[1] His speeches are in the _Thomason Tracts_, E 196 (9), (26), (36).
[2] Clarendon's _Hist._ iv. 94, note.
[3] Whitelocke, p. 73.
[4] _Life_, i. 37.
FALKLAND, a royal and police burgh of Fifeshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901)
809. It is situated at the northern base of the hill of East Lomond
(1471 ft. high), 2-1/2 m. from Falkland Road station (with which there is
communication by 'bus), on the North British railway company's main line
to Dundee, 21 m. N. of Edinburgh as the crow flies. It is an
old-world-looking place, many of the ancient houses still standing. Its
industries are chiefly concerned with the weaving of linen and the
brewing of ale, for which it was once specially noted; and it has few
public buildings save the town hall. The palace of the Stuarts,
however--more beautiful than Holyrood and quite as romantic--lends the
spot its fame and charm. The older edifice that occupied this site was a
hunting-tower of the Macduffs, earls of Fife, and was transferred with
the earldom in 1371 to Robert Stewart, earl of Fife and Menteith,
afterwards duke of Albany, second son of Robert II. Because of his
father's long illness and the incapacity of Robert III., his brother
Albany was during many years virtual ruler of Scotland, and, in the hope
of securing the crown, caused the heir-apparent--David, duke of
Rothesay--to be conveyed to the castle by force and there starved to
death, in 1402. The conversion of the Thane's tower into the existing
palace was begun by James III. and completed in 1538. The western part
had two round towers, similar to those at Holyrood, which were also
built by James V., and the southern elevation was ornamented with niches
and statues, giving it a close resemblance to the Perpendicular style of
the semi-ecclesiastical architecture of England. The palace soon became
the favourite summer residence of the Stuarts. From it James V. when a
boy fled to Stirling by night from the custody of the earl of Angus, and
in it he died in 1542.
Here, too, Queen Mary spent some of her happiest days, playing the
country girl in its parks and woods. When the court was held at Falkland
the Green was the daily scene of revelry and dance, and "To be Falkland
bred" was a proverb that then came into vogue to designate a courtier.
James VI. delighted in the palace and especially in the deer. He upset
the schemes of the Gowrie conspirators by escaping from Falkland to St
Andrews, and it was while His Majesty was residing in the palace that
the fifth earl of Bothwell, in 1592, attempted to kidnap him. In
September 1596 an intensely dramatic interview took place in the palace
between the king and Andrew Melville and other Presbyterian ministers
sent by the general assembly at Cupar to remonstrate with him on
allowing the Roman Catholic lords to return to Scotland. In 1654 the
eastern wing was accidentally destroyed by fire, during its tenancy by
the soldiers of Cromwell, by whose orders the fine old oaks in the park
were cut down for the building of a fort at Perth. Even in its neglected
state the mansion impressed Defoe, who declared the Scottish kings owned
more palaces than their English brothers. In 1715 Rob Roy garrisoned the
palace and failed not to levy dues on the burgh and neighbourhood. Signs
of decay were more evident when Thomas Carlyle saw it, for he likened it
to "a black old bit of coffin or protrusive shin-bone striking through
the soil of the dead past." But a munificent protector at length
appeared in the person of the third marquess of Bute, who acquired the
estate and buildings in 1888, and forthwith undertook the restoration of
the palace.
Falkland became a royal burgh in 1458 and its charter was renewed in
1595, and before the earlier date it had been a seat of the Templars. It
gives the title of viscount to the English family of Cary, the patent
having been granted in 1620 by James VI. The town's most distinguished
native was Richard Cameron, the Covenanter. His house--a three-storeyed
structure with yellow harled front and thatched roof--still stands on
the south side of the square in the main street. The Hackstons of
Rathillet also had a house in Falkland.
FALKLAND ISLANDS (Fr. _Malouines_; Span. _Malvinas_), a group of islands
in the South Atlantic Ocean, belonging to Britain, and lying about 250
m. E. of the nearest point in the mainland of South America, between 51
deg. and 53 deg. S., and 57 deg. 40' and 61 deg. 25' W. With the
uninhabited dependency of South Georgia Island, to the E.S.E., they form
the most southerly colony of the British empire. The islands, inclusive
of rocks and reefs, exceed 100 in number and have a total area of 6500
sq. m.; but only two are of considerable size; the largest of these,
East Falkland, is 95 m. in extreme length, with an average width of 40
m., and the smaller, West Falkland, is 80 m. long and about 25 m. wide.
The area of East Falkland is about 3000 sq. m., and that of West
Falkland 2300. Most of the others are mere islets, the largest 16 m.
long by 8 m. wide. The two principal islands are separated by Falkland
Sound, a narrow strait from 18 to 2-1/2 m. in width, running nearly N.E.
and S.W. The general appearance of the islands is not unlike that of one
of the outer Hebrides. The general colouring, a faded brown, is somewhat
dreary, but the mountain heights and promontories of the west display
some grandeur of outline. The coast-line of both main islands is deeply
indented and many of the bays and inlets form secure and well-protected
harbours, some of which, however, are difficult of access to sailing
ships.
East Falkland is almost bisected by two deep fjords, Choiseul and
Brenton Sounds, which leave the northern and southern portions connected
only by an isthmus a mile and a half wide. The northern portion is
hilly, and is crossed by a rugged range, the Wickham Heights, running
east and west, and rising in some places to a height of nearly 2000 ft.
The remainder of the island consists chiefly of low undulating ground, a
mixture of pasture and morass, with many shallow freshwater tarns, and
small streams running in the valleys. Two fine inlets, Berkeley Sound
and Port William, run far into the land at the north-eastern extremity
of the island. Port Louis, formerly the seat of government, is at the
head of Berkeley Sound, but the anchorage there having been found rather
too exposed, about the year 1844 a town was laid out, and the necessary
public buildings were erected on Stanley Harbour, a sheltered recess
within Port William. West Falkland is more hilly near the east island;
the principal mountain range, the Hornby Hills, runs north and south
parallel with Falkland Sound. Mount Adam, the highest hill in the
islands, is 2315 ft. high.
The little town of Stanley is built along the south shore of Stanley
harbour and stretches a short way up the slope; it has a population of
little more than 900. The houses, mostly white with coloured roofs, are
generally built of wood and iron, and have glazed porches, gay with
fuchsias and pelargoniums. Government House, grey, stone-built and
slated, calls to mind a manse in Shetland or Orkney. The government
barrack is a rather imposing structure in the middle of the town, as is
the cathedral church to the east, built of stone and buttressed with
brick. Next to Stanley the most important place on East Falkland is
Darwin on Choiseul Sound--a village of Scottish shepherds and a station
of the Falkland Island Company.
The Falkland Islands consist entirely, so far as is known, of the older
Palaeozoic rocks, Lower Devonian or Upper Silurian, slightly
metamorphosed and a good deal crumpled and distorted, in the low grounds
clay slate and soft sandstone, and on the ridges hardened sandstone
passing into the conspicuous white quartzites. There do not seem to be
any minerals of value, and the rocks are not such as to indicate any
probability of their discovery. Galena is found in small quantity, and
in some places it contains a large percentage of silver. The dark
bituminous layers of clay slate, which occur intercalated among the
quartzites, have led, here as elsewhere, to the hope of coming upon a
seam of coal, but it is contrary to experience that coal of any value
should be found in rocks of that age.
Many of the valleys in the Falklands are occupied by pale glistening
masses which at a little distance much resemble small glaciers. Examined
more closely these are found to be vast accumulations of blocks of
quartzite, irregular in form, but having a tendency to a rude diamond
shape, from 2 to 20 ft. in length, and half as much in width, and of a
thickness corresponding with that of the quartzite ridges on the hills
above. The blocks are angular, and rest irregularly one upon another,
supported in all positions by the angles and edges of those beneath. The
whole mass looks as if it were, as it is, slowly sliding down the valley
to the sea. These "stone runs" are looked upon with great wonder by the
shifting population of the Falklands, and they are shown to visitors
with many strange speculations as to their mode of formation. Their
origin is attributed by some to the moraine formation of former
glaciers. Another out of many theories[1] is that the hard beds of
quartzite are denuded by the disintegration of the softer layers. Their
support being removed they break away in the direction of natural
joints, and the fragments fall down the slope upon the vegetable soil.
This soil is spongy, and, undergoing alternate contraction and expansion
from being alternately comparatively dry and saturated with moisture,
allows the heavy blocks to slip down by their own weight into the
valley, where they become piled up, the valley stream afterwards
removing the soil from among and over them.
The Falkland Islands correspond very nearly in latitude in the southern
hemisphere with London in the northern, but the climatic influences are
very different. The temperature is equable, the average of the two
midsummer months being about 47 deg. Fahr., and that of the two
midwinter months 37 deg. Fahr. The extreme frosts and heats of the
English climate are unknown, but occasional heavy snow-falls occur, and
the sea in shallow inlets is covered with a thin coating of ice. The sky
is almost constantly overcast, and rain falls, mostly in a drizzle and
in frequent showers, on about 250 days in the year. The rainfall is not
great, only about 20 in., but the mean humidity for the year is 80,
saturation being 100. November is considered the only dry month. The
prevalent winds from the west, south-west and south blow continuously,
at times approaching the force of a hurricane. "A region more exposed to
storms both in summer and winter it would be difficult to mention"
(Fitzroy, _Voyages of "Adventure" and "Beagle,"_ ii. 228). The fragments
of many wrecks emphasize the dangers of navigation, which are increased
by the absence of beacons, the only lighthouse being that maintained by
the Board of Trade on Cape Pembroke near the principal settlement. Kelp
is a natural danger-signal, and the sunken rock, "Uranie," is reputed to
be the only one not buoyed by the giant seaweed.
Of aboriginal human inhabitants there is no trace in the Falklands, and
the land fauna is very scanty. A small wolf, the _loup-renard_ of de
Bougainville, is extinct, the last having been seen about 1875 on the
West Falkland. Some herds of cattle and horses run wild; but these were,
of course, introduced, as were also the wild hogs, the numerous rabbits
and the less common hares. All these have greatly declined in numbers,
being profitably replaced by sheep. Land-birds are few in kind, and are
mostly strays from South America. They include, however, the snipe and
military starling, which on account of its scarlet breast is locally
known as the robin. Sea-birds are abundant, and, probably from the
islands having been comparatively lately peopled, they are singularly
tame. Gulls and amphibious birds abound in large variety; three kinds of
penguin have their rookeries and breed here, migrating yearly for some
months to the South American mainland. Stray specimens of the great king
penguin have been observed, and there are also mollymauks (a kind of
albatross), Cape pigeons and many carrion birds. Kelp and upland geese
abound, the latter being edible; and their shooting affords some sport.
The Falkland Islands form essentially a part of Patagonia, with which
they are connected by an elevated submarine plateau, and their flora is
much the same as that of Antarctic South America. The trees which form
dense forest and scrub in southern Patagonia and in Fuegia are absent,
and one of the largest plants on the islands is a gigantic woolly
ragweed (_Senecio candicans_) which attains in some places a height of 3
to 4 ft. A half-shrubby veronica (_V. decussata_) is found in some
parts, and has also received cultivation. The greater part of the "camp"
(the open country) is formed of peat, which in some places is of great
age and depth, and at the bottom of the bed very dense and bituminous.
The peat is different in character from that of northern Europe:
cellular plants enter but little into its composition, and it is formed
almost entirely of the roots and stems of _Empetrum rubrum_, a variety
of the common crow-berry of the Scottish hills with red berries, called
by the Falklanders the "diddle-dee" berry; of _Myrtus nummularia_, a
little creeping myrtle whose leaves are used by the shepherds as a
substitute for tea; of _Caltha appendiculata_, a dwarf species of
marsh-marigold; and of some sedges and sedge-like plants, such as
_Astelia pumila_, _Gaimardia australis_ and _Bostkovia grandiflora_.
Peat is largely used as fuel, coal being obtained only at a cost of L3 a
ton.
Two vegetable products, the "balsam bog" (_Bolar glebaria_) and the
"tussock grass" (_Dactylis caespitosa_) have been objects of curiosity
and interest ever since the first accounts of the islands were given.
The first is a huge mass of a bright green colour, living to a great
age, and when dead becoming of a grey and stony appearance. When cut
open, it displays an infinity of tiny leaf-buds and stems, and at
intervals there exudes from it an aromatic resin, which from its
astringent properties is used by the shepherds as a vulnerary, but has
not been converted to any commercial purpose. The "tussock grass" is a
wonderful and most valuable natural production, which, owing to the
introduction of stock, has become extinct in the two main islands, but
still flourishes elsewhere in the group. It is a reed-like grass, which
grows in dense tufts from 6 to 10 ft. high from stool-like root-crowns.
It forms excellent fodder for cattle, and is regularly gathered for that
purpose. It is of beautiful appearance, and the almost tropical
profusion of its growth may have led to the early erroneous reports of
the densely-wooded nature of these islands.
The population slightly exceeds 2000. The large majority of the
inhabitants live in the East Island, and the predominating element is
Scottish--Scottish shepherds having superseded the South American
Gauchos. In 1867 there were no settlers on the west island, and the
government issued a proclamation offering leases of grazing stations on
very moderate terms. In 1868 all the available land was occupied. These
lands are fairly healthy, the principal drawback being the virulent form
assumed by simple epidemic maladies. The occupation of the inhabitants
is almost entirely pastoral, and the principal industry is
sheep-farming. Wool forms by far the largest export, and tallow, hides,
bones and frozen mutton are also exported. Trade is carried on almost
entirely with the United Kingdom; the approximate annual value of
exports is L120,000, and of imports a little more than half that sum.
The Falkland Islands Company, having its headquarters at Stanley and an
important station in the camp at Darwin, carries on an extensive
business in sheep-farming and the dependent industries, and in the
general import trade. The development of this undertaking necessitated
the establishment of stores and workshops at Stanley, and ships can be
repaired and provided in every way; a matter of importance since not a
few vessels, after suffering injury during heavy weather off Cape Horn,
call on the Falklands in distress. The maintenance of the requisite
plant and the high wages current render such repairs somewhat costly. A
former trade in oil and sealskin has decayed, owing to the smaller
number of whales and seals remaining about the islands. Communications
are maintained on horseback and by water, and there are no roads except
at Stanley. There is a monthly mail to and from England, the passage
occupying about four weeks.
The Falkland Islands are a crown colony, with a governor and executive
and legislative councils. The legislative council consists of the
governor and three official and two unofficial nominated members, and
the executive of the same, with the exception that there is only one
unofficial member. The colony is self-supporting, the revenue being
largely derived from the drink duties, and there is no public debt. The
Falklands are the seat of a colonial bishop. Education is compulsory.
The government maintains schools and travelling teachers; the Falkland
Islands Company also maintains a school at Darwin, and there is one for
those of the Roman Catholic faith in Stanley. There is also on Keppel
Island a Protestant missionary settlement for the training in
agriculture of imported Fuegians. Stanley was for some years a naval
station, but ceased to be so in 1904.
The Falkland Islands were first seen, by Davis in the year 1592, and Sir
Richard Hawkins sailed along their north shore in 1594. The claims of
Amerigo Vespucci to a previous discovery are doubtful. In 1598 Sebald de
Wert, a Dutchman, visited them, and called them the Sebald Islands, a
name which they bear on some Dutch maps. Captain Strong sailed through
between the two principal islands in 1690, landed upon one of them, and
called the passage Falkland Sound, and from this the group afterwards
took its English name. In 1764 the French explorer De Bougainville took
possession of the islands on behalf of his country, and established a
colony at Port Louis on Berkeley Sound. But in 1767 France ceded the
islands to Spain, De Bougainville being employed as intermediary.
Meanwhile in 1765 Commodore Byron had taken possession on the part of
England on the ground of prior discovery, and had formed a settlement at
Port Egmont on the small island of Saunders. The Spanish and English
settlers remained in ignorance, real or assumed, of each other's
presence until 1769-1770, when Byron's action was nearly the cause of a
war between England and Spain, both countries having armed fleets to
contest the barren sovereignty. In 1771, however, Spain yielded the
islands to Great Britain by convention. As they had not been actually
colonized by England, the republic of Buenos Aires claimed the group in
1820, and subsequently entered into a dispute with the United States of
America concerning the rights to the products of these islands. On the
representations of Great Britain the Buenos Aireans withdrew, and the
British flag was once more hoisted at Port Louis in 1833, and since that
time the Falkland Islands have been a regular British colony.
In 1845 Mr S. Lafone, a wealthy cattle and hide merchant on the river
Plate, obtained from government a grant of the southern portion of the
island, a peninsula 600,000 acres in extent, and possession of all the
wild cattle on the island for a period of six years, for a payment of
L10,000 down, and L20,000 in ten years from January 1, 1852. In 1851 Mr
Lafone's interest in Lafonia, as the peninsula came to be called, was
purchased for L30,000 by the Falkland Islands Company, which had been
incorporated by charter in the same year.
See Pernety, _Journal historique d'une voyage faite aux iles Malouines
en 1763 et 1764_ (Berlin, 1767); S. Johnson, _Thoughts on the late
Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands_ (1771); L.A. de
Bougainville, _Voyage autour du monde_ (1771); T. Falkner,
_Description of Patagonia and the Falkland Islands_ (1774); B.
Penrose, _Account of the last Expedition to Port Egmont in the
Falkland Islands_ (1775); _Observations on the Forcible Occupation of
Malvinas by the British Government in 1833_ (Buenos Ayres, 1833);
_Reclamacion del Gobierno de las provincias Unidas de la Plata contra
el de S.M. Britanica sobre la soverania y possesion de las Islas
Malvinas_ (London, 1841); Fitzroy, _Narrative of the Surveying Voyage
of H.M.S. "Adventure" and "Beagle"_ (1839); Darwin, _Voyage of a
Naturalist round the World_ (1845); S.B. Sullivan, _Description of the
Falkland Islands_ (1849); W. Hadfield, _Brazil, the Falkland Islands,
&c._ (1854); W. Parker Snow, _Two Years' Cruise off the Tierra del
Fuego, the Falkland Islands, &c._ (1857); Sir C. Wyville Thomson,
_Voyage of the "Challenger"_ (1877); C.P. Lucas, _Historical Geography
of the British Colonies_, vol. ii. "The West Indies" (Oxford, 1890);
_Colonial Reports Annual_; MS. Sloane, 3295.