Heritors.- There are twenty-nine heritors in this parish, of which the principal are,

Estates.	Proprietors' Names.	Valued L.	Rent s.	d.
Denovan,	James Johnston, Esq. of Alva,	779	17	7
Dunipace,	Thomas Spottiswoode. Esq.	441	3	9
Quarter,	John H. Brown, Esq.	305	7	6
Torwoodhead,	Major Dundas, Carron Hall,	251	10	10
Herbertshire,	William Forbes, Esq. of Callendar	156	4	4
Burnthouse,	Peter Muirhead, Esq	116	13	8
Househill,	Sir Gilbert Stirling. Bart. Larbert,	10	5	11
Bogend,	Robert Bauchop, Esq.	102	5	8
		2263	9	3

The balance of L.875, 2s. 5d. is divided among the remaining twenty-one heritors, in various proportions; only three of them are under L.50 per annum of real rental. Of these twenty-nine heritors, eight are Dissenters, whose joint valuation amounts to L.401, 6s.

Mansion-houses.-

Herbertshire Castle.-This is a very ancient building. The date of its erection is unknown. Its situation on the north bank of the Carron is very beautiful. The banks of the river above the house are extremely picturesque,-sloping in stripes of verdant meadows, tufted with trees to the water's edge, and rising boldly into rocks fringed with brushwood, and crowned with plantations, amid which a beautiful variety of walks conducts to the most striking features of this romantic scene. It was originally a royal hunting station. In the fifteenth century, it was in the possession of that once powerful family the Sinclairs, Dukes of Orkney. In the following century, it was the property of the Earls of Linlithgow, from whom it passed into a family named Stirling, cadets of the Stirlings of Auchyle in Perthshire. An heiress of this surname, Lady of Lord Alva, Senator of the College of Justice, sold it about seventy years ago to a Mr Morehead, whose grandson sold it in 1835 to the present proprietor, William Forbes, Esq. of Callendar, M. P. for the county of Stirling.

Torwood Castle.-The ruin of this castle stands about a quarter of a mile to the westward of the turnpike road from Falkirk to Stirling, surrounded by the remains of the ancient Caledonian forest. Its history is involved in much obscurity. It was long in possession of the Baillies, who were at the same time proprietors of Castlecarry, in the parish of Falkirk. One of these Baillies married a daughter of the first Lord Forrester, by whom he became father to the second Lord Forrester, from whom this estate came by purchase into the possession of the late Thomas Dundas, Esq. grandfather of the present proprietor, Colonel Dundas of Carron Hall. The forest of Torwood is associated with all that is ennobling in patriotism and personal valour. Here stood Wallace's oak, 12 feet in diameter, in the hollow of which he and his patriotic companions, it is said, used to meet and concert their plans for wresting their country from the grasp of the ambitious Edward. This noble son of the forest disappeared about thirty years ago, after having weathered the storms of a thousand winters. Not far from the site of this tree, Mr Donald Cargill, in the month of September 1680, in the presence of a numerous assembly, pronounced sentence of excommunication against some of the most violent persecutors of that day, among whom were Charles II., his brother, James Duke of York, Duke of Monmouth, and several other persons of note, This act of Mr Cargill's was never publicly approved of by Presbyterians.

Dunipace.-This beautiful estate was,. in 1606, in the possession of Mr John Levingston, who was one of the jury appointed to try six Presbyterian ministers at the instance of King James VI. for meeting with some other ministers, and holding an Assembly at Aberdeen, in the preceding July, without his Majesty's consent, who was then exerting himself by every means in his power, to erect Episcopacy on the ruins of Presbytery. Six of the jury voted, " not guilty," among whom was the laird of Dunipace, who, says Calderwood, not only absolved these ministers from being guilty of treason, but maintained "they were honest ministers, faithful servants of Jesus Christ, and good subjects of the King." This independent manly conduct of the laird of Dunipace, King James was weak enough to resent afterwards. This same gentleman, in 1621, as Member of Parliament for the shire of Stirling, voted against the adoption of the " five articles of Perth." Dunipace afterwards came into the possession of the Primroses, the last of whom, Sir Archibald, having in 1745 joined the rebel army under the Pretender, was taken prisoner and beheaded at Carlisle. Dunipace then fell into the hands of Government, from whom it was afterwards purchased by the father of the present proprietor, Thomas Spottiswoode, Esq. The mansion-house, which stands within a few yards of the site of the old church, is of modern architecture, and has an elegant appearance.

Quarter-House, the residence of John Harvie Brown, Esq. was built by the late Alexander Brown, Esq. on a rising ground to the eastward of the turnpike-road leading from Denny to Stirling. It had, for a number of years, rather a bleakish aspect; but the clumps of trees intended to screen it from the north and west winds now growing up, give it both an elegant and comfortable appearance.

Carbrook-House, the seat of John Campbell, Esq. is built in a very romantic situation, within half a mile of Torwood Castle, the woods around which adorn Mr Campbell's house, in a very picturesque manner.*

* Since the above was written, the following alterations in the state of property have taken place,-James Johnston, Esq. of Alva. has sold Denovan to William Forbes, Esq. of Callendar, by which purchase Mr Forbes is now the first heritor. The Dunipace and Quarter eststes are now conjoined by John Harvie Brown having married Miss Spottiswoode, heiress of the late Thomas Spottiswoode Esq., of Dunipace. This makes Mr. Brown now the second heritor.