according to their neceffities. The yearly collection a mounts to L. 4. to beg out of it. None of the poor in the parish are allowed But as the road from Glasgow to Ayr, Irvine, &c. paffes through this town, the inhabitants are oppreffed with great numbers of strolling poor from Glasgow and the other neighbouring towns. Population. According to Dr Webster's report, the population then amounted to 2819. There are belonging to the Church about 2300 fouls. Befides, there are some Burghers and Antiburgher Seceders, and a few old Cameronians; but all these fects live in good harmony with the minister and people of the Established Church. The precife number of the whole cannot be exactly ascertained. There is 1 furgeon and I writer in the town, alfo from 100 to 130 weavers; but the chief trade in this place, and has been, it is faid, for above 100 years, is bonnet making, which employs a great number of hands. They make alfo what are called French or Quebec caps. Befides fupplying the country and the Highlands with these articles, large quantities are exported, which turn out to good account; fo that it is faid they draw L. 50 weekly in return. The births, deaths, and marriages, as entered in the parish register, for fix years, are as follow: *Beef, mutton, and all other kinds of provifion, (except meal), are as dear here as any where in Scotland, and fervant's wages are at an extrava Miscellaneous Obfervations.-The people are moftly of the ufual fize, and fome confiderably above it. They are in general a fober intelligent people, hospitable to strangers, and charitable to the poor, of which feveral instances could be mentioned. There have been fome inftances of longevity in the parish. A man died fome years ago, who was about 103, a lady above 97, and a worthy heritor and elder died lately, who was above 9o. This is a poft-town, and has been fo for a long time paft. There is a regular arrival and dispatch at and from this every day, for all towns in Britain, and letters come safely here, without having any other postoffice written on them.-David Dale, Efq; late one of the magiftrates of Glafgow, was born and educated in this place. He is well known in the commercial world, for the many manufactures he has introduced, and carries on with fuccess. His piety, humility, and acts of charity, are worthy of imita tion. gant rate, which makes it very difficult for thofe whofe income is stated, and not advanced, to keep a family. Mutton is from 41d. to 6 d. the pound. Beef from 6 s. to 6 s. 6 d. the ftone. Cheese from 7 s. to 7 s. 6 d. the ftone. Butter from 9 d. to 11 d. the pound, and other things in proportion. NUM aven, is at prefent brought from the parishes of Hamilton and Dalferf, at the distance of 5 and 6 miles. Crops, Cattle, c.-The crops raised here are oats, bear, a few peafe, confiderable quantities of potatoes, fome rye grafs, and almost every farmer fows a peck or two of lint-feed for household ufes. The low grounds, when ploughed after being fufficiently refted, yield good grain, which in an ordinary feafon is cut down fully ripe; but on the borders of the moors, the crops are very precarious, and seldom ripen. In the neighbourhood of the town of Strathaven, where land rents at from 20 s. to 40 s. the acre, the rotation is a crop of oats, potatoes, oats, bear with grafs-feeds, and after the grass has been cut for two years, it is paftured till the land is again fit for cropping. Potatoes are no where cultivated with more care. Almost every tradesman plants a few falls of ground in potatoes, for the use of his family. These he labours at his leisure hours, from which he derives health and amusement, and a wholefome part of food for five or fix months in the year, at a very moderate expenfe. But this district, excepting a few farms in the lower end of the parish, is better adapted for pafture than tillage; and the rents are mostly made up from the fale of cheefe, butter, and veal. The cheese made here fells at from 6s, to 7 s. the ftone, and calves have fometimes been fo'd at L. 4 Sterling; but the average price is from L. 1 to L. 3. The practice of bleeding calves, fo common in England, is hardly known here. The only arts ufed to make them fatten faft, are bringing them on gradually to take a great deal of milk, keeping them in a dark place, and amidst plenty of dry litter. Unless they are fed moderately at first, they are apt to loathe the milk in a fhort time; and, like most other young animals, they are sportive, and apt to take too much exercise, which is best prevented by fhutting them up from the light. A calf of two months old, well fed, often fells at at from L. 2, 10 s. to L. 3. The demand for veal is fo great, that the farmers never think of rearing more calves than what is necessary to keep up their stock of cows. The number of cows kept is about 18 upon the ploughgate of land. They are of small fize, but well made, and are found to be more hardy, easier fed, and to yield more milk in proportion to their fize than cattle of a larger breed. The value of milk is now fo well understood, that even the whey is turned to account by feeding young fwine with it. During the fummer months, these animals fwell upon it amazingly, and by being fed upon potatoes and oats, or oat-meal, for a month or fix weeks in harvest, are fit for flaughter in the month of November, when they are commonly 8 months old, and weigh from 8 to 9 stone. This cleanly fort of feeding has reconciled the people here to the use of swine's flesh, which was once held in abomination. The old Scots plough is the only one in ufe here. It is fometimes drawn by 3, but oftener by 4 horfes. The number of horses in the parish has been gradually diminishing of late years, owing to there being lefs land in tillage, and a great deal of the wet grounds being laboured with the fpade. Befides, it is now becoming cuftomary to buy horfes about the end of January, and to fell them again about the end of May, when the labour is over; so that a farmer who occupies a ploughgate of land, feldom 'keeps more than two work horses for 8 months in the year. There are a few horfes reared, and the breed is improving. A pair of draught horfes, bred here, was fold a while ago at L. 70 Sterling. Although every farmer has more or less land in tillage, yet the country part of the parish, in an ordinary feafon, does very little more than fupply itfelf with grain. The greatest part of the oat-meal consumed in the town of Strathaven, is brought from the neighbouring parishes, and the wheat flour made use of by the bakers, is VOL. IX. brought 3 C brought from the east country in carts, which carry butter, cheese and veal, to the Edinburgh market. The inclofing of the low grounds, which was begun about 30 years ago, has banished all the fheep, excepting a few pets, entirely to the moor farms. The number kept upon these is about 7500, all of the old Scots breed; and the only improvement which has hitherto been made in this fort of farming, is that of keeping fewer upon the ground. The woul, like the pasture, is coarfe, and takes about 8 fleeces to the ftone, which fells at from 5 to 6 s. In wet feasons the sheep are very liable to the rot. Population. According to Dr Webfler's report, the number of fouls at that time was 3551. Mr Charles Rofs, in his map of Lanarkshire, published in 1773, makes the population of this parish to be 3770 fouls. But he has certainly over-rated it; for it does not contain that number at prefent, though it has been on the increase fince that period. By an enumeration made in the years 1785 and 1781, the population was as follows: In the country, 336 families, 1748 perfons; 60 more women than men. In the town, 439 families, 1444 perfons; 138 more women than men. In the whole parish, 775 families, 3192 perfons. Population in 1791 and 1792. In the country, 315 families, 1733 perfons; only 9 more women than men. In the town, 469 families, 1610 perfons; 28 more women than men. In the whole parish, 784 families, 3343 perfons. The diminution of inhabitants in the country is owing to the moor farms having gone into fewer hands, and there being |