The Forth can here be traced almost from its source in the vicinity of Loch Ard, the country of Rob Roy, to where it joins the German Ocean; and the windings in its upper part, with the islets, capes, and peninsulas which they form, are seen to more advantage here than from Stirling Castle, and the lower part of the Firth is specked with little vessels, and perhaps a steamboat, which give life and interest to the scene. There may be a feeling of disappointment in looking over to Stirling Castle, that it hardly answers to expectation in the way of nobility of outline. But there still remains the Royal palace with its quadrangle quaint and bizarre, adorned, as we know it to be, with the grotesque statues attributed to the taste of James V., the “Gudeman of Ballengeich.” The Carse of Stirling, 60 miles in length and from 10 to 15 in breadth, with decayed and modern mansions, snug farm houses, hamlets, towns and villages, cornfields and meadows, float indistinctly on the view, till all seem lost in aerial tints. Immediately in front of us is the Wallace Monument, a lofty tower of baronial architecture, 220 feet high, crowning the Abbey Craig, which of itself is about 400 feet high, near the base of which Wallace concealed the principal part of his forces before the battle of Stirling in 1297, which proved so disastrous to the English. If we are not mistaken the genesis of the tower was as follows:—A monument to Wallace had been long talked about. In 1818 a gentleman offered £1000 to erect a monument to the hero on Arthur’s Seat or Salisbury Crags. Some people have the idea that all the good things should go to Edinburgh. However, after dragging out a miserable existence for years, this project fell through. In 1856 a bitter attack on the memory of Wallace appeared in the _North British Review_. Mr. Brown, the managing proprietor of the _Glasgow Daily Bulletin_, replied with such telling effect that a committee was immediately formed for the erection of a national monument. Glasgow Green was proposed, but it was finally arranged that it should be built on the Abbey Craig, Stirling, which has the advantage of overlooking the scene of the memorable battle of Stirling Bridge. It is one of the finest sites in the country, and one wonders now how any other place was proposed, as from its commanding situation it can be seen for miles around, and from the top of it you have one of the finest views in the country. The eye can behold the scene of six battles, viz.:—Cambuskenneth, where the battle was fought between the Scots and the Picts; the battle of Stirling Bridge; the plains of Bannockburn; the battle of Sauchie Burn, when King James III. was cruelly murdered in the miller’s cottage; also where the Duke of Argyll fought the Earl of Mar and the Jacobite clans in 1715. A little farther south is Cambuskenneth Abbey and Bannockburn, redolent of Bruce and fighting in the past, and carpets and tartans in the present.