Crawford, a village and a parish in the upper ward and the south-eastern extremity of Lanarkshire. The village, toward the NW corner of the parish, stands on the left bank of the Clyde (here crossed by a chain bridge of 75 feet span), opposite the influx of Midlock and Camps Waters, and adjacent to the Caledonian railway, 2¾ miles SE of its post-town and station, Abington, this being 43¼ miles SW of Edinburgh. Enjoying anciently the privileges of a burgh of barony, it was, prior to the railway period, an important resting-place for travellers, but now is little more than a rural hamlet, with an hotel, the parish church, and a public school. The parish, containing also the village of Leadhills, is traversed for 12¼ miles by the maim trunk of the Caledonian,. which here attains its summit level (1012 feet), and here has the stations of Abington and Elvanfoot- It is bounded N by Lamington; NE by Culter; E by Tweedsmuir, in Peeblesshire; SE by Moffat and Kirkpatrick-Juxta, in Dumfriesshire; S by Closeburn, and SW by Durisdeer and Sanquhar, all three also in Dumfriesshire; W and NW by Crawfordjohn. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 14½ miles; its breadth, from E to W, varies between 17/8 and 113/8 miles; and its area is 68,839½ acres, of which 313 are water. Evan Water is formed by several head-streams in the E of the parish; otherwise the drainage system has been already sketched under the Clyde, which here from its source near the southern boundary takes a northerly course of 28 miles, and which here receives, on the left hand, Powtrail, Elvan, and Glengonner Waters, and, on the right, Little Clydes Burn and Midlock and Camps Waters-all of them rising in Crawford, and all of them separately noticed. Where the Clyde quits the parish, the surface sinks to 800 feet above sea-level, these rising southward, south-eastward, and eastward to mountain watersheds of the Southern Highlands, which separate Clydesdale from Nithsdale, Annandale, and Tweeddale The chief elevations from N to S to the W of the Clyde are Ravengill Dod (1758 feet), Wellgrain Dod (1813), Lousie Wood Law (2028), Dun Law (2216), Green Lowther (2403), and Ballencleuch Law (2267); whilst to the E rise Southwood Rig (1556), the Pinnacle (1819), *Coomb Dod (2082), Yearngill Head (1804), Wintercleuch Fell (1804), *Whiteside Hill (1817), and Earncraig Hill (2000), where asterisks mark those summits that culminate on the borders of the parish. The glens or vales for the most part have considerable breadth of bottom, and are partly dry, partly wet and spongy. The rocks are in places metamorphic, but chiefly Silurian. Roofing slate has been worked in one small quarry; lead ore is extensively mined at Leadhills, where also many valuable minerals, as gold, silver, calamine, blende, manganese, malachite, azure copper ore, iron pyrites, etc., have been found. The soil on the banks of the Clyde, and near the mouths of its affluents, is variously alluvial, loamy, sandy, and gravelly; that of nearly all the remaining area is moorish. About 2200 acres are arable, less than 160 are under wood, and all the rest is either pastoral or waste. Crawford Castle, or Tower Lindsay, on the right bank of the Clyde, opposite Crawford village, is a ruined baronial stronghold, once defended by a moat; from the close of the 12th century till 1488 it was the seat of the Lindsays, who in 1398 received the earldom of Crawford(See Cults and Balcarres.) The parish is traversed by a Roman road, branching off near Elvanfoot to Nithsdale and Annandale, and flanked by two well-preserved Roman camps on Boadsberry Hill and White Camp farm. It also contains three native camps or hill-forts, and the sites of several pre-Reformation chapels. Newton House is the only mansion; but the property is divided among 12 landowners, 8 holding each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 1 of between £100 and £500, 1 of from £50 to £100, and 2 of from £20 to £50Detached from Leadhills for church and school and registration purposes, Crawford is in the presbytery of Lanark and synod of Glasgow and Ayr; the living is worth £335. The church, rebuilt in 1875, contains 280 sittings; and three public schools-Crawford, DaerPowtrail, and Summit-with respective accommodation for 103, 27, and 53 children, had (1880) an average attendance of 57,14, and 22, and grants of £71,9s., £27,16s., and £32,14s. Valuation (1860) £13,774, (1882) £22,598, 17s. Pop. of civil parish (1801) 1671, (1831) 1850, (1861) 1590, (1871) 1829, (1881) 1763; of q- s. parish (1881) 698--Ord. Sur., shs. 15,16,1864.
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