TO THE HONOURABLE WILLIAM RAMSAY MAULE OF PANMURE. SIR, THIS Volume is respectfully addressed to you, as a testimony of that esteem which has been universally excited by the independence, public spirit, and attachment to the best interests of your native country, which at all times you have displayed. I have the honour to be, SIR, Your most obedient And most humble Servant, RO. FORSYTIL THE BEAUTIES OF SCOTLAND. CLACKMANNANSHIRE, CONTINUED. NOTHING OTHING oceurs specially deserving notice concerning Agricul• the agriculture of this district. A considerable quantity ture. of wheat is sown upon the carse lands; and potatoes and oats are much cultivated. The farm-houses are of late Farm-hou considerably improved; but still, on account of the small-ses. ness of the farms, they possess no great degree of accom modation. The house, for the most part, fronts the south, and consists but of one story. Most of them have now what the country-people call a loft; i e. a garret-story. The barn, which is generally about sixteen feet wide, and from thirty to thirty-five feet long within walls, is commonly placed on the west side, in order to have the barn or stack-yard open to that quarter from whence the wind generally blows; and the cart-shade is at the end of the barn, with the end of it open to the south, which enables the farmer to put larger things under it than he could do if it was open to the side; for the walls of the barn, stables, and byres (i. e. cow-houses), are sel dom above seven or eight feet high. The stables and VOL. IV. A ture. Agricul cow-houses are placed opposite to the barn, and the dung is thrown into the space between the barn and the stables. There are few of the small farmers who have any foddering yards. The farm-houses and offices were formerly covered with an alternate layer of thatch and turf, called divot. Of late they are generally covered with pan-tiles. They have a more agreeable appearance than the old thatch-roofs; but there are many inconveniences attending them, especially in a county subject to high winds, which often uncover large spaces of the roof, and break a great quantity of tiles. They are extremely cold in winter, and excessively warm in summer. In short, they make an unpleasant and expensive covering for any kind of buildings; but as the first cost of them is considerably less than a slate roof, tiles are come into general use. An attempt has been made to mingle tiles with thatch of wheat-straw, to prevent their being broken by the winds, and to save, at the same time, the expence of pointing the tiles with lime; but the effect of the contrivance is not yet known. In a severe climate like that of Scot land, it seems probable that, where a slated roof cannot be afforded, no covering will be found more unexceptionable than that which we formerly mentioned as used in some quarters of Airshire, consisting of a mixture of straw and lime, by which a sort of tarras is formed of a durable nature, and preserving that degree of warmth which is so requisite in our unsteady climate. The old custom of paring the surface of the moors to produce turf for covering the cottages is most truly barbarous, as it leaves the land, during a long period, in a state of absolute barenness. Inclosures. There are some fields of the Carse inclosed with hedge and ditch; but this does not, in the general opinion, add to their value, as the hedges, in some measure, obstruct the free circulation of air ; a matter of the |