Valley below it, and upon our fine old Franciscan tower, so remarkable for its simple majesty, without being carried back in his imagination to the splendid scenes of other times;—to the reigns of the gallant and accomplished Jameses, to the days of tilt and tournament, and courtly pomp, to the feats of a brave and knightly nobility, to the chivalry and romance, in short, of Scottish history. No man of taste, or lover of his country, ever traversed our walks without pleasure, or left them without regret.’ EAST AND WEST CHURCHES. _PLATE VI._ THE EAST and WEST CHURCHES are here represented as seen from a spot behind the Ladies’ Hill, the spectator being supposed to look in a south-east direction. These Churches, though anciently one, are now separate places of worship; but, being attached to each other in the way represented, they are only distinguished in modern times by the epithets here applied to them. The division took place in 1656. [Illustration: _PLATE. VI._ A. S. Masson Del^t. J. Gellatly Sc EAST & WEST CHURCHES STIRLING. FROM THE LADIES HILL] The WEST CHURCH was originally the place of worship connected with the Franciscan or Grey Friars’ Monastery, which was founded in Stirling by James IV., in 1494. It cannot, therefore, be of an older date. It appears to have had a projecting square building at each corner. One of these at the north-west corner was, according to tradition, the chapel of Margaret, daughter of Henry the Seventh, James the Fourth’s queen. The interior was of beautiful architecture; and on the arch (now converted into a window) which formed the entrance to it, may still be seen, from the outside of the church, the rose of England and thistle of Scotland. Another of these projections at the north-east corner, is now an aisle belonging to the family of Moir of Leckie. Another at the south-east corner, on the left hand of the present entrance to the church, became the burying-place of the Earls of Stirling; Sir William Alexander, the first Earl, having been brought from London and buried in it. The remaining projection, situated at the south-west corner, was at one time an entrance to the church. All these excrescences, with the exception of that now belonging to the family of Moir of Leckie, were lately taken away, when the West Church was repaired. On that occasion the church was very tastefully fitted up. In the West Church are the monuments of Lieutenant-Colonel Blackadder, of the Cameronian Regiment; and Dr David Doig, Rector of the Grammar School of Stirling. Blackadder was Deputy-Governor of the Castle in 1715, and wrote memoirs of himself, which possess considerable interest. Doig was one of the first scholars of his day, and wrote the articles, Philology and Mysteries, in the Encyclopædia Britannica, and some very learned letters on the savage state, addressed to Lord Kames.