stirling-1963-vol-1/05_224

Transcription

No. 192 -- CASTLES AND TOWER-HOUSES -- No. 192
Bailey. The system that was finally adopted comprises
two main lines of defence, the inner one incorporating
barracks with gun batteries above and the outer one
consisting of a fore-wall which terminates in a battery at
its N. end; each line of defence is protected by a fosse
and is pierced by an entrance-gateway (cf. p. 191). This
scheme of fortification was largely conceived by Captain
Theodore Dury, Engineer in North Britain, but James
Smith, Surveyor of Her Majesty's Works in North
Britain, and Talbot Edwards, Second Engineer to the
Board of Ordnance were also associated with the designs. ¹
Work began in 1708, the contractors for the mason-work
being Thomas Bauchop, mason, of Alloa (cf. p. 188) and
James Watson, mason, while Robert Mowbray, carpenter,
was responsible for the wright-work. Gilbert Smith,
Master-mason to the Board of Ordnance in North
Britain, began to work at the Castle in April 1711 and
remained there until the fortifications were completed. ²
One of the new entrance-gateways with its drawbridge
was completed by October 1712, when it was painted by
James Allen, painter, of Alloa; the other was still under
construction in November of the following year. The
account for the glazing of the barracks in 1714 suggests
that the work was approaching completion by this time,
and this is confirmed by the monogram AR (Anna
Regina) which appears on various portions of the
buildings. ³
At the same time proposals were made for extensive
alterations to some of the existing buildings within the
Castle. ⁴ An additional floor was to be inserted in the
Chapel Royal and both storeys were to be used as an
armoury; the Great Hall was to be subdivided, one half
becoming a banqueting hall and the other a chapel, while
an upper floor was to be introduced for use as barrack
accommodation. A new entrance was to be made to the
Palace by the opening-out of the central window of the
King's Guard Hall, and a spacious staircase was to be
erected at the NW. angle of the Palace occupying part
of the site of the old W. quarter. These proposals were
only partially carried out. No alteration seems to have
been made to the Chapel Royal, while in the Great Hall
the only part of the suggested plan to be carried into
effect was the insertion of an upper floor by Tobias
Bauchop, mason, in 1709-10. ⁵ Bauchop also began work
on the new staircase at the NW. angle of the Palace, but
the work seems to have come to a halt after his death in
1710 and the stair was never completed. ⁶
In the '15, Stirling Castle and bridge were of vital
strategic importance. The Castle was held for the
Crown by General Wightman, and was a formidable
obstacle in the way of a Jacobite descent from the High-
lands. An almost contemporary set of plans shows the
arrangement of the Castle at this time. ⁷ In the year 1719,
the building now known as The Mint contained the
brewhouse on the first floor and over that was the
gunners' store. The Palace contained, on the lowest floor,
a stable, cellars for wine and beer, and sutling rooms; on
the principal floor the King's Guard Hall had become a
barrack-room, the Queen's Guard Hall and Presence
Chamber were store rooms, and the other apartments
were unused. On the top floor lay the Governor's apart-
ments, as well as accommodation for the housekeeper.
In the King's Old Building on the W. side of the Upper
Square the first floor of the L-shaped portion at the N.
end had been subdivided into "The Majors Apart-
ments", eight in number. To the S. there was a large
store-room on the first floor and beyond it a number
of smaller divisions comprising a bake-house, a wood-
house, a dovecot, the infirmary and the Governor's
kitchen.
In the '45 Prince Charles Edward, who had set up his
standard at Glenfinnan in August and had reached
Doune on his southward march on 12th September,
successfully by-passed Stirling Bridge by crossing the
Forth at the Fords of Frew (No. 524). He marched
through Stirling on the 14th, the garrison of the Castle
firing only a few shots in the town's defence. In the
following January the Jacobites decided to attack Stirling
Castle, and when the commander, General Blakeney, an
Irishman who had served with Marlborough, refused to
surrender they started siege operations under a French
engineer, Count Mirabelle de Gourdon, who began to
erect siege-works on the Gowan Hill, N. of the Castle.
Blakeney, however, had the Jacobite position under
direct observation, and when Mirabelle had so far
perfected his battery as to play upon the Castle with
"three Battering Cannon -- Generall Blakeny (sic)
firr'd against it with a Battery of nine nine pounders, and
in a few hours time dismounted the three Guns, and
demolish'd the Battery". ⁸ The siege was then abandoned,
as news arrived that Cumberland had reached Edinburgh.
This was the last and perhaps the most futile siege that
the Castle suffered in its long history.
In 1777 the magnificent coffered oak ceiling of the
King's Presence Chamber in the Palace was in a danger-
ous state, some of the carved heads having already fallen
from the compartments, and the authorities were not
inclined to undertake its restoration. On the contrary,
they gave orders that the ceiling and walls should be
stripped and the apartment converted into a barrack-
room. ⁹ The carvings were taken down, some of them
being destroyed and others passing into private hands;
most of the surviving examples have now been re-
assembled in the Smith Institute, Stirling (cf. pp. 400 f.).
The Palace was not the only part of the Castle to suffer
neglect and mutilation, for at about the end of the 18th
century the Great Hall was converted into barracks, an

1 P.R.O., W.O. 49/120; W.O. 51/82 pp. 63, 83.
2 Both Mowbray and Smith were employed in the con-
struction of Inversnaid Barracks a few years later (cf. No. 225).
3 P.R.O., W.O. 51/80, p. 6; W.O. 53/446 passim.
4 National Library of Scotland MS. 1645, Z 2/17.
5 P.R.O., W.O. 53/446, 22 Sept. 1709 and July 1710.
National Library of Scotland MS. 1645, Z 2/18 where the
inserted floor is shown on plan and in section.
6 P.R.O., W.O. 53/446, under dates October 1709 and July
1710. The stair is not shown on the plans of the Castle drawn
up in 1719 (National Library of Scotland MS. 1645, Z 2/18.
7 National Library of Scotland MS. 1645, Z 2/18.
8 Elcho, A short account of the Affairs of Scotland, 382.
9 Lacunar Strevelinense, 4 f.

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