Tay
Tay names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Tay a river of Scotland
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a river of Scotland, draining nearly the whole of Perthshire, and pouring into the German Ocean a greater bulk of water than any other British river; rises on Benloy, on the Argyllshire border, at an altitude of 2,980 feet. Thence it winds 118 miles E. N. E., S., S. S. E., and E.-for the last 25 miles as a tidal estuary, 1½ mile to 34 miles broad, which separates Perth and Forfar shires from Fife. In the first 25 miles of its course it bears the names of Fillan and Dochart; it then traverses Loch Tay, and it afterward passes Aberfeldy, Dunkeld, Stanley, Perth, Dundee, and Broughty- Ferry. Its principal affluents are the Tunnel (58 miles long, and sometimes regarded as a N. head stream), Isla, Almond, and Earn. The Tay, as it is the most beautiful of Scottish rivers, so it is unrivaled for its salmon fisheries. Vessels of 100 tons can ascend as high as Perth, but even to Dundee the navigation of the firth is much impeded by shifting sandbanks.
Tay a river in Scotland
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a river in Scotland. One of its sources is Loch Tay, a picturesque sheet of water in the County of Perth. This loch is about fifteen miles long and a mile wide. It is from 100 to 600 feet deep and is well stocked with fish. Other lochs contribute their waters to the River Tay which flows eastward into an estuary and is about 120 miles in length. The estuary is navigable for ships. It is crossed by a railway at Dundee. In 1879 the Tay Bridge of thirteen spans was blown down by a storm, carrying a passenger train with it. The new bridge, over two miles in length, and having eighty-five spans and two lines of rail, was open to traffic in 1887.
Tay LOCH, a lake in Perthshire
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
LOCH, a lake in Perthshire, Scotland, 355 feet above sea-level, and extending 14½ miles N. E. from Killin , 15 to to Kenmore, ½ to 1½ miles broad 100 fathoms deep, and covering 6,550 acres. It is a magnificent Highland lake, flanked on the N. W. by Ben Lawers (4,004 feet), and containing near its foot a wooded islet, with a fragment of an Augustinian priory, founded in 1122 by Alexander I., who here buried his queen, Sibylla. In September, 1842, Queen Victoria was rowed up Loch Tay, launched on which a steamer was first in 1883, and a railway to which, at Killin, was opened in 1886.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The physical facts still hold: the Tay pours more water into the North Sea (Collier's 1921 "German Ocean") than any other British river, and the 1887 rail bridge Aiton's describes in 1910 still carries trains over the firth. What has been added is a second crossing — the Tay Road Bridge, opened in 1966 — and, upstream, the Breadalbane and Tummel-Garry hydro-electric schemes built by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board in the 1940s and 1950s, which dammed and regulated much of the catchment; the salmon ladder at Pitlochry became a tourist attraction in its own right. The railway to Killin at the head of Loch Tay, "opened in 1886", was closed in 1965, and the loch steamer service is long gone, though the Augustinian ruins on the Isle of Loch Tay and Ben Lawers above it are unchanged. The river is still famous for salmon, but stocks are much reduced and commercial netting of the estuary has ended, so the boast that it is "unrivaled for its salmon fisheries" now reads as angling history.
Written for this edition, 2026.