capital of the county of that name, and once a place of some importance, is pleasantly situated on the bank of a fine lake, sixteen miles west from Edinburgh, and thirty-one east from Glasgow. It consists chiefly of a single street, running east and west along the south bank of the lake, containing many substantial though old houses; and is gradually improving in appearance, in consequence of the increasing number of modern buildings. The name Linlithgow is supposed by some to signify the concavity of the Lin or Loch; and according to others the lake of the sheltered valley. It is a very ancient town, having been the residence of royalty, and hence was entitled to be called a king's burgh in the twelfth century. It possesses an old palace or castle built by David I., which was destroyed by fire in 1745, and has not since been repaired. It has also a very ancient church, built in the Gothic style, ornamented with a spire of some height; and three dissenting meeting-houses. Though the town is very dull in appearance, the inhabitants are by no means inactive. The tanning of leather, for which the adjoining lake affords great convenience, is carried on to a considerable extent; as also the craft of shoemaking. Linen and woollen manufactures are pretty extensive, and there is a large calico-printing establishment about a mile from the town. It receives great advantage from the Union Canal, which passes in the immediate vicinity, for transporting goods to the capital. There is a weekly stock market held on Friday. The population in 1831 amounted to 4874.

Linlithgowshire, or West-Lothian, a county in Scotland, having the Frith of Forth on the north, Edinburghshire or Mid-Lothian on the east and south-east, Lanarkshire on the south-west, and Stirlingshire on the west, is situated between 55. 49. and 56. 1. north latitude, and 3. 18. and 3. 51. west longitude from Greenwich. It is of a triangular form, about nineteen miles long on its eastern boundary, and thirteen on its western; but at a medium it is only about seven miles broad and sixteen long, and its area is therefore 112 square miles, or 71,680 English acres; though, according to some surveys, the super- So large a portion of the surface of this county is either level or gently undulating, that only a fifth part of it is stated to be unfit for cultivation. Yet a considerable space is occupied by hills. A ridge extends across it from north-west to south-east, of which Cairnpapple, the most elevated point, is about 1500 feet high. The highest ground is in the middle, and towards the west; on the south there is much moor and moss; but the hills for the most part yield good pasturage, and some of them are planted. The climate, though variable, is not severe. The prevailing winds are from the south-west, which blow for about two thirds of the year. According to a register of the weather, kept at Duddingston on the coast of the frith, about the middle of the northern boundary, the greatest number of rainy and snowy days, in any one year, for a period of thirty years, from 1778 to 1808, was 111 (in 1780), and the smallest number 22 (in 1803); but days on which slight showers fell are not included. The greatest heat in that period was in June 1785, when the thermometer stood at 87° in the shade, in a northern exposure. In June 1787, there was a week of frost, with ice one sixteenth of an inch in thickness.

Though there is a great variety of soil in this district, with considerable tracts of gravel and sand, yet clay is the most general. The coldest soil is chiefly on the south and south-western parts, which have also the coldest climate. The following estimate will show the quantity of the different kinds of soil found in the county:—Clay of good quality, 20,000 English acres; clay on cold bottom, 24,500; loam 10,000; light gravel and sand, 10,000; moors and high rocky land, 15,220; mosses, 1700; water, 500: total 81,920 English acres.

The only streams of any note are, the Almond, which rises on the border of Lanarkshire, and flows north-east for about twenty-four miles between this county and Edinburghshire; and the Avon, which forms the western boundary for about twelve miles. Both these rivulets fall into the Frith of Forth. On the north side of the town of Linlithgow there is a lake about a mile long and half a mile broad, occupying about 150 acres, which contains pike, perch, and eels; and a smaller one on the south, called Loch Coat, which occupies about twenty-two acres, stocked with the same kinds of fish. In the parishes of Linlithgow, Ecclesmachan, and Abercorn, there are several sulphurous springs; and a strong chalybeate is found in the parish of Torphichen; but none of them are much resorted to.

Silver and lead were at one time got in the hills of Bathgate, in the parish of Linlithgow; and in the neighbourhood a small vein of silver ore was found several years ago in a limestone quarry. Ironstone is wrought occasionally in the parishes of Borrowstounness and Carriden. Sandstone, in some places of an excellent quality, prevails along the coast of the Forth; and in the interior, whinstone, granite, and basalt, are also found; and there is an inexhaustible store of limestone. On Dundas Hill there is a basaltic rock 250 yards in length and about sixty feet in height, with an almost perpendicular front, consisting of a bluish granite of a very fine texture. There is also abundance of potters' clay, brick clay, red chalk, and marl. Shell marl was dragged in considerable quantities from the lake at Linlithgow, as a manure, till the benefits of lime superseded the use of it. But the chief mineral production is coal, which abounds in almost every part of the county, and is wrought in the parishes of Borrowstounness and Carriden on the Forth, in Uphall and Whitburn on the east and south, and in the parish of Bathgate in the middle. An excellent kind of coal has been wrought near Cultmuir, on the south-western border. The Union Canal, which passes through this county, affords excellent means of transporting the coal of the interior to the city of Edinburgh.

Linlithgowshire is for the most part divided into estates worth from L200 to L3000 a year; but there are a few above, and several below, these extremes. In the neighbourhood of the burghs of Linlithgow and Queensferry there are properties of only a few acres. Four of the greatest estates, rented at from L4000 to L10,000, belong to many noblemen. The valued rent, taken in 1649, was L75,027. 12s. 2d. Scots; in 1806, the real rent was L64,518. 18s. 7d. sterling; and, in 1811, the real rent of the lands and mines was L82,947. 2s., and of the houses, L5798. 8s. Almost half the county is entailed. The principal seats are, Hopetoun House, Earl of Hopetoun, two miles west of Queensferry; Barnbougle Castle and Livingston House, Earl of Rosebery; Craigiehall, Mr Hope Vere; Duddingston, Mr Dundas; Hallyards, Mr Ramsay; Houston, Mr Sharp; Kinneil, Duke of Hamilton, near Borrowstounness; and Polkennet, Mr Baillie.

The size of the farms is from fifty Scotch acres to 600, but the greater part consist of between 100 and 300 English acres. The rent of the better soils, which extend over half the county, varies from L2 to more than L5 the acre; that of the inferior clays is from 14s. to 20s.; and of the high grounds from 6d. to 10d.; the average rent of the whole, in 1811, being rather more than 23s. the English acre. The common term of leases is nineteen or twenty-one years; but, in some instances, they are for twenty-four, thirty-eight, and even fifty-seven years; grazing farms are let on short leases, from one to four years. The crops raised are the same as in the other counties in this part of Scotland, which have already been described; and the general system of husbandry is not materially different, except that the dairy is more an object here than in the counties to the east and south-east. The county has two royal burghs, Linlithgow and Queensferry, and the towns of Bathgate and Borrowstounness; besides a number of thriving villages. It is divided into fourteen parishes, which, with two in Mid-Lothian, and four in Stirlingshire, form one presbytery. It sends one member to parliament, the constituency, according to the latest census, being 692. The annexed table contains an abstract of the population for 1811, 1821, and 1831.

| YEARS | HOUSES | OCCUPATIONS | PERSONS | |-------|--------|-------------|---------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

| YEARS | Inhabited | By how many Families occupied | Uninhabited | Families chiefly employed in Agriculture | Families chiefly employed in Trade, Manufactures, or Handicraft | All other Families not comprised in the two preceding classes | Males | Females | Total of Persons | |-------|-----------|-----------------------------|-------------|----------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------|-------|--------|----------------| | 1811 | 3098 | 4404 | 186 | 1132 | 1506 | 1766 | 8,874 | 10,577 | 19,451 | | 1821 | 3302 | 4965 | 96 | 1224 | 1817 | 1924 | 10,713| 11,982 | 22,695 | | 1831 | 3400 | 5014 | 205 | 1093 | 1891 | 2030 | 10,995| 12,296 | 23,291 | LINNÆUS, or LINNE, Sir Charles, a celebrated botanist and natural historian, was born on the 24th of May 1707, in a village called Roeshult, in Smaland, where his father, Nicholas Linne or Linnaeus, was then vicar, but afterwards preferred to the curacy of Stenbrohult. It is said, that on the farm where Linnaeus was born there yet stands a large lime tree, from which his ancestors took the surnames of Tiliander, Lindelius, and Linnaeus; and that this origin of surnames, taken from natural objects, is not uncommon in Sweden.

This eminent man, whose talents enabled him to reform the whole science of natural history, acquired, early in life, some of the highest honours that await the most successful proficient in medical science. We find indeed that he was made professor of physic and botany in the university of Upsala at the age of thirty-four, and, six years afterwards, physician to Adolphus king of Sweden, who in the year 1753 still further honoured him, by creating him knight of the order of the polar star. Nor did his honours terminate here. In 1757 he was ennobled; and in 1776 the king of Sweden accepted the resignation of his office, and rewarded his declining years by doubling his pension, and by a liberal donation of landed property settled on him and his family.

It seems probable that Linnaeus's taste for the study of nature was formed from the example of his father, who, as he has himself informed us, cultivated, as his first amusement, a garden plentifully stored with plants. Young Linnaeus soon became acquainted with these, as well as with the indigenous plants of his neighbourhood. Yet, from the smallness of his father's income, the young naturalist was on the point of being destined to a mechanical employment; fortunately, however, this design was overruled. In 1717 he was sent to school at Wexio, where, as his opportunities were enlarged, his progress in all his favourite pursuits was proportionally extended. At this early period he paid attention to other branches of natural history, particularly to the study of entomology.

The first part of his academical education Linnaeus received at Lund, in Sweden, under Professor Stobaeus, who favoured his inclination for the study of natural history. After a residence of about a year, he removed in 1728 to Upsala. Here he soon contracted a close friendship with Artedi, a native of the province of Angermania, who had already been four years a student in that university, and, like himself, had a strong bent to the study of natural history in general, but particularly to that of ichthyology. Soon after his residence at Upsala, our author was likewise fortunate enough to obtain the favour of several gentlemen of established character in literature. He was in a particular manner encouraged in the pursuit of his studies by the patronage of Dr Olaus Celsius, at that time professor of divinity, and the restorer of natural history in Sweden; who, being struck with the diligence of Linnaeus in describing the plants of the garden at Upsala, and his extensive knowledge of their names, not only patronized him in a general way, but admitted him to his house, his table, and his library. Under such encouragement, it is not strange that he made a rapid progress, both in his studies and the esteem of the professors; in fact, we have a very striking proof of his merit and attainments, since we find, that, after a residence of only two years, he was thought sufficiently qualified to give lectures occasionally from the botanic chair, in the room of Professor Rudbeck.

In the year 1731, the Royal Academy of Sciences at Upsala, having for some time meditated the design of improving the natural history of Sweden, at the instance particularly of Professors Celsius and Rudbeck, deputed Linnaeus to make the tour of Lapland, with the view of exploring the natural history of that arctic region; an undertaking to which his reputation, already high as a naturalist, and the strength of his constitution, equally recommended him. He left Upsala on the 13th of May, and took his route to Gevalia or Gevels, the principal town of Gestricia, forty-five miles distant from Upsala. From thence he travelled through Helsingland into Medelpadina, where he made an excursion, and ascended a remarkable mountain before he reached Hudwickswald, the chief town of Helsingland. He then proceeded through Angermanland to Hernosand, a sea-port on the Bothnian Gulf; seventy miles distant from Hudwickswald. When he had advanced thus far, he found it proper to retard his journey, as the spring was not sufficiently advanced, and took this opportunity of visiting those remarkable caverns on the summit of Mount Skula, though at the hazard of his life.

When Linnaeus arrived at Uma, in West Bothnia, about ninety-six miles from Hernosand, he quitted the public road, and took his course through the woods westward, in order first to traverse the most southern parts of Lapland. Having now reached the country that was more particularly the object of his inquiries, being equally a stranger to the language and to the manners of the people, and without any associate, he committed himself to the hospitality of the inhabitants, and never failed to experience it fully. He speaks in several places, with peculiar satisfaction, of the innocence and simplicity of their lives, and their freedom from diseases. In this excursion he reached the mountains towards Norway; and after encountering great hardships, returned into West Bothnia, quite exhausted with fatigue. He next visited Pitha and Lula, upon the Gulf of Bothnia; from which latter place he again took a western route, by proceeding up the river of that name, and visited the ruins of the temple of Jockmock in Lula Lapland or Lap Mark; he thence traversed what is called the Lapland Desert, destitute of all villages, cultivation, roads, or any conveniences, and inhabited only by a few straggling people, originally descended from the Finns, who settled in this country in remote ages, being entirely a distinct people from the Laplanders. In this district he ascended a noted mountain called Wallevari, in speaking of which he has given us a pleasant relation of his finding a singular and beautiful new plant (Andromeda tetragon), when travelling within the arctic circle, with the sun in his view at midnight, in search of a Lapland hut. From hence he crossed the Lapland Alps into Finnmark, and traversed the shores of the North Sea as far as Sallero.

These journeys from Lula and Pitha on the Bothnian Gulf, to the north shore, were performed on foot; and he was attended by two Laplanders, one his interpreter, and the other his guide. He tells us that the vigour and strength of these two men, both old, and sufficiently loaded with his baggage, excited his admiration, since they appeared quite unfatigued by their labour, whilst he himself, although young and robust, was frequently quite exhausted. In this journey he was wont to sleep under the boat with which they forded the rivers, as a defence against rain, and the gnats, which in the Lapland summer are not less teasing than in the torrid zone. In descending one of these rivers, he narrowly escaped perishing by the overturning of the boat, and lost many of the natural productions which he had collected.