FORFAR, a county in Scotland, bounded by the shires of Aberdeen and Kincardine on the north, the German Ocean on the east, the Frith of Tay, which separates it from Fife, on the south, and the county of Perth on the west. It is situated between 56° 27' and 57° north latitude, and between 2° 28' and 3° 22 ’ west longitude from Greenwich, and extends from north to south from twenty-six to thirty-four miles, and twenty-three to thirty from west to east. It contains, by the lowest computation, 832 square miles, or 532,480 English acres, without including portions of the parishes of Lundie, Cupar, and Alyth, the greater part of which belongs to the county of Perth.

More than a third of its area is occupied by the Grampians, here called the Binchinnin Hills, on which it meets the Braes of Mar in Aberdeenshire. The surface of this northern division of the county, or the Braes of Angus, with the exception of the mountains at the head of Glen Clova, is not in general so bold and abrupt as many other alpine districts of Scotland; the hills are for the most part rounded, and rather tame, and covered with a thin coat of moorish soil, carrying stunted heath. Catlaw, the highest, is 2264 feet above the level of the sea. There are several considerable valleys in this district, the principal of which are Glen Isla, Glen Prosen, Clova, Lethnot, and Glen Esk, which are watered by streams that rise in the west and north, and commonly flow south-east, receiving innumerable torrents from the mountains in their progress. South from the Grampians, and parallel to them, is another but lower range, called the Siedlaw Hills, supposed to be a continuation of the Ochils; some of these hills are 1400 feet in height. Between these two grand divisions lies Strathmore, the Great Valley, as the name denotes in Gaelic, or, as it is commonly called, the How of Angus, extending about thirty-three miles in length, and from six to eight in breadth; a district beautifully diversified by gentle eminences, fertile fields, plantations, villages, and gentlemen’s seats, very little of it being 200 feet above sea level. It was at one time proposed to carry a canal through this valley, which might be extended to Dumbarton, and thus connect the three great rivers of Scotland, the Clyde, the Forth, and the Tay; another from Arbroath ts Forfar was also in contemplation; but neither of them has been carried into effect. The fourth, and remaining division, extends from the Siedlaw Hills to the German Ocean on the east, and the Frith of Tay on the south, and is, with a few exceptions, a rich and well-cultivated tract, varying in breadth from three to eight miles, and comprehending about a fourth part of the whole county.

The woods and plantations have been computed to extend to 35,000 acres, of which about 5000 consist of coppice and natural wood. Several of the Grampian glens are sprinkled with birches, oak, and hazels. The botany and zoology of the county were explored with great industry some years ago by Mr George Don of Forfar, who presented a very ample enumeration in both departments, in a paper subjoined to Mr Headrick’s Survey for the Board, of Agriculture, t The general colour of the soils is red, but often inclining [7:9:745]to dark brown or black. In the Grampians the soil is often moorish, over whitish retentive clay, but loose and friable in the glens. Over the puddingstone or gravelstone rock in the lower grounds, it is sometimes thin, mossy, and encumbered with stones; and over the sandstone a tenacious clay occurs. The soil above whinstone is fertile, though sometimes shallow. In Strathmore it is often gravelly, in other parts a dead sand. There is no great extent of moss; but what exists is of much value for fuel.

The mineralogy of a considerable portion of Forfarshire was examined by Colonel Imrie, who has given a minute description of it in a paper published in the sixth volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In the Grampian district, towards the summit of the county, on the confines of Aberdeenshire, the prevailing rock is granite, some of it very beautiful, with topazes or rock-crystals in its cavities or fissures, known by the name of cairngorums, from a mountain of that name in Aberdeenshire; also micaceous schistus, and porphyry dykes of the latter in some places intersecting the former. Laminated talc or mica, called by the shepherds sheep’s siller, from its silvery lustre, which is sometimes thickly studded with small garnets, is found in irregular veins, and siliceous spar in jutting or detached hills. Lead was wrought at Gilfianan, above the old castle of Innermark, in the upper part of the parish of Lochlee, and also at Ardoch, near Mill-den, on the Esk. At the former place, according to Edward, in his Description of Angus, published in 1678, it yielded one sixty-fourth part of silver; but both mines have long since been abandoned. Limestone in small quantities frequently occurs, and is wrought in several parts; there are also broad veins of slate, but which, it is said, does not come off in plates of sufficient size for use. In descending the Grampians to Strathmore, gravelstone prevails, and afterwards, on the lower grounds, sandstone. Clay marl is found both in Strathmore and the Siedlaw Hills, but is little used. Shell marl is in greater request, and abounds in different parts, particularly in the lochs of Kin-ordie, near the bottom of the Grampians, Lundie in the Siedlaw Hills, Logie in the parish of Kirriemuir, and Restennet near Forfar. These lochs have been drained and rendered of easy access. It is also found in the lochs of Forfar, Rescobie, and Balgavies, where it is raised by scoops, and conveyed to the shore in boats. The Siedlaw Hills are chiefly composed of sandstone of various colours, some of it susceptible of a high polish. Sandstone flags, which are much used instead of slate for covering roofs, are raised in great quantities on the hill of Balmashanner, and in the moor to the south of Forfar; but the most extensive range of these flags is in the parish of Carmylie, and along the southern declivity of the Siedlaw Hills. The principal lime-works are in the maritime division, at Hedderwick near Montrose, and at Boddin in the parish of Craig, upon the sea-shore. The only* mineral springs are chalybeate, one of which is near Montrose, another to the west of Arbroath, two in the side of a rivulet about a mile farther west, and one in the north-west corner of Dumbarrow in the parish ofDunichen.

The heaviest rains are from the east and south-east, and the heaviest snows from the north and north-east. At Crescent, half a mile westward of Dundee, the quantity of rain that fell during six years, from 1790 to 1795 inclusive, varied from 22∙27 to 34∙12 inches; but at Belmont, in the centre of Strathmore, during the same years, it was from 31∙45 to 39∙55 inches. The mean height of the barometer at Belmont, during the first three of these years, was 29∙60, and that of the thermometer 42°. At Crescent, the mean degree of cold during winter, for the whole period, was from 32ģ°.to 39J 0 , and of heat during summer, from 60+ to 66°. The south-east wind blows at Crescent twenty-one, and the south-west one hundred and nine days annually; whereas at Belmont the former prevails eighty-five and the latter one hundred and thirty-eight days.

The principal lochs or lakes have been already mentioned as containing shell-marl. To these may be added Lochlee among the Grampians, from which the North Esk issues, and Lentrathan near their base. None of the streams are so considerable as to have the name of rivers, but are called waters. The North Esk, after leaving Lochlee, flows towards the east, and then the south-east, where it forms the boundary between this county and Kincardineshire, and falls into the sea about three miles north-east of Montrose, having received the Mark, the Tarf, the Westwater, and the Cruick in its course. The South Esk rises in the north-western part of the county, among the Grampian summits of Clova, and passing by Brechin, discharges itself into the basin of Montrose, five miles from the mouth of the North Esk, after being joined by the waters of Prosen, Carritty, and other mountain streams. Its general course is from north-west to south-east. Isla, the last stream of any note, has also its source in the Grampians, flowing from the summit of the glen which bears its name, in a direction from north to south, until, at Ruthven, it bends to the westward, and joins the Tay in Perthshire. Below the bridge of Craig it has cut a chasm, in some places more than a hundred feet in depth, through a barrier of porphyry and gravelstone rocks, where it forms cascades of singular beauty. The Dean, the Lunan, the Dighty, and a few others, are inconsiderable streams.

Much of the landed property of Forfarshire has changed its owners within the last century; and of the forty barons mentioned by Edward, in the work already referred to, the descendants of not more than a third of them now possess estates in it. It is in general divided into estates of a moderate size. In 1811 a large proportion were from L.100 to L.1000 a year, some from L.2000 to L.6000; but only one or perhaps two worth L.12,000 a year. About a third part of the county is now held under entail. The valued rent is L.17L,239. 16s. 8d. Scots, which is divided amongst two hundred and sixty-six estates, three fourths of which are below L.500 Scots. The real rent of the lands in 1811 was L.260,196. 15s., which is less than 10s. an acre; and of the houses, L.64,108 sterling. There are more than sixty gentlemen’s seats, some of them venerable for their extent and antiquity, such as the Castles of Glammis, Brechin, and Airly, the house of Panmure, and others, distinguished for elegance and the beauty of their situation. Amongst the latter, Kinnaird Castle, the seat of Sir James Carnegie, is the most magnificent.

Farms are of every size, but in general not large, the average size of such as are arable being from 100 to 250 acres. There is a greater number below than above 100 acres. According to the Agricultural Survey, the whole number of farms in 1808 was 3222, of which about the half were under L.20 of yearly rent, and only eighty-six above L.300. In the western division of the Grampian district, the arable land is still held in runrig or intermixed, and the mountains in common, either without leases, or on leases not exceeding nine years. Throughout the rest of the county the leases are commonly for nineteen or twenty-one years. The farm-houses lately erected in the lower parts of the county are in general convenient and comfortable, but in the Grampians they are still miserable huts, with «'alls of stone and turf alternately, five feet high, and covered with thatch fastened with ropes in the form of a hay rick. In some parts where stones are scarce, cottages and even small farm-houses are built with clay, wrought up and mixed with straw, but in general the cottages are built with stone and clay, with clay floors and thatched roofs, one of which may be constructed for about L.15. Their number has been much diminished of late.
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The agriculture of Forfarshire is for the most part respectable, though modern improvements are not so general as in the Lothians and border counties of Scotland. Wheat, which, according to Pennant, was a rare crop in 1775, is now cultivated to a great extent upon almost every variety of soil, to the height of 800 feet above the level of the sea; also barley, and all the other farm crops common in Scotland. In reaping the corn crops there is a practice peculiar to this and one or two of the contiguous counties, called threaving ; the reaper is paid for his work not by the acre or by day-wages, but according to the number of sheaves he cuts down, or by the threave, which contains twenty-four or twenty-eight sheaves, the girth of which is specified. The advantages of this practice are, that women and children, who cannot perform full labour, find employment, working in families, on different parts of a field; whilst the farmer gets his crops cut low and clean, from its being their interest to fill the sheaf with the thickest part of the straw, which is always that nearest the ground. The unmarried men-servants, instead of boarding in the farmer’s own house, often live apart in a place called the bothy, where they cook their own victuals.

No great progress has been made here in the improvement of live stock. The garron, a small breed of horses, keeps its ground in the Grampians, where the number employed is much too considerable for the work they have to perform. The Lanarkshire or west-country breed is common in the lower districts. There is supposed to be more than .9000 horses of all kinds and ages in the county, which were valued in 1811 at L.220,270. The cattle in the cultivated parts, when fat, weigh from forty to sixty stones, and in some instances a great deal more; and many more are fattened than reared, the practice on the grazing lands being to purchase them from the counties of Kincardine, Aberdeen, and Moray, and after making them fat, or nearly so, to sell them for the markets in the south. They are accordingly of a variety of breeds. Many of the permanent or stationary stock are without horns, and seem to be allied to the Galloways. Oxen were formerly employed in labour; but they are now rarely used except in turning up soils overrun with broom and other shrubs. The permanent stock of cattle is said to be about 37,400, worth L.261,800. There are few flocks of sheep, except in the Grampians and the highest of the Siedlaw Hills, though almost every residing proprietor, and many of the farmers, keep a small number. The original breed is the small white or yellowfaced; but the Linton, or black-faced, is the most numerous. The number is computed at 60,000, and the value at L.42,000. A herd of fallow-deer is kept in the park at Panmure.

Forfarshire contains five royal burghs, with a number of villages and hamlets; and a pretty large proportion of its inhabitants are employed in manufactures and commerce. The royal burghs are, 1. Forfar, the county town; 2. Dundee; 3. Aberbrothick, or Arbroath; 4. Montrose; and 5. Brechin. To these may be added Kirriemuir, a considerable village; Cupar Angus, of which, however, only a small part is in this county, most of it being in Perthshire; Glammis, Douglastown, and Letham. In 1808, 11,269,867∣ yards of linen were stamped for sale in the county, the value of which was nearly half a million sterling. About half as much more, which was not stamped, might be made for domestic use and private sale.

There are two customhouses in Forfarshire; one at Dundee, and another at Montrose. For an account of the Dundee shipping trade, see the article Dundee. That at Montrose, including Johnshaven and Gourdon, amounts to 108 vessels, about 11,000 tons.

The fisheries on the coast of this county have not been prosecuted with great success. The boats employed are generally small, requiring only four hands. For some years considerable quantities of herrings have been caught in the months of June, July, and August. But the river fisheries have become of great value since the plan was adopted, at the suggestion of the late Mr Dempster of Dunichen, of conveying fresh salmon to London packed in ice. Mr Headrick estimates the produce of six of these fisheries in 1810 at L.7450. The greatest salmon fisheries are in the Frith of Tay, and were carried on chiefly by stake-nets, a practice which was objected to by the proprietors higher up the river, and which has been since declared illegal intra fauces terra, or within the estuary.

Many religious and military ruins are to be found in Forfarshire. Near the cathedral of Brechin is a curious round tower, of which, though such be common in Ireland, only two, it is said, have been observed in Britain; this, and another similar to it at Abernethy, in Perthshire. (See the article Brechin.) At Arbroath are the remains of an abbey, founded by William the Lion in 1178, and very richly endowed, where was held the parliament of Robert Bruce which addressed the celebrated remonstrance to the Pope, asserting the independence of the kingdom. A hill fort called Cater-thun, in the parish of Menmuir, north-west. of Brechin, is worthy of notice. Pennant thinks it was one of the posts occupied by the Caledonians before their engagement with Agricoa, at the foot of the Grampians.

The county of Forfar sends one member to Parliament; the burgh of Dundee one; and Inverbervie, Montrose, Arbroath, Brechin, and Forfar one, Montrose being the returning burgh. It contains fifty-three entire parishes, besides portions of three others, which belong to presbyteries that meet at Forfar, Dundee, Brechin, Meigle, and Arbroath, and which, with the presbytery of Fórdtm, compose the synod of Angus and Mearns. There is no assessment for the poor in the county.

See Edward’s Description of Angus, reprinted in 1791, and Colonel Imrie⅛ Section of the Grampians, already referred to; Beauties of Scotland, vol. iv.; Headrick’s General View of the Agriculture of Angus or Forfarshire ; Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, vol. ii.; The General Report <y Scotland ; and Playfair’s Description of Scotland, vol. i.

The following are the returns of the population for the years ending 1811, 1821, and 1831.
[table]
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Forfar, a royal burgh of Scotland, and capital of the county of Forfar, is situated in the lowest part of the l county, which declines to it on all sides, and has rather a pleasant appearance. The streets are by no means regular, but many of the houses are well built and neat; an improvement, however, which has taken place within the last few years. At the beginning of the present century its streets were chiefly composed of old thatched houses, and its church was in a state of decay. But the town is now ornamented with a handsome suit of county buildings, situated in a good street. A new church with a steeple has likewise been erected, and an Episcopal chapel was opened in 1823. Besides these places of worship, some sects of dissenters have meeting-houses here. Forfar being the seat of the county courts of the sheriff, possesses a number of public offices and legal practitioners. There is a parish school, and an academy, where the languages, mathematics, and geography are taught. It has also an excellent news-room and library. The chief trade of Forfar is the weaving of oβnaburgs and coarse linens. From time immemorial however it has been celebrated for the manufacture of brogues or strong shoes, such as are fitted for the rugged soil of the Highlands, where they are principally used by the inhabitants.

Forfar is a royal burgh of unknown antiquity, the privileges of which were confirmed in 1669, in virtue of which it is governed by a provost, two bailies, and nineteen counsellors, who are elected annually. The revenue of the burgh may be averaged at L.1000. On the west side of the town there is a beautiful sheet of water, which, although considerably reduced by draining, is still about a mile in length by half a mile in breadth. In former times Forfar was protected by a castle, which stood on a mound to the north of the town. Its origin is uncertain, but it is believed to have been the place where the first parliament of Malcolm Ceanmore assembled, after the destruction of Macbeth. The site of this ancient fortress is now marked by the town cross, which was removed by the magistrates some years ago, for the purpose of pointing out where the royal residence had been. Forfar has shared in the general advancement of population, trade, and agricultural improvement, and it is now one of the most comfortable little towns in the county. It lies fourteen miles north from Dundee, and fifty-six from Edinburgh. In 1821 the population, including the parish, amounted to 5897, and in 1831 to 7944.