manufactures and commerce of Dundee, by the renovation and extension of
the harbour. Prior to that epoch, the accommodation provided for
shipping was adapted to the most limited commerce only. One small pier
and two or three clumsy erections in a state of dilapidation, and which
it required a boat to reach, constituted the sole protection afforded to
the shipping, and the only convenience for discharging or loading.
Although the spirit of enlightened enterprise had been at work for
several years, it was only at this late period that application was made
to Parliament, and a bill obtained for separating the harbour from the
other branches of the common good, and for investing the management of
it for a term of years in district commissioners, who were selected
partly from the magistrates, and partly from the public bodies of the
town. Great pains were taken to procure the best plans; and after all
preliminaries had been settled, the work was begun and carried on with
such extraordinary activity, that, although everything was finished in
the most substantial manner, all was accomplished within the time
specified. The plan comprised the new harbour, consisting of a wet-dock
of about six acres; a tide-harbour of much greater extent; a
graving-dock, capable of containing three of the largest
merchant-vessels frequenting the Tay; extensive carpenters' and other
yards for ship-building; wide and capacious quays, affording berthage
for about thirty vessels to load or discharge at the same time. From the
first moment that measures were taken to ensure this superior
accommodation, the number and tonnage of the ships were increased by
their owners, and the trade and commerce of the port most materially
improved. The expenditure incurred by these great public works, though
amounting, from 1815 to 1833, to L242,000, or upwards, was judiciously
(says our Statistical authority) applied, and with great advantage both
to the private trust and to the public at large.
When the plan for the new harbour was adopted in 1815, it was considered
to be so extensive, especially when compared with what preceded it, that
it was generally believed that the accommodation it promised would
exceed the necessities of the trade of Dundee for many years; but this
was so far from the fact, that some years ago the want of sufficient
berthage became so much a subject of complaint, that measures were taken
as soon as possible to remedy the evil. A new harbour-bill was applied
for, and obtained, vesting the shore-dues permanently in a board of
trustees. A plan was adopted for extending the tide-harbour, and for
converting the greater part of it into a wet-dock, and for other
improvements, rendered necessary by the rapidly increasing trade and
commerce of the town, all of which have been completed.
In population, trade, and manufactures, as above stated, Dundee has
advanced faster perhaps than any town so situated in the United Kingdom.
There are men now living who remember when its population was less than
one-fifth of what it now is; and when its harbour was a crooked wall,
affording shelter to only a few fishing or smuggling-craft; when its
spinning-mills were things unknown and unthought of; and when its trade
was hardly deserving of the name.[11]
[11] For many of the preceding facts we are indebted to the New
Statistics of the Town and Port of Dundee, a work indispensable to all
who desire correct information on the subject.
[Illustration: DUNDEE, FROM THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE TAY.]
DUNDEE.
FROM THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE TAY.
Our present engraving depicts a scene of great natural beauty, and a
faithful picture of one of the most thriving of the Scottish seaports.
Few towns in the United Kingdom have advanced so rapidly in commercial
importance. The manufactures of Dundee have become of great interest not
only to the town, but to the nation at large. The proportion which they
bear to the general produce of the industry of the state is very high;
and their rapid and continued progress holds out the most encouraging
prospect of still greater accessions in every department of trade. Of
these manufactures, the linen trade holds the first place; it employs
the greatest number of hands and the greatest capital, and gives a
stimulus to all other branches of trade and commerce. The materials for
this branch of manufacture are imported from Russia, Prussia, Holland,
and Brabant, and thus employ a great number of ships and seamen. Up to
the beginning of the present century, all the linen yarns manufactured
here were hand-spun; and in 1811 there were only four spinning-mills
driven by steam: at the present time there are upwards of 100 flax
spinning-mills, employing more than 8,000 hands, of whom nearly one half
are females. The following figures exhibit the progressive increase of
this trade:--The importation of flax in 1790 was 2,700 tons; in 1850,
55,000 tons. The export of linen in 1790 was 8 millions of yards; in
1850, 85 millions of yards. The yarns thus manufactured are generally
sent from the mills direct to the bleach-fields, or to the wash-mill,
where they are scoured or whitened, and prepared for the loom. In
weaving sail-cloth, and other heavy goods, men only are employed; but,
in the lighter fabrics, women perform the work as well as the men.
Formerly, the women were employed in spinning only; but here, as
everywhere else, where steam is employed, the introduction of machinery
has wholly superseded the use of the domestic wheel and distaff, and
compelled the females to earn a scanty subsistence in a much less
appropriate labour.
Within the last thirty years the population of Dundee has been more than
doubled; its charitable contributions have risen from under L2,000 to
nearly L12,000 per annum; its shipping has increased fourfold; while its
linen trade has been called almost entirely into existence. But the
reverse of the picture must not be concealed--the assessment of the
poor has advanced tenfold; in 1791, it was L400, it is now upwards of
L10,000. This is an evil, it has been said, inseparable from prosperous
communities, for the poor generally flock to, or are increased in them;
and where multitudes are gathered together at various employments,
example does not always favour economy, industry, and virtue. Nor is it
easy, amidst the spirit of enterprise which is now abroad, to suggest
any improvement for the town which the resident authorities have not
already in contemplation.
Full tide in the estuary of the Tay is generally said to occur, on the
days of the new and full moon, at a quarter past two o'clock, but in the
harbour of Dundee it flows till about half-past two. The average height
of the spring-tides, as measured by an index at the entrance to King
William's Dock, is about seventeen feet, while that of the neap-tides is
about eleven feet. The water opposite the town, though saline, is not
wholly marine, but considerably diluted by the fresh water flowing down
the river; and this is the reason, probably, why sea-water insects never
attack the piles, buoys, or beacons about the harbour. Opposite the
town, the river Tay is very nearly two miles broad. The channel across
is much interrupted by a sand-bank, which, though formed within the last
forty years, has now at full spring-tides only about ten feet water over
its surface, and at neap-tides scarcely more than four. Its position is
not far from midway across; its form is spindle-shaped; its length, as
seen at low water, upwards of a mile; and its course parallel with that
of the river. At present, its lower or eastern extremity is stretching
down in the form of a curve, concave towards the harbour of Dundee; but
it is so constantly altering its features, that no further remark need
be made upon it than this, that it is always accumulating, and slowly
moving down the river. This sand-bank, in reference to the navigation of
the Tay, is naturally an object of no small interest and solicitude.
[Illustration: ABBEY OF ARBROATH.]
THE ABBEY OF ARBROATH.
The Harbour, which was originally at the end of the East Causeway, was
formed about the remote period of 1194; but being ill-constructed for
the craft and increasing traffic of more modern times, a brief or bill
was obtained for building a new pier in 1725, and which is situated a
little to the westward of the old one. It is strongly built of stone,
and, though not capacious, is sufficiently commodious to admit of
vessels lying close to any part of it, either to receive or discharge
their cargoes. During spring-tides there is a depth of from fifteen to
sixteen feet of water at the entrance, and at neap-tides of from nine to
ten feet; but it is dry at low water. Here, as in most of the other
ports of this coast, there is a considerable foreign trade carried on
with Russia, Norway, and Sweden, as well as a home-trade in lime, coals,
and agricultural produce. The trade at this port is now so rapidly
increasing, that great improvements in the harbour are contemplated. It
counts seventy-seven vessels of its own, registering 6700 tons.
Near the south side of the harbour of Arbroath is a handsome
signal-tower fifty feet high, which is used for communicating with the
keepers of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. On a clear day this gigantic column
may be seen rising from the sea at the distance of about twelve miles.
The Bell Rock, so long known and celebrated in history, tradition, and
poetry as the "Inchcape," is thus described by an ancient chronicler:
"By east the Castle of May twelve miles from all land, in the German
Sea, lies a great hidden rock called Inchcape, very dangerous for
navigators, because it is overflowed every tide. It is reported that in
old times, upon the said rock, there was a bell fixed upon a tree or
timber, which rang continually, being moved by the sea, and thus gave
notice to sailors of their danger. This bell, or _cloche_, was put thus,
and maintained by the pious Abbot of Arbroath, and being taken down by a
sea-pirate a year thereafter, he perished upon the same rock, with ship
and cargo, in the righteous judgment of God."[12]
But the glory of Arbroath, as every reader knows, is its ABBEY, which,
as seen in the accompanying view, presents one of the most imposing
monastic ruins in existence. It was founded in 1178, by King William
the Lion, who was buried here, and dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket, of
Canterbury. The monks, to whose ministry this sumptuous temple was
consigned, were of the Benedictine or Tyronensian order, and brought
from the Abbey of Kelso, the abbot of which declared them, on their
first instalment, free from his jurisdiction. The monastery, thus
tenanted, soon obtained those great and peculiar privileges which it
long continued to enjoy. Its abbots were frequently the first churchmen
of the kingdom; and a charter from King John of England, under the great
seal, is still extant, by which the monastery and the citizens of
Aberbrothock are exempted _a teloniis et consuetudine_, in every part of
England, except London and Oxford.
It was inferior, perhaps, in architectural elegance to Melrose, Elgin,
and some others; but, with the exception of Holyrood, it was probably
the most wealthy monastic establishment in Scotland. The monks did not
exceed twenty-five in number; and some idea may be formed of the abbot's
charity and hospitality from this fact, that one of the orders issued
for the yearly provision of the abbey is thus particularized:--eight
hundred wedder sheep, one hundred and eighty oxen, eleven barrels of
salmon, twelve hundred and five dried cod-fish, eighty-two chalders of
malt, thirty chalders of wheat, and forty chalders of meal; these
supplies, it is to be observed, were in addition to the rents paid in
kind by the abbot's tenants.
The Abbey of Arbroath appears to have been demolished some time
previously to the general destruction of the religious houses at the
Reformation. Tradition ascribes its early fate to a quarrel between the
monks and Ochterlony, Laird of Kelly, at whose instigation a lawless mob
attacked and set fire to the abbey, till the neighbouring streets, it is
said, "were deluged with the melted lead that streamed from its roof."
After the destruction and spoliation of the abbey, Arbroath lost all its
importance as a royal burgh, and continued in a very depressed state
till the building of the new pier, when commerce began to repair the
loss and recover some portion of its ancient prosperity. The population
is about 7000, or upwards.
[12] Monipennie's _Scots Chronicles_. London, 1612.
[Illustration: MONTROSE.]
MONTROSE.
"Mare ditat: Rosa decorat."
"Montrose--a beauty that lies concealed, as it were, in the
bosom of Scotland; most delicately dressed up, and adorned with
excellent buildings, whose foundations are laid with polished
stone, and her ports all washed with silver streams that
trickle down from the famous Ask."--RICHARD FRANK, A.D. 1658.
Montrose, a royal burgh and sea-port town of Forfarshire, is agreeably
situated on a level 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 this river, called the Basin of Montrose. The
erection of this town into a royal burgh has generally been referred to
the year 1352, being the twenty-third of the reign of David II.; but it
appears to have been a place of some note long before it acquired this
dignity, and is connected with many important events in the history of
Scotland. It is mentioned by Froissart, as the port from which the
gallant Sir James Douglas embarked in 1330, for the Holy Land, attended
by a numerous and splendid retinue, and carrying with him the heart of
King Robert Bruce. This, as the reader knows, was in execution of the
last charge committed to him by his royal master, namely, to carry the
heart of the deceased monarch to Jerusalem, and there deposit it in the
holy sepulchre. The disastrous failure of this pious enterprise is too
well known to require further notice in this place.
The principal manufactures carried on in Montrose are the spinning and
weaving of flax. For this purpose there are several steam-mills for
spinning, and one on the North Esk driven by water. These steam-mills
produce annually upwards of 800,000 spindles. There are also in the town
soap, starch, rope, and sail manufactories; and others for making
steam-machinery. Ship-building is carried on to a considerable extent,
and there is a patent slip, introduced for repairing ships. There are
also in addition various breweries, tan-works, candle-works, a foundry,
and a steam-mill for grinding meal and flour.
Montrose is the port of the Custom-house, and, as such, comprehends
within its bounds all that district between the lights of Tay on the
south, and the Todhead on the north, thereby including Arbroath, and
other places of less importance.
The principal foreign imports into Montrose consist of flax, hemp,
tallow, whale-fins and oil, fir-timber, oak and oak-planks, deal and
deal-ends. But as the goods manufactured here are sent coastwise to
London, Glasgow, Dundee, and other towns, there are few or no _exports_
to foreign places from Montrose. Owing, however, to the bonded system
having been extended to this port, nearly all the foreign wines and
spirits consumed in the district, are brought coastwise to the bonded
warehouses, and pay duty at the Custom-house when taken out for
consumption.
The _exports_ from this district by the coasting-trade consist of wheat,
oats, barley, rye, peas, beans, and potatoes; salmon, codfish, and pork,
the latter chiefly for the London market: great coal, culm, parret,
lime, blue slate, iron, tallow, rosin, barilla, kelp, salt, and herrings
from the Moray Frith, chiefly smoked and sent to the Hull and London
markets. The principal import from the English coast is coal; but
various other articles are imported and exported by regular traders to
London, Glasgow, and Leith.
Montrose contains several public edifices, all designed with
considerable taste and substantially executed. Among these are the
church, with a fine gothic tower, St. John's church, St. Peter's
episcopal chapel, the Town-hall, the Academy, the Lunatic Asylum, and
the Jail. The finest object, however, and which combines ornament with
utility, is the new Chain-bridge, erected, like many others in the
United Kingdom, after a plan by Captain James Brown, of the Royal Navy.
The foundation-stone of this admirable structure was laid on the 18th of
September, 1828, and the whole was completed before the close of the
following year. The distance between the towers at the two extremities
of the bridge, measured from the centre, is four hundred and thirty-two
feet. The height of each tower is seventy-one feet, namely, twenty-three
and a half from the foundation to the roadway; forty-four from the
roadway to the top of the cornice; and three feet and a half forming the
cornice. It spans the river, South Esk, and is justly considered the
finest specimen of the kind in Scotland. The whole cost is stated at
twenty thousand pounds.
The population of Montrose continues rapidly to increase. The society is
very superior to that of most country towns, and includes amongst its
members men who have distinguished themselves in every department of the
state. It was formerly represented in Parliament by Joseph Hume, Esq., a
native of the place, and so well known as a leading member in the House
of Commons.
[Illustration: DUNOTTAR CASTLE, NEAR STONEHAVEN.]
DUNNOTTAR CASTLE.
"High on a rock, half sea-girt, half on land,
The castle stood, and still its ruins stand.
Wide o'er the German main the prospect bent,
Steep is the path and rugged the ascent:
There hung the huge portcullis--there the bar
Drawn on the iron gate defied the war."
_"Dunnottar Castle," by Mrs. Carnegie, 1796._
The view of Dunnottar Castle, which so happily illustrates this portion
of the work, represents one of the most remarkable features that are
anywhere to be met with on the coasts of the British empire. The drawing
was taken on the spot, and shows with admirable effect and precision
those striking combinations of nature and art which, during a long
series of ages, rendered the fortress of Dunnottar impregnable. But
those rocky foundations from which it once rose in all the strength and
grandeur of feudal architecture are fast yielding to the encroachments
of the sea; its crested summits, once brilliant with arms and bristling
with cannon, seem ready to drop from their precipice. Unroofed,
unlatticed, untenanted, with not an ember left on its once capacious
hearth, desolation and ruin are vividly pictured in its dreary solitude.
The floors are covered with crumbling fragments of varied and costly
decorations in sculpture, painting, and fretwork. Once a
palace--commanding all that could minister to the security and luxury of
its almost royal possessors, its battlements gay with standards, crowded
with retainers, mailed guests in the hall, and minstrels in the
court--it is now dark as a sepulchre;--banners, retainers, guests,
minstrels, and the master of the feast himself--all are gone! The hoarse
dash of the waves, the shrill scream of the stormy petrel, the crash of
some disjointed and falling rock, or the whistling of the coming
tempest, are almost the only sounds that now alternate among these
embattled heights, where the curious stranger retraces with melancholy
interest the days and deeds of antiquity. To him who is familiar with
its history, Dunnottar speaks with an audible voice; every cave has a
record--every turret a tongue; his ear is struck with "wandering
voices," and words that never die seem at every step to arrest his
attention.
The Castle of Dunnottar--now the stately and magnificent ruin thus
feebly sketched--stands on an isolated rock two hundred feet
perpendicular, washed on three sides by the sea, and on the other
separated from the adjacent land by a wide and deep chasm, from which by
a gate in the wall, nearly forty feet high, there is an entrance to the
fortress. Leading upwards from this gate there is a long steep passage,
partly arched over, and formerly secured by two drawbridges, the grooves
for which are still visible. At the inner end of this passage is another
gate, opening into the castle area, which is enclosed by a wall, and
occupied by buildings of various epochs. But of all the buildings on
this rock the chapel is the most ancient, and there is reason to believe
that it originally served as the parish church of Dunnottar. The Castle,
or the peninsular rock on which it stands, makes its first appearance in
Scottish history during the wars of Bruce and Baliol, when, it is
alleged by some modern authorities, the castle was erected by Sir
William Keith as a place of safety for himself and friends. According to
Blind Harry and Hector Boece, Dunnottar was surprised and taken by Sir
William Wallace in 1297, and the Blind Historian relates that Dunnottar
was occupied by four thousand English troops, who had fled before the
victorious arms of the Liberator; and that when Wallace made the
onslaught, as many of them as the church would contain took shelter
there, in the hope that consecrated ground would not be violated by
their slaughter; but, says the bard,--
"Wallace on fyre gart set all haistely,
Brynt up the kyrk and all that was thairin."
In the year 1336 Dunnottar was fortified and garrisoned by Edward III.;
but immediately after his departure for England it was attacked and
carried by the gallant Sir Andrew Moray, who destroyed the
fortifications of the Castle, so that it might not again afford ready
protection to an enemy.
[Illustration: STONEHAVEN.]
STONEHAVEN.
"The flocks are white upon the moor,
The forest's filled with deer;
There's industry at every door,
And shipping at the pier."
Stonehaven, like Aberdeen, has its old town and its new; but "with this
distinction, that of the latter, the new town is the older of the two."
The old town of Stonehaven, or Steenhive as it was formerly written, was
built on _feus_ granted by the "Earls Marischal," by one of whom it was
erected into a burg of barony. The new town, or "Links of Arduthie," is
separated from the old town by a brook, called the water of Carron, and
is built upon the estate of the patriotic Mr. Barclay Allardyce, of Ury.
It is the county-town; and hither, in 1660, the sheriff-court was
removed from Kincardine by Act of Parliament.
On the south-west of a bare rocky promontory, called Garron-point, at
the entrance of Stonehaven Bay, are seen the ruins of Cowie Chapel,
which is said to have been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. From this
point on the north, called Garron, to that of Downie on the south, is
what is termed the Bay of Stonehaven. The town stretches from the bridge
over the Cowie river, on the north, to the above-mentioned headland,
Downie Point, on the south; but it is divided, as already stated, into
two parts by the "Carron;" the north part being the new, and the south
the _old_, or sea-town; close to which last, and to Downie Point, which
is a protection to it from south-east gales, stands the Harbour,
erected, like most others on the east coast, _sea_-ward. It is a
capacious basin, and would contain a great number of vessels, but until
lately, when two cross-jetties were built, it was very insecure, or
afforded little protection to vessels during north-east and east gales,
to which it is much exposed, the entrance being to the east. It is now,
however, comparatively secure; and gas-lights being erected, the one
bearing on the other, vessels bound southward in winter find it a very
agreeable retreat, and about thirty so situated have been seen in it at
one time.
The exports consist of grain, timber, herrings, and other fish; the
imports are principally coals and lime, of which a great quantity is
required for agricultural purposes.
The Harbour, in spring-tides, will admit vessels drawing fourteen feet
water, sometimes upwards; but in ordinary tides the depth can hardly be
reckoned at more than from ten to eleven feet.
The trade of curing fish by smoke-drying, in imitation of the _Finnan
haddies_, is carried on with much spirit: several large houses have been
fitted up for this purpose and for red-herrings; and a stranger would
scarcely believe the extent done in this business, the haddocks thus
cured being sent to London, Edinburgh, and other markets in the south,
by all conveyances.
The other trade of the place is principally in manufacturing woollen,
linen, and cotton cloths, a branch of native industry in which great
numbers of people are employed. The Glenury distillery is a large
concern, and close to the town, from which a great quantity of whiskey
is constantly shipped off.