Perth, the county town of Perthshire, on the right bank of the tidal Tay, 43 miles NNW. of Edinburgh, 22 WSW. of Dundee, and 62 NE. of Glasgow. The beauty of its surroundings—the noble river; the two wooded heights, Moncreiffe and Kinnoull Hills, 725 and 730 feet high; and, away to the north, the Grampians—makes the 'Fair City' worthy of the name. A handsome nine-arch bridge (1772; widened 1871), 840 feet long, and stretching over a waterway of 590 feet, leads to the suburb of Bridgend, where Ruskin spent much of his childhood, on the east bank of the Tay; along the west bank extend two beautiful public parks, the North and South Inches, 98 and 72 acres in area. St John's Church, whose restoration was undertaken in 1891, is the only old building—a cruciform Decorated pile, with an earlier central square tower. Other edifices are St Ninian's Episcopal Cathedral (1850-90), an Early Middle Pointed structure, by Butterfield; the Tudor municipal buildings (1879), the Grecian county buildings (1819-67), the city hall (1844), the infirmary (1837-69), and the penitentiary and general prison for Scotland (1812-59), besides which may be noticed the water-works (1830-80), two museums, the Albert statue (1864), and the auction-mart (1875). Railways have largely diverted the river-trade; and dyeing is now the leading industry, with manufactures of ink, gauge-glasses, linen, iron, beer, &c. A royal burgh since 1210 or earlier, and taking precedence of all others save Edinburgh, Perth returns one member. Pop. (1831) 19,238; (1861) 25,250; (1891) 29,919.
Perth, or St Johnstoun, as it was formerly called, has a wealth of historic memories—the bloody combat on the North Inch between sixty members of the clans Chattan and Kay (1396); the murder of James I. (q.v., 1437); Knox's 'thundering sermon against idolatry' in St John's (1559); the Gowrie Conspiracy (q.v., 1600); and Montrose's victory of Tippersmuir (1644); besides sixteen ecclesiastical councils and fourteen parliaments, and visits innumerable from royal personages, including both the Pretenders and Queen Victoria. James, fourth Lord Drummond, was in 1605 created Earl of Perth—a title forfeited in 1695 by the Jacobite fourth earl (titular Duke of Perth), and restored in 1853 to George Drummond, sixth Duc de Melfort.
The Five Articles of Perth, memorable in the ecclesiastical history of Scotland, were agreed upon in a meeting of the General Assembly, convened at Perth, by command of James VI. in 1618. They enjoined kneeling at the Lord's Supper, the observance of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost, and confirmation, and sanctioned the private administration of baptism and of the Lord's Supper. Highly obnoxious to the Presbyterians as having been adopted in mere compliance with the king's will, they yet were ratified by the parliament, and enforced by the Court of High Commission. They became one of the chief subjects of that contention between king and people which produced results so grave and sad for both in the subsequent reign. The General Assembly of Glasgow in 1638 declared that of Perth to have been 'unfree, unlawful, and null,' and condemned the Five Articles.
See Perth Memorabilia (1806), Maidment's Chronicle of Perth (Maitland Club, 1831), and works by Penny (1836), Lawson (1847), Peacock (1849), and J. Wilson (1860).