SOUTH BANTASKINE 



STIRLINGSHIRE 



[HOUGH the plain hums with dirt-pro- 

 ducing industry and the west wind 

 darkens the sky with the smoke of a 

 thousand furnaces, yet on clear days 

 the main features of the prospect from 

 the drawing-room windows of South Bantaskine are as 

 grand as they were on that far-off summer day when 

 Wallace's brief, but immortal, career was wrecked by 

 Edward of England (22nd July, 1298), or on that 

 nearer winter day when the star of the Stuarts blazed 

 in dying splendour, and General Hawley's red-coated 

 columns were scattered before the impetuous onset 

 of Lord George Murray's Highlanders (17th January, 

 1746). For it is here, on the very battle-ground of 

 Falkirk, that the ladies of Bantaskine have furnished 

 their borders with the choicest and brightest blossoms, 

 whereof one of them, Miss Mary Wilson, has pre- 

 pared the pretty glimpse in Plate XII. 



"For life is kind, and sweet things grow unbidden, 



Turning the field of strife to bloomy bowers ; 

 Who may declare what secrets may lie hidden 

 Beneath that veil of flowers ? " 

 88 



