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The English or Anglo-Saxon tongue, according to the Dialect, &c. Scottish dialect, is used universally in Forfarshire; butamong the Grampians, immediately to the westward of this county, the Gaelic is used. In the statistical account of some of the parishes in the mountainous part of Angus a singular disease, called there the leaping ague, is said to exist, bearing a resemblance to St Vitus's dance. The St Vitus's patient first complains of a pain in the head and in the dance. lower part of the back; to this succeed convulsive fits, or fits of dancing, at certain periods. Those affected with it, when in a paroxysm, often leap or spring in a very surprising manner, whence the disease has derived its yulgar name. They frequently leap from the floor to what in cottages are called the baulks, or those beams by which the rafters are joined together. Sometimes they spring from one to another with the agility of a cat, or whirl round one of them with a motion resembling the fly of a jack; at other times they run, with astonishing velocity, to some particular place out of doors, which they have before fixed on in their minds, and perhaps mentioned to those in company with them, and then drop down quite exhausted. It is said that the clattering of tongs, or any noise of a similar kind, will bring on the fit. This melancholy disorder still makes its appearance, but it is far from being so common as formerly.

KINCARDINESHIRE.

Boundaries. KINCARDINESHIRE, or the Mearns, as it is very com monly called, is situated within the fifty-seventh degree of north latitude. It is bounded on the east by the German Ocean, on the north by Aberdeenshire, and on the south and west by the county of Angus. In form it resembles a harp, having the lower point towards the south. It stretches along the coast, from the Bay of Aberdeen to the North Esk river, about thirty miles; and from Dunnottar Castle to Mount Battack, its greatest breadth is nearly twenty miles. It contains 191,576 Scottish, or 243,444 English acres.

End of the
Grampians.

This county brings us to the eastern termination of that mighty barrier of ancient independence, the chain of the Grampian mountains. They terminate at the north-eastern corner of the county, in the parish of Nigg, on the south bank of the Dee. The land here runs into the sta, forming what, in the dialect of the northern countries of Europe, is called a ness or naze, and in English a promontory or headland. The promontory that terminates the Grampians is called the Girdle Ness. It presents to the sea a bold face of rock, from 60 to 80 feet high, covered with green, then a rising bank of arable territory, ascending into a heathy ridge running westward, crowned with two cairns, which are seen from afar, and which speedily spreads into a mountainous district.

The northern part of the county consists in general, like that of Angus, of the mountainous territory formed by

the tract of the Grampians; but this county not only ex- Face of the Country, tends down, on its northern side, to the river Dee, which forms a part of its boundary on that quarter, but to a certain extent it crosses the Dee; and a piece of territory, to the northward of that river, is included in Kircardineshire. To the south of the Grampians, the country descends into what is here provincially termed the How or Hollow of the Mearns, and which is the eastern termination of Strathmore, or the Great Strath, which begins at Stonehaven in this county, as formerly mentioned, and extends, in a south-western direction, with some trifling interruption, to the Frith of Clyde. The southern side of the county, after passing Strathmore, is much diversified with hill and dale, particularly along the banks of the North Esk, which divides this county from Angus on the south. Here the continuation of the Sidlaw hills run, under different names, from the banks of the North Esk to the neighbourhood of Stonehaven, and bound Strathmore on the south or south-east.

vaders of Scotland.

It may be here remarked, that the line of Strathmore Tract of ins was the tract which, in former times, all invaders of Scotland. followed in their march. From the description already given, the natural barriers of Scotland will be easily understood. On the border of England it is defended by a chain of mountains which occupy the greatest part of the middle of the country, and render the march of an invading army impracticable or ruinous when opposed by a warlike people. Hence all invasions were made by Berwick upon the east, or by Dumfries on the west, where the mountains terminate before they reach the sea. From either of these points the next object was to reach the passes of the Forth near Stirling, beyond the narrow isthmus between Forth and Clyde, where the Romans formed their wall; from thence the passage into Strath

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