Kirkeud. 

 bright. 



Manufac- 

 tures. 



Towns and 

 Tillages. 



Price of 

 labour. 



468 



is now nearly extinct. The excellent roads that tra- 

 verse every part of the country, admitting the employ- 

 ment of heavy carriages, and the increased demand for 

 draught horses, occasioned by the extension of agricul- 

 ture, have contributed to diminish this hardy race. In 

 several parts of the district, however, they are still to 

 be met with, and bring a high price. Such of the 

 ordinary breed of horses, as have a considerable por- 

 tion of the old blood, are easily distinguished by a small- 

 ness of head and neck, and a cleanness of bone not 

 usual in draught horses; they are generally of light 

 bay or brown, with their legs black. 



Cotton spinning was introduced at Gatehouse about 

 the year 1788. Several mills, upon a very large scale, 

 were erected for that purpose ; and smaller establish- 

 ments followed in different parts of the stewartry. 

 These had a temporary -success ;^ but their distance 

 from the regular markets for buying the wool, and sell- 

 ing the yarn, occasioning a great extra charge, the 

 works were soon abandoned. The spinning and ma- 

 nufacturing of wool, has been frequently attempted in 

 different situations in the stewartry ; but although the 

 raw material is got in the neighbourhood, these at- 

 tempts have not succeeded. The want of coal, and of any 

 interior communication with themore populousand mer- 

 cantile districts, seem to constitute an insuperable ob- 

 stacle to the successful introduction of manufactures. 



Except Kirkcudbright, New Galloway is the only 

 royal burgh in the stewartry. Its situation at the head 

 of Loch Ken, is sufficiently romantic ; but, destitute of 

 all commerce, and being surrounded by a poor country, 

 it never was of any consequence, and is now reduced 

 to about 650 inhabitants. The villages are Maxwel- 

 ton, Castle- Douglass, Keltonhill, Dalbeaty, Gatehouse, 

 and Creetown. Of these Maxwelton is the most po- 

 pulous. But although it is situated on the stewartry 

 side of the Nith, it can only be considered as a part of 

 Dumfries. Castle- Douglas is neat and well built ; but 

 the want of manufacturing industry must prevent its 

 having any great increase. The central situation of 

 Keltonhill attracts a considerable number of farmers 

 and cattle-dealers to its weekly markets ; it is best 

 known, however, by its two great annual fairs, at which 

 an immense number of horses, chiefly Irish, are dis- 

 posed of. Dalbeaty lies on the Urr, about four miles 

 above its confluence with the Solway Frith^ It is an 

 improving village, with about 800 inhabitants. Gate- 

 house, delightfully situated on the Fleet, four miles 

 above where it falls into Wigton Bay, owed its rise to 

 the introduction of the cotton spinning. It is a very 

 neat and well built village, with upwards of 1000 inha- 

 bitants. Creetown lies about 12 miles farther up Wigton 

 Bay, and has nearly the same population as Gatehouse. 



Farm servants receive from 14 to '22 per annum 

 of wages, exclusive of their board in the farmer's house; 

 and women servants from 5 to 8, exclusive of ditto. 

 Potatoes and oatmeal constitute a considerable portion 

 of their food, but they generally have abundance of 

 pork and mutton for dinner ; and, in harvest, when 

 the labourers in Lothian are half starved, those of Gal- 

 loway fare extremely well. Cottagers are worse off 

 than house servants; their whole wages, including 

 house, meal, &c. probably amounts to about 30 or 

 35 per annum. The extra hands required in harvest, 

 are generally engaged for its whole continuance, but in 

 many instances harvest work is now performed by 

 contract, at so much an acre. Four reapers are reck- 

 oned adequate to cut a Scots acre in a day, at the ave- 

 rage rate of working. The following is a statement of 

 the money price of day labour at St. Mary's Isle, near 

 Kirkcudbright, in different years, viz. 



KIRKCUDBklGHT. 



The following Table of the Kirkcudbright Fiar 

 prices of the Winchester bushel of conynon oats and 

 barley, for the same years as those included in the 

 foregoing Table, will enable the reader to judge of 

 the comparative REAL wages of labour in this district, 

 at different periods, during the last half century, with 

 considerable accuracy : 



The rise in the money rate of wages in 1770, and 

 its fall subsequent to 1772, appearto have been intimate- 

 ly connected with the establishment of the Douglas and 

 Heron Banking Company at Ayr. The facility with 

 which discounts were obtained from this bank, gave, in 

 the first instance, an astonishing impulse to improve- 

 ment throughout Galloway. But its failure in June 

 1772, only three years after it had commenced its ope- 

 rations, by ruining a great number of the most opulent 

 and enterprising individuals in the stewartry, effectual- 

 ly checked this incipient progress. During the Ame- 

 rican war, improvements of every kind were at a stand, 

 and have only been carried on with vigour and success 

 since 1790. 



Owing to the ill success which has attended every Population, 

 attempt to introduce manufactures, the increase in the 

 population of the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, during 

 the last thirty years, has not been so great as might 

 have been expected. Nor is this to be wondered at ; 

 agriculture has no doubt been vastly improved during 

 that period ; but this, in many instances, has been ef- 

 fected rather with a diminished number of labourers. 

 The greater extension of farms, and the general intro- 

 duction of machinery into the labours of the field, has . 

 enabled a much greater quantity of raw produce to be 

 raised, with a comparatively small number of hands. 

 The increase of population, though very considerable, 

 has not therefore kept pace with the improvement of 

 the soil. But owing to the absence of poor-rates, to 

 the consequent spirit of independence, and the power- 

 ful operation of moral restraint amongst the poor, their 

 situation is perhaps more comfortable in Galloway than 

 in most other districts of Scotland. The total popula- 

 tion of the stewartry, which in 1801 amounted, ac- 

 cording to the census then taken, to 29,058 individuals, 

 of all ages and sexes, had in 1811 increased to 33,684 ; 

 of this number 28,328 lived in the country, and 5856 

 in towns and villages. 



Landed property is more equally divided in the stew- State of 

 artry of Kirkcudbright than in most of the counties of property. 

 Scotland. In 1810, Mr. Smith estimated, that there 

 were in the stewartry, . 



