sect. I. THE COUNTY OF FIFE, 5! 



own possession, either as farms or as pleasure- 

 grounds. Most of the small heritors farm their 

 own estates ; and in the hands of the oH feuars 

 there is a considerable quantity of land, of wlvch 

 the yearly feu-duty, drawn by the superiors, is 

 a mere trifle. But, supposing the whole lands 

 in the county, fit for tillage and pasture, which 

 amounts to about 230,000 acres, were to be let 

 just now in lease, the gross yearly rent might 

 be computed at 212,000!. According to this 

 calculation, the annual average rent per acre is 

 1 8 s. 6 d., and the real rent is to the valued rent 

 in the proportion of 61. of the former to lol. 

 5 s. Scots of the latter. This calculation, how- 

 ever, is certainly too high for the lands, at pre- 

 sent actually under lease, the average of which 

 may not exceed 1 7 s. 6 d. 



Land^T ax. The whole land-tax payable from 

 this county amounts to 3275!. 195. Sterling; 

 and the cess paid by the royal burghs is 



Entails. Tailzie, or entail, though sometimes 

 used to denote simple destination, is chiefly used 

 to signify the settlement of a land estate upon a 

 long series of heirs substituted, in succession, to 

 one another, containing prohibitory and irritant 

 clauses, which prelude any of the heirs from 

 alienating the estate by debt or deed, in preju- 

 dice of the substitutes specified and fixed by the 

 deed of entail., What proportion of the land in 

 Fife is under this kind of destination, it is im- 

 possible, from any information I have been able 

 tc procure, exactly to state. It is well known, 

 however, that a great many estates, and some of 

 tljese of the first magnitude, are strictly tailzied, 

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