or Clydesdale, is one of the largest, most populous, and most important of the counties of Scotland. It is situated between N. Lat. 55.18. and 55.56., and W. Long. 3.24. and 4.23. It is bounded N. by the counties of Dumfartton and Stirling, S. by Dumfriesshire, E. by the counties of Edinburgh, Linlithgow, and Peebles, and W. by those of Ayr and Renfrew. Its extreme length from S.E. to N.W. is about 54 miles, its greatest breadth from E. to W. being 33. It contains an area of about 986 square miles, or about 631,719 imperial acres. In early times Lanarkshire formed a portion of the Roman province of Valentia, and afterwards of the British kingdom of Strathclyde. A part of the neighbouring county of Renfrew was formerly included in this district, but during the reign of Robert III. it was disjoined, and formed into a separate jurisdiction in favour of his eldest son James. At that time Lanark was divided into two wards, the over and nether; the burgh of Lanark being the chief town and seat of justice of the former, and the barugh of Rutherglen of the latter. These divisions continued till the last century, when they were formed into three wards, and this division exists even to the present day. The upper, of which Lanark is the chief town, and which contains about two-thirds of the whole area of the county, is, on the E., S., and S.W., chiefly mountainous; the middle, which has the town of Hamilton in the centre, stretches along the W., and N.; and the lower contains the city of Glasgow, and a small tract around it.

This extensive district presents great variety of surface. In its upper, or southern portion, it is hilly and mountainous, the principal mountains being the lofty Lowthers, which, on an average, rise to 2450 feet above the level of the sea, the highest peak being 3100 feet. The heights of the other mountains are—Culterfell, 2454; Tintock, 2317; and Cairnabell, 1944. Leadhills, a village on the southern extremity of the county, is, at its S.W. end, 1323 feet above the level of the sea, being the highest inhabited ground in Scotland. In proceeding along the banks of the Clyde, N. from Tintock, the face of the country softens down to gentle elevations and depressions, and for 12 miles the river winds slowly through fertile haughs. The middle ward is much less elevated, few of the heights being much more than 700 feet above sea-level, the town of Hamilton being only about 80; yet there are no plains of any extent, except along the banks of the Clyde, and a considerable part of the surface is covered with moss, in many places to a great depth. Of the lower ward, the greater portion is a well inhabited district, particularly the banks of the Clyde, which are thickly planted with villas and villages, dependent on, or connected with, the city of Glasgow.

The principal river, being the third in size, but, in a commercial point of view, the greatest in Scotland, is the Clyde, from which the county is frequently called Clydesdale. It has its rise among the wastes of the mountains which separate Lanarkshire from Dumfriesshire, about 1400 feet above the level of the sea, and near to the sources of the Tweed and Annan. Issuing from its almost imperceptible source, about the head of the Dear Water, it flows onward in a N.W. direction, and after receiving several streamlets, assumes the name of the Clyde. Passing through a lonely and pastoral country, and thereafter skirting the ruined castle and little village of Crawford, it gradually increases in size until it reaches Bonnieton, the first of the famous Falls of the Clyde. Here the banks slope gently downwards, and are ornamented with lofty trees and leafy brushwood. Before reaching the fall the channel has become broad, and the course of the river uninterrupted and tranquil, but here the stream tumbles over a height of 27 feet, and descends into a glen in a broad and unbroken sheet. From this point the banks become precipitous, and are beautified with wood. The bed of the river becomes rugged, and its waters roll turbulently along, until they reach the magnificent fall of Corra, where they at once dash over a precipice of 85 feet in height, falling into the deep abyss of the Linn. The scenery in the neighbourhood of this cataract is of the boldest and most romantic description. Hurrying on through a deep ravine, the river reaches a third but smaller fall, called Dundaff Linn, and passing a singular piece of rock called Wallace's Chair, where it is said the Scottish patriot once found a temporary concealment, and skirting New Lanark, with its extensive cotton-mills, and passing the county town of Lanark, it at length receives the waters of the Mouse, which, dashing and foaming from the split rocks of Cartland Crags, adds to the volume of the stream, and contributes, at the precipice of Stonebyres, to form the fourth, and perhaps the most striking fall of the Clyde. Near to the junction of the Nethan with the Clyde are the ruins of Draffin or Craignethan Castle, generally considered as the Tillietudlem of Sir Walter Scott. In this castle the beautiful and unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, found a temporary asylum, after her escape from Lochleven Castle. The Clyde, having again received the Avon, and having passed the ruins of Culzow, sweeps through the richly-wooded haughs of Hamilton, extending to upwards of 1410 acres, in the centre of which stands the ducal palace of that name, one of the most magnificent and classical edifices in Scotland. Lower down, the Clyde is spanned by the Bridge of Bothwell, celebrated for the deadly conflict which took place in 1679 between the king's troops and the Covenanters, and passes the ruins of Blantyre priory, founded in the thirteenth century, and of Bothwell Castle. At Glasgow its commercial importance commences. There the Clyde becomes navigable for vessels of more than 1000 tons burden, and drawing fully 19 feet water. See GLASGOW.

The soil of Lanarkshire is of great variety, but the moorish and mountainous predominates. The upper ward consists, to a great extent, of moorland and pasture. In the lower valleys of this ward, however, wheat is sometimes grown, but the cereals best adapted for this lofty district are oats and barley. Potatoes are widely cultivated, while of late years turnip husbandry has been much increased. In the middle ward the land under tillage is chiefly from 250 to 300 feet above the level of the sea. It is generally clay, but along the banks of the Clyde and its tributaries there are considerable tracts of an alluvial description. It is in this ward where the orchards of Lanarkshire are placed, which seem to have been a characteristic of this portion of Scotland since the days of the venerable Bede. During the French war, when excluded from the continental supply, the yearly average derived from their fruit was little short of £8000; but since the increased facilities for continental communication, many of the Lanarkshire orchards have been now as much devoted to the rearing of gooseberry and currant bushes for the Glasgow market as to the cultivation of apples, pears, or plums, which are subjected to foreign competition. The lower ward, particularly along the banks of the Clyde, is a fertile and highly cultivated district. From the vicinity of Glasgow, the farmers are here stimulated to the highest efforts of agricultural improvement. Of late years much land has been reclaimed, and draining has been everywhere prosecuted with great vigour, while the plantation of trees in exposed situations has also contributed to ameliorate the climate. As the greatest portion of the county slopes towards the W., the breezes of the Atlantic exert a powerful influence on the climate. For about two-thirds of the year the wind blows from the S.W. and W. Frosts are never of long duration, and long-lying snow is rare. In general the atmosphere is humid, and the harvest, at least in the uplands, is generally late. The range of the thermometer is from 11° to 85°. The mean maximum and minimum at Glasgow for 1851 to 1854 was 47°, while the mean quantity of rain that fell each year was 37.22 inches.

From the peculiarity of the soil, and the humidity of the climate, great attention is paid to the rearing of stock, and to the produce of the dairy. The fact is, milk cows and dairy produce are two of the chief objects of attention in the upper ward, and particularly in the parishes of Carnwath and Lesmahagow, where the best cheeses are made, being equal to the first quality of Dunlop. The Ayrshire breed of cattle has hitherto been most prized, but the Lanarkshire newly improved breed, crossed by the Ayrshire cow and short-horned bull, or vice versa, has been found superior. The draught horses of this county are justly celebrated. They are generally bred in the upper ward, and are supposed to have originated from some Flanders or Holstein horses brought over in the seventeenth century by one of the dukes of Hamilton.

The following are the agricultural statistics of the county in 1856, omitting fractions:

| Number of occupiers | 2,978 | |---------------------|-------| | Total acreage under a rotation crop | 206,641 acres |

| Crop | Acres | |------|-------| | Wheat | 8,978 | | Barley | 1,797 | | Oats | 54,803 | | Rape | 56 | | Flax | 299 | | Turnip Seed | 4,160 | | Pease | 317 | | Vetches or Tares | 1,682 | | Turnips | 11,443 | | Potatoes | 8,733 | | Mangold | 114 | | Carrots | 46 | | Cabbages | 251 | | Rape | 2 | | Flax | 546 | | Turnip Seed | 61 | | Other root crops | 132 | | Brass or Summer Fal | 1,073 | | Grass and Hay under rotation | 115,262 |

Horses for agricultural purposes above 3 years: - Old: 5,755 - Do. do. under 3 years: 1,506 - All other horses: 8,670

Milk cows: 31,309 Other cattle: 20,740 Calves: 9,373

Sheep of all ages, for breeding: 61,422 Do. do. for feeding: 89,859 Lambs: 20,313 Swine: 66,817

Total stock: 254,079

Irrespective of the city of Glasgow and the burgh of Lanark, there are the burghs of Hamilton, Airdrie, and Rutherglen, with which may be classed the populous villages of Strathaven, Biggar, Blantyre, Bothwell, Wishaw, Coatbridge, Carnwath, Carlisle, Douglas, Lesmahagow, Leadhills, New Lanark, Cambuslang, and Stonehouse. The cotton manufactures, the iron-works, and mining give employment to the generality of their inhabitants.

The lakes or lochs within the bounds of Lanarkshire are few and small. Of these are the Bishop's Loch between the parishes of Cadder and Old Monkland, the Black Loch in New Monkland, Johnston Loch in Cadder, Long Loch near Lanark, Cran Loch in the parish of Dunsyre, and Hogranfield and Frankfield Lochs in the Barony parish of Glasgow. The most extensive sheet of water in the county is the Hill Reservoir, for supplying the Forth and Clyde and Monkland Canals, and which covers an extent of 307 acres.

The geological structure of Lanarkshire is very varied. The central and western districts are occupied by an extensive and rich coal-field, a part of the great carboniferous band traversing Scotland from sea to sea, in a direction from S.W. to N.E. The middle portion of this formation in the Monklands and adjoining parishes is of fresh water origin, and without limestone, but contains the best coal seams, with blackband and other ironstones. Towards the borders on all sides a lower marine series, with crinoid and coralline limestones, crops out. It also contains many valuable coal seams and ironstone, and a few interpolated beds of estuary or fresh water origin. The line of junction between this lower series and the old red sandstone passes across the upper ward, in the vicinity of the Falls of the Clyde, Lanark, and Carstairs. The old red also bounds the fields on the N. and W. in the counties of Dumfriesshire and Renfrew. The boundaries on the E. and W. are chiefly formed of nearly continuous ranges of trap hills, separating the Lanark fields on the one hand from those of Linlithgow, and on the other hand from those of Ayr. Trap rocks also rise through, and disturb the strata of the interior in many places, and numerous whitish dykes intersect the area, affecting generally a N. and S. direction. These, like the other erupted masses, usually alter the strata passed through, converting coal into coke, clay into jasper, and highly indurating the shales and sandstones. In the highest and most southern portion of the county, viz., at Leadhills, there are veins of lead from a few inches to fifteen, and from this silver, to the extent of six to twelve oz. in the ton, has been extracted. Gold also is found among the mountains, imbedded in quartz, or washed down into the sides of rivulets. Gold was first discovered here in the reign of James III., from which a number of coins, known by the name of unicorns, was coined. In the reign of James V. 300 persons were employed searching for this metal, and it is said that gold to the extent of L100,000 was collected. In 1854, the lead obtained at Leadhills amounted to 216 tons, from which 170 tons of pure lead was obtained. In the valuable paper by Mr. Hunt, "On the Mining Industries of the United Kingdom," he states that L20,000 were expended at Leadhills to obtain less than L5,000 of gold.

It is on the mineral wealth of the county that its prosperity chiefly depends. In 1854 there were 153 collieries, employing 15,580 persons, and 13 ironworks, having 72 furnaces in blast, and 16 out of blast, and employing 3649 iron-miners, and about 1000 men in the management and working of the furnaces. In the manufacture of malleable iron, it may be stated that, up to 1842, the production did not exceed 35,000 tons, whereas in 1854 it reached 122,400, the number of men employed in this branch being about 4000. The amount of yearly wages paid to the persons employed in the iron and coal works throughout Lanarkshire amounted, in 1854, to about L1,352,400.

While these departments of industry give so much employment to the population of Lanarkshire, the various cotton, flax, silk, and woollen factories within its bounds tend still more to give work and wages to the people. In 1850 there were 85 cotton-spinning factories, having 864,088 spindles, and 18,811 power looms, employing 5013 males and 17,450 females; 8 woollen factories, having 8765 spindles, and employing 115 males and 372 females; one worsted factory, having 96 spindles, and employing 225 males and 78 females; four flax factories, having 21,044 spindles, and employing 321 males and 808 females; and four silk factories, having 24,462 spindles, and employing 85 males and 418 females. The grand total being 102 factories, 918,395 spindles, 18,811 power looms, and 24,885 persons employed. These last figures show that those working in factories are 47 per cent. of the population of Lanarkshire in 1851. Since 1850 there has been a considerable increase of cotton manufactories within the county, some very extensive new factories having been lately erected, although a few also have unfortunately been consumed by fire. The progress of cotton-spinning may be exemplified from the fact that there were only 44 cotton mills in 1881, having 640,188 spindles.

Lanarkshire is well supplied with roads, canals, and railways. The great road from Glasgow to Carlisle and London intersects the whole county, and in every direction it is traversed by roads in the best state of repair. In addition to the great and increasing navigation of the Clyde, the Forth and Clyde Canal connects it with both friths. The Monkland Canal brings down the mineral riches of that Lancashire district to Glasgow, and the Ardrossan Canal connects Glasgow with Paisley and Johnston. Nowhere in Scotland are more railways to be found. The Caledonian links it with England and the north; the South-Western with Ayrshire and Dumfries; the Hamilton with Glasgow and that burgh; the Dumbartonshire with the Vale of Leven, Helensburgh, and the Highlands; and the Wishaw and Coltness with the coal and iron fields of Willstown and Shotts.

In population, no county in Scotland has increased so rapidly as Lanarkshire. In 1801 it amounted to 146,699; in 1811, to 191,752; in 1821, to 244,387; in 1831, to 316,819; in 1851, to 532,114. The following table gives a summary of the population at the last and previous census in the three different wards of the county.

| Year | Upper Ward | Middle Ward | Lower Ward | |------|------------|-------------|------------| | | Males | Females | Males | Females | Males | Females | Total | | 1851 | 19,670 | 20,702 | 61,411 | 57,620 | 175,713 | 196,098 | 532,114 | | 1841 | 17,756 | 19,678 | 50,451 | 46,391 | 143,290 | 157,203 | 322,602 | | Increase | 1814 | 1624 | 10,960 | 11,299 | 33,423 | 38,895 | 46,197 | 51,818 | 98,015 |

From the above table it will be observed that the total increase upon the whole county, including the city of Glasgow, from 1841 to 1851, was no less than 98,015, the increase being particularly observable in the manufacturing and mining districts, the rate of increase over the whole county being nearly 2-25 per cent. on the entire population of the county, and the rate on the city of Glasgow being 23-62 per cent. In the upper ward, the excess of females in 1851 was 1132; in the middle ward, the excess of males over females was 2791; and in the lower ward, the excess of females over males was 19,385; while the excess of females, which chiefly obtains in Glasgow, was, over the whole county, 16,726. From the great increase of mining operations in the middle ward, and of shipbuilding, engineering, and iron-works around Glasgow, attracting thither hosts of workmen, since the last census was taken, the present population (1856) cannot be less than 600,000. As the last Government census only gives the number of houses, and not, as formerly, of distinct dwelling-houses, it is impossible to state the precise number of inhabited houses, as these are understood in Scotland, that is to say, the houses, whether in flats or otherwise occupied, each by a distinct family. As the number of separate occupiers or families was found in 1851 to be 103,106, this figure may be taken as a near approximation to the number of distinct occupied houses within the whole county. In 1841, these amounted to only 81,576.

The county of Lanark returns one M.P., the constituency being in 1856 only 3126. Were the Registration of Voters Act in burghs extended to counties, the constituency would probably be trebled. The city of Glasgow sends two members, with a constituency of (in 1856) 18,168; and the royal burghs of Lanark and Rutherglen, and the towns of Hamilton and Airdrie, have a share in the election of two other members; Lanark, Hamilton, and Airdrie being joined with Linlithgow and Falkirk; while Rutherglen is linked with Kilmarnock, Renfrew, Dumbarton, and Port-Glasgow. Lanarkshire contains 35 parishes, of which 11 belong to the Presbytery of Lanark, 14 to that of Hamilton, and 21 to that of Glasgow, all in the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, and 9 to the Presbytery of Biggar, in the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Of clergymen, there are 95 belonging to the Establishment, 60 to the Free Church, 59 to the United Presbyterians, with a fair proportion of Episcopalians, Baptists, Independents, Roman Catholics, &c. For its judicial management the county has one principal sheriff and six substitutes, the principal and three substitutes being resident in Glasgow, the other three being resident in Lanark, Hamilton, and Airdrie. There are four prisons within the county, viz., at Glasgow, Hamilton, Lanark, and Airdrie. The following is the daily average number of criminal prisoners confined in each of these during the last four years:

| Year | Lanark | Hamilton | Airdrie | Glasgow | Total | |------|--------|----------|---------|---------|-------| | 1852-53 | 22 | 37 | 19 | 580 | 658 | | 1853-54 | 13 | 34 | 30 | 574 | 651 | | 1854-55 | 13 | 34 | 34 | 547 | 628 | | 1855-56 | 23 | 34 | 33 | 461 | 551 | | | 71 | 139 | 116 | 2162 | 2488 |

It will be observed from the above table that, in spite of an ever increasing population, there has been for four years past an annual diminution of criminal prisoners within the jails of Lanarkshire.

The valued rent of Lanarkshire in 1674 was L1,162,131 Scots, the valued rent in 1855-56, was as follows:

| City of Glasgow, including Railways and Canals | £1,335,475 | | County landward portion | do. | 917,970 | | Hamilton, Burgh of | do. | 19,682 | | Airdrie | do. | 23,848 | | Rutherglen | do. | 11,381 | | Lanark | do. | 8,043 | | | | £2,317,599 |

(L. s.—d.)