Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

106
BANFFSHIRE.
and in some parts of the interior the crop lay uncut
during the whole winter. It is, however, a curious
fact, that in 1782 the parish of Rathven, in the
Enzie, had the good fortune to escape the general
calamity: scarcely had they ever a better crop, or
more grain to spare.
The whole of Banffshire, except the tract along
the sea-shore, may be described as a hilly mountain-
ous country, interspersed with fertile valleys well
adapted to the cultivation of corn and grass. The
hills, either covered with heath or moss, afford little
pasture; while, from their bleak and barren aspect,
they have a very gloomy and unpleasant appearance.
The arable land — which bears but a small proportion
to the waste — lies on the sides and towards the bot-
toms of the higher hills, or on the sides of those
valleys through which the waters have their courses.
In several of these valleys, where cultivation has
hitherto been found impracticable, there isabundaine
of tine healthy pasture, on which young cattle are
raised to great advantage, the grounds being in gen-
eral well-sheltered with natural woods. Taking a
general view of the whole district, the arable soil
may be described as of three qualities. That of the
plains on the banks of the waters, where it has not
been mixed with the sand by the washings of the
streams, is a stiff deep clay ; on the sides of the
valleys it is a deep black loam on a bed of rock,
generally limestone; on the sides of the hills, and in
the higher parts of the country, where cultivation
has taken place, the soil is either of the same quality
as that last described, or a mixture of moss am!
gravel on a red t illy bottom, and — as may be sup-
posed — very retentive of water. Along the whole
coast, consisting of the parishes of Gamrie, Banff,
Boyndie, Fordyce, Cullen, Rathven, and Bellie,
the soil consists for the greater part of sand and
loam, the latter by far the more predominant; and
in general lies upon a freer bottom. The aggre-
gate rental of the county, presuming that the aver-
age rent of the arable acre did not, on the whole,
exceed £1, limited the number of arable acres, in
1811, to 80,000: thus leaving an amount of unculti-
vated surface equal to 236,000 acres. The quantity
of arable land now, however, greatly exceeds that in
1811. It is probable that at least 120,000 acres are
now under cultivation, and that not above 80,000 are
incapable of cultivation.*
In a general view the county of Banff may be de-
nominated a land of limestone, which, although it is
not found in one continuous bed, over any extensive
• tract in the county, yet may be easily traced in almost
every quarter of it. This fossil is extended through
the district of Strathspey, where the counties of In-
verness and Moray meet with Banff; and being also
found in Badenoch, farther up the course of the
Spey, may perhaps extend onwards even to the
western shore. It may be also traced southwards
through the higher district of the county of Aber-
deen, in the adjoining parishes of Cabrach, Glen-
bucket, Auchindoir, and Tullynessle. At Portsoy
it passes into marble, or serpentine, which composes
almost entirely the hill of Durn. Marble is also
found in the parishes of Keith and Mortlach. When
first quarried at Portsoy it was exported to France,
where- for some time, it became fashionable ; but
the market being overstocked, a ship-load of it long
lay neglected on the banks of the Seine. It is still
wrought into monuments, chimney-pieces, and toys.
In the Enzie district the calcareous matter, probably
* By another, but evidently most erroneous admeasurement,
Banffshire is represented as '* containing 900 square miles, or
45B, 100 acres; of which the arable land in cultivation may be
Hbnitt 69,900; ditto in ley and summer fallow, 35,000; pasiuro,
40,000; plantations and natural woods, 15,000; hill, muir, and
Uiuss 298,2(10."— Webtter'3 Gazetteer.
from a tinge of iron-ore, is in the form of stone marl,
of a dark red colour. In the upper extremity of the
county, in the parishes of Kirkmichael and Inver-
aven, there are extensive beds of pure white marl.
In Kirkmichael it appears in a white cliff, 40 or 50
feet high, on the bank of the Aven. Except the
red stone of the Enzie already mentioned, there is
no free-stone in this county; but it is in general well
furnished with stone for building. Slate is found
near Letterfourie, in the parish of Rathven ; near
the Boat-of-Bridge, in the parish of Bohann ; and
in several other places. Flints have been found
along the shore of Boyndie bay. " Some years ago,"
says Professor Jamieson, " while examining the
geognosy of the vicinity of Peterhead, our attention
was directed to the chalk-flints found in that neigh-
bourhood, by previous information. We traced them
extending over several miles of country, and fre-
quently imbedded in a reddish clay, resting on the
granite of the district. These flints contain sponges,
alcyonia, echini, and other fossils of the chalk-flint,
thus proving them to belong to the chalk formation,
which itself will probably be found in some of the
hollows in this part of Scotland." In the course of
the Fiddich a laminated marble is found which may
be formed into whetstones and hones. Scotch to-
pazes, or what are commonly called Cairngorm
stones, are found in the mountains in the south-
western extremity of Banffshire, bordering with
those in Aberdeen and Inverness-shires; and also
on several other adjoining mountains, in the forest
of Mar. The stones are found near the top of these
mountains.*
It does not appear, that previous to the year
1748, any material improvements in agriculture were
introduced into this district. In those days the
mode of management was the same here as was
then universally practised over all the north of
Scotland. The arable lands on every farm were
divided into what was called outfield and infield. To
the infield — which consisted of that part of the farm
nearest to the farm-houses — the whole manure was
regularly applied. The only crops cultivated on the
infield land were oats, beer, and pease ; the lands
were kept under tillage as long as they would pro-
duce two or three returns of the seed sown; and
when a field became so reduced and so full of weeds
as not to yield this return, it was allowed to lie in
natural pasture for a few years, after which, it was
again brought under cultivation, and treated in the
manner before-mentioned. The outfield lauds were
wasted by a succession of oats after oats as long as
the crops would pay for seed and labour ; they were
* " Till within these few years, they were considered of so
trifling value as to be little sought after, the digging for them
now affords employment for a considerable number of people,
whose families, during the summer-months, reside day and
night in these mountains ; and as all the stones of any value
that were to he found above ground, or near the surface, are
long since picked up, they now dig to the depth of from one to
four feet. In many places several acres are ransacked in quest
of them. In some places they are found growing out or the
rocks, where the access is so difficult that the searchers can
only come at them suspended in ropes from the top of the
mountains. Sometimes they dig for several days without find-
ing any ; but at other times hud an ample recompense lor that
loss of labour, by rinding them to the value of from £^0 to £50,
nay, sometimes to the value of £'^00 in one day. Last summer
it was computed that not less than £2,000 worth had been found
in these mountains. Some go as far as Edinburgh, and even
London, to sell them ; and lapidaries from these cities come to
the country in summer for the purpose of purchasing, some of
whom hire labourers to dig for them at the rate of from o*. to
10s. per day. The stones are all hexagonal. One end is like a
diamond ; the other end is, or has been, fastened to the granite
rock, from which Ihey seem to have been disjoined by some
convulsion in Nature ; as some of them are found broken, the
one half several yards distant from the other, and, wiu.t is
more remarkable, three or four feet deeper in the rock, and
corresponding bo exactly that no doubt can be entertained of
their having been united at some former periodi'.'— Agricul-
tural Iteiiort of 1812.