Page:Annals of Duddingston and Portobello.pdf/46

CHAPTER II  NTIL the middle of last century little appreciable alteration appears to have been made on the outward aspect of the parish from the days of the Dodins of that Ilk. Its roads were few, narrow, and ill-made, being for the most part mere bridle paths. The villages were badly built and the houses covered with thatch. The tillage of the land was of the most primitive kind, and anything in the way of trade or manufactures was practically unknown. Until within a recent period various employments of the people in the parish of Duddingston were of a limited kind, chiefly agriculture, weaving, coal mining, salt making, and quarrying.

This is all the more remarkable when we consider the advantages which its close proximity to the capital might be supposed to bring. That the soil was capable of extraordinary productiveness has since been amply verified by the high state of cultivation to which it has of late been brought; and that its geological formation was favourable to the development of trade has also been exemplified in the coal and clay fields, which have supported for many years a large population on parts of the parish formerly described as "an unproductive waste."

The first recorded census of the parish was made in 1755 by Dr Webster, when the population was found to amount to 989, and there is no evidence to show that at any time previous it had ever exceeded this. Most of these resided in the villages of Easter and Wester Duddingston and Magdalene Bridge; for even up to that time the farm offices were so inadequate, that the agricultural population resided mostly within the villages.

Very slowly, but bit by bit, here a patch and there a field reclaimed from moor or forest were being added to the land under cultivation. New roadways were being formed and old ones diverted to suit altered conditions. Peat as a fuel gave place to 15