one of the counties of Scotland, situated between 56° 5' and 56° 14' Situated north latitude, and between 3° 33' and 3° 56' west longitude from Greenwich, is bounded on the south and south-west, by the river Forth, which separates it from Stirlingshire, by Fifeshire on the south-east, and in every other quarter by Perthshire. It is the smallest county in Scotland, being little more than eight miles long, and, at a medium, six miles and a half broad; thus extending over 52 square miles, or Extent 33,280 acres. But its value is much greater than in the ratio of its extent. About three-fourths of its surface are under cultivation, a greater proportion, with the exception of East Lothian, than that of any other county in Scotland; and it abounds in the useful minerals, which have long been wrought upon a very extensive scale.

Between the Ochill-hills, which form the northern Surface boundary of this district, and the rich alluvial tracts on the banks of the Forth, which winds along in a very irregular line on its opposite extremity, there is a considerable variety of surface. An elevated ridge rises on the west, and, running through the middle of the county, spreads itself gradually till it reaches the eastern boundary, skirting the alluvial or earse lands on the south, and the vale of Dovan on the north. And still farther to the north, the Ochill-hills, the highest of which, Bencloch, in the parish of Tillicoultry, rises nearly 2500 feet above the level of the sea, form a very picturesque landscape, having their generally verdant surface broken by bold projecting rocks, and deeply indented ravines, the beds of many a pellucid stream; with coppice and thriving plantations occasionally interspersed. These hills protect the lower grounds from the piercing winds that blow from the north and north-east, and give Clackmannanshire some advantage, in regard to climate, over the adjoining counties.

The only streams worth notice, which traverse Rivers this county, are the Dovan and the Black Dovan, or, as they are often called, the North Devon and South Devon. The Dovan rises in the county of Perth, and, descending with impetuosity from the Ochills, where its course is to the east, makes a very acute turn towards the west, and, proceeding placidly in that direction through the pleasant vale already mentioned, falls into the Forth at the village of Cambus. Exclusive of its windings, the course of this river is more than 26 miles, though the distance in a direct line from its source to its embouchure does not exceed six miles. It has long been re- remarkable for the deep and dark chasms which it has worn in the rocks, through which it flows in the earlier part of its course, and in which it is in some places hardly visible. The Devil's Mill, so called from the supposed resemblance of the sound of the water to that of machinery; the Rumbling Bridge, a very narrow and unguarded pass across a chasm 90 feet deep; and the Cauldron Lynn, where the water is perpetually agitated in the immense cauldron-like excavations which it has formed in the rock, have been frequently visited by the lovers of natural scenery. Though this river is liable to be suddenly swelled by rains, and frequently descends in torrents overflowing its banks, it is in general of no great depth, but it is said might be rendered navigable for small vessels at a moderate expense, to the effect of bringing 10,000 acres of coal within reach of water carriage.

The Black Dovan has its source in the county of Fife, flows westward in a direction nearly parallel to the Dovan, and falls into the Forth near Clackmannan. This river is extensively employed in driving mills and coal engines, its whole course being over coal strata. In a dry season, it is an inconsiderable stream, the greater part of its waters being then collected into reservoirs for the supply of machinery.

The Forth is navigable as far as it forms the boundary of this county. Ships of 500 tons burden come up as far as Alloa. Its windings or links, as they are called, are very remarkable. The distance from the quay of Alloa to that of Stirling, measured in the middle of the stream, is 17 miles, and to the bridge of Stirling it is 19½, whereas the distance by land from the latter place to Alloa does not exceed seven miles. A little above Alloa there are three islets in the river, the largest containing more than 70 acres. A remarkable ledge of rock stretches across the Forth below the two smaller islets, which obstructs the passage of vessels of more than 60 tons burden, and where it is fordable at low water of spring tides. The breadth at this place being only about 500 yards, it was long since proposed to throw a bridge over it, the expense of which was estimated at £70,000. Mr Rennie, the celebrated engineer, has made a survey with a view to a bridge at the Alloa ferry, which he declared to be practicable at an expense of £150,000; a work which it has been very lately attempted to set a going by means of a loan from Government, but with little probability of success. The estuary of the Forth, for several miles above and below Clackmannan, exhibits a singular phenomenon in its tides, which rise there from 16 to 22 feet. During neap tides in good weather, and sometimes also during spring tides, if the weather be uncommonly fine, after the water has flowed for three hours, it retires in an hour and a half, nearly as far as the line from which it had begun to flow, returning immediately, and, in an hour and a half more, reaching the same height it had attained before. This flux and reflux takes place both in the flood and ebb tides, so that double the usual number of tides occur in this part of the river. In very boisterous weather, however, these leaky tides, as they are called by sailors, are not regular, the water then only rising without any perceptible current, as if two tides were acting against each other.

The soils of the arable land of Clackmannanshire are in general productive and well cultivated; though the greater part of the elevated range which is interposed between the carse lands on the Forth, and the vale of Dovan at the bottom of the Ochill hills on the north, consists of inferior soils, often incumbent on an impervious clay. All the crops commonly raised in Scotland grow luxuriantly on either side of this tract, which also contains within itself a considerable proportion of valuable soil. From the rental of the Abbey of Cambuskenneth, founded in 1147, it appears, that wheat was cultivated on the links of the Forth, at a very early period, yet it is certain that, forty years ago, fields of this grain were only occasionally to be met with in the county. As a proof how early and well the carse lands near Alloa have been cultivated, it may be mentioned, that more than a century ago, some farms in that quarter paid as much grain and other kinds of produce, as rent, as the present money rent of similar soils would purchase at the average prices of the last twenty-five years. The farms would be thought small in other counties, few of the arable ones exceeding 200 Scotch (250 English) acres; and the far greater number being below 100 acres. The rent of the county was returned to the collector of Rent, the property-tax for the year ending April 1811, at £32,047, 12s., so that, after making allowance for what part of the surface is covered by water, or otherwise altogether unproductive, every acre must have paid at least 20s. upon an average of all soils and situations. At the same time, the rent of the houses was stated at £2,827, 5s. The old valuation, by which land-tax and county-rates are apportioned, is £26,482, 10s. 10d. Scots, or £2,206, 17s. 7d. Sterling, of which somewhat more than a third belongs to estates held under entail. The first effective thrashing machine in Scotland was constructed at Kilbagie, in the parish of Clackmannan, in 1787, by Mr George Meikle, the son of its celebrated inventor; and the last one, it is believed, at which old Meikle himself worked, is on the estate of Mr Erskine of Mar, near Alloa, and still in complete repair. One of the greatest disadvantages which the agriculture of this district labours under, is the want of limestone, of which, however, very large quantities are procured by the farmers from the quarries near Dunbar, and afterwards calcined in the county, where coal is always plentiful and cheap. Limestone that has already undergone this process is also imported to a considerable extent from the Earl of Elgin's works in Fife.

This small county is rich in minerals. Silver, copper, lead, iron-ore (hematites), cobalt, and arsenic, have all been discovered in the Ochill mountains, between Airthry and Dollar; but, after having been wrought for a time with little success, the labour has been discontinued. The operations, however, were not conducted upon an extensive scale; in no instance did the miners penetrate below the level of the plain, from which the Ochills rise; and it is still believed that these hills abound in valuable metallic veins, ready to reward more skilful and enterprising adventurers. Ironstone is wrought to a considerable extent for the Devon iron-works in the parish of Clackmannan. It is found either in strata, or in detached oblate balls, imbedded in the schist, and yields from 25 to 30 per cent. of iron.

The Abbey Craig, near Stirling, a great mass of greenstone rock, crystallized in the internal structure, and rudely columnar in its external appearance, deserves to be particularly noticed, in this general view of Clackmannanshire, for its having afforded a very useful substitute, in the manufacture of flour, for the French bur-stones, which it was so difficult to procure during the late war. This discovery was made by a miller of the name of James Brownhill, then employed at the Alloa mills. Several hundreds of these millstones are now working both in England and Scotland, and are found to be in some respects superior to the burs. The Society for the Encouragement of Arts in London presented this ingenious person with 100 guineas for his discovery, after they had received the most satisfactory proofs of its great importance.

Coal has been wrought for 200 years in this county. The present annual output may be estimated at 130,000 tons, of which a great part is shipped for Leith, Dunbar, and Tay water, and the remainder consumed by manufactories near the collieries, and by private families. In the scale of working, the collieries stand thus: 1. Alloa. 2. Sauchy. 3. Clackmannan. 4. Dollar. 5. Kennet. 6. Tilli-coultry; besides partial workings in every parish in the county, Logie excepted. It is all either cubical or slate coal (both are often found in the same bed), of an open burning quality; no smithy or caking coal having yet been discovered. The thinnest seam which has been wrought is 27 inches thick; and in a depth of 105 fathoms, there are nine seams of more than this thickness. The strata which compose the coal-field are varieties of sandstone, argillaceous schistus, fire-clay, and argillaceous ironstone. Limestone is found among the lowest veins of the coal strata. Organic remains of shell-fish and plants abound in them. Of the latter, many are of a kind now found only in the equatorial regions. Carbonic acid gas, termed chalk-damp, is the most abundant of the noxious vapours found in the coal mines of this field. Hydrogen gas, or inflammable air, was never known here till lately, and it is still in small quantity. The great coal field of Scotland, which passes in a diagonal line from the mouths of the Forth and Tay to the Irish sea, is bounded by the Ochill hills. No coal has been found to the north of them, excepting at Brora, in the county of Sutherland.

Machinery for drawing water from the mines was constructed and much improved in this county, before the invention of the steam-engine. The Alloa colliery is drained by an overshot water wheel, 30 feet diameter, which lifts the water from the depth of 300 feet. The Sauchy collieries are drained by powerful steam engines; that employed by the Devon Company is capable of raising 1,000,000 gallons of water in twenty-four hours from the depth of 280 feet. At the Alloa colliery there is an improved cast-iron railway of about 2½ miles in length, upon which a horse takes down eight waggons with as many tons of coals. The general price paid for working great coal is from 2s. to 3s. per ton; and the selling price on the hill 6s. 8d., which is said to yield but a very small return to the coal-master.

At the Alloa colliery, the workmen have for a Collier's great number of years had a court composed of five of their own number, appointed annually by the proprietor of the works. By this court all differences amongst themselves are settled. The highest fine exacted is half a guinea, and all the fines go into a general fund for the support of the poor.

Under the head of manufactures, the distilleries of this county form by far the most prominent and considerable branch. In this small district there are no fewer than six large distilleries, of which Kilbagie and Kennetpans are the most extensive. These two paid to Government an excise duty greater than the land-tax of Scotland: the former alone, no less, at one time, than about half a million Sterling. Previous to 1788, the quantity of grain annually consumed at Kilbagie exceeded 60,000 bolls (45,000 quarters); and 7000 cattle and 2000 swine were fattened upon the grains and dreg. The saving in the stock of food for man, effected by the stoppage of the distilleries, is therefore much less considerable than has been imagined: an acre of barley used in distillation yielding nearly as much animal food as an acre of middling pasture. It is understood that cattle may be fattened in a complete manner, in the proportion of two, of 50 stone avoirdupois each, for every gallon of a still when working from grain; affording the means, at the same time, of enriching the soil for future crops, by the abundance and good quality of the manure they produce.

The other manufactures of Clackmannanshire, though numerous, are not conducted upon so very extensive a scale. At the Devon iron-works, already noticed, about 60 tons of pig iron are prepared weekly, only a small part of which is used by the foundry at these works. In the parish of Dollar, on the banks of the Dovan, a bleachfield was established in 1787, of which the water and the machinery are excellent. The cloth bleached here consists chiefly of the fine table linen manufactured at Dunfermline. There is a very complete set of corn mills at Alloa, and mills for various purposes in several quarters of the county. To the west of the ferry at Alloa, a glass-work for making bottles has been erected; and, in the neighbourhood, a tile and brick work, and a tannery.

The Port of Alloa is well situated for commerce, and has a substantial well built quay, and, a little above the harbour, a dry dock, capable of receiving vessels of large burden; the depth of the water at spring tides being 16 feet, and the width of the gates 34½. There is a custom-house here, which comprehends within its precincts the Creeks of Stirling, Kincardine, and Clackmannan pow, at which 120 vessels are registered, carrying 9000 tons, and navigated by 476 men. There are cleared outwards annually, on an average, from 900 to 1000 vessels, carrying 50,000 tons, and employing about The principal exports are coals, pig-iron, and British spirits, sometimes to the extent of nearly a million of gallons, the greater part of which is carried to the English market. The annual average of the import cargoes is from 400 to 500, consisting, for the most part, of grain for the distilleries, of which a great proportion is barley from the county of Norfolk; or of sugar from Leith, Glasgow, Greenock, London, and Liverpool, when the distilleries work from that article. Timber, iron, and other commodities, are occasionally imported from the Baltic. The establishment of packets betwixt Alloa and Leith is likely to prove of much benefit to this district from the low rates at which goods are transported. A most convenient and expeditious conveyance for passengers, by means of steam-boats, has been recently introduced, with great success, between Newhaven and Alloa, and other places on the Forth.

Among the antiquities of this county may be mentioned the ruins of Castle Campbell, originally called Castle Gloom, in a singularly wild and almost inaccessible situation, within a recess of the mountains, above the village of Dollar. The period of its erection and its early history are unknown. It became the property of the Argyle family in 1465, from whom it derived its present name, and was the ordinary residence of Archibald Earl of Argyle at the time of the Reformation. In this strong hold John Knox found a temporary retreat. In 1644 it was burned by Montrose, and since that time has been suffered to remain in ruin. The tower of Alloa, built prior to the year 1300, the residence of the Erskines, Earls of Mar, and now belonging to the representative of that noble family, is in good preservation. The walls are eleven feet in thickness, and the highest turret is eighty-nine feet from the ground. The tower of Clackmannan was long the seat of the chief of the Bruces, after the failure of the male line. There is a charter, dated 9th December 1359, quoted by Douglas, in which David II. grants to Sir Robert Bruce (whom he there styles his dearly beloved relation) the castle and manor of Clackmannan, with divers other lands within the county. Since the death of Henry Bruce of Clackmannan, in 1772, leaving no male representative, it has been made a question whether the Earl of Elgin or Bruce of Kennet be now the chief of that royal race.

Clackmannanshire sends a member to Parliament alternately with the county of Kinross. It contains only four parishes, viz. Clackmannan, Alloa, Dollar, Parishes, and Tillicoultry, together with about a third part of the parish of Logie: the village of Cambuskenneth, in the parish of Stirling, also forms a part of this county. There is no royal burgh in it. Clackmannan, which gives its name to the county, the only town in it besides Alloa, deserves to be noticed rather for the beauty of its situation than for the elegance of its buildings, or the industry of its inhabitants. There is no assessment here for the poor, except in the parish of Logie, of which the proportion paid by this county a few years ago was from L.13 to L.14. The total number of poor in 1812 was 193, who received L.673, or nearly L.3, 10s. each, from interest of money, collections at the church doors, and other voluntary offerings. The population of Clackmannanshire in 1800 and 1811 is exhibited in the following abstracts.

### 1800

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### 1811

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