Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

LEITH.
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and Crail, daily ; to Dysart, Leven, and Largo,
twice a-day; to Kirkcaldy, Kingkorn, Pettycnr, and
Burntisland, several times a-day ; and to Stirling,
calling at Queensferry, Charleston, Bo'ness, Kincar-
dine, and Alloa, once a- day. Tke London and Leith
Old Shipping company have five smacks and a schooner
which sail from Leith on Tuesdays and Fridays.
The London and Edinburgh Shipping company have
seven smacks which sail from Leith on Tuesdays and
Fridays, an hour before high-water. Tke London,
Leith, Edinburgh, and Glasgow Shipping company
have six sailing-packets which leave Leith for Lon-
don on Tuesdays and Fridays, and a steam-convey-
ance for goods between Leith, Glasgow, and Greenock
on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The Car-
ron company have four smacks which sail from Leith
for Liverpool on or about tke 7th, 1 7th, and 27th of
every month. Tke Hull and Leitk Skipping com-
pany have vessels regularly plying between Leith
and Hull. The Leith and Newcastle Old Shipping
company have three vessels. The Leith, Hamburgh,
and Rotterdam Skipping company kave seven vessels
which sail from Leitk every alternate Tuesday and
Friday. Tke Inverness and Leitk Skipping com-
pany two vessels. Anotker company kave two smacks
between Inverness and Leith, one of which sails
from Leith every eight days. The Ross and Moray-
shire, tke Thurso, the Wick and Leith, and the Leith
and Helmsdale Shipping companies, have each two
smacks plying regularly between Leith and the ports
indicated in their titles. Tke Elie and Leith Skipping
company kave two packets, one of wkick leaves Leitk
every Thursday and Friday about two kours before
high-water. One of two — Anstrutber and Leitk
packets — sails from Leitk every Tuesday and Friday.
Tke Kirkcaldy and Leitk Skipping company have
two packets, one of which leaves Leith every Wednes-
day and Saturday. The Leith and Greenock Ship-
ping company have four vessels plying between Leith
and Greenock. The Dundee, Perth, and London
Shipping company have four smacks which sail on
Wednesdays and Saturdays from Leitk to Dundee
and Perth. Tke Stirling and Leith Skipping com-
pany kave five smacks. Several skips belonging to tke
port are employed in the Greenland whale-fishery ;
and a considerable number trade with distant foreign
ports, especially with tkose of tke Baltic and tke
West Indies. Tke larger vessels occupy tke docks,
and tke coasting vessels lie, for tke most part, in tke
harbour of tke river.
Along tke south side of tke docks stands a line of
lofty and spacious warekouses, almost all of origin
contemporaneous with tke docks, and employed for
bonding corn, wines, and other importations, and for
kindred purposes subservient to tke business of a
harbour. In consequence of tke want of a powder-
magazine, gunpowder sent from the mills of Mid-
Lothian for embarkation, and too dangerous a com-
modity to be admitted to any ordinary storing-place,
or to lie on board of vessels in tke harbour, has fre-
quently, when vessels do not sail at the time ex-
pected, to be carted back to await the postponed
date of sailing, and, in some instances, has been
driven six times between tke mills and tke port, a
distance eack time, in going and returning, of 20 or
24 miles, before it could be embarked. Opposite the
entrance of tke harbour is a round Martello tower.
On the end of the old pier stands a lighthouse for
the guidance of vessels entering the harbour: it has a
stationary light, and exhibits it during tke period of
there being not less than 9 feet of water on the
bar. Some distance landward of it on tke pier,
stands a signal-tower, whence a series of signals are
displayed (luring tke day to proclaim tke progress or
retrogression of tke tide. Tke general anckoring-
ground of vessels is 2 miles from land ; and, in tke
case of large steamers, is westward of Leitk, or
nearly opposite Newkaven. Tke roadstead during
tke war was the station of an admiral's guard-ship
and several cruizers. The quarantine- station of the
port is Inverkeithing bay on the Fife coast, 8? miles
in a direct line north-west by west of the entrance
of Leitk harbour.
The principal articles of importation from foreign
countries are wines, tobacco, timber, hemp, tallow,
and West Indian produce. The whole Baltic trade
with the east of Scotland was at one time con-
centrated in Leith ; but it has been so spiritedly and
successfully competed for by Kirkcaldy, Arbroath,
Montrose, and Aberdeen, but especially by Dundee,
as to have left to its old haunt but a scanty memo-
rial of their former intimacy. In connexion with the
naval station in the roads, the port enjoyed much
prosperity during the war from a place for tke con-
demnation and sale of prize-vessels ; and, in conse-
quence of Buonaparte's notable continental scheme
of prevention, it was the seat of an extensive traffic
for smuggling British goods into the continent by
way of Heligoland, which employed many vessels,
crowded its harbour, and greatly enriched not a few
of its inhabitants. Foreign speculations, however,
came, in numerous instances, to be severely unsuc-
cessful ; and tkeir failure, combined with tke disad-
vantageousness of tke harbour, and the oppressive-
ness of dues, to produce that efflux of prosperity the
ebb of which seems now to have been reached to
give place, it is hoped, to a steady and wealtk-bear-
ing flood.
Leitk, tkougk not in a strict sense a manufacturing
town, or tke seat of any staple produce, possesses
a great variety of productive establiskments, —
some of them of considerable or even great magni-
tude. Skip building is carried on in several yards,
and kas produced many large steamers and bulky
sailing-vessels. Tke Fury, tke first line-of-battle
skip constructed in Scotland after the Union, was
built on tke site of the present customhouse. A
Government steamer, larger tkan any steam-ship
ever previously built in Leitk, and a merchant-ship
larger than any sailing-vessel ever previously con-
structed in the place, were both commenced in 1840.
— Two sailcloth-factories, belonging respectively to
Messrs. Hay & Co. and to Mr. Button, had, in 1838,
100 looms, and employed workmen on wages vary-
ing, according to tke individual's age or strength,
from 10 to 10 shillings Along the shore of Soutk
Leitk are seven huge conical chimneys, manufac-
tories of glass, ckiefly in tbe department of common
ale and wine bottles. Tkis manufacture — which,
more than any other, gives a characteristic trait to
both tke employments and tke burgbal landscape of
Leitk — is usually supposed to kave been introduced
by Englisk settlers in tke time of Cromwell In the
centre of tke town a corn-mill, propelled by steam,
and of stupendous dimensions as compared with the
usual buildings of its class, towers aloft in its huge
bulk above the surface of the little undulating sea
of roofs, and forms a bold variety in the sky-line of
the town. This establishment was commenced in
1829-30, and, very heterogeneously, is united in the
same premises to a suite of baths of all sorts, to which
access is afforded on low rates of charge Ware-
houses of great extent are tbe seats of an extensive
traffic with large districts of Scotland, for the trans-
mission to them of wines, foreign and British spirits,
and similar or kindred articles of luxury. Other
manufacturing establiskments tkan tkose already
named, are some manufactories of cordage, several
breweries, a distillery, places for the rectifying of
spirits, an extensive sugar-refining establishment, a