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PERTH, a parish of Scotland, which com prehends the town of Perth, and a fine district of fertile country lying along the south and west side of the Tay, 4 miles in length and 3 in breadth.

PERTH, one of the largest counties of Scotland, extending from east to west, between Invergowrie and the top of Benloi, 77 miles in a straight line; and 68 from south to north, betwixt the frith of Forth at Culross, and the boundary of the east forest of Athol, at the source of the Tilt. It lies between 56. 4. and 56. 57. N. lat. and between 3. 4. and 4. 50. W. long.; and is bounded on the east by the county of Forfar, on the south-east by the frith of Tay and the counties of Kinross and Fife, on the south by the Forth and the counties of Clackmannan aud Stirling, on the south-west by Dumbartonshire, on the west by the county of Argyle, on the north-west by the county of Inverness, and on the north by a part of the same county, and that of Aberdeen. It comprehends the districts of Athol, Braidalbin, Monteath, Stratherne, Stormont, Balquhidder, Gowrie, Rannoch, and Perth proper; all which divisions, previous to the jurisdiction act of 1748, were stewartries, and under the hereditary jurisdiction of the great proprietors. Little attention is now paid to those divisions, and the country is divided more naturally into Highland and Lowland, the Grampian mountains forming the line of demarcation. The Grampian mountains, piled one upon another in huge masses, extend not only through this county, but reach across the island, from the neighbourhood of Aberdeen on the German ocean, to Cowal on the Atlantic. The

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southern front of these mountains, which runs from south-west to north-east, has in many places a gradual and pleasing slope into a champaign country, of great extent and fertility; and notwithstanding the forbidding aspect, at first sight, of the mountains themselves, covered as they are with heath and rugged rocks, they are intersect→ ed in a thousand directions by winding vallies, which are watered by rivers and brooks of the most limpid water, clad with the richest pastures, sheltered by thriving woods that fringe the lakes and run along the streams, and are accessible in most places by roads unquestionably the best in Britain. These vallies, where there is such a rich variety of natural beauty, form a contrast to the ruggedness of the surrounding mountains, and present to the eye the most romantic and sublime scenery. The rivers in the deep defiles struggle to find a passage, and they rush forward, roaring and foaming in their rapid course, in proportion to the resistance which they meet with; while the near approach of the opposite rocks and impending woods throws an additional and gloomy sublimity on the scene beneath. In other parts, plains of various extent burst. suddenly, on the eye, which are filled with villages and well cultivated farms. Chains of lakes, finely wooded down to the water edge, are connected by meandering streams, stored with a variety of fish. The hills are covered with snowy flocks, and numerous herds are browsing on the pastures below. The noblemen and gentlemen's houses are generally set down on the margin of a lake, or on gentle declivities, facing the meridian sun, with a lawn in front, intersected by the winding

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