Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/208

Rh PERTH. 196 PERTH. James I. in the Dominican monastery in 1437, after which event Edinburgh became the seat of government, though Perth continued to be nominally the capital till 1482; its connection with the events of the Keformation, being the place where the six martyrs were hung in 1544 by Cardinal Beaton, and where Knox preached his famous sermon in 1559 ; its devastation by the plague in the 16th and 17th centuries; its occupation by the Queen-regent Mary, who attempted to restore the Roman Catholic ceremonials ; its capture by Argyll and Ruthven ; its being the scene of the " Gowrie " con- spiracy against James VI., otl erwise known as the Raid of Uuthven, in 1600 ; its reception of Charles I. in 1632 ; its capture by Montrose in 1644 after his victory at Tibbermuir; its capitulation to Cromwell in 1651, who built a fort on the North Inch commanding the naviga- tion of the Tay ; its selection as a place of residence by many of the officers and soldiers of Cromwell's army, who taught the citizens of Perth to improve their modes of life by the English arts, and excited among them a spirit of industry ; its occupation by Viscount Dundee in 1689, immediately before the battle of Killiecrankie, and by the Highlanders in 1715 and 1745. From this last date the town began to improve very rapidly in wealth and population, owing to the greater security of life and property, the government of this part of Great Britain having never before been properly settled. It is now one of the handsomest edificed towns in Scotland, presenting, from whatever quarter it is approached, a striking and attractive appearance. The substantial character of its houses, built of freestone, its noble river lined with quays, and here crossed by a bridge of nine arches, 880 feet long by 22 wide ; its spacious promenades or meadows called " Inches," situated to the N. and S. of the town, and the background of hills, including Moncrieff and Kinnoul hills, all combine to heighten the effect produced upon the traveller. The North Inch, the scene of the fight between the clans Chattan and Kay, as told in the " Fair Maid of Perth," comprises about 98 acres skirting the margin of the river, and is partly occupied by a curved racecourse of 950 yards. The South Inch is surrounded with avenues of trees on three of its sides, and on the fourth is lined with villas called St. Leonard's Bank, and the buildings of the railway termini. The Inch is intersected throughout its extent by the line of the Edinburgh road, which is likewise shaded with avenues of trees. The bridge of the Dundee and Perth railway crosses the river a little below the town, but so constructed as not to impede the navigation. Great exertions have been made to improve the harbour, which, however, only admits vessels of small burden. Of the massive walls flanked with towers which once surrounded the town no vestiges now remain, the whole having been modernised, and the streets laid out with considerable regularity. The principal thoroughfares of the old part of the city run at right angles to the river, and are called Mill, Hill, South, and Canal streets, inter- sected by other lines of street running parallel to the river. This part of the town was formerly frequently inundated by the freshets of the Tay, but the level of the ground has been raised by the accumulations of time. The streets are in general straight, convenient, well paved, and lighted with gas. The houses are sub- stantial, and new lines of shops have now almost entirely superseded the hideous and crazy edifices which occupied the same ground less than a century ago. To the S. of the old town, and adjoining the South Inch, lies a new town wholly built since 1801, and arranged somewhat after the fashion of the new town of Edinburgh, with terraces and wide streets, as King's-place, Marshall- place, James-street, Nelson-street, and Scott-street, occupying what was formerly known as the Spey Gardens and Tay-street, extending along the margin of the river from the bridge to the South Inch. A large extension has also recently taken place in a northerly and westerly direction, the former comprising Athole- place, Athole-street, North-crescent, Melville-street, and Barossa-place, adjoining the North Inch, where an ex- tension of building was projected in 1853. On the opposite side of the river is the suburb of Bridge end of Kinnoul. The principal public edifices are the County Buildings, erected in 1819 on the site of Gowrie House, in Tay-street, at a cost of 32,000, after designs by Smirke. The structure is of polished sandstone, with Grecian portico supported by twelve massive fluted columns ; it comprises a justiciary hall 66 feet by 43, surmounted by a gallery able to accommodate 1,000 persons ; the county hall, 68 feet by 40, occupying the S. wing, and containing portraits of the Duke of Athole and Lord Lynedoch, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, Sir G. Murray, by Pickersgili ; also a committee room 30 feet square, and in the upper story a card room 44 feet by 30, with a portrait of the celebrated Neil Gow, by Rae- burn. Behind these county buildings towards Speygate, are the city and county prisons, erected in 1819 and surrounded by a high wall. At some distance farther to the S., on the S. side of the avenue of the South Inch, stands the government prison, being the only justiciary prison in Scotland. It was originally erected in 1812, at a cost of 130,000, as a depot for French prisoners of war, but was remodelled on the solitary system in 1841, at a cost of .28,000, and is now capable of containing 535 convicts, besides criminal lunatics and 52 juveniles. The other public buildings are the guild- hall in High-street ; the city council-room ; the police- office, formerly the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the Freemasons' Hall, erected on the site of the old parliament house, removed in 1818 ; a theatre built in 1820 ; lunatic asylum ; spacious suite of barracks, built in 1793, at the head of Athole-street; and the Marshall Institution in George-street, near the bridge. This last is a Grecian structure surmounted by a dome ; it con- tains halls for the public library and for the Museum of the Literary and Antiquarian Society of Perthshire. There are also monuments to Sir Walter Scott, who wrote the " Fair Maid of Perth," and to the poet Burns ; the latter, erected in 1854, was sculptured by Anderson. The gas-works, which were constructed in 1824 at a cost of 20,000, are situated in Canal street. The water re- servoir, constructed in 1830, is situated at the foot of Marshall Place ; but the filtering bed, 300 feet in length, is formed in the upper end of Moncrieff Island, in the Tay. The buildings of the central railway termini men- tioned above, near the South Inch, add greatly to the architectural adornment of the town. Here are also the " George Inn," where Queen Victoria stopped for several days in the years 1848 and 1849 ; the head-office of the Central Bank of Scotland, a Grecian structure, designed by D. Rhind ; the head-office of the Perth Banking Company ; and branches of the Bank of Scotland, Com- mercial, National, City of Glasgow, Royal, and British Linen Company's banks. The boundaries of Perth as a parliamentary burgh include Middle, St. Paul's, and West church parishes ; also parts of East, Kinnoul, Scone, and Tibbermore parishes, and had in 1851, 1,991 houses, in- habited by a population of 23,835, which in 18U1 had in- creased to 2,089 houses, inhabited by 25,250 persons. It returns one member to Parliament, and hadin 1860 a con- stituency of 1,038. The municipal limits are not equally extensive, and comprised in 1851 only 1,170 houses, in- habited by 14,681 persons ; but a new Act was obtained in 1856, extending the municipal police boundaries. The revenue of the borough in 1859-60 was 8,193. It was first chartered by William the Lion, and is divided into seven wards. Tinder the new Act, it is governed by a provost, who is sheriff and coroner, four bailies, a dean of guild, a treasurer, and twenty-six councillors. The trades incorporations, comprising the hammermen, bakers, fleshers, tailors, shoemakers, glovers, wrighls, and weavers, formerly exercised many important and exclusive privileges.- The principal manufactures now carried on are muslins, ginghams, imitation India shawls and scarfs, unions, or fabrics of mixed cotton and wool, checks and similar cotton fabrics, and flax- yarns, also boots and shoes, which last industry seems to have taken the place of the glove manufacture, for which this town was anciently famed ; ship-building