a word signifying a flat piece of ground, has been applied to three several tracts of country in Scotland, namely, the Carse of Falkirk, the Carse of Gowrie, and the Carse of Stirling. It was long matter of plausible conjecture that these flat tracts of land on the borders of large rivers had been formed by the deposition of alluvial matter and the change of the water-courses; and the light of modern science, with careful investigation, has confirmed the fact. Bones of large marine animals have been found embedded many feet below the surface of the soil; thus demonstrating that such places must have been at some former period, but subsequently to the Mosaic deluge, within the flow of the sea. Some years ago the perfect skeleton of a whale was found at Airthric, in the Carse of Stirling, many miles from the sea, or the Frith of Forth, and a considerable distance from the present course of the river. Anchors, and other artificial articles, have at various times been found in the Carse of Falkirk. The nature of the soil of these carses is also probative of the fact.

Carse of Falkirk, The, stretches for nearly ten miles in a westerly direction, from about Borrowstounness to Airth, along the south shore of the Frith of Forth. Its breadth varies from one to two miles. On the margin of the sea the land is rich and productive, and rises in well- cultivated acclivities on the south. It is broadest below Falkirk, where it is irrigated by the placid waters of the Carron.

**Carse of Gowrie, The,** is a portion of the district of Gowrie, in Perthshire, and consists of a level tract of land on the north side of the Frith of Tay, from the neighbourhood of Dundee on the east, till it rises into an eminence at the transition of the Tay from a frith to a river. On the north, it is bounded by the Siedlaw Hills. It comprehends a breadth of from two to three miles by a length of fifteen. It is celebrated for its rural loveliness and high state of cultivation.

**Carse of Stirling, The,** is a beautiful tract of land stretching from the Devon on the north side of the Forth, on both banks of that river, to beyond Stirling. In the centre it is intersected by the windings of the Forth. It also possesses great rural beauty, and is in a high state of cultivation.

**Carstairs, William,** an eminent Scottish divine, whose merit and good fortune called him to act in great scenes, and to associate with men to whose society and intercourse his birth gave him few pretensions to aspire. A small village in the neighbourhood of Glasgow was the place of his nativity. His father, of whom little is known, exercised the functions of a clergyman.

Young Carstairs turned his thoughts to the profession of theology; and the persecutions and oppressions of government, both in regard to civil and religious liberty, having excited his strongest indignation, it became a matter of prudence that he should prosecute his studies in a foreign university. He went accordingly to Utrecht; and his industry and attention being directed with skill, opened up and unfolded those faculties which he afterwards employed with equal honour to his country and himself.

During his residence abroad he became acquainted with Pensionary Fagel, and entered with warmth into the interest of the Prince of Orange. On his return to Scotland in order to obtain a license to teach doctrines which he had studied with the greatest care, he became disgusted with the proud and insolent conduct of Archbishop Sharpe, and prepared to revisit Holland, where he knew that religious liberty was respected, and where he hoped he might improve his condition by the connections he had formed.

His expectations were not vain. His prudence, reserve, and political address, were strong recommendations of him to the Prince of Orange; and he was employed in personal negotiations in Holland, England, and Scotland. Upon the elevation of his master to the English throne, he was appointed the king's chaplain for Scotland, and employed in settling the affairs of that kingdom. William, who carried politics into religion, was solicitous that episcopacy should prevail there as universally as in England. Carstairs, more conversant with the affairs of his native country, saw all the impropriety of this project, and the danger which would arise from enforcing it; and by his reasonings, remonstrances, and entreaties, he overcame the firmness of King William, who yielded to considerations founded alike in policy and in prudence; so that to Carstairs Scotland is indebted for the full establishment of its church in the Presbyterian form of government.

The death of King William was a severe affliction to him; and it happened before the prince had provided for him with the liberality he deserved. He was continued, however, in the office of chaplain for Scotland by Queen Anne; and he was invited to accept the principality of the university of Edinburgh. He was one of the ministers of the city, and four times moderator of the general assembly. Placed at the head of the church, he prosecuted its interest with zeal and integrity. Nor were his influence and activity confined to matters of religion. They were exerted with success in promoting the cultivation of the arts and sciences. The universities of Scotland owe him obligations of the highest kind. He procured, in particular, an augmentation of the salaries of their professors; a circumstance to which may be ascribed their reputation, as it enabled them to cultivate with spirit the different branches of knowledge.

A zeal for truth, a love of moderation and order, with prudence and humility, distinguished Principal Carstairs in an uncommon degree. His religion had no mixture of austerity; his secular transactions were attended with no imputation of artifice; and the versatility of his talents made him pass with ease from a court to a college. He was among the last who suffered torture before the privy council, in order to make him divulge the secrets intrusted to him, which he firmly resisted; and after the revolution, the instrument of torture called the thumbkinks was given to him as a present by the council. This excellent person died in 1715; and in 1744 his *State Papers and Letters,* with an account of his life, were published in one volume 4to, by the Rev. Dr McCormick.

**Carsucal, Rainier,** a Jesuit, born at Citerna, in Tuscany, in 1647, was the author of a Latin poem entitled *Ars bene Scribendi,* which is esteemed both for the elegance of the style and for the excellent precepts it contains. He also wrote some good epigrams, and died in 1709.

**Cart,** a land carriage with two wheels, drawn commonly by horses, to carry heavy goods, &c. from one place to another. The word seems formed from the French charrette, which signifies the same, or rather the Latin carrēta, a diminutive of carrus. See Mechanics, and Wheel-Carriages.

Scripture makes mention of a sort of carts or drags used by the Jews for the purpose of threshing. They were supported on low thick wheels, bound with iron, which were rolled up and down on the sheaves, to break them, and force out the corn. Something of the same kind also obtained among the Romans, under the denomination of *plaustra,* of which Virgil makes mention in the first Georgic. According to Servius, *trahea* denotes a cart without wheels, while *tribula* is a sort of cart armed on all sides with teeth, and chiefly used in Africa for threshing corn. The Septuagint and St Jerome represent these carts as furnished with saws, in somuch that their surface was beset with teeth. David having taken Rabbah, the capital of the Ammonites, ordered all the inhabitants to be crushed to pieces under such carts, moving on wheels set with iron teeth; and the king of Damascus is said to have treated the Israelites of the land of Gilead in the same manner.

**Carts of War,** a peculiar kind of artillery anciently in use among the Scotch. In an act of parliament passed in the year 1456, they are thus described: "It is thought speifull, that the king may request to certain of the great burrous of the land that are of any myght, to mak carts of weir, and in ilk cart twa gunnis, and ilk ane to have twa chalmers, with the remnant of the graith that effecteth thereto, and ane man to shut thame." By another act passed in 1471, the prelates and barons are commanded to provide such carts of war against their old enemies the English.

**Carte, Thomas,** the historian, was the son of Mr Samuel Carte, prebendary of Lichfield, and born in 1686. When he was reader in the abbey-church at Bath, he took occasion, in a sermon delivered on the 30th of January 1714, to vindicate Charles I. with respect to the Irish massacre, which drew him into a controversy with Mr Chandler the dissenting minister; and on the accession of the present royal family he refused to take the oaths Carte to government, and therefore put on a lay habit. He is said to have acted as a kind of secretary to Bishop Atterbury before his troubles; and in the year 1722, being accused of high treason, a reward of L1,000 was offered for apprehending him; but Queen Caroline, the great patroness of learned men, obtained leave for him to return home in security. He published, 1. An edition of Thuanus, in seven volumes folio; 2. The Life of the first Duke of Ormond, three volumes folio; 3. The History of England, four volumes folio; 4. A Collection of Original Letters and Papers concerning the affairs of England, two volumes octavo; and some other works. He died in April 1754. His History of England ends in 1654. His design was to have brought it down to the Revolution; for which purpose he had taken great pains in copying every thing valuable that could be met with in England, Scotland, France, Ireland, and other countries. He had, as he himself says, "read abundance of collections relating to the time of King Charles II, and had in his power a series of memoirs from the beginning to the end of that reign, in which all those intrigues and turns at court, at the latter end of that king's life, which Bishop Burnet, with all his gout for tales of secret history, and all his genius for conjectures, does not pretend to account for, are laid open in the clearest and most convincing manner, by the person who was most affected by them, and had the best reason to know them." At his death, all his papers passed into the hands of his widow, who afterwards married Mr Jernegan, a member of the church of Rome. But they were afterwards deposited in the Bodleian Library, having been delivered by Mr Jernegan to the university in 1778, for a valuable consideration. Whilst they were in this gentleman's possession, the Earl of Hardwick paid L200 for the perusal of them. For a consideration of L300 Mr Macpherson had the use of them, and from these and other materials compiled his history and state papers. Mr Carte was a man of a strong constitution and of indefatigable application. When the studies of the day were over, he would eat heartily; and in conversation he was cheerful and entertaining.