deal of the pox, but are now in a fair way of recovery. Two only died.-What we reckon old people in this parish live till they are between 70 and 80 years; fome reach 85 or 86; only 5 that I can remember, fince I came to this parish, reached 90, 2 of whom died going 98. There is one living at prefent who is going 99; he is remarkably healthy, rifes every day by 7 or 8 in the morning, and if it is a good day, takes a fhort walk before breakfast; he has no complaint of his fight, hearing or memory, and his hand is as fteady as when he was a young man; he was in arms in the year 1715 with his countrymen the Highlanders, and is the only man alive in this part of the country who was out at that time.

Agriculture, &c.-The foil is of different kinds. The haughs of Endric are deep, and very fertile for grafs or corn. The rifing grounds towards the moor of Buchanan, are partly gravel, partly mofs, and partly till, with rocks and ftones, both above and below ground, in the way of the plough. Upon the fide of Lochlomond above the pafs, the ground is drier than below, but rocky and ftony. The crops are oats and barley. Some few peas are sown, which do very well where the ground is limed, but they are in danger of fuffering in harveft in this rainy country. Some few have tried turnip; they would grow very well, but they require more attention in the feafon that the people of this country are providing turf or peats, than they can well beftow upon them. They all plant plenty of potatoes, and the common people feed at least one half of the year upon them. Oats, if the feafon anfwers, are fown in the beginning of April, barley through the month of May, and fometimes in June. There is little flax raised, and none but what is for private ufe. A greater quantity

of

of grain than was neceffary for the maintenance of the inhabitants, was raifed; but of late years a great part of the richer grounds being put under grafs, has confiderably diminished the produce in general. The generality of the tenants keep near a third more of cattle than they have pafture for; which, though they will not believe it, turns out more to their lofs than their profit. There are 5 entered ftills in the parish, which do more than confume all the bar ley that grows in it. The common Scots ploughs are generally used; but instead of being made by the farmers themielves as formerly, they are now, for the most part, made by such wrights as are most remarkable in the country for making them, fo that they are not now fo clumfy and heavy as ufual. But by far the greater part of this parish confifts of hill or moor ground, and is covered with rocks, mofs and heath. For 6 miles up the fide of the loch, each farm has a fhare of the moor which is contiguous to itfelf; but feveral miles of the north end of the parish have of late years been all put under sheep-pafture. There are only 27 ploughs going in the parish this year.

Till of late there was rather a want of industry in this parish, owing to what the farmers alleged, the fhortness of their tacks, which gave them no encouragement to improve, and the difficulty of getting manure: But a lime quarry being fome years ago found out in the moor above the pass, near a moss where they get peats for burning the lime, the farmers in the neighbourhood make lime there every year, which they bring to their grounds. This has proved of confiderable advantage to their farms. The farms below the pafs the Duke has inclofed and fubdivided, partly by ditch. and hedge, and partly by ftone fences: By building the ftone fences, the farmers who were employed in providing stones, had an opportunity of clearing their grounds of a

great

great many flones, which they ftood very much in need of. And tome of them fince in their wet grounds have been cafting drains and filling them with ftones, by which their grounds receive a double advantage. The multures for fome time paft have been converted into money, fo that there is little more given now than what is neceffary for working the grain.

Population. According to the return made to Dr Webfter, the numbers were 1699. The inhabitants have decreated confiderably fince fome part of my predeceffor's time. In one of his lifts, the number was between 1500 and 160; according to the laft lift which I took of them, they were only 1111 fouls, and the number is not increafing. There is no reifter of marriages kept; but the regilter in order to the proclamation of banns is regularly kept; and by the fame it appears, that the number of proclamations from the beginning of the year 1760 to the beginning of 1790, is 241; from 1760 to 1770, is 82; from 1770 to 1780, is 83; and from 1780 to 1790, is 76: The yearly average upon the whole, is 8. The numbers of births from 1760 to 1790, is 4c9; from 1760 to 1770, is 147; from 1770 to 1780, is 143; from 1780 to 1790, is 119. The yearly average is about 13.

There are no manufactures in this parish. There are in it 6 weavers, 3 fhoemakers, 2 tailors, 1 fmith, 2 boat-carpenters, 2 millers, no wrights nor mafons, except fuch as work conftantly to the Duke of Montrofe. All the fervants in this parish are domeftic or houfehold, except fuch as work to the Duke, who have each of them who go under the denomination of his workmen, a house and garden, a cow's grazing-park, for their accommodation, with cres of ground. The wages of labouring fervants are daily increafing,

4 a

increafing, owing greatly to the public works going on in the neighbourhood, the enlarging of farms, and the turning off of cottagers. Men fervants get from L. 7 to L. 9 in the Women fervants get L. 4, year, and fome of them more. and fome of them more. A man to work a day's work, or a darger, as they are called, is not eafily had; and when got, he takes 10 d. a-day with his victuals. Tailors get 8 d. and victuals.-Some years ago there were feveral Roman Catholics, and a few of the Epifcopal Communion; but there are none of these denominations now, fo far as I know, at least as common refidenters.

Stipend, School, Poor, &c.-The living confifts of 24 bolls oat-meal, together with L. 62: 8: 2, with manfe and glebe. The Duke of Montrofe is patron. The minifter, it is faid, is titular. There are 6 heritors, 5 of whom have a fingle farm each; the reft of the parish belongs to the Duke, who is alfo fuperior of the other five.-There are 2 fchools, which for feveral years paft have been regularly taught; the parochial school, and a school appointed by the Society for propagating Chriftian Knowledge. The parochial schoolmafter has a falary of L. 8: 6:8, with a house; for every marriage he has 13 d.; for every baptifm, 4 d. ; for teaching to read English, 1 s. 6 d. the quarter, and for writing and arithmetic, 2 s. The charity fchool is kept at Sallochy, about 6 miles above the church, for 3 years; and then at Inversnaid, about 7 miles farther up the country, for other 3 years, alternately. The charity schoolmafter has a falary of L. 10 as fchoolmafter and catechift; he has alfo quarter wages from fuch as are able to pay, which I understand turn out to about L. 4; but he is obliged to teach the poor gratis.-The number of poor uponthe lift is about 40, fometimes I or 2 more. I fay upon

the

the lift, because we only mark down the principal head of the family who receive charity, and are fupplied by the country and the parish, though in fome families there may be the husband and the wife, and in others fome small children befide the husband and wife, or a widow with a fmall family in ftraitened circumstances; so that if every individual were to be put in the lift, the number would be pretty confiderable. There is no provifion made in this parish for the poor; they are obliged to beg from house to houfe through the year, and get their proportion of what collections are gathered on the Sabbath days, to buy cloaths and other neceffaries; and when any of them come to be in fickness, or infirm and unable to go about, they have to depend upon the charity of their nearest neighbours, and what can be given them extraordinary of the poor's moDey. Several years ago the county of Stirling attempted to confine their poor within their refpective parishes; and after feveral meetings about it, all the parishes, as far as I know, except Drumen and Buchanan, agreed to the plan; by which means the poor of the parishes who agreed to it were better fupplied, and the people freed of a good deal of trouble in ferving them at the door; and besides, were not liable to get their goods ftolen, as formerly, by vagrants who went about begging. The poor are every day becoming a heavier burden upon the inhabitants of this parish, occafioned by the best growing farms in the lower end of the parish being put under grafs, and the small farms in the head of the parish, many of them being united together and put under fheep, and let out to people in other parishes who give nothing for the fupport of the poor, but leave them a burden upon the refidenters. There is about L. 280 belonging to the poor of the parish, most of which has been. given in different donations by the family of Montrose.

Manners