Page:Old Castles.djvu/55

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Carlisle Castle.
47

sad fate of all their projects–the blood of many a strong Scotch heart being the unhappy result. There is much in Sir Walter Scott's Waverley illustrative of this special enterprise with which every visitor of the castle should be acquainted, as these old stones will be nothing to him whose heart has never been touched by the emotions of pity and regret for the noble young hearts that perished in their shadow.

Sir Walter Scott himself is among our notabilia, having visited the castle many times–a reverend and loving connoisseur of all its old glories and many legends, "part seen, imagined part." How he lingered in these old stately ways with his soul o'erbrimmed with thought, we can well imagine every tower and turret bringing to his great worshipping heart some tale of that stirring past of his country and this brave Border land on which he so loved to dwell.

Besides him, it has been visited by many noble and learned authors; but it has no book for visitors' names, and, consequently, they are but very indefinitely known. Mrs. Sigourney of America is something of an exception to this rule, as she has immortalized her visit by her ready pen. As Mary Queen of Scots first English prison she seems to have visited it, and on the other side of the Atlantic its fame is almost exclusively derived from this sad circumstance.

We close the list of our notabilia with the present Prince of Wales. He visited the castle when about fourteen. It was a mere tourist's visit on his way to Scotland one bright summer morning; but we hope in time to come, when he has won the noble fame of a just and wise king, even this short visit may be remem-