Gazetteer of Scotland

PER
the adjacent plain on which Perth is
now fituated, they cried out with one
confent, ecce Tiber ! ecce campus Mar-
tius ! Behold the Tiber ! behold the
field <of Mars ! comparing what they
faw to their own river, and to the ex-
tenfive plain in the neighbourhood of
Rome. The Italians, many ages after,
were in ufe to give to the Tay the
name of New Tiber; and Fordun gave
the name Tibermore (now Tibbermuir)
to an extenfive muir which lies W.
from the town of Perth. As the field
at Rome was, by the early Romans,
confecrated to Mars; fo their depend-
ents found, in the field adjoining the
Tay, an old temple, which, fay the
Britifh and Welch hiftorians, was built
many ages before by one of the Britifh
kings, and dedicated to Mars. The
Romans performed worlhip here to
that heathen deity, in hopes of their
expedition's being favoured in the new
country into which they were come-
Agricola pitched his camp in the mid-
dle of that field, on the fpot where
Perth ftands. He propofed to make
it a winter camp ; and afterwards
built what he intended to be a colo-
nial town. He fortified it with walls,
and with a ftrong caftle ; and fupplied
the ditche6 with water by an aqueduct
from the Almond. Alfo, with much
labour to his foldiers, and probably
to the poor natives, a large wooden
bridge was conftructed over the river
at Perth." The Pi<fts, after their con-
verfion to Chriftianity, confecrated
the church they had built in Perth,
to St. John the Baptift, whom they
chofe as the tutelar Saint of the town,
which, from this circumftance, receiv-
ed the name of St. John' 's-town. Bo-
ethius, and his follower Buchannan,
relate, that Perth was formerly fitu-
ated higher up the Tay, and was fwept
away by a flood in the year iaio ;
and that it was afterwards rebuilt on
the fpot where it now ftands, and re-
ceived its charter of erection into a
royal borough from William the Lion
in that year: but there is every reafon
to reject their accounts as fabulous.
Jt is true, that in 1210, King William
renewed the charter of Perth at Stir-
ling, on the ioth of October ; and
therein it is exprefsly faid, that he
confirms the privileges which the
burgh enjoyed in the time of his
grandfather King David, who died in
PER
1153, and adds to it new privileges;
and, belides, there are many cnarters
extant, concerning the town, from
the year 1106 to the year 1210, which
confute the account given by Boe-
thius, fome of them exprefsly de-
ferring the prefent fituation. At
that period it was ftrongly fortified,
and was reckoned the capital city of
the Scottifh kingdom, and now holds
next in priority to Edinburgh and
Glafgow. In feveral of the public
writs, particularly about the time of
James VI. it is called the city of Perth,
and ftill bears that title. Prior to the
reign of the Stewart family, it was
the ufual refidence of the Scottifh mo-
narch ; and the Parliament-boufe, and
many of the houfes of the nobility,
ftill remain, modernized and convert-
ed as well as they poffibly could, into
dwelling-houfes. There were form-
erly a great many religious houfes and
eftablifhments, which were moftly de-
ftroyed at the Reformation. Among
thele may be enumerated the follow-
ing : 1 ft, the Dominican or Black Fri-
ar's manajlery, founded in 1231 by A-
lexander II.; 2nd, the monajlery oi the
Carmelites or White Friars, rounded
in the reign of Alexander III.; 3d, the
Cbarter-houfe or monajlery of the Car-
thitfians, founded by James Lin 1429;
4th, the Francifcan or Gray Friars mo-
najlery, founded by Lord Oliphant in
1460 ; befides a number of chapels
and nunneries, which ihared the fate
of the monafteries during the Reform-
ation, The quays are very convenient
for unloading the veffels which come
up to Perth ; but the largeft veffels,
belonging to the town, are obliged to
unload at Newburgh, the Tay being
rather fhallow for large veffels above
that port. In early times, Perth was
a place of great trade. Alexander
Neckham, an Englifh author, who
died in 1227, takes notice of Perth in
the following diftich, quoted in Cam-
den's Britannia :
" Tranfis ample Ta'h per rura, per op-:
pi da, per Perth
Regnum fujlcntant, illiv.s urbis opes."
Thus Engliihed in Biihop Giblbn's
tranflation of Camden's book :
" Great Tay thro' Perth, thro' towns,
thro' country flies,
Perth, the whole kingdom with hex
wealth fupplics.