The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 1

The Buller of Buchan, one of the most remarkable natural curiosities in Scotland, is about six miles south from Peterhead. It is a vast hollow in a rock projecting into the sea, open at the top, and communicating with the water by means of a natural arched passage, about fifty yards high. The basin within is nearly circular, about thirty yards in diameter; and around the extreme edge of the chasm is a narrow footpath, from which to the water in the abyss below, measures about thirty fathoms,[13 - Two hundred and fifty feet, according to more recent admeasurement.] more or less, according to the state of the tide. It is a scene upon which all travellers dwell with feelings of mixed awe and admiration. Even Dr. Johnson, the learned philologist from whom we take our motto, visited and retired from the spot with amazement. "We soon turned our eyes," he observes, "to the Buller, or Bouilloir, of Buchan, which no man can see with indifference, who has either sense of danger or delight in rarity. It is a rock perpendicularly tubulated, united on one side with a high shore, and on the other rising steep to a great height above the main sea. The top is open, from which may be seen a dark gulf of water, which flows into the cavity through a breach made in the lower part of the enclosing rock. It has the appearance of a vast well, bordered with a wall. The edge of the Buller is not wide, and to those who walk round appears very narrow. He that ventures to look downward sees that, if his foot should slip, he must fall from his dreadful elevation upon stones on one side, or into water on the other. We, however, went round, and were glad when the circuit was completed. When we came down to the sea, we saw some boats and rowers, and resolved to explore the Buller at the bottom. We entered the arch which the water had made, and found ourselves in a place which, although we could not think ourselves in danger, we could scarcely survey without some recoil of the mind. The basin in which we floated was nearly circular, perhaps thirty yards in diameter. We were enclosed by a natural wall, rising steep on every side, to a height which produced the idea of insurmountable confinement. The interception of all lateral light caused a dismal gloom. Round us was a perpendicular rock; above us, the distant sky, and below, an unknown profundity of water."[14 - The accompanying view has been justly pronounced as by far the best that has ever appeared of this remarkable scene, and is taken at the same point from which it was contemplated by Dr. Johnson, after his walk from Slaines Castle, about two miles distant. Sir Walter Scott, when on his excursion to the Shetland Isles, and while becalmed off this coast, paid a visit to the Buller; and we are of opinion (says Mr. Mackie), that in his description of the Cavern of Staffa, we can discover some of the general features of the scene described, shadowed forth in the Lord of the Isles. It is proper to mention, that although now generally written Buller, it is uniformly known in the district as the Bullers—Les Bouilloirs, or boiling caldrons.]

To the above description, written in the autumn of 1773, little needs to be added: the wild features of the scene, and the effect produced upon the minds of travellers, continue to present nearly the same aspect and to awaken the same impressions as in the days of the great lexicographer. The scene of horror, however, is often enlivened by pic-nic parties from Peterhead, during the fine season, and is deservedly considered as one of the great "lions" on this coast, a title to which its continual "roar" gives it a more especial title.

The geological features of this locality are very interesting. The rocks are of primitive granite, and appear to have been upheaved to the surface by some internal expansive force, and have an inclination from east to west of 25 degrees. Reposing upon the granite, is a bed of diluvial clay, of from ten to fifteen feet deep, containing numerous small water-worn stones, of different species of the secondary formation; besides large quantities of flint, originally imbedded in limestone, which must have been rolled from a great distance, as there are no beds of limestone on this coast, or in any of the neighbouring districts. From atmospheric action and other causes the rocks are rapidly disintegrating; and great quantities of débris are annually accumulating at the bottom of the precipices, where wild grasses and lichens springing up produce, by their decomposition, a vegetable mould which is gradually increasing.

PETERHEAD

"No scene for me like the bounding sea;
No couch like my cabin pillow!
No fair domain like yon ocean's plain —
And my coursers, the breeze and billow!"

    The Heliotrope.
Peterhead, like the neighbouring ports already noticed, has rapidly increased, within the last twenty years, in all those means which facilitate and secure the advantages of trade and commerce. Though long and deservedly resorted to as a delightful watering-place, remarkable for the salubrity of its air, and the beauty of its situation, the activity of trade was still unknown to its inhabitants. Its only harbour, a small basin dug out of the rock, was rarely enlivened by anything that could aspire to the title of shipping; for in Cromwell's time, about twenty tons of boat-freight was all that its diminutive port could lay claim to. The spirit of its inhabitants, however, with an accurate perception of the natural advantages of the Port, and aided by government in the preparation for a new era in commercial enterprise, has achieved wonders. An air of prosperity animates the whole town: the harbour is filled with goodly traders; imports and exports cover the quays: industry has received a stimulus which communicates its happy influence to everything around; and Peterhead now holds an enviable station among the Ports and Harbours of Great Britain.

The point of land on which the town is built, is the most easterly of the mainland of Scotland. It forms the north-east side of a bay, and is connected with the country, on the north-west, by an isthmus eight hundred yards in breadth. On Keith-Inch, so called from the Earl Marischal, are many elegant and substantially-built houses; and on its south-side is an old Castle, erected in the sixteenth century, by George, Earl Marischal, after the model of one which he had seen in Denmark. Down to the close of the sixteenth century, Peterhead was only a small fishing-village, and the stranger who now passes through its populous streets, and busy harbours, will readily perceive how much has been accomplished in the interval.

The Harbours are both handsome and commodious; and, having two entrances from the south and north, and being equidistant from the Forth and Moray Friths, are much resorted to by vessels frequenting the east coast of Scotland. The annual revenue is under the management of commissioners incorporated by Act of Parliament. The South Harbour has a depth of between twelve and fourteen feet water at medium springs, and from eight to ten at neap-tides; but the North Harbour, during spring-tides, has full eighteen feet water, and at no tide less than fourteen. The Quay extends to 3350 feet in length; and connected with the harbour is an excellent graving dock. The shipping belonging to the port amounts to about 12,000 tons; and the number of vessels that annually take shelter in these harbours, may be estimated at two hundred and forty. The leading articles of export are grain, meal, eggs, butter, cattle, fish, and the produce of the fisheries: the imports are groceries, clothing, flour, salt, iron, timber, coal, lime, and bone-manure. Shipbuilding has long been carried on to a considerable extent; and in the present day no port of the kingdom sends out vessels more remarkable for fine proportion and elegant combination of strength and beauty. During the last half century, Peterhead has carried on an extensive trade with Greenland, and Davis' Straits; and takes rank next to Hull in the whale fishery.

The lighthouse, which stands on the Buchan Ness, at the extremity of the south bay, is of the utmost importance, both as regards the interest of the general trade of the port, and the prosecution of the herring fishery, which is carried on with great success.

The neighbourhood of Peterhead is renowned for its granite, which is of a reddish colour and closely resembles that on the west bank of the Lago Maggiore in Italy. The beautiful pillars in the British Museum, and the Duke of York's column in Waterloo-Place, are specimens of it; and materials for many of our public buildings, such as the docks at Sheerness, have also been furnished from the quarries of Peterhead.

MACDUFF

"… A place, where industry and health
Their sure abode have found;
Where want has ripened into wealth,
And gladdened all around.
How sweet on that romantic bay
To spend the live-long summer-day!"

Macduff, which in the course of a century has emerged from its humble origin of a few fishermen's huts into a town and harbour of no little importance on this coast, is now an object of increasing interest to all who delight in tracing the gradual rise and progress of national prosperity, in the ramifications of our trade and commerce. The town is situated about a mile and a half to the east of Banff; and in the grouping of its buildings presents an aspect sufficiently romantic to arrest the attention of every stranger who has a taste for the picturesque. The Earl of Fife, on whose property it is built, has greatly contributed to its advancement in all that regards the comfort of the inhabitants, and the improvement of its harbour, which is now considered one of the best in the Moray Frith. At the instance of this patriotic nobleman, Macduff was created a burgh of barony by his Majesty George III.; and from that time large sums of money have been annually expended in improving the town, encouraging industry, and extending the harbour. The import and export traffic of this port continues on the increase, and employs numerous vessels that carry on a regular trade with London and the ports of the Baltic. The exports consist chiefly of corn, salmon, cod-fish, and granite, for which the quarries of this coast have been so long known and appreciated. It is also a favourite fishing-station, and possesses a numerous fleet of boats engaged in the herring-fishery, which is here prosecuted during the season with great activity and success; an occupation that has been the means of training up a larger number of hardy seamen, and thus contributing to the naval supremacy of our country in a greater degree than any other branch of the coasting-trade. It has at the same time been instrumental in providing an important portion of the subsistence of the peasantry in the district, as well as furnishing a supply for transmission to the metropolis and the southern part of the Kingdom, and successfully vieing with the far-famed staple of Yarmouth. The herring-fishery on the coast of Scotland was long confined, almost exclusively, to the coasts of Caithness and Sutherland; but owing to the encouragement afforded by government at the termination of the war, the fishing of herrings was commenced on the Aberdeen, Banff, Moray, and Rossshire coasts; and it was soon discovered that the herrings were both as good in quality and as abundant on the south side of the Moray Frith as on the north. This trade, from a small beginning, has now become flourishing and extensive; and although the government bounties have been withdrawn, it is still carried on with great spirit and activity. The quantity cured within the district amounts in favourable years to about thirty thousand barrels.

The town contains a thriving and industrious population of nearly two thousand: it has a grammar-school, a town-hall, and a jail. The church, which forms so prominent a feature in the picture, occupies a conspicuous situation on the eminence, and owes much to the taste and munificence of Lord Fife, who has erected a fine massy cross in its immediate precincts, and thereby contributed an ornament which, by its peculiar elevation, gives additional interest and effect to the whole scene.

The bridge across the Devon, by which Macduff communicates with Banff and the surrounding scenery, is described in our notice of the latter town and harbour (#pgepubid00047). Owing to the acknowledged excellence of its accommodation for shipping, Macduff is gradually acquiring fresh testimony in its favour as a seaport, and promises to insure to its inhabitants, at no remote period, their full proportion of maritime prosperity. So be it; and in this wish and prospect every one, who is acquainted with the place or the people, will cordially sympathize; and from their known energy and perseverance, there is no reason to doubt of their securing that commercial success which they labour so strenuously to obtain, and to which their natural position so much entitles them.

BANFF

The ancient town of Banff consists of two distinct parts, the first of which, called the body of the town, lies partly on the lower extremity of the plain, skirting the river, and partly on the declivity. The second portion, called the sea-town, stands on an elevated level which terminates abruptly within a short distance of the sea, by which it is bounded. When viewed from the low ground beyond the river, the sea-town appears to stand on a long elevated ridge, as seen in the engraving, and having the battery on its northern extremity. On a piece of table-land, projecting midway between the town proper, and sea-town, and nearly opposite the mouth of the river, stands the Castle, a plain, modern edifice, but commanding an extensive and varied prospect of the sea, the town, the hill of Macduff, the sweep of the river, and the beautiful slope opposite, surmounted by the woods of Mount Coffer.

The streets of Banff, though composed of houses varying much in size, are generally straight and of a convenient width. The High-street, Castle-road, and a street in the sea-town, terminating in the battery, form a continuous line from south to north, of about half a mile in length. In the progress of recent improvements, many of the old houses have been pulled down and replaced by others, so that now scarcely a feature of primitive architecture is left to remind the spectator of the olden time – the characteristic dwellings of our forefathers —

"When walls of oak and hearts of steel
Stood surety for the public weal."

About twenty years ago the comfort and convenience of the inhabitants were greatly promoted by the addition of an excellent market-place, laid out in a central part of the town and furnished with every necessary accommodation. Public baths have also been erected by a joint-stock company, and the town is lighted with gas.

In the southern approach to Banff, the road is carried over the Doveran by means of an elegant and substantial stone bridge, consisting of seven semicircular arches, with a clear water-way of one hundred and forty-two yards. This handsome structure was finished at the expense of government in 1779, and is highly ornamental to the town and neighbourhood. From this point the view of Duff House, in the centre of a beautiful park, is seen to great advantage. In proof of this, the reader has only to cast his eye over the engraving, which, to those who have not seen the original, conveys a faithful and striking resemblance to Banff and its vicinity. Seen so near as to render its elaborately carved ornaments visible, the appearance of Duff House is particularly rich, graceful, and majestic. It contains a fine gallery of paintings, many of them by the first masters of the art. This baronial mansion, was built nearly a century ago, after a design by Adams, in the Roman style, but has never been finished in its original detail. The body of the house is an oblong, consisting of four lofty stories; the first of which is a rustic basement, over which rise two stories, adorned with fluted pilasters, and an entablature in imitation of that on the temple of Jupiter Stator, in the Campo Vaccino at Rome. Over this entablature, which surrounds the whole structure, is an attic story, surmounted by a balustrade. The four corners of the building have projections resembling towers, which break and vary the outline, overtop the attic story, and are adorned at the angles by an upper range of pilasters with an entablature of the Composite order, and crowned by dome-like roofs, on which are placed octagonal pedestal-chimneys.

The town of Banff has much to recommend it as a residence. It possesses both coast and inland scenery of a superior description, and is particularly healthy. It has excellent schools, classical and commercial; various places of public worship, as observed by the established Presbyterian, the Episcopalian, the Seceder, and others. It has abundant markets, frequent and regular mails, public baths, literary, scientific, and benevolent institutions; boarding-schools, and society equal at least to what is generally met with in a remote provincial town.

PORT GLASGOW

Here, safely moored, our vessels ride,
Here plies the busy oar;
And every ship that stems the tide
Brings treasures to our shore:
Here trade and industry command
The trusty heart and steady hand.

The ground on which this town has been erected belonged originally to the estate of Newark, and was purchased by the magistrates of Glasgow, in 1668, in order to provide a convenient harbour for the merchant-vessels belonging to that city – hence the name of Port Glasgow. In 1775, a charter was obtained from parliament, conferring on the town the privilege of a burgh of barony, and granting a constitution, which vested the management of its municipal affairs in a council of thirteen, including two baillies. By the Burgh-Reform Act, the number was reduced to nine, consisting of a provost, two baillies, and six councillors. The Reform Bill elevated it to the rank of a parliamentary burgh; and, in connexion with Kilmarnock, Rutherglen, Dumbarton, and Renfrew, it sends one member to parliament.

In its general appearance, Port Glasgow presents an air of much neatness and regularity. The streets are straight, and for the most part cross each other at right angles; while the houses, nearly uniform in size, and generally whitewashed, give to the whole a light and regular appearance. Among the modern buildings the town-house, and parish-church are chiefly deserving of notice. The town-hall, of plain but substantial workmanship, is ornamented in front with a portico, resting on four massy fluted pillars, and surmounted with a handsome spire, which rises from the centre. Of this edifice, the ground-floor has been laid out chiefly in shops; but the upper story, in addition to the chambers of the council and town-clerk, contains a large and commodious reading-room, with several apartments occupied as mercantile counting-rooms. The church was finished seventeen years ago, and affords accommodation for about twelve hundred persons. It is square in form, and plain in its exterior; but is much and deservedly admired for the simplicity and elegance of its internal arrangement. The wealthy inhabitants of the place did themselves great honor, and at the same time set a valuable example to others, by gratuitously contributing a sum of fifteen hundred pounds to assist in the expenses of its erection.

Attached to this Port are two capacious harbours, substantially built, and so completely sheltered from storms, that the vessels moored within them have rarely been found to suffer injury even in the severest weather. These harbours are furnished with ample quay and shed-room, and also with a commodious graving-dock – the oldest in Scotland. The largest vessels that trade to the Clyde are found at this port; such is the facility of access to this harbour, that vessels which draw twenty-one feet of water are towed up and down the channel with the greatest ease and safety.

A very important addition to the harbour accommodations of Port Glasgow was obtained a few years back in the erection of wet-docks. The then existing harbours having been found much too small for the increasing number of ships belonging to the port, the inhabitants of the town resolved to avail themselves of their local advantages, by converting the Bay of Newark, naturally adapted to the purpose, into a spacious dock, where vessels of the largest class might lie securely afloat in every state of the tide. The trustees of the harbours obtained an act of parliament, investing them with the necessary powers for carrying this desirable object into effect; and funds having been secured, they were enabled to commence the work, which was soon in rapid progress, and completed about twelve years ago. This dock, having spacious quays, with a twenty-five feet depth of water alongside, holds out special advantages to the trade, both in point of safety and convenience.

The charges levied at this port are on the most moderate scale, and considerably below the rates imposed at the neighbouring ports. To merchants engaged in trade with the Clyde, Port Glasgow thus presents the double advantage of low charges and very superior accommodation; while, at the same time, the privileges of the warehousing system are on a footing equal to those of any other port in the kingdom. Warehouse-room is provided on a very extensive scale, and is open for the general accommodation of the trade, on very moderate terms. In addition to the regular bonded warehouses, there is a large area for receiving wood into bond, and an excellent warehouse for crushing refined sugars, in which large quantities of that article are prepared for exportation to the Mediterranean markets.

Shipbuilding is also carried on at this port to a considerable extent: of late years the builders have been chiefly employed in the construction of steamboats, of which they have produced a great number, some of them of the largest class, and all of very superior workmanship. From the nature of the trade, the rope-work and canvas factory are here in a state of constant activity, and give employment to a great number of hands. The vast improvements effected within the last few years, by deepening the river, and extending the harbours and docks as already mentioned, give Port Glasgow just cause to anticipate all the advantages arising from a prosperous and extending commerce.

GREENOCK

"The Clyde, always spacious, and always covered with its shipping, offers a scene of life and brilliancy unparalleled on any of our sea-shores; and enhanced by a majestic screen of mountains to the north, for ever varying under the change of a restless atmosphere, but under all these changes, for ever magnificent!"

Among the principal sea-ports of the United Empire, Greenock is justly entitled to a distinguished place. Although of comparatively modern date, it has left many of its ancient predecessors and modern rivals in the background, and at this moment continues to advance rapidly in commercial enterprise and prosperity.

The recent formation of quays and docks of corresponding dimensions, affords to this harbour every facility for vessels of heavy burthen. The town possesses several handsome buildings, the principal of which are the church, the Tontine, or great hotel, and the Custom-house. Of the latter, with the immediate scene of commercial activity and forest of masts by which it is surrounded, the engraving opposite presents a vivid and faithful representation. It is a structure of great elegance, and, as an illustration of the chastest style of Grecian architecture, it would be difficult to point out a finer specimen either at home or abroad. The quality of the materials too is every way worthy of so fine a monument of national prosperity; and a fair estimate may be formed of the superiority of the workmanship, when we state that a sum of not less than twenty thousand pounds was expended in its erection; a fact which evinces at the same time the high importance attached to Greenock as a depot of the national revenue. The river Clyde is here about three miles broad; but, as also at Port-Glasgow, the navigable channel is little more than three hundred yards across. The bay is formed by an expansion of the Clyde, into which several bold points of land project from the northern bank, over which the mountains of Argyll, gradually receding till their summits are lost in the sky, present a landscape of almost Alpine beauty and magnificence.

In conjunction with the native grandeur of the scenery, the spirit of commercial enterprise, which is everywhere visible on the banks, as well as on the bosom of the water – transforming the one into a garden, and the other into a "high road" to prosperity, – impresses every spectator with the strongest evidence of its magical influence. Industry and activity pervade and animate everything around, and extend their influence into the remotest parts of the country. For several years past, Greenock has been the principal port in immediate connexion with America, to which the annual tide of emigration from the Highlands still flows, though with abated force, and a divided stream, since the golden hills of Australia have offered to thousands the vision of wealth to be acquired in a few months, and an independence to be realized in a single year. Here, grouped on the quay, sauntering along the streets, or viewing the distant mountains to which they are soon to bid adieu, the voice and features of the Gaël awaken a lively interest and attention on the part of every stranger. They have left their humble dwellings in those mountains, which still look invitingly in the distance, and which through innumerable generations had afforded shelter and sustenance to their ancestors, but whence they are driven at last, not by choice, but imperious necessity.

When tired or satisfied with the tumultuous scene on the quays, the traveller may ascend in half an hour the heights above the port, and there behold one of the finest views in Scotland. The gigantic screen of Argyllshire mountains, rising peak over peak till they vanish in the sky, forms a magnificent distance to the picture; while the middle ground is occupied by the broad expanse of the Clyde, gay and studded with shipping in every direction. Still nearer, the port of Greenock itself, crowded with masts and sails, and steam chimneys and buildings, forms an appropriate foreground to a panorama as variegated as it is picturesque.

That generous spirit of enterprise which characterises the merchants of Greenock has given birth to one of the most remarkable efforts of science and art which have been accomplished in modern times. This is the admiration of every stranger, and well known to the public under the name of Shaw's Water-works. By a singular combination of ingenuity and skill, a small stream of water is made to travel along the faces of mountains, and across ravines, for the space of six miles and a half, till it reaches the brow of a hill about a mile above Greenock, at an elevation of more than five hundred feet above the level of the sea. Here it is received into a small reservoir, and managed in such a manner as to produce, by this stupendous fall, a two-thousand-horse power, greater, says Mr. Brown, than that produced by all the united steam-engines in Glasgow. This splendid scheme was designed and completed under the personal superintendence of Mr. Thom, of Rothesay, to whose scientific and inventive genius it is a noble and lasting monument. The immense power thus provided is rendered more secure and certain than that of steam, because there exists no doubt whatever that a full supply of water commensurate with the power, can be had at all times and seasons.

THE BROOMIELAW, GLASGOW

The river Clyde, in a commercial point of view, is of the greatest importance, not only to the city of Glasgow, but to the whole western district of Scotland. Till the beginning of the sixteenth century, however, the channel of this noble river was so incommoded by fords and shoals, as to be hardly navigable even for the small craft of that day. Sensible of this great evil, and aware that it admitted of a remedy, the inhabitants of Glasgow, Renfrew, and Dumbarton entered into an agreement to excavate the channel of the river, and, by working six weeks alternately, succeeded in their enterprise. The principal ford and several others of less importance were removed, so that by the middle of the sixteenth century, flat-bottomed lighters could be floated with ease and safety to the landing-shore at the Broomielaw, which, in the process of time and events, has become the great commercial port of Glasgow.

A few years ago, the harbour of Broomielaw was only seven hundred and thirty feet long on one side; it is now 3340 feet long on the north side of the river, and 1260 on the south. Till of late years there were only a few punts and ploughs for dredging the river; there are now four dredging-machines, with powerful steam-apparatus and two diving-bells. The shed accommodation on both sides of the river is most ample; and one of the cranes made by Messrs. Claud, Girdwood, and Co., for shipping steam-boat boilers, is capable of sustaining a weight of thirty tons, and may, for the union of power with elegance of construction, challenge all the ports in the kingdom. For the space of seven miles below the city the river is confined within narrow bounds, and the sloping banks, formed of whinstone, in imitation of ashlar, are unequalled as a work of beauty and utility.

From the Broomielaw, till it begins to expand into an estuary, the Clyde is everywhere overlooked, at short intervals, by the rising hulls and finished decks of steam-boats and other craft preparing for the launch. Compared with the bulk of its waters, and the breadth of its stream, this river is unequalled for the amount and stir of its navigation. Here it is seen bearing along ships of heavy burden and deep draught of water; there plentifully dotted with yawls and wherries, and kept in a constant state of foaming agitation by large steam-ships, freighted with heavy cargoes from the shores of England and Ireland – by numerous coasting steam-vessels, careering over its surface with thousands of human beings, and by steam tug-boats, dragging behind them trains of sailing craft, too unwieldy to pilot their own way within its narrow channel. First in the practical working of steam-ship architecture, the Clyde may be safely said to maintain its pre-eminence over every other river in the world.

The Broomielaw Bridge, which forms so prominent a feature in the engraving, was begun after a design by Mr. Telford, the late celebrated engineer, and built by Messrs. Gibb and Son. It is faced with Aberdeen granite, and has a very gentle acclivity. It is 560 feet in length over the newals, and sixty feet in width over the parapets: it has seven arches, and is wider than any river-bridge in the kingdom.