The Statistical Account of Scotland (Volume 5); Drawn Up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: NUMBER VII. PARISH Of SXOONIE. (county Fife.) By tie Rev. Mr David Swan. Name, Situation, and Extent. NO fatisfaftory account can be given of the origin of the name. In old records, it is written Skuny. The old church was fituated upon a fmall eminence, like an artificial mound, ftill employed as a burying ground, with a deep hollow on all fides. Such as are acquainted with the Erfe language may, perhaps, be able to trace fome connection bc- tvreen the name and fituation. Like the names of many other places in this country, it is probably of Celtic origin. The pariQi is fituated in the county of Fife, and prefbytery of Kirkcaldy; from which place it is 9 ftatute miles diftant. It is about j miles long, from fouth to north; and nearly two miles in breadth. At the N. E. extremity, the three pa- rimes of Scoonie, Largo, and Ceres, and the three prefbyte- ries of Kirkcaldy, St Andrew's, and Cupar, meet in one point. The ground rifes by a gentle flope, all the way from the Forth, nearly to the north end of the pariih; and almoft every part of it commands an extenfivc and beautiful view of the Forth, Leith, Edinburgh, and the Lothians, from St Abb's head to the Queensferry: The greateft part of thethe parifh is inclofed with ditch and hedge: There are no hills, but ieveral fwells or rifings of the -round, wliich, with belts and clumps of planting, afford a finely variegated profpeft. So//, Climate.?There are not 10 acres of unarable ground in the whole diflricl, but the foil is of different kinds: The fouthern and lower part of the parifh, comprehending about two thirds of it, confifts partly of a dry fharp foil, yielding good crops of all forts of grain, and of excellent quality, except in very dry weather; and partly of a rich heavy loam, yielding large crop...