158 Transactions. 



of comparison. Almost all the grain crops in Dumfries now are 

 oats — very little barley. In 1888 there were 559 acres of barley 

 in the whole county of Dumfries. There were only 51 acres of 

 wheat in Dumfriesshire in 1888, and only 27 acres of it in 1887, so 

 that Dumfries parish in 1790 far exceeded in its growth of that 

 cereal the whole county now. There is now a very large acreage 

 of turnips. They were just beginning to be cultivated in small 

 patches in Dr Burnside's day. 



The yearly rent of the landward part of the parish in 1791 was 

 £4017 6s 8d. The same last year was £20,998 6s 8d. This large 

 increase has arisen largely from the great increase in the number 

 of houses in the outskirts of the town. The only illustration 

 I have procured of the value of a farm shows no increase at all in 

 proportion with the total. Dr Burnside mentions that in 1737 no 

 one would take a lease of Tinwald Downs when it was offered at a 

 rent of £35 per annum. The same lands, he adds, after a consider- 

 able number of acres be taken off for planting, do not yield £300 

 a 5'ear, and at the end of the lease may yield £100 more. The 

 rental in the roll for 1880-81 is £412. " Netherwood," he says, 

 " was sold fifty years before foi £4000, and now is estimated at 

 £30,000." The rental of Netherwood in the roll is given at £241. 

 The valuation of the lands within the burgh in 1791 was £2243 

 9s, and of the houses £12,293, or in all £14,536 3s 9d. The 

 valuation last year was £68,132 lis 6d, or nearly six times as 

 great. The rise in rents, to judge from the only example we have, 

 has not been great, and the increase must arise largely from the 

 larger number of houses and from persont; living in better houses. 

 In 1791 a house of three rooms and a kitchen let for £10 or £12. 

 It now lets for £12 to £15. 



Fortunately, Dr Burnside chronicled carefully the prices of 

 provisions and the average rate of wages. We have thus the 

 means of ascertaining the great increase which has taken place in 

 the value of commodities. The prices then paid were : Salmon, 

 2|-d to 6d per lb. ; flounders. Id to 4d ; cod, kl to Id ; beef, 3d 

 to 5d ; mutton, 3d to 4^d ; lamb, 3d ; pork, 3d to 4d ; geese. Is 

 6d to 2s 6d each ; ducks, 6d to 8d ; chickens, 7d to 8d per pair ; 

 butter, 7d to 9d per lb. ; Scotch cheese, 3d ; meal. Is 6d to Is lOd 

 per stone ; coals, 7d to 8d per cwt. " All kinds of butcher meat 

 and poultry," Dr Burnside remarks, " are now double the prices 

 they were twenty years ago. The natural progress of luxury, the 

 fears occasioned by the American war, the increased circulation of 



