|
The village of Lossiemouth
is the harbour of the town of Elgin. A Process carried on by Bishop Bar,
respecting the right of this port, was incidentally mentioned at pages
337, 338, vol. I. It appears to have been begun by his lordship's
arresting a ship, the property of two of the burgesses. The narrative in
the 92nd fol. of the Chart Mor. sets forth,
"That on Sunday the 7th
of June, while the Lord Bishop was passing from his castle at Kineadur
towards the Church of Urquhart, through his water of Lossie, at the ford
called Krannokissi, he found a certain barque, namely "Farcost," lying
in his said water, near the sea; to which coming, he asked at the only
person who was found on board what the ship was called, to whom it
appertained, and by whose permission it had entered that water,
whoreplied, The barque "Farcost" was John de Lany's, and had entered
there by the burgesses of Elgin; to whom the Bishop said, that neither
the burgesses, nor any other,, could grant such authority or permission,
for that water and the whole channel was the property of the Church of
Moray, and appertained to him, and to no other person, and on that
account desired that a pledge might be given him in name of arresting
the said barque. That a little axe was handed to the Lord Bishop, which,
as only a pledge, the seaman requested, in name of his master, might be
returned, which the Bishop granted on the condition of its being
restored upon demand.
"Likewise on the same
day, in the year 1383, in the month above-mentioned, the same Bishop,
returning by the same road, found at the said barque certain burgesses
of Elgin, namely Philip Byset and Henry Porter, taking out of the ship
some barrels of ale, and some sacks of tallow, and some of meal of
wheat, together with horses and sledges standing upon his ground of
Kineadur, which, together with the ship, he by his own proper authority
arrested, as unwarrantably encroaching upon his Church lands, and gave
up the same in pledge, at the instance of the said Philip requesting it,
in the name of the community of his burgh, to be remitted to the said
Bishop at his Cathedral, upon eight days' requisition, there to receive
the issue and termination which the laws have been in use to grant."
It must be presumed, that
the Bishop prevailed in establishing his claim, which accordingly became
a pertinent of the estate of Kineadur, and was only purchased by the
magistracy of Elgin in the year 1698. In the Conveyance it is described
as a piece of waste, barren, unmanured ground, and was nearly 80 acres
of naked gravel and sand, with an allowance on the quarries of the
Goulard, for the restricted purpose of building and upholding the pier,
and for the accommodations requisite for the town of Lossiemouth; for
which the community became bound to pay yearly £2 1s. 7d., subjecting
the inhabitants of Lossiemouth to be poinded for any arrears that may be
incurred; and to the courts of the superior, which he may hold either
in the town or at the Burn of Kineadur, for any riot happening either
among themselves or with the superior's tenants of the barony ; and to
send a burgess of Elgin yearly to the head court, upon the first
Thursday after Michaelmas, to answer in their name; and to allow the
accommodation of the harbour to all ships and fishing boats appertaining
to the superior, or freighted by any merchant upon his account, or
employed by him for exportation or importation, without payment of any
dues to the community. Besides irregular streets fronting towards the
sea, the town is laid out into four principal streets at right angles to
the shore, each 42 feet wide, and commodious lanes cutting across the
streets, equal to half their breadth, with a handsome square and cross
in the midst. There are 175 feus marked off on the plan, each 120 by 180
feet, granted for the duty of 5s. each; but many remain to be taken, and
many that have been granted are not yet built; but a number also of
handsome houses of two and three stories, containing more than 200
inhabitants, have been erected. The harbour is sufficiently commodious
for vessels about 80 tons burden. The community say that, prior to the
year 1780, 1200 sterling had been expended in the formation of the quay;
since that time a pier opposite on the other side the river, for
clearing out the sand off the bar, has been erected at the expense of
2000 sterling, from the funds of the town, aided by private subscription
and a donation of 200 sterling from the Convention of Burghs. The land
end of this new pier was left unfinished, and unable to withstand the
violence of winter storms. So much unheeded ruination has befallen it
that 200 sterling at present would be insufficient to prevent its
accelerating subversion. There is only one sloop and two fishing boats
belonging to Lossiemouth; but during one year 49 vessels from 55 to 60
tons arrived, of which loaded with English coals were 20; Scots coals,
6; London goods, 10; Leith goods, 4; tanner's bark, 3; native salt, 2;
bottles, slates, iron, lime, each one, 4; total, 49.
The exports were 20
cargoes barley and oats, each at an average about 400 bolls, and an
inconsiderable quantity of peltry. There are two other creeks in the
parish, Stotfield and Covesea, which admit boats. On the estate of
Kineadur are 3 fishing boats, each yielding a yearly rent of 5 sterling;
but every seventh year the landlord is obliged to furnish a new boat,
which, rigged complete, costs about 20 sterling. The fish commonly
caught are cod, scate, hollibut, haddocks, whitings, saiths, and crabs,
but none in greater quantity than serves the consumption of the country.
Of late, however, a lobster fishery has been undertaken in the bay of
Stotfield by an English Company for the London market, to which they are
transported alive, in wells formed in the bottom of the ships, which
communicate directly with the sea water. 60,000 were in this manner
conveyed the first summer, without any other precaution except tying
their claws to their sides. They are caught by bait in small iron traps,
though a simple invention, yet never used before on this coast.
In the Goulard Hill there
are appearances of lead; many detached masses of ore are to be seen in
the northern side of the hill, where the rock is limestone. Some
adventurers, however, from England, several years ago, after expending
about 500, could discover no vein worth working. But the greater part of
the Goulard, with almost the whole of the ridge along the Covesea shore,
consists of one uninterrupted mass of freestone, lying in horizontal
strata, differing in thickness and in hardness; one kind being white, of
a smooth, compact, and firm substance, yet readily yielding to the
hammer or the chisel; the other kind more brown or yellow, softer and
more friable. There are about 20 masons and nearly 40 labourers
constantly employed in quarrying and cutting .stone to supply the demand
from this and the neighbouring countries. The western part of this
ridge, upon the Covesea coast, forms a very bold shore. The penetrating
power of the surge in winter storms, with the reiterated play of the
ocean, and the various whirl of the rebounding wave upon the projecting
cliffs of the freestone rock, have formed several detached pyramids,
towers, and arches, of various height and form, in some places
resembling the broken, shapeless windows in a Gothic ruin, having the
sea boiling round their bases at each flow of the tide. Under this hill
also there is a number of caverns of whose formation it is difficult to
conjecture the origin, without supposing the sea at some period to have
been so much higher on the coast as to have in secret wrought out the
softer materials, which might have originally filled these shapeless
vacuities. They all open directly to the sea ; and it is likely that
some of them may extend back to the land side of the hill, as their dark
recesses have never been explored. Some of them are lofty even from the
entrance, and their bounds everywhere readily determinable; others, with
a low entrance, become gloomily lofty, and uncomfortably damp within;
others are low, dismal, dark, and damp, throughout all their windings.
Neither the floor or roof of any are on the same level; some of the
lightest are used as a shelter by the stone-cutters, both from the heat
and rain, and are in part filled by the chips and fragments. One of them
was occupied as a stable to conceal the horses of the family of
Gordonstown from the rebels in the year 1745, and has the entrance built
up into a neat door. Another, behind the village of Lossiemouth, had in
ancient times been formed into a small hermitage, not exceeding 12 feet
square. It was completed by a handsome Gothic door and window, and
commanded a long but a solitary view along the eastern shore. These
artificial decorations were torn down about 30 years ago, by a rude
shipmaster; and in the course of working the quarries, the whole cave
has been destroyed.
There was a fountain in
the rock above the hermitage, called St. Gerardine's [Gernadius's Well;
but neither this nor any other spring in the parish has acquired fame
for medicinal virtue.
The inhabitants, like all
others employed in husbandry, are robust and healthy. They are in
general a sober, honest, peaceable people, regular in their attendance
on the ordinances of religion, rather grave than lively, seldom
indulging themselves in any relaxation or diversion. Crimes of enormity
are unknown among them; but this regularity of conduct must be in part
ascribed to the poverty and depression of the people; for the situation
of the smaller tenants in general is not comfortable. Few of them have
any capital to set them out into the world, and fewer have the
inclination or the means of adopting the modern improvements of
husbandry, while the rents and the wages of servants have of late been
considerably advanced. The women spin linen yarn, by which, with the
greatest application, they can only earn 3d. by the day. Even this yarn,
what is necessary for home consumption excepted, is exported unwrought
to Edinburgh, Glasgow, or the north of England.] (Survey of the Province
of Moray.) |
