There is no stream of any considerable size belonging exclusively to the county. The Almond rises in Lanarkshire, enters Linlithgowshire near Polkemmet, receives the "White Burn and the Black Burn, and joining the Breich Water (also from Lanarkshire) passes Livingston, Mid Calder (Midlothian), and Kirkliston, and reaches the firth across the Drum Sands at Cramond. The Avon, which is already nearly as large as it ever becomes when it reaches the borders of the county below Muiravonside, passes Linlithgow bridge and Kinneil, and falls into the firth Mme distance bel⅜w Inveravon. With the exception of Lochcot, the only lake in the county is Linlithgow Loch, a sheet of water covering 102 acres to the north of the town, well-known as a meeting place for curling and skating clubs. The eastern end is not more than 10 feet deep, but in the western portion there is one place about 50 feet deep. Eels are still caught in great numbers; and the perch and the worthless roach, locally called the braise, are abundant. See Lake, p. 220.

“The eastern portion of the county,” says Mr H. M. Cadell, “consists of Lower Carboniferous Sandstones, thin estuarine limestones, and shales. The Carboniferous Limestone series, to which the strata in the western portion belong, is separated from the underlying Calciferous Sandstone series by the Carboniferous or Mountain Limestone, which dips westward and is well exposed along the outcrop in the disused lime-quarries of Hillhouse, Sil vermi ne, and Bathgate. The overlying rocks consist of sandstones, shales, and coal-seams, which are worked at Bathgate and Bo’ness, above which come the three upper marine bands named respectively the Index, the Calmy or Janet Peat, and the Castlecary or Levenseat Limestone, the last of which is taken as the top of the Carboniferous Limestone series and the base of the Millstone Grit. The strata containing most of the workable coals at Bo’ness have a thickness of about 150 fathoms, measuring from the Index Limestone to the lowest seam. The extensive sheets of contemporaneous volcanic rocks (basalts, dolerites, and tuffs) form a remarkable feature in the geology of the county. The high ground between Linlithgow and Bathgate is formed of an almost uninterrupted pile of these rocks about 2000 feet in thickness. They thin out towards the north and south, and on the shore of the firth they occur regularly interbedded with the seams of the Bo’ness coal-field, which are usually in no degree injured by their presence. The tuffs or ash beds are well seen at Preston Burn., Carriden House, and St Magdalen’s near Linlithgow, while Binns Hill near Blackness is the remnant of an old volcano of Lower Carboniferous age. Trap dykes rise through the strata and run in an east and west direction, one of which can be traced for 4 miles between Parkly Craigs and the Avon.” A few mineral springs, sulphurous and chalybeate, are known to exist in the county, but none of them are now of medical repute. In 1875 a salt spring was discovered in the volcanic rocks to the west of the town of Linlithgow, boring having been prosecuted to the depth of 451 feet in search of drinking water. (See Proc. Roy. Soc. Hdin., 1875.) Coal-mining has been prosecuted in the county probably from the time of the Romans; and the earliest document extant in regard to coalpits in Scotland is a charter granted about the end of the 12th century to William Oldbridge of Carriden. In 1871 it was estimated by the Government commissioners that the Linlithgow coal-fields still contained 127,621,800 tons of coal accessible at depths not exceeding 4000 feet. About 1440 miners were employed in the twenty coal-mines in 1881, and the output for the year was 504,338 tons. At the same date there were six iron-mines iu operation, with 926 miners and an output of 180,194 tons. The Kinneil Company, which is the largest in this department, employs about 700 persons. Fire-clay is worked in connexion with the coal; at Kinneil 60,000 bricks can be turned out per week. Since their value was made apparent by Mr Young about 1850, the shales have been the object of an extensive industry at Broxburn, Uphall, Dalmeny, and Hopetoun. The six mines in 1881 employed 691 miners, and the output was 353,826 tons. Limestone, freestone, and whinstone are all quarried within the county, and the Binny freestone has been used for the Royal Institution, the National Gallery, and many of the principal buildings of both Edinburgh and Glasgow. As a manufacturing district Linlithgow does not stand high,—the chief estab- ]ishments, apart from those mentioned in connexion with the town, being grist-mills, distilleries, chemical works, glass works, spade and shovel works, and a pottery.

The climate of the county hardly differs from that of the western portion of Midlothian. The annual rainfall, however, is somewhat greater, and is a fifth more than that of East Lothian: for the twenty-one years ending 1880 the mean at Linlithgow was 31 ’ 76 inches, while at East Linton (east of Haddington) it was 26 ’ 52.

Linlithgow is classed as a mixed agricultural and pastoral county; the agricultural element, however, preponderates largely, though the area of permanent pasture has been increasing. It is calculated that of the total area of 81,114 acres about 20,000 acres consist of the best sorts of clay (carse, &c.), 22,700 of clay on a cold bottom, 9500 of loam, as much of light gravel and sand, 14,000 of moorland and high rocky ground, and 1500 of peat. Only a very small part of the arable land remains unreclaimed; the parish of Livingston, which in the beginning of last century was nearly covered with heath and juniper, is now all under rotation. Bathgate and Torphichen contain patches of peat moss and swamp. In Carriden and Dalmeny, and generally along the coast, the soil is light and early, though in some parts it varies so often that no single term is applicable to any considerable area. According to the agricultural returns for 1881, the corn crops occupied 17,347 acres, green crops 7264, clover and grass under rotation 12,980, permanent pasture (exclusive of heath or mountain land) 21,289. Oats are the most important of the cereals, 10,348 acres; and barley comes next with 4874 acres, an increase on the 3787 acres of 1856. Wheat has been steadily losing ground; while 1856 showed 4643 acres, 1881 gives only 1450. Beans, which used to occupy about 1000 acres, are now reduced to 655. An increasing area is devoted to clover and grasses for hay; but on the other hand the turnip area has been considerably reduced—5142 acres in 1856, 3861 in 1881. The extent of land under potatoes has slightly increased, —3052 acres for 1881, 2355 being the average for 1866-75. Cattle breeding is not much attended to, but a considerable number of animals are bought and fattened, and dairy farming is largely prosecuted, the fresh butter and churn milk being sent mainly to Edinburgh, but also to Newcastle, &c. Very little cheese is made. As a sheepfarming county Linlithgow stands very low—the returns giving 17,605 head in 1881, 23,070 in 1866. But few horses are bred, and the number of those in the county has remained wonderfully steady for the last fifteen years. Pigs have grown greatly feλver—3166 in 1866, and only 1442 in 1881.

The average extent of the farms is 108 acres, rather less than in Midlothian; of the total 542 more than 200 do not exceed 50 acres, and only 35 rise above 300. Very little of the land is rented at more than £3 per acre; an average of £2 to £2, 10s. for the best districts, of 30s. to 35s. for medium soils, and 15s. to 25s. for the worst land, will not be wide of thê mark. ‘ ‘ The leases of the arable lands are almost invariably for nineteen years, and grass lands are usually let annually by public auction, though in some instances they are taken for a period of three or five years.”

Though it is only in the neighbourhood of the principal mansions that large stretches of wood exist, the county as a tree-growing district rises considerably above the average for Scotland,—the woodland area being returned as 4899 acres in 1881, or one-sixteenth of the whole (Edinburgh shows one-twentieth). The finest woods are those of Hopetoun (where the beech avenues are especially noteworthy), Newliston, Kinneil, and Dalmeny. Much of the old timber has been recently cut down, but replanting has been vigorously prosecuted.

The valued rent of the county in 1649 was £75,027 Scots, or about £6252 sterling. In 1806 the real rent was £64,518 sterling, and in 1811, £88,745. Exclusive of railways, the valuation was £189,198 in 1876-77, and £216,011 in 1881-82. In the beginning of the century the county was practically in the hands of between thirty and forty landowners (Trotter). According to the Government return for 1872-73, the total number of owners was 1535, of which 287 possessed upwards of 1 acre. The pro-Erietors holding estates above 2000 acres were as follows :—Earl of [opetoun, 11,870 acres; Earl of Rosebery, 5680; Sir William Baillie of Polkemmet, 4320; Duke of Hamilton’s Trustees, 3694; Lord Cardross, 2995; William Cowan of Linburn, 2231; Robert H. J. Stewart of Champfleurie, 2036; Dundas’s Trustee, 2082.

Hopetoun House, the seat of the earl of Hopetoun, and the grandest mansion in the county, occupies a fine position between Queensferry and Blackness. Begun about 1696 by Sir William Brace of Kinross, and completed long afterwards by Mr Adam, it practically occupies the site of the old castle of Abercorn, which was taken from the Douglas family by James II. in 1455. Dalmeny Park (earl of Rosebery) lies about 1⅛ mile west of Cramond; the neighbouring ruins of Barnbougie Castle, an ancient seat of the Mowbrays, have been incorporated with a modern building. Almondell House (earl of Buchan) is situated on the Almond, not far from Mid Calder. Kinneil, a now deserted residence of the dukes of Hamilton, associated with memories of Colonel Lilburn and Dugald Stewart, is a short distance to the south-west of Bo’ness. On a trap rock jutting out into the firth stands Blackness Castle, now used as a powder magazine, but once one of the “keys of the kingdom,” with a busy little port under its protection. Niddry Castle (often called West or Seton Niddry), one of the resting places of Queen Mary, is now a mere ruin. Newliston (now owned by T. A. Hog) was for many years the residence of Lord Stair, who first introduced the field cultivation of cabbage, and is said to have laid out the woods according to the plan of the battle of Dettingen. Dundas Castle was the original seat of the Dundas family. Pardovan recalls the memory of Walter Steuart, author of the Collections concerning the Worship, die., of the Church of Scotland, and Philipstoun that of John Dundas, another Scottish ecclesiastical lawyer. Kincavel was the birthplace and family mansion of Patrick Hamilton.

There are two royal burghs in the county—Linlithgow and Queensferry, and, besides the towns Bathgate, Borrowstounness or Bo’ness, Armadale, a number of thriving villages.

The Union Canal connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with Edinburgh passes along the central valley, and crosses the Almond and Avon by bridges designed by Thomas Telford. The North British Railway has two lines between Edinburgh and Glasgow, which pass through the county via Linlithgow and Bathgate respectively. Queensferry and Bo’ness are both connected with the system by branch-lines, and Bathgate is a junction of some importance.

The population of West Lothian has increased from 17,844 in 1801 to 43,198 (22,436 males and 20,762 females) in 1881. The greatest increase (8601) took place in the decennial period 1851-1861, the least (606) in 1811-21. The females were in excess of the males in every census down to 1841; since then the preponderance has been on the other side. The total population was 23,291 in 1831, 26,872 in 1841, 30,044 in 1851, 38,645 in 1861, and 40,965 in 1871.

Traces of the prehistoric occupation of the county are fairly numerous. On Bowden Hill is an earthwork connected by Mr Glennie and others with the Arthurian contest. On Cairnpaple may be seen a circular building of unknown but early origin, and at Kipps is a cromlech once surrounded by circles of stones. Stone cists have been discovered at Carlowrie, Dalmeny, Newliston, &c. Near Inveravon is a vast accumulation of shells considered by several geologists to be a natural bed, but claimed by antiquaries as an artificial mound, either a kitchen midden or a heap for the manufacture of lime (see David Grieve, Proc. Sc. Soc. of Ant., 1870-71). The Wall of Antoninus lies for a considerable distance within the county, and is believed to give origin to the names Carriden and Walton (see an account of a detailed exploration of the wall in Builder, 1877, pp. 1023-25). A fine legionary tablet was discovered at Bridgeness in 1868 (Proc. Sc. Soc. of And., vol. viii.). Roman camps can be distinguished in several places.

At Torphichen are the remains of a preceptory of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, partly used as a parish church. The churches of Dalmeny, Abercorn, Kirkliston, Uphall, and South Queensferry are of early origin,—Romanesque and Norman Gothic.

Linlithgow, the county town of the above county, and a royal and parliamentary burgh, situated in the central valley, 18 miles by rail from Edinburgh, consists almost exclusively of a single street running east and west along both sides of the highway; gardens behind the houses stretch down to the lake or climb the lower slopes of the rising grounds, on which a considerable number of suburban residences have been erected. In the early part of the century the general aspect of the street was antique and picturesque, but the greater proportion of the frontage has been rebuilt or modernized. Apart from the palace and the contiguous church of St Michael, the only edifices of any note are an ancient towerlike building near the railway station, which tradition regards as a mansion of the Knights Templars, the town-house (1688), and the county courts (1865). “Linlithgow for wells” is a proverbial expression; and the cross well in the public square in front of the town-house is a striking piece of grotesque carved work in stone, originally erected, it is believed, in the reign of James V., but rebuilt in 1807. The burgh school goes back to the pre-Reformation times. Shoemaking and tanning are the leading industries; but a large distillery and (in the neighbourhood) two paper mills, glue works, and a soap factory add considerably to the business of the place. Linen bleaching is altogether a thing of the past. A grain market is held every Friday. The riding of the marches of the burgh is still performed annually by the magistrates and trades. The population of the burgh was 2282 in 1792-93, 3843 in 1861, 3690 in 1871, and 3913 in 1881.

Linlithgow Palace is by general consent the finest ruin of its kind in Scotland. Heavy but effective, the sombre walls rise above the green knolls of the promontory λvlιich divides the lake into two nearly equal portions. In plan it is almost square (168 by 174 feet), enclosing a court (91 by 88 feet), in the centre of which stands the ruined fountain used as a model for that erected in front of Holyrood Palace. At each comer there is a tower with an internal spiral staircase,—that of the north-west angle being crowned by a little octagonal turret known as “Queen Margaret’s Bower,” from the tradition that it was there that the consort of James IV. sat and watched for his return from Flodden. The oldest portion of the building is probably the west side, whose massive masonry, hardly broken by a single window, is supposed to date in part from the time of James III.; but the larger part of the south and east sides belong to James V., about 1535; and the north side was rebuilt in 1619-20. Of James V.’s portion, which is architecturally the richest, the main apartments are the Lyon chamber or parliament hall, and the chapel royal. The grand entrance approached by a drawbridge, was on the east side; above the gate way are still some weather-worn remains of rich allegorical designs, once resplendent with colour. A few yards to the south of the palace is the church of St Michael, a Gothic (Scottish Decorated) building (180 feet long internally excluding the apse and the steeple, by 62 in breadth excluding the transepts) probably founded in 1242, but mainly built in ths 15th century. The central west front steeple was till 1821 topped by a crown like that of St Giles, Edinburgh.

Linlithgow (wrongly identified with a Roman Lindum) was a royal burgh with a royal castle and an endowed church as far back as the reign of David I. Edward I., who had encamped there the night before the battle of Falkirk (1298), wintered at Linlithgow in 1301, and next year built “a pele (castle) mekill and strong,” which in 1313 was captured by the Scots through the assistance of William Bunnock or Binning and his famous hay-cart. Later in the century (1369) the customs of Linlithgow yielded more than those of any other chief town except Edinburgh; and the burgh was taken along with Lanark to supply the place of Berwick and Roxburgh in the court of the Four Burghs (1368). Robert II. granted it a charter of immunities, the oldest still preserved, in 1384. The palace becoming a favourite residence of the kings of Scotland, and often forming part of the marriage settlement of their consorts (Mary of Guelders, 1449; Margaret of Denmark, 1468; Margaret of England, 1503), is frequently mentioned in Scotch history. James V. was born within its walls in 1512, and his daughter Mary, December 7, 1542. In 1570 the Regent Murray was assassinated in the High Street by Hamilton of Bothwell· haugh. In 1600 the title earl of Linlithgow was bestowed on Alexander, Lord Livingston, by James VI., who after his accession to the English throne retained an affection for the palace, and visited it again in 1617. The university of Edinburgh took refuge at Linlithgow from the plague in 1645-46; and in the same year the national parliament, which had often sat in the palace, was held there for the last time....