Gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

648
K I N G H O R N.
wood. A farm in the neighbourhood of the
scene of the accident is called Woodfield-
park. At one period there was a regular
royal residence on the high ground overlooking
the town, and we observe that, previous to the
death of Alexander III., it was frequently
occupied by the kings or their relatives. When
Alexander II. married the Princess Joan of
England in 1221, she was secured in a join-
ture rent of L.1000 upon the royal lands of
Jedburgh, Lassudden, Kinghorn, and Crail.
The royal house and demesne were afterwards
gifted by Robert II. to Sir John Lyon, who
had married the king's third daughter Jane by
Elizabeth Mure ; hence, the family of Lyon,
which first was advanced to the dignity of
the baronage under the title of Lord Glammis,
and was in 1606 elevated to a superior rank
under the title of Earl of Kinghorn. This
title was changed by the consent of Charles II.
to that at present borne by the family ( Earl of
Strathmore) in consequence, we have heard,
of the dislike which Patrick, the third earl of
Kinghorn, conceived against it. It is said by
tradition that the title Kinghorn became ab-
breviated into the mean and disagreeable epi-
thet of " Hornie," and that as the earl was
walking along the streets of Edinburgh, the very
boys would cry that word after him in ridicule.
Hence, as the place was at the best a rather
homely seat for an earldom, his lordship made
interest to obtain the more noble and sono-
rous title of Strathmore.
Kinghorn, an ancient town and royal burgh,
the capital of the above parish, occupying an
agreeable situation on the face of a sloping
ground to the Firth of Forth, directly opposite
Leith, at the distance of three miles south from
Kirkaldy. Kinghorn is understood to be one of
the oldest towns in Fife, and derives its name —
not from any circumstance connected with a king,
—but from the adjoining promontory of land,
styled in Gaelic cean gorn or gorm, signifying
the blue head. Such an etymology is found to
be countenanced by the popular title kln-gorn,
the name in use by the common people being
here, as is often the case elsewhere, the more
correct. The town had risen to some conse-
quence in the reign of David I., in the twelfth
century, when it was created a royal burgh,
having all its privileges confirmed by Alexan-
der III. Till within the last forty years we
find Kinghorn to have been one of the most
irregularly and meanly constructed towns in I
the district, the greater part of the houses be-
ing of two storeys, with outside stairs to the
street, which was generally in a very dirty
state. Several of these houses still remain,
but in the present day the town has undergone
a variety of beneficial improvements, and now
possesses many modern substantial edifices.
Formerly the court-house and jail were in an
old building in the centre of the town, called
St. Lawrence's Tower ; but there is now an ele-
gant new edifice for these purposes. Besides this,
the only other public erection worthy of special
notice, is a handsome new school-house, en-
closed within an extensive play-ground at the
west end of the town. The plan for this erec-
tion, which possesses a small spire, was fur-
nished by Mr. Hamilton, and displays his usual
taste for elegance combined with utility. It
contains an infant school-room, a female school-
room, a common school-room, and a library and
museum. Towards this building the town's
people subscribed L.200, the burgal corpora-
tion gave the ground and L. 150, and the heritors
of the parish also contributed L.150. The
system of education pursued is that which Pro-
fessor Pillans has laid down in his well-known
work on that subject. By referring to the ar-
ticle KntKALDY it will be seen that the town
of Kinghorn is entitled to a portion of the mu-
nificent endowment for education by the late
Robert Philp, Esq. of that place, and in vir-
tue of this grant a certain number of children
aTe gratuitously taught the elementary branches.
Kinghorn possesses a small and not very good
harbour, and though nominally enjoying the
importance of being the seat of the ferry across
the Firth of Forth to Leith and Newhaven,
all boats engaged in this thoroughfare land at
Pettycur, a small village or hamlet, with a
more accessible port, lying about half a mile
to the west. The trade of Kinghorn, it is sa-
tisfactory to remark, has not lagged behind in
the general career of improvement and pros-
perity, observable in most of the Fife towns.
Like the rest, its chief trade is that connected
with the spinning and preparation of lint for
the linen fabrics for which the county is now
so deservedly reputed. The town now pos-
sesses two large spinning establishments, mov-
ed by steam power, which employ a good num-
ber of persons ; weaving by the hand is the .
other chief trade in Kinghorn. Though la-
bouring under the disadvantage of a poor har-
bour, in which hardly any shipping is ever