STIRLING, one of the most ancient towns in Scotland, and capital of the county of the same name, is situated in 5° 40' west longitude, and 56° 6' north latitude, in a plain called the Carse, watered by the river Forth, and on the sloping ridge of a rock, at the western and precipitous extremity of which the castle is built. The town is very irregular, the street upon the crest of the hill being broad and spacious, but the other streets narrow and inconvenient. Within the last few years great improvements have been undertaken. The pavement of the streets, which was of the worst description, has been rendered equal to that of almost any other place in the kingdom; and the opening of the town at its lower extremity is affording scope for the most marked improvements. Many elegant houses and fine shops have been erected. In the suburbs there are many handsome villas; in Southfield, Melville Terrace, Allan Park, Wellington Place, and Dunbarton Road. Stirling is a most convenient place for the residence of people of small but easy fortune. House-rents are low; and ground for gardens may be procured upon easy terms. There arc no local public burdens of any kind; the streets being lighted and cleaned, and water brought to the town, at the expense of the corporation. The situation of Stirling is very convenient in other respects. The steam-boats supply an easy and cheap conveyance to and from Edinburgh; and many coaches pass through the town in different directions. “In point of extent, variety, and magnificence, the view from Stirling Castle is perhaps unequalled by any other in Britain.”^[1. M‘Culloch’s Statistical Account of the British Empire, vol. i. p. 299. ]

The public buildings are the two parish churches, both in the Gothicstyle, with a modern erection between them, which adds nothing to their beauty: they are called the East and West Churches. The former is a fine building, erected in the year 1494. In the two churches there are three clergymen, and in one of the United Secession churches two. The town council has the patronage of the churches, and two of the ministers are entirely supported by the corporation. It also bears the whole expenses of the jail for the counties of Stirling, Clackmannan, and Kinross, except a part of the jailer’s salary, paid by the counties. Besides two chapels belonging to the United Associate Synod, there is an Old Light church, the minister of which, and a majority of the congregation, have within a few weeks joined the established church. There are likewise an Episcopal and a Roman Catholic chapel, the latter a neat building, erected within the last two years; a Cameronian, a Congregational, and several Baptist places of worship. The townhouse, with a spire, in which there is a set of music-bells, which play a tune before the striking of each hour, and the jail behind, which is very insecure, form two sides of a quadrangle, the third side of which is finely fitted up as a courtroom, in which the circuit court sits twice a year, and also frequently the sheriff court. The fourth side of the quadrangle is private property, which is very inconvenient. In the town-house are still kept the pint jug, the ancient legal standard for liquid measure in Scotland, and two silver keys, representative of the keys of the two ancient gates of the town; and in the circuit court-room about a dozen of the fine ancient carvings known by the name of the Stirling heads. In the narrow lane leading to the castle, there is a military hospital. The building was once the property of the Argyle family, and is still called Argyle House. Near it, and close beside the two churches, is situated a ruin, called Mar’s Work. It is an unfinished house, begun, but never completed, by the regent Mar. The Athenaeum is a handsome house in King Street, with a spire 120 feet high. In the ground-floor there are shops, but the two upper stories contain, the first a public reading-room, to which respectable strangers have access at all times, and the second a subscription library, containing about 5000 volumes. Close beside the Athenaeum is the corn-market, for the accommodation of which a splendid hall has been erected within the last twelvemonths. There are three public school-houses in the town. The parish school has four departments, viz. a grammar-school, a mathematical, and two English schools. In addition to their fees, the teachers have each a salary of fifty pounds from the town council; and the master of the grammar-school has twenty pounds more for an assistant. Education is cheap and good. In the town there are four charitable endowments, commonly called hospitals, in full[7:20:728] operation, two for the support of the aged poor, and two for educating the young. One of the former has an income approaching to L.3000 annually, wholly arising from land; but when public burdens are paid, with necessary repairs, there remains scarcely one half for the support of the poor, who receive from 8s. to 1s. 6d. per week, according to circumstances. Two of the others have incomes of about L.700 each, derived in the same way, and bearing the same burdens. The fourth has the interest of L.4000. The two latter educate, clothe, and allow 2s. 6d. a week to between forty and fifty boys. The funds of the whole of these are distributed to parties designated by the founders; all having their operation according to the old constitution of the borough. They are, like every thing else in the town, under the patronage and management of the town council, with the addition in one case of the first, and in another of the second, minister. In addition to these, the late Mr John Maclaren of Liverpool, a native of Stirling, has bequeathed a sum, the amount of which is not yet fully known, for the purpose of founding and endowing schools upon a most liberal scale, for the instruction, not wholly gratuitous, but at a very low rate, of children from four to sixteen years of age. A clause in his will provides that no clergyman shall have any control or management of his fund. One of the above charities had an hospital built for the accommodation of twelve decayed members of the incorporation of guildry, but nobody could be persuaded to inhabit it, although pleasantly situated. The consequence was, that the funds accumulated, until what was originally L.2222 sterling, has now increased to about L.3000 yearly. As in these circumstances the intentions of John Cowane, the founder, could not be carried into effect, the town council and the first minister, who are the governors, have for a long period been in the habit, and latterly with the consent of the Court of Session, of dividing the funds among the poor belonging to the incorporation, so that now upwards of 180 persons are deriving benefit to the amount of from 8s. to 1s 6d. a week, from a fund which was intended for the support of only twelve. The hospital stands near the East and West Churches, ornamented with a small spire and a statue of Cowane; and its hall is now used for the meetings of the guildry. The other charity had also an hospital, which is still standing, without however being the property of the charity; and the funds are divided in a similar manner among the poor of the seven incorporated trades. They are all at present in a thriving condition. Besides the above charities, the general poor of the town are supported by the kirk-session, the various churches to which they belong, and by a voluntary subscription denominated the poor-scheme; the people preferring this mode to a regular assessment, of which they have a salutary dread. There is also a public dispensary, which affords relief to many. Notwithstanding all these provisions, public mendicancy is exceedingly common; nor do the authorities, from false notions of humanity, exert themselves to put a stop to this practice, so degrading to the poor, and annoying to the public.

The literature of the place is sustained by two reading-rooms, one of which belongs to artisans. The public library, already noticed, is under excellent management, excepting that the entry-money and annual payment are both too high; it has about 140 subscribers. The School of Arts, or Mechanics Institution, generally supports a course of lectures in the winter season, attended by from 200 to 300 males and females. It possesses also a chemical and electrical apparatus, and various other philosophical instruments, and something like the foundation of a museum. To the care of this institution, a gentleman in Manchester, a native of Stirling, has committed a number of fine casts, principally from the antique, which form a small but interesting gallery of statuary. It is daily open for the inspection of the public. This society has also an excellent library, consisting of upwards of 1000 volumes, which are very much read. The price of admittance to all the benefits of the institution is only four shillings a year. All that is wanting to render it a most useful institution, is a house to contain its literary wealth. In almost every one of the churches and chapels there is also a congregational library, chiefly consisting of theological, although some admit historical works. Besides those of a general nature, there is also a consulting library for the legal profession, a medical, and likewise a horticultural library. There is likewise a singular kind of library, of which Stirling is the centre. It circulates among the landed gentlemen chiefly in the neighbourhood, and the subscription is at least two guineas a year. The funds are expended upon publications of the current year, at the end of which they are sold, and the proceeds are added to the stated contributions. This town has two weekly newspapers, the Stirling Journal and the Stirling Observer, the former Tory, and the latter Whig, both having an average provincial circulation.

The chief article of domestic trade in Stirling, situated as it is in a large and fertile district, now under the best culture, is grain of all kinds, amounting, it is said, to the value of upwards of L.500,000 annually, there being a great deal of barley consumed in the distilleries and breweries, which are numerous and upon extensive scales around Stirling. The manufactures are chiefly tartans, carpets, plaid-shawls, trouser-stuffs, and wool-spinning, which is beginning to be conducted with spirit in the town. Stirling shalloons, which figured so long in the statistics of the town, have now wholly disappeared, and their place is supplied by the articles enumerated above. Coach-building seems also to thrive here, as one establishment employs nearly seventy people, that of Mr Kinross, who within the last twelvemonth has been honoured with the distinction of coach-maker to the queen for Scotland. There are other two establishments, one of which has been lately commenced. To facilitate commercial and manufacturing industry, there are four stationary banks, and one which does business only on one day in each week, namely, on Friday, the market-day. They are all branches of banking establishments in Edinburgh or Glasgow. The commerce of the town is very limited, consisting chiefly of timber, grain for the distilleries, and a few other articles of little importance. There is a line of packets between Stirling and Leith, and another conveyance for goods by steam twice a week. But until the river be deepened, little improvement can be expected in this respect, as vessels above seventy tons burden cannot reach the town even at spring tide. The town council of Stirling is rather an important body, having the management of considerable funds; for, besides the sum already mentioned belonging to the charities, the town’s finances, arising from salmon-fisheries, customs, shore-dues, &c., amount to between L.3000 and L.4000; all of which revenue is expended for the benefit of the public, in paving the streets, building and repairing the public markets, and other purposes, as has been already mentioned.

The castle, at the western extremity of the eminence upon which the town is built, is of greater antiquity than the town, and still exhibits marks of royal magnificence. Here James II. was born; and here also with his own hand he stabbed William earl of Douglas. The hall built by James III., who resided much here, for the meeting of parliament, is now used as barracks. The chapel royal, built by James VI. (who was educated here under the tuition of the celebrated George Buchanan) for the baptism of his son Prince Henry, and which was at that time the scene of one of the most pompous ceremonies ever exhibited in Scotland, is now fitted up as a store-room and armoury. The palace of James V. is a large quadrangular building, ornamented externally with many grotesque figures, and enclosing a small court called the lion’s den. The lower story is[7:20:729] now converted into barracks, with a canteen or sutlery; and the upper flat into apartments for the officers. In one of the apartments, called the king’s room, the roof was covered with rich carvings in oak, which have been engraved and described in a work published in 1817, under the appellation of Lucunar Strevelinense. The quaint appellation of James V. the gudeman of Ballingeich, was derived from a hollow place immediately on the outside of the castle. Besides the places already noticed, the castle contains a large space, also surrounded by the exterior wall, in which magazines are built, called the Nether Baillery. The defences are the French, the Seven-Gun, and Queen Anne’s Batteries, with several pieces of ordnance here and there, amounting in all to twenty-six. On the south side of the castle is a piece of flat ground called the Valley, which was appropriated for tournaments. It is now used as a horse-market. There is an adjoining rock called the Ladies Hill, whence they viewed the sports below. From the castle not fewer than twelve battle-fields are seen. In 1831 the population of Stirling was 8556. (d. d.)