The famous Mr. Fletcher, of Saltoun, says, that the city of London is like the head of a ricketty child, which, by drawing to itself the nourishment that should be distributed in due proportions to the rest of the languishing body, becomes so overcharged, that frenzy and death unavoidably ensue; that the number of the British people, and their riches, would be far greater in twelve cities than in one; and that if these cities were such as are situated at convenient distances from one another, the relief they would bring to every part of these kingdoms would be unspeakable. So many different seats of government would encourage virtue, and highly tend to the improvement of all arts and sciences, and afford great variety of entertainment to all foreigners and others of a curious and inquisitive genius. Of these twelve cities, he would allow six to England, four to Ireland, and two to Scotland. The six for England might be London, Bristol, Exeter, Chester, Norwich, and York; the four for Ireland, Dublin, Cork, Galloway, and Londonderry; the two for Scotland, Stirling, and Inverness. Whether some other places more conveniently situated for strength, and more capable of fortification, might not rather be of the number, he would not determine; but in this easy division of territory he thinks it indispensably necessary that to every city all the adjacent country should belong.

*

Whatever may be thought of Mr. Fletcher's distribution of the territory of England and Ireland, certainly two seats of government for Scotland could

* Political Works of Andrew Fletcher, of Saltoun, p. 318.

not be fixed on more proper than Stirling and Inverness of which we may say, in the language of mathematicians, that they are similar and similarly situated.

The situation and natural advantages or prerogatives of Stirling are so well described by a preceding traveller, that I cannot do better, nor so well on that subject, as to quote the words of that observant and intelligent writer.

"As the Scottish nation extended their authority southwards, by their conquests over the Picts, and Danes, and by their intermarriages with England, the usual places of their residence became more and more southerly also. Dunstaffanage was exchanged for Scone, Scone for Dunfermline and Falkland, Dunfermline and Falkland for Stirling, Stirling for Linlithgow and Edinburgh, and at last Edinburgh for London. Amidst these changes, after the establishment of the monarchy of all Scotland, the natural boundaries which marked the land confined on the whole the choice of a place of residence for the royal family to that space which is bounded by the courses of the Forth and the Tay on the south and the north, on the west by the rising of the country towards the middle of the island, and on the east by the ocean. The interposition of the Tay recommended Scone as a proper place of residence in the hottest times of war with the English. But after an alliance had been formed between the royal families of the two kingdoms, by the marriage of Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. King of England, and James V. King of Scotland, after hostilities between the two nations were inter

rupted by long intervals, and the genius of both began to tend to peace and conciliation, there was not a spot in the whole extent of Scotland that so naturally invited the residence of the king and court as Stirling. It is still more central to Scotland than Scone; and the sanctity of a monastery was not ill exchanged for the strength of a fortress.

"From the lofty battlements of Stirling Castle the royal eye surveyed the bold outlines of an unconquered kingdom. The Grampians, the Ochills, and the Pentland Hills, conveyed a just idea of its natural strength. The whole course of the Forth, with his tributary rivers, from their source in the Highlands near Loch Lomond, winding through part of Perthshire, and washing the shores of Clackmannan and Fife on the north, and those of Stirlingshire, Linlithgow, and the Lothians, on the south, exhibited a pleasing prospect of its natural resources in fishing, and in a soil which, though in a rude climate, would not be ungrateful to the hand of cultivation.

"From this point of view also the imagination of a Scotchman is led by many remembrances to recal to mind the most important vicissitudes and scenes of action in the history of his country. The whole extent of Strathmore, from Stirling to Stonehaven, is full of Roman camps and military ways; and the wall of Agricola, a little to the south of Stirling, extends between the Forth and the Clyde. Bannockburn and Cambuskenneth, almost overhung by the castle, remind the spectator of a fortunate, and Pinkie, seen at the distance of forty miles, excites a fainter idea of an unfortunate engagement with

the English. The hill of Largo, in Fife, calls to mind the Danish invasions; and the Forth itself was for ages the well-contested boundary between the Scots and their southern neighbours."

In this masterly sketch of the southward progression of the royal authority and palaces of Scotland, it will probably be remarked, by those minutely acquainted with the Scottish history, that this English gentleman made too great a leap when he passed at once from Dunstaffanage to Scone, without taking notice of Inverlochy, Kildrummy, and one or two more royal residences. Inverlochy Castle is situated in the deep vale formed by high mountains between Fort William and Inverness. There is a tradition that this castle was once a royal residence, and that the famous league between Charlemagne and Achaius, King of Scots, was signed there, on the part of the Scottish Monarch, A. D. 790. It was at one period occupied by the Thanes of Lochaber, and among others by BANCHO, predecessor of the race of Stuarts. Kildrummy, situated on the course of the Don, in Aberdeenshire, was once a palace of the great King Robert Bruce.