Gazetteer of Scotland

CR1
CRI
bright ; it abounds with fahnon, and
is navigable to large veflels for feveral
miles.
CREETOWN, or FERRYTOWN
of CREE ; a village in the pariih of
Kirkcudbright; is beautifully fituated
near the mouth of the i-iver Cree,
where it falls into Wigton bay. The
ground is not level and equal, but un-
even ; and the houfes are fet down
without plan, and without arrange-
ment, juft as the feuer was inclined.
It is fupported by a good coafting
trade, and a few veffels belong to the
place ; it has good anchorage a fmall
diftahce from the town, where veflels
of 500 tons are faid to lie in.fafety ;
it was lately erected into a burgh of
barony by the intereft of the pro-
prietor and fuperior, John M'Culloch,
Efq. of Earholm, whofe elegant feat
is in the neighbourhood ; it contains
upwards of 400 inhabitants.
CRICHTON ;' a village and parifh
in the county of Edinburgh. The
village is fituated 14 miles S. of the
metropolis, on the middle road to
London by Cornhill ; it is a thriving
place, and contains, with the adjoin-
ing village of Pathhead, 450 inha-
bitants. The parifh contains about
3900 acres ? of which two-thirds are
well adapted for tillage, and have a
rich deep foil, capable of producing
heavy crops ; the remainder is little
capable of improvement, it is over-
grown with mofs, on a wet foft fand,
or clay bottom : the pafture is fcanty
and bad, and furnifhes little fhelter
for fheep : the proprietors have lately
begun planting, and the trees feem to
thrive well on this heretofore barren
fpot. There is 3 limeftone quarry
wrought to a confiderable extent,
nearly 4000 bolls being annually fold.
Coal has been difcovered, but hither-
to no pits have been opened. At Long-
faugh is a circular camp or intrench-
ment, the <vallum of which is very dif-
tinct. The caftle of Crichton is a very
ancient and magnificent building. Pen-
nant fays, " it was once the habitation
of Chancellor Crichton, joint guardian
with the Earl of Callander to King
James II. a powerful and fpirited
itatefman in that turbulent age, and
the advifer of the bold, but bloody
deeds, againft the too potent Douglas.
"During the life of Crichton, this caftle
?,vas belieged, taken, and levelled to
the ground, by William Earl of Doug-
las; it was afterwards rebuilt, and
part of this new work is uncommonly
elegant." Population in 17 91, including
the village, about 910.
Crichup; a fmall rivulet in the
parifh of Clofeburn, in Dumfriesfnire,
remarkable for its particular courfe.
It takes its rife from a mofs, near the
N. E. extremity of the parifh, and,
not far from its fource, forms a beau-
tiful cafcade, by falling over a preci-
pice nearly 90 feet in height. Half a
mile below this, the water has, in the,
courfe of ages, hollowed out for itfelf
a ftrait paffage through a hill of red
freeftone, forming a very romantic linn.
This linn, from top to bottom, is a-
bout no feet, and, though 20 feet
deep, is fo clofe at top, that one might
eafily leap acrofs it, if his imagination
could be abftracted from the tre-
mendous abyfs below, and the noife
of the falling water, increafed by the
echoes from the furrounding rocks.
Six miles below, the Crichup joins its
waters to the Nith.
CRIECH ; a parifh of the county
of Fife, in length extending about 3,
and in breadth about 2. miles. The
furfacc is nearly level, and the foil
fandy and thin ; but agriculture is
making rapid ftrides to improvement*
Eimeftone is plenty, at the diftance of
10 miles. On a little eminence, near
the church, are the veftiges of a Nor-
man camp, with two lines of circum-
vallation : there is another of the fame
kind on a higher hill, W, of the former;
both are about a mile diftant from the
Tay. Not far from the church is a
caftle, which belonged to Cardinal
Beaton, where, it is faid, his eminence
kept a country feraglio ! It has been
ftrongly fortified, but no infeription
remains to enable us to afcertain the.
date of its erection. Number of in-
habitants in 1793, 306.
CRIECH ; an extenfive parifh in the
county of Sutherland; it extends from,
Dornoch on the E. coaft to Affint on
the W. coaft, at leaft 40 meafured
miles; the length of the inhabited part
of the diftrict is reckoned about 24
miles; the breadth is unequal, varying
from 2 to 10 miles. It lies on the N.
of the Frith or Kyle of Tain, and the
river Ockel. About one-thirtieth part
of the diftricT is cultivated, the reft
being hilly, and covered with muiry