It may truly be said that Stirling Auld Brig has borne more men and women famous in Scotland’s history than any other bridge in the kingdom. Every Scottish monarch, from James I. to Charles II., nine sovereigns in all, has crossed the Forth by those arches. To most of the kings and queens, as to the majority of the Scottish nobility, the bridge was as familiar as the castle. Because of its being a clasp connecting the north with the south, this structure was almost as valuable a military post as the stronghold which overlooks it. When the rebels closed the gates of the castle against King James III., they at the same time placed a force at the bridge in order to cut off communications between the sovereign and his northern friends. The royal forces, however, with more spirit than they showed a few days later at Sauchieburn, drove this company across the Bridge of Forth and pursued them as far as the house of Keir. In later times, the Privy Council in Edinburgh, realising the importance of the bridge, ordered that it as well as the castle should be in a state of defence, for Montrose had won the battle of Tippermuir and his Scoto-Irish soldiers were expected to pass by way of Stirling. The Marquis, however, on his way to the south, avoided crossing the Forth near the castle, but his enemy, Baillie, the Covenanting general, led his troops over the river by this bridge before his defeat by Montrose at Kilsyth. Again, on the outbreak of the Fifteen Rebellion, Wightman, the Hanoverian general, took possession of both bridge and castle, placing sentries in the former’s guardhouses, as the object of the Government was to prevent the Highland Jacobites from joining their friends in the south. The bridge was prominent in military history for the last time during “Prince Charlie’s” war. Its proximity to the garrisoned castle caused the Highlanders to cross the Forth at Frew, some eight miles up the river, and before they returned from England to the neighbourhood of Stirling, Blakeney had cut the south arch, so that when Cumberland pressed on their rear they could not retreat by the bridge. By throwing beams across the breach the Hanoverian soldiers were able to take the nearest way to the north, but three years elapsed before the broken arch was restored to its former condition. The Forth is now spanned by many bridges, including a comparatively new one at Stirling, but from the days of the Regent Albany until the middle of the eighteenth century all traffic between north and south that went not by ford and ferry was supported by the four medieval arches. The Old Bridge of Stirling, although closed to vehicles, still bears passengers on foot; but its great days all belong to the past, though “Time, which antiquates antiquities,” and has long ago given to it a venerable appearance, will not destroy the fabric for many years to come and will cherish its story for ever. CHAPTER VIII. THE ASSOCIATIONS OF THE BUILDINGS.