46 Tranmctions. 



branches properly laid were covered with scraws, overlapping 

 each other like slates, and all covered with straw, heather, 

 brackens, or reeds, effectually excluding the rain. There were 

 half-a dozen such cottages in the parish when I came to it, and 

 one still remains, the old farmhouse of Lower Port Ling. This 

 the proprietor, Mr Oswald of Auchencruive and Cavens, guards 

 from being improved off the farm. The name of this most 

 peculiar kind of structure was in Colvend known as " The cod's 

 head." 



Closely connected with the disappearance of so many cottages 

 is the great decrease in the population of the parish, which, accord- 

 ing to the census returns, was in 1841, 1495 ; 1851, 1398 ; 1861, 

 1366; 1871, 1315; 1881, 1281; 1891, 1126. How is this 

 decrease to be accounted for 1 The decrease is due to various 

 causes, but chiefly, I think, to the altered conditions of farming. 

 The farmer can no longer allow the cottar facilities for grazing a 

 cow or rearing a pig. From Colvend many have gone to the 

 neighbouring town of Dalbeattie, drawn thither by the advanced 

 wages to be earned in the granite quarries and polishing mills^ 

 and some have gone to more distant towns, some to foreign 

 lands. 



I have said that in the last fifty years a great number of 

 cottages, and what were practically crofter dwellings, have dis" 

 appeared, and that only a few, a dozen at most, have been built 

 to replace them. But, within the last twenty years, a great many 

 houses of a superior class have sprung up in all parts cf the parish, 

 Rockcliffe, the Scaur, Barnhourie, Douglas Hall, Laggan, and 

 Portling, and building is still proceeding. Since Mr Oswald, a 

 few years ago, decided to grant feus on his estate in Colvend, 

 building has taken a fresh start. Already villas have been built 

 on the most beautiful spots and salient points of his property, 

 from Douglas Hall bay to Portling and Port o' Warren, and others 

 are in contemplation. Some of the houses built cost thousands, 

 many of them cost hundreds. The larger and more expensive 

 houses were built with the intention of being permanently 

 occupied by the proprietors, but the greater number were built 

 with the view of being let to the visitors who, in increasing 

 numbers, come annually to spend part of the summer and autumn 

 months among the liills and by the shores of the parish. For 

 Ion" Colvend was unknown, or known only to the few who took 

 advantage of such scanty accommodation as could lie found in the 



