738 
PERTHSHIRE. 
moll univerfally on the banks or braes of the Carfe ; and 
on the higher grounds the raifing of wheat is only very 
partial, and the third, fourth, fifth, and iixth years are 
generally appropriated to hay or pafturage, the feventh to 
oats, and the eighth to barley. The climate of this diftriCt 
is mild, and favourable to vegetation, beyond perhaps any 
other in Scotland, as it is completely (heltered, on all fides, 
by lofty mountains, and by plantations of various kinds 
of trees. Farms are generally from 100 to 300 acres in 
extent, and are let on leafes of nineteen years, at as 
high a rent as any field-land in Great Britain. The 
only artificial manure ufed is lime; for which nearly 
2000I. is paid annually to the lime-works in Fife or in 
.England. 
In ancient times a great proportion of this county was 
covered with thick forefts of oak. In the moffes are 
found vaft collections of trees, fome of them of immenfe 
fize, which have evidently been cut from their trunks by 
the hand of art, and, as tradition reports, by the Romans, 
when they firft eroded the Forth under Agricola. The 
Foreft of Blackironfide, on the banks of the Earn, is par¬ 
ticularly noted in hiftory, as the feene of many of the ex¬ 
ploits of the celebrated fir William Wallace and his gal¬ 
lant followers. In the Highland diftriCt was (he forelt of 
Manlorn, now converted into fheep-farms, befides other 
large foreft tracts, which it is unneceffary to particularize, 
as the whole of them have been in a great meafure de- 
ftroyed. Perthfliire, however, ftill contains many exten- 
five woods, formed within the laft fifty years, of which 
thofe of the duke of Athol, in the Highlands, are by far 
the largeft and molt valuable, and abound with deer and 
a variety of other game. Molt of the gentlemen’s feats 
in the county are alfo (haded by plantations. Indeed 
the fpiritof planting has gone abroad here, with a degree 
of energy feidom paralleled in any country in Europe; 
and will, no doubt, eventually produce the happieft eft’eCts. 
Perthftiire, like every other county in Scotland, is 
placed under the jurifdiClion of a lord lieutenant or liigh- 
(heriff, and a (heriff depute, who has the privilege of ap¬ 
pointing a fubftitute to hold courts in his abfence. The 
whole is ecclefiaftically divided into fixty-feven pariflies, 
of which nineteen belong to the Highlands and forty- 
eight to the Lowlands. Of thefe, nineteen are included 
in the prefbytery of Dunkeld, twenty-one in the prelby- 
tery of Perth, fifteen in that of Auchterarder, and eleven 
in that of Dunblane; all in the fynod of Perth and Stir¬ 
ling. In this county are two royal boroughs, Perth and 
Culrofs, and a number of conliderable towns and villages, 
of which the principal are, Downe, Callender, Scone, 
Dunblane, Comrie, Crieff", Auchterarder, Dunning, Aber- 
nethy, Dunkeld, Alythj Cupar, Angus, Blairgowrie, and 
Longforgan. The county of Perth fends one member to 
parliament; and the towns of Perth and Culrofs have a 
(hare in the election of other two for the burghs; Perth 
being claffed with St. Andrew’s, Cupar, Fife, Dundee, 
and Forfar; and Culrofs with Stirling, Dunfermline, In- 
verkeithing, and Queensferry. 
The manufactures of Perthftiire are linen, cotton, lea¬ 
ther. paper, and a variety of minor articles. It has exten- 
five bleachfields, printfields, and cotton-mills, with mills 
for extracting oil from the feeds of flax and rape, and for 
the (pinning of flax and wool. Its exports are corn, 
linen, and linen-yarn, cottons, boots and (hoes, falmon, 
with coals from the ports of Kincardine and Culrofs on 
the Frith of Forth ; and it imports fome of the materials 
of its manufactures, lime in great quantities, and articles 
required for domeftic confumption. 
The territory of Perthftiire was divided, in 18 it, into 
753 eltates, of which 021 were under 500I. Scots of valua¬ 
tion, and 95 above 2000I. the valuation of the whole being 
339,892l„6s. 9ft. Scots, the higheft of any of the Scottifti 
counties excepting Fifefliire. The real rent, as returned 
under the property-tax aCt in 1811, was, for the lands, 
4.60,7381. 13s. 1 id. fterling, and for the.houfes, 36,6971. 
19s. yd. This ^and-rent, which is more than that of any 
of the other counties by alrnoft one-third, is equal to 
about a tenth part of the rent of all Scotland ; yet it is 
only at the rate of about 5s. 6d. the Englilh acre. In the 
fame year, the number of freeholders entitled to vote in 
the election of a member for the county was 178. The 
duke of Athol is the patron of the county; and his fon- 
in-law, James Drummond, efq. of Strathallan, reprefents 
the duke in the houfe of Commons. The number of 
inhabitants, according to the government cenfus, is 
135,093 perfons, confiding of 64,034. males, and 71,059 
females; houfes, 27,290. 
Perthftiire difplays a field of great intereft to the anti¬ 
quary, as well as to the hiftorian. Lying north of the 
Roman wall, it was the feene of many conflicts, fought 
in fupport of the laft gleam of Caledonian independence 
in the Lowlands. From a paflage in Claudian, we learn, 
that the Earn was frequently dyed with blood: “ Sco- 
torum cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne.” And Tacitus in¬ 
forms us, that, at the foot of mount Grampius, Agri¬ 
cola encountered and overthrew the heroic Galgacus. 
The precife fpot on which this battle took place is not 
certain ; but a variety of conjectures have been hazarded 
upon the fubjeCt, of which the mod probable is that 
which fixes it in Stormont, where a large Roman encamp¬ 
ment is ftill vifible, together with a numerous collection 
of cairns, the indutable memorials of Caledonian ftrife. 
At Ardoch is another encampment, probably the molt 
perfeCt example of ancient caftrametation in Great Bri¬ 
tain ; and near it are two fmaller ones, lefs perfeCt in their 
construction. There is tikewife a Roman encampment at 
Ochil, which communicates with -Ardoch by a raifed 
road, or caufeway. Veftiges of a ftrong military earthen 
work are alfo to be traced about two miles from Monzie; 
and on the hill of Dunmore is another fortification, faid 
to have been Fingal’s place of refidence, after the de- 
ftruCtion of his houfe in the vale by Gara. This fort is 
defended by a deep ditch and rampart; and is double 
walled, each wall meafuring twenty feet in thicknefs, 
and confiding of immenfe (tones piled up without cement 
of any kind. A (imilar fort, of (till larger dimenfions, is 
(ituated two miles eaftward from Fienteach ; and on the 
moor adjacent to it are numerous cairns and tumuli, one 
of which is afligned to Comhal, the father of Fingal. 
Near Culloquhey is a fmall fort, called in Gaelic Comhal 
Kults, i. e. Comhal’s Battle. At this place, tradition re¬ 
ports that Oflian was buried ; and a (tone vault, or coffin, 
is ftill vifited as his. 
Druidical monuments are frequent in this county; 
fuch as circles, rocking-ltones, and Angle upright (tones, 
denominated “ Stones of Worfhip,” to which the common 
people yet pay no inconfiderable degree of fuperftitious 
regard. Indeed fome remnants of the druidical worfhip 
may be faid to linger here, as many of the Highland cuf- 
toms have an unqueftioned reference to that religion. 
The firft day of May, held (acred by the worftiippers of 
the Sun, continues to be diftinguiftied by the appellation 
Beltan, or Baal-tein, “The Fire of Baal;” and in fome 
parts of the country is ftill celebrated by feftivals of milk 
and eggs. 
In the church-yard of Meigle are the remains of the 
grand fepulchral monument of Vanora, alfo called Va- 
nera, Wanor, and Guinevar, the 'Britilh Helena, accord¬ 
ing to Prideaux. This princefs was the wife of Arthur; 
but, being taken prifoner by the Scots and PiCts, (he lived 
for fome time, in miferable captivity, on Barry-hill. 
Some aflert that (lie was one of the moft abandoned de¬ 
bauchees of her fex ; and that, having been torn to pieces 
by wild beafts, this tomb was raifed to perpetuate her in¬ 
famy, and the manner of her death. The truth of this 
ftory, however, is extremely doubtful ; and has perhaps 
arifen from the fymbolic characters on the monument, 
molt of which are of the monftrous kind, and represent 
various aCts of violence on the perfon of a woman. This 
tomb is deferibed in Pennant’s Tour, and the deferip- 
tion is accompanied by feveral plates. 
Religious 
