The walk round the wall of the Douglas Garden is in itself a sufficient attraction to bring passing travellers to the summit of the rock. The view is not one that is to be compared with others in Scotland only; it must have a place in the limited list of the world’s most famous prospects. The great blue screen of the Highland mountains, including Ben Lomond, Ben Venue, Ben Ledi and Ben Vorlich, stretches from west to north with an outline of beautiful irregularity. Not in one long chain are the hills, but peak behind peak and row behind row, they appear as a compact phalanx of bens when the mist is lifted from off their heads. Nearer are the Braes of Doune and the fertile fields of the Vale of Menteith, in the midst of which the Forth can be seen gleaming in its lazy windings. The lofty Ochils in the north-east bring the Highlands near to Stirling and form a noble background to the historic Abbey Craig; and in the opposite direction the eye finds rest on the bleak Gargunnock Hills, that serve to shut from the observer’s mind the remembrance that a great city’s turmoil lies not far beyond. It is not, however, only for the beauty of the distant scene that the wall of the Douglas Garden must be sought; close beside the castle rock many spots of intense historical interest claim a share of attention. The battlefield of Stirling Bridge, where Wallace won his greatest victory, may be observed beyond the Heading Hill--that dismal mound with its stone still showing the marks of the executioner’s axe. Southwards from the scene of conflict the ancient tower of Cambuskenneth Abbey rises from between two reaches of the River Forth. Nearer, on the Gowan Hill, Edward I. placed the military engines that succeeded in breaching the castle wall; and on the same eminence, in 1746, the Jacobites planted a battery. Slightly further to the right is the hollow, now occupied by the houses of the Lower Castle Hill, where Friar Keillor set forth his play before King James V. On the other side of the rock the visitor will notice the extensive elevated tract of land known as the King’s Park. There the Stewart monarchs and their predecessors found delight in the excitement of the chase; there the boy James II. was hunting when Crichton’s men surrounded him and carried him to Edinburgh; there the youthful James VI., rejoicing in the freedom from his guardians and tutors, found such zest in his sport one summer day that he tarried till seven o’clock in the evening, having left the castle at the early hour of five. The field immediately below the rock on this south-west side of the castle was formerly known as the Butt Park, for in olden times it was the place appointed for the practice of archery and for shooting competitions. A little further south the eye can detect the ancient mound called the King’s Knot, past which Edward II. rode when refused admittance to the castle after Bannockburn, and which in the days of the later Jameses