COUNTY OF STIRLING. 155 



The capital invested is large, and the expenses are not small, 

 but the supply is sufficient to stock lochs and streams all over 

 the country. The development of this fishery will be watched 

 with much interest. In the valuation roll the estimated rent is 

 £377 a year. 



In the parish of St Xinians, the valuation of which in 1880-81 

 was £53,243, there are in all 1279 occupancies on the roll, a 

 large proportion of which are owned by small proprietors. 

 Besides many farms of moderate size, there are some smaller 

 tenancies held by men who, with their families, do the whole 

 work, and from these landlords often get a higher rent than is 

 paid by farmers higher in the social scale. They are industrious, 

 hard-working people, who do their work well, pay their rents 

 honourably, and give very little trouble to landlords or factors. 

 There is much good growthy land in the parish, and along the 

 road sides may be seen great abundance of such wild fruits as 

 rasps, brambles, blackberries, and sloes. On the north side of 

 the river, over against the parish, are fully 9000 acres of valuable 

 land belonging to the county from Stirling to Alva. The lands 

 of Airthrey Castle and AVesterton are particularly fertile. 



In Alva parish the lands are arable and pasture. Near the 

 base of the Ochils the soil is a rich hazel mould, intermixed 

 with gravel and small stones ; then there is a bed of moss rest- 

 ing on clay which is 50 to 100 yards wide, and is, in some 

 places, 7 feet deep. Next there is a belt of strong clay, which 

 extends towards the Devon, and meets the haugh lands which 

 is overflowed by the river two or three times a year. The soil 

 near the river is in some places more than 20 feet deep. The 

 size of the farms has recently been increased, and the tendency 

 is still in the same direction. 



In the parish of Larbert, further to the south, is the 

 estate of Sir William Bruce of Stenhouse, Bart., the mansion- 

 house of which is one of the oldest in the countv. It is a 

 quaint, old-gabled place on a commanding situation, and 

 approached by an avenue of trees of great size. On the estate 

 is a common of eighty acres where the great autunmal Falkirk 

 Trysts are held for the disposal of store cattle and sheep. The 

 village of Stenhouse Muir is also feued ofl the estate. On the 

 edge of the Torwood Mr liolton, M.P., has the estate of Carbrook, 

 to which additions have been made lately. 



Westward from Stirling, along the valley of the Forth, there 

 is carse of greater or less width, but of decreasing value to the 

 neighbourhood of Buchlyvie. A portion of the land has the 

 look of formerly being covered with peat, and, in the parish of 

 Kijjpen, begins the great expanse known as the Flanders Moss. 

 The peat Ijegins al)ruptly, suggesting the idea that improvers 

 in former ages have })roceeded with its removal till, for some 



