Buchanan’s interest in education during the Stirling period of his life was not confined to the training and instruction of the monarch and his companions. He was appointed president of the commission which met in Stirling Castle to consider the question of a standard Latin grammar, as teachers had been complaining of the confusion arising from the various manuals in use throughout the country. The result of the proceedings was that Buchanan and two commissioners, Andrew Simson and James Carmichael, schoolmasters, undertook to produce a new book which was to supersede all the others. In due time the joint work of these eminent scholars appeared, but it never became established as the one and only grammar.[51] The room still exists in the Keep of the castle where George Buchanan and Peter Young are believed to have discharged their pedagogic duties, and a terrace below is called the _Prince’s Walk_, where James, it is said, was wont to take the air before returning to his studies. Doubtless the young King and his comrades romped on this narrow playground, but it owes its name more likely to James’s son, Prince Henry, for the father was a crowned monarch before his education began, and the terrace is known not as the _King’s_ but as the _Prince’s Walk_. [Illustration: THE KEEP AND THE PRINCE’S WALK.] The regency of Morton was, on the whole, a time of peace, but his enemies were all the time planning his overthrow. The greater part of the nobility was hostile to the Regent; thus when the King, at the instigation of Argyll, and with the approval of Buchanan and Alexander Erskine, summoned a convention of peers to Stirling Castle in March, 1578, Morton felt compelled to send in his resignation. The clever Earl, however, soon found an opportunity of placing himself again in power. On the morning of the 26th of April, the young Earl of Mar, possibly acting on Morton’s advice, called for the keys of the castle as though he intended to ride forth to hunt. Although the hour was about six o’clock the Master of Erskine was already astir, and meeting his nephew’s followers at the gate, he called his servants to his assistance. After a scuffle, in which the Master’s eldest son was so severely crushed that he died next day, the parties withdrew to the hall to discuss the situation. The proceedings resulted in the young Earl of Mar’s being allowed to take over the charge of the King and the keeping of Stirling Castle.[52] It was also decreed that James was to remain in the castle, that no earl was to be received within the gates with more than two servants, no lord with more than one attendant, and no gentleman with any retainer at all.[53] The stirring events of that morning made such an impression on the youthful King, that for several nights his sleep was disturbed by visions of the fray.