Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/698

 668 PERTH of stone, and contains a number of good public buildings, while the lower slopes of Kinnoul Hill are studded with villas embosomed in woods. To the north and south of the town along the banks of the Tay are the extensive meadows of the Xorth and South Inches. The Tay is crossed by a stone bridge for carriage traffic, erected in 1771 and widened in 1869, and by a stone and iron rail way bridge with a footway. Notwithstanding its importance in early times, the city now re tains almost no relics of anti quity. The religious houses were razed by the mob after John Knox preached his famous sermon in St John s church against the idolatries of Rome. The Dominican or Blackfriars monastery, founded by Alex ander II. in 1231 and a residence of the Scottish kings, occupied a site near the west end of the present bridge ; the site of the Carthusian monastery, founded by James I. in 14*29, and where he and his queen, and Margaret queen of James IV., were buried, has since 1750 been occupied by the hospital founded by James VI. ; Greyfriars monas tery, founded in 1460, stood on the present Greyfriars church yard ; and a little west of the town was a house of the Carmelites or Whitefriars, founded in 1260. The parliament house, where the ancient parlia ments of Scotland were held, was cleared away in 1818, and was succeeded by the Freemasons Hall ; Earl Gowrie s palace, founded in 1520, was removed in 1805 to make way for the county buildings ; the Spey tower near the Spey gate, a mural fortress long used as a prison, was taken down about fifty years ago. The cross, erected in 1668 in place of that demolished by Cromwell, was removed in 1807. The old church of St John is said to have been founded in the 5th century ; the transept and nave of the existing structure date from the early part of the 1 3th century and the choir in its present state from the loth; the building is now divided into an east, a middle, and a west church. Among other public edifices the principal are the county buildings (erected 1819-20 at a cost of 32,000, and enlarged in 1866), the general prison for Scotland (originally erected in 1812 as a depot for French prisoners, remodelled as a convict prison in 1840, and enlarged in 1858 and 1881), the city and county jail (1819), the military barracks (1793-94), the public seminaries (1807), Marshall Museum and Library (1823), Murray s Royal Lunatic Asylum (1827), the infirmary (1836), the general railway station (1848), the new public hall (1881), the Boys and Girls Religious Society hall (1881), the new municipal buildings (1881), a fine range in the Tudor style, cost 13,000. Some of the most extensive bleach-fields in the kingdom are in the immediate neighbourhood of Perth on the banks of the Tay and the Almond. Perth itself has manufactories of gauge glasses, muslins, ginghams, imitation India shawls and scarfs, union goods, and boots and shoes ; and there are rope-works, coach-building yards, iron-foundries, breweries, and distilleries. The Tay has valuable salmon fisheries. The navigation of the river is considerably obstructed by sand. In 1834 an Act was obtained for constructing a harbour and docks and enlarging the quays, which were further extended in 1856. In 1840 Perth was made an independent port; vessels of 200 tons can unload at its quays. The number of vessels in cargo and in ballast that entered the port in 1883 was 124 of 9767 tons, that cleared 124 of 9731 tons. The principal imports are Baltic timber, coal, salt, and manure, and the exports corn, Plan of Perth. potatoes, timber, and slates. The population of the parliamentary burgh in 1851 was 23,835 ; this had increased by 1861 to 25,250, and by 1881 to 28,949, of whom 13,453 were males and 15,496 females. History. Perth is stated to have been anciently called Bertha, arid to have been situated at the junction of the Almond and Tay, whence it was removed to its present site after an inundation in 1210. In any case the church of St John was founded long before this ; and a variety of Roman remains seem to indicate that there was a Roman station, on the present site of the city. The obscurity of its early history is accounted for by the fact that its records were removed by Edward I. Perth is stated to have been a burgh as early as 1106. The charter granted it by James VI. makes mention also of another granted by David I., and the charter of King David was renewed by William the Lion, by whom Perth was created a royal burgh. It was fortified by the last-named king in 1210 and again by Edward I. in 1298. It was attacked without success by Robert Bruce in 1306, but in 1311 he succeeded in scaling its walls one dark night. It was captured by Edward III. in 1335 and retaken by the Scots in 1339. The earl of Cornwall is stated by Fordun to have been stabbed in 1336 by his brother Edward III. before the great altar in the parish church of St John. In 1396 a famous combat took place on the North Inch, between Clan Chattan and Clan Kay, which has been made familiar to English readers by Sir W. Scott in his fair Maid of Perth. The Blackfriars monastery, where the kings then resided, was the scene in 1437 of the murder of James I. by Walter, earl of Athole, and Gowrie House in 1600 of a mysterious conspiracy against James VI. Perth succeeded Scone as the capital of Scotland, but after the murder of James I. the parliament and courts were transferred to Edinburgh, which was declared the capital in 1482. The city was visited by the plague in 1512, 1585-87, 1608, and 1645, by the cholera in 1832, and by inundations in 1210, 1621, 1740, 1773, and 1814. It was taken by Montrose in 1644, capitulated to Cromwell in 1651, and was occupied by Dundee in 1689 ; it was recovered by Argyll from the adherents of the Pretender in 1715, and was occupied by Prince Charles Edward in 1745. The famous articles of Perth were agreed to at a meeting of the General Assembly in the parish church of St John, 25th August 1618. Scott, Statistical Account of (he Town and Parish of Perth, 1796 ; Maidment, The Chronicle of Perth from 1210 to 1008, 1831 ; Penney, Trwiitions of Perth, 1836 ; Lawson, The Book of Perth, 1847 ; Peacock, Perth, its Annals and Archives, 1849. PERTH, a city of Australia, capital of the colony of Western Australia, is picturesquely situated on the Swan