a royal burgh of Scotland, in the county of Fife, is agreeably situated in a bay called St Margaret's Hope, on the north shores of the Frith of Forth, at the distance of thirteen miles from Kirkaldy, twenty-eight from Stirling, four from Dunfermline, and about fourteen from Edinburgh. It stands on the brow of an acclivity which rises from the margin of the bay, and consists of one main street of considerable length, with diverging lines and thoroughfares, and a number of houses erected in the neighbourhood of the harbour. Inverkeithing is a town of very considerable antiquity. The first existing grant which it possesses is one from William the Lion, confirming one of an earlier but unknown date, by which grant the burgh was endowed with a jurisdiction over the adjacent county to an extent of at least twenty miles each way. Within these limits the civic authorities possessed considerable powers and privileges, some of which remain to this day. James VI. confirmed the writ of the burgh in 1598. The civic government is exercised by a provost and high sheriff, two bailies, a dean of guild, and treasurer, annually elected by the councillors and deacons of the trades. This town, in times of remote antiquity, is said to have been the residence of many noble families; and David I. is known to have had a minor palace here. An old antique tenement is also pointed out as having been the abode of Queen Annabella Drummond, the consort of Robert III. and mother of the first James. Before Edinburgh obtained the honour, Inverkeithing was the place where the convention of royal burghs was regularly held. The burgh possesses a neat town-house, containing a jail with apartments for courts. Besides the established church, which is an elegant modern building, there is an United Associate Synod meeting-house. There is a public grammar-school, with other private seminaries of education. No manufactures are carried on in the town, but in the neighbourhood there is an extensive distillery, a magnesia work, and some salt-pans. The chief trade of the place consists in the shipment of coal, of which article large quantities are here embarked. Railways have been laid between the coal-pits and the harbour. The port of Inverkeithing is, by authority, a place where vessels ride quarantine; and here government has stationed a body of officers, with a lazaretto, on shore. In 1821 the population amounted to about 1400, and in 1831 to 3189.