and references there given; Clarendon’s Hist. of the Rebellion, passim and esp. vii. 217–234; Clarendon’s Life; Rational Theology ... in the 17th Century, by John Tulloch (1874), i. 76; Life of Lady Falkland from a MS. in the imperial library at Lille (1861); Life of the same by Lady Georgiana Fullerton (1883); Jonson’s Ode Pindaric to the memory and friendship of ... Sir Lucius Cary and Sir Henry Morrison; W. J. Courthope, History of English Poetry (1903), iii. 291; Life of Falkland, by W. H. Trale in the Englishman’s Library, vol. 22 (1842); D. Lloyd, Memoires (1668), 331; and the Life of Falkland, by Lady M. T. Lewis in Lives of the Friends ... of Lord Chancellor Clarendon, vol. i. p. 3. John Duncan’s account of Lettice, Lady Falkland, was edited in 1908 by M. F. Howard.
(P. C. Y.)
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), 2½ 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° and 53° S., and 57° 40′ and 61° 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 2½ 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.
