use over the whole kingdom. Dr. John Roebuck, having visited many places in Scotland, to ascertain the practicability of an iron foundry, fixed at last on the situation of the present Carron works. The date of the establishment is 1760: the company is chartered, and has an original capital of fifty thousand pounds. This foundry is, without dispute, the most extensive in the world. There are five blast furnaces, producing nearly two hundred tons of iron weekly : of air furnaces and cupolas, there are twenty, capable of melting double the quantity for foundry purposes. Mortars, cannon, and carronades (so named from the foundry) are cast solid, and bored in a perpendicular position. About two thousand people used to be employed on the premises. The consumption of coal, which is obtained from the mines adjoining, is about two hundred tons a-day. The iron is brought from the West by the great canal, and from the coast of Fife by the Forth. The works employ from fifteen to twenty of the company's vessels to London, Liverpool, &c. There is easy access to both seas; and, from a private canal from within the buildings, the lading is carried in small craft to the Carron wharf. The Forth and Clyde Canal, which had its commencement, joined by the Union Canal, at this point-forms altogether one of the boldest enterprises of modern times.*

Behind the church of Larbert is the handsome monument of cast-iron erected

to the memory of Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller. The Carse of Stirling, like that of Falkirk, is cultivated with the neatness of a garden, and seems as productive; while new mansions, embosomed in thriving plantations, and adding many pleasing features to the general landscape, afford evidence of the daily improvements which are here extending their influence in every direction. Many of the Roman præsidia and turres - particularly Castle Cary, Rough Castle, and Camelon, are still traceable in this district. In the latter of these, Agricola is supposed to have wintered previous to his sixth campaign, and to have made the Camelon Causeway. Near the Carron, that ancient boundary of

The Great Canal, connecting the Clyde with the Forth, appears to have first suggested itself in the reign of Charles II., but was not acted upon till the summer of 1768. In 1790 the navigation was opened from sea to sea, by a great popular solemnity of pouring into the Clyde a hogshead of the water of the Forth. The greatest altitude of this canal is one hundred and fifty-six feet; the medium breadth at surface fifty-six feet; at bottom, twenty-seven feet; with an uniform depth of eight feet. Vessels of nineteen feet beam, sixty-eight feet keel, and drawing eight feet of water, can navigate its whole length, about thirty-five miles. It is crossed by thirty-three draw-bridges, passes over ten considerable aqueducts, besides thirty smaller tunnels. The great aqueduct at Kelvin, eighty-three feet high, and crossing a valley upwards of four hundred feet wide, is magnificent. The canal has six reservoirs, covering above four hundred acres. In 1810 the duty upon it, arising chiefly from grain and timber, amounted to forty thousand pounds. (County Ilist. Appendix, p. 718.) This splendid enterprise has since been joined by the Union Canal from Edinburgh, already noticed.

ANTIQUITIES.- -STIRLING CASTLE.

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the Roman sway, ran the great wall built by Urbicus in the middle of the second century, and named, as already noticed, after the Emperor Antoninus. By the natives it is called "Graham's Dyke," in compliment, it is supposed, to the illustrious warrior whose castle is still shown near the source of the river.

The situation of Stirling and its castle, which in many respects resembles that of Edinburgh, is one of the most striking in the kingdom. It appears to have been a frontier town from the fifth till the end of the tenth century; and in consequence of the daily struggles between the rival parties to gain possession of so important a station, is supposed to have acquired the name of Striveling, modified in the course of time to Stirling. Of the first erection of the fortress there is no certain account; but it is probable that the Romans had a station here, and Boetius affirms that Agricola raised fortifications upon the castle rock, where an inscription formerly recorded that the second legion held their daily and nightly watch at that point. But without halting to investigate a subject of but little importance in a work where the chief feature to be kept in view is the picturesque, we cheerfully wave antiquarian disquisition, in order to present a few of those stirring scenes of which the town and castle of Stirling have been the theatre.

In the tenth century, when informed that the Danes had invaded his dominions, Kenneth III. appointed Stirling castle as a rendezvous for the army, with which he afterwards gained a signal victory at Luncarty. Two centuries. later, the castle became a fortress of great importance. In 1178, along with the three other principal forts of the kingdom-namely, those of Edinburgh, Roxburgh, and Berwick-it was delivered into the hands of the English, as part of a ransom for William the Lyon, who had been taken prisoner during an unsuccessful expedition across the Border, and detained a year in captivity. This was the first great ascendency obtained by England over the independence of Scotland, and happened in the reign of Henry II. His son, however, Richard I., generously remitted what of the ransom money remained unpaid, at his accession to the throne, restored the fortresses, and renounced all claim to the superiority of Scotland.

The Scottish monarchs-although they did not make it one of their stated residences till after the accession of the Stuart family-often held their court and parliament in Stirling castle. It was the birth-place and occasional residence of James II., and is notorious as the place where he perpetrated the rash deed which has left so indelible a stigma upon his reign. The royal apartments were then in the north-west corner of the castle, and are now partly the

residence of the fort-major. The closet where the murder was committed is still shown as the "Douglas's room." This powerful noble-who, even after the expiration of his delegated power as lieutenant-general of the kingdom, was a most formidable rival of the king-had caused John Harris, a gentleman of eminent loyalty, to be executed on account of a private quarrel, and in open defiance of the king's prohibitory mandate. He had also entered into a league with the earls of Crawford and Ross, obliging all parties to mutual support in case of need. He had forced into an engagement of attendance, even against the crown, the greater part of his own vassals; and when Maclellan, a near relation of Lord Gray, offered some objections, he had him seized and forcibly conveyed to Douglas castle. Whilst there, Sir Patrick, Lord Gray's son, arrived with a mandate from the king to save the captive vassal, and was convivially entertained by the earl, to whom Sir Patrick showed the royal letter. Douglas received it with every mark of reverence, and having read it, said, "I am indebted to you for having been the bearer of so gracious a letter from his majesty: the demand shall instantly be granted, and the more readily for your sake." He then took his guest by the hand, and led him to the castle-green, where something lay with a cloth thrown over it. Removing the cover, "Sir Patrick," said he, with affected concern, "you have come a little too late; this is your sister's son, but he wants the head.-Take his body, however, and do with it what you will." My lord," replied Gray, in an agony of grief, "since you have taken the head, I leave you to dispose of the body also." Then, calling for his horse, and mounting, "If I live," said he to Douglas, "the merit of your

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present labour shall not pass unrewarded." A hot pursuit was the consequence; and Gray only escaped the fate of his relative by the fleetness of his horse.

Informed of this atrocious outrage, the king summoned a select council to deliberate as to the course to be adopted respecting Douglas; and it was resolved to invite him to court, with a promise of oblivion, on condition of good behaviour for the future. With this pledge for his personal safety, Douglas repaired to meet his sovereign in Stirling castle, where he was invited to sup on Shrove Tuesday. After supper, taking him aside into a recess or closet, where only some of the privy council and the guard were in attendance, the king told him that he was fully apprised of the illegal compact which had been entered into between himself and certain factious nobles, and desired him to break loose from such disloyal engagement. Douglas, however, not only refused to break off the connexion, but upbraided the king with having driven him to the very adoption of the measure. "Well," said the king, irritated by past recollections,