Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/210

Rh PERTHSHIRE. 198 PERTHSHIRE. between 2,588 and 5,000 square miles, but the measure- ment now commonly received is 2,835 square miles, or 1,814,063 acres, of which about 32,000 are lakes. In the earliest times of which we have record this county seems to have been inhabited in the eastern portion by the Vennicontes, or Vecturiones, of Ptolemy ; in the S. by the Horestii mentioned by Tacitus ; and in the High- lands of the W. by the Damnii Albani, whom Richard of Cirencester describes "as a people wholly secluded among lakes and mountains." It was overrun by the Romans under Agricola in A.D. 83-4, and by Severus in 206, when it was included in the Roman province Vespasiana. Of the occupation of the Romans there are still many traces, including a military road which tra- versed the eastern part of the county from the neigh- bourhood of Stirling to Orrea, near Perth, where one branch approached the coast, and the other went across the Grampius Mons to the Moray Frith ; also the remains of several fortified stations or camps, aa Lindum, now Ardoch in Strathearn, Alaima, probably Kier on the Stirling border; Victoria at Dealginross on the Earn, where the famous attack was made by the Caledonians on the ninth legion ; Ad Hiernam, at Strageth on the Earn, also Ad Tavum, and In Media, mentioned by Richard of Cirencester, besides other stations at Invcr- gowrie, and at Fortingal in Glen Lyon, at which last place the prastorium is still complete. Upon the departure of the Romans this country became tbe seat of the Pictish kingdom of Abernethy, and after- wards passed into the possession of the Scots. In the latter part of the 10th century the Danes arrived at the mouth of the Esk with a large fleet and were marching for the sack of Perth, when they were met by the Scottish king, Kenneth III., at Loncarty, near Perth, and completely routed. In 1054 Macbeth, whose stronghold was at Dunsinane Hill, was here de- feated by his competitor Malcolm, assisted by his Saxon allies. The subsequent history of this county is briefly referred to under the article PEHTII, which city ranked as the capital of Scotland till after the assassination of James I. The ancient divisions of the county comprised the stewartries or subordinate territories of Athole in the N., Balquhiddcr in the S.W., Breadalbane in the W. and middle, Gowrie in the E., Menteith in the S., Perth in the S.E., Rannoeh in the N.W., and Stormont and Strathearn in the middle, each of which was under the jurisdiction of a distinct sheriff or steward. The Act of 1748, abolishing hereditary jurisdictions, put an end to these divisions, though the names are still popularly applied to the districts, or retained in the titles of the nobility. In 1795 an Act of Parliament was passed dividing the county for special purposes into the ten districts of Auchterarder, Blairgowrie, Carse of Gowrie, Criefl', Culross, Cupar-Angus, Dunblane, Dunkeld, Perth, and Weem, but the sheriff-depute exercises rule over all the county, and appoints two substitutes, the one of whom presides at Perth and the other at Dunblane. This county is almost entirely comprehended in the basin of the Tay, except the district of Menteith in the S., which forms part of the basin of the Forth, and a small district in the S.W., which is drained by streams flowing into Loch Lomond. The great watershed of the country declines from the lofty summits of the Grampians in the N. and W. gradually towards the S. and E., where the numerous streams unite their waters in the copious flood of the Tay, which discharges a greater volume of water into the ocean than any other river of Great Britain. This monarch of British rivers, however, is so far obstructed by sandbanks in its channel, and a bar at its mouth, as to have been only navigable for vessels of 100 tons as high up as Perth, previous to 1834, when extensive works were undertaken to deepen the channel of the river, and to construct a harbour and wet docks at Perth, so as to admit vessels of 380 tons to come up to any harbours at spring tides, and vessels of 130 tons at nciip tides. The navigation is also somewhat impeded by tlio strength of the tides, which renders the time of ascending precarious. The whole length, from its source oil the border of Argyleshire to the Frith or estuary of Tay, is 105 miles, in the course of which it receives the waters of the Fillan, the Dochart, and the Lockie before entering Loch Tay. This loch is a long narrow lake, about 14 miles in length by 1 mile broad, and entirely embosomed in mountains, having Ben Lawers on its north-western bank. After leaving the loch the Tay flows through Strath Tay, receiving on its left bank the considerable rivers Lyon and Tumel, fed by numerous mountain streams, some of which form falls and rapids, and about 6 miles lower down, on the right bank, the Braan or Bran ; it then flows for about 1 2 miles through Strathmore to its junction with the Isla, where the united streams take a southerly direction, and being swollen by the Airdle, the Shochie, and the Almond, pass Perth, a little below which town the Tay is joined by the river Earn on the right bank, bringing to it the waters of the Leduoch, Ruchil, Turret, Powaffray, Machony, Shaggie, Ruthven, May, and Farg. After its junction with tnt. Earn the Tay gradually widens for about 20 miles, till it forms the estuary of Tay. The other rivers of Perthshire are the Forth, which flows just within the southern boun- dary of the county, draining the district of Menteith, so named from tho Teith, a tributary of the Forth, rising just within Argyleshire border, and forming Loch Katrine, a sheet of water about 8 miles long, immortalised as tho subject of Sir Walter Scott's " Lady of the Lake." The Allan and Devon are also feeders of the Forth ; on the latter stream are the celebrated falls and rapids known as the Deil's Mill, the Rumbling Bridge, and the Caul- dron Linn. The lakes are both numerous and of con- siderable size, including lochs Tay and Katrine, men- tioned above ; Loch Earn, at the head of the river Earn, in Breadalbane ; Loch Rannoeh, a long narrow sheet of water, over 9 miles in length by 1 mile broad, and abounding in trout ; Loch Ericht, on the border of Inver- ness-shire, extending in length 14 miles from N. to S. by 1 mile in breadth ; Loch Lydoch, a large sheet of water on the border of Argyleshire, the source of the river Tumel ; Loch Garry, a narrow lake 3 miles long by half a mile broad, lying between Rannoeh and Athole ; Loch Tumel, a lake, about 2 miles from W. to E. and half a mile broad, formed by the river Tumel, in Athole ; also lochs Venacher, Monteith, and Lubnaig, each about 5 miles long, in the district of Menteith, Loch Voel, in Balquhidder, besides numerous smaller lakes, as Achray, Ard, Butterstone, Chon, Cluny, Dochart, Doine, Drurnel- lie, Freuchie, Lyon, Lows, Ordie, Tilt, Turret, &c. In all the hilly districts springs are abundant, and Pitcailhley is specially noted for its mineral waters ; but in the level tracts of Monteith and the Carso of Gowrie pure water is scarce, occasioning in dry seasons considerable sick- ness and scarcity, while in wet seasons the same districts are almost inundated and the soil converted into a miry expanse. The rivers, which flow from the mountains in tho K. andN.W. towards the Tay, run for the most part in an easterly or southerly direction, giving name to a scries of straths, or broad valleys, which open in the same aspect, and to the glens, or narrow vales, through which they pass in their upper course as Strath Tay and Strathmore, forming the valley of the Tay ; Strath- earn, extending almost across the centre of the county from W. to E., and forming the channel of the Earn ; Strathallan, or the Vule of the Allan, in the southern part of the county, separating the Ochills from the Western Highlands ; Strath- Airdle, in the north-eastern part of the county, forming the basin of the Airdle, and a branch of the Isla, which rises at the foot of Cairn Gower, in the Ben-y-Gloe mountains. Some of the smaller valleys, or glens, are those of the Beg, Shee or Ericht, Ferual, Bruar, Tilt, and Erochkie, in the N., and of the Lyon, Lochy, Dochart, Falloch, and Artney, in the W. These valleys bear but a small proportion to the aggregate area of the county, contrasting strikingly by their warmth and luxuriance with the barren summits which environ them. About two-thirds of the whole county, from Loch Ericht, or the Moor of Rannoeh, on the Aberdeen and Inverness border, south-eastward, is comprehended in tho Grampian or Highland region. This district is formed of ridges of rocks rising in