sect. II. THE COUNTY OF FIFE. IJ 



bole ; which parishes, before that period, had 

 belonged to the county of Fife. But though 

 these are now two discinct counties, and are se- 

 parately represented in Parliament, they are both 

 comprehended in the sherifFdoni of Fife. 



SE C T. II, D / VISIONS. 



A COUNTRY may be divided, either by those 

 discriminating marks, which the hand of nature 

 hath fixed, or by those ecclesiastical and politi- 

 cal arrangements, which public authority may 

 think proper to establish. The county of Fife 

 is divided into two parts by that tract of high 

 ground, which comprehends the Lomond hills 

 on the west, and from thence stretches eastward 

 almost in a direct line, till it approach within a 

 few miles of the sea. The two rivers of Eden 

 and Leven throw the county into three divi- 

 sions. The northern division, between the 

 Eden and the Tay ; the middle division, be- 

 tween the Eden and the Leven ; and the south- 

 ern division, between the Leven and the Frith 

 of Forth. 



In respect of ecclesiastical and political arrange- 

 ment, the county is divided into sixty one pa- 

 rishes, which are distributed into four presby- 

 teries, namely, the presbyteries of St Andrew's, 

 Cupar,Kirkaldy, and Dunfermline, so called from 

 the names of the places where they are appoint- 

 ed to meet. Of these four presbyteries, the pro- 

 vincial synod of Fife is composed, which ordi- 

 narily meets at Cupar and Kirkaldy alternately, 

 and at St Andrew's and Duafennline occasion- 

 G 



