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

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FES
suburb of Montrose. It formerly was the ferry-post
which connected that burgh and the great northern
road with the south of Scotland; and suffered con-
siderable temporary declension when the ferry was
superseded by the line of spacious bridges higher up
the river. The village is now important, partly for
supplying hands to the wbale-ships and other craft
of Montrose, but chiefly for its very extensive and
productive fishery. Six-sevenths of a population of
about 700 are wholly employed in fishing, and have
about 20 boats, each carrying 6 men, besides a num-
ber of smaller boats. Women and children, as well
as men, work hard to raise the productiveness and
the opulence of the place ; the females gathering bait
in the lagune of Montrose, carrying fish to the
market of the burgh, and in general possessing that
hardiness of character for which their class are so
remarkable in the fishing-villages of Newhaven and
Fisherrow on the Forth. Fish-cadgers from the
adjacent districts, and from Brechin, Forfar, Cupar-
Angus, Dundee, and Perth, resort at all seasons of
the year to Ferryden for loads of fresh fish. The
fishery is richly abundant, and sometimes supplies
most of the boats of the village, after 10 or 12 hours'
labour, with freights nearly as heavy as they can
carry, and simultaneously, or in the same day, brought
into the port. Haddocks are very plentiful and good
ten months in the year; and salmon is caught in
large quantities, and sent, amidst layers of pounded
ice, to the markets of Edinburgh and London. So
important is the traffic in fresh salmon from Ferry-
den and other places at the mouth of the South Esk
to the capitals of Britain, that in an open winter,
when ice of sufficient quantity for packing cannot be
obtained at home, the somewhat extraordinary im-
port is sent for to the Baltic. Though Ferryden is
situated within a mile of the parish-church, a house
is fitted up for its special use as a Sabbath evening
and week-day chapel. The inhabitants are a mus-
cular, weather-beaten race, exceedingly different in
appearance and manners from the population of the
burgh on the opposite shore.
FERRY-PORT-ON-CRAIG,* a parish in Fife-
shire, disjoined in 1606 from that of Leuchars. It
occupies the north-east portion of the county; and
is bounded on the south by the parishes of Forgan
and Leuchars; on the east by the German ocean;
on the north by the estuary of the Tay ; and on the
west by the parish of Forgan. It. is 4 miles in length
from east to west; and varies from 1J to £ mile in
breadth from north to south. Its superficial extent
is about 2,026 Scots acres. The population, in 1755,
was 621 ; in 1801, 920 ; in 1831, 1.6S0. There is a
large village at the ferry, in which the greater oor-
tion of the inhabitants reside : its population, in
1831, being 1,538, while the country part of the
parish contained only 142. There is still a ferry
here to the opposite coast of Forfarshire, but from
the great improvements which have taken place in
the ferry of Newport, it is much less frequented
than it formerly was ; but it is proposed that the great
Fifeshire railway, eommencingut Kinghorn, shall ter-
minate at or near this ferry. Two piers have been
erected, one of which is used by the passage-boats,
and the other by vessels which here discbarge and load.
A. fair is held in the village annually, which was at
one time well-attended as a market, but now only
by a few itinerant hucksters. The nearest market-
towns in the county are Cupar and St. Andrews;
but the chief intercourse is with Dundee, to which
there is easy access either by the steam-boat at
* The name is obviously derived from that of the village,
which received its imme from its situation, there having been
from a very early period a ferry here to Broughty castle in
Forfarshire, the port or harbour of which was at one time at a
point of the craigs ot rocks which bound the Bhore.
Newport, or by a packet which leaves the ferry for
that place in the morning, returning in the evening
of every lawful day. West of the village there are
two lighthouses on the shore, which, with those on
the coast of Forfarshire, serve as guides to vessels
entering the Tay during the night In the western
and south-western part of the parish, the soil is a
black loam, on a bottom of whinstone rock, and pro-
duces excellent crops of all kinds. Towards the
east it is flat and sandy, with light loam in some
places on a bottom of sand, which yields good crops
of oats and barley. At the east extremity of the
parish, there is a considerable extent of links, which
afford pasturage for sheep and cattle, and are besides
stocked with rabbits. There are altogether about
1,350 acres in regular cultivation. The annual value
of real property assessed, in 1815, was £3,386.
The real rent is about £2,500. The valued rent is
£2,183 Scotch. There is one mill for spinning linen
yarn also moved by water ; and a number of the in-
habitants of the village are employed in the weaving
of linen, chiefly for the manufacturers of Dundee.
There is an extensive salmon-fishery extending along
the whole shore of the parish, which is let for £900
sterling per annum. The net and coble are now
alone used ; but formerly, when stake-nets were
used, the rent was sometimes as high as £2,000 per
annum The mansion-house and enclosures of Seots-
craig, long the residence of the proprietor of that
estate, which seems to have included all the lands in
the parish, is situated near the west end of the par-
ish. These lands at an early period belonged to the
bishops of St. Andrews, by one of whom it was
feued during the reign of Alexander II to Sir Mi-
chael Scott of Balwearie, the father of the famed
Sir Michael Scott, with whose descendants the lands
for some time continued. It was in consequence of
this that they came to be denominated Scotscraig.
From the family of Scott, Scotscraig came by pur-
chase to Dury of that ilk, from whom it passed to
the Ramsays, ancestors of the Earls of Dalhousie.
It afterwards became the property of a family of the
name of Buchanan, from whom it came to a family
named Erskine. During the . reign of Charles II.
the whole estate became the property of Archbishop
Sharp, from whose successors it was purchased by
Mr. Alexander Colville, the representative of the
Lords Colville of Culross. From this family the
lands were afterwards purchased by the Rev. Robert
Dagleish, D. D., who was minister and proprietor
of the whole parish. The present proprietor is
David Dougal, Esq., uncle of the ?ste Miss Dougal,
whose father purchased the esta^ from the repre-
sentatives of the Rev. Mr. Dagleish This parish
is in the presbvtery of St. Andrews, and svnod of
Fife. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £159 13s. Id. ;
glebe £35. The parish-church was erected in 1825,
and accommodates from 800 to 900. It is situated
in the village There is also a chapel connected
with the United Associate synod in the village
Schoolmaster's salary £30, with about £20 fees.
The teacher, besides his fees, has a house, garden,
and school-house; and an allowance for teaching 5
poor scholars, from a sum of money invested by the
late William Dagleish, Esq. of Scotscraig, for that
purpose. There is another school in the parish,
which is solely supported by the school- fees; and
one taught by a female chiefly attended by very
young or female children. All the schools are well-
attended. A subscription-library was commenced
in 1829, which contains a good collection of books
in various branches of literature.
FERRYTOWN-OF-CREE. See Creetown.
FESHIE (The), a river in the district of Bade-
noch, Inverness-shire, which has its rise near Cairn-