Kirkcud' 



KIR 469 



Real Rent. 



O^L/ 1 estate above 10,000 



2 from 5000 to .... 10,000 



31 from 1000 to .... 5,000 



37 from 500 to .... 1,000 



972 under 500 



The quantity of land held under entail, is less in the 

 stewartry than in many other districts ; but this per- 

 nicious practice is gaining ground. There were 142 

 freeholders on the roll in January 1818. 



The valued rental of the stewartry i- I 1 1 1>597, 2s. 3d. 

 Scots. In 179/-. Mr. Niven estimated the real rental at 

 70,000 Sterling. The medium real rental of 1812, 

 and 1813, M ascertained by the property-tax commis- 

 sioners, amounted to no less than 201,745 Sterling. 

 ABtiqoitMs. Several remains of antiquity are to be met with in 

 the stewartry. The magnificence of the ruins of Sweet- 

 heart and Dundrennan abbeys, attest the wealth and 

 power of the clergy in remote ages. The baronial and 

 feudal residences must at one time have been numer- 

 ous ; and the remains of Craignair Castle, believed to 

 have been favourite residence of John Baliol ; of 

 Threave castle, the residence of the Douglasses, lords of 

 Galloway, Kenmore Castle, Garlic's Castle, Cardonness 

 Castle, &c. &c. are still more or less entire. The moat 

 of I'rr, is reckoned one of the largest artificial mounds 

 in the kingdom. 



' ' r ^' The ancient history of Galloway is extremely ob- 



scure and perplexed. Previous to the invasion of Agri- 

 cola, the Selgotir, a British tribe, in addition to Dum- 

 fries-shire and part of Cumberland, occupied the dis- 

 trict lying between the Nith and the Dee ; and the di- 

 vision of the stewartry to the e-st of the Dee, formed, 

 with Wigtonihire, the territory occupied by another 

 tribe, named \r,ianiir. During the Roman dominion, 

 the greater part of the stewartry waj included in the 

 province of Kottmtinm, whose capita] Cr.ndida Cam, 

 supposed to have been built on the site of the present 

 Wtuthorn, is mentioned by Ptolemy. After the sub- 

 version of the Roman power, Galloway was long a prey 

 to every specie of disorder. Successively overrun by 

 the Cruithne or Pirts, and the Angli, it still, however, 

 preserved a kind of independent existence ; and, ac- 

 ng to Lord Hailes, so late as the 12th century, 

 the lords of Galloway were merely feudatories of the. 

 li kingf This opinion has been controvert- 

 ed by Mr. ( lialmers, though, as it appears to us, on no 

 very satisfactory grounds ; but, at all events, it is cer- 

 tain that Koixrt Bruce confirmed the Gallovidiani in 

 possession of those pecial and ancient laws, of 

 which Id ward I. had attempted to deprive them. The 

 first authentic mention of the lords of Galloway, oc- 

 curs in the account of the battle of the Standard in 

 1138, when Ulric and Dovenald, invested with that 

 rank, were both slain. They were succeeded by Fer- 

 gus, commonly called the first lord of Galloway, whose 

 descendants continued to e.ijoy this title, until the ex- 

 pulsion of the abject Baliol, who had married the heir- 

 ess of the family. Bruce then bestowed the lordship 

 of Galloway on one of the branches of the house of 

 DougU*. in whose hands it continued till 1 1.*5, when 

 estates were forfeited, and annexed to the crown. 

 Long subsequent to this era, Galloway, as well as 

 the other districts of Scotland, continued in a very un- 

 .1 and unsettled state. But the gradual decline 

 of baronial influence, and the increasing authority of 

 the crown, undo!' the public law, were ultimately at- 

 tended with the happiest effects ; and, in conjunction 

 with the reformation, and the consequent destruction 



K I S 



of the exorbitant powers of the clergy, paved the way Kirjcend- 

 for the rapid improvement that has since taken place. bf'ght 

 The inhabitants of this district are a strong, active, Kishma, 



and healthy race. The general diffusion ofelementa- *_?- 



ry instruction has enabled them to acquire extensive 

 and solid information. But their dispersion over a 

 large extent of country ; the want of public meetings ; 

 of political privileges ; and of all collision of political 

 opinion ; by depriving them, in as far at least as mat- 

 ters of public interest are concerned, of all stimulus to 

 mental exertion ; occasions a morbid uniformity of cha- 

 racter, and an extreme sr.meness and insipidity of con- 

 versation. These circumstances do not indeed affect 

 the inhabitants of the stewartry, more than those of 

 any of the other agricultural counties of Scotland. 

 But they have a curse almost peculiar to themselves. 

 The extraordinary prevalence of cattle-dealing, and 

 the kind of universal jockeyship to which it gives rise, 

 is attended with the very worst conseqrences. It not 

 only has a strong tendency to induce habits of dissipa- 

 tion, but is often accompanied with an extreme degree 

 of vulgarity. The whole ideas of such persons are cen- 

 tered in cattle, and extend to nothing else. They fre- 

 quent markets when they neither need to buy nor sell. 

 And the most important tillage operations are neglect- 

 ed, or left to the care of servants, in order that the 

 master may be able to attend a market where he can- 

 not have any particular business. We do not mean t 

 say, that in every instance this would be a just charac- 

 ter of the Kirkcudbright farmers. On the contrary, ma- 

 ny of them are men of enlarged minds, who manage 

 their farms on the most approved principles, and who 

 despise the kind of gambling and agiotage indulged in 

 by their neighbours. It is only a general outline that we 

 are now sketching ; and as such, we are afraid, it will 

 not be found very inaccurate. This article has chiefly 

 been drawn up from private information ; but several 

 works, and, among others, Smith's Survey of Ga lonay, 

 have been consulted, (j. M. M.) 



Kilt X WALL is the principal town of the Orkney 

 Islands, of which a full account will be found under 

 the nr'icle ORKNEY ISLANDS. 



K 1 1(1; 1 1 \il IK is a small town of Scotland, in the 

 county of Forfar. It is situated on the south-west 

 sid. of a hill, near a romantic glen, traversed by the 

 small river Gairie. The parish i-hurch, which is a to- 

 lerably neat building, is the only public edifice of im- 

 portance. The town contains some good houses ; but 

 it is principally celebrated for its manufactories of Os- 

 naburgs and coarse linen. In 1792, the amount of 

 these articles manufactured in the town and neighbour- 

 hood was about 30,000. Kirriemuir is a burgh of 

 barony of considerable antiquity. The baron bailie is 

 appointed by Lord Douglas, the superior. In 1793, 

 the population of the town was 1584 inhabitants. In 

 1811, the town and parish contained 955 houses, 1201 

 families, b43 families employed in trade and manufac- 

 ture', and 4791 inhabitants, being an increase of 370 

 since the census of ISO I. Distance from Forfar six 

 mile-, and from Dundee 20 miles. 



KISHMA, Kisif.MisH, or more properly Jezira De- 

 muz, or the Long Island, is an island of Persia, and 

 the largest in the Persian Gulf. It is the Oaracla of 

 the Greeks. It stretches for about sixty miles parallel 

 to the Persian coast ; but its breadth no where exceeds 

 twelve miles. The channel by which it is separated 

 from the continent is navigable for the largest vessels. 

 It is about eight miles wide at the north point of the 

 island, and less than three opposite to Old I. n't. from 

 which it is said to wind among several wooded island- 



