Montrose, Scotland

Montrose is situated 30 miles North of Dundee on the East Coast of Scotland. The town occupies a large area on a sandy peninsula, and is bounded on the East by the North Sea, on the North by the North Esk, on the South by the South Esk, and, on the West by Montrose Basin, a large depression, about 7 miles in circuit.

Staple industries used to be flax-spinning, and there were manufacture of linen, canvas, sheetings, starch, soap, chemicals, rope and manures, while iron-founding, tanning and brewing were also carried on. The fisheries were of very considerable importance and the shipping was very brisk. There was a large trade, especially in timber (the chief import), mainly with Baltic ports and Canada.

The parish church is a plain structure, but has a handsome steeple 200 ft. high. Montrose received its charter from David I., and was made a royal burgh in 1352. It was destroyed by fire in 1244. Here Edward I. accepted John Baliols surrender of the kingdom on the 10th of July 1296. Sir James Douglas sailed from the port in 1330 bound for the Holy Land with the heart of Robert Bruce; and here, too, the Old Pretender embarked in 1716 for France after the failure of his cause. In 1745 the town threw in its lot with the Hanoverians, a fact which lent zest to the daring capture of the Hazard sloop of war off Ferryden, by Captain David Ferrier of Brechin, a thorough-going Jacobite.

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