Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

LUC
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LUG
enough of grain is raised for local use ; and prime
attention is given to the rearing of sheep and of
black cattle. Considerable improvements have been
made in the working of the soil, and in the structure
and arrangement of farm-steads ; but not by any
means proportionate to those of most parts of Scot-
land. Plantation, though at once peculiarly suited
to the ground, and likely to be richly compensating,
and greatly needed for the shelter of the land and the
sweetening of the climate, is all but totally unknown.
The rocks are of the stratified transition class. Lead-
mines were in two instances worked nearly a century
ago, but were found to be unremunerating. The
principal landowner is the Earl of Stair. The illus-
trious Alexander Peden— the devout and steady Co-
venanter, whose character has been so grossly miscon-
ceived by the vulgar, in connection with the ' prophe-
cies ' palmed or fathered upon him after his death —
was minister of the parish during three years preced-
ing 1662, the notable period of the inglorious ejections
achieved by the ecclesiastical dictator Charles II. The
village of New Luce, with fewer than 200 inhabi-
tants, all labourers and artisans, stands at the con-
fluence of Cross- water and Main- water, 5 miles north
of Glenluce. A road runs along Main-water, and
two others go off eastward and north-eastward from
the village. Population, in 1801, 368; in 1831, 628.
Houses 114. Assessed property, in 1815, £2,776
New Luce is in the presbytery of Stranraer, and
synod of Galloway. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £12. The church is modern,
and abundantly spacious for the population. School-
master's salary £25 13s. 4(1., with £5 fees, and £1
13s. other emoluments. New Luce and Old Luce
anciently formed one parish, called Glenluce, and
were separated and made distinct erections in 1647.
For a short time succeeding 1661, under the rule of
episcopacy, they were reunited ; but, in 1689, at the
ubolition of episcopacy, they were permanently separ-
ated. The monks of Glenluce abbey were anciently
proprietors of the original extensive parish, and had
over it a regality jurisdiction. Within its limits were
two chapels, also claimed by the monks, — the one
was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and called Our
Lady's chapel ; and the other was dedicated to the
Saviour, and called Christ's chapel or Kirk-Christ.
A small bay or creek on the coast of Old Luce still
bears the name of Kirk-Christ bay, from the latter
of the chapels having stood in its vicinity. The
church of New Luce, for some time after its erection,
was popularly called the Moorkirk of Luce.
LUCE (Old), a parish in Wigtonshire ; bounded
on the north by New Luce ; on the north-east by
Kirkcowan ; on the east by Mochrum ; on the south
by Luce bay; and on the west by Stoneykirk and Inch.
Its greatest length, in a line due east from the point
where it is first touched by Pooltanton-water, is 10 1
miles ; and its breadth varies from 1 j to 7^. A lake,
a of a mile long, lies 2^ miles south-east of the village;
two smaller ones lie 3J miles to the east ; and a tiny
one lies f of a mile to the south. Copious springs
of pure wati : abound. The sea-board of the bay is
in some parts sand, in others gravel, and in others
clay; and it subsides into a fine sandy beach half-a-
mile broad, which is dry at low-water. In the small
estuary of the Luce and the Pooltanton, vessels of
not more than 60 or 70 tons are accommodated with
a harbour ; and in that estuary also, and the sea-
grounds in its vicinity, there is a considerable salmon
and sea-trout fishery. Cod, flounders, and shell-fish
are taken in the bay. Along the coast and up the
banks of the Luce are some level lands, richly culti-
vated, well-adorned with plantation, fully enclosed,
and of warm appearance. The surface everywhere
else is hilly and irregular, but nowhere mountainous,
or, in a strong sense, upland. The spirit of improve-
ment, which was long lulled to slumber by a smart
and compensating demand for black-cattle, but which
became roused by the provocative of low and dimin-
ishing prices, has of late years walked athwart the
once bleak and chiefly pastoral area, and effected
great and enlivening results. The arable grounds
are now, to those which are waste and pastoral, in the
proportion of 3 to 1. The prime object of interest in
the parish is Glenluce abbey ; but that and the village
have been noticed in the article Glenluce : which
see. The chief heritors are the Earl of Stair and
Sir James Dalrymple Hay, Bart. The house of
Balkail above Glenluce, Park an ancient castle on
the right bank of the Luce, and Genoch on the
Pooltanton, are fine mansions surrounded with wood.
Carscreuch, 2 miles north-east, of Glenluce, is an
ancient but ruined seat of the Earls of Stair. The
ruins of the castle of Synniness stand on the coast
south-east of the mouth of the Luce. Population,
in 1801, 1,221 ; in 1831, 2,180. Houses 371. As-
sessed property, in 1815, £l2,112. — Old Luce is in
the presbytery of Stranraer, and synod of Galloway.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £158 6s. 8(1. ; glebe
£30. The parish-school was attended, in 1834, by
100 scholars; and five private schools by 130. Parish
schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 3d., with between
£30 and £40 fees, and about £4 or £5 other
emoluments. A United Secession meeting-house is
situated in Glenluce. The ancient ecclesiastical
condition of the parish is noticed in the preceding
article.
LUCE. See Hoddam.
LUCKLA W-HILL. See Logie, Fifeshire.
LUDE, an ancient parish in Perthshire, now com-
prehended in Blair- Athole : which see.
LUFFNESS, a small bay on the south coast ot
the frith of Forth, between the parish of Aberlady
and that of Dirleton, Haddingtonshire. The bay
now bears the name of Aberlady, but figures in his-
tory, under that of Luffness, as the port of Hadding-
ton. That ancient burgh having been for ages a sort
of commercial metropolis, where the court of "the
four burghs" assembled, under the chamberlain, to
decide on the disputes of traffic, conceived the no-
tion of becoming a sea-port, though upwards of 5
miles from any harbour, and obtained from James
VI. a charter vesting it with full powers over the
bay of Luffness. But the town was baffled nearly
as much in its marine commerce, as afterwards in its
repeated efforts at manufacture ; and at the epoch of
the Revolution it had connected with its port just
one vessel, of 80 tons burden, and £250 estimated
value. In 1739, the estate of Luffness was bought
by the Earl of Hopetoun for £8,350. See Aber-
lady.
LUGAR (The), a brief but beautiful rivulet of
the district of Kyle, Ayrshire. Its principal head-
streams, Glenmore and Bella waters, rise in the east
of the parishes of Old Cumnock and Auchinleck,
and run each about 5J or 6 miles, not far distant
from each other, to a junction \ of a mile above
Logan-house. The united stream runs 8 miles west-
ward between Auchinleck on the north, and Old
Cumnock on the south, to a confluence with the Ayr
near Barskimming. In its progress it passes the
villages of Cumnock and Ochiltree, and the superb
mansions of Dumfries and Auchinleck. Its banks
are sometimes deep ravines, wooded to the top, —
sometimes high perpendicular walls of rock, or naked,
overhanging and menacing crags, — sometimes gentle
slopes, or undulating declivities waving with trees,
and sometimes a series of little green peninsulas,
curvingly cut asunder by the sinuosities of its chan-
nel. A round hillock, called the Moat, nearly isleted.