Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/726

 700 SCOTLAND BUS returns of 1871, and their shire towns, are given in the following table :

COUNTIES. Pop. la 1871. 8UIKE TOWNS. NORTHERN. Shetland 81,603 81.274 8'J,9i2 24,317 80,055 87,531 10,225 43.013 62,023 244,603 84,630 837.567 127,768 160.7*5 7,193 28,747 93,213 5S.S57 75,679 Lerwick. Kirk wall. Wick. Dornoch. j Dinsrwall and Inverness. Nairn. Elgin. Banff. Aberdeen. Stonohaven. Forfar. Perth. Cupar. Kinross. Clackmannan. Stirling. Dumbarton. Invcrary. liothesay. Renfrew. Ayr. Lanark. Unlithgow. Edinburgh. HuddingtoD. Oreenlaw. Peebles. Selkirk. Jedburgh. Dumfries. Kirkcudbright. Wigtown. Caithness NORTHWESTER*. Rosa and Cromarty NORTHEASTERN. Nairn. . ; Banff EAST MIDLAND. Fortar. . . Perth Fife Clackmannan WEST MIDLAND. Stirling Dumbarton Anrvle. . . . Bute 16,977 218,047 2iMt.st>9 765,339 40,635 821,379 87.771 86,4-6 1-2.830 14,005 68,974 74, sOS 41.S59 8S.S30 SOUTHWESTERN. Renfrew Ayr L&wt.. SOUTHEASTER*. Linlithgow Edinburgh lladdington Berwick Peebles. . . Selkirk SOUTHERN. Roxburgh Dumfries Kirkcudbright WUrtown. . . The total area is 80,463 sq. m., of which the islands comprise about 5,000. The population has been steadily increasing for more than a century, chiefly by natural growth. In 1700 the number of inhabitants was estimated at 1,000,000; in 1755, at 1,265,000. The first government census was in 1801, and the result was 1,608,420 inhabitants. By the successive censuses at intervals of 10 years it was found that the population increased in each decade from 10 to 13 per cent. The enumeration of 1811 gave 1,805,864; of 1821, 2,091,521; of 1831, 2,364,386; of 1841, 2,620,184; of 1851, 2,888,742; of 1861, 3,062,294; and of '1871, 3,360,018, of whom 1,603,143 were males and 1,756,875 females ; 161,909 lived on the islands. Scotland contains 168 cities and towns, of which 70 are royal and 79 municipal burghs. Edinburgh is the capital and the sent of the chief courts, but Glasgow is the largest city. Besides these the following, arranged in the order of their populousness, had each in 1871 more than 25,000 inhabitants : Dundee, Aber- deen, Greenock, Paisley, Leith, and Perth; and the following more than 10,000 inhabi- tants : Kilmarnock, Arbroath, Kirkcaldy, Ayr, Coatbridge, Airdrie, Dumfries, Dunfermline, Montrose, Inverness, Stirling, Hamilton, Dum- barton, Hawick, Port Glasgow, and Galashiels. The kingdom in 1872 contained 887 parishes. The people are divided into two great and dis- tinct stocks, differing in language, manners, and dress, viz. : the highlanders and the lowland- ers, the former living in the mountainous north and the latter in the south. The highlanders wear a short coat, a vest, and a kilt or tilli- beg, a kind of petticoat reaching scarcely to the knees, which are left entirely uncovered, the lower part of the legs being covered with short hose. These garments are usually of tar- tan, a kind of checkered stuff of various colors. On the head is worn a peculiar covering called a bonnet. Sometimes the plaid, a large piece of tartan, is worn around the body in the man- ner of the Roman toga. The language of the highlanders is the Erse or Gaeh'c, a Celtic dia- lect bearing no analogy to the English. (See CELTS, LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE OF THE.) Both the peculiar language and the peculiar costume of the highlands are gradually falling into disuse, the people adopting the manners, dress, and dialect of the lowlands. The clans or tribes into which they were formerly divided have also ceased to have any legal existence, and the hereditary chiefs who once governed them with almost absolute sway have no longer any authority. The highlanders, who at no very remote period were noted for their war- like and predatory habits, have ceased to carry arms about their persons, and are as peaceable and orderly as any other part of the British population. But they are still fond of military life, and enlist in great numbers in the British army, of which they form some of the most distinguished regiments. The peculiar lan- guage of the lowland Scots closely resembles the English, though some regard it as a dia- lect of the Scandinavian. It is mixed with Anglo-Saxon words and idioms, and with a few French terms which have not found their way into English. This dialect prevails not only in the lowlands, but in Caithness, Orkney, and Shetland in the north. The lowlanders, especially those of the towns, do not differ much from the English, and the two nations have been rapidly assimilating during the pres- ent century. Among the peasantry, however, many traits are preserved of a character es- sentially Scotch. They are marked by an ath- letic, bony frame, broad and high cheek bones, and a hard, weather-beaten countenance. No people have shown a more resolute determina- tion in defence of civil and religious freedom. Their chief vices are intemperance and un- chastity. In 1872, out of a total of 118,873 births in the kingdom, 10,817 or more than 9 per cent, were illegitimate; and in eight coun- ties, Kincardine, Kinross, Aberdeen, Kirkcud- bright, Wigtown, Elgin, Dumfries, and Banff, the proportion was above 12 per cent. In
 * Cromarty.