Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 



1183 



Disliley breed, introduced about 1765, by Robson, a pupil of 

 Culify ; but this Is stoutly denied by most of the Cheviot 

 breeders. Merinos and other sorts have been tried, but suffi- 

 cient time has not elapsed to ascertain the result. 



6. Rural and Political Economy. 



Farm servants on the same plan as in East IjOthian. Roads 

 improving ; no canals; little commeroe, and almost no manu- 

 factutes. 



7837. SELKIRKSHIRE. 172,160 acres, almost wholly of mountainous surface, the lowest part SOO 

 feet above the level of the sea ; many houses are 600 and some more than 1000 feet above its level. The 

 highest mountain is 2370 feet. These mountains are generally of granite or whinstone, and the surface 

 soil is commonly gravelly and dry. In the valleys are clay, peat, morass, and lakes. The climate is cold 

 and rather moist. There are no metals, nor coal, lime, or freestone. The most remarkable thing attend- 

 ing this county is, that its hills and mountains are almost every where clothed to their summits with 

 sound sheep pasture, of which there are estimated to be 148,000 acres ; 8800 acres in aration, 2000 in wood, 

 and the rest in gardens, houses, roads, lakes, &c. {Douglas's General Fiew, 1796. Edni. Gaz. abridged, 1829.) 



coimties. There is a -woollen cloth manufactory, and an ex- 

 celJent porter brewery, by a pupil of Meux, at Galashitls. 

 Some pgricultural socielies were attempted in this and the 

 adjoining counties about 1793, but tliey were of very short 

 duration. 



Property in few hands, and in large estates. The farms are 

 large, and the leases generally shorter than on arable farms. 

 The sheep are a variety of the Cheviot produced by repeated 

 crosses with the native mountain black-faced breed. In all 

 respects the husbandry of this county may be considered the 

 same as that of the mountainous districts of the preceding 



7838. PEEBLESHIRE or TWEEDDALE. 229,778 acres, mostly of mountain, moor, and bog, but 

 with about one tenth part arable. The lowest part of the county is 400 feet above sea-level, and grain is 

 cultivated to the height of lOOU feet. The climate is late, cold, and moist, and the soil moory, clayey, or 

 sandy, according as the water is pent up ; the rocks of the mountains are freestone, granite, trap, or clay- 

 stone. The only minerals worth notice are lime, whinstone, and freestone, 'i he general appearance of 

 the country is wild, and rather dull and dreary, than romantic or sublime. The agricultural survey of 

 this county is by the Rev. Charles Findlater, and it abounds with more valuable matter on political agri- 

 culture, on leases, prices, restrictions, markets, &c., than any survey that has been published, without a 

 single exception. In fact, it was found to take such a masterly view of the moral incitements to agricul- 

 tural industry ; to expose the system of tithes, entails, lawyer's leases, &c., that it was rejected by the 

 Board, as likely to offend the English clergy and higher classes, and the author was reduced to publish it 

 himself. It has certainly, through the medium of the extracts from it published in the Fnrtner's Magazine, 

 been the means of enlightening thousands, both of farmers and landlords. The fundamental principle 

 which Findlater lays down and illustrates under the heads of leases, size of farnis, usury, capital, dearth, 

 monopoly, forestalling, government interference, tithes, poor, and other topics, is, " That the best demo 

 of ensuring the invention and prosecution of the most advantageous measures is, an arrangement which 

 shall communicate to thi se on whom their execution is devolved a sufficient personal interest in their 

 invention and execution." To some he doubts not such views will be considered as foreign to the report 

 of a county; whilst to others they will constitute its most essential value. 



The state of property and husbandry of the country may be considered as the same as that of the other 

 mountainous districts. The black faced sheep are in almost universal use, except in milder situations, 

 where the Cheviot has been introduced. There is no commerce but by retail, and only some very trifling 

 woollen manufactures in the county. 



In the Appendix an account is given of the improvement of the Whim, a flow-moss of 100 acres, twenty- 

 feet deep, and at an elevation of 700 feet above the level of the sea. It was begun to be drained in 1731, 

 and in ten years a mansion was built, and surrounded by woods and pleasure-grounds, which show, as the 

 Dukeof Buccleugh, the proprietor, intended, the wonderful influence of art over nature. " The plant- 

 ations (originally extensive) have been improved and enlarged since the property came into possession of 

 the Lord Chief Baron ; and he has also greatly enlarged the house, adding a court of offices upon a large 

 scale, and ornamented in front, extending also the lawn. The place has, upon the whole, an air of mag- 

 nificence. In the pleasure-grounds there are several artificial pieces of water. East of the house (where 

 the soil is dry and covered with sweet grasses) the surface is agreeably diversified by gentle swells, tufted 

 with trees. A wild wilderness walk, through a small wood, lands you upon the banks of an artificial lake, 

 with islands, covering an extent of six or seven acres of surface. What chiefly strikes the visitor at Whim 

 is the strongly marked contrast betwixt the improvements of human art, and nature in her wildest form, 

 here found in immediate contact. Your cars are at once saluted with the warblings of the blackbird and 

 thrush from the plantations, and the wild notes of the plover, the curlew, the grouse, and other moss birds 

 from the flow-moss." {Findlaier's Report, S^c. 1804.) 



7839. DUMFRIESSHIRE. 644,385 acres of maritime, vale, and mountain lands, in the proportion of 

 one, four, and seven. The climate is variable, comparatively mild, but moist. The soil of the maritime 

 district is light, and generally on sand, gravel, or rock ; that of the vale or midland district is gravelly, 

 sandy, or moory. The mountains are of schist, whinstone, or red freestone, and thinly covered with cor- 

 responding soils or moss. In some places they are covered with dry pasture, but more frequently with a 

 mixture of grass and heath. The principal metallic ore found in the county is lead ; but several others, 

 as iron, copper, antimony, &c. exist, and the latter has been worked. Coal has beien found, but not in 

 strata sufficiently thick to be workable. Marble also and slate have been worked, and lime, freestone, 

 and whinstone in abundance. There are several mineral springs in the mountain district, the principal 

 of which is the spaw at Moffat. Fish, and especially salmon, are caught in moderate quantities in the 

 Nith and Annan. The celebrated improver Craik was a proprietor in this county, at Ardbigland, near 

 Dumfries, now the property of his son. {The Rev. Dr. Singer's General View, 1812.) 



1. Minerals. 



The lead mines occupy very barren grounds, remarkably bleak 

 and elevated ; but they are ar great fund of industry and riches, 

 and they furnish a part of the county with an excellent market 

 for the surplus grain produced in that part. Lead hills, with 

 the mines, are in the county of Lanark, and belong to the Earl 

 of Hopetown, who draws about 7000/. a year from these mines. 

 Wanlockhead mine is in Dumfriesshire, belonged to the I)uke of 

 Queensbury, and returns to the proprietor near 5000/. a year. 



2. Property. 



In large estates, owned by 453 persons. The Duke of Buc- 

 cleugh's estate of very great extent. Some estates are managed 

 by their owners, and otliers by commissioners having power to 

 let. In large properties it is common to entrust the collecting 

 rents, and arrangements relative to leases, buildings, fences, 

 and courses of crops, to factors residing on or near the lands, 

 who represent their constituents (if not personally present) in 

 county and parish meetings. Millar of Dalswinton has gone 

 over an estate of 5000 acres in twentv-five vears, and improved 

 the whole of it, with the exception of a portion which, in 1812, 

 was under process and promised to be soon completed. His 

 plan was not to farm his lands himself, but to prepare them, by 

 unprovement, for being let to farmers. 



3. Buildings. 



While the reporter expatiates on the ample accommodations 

 of the modem farm-bouses in this and other counties, he gives, 

 the tbllowing information as to cottages, which, we regret to 

 find, si-ein by no means improved, either in this or in other 



parts of Scotland, in the same ratio as the habitations of infe- 

 rior animals. " A common, and not inconvenient, cottHgo is 

 put up as follows, viz. : stone and lime walls, seven feet high, 

 thirty-six feet long, and fourteen to sixteen feet wide within , 

 the roof of Scots tlr, which is preserved from the worm by 

 smoke, and covered with thatch ; a chimnry at one end, and 

 an open passage for smoke in the other ; affording two apart- 

 ments below, one of them a kitchen, and a central apartment 

 opposite to the door ; the one end boarded ovtr, and the other 

 open. Such a cott.^ge may be erected for about 501. or 40/. ; 

 and, with half a rood for a garden, it would let at 3/. a year, or 

 more, according to its finishing.'" Doubtless the reverend gen- 

 tleman made but short prayers when he visited the sick in such 

 smoky cottages : the surgeon need not dismount from his horse ; 

 he may speak to his patient through the window, juid feel his 

 pulse with the butt end of his whip. 



4. Occupation. 



Sheep farms from 300 to ."000 acres ; arable farms from 50 

 to GOO acres. Leases universal, and generailv for nineteen or 

 twenty-one years. Wilkie's variation of Small's plough is in 

 general use, as clearing the mould-board better in soft soils. 

 The Berwickshire system of culture is practised on the turnip 

 soils ; the East Lothian on such as are loamy or clayey ; and 

 the store system on the mountain district. The cattle are 

 of the Galloway breed, and sheep, Cheviots, or the bUck-faced 

 mountain kind. More poultry is kept than in most other 

 counties, in order to consume the light grain. Manv of thS 

 fowls and cpgs go to Edinburgh ; but the greater part of the 

 produce and sales in eggs go in small oval baskets, packed in 



