Unless one has a few days to spare that cannot well be better spent than in exploring Glen Devon and the nooks of the Ochils, he can only glance at the charming wooded valley and blue inviting heights as he follows the windings of the Forth, past the flat green "inches" of Tullibody and Alloa, under the North British Railway Bridge crossing the river between these two islands, to the busy town of Alloa. [Illustration: CULROSS, FROM THE PIER.] More than Alloa itself, with its fame for the brewing of ale, and signs of active shipping and manufacturing trade, the eye will be attracted by Alloa Tower and Park, now the seat of the Earl of Mar and Kellie; for here once ruled the old line of the Erskines, Earls of Mar; here Queen Mary paid repeated visits, sailing up the Forth to meet Darnley, under the conduct of Bothwell as High Admiral; and here her son, King James, spent part of his boyhood, under the eye of the Regent Mar and the strict disciplinary rod of George Buchanan. [Illustration: CULROSS ABBEY.] Below Alloa the river straightens and widens, taking more and more the character of an estuary. One should not miss noting the scattered houses of the old town of Clackmannan, scrambling up the slope to its church and the ancient tower of the Bruces. Clackmannan is the place which Aytoun's recluse thought of selecting for rural retirement, because, "though he had often heard of it, he had never heard of anybody who had been there." It is more out of the world than ever, now that county business has flitted to Alloa. Its visage is not, however, so forlorn as that of Kincardine-on-Forth, the pier of which we now approach; for Kincardine has plainly seen better days, and has little expectation of seeing their return. It was once a busy shipbuilding and shipowning port; and close by was distilled the famous Kilbagie whisky, by which the tinkler in the "Jolly Beggars" swore. Now there is no Kilbagie, and no shipping business to speak of; and Kincardine is a "dead-and-alive" place, and more dead than alive. There are many places like it all along the shores of the Forth--places favoured by special times and special circumstances of trade, which has since drifted or been drawn elsewhere.