Logie

   1) LOGIE, a parish, in the district of Cupar, county of Fife; containing, with the village of Lucklawhill-Feus, 419 inhabitants, of whom forty-six are in the village of Logie, 4 miles (N. N. E.) from Cupar. This parish derives its name from the situation of its church in a hollow surrounded by hills, of which that term in the Gaelic language is descriptive. It is about four miles in length and little more than one mile in breadth, and comprises 3343 acres, of which 2700 are arable, 300 meadow and pasture, and about an equal number woodland and plantations. The surface rises into irregular hills, of which the highest, called Lucklaw hill, has an elevation of about 600 feet above the level of the sea; the general appearance is greatly diversified, and the scenery enriched by plantations of comparatively modern growth. The soil is various; in some parts, little better than moorland; and in others, especially on the sides of the hills, a rich loam which, under proper management, produces abundant crops. The system of agriculture is in a very improved state, and the rotation plan of husbandry prevalent; the crops are, oats, barley, wheat, potatoes, peas, beans, and turnips. The cattle reared on the several farms are of the Fifeshire breed, with a cross of the Teeswater occasionally; and the sheep, though few are reared, are of the Cheviot and Leicestershire breeds. The plantations are larch and Scotch fir, with some mixtures of hard-wood. The farm-buildings, though commodious, are inferior to some others in the county; but those of modern erection are upon an improved plan; and considerable progress has been made in inclosing the lands. The substratum is chiefly whinstone, of which, also, the hills consist; and in some parts of the parish porphyry is found, of a reddish colour, principally among the hills. The rateable annual value of the parish is £4013. The ecclesiastical affairs are under the superintendence of the presbytery of Cupar and synod of Fife; patron, the Crown. The minister's stipend is £170, with a manse, and a glebe valued at £12 per annum. The church, built in 1826, and situated nearly in the centre of the parish, is a neat and substantial edifice adapted for a congregation of about 300 persons. The members of the Free Church have a place of worship. The parochial school affords liberal instruction; the master has a salary of £34, with £9 fees, a house and garden, and fifty merks Scotch per annum, the proceeds of a sum bequeathed for that purpose by an ancient heritor. There is also a Sabbath school for the young, regularly taught under the immediate superintendence of the clergyman. Here are remains of an ancient square tower, apparently erected as a fortified residence; but nothing either of its founder, or its date, is recorded. John West, author of a Treatise on Mathematics, and of several valuable papers on that subject, was the son of one of the incumbents of this parish: he died a few years ago, an episcopal clergyman in the island of Jamaica.

   2) LOGIE, a village, in the parish of Logie-Pert, county of Forfar, 4 miles (N. by W.) from Montrose; containing 332 inhabitants. This place is situated in the extreme east of the parish, on the south side of the North Esk, and but a short distance from that river. It is the seat of a large manufacturing establishment, comprising a flax spinning-mill and bleachfield, the property of a company at Montrose; and about a mile distant from these works, at Craigo, are others of a precisely similar description. Both employ nearly the whole of the population in their respective vicinities. The old church of Logie stands close by the village, where are also a school, and a good library containing suitable volumes for the working-classes.

   3) LOGIE, a parish, in the counties of Clackmannan, Perth, and Stirling, 2 miles (N. E. by N.) from Stirling; containing, with the villages of Craigmill, Menstrie, Blairlogie, Bridge of Allan, and Causeyhead, about 2200 inhabitants. Logie derives its name from the Gaelic word lag or laggie, denoting "low or flat ground," the lands consisting principally of an extensive tract of perfectly level country. The parish is situated on the northern bank of the Forth, which separates it from the parishes of Stirling and St. Ninian's; and has a very irregular outline in this direction, on account of the many bends of the river. The extreme length from north to south is about six and a half or seven miles, and its greatest breadth six miles, comprising 10,000 Scottish acres, of which 4000 are arable, and 1000 under wood. The Devon bounds the parish on the east, and, after a beautifully-winding course of about thirty miles through a great variety of romantic scenery, falls into the Forth at Cambus, in the parish of Alloa, nearly due south of the spot where it rises, only a few miles off, on the north side of the Ochil hills. This range, stretching along the northern boundary of the parish, ascends abruptly from the plain to the height of 2500 feet, and from Demyat peak commands extensive and richly-diversified prospects. These embrace the Forth almost from its source in Loch Ard to the German Ocean, as well as the city of Edinburgh, with views of the adjacent lands, the romantic stream of the Devon, the ruins of Cambuskenneth Abbey, and the castle of Airthrey shrouded in sylvan beauty: on the north and west, the bold outline of the Grampians bounds the view, and forms a striking contrast to the wide-spread tracts below. From the foot of the Ochils, which have but little wood, though well clothed with pasture, the land is a rich, well-cultivated, and fertile plain entirely to the southern boundary of the parish; and besides many mountain streams and excellent springs, the lands are watered by the Allan, which, as well as the Devon and all the burns, contains a good supply of fine trout.

   The soil of the carse land, which comprehends three-fourths of the arable portion of the parish, is a deep, rich, alluvial earth, occasionally mixed with gravel, but mostly formed solely of a strong tenacious clay, varying in depth from three to six feet, and incumbent on a dark blue silt with sand, plentifully interspersed with the shells of oysters, muscles, cockles, and many other fish. On the Ochils the soil consists principally of loam, gravel, and sand, and rocky deposits, among which are sometimes found large boulders. All kinds of grain and of green crops are raised; and the husbandry is excellent, and nearly the same on the dry-field portion as on the carse land, except that wheat is not sown upon the former. The pasture on the hills comprises about 5000 acres, and is grazed by upwards of 4000 sheep, chiefly the black-faced and Cheviots; the latter have been recently introduced, and the wool of the former has been greatly improved by a cross with the Leicester breed. Much attention is shown to the live stock; and the cows, which are the Ayrshire, are, as well as the horses, of good quality. The strata vary considerably according to the nature of the ground; the Ochil hills consist of trap-rock, comprising a large proportion of amygdaloid, with agates, calc-spar, and many other minerals peculiar to the trap formation. Ironstone also exists; and copper-ore has been wrought at the vein of the Mine-house, but it is now exhausted. The substratum immediately south of the Ochils is a continuation of the Clackmannanshire coalfield; but no works have been formed, as it is concluded that in this part the seams are too thin to be profitable. Logie derives much celebrity from its mineral spring, situated on the estate of Airthrey, near the village of Bridge of Allan, to which place large numbers of visiters resort every season for the benefit of the waters. The rateable annual value of the Clackmannanshire part of the parish is £6445, of the Perthshire part £3100, and the Stirlingshire £5292.

   The wood in the parish consists chiefly of plantations of ash, elm, plane, beech, larch, oak, and fir, in the vicinity of Airthrey Castle, which stands on the brow of the Ochil hills, and is the seat of Lord Abercromby, grandson of the late Sir Ralph Abercromby. A saw-mill has been built on the spot, for the purpose of preparing the wood for transit to various parts of the country, where it is used for palings, in farm houses and offices, and for many other purposes. The castle is surrounded by a small but beautiful park, ornamented by an artificial lake, and is the only mansion of note, with the exception of Powis House, a neat and commodious modern structure. Independently of several small hamlets, the parish contains the villages of Menstrie, Blairlogie, Craigmill, Causeyhead, and Bridge of Allan. Craigmill is situated at the southern base of the Abbey-Craig, a remarkable rock of greenstone 500 feet high, in which there is an extensive quarry, affording a material employed for several purposes, but especially adapted, on account of its firm texture, and rough surface when broken, for grinding wheat. Upwards of three hundred pairs of millstones have been made for preparing flour, and for the use of distilleries, at a cost of from £12 to £20 per pair; but they are not at present in much demand, those made in France, and imported hither, being now sold for a low sum. The French millstones were originally the only ones employed, and, at the period of the war, rose so much in price as to induce the London Society for the Encouragement of Arts to offer 100 guineas for the discovery of any stone in Great Britain from which millstones could be manufactured, capable of being substituted for those from France. In consequence of this, Mr. James Brownhill, of the Alloa mills, presented specimens made from this rock; they were approved, and he received the premium. Afterwards, the stones from France long commanding from £45 to £60 per pair, the native stones continued in use till the peace, when the great reduction in the price of the former rendered those here prepared scarcely worth the cost of the labour. There is another village, called Abbey, situated where the celebrated abbey of Cambuskenneth once flourished; but this, with the barony of the same name, in which it stands, has been considered from time immemorial as belonging to the parish of Stirling. Law proceedings, however, were lately taken on the part of the parish of Logie, which claimed possession, in order to recover it. The commissary of Stirling and the commissary of Dunblane each exercise jurisdiction over it as belonging to their respective provinces.

   The turnpike-roads to Crieff, Alloa, Dollar, and Stirling all meet in this parish, at the village of Causeyhead; but the first has long been in very bad condition, and is burthened with toll-gates. The Forth also affords facility for internal communication, and is crossed by an elegant bridge lately constructed, in place of the old one, at Stirling, to which place the river is navigable for vessels of considerable size. The mail-coach from Perth to Glasgow, besides several other conveyances to different places, passes through the parish; and there are regular steam-boats between Stirling and Edinburgh. Logie is ecclesiastically in the presbytery of Dunblane and synod of Perth and Stirling, and in the patronage of the Earl of Dunmore: the minister's stipend is £263, with a manse, and a glebe valued at £24 per annum. The church, built in 1805, is a neat edifice containing sittings for 644 persons, and is beautifully situated at the foot of the Ochil mountains. The members of the Free Church have a place of worship. The parochial school affords instruction in Greek and Latin, and all the ordinary branches of education; the master has a salary of £30, with £33 fees, and about eighty children receive instruction. The school-house is very conveniently situated. On the Abbey-Craig hill, the Scottish army under Wallace was posted the night before the celebrated engagement of Stirling, Sept. 13th, 1297: upon the summit were formerly the remains of a fort said to have been erected by Oliver Cromwell when he besieged the castle of Stirling. Large stones, so common throughout the country, set up to commemorate battles, are seen in some parts; and spear-heads, with other military relics, have been found, some of which, from the skill displayed in the construction, are supposed to be of Roman origin. The entire skeleton of a whale, between sixty and seventy feet long, was discovered in 1819 in the alluvial subsoil, and is now in the museum of Edinburgh University. The first earl of Stirling, born in 1580, an elegant scholar and poet, and a great favourite of James VI., was the sixth baron of Menstrie, in this parish; and General Sir Ralph Abercromby, the hero of Aboukir, was born at the family mansion, Menstrie, in 1734.

   See Cambuskenneth, Allan, Bridge Of, &c.

   4) LOGIE, or South Parish, Forfar.

   See Kirriemuir.