Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/359

ROSS. 347 ROSS AND CROMARTY. eary. Wilton Bridge ia situated near the old castle of the Greys. At the house called the " Great Inn " Charles I. is said to have slept on his journey to Rag- land Castle ; and at the house opposite to the old market-house, Kyrle, the " Man of Ross," resided. This house, after his death, became the chief posting-house of the district, under the name of the " King's Arms." It is now occupied by a chemist. The population in 1851 was2,674, with517 inhabited houses, but had increased in 1861 to 3,715, with 736 houses, showing an increase in the decennial period of no less than 1,041 persons. There are no manufactures, but two extensive lanyards, a large brewery, machine works, where agricultural im- plements are also made, an iron foundry, and several flour-mills. Ross is still styled a borough, although there is no corporation, the government being vested in commissioners appointed under the " Ross Improve- ment Acts." A court- leet is held annually at Michael- mas, at which the town officers are chosen, and a court- baron a few days after by the lord of the manor. The Ross Poor-law Union comprises 2 parishes in Glouces- tershire and 27 in Herefordshire. It is also the seat of a new County Court, and head of a superintendent registry district. The horticultural society and the choral society hold their meetings in the town. Some portion of the tithes belong to the Bishop, Dean, and Preceutorof Here- ford Cathedral, but the rest of the tithes are attached to the living, which is a rect.* and vie., val. 1,290, in the dioc. of Hereford, and in the patron, of tho bishop. The parish church, already alluded to, is dedicated to 8t. Mary the Virgin, and stands at the S.W. of the town. It is a spacious but irregular pile of building, having been enlarged and altered at various periods subsequent to 1316, amongst others by the " Man of Ross." The spire, about twelve years ago, sustained material damage, for the third time, by lightning, but has since been restored. The church has been recently restored and enlarged under the charge of Mrs. Buckler, of Oxford. The two ugly galleries have been taken down, and the space under the tower, where the organ stood, fitted with scats. We do not learn that the spire, the peculiar incurving outline of which has puzzled many a tourist, has been restored to its ori- ginal beautiful line ; its recent odd shape and increased height were given under the care of John Kyrlo himself, whose eye for beauty must have been a peculiar one. Tho church contains a stained portrait of Bishop de Cantelupe, tombs of the Rudhalls and Westfalings, of Rudhall House, and an elaborate marble monument, erected in 1776 to the memory of Kyrle, the great bene- factor of the town. At the E. of the N. aisle three elm-trees, two of them of considerable height, and which seem to grow and thrive in this strange atmo- sphere, sprang up in Kyrle's pew after some of the elms planted by him in the churchyard outside were cut down, about the middle of the last century. The Wes- leyans, Baptists, Independents, Society of Friends, and Plymouth Brethren have places of worship. There are several well-endowed charities, including the Blue-Coat school, at Dean-hill, originally founded by Dr. Whiting, in the early part of the 18th century ; further endowed by Lord Scudamore ; and restored and endowed by Walter Scott in 1786, who left by will 200 per annum to this charity, which clothes and educates 30 boys, and the like number of girls free : James Baker's charity consists of the interest of 20,000, appropriated to the relief of the poor inhabitants of the parish not receiving rhial relief. There are besides Rudhall's Hospital for tivu poor men and women, with an income of 10 P'-r annum ; Webbe's hospital, or almshouses, for seven poor people, with an income of 90 ; Perrock's alms- house at Dean Hill for four poor persons ; and Pye's and Jliirkye's almshouses. The principal schools are the National schools for boys and girls, to the funds of which is added a yearly rent-charge of 10, originally granted by Lord Weymouth towards the endowment of a grammar school ; a British and Foreign school, and an infant school. Adjoining the town on the S.W. is The Prospect, a promenade formed by the Man of Ross, and VOL. in. left by him to the inhabitants of the town for 500 years. In the centre of the meadow, below the Prospect, formerly stood an oak-tree 33 feet in girth, and said to be upwards of 1,100 years old, but which was almost destroyed by fire in 1850. From this spot a view is obtained of the river Wye which, affords good salmon fishing, and forms a curve, resembling a horse-shoe, a little below the town ; there is another promenade, called Kyrle's Walk ; and at a short distance from the town are the ruins of Wilton and Goodrich castles, and the mansion of Goodrich Court, with a collection of ancient armour and other antiquities. The banks of the Wye are much visited by tourists. The principal seats in the immediate vici- nity of the town are The Chase, situated under the Roman camp on Chase Hill, Lincoln Hill House, Over- ross, Rudhall, and Springfield. Market day is Thurs- day, for corn, cheese, and provisions, and every fourth Thursday a monthly market for cattle. Fairs are held on the Thursday after 10th March for sheep and lambs ; on Holy Thursday, and on the Thursday in the second week after Whit Sunday, for pedlary and fancy goods ; on the 20th July for wool ; on the Thursday after 10th October for cheese; and on llth December for horses, cattle, and sheep. ROSS AND CROMARTY, two seaside and highland cos. in the N. of Scotland, so intimately blended as to require to be described geographically as one shire. They comprise a large tract of mountainous country, extending westward from the Moray Frith to the Atlan- tic Ocean, and southward from Sutherlandshire to the Beauley Frith and Inverness-shire, lying between 57 7' 4" and 58 7' 20" N. lat., and 3 45' 30" and 5 46' 20" W. long. The former county comprises the districts of Easter and Wester Ross, Ardmeanach, or the Black Isle, and the Highland districts of Ardross, Applecross, Fearndonald, Greinord, and the island of Lewis, one of the Western Isles (which see) ; while the latter county comprehends that part of the peninsula called the Black Isle, stretching between the Friths of Moray and Cromarty, together with ten detached portions on the eastern and north-western sides of Ross-shire, by which they are embosomed. In the earliest times of which we have any record this county was occupied by the British tribes Creones and Canto:, and subsequently formed part of the Roman province Vespasiana. In later times it was held by the thane Macbeth, who had his chief stronghold at C'alder, or Cawdor, Castle, and was an earldom under tho Macdonalds till the reign of James III. It subsequently passed to the Mackenzies of Kintail, for one of which family tho demesne of Cromarty was made a separate shire and earldom. The united counties are bounded on the N. by the river Oikel and the county of Sutherland, and on the E. by the Moray Frith and the North Sea, on the S. and S.W. by the county of Inverness, and on the W. by the Minch channel dividing the mainland from the Western Islands. Their area is generally estimated at 3,157 square miles, or 2,046,375 acres, but, according to Sir George S. Mackenzie, the whole district, including Ferrintoch, which belongs to N-airnshire, comprises 8,799 square miles, or 2,431,359 acres, of which 359,893 acres are in the Hebrides, 220,586 acres belong to Cromartyshire, 5,973 to Nairnshire, and 3,445 square miles, or 2,204,800 acres, form Ross-shire. The extreme length of the united counties from N. to S. is 69 miles, and their greatest breadth 67, exclusive of the Hebridean part, comprising Lewis, Rona, and Barra islands, which are described under their respective heads. The whole cir- cuit is 255 miles, of which 55 are along the eastern coast, and 85 along the western coast. The lowland district, in the E., is in general rich and productive, comprising a champaign country of great natural fer- tility and beauty. It is screened by the Highland ridges of Wester Ross on the W., and indented by the friths of Dornoch, Cromarty, and Beauley on the E., with the Gulf of Moray expanding into the North Sea. The principal points along the eastern coast are Meiklefeny, in Dornoch Frith, known to Roman