Historic Environment Scotland

…But now unroof'd their Palace stands,
Their sceptre's fall'n to other hands;
Fallen indeed, and to the earth,
Whence grovelling reptiles take their birth…

When Burns visited Stirling in August 1787, he unwisely engraved his opinion of the town on one of the window panes of Wingate’s Inn (now the Golden Lion Hotel). In ten lines, he summed up how Stirling, from where the Stewart kings had ruled Scotland, had lost all power, and even the roof of its Palace. As the poem was also highly critical of the Hanoverian kings and George lll, Burns was forced to return and break the glass to avoid prosecution!