The coal mines of Hurlet afford materials for a small manufactory of sulphate of iron, and the most exten sive alum manufactory in Great Britain is carried on at the same place.* Limestone is wrought at 'about eight different quarries ; but one of the most singular musses of it occurs at the entrance of the romantic glen ol Glenniffer, three miles south of Paisley. A mass of it, about ten feet thick, dips to the centre, and is wrought by driving mines under a thick mass of super-incumbent whin-stone.
Iron-stone accompanies all the coal strata, occurring in beds and balls; it is very common in the middle division of the county; but is particularly abundant on the shores of the Clyde.
Renfrewshire is one of the principal manufacturing and commercial counties in Scotland; but we have al ready given such a full account of its manufactures, its trade and its col coerce, in our articles GREENOCK, PAISLEY, and PORT GLASGOW, that we have little else to communicate under the present head. It has been calculated that in 1810 about 300,000/. was the capital employed in the buildings and machinery; that 7000 looms were occupied in weaving muslin, beside 500 driven by steam, which manufactured cotton goods, to the annual value of 125 000/. and that the cotton yarn sold amounted to 630,000/.
The trade of Renfrewshire is greatly pi omoted by the Frith of Clyde, and by the Forth and Clyde canal, which connects the county with many parts of Scot land. The canal projected from Glasgow to Ardros s..n has been carried past the town of Paisley and as far as Johnstone, about 11 miles from Glasgow. As the grain raised in Renfrewshire is not sufficient for its consumption, a considerable quantity is imported from Ireland and Canada. The valuation of Renfrew shire is 69,172L, Is.; the real rent of land in 1795, was only 67,0001 ; but in 1811, it had risen to 127,068/., and that of the houses to 106,238/. About half ol the va lued rent belongs to entailed estates, or those belonging to incorporations The county of Renfrew sends one member to Par liament, who is elected by about 80 'freeholders. Al though the head courts, and meetings of freeholders, are still held at Renfrew, yet the sheriff court is held at Paisley.
Renfrewshire contains many objects of antiquity, some of the most important of which are in Paisley, and have been fully described in our account of that town. In the parish of Kilbarchan, near Castlesemple, there is a large mass of basalt, which is supposed to have been an altar of the Druids. It is 12 feet high and 67 feet in circumference, and has received the ap pellation of Clochodrigstone, in Gaelic, or Druid's stone. It seems to have been a portion of the basaltic rock of the adjacent hills; and there is an elevated rock to the eastward on which there is a farm house called Clobho-drig The stone rests upon a narrow base, and may have probably rolled from its primative situation. It is surrounded at a considerable
distance with several large grey stones, supposed to busy harmed part of a Druidical circle. In the parish of Cathcart is the old castle of Cathcart, near which Queen Mary stood when she saw her kingdom lost by the unfortunate issue of the battle of Langside. On the summit of the eminence upon which the battle was fought there is an entrenchment of an oval form, called Queen Mary's camp, though it is more likely to have been a Roman one. On the other side of this range of hills there is another castle in ruins which belonged to the ancestors of John Knox ; and in a high rock not far from this is a huge artificial green moat of a square form. It is 60 feel in length at the base, 19 at the top, and 21 feet high. It commands the view of five other similar moats, and of a Roman encampment near Paisley, at the distance of five miles. There is a rude encampment on the top of B;rrhill. It occupies the summit of a precipice consisting of a perpendicular rock of a basaltic aspect which defends it on the north. It is said, without any good autho rity, to have been an encampment of William \Vallace, who was born at Elderslie in this county. Crook stone castle, a magnificent ruin, is beautifully situated near the banks of the Cart, about 3 miles S E. of Pais ley. It was a favourite residence of the powerful fa mily of Lennox, to whom it originally belonged. Mearns castle is another ruin in the south-east part of the county, near the vilage of Mearns. New-wark castle has already been mentioned in our account of Port Glasgow. In the parish of Kihnalcom are pre served the communion cups, of the purest silver, and of an antique form, which John Knox used in dis pensing the Lord's Supper.
The climate of this county, like that of all the west ern region of England and Scotland, is very rainy. The quantity of rain which falls annually may be cal culated as varying from 25 to 35 inches. Although the number of rainy days is much greater at Glasgow than in Edinburgh, yet it does not appear that the quantity of rain which falls at the former place is greater than that which falls at the latter. Thz average quantity of rain at Glasgow from 1761 to 1790 was 29.65 inches; while the quantity at Largs in Ayrshire, on the west coast, was 38d inches, in the year 1809 and 1812.
The following is the state of the population of the county at different periods: For farther information respecting this county, sec GREENOCK, PAISLEY, PORT-GLASGOW; the Beauties cf Scodand, vol. iii. and Wilson's General of the ?griculture Brnfrewshlre.