a town of Scotland, in the county of Stirling. It is beautifully situated on the face of an eminence which overlooks the wide expanse of country called the Carse of Falkirk, and consists of one broad street, with a number of narrow streets and lanes branching off from it, or running parallel to it. The houses are in general lofty and well built; and the High Street is ornamented by a spire and clock of modern erection. Besides the parish church, there are a number of meeting-houses for dissenters. Several fine villas have recently been built towards the north of the town, and form a handsome continuation of it, uniting it with the villages of Grahamstone and Bainsford. Falkirk enjoys considerable trade; but the only manufacture carried on is one of leather. The inland trade constitutes the support of the town, the populous neighbourhood being supplied by it with most of the necessaries of life. The Carron iron-works, which are very extensive, are situated about two miles north of the town, and the numerous individuals there employed make Falkirk their general market. There are also some extensive coal-works, distilleries, malt-works, and flour-mills, in the immediate neighbourhood; and brewing is carried on to some extent. Falkirk is thus calculated to be a commercial depot for a population amounting to nearly thirty thousand individuals. The town is chiefly noted for its three great cattle markets or trysts, held annually in August and the two following months. These markets are considered as amongst the largest in Great Britain, and to them a vast quantity of live stock of every description is brought. The traffic carried on in Falkirk is assisted by branches of the Bank of Scotland and Commercial Banking Company. It was at one time a burgh of barony under the earls of Linlithgow; but since the fall of that family, and the abolition of the heritable jurisdictions, it has possessed no form of municipal government. The affairs of the town are administered by a body of stent-masters, chosen by the different trades. A justice-of-peace court is held on the first Monday of every month. Falkirk is a town of considerable antiquity, and appears to have been a place of some note in the early part of the eleventh century. Its original name was Eglisbreck, which signifies the "speckled church;" in allusion, it is supposed, to the colour of the stones, and translated by Buchanan varioum sacellum. The old church, which was demolished in 1810, was erected in 1057, the year in which Malcolm Ceanmore assumed the sovereignty. The new church, which was built upon the site of the old one, in front of the town, is a very plain edifice, with an ancient spire attached to it. In the neighbourhood of this town was fought a celebrated battle between the Scotch and English, during the period when Edward I. of England attempted to usurp the sovereignty of Scotland. The Scotch, under Cuming of Badenoch and the renowned Sir William Wallace, were worsted, and two Scottish chiefs, Sir John Graham and Sir John Stewart, fell in the conflict. Their graves are still pointed out in the churchyard; and over the former a monument was erected with an inscription, which has been from time to time renewed. A second battle was fought here on the 17th of January 1746, between the royalists and the insurgents under Prince Charles Edward Stuart. The population of Falkirk, in 1821, amounted to 4000, and in 1831, including the parish, to 12,743. It is at the distance of twenty-four miles from Edinburgh, and twenty-two from Glasgow.