"At last we came in sight of Stirling Castle. It stood on the top of a high, rocky hill. The hill was very high and steep on all sides but one, where it sloped down towards the town. The country all around was very level, so that we could see the castle a great many miles away.
"We rode around the foot of the castle hill, under the rocks, and at last came into the town, and drove to the hotel.
"Waldron."
Chapter X.
Stirling.
Stirling Castle crowns the summit of a rocky hill, which rises on the banks of the Forth, in the midst of a vast extent of level and richly-cultivated country. It is, of course, a very conspicuous object from all the region around.
The hill is long and narrow. The length of it extends from north to south. The northern end is the high end. The land slopes gently towards the south, but the other sides are steep, and in many places they form perpendicular precipices of rock, with the castle walls built on the very brink of them.