308 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



In order to make up 1,200,000 acres, I include, with 

 the Lothians proper, all the low country along the 

 coast from Berwick to Dundee, not only on the south, 

 but also on the north of the Firth of Forth, and also 

 the Carse of Gowrie near Perth. This is about one- 

 fifteenth of the whole area of Scotland, and less than one- 

 seventh of the Lowlands. We have already observed 

 that an equal extent is covered by the Border mountains. 

 The remaining seven million acres of the Lowlands 

 form the intermediate region, which is neither so rich 

 as the Lothians, nor as rugged as the Borders. Their 

 average rent is about 8s. per acre ; and cattle-rearing is 

 the chief purpose to which they are devoted. 



Of these, in the first place, a portion is occupied by 

 that distinct district which has received the name of 

 Galloway the way of the Gauls or Celts because form- 

 ing, as it does, a peninsula on the south-west of Scotland, 

 it stretches forward, as it were, towards Wales and Ire- 

 land, in anticipation of the migrations of Celts which 

 have been always coming over from these quarters. Gal- 

 loway includes the whole of the counties of Wigtown and 

 Kirkcudbright, and a portion of those of Ayr and Dum- 

 fries. The surface is broken by what the English call 

 hills that is to say, something between mountainous 

 and undulating country. The climate is extremely wet, 

 like that of Cumberland, which is only separated from 

 Galloway by a firth. The soil produces an abundant 

 natural grass, which is superior to that of the mountains 

 in the neighbourhood. There are a few grain-farms ; 

 but farming, properly speaking, is rather on the decline, 

 on account of the preference given to cattle."''" Eoots and 



* We believe, as is the case in other parts of the country, it will be found that 

 the greater attention to the improvement and increase of stock in Galloway has 

 rather tended to materially improve and extend the general cultivation of the 

 Lmd.-J. D. 



