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deal of wool is manufactured, particularly carpets and shalloons, both of the best quality. The weavers and dyers are reckoned eminently skilled. Of the woollen manufacture, one branch which, till within the last twenty years, had been carried on to a great extent in the town and neighbourhood, tartans, has of late greatly decayed. Several hundreds of the tradesmen have, involuntarily, betaken themselves to other employments.*

Dunblane, as appears from this list, had a fair in August. Editor.)

* (STIRLING seems to want only a direct communication by water with the ocean, to encrease her trade and population. Her manufacture of tartans is said to have decayed since 1760. She still retains her fame for carpets. Nor is her ingenuity confined to the woollen trade. Mr William Cunninghame, a native of the park of Drummond Castle, and Glazier in Stirling, deserves to be particularly mentioned, as having greatly improved the common spinning-wheel. Much more than the former work can be done. The crank is close to the centre of motion. The axis consists of centres, which are supported by the elastic play of the crank. The machine is further improved by a spring for the pirn, which is thus expeditiously taken out and replaced. The Board of Trustees for improvements in Scotland has given Mr Cunninghame a premium of L.5 Sterling. Another invention of this ingenious mechanician is a machine for cutting window glass, without risk of breakage, and with the utmost expedition and ease. 360 feet are cut in 10 hours. The diamond being placed in a slider possessed of an adequate weight

STIRLING is one of the towns where the

Justiciary Court for the Western Circuit, is held twice a year.

SECT. XIV.*

EMINENT PERSONS CONNECTED WITH

STIRLINGSHIRE.

["THE Ragman-Roll," of any voucher, affords the most copious information regarding the ancient families of Scotland. Many obscure persons, indeed, affixed their signatures; so that the act of signing is no proof of rank.† Many, however, as might be expected, of the latter description appear in the list.‡

for biting, moves up and down, so as to accommodate itself to every inequality. Editor.)

* It has been deemed expedient to write this section anew. The Editor is responsible for the accuracy of the whole, but implores indulgence for imperfections.

† A conjecture regarding the reason of the name occurs in page 164. We have been informed, by a gentleman eminent as a scholar and antiquary, that it is derived from ragiamentum, a barbarous word signifying "roll."

↑ SEE Note X at end of volume, for an extract of this celebrated Roll.

THE families of note in Stirlingshire about the end of the 13th century, and subsequently distinguished, were the Levenax, the

Callendars, the Livingstons, the Erths, the Mores, the Stirlings, the Buchanans, the Drummonds, the Napiers. Some great families who latterly settled here, had then figured principally elsewhere, the Grahams, the Erskines, the Elphinstons, the Murrays, the Hays; the last of whom produced an illustrious individual under the maternal surname of Bruce.* The Edmonstons and Alexanders, the former allied repeatedly to the royal family, the latter come of the Lords of the Isles, ought not to be omitted.†

THAT Malcolm 5th Earl of Levenax had involuntarily ranked as an apostate from the independency of Scotland, appears from the decided part which he subsequently acted in behalf of Bruce, and the rewards which Bruce bestowed upon him. He was slain, patrioti

*WE mean the Abyssinian traveller; who, though he have descended untitled to the grave, except as Lord of Geesh, shall flourish perennially a Noble of the Intellectual Kingdom.

+Is any leading name be passed in silence, it is either from ignorance or inadvertance.

cally fighting for Bruce's infant son, in the battle of Halidon, 1333. It seems to be agreed that the Levenax family is of Saxon origin; and that the founder, Arkil, a Northumbrian baron, took refuge, from the vengeance of the Norman William, under the protection of Malcolm Canmor. MacFarlan of MacFarlan, so far as is known, is the male representative; but Miss Lennox of Woodhead claims the old peerage of Levenax, as transmissable to heirs in general, and has illustrated her claim by a very learned and ingenious pleading, drawn by Robert Hamilton Esqr.* The vast land-property of Levenax was dismembered through the 2d and 3d daughters of Duncan the 8th Earl. Sir John Stewart of Dernley had married one; and their grandson, and heir to half the Levenax estate, became Lord Dernley and Earl of Lennox. Sir Robert Menteth of Rusky had married the other; and their moiety of the Levenax estate, with the estate of Rusky,

* CASE of Margaret Lennox of Woodhead in relation to the Titles, Honours, and Dignity of the ancient Earls of Levenax or Lennox. Edinburgh 1813. 4to, 88 pages. If her claim be good, the heir presumptive is her nephew, Mr Kincaid Junior of Kincaid.

came, in the persons of their great-granddaughters, the co-heiresses, to be divided between Sir John Haldane of Gleneglis, who had married the elder, and Sir John Napier of Merchieston, who had married the younger.

THE estate of Calentyr, including Kilsyth, had been a grant by Alexander II.* Patrick de Callendar was forfeited by David II, for favouring Baliol; and his estate bestowed upon Sir William Livingston, who strengthened his right by marrying Patrick's daughter.†

CRAWFURD'S Remarks on the Ragman-Roll, published with Nisbet's Heraldry, 1742, p. 17. The learned author says, "the first deed I have seen on this subject is a charter by Malduin Earl of Levenax to Malcolm son of Duncan of the lands of Glaswell with Eva his sister, and a Carrucate and half a Carrucate of the land of Kilynsyth, with the right of the patronage of the church of Moniabroch, dated on St Laurence's day 1217, confirmed by Alexander II, the 2d year of his reign. Writs of the House of Kilsyth I have seen. There is a charter by Alexander II, the 26th of August, the 25th year of his reign, to Malcolm son of Duncan of the lands of Glentarvin, Moniabroch, Kilsyth, Glaswel, which he had by the grant of the Earl of Lennox, and the lands of Calynter he had from the King, in liberam warrenam, in a free forrestry.' Malcolm de Callenter was succeeded by Aluin de Callenter his son."

ROBERTSON'S Index p. 58. "Carta by David II to William Livingston and Christian Callenter his spouse of the

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