-park. For the infected, tents were erected on the 

 adjoining Sheriff-moorlands, and every method employed that could administer 

 reUef ; but still the calamity swept off great numbers of the inhabitants. Six 

 members of the council, who had rendered themselves conspicuous on this 

 melancholy occasion, fell victims to their humanity.— South-west of the castle 

 is the royal deer-park, where, in ancient times, the kings and their chivalry 

 sought relaxation from court ennui in the animating pastime of the chase. At 

 the eastern extremity of the park were the canal for the royal barge, and the 

 court gardens ; but of these, some slight vestiges of walks and pastures, and 

 the mouldering roots of trees, that once supplied the royal table with fruit 

 " pleasant to the taste," are all that now remain. In the same neglected 

 spot is a circular mound of earth, in the form of a table, with sod-benches 

 around it, where, according to tradition, the court presided at the fetes- 

 champitres. This "table" is of great antiquitj- ; and here, it is conjectured, 

 the pastime called "the Knights of the Round Table" was exercised, to which 

 the Scottish sovereigns, and particularly James IV., were so very partial.* 



In the Castle-hill is a place called the " Valley," apparently of artificial 

 excavation, where, in its palmy day, Stirling sent forth its rival knights for 

 joust and tournament, and where the victor received his reward from the hand of 

 Beauty. The sanguinary tournament, which James I. had laboured to suppress, 

 was here revived and encouraged by his successor. The place is remarkable 

 as the scene of the following combat. In Lent 1449, two noble Burgundians, 

 named Lalain, and the Squire Meriadet — all worthy to have served in the 

 ranks of " Charles the Bold"— had challenged two of the Douglasses, and 

 Halket their squire, to combat with lance, battle-axe, sword, and dagger. 

 The combatants, cased in complete armour, were severally knighted by the 



• Gough (edition of Camden, 1789, vol. iii.) mentions, that long before he wrote, a similar mound or 

 table existed at Windsor. 



