a town of Scotland, situated on the river Forth, 35 miles north-west of Edinburgh, in W. Long. 3° 50' N. Lat. 56° 6'. It is also called Sterling and Striveling; from the former of which Boethius falsely derives the name Sterling money; because, says he, Olfelt, a Saxon prince, after the overthrow of the Scots, established a mint there. The name of Striveling is said to have been derived from the frequency of skirmishes or conflicts in the neighbourhood. The town contains about 4000 inhabitants. It has a manufacture of tartans and thalboons, and employs about 30 looms in that of carpets. The great street is very broad. In it is the tolbooth, where is kept the standard for the wet measures of Scotland. The other streets are narrow and irregular.—Stirling is in miniature a resemblance of Edinburgh; being built on a rock of the same form, with a fortres on the summit. The origin of the castle is unknown. The rock of Stirling was strongly fortified by the Piets, amongst whom architecture and several other useful arts had made a considerable progress. As it lay in the extremities of their kingdom, the possession of it was the occasion of frequent contests betwixt them and their neighbours the Scots and Northumbrians; each of whose dominions did, for some time, terminate near it.

When the Scots, under Kenneth II., overthrew the Pictish empire near the middle of the ninth century, they endeavoured to obliterate every memorial of that people. They not only gave new names to provinces and towns, but, with all the rage of barbarians, demolished many magnificent and useful edifices which had been reared up by them, and this fortres among the rest. It was, however, soon rebuilt, though upon an occasion not very honourable to the Scots.

Upon the death of Kenneth II., in 855, his brother Donald V. mounted the throne of Scotland. In the beginning of his reign the kingdom was invaded by Olbrecht and Ella, two Northumbrian princes, who, uniting their forces with the Cumbrian Britons, and a number of Piets, who upon their expulsion from their native country had taken refuge in England, advanced to Jedburgh, where Donald encountered them; and, after a fierce and bloody battle, obtained a complete victory: but, having taken up his station in Berwick, in supine security, the Northumbrians, informed of the carelefs posture in which the Scottish army lay, surprized them by a hasty march, dispersed them, and made a prisoner of the king. Pursuing the advantage they had gained, they marched northward, and subdued all before them to the frith of Forth and the town of Stirling. But the forlorn situation of the Scots, without a king and without an army, obliging them to sue for peace, they obtained it, upon condition that they should pay a sum of money for the ransom of the king, and yield up all their dominions upon the south side of the Forth to the conquerors.

The Northumbrians taking possession of the territories ceded to them by this treaty, rebuilt the castle of Stirling, and planted it with a strong garrison, in order to preserve their new conquests, upon the frontiers of which it was situated. Our authorities also inform us, that they erected a stone bridge over the Forth, upon the summit of which a cross was raised, with the following inscription in monkifh rhyme.

Anglos a Scotia separat crux ista remotis; Armis hic stant Brutis, Scotti stant hic, cruce tuti.

Which is thus translated by Bellenden.

I am free marche, as passengeris may ken, To Scottis, to Britonis, and to Inglistmen.

None of the ancient English historians mentions this conquest. The whole story, as well as the inscription, wears much of a monkish garb; yet its authenticity is not a little confirmed by the arms of the town of Stirling, upon which is a bridge, with a cross, and the last line of the above Latin ditich is the motto round it.

We must not, however, imagine, that in those times that fortresses bore any resemblance to the present structure, which is adapted to the use of firearms. Its size and form probably resembled those castles which, under the feudal constitution, the English and Scottish barons used to erect upon their estates for dwelling-houses; and which, in those barbarous ages, they found necessary to fortify for their defence, not only against foreign invaders, but often against the attacks of their own neighbours. It is directly such a Gothic figure as this which represents the Castrum Strivelense upon the arms of Stirling.

This fortress, after it had continued in the possession of the Northumbrian Saxons about 20 years, was, together with the whole country upon the south side of the Forth, restored to the Scots, upon condition of their afflicting the Saxons against their turbulent invaders the Danes. Upon the arms of Stirling are two branches of a tree, to represent the Nensis Strivelense; but the situation and boundaries of that fortress, which was probably a wing of the Caledonian, cannot be ascertained. Upon the south of Stirling, vestiges of a forest are still discernible for several miles. Banks of natural timber still remain in the castle park, at Murray's wood, and near Nether Bannockburn; and stumps of trees, with much brughwood, are to be seen in all the adjacent fields.

When Kenneth III received intelligence of the Danes having invaded his dominions, he appointed the castle of Stirling to be the place of rendezvous for his army; and he marched from thence to the battle of Loncarty, where he obtained a victory over those rovers, in the end of the 10th century.

In the 12th century, this castle is spoken of as a place of great importance, and one of the strongest fortresses in the kingdom. In 1174, a calamity, not unusual amongst the Scottish monarchs, befell William, who at that time occupied the throne. He was taken prisoner in an unsuccessful expedition which he made into England; and, after having been detained 12 months in captivity, was released, upon stipulating to pay a large sum of money for his ransom; and, until payment thereof, delivering into the hands of the English the four principal fortresses in the kingdom, which in those days were Stirling, Edinburgh, Roxburgh, and Berwick. This was the first great advantage that England obtained over Scotland; and indeed the most important transaction which had passed between these kingdoms from the Norman conquest.

Though the Scottish monarchs, in their frequent perambulations through the kingdom, often visited Stirling, and held their courts for some time in the castle; yet it did not become a royal residence till the family of Stuart mounted the throne, and it was from different princes of this family that it received its present form. It was the place of the nativity of James II.; and, when raised to the throne, he frequently kept his court in it. It is well known to have been the place where that prince perpetrated an atrocious deed, the murder of William earl of Douglas, whom he stabbed with his own hand. The royal apartments were at that time in the north-west corner of the castle, and are now the residence of the Stirling fort-major. The room where the murder was committed still goes by the name of Douglas's room.

James III., contracting fondness for the castle on account of its pleasant situation, made it the chief place of his residence, and added several embellishments to it. He built within it a magnificent hall, which in those days was deemed a noble structure, and is still entire. It now goes by the name of the parliament-house, having been designed for the accommodation of that supreme court. It was covered with an oaken roof of exquisite workmanship, which, though very little decayed, was a few years ago removed to make way for one of more modern structure. James also erected a college of secular priests in the castle, which he called the chapel royal, and which proved one cause of his own ruin. As the expenses necessary for maintaining the numerous officers of such an institution were considerable, he annexed to it the revenues of the rich priory of Coldingham in the Merse, which at that time happened to become vacant. This priory had for a long time been held by persons connected with the family of Hume; and that family, considering it as belonging to them, strongly opposed the annexation. The dispute seems to have lasted several years; for one parliament had passed a vote, annexing the priory to the chapel-royal, and a subsequent one enacted a statute prohibiting every attempt that was contrary or prejudicial to that annexation.

James V. was crowned in the castle of Stirling; and the palace, which is the chief ornament of it, was the work of that prince. This is a stately and commodious structure, all of hewn stone, with much statuary work upon it. It is built in form of a square, with a small court in the middle, in which the king's lions are said to have been kept; and hence it still goes by the name of the lions den. The palace contains many large and elegant apartments; the ground-floor is now converted into barrack-rooms for the soldiers of the garrison; the upper affords a house for the governor, with lodgings for some of the subaltern officers.

Opposite to the palace, upon the north, stands an elegant chapel, which was built by James VI. for the baptism of his son, Prince Henry, in 1594. In this chapel is preserved the hulk of a large boat, which that whimsical monarch caused to be built and placed upon carriages, in order to convey into the castle the provisions for that solemnity.

A strong battery, with a tier of guns pointing to the bridge over the Forth, was erected during the regency of Mary of Lorraine, mother to Queen Mary. It is called the French battery, probably because constructed by engineers of that nation. The last addition was made to the fortifications in the reign of Queen Anne. Formerly they reached no farther than the old gate, upon which the flag-staff now stands; but in that reign they were considerably enlarged upon the side towards the town; and barracks, which are bomb-proof, with several other conveniences for a siege, were erected.

Upon the south side of the castle lies a park inclosed with a stone-wall, called the king's park, and near to the foot of the rock on which the castle stands, lay the royal gardens; vestiges of the walks and parterres, with a few stumps of fruit-trees, are still visible; but by long neglect, and the natural wetness of the soil, the place is now now little better than a marsh. In the gardens is a mount of earth in form of a table, with benches of earth around it, where, according to tradition, the court sometimes held feasts-champetres. In the castle-hill is an hollow, comprehending about an acre of ground, and having all the appearance of an artificial work, which was used for jousts, tournaments, and other feats of chivalry.

Northward of the castle lies the Govan, or perhaps more properly the Gowling hill (A); in the middle of which is a small mound called Hurly Haaky, upon which Duke Murdoch and his two sons were executed for treasonable practices in the reign of James I.

The prospect from the castle is most delightful, as well as extensive, being greatly beautified, especially upon the east, by the windings of the Forth; which are so numerous, that though the distance by land from Stirling to Alloa is, in a straight line, not quite six miles, it is said to be 24 by water. As this river generally runs upon plain ground, it rolls its stream in so slow and silent a manner, that what Silius Italicus faith of the Ticinus is applicable to it, if, instead of lucens in that poet, we should read luens; for the clay-banks, together with the tide, which flows above Stirling, render the Forth perpetually muddy:

Vix credas labi, ripis tam mitis opacis Somniferam ducit luolo gurgite lympham.

The lordship and castle of Stirling were a part of the usual dowry of the queens of Scotland, at least after the family of Stuart came to the throne, in which they were invested at their marriage.

Robert lord Erskine was appointed governor of the castle by King David II. and the office continued in that family till 1715.

This fortress hath been the scene of many transactions. Being by its situation considered as a key to the northern parts of the kingdom, the possession of it hath been always esteemed of great importance to those who sought to be masters of Scotland. It was undoubtedly a place of strength when the art of war by ordnance was in its infancy; but though it resisted the utmost efforts of the rebels in 1746, it could not now hold out three days if besieged by an army of a few thousand men, conducted by an engineer of knowledge and integrity.