ern division of the southern border of Scotland, con-
stituting the eastern part, and very nearly two-
thirds of the whole extent, of the province of Gal-
loway. It is bounded on the north-west and north
by Ayrshire ; on the north-east and east by Dum-
fries-shire ; on the south by the Solway frith and
the Irish sea ; and on the west by Wigtonshire. Its
outline is irregular, but approaches the figure of a
trapezoid. It lies between 54° 44' 35" and 55° 19'
north latitude, and between 3° 33' and 4° 35° longi-
tude west from Greenwich ; and it measures in ex-
treme length, from north-west to south-east, 44 miles ;
in extreme breadth 31 miles, in minimum breadth 21
miles ; and in superficial area 855 square miles, or
547,200 statute acres. These are the measurements
given in Chalmers' ' Caledonia;' but those brought
out in a survey by Mr. Ainslie, and adopted in the
Rev. Samuel Smith's ' Agricultural View of Gallo-
way,' assign to it a somewhat larger area, compre-
hending 882.57 square miles, or 449,313 Scottish
acres. Its southern half has, as natural boundaries,
the river and estuary of the Nith on the east, the
sea and the Solway frith on the south, and the
river Cree and Wigton bay on the west ; but its
northern half is traced by natural boundaries only
partially and at intervals, — by the Cairn for 7| miles
above its confluence with the Nith, — by a water-
shedding line of mountain summits for IH miles
south-eastward of its north-east angle, and, with
trivial exceptions, 15 or 16 miles sinuously west-
ward of that angle, — by Loch-Doon and its tributary
Gala-lane for 8^ miles on the north-west, — and by
the river Cree, from the north-west extremity south-
ward to the southern division of the county. Kirk-
cudbrightshire has no recognised or nominal subdi-
visions, except that the four most northerly parishes
are called Glenkens [which see] ; but it admits, or
rather exhibits, a very marked natural subdivision
into a highland district, and a champaign country
thickly undulated with hills. A straight line drawn
from about the centre of Irongray parish to Gate-
house-of- Fleet, or to the middle of Anworth parish,
has, with some exceptions, the former on the north-
west, and the latter on the south-east.
The highland or north-west district comprehends
about two-thirds of the whole area, and is, for the
most part, mountainous. Blacklarg, at the point
where the stewartry meets with Dumfries-shire, as-
cends to the height of 2,890 feet above sea-level ;
and it is nearly equalled, or boldly imitated in its
cloud-ward aspirings by numerous other summits.
The heights, all along the boundary, and for some
way into the interior on the north, are part of what
is often termed the southern highlands, or the broad
alpine belt which stretches across the middle of the
Scottish lowlands ; they ascend, in the aggregate,
to elevations little inferior to those of any other part
of that great belt ; and, extending themselves down
to the sea on the west, and parallel to Dumfries-
shire on the east, they form, in their highest sum-
mits, a vast semicircle, whence broad and lessening
spurs run off into the interior. The straths spread
out by the streams of the region, as they recede
from the higher grounds, and accumulate into rivers,
form an inconsiderable proportion, probably not one-
174
KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE.
tenth, of the whole district. The south-eastern, a
comparatively champaign division of the county,
when viewed from the northern mountains, appears
like a great plain, diversified only by a variety of
shades, according to the colour, size, or distance of
the heights upon its surface. So gentle, too, is its
cumulative ascent from the sea, that the Dee, at the
point of entering it, or even a long way up the strath,
on the highland side of the dividing line, is only 150
feet above the level of the sea. Yet about one-
fourth of its whole area is either roughly hilly, or,
in a secondary sense, mountainous ; while much the
greater proportion of the other three-fourths, though
fully under cultivation, is a rolling, broken, hilly sur-
face, and, for the most part, continues its bold undu-
lations down to the very shore of the estuary and the
sea. On the south-east the conspicuous Criffel rises
up almost from the margin of the Nith to a height of
1,895 feet above sea- level, and sends off a ridge 8 or
9 miles westward in the direction of Dalbeatty, and
a second low ridge away south-westward parallel
with the coast to the vicinity of Kirkcudbright.
These heights, though greatly inferior to the ranges
in the north-western division, and seemingly insig-
nificant — owing partly to their distance — when
viewed from them, are, in reality, far from being
inconsiderable ; and lifting their craggy cliffs and
dark summits immediately above the margin of the
sea, they form scenery highly picturesque, and occa-
sionally approaching the sublime. Over all parts of
the county the uplands are, for the most part, broken
by abrupt protuberances, steep banks, and rocky
knolls, diversified into every possible variety of
shape ; and even in tlie multitudinous instances in
which they admit of tillage, either on their lower
slopes or over all their sides and their summit, they
rarely present a smooth and uniform arable surface.
In the neighbourhood of Dumfries, throughout
most of Terregles and part of Troqueer and Iron-
gray, where, apart from artificial division, the terri-
tory forms a portion of the beautiful and exulting
strath of Nithsdale, stretches a smooth and level
tract, carpeted with a mixture of sand and loam,
and possessing facilities of cultivation and improve-
ment beyond any other part of the county. Along
the banks of the Nith, from Maxwelltown down-
ward, and for some distance lying between the for-
mer tract and the river, extends a belt of merse land,
at first narrow and interspersed with ' flows,' but
broader in Newabbey and Kirkbean, and compre-
hending about 6,000 acres either of carse or of a rich
loam, partly on a gravelly bottom, and partly on a
bottom of limestone. From Terregles, south-west-
ward to the Dee, extends a broad and large tract,
comprising Loclirutton, Kirkgunzeon, and Urr, and
part of Kirkpatrick-Durham, Orossmichael, Kelton,
Buittle, and Rerwick, which, while hilly, has com-
paratively an unbroken surface, carpeted with a
strong soil, though often upon a retentive subsoil,
and peculiarly adapted for tillage. The broken por-
tions of this tract, and the general area of the other
parts of the comparatively champaign district, are
subject to exceedingly less waste than a stranger
to their peculiarities, who should glance at their ap-
pearance, would imagine. The knolls conceal, by
the perspective of their summits, considerable flat in-
tervals amongst them ; and while themselves seeming,
from the furze and brushwood which crowns their
summits, to be unfit for cultivation, are usually cover-
ed with a very kindly soil, of sufficient depth for the
plough. Of an extremely broken field, not more than
one-half of which would seem to a stranger available
for tillage, the proportion really and easily arable often
amounts to four-fifths. Except in loamy sand and
the merse tracts near Dumfries, the soil of nearly all
the ploughed ground of the stewartry, comprehend-
ing not only the great south-east division, but the
fine strath of the Ken and the narrower vale of the
Cree, is dry loam of a hazel colour, and therefore
locally called hazelly loam, but often degenerating,
more or less, into gravel. The bed of schistus on
which it lies is frequently so near the surface as to
form a path to the plough, and probably where the
rock is soft, adds by its attrition to the depth of the
soil. In the highland division rich meadows, luxu-
riant pastures, and arable lands of considerable aggre-
gate extent, occur along the banks of the rivers, on
the sloping sides of the hills, in vales among the
mountains, and along the margins of little streams.
A large part of the Gllenkens, too, exhibits highland
scenery in such green garb as characteristically dis-
tinguishes Tweeddale. But with these exceptions,
the far-stretching district is in general carpeted with
heath and ' flows,' a weary and almost desolate waste,
a thin stratum of mossy soil yielding, amidst the pre-
vailing russet, such poor grass that the sheep which
feed upon it, and are strongly attached to it, would,
were there not intervening expanses or belts of lux-
uriant verdure, soon perish by emaciation. With
large bases, lofty summits, and small intervals of
valley, the mountains exhibit aspects of wild bleak-
ness diversified by picturesqueness and romance, and
sometimes sending down shelving precipices from
near their tops, they are inaccessible to the most
adventurous quadruped, and offer their beetling
cliffs for an eyry to the eagle ; while far below,
among the fragments of fallen rocks, the fox finds a
retreat whence he cannot be unkenneled by the
huntsman's dogs.
Kirkcudbrightshire sends out a few very trivial
rills as head- waters of the Ayrshire or Carrick rivers,
and receives some equally unimportant contribution*
in return; but, with these exceptions, it is a con-
tinuation of the great basin of Dumfries-shire, and,
as far as the joint-evidence of the disposal of its
waters and the configuration of its great mountain-
chain could decide, it was naturally adjudged to the
place which it long legally held as a component part
of that beautiful county. What Eskdale is to Dum-
fries-shire on the east, Kirkcudbrightshire, in the
sweep of its mountain-chain to near the coast beyond
the Dee, is on the west ; and all the vast intervening
territory is a semicircular area, with an arc of high-
land ridges sweeping round it from one end till nearly
the other of the north side of its chord, and pouring
down all its waters to the south. The stewartry,
unhke Dumfries-shire, has no expanded plain for
concentrating its streams before giving them to the
sea, and, in consequence, discharges much of the
drainings of its surface, in inconsiderable volumes of
water. Apart from the Nith, the Cairn and the
Cree, which belong only to its boundaries, its chief
streams are the Urr, the Ken, the Dee, and the
Fleet, each of which is separately described in the
present work. Lakes are very numerous, and, in
some instances, are remarkable for either the rare
species, or the great numerousness of their fish ; but,
excepting Doon on the boundary, and Ken and Kin-
der in the interior, all of which are noticed in their
place, they are individually so inconsiderable both in
size and in interest, as to challenge attention only in
the sketches of the parishes to which they belong.
Perennial springs every where well up in great abun-
dance, and afford an ample supply of excellent water
for culinary uses. Of chalybeate springs, which also
are numerous, the most celebrated is that of Lochen-
BRACK [which see], in the parish of Balmaghie. The
Solway frith, becoming identified on the west with
the Irish sea, sweeps round, from the head of the
estuary of the Nith to the head of Wigton bay, in em
KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE.
175
ample semicircular coast-line of 50 miles, exclusive
of sinuosities. The coast, on the east, is flat; but
elsewhere it is, in general, bold, rocky, here per-
forated with natural caves, and there sending aloft
beetling cliffs, tempting daring adventurers to hazard
their lives in gathering the samphire. Along the
whole coast, a permanent recession of the sea has
taken place, — not very apparent or productive of any
g^reat advantage, indeed, in the high and rocky re-
gions, but very evident and resulting in a bequest of
the rich territory of the Merse, in the flat tract along
the Nith. Besides the estuary on the east, and the
gulf or large bay on the west, the Solvvay forms, at
points where it receives streams, very considerable
natural harbours, running up into the country in the
form of bays or small estuaries. The principal are
Rough frith, at the mouth of the Urr, Heston bay,
and Auchencairn bay, at the mouth of rivulets a lit-
tle eastward, Kirkcudbright bay, at the mouth of the
Dee, and Fleet bay, at the mouth of the Fleet.
Though all the waters which wash the coast are rich
in the finny tribes, they rarely tempt the apathetic
inhabitants of the coast to spread the net or cast the
line, and have not prompted the erection of a single
fishing village, nor, of course, the formation of any
community of professed fishermen. Sea-shells and
shelly sand, which are thrown up in great profusion,
have greatly contributed to fertilize the adjacent
grounds ; and they are accompanied, for lands to
which it is more suitable, by large supplies of sea-
weed.
The most prevalent rock is what Dr. Hutton calls
pcbistus, including schistus proper and greywacke.
Its strata are mixed, various, and dissimilar. Some
of them, locally called whinstone, are of hard and
compact grain, blue or greyish brown in colour, for
the most part taking an irregular fracture, but fre-
quently splitting into parallel slices fit to be used as
coarse slates. The beds vary from half-an-inch to
many feet in thickness. With the harder grain is
mixed, in all different proportions, a soft, shivering,
argillaceous stone, which easily yields to the wea-
ther, and locally bears the name of slate-band. The
strata are, in general, not far from being perpendi-
cular, though they lie at every dip from an absolutely
vertical to a nearly horizontal position ; and they
are often singularly contorted ; and are sometimes
intersected with veins or dykes of porphyry. Much
of the mountainous part consists entirely of granite.
In various spots along the shores of Colvend and
Rerwick, a softer species of granite occurs, and is
quarried into millstones. Limestone, sandstone, and
other secondary strata, occasionally intermixed with
plumpudding-stone, appear eastward of Kirkcud-
bright, but do not extend far into the country. The
district in the neighbourhood of Dumfries lies on
sandstone. In Kirkbean limestone of excellent qua-
lity abounds ; and in other districts it occurs, but so
poor, or in such small quantity, as not to draw
attention. From the rocky nature of the stewartry,
abundance of suitable material is everywhere found
for buildings and fences. Coal has been sought in
laborious and expensive searches; but has promised
to reward exertion only in Kirkbean, and even there
has been found in too great paucity to pay the costs
of mining. Shell-marl of the finest quality has been
everywhere found at intervals, in lakes and mosses,
within 12 miles of the sea. The richest supply of it
has been furnished by Carlinwork loch : see article
Kklls. Ironstone seems to abound in Kells, Urr,
Carsphairn, Buittle, Rerwick, Colvend, and other par-
ishes ; but owing to the want of skill, of enterprise,
of fuel, or of all three united, it has been turned to
little account. A copper mine was worked for some
time in Colvend, but, seemingly without sufficient
reason, was abandoned. A stratum of lead ore seems
to run through the country from Minigaff on the
Cree, in a north-east direction, to Wanlockhead and
Leadhills, on the boundary between the counties of
Dumfries and Lanark. A vein of lead, of a rich ore,
exists also in the parish of Aiuvoth.
In early times, the stewartry appears to have been
covered with woods; and at a comparatively recent
period it had several extensive forests; but it re-
tains only scanty portions of its natural woodlands,
and these chiefly along the banks of the rivers.
Agricultural improvement was commenced in the
12th century, principally by the settlement among
the rude inhabitants of colonies of monks, and was
carried to a greater extent both in tillage and pas-
turage, than could well be expected in the rough
circumstances of the period. From various and very
unequivocal intimations, the country appears to have
been much more fruitful in grain and other agricul-
tural produce in 1300, than at the beginning of the
18th century. But disastrous wars and desolating
feuds swept in rapid and constant succession over
cultivated fields, and soon reduced them almost to a
wilderness. So ruthlessly was agriculture thrown
prostrate and maltreated that, toward the close of
the 17th century, small tenants and cottagers, who
had neither skill, inclination, nor means to improve
the soil, were allowed to wring from it, in the paltry
produce of rye, and bear, and oats, any latent ener-
gies of " heart" which it still possessed, and on the
miserable condition of paying the public burdens,
were permitted to sit rent-free on farms which now
let for at least £200 a-year. Modern improvement
commenced early in the 18th century, and was not
a little remarkable both in the character and in the
early history of its first measure. Sir Thomas Gor-
don of Earlston having erected upon his property a
stone fence about 4 miles in extent, several other
proprietors sparingly, but firmly, followed his ex-
ample. But fences seemed to the semi-savage squat-
ters to whom utter mal-administration had given
almost entire possession of the soil, not less an in-
novation, than a signal of war, upon their rights ;
and, in April and May 1724, they provoked an in-
surrection, and were all thrown prostrate by the
"levellers." The infatuated insurgents, who were
instigated by the harangues of a wild preacher who
mistook his vocation, having been dispersed and
broken by six troops of dragoons, the work of en-
closing was resumed with greater vigour than had
guided its commencement, and speedily resulted in
impressing an impulse on practical and skilful care
for the right management of the soil. The discovery,
or at least the manurial application, of shell-marl in
1740, formed an important era, and occasioned the
conversion into tillage of large tracts which had
liitherto been employed exclusively in pasture. The
suppression, in 1763, of the contraband trade with
the Isle of Man pointed the way to the exportation
of agricultural produce, and occasioned it rapidly to
become a considerable trade. The institution, in
1776, of the society for the encouragement of agri-
culture in Galloway and Dumfries-shire was a still
more important event. William Craik, Esq. of Ar-
bigland, the spirited and ingenious chairman of the
society, introduced new rotations of crops, new
methods of cultivation, new machinery, and new
modes of treating cattle, and is justly considered as
the father of all the grand agricultural improvements
of the stewartry. At the commencement of the
present century. Colonel M'Dowal of Logan made
great achievements in the reclaiming of mosses. In
1809, the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright Agricultural
society arose to urge forward a rivalry with Dum-
fries-shire and other adjacent counties; and before
176
KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE.
being a twelvemonth old, it numbered 130 members,
all landholders and practical farmers, with the Lord-
lieutenant and the member of parliament at their
head. Both before the close of last century and
during the course of the present, plantations, espe-
cially on the grounds of Lord Daer and the Earl of
Selkirk, have risen up to shelter and beautify the
country; but, even with the aid of about 3,500
acres of copsewood, remaining from the ancient for-
ests, they are far from being sulTicient in extent or
dispersion to shield the country from imputations
of nakedness of aspect, or prevent it from appearing
to a stranger characteristically wild and bleak. Farm-
houses exliibit the greatest possible diversity, — con-
tinuing, in some instances, in the same wretched state
as before agricultural improvement began, — and ris-
ing, in others, to a competition in eoinmodiousness
and elegance with any buildings of their class in
Scotland. Farms, in the highland district, usually
vary in size from 6 to 12 square miles ; and, in the ar-
able or cultivated grounds, they sometimes extend to
500 or 600 acres, but probably average about 200.
The ordinary currency of leases is 19 years. The
fences, in far the greater proportion of instances, are
the dry stone walls, distinctively known as Gallo-
way dykes ; but, in the vicinity of Dumfries, and a
few other localities, they consist of various sorts of
hedges, all ornamental in the featuring they give the
landscape. Agricultural implements are simply the
approved ones known in other well-cultivated coun-
ties. Systems of cropping are necessarily various,
not only throughout the stewartry but very often
in the same parish. The cultivation of wheat is eon-
fined chiefly to the district adjacent to Dumfries, and
to the carse-lands and other strong soils in New-
abbey and Kirkbean. Oats are the staple produce,
and obtain much attention by changes of seed within
the stewartry itself, by importation of seed from the
eastern counties of Scotland, and by other measures
fitted to stimulate and improve. The cultivation of
turnips has a large place in talk, and a considerable
one in practice. No crop is, in general, so well
managed as that of potatoes. The purple-red po-
tato seems the favourite both with the soil and the
people. The cultivation of artificial grasses has
been long practised, and for upwards of thirty years
has prevailed in all the improved districts. The
extent of meadow-grounds in the stewartry, taken
jointly with Wigtonshire, is probably not less than
one-twentieth of the whole area.
The breeding and rearing of cattle, seems a pur-
suit naturally suggested by the soil and climate of
Kirkcudbrightshire jointly with Wigtonshire, and
has long been a favourite object of the farmers. Few
countries can boast of pastures whose grass has such
a beautiful closeness of pile, and which, after a
scourging course of crops, so rapidly return to their
natural verdure and fertility. The breed of Gallo-
way cattle— peculiar to the district, though now ex-
tensively known by importations from it — are almost
universally polled, and rather under than over the
medium size, — smaller than the horned breed of Lan-
cashire or the midland counties, and considerably
larger than any of the Highland breeds. Their pre-
vailing colour is black or dark-brindled. The fol-
lowing, says the Rev. Samuel Smith, in his ' Agri-
cultural View of Galloway,' " are the characters of a
true Galloway bullock. He is straight and broad in
the back, and nearly level from the head to the
rump, closely compacted between the shoulder and
ribs, and also betwixt the ribs and the loins — broad
at the loins, not however with hooked bones or pro-
jecting knobs; so that, when viewed above, the whole
body appears beautifully rounded like the longitudi-
nal section of a roller. He is long in the quarters,
but not broad in the twist. He is deep in the chest,
short in the leg, and moderately fine in the bone —
clean in the chop and in the neck. His head is of a
moderate size, with large rough ears, and full but
not prominent eyes, or heavy eyebrows, so that he
has a calm though determined look. His well-pro-
portioned form is clothed with a loose and mellow
skin, adorned with long, soft, glossy hair." The
breed has, in some parts of the country, been mate-
rially injured by intermixture with the Irish, the
Ayrshire, and some English breeds. But the off-
shoots of foreign crossings or admixtures are recog-
nizable among the native stock even after fifty or
sixty years have elapsed to efface their peculiarities;
and they are now held in little estimation, and sought
to be substituted by the purest and choicest propa-
gation of the native variety. Few of the cattle are
fed for home consumption. Excepting fat cows, for
the small towns and villages, and about one-fortieth
of the prime cattle for the tables of the opulent, the
whole stock are sent chiefly, at three and three and
a-half years old, to the markets of Dumfries and
England. The principal sales are at St. Faiths and
other markets in Norfolk ; but many are effected on
the spot, and many more in the Smithfield of Lon-
don. Vast numbers of transfers, too — chiefly from
inferior or better lands — are made at the weekly or
monthly trysts of Castle-Douglas, and Gatehouse in
Kirkcudbrightshire, and Glenluce, Stranraer, and
Whithorn in Wigtonshire. The number sent an-
nually out of Galloway, previous to the date of the
Agricultural Report, was supposed to be 20,000;
and the entire stock of Kirkcudbrightshire in 1814,
was estimated at 50,000. — In the moor and moun-
tainous districts, sheep-husbandry has long been