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The Rev Mr Robert Stirling wrote the report for Crieff in the Statistical Account of 1799, 9, 583ff.
'.... the serene air and healthy situation have induced people of taste and science, who frequently reside there during the summer months, to account it the Montpelier of Scotland'.
He considers it to have a highland and a lowland part, separated by the parish of Monzie. The highland part is largely Glenalmond, belonging to the Duke of Atholl, but was annexed quod sacra to Monzie parish. The lowland part, between Monzievard and Fowlis Wester contains the rivers Shaggy, Torot [Turret] and Pow rich in trout and, the largest, the Earn, which also had an abundance of salmon.
The change in agriculture in the area is described,
'Until the year 1774, the old mode of farming by croft and outfield universally prevailed. As the outfields got no manure except watering .... they only produced a species of grey oats of which 2½ bolls made only 1 boll of meal. Then, however, some extensive strata of marl were discovered in the neighbourhood, the use of which quickly introduced a more profitable mode of agriculture.
The growth of weaving, which to become dominant in the town, was remarked upon, 92 of the 711 tradesmen he identifies in the town belonging to this trade which had in 1770 formed itself into a corporation,
'to establish a fund for the support of their widows, and for the maintenance and education of their orphan children, each operative member paying 12s at entry and 1s annually to the fund'.
Crieff was a destination for displaced Highlanders.
'The houses are almost universally two storeys high, roofed with blue state, and consist if four rooms &c which generally accommodate two, sometimes three or even four families .... Most of these houses, indeed would lie waste, were it not that the town standing very near to .... one of the proncipal roads leading from the Highlands, it is the first at which the Highlanders naturally arrive when, by the formation of extensive sheep farms. without introducing manufactures at the same time, they are compelled to leave their native land in quest of food, habitation and employment. Here they find shelter and sustenance at a cheaper rate than in most parts of Scotland; while the improving state of the country, road-making .... quarrying, marl digging, ditching, planting &c afford most of them employment and growing wages'.
In looking at industries, Mr Sinclair notes that 'these have hitherto had little effect .... in comparison of what they will probably soon have', a few mills for grain, cotton, paper and oil; two tanneries, two distilleries and a brewery. The introduction of the fly shuttle in 1791 had revolutionised weaving. In 1790, 2078 yards were produced but, by 1792, production increased to 14,777 yards, all sent to Glasgow for whitening and printing.
Unusually for a clergyman, he did not rail against the evils of the distilleries and the brewey but saved his ire for that deadliest of drinks, tea, the consumption of which had risen twenty-fold in the same number of years.
'Bewitched by the mollifying influence of an enfeebling potion, the very poorest classes begin to regard it as one of the necessaries of life, and for its sake resign the cheaper and more invigorating nourishment which the productions of the country afford. The change in the mode of living in this and some other aspects has perhaps produced a change in the nature of diseases. The acute fever that 30 years ago often attacked the careless and robust, and came to a crisis in 10 days, is now rarely seen; but to it have succeeded hysterics, diseases flowing from debility and relaxation and the slow nervous fever under which the patient languishes for three or six months and probably never again recovers his wonted vigour'.
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