damp, vaulted dungeon, compofed entirely of stone, without a fire-place, or any the most wretched accommodation. It is impoffible, indeed, by language, to exaggerate the horrors which here present themselves. Into this difmal recess, the beams of the fun can with difficulty penetrate. Here" is "no light, but rather darkness vifible" A few faint rays, entering by an irregular aperture of about 9 inches fquare, barely fuffice to disclose the horrors of the place. An opening, or flit, on another fide of the dungeon, thirty inches in length by two in breadth, but almoft filled by a large bar of iron, ferves to admit as much fresh air as merely to prevent fuffocation. As the affizes for the county are held at Perth only in fpring and autumn, prifoners have frequently been doomed to lie in this cold dungeon, during the rigour of the fevereft winters.-The confequences may eafily be apprehended. It is to be hoped, however, that the period is now happily arrived, when the landholders of Scotland, having more humane fentiments and enlarged views, than those who went before them, will attend to the wretched state of the different county jails, and be difpofed to follow the example of the neighbouring kingdom, in which, of late years, many prifons, bridewells, &c. have been erected, on plans of the moft extenfive benevolence, and of the foundest and most enlightened policy. A fum of money, adequate to the expence of building a prifon on a modern improved plan; a penitentiary-houfe, with accommodations alfo for the deftitute fick, might, it is believed, without much difficulty, be procured in the rich and extenfive county of Fife, were a few men of rank and public fpirit to patronize and fupport the benevolent attempt. Were the fum to be levied from the three different orders of men, who are chiefly to be benefited by the new erection, namely landholders, manufacturers, and farmers, the proportion neceffary to be advanced by in

dividuals

dividuals would appear but finall, and the burden would fcarcely be felt by the county. Perhaps they could adopt no plan which promifes to be of fo' much public utility. A measure of this kind will appear every day of more preffing necefiity, when the Bridewell now building at Edinburgh fhall be finished. If Fife takes no ftep to defend itfelf against the influx of pickpockets, fwindlers, &c. which may natu rally be expected, it will become the general receptacle of fturdy beggars and vagrants; and the rifing induftry of the county inust be expofed to the depredations of the defperate and the profligate, from every quarter *.

Manufactures.-In Cupar, and the neighbouring country, a confiderable manufacture of coarfe linens has been eftablifhed. They confift chiefly of yard-wides, as they are com monly named, for buckram, glazed linens, &c. There allq they manufacture Ofnaburghs, tow fheetings, and Silefias. About 500,coo yards are annually ftamped in Cupar, which amount in value to about 20,ocol. Sterling. Cupar being the principal market in Fife for brown linens of the above of defcription, webs from the adjoining country, to the value more than 20,000 l. come to be fold there. All these purchased with ready money, and fent to London, Glasgow, and other markets. The linen merchants in Cupar pay annually

are

* Though, in defcribing the prifons of Cupar, the writer may have been led to adopt terms feemingly harth and fevere, yet he means not to convey, in the molt diftant manner, reflections He has or cenfure on any body of men, or on any individual. frequently had occafion to praife the humanity of thofe, to whofe care prifoners at Cupar are committed, and to witness every kind attention paid to them, which the nature of the place in which they are confined would permit. He only withed to embrace the opportunity, which the prefent publication affords, of turning the attention of the county, to objects which he deems extremely interefting and important to fociety.

nually to the manufacturers and weavers, betwixt 40,000 1, and 50,000 1.-There are at present in the parish 223 looms, employed chiefly in making linens of the defcription given above.-There are two tan-works in Cupar, where confiderable quantities of leather are manufactured.-The demand for faddlery from the furrounding country is increased of late years, in an extraordinary degree, and is fupplied from the work-fhops at Cupar. The bleaching field on the Eden is in good repute. The brick and tile work has long been profitable to the proprietors, and ftill continues to thrive, but is not yet able to answer the great demand for tiles.

Obtacles to their fuccefs.-Cupar, though enjoying many natural advantages; though fituated in the midst of a plentiful country; on a river that never ceases, even in the fevereft drought, to flow in abundance; in the immediate vicinity of lime, free-itone, and coal, yet poffeffes no confiderable manufacture, that of linen excepted. This want of attention, industry, and exertion in the inhabitants, in improving the happy fituation in which they are placed, may, in a great measure, be ascribed to the two following causes. In the first place, burgh politics have ever operated here as a fatal check to induftry. A fucceffion of contefted elections have introduced, and, it is to be feared, confirmed, among the members of the incorporations, habits of idleness, diffipation, and vice. Mifled by that felf importance, which the long expected return of the burgh canvafs bestows; feduced by the flattering attentions and promises of the great; accuftomed to the plenty and coviviality of the tavern, open to him at all hours, the tradefman learns to defpife the moderate profits arifing from the regular performance of his accusto med toil: He quits the path which alone could have conducted him to peace, and comfort, and independence; he VOL. XVII.

T

feldom

feldom vifits his work-house or his fhop, and when the eleetion has at length taken place, and the scenes, which had fo much engroffed and fafcinated him, have vanished, he awakes to folitude and want, and, with extreme difficulty, can prevail on himfelf again to enter on the rugged tasks of patient induftry. But the fuccefs of manufactures in Cupar has hitherto been retarded by another caufe, of a very different nature, the great expence of land carriage. St. Andrew's, Leven, Newburgh, and Dundee, are the nearest fea-ports, though all of them are diftant 9 English miles. Thus the 'manufacturer muft bring to Cupar the raw materials he uses, at a very heavy expence; and his different articles, when fimithed, cannot be again conveyed to the fea fhore, but at an additional charge.

Advantages to be derived from a Navigable Canal —To en able the industry of the inhabitants to rife fuperior to this natural difadvantage, it has been fuggefted, that a navigable canal might be formed, nearly in the course of the Eden, as high as Cupar. The river falls into the fea about 9 miles below the town. The greater part of the channel is already navigable. The tide rifes as high as Lydox Mill, little more than 3 English miles from Cupar. The fall from the town is very gradual, and to the place to which the tide rifes, thought not to be more than 26 feet. It is thus evident, that a navigable canal might be forined, as far as Cupar, at no very formidable expence. The advantages to be derived from this cut, to the inhabitants of the town and of the neighbouring country, would be great indeed, and could not be eafily calculated. Cupar is already the flore-house, to an extenfive tract of country, for iron, tar, ropes, bricks, tiles, wines, fpirits, grafs feeds, foap, candles. t bacco, tea, fugar, fruits, and all kinds of groceries. The faving in the carriage

of

of thefe articles, to thofe who deal in them, fuppofing the co fumption to be no greater than it already is, would be immerfe. Vaft advantages would likewise be experienced by Cupar and its vicinity, in the eafier rare at which they would be fupplied with timber and flites for building, now brought, at a very great ex ence, from St. Andrew's, Dundee, &c.; by the farmers on both fides of the river, in the convenient fupply of time and other manures; and by al ranks, in the reduction of the price of that expentive, but neceil' ry article of daily confumption. coal-Scotland has at laft opened her eyes, to the vaft advantages to be -derived to her commerce and agriculture, from the ease and finall expence of water carriage. She now follows, with Spirit and fleadinets, the bold and fuccefsful fteps of her fifter kingdom; and when those canals, on a grand scale, which are now carrying on, fhall be finithed, it is to be hoped, that this cut on the Eden, will be one of the firft, on a more humble lan, to be adopted and executed.

Ecclefiaftical State.-The diftrict of Cupar formed a parish in early umes, when the great parochial divitions of Crail, Karenny, Kilconquhar, St. Andrew's, Leuchars, and a few others, comprehended all the eastern part of the county. The fmall parith of St. Michael's, lying on the fouth of the Eden, was joined to that of Cupar in the beginning of the laft century. The church belonging to the parish stood on that beautiful ipot, now known by the name of St. Michael's Hill. Hun an bones are till occafionally difcovered in the field, when the operations of hufbandry are going forward. The ruins of a fmail chapel, fituated near the eastern boundary of the lands of Kilmaron, were to be feen not many years ago.

The church of Cupar is collegiate. The King is patron

of