Imperial gazeteer of Scotland, or, Dictionary of Scottish topography > Volume 1

FORTH.
G85
FORTH.
curing supplies for the daily markets of Edinburgh,
and for the markets of other towns. At Stirling,
Alloa, Kincardine, and numerous other places, are
valuable fisheries of salmon. An annual shoal of
herrings generally visits the frith, and, in some
years, has yielded a prodigious produce; but its
fish are esteemed decidedly inferior in quality to
those of the western coasts of Scotland. At Cramond
and Inchmickery were formerly vast beds of oys-
ters ; but, from over-fishing, they have been much
exhausted; and they also yield a mollusc which, in
quality and size, is generally inferior to that obtained
in many places on the British coasts.
The Forth, it has been calculated, drains a super-
ficies of 574 square miles. Its entire length of course,
in a direct line, is upwards of 90 miles ; but, includ-
ing all the sinuosities for which it is so remarkable,
it cannot be estimated at less than 170 miles. " The
tides in the Forth," says Mr. Anderson, " run vari-
ously, both in respect of time and velocity. This
is caused partly by the formation of its shores, and
partly by the obstruction of islands and shallows,
and the meeting of currents. For instance, over
the sands of Leith there is an apparent receding
tide two hours before it is high water, because the
pressure of the current on the outside of the Black
rocks, which runs very strong, causes an eddy to
exist in the space between Newhaven pier and Leith
pier, and running eastwards at 1J knots an hour,
while the actual tide after high water runs at the
rate of 2 J miles an hour; therefore, the flowing tide,
which runs 1J knots an hour, appears to flow only
for four hours, while the ebbing tide continues for
eight hours. On the north shore, and in raid-chan-
nel, the tides run equal in respect of duration, and at
the rate of from 3 to 3j knots an hour. The cur-
rent or flowing tide strikes hard, and runs very close
upon the north shore from Kinghornness to the pro-
montory west of Aberdour at 3J knots an hour. It
again flows through the cut at Queensferry at the
rate of five knots an hour; about 6 miles above
Queensferry it flows at the rate of about 2 miles to
2^ miles an hour, and the ebb tide at the same rate.
The ebb tide again runs through the strait at
Queensferry at six knots an hour ; this violent cur-
rent causes the ebb tide again in the bay on the
north shore, which is found by the north headland
to flow to the west for two hours after the turn of
the tide, and at the rate of 1J knots an hour." The
frith of Forth is often mentioned in history in con-
nection with invasions, with the landing of troops
or warlike muniments from foreign friendly powers,
and with the voyages, on errands of state or of ma-
trimony, of the princes and princesses of Scotland.
Both the river and the frith also figure often and
variously in poetry, — sometimes as to their gen-
eral character, and very frequently as to particular
scenes or stretches. Several of the Scottish poets,
as well as multitudes of the common people, speak
of the Forth as though it was the princeliest of all
the waters of Scotland; and Drummoud of Haw-
thornden, in his panegyric on James VI.,' on occa-
sion of that monarch's visit to his ancient kingdom
after his accession to the throne of England, repre-
sents the Forth as saying,—
" And you, my nymphs, rise from your moist repair,
Strew all your springs and grots with lilies fair;
Some swiftest-footed, get them hence and pray
Our floods and lakes come keep this holida}'.
What e'er beneath Albania's hills do run,
Which see the rising or the setting sun,
Which drink stern Grampius' mists, or Ochiil's snows,
Stone-rolling Tay, Tyne tortoise-like that flows,
The pearly Don, the Dees, the fertile Spey,
Wild Nevar which doth see our longest day,
Ness smoking sulphur, Spean with mountains crown'd,
Strange Lomond ibr his floating isles renowned.
The Irish Ryan, Ken, the silver Ayr,
The snaky IJoon, the Ore with rushy Imir,
The chrystal-streaming Kith, loud-bellowing Clyde,
Tweed which no more our kingdoms shall divide,
Rank-swelling Annan, Lid with curled streams,
The Esks, the Solway where they lose their names;
To every one proclaim our joys and feasts,
Our triumphs; bid all come to be our guests ;
And as they meet in Neptune's azure hall,
Bid them bid sea-gods keep this festival."
FORTH AND CLYDE CANAL, an artificial
navigable communication between the frith of Forth
and the frith of Clyde. The veiy deep indentation
of the eastern and the western sides of Scotland by
these friths, at points not far from the same line of
latitude, and the strictly lowland character of the
territory between their terminations, combined with
the danger and the tediousness of the natural navi-
gation from side to side of the country along the
rough marine high-way round the Pentlaud frith,
suggested, at a very early period of modern civili-
zation, the desirableness of a Forth and Clyde canal.
In the reign of Charles II., a project was conceived
of cutting out so deep and broad a communication
as should admit the transit of even transports and
small ships of war; but it probably shared the
odium of the unpopular government which conceived
it, and would, if attempted to be put in execution,
have starved upon the wretched fragments of a pro-
digal and ill-directed public expenditure. In 1723,
a second and similar project led to the making of a
survey by Mr. Gordon, the well-known author of the
' Itinerarium Septentrionale ; ' but produced no fur-
ther result. In 1761, Lord Napier, somewhat vary-
ing the previous abortive projects, sustained, at his
private cost, a survey and financial estimate, by Mr.
Robert M'Kell, for a canal from the mouth of Carron
water, in Stirlingshire, to the mouth of Yoker burn,
5 miles below Glasgow ; and so deeply did the
result excite the interest of the Board of Trustees
for the Encouragement of Fisheries and Manufac-
tures of Scotland, that they obtained from the cele-
brated engineer, Mr. Smeaton, a new survey and
estimate, valuing the cost of the projected work at
£80,000. The mercantile community of Glasgow
and its neighbourhood, either faithless of practical
results, or indignant at what they conceived to be a
proposed uselessness and utter prodigality of expen-
diture, and, at the same time, tantalized by delays
in the commencement of a work of vast importance
to their interests, walked now rather abruptly into
the arena, resolved to cut a canal 4 feet deep at the cost
of £30,000, subscribed in the course of two days the
whole amount of the estimated cost, and authorized
a formal application to be made for parliamentary
sanction. Aristocracy, national pride, metropolitan
vanity, and perhaps a considerable degree of perspi-
cacious insight into the true interests of the country,
were shocked at what was thought the mean project
of a long ditch in lieu of an artificial river ; and
they poured down upon it the invasions of a paper
war, and enlisted their forces in parliament to give
it a vigorous opposition. The nobility and gentry
of the country, whether right or wrong in the
opinions they entertained, succeeded in getting an
ascendency so as to tie up the hands of the mer-
chants ; and, in 1767, they began a subscription in
London for cutting a canal seven feet deep at the
estimated expense of £150,000. The subscribers
obtained the sanction of parliament, and were incor-
porated by the name of ' The Companj' of Proprietors
of the Forth and Clyde Navigation;' their joint
stock to consist of 1,500 shares of £100, with liberty
to borrow £50,000.
In 1768 the work was begun at the east end,
under the direction of Mr. Smeaton. On the 10th ol
July, Sir Lawrence Dundas of Kerse performed the