BUTE, which gives name to the county, is separated by a narrow channel from the district of Cow- and Extent.
Buteshire. al in Argyleshire. It is about 15 miles long, and 3½ miles broad, but so much indented by the sea that the heads of some of the bays on the opposite sides of the island are not more than a mile distant; and it contains nearly 30,000 acres, of which more than a half is susceptible of cultivation. The country is generally low, few of its hills rising more than 200 feet above the sea. The climate, though very moist, is so mild as to be compared with that of Devonshire; and the soil is for the most part dry, and naturally fertile.
Agriculture. A former Marquis of Bute, to whom seven-eighths of the island belonged, began, so early as 1758, to promote the improvement of the island and its inhabitants; but his plans, though apparently well calculated for this purpose, do not seem to have effected any favourable alteration, probably owing to his absence from the country, and to his time having been engrossed by public affairs. The present Marquis, however, has within these few years displayed a very laudable attention to the same object. An eminent agriculturalist has been employed to survey the island, and to point out the defects in its husbandry in a small treatise which is distributed gratis; and young men have been sent to the border counties, as apprentices to some of the best farmers in that district, to whom the noble proprietor means to give a preference as tenants. All the crops common in the lowlands of Scotland are cultivated in Bute; and, though modern husbandry be yet in its infancy, its progress in the southern parts of the island, where the land is enclosed with white-thorn hedges, is by no means inconsiderable.
Minerals. Slate and limestone are found in various quarters of the island, from which also there is ready access to the noted limestone quarries in the north of Ireland. Coal has not yet been discovered. Beds of sea-shells abound on the western side, and vast quantities of sea-weed are thrown upon its shores.
Fisheries. The herring-fishery was formerly prosecuted by the inhabitants of Bute with great success; but of late it has declined, and at present does not much interfere with agriculture, as it is chiefly confined to the town of Rothsay. White fish and shell fish, though abounding on the coast, have been hitherto much neglected. In the town of Rothsay, the principal town of Buteshire, from which the heir apparent to the British throne takes the title of a Scottish duke, there has been a cotton manufactory for several years. The vessels belonging to this port in 1812 carried 5195 tons; and it has a regular communication by packets with Greenock, and by a daily mail-boat with Largs in Ayrshire.
Reins. In the ruins of the castle of Rothsay, the principal residence of the Stuarts, ancestors of the present family of Bute, till it was burned in 1685, are still pointed out the bedchambers and banqueting rooms of Robert II. and III. the last Scottish monarchs who inhabited this venerable pile. Mount Stuart, the seat of the Marquis of Bute, from which he takes his second title, is an elegant house, with fine woods and pleasure-grounds, situated about two hundred yards from the eastern shore, and commanding a delightful view of the navigation of the Firth of Clyde, and of the opposite shore.