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Whether the common people fhould receive education? Humanity revolts from the idea. Facts prove ignorance to be pernicious.

Poor. The fum expended annually for their fupport is nearly, at an average, 70 l. In the year 1782, it was 1121. None below 60 years of age are received upon the penfion lift, as an admiffion, it is thought, to an aliment that is certain, at an earlier period, might be unfriendly to their industry, and to the honeft pride, which ought to be cherished in the loweft claffes, of eating their own bread. When any, however, below that age, are in diftrefs, they never fail to receive a proper fupply; and the fum given away in this manner, is not less than what is expended for the penfion lift.-No where, probably, do the poor receive a larger allowance, or meet with more cordial attention. Indeed the funds of the parish, though they have entirely arifen, excepting a dona tion of 100 l. from collections fince the year 1704, are now fo confiderable as to fupply thefe charitable demands, and preclude any chance of an affeffment at a future period. The practice followed hitherto by the refiding heritors, of not allowing the collections to be leffened, by their occafional abfence from public worship, has tended greatly to increase thefe funds. Were this practice to take place in other parishes, and to be adopted alfo by non-refiding heritors, (and no good reafon can be affigned why it should not), it is likely that affeffinents, fo much and fo jufily dreaded, would, in most cafes, be avoided: For though the farmers know they have only a temporary intereft in these funds, and the lowest class are aware that it belongs not to them, in any view of the matter, to maintain the poor, it is not to be doubted that both thefe claffes would continue, as hitherto, from a reli

gious

gious principle, to throw in their mite, if they faw a proportional contribution from the whole heritors.

Character and Mode of Living.-The people in general are fatisfied with their condition, and are induftrious. It is not remembered that an inhabitant of this parish has been punished by the civil magiftrate for any crime. All of them can at least read the Bible; and the greatest part of the young men, whofe parents could afford but little for their education, attend the schoolmafter in the winter evenings; who, for a small confideration, teaches them writing, and the common rules of arithmetic, by which means they acquire good habits, and become useful as farm and family fervants. The mode of living has become more expensive than formerly among the farmers.-The loweft clafs of people confine their tafte and expence to their drefs; and in this respect they are not behind others in the neighbouring districts. In confequence of this rage for finery, though much more harmless, in every view, than tea and dram drinking, (which pervade almost every town and great village), the common people, in the country through Scotland, will be found at present to be living almost as poorly as they did 50 years ago, when their income was one half lefs; for it is by no means to be placed to the account, (as some feditious Spirits have of late fhamelessly attempted to perfuade us), of the burden of government taxes, which, it is well known to every perfon, duly informed about the matter, amount not to more annually than 2 s. 8 d. on the neceffary articles of confumption, in the family of a farm fervant, consisting of 6 perfons.

NUM.

NUMBER V.

PARISH OF LECROPT.

(PRESBYTERY OF DUNBLANE.-SYNOD AND COUNTIES OF PERTH AND STIRLING.)

Drawn up by the Rev. Doctor JAMES ROBERTSON, Minifter of Callander, from Materials furnished by the Rev. Mr JOHN KINROSS, Minifter of Lecropt.

L

Etymology of the Name,

ECROPT is derived from two Gaelic words, which fig

nify one half firm or dry land, alluding to the natural divifion of the parish into high and low, dry and wet foil. One half is upland or elevated ground, the other is a dead flat of clay land, which must have been one continued morafs, when the sea retired from the extenfive valley, in which the Forth now winds its way to the ocean.

Situation, Form, Rivers, Extent, Surface, &c.-About two thirds of this parish are fituated within the county of Perth, and one third in the county of Stirling. Its latitude is 56°. 11. N. and its longitude 47'. W. of Edinburgh.-Its form is not far removed from an equilateral triangle.-The river Teath bounds it on the S. W. where it meets the Forth and the Allan on the E. The fouthern point is where the Allan falls into the united streams of the other two.

From E. to

W.

W. it extends about 3 miles, and nearly about as much from N. to S. It contains about 2000 acres of ground, one half of which is a rich clay, the other half up-land, or what is generally called dry-field. The clay foil on the fouth is divided from the up-land by a beautiful bank, which croffes the parish, almost parallel to the north fide, and nearly at one third of the diftance between it and the fouthern extremity.

In all the clay land there is not a fingle ftone or pebble; it is therefore inclofed and fubdivided with hedge and ditch, or with open drains. The up-land, which is feparated from the carfe by the bank, and rifes backward with a gentle af cent, is alfo inclofed, either with ftone walls, or hedge and ditch.

Profpect. From the bank up Lecropt, there is one of the finest prospects in this part of the island, which has been always admired by every perfon of taste. The Forth, the Teath, and the Allan unite their streams, and form the largest river in North Britain, in the champaign country, on the fouthern borders of the parish. Their waving banks being clad with the richest crops, the fnug steadings of farms, the hedges neatly trimmed, the lofty trees, through which the fmoke afcends from the dwellings, and the bufy hand of man, engaged in the various operations of agriculture, beautify and enrich the scene.-On the oppofite fide of this fertile valley, the Caftle of Stirling rears its head in rude magnificence, on the fummit of a rock, and leads the mind to review the hiftory of years that are paft, when it was the refidence of the antient kings of Scotland. The huge rock of Craigforth on the one fide of the Castle, and the Abbey Craig on the other, form, with the Castle itself, three vaft and detached piles, about the distance of a mile from each other; and, like the pyramids

of

of Egypt, look down on an extenfive tract of flat country, where no other eminence intervenes. The tower of the abbey of Cambuskenneth, in one of the finks of the Forth, where the ashes of the weak and unfortunate JAMES III. reft in peace from the tumult of civil difcord, and the conflict of contending factions;-the stately bridge of Stirling, through which the Forth holds his majeftic course to the ocean; his long circuitous links, through innumerable farms and thriving villages, and the floops failing along these links in all directions, amidst trees and houses, feast the eye with the plea fant prospect, and delight the mind with the grateful idea of industry and of wealth.-The distant hills of Dundaff, on the fouth-weft, (ftill the property of the defcendants of that gallant hero who broke the Roman barrier), the hills of Falkirk on the fouth, famous for the bloody rencounter between Liberty and Defpatifm; the green Ochils on the east, piled on one another; Ben-vor-licht on the north; Benledi§ and Benlomend § on the weft, which raise their venerable heads to the clouds,

Thefe maffes, and all other detached rocks, and many of our mountain rocks, in this part of the world, present a rugged front uniformly to the weft, and have a tail of earth in the oppofite direction. The western coast of Britain, and most other iflands, prefent a bold fhore of high rocks, while the land on the eat flopes generally by an inclined plane, and dips gradually into the fea., The British rivers, for the most part, flow eastward. This is the cafe in many other countries, especially in America. Whether this phenomenon be owing to the current of the general deluge, or to the direction in which the earth revolves round its axis, or to the eastern inclination of the country, is perhaps uncertain; but there appears to be no doubt, that it is owing to fome general caufe; and there is as little doubt, that a large ftone, or a rock, in a river which is not very rapid, gathers a tail on that fide to which the current flows.

+ The mountain of great flags.

For the etymology of these names, fee the account of CALLANDER, Vol. XI. No. L.

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