Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/694

 670 LINLITHGOW Hshments, apart from those mentioned in connexion with the town, being grist-mills, distilleries, chemical works, glass works, spade arid shovel works, and a pottery. The climate of the county hardly differs from that of the western portion of Midlothian. The annual rainfall, however, is somewhat greater, and is a fifth more than that of East Lothian : for the twenty-one years ending 1880 the mean at Linlithgow was 3176 inches, while at East Linton (east of Haddington) it was 26 52. 1 Linlithgow is classed as a mixed agricultural and pastoral county ; the agricultural element, however, preponderates largely, though the area of permanent pasture has been increasing. It is calculated that of the total area of 81,114 acres about 20,000 acres consist of the best sorts of clay (carse, &c. ), 22,700 of clay on a cold bottom, 9500 of loam, as much of light gravel and sand, 14,000 of moorland and high rocky ground, and 1500 of peat. Only a very small part of the arable laud remains unreclaimed ; the parish of Livingston, which in the beginning of last century was nearly covered with heath and juniper, is now all under rotation. Bathgate and Torphichen contain patches of peat moss and swamp. In Carriden and Dalmeny, and generally along the coast, the soil is light and early, though in some parts it varies so often that no single term is applicable to any considerable area. According to the agri cultural returns for 1881, the corn crops occupied 17,347 acres, green crops 7264, clover and grass under rotation 12,980, permanent pasture (exclusive of heath or mountain land) 21,289. Oats are the most important of the cereals, 10,348 acres ; and barley comes next with 4874 acres, an increase on the 3787 acres of 1856. Wheat has been steadily losing ground ; while 1856 showed 4643 acres, 1881 gives only 1450. Beans, which used to occupy about 1000 acres, are now reduced to 655. An increasing area is devoted to clover and grasses for hay ; but on the other hand the turnip area has been considerably reduced 5142 acres in 1856, 3861 in 1881. The extent of land under potatoes has slightly increased, 3052 acres for 1881, 2355 being the average for 1866-75. Cattle breeding is not much attended to, but a considerable number of animals are bought and fattened, and dairy farming is largely prosecuted, the fresh butter and churn milk being sent mainly to Edinburgh, but also to Newcastle, &c. Very little cheese is made. As a sheep- farming county Linlithgow stands very low the returns giving 17,605 head in 1881, 23,070 in 1866. But few horses are bred, and the number of those in the county has remained wonderfully steady for the last fifteen years. Pigs have grown greatly fewer 3166 in 1866, and only 1442 in 1881. The average extent of the farms is 108 acres, rather less than in Midlothian ; of the total 542 more than 200 do not exceed 50 acres, and only 35 rise above 300. Very little of the land is rented at more than 3 per acre ; an average of 2 to 2, 10s. for the best districts, of 30s. to 35s. for medium soils, and 15s. to 25s. for the worst land, will not be wide of the&quot; mark. &quot;The leases of the arable lands are almost invariably for nineteen years, and grass lands are usually let annually by public auction, though in some instances they are taken for a period of three or five years.&quot; 2 Though it is only in the neighbourhood of the principal mansions that large stretches of wood exist, the county as a tree-growing district rises considerably above the average for Scotland, the woodland area being returned as 4899 acres in 1881, or one-sixteenth of the whole (Edinburgh shows one-twentieth). The finest woods are those of Hopetoun (where the beech avenues are especially note worthy), Newliston, Kinneil, and Dalmeny. Much of the old timber has been recently cut down, but replanting has been vigorously prosecuted. The valued rent of the county in 1649 was 75,027 Scots, or about 6252 sterling. In 1806 the real rent was 64,518 sterling, and in 1811, 88,745. Exclusive of railways, the valuation was 189,198 in 1876-77, and 216,011 in 1881-82. In the be ginning of the century the county was practically in the hands of between thirty and forty landowners (Trotter). According to the Government return for 1872-73, the total number of owners was 1535, of which 287 possessed upwards of 1 acre. The pro prietors holding estates above 2000 acres were as follows : Earl of Hopetoun, 11,870 acres ; Earl of Rosebery, 5680 ; Sir William Baillie of Polkemmet, 4320 ; Duke of Hamilton s Trustees, 3694 ; Lord Canlross, 2995 ; William Cowan of Linburn, 2231 ; Robert H. J. Stewart of Cham pile urie, 2036 ; Dundas s Trustee, 2082. Hopetoun House, the seat of the earl of Hopetoun, and the grandest mansion in the county, occupies a tine position between Queensferry and Blackness. Begun about 1696 by Sir William Bruce of Kinross, and completed long afterwards by Mr Adam, it practically occupies the site of the old castle of Abercorn, which 1 For earlier notices of rainfall, &c., see Trotter s Agriculture of West Lothian. 2 See Thomas Parrall, in Trans, of Hifihland and A (trie. Soc. of Scotland, 1877. Avas taken from the Douglas family by James II. in 1455. Dalmenr Park (earl of Rosebery) lies about 1| mile west of Cramoud; the neighbouring ruins of Barnbougle Castle, an ancient seat of the Mowbrays, have been incorporated with a modern building Almondell House (earl of Buchan) is situated on the Almond, not far from Mid Calder. Kinneil, a now deserted residence of the dukes of Hamilton, associated with memories of Colonel Lilburn and Dugald Stewart, is a short distance to the south-west of Bo ness. On a trap rock jutting out into the firth stands Black, ness Castle, now used as a powder magazine, but once one of the &quot;keys of the kingdom,&quot; with a busy little port under its protec tion. Niddry Castle (often called West or Setou Niddry), one of the resting places of Queen Mary, is now a mere ruin. Newliston (now owned by T. A. Hog) was for many years the residence of Lord Stair, who first introduced the field cultivation of cabbage, and is said to have laid out the woods according to the plan of the battle of Dettingen. Dundas Castle Avas the original seat of the Dundas family. Pardovan recalls the memory of Walter Steuait, author of the Collections concerning the Worship, d-c. , of the Church of Scotland, and Philipstoun that of John Dundas, another Scottish ecclesiastical lawyer. Kincavel was the birthplace and family mansion of Patrick Hamilton. There are two royal burghs in the county Linlithgow and Queensferry, and, besides the towns Bathgate, Borrowstounness or Bo ness, Armadale, a number of thriving villages. The Union Canal connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with Edinburgh passes along the central valley, and crosses the Almond and Avon by bridges designed by Thomas Telford. The North British Railway has two lines between Edinburgh and Glasgow, which pass through the county via Linlithgow and Bathgate respectively. Queensferry and Bo ness are both connected with the system by branch-lines, and Bathgate is a junction of some importance. The population of West Lothian has increased from 17,844 in 1801 to 43,198 (22,436 males and 20,762 females) in 1881. The greatest increase (8601) took place in the decennial period 1851-1861, the least (606) in 1811-21. The females were in excess of the males in every census down to 1841 ; since then the preponderance has been on the other side. The total population was 23,291 in 3831 26,_872 in 1841, 30,044 in 1851, 38,645 in 1861, and 40,965 in 1871. Traces of the prehistoric occupation of the county are fairly numerous. On Bowden Hill is an earthwork connected by Mr Glennie and others with the Arthurian contest. On Cairnpaple may be seen a circular building of unknown but early origin, and at Kipps is a cromlech once surrounded by circles of stones. Stone cists have been discovered at Carlowrie, Dalmeny, Newliston, &c. Near Inveravon is a vast accumulation of shells considered by several geologists to be a natural bed, but claimed by anti quaries as an artificial mound, either a kitchen middeii or a hear* for the manufacture of lime (see David Grieve, Proc. Sc. Soc* of Ant., 1870-71). The Wall of Antoninus lies for a con siderable distance within the county, and is believed to give origin to the names Carriden and Walton (see an account of a detailed exploration of the wall in Builder, 1877, pp. 1023-25). A fine legionary tablet was discovered at Bridgeness in 1868 (Proc. Sc. Soc. of Ant., vol. viii.). Roman camps can be distinguished in several places. At Torphichen 3 are the remains of a preceptory of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, partly used as a parish church. The churches of Dalmeny, Abercorn, Kirkliston, Uphall, and South Queensferry are of early origin, Romanesque and Norman Gothic. LINLITHGOW, the county town of the above county, and a royal and parliamentary burgh, situated in the central valley, 18 miles by rail from Edinburgh, consists almost exclusively of a single street running east and west along both sides of the highway ; gardens behind the houses stretch down to the lake or climb the lower slopes of the rising grounds, on which a considerable number of suburban residences have been erected. In the early part of the century the general aspect of the street was antique and picturesque, but the greater proportion of the frontage has been rebuilt or modernized. Apart from the palace and the contiguous church of St Michael, the only edifices of any note are an ancient towerlike build ing near the railway station, which tradition regards as a mansion of the Knights Templars, the town-house (1688), and the county courts (1865). &quot; Linlithgow for wells&quot; is a proverbial expression ; and the cross well in the public 3 See Abstract of the Charters. . in the Chartulary of Torphichen (ed. 1830).