484 



FORFARSHJRE-FOTHERINGAY. 



IGNEOUS OR PLUTONIC ROCKS. 

 Ornnitp, Syi-uitc 

 1'orphyry 

 <;r.-. n-tone Basalt 



>ua un ri.uivni- nuviia. 



) UiMtratifted, of diffcri-nt agps, more 

 V or li-> <T>Ma\liiif, di-stitute of or- 

 j ganic remains. 



FORFAR ; a royal burgh of Scotland, capital of 

 Forfarshire, is situated fourteen miles north from 

 Dundee, and fifty-six from Edinburgh. It is a 

 place of unknown antiquity, its privileges having 

 been confirmed by a royal writ in 1669. The town 

 has been, within the last few years, ornamented 

 with a handsome suit of county buildings, situated 

 in Castle street. A new church and steeple have 

 likewise been built, as also a new episcopal chapel, 

 in High street, finished in 1823. Being the seat 

 of the county courts of the sheriff, the town has a 

 number of public offices and legal practitioners. 

 The town has now an excellent subscription news- 

 room and library. Besides the established church 

 and episcopal chapel, there is a meeting-house of 

 the united secession body and methodists. The 

 inhabitants are chiefly employed in the manufac- 

 ture of canvass, sheeting, and other coarse linen, 

 also in making the shoes called brogues. The 

 parish is of an irregular figure, from four to six 

 miles long, by three to five broad, and the surface, 

 except the hill of Balnashinar, mostly level and 

 fertile, the soil having been much enriched by the 

 manure from Loch Restenet, which has been lately 

 drained, and on the banks of which are the ruins 

 of a priory, formerly subject to that of Jedburgh. 

 The ancient castle of Forfar is totally demolished. 

 Population of burgh and parish in 1841, 9620. 



FORFARSHIRE, OR ANGUS; a county on 

 the east coast of Scotland, bounded on the east by 

 the north sea and Kincardineshire ; on the west by 

 the Grampian hills and Perthshire ; on the north by 

 the North Esk river and shire of Aberdeen ; and on 

 the south by the Firth of Tay. Its extreme length 

 from east to west is thirty-eight and a half miles, 

 and its greatest breadth from north to south thirty- 

 seven and a half miles. It is said to contain eight 

 hundred and thirty-one and a half square miles, or 

 about 532,160 imperial acres. The great level 

 valley of Strathmore runs through the centre of 

 Forfarshire from east to west, and the lines of hills 

 which flank this extensive and beautiful tract of 

 country, with the Grampians on the north, and 

 some minor ranges on the south, may be said to 

 form the county into a series of continuous ridges, 

 generally pursuing a direction from west to east, 

 interrupted here and there by the different rivers 

 and streams seeking their way to the sea, and 

 which, notwithstanding the courses of the hills, in 

 most instances follow a south-easterly direction. 

 The portion of the Grampian mountains in this 

 shire contains many fine valleys, and from the sum- 

 mit of these elevations to the ocean on the east 

 and the Tay on the south, the surface of the land 

 may be considered an inclined plane facing the me- 

 ridian sun, with the exception of the territory on 

 the northern side of the Sidlaw hills. In viewing 

 the county from the Fife side of the Tay, the Sid- 

 law range appears to rise at no great distance from 

 the estuary, and extending from the east towards 

 Perth, shuts out a prospect of the interior. The 

 highest of these Sidlaws is not much more than 

 1700 feet above the level of the sea. From the 

 summit of the highest Grampian hill, a fine pros- 

 pect can be obtained not only of almost the whole 

 country adjoining the Tay and of the ocean, but 

 of the eastern part of the peninsula of Fife, the 

 coast of East Lothian, and the heights of Lammer- 



moor. With the contiguous county of Kincardine 

 on the north, Forfarshire anciently formed the 

 country of the Horesti, and a portion of the Pict- 

 i*h kingdom. On the dissolution of that govern- 

 ment by Kenneth II., about the end of the ninth 

 century, he is said to have divided it between his 

 two brothers, Angus and Mearns, from whom the 

 two counties still derive their popular appellation. 

 The district gave the title of Earl to two different 

 families. On the extinction of the first, the earl- 

 dom was conferred on a relation of king David 

 Bruce, and in 1477, it merged in the family of the 

 Douglasses. It has since devolved on the duke of 

 Hamilton. In ecclesiastical matters, Angus and 

 Mearns form a synod of the established church, 

 comprehending six presbyteries. 



Forfarshire is now a highly cultivated county, 

 having advanced as far as any in Scotland in agri- 

 cultural improvement. Its chief rivers are the 

 North and South Esk, which rise near each other, 

 on the northern confines of the county and the 

 Tay. The salmon fisheries on these are very 

 valuable, great quantities of fresh salmon, packed 

 in boxes of ice, being sent from them to the Lon- 

 don market. The county is also watered by nu- 

 merous fine trout streams. It abounds in free- 

 stone and limestone, but is destitute of coal, being 

 dependent on the Fife and Newcastle collieries for 

 that essential article of fuel. In the Grampian 

 district peat is chiefly used. The spinning of flax, 

 and the manufacture of linen, sail-cloth, osnaburghs, 

 &c., form the chief trade of the county. Forfar- 

 shire comprises nearly fifty-three complete parishes, 

 in which are the five royal burghs of Dundee, Ar- 

 broath, Montrose, Brechin and Forfar, and the 

 towns of Glammis and Kirriemuir. A large pro- 

 portion of the inhabitants, especially of the weal- 

 thier class, are attached to the episcopal church, 

 and their adherence to the principles of this com- 

 munion is particularly noticeable in the number of 

 episcopal chapels all over the district. There are a 

 number of old ruinous castles in Forfarshire, most 

 of which have gone into decay, in consequence of the 

 baronies on which they stand having passed into the 

 hands of proprietors of other estates. Population 

 in 1821, 113,430; in 1841, 154,141 



FOTHERINGAY; a village in the north-east- 

 ern part of Northamptonshire, near Oundle, noted 

 as the place where Mary queen of Scots was be- 

 headed. The castle, now in ruins, was the scene 

 of many historical events. This structure was 

 originally founded by Simon St Liz, second earl of 

 Northampton, in the time of William the Con- 

 queror. It was rebuilt by Edmund, duke of York, 

 son of Edward III. ; the keep was built in the form 

 of a fetterlock, which, with the addition of a fal- 

 con in the centre, was the emblem of the family of 

 York. The same figure, in stained glass, was em- 

 blazoned in most of the castle-windows. By mar- 

 riage, it became the property of the Scottish kings ; 

 but in the reign of John, David, king of Scotland, 

 was summoned to surrender the castle to the 

 crown of England ; and refusing to comply, the 

 sheriff was directed, by royal mandate, to force 

 him to submission. In this castle Richard III. was 

 born ; and Mary, queen of Scots, after having suf- 

 fered a long imprisonment, was tried and con- 

 demned in the hall, in the year 1586, and shortly 

 afterwards executed. 



In the reign of James I., a few years after the 

 execution of his mother, the condition of the castle 

 ascertained by proper inquisition, was as follows : 



