D. 1865."
We now walked back to Stirling, and were again among the windings of the
River Forth, which are a striking feature whether viewed from Wallace's
Monument, the Castle walls, or the cemetery. To follow them in some
places, the traveller, it was said, would have to go four times farther
than by the straighter road.
[Illustration: ST. NINIANS CHURCH TOWER.]
Recovering possession of our bags from the hotel, we resumed our march
along the road to Falkirk, eleven miles distant, and, on the way, came
to the village of St. Ninians, with its long, narrow street of
dismal-looking houses, many of them empty and in ruins, and some marked
"To Let"; and, from their dingy appearance, we imagined they were likely
to remain so. The people who lived in these houses were formerly of evil
reputation, as, before railways were constructed so far north, all the
cattle from the Western Isles and the North were driven along the roads
to Falkirk to be sold, and had to pass through St. Ninians, which was so
dreaded by the drovers that they called this long, narrow street "The
Pass of St. Ninians." For, if a sheep happened to go through a doorway
or stray along one of the passages, ever open to receive them, it was
never seen again and nobody knew of its whereabouts except the thieves
themselves.
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