SCOTTISH GAEDENS 



that commanded from the outer end of this avenue. 

 Yon white tower, standing in the newly sown 

 cornland, was built to mark the centre of the 

 Scottish realm ; broad and fair around it spreads the 

 fertile carse, through which the looped Forth winds 

 its leisurely way. You may trace its gleams till 

 they are lost in the blue haze on the east, where 

 the sunlit Ochils, Stirling Castle, and Polmaise 

 woods arrest the eye, only a little nearer than 

 blood-boultered Bannockburn and Falkirk. All 

 along the southern horizon stretch the flat-topped 

 Lennox Hills and Campsie Fells, their outline 

 presenting marked contrast to the tumultuous range 

 on the north, where Ben Ledi and Stuc-a'chroin 

 still wear their snowy hoods. Far on the west Ben 

 Lomond rears its cloven cone, commanding outpost 

 of the Highland host. Every feature in the land- 

 scape has its story for the understanding eye, from 

 northward Ardoch, where Julius Agricola has left 

 enduring memorial of his conquest in the earthen 

 ramparts of his camp, to nearer Kippen on the 

 south, where Prince Charlie's Highlanders crossed 

 the Ford of Frew when last Great Britain felt the 

 throes of civil strife. 



A word about the Murdochs of Gartincaber. They 

 trace their descent from one Murdoch, who rendered 

 yeoman service to Robert the Bruce in his hour of 

 need. In the early spring of 1307, the King of Scots 

 was hiding in the Galloway hill country with a few 

 hundred followers. King Edward's troops beset all 



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