i, State of ihe Town of Macduff. 
troducing the riot approved modes of 
paabaidrs from England, with their breed 
of cattle, fheep, and rte the appear- 
ance of the country is completely altered ; 
wheat, turnips, and hay reared in great 
abundance; many of the farms laid out 
in regular enclofed fields, anda proper ro- 
tation o! cropping adopted 5 while the for- 
mer hovels, compofed generally of turf 
walls covered with thatch, are da: ly giv- 
ing place to comfortable {tone houfes, with 
flated or tyled roofs : and his-Lordfhip 
has at the fame time, on his different eftates 
in the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and 
Moray, converted into thriving planta- 
tions many thoufand acres of moor, 
befides the great ~number ¢ and variety 
of foreft-trees in his beautiful park at 
Dof houfe, about fourteen miles in cir- 
cumference. 
Bur while his Lordfhip was thus exten- 
fively and fuccefsfully improving the foil, 
he wifely confidered that trade and agri- 
culture ought to go hand in hand, and 
therefore beilowed much attention on the 
improvement and extenfion of the town of 
Macduff. The local fituation affords one 
of the beft fea-ports in the Moray Frith, 
and he began by building a harbour, at the 
expence of sor 6,0001. and is very foon, 
at his own fole expence, to make very great 
additions to it. The harbour in its pre- 
fent ftate has been the means of faving 
many lives, by affording fhelter to fhips 
in ftorms when it was impofiible | to 
getinto the neighbouring harbours ; and 
the propoted additions will render it in- 
finitely more ufeful in this as well as other 
reforéts. 
When the harbour was ereéle d, encou- 
racement was given to indufricus mecha- 
nics, as well as fea-faring people, to fet- 
tle in it. The town was laid out ina regu. 
lar form; 2a church was built at his 
Lordfftip’s expence, and a clergyman 
on the :ftablifhment appointed to it; 
for a {mall annual feu duty, ground fuli- 
cient for a houfe and garden was fet afide 
te each perfon, and tn the wear neighbour- 
hood, an acre or two of ground, at a mode- 
rate rent ; and the town, which when his 
Lordfhip began, confited of the fifher-huts 
already mentioned, and a few other houles, 
js now extended to feveral exténfive regu- 
Jar well-built flreets, daily increafing, and 
inhabited by above twelve hundred people, 
‘in general fober and induftr: 10us, and wh» 
live comfcrtably and happy under his 
Lordthip’s patronage and proteétion, hav- 
ing on all occafions experienced his favour, 
ad in times of (carcity been uniformly 
{upplied with a fuficient quantity of meal 
[July 1s 
from his Lordfhip’s granaries confider - 
ably under the rate of the neighbouring’ 
markets ; and the town is generally well 
fupplied with all kinds of provilion from 
the adjacent eftates at reafonable prices, 
and alfo with the greate(t variety of fifh 
from the fea and river. 
Thus foftered, the population has in- 
creafed, and is encreafing, rapidly, and the 
trade ina proportionate degree. Twelve 
veffels, from 60 to 130 tons burden, be- 
long to the port, and at leaft double 
that number from other ports annually re- 
fort to it. The port duty or harbour- 
dues exacted are very moderate, and in 
1788 amounted to rol. ; the rate ftill con- 
tinues the fame, but fuch is the encreafe 
of trade at the harbour, that in the year 
1802 the harbour-dues amounted to sol. 
For feveral years pati, from thirty to forty 
cargoes of Englifh lime have been landed 
at the port, almott folely ufed by the far- 
mers as a manure, befides the lime manu- 
factured in the country ; nearly an equal 
number of cargoes of coals, belides wood, 
iron, and London and Leith goods. The 
principal experts are falmon, white fifh, 
both barreled and dried, thread, kelp, 
butter, and grain, of which laft article 
there has been known to have been fent 
from the port of Macduff in one year to 
the value of from 20,0001. to 30,000. 
In the town there are two thriving fhip- 
building companies, a tan-work for the 
manufactory of leather, a rope-work of 
pretty confiderableextent, and a good num- 
ber of weavers who maou! ‘ature cloth 
both for exportation and home ufe. The 
other mechanics are blackfmiths, houfe- 
carpenters, wheelwrights, cabinet-ma- 
kers, fhoe-makers, taylors, and coopers. 
There is'a very neat mafon ledge, and 
three other public focieties in the town, 
whofe funds are in a profperous ftate, and 
applied, when neceflary, for the wisi 
of ‘soa members. 
Tn the year 1782, bis Lordfhip obtain- 
ed a crown- charter, ere Sting the town into 
a royal borough of barony, with power to 
the inhabitants at large to chufe a Provoft 
and other magiftrates -and counfellors for 
the internal government and police of the 
town ; and about the fame period the an 
cient crois of Macduff was rebuilt on an — 
eminence at the weft end of the town.— 
The old prifon having been in a ruinous 
ftate, his Lordthip laf year built at his 
own expence a new houle in a more cen- 
trical fituation, the lower apartments of — 
which coafift of a civil and criminal pri- 
fon, and above are apartments for public 
Meetings, 
In. 
