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twenty-six churches, – the finest architecturally being St Brycedale Free church. The town has two public libraries, one of them with nearly 10,000 volumes; and there are three weekly newspapers.
For much of its recent prosperity Kirkcaldy is indebted to the water scheme, for which an Act was obtained in 1867, and an Amendment Act in 1870. The sum authorized to be expended by these bills was £53,000, but an Extension Act was passed in 1881 giving power to raise £40,000 additional when required. An extensive system of drainage is also in process. A sheriff-substitute has recently been appointed for the Kirkcaldy district.
Kirkcaldy, with Dysart, Kinghorn, and Burntisland, returns one member to parliament.
An Ecclesia de Kirkcaldie is mentioned in the list printed by Sibbald of the churches in the county of Fife in the year 1176. In 1240 it was bestowed by David, bishop of St Andrews, on the abbey of Dunfermline. The name of Kirkcaldy also occurs in the map of the civil divisions of Scotland in the 13th century prefixed to Professor Cosmo Innes's Scotland in the Middle Ages. In 1334 the town, with its harbour, was given by David II. to the abbey of Dunfermline, and in 1450 it was "disponed" by Richard, abbot of Dunfermline, to the bailies and council of Kirkcaldy.
The commerce of the place has suffered many fluctuations. In 1573, as we learn from the Register of the Privy Council, the district of Kirkcaldy had the largest manufacture of salt in Scotland, and about 1650 it was assessed as the sixth town in the kingdom. About 1644 there were one hundred ships belonging to the port, in 1760 only three, in 1792 the number had risen to twenty-nine, and in 1843 to ninety-one. Since then, chiefly owing to the abandonment of the whale-fishing, and the insufficiency of the harbour to admit large vessels, the trade of the port has considerably declined. The number of vessels belonging to it may be stated at twenty-seven. A considerable extension of the present harbour is among the possibilities of the future.
Adam Smith, whose great work The Wealth of Nations formed an era in the history of political economy; James Oswald of Dunnikier, a schoolfellow of Adam Smith, and a statesman of much promise; George Gillespie, a leading member of the Westminster Assembly; and Balnaves of Halhill, a lord of session in the time of Queen Mary, were natives of Kirkcaldy. Michael Scot, of wizard fame, was born about a mile from the burgh boundary. (T. H.)
KIRKCUDBRIGHT, a maritime county of Scotland,
known as the " Stewartry of Kirkcudbright," and also as
East Galloway, is situated between 54 43 and 55 19
N". lat., and between 3 33 and 4 34 W. long., and is
bounded on the N. and N.W. by Ayr, E. and N.E. by
Dumfries, S. by the Solway Firth and the Irish Sea, and
W. by Wigtownshire and Wigtown Bay. Its extreme
length from north-west to south-east is about 45 miles,
and its breadth varies from 21 to 31 miles. The total area
comprises 610,343 acres, or about 954 square miles.
The larger half of the county in the north-west direction
consists of a rugged and mountainous table-land, with lofty
summits of every variety of aspect, intersected often by
deep glens. The scenery of this region is for the most
part wild and bleak, its solitary desolation being heightened
by the presence of many small lochs and tarns, but almost
totally unrelieved by a single tree or shrub, although the
peat deposits give evidence that the district was at one
time covered by an extensive forest. The most elevated
regions are generally covered with heath, but at the
northern boundary there is a range of grassy hills. Many
of the mountains have an elevation of over 2000 feet, the
highest summits being Mearroch (2762 feet) in the parish
of Minnigaff, and Cnrserine (2668), Carlin's Cairn (2650),
and Cairnsmure in Carsphairn (2612) – all in the parish of
Carsphairn. The south-eastern half of the county is for
the most part level but undulating, its uniformity being
broken by frequent rocky knolls or small rounded hills,
and in the south-eastern corner rising into several elevated
summits, the highest of which is Criffel, 1867 feet. The
greater part of this district is finely wooded, and abounds
in picturesque scenery, especially towards the sea-coast and
in the neighbourhood of the rivers and numerous lochs.
The southern coast is usually bold and rocky, and is much indented by the estuaries of various rivers, which form a number of natural harbours. Owing to the shallowness of the sea-bed, large stretches of sand are ex posed in the Solway Firth at ebbtide, and the rapid flow of the tide has often occasioned loss of life to the unwary.
Geology. – Geologically Kirkcudbright forms part of the Silurian belt of the south of Scotland, but this formation is interrupted in the county by several upheavals of granite, one in the north-west south of Loch Doon, another near the centre immediately west of Loch Ken, and a third round Criffel on the shores of the Solway Firth. The lofty table-land is supposed to have been at one time the seat of an immense ice-bed (see paper by W. Jolly, in Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc., 1868), whose action has doubtless in part created the isolated round-backed ridges of granite in the valley of the Urr, the finest example in Scotland of the Roches moutonnées, which constitute a peculiar feature in alpine scenery (A. Somervail in Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc., 1879). A more striking result of the glacial action was the dispersion of Kirkcudbrightshire granite to Cumberland, to North Wales, and even so far south as the neighbourhood of Wolverhampton (D. Mackintosh in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1879). The Silurian strata are for the most part of a slaty character, but in some places are composed of a species of red sand stone. Especially in the neighbourhood of the granite the strata are very much contorted, and give evidence of having at one time been subjected to the action of immense heat. The granite is principally of a pale grey resembling that of Aberdeen, but a red variety also occurs. The principal quarries are at Dalbeattie and Creetown. Strata of lead are believed to stretch between Minnigaff and the Leadhills in Dumfriesshire, but the rnetal is very little worked. Iron ore exists in different parts of the county, but from the absence of coal is almost wholly unutilized. Copper and barytes are also found, especially in the parish of Urr. Marl is obtained in large quantities from a number of the lochs.
Rivers. – The Nith, which rises in Ayrshire and fl;>ws through Dumfriesshire, forms for about 12 miles the boundary between Dumfries and Kirkcudbright, an equal distance of boundary to the north-west being formed by its tributary the Cluden water. The Urr, which rises in Loch Urr on the borders of Dumfriesshire, flows south-eastward by Dalbeattie to the Solway Firth, where it forms a small bay. The Ken rises in Dumfriesshire, and after being joined from the west by the Deugh water flows south-east into Loch Ken, the stream that issues from the loch taking the name of the Dee, and after a beautiful course south- westwards falling into the Solway Firth. The Fleet, which rises in Loch Fleet, after a course of about 7 miles, falls into Wigtown Bay, where it forms an estuary. The Cree, which has its origin in two streams in Ayrshire, and forms the boundary of Kirkcudbright with Ayrshire and after wards with Wigtownshire, flows south-east by Minnigaff and Newton Stewart, and falls into Wigtown Bay at Creetown.
Agriculture. – A considerable proportion of the land in the higher
regions of Kirkcudbright is unsuitable for tillage, and yields a very
small return as pasturage. In many cases also the soil is very
marshy. In the lower regions it is generally dry but rocky. Much
has been done of late years to increase the value of the land by
draining the swamps, by the removal of stones, and by deepening
the soil and enriching it with manures. Generally the climate and
soil are not adapted for the rearing of grain, but are specially suited
for grass and green crops.
According to the agricultural returns for 1881 the area under crops was 179,237 acres, or 29 per cent. of the whole area. The area under corn crops was 32,349 acres; under green crops, 18,091; under rotation grasses, 71,091; under permanent pasture, 57,471 acres. The area under woods was 19,741 acres. The system of cropping is generally as follows: first year, in breaking up from
