Cupar 

 Rife. 



506 C U P A R. 



Esq. of St Catherine's, the present provost of the burgh, obliged to pay a proportional quota of money or vic- 

 Adjoining to the county rooms, an inn has been built by tual to their boatman, in name of freight, for trans* 

 tontine ; and it was proposed to terminate the new porting the people to the church of Bendochy. The 

 street with the prison ordered for the town by a late parish is nearly five miles and a half long, and varies 

 act of Parliament. A plan was made of the prison, from one to (two miles in breadth. It contains about 

 corresponding in style with the other buildings in the 2500 acres. A narrow ridge runs along two thirds of 

 street. Objections were urged against the propriety the parish of a light gravelly soil; the rest, in general, 

 of placing it so near the river, and at such a small ele- appears to be loam or clay, and the neighbourhood 

 vation above it, suspicions being entertained that damp- of the town is full of vegetable mould. The Great- 

 ness would prevail and injure the health of those con- er part of the parish is enclosed, and the crops chiefly 

 fined. The party who urged these objections soon for- raised are wheat, barley, oats, turnips, and potatoes, 

 got them, after they had frustrated the efforts of those Land rents from L. 2 to L. 7 per acre, but the latter 

 who wished to make the public buildings of the town sum is only given for land in the immediate vicinity of 

 subservient to ornamental purposes, The prison is now the town. There is one farm in the parish of 500 acres, 

 erecting on the south side of the river, nearly upon its but in general they run from 50 to 120 acres, 

 margin, a few feet higher than its banks, and several The town lies towards the west end of the parish, 

 feet lower than the situation formerly proposed. With and contains, by the last return, 2100 inhabitants. They 

 regard to the plan of the building, we have to regret subsist chiefly from the profits of agriculture, though 

 that more pains have been taken to decorate the there is a considerable manufacture of coarse brown 

 walls, than to make the cells either healthy or comfor- linen, to the extent, at present, of 200,000 yards per 

 table. annum. The town is divided by a rivulet which rises 



The inhabitants of the town are in general healthy, and about five miles to the south west, and discharges it- 

 frequently long-lived. Few instances of derangement or self into the Isla, two miles and a half to the north- 

 deformity occur. Their principal employment is the west. This rivulet forms the boundary between Perth 

 manufacture of linen. There arc also manufactures of and Forfar shires, as it runs through the town. Cupar- 

 leather, candles, ropes, brick and tile. There are three Angus was a Roman station during the expedition of 

 branches of Edinburgh banks for the accommodation Lolius Urbicus, according to Chalmers in his Caledonia, 

 of the merchants : the Bank of Scotland, the British The east side of the camp appears to be pretty entire, 

 Linen Company, the Commercial Bank, together with and measures 400 yards in length. The south side was 

 the Fife Bank. The poor are well attended to, being levelled about 30 years ago, and is now under tillage, 

 supported by donations from the revenue of the burgh, The praetorium was about the centre of the camp, as 

 and by voluntary contributions made at the doors of the it is the highest ground within it, and commands a view 

 church. of the whole. On or near the site of the praetorium, 



The church of Cupar is a collegiate charge, and its was founded the abbey, by Malcolm IV. in 116 jt, the 



meetings are well attended. There are likewise meet- year before he died. It was erected at the request of 



ings for Episcopals, Antiburghers, and those connect- Walthoef, abbot of Melrose, for monks of the Cister- 



ecl with the Relief. tian order. Boece says, that in his clay they were re- 



The children of the town have good opportunities markable for their pious and blameless lives. The ab- 



for receiving instruction, as there are excellent schools, bey is completely demolished, except a small fragment, 



under the patronage of the magistrates, and the inspec- overgrown with ivy, which appears to have been a part 



tion of the clergy. All the useful branches of educa- of the south-west corner. The greater part of the town 



lion are taught with ability and success. There is a formerly was built of the stones which composed it ; 



public library, well-stocked with books in various and the foundation is so completely defaced, that it is 



branches of literature and science. And we may men- now extremely difficult, if not impossible, to trace the 



tion, as connected with the literary history of the town, form of the building itself. The church must have 



that the printing-office of Mr Tullis has produced edi- been in the form of a cross ; but if we might hazard a 



t ions of Horace, Sallust, Virgil, Caesar, and Livy, re- conjecture, the abbey formed three sides of a square, 



vised by Dr John Hunter of St Andrew's, which, in with cells around for the monks. 



point of typography, do great credit to the Cupar A steeple was built by subscription about fifty years 



press. - ago, on the site of the regality prison ; and, in 1 767, 



Cupar is a royal burgh of very ancient date. It is the Earl of Moray, the proprietor of the abbey lands, 

 governed by a provost, three bailies, a dean of guild, presented the town with a bell, which was placed in it. 

 thirteen guild counsellors avIio choose one another, and The town lies about twelve miles and a half north- 

 eight trades counsellors or deacons, elected by the eight east from Perth, and fourteen and a half north-west 

 corporations. The revenue of the burgh is about L. 500 a from Dundee, near the middle of the estate of Strath- 

 year. Here a weekly market is held, and also seven fairs, more. The whole of the parish, except the lands be- 

 Being the head burgh of the shire, the public business longing to the Hon. Archibald Stuart, son of the late 

 is here transacted, and the courts of law and taxation Earl of Moray, about liiO acres, lies in the county of 

 are held. Population of the town 4000. (j. f.) Perth. 



CUPAR, or Coupar, generally called Cupar-Angus, The following is the population of the parish at four 



is the name of a town and parish in the county of An- different periods : 



gua or Forfar. Before the Reformation, the parish of 1755 1491 



Cupar-Angus formed only a part of the parish of Ben- 1793 2076' 



dochy, which lies about a mile to the northward, across 1801 2416 



the river Isla. Many years after its erection into a 1811 . 2590 



parish, the lairds of Kithock retained a servitude over The population of the town in 1801 was I960, and 



it; every possessor of a farm and grass-house was in 1811, as already stated, 2100. * 



' The Editor has been indebted for the valuable information contained in this article, to the Rev. Mr Hslsett, Minister cf C >.- 



Cupar 

 Ani_'u*. 



