town-hall, built entirely by convict labour, stands on an eminence in the very heart of the city; opposite to it are the government offices, housed in a four-storeyed structure in the style of the French Renaissance. The mint, opened in 1899, is a massive freestone building. There are a public library, built as a memorial of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1887, a Scots college, two good theatres, a mechanics’ institute, a museum, and a fine Wesleyan church-house, known as Queen’s Hall. The Perth Park, containing about 1200 acres, is connected by tram with the city, and in it is a well-equipped observatory. There are several smaller parks and squares in the city, while the esplanade gardens are a feature of the place, being thrown out like a pier into Perth Water. There is a good cricket ground, and three race-courses are in easy reach. South Perth, on the other side of the river, is connected by bridges and steam ferry; and adjoining the city on the north-west are the suburban municipalities of Leederville and Subiaco. Outlying suburbs are Belmont, Victoria Park, Burswood, Claremont, Cottesloe, Peppermint Grove and Bayswater. The city is lighted by electricity, and has a good service of electric trams. Perth has an agreeable climate, the mean temperature is 64·9° F., and the average rainfall 33 in. Perth was founded in 1829, received its municipal charter in 1856, and was created a city in 1880. Between 1891 and 1901 the growth of the city was remarkedly rapid; in 1891 the population was only 8447, but in 1901 it had grown to 27,471 in the city proper, and to 36,199 including the suburbs.
PERTH, a city, and royal, municipal and police burgh, and county town of Perthshire, Scotland, 32 m. N. by W. of Edinburgh direct, and 4734 m. by the North British railway, via the Forth Bridge and Kinross Junction. Pop. (1901), 33,566. It is situated on the right bank of the Tay, between the meadows of the North Inch (98 acres) and those of the South Inch (72 acres), both laid out as public parks. The river is crossed by St John’s Bridge of nine arches, completed in 1772 from the designs of John Smeaton and widened a century later; by Victoria Bridge, a modern structure connecting South Street with Dundee Road; and farther south (at the end of Tay Street) by a footway alongside of the viaduct belonging to the Caledonian railway. Of earlier bridges one, which crossed at High Street, was swept away by the flood of 1621, and another, constructed by General Wade in 1723–1733, was apparently the predecessor of Smeaton’s bridge. On the left bank of the river lie the suburb of Bridgend and Kinnoull Hill (729 ft.). To the south are the wood-clad heights of Moncrieffe Hill (725 ft.), Magdalenes Hill (596 ft.), Kirkton Hill (540 ft.) and Craigie Wood (407 ft.) In the river are Friarton or Moncrieffe Island and the Stanners.
Notwithstanding the importance of Perth in former times, almost the sole relic of the past is the church of St John the Baptist, a large Decorated cruciform building surmounted by a massive square central tower 155 ft. high. The original edifice is believed to have been erected in the time of Columba, but the transept and nave of the existing structure date from the early part of the 13th century, the choir from the 15th. The church was restored in 1891, and is now divided into the East, Middle and West churches. The silver-gilt communion cup used in the Middle Church is said to have been presented by Queen Mary. In May 1559 John Knox preached in St John’s his famous sermon in denunciation of idolatry. The Dominican or Blackfriars monastery, founded by Alexander II. in 1231, occupied a site near the west end of St John’s Bridge; in what is now King Street stood the Carthusian monastery, founded by James I. in 1425; the Franciscan or Greyfriars’ monastery, founded in 1460 by Laurance, first Lord Oliphant, stood on the present Greyfriars’ cemetery; the Carmelite or Whitefriars’ monastery, founded in 1260, stood west of the town. The tombstone of James I. and his queen, who were buried in the Charterhouse, was afterwards removed to St John’s East Church. During the period between the beginning of the 12th century and the assassination of James I. in 1437, many of the Scottish parliaments were held in Perth. The building in which they met stood off High Street and was only cleared away in 1818, its site being occupied by the Freemasons’ Hall. The earl of Gowrie’s palace, built in 1520, stood in spacious grounds near the river and was removed in 1805 to provide room for the county buildings. The castle of Perth stood on the north of High Street, not far from St John’s. It was probably built about 860 and demolished about 1400. The Spey or Spy tower, the most important fortress on the city wall, guarded the south gate close to the river, but it was taken down early in the 19th century. The market cross, erected in High Street in 1669 to replace the older cross which Cromwell destroyed, was removed in 1765 as an obstruction. The huge fortress, 466 ft. square, which Cromwell erected in 1651 on the South Inch, close to the river and the Greyfriars’ burying-ground, was demolished in 1663. The house of Catherine Glover, the “Fair Maid of Perth,” still stands in Curfew Row. James VI.’s Hospital, founded in 1569, occupies the site of the Carthusian monastery, the original structure having been pulled down by Cromwell’s orders. The pensioners now live out and the hospital has been converted into artisans’ dwellings. Among modern public buildings the principal are St Ninian’s Episcopal Cathedral, in the Early Middle Pointed style, an important example (completed 1890) of the work of William Butterfield (1814–1900); the municipal buildings (1881); the city-hall; the Marshall Memorial Hall (1823), housing the public library and the museum of the Perth Literary and Antiquarian Society; the Perthshire natural history museum; the Sandeman public library (1898), founded by a bequest of Professor Sandeman of Owens College, Manchester. The general prison for Scotland, south of the South Inch, was originally erected in 1812 as a dépôt for French prisoners, but was remodelled as a convict prison in 1840 and afterwards enlarged. North-west of the city are the military barracks built in 1793–1794. Besides the regular elementary schools there are the Perth Academy (1807) with which was subsequently amalgamated the Burgh Grammar School, an institution supposed to date from the 12th century; Sharp’s institute (1860); the Stewart’s free school, an industrial school for girls, and the Fechney industrial school. The charitable institutions comprise the royal infirmary, in the Italian style, considerably enlarged since its foundation in 1836; the Murray royal lunatic asylum in Bridgend; the Hillside House in Kinnoull and the small-pox hospital.
From the south the city is entered by the North British railway and the Caledonian railway (which also runs west to St Fillans, east to Dundee and north-west to Aberdeen); and from the north by the Highland railway, the three systems utilizing a general station in the south-west of the town. During the season there is communication with Dundee and other river ports by steamer. The navigation of the stream is considerably obstructed by sandbanks, but vessels of 200 tons can unload at the quays, which, with the town and Friarton harbours, lie below the South Inch. The greatest tidal rise is 13 ft. The chief imports are Baltic timber, coal, salt and manure; and the exports, manufactured goods, grain, potatoes and slates. Perth has long been famous for its dyeing and bleaching, the bleach-fields being mostly situated outside of the city, in convenient proximity to the Tay and Almond. The other leading industries include manufactures of gauge-glasses, ink, muslins, India shawls, jute goods, woollens and winceys, floorcloth, and boots and shoes. There are iron foundries, breweries, distilleries, rope and sail works, coach-building yards, steam joinery works, and brick and tile works. The salmon fisheries of the Tay yield a substantial revenue. Perth is under the jurisdiction of a town council, with a lord provost and bailies, and returns one member to parliament.
History.—During the time that it was occupied by the Romans, a period estimated at 320 years, the city was called Victoria; but shortly after their withdrawal it seems to have borne the Celtic appellation of Aber-tha (“at the mouth of the Tay”). The transition to the latinized form Bertha and later to Perth (the Gaelic name being Peart) appears obvious. On the conversion of the original Pictish inhabitants and the dedication of the first church to St John the Baptist, the town
