Gazetteer of Scotland

PER
and a variety of deciduous trees, but
no firs ffourilhed. This county alio
is the boundary between thofe parts
of Britain where coal has been difco-
vered, and thefe where that mineral
has not hitherto been found, or only
in fmall quantities ; that uieful fofril
which is fo neceffary for the comfort
of the fouthern diflricts, being lefs re-
quifite in the northern, where extenfive
forefts of pine, the beft of all fuel,
formerly grew, and ftill grow fponta-
neoufly. Here alfo is the divifion be-
twixt the granite and the freeftone ;
there being little or no freeftone N.
of Perthlhire, and granite being more
rare towards the S. Perthlhire is di-
vided into 76 parochial diftriifts, which
contained, by the returns made to Sir
John Sinclair, in 1790-8, 133,274 in-
habitants; increafe 14,371 fince 1755.
The valued rent of this county is
339,8iSl. 5s. 8d. Scots, and the real
land rent is eftirnated at 230,9001.
fterling.
PERTH ; the capital of the county
of the fame name, is a large, agree-
able, and populous town, iituated on
the S. W. bank of the river Tay, about
28 Englifir miles from the place where
that river enters the German ocean.
The ftreets and houfes are for the
greater part difpoied in a regularity
of plan, which proves them to be not
of the moll remote antiquity. The
level plain upon which the town is
built, being Angularly favourable for
regularity, might, indeed, from the
firft, have given it this advantage over
the other burghs. Three of the prin-
cipal ftreets run in a direction nearly
E. and W. from the river, which are
interfered by others extending from
N. to S. It would feem, that in former
times, particular ftreets were inhabit-
ed, each by a particular clafs of arti-
fans. The Skinnergate was inhabited
by the glovers and leather-dealers ;
and fome of the other ftreets are named
after the fame manner. The houfes
of the ftreet which runs next to, and
parallel with the Toy, called the Wa-
tergate, are moftly old buildings, at
the S. end of which is the palace of
the Cowrie family, built by the Count-
efs of Huntly about the year 1520,
and now occupied as artillery bar-
racks. This houfe is noted for an at-
tempt faid to have been made by the
Earl of Cowrie and his brother, on
PER
the 5th of Auguft 1600, to aflaffinate
James VI., who called for help out of
a window, and was refcued by his
attendant' rufhing into the room. A-
mong all the doubtful facts which
hiftory has att npted to develope,
this is one of the moil myfterious,
WhetlK r the Earl of Gowrie intended
to aflaffinate the King, or that James
intended to aflaffinate the Earl, 01*
whether any affaflination was intended
on any fide, as Mr. Gilpin obferves,
is equally doubtful. This event, how-
ever magnified and attefted by co-
temporary writers, is made up of fi>
many improbabilities, that Lord Hailes
in republiihing the account, printed
by authority in the year 1600, prepar-
atory to his further obfervatipns upon
it, feems juftified in discrediting a ftory
which paffed for problematical with
lb many perfons, at the very time.
Dr. Robertfon, who gives a very long
and detailed account of the event,
feems to make it appear that Gowrie
wifhed to fecure the king's perfon for
political purpofes. But Mr. Adamfon,
in the " Mufes Threnodies" aflerts, that
it was James's with to get rid of two
popular characters, whole family had
been long hoftile to his meafures. The
Toivn-houfe and Tolbooth are fituated
at the foot of the high-ftreet ; but, as
the rooms are fraali and inconvenient,
application is immediately to be made
to parliament for a bill, for erecting
a new Town-houfe, with apartments
for the fheriff and jufticiary courts,
and for the county meetings ; and,
upon the fame bill, a Bridewell is to
be erected. The Guild-hall is a large
building, about the middle of the high-
ftreet. Several of the incorporated
trades alfo have halls for their meet-
ings, of which the Glovers is by far
the moft elegant. The church in
which John Knox harangued, when
preaching the reformed religion in
Perth, ftill ftands, and is divided into
three, named the Eaft, Weft, and Mid-
dle Kirks, which have been lately
modernized. At the head of the high-
ftreet, terminating it towards the W.»
a Chapel of Eafe has been built within
thefe few years, which is perhaps in-
ferior to none in Scotland, in point of
elegance of defign, and execution.
There are alfo chapels for the feveral
difienting congregations in almoft e-
very part of the town. A little to the