It is not until the latter half of the fifteenth century that the Royal Gardens at Stirling become important enough to demand attention. In earlier days there was probably a piece of ground set apart for horticultural purposes on the top of the castle rock, but not before the reign of James III. do gardens on an extensive scale appear to have been laid out. In the _Exchequer Rolls_ of that King’s time there are numerous entries of payments to James Wilson, the keeper of the garden at Stirling Castle; indeed, the unfortunate _dilettante_ monarch was almost as much interested in his plants and fruit-trees as in architecture, music and astrology. This King and his successor, James of the Iron Belt, wrought great improvements in the pleasure grounds at Stirling. The father made a new royal garden, which probably lay on the sloping land close to the old Round Table; and the son extended the horticultural area by including a portion of the adjoining meadow and thus embracing the ancient mound. James IV. was more versatile than his father, and he showed his warlike nobles that devotion to gardening and other peaceful occupations was not incompatible with interest in military affairs. The new enclosure was stocked with plum-trees, pear-trees, vines and vegetables, as well as strawberries and flowers. There was in the Park a small natural loch to the south of the Round Table, but James IV. seems to have made ponds or canals beside his new beds and terraces, for the garden was not only an orchard, it was also a pleasant retreat for the King and the lords and ladies of the Court. The clergy of the Chapel Royal took over the charge of the horticulture, and sent men to different parts of Scotland to procure the best seeds and plants. The Round Table which formed the middle point of James IV.’s new garden was probably in ancient days a place for holding tribal assemblies. In early feudal times it seems to have been the centre of the King’s Ward, which was the muster-ground where armed vassals presented themselves to their sovereign. The _Exchequer Rolls_ of James IV. state that the King changed the ward into a garden, and it was doubtless after this alteration that the place came to be spoken of as the Knot, although the old name continued to be used, for Sir David Lyndsay in James V.’s reign wrote of the “Tabyll Rounde.” The Town Council of Stirling, thinking that the mound and terraces were in danger of becoming obliterated, repaired and slightly altered the King’s Knot in the latter half of the nineteenth century.