The site of the tournament ground at Stirling has been a matter of dispute, some holding that the jousting took place on the flat land near the King’s Knot, others maintaining that the hollow called the Valley, between the castle and the Ladies’ Rock, was the scene of these chivalric encounters. The truth seems to be that although the Valley was used for games in the time of James VI.,[98] the level ground below the hill was the place where the lists were set in the period of the early Stewart kings. This opinion is supported by the fact that the ground now covered by houses to the south-east of the King’s Knot was formerly known by the significant name of the Justing (or Justin) Flats. It must have been on this level tract that the Douglases fought with the knights of Burgundy in the presence of James II., for in the Valley there would have been too little space for the lists, the champions’ tents, the King’s pavilion and the four thousand retainers brought by the Douglases to witness the encounter. The rock where tradition says the ladies sat to view the games and combats is much nearer to the Valley than to the Justin Flats, but it is probable that the high-born dames of the Court sat in the royal pavilion beside the lists, and that the rock was occupied by gentlewomen to whom the privilege was not granted of sitting beside the King. It may be, however, that the Ladies’ Rock did not receive its name till Queen Mary’s time or even till 1594, when the Valley was the scene of the sports which were held in celebration of Prince Henry’s baptism. The surroundings of the castle, like the buildings themselves, have undergone considerable changes since royalty resided in Stirling. No beds of flowers and fish ponds are now to be seen in the gardens of the Jameses: that piece of ground is somewhat like what it was before the Round Table became the King’s Knot. Villas now stand on the once famous Justin Flats; the small Park Loch has been drained away; and the Ladies’ Rock has suffered partial demolition to make room for the new cemetery that occupies the Valley. Ballengeich, or the “Windy Pass,” on the other side of the castle, was deepened at the north-west end to afford a more gradual ascent for the road; and the Back Walk, leading from Ballengeich round the rock, although it had been begun a number of years before “Prince Charlie’s” siege, was not completed till the eighteenth century had almost come to a close. * * * * *