Perth: Street by Street is an architectural, archaeological, geographical, historical, and visual journey around the city of Perth’s c.630 streets, avenues, closes, roads, and vennels. Drawing on a range of disciplines, Perth: Street by Street will appeal both to those readers interested in the history and life of Perth, and to anyone who has lived, worked, or spent time in Scotland’s Fair City. For the people of Perth and those who hail from St John’s Town, the book will be particularly poignant. Within its pages, readers may find their own homes, place of birth, workplaces, schools, favourite shops, and the public architecture and civic backdrop which form a part of their everyday existence. The book is available online from Amazon and other internet retailers, and from the following bookshops: Waterstones (Perth), WHSmith (Perth), Sweet Words (Dunkeld), as well as from Gloagburn Farm Shop by Tibbermore.

William Ritchie (c.1790-1837), scientist and mathematician, born at Monzie , educated at Perth Academy and then Edinburgh University (graduated 1811). Ritchie became assistant master at Perth Academy in 1816 and two years later published System of Arithmetic. By 1820, Ritchie was Rector of Tain Royal Academy. In this post, he had time to devote to physics, writing treatise on light and heat. Ritchie sought to develop his knowledge of natural philosophy and took time away from Tain to attend lectures in Paris. After his return, several unsuccessful job applications followed. Nevertheless, Ritchie received a commission to lecture at the Royal Society; he lectured on imponderable substances and mathematics. The lectures’ success saw Ritchie become Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution, which allowed a permanent move to London. During this time, William Ritchie wrote two books and more than forty papers. He collaborated with Michael Faraday, looking into the implications of electromagnetism and undertook research into glass manufacture. Ritchie died of fever in Edinburgh in 1837.

George Seton (1822-1908) was born in Perth to George Seton of the East India Company. Educated at Edinburgh University and Exeter College, Oxford. Seton joined the bar in 1846 though never practised. By 1854, Seton was secretary to the Registrar-General for Scotland (Edinburgh). He added the post of Superintendent of the Civil service Examinations in 1862 - doing both until 1889. Amongst the organisations that Seton joined include: The Royal Society of Edinburgh; St Andrews Boat Club, The Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor, The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, The Royal Bodyguard of Scottish Archers, and Midlothian Coast Artillery. Seton lived in Morningside for much of his adult life in a house he had built for himself - St Bennet’s. A historian and genealogist, Seton wrote in both areas including his 1863, The Law and Practice of Heraldry in Scotland.

Alexander Balmain Bruce (1831-1899) Minister and Theologian was born at West Lodge, Dupplin and initially educated at the parish school in Auchterarder before attending Edinburgh University (1845). This was just after the Disruption of 1843 and whether as a result of this or some other factor, Bruce’s study of theology resulted in a crisis of faith. Nevertheless, Bruce graduated and went on to take up the post of assistant minister of the Free Church at Ancrum (Roxburghshire); he became a full minister in 1859 at Cardross (Dunbartonshire). It was here that Bruce began to produce the sermons he later published as The Training of the Twelve (1871). By 1869, Bruce was at Broughty Ferry and had begun to lecture in Christianity at Edinburgh. A further publication, The Humiliation of Christ (1876) coincided with academic appointment to the chair of apologetics and New testament exegesis (Free Church Hall, Glasgow). Now a biblical scholar, Bruce wrote extensively: The Chief End of Revelation (1881); The Miraculous Element in the Gospels (1886); The Kingdom of God - Christ’s Teaching According to the Synoptical Gospels (1889); Apologetics - Christianity Defensively Stated (1892); The Provincial Order of the World (1897); The Moral Order of the World in Ancient and Modern Thought (1892); The Epistle to the Hebrew: the First Apology for Christianity (1899); St Paul‘s Conception of Christianity (1894); The Parabolic Teaching of Christ (1894); The Galilean Gospel (1884); The Life of William Denny (1888); With Open Face - Jesus Mirrored in Matthew, Mark, and Luke (1896); Expositor‘s Greek Testament (synoptic gospel section - 1897); Free Church Hymn Book (contribution - 1882); Church Hymnary (contributor - 1888); Theological Translation Library (editing with T K Cheyne - 1894). Bruce’s interpretation of the Bible generated both admirers and critics. His Christ’s Teaching According to the Synoptical Gospels led to his investigation by the general assembly of the Free Church. That assembly found the book to be within the thinking of the Free Church. Bruce went on to become Gifford lecturer (1896-7) at the university of Glasgow. Bruce married in 1860 (Jane Hunter) and had at least one son and one daughter. He is buried at Broughty Ferry.

Thomas Smeaton (1536-1583) theologian born at Gask. Educated firstly in Perth and then at St Salvator’s College (St Andrews) where he stayed as a regent until ousted during the Reformation. With several other members of St Andrews Smeaton travelled to Paris where he worked at the university. In Paris Smeaton resolved to become a Jesuit and began a course of study in Rome to this end, proved difficult by illness. However, Smeaton eventually renounce not only the Jesuits but also Roman Catholicism. He travelled to England after the St Bartholomew’s day massacres and then on to Scotland where he became minister of Paisley Abbey and dean of the Arts faculty of Glasgow University. Smeaton soon rose up the ranks of the Protestant Church and by 1579 he was moderator. He concerned himself with debate and controversy and wrote several treatise. In 1580 Smeaton became principal of Glasgow University. Smeaton died at Glasgow in 1583. He left a wife and son. The eighteenth-century civil engineer and designer of the Perth bridge, John Smeaton, was likely a descendent of Thomas Smeaton.

John Proudfoot Strattons surgeon and government official, was born at Caputh by Dunkeld in 1830. He began an apprenticeship with a Dr Ingham of North Shields in 1840 and by 1855 had attained the degrees of BM and MD from the University of Aberdeen. As a medical student, Stratton was exceptional and attained high honours and awards throughout his period of study. Stratton’s medical career was initially with the East India Company which had sponsored his studies. He worked within the Indian Medical Service in Bombay and Baroda. During the latter appointment Startton helped found a hospital and set up vaccination activity. From 1857, Stratton began to move more into the administrative and political field taking charge of the district of Bundelkhand in 1859.From then on, Stratton rose through the civil service of the East India Company until his retirement in 1885. Stratton married in 1859 - Georgina Anderson - with whom he had six children. He died in 1895.

Winifred Anna Cavendish-Bentinck (1863-1954) avian rights activist was born at Murthly Castle. In 1889 Winifed Anna Dallas-Yorke married the sixth duke of Portland and became well known in society circles. A few years after her marriage, Cavendish-Bentinck, now a duchess, threw herself into bird protection activity campaigning against the use of wild bird feathers in the fashion industry. With others opposed to the trade in plumes Cavendish-Bentinck helped found the Society for the Protection of Birds and became its first president, an office she held until 1954. Her proximity to Royal circles gave Cavendish-Bentinck an opportunity to lobby Queen Victoria which led to some progressive changes in the area of bird exploitation. Cavendish-Bentinck’s work was not just confined to Britain and she involved herself with the suffering of Spanish songbirds. As well as the Society for the Protection of Birds, Cavendish-Bentinck was vice-president of the Royal Scoiety for Protection of Cruelty to Animals and a member of the Animal Defenders Corps. Birds were her primary area of activity, but she also worked with horses and pit ponies. In 1935 Winifred Anna Cavendish-Bentinck was made Dame of the British Empire partly as a result of the mining community of Nottinghamshire which held her in good regard. She outlived her husband by eleven years with whom she had two sons and a daughter.

James Bonar (1852-1941) Economist. Born at Collace (Perthshire), a son of the manse, James Bonar was raised in the Free Church. Bonar was educated at the academy in Glasgow before going up to that city’s university. At university, Bonar excelled, won many prizes and came out with a first-class MA in mental philosophy. Bonar then pursued an academic career at various universities: Edinburgh, Leipzig, Tubingen and Oxford (Balliol College). At Oxford he took another degree, this time in Greats and again attained a first. After Oxford, Bonar took up a lecturing post in economics in London. Here he set up the Adam Smith Club as a debating club for economics. By 1881, Bonar began a fifteen year career in the civil service. Bonar’s support of co-operation led him to found a book-binding co-operative in Bloomsbury (1885). As an economist, Bonar was much taken with the work of Malthus, producing in 1885, Malthus and his Work. He also produced two volumes on the correspondence of the economist Ricardo and an important guide to the work of Adam Smith: Catalogue of Adam Smith’s Library. As well as commentary on the great economists of the day, Bonar wrote for several journals including the Economic Journal and the Journal of Political Economy. Whilst never becoming an eminent economist in his own right, Bonar was a well-known figure: he helped found the Royal Economic Society; was involved with the British Association (president of its economic section); was involved with the Political Economy Club; and the Royal Statistical Society (vice-president). During the First World War, James Bonar was resident in Canada where he was employed in its Royal Mint. His return to England saw more accolades presented to him including in 1935 an honorary LittD from the University of Cambridge for his work on Malthus which coincided with the centenary of the same economist. James Bonar married Mary Mewburn in 1883 and together they had four children (two sons and two daughters). He died at his home in :London in 1941.