nging up in long green rows,
which, partly on account of the distance, and partly through the
exquisite neatness and nicety of farmers' work, looked so smooth, and
soft, and fine, that the scene appeared more like enchantment than
reality.

[E] For engraving of Stirling Castle see page 10.

On one side of the mountain was seen the River Forth, winding about
through meadows and green fields with the most extraordinary turnings
and involutions. The boys had seen winding rivers before, but never any
thing like this. The whole plain was filled with the windings of the
river, which looked like the links of a silver chain, lying half
embedded in a carpet of the richest green. Indeed, these windings of the
river, and the vast circular fields of fertile land which they enclose,
are called the Links of Forth. The view was diversified by villages,
hamlets, bridges, railway embankments, and other constructions, which
concealed the river here and there entirely from view, and made it
impossible to trace its course. The richness and beauty of these Links
of Forth appeared the more surprising to the boys from the contrast
which the scene presented to the dreary wastes of moss and heather which
they had seen in the Highlands. There is an old Scotch proverb that
refers to this contrast. It is this:--

"The lairdship of the bonnie Links of Forth
Is better than an _earldom_ in the north."

The course of the Forth could be traced for a long distance towards
Edinburgh; and Arthur's Seat, a high hill near Edinburgh, could be
distinctly seen in the south-eastern horizon.

At one place, in an angle in the wall of the rampart, was a stone step,
so placed that a lady, by standing upon it, might get a better view. The
soldier said that Queen Victoria stood upon that stone, when she visited
Stirling Castle, a few years ago, on her way to Balmoral. Balmoral is a
country seat she has among the Highlands, far to the north, in the midst
of the wildest solitudes. The queen goes there almost every summer, in
order to escape, for a time, from the thraldom of state ceremony, and
the pomp and parade of royal life, and live in peace among the mountain
solitudes.

The soldier pointed to the coping of the wall, where the figure of a
crown was cut in the stone, and the letters "V. R." by the side of it.
This inscription was a memorial of the queen's having stood at this spot
to view and admire the beauty of the scenery.

After Mr. George an