town council, Thomas Edward--the "working naturalist," whose life was
so sympathetically written by Samuel Smiles--was curator for a few years.
The principal manufactures comprise woollens, leather, rope and sails, and
there are also breweries, distilleries, iron foundries, brick-yards and
timber-yards, besides some ship-building. The fishing trade is also
important. The exports mainly consist of grain, cattle, fish, dairy produce
and potatoes; the imports of coal and timber. There is a railway station at
Bridge of Banff communicating, via Inveramsay, with Aberdeen, and another
at the harbour, communicating with Portsoy and Keith. The burgh is under
the jurisdiction of a provost and council, and unites with Macduff, Elgin,
Cullen, Inverurie, Kintore and Peterhead in returning one member to
parliament. The Cassie Gift arose out of a bequest by Alexander Cassie of
London, a native of Banff, who left L20,000 to the poor of the town--the
interest being divided twice a year. Duff House, immediately adjoining the
town, is a seat of the duke of Fife. It was built in 1740-1745, after
designs by Robert Adam, at a cost of L70,000. The duke of Cumberland rested
here on the way to Culloden. The house contains a fine collection of
pictures and an interesting armoury. The park is nearly ten miles in
circumference. The house, together with that portion of the park
immediately surrounding it (about 140 acres), was presented to the towns of
Banff and Macduff by the duke of Fife in November 1906.
BANFFSHIRE, a north-eastern county of Scotland, bounded N. by the Moray
Firth, E. and S. by Aberdeenshire, and W. by Elgin and Inverness. It has an
area of 403,364 acres, or 633-1/2 sq. m. The surface is diversified. The
northern half is mostly a fine, open, undulating country of rich,
highly-cultivated soil. The southern is mountainous, but extensive farms
are found in its fertile glens. Some of the mountains are thick with
forests, some present a beautiful intermixture of rock and copse, while
others are covered with brown heath. The principal mountains are all in the
south; among them are Cairngorm, on the confines [v.03 p.0313] of the
shires of Banff and Inverness (4084 ft.), famous for its amber-coloured
quartz crystals, the "cairngorms" of Scots jewelry; Ben Rinnes (2775 ft.);
Corryhabbie (2563); Cook's Cairn (2478); Carn an t-Saidhe (2401); and the
Buck of Cabrach (2368). No great rivers belong wholly to Banffshire. For a
considerable par
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