Angus

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Angus is an historic county of Scotland. (For more information about the ancient counties of the UK, see the historic counties page and the place types page.)

From The Topographical, Statistical, and Historical Gazetteer of Scotland, 1847:

A county on the east coast of Scotland, stretching between the river North Esk and the frith of Tay. It is bounded on the north-west and north by Aberdeenshire; on the north-east by Kincardineshire; on the east and south-east by the German ocean; on the south by the frith of Tay; and on the south-west and west by Perthshire.

About 130 years ago, a great proportion of Forfarshire was in the hands of a few ancient families; the most conspicuous of whom were the Lyons, Maules, Douglases, Ogilvies, and Carnegies. But since the introduction of manufactures and trade, property has undergone many changes, and been parcelled out in smaller divisions.

Forfarshire is the chief seat of the coarse linen manufactures of Scotland, and conducts a very extensive commerce in fabrics made up from foreign flax and hemp. In the large towns the spinning of yard in large mills, and the working of canvass, broad-sheetings, bagging, and other heavy fabrics, in factories, are conducted on a vast scale.

In the smaller towns, and the villages, the manufacture of osnaburghs, dowlas and common sheetings, employs an enormous number of hand-looms. Of 4,000 power-looms employed in Scotland on coarse linen fabrics, greatly the larger proportion are in the towns of Angus.