About twenty years ago the comfort and convenience of the inhabitants were greatly promoted by the addition of an excellent market-place, laid out in a central part of the town and furnished with every necessary accommodation. Public baths have also been erected by a joint-stock company, and the town is lighted with gas. In the southern approach to Banff, the road is carried over the Doveran by means of an elegant and substantial stone bridge, consisting of seven semicircular arches, with a clear water-way of one hundred and forty-two yards. This handsome structure was finished at the expense of government in 1779, and is highly ornamental to the town and neighbourhood. From this point the view of Duff House, in the centre of a beautiful park, is seen to great advantage. In proof of this, the reader has only to cast his eye over the engraving, which, to those who have not seen the original, conveys a faithful and striking resemblance to Banff and its vicinity. Seen so near as to render its elaborately carved ornaments visible, the appearance of Duff House is particularly rich, graceful, and majestic. It contains a fine gallery of paintings, many of them by the first masters of the art. This baronial mansion, was built nearly a century ago, after a design by Adams, in the Roman style, but has never been finished in its original detail. The body of the house is an oblong, consisting of four lofty stories; the first of which is a rustic basement, over which rise two stories, adorned with fluted pilasters, and an entablature in imitation of that on the temple of Jupiter Stator, in the Campo Vaccino at Rome. Over this entablature, which surrounds the whole structure, is an attic story, surmounted by a balustrade. The four corners of the building have projections resembling towers, which break and vary the outline, overtop the attic story, and are adorned at the angles by an upper range of pilasters with an entablature of the Composite order, and crowned by dome-like roofs, on which are placed octagonal pedestal-chimneys. The town of Banff has much to recommend it as a residence. It possesses both coast and inland scenery of a superior description, and is particularly healthy. It has excellent schools, classical and commercial; various places of public worship, as observed by the established Presbyterian, the Episcopalian, the Seceder, and others. It has abundant markets, frequent and regular mails, public baths, literary, scientific, and benevolent institutions; boarding-schools, and society equal at least to what is generally met with in a remote provincial town. [Illustration: PORT GLASGOW.] PORT GLASGOW. Here, safely moored, our vessels ride, Here plies the busy oar; And every ship that stems the tide Brings treasures to our shore: Here trade and industry command The trusty heart and steady hand.