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.
The well-known ballad of “Young Waters,” however, takes for its theme a Stirling episode. It seems to commemorate the death of Murdoch Duke of Albany’s eldest son, Walter, who was executed on the Heading Hill in 1425 by order of James I. Ballads cannot be relied upon to adhere to the facts of a case. In course of transmission from mouth to mouth they acquire a more and more romantic cast, and romance does not always agree with sober history. The Walter Stewart known to historians was condemned to death by a jury of barons for the crime of robbery or brigandage; but the ballad of “Young Waters” assigns the jealousy of the King as the cause of its hero’s execution.
YOUNG WATERS.
About Yule when the wind blew cool,
And the round tables began,
O, there is come to our king’s court
Mony a well-favoured man.
The queen looked o’er the castle wa’,
Beheld baith dale and down,
And there she saw young Waters
Come riding to the town.
* * * * *
Out then spake a wily lord,
And to the queen said he:
“O, tell me, wha’s the fairest face
Rides in the company?”
“I’ve seen lord, and I’ve seen laird,
And knights of high degree;
But a fairer face than young Waters’
Mine een did never see.”