Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/162

 152 F I F E Ferguson (Raith) 7135 ; Lieutenant-Colonel Tyndall Bruce (Fulk- LanS House) 7058 ; Randolph G. E. Wemyss and trustees of J. H. E. Wemyss (Weniyss Castle) 6925 ; Earl of Glasgow (Crawford Priory) 5625 ; Earl of Zetland 5566 ; Sir Coutts Lindsay ( Balearres) 4672 George Clark Cheape (Wellfield) 4230; andJolm Austruther Thomson (Charleton) 4034. Fife is perhaps below the average as a game-preserving county. Kabbits, hares, pheasants, and partridges are pretty numerous in some districts ; roe deer are occasionally seen ; wild geese, ducks, and teal frequent the lochs ; and grouse and blackcock are some what plentiful on the Lomond moors. The pigeon houses have been estimated at 300. The county is particularly well adapted for fox-hunting, and the Fife fox-hounds are now divided into an eastern and a western pack. Manufactures and Trade. The staple manufacture is linen. The chief seats of the linen cloth manufacture which ranges from the coarsest ducks and sackings to the finest damask are Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline. The largest flax spinning mill is that at Prin- laws near Leslie. The other seats of the linen trade are Auchter- nmchty, Cameron Bridge, Cupar, Dura Den, Dysart, Falkland, Freuchie, Guardbridge, Kinghorn, Kingskettle, Ladybank, Leven, Markinch, Newburgh, Springfield, Strathmiglo, Tayport, and East and West Wemyss. There are bleaching greens on the banks of the Eden and Leven, and also at Kirkcaldy, Ceres, and Dunferm line. According to the census of 1871 the number of persons engaged in the linen manufacture was 17,055, of whom 5742 were males and 11,313 females. In the jute manufacture 29 males and 23 females were employed. Kirkcaldy possesses 6 large floor-cloth manufactories, besides others for the manufacture of linoleum. In various towns woollen cloth is manufactured, but only to a small extent. There are fishing-net manufactories at West Wemyss, Kirkcaldy, and Largo. There are breweries and tanneries in the principal towns. The largest distilleries are at Cameron Bridge and Burntisland. Paper is manufactured at Guardbridge, Mark- inch, and Leslie ; earthenware at Kirkcaldy ; tobacco at Kirkcaldy and Duufermline ; and oilcake in a few places. Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline possess iron-foundries; and shipbuilding is carried on at Kinghorn, Dysart, Burntisland, Inverkeithing, and Tayport. The principal port is Kirkcaldy ; the chief imports are flax and timber, and the chief exports coals and potatoes. The largest salmon fisheries are at Newburgh, but there are others at various parts on the east and south coast. The chief seat of the herring fishing is Anstruther ; and the number of boats in the Anstruther district, which includes all the fishing stations in the county, is nearly 800, with a total value of nearly 100,000. For some years the take of herrings on the Fife coast has been very small, and the majority of the Fife fishermen now prosecute the herring fishing at the northern stations. Towns and Villages. The number of towns and villages in Fife is exceptionally great. The south coast especially is very thickly populated, and along its whole extent there is almost a continuous line of houses. The large extent of downs on the sea-coast affords great facilities for the Scottish national game of golf. Besides the famous golfing green at St Andrews, there are others at Cupar, Crail, Elie, Lundinmill, Leven, Innerleven, Wemyss, and Burnt- island. The number of boroughs is 16, of which three, Auchter- muchty (1082), Falkland (1144), and Newburgh (2182), are royal ; and 13 royal and parliamentary, viz., Anstruther Easter (1289), Anstruther Wester (484), Burntisland (3265), Crail (1112), Cupar (5105), Dunfermline (14,963), Dysart (8919), Inverkeithing (1755), Kilrenny (2539), Kinghorn (1739), Kirkcaldy (12,422), Pittenweem (1760), and St Andrews (6316). Among the other towns and villages the principal along the coast are Limekilns (735), with a small harbour ; Charleston (749), the shipping port of Dunfermline, with an iron-foundry, limeworks, and manufactures of salt ; Aber- dour (622), a favourite watering place ; the manufacturing village of East Wemyss (777) ; West Wemyss (1231), partly mining but chielly fishing; the mining village of Methil (648) ; the, fishing villages of Buckhaven (2187), Innerleven (358), and St Monance (1648); the watering places of Leven (2501), Largo (521), and Earlsferry and Elie (1032); and on the northern coast the towns of Tayport (2498) and Newport (1507). Inland there are Freuchie (1195), Kingskettle (643), Ladybank (772), Leslie (3768), Milton of Balgonie (396), Pitlessie (401), Springfield (608), and Strathmiglo (1509), all chiefly manufacturing; Cairneyhill (435), Cardenden (355), Charleston (749), Coalton (442), Coaltown (343), Cowden- beath (1457), Crossgates (1181), Donibristle (412), Dunshalt (481), Halbeath (800), Largoward (325), Lochgelly (2369), Methilhill (480), Thornton (526), Townhill (855), Wellwood (678), Windy- gates (420), all principally mining ; and Ceres (1111), Colinsburgh (351), Fordel (641), Kcnnoway (835), Kilconquhar (381), Kings- barns (411), Kirkton of Largo (353), Leuchars (523), Lundinmill (539), and Strathkinness (619), with a mixed population mining, manufacturing, agricultural, or shopkeeping. Railways. Fife is crossed from Burntisland to Newport by the North British Kail way between Edinburgh and Dundee; and from the main line branches diverge at Thoniton to Dunfermline and Kinross, and to Loven and the east of Fife ; at Markinch to Leslie; at Ladybank to Auchtermuchty and Kinross and to Perth ; and at Leuchars to St Andrews. Population. The total population of the county in 1871 was 160,735, of whom 75,127 were males and 85, 608 &quot;females. The population in 1861 was 154,770. In the towns the population in 1871 was 73,929 as compared with 66,516 in 1861, in the villages 47,759 as compared with 41,627, and in the rural districts 39,0-17 as compared with 46,627. One member of parliament is returned by the county ; one each by the Kirkcaldy and St Andrews districts of burghs ; and Dun fermline and Inverkeithing are grouped with other boroughs under the Stirling district in returning a fourth. History and Antiquities. A dim conception of the kingdom of Fife at a period regarding which there are scanty written records may be obtained from its somewhat important and interesting archaeological remains. Those of greatest antiquity are perhaps two canoes found more than 60 years ago in the bed of the Tay opposite Lindores ; the relics of the Bos primigenius, an inhabitant of the primeval forest ; and the remains of many of the ancient hill forts chief of which may be mentioned those at Norman s Law and on the Craig of Clachard, both in the parish of Abdie constructed at a period in all probability considerably anterior to the Roman, invasion. Traces yet exist in several places of the foundations of those circular tent-like dwellings noticed by Julius Ca?sar in other parts of Britain as identical with those of the Gauls of the continent of Europe. The marks of Roman occupation are now nearly all obliterated by cultivation, but sword blades, spearheads, and hoards of Roman coins have been found at various places ; and vestiges of a number of Roman buildings were in existence 100 years ago. According to Sir Robert Sibbaid, traces of Roman camps were in his life-time visible near Burntisland and Dunfermline ; and slight marks of two yet remain in the parish of Carnock at a place known by the name of the Camp Farm. At Lochore, near a place now occupied by the farm of Chapel, there existed about a century ago the outlines of a permanent Roman station of considerable strength, and occupying a central position on the route between Queensferry and the firth of Tay. It was near this fortification that in all proba bility took place the night attack on the ninth legion, mentioned by Tacitus in the 25th chapter of his Agricola. The earliest inhabitants of Fife and Strathearn of whom we have any knowledge were of Celtic origin, and were called by the Romans Horesti. It is uncertain when the Romans retired from this district, but they did not occupy it for a length of time sufficient to effect any marked change on the civilization of the natives, who made frequent incursions into the Roman province, and received from their Romanized neighbours the name of Picti, the part of Scotland north of the Forth being known as Pictavia so late as the Sth century. The title kingdom ultimately inherited by Fife was doubtless applied in the first instance to the whole of Pictavia ; and the continuance of the title to a smaller portion, of which the present Fife forms the eastern half, was due as much to its being the southern part of Pictavia as to its distinct peninsular form, and to the fact that Pictish kings had their residence within its terri tories. In any case the title as applied to Fife has the sanction of very ancient usage. In the tract of the Scots of Dalriada there occur the words the &quot;men of Fife in the sovereignty&quot;; and in Wynton s Chronicle, whose date is 1380, Fife is spoken of as a &quot;kynrick &quot; or kingdom. The power and influence of the thanes of Fife, and the existence afterwards of royal residences at Dunfermline and Falkland, doubtless aided in continuing the title down to later times. The first trace of the name Fife occurs in the old verses ascribed to St Columba, where, under the form Fif, it is used as the designation of one of the seven provinces into which, according to Beda, the ancient kingdom of Pictavia was divided. As to the exact 1 oundaries of Fife at this period there is no certain information, but in all probability it coinprehended the greater part of tlve territory between the Forth and the Tay, thus including Monteith, Strathearn, and the shires of Clackmannan and Kinross, but probably in its south-western part ceding a portion of its present area to the province of Fortreim. At a later period Fife was divided into the &quot; stewartries &quot; of Clackmannan, Culross, and Kinross ; and about 1426 Kinross was divided into the shires of Kinross and Fife. In 1685 the parishes of Orwell, Tulliebole, and Cleish were disjoined from Fife and added to Kinross. The term Fir seems identical with the Jutland word Fibh (pronounced exactly as Fife is now pro nounced), meaning forest, and was probably first made use of by the Frisians to designate the country immediately interior to the estuaries of the Tay and Forth, where an immigration of Frisian tribes took place about the end of the 4th century. 1 Evidence of a Danish settlement subsequent to the Frisian immigration is presented in the names of several of the homesteads, as well as in the presence of the wordZrtK- (Danish Hhaw, a hoaped-up mound marking the graves of illustrious dead) in Norman s Law, Largo Law, Norris Law, and 1 See paper by W. F. Skene in the Proceedings of the Society oj Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. iv.