MONTROSE, a royal burgh, and maritime town in the county of Forfar, is situated at the mouth of the river South Esk, 70 miles north from Edinburgh, in 34' of north Latitude, and 2° 10' of west Longitude from London. The ancient name of Montrose, according to Bocce, was Celurea ; but the etymology of its modern appellation has been vat iuusly resolved. In Latin, it is called Manturum by Ravenna ; and by Cambden Mons rosarum, " the Mount of Roses ;" in French, Mons-trois, 41 three hills or mounts ;" in the ancient British, Man ter-rose, " the mouth of the stream ;" in the Gaelic, Mon ross, " promontory-hill," or Moin-ross," the promontory of the moss," of meadh, (pronounced mu) an-ross, " the field or plain of the peninsula." The second of these derivations, though the most unlikely of all, is counte nanced by the seal of the town, which bears the ornament of roses, with the following motto, " Mare ditat, Rosa dccorat ;" but the two last, besides being the most pro bable, correspond best with the pronunciation of the name by the common people in the neighbourhood, and by all who speak the Gaelic language, viz. difunross.
The erection of Montrose into a royal burgh has ge nerally been referred to the year 1352, the twenty-third of the reign of David H. ; but there is every reason to think that the original charter must have emanated from David I. In the rolls of the parliament, which was held at Edinburgh, in September, 1357, for effect ing the ransom of David [I. from his captivity in Eng land, the burgh of Montrose stands the ninth upon the list, with the names of eight other burghs behind it ; a circumstance, which is scarcely compatible with the supposition of its having been created a royal burgh only five years before. It appears, at least, to have been a place of some note long before the earliest date assigned to its erection as a royal burgh ; and is men tioi,ed in Dalrymple's ?lnnals of Scotland, among some of the principal cities of the kingdom Is loch were nearly der,royed by fire in the year 1244. Its name is con t ected with many important events in Scottish history. It is mentioned by Froissart as the port from which Sir James Douglas embarked, in 1330, with a numerous and splendid retinue, on a pilgrimage to the holy land, carrying along with him the heart of Robert de Brus.* It is distinguished as the first place in Scotland where the Greek language was taught, by teachers from France, brought over by John Erskine of Dun, in 1534 ; and as having sent forth, from its seminary, the celebrated scholar Andrew Melville. It was the birth place of the warlike Marquis of Montrose ; and the house in which he was born, was occupied as an inn not many years ago. It was the only town in Scotland, so late as the com mencement of the eighteenth century, where a person could be found who understood the management of pumps in coal works, namely John Young, a citizen of Montrose, who had been sent over to Holland by the magistrates, for the purpose of learning the most im proved modes of constructing and using windmills. It was the first port made by the French fleet, in Decem ber, 1715, with the Pretender on board ; and that prince embarked at the same place in February of the following year. But one of the principal events of the history of Montrose regards an alteration in its own municipal con stitution. The set of the burgh formerly consisted of nineteen members, seventeen as representatives of the guildry, and two as representing the seven incorporated trades. The old council elected the new ; and the old and new elected the office-bearers. But the magistrates and council, upon the petition of the guild-brethren and the incorporated trades, granted to the former the elec tion of their clean, who became ex officio a member of council ; and to the latter the election of their two repre sentatives in council ; and this alteration in the set having been submitted to the royal burghs for their approbation, was confirmed by them in July, 1816. In consequence, however, of an informality in the mode of electing the magistracy at Michaelmas follow ing, the burgh was disfranchised by a sentence of the court of session ; and, in answer to a petition from the inhabitants, a new charter, with an improved constitution, was granted by the crown, in the following terms : " That the town-council shall, as formerly, consist of nineteen persons, including in that number the provost, three bailies, the dean of guild, treasurer, and the master of the hospital ; of which nineteen, fifteen shall be resident guild-brethren, and four shall be resident craftsmen, in cluding the deacon-convener for the time : That, at the Michaelmas election, the six eldest councillors for the time from the guildry, who have not served in any of the offices after mentioned for the year preceding, and the whole four councillors from the craftsmen, shall go out, but shall nevertheless be re-eligible, if their respective constituents shall think fit : That, upon the Monday of the week immediately preceding Michaelmas, in each year, the mapisirates and council shall meet, and declare the names of six guild councillors who go out in ro tation, and also what vacancies have arisen during the preceding years by death or otherwise, in the number of guild councillors: That, on the following day, being Tuesday, the guildry incorporation shall assemble at their ordinary place of meeting, and shall first elect their dean of guild, and six members of the guildry, as his council for the ensuing year; and the person so chosen as dean of guild shall, in virtue of his office, be a ma gistrate and councillor of the burgh ; and the said incor poration shall then proceed to fill up the vacancies in the number of merchant councillors, occasioned by rotation, non-acceptance, resignation, death, or otherwise, during the preceding year: That the seven incorporated trades shall assemble together in one place on the said Tuesday, and shall first elect their deacon convener, who shall, in virtue of his office, be a councillor to represent the trades ; and they shall then proceed to elect other three in the room of those who retire from office, and that two of the four trades•councillors to be so elected may be guild brethren, being always operative crafts men, and the persons electing them shall have no vote in the guild in the same election ; but the other two trades•councillors shall be operative craftsmen and bur gesses only : That the council shall meet on the 'Wed immediately preceding 'Michaelmas, unless Mi chaelmas-day shall happen to be upon Wednesday, in which case they shall meet on Michaelmas-day, and conclude the annual election for the ensuing year, by continuing the ex officiis members, electing the two members of council, who do not go out by rotation, and receiving the new members from the guildry and trades; and, after such election, and receiving the new council lors, the members both of the old and new council shall, according to the formor set of the burgh, choose a pro vost, three bailies, a treasurer, and hospital-master ; that the provost, bailies, treasurer, and hospital-master, shall not be continued in their offices longer than two years together ; hut they, with the dean of guild, shall re main ex officas members of the council for the year im mediately following that in which they shall have served in these offices respectively."
The town of Montrose stands on a level sandy plain, or peninsula, bounded on the north-east by the German Ocean, on the south by the river South Esk, and on the west by a large expanse of water, called the Basin, about eight miles in circumference. This basin, through which the South Esk flows into the sea, is nearly dry at low water ; but is so completely filled by every tide, as to wash the garden walls on the west side of the town, and to afford sufficient depth of water in the channel of the river for allowing small sloops to be navigated to the distance of three miles above the harbour. At these periods of high water, the appearance of Montrose, when first discerned from the public road on the south, is peculiarly striking, and seldom fails to arrest the eye of a stranger : the basin opening towards the left in all the beauty of a circular lake ; the fertile and fully culti vated fields rising gently from its banks; the numerous surrounding country-seats, which burst at once upon the view ; the town, and harbour, and bay, stretching farther on the right ; and the lofty summits of the Grampians, nearly in the centre of the landscape, closing the pros pect towards the north-west—altogether present to the view of the traveller, one of the most magnificent and diversified amphitheatres to be found in the United Kingdoms. A handsome wooden bridge over the South Esk, (fully described in the Scots Magazine, Feb. 1817,) founded in 1793, about 700 feet in length, and one of the most remarkable structures of the kind in Great Britain, forms a fine approach to the town, with the harbour on the right, and the basin on the left. The river at this point is of considerable depth, about twenty feet at low water in ordinary tides, and thirty-five at spring tides; and so rapid, that it fre quently runs at the rate of six miles an hour. On the west side of this entrance, and close upon the river, is the largest of the three mounts, to which the French name of the town is supposed to refer, called Forthill, on which a fortification was formerly erected, and in cutting through which, to form a new entrance to the town from the bridge, a stratum of human bones, nearly fourteen feet thick, was laid open. The harbour, on the east side of the bridge, is very commodious, and fur nished with excellent quays. Two light-houses have been lately built, to direct vessels in taking the river during the night ; and a large house, in which the keeper of the lights resides, is provided with accom modation for the recovery of persons who have suffer ed shipwreck. The spot upon which the town is built is nearly a dead flat, from which the sea appears to have gradually receded ; but the soil, being a dry sandy beach, and the whole exposure completely open on every side, the climate is much more healthy than the lowness of the situation might give reason to ex pect. The town is neatly built, and consists chiefly of one spacious main street, from which numerous lanes run off on each side, as from the High Street of Edin burgh. Many of the houses have their gables turned to the street ; but a number of more modern buildings are constructed in a different manner, and have a very handsome appearance. The principal public buildings are the Town hall, which has of late been greatly en larged, and which makes a fine termination to the main street ; the Parish church, which measures 98 feet by 65 over walls, a plain and well finished building, but awk wardly attached to an old and diminutive steeple ; the Episcopal chapel, to the eastward of the town, neatly built and handsomely fitted up; the Public schools, in a safe and airy situation, and now almost entirely occupied by the English masters; the ?lcademy, a spacious edi fice, recently erected for the accommodation of the other teachers, and containing six large apartments, occupied by the master and usher of the Latin school, two masters for writing and arithmetic, a master for drawing, and a rector, whose department includes the different branches of mathematics, the elements of natural philosophy, and several of the modern languages ; the Lunatic asylum, including also an infirmary and dispensary, founded in 1779, the first institution of the kind in Scotland, and which has been recently enlarged, and greatly improved in its whole appearance and arrangements ; and the Of fice of the British Linen Company's agents, which forms one of the principal ornaments of the main street.