Stirling Castle thus retained its hold on the affections of the Scottish sovereigns. It therefore stands out from its sister castles in that it kept its place as a royal residence beside the palaces of Falkland and Linlithgow, while Dumbarton became more of a noble’s stronghold than a prince’s seat, and while Edinburgh sank from its position as a monarchs’ home to that of a mere garrison fortress. Stirling, to be sure, also fell from its high estate, but its humiliation was long delayed, and did not come until after the Royal Family had ceased to be domiciled in Scotland. All down the centuries Stirling Castle has been a place of arms, but since royalty ceased to dwell under its roof soldiers have become its most important, and almost its only, occupants. After the Union of 1707 the British Parliament followed the Scottish Estates in maintaining a garrison in the fortress, as well as in Edinburgh and Dumbarton, but the statement often made that the Treaty of Union requires this arrangement to be kept up has no foundation in fact. The error possibly arose from the confusion of the Union Treaty with an agreement made by Scottish and English commissioners in 1641. This earlier set of articles contains a clause providing for the furnishing for military purposes of the Castle of Edinburgh and other strengths of the kingdom. Long before the Union was carried out this Treaty became null and void, for the Scottish Parliament in 1661 rescinded all statutes that had been passed since 1640. Stirling Castle is used to-day as barracks, but the Government is not bound by any treaty to maintain a garrison in the fortress. CHAPTER X. STIRLING CASTLE IN POETRY. It was Nathaniel Hawthorne who said that it takes a great deal of history to make a little poetry. The record of Stirling Castle bears out this remark, although it might be maintained also that in the case of the grey bulwark overlooking the River Forth a great deal of history has oppressed and has tended to silence the sensitive Muse of Poesy. The ancient fortress has been mentioned in verses composed in different ages, but the romance and magic of the storied spot remained unrevealed by rhyming chronicler or bard until Scott wrote _The Lady of the Lake_. Scotland is a country rich in ballad literature, and although nearly every part of the kingdom has produced folk-poems of merit, the Borders and Aberdeenshire have been the most prolific districts. The Forth, that “bridles the wild Highlandman” and that has upon its bank a famous castle-palace, cannot vie in minstrelsy with less important streams, such as the Yarrow and the Don.