460 



KIRKCUDBRIGHT. 



Central as- 

 pect. 



Kirkcud- appear, much will depend on the number of houses to 

 bright, foe erected, and on the rapidity with which they are 

 k u ;| t As matters at present stand, 150 houses must 

 be raised in the short period of 15 or 16 years, and that, 

 too, without any reason for presuming a corresponding 

 increase of population. Hence it is not improbable, that 

 tlie number of houses may ultimately exceed the demand, 

 while, to procure tenants, improper persons may be in- 

 troduced, and the more respectable inhabitants are thus 

 exposed to the risk of being burdened with a factitious- 

 ly increased and redundant population, (j. R. M.) 



KIRKCUDBRIGHT, (Men-arlry of) The stewartry 

 of Kirkcudbright, forming the eastern division of the 

 ancient province of Galloway, is bounded on the east, 

 north, and west, by the counties of Dumfries, Ayr, and 

 Wigton ; and on the south, by the Irish sea and the 

 Solway Frith. It is divided into 28 parishes, and, ac- 

 cording to the survey of- Mr. Ainslie, contains 449.316 

 Scots, or 564,840 English acres. 



The stewartry of Kirkcudbright is generally hilly, and 

 uneven in its surface. But the district lying to the 

 north-west of a line, drawn from the middle of the pa- 

 rish of Irongray to Gatehouse, may be termed moun- 

 tainous, when compared with the other or lowland dis- 

 trict, where the hills, with a few exceptions, are much 

 less high, and where, if the surface is not rocky, they 

 are generally cultivated. At first view, one would be 

 apt to conclude, that even the lower district of the 

 stewartry was much better fitted for pasture than til- 

 lage, and this, in many instances, is really the case. 

 But the soil of the hollows between the little knolls or 

 hills, consisting chiefly of a gravelly or hazelly loam, is 

 often of an extraordinary fertility ; and in a wet sum- 

 mer, the arable knolls are covered with luxuriant crops. 

 A considerable extent of alluvial land along the Solway 

 Frith, is endowed with the usual productive powers of 

 such soils. In the greater part of the mountainous dis- 

 tricts, the hills have a bleak and barren appearance, be- 

 ing almost entirely covered with heath and moss ; but 

 in the parish of Carsphairn, on the confines of Ayrshire, 

 the heath disappears, and the mountains are covered 

 with grass, affording excellent sheep pasture. The va- 

 ried surface of the country, affords many fine situations 

 for building ; and several proprietors have judiciously 

 availed themselves of the natural advantages of the soil, 

 whose beauties they have heightened by ornamental 

 plantations. 



Mineralogy. This district has the same generic mineralogical fea- 

 tures as those which characterise the whole country on 

 the southern declivity of the great high land to the 

 south of the Frith of Forth. The rocks are in general 

 stratified; and the strata run north-east and south- 

 west, generally under an angle of 45, and are either 

 straight, or variously undulated or curved. The rocks 

 are transition, floetz, and alluvial. The transition rocks 

 are granite, gneiss, greywacke, greywacke slate, clay 

 slate, porphyry, syenite, flinty slate, and greenstone. 

 The granite, syenite, and porphyry, at their lines of 

 junction with the gneis, greywacke, and other rocks, 

 present various intermixtures and veins, the considera- 

 tion of which have afforded to the Plutonians that 

 kind of evidence which they consider sufficiently sa- 

 tisfactory for the support of their notions in regard 

 to the formation of the earth. Hitherto no consi- 

 derable beds of limestone have been met with in this 

 part of Scotland. The Jloetz rocks are conglomerate 

 red sandstone, and portions of the coal formation. 

 These occur but in small quantities, and their mine- 

 ralogical relations still require elucidation. The allu- 

 vial rocks are gravel, sand, clay, loam, marl, and peat. 

 3 



Kirkcuil 

 bright. 



Lead mines were wrought extensively in the pnrMi 

 of Minnigaff, from 1765 to 1790, and the quantity pro- 

 duced during that period, was considerable. At an jjj^/"* 

 early stage of the work, a tunnel was cut nearly a mile ' 

 into the bowels of the earth ; and the orfe was brought 

 in boats from the vein to the furnace for smelting, at the 

 mouth of the tunnel. Since 1795, the quantity of ore 

 extracted has been gradually diminishing, and the mine 

 is now entirely abandoned. Of late years, attempts 

 have been made to work a lead mine at Ruscoe, near 

 Gatehouse ; but hitherto without any adequate success. 

 Coal has been discovered on the sea-coast, opposite to 

 Whitehaven ; but the seams are so poor that they are 

 not worth working, and this necessary is entirely im- 

 ported from England. Lime and slates were formerly 

 all imported, but of late years excellent slate quarries 

 have been opened in three different places in the stew, 

 artry. Lime of an inferior quantity has been found in 

 the parish of Kirkbean. 



The stewartry of Kirkcudbright is watered by several Rirere 

 fine streams. The Ken and the Deugh rise on the bor- 

 ders of Ayrshire, and, after uniting, pass near New 

 Galloway, and expand into the beautiful and romantic 

 Loch Ken. The Dee falls into this lake, and gives its 

 name to the refluent river, which falls into the sea five 

 or six miles below Kirkcudbright. It is navigable for 

 vessels carrying 200 tons to Tongueland bridge, about 

 two miles above Kirkcudbright; and a little below the 

 town it forms a spacious bay, termed the Manxman's 

 Lake, where 100 vessels may lie in perfect safety, de- 

 fended from the fury of the sea by a small island at the 

 mouth of the river. The different salmon fisheries on 

 the Dee let for about <)00 per annum. The other 

 rivers in the stewartry, are the Urr and the Fleet, navi- 

 gable for small vessels to Dalbeatie and Gatehouse, 

 about four miles from where they fall into the sea ; and 

 the Nith and the Cree, which have their sources in 

 Dumfries-shire and Wigtonshire, and divide these coun- 

 ties from the stewartry. 



The climate of the lower district of the stewartry, is Climate, 

 rather moist in summer, but extremely mild in win- 

 ter, where the snow seldom lies for any length of time. 

 In the .upper district, however, the frost is often severe ; 

 and heavy falls of snow frequently cause considerable 

 losses to the sheep farmers: The climate has perhaps 

 been ameliorated, by the improvements of the soil. In- 

 termittent fevers, once very prevalent, are stated to have 

 now entirely disnppeared ; and if any reliance can be 

 placed on the ratio of the deaths to the whole popula- 

 tion, given in the statistical account of the parish of 

 Crossmichael, the chances of longevity are there great- 

 er than in any other district of the empire. 



There are no extensive forests in this district ; but Woods* 

 there are considerable tracts of copse woodland, amountr 

 ing in all to about 4000 acres. The copse wood is ge- 

 nerally cut at the end of 25 or 30 'years, although the 

 pressure of necessity sometimes causes this to be done 

 at an earlier period. The value of this wood depends 

 chiefly upon the quantity and the price of the oak bark 

 which it contains, and upon its contiguity to the sea, 

 and consequent facility of exportation. On an average, 

 it may perhaps be reckoned at from 30 to 60 per 

 acre. 



The plantations made during the last 40 years, both plantatioi 

 with a view to revenue and ornament, have been very 

 extensive. Those on the estate of the Earl of Selkirk, 

 cover about 800 acres. They were chiefly executed 

 under the superintendance of the late Lord Daer, and 

 are universally allowed to have been designed with in- 

 finite taste. Being chiefly planted on the rising grounds 



