58 ON THE AGKICULTUKE OF 



older part of the last being a burgh of barony. The Queen and 

 Prince Consort spent a night in Fettercairn, in September 1861, 

 and an elegant Gothic arch near the hotel where they slept com- 

 memorates the royal visit. 



The configuration of Forfarshire presents great variety. It 

 combines the wildest of mountain scenery with the softest and 

 most charming of valley landscape. The county forms four 

 natural divisions, the Maritime, Sidlaw, Strathmore, and 

 Grampian sections. The first extends along the coast from 

 Invergowrie to the North Esk, and stretches from 3 to 8 miles 

 backwards. Between Broughty Ferry and. Montrose there is a 

 considerable extent of links, unfit for cultivation, and of little 

 value for pasture, but admirably adapted to the royal game of 

 golf and other sports. It contains several tracts of remarkably 

 rich land ; is in some parts beautifully wooded and undulating ; 

 in others rather flat and tame ; while, as it rises towards the 

 Sidlaws, the soil is here and there stiff and cold, or thin and 

 poor, with little shelter. The Sidlaws, a range of trappean hills, 

 almost in line with the Ochils, run through the county from 

 south-west to north-east, terminating a little south of Montrose. 

 The range is very clearly defined, and rises to a height of 1399 

 feet at Auchterhouse Hill, near the middle of the chain. The 

 other higher peaks are the Gallow Hill, in Glamis, 1242 ; the 

 Gask 1141, and Kinpurnie 1134 feet. At the pass between 

 Dundee and Newtyle, the ridge sinks to about 1000 feet. The 

 Sidlaw division is true to the general characteristics of trap 

 districts. The higher peaks are partially covered with heather 

 and other coarse herbage, and the slopes green and very uneven. 

 Cultivation has been pushed to a great altitude on both sides, 

 the arable land being continued through the pass between 

 l^ewtyle and Dundee. The third natural division, Strathmore, 

 or the Great Valley, is, from a purely agricultural point of view, 

 the most important of the four. In reality, Strathmore consists 

 of a belt of Old Eed Sandstone that extends from the west end 

 of the Ocliils, where it is about 16 miles in width, to Stonehaven, 

 where the width is less than 1 mile. This beautiful plain is 

 about 90 miles in length, and it has been truly said that 

 nowhere else in Scotland is there so extensive a reach of 

 perfectly level fertile soil. The Forfarshire portion of this fine 

 strath is hemmed in by the Sidlaw and Grampian ranges, and 

 displays scenery of great beauty. The valley is well wooded ; 

 its farms well laid off and skillfully cultivated, and the soft 

 lowland aspect of its landscape forms a striking contrast to the 

 rucfsred sterile contour of the heights on the north-west. The 

 Grampian division is by far the most extensive, but the greater 

 part is so mountainous as to be of little value in an agricultural 

 sense. This chain of hills is a continuation of the Grampian 



