stirling-1963-vol-1/05_260

Transcription

No. 192 -- CASTLES AND TOWER-HOUSES -- No. 192
seen a postern doorway, now built up. The door measures
4 ft. 8 in. in width and has a segmental-arched head
and broad chamfers on the arrises. This may possibly be the
gate that was built in 1530 to give access to the Park on
the W. side of the Castle, of which the ruined dyke
formed the N. boundary wall ¹ (cf. p. 183); certainly the
postern appears to be of 16th-century date, as does also
this section of the curtain except for its upper part which
has been rebuilt in places. The N. and NE. sections,
including an angle on the NE., show extensive traces of
rebuilding; none of the masonry appears to be older than
the 16th century and most of it is no doubt considerably
later. About 55 yds. from the SE. end of the NE. section,
a return in the wall contains a postern doorway facing N.,
which is now blocked. On the lintel is incised: OLD
SALLYPORT. The present doorway and much of the
surrounding walling appears to be of 19th-century date,
but it no doubt occupies the position of the sally-port
in the Nether Bailey, the blocking of which was suggested
in 1689 (cf. p. 188). Slezer describes it as "the Old
Entrie to the Castle" (cf. Pl. 56), and his sketches
suggest that it was once flanked by a fore-wall (cf. Pls. 57
and 58). This seems to be the postern that came to light
during the rebuilding of part of the Castle wall in 1879, ²
and no doubt the present doorway is of this date.

WELLS. Beside the "sally-port" in the Nether Bailey
there is a draw-well, now covered in. Nimmo, writing in
1777, says that this was the supply for the garrison, ³ but
it is clear that the draw-well still seen in the Lower
Square was an older supply. There is a third well in the
Counter Guard (cf. p. 191), and others, now blocked up,
may exist elsewhere in the Castle.

THE KING'S PARK AND THE KING'S KNOT. The King's
Park, which lies immediately SW. of the Castle Rock,
appears to have been a property of the Crown since at
least the end of the 12th century, when William the Lion
first enclosed his Park of Stirling (cf. p. 180). In 1264
Alexander III began to enlarge the area of the original
park by taking in more ground to the S., ⁴ the earlier
and later enclosures becoming known in course of time
as the Old Park and the New Park respectively. In
mediaeval times these "parks" were primarily hunting
grounds, and references to the King's deer are found as
late as the 17th century (cf. p. 187). From about the
beginning of the 16th century onwards, however, the
NE. corner of the Old Park seems to have been set aside
as a garden, for in 1502 mention is made of the new
garden "sub muro castri de Strivelin". ⁵ This new garden
may have been so called to distinguish it from the earlier
garden that is known to have existed within the Castle
itself. ⁶ In the 16th century there are constant references
to the King's orchards and gardens at Stirling, while an
extensive scheme of alterations was evidently carried
out early in the 17th century as is indicated by the account
of 1628-9 already quoted (p. 187). Thereafter little effort
seems to have been made to keep the gardens in good
order, and before the beginning of the 18th century they
fell into disuse. In the plan of Stirling that was prepared
in 1725 ⁷ (Pl. 121), walks and parterres are indicated and
the area is designated the "old gardens", while Sibbald,
writing fifteen years earlier, mentions "an Orchard, and
the Vestiges of a large and spacious Garden". ⁸ Vorster-
man's painting (Pl. 120) shows one of the parterres. The
most useful of the later accounts is that of Nimmo, who
wrote "At the east end -- lay the royal gardens;
vestiges of the walks and parterres, with a few stumps of
fruit trees, are still visible -- In the gardens is a mount
of earth, in form of a table, called the Knot, with benches
of earth around it." ⁹
Today there may be seen a parterre, to the SE. of
which there is an octagonal, stepped mound known as
the Knot (Fig. 113; Pl. 61). The mound, which rises to
a height of about 9 ft. and measures 22 ft. across the top,
stands within a double-ditched enclosure measuring
420 ft. by 425 ft. over all; the S. angle of the enclosure
and part of its SW. side have been encroached upon by
the Dumbarton Road. The word "knot" was used to
describe both a laid-out garden-plot and also a small hill
or eminence, and the arrangement of flower-beds in
fanciful or intricate patterns, which often included a
central feature such as a "mount", was a characteristic
feature of gardens of the 16th and 17th centuries. The
existing remains at Stirling may therefore be supposed to
have originated in the reconstruction of the Royal gardens
that is known to have been carried out about 1627-8.
The Knot evidently lay too far to the W. to be included
in Vorsterman's painting (Pl. 120). No doubt the outlines
of the walks and of the Knot became indistinct after the
gardens fell into disuse, and it is known that a "thorough
restoration and renewal was accomplished" ¹⁰ in 1867. A
comparison of the site as it is today with an 18th-
century plan now preserved in the Public Record Office, ¹¹
London, suggests that in the course of this restoration
the "mount" was considerably altered, while it also
seems possible that the orientation of the entire enclosure
was slightly changed.
Stirling Castle is traditionally associated with the
legendary order of Chivalry known as the Knights of the
Round Table, ¹² and Nimmo, ¹³ and others following him,
have suggested that the King's Knot is none other than
the Round Table itself. Whatever the truth concerning
the association of the Order of the Round Table with the
Castle of Stirling, ¹⁴ there is no reason to suppose that the
Knot is, in origin, anything more than the device of a
17th-century landscape gardener.

1 National Library of Scotland MS. 1645, Z 2/23.
2 T.S.N.H.A.S. (1878-9), 62 ff.
3 History, 250.
4 T.S.N.H.A.S. (1921-2), 92 ff.
5 Excheq. Rolls, xii (1502-7), 76.
6 Ibid., v (1437-54), 597.
7 National Library of Scotland MS. 1645, Z 2/19.
8 Sibbald, History, 46.
9 History, 250 f.
10 T.S.N.H.A.S. (1888-9), 34.
11 W.O. 78/1562.
12 T.S.N.H.A.S. (1888-9), 35 ff; Archaeologia, xxxi, 104 ff.
13 History, 251 footnote.
14 Loomis, R. S., Arthurian Tradition and Chrétien de Troyes,
110.

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