LESWALT, a parish, in the county of Wigtown, 4 miles (N. W.) from Stranraer; containing 2712 inhabitants. The name is of doubtful origin, but is supposed to signify " the meadow along the burn." In the reign of James V. this parish was the property of the monks of Tongland, the vicarage then paying a tax of £12. 13. 4., a tenth of its estimated value: at the time of the Reformation the tax was £26. 13. 4. Leswalt church was made over to the king in 1.58*, and by him vested in 1589 in the bishops of Galloway; but when episcopacy was abolished, it became again the property of the crown. The parish is about eight miles in length, and nearly of the same breadth. • It has the Irish Channel on the west, Loch Ryan on the east, the parish of Kirkcolm on the north, and Portpatrick on the south; forming a portion of the peninsula called the Rhyns of Galloway. The surface is for the most part exceedingly hilly, and along the coast rugged and rocky, and frequently broken by immense chasms. There are two large streams, the Soleburn and the Pooltanton; and a beautiful sheet of water called Loch Naw, which covers a space of thirty acres. In some parts the soil is rich and productive; but in many others, especially towards the south, it is wet and heavy: there are large tracts of moss, totally unfit for tillage, but employed for pasturing sheep and young cattle. The oats produced are estimated at the value of about £6000 yearly: some attention is now paid to the cultivation of wlieat, and considerable quantities of potatoes are raised. Much land that was formerly rough pasture, or waste, has been improved by the application of lime and shell-sand manure, and brought into good cultivation; and the care recently bestowed on the fences and the farm-houses has effected great changes in the appearance of the parish. Black-cattle of the Galloway breed are reared for the English markets; the sheep are chiefly the Cheviot and the black-faced. Greywacke and red sandstone form the principal strata of the parish. Lochnaw Castle, on the border of the loch of the same name, with its plantations and gardens, forms an object of admiration: the only plantations in the parish are those above the castle. There are two villages, Clayhole and Hillhead, forming part of the suburbs of Stranraer. An excellent road runs through the middle of the parish, branching off in one direction round Loch Naw to Portpatrick, and in another by Kirkcolm to Stranraer. The annual value of real property in Leswalt is £5836. Ecclesiastically this place is within the bounds of the presbytery of Stranraer, synod of Galloway, and the patronage is in the Crown. The stipend of the minister is £143, of which nearly a fourth is received from the exchequer; with a manse, built in 1811, and a glebe of nearly twenty acres, valued at about £30 per annum. Leswalt church, built in 1828, contains 550 sittings. The members of the Free Church have a place of worship; and there is a parochial school, the master of which has a salary of £25. 13. 3., with £20 fees, and a house and garden. There is also a parochial library of nearly 400 volumes.