Forfarshire

Forfarshire, or ANGUS, a maritime Scottish county, washed on the east by the German Ocean, on the south by the Firth of Tay. It has an utmost length and breadth of 36 and 36½ miles, and an area of 890 sq. m. The surface is finely diversified, the rich plain of Strathmore—the Howe of Angus—dividing the Sidlaw Hills (1399 feet) from the Grampian Braes of Angus in the north-west, which culminate in Cairn na Glasha (3484 feet) on the Aberdeenshire boundary, and exceed 2000 feet in twenty-two other summits. The chief streams are the North and South Esks and the Isla; and Loch Lee (9 by 2 furlongs) is the largest of several small lakes. The rocks are Silurian in the north-west, and elsewhere Old Red Sandstone; the soils are very various. Somewhat less than half of the entire area is in cultivation, and more than one-nineteenth under wood. Agriculture is practised on the best methods, and much attention is paid to live-stock, though the celebrated 'polled Angus' belongs now specially to Aberdeenshire (see CATTLE). Linen and jute are the staple manufactures of the towns. These include Dundee, Montrose, Arbroath, Brechin, Forfar, Broughty-Ferry, Kirriemuir, and Carnoustie. The county returns one member to parliament. Pop. (1801) 99,053; (1881) 266,360; (1891) 277,788. Part of Southern Pictavia, then till 1242 the mormaer-ship or old Celtic earldom of Angus, Forfarshire is rich in antiquities—vitrified and other hill-forts, cairns and standing-stones, Roman camps, the sculptured stones of Meigle, Aberlemno, St Vigeans, Glamis, &c., the ruins of Restennoth priory and Arbroath abbey, the round tower and cathedral of Brechin, and the old castles of Glamis, Edzell, Finhaven, Airlie, &c. See A. Jervise's Memorials of Angus and Mearns (1861), and Land of the Lindsays (2d ed. 1882); and Warden's Angus or Forfarshire (4 vols. 1880–83).