The first is Stirling’s Statues – GC1FY7V
The third is Robert Burns and Harvieston GC1GJ4H
The fourth is Robert Burns and Dunblane – GC1GVB2
This series is planned for the “Year of the Homecoming 2009” which
centres on the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth.
This cache could easily have dealt with the Stewart Dynasty and
the fact that James the First and Sixth was crowned in the Church
of the Holy Rude as an infant. But it doesn’t.
This cache could easily have mentioned the old graveyard and how
stones were laid facing the east. These stones were often hewn with
marks depicting the trade of the resident. But it doesn’t.
If you have never been here before then I encourage you to visit
the viewfinder within the graveyard. This was where I initially
envisaged the cache to be laid. There are superb views of the
castle, the pyramid and the countryside from here. Could this have
doubled as an earth cache?
But why is there a Robert Burns connection?
Burns stayed in the Golden Lion Hotel whilst in Stirling although
it was then named The Wingate Inn.
The desecration of the Parliament House made him so angry that, on
returning to the inn, he scratched on one of the window-panes a few
severe lines, reflecting on the successors of the Stewart
race.
Here Stewarts once in glory reign'd,
And laws for Scotland's weal ordain'd;
But now unroof d their palace stands,
Their sceptre fallen to other hands ;
(Fallen indeed, and to the earth,
Whence grovelling reptiles take their birth)
The injured Stewart line is gone,
A race outlandish fills their throne ;
An idiot race, to honour lost—
Who know them best despise them most.
Written at a time when it did not take much to be interpreted as
treason he was advised to return later which he did and broke the
windowpane. He was right to be indignant if the previous parliament
building was unroofed.
On another occasion he dined with Dr. David Doig, Rector of
Stirling Grammar School which is now the Highland Hotel.
But why Black Russel and what is the connection?
If you can park in the road beside the Church of the Holy Rude and
enter the Churchyard at the entrance on the right, the first
gravestone you will see is to Black Russel.
In January 1800 the Rev. John Russel was inducted to the second
charge at Holy Rude. In the poetry of Robert Burns he figures as
Black Russel and is shown as a hell-fire preacher. The Stirling
people apparently liked him. His memorial in the graveyard, near
the south-west corner of the Kirk, bears tribute to his
worth.
He was called to Stirling in 1800. He was a staunch supporter of
the Auld Licht teaching, and a powerful preacher of the roaring
hellfire-threatening sort. Burns was vigorously opposed to his
teaching. Russell figures as 'Black Russell' in 'The Holy Fair',
and 'wordy Russell' in 'The Twa Herds'. There is a reference to him
in 'The Ordination', as being opposed to the common-sense view of
the 'New Licht' party: 'An' Russell sair misca'd her'. He also
appeared as 'Rumble John' in 'The Kirk's Alarm':
"Rumble John, Rumble John, mount the steps with a groan,
Cry, 'The Book is with heresy cramm'd;
Then lug out your ladle, deal brimstone like aidle,
And roar every note o' the Damn'd,
Rumble John, and roar every note o' the Damn'd."
The author of several books and pamphlets on religion no doubt of
interest in his own day, he became involved in a wordy doctrinal
battle with a fellow 'Auld Licht' Minister, the Reverend Alexander
Moodie of Riccarton. It was the undignified spectacle of two
members of the 'unco guid' fighting between themselves that
inspired Burns to write 'The Twa Herds'.
Hugh Miller, the geologist and writer, was one of Russell's pupils
at Cromarty. Miller recalled Russell as being 'a large, robust,
dark-complexioned man — imperturbably grave, and with a sullen
expression seated in the deep folds of his forehead'. Miller tells
the story of a lady, years after she had left school, who suddenly
saw Russell in a pulpit, and was 'so overcome with terror that she
fainted away'.
The cache is not inside the graveyard.