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cropping and improvements, that is followed in Coupar and the neighbouring parishes, is practifed here, and the produce is much in the fame proportion. Here, too, the fame difadvantages, fcarcity of firing, and the diftance from lime and coal, operate as a check on the industry and improvement of the farmer. There are a few dealers in cattle in the parish, who keep grafs parks, and drive their fed cattle to Falkirk, or to England.—There are now no fheep in the parish. A few were kept to pafture on the hill of Peatie till lately.

Rent and Proprietors.-The valued rent of the parish is 51291. 16s. 8 d. Scotch. The prefent rent is unknown. The land, at a medium, lets at 17 s. Sterling per acre.-The number of heritors is 8, whereof 7 are refident. Lord ABOYNE is chief heritor.

Ecclefiaftical State.-The Crown is patron. The stipend was formerly 8 chalders 9 bolls 7 pecks of victual, but has been lately augmented. The church was built in 1768*, and repaired in 1791. The manfe was built from the foundation in 1792. The name of the prefent incumbent is JOHN HALIBURTON.

Poor and School.-The poors money, collected at the church doors, together with a rent arifing from a mortification on land, amounts to 50 l. yearly. The number of poor at prefent on the roll is 14. The fchool house was repaired in 1782. The falary was augmented in 1790, by a decreet of

the

The church of KETTINS anciently had fix chapels depending on it, viz. one at a village called Peatie, another at South Cofton, a third at Pitcur, a fourth at Muiryfaulds, a fifth at Denhead, and a fixth on the fouth fide of the village of Kettins. Most of thefe were within fmall inclosures used as burying

the Commiffioners of Supply. It was formerly 100 l. Scotch. The present schoolmaster has taught with reputation a good number of years, and has, with his fmall emoluments, brought up a numerous family.

Population. The population of Kettins has varied at different periods, as will appear from the following table:

STATISTICAL TABLE of the Parish of Kettins.

- 1100

In 1726, the number of examinable perfons above 12
years of
age, was
To which may be added, for those under that age, at
leaft

300

1400

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Total number of baptifms, from 1722 to 1726, inclu

five

Annual average of ditto during that period

Ditto of ditto, from 1751 to 1755, inclufive

Ditto of burials, during that period

Ditto of ditto, from 1787 to 1791, inclufive ț.

450

90

45

40

33

Families

*The register of births and marriages has not been regularly kept for fome years paft. There are no feffion records prior to the 9th of August 1650-A record of that date mentions two kirk-feffion registers before that period.

There is nothing remarkable in the proportion of males and females, nor in the prices of labour, or of the neceffaries of life, in this diftrict, different from thofe of Coupar.

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bleach fields in

The two first

Bleachfields, Longevity, &c.-There are 3 the parish, Borland, Baldinnie, and Kirk-fteps. whiten annually 100,000 yards, the laft about 30,000 yards. -Few very remarkable instances of longevity have occurred within the recollection of the inhabitants, though to hear of people dying at the advanced age of 90 and upwards is not There was a man alive laft autumn (1793) at the age of 106. There are no epidemic difeafes peculiar to this parish. Inoculation for the finall-pox is by no means general, especially among the lower claffes.

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Antiquities. There are no Roman ways, nor Druidical circles in the parish *. At Camp-muir, a village belonging to VOL. XVII.

C

Kettins,

Some tumuli have lately been found in this parish, when digging materials for the turnpike road: One at Pitcur contained at least 1000 load of stones. In the center of this cairn, a few flat unwrought ftones, and without date or characters, contained some human bones. A cairn of a very small size was found a mile farther fouth on the new line of road, and fcarce diftinguishable from the pasture around. In the center, an urn was found full of bones.

Kettins, and upwards of a mile N. W. of the church, there are ftill vifible the outlines of a camp, fuppofed to be Roman, as noticed in the account of Coupar. At Baldowrie there is an erect Danish monument, 6 feet high. It contains fome figures, but they are almost entirely defaced.—The Caftle of Dores ftood on the fummit of the hill*, fouth from Pitcur. Tradition reports it to have been some time the refidence of MACBETH. The following names are doubtless of Celtic derivation: Baldowrie, Baldinnie, Balunie, Balgove, and Airdlair.

* On this hill, great quantities of afhes are faid to have been difcovered. From this circumftance, it is concluded to have been one of thofe hills, where fires used to be kindled in antient times, to alarm the country on the approach of an enemy. On the eait quarter of this hill, and closely by the fide of the new road, the workmen quarrying ftones came upon an excavation in the folid rock, in which they found fome half confumed bones of a foft confiftence. The hole was about 3 feet wide either way, and feemed to direct its courfe towards the fouth. There was no entrance from above obferved, for at least half a mile in any direction from this place.

NUM

NUMBER III.

PARISH OF LATHERON.

(COUNTY AND PRESBYTERY OF CAITHNESS.-SYNOD OF CAITHNESS AND SUTHERLAND).

By the Rev. Mr ROBERT GUN, Minifter.

Name, Erection, and Extent.

HE antient name is LOINN, derived from Luidhoin, which

THE

fignifies, in the Erfe, or Gaelic, lodged or bedded bear, because the lands contiguous to the church are of a good quality, and yield excellent bear. The modern or English name is Latheron.-The parish was formerly divided into two parishes at least, if not more. In the title-deeds of Borg, a part of the eftate of Dunbeath, it is defigned the town and lands of Nether Borg, lying in the parish of Dunbeath, and fhire of Inverness.-The parish is 27 miles in length along the fea coft, and from 10 to 15 miles in breadth in different parts.

Roads. The principal, or only proper road from the fouth to Caithness and Orkney, along the Ord of Caithness, which

In the history of the wars in Scotland, there is mention made, that, in confequence of fome diffenfions between the Earls of SUTHERLAND and CAITHNESS, the former fent 200 men into Caithnefs in February 1588, who over-ran the parifhes of Dunbeath and Latheron in a hostile manner.

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