Glass, a parish of Aberdeenshire mainly, but partly of Banffshire, whose church stands 8¼ miles W of Huntly, under which there is a post office of Glass. It is bounded N by Cairnie, E by Cairnie and Huntly, SE by Huntly and Gartly, SW by Cabrach, and W by Mortlach and Botriphnie. Its utmost length, from NE to SW, is 6¾ miles ; its breadth, from NW to SE, varies between 1¾ and 47/8 miles ; and its area is 12, 655¼ acres, of which 111¾ are water, and 4732 belong to the Banffshire or south-western portion. The rapid Deveron has here a north-north-easterly and east-north-easterly course, along a deep narrow vale, of 7 ¾ miles, at two points (3 furl. and ½ mile) tracing the Cabrach and Mortlach boundaries, but elsewhere traversing the interior. Along it the surface declines to 530 feet above sea-level, thence rising westward to 981 feet at Newton Hill, 1000 at Both Hill, 1124 near Upper Hill-top, 1056 at Crofts of Corsemaul, and 1339 at *Tips of Corsemaul ; south-westward to 1281 at Evron Hill, 1586 at Brown Hill, and 1540 at *Craig Watch, where asterisks mark those summits that culminate on the confines of the parish. Syenite occupies a good deal of the valley and lower hill-sides, but the rocks are mainly Silurian- greywacke, clay slate, and quartz, with veins of crystalline limestone ; the prevailing soil is a fertile yellow loam incumbent on gravel throughout the lower grounds, but poorer and lighter over all the uplands. Less than a third of the entire area is in tillage ; plantations of Scotch firs and larch cover about 150 acres ; and the rest is pastoral or heathy waste. Two pre-Reformation chapels stood within the bounds of this parish, which, small originally, has twice been enlarged by annexations -from Mortlach in the 13th or 14th century, and towards the close of the 17th from Drumdelzie or Potterkirk, now incorporated with Cairnie. The Earl of Fife is the chief proprietor, and his shooting-lodge of Glenmarkie is the only mansion. Glass is in the presbytery of Strathbogie and synod of Moray ; the living is worth £303. The parish church, built in 1782, contains 550 sittings. There is also a Free church ; and Glass public, Glass female public, and Beldorney public schools, with respective accommodation for 109, 57, and 70 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 55, 29, and 59, and grants of £47, 19s. 6d., £25, 10s. 6d. , and £56, 13s. Valuation (1860) £2108, (1881) £2615, 12s. 2d. Pop. (1801) 703, (1831) 932, (1861) 1049, (1871) 1061, (1881) 1020, of whom 654 were in Aberdeenshire.—Ord. Sur. , shs. 85, 86, 1876.
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