B O R 



743 



BOR 



Borrow-' 



dale, 

 Borrow- 

 stoness. 



deera, a Spanish Jesuit, which is filled with ridiculous 

 fables respective; the miracles of the cardinal. Ano- 

 ther life of him was published at Paris in 1761, in 3 

 vols. 12mo., by the Abbe Touron. See Keysler's 

 Travels, vol. i. let. xxxv. p. 373 ; and Coxe's Tra- 

 vels in Switzerland, vol. iii. let. xci. p. 314. (o) 



BORROWDALE. See Cumberland. 



BORROWSTONESS, a town of Scotland, is si- 

 tuated on the south side of the Firth of Forth, about 

 IS miles north-west of Edinburgh, and 3\ north of 

 Linlithgow, the county town. At what time the 

 town of Borrowstoness began to be built is not ex- 

 r.etly known, but it became a place of some conse- 

 quence early in the seventeenth century ; for in the 

 year 1634 the population had increased so much, that 

 un application was made to the parliament of Scotland 

 to have the town erected into a separate parish from 

 Kinneil, of which it had hitherto formed a part. And 

 in the year 1669, the then Duke and Duchess of Ha- 

 milton applied for, and obtained an act of parliament, 

 conjoining Kinneil to Borrowstoness ; since which pe- 

 riod they have continued one parish. 



The town is a burgh of barony governed by a ba- 

 ron bailie, appointed by the Hamilton family ; and 

 although it is built in a very irregular manner, there 

 are a number of good dwelling-houses, besides seve- 

 ral very large and commodious warehouses for grain, 

 &c. The two principal streets are narrow, and run 

 from west to east about 350 yards, when they termi- 

 nate in one, which is continued nearly 300 yards far- 

 ther. The houses, from the smoke of the public 

 works carried on in the town, bear all the marks of 

 antiquity, and strangers are struck with the pande- 

 monian appearance of the place. The smoke, how- 

 ever, is by no means so offensive as might be suppo- 

 sed, and, to those accustomed to it, seldom gives any 

 concern, at any rate it is not pernicious to the health 

 of the inhabitants, there having been many instances 

 of longevity ; and at present there are several persons 

 living above 80 years of age, and, in particular, one 

 lady, said to be 94, who continues vigorous and in 

 good spirits. 



The town stands upon a point of land projecting 

 into the sea, and nature seems to have pointed it out 

 as an advantageous situation for a harbour. Previous 

 to the existence of Borrowstoness, and for many 

 years after it began to be formed, Blackness (a small 

 village about 3 miles east of Borrowstoness, ) was the 

 place where the Glasgow merchants carried on the 

 principal part of their trade with the east country ; 

 but Borrowstoness being nearer, and in every respect 

 better adapted for the purpose, the shipping soon be- 

 gan to resort there. As a consequence of this, about 

 the time of the union, in 1707, the customhouse 

 appears to have been transferred from Blackness to 

 Borrowstoness, where it still remains. Commerce 

 continued to be carried on at Borrowstoness to a con- 

 siderable extent, more particularly betwixt the years 

 1750 and 1780, during which period it was one of 

 the most thriving towns on the east coast, and ranked 

 as the third port in Scotland. But when the junction 

 of the Forth and Clyde took place about 30 years 

 ago, by means of the great canal, the trade began to 

 resort to Grangemouth, (at that time called Lea- 

 leek,) where the canal terminates on the cast ; and 



the trade of Borrowstoness has since continued to 

 decline. The merchants and others interested in the 

 prosperity of Borrowstoness, soon foresaw the injury 

 it would suffer by being deprived of the Glasgow 

 trade, and with the view of obviating it, a subscrip- 

 tion was opened in 1782, and an act of parliament 

 obtained for making a branch from Borrowstoness to 

 join the great canal at or near Grangemouth, which 

 was actually begun and carried some length, but the 

 funds failing, it was necessarily stopped, and'still re- 

 mains unfinished. The completion of this underta- 

 king was the only probable means of preserving the 

 trade at Borrowstoness, the harbour there being muchi 

 more accessible to ships of size than Grangemouth, 

 where the navigation is both very narrow and crook- 

 ed ; but it having unfortunately failed as above sta- 

 ted,. Grangemouth has become the seat of commerce. 

 All the customhouse business, however, being trans- 

 acted at Borrowstoness, the town continued to de- 

 rive some advantages from the resort of merchants 

 and shipmasters, &c. ; but of this advantage it has 

 also been lately deprived, Grangemouth having been 

 constituted a separate port, and a new customhouse 

 opened there on the 1st Dec. 1810. 



From the causes which have been stated, and more 

 recently from the pressure of the war, the trade of 

 Borrowstoness has become small indeed, compared to 

 what it once was. 



The following Table exhibits the quantity of 

 shipping employed in the foreign and coast trade,, 

 inwards and outwards for four years preceding the 

 5th January 1811, with the nature of the trade car- 

 ried on. 



Tmvards. 



Outwards. 



Jan. 5, 1806. 

 1809. 

 1810. 

 1811. 



1301|168 



775 184 



1332 207 



6625 

 8472 

 8863 



1196 203 8367 



Coals, salt, snap, 

 I soapers salt. Pru- 

 isions, grain, and 

 stone and earthen 

 ware. 



ti 

 / Wj 



The above view of the trade shews how limited 

 the foreign commerce has become, and that the im- 

 ports have fallen off considerably ever since the year 

 1806. 



The shipping of Borrowstoness has also much 

 decreased since 1794. At that time there were 

 seventeen brigs and eight sloops belonging to the 

 town, but now they cannot be reckoned above half 

 that number. The building of ships, however, is 

 still carried on, although not so extensively as for- 

 merly. There is only now one master builder, whose 

 mode of building is held in high estimation, and hia 

 vessels consequently meet with a ready market. 



Several branches of manufacture and mechanical 



3 



