PERTH. THE TAY. MONC1UEFF-HILL. 21 



reduced in extent, and has never, as Pennant remarks, " recovered the march 

 of its ancestors to Dunsinnane." 



PERTH, the capital of the county, and once of the country, is the arena of 

 many historical events in which the fate of the kingdom has been involved 

 many traits of national character and popular vicissitudes which arrest attention, 

 and conjure up a thousand reminiscences in the reflecting mind. 



Surrounded by a rich amphitheatre of hills undulating along the horizon, 

 their summits covered with woods, their flanks sprinkled with cheerful country- 

 seats, and washed by the majestic Tay, Perth is a city of almost unrivalled attrac- 

 tions. Highly favoured by Nature, it became a place of great commercial 

 importance at the earliest period, and down to the present time has continued 

 to be one of the chief seats of national prosperity.* Its handsome bridge of 

 nine arches, its elegant quays and public buildings of which the most interesting 

 are the celebrated Academy and Antiquarian Institution the north and south 

 Inches extensive public lawns stretching along the river, either of which would 

 form a Campus Martins with numerous gardens and public walks, are all of 

 the most beautiful description, and worthy of its patriotic citizens. 



As one of the first places in Scotland where Knox promulgated the doctrines 

 of the Reformation, which here took strong hold of the public mind, and 

 extended its influence in every direction Perth possesses a double interest, 

 and recalls the most important epoch in the national history. It was, for some 

 time, the centre of that moral revolution which broke the fetters of ancient 

 superstition, emancipated the human mind from a despotism worse than 

 feudal bondage, and at length placed a new dynasty on the throne. 



The view from Moncrieff-hill is proverbially referred to as one of the most 

 beautiful in the kingdom. Pennant styles it " the glory of Scotland." From 

 this point, when the Roman legions came first in sight of Perth the ancient 

 Bertha and beheld the Tay, the exclamation of " Ecce Tiberim!" announced 



As the metropolis of ancient Caledonia and the residence of her kings still pointed out in the palace 

 of Scone Perth and its environs occupy no small share in the history of those times, before the seat of 

 royalty had been transferred to the more southern parts of the kingdom. As the Scottish nation extended its 

 authority by the conquest of the Picts, and its subsequent intermarriages with England, the royal residence, 

 keeping pace with the expanded limits of the sovereign, passed successively from Dunstafmage, Kildrummy, 

 and Inverlochy, to Scone. Scone was exchanged in its turn for Falkland and Dunfermlme-these for 

 Stirling-Stirling for Linlithgow, and this for Edinburgh, and lastly, Edinburgh for London. Amidst 

 these changes, after the establishment of the monarchy of all Scotland, the natural boundaries which marked 

 the land confined, on the whole, the choice of a place of residence for the royal family to that space which is 

 bounded by the courses of the Forth and Tay, on the south and north ; on the west, by the rising of the 

 country towards the middle of the island, and on the east by the ocean. During the hottest times of war 

 with England, the interposition of theTay recommended Scone as the most secure court-residence. 

 VOL. II. G 



