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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: STE-SUS |
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STIRLING , a royal, municipal and police burgh, river port 90 ft. high. The nave (the West church), divided from the and county town of Stirlingshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901), aisles by a double row of massive round pillars, is a transition 18,697. It is finely situated on the right bank of the Forth, between Romanesque and Gothic, with pointed windows. 391 M. N.W. of Edinburgh and 291 M. N.E. of Glasgow, being The crow -stepped Gothic gable of the south transept affords served by the North British and the Caledonian railways. the main entrance to both churches. The choir is in the The old town occupies the slopes of a basaltic hill (420 ft. above I Decorated and Perpendicular styles and is higher than the nave. the sea) terminating on the north and west in a sheer precipice. The parish church is 200 ft. long, 55 ft. broad and 5o ft. high. The modern quarters have been laid out on the level ground at Within its walls Mary Queen of Scots was crowned in 1543, the base, especially towards the south. Originally the town when nine months old, and in the same year the earl of Arran, was protected on its vulnerable sides by a wall
still exist at the south end of the Black Walk. Formerly there were two main entrancesthe South Port, loo yds. to the west of the present line of Port Street, and the " auld brig " over the Forth to the north, a quaint high-pitched structure of four arches, now closed to traffic. It dates from the end of the 14th century and was once literally "the key to the Highlands." It still retains the gateway towers at both ends. Just below it is the new bridge erected in 1829 from designs by Robert Stevenson, and below this again the railway viaduct. According to local tradition, a bridge stood at Kildean, 1 m. up the river, not far from the field of the battle of Stirling Bridge (1297). The castle crowning the eminence is of unknown age; but from the time that Alexander I. died within its walls in 1124 till the union of the crowns in 1603 it was intimately associated with the fortunes of the Scottish monarchs. It is one of the for-tresses appointed by the Act of Union to be kept in a state of repair, and is approached from the esplanade, on which stands the colossal statue of Robert Bruce, erected in 1877. The main gateway, built by James III., gives access to the lower and then to the upper square, on the south side of which stands the palace, begun by James V. (1540) and completed by Mary of Guise. The east side of the quadrangle is occupied by the parliament house, a Gothic building of the time of James III., now used as a barrack-room and stores. On the north side of the square is the chapel royal, founded by Alexander I., rebuilt in the 15th century and again in 1594 by James VI. (who was christened in it), and afterwards converted into an armoury and finally a store-room. Beyond the upper square is the small castle garden, partly destroyed by fire in 1856 but restored, in which William, 8th earl of Douglas, was murdered by James II. (1452). Just below the castle on the north-east is the path of Ballangeich, which is said to have given private access to the fortress, and from which James V. took his title of "Guidman of Ballangeich " when he roved incognito. Below it is Gowan Hill, and beyond this the Mote or Heading Hill, on which Murdoch Stuart, 2nd duke of Albany, his two sons, and his,fatherin-law the earl of Lennox, were beheaded in 1425. In the plain to the south-west were the King's Gardens, now under grass, with an octagonal turf-covered mound called the King's Knot in the centre. Farther south lies the King's Park, chiefly devoted to golf, cricket, football and curling, and containing also a race-course. On a hill of lower elevation
angel
of nobles appointed Mary of Guise queen-regent; on the 29th of July 1567 James VI. was crowned, John Knox preaching the sermon, and in August 1571 and June 1578 the general assembly of the Church of Scotland met. James Guthrie (1612-1661), the martyr, and Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1794), founder of the Scottish Secession Church, were two of the most distinguished ministers. To the south-west of the church is Cowane's Hospital, founded in 1639 by John Cowane, dean of gild, for twelve poor members of the gildry; but the deposition of the charity has been modified and the hall
hall
Stirling is under the jurisdiction of a council with provost and bailies, and, along with Culross, Dunfermline, Inverkeithing and Queensferry (the Stirling burghs) returns a member to Parliament. The Abbey Craig, an outlying spur of the Ochils, 11 m. north-east of Stirling, is a thickly-wooded hill (362 ft. high), on the top of which stands the Wallace monument (1869), a baronial tower, 220 ft. high, surmounted with an open-work crown. The Valhalla, or Hall of Heroes, contains busts of eminent Scotsmen. Cambuskenneth Abbey is situated on the left bank of the Forth, about 1 m. east-north-east of Stirling by ferry across the river. The name is derived from the Gaelic and means the Crook of Kenneth," or Cairenachus. a friend of St Columba and patron of Kilkenny in Ireland. The abbey, which was in the Early Pointed style, was founded by David I. in 1147 for monks of the order of St Augustine. Several Scots parliaments met within its walls, notably that of 1326, the first attended by burgesses from the towns. At the Reformation Mary Queen of Scots bestowed it on the 1st earl of Mar (1562), who is said to have used the stones for his palace in Stirling. In 1709 the town council of Stirling purchased the land and ruins. All that remains of the abbey is the massive, four-storeyed towerwhich is 70 ft. high, and 35 ft. square, and was painted and repaired in 1864the graceful west doorway and the foundations of some of the walls. The bones of James III. and his queen, Margaret of Denmark, who were buried within the precincts, were discovered in 1864 and re-interred next year under a tomb erected by Queen Victoria at the high altar. Earlier forms of the name of Stirling are Strivilen, Estriuelen, Striviling and Sterling, besides the Gaelic Struithla. It was known also as Snowdoun, which became the official title of the Scots heralds. The Romans had a station here (Benobara). In 1119 it was a royal burgh and under Alexander I. was one of the Court of Four Burghs (superseded under James III. by the Convention of Royal Burghs). In 1174 it was handed over to the English in security for the treaty of Falaise, being restored to the Scots by Richard I. The earliest known charter was that granted in 1226 by Alexander II., who made the castle a royal residence. The fortress was repeatedly besieged during the wars of the Scottish Independence. In 1304 it fell with the town to Edward I. The English held it for ten years, and it was in order to raise the Scottish siege in 1314 that Edward II. risked the battle at Bannockburn. Edward Baliol
capital of the kingdom. It was the birthplace of James II. in 1430 and probably of James III. and James IV. In 1571 an attempt was made to surprise the castle by Mary's adherents, the regent Lennox being slain in the fray, and seven years later it was captured by James Douglas, 4th earl of Morton, after which a reconciliation took place between the Protestants and Roman Catholics. It was occupied in 1584 by the earls of Angus and Mar, the Protestant leaders, who, however, fled to England on the approach of the king. Next year they returned with a strong force and compelled James VI, to open the gates, his personal safety having been guaranteed. In 1504 Prince Henry was baptized in the chapel royal, which had been rebuilt on a larger scale. After the union of the crowns (1603) Stirling ceased to play a prominent part on the national stage. The privy council and court of session met in the town in 1637 on account of the disturbed state of Edinburgh. In 1641 Charles I. gave it its last governing charter, and four years afterwards parliament was held in Stirling on account of the plague in the capital , but the outbreak of the pest in Stirling caused the legislators to remove to Perth. During the Civil War the Covenanters held the town, to which the committees of church and state adjourned after Cromwell's victory at Dunbar (165o), but in August next year the castle was taken by General Monk. In 1715 the 3rd duke of Argyll held it to prevent the passage of the Forth by the Jacobites, and in 1746 it was ineffectually besieged by Prince Charles Edward. In 1773, in consequence of an intrigue on the part of three members of the council to retain themselves in office, the town was deprived of its corporate privileges, which were not restored until 1781.See History of the Chapel Royal, Stirling (Grampian Club, 1882) ; Charters of Stirling (1884); John Jamieson, Bell the Cat (Stirling, 19o2); The Battle of Stirling Bridgethe Kildean Myth (Stirling Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1905). STIRLING-MAXWELL, SIR WILLIAM, BART. (1818-1878), Scottish man of letters and virtuoso, the only son of Archibald Stirling of Keir, Perthshire, and of Elizabeth, third daughter of Sir John Maxwell, seventh baronet of Pollok, Renfrewshire, was born at Kenmure, near Glasgow, on the 8th of March,1818. William Stirling was educated privately and at Trinity College, Cambridge , where he graduated in 1839. On leaving Cambridge he spent some years abroad, chiefly in Spain and Syria. Having succeeded his father as proprietor of Keir in 1847, when he was made vice-lieutenant of Perthshire, he in 1852 entered parliament as member for that county; and he was several times re-elected. On the death of his uncle in 1865 he succeeded to the baronetcy and estates of Pollok, assuming the additional name of Maxwell. In the same year he became deputy-lieutenant of Lanarkshire, and a like office was conferred on him in Renfrewshire in 187o. He married in 1865 Anna Maria, daughter of the loth earl of Leven and Melville. She died in 1874, and in 1876 Sir William married Caroline Norton. In 1862 he was chosen lord rector of St Andrews, in 1872 the same honour was. conferred by Edinburgh, and in 1876 he became chancellor of Glasgow. He was a trustee of the British Museum, of the National Gallery, and member of the senate of London University. In 1876 he was created a Knight of the Thistle, being the only commoner of the order. He died at Venice on the 15th of January 1878.Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell's works, which are invariably characterized by thorough workmanship and excellent taste, were in some cases issued for private circplation only, and almost all of them are now exceedingly rare. They. include an early volume of verse (Songs of the Holy Land, .1848.), and several volumes containing costly reproductions of old engravings, along with valuable explanatory matter. His best-known publications are Annals of the Artists of Spain (1848), The Cloister Life of Charles V. (1852). Part of the Annals was revised and published as Velasquez and his Works (1855). The Cloister Life was at once recognized as a valuable contribution to history, but its importance was lessened by the appearance a year or two later of Mignet's Charles-Quint and L. P. Gachard's Retraite et mart de Charles-Quint. A life of Don John of Austria, from his posthumous papers, edited by Sir G. W. Cox, appeared in 1883. A collected edition of his works, with a short memoir. appeared in 1891. End of Article: STIRLING If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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