A List of the Principal Authorities consulted in preparing the following

work.

Acts of the Parliaments of Scot-Memorials of English Affairs by

Blind Harry's Life of Sir William Earl of Cromarty's account of the

THE

HISTORY OF PERTH.

CHAPTER I.

FOR want of adequate materials, the origin and early history of nations, cities, and families cannot be clearly traced; but little light can be thrown upon them, by those unsafe guides, etymology, tradition, and conjecture. It need not, therefore, excite our surprise if the most careful enquiries concerning such subjects end in disappointment.

Perth forms no exception to these general remarks. Founded in a rude age, when the use of letters was unknown, and, far less, public archives were established, it may be expected that much pertaining to its early history will remain enveloped in obscurity.

Scotland, at the time of its invasion by Agricola, was inhabited by the Caledonians, who were divided into a number of distinct tribes, totally independent of each other, yet having a common origin, and agreeing in language, religion, and manners.

Perth was situated in the country of the Horestii,* and, during the sway of the Romans, in the province of Vespasiana. The most ancient name we find applied to it, is Bertha various etymologies of it have been given, some of them absurd, and most of them unsatisfactory. Buchanan, in his History of Scotland, says the town was designated Perth in memory of a noblemen who gave the land to King William, after the inundation in 1210, on which to build it. This derivation is untenable; for, as will afterwards be shewn, Perth stood on the present site long prior to this time. Some derive the name from the Gothic or German; Bertha, in the latter language, sig. nifying celebrity, splendour, or what is deservedly illustrious; others from the Gaelic word Beartha, which means clear, fine, genteel, fair;

* It comprehended that part of Scotland lying between the Forth on the south, and the Tay on the north. From the natural strength of their country, the Horestii are supposed to have derived their name.

and others with a greater degree of probability on their side, derive it from the word Aber-tau, signifying a confluence of water, the junction of rivers, the fall of a lesser river into a greater, or into the sea. To which, or whether to any of these etymologies the name should be attributed, we will not determine.

The etymology of the designation, St Johnstoun, and by which Perth was generally known during a long period in Scottish history, is not so difficult of solution. It appears to have been so called from the church and bridge being dedicated to St John the Baptist, and chosen patron or tutelary-saint of the town.

The origin of the town is no less dubious than that of the name. The current tradition has for centuries been that it was built by Agricola, after his victory over Galgacus, the leader of the Caledonians. Adamson in his "Muses Threnodic, or mirthful mournings on the death of Mr Gall," gives it at considerable length; the purport of what he says, with additional circumstances from Tacitus and Fordun, is as follows:

"Enæus Julius Agricola, in the third year after Vespasian had sent him to be governor in Britain, viz. about the year of the Christian æra 81, led a numerous army round by the pass of Stirling into the country on the north side of the Forth. New nations or tribes were discovered, which the Romans wasted all the way to the Tay. The people fled before them, so that Agricola, in his progress, had full leisure to erect many forts or castles.

"He had been nearly five years endeavouring to establish the Roman power in Scotland, when he was recalled by Domitian. At first the natives had been in use to demolish, in the winter, the summercamps or fortresses; but these, as well as the winter residences, were at last rendered impregnable.

"When Agricola and his army first saw the river Tay and the adjacent plain on which Perth is now situated, they cried out with one consent, Ecce Tiber! Ecce Campus Martius! Behold the Tiber! Behold the Field of Mars! comparing what they saw with their own river, and to the extensive plain in the neighbourhood of Rome. *

In the "Memorabilia of Perth" it is stated, that the Romans first saw the plain on which Perth stands, and the Tay, flowing in its majestic course to the German Ocean, from the top of the Cloven Craigs, over which the great north road now passes. We have no doubt that tradition has long given the honour to the spot above mentioned as being the place where the Roman army uttered the well known exclamation, "Ecce Tiber! ecce Campus Martius !" In it, however, we do not concur; for in tracing the route of Agricola, it will be seen that on

The Italians, many ages after, were in use to give to the Tay the name of New Tiber; and Fordun gave the name of Tyber-more to an extensive moor which lies west from the town of Perth.

"As the field at Rome was by the early Romans consecrated to Mars, so their descendants found in the field adjoining the Tay, an old temple, which the British or Welch writers say was built many ages before, by one of the British kings, and dedicated to Mars. The Romans performed worship there to that heathen deity, in hopes that their expeditions would thereby be favoured in the new country into which they were come.

"Agricola pitched his camp in the middle of that field, on the spot where Perth stands. He proposed to make it a winter-camp; and afterwards built what he intended should be a colonial town. He fortified it with walls, and with a strong castle, and supplied the ditches with water by an aqueduct from the Almond. Also, with much labour to his soldiers, and probably to the poor natives, a large wooden bridge was constructed over the river at Perth."

That the foregoing account of the origin of Perth is literally true will not be said; yet it is so far corroborated by credible historians. The Venerable Bede considers the Victoria of the Romans to have been on the site of modern Perth; and Richard of Cirencester, whose book has thrown great light on the antiquities of Scotland, is still more explicit on the point. When speaking of the Horestii, he says "Their towns were Alauna, Lindum, and Victoria, the last of which was more illustrious than the rest. It was built by Agricola at the river Tay, twenty miles from the exit of that river into the sea."

leaving Fife he kept the south side of the Ochill Hills, until the course of the Devon showed him an opening northwards; so following the rivulet which forms Glen-eagles, and leaving the Braes of Ogilvie on his left, he passed between Blackford and Auchterarder, towards the Grampian Mountains, which he saw in the distance. An easy march soon brought him to Ardoch. From Ardoch, he came eastward to the Tay-probably over the same ground as did the Roman road afterwards made by him—in the direction of Strageth; and after crossing the Earn, passed on the north side of Innerpeffry, proceeding in a straight line across the Moor of Gask. At Cultmalundie the road diverged a little to the north-east, passed by Lochty on to Ruthven, then crossed the Almond, near its confluence with the Tay, where was erected the Roman station of Bertha. If such was the route by which Agricola came to the Tay-and it seems very probable that it was -then it must have been when he and his army were on the banks of that noble river they were reminded of the scenes of their native Italy.

• Modern etymologists differ with Fordun as to the etymon Tyber-more It is said to be derived from the Gaelic, and signifies “the well in the muir."