specimens of Gothic architecture in Scotland. It was founded by David I., and dedicated to the archangel Michael, who was also considered the patron saint of the town, but it was ornamented chiefly by George Crichton, bishop of Dunkeld. It is now divided by a partition wall, and the eastern half alone is used as a place of worship. It was in an aisle in this Church, according to tradition, that James IV. was sitting when he saw the strange apparition which warned him against his fatal expedition to England.* In front of the Town-house stands the Cross Well, very curious and elegant, built in 1807, but said to be a fac-simile of the original, erected in 1620. The sculpture is very elaborate, and the water is made to pour in great profusion from the mouths of a multitude of grotesque figures. Between the Cross Well and the Railway Station, there is another fountain, surmounted by a curious effigy of St. Michael, under which is the quaint legend"Saint Michael is kinde to Strangers." Linlithgow has long been celebrated for its wells, which gave rise to the allusion in the well-known rhyme :

"Glasgow for bells,

Lithgow for wells,

Fa'kirk for beans and peas,

Peebles for clashes and lees.'

* The story is told by Pitscottie with characteristic simplicity :-"The king came to Lithgow, where he happened to be for the time at the Council, very sad and dolorous, making his devotion to God to send him good chance and fortune in his voyage. In this meantime, there came a man, clad in a blue gown, in at the kirk door, and belted about him in a roll of linen cloth. He seemed to be a man of two-and-fifty years, with a great pike-staff in his hand, and came first forward among the lords, crying and speiring (asking) for the king; but, when he saw the king, he made him little reverence or salutation, but leaned down grofling on the desk before him, and said to him in this manner, as after follows:-'Sir king, my mother hath sent me to you desiring you not to pass, at this time, where thou art purposed; for if thou does, thou wilt not fare well in thy journey, nor none that passes with thee. Further, she bade thee mell (meddle) with no woman, nor use their counsel, nor let them touch thy body, nor thou theirs; for if thou do it, thou wilt be confounded and brought to shame.'

"By this man had spoken thir words unto the king's grace, the evening song was near done, and the king paused on thir words, studying to give him an answer; but in the meantime, before the king's eyes, and in the presence of all the lords that were about him for the time, this man vanished away." There can be little doubt that the supposed apparition was a contrivance of the queen to deter James from his impolitic warfare.

It was in Linlithgow that David Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, on the 23d of January, 1570, shot the Regent Murray, when passing through the town, in revenge for a private injury. The house from which the shot was fired belonged to the Archbishop of St. Andrews, and was lately replaced by a modern edifice.

Proceeding westward from Linlithgow, the line crosses the viaduct over the Avon, and enters Stirlingshire. The tourist cannot fail to be struck by the beautiful appearance of the carse of Falkirk, as seen from the line sloping northwards to Grangemouth and the Firth of Forth. On the face of this gentle slope stands the town of

FALKIRK,

[Inn: The Red Lion.]

surrounded by iron works, and presenting rather a forbidding appearance. The town is an ancient one, having been of some note in the early part of the eleventh century. The old church, which was demolished about thirty years ago, was erected in 1057, in the reign of Malcolm III. The original name of the town was Eglishbreckk, signifying "the speckled church," in allusion, it is supposed, to the colour of the stones. In the churchyard are shewn the graves of two celebrated Scottish heroes-Sir John Graham, the friend of Wallace, and Sir John Stewart of Bonkill, both of whom fell fighting bravely against the English at the Battle of Falkirk, in 1298. Over the former a monument was erected with an inscription, which has been renewed three times since his death. It at present stands thus:

TRANSLATION.

Here lyes Sir John the Grame, baith wight and wise,

Ane of the chief reskwit Scotland thrise,

An better knight not to the world was lent,

Nor was gude Grame of truth and hardiment.

xxii. Julii anno 1298.

MENTE MANUQUE POTENS, ET VALLAE FIDUS ACHATES,

CONDITUR HIC GRAMUS, BELLO INTERFECTUS AB ANGLIS.

In the churchyard is also to be seen the monument of two brave officers, Sir Robert Monro of Foulis, and his brother, Dr. Munro, who were killed in the second battle of Falkirk,

January 17, 1746. Falkirk is noted for its great cattlemarkets, or trysts, held thrice a-year—(August, cattle and horses, 2d Tuesday and Wednesday; (Fair) cattle, 3d Thursday. September and October; cattle and horses, 2d Tuesday and Wednesday, sheep, Monday preceding), to which a vast number of black cattle and sheep are brought from the Highlands and Islands.

About two miles north of the town are the celebrated Carron Iron Works, among the largest of the kind in the world. Near Grahamston—a suburb of Falkirk by which the railway passes- -the battle already alluded to was fought, in 1298, between the forces of Edward I. and the Scots, under Wallace and Sir John Graham, in which the latter were defeated. The battle of Falkirk-muir, between the royal forces, under General Hawley, and the Highlanders, in which the latter gained a complete victory, was fought on the high ground lying to the south-west of the town, from which there is a remarkably extensive and beautiful view. Hawley had suffered himself to be detained at Callander House* by the wit and gaiety of the Countess of Kilmarnock (whose husband was with the Prince's army), until the Highlanders had taken up an advantageous position, and were ready to attack his army. The consequence of this negligence, coupled with an incapacity to act, was, that his troops were thrown into confusion, and completely routed.t

* Callander House, the seat of the Earl of Linlithgow and Callander, is noted for its historical associations. The trench of "Graham's Dyke," or wall of Antoninus, runs through the Park, and may be traced elsewhere in the neighbourhood. This wonderful work was constructed by the Romans, as a defence against the attacks of the Scots and Picts, between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, and extended across the country.

"Hawley had not a better head, and certainly a much worse heart, than Sir John Cope, who was a humane, good-tempered man. The new general ridiculed severely the conduct of his predecessor, and remembering that he had seen, in 1715, the left wing of the Highlanders broken by a charge of the Duke of Argyle's horse, which came upon them across a morass, he resolved to manœuvre in the same manner. He forgot, however, a material circumstance that the morass at Sheriffmuir was hard frozen, which made some difference in favour of the cavalry. Hawley's manœuvre, as commanded and executed, plunged a great part of his dragoons up to the saddle-laps in a bog, where the Highlanders cut them to pieces with so little trouble, that, as one of the performers assured us, the feat was as easy as slicing bacon. The gallantry of some of the English regiments beat off the Highland charge on another point,

In the neighbourhood of this, is the junction where the Scottish Central line of railway commences. Proceeding by it, we arrive at Larbert Station, near which are the village of Larbert, and Larbert House. In Larbert Church, Bruce, the famous Abyssinian traveller is interred, and Kinnaird, his patrimonial estate, is at no great distance. A mile and a half farther on, the line passes through the remains of the Torwood Forest, where Sir William Wallace is said to have found shelter when pursued by his enemies. At Torwoodhead, Mr. Cargill, in 1680, excommunicated Charles II., the Duke of York, and the ministry. About four miles farther on, is the station and village of Bannockburn, remarkable for the famous battle fought in its neighbourhood, June 4th, 1314 (see page 187).

and, amid a tempest of wind and rain which has been seldom equalled, the field presented the singular prospect of two armies flying different ways at the same moment. The king's troops, however, ran fastest and farthest, and were the last to recover their courage; indeed, they retreated that night to Falkirk, leaving their guns, burning their tents, and striking a new panic into the British nation, which was but just recovering from the flutter excited by what, in olden times, would have been called the Raid of Derby. In the drawing-room which took place at Saint James's on the day the news arrived, all countenances were marked with doubt and apprehension, excepting those of George the Second, the Earl of Stair, and Sir John Cope, who was radiant with joy at Hawley's discomfiture. Indeed, the idea of the two generals was so closely connected, that a noble peer of Scotland, upon the same day, addressed Sir John Cope by the title of General Hawley, to the no small amusement of those who heard the quid pro quo."-SIR WALTER SCOTT's Prose Works, vol. xix., p. 303.

from Glas

Five hours'

sail from Edinburgh, by steamer from Granton up Firth of Forth. Population, 12,834.

Stirling is delightfully situated on an eminence, near the river Forth, and bears in its external appearance some resemblance to Edinburgh on a small scale. The most interesting and conspicuous object is the castle, situated on the brow of a precipitous rock, and which figures in the history of Scotland from an early period. Alexander I. died in it in 1124, and subsequently it became the subject of frequent and protracted sieges. In 1304 it held out for three months against Edward I. at the head of a powerful army, and so resolute was the defence, that he found it necessary to procure all the besieging

N