one of the counties of Scotland, situated between 56° 5' and 56° 14' north latitude, and between 3° 33' and 3° 56' west longitude from Greenwich. It is bounded on the south and south-west by the river Forth, which separates it from Stirlingshire, on the south-east by Fifeshire, and on every other side by Perthshire. It is the smallest county in Scotland, being little more than eight miles in length, and, at a medium, six miles and a half in breadth; thus extending over fifty-two square miles, or 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 of Scotland); and it abounds in the useful minerals, which have long been wrought upon a very extensive scale.

Between the Ochil Hills, which form the northern 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 carse lands on the south, and the vale of Devon on the north. And still farther to the north, the Ochil Hills, the highest of which, Bencleuch, 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 which blow from the north and north-east, and give Clackmannanshire some advantage, in regard to climate, over the adjoining counties.

The only streams worthy of notice which traverse this county are the Devon and the Black Devon, or, as they are often called, the North Devon and South Devon. The Devon rises in the county of Perth, and, descending with impetuosity from the Ochils, where its course is to the east, makes a very sharp turn towards the west. It then continues its course in that direction through the pleasant vale already mentioned, and falls into the Forth at the village of Cambus. Exclusive of its windings, the course of this river is more than twenty-six miles, though the distance in a direct line from its source to its embouchure does not exceed six miles. It has long been remarkable for the deep and dark chasms which it has worn in the rocks, and through which it flows in the earlier part of its course, being 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—are much 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 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 Devon has its source in the county of Fife, flows westward in a direction nearly parallel to the Devon, and falls into the Forth near Clackmannan. Many mills and coal engines are set in motion by the waters of this river, whose whole course is over coal strata. In a dry season it Clackmanan is an insignificant 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 run 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 7 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 L70,000. Mr Rennie, the celebrated engineer, made a survey with a view to a bridge at the Alloa ferry, which he declared to be practicable at an expense of L150,000; a work which has never been attempted. The passage, however, has of late been improved by means of new piers and steam-boats. 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, but returns immediately, and in an hour and a half more reaches 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 tecky 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 Devon at the base of the Ochils 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 abbacy 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 fifty 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 had 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, in name of 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 or 250 English acres, and the far greater number being below 100 acres. The rent of the county was returned to the collector of the property-tax for the year ending in April 1811, at L32,047, 12s.; so that, after making allowance for that part of the surface which 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 L2827, 5s. The old valuation, by which the land-tax and county rates are apportioned, is L26,482, 10s. 10d. Scots, or L2206, 17s. 7d. Clackmannanshire.

Sterling, of which somewhat more than a third belongs to estates held under entail. The richest carse land under current leases now (1854) lets for ten bushels of wheat a Scotch acre, payable by the fairs, and in the measure of the county. Good carse land commonly rents at three bolls an acre, one of which is wheat, one barley, and one oats. 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 the Earl of Mar, near Alloa. One of the greatest disadvantages which the agriculture of this district labours under is the want of limestone, of which, however, very considerable quantities are brought from Rescobie limeworks, and afterwards calcined in the county, where coal is always plentiful and cheap. Limeshells are 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 (haematites), cobalt, and arsenic, have all been discovered in the Ochil Mountains, between Airthy and Dollar; but, after having been wrought for a time with little success, the labour was 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 Ochils 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 beds, or in oblate balls imbedded in slaty clay, and yields from twenty-five to thirty per cent. of iron. That obtained from the mine formerly worked at Vicar's Bridge, near Dollar, afforded, it is said, above forty per cent.

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 view of Clackmannanshire, from its having afforded a very useful substitute, in the manufacture of flour, for the French buhr-stones, which it was so difficult to procure during the last 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 almost equal to the buhr.

The Society for the Encouragement of Arts in London presented this ingenious person with a hundred guineas for his discovery, after they had received the most satisfactory proofs of its great importance.

Coal has been wrought for two hundred years in this county. The quantity at present annually obtained may be estimated at 260,000 tons, of which a great part is shipped at Alloa, Clackmannan Pow, and Kennetpans, for foreign ports; and large quantities of coal are also now conveyed along the railways which extend to Aberdeen. In the scale of working, the collieries stand thus,—1. Alloa; 2. Clackmannan; 3. North Sauchie; 4. Tillicoultry; 5. Kennet; 6. Sheerdaile. It is all bituminous or common coal of a good quality; but no smithy or caking coal has 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 thickest that has yet been discovered is about seven feet. The strata which compose the coal-field are varieties of sandstone, shale, fire-clay, and argillaceous ironstone. Limestone is found among the lowest beds of the coal strata. Organic remains of shell-fish and plants abound in them; and of the latter, many are of genera now found only in the equatorial regions. Carbonic acid gas, termed choke-damp, is the most abundant of the noxious vapours found in the coal-mines of this field. Carburetted hydrogen, or Clackmannanshire 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 Ochils. 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 Sauchie collieries are drained by powerful steam-engines; that employed by the Devon Company, in particular, is one of great power, and is capable of drawing water from the depth of 280 feet. The Stirling and Dunfermline railway runs through the county of Clackmannan, and affords very great facilities for the transmission of goods and the conveyance of passengers. From the Devon iron-works, and the various collieries of the county, as well as from the great brick and tile works, there are railways to Alloa.

At the Alloa colliery the workmen have for a 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 are put into a general fund for the support of the poor.

Under the head of manufactures, the distilleries of this county formerly constituted by far the most prominent and considerable branch. In this small district there were 40 years ago no fewer than six large distilleries. Of these, Kilbagie and Kennetpans paid to government an excise-duty greater than the land-tax of Scotland; the former alone paying no less at one time than about half a million sterling. Previously to 1788, the quantity of grain annually consumed at Kilbagie, exceeded 60,000 bolls (45,000 quarters); while 700 cattle and 200 swine were annually fattened upon the grains and dreg. The saving in the stock of food for man effected by the stoppage of the distilleries was therefore much less considerable than had 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 stones 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. For several years there have been only three distilleries in the county. The manufacture of woollen goods and worsted has been long carried on in this county. The following statistics will show the importance which these manufactures have attained in Clackmannanshire. In Tillicoultry, which is the principal seat of the woollen manufacture, there were in 1851 fifteen factories containing 39 sets carding machines, &c., of which nine were self-acting mills of the largest and most approved kind. About 40,000 stones of wool were annually required for the manufactures. The power, partly water and partly steam, required for driving the whole machinery, was 184 horse-power.

In 1811, the total number of persons engaged in the factories was 836 men, 602 women, 352 children—in all 1,790.

There are now in the entire county 20 woollen mills, driven by 320 horse-power, employing 2600 persons, and annually consuming 1,800,000 lb. of wool.

At the Devon iron-works, already noticed, about 112 tons of pig iron are prepared weekly, a considerable part of which is used by the foundry at these works. In the parish of Dollar, on the banks of the Devon, a bleachfield was estab- The numbers of houses and inhabitants for the years Clagenfurt 1841 and 1851, are given in the subjoined table:

| Year | Houses | Persons | |------|--------|---------| | | Inhabited | Uninhabited | Building | Males | Females | Total | | 1841 | 3405 | 111 | 6 | 9,286 | 9,709 | 19,155 | | 1851 | 2950 | 95 | 53 | 11,242| 11,099 | 22,931 |