PERTH, the chief town of Perthshire, Scotland, and a royal and parliamentary burgh, is situated on the right bank of the Tay, 41 miles N. by W. from Edinburgh, in 56° 24' N. lat., 3° 25' W. long. The population of the municipal burgh in 1851 was 14,681 ; that of the parliamentary burgh was 23,835. The town is governed by a provost sod 25 councillors, 4 of whom are bellies; and returns one member to the Imperial Parliament Perth was a burgh io 1106, and down to the death of James I. (1437) was regarded as the capital of Scotland. It was the seat of a considerable trade, which the burgesses carried on in their own vessels with the Hawse towns, and many Fleminga and Germans settled here. In the wars of Edward I., and in the contest between Bruce and Baliol, Perth several times changed hands. In 1437 James 1. was assassinated in the Dominican monastery at Perth. After this event Edinburgh became the seat of government, though Perth continued to be nominally the capital till 1482.
In August 1600 Perth was the scene of the Gowrie conspiracy. In 1644 it was taken by Montrose, after his victory at Tippermuir. In 1651 it capitulated to Cromwell, after the defeat of the Royalists at Burntisland. Perth was occupied by Viscount Dundee in 1689, immediately before the battle of Killiecrankie. The Highlanders in 1715 and 1745 occupied the town.
The town is connected by a handsome bridge of 9 arches, 880 feet long, over the Tay, with Bridge-End of Kinnoul, which is included in the modern parliamentary burgh. The bridge of the Dundee and Perth railway crosses the river a little lower down. The streets are generally straight, convenient, lighted with gas, and paved. North and south of the town are two large public greens, called respectively the North Inch and the South lach. The North Inch contains the race-course; the South Inch is surrounded by trees and villas. The principal public building is the church of St. John. The square tower is ancient; it has been surmounted at a later period with a pyramidal spire of wood. The body of the church is now divided into three places of worship, appropriated to three distinct parishes. There are three other churches
of modern erection, in one of which the service is conducted in the Gaelic language. The Free Church has five chapels, including a Gaelic chapel ; the United Presbyterians have three chapels ; the Independ ents two chapels; and the Original Seceders one chapel. The choir, transepts, and other portions of a cathedral for the Scottish Episcopal Church have been recently erected. A handsome building containing the county-hall, courts of justice, mid other apartments for county business, of Grecian architecture, faces the Tay ; behind it is the city and county jail. Thu other public buildings are those cf the academy, a neat theatre, a lunatic asylum, a range of barracks, and Marshall's monument (a building erected to commemorate the services of a late lord provost), containing the public library and the museum of the Perthshire Antiquarian Society. The general penitentiary at Perth is one of the largest buildings of the kind in Scotland. The manufac tures of the town consist principally of coloured cottons, especially for umbrellas. There are flax-spinning mills, bleach-fields, dye-works, breweries, distilleries, iron-foundries, tanneries, rope-walks, and ship building yards. The salmon-fishery in the Tay is valuable. The chief imports are—coal, lime, salt, and manure ; timber, flax, bark, smelt, madder, &c. The exports are chiefly potatoes, eent to London ; and corn, timber, and slates. The number of vessels registered as belonging to the port of Perth on December 31st 1853 was-54 sailing vessels of 4578 tons burden, and 3 steam-vessele of 135 tons burden. During 1853 there catered 319 sailing-vessels of 21,689 tons, and cleared 302 sailing-vessels of 19,092 tons aggregate burden. Perth — — Academy is an endowed institution, comprehending mathematical, scientific, and grammar schools, with classes for modern languages, English, writing, and drawing. The income (from the burgh funds) is 3001. a year. The number of scholars is about 550. There are six other endowed schools, a public library, an infirmary, a dispensary, and a savings bank.