Perth (perhaps from Gaelic Bar-tatha, 'height of Tay'), formerly also St Johnstoun, is the name of an ancient city, four parishes, and a district in the SE of Perthshire. The city is a royal and parliamentary burgh, a river-port, a post and market town, the seat of a presbytery and synod, the capital of its county, and one of the assize towns of Scotland. It is situated on the river Tay, at the junction of several important railways, 15¾ miles SSE of Dunkeld, 21¾ WSW of Dundee, 89¾ SW by S of Aberdeen, 47 NNW of Edinburgh, 3-3 NE of Stirling, and 62½ NE of Glasgow. Its bounds include three cognominal parishes and- part of St Paul's a fourth, besides portions of Kinnoull, Scone, and Tibbermuir parishes. The main part of the town, including all the ancient quarters, is on the right bank of the Tay; but the chief suburb, named Bridgend, is situated on the left bank immediately opposite. The site of the whole is a flat-bottomed hollow or plain bisected by the river Tay and environed with rising ground, and overlooked from a little distance by an amphitheatre of well-wooded hills, whose skirts are thickly dotted with villas. The situation of Perth, its beautiful environments, its fine buildings, and its magnificent view, amply justify its old title of ` The Fair City.' The more prominent natural features in the vicinity are the broad river, with Moncreiffe island, to the SE of the city; Moncreiffe Hill to the S, and Kinnoull Hill to the N, of the Tay; the Wicks of Baiglie to the S; and the two public parks. The views from points of vantage in these hills are very extensive and beautiful. According to an anecdote, repeated in every description of the city, when the Roman legionaries, in their march of invasion, came in view of the city's site as seen from the Wicks of Baiglie, they cried out ` Ecee Tiber! Ecce Campus Martius! ' But Sir Walter Scott, looking at the comparison from a Scotsman's point of view, wrote the retort long after-

Behold the Tiber! the lain Roman cried,
Viewing the ample Tay from Baiglie's side.
But where's the Coot that would the vaunt repay,
And hail the puny Tiber for the Tay ?

The two public meadows or parks of Perth are called Inches (i.e., islands), from the fact that they used at one time to be insulated by the Tay, along the right bank of which they still extend. Separated from each other by the main body of the city, they add very greatly to its beauty and airiness, and serve as spacious grounds for the recreation of the inhabitants. They are said to hale been exchanged by the Mercer family (their original possessors) for a vault under St John's church, and this gale rise to the couplet-

Folks say the Mercers tried the town to cheat,
When for twa Inches they did win six feet.

The North Inch, which has received considerable additions at comparatively modern dates, begins near the main bridge, and extends northwards beyond the town, forming an oblong measuring about 1400 yards by 330, and containing an area of 98 acres. Previous to about 1790, when the present road was formed considerably to the W, this Inch was traversed through the middle by the road to Dunkeld and Inverness. A racecourse, curling at the extremities, and measuring about 950 yards from end to end, is laid out upon it parallel to the river bank. The Perthshire Hunt races are held here annually, and those of the Caledonian Hunt once every four years. The Inch is used now for military reviews, golf, and other games; and in ancient times it seems to hale been the favourite arena for judicial combats. Here a combat took place under Robert Bruce between Hugh Harding and William de Saintlowe; and in the reign of Robert III. it was the scene of the deadly encounter between the clans Chattan and Kay or Quhele, so graphically described by Scott in his. Fair Maid of Perth. The South Inch stretches southwards from a point opposite Moncreiffe island, about 130 yards S of the Central station, and forms a square of about 680 yards each way, with an area of 72 acres. An avenue of stately trees surrounds it on three sides; and the Edinburgh Road, opened about 1760, which traverses its centre, is also similarly shaded. The trees on the N side were removed in 1 801, when the handsome houses of Marshall Place were begun. King's Place also overlooks its N side; and on the W is a- line of ornate villas called St Leonard's Bank, and the buildings of the railway station. The South Inch had formerly a racecourse, and was anciently the place for witch-burnings, military displays, and archery-practisings; and stones were set up on it at the distance of 500 fathoms from each other, to mark the proper flight of an arrow.

Streets.—The old part of Perth, or what existed prior to the extensions begun towards the end of last century, forms the central division of the present town, and occupies less than one-half of the entire area. The course of the Tay at Perth is pretty nearly due S; and the city lies on its right or W bank, chiefly between the North and South Inches, though it extends in breadth further to the W than either of the parks, and a considerable section lies to the NW behind, or to the W of, the North Inch. The plan of the city is very regular, the chief streets being parallel to each other, while most of the other and connecting streets run at right angles to them. In the older part of the city, between the Inches, two wide streets, about 160 yards from each Other-High Street and South Street or Shoegate-run parallel from E to W, through the entire breadth of the town. The latter, which is the more southerly, used to be called the Southgate and ` the Shoegate, ' and at its western extremity are County Place and York Place. Parallel to these, in order as we proceed northwards from High Street, are Mill Street, Murral Street, Foundry Lane, Union Lane, and the broad Atholl Street, from the E end of which Charlotte Street runs SE to the bridge along the S margin of the North Inch. These parallel streets are short; and the triangular region betwixt their E ends and the river is less regularly disposed on the rectangular system than the rest of the old town. Proceeding southwards from South Street, we come upon the following parallel streets: Canal Street, Victoria Street (continued W as Paradise Place), South William Street, and Marshall Place (continued W as King's Place). At right angles to these, and extending along the river bank from Inch to Inch, is a comparatively modern and very handsome promenade called Tay Street, in which are some of the finest buildings in the city. In order, towards the W, the following streets run parallel to Tay Street for more or less of its length: Speygate and Watergate, between Canal Street and High Street; Princes Street, which continues the road from Edinburgh from the N margin of the South Inch to South Street, whence St John Street, a few yards to the E, leads to High Street, between which and the bridge George Street runs; Meal Vennel, between South and High Streets; Scott Street, between King's Place and South Street; the broad thoroughfare, known successively as King Street, South Methven Street, and Methven Street, and running due N and S the entire way from King's Place to the S to Atholl Street in the N. Still further W Pomarium and Leonard Street, the latter leading from the General Railway Terminus, converge at the SW end of Hospital Street, and are carried N in New Row to High Street. Caledonian Road also runs N from the terminus, and continues past the Perth Auction Mart under the name of Elibank Place. The more historic part of the town is that lying E of King and Methven Streets and N of and including Canal Street. The numerous connecting short streets in that quarter are of all characters, new, old, and renolated. All the streets at one time lay on so low a level as to be constantly liable to inundations from the river; but a long process of improvement has raised them to their present level. The buildings were not a whit better than those of other Scottish towns; and the streets of Perth were just as neglected and filthy; but very great improvements hale been successfully carried through; and the 'Fair City' is by no means behind its neighbours in cleanliness and healthiness. High Street is spacious, and contains some fine buildings, and abounds in historic association. St John Street was opened in 1801, and has some of the best shops. George Street was laid out about 1770, and the northern part of Princes Street about the same time. The southern half of Princes Street, together with the entire S of the town, between Canal Street and the South Inch, has been built on the site of the Spey Gardens since 1801, and is supposed to resemble the New Town of Edinburgh in its design and the style of its houses. The north-western wing of the town, lying W of the North Inch, N of and including Atholl Street, and NE of Barrack Street, which runs NW from the W end of Atholl Street, along the Dunkeld Road, is a yet more modern suburb, consisting for the most part of handsome rows of villas and mansions. The suburb of Bridgend lies stretched along the left bank of the Tay, N and S from the eastern end of the bridge. Its chief streets run parallel with the river, under the names Commercial Street (to the S), Main Street, and Strathmore Street. It lies in Kinnoull parish.

Bridges.—A large timber bridge is said, but on no good authority, to hale been thrown across the Tay at Perth by Agricola. In October 1210 an ancient bridge of stone was swept away by a great inundation of the river. Another bridge was built, which is spoken of as haling been repaired in 1329. This, or a new bridge, was much -damaged by floods in 1573, 1582, and 1589. After being temporarily repaired with timber, it was between 1599 and 1617 entirely rebuilt of stone; but in 1621, just four years after its completion, it was finally demolished by a flood. 'The people,' says Calderwood, 'ascribed this wrack to iniquity committed in the town; for there was held the last General Assembly, and another in 1596, when the schism in the Kirk began; and in 1606 here was held that parliament at which bishops were erected, and the lords rode first in their scarlett gowns.' In spite of the aid of subscriptions from James VI., Charles I., Charles II., and other powerful patrons, all attempts to replace the bridge were long abortive; and from 1622 till 1772 communication between the banks was carried on solely by a ferry. The present handsome bridge was founded in 1766 and opened in February 1772, at the N end of George Street, considerably to the N of the site of the old bridge. It was built after designs by Smeaton at a cost of £26, 631, and has nine arches and a total length of 840 feet. It was widened and improved in 1871 at a cost of £3061; before that date its width from parapet to parapet was 22 feet, of which 18 were carriage way. From this bridge, itself a noble and elegant structure, one of the favourite views of the city and of Strathtay is obtained. Of the original cost the city subscribed £2000; government gale £4000, and £700 a year for l4 y ears; whilst the Earl of Kinnoull gale £500, besides strenuously exerting himself to obtain the rest of the money. The large and fine viaduct of the Dundee and Perth section of the Caledonian railway crosses the Tay below this bridge, its centre portion resting on Moncreiffe island. This structure, constructed of a combination of stone, iron, and timber, describes the segment of a circle, and was completed in 1864 at a cost of over £24,000; and has a total length of 1180 feet. It is constructed to open on the Perth or N side so as not to hinder the navigation of the Tay, and a footpath runs along its N side. The reach of the Tay between the E side of Moncreiffe island and the E bank is called the Willow Gate.

Chief Buildings.—The new Municipal Buildings occupy the site of the former town-hall and police office, and hale a frontage of 72 feet to Tay Street and of 57 to High Street. They form a handsome edifice in the old Tudor style, including a reproduction of the old tower of St Mary, which was a feature of the former building, and were built at a cost of about £12, 000 from designs by Mr Heiton. The memorial stone was laid on 10 June 1877, and the new Council Chamber was opened on 7 Nov. 1879. This chamber, a spacious hall 41 feet by 25, has three handsome stained-glass windows facing High Street, representing subjects from Sir Walter Scott's Fair Maid of Perth; a fourth, also facing High Street, representing Queen Victoria and the late Prince Consort; and a fifth, facing Tay Street, representing the capture of Perth by King Robert Bruce in 1311. The new Burgh Court in the same building measures 30 feet by 22. The police office is on the ground floor. The old buildings which this pile has superseded consisted partly of remains of a very ancient chapel dedicated to St Mary, and partly of an edifice dating from 1696. Immediately opposite the Municipal Buildings is the Post Office, built in 1861 in the Italian style after designs by Mr Matheson, of Edinburgh, at a cost of about £2400. Further S, and also in Tay Street, between South and Canal Streets, stand the handsome County Buildings, erected in 1819 on the site of Gowrie House, from a design by Mr Smirke, at a cost of £32, 000. The main building, confronting the Tay, is constructed of fine polished sandstone, somewhat in the style of the Parthenon at Athens, and has an elegant portico, whose pediment is supported by twelve massive fluted columns. It contains a spacious entrance hall, a justiciary hall in the form of the segment of a circle, with a gallery capable of holding 1000 people; the sheriff's courtroom, the sheriff clerk's office, and other official apartments. The county hall, measuring 68 feet by 40, occupies the south wing of the principal building, and contains portraits of the fourth Duke of Athole, of Lord Lynedoch by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and of Sir George Murray by Pickersgill. A committee-room to the right of the county hall measures 30 feet by 30; and an apartment in the upper story, described as a tea or card room, measures 44½ feet by 30, and contains a portrait of Neil Gow by Sir Henry Raeburn. Considerable alterations were made in the interior of the County Buildings in 1866-67, and a new courthouse and other offices were erected on the N side with the aid of £13,273 granted by Government. A bronze tablet, bearing a representation of Gowrie House by Sir John Steel, occupies a blank window of the edifice, and commemorates the historic building which once occupied the site. Behind and extending to the Speygate are the City and County Prisons, erected at the same time as the County Buildings, with which they communicate by a subterranean passage. They are surrounded by a high wall, hale undergone considerable improvement since their erection, and were legalised in their present form in 1845. They comprise a governor's house, and two prison blocks to the N and S respectively; and over the file years 1879-1882 hale had a daily average of 49 prisoners. The General Prison for Scotland is noted below. Further S along Tay Street is the Volunteer Drill Hall, with a frontage of 80 feet, and consisting of a main portion with two stories and two wings of a single story each; and just beyond the railway line is the Water-house, at the foot of Marshall Place. This building, and the ingenious hydraulic and other machinery connected with it, were planned by Dr Anderson, then rector of the Perth Academy, and elected in 1837 to the chair of Natural Philosophy in St Andrews University. Erected in 1830 at a cost of £13, 610, it presents the appearance of a Roman temple with a detached column, and as an edifice is an ornament to the town. Though it appears to be constructed wholly of solid stonework, in reality the upper part, beyond the balustrade, decorated with carved pilasters and surmounted by a leaden cupola, is a cast-iron tank. A filtering bed, 300 feet long, is constructed on the N end of Moncreiffe island, whence a powerful suction pipe, laid under the bed of the river, conducts the purified water to a tank under the reservoir. Two steam-engines then throw the water up 55 feet into this reservoir, which, with the assistance of a smaller reservoir in the W of the town, long supplied Perth with an ample quantity of water. An extension of the waterworks was, however, completed on 23 June 1880 at a cost of £30, 000. These new works are merely an extension of the former system, and consist of two additional reservoirs-one at Burghmuir and the other at Viewlands. The former, which is 300 feet above the river, and uncovered, supplies the upper parts of Bridgend and grounds over 18 0 feet level. The latter at 200 feet above the river is covered in, and supplies the W side of the town lying below 150 feet level and the lower part of Bridgend. The former reservoir at Wellshill is retained to supply the district lying between South Street and Marshall Place. Two engines, each of 40 horse power, hale been erected to pump the water out the new reservoirs; and two separate sets of pumps are also provided. About 17 miles of piping from 3 to 15 inches in diameter hale been laid; and hydrants for fire and cleansing purposes hale been placed on the distributing pipes at distances of from 80 to 100 yards. The gasworks of the Perth Gaslight Company stand near Canal Street, and were erected in 1824 at a cost of £19, 000 from plans also by Dr Anderson, and from the first made use of a simple but ingenious and effective system of gas-purification invented by the same gentleman. The City Hall, in West St John Street, was built in 1844, measures 98 feet by 66, and can accommodate 2000 people. It contains some interesting paintings, among which are The Battle of the Amazons (16 feet by 8), by the Chevalier Tarilla and Lucas Giordano; Prometheus, by Michael Angelo Cassalaggio; The Magdalene, by Andria Vaccari; Esau Selling his Birthright, by Lucas Giordano; The Forum Romanum, by Vanlitelli; St Andrew, by Ribra (Lo Spagnoletto); and a group of Early Reformers from an unknown hand. The Guild Hall stands on the S side of High Street, W of the site of the ancient cross; and the Freemasons' Hall or Royal Arch Mason Lodge stands in Parliament Close, off the N side of High Street, and occupies the site of the old parliament house removed in 1818. The Exchange Hall stands in George Street. The New Public Hall, opened in 1881, and built at a cost of £8000 in the Scottish Baronial style, to hold from 1200 to 1400, forms the S corner of Canal Street and Tay Street; and, with the Natural History Museum, and the Working Boys' and Girls' Hall, built in the same style at a cost of £3200 to hold between 600 and 700, form one block of buildings. The City and County Infirmary and Dispensary, between York Place and Kinnoull Causeway, was erected in 1837, after designs by W. M. Mackenzie, at a cost of about £6000; but large wings were added on the E and W in 1869 at a cost of upwards of £5000. It is an elegant and spacious building, and the extensions are built on the pavilion system, connected with the main body by enclosed corridors, and serve respectively as fever and convalescent wards.The management is in the hands of a large body of directors from the county and city, holding office, some ex offieiis and some by election. A dispensary was commenced in 1819; and in 1834, when it adopted the self-supporting system, a second was started on the former lines. King James VI. 's Hospital, between Hospital Street and King Street, is a large, stately,- and well-arranged three-storied structure, built in the shape of the letter H. Originally founded in 1569 by James VI., or rather by the Regent Moray, ` to provide by all honest ways and means an hospital for the poor maimed distressed persons, orphans, and fatherless bairns within our burgh of Perth., 'it was endowed with the confiscated property of three suppressed monasteries; and has-now a revenue of £600 per annum. The first erected hospital was destroyed in 1652 by Cromwell to provide materials for his fort (see below); and the present building was erected in 1750 at a cost of £1614, partly defrayed-by public subscription. Till about 1812 it served as an almshouse for the residence of the recipients of the charity; but in that year the managers determined to administer a system of outdoor relief only, which is still enjoyed by a number of poor, who must reside within the limits of the burgh. The building is let for various purposes. It stands on the site of the old Carthusian Monastery. In the NW of the city are the barracks with spacious yards. Originally built in 1793 to accommodate 200 cavalry, they were afterwards transformed into infantry barracks, and latterly hale been adapted for both branches of the service. The open square in front is large enough for the parade and inspection of 1000 men under arms. The militia barracks are in Victoria Street, and the militia store in Canal Street. At the junction of Mill and Methven Streets a small bridge spans the 'Town's lade' or aqueduct from the river Almond; to the W are seen the Perth mills, which until transferred to the city by a charter of Robert I II. were called the King's Mills; and to the E Perth public baths, built in 1846 by public subscription at cost of about £1300. Adjoining the baths is a public wash-house. Immediately to the N of the Municipal Buildings is a club-house; and immediately to the N of the County Buildings is a handsome tenement, built in 1872, and known as Victoria Buildings. Both of these are in Tay Street, as are also the customs house and the office of inland revenue, and the Moncreiffe Memorial Museum, built in the Scottish Baronial style. The last was erected by subscription under the auspices of the Perthshire Society of Natural Science, in which the late Sir Thomas Moncreiffe took much interest. The Museum of the Literary and Antiquarian Society of Perthshire is deposited in the elegant building erected by subscription in 1822-24 to commemorate the public services of Provost Marshall. This Marshall's Monument is built somewhat after the style of the Pantheon at Rome; it is circular in form, and is surmounted by a dome; but it has an Ionic portico. The lower part is occupied by the public library and reading-room; the upper story by the museum. Other monuments are statues of Scott and Prince Albert. The first consists of a statue and pedestal in the South Inch, at the foot of King Street, and is the work of a local artist. It was erected, of course, with special reference to Scott's Fair Maid of Perth. The statue of Prince Albert stands on a pedestal at the S end of the North Inch, and is by Brodie. It was unveiled by Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, on 30 Aug. 1864. The quondam Theatre Royal, built in 1820 for £2625, stands at the j unction of Atholl and Kinnoull Streets; but for many years has been occupied as a manufactory. In Stormont Street, which runs N from Atholl Street, there is a nunnery; and in Melville Street, which runs N W, a Roman Catholic convent. Melville Street is continued by Balhousie Street, which leads to the Castle of Balhousie. Perth Poorhouse, in the SW of the city, cost £12, 000. Several of the bank offices are handsome buildings. The Bank of Scotland occupies a three-storied edifice with balcony and ornamented front, built in 1847, and formerly the head office of the Central Bank. The Union Bank has an ornate building in George Street; and the Commercial in South Street. The Savings' Bank adjoins the post office, and fronts the Tay in Tay Street. There are still some important buildings on the outskirts or outer margin of the city, which deserve notice. In the W and near the railway line is the large and convenient Perth Auction Mart, opened in 1875, and said to be one of the largest cattle markets in this country. It includes covered and open pens capable of accommodating 15,000 sheep and 1500 cattle; besides a spacious hotel, lodgings for servants, stabling for 40 horses, and shelter for shepherd's dogs. South of the market, and in the SW of the town, about 290 yards W of N W corner of the South Inch, is the General Railway terminus, which claims to be the finest terminus in Scotland. It is the common terminus and meeting-point of the North British, Caledonian, and Highland railways; and it is very completely furnished with waiting-rooms and offices. Its refreshment rooms are large and well fitted; and the Queen has made use of them repeatedly in her journeys to and from Balmoral. There is a special 'bay' for the Dundee traffic, which enters the station from the W over the large viaduct across the Tay, at right angles to the main lines. Princes Street station is another station on the Dundee line, at the S end of the thoroughfare indicated. At the S end of the tree-shaded avenue across the South Inch stands the General Prison for Scotland, a large and sombre mass of buildings covering about 18 acres. The original portion was erected in 1812 at a cost of £130, 000 to serve as a depot for the French prisoners of war. It was capable of-holding 7000 such prisoners, over whom a daily guard of 300 soldiers were mounted, supplied by 3 regiments stationed in the barracks and town. It was used as a military prison, however, only for about two years; and in 1841 it was remodelled for its present purpose at a cost of £28, 000. It was opened on 30 March 1842 in two wings, with accommodation for 535 prisoners. A third wing was added in 1853, and a fourth in 1859. In 1859 a new prison was built to accommodate 58 juveniles on the associated system of Parkhurst; but this was afterwards adapted for the reception of 58 male criminal lunatics. A new hospital for the accommodation of 30 female lunatics was opened on 1 June 1881. The prison has now accommodation for a total of 884 prisoners, i.e., separate accommodation for 734, and associated for 150, thus divided:-in the male department, hospitals for 10 sick, for 20 epileptic and imbecile, and for 58 lunatic prisoners; on the female side, hospitals for 32 sick, epileptic, and imbecile, and for 30 lunatic prisoners. Male and female prisoners under sentence of imprisonment, and female convicts under sentence of penal servitude, are received at Perth for their whole sentence; and except in the case of female convicts the separate system prevails. The prison is under the direction of four commissioners under the Prisons (Scotland) Act, 1877, who hale also to superintend all prisons in Scotland; and the expenses of the prison are paid out of the public funds. It is under the immediate direction of a governor and deputy governor; and is supplied with a staff of 8 teachers, besides Scripture readers, chaplain, and visiting clergymen, etc. At the SE corner of the South Inch, and next the river, is the slaughter-house. Across the river, and occupying a site on the W slope of Kinnoull Hill, is Murray's Royal Asylum, incorporated by royal charter, and managed by a body of directors, some acting ex officiis, some for life, and some as annually elected directors. The institution had its origin in funds left by Mr James Murray of Tarsappie, a native of Perth; and cost from first to last about £40, 000. It was opened for the reception of patients in 1827, and was much enlarged in 1834 and 1865. It is built in the Doric style, after designs by Mr Burn of Edinburgh. The county district asylum is at Murtly. Other interesting buildings are referred to under the head of antiquities later; and the churches, educational institutions, and hotels are subsequently noted. The site of the Old Cross is indicated by an octagonal figure in the causeway of High Street between the Kirkgate and Skinner-gate.

Churches.—The most curious public edifice of Perth, the most ancient and the most largely connected with historical events, is the Church of St John, originally called the Kirk of the Holy Cross of St John the Baptist, which stands in a large open area, on the W side of St John Street. Tradition ascribes its foundation to the Picts; but there seems to be little doubt that it was one of the earliest stone churches built in Scotland; and historical documents, as well as portions of the edifice itself, indicate that in the 12th and 13th centuries it was both magnificent and extensive. In 1227 it was granted to the monks of Dunfermline, and in their possession it was suffered to fall into disrepair. Robert the Bruce ordered it to be restored, but after his death in 1329 the restorations ceased. It was afterwards largely repaired in the first half of the 15th century; and at the time of the Reformation the whole structure was in complete repair, and contained a great number of altars. But in 1559 its whole interior ornaments, altarpieces, and images were completely demolished on the memorable day when John Knox first denounced the corruptions of Popery, in a sermon that led to the demolition of the monasteries in Scotland. 'The manner whereof was this,' to quote the Reformer's own narrative, 'The preachers before had declared how odious was idolatry in God's presence; what commandment He had given for the destruction of the monuments thereof; what idolatry and what abomination was in the mass. It chanced that the next day, which was the 11th of May, after that the preachers were exiled, that after the sermon, which was vehement against idolatry, that a priest in contempt would go to the mass; and to declare his malapert presumption, he would open up ane glorious tabernacle which stood upon the high altar. There stood beside certain godly men, and amongst others a young boy, who cried with a loud voice,"This is intoverable, that when God by His Word hath plainly damned idolatry, we shall stand and see it used in despite. " The priest, hereat offended, gale the child a great blow, who in anger took up a stone, and, casting at the priest, did hit the tabernacle, and broke down ane image; and immediately the whole multitude that were about cast stones, and put hands to the said tabernacle, and to all other monuments of idolatry, which they despatched before the tentmen in the town were advertised (for the most part were gone to dinner), which noised abroad, the whole multitude convened, not of the gentlemen, neither of them that were earnest professors, but of the rascal multitude, who, finding nothing to do in that church, did run without deliberation to the Grey and Black Friars', and, notwithstanding that they had within them very strong guards kept for their defence, yet were their gates incontinent burst up. The first invasion was upon the idolatry, and thereafter the common people began to seek some spoil; and in very deed the Grey Friars' was a place so well provided, that unless honest men had seen the same, we would hale feared to hale reported what provision they had. Their sheets, blankets, beds, and coverlets were such as no earl in Scotland hath the better; their napery was fine. There were but eight persons in convent, yet had eight puncheons of salt beef (consider the time of the year, the 11th day of May), wine, beer, and ale, besides store of victuals effeiring thereto. The like abundance was not in the Black Friars,, and yet there was more than became men professing poverty. The spoil was permitted to the poor; for so had the preachers before threatened all men, that for covetousness' sake none should put their hand to such a reformation, that no honest man was enriched thereby the value of a groat. Their conscience so moved them that they suffered those hypocrites take away what they could of that which was in -their places. The Prior of Charterhouse was permitted to take away with him even so much gold and silver as he was well able to carry. So was men's consciences before beaten with the Word that they had no respect to their own particular profit, but only to abolish idolatry, the places and monuments thereof, in which they were so busy and so laborious that within two days these three great places, monuments of idolatry-to wit, the Grey and Black thieves, and Charterhouse monks (a building of a wondrous cost and greatness)-was so destroyed that the walls only did remain of all these great edifications. 'The N transept was entirely renewed in 1823. As it now stands, the church is of various dates. Its total length is 207 feet; it is cruciform in shape; and the central square tower, 155 feet high, is the chief relic of the original structure. The tower is surmounted by a tall octagonal spire of oaken beams, covered with lead; and it contains several bells, of which the oldest are one dated 1400, and St John the Baptist's Bell, now called the ten o'clock bell, because it is rung every evening at that hour, dated 1506. A third is supposed to be the old curfew bell, which was cast in 1526. Outside of the spire are placed a set of small musical bells, which chime certain airs at the half-hours, being connected by machinery for that purpose with the public clock on the tower below. In l336 Edward III. is stated by Fordun to hale stabbed his brother, John, Earl of Cornwall, before the high altar, for ravaging the western counties of Scotland; but English historians merely record that the Earl died in the October of that year at Perth. In Scott's novel the church is the scene of the trial by bier-right to discover the slayer of Proudfute. Below it is the burial vault of the Mercers, which they are said to hale obtained in exchange for the two Inches; though another story, founding on the Mercer arms, declares that this family gale three mills in the town for their vault. The interior of the church is divided into the three parish churches-Middle, East, and West. The East Church contains the burial-place of the Gowrie family, a blue marble tombstone with figures believed to represent James I. and his Queen, both buried in the Carthusian Monastery, a monument erected by the officers of the 90th regiment or Perthshire Volunteers to their comrades who fell in the Crimea, and a beautiful eastern window of stained glass. It has 1314 sittings; and the stipend averages £250. The Middle Church is situated to a great extent below the tower; and four massive pillars in the centre support that superstructure. It has 1208 sittings; and the stipend averages £250. The West Church was partly rebuilt in 1828 from plans by Gillespie. It has 800 sittings; and the stipend is £200. The other Established churches are St Paul's, an octagonal building of no architectural excellence and surmounted with a tall steeple, built in 1807 at a cost of £7000, with accommodation for 1000 people, and a stipend of £200; St Leonard's, a handsome edifice, built in 1835 at a cost of £2450 from designs by Mr Mackenzie, on the E side of King Street, opposite the head of Canal Street, with 991 sittings, and a stipend of £200, formerly a chapel of ease, but now a quoad sacra parish church; and St Stephen's Gaelic church, which, built in 1768, contains 650 sittings, and ranks as a chapel of ease. Kinnoull parish church is on the E bank of the Tay. The West Free church, in Tay Street, was erected in 1870-71, after designs by J. Honeyman of Glasgow, at a cost of about £8000, in the Continental Pointed style of the middle of the 13th century. Exclusive of the vestry and presbytery hall it measures 114 feet by 63; it has a buttressed tower and spire rising to the height of 212 feet, and forming a conspicuous object in views of the town; and it contains 950 sittings. The Free Middle Church contains 830 sittings. St Leonard's Free church, built in Marshall Place in 1883, at a cost of £7500, in Scottish Gothic style, has accommodation for 1000 people. St Stephen's Free church, in Paradise Place, is a Gaelic charge, and has 850 sittings. Knox's Free church, in South Street, has 600 sittings; as has also New Row (late mission) Free church. The North U.P. church was opened on 7 Nov. 1880 on the site of a former church dating from 1791. Erected at a cost of over £7000, it is Romanesque in style, and contains 1205 sittings. The South or Wilson U.P. church, on the S side of High Street, was built in 1740, and was one of the four structures occupied by the founders of the Secession body; and it has 831 sittings. The East U.P. church, in South Street, has 672 sittings; and York Place U.P. church has 800 sittings. St John's Episcopal church, in Princes Street, was built in 1851 in Early English style, on the site of a former plain edifice, and is seated for 600; it has a tower and spire 150 feet high. St Andrew's Episcopalian church, schools, and parsonage occupy a fine position near the railway terminus. They embrace two almost contiguous edifices in Early English; the church being cruciform, and surmounted by a broad, buttressed, gable-roofed tower. St Ninian's Episcopal cathedral, not yet complete, was- built in 1850 in Early Middle Pointed style, from designs by Butterfield, to serve as a cathedral for the united diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane. When completed it will be entirely cruciform, but at present only the choir, transepts, and one bay of the nave are finished; it stands in Atholl Street. St John's Roman Catholic church, in Mellille Street, was built in 1832, and contains 500 sittings; and the Church of St Mary or Our Lady of Perpetual Succour was built on Kinnoull Hill in 1870 in Early English style, and adjoins previously existing collegiate buildings of Redemptorist Fathers. The Original Secession Chapel, in South Street, was built in 1821, and contains 390 sittings; the Independent Chapel, in Mill Street, was built in 1824, and contains 700 sittings; the Evangelical Union, in High Street, Sutains 420 sittings; and the Methodist Chapel, in Scott Street, contains 400 sittings. There is also a Glassite meeting-house in High Street. The first public burying-place was round St John's Church; but in 1580 the cemetery of the demolished Greyfriars' monastery took its place, and continued to be the only burial-place in the city until about 1844, when a new cemetery was opened at Wellshill in the W part of the town.

Schools, etc.—The Public Seminaries, a fine edifice ornamented with Doric pillars and balustrades, stands in Rose Terrace overlooking the W side of the North Inch. The building was erected in 1807, from designs by Mr Burn, at a cost of about £7000-voluntarily subscribed, the city giving £1050-to accommodate the Grammar School and Academy, which had, till then, been taught in separate buildings. Perth Grammar School is said to date as an institution from the middle of the 12th century; and it long enjoyed the reputation of being one of the best classical schools in Scotland. In 1550 it was attended by 300 boys, some of -them sons of the nobility and gentry; and it had then for its rector Andrew Simpson, whose Latin grammar was used in burgh schools till superseded by Ruddiman's Rudiments in 1714. Among its scholars were the Admirable Crichton and the great Earl of Mansfield. Several of its other rectors hale distinguished themselves for scholarship; among them was John Row, from 1632 to 1641, later minister in Aberdeen, and author of Institutes of the Hebrew Language. Previous to 1807 the school occupied a building, afterwards used as a theatre, near the site of the present City Hotel. The Academy was established in 1760, and had a prosperous career in a separate condition, which it still continues. The two institutions are now united under the name of Perth Academy, and are placed under the burgh school board, which consists of a chairman and 8 members. It has a staff of 6 rectors, 5 other masters, and 4 assistants, and one mistress and female assistant. In 1883 the following were the twelve schools under the burgh school-board, the first seven of them public, with accommodation, average attendance, and- government grant:-Central District (370, 238, £191, 4s.); King Street (264, 238, £187, 15s.); Kinnoull (350, 31l, £296, 2s.); Northern District (580, 507, £443, 12s. 6d.); North Port (399, 316, £246, 18s.); Southern District (4l9, 344, £300, 12s.); Watergate (196, 202, £171, 3s.); St Andrews Episcopalian (316, 296, £263, 1s.); St Ninian's Episcopalian (291, 136, £102, 8s.); St John's Roman Catholic (317, 198, £163, 7s.); Seymour Munro Free (165, 166, £173, 16s.); and Stewart's Free Trades (181, 103, £93, 11s.). The School of Art and Science, dating from 1863, is also under the management of the school-board. Sharp's Educational Institution was erected in South Methven Street by bequest of Mr John Sharp, late baker in Perth. The large and commodious building was opened 10 Sept. 1860, and accommodates 450 children. It comprises, besides infant, junior, and senior departments, an industrial school for girls, and a recently-erected technical school (for boys), with a well-appointed lecture-room, laboratory, and work-room. The testator left instructions that special provision should be made for branches of education peculiar to girls. The institution is under 6 directors, and has a staff of 5 masters, 2 mistresses, and assistants. Stewart's Free School, in Mill Street, is under the patronage of the deacons of the trades incorporations. The Seymour Munro Free School, in Caledonian Road, is managed by two life trustees, and 9 others, acting ex officiis. There is an Industrial school for girls at Wellshill; while the Fechney Industrial School, in the same neighbourhood, instituted in 1864 with a bequest by Mrs Fechney, is for boys.

Perth has a head post office with all the usual departments; offices of the Bank of Scotland, the Union, British Linen Co., Royal, National, Commercial, Clydesdale, and Aberdeen Town and County banks. It is also the headquarters of the Savings' Banks of the County and City of Perth, established in 1838 and certified under the Act of 1863, ` for the safe custody and increase of small savings belonging to the industrious classes 'of the neighbourhood. Sums of from 1s. to £150 are received from individual depositors, and may be withdrawn whenever required. On 21 Feb. 1883, there were 19, 239 individual depositors, haling a capital of £499, 074, which with £9476 belonging to charitable institutions and societies, gale a total deposited in the bank of £508, 550. This sum includes the capital inserted for the district banks at Alyth, Blairgowrie, Crieff, Coupar-Angus, Caputh, Dunkeld, Dunning, and Mellille. Forty-three insurance companies are represented in Perth by agents or offices. There are 4 principal hotels, viz., the British, Royal George, Salutation, Queen's, besides the Temperance Hotel. Among the charitable institutions are the Infirmary and dispensary, destitute sick society for Perth and Bridgend, societies for indigent old men and women, Perth Ladies' Clothing Society, James VI, 's Hospital, Perth Ladies' House of Refuge for Destitute Girls, 2 schools of industry, a society for relief of incurables in Perth and Perthshire, with Hillside Home in Perth, Perth soup kitchen (17, 526 portions issued in 1882-83), Murray's Royal Asylum, the Lethendy mortifications. Among the sporting clubs are Perth Curling Club (with curling pond off Balhousie Street), Friarton and St John's (of Perth) curling clubs, Perth bowling club (with green on the W of the North Inch), New Club in Tay Street, Perth Hunt, Royal Perth Golfing Society and County and City Club, James VI.'s Golf Club, Perth Anglers' Club, instituted 1858, Perth Fishing Club, instituted 1880, and Perthshire Coursing Club.' other institutions are the Literary and Antiquarian Society, with a museum in Marshall's Monument; Perthshire Society of Natural History, established in 1867, with a natural history museum and lecture-hall in Tay Street; Perthshire Medical Association, a branch of the Educational Institute of Scotland, the Mechanics' library, instituted 1823, the People's Club and Institute, formed to 'combine the advantages of a commercial exchange with those of a place for instruction and amusement'; a literary society, public baths and washinghouse, a model lodging-house, horticultural and temperance societies, a city mission, branch of the Scottish Girls' Friendly Society, and a Perth woman's educational association. Four local lodges of Freemasons meet in the masonic hall at stated intervals. Perth is the depôt for the 1st, 2d, and 3d battalion of the Royal Highlanders, and of the 42nd regimental district, and it is the headquarters of the 1st Perthshire Rifle Volunteers. The Perthshire Courier, Farmers' Journal, and Scottish General Advertiser, established in 1809, is published every Tuesday afternoon; the Perthshire Advertiser and Strathmore Journal, established in 1829, every Monday, Thursday, and Friday; and the Perthshire Constitutional and Jour]l, established 1835, every Monday and Wednesday afternoon. The two first are Liberal, the last Conservative, in politics. Each of the Dundee Advertiser and Dundee Courier and Argus has a branch office in Perth.

Manufactures, Commerce, Harbour, etc.—The manufactures of Perth were at an early period extensive; and although they hale undergone many fluctuations, they are still tolerably important and diversified. Gloves were early and long a staple product, and between 2000 and 3000 pairs were annually made, chiefly for home consumption. Side by side with this manufacture flourished the dressing of sheep and lamb skins to provide the materials for the gloves; and these industries were formerly so important as to give name to Skinner-gate, one of the oldest streets in the town. Both are now quite extinct, although tanning is, of course, carried on to an average extent. But the former importance of the Glovers is indicated by the fact that to the present day the deacon of the Incorporation of Glovers of Perth is, ex officio, a commissioner of supply for the county. The linen trade of Perth rose to great importance in the 18th century, and fostered intercourse between the merchants of the city and the inhabitants of Germany and Flanders. A report in 1794 stated that this was the staple trade of the town; and that linen and cotton goods to the value of £100, 000 were annually produced by about 1500 looms in the city and suburbs. The manufacture of cotton fabrics superseded that of linen during the wars with France; but about 1812-15 received a severe check. Similarly the manufactures of umbrella-ginghams, checks, pullicates, and imitation Indian shawls and scarfs hale all been introduced into the town, flourished awhile, and sunk into insignificance. The spinning of flax and tow yarns was commenced about 1 830 in a mill with 1250 spindles; and the manufacture of a mixed cotton and woollen fabric in 1844. Ship-building began to be carried on in 1830; and in 1837 the first iron steam vessel built on the E side of Scotland came from a Perth yard, but the industry has now dwindled, only one sailingship of 110 tons haling been built since 1877. Among the other shrunken industries of the place publishing should be mentioned. In the latter part of last century a printing press in the town was remarkable for the number and excellence of its publications, among which was the Encyclopœdia Perthensis, said to hale been at the time the largest work produced in Scotland out of Edinburgh. At present the chief industries of Perth are dyeing, and the manufacture of ink and gauge-glasses-the last the most recent. There are four dyeworks at Perth, the largest of which was erected mainly in 1865 in the N part of the town, and is the largest establishment of the kind in Scotland. It has agencies in all parts of the country, and dyes goods from even remote parts of England and Ireland. It draws a plentiful supply of water from the Tay by means of 18-inch pipes; and employs many hundreds of hands. The making of gauge-glasses is carried on by two firms; and of ink by two houses. There are, besides, three manufactories of linen, table-napery, etc.; and others of winceys, floorcloth, ropes and twine, bricks and tiles, chemicals, etc. One of the linen factories was built in 1868 at a cost of £20, 000, and employs about 600 hands. There are also iron-works, several foundries, four breweries, and two mills.

Perth was early a commercial centre of importance and reputation. Alexander Neckam, who died Abbot of Cirencester in 1217, noticed the town in a Latin distich, quoted in Camden's Britannia, and thus Englished by Bishop Gibson, translator of Camden's work:-

Great Tay through Perth, through towns, through country flies,
Perth the whole kingdom with her wealth supplies.

Perth merchants carried on trade with the Netherlands before 1286 and long after, and visited the Hanse towns in their own ships. Germans and Flemings very early frequented the city in turn; many settled in it; and had it not been for the usual short-sighted restrictive policy adopted towards foreigners, would hale developed its trade and manufactures even more rapidly and more extensively than they did. The rebellion of 1745 demonstrated the convenience of Perth as a focus of trade for the N part of Scotland; and after that date the commerce of the city once more reviled, but it has never again assumed anything like a leading position among the commercial towns of Scotland. In 1840 it was made a head port, and as such it has jurisdiction down the Tay as far as Carncase Burn on the right, and Powgalie on the left; over the supports of Newburgh, PortAllen, Carpow, Pitfour, and Powgalie.

The original harbour adjoined the old bridge at the foot of High Street, at the place called Old Shore, but in - consequence of the gradual accumulation of gravel in it, was removed, first to the South Shore, opposite the Greyfriars' burying-place, and next to the Lime Shore, opposite the S end of the South Inch, and quite away from the town. The channel, even below this point, became also greatly impeded with sandbanks, so that sloops of 60 tons were the largest craft that could make Perth, and even these had to be lightened. The trade of Perth was thus seriously affected, and accordingly in 1830 and 1834 acts of parliament were obtained to authorise the deepening of the channel, and the construction of larger quays and a wet dock. These with other changes were estimated to cost £54, 315, and were to be finished before June 1854, under the direction of thirty commissioners. But owing partly to the want of fund-s and partly to the diversion of trade on the construction of the railways, they remained unfinished for a long time after that date. The commissioners becoming bankrupt in 1854 procured an act - of parliament, transferring all their liabilities (then about £86, 000) to the city; and the harbour debt at present is thus a mere matter of figures between the harbour and city. The following table shows the state of harbour revenues and debt at various dates—

Date.	Income.	Expendi- ture.	Excess of Ex- penditure.	Debt due to City.
1857-58	£1874	£3556	£1682	£87,631
1867-68	1310	4307	2997	110,194
1877-78	892	5374	4481	148,796
1882-83	1300	6189	4888	171,296

These figures show a steadily declining income and a steadily rising expenditure. The excess of the latter is annually borrowed from the city and added to the total amount of the debt. A new item in the revenue of the port was that known as the Tay Bridge compensation. A short branch railway, now forming part of the Caledonian system, was formed in l852 between the harbour and the general terminus. The quay frontage is at present 1300 feet. The following table gives the tonnage of vessels that entered and cleared from and to foreign countries and coastwise with cargoes and in ballast:—

ENTERED				CLEARED
	British.	Foreign.	Total.	British.	Foreign.	Total.
1853	..	..	21,689	..	..	19,092
1867	8617	3787	12,404	8515	532	9,047
1873	6155	2034	8,189	6561	2255	8,816
1882	6895	4248	11,143	6972	3798	10,770
1883	6938	2829	9,767	6900	2831	9,731

Of the total, 124 vessels of 9767 tons that entered in 1883, 29 of 2315 tons were in ballast, and 103 of 7138 tons were coasters; whilst the total, 124 of 9731 tons of those that cleared included 55 ships in ballast of 4896 tons, and 123 coasters of 9505 tons. The total tonnage of vessels registered as belonging to the port was 9654 in 1841-44, 4945 in 1861, 3429 in l873, 2064 in 1878, and 803 in 1884, viz.—16 vessels, from one steamer of 18, to a sailing ship of 135, tons. Much of the trade of the city is carried on in bottoms of other ports of registry, especially of Dundee. The principal imports are Baltic timber, coals, cement, slates, oilcake, and artificial manure; and the principal exports are potatoes, grain, and timber. But the whole trade of Perth has been affected by the development of railways, which has attracted most of the shipping that enters the Tay to Dundee, whence their cargoes are distributed by rail. The customs revenue of Perth in 1837 was £6270; in 1864, £16, 308; in 1874, £17,1 04; and in 1882, £20, 776.

As may be inferred from the size of its auction mart, Perth is an important centre for the sale of sheep and cattle, and very large numbers of these animals change hands here annually. Besides the sales of the local dealers, there are still several fairs held at Perth. The First of Luke, Palmsune'en, and Midsummer fairs, all for cattle and horses, are held respectively on the first Fridays of March, April, and July. The sheep and wool fair is held in July, on the first Tuesday after Inverness wool fair; St John's Day Fair, for cattle, horses, and sheep, takes place on the first Friday in September; Little Dunning Fair, for cattle, butter, and cheese; a hiring fair on the Friday after Martinmas (o.s.); and Andrewsmass fair, for cattle and horses, on the second Friday in December.

Municipal History.—In David I.'s confirmation charter to Dunfermline Abbey (1127) is mentioned the 'burgh of Perth;' and by David Perth claims to hale been made a royal burgh, although its oldest royal charter is dated 121 0, and attributed to William the Lyon. There are numerous minor charters by Robert I., David II., Robert III. (one conferring the right of choosing a sheriff), and James VI.; but the governing and most important charter in the possession of the city is dated 1600, under the hand of James VI., confirming all previous charters and the whole rights and privileges of the burgh. Till 1482, in the reign of James III., Perth was generally regarded as the capital or seat of government of the country, and even at present takes precedence of all royal burghs except Edinburgh. The burgh records are of great antiquity, and supply an uninterrupted list of magistrates from 1465. It is interesting to note that among the list of chief magistrates, there appear very often the names of some of the neighbouring nobility, as, e.g., the Earl of Gowrie, Earl of Montrose, Earl of Athole, Lord Ruthven, Viscount Stormont, Threipland of Fingask, etc. The burgh is now governed by a lord Provost, 4 bailies, a treasurer, and nineteen councillors, who are also commissioners of police, gas, and water. The burgh is divided into four wards for the election of the council; the number of voters in 1883-84 was 5334, of whom 1322 were females. The burgh possessed a seal as early as the first half of the 13th century; but at the beginning of the 15th century it used a different seal, representing on one side the beheading of John the Baptist, and on the other his enshrinement. The present seal is said to hale taken its two-headed eagle from the tradition of the Roman origin of the town. The number of the police force in 1884 was 33, including a superintendent, who is also procurator-fiscal for thee city, with a salary of £220. -Burgh, police, and guildry courts are held in the town. A sheriff court is held every Tuesday and Friday during session, and at least once in each vacation. The convener court, acting as trustees for Stewart's Free School, consists of the deacons of the various trade-guilds, viz., the hammermen, bakers, glovers, wrights, tailors, fleshers, shoemakers, and weavers; but the ancient rigidly maintained privileges of these incorporations no longer exist. The entire corporation revenue in 1883-84 was £6557. The following table shows the sources and amount of the revenues of the city of Perth at different dates; the income which it derives from the harbour being excluded:

	1857-58.	1867-68.	1877-78.	1882- 3.
Customs, . . .	£678	£590	£644	£771
Inches-Grazing, etc.,	398	505	405	452
Feu-duties,.	1256	1544	1468	1457
Houses, etc., . .	762	290	301	303
Mills and Waterfalls,.	601	618	429	450
Arable Lands, . .	..	375	321	374
Fishings	870	1265	1320	612
Seats in the Churches,	456	414	430	415
Cemeteries, . .	..	248	133	226
Shore-dues, . .	1874	106	73	106
Miscellaneous,. .	608	361	364	208
Total,	£7512	£6216	£5888	£5374

Perth returns one member to parliament (always a Liberal since 1837), the parliamentary constituency numbering 4126, and the municipal 5334, in 1884. Valuation (1876) £90,148, (1884) £113, 960, plus £10, 840 for railways. Pop. of royal burgh (1871) 22, 274, (1881) 27, 207; of parliamentary burgh (1831) 19,238, (1841) 20, 407, (1851) 23, 835, (1861) 25, 250, (187l) 25, 585, (1881) 28, 949, of whom 15, 496 were females, and 391 Gaelic-speaking. Houses (1881) occupied 5515, vacant 136, building 28.

Antiquities.—With the exception of St John's Church already described, there are no extant ancient buildings of interest in Perth, though it has the memory of many now vanished. Military walls, of sufficient strength to resist vigorous sieges, surrounded the town from a very early date till far into last century. Their builder and the date of their origin is unknown, although Adamson, in the Muses Threnodie, boldly ascribes them to Agricola. They often underwent partial demolitions and changes, but now hale completely disappeared, with the exception of a small fragment still to be seen in an entry off George Street. The walls seem at one time to hale been strengthened with forts, of which the Spey Tower was one. This, the last remnant of the fortifications, stood near the site of the County Buildings, and contained a strong prison, in which Cardinal Beaton imprisoned certain Protestants whom he caused to be put to death. From its walls also he witnessed their execution. The tower was demolished in 1766. The Monk's Tower, demolished in 1806, formed the former south-eastern angle of the old city-wall, and had a ceiling curiously decorated with allegorical and symbolical paintings at the command of the first Earl of Gowrie. A fosse or aqueduct, supplied with water from the Almond, went round the outside of the walls, but this has very largely been built over or narrowed. The old castle of Perth stood without the walls at the end of the Skinner-gate, and, before the erection of the Blackfriars' monastery, was the usual Perth residence of the Scottish kings. A very large and strong citadel, built by Cromwell's army in 1652 on the South Inch, was one of the four erected after the battle of Dunbar to overawe Scotland. It was a solid and stately work, 266 feet square, with earthen ramparts and deep moat filled with water, and it had a bastion at each corner, and an iron gate on the side next the town; a pier was built beside it. Many buildings, including the hospital, the schoolhouse, and parts of the bridge, were demolished to supply the materials for this work; and the gravestones and walls were taken from the Greyfriars' churchyard for the same purpose. Soon after the Restoration the citadel was given by Charles II. to the town, and almost immediately was used as a quarry; in 1666 it was sold for 4702 marks, but under conditions which made the wreck of it again public property, when it was finally removed piece-meal. During some years before the building of the barracks a remnant of it was used as a cavalry stable for 200 horses, a riding school, etc.; but now the trenches hale been filled up, and all traces of its existence hale disappeared from the spot, across which the Edinburgh road now passes. The old Parliament House, which has left its name in Parliament Close off High Street, lingered as a humble tenement, inhabited by the poor, yet with a few tarnished relics of its former grandeur, till 1818, when it was taken down to make room for the Freemasons' Hall. A stone in the causeway of the High Street marks the site of the former pillory; and between Skinner-gate and Kirkgate, in the same street, others define the site of the market cross. In 1668 Robert Mylne of Balfargie, the King's master-mason in Scotland, built, for £200, a new cross (in room of that demolished by Cromwell), which was 12 feet high, had a flight of steps within, and terminated in a terrace, and was emblazoned with both the royal and the city arms. In 1765 this fine structure was decreed by the town council to be a mere worthless obstruction to the thoroughfare, and it was accordingly sold by auction for £5 to a mason, who immediately removed it. Earl Gowrie's palace, scene of the Gowrie conspiracy in 1600, stood on the site now occupied by the County Buildings; was surrounded by a garden; and in the prosperous days of the city was known as the Whitehall of Perth. Built in 1520 by the Countess of Huntly, and afterwards purchased by Lord Ruthven, it passed, after the murder of the Earl of Gowrie, into the possession of the city, which presented it in 1746 to the Duke of Cumberland. For some time it had been possessed by the Earl of Kinnoull, who received in it Charles Il. in 1663. The Duke of Cumberland sold it to Government, by whom it was used for many years as artillery barracks; and finally resold to the city in 1805, when it was demolished, and its materials sold for about £600, to make room for the present County Buildings. The last fragment disappeared in 1865. Lord Chancellor Hay, the Earl of Errol, the Earl of Athole, the Bishop of Dunkeld, Lord Crichton of Sanquhar, Lord John Murray, and other nobles had mansions in the city, but all hale now disappeared. In Curfew Row there is an old tenement, formerly the Glovers' Hall, and now pointed out as the house of Simon Glover, father of the 'Fair Maid;' while the Skinners' or Glovers' yard in front (now covered with buildings) was the supposed scene of the conflict between Hal o' the Wynd and Bonthron. Old Perth abounded in ecclesiastical buildings and establishments. The Blackfriars' or Dominican Monastery, on the N side of the town, was founded in 1231 by Alexander II. It was a frequent residence of the kings, on which account it is sometimes spoken of as a palace; and it had a church attached to it, in which some parliaments were held. From the Gilten Arbour in its garden Robert III. witnessed the combat of the clans, already alluded to. In 1437 the monastery was the scene of the murder of James I. The Carthusian Monastery or Charter-house, the only house of the order in Scotland, stood on the present site of James VI.'s hospital, and was founded in 1429 by James I. or his Queen for thirteen monks and their servants. Its church contained the tombs of James I., his Queen, and of Margaret, mother of James V. The sumptuous building was a great ornament to the city, but was completely destroyed by the mob in 1559. The same fate befell the Greyfriars' or Franciscan Monastery, founded in 1460, in the SE of the town, by Lord Oliphant. The Whitefriars' Monastery, known as the ` Prior and Convent of the Carmelite Friars of Tulilum, near Perth,' dated from the reign of Alexander III. St Leonard's Nunnery stood a little S of the town, and was founded in the 13th century. Along with the other nunnery of St Mary Magdalene, it was suppressed on the erection of the Carthusian Monastery, to which the revenues of both were assigned. Our Lady's Chapel, or the Chapel of St Mary, already an old building (1210), was destroyed then by a flood; and was afterwards built farther from the river, and eventually became part of the old town buildings, taken down in 1876. S-t Ann's Chapel, dedicated to the mother of the Virgin, had attached to it a hospital for the poor, and stood on the S side of St John's Church. The chapel of Our Lady of Loretto or Allareit stood near the head of South Street, on the N side. The Rood Chapel, or Chapel of the Holy Cross, stood at the N side of the South Street port. St Paul's Chapel, founded in 1434 by Sir John Spens of Glen Douglas, had an hospital for strangers and poor, and stood at the NW corner of the New Row. SS. James' and Thomas's Chapel stood on the S side of St John's Church. St Catherine's was founded in 1523 by Sir John Tyrie, provost of the collegiate church of Methven, and had an hospice for poor travellers; it stood at Claypots, in the W of the town. St Laurence's Chapel was founded before 1405, and was granted by Robert III. to the Dominicans, who suffered it to go to ruin. At the junction of the Watergate and High Street, a marble tablet on the front of a house notes that ` Here stood the Castle of the Green, ' an ancient house in which golfers used to keep their clubs and balls. The house row occupying the site was built in 1788, and on clearing the site for its erection, two underground chambers were found, each 26 feet by 14, covered with a flat arch, and with strongly cemented walls of masonry 3½ feet thick. Some local antiquaries hale not scrupled to recognise in these the remains of an ancient British temple, said by Holinshed to hale been founded at Perth by a grandson of King Lear, and traditionally reported to hale preceded the Castle of the Green on its site. Other remains and relics hale been exhumed in the course of excavations, going to prove that the level of the streets has been considerably raised in the course of time.

History.—Both the etymology of the name and the earliest site and date of the city of Perth hale been keenly discussed by antiquaries. Some are for identifying it with the 'Victoria,' some with the 'Orrea,' of Ptolemy (2d c. a.d.); but Victoria Skene places at Loch Orr in Fife, whilst 'Orrea must hale been situated near the junction of the Earn with the Tay, perhaps at Abernethy.' Others, again, assert that the present city was only founded by William the Lyon after the destruction by the Tay of 'Bertha' or Old Perth in 1210; and Bertha they place at the mouth of the Almond, 2½ miles higher up the Tay. All that is certain is that Perth is of very high antiquity; and that for some time it was known as St John's town or St Johnstoun. The latter name, though it occurs in some ballads and other old writings, is said never to hale been generally adopted by the people. It survives in the phrase a 'St Johnstoun's tippet,' meaning a hempen halter, from the fact or statement that each of the 300 burgesses, who marched to oppose the Queen-Regent, Mary of Guise (1559), wore a rope round his neck, as a symbol of the punishment he would deserve if he deserted his colours. The vicinity of Scone, where the Scottish kings were crowned, and the magnificence of the ecclesiastical buildings at Perth gale it the character of capital of the kingdom till 1482, in the reign of James II. Fourteen parliaments are said to hale been held in it between 1201 and 1459; and sixteen out of thirty-seven ecclesiastical councils held in Scotland between 1201 and 1405 took place at Perth. In the history of Scotland, Perth figures very prominently. In 1298 Edward I. of England fortified it as the capital, and his deputy, Aymer de Valence, took up his residence in it. In 1311 Robert Bruce took the city by storm, razed the walls, and filled up the moat. After the battle of Dupplin in 1332, Perth came into the hands of Edward Balliol, and three years later was skilfully fortified and strongly garrisoned by Edward III. But in 1339, Robert, Lord High Steward, regent of the kingdom, laid siege to the fortress, and compelled it to surrender. Perth, in the reign of Robert III., is well described by Sir Walter Scott in his Fair Maid of Perth; and thee novel contains a graphic account of the chief outstanding historical event of the time, viz., the judicial combat between the clans Quhele or Chattan and Kay, which took place on the North Inch, in 1396, before the king and his nobles. The following is Dr Hill Burton's more prosaic account of the same interesting event: - ` On the 23d of October 1396, on the beautiful diluvial meadow by the Tay called the North Inch of Perth, lists were staked off as for a great tournament, and benches and stands were erected for spectators. A last crowd gathered there of all ranks, from the king himself downwards. The spectacle which drew them together was a battle between two bodies of the wild Highlanders, thirty on each side. They were to fight in their native fashion with axes, swords, or bows, haling no defensive armour. The chronicles mention an odd incident in the arrangements. A combatant on one side losing heart swam the Tay and made off. The question then came how the equality of numbers was to be made up. A common artificer of Perth-a little man, but strong and able at his weapon-agreed to fill the empty place for a small fee, and a life provision should he survive after haling done his work well; and the bargain was accepted. Though but briefly noted as a piece of eccentric courage in a person of humble condition, this incident has come up so often and in so many shapes in literature and tradition that the story of the Gow-chrom, or Crooked Smith as he is sometimes called, is as familiar as many leading events in history. Such a contest would make a lively variation in the monotony of the tournament, with its stately etiquettes and regulated restraints. It was the nature of the beings brought together to fly at each other like wildcats, and kill in any way they could. The affair was as bloody as heart could desire. Of one side but ten remained, all wounded; of the other but one.' The object of this extraordinary conflict is quite uncertain, and even the families to which the leaders in the fight belonged, are not definitely known. The earliest account of the affair is given by Wyntoun (about 1422):

They thre score ware clannys twa,
Clahynnbe Qwhewyl, and Clachinyha,
Of thir twa kynnys ware thay men
Tretty again thretty then,
And thare thai had than chiftany s twa—
Scha Ferqwharis sone wes ane of thay,
The tother Cristy Johnesone.

Wyntoun makes no mention of the volunteer, who is introduced, first by Bower, who wrote about 1445. See also pp. 310-318 of vol. iii. of Skene's Celtic Scotland (1880). In 1437 Perth was the scene of the assassination of James I., who was murdered in the Blackfriars' Monastery. The king had spent his Christmas at the monastery, and still lingered as the guest of the monks. Various portents are related, which warned the king of his approaching death. But James jested and disregarded all superstitious warnings. On the evening of 20 Feb., the arch-conspirator Sir Robert Graham, followed by a large body of retainers, overcame the king's guards and broke into the royal apartments. The king was chatting with the queen and her ladies in the reception-room, haling laid aside his robes and his weapons. On the first alarm he rushed to fasten the door, but found that treachery had removed the bar. The windows were too securely fastened to admit of escape; but recollecting a vault underneath the room, the king prized up some planks of the floor, and leapt down. The ladies could do but little to resist the conspirators; but one is said to hale dared the courageous deed thus described by D. G. Rossetti in his fine ballad on this King's Tragedy,

Like iron felt my arm, as through
The staple I made it pass—
Alack it was flesh and bone-no more!
'Twas Catherine Douglas sprang. to the door,
But I fell back Kate Barlass.

The conspirators burst into the room, discovered the King's hiding-place after a little delay, and beheld their victim standing at bay. Till a few days before there had been an opening into the court-yard from the vault by which the king might hale escaped, but James had ordered it to be built up, because the balls at tennis were apt to fall into it. The first two conspirators who leapt into the vault were seized by the king with his naked hands, and their throats bore the mark of his fingers for long afterwards; but with their daggers they overcame his resistance; others of the accomplices came to their assistance, and the poet-king fell with 16 wounds in his breast. But his murder was fully avenged by his widow, who relentlessly tracked out his assassins and put them to death with the cruellest tortures. In the early history of the Reformation in Scotland Perth made a considerable figure. In 1544 it was the scene of the martyrdom of file Protestants, who were burned at the instance of Cardinal Beaton. But a few years later it saw the first blow struck in the wholesale destruction and disfigurement by the mob of the Roman Catholic churches and monasteries in Scotland; the first impetus haling been given by a sermon preached in St John's church by John Knox on 11 May 1559, and celebrated for two centuries after by a weekly service. This demonstration of popular feeling, though unpremeditated and condemned by the leaders of the Reforming party, was a true indication of the disposition of the town; and although the Queen Regent immediately obtained possession of the city and reintroduced the old worship under the guard of a French garrison, the citizens rose in revolt as soon as she had departed. In 1600 Gowrie House in Perth was the scene of the mysterious occurrence known as the Gowrie conspiracy, which resulted in the assassination of the Earl of Gowrie, then provost of the city, and his brother, on the pretext that they had attempted to murder the king, James VI. King James had been prelailed upon by Alexander Ruthven, brother of the Earl of Gowrie, to visit Gowrie House, the pretext being a story of a mysterious captive with a large store of foreign gold. James, who was hunting at Falkland at the time, rode to Perth, accompanied by about twenty attendants, among whom were the Duke of Lennox and the Earl of Mar. After dinner, the king was led aside by Alexander Ruthven, and when his attendants missed him, they were told he had left Gowrie House by a back way. For what had really happened we are chiefly dependent on what is practically the -king's own account. Ruthven conducted him by the great staircase, and through several apartments, the doors of which he carefully locked after him. to a small turret at the SW corner of the southern wing of the house, and overhanging the wall. More direct access to this turret was obtained by the ` black turnpike 'stair, which led into the larger apartment, off which the turret opened. In this chamber-one window of which looked into the courtyard, and the other into the Speygate-James found no captive, but an armed man; and an excited and threatening colloquy ensued between the king and Ruthven. The latter retired to bring his brother the Earl, but returning almost immediately attempted to seize and bind the king's hands. A desperate struggle then followed, during which the armed man, according to his own account, stood entirely neutral, except only that he first opened the window over the Speygate, and then the other over the courtyard. In the struggle James was thrust near this latter window, and putting his head out he called lustily for help. One of his attendants, Sir John Ramsay, hearing the alarm, hastened up the 'black turnpike,' burst into the turret, and stabbed the king's assailant, whose dead body the king himself hurled down the stair. Meanwhile the alarm had spread, and the Earl of Gowrie, eluding the efforts made to seize him, rushed up the turnpike stair, followed by file friends. These were met by the king, Ramsay, and another; and after a brief contest, Gowrie fell dead under Ramsay's sword. The other attendants of the king, hearing the alarm, hastened to his assistance by the great staircase, but they were retarded by the massive doors, which they had to break down with hammers; and when at last they made their way to the turret, the tragic event had been accomplished. The alarm quickly spread among the townspeople, who crowded about the palace, threatening vengeance for the death of their beloved provost; but the magistrates succeeded in quieting them, and the king stole away at night by boat across the Tay. The object of this affair has never been satisfactorily cleared up. Burton says that ` the theory that the whole was a plot by the Court to ruin the powerful house of Gowrie must at once, after a calm weighing of the evidence, be dismissed as beyond the range of sane conclusions.' He leans to the belief that it was a genuine conspiracy, not to murder but to kidnap the king, with the view of acquiring political influence. In Perth, however, the former view is still cherished, and three books hale been produced there in the present century in support of it. On 2 Sept. 1644, the day after his victory of Tibbermuir, Perth was taken possession of by the Marquis of Montrose; and in 1651, when besieged by Oliver Cromwell, the citizens, by a deceptive appearance of military bustle and alertness, secured good terms of surrender. In 1689, Claverhouse, with 80 horse, seized the city. In 1715 the city was occupied by Mar for the Pretender, and James VIII. was proclaimed king at the cross; and in January of the following year he visited Perth in person. Again in 1745 Perth became a centre of the Jacobite rising; and from 4 till 11 Sept. Prince Charles and his army remained within its walls. On both occasions the burgesses were subjected to a tax of several hundred pounds. Though after 1482 Perth was no longer a frequent residence of the kings, it has received many royal visits. James Vi. visited it in 1601 and 1617, and Charles l. in 1633; and both monarchs were receiled with pageants and rejoicings. Queen Victoria visited Perth on 6 Sept. 1842; and, on 29 Sept. 1848, she spent a night at the Royal George Hotel. Perth has suffered a good deal from inundations and plague; and it is still liable to the former. There were great floods in 1210, 1621, 1740, 1773, 18l4, 1847, and 1849. There is an old Gaelic prophecy to the effect that 'Great Tay of the waves will sweep Perth bare;' and there is a Lowland rhyme, equally threatening, concerning two streams which fall into the Tay, about 5 miles from the town-

Says the Shochie to the Ordie
Where shall we meet?
At the Cross of Perth
When men are a' asleep.

It is said that this prophecy was harmlessly fulfilled by building the stones of an old cross into the bridge across the Tay. Plagues visited Perth in 1512, 1585-87, 1608, and 1645, and cholera in 1832. Allan Ramsay's poem on Bessie Bell and Mary Gray describes the fate of two young ladies, who, though they had retired into the country for fear of the plague, yet caught the infection from a young gentleman of Perth who visited them, and is said to hale been in love with both. I The real event is said to hale happened in 1645.

James, fourth Lord Drummond, was created Earl of Perth in 1605; and the fourth Earl, who embraced the Jacobite cause, received the title of Duke of Perth from James II. at St Germains in 1695. The earldoms of Perth and Melfort, attainted in 1695 and 1715, were restored by Act of Parliament in 1853 to George Drummond, sixth Duc de Melfort, Comte de Lussan, and Baron de Valrose (France), the fifth descendant of the third Earl of Perth. See Drummond Castle.

Among the natives of Perth are Henry Adamson (158l1639), poet, author of The Muses Threnodie; Patrick Adamson or Constantine (1543-92), tulchan Archbishop of St Andrews and Latinist, who was educated at Perth grammar school; the Rev. William Row (1563-1634), anti-episcopalian divine; and his brother, the Rev. John Row (1568-1646), author of Historic of the Kirk of Scotland, 1558-1637, printed for the Wodrow Society in 1842; William Murray (1705-93), Lord Chief Justice and first Earl of Mansfield; Robert Sandeman (1723-71), founder of the religious sect of the Glassites or Sandemanians; James Bisset (1742-1832), artist and author of rhyming directories, etc.; David Octavins Hill, R. S.A. (1802-70); Charles Mackay, LL.D. (b. 1814), journalist and poet; and the Rev. George Clark Hutton, D.D. (b. 1825), a prominent U.P. divine. The Reformer, John Row (152580), whose two sons hale been noticed above, was minister of Perth from 1560. John Ruskin, as a child, spent every alternate summer at Perth. His father's sister, he tells us, ` lived at Bridgend, and had a garden full of gooseberry bushes, sloping down to the Tay, with a door opening to the water, which ran past it clear-brown over the pebbles, 3 or 4 feet deep, an infinite thing for a child to look down into.'

The parishes of Perth are the East, Middle, West, and St Paul's, and until 1807 formed only one parish, as in some respects they are still treated. They are bounded N by Tibbermuir and Redgorton parishes, E by Scone, Kinnoull, and Kinfauns, SE by Rhynd, S by Dunbarney and a detached portion of Forteviot, and W by Aberdalgie and Tibbermuir. The greatest length, from NNW to SSE, is 4½ miles, and their greatest breadth 2 miles. The West Kirk, Middle Kirk, and St Paul's lie almost entirely within the town; but the East Kirk parish includes the landward portion, with the villages of Dolecotland, Tulloch, Craigie, Cherrybank, Pitheallis, Craigend, and Friarton; and it measures 4¼ miles long, though its breadth is variable and slight. The landward district has various hills of a ridgy character, but soft in outline in the S and W; the highest is Moncreiffe Hill, and the others vary from 300 to 600 feet. The rest of the surface gradually slopes down into the fertile plain which extends along the Tay, and is largely covered with highly cultivated arable land and wood. Among the beautiful woods which adorn the neighbourhood of Perth are Craigie Wood and St Magdalene Wood. The famous Perth nurseries are on the E bank of the Tay, adjoining the richly wooded Kinnoull Hill. The Almond divides the parish from Redgorton, and the Tay forms the entire eastern boundary. Greenstone, basalt, and other trap rocks form the higher hills; there is a large bed of conglomerate, chiefly porphyritic trap, in the SW; and Old Red Sandstone, dipping towards the NW, lies beneath most of the rest of the area. The soil on the higher grounds is mostly a rich loam; on the lower, a clayey alluvium upon gravel. The chief proprietors are the Earls of Mansfield and Kinnoull, Lord Gray, Lord Elibank, and the city of Perth. The valuation for the parish of Perth, beyond the burgh, in 1883-8 4 was £7067. Pop. (1881) Middle parish, 4902; West, 6223; St Paul's, 4902; and East, 12, 102, of whom 520 were landward.

These parishes are in the presbytery of Perth and the synod of Perth and Stirling; St Leonard's quoad sacra parish comprises parts of the East and West Kirk parishes. The details of the parishes hale been already noted. The presbytery of Perth comprehends the quoad civilia parishes of Aberdalgie, Abernethy, Collace, Dron, Dunbarney, Errol, Forgandenny, Forteviot, Kilspindie, Kinfauns, Kinnoull, St Madoes, St Martins, Methven, Moneydie, the four Perth parishes, Redgorton, Rhynd, Scone, and Tibbermuir; the quoad sacra parishes of Logiealmond and St Leonard's in Perth; and the chapelries of St Stephen in Perth and Stanley. The Free Church and the U.P. Church hale also presbyteries of Perth. The synod of Perth and Stirling comprehends the presbyteries of Dunkeld, Weem, Perth, Auchterarder, Stirling, and Dunblane. The Free Church has also a synod of Perth and Stirling.

See Perth Memoralia (1806); J. Maid ment's Chronicle of Perth from 1210 to 1668 (Edinb., Maitland Club, 1831); George Penney's Traditions of Perth (Perth, 1836); David Peacock's Perth: its Annals and its Archiles (Perth, 1849); John P. Lawson's Book of Perth (Edinb. 1847); John Wilson's Presbytery of Perth (Perth, 1860); R. S. Fittis' Ecclesiastical Annals of Perth to the Period of the Reformation; and other works cited under Perthshire.—Ord. Sur., sh. 48, 1868.

(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)

Linked entities:
Administrative units:	Perth Burgh       Perthshire ScoCnty
Place names:	BAR TATHA     |     PERTH
Place:	Perth

Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.

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