THE

TOPOGRAPHICAL, STATISTICAL,

HISTORICAL

GAZETTEER OF SCOTLAND

A COMPLETE COUNTY-ATLAS FROM RECENT SURVEYS,
EXHIBITING ALL THE LINES OF ROAD, RAIL, AND CANAL COMMUNICATION;

AND AN APPENDIX,
CONTAINING THE RESULTS IN DETAIL OF THE CENSUS OF 1851.

VOLUME II,
I-Z.

EDINBURGH, LONDON, AND DUBLIN
A. FULLARTON AND CO.
1854.

THE

PARLIAMENTARY GAZETTEER

OP

SCOTLAND.

ICO
I-COLM-KILL. See Iona.
ILANMORE, an islet of the Hebrides, about a
mile in circuit, and lying half-a-mile north of Coll.
ILANROAN, and ILANTERACH, two of the
Hebrides, lying on the south and east of Oransay.
ILAY. See Islat.
ILLERAY, one of the Hebrides, about 4 miles
long, and 1^ broad, lying to the westward of North
Uist, and insulated only at high water. The soil is
partly sandy and partly black loam, yielding toler
able crops of barley, and pasture for cattle.
ILK, a word of frequent occurrence in the sur
names of Scottish families. The following explana
tion of the word is given by the old Earl of Cromarty,
in his ' Account of Gowrie's Conspiracy.' " The
word Uk, in our Scots language, denotes that either
the person has given his name to the land, or has
taken his name from the land : and this practice was
one of King Malcolm Canmore's wise inventions;
who, finding that oneness in name was a cause of the
clubs and cabals caUed clans, in place of these old
patronymics, the king did encourage all on whom
he conferred any title of honour, as of earl, lord, or
baron, to take their denominations from the lands
erected into the lordship, or barony, so to divide,
and break the clans, by loosing the ligament of these
patronymic names; and so, Divide et imperii was
his project." Whatever, for political reasons as stat
ed by his lordship, may have been the wise encour
agement given by Malcolm Canmore to landed pro
prietors, to induce them to take their surnames from
their estates, the doing so seems, however, originally
to have arisen naturally, and of itself, from the ne
cessity of distinguishing one person from another.
IMERSAY, an islet on the south-west coast of
Islay. INCH, an adjunct of frequent occurrence in Scot
tish topography. It signifies ' an island,' and is de
rived from the British Ynys, or the Gaelic Inis. It
is said that the word occurs, with the same signifi
cation, in some of the aboriginal languages of North
America. In Scotland, but more frequently in Ire
land, the word is also used to denote level ground
near a river.
INCH, a parish in Inverness-shire, united to that
of Kingussie : which see.
INCH, a parish in the western division of Wig-
tonshire ; bounded on the north by Ayrshire J on the
east by New Luce and Old Luce ; on the south by
Old Luce and Stoneykirk; on the south-west by
Portpatrick ; and on the west by Leswalt, Stranraer,
and Lochryan. It approximates to the oblong form,
II.

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but has marked irregularities of outline ; and mea
sures in extreme length, from north to south, 10£
miles ; in extreme breadth 7 J ; and in average breadth
4J or 4J. The southern division— comprising more
than one-third of the whole area — has a surface so
gently undulating, that, when viewed from the neigh
bouring hills, it appears to be entirely level. All of
it forms part— and that the larger one — of an isthmus
between Lochryan and Luce bay, and is believed to
have been anciently covered by the sea; and it is
bored at intervals into curious hollows, called bythe
peasantry " pots," which vary in measurement from
1,000 feet in circumference and 100 feet in depth, to
comparatively small dimensions, and are supposed to
have been scooped out by an eddying motion of the
retiring billows. North-eastward and northward
of the plain, the parish rises into ranges of beautiful
hills. The southern face of these is partly arable
land and partly green pasture ; their tops, and inte--
terior sides inland and toward the north, are rugged,
heathy, and incapable of culture ; and a declivity,
which they make toward the whole of the eastern
boundary, again becomes partly verdant and partly
subject to the plough. The soil, on the west side
of the plain, is a good loam ; in the rest of the plain,
and other arable parts, is light and sandy ; and, on
the.hills, is to a great extent mossy. The cultivated
acres of the parish as compared with the uncultivated,
are nearly in the proportion of two to three. About
700 acres are under wood. Toward the' end of the
last century the face of the country underwent an
entire and renovating change, under the enterprising
and skilful agricultural improvements and incentives
of the Earl of Stair. Main water comes down from
Carrick on the north, traces the eastern boundary for
5 miles, is joined by Luce water from the east at
Waterfoot, or opposite New Luce, and thence de
putes to the new stream, with the aid of its own tri
bute, to trace the eastern boundary-line, over a far
ther distance of 1^ mile. The stream is rapid in its
course, and trots along a rocky path, but yields an
abundant supply of salmon. The Piltanton come3
down from the north-west, within the Rinns of Gallo
way, and, in a placid, and even sluggish Course — during
part of which it abounds in tiny sinuosities — traces
the south-western and southern boundary, over a dis
tance of 7 miles. No fewer than twelve lakes spread
out their little expanses of Water in the parish, — most
of them in its level, or southern division. They abound
id pike, perch, carp, tench, roach, and white and red
trout ; are frequented by wild ducks, teals, widgeons,
coots, and cormorants; and during the winter-months.

INCH.

especially if the temperature be below the average,
oecome the resort of immigrant swans from Ireland.
Those of Soulseat and Castle- Kennedy are beautiful
sheets of water, and possess, in a marked degree, the
gentler features of fine lake scenery. The loch of
Soulseat, f of a mile long, and \ of a mile broad, was
formerly called the Green loch, and, during part of
the year, is sheeted over with a green granular sort
of substance, which gives an appearance of watery
verdure. "On a calm summer morning," says the
writer in the 'New Statistical Account, "the banks
of the loch of Soulseat present an appearance not a
little curious. What seem to be pillars of cloud, ap
pear here and there, rising to a height of 50 feet or
more. A stranger, viewing them at a distance, might
suppose them to consist of vapours of smoke ; but
on a nearer approach, they are found to consist of
living creatures, engaged in ceaseless action, perform
ing the most graceful evolutions ; and, on listening,
will be heard the rush of their little wings, and the
piping of their tiny voices. These flies have, I be
lieve, their nativity in the water, from which they
emerge to an ephemeral existence in the region of air.
One species of them go through a very singular' pro
cess — throwing offithe skin. They fix themselves
to a tree or bush, or any resting-place, and literally
crawl out of their skin ; and, having left behind them
their exuviae, hie themselves off with freshened agi
lity to their aerial dance. On remaining for a short
time by the water-edge, I have found myself covered
with the filmy skins of these gay ephemerae." The
loch is of the form of the arc of a circle, and has its
concavity or peninsula covered with wood ; and ap
pears to have anciently had a deep fosse or trench
stretching like a chord between its projecting points.
In its vicinity stood an ancient abbey : See Sou*l-
seat Abbey. Castle-Kennedy loch is cut so very
deeply by injecting peninsulas, and is so slenderly
continuous by a connecting thread of waters, as some
times to be reckoned rather two lakes than one. The
parts run parallel to each other, the one a mile, and
the other 1£ mile in length, from north-west to
Bouth-east, and are each about \ a mile in breadth.
A peninsula f of a mile long, and £ of a mile broad,
runs down between them on the north-west; an-
other peninsula, of a half-moon form, about \ of a
mile in radius, and a of a mile in length of chord,
sends up its convexity on the south-east; and be
tween the peninsula? stretches the water-line, which,
in a sense, makes the two lakes one. In each sec
tion of the lake is an islet ; resting on the bosom of
the waters, m skimming their surface, or playing
" in the lift " above them, are herons, sea-mews, and
numerous species of water-fowl ; on their banks are
two rookeries; and, above all, in the long north
western peninsula, are the romantic edifice and de
mesne of Castle- Kennedy, the property of the Earl
of Stair. Castle- Kennedy, in its original form, was
a spacious, stately, square edifice, built probably in
the reign of James VI. It belonged at first to the
Earls of Cassilis, who had extensive possessions in
Wigtonshire ; but, in the reign of Charles II., it
passed, with its adjacent property, into the hands of
Sir John Dalrymple, younger of Stair. The castle
was burnt by accident in 1715, and, down to 1839
continued, With walls 79 feet in height, to be uninl
habitable and ruinous. The grounds and plantations
around it were planned by Marshal Stair ; and, if
destitute of the graces which adorn more modish de
mesnes, possess attractions nearly peculiar to them
selves — Along Lochryan, the parish has a coast-line
of about 8 miles. This includes most of the. south
ern part, or head of the loch, and the whole of its
west side, till within 2£ miles of its opening into the
«en: See Lochrvan. In the northern part the

shore is bold and rocky, and is perforated with seve
ral caves, which run 80 or 100 yards under ground ;
but elsewhere it is flat, and covered with sand or
gravel. The loch has an extensive fishery of sal
mon, haddock, whiting, cod, flounders, herring, and
excellent oysters. A slate quarry is wrought on the
estate of Lochryan, the property of Sir Alexander
Wallace. Repeated but vain attempts have teen
made to find coal. Granite occurs in detached blocks.
Sepulchral cairns are very numerous in the uplands
of the parish ; on the average, about 60 feet in dia
meter, and 7 feet in height ; having a considerable
cavity in the interior, in which — as has been proved
by the exploration of several — are deposited ui^is en
closing ashes and burnt bones; and consisting of
stones which, in the case of many, must have been
fetched from a distance of several miles. On a moor
land farm, called Cairnarran, are 9 of these cairns
within the range of a Scottish mile. Burrows or
tumuli occur in the lowlands, of exactly similar cha
racter to the cairns, except that they are formed of
earth instead of stones ; and they have the same in
terior cavity and sepulchral contents, and are sup
posed, in common with the cairns, to be monuments
of the British tribes who inhabited Galloway during
the early centuries of the Christian era. On the
farm of Innermessan, on Lochryan, 2£ miles north
west of Stranraer, stood the ancient Rerigonium, a
town of the Novantes, and in more modern times, the
town and castle of Innermessan. Symson, in his
' Description of Galloway,' says " Innermessan was
the greatest town thereabouts till Stranraer was
built." Only faint vestiges of it, however, now re
main, — such as cannot be detected except with the
aid of a cicerone. In its vicinity rises a beautiful
moat, 336 feet in circumference at the base, 60 feet
in perpendicular elevation, 78 feet in sloping ascent,
with a fosse encincturing its base, and an esplanade
shaving off its summit, and commanding a fine view
of the expanse and shores of Lochryan. " On the
24th November, 1834," says the Rev. James Fergus-
son, the minister of the parish, in his report in the
New Statistical Account, " I caused a hole 3 feet
deep to be dug in the centre of the plain on the top.
After passing through a line rich mould, we came to ¦
a stratum consisting of ashes, charred wood, and
fragments of bone. In the days of the ancient No
vantes, this was probably the public cemetery of
the adjacent town, Rerigonium." On the farm of
Larg, near Main water, are remains of an old cas
tle, once the property and seat of the Lyns of Larg.
The Castle of Craigcaffei, formerly the seat of the
extinct family of the Nelsons of Craigcaffei, is still
entire, and has been transmuted into a farm-house.
The only village is Cairn, or Cairnrtan: which see
The monthly Stranraer cattle-market, held from
April to October, has for its arena a spot within thp
western limits of Inch. The parish is traversed along
the whole of its western border by the mail-road be
tween Glasgow and Portpatrick, and across its south
ern division, bythe mail-road between Dumfries and
Stranraer ; and, in its lowlands, it has abundant ra-
mifications of subordinate roads, but, in its uplands,
offers hardly an ingress to a wheeled vehicle. Sir
John Ross, the celebrated arctic navigator, is a native
of the parish, and adopts it, at his residence of North
West Castle, as the home of his advanced yea «
Population, in 1801, 1,577 ; in 1831, 2,521. Houses
481 Assessed property, in 1815, £11,275.— Inch is
in the presbytery of Stranraer, and synod of Gallo
way. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £263 15s 7d •
glebe£15 15s. The parish-church was built about 74
or 84 years ago, and has never been much altered
Sittings 400. A preaching-station connected with
the establishment was commenced in 1836 at Cairn

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ryan. According to an ecclesiastical survey in 1836,
the population then consisted of 965 Churchmen,
302 members of ihe United Secession, 139 Roman
Catholics, 132 Cameronians, 87 members of the Re
lief, 29 Episcopalians, and 30 persons not known to
belong to any religious body,— in all, 2,684. The
dissenters are all, except the Episcopalians, connected
with congregations in Stranraer. The present parish
comprehends most of the ancient parish of Inch, and
all the ancient parish of Soulseat. On the island or
" inch" in Castle- Kennedy loch, opposite the present
parish-church, is supposed to have stood the earliest
place of worship in the district ; and from this cir
cumstance the parish seems to have derived its name.
Before the Reformation, the church of Inch belonged
to the bishops of Galloway, and was served by a cu
rate ; by the annexation act of 1587, it was vested in
the king; in 1588, it was granted for life to Mr.
William Melville, the commendator of Tongueland ;
in 1613, it was returned to the bishop of Galloway;
in 1641, it was transferred to the University of Glas
gow; in 1661, it was again restored to the bishop
of Galloway ; and in 1689, it finally reverted to the
Crown. In the old parish of Inch there were two
chapels. St. John's chapel stood at the head of
Lochryan and the east end of Stranraer; and, though
in ruins in 1684, when Symson wrote his ' Large
Description of Galloway,' it was commemorated in
the names of various objects in its vicinity. A mo
dern castle, or large building near its site, was called
" the castle of the chapel ;" a piece of land which had
belonged to the chapel, was called St. John's croft ;
the part of Stranraer lying east of the rivulet which
intersects the town, was popularly called the chapel;
and a copious spring of water, which rises within
flood-mark, is still called St. John's well. AU these
objects were detached from Inch, and included in the
modern parish and burgh of Stranraer. A second
chapel, dedicated to St. Patrick, and giving name to
the modern town of Portpatrick, stood on the west
coast on the site of that town, and served the south
west division of the old parish, which was popularly
called the Black quarter of Inch. This district was
detached in 1628, and erected into the separate par
ish of Portpatrick. What the old parish lost by this
disseverment, was afterwards compensated by the
annexation to it of the parish of Soulseat. The
church of Soulseat belonged, before the Reformation,
to the monks of its abbey. When vested, by the act
of annexation, in the Crown, a portion of the revenues
was settled as a stipend on its minister ; and in 1631,
the remainder was granted by Charles I. to the min
ister of Portpatrick. The manse and glebe of the
modern parish of Inch are in Soulseat, 1£ mile distant
from the present church.
INCH. See Insch.
INCH-ABER, a small island of Loch-Lomond, f
of a mile south-west of the mouth of the river End-
rick. INCHAFFREY, an ancient abbey on the banks
of Pow, or Powaffray water, in the parish of Mad-
derty, Perthshire. The name is said to mean ' the
Island of masses' — the island where masses were said ;
and certainly is written in Latin, Insula missarum.
Its site is a small rising ground, which seems to have
been insulated by the Pow. The abbey was founded
in 1200, by Gilbert, Earl of Strathearn, and his Coun
tess Matilda, and dedicated to God, the Virgin Mary,
and John the Apostle; and it was endowed with
many privileges and immunities by David and Alex
ander, kings of Scotland. The ruins have been nearly
all carried away, as materials for modern houses and
roads in the vicinity. A small adjacent territory,
foi-merly attached to the abbey, belongs to the Earl
cf Kinnoul, and constitutes him patron of about 12

parishes, over which the abbots anciently had right.
Mauritius, one of the abbots, attended Robert Bruce
at the battle of Bannockburn, and carried with him,
in the infatuatedly superstitious spirit of the times,.
an arm of St. Fillan. The abbey furnished the first
of two titles of nobility, which were conferred on its
commendator. James Drummond, a younger son of
David, Lord Drummond, was first styled Lord Inch
affrey, and afterwards, in 1607, was created Lord
Madderty. He married Jean, daughter of Sir James
Chisholme of Cromlicks, and with her got the lands
of Innerpeffray, she being heiress, through her mo
ther, of Sir John Drummond, the owner of that pro
perty. From the first lady Madderty sprang two
sons, John, Lord Madderty, and Sir James, the first
Laird of Machony. Innerpeffray lies on the banks
of the Earn, in the parish of Trinity-Gask, 4 miles
south-west of the ancient abbey of Inchaffrey.
INCHARD (Loch), an arm of the sea on the west
coast of Sutherlandshire, projected into tbe northern
part of the parish of Edderachylis. Macculloch says
that this locb is not absolutely wanting in picturesque
beauty, but that the head of it is very desolate and
bare. INCH-BRAYOCK, or Rossie Island, a low flat
islet of about 34 acres superficial area, in the strait
or channel of the South Esk, between Montrose
basin and the German ocean. It belongs to the par
ish of Craig, but was included by the boundary-bill
within the burgh of Montrose, and is rapidly becom
ing the site of a suburban appendage to that town.
At its east end is a dry-dock The currents which
pass along its sides, owing to the narrowness of their
channels compared with the expanse of Montrose
basin, which is filled and emptied at every tide, are
very rapid, and almost impetuous. Till the latter
part of' the last century, the great North road along
the east coast of Scotland was continued across the
South Esk only by the incommodious expedient of a
ferry below Inch-brayock, at Ferryden ; but now, by
means of connecting bridges, it is carried across the
• island, and cuts it into two nearly equal parts. The
bridge on the south side — where the channel has
greatly less breadth than that on the north side — is a
work of solid and massive stone masonry. The ori
ginal bridge on the north side, was one of timber, —
a great work of its kind, but constantly needing re
pair, and too fragile to resist fully the careering tide ,
and about 1 1 years ago, it was substituted by a sus
pension-bridge, which, if it want the intrinsic magni
ficence, and the circumjacent splendour of scenery
which distinguish the famous Welsh bridge across the
Menai, is at least one of the most interesting public
works in the lowlands of Britain. See Montrose.
The population of the island, in 1835, was about 120.
— Inch-brayock, comprehending some adjacent terri
tory, was anciently a separate parish, and in the year
1618, was united with that of St. Skeoch or Dunni-
nald, to form the parish of Craig. The ancient
church and cemetery were on the island; and the
latter continues to be in use for the united parish.
Inch-brayock, or Inis-Breic, means ' the Church or
chapel island. '
INCH-CAILLIACH, 'the Island of old women,"
an islet in Loch-Lomond, | of a mile north-west of the
mouth of the river Endrick, and \ of a mile from the
eastern shore of the lake, in the, parish of Buchanan,
Stirlingshire. The islet is 7 furlongs in length, from
north-east to south-west, and nearly 3£ furlongs in
breadth near its north-east end, but contracts at first
slowly, and afterwards rapidly, to a point at its oppo
site extremity. Amidst the green and the golden
islands of a landscape unsurpassed in its beauties by
the most fairy districts of Scotland, Inch-cailliach is
one of the most beautiful. It is the property of the

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4

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Duke of Montrose, exquisitely wooded, and turned.
to some account in husbandry. In ancient times it
was the site of a nunnery, whose inmates are alluded
to in its name ; and down to a more modern period,
it gave name to the parish which now wears the
usurped title of Buchanan, and was the site of the
parish-church and cemetery.
INCH-CLAIR, or Clair- Inch, an islet in Loch-
Lomond, £ a mile from the eastern bank, in the parish
of Buchanan, Stirlingshire. It is J of a mile long
from north-east to south-west, and runs parallel with
Inch-Cailliach, about j of a mile distant from it on
its south-east side. The islet is finely wooded, and
resembles in general appearance the larger and very
beautiful islet in' its vicinity.
INCHCOLM, an island in the frith of Forth,
forming part of the parish of Dalgetty. It lies about
2 miles to the south of Aberdour ; 6 miles west of
Inch-Keith ; and within about 4i miles of Queens-
ferry. It- is scarcely a mile in length, and is of a
bleak appearance, though partly arable. " A consi
derable portion of this island is composed of green
stone, exhibiting either the earthy, syenitic, or com
mon appearance, and which, by the felspar being re
placed by steatite, frequently passes into an imper
fect serpentine. On the south side of the island, a
.variety of greenstone occurs containing numerous
scales of pinchbeck-brown mica ; it is traversed by
a number of contemporaneous veins of greenstone,
which frequently passes into steatite ; this mineral
occurs also in minute strings without exhibiting any
such transition, and in them sometimes there may be
observed threads of amianthus. On the south of the
island, where a junction of the trap and the sand
stone is exposed, the latter dips to the north at 52° ;
while the greenstone, as it approaches the sandstone,
passes into a compact yellowish-white claystone, a
vein of which occurs running parallel with the strata.
With the exception of a body of sandstone, which is
enveloped in the greenstone, the western half of the
island is entirely composed of trap, having in some
places a slightly columnar disposition." [Cunning
ham's ' Geology of the Lothians,' p. 76.]  Though
destitute of beauty, this island is rich in historical
and antiquarian associations, and exhibits the ruins of
one of the most extensive monastic establishments in
this part of Scotland. The ancient name of the
island was iEmona, which in Celtic means 'the
Island of Druids,' and from which it would appear
that before the introduction of Christianity the Druids
had had a place of worship here. After Christianity
had been introduced, this island seems to have been
taken possession of by some of the followers of St.
Columba, who here erected a small chapel dedicated
to that saint, and from which circumstance the pre
sent name of the island is derived. The origin of the
religious house of which the ruins still remain, is thus
related by Fordun:—" About the year 1123, Alex
ander I. having some business of state which obliged
him to cross over at the Queen's ferry, was overtaken
by a terrible tempest blowing from the south-west,
which obliged the sailors to make for this island,
which they reached with the greatest difficulty.
Here they found a poor hermit, who lived a religious
life according to the rules of St. Columba, and per
formed service in a small chapel, supporting himself
by the milk of one cow and the shell-fish he could
pick up on the shore ; nevertheless, on these small
mean's he entertained the king and his retinue for
three days,— the time which they were confined here
by the wind. During the storm, and whilst at sea
and in the greatest danger, the king made a vow, that
if St. Columba would bring him safe to that island,
he would there found a monastery to his honour
which should be an asylum and relief to navigators ;

he was, moreover, farther moved to this foundation,
by having, from his childhood, entertained a parti
cular veneration and honour for that saint, derived
from his parents, who were long married without
issue, until, imploring the aid of St. Columba. their
request was most graciously granted." The monas
tery founded by Alexander in virtue of this vow wag
for canons-regular of St. Augustine, and being dedi
cated to St. Colm or Columba, was richly endowed
by its royal patron. Allan de Mortimer, Lord of
Aberdqur, gave also to God and the monks of this
abbey, the entire moiety of the lands of his town of
Aberdour for a burying-place to himself and his pos
terity in the church of that monastery. Walter
Bowmaker, abbot of this place, was one of the con-
tinuators of John Fordun's ' Scoti-Chronicon.' He
died in the yeaf 1449. James Stewart of Beith, a
cadet of Lord Ochiltree, was made commendator of
Inchcolm, on the surrender of Henry, abbot of that
monastery, in 1543. His second son, Henry Stewart,
was, by the special favour of King James II., created
a peer, by the title of Lord St. Colm, in the year
1611. Fordun records several miracles done by St.
Columba, as punishments to the English, who often
pillaged this monastery. In the Duke of Somerset's
expedition, 1547, this monastery was, after the battle
of Pinkie, occupied as a post commanding the Forth.
The circumstance is recorded by Paton, in the fol
lowing words : — " Tuesday, the 13th of September,
in the afternoon, my Lord's Grace rowed up the
Fryth, a vi or vii myles westward, as it runneth into
the land, and took in his way an island thear called
Sainct Coomes Ins, which standeth a iiii mile beyond
Lieth, and a good way ner at the north shore than
the south, yet not within a mile of the nerest. It is
but half a myle about, and hath in it a pretty abbey,
(but ye monks were gone,) fresh water enough, and
also coonyes ; and is so naturally strong, as but one
way it can be entered. The plot whearof my Lordes
Grace considering, did quickly cast to have it kept,
whearby all traffik of merchandise, all commodities
els comying by the Fryth into their land, and utterly
ye hole use of the Fryth itself, with all the havens
uppon it shood quyte be taken from them. Satur
day, 17th of September, Sir John Luttrell, Knight,
having bene by my Lordes Grace, and the counsell,
elect abbot, by God's suffraunce, of the monastery of
Sainct Coomes Ins, afore remembered, in the after
noon of this day departed towardes the island to be
stalled in his see thear accordingly ; and had with
him coovent of a C hakbutters and L pioneers, to
kepe his house and land thear, and ii rowe barkes
well furnished with amnicion, and lxx mariners, for
them to kepe his waters, whereby it is thought he
shall soon J>ecum a prelate of great power. The per-
fytness of his religion is not alwaies to tarry at home,
but sumtime to rowe out abrode a visitacion, and
when he goithe, I have heard say he taketh alweyes
his sumners in barke with hym, which are very open-
mouthed, and never talk but they are harde a mile
of, so that either for loove of his blessynges, or fear
of his cursinges, he is like to be souveraigne over
most part of his neighbours." Inchcolm was visited by
Grose in 1789, and in his 'Antiquities of Scotland'
are given several views of its ecclesiastical ruins.
" Great part of the monastery," says he, " is still re
maining ; the cloisters, with rooms over them, enclos
ing a square area, are quite entire ; the pit of the
prison is a most dismal hole, though lighted by a
small window ; the refectory is up one pair of stairs j
in it, near the window, is a kind of separate closet,
up a few steps, commanding a view of the monks
when at table; this is supposed to have been the
abbot's seat ; adjoining to the refectory is a room
from the size of its chimney, probably the kitchen!

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The octagonal chaper-house, with its stone roof, is
also standing ; over it is a room of the same shape,
in all likelihood the place where the charters were
kept. Here are the remains of an inscription, in the
black-letter, which began with stullus. The inside
of the whole building seems to have been plastered.
Near the water there is a range of offices. Near the
chapter-house are the remains of a very large semi
circular arch. In the adjoining grounds lies the old
carved stone, said to be a Danish monument, en
graved by Sir Robert Sibbald, in whose book it is
delineated as having a human head at each end. At
present it is so defaced by time or weather, that no
thing like a head can be distinguished at either end :
indeed, it requires the aid of a creative fancy to make
out any of the sculpture ; something like a man with
a spear is seen on the north side, and on the south
the figure of a cross ; it has been removed from its
original situation." The island, which is fertile in
some places, and is in repute for its crops of onions,
was made a station for a battery of ten guns, for the
protection of this part of the frith, during the last war.
In more recent times the place has been partly mo
dernized, as a residence for a party who farms the
island from the Earl of Moray. Some years ago an
attempt was made to plant it, but the trees failed.
INCH-CONACHAN, or Colqchoon's Island,
an islet in Loch-Lomond, a mile south-east of the
village of Luss, one of a cluster of 3 islets of nearly
equal size, in the parish of Luss, Dumbartonshire.
It has Inch-Tavanach immediately on the south
west, Inch-Moree immediately on the south, and
Inch-Cruin, in Stirlingshire, not far distant on the
east. The islet is nearly 6 furlongs long, and 3 fur
longs broad, and comprehends 94 Scottish acres
under natural oakwood and some fir ; but is unin
habited. INCH-CORMAC, an islet near Kiels, at the
opening of Loch-Swin. There are the remains of a
chapel upon it.
INCH-CROIN, an islet in Loch-Lomond, £ a mile
north-east of Lich-Murrin, 3 furlongs south- iyest of
Torrinch, and 1$ mile from the bank of the south
end of the lake, in the parish of Kilmaronock, Dum
bartonshire. It is nearly a square, with the angles
rounded off, measures about 3 furlongs on each side,
and is finely wooded.
INCH-CRUIN, an islet in Loch-Lomond, I of a
mile north-east of Inch-Mean, J of a mile north-west
of Inch-Fad, and about mid-distance between the
western and the eastern banks of the lake, in the
parish of Buchanan, Stirlingshire. It is more than
\ a mile long, and 3 furlongs broad, has little wood,
and was formerly the site of an establishment for the
insane. Its name signifies the ' round island.'
INCH-FAD, ' the long island,' an islet in Loch-
Lomond, J of a mile from the eastern bank of the
lake, and £ a mile north-west of Inch-Cailliach, in
the parish of Buchanan, Stirlingshire. It is 7 fur
longs in length, and nearly 3 in breadth, and stretches
from north-east to south-west. The islet is but
partially wooded, but has a very fertile soil, and is
inhabited, INCH- FRIECHLAN, 'the shaggy island,' a
rock in Loch-Lomond opposite the village of Luss,
in Luss parish, Dumbartonshire. The name alludes
to the fern by which the appearance of the little islet
is characterized. INCH-GALBRAITH, an islet of only a few acres
of area, in Loch-Lomond, 3 furlongs from the western
bank of the lake, and the same distance south of
Inch-Tavanach, in the parish of Luss, Dumbarton
shire. It is chiefly noticeable as having been the site
of an ancient castle, once the residence of the family
from which the islet derives its name. The ruins of

the castle still exist amidst a few overshadowing
trees, and are now the habitation of the osprev
INCH-GARVIE, a rocky islet in the frith of
Forth, about 5 furlongs in circumference, lying 1J
mile from the southern shore of the frith, and 1 mile
from the northern shore, immediately south of the
passage at Queensferry. In the reign of James IV.
a fort was erected upon it by Dundas of Dundas,
which in later times was used as a state prison.
Ruins either of the original fort, or of a castle after
wards built on its site, still grace the summit of the
islet. In 1779, after the alarm occasioned by the
appearance of Paul Jones and his' squadron in the
frith, the fortifications were repaired and provided
with four iron 24 pounders, but they have since been
dismantled. INCHINNAN,* a parish in Renfrewshire, bound
ed on the north by the Clyde ; on the east and south
by the Cart and the Gryfe ; and on the west by the
parish of Erskine, touching at one point on the
south-west the parish of Houstoun. Its length is
3| miles, and its breadth varies from nearly 1 to 2
miles. It contains 3,060 English acres, which may
be arranged thus : — arable in cultivation, 2;600 ;
woodlands 300; natural pasture, 100; sites of
houses, roads, and waters, 60. The yearly produce
is estimated at £14,000. The soil is excellent, con
sisting chiefly of strong productive clay ; while on
the banks of the rivers it is of a rich loamy quality.
The land is in a high state of cultivation ; all the
modern improvements with respect to rotation of
crops, manures, and draining, having been adopted.
With the exception of a small portion of moorland
not yet reclaimed, the whole parish is enclosed. The
surface is diversified by rising grounds, some of them
arable to the summit, others beautifully wooded, and
all commanding extensive views of the surrounding
country. Few parishes afford so many delightful
situations for small country-seats. In the Clyde,
adjacent to the farm of Garnaland in this parish, is
an island, containing about 50 acres, called Newshot
 corruptly Ushet— Isle. In the Cart, before its
confluence with the Clyde, is a much smaller one,
called Colin's Isle, which, according to tradition,
originated in the stranding of a vessel. The former
is set down in Blaeu's map, dated 1654 ; the latter
is not. Limestone and coal abound in this parish.
Freestone of superior quality is wrought at Park and
Rashielee ; and at the latter place large quantities of
whinstone have, since 1760, been procured, forming
excellent materials for the construction of jetties and
other improvements on the channel of the Clyde.
The population is chiefly agricultural ; and there are
no manufactures, although the parish is situated in
a great manufacturing district. Of villages it can
scarcely be said there are any, the largest collection
of houses consisting of 6, with the average number
of two families in each. Towards the end of the
18th century, there was a distillery at Portnaul, on
the east side of the parish  The lands of Inchinnan
were granted by King Malcolm IV. to Walter the
high steward, in 1158 ; and in the possession of »
branch of the Stewart family — that of Lennox — a
portion of these Jands remained till the beginning ol
the 18th century, when it was sold by the Duke ot
Lennox and Richmond to the Duke of Montrose.
It now belongs to Mr. Campbell of Blythswood,
whose ancestor purchased it from the Duke of Mon
trose in 1737, Mr. Campbell is the principal land-
* The parish of Inchinnan is of a peninsular form, being
bounded by riverg on three sides, which obviously gave rise to
the first syllable of the name, being the Celtic word for a pen
insula, as well as an island. The adjunctis probably the name
of St. Inan, to whom the church is supposed to have been de
dicated. See the New Statistical Account, where an error of
the author of Caledonia is pointed out.

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owner in the parish. The palace of Inchinnan was
built by Matthew, Earl of Lennox, in 1506. It stood
rear to the site of the farm-steading of Garnaland,
looking towards the Clyde. Crawford mentions that
there were " some considerable remains " of it in
1710 ; but before the end of the century it had alto
gether disappeared, and the very foundations had
become arable land. The structure appears to have
been palatial only in name : had it been of any great
consequence, it is not likely that it would have fallen
so early into decay. The materials were partly em
ployed in the building of a corn-mill at this place, in
the gable of which, Semple, in 1782, observed one
of the stones bearing an inscription. The mill hav
ing been lately pulled down, the stone was deposited
within the tower of the church. The inscription is
as follows: — D . D
F S L . UCL
16 . 31
The.greater part of the estate of Northbar was ac
quired in 1741 by Lord Sempill, who built a house
upon it on the bank of the Clyde. In 1798 it was
sold to Mr. James Buchanan, from whom it was ac
quired by Lord Blantyre, about 14 years afterwards.
Southbar, the property of Mr. Maxwell Alexander,
was acquired by his uncle in 1 785. The mansion-
house was, with the exception of one wing, acciden
tally destroyed by fire in August, 1826. The other
estates are Park, Lord Blantyre; Freeland, Mr.
Killoch ; Rashielee, Mr. Maxwell of Dargevel : and
House of Hill, Miss Balfour  At the church of Inch
innan the waters of the Gryfe and the White Cart
unite. Here there was formerly a public ferry,
which gave name to a property, still called Ferry-
craft. In 1759 a bridge was built, a few yards be
low the point where the rivers join. It consisted
of 9 large arches, with a communication from the
middle of the bridge by an arch connecting it with
the point of land between the rivers. It cost only
£1,450. The foundations of this structure were so
insecure, and the work so imperfect, that it gave
way in consequence of a flood, in the spring of 1809.
A new bridge was completed in 1812, at an expense
of £17,000, on a different site. It is composed of
two divisions, which cross the streams 30 or 40
yards above their junction ; an end of each divi
sion resting on the intermediate peninsula. They
do not run in a straight line into each other, but
the road takes a bend in the middle, where they join,
and forms nearly a right angle, each of them cross
ing its own water at a right angle also. Upon
the whole, this structure is at once substantial and
elegant, and«has a fine effect amidst the surround
ing scenery, which is deservedly admired for its
amenity and tranquil beauty. There is another
bridge connected with the parish, that of Barns-
ford, which crosses the Gryfe and Black Cart about
half-a-mile below their junction. The old high
road from Glasgow to Greenock, by Renfrew, in
tersects the length of the parish ; and two good
roads communicate With Paisley. Population of
the parish, in 1831, 642. Houses 89. Assessed
property, in 1815, £5,268. Inchinnan is in the
presbytery of Paisley, and synod of Glasgow and
Ayr. Patron, Campbell of Biythswood. .Stipend
1 6 chalders, one-half meal and the other half bailey,
with £8 6s. 8d. for communion elements, and a
glebe of 7£ acres. Part of the incumbent's emolu
ments he, like his predecessors, derives as superior
of a piece of land, consisting of 2J acres, called
Ladyacre, which in Popish times formed an en
dowment for an altar dedicated to the Virgin
Mary, and situated in the parish-church. At the

Reformation, this land was sold by the chaplain,
for payment of a small feu-duty. The teind and
duty annually arising from this source amount to
£1 5s. 5d. In the charters granted bythe ministers
of Inchinnan in virtue of the superiority referred
to, they have uniformly styled themselves " un;.
doubted chaplains of the altarage and altar, com
monly called Our Lady's Altar, of old founded and
situated in the parish-church of Inchinnan, and as
such undoubted superiors of the lands after-men
tioned." The present incumbent truly says, in the
New Statistical Account, — " The attachment of a
superiority to a living occurs nowhere else in Scot
land, in similar circumstances ; and the Popish title
connected with it is a still more extraordinary ano
maly." — Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with
about £22 school fees, and £5 of other emolu
ments. There is another school with one teacher.
— According to ancient historians, St. Conval, or
Connal, taught Christianity at Inchinnan, where he
died in 612. David I. gave the church of Inch
innan, with all its pertinents, to the Knights Tem
plars, to whom it continued to belong till their sup
pression in 1312, when all their property in Scot
land was transferred to the Knights of St. John,
who enjoyed the rectorial tithes' and revenues, and
had the cure served by a vicar of their own ap
pointment, till the Reformation. The former church
of Inchinnan — which was pulled down in 1 828 — was
a very ancient fabric, 50 feet in length, by only
18 in breadth, with an antique scarcement to throw
off the rain from the foundation. The walls were
of great thickness. " In the churchyard all the old
tomb-stones, of which many remain, have crosses of
different forms sculptured upon them. The par
ishioners point out what tradition has taught them
to call the Templars' graves. The stones covering
them, now reduced to 4 in number, are not flat, but
ridged ; and upon their sloping sides, figures of
swords may be distinctly traced. If ever there
were stone coffins under them, it is long since they
have disappeared, and the graves themselves have
been appropriated, from time immemorial,- to the
use of the parishioners."* The present church is
Gothic, with a massive square tower, buttresses, &c,
and is much admired. It occupies the situation of
the former one, upon the Gryfe, near its junction
with the White Cart. Both it and the bridge of
Inchinnan were built of the freestone from Park
quarry in this parish.
INCH-KEITH, an island in the frith of Forth,
about 3 miles south-east of Pettycur, 22 miles west-
half-north from the isle of May, and 17 west-north
west from the Bass rock. It belongs to the parish
of Kinghorn, and is rather more than half-a-mile in
length, and about an eighth of a mile in breadth.
Throughout, its surface is very irregular and rocky,
but it is in many places productive of rich herb
age well-suited for pasturing horses and cattle.
Near the middle of the island, but rather towards
its northern end, it rises gradually to a height of 180
feet above the level of the sea; and here alight-
house has been erected. The island possesses abun
dant springs of the most excellent water, which is
collected into a cistern near the harbour, from
which the shipping in Leith roads' are supplied. It
is supposed to be the Caer Guidi of Bede, and, from
the name, must have been fortified previous to his
time. In Maitland's ' History of Edinburgh' there is
an order from the Privy council to the magistrate's
of Edinburgh, dated September 1497, directing
" that all manner of persons within the freedom of
this burgh, who are infected of the contagious plague
* New Statistical Account, p. lyi.

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called the grangore. devoid, rid, and pass furth of
this town, and compeer on the sands of Leith at ten
hours before noon; and there shall have and find
boats ready in the harbour, ordered them by the
officers of this burgh, readv furnished with victuals,
to have them to the Inch (Inch-Keith), and there
to remain till God provide for their health." It early
belonged to the family of Keith, afterwards Earls
Marischal, and from them received the name it now
bears. How long it continued in possession of this
family does not appear, as it afterwards belonged to
the Crown, and was included in the grant of King-
horn to Lord Glammis. With this family it re
mained till 1649, when, according to Lamont, it
was bought, along with the mill of Kinghorn and
some acres of land, by the well-known Scot of
Scotstarvet, for 20,000 merks. It afterwards be
came the property of the family of Buccleugh, and
formed part of their barony of Royston, in the parish
of Cramond, in Mid-Lothian. In 1549, Inchkeith
was fortified by the English, then in Scotland, under
the Duke of Somerset. Havins; been dislodged by
the French, then in possession of Leith, the works
erected by the English were thrown down, and a
more complete fortification was erected. Upon a
portion of the fort, which remained about the end of
last century, were the initials M. R. and the date
1556. In 1567, by an act of the Scottish parlia
ment, the fort was demolished to prevent its being
of use to the English. — The lighthouse on this island
was erected in 1803; and was at first a stationary light,
but in 1815, it was changed to a revolving light as at
present. It is elevated 235 feet above the medium
level of the sea. On the 1st of October, 1835, the
reflecting light on this island was discontinued, and a
dioptric light exhibited in its place. It consists of
seven annular lenses, which circulate round a lamp
of three concentric wicks, and produce bright flashes
once in every minute ; and of five rows of curved
mirrors, which, being fixed, served to prolong the
duration of the flashes from the lenses. The ap
pearance of the new light does not, therefore, ma
terially differ from that of the former one, excepting
that the flashes — which recur at the same periods 
are considerably more brilliant and of shorter dura
tion. In clear weather, the light is not totally
eclipsed between the flashes, at a distance of 4 or 5
miles. The expense of this lighthouse, in 1839, was
£467 14s. 5d.
INCH-KENNETH, one of the Hebrides, in the
t district of Mull, and constituting part of the parish
of Kilfinichen. It is at the entrance of Loch-na-
Kell, off the western coast of Mull, and at the dis
tance of 12 miles south-west by west from Aros.
This island, says Dr. Johnson, in his beautiful and
emphatic description, is "about a mile long, and
perhaps half-a-mile broad, remarkable for pleasant
ness and fertility. It is verdant and grassy, and fit
both for pasture and tillage ; but it has no trees.
Its only inhabitants were Sir Allan Maclean and
two young ladies, his daughters, With their servants.
Romance does not often exhibit a scene that strikes
the imagination more than this little desert in these
depths of Western obscurity, occupied not by a gross
herdsman, or amphibious fisherman, but by a gentle
man and two ladies, of high birth, polished manners,
and elegant conversation, who, in a habitation raised
not very far above the ground, but furnished with
unexpected neatness and convenience, practised all
the kindness of hospitality and refinement of cour
tesy. Inch- Kenneth was once a seminary of eccle
siastics, subordinate, I suppose, to I-Colm-Kill. Sir
Allan had a mind to trace the foundation of the col
lege, but neither I nor Mr. Boswell — who bends a
keener eye on vacancy — were.able to perceive them.

Our attention, however, was sufficiently engaged by
a venerable cbapel, which stands yet entire, except
that the roof is gone. It is about 60 feet in length,
and 30 in breadth: on one side of the altar is a bas-
relief of the blessed Virgin, and by it lies a little bell ;
which, though cracked and without a clapper, has
remained there for ages, guarded only by the vener-
ableness of the place. The ground round the chapel
is covered with grave-stones of chiefs and ladies ;
and still continues to be a place of sepulture.
Inch-Kenneth is a proper prelude to I-Colm-Kill. It
was not without some mournful emotion that we
contemplated the ruins of religious structures, and
the monuments of the dead. On the next day, we
took a more distinct view of the place, and went
with the boat to see oysters in the bed, out of which
the boat-men forced up as many as were wanted.
Even Inch- Kenneth has a subordinate island, named
Sandiland — I suppose in contempts — where we land
ed, and found a rock, with a surface of perhaps four
acres, of which one is naked stone, another spread
with sand and shells, some of which I picked up for
their glossy beauty, and two covered with a little
earth and grass, on which Sir Allan has a few sheep.
I doubt not but when there was a college at Inch-
'Kenneth, there was a hermitage upon Sandiland."
INCH-LONAIG, an islet in Loch-Lomond, \ of a
mile from the village of Luss, and 5 furlongs from
the eastern bank of the lake, in the parish of Luss,
Dumbartonshire. It is about a mile long, stretching
from north-east to south-west, and nearly J a mile
broad; and contains an area of 145 Scottish acres.
About one-half of its surface is covered with a natural
forest of very old yew-trees. This islet has long
been used as a deer-park by the Colquhouns of Luss,
and has about 150 deer. Its only human inhabitants
are the inmates and keepers of a boarding-establish
ment, or place of restraint and cure for persons who
have been addicted to drinking.
INCHMAHOME, the larger of two islets in
Monteith-loch, parish of Port-of-Monteith, on the
southern verge of Perthshire. This islet possesses
such historical and antiquarian interest as to have
been the subject of a quarto volume, by the Rev.
Mr. Macgregor of Stirling. In itself it has an area
of only about 5 acres, and is an object of simple
beauty, — an emerald gem on the bosom of the smil
ing lake. But it was the site of an extensive and
noted priory, the ruins of which still sufficiently in
dicate its ancient grandeur. One arch of very ele
gant Gothic architecture, a considerable extent of
wall, and the dormitory and vaults, are embosomed
in a grove of large and somewhat aged trees. The
vaults have long been used as sepulchres by several
ancient families ; and in the choir of the church are
sculptured figures of the last Earl and Countess
who bore the dormant title of Monteith. Imme
diately to the south-west lies the smaller islet of
Tulla, the site of a ruined castle, anciently the prin
cipal residence of the Monteith family. Inchma-
home united with Tulla to form the castle's insulated
demesne ; and it still bears memorials, in an inter
mixture of aged fruit-trees with its little forest, of
having been laid out in garden and orchard. Several
of its forest-trees are chestnuts, planted before the
Reformation, one of them having a girth near the
ground of 18 feet. The priory belonged to the
Canons Regular of the Augustinian order, and was
founded by Edgar, king of Scotland. It had four
dependent chapels, and was represented in 1 562 to
Government as having property of the annual value
of £234, besides tithings in grain. Originally it was
connected with the abbey of Cambus-Kenneth ; af
terwards, it was attached by James IV. to the royal
chapel ef Stirling; and eventually- it was bestowed

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ny James V. upon John, Lord Erskine, as commenda
tory abbot. In 1310 it was visited by King Robert
Bruce, and was the scene of his exercising some
royal prerogatives. In 1547, when the English in
vaded Scotland with the view of forcing a mar
riage-contract between Edward VI. and Mary, the
infant queen, then 5 years of age, she was carried
to the priory, and remained there, protected by
her attendants, till she was sent off to France. The
priory was visited likewise by James VI., and was
occasionally honoured with the presence of many
distinguished subjects.
INCH-MARNOCH, an islet in the frith of Clyde,
on the south-west of the isle of Bute, to which it
is politically annexed. It is about a mile long ; and
lies 2 miles west of St. Ninian's point. On the west
side are vast strata of coral and shells. The ruins
of a chapel dedicated to St. Marnoch are still to be
seen upon it. This island belonged, in former times,
to the monastery of Sadell in Kintyre ; it is now in
the parish of Rothesay.
INCH-M1CKERY, a rocky islet in the frith of
Forth, 2 miles and a furlong from the southern
shore, and 3£ miles from the northern shore, lying
a little south of Cramond island and Inchcolm, and
at about mid-distance between them. It is only
about 3 or 4 furlongs in circumference, and is chiefly
remarkable for an extensive oyster-bed on its shore,
and for the profusion of sea- weeds, lichens, and mosses
on its beach and surface.
INCH-MOAN, or Moss-Island, a low, flat,
boggy islet in Loch-Lomond, ^ of a mile from the
western bank of the lake, and immediately south
of Inch-Tavanach and Inch-Conachan, in the parish
of Luss, Dumbartonshire, It stretches from east
to west ; is 6£ furlongs in length, and 3 furlongs in
breadth ; contains 99 Scottish acres, chiefly moss ;
and supplies the villagers of Luss with turf-fuel.
INCH-MURRIN, or Inch-Marrin, an islet in
Loch-Lomond, the largest, and, with one exception,
the most southprly of the beautiful earth-gems which
are sprinkled in the bosom of that brilliant and joy
ous sheet of water ; lying J of a mile from the west
ern bank, the same distance from the southern bank,
and upwards of 2J miles from the efflux of the river
Leven. It forms, with Inch-Croin, Torrinch, and
Inch-Failliach, a belt of islets from south-west to
north-east, on a straight line across the broadest part
of the lake ; and lying direct in front of the naviga
tion from Balloch, is the first object on which the
eye of a nautical tourist rests when commencing a
trip upon the lake from the south. The islet is up
wards of li mile in length, and nearly J a mile in
breadth. ft is beautifully wooded, is usedYas a deer
park, and has a hunting-seat and offices on it belong
ing to the Duke of Montrose. At its south-west end,
in a grove of venerable oaks, are the ruins of an an
cient castle, once the residence of the Earls, and after
wards of the Dukes of Lennox. The islet, as regards
position, belongs decidedly to Dumbartonshire, and
might be competed for with nearly equal claims by
the parishes of Luss, Bonhill, and Kilmaronock; but
it seems, singularly enough, not to be included in
any division either county or parochial,
INCH-NA-DAMPH See Assynt.
INCH-TAVANACH, or Monk's Island, anislet
in Loch-Lomond, stretching north and south at about
J of a mile's distance from the western bank of the
lake, and J of a mile south-east of the village of
Luss, in Luss parish, Dumbartonshire. It measures
nearly a mile in length, 3 furlongs in breadth, and
135 Scottish acres of superficial area. Its sides are
steep ; its surface is higher than that of any other islet
in the lake ; and 1 27 of its acres are covered with
natural oakwood. One family resides on it.

INCH-TORR, or Torr-inch, an islet, £ a mile
long, and beautifully covered with oaks and lofty
beech-trees, in Loch-Lomond ; lying between Inch-
Cailliach and Inch-Croin, and forming with these islets
and Inch-Murrin, a belt across the broadest part of
the lake. It is situated upwards of a mile respectively
from the southern and from the eastern bank, and
within the parish of Buchanan, Stirlingshire.
INCHTURE,* a parish in the Carse of Gowrie,
Perthshire ; bounded on the north-west by Aber-
nyte; on the north-east and east by Longforgan; on
the south-east by the frith of Tay, which divides it
from Flisk in Fife ; on the south-west by Errol; and
on the west by Kinnaird. It is of an elongated but
very irregular form ; and measures about 4 miles from
north to south, and about 3 from east to west. Its
coast-line, or line of beach upon the Tay, is only
about a mile in length, and overlooks, at high wa
ter, only about 2£ or 2J miles breadth of frith. A
rill rises in the interior, runs 1£ mile down to the
western limit, traces for If mile the boundary
with Errol, and, aided almost at its mouth by a brook
of more than twice its own length of course coming
in from Errol, forms at Powgavie, a small but not
unimportant harbour. Another brook, coming down
from the north-west, forms for 3£ miles the north
eastern and eastern boundary-line, receives in its
course a rill flowing 1£ mile through the parish
from Abernyte, and diverges away into Longforgan.
The parish, with very trivial exceptions, is a dead
level, but commands a delightful view of water and
hill scenery ; and is one of the most fertile and beau
tiful in the rich and exulting district in which it lies.
The soil is opulent carse-land, well-improved by
lime and other. appliances suited to clay; and, in
general, produces heavy crops of prime grain. The
area is embellished with fine enclosures and shelter
ing plantations, and, at intervals, is beautifully stud
ded with gentlemen's seats, and laid out in pleasure-
grounds  Rossie priory, a superb monastic-looking
pile, spacious and elegant within, imposing in aspect
without, and surrounded by an extensive demesne,
lifts up its fine form near the northern extremity of
the parish. This mansion belongs to the noble fa
mily of Kinnaird, whose ancestor, Sir George Kin
naird of Inchture, was raised to the peerage in 1682
by the title of Baron Kinnaird of Inchture; and
was built by Charles, 8th Lord Kinnaird, in 1817.
Drimmie house, the predecessor of the priory, stood
within the limits of Longforgan, but spread out most
of its attendant pleasure-grounds in Inchture. — Near
the south-eastern extremity of the demesne, and
close on the eastern boundary of the parish, stand
the ruins of the ancient castle of Moncur, embosomed
in shrubbery and plantation.— Ballindean house is
delightfully situated, near the northern boundary,
at the foot of the rising ground which bounds the
Carse of Gowrie on the north  Balledgarno house,
south-east of Ballindean, is another fine mansion,
surrounded by plantation  The parish has several
quarries of excellent freestone, and a complement of
mills and thrashing-machines. Roads intersect it in
every direction ; and the mail-road from Edinburgh
and Glasgow to the north runs through it from east
to west. On this road stands the cheerful village of
Inchture, 13 miles from Perth, and 9 from Dundee,
occupying the summit of a rising ground in the centre
of the luxuriant expanse of the carse-lands. The
hamlet of Ballindean stands 1£ mile to the north-
* Inchture, or Inchtnwer, in the original application of the
word, was possibly an inch or island, tearing aloft a tower, un
the bosom of the sheet of sea-water by which the Carse tit
Gowrie is believed tn have been covered ; and the island or
inch may, after the recession "f the sea, have become the ris
ing ground which is noiv t'.ie site of the church aud village.

INC

9

INN

west. The other villages are Ballerno and Pol-
gavie or Powgavie: which see. Population of the
parish, in 1801, 949; in 1831, 878. Houses 157.
Assessed property, in 1815, £1,731  Inchture is in
the presbytery of Dundee, and synod of Angus and
Mearns. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £224 10s.
7d. ; glebe £30. An assistant and successor has
£30 from the incumbent, and £30 from the heritors.
The parish-church, a neat Gothic edifice, was built
in 1834, and is situated at the village of Inchture.
The present parish comprehends the ancient parishes
of Inchture and Rossie, which were united in 1670.
The church of Rossie, half-a-century ago, was a ruin.
Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with £27 fees,
and about £8 other emoluments. The maximum
attendance at the parish-school is 83 ; and at 3 non-
parochial schools, 72.
INCHYRA, a small district and a village on the
north bank of the river Tay, between the parishes
of Kinfauns and St. Madoes, Perthshire. The dis
trict measures 1 a mile along the course of the river,
but only 1 mile direct east and west, and J of a mile
north and south, and is a detached part of the parish
of Kinnoul. The village is a port, 8 miles distant
from Perth, and a little south of the post-road be
tween that town and Dundee. It has a good har
bour, which admits vessels of considerable burden,
and a ferry which communicates with Fingask in the
parish of Rhynd.
INGANESS-BAY, a bay of about 3 miles in
length, nearly 2 miles to the east of Kirkwall bay,
in Orkney. The headland on its west side is called
Inganess-head. INHALLOW. See Enhallow.
INIS-CONNEL. See Awe (Loch).
INIS-FRAOCH. See Awe (Loch).
INIS-HAIL. See Awe (Loch).
INNERKIP, the most westerly parish in Ren
frewshire, is bounded on the north and west by the
frith of Clyde ; on the east by Greenock and Kilmal
colm ; and on the south by Largs, in Ayrshire ; ex
tending about 6 miles from north to south, and about
4 from east to west. The coast is indented, but not
deeply, by the bays of Gourock, Lunderstone, Inner-
kip, and Wemyss. There are several rivulets, the
principal of which are Shaw's burn, the water of
which is turned from its proper course towards the
sea for the supply of the works at Greenock ; Kelly
bum, which forms the boundary on the side of Ayr
shire ; and the Kip and the Daff, which unite at the
village of Innerkip, and then fall into the sea. The
parish has obviously received its name from the Kip,
and the word Inver, signifying the issue of a river.
From the shore to the south-east is a gradual ascent,
beautifully varied with plains, gentle declivities,
winding streamlets, and heath-covered hills. There
are fine fertile tracts, embellished with plantations,
around the bays of Innerkip and Gourock. The
other arable lands are nearly limited to narrow stripes
along the shore, or bythe sides of the rivulets. The
greater part of the parish consists of bleak moors and
pasture ground. It contains 12,540 English acres,
which may be thus arranged : moss or moors, 5,860;
arable, 4,500; sound pasture, 1,500; woodlands,
natural or planted, 540 ; sites of houses, roads, and
rivulets, 140. The village of Innerkip is a neat and
pleasant place, inhabited chiefly by fishermen, and
frequented for sea-bathing, though it has not become
a place of general resort. It was made a burgh-of-
barony before the Union, and has the privilege of
holding 3 fairs annually. Along the shore are some
elegant marine villas. The principal land-owner is
Sir Michael Robert Shaw Stewart, Baronet, whose
ancestor obtained from Robert III., in 1403, a grant
of the lands of Ardgowan, to which several large ad

ditions have since been made by purchase  Ard
gowan house, a stately structure, surrounded by
beautiful plantations, was built in the beginning of
this qentury. Elevated on a terrace overhanging
the frith, it commands an extensive prospect of the
shipping, and the surrounding scenery. Near the
house there is an ancient square tower, probably a
portion of the castle of Innerkip, which was held by
the English in the time of Robert Bruce, and to
which Sir Philip de Moubray escaped, after being
discomfited by Sir James Douglas. Barbour in his
poem distinctly indicates the course of the flying
knight as having been by Kilmarnock and Kilwin
ning, to Ardrossan :
" Syne throw the Largis, him allane.
Till Ennerkyp,"
which (says Barbour) was " stuffyt all with Ingless-
men," who received him 'in daynte.' — Kelly house,
the seat of Robert Wallace, Esq., is another beauti
ful mansion upon the Clyde, It was erected, in 1793,
by Mr. Wallace's father, who, in the previous year,
purchased the estate from the representatives of its
ancient proprietors, the Bannatynes. Although the
settlement of this branch of the Wallaces at Kelly is
but recent, they have for many ages been connected
with Renfrewshire. The present proprietor has here
formed extensive plantations, and made great im
provements in agrieulture. In this neighbourhood
is the range of braes mentioned in a fantastic old
song, altered by Burns ;
" There lived a carle on Kelly-burn-braes,
(Hey and the rue grows bonnie wi' thyme !)
And he had a wife was the plague »' his days,
(And the thyme it is withered aud rue is in prime !") &r.
On an eminence, overlooking the coast, stand the
ruins of a large square tower, called Laven castle.
The lands of Laven, of old, belonged to a family
named Morton, from which they passed, in 1547, to
the noble house of Sempill. They are now the pro
perty of the Shaw Stewarts, to which family also
belong the lands of Dunrod, an ancient possession of
the branch of the Lindsays, who, from the time of
Robert Bruce, made a considerable figure, but came
to an end, in 1619, in the person of Alexander
Lindsay, who alienated the estate to Sir Archibald
Stewart  Innerkip was famous for its witches, and
probably this Alexander Lindsay is the person spoken
of in the following popular rhyme, one of the very
few we have observed relating to this county :
" In Innerkip the witches rid thick,
And iu Duurod they dwell ;
The grittest loon amang them a'
Is auld Dunrod hirasel'."
These witches are noticed in our account of Gourock,
See also Mr. C. K. Sharpe's Prefatory Notice to
Law's Memorials, Edit. 1818, p. 70  On the brow
of the rock, at Cloch-point, stands a lighthouse,
consisting of a circular tower, 80 feet high, with a
stationary light, of a star-like appearance. It bears
north-east 4 miles from the Point of Wemyss ; and
6 miles north-east by east from Toward-point. The
jurisdiction of the river-bailie of Glasgow terminates
at this point. In the immediate neighbourhood there
is a ferry across the frith, which is here much nar
rowed, to the opposite shore at Dunoon. Before the
introduction of steam-boats this was the principal
means of communication with the West Highlands.
It is still used chiefly for the transporting of cattle
from that district. — In the 12th century the church
of Innerkip, with all the land between the rivulets
where it stood, was granted to the monastery of
Paisley by Baldwin of Biggar, who appears to
have held these lands under Walter, the first
Steward ; and to the monastery the church con
tinued to belong till the Reformation. At Christ-

10

INNERLEITHEN.

well there.stood a chapel, which was founded in the
reign of Robert III., and was endowed with lands
in this parish. In 1594 Innerkip was deprived of
part of its territory by the formation of the parish of
Greenock, which had previously been comprehended
in it. A new church having been built at Greenock
at that time, the old place of worship at Innerkip
was termed 'the auld kirk,' which, by a natural
figure of speech, is now the name popularly applied
to the village of Innerkip itself. In 1832 the quoad
sacra parish of Gourock [which see] was divided
from Innerkip. Population of Innerkip, in 1831,
including Gourock, 2,088. Houses, in 1831, 258.
Assessed property, in 1815, £5,392  Innerkip is in
the presbytery of Greenock, and synod of Glasgow
and Ayr. Patron, Sir M. R. S. Stewart, Bart.
Stipend upwards of £230, with a glebe of 4 acres.
The Independent body has a church here ; stipend
not known  Salary of parochial schoolmaster £30
15s. Hid., with from £26 to £28 of school-fees.
There is also a side-school with one instructor.
INNERLEITHEN, or Inverleithen, a parish
chiefly in the north-east of Peebles-shire, and partly
in the north of Selkirkshire ; compact in position,
and proximately triangular in form, presenting its
angles to the north-west, to the south-west, and to
the east. It is bounded on the north-east by Edin
burghshire and the Selkirkshire part of Stow; on
the south by the Tweed, which divides it from
Yarrow parish in Selkirkshire and Traquair parish
in Peebles-shire ; and on the west by the parishes of
Peebles and Eddlestone. Measured as a triangle,
and not including sinuosities, it extends on the
north-east side from Dunreich to the angle a little
below New Thorpylee, 11£ miles; on the south
side, from the angle just mentioned to the conflu
ence of Spittlehope-burn with the Tweed, 7| miles;
and on the west side, from the mouth of Spittlehope
burn to Dunreich, 6 miles. But it has, on all sides,
especially along tbe course of the Tweed, some pro
jections and considerable recessions of outline ; and
contains an area, according to Armstrong, of 27,587
English acres, and, according to the minister of the
parish in his evidence before the Commissioners of
Religious Instruction, of 30,100 acres. The part
which falls within the limits of Selkirkshire is a
stripe on the south-east side, ascending 5\ miles
from the Tweed, with a breadth, over most of the
distance, of less than a mile, and an extreme breadth
of 2J miles. The surface gradually rises from the
Tweed to the northern extremity, and has, in gen
eral, a broken, rugged, and precipitous appearance.
Hills, forming part of the broad range which diverges
at an acute angle from the central chain of the south
ern Highlands, at the Hartfell group, and runs north
eastward to St. Abb's head, and attaining here, in
many of their summits, the elevation of about 1,000
feet above sea-level, crowd nearly the whole area,
and, in some places, leave, in their interstices, scarcely
sufficient space for the breadth of a road. The highest
ground is Windlestraw-law, 1| of a mile from the
boundary with Edinburghshire, and \ from the near
est point of the north-east boundary of the parish,
yet standing on the boundary-line between Peebles-
, shire and Selkirkshire. The hills are cloven asun
der from north to south by several deep glens, each
bringing down the tribute of a crystal stream to the
Tweed. The largest of the rivulets is the Leithen,
which, rising within | of a mile to the north-west
angle, and running b\ miles south-eastward, and 3J
miles southward, cuts the parish into two not very
unequal parts, and contributes the main quota of its
name : see the Leithen. Craighope-burn 1 J mile
in length of course, Woolandslee-burn 2J miles in
length, and Blakehopebyre-burn, also 2J miles in

length, and all rising close on the1 north-eastern
boundary, come down in a south-westerly direction
upon the Leithen in the upper or south-easterly
part of its course, and, in common with their mimic
tributaries, find their way along cleughs or glens.
Spittlehope-burn rises on the side of Carcsman hill,
and after a course of f of a mile in the parish, forms,
for 1J mile, the boundary with Peebles, and then
falls into the Tweed. Another streamlet, parallel
to this, 1J mile eastward of it, and 2J miles in
length of course. Walker's burn, 1£ mile eastward
of the Leithen, and 3 miles in length ; and Gatehope
burn, 1| mile farther to the east, and 3$ miles in
length, — all pursue a southerly course to the Tweed,
and, along with Leithen water and Spittlehope-burn,
cleave the lower part of the parish into nearly regular
sections, divided from one another by parallel glens.
The course of the Tweed, in majestic sweeps
along the southern boundary, especially for 3J miles
above the influx of the Leithen, and over some dis
tance below it, is exquisitely beautiful, and though
inferior in effect to its course respectively past
Peebles and past Kelso, where the competition of
claims for superiority in brilliance has engaged the
attention and debates of connoisseurs, may compare
with almost any other part of the noble and exulting
and everywhere interesting river. Along its banks,
and also along those of the Leithen for 3 or 4 miles
above the confluence of the rivers, are level stripes
of very rich haugh ; behind these are narrow borders
of gravelly loam, skirting the foot of the hills ; and
farther back, gentle ascents, waving with corn or
covered with plantation, lead the eye gradually up
ward to an array of rocky or heath-clad summits,
chequered and patched on their sides with verdure.
Though, in passing along the Tweed from Kelso to
Peebles, a stranger might suppose the interior to be
a hilly wilderness of rocks and desolation, yet the
southern exposure of the general surface occasions
the growth of much succulent herbage, and the car
peting of much excellent sheep-pasturage. Estimat
ing the whole area at somewhat more than 30,000
acres, nearly 26,000 are enclosed and constant sheep-
walk, about 2,500 have been occasionally in tillage,
nearly '550 are under wood, chiefly plantations of
oak* larch, and elm, and in a small degree hazel and
birch and indigenous copsewood, and about 1,500 are
in a waste condition, or carelessly open for sheep.
All the farms of the parish, with two exceptions,
are pastoral, having either limited scope or none for
the use of the plough ; and, for the most part, are of
large extent. About 16,000 black-faced and Cheviot
sheep, much improved in the breed, and nearly 400
black cattle feed upon the pastures. The sheep-walks,
though elevated, are much valued by the farmer as
sure spring-ground, and produce a vegetation which,
both for its earliness and its succulency, gives suste
nance to the sheep just at the time when they most
need to be rallied from the wasting effects of the
winter, and when the dam needs nourishment for
her tender brood. In the arable parts of the
parish the most fertile soil is that part of the
haughs formed by the subsidence of the Tweed and
the Leithen ; and, in consequence of this being oc
casionally flooded by the rivers, the most manage
able is the gravelly loam on the hanging plains be
hind, formed, in the course of ages, by the decom
posing action of the atmosphere on the rocks and
the decay of vegetable substances, but obstructed at
intervals by blocks of stone, and curiously traversed
by what are called ' blind springs' bursting from fis
sures in the subjacent rocks. A quarry of pavement
slate, which finely combines with the Arbroath stone
[see Forfarshire] to form a tesselated stone floor,
was wrought, for some time at Holylee ; and a quarry

INNERLEITHEN.

11

of clay-slate for roofing was wrought at the eastern
angular extremity below New Thornylee. Peat is
abundant at the north-west angle, and occurs in
smaller patches on Windlestrae-law ; but is so dif
ficult of access as not to prevent a demand on the
Lothian coal-mines for fuel  At the mouth of al
most every defile throughout the parish tower-
houses are met with in a ruinous condition ; but,
except in two or three instances, they have intrusted
neither to record nor to tradition the names of their
occupants. If similar scenes of iniquity were prac
tised in all of them to some which the archives of
the presbytery of Peebles ascribe to one of their
number, they have deservedly become the habitation
of owls. On arising ground in the immediate vicinity
of the village of Innerleithen, are vestiges of the fos-
sum and the circumvallating lines of a strong fortifi
cation. The lines appear to have been formed with
out cement by a compact masonry of a vast mass of
stones, fetched from a distance; and the third of
them encloses a space of rather more than an English
acre. — Horsburgh castle, the property of the Hors-
burgh family, about the origin of whose possessions
in the parish a gossipping tradition points to a
romantic hawking expedition of a king of Scotland,
is an ancient, edifice on the Tweed, near the mouth
of Spittlehope burn. — The most noticeable modern
mansions are Glen-Ormiston and Holylee, both on
the Tweed, the former near the village of Inner
leithen. Three roads of importance traverse the
parish, — the Glasgow and Kelso turnpike along the
banks of the Tweed, the new turnpike between
Edinburgh and Peebles up Blakehopebyre burn, and
a road along the Leithen from its mouth to its source.
—Population, in 1801, 591 ; in 1831, 810. Houses
138. Assessed property, in 1815, £7,012  Inner
leithen is in the presbytery of Peebles, and synod
of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, Livingston
Booth. Stipend £231 Is. 10d.; glebe £20. Unap
propriated teinds £173 18s. lid. The church was
built in 1786. Sittings 350. According to an eccle
siastical s"urveyin 1835, the population then consist
ed of 624 churchmen, 155 dissenters, and 19 persons
not known to belong to any religious denomination,
— in all, 798. The dissenters are Episcopalians,
Seceders, and members of the Relief connected with
congregations in Peebles, and Roman Catholics, who
attend a chapel at Traquair. Dissenting ministers
frequently preach in the village ; and the Indepen
dents have, for several summers past, supplied it as
one of their stations. The parish had annexed to it,
in 1674, about one-third of the old parish of Kailzie,
the other two-thirds of which were annexed to Tra
quair. Kailzie was dismembered and suppressed in
opposition to the remonstrances of the presbytery,
and to the protest of the only heritor residing in
two-thirds of its extent : see Kailzie. The church
of Innerleithen was given by Malcolm IV. to the
monks of Kelso, and endowed with a power of giving
refuge to persons fleeing from justice ; but, as the
village and the circumjacent district continued to
be a part of the royal demesne during the reign of
Alexander II., it must have been given to them
without its appurtenances. A natural son of Malcolm
IV. was drowned in a pool near the mouth of the
Leithen ; and his body, during the first night after
his decease, was deposited in the church. William,
an ancient parson of the .parish, was one of the wit
nesses to a charter of William Morville, who was
nonstable of Scotland from 1 189 to 1190.
¦ The village of Innerleithen stands on the haugh-
ground of Leithen water, about half-a-mile above the
influx' of that stream to the Tweed; 6 miles from
Peebles ; and about 28 from Edinburgh ; overlooked
on the east and the west by high and partly wooded

hills, and commanding, especially towards the south,
a limited but delightful prospect. Deriving its chief
importance from the attraction of visiters and sum
mer-residents to its medicinal well, it is rich, as to
the position and the character of its environs, in the
advantages of a choice retreat for invalids, and a
place of fashionable retirement. To persons who are
fond of angling it offers the teeming waters of the
Leithen and the Tweed, and is within an easy dis
tance of the Quair, St. Mary's loch, and various other
trouting waters. To lovers of ease and quiet, who,
while they enjoy the luxuries of rustication, depre
cate the toils of travelling, and the dulness of far
removal from the busy scenes of life, it presents, at
the distance of a comfortable drive from Edinburgh,
a retirement almost Arcadian, stilly and delightful in
pastoral repose, where walks at will and solitary
rambles are liable to hardly an intrusion. To per
sons who luxuriate in drives and pedestrian incur
sions among the beauties of landscape, it offers in
profusion the romantic dells and softly highland ex
panses of green Tweeddale, — a gorgeous stretch
westward to Peebles, and eastward to Abbotsford
and Melrose, of the magnificent Tweed, — the retreats
of Elibank and Horsburgh wood, the classic scenes
of ' the bush aboon Traquair,' and, above all, at no
great distance, those thrilling charms of the braes
and waters, and ' dovvy dells' of Yarrow, which have
drawn melodious numbers from perhaps a moiety of
the poetic genius of Britain. To invalids it presents
a dry and healthy climate, — the medicinal properties
of its well, in various appliances expressly framed to
bear salutiferously upon visiters, — and what persons
who are really or judiciously in quest of health will
highly prize, comparative freedom from the fashion
able dissipation which absurdity has contrived to
make ascendant in some watering-places of Britain.
Even to men of intellectual pursuits or of a literary
taste, it possesses a sufficient character for attracting
persons of their class, to afford a hope that they will
not want suitable society ; and it offers, on the spot,
enough of books and periodical literature to prevent
habits from becoming rusted; and everywhere in its
vicinity, it holds out objects of antiquarian and scien
tific research. A writer, some 25 years ago, on the
district in which it is embosomed, made, therefore,
more display of his alliterations and pleonasms, than
of his soundness of judgment, when he mentioned as
a " defect" incompatible with its prosperity, the
want of "feature, force, fulness, and novelty, in the
scenery, by the expressive boldness of striking rocks,
and the romantic enrichment of their sheltering trees,
to impress and attract the senses, and, through them,
rouse, stir up, raise and enliven the spirits, by remov
ing that dulness which the tame tranquillity of lone
liness, in a pastoral district, in unison with its flocks,
is apt to produce in its inhabitants, where its surface
is uniform, insipid, uninteresting, and bald." [Note
on p. 238 of the annotated edition of Dr. Penne-
cuick's Works. Leith, 1815.] — If Innerleithen —
with the hanging woods on the hill-sides which over
look, it, and the mansion of Traquair peeping out
from a rich grove on the further bank of the Tweed,
and the alternately green and rocky eminences which
flank the glens coming down through the parish, and
the near vicinity of the supereminent district of song
and poesy  is thus to be denounced, where is the
vocabulary which shall supply terms for the propor
tionate denunciation of the most boasted spa-scenes
of England ?
Part of Innerleithen stands on the estate of Pirn,
on the east side of the Leithen ; but by far the greater
part is built on the property of the Earl of Traquair,
on the west side of the stream. One reason of the
balance being so much on the west bank is, that the

12

INNERLEITHEN.

ground has been feued by the noble proprietor on
advantageous terms. The village Consists chiefly of
one neatly edified street along the public road, wing
ed with detached buildings, and little clusters of
houses. Most of the structures have been erected
as accommodation for summer-rusticators and invalid
visiters to the spa, and are not unworthy to receive
as inmates the persons to whom mainly the village
looks for support,-^those accustomed to the delight
ful city-homes of the metropolis of Scotland. In the
village are some good shops, — two large and commo
dious inns, each of which has a public table dr ordi
nary during spring and summer, — one inn of second
ary spaciousness,— a circulating library, with an at
tached reading-room, — and appliances for concerts,
balls, public recitations, and occasional histrionic
exhibitions. Over the medicinal well is an elegant
structure erected by the late Earl of Traquair; and
the pump-room combines with its proper character
that of a public news-room. Across the Leithen is
a stone-bridge, connecting the two parts of the vil
lage, and carrying over the Glasgow and Kelso turn
pike. Over the Tweed, in the immediate vicinity,
is a beautiful wooden bridge, constructed by the skill
and personal superintendence • of Mr. Jardine, civil
engineer, and opening a delightful communication
with the grounds of Traquair, and with the attrac
tive northern section of Ettrick Forest. In the im
mediate vicinity of the village rises the neat small
form of the parish-church. On the Leithen stands
a large factory, a building five stories high, present
ing an aspect strangely out of keeping with all the
other features of the village. and country landscape.
A friendly society was instituted in 1808, and is in
a prosperous condition. A club, formed in 1827 by
upwards of forty noblemen and landed proprietors,
managed under the auspices, or with the personal
care of some of the most distinguished individuals
connected with Tweeddale and Selkirkshire, ahd the
Border districts, and bearing the name of the St.
Ronan's club, patronizes a fondness which the na
tives of the district have during ages displayed for
athletic sports, holds an annual festival called ' the
Border games,' for the exhibition of gymnastic exer
cises, and promotes an annual competition during one
day in trout-fishing. Great concourses, on these oc
casions, are drawn to the village; men eminent in
the exploits of literature are attracted to witness
peaceful feats of prowess ; and aristocrat, philoso
pher, lawyer, yeoman, and artizan^-sturdy and skilful
in muscular effort, or pleased to watch its play and
emulation — sit down at a common board, and forget,
for a season, the artificial distinctions of a modern
age, in admiration of the rough energies which
formed the pnme object of attention to ancient re
publics. The mineral spring to which the village mainly
owes its prosperity, seems to have been unremarked
for its medicinal properties till about the commence
ment of the present century. Till then it was noted
chiefly or altogether as the resort of pigeons from the
circumjacent country, and bore the name of the Doo.-
well. Had any saint in the Romish calendar been
acquainted with it, the priests of the age preceding
the Reformation would have pictured him to their
gullible flocks as performing a far different exploit in
connection with its waters, than that which Meg
Dods ascribes to the patron saint of 'the Aulton'
in reference to St. Ronan's Well, and would hardly
have failed to send down to posterity the fame of
miracles achieved by the naturally salutiferous pro
perties of its waters. Even after it came into late
notice, the well was a trivial, repulsive-looking foun
tain, bubbling up amidst a little marsh ; and had no
better appliance than a rude bench placed at its side

for the accommodation of the infirm invalids who
crept or were carried to it in quest of health. A
simple pump afterwards rose gauntly from its mouth,
amidst the wet miry puddle around it. But about
twenty years ago, or not much earlier, the spa, with re
markable suddenness, and in a way nearly unaccount
able, became celebrious among valetudinarians of all
classes in Edinburgh and throughout the south ol
Scotland. The well, in the decorations built over
and around it, in the character assigned it by popular
opinion, and in the influence it exerted on the village
in its vicinity, now rose, as if by magic, from the
status of a watery hole in a quagmire, to that of an
infant competitor with the proud spas of England
In 1824, the publication of Sir Walter Scott's tale of
St. Ronan's Well, greatly enhanced its celebrity, and
poured down upon it some rays of that lustre which
popular opinion then assigned to 'the Great Un
known ;' for nearly all the readers of light literature,
in spite of the utter difficulty which a topographist
would have felt to discover resemblances, unhesi
tatingly identified the Marqhthorn and the St. Ronan's
of the tale with Peebles and Innerleithen. The well
springs up at the base pf the Lee-pen, about 200 feet
above the street of the village. In its original state,
it issued in small quantities, and at only one spring ;
but, when the ground was dug to its source, in ordet
to clear away admixtures near the surface, it became
emitted in two streams of different strength. On
analysis, a quart of the less impregnated stream was
found to contain 5'3 grains of carbonate of magnesia,
9-5 grains of muriate of lime, 21 -2 grains of muriate
of soda,— in all, 36 grains ; and a quart of the other
stream, 10"2 grains of carbonate of magnesia, 19-4 of
muriate of lime, and 31 of muriate of soda, — in all,
60-6 grains. The waters, jointly with the salubrious
influence of the fine climate, are efficacious chiefly in
cases of ophthalmic complaints, old wounds, and dys
peptic and biuous disorders.
Previous to the enriching discovery of the medi
cinal qualities of the well, Innerleithen gave some
promise of its being about to cast off its pristine
and ancient condition of a tiny sequestered ham
let, consisting of a few thatched houses, a mill,
and a church, by becoming the adopted seat of an
important manufacture. Toward the close of last
century, Mr. Alexander Brodie, a native of Tra
quair, who had acquired wealth and mercantile
insight in London, thought the site of the hamlet,
upon a streamlet of much water-power, and in the
midst of an extensive pastoral country, peculiarly
favourable for a woollen manufactory, and expended
£3,000 in erecting the edifice which now lifts its
lumpish form beside the village. But though the
factory enjoyed several years of his personal super
intendence, and, in the first , instance, QQcasioned
colonizing and stir around its site, it never fairly-
prospered; and, after his death, it passed into the
hands of various and successive lessees, and entailed
upon some of them pecuniary loss, The fabrics are
partly tartans, and chiefly broad-cloth. The annual
consumption of raw material is between 2,500 and
3,000 stones. A few of the tartan weavers earn the
same wages as those of Galashiels, — 16s. Gd. a- week;
but some, glad tp break away from cotton-weaving
at Peebles, have been engaged for lis. 6d. a- week,
but at the expense of being frowned upon by their
craft. The. condition pf the operatives engaged in
the manufacture is good. The number of hand-looms
was, in 1828, 10; and in 1838, 24. Population pf
the village, in 1838, irrespective of surnmer-yjsjters,
or persons attracted by the spa, 412.
INNERPEFFRAY. See Inchchaffery.
INNER WELL, the name of various localities in
the parish of Sorbie, Wjgtonshire. The chief are

INNERWICK.

1.3

Innerwell-point, a tiny headland li mile north of
Eagerness; and Innerwell-port, a fishing-station $
of a mile farther north, where there is a salmon fish
ery rented at about £200 a-year.
INNERWICK, or InverwicK, a parish in the
eastern division of Haddingtonshire ; bounded on the
north-west by Spott and Dunbar ; on the north-east
by the German ocean ; on the east by Oldhamstocks ;
on the south by Berwickshire ; on the south-west by
a detached portion of Spott ; and on the west by de
tached portions of Dunbar and Stenton, and by the
main body of Spott. It is of somewhat a horse-shoe
form, with the convex side facing the west, and mea
sures about 94 miles in length, by about 2J in aver
age breadth. Two-.thirds of the surface stretch
across the Lammermoor hills. The highest ground
is about mid-distance between the sea and the south
ern boundary. Upward by a slow ascent, from the
south to this point, and downward by a considerable
descent from it, till within 3 miles of the sea, the
surface is in general heathy and wildly pastoral, yet
contains some patches of arable soil, and is occasion
ally relieved by verdure on the hills, by the cheerful
aspect of the ccttage and the farm-stead, and by the
lively movements and green delly banks of its pas-
torai streamlets. Along the northern side of the
Lammermpprs, in a belt which cennects them with
the plain, are ravines which break precipitously down
in dresses of wildness and of hanging woods, to
brooks which trot noisily along their stony bottoms,
and dells clothed in verdure and various herbage,
and disclosing here and there a pleasing prospect
over a richly cultivated valley to the sea. Inter
vening between this chequered belt and the sea is
a luxuriant and very fertile plain, — rich in all the
features pf scenery which kindle the enthusiasm
of a keen farmer, variegated in three instances
with the tracery of plantation, but, in general,
not sufficiently tufted and frilled with wood to
awaken a sensation of unqualified pleasure in a per
son of taste. The coast— which, followed along its
indentations, is about 2J or 2i miles in extent — par
takes, in a general way, but tamely, of the rocky
boldness with which the ocean is confronted from
Dunbar to St. Abb's Head. About five-ninths of
the area of the parish are in natural pasture ; nearly
four-ninths ate in tillage ; and about 350 acres are
Under plantation. — Monynut water rises in a peat
moss in Innerwick common, near the centre of the
highest ground of the parish ; flows south ward along
side of the hilly ridge called Monynut edge, and as
suming now a south-easterly direction, traces for 2$
miles the eastern boundary, — performing from its
source to the south-eastern extremity of the parish,
a course of 4J miles. Philip-burn rises on Peat-law,
and, not far from its origin, begins to trace for 2
miles the southern boundary, when it falls into the
Monynut. Craig-burn rises at the central heights of
the parish, and forms, frpm its prigin tp its junction
with the Whitadder at St. Agnes, over a distance of
4J miles, the western boundary-line ; and, in its pro
gress, it is jpined generally at right angles, by a sur
prising number pf brief rills, whose cleugh-beds or
glens form with its valley; a sort of rib-wprk pf vales.
Back-burn rises within 3 furlongs of the former, and
has about the same length of course, and, like it,
forms all the way the western boundary-line ; but, of
cpurse, flows in an opposite directicn, and cheerily
mcves alpng the plain to the sea. Thprntpn water
rises within 4 pf a mile pf the spurce of Monynut
water, flows 2 miles eastward, 1J northward, and 3
north-eastward, — receiving several indigenous little
tributaries ampng the hills, turning a grinding-mill
about the middle of its course, and curving round the
village of Innerwick at a brief distance on the plain,

— and falls into the sea at the village of Thornton-
loch. Numerous springs, welling up in a plen-
teousness quite in keeping with the profusion of
streams, supply the inhabitants with abundance of
excellent water. — Limestone abounds on the lands ol
Skateraw, and is there burned in such quantities as
supply a large part of the circumjacent agricultural
district. Coal seems to have been anciently worked,
but has ceased tte draw attention. Sandstone is
abundant, but is quarried only for local use  On a
steep eminence overhanging a rocky glen, near the
village of Innerwick, stand the venerable ruins of
Innerwick castle, an ancient strength of considerable
importance. Grose gives a drawing of it in his An
tiquities. Originally, it was the property of the
Stewarts ; but afterwards it passed into the posses
sion of the Hamiltons of. Innerwick. On an emin
ence opposite to it, on the other side of the glen,
anciently stood Thornton castle, a stronghold ot
Lord Home. Both of the fortresses were attacked
and beaten into ruins by Protector Somerset, during
his invasion of Scotland  A short way south of their
site are slender remains of a bridge variously called
Edirkens, Edinkens, Edincain, and King Edward's,
— a name which has been connected by antiquarian
criticism sometimes with Edward of England, and
more frequently with Edwin of Northumbria, to
whom the metropolis of Scotland is suppcsed tp owe
her designation. Near the bridge stppd, till a very
modern date, four grey stenes, which were cenjec-
tured tp indicate the sepulchre ef some ancient per
son pf great nete. In a field near Dryburn bridge,
two stone coffins, containing a dagger and a ring,
were not lpng agp disccvered  The parish is inter
sected along the coast by the mail-road between
Edinburgh and Londpn, by way pf Berwick; and
along Monynut edge by a road between Dunbar and
Dunse ; and it has, in its lowlands, a fair provision
of Well-kept subordinate roads. A small harbour on
the coast of the Skateraw property serves for ex
porting lime and importing coal. The villages are
Thornton-Loch [which see], and Innerwick. The
latter is situated at the base of a steep but cultivated
hill, about a mile west of the Edinburgh and London
road ; and though clean, and not nnpleasing in ap
pearance, is planless and straggling. Population ol
the parish, in 1801, 846 ; in 1831, 987. Houses 191.
Assessed property, in 1815, £12,182  Innerwick is
in the presbytery of Dunbar, and synod of Lothian
and Tweeddale. Patron, Mr. Ferguson of Raith.
Stipend £277 19s. 2d. ; glebe £15. Unappropriated
teinds £382 9s. 10d. Walter, son of Alan, the first
Stewart, received a grant of the extensive manor ot
Innerwick from David I., and he gave to the monks
of Paisley, at the epoch of their establishment, the
church of Innerwick, with its pertinents, a mill, and
a carrucate of land. Various English vassals settled
within the manor. The second Walter, the Stewart,
gave to the menks pf Kelso spme land, and pastures
within the manpr, and liberty tp erect a mill. In
1404 the barpny, jpintly with all the possessipns nf
the Stewarts, was erected intc a free regality as a
principality for the eldest sons of the Scettish kings.
As part pf that regality, it was annexed tp Renfrew
shire at the erecticn cf that district into a county.
In 1670, and 1671, Sir Peter Wedderburn pf Goa
ford obtained grants of the rectory, vicarage, and
tithes of Innerwick, and the baronies of Innerwick
and Thprntpn. Anciently, there was within the
parish a chapel dedicated tc St. Dennis. The ruins
of the building existed till a recent date on a small
promontory on the Skateraw coast, but they have
now entirely disappeared  Parochial schpolmas-
ter's salary £31, with £40 fees, and pther emelu-
mente,

INS

14

INV

INSCH, a parish in the district, of Garioch, Aber
deenshire ; bounded on the north by the watei of
TJrie, which divides it from Drumblade and Forgue ;
on the east by Culsalmond; on the south by Kem-
nay ; and on the west by Kinnethmont and Gartly.
Its figure approaches to a square ; length 5 miles ;
breadth 3 ; square area 7,500 acres. Houses 270.
Assessed property, in 1815, £2,360. Population, in
1801,798; in 1831, 1,338 ; in 1836, 1,365. The soil
in the southern part of the parish is fertile; but a
small part only is arable. The higher lands afford
excellent pasturage, especially Dun-o-deer hill, a
conical eminence about 3,000 yards' in circumferenoe
at the base, and rising, insulated from the level plain
of the Garioch, to the height of 300 feet. According
to that veracious historian, Hector Boethius, the
pasturage of this hill was wont to turn the teeth of
sheep, in cropping it, to the semblance of gold. We
need scarcely say that though the sheep themselves
are turned into gold, the pasturage has now no such
effect on the teeth in particular. On the summit
of this hill are the vitrified ruins of a castle said to
have been erected by Gregory the Great. Dun-o-
deer has much the appearance of an extinct volcano.
Part of Foudland hill, rising 300 feet above sea-level,
is within this parish : in its higher parts are exten
sive quarries of fine blue slate. The kirk-town of
Insch is a small burgh -of-barony with a weekly mar
ket : it is situated at the southern extremity of the
parish, 26 miles north-west from Aberdeen, with
which this district principally communicates by the
Inverury canal  This parish is in the presbytery of
Garioch, and synod of Aberdeen. Patron, Sir John
Forbes, Bart. Stipend £204 7s. 9d. ; glebe £15.
Unappropriated teinds £47 0s. 9d. Church built,
according to date on belfry, in 1613; repaired in
1794; sittings 413. Here is a Baptist congregation
who assemble in a thrashing-mill. provided with forms
for 160 sitters. Schoolmaster's salary £27, with
£17 fees, and other emoluments. There are .three
private schools in the parish.
INSCH, a quoad sacra parish in the presbytery of
Abernethy, and synod of Moray. It was at one
time partly united to the parish of Alvie, and partly
to Kingussie ; but, in 1828, was disjoined from these
parishes, and erected into a parish, quoad sacra, un
der the act 5° Geo. IV. c. 90. Population 644. The
church is an ancient building ; sittings 300. Stipend
£ 1 20, paid by Government, with a manse and glebe.
INVER (Loch), a small arm of the sea, on the
north-west coast of Sutherlandshire, near the pro
montory of Ru-Stoer. It gives name to the only
village in the parish, Inver or Lochinver, which is
a post-station, 245 miles north-north-west of Edin
burgh : see Assynt.
INVER, or Invar, » hamlet on the great road
from Perth to Inverness, at the confluence of the
Braan and the Tay, on the eastern verge of the
parish of Little Dunkeld, Perthshire. It. stands
immediately opposite the town of Dunkeld, and, pre
vious to the erection of the bridge, it was the ferry-
station of the town.
INVERALLEN, partly, in the shire of Inver
ness, and partly in the shire of Elgin, an ancient
vicarage now comprehended in the parish of Crom-
dale. The chimth is en the western bank ef the
Spey, and, together with the surrounding burying-
place, is still in use. It is 1| mile south-west of
Grantewn. INVER ARITY, a parish in the centre cf the
sputhern division of Forfarshire ; bpunded on the
north-west by Kinnettles ; on the nprth by Fprfar ;
on the nerth-east by Dunnichen ;. on the east by pne
of the parts of Guthrie ; en the south-east by
Monikie ; on the south by Midi-house ; on th e south

west by Tealing ; and on the west by Glammis. In
outline, it approaches the figure of a circle ; and, in
measurement, it is about i± or 4£ miles in diameter.
Arity water, a large tributary of Dean water— so
large, and so greatly longer in course than that slug
gish drain of Loch- Forfar, as.to be really the parent
stream  comes in upon the parish from the east, and
intersects it right through the middle ; and about
halfway across it is joined pn its left bank by Corbi-
burn, which rises in several head-waters at and be
yond the south-western boundary, and comes bend-
ingly round, first eastward, and next northward, to
the point of confluence. Where the streams unite,
or a little eastward, a valley or little strath com
mences, and stretching thence Jo the western boun
dary, forms a sequestered level, overlooked and en-
cinctured by an amphitheatre of hills. Ascending
gently on almost all sides from this valley, the sur
face rolls upward to the boundaries in soft hills,
variegated, and, in some instances, covered with
plantation. But though the parish seems not na
turally favourable to the plough, two-thirds of it are
cultivated, and one-sixth under plantation, only an
other sixth being left in a waste or uncultivated
condition. The soil, in the valley, is chiefly allu
vial ; on the high grounds, is, extensively, a hard
loam ; but, in numerous districts, is clayey or vari
ous. Sandstone and grey slate abound, and are
plentifully worked. Dotterels visit the parish ; rails
and woodcocks also abound. Roe-deer are n umerous.
The mansions are Fotheringham and Kincaldrum,
both in the central valley. There is no village — On
the eastern boundary, and partly in the parish of
Guthrie, are traces of the outer ditch and rampart of
a Roman camp, called ' Haer Faads.' The parish
is traversed northward and southward by the great
western road between Dundee and Aberdeen, and is
otherwise well provided with roads. It is also inter
sected in its northern part by the Dundee and Forfar
railway. Population, in 1801, 820; in 1831,904.
Houses 173. Assessed property, in 1815, £6,093 
Inverarity is in the presbytery of Forfar, and synod
of Angus and Mearns. Patron, Fotheringham of
Powrie. Stipend £226 2s. 5d. ; glebe 10 acres of
land and a manse. Unappropriated teinds £65 13s.
— Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d.,
with about £25 fees, and about £7 other emolu
ments. The present parish comprehends the ancient
and united parishes of Inverarity and Meathie.
INVERARY,* a parish in Argyleshire, extending
about 18 miles in length, and on an average 3 in
breadth, somewhat in the form of a crescent, and
lying chiefly betwixt Loch- Awe and Loch-Fyne :
see these articles. Its appearance is hilly and even
* " Inveraray,— in Gaelic, Ion-ar.ao~reidh.-iB the modern
name of the parish. The appellations by which it was formerly
distinguished, viz., Ki'milieu and Gleneray, were either given
in consequence ol' ilB being the cell of sume monk, or from a
glen which forms a considerable part of the district. The river
which runs by Inveraray,— iu Gaelic, Ao-reidh,— is a contrac
tion of ao, a privative, *not,' and reidh, 'smooth.' Thisetymo.
logy suits with the appearance of some parts of the river at this
day, and was very applicable to the whole of it before its chan
nel was cleared. Ao-rcidh, is evidently contrasted with Sio.
reidh, 'always smooth,'— the name of another river near the
town, remarkable for its smoothness. From Ao-rcidh, is de.
rived Glenao-reidh, the valley through which the river passes,
and Ion-ar-ao-reidh, the flat ground on both sides the mouth of
the river. It is probable, that agriculture was first attempted
on such lertile sputs as were thus situated. Tlie name uuiver.
sally given In Gaelic to such pieres of ground, favours this idea.
Ion-ar, or Inver, means, 'worthy ot tillage," from ion, 'de.
serving of,1 and ar, 'to till.' Ion-ar-ao.reidh, may therefore
signify 'apiece ol flat fertile ground at the mouth of a rapid
rough river;' or, aorath, may signify unlucky, from the fre
quent accidental drownings which may be supposed to have
happened iu a rapid rough river, before bridges were built on
it, and which, from the contiguity of the hills, is apt to be
overflowed in a very short space of time, an instance of which
happened on the 3d of August, 1792, when, in consequence of a
, high flood, salmon and trout were caught un the verv roads
| and meadows."— Old Statistical Account.

INVERARV.

Ii

mountainous, though interspersed with several tracts
ef flat ground, particularly about the town, and the
vale of Glenshira. The whole of the flat ground is
arable, with a rich deep soil; but the rest is shallow,
and not naturally fertile, though much improved by
the use of lime as a manure. The parish lies along
the coast of Lpch-Fyne, and is watered bythe Aray
[which see] and the Shira, both of which fall into
the loch near the town. The latter stream, in its
course through Glenshira, forms an expanse of water
called Loch-Dow, — ' the Black loch,' — from the
darkness of its bottom, or the depth of its water.
In high tides, the sea flows as high as this lake ; and
it is no uncommon circumstance for herrings and
other salt-water fish to be caught here in the same net
with trout and salmon. — Not far from the town,
on a level space on the south bank of the Aray, is
the castle of Inverary, the principal seat of the
Duke of Argyle. It is a large quadrangular build
ing, with a round tower at each corner, and a high
glazed pavilion, by which the staircase and saloon
are lighted, shooting up above the towers in the
centre. It was founded in 1745, and is built of a
variety of micaceous slate, brought from the other
side of the lake, which is extremely soft, but will,
in all probability, long stand the effects of the wea
ther. This stone is of a blue grey colour ; a single
shower of rain turns it almost black, but a gleam of
the sun restores its original colour. The hall is hung
round with arms very neatly arranged, and other orna
ments suited to the grandeur of a Highland castle ;
but the rest of the house is fitted up in a modern
style, and some of the rooms are hung with fine
tapestry. From the lawn the scenery is very fine.
The Aray, with its beautiful cascades, — the expanded
bay of Loch-Fyne, which here forms an irregular
circle of about 12 or 14 miles in circumference, — the
hill of Dunyqueaich, or Duniquoich, rising in the
form of a pyramid to the height of 700 feet, clothed
to near its summit with a thick wood df trees, and
surmounted with a rude watch-tower, — the richly
wooded banks towards Essachossan, and the distant
screen of mountains, — form a noble assemblage of
grand and beautiful objects. A manuscript journal now
before us, thus narrates the ascent of Duniquoich : —
" Immediately after breakfast we set out with the
view of ascending the abrupt cone-shaped hill which
had attracted so much of our attention last night. C.
led the way ; and as we had acquired a sheep-like
habit of implicitly following our leader, we moved in a
line behind him, and a pretty bit of a dance he led us !
In fact, we were soon convinced that he knew no
more than ourselves about the road by which we might
best achieve the enterprise on which we were bent,
and that we had acted more discreetly in this — as in
other instances — had we taken counsel of the natives
before we began to climb the sugar-loaf shaped
Duniquoich. At first we got on pretty well for a
few yards, — the soil being firm, and the trees kindly
lending us their aid ; but the path ' grew faint and
fainter still,' and at last disappeared entirely, leaving
us to fight pur desperate way pver large stones and
deep fosses, and through strong tufts of underwood,
and long rank grass, and huge ferns, all linked toge
ther by intricate brambles, and forming a kind of
jungle which it required both address and strength to
penetrate. Here and there appeared a few mest
deceptive patches cf bright green mpss, pn which,
as scon as you had placed your foot, you found your-
self immersed over the ancles in water. Still we
worked our way upwards, ' thcrpugh brake, thprpugh
briar, 'though often compelled to pause in our ascent;
arid at. lasts after about an hour's hard labour, we
stood upon the summit of Duniquoich, — not a naked
spiry pinnacle — as we had somehow premised — but

green as a meadow, and of considerable breadth.
A scene of ample extent, and mingled barrenness and
beauty, stretched around us. On three sides was an
amphitheatre ef mpuntains and moprlands. Beneath
us lay the richly grouped wepds and verdant meadpws
of Glenaray; and the noble loch, on which a few
little sails flitted to and fro, stretched away in calm
beauty into the distant horizon, between the long
and waving outline of its mountain-bank. We de
scended at hap-hazard from our cloud-kissing eleva
tion, and as each took paths and ways of their own
in the descent, we had each our peculiar mishaps and
grievances. My boots perished in the service, and
it was unanimously agreed in recounting our adven
tures, that the ascent of Duniquoich is a feat which
none should attempt unless in woodland trim." — The
plantations are extensive, and finely laid out; every
unimprovable crevice, glen, and mountain is covered
with trees, of which the present value is still im
mense, although the late Duke sold upwards of
£100,000 worth of timber from the estate. Popu
lation of the town and parish, in 1801, 2,051 ; in 1831,
2,133. Assessed property £6,281 . The valued rent,
in 1751, was £274 Us. lid., which was then con
sidered to be about half the real rental. Houses 289.
— The parish of Inverary, formerly a vicarage, is in
the synod of Argyle, and is the seat of a presbytery.
It was originally under the charge of one minister, but
bythe commission of parliament in 1650-1, it was
placed under two, with separate kirk-sessions, and
presiding respectively over what are called the
Highland and the Lowland congregations, or the
English and the Gaelic churches. Both churches
were built under one roof, in 1794, at the expense of
the Duke of Argyle, the only heritor in the parish.
Stipend of English minister £168 15s. 6d. ; glebe
£45: of the 2d or Gaelic minister £157 15s. 7d. ;
glebe £30  A United Secession church was opened
in 1836, at an expense of about £500 ; sittings 205.
It is built on a feu of 42 years from Whitsunday
1836, and is vested in trustees appointed by the
United Secession congregation of Regent-place,
Glasgow  There are two parochial schools ; one in
the burgh, and another about 4£ miles distant. The
united salaries of the masters are £51 6s. 8d. per
annum, with about £60 fees. There were also five
private schools in 1834.
Inverary, — in Gaelic lon-ar-aoreidh, — a royal
burgh in the above parish, and the county-town of
Argyleshire; 60 miles north-west of Glasgow, by
Luss and Arroquhar ; 39 north by west of Rothesay,
in Bute, 73J north by east of Campbelltown; and
32 south-east of Oban. It is situated on a small bay
oil the north-east side, and within 5 miles of the head
of Loch-Fyne, where the Aray falls into that arm of
the sea. It is a small town, consisting chiefly of one
street, running nearly east and west, in the centre
of which stands the church, and another- row of
houses which face the bay. The population, in 1831,
was 1,117; in 1821, 1,137. The houses are well-
built, and covered with slate. There are two very
good inns. The old town — which was a dirty ill-
built village, situated on the north side of the bay,
on the lawn immediately before the castle — was re
moved to its present situation, about half-a-mile from
the castle, and the greater part rebuilt by Archibald,
Duke of Argyle. It seems probable, that, prior to
the beginning of the 14th century, Inverary was little
more than a place for fishermen, who lived by their
occupaticn, and erected their huts here. Abput
that peripd, the family of Argyle fixed upon it as
their place of residence ; and, as the hereditary juris
dictions of sheriff and justiciary were vested in that
family, it became of consequence the seat of the
courts and the county-town. It was erected into a

INV

16

INV

reyal burgh by charter from Charles I., dated at
Carisbrppk castle, in the isle pf Wight, 28th Jan
uary, 1648. The territery pf the burgh lies within
the follpwing boundaries, viz. : " The burn called
the Cromalt, at the scuth; the green and yard-dykes
pf the Duke ef Argyle's hpuse pf Inverary, the lands
of Kilmahew, and the burn of Auchareech, respec
tively, en the north ; Loch-Fyne, on the east ; and
the Duke's park-dyke, and the common muir, re
spectively, on the west part." The whole territory,
with the exception of one small feu, belongs in pro
perty to the Duke of Argyle. The inhabitants hold
the houses and ground within burgh under leases
from his Grace, or as tenants at will. His Grace,
from the terms of the entail of his estate, cannot
give leases for a longer period than 19 years. The
burgh-territory, as described in the charter, extends
beyond the parliamentary boundaries. By the char
ter, the council is declared to consist pf a provost, 4
bailies, a dean-of-guild, treasurer, and 12 councillors.
It has, however, been the invariable usage, for the
last forty years, to elect only 2 bailies. It has also
been the custom to elect one or more honorary coun
cillors, but this was considered a mere compliment to
the persens elected, who seldom or never attended a
meeting pf council. The right of electien was vest
ed by the charter in the inhabitants, and they were
to elect the provpst from a leet pf 3, and the
bailies from a leet ef 12 persens. These leets were
to be furnished by the Duke; and if he failed to
do sp, the burgh was entitled tp elect its own magis
trates for that year. The practice, previous to 3° and
4° William IV. c. 76, had always been for the old
Council annually to choose the succeeding or new coun
cil. The enly revenues ef the burgh arise from the
right ef ferrying passengers and cattle tp the ppposite
side of the lech, which is now leased at £40 per an
num, certain petty custcms, and the rent pf a ccmmpn,
called the muir pf Auchenbreck; bpth these last pro
duce abcut £120 sterling annually. In 1750 Duke
Archibald, seeing hew inadequate this revenue was
for the occasions of the burgh, added to it a perpet
ual annuity of £20, secured on his estate pf Stron-
shira. The tetal revenue, in 1839-40, was £157.
Inverary unites with Ayr, Irvine, Campbelltewn,
and Oban, in returning a member tp parliament.
The parliamentary and municipal ccnstituency, in
1840, was 55 — -The chief support of the place is the
herring-fishery, which appears te have subsisted here
from time immemorial. Its harbeur was anciently
called Slochk Ichopper, ' the Gullet where vessels
barter fish;' and the arms ef the tewn represent a
net with a herring, with the motto, ' Semper tibi
pendeat halec' It appears alsc, that the merchants
of France were in use tc come here and barter their
wines for herrings ; and a point of land, called the
Frenchman's point, is stated by traditicn to have
been the place where the merchants transacted their
affairs — Near the centre of the town is a monument
erected to the memory of several gentlemen of the
name of Campbell, who were put to death during
Mpntrose's inroad into Argyle, on a spot near the
present castle, marked by a rude pillar of unhewn
stone. INVERAVEN, a parish partly in Morayshire,
stretching from the river Spey to the borders of
Aberdeenshire, but chiefly in Banffshire; bounded
ou the north by Mortlach and Aberlour; on the east
by Cabrach; and on the south and west by Crom-
aale and Kirkmichael. Its form is irregular, taper-
ing towards the north-west. Length about 20 miles ;
breadth from 4 to 9. Hpuses 537. Assessed property,
in 1815, £5,470. Populatipn, in 1801, 2,107; inl831,
2,648. The river Livet intersects this parish, rising
from numerous seurces within its limits, and flowing

north-westwardly through the celebrated Glenlivet —
which occupies a considerable portion of this parish—
to the Aven, whence the name Inveraven is derived.
The Aven, however, only skirts the parish on the
west, in its course to the Spey, which runs across
the north-western boundary: See article The Aven.
Most part of this parish consists of moor and moun
tain, giving the district a bleak aspect, except along
the banks of the rivers where the land is arable, and
occasicnally adorned with attractive and picturesque
scenery. Much waste land, however, has been re
deemed, particularly in Glenlivet, where the Gordon
estate is being rapidly brought into a gppd state of
cultivation. On the banks of the Spey here, there is
a censiderable extent pf pak wpod, and copses of
birch and alder abound on the banks pf the rivers in
general. Inveraven-Proper is studded with planta
tions. The wppds pf Ballindallpch are extensive,
and cpntain spme npble trees, particularly twp spruce
firs near the mansion-house, and a number pf splen
did trees adprning the lawn. Roe deer are numerous
pn this estate, and game is abundant thrpughout the
parish. Benrinnes [see article Aberlour] is partly
in this parish. On its top is a small basin usually rilled
with water, and a cave in which Grant of Carricn—
' James pf the Hill ' — is said tp have made his hiding-
place. The chief mineral prcduction of this parish is
the peculiar limestcne of Glenlivet, imbedded in
gneiss. It is extensively burnt with peat by the far
mers. Many of the houses here — two stpried and
slated — are pf a highly respectable crder. The house
of Ballindalloch is an excellent specimen of the an
cient Scottish stronghold. It consists of a square
building flanked by three circular towers, the central
and largest of which, containing the gateway, is sur
mounted by a square watch-tower, called the Cape
house, built in 1602. Two extensive wings were
added in the beginning of the 18th century. Kil-
marchlie is a venerable mansion, very appropriately
adorned with ancient firs, the trunk of one of which
measures no less than 1 1 feet in circumference at the
base. At Blairfeldy are the ruins of a hunting-seat
of the Earls of Huntly, and at the confluence of the
Livet with the Aven are the ruins of the ancient
castle of Drumin. There are traces of three Druid-
ical temples in the parish. The old bridge over the
Livet at Upper Downan was destroyed by the great
flopds of 1829 ; but in 1835 an elegant one was built
a little further up the river. Three miles higher up
is Tomnavoulen bridge. Over the Aven at Crag-
Achrcchan, and ever the rapid burn ef Tpmmpre there
are alsp bridges  This parish is in the presbytery pf
Aberlpur, and synod of Moray. Patron, the Earl of
Seafield. Stipend £238 17s. lid. ; glebe £7. Un
appropriated tiends £138 16s. 7d. Church built in
1806 ; sittings 550. It is situated on the brink of
the river Spey.— The inhabitants of Glenlivet are
superintended by a missionary employed by the Gen
eral Assembly. Church rebuilt in 1825; sittings 300.
This mission has been in operation since 1727. The
population of the mission-district, in 1836, consisted
of 839 individuals belonging to the Established
church, and 1,118 Roman Catholics  -A Roman
Catholic ccngregatipn has existed in the parish
time immemprial,— in 1829 it was subdivided intp
twp. Chapel at Tombae built in 1829 j sittings 567
The other congregation is at Chapeltown of Glen
livet.— Schcplmaster's salary £29, with £21 fees,
and pther emeluments, besides a share of the Dick
bequest. There are 5 private schopls in the parish.
INVERBERVIE. See Bervie.
INVERBROTHOCK, a quoad sacra parish,
cemprehending the suburbs pf the tpwn of Arbroath',
and surrounding Arbroath parish on the east, north!
and north-west, on the coast of Forfarshire. It is

INV

17

INV

in the presbytery pf Arbroath, and synod of Angus
and Mearns, and was disjoined by the presbytery, in
1834, from the parish of St. Vigeans. According to
an ecclesiastical census, taken partly in 1835 and
partly in 1836, the population then was 4,759; of
whom 3,435 belonged to the establishment, 967
were dissenters, and 357 were not known to be con
nected with any religious body. The whole popula
tion, except a very few families, are of the labouring
classes. The church was built in 1828, at a cost of
about £2,200; sitting 1,224. Stipend £175  There
are in the parish two dissenting places of worship.
The Wesleyan Methodist congregation was estab
lished in 1770; and their chapel was built in 1772.
Sittings 405. Stipend £1 13 4s. ; but variable ac
cording to the domestic circumstances of the minis
ter. — The Original Seceder congregation was formed
in 1805. Their place of worship was built in 1821,
and cost about £500. Sittings 450. Stipend £70,
with £10 for house-rent.
INVERCAULD. See Braemar.
• INVERCHAOLAIN, a parish in the district of
Cowal, in Argyleshire; about 15 miles in greatest
length, and 8 in greatest breadth. It is bounded on
the north-west by Kilmorlan ; on the north-east by
Kilmun ; on the south-east by Dunoon ; and on the
south-west by the East Kyle of Bute. It is inter
sected for 8 miles by Loch-Striven, an arm of the
sea, and watered by a small rivulet which flows into
the head of the loch. The surface is for the most
part rugged. A ridge of mountains rises with a steep
ascent all along the coast. In some places there are
small flat fields nigh the shore ; but, for the most
part, the ascent from the sea is immediate. About
half-a-mile inland, the soil is thin and sandy, only
adapted for pasturage. All the mountains formerly
were covered with heath, but many of them are now
clothed with a rich sward of grass, since the intro
duction of sheep. There is a considerable extent of
natural wood, which forms an article of importance
to the proprietors. The only plantations are around
the seats of South-hall and Knockdow. Tradition
mentions a battle which took place in this parish,
during the reign of Robert III., and many graves
and cairns are said to point out the places where the
bodies of the fallen were interred. The small island
of Eallangheirrig [which see] is in this parish.
Population, in 1801, 626; in 1831, 596. Assessed
property, in 1815, £4,137. Houses, in 1831, 105 —
This parish, formerly a vicarage, is in the presbytery
of Dunoon, and synod of Argyle. Patron, the Mar
quess of Bute. Stipend £169 19s. 5d. ; glebe £13
10s. Church built in 1812; sittings 250. The min
ister officiates at least ence in the six weeks at Strone,
and occasipnally at Lcch-Strivenhead — There are
twp parochial, and twp private schepls within the
parish. The principal schcplmaster has 400 merks
per annum, the Pther 200 merks. Their schcpl-fees
amount to about £10.
LNVERESK, a parish in the extreme nerth-east
of Edinburghshire ; bpunded on the north by the
frith of Forth ; on the east by Haddingtonshire ; pn
the sputh-east by Cranstpn ; pn the sputh by Dal
keith ; on the south-west by Newtown ; and on the
west by Libberton and Duddingston. But for a con
siderable projection on the; south-east, its form would
be nearly that of a half-moon, the straight side or
chord being on the north. Its extreme measurement,
from West Pans pn the nprth to the limestpne quarry
sputh pf Chalkyside pn the sputh, is 3£ miles ; and,
frpm St. Clement's wells' distillery on the east to an
angle west of Whitehill mines on the west, is 3£
miles; but, north and sputh on the parallel of Mus
selburgh, it is only 2| miles, and east and west alpng
the cpast pnly 2 miles and 3 furkmgs. The situa-
II.

tien pf this parish is pne pf the mpst delightful in
Scctland ; and its surface one ef the mest beautiful.
Alpng the shere stretches a bread belt of pleasant
and fertile downs, formed by the subsidence of the
sea, and only a few feet above the level of high-
water, furnishing a charming field for the favourite
exercises of golf and walking. Behind this plain —
which is about half-a-mile in breadth — the surface
rises in a very slow ascent of verdant fields and highly
cultivated soil, variegated with soft and irregular
undulations, and sending up across the south-western
projection or extremity the hills of Fallside and Car-
berry, 540 feet above sea-level. Beginning at the
eastern extremity, the ascent immediately behind the
plain, extends westward in a swelling curve to the
beautiful rising ground, called the Hill of lnveresk,
on which has stood, from time immemorial, the par
ish-church, commanding a most brilliant prospect,
and forming itself, in its present form, with its tall
and elegant spire, an attractive, object from many
points of view, in a limited but opulent part of the
exulting landscape of the Lothians. This rising
ground — which is about J of a mile from the sea, and
a little westward of mid-distance between the eastern
and the western boundaries — has the form of a cres
cent, with the concave side toward the south, and
the rich vale of the river Esk ploughed curvingly
round its southern and its western base; and, though
of very inconsiderable elevation above the level of
the sea, it has so free an exposure on all sides, ex
cept the east, as both to seem conspicuous from a
little distance, and to command, for the town which
hangs on its sides, delightful prospects and healthful
ventilation. On the concave side, in particular, the
clustering town, with its adjacent ornamental woods
and sloping gardens and elegant villas, gives to the
view from its south side one of the finest village-
landscapes in Britain; and, in its turn, commands
such a prospect of the luxuriant haugh and beautiful
water-course of the Esk, and the splendid demesne
of Dalkeith-house, and an expanse of richly clothed
country stretching away to the Moorfoot hills, as
affords an almost perennial feast to the taste. The
situation of the village, and of places adjacent, is
as healthy as it is agreeable, and long ago obtained
for the locality the name of the Montpefier of Scot
land. — The river Esk, combining just at the point
of entering the parish the waters of the North
Esk and the South Esk, [see these articles],
cemes in pn the demesne ef Dalkeith-house frpm
the south, and bisects the parish into consider
ably unequal parts, in a beautifully winding course
northward to the sea between Musselburgh and
Fisherrew. An unimpprtant rill begins tp tpuch
the parish a few yards from its seurce in Had-
dingtpnshire, and forms the eastern boundary over
a distance cf 2| miles te the sea. The celebrated
Pinkie burn rises a little scuth-east ef lnveresk
hill, and flows first northward and then nerth-west-
ward tp the Esk, between Musselburgh and the
sea ; but being little more than a mile in length of
course, it derives all its interest from historical asso
ciation with the disastrous battle to which it gave
name. Pinkerton burn comes in upon the parish
from the south-west, and flows 1£ mile north-east
ward to the Esk near Monkton hall. Springs,
though none of a medicinal kind, are abundant, and
supply the parish with excellent water  The soil,
on the flat grounds round Musselburgh and Fisher-
row, is sandy, but having been for ages in a high
state of cultivatipn for gardens and small fields,
is abundantly fertile; on the fields, above lnveresk,
on both sides of the river, it is of a better quality ;
and toward the highest ground on the south-eastern
district it is clayey, and, when properly managed,

lc

INVERESK.

carries heavy crops of grain, especially of wheat.
Almost the whole surface of the parish exhibits a
highly cultivated appearance, and is well-enclosed
with stone fences or thriving hedges ; and, though
probably less planted than comports with fulness of
beauty and shelter, it is adorned on the south-west
by the extensive woods of Buccleuch-park, and on
the west by the fine plantations of New Hailes, and
the rising woods of Drummore. Freestone abounds,
and is worked in several quarries. Limestone also
abounds, but is not much worked. Coal, of remark
able aggregate thickness of seam, of comparatively
easy access, and of good quality, stretches beneath
the whole parish. It is, at present, mined chiefly
at Monkton-hall, New Craighall, and Edmonstone,
and produces, with the labour of upwards of 550
persons, nearly 55,000 tons a-year. Under Esk-
grove-house, and terminating in the circumjacent
plantation, is a subterranean aqueduct or tunnel,
which was cut with enormous labour a, little be
fore the middle of last century, as a channel for
a stream drawn from the Esk to drive a wheel
for draining the coal-mines at Pinkie. The manu
factures, fisheries, garden-produce, and cpmmerce of
the parish, are of considerable importance, and will
be seen by reference to the articles on its towns and
villages. The parish is signalized by some remark
able moral characteristics in those of its population
who are ccnnected with the fisheries ef Fisherrow,
and by fond attachment, pn the part of its politer in
habitants, to the amusements of archery and golf.
An ancient silver arrow is annually an object of
competition on the links of Musselburgh to the
Compawy pf Rpyal Archers. The victer receives
£1 10s. and a dezen of claret from the magistrates
of Musselburgh, and is bound'to append a medal of
gold or silver to the arrow before the next year's
competition. The arrow remains for a year in the
victor's custody, and is regarded, even on its own
account, as an object of no little interest, as it has
attached to it an almost unbroken series of annual
medals, back to the year 1603. The golf— so long a
favourite and peculiar exercise of the Scotch — con
tinues to excite to the full as much interest in ln
veresk as in any other of the few localities where it
still continues in favour. Children are trained to it
from their early years, incited by the attractive fit
ness for it of the links, and by the encouragement
of their parents. To preserve the taste for it, a
club of gentlemen was formed in 1760, and purchas
ed a handsome silver cup, which continues to be the
object of an annual competition, and is disposed of
nearly in the manner of the silver arrow of the arch
ers. But healthful and harmless as golfing is in
itself, and cheeringly used by multitudes of exem
plary persons, it has unhappily become considerably
asspciated with some vices which have much wither
ed its attractiens  Pinkie, Pinkie-House, and
Carberry Hill, are objects of deep historical in
terest : see these articles. Carberry-house, pn the
northern slnpe of Carberry hill, in the south-eastern
part of the parish, is a modernized mansion of un
known antiquity, and curieusly combines, bcth in
its exterier and in its interier, the massive and glepmy
character cf a baronial strength, with the spright-
liness and comfort of a modern gentleman's seat.
Monkton house, situated at the south-western verge
of the parish, a mile west of the river Esk, is a mo
dern mansion, the seat of Sir John Hope of Pinkie ;
but it has attached to it at farm-offices an ancient
structure, reported to have been the erection and the
favourite residence of the celebrated General Monk.
Stonyhill-hpuse, the preperty pf the Earl pf Wemyss,
situated half-a-mile sputb\west ef Fisherrpw, seems,
in its present form, to be the pffices of an ancient

mansien, which, in former times, was the prpperty
and the residence successively pf Sir William Sharpe,
the spn pf Archbishcp Sharpe, and of the inglprieus
Colonel Charteris; and it has remnants in its vicinity;
especially a huge buttressed garden- wall, of fit ac
companiments of a very ancient mansion. New Hailes,
formerly the seat pf Sir David Dalrymple Lord
Hailes, the distinguished historiographer and anti
quarian, situated near the western boundary, about
half-a-mile frpm the sea, is attractive en acccunt ofi'
its containing his lordship's very valuable library, of
its being surrounded with a beautifully disposed de
mesne, and of its having in its immediate vicinity a
columnar monument to the great Earl of Stair —
Besides the eminent persons incidentally Mentioned,
the parish claims either as natives or as domesticated
inhabitants, Logan the -poet, Professor Stuart and
his son Gilbert, and David Macbeth Moir, Esq., the
well-known 'Delta' of Blackwood, in the walks
of literature; Walker, Burnet, and the Ritchies,
in the fine arts ; and Sir Ralph Abercrombie, Lord
Clive, Major- General Stirling, and Admiral Sir
David Milne, in the walks of warlike enterprise.
— Antiquities of an interesting kind occur ; but they
chiefly fall to be noticed in the article Musselburch.
The beautiful hill of lnveresk, so exquisitely adapted
to their object, did not escape the notice of the Ro
mans as a fit place for fortifying their hold of the
circumjacent part of their province of Valentia.
Repeated exposure of ruins, the finding of coins, and
some hints in history, indicate their having covered
the whole northern face of the rising ground with
fortifications. Even the site of the pretorium has
been conclusively triced to the summit or apex of ,
the hill now occupied by the parish- church 
Besides the village of lnveresk, the parish contains
'the towns of Musselburgh and Fisherrow, and
the villages of Newbigging, Westpans, Wall-
ford, and Craighall : which see. Craighall pro
perly is two villages, Old and New, containing jointly
a pppulatipn pf nearly 1,000, almpst all of whom are
colliers and their families. Newbigging is strictly a
suburb of Musselburgh ; and extending lengthways,
or in the form of a street between it and lnveresk, it
entails even upon the latter a suburban character.
lnveresk censists chiefly ef cottages, ornees, villas,
and neat houses, all of modern structure, concatena
ted on both sides of a round along lnveresk hill, com
mencing with the parish-church and Inveresk-house,
the property of Sir D. Milne, at the west end, sweep
ing gracefully round the concavity of the rising
ground — a curve corresponding to a beautiful bend in
the Esk — and extending altogether to a length of 900
yards, or about half-a-mile. The tout-ensemble,
however, presents the aspect rather of a pleasing and
rapidly occurring series of rural anil gardened dwell
ings, than of compact or continuous ranges of build
ings  Both here and in Newbigging are houses 
highly recommended by the salubriousness of the cli
mate, and the sweet beauty of the scenery  for the
reception and restorative treatment oflunatics  The
church is a lumpish edifice, built about the beginning
of the present century, and originally looking more
like a huge barn than an ecclesiastical edifice. To
relieve the ungainliness of its appearance, a spire was
afterwards added, so beaqtiful as to have been pro-
ppsed — thpugh npt eventually follpwed — as a model
in the erectien pf the exquisitely fine spire of St.
Andrew's church in Edinburgh. What the present
church ef lnveresk — for it is not a little spacious—
has gained in the truly useful and paramountly im-
pprtant prpperty of extensiveness of accemmpdation,
it has irretrievably lpst in the properties which most
deeply interest the antiquarian. Its predecessor was
an edifice of which its last and enlightened incum-

INV

19

INV

bent, the Rev. Dr. Carlyle, speak3 with enthusiasm.
The church was dedicated tc St. Michael, and was
built, as Dr. Carlyle suppcses, soen after the intrp-
ducticn of Christianity, out pf the ruins pf the Roman
fort, the site of whose pretorium it usurped. In its
main part, it was 102 feet long, and only 23 feet wide
within the walls ; but it had four aisles, two on each
side, built at different periods ; and, in its ends, it
had double rows of galleries. So antique a structure,
thcugh ill suited tp the legitimate pbjects of a mo
dern place of worship, would now be a feast to the
eye which loves to look upon the venerable monu
ments of a far-away age. In minds of the best and
most hallowed cast, too, it would excite a thrill of
emotion, from the associated idea of its having
been ministered in by the reformer Wishart on
the eve of his martyrdom. In 1745, the army of
the Chevalier erected a battery in the churchyard,
but abandoned it on their commencing their march ¦
toward England  The parish is cut from west to
east near the shore, through Fisherrow and Mussel
burgh, by the great mail-road from Edinburgh to
London ; it is traversed by a part of the Edinburgh
and Dalkeith railway, and contains the inclined plane
of the railway passing New Hailes, Fisherrow, and
Craighall ; and is, in other respects, as to both sea
and land, abundantly provided with means of com
munication  Population of the parish, in 1801,
6,600; in 1831, 8,961. Houses 1,154. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £24,519. — lnveresk is in the presby
tery of Dalkeith, and synod of Lothian and Tweed- .
dale. Patron, the Duke of Buccleuch. Stipend
£324 lis. 3d.; glebe £22. Unappropriated teinds
£2,034 1 1 s. 8d. An assistant and successor has £150
salary, paid by the minister. An assistant, addi
tional to the assistant and successor, receives £26
18s. from an endowment and seat-rents, and holds
the office pf session-clerk at an emolument of from
£35 to £40. Sittings in the parish-church 2,400 
A quoad sacra parish called North Esk, comprehend
ing all the portion of the parliamentary burgh of
Musselburgh which lies west of the river Esk, and
containing, in 1838, a population of 3,466, was re
cently erected. The parish-church, situated in
Fisherrow, was built in 1838. Sittings 1,000.— ln
veresk, quoad civilia, had, according to ecclesiastical
survey in 1838, 8,542 inhabitants, of whom 5,876
were churchmen, and 2,666 were dissenters. The
dissenters are of six classes, and have their places of
worship in Musselburgh  The Relief congregation
was established in 1783. Sittings in their chapel
800. Stipend £120  The United Secession con
gregation was established in 1765. Their church
was rebuilt in 1820, at a cost of £1,200. Sittings
600. In 1838 there were two ministers. Salary of
the senior £52, with house and garden, and £10 for
sacramental expenses ; of the junior £100, with £15
for house rent  The Independent congregation was
established in 1799. The church was built in 1800,
and cost, including subsequent alterations, not less
than £1,200. Sittings 320.— The Scottish Episco
palian congregation dates back to 1688. The chapel
was built about 42 years ago, at a cost of £600.
Sittings about 200. Stipend about £80, but vari
able  The Wesleyan Methodist congregation was
established in 1828. The chapel was built about the
year 1833, at a cost of about £500: Sittings 250!
The pulpit is served by local preachers from Edin
burgh, who officiate gratuitously — A congregation
of local character, and no extraneous connection, was
formed in 1839, by a disruption of the United Seces
sion congregation  Since the summer of 1835, a
missionary has been employed to visit the parishion
ers who are most destitute of religious instruction.
The committee of management consists of members

ef the Relief, United Secession, and Independent
congregations. The funds are raised principally by
subscriptions from persons of all denominations.
Missionary's salary £50  There are in the parish 21
schools, conducted by 34 teachers, and attended by
a maximum of 1,114 scholars, and a minimum of
1 ,048. None of them are parochial ; but the rector
of a grammar-school, and the teachers of two Eng
lish schools, receive from the town-council of Mus
selburgh salaries respectively of £27 5s. 4d., £20,
and £10. At the grammar-school, two boarding-
schools, and an academy, all the branches of a clas
sical and commercial education are taught.
At the epoch to which record goes back, there were
two manors of lnveresk, — Great lnveresk and Little
lnveresk. Malcolm Canmore and his queen Mar
garet granted Little lnveresk to the monks of Dun
fermline. David I. gave to the same monks Great.
lnveresk, which included the burgh and port of Mus
selburgh, and he gave them also the church of lnver
esk, with its tithes and other pertinents. The
monks got " a free warren" established within the
manors by Alexander II.; and they had, in virtue of
David l.'s grants, a baronial jurisdiction over them,
which they afterwards got enlarged into a regality.
The church was in early times of great value ; and
even the vicars who served it, while the monks en
joyed the revenues of the parsonage, appear, among
men of consequence, as witnesses to many charters.
In the church were several endowed altars, with their
respective chaplains. In Musselburgh were anciently
three chapels, one of them of great note for the pilgri
mages made to it, and its historical associations, and
dedicated to " Our Lady of Loretto:" See Mussel
burgh. Within the grounds of New Hailes was an
other chapel, dedicated to Mary Magdalene. From
this chapel, Magdalene-bridge, and the hamlet of
Magdalene-Pans, corruptly called Maitland-bridge,
and Maitland-Pans, at the north-western angle of
the parish, have their name. The patronage of the
church, and of its various subordinate chaplainries,
and the lordship and regality of Musselburgh, or of
the whole of the ancient Great lnveresk and Little
lnveresk, were granted by James VI. to his Chan
cellor, Lord Thirlestane, the progenitor of the Earls
of Lauderdale. Much of this vast estate, notwith
standing the profusion of the noted Duke of Lauder
dale and the dangers of forfeiture, came down to Earl
John, who died in 1710. From him Anne, Duchess
of Buccleuch and Monmouth, purchased, in 1709, the
whole property, with some inconsiderable exceptions.
INVEREY (The), a branch of the Aberdeenshire
Dee descending from the mountains on the southern
skirts of Braemar, and flowing into the Dee a little
above Mar bridge. The ruins ef Inverey castle are
still visible, a little tp the right of the mouth pf the
INVERFARRAKAIG (Pass of), a beautiful
defile leading from Lpch-Ness, acrcss Stratherrick,
intp Strathnairn.
INVERGARRY-CASTLE, an ancient streng-
hpld pf the Macdenalds on the banks of Lpch-Oich,
near the mouth of the Garry, 7£ miles from Fort-
Augustus. It consists of an oblong square of five
stories, of which the walls only are new standing, the
whcle having been sacked and burnt after the rebel-
lien in 1745. Near tp it is the modern mansion-house
of Glengarry, a plain, narrow, high-rppfed building.
INVERGORDON, a village in Ross-shire, in the
parish of Rosskeen, on the north side of the frith of
Cromarty, pver which there is a regular ferry to In-
verbreckie. It has a gpod harbour, having 16 feet
water at spring- tides, and 13 at neap, and ^ fine
sandy shore, where vessels may safely deliver their
cargpes. It is 12 miles from Dingwall.

INV

'20

INV

INVERGOWRIE, a village pleasantly situated at
the head of a little bay, formed by the influx of In-
vergowrie burn to the frith of Tay, in the parish of
Liff, Forfarshire ; 3£ miles west of Dundee ; and 18£
miles east of Perth. Besides offering facilities for the
landing of lime and coals from the opposite coast of
Fife, this little port is of some historical note as a place
of royal embarkation. Alexander I. having had a
donation made to him at his baptism of the adjacent
lands of Invergowrie and Liff, by his godfather, the
Earl of Gowrie, began, as sopn as he succeeded tp
the throne, te build a palace in the vicinity ; but
some of his people from Mearns and Morayshire
having formed a conspiracy, and attacked him in his
newly-finished residence, he took shipping at the vil
lage, and sailed away to the southern parts of his
kingdom to gather forces for quieting and punishing
the north. In expression of his gratitude for having
escaped the conspirators, he made over to the monks
of Scoon, in dotem et glebam, the lands of Invergow
rie and Liff. These lands, in the usual style of an
cient manors, had their respective churches. The
church of Invergowrie is remarkable for being tradi
tionally reported tp have been the earliest Christian
structure nprth pf the Tay. The original edifice is
said to have been built at the village in the 7th cen
tury, by Boniface, a legate pr missipnary, whp landed
there with some attendants from Rome, and who
afterwards penetrated the interior of Forfarshire, and
founded varipus other churches. Apparently a much
later erecticn than the original ene survives in the
form of a common-place mculdering ruin, half-ccvered
with ivy, near the brink pf the water. The church
yard is en an eminence, a mound pf singular shape,
washed pn pne side by the Tay. Frpm the variety
pf mould which is turned up in digging, all cr great
part of the mpund is supppsed tp be forced earth.
INVERGOWRIE BURN, a rivulet on the south-
western extremity of Forfarshire. What strictly
wears the name is a stream of only half-a-mile in
length, forming, in the carse of Gowrie, the boun
dary-line between the parishes of Liff and Longfor
gan, in the counties respectively of Forfar and Perth ;
but it consists of the united waters of two streams,
both of which possess some local importance. One
of them rises immediately north of Dundee-law, and
flows 3 miles due west, and then nearly a mile south,
passing through Lpcheye, and tracing for some dis
tance the boundary between the parishes of Dundee
and Liff. The other stream rises in the parish of
Fowlis Easter, in Perthshire, flows 2f miles south
eastward to Forfarshire, traces for half-a-mile south
ward the divjsicn-line of the cpunties, receives from
the west a stream pf -\_x miles length ef ccurse, run
ning most of the distance also on the division-line,
and then flows 1 \ mile south-eastward, to a junction
with the branch stream frcm the east. Invergpwrie
burn, in the months of March and April, contains
excellent sea-trcut.
INVERKEILOR, a parish nearly in the centre pf
the maritime district of Forfarshire. It is bounded
on the north by Kinnell and Lunan ; on the east by
the G erman ocean ; en the south by St. Vigean 's ; and
on the west by Carmylie and Kirkden. It measures
in extreme length from east to west 7 \ miles; in
extreme breadth i\ miles; and in superficial area
6,100 Scottish acres. From its east end, where it is
4£ miles broad, it suddenly contracts to 1& ; and,
having re-expanded, nearly at its middle, to 4i miles,
it again suddenly contracts, and maintains to its west
end an average breadth of 2 miles. Keilor burn,
from which the parish has its name, rises on the
southern boundary, and for 1£ mile flows along it
eastward ; and then runs along it 1 J mile, still east
ward, through the expanded coast-district of the par

ish, to Lunan bay. Lunan water comes in from the
west; forms for If mile the boundary-line with Kin
nell; flows 3 miles across the expanded northern
wing of the parish ; traces for 2 miles the boundary
with Lunan ; and falls into the sea at Redcastle.
In its progress it turns the wheels of numerous mills;
it flows with a clear current, and as it approaches the
sea, frolics in many beautiful sinuosities ; formerly
it abounded with fine trouts, and had some pike, but
is now more scanty in its fishy treasures. Gighty
burn comes down from the north-east, forms for 2^
miles the boundary-line with Kinnell, and, falling
into the Lunan, has its waters carried away in a
direction not tar from being opposite to that pf its
former ccurse. The coast, including sinuosities, is
between 5 and 6 miles in extent, and makes a consi
derable recession, over a distance of 2£ miles from
the northern limit, to admit the waters of Lunan
bay. Along this bay — which, except in easterly
winds, affords a safe anchorage for ships — the coast
is flat, sandy, and overgrown with bent; but thence
southward, it is high and rocky, and, in its progress,
sends out the remarkable headland called Redhead:
which see. Northward of Lunan water, the surface
of the parish rises in a beautiful gently ascending
bank of good arable land ; between the Lunan and
the Keilor, it recedes from the coast away westward,
in a level expanse of fertile ground ; and south of the
Keilor, it gradually rises into heights which slightly
partake the character of the southern part of the
coast. The soil varies, but is, in general, dry and
fertile ; and the air — though liable in April and May
to be laden with fogs — is, on the whole, pure and
salubrious. About 270 imperial acres are under
plantation ; about 1 26 are scarcely, if at all, fit for
cultivation ; and all the rest of the surface is arable
ground. . At Leys mill, in the extreme west, is a
quarry for what are called Arbroath-stones [see For
farshire], which are here dressed by machinery
propelled by steam. At Redhead is an inexhaustible
quarry of fine freestone ; and below the rocks, Scots
pebbles, some possessing the colour and density of an
amethyst, have been numerously gathered. * On the
coast, at the south end of Lunan-bay, is -*. fishing
hamlet called Ethie- Haven ; but it is a desolate
place, and threatens soon to be totally abandoned.
On the sands of Lunan bay, and on the estate pf
Ethie tp the sputh, are ccnsiderable salmpn-fisheries.
In varipus localities are five flax spinning-mills 
Anniston, Kinblythmcnt, and Lawton, are agreeable
country-mansions. The village of Inverkeilor, situ
ated near Lunan water contains a population of
about 150. The parish is traversed from south to
nprth, at nearly its narrowest part, by the mail-road
frpm Edinburgh by way of Dundee to Aberdeen; and
has, in its west end, 2 miles of the turnpike between
Arbroath and Forfar ; and is minutely intersected in
every direction with cross roads. — On an eminence,
at the mouth of Lunan water, stands a venerable
ruin, called Redcastle. Chalmers, in his Caledonia,
ascribes the erection of it to Walter de Berkeley,
called the Lord of Redcastle, in the reign of William
the Lion. But tradition asserts it to have been built
by King William himself, and to have been used as a
royal hunting-seat ; and it seems tp be aided in its
verdict by the names pf spme localities in the neigh-
bpurhppd, — Kiriblythmpnt, being a cpntracticn pf
Kings-blythe-mount, and Court-hill and Hawk-hill
being names still in use. In the coast wing of the
parish, south of Keilor burn, stands Ethie-house,
the seat of the Earl of Northesk, built and inha
bited by Cardinal Beaton. About a mile north
east of it on the coast, are the ruins of a religious
house called St. Murdoch's chapel, in which the
monks of Arbroath officiated At a place callea

INV

'21

INV

Chapeltown, nearly 3 miles west of the village of
Inverkeilor, are remains of the chapelry of Quyte-
field, now the burying-place of the family of Boysack.
On the lands of the Earl ef Nprthesk, and pn thpse
of Mr. Carnegie, are vestiges of Danish camps ; and
those of the latter lands are near a farm-house which
seems to have borrowed from them its remarkable
name of Denmark  Population of the parish, in
1801, 1,704; in 1831, 1,655. Houses 357. Assess
ed property, in 1815, £8,101  Inverkeilor is in
the presbytery of Arbroath, and synod of Angus and
Mearns. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £246 14s.
5d. ; glebe £8 15s. Unappropriated teinds £182
2s. 5d. The parish-church was built in 1735, en
larged in 1799, and. a few years ago, repaired. Sit
tings 703. The parish has a savings bank, and a
library, — the latter chiefly religious. There are two
schools. Parish-schoolmaster's salary £25 7s. lid.,
with fees, a house and garden, and £10 other emolu
ments. A portion of the parish, at its west end, con
taining a population of 249, was disjoined in 1835,
and along with a large portion from the conterminous
parish of Kirkden, erected into the quoad sacra par
ish of Friockheim.
_ INVERKEITHING, a parish in Fifeshire, con
sisting of the ancient parish of that name, and of the
parish of Rosyth, which Were conjoined in 1636.
The form of the parish is somewhat like that of the
letter L reversed, — the base of the letter being form
ed by that portion of the parish which lies along the
shore of the Forth. This part of the parish is about
4 miles in length from east to west ; and varies, ex
cept at the east end, from about a quarter of a mile
to about a mile-and-a-half in breadth. At the east
end, a peninsula runs toward the south into the frith,
at the extremity of which is North-Queensferry ; the
parish here extends for 'upwards of 4 miles towards
the north, between the parishes of Dunfermline and
Dalgetty, but scarcely exceeding in any place half-a-
mile in breadth. It is bounded on the south by the
Fprth ; on the east by Dalgetty and Aberdour ; on
the north by Beath and Dunfermline; and on the
west by Dunfermline. The island of Inchgarvie,
abcut half-way acrpss the frith, is in the parish.
Population, in 1801, 2,228; m 1831, 3,189  The
whole parish has been brought into a state of high
cultivation, with the exception of the small portion
which is under wood, and the higher acclivities of
the hills, which are in pasture. The rent of land
varies from £1 5s. to £4 per acre : the average rent
being nearer the higher than the lower of these rates.
The annual value of real property for which the par
ish was assessed in 1815, exclusive of the burgh, was
£3,966 sterling. That for which the burgh was
assessed, was £1,649 sterling. The valued rent is
£6,866 Scots. Number of houses in the burgh
and parish in 183), 450. There are considerable
quantities of green stone quarried in different places
in the parish, for building, paving, and road-making.
Sandstone is also quarried in two places ; there are
also several limestone quarries. There is an exten
sive distillery in the parish, which employs about 80
men. There are two foundries, in which large arti
cles are cast, and steam-engines and other machinery
made ; a tan- work, a ship -buildiug-yard, a salt- work,
a magnesia manufactory, a fire-brick work, a bone-
mill, two meal and flour-mills, and a barley-mill. A
number of individuals are also employed in weaving
for the Dunfermline manufacturers. The only vil
lages in the parish are North-Queensferry and
Hillend : which see. — About a mile west of the
burgh of Inverkeithing are the castle and lands of
Rosyth, the prpperty pf the Earl pf Hopetpun.
Rosyth anciently belonged to a branch of the great
family of Stuart, descended from James Stuart pf

Durrisdeer, broth er-german to Walter the great
steward of Scotland, father to Robert II., the first
of the family who ascended the Scottish throne. The
family of Stuart of Rosyth continued to flourish till
about the beginning of last century, when, according
to Sibbald, the last laird dying without issue and un
married, disponed the estate to a stranger, by whom
it was sold to the Earl of Roseberry. The old cas
tle is situated on a rock on the shore, connected with
the mainland by a causeway. All that now remains
is a ruined square tower, which formed the north
eastern angle of what must have been a pretty large
square building. Over the gateway is a defaced ar
morial bearing surmounted by a crown and M.R.
1561. On the mullions of the great windows of the
hall — which are obviously alterations on the original
building — are the initials F. S. and M. N., and the
date 1639. Upon the south side of the castle, near
the door, is this inscription : —
IN DEV TYM DRAW YES CORD YE BEL TO CLINK,
QVHAI8 MERY VOCE VARNIS TP MEAT AND DRINK.
This ancient castle is alluded tc by Sir Walter Scott
in his novel of the Abbot ; and the tradition is —
though we know not on what authority — -that the
wife of Oliver Cromwell was born here  The parish
is in the presbytery of Dunfermline, and synod of
Fife. Patroness, Lady Baird Preston. Stipend
£263 8s. 2d.; glebe £40. The parish-church is
situated in the centre of the burgh. It was built
in 1826, in the pointed style, and accommodates
about 1 ,000 sitters. The old church was burnt in
October 1825. There is a chapel in connection with
the United Associate Synod. — In the parish-school
all the usual branches of education are taught. The
teacher has the maximum salary, with a good dwell
ing-house, and an elegant school-house. There is
a school for the higher and ornamental branches of
education ; and there are 5 other schools which are
unendowed. The town cf Inverkeithing is situated at the east
end of the parish, on an eminence overleoking the
bay which bears its name; and consists of a main
street of considerable length, running north-east and
south-west, and several lanes diverging from it, with
a number of houses fronting the harbour, and a row
called Preston-crescent, running between the East
Ness and the harbour. A lazaretto is built on the
point of the bay opposite the town, known as the
West Ness. The country round is open and agri
cultural. As a royal burgh it is of great antiquity ;
the oldest existing charter being granted by William
the Lion, confirming one of a previous date. This
charter was confirmed by James VI. in 1598. The
burgh is governed by a provost, 2 bailies, a dean-of-
guild, a treasurer, 9 other councillors, and a town-
clerk. This charter of James VI. contains a grant
of custcms from the great stone near Milnathort on
the north, to the middle of the Forth on the south,
and from the Water of Devon on the west, to the
Water of Leven on the east ; and under this grant
the town were in the habit pf levying custcm within
the included territory. About 70 years ago the town
sold the right of levying custom at Dysart to the
town of Dysart; but they still levy customs both at
Kinross and Nprth-Queensferry. The charters tp
the tpwn of Inverkeithing contain very considerable
grants of land ; and their property at one time ex
tended to near the Crossgates, which is abeut4 miles.
They had alsp prpperty at Ferryhill. These proper
ties may now be worth from £500 to £1,000 a-year,
but they were feued for very small feu-duties, when
in a state of nature, abput pr previous to the begin
ning of the last century. Besides the right of cus-
toms abpve-mentioned, the present property of In ver-

INV

oo

INV

keithing ccnsists of the East and West loans and
Bois acre, the Town-lane, one-third, of the school
and school-house, the stock-market, one-third of the
parish-church, the town's mill and kiln, the Inner
and Outer harbeurs, and certain debts due to the
burgh. The revenue arising frem these different
seurces, according to the accounts made up to the
25th September, 1832, was as follows : —
Rents, including-royalty on coal, 1832, . £219 8 8
Feu-duties, . • • . . 86 fi 4f
Customs and market-dues, . . . KG 5 0
Harbour and shore-dues, . . . 156 9 6
Casual income, . • £3 7 0
Street manure, . £41 12 0
Off expense of collecting
and cleaning, . 31 11 l_
 £13 0 10J
 £16 7 105

£564 17 5J

The corporative-revenue in 1839-40, was £500 8s.
8d. The property of the burgh was valued a few
years age at £7,437 10s. 5d. sterling, exclusive cf the
tpwn-house and jail ; and the debts at £2,029 ster
ling. The burgh jeins with Dunfermline, Stirling,
Culrpss, and South-Queensferry, in sending a mem
ber tp parliament. The parliamentary and municipal
constituency in 1839-40 was 56. The town-hpuse
was built in 1770; and besides the tpwn-hall, con
tains the jail, which is small and not very secure, but
fortunately it is very little used except for locking
up drunken people for a night. The church, the
school-house, the stock grain-market, and a dissent
ing chapel, are all handsome buildings, which add tc
the appearance of the town. Five fairs are appoint
ed to be held yearly in the burgh, but they have long
been merely nominal, no business being transacted at
any of them. A weekly stock-market for the sale
of grain, however, has been established, which is
well-attended ; and a branch of the eastern bank of
Scotland has been opened in the burgh. The har
bour is pretty good, though it might be deepened and
greatly improved; vessels of 200 tons burden can
load and sail from it at spring-tides, but it is usually
frequented by smaller vessels. There are at present
20 vessels belonging to it, varying in burden from 20
to 100 tons, which are chiefly employed in the coast
ing trade. A considerable number of foreign and
English vessels lead ccal here, which is brought frpm
the cpal-wprk at Halbeath, by a railroad between
that coal- work and the harbour. Various other coal-
works ship their coal' at this port; and when the
proposed railroad from Lochgelly has been construct-
ed, the ccal-trade here will be greatly increased.
In the tewn there are salt-pans, a distillery, and a
brewery ; and in the immediate neighbourhood a
magnesia work and a pottery. The number of in
habitants in the burgh, in 1831, was 2,020  The
widowed queen of Robert III., the beautiful Arabella
Drummond, resided for some time in Inverkeithing.
She is said to have wished for a dwelling, from which
she could behold the castle of Edinburgh, and made
choice of a spot called Rottmell's Inns ; but how
long she resided there, there is neither record nor
tradition to tell. There is a tradition, however, that
the queen had a private chapel in the Inns, for her
self and her domestics.
INVERKEITHNIE, a parish in the shire of Banff,
bounded on the north by Marnoch, from which it is
divided by the river Deveron, and in every other
quarter by the shire pf Aberdeen. It extends aleng
the seuthern bank pf the Deveron, abput 6 miles in
length, and measures from 1 tp 4 miles in breadth.
Houses 503. Assessed property, in 1815, £1,772.
Population, in 1801, 503; in 1831, 589. This par
ish derives its name from the rivulet Keithnie, which
intersects it from south to north, entering the De

veron near the parish-church and hamlet. At Boat-
of-Inverkeithnie the Deveron is crossed by a bridge.
This district is chiefly hilly. The soil is generally
fertile and well-cultivated : much of it is in pasture.
The Deveron's banks are beautifully wooded, but the
parish possesses no object of particular interest. — It
is in the presbytery of Turriff, and synod of Aber
deen. Patron, T. G. Bremner, Esq. Stipend £214
18s. 3d.; glebe £10. Schoolmaster's salary £30,
with £21 18s. fees, and other emoluments.
INVERKIRKAG. See Assynt.
INVERLEITHEN. See Innerleithen.
INVERLOCHY, a hamlet and castle on the east
ern shore of Loch-Eil, 2 miles from Fort- William.
The estate of Inverlpchy was purchased a few
years back by the Marquis pf Huntly frpm the trus
tees pf the Duke of Gordon ; and was recently sold
for £75,150. Near the present hamlet, according to
Boethius, was in former times an opulent city, re
markable for the vast resort of French and Spaniards,
and also the seat of royalty. Here, as is reported,
King Achaius signed, in 790, the league offensive
and defensive betwixt himself and Charlemagne. In
after times it was destroyed by the Danes, and never
again restored. Nigh to where this fabulous city is
represented tc have stppd is the ancient castle cf •
Inverlpchy. It stands alcne, in solitary magnificence,
after having seen the river Lochy, that formerly filled
its ditches, run in another course, and outlived all his
tory and all tradition ef its own builder and age. lt
is a quadrangular building, with round towers of three
stories each at the angles ; measuring 30 yards every
way within the walls. The towers and ramparts are
solidly built of stone and lime, 9 feet thick at the
bottom, and 8 abeve. The tpwers are not entire,
ner are they all equally highj the western is the
highest and largest, and dees net seem to have been
less than 50 feet when entire ; the rampart or screen
between them is from 25 to 30 feet in height. About
1 2 yards from the exterior walls are the traces of a
ditch, which has been from 30 to 40 feet broad. The
whole building covers about 1,600 yards, and within
the ditch there are 7,000 yards, or nearly an EngUsh
acre and a half. From the name of the western tower,
and other circumstances, it is probable this castle
was occupied by the Cummings, in the time of Ed
ward I. of England, when that clan was at its zenith
of power ; and, previous to that period, by the thanes
of Lochaber, particularly by Bancho, or Banquo, the
predecessor of the royal family of Stuart. A little
below the castle is a pleasant walk still called Ban-
cho's walk.
Near this place the celebrated Marquis of Mon
trose signally defeated the Campbells under the
Marquis of Argyle, in February, 1645. Montrose,
after having retaliated upon Argyle and his people
in a tenfold degree the miseries which he had oc
casioned in Lochaber and the adjoining coun
tries, left Argyle and Lorn, passing through Glencoe
and Lochaber on his way to Loch-Ness. On his
march eastwards he was joined by the laird of Aber-
geldie, the Farquharsons of the Braes of Mar, and
by a party' of the Gordons. The object of Montrose,
by this movement, was to seize Inverness — which was
then only protected by two regiments — in the expec
tation that its capture would operate as a stimulus
to the northern clans, who had not yet declared them
selves. While proceeding through Abertarf, a per
son arrived in great haste at Kilcummin  the present
Fort- Augustus — who brought him the surprising in
telligence that Argyle had entered Lochaber with an
army of 3,000 men ; that he was burning and laying
waste the country, and that his head-quarters were
at the old castle of Inverlochy. After Argyle had
effected his escape from Inverary, he had gone to

INVERLOCHY.

23

Dumbarton, where he remained till Montrose's de
parture from his territory. While there, a body of
covenanting troops, who had served in England, ar
rived under the command of Major-Gcneral Baillie,
tor the purpose of assisting Argyle in expelling Mon
trose from his bounds ; but on learning that Montrose
had left Argyle, and was marching through Glencoe
and Lochaber, General Baillie, instead of proceeding
into Argyle for the purpose of following Montrose,
determined to lead his army in an easterly direction
through the Lowlands, with the intention of inter
cepting Montrose, should he attempt a descent. At
the same time it was arranged between Baillie and
Argyle, that the latter, who had now recovered from
his panic, in consequence of Montrose's departure,
should return to Argyle and collect his men from
their hiding-places and retreats; but as it was not
improbable that Montrose might renew his visit, the
Committee of Estates allowed Baillie to place 1,100
of his men at the disposal of Argyle, who, as soon as
he was able to muster his men, was to follow Mon
trose's rear, yet so as to avoid an engagement, till
Baillie, who, on hearing of Argyle's advance into
Lpchaber, was tc march suddenly across the Gram
pians, should attack Montrose in front. To assist
him in levying and organizing his clan, Argyle called
over CampbeU of Auchinbreck, his kinsman, from
Ireland, who had considerable reputation as a mili
tary commander. In terms of his instructions, there
fore, Argyle had entered Lochaber, and had advanced
as far as Inverlochy, when, as we have seen, the
news of his arrival was brought to Montrose. The
distance between the place where Montrose received
the news of Argyle's arrival, and Inverlochy, is about
30 miles ; but this distance was considerably increased
by the devious track which Montrose followed.
Marching along the small river Tarf in a southerly
direction, he crossed the bills of Lairie-Thierard,
passed through Glenroy, and after traversing the
range of mountains between the glen and Bennevis,
be arrived in Glennevis before Argyle had the least
notice of his approach. Before setting out on his
march, Montrose had taken the wise precaution of
placing guards upon the common road leading to In
verlochy, to prevent intelligence of his movements
being carried to Argyle, and he had killed such of
Argyle's scouts as he had fallen in with in the course
of his march. This fatiguing and unexampled jour
ney had been performed in little more than a night
and a day, and when, in the course of the evening
Montrose's men arrived in Glennevis, they found
themselves so weary and exhausted that they cpuld
not venture to attack the enemy. They therefore
lay under arms all night, and refreshed themselves,
as they best could, till next morning. As the night
was uncommonly clear and enlightened by the moon,
the advanced posts of both armies kept up a small
fire of musketry during the night, which led to no
result. In the meantime Argyle, after committing
his army to the charge of his cousin Campbell of
Auchinbreck, had the dastardliness to abandon his
men, by going, during the night, on board a boat in
the loch, accompanied by Sir John Wauchope of
Niddry, Sir James Rollock of Duncruib, Archibald
Sydserf, one of the bailies of Edinburgh, and Mungo
Law, a minister of the same city. Argyle excused
himself for this pusillanimous act, by alleging his
incapacity to enter the field of battle, in consequence
of some contusions he had received by a fall two or
three weeks before; but his enemies averred that
cowardice was the real motive which induced him to
take refuge in his galley, from which he witnessed
the defeat and destruction of his army.
It would appear, that it was not until the morning
of the battle, that Argyle's men were aware that it

was the army cf Montrose that was present, as they
considered it quite impossible that he should have
been able to bring his forces across the mcuntains,
and they imagined, that the body before them con
sisted of some of the inhabitants of the country, who
had collected to defend their properties. But they
were undeceived, when, in the dawn of the morning,
the warlike sound of Montrose's trumpets, resound
ing through the glen where they lay, and reverberat
ing from the adjoining hills, broke upon their ears.
This served as the signal to both armies to prepare
for battle. Montrose drew out his army in an ex
tended line. The right wing consisted of a regiment
of Irish, under the command of Macdonald, his major-
general ; the centre was composed of the Athole-men,
the Stuarts of Appin, and the Macdonalds of Glen
coe, and other Highlanders, severally under the com
mand of Clanranald, M'Lean, and Glengarry ; and
the left wing consisted of some Irish, at the head of
whom was the brave Colonel O'Kean. A body of
Irish was placed behind the main body as a reserve,
under the command of Colonel James M'Donald,
alias O'Neill. The general of Argyle's army formed
it in a similar manner. The Lowland forces were
equally divided, and formed the wings, between
which the Highlanders were placed. Upon a rising
ground, behind this line, General Campbell drew up
a reserve of Highlanders, and placed a field-piece.
Within the house of Inverlochy — which was only
about a pistol-shot from the place where the army
was formed — he planted a body of forty or fifty men
to protect the place, and to annoy Montrose's men
with discharges of musquetry. The account given
by Gordon of Sallagh, that Argyle had transported
the half of his army over the water at Inverlochy,
under the command of Auchinbreck, and that Mon
trose defeated this division, while Argyle was pre
vented from relieving it with the other division, from
the intervention of " an arm of the sea, that was in
terjected betwixt them and him,"* is certainly erro
neous, for the circumstance is not mentioned by any
other writer of the period, and it is well known that
Argyle abandoned his army, and witnessed its de
struction from his galley, — circumstances which
Gordon altogether overlooks. It was at sunrise, on
Sunday, the 2d day of February, in the year 1645,
that Montrose, after having formed his army in battle
array, gave orders to his men to advance upon the
enemy. The left wing of Montrose's army, under
the command of O'Kean, was the first to commence
the attack, by charging the enemy's right. This was
immediately followed by a furious assault upon the
centre and left wing of Argyle's army, by Mentrose's
right wing and centre. Argyle's right wing not be
ing able tp resist the attack pf Mpntrose's left, turned
about and fled, which circumstance had such a dis-
cpuraging effect on the remainder of Argyle's trepps,
that after discharging tbeir muskets, the whole of
them, including the reserve, topk tp their heels.
The route now became general. An attempt was
made by a body of about 200 of the dismayed fugi
tives, tn throw themselves into the castle pf Inver
lpchy, but a party pf Montrose's horse prevented
them. Some of the flying enemy directed their
ccurse along the side of Loch-Eil, but all these were
either killed or drowned in the pursuit. The greater
part, hpwever, fled tpwards the hills in the directipn
of Argyle, and were pursued by Montrose's men, to
the distance of about 8 miles. As little resistance
was made by the defeated party in their flight, the
carnage was very great, being reckoned at nearly 1,500
men, or about the half of Argyle's army ; and many
more would have been cut off had it not been for the
* Continuation, p. 5.'2.

INV

24

INV

humanity of Mpntrcse, whp did every thing in his
power tp save the unresisting enemy frem the fury
pf his men, who were not disposed to give quarter
to the unfortunate Campbells. Having taken the
castle, Montrose not only treated the officers, who
were from the Lowlands, with kindness, but gave
them their liberty on parole. Among the principal
persons who fell on Argyle's side, were the comman
der, Campbell of Auchinbreck, Campbell of Lochnell,
the eldest son of Lochnell. and his brother, Colin ;
M'Dougall of Rara and his eldest son ; Major Menzies,
brother to the laird (or Prior as he was called) of
Achattens Parbreck ; and the provost of the church
of Kilmun. The chief prisoners were the lairds of
Parbreck, Silvercraig, Innerea, Lamont, St. M'Don-
ald in Kintyre, the young laird of Glensaddel, the
goodman of Pynmoir, the son of the captain of Dun-
staffnage, Lieutenant-Celonels Reche and Ceckburn,
Captains Stewart, Murray, Hume, and Stirling,
Robert Cleland alias Clydson, and MacDougall, a
preacher. The less pn the side pf Montrose was ex
tremely trifling. The number of wpunded is indeed
npt stated, but he had only three privates killed.
He sustained, however, a severe loss in Sir Thomas
Ogilvie, son of the Earl of Airly, who died a few
days after the battle of a wound be received in the
thigh. Montrose regretted the death of this stedfast
friend and worthy man with feelings of real sorrow,
and caused his body to be interred in Athole with
due solemnity. Montrose immediately after the
battle sent a messenger to the king with a letter,
giving an account of it, at the conclusion of which
he exultingly says to Charles, " Give me leave, after
I have reduced this country, and conquered from Dan
to Beersheba, to say to your Majesty, as David's
general to his master, come thou thyself, lest this
country be called by my name." When the king
received this letter, the royal and parliamentary com
missioners were sitting at Uxbridge negotiating the
terms of a peace ; but Charles was induced by it to
break off the negotiation, — a circumstance which led
to his ruin.
INVERMAY, the 'Birks' of which are cele
brated in Scottish song, a beautiful locality on the
banks of the May, in the parish of Forteviot. See
these articles.
INVERNESS,* a parish in the shire of Inver
ness ; bounded on the north-east by the Beauly and
the Moray friths; on the east by Petty; on the
south-east and south by Croy and Daviot ; on the
south-west by Loch- Ness and the parish of Dores ;
and on the west by Urquhart, Kiltarlity, and Kirk-
hill. Its length from north-east to south-west is 14
* " Inverness was anciently written Inncrness. The town
of Inverness, from which the parish has its name, is situated at
the mouth of the river Ness. Inner \s Gaelic, and expressive
of that situation. The river derives its name from Loch-Ness,
which is its source. Some promontories and headlands in our
own and in other northern countries, are called Ness  as
Bnchanness, the Naes of Norway,— Ness quail nose, from its
prominency. But no promontory is in Lochness. This led
some curious persons (Lowthorp's Abridg. of the Phil. Trans
II. 228.) to seek for the origin of the name in the traditions of
old bards. By these traditions they were informed that Nysus,
an Irish hero, had settled a colony of his countrymen in Strath-
errick. The era of this event is passed over in silence. VeB
bees, however, of his castle and fortress are still to be seen on
the summit of Dnn-Deardill,— a rock of high elevation at a
short distance from the lake. The rock had its name from
Dornadilla, the Lady of Nysus. This hero built a barce, and
was the flrst who sailed the lake : hence Loch-Ness. We re
lish not the derivation from Nysus, and will hazard a conjee
ttire of our own. The two rivers which have their course
through the country of Stratherrick, and discharge themselves
into Loch-Ness, are Carrigack and Fechloin. These rivers are
remarkable for high cataracts, particularly Fechloin. In this
river and near the mouth of it, is the Fall of Foyers, a tre
mendous cataract. Ess, in the Gaelic language, signifies ' a
waterfall' or ' cataract.' The lake which is supplied with the
water of tins fall, might not unaptly be called Loch-Ness
lT.och-an.Eai,] that is, ' the lake of the cataract. '"—Old Sta.
tlsttcal Account.

miles ; and its average breadth 2_\. It may be con
sidered as the north-eastern portipn of the Great
glen of Caledonia. The appearance of the country is
diversified,  partly flat, and partly mountainous : see
succeeding article. On the south the surface rises to.
an elevation of about 400 feet ; on the north the ac
clivity is higher and more precipitous. The eleva
tion of Loch-Ness above sea-level is only 46 feet.
The coast-line is flat, and well-cultivated. The soil
is fertile ; the general character of it is — with some
exceptions — a black loam, rather light and on a gra
velly bottom. Loch-Ness is partly in this parish :
see that article. The river Ness, which intersects
the parish for 8 miles, will also form the subject pf
a separate article. Among the minor streams are
Inches burn, and the burns of Helm, Dpchfour, and
Aberiachan. The most remarkable hill is Tomria-
hurich, near the town, on the west side of the river.
It is a beautiful isolated mount, nearly resembling
a ship with her keel uppermost. It stands on a
base, whose length is 1,984 feet, and breadth 176;
its elevation, from the channel of the river, is -250
feet. A little to the west of this hill is another
gravel mount called Tor-a'-Bhean, which rises to the
height of about 300 feet. The elevation of Craig-
Phadrie from the sea-level is 435 feet. The number
of arable acres in this parish, when the Old Statistical
Account was written, was supposed to be about
5,000 ; in the New Statistical Account they are
calculated at from 8,000 to 9,000, with about 1,000
improvable. The land-rent pf the whole parish was,
in the year 1754, 3,268 bplls and 3 firlpts victual,
and £575 7s. 1 Ij-d. sterling. The bpll at that period
was valued tp the tenant at 9 merks Sects, pr 10s.
sterling, with custcms and services, which were cf
little value tp the proprietor, but often of distressing
consequences to the tenant. Its present rental is
abeut £20,000. At the clese ef last century, lands
let at frpm 13s. tp £2 an acre ; the present rent is
from £1 tp £2 10s. per acre. Ground near the town
lets at frpm £5 to £7.f Population, in 1801, 8,732;
in 1831, 14,324; in 1841, 15,308. Assessed pro
perty pf the parish, in 1815, £14,980; pf the burgh,
£13,161. Houses, in 1831, 2,125.
Two military roads pass through the parish ; and
are kept in repair by Government. There are two
bridges ever the Ness in this parish. The princi
pal of them is a beautiful structure of seven ribbed
arches, built in the year 1685. It is a tcll-bridge, by
act of parliament, and makes a gopd additipn tp the
revenue pf the tpwn. The ether was built in 1808,
at an expense of £4,000. A ppntage is also levied
at it. About a mile above the town an island in the
Ness has been connected with the opppsite banks by
suspension bridges. There were in ancient times
several unimportant rencounters and skirmishes in
this parish. The only memorable battle was that of
t When the Old Statistical Account of this parish was writ.
ten, a ploughman had from £5 to £7 a-year, with 6 bolls, half
oat and half bear meal ; a house, kail-yard, and land for pota
toes ; his peats carried home, and, in some instances, grass for
a cow. These servants," it was added, •• live comfortably :
their wives are employed in little manufactures for clothing
their own families and for sale, and sometimes in spinning for
the manufactures at Inverness, and earn about 2s' a.wlek."
At present their wages are from £8 to £10 with board. A wo.
man farm-servant's fee was £1 12s. with maintenance in the
house j and a herd's wages much the same. At present female.
.verCiSTreh.fu-0m & '1 £* The ""*"" »' "o"e!ma'S
?o7» M F k»lf-year. A mason's wages were from te. 6d.
to s 8d.; a Wright's from is. to is. 4d. ; a tailor's 6d. with
Thl tZWB- , ™e8ver8 ?nd shoemakers worked by the pEe
The wages of these artisans are now from 2s. to 8». a-dai
SftT ^ ditching, digging and other out-work had
irom So. tola. ; they have now Is. 6d. Beef, mutton and nork
cost from 2Jd. to 4d. the pound; the price 'is now irom 3d to
5d. per imperial lb. Hens and ducks were sold at 6d. 8d ,»
9d. each ; chickens and ducklings, at Sd. ; a goose, Is. 4„ „r' ''
6d. ; a turkey, 2s. 6d. or 3s. Fowls are now from is 6d to &
a pair; chickens, half-price ; ducks, Is. 4d. to 2™ ; gcese a„d"

turkeys from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d.

INVERNESS.

25

the 16th of April, 1746,— the important and decisive
battle of Culloden : which see  There were several
years ago, near the town, and due east from it, on
the upper plain of the parish, several Druidical
temples. These have been blasted for the purpose of
building farm-houses and offices. At some distance
from the mouth of the river Ness, a considerable
way within flood-mark, there is a large cairn of
stones, the origin of which is of very remote anti
quity. It is called Cairn aire, that is, ' the Cairn of
the sea.' There is a beacon erected on Cairn aire,
to apprize vessels coming into the river of danger
frpm it — In the Beauly frith, due west from this
cairn, there are three cairns at ccnsiderable dis
tances, pne frpm the pther. The largest is in the
middle pf the frith, and accessible at lew water. It
appears tp have been a burying-place, by the urns
which were disccvered in it  Oliver Cromwell's
fort, and other ancient buildings, will be noticed in
our descripticn pf the tpwn pf Inverness  The vit
rified fort, pn the summit pf Craig-Phadric, is a
very remarkable structure : see that article.
This parish, formerly a rectory with the ancient
rectcry pf Bona united, is in the presbytery of In
verness, and synpd of Meray. There are three liv
ings in the parish, and two portions of the parish
have recently been erected into quoad sacra parishes
by authority of the church-courts. The 1st and 3d
livings are in the gift of the Crown. Fraser of Lovat
is patron of the 2d. The High church was built in
1772; sittings 1,260. The Gaelic church was built
in 1794 ; sittings 1,220. The three ministers officiate
alternately in these two churches, and in a new
church recently built at an expense of £2,000, and
seating 1,800. The annual stipend of the two senior
ministers is £276 10s. 2d. ; glebe £50. They had
formerly manses ; but they became ruinous and were
sold; and the one minister receives £3 10s., and the
other £1 13s., beingthe interest of the money got
for them. The unappropriated teinds are valued at
£1,073 lis. 6d. The junior or 3d minister has
£150, with £25 for a glebe  The eastern portion
of the parish was erected, in 1834, into the quoad
sacra East parish. It embraces a distance of
above 5 miles in length, by 2 in breadth, with a
population of 1,980 in 1836. The church was built
in 1798, and altered in 1822; sittings 1,158; cost
£1,400. Minister's stipend £80, but is at present
about £200  The North church was built, in
1837, at an expense of £1,400; sittings 1,040.
Stipend £160, secured by bond of the managers 
An Episcopalian congregation has existed in the
parish since the Revolution. The former chapel was
built in 1801; sittings 280; cost £1,000; but a new
chapel containing 600 sittings has recently been
erected for this congregation. Stipend £180, with
the rent of a small piece of ground within the town,
yielding about £5 per annum. The minister usually
officiates every Sunday at Fort-George  A congre
gation in connexion with the Secession church was
formed in this parish in the latter quarter of last
century, but was afterwards given up. It was re
vived in 1817, and a church built in 1821; sittings
650. Stipend £100, with manse and sacramental
expenses  An Independent church was established
a considerable number of years ago ; and a chapel
built for its use about 1826; sittings 630; cost £800.
— A Roman Catholic congregation was established
in 1800; chapel built in 1836; sittings 450; cost
£2,000. Stipend £50, with a manse. There is a
small Wesleyan Methodist congregation  The ec
clesiastical edifices are described in the succeeding
article.. INVERNESS, a sea- port, an important town,
a royal burgh, the seat of a presbytery, the capital of

the Northern Highlands, and the supposed original
metrepplis pf Pictavia, stands 19£ miles sputh- sputh-
west pf Cromarty, 38£ west-seuth-west pf Elgin,
61| north-east of Fort- William, 118£ west-north
west of Aberdeen, and 156J north-north-west of
Edinburgh. Its site is on both banks — chiefly the
right one — of the river Ness, from £ a mile to 1 4
mile above its entrance into that long and beautiful
demi-semi-circular sweep of marine waters which,
inward from this point, is called the Beauly frith or
loch, and outward, is assigned a community of name
with the great gulf of the Moray frith. Three large
openings, — the basin of the Beauly frith from the
west, — that of the Moray frith from the nprth-east, 
and the divergent terminatien pf the Glenmore-
nan-Albin from the south, — meet at the town and
pour areund it a rich confluence of the beauties of
landscape, and the advantages of communication.
A plain, marked with few inequalities, lying at but
a slight elevation above sea-level, and luxurious in
its soil and its embellishments, stretches inward
from the friths, and bears on its bosom the whole of
the town except the southern outskirts, A bank
about 90 feet high, part of a great terrace which
sweeps along from the vicinity of Loch-Ness to the
river Spey, rises behind the town, and gives a charm
ing site to a sprinkling of villas and the newest sub
urban erections. Stretching into the interior from
this bank, and forming a table-land equal to it
in elevation, lies a plain from one to three miles
broad, worked into high cultivation, feathered at
intervals with trees, and , numerously gemmed with
country-seats. The mountain-ridges which screen
the Glenmore-nan-Albin, seem to do homage to this
plain ; they subside from their sternness into pic
turesque hill-beauty ; they lose, as they approach it,
both their loftiness and their asperity; and they file
off, on the east side, into a smooth and gently-de
clining ridge about 400 feet high, and, on the west
side, into a gorgeous range of many-shaped and many-
tinted hills, rocky, scaured, or wooded on their sides,
tabular or rounded in their summits, and terminating
about two miles west of the town in the magnificent
Craig-Phadric, which lifts a mimic forest into mid
air, and is " distinguished by its beautiful tabular
summit, and a succession of bold rocky escarpments
along its acclivities :" see Craig-Phadric. The
highest adorning of husbandry and gardening and
arboriculture along the plain, and hanging woods,
verdant slopes, frontlets of rock, and a variety of
outline in the hills, fling enchantment over the
scenery immediately landward of Inverness ; and
yet they act but as a foil to the splendid combina
tions of lowland and marine and mountainous land
scape which hang in a profusion of splendour around
the town. The meuntain-barriers which rise up on
the comparatively near horizon, and form, along their
summits, a bold well-defined sky-line, exquisitely
contrast as a back-ground with the amenities and
the lusciousness of the vales and the waters which
they enclose. A serrated range on the south-west
and south lifts up at its termination in the far dis
tance the fine .cupola of Mealfourvounie, well-
known to the navigators of the friths as a land-mark,
and to the natives as a barometer : see Mealfour
vounie.' Peaks, which in mid-summer are capped
with clouds, and over a large part pf the year are
snpw-clad, tower aloft in clusters teward the west,
round the head of Loch-Beauly. A hilly range, very
picturesque in its features, flanks the opposite shore
of the friths, and runs off toward Fortrose to ter
minate in the rugged heights called the Sutors of
Cromarty ; but, beyond this, though at no great
distance, rises the huge form of Benwyvis, upwards
of 3,500 feet in height, seldom snowless even in

26

INVERNESS.

mid-summer, and sending pff elengated heath-clad
spurs, which lepk, in their relation to the landscapes
belcw them, like the reugh and ruthless guardians
of blushing and unjustly suspected beauty : see Ben-
wyvis. The Moray frith, or that fine indentation
of it which is here made to monopolize its name,
carries the eye north eastward between shores which,
while they rival each other, jointly rival Scotland in
attraction, to the far-away mountain-ranges of Elgin,
Banff, Sutherland, and Caithness, appearing in the
dim blue distance like things of sight vanishing into
the filmy but assured objects of faith. While we
smile, then, at the enthusiasm of the not very en
thusiastic Dr. M'Culloch, we can hardly refrain from
quietly sympathizing with it when, comparing In
verness with the superb metropolis of Scotland, he
says: " When I have stood in Queen-street of Edin
burgh, and looked towards Fife, I have sometimes
wondered whether Scotland contained a finer view
of its class. But I have forgotten this on my arrival
at Inverness. Surely if a comparison is to be' made
with Edinburgh, always excepting its own romantic
disposition, the frith of Forth must yield the palm
to the Moray frith, the surrounding country must
yield altogether, and Inverness must take the highest
rank. * * Each outlet is different from the others,
and each is beautiful ; whether we proceed towards
Fort-George, or towards Moy, or enter the valley of
the Ness, or skirt the shores of the Beauly frith,
while a short and commodious ferry wafts' us to
the lovely country opposite, rich with wood, and
country-seats, and cultivation. It is the boast, also,
of Inverness to unite two opposite qualities, and
each in the greatest perfection, — the characters of a
rich open lowland country with those of the wildest
alpine scenery, both also being close at hand, and in
many places intermixed ; while to all this is added a
series of maritime landscape not often equalled."
Approaching the town by the old military road
from Fort- Augustus along the right bank of the Ness,
we pass the parliamentary boundary at Altnaskiah
burn, and travel 5 furlongs due north, with the
river immediately on our left, and a rich studding
of mansions and villas on our right. At the end of
3£ furlongs we pass through the little manufactur
ing suburb of Haugh ; and immediately beyond it,
at a point whence the Culduthil and the Old Edin
burgh roads sharply diverge, we enter the main body
of the burgh. A few yards before us, close on the
margin of the river, is the Castle-hill, a mere projec
tion of the bank or terrace which flanks the lower
plain of the Ness. A stripe, or slightly winged single
street, round the east and south-east sides of the
Castle-hill, and a cross-street winged with alleys on
the south, are the oldest existing parts of Inverness:
occupying the site of its humble tenements when a
mere village, and exhibiting not a few antiquarian
remnants of its condition during the later ages of
feudalism. Eighty or a hundred yards below the
Castle-hill, the river is spanned by the old bridge :
and thence, or rather from the Castle-hill, it runs for
half-a-mile north-north-westward, and, over that dis
tance, carries down in the same direction, and on its
right bank, the chief district of the town. The
High-street, at first narrow, and bearing the name of
Bridge-street, but afterwards spacious and airy, ex
tends 320 yards north-eastward, on a line with the
old bridge, cutting nearly at right angles the thorough
fares which run parallel with the river. Petty-street
continues the High-street for about 100 yards, and
then forks into two lines, both of which speedily
subside into unedificed highways, the one leading
on to the great road along the Moray frith to Aber
deen, and the other to the great Highland road
through Badenoch and Glengarry to Perth. A

moundish rising ground, called the Crown, and
situated a little east of the forking of Petty-street,
was anciently surmounted by the original castle of
Inverness, and overlooked the earliest houses of the
pristine town, and the alleged site of the ancient
cross. Church-street, at about 130 yards' distance
from the river, extends 500 yards north-north-west
ward, and, is continued about 170 yards by Chapel-
street. From the upper end of Chapel-street, and
going off from it at a very acute angle, Academy-
street extends 450 yards south-eastward and north
westward ; forming the hypothenuse of a short-
based, right-angled triangle, while the greater part
of Church-street forms the perpendicular, and a
street which connects them on a line parallel with
High-street forms the base. Most of the area within
the triangle is unedificed ; but all the space lying
between it and High-street, is a dense phalanx of
alleys, brief streets, and interior courts, — the most
crowded district in the burgh. Six or seven streetsj
wholly or partially edificed, run down from Church-
street and the end of Chapel-street to the river ; and
on the last pf these touching it, it makes a rapid
bend from the north-north-west to the north-north
east, so as to be spanned 360 yards lower down by the
new bridge, carrying across a thoroughfare which
approaches nearly on a straight line from Chapel-
street. A few yards below the new bridge is the
old pier, and 300 yards farther down is the new
harbour, both flanked by Shore-street, extending
due north, now on the margin of the river, and now
at a considerable distance. — The part of the town
which lies on the left bank of the Ness, though all
modern, and gracefully laid out, is not strictly con
tinuous or compact, and presents such diversity of
street arrangement as cannot in sufficiently few
words be properly described. Its streets propor
tionately to its aggregate bulk, are surprisingly
numerous, and charmingly interlaced. In a general
view, it is a belt of edifices between 5 and 6 fur
longs in length, and from 100 to 420 yards wide,
folded along the margin, and following the curva
ture of the river, from the old bridge to a point
opposite the new harbour. Tomnahurich-street,
running upwards of 400 yards off nearly on a line
with the old bridge, leads out to the road along the
north side pf Lech-Ness by Urquhart tp Glenmpris-
tpn, Glenshiel, and Skye. King-street, running
parallel with the river, and Telford-street, ccntinuing
King-street, but curving away tp the east-north-
east, point the way across the commencement of the
Caledonian canal, and past the canal-basin at little
more than ^ of a mile's distance to the great north
road by Beauly to Dingwall and Tain. On this
road, immediately above the sea-lock of the canal,
and just within the parliamentary boundary of the
burgh, lies the fishing-village of Clachnaharry :
which see. In the extreme north, and in the vicinity
of the new bridge, the western division ofthetpwn,
after having becpme narrowed, opens in a half fan-
like form into Grant, North King, Nelson, Brown,
and other streets, and sends off a brief road to Kes-
sock ferry, which, from a pier at the mputh pf the
Ness, maintains easy and frequent communication
with the beautiful ccast alpng the Rpss-shire side pf
the frith — All the western tewn, and nearly all the
putskirts, as well as spme pf the interipr pf the
eastern tpwn, may at present compare, in general
neatness and taste pf maspnry, and in the aggregate
properties which produce a pleasing impression, with
any modern tnwn of its size in the United Kingdom.
Even the older streets fully compensate for their
want ef regularity and beauty, by interesting re
mains pf a picturesqueness which, at a very recent
date, arrayed them in gable-end cpnstructipns, arched

INVERNESS.

27

gateways, hanging balcpnies, projecting towers, and
round turnpike stairs. Though a crowded winter-
seat of aristocracy, and packed with mansions, in the
Flemish style, belonging to the landed proprietors of
an extensive circumjacent country, the town — even
so late as the middle of last century — had few houses
which were not thatched with heath or straw, or
which contained ceiled or plastered rooms ; while, at
a still later date, it knew nothing of the luxuries
of municipal police. About 60 or 70 years ago,
the magistrates, in order to induce parties to edifice
the airy and modern. thoroughfares, granted per
petual feu-rights for very trifling sums, and urged
forward the erections by the most condescending
encouragements. As the last century closed, Provost
William Inglis, a patriotic and energetic citizen, whp
died in 1801, achieved great improvements in mo
dernizing and polishing the burgh, and strongly im
pelled it toward its present position. In 1831, a pro
cess was commenced, and soon afterwards was com
pleted, of causewaying the carriage-ways with
granite, laying the side-paths with Caithness flag,
and ramifying the whole town with common sewers.
The cost of this great and beautifying improvement
exceeded £6,000, and was defrayed by an assessment
of 2J per cent, on hcuse-rents. A suit ofjras-werks,
erected at the expense pf £8,757, lights the tpwn
with gas, — said to be the best in the kingdem ; and
water- wprks, which, alpng with the conveying pipes,
cost £4,872, afford an ample supply of water.
The public buildings of Inverness, though possess
ing no remarkable features of elegance or beauty, are
both creditable and interesting. A suite of county
buildings, which crowns the Castle-hill, and was
erected, in 1835, at a cost of about £7,000, and after
a design by Mr. Burn of Edinburgh, stiongly'arrest
the eye of a stranger. The commanding site of the
edifices, the neatness of their architecture, their re
semblance to a spacious English castle, and their
interior commodiousness and beauty, unite to render
them superior to most Scottish buildings of their
class  At the corner of Church-street and High-
street stands the jail, surmounted by a remarkably
handsome spire 150 feet high. They were built in
1791, at the cost of about £3,400, only £1,800 of
which was expended on the jai). The spire resem
bles that of St. Andrew's church in Edinburgh, and
was built by the same architt ct, but excels it in
symmetry, and is remarkably handsome. Its top,
nowever, was severely twisted by the earthquake of
1816, and is ragged and ruinous. The jail— though
a vast improvement when it was built, and pro
nounced by the Old Statistical Account, " such as
would give pleasure to the benevolent Howard,"
has for many years been too small, admits of little or
no classification, is situated in a principal thorough
fare, and has nc ppen courts or facilities of any sprt
for airing and exercise, cr for classification. But for
6 pr 7 years past measures have been in progress tp
erect a new jail — which is here wanted, not merely
for the burgh pr for Inverness-shire, but for the
nprthern counties — on a site pn the Castle- hill, cpn-
ligupus tP the Cpunty-buildings, and acccrdant with
them in greatness and tastefulness pf design — In
High-street, nearly ppppsite the head pf Church-
street, stand, clustered in pne edifice, the Tpwn-
hall and the Exchange, an unornamented building,
erected in 1 708. In front of it stands the ancient
cross of the town ; and at the base of this is a cu
rious, blue, lozenge-shaped stone, reckoned the pal
ladium of the burgh, and called Clach-na-cudden,
' the Stone of the tubs,' from its having been a noted
resting-place for the water-pitchers or deep tubs of
bygone generations of women when passing from the
river. In the front wall of the Exchange and Tpwn-

hpuse, the armerial bearings of the town — a shield
representing the Crucifixion, and supported by an
elephant and a camel, with the motto ' Concordia et
Fidelitas ' — together with the royal arms, are beauti
fully carved. In the tewn-hall are good portraits of
Sir John Barnard and Sir Hector Munro, benefac
tors to the town, the former painted by Ramsay ; a
full-length portrait, by Syme of Edinburgh, of Pro
vost Robertson of Aultnaskiach, hung up as a testi
monial of respect by his fellow-citizens ; and a copy
of the original portrait, by Ramsay, of the celebrated
Flora Macdonald, presented by Mr. Frazer of Madras,
a native of the tewn  Near the head pf Church-
street stands a high and spacious but clumsy and
heavy edifice, called the Northern Meeting-rooms,
built by subscription, and elegantly fitted up into a
ball-rppm and a dining-room, each 60 feet long and
30 wide, and respectively 20 and 18 feet high. — On
the nerth-east side of Academy-street stands the
Inverness Academy, an extensive erection, handsome
but not showy, opened, in 1792, for the education,
on a liberal scale, of the families of the upper classes
throughout the Northern Highlands. It has a large
pleasure-ground behind for the recreation of the
scholars ; and is distributed in the interior into class
rooms for five masters, and a public hall embellished
with a bust, by Westmacott, of Hector Fraser, an
eminent teacher of Inverness, and with a masterly
painting of the Holy Family variously ascribed to Sasso
Ferrato and to Perino de Vaga. The Academy was
erected by numerous and munificent subscriptions, is
upheld by a fund of upwards of £6,000, besides an
annual grant of £70 from the town ; has a body of
directors who are incorporated by royal charter ;
and affords liberal training in all departments of a
commercial and a classical education, with the ele
ments of mathematics and philosophy. The North
ern institution for the promotion of science and
literature, established in 1825, have provided the
Academy with a valuable museum, and promise to
append to it lectureships in the physical sciences.-*
The Old academy, or hospital, situated near the
lower end' of Church-street, was bequeathed, in
1668, to the community by Provost Alexander
Dunbar ; and, since the transference of its funds, in
the form of the annual grant, to the New Academy,
it has been fitted up for a public library, a lady's
school, a soup-kitchen, and some other kindred pur
poses  On a tumulated part or swell of the bank
immediately south of the Castle-hill, and constitut
ing the highest ground within the limits or the en
virons of the boundaries, stands a neat and com
manding edifice, very recently erected for the accom
modation of various public charities of the burgh,
and surmounted by an octagonal tower, which ter
minates in a dome, and is fitted up as an observatory.
The institutions which it accommodates are a school
for females, a female work-society, an infant-school
on the plan of Mr. Wilderspin, and a society for
giving clothes and blankets to the poor  The cen
tral or model-school of ' the Society for Educating
the poor in the Highlands,' instituted in 1818, —
Raining's school, endowed by a bequest, in 1747,
of £1,000, — a large subscriptien-schpol for the pppr
in the suburb ef Merkinch, — and the retreats ef some
of the more suberdinate but useful schepls cf the
town,  are edifices which refresh the mind unspeak
ably mere by the asseciaticns which they suggest,
than if, with lcwer aims, er as the gathering-places
pf fashipnable dissipation, they were arrayed in the
most ornamental dresses pf architecture.— On the
left bank of the Ness, 3 furlongs above the old
bridge, stands the Infirmary of the nprthern ccunties,.
built in 1804, and including a Lunatic asylum. It
cpnsists of a large central front and two wings, the

28

INVERNESS,

front decorated with four elegant pilasters ; and it
is surrounded at some distance with iron pali
sades, enclosing a spacious area. It is commo-
diously and salubriously fitted up in the interior,
has a suite pf hot and cold baths, is maintained chiefly
by subscription and benignly conducted, and may, in
most peints pf view, cpmpare with any institution of
its class in Scotland — The High church, situated
near the foot of Church-street, and devoted to Eng
lish preaching, is a large plain edifice, standing com
pactly with an old square tower, which is said to
have been built by Oliver Cromwell, and whose soft
clear-toned bell is believed to have been brought by
him from the ancient cathedral of Fortrose  The
Gaelic church, situated beside the High church, and
appropriated exclusively to Gaelic, has no exterior
attraction, but possesses within an old and elegantly
carved oaken pulpit.— The North kirk, situated in
Chapel-street, is a large and handsome building 
The Episcopalian chapel, standing opposite the High
church, is a neat structure, surmounted by a cupola.
The other places of worship in the town are all
pleasant and creditable ecclesiastical fabrics.
A wooden bridge, which existed in the time of
Cromwell, and is characterized by one of his officers
as ' the weakest, in his opinion, that ever straddled
over so strong a stream,' stppd a few yards belpw
the present eld bridge, and communicated with the
town en the right bank of the river by an arched
way which perforated, or was surmounted by a
house. Upwards of 100 persons formed a crowd
upon this fragile structure, and caused its fall, yet
all escaped destruction — The old bridge was built
in 1685, at a cost of £1,300, defrayed by voluntary
contribution throughout the kingdom. Between
the second and third arches is a dismal vault, used
first as a jail and afterwards as a madhouse, the air
hole or grating of which is still visible. This appal
ling place of durance, whose inmate was perched
between the constant hoarse sound of the stream
beneath and the occasional trampling of feet and
rattle of wheels overhead, was in use so late as 30
years ago, and is said not to have been abandoned
till its last miserable inmate, a maniac, had been de
voured by rats -The new bridge is a wooden erec
tion, built m 1808, by public and private subscrip
tion — At two beautiful islets in the Ness, very nearlv
united, measuring respectively 1£ and U furlong in
length, and lying about a mile above thl town, two
airy and handsome suspension-bridges have been flune
across to connect them, the one with the right bank
and the other with the left. These islands-once
noted as the scene of rural feasts and semi-bacchana
lian orgies given by the magistrates to the judges at
the assize-courts— have been tastefully cut into plea
sure-walks profusely planted and variously beauti
fied as public promenades; and, easily approached bv
the ornamental bridges, and' lying in the bosom of an
almost luscious landscape, they probably excel all
public grounds of their class in Scotland.
The extinct and ancient public structures of the
town present various associations of stirring interest
Ihe oldest or original castle of Inverness, that
which stood on 'the Crown,' has for centuries been
untraceable except by traditional identification of
its site. I his edifice was very probably, as Shak-
speare assumes, the property of Macbeth, who, being
by birth the.maormor, or 'great man of Ross ' and
becoming by marriage that also of Moray, could
hardly fail to have the mastery of a stronghold at
the mouth of the Ness; and, true to the description
ot the prince of dramatic poets, 'this castle had a
pleasant seat,' the air around which '

"Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses ;"

but, according to the concurrent opinion of modern
antiquarians, it was not, as Shakspeare represents,
and as Boethius and Buchanan relate, the scene of
King Duncan's murder by Macbeth, — that deed hav
ing been perpetrated at a spct called, in the Chro
nicon Elegaicum, Bothgofuane, ' a smithy,' and placed
by some near Inverness, but by most near Elgin.
When Malcolm Canmore vanquished his father's
murderer, he naturally seized his strongholds, and
dealt with them at will ; and he then razed his castle
pf In verness, and built instead pf it, and as a rpyal
residence, a fortress on the summit of the Castle-hill,
the site of the present county-buildings. This new
castle figured for several centuries as unitedly a seat
of royalty and a place of military strength ; receiving
at intervals within its precincts the persons of the
kings and princes of Scotland, and regularly serving
as a vantage-ground, whence they or their servants
cverawed the insubordinate and turbulent nprth.
Shaw Macduff, sen pf the 6th Earl pf Fife, the
assumer of the name of Mackintosh, the assistant of
Malcolm in crushing an insurrection in Moray, and
the acquirer of great property in the north, was made
hereditary governor of the castle. In 1245, it be
came the prison of Sir John Bisset of Lovat, for the
imputed crimes of connection with the murder of the
Earl of Athole, and of fealtyship to the Lord of the
Isles. Soon afterwards, it was captured, during the
minority of one of its hereditary keepers, by the
Cummings of Badenoch ; and thence till the begin
ning of next century, it remained in their possession.
In 1303, it was seized by the partisans of Edward I.
of England ; and, in turn, it was captured by the
friends of Robert Bruce. The patriot founder of a
new dynasty of Scottish kings was a wanderer in the
Western islands when this key-fortress of the North
became his ; and he is said to have been inspirited
by the news of the acquisition, to that course of dar
ing enterprise which conducted him to triumph and
the throne. From Bruce's time till that of James
I., the castle was retained in the immediate power
of the Crown ; and at the accession of the latter
monarch, it was repaired and refortified, and again
put into the hereditary keeping of the captain of the
clan Chattan, the chief of the Macintoshes. In 1427,
James I., when in a progress through the north, to
castigate some turbulent chiefs, held a parliament in
the castle, summoning to it all his northern barons.
Alexander, Lprd pf the Isles, was, pn this occasion,
made prisoner for a year ; and, when freed from du
rance, he returned with an army at his heels tp wreak
vengeance on his prison ; and, imposing on the autho
rities by pretence pf friendship, and cpnsigning the
town to burning and pillage, he made a bold attempt
to seize the castle, but was repelled by its governor.
in 1455, John, his successor, quite as turbulent as
he, or more probably Donald Balloch pf Isla, acting
as Jphn s lieutenant, rushed dewn uppn the town,
and, while abandoning it like Alexander to the flames
and plunder, made a mere successful effort against
the castle, and topk it by surprise. In 1464 the
castle was visited and temporarily pecupied by James
III.; and m 1499, by James IV. In 1508 the
PiX Earl° of H ^tle Wa? C°nferred heredltarii;
pn the Earl of Huntly ; and thpugh eventually be-
ll teDuk? o? r S ,descend?'ts. a»° was held by fhe
tate Duke of Gordon at his death. In 1555 the
castle received the queen-regent, Mary of Guise and
was the scene of a convention of estates and extraor
dinary courts summoned by her to quiet theHul
lands and punish caterans\nd poffi StaK
and, at the same time, it endungeoned the . p,,i^ i
Caithness, for breach pf her laws^and defian J fof her
authpnty, ,„ affording his protects to«££^ <

INVERNESS.

29

In 1562, Queen Mary, having entered the tpwn at
tended by the Earl pf Mpray, was driven from the
castle-gates by the gpverner pf the fortress, a crea
ture of the Earl of Huntly, and was obliged tp take
up her residence and tp hpld her court in a private
house, still in part standing, near the old bridge ;
but strengthened by the accession to her troops of
the Mackintoshes, the Frasers, and the Munroes, she
reduced the castle, and put the governor to death.
In 1644, on intelligence of the descent cf a party of
Irish on the weSt coast to join the Marquis of Mon
trose, the castle was put into full trim, and fully
garrisoned ; and next year, it successfully held out,
under Urry, the parliamentary general, aided by all
the parliamentarians of the town, against a regular
siege by Montrose's troops. In 1649, Mackenzie of
Pluscardine, Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, and
other royalists, took the castle, nearly demolished
its fortifications, and devoted its tapestries and deco
rated chambers to decay and desolation. Soon after
the Revolution the dilapidated pile — now scarce half
a fortress — was patched up into a stronghold of the
Jacobites, by the magistrates, _who were warmly
attached to the cause of the dethroned dynasty ; but
it was soon wrested from their possession, and con
verted into a means pf keeping them in check. In
1718, the reigning authcrities repaired it, converted
the ancient part into barracks for Hanpverian trppps,
added a new part tp serve as a gevernor's house, and
gave the whole structure the name of Fort-George.
In 1 745, it was occupied successively by Sir John
Cope and the Earl of Loudoun, on behalf of the
Government ; and next year it was taken by Prince
Charles Edward, and by his command was destroyed
by explosion. The French officer of engineers who
lighted the train which was to explode it, is reported
to have been blown into the air and killed. Though
the castle was now rendered uninhabitable and use
less, a large part of its walls, till a very recent pe
riod, remained entire.
A street, which leads from the east end of the
Exchange and Town-house to the terrace, along the
southern outskirts, still commemorates the fortress
in its name of Castle-street, and has on its west side
some remaining parts of the old castle wall. This
street — which is narrow, dingy, and a dark relic of
bygone times — has some very old houses, and was
anciently called Doomesdale-street, on account of
its conducting to the Gallows-moor  The houses
of Petty-street, in the vicinity of the site of Mac
beth 's castle on " the Crown," are memorials of the
period of meanness and thatch; and are such low
slateless tenements as convey to strangers entering
from the south a foully unfavourable first impression
of Inverness. — A house in Church-street, the third
below the Mason lodge, was the domicile occupied
successively by Prince Charles Edward, and the
Duke of Cumberland, amid the closing scenes of the
civil war of 1745-6. The apartment in which they
slept is on the first floor, and looks into the garden.
The house is said to have been the only one then in
the town which had a parlour or sitting-room with
out a bed ; and it belonged to Catherine Duff, Lady
Drummuir, and is now the property of her descend
ant, the proprietor of the splendid suburban mansicn
and demesne of Muirtown. — Remains pf a vast fort
which Oliver Cromwell built in 1652-7— one pf the
four which he constructed for checking and over
awing Scotland — may be seen at the harbpur, twp
or three furlpngs above the mouth pf the Ness. It
cpst £80,000 sterling, pccupied nearly seven years in
building, and was ccnstructed with fir from Strath-
glass, oak-planks and beams from England, and
stones from the religious hpuses of Inverness, the
priory of Beauly, the abbey of Kinloss, and the

cathedral and bishop's castle of Fortrpse. It was a
regular pentagpn, surrpunded with ramparts, having
the Ness pn pne side, and a fosse pn all the ethers
sp deep and bread as at full tide to float a small
bark. This great ditch still exists, retains its capa
cities, and is widened on the south side into a regu
lar harbour. The breastwork of the fort was three
stories high, constructed of hewn stone, and lined
on the inside with brick. The principal gateway
looked to the north; and was approached, first
through a vaulted passage 70 feet long, and seated
on each side, — and next over a strong oaken draw
bridge, overhung by a stately structure, inscribed
with the motto, " Togam tuentur arma." The
sally-port looked toward the town. At opposite
sides of the area within the ramparts stood two
long buildings, each four stories high, — the one
called the English building, because built by Eng
lishmen, and the other called the Scottish build
ing, because built by Scotchmen. In the centre of
the area stood a large square edifice, three stories
high, the lower part occupied as magazine and pro
vision store, and the highest part fitted up as a
church, covered over with a pavilion-roof, and sur
mounted by a tower with a clock and four bells.
The fort had accommodations for 1,000 men; but it
so annoyed and chafed the Highland chiefs under the
keen administration of Cromwell, that, at their re
quest, and in acknowledgment of their loyalty to the
Stuarts, it was destroyed immediately after the Re
storation. Its ramparts and houses — though a con
siderable part of the former still remains — became a
quarry to the burghers ; and were freely carried off
for the construction, as is believed, of many of the
existing older houses of the town. The area of the
fort is now peacefully occupied by some weavers'
shops, and by a large hemp factory, built in 1765 —
At least two suites of ecclesiastical buildings, and
probably three, which anciently belonged to Inver
ness, were swept away as building materials for the
fort. One was a chapel, dedicated to the Virgin
Mary. Another, the probable one, was a convent
and church of Franciscans or Grey friars. The third
was the monastery and church of a community of
Dominicans or Black friars, who were established in
the town during the reign of Alexander II. The
cemetery of the Dominicans survives, and is the
large burying-ground still in use, called the Chapel-
yard, and situated in Chapel- street ; and, before the
present entrance to it was formed, it had a neat and
richly-sculptured gateway, inscribed with the words,
" Concordia parvae res crescunt."
Inverness, though possessing many advantages for
productive industry, has but inconsiderable manu
factures. A white and coloured linen thread manu
facture, which, at the end of last century, had its
seat in the burgh, and was ramified over the northern
counties, and employed about 10,000 persons, has
almost wholly disappeared before the energetic com
petition of the towns of Forfarshire. A bleachfield
on the Ness has also proved a failure. A hemp
manufacture— principally of coal and cotton bagging
 was for a time not a little prosperous, but has al
ready greatly declined. The factory within the area
of Cromwell's fort employed fifty years ago about
1,000 persons, but now employs at most 300. A
second factory, established while this one prospered,
was ten or eleven years ago discontinued. The
bagging produced yields earnings to the workmen of
from 4s. to 10s. per week; and is sent chiefly to
London and the Indies. A woollen factory in the
suburb of Haugh produces coarse clothing, tartan
and plaids for the Highland market, has attached to
it apparatus for the carding and spinning of wool,
and employs about 25 persons. There are three

30

INVERNESS.

tanneries. Ship-building was a few years ago com
menced in a spirit of enterprise. — Malting was for
generations a chief employment in the town, and
enriched the members of by far the largest ancient
corporation in the burgh. Dissipation was unhap
pily very , general throughout the Highlands; and,
having as yet neither yielded to the seduction of
ardent spirits, nor becoming acquainted with the
weaning influence of tea, it expatiated in its orgies
upon the produce of the brewery. Inverness en
joyed almost a monopoly in the art and practice of
malting, and supplied all the Northern counties, the
Hebrides, and the Orkneys with malt. One-half of
the aggregate architecture of the town was a huge
and unsightly agglomeration of malting-houses, kilns,
and granaries. But from the date of the Revolution
onward, this trade has suffered a gradual decline;
and, at one time, it threatened to involve the whole
interests of the community in its fall. So low had
the town sunk even at the date of the civil war of
1745-6, that it looked almost like a field of ruins;
the very centre of it containing many forsaken and
dilapidated houses, and all the other parts of it ex
hibiting in every alternate space, and that the larger
one, the ruin of a kiln, a granary, or some homoge
neous building. Had not succedanea for the nearly
defunct and once general occupation opportunely
sprung up to revive the town, and to occasion the
ruined parts of it, some years before the close of the
century, to be almost wholly new built, it might
already have been on the brink of extinction. A
few of the old large malt-kilns and granaries still
exist, and there are some breweries and distilleries.
Inverness had anciently a large share in the limited
commerce of Scotland. During several centuries
previous to the Union, it was the adopted home of
foreign traders, or was annually visited by German
merchants; and it conducted, with the ports of Hol
land and other parts of nprthern centinental Europe,
an extensive trade in skins and ether Highland pro
duce, in exchange for foreign manufactures. The
Northern counties, and even the Highlands generally,
as well as the Western and the Northern islands,
looked to it as the only mart for their commodities,
and the only depot Whence they could obtain the
produce of other lands. But during the effluxion of
the former half of last century, the Highlanders of
the western and' southern districts found their way
by agents to Glasgow, and, adopting it as a superior
market, abandoned Inverness to the incompetent
support of the infertile north. Trade, which syn
chronized in its decline with the falling away of the
malt-manufacture, began to revive with the era of
renovation which succeeded 1746. The money cir
culation by the Hanoverian army after the suppres
sion of the Rebellion, the great influx of money from
the East and the West Indies, the opening up of
the vast circumjacent country by easily traversable
roads, the establishment of manufactures, the im
proving of agriculture, the rise in the value of lands,
and the causes as well as the immediate results of
the great social and meliorative revolution which
took place in the Highlands, all conspired to educe
before the close of the century, a considerable, a
various, and a not insecure trade. About the year
1803, its merchants had their attention turned, by
convenience, and a view of the cheapness of British
•nanufactures, to London in preference to foreign
ports; and tbey commenced with it, as their great
mart of commerce, an intercourse which has been
generally prosperous, and has steadily increased. So
late as twenty years ago, the town annually imported
about 8,000 to 10,000 bolls of oatmeal; but since
then it has gradually reversed the process, and, for a
number of years past it has annually exported from

4,000 to 5,000 bolls of oats. In its custom-house
district, which extends from the mouth of the Spey
tp the Dornoch frith, there were, in 1831, 142 ves
sels of aggregately 7,104 tons, and, in 1835, 160
vessels of aggregately 7,597 tons. About one-third
of the vessels, and about one half of the tonnage,
belong to the town. In 1834, 6 vessels, each pf
abput 130 tpns, traded regularly with Londpn, 5
traded with Leith, and 2 traded with Aberdeen. In
1840, steam- vessels sailed frpm it every ten days to
London, every Friday morning to Aberdeen and
Leith, and every Menday and Friday morning to
Glasgpw and places intermediate along the route of
the Caledonian and the Crinan canals. From Inver
ness and its vicinity, , including Beauly and Easter
Ross, between 30,000 and 40,000 quarters of wheat
are annually shipped for London and Leith; and
within its custom-house district about J 00 cargoes
of mixed gppds from these ports and Aberdeen are
annually debarked. A great trade is cpnducted also
along the Caledcnian canal, and disgcrges most of
its proceeds at the basin near the town. See article
Caledonian Canal  Three harbours, all small,
but good and easily accessible, have at different periods
been constructed in the Ness ; the lowest admitting
vessels of 250 tons burden, and the others vessels of
200 tens. At the Caledenian canal wharfs, within
a mile of the tpwn, large ships may receive and
deliver cargpes, and in Kessock roads they have
safe and excellent anchorage. The piers, inn, and
offices at Kessock ferry-station, midway between
the mouth of the Ness and the sea-lock of the Cale
donian canal, were erected by Sir William Fettes,
the proprietor, at an expense of about £10,000.
The accumulation of commerce round the peninsula
enclosed by the Ness and the canal, terminating in
Kessock-point, and bearing the name of Merkinch,
has, within the last thirty-five years, carried up its
rental value from between £70 and £80 to upwards
of £600.
Inverness is well-provided with the appliances oi
trade, of landward communication, and of social
comfort.. Its inns have long been npted for their
gppd properties; and the chief of them, the Caledo
nian hotel, is equal to almost any in Scotland. Its
banking-offices are branches of the Bank of Scot
land, the British Linen company's bank, the Com
mercial bank of Scotland, the National bank of Scot
land, and the head-office of the Caledonian banking
company. A four-horse mail-coach communicates
daily with Dingwall, Tain, and Thurso on the north,
and with Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and with places in
general on the south; two stage-coaches communi
cate daily with Aberdeen along the coast-road by
way of Elgin ; a stage-coach communicates twice a-
week, and during part of the year daily, with Perth,
by the great Highland road through Badenoch; and
public vehicles communicate, during part of the
summer, with the district of Ross-shire called the
Black isle. Some curious facts respecting the late
ness of the introduction of wheeled-carriages to In
verness, the very modern acquaintance pf the tpwn
with public vehicles, and the slew and 'progressive
accession of the luxuries of a mail, are stated in our
article on the Highlands : which see. . The Medi
cal society of the North, the Inverness-shire Farming
society, and the Association of the Northern coun
ties, hold their meetings in the town. The last of
these is a body of noblemen and gentlemen, to whom
belongs the building which we noticed for the Nor
thern meetings, and who are associated to patronize
horse-racing and fashionable amusements, and to
fling, by means pf these, what they cpneeive tp be
attributes pf refinement pver the Northern capital.
1 he institutions of the town, literary, social, bene-

INVERNESS.

31

volent, and'rJ&Bgious, additional to the goodly num
ber we have already had occasion to notice, are a
mechanics' institution, established in 1831 ; two pub
lic reading-rooms, to both of which strangers are
politely allowed access; several subscription and
circulating libraries ; a large parochial library, under
the management pf the kirk-session ; a select reli
gious school-library ; a dispensary, established by sub
scription in 1832; nine friendly societies; twe mason-
¦fodges; a Sabbath schppl spciety ; andaJBibleseciety.
Funds for purppses pf education and charity are no
ticed in a succeeding paragraph cf this article. In
verness has several printing-presses, and stands in
such literary pre-eminence amcng Sccttish tpwns pf
its class as tc possess three weekly newspapers, the
Courier, published on Wednesday, and ihe Herald
and the Journal, both published on Friday. Weekly
markets for poultry-yard, farm and garden produce,
are held every Tuesday and Friday. Hiring-fairs
for farm-servants are held on the last Friday of
April and of October. Annual fairs for cattle, for
general produce, and for coarse household stuffs
manufactured by the Highland women, are held on
the first Wednesday after the Uth day of February,
O. S., or on Wednesday of the 11th; for sheep and
wool on the 2d Thursday of July, and for general
produce on the first Wednesday after the 18th of
the same month; for dairy produce, on the first
Wednesday a'ter the 15th of August, O. S., or, if
that date be a Wednesday, on the 26th, N. S. ; and
for general produce, on the first Wednesday after
the 11th of November, O. S. These fairs, except
ing that of July, are only vestiges of the great com
mercial gatherings, the vast provincial trysts, for
the exchange of all sorts of commodities with the
produce of the whole North Highlands, which often
drew together a prodigious and most motley popula
tion, and were sometimes continued during succes
sive weeks. The establishment of shops through.
out the interior of the country, and of cattle-trysts
in various competing localities, have reduced the
fairs to the mere skeleton of their former bulk; and
they are now restricted as to time of continuance
between the forenoon of Wednesday and the after
noon of the following Friday, or between the fore
noon of Thursday and the afternoon of the following
Saturday. But at the July wool and sheep fair the
principal sheep-farmers throughout the north of
Scotland are met by the sheep dealers of southern
counties, and by wool - staplers and agents from
England, and sell to them annually sheep and wool
to the value pf between £150,000 and £200,000
— Inverness, it is expected, will fully share in the
vast advantages pf the railway-system. The Nprth
ern and the Caledpnian railway will open two great
lines of communication with England on the east and
on the west, which, avoiding the interruption pf the
Fprth and pf the Tay, will be extended to the north
by Stirling and Perth : and turning eastward to Dun
dee, and taking advantage of the already constructed
railroad to Arbroath, and Friockheim, will be far
ther extended, with branch-lines to Fprfar and Mpn-
trpse, tp Stpnehaven pn the east cpast, and onwards
to Aberdeen, from which it is proposed to carry the
communication as far as Inverness: thus making a
cpntinupus cpmmunication by railroad from London
to Inverness, a distance of between 600 and 700
miles, which may yet be travelled in one day.
Inverness, such as we have described it, exhibits,
in almost every feature, marks of recent and entirely
renovating transition. Only abput forty years have
elapsed since its streets were a continuous nuisance,
altogether unwitting of a single appliance or process
of cleanliness. In September 1709, the town-clerk
"paid an officer 4s. 6<L Scots, to buy a cart of peats tp

be burnt in the telbppth tp rempve the bad scent ;"
and, in December, 1737, the magistrates ordered the
town-clerk to purohase " an iron spade, tc be given
tp the hangman for cleaning the tolbooth." In the
year 1740, harness and saddlery of all sorts continued
to be so little in requisition, but were beginning to
be just so much appreciated, that the magistrates
advertised for a saddler to settle in the town. Prior
tp abput the year 1775, when the first bppkseller's
shep was ppened in the burgh, the few perspns in the
town, and throughout the great extent of country,
dependent on its market, who were able and had oc
casion to make use of writing materials, were sup
plied with stationery by the post-master. About the
middle of last century, a hat had not graced any head
in the north except that of a landed proprietor or a
minister ; and when it was first assumed by a bur
gher, in the person of the deacon of the weavers, the
father of the late Bailie Young, it excited the highest
ridicule of the blue-bonneted multitude, and drew
frpm them such constant twitting and raillery, as
only the stoutest pertinacity, and the sturdiest inde
pendence, could have enabled the worthy deacon to
resist. At a comparatively late date, intemperate
drinking is understood to have been practised, even
among the most polished classes, with such horrific
defiance of all moral obligation and all social decency,
that a guest would be thought discburteous, or per
haps insulting to his entertainer, who did not drink
till he became insensible and actionless, and had to-
be carried away like a mass of carrion from the pre
sence of the living. About ninety years ago, a leg of
mutton, a neck pf veal, and a gallon of ale, are said,
by tradition, to have been purchaseable for a shilling;
and even yet, butcher-meat, poultry, fish, and ale,
sell at much lower prices than in the southern towns.*
At the middle of last century, the universal costume
was Celtic and primitive; and, to this hour, it varies
in a sufficient number of instances and particulars
from that of the inhabitants of the southern towns,
tp impress uppn a Lowland visiter an instant con
viction that he is among a peculiar race, whose habks
and notions still differ considerably from his own.
The young women of the lower classes appear at
market or church without any head-dress, and the
married women without bonnets ; and, in the rest of
their attire, they exhibit rather a passion for simple
and gaudy finery, than a taste indicative of much ad
vance from the rude notions of bygone times. Men
of the lower classes, in some instances, and the land
ward peasantry in general, wear coarse home-spun
blue short coats, small blue bonnets, stockings cf the
kind called " rig-and-fur," and very cften seme relic
er pendicle of the old Highland costume. Yet the po
pulation as a whole is, as to social manners and charac
ter, certainly the most rapidly, and perhaps the most
materially, improved of any in Scotland. Games of
foot-ball," shintie, bowls, and throwing the stone and
hammer, which formerly were common among adults
of the lower orders, are now entirely abandoned, or
practised only by school-boys and apprentices on gala
days. Appliances of fashionable folly, the theatre,
the ball-room, the turf, and kindred means of killing
the time and squandering the moral energies of the
upper classes, have not half the prominence or attrac
tion in Inverness as in several Scottish towns which
are very far behind it in the resources of wealth and
aristocracy. Knowledge and general intellectual
attainment distinguish the higher orders, and are
swelling upward with steady tidal flow in every re
cess and crevice of society. Gaelic, though not long
ago the prevailing language, is wholly unknown to
many of the rising generation, even among the poorer
* See a preceding Note,

32

INVERNESS.

classes ; and though still spoken by some, and under
stood by most, is rapidly becoming extinct. The
Inverness dialect, or pronunciation of English, has
long been, and is still, justly noted for its intrinsic
purity, and for its being but little, if at all, affected
by such broad Doric provincialisms as are everywhere
impressed on the varieties of the Lowland dialect.
This comparatively correct and elegant English —
purer by far than that of most parts of England itself
 is generally ascribed to the modelling influence of
the soldiers of the Commonwealth during the years
of their occupying Cromwell's fort; but it seems
rather to have arisen, and to be even yet occasionally
arising, from the circumstance of English being ac
quired, not by the lessons of imitation, but by the
process of translating from the Erse, — a circumstance
which conducts, not to a corrupted spoken language,
but directly to the pure English of literature. Ire
land exhibits along the debateable ground in the far
west between the strictly aboriginal or Erse district,
and the Anglo-Irish territories, just such a pheno
menon as Scotland has in Inverness, and there pours
forth, from the lips of her peasantry, an English so
untainted by brogue and provincialism as would de
light the ears of a master of orthoepy.
Inverness, viewed in connection with its environs,
is perhaps the most delightful town-retreat in Scot
land ; and, were it situated farther to the south, or
not so remote and difficult of access, would speedily
become the adopted home of numerous classes of an
nuitants. Its gorgeous encircling natural pano
rama, — its pure and salubrious air, — its rich resources
of school and library, — its charming promenade of the
Ness islands, — and its vicinity to a profusion of objects
which demolish ennui and delight the taste, — render
it almost the paragon of provincial towns. The
grounds of Muirtown, embosoming in wood f of a
mile north-west of the town a handsome and taste
ful mansion, and stretching away in the embellish
ments of lawn, and glade, and forest, to the base of
the romantic Craig-Phadric, form a constant haven,
a nook of repose to the eye, after its bold and far
away rovings athwart the general landscape. Other
mansions and their grounds, particularly the houses
of Culloden, Raigmore, Darrochville, and Leys,
adorn the immediate neighbourhood. Associations
connected with the curious little hill of Tomnahu-
rich, rising abruptly from the plain, j of a mile south
west of the town, like the inverted hull of an enor
mous ship, feathered all over with trees, peopled by
the dreams of ancient superstition with colonies of
fairies, regarded by many as the sepulchral mound,
the stupendous grave, of Thomas the Rhymer, and
used in the olden time as a ward hill for noting the
approach of unfriendly clans, — associations connected
with this picturesque, object may allure a saunterer
into many a pleasing reverie ; and walks all around
its base, and along the banks of the tree-fringed
Ness — that river which is alike " noble, broad, clear,
and strong," — may both minister to health, and daily
draw a well- toned mind into holy meditation. Other
objects and places, which interest the feelings, and
are accessible by short walks or easy drives, are the
rocky eminences and the columnar monument above
Clachnaharry, 1£ mile north-west ; the high gravelly
ridge called Tor-a'-Bhean, and partly encircled with
ditches and ramparts, a little west of Tomnahurich ;
the Ord Hill of Kessock, the site of a vitrified fort,
2 miles north ; the Druidical temple of Leys, 2i miles
south ; the famous battle-field of Culloden moor, 5J
miles south-east; Castle-Stewart, 6 miles east ; the
stone monuments at Clava, 7 miles south-east ;
Loch-Ness, and the Roman station at Bona, 7 miles
south-west ; the Aird or vale of the Beauly, from 3
to 16 miles west; Castle-Dalcross, Fort-George, and

Cawdor-castle, respectively 8, J2£, and 15 miles
east; Glen Urquhart and Castle, from 15 to 20 miles
south-west; the Falls of Kilmoraek, from 12 to 15
miles west; and the Fall of Foyers, 18 miles south
west. , .
Inverness is a burgh of great antiquity. There
are on record four charters granted in its favour by
King William the Lion. By the first of these, the
king granted " burgensibus de Moravia" the usual
burgal privilege " ut nullus eorum namum capiat pro
alicujus debitc nisi pro eorum debito propris." By
the second, the burgesses of Inverness were declared
free " a tolneo et omni consuetudine per totam ter
rain regis :" it prohibited " ne quis emat aut vendat
in burgo illo aut in vicecomitatu illo extra burgum
aliquam mercaturam exerceat nisi fuerit burgensis
aut stallarius ;" and it granted to the burgesses " ad
sustentamentum burgi, terram illam quae est extra
burgum quae vocatur Burghalew." In consideration
of these grants, the burgesses undertook to erect and
maintain a good palisade over a fosse to be con
structed bythe king. The third charter of William
granted to the burgesses of Inverness " perpetuam
libertatum quod nunquam inter eos bellum habebunt,
nee aliquis alius burgensis aut aliquis alius homo de
toto regno super eosdem burgenses de Moravia nee
super heredes eorum bellum habebunt nisi tantum
juramentum ;" and further, " ut dimidiam juramen-
tum et dimidiam forisfacturam faciant quod ceteri
burgenses faciunt in toto regno." The fourth char
ter of the same king — which is still preserved in the
archives of the burgh — granted to the burgh the pri
vilege of a weekly market, and ratified in its favour
some of the remarkable privileges conferred on burghs
by the statutes of David, the king's grandfather. A
charter of Alexander II. granted to the burgesses the
land of Markynch. Alexander III. confirmed tha
privilege contained in the first charter of William,
and enjoined all sheriffs north pf the Munth te dis
train for payment those " qui debita burgensibus
debuerint quod rationabiliter probare potuerint, ad
eadem debita eis juste et sine dilatione reddenda."
Robert I., in the 19th year of his reign, directed a
precept to the sheriff of Inverness to do full and
speedy justice, at the suit of the burgesses of Inver
ness, against all invading their privileges by buying
or selling in prejudice of them and of the liberties of
the burgh. David II. conferred the privilege, or
declared the right of the burgesses that no justiciar
nor other officer of the crown — except the chamber
lain, whose office it is — sit or take cognizance upon
the correction or punishment of the weights and mea
sures of the burgesses ; and the same king granted to
the burgesses and community the burgh, with the
land of Drekes, and with toll and petty custom of
the burgh. James IL, in ratifying certain grants ot
his ancestors to the church of St. Duthac and to the
inhabitants of Tayne, in 1457, declared that they
should not prejudice the right of the burgh and bur
gesses of Inverness to the great and small customs
granted to them by his ancestors ; and further con
firmed the rights, privileges, liberties, and infeft-
ments of the burgh and burgesses pf Inverness ; from
which it weuld appear that the exclusive privilege of
merchandise within the sheriffdem, cpnferred by the
secend charter ef William the Lipn, actually extend
ed over the earldom pf Rpss, then part pf the sheriff
dom of Inverness. Queen Mary, on the 3d of May,
1546, granted under the great seal a ratification of an
act and ordinance of the provost, bailies, council, and
community of Inverness, dated the 19th March, 1545.
In the narrative there is set forth " the great hurt
and skaith lang time by-gane used through indrawing
of outlandish men of great clans not able nor quali
fied to use merchandize, nor make daily residence nor

INVERNESS.

33

policy, nor no manner of bigging within the burgh,
but allenarly to bruick the profit of the common
tacks and steadings of the burgh to be spended and
used outwith the said burgh, — which has happened
from the widows within the burgh bruiking the
tacks and steadings of their husbands after their de
cease, aud by reason pf the interest pf the putlandish
men pf great clans with the said widpvvs." In con-
sequence, it is " crdained that np widow shpuld bruik
any tack pr steading within burgh by reasen pf the
decease of her husband, after the old manner, but
the same to be bruiked by the heirs male of the bo-
dies pf the pessessors ; providing alway that they be
thought qualified by the provost and bailies and their
. council tc sect, lot, walk and ward, with the laif of
the neighbpurs pf the said burgh, and make centinual
and daily residence for the mest part pf the year
within the same ; failing pf which heirs, the provest,
&c, tp disppne to pther neighbeurs worthy and qua
lified." There are, in the reign of James VI., two
charters, — the one granting new, and the other con
firming the ancient rights. The first is dated the 6th
March, 1588, by which the king approved of the de
struction of a mill built en the water pf Ness, tp the
sputh pf the castle; and granted to the burgesses
the astricted and dry multures belonging tp that mill
for payment of six merks yearly. The second rati
fies the ancient charters in favour of the burgh
granted by William, Alexander, David, James I.,
James IV., and Mary. This charter contains a de
tail of the lands and other rights of property then
appertaining to the burgh, of which the following
may be deemed the most important : — " The lands
of Drakes, and forest of the same ; Markhinch, with
the common pasturage anciently called the Burgh-
haugb, Wood Park, Burnbills, Claypots, Milnfield,
the Carse, Cam Laws, as particularly bounded, the
commen muir of the burgh, the water of Ness, and
both sides of the same between the stone called
Clachnahagyag and the sea, with the fishings ; the
fishing of the Red Pool, en the east of the ferry of
Kessock, with the privilege of three kists within the
water wrak, as use is; the ferry of Kessock, the
King's mills, the astricted and dry multures of the
Castle lands, and of the other lands which of old
pertained to the miUs built on the Ness to the south
of the Castle, called Kannak-hill mills, destroyed."
A large part of the landed property of the burgh
has been alienated at different times, so that this
portion of its funds is now comparatively small. The
property* of the burgh of Inverness was returned, in
1832, as consisting of: —

Estimated value, £2,583 14 2
. 1,117 15 0

Feu-duties,Casualties of superiority,
River Ness fishings, .
Burgh lands, .....
 houses and shops, . •
Town-hall, and subjects not yielding a pecuniary
annual return, .....
Estimated value of heritable property, but
not taking into account gaol, court-house,
church, aud bleaching-greens, .
InvernesB.gas and water company.
New bridge of Inverness,
New harbour of Inverness,

300

870 4

2,000 0 0

500 0 0
1,856 15 10
3,365 I 1

» ThiB enumeration and estimate, it was stated, included only
such property as was deemed capable of being 6old, transferred,
<ir made over in security. In consequence, the principal church
in Inverness is not included, although built at the expense of
the burgh, and yielding from seat-rents an annual revenue of
£146 13°. 3d. Nor, in making the estimate, have the proceeds
of the old anchorage aud shore-dues, customB, old bridge-toll,
burgess and apprentice-dues, been taken into calculation. But
the town-hall, tho bridge, and harbour, and the other jubjecu
«f a similar nature, must likewise be excluded, which, by occa
sioning a deduction of £7.221 16s. lid., will reduce the amount
of available propertv to £13.589 17s.— Municipal Corporations
Report. II

Arrears of revenue due, . . . 506 19 5
Thomas Ross, burgh chamberlain, . . 26 18 5
6,255 14 9
Estimated value of heritable property brought
down, ..... 14,555 19 2

Estimated amount of property,

£'20,811 13 11

The annual revenue of the burgh, for the
ending at Michaelmas, 1832, was as follows : —

Feu-duties, .....
Casualties of superiority, . . .
River Ness fishings, ....
Land rents, .....
House, shop, &c, rents, ....
Dividends from gas and water company, .
New bridge, interest on debt, .
New harbour do.
Church-seat rents, .....
Stent or burgh-cess, ....
Lamp-money,, .....
Anchorage and shore-dues, . .
Petty customs, toll of old bridge, &c, .
Burgess and apprentice dues,
Streets cleaning, sales of manure.
Miscellanies, . . . .
Total revenue for 1831-5,
But, supposing that the stent or burgh-cess and
lamp-money, being destined for specific pur
poses, should not be included as items of gene
ral revenue, — if bo, deduct

£129 40 20
280 60 11
83
168 146
196
201
332357 21
186 1

year

3 8
5 7

18 11
4 10
13 2
12 2
II 8

2,236 16 4

398 3 10

£387 17 3
110 0 0
64 10 0
196 0 0
36 9 11
223 4 3
268 II 3
222 11 6
216 5 0
117 14 6
215 14 0

Revenue 1831-2, so restricted, £1,838 12 6
The abstract of the annual expenditure of the
burgh for the year 1 831-2, was, —
Interest and annuities on debt, .
Education and schools, . .
Church establishment,
Stent or burgh-cess, . . .
Other public burdens and taxes,
Street-lighting, Street-sweeping, ....
Gaol, 
General police, ....
Improvements, repairs, furnishings,
General management and miscellanies, .
Total expenditure, 1831-2,
But, supposing that the stent or burgh-cess and
the street-lightiug should not, for the reasons
stated under the head of revenue, be included
as items of general expenditure, — if so, deduct

The abstract of the debts of the burgh
lows, at Michaelmas, 1833: —
1. To the guildry corporation of InvernesB,
2. To the Northern Infirmary of Inverness,
3. To Jonathan Anderson's fund,
4. To Inverness lesser charitable mortifications,
5. To Mrs. Low and Miss Grant, value of an
nuities, .....
6. To Campbell Mackintosh, town-clerk,
7. To receiver-general of land-tax, .
8. To Roderick Reach, solicitor and accountant,
9. To road and Btreet-trustees of Inverness, .
10. To D. F. Mackenzie, procurator-fiscal, .
II. To Robert Smith, solicitor,
12. To Inverness Journal,

2,058 17

8

419

4

3

£1,639 13

5

was as

fol-

£1,350

0

0

3,900

0

u

3,100

0

0

717

5

0

85

7 10

753

7

8

156

0

0

78

2

0

500

0

II

32 12

8

5 10 10

6 10

0

Amount of debts.
Thus classified : —
Heritable, . . .
Moveable, . £9,567 6 0
On annuity, 85 7 10
Disputed claim, 679 8 2
Open accounts, 1S6 15 0

10,684 16 0

£156 0 0

10,528 16 0

10,684 16 0
Which being deducted from the amount of avail
able property, as before stated, . . 13,589 17 0
Leaves a balance, in favour of the burgh, of £2,905 1 0
The corporation-revenue in 1838-9, was £1,985
13s. l^d.
The affairs of the burgh are, under the superintend
ence of the magistrates and council — 21 in number 
managed by the town-clerk, chamberlain, and ac
countant. The first of these officers performs the
ordinary duty of legal adviser and law-agent. The
duties of the second are to receive the revenues of
C

34

INVERNESS.

the burgh, and to make all payments. The duties
of the accountant are those of the ordinary profes
sional nature. — There is nothing peculiar in the
jurisdiction of the magistrates of Inverness. The
jurisdiction of the magistrates includes the ancient
royalty, and the royalty as "extended by the statute
of 18Q8. There are no subordinate or dependent
territories; but it is important to remark that, on
one side, the royalty extends beyond the parliamen
tary boundaries a considerable way into the country;
and that, en the other side, it is much within the
parliamentary boundaries, and does not include a
considerable portion of the town. The jurisdiction
is exercised by the magistrates directly. The courts
held practically are, first, a burgh-court, by one or
more of the magistrates; and, secondly, a dean-of-
guild court, by the dean-of-guild and his council.
That council is composed of certain members of the
town-council, annually chosen by the dean-of-guild,
and subject to the approval of the magistrates and
town-council. Both civil and criminal causes are
tried by the burgh-court.. The jurisdiction is of the
same extent as, and cumulative with, that of the
sheriff. The dean-of-guild's jurisdiction is of the
ordinary nature and extent. The magistrates have
no regular assessor, but the town-clerk acts in that
capacity without any additional fees or salary. The ;
election of magistrates and council at Michaelmas ;
1817 was set aside by the court-of-session in December I
1818, and the burgh consequently disfranchised. In '
virtue of a warrant by the Privy council, dated the
9th of August, 1822, a new election of the magis- j
trates and council took place by the persons who j
composed the magistracy and town-council for the '
year ending Michaelmas 1817, and that in terms of
the usual constitution, sett, and custom of the burgh,
which was thus restored. The mode of election
was: — The provost, bailies, dean-of-guild, and trea
surer, continued councillors for the year after they
went out of office, and could not be any of the five
merchant councillors turned off. The town-council
chose five new merchant councillors, and removed
five of the old; so that 13 merchant councillors con
tinued without election. The six incorporated trades
chose each one deacon, and those deacons elected a
convener, who was, ex officio, a councillor; out of
the remaining deacons the town-council elected 2
trades councillors, in all 21. The five old mer
chant councillors having been removed, the council,
out of their own number, chose the magistrates. The
burgh has no church-patronage ; this article is there
fore limited to the patronage of civil offices. But
along with the^ministers of Inverness, and with the
concurrence of the moderator of the presbytery, they
have the patronage of the following bursaries. By
bequest, dated the 30th of September, 1730, of
James Fraser, LL.D., treasurer of Chelsea hospital,
a sum of £220 was left to King's college, Aberdeen,
for two bursaries or exhibitions towards the mainte
nance in that college of two students from Inverness,
both to be of the sirname of Fraser; one to be a
student of divinity, the other of philosophy. After
some temporary arrangements, it was recently agreed
upon, between the patrons and the Senatus Acade-
micus of King's college, that out of the said fund
there should be two philosophy bursaries of £15
each, and two divinity ones of £11 each.
The sums mortified for the purposes of education,
and placed under the management of the magistrates
and council, are large, amounting to nearly £34,000.
Of these, the Mackintosh endowment is the most
important. This institution was endowed conform
ably to the testament pf Captain WiUiam Mackin
tosh, of the Hindostan East Indiaman, who died on
the 12th of May, 1803. The object is for educating,

in the Inverness academy, boys of the name of
Mackintosh, and of the families of Farr. Holm, Dal-
migavie, and Kyllachy. The amount of the original
bequest was £10,000, but it is now nearly three
times that amount. The subsequent accumulation
appears to have been created by the excess of in
come above expenditure, arising frpm the limited
number who could be benefited by the institution.
 The mortification next in importance is " Bell's
endowment." The testator was the Rev. Dr. An
drew Bell, of Westminster. The purpose was the
maintenance of a school, at Inverness, for the in
struction of children on the Madras system. The
donation was one-twelfth share of £60,000, 3 per
cent, consolidated annuities ; and one-twelfth of .
£60,000, 3 per cent, reduced annuities* under de
duction of one-twelfth of £2,500, set apart for costs.
 Jonathan Anderson, merchant in Glasgow, by
bequest of 29th August, 1804, left a sum for the
distribution of the annual proceeds, accerding tn the
discretien pf the magistrates pf Inverness, to de
cayed members of the guildry and poer hpusehplders
pf Inverness, in isums npt exceeding £5. The
ameunt of this fund, in 1832, was £3,836 lis. 5d.
Frederick Klien of Chiswick, in the county of Mid
dlesex, by bequest dated September 1823, left a sum
amounting, in 1832, to £897 ; the proceeds of which
are tp be distributed in money, clcthing,, or fuel, in
sums cr value not less than 5s., npr mpre than 20s.
tp each perspn, under the direction pf the prpvpst,
bailies, dean-pf-guild, and ccuncil pf Diverness.
There are several smaller charity funds.
The town is the seat of the courts of assize for
the Nprthern ccunties ; pf the ccurts pf the sheriff
ef Inverness-shire ; and of menthly justice-of-peace
small debt courts. Inverness unites with Eorres,
Fortrose, and Nairn, in sending a member to parlia
ment. Parliamentary constituency, in 1839, 475.
Population, in 1831, 9,663; in 1841, 11,575.
The history of Inverness has so freely mixed with
various sections of our description, that but little of
it remains to be told. The town is invested with
a fictitious interest, and assigned an origin at least
60 years before, the Christian era, by Boethius and
Buchanan connecting it with one of their apocryphal
kings. Yet it probably was a seat of population, and,
at all events, it occupies a site in the centre of what
certainly was a closely peopled district in the remote
age of British hill- strengths and vitrified forts.
Scottish antiquaries, however, have raised so many
and such conflicting speculatipns respecting it, while
they have no documents, and but few monuments to
guide them, that they may be allowed a monopoly
of dealing out a history of it in ages for which no
history exists. Columba, the apostle of Scotland,
as stated by his biographer and successor Adamnan,
went, "ad ostiam Nessiae,'' to the residence at that
locality of Bridei or Brudeus, king of the Picts ;
and remained there sufficiently long to be the instru
ment of converting the monarch, and to hold several
conferences, and make some missionary arrangements
with the Scandinavian chief of the Orkney Islands.
"Ostia Nessiae" means very nearly in Latin what
"Inverness" does in Gaelic; or, understood even
rigidly, it designates the mouth of the river on
which the town stands, and points either to the
town's precise site, or to some spet in its immediate
vicinity. Inverness is hence believed tp have been
the priginal seat pf the Pictish mpnarchs ; and is
supposed, even after Abernethy and Fortevipt be
came a sprt of Pictish capitals, to have retained its
pre-eminence, and not altegether lost it till the union
of the Scottish and the Pictish crowns. Malcolm
Canmpre, in the face pf the fact that royal burghs
did npt exist till several ages later, is fabled to have

INVERNESS.

3">

granted it its first charter, erecting it intc a rpyal
burgh. In the reign pf David I., it figures as a
king's burgh, was made the seat pf a sheriff whese
authority extended over all the north of Scctland,
and is designated in a legislative enactment, one cf
the chief places of the whole kingdom, — "Leca
capitaKa per totum regnum." It was thus cne of
the earliest free towns of the kingdom, and inferior
to none in the dignity with which it greets the view
attheepoch of record. William the Lion — as we have
seen— granted it four charters, appcinting it a regular
magistracy, exemptingit frpm many burdens, and con
ferring upon it various privileges as to manufactures.
In 1217, and 1237, additional charters and grants of
land were given to it by Alexander II. During the
whole period on which histery throws light previous
to the invasion of Scotland by Edward I., the Scot
tish kings pccasipnally visited or resided in Inver
ness, and were at rapid intervals required to repel
from it the incursions of the Danes, and the nprthern
Vikingr, pr tp quell the insurrecticnSbf the reckless
inhabitants and the turbulent chiefs cf the adjacent
country. In 1229, a powerful Highland savage,
named Gillespick M'Scourlane, attempted an usurpa
tion, levied a war of rebellion, burnt the town,
spoiled the adjacent Crown-lands, and put to the
sword all persens whp would not acknowledge him
as their sovereign ; but he was defeated, captured,
and ignominiously beheaded. After the accession of
Bruce, and during the successive reigns of the Stuarts
till near the Union, Inverness was frequently oppres
sed by the constables of its own castle, and constantly
exposed to the predatory visits of the Islesmen and
the Highland clans ; so that its annals abound with
accounts of burnings, pillagings, ransackings, skir
mishes between assailants and its inhabitants, strata
gems of skill and prowess against foes, and pecuniary
levies, and other expedients for purchasing the for
bearance or averting the menaces of truculent and
rapacious neighbours. . An incident which occurred
in 1400, will exemplify the prominent events and
illustrate the social condition of the period, : Donald,
Lord of the Isles, having approached at the head of a
small army to the north side of Kessock-ferry, and
sent a message menacing the town with destruction
if a large ransom were not paid for its safety, the
provost affected to agree to the terms dictated, and
sent a large quantity of whiskey as a present to the
chief and his followers ; and, when the Islesmen, de
lighted with their fiery beverage, and emulating one
another in dissipation, and generally actionless with
intoxication, the provost, followed and zealously
aided by his burgesses, pounced upon them like the
eagle on his quarry, and devoted them, with the
exception of one man, to indiscriminate destruction.
Attacks upon the town were more frequent and un
relenting, that few of the wealthy burgesses were
Highlandmen, and most were a community of foreign
merchants, or merchants of foreign extraction, con
nected with Holland, and with the continental sea
board northward thence to the Baltic. In 1280, the
town was visited by a French Count as a suitable
place -for building a ship to replace one which he had
lost in the Orkneys ; and from that time — as is indi
cated by the Flemish and Saxon names of its ancient
inhabitants — it became increasingly the resort and the
adopted home o#the children of commerce, — persons
differing more in habits than even in extraction from
the wild native septs who restlessly scoured the
heathy recesses of the north. The nurturing of such
a commercial community was unvaryingly and happily
regarded by the Scottish kings as a wise policy for ,
at once promoting the general interests of the coun
try, rearing a class of peaceful and loyal subjects,
checking the exorbitant power of the barons, and ex

hibiting a convincing example of the prosperous
tendencies of arts which were despised or held in
small esteem by the clans ; but, by provoking the
envy, and tempting the cupidity" of the marauding
chiefs and their followers, and occasionally giving
body to the filmy and nearly impalpable pretexts
which were urged for the rancorous quarrels and con
flicts almost constantly existing among the clans, it
obliged the sovereigns to be often on the spot, dis
charging the offices of chief magistrates of justiciary
and police. To tell of the extraordinary as well as
-ordinary interferences of the Crown to punish sedi
tion and pillage, of citation to chieftain-culprits by
the king's summons to attend at the market-cross of
the burgh, and of executions of the convicted on the
Gallow's-hill, as well as of military executions in the
melee of mimic civil war, would only be a disgusting
repetition of the most revolting and least instructive
elements of history. One of the last royal visits to
the town was thai: — already glanced at in our notice
of the castle — of Queen Mary to quell an insurrec
tion of the Earl of Huntly. Mary is said to have
formed during her visit a strong attachment to In
verness ; she kept, while there, a small squadron in
the harbour to insure her safety ; she was sedulously
attended by the greater part of the Highland chiefs ;
and she had soon the satisfaction — or the appropriate
feeling, be it what it might, which such an event
could imparts — of hunting down the Earl of Huntly,
and putting him to death in a fair field fight. James
VI., who laboured much to quiet the turbulence of
the northern Highlands, was particularly friendly to
the burgh. The Invernessians distinguished them
selves after the Revolution by enthusiastic and
bold attachment to both Prelacy and Jacobit-
ism. In 1691, when a presbyterian minister was
for the first time after the abolition of Episcopacy
appointed to the vacant parish-church, armed men
were, by the magistrates, stationed at the doors to
prevent his admission ; they repulsed Duncan Forbes
of Culloden, father of the famous Lord-President
Forbes, in an attempt to force him into the interior ;
and they did not eventually give way till a regiment
marched up by order of Government, and lifted the
presentee into the pulpit on a couch of bayonets.
At the same period, and for years afterwards, the
magistrates used every means to support or forward
the Jacobitical cause ; and, at the accession of
George I. to the throne, they openly opposed and
endeavoured to prevent his proclamation, and roused
the populace to a riot. During tlie rebellion of
1 745-6, and especially amid the stir which preceded
and followed its closing-scene in the neighbouring
field of Culloden, the town had the harassing dis
tinction, and reaped the bitter awards of being the
virtual capital of the losing party in that trial of the
dreadful game of war ; and, among other characters
of lugubriousness and horror which it was obliged to
wear, it was the scene of the public execution of 36 of
Prince .Charles Edward's men. Up to the period of
the disarming act, its inhabitants stood constantly
accoutred, or at least prepared for war ; but, since
1746, they have witnessed an uninterrupted peace,
and have learned to regard the stirring and sanguinary
history of their town as belonging to a state of
things which has entirely and for ever passed away,
and have moved silently and fleetly along the de
lightful path of social amelioration and intellectual
and moral improvement. No modern event of note
has occurred except the earthquake on the night of
the 16th of August, 1816, when the ground was
sensibly and alarmingly tremulous, the chimney-tops
of many houses were projected into the streets, the
bells were set-a-ringing, and many animals wete
strongly affected with terror.

36

INVERNESS-SHIRE.

INVERNESS-SHIRE, one of the most extensive
counties, and by far the most mountainous, in Scot
land. It is bounded on the north by Ross-shire, and
part of the Moray frith ; on the east by the shires of
Elgin, Mbray, and Aberdeen ; on the south by Perth
and Argyle ; and on the west by the Atlantic ocean.
A small insulated district, between the shires of Banff
and Moray, containing Cromdale and Inverallen, is
annexed to it ; and several of the Hebrides are poli
tically attached to this county. The mainland ex
tends in length from the point of Arasaig on the
west, to the point of Ardersier on the east, where
Fort-George is built, about 92 miles ; and its greatest
breadth, from the ferry of Ballachulish to the boun
dary of Strathglass, is nearly 80 miles.
Playfair estimates the superficies of the continen
tal part of this county at 2,904 square miles, or
1,858,560 acres ; while Robertson estimates the su
perficies of this part at 7,200 square miles, or
4,608,000 acres ; and that of the islands at one-half
more. The former admeasurement — though an ap
proximation only — is doubtless nearest the truth;
but to it must be added 132 tquare miles, or 84,480
acres for the lakes. The surface of the islands at
tached to this county is equal to 1,150 square miles,
to which we may add 59 square miles of lakes, —
making in all 1,209 square miles, or 773,760 acres.
Inverness-shire contained, in 1801, including its is
lands, 74,292 ; in 1811, 78,336 inhabitants. In 1821,
the population was 90,157; in 1831, it amounted
to 94,797 ; whereof 44,510 were males, and 50,287
females. The number of families employed in agri
culture, in 1831, was 9,892; in trade and manufac
tures, 2,753. Thenumberofinhabitedhouses 17,312;
the total number of families 19,046. In 1841, the
total population was returned at 97,799 ; of whom
55,618 were on the mainland, and 42,181 on the is
lands. Of this total number, 86,738 were born in
the county. The number of inhabited houses, in
1841, was as follows : on mainland, 11,496 ; on the
islands, 7,698. The total number of uninhabited
houses was 585. The number of persons returned
as of independent means, belonging to this county,
in 1841, was 2,044; of paupers, 1,194; of farmers,
2,952; of land-labourers, 9,727; of domestic ser
vants, 6,990; of labourers, 962 ; of crofters, 814; of
bootand shoemakers, 619; of tailors, 603; of carpen
ters, 583 ; of fishermen, 495 ; of weavers, 489 ; of
masons, 400 ; of teachers, 259 ; of sawyers, 245 ; of
woollen manufacturers, 102. The valued rent, as
stated in the county-books, is £3,188 9s. Scots.
The valuation of real property on which the land-
tax is assessed, £6, 198 17s. 5d. ; and the rate per
£100 sterling at which this tax is assessed, £13 5s.
lOd. ; and the real land-rent was estimated, in 1811,
at £70,530 sterling. The value of assessed pro
perty, in 1815, was £185,565, of which the propor
tion under entail was nearly one-half. The return
of the annual value of real property within the county
assessed to the property-tax for the year ending April
1843, was £181,292 6s. 6d.— The shire comprises
37 parishes, and 8 quoad sacra parishes. The num
ber of parochial schools, in 1834, was 34, attended
by 2,639 children ; and the total salaries and emolu
ments of the teachers amounted to £1,335 15s. lid.
The number of schools not parochial was 122, at
tended by 6,667 children.
The divisions of this county are chiefly determined
by natural boundaries. Lochaber comprehends that
tract of country whose waters are discharged into the
Western ocean at Fort- William. Moydart, Arasaig,
South and North Morar, and Knoydart, seem to
belong, in an extensive acceptation, to Lochaber,
because these districts are amenable to the sheriff-
no urt established in that country. Glengarry is ac

counted a division ; and Glenelg, Glenmoriston, Ur-
q-diart, Strathglass, and Aird, the vicinity of Inver
ness, the lordship of Petty, Ardersier, Stratherrick,
the braes of Strathnairn and of Strathdearn, and the
lordship of Badenoch, are all accounted separate di
visions of the county of Inverness. These divisions
are generally marked by the different valleys watered
by a river peculiar to each, and comprehende'd with
in parallel ranges of opposite hills. The divisions of
high land and low land can scarcely be applied in
this county ; unless the Aird, the vicinity of Inver-
ness, Ardersier, and the lordship of Petty, be ac
counted the low-land division ; which indeed it is in
relation to the rest, being all bounded on one side
by the sea-shore, and by mountains on the other.
The reader will find separate articles on most of
these divisions inserted in their respective alpha
betical order in our pages : at the same time we shall
here insert a general sketch of the topography of
Inverness-shire from Dr. Robertson's ' Agricultural
Survey.' London : 1808, 8vo.
Unless one were to enter Inverness-shire by the
coast cf the German ecean, its aspect from any other
line of approach is rudely grand and forbidding. The
dark blue mountains piled upon one another, — and
stretching away in immense chains, with hardly a
pass or an opening to afford access from the south or
west, — form a barrier which requires a certain de
gree of fortitude to attempt. The frequent sight of
poles set up by the side of the public road in these
defiles, as beacons to guide the weary traveller in
exploring his way, when the fog is so thick that he
cannot see, or the snow so deep that the proper path
is concealed from view, is a proof of the danger which
is sometimes to be encountered in entering this part
of the kingdom. These mountains stretch across
the island, and lie parallel to every valley, — rising
like immense walls on both its sides, while the in
habited country sinks deep between them, with a
lake or rapid river flowing in the centre.
There are two Highland roads into Inverness-
shire. Going from the county of Perth to Fort-
William, a part of Argyleshire must be passed
through, between Tyndrum and Ballachulish. In
this ride — which is an ordinary day's journey  the
Black-mount, the inn called the King's house, and
the valley of Glencoe, are objects which arrest a
traveller's attention. The Black-mount has been
covered — at least all round the base — with a forest
of natural firs. The remairis of this wopd are still
growing at Inveroran. The seil is a crust cf mpss,
formed by the decidueus parts pr the leaves of fir and
heath, uppn a subsoil pf gravel pr deep peat earth.
On the south are high hills affording good pasture for
sheep ; on the north, a boundless flat of deep moss,
reaching from Glenlyon and Rannoch on the east, to
the braes of Badenoch on the north, and westward
to the confines of Lochaber at Lochtreig. There is
little doubt of this being the most extensive field of
moss in Britain. Numberless little lakes are inter
spersed throughout its entire extent, and in some of
these are islands with tufts of trees. On approaching
King's house inn, that steep ascent, with its manifold
traverses, called the Devil's Staircase, appears in full
view in the west. This path is new deserted ; and
the public road is turned towards the left, down the
valley of Glencoe, which forms a long circuitous line
to Fort- William : See Glencoe. After travelling
some miles down the glen, the eye is refreshed by the
beauties of Invercoe, and the glen all of a sudden
assumes a pleasant aspect. A few miles below In
vercoe, on the left side of Loch-Leven, that arm of
the sea narrows into a strait, named Calas ic Phatric
--¦' the Strait of the Son pf Patrick,'— which is the
ferry frpm the ceunty of Argyle into that of In verness.

INVERNESS-SHIRE.

37

At a shprt distance pn the road tp Fprt- William,
there is another narrow ferry pn the left, intp Ard-
gower, called Corran: which see. Beyond Corran
the country is little else than lofty mountains, rising
from this branch of the sea, whose base in several
places hardly affords room for the public road, — an
appearance which is frequently presented to a tra
veller in the West Highlands of Scotland. At Fort-
William, however, the eye is gratified by the view
of a town in which the houses are covered with slate,
and form a regular street.
To catch the leading features, and form some con
ception of this western part of the county of Inver
ness, one must suppose a deep valley beginning at
Fort- William, and stretching across the whole county,
nearly in the middle, frpm sputh-west tp nprth-east.
This valley [see articles Caledonian Canal and
Glenmore-nan-Albin] has a range of lofty moun
tains on both sides, which, at the north-east extre
mity, sink down into the sandstone strata of Nairn
shire. The rivers, flowing between the openings of
these parallel mountains, meet one another, and dis
charge their streams into the bottom of the valley,
as a common reservoir, and feed Loch-Lochy, which
falls westward, and Loch-Oich and Loch-Ness,
which fall north-east : See these articles. But after
we penetrate back through these parallel ranges of
mountains for several miles, either to the right or to
the left hand, we find other rivers, which flow in
a direction opposite to the former, and take their
course away from the great valley of the canal.
This range of mountainous ground between the
Great valley and the Atlantic, is the highest and
wildest throughout all the forbidding surface of this
county, and has got the name of ' the rough bounds.'
It extends from the head of Moydart, which joins
the county of Argyle, to Glensheil in Ross-shire, —
a distance pf 70 miles or more. There descend
from this general range of elevated land, five or six
lines of lower but very rugged ground, which pene
trate into the Atlantic, and form so many bold pro
montories on that shore. Loch-Eil, on whose eas
tern shore Fort- William and its village are set
down, penetrates 12 miles west, in addition to the
distance of 10 miles rorth from Corran tp that vil
lage. From the head ef Lpch-Eil, the waters flpw
3 miles eastward intp that arm pf the sea. Gping
dpwn the valley of Arasaig, yeu pass the end ef
Lpch-Sheil, which falls scuthward intp Mprven, is
1 2 miles long, and divides Ardgower from Moydart.
Into Moydart there runs an arm of the sea, called
Loch-Moydart : which see. On the north of
Moydart a narrow lake of fresh water stretches 6
miles along the public road, which is called Loch-
Ailt ; and the river flowing from it, after a course
of 6 miles, is lost in Loch-Aynort, an arm of the
sea. Then succeeds Loch-Nan ua, — a beautiful bay;
and turning northward to the ferry of Arasaig on the
sea-coast, the branch of salt water is called Loch-
na-gaul. This line of communication from Loch
aber to Arasaig is all black with gloomy heath, ex
cept on the margin of the waters, until the road
descend towards Arasaig, where the hills are gen
erally green on the nprth, but studded with rock in
such constant succession, from the bottom of the
valley tp their summit, that their aspect puts pne in
mind of the fine freckled sky which generally ccvers
the aerial vault pf heaven, in the evening pf a serene
day. The mpuntains pf Mpydart, pn the sputh,
are more heathy and barren, but less rocky: See
The next valley to Arasaig, northward, which
penetrates into the rough bounds from the moun
tains bordering on the tract of the canal, commences
at Achnacarry, and stretches westward by Lpch-

Arkaiq. : See that article. Between the mouth
ef this lake and Loch-Lochy, into which its cen-
tents are discharged, the distance is hardly 2 miles.
Frcm the west end of Lech-Arkaig there is a glen of
6 miles more, stretching forward to the highest sum
mit of the rising ground, which is called Glenpean, —
a beautiful green grazing. * It is a singular feature
in the complexion of this country, that the lower
grounds are in many places covered with barren
heath growing on a poor soil ; while the tops of the
mountains, to their summit, are clad with a rich
carpet of green grass, springing from a fertile mellow
earth. From this station, at the head df Glenpean,
a noble landscape is presented to view. In front is
a wide expanse of sea sprinkled with islands, at
different distances and of different magnitude. Skye,
the chief of these, appears on the right, with Rum,
Egg, and Canna ; and in the distant horizon the long
train of the Hebrides appears like a dark cloud rest
ing on the bosom of the ocean. Turning to objects
more at hand, Loch-Morar, a fresh- water lake, whose
length is lOJ miles, is beheld at the foot of the table
land on which we suppose our spectator placed ;
while on the north, Glendessary stretches away in a
direct line 4 miles. At the head of this glen is the
pass named Maam-Chlach-Ard,* which leads down
to Loch- Nevis, an arm of the sea 12 miles in length,
having North-Morar on the left and Knoydart on the
right. Both sides of Loch-Nevis are very rocky ;
but the side next Knoydart has more green ground
than the other : See Loch- Nevis.
The next valley of consequence, whose waters fall
at right angles into the line of the Great canal, is
Glengarry, which is distinguished by the rude mag
nificence of its old castle in ruins, situated on a rock
on the west side of Loch-Oich, and surrounded with
venerable old trees. The present family-mansion is
a modern house, built at a small distance northward.
Four miles up this glen you meet Loch-Garry, which
is 4 miles long, closely wooded with natural firs on
the south side, and birch and alder on the north.
The river flowing into the head of Loch-Garry,
reaches to the south end of Glenqueich, which
stretches northward, and to Glenkingie, which runs
southward. Iu the former is a fresh-water lake 7
miles long. The ascent from the head of these glens
is 3 miles, immediately above Loch-Hourn, — a
deep gloomy branch of the sea, with high rocky
banks. In all this stretch, from Invergarry, the
house of Glengarry, on the east, to Loch-Hourn on
the west, the lower ground is generally clad with
heath, but the higher mountains are covered with
green rich pasture : See articles Glenqueich, Loch-
Garry, and Loch-Hourn.
Glenmoriston is the succeeding entrance into the
rugged country which leads from the great valley to
the Atlantic. This glen may be entered by a Maam,
 or pass between the shoulders of two hills,— in
an oblique direction from Fort- Augustus, which
points north-west, and is 7 miles long; or by another
road, from Invermoriston, in the direct line of the
river. The latter is the easiest ascent; but the
former is the military road, and forms a much shorter
communication between Fort- Augustus and the mili
tary post at Bernera in Glenelg. These two roads
meet a little below a place called Anoch. About
8 miles from Anoch is a small lake called Loch-
Cluany : which see. To the east end of Glenshiel,
 where the waters separate, some, running east into
Loch-Ness, and some into the Western ocean,— is 6
miles more. This point also forms the boundary
betwixt the counties of Inverness and Ross, and is
the northern extremity of that mountainous and ele-
• ' The Pass of the high stones.'

38

INVERNESS-SHIRE.

vated ridge of country which stretches from.Morvan
to this place. From Glenshiel, which is 12 miles
long, the road returns to Inverness-shire, by a pass
called Maam-Raitachan, into Glenelg, which is 8
miles long, and is the richest spot, both in grass and
corn, hitherto mentioned in the Highlands of this
county: See GLENELO,'and Glenmoriston.
' Fort-Augustus [which see], one of the most
pleasant spots in the Highlands, is situated on a
smooth green hill at the west end of Loch-Ness,
having a river on each side, which washes the base
of that hill, and flnws gently intp the lake. Tra
velling down the nerth side pf Loch-Ness, a person
of any taste must be struck with the beauty of the
noble sheet of water, nearly 2 miles broad, which
stretches away before him for a distance of nearly
24 miles. The sides present a continued line of
bold rocky ground, rising immediately from the lake
to the height of mountains, without any opening on
either hand, except at Invermoristpn, at Urquhart,
and at Fpyers. These lefty banks consist of shelves
of earth incumbent upon rock, and afford nourishment
for copse of various kinds. Where the rock is covered
with soil, — hazel, oak, and alder abound, and there is
also a number of aged weeping birches. The thick
ness of their fretted indented bark indicates their
age ; and the pendulous ringlets of these venerable
birches frequently overhang the face of rocks, and
reach down to the ground. Rocks, rivulets, trees,
and mountains are reflected in the smooth mirror
below, with an effect which neither description in
words can accomplish, nor delineation by the pencil
produce : See Loch- Ness. Passing over a ridge of
high bleak mppr, and descending by a northerly direc
tion into Urquhart, the scene is reversed. In place
of the lofty barriers of Loch-Ness, — which present
nothing but barrenness and the rude grandeur of
Nature, — in Urquhart, a bottom of about 2 miles in
diameter, and flat as a bowling-green, is beautifully
diversified with wood and water and enclosed fields.
Urquhart narrows into a glen, in a westerly direc
tion, going up to Corrimony, which is more or less
confined in different places, but very much beautified
by neat houses, well-dressed fields, and plenty of
wood, chiefly ash, beech, and birch. Here cultiva
tion reaches an altitude of 800 or 900 feet above
sea-level. Crossing westwards over a small barren moor into
Strathglass, which is the most northerly valley of
the county of Inverness, the face of the country pre
sents a very singular appearance. In the bottom of
this strath the land is almost a dead narrow flat, in
which some meadow and arable land, and several
small lagoons and marshes are interspersed. The
sides of the strath are precipitous, and in most places
are strewed with fragments of broken rock. The
river Glas has in many places the appearance of a
narrow lake, by reason of the slowness of its motion,
which in most places is scarcely perceptible, occa
sioned by the difficulty it meets with in discharging
its waters at its confluence with the Farra. In the
head of Strathglass there is much green pasture, and
an extensive fir-wood ; and the lower parts of the
valley, in the approach to the castle of Chisholm of
Chisholm, abound with alder on both banks of the
r,iver. The scenery is uncommonly engaging from
the castle of Erchless to the Aird : a majestic river
winding its course through a bottom of considerable
breadth abounding with wood, and the mountains
. retiring on either side as you advance, and indicating
approach to the low country : See articles Ard-
meanach, the Beauly, and Kilmorack. Between
the Aird and Urquhart, in the mountains towards
the east end of Loch-Ness, whose summit is toler
ably level, the vestiges of ridges are very distinctly-

seen in the heath, — that in the furrow being uni
formly shortest for want of soil. Culloden stands
conspicuous a few miles east from the county-
town. The moor, so fatal to the Jacobites in 1746,
extends from near Nairn to the foot of Strath-
errick, and from the river of Strathnairn to the
Murray frith: see Culloden. Fort-George is a
beautiful place, situated on the extremity of a low
promontory or tongue of land, which penetrates far
into the Murray frith, and opposite to a similar
head-land in the county of Ross : see article Fort-
George. In the division of the county of Inver
ness which lies east from the Great canal; there are
six valleys of various degrees of sinuosity, which
send all their waters to the German ocean. Strath- '
glass has been already taken notice of. The tract
of Loch-Ness has also been mentioned. Stratherrick
is situated on the south side of Loch-Ness, and is
supposed to be 400 feet above the surface of the
lake. The river Errick, which flows through this
strath, and gives its name to the country, is singu
larly romantic, both in its origin and termination.
The small lake which is its source is surrounded
with a circle -of rocks through which there is hardly
a possibility of descending into a plat of land called
Killin, — the most beautiful, rich, and verdant, that
can be conceived. This fairy-ground is a mile long,
and half as broad, and lies in the centre of moun
tains the wildest perhaps in .the kingdom : See
Killin. Leaving Strathnairn, and the Murray frith, on
coming southward, we emerge into the heart of the
Grampians^ — bleak, bare, black, and barren. At
lengtn the valley of Moy makes its appearance,
where the eye is refreshed by the view of a rich
extensive plain pf arable and meadow land. At a
little distance sputh ward, the traveller arrives at
Freeburn-inn ; from which place all the waters of
this mcuntainous region are seen flowing from the
north, the west, and south, in their several glens, to
meet below in a point, from which the united stream of
Strathdearn holds its course through a narrow chasm
eastward to Findhorn, where it is lost in the German
ocean. The next place worthy of notice is Sloch-
mhuic-dhu, — 'the Black boar's den,' — which forms
the entrance, in this direction, from the north into
Strathspey. The road over this defile has under
gone great repairs. From hence there is little
variety all the way to Grantown. Extensive fields
of dark-brown heath, studded by stocks of fir-trees,
with some spots of corn and green ground on the
sides of rivulets, form the prospect for several miles.
On the opposite side of Strathspey, the dark-blue
mountain of Tullochgorm, and his associates in the
distant horizon beyond the Spey, studded with per
ennial patches of snow, rear their heads to the clouds.
From the church of Duthil, the country lays aside
much of its gloomy appearance. The Dulnain, a
branch of the Spey, has some good laud on its banks,
which increases in fertility and extent as it approaches
the bottom of the strath. By and by the Spey, the
monarch of this vale, comes in full view, winding
his majestic course within green banks to which the
heath dares not approach. The farms are now more
frequent ; patches of turnips and fields of potatoes
appear on either hand ; and lime is wrought for sale.
From Castle-Grant to Aviemore, along the side of
the Spey, the face of the country is very much di
versified. The natural fir-woods of Rothiemurehus
are the most extensive in the county, or probably in
the island. At a short distance above this place,
and on the opposite side of the Spey, Kinrara is
happily set down. The vale, in which the river
flows, is narrowed considerably at Kinrara. The
banks on both sides are richly wooded bj a variety

INVERNESS-SHIRE.

39

of trees, whose green foliage far up the acclivity of
the hills gratifies the eye, while the sweet fragrance
of the birch embalms the air. Between Kinrara
and Kingussie the aspect cf the ceuntry is censi-
derably changed from what it had been below the
former place. There are fewer black meors of low
ground contiguous to the river ; the plains are all
green, of considerable extent, and elevated but u
few feet above the tract of the Spey. Wherever
there are hollow basins in this flat land, water
stagnates when the river has subsided after an in
undation. This pccasicns marshes and lagppns pf
greater pr less extent in proportipn to these in
equalities of the surface. The alders and willows,
and other useless shrubs which grow upon this
swampy ground, disfigure th? ceuntry cf Badenech.
The ravages of the Spey in the whole of Bade
noch, especially in this upper part of the district,
are a great hinderance, or rather an entire obstruc
tion, to the success of agriculture within the reach
of its inundations. Where the mountains on both
sides of the country are so high, and reach so far
back, every brook occasionally becomes a torrent ;
and where there is no reservoir in any part of this
long strath, to receive the water from these nu
merous torrents, the river must swell suddenly, be
come furious, and in a mighty stream, both broad
and deep, sweep all before it that comes within its
reach. To the north of Loch-Laggan [which see]
we arrive at high ground, where the waters sepa
rate in the same manner as at Laggan-achdrom on
the side of the Caledonian canal, partly holding their
course to the Atlantic, and partly to the German
ocean. The rivers Pattack and Massie run almost
parallel to each other for the space of 2 miles ; and
yet the former, after joining the Spean, is discharged
into the Western sea ; while the latter, uniting its
waters with the Spey, flows eastward into the Ger
man ocean. The inn of Garviemore in this neigh
bourhood, announces the extremity of the long vale
of Strathspey and Badenoch, and the head of the
Spey which derives its source from a small lake of
the same name in the northern mountains. Seven
miles beyond Garviemore, the military road which
leads from Perth to Fort- Augustus, by Corryarrick,
being confined between a deep ravine on the one
hand, and a chain of rock on the other, ascends by
no fewer than seventeen traverses, mounting zig
zag, to the summit of Mona-lia-^or ' the Gray moun
tain,' — so called because the surface is mostly grey
rock and moss, the soil having been worn off by the
storms: see Corryarrick. The descent en the
north side of this bold and tremendous pass, is by
the western bank of the Tarf, which holds a wind
ing course, through thick groves of large trees to the
head of Loch-Ness. The county of Inverness is
j everywhere intersected by numerous rapid currents,
which uniting form several large rivers. The most
noted of these are the Spey, the Ness, the Lochy,
the Garry, the Glass, &c, [see these articles,]
which, with the lakes — of most of which mention
has already been made — abound with trout and sal
mon. The western shores, particularly of the dis
tricts of Moydart, Arasaig, Morar, and Knoydart,
jre indented with numerous bays, creeks, and arms
of the sea — called lochs — which might be rendered
excellent fishing-stations. On the confines of the
county there are extensive tracts of natural wood,
 evident remains of much larger forests. The fir
woods of Glenmore and Strathspey [see these
articles] are supposed to be far mpre extensive than
all the other natural wopds in Scotland together.
The climate of the cpunty pf Inverness is, in one
respect, similar to that of all the rest of Scotland.
On the west coast, the rains are heavy, and of long

ccntinuance ; but the winters are mild; and when
snow falls, it seon disappears, ewing tp the genial
influence of the sea-breeze, unless the wind be nor
therly. On the east coast the heaviest rains are
from the German ocean ; but the climate, upen the
whple, is npt so rainy as in thpse districts which are
adjacent te the Atlantic. In the notes taken by
Dr. Robertson from one gentlemen's communica
tions, it is stated, that Fort- William, Inverary, and
Greenock, are the most subject to rain of any towns
in Scotland; and Dr. Robertson thinks "there is little
doubt of the truth of this remark, as applicable to
that coast in general, when the wind is westerly."
In the New Statistical Account it is stated that the
annual number of rainy days at the Inverness end of
the Great glen is about 60 less than at Fort- William
at the other extremity of the glen. At Inverness,
and along the sea-coast, the harvest is said to be
early. A variety of causes concur to produce this
effect. The soil, in general, is of a light texture,
and therefore easily stimulated to bring forth its
fruits, — skilful management is applied in this district,
which is aided by the quickening energy of lime, —
more dry weather than any other district of Inver
ness-shire is favoured with, — and the strong reflec
tion of the sunbeams from the surrounding moun
tains, — all concur to produce a rapid vegetation.
In the county of Inverness, a very great propor
tion of the surface is covered with heath. When
Dr. Robertson wrote, some persons were of opi
nion, that 39 parts out of 40 of the surface of
this county were clad with its russet hues. The
dominion of the heath is, however, daily losing
ground before the progress of agriculture and the
industry of the inhabitants. A considerable tract
of the surface is under wood; much of it is rock;
and nearly as much is covered with water. Clay,
in a pure state, is but a small proportion of the soil
in the county of Inverness. Along the river Beauly,
near its confluence with the sea, and on the side of
the frith of that name, there is a certain extent of a
rich blue clay, producing the different crops peculiar
to such soil in the southern counties. About Inver
ness, and down the border of the Murray frith,
where creeks and bays abound in which the tide
ebbs and . flows very gently, some small fields of a
clay soil present themselves : nevertheless the pro
portion which this species of soil bears to the gen
eral extent of the county is very inconsiderable.
Haugh is more frequently to be met with, and the
fields of it are far more extensive, than any other
valuable soil in the county. In the whole lordship
of Badenoch, from Kinrara on the east, to the place
where the Spey descends from the hill of Corry
arrick, — a tract of more than 20 miles, — haugh
abounds almost without interruption, on both sides
of the river. The whole district consists of a par
allel range of lofty mountains, whose skirts have a
great declination ; and a dead flat spreads out below
in the bottom of the valley, reaching in general to
the bases of the opposite mountains. This flat, in
which the river flows, is a deep, rich, water-formed
soil, except where the current is strong, and beds of
gravel are accumulated. The head of every loch or
arm of the sea, on the west coast, where they re
ceive their respective brooks from the valleys be
hind, have less or more of this kind of soil, all the
way from Moydart to Glenelg. Along the course
of the river Moriston are various spots of this soil.
In the bottom of Urquhart, by the sides of the river,
but more especially on the south side, soil of this
description is frequent, and abundantly productive ;
that next to Loch-Ness is the richest. Strathglass
is similar to Badenoch in various respects, besides
being all either hill or a dead flat of land formed by

40

INVERNESS-SHIRE.

water. Its valley, however, is much narrower, and
the hills more abrupt and barren. The Glass has a
slower current than the Spey, which prevents its
devastating the banks, and the formation of beds of
gravel. In the Aird there are few haughs. On the
banks of the Ness there is some soil of this com
plexion; but that river issuing pure from Loch-
Ness, carries down stones, gravel, and sand, rather
than fine earth ; the weight, however, of its water,
which flows with a magnificent and powerful stream,
under a bridge of no fewer than seven arches, has
forced such a quantity of these materials into the
Murray frith, in a transverse direction, that a bar
has been formed nearly three-fourths across this
arm of the sea at the ferry of Kessock. The tide
way above the strait, is called the frith of Beauly ;
that below, the Murray frith. Dr. Robertson pre
dicts that "this growing headland will, in future
ages, approach so near the opposite shore as to allow
no more water to escape than what is brought into
the frith of Beauly from the higher grounds around
it, and the frith itself will become a lake, first of
brackish, and afterwards of fresh water." Strather-
rick has little of this soil, except some patches on
the sides of the lakes of that district. Along the
Nairn there are small haughs in different places, all
the way from the head of that strath to Cantray,
where it joins the county of Nairn. Loam, pro
perly so called, is very rare in the county of Inver
ness — Sand and gravel form a part of the soil of
Inverness-shire in a great variety of places. Strath
nairn, and particularly Strathdearn — so far as they
are within this county — abound with this light free
soil : a great proportion also of Strathspey and of
Badenoch is of this complexion  Till, next to a
sandy or gravelly soil, is the most common in this
county; and, if the mountains are taken into ac
count, the proportion of till exceeds all the other
kinds taken together  Moss, moor, and heathy
ground, in the opinion of some intelligent persons 
as already noticed — covers two-thirds of the shire
of Inverness. If one-fortieth only be arable land,
there are probably twenty-six of the remaining parts
covered with heath incumbent on moss or a till bot
tom. Heath generally produces a crust of moss on
the surface, whatever be the soil below. .The land
occupied now or formerly by natural firs assumes
the same appearance, because they seldom grow so
closely, or shade the ground so completely, as to
destroy the heath. The higher mountains are not
covered with heath to the summit; nor are the
mountains in all the districts of this county equally
gloomy and forbidding. The hills of Lochaberpre-
sent a good mixed pasture of grass and heath inter
spersed. Glennevis is of this description, though it
forms the skirts of the highest mountain in Britain ;
the hills of Arasaig, freckled as they are with rocks,
— those of Glendessary,— of Glenpean, — of Glen-
queich, — those on the north of Glenpean,  those
of Glenroy, — those on both sides of Loch-Lochy,
particularly at Lowbridge, where the hills in gen
eral are as green as a meadow, — those on the
sides of Loch-Oich, to its northern extremity,
where the dark brown heath begins on the west,
—those in both Glenelgs, — those at the head
of Strathglass, and on the braes of Badenoch, 
all are more or less of the same hue, and yield
most plentiful pasture. But on the confines of
Strathspey the aspect of the mountains is very dif
ferent. At the head of Strathdearn and of Strath
nairn, — in Stratherrick on both sides of Loch-Ness,
— from behind the head of Urquhart, and across
Glenmoriston to the source of the Oich,  and in
several other districts, — the mountains are gloomy,
black, and sterile to such a degree, that in a dis

tance of 12 or 14 miles, hardly any verdure is to be
seen, except where a solitary rivulet, by its occa
sional flooding, produces some green ground in part
of its course, to relieve the eye. In all the mosses,
the roots of fir-trees stick up, which are dug out
and dried for fuel: so plenteous are they, and so
singular in their appearance, that there have been
seen in Strathspey three tier of fir-stocks in the moss ;
indicating no doubt that wood had there thrice come
to maturity, after every former growth had, by its
destruction, formed a soil capable of nourishing the
succeeding forest. Almost all the deep mosses of
this country are situated on land which is more or
less elevated above the general level of the valleys,
and lie on gravel, or stpnes, or till.' None of these
fields of moss — except' a patch at Corpach, and a
very few more — are in the bottom of a valley, like
the famous Flanders moss of the county of Perth;
nor, Uke it, have they in any case a bottom of rich
clay. Limestone is found in every district of the
county, and in many places approaches to the nature
of marble. Near the ferry of Ballachulish, in Loch
aber, there is a fine rock of an ash-coloured marble,
beautifully speckled with veins of copper pyrites,
and intersected with small thready veins of lead ore
which is rich in silver. In the parish of Kilmalie.
near Fort- William, in the bed of the Nevis, is a
singular vein of marble, of a black ground, with a
beautiful white flowering like needle- work, or rather
resembling the frosting upon a window, penetrating
the whole vein. Most of the mountains are com
posed of a reddish granite, which, according to Wil
liams, the mineralogist, is the most beautiful of any
in the wprld. In the parish pf Kingussie a rich
vein pf silver was disccvered, and attempted tp be
wrought, but withput success ; in other places veins
of lead, containing silver, have been observed. Iron-
ore has alsp been found, but npt in sufficient quan
tity to render it an ebject of manufacture. In the
isle of Skye there are several valuable minerals : see
Skye. The mountains and forests are inhabited by
herds of red and roe deer, which here roam in safety,
in recesses impenetrable tp man ; the alpine and
common hare, and other game, are also abundant.
Inverness-shire contains one royal burgh, viz. In
verness, and several small villages. The Gaelic is
the language of the people on the northern, western,
and southern borders; but, in the neighbourhood pf
Inverness, the better sprt use the English language,
which, it is said, is here pronounced with as great
propriety as in any part ef Scotland. We have ad
verted to this subject in the preceding article. While
the feudal system yet existed in the Highlands, and
any factious chief had it in his power to embroil the
neighbourhood in war — as had been proved in 1715
and 1745 — it became necessary to erect military sta
tions to keep the Highlanders in subjection. Ac
cordingly, in the tract of the great vale or Glenmore,
Fort-George, Fort-Augustus, and Fort- William,
were erected, as a chain of forts across the island.
By means of Fort-George on the east all entrance
up the Moray frith to Inverness was prevented;
Fort- Augustus curbed the inhabitants midway; and
Fort- William was a check to any attempts on the
west. Detachments were sent from these garrisons
to Inverness, to Bernera, opposite to the isle of
Skye, and to Castle-Douart in the isle of Mull.
The English garrisons which necessarily occupied
the forts, and the number of travellers to whom the
military roads gave access, undoubtedly induced
gentler and more pelished manners, and assisted in
banishing these exclusive privileges and partialities
which had acquired such a withering strength under
the system of clanship. The military roads in this
county, made by the soldiers under General Wade

INVERNESS-SHIRE.

41

never fail to excite the astonishment and gratitude
of travellers. They are executed with the utmost
industry and labour, and lead over mountains and
through mosses and morasses which before were
impassable to the lightest vehicle. The military
roads maintained in repair in the extensive county
of Inverness are: 1st, the Badenoch road, from In
verness through Badenoch to Dalwhinnie, and fur
ther to the borders of Perthshire, reckoned at 52
miles;* 2d, the Boleskine road, from Inverness to
Fort- Augustus, 33 miles; where a road, 30 miles in
extent, turning to the left over Corryarrick, reaches
Dalwhinnie, and joining the Badenoch road enters
Perthshire by a road originally military, at present
under repair as a turnpike road; 3d, the road from
Fort- Augustus to Fort- William, and farther to Bal
lachulish ferry, reckoned at 45 miles ; 4th, from
Inverness another military road passes along the
shore to the entrance of the Beauly frith at Fort-
George, and with its offset-roads to the eastward is
reckoned at 16 miles. — The magistrates of Inverness
have recently memorialized the Lords of the Trea
sury for a survey and investigation of the most prac
ticable lines of railway to Inverness. They say :
" Your memorialists, from their general knowledge
of the features of the country, are led to believe
that such an extension is not only practicable, but
admits of being carried into effect, with immediate
benefit, as far as Inverness, the capital of the High
lands. They are of opinion that a line of railway
communicating with the Glasgow and Edinburgh
railway at Falkirk, midway between these cities;
extending, by Stirling, through the valley of the
Allan, and .down the valley of the Earn, towards
Perth; thence through Strathmore, by Forfar and
Brechin, to Aberdeen; from that city, through the
centre of the agricultural district of Buchan, perhaps
by the valley of the Ythan, to Banff; and thence
along the coast, by Fochabers, Elgin, and Forres, to
Inverness, — would form the main trunk of commu
nication between the Northern and Southern coun
ties ; there being already lines of railway from Strath
more to Dundee and Arbroath, and one contemplated
to Montrose, which, with those nowprojected through
Fifeshire, and other subsidiary branches and offsets,
would form a series of collateral accessories, each
contributing its quota of traffic, and securing, to
every available point, the general advantages of a
most direct and speedy intercourse with the best
markets. That your memorialists have reason to
believe that some such line, as here sketched out,
passing as it does, for so great an extent, through a
comparatively level country, and nowhere presenting
acclivities that cannot be surmounted by gradients
of sufficient ease for every practical purpose of com
munication, could be carried into effect at a much
more moderate expense, both as regards the execu
tion of the work, and the value of the land to be
required, than has hitherto attended the construction
of similar undertakings in the southern parts of the
kingdom. That such a line, independently of its
bringing the northern and central part of Scotland
into immediate connection with the southern part of
Scotland, and with England, would, moreover, while
it avoided the inconvenient interruption of ferries,
effectually unite and connect together the breeding
districts of the North, the feeding counties of Moray,
Banff, Aberdeen, and Forfar, and the great commer
cial and manufacturing cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Perth, Dundee, Arbroath, Montrose, and Aberdeen;
•. Strictly speaking, part of the Badenoch road (13 miles) be
tween -Freeburn and Aviemore, is In Morayshire; but this is
compensated by the same extent of road, (north and south of
Graotown,) which though really in Inverness-shire, is usually
ascribed to Morayshire,

while it would cut through the centre of the most
fertile agricultural portions of Scotland, from north
to south ; thus facilitating, in so extraordinary a de
gree, that mutual relation and interchange between
each prominent class of interests, upon which so
much of the internal prosperity and wealth of the
country essentially depends." By the spirited exer
tions of the gentlemen of this populous county, the
commerce and industry of the inhabitants have also
of late been greatly increased ; and to facilitate the
communication with the more remote parts, roads
and bridges have been formed, under the direction
of the Parliamentary commissioners, through every
district of this extensive shire . See our general
article The Highlands. The principal inhabitants
of Inverness-shire are the clans of Forbes, Mac
intosh, Macpherson, Fraser, Grant, and Macdonald.
Many of the proprietors possess elegant seats on the
Moray frith, the banks of the lakes, and near the
western coasts.
The weights and measures of this shire, previous
to the act of equalization, were very inaccurate and
discrepant. Dutch weight was used for meal, reck
oning 9 16 to the stone. Tron weight was used for
wool, butter, cheese, and butcher-meat — the stone
being 21 lb. Dutch, and 24 lb. Avoirdupois; and
the lb. equal to 21 oz. Dutch. Avoirdupois was
used for groceries and flour. A pewter pint jug,
marked 1 652, kept at Inverness, was the standard of
measures of capacity, both for things liquid and dry.
It has on the inside a plouk, and a little above the
plouk a hole drilled through, which was stopped up
when they wanted to fill the jug to the brim. The
jug filled to the plouk regulated the firlot for wheat,
&c, and contained 104.7903 cubic inches ; 24 of these
pints made the firlot for wheat, pease, beans, rye,
rye-grass seed ; and contained 2514.967 cubic inches.
The jug filled tp the hple regulated the firlet for
barley and pats, which ccntained 3519.225 cubic
inches, being 37.232 per cent, above standard. A
bell of oats in this county was reckoned what would
yield a boll of meal, and might sometimes contain 6
or more firlots, but generally 5. The jug filled to
the brim contained 115.1613 cubic inches, and was
the standard for liquid measures, fish oil, Scots spi
rits, ale, &c, with the common subdivisions. An ell
of 38 inches was in use for coarse linen and woollen-
The stone of hay was 16 lbs. of 21 oz. each.
The following extract from the article Inverness,
in Nicholas Carlisle's ' Topographical Gazetteer of
Scotland,' is curious and valuable, and may interest
many readers, though we demur to some of the views
and doctrines propounded in it : — " In the earlier
periods of the history of Scotland, its monarchs ap
pear to have had a very slight and doubtful authority
over the northern and western parts of the realm.
The isles of Orkney and Shetland, and even the pro
vince of Caithness, were possessed by Norwegian
princes, while the Hebrides, and even the adjacent
shores of the Mainland, were entirely under the sway
of the Lords of the Isles. The neighbouring moun
tainous country was inhabited by rude and barbarous
tribes, who had never been reduced under regular
authority or government. The divisions of the
North, therefore, or sheriffdoms, we ought only to
consider as comprehending the low country, and that
part, in particular, in the immediate neighbourhood
of the county-town. Indeed, unless taken in this
point of view, the limits anciently assigned to the
shire of Inverness entitle it to be considered rather
as a sort of vice-royalty, than as one of the secondary
divisions of the kingdom. The earliest notice of the
existence of the office of sheriff is in the acts of David
I., about the middle of the 12th century. It appears
that the sheriffdom of Inverness comprehended, at

42

INVERNESS-SHIRE.

that time, the whole of the kingdom to the north of
the Grampians. An act which allows any man ac
cused of theft a certain period to produce the person
from whom he might allege that the goods had been
bought, runs in this style : — ' Aif ane d wellis bezond
Drum-Albin, in Moray, Ross, Caithness, Argyle, or
in Kintyre, he sail have fyfteen daies and eke ane
month, to produce his warrand before the schiref ;
and gif he goes for his warrand dwelland iii Moray,
Ross, or in any of the steids or places pertaining to
Moray, and can nocht find nor apprehend his war
rand, he shall pass to the schiref of Innerhess, wha
sail,' &c  [' Reg. Majes. 1. 16.'] The names Moray,
Ross, &c, are indeed sufficiently ancient, as applied
to certain districts of the country, but their signifi
cation is vague and indefinite. We may suppose,
however, that the ' steids ' appertaining to Moray,
refer to the limits of the bishopric, Moray being the
only existing see north of Spey, previous to the reign
of David I. The shire of Moray appears to have
been disjoined from Inverness as early as the year
1263, when Gilbert de Rule, knight, is mentioned in
a deed in the chartulary of Moray, as sheriff of Elgin.
It may, indeed, be reasonably doubted whether his
jurisdiction extended over the whole county of Moray
in the modern acceptation of the term : in fact, the
title of sheriff of Moray does not occur till near a
century after this ; the office being first created in
the person of Alexander Dunbar, son to the last
James Dunbar, Earl of Moray. Even about this
time, however, we find the sheriff of Inverness con
tinued to exercise some jurisdiction within the county
of Moray or Elgin : for, in a question respecting the
multures of the lands of Quarrywood, near Elgin,
Robert Hay, sheriff of Inverness, gave judgment
along with ' the honourable and potent Lord Archi
bald Douglas, knight,' who must have been the Earl
Archibald, and not merely the sheriff, as the author
of the History of Moray supposes. The shires of
Forres, and Nairn, and of Crombath or Cromarty,
appear to have been erected as early as that of Elgin :
we find them mentioned in the regulations adopted
for the government of Scotland by Edward I., in
1304. The regulations being little known, an ex
tract — from Rymer's ' Foedera' — is here made of a
part of them, which throws much light on the divi
sion of Scotland at that period : —
Likewise it is agreed, that the viscounts [-heriffsj who
shall dwell in the land, be people born of the country ol Scot.
land, or English, aud be appointed and removed by the king's
lieutenant and by the chamberlain, according to their discre
tion. These sheriffs perform every thing relating to escheats,
aB the sheriff* were wont to do ; and that they who shall be
appointed sheriffs be the most sufficient, the fittest, and most
profitable that can be found, for the king, for the people, and
for keeping and maintaining the peace ; and for the present,
the roll of sheriffs to be as follows: —
1. That the chamberlain, who shall have the keeping of the
castle of Berwick, appoint under him such a one as he
can answer for, to be sheriff of Berwick.
2. Of Edinburgh, Haddington,
and Linlithgow, . . Ive de Adeburgh, sheriff.
3. Of Peebles, . . Robert Hastings ' valett.'
sheriff.
4. Of Selkirk, . . . ¦ He who has it in Fief,' viz.
The heritable sheriff.
5. Of Dumfries, . . Richard Si ward.
6. Of Wigton, . . . Thomas MacCulloch.
7. Of Ayr, . . . Godefroi de Ros.
8. Of Lanark, . . Henri de St. Clair.
9. of Dunbar tou, . John de Montieth, sheriff and
.„ „,„... constable, i. e. of the castle.
10. Of Stirling, . . . William Bissett, Bheriff aud
constable.
11. Of Clackmannan, . Malcolm de Innerpeffer.
12. Of Auchterarderand Kinross, * He who has it in t'iet,' viz.
The heritable sheriff.
13. Of Fife, . . Constantine de Lochore.
14.. 01 Perth, . . J„hu de Inchmartyu.
16. Of Forfar, . . William de Airth.
III. Of Kincardine, . Richard de Dunmore.
17. Of Aberdeen, . . Norman de Leslie.
18. Of Banff, . Walter de Barclay.
Ut. Ol Elgh  William Wiseman.

20 Of Forres and Innernairn, Alexander Wiseman.
21. Of Inverness, . . John de Stirling.
22 Of Cromarty, • • William de urquhart, of Ur.
quhart, who is heritable
sheriff.'
In this list, we may observe Elgin is distinct from
Forres and Nairn ; no notice is taken of Renfrew,
which was probably included in Lanark, nor of Kirk
cudbright ; Argyle, Caithness, and Sutherland, could
hardly be subdued, or with Ross may have been in
cluded in Inverness. It does not appear that Ed ward
removed any of those persons whq held their offices
by charter, since we find the heritable sheriffs ot
Kinross, Selkirk, and Cromarty, are mentioned : the
name of the last is much disfigured by successive
transcribers, but we are still able to discover that the
Urquharts of Cromarty had a separate jurisdiction in
this small tract, while most of the north of Scctland
was comprehended in the shire of Inverness. This
system of hereditary jurisdiction, — which we see had
already begun, — extended by degrees over the greater
part, if not the whole, of Scotland. It was in many
instances of the most pernicious effect, in obstruct^
ing or defeating the purpcses pf justice and national
polity, while, to accommodate the prejudices of feu
dal times, some singular annexations and subdivisions
were made in the different counties. The abolition
of this system, in 1748, is therefore considered, with
justice, as one of the greatest national benefits that
Scotland ever received, — of greater importance to
her prosperity and welfare than even the Union of
the kingdom. But the act of 1748, though well-
intended, did not do enough ; for, although these
annexed lands were by that act made subject to the
sheriff-courts of that shire in which they are locally
situate, or to which they are more immediately adja
cent, yet in all other cases, whether of police, taxa
tion, military service, or elective franchise, they re
main in the same circumstances as before. Whether
the ancient sheriff is to be considered as a civil or a
military officer, is not determined. Besides his office
as a judge, he had the power of calling out the mili
tia and presiding at ' Weapon-sha wings,' thpugh this
probably only extended to the freeholders or tenants
in capite. It would appear, however, that there was
no sheriff but in the stations where royal fortresses
existed. This was, at least, the case at Elgin, For
res, Nairn, and Inverness, to the north of which last
mentioned place there does not appear that any royal
fortress ever existed. The sheriff also appears to
have been ex officio keeper or constable of the castle.
We see that this is particularly mentioned with
respect to the important fortresses of Stirling and
Dumbarton under Edward ; and we shall find it the
case likewise in Nairn. Justice was at that time
more frequently administered in the halls of the
baron, or by the decision of the church, than in the
court pf the sheriff, and hence we may acccunt for
the influence which the clergy had in regulating the
bcunds pf cpunties. The erection of the sheriffdom
of Mcray, prpperly sp called, tcpk place in the reign
pf James II. , and was, perhaps, the first material
dismemberment of the shire of Inverness. In tracing
its history, it appears that Thomas Randolph had
been created Earl of Moray with very extensive
powers by Robert Bruce. His jurisdiction compre
hended the whole country from Spey to the Western
ocean; and was bounded on the north by the river
Forna or Beauly. This earldom, after two genera
tions, reverted, by the failure of male heirs, to the
Crown. John Dunbar, descended from the Randolphs
by the female line, having married a daughter of
Robert II., was created Earl of Moray, with the ex
ception of Badenoch, Lochaber, and some other dis
tricts. His descendant Alexander being accounted
illegitimate, was deprived of the earldom in the mi-

INVERNESS-SHIRE.

43

nority of James II., but was however knighted, and
made heritable sheriff of Moray ; he is the first of
whom mention is made, and the office remained with
his heirs until after the Union, in 1707. It is, there
fore, probable that the sheriffdom comprehended only
the lands annexed to the earldom after its restoration
to the Dunbars, while Badenoch, Lochaber, and the
.other districts, upon reverting to the Crown, fell
again under the jurisdiction of the sheriffs cf Inver
ness. In 1405, Donald, thane of Calder, was seized
sheriff and constable of Nairn : his grandscn William
procured, in 1476, those parts of his estate which
were situate in Inverness or Fprres, tp be annexed
tp the shire pf Nairn. Hence the estate pf Ferintosh
in the present shire of Ross, that of Dunmaglas in
Stratherrick, and that of Easter Moy near Forres,
form a part of the shire of Nairn; as does alsp a
small field pn the east side pf Academy-street in the
tewn and burgh- lands pf Inverness. With respect
to roads, &c, the district of Dunmaglas is usually
exchanged for that of Budzeat, a part of Inverness,
which is nearly as much insulated in the shire of
Nairn. The next idea of dismembering Inverness
occurs in the beginning of the 15th century, it being
proposed by an act of the 6th parliament of James
IV., dated the 11th of March, 1503, to make a sheriff
of Ross, and one of Caithness, including Sutherland,
'because there has been great lacke and faidt of jus
tice in the north parts, as Caithness and Rosse, for
fault of division of the schirefedome of Innernes,
quhilk is over greate, and thay parts are sa far distant
fra the said burgh of Inverness,' &c  The defeat of
Haco, King of Norway, at the battle of Largs, in the
middle of the 13th century, had destroyed the power
of the Norwegian monarchs over the Western isles.
Yet, under the Lords of the Isles, they continued
independent, even in name of the Crown of Scotland,
till after the battle of Harlaw, in 1411. Donald of
the Isles having a right to the earldom Pf Ross, raised
an army of his countrymen, in order to take posses
sion of it. Not contented with that, he also march
ed forward and laid waste the country as far as the
shire of Aberdeen : being met at length by the Earl
ot Marr, at Harlaw, he was defeated with great
slaughter, and thereupon immediately retreated to
the Isles. He Was, however, by no means subdued,
but continued a very powerful and dangerous neigh
bour during the greater part of that century : See
article Hebrides. His influence seems also to have
been considerable even on the mainland ; for many
families in the shire of Inverness held their lands by
charter from the Lords of the Isles. In the begin
ning of 1476, John of the Isles was proscribed by act
of parliament ; and a powerful fleet and army being
collected with a view to reduce him, he was per
suaded to make his submission, surrendering the
earldom of Ross, which was then declared to be una
lienable from the Crown, and consenting to hold his
insular possessions of the King in future. Although
the independence of this chieftain was thus destroyed,
it does not appear that Argyle, Lochaber, or the
Isles, were included in any sheriffdom until the be
ginning of the 16th century. Fcr, at the same time
with the act ccncerning Rcss and Caithness, we have
another, stating the great want pf justice in the Nprth
and Sputh isles, ' wherethrow the people are almpst
gane wilde;' acccrdingly the act provides, that jus
tices shall be apppinted : ' Thpse of the North isles
to have their seat and place of justice in Inverness
dr Dingwall, as the matter occurris to be decerned
by the said justices. In bke manner, another justice
and schireffe to be made for the South isles, to have
his place in the Tarbat of Loch Kinkerrane,' i. e.
Campbelltovyn, in Kintyre. Again, in the acts of
James IV., it is stated, that there are parts between

Badenoch and Lochaber, • which have been out of
use to cum to justice-aires' (assizes), wherefore it is
provided, that ' the lands called Dowart and Glen-
Dowart, and also the lordship of Lome, cum and
answer and underly the law at the justice-aires of
Perth, Mawmore Lochaber aforesaid tp cum tp the
aire pf Inverness, Ergyle, when it pleases the King,
sail cum tp Perth,' &c  Yet, notwithstanding these
statutes, the proppsed regulatiens seem either tp
have been forgptten or very imperfectly executed, —
a thing by no means wonderful in » wild and inac
cessible country. James V. undertook an expedition
to the Isles, in 1539. Setting sail from Leith, he
visited the Orkneys, Lewis, Skye, and the Western
coasts of the mainland, ebliging the several chieftains
tc submit tp his authprity. A particular account pf
this expeditien is still extant, and affords a tolerable
idea of the progress of the Scots in navigation.* The
bearings and distances of most of the remarkable ob
jects on the voyage are noticed. It is the first time
that we are accurately informed of the names of the
several clans by our historians, and it may be consi
dered as the first time that the Western parts of the
kingdom were reduced into subjection. James seems
to have been aware of the importance of this part of his
dominions in a commercial point of view, and took
considerable pains in endeavouring to introduce the
arts of civilization into the Isles. For this purpose, *
company having been formed, a colony of settlers —
drawn chiefly from the coast of Fife — was established
at Stornoway in the Lewis, and various others were
projected. They had, however, to maintain their
ground in Lewis by force of arms, and suffered so
much annoyance from the jealous and hostile dispo
sition of the natives, that at last they were forced
to come into terms with them, and entirely abandon
the establishment. The task of reducing the island
of Lewis was at length accomplished by the Mac-
kenzies, Lords of Kintail ; they succeeded partly by
force, and partly by fomenting the divisions of the
petty chieftains, until the de'scendants of the princi
pal family were completely extirpated. The manu
script histories of the family of Mackenzie describe
the inhabitants, as a race of ' pirates worse than
those of Algiers,' prone to commit the most atro
cious crimes. But, with mingled pride and satisfac
tion, we now draw the singular contrast to the man
ners of the inhabitants of this part of the empire,
among whom, from Shetland to the Mull of Cantyre,
a capital crime has not been known for many years.
Nothing had been done towards the division pf the
shire of Inverness, so late as the year 1633. In the
] st parliament of Charles I. we find an act against
the Clan Gregor, at that time under prescription,
wherein ' the sheriffs of Perth, Dumbartane, Angus,
Mearns, Sterling, and the Stewarts of the stewartries
of Stratherne, Menteithe, Banffe, Invernesse, Elgyn,
and Forres, and their deputes, the sheriff of Cro
marty and his deputes, with the provost and baillies
of the burghs there, the Earls of Errol, Moray, &c,
are nominated justices for trying the said rebels,'
&c. No notice is taken of Ross, Sutherland, Caith
ness. Nairn, nor Argyle. The shire of Sutherland
was first erected during this Parliament, by an act
in favour of the Earl of Sutherknd ; it comprehend
ed the districts of Sutherland Proper, Assynt, Strath-
Naver, and Fairmatoftan alias Cleipholes. It does
not appear, whether Caithness Proper, or the pre
sent shire, was at that time a separate jurisdiction
or not ; but, at any rate, the erection of Sutherland
necessarily disjoined it from Inverness. At the
Restoration, in 1660, the counties of Argyle, Ross.

* It has been reprinted in the 3d volume of the Miscellanea
Scotu-a.' Glasgow, 1820.

INV

44

INV

Sutherland, Caithness, and Nairn, were all distinct
from Inverness, as appears by an act of assessment,
in which commissioners of supply are appointed for
the several counties in order. The boundaries of
Ross, however, were not finally settled until the
year 1661 ; since which time, excepting the abolition
of heritable jurisdictions in 1748, there is no mate
rial alteration in the limits of the shire of Inverness."
INVERNETTIE, a small harbour, and an estate
situated about a mile south of the town of Peter
head. The harbour is in the immediate vicinity of
an extensive and excellent brick and tile work estab
lished about 40 years ago. The bed of clay is worked
to a depth of between 30 and 40 feet. This place is
now within the parliamentary boundary of the burgh
of Peterhead.
INVERSNAID, a small hamlet, a mile east of
Loch-Lomond, and S_r miles geographically north of
the summit of Ben-Lomond ; in the parish of Bu
chanan, Stirlingshire. It stands on the road from
Stirling, by Aberfoil, to the ferry near the head of
Loch- Lomond, and at the confluence of Inversnaid
burn, coming down in a brief course of 2 miles from
the north, with a stream bringing westward the su-
perfluent waters of Loch-Arclet : which see. A
barrack-station was formed here early in the 18th
century, to repress the depredations of certain tur
bulent Highlanders in the vicinity, especially the
Macgregors ; ' and it continued to be garrisoned during
the reign of George II., but has long been utterly
disused. Some interest attaches tq it from its hav
ing been for some time the quarters of General Wolfe
when a subaltern. From the fort south-westward
to Lech-Lomond, Inversnaid burn pursues a roman
tic course, and, near its fall into the loch, makes a
fine cascade. At its mouth a ferry communicates
across the lake — here reduced to a stripe of | of a
mile wide — with the Dumbartonshire shore.
INVERUGIE, a small village in the parish of St.
Fergus, Aberdeenshire, at the mouth of the Ugie.
Near it are the ruins of Inverugie castle, where the
celebrated Field-marshal Keith was born. See
Fergus (St.).
INVERUGLAS, a hamlet in the parish of Luss,
Dumbartonshire. It is 4 miles north-west of Luss ;
at the confluence of the river Douglas with Loch-
Lomond, over which there is a ferry here.
INVERURY, a parish in Aberdeenshire, bounded
by Chapel-Garioch on the north and west ; Keithhall
on the east ; and Kemnay and Kintore on the south ;
but surrounded by the river Urie on the north and
east ; and by„the Don and another of its tributaries
on the west and south ; the parish thus forming a
peninsula by the junction of the Urie with the Don,
across which rivers, near their junction, there are two
substantial modern bridges. The parish is upwards
of 4 miles in length from east to west, by 2 in
breadth : square area about 4,000 acres. Houses
260. Assessed property, in 18J5, £2,052. Popula
tion, in 1801, 783; in 1831, 1,419. On the banks
of the rivers the soil is fertile, yielding abundant
crops ; but the western hilly part is chiefly pastoral.
The land rises gradually to the skirts of Benochie,
a mountain situated about a mile westward from the
boundary in the parish of Oyne. Lime and coals are
conveyed from Aberdeen by the Inverury canal
which terminates here, and slates, timber, grain,
&c, are returned through the same channel, which
has thus been of much advantage to the agriculturists
and ethers in this quarter, though it has yielded
no profit to the capitalists at whose expense it
was made.' The principal crops are oats, barley,
potatoes, and turnips: numerous sheep and black
cattle are also pastured. Half the parish belongs
to the Earl of Kintore — In the south-western part

of the parish, on the northern bank of the Don,
stands the building, occupied from 1 799 till 1829, as
the Roman Catholic college of Aquhorties, in which
27 young gentlemen were educated according to
the doctrines of their church : the building is hand
some, and beautifully situated ; but the college has
been removed to Blairs in the county of Kincardine.
The mansion of Braco is in this parish ; and the
Bass of Inverury: — see that article ; see also the
Don. — The parish is in the presbytery of Garioch
and svnod of Aberdeen. Patron, the Earl of Kin
tore. ' Stipend £257 lis. 6d. ; glebe £15. Church
built in 1775; sittings 400  Here are an Independent
congregation, with a chapel, built in 1822 ; sittings
360 : a Wesleyan Methodist, with a chapel built in
1819 ; sittings 200 : and a Roman Catholic, with a
small chapel, a portion of the old seminary now be
longing to the college of Blairs  Schoolmaster's
salary £30, with £35 fees, and other emoluments.
There are six private schools in the parish.
The rcyal burgh pf Inverury, in the abpve par
ish, is a straggling village, with none of the charac
teristics of a town. It is situated in the angle formed
by the confluence of the Don and the Urie, abput
15 miles nprth-west pf Aberdeen, — the road from
which is carried across the Don by one of the bridges
above noticed, which was erected in 1791. The
Inverury canal terminates close tp this bridge. The
pldest existing charter cf Inverury is one granted by
Queen Mary, of date 22d June, 1558; but it is tra
ditionally said to have been erected into a royal burgh
by Robert Bruce, on occasion of a great victory ob
tained by him here over Cumming of Badenoch. Pre
vious to the date of the 3° and 4° William IV., u 76,
the old council of the burgh, consisting of 9 persons,
including the magistrates, chose the new magistrates
for the ensuing year. The newly elected magistrates,
with the old council, then chose the new council.
The council now consists of a provost, three bailies,
a dean-of-guild, a treasurer, and three common coun
cillors. The jurisdiction of the magistrates extends
over the whole royalty; hut it has been very little
exercised. Petty delinquencies are tried, aud dili
gence granted en bills pf exchange against debters
within the territory. Courts are also held for grant
ing warrant of removing before Whitsunday. The
burgh is bounded by the natural line of the Urie on
the east of the town with a like space on the west :
the Urie also bounds it on the north, and a straight
line across the Don from the Urie bridge constitutes
the southern boundary. . The revenue of the burgh,
in 1832, amounted to £143 3s. 7|d., of which £96
9s. 7|d. arose frpm rent for custcms and feu-duties.
expenditure £84 17s. 10id. ; debt,' in 1833, £659
16s. 4d. The revenue, in 1838-9, was £185.* The
municipal censtituency, in 1 839, was 89. The burgh
joins with the Elgin district of burghs in returning a
member to parliament. Constituency, in 1839, 94.
— Inverury does not appear ever to have been a
place of great trade : its prosperity was long re
tarded by its peninsular situation, which rendered
it inaccessible on all sides but one, except by boats,
until its bridges were built ; and when the Don was
in flood, even that form of conveyance was imprac
ticable. Its cattle-markets are large, and well-fre-
* I'Thefunde of the burgh," observes the municipal com.
ultTrfii V, 'l ""' manaSe*' are sufficient to keep it in excel.
K5™J. buVhe management is saia to have been ver,
objectionable. Amongst various curious statements in the
SSX S""T." reDor\ " is 8aid- th" one °f »>" resident chiel
magistrates "was in the practice of marrying persons coming
before him by fining thein on their confessing of an irreTular
marriage, on which occasions he received a fee to himself? On
this account he was indicted by the Lord. Advocate of Scotland
and incurred an expense of £8i in preparing for his trialbeforo

IONA.

45

quented : they are held once a-month in summer,
and every fortnight in winter. Inverury gives the
title pf Baron tp the Earl pf Kintpre.
IONA, Icolmkill, pr 1-columb-kill, or I,* a
small but celebrated Hebridean island, — a gem in the
ocean, ' the Star pf the Western sea,' ' the luminary
pf the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and
roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge,
and the blessings of religion,'
" Isle of Columba's cell.
Where Christian piety's soul-cheering spark
(Kindled from Heaven between the light aud dark
Of time) shone like the morning-star," —
situated off the south-west extremity of Mull, in the
parish of Kilfinichen, Argyleshire. It is 9 miles south
west of Staffa, and about 36 miles west of the nearest
part of the district of Morven, or of the mainland of
Scotland. A strait, called the sound of I, or of
Icolmkill, about J of a mile broad, and 3 miles long,
deep enough for the passage of the largest ships, but
dangerous from sunken rocks, separates it from Mull.
Islets and rocks — the most conspicuous of which is
Soa on the south-west — are numerously sprinkled
round one- half of its coast. A heavy swell of the
sea, but not such as to imperil navigation, usually
rolls toward it from the north. The scenery around
it is, in general, desolate in its aspect and celd in its
tints, requiring the aids of the burnished or tempest-
uated sea, the fleecy or careering clcuds, and above
all, the tranquil or the stirring associations of history,
tp render it interesting pr grand. Icolmkill has the
attractions neither of pastoral beauty and simplicity,
nor of highland wildness and sublimity ; it utterly
wants both the fertile and cultivated loveliness of
Lismore, and the dark and savage magnificence of
Mull ; and, though relieved by some green panor
amic views of Coll, Tiree, and other islands, it
would seem to a person ignorant of its history and
antiquities, an altogether tame and frigid expanse of
treeless sward and low-browed rock. Its length is
about 3 miles, stretching from north-east to south
west ; its breadth is about a mile ; and its superficial
area is conjectured to be about 1 ,300 Scottish acres.
All round, it has a waving outline, approaching on
the whole to the form of an oval, but exhibiting an
almost constant alternation of projection of land and
indentation of sea. Its recesses, however, though
termed bays by a topographist, would, in general, be
refused the name by navigators, and afford no har
bour, nor, in boisterous weather, even a tolerable
landing-place. The bay of Martyrs, on the north
east side, is merely a little creek ; yet it both forms
the chief modern succedaneum for a harbour, and
was anciently, as tradition reports, the place of de
barkation for funeral parties coming hither to inter
the illustrious dead. Port-na-Currach, ' the Bay of
the beat,' on the south-west side, is a still mpre in
considerable creek, lined with perpendicular rocks of
serpentine marble ; and derives both its name and
all its importance from a tradition of its having been
the landing-place of the currach, the hide and tim
ber boat of St. Columba. On the shore of this
creek are some irregular heaps of pebbles, thrown
up apparently by the sea, but represented by legen-
¦ I, pronounced Ee, and sometimes written Hi, Hii, or Hy,
means ' the Island,' and is the name commonly in use by the
natives and other Hebrideans, the place being, among the Ebn-
dean archipelago, the island par excellence. But when neces
sity is felt to speak -distinctively, the name used is I-coIumb-
' kill, or abbreviatedly, I-colrokill, 'the Island of the cell of
Columba,,' the saint to whom the place owes all its importance,
the patron-saint of the Hebrides, and long the patron-saint of
all Scotland. The name lona is either I-thonna, ' the Island of
the waves :' or, I-shonna, ' the Holy or Blessed island ;' most
probably the former, and, in that sense, quite descriptive of its
appearance in a storm. This name is sometimes written Hy-
ooa; and is used by historians, poets, and Rt angers,— com
mending itself to them by its euphoniousness.

dary gossip to be — in the case of one heap which is
about 50 feet long — a memorial and an exact model
of St. Columba's boat, and, in the case of the other
heaps, results and monuments of acts of penance per
formed by the monks. The surface of the island
consists of small, pleasant, fertile plains, in most
places along the shore, and of rocky hillocks and
patches pf green pasture, and an intermixture ef dry
and of boggy moorland in the interior. At the
southern extremity, excepting a low sandy tract near
a creek called Bloody bay, it is merely a vexed and
broken expanse of rocks. The highest ground is
near the northern extremity, and rises only about
400 feet above sea-level. Numerous though small
springs afford an ample supply of pure water ; and
several of them combine their treasures to send a
pleasant rill past the ruins of the ancient nunnery.
Adjoining the gardens of the abbey, and surrounded
by little hillocks, extends a morass, the remnant of
an artificial lake of several acres, anciently traversed
through the middle by a broad green terrace, and
fringed round the edge with agreeable walks. At
one side of it are traces of a sluice, and ruins of a
corn mill. The pasture of the uplands or little hills
consists, during three-fourths of the year, of a line
verdure, and is celebrated among the surrounding
islands for its excellence. About 500 Scottish acres,
or five-thirteenths of the whole area, are arable. A
light sandy soil prevails along the shore, excepting
where cultivation and abundance cf manures have
cenverted it inte a dark lpam. The land was for
merly held in run-rig, but is new disppsed intp regu
lar lpts, and many places produces good crops of
barley and oats. Fuel can be obtained only from
Mull, and in the form of peat, and is procured at
great hazard and expense. Minerals are various, and
cumulatively rich. The Port-na-Currach stone has
its name from the bay or creek in the vicinity of
which it is found, and possesses fame both as a gem
much coveted by modern virtuosi, and an amulet
superstitipusly invested with miraculous virtues by
the addle-headed meb pf the Middle ages. The stone
is a fluor pr crystallized homogeneous substance,
somewhat resembling quartz, formed in the veins ot
serpentine rock, and dislodged from them by the
waves, and found in nodules from the size of a pea to
that of a large apple, along the shore. It is semi-
pellucid and green, sometimes clouded with white
and yellow opaque spots, and diminishes in bright
ness as it increases in size. Specimens free from
blemish, and of good colour and transparency, are
extremely beautiful when polished, and are highly
valued by jewellers and lapidaries ; but, in conse
quence of the great demand for them, they are
annually increasing in scarcity. The marble ot
Icolmkill is white and semi-pellucid, composed of
small irregular, laminous masses, the lamina: being
plain, parallel, and resplendent. It breaks with a
shining plain surface, strikes fire with steel, cuts
freely, receives a fine polish, exhibits, by its mica
ceous particles and laminous masses, a glittering ex
terior, and, in its finest specimens, will remain for
centuries exposed in the open air without exhibiting
other change than a mellowing of its whiteness.
Icolmkill hieracites, or hawkstone, resembles in its
hues the plumage of a Hebridean hawk, but is known
only as having formed the thick slates with which
the monastery was roofed, and possibly occurs no
where on the island except among the ruins. Ser
pentine — probably the most beautiful stone which is
found in large quantities in Scotland — may be quar
ried to any extent in Icolmkill. Siejite or red
granite, nearly as hard as the granite of Mull, oc
curs in extensive rocks in the south-west, and may
be cut in any form, and of all dimensions. Spotted

46

IONA.

schistus, difficult to be worked, and too coarse for
slates, is the chief stone on the north-east. The
whole island is the property of the Duke of Argyle,
and yields a rental of only about £300.
On the bay of Martyrs, near the ruins which con
stitute the grand attraction and the glory of the"
place, stands the village of Threld, — a collection of
miserable huts, and the scene of general squalidness,
poverty, and filth. In common with the rest of the
island, it was long left to thrive, or starve for the
future world upon its dim and malodorous traditions
of the moral influences which once bathed all its
neighbourhood in beauty; for though it received a
visit some four times a-year from the minister of
Kilfinichen, it was utterly destitute of every sub
stantial means of either education or religious in
struction. Now, however, it is the seat both of a
neat quoad sacra parish-church, and of a school-
house. Both the minister and the schoolmaster
are maintained by the Society, in Scotland, for
Propagating Christian Knowledge. The inhabi
tants of the village constitute very nearly the
whole population of the island, and are in a rude
semibarbarous condition. Besides conducting a poor
trade in fish and kelp, they live, to some extent,
on the gullibility and vanity of visiters. Aware
how much the gems of the island are in request,
young and old run in a mass to the beach on the
arrival of a vessel, and obstreperously vie with one
another in palming upon strangers, for twopence,
for fourpence, for sixpence, or for whatever they can
obtain, anything that is likely to be received by a
self-conceited starer at the world's lions as a precious
stone. Wordsworth, alluding to the part taken in
this traffic by children, and fixing the warm gaze of
a Christian upon the means of religious instruction
which they now enjoy, says,
•' How Bad a welcome I To each voyager
Some ragged child holds up for sale a store
Of wave-worn pebbles, pleading on the shore
Where once came monk and nun with gentle stir,
Blessings to give, news ask, or suit prefer.
Yet is yon neat trim church a grateful speck
Of novelty amid the sacred wreck
Strewn far and wide. Think, proud philosopher !
Fallen though she be, this Glory of the West,
Still on her sons the beams of mercy shine j
And ' hopes, perhaps more heavenly bright than thine,
A grace, by thee unsought aud unpossess'd,
A faith more fixed, a rapture more divine,
Shall gild their passage to eternal rest.' "
The inhabitants — though credulous to excess in
whatever legendary lore or romancing tradition has
said about Columba, and though enthusiastic enough
to join chorus in corroborating the money-moving
stories of theneicerones of the ruins, and other notice
able objects around them — are a simple and hardy
race, not more remarkable for their poverty, than for
the thrift and the content with which their large
numbers secure a sustenance on so narrow and nig
gard an arena. By the rearing of cattle on their
little crofts, and selling them in Mull, and by their
unimportant tiny trade in other matters, they pro
cure a small importation of oatmeal, and then, for
every other necessary of life, depend on their own
little island and its encincturing sea.
Icolmkill was probably uninhabited, or at best but
occasionally visited by the people of Mull, previous
to the time of Columba, and, at all events, comes
first into notice as a quiet retreat gifted over to the
saint for the uses of his missionary establishment.
His having been accosted upon his landing by some
Druids in the habits of monks, who, pretending to
have also come to preach the gospel, requested him
and his fojjowers to seek out some other asylum,
and who, pn his detectien pf their imppsture, made
a speedy and ccmplete departure, is either one of the
idle legends with which his biographers barbarously

embellished their accounts of his life, or points tft
spme conspiracy formed among the heathen eccles
siastics on their getting bruit of his purpose to at
tempt an inroad on their territory. Columba was a
native of Ireland, descended by his father frpm the
king of that ceuntry, and by his mpther from the
king, pf Scptland; and, after having travelled in
many ccuntries, and acquired great reputation for
learning and piety, he concocted a scheme of mis
sionary enterprise, with Scotland and Ireland for its
field, which, at once in the Christian heroism of its
spirit, and the far-sightedness of its views, and the
brilliance of its immediate success, has had no paral
lel or even distant imitation in the missionary mpve-
ments of any subsequent age. He wished to apply
to Scotland and to Ireland a moral lever which
should lift them up in the altitude of excellence, and
bring them acquainted with the moral glpries ef hea
ven ; and he spught a spot on which he might rest
the fulcrum of the simple but mighty instrument he
designed to wield. What he wanted was, not an ,
arena crowded with populatien, pr a vantage-ground
of political influence over the rude tribes whom he
wished tp be the instrument of converting, — for, in
that case, he wculd have remained in his father
land, er taken a place in the kingly ceurts tp which
his birth gave him access ; but it was a secluded
nppk where he could lubricate his own energies for
the agile yet herculean labours which he had pro
posed to himself as his task, and where he cpuld
train and habituate a numerous body of youths to
the hardy moral gymnastics which should fit them
for acting with equal nimhleness and strength against
the battle-array of the idolatries and barbarity of
united nations. In 563, or, according to Bede, in
565, when he was 42 years of age, he left Ireland,
accompanied by a chosen band who were akin to him
in character and the companions of his councils,
whom a grateful but incipiently-papisticated pos
terity cancnized, as they did himself, and asserted to
be mpre than mprtal, and whem the usages of Co
lumba's successors pronounced to be 12 in number,
after the example of the 12 apostles of the Redeemer,
though the recorded list of their names shows them
to have been 13, and, the beautiful simplicity of
Columba's character might have demonstrated them
to amount to just as many as could be made to ap
preciate and reciprocate the motives of moral gran- .
deur which impelled his movement, — accompanied
by this band, the saint, since we must call him so,
or rather the. energetic missionary, ran in among the
Hebrides as a territory common, in a sense, to Ire
land and Scotland, and offering fair promise of the
retreat which he sought. Oronsay, lying pnly 60
or 65 miles frpm the meuth pf Lpch-Fpyle, the
grand outlet cf Ireland pn the nerth, and bpth nearly
of the same size as Icolmkill, and similarly situated
with relation to Colonsay as Icolmkill is with rela
tion to Mull, was first tried, and became, as is said,
the seat of such cemmenciug pperatipns as afforded
some promise of stability. But /—the island par
excellence — was destined speedily and permanently
to receive the bold and apostolic missicnary. Either
while his tent was fixed at Oronsay, or after having
made a passing visit to Icolmkill, he went into the
eastern parts of Scotland, or the territories of tire
Picts, and was the instrument — with the aid of mir
acles, say his romancing bicgraphers — pf cpn verting
Brude pr Bridei, the Pictish king, whpse reign ter
minated in 587. Frpm either this monarch, or more
probably from Conal, king of the Scots— or, as Dr.
Jamieson conjectures, from both, the frontiers of
their respective kingdoms not being well-ascertained
—he received a grant of either whole or part of the
island which was henceforth to be rendered illus-

IONA.

47

tripus by the association pf his name. He iipw
erected on Icolmkill a missipn-establishment, whence
emanated for centuries such streams of illumination
over Scotland, Ireland, the north of England, and
even places mere distant, as shpne brilliantly in cpn-
trast tc the midnight darkness which had settled
dpwn pn the rest pf Europe, ccrruscating through
the sky and beautifully tinting the whele range ef
upward visipn, like the play of the Northern lights
when a long night has set in upon the world. But
the establishment was very far frombeing monastic,
and cannot, as to its external appliances, be traced
in any of the existing ruins which possess so strong
attractions for antiquaries and the curious. Cplumba
and his companions were strangers to all the three
vows which unite to constitute monkery ; and made
a brilliant exhibition of the social spirit, the far-
stretching activity, the travelling and untiring re
gard for the diffusion of the gospel, the enlightened
respect for every art which could improve and em
bellish human society, and the freedom from mum
mery and religious mountebankism, which monks
are as little acquainted with as the red Indians who
scour the American prairies are with polite litera
ture or the refinements of a king's drawing-room.
Columba, for some time, took up his residence with
king Brude at Inverness, and, while there, met writh
a petty prince of the Orkneys, and found an oppor
tunity, by his means, of settling Cormac, one of his
disciples, in the extreme north, and introducing
Christianity to the Ultima Thule of the known world.
He also made a voyage in his currach to the north
seas, and spent twelve days in adopting such pre
paratory measures as gave his companions and suc
cessors an inlet to the northern parts of continental
Europe. Constantine, a quondam king of Cornwall,
who had renounced his throne that he might co
operate as a missionary with the saint, founded a
religious establishment in imitation of Columba's at
Gpvan pn the Clyde, and, after diffusing a know
ledge of the gospel in the peninsula of Kintyre, pas
sed away from the world through the golden gate
of martyrdom. Other members of the Icolmkill fra
ternity — theirleader guiding the way in every move
ment — traversed the dominions of the Picts, the Scots,
and the Irish, and speedily numbered most of the
first, and many of the second and third of these na
tions among their followers. The Irish annalists
state, in round numbers, that Columba had 300
churches under his inspection ; and, adopting the
language and ideas of a later and corrupted age,
they add that he also superintended 100 monasteries.
Their figures, as well as their words, are probably
in fault. Yet, even making large allowances, the
number of missionary stations modelled after the
parent one of lona, and mistakenly called ' monas
teries,' and the number of fully organized and self-
sustained congregations, which seem tc be indicated
by the word 'churches,' must have been surprisingly
great to be, in any sense, estimated at respectively
100 and 300. Columba's persenal influence, toe,
and the bright and far-seen star of fame which, from
very nearly the commencement of his enterprise,
stood over Icolmkill, are evidence of the striking
greatness of his missionary success. Aidan, the
most renowned of the Scottish kings, having to con
test the crown with his cousin Duncha, did not, even
after the complete discomfiture of his opponents,
think his title to royalty secure till inaugurated by
Columba according to the ceremonial of the Liber
Vitreus ; and, in all' his great enterprises, he was
prayed for in a special meeting of the brotherhood of
lona. So numerous were the missionaries, both in
Columba's own dav and afterwards, who went out
from the island, — 3o wide was the range -of their

movements, and so eminent was their success, in
dicated in their being popularly canonized, — that,
throughout France, Italy, and other parts of Europe,
all the saints of unknown origin were, at a later
period, reputed to be Scottish or Irish.
The Culdees, ' servants of God,' as the fraternity
of lona and the communities connected with them
were called, seem to have had no connexion what
ever with the corrupt, pompous, usurping, and mul
titudinous sect which, from an early period in the
4th century, claimed the alliance of the state, arro
gated to itself the title of ' the Catholic church,'
and was already far advanced, all indeed but com
pletely matured) in the foul innovations of Roman
ism. Coldmba acted, to all appearance, in the same
independent manner as the founders of some eight
or ten considerable sects in Africa, Italy, and the
East, who, in various degrees of purity, maintained
soundness of doctrine and approximations to aposto
lic simplicity of church-order long after these were
utterly lost in what are usually called the Latin and
the Greek churches, and who — but for the two cir
cumstances of their records. having been destroyed
during the inquisitorial persecutiens of the dark ages,
and of the fountain-heads and all the main streams
nf ecclesiastical histery lying within the territeries
ef parties whp regarded dissenter and heretic as sy-
npnympus terms — weuld figure illustrieusly in the
religipus annals of the Christian dispensation. From
causes which are not explained, but probably from
acquaintance on his travels with the obscure, because
persecuted, dissenting bodies on the continent, and
from devout and unjaundiced study of the divine word,
aided by the advantages of his position beyond the
territories of 'the Catholics,' and by an acquaintance
with the recorded usages of primitive times, Co
lumba set up a species of church-order, which had a
a close resemblance to what Campbell, Mpsheim,
Lprd King, and pther impartial writers, agree te have
prevailed early in the 2d century, — a species which
was rempved by but one degree of innovation or
corruption from the beautifully simple frame-work
set up for the churches by the apostles. An Epis
copalian, a Presbyterian, and an Independent, if
keener to gather laurels for his party than to ob
tain an impartial view of facts, will each, and
not without plausibility, but under decided mis
take, claim the Culdees, as brethren in creed.
Cclumba is represented as ' the arch-abbct pf all
Ireland,' and is known to have wielded supreme
ecclesiastical influence over Scotland; yet he seems
to have acted rather on principles of advice than
on those of authority, and in the character, not pf
an office-bearer, of any description, much less of a
prelate, but simply pf the founder and guide of a
great Christian mission. He never renounced the
humble office of a presbyter ; nor ever held higher
office than the abbctcy, as it was termed, er first and
gpverning function, of the college or ecclesiastical
community of lona. Mission - establishments, or
' monasteries ' as history improperly designates them,
formed by colonization from the parent one, or undei
its sanction, usually had each 12 presbyters, and a
superior or ' abbot;' the conceit becoming generally
adopted that Columba modelled his college with re
ference to the 12 apostles presided over by the Sa
viour. But the presbyters who continued in the
colleges, and are called ' monks,' and also the presby
ters who went abroad in charge of congregatipns, and
wore the name of ' bishops,' were all on a fopting oi
equality among themselves, and all acknowledged
the authority of the superipr pr ' abbpt.'j Nor does
the cpllege ef lona seem tp have differed from its
pffshpots in authority, or in any particular whatever
except in its being the prolific :hive whence succes-
I

48

IONA.

sive swarms of industrious and honeyed missionaries
went off to raise accumulations of sweets in the
various nooks of the moral wilderness. Even ' the
abbot' does not appear to have been, in all respects,
the superior of the other members of a college; for
he ranked only as a presbyter or ' a monk ;' and, in
particular, he acted strictly in common -with the
others 'in cases of ordination. The fraternity of
lona stood so high in general esteem that they en
joyed, by their'advice and influence, a pre-eminence
in the civil government of the people. Though they
lived under a somewhat strict rule drawn up by Co
lumba, and still extant; yet they were altogether
free from asceticism, and exerted their main strength
for the training of ministers and missionaries, in a
style of cheerful temperance, and liberal regard to
the useful and the fine arts, which exhibited a happy
medium between the leaden dulness of a popish May-
nooth, and the pompous glitter of an aristocratic
Oxford. While, like the primitive Christians, they
enjoyed many things in common, they divided their
property, according to the allodial notions of the
period, among their wives and children, and even
made partitions of the voluntary offerings or contri
butions of the people. They knew nothing either
of tithes or of first-fruits ; and exalted matrimony to
the place assigned it in the divine word. At first
they had their families around them ; but, after
wards, they so far pandered to the prevailing cry on
behalf of clerical celibacy, as to assign to their wives
separate abodes. They were sober, charitable, and
contemptuous of worldly grandeur, — " modest and
unassuming," says Bede, " distinguished for the sim
plicity of their manners, diligent observers of the
works of piety and chastity, which they had learned
from the prophetic and apostolic writings." They
despised the ceremonies of a costly ritual, the page
antry of the choir, and the tricks and gambollings of
priestcraft. They guarded, to a degree, against the
innovations attempted by the wily emissaries of
Rome; and, considering the circumstances of the
period, made a comparatively long resistance to the
influences of degeneracy which had already preci
pitated the most of Europe into gilded barbarism
and antichristian superstition. They occasionally
occupied many successive days, and even spent inter
vening nights, in studying the sacred vplume ; and,
seduleusly searching cut its meaning, and bpwing tp
its supreme authority; and regarding it as the sole
final appeal for every point pf faith pr morals, they
were strangers tp the foplery pf searching for their
creed in the writings of the fathers, or enslaving
their consciences to the dictation of those tools of
the Christian emperors and the popes of Rome,
called General councils. Their doctrines probably
were tinged, or even highly coloured, with Pelagi-
anism ; yet,, when compared with those of the great
body of contemporary Christians, and when seen in
the rich fruits of moral worth which they produced,
they may be suspected to have leaned toward error
more in words than in reality.
lona was the retreat of science and literature, and
of the fine and useful arts, almost as conspicuously as
of religion. Columba himself excelled in all secular
learning, was a proficient in the knowledge of medi
cine and the practice of eloquence, and laboriously
instructed the barbarians in agriculture, gardening,
and other arts of civilized life. Not a few of the
members of his community, in successive generations,
were eminently skilled in rhetoric, ppetry, music,
astronomy, mathematics, and general philosophy and
science. About the beginning of the 8th century,
learning of every sort, in fact — with the exception of
some poor remains of philosophy and the arts in Italy
— was hunted out of every part of Continental Eu

rope, and concentrated its energies and its glories on
the little arena of Icolmkill. Even Ireland, which
was at the time brilliant in distinct literary estab
lishments, concurred with the general voice of the
civilized world, in pronouncing lona the pre-eminent
seat of learning, in acknowledging the paramount in
fluence of its college, and in awarding to its abbot
the designation of Principatus. The arts and sciences
which formed the curriculum were writing, arith
metic, the computation of time, geometry, astronomy,
jurisprudence, and music. So much was the last of
these valued at the period, that heaven was believed
to have bestowed musical powers only on its favour
ites. At first, it allured the barbarians to the Chris
tian modes of worship ; and was attended to simply
in a degree proportioned to its subordinate import
ance ; but eventually it acquired a predominating in
fluence, far too largely engaged the attention, re
tarded the progress of deeper studies, and contributed
not a little to produce a general deterioration which
at length became submerged by the influx of popery.
Only a rapid and interrupted outline of the history
of lona can be here attempted. A continuous list
of abbots is preserved from Buithan, who succeeded
Columba, and died in 600, to Caoin Chomrach, who
died in 945. Another and succeeding list has per
plexed antiquaries, but distinctly exhibits four more
abbots, beginning in 1004, and terminating with
Duncan, in 1099. Under Buithan, St. Giles, a gra
duate of lona, introduced Culdeeism to Switzerland,
was the instrument of converting several thousands
of the inhabitants, rejected the bishopric of Constance,
held out as a bribe to lure him from his simple creed,
and planted an establishment whose superiors, in
after ages, were less proof than he to the blandish
ments of civil greatness, and came to be ranked as
considerable princes of the empire. Under Ferguan,
who died in 622, and who was considerable in piety
and learning, the scientific and literary interests of
lona had to struggle with difficulties, but went
through unscathed. Under Cumin, who died in 658,
and who was distinguished for his scholarship, the se
minary, though sending out fewer missionaries than
formerly to Switzerland, Germany, and other conti
nental countries, continued its assiduity in training
men in the arts and sciences. About this time, Aidan
and some other alumni, in compliance with an invi
tation of Oswald, king of Northumbria, who had
been discipled to Christianity when in exile among
the Scots and Picts, introduced a knowledge of
Christianity among the Northumbrian Saxpns, and
planted the scions ot Christian excellence and liter
ary renown ampng that pepple, frpm the northern
limits of their territory along the Forth, to their
southern limits in the centre of England. Aidan is
said to have in seven days baptized 15,000 converts ;
he commended his cause by great moderation, meek
ness, and piety ; but in common with many others
who went from lona to England, he cared little to
retain the simple ecclesiastical discipline of Culdee
ism ; and he was apppinted the first bishpp pf Lin-
disfarne er Hply Island. Eata, pne pf thpse who
accompanied Aidan from lona, after labouring for a
season in Northumbria, became the apostle of the
tribes who inhabited the basin of the upper Tweed,
and laid the foundation, and was the first superior of
the Culdee establishment of Melrose, which for cen
turies occupied the place of the greatly more cele
brated, but comparatively the utterly worthless pe-
pish abbey. During nearly the same peripd as that
of Aidan and Eata's activity, all the other principa
lities or kingdoms of England, excepting Kent and
Wessex, and the little state of Sussex, were traversed
by missionaries from lona, and received from them
their chief initial instruction, er their revival from

IONA.

49

total declension, not only in Christianity, but also in
the arts and sciences. No institution, either of its
own age or of any which intervened till after the
Reformation, did so much as that cf Ipna, at this
time, tp diffuse pver a benighted world the lights of
literature, science, and the Christian faith. But as
the 7th century drew tcward a clcse, its glory be
came visibly on the wane, and began to assume sickly
tints of remote assimilation to Romanism, or more
properly, of substituting frivolous external obser
vances for the spirit and energy of simple truth. A
celebrated, but very stupid dispute, at Whitby, in
Yorkshire, between Colman, one of its alumni, and
Wilifred, a Romanist, on the precious questions as
to when Easter or the passover should be celebrated,
and with what kind of tonsure the hair of a professed
religieuse shpuld be cut, conducted on the one side by
an appeal to the traditional authority of John the
apostle, and on the other to the interpolated dictum
of Peter, the alleged janitor of heaven, and supported
on the part of Colman with all the zeal and influence
of his Culdee brethren, ended, as it deserved to do,
in the total discomfiture of the people of lona, who
totally forgot the moral dignity of their creed both
by the jejuneness of the questions debated, and by
the monstrous folly of appealing to the verdict of the
Northumbrian prince Oswi, a diademed ninny, who
"determined on no account to disregard the institu
tions of Peter who kept the keys of the kingdom of
heaven," — this dispute gave a virtual death-blow to
Culdeeism, and the influence of Icolmkill in England,
and even paved the way for the march of the van
guard of popery upon the delightful institutions both
of the island itself, and of the far-extending territory
over which its moral influence presided. Colman,
with a whole^regiment of his clerical brethren, re
treated upon Scotland, and left the sunnier clime of
the south in possession of the corrupted and corrupt
ing Romanists. Under Adamnan,- who died in 703,
lona proclaimed to the world its having commenced
a career of apostacy, and invited the multitudinous
communities who looked to it as the standard-bearer
of their creed, to follow in its steps. The ecclesias
tics of the island put some trappings of finery upon
their priginally simple form pf church government ;
they fraternized with the Romanists on the subject
of keeping Easter ; they preached the celibacy of
supericr clerks and prefessed monks, — prohibited the
celebration of marriage on any day except Sabbath,
— prayed for the dead, — enjeined immederate fast
ings, — and distinguished sin intp varipus classes ; and
they, in general, yielded themselves, with a surpris
ing degree pf freedem, to the power of fanatical zeal
and superstitious credulity. Though still far from
being as corrupt as the Romanists, and though con
tinuing to maintain the island's literary fame, they
very seriously defiled the essential purity of Chris
tian faith and devptipn.
' Icolmkill underwent, in the course of divine provi
dence, frequent scourgings for its spiritual declension,
and henceforth was conspicuous, not more for the
loss of its purity, than for the destruction of its peace.
In 714, the ecclesiastics, or the monks— as they may
now, with some show of reason, be called — were
temporarily expelled by Nectan, king of the Picts.
In 797, and again in 801, the establishment was
burnt by the northern pirates. In 805, the pirates
a third time made a descent upon it, and put nc
fewer than 68 pf its monks to the sword. Next year
the inhabitants of the island built a new town ; in
814, they went in a body to Tarach to curse the,
king of Scotland, whp had incensed them by his
vices ; and in 818, their abbpt, Diarmid, alarmed by
new menaces from the pirates, bundled up some
saintly relics to aid in averting perils, and ploughed
II.

the seas for two years in making a retreat to Ireland.
In 985, the abbot of the period, and 15 monks, or
' doctors,' were killed, and the whole establishment
dispersed. In 1069, the buildings, after having been
re-edified, were once more destrcyed by fire. The
place had leng before bidden farewell tp its pristine
glpry, and npw lppmed dimly in the increasing glppm
of its evening twilight ; and, at last, in 1203, it was
formally mantled in the sable dress of night, and be
came the seat of a new and regular monastery, ten
anted by the ccwled and mass-saying priests pf Rome.
— The Culdee mpnks, with the decline of their reli
gious excellence, grew in earthliness of spirit, and
though they originally held little communicaticn with
powerful barons except to aid their spiritual well-
being, and would net accept frem them any donation
of land, yet they eventually made no scruple to send
their fame to the money-market, and to accumulate
whatever possessions were ceded by popular and
opulent credulity or admiration. They received nu
merous and large donations of churches and their
pertinents, and of landed property, from the lords o.
Galloway, and are said to have obtained 13 islands
from the Scottish kings. No tolerable estimate can
now be made of the amount of their wealth, nor even
a certain catalogue exhibited of their islands. Raa-
say, Canna, Inchkenneth, Soa, and Eorsa, seem cer
tainly to have belonged to them ; Tiree, Colonsay,
Staffa, and the Treshinish isles, were probably theirs;
and the three Shiant isles, the three Garveloch isles,
and the isle of St. Cormack, Dr. M'Culloch thinks,
are awarded them by the evidence of the ruined cells
and other antiquities. In 1 180, all the revenues de
rived from Galloway, and other quarters, were taken
away, and granted to the abbey of Holyrppd. The
Rpmish mpnks whp succeeded the Culdees, inherited
frem them little pr np property, except the island of
lona, and were left to make what accumulations they
could from the fame of the place, and the trickeries
of their own craft.
lona thus concentrates most of the teeming inter
est of its renowned name within the period of about
1 50 years succeeding the landing of Columba ; and
is seen in its-real moral sublimity when the doubtful
or positively fabulous story of its having been origi
nally an island of the Druids, and the associations of
its monkery and its existing ruins of popish edifices,
either are entirely forgotten, or are employed only in
the limnings of poetry as foils to the grand features
of the scene. Regarded as the source of Christian
enlightenment to the whole British isles, and as the
fountain-head of civilization, and literature, and
science, to all Europe, at a period when the vast ter
ritory of the Roman empire, and nearly all the scenes
which had been lit up by primeval Christianity were
turned into wilderness by barbarism and superstition,
it excites holier and more thrilling thoughts by far
than the most magnificent of the thousand rich land
scapes of Scotland, than even the warmest in the
colourings of its objects, and the most stirring in its
antiquarian or historical associations. " We were
now treading that illustrious island," says Dr. John
son, in a passage familiar to almost every Scotchman,
" which was once the luminary of the Caledonian re
gions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians
derived the benefits pf knowledge, and the blessings
pf religipn. Tp abstract the mind frem all local
emotion would be impossible, if it were endeavoured,
and would be foolish, if it were possible. Whatever
withdraws us from the power of our senses, — what
ever makes the past, the distant, or the future, pre
dominate over the present, advances us in the dignity
of thinking beings. Far from me and from my friends
be such frigid philosophy, as may conduct us indiffer
ent and unmoved over any ground which has been
D

50

IONA.

dignified by wisdem, bravery, pr virtue 1 That man
is little tp be envied, whese patriptism would npt
gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety
would not grow warmer among the ruins of lona."
" We approached lona," says a lively tourist, who
contributes his sketch to a modem periodical, " We
approached it on a lovely afternoon in summer. The
steam-boat had left Qhan crowded with tourists —
some from America, two Germans, and a whole le
gion of 'the Sassenach.' The quiet beauty of the
scene subdued the whole into silence — even the Ame
ricans, who had bored us about their magnificent
rivers, and steam-boats sailing twenty-five miles an
hour. The sea was literally like a sheet of molten
gold or silver. Not a breath agitated its surface, as
we surveyed it from beneath a temporary awning,
thrown up pn the quarter-deck. The Pnly live ob-
jects that caught the eye were an occasional wild
fowl pr pprppise. As the vessel mpved en ampng
the silent rocky islands, the scene constantly shifting,
yet always bearing a stern, solemn, and primitive
aspect, it was impossible not to feel that we could
not have approached lona under more favpurable cir
cumstances. * * * Iena! There is semething
magical in the name. Whether its etymclpgy be
I-thonna, the Island pf the Waves, er I-shpnna, the
Blessed pr Hply Isle, we care net. The combina
tion of letters is most musical, and harmonizes com
pletely with the associations called up by the vener
able spot. Some places we admire for their rural or
pastoral beauty and simplicity — others for their naked
grandeur and sublimity. lona belongs to neither of
these classes ; * * * yet undoubtedly in interest
it surpasses them all. As the seat of learning and
religion when all around was dark and barbarous —
as the burial-place of kings, saints, and heroes — soli
tary and in ruins — inhabited by a few poor and pri
mitive people — and washed by the ever-murmuring
Atlantic, lona possesses most of the elements of ro
mance and moral beauty. Its natural disadvantages
would have been counted as attractions by Columba
and his pious votaries, when, some twelve centuries
ago, they first steered their skiff across the ocean to
plant the tree of life and sow the seeds of knowledge
on its desert and barbarous shores. The greater the
sacrifice, the higher the virtue ; and from this soli
tary spot Columba sent forth disciples to civilize and
enlighten other, regions, till the fame of lona and its
saints extended over the kingdom, subdued savage
ferocity, and made princes bow down before its in
fluence and authority. Here kings and chiefs were
proud to send votive altars, crosses, and offerings,
and to mingle their dust with its canonized earth —
here Christian temples rose in the midst of Pagan
gloom — knowledge was disseminated — and lona
shone like the morning star after a long night of
darkness 1 The whole, seems like a wild confused
dream of romance, as we lcpk pn that Ipw, rugged
island, with its straggling patches cf ccrn-lands, its
miserable huts, and poor inhabitants." Words
worth has dedicated three memorial sonnets to
lona ; and Blackwood's Delta has penned the fol
lowing lines on this far-famed islet, and its surround
ing scenery : —
" How beautiful, beneath the morning-sky,
The level sea outstretches like a fake
Serene, when not a zephyr ia awake
To curl the gilded pendant gliding by 1
Within a bow-shot, Druid Icolmkill
Presents its time-worn ruins, hoar and grey,
A monument of eld remaining still
Lonely, when all its brethren are away. %
.Dumb things may be our teachers ; is it strange
That aught of death is perishing I Come forth
Like rainbows, show diversity of change.
And fade away — Aurora of the North !
Where altars rose, and choral virgins sung,
And victims bled, the sea-bird rears her young. ' '

Mr. Heneage Jesse thus expresses the emotions he
experienced on visiting lona : —
" Ye who have sail'd among the thousand isles,
Where proud lona rears its giant piles,
Perchance have linger'd at that sacred spot,
To mnse on men and ages half-forgot :
Though spoil'd by time, their mould'ring walls avow
A calm that e'en the sceptic might allow ;
Here, where the waves these time-worn caverns beat
The early Christian fix'd his rude retreat;
Here first the symbol of his creed unfurl'd,
And spread religion o'er a darken'd world.
Here, as I kneel beside this moss-grown fane,
The moon sublimely holds her noiseless reign ;
Through roofless piles the stars serenely gleam,
And light these arches with their yellow beam ;
While the lone heart, amid the cloister'd gloom,
Indulges thoughts that soar beyond the tomb.
All-beauteous night I how lovely is each ray,
That e'en can add a splendour to decay !
For lo ! where saints have heaved the pious sigh,
The dusky owl sends forth his fearful cry !
Here, too, we mark, where yon pale beam is shed,
The seatter'd relics of the mighty dead ;
The great of old— the meteors of an age —
The sceptred monarch, and the mitred sage :
What are they now ? — the victims of decay —
The -very worm hath left its noisome prey ;
And yet, blest shades I if such a night as this
Can tempt your spirits from yon isles of bliss,
Perchance ye now are floating through the air.
And breathe the stillness which I seem to share."
If any relics of the Culdees exist on the island,
they must, to all appearance, be sought only among
the oldest of the tpmb-stpnes, defaced, witheut in-
scripticns, mere Weeks pf stpne, which cannpt now
be identified with any age, or twisted into connec
tion with any individuals or events. The ruins of
buildings are extensive, but all posteripr in date tp
the invasien pf popery. Whatever structures were
erected by Columba cr his successcrs, are contended, -
successfully, we think, by Dr. M'Culloch, to have
been comparatively rude, and probably composed ef
wicker-work cr timber ;* and even had they been
elegant and pf splid niaspnry, must have been de
stroyed by the frequent devastatipns pf the northern
pirates. When Ceallach, the leader of the Romish
invaders, topk ppssessipn in 1203, he cculd scarcely
have failed tp appropriate an ecclesiastical edifice,
had cne existed, pr even tp have renpvated pr re-edi
fied any ruins which ceuld have been made available
for hpusing his mpnks, yet he built a menastery pf his
pwn. Even Ceallach's edifice, scpn after its erectipn,
was pulled dewn by a bpdy pf Irish, sanctioned by
an act of formal condemnation on the part of a synod
of their clergy, who still sided with the Culdees, and
resisted Romanism. St. Oran's chapel, the oldest
existing ruin, is probably the work of the .Norwe
gians, and, were it not confronted with historical
proofs which raise very strong doubts of its dating
higher than near or toward the year 1300, it might
have been esteemed as prior to the 11th century.
The building is in the Norman style, rude, only 60
feet by 22, and now unroofed, but otherwise entire.
Excepting that the chevron moulding is, in the usual
manner, repeated many times on the soffit of the
arch, it is quite without ornament ; and, even in the
poor decoratipns which it pessesses, it displays mean
ness pf style and clumsiness pf executicn. In the
interier, and alpng the pavement, are seme tpmbs,
and many carved stones, — ene of the latter orna
mented in a very unusual manner, with balls. A
tomb pointed out as St. Oran's, but more probably
» Dr. M'Culloch's reasons may be seen in his ' Highlands and
Western Isles.' We add to them, in reference to England, the
following from Somner's ' AntiquitleB of Canterbury :•-" Indeed
it is to be observed, that before the Roman advent, most of our
monasteries and church buildings were all of wood,— ' All the'
monasteries of my realm,' saith King Edgar, in his charter to
the abbey of Malmsbury, dated in the, year of Christ 974, • to
the sight are nothing but worm-eaten, and rotten timber and
boards,'— and that upon the Norman conquest, such timber
fabrics grew ont of use, and gave place to stone buildings raised
upon arches."

IONA.

51

belonging tp a sea-warripr, and very evidently ef a
mpre modern date than the chapel, lies under a
canopy of three pointed arches, and possesses more
elegance than most of the relics of the island. On
the south side of the chapel, and adjacent to it, is an
enclosure called Relig Oran, 'the burying-place of
Oran. This was the grand cemetery of lona, the
cherished and far-famed spot whither, for ages, fune
ral parties voyaged from a distance to inter the illus
trious dead. According to Donald Munro, Dean of
the Isles, who visited the place in the 16th century,
and to the historian Buchanan, and a thousand other
writers who copied the Dean, or copied one another,
there stood within this area three tombs, formed like
little chapels, bearing on their ends or gables the in
scriptions " Tumulus Regum Scotia;, " Tumulus
Regum Hybernias," and " Tumulus Regum Norwe
gian," and enclosing the ashes respectively of 48 kings
of Scotland, 4 kings of Ireland, and 8 kings of Nor
way. The tombs, if ever they existed,— and they
almost to a certainty never did — have utterly disap
peared. King Duncan, says Shakspeare, was
" Carried to Colm's kill,
The sacred store-house of his predecessors.
And guardian of their bones."
But though Duncan of Scotland, and also Neill
Frassach, the son of Fergal of Ireland, who died in
778, actually were buried here, some of the other
kings pleaded for were fabulous, some died prior to
the date of Columba's landing on the island, some
are known to have been interred at Dunfermline or
Arbroath, and the small remainder may or mav not,
for anything either documents or monuments say on
the subject, have been, as Munro says, " eirded in
this very fair kirkzaird, weil biggit about with staine
and lyme." A lump of red granite is pointed out as
the tomb of a French king; but may have been the
monumental stone of a person nearly as nameless as
itself. Yet the grave-stones of the place are so very
numerous, and have collectively so imposing an ap
pearance as to impress a visiter with a much stronger
conviction of the former grandeur and reputed sanc
tity of the island, than is conveyed by the contem
plation of its ruined structures. They seem to lie
in rows in a north and south direction, but, on the
whole, are huddled together in a manner rather con
fused than orderly or tasteful. While the greater
proportion are plain, the rest are, in many instances,
finely carved with knots and sculptured imitations
of vegetables with figures of recumbent warriors,
and with other emblems and devices, and seem tp
be monumental of the chiefs of the isles, Norwegian
sea-kings, influential ecclesiastics, and. other persons
of considerable station or note. None of the entire
collection exhibit certain or intrinsic evidence of
high antiquity., Some with Runic sculptures may
be as old as the 9th century, the date of the com
mencement of the Danish invasion, but may, on the
other hand, be just as probably more modern.
Two, with mutilated Erse or Irish inscriptions — one
of them commemorative of a certain Donald Long-
shanks — appear to be among the most ancient. One
commemorates a Macdonald, and another the Angus
Og who was with Bruce at Barmockburp. Many
statues and monuments, additional to the profuse
mass which previously lay exposed, were, in 1830,
discovered and laid bare in a search conducted by
Mr. Rae Wilson; and they possibly, though not very
probably, suggest the concealed existence of a suffi
cient number of others to verify the assertion of
Sacheverel, that, about the year 1600, copies were
taken of the inscriptions of 300, and deposited with
the family of Argyle.
The chapel of the nunnery — usually the first of the

ruins shown to visiters — seems next in antiquity to
the chapel of St. Oran. The nuns to whom it be
longed were canonesses of St. Augustine, and were
not displaced at the Reformation. Nor, while pop
ish themselves, had they any Culdee predecessors;
no monastic establishment for females having existed
during the period of Columba's discipline. The
building is in good preservation, about 60 feet by
20, its roof anciently vaulted and partly remaining,
and its arches round, with plain fluted soffits. As
the architecture is purely Norman, without a vestige
or a concomitant ornament of the pointed style, it
might, if judged simply by its own merits, or apart
from the evidence of circumstances, be assigned a
higher date than the period of the Romish influence.
Though a court is shown, and also some vestiges of
what is pronounced to have been a church, the other
buildings belonging to the nunnery have so far dis
appeared that they cannot be intelligibly traced. In
the interior of the chapel is the tombstone of the
last prioress, with the inscription, in old British
characters, round the ledge, " Hie jacet Domina
Anna Donaldi Ferleti filia, quondam prioressa de
lona, quaH obiit anno M, D. Xlmo, cujus animam
Altissimo commendamus." A figure of the lady, in
bas relief, in barbarous style, and in the attitude of
praying to the Virgin Mary, is supported on each
side by the figure of an angel, and has under its feet
the address, " Sancta Maria, ora pro me." The
Virgin Mary holds the Infant in her arms, and has
on her head a mitre, surmounted by a sun and moon.
Within the building are many other tombs, one said
to be inscribed to Beatrice, daughter, of Somerset,
and a prieress, but nene really known tp have in
scriptipns pr carvings.
The chief ruin en the island is that pf the Abbey
church cr cathedral. Originally it seems tc have
sustained only the former character; but afterwards
it became cathedral as well as Abbey church, the
bishops of the Isles occasionally adopting lona as
the seat of their residence and the centre of their
influence. The building is manifestly of two dis
tinct periods, both difficult or impossible of fixation.
That which stretches eastward of the tower is pro
bably of the same date as the chapel of the nunnery ;
and the other part belongs probably to the 14th
century. " At present," says Dr. M'Culloeh, " its
form is that of a cross; the length lying about 160
feet, the breadth 24, and the length of the transept
V0. That of the choir is about 60 feet. The tower
is about 70 feet high, divided into three stories. It
is lighted on one side, above, by a plain slab, per
forated by quatre-foils, and on the other by a Cathe
rine- wheel, or marigold window, with spiral mullions.
The tower stands on four cylindrical pillars of a
clumsy Norman design, about 1Q feet high and 3 in
diameter. Similar proportions pervade the other
pillars in the church ; their capitals being short, and,
in some part, sculptured with ill-designed and gro
tesque figures, still very sharp and well-preserved;
among which that of an angel weighing souls (as it
is called by Pennant), while the deyil depresses one
scale with his claw, is always pointed out with great
glee. This sculpture, however, represents an angel
weighing the good deeds of a man against his evil
ones. It is not an uncommon feature in similar
buildings, and occurs, among other places, at Mcnt-
villiers; where alsp the devil, who is at the opppsite
scale, tries tp depress it with his fork, as is dpne
elsewhere with hip claw- The same allegpry is
found in detail in the legends ; and it may also be
seen in some of the wprks of the Dutch and Flemish
painters. The arches are pcinted, with a curvature
intermediate between these pf the first and second
styies, or the sharp and the ornamented, the twp

52

IONA

most beautiful periods of Gothic architecture; their
soffits being fluted with plain and rude moulding.
The corded moulding separates the shaft from the
capital of the pillars, and is often prolonged through
the walls at the same level. The larger windows
vary in form, but are everywhere inelegant. There
is a second, which is here the clerestory tier ; the
windows sometimes terminating in a circular arch,
at others in trefoil bends; the whole being sur
mounted by a corbel table." [' Highlands and Wes
tern Isles,' vol. iv. p. 155. London: 1824.] This
church or cathedral was dedicated to the Virgin
Mary. The altar-piece, situated at the upper end
of the chancel, formed of lona marble, exhibiting
one of the richest specimens of that fossil, 6 feet
long and 4 broad, had the doubtful and mischievous
fame of affording, by a splinter from it, preservation
from shipwreck, fire, murder, and other evils, and,
though seen in its last fragments by Pennant, has
by piece-meal demolition utterly disappeared. The
font and pavement are still entire. On the north
side of the site of the altar, is the monument of the
abbot Macfingon, or Mackinnon, formed of mica-
slate, containing hornblende, standing on four feet,
exhibiting a fine recumbent figure of the priest in a
high relief with his vestments and' crosier, having
four lions at the angles, and bearing the inscription :
"Hie jacet Johannes Macfingone, Abbas de Ii, qui
obiit anno M. d. cujus animo propicietur Altissimus.
Amen." " Here lies John Mackinnon, abbot of
lona, who died A.D. 1500, to whose soul may the
Most High be. merciful." Opposite this monument,
on the south side of the choir, is another, apparently
of an older date, executed in a similar manner with
episcopal ornaments, but consisting of freestone, and
almpst obliterated in its sculpture, cemmemorative
of the abbot Kenneth, whp was a Mackenzie cr a
Seaforth. In front of the site ef the altar, and in
the middle pf the chcir, lies a fine mpnumental stene
of basaltes, cut in relievo into the figure of a man in
armour, representative, as is said, of one of the Mac
leans of Dowart, who were for many ages the lords
of Mull, and'having a sculptured shell by its side to
denote his maritime claims. Adjoining the south
wall of the choir, but on the outside, is the tomb
stone of Lochlart Macfingon, the father of the abbot
whose sumptuous monument we*have just noticed:
it is a plain Ab, with the inscription: "Haec est
crux Lacolani M'Fingone et ejus tilii Johannis Ab-
batis de y facta anno Domini mcccclxxxix." " This
is the cross of Lachlan M'Kinnon, and of his son
John, abbot of lona, erected in the year of the Lord
1489." Other ruins and relics are either very much dilapi
dated, or of inconsiderable importance. Various
parts of the abbey may be traced ; but they are un
interesting and without ornament. Four arches of
the cloister are distinct; three walls exist of what
was probably the refectory. The remains of the
bishop's house, also, are clearly traceable, but do
not deserve notice. Various little clusters uf stone
and fragments of wall are supposed to have been
chapels. Buchanan says that there were on the
island several chapels founded by kings of Scotland
and chiefs of the Isles; but, as he joins the roman
cers respecting the tombs of the kings and other
subjects, he fails to command unhesitating belief.
A causeway called Main-street, ran between the
cathedral and the nunnery, and was joined by two
others, called Martyr-street and Royal-street, which
are said to have communicated with the beach.
The remains of the causeway are, in some places,
sufficiently perfect; but, in others, they have, like
the removeable stones of the buildings, been carried
off by the inhabitants for the erection of cottages

and enclosures. A current story says that there
were, at one time, 360 crosses on the island, and
that, after the Reformation, the synod of Argyle
ordered 60 of them to be thrown into the sea.
Whatever may have been the real number, traces
now exist of only 4. Pennant says that the cross
of Campbelltown was one of the lona crosses; but
he is believed to have been mistaken. As to the
296 which remain to be accounted for, and even as
to the 60 which are alleged to have been submerged,
they very probably had never an existence. Had
the synod of Argyle been such zealous exterminators
of the relics of exterior Romanism as is pretended,
they would most likely have ordered the destruction
of all the crosses, and might likewise have tried to
beat down the cruciform cathedral, and would almost
certainly have stripped its interior of. some of its
unequivocally popish garniture. Of the crosses
which remain, one is beautifully carved, this and
another are verv perfect, a third has been broken ofl
at the height of about lO.feet, and a fourth exhibits
only its stump in a little earthen mound. Various
fragments, converted into grave- stones, appear, from
the devices and inscriptions which they bear, tp have
certainly been vptive. Among the ruins of the abbey
were certain black stones, no longer to be found,
and fondly believed by many persons to lie concealed
somewhere on the island, which are proverbial for
the solemnity of oaths sworn upon them, and are
spoken of as if they possessed a talismanic power pf
giving a conscience to an assassin or a traitpr.
Thpse whp ascribe all knowledge to the Druids,
and so regard it as no romance that lona was once
of nearly as great fame with them as afterwards with
the Culdees, make small scruple to put foul insult
upon both the followers of Columba and those of
the Pepe, and supppse the stpnes tp have been a
relic ef Druidical superstiticn, and the original oath
with which they were associated to have been taken
on the sacred stone of a temple. If asked authority
for their conjecture, they will perhaps find it quite
as easily as they can find the stones themselves.
Another stone in lona is romanced to have had such
properties, that whatever helmsman stretched his
arm three times over it, in the name of the Blessed
Trinity, would never err in his steerage. Could
this also have been Druidical ? Numerous spots on
the island, slightly marked in spme cases by natural
and in pthers by artificial features, are identified in
varipus ways with Cplumba, and, for the most part,
pointed out, as scenes of prodigies and saintly ex
ploits. Even Celumba's own successors, Cumin and
Adamnan, men whp wrote within about a century
after his death, and were at the head of the lona
establishment at the period of its greatest glpry, be^
trayed, tp a very surprising degree, the weakness of
magnifying the remarkable events of his life, and
even such an ordinary matter as his sowing grain pn
the island, and seeing it in due season become a crpp
of barley, into occurrences superhuman, and miracu
lous. The cowled dotards of Rome who succeeded
them belonged to a fraternity who are noted for
their covering nearly all the parchment, and even
many rescripts of the Middle ages, with dreaming
legends of saints, quite as wild as the most absurd
romances; and, set down amid such gorgeous mate
rials as those of lona, with the example before them
of the well-meaning but mistaking Culdee biogra
phers of Columba, they could scarcely fail to be
carried round in such a whirl of creativeness, as
would prevent their getting a steady or correct view
of any one matter which they related to visiters or
sent down the current of tradition. The destruc
tion or irrecoverable dispersion of an alleged great
library of lona, ascribed to the executipn of an act

IRO

53

IRV

of the Ccnventipn pf Estates in 1561, and usually
spoken of with mingled lugubriousness and indig
nation, as if it occasioned the irretrievable loss of
valuable books, and was an act more Gothic than
any ever perpetrated by. Goths, has probably done
little else than relieve sober inquirers into facts from
a thousand perplexities additional to those of the
traditions current on the island, and almost certainly
made away with no book worth ppssessing which
was net elsewhere preserved. Pppulatipn of the
island, in 1808, 386; in 1831, 350; in 1841, 500.
IRONGRAY. See Kirkpatrick-Irongray.
IRVINE (The), a river in Ayrshire, forming,
from a short distance beneath its source, to its en
trance into the frith of Clyde, the boundary-line
between the districts of Cunningham and Kyle.
What, in the region earliest drained, bears the name
of the Irvine, rises in two head- waters, the pne in a
moss at Meadow-head, on the eastern boundary of
the parish of Loudon or of Ayrshire, and the other
a mile eastward in the parish of Avondale in Lan
arkshire, near the battle-field of Drumclog. The
rills making a junction a mile below their respective
sources, the united stream traces the boundary of
Ayrshire a mile southward, and then turns west
ward, enters the interior of the county, and thence,
till very near its embouchure, pursues a course
which — with the exception of very numerous but
brief and beautiful sinuosities — is uniformly due
west. About 2J miles from the point of its entering
the county, it is joined from the north by Glen
water. This, in strict propriety, is the parent-
stream, on account both of its length of course and
its volume of water ; for the stream of the Glen rises
at Crosshill in Renfrewshire, a mile north of the
Ayrshire frontier, and runs 6 miles southward, drink
ing up five rills in its progress, to the^ point of con
fluence with the Irvine. Swollen by this large tri
butary, the Irvine immediately passes the village of
Derval on the right, — 1J mile onward, the viUage
of Newmills,— at 2£ miles farther on, the village of
Galston, on the left. A mile and a quarter below
Galston it receives from the north Polbaith burn ;
J of a mile lower down, it is joined from the south
by Cessnock water ; and 3 miles westward in a
straight line — though probably double the distance
along its channel, the course here being almost emu
lative of the lesser windings of the Forth — it passes
Kilmarnock and Riccarton on opposite sides, and
receives on its right bank the tributary of Kilmar
nock water. Nearly 2| miles onward, measured
in a straight line, but 4 miles or upwards along its
bed, it is joined on the same bank by Carmel water;
and 2£ miles farther on, it receives still on the same
bank, the tribute of the Annack. The river now
runs 1£ mile in a direction west of north, passing
through the town of Irvine at about mid-distance ;
it then suddenly bends round in a fine sweep till it
assumes a southerly direction; and opposite the town
of Irvine  at 3 furlongs' distance from its channel —
when running southward, abruptly expands into a
basin | of a' mile broad, which receives Garnock
river at its north-west extremity, and communicates
by a narrow mouth or strait with the frith of Clyde.
The parishes which come down on the ri ver's south
bank are Galston, Riccarton, and Dundonald; and
those which it washes on its north side are Loudon,
Kilmarnock, Kilmaurs, Dreghorn, and Irvine. If
the beauty of the stream, gliding slowly on its pebbled
bed, the richness and verdure of its haughs, the open
ness of its course, the quality of the adjacent soil,
the progress of agriculture along its banks, the array
of noblemen's and gentlemen's seats looking down
upon its meanderings, the crowded population and the
displays of industry and wealth which salute it in its

progress, are taken into view, the Irvine will be pro
nounced, if not one of the thrillingly attractive rivers
of Scotland, at least one of the most pleasing, and
pne pn whose scenery cpmbined patriotism and taste
will fix a more satisfied eye than on that of streams
which have drawn music from an hundred harps, and
poesy from clusters ef men gifted with the powers
of description and literary painting. The mansions
of note situated near the river demand notice in
crowds, and must be disposed of in simple enumera
tion. Loudon-castle and Cessneck-house, both the
residence of noble owners, Lanfine, Holms, Kilmar-
npek-hpuse, Peel-heuse, Capringten, Fairly-house,
Craig-house, Newfield, Auchens, Shewalton, some
of them the homes of men distinguished by title or
important influence in their country, — these mansions
and others, besides many handsome villages, over
look the river. On the banks of its tributaries, too,
are similar adornings, — such as Crawfordland and
Dean-castle on the Kilmarnock, Rowallan, Kilmaurs,
and Busby castles on the Carmel, and Lainshaw,
Annack, Lodge, and Bourtreehill on the Annack.
IRVINE, a parish in the south part of the dis
trict of Cunningham, Ayrshire. It is bounded on
the north-west and north by Kilwinning; on the
north-east by Stewarton; on the east and south-east
by Dreghorn; on the south by Dundonald; and on
the west by Stevenston. On all sides, except the
north-east, its boundary is traced by rivers, — on the
east and south-east by the Annack, — on the south
by the Irvine, — on the south-west by the Garnock,
— and on the north-west and north by the Lugton.
Its greatest length, from the Garnock on the south
west, to the boundary with Stewarton on the north
east, is about 4J. miles; and its greatest breadth,
between a bend in the Annack on the east and the
confluence of the Garnock and the Lugton on the
west, is 3J miles; but its average breadth is only
about 2 miles. A small district on the left bank of
the river Irvine, on which stands the large suburb
of the burgh called Halfway, was formerly viewed
as belonging to the parish ; but in 1824 it was de
cided by the court-of-session to be comprehended in
Dundonald. The south-western division of the
parish is low and sandy; but in some parts it con
sists of a light loam ; and — with the exception of a
sandy common of about 300 acres north-west of the
town — it all produces heavy crops of all sorts ol
corn and grass. The north-eastern division, espe
cially toward the extremity, is more elevated, though
not strictly hilly, and has a soil of stiffish day. In
this district, the burgh possesses a considerable tract
of land which, half-a-century ago, yielded a revenue
of about £500 a-year. The face of the country is
greatly beautified by circular clumps cf plantatipn
pn mpst pf the eminences. Mestpf the farm-houses
are large, neat, and indicative, both in their own
aspect and in that of the offices and the extensive
farms which surround them, of prosperity and opu
lence. Bourtreehill, on the Annack, about *1£ mile
from the town, is the only gentleman's seat. But
the beautiful and finely-wooded policy of Eglinton
castle [which see] stretches far into the interipr, and
comes down into ccntermineusness with the town-
lands of the burgh. From some of the rising grounds
toward the north-east, fascinating views are obtained
of the rich carpeting of the lower part of the parish
and of adjacent districts on the foreground, and of
the brilliant scenery of the frith of Clyde and the
far-expanding bay of Ayr in the distance. — Near
Bourtreehill, on the Annack, is an old castellated
structure, called Stone-castle, belonging to the Earl
of Eglinton, which is said to be the remains of an
ancient nunnery, where there were a chapel, a ceme
tery, and a small village. The parish is traversed

54

IRVINE.

for about a mile between the Garnock and the Ir
vine south-west the parallel of the tewn by the
Glasgpw and Ayr railway; and it is cut nnrthward,
north-eastward, and eastward, by great lines pf road
from the town respectively to Kilwinning, Glasgpw,
and Kilmarnnck. Pcpulation, in 1801, 4,584; in
1831, 5,200. Hnuses 673. Assessed property, in
1815, £8,690.— Irvine is the seat of a presbytery
in the synpd pf Glasgpw and Ayr. Patron, the
Earl pf Eglintpn. Stipend £280 9s. 3d. ; glebe
£25. Unappropriated' teinds £137 5s. 8d. The
parish-church and pther places of worship are all
situated in the town. The dissenting chapels are
United Secession, Relief, and Baptist, one each.
There was formerly ene belpnging tp the United
Brethren ; but theugh still called ' the Mpravian
kirk,' it was converted spme years agp into a wea
ver's workshop. There are 9 schools, conducted by
13 teachers, and attended by a maximum of 695
scholars. One of the schools is a classical and Eng
lish academy, conducted by three teachers, each of
whom has £30 salary, besides fees ; two are boarding
schools, and one is a private classical academy  The
church of Irvine anciently belonged to the monks of
Kilwinning, and was served by a vicar. In 1516,
the produce, or value of its property, was annually
39 bolls of meal, 9 bolls and 2 firlots of bear, " 4
huggates of wine," and £17 6s. 8d. for a leased por-
tinn pf its tithes. Before the Reformation the church
had several altars, one of which appears to have been
dedicated tn St. Peter  On the bank pf the river,
near the church, stood a chapel, dedicated to the
Virgin Mary; and in 1451, Alicia Campbell, Lady
Loudon, granted four tenements in the town, and
an annual rent of 5 merks from another tenement,
to maintain a chaplain for its altar. To a chapel in
the town — but whether this or another does not
appear — the prevpst pf the cpllegiate church of Ccr-
stprphine granted, in 1540, extensive ppssessiens
within the burgh, such as yield a cpnsiderable rev
enue — At the south corner of the present church
yard stood a convent of Carmelite or White friars,
founded in the 14th century by Fullarton of Fullar-
ton. In 1399, Reynald Fullarton of Crosby and
Dreghprh, granted tp the friars an annual rent pf 6
merks and 10, shillings frem his lands. In 1572, the
heuses and revenues of the friars, with the property
Of all chapels, altarages, prebends er colleges within
the royalty, were granted by James VI. to the burgh,
to be applied to a foundation bearing the name of
" The king's foundation of the school of Irvine." 
The parish was the birth-place of the extinct but
remarkable fanatical sect called Buchanites. Its
principal tenets were, that there should be a com
munity of goods and bodies, and that true believers
had ne occasion to die, but might all pass into hea
ven, as Elijah did, in an embodied state. Its foun
der was a woman of the name of Simpson, or Mrs.
Buchan, who, having been captivated bythe preach
ing of Mr. Whyte, the Relief minister of Irvine, at
a sacrament in the vicinity of Glasgow, insinuated
herself into favour with himself and some influential
members of his congregation, and soon began to draw
rivetted and wondering attention in the burgh. She
possessed a most persuasive eloquence, and, among
her converts, or enthusiastic adherents, numbered a
lieutenant of marines, an old lawyer, and Mr. Whyte
the minister. But her ravings became so wild as to
arouse popular indignation, and draw down upon the
place of her nocturnal assemblies, mobbings and as
saults which only magisterial interference was able
to quell. In May ] 784, the magistrates thought it
prudent to dismiss her from the town, and, in order
to protect her from insult, accompanied her about a
mile beyond the royalty; yet they could not prevent

the mob from pushing her into ditches, and other
wise inflicting upon her contempt and maltreatment.
She lodged for the night with some of her followers
at Kilmaurs; and being joined in the morning by
Mr. Whyte and others from Irvine, the whole com
pany, about forty in number, marched onward to
Mauchline and Cumnock, and thence to Closeburn
in Dumfries-shire,' singing as they went, and saying
that they were going to the New Jerusalem. But
though the bubble soon burst, it occasioned a great
sensation for several years, and even yet is talked of
by elderly persons in the districts whence it arose,
and on which it fell as a display of human folly, in
mixing its own vagaries with the solemn religious
truths, surpassingly strange iii the airiness of its
flight and the insubstantiality of its Character — -The
Rev. George Hutchison, the author of an Exposition
of Job and spme of the minor prophets, — the Rev.
Mr. Dickson, the author of several well-known
works, — and the Rev. Mr. Nisbet, the author of
Expositions on Ecclesiastes ahd the Epistles of
Peter, — were all ministers of Irvine. " There were
many learned, grave, and pious ministers," says Mr
Warner, in his preface to one of Nisbet's Exposi-
tipns, " whp, in suffering times,, being put frpm their
pwn charges, came and resided in this place, espe
cially during the times of Messrs. Hutchison's and
Stirling's ministry here."
IRVINE, a royal burgh and a sea-pert, is plea
santly situated pn the right bank pf the river Irvine,
| of a mile east from the basin, but 2 miles from it
along the channel of the river, and a mile in a direct
line north-east of the nearest point of the frith of
Clyde. The town is 11 miles north of Ayr; 25
south-south-west of Glasgow; 34 south of Greenock,
3 south of Kilwinning; 7 south-east of Saltcoats;
6J west of Kilmarnock; and 67 distant from Edin
burgh. The site of the main body of the town is
a rising ground, of a sandy soil, stretching parallel
with the river. At a point £ of a mile north of
Annack water, and the same distance east of Irvine
water, is the Townhead or commencement of the
Main-street. This thoroughfare stretches from end
to end of the town, running about 600 yards in a
direction north of west, and then over a further dis
tance of about 500 yards, assuming a more northerly
direction. Over its whole length, excepting a small
part in the centre mid-distance, it is spacious and
airy, and wears an appearance superior to that of the
principal street of most Scottish tpwns of its size
Expanding southward of it, and partly lying between
the first 450 yards of it and Irvine river, are the
Golf-fields, traced or studded northward on the
western side, or the river's bank, by the minister's
glebe, the washing-house, the powder-house, chapel
wall, or the site of the quondam chapel of St. Mary,
ahd finally, on a swell of the ground, the parish-
church. The last of these objects is an oblong edi
fice 80 feet by 60, built in 1774, surmounted at the
north-west end by a very beautiful spire, commo-
dicusly fitted up in the interipr, and, in all respects,
highly creditable tp the tewn. Three hundred yards
from the commencement of the Main-street one
thoroughfare of very brief length leads off into the
Golf-fields, and another 400 yards long,, called Cot
ton-street, leads off in the opposite direction. At
the further extremity of the latter street stand the
Gas works, and one of the dissenting meeting-houses
Nearly 200 yards down from the debouch of Cotton-
street, the Main-street, having already sent off a
briefer thoroughfare to the church, sends off one of
220 yards in length to the river; and immediately
after it is itself bisected into two thoroughfares by
the town-hall and the jail. These buildings are
plain and substantial, bearing a marked resemblance

IRVINE.

55

tp the tpwn-hall pf Annan ; and, pwing tp the spa
ciousness of the street, do not offer by any means
such an obstruction to the carriage-way as their very
obtrusive position would seem to threaten. About
80 yards below them, the Main-street reaches what
may be esteemed the centre of the town. From
this point a street, of great burghal importance goes
off, over a distance of 200 yards, to a bridge com
municating across Irvine river with the suburbs and
the harbour ; and another little built upon, yet hav
ing on its north side near its exit the office of Ayr
bank, goes off in an opposite direction, pointing the
way to Glasgow, and at a distance of 530 yards pass
ing the Gas works, and receiving at an acute angle
the termination of Cotton-street. Three other
streets complete the grouping of the burgh, — one
nearly parallel with Main-street on its east side, but
very partially edificed, — another parallel to it on its
west side, but compactly edificed over only a brief
distance, — and a third, going off from it at a point
200 yards below the centre of the town, diverging
at an angle of about 45 degrees, and going down
over a distance of 220 yards to the Slaughter-house.
All the three dissenting places of worship are neat
edifices. A little west of the northern termination
of Main-street stands the Academy, built in 1814,
at a cost of £2,250, both an honour and an orna
ment to the town. The town has an excellent
news-room and subscription library; branch-offices
of the Ayr bank, the Ayrshire bank, and the British
Linen company's bank; and several mills whose ap
pearance and "machinery surpass those of any others
in the county. The bridge which connects the town
with its suburbs was built in 1826, and is the most
spacious and handsome in Ayrshire. These suburbs
consist chiefly of two streets, straight and uniformly
edificed, — the one, called Halfway, leading right
across the isthmus, formed by the elongated horse
shoe bend of the river, to the harbour of the town,
— and the other, called Fullarton, running up at a
right angle from the bridge, or parallel with the
river, and pointing the way to Ayr. These sub
urbs, though not within the royalty, are compre
hended within the parliamentary boundaries; and
they were recently erected into a quoad sacra par
ish, and have a neat new church, with between 800
and 1,000 sittings. On a line with the west end
of Halfway, where the river, just before expand
ing into its basin or estuary, suddenly bends from
a southerly to a westerly course, is the pier or
harbour, — lined, for about 220 yards, with buildings,
and sending out a pierhead upwards of 500 yards into
the basin. Nprth pf the west end pf Halfway is a
building-yard, where ship-architecture is conducted
to a noticeable extent.
The burgh commissioners report very laconically
respecting Irvine : — "It has no trade excepting that
of coal, which is not increasing. There are many
respectable inhabitants in the town, and some villas
round it." Yet, so far back as the year 1790, the
port had, in strict connection with the town, 51 ves
sels, aggregately of 3,682 tpns, and navigated by 305
Sailors, besides other vessels nominally belonging to
it, but properly connected with Saltcoats and Largs.
In 1837, the vessels had increased in number to 106,
aggregately of 1 1,535 tons. So prosperous, too, have
recently been the affairs of the harbour, that though
the trustees were empowered to levy additional rates
frpm vessels, and a pontage from vehicles tp com
pensate the costs' of repairing the harbour and re
building the bridge, they had no need to use their
new powers as regarded the harbour, but found the
old rates sufficient to defray all expenses. Irvine
being the nearest pprt to Kilmarnock, has shared the
results of that town's increase in manufacturing pro

ductiveness and importance. Besides shipping vast
quantities of coals both coastwise and for Ireland,
the town, with its dependencies, exports very largely
carpeting, tanned leather, rye-grass seed, and tree
plants, and also, on a smaller scale, cotton yarn, cot
ton cloth, herrings, sheep-skins tawed, and other
articles ; and it imports from Ireland oats, butter,
orchard produce, feathers, untanned hides, linen
cloth, quilts, limestone, and other articles, and from
America timber, staves, and spars, as well as exports
to the latter market carpeting, wcpllen cloth, and
articles pf leather manufacture. The harbour has a
regular custem-hpuse establishment. Acrcss the
mputh pf the basin — as at the mputh pf the river Ayr
—is a bar which leng very seriously impeded naviga-
tion, and which even yet prevents the entrance pf
vessels pf any cpnsiderable burden. The depth pf
water frpm the quay tp the bar is generally frpm 9
tp 1 1 feet at spring tides ; and in high storms, with
the wind from the south or south-west, it is some.
times 16 feet. Vessels of larger size than 80 or 100
tons are obliged to take in or deliver part of their
cargoes on the outer side of the bar. The dues
levied at the port during the 5 years preceding 1 832,
averaged about £450 a-year. The want of a sepa
rate police for the harbour is frequently felt as a great
inconvenience. The manufactures of the town are far from being
either on the decline or unworthy of notice. About
the year 1790, hand-sewing was introduced by a
Glasgow manufacturing house, and, at the end of 3
years, employed only about 70 young women ; but it
has so greatly increased, that of late years one agent
alone has repeatedly paid away £8,000 in wages
The weaving of book-muslins, jaconets, and checks,
employs many individuals. In 1838, the number of
hand-looms alone was 580. The earnings by hand-
sewing vary with the fashion of the goods, from 6d.
to Is. 3d. per day. The average clear wages for
weaving is 7s. per week. The best paid work in
Irvine is book-muslins ; 4 ells of a certain fineness of
which, paid at 6£d. per ell, may be worked per day
of 14 hours. The weavers pf the tpwn, as tp their
average condition, are en a par with shoemakers and
labourers. Many persons are employed in carting
coals from the collieries to the harbour ; and most of
the population of Halfway and Fullarton — amount
ing, in 1836, to 2,571 — are connected with the port
either as seamen, as ship-carpenters, or in other ca
pacities. In consequence of a fall in the prices pro
cured for coals in Ireland, a reduction of about 7s.
6d. per month was made, not long ago, on the wages
of the seamen. The town has manufactories in rope-
making, tanning and dressing leather, constructing
anchors and cables, distilling whisky, making mag
nesia, and fabricating various articles of artisanship.
The affairs of the burgh are managed by a provost,
2 bailies, a dean-of-guild, » treasurer, and 12 coun
cillors. Municipal constituency in 1840, 178. The cor
poration-property is considerable — including among
other items, 422 acres of arable land, the town's
mills, the town-house, with its shops, the public
meal-market, shambles and washing-houses — and
yielded, in 1832, with town's customs and market-
dues, a revenue of £1,497 19s. 7d. The ordinary
expenditure is, in general, so much less than the
amount of revenue, as to admit of extensive repairs
upon the burgh-property, and occasionally of the
purchase of additions to the common good. The
jurisdiction of the magistrates does not extend to
the suburbs ; and their patronage is limited to the
election of their officers, who draw salaries to the
aggregate amount of £115 14s. a-year. The burgh
court is the only one in which they preside ; but, no
sheriff-court being held in the town, it has very im

IRV

56

ISL

portant jurisdiction. Affairs of police are managed
by the magistrates, and maintained at the cost of
the burgh fund. The jail is in use, not only for
Irvine itself, and for the populous towns of Salt
coats, Ardrossan, Largs, and the adjacent country,
but for the large manufacturing town of Kilmar
nock,— in fact, for nearly all the district of Cun
ningham ; and it is extremely incommodious and
inconvenient. Though Irvine has both burgesses
and guild-brethren, the magistrates are not rigid
In compelling strangers to enter, and usually allow
them to become domesticated before they demand
entry dues. In 1832, there were 225 guild-breth
ren, and 72 burgesses. There are 6 incorporated
trades, — shoemakers, coopers, tailors, weavers,
hammermen, and squaremen ; but they have ac
knowledged the inutility of their privileges, or de
monstrated their impolicy and injurious consequences,
more than kindred bodies in most of the towns of
Scotland.— Fullarton, or. about one-third of the
suburban appendage of Irvine, is a burgh-of-barony,
and claims a separate jurisdiction of its own, but
has no resident magistrate. As the burghal autho
rities have no power to impose any police-assessment,
it is neither lighted, watched, nor cleaned like the
rest of the town ; and lying in a direct line be
tween the burgh and the harbour, it becomes an
easy retreat to delinquents for evading the pursuit
or awards of justice.— Irvine unites with Ayr, Roth-
say, Inverary, and Campbelltown in returning a mem
ber to parliament. Constituency, in 1840, 244.
The town has weekly markets on Tuesday and
Friday, and annual fairs in January, May, and Au
gust. Population, in 1831, 7,034. Of these, 4,518
were within the old royalty, and 2,516 were in
Fullarton and Halfway.
Irvine is a very ancient royal burgh. A charter
cf the suppesed date of 1308 is still extant, granted
by King Rebert Bruce in consequence of the ser
vices of the inhabitants in the wars of the succes
sion. Twelve renewals and confirmations of their
rights by successive monarchs, evince the impor
tance which the burgh continued to maintain down
to 1641, when all their immunities were formally
ratified by parliament. From a charter granted by
Robert II., it appears to have once had jurisdiction
over the whole of Cunningham ; but it could not
long maintain its ascendency against encroachments
on the part of neighbouring barons. Its armorial
bearings are a lion rampant-guardant, having a sword
in one of his forepaws, and a sceptre in the other,
with the motto, " Tandem bona causa triumphat;"
and these are ^sculptured over the entry to the
council-chamber in the town-hall  In August, 1839,
Irvine became temporarily crowded with an influx of
strangers, pouring in from sea and highway to wit
ness the fooleries of the Eglinton tournament  The
town is distinguished as the birth-place of James
Montgomery, the poet, and Gait, the novelist.
Montgomery's father long officiated as minister in
the little chapel, still known as ' the Moravian
kirk ;"and the^ioet was born in a house near it, on
the north side of the entrance to an alley, called
Braid close. Gait's natal spot was a neat two-story
house, on the south side of the Main-street, near its
northern termination. Burns' name, too — how dif
ferent in its moral associations from the odoriferous
one of Montgomery 1 — is connected in a degree with
the town ; for here — though in what precise locality
is disputed — the bard tried to establish himself as a
flax-dresser, and suffered a severe reverse in the
burning of his shop  Irvine, at one time, gave the
title of Viscount, in the Scottish peerage, to an
English family who had no property in its vicinity.
The first Viscount Irvine, was Henry, the eldest

surviving son of Sir Arthur Ingram of Temple
Newsom, near Leeds, and received the title in 1661.
Charles, the 9th and last Viscount, died in 1778.
IRVING, an ancient parish, now comprehended
in the parish of Kirkpatrick-Fleming, in Dumfries
shire. It takes its name from a very ancient and
respectable family which, in former times, enjoyed
large possessions in this part of the country. See
Kirkpatrick- Fleming.
IS AY, a small island of the Hebrides, in West
Loch Tarbert.
ISHOL, a small island of Argyle-shire, in Loch
Linnbe. ISHOL, an island on the south-west coast of Islay.
ISLA (The), a river of Forfarshire and Perth
shire, giving the name of Glenisla to a district and
parish in the former. It rises among the highest
summit-range of the Forfarshire Grampians, near
the point where that county and the shires of Perth
and Aberdeen meet. Combining, 2A miles due east
from that point, two head- waters, each of which had
flowed 2 miles, it flows due south to the base of
Mount Blair, over a distance of 7£ miles, receiving
numerous mountain-torrents in its progress, — 4he
chief of which are the Brighty, the Cally, and the
Fergus, giving their names to the glens which they
traverse. Driven off the straight line by Mount
Blair, the stream runs first 2J miles south-eastward,
and next 1 mile eastward to the church of Glenisla,
and then , 2^ miles south-eastward to Nied, on the
boundary between Glenisla and Lintrathen. It now,
for 3 miles southward, and westward traces that
boundary, receives on its right bank a tributary pf
4 miles length of course, and, for 3J miles eastward
divides Lintrathen en the nerth frpm Alyth pn the
south. At this point it is joined by a small tributary
which had run nearly parallel to it from the west,
and, pn the epppsite bank by the large tributary of
Back water, — for a notice of which see Lintra
then. Flowing 1J mile due south between the
parishes of Airly and Alyth respectively in Forfar
shire and Perthshire, it touches the parish of Ruth-
ven, flows round it 1J mile south-westward and
south-eastward, dividing it from Alyth, and receiv
ing from the west the tribute of Alyth burn, and
then bisects Ruthven 1£ mile south-eastward, and,
after a farther course of 1] mile south-westward be
tween Airly and Alyth, takes leave of Forfarshire.
At the point of entering Perthshire it is swelled by
the confluence with it from the east of Dean water,
and 3 miles lower down in a straight line, though
about double that distance along its channel, it is
greatly increased in volume by Ericht river coming
in upon it from the north-west. Its course in Perth
shire abounds in sinuosities, but uniformly maintains
a general south-westerly direction, and extends 8J
miles geographically, and about 16 pr 17 miles alpng
its windings. The parishes here upen its left bank,
are Meigle, Cupar- Angus, and Cargill; and these
uppn its right bank are Alyth, Bendpchy, Blair
gowrie, and Caputh. The Isla disembogues itself
into the Tay nearly opposite Kinclavin, and greatly
increases the body of its water. Iri the upper part
of its course it flows along a rocky bed, between
bold and steep banks, covered in many places with
natural woods, and affording some very romantic
scenery. Below the narrow vale of Glenisla, it
forms a cascade, called the Reeky linn, a fall of 70
or 80 feet in depth, over several ridges of broken
rock. After passing the linn, it forms a pool called
the Corral, probably a corruption of Quarry-hole,
there appearing to have been at some remote period
a quarry en its east side. This pppl is deep and
bread, but becomes more shallow toward the south,
and ends in a broad ford which is famous in the an-

ISL

57

ISL

rials of " black fishing." On leaving the ford, the
river forks into two branches, forming an islet, called
Stanner Island, containing about 6 acres ; and after
wards — now careering in rapid currents, and now
gently moving in slow meanderings — it flows gener
ally through level and fertile fields till its confluence
with the Tay. In winter, the low grounds and rich
•haughs on its banks, are greatly injured by its shift
ing its course, carrying away alluvial soil, and mak
ing deposits of barren sand and gravel.. The river
is well-stocked with trout and salmon, and in the
months of October and November, when the salmon
are " black," or foul, is the scene of many exploits
of " black fishing." The black fishers wielding
spears composed of 5 barbed prongs, fixed upon a
strong shaft, sally forth under night, and wade up
and down the shallows, preceded by a flambeau,
consisting of dried broom, or fir-tops fastened round
a pole. By this light, the fish are soon discovered,
and, being at the time semi-torpid, are easily trans
fixed. Both from the unwholesomeness of the con
dition of the food obtained, and from extreme ex
posure to cold and damp in procuring it, the practice
of black fishing is highly injurious to health ; and
it often entails upon its perpetrators, in the diseases
which it originates, and in the drunkenness and
debauch with which it is frequently associated, very
ample punishment for their poaching delinquencies.
The Isla's whole length of course is about 41 miles.
ISL A (The), is also the name of a river in Banff
shire. See Grange.
ISLAY, or Ilay, one of the Hebrides, lying to
the west of the peninsula of Kintyre, and belong
ing to the county of Argyle. It is 25 miles long
from north to south ; and 20 broad from east to
west ; and contains about 154,000 acres, of which
22,000 are arable. On the east side the surface is
hilly, and in some places wooded to the water's edge ;
the mountains here attain an elevation of 1,500 feet ;
but the greater part of the island is flat, and, where
uncultivated, covered with a fine green sward. The
coast is, in general, bounded by low rocks, or by
flat shores and sandy bays. There are some re
markable caves on the north-west side, about Saneg ;
and at the Mull of Oe, the eastern horn of Lochin-
daal, the cliffs rise to a great height. At Lochindaal
is a harbour for ships of considerable burden, with a
quay at the village of Bowmore : see articles Bow-
more and Lochindaal. Portnahaven [which see]
is a good fishing-village, on the point of Islay nearest
to Ireland, — the distance being about 7 leagues: see
that article. Port-Charlotte [which see] is a
thriving village of 400 inhabitants. At the north-east
extremity is Port-Askaig [which see] whence there
is a gopd road to the village of Bridge-end, at the
head of Lochindaal on the scuth-west. From Bridge-
end a gppd road pf 14| miles in length, cpnducts tp
Portnahaven. Loch Gruinart [which see],' a
prolonged but shallow indenture pn the nprth-west,
appears to have been formerly connected with Loch
indaal. The land is still encroaching on this loch,
and a considerable extent of ground has been re
claimed here by an embankment. There are several
small lakes in the island, which is also well- watered by
numerous small streams, the principal of which are
the Sorn and the Laggan, abounding with trout and
salmon. Near the centre of the island is Loch-
Finlaggan, about 3 miles in circuit, with an islet of
the same name in the middle. Here the Macdonalds,
Lords of the Isles, resided in all the pomp of royalty,
and the picturesque ruins of their castle still exist
here. Near the island of Finlaggan is another little
isle, called Eilan-na-corlle, or ' the Island of council,'
where a body of judges constantly sat to decide
differences between the subjects of the Macdonalds,

and received for their trouble the eleventh part of
the value of the contested affair. In the first island
were buried the wives and children of the lords of
the isles, but their own persens were deposited in
! the more sacred ground of lona. Besides the castle
| on this island, these powerful lords had a castle on
an island in Loch-Guirm tp the west pf Lcchindaal ;
and ancther pn Freuch isle in the scund. There
are alsp numerous vestiges ef duns or Danish forts,
and the ruins ef several chapels, scattered over the
island. After their expulsion from the isle of Man,
in 1304, the Lords of the Isles made this island
their chief place of residence. There is a tradition!
that even while the isle of Man was part of their
domain, the rents and feus were paid to the Lords of
the Isles in Islay ; and this tradition is rendered pro
bable from the names of two rocks which lie oppo
site to each other, at the bottom of a harbour on the
south side of the island : one rock is still called
Craig-a-neone, or 'the Rock of the silver rent;'
the other, Craig-a-nairgid, ' the Rock of the rent in
kind.' The names of Macdonald and Maclean are
still the most common in this island.
The island of Islay is divided into the parishes
of KlLCHOMAN, KlLARRO.W Or BoWMORE, KlL-
meny, and Kildalton : see these articles. In
Islay agricultural improvements have proceeded with
astonishing rapidity; the land has been enclosed
and drained, a great many roads made and bridges
built, and a new system of husbandry adopted. It
now produces good crops of barley, eats, peas, flax,
spme wheat, and excellent crops pf potatoes. The
sheres afford abundance of wreck- ware and shell-sand
for manure. Formerly, during winter, the cattle
were almost starved ; now hay is produced in great
abundance, and turnips and other green crops culti-'
vated to a considerable extent, sufficient to support
the stock in winter : see article Hebrides. A few
years ago there were no fewer than fourteen distil
leries on this island. The whisky is considered of
very superior quality, and is mestly sent te Glasgpw.
The spinning pf yarn was at pne peried extensively
conducted here, and formed a staple pf Islay, np less
than £10,000 worth has been exported in a year ;
but this trade has been annihilated by the Glasgow
manufactories, and spinning is now limited in Islay to
domestic consumption. But the great staple article
of exportation is black cattle, of which nearly 3,000
head are sold yearly. The climate is moist ; but,
upon the whole, it is tolerably healthy, and there
are many instances of longevity. The quadrupeds
enumerated by Mr. Pennant, besides the domestic
animals, are weasels, otters, and hares, — the latter
dark-coloured, small, and bad runners. The birds
are eagles, peregrine-falcons, moor-fowl, ptarmigans,
red-breasted gooseanders, wild geese and ducks,
herons, &c. The fish are cod, herrings, plaise,
smeardab, large dabs, mullets, ballens, lumpfish, &c.
Islay abounds with mines of lead and copper, which
are very rich and have been long wrought. There
are also vast quantities of that ore of iron called bog-
ore, of the concrete kind ; and below it, large strata
of vitriolic mundic. Near the veins of lead are found
specimens of barytes and excellent emery. A small
quantity of quicksilver has been obtained in the
moors, and it is probable that a careful search would ,
discover more of that valuable mineral. Limestone
and marl are abundant  The inhabitants of Islay are
remarkable for their honesty and humanity. Gaelic
is the general language of the commpn pepple ; yet
English is well- understood, and taught in all the
schopls. Histpry affords few recprds pf the ancient state
and pf the revplutipns of Islay. Before it beeame
the seat of government for the Lords of the Isles, it

ISL

58

ITH

appears te have been under the dominion pf the
Danes and Nerwegians, as there are many duns and
castles, evidently of Danish crigin, besides, many
places which have Danish names ; as Kennibus,
¦ Assibus, Tprrisdale, Torribolse, and the like, it
ccntinued .aider the Lerds pf the Isles till the
feign ef James III. ; and, when their ppwers were
abplished, their descendants, the Macdenalds, were
preprietprs hplding directly cf the Crpwn : see
article Hebrides. James VI. resumed the grant tc
the Macdonalds made by his predecesscrs, and trans
ferred the lands ef Islay, Jura, Scarba, and Muckairn,
in Argyleshire, to Sir John Campbell of Calder —
then a great favourite at court — for an annual feu-
duty, of which the proportion was £500 sterling for
Islay. Calder sold all these lands again to Campbell
of Shawfield for £12,000, which is now little more
than the income from them. The islands of Jura
and Scarba were afterwards sold for a larger sum
than that paid originally for the whole. Islay still
continues in the same family. Islay contained, in
1801, 6,821 ; in 1821, 11,008; and in 1831, 14,982.
There is a post four times, and steam-conveyance
twice a-week to Islay. The passage from Tarbert
'to Port-Askaig is usually made in four hours.
ISLAY SOUND, the narrow channel betwixt
Islay and Jura. It is little more than a mile in
width, but its navigation is very dangerous from
the rapidity of its tides and the cross and short seas
which occur here. The shores are abrupt but not
high, rarely exceeding 100 feet.
ISLE-MARTIN, a fishing-station in Loch-Broom,
on the west coast of Ross-shire; 5 miles north of
Ullapool.

ISLE-TANERA, a fishing-station and village in
Ross-shire, 3 miles nprth pf Isle-Martin.
ISLE pr WHITHORN, a village and small sea-
port in the parish pf Whithorn, on the east coast
of Wigtonshire ; 2 miles north of the promontory of
Burgh-head, and 3 miles south-east of the burgh of
Whithorn. It stands at the head of a small bay,
which is almost land-locked by an islet £ a mile «
long, and £ of a mile broad, lying across its mouth.
The harbour is, in consequence, well-sheltered and
safe, and possesses internal capaciousness and exter
nal advantages of position which might apparently
be turned to patriotic and lucrative account. A
pier, erected about half-a-century agp by the aid
of the Convention of Royal Burghs, offers accom
modation to the few vessels which the unimportant
commerce of the district keeps employed. The
Galloway steamer occasionally touches here pn her
way tp and frpm Liverpppl ; and small vessels sail
weekly hence tp Whitehaven, and other English
ports, engaged principally in the importation of
cpals. The little port communicates by good public
roads with Whithorn, Wigton, and Garlieston. On
the shore at the village are vestiges of an ancient
chapel or church of small size, which the learned
author of Caledenia says is traditipnally repcrted-
tp have been the earliest place pf Christian wpr-
ship in Scotland. Near the village is a weak
chalybeate spring, whose waters are sufficiently
celebrious to draw to the place invalid visiters.
Pppulatipn, in 1840, abput 420.
ISSURT, a small island of the Hebrides, near
Harris.
ITHAN. See Ythan.

^^i^r-^*-^

IONA.

JAM

59

JED

JAMES'S (St.), an ancient parish now included
in the parish of Kelso. It lies between the rivers
Teviot and Tweed. The church was situate near
to Roxburgh castle, and on the very spot where the
greatest fair in this country, as well as one of the
most ancient, called St. James's fair, is now holden
on the 5th of August. This church was dedicated
in the year 1134. No part of it now remains above
ground, but the place where it stood is perfectly
visible. The Duke of Roxburgh employed labourers
to trace the foundation. While prosecuting their re
searches they dug up a tomb-stone which, besides
some elegant sculpture, had the following inscription
in Saxon characters : " Hie jacet Johanna Bullock.
quae obiit anno 1371. Orate pro anima ejus." His
torians mention a William Bullock, a favourite with
Edward Baliol, and generally styled ' the King's be
loved Clerk.' As this name is seldom found in
Scotland, it is probable that Johanna Bullock was
his daughter, or a near relation, especially as he
frequently resided at Roxburgh castle. There was
also discovered a considerable quantity of wheat and
barley in a charred state, scattered on a tiled pave
ment, as also several pieces of glass and brick, which
showed obvious marks of fire. All these circum
stances render it probable that this church was burnt
down in some of the Border wars. At a short dis
tance stood a convent of mendicants of the order of
St. Francis, on the north bank of the Teviot, a
little above its confluence with the Tweed. Within
these fifty years a fine arch of their church remained,
and other parts of the building, which are now wholly
obliterated. This monastery was consecrated by
William, Bishop of Glasgow, in 1235. Adam Blunt
was superior in 1296 : See Kelso.
JAMESTOWN, a small village pleasantly situ
ated on Meggot water, in the northern part of the
parish of Westerkirk, about 9 miles north-west of
the town of Langholm, in Dumfries-shire. It was
built about the year 1790, to accommodate 40 miners
and their families, in consequence of the discovery of
a mine of antimony a little to the eastward of its site.
This mine, the only one of its class in Britain, pro
duced, from 1793 to 1798, 100 tons ofregulus of anti
mony, valued aggregately at £8,400 sterling, besides
a proportionate quantity of sulphurated antimony of
less value, A company, one-half of whose shares
was retained by Sir James Johnstone of Glendinning,
the proprietor of the soil, made very spirited exer
tions at the commencement of their enterprise. The
village was provided with grazing-grounds, a store,
and other appliances of convenience and comfort;
the miners were expected to work only 6 hours a-
day, and were provided with a library for their own
use, and a school house for their children; a smelt-
ing-house and all requisite apparatus was furnished
at the mine ; and an excellent road, with 4 bridges
in its cpurse, was cpnstructed down the vale of the
Meggot to connect the village with the main lines
of cpmmunicatipn through the country. Yet, from
some cause which seems not well-explained, mining
operations were suspended abput the close of the
century, and have not since been resumed. The
village, half-abandcned to solitude, still has a school
master during winter to attend to the children of its
sequestered population.
JANETOWN, a thriving village in the parish of

Lochcarron in Rcss -shire, containing a population
of about 500. The great parliamentary road from
Dingwall to the western coast passes through this
village, frpm which a district read extends abeut 15
miles tu the village and lpch pf Shildaig.
JED (The), a beautiful and picturesque river pf
Roxburghshire. It rises un the seuth-west side pf
Curlin- Tooth, one of the Cheviot mountains, in the
upper part of the parish of Southdean, at a spot If
mile south of the summit of Peel-fell or the boun
dary-line with England ; and to Chester-church, or
the parish-church of Southdean, a distance of 5 miles,
it pursues a southerly direction, and receives in its
progress the waters of Black-burn and Carter-burn.
Debouching at Chester-church, it flows 2| miles
eastward, and then resumes its southward course.
Over the last mile, and likewise over H mile fur
ther, it divides Southdean on its left bank from the
upper part of Jedburgh on its right. It now runs
across a small wing of the latter, and then flowing 2£
miles south-westward to Groundiesnook, it washes
Upper Jedburgh and Southdean on its left bank,
and Oxnam and Lower Jedburgh on its right. At
Groundiesnook it enters the lower division of Jed
burgh, and thence to the Teviot a little below Boon-
jedward, bisects it lengthwise from south to north
through the middle, cutting it into two not very un
equal parts, and flowing joyously past the town of
Jedburgh. Its entire length of course, exclusive of
its numerous little sinuosities, is about 17 miles.
Its tributaries, though numerous, are all tiny. The
beauties of the Jed fired the poetic musings of
Thomson and Burns, and fix the attention of every
person of taste who travels up its romantic vale, on
the road from Edinburgh to Newcastle, over Carter-
fell. To a tourist approaching from the south, who,
after being chilled with narrow and pent-up views of
heathy and rocky desolation, over a weary and slow
ascent of 23 miles, attains the summit of the Fell,
and suddenly discries Scotland, the landscape which
stretches away from beneath his eye is gorgeous in
the tints of beauty beyond the pewer ef a literary
painter to depict ; and contributions to its detailed
attractions and its general effect are made in no nig
gard style by the mazy and tufted vale of the Jed.
When the vale is entered and followed in its wind
ings, it is too narrow, indeed, to exhibit anywhere
the brilliance of the Teviot or the magnificence of
the Tweed, but it surprises and delights by its con
stantly changeful and very various displays of at
tractiveness. At almost every one of its continual
turnings, a tourist sees novelty of feature, or new
and thrilling combinations pf features already ex
hibited ; and within the brief distance pf 2 pr 3
miles— especially in the parts immediately abeve the
tpwn pf Jedburgh — he will survey, thpugh pn a
small scale, mere pf the elements of landscape than
during a whole day's ride even in the Highlands.
The rocky character of the river's bed, the trotting
briskness of its current, the crystal pureness of its
waters, and, above all, the endless combinations of
slope and precipice, of scaur and grassy knoll ahd
mimic haugh, with shrubs and tuftings of oak and
beech and weeping birch on its richly sylvan banks
produce many a scene of picturesqueness and ro
mance. To its other attractions it adds that of being
an excellent trouting-stream.

60

JEDBURGH.

JEDBURGH, a parish in the southern division of
Roxburghshire. It consists of two detached parts,
lying a mile asunder, and both stretching lengthwise
from south to north. The southern division* though
the smaller, is the original Jedburgh; and it is
bounded on the north-east and east by Oxnam ; on
the south by Northumberland ; and on the west by
Southdean. Its form is nearly a circle of 3^ miles in
diameter, with a projection northward of irregular
outline, 2J miles long, and abput J pf a mile in aver
age breadth. Its surface rapidly descends from the
summit range or water-shedding line of the Cheviots
on its southern boundary to an undulating plain,
shooting up occasionally in beautiful, and in some
instances high, green conical hills, and ploughed to
ward the north by the narrow vale of the Jed. The
northern and larger division has the outline of an
irregular pentagon, with a, small oblpng figure- pro
jecting at a wide angle and from a brief line of at
tachment en the east; and it is bounded on the
north by Ancrum and Crailing ; on the north-east
by Eckford ; on the east by Hounam and Oxnam ;
on the seuth by Southdean ; and on the west by
Bedrule. In extreme length, from nprth to south,
it measures 6} miles, and, in average length, abput
5£ ; and, in extreme breadth, exclusive ef the east
ward projection, it measures 5| miles, and in average
breadth 4A. The projecting part stretches north
west and south-east, and measures 2| miles by 1|.
From the deep, and, in some places, furrow-like vale
of the Jed, the surface rises undulating on both sides,
in an enchanting variety of form, to the height of
about 300 feet above the level of the stream, cut by
numerous ravines, and exceedingly varied in the out
line of its knolls and hillocks. But on its west side,
first along the boundary from the southern end on
ward, and next in the interior, it rises into the regu
larly ascending and elongated Dunian, and at the site
and in the vicinity of the town sends off the roots
of that lofty hill almost from the very edge of the
Jed, leaving hardly sufficient space for a convenient
street arrangement of the burgh : See the article
Dunian. Behind the northern part of the hill, or
along the southern frontier, the surface is a level and
luxuriant haugh, watered bythe Teviot, which here
forms, for 3£ miles, the boundary-line, andspreads
freely around it the wealth and the mirthfulness " of
soil and landscape which distinguish the lower and
longer part of its course. On the east Oxnam- water,
flowing northward to the Teviot, forms for a mile
the boundary-line, and, for another mile, runs across
the connecting part or neck of the projecting district.
— The whole extent of the parish, in both of its sec
tions, and also a large portion of the conterminous
country, was anciently wooded with what is known
in history as Jed forest. About 100 years ago a
large expanse of the forest continued to spread its
umbrageous carpeting upon the soil ; but during the
course of last century it was almost all peddlingly
and remorselessly cut down. A few patches of it,
consisting principally of birch trees, still exist at
Fernihirst, in the vale of the Jed, near the southern
extremity of the northern division ; and two vener
able representatives of it, called ' the King of the
wood,' and, ' the Cappn-tree,' arrest attentien lower
down the vale, about a mile frem the burgh. One
of the trees — the monarch one — has a retinue of
younger and less noble trees, and rises to the height
of about 100 feet, with a girth near the ground of
14 feet; and the other stands solitarily in a haugh,
abounds in the number, fantastic twistings, and far-
stretching length of its boughs, and has a girth near
the ground of 21 feet. But though the old forest
has so generally fallen before the axe, trees which
have sprung up from ita old stocks, and others which

have been raised by planting, are sufficiently numer.
ous to give the parish a sheltered and ornate appear
ance  Iron ore, 3 feet thick in stratum, occurs near
the town. White and fed sandstpne, pf excellent
quality, abeunds, and is wrought in several quarries.
Limestone of excellent quality is abundant at Carter-
fell, on the boundary with England, and occurs at
Hunthill 2 miles south-east of the burgh; but, owing
to the dearth of fuel, it has not, for some time, been
worked. Coal seems in one or two localities to be
indicated, and even appears to have been at one time
found on the Hunthill property; but it has more
than once, in recent, times, eluded expensive and
laborious search. Two chalybeate springs well up
near Jedburgh, and others seem to exist in other
localities. One of the former, called Tudhope well,
has been successfully tried for scorbutic and rheu
matic , disorders. Cultivation has been rapidly and
remarkably extended, and has achieved results which
everywhere impose en the district a rich and smiling
aspect. Fifty years ago not more than a fifth or a
sixth part of the area was arable ground, while all
the rest was pastoral; but now the proportion of
lands in tillage, in pasture, and under wood, is nearly
in the proportion respectively of 29, 15, and 5. The
farm buildings are neat, and, in some instances, al
most elegant; the enclosures are tasteful and shelter
ing ; the sides of the Dunian and of other lofty hills
are frilled and beautified with enclosure and culture
a considerable way up their ascent; and almost all
the land which modern methods pf improvement
cculd reclaim have been subjected tc the plpugh.
The soil, over so extensive and diversified a district,
is necessarily various ; it is, in some places, a tough-
ish clay, — in others, a mixture of clay with sand or
gravel, — ahd in the lower parts of the vale of the
Jed, as well as in the valley of the Tevipt, a rich
and fertile loam. The prevailing husbandry is a
course of two white and three green crops. The
higher parts of the • Dunian, and especially the up
lands along the boundary with England, are the
sheep-walk of the famed Cheviot breed, — browsing
here, as in cotermineus districts, pn their proper er
original grounds. The climate pf spme parts of the
parish, especiaUy in the vale pf the Jed, at the part
where the tewn stands, is famed for its salubriuus-
ness. Environed with the high banks pf the Jed
pn the seuth and east, and with the gigantic bul
wark pf the Dunian pn the west, the tewn has often
a mildness of temperature when the air, at a mile or
two's distance, is sharp and, cold ; and it suffers little
from epidemics compared with the neighbouring
towns of Kelso and Hawick, and was a stranger to
cholera at the period of their bleeding beneath its
scourge. Instances of longevity are so frequent that
the minister who lived at the date of Sir John Sin
clair's Statistical Account, reported "many" to have
lived to upwards of 90 years of age during the period
of his incumbency. ' The mansions of the parish are,
in the vale of the Jed, Edgerston, Mossburnford,
Langlee, Hundalee, Stewartlield, and Boonjedward,
and, in pther localities, Hunthill, Lintalee, and Glen-
burnhall. There are six cern-mills on the Jed water,
two of them at the burgh. Besides the town of Jed
burgh and the village of Lanton [which see], there
are two hamlets, — Bonjedward, at the intersection
of the Newcastle and Edinburgh, and the Berwick
and Carlisle roads, 2 miles below Jedburgh,— and
Ulsten, 14 mile south-east of the former, and IA mile
north-east of Jedburgh. The Berwick and Carlisle
road runs along the southern part of the parish, in
the vale of the Teviot, at a brief distance from the
river. The Edinburgh and Newcastle road, for a
mile after entering on the north, is identical with
the former, as it has to debouch round the horth

JEDBURGH.

61

end of the Dunian ; and afterwards, frem Bonjed-
ward onward, it runs up the vale of the Jed till with
in 2$ miles of England, where the vale diverges west
ward, and leaves the road to climb its unassisted
way up the acclivity of the Cheviots. On account
of ihe height of the ascent here, this line of road has
hitherto been greatly less frequented than the Cold
stream and Berwick lines : but being the shortest,
and having recently been much improved, it must
soon draw more favour. Nothing but the height
and the broad base of the obstructing Cheviots could
have permitted a doubt as to the line of this road
being incomparably the best for a railway between
Edinburgh and Newcastle. Jedburgh claims, either
as natives or as residents, a considerable number of
eminent men. Various distinguished persons were
connected, in ancient times, with its ecclesiastical
establishments. Dr. Macknight, the well-known
critical commentator, and Dr. Somerville, the his
torian of Queen Anne, were incumbents in modern
times, — the former during 3 years, and the latter
during a period of 57 years, from 1773, furnishing,
in his own person, an example of the longevity in
stances of which he had reported in the Statistical
Account. John Rutherford, principal of St. Salva-
tor's college, St. Andrews, — Andrew Young, regent
of philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, — John
Ainslie, the eminent land-surveyor, — and Sir David
Brewster, the distinguished living philosopher, are
all claimed by the parish as natives. Samuel Ruther
ford, the pious and eminent principal of St. Mary's
college, St. Andrews, and Thomson the poet, whose
rather was minister of the conterminous parish of
Southdean, are believed tp have been educated at
the grammar-school pf the tpwn.
The civil history and the antiquities of this parish
are interesting. The name of the river whence the
district has its designation, having been anciently
written God and Gad, a conjecture is generally en
tertained that the ancient tewn, if pne existed, was
the capital, or* that at least the district was the prin
cipal seat cf the Gadeni, a British tribe whp inhabited
the whnle tract of country lying between Northum
berland and the Teviot. Its position on the Borders,
its forming often a debateable territory between con
flicting powers, its facilities of fortification and in-
trenchment, the shelter of its forest and the seclu
sion of its glens, occasioned it to be the rendezvous
of armies, the arena of baronial gatherings and feuds,
and the scene of conflicts both national and predatory,
from the earliest period of authentic Scottish history
down to an epoch immediately succeeding the Re
formation  The last onslaughter on its soil, though
little else than the hasty squabble of irascible men at
a Border tryst, was followed by consequences of paci
fication which invest it with interest and importance.
On the 7th of July, 1575, some Scotsmen, resent
ing the unprovoked or unjustifiable slaughter of one
of their countrymen, made a vengeful attack on the
offenders, and were repulsed. But meeting in their
flight a body of the men of Jedburgh who joined them,
they wheeled round on their pursuers, completely
routed them, killed Sir George Heron, an eminent
Northumbrian, and carried prisoners to Dalkeith, Sir
Jehn Forster, the warden, and seme considerable
persons, his attendants. Elizabeth of England being
enraged at the event, the Earl cf Huntingtpn as her
envoy, and the Regent Morton on the part of Scot
land, met at Foulden in Berwickshire, and arranged
a general pacification. The scene of the conflict was
the Reid Swire, one of the Cheviot hills on the
boundary with England,— the word ' swire ' meaning
' a neck,' and being used in the nomenclature of
Scottish topography to denote the neck of a hill.'
The skirmish has supplied the Border minstrels with

a subject for sorig, entitled 'the Raid of the Red
Swire.' — Besides antiquities which occur to be no
ticed in the description of the town, others, of
varipus classes, challenge attentien throughout the
parish. At Fernihurst, on the east bank of the Jed,
about 2 miles above the burgh, the gray turrets
of Fernihurst castle, lepk put frpm the surface cf
a grove of tall and aged trees which embospm it.
The present pile was built in 1598, pn the site ef a
predecesser, the strenghold of the ancestors of the
Marquis of Lothian. In 1523 the original castle was
captured by Surrey; in 1549 it was, after a severe
struggle, retaken by the Scots, with the aid of
French auxiliaries then stationed at the burgh ; in
1569 it sheltered the Earl of Westmoreland from the
vengeance of Elizabeth ; and, in 1570, in revenge of
an incursion which its chief and other Border leaders
made into Northumberland, it was captured and de
molished by the Earl of Sussex and Sir John Foster 
The parish appears to have been at one time thickly
dotted with peels, and towers, and minor strengths.
— several of which were massive and formidable;
but all, except a tower at the village of Lanton, and
the ruins of a stronghpld at Timpan, in the vicinity
of Lanton, have disappeared. Vestiges of artificial
caves exist on the banks of the Jed, particularly of
two large ones excavated in rock at Hundalee and
Lintalee. They recede in such a manner from the
face of precipices as to be now inaccessible ; but
they were described to Dr. Somerville by aged per
sons who had entered them when a degree of access
existed, as consisting' of three apartments, one on
each side of the entrance, and another of larger di
mensions behind ; and they seem, without a doubt,
to have been used as hiding-places or strongholds in
cases of emergency from invasion. — On the summit
of the bank above the Lintalee cave, are the remains
of a famous camp, which Douglas formed for the
defence of the Borders during Bruce's absence in
Ireland, and which is described in Barbour's Bruce.
Richmond, the English warden, having crossed the
Border at the head of 10,000 men provided with
hatchets to destroy Jed forest, fell, in a personal
rencounter with Douglas, in the vicinity of the camp.
Near Monklaw is a Roman camp, which seems to
have been about 160 yards square. At Scarsburgh
is a well-defined circular camp, about 180 feet in
diameter, with ramparts nearly 20 feet in height.
At Fernihirst, Howdean, Camptown, and Swinnie,
are vestiges of other camps which have been greatly
defaced. An ancient military road passes over the
Dunian from Ancrum bridge toward the town. The
Roman causeway passes along the north-eastern dis
trict at the distance of 2 miles from the burgh,
and is here paved with whinstone, and almost entire.
— At Old Jedworth, on the Jed, 4 miles above the
town, and at the northern extremity of the southern
section of the parish, are situated, amidst a little
grove, the ruins, er rather vestiges, ef a chapel
founded by Ecgred, bishop of Lindisfarn, who died
in the year 845. Verdant mounds and carpetings of
rank grass respectively indicate the position of the
chapel walls, and almost conceal from view the
tomb-stones of the cemetery, Flint arrow-heads
are sometimes found in various localities. Ancient
coins and medals — particularly the former — have
been found in almost incredible numbers. At
Stewartfield, at Bongate, at Swinnie, and in other
localities, but especially at a place on the side of
the Jed near the burgh, where deposits were made
of rubbish from the town and its Abbey, coins have
been picked up of the reigns of Canute, Edrea,
Edwy, Ethelred, Edward I., Edward III., and of
later monarchs both Scottish and English  Po
pulation of the parish, in 1801, 3,834; in 1831

62

JEDBURGH,

5,647. Houses 752. Assessed property, in 1815,
£20,591. Jedburgh gives name to a presbytery in the synod
of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £296 17s. 4d. ; glebe £48 13s. Unappro
priated teinds £2,100 5s. Id. The present parish
comprehends the ancient parishes of Jedburgh, Old
Jedburgh, and Upper Crailing. Old Jedburgh is
the southern section of the parish, and Upper Crail
ing is what we have described as the eastern wing
of the northern section. Old Jedburgh, containing,
in 1836, a population of 283, was recently, with dis
tricts in the adjacent parishes of Southdean and Ox
nam, erected into a parish quoad sacra. The church
of the new parish is situated at Rink, and was built
in 1838. The incumbent of the quoad civilia parish
has an assistant, and, with his aid, maintains a preach
ing-station at Lanton, and extra services in the
burgh. The quoad civilia parish-church is in the
old Abbey of the burgh, and was fitted about the
year 1793, and repaired and enlarged in 1834. Sit
tings 910. From a calculation of the minister in
1836, founded by a survey of the examinable parish
ioners, the population was distributed into 2,451
churchmen and 3,196 dissenters. There are in the
parish 4 dissenting congregations, — all whose places
of worship are situated in the burgh  The First
United Secession congregation was established in
1738, and their present meeting-house built in 1818.
Sittings 1,200. Outlay on building and repairing
church, manse, offices, and garden wall, from 1790 to
1836, £4,281. Stipend £190 with manse, offices,
and garden worth from £25 to £30, and £J0 sacra
mental expenses. The congregation has a library
of upwards of 1,000 volumes  The Second United
Secession congregation was established in 1765.
Sittings in their meeting-house, 400. Stipend £92,
with a manse and garden  The Relief congregation
was established in 1757. Their present place of
worship was built, in 1818, at a cost of £2,700.
Sittings 1,100. Stipend £190  The Independent
congregation was established in 1840, and assembles
in a hall. Sittings about 200  There are in the
parish three parochial schools, conducted by five
teachers, and attended by a maximum of 332 scho
lars and a minimum of 272; and twelve non-paro
chial schools, conducted by thirteen teachers, and
attended by 618 scholars. One of the parochial
schools is situated in the burgh, and united to a
grammar school. Aggregate salary £42 3s., with
about £150 school-fees, and a house and garden
worth £15. The other parochial schools are so
far private that, while salaried by the heritors, they
are kept in repair and otherwise provided for by
voluntary subscription; and they are situated re
spectively at Lanton and at Rink  The two Jed-
worths* are the earliest parishes in Scotland of
which there is distinct historical notice. So early
as the record of the year 882, they are mentioned
by Hoveden; and two centuries later, Eadulfus, a
younger son of one of the Earls of Northumberland,
is recorded by both Simeon and Hoveden to have
been buried in the church of Jedworth, — a fact
which shows how early these powerful Earls had
connection with the manor of Jedburgh. As appears
from the charters of David I., one of the Earls, amid
the darkness which preceded the dawn of record,
laid out on and around the site of the present burgh,
a manor on which were built a castle, a church, and
* Jedworth, or Ged worth, is the ancient name, and is formed
by affixing to the name of the river the Saxon weorth, the term
for a hamlet, which occurs in the termination of bo many names
of places in England. Not the plebeian and popular "Jed.
dart " of local usage, therefore, but the polite and now autho
rized " Jedburgh," is the corruption of the original and real
name.

a mill. When David I. founded the monastery of
Jedburgh, .he gave its monks the churches of the
two parishes, and also a chapel which then existed
at Scarsburgh, in a recess of the forest east of the
Jed. In 1147, Gospatrick, the " vicecomes," granted
to the same monks the tithes pf the church pf Upper
Crailing  In 1754, the Relief denpmination of dis
senters originated in Jedburgh under Mr. Boston.
A curious manuscript prepared by the kirk-session
of the epoch, and narrating the rise of the new sect,
is in the possession of a bookseller in the burgh.
JEDBURGH, a royal burgh, and the county,
town of Roxburghshire, occupies a romantic and
very beautiful site on the river Jed ; 10 miles west
of Kelso ; 10 east of Hawick ; 46 by way of Lauder,
south of Edinburgh; and 12 north of the English
border. A correct idea of the town cannot be con
veyed but through the medium of a previous idea
of its site. The Jed, in approaching it, has a due
north direction; and after running alongside of it fpr
230 yards, it bends round, flows 250 yards duel east,
again bends and flows 800 yards due nprth and
abput 660 yards north-east, and, npw resuming its
northerly course, takes leave of the town and its
suburbs, The east or right bank of the river, while
traversing this aggregate distance, is remarkably
varied and picturesque in appearance ; but, in gen
eral, may be described as a gien or narrow vale, with
a scaured and richly-wocded back-ground pf rising
bank or undulating hiU. The west or left bank
may be compared to a stupendous wedge, with its *
hither edge rounded off, laid close along the margin
of the early part of the river, the head or thick end
being on the south, and the point, or end which
subsides into a level, lying about two-third's way
down the river's long northerly stretch of 800 yards.
What the figure of the wedge illustrates is a spur
or projection of the Dunian : but the main body of
this vast though beautiful hill swells up at an aver
age distance of about \ pf a mile frpm the river,
. along the wbple extent pf the tp wn, and pver a con
siderable distance both above and below it, and
forms a gigantic natural screen in its rear, adorned as
it recedes with hanging gardens and orchards. A
quarter of a mile east of the southern termination of
the town or of its suburb, stands the elegant man
sion of Stewartfield in the midst of a little grove ;
and leading up to it north-eastward from a bridge
opposite the middle of the town, is a wooded ave
nue, whpse trees, as well as those around the man
sion, are of great age and dimensions, and might
almest vie with, the sylvan ccnstituents pf the yas,
American forest. The disclcsures northward and
sputhward pf the superb scenery of the winding vale
cf the Jed, thpugh npt extensive, are singularly pic,
turesque. Altogether, the site and the environs pf
the burgh are as exquisitely attractive as they are
singularly peculiar.
At the seuth end pr highest ground pf the town,
at the distance of only about 110 yards from the
river, stands the castle, afterwards to be described,
appearing, from its size and its position, like th?
head of the scorpion-formed streets and back lanes
which stretch away frem it dpwn the hill to the
plain, and, owing tp the elevation of its sitp, pre,
senting a censpicuous appearance from every pohv$
pf view whence the burgh is visible. Close to the
castle, on the north-west side, comes down- the
turnpike, from Hawick, after surmounting the Du
nian at a point 2 miles distant, and making a rapid
slanting descent on its hither side. Immediately in
front of the castle commences the town, in the
street called Townhead. This street runs almqst
due north-east down the hill, over a distance of 370
yards to the cross; and has, in general, especially

JEDBURGH.

63

in its upper part, a dingy, antiquate , and plebeian
appearance. On its south-east side, or side next
the river, stands the meeting-house of the Second
United Secession congregation, an edifice differing
little in aspect from a barn, except for being bored,
on the side fronting the street, with two ungainly
goggle-eyed looking windows. At the cross is an
open area, extensive enough to give the core of the
town an airy and pleasant appearance, and edificed
both in itself, and in the parts of concentric tho
roughfares adjacent to it, with many good houses,
some of which have neat shops on the ground story,
¦while others exhibit over their whole form that dowdy
tastelessness in architecture for which the older towns
of Scotland, and the old parts of modern towns, are
remarkable. From the south-east corner of the
area at the cross a thoroughfare goes off, running
120 yards south-eastward, and about the same dis
tance southward to a bridge across the Jed, where
the river has an easterly direction, and there it
points the way up the vale of the parish toward
Newcastle. This thoroughfare, over most of the
way before reaching the bridge, is only partiaUy
edificed ; but it has on the west side the superb ruin
of Jedburgh abbey, and commands in the finest per
spective the views along the Jed ; and, both in it
self and in the walks it offers round the Abbey and
down to the river side, it is exquisite lounging-
grpund for enjoying the mingled delights of land
scape, and venerable architecture, and antiquarian
reminiscence. From the north-east corner of the
area at the cross, a, street called Cancngate runs
down 260 yards eastward to a very ancient and
curipus bridge pf three semicircular ribbed arches,
across the Jed. Spanning the roadway pf the bridge
at its centre, was formerly a gateway which seme
modern Gpths whp happened to have authprity in
the burgh caused tp be destreyed. On the north-
west side pf the area at the cress, at a pcint directly
opposite the commencement of Canongate, a street
110 yards in length files off north-westward leading
up to an acclivitous roadway over the Dunian to
the village of Lanton. Bisecting this short street
nearly at its middle, is a streamlet, called Larkhall
burn, which, though only about a mile in length of
course, comes down through a wooded vista, and,
flowing parallel to the main street line of the town
over its whple length, greatly enriches the crchard
scenery with which it is flanked. Continueus pf
Townhead, and nearly pn a line with it, the High-
street runs dewn the hill nprth-eastward pver a
distance pf 360 yards, and, having gained the plain,
leads pver a few additional yards eastward to the
Townfoot-bridge, a new and neat erectien ppinting
the way to Kelso and Edinburgh. A street of 250
yards in length, only partially edificed, goes off at
right angles from the north side of Canongate, and,
running parallel with the Jed, jcins the Hjgh-street
at a very acute angle abput 100 yards abpve its ter-
minatipn. A little above their point of junction,
the Relief meeting-house, a handsome and tasteful
edifice, stretches between them, presenting its front
to the High-street. Nearly qpposite, but a little
lpwer dpwn in High-street, stands in a recess the
meeting-house of the First United Secession con
gregation, with its attendant manse and garden, pre
senting an aspect highly ornamental to the burgh.
The entire length of the town, along Townhead and
High-street, is almost exactly half-a-mile; and its
greatest breadth from Canongate bridge upward is
about 380 yards, or something less than \ of a mile.
The general or aggregate aspect pf its streets com-
bines cleanness and spacipusness with a struggle be
tween dinginess and antiquated lputishness pn the
one hand, and incipient smartness and niodern neat

ness on the othei. Twc incpnsiderable suburbs
stand pn the right bank ef the Jed ; one diverging
in three brief lines from near the end of Canengate
bridge ; and the pther called Bengate, straggling up
wards pf 500 yards alongside pf the turnpike to
Edinburgh and Kelsp, from near the east end ef
Townfoot-bridge to a point where, by another bridge,
the turnpike passes to the left bank of the river.
At one end of this suburb is a large stone, sculptured
with figures of animals and some indistinct charac
ters, which seems to be part of an ancient obelisk,
probably the cross of the suburb.
An air of modernization, and of fraternizing with
the British tastes of the 19th century, may be seen
even more in the moral than in the physical aspect
of Jedburgh. We noticed the Townhead in parti-
lar, as antiquated in its architecture ; and we quote
as a foil to the redeeming features of improvement
and neatness which it now at intervals presents, a
whimsical and no doubt somewhat caricatured de
scription which the author of the ' Picture of Scot
land ' gives of its condition at a comparatively very
recent appearance. " The same appearance of entire
antiquity," says he, " which so strongly marks the
Abbey-wynd or close, prevails in a larger district of
the town in a situation resembling the castle-hill of
Edinburgh, and denominated 'the Town-heid.' The
Town-heid is composed solely of very old houses,
which seem to have never either needed or received
any of that species of mutilation, called by antiqua
ries ruin, and by tradesmen repair. The secret is,
that the inhabitants of the Town-heid all possess
their own houses, and being a quiet unambitious
kind of people, not overmuch given to tormenting
themselves for the sake of comfort, or killing them
selves with cleaning and trimming, just suffer their
tenements to descend peaceably from father to son,
as they are, have been, and will be. The houses,
therefore, are venerable enough in all conscience;
but it is impossible for them to be more old-fashioned
than the people who live in them. The ' Town-
heid folk,' for such is their common appellation, are
in fact a sort of problem even to the other people of
Jedburgh. They are a kind of ' knitters in the sun ;'
a race who exercise, from the morning to the even
ing of life, a set of humble trades which do not ob
tain in other parts of the town. For instance, one
would not be surprised to fftid that the Town-heid
boasts of possessing an ingenious artisan, who can
make cuckoo clocks, and mend broken china. And
the trades of the Town-heid, not less than the houses
thereof, are hereditary, even unto the rule of primo
geniture. A Town-heid tailor, for example, would
as soon expect his eldest son to become chancellor
of Great Britain, as he would form the ambitious
wish of making him a haberdasher in the lower part
of the town. There was once a barber in the Town-
heid, who lived seventy-one years Without ever being
more than two miles from Jedburgh on any occasion
except one, and that was a call to Oxnam, (three
miles,) which he was only induced to attend to be
cause it was a case, not of life and death, but of
death itself; being to shave a dead man. There
have not been more instances of Town-heid folk
descending to the lower part of Jedburgh, than of
Town-fit folk ascending to the Town-heid. The
cause is plain. There is never such a thing in the
Town-heid as a house to be let. The Town-heid
is a place completely built, arid completely peopled ;
no change can ever take place in it; fire alone could
diminish the number of its houses, and the gates of
life and death are the only avenues by which people
can enter or go out of it."
On the site of the present castle stood a very
ancient and famous castellated edifice. Jedburgh

64

JEDBURGH.

castle, built no one knows by whom, and figuring in
the earliest records of the country, was occasionally
a royal residence, and for centuries a place of great
strength, and an object of sharp contest between
antagonist kingdoms. In 1 165, Malcolm IV., who
had adopted it as his favourite home, died within its
walls. During the reigns of William the Lion and
Alexander II., it was frequently honoured with the
royal presence. In 1263, it was the birth-place of
a son of Alexander III., and, several years later, the
scene of that bereaved monarch's festive rejoicings
on occasion of his marriage to Jolande, the daughter
of the Count de Dreux. After the battle of Dur
ham, 'it passed into the possession of the English;
and in 1409 it was captured and laboriously demol
ished by the Scots. Of so great importance did
the Scottish court esteem the demolition of a strength
which was liable to be seized by the enemy, and
powerfully used by them in purposes of mischief,
that it proposed, for the complete accomplishment
of the object, the imposition of a tax of two pennies
upon every hearth in Scotland. Such few and slight
vestiges of it as remained till modern times, were all
removed, a few years ago, at the erection of the pre
sent jail and bridewell. What is now called the
castle, owes its name partly to its occupying the site
of the ancient stronghold, and partly tp its ppssess-
ing that castellated architectural character which
lately has sc much prevailed in public buildings.
The jail and the bridewell themselves are capacious
and neat erections ; but they have attached tc them
spacieus cpurts for ventilation and exercise, and are
surrounded by high walls surmpunted by chevaux
de frise. The massiveness of the encompassing wall,
and the air of comfort and of something resembling
baronial splendour which, as seen frpm vantage-
ground higher up the Dunian, is possessed by the
enclosed area and erections, suggest ideas widely
different from the real moral associations of the
place ; and the contrast is singularly heightened by
the magnificence, and the hundred shadings of mi
nute beauty, which emblazon the landscape beheld
from the great gateway or place of public execution.
The apartments of both jail and bridewell are kept
in a superior style of cleanliness and comfort.
Though the system of day-rooms, where a number
of prisoners are allowed to congregate during the
day, and also the arrangement or position of the
cells, are not such as, at any period, to insure silence
and non-communication ameng the prispners; yet
the prison appears undoubtedly tp be maintained in
the best order of which its construction, and the
views of discipline which guided the details of its
erection, will admit. — The county-hall, a neat mo
dern edifice, occupies a site between the Abbey and
the lower end of Townhead, very near the area at
the cross.
After the demolition of the ancient castle, the
town was defended by six bastel-houses or towers.
The Earl of Surrey, writing to his master, Henry
VIII., says respecting it : "There was two times
more houses therein than Berwick, and well-builded
with many honest and fair houses in garrison, and
six good towers therein." The towers, however,
have all disappeared. Both the ruins of the Abbots'
tower, on the site of which now stands the dispen
sary, and a tower which was used as the jail, and
which stood in the middle of the street near the
cross, were destroyed in the course of the last cen
tury. The other towers probably were demolished,
or at least much injured when, just before writing
his account of it to Henry, the Earl of Surrey set
fire to the tewn. A hpuse, hpwever, in which
Queen Mary lcdged and spent a period pf sickness
after her visit tp Bothwell at Hermitage castle [see

article Castletown] still stands entire. It is a
large building, situated in a back street, has small
windcws and very thick walls, with a sprt of turret
behind, and resembles a mansion-house of the reign
of Charles II. The apartment occupied by the
Queen is a small two-windowed room on the third
story, reached from the second floor by a narrow
winding stair, and thither from the ground by a broad
stone stair. The house is called, in the record of
the privy council, " the house of the Lord Compo
sitor," and, till recently, was in the possession of the
family of Scott of Ancrum. Some of the tapestry
which anciently adorned its rooms is still preserved.
" With its screen of dull trees in front," says the
author of the Picture of Scotland, "the house has
a somewhat lugubrious appearance, as if conscious
of connexion with the most melancholy tale that
ever occupied the page of history." In an adjoining
orchard is a group of pear trees, sprung up from the
inhumed branches of a tree which is traditionally
reported to have been blown down on the night of
James VI. 's entering England to assume the crown.
A Maison Dieu anciently existed in the town, but
has left no vestiges. . A convent of Carmelites was,'
in 1513, founded in the town bythe inhabitants;
but it also has utterly disappeared. In this convent,
lived and died the writer of a History of Scotland
from remote antiquity to the year 1535, — Adam
Bell, the author of ' Rota Temporum.' The ex
istence of other ecclesiastical institutions, and the
entire ascendency of ecclesiastical influence, are in
dicated by the names of various localities in the town.
In a garden behind the north-west side of High-
street, which is designated in some old documents
' Temple Garden,' the lower works of ancient
buildings have been found at a considerable depth
beneath the surface ; and here, about 25 years ago,
was dug up a stone sarcophagus, containing a large
urn, three small urns, and fragments of human skulls
and bones.
But the grand antiquity of Jedburgh, and, to the
present hour, its prime architectural ornament, is
the ruin ef its ancient abbey. The descriptipn given
ef this magnificent pile by the Rev. John Purves,
the amiable and excellent minister of the parish, in
his report in the New Statistical Account of Scot
land, [No. V. p. 9., Blackwood and Sons, Edin
burgh, 1835,] is singularly complete and happy.
" This venerable structure," says he, " stands on
the south side of the town on the declining bank ot
the river, which winds past it in front, washing some
remnants of its outworks. The chapter-house,
cloisters, and other appendages have perished ; and
nothing remains but the church, which, in the form
of a cross, extends from east to west 230 feet.
The choir is much dilapidated, bearing marks of
great antiquity. The two lower stones consist of
massive pillars and semicircular arches, with the
diagonal or zigzag mouldings of Saxon architecture,
whilst the upper windows and some other .parts are
Gothic, evidently added at a more recent period.
The north transept is entire, presenting traceried
Gothic windows, especially one of great size and
beauty. The south transept has disappeared. Above
the intersection of the transepts, with the nave and
choir, a large square tower rises on four pillars to the
height of 100 feet, surmounted by a projecting
battlement, and crowned with turrets and pinnacles.
The nave, measuring 130 feet long, presents on each
side three tiers of arches ; the first opening into the aisle
consists of pointed arches, deeply recessed, and richly
moulded; supported by clustered columns, with
sculptured capitals ; the second, which opened into
the galleries, consists of beautifully moulded semi
circular arches, with two pointed arches inserted in

JEDBURGH.

65

each ; and the third, of elegant pcinted windpws.
The lofty western gable ppssesses a Nerman dppr pf
uncommon beauty, the archway exhibiting a pro
fusion of ornamented mouldings, supported by slen
der pillars to the depth of 7£ feet. Above it is a
large window, with a semicircular arch flanked by
small blank pointed arches, in long slender shafts,
and this is surmounted by a beautiful St. Catherine's
wheel. On the south side of the choir, there is a
chapel which was once appropriated to the use of the
grammar-school * * But the chief object of archi
tectural interest in this abbey is the Norman door,
which formed the southern entrance to the church
from the cloisters. This, for the elegance of its
workmanship, and the symmetry of its proportions,
is unrivalled in Scotland. Its sculptured mouldings
springing from slender shafts, with capitals richly
wreathed, exhibit the representations of flowers,
men, and various animals, executed with surprising
minuteness and delicacy. ' This venerable pile,'
says the late Archibald Elliot, architect, in his re
port to the heritors respecting some of its projected
repairs, 'in my opinion, is the most perfect and
beautiful example of the Saxon and early Gothic in
Scotland.' Its grand appearance is imposing, and
admirably accords with the scenery of the romantic
valley in which it is situated." — St. Kennoch is re
ported to have been Abbot of Jedburgh in the year
1000, and to have laboriously but effectually exerted
his influence, during a considerable period, for the
conservation of the international peace. The tra
ditional history respecting him, and the apparently
high antiquity of the remains of the choir, would
seem to dictate that the abbey had a very early ex
istence. But the Melrose Chronicle, under the year
1174, has the entry, " Obiit Osbertus primus abbas
de Jeddewrtha;" and, on this and other grounds, the
abbey is perhaps regarded correctly, by the author of
Caledonia, and other writers, as having been, not re-
edified or extended, but originally founded in the
vear 1147, by David I. Its monks were canons-
regular, brought, in the first instance, from Beauvais.
The abbey was endowed, by its royal founder, with
the tithes of the two Jedworths of Langton, of
Nisbet, and of Crailing, and with other important
property ; by Malcolm IV., with the churches of
Brandon and Grendon in Northamptonshire, and
with some lands and a fishery on the Tweed ; by
Ranulph de Soulis, with the church of Dodington,
near Brandon, and the church in the vale of the Lid-
del ; and by William the Lion, and various barons,
with many other churches and lands. During 20
years from the commencement of the 13th century,
the abbot was embroiled with the bishop of Glas
gow, fighting a stiffly contested battle for the pre
rogatives of the mitre and the crosier ; and he was
eventually compelled to acknowledge more of the
bishop's authority than comported with the loftiness
of his own pretensions. During the early wars of
the succession, the abbot and his canons were in
volved in ruin, — their house becoming so unsafe
that they could not inhabit it, and their possessions
so wasted that they could not enjoy them ; and,
at the end of the year 1300, they threw themselves
on the bounty of Edward I., and were billeted by
him on some religious houses in England. Robert
I. tried to restore by his generosity what the hos
tility of his antagonist had destroyed, and granted
to the canons the hospital of St. Mary Magdalene
at Rutherford, and apparently also the priories of
Restenet in Fprfarshire and Canpbie in Dumfries
shire. The canons, at all events, possessed these
priories during the best days ef their prosperity,
sent pff spme of their number to occupy their cells,
and used that of Restenet as a place of custody
II.

for their records and other valuable documents
against the depredations of the Border marauders.
During the long succession of international conflicts
which followed the peace of Northampton in 1 328,
the abbey rocked under the violent rush of inva
sion and repulse, and underwent many a desolating
change. In 1523, it was pillaged and partly burnt
by the Earl of Surrey ; and, in 1545, it was exten
sively dilapidated and converted into ruin by the
Earl of Hertford. Even in very recent times, por
tions of it have been demolished by worthies such
as those who destroyed the surpassingly fine cross
of Edinburgh, or the gateway on the ancient bridge
of Jedburgh, — wiseacres who sagaciously calculate
the worth and beauty of an old ornate building by
the number of shillings which they can procure
for its stones. But now a better taste prevails,
and, not contented with averting further dilapida
tions, has busied itself in making such repairs as
promise to extend the duration of what remains of
the pile. After the Reformation, the abbey be
came vested in the Crown by annexation. As the
Kers uf Fernihurst had long been the bailies of Jed
Forest, they, after a while, became bailies of the
canons of Jedburgh. In March, 1587, Sir Andrew
Ker obtained from James VI. a grant of the bailiary
of the lands and baronies of the abbey ; and — the
transition being easy in those times from connexion
of any sort with ecclesiastical property to entire
possession of it — he afterwards obtained a charter
converting the whole into a lordship, by the title of
Lord Jedburgh.
The town, proportionately to its size, makes a
conspicuous figure in manufacture. Its staple pro
duce is in woollens, akin to that of Hawick and Gala
shiels, with a trifling addition in linens. The prin-.
cipal fabrics are checked woollens for trowsers and
for shepherds' plaids, — woollen shawls with fringe,'
coarse and large check pattern, — a fine tartan, —
coarse Scotch blankets, — coarse white plaiding for
drawers, — carpets, — druggets, and hosiery. There
are three large factories, all worked by water-power,
and belonging respectively to Messrs. Hillson, Mr.
Rutherford, and Mr. Ewing. The number of hand.
looms, in 1828, was 20; and, in 1838, had in
creased to 75. The looms are kept in full trim at
the expense of the masters. The average nett weekly
wages earned by good workmen when fully employed
are, for linen, 8s. 7d., — for blankets, 10s. 6d., — for
plaiding and for trowser-checks, 12s., — for shepherds'
plaids, 13s.,— and for shawls, 16s. Mr. Hope, the in
ventor and patentee of a particular description of
printing-presses, employs about 20 persons in an
establishmentfor producing his useful article. Aniron
and brass foundery, some- business in the dressing of
leather, and various artisanships which minister to the
every-day wants of society, contribute, with the great
er manufactures, to swell the aggregate number of
in-door workmen in the burgh to about 550. But
bread, which is sent hence in considerable quantities
to the north of England, and is in much request for
the excellence of its quality, may be viewed as an
additional manufacture; and the produce of the
orchard, which is raised and sold in greater quanti
ties here than in any district of Scotland except
Clydesdale, must be regarded as an important article
of commerce. The ecclesiastics of the abbey appear
to have been fully aware of the peculiar adaptation
of the soil and site of Jedburgh to the growth and
luxuriancy of fruit-trees, and to have introduced at
various periods such species as their deep practical
insight into the pleasures of the palate pointed out
as most grateful. A peculiarly fine species of apple,
and not a few kinds of luscious pears, are plentifully
grown in the very numerous private orchards and
E

66

JEDBURGH.

sardens of the inhabitants. Many of the existing
pear-trees arc supposed to be three centuries old ;
and individuals of them have occasionally produced,
in one year, from 50 to 60 imperial bushels.
Connected with literature, Jedburgh has 2 public
reading-rooms, — a large and valuable public collec
tion of books, called ' the Company's library," — 2
smaller libraries, — a circulating library, — 5 itinerat
ing libraries, of 50 volumes each, — 3 congregational
libraries, — and a reading-society for the purchase of
new publications. Among its religious, charitable,
and patriotic institutions, it numbers a society for
the promotion of education, — a dispensary, estab
lished in 1807, principally by aid from the Mar
quis of Lothian, and provided, in 1822, by that noble
man with a commodious house and baths for the re
ception and use of patients, — a savings' bank, —
a farmers' club for promoting improvement in agri
culture and in the breed of stock, — and the Rox
burghshire Horticultural Society, for promoting
the cultivation pf the orchard and the garden. In
' mercantile and kindred matters it has branch-pffices
of the British Linen company's bank, and the Na
tional bank of Scotland, — a weekly market on Tues
day, when much grain is sold, and another on Friday,
— 4 annual fairs for horses and cattle, on the first
Tuesday after Whitsunday, on the second Tuesday
of August, O. S., on the 25th of September, if not a
Saturday, a Sabbath, or a Monday, and, if otherwise,
on the first Tuesday after, and, finally, on the first
Tuesday of November, O. S., — monthly markets for
sheep and cattle on the third Saturday of every
month from January till May, — and hiring-markets
for servants at Whitsunday and Martinmas. In mat
ters of civil authority it has, in addition to its own
burgh-courts, afterwards to be noticed, justice-of-
peace courts, held at regular intervals, — the sheriff-
courts for Roxburghshire, — and twice a-year, in
spring and autumn, the circuit courts of justiciary.
Thejurisdiction of the last of these, extends over the
four counties of Roxburgh, Berwick, Selkirk,, and
Peebles, and occasions an influx of witnesses, juries,
and legal gentlemen from the whole basin of the
Tweed and its tributaries ; yet — so peaceful and
pastoral is the district, and so contrasted in charac
ter to the utter lawlessness which once distinguished
it — that, the judges have sometimes hardly a case to
try. The opening of the circuit-court is always an
occasipn pf puff and ppmp in the burgh. Certain
antiquated observances are maintained in the getting
up and cenducting of a procession in honour of the
judges, which are so quaintly comical as to seem like
a tax upon all, the acquired self-restraint of these
grave gentlemen.
Jedburgh is governed by a provost, 4 bailies, a dean-
of-guild, a treasurer, and 18 councillors. Municipal
constituency, in 1839, 168. The property of the
burgh consists of lands, houses, and principally mills,
yielding aggregately £498 18s. a-year. The rev
enue from other sdurces arises chiefly from custom
and market-dues, and from casualties, and, together
with the rental of property, amounted, in 1833, to
£650 14s. 9d. The expenditure in the same year
was £599 4s. 2|d. ; and there was then a debt
of £5,223 18s. 4d. The revenue in 1838-9 was
£644 Is. 4d. The magistrates have no power to
make local assessments. During 30 years preceding
1832, they assessed the inhabitants, by sworn stent-
masters, for water and lighting; but resistance being
made to the exaction of money for lighting, the
assessment was then discontinued. The taxatipn
foe popr's-mpney is comparatively heavy, having,
in 1832, amounted to £433 upon a real rental of
£3,106, pr 14 per cent. The incorporated trades
consist pf smiths, weavers', sheemakers, maspns,

tailors, wrights, fleshers, and glovers. All tlie
cerpprations are rigid in exacting entrance-dues,
 which, in seme instances, ampunt tp £10; and
they ppssess, and wield what are called their privi
leges, with ne advantage to themselves, and with
much injury to the community. The magistrates,
besides exercising the ordinary jurisdiction Within
burgh, claim the right of exercising it over a tract of
ground adjoining their mills. By a singular custom,
also, they exercise jurisdiction over the great fair of
St. James, held close to Kelso. How this right
arose, cannot be ascertained ; but it has subsisted
from time immemorial, and is said to be tenaciously
regarded by the inhabitants, as giving them some in
fluence and respectability. Yet, like many a ques
tionable honour, it occasions cost. While the magis
trates hold a court at the fair to take cognizance of
petty irregularities, and are accompanied by a full
inquest of burgesses, draining usually from £10 to
£15 from the funds, the burgh-tacksman draws only
£2 of customs. Both bailie and dean-of-guild courts
are occasionally held in the burgh. Since the small
debt, justice-of-peace, and sheriff-courts, were estab
lished, the cases in the burgh- courts have gradually
decreased. The magistrates possess no other patron
age than the appointing of their officers, and a joint
voice with the landward heritors in making appoint.
ments to the grammar school. Jedburgh unites with
Haddington, Dunbar, North Berwick, and Lauder, in
sending a member to parliament. Parliamentary
constituency, in 1840, 226. The parliamentary
boundaries exclude some uninhabited fields within
the royalty, but include the suburbs on the right
bank of the Jed. Population within these bounda
ries, in 1831, 3,709.
The cpuncil -records ef Jedburgh, extending back
te only 1619, and all the ancient charters having been
destroyed during the wars with England, neither the
date of the origin of the town, nor that of its erection
into a burgh, can be ascertained. All earlier char
ters were renewed and confirmed by Queen Mary, in
1556. A fac-simile of a charter granted by William
the Lion, in 1165, to the abbot and monks of the
town, was published at Edinburgh in 1771. The
town — in connection with its castle and its abbey,
the courts of the kings of Scotland, and the influence
of a very wealthy fraternity of priests — must, so
early as the 12th century, have become a place of
very great consequence. During the festal scenes
which occurred in its castle, in 1 285, on occasion of
Alexander III.'s second marriage, a masker dressed
so as to resemble the skeleton figure of Death, glided
among the dancers at the ball, and struck such terror
into the queen and the other revellers, that they fled
to their retirements. Though this monstrous piece
of masquerading foolery was intended by the block
head who practised it to be a joke, it excited a sen
sation throughout the kingdom, and was afterwards
— with a wisdom quite akin to that which suggested
the getting of it up— gravely regarded as an omen of
the king's childlessness and early death, and of the
consequent disasters which accrued to the countrv.
After the close ef the 15th century, Jedburgh figures
prominently in the hist pry pf the internatienal wars;
and partly after, partly before that date, is said to
have been seven times burnt, and to have as often
risen like a phcenix from the flames. In 1523, the
Earl of Surrey, at the head of 6,000 men, marched
against the town, and was so obstinately resisted by
the inhabitants in his attempts to take it, that, 'in
hostile guerdon of their bravery, he no sooner got it
under his power than he gave it up to plunder and
the faggot. In the civil contentions which followed
the expulsion of Mary from the throne, the people
, of Jedburgh espoused the cause of the infant James,

JED

67

JOH

in opposition to their powerful neighbour, Ker of
Fairnihirst, the ancestor of the Marquis of Lothian,
who declared for the captive queen ; and when a
pursuivant was sent to them to proclaim the nullity
of all proceedings against her while she was in Loch-
Leven castle, they publicly inflicted on him some
acts of contempt scarcely more ignominious and in
sulting to his person, than outrageously offensive to
private modesty and public decency. Ker of Fairni
hirst, in revenge, captured and hanged ten of the
burghers, and destroyed by fire the whole stock of
provisions laid up by the inhabitants for a winter's
consumption. During the rebellion of 1 745, the Pre
tender and his army of Highlanders created an alarm
in the town, which was remembered and feelingly
depicted by some aged inhabitants very recently de
ceased. Though the town is now eminently pros
perous — or prosperous beyond most towns of its
class — in the achievements and wealth bearing re
sults of peaceful industry, it threatened, within the
recollection of the present generation, to pine away
to ruin. After the age of marauding, and of cattle-
lifting and forays passed away, the inhabitants
availed themselves of the unequal taxation of Eng
land and Scotland, to drive a quiet and very ad
vantageous contraband trade. Into England, they
carried salts, skins, and malt, which, till the Union,
paid no duties in Scotland ; and from England ithey
imported wool, to be shipped, at a great profit, from
the frith of Forth to France. But the commingling
of the legislatures of the two kingdoms drove the
ladder from the feet of the contraband Border trader,
and left him dangling perilously in the air. " The
vestiges of 40 malt barns and kilns," says Dr. Somer
ville, in the Old Statistical Account, " are now to
be seen in the town of Jedburgh, while at present
there are only 3 in actual occupation ; and the cor
poration of skinners and glovers, formerly the most
wealthy in the town, have, since the Union, greatly
diminished, both in regard to opulence and number."
In 1833, the corporation of glovers had become re
duced to two members.
Such renown as expertness in the art of destroy
ing human life, and foiling the efforts of pretended
adepts in that art, is fitted to give, belongs in no
stinted degree to the inhabitants of Jedburgh during
Scotland's fighting period. The proud war-cry of
the burghers, " Jeddart's here I" and their recorded
dexterity in wielding a dangerous tool of strife which
earned the designation of " the Jeddart staff," are
no mean evidences of their general prowess. Their
bravery is believed to have decided in favour of Scot
land the last, thcugh comparatively unimportant feat
of arms which she tried with England,— the skirmish
mentioned in our notice of the parish as bearing the
name of ' the Raid of the Reid Swire.' " I assure
your grace," says the Earl of Surrey, in his letter to
Henry VIII. respecting his attack on Jedburgh,
" that I found the Scots at this time the bpldest men
and the hpttest thai ever I saw in any nation, and all
the jeurney. Upon all parts of the army, they kept
ap with such continued skirmishes, that I never be
held the like. If they could assemble 40,000 as good
men as the 1,500, or 2,000 I saw, it would be hard
to encounter them." The " Jeddart staff," still pro
verbial in Teviotdale, is thus described by Mair :— -
". Ferrum chalybeum quatuor pedes longum in robusti
ligni extiemo Jeduardiensis." The corporation of
shoemakers still possess a trophy taken from the
English at the battle of Newburn ; while the weav
ers, loftier alike in the fame of their own achieve
ments in quiet and useful manufacture, and in the
fame of their predecessors in the showy but substan
tially inglorious achievements of war, possess twp
trophies carried off from the celebrated fields of

Bannpckburn and Killiecrankie. " Jeddart justice,"
| a phrase familiar throughout the Lowlands of Scot
land, means the summary executipn pf a criminal
previous to his trial, and is supposed to have been
originally and selely practised by the reckless and
tyrannical Dunbar, in his lcrding it pver the Jed
burgh ccurts pf justice. [See ' Border Minstrelsy,
vpl. i. p. 50.] But the phrase, even legitimately
rendered, and seen in the light pf equitable modern
administration, appears rapidly to be losing all mean
ing. Scarcely a town in quiet and lpyal Scotland is
sp exemplarily peaceful as Jedburgh, pr environed
far and wide with so well-toned and tranquilly indus
trious a country.
JOCK'S LODGE, or Piershill, a beautiful and
interesting locality on the southern boundary-line of
the parish of South Leith, on the mail-road between
Edinburgh and London, 1^ mile east of the Edin
burgh post-office, and 1 mile west of the town of
Portobello, Edinburghshire. The locality is on the
plain immediately beneath the north-east base of
Arthur's Seat, scarcely a mile from the shore of the
frith of Forth, and, independently of its buildings, is
rich in such attracticns pf scenery as comport well
with the near vicinity of the magnificent metropolis
of Scotland. The principal architecture of the spot
is a neat and spacious military barracks, occupying
three sides of a large quadrangle, and presenting a
wall, perforated with a high gateway, to the line of
the turnpike. This barracks was built in 1793, and
called Piershill in honour of Colonel Piers, who oc
cupied a villa on the spot in the reign of George II.,
and at the same time commanded a regiment of
cavalry stationed in Edinburgh. The name Jock's
Lodge  which is the popular one — occurs as early as
the time pf Cromwell, and is of uncertain and de
bated origin. On the south side of the road toward
Portobello are several neat villas. But the whole
face of the district lying immediately round the bar
racks, is studded and dotted with buildings, and has
only so far subsided from the urban character of the
outskirts of Edinburgh, as to acquire to its edifices,.
whether villa or cottage, the graceful accompani
ments of garden or of hedged enclosure. A stroll
from the beautiful city to Piershill, when the musi
cal bands of the barracks are striving to drown the
soft and carolling melodies of the little songsters on
the hedges and trees at the subsession of Arthur's
Seat; and when the frith with its many-tinted canopy
of clpuds, and its picturesque display of islets and
steamers, and little sailing boats, on the bosom of its
waters, vies with the exulting and luxuriant land
scape on its hither shere te win the award due to
beauty, is indescribably delightful.
JOHN O'GROAT'S HOUSE, a small cettage
which existed several ages age, upon one of the most
northerly points of the mainland of Scotland. The
accredited site of this famed domicile is still pointed
out, on the flat downy shore of the Pentland frith,
in the parish of Canisbay, about 1£ mile to the west
of Duncansbay-head ; but not a" fragment of the
building remains, except a few of the lower stones of
the foundation, or, if Dr. Macculloch is to be ere-'
dited, not even that, unless " a piece of green turf,
as flat and as bare as the back of one's hand, was
John O'Groat's house." John O'Groat's house is
said to have been founded under the following cir
cumstances : — During the reign of James IV., a Low-
lander of the name of Groat — or, according to some
versions of the legend, a Dutchman of the name of
i John de Groot — alpng with his brother, arrived in
Caithness, bearing a letter frem the king, which re-
cemmended them to the gentlemen pf the county.
They procured land at this remote sppt, settled, and
became the founders of famil-es. When the rac* ni

JOH

68

JOH

Groat had increased to the amount of eight different
branches, the amity which had hitherto characterized
them was unfortunately interrupted. One night, in
the course of some festivity, a quarrel arose as to
who had the best right to sit at the head of the table
next the door ; high words ensued, and the ruin of
the whole family, by their injudicious dissension,
seemed at hand. In this emergency, however, one
of them, named John, rose, and having stilled their
wrath by soft language, assured them that at their
next meeting he would settle, the point at issue to
the satisfaction of all. Accordingly, he erected upon
the extreme point of their territory an octagonal
building, having a door and window at every side,
and furnished with a table of exactly the same shape ;
and when the next family festival was held, he de
sired each of his kin to enter at his own door, and
take the corresponding seat at the table. The per
fect equality of this arrangement satisfied all, and the
former good humour of the fraternity was restored.
There are many different versions of the above story,
but all bearing a resemblance to the well-known
fable of the knights of the round table. One version
of the story represents John, the ingenious deviser
of the octagonal house, to have been the ferryman
from Canisbay to Orkney. Perhaps, as Dr. Maccul-
loch suggests, the others were ferrymen also, and
Rabelais may have had the story in view when he
says, " Tous les chevaliers de la table ronde estoient
pauvres gaigne-derniers, tirans la rame pour passer
les rivieres de Cocyte, Phlegeton, Styx, Acheron,
et Lethe, quand messieurs les diables se veulent
ebattre sur l'eau." John O'Groat's name has been
bequeathed to certain small shells which are here
found on the beautiful beach, and are called Johnny
Groat's buckies.
JOHN'S CLACHAN (St.), the original name,
now entirely disused, of the village of Dairy, in the
cognominal parish, Kirkcudbrightshire: See Dalry.
JOHN'S-HAVEN, a sea port village in the parish
of Benholme, Kincardineshire; 4 miles south by west
of Bervie ; 9 north by east of Montrose ; and 29
south-west of Aberdeen. This was formerly of
more importance as a fishing-station than it now is ;
the fish caught are principally haddocks, cod, ling,
and turbot. A few small vessels, averaging 50 tons
burthen, belong to the port ; but the harbour is a
very small one, but capable of being considerably
improved to the advantage of John's- haven. The
manufacture of linen for the Duncee merchants is
now superseding the fishing trade. There is a Se
cession meeting-house in the village. The coast in
this vicinity is rocky and desolate. The population
of John's-haven appears to have been long station
ary ; in 1793, it was estimated at 1,019; in 1821, at
1,020; and in 1831, at 1,027.
JOHNSTONE, a parish in the upper part of the
district of Annandale, Dumfries-shire. It is bounded
on the north by Kirkpatrick-Juxta ; on the east by
Wamphray and Applegarth; on the south by Loch-
maben ; and on the south-west and west by Kirk-
michael. The parish approaches in outline the isos
celes triangle, the short side being presented to the
north and the apex to the south; but it has the for
mer indented to the depth of nearly 2 miles by Kirk
patrick-Juxta, and the latter so cut away as to
exhibit a southern termination of fully 1£ mile in
breadth. It is 7£ miles in extreme length from north
to south, and averages-3 in breadth, and contains an
area of 20 square miles, or nearly 13,000 imperial
acres. Along the whole of its eastern boundary
flows the river Annan, rich in yellow and sea trout,
common and spotted eels, roches, pars, and salmen
of from 30 to 40 pounds' weight, and sometimes
coming down in a prodigal wealth and expenditure

of waters which menace the low lands adjoining its
banks with the invasions and inflictions of an irresis
tible tyrant. On the nerth the twp sides pf the in
dentation upon it of Kirkpatrick-Juxta, are traced
respectively by the Kinnel on the east, and the Duff-
Kinnel on the west; and, the former swallowing up
the latter, runs 2£ miles through the interior, and
then, for 1£ mile, traces the south-western boundary.
Along the Annan stretches a belt of level land, car
peted with loam and gravel. Thence the surface
gradually rises till it attains a height of 700 or 800
feet, and then it slowly subsides toward the Kinnel,
forming a broad-based hilly ridge between the rivers.
Westward of the Kinnel are between 2,000 and
3,000 acres, which ascend from its banks tiU, at
Mallin's hill and Deer-edge, on the extremity of the
parish, they attain the height of probably 1,300 or
1,400 feet. Across the Kinnel, about a mile after it
enters the interior,' stretches St. Ann's bridge, com
manding nearly as delightful a view of glen and syl
van scenery as any which is exhibited by the pro
fusely rich and endlessly varied landscapes of Scotland.
Three quarters of a mile north of this bridge, a little
west of the river, stands the magnificent mansion of
Raehills, one of the most princely in the kingdom,
the seat of J. J. Hope, Esq. of Annandale, the pre
sent representative of Dumfries-shire in parliament,
exulting in the opulence of the garden-grounds and
scenic displays which immediately surround it, and
sending off a wide expanse of richly wooded and di
versified demesne. Mr. Johnstone counts ancestors
who were proprietors of his own estates and of others
in Dumfries-shire up to the epoch of record, and
who, as the leaders of a border-clan, waged constant
warfare, during the 15th and 16th centuries, with
the Douglasses and the Maxwells. The whole par
ish, with the exception of a small patch, is his pro
perty, and partakes kindred results of culture to
those which are so conspicuous on the grounds im
mediately adjoining his seat. Only the general po
verty of the soil, or the difficulty of keeping up its
fertility when reclaimed, seems to have prevented the
district from affording an eminent instance of agri
cultural improvement. About 1,500 acres are under
natural and planted wood; about 700 or 800 are
waste lands, chiefly mosses ; and the remaining
10,700 or 10,800 acres are very nearly distributed
in moieties of arable land and tillage. Much of the
wood is oak and ash, very ancient, and exhibiting
specimens of great girth and height. The mosses
have all a substratum or ramified under-bed of tim
ber, principally oak, and seem to have grown up,
like some more notable mosses in the country, from
the wreck of the Caledonian forest. The arable
grounds, except in a few instances, are not powerful
enough to yield a remunerating produce in wheat,
and are laid out chiefly for oats and barley. The
pastures — with a small exception in favour of the
Cheviot breed of sheep— are browsed by probably
the finest imported specimen of the Galloway breed
of black cattle in Scotland. Considerable and suc
cessful attention is paid to the department of bacon,
—that article of produce for which, in its best qua
lity, England now looks so interestedly to Dumfries
shire. Sandstone abounds at the southern verge of
the parish, but is very scantily worked. A vein of
lead ore has been expensively but vainly sought for
at the cost of Mr. Johnstone  Three-quarters of a
mile from the northern boundary, and mid-way be
tween the Annan and the Kinnel, at a mile's dis
tance from each, stand the ruins of Lochwood's
' lofty towers, where dwelt the lords of Annandale.'
Lochwood castle is said to have been built in the
14th century. It commands a very extensive pros
pect, especially toward the south, and has a retinue

JOH

69

JOP

of ancient forest trees, one of which, an oak, mea
sures 17£ feet in circumference. The castle is im
mediately environed with almost impassable bogs
and marshes ; and, both from the nature of its posi
tion and the enormous thickness of its walls, must
have been a place of great strength. James VI.,
alluding to its inaccessibility and capacities of resis
tance, said that " the man who built Lochwood,
though outwardly hpnest, must have been a knave
in his heart." Abput the year 1593 Rpbert, the na
tural brother of Lord John Maxwell, fired the castle,
exclaiming, when it began to belch aloft the flames,
" I'll give Dame Johnstone light enough to show her
to set her silken hood." In revenge of the deed the
Johnstones inflicted the fearfully sanguinary castiga-
tion on the Maxwells at Dryfe- sands, which is no
ticed in our article Dryfesdale. The castle, hav
ing been fully repaired, continued to be inhabited
till 1724, — three years after the death of the first
Marquis of Annandale. The Glasgow and London
mail-road, the Edinburgh and Dumfries turnpike by
way of Moffat, and a turnpike between Moffat and
Lochmaben, all traverse the parish south and north,
— the first and second each 5 miles, and the third 6
miles. These roads, and their bridges, are kept in
prime repair. One of the bridges spans the Annan
at Johnstone mills, a little above the parish-church,
in a single arch 80 feet in width. Dr. Rogerson and
Dr. Matthew Halliday, successively first physicians to
the Empress Catherine of Russia, were both natives
of Johnstone. A large proportion of the inhabitants
of the parish are Johnstones by name, and a con
siderable number are Hallidays. " In this very po
pulous, rural parish," says the minister in the New
Statistical Account, " we have neither public house,
nor meeting-house, nor resident surgeon, nor village,
nor post-office, nor prison, nor lawyer, nor beggar, —
specialities, we humbly conceive not to be found
united in any parish of similar dimensions in Britain, —
and of which, though some may be pccasicnally felt
as parish privaticns, pthers are daily prized by us as
distinguished blessings." Pppulatipn, in 1801, 740;
in 1831, 1,234. Hpuses, 196. Assessed property,
in 1815, £5,514  Johnstone is in the presbytery
of Lochmaben, and synod of Dumfries. Patron,
Johnstone of Annandale. Stipend £165 13s. 2d. ;
glebe £10. There are 3 schools, attended by a
maximum of 170 scholars. Parochial schoolmaster's
salary £26, with £21 10s. fees and £5 10s. other
emoluments. The ancient parish was a rectory in the
deanery of Annandale. The present parish compre
hends the whole of the old parish, a large part of the
suppressed parish of Dungree, and a small part of the
ancient Garvald : which see. The ruin of the old
church of Dungree — anciently Dun-grio, signifying
' a sunny hill' — stands, with its accompanying ceme
tery, on the southern declivity or sunny side of a
round hill or ' dun,' on the west bank of the Kinnel.
This church, with its pertinents, anciently belonged
to the monks of Kelso, — having been gifted to them
in the 12th century by Walter de Carnock, the pro
prietor of the manor.
JOHNSTONE, a quoad sacra parish in Renfrew
shire, disjoined from the Abbey parish of Paisley in
July, 1835. Its greatest length is about 1 mile, and
its greatest'breadth less than a quarter of a mile,
being chiefly confined to the village of Johnstone,
which is situated pn the right bank ef the river
Black Cart, 3j miles from Paisley, 11 frpm Glasgow,
and 14 from Greenpck. The rapid increase ef this
place is net exceeded, if equalled, in Scpttish statis
tics. Till 1 781 it cpnsisted cf a small hamlet, with
a pppulatipn pf 10 perspns, near the bridge ever the
river, called ' the Brig o' Jehnstpne,' which is still
the p'ppular appellation pf the tewn itself. In that

year a large mill for the spinning of cotton was
erected here, and the formation of a town was com
menced, and proceeded so rapidly, that in 1792 the
inhabitants amounted to 1,434; in 1811, to 3,647 ;
and in 1831, to 5,617. The population is now
(1841) upwards of 7,000. The mill was built, and
the town planned and feued out by George Hous-
toun, Esq., the superior of the ground on which it
stands, who died in 1815, after having held the estate
of Johnstone for the long period of 58 years. The
town is regularly built, consisting of one main street
from east to west, with several other streets branch
ing at right angles from both its sides. There are
also two squares, namely, Houstoun- square in the
centre of the town, which is now built up on every
side, and another to the soutEward, partially enclosed
with houses, and intended for a market-place. The
houses are, for the most part, built of stone, two
stories high, with garden ground attached to each.
From an eminence on the Paisley road, a quarter of
mile eastward, the place has a picturesque appear
ance. In 1839 there were in Johnstone 15 cotton-
mills, employing in all 1,456 persons, exclusive of
mills at other places in the immediate vicinity.
With two slight exceptions the mills are all pro
pelled by water. There are, besides, 2 brass and 2
iron foundries, on an extensive scale, with 5 machine
manufactories, a public gas work, and various minor
branches of industry. In the neighbourhood coal is
wrought to a .great extent. The place has a branch
bank, several branches of insurance offices, a town
school, 2 news-rooms, a subscription library, and a
mechanics' institution and library, with several re
ligious and benevolent societies. Its civil polity is
managed by a committee elected annually by the
feuers. A justice-of-peace court is held on the
first Friday of every month. A fair for cattle is
held in July, and another in October ; and there is
one for horses in December. The canal from Glas
gow, intended to have been carried to Ardrossan,
terminates at Johnstone ; and the railway from
Glasgow to Ayr passes the place  About, a mile to
the south stands Johnstone castle, the seat of Mr.
Houstoun, an elegant modern mansion surrounded
by thriving plantations and pleasure-grounds  This
parish is in the presbytery of Paisley, and synod of
Glasgow and Ayr. The right of electing the min
ister is vested in the congregation. The church was
built in 1793, and cost about £1,400. Sittings 995.
Stipend £200, without manse or glebe. To this
church a light and elegant spire was added in 1823.
 The United Secession congregation was establish
ed in 1791, when their church was built at the cost
of about £900. Sittings 616. Stipend £150, with
£8 8s. for sacramental expenses, and £4 4s. for at
tendance on church courts  The Relief congregation
was established, and built a church, in 1829, which,
with a session-house, afterwards1 erected, cost about
£1,500. Sittings 810. Stipend £120, with £8 in
name of sacramental expenses — The United Metho
dist congregation, established in 1824, assembles in
a building erected in that year, at the cost of £150.
Sittings 260.
JOPPA, a modern village, on the mail-road be
tween Edinburgh and Berwick, and on the shore ot
the frith of Forth, within the boundaries of the
parliamentary burgh of Portobello, situated a little
eastward of that town, and almost compact with it,
in the quoad civilia parish of Duddingston, Edin
burghshire. It runs about 300 yards along the high
way, but has buildings on the west both close on
the shore and northward of the road. Part of the
village consists of very neat villas. A mineral well
gives it importance with invalids, and attracts to it
a share of the patronage so profusely heaped on

JUR

70

JUR

Portobello. Between it and the sea is a freestone
quarry. About i of a mile to the east are some
salt-works, called Joppa-Pans.
JURA,! one of the Hebrides, lying opposite to
the district of Knapdale, in Argyleshire, to which
county it is politically annexed. It is 20 miles in
length, from south-west to north-east ; its breadth at
the southern end is about 8 miles, but tapers gradually
to about 2 miles at the northern extremity. Its su
perficies has been estimated at 58,500 Scots acres, of
which only 3,000 are arable. It is the most rugged
of the Western isles, being composed chiefly of huge
rocks, piled on one another in the utmost disorder,
 naked and incapable of cultivation, and presenting
" one continued tract of brown and rocky mountain-
pasture." These mountains extend in the form of
a ridge from south to north, nearly in the middle of
the island. Three of them rising near the south end,
of an irregular conoidal form, and termed the Paps
of Jura, are conspicuous at a great distance. The
southern one is termed Benachaolais, 'the Moun
tain of the Sound,' as being near to the sound of Islay;
the next and highest, Benanoir, ' the Mountain of
Gold ;' the third, Benshianta, ' the Consecrated
mountain.' There are five of these cenical peaks,
but cnly three pf them are distinguished as the Paps.
Corrabhain, pr ' the Steep peak,' is the mest preci
pitous but lcwest ef the cluster. See Benanpir.
Loch-Tarbet, aleng narrow arm pf the sea, ppening
pn the west ceast, nearly divides the island intp two.
There are seme small lakes in the vicinity of the
Paps ; and a few streams, descending from these
mountains, flow into the sound of Jura. The west
side of the island is wild and rugged, and intersected
by numerous torrents which, come rushing down from
the mountains. It presents only rocky and abrupt
shores ; and has been deemed so inhospitable that
no person chooses to fix his habitation in it. All the
inhabitants live on the east side. Here, along the
margin of the sea, the coast is level; but, at a little
distance from the Shore, there is a gradual ascent.
The whole of this side forms a pleasant scene : the
coast, in several places, is indented with bays and
harbours, and the arable and pasture grounds spread
out on the declivity, and terminate at the base of the
huge rocky mountains which form a romantic and aw
ful back-ground. The soil along the shore is thin and
stony; higher up it becomes moory, with patches of
improvable moss ; along the foot of the mountains
there are numerous springs which render the ground
spouty and unfit for cultivation. The crops are oats,
barley, potatoes, and flax ; the chief manure is sea
weed ; the use of lime has not been introduced, nor
the practice of sewing artificial grasses, cr laying
out the lands in fallow or regular rotation. There
are two fine harbours on the east coast of the
island;. that to the south is called the harbour of
Small- Isles from the number of islets which shelter
it ; the other, a few miles to the north, is named
* This name is said to be, correctly, Diura, that is, ' a Deer.'

the Lowlandman's bay ; there are also some an
choring places on the west coast. At the north
end of Jura are the three inhabited islands of Scarba,
Lunga, and Balnahuaigh : see these articles
Between Scarba and Jura is the famous gulf called
Corrievrekin : which see. Several kinds of red
deer exist on the mountains, and there is plenty of
grouse and black game. When Pennant visited this
island, the number of cattle was much greater than
at present; the inhabitants having banished these to
make way for the numereus herds pf sheep and goats
which have been introduced. There is only one
small village, called Jura, on the east coast of the
island, inhabited by a few fishers. There are several
barrows and duns in the island ; and on the coast,
near the harbour of Small-Isles, are the remains of a
very considerable encampment. It has a triple line
of defence, with regular bastions towards the land;
and near the east end is a pretty large mound, seem
ingly formed of the earth thrown, put in forming the
ditches. The mpuntains are ef white pr red quartz,
seme pf which is brecciated, cr filled with crystalline
kernels pf an amethystine colour. The other rocks
of the island are a bluish coloured slate, veined with
red, and so fine as to be used as a whetstone ; a mi
caceous sandstone ; and, at the northern extremity, a
quarry of micaceous granite. There is great abundance
of iron ore, and a vein of the black oxide of manganese.
On the west coast there is a fine kind of sand, which
is used in the manufacture of glass. The climate of
Jura is very healthy, owing to its high situation, and
its exposure to the winds. There is a ferry from
Kenuachtrach, or Kinuachrach, at the northern point
of the island, to Craignish-point on the mainland, a
distance of 4 miles, whence a good carriage-road leads
to the Kintraw and Kellmelfort roads. Gaelic is
spoken in the island. Population, in 1811,1,157;
in 1831, 1,312. Houses, in 1831, 251.
- JURA and COLONSAY, a parish of Argyle
shire, composed of nine islands, of which that of Jura
is the largest. The islands of Colonsay and Oransay,
of Scarba, Lunga, Balnahuaigh, and the three small
uninhabited isles called the Gravellach or Mare
islands on the north of Jura, form the rest of
the district. It was originally called the united par
ish of Killearnadale and Kilchattan : Jura forming
the former, and Colonsay the latter. The islands of
Gigha and Cara were disjoined from it about the
year 17291 The district of Colonsay and Oransay is
under charge of an assistant- minister : see Colon
say. Population, in 1801, 2,007 ; in 1831, 2,205.
Houses 404. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,598.
— This parish is in the presbytery of Islay and Jura,
and synod of Argyle. Patron, the Duke of Argyle.
Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £12. Church built
about 1776; enlarged about 1824; sittings 249 
There are two parochial schools in Jura, the masters
of which share a salary of £33 6s. 8d., with a third
schoolmaster stationed in Colonsay. Besides this
there were, in 1834, five private schools in Jura.

KAI

71

KAT

K

KAIL. See Kale.
KAILZIE, a suppressed parish lying on both sides
of the Tweed in Peebles-shire. Two-thirds of it
lying on the south bank are annexed to Traquair,
and one-third lying on the north bank, is annexed to
Innerleithen. The parish was suppressed in 1674.
The ruins of Kailzie church stand on a streamlet
which is called from it Kirkburn, and which falls
into the Tweed from the south.
KAIM. See Duffus.
KAIMES (The). See Greenlaw.
KALE, Kail, or Cayle (The), a rivulet in
Roxburghshire. It rises on the south side of Fair-
wood-feil. a few yards from the boundary with Eng
land, in the south-west extremity of the parish of
Oxnam, and, cradled among the most alpine heights
of the Cheviots, continues over most of its course to
be a brawling but beautiful mountain-stream. It
runs first 2 miles north-eastward ; and next 11 miles
northward, bisecting the parishes of Oxnam, Hou-
nam, and Morebattle ; and then it flows 5 miles
westward, tracing the southern boundary of More-
battle parish, sweeping past Morebattle village, bi
secting the parish of Eckford, and falling into the
Teviot about a mile below Eckford village. From
near its source till a short way after it takes a wes
terly direction, it flows through "ferny hpwms,"
alpng a narrow, generally a pleasing, and frequently
a romantic, vale, whither ceme laterally dpwn
among the Cheviots delightful dells and picturesque
ravines, ploughed by tributary rills. It is an excel
lent treuting-stream, and lpng gave the name of
' Kail- Water Sheep ' to the peculiarly fine breed of
Cheviots pastured within view of its banks. Miss
Baillie, in supplementing a fine fragment of the Scot-
tish Dpric muse, which ppens thus, —
*' O the ewe.bnghting's bonny, baith e'ening and morn," —
in the true spirit pf the original sings : —
O the sheep-herding's lightsome amang the green braes
Where Cayle wimples clear 'neath the white-blossomed slaes, —
Where the wild-thyme and meadow-queen &cent the eaftgale, —
And the cushat croods lecsomely down in the dale!
'There the lintwhite and mavis sing sweet frae the thorn,
And blithe lilts the laverock aboon the green corn,
And a* things rejoice in the simmer's glad prime —
But my heart's wi' my love in the far foreign clime I
KALLIGRAY. See Calligray.
KAMES, or Kaimes Castle, an ancient seat of
the Bannatynes-r-but no longer in possession of that
family — in the island of Bute, near the mouth of a
low and fertile glen which stretches across the island
from Karnes bay, on which Port-Bannatyne is
situated, on the east to Etterick bay on the west
side of the island. In the neighbourhood may still
be traced the ruins of V\ ester Kames castle, formerly
belonging to the Spences. From an eminence in the
middle of this glen, a fine view of the sea on both
sides of Bute is obtained. — An extension church,
called North Bute church, was erected in this valley
in 1836 ; sittings 700 ; at the expense of the Marquis
of Bute. A quoad sacra district has been attached
to it. Stipend £150; glebe £10.
KANNOR. See Cannor.
KATRINE* (Loch), a well-known and often-
• It is usually called Loch- Katrine by the inhabitants of the
Lowlands, who have adopted this spelling on the authority of
Sir Walter Scott, the Minstrel of the lake; but it is pro
nounced KeUum or Ketturrin by the natives of the district.
The latter portion of the name, when thus pronounced, bears
a near resemblance to that of many other places on the High.

visited lake, in the Highland district of the county
of Perth, beyond the great mountain-chain pr barrier
which separates the Highlands frem the Lowlands.
It is distant abeut 10 miles from Callander, 21 from
Dumblane, and 48 from Glasgow. It is abput 10
miles in length, and 2 in breadth. In its whple ex
tent it is surreunded by lpfty mpuntains ; and it
forms a receptacle for the hundreds pf streams
which, after rain, foam down their rugged sides,
" white as the snowy charger's tail." It discharges
its waters by a stream at its eastern extremity,"
which runs into Loch-Achray, afterwards inte Locli-
Vennacheir, and ultimately into the Forth, about
3 miles above the bridge of Stirling. The scenery
of Loch-Katrine was, comparatively speaking, but
little known, notwithstanding its magnificence, till
the publication of 'The Lady of the Lake;' but
the splendid descriptions of that fine poem soon
spread its fame as far as the English language is un
derstood, arid it is now visited by almost every stran
ger who makes the tour of Scotland. It maybe ap
proached in different directions ; but the principal
road, and that by which it is oftenest visited, is from
the east, by the way of Callander. There is here a
carriage-road which enters upon the eastern extremity
of the lake, where its finest scenery is situated, and
where we find the principal localities of Sir Walter's
poem. As has been the case with every poem or tale
from the graphic pen of this gifted man, the world has
given almost a reality to the characters and incidents
of ' The Lady of the Lake ;' and the Highlanders
now point out the scenery of this poem to strangers,
as if it had formed one of the ancient traditions of
their romantic father-land.
"Oh ! who would think, in cheerless solitude.
Who o'er these twilight waters glided slow.
That genius, with a time.surviving glow,
These wild lone scenes so proudly hath embued!
Or that from * hum of men ' so far remote,
Where blue waves gleam, aud mountaius darken round
And trees with broad boughs shed a gloom profound,
A poet here should from his tractless thought
Elysian prospects conjure up, and sing
Of bright achievements in the olden days,
When chieftain valour sued for Beauty's praise,
And magic virtues charmed St. Fillan's spring;
Until in worlds, where Chilian mountains raise
Their cloud-capt heads, admiring souls shuuld wing
Hither their flight to wilds, whereon 1 gaze."
The Trpsachs — [which see] — form a main
point of attraction with strangers visiting Loch-
Katrine. The read from Callander passes through
the Trosachs; and they are first entered upon
by the traveller, about half-a-mile west of Loch-
Achray • which see. The access to the lake is
through a narrow pass of half-a-mile in length,
where the rocks are of a stupendous height, in
some places seeming to close above the traveller's
head, in others, ready to fall down and bury him in
their ruins. The sides of the heights are in many
places covered with aged weeping birches, which
hang down their venerable locks in waving ringlets,
as if to cover the bare and naked rocks out of which
they seem to grow. Before the present road was
formed, the lake could only be approached in this
direction by what was generally termed ' the Lad-
lands, the appearance of which is wild and savage. Thus in
Inverness-shire, we have Loch-Urn, or Loch-Urrin, which
signifies ' the Lake of Hell ;* and in Cowal, Glenurrin, or
* Hell's glen.' In the map by Sir Robert Gordon of Stralonh,
published in Eleau's Atlas, 1663, the name is spelt Kennei-iu ;
and in the map prefixed to the ' Itioerarium' of Alexandor
Gurdon, published in 1727, it is spelt in the same manner,

72

KATRINE.

ders.' These consisted of steps very imperfectly
cut out of a precipitous rocky bank, by means of
which, and with the aid of ropes suspended from
trees to be grasped by the hand, the adventurous and
intrepid natives of this romantic land were accus
tomed tc pass — often laden with considerable bur
dens  from the lower district of the Trosachs to its
more elevated parts. The road has now been formed
with incredible labour, partly by encroaching on the
eastern end of the lake, and partly by blasting the
solid rock, which rises to a great height, particularly
in one place, where it shoots up perpendicularly from
the water to a height of scarcely less than 150 feet.
The traveller approaching from Callander, passes
through the narrow defile of the Trosachs, where
Fitz-James's " Gallant horse exhausted fell ;"
and will mark the "narrow and broken plain"
where Sir Walter represents the Scottish troops
under the Earls of Mar and Moray to have paused
ere they entered " The dangerous glen ;"
nor will the vivid description of the scene which took
place when the archers entered the defile be forgot
ten. No trace of a foe could at first be seen ; but
•' At once there rose so wild a yell
Within that dark and narrow dell,
As all the fiends, from heaven that fell,
Had peal'd the banner-cry of hell I
Forth from the pass in tumult driven,
Like chaff before the wind of heaven,
The archery appear ;
For life I for life ! their flight they ply —
And shriek, and shout, and battle-cry,
And plaids and bonnets waving high,
And broadswords flashing in the sky,
Are maddening in the rear.
Onwards they drive in dreadful race,
Pursuers and pursued."
Although this is merely the description of an ima
ginary fight between the Scottish troops and the men
of Clan- Alpine, yet it has become so familiar to every
reading mind as almost to be considered the account
of a real transaction ; and we believe few now pass
through the Trosachs without thinking of Roderic
Dhu and his Macgregors, and those days when their
cliffs oft-echoed to " dying moan and dirge's wail."
The first appearance of the lake at this extremity
gives little promise of the wide and varied expanse to
which it stretches put as the traveller proceeds.
Sir Walter has indeed well-described it here ax
*' A narrow inlet still and deep,
Affording.scarce such breadth of brim,
As served the wild duck's brood to swim."
In advancing cnwards, the lake is lest for a few
minutes, but it again opens with increasing grandeur,
and presents new and picturesque views at almost
every step as we advance. Helen's isle will imme
diately arrest attention. It was from this "islet
rock" that, at the blast of the Knight of Snowden's
bugle, started forth the little skiff which brought
Helen Douglas to the "beach of pebbles bright as
snow;" and on the island was the rustic retreat
where Fitz-James spent the night. It was to the
same island that the women and children of the Clan-
Alpine are represented to have fled for refuge : 
Moray pointed with his lnnce,
And cried—* Behold yon iBle I 
See 1 none are left to guard its strand
But women weak that wring the hand,
'Tis there of yore the robber-baud
Their booty wont to pile ; 
My purse, with bonnet-pieces store,
To him will swim a how-shot o'er
And loose a shallop from'the shore,
Lightly we'll tame the war-wolf then.
Lords of his mate, and brood and den V

Forth from the ranks a spearman sprung,
On earth his casque and corslet rung,
He plunged into the wave.
* » » * •
He nears the isle — and lo I
His hand is on a shallop's bow.
I marked Duncraggan's widowed dame
Behind an oak I saw her stand
A naked dirk gleamed in her hand :
It darkened; but amid the moan
Of waves 1 heard a dying groan."
In the graphic narrative which we have here quoted
from the poem of Sir Walter, we have indeed but
the fictions of the poet ; yet when we recollect who
were the ancient inhabitants of this district, we can
feel little doubt that such scenes were formerly not
unfrequent during that period,
" When tooming faulds, or sweeping of a glen,
Had still been held the deeds ol gallant men."
When the Clan-Gregor, pr, as they were called, the
Clan-Alpine, held this district, there can be no
question that on this island their wives and children
often scught shelter from the numerpus enemies of
their name ; and it is said that during Cromwell's
usurpation, one of his soldiers who had swam to the
island, and was about to seize one of the boats,
met his dppm frpm the hand of a woman in the
manner described in the poem. But, whatever be
the truth of the legends connected with it, "the
mighty minstrel" has "waved his visioned wand,"
and they have now obtained an absolute and perma
nent existence in the imagination ; the island is
visited by almost every stranger who makes Loch-
Katrine a part of his tour ; and the wild den of Coir-
nan-Uriskin is usually taken in the same water-
excursion. A rustic hut has been erected on the
island by the proprietor, in imitation of that described
in the poem.
Having now fairly opened up the lake, we have
more than 6 miles of water in length under the eye ;
Benvenue rises high over head to the left ; and the
mountains of Aroquhar terminate the prospect to
the west. Gazing from some of the heights or pro
montories which here surround him, the stranger .
must, like Fitz-James, feel " raptured and amazed,"
and with him, may Well exclaim, —
" What a scene were here
For princely pomp or churchman's pride!
On this bold brow a lordly tower
In that soft vale a lady's bower,
On yonder meadow far away,
The turrets of a cloister grey.
How blithely might the bugle-horn
Chide, on the lake, the lingering morn !
How sweet at eve, the lover's lute
Chime, when the groves were still and mute I
And when the midnight-moon should lave
Her forehead on the silver wave.
How solemn on the ear would come
The holy matin's distant hum ;
While the deep peal's commanding tone
Should wake in yonder islet loue,
A sainted hermit from his cell,
To drop a bead with every knell 
And bugle, lute, and bell, and all,
Should the bewildered stranger call
To friendly feast, and lighted hall !"
Whether the stranger pursues his route by the road
along the northern shore of the loch, or, hiring a boat
embarks upon its placid bospm, he will cpntinue tp
be delighted New he will beheld bluff headlands,
where the black rocks dip down into unfathomable
water ; and now deep retiring bays, their beaches
covered with white sand and gravel which has been
bleached for ages by the waters ; rugged and stu
pendous cliffs rise on every hand, waving with wood
which seems to grow from the solid rock —every
crevice or cavern returns its echo,— every grove is
failed with the melody of birds,— and from the far
heights or distant valleys is heard the melancholv
bleating of the sheep, the cry of the careful shepherd"

KATRINE.

73

or the barking of his dog. The eagle at One time
might be seen sitting in lonely majesty on some lofty
rock, or sailing slowly high in the air, but he is now
banished from the district; the heron, however, still
stalks among the reeds in search of his prey, and the
wild duck may be frequently seen gamboling on the
water, or diving beneath its surface. — Benvenue, the
highest mountain which rises from the lake, is situ
ated on the southern shore near the east end. Its
name signifies ' the Small mountain ;' but this could
only be applied in comparison with the loftier Ben-
lomond and Benledi. Its height is said to be 3,009
feet. This is probably one of the most picturesque
mountains in Great Britain. On its northern side it
presents those immense masses of rocks which ap
pear, on this as well as on all other mountains, to
have been torn by some convulsion of nature from its
summit, and hurled below. At one time it was finely
covered for about two-thirds of its height, with
alders, birches, and mountain-ashes of ancient
growth, but much of these and of the wooding of the
Trosachs was cut down about 26 years ago, — a most
lamentable outrage on the scenery of this fairy and
classic region. — The celebrated Coir-nan- Uriskin, or
' Cave of the Goblins,' which has been rendered
venerable from Highland tradition and superstition,
is situated at the base of Benvenue, where it over
hangs the lake in solemn grandeur. It is a deep
circular amphitheatre or hollow in the mountain,
about 600 yards in diameter at the top, but narrow
ing towards the bottom, surrounded on all sides with
stupendous rocks, and overshadowed with birch
trees, which render it impenetrable to the rays of
the sun. On the south and west, it is bounded by
the precipitous shoulder of the mountain, to the
height of 500 feet ; and towards the east the rock
appears to have tumbled down, strewing the whole
slope with immense fragments, which now give
shelter to foxes, wild cats, and badgers. The Urisks,
from whom this cave derives its name, were sup
posed to be dispersed over the Highlands, each in
his own wild recess ; but the solemn stated meetings
of the order were regularly held in this cave or den.
These beings were, according to Dr. Grabam, " a
sort of lubberly supernaturals, who, like the Brownies,
could be gained over, by kind attention, to perform
the drudgery of the farm, and it was believed that
many of the families in the Highlands had one of the
order attached to it." The name literally means
' the Den of the wild or shaggy men ;' and Mr.
Alexander Campbell conjectures that it may have
originally only implied its being the haunt of feroci
ous banditti, at one time too common in the High
lands. "But," says Sir Walter Scott, "tradition
has ascribed to the Urisks a figure between a goat
and a man ; in short, however much the classical
reader may be startled, precisely that of the Grecian
satyr." Farther up the mountain than Coir-nan-
Uriskin is Bealoch-nam-eo: which see.
As already mentioned, the only carriage-road to
Loch-Katrine is by Callander, and through the
Trosachs, to the east end of the lake. Pedestrians,
however, often visit it by a different route. Leaving
Loch-Lomond at Inversnaid, and passing the old
fort of that name, they approach Loch-Katrine near
its western extremity; they then cross the loch,
and walk down its northern shore or take a boat,
till they arrive at the east end, where they enter the'
Trosachs. The first sight of the lake is obtained
by the traveller, who comes by this road from Loch-
Lomond, at a place called Colbarn, and sometimes
the Garrow of Stronalachar, 2 or 3 miles from the
head of the lake. From this point of view, Loch-
Katrine does not present the picturesque or romantic

interest which attaches to the scenery towards its
eastern end ; — but there is a rude grandeur, — a lonely
sublimity about it, — which at least inspires awe, and
fills the mind with pleasing melancholy, though it
may fail to realize the images associated with its
name in our fancy. When we look upon the utter
desolateness which spreads around, — the bluff head
lands which project their weather-beaten fronts into
the water, — the noble outline of the lofty moun
tains, — the bare and rugged rocks with which they
are covered, — the deep ravines that form the beds of
the innumerable streams which flow down their sides,
— the heath-covered muirs that intervene, — and the
contrasted stillness and purity of the transparent
lake, — we feel that it is altogether highly character
istic Highland scenery. This upper end of the loch
is within that extensive district which was anciently
the country of the Macgregors ; but from the greater
portion of which they were, from time to time, dis
possessed by their more crafty neighbours. In the
fastnesses at the head of Loch- Katrine they often
sought refuge from oppression*; and to these they
usually retired after those predatory excursions into
the lowlands, to which they were prompted alike by
necessity and the desire of vengeance. The well-
known Rob Roy, about the year 1708, confined
Graham of Killearn for three days on an island near
the head of Loch- Katrine. The Duke of Montrose
had, by the forfeiture of a wadset, obtained a right to
dispossess Rob Roy of his property of Inversnaid
and Craigrostan. In this it does not appear that there
was any harshness on the part of his Grace ; but Kil
learn, his chamberlain, had recourse te a mode pt
expulsien incensistent with the rights ef humanity,
and had grossly insulted Macgregor's wife in her
husband's absence. Rob Roy, on his return, being
informed of what had occurred, withdrew from the
scene of the outrage, and vowed revenge. In order
to make up for the loss of his property, he regularly
seized a portion of his Grace's rent ; but on Killearn
he took a personal satisfaction, which certainly shows
the mildness of his character when we consider the
habits and mode of thinking of the Highlanders of
his day. The chamberlain was collecting rents at
Cappeleroch, a place in Stirlingshire, when Rob Roy
came upon him with an armed force, and demanded
his share of the rents. For this he gave the cham
berlain a receipt : and afterwards carried the unwill
ing gentleman to Loch-Katrine, where he kept him
in durance for three days, and then set him at liberty.
— Glengyle, a lonely tract of country among the hills
at the upper extremity of the loch, belonged to a
family of Macgregor's, who, during the time when
the name was prohibited, changed theirs to Graham.
Rob Roy was of this family. He was the second son
of Donald Macgregor, brother to the laird of Glen
gyle, and a lieutenant-colonel in the king's service,
 most probably in one of the independent companies
raised for the internal defence of the Highlands. The
family of Glengyle were descended from a fifth son
of the laird of Macgregor about the year 1430. He
was named Dugald Ciar, or ' Dugald of the mouse
colour.' Dugald had two sons, of whom the youngest,
Gregor Dhu, or Black Gregor, was the founder of the
family of Glengyle. Rob Roy originally possessed no
patrimonial estate. His father lived on Glengyle as a
tenant, and latterly was tutor to his nephew, Gre
gor Macgregor of Glengyle, styled, in the language
of the Highlands, Gregor- Gluine-dhu, or ' the
Black knee'd Gregor,' from a black spet pn his knee.
The lands pf Craigrostan and Inversnaid were after
wards acquired by Reb Roy ; and we find him seme-
times styled Rebert Macgregor pf Craigrostan, and
spmetimes Baron of Inversnaid. The name of Mac-

KAT

74

KEI

gregor being proscribed, Rob Roy assumed that of
Campbell, from respect to the Duke of Argyle who
had often protected him.
KATRINE. See Catherine.
KATTERLINE, or Catterline, a suppressed
parish in Kincardineshire, now united to Kinneff :
which see.
KEACLOCH, a magnificent mountain in Ross-
shire, separating Loch-Gruinard from Little Lech-
Brcpm. Maccullcch says : " Frem this mpuntain
there descends a tcrrent pf great size, with a length
of almost continupus cascades which I am afraid tp
name, lest ypu shpuld think that I am saying the
thing which is not. I will enly call it twp miles;
for fear that if I said it was more, you would not
believe me. This stream may indeed be considered
an epitome of cascade landscape: if- 1 were to call it
a dictionary, it would be a more apt term. If it
does not contain every species of waterfall, it at
least possesses a type of every genus — to use the
language of naturalists ; and to describe it all, would
be to write a general history of cascades. The
forms of the rocks which accompany its course are
bold, broad, and various ; while the wild trees, the
fantastical fir, with the aspen, alder, birch, oak, and
ash, add variety to ornament; sometimes closing
over to conceal it, at others springing solitary from
the crevices of the rocks, or, hanging over the deep
ravine, or else, broken by the winter storms, ex
tending their aged trunks to form fearful bridges
across the fathomless abyss. So deep is its course
in some places, in the ravine which it has cut for
itself, that the water is invisible; and it is only by
a distant and sullen roaring that we can conjecture
its presence. Pursuing the channel, a glimpse of
light is sometimes seen amid the blackness of the
abyss, where some unusual obstruction impedes its
career ; till, struggling at length towards the light,
it is seen foaming and boiling among the huge frag
ments below, whence pnee mpre emerging intp day,
it resumes the mpre common characters of a cascade
or a broken torrent. • * « In continuing the
ascent, the river was soon found running along its
channel, shaded with birch and alder, the sweetest
of pastoral streams; and I almost forgot that I was
three thousand feet above the sea, so tranquil and
rural did every thing appear. But the change of
scene was sudden indeed, when, taking a new course
through a lateral valley, we found ourselves in the
region of snow, on a brilliant frozen plain. As this
snow could not have dissolved before the winter it
is probably here permanent from year to year. The
summit of the mountain, extending to five or six
hundred perpendicular feet above this point, is a
rocky and narrow ridge, serrated into peaks, and of
a very marked and picturesque character. Thcugh
formed of sandstone, as is the whole mountain frpm
the very base, it has the general aspect pf granite-
resembling the summits of the Arran hills. Overl
topping all the neighbouring land, it commands a
wide extent of the interior country, displaying all
the details of Loch-Brcpm and Loch-Greinord, and
losing itself eastward, in a series of deep valleys
ridges, and ravines, of bare white rock, characterized
by an aspect of desolation not easily exceeded. The
great but desert lake, Loch-Fannich, was also hence
visible; bright glittering among the rocky mountains
and moors of this terrible country. Seaward it
commands the extensive group of the Summer islands :
but all beyond is the boundless ocean. The effect
ot the valley on the west side, which separates it
from Loch-Greinord, is more striking from its vacu
ity than if it had displayed the utmost intrica* of
form. On each side it rises in one dead and flat
surface; its bottom invisible from above, and pro

longed without apparent beginning or termination.
The sense of emptiness which was produced on
looking down into it, was absolutely painful: it
seemed, like standing on the brink of eternity. I
proceeded for spme distance along the giddy ridge,
in hopes of seeing its termination ; but all continued
vacant, desplate, silent, dazzling, and bpundless.
Of the height pf Kea Cloch I cannot speak with
precision, having forgotten to bring up the barome
ter. But though it seems to have been completely
overlppked by mapmakers and travellers, it must be
among the highest mountains of the west coast, if
not of Scotland; while, as it rises immediately from
the sea by as steep an acclivity as is well possible,
and without competitors, its apparent altitude is
greater than that of any single mountain in Scot
land, excepting perhaps Ben Nevis." — ['Highlands
and Western Isles,' vol. ii. pp. 312, 315—317.]
KEARN. See Forbes.
KEARN. See Auchindoir.
KEIG, or Keigh, a small parish in the district
of Alford, county of Aberdeen ; bounded on the
north by Leslie and Premney ; on the east by Oyne
and Monymusk; on" the south by Tough and Al
ford; and on the west by Tullynessle and Forbes.
It is skirted on the south and south-east by the river
Don ; on the west by a tributary to that river; and
on the east by an elevated range of hills. It is
nearly circular in form, and of. 3 to 4 miles in dia
meter, consisting chiefly of hilly ground, partly pas
toral and heathy, but containing a large proportion
of arable and well- cultivated land, with a consider
able extent of natural wood, and some thriving plan
tations, surrounding Castle- Forbes, the seat of Lord
Forbes, which commands a beautiful view of the
valley of Alford, the windings of the Don for nearly
20 miles, and the neighbouring seats and plantations
Population, in 1801 , 379 ; in 1831, 592. Houses 126.
Assessed property, in 1815, £1,262  This parish
is in the presbytery of Alford, and synod of Aber
deen. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £158 13s. 6d. ;
glebe £12. Schoolmaster's salary £36; fees £8,
besides a share of the Dick bequest. There is a
private school in the parish.
KEILLESAY, one of the Hebrides, in the shire
of Inverness, and parish of Barra.
KEILLS, a fishing- village in the parish of North
Knapdaje, Argyleshire, upon the eastern shore of
the sound of Jura. It is joined to the Argyle county
road from Crinan, that terminates near it, by a road
rather more than a mile in length. This is the
landing-place frem the Island-roads through Jars
and Islay. The breadth pf the ferry from Lagg, the
nprthern extremity pf Jura road, to Keills, is abput
6 miles. KEIR, a parish in the centre pf the district of
Nithsdale, Dumfries-shire. It forms a slender pblpng
terminating in an angle, and stretches frpm north
west tp sputh- west. On the nprth it is bounded by
Penpont; on the north-east by Closeburn andkirk-
mahpe ; pn the sputh by Dunscpre ; pn the south
west by Glencairn ; and on the north-west by Tyn-
ron. Its greatest length, frem the boundary opposite
/ ri?°xT.^llag? °.n the nortb-west to the cpnfluence
of the Nith and Allanten burn on the south-east, is
b£ miles ; its greatest breadth, from the Nith at its
own church on the north-east to an angle a mile dis
tant from Glencairn church on the south-west, is
2i miles But, as it dwindles to a point at the
br^fSferVXoreffi,ity'.and has not an average
breadth of qulte 2 miles, its superficial area is only
about 1 1 square miles. Shinnel water, coming in from
Tynron forms for lj mile the north- western boun- '
dary. Scaur water, drinking up the Shinnel, and
flewing between picturesque banks, forms for 2J

KEI

75

KEI

miles the boundary on the north and north .east.
The river Nith, devouring the Scaur, and strong in
the attractions of river-beauty, traces the north
eastern boundary over 4* miles to the south-eastern
extremity. Allanton burn rises in the interior, flows
a mile southward, traces pver 2J miles the southern
boundary, and then loses itself in the Nith. Six rills,
each about li mile in length, rise in the interior, and
flow almost in parallel lines, and nearly at regular
intervals, eastward or north-eastward, to the Nith
and the Scaur. All the rills beautify the face of the
ceuntry, and fling verdure and herbage en their
banks; and one of them traverses a romantic and
exquisitely wppded ravine, and forms, during its
frolicsome cpurse, a remarkably beautiful cascade.
Springs are everywhere abundant; and two small
lakes, both nearly drained, and converted into luxu
riant meadow, spread out their treasures on the
opposite side of the parish to that watered by the
Nith. Along the south-western verge of the parish
stretches, for 4 miles, a height called Keir hill, ris
ing probably 800 or 900 feet above sea-level. A
continuation of it, called Capenoch hill, trends a little
into the. interior on the north. South-east of the
southern extremity of Keir hill rise the short parallel
ridges of Kilbride and Blackwood hills. Along the
banks of the Scaur and the Nith the surface is a rich
fertile holm, and thence it ascends in a steep wooded-
bank, in a table land, and in a somewhat rapid ac
clivity to the summit of Capenoch and Keir hills.
The table-land over most of the distance is of con
siderable breadth; and, being all of alluvial soil,
appears to have been anciently the bed of a large
lake, formed by the Nith before the river ploughed
its way through a hilly obstruction on the south ;
and afterwards it glides up into the gentle slope of
Kilbride hill, and finally — along with the holm and
the intervening bank — becomes lost in Blackwood
hill, which presses close upon the Nith. Most of
the parish is thus a variegated and regular descent
from a hilly summit over a base of 2i miles to the
Nith ; and seen from the highway between Glasgow
and Dumfries, as the road leaves the village of
Thornhill, and runs down the parish of Closeburn,
it presents a picture of no common beauty; and
when the road closes in upon the river, and at last
crosses into the parish at its southern extremity along
the famed Auldgirth bridge, the scenes of pictur-
esqueness and profuse attraction presented by Black
wood hill, and the narrowed vale of the river, and
the adornings of wood and water, are singularly
varied and delightful. But fine as the landscapes
are which the parish exhibits, they are very second-
rate both in power and in expansiveness to those
which higher grounds command. Blackwood hill,
in particular, lifts the eye along all the brilliant and
exulting valley of the Nith from Drumlanrig castle
to the Solway, giving to the view all the richest
part of both upper and lower Nithsdale, screened
at one extremity by the central mountain-chain of
the lowlands of Scotland, and, at the other by the
mountains of Cumberland. The lower grounds- of
the parish are abundantly tufted both with natural
wood and with plantation. Sandstone and limestone
are abundant; and the latter is worked in two lo
calities. Leeches are found in a lpchlet near Keir-
mill, and are spmetimes spld to the appthecary.
One-half pf the parish is arable ; and the pther
half is distributed intp pasture, meadpw, and wood-
Jands. The mansions are Capenoch on the north ;
Blackwood on the Nith, at the base of Blackwood
hill ; and Barjary, 2£ miles abp ve the latter, and half-
a-mile frpm the Nith. On the demesne pf Bar-
iary are two remarkable trees, — one an oak, sup
posed to contain upwards of 800 feet of timber, —

and the other a silver fir, 10 feet in girth, upwards
of 90 feet in height, and sending off pendulous
branches, which form a natural arbour around its
stem. Two hamlets, Keirmilland Barjary, stand in
the vicinity respectively of the parish-church, and
Barjary house. The road from Dumfries to Pen-
pont runs over the whole length of the parish nair
the Nith and the Scaur ; the Glasgow and Dum
fries turnpike runs for half-a-mile through its south
ern extremity ; and the road from Penpont to Min-
nihive runs a mile closely within its western boun
dary. Population, in 1801, 771 ; in 1831, 1,804.
Houses 183. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,675.
— Keir is in the presbytery of Penpont, and synod ot
Dumfries. Patron, the Duke ef Buccleuch. Sti
pend £233 Is. 7d. ; glebe £18. Unapprepriated
teinds £87 18s. 5d. The parish-church, a neat
edifice, built in 1814, is situated en the Scaur, a
mile from the northern boundary. Sittings, about
450. There are two parochial schools, attended by
an average of 135 scholars. Salary of each school
master £25 13s. 4d., with, in one case, £21 fees,
and £3 15s. other emoluments ; and, in the other
case, £22 fees, and £2 other emoluments. A non-
parochial school, attended by 22 scholars, is taught
in the summer months by a female. Keir church
appeal's anciently to have belonged to some mpnastery.
On Kilbride hill ence stood a chapel, every vestige
of which has disappeared. A rankly iuxuriant spot,
very distinguishable from the circumjacent ground,
is beheved to have been the site of the cemetery.
' KEISS, a quoad sacra parish in Caithness, com
posed of parts of the parishes of Wick and Canisbay,
and constituted in 1833 by the General Assembly.
It is above 5| miles in length, by 5 in breadth 
Population, 1,047. Church buiit by the Parliamen
tary commissioners in 1827 ; sittings 338 ; cost
£1,500; stipend £120, paid by Government. There
is a small Baptist congregation in the parish.
KEITH," a parish in the county of Banff, bounded
on the north by Rathven and Deskford ; on the east
by Grange and Cairney ; on the south by Cairney ;
and on the west by Botriphine and Boharm. The
river Isla enters the parish on the south, and runs
northwards, between the town of Keith and Fife-
Keith, to an artificial cut, through which, partly, it
is continued, in a more easterly direction, to its junc
tion with the Altmore burn, which skirts the parish
on the east. This parish stands in the fertile district
of Strathisla, the greater part of which it compre
hends ; and, though situated nearly in the centre of
the county, it stretches from the eastern to the west
ern boundary, this being one of the narrowest parts
of the latter. The form of the parish is elliptical,
and its average diameter about 6 miles. It anciently
extended from Fordyce to Malloch, comprehending
all the fertile lands watered by the Isla. No parish
in the north of Scotland contains a more extensive
or fertile tract of arable land than is still comprised
in Keith. This choice district anciently belonged
to the abbots of Kinloss, to whpm it was granted by
William the Lipn ; and it yielded them a heavy ren
tal, even in the 16th century, when it was very ill
cultivated. The seil is chiefly lpam and clay, with
spme pf a lighter quality. It is almpst all in a high
state pf cultivation, chiefly effected since the period
of the revolutipnary wars. There are fine planta.
tions on the estates of spme of the principal pro-
* The name of this parish is said to be derived from the
Gaelic word ghaith, 'the wind,' pronounced somewhat simi
larly to Keith. The locality of the old village and kirk is pecu.
liar I y exposed to gusts of wind, and is called Arkeith, "an
evident corruption of the Gaelic words Ard Ghaith, pronounced
Ard Gui, and signifying ' high wind.' This etymology is also
supported by the ancient manner of spelling the name, — in
some old charters it is written Gith, which still more resein
blcs the word ghaith."

76

KEITH.

prietprs : these were principally laid cut by the Earls
pf Fife and Seafield. Near the pld village of Keith
the Isla forms a fine cascade, called the ' Linn cf
Keith.' In this vicinity are the ruins pf a castle pnce
the seat cf the family pf Oliphant. Several Druid
ical circles have been found within the parish. Near
two of these are fountains of excellent water, for
merly supposed to be possessed of sanative pro
perties, and to one of which, in the memory of
individuals living at the date of the Old Statis
tical Account, the superstitious resorted, and made
offerings, for the restoration of health. " At a place
called Killiesmont, in this parish," says Cham
bers, " there is one of those pieces of ground some
times found in Scotland, variously known by the
name of 'the Guidman's craft,' or 'the Gi'en rig,'
that is, given or appropriated [on a principle remind
ing one forcibly of the ' Taboo ' among the New Zea
land savages] " to the sole use of the Devil, in order
to propitiate the good services of that malign being.
This piece of land is on the southern declivity of a
lofty eminence. At the upper end of the ridge there
is a flat circular stone of about 8 feet in diameter, in
which there are a number of holes, but for what pur
pose tradition is silent. Like other crofts of this
description in Scotland, the present remained long
uncultivated, in spite ef the spread ef intelligence.
The first attempt te reclaim it was made not more
than 50 years since, when a farmer endeavoured to
improve it ; but, by an accidental circumstance, it
happened that no sooner had the plough entered the
ground than one of the oxen dropped down dead.
Taking this as an irrefragable proof of the indigna
tion of its supernatural proprietor, the peasant de
sisted, and it remained untitled till it came into the
possession of the present occupant, who has had the
good taste to allow the large flat stone to remain, a
memorial of the idle fancies of preceding genera
tions." — There are five distinct villages or towns in
this parish, namely, Old Keith, New Keith, and
Fife-Keith, described under the following article,
and the old and new town of Newmill. In these
towns flax-dressing, weaving, bleaching, tanning,
distilling, and other manufacturing operations, are
carried on. There are several liine-works in the
parish, and a grey variety of fluor spar, one of the
rarest of our Scottish minerals, has been found as
sociated with green antimony in calcareous spars.
Population of the parish, in 1801, 3,284; in 1831,
4,464. Hpuses 890. Assessed property, in 1815,
£6,641  Keith is in the presbytery of Strathbogie,
and synod of Moray. Patron, theEarlof Fife. Stipend
£221 17s. 118.; glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds
£574 5s. lid. Church built in 1819; sittings 1,650.
There are also in the parish an Episcopalian congre
gation; chapel built in 1807 ; sittings 150; and two
congregations of the United Secession ; chapels built
respectively in 1780 and 1801 ; sittings 450 and 480 :
the stipend of the first is £80, and of the last £90
per annum. There is also a Roman Catholic con-
gregatien — Schpplmaster's salary £34; fees and
other emoluments £90; besides £16 14s. derived
from a school-endowment founded in 1648, and now
conjoined with the parochial school ; and the interest
of a sum of £500, recently bequeathed by the late
Dr. Simpson of Worcester. There are 21 schools
not parochial. The celebrated natural philosopher
James Ferguson was a native of this parish.
KEITH, a town in the abeve parish, divided intp
the three distinct villages pf Old Keith, New Keith,
and Fife-Keith, all situated pn the banks pf the Isla,
surrounded by hills, and 8 miles east by south of
Fochabers, 12 south of CuUen, 17 east-south-east of
Elgin, and 20 south-west of Banff. Keith is one of
the principal towns in the ceunty. Old Keith is at

least 500 years eld; but its origin is unknown. By
its trade and jurisdiction of regality, it was, at one
period, superior in consequence to Banff, CuUen, and
Fordyce, then the only other towns in the county.
The court-of-regality sat in the church, and judged
of pleas in general, civil or criminal, even including
the four Crown pleas. Some of the regality barons
generally assisted the bailie, as his assessors. The
panels were put for trial into a window still called
' the Boss window ;' and were committed, on con
viction, to the steeple, as a jail. In capital convic
tions they were executed on the hill where New
Keith has since been built. The old town appears
to have corresponded in magnitude to the extent of
its judicial authority, stretching along the Isla to a
considerable length. Early in last century it was
celebrated for ' the Summer-eve fair,' still held, but
then one of the greatest fairs in Scotland, lasting a
week in the middle of September, and resorted to
by multitudes so great, "that the place was by no
means fit to contain them, and they lay by dozens,
male and female together, for miles round the whole
country." Being built in a very irregular and incon
venient manner, the old town was gradually aban
doned; dwindling, latterly, into a mean hamlet.
During the civil wars of 1645 and 1745, Old Keith
was the scene of events meriting some notice. On
the 30th June, ] 645, the army of Baillie occupied an
advantageous position near the old church, which
then stood at the south-western extremity of the
town. Montrose endeavoured to draw him from
this position by offering to fight 'on fair ground,'
but the Covenanter declined the proposal. In 1745
Captain Glasgow, an Irishman in the French service,
encountered a Government party stationed here, de
feated them, and carried off 150 prisoners. The only
other skirmish recorded by tradition to have occurred
in this vicinity, was about a century1 before this
period, when Peter Roy Macgregor, a Highland free
booter who infested this part of the country with an
organized gang of robbers, was taken by Gordon of
Glengerack, after a desperate resistance, and exe
cuted at Edinburgh.
New Keith was begun to be built about the year
1750, on the eastern decbvity of a gentle eminence
south-east of Old Keith, on the same side of the
Isla, and then forming part of a barren moor. It
is built on a regular plan, consisting of five prin
cipal streets, intersected by lanes, with the mar
ket-place, a spacious square near the centre of the
town. Houses, with Old Keith, 371. The court-
hpuse, situated in the market-place, was put pf re
pair at the period pf the municipal inquiry, — it is a
plain building. In 1823 the Earl pf Seafield, superior
of the barony of Keith, erected a commodious inn,
containing a large hall for the courts. The parish-
church is an elegant edifice, with a tower 100 feet
and upwards in height, and a clock and bell. The
Episcopal chapel, the two Secession meeting-houses,
and the Roman Catholic chapel, noticed above, are
all in the town of New Keith, — there is also a Metho
dist chapel, but np minister. The Roman Cathplic
chapel is an elegant and much admired edifice, in the
Reman Dpric style cf architecture, after the beautw
ful model pf St. Maria-de-Vittpria, at Rome, — the
interipr is tastefully prnamented, and contains a
splendid altar-piece, — subject, The Incredulity of St.
Thomas, — presented, in 1828, by Charles X. of
France, by whose principal artist it was painted on
purpose. A subscription-library, containing an ex
cellent and extensive collection of miscellaneous
wcrks, was established in 1810. The parpchial
schppl, situated in New Keith, is pf considerable
repute, having long been celebrated as an initiative
seminary for youths intended for the universitv

KEI

77

KEI

Though not a burgh, Keith was visited by the muni
cipal epmmissipners, whp reperted that " the inha
bitants are generally extremely desireus tp have a
cpnstitution, and a regular system of magistracy and
police, which they state is the more necessary from
the distance and little intercourse between Keith
and the county town of Banff." The streets were
not lighted, nor was water conveyed into them, and
the side-streets and bye-lanes were neglected.' The
feuars of that part of the town situated within the
barony of Keith, or Ogilvie, property of the Earl of
Seafield, were bound, by their feu charters, to assist
the Earl's bailie, or chamberlain, in maintaining a
few simple police regulations, and to obey all the
bailie-court decrees, and " keep their houses and
gardens in decent repair, conform to the regulations
of the royal burghs pf Scctland," &c. Besides some
manufactories of woollen, and others above noticed,
there are also two establishments, in New Keith, for
the manufacture of tobacco, and a snuff-mill, — the
only one north of Aberdeen, except one at Inverness.
A considerable trade in yarn and linen manufactures
was carried on here, till the general introduction of
the cotton manufacture. There are three branch-
banks in the town, viz., the Aberdeen Commercial,
the Aberdeen town and county, and the National.
There is also a Savings' bank. A weekly market is
held on Friday for grain and other agricultural pro
duce ; and there are four annual fairs, two of which
are important cattle- markets. Summer-eve fair is
still by far the greatest fair in the North for cattle
and horses.*
Fife- Keith has risen since 1816. It is situated
on the northern bank of the Isla, opposite Old Keith,
and consists of a principal street, on the high road
from Aberdeen to Inverness ; three other streets
running parallel, north and south ; a neat square in
the centre of the town ; and o. handsome crescent
* Keith ia the point whence cattle-dealers calculate the com
mencement of the journey of their cattle from the North to Bar.
nett fair, the great metropolitau market, on the Great North
road, in the vicinity of London, this point being in a manner
a key to the Highlands of the north of Scotland and the fertile
plains of Morayshire. The journey from Keith to Barnett oc
cupies 34 days, — the average number of miles travelled each day
being 16. The cattle and horses are collected in the north of
England and in Scotland, in the early part of the season. Up
wards of 45 000 head of cattle, and 10,000 horses change owners
at this fair. Since the introduction of steam-vessels to the
northern parts of Scotland, especially the Moray frith, the tran
sit of cattle to the metropolis has become a matter of easy uc-
complishmeut, but it will be a long period before journeys by
land be superseded. It is a question if the old system be ever
totally done away with, as the following description of the
route and method of accomplishing it will show : besides,
many of the cattle are purchased at markets in the interior of
the country, and the easy progress of the animals in their jour
ney southward improves their condition previous to their being
submitted at the London market. The majority of the dealers
who atteud Baruett fair reside in some of the rich aod fertile
counties on the borders of England and Scotland, and when the
opening spring and genial April showers supply a store of pro
vision. These euterprising men proceed northwards, in some
instances as far as the Kyle of Sutherland, before they com
mence operations. In their progress southward they vi&it the
Muir of Ord, and collect as they proceed through the eastern
parts of Inverness and Nairn, Moray, Banff, and Aberdeen
Blnres. the small but beautiful Highland breed of cattle pur
chased duriog the previous season by the agriculturists of these
districts. The markets are so excellently arranged throughout
Scotland, that by the time the dealers meet at Falkirk tryst
Ihey have generally collected a very large stock. The cattle are
then formed into lots of about 1,000 each, and intrusted to a
number of Scottish drovers, and the dealer sees no more of
them uutil he meets the whole at Barnett. The pay of a drover
is 2s. per day, and the expense of his bed. When he crosses the
Tweed he is allowed what is termed n iglit-wages, to the amount
of Is. extra from the owner, aud Is. from the grazier who sup-
plies food for the cattle. The amount realized by a drover, for
the whole journey, is about £8, and from 10*. to 15s. for return
money. The majority of the drovers return by land, in parties
of iO, and accomplish the distance in 13.days, at au average ex
pense of Is. per day, including food and lodging. And yet one
of these men, whose whole wardrobe would not fetch 4d. in
Rosemary-lane, is intrusted with from. £700 to £M0 to pay
the expenses of the food required by the cattle, and the tolls to
be passed during the journey. The number of Scottish drovers
visiting Barnett fair annually is about 1,500.

facing the Isla, over which there are here two
bridges connecting Fife- Keith with Old Keith. The
number of houses in Fife-Keith, in 1831, was 110.
The number ccntained in the united villages ef Keith
and Fife- Keith was 481, — at the peried pf the muni
cipal inquiry about 509; the number of inhabitants
about 2,500. The number of persons then registered
as voters in the county, in respect of feu tenements,,
was about 40, and nearly 20 more were qualified.'
There were about 30 tenants of houses at £10 and
upwards of rent.
KEITH-HALL and KINKELL, two united
parishes in the district of Garioch, county of Aber
deen, on the north-eastern banks of the Don, and its
tributary the Urie, at their junction, and bounded
on the north by Bourtie and Udny ; on the east by
New Machar and Fintray ; on the south by Fintray ;
and on the west by Kintore and Inverury. The
parish is of an oblong form, about 6 miles in length
from north to south, by 5 in breadth.f The dis
trict is hilly, though not mountainous, and the soil
is various ; being generally fertile on the western
side, towards the rivers, but inferior towards the
east. There are several extensive mosses ; but
some parts otherwise unfruitful are now under
thriving plantations, and agriculture is in an im
proved state, — good crops of oats, barley, pease,
turnips, and potatoes, being raised. The district has
been much benefited by its vicinity to the canal be
tween Inverury and Aberdeen. Keith-hall, the seat
of the Earl of Kintore, and Balbithan, are adorned
with plantations of considerable extent and contain
ing some fine eld trees. There are remains ef Dru
idical temples at Balbithan, and elsewhere in the
parish. Numerpus cairns have been found scattered
ever Kinmuck-moor, and localities are still pointed
out where warlike operations have occurred between
the Scots and Danes, the field of battle, on one
occasion, having extended over the whole parish.
" The famous Johnston, next to Buchanan the best
Latin poet of modern times," says the author of the
Old Statistical Account, " was born at Caskiebean,
which he celebrates. He mentions a curious fact,
viz., that the shadow of the high mountain of Ben-
ochie, distant about 6 English miles, extends to the
house of Caskiebean, at the equinox. The High
Constable of Dundee, Scrimgeour, who fell at Har
law, was buried at Kinkell, and has a Latin inscrip
tion on his monument, ill preserved. Many others,
who fell in this battle, are said to have been buried
at Kinkell, which was the principal church in that
part of the county. Tradition also speaks of an
eminent woman, ' The Lass of Patie's miU.' Her
maiden name was Anderson. A great-grandson of
hers, aged 89, and a number of her descendants, re
side in this district, and in the parishes of Kinnellar
and Dyce. Her father was proprietor of Patie's
mill in Keith-hall; of Tullikearie in Fintray; and
Standing-stones in the parish of Dyce. From her
beauty, or fortune, or from both causes, she had
many admirers ; and she was an only child. One
Sangster, laird of Boddom, in New Machar parish,
wished to carry her off, but was discovered by his
dog, and very roughly handled by her father, who
was called ' black John Anderspn.' In revenge he
f The ancient name of one of the parishes was Montkeggie,—
origin and etymology unknown. Kinkell retains its old name,
derived from the Gaelic, and signifying ' the head or principal
church,1 a name appropriated from the circumstance of six in
ferior parishes having originally belonged to the parsonage of
Kinkell. The authority for the modern name was derived
from the Lords Commissioners for the plantation of kirks, who,
in 1754, disjoined about one-third of the parish of Kinkell, and
annexed it to Kintore. The other two-thirds they annexed to
Keith-hall or Montkeggie ; and they appointed that these par
ishes should henceforth be called the united parishes of Keith-
hall and Kinkell.

KEI

78

KEL

wrote an ill-natured seng, pf which her great-grand-
spn remembers these wprds :
Ye'll tell the gowk that gets her,
He gets but my auld sheen.
She was twice married ; first, tp a namesake pf her
pwn, whp came from the south country, and is said
to have comppsed the spng, tp her praise, that is se
generally admired, and partakes much ef the music
which, at that time, abounded between the Tay and
the Tweed. Her second husband was one James
George,  and she had children by both. Like most
other beauties, she was unfortunate. Her father
killed a man in the burgh of Inverury ; and was
obliged to fly to Caithness, or Orkney, where his
uncle was bishop. His flight, and the expense of
procuring a pardon, ruined his estate." This is the
tradition  " But, perhaps," adds the same writer,
" the Lass of Patie's mill may be claimed by as many
parishes of Scotland as Homer's birth-place was by
the cities of Greece. It is only certain that, in this
district, there was a young woman, heiress of Patie's
mill, who was lampooned by a disappointed lover,
and praised by a successful one." The parish of
Galston in Ayrshire also claims the Lass of Patie's
mill  This parish is in the synod of Aberdeen, and
presbytery of Garioch. Patron, the Earl of Kintore.
Minister's stipend £216 17s. lid. ; glebe £30. Un
appropriated teinds £42 14s. lid  Schoolmaster's
salary £30 ; fees and other emoluments £40. There
is a private school in the parish. Population, in
1801, 853; in 1831, 877. Houses 172. Assessed
property, in 1815, £2,019.
KEITH-HUNDEBY. See Humbie.
KEITH-INCH, a promontory in the parish of
Peterhead, county of Aberdeen, constituting the
most eastern point pf land in Scotland, and bounding
the bay of Peterhead on the north. The name is
given to the whole of the small island which divides
the town of Peterhead from the sea; and the town
itself, in the charter-of-erection by George Earl
Marischall, in 1593, is named Keith Inch, alias
Peterhead. ¦
KEITH-MARSHALL. See Humbie.
KELLO WATER, a rivulet of Dumfries-shire.
It rises on the north side of Torryburnrig on the
boundary with Ayrshire, traces that boundary I£
mile northward, and then runs 4& miles eastward,
and 1£ north-eastward, between the parishes of
Kirkconnel and Sanquhar, and falls into the Nith 1^
mile below the village of Kirkconnel. Over its
whole course it is strictly a mountain-stream.
KELLS, a parish — the south-western one in the
district of GlEnkens — in the northern division of
Kirkcudbrightshire. Its form is not dissimilar to that
of a flying kite, the triangular part elongated and
pointing its terminating angle to the south-east.
Its greatest length, from the 'boundary a little above
Craig-Nilder on the north-west, to the confluence of
the Dee and the Ken on the south-east, is Hi.', miles ;
and its greatest breadth, from the confluence of the
Ken and the Carsphairn on the north-east, to the
confluence of the Dee and Cooran-Lane on the south
west, is 9^ miles. Five miles before its confluence
with the Dee the Ken begins to expand to a width
of from i to | of a mile, which it maintains till it
leaves the parish, and is continued southward under
the name of the Dee. The expanded part of the
river is called Loch- Ken: which see. In the north
ern division of the parish are three lakes — Loch-Har
row, Loch-Minnick, and Loch-Dungecn, the last and
largest f pf a mile in length — which greatly abcund
in trout. In the south are Stroan-loch, formed by
the expansien pf the Dee pn the bpundary and Black-
loch, midway between this and Loch-Ken, which,
besides being stored with trout, perch, eel, and sal

mon, produce pike of very large size. The head of
a pike caught with the rod, and weighing 57 pounds,
was long preserved at Kenmuir castle ; and fre
quently some are taken of from 20 to 30 pounds
weight. " There is a fishing in this parish," says the
Old Statistical Account, " claimed as no man's pro
perty, that cannot be easily estimated. I mean a
pearl fishery. In dry summers great numbers of pearls
are fished here ; some of great size and fine water,
and are sold from Is. to £1 Is. according to their
size and beauty." The flat expanse of land at the
head of Loch-Ken, enriched by the overflowings of
the river — which here diffuses its alluvial wealth in
the manner of a mimic Nile — is probably unsurpassed
in its fertility by any ' perpetual soil' in Scotland.
So late as 50 years ago, when it owed comparatively
little to the dressings of modern improvements in
agriculture, some of it had been cropped 25 years
successively without other manure than the Ken's
deposits. The whole vale of the Ken, in its screen
or back-ground of flanking hills, in the undulations
and ravines of its slopes, in the verdant carpeting
and sylvan adorning of its plain, and in the sumptu-
ousness of its mansions and demesnes and the beau
teous meanderings of its river, affords a series of
scenic views abundantly rich enough to vindicate the
fame which the district of Glenkens has acquired for
its landscapes. Over 5 miles from the sputhern ex
tremity is the fine scenery which cverhangs Loch-
Ken ; and pver anpther mile nprthward are the
attractive groupings around Kenmore-Castle, and
the burgh of New Galloway : See these articles.
Two miles to the north a richly cultivated tract
ppens te the view, enclesed in the form of an amphi
theatre by the circumjacent hills. On the east side
of the river, in the conterminous parish, the widely
expanded village of Dairy, with its verdant crofts,
and its tracery of hedges and rows of trees, looking
in the perspective like a town of villas sprinkled
among gardens, looks down from the brow of a ris
ing ground r and on the west side, or within Kells,
are the house of Waterside, the wooded vale of
Combe burn coming down to the Ken, the neat
farm-stead of Glenlee seated amidst a fantastic
sprinkling of trees, the picturesquely situated mill
of Glenlee, and, at a small distance below, the house
and ornamented grounds of Glenlee-park. Even be
fore Sir Thomas Miller of Glenlee, lord-president
of the court-of-session in the latter part of last cen
tury, improved and decorated his grounds, they pos
sessed many delightful dashes of natural wild beauty;
and, after passing beneath the tasteful touches of his
hand, and acquiring additional feature from the en
largement of his mansion, they became one of the
finest spots in the south of Scotland. These grounds
rise with a very gentle slope from the Ken, waving
in varied inequalities of surface, and bearing aloit
crowns and wreathings of plantation on the summits
pr round the brews pf their knplly heights. Their
nerthern beundary is a burn pf two headwaters, each
3 or 4 miles in length of course, which, in two places
within the grounds, falls in fine cascades over ledges
of rock. When the stream is swollen by rains the
appearance of the cascades so amazes the eye, and
the noise of their fall so stuns the ear, as to raise
emotions of sublimity and terror. A pool which re
ceives one of them is fancifully Called by the neigh
bouring peasants Hell's hole, and, on account of its
great depth, is fabled by them to be bottomless
The banks of the stream abruptly rise, in some
places, to a considerable height, and hang out um
brageous cpverings pf trees and underwppd pver the
current. Three miles nprth pf Glenlee anpther
range pf interesting scenery ppens before the tour-
ist up the Ken. The houses of Barskeech, Stran-

KEL

79

KEL

fasket, Knpcknalling, and Earlstcn, with their green
parks and beltings pf wood, lie under the eye, all
very nearly from one peint ; Ppllharrpw burn, the
largest of the minor streams of the parish, comes
down with wpoded banks between two of these
seats ; the Ken, rippling alpng its narrow plain, has
put on the attractions which draw favcur uppn it as
it advances ; and the back-ground cf upland scenery
recedes in the nerth-west into the cloud-cleaving
Rhinns cf Kells, the highest mpuntains in Galloway.
North-west of this spot, but south of the Rhinns,
and in the interior of the parish, are stinted remains
of an ancient and very iarge forest, supposed to
have been originally a hunting-ground of the lords
of Galloway, and adopted as a royal forest by the
dynasty of Bruce. Two large farms on the locality
have the names of the Upper and the Nether Forest ;
and remaining patches of wood, and a large expanse
of meadow, are still called respectively the King's
forest and the King's holm. Deer anciently abound
ed hvthe forest, and were remembered to have been
seen scouring the moors in flocks by persons alive
toward the close of last century, but were exter
minated about the year 1 786  All the surface of this
extensive parish, except in the parts we hav." noticed,
is wildly upland, and at intervals repulsively dreary
in aspect, — presenting none but tameless prospects
to the eye, morasses, wide tracts of heath, pervading
congeries of craggy hills, here and there a rivulet,
»nd, few and far between, chilled and desolate-
looking farm-houses. On the south- west side, from
the old bridge of Dee, 5 miles south-eastward to a
point opposite the head of Loch-Ken, stretches a
range of high hills, which press close upon the
Dee, and have a. breadth or base of 3 miles inland.
These hills are one solid mass of granite, almost
naked, but occasionally patched with heath ; and on
their slopes, as well as on the flat grounds at their
base, for about a mile on the south-west, are de
tached blocks of granite, many of them 10 tons in
weight, and all lying so thickly that a pedestrian
might almost make , his way along the surface by
stepping from stone to stone. On the north-west
and north sides of the parish extend for about 9 miles
the Rhinns of Kells, visible at 40 miles' distance,
capped with snow during eight and sometimes nine
months in the year, carpeted on their lower acclivi
ties with coarse grass, and stretching at mid-distance
between the western and eastern seas of Scotland.
On the side of one of these hills is a rocking-stone 8
or 10 tons in weight, so poised that the pressure of
a finger may move it, and so positioned that the
united force of a considerable number of men could
not hurl it from its place. The stone resembles the
famous one at Stonehenge, and others of less cele
brity in Perthshire. Whether it is a natural curi
osity formed by the scooping away of a soft stratum
beneath through the attritions of the elements, or
an instrument of priestcraft laboriously chiselled and
elevated on its position in an age of darkness for
overawing devotees, is a question which men have
keenly debated  To effect the agricultural improve
ment of various districts, but chiefly of Kells, in the
latter part of last century, Mr. Gordon of Greenlaw,
the sheriff of the county, not only enccuraged the
draining pf Castledpuglas-lcch, which lies T\ miles
distant from the cenfluence cf the Ken and the Dee,
and was surpassingly rich in its stcre pf shell marl,
but at his pwn expense cut a canal pf 3 miles in
length tp the Dee, and cpnstructed a number pf flat-
bottomed boats for the portation pf the valuable
manure. Nearly the whple imprpveable part pf the
parish began suddenly tp wear a totally renovated
aspect ; and when marl cpuld np longer be obtained, j
so aroused were the population from the slothful prac- '

tices of a former age to the enterprising fiabits of
keen imprevers, that they found means, in the form
of lime and other aids, to maintain a luxuriance in
the arable stripes among their wild hills, which may
almost compare with the fertility of the most favoured
and best cultivated districts of Scotland. The great
body of the parish, however, necessarily either lies
waste, or affords pasture to large flocks of sheep, and
to numerous herds of the celebrated Galloway breed
of black cattle. — In a rocky hill near the southern
extremity is abundance of iron ore ; but, owing to
the dearth of fuel, it is not worked. Near the
northern extremity, in the hill-screen of the Ken,
was formerly a quarry of excellent slate. On the
Glenlee and Kenmore estates is lead ore ; and near
a mine which was commenced on the former, but
never extensively wrought, are appearances of cop
per. — The turnpike from Kirkcudbright to Ayrshire
traverses the whole length of the parish up the vale
of the Ken, and that from Dumfries to Newton-
Stewart traverses 6J miles from east te west, — the
roads intersecting each other at the burgh of New
Galloway. Population of the parish, in 1801, 778;
in 1831, 1,728. Houses 190. Assessed property, in
1815, £4,496  Kells is in the presbytery of Kirk
cudbright, and synod of Galloway. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £299 9s. 8d.; glebe £12. School,
master's salary £34, with £30 fees. The ancient
church or rectory of Kells, situated in the arch
deaconry of Galloway, was given in free alms by
Robert Bruce to Gilbert of Galloway, the arch
deacon, and appended to the archdeaconry; but,
early in the 16th century, it was transferred by
James IV. to the chapel-royal of Stirling ; and it
continued to be one of its prebends till the Reforma
tion. In 1640 a large section of the ancient parish
on the north was detached, and, along with a section
from Dairy, erected into the parish of Carsphairn.
New Galloway in Kells was the birth-place cf
Robert Heron, the editor of Sir John Sinclair's Sta
tistical Account of Scotland, and the author of num
erous works, carelessly written but indicative of
high genius, who makes an unenviable figure in
D'Israeli's Calamities of Authors. Heron was for
some time a parochial schoolmaster of the neigh
bouring parish of Kelton.
KELLY-BURN, a small rivulet on the north
east extremity of Ayrshire, the boundary, in that
quarter, betwixt it and Renfrewshire.
KELSO, a parish in the north-east division of
Roxburghshire ; bounded on the north by Nenthorn
in Berwickshire ; on the north-east by Ednam ; pn the
east by Sprpustpn ; pn the seuth-east by Eckford ;
on the south-west by Roxburgh ; and on the west
by Makerston and Smailholm. Its extreme length,
from a point where it is touched by Eden water on
the north, to an angle a little south of West Softlaw
on the south, is 4jj miles ; and its extreme breadth,
from an angle on the Tweed below Sharpitlaw on
the east, to an angle beyond Wester Moordean on
the west, is 4| miles. But it is extremely irregular
in outline, contracts to a point on the south, has an
average breadth of not more than -\\ miles, and mea
sures, in superficial area, only about 4,400 imperial
acres. The Tweed comes in on the west, forms foi
a mile the boundary with Roxburgh, makes large
bends for 2 miles till it passes the town, and then
goes away 1£ mile nerth-eastward tp the ppint pf
its leaving the parish. The Tevipt, after tracing for
J of a mile the western boundary, comes in at a
point only i of a mile sputh pf the Tweed, and,
vying with it in the curving beauty of its course,
and the sumptuous richness of its scenery, so coyly
approaches as not to make a confluence till opposite
the town, a mile below the point of entering. At

80

KELSO.

the average distance of If or 2 miles from the Tweed,
and nearly parallel with it, runs the Eden; but it
merely touches a projecting angle, and passes on,
serving chiefly to give the northern division of the
parish a peninsular character. The Tweed, in its
transit, averages about 440 or 450 feet in width, and
the Teviot about 200. The two rivers are sometimes
simultaneously flooded, and run together in headlong
and riotous confluence, combining the might of their
swollen and careering waters to introduce to the
generally tranquil and smiling scene the elements of
sublimity and terror. Immediately below their point
of junction was recently an opulently wooded islet,
which lay like an emerald gem on their bosom, and
contributed a feature of striking interest to a sump
tuously clothed landscape; and this, in spite of the
efforts of the town's people to bulwark it by rude
masonry, they have at various periods torn up and
dissevered, till only some tiny fragments remain,
soon probably to follow the main body of the islet
as trophies of the rivers' prowess. The Teviot; —
more subject to floods than the Tweed, and nearer
the mountain-land where its waters are gathered,
and occasionally liable to rise with a suddenness
which in 10 or 15 minutes will increase fourfold its
volume — frequently comes down in red wrath upon
the quiet Tweed[ drives up its pellucid waters
against the north side of their common channel, and
for some distance pursues a distinct course along the
south side before a commingling of waters is effected.
The point of confluence, with its intervening pen
insula, is one of the loveliest in Scotland; but is
marred in its beauty by a mill-lead carrying off from
the Teviot a considerable body of its wealth, just
where all its opulence is most needed, to make a
suitable approach to the magnificent monarch-river
to which it pays tribute. Half-a-mile south of the
town, the Woodens, a rill of about a mile in length
of course, joins the Tweed from the south, making
at one point a tiny but very beautiful cascade, and
flowing along a wooded and romantic ravine. Seen
from the heights of Stitchel 3 miles to the north,
the whole parish appears to be part of an extensive
and picturesque strath, — a plain intersected by two
rivers, and richly adorned with woods; but seen
from the low grounds close upon the Tweed, near
the town, it is a diversified basin, — a gently receding
amphitheatre, — low where it is cut by the rivers, and
cinctured in the distance by a boundary of sylvan
heights. On the north side of the Tweed it slowly
rises in successive wavy ridges, tier behind tier, till
an inconsiderable summit-level is attained; and on
the south side, while it generally makes a gradual
rise, it is cut down on the west into a diverging
stripe of lowland by the Teviot, ascends, in some
places, in an almost acclivitous way from the banks,
and sends up in the distance hilly and hard-featured
elevations, which, though subject to the plough, are
naturally pastoral. The whole district is surpass
ingly rich in the features of landscape which strictly
constitute the beautiful, — unmixed with the grand,
or, except in rare touches, with the romantic. The
views presented from the knolly height of Roxburgh
castle, and from the immediate vicinity of the Ducal
mansion of Fleurs, are so luscious, so full and mi
nute in feature, that they must be seen in order to
be appreciated. The view from the bridge, a little
below the confluence of the rivers, though greatly
too rich to be depicted in words, and demanding
consummate skill in order to be pencilled in colours,
admits at least an easy enumeration of its leading
features. Immediately on the north lies the town,
with the majestic ruins of its ancient abbey, and the
handsome fabric of Ednam-house; Ij mile to the
north-west, rises the magnificent pile of Fleurs

castle, amidst a profusion and an expanse coming
down to the Tweed of wooded decorations; in front
are two islets in the Tweed, and between that river
and the Teviot the beautiful peninsula of Friar's or
St. James' Green, with the fair green in its fore
ground, and the venerable and tufted ruins ef Rox
burgh castle, 1J mile distant; pn the sputh-west,
within a fine bend pf ' the Tevipt, are the mansion
and demesne of Springwppd, and away behind them,
in far perspective, looking down the exulting vale of
the Tweed, the Eildon hills lift up their triple sum
mit. ; a little to the east, close upon the view, rises
the fine form of Pinnacle-hill; away in the distance
behind the town, rise the conspicuous ruin of Home
castle, and the hills of Stitchel and Mellerstain,
and, in addition, are the curvings and rippling cur
rents of the rivers, — beltings and clumps and lines
of plantation, — the steep precipices of Maxwell and
Chalkheugh, — exuberant displays of agricultural
wealth and social comfort, — and reminiscences, sug
gestible to even a tyro in history, of events in olden
times which mingle delightfully in the thcughts with
a ccntemplatipn of the landscape. Sir Walter Scett
— who often revelled amidst this scenery in the latter
years of his boyhood, — ascribes to its influence upon
his mind the awakening within him of that " in
satiable love of natural scenery, more especially
when combined with ancient ruins or remains of our
fathers' piety or splendour," which at once charac
terized and distinguished him as a writer, and im
parted such a warmth and munificence of colouring
to all his literary pictures. Leyden, too — who had
around him in the vale of the Teviot, and the
" dens" of its tributary rills in the immediate vici
nity of his home at Denholm, quite enough to exhaust
the efforts of a lesser poet— sung impassionedly the
beauties of Kelsp : —
" Bosom'd in woods where mighty rivers run,
Kelso's fair vale expands before the sun ;
Its rising downs in vernal beauty swell.
And, fringed with hazle, winds each flowery dell ;
Green spangled plains to dimpling lawns succeed,
And Tetope rises on the banks of Tweed :
Blue o'er the river Kelso's shadow lies,
And copse-clad isles amid the water rise."
Scenes of Infancy.
Abput 19 parts in 22 pf the parish are arable
ground; and the rest of the surface is disposed in
plantation, pasture, and the site of the town. On
the banks of the rivers is a rich deep loam, on a
subsoil of gravel; in the north-western division, it
is a wet clay ; and in the south, it is thin and wet,
upon a red aluminous subsoil. Before the genera
manurial use of lime and marl, the district was re
markably poor, scarcely yielding to the farmer —
especially on the wet soils — a compensation for his
labour. So grossly was the land neglected, too,
and so sluttishly were all the present meadows al
lowed to exist as marshes and stagnant pools, luxu-
riant only in reeds and flags, and the resort of the
wild duck and the sea-mew, that the very climate
was rendered pestilential, and laden with the fame
of insalubriousness. But nowhere in Scotland does
the practice of agriculture now exist in more skill, or
achieve higher results proportionately to the capa
bilities of the soil. Farms are in general large,  a
great proportion being upwards of 500 acres in ex
tent. The cattle-stock is chiefly the short-horned
or Teeswater breed.— The only village in the parish
is Maxwellheugh: which see. Besides the man
sions incidentally noticed, are Pinnacle-hill on the
south bank of the Tweed, seated, opposite the east
end of Kelso, on the summit of the precipitous emi
nence from which it derives its names, and sending
down its attendant woods to the edge of the river,
— Wooden, within whose grounds is the exquisite
scenery of Wooden-burn,— and Rosebank, on the

KELSO.

81

north side of the Tweed, opposite Wooden. Turn
pikes radiate in various directions from the tpwn
toward Edinburgh, Greenlaw, Leithplm, Cpldstream,
Sprpuston, Yetholm, and Hawick, — twp pf these
lines being part ef the great road frpm Berwick up
the Tweed and the Teviet leading onward to Car
lisle'. The bridges are substantial, and, in two in
stances, elegant. Twenty-three years ago, an act
of parliament was obtained for a Kelsp and Berwick
railway ; but, for spme unexplained reason, it ccn-
tinues to this hpur a dead letter. Ampng the vari
ous plans for completing a railway communication
between London and Edinburgh, is Mr. Remington's
inland line from Newcastle, by Morpeth, Wooler,
Kelso, and Dalkeith, an actual distance to Dalkeith
of 104 miles 10 chains; the equivalent being 110
miles 18 chains. This line weuld enter Scctland at
a pcint 59 miles distant frpm Newcastle ; and cress
the Tweed at Kelsp between the 65th and 66th
mile  Pppulatipn, in 1801, 4,196; in 1831, 4,939.
Houses 618. Assessed property, in 1815, £15,619.
Kelso is the seat of a presbytery in the synod of
Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the Duke of Rox
burgh. Stipend £320 13s. 6d.; glebe £54 15s.
According to an ecclesiastical survey in November,
1835, the population then consisted of 2,670 church
men, 2,042 dissenters, and 376 persons not known
to belong to any religious denomination, — in all
5,088. The parish-church was built in 1773, altered
in 1823, and enlarged in 1833. Sittings 1,314.
A new church in connexion with the Establishment
was begun in 1836, and finished in IS38, at a cost of
upwards of £3,000, defrayed by subscription. Sit
tings 800  There are in the parish — their places of
worship all situated in the tpwn— 5 dissenting con
gregations. The United Secession congregatien was
established in 1752. Their meeting-hpuse was built
in 1787-8, and, with its pertinents, is estimated in
value at not less than £2,500. Sittings 955. Stipend
£200, with a manse and garden worth £30 — The
Relief congregatipn was established in 1 792. Their
place cf worship was built in 1793, and is supppsed tp
be new wprth £1,050. Sittings 768. Stipend £160,
with a manse and garden wprth £45  The Epis-
cppalian ccngregatipn was regularly formed in 1757,
but claims tc have been continued from 1688. Their
former chapel was built in 1763. Sittings 218; but
a new and handsome chapel has recently been erected.
Stipend fluctuating with the state of the funds  The
Reformed Presbyterian congregation has existed for
more than 55 years. Their place of worship was
built about 55 years ago, and is supposed to have
cost about £300. Sittings 320. Stipend £84, with
a house and garden worth £16. — The Original Se-
ceder congregatipn was established and their meet
ing-hpuse built in 1772. Sittings between 600 and
700. Stipend variable, with a manse and garden
wprth £10 to £12  There are in the parish 12
schppls, cpnducted by 15 teachers, and attended by
a maximum of 765 schclars. One is a classical schppl,
whpse teacher employs an assistant, and has £34
4s. 9£d. pf salary, with £80 fees, and £10 pther
emoluments; pne is an English schppl, ranked,
jointly with the former, as parochial, whpse teacher
has £5 lis. 6d. pf salary with fees; twp are board
ing-schools for young ladies; one is the Friendly
school, whose teacher is guaranteed £40 a-year by
a vpluntary asspciatipn, and whese schplars, all bpys
and 1 13 in number, pay each Id. per week; and twp
are schools whpse teachers are provided with school-
rooms and dwelling-houses, but have no other emo
lument than fees  The present parish comprehends
the ancient parishes of Kelso or St. Mary's, Max
well, and St. James. The first of these lay on the
north side of the Tweed, and was within the diocese
II.

pf St. Andrews, and the secpnd and third lay pn the
south side, and were within that pf Glasgow,  the
river being here the boundary. David I., at his ac
cession to the throne, witnessed the existence of
St. Mary's church of Kelsp; and, in 1128, with the
consent pf the bishep pf St. Andrews, he transplanted
tp it the menks of Selkirk. The church became
now identified with the monastery, and was hence
forth called the church of St. Mary and St. John,—
the Tyronensian menks being accustomed te dedicate
their sacred edifices to the Virgin and the Evangelist.
In the church were anciently several altars dedicated
to various saints and endowed for the support of chap
lains. When the Scoto-Saxon period began, the an
cient parish of St. James, or of Old Roxburgh, was pro
vided with two churches, — the one dedicated to St.
James for the use of the town, and the other dedicated
to St. John for the use of the castle. Malcolm IV.
granted both churches and their appurtenances to
Herbert, bishep pf Glasgpw. But the mpnks pf
Kelse — to whom David I. made mention of it in their
charter — considered that of St. James as part of their
property, and drew from it a considerable revenue ;
and, being little attentive to it except for its minis
trations to their avarice, they, in 1433, received a
mandate from the abbot of Dryburgh, as delegate of
the Pope, commanding them to provide it with a
chaplain. The parish of Maxwell, or according to
fts ancient orthography, Maccuswell, derived its
name from the proprietor of the manor, Maccus, the
son of Unwein, who witnessed many charters of
David I. Herbert de Maccuswell gave the church
to the monks of Kelso; and he built a chapel at
Harlaw, about a mile from it, dedicated it to St.
Thomas the martyr, and gave it also to the monks.
— On the left bank of the Teviot stood anciently
a Franciscan convent, consecrated by William,-
bishop of Glasgow, in the year 1235. Till near the
end of last century, a fine arch of the church of the
convent, and other parts of the building, were in
preservation. On the right bank of the Teviot,
nearly opposite to Roxburgh castle, stood a Maison
Dieu, an asylum for pilgrims, and for the infirm and
the aged. On the estate of Wooden were, till
lately, vestiges of a Roman tumulus, consisting of
vast layers of stone and moss, both of a different
species from any now found in the parish; and near
Wooden-burn stone-coffins were dug up which en
closed human skeletons. Roxburgh castle will
be noticed in a separate article. The Castle of
Floors or Fleurs has already been separately no
ticed. The Abbey occurs to be described in our
account of the town.
Kelso, a burgh-pf-barony, the largest town in
the eastern border counties of Scotland, and, both
in itself and in its environs, one of the most beauti
ful of its size in Europe, stands in 55° 36' north
latitude, and 1° 20' west longitude from Greenwich;
42 miles south by east of Edinburgh ; 23 miles west
from Berwick-uppn-Tweed ; 10 , miles nprth-east.
frpm Jedburgh; 9 miles sputh- west from Cpld
stream; and 4£ miles west frpm the bpundary-
line with England. It is delightfully 'situated at
the confluence of the Tweed and the Teviot, on
the left bank of the former; and stretches alpng. a.
plain in the centre cf the gently rising and magnifi
cent amphitheatre formed by the basin-configuratipn
of its parish, cemmanding frpm every opening of its
streets bird's-eye views of exquisitely lovely scenery,
and constituting in the tracery of its own burghai
landscape an object of high interest in the midst of
its beautiful environs. The sumptuous architectural
character of its venerable abbey ,— the air. of preten
sion worn by its public buildings,— the light- coloured
stone and the blue slate roofs of its dwelling-houses,—

ea

KELSO.

the graceful sweep and the tidy cleanliness with
which it winds alpng the river, — and the airiness and
generally pleasing aspect pf its streets, — all impress
upon it, as seen either frpm with put pr frpm within,
a, city-}ike character, and combine with the teeming
beauty of its encincturing landscapes to vindicate,
in a degree, the enthusiasm of tasteful natives whp
exhaust their stuck of superlatives in its praise.
Patten, sp far back as the reign of Edward VI., de
scribed it as "a pretty market-town," — an eulogium
of no mean measure in an age when most British
towns were characterizeable only by their various
degrees of meanness, lumpishness, and filth.
The town, in the style of German and Dutch
towns — though the comparison, but for topographi-
cal accuracy, dpes it high discredit — consists of a
central square or market-place, and divergent streets
and alleys. The square is spacious and airy, very
large to exist in a provincial town, presided over on
the east side by the elegant Townhouse, and edificed
with neat modern houses of three stories, some of
which have on the ground-floor good and even ele
gant shops. From the square issue four thorough
fares — Roxburgh-street, Bridge-street, Mill-wynd,
and the Horse and Wood markets. Roxburgh-street
goes off from the end of the Townhouse, and runs
sinuously parallel with the river, sending down its
back-tenements on one side to the edge of the stream.
Thcugh irregular, and net anywhere elegant in its
buildings, it has a pleasing appearance, and bears the
palm pf both healthiness and general favour. At
present, it is upwards of | of a mile in length ; but
formerly it reached to what is now the middle of the
Duke of Roxburgh's garden, having been curtailed
and demolished at the farther end to make way for
improvements on the pleasure-grounds. Bridge-
Street goes off from the square opposite to the exit
of Roxburgh-street; and though inferior to it in
length, is superior in general app'earance, and con
tains many elegant houses. This street sends off
, Ovan- wynd, leading to Ednam-house, and the Abbey-
close, anciently the thoroughfare to the old bridge.
Mill-wynd leaves the square, and pursues a course
parallel with Bridge-street. The street called the
Horse and Wood markets goes off in a direction at
right angles with the other thoroughfares, and points
the way to Coldstream and Berwick. At one time
it was, over part of its extent, very narrow and in
convenient; but about twenty years ago it was
widened, and made to assume an appearance in keep
ing with the general airiness of the town.
The Townhouse is a large edifice of two stories ;
the ground-floor open in piazzas ; the front adorned
with a pediment supported by four Ionic pillars ; the
summit displaying a handsome balustrade, and send
ing aloft a conspicuous lanthorn and cupola, sur
mounted by a vane. — The bridge, leading off from
the end of Bridge-street to the small suburb of
Maxwellheugh, and carrying across the Tweed the
Berwick and Carlisle highway, was commenced in
1800, and finished in 1803, at a cost of about
£18,000. Its length, including the approaches, is
494 feet; its width between the parapets is 25 feet;
and its height above the bed of the river 42 feet.
It consists of 5 elliptical arches, each 72 feet in span,
with intervening piers each 14 feet. The bridge is
built of beautiful light-coloured polished stone, ex
hibits on each side six -sets of handsome double
columns, as well as ornamented parapets, and, for
general elegance and effect, whether in itself or
grouped with the rich picture in the core of which
it stands, is unsurpassed by any structure of its class
in Scotland. The design was furnished by the late
Mr. Rennie, and was afterwards repeated or adopted
by that distinguished artist as the design for Water

loo-bridge at London  The dispensary occupies a
healthy and airy site near the Tweed at the upper
end of the town. It was founded in 1789, enlarged
and provided with baths in 1818, and annually admits
frpih 600 tp 800 patients  The parish-church is a
large pctagpnal edifice nearly 90 feet in diameter
within the walls, and built priginally with a concave
or cupola ropf, for the accommodation pf abput
3,000 persons  The new church in connexipn with
the Establishment stands in an npen space pn the
nprth side of the town, and, surmounted by an ele
gant Gothic tcwer, is a ccnspicucus and pleasing
object in the burghai landscape. ' The ground-floor
is laid put in large airy school-rooms ; and a circum
jacent piece of ground is disposed in shrubberies and
play-ground  The United Secession chapel is a
piece of architectural patchwork; yet, with the ac
companiments of its neat large manse, and a fine
open area, it makes an agreeable impression  The
Episcopalian chapel, though small, is a tasteful
Gothic building, snugly ensconced on the skirt of
the pleasure-grounds of Ednam-house, overlooking
the Tweed  The Relief and the Reformed Presby
terian chapels are simply stcne-bexes bored with
holes, huddled up in near vicinity to keep each
other in countenance. The Original Seceder chapel
is of the same class, and, if possible, still mpre plain.
The grand architectural attractipn pf Kelsp, and
pne which wpuld be strongly felt and highly prized
in any city, is the ruincus abbey. Viewed either as
a single object cr as a feature in the general land
scape, the simply elegant, unique, tall, massive pile,
presents an aspect top imppsing and top untiringly
interesting to be adequately depicted in descripticn.
Though built under the same auspices, and nearly
abput the same period as the abbeys of Melrose and
Jedburgh, it totally differs from them in form and
character, being in the shape pf a Greek cress.
" The architecture is Saxpn pr early Nprman, with
the excepticn pf four magnificent central arches,
which are decidedly Gothic; and is a beautiful spe
cimen of this particular style, being regular and uni
form in its structure. * * The nave and choir
are wholly demolished. The north and south aisles
remain, and are each nearly 20 paces in length.
False circular arches intersecting each other, orna
ment the walls round about. The ruins of the
eastern end present part of a fine open gallery : the
pillars are clustered, and the arches circular. Two
sides of the central tower are still standing, to the
height of about 70 feet ; but they must have been
originally much higher. There is an uniformity in
the north and south ends each bearing two round
towers, the centres of which sharpen towards the
roof. The great doorway is formed by a circular
arch, with several members falling in the rear of
each other, and supported on fine pilasters. It is
not certain when this abbey was first used as a par
ish-church after the Reformation; but the record
informs us that it was repaired for the purpose in
the year 1648, and that it is very little more than
half-a-century since, on account of its dangerous
state, public worship was discontinued in it.* The
buildings of the abbey must at one time have occu-,
» Sir Walter Scott, speaking of Thomas the Rhymer, says :
'Another memorable prophecy bore that the old kirk at
Ke bo, constructed out of the ruins of the abbev, should fall
when at the fullest.' At.a very crowded sermon about thirty
years ago, a piece of lime fell from the roof of the church. The
alarm for the fulfilment of the words of the seer became uni
versal ; and happy were they who were nearest the door of
the predestined edifice. The church was in consequence de.
serted, and has never since had an opportunity of tumbling
upon a full congregation. I hope, for the sake of a beautiful
piece of Saxo. Gothic architecture, that the accomplishment of
this prophecy is far distant."— Mimtrtlsu of tlie Scottitk Bon
itt, vol. ii. p. 27a. Edit 1804. "v

KELSO.

83

pied a very considerable space of ground, as not
many years ago they extended as far east as the pre
sent parish-school ; and, from appearance, they must
originally have reached a considerable way towards
the banks of the Tweed, near which it is situated.
In three upper windows were hung the same number
of bells, which are now removed; and when the old
Townhpuse was taken dpwn, the deck was put up
in anpther windpw of this building, where it re
mained for several years; but is now also removed,
and placed on the front of the new Townhouse.
The ruins of the abbey were, till lately, greatly dis
figured by several modern additions ; but of these,
part were removed by order of the late Duke Wil
liam, in 1805, and the remainder were taken down
by the last Duke, James, in 1816, by which the
ruins were restored to their original simplicity. By
the removal of these excrescences, the noble tran
sept, together with several windows and side-arches,
which were by them hid, are now restored to view."
[Haig's ' Account of the Town of Kelso.' Edin.
1825.] — The establishment was originally settled in
Selkirk for monks of the order of Tyrone; but after
a few years, was, in 1128, removed by David I. to
its site at Kelso, in the vicinity of the royal resi
dence of Roxburgh-castle. David, and all his suc
cessors on the throne till James V., lavished upon it
royal favours. Whether in wealth, in political in
fluence, or in ecclesiastical status, it maintained an
eminence of grandeur which dazzles and bewilders a
student of history and of human nature. The con
vent of Lesmahago, with its valuable dependencies,
 33 parish-churches, with their tithes and other
pertinents, in nearly every district, except. Galloway
and East-Lothian, south of the Clyde and the Forth,
 the parish-church of Culter in Aberdeenshire, —
all the forfeitures within the town and county of
Berwick, — several manors and vast numbers of farms,
granges, mills, fishings, and miscellaneous property
athwart the Lowlands, — so swelled the revenue as
to raise it above that of all the bishops in Scotland.
The abbots were superiors of the regality of Kelso,
Bolden, and Reverden, frequent ambassadors and
special commissioners of the royal court, and the
first ecclesiastics on the roll of parliament, taking
precedence of all the other abbots in the kingdom.
Herbert, the first abbot, was celebrated for his learn
ing and talent, tilled the office of chamberlain of
Scotland, and in 1147 was removed to the see of
Glasgow. Ernold or Arnold succeeded him ; and in
1160, was made bishop of St. Andrews, and the
following year the legate of the Pope in Scotland.
In 1152, Henry, the only son of David, and the
heir-apparent of the throne, died at Roxburgh-
castle, and was, with pompous obsequies, interred
in the abbey.- In 1160, 'John, a canon of the mon
astery, was elected abbot, and, arriving in 1165
mitred from Rome, held the abbacy till his death in
1178 or 1180. Osbert, who succeeded him, and was
in repute for his eloquence, was despatched at the
head of several influential ecclesiastics and other
parties, to negociate with the Pope in a quarrel be
tween him and William the Lion, and succeeded in
obtaining the removal of an excommunication which
had been laid on the kingdom, and in procuring for
the king expressions of papal favour. In 1208, a
dispute between the abbeys of Kelso and Melrose re
specting property, having excited sensations through
out the country, and drawn attention to the papal
court, was by injunction of the Pope formally in
vestigated and decided by the king. In 1215, the
abbot Henry was summoned to Rome, along with
the Scottish bishops, to attend a council held pn
the affairs of Scotland. In 1236, Herbert, whp, a
short time before, had succeeded to the abbacy, per

formed an act pf abdication more rare by far among "
the wealthy wearers of mitres than among the harassed
owners of diadem; and solemnly placing the insignia
ef his office on the great altar, he passed away into
retirement. In , 1253, the body of David of Bern-
ham, bishop of St. Andrews, and lord-chancellor of
Scotland, a man remarkable for his vices, was, in
spite of the refusal and resistance of the monk;s, in
terred in the abbey. Edward I. of England having
seized all ecclesiastical property in Scotland, received
in 1296 the submission of the abbot of Kelso, and
gave him letters ordering full restitution. In con
sequence of a treaty between Robert Bruce and
Edward III., Kelso abbey shared, in 1328, mutual
restitutions with the English monasteries of property
which had changed owners during the international
wars. In 1420, the abbots, having their right of
superiority over all the other abbots of Scotland,
which they had hitherto uniformly possessed, now
contested by the abbots of St. Andrews, and brought
to a formal adjudication before the King, were com
pelled to resign it, on the ground of the abbey of
St. Andrews being the first established in the king
dom. In 1493, the abbot Robert was appointed by
parliament one of the auditors of causes and com
plaints. On the night after the battle of Flodden,
in 1513, an emissary of the Lord of Hume expelled
the abbot, and took possession of the abbey. In
1517 and 1521, the abbot, Thomas, was a plenipo
tentiary to the court of England ; and in 1526, he
was commissioned to exchange with Henry or his
commissioners ratifications of the peace of the pre
vious year. In 1522, the English demolished the
vaults of the abbey and its chapel or church of St.
Mary, fired all the cells and dormitories, and un
roofed all the other parts of the edifice. Other in
roads of the national foe, preventing immediate re
pair or re-edification, the abbey, for a time, crumbled
toward total decay, and the monks, reduced to com
parative poverty, skulked among the neighbouring
villages. From 1537 till his death in 1558, James
Stuart, the illegitimate son of James V., nominally
filled the office of abbot, and was the last who bore
the title. The abbeys of Melrose, Holyrood, St.
Andrews, and Coldingham," were at the same date
as the abbey of Kelso, bestowed on James' illegiti
mate offspring, and; jointly with it, they brought
the royal family an amount of revenue little inferior
to that yielded by all the possessions and resources
I of the Crown. In 1542, under the Duke pf Nor-
I folk, and again in 1545, under the Earl pf Hertford,
I the English renewed their speliatipns pn the abbey,
| and almest entirely destroyed it by fire. On the
I latter eccasion, it was resolutely defended by abeut
j 300 men whe had posted themselves in its interier,
' and was -entered pnly after the cerpses pf a large
proportion of them formed a rampart before its gates.
In 1560, the monks were expelled in cpnsequence pf
the Reformation; and bpth then and in 1580, the
abbey was despeiied ef many pf its architectural de
corations, and carried far down the decline of ruin.
Its enormous possessions becoming now the pro
perty of the Crown, were, in 1594, distributed
among the King's favourites.
Kelso is as poor in the aggregate productiveness
of its manufactures, as it is showily rich in their
variety and extensiveness cf range. The dressing pf
skins, the tanning ef hides, the currying cf leather,
the weaving pf flannel, weollen cloth, and linen, the
making of nats and of stockings, the distillation of
I whisky, and the manufacture of candles, shoes, to
bacco, and other produce, all have a place in the
town ; but they do not jointly employ 200 work
men,' and are all, with the exception of currying,
stationary or declining. The number of looms in

84

KELSO.

1828 was 70, and in 1838, it had become reduced to
41. Yet the place has a very important trade in
corn, and cured pork. A weekly market, crowd-
edly attended from Roxburghshire and parts of
Berwickshire, and Northumberland, is held on
Friday for the sale ef ccrn by sample. Twelve
"high markets" are annually held on the day
of the weekly market, for the hiring of servants
and hinds, and for the sale or exchange of horses.
A monthly market is held for cattle and sheep;
Fairs are held on the second Friday of May, the
second Friday in July, the 5th of August, and the
2d of November. That on the 5th of August is
called St. James' fair, and is the greatest in the Bor-<
der-counties except that of St. Boswell's. Originally
it belonged to Roxburgh, but owing to the extinc
tion of the burgh, it counts as a fair of Kelso. It is
held on the site of the old town of Roxburgh, on the
beautiful tongue of the peninsula below the ruined
castle, about 2 miles south of Kelso, and, for
some unascertaihable reason, is presided over by
the magistrates of the county-town : See Jed
burgh. A great show is made of cattle and horses,
for feeding on after-grass and turnips ; large trans
actions are effected in woollen and linen manu
factures ; and swarms of reapers are engaged for the
approaching harvest. The town has three principal
inns, and branch-offices of the Bank of Scotland, the
Commercial bank of Scotland, the British Linen
Company's bank, and the National Bank of Scotland.
Stage coaches run daily to Edinburgh, three times
a-week to Berwick, and twice a- week to Jedburgh
and Hawick ; and a transit coach communicates daily
with Edinburgh and Newcastle. )
Kelso is distinguished much more by properties of
quiet aristocracy, and snug contented competency,
and tastes for literature and social refinement, than
by any of the qualities which could impress upon it
a commercial character. Proportionately to the bulk
of its population, it is hence not a little wealthy in
literary, social, patriotic, philanthropic, and religious
institutions or societies. Kelso library, instituted in
1750, and comprising about 5,000 volumes, employs
a salaried librarian, and occupies a handsome building
on Chalk-heugh. The New library, and the Modern
library, instituted respectively in 1778 and 1800, and
jointly Comprising about 3,500 volumes, belongs, as
does also Kelso library, to limited bodies pf subscribers.
One news-room is enjeyed by a select, scciety, and
anether by all persens whp chpse te subscribe. A
school of arts was commenced in 1825, and during
three years gave rise to interesting courses of lec
tures; but it eventually became inefficient and de
funct. The Kelso physical and antiquarian society
was instituted three or four years ago for the forma
tion of a museum, and may probably widen its range
, of action, and exert its very respectable influence in
tome practical direction. The Kelso Mail newspaper,
which originated in 1797, and the Kelso Chronicle,
which originated in 1832, are published, the former
twice a-week, and the latter once. A former Kelso
Chronicle, started in 1783, was the earliest news
paper in the Border counties. From 1808 to 1829,
existed the Kelso Weekly Journal. Kelso was the
birth-place of the famous Ballantyne press, 'and the
scene on which was printed the first edition of the
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border j and, at various
periods, it has displayed an energy and an amount of
literary enterprise altegether beyond the proportien
either of its pppulatipn pr pf the advantageeusness pf
its position. Kelsp is the meeting-place and exhi-
bition-scene of several associations for the encourage
ment of industry, and, in particular, of the Union
Agricultural society, for the incitement «(nd direction,
by means of premiums and exhibitions, of improve

ments in tillage, cropping, and stock. The Di»-
pensary  a very valuable philanthropic institution-
has been already incidentally noticed. A Savings'
bank was established in 1815.
Kelso is, for some months in the year, the resort
of the lovers of field-sports from a wide extent of
country around it,, including a portion of England,
Races are run in spring and autumn on a course
about a mile from the town, accommodated with a
stand similar to that at Doncaster ; and, for a long
period, they were of great celebrity, and prompted
much attention to the rearing of the most approved
breeds of horses ; but, during several years past,
they have materially lost both their fame and their
attractions. The country and rivers in the neigh
bourhood of the town offer plentiful facilities re
spectively for fox-hunting and angling, and are ex
citedly plied both by the Kelsonians themselves, and
by temporary visiters. A pack of fox-hounds is
maintained by the Duke of Roxburgh ; and a cours
ing club devotes its attention to the turf. The
Royal Caledonian Hunt occasionally excites revelry
among the upper classes of a week's continuance;
and.Vmce a-year the whipmen of the border, gaily
attired, make sport for the population of youngsters
and rustics. Games at fopt-ball are a favpurite
amusement. A cricket-club meets nnce a-fortnight
during summer ; and a skaiting-club and parties pf
curlers avail themselves in winter cf the freezing pf
the rivers. The spciety cf the Bowmen of the Bor
der, instituted in 1788, by a diploma from the royal
company of archers of Scotland, hold eight meetings
in the year. A small theatre was fitted up, at con
siderable expense, by the French prisoners during the
last war, and, while they stayed, was conducted gra
tuitously by some of their own number ; and, at their
departure, it was left with all its appliances as an
expression of delight with the Kelsonians on account
of the facility with which many of them had imbibed
the spirit of French levity and dissipation. But, in
the aggregate, the town has of late assumed a more
sedate character than belonged to it during years
when it incurred some hazard of being distinguished
chiefly by fashionable follies.
By a charter of James VI., dated 2d July, 1607,
the abbacy of Kelso was erected into a temporal
lordship and barony, called ' the lcrdship and barony
pf Halidean,' comprehending the town and lands Pt
Kelso. The governing charter is considered to be
one dated 8th November, 1634, by which the town
is specially erected into a free burgh-of-barpny, and
the ppwer ef incprpprating it is conferred en Robert,
Earl of Roxburgh, and his heirs. The present gov
ernment is in terms of regulations made on 3d De
cember, 1757 ; and consists of a bailie named by the
superior, and 15 stent-masters, popularly called the
town-council, 8 of whom are nominated by the bailie,
and 7 by the incorporated trades. The eight were
formerly for life ; but, according to the present prac
tice, the senior one of the number annually retires.
The bailie holds his office during the pleasure of the
superior, and receives from him a salary of £50. A
town-clerk, a procurator-fiscal, and a town-officer,
are appointed by the bailie during pleasure. The
office of the first yielding emoluments not exceeding
£4 a-year, and that of the second np emeluments
whatever, bpth are usually filled by pne of the bailie's
own clerks. The jurisdiction is that of an ordinary
baron-bailie. There is no deputy.; and the bailie
holds a weekly court, before which both civil and
criminal cases are tried. There has likewise been a
practice of judging in possessory cases within burgh,
.and, until very lately, in sequestrations for rents
lowing to the vlissals of the baron. The number ol
civil cases is annually about 52, and of criminal case*

KELSO.

85

¦bout 26. The stent-masters, under the approving
warrant of the bailie, assess the inhabitants according
to the rentals, and the supposed profits of their trades
and occupations. The amount of stent varies consi
derably from year to year, but averages about £263.
The property of the burgh consists of tenements, a
reservoir, a field, and an interest in the stock of the
Tweed bridge-trustees. The custems and market-
dues belpng to the superipr. The revenue ef the
burgh, including stent, was, in 1833, £562 9s. 8d. ;
and the expenditure, £670 19s. OJd. In 1839-40,
it was £574 4s. 3d., besides £301 9s. 6d., arising
frem shares pf Kelsp bridge disposed of, and old debts,
and a sum of miscellaneous receipts, amounting to
£14 3s. 5d. ; making in all with arrears £1,015 13s.
lid. The expenditure for the same year amounted
to £1,060 2s. 4d., of which £312 was paid in reduc
tion of old debts, and £107 9s. consisted of arrears.
There is no local police statute. The cleaning,
lighting, paving, and supply of water, are provided
for by assessment, and managed by the stent-masters.
No attempt has been made toward the introduction
of regular watching. During the last few years, the
town has been watched one night in the week, or on
particular occasions. A person, to acquire the title
of acting as either a merchant or a craftsman, must
pay £1 16s. 8d. for the freedom of the town, and
certain dues to the corporation of his craft. The
corporations, with their numbers in 1833, and the
aggregate amount of the dues levied by them during
forty years preceding that year, are, merchants 305,
£182 15s. 4d.; shoemakers 85, £104 9s.; tailors 28,
£61 I4s. 8d. ; hammermen 158, £245 19s. ; skinners
34, £47 Is. 1] ; weavers 54, £79 16s. 8d. ; fleshers
19, £22. A justice-of-peace court is heid once a-
month. The number of proprietors and tenants in
1833, whose rents were £10 or upwards, was 256, 
44 of the former class being non-resident ; and the
number whose rents were between £5 and £10 was
81. The increase of the town in extent and popu
lation has been slow. Population, in 1833, 4,700.
Kelso was originally called, or rather had its mo
dernized name originally written, Calchow, — a word
identical in meaning with Chalkheugh, the existing
designation of one of the most remarkable natural
objects in its landscape. In its ancient history it
figures as a rendezvous of armies, as a place of inter
national negociation, as a scene of frequent conflict
and havoc of war, and as a spot smiled upon by kings
and other personages of note. Of events not iden
tified with the history of its abbey, the earliest no
ticeable one on record occurred in 1209, when, on
account of a Papal' interdict being imposed on Eng
land, the Bishop of Rochester left his see, and took
refuge in Kelso. Ten years later, William de Va-
loines, Lord-chamberlain of Scotland, died in the
town. In 1255, Henry III. of England and his queen,
during the visit which they made to their son-in-law
and daughter, Alexander III. and his royal consort,
at Roxburgh-castle, were introduced with great pro
cessional pomp to Kelso and its abbey, and enter
tained, with the chief nobility of both kingdoms, at
a sumptuous royal banquet. In 1297, Edward I., at
the head of his vast army of invasion, having entered
Scotland, and relieved the siege of Roxburgh, passed
the Tweed at Kelso, on his way te seize Berwick.
Truces, in the years 1380 and 1391, were made at
Kelso between the Scottish and the English kings.
On the death of James IL by the bursting of a can
non at the siege of Roxburgh-castle, his infant son,
James III., being then with his mother in the camp,
was carried by the nobles, in presence of the assem
bled army, to the abbey, and there pompously
crowned, and treated with royal honours. In 1487,
commissioners met at Kelso to prolong a truce for

the conservation of peace along the unsettled terri
tory pf the Berders, and tp ccncoct measures preli
minary to a treaty of marriage between the eldest son
of James III. and the eldest daughter of Edward IV.
The disastrous results of the battle of Flpdden, in
1513, seem — in cpnsequence of James IV. 's death,
and of the loss of the protection which his authority
and presence had given — to have, in some way, tem
porarily enthralled the town to the Lord of Hume,
and occasioned, as we have already seen, the expul-
sipn pf the abbot from his monastery, — the first of a
series of events which terminated in the ruin of the
pile. In 1515, the Duke of Albany, acting as regent,
visited Kelso in the Gourse of a progress of civil pa
cification, and received onerous depositions respect
ing the oppressive conduct of Lord Hume, the Earl
of Angus, and other barons. In 1520, Sir James
Hamilton, marching with 400 men from the Merse,
to the assistance of Andrew Kerr, baron pf Ferni-
hirst, in a dispute with the Earl ef Angus, was pver-
taken at Kelsp by the baren pf Cessford, then war
den of the marches, and defeated and brcken in a
brief and ill-contested battle. In 1522, Kelsp and
the country between it and the German ocean, re
ceived the first lashings of the scourge of war in the
angry and powerful invasion of Scotland by the army
of Henry VIII. One portion of the English forces
having marched into the interior from their fleet in
the Forth, and having formed a junction with another
portion which hung on the Border under Lord Dacres,
the united forces, among other devastations, destroy
ed one moiety of Kelso by fire, laid bare the other
moiety by plundering, and inflicted merciless havoc
upon not a few parts of the abbey. So nervidly
arousing were their deeds, that the men of Merse
and Teviotdale came headlong on them in a mass,
and showed such inclination, accompanied with not
a little power, to make reprisals, that the devasta
tors prgdently retreated within their own frontier.
After the rupture between James V. and Henry VIII. ,
the Earl of Huntley, who had been appointed guar
dian of the marches, garrisoned Kelso and Jedburgh,
and, in August 1542, set out from these towns in
search of an invading force of 3^)00 men, under Sir
Robert Bowes, fell in with them at Haldon-Rigg, and,
after a hard contest, broke down their power and
captured their chief officers. A more numerous
army being sent northward by Henry, under the
Duke of Norfolk, and James stationing himself with
a main army of defence on Fala-moor, the Earl ot
Huntley, received detachments which augmented his
force to 10,000 men, and so checked the invaders
along the marches, as to preserve the open country
from devastation. In spite of his strenuous efforts,
Kelso, and some villages in its vicinity, were en
tered, plundered, and given up to the flames ; and
they were eventually delivered from an exterminat
ing rage of spoliation, only by the foe being compelled
by want of provision, and the inclemency of the sea
son, to retreat into their own territory. Whep
Henry VIII.'s fury against Scotland became rekin
dled about the affair of the proposed marriage of the
infant Queen Mary and Prince Edward of England,
an English army, in 1544, entered Scotland by the
eastern marches, plundered and destroyed Kelso and
Jedburgh, and ravaged and burned the villages and
houses in their neighbourhood. This army having
been dispersed, anpther, 12,000 strong, specially se
lected for their enterprise, and led pn by the Earl pf
Hertford, next year trod the same path as the former
invaders, and inflicted fearful devastation on Merse
and Teviotdale. They plundered anew the towns
of Kelso and Jedburgh, wasted their abbeys, and also
those of Melrose and Jedburgh, and burnt 100 towns
and villages. While Kelso was suffering the infiic-

86;

KELSO.

tion of their rage, 300 men, as was mentioned in eur
nptice pf the abbey, made beld but vain resistance
within the precincts ef that pile. The Scottish army
shortly after came up, and took post at Maxwell-
heugh, the suburb ef Kelso, intending to retaliate ;
but they were spared the horrors of inflicting or en
during further bloodsheu, by the retreat of the in
vaders. In 1553, a resolution was suggested by the
Queen Regent, adopted by parliament, and backed
by the appointment of a tax of £20,000, leviable in
equal parts from the spiritual and the temppral state,
to build a fort at Kelso for the defence of the Bord
ers ; but it appears to have been soon dropped, or
not even incipiently to have been carried into effect.
In 1557, the Queen-Regent having wantonly, at the
instigation of the King of France, provoked a war
with Elizabeth, collected a numerous army for ag
gression and defence on the Border. Under the Earl
of Arran, the army, joined by an auxiliary force from
France, marched to Kelso, and encamped at Maxwell-
heugh ; but, having made some vain efforts to act
efficiently on the offensive, was all withdrawn, ex
cept a detachment left in garrison at Kelso and Rox
burgh tp defend the Borders. Hostilities continuing
sharp between the kingdoms, Lord James Stuart, the
lllegimate son of James V., built a house of defence
at Kelso, and threw up some fortifications around
the town. In 1557, the Lords Eure, Wharton,
Huntley, Morton, and Argyle, resolving to disperse
the army, met the Queen Dowager and the French
general at Kelso ; " and there the Dowager raged,
and reprievid them of theire promises, whiche was
to invade and annoye England. Theyre determnay-
cions to departe, and the consyderacions they tolde
hir ; and thereupone arguments grew great betwene
them, wherewith she sorrowed, and wepp openlye ;
Doyce* in gret hevynes; and with high words
emongest them to thes effects, they departed. Doyce
wished himself in Fraunce. The duke, wyth the
others, passed to Jedworthe ; and kepithe the chosen
men on their borders. The others of theire great
nombre passed to theire countreyes." In 1558, the
Scottish army stationed at Kelso, marched out to
chastise an incursifn, in the course of which the
town of Dunse was burnt, came up with the Eng
lish at Swinton, and were defeated. In 1561, Lord
James Stuart was appointed by Queen Mary her
lieutenant and judge for the suppression pf banditti
pn the Borders, and brought upwards of 20 of the
most daring freebppters tp trial and execution ; and,
abput the same time, he held a meeting at Kelsp
with Lerd Gray pf England, for pacifieating the
affairs ef the Borders. In 1566, in the ceurse pf
executing the magnanimcus purppse pf putting down
by her perspnal presence the Border maraudings, from
which she was wiled by her romantic and nearly fatal
expedition to the Earl of Bothwell at Hermitage-
castle, Queen Mary visited Kelso on her way from
Jedburgh to Berwick, spent two nights in the town,
and held a council for the settlement of some dispute.
In 1569, the Earl of Murray spent five or six weeks
in Kelsp, in attempts to pacificate the Borders, and
in the ccurse ef that peried, had a meeting with Lord
Hunsden and Sir John Foster, on the part of Eng
land, and made concurrently with them arrangements
for the attainment of his object. In 1570 an Eng
lish army entered Scotland in revenge of an incursion
of the Lords of Fairnihirst and Buccleuch into Eng
land, divided itself into two co-operating sections,
scoured the whole of Teviotdale, levelled fifty castles
and strengths, and upwards of 300 villages, and ren
dezvoused at Kelso preparatory to its retreat. The
Earl of Bothwell, grandson to James V., and com-
* M. D'Oysel, the French general.

mendator pf Kelsp, made the tpwn his home during'
the cpncccting pf his foul and numerous treasons;
and during 10 years succeeding 1584, deeply em
broiled it in the marchings and military manceuvrings
of the forces with which first his partisans, and next
himself, personally attempted to damage the king
dom ; and he eventually ceased to be a pest and a
torment to it, only when, in guerdon of his crimes,
he was denuded of his vast possessions, and driven
an exile from gifts which only provoked his ingrati
tude, and from a fatherland on which he could look
with only the feelings of a patricide.
Kelso, in 1639, made a prominent figure in one of
the most interesting events in Scottish history, — the
repulse pf the armed attempt pf Charles I. tp force
Episccpacy upcn Scctland by the army of the Coven
anters under General Lesley. This army, amount
ing to 17,000 or 18,000 men, rendezvoused at Dunse,
and marching thence, established their quarters at
Kelso. The king, personally at the head of his
army of prelacy, get intelligence at Birks, near Ber
wick, of the position of the Covenanters, and de
spatched the Earl of Holland, with 1,000 cavalry and
3,000 infantry, to try their mettle. A letter from
Sir Henry, who was with the king, to the Marquis
of Hamilton, who had, as his majesty's high commis
sioner for Scotland, made a vain attempt to effect a
compromise between the Liturgy and the Covenant,
will show the result : —
" My Loud,— By the dispatch Sir James Hamilton broueht
your lordship from his majesty's sacred pen, you were left at
your liberty to commit any act of hostility upon the rebels when
your lordship should find it most opportune. Since which, my
Lord Holland, with 1,000 horse and 3,000 foot, marched towards
Kelsey ; himself advanced towards them with the horse (leav
ing the foot 3 miles behind), to a place called M'axw.ell-heugh,
a height above Kelaey : which, when the rebels discovered, they
instantly marched out with 150 horse, and (as my Lord Hoi.
land says) eight or ten thousand foot; live or six thousand
there might have been. He thereupon sent a trumpet, com
manding tliem to retreat, according to what they had promised
by the proclamation. They asked, whose trumpet he was. He
said, my Lord Hollands. Their answer was. He were best be
gone. And so my Lord Holland made his retreat, and waited
on his majesty this night to give him this account.
" This morning advertisement is brought his majesty, that
Lesley, with 1-2,000 men, is at Cockburnspath, that 5,000 men
will be this night or to-morrow at Dunce, 6,000 at Kelsey ; so
his majesty's opinion is, with many of his council, to keep him.
self upon a defensive, and make himself here as fast as he can ;
for his majesty doth now clearly see, and is. fully satisfied in his
own judgment, that what passed in the gallery betwixt, his ma
jesty, your lordship, and myself, hath bin but too much verified
on this occasion ;* and therefore his majesty would not have
you to begin with them, but to settle things with you in a safe
and good posture, and yourself to come hither in person to con
sult what counsels are fit to be taken, as the affairs now hold.
And so, wishing- your lordship a speedy passage, 1 rest,
" Your lordship's " most humble servant,
" and faithful' friend, " H. Vane."
" From the camp at Huntley-field,
this 1th of June, 1839."
Discordantly with the intelligence which this letter
shows the king's scouts to have brought him, Gene
ral Lesley concentrated his whole forces, and next
day, to the surprise of the royal camp, took up his
station on Dunse-hill, interposing his arms between
the king and the capital, and exhibiting his strength
and his menaces in full view pf the English forces.
The king, npw fully convinced of the impracticabi
lity of his attempt on the public conscience of Scot
land, held a consultation two days after with the
leaders of the Covenanters, made them such con
cessions as effected a reconciliation, and procuring
the dispersion of their army, returned peacefully to
England — The Covenanters of Scotland and the
Parliamentarians of England having made common
* " What passed in the gallery " was an opinion unfavour
able to the invasion of Scotland hy English forces, to impose a
hated form of worship, at the expense of provoking antipathies
and warfare. ,

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cause against Charles I., Kelsp was made, in 1644,
the deppt of troops for re-inforcing General Les
ley's army in England. Next year the detachment
under the Marquis pf Douglas and Lord Ogilvie, sent
by Montrose to oppose the operations of Lesley in
the Merse, marched to Kelsp, on their way to the
battle-field at Selkirk, where they were cut down
and broken by the Covenanters. Two years later,
the tpwn was the place pf rendezvpus tp the whple
Scpttish army after their successes in England, and
witnessed the disbandment pf six regiments pf cavalry
after an path having been exacted pf continued fide
lity to the covenant.
In 1645, Kelso was visited and ravaged by the
plague intermediately between its appearance in
Newcastle and in Edinburgh. In 1648, an hundred
English officers arrived at Kelso and Peebles, in the
expectation — which happily proved a vain one  of
finding employment by the breaking out of another
civil war. In 1684, the town was totally consumed
by an accidental fire ; and sixty years later it suf
fered in the same way to nearly the same extent.
On the former occasion, a proclamation called upon
the whole kingdom to make contributions to alle
viate the sufferings of the unhoused inhabitants, and
to aid the rebuilding of the town. However severe
and awful the calamities were at the moment, they
were the main, perhaps the sole, occasion of Kelso
wearing that uniformly modern and neat aspect
which so singularly distinguishes it from all other
Scottish towns of its class. In 1715, the whole of
the rebel forces of the Pretender, the Highlanders
from the north, the Northumbrians from the south,
and the men of Nithsdale and Galloway under Lord
Kenmure, rendezvoused in Kelso, took full posses
sion of the town, formally proclaimed James VIII.,
and remained several days making idle demonstra
tions till the approach of the royal troops under
General Carpenter incited them to march on to
Preston. In 1718, a general commission of Oyer
and Terminer sat at Kelso, as in Perth, Cupar, and
Dundee, for the trial of persons concerned in the re
bellion ; but here they had only one case ; and even
it they found irrelevant. So attached were the
Kelsonians to the principles of the Revolution, that,
though unable to make a show of resistance to the
rebel occupation of their town, they, previous to that
event, assembledin their church, unanimously sub
scribed a declaration of fidelity to the existing gov
ernment, and offered themselves in such numbers, as
military volunteers, that a sufficient quantity of arms
could not be found for their equipment. In 1 745,
the left of the three columns of Charles Edward's
army, on their march from Edinburgh into England,
— that column of nearly 4,000 men, which was headed
by the Chevalier in person, spent two nights in
Kelso, and, while here, suffered numerous desertions.
In 1797, a flood, extraordinary both in bulk and
duration, came down the Tweed and the Teviot,
rose to so great a. height as considerably to ascend
the trees on the islet at the confluence of the
rivers, and, in the view of a concourse of spectators
who were attracted to gaze on its sublime move
ments, slowly undermined and then suddenly moved
dpwn the predecesspr pf the present bridge. Frpm
Npvember, 1810, till June, 1814, Kelso was the
abode of a body, never mpre than 230 in number,
of French prisoners on parole, who, to a very
noticeable degree, inoculated the place with their
fashionable follies, and even, in seme instances,
tainted it with their laxity of morals  Kelso
cpunts, either as natives pr as residents, very few
eminent men. One pf its mpnks called James,
who lived in the 15th century, was pne of the most
celebrated Scottish writers of his very incelebrious

age. Its prior Henry, who flourished about 1493,
was the translator into Scottish verse of Palladius
Rutilius on Rural Affairs, and the author pf spme
literary performances. The chief names which have
graced the tewn in mpdern times are these of Dr.
Andrew Wilson, a distinguished physician, and the
author of a Treatise on Morbid Sympathy, and the
Rev. John Pitcairn, the Relief minister, celebrated
for his eloquence, and for the arousing effects of his
example in creating a general taste for some better
modes of pulpit-oratory than the sing-song and mass-
chaunting methods which, half-a-century ago, were
so universal in Scctland.
KELTIE (The), a romantic stream in the par
ish ef Callander, Perthshire. It rises pn the west
side pf the mpuntain Stuic-a-chrcin, and flews first
6 miles south-eastward through the eastern division
of the parish ; and then 2 miles southward along the
boundary with Kilmadock ; and falls into the Teith
2J miles below the village of Callander. In its pro
gress it is swollen by several tributary torrents.
Flowing for 5 miles among wild hills, it emerges
through the romantic glen and down the singular
waterfall of Bracklin, [which see,] and afterwards
skirts the demesne of Cambusmere, and makes its
confluence with the Teith in front of Cambusmere
mansion. KELTON, a parish nearly in the centre of the
southern division of Kirkcudbrightshire ; bounded
on the north by Crossmichael ; on the east by
Buittle; on the south by Rerwick and Kirkcud
bright ; and on the west, or rather north-west, by
Tongueland and Balmaghie. The Dee, here an im
portant stream, and navigable for commercial purposes
by flat-bottomed boats, divides the parish 5J miles from
Balmaghie and Tongueland, forms immediately after
contact two considerable islets, one of which belongs
to Kelton, and the other to Balmaghie, and offers,
among other fish, the dark-coloured salmon which
abound in its waters. Doach-burn rises on the
eastern boundary a little north-east of Kelton-hill,
and traces that boundary over a distance of 3J miles.
Carlinwark or Castle-Douglas loch, J of a mile in
length, expands its waters near the northern extre
mity ; and has yielded up, at the expense of di
minishing its own bulk, an opulently large mass of
shell marl, the aspersion of which over the face of
various parishes formed an era in the history of
Galloway agricultural improvements: See articles
Castle- Douglas and Kells. North-westward,
over a distance of 1^ mile to the Dee, extends a
canal, traced most part of the way along the boun
dary with Crossmichael; and though formed for the
special, perhaps sole, purpose of offering transit to
the marl of the lake, it is now of considerable con- '
sequence as a navigable line of communication with
the not unimportant burgh of Castle-Douglas,
situated at the lake's northern extremity. Five or
six rills, all except one of local origin, traverse the
parish in various directions, and at once drain and
enrich its soil. Toward the southern and south
eastern extremities of the parish, steep and rocky
hills, .'•hiefly clad in heatii, exhibit an aspect of de
solation, — the highest of them rising 1,100 feet above
the level of the sea. Elsewhere the surface displays
a singularly knobbed or knolly appearance, sending
up tumours, or abounding in little round hills. But
over this oddly rolling surface, as well on the rising
grounds as in the hollows, the parish, though not
luxuriant, is arable. The soil is generally thin ; in
some places, is a fine loam ; and in others, especially
on the little hills, is a deep watery till ; but it has
everywhere been greatly enriched both by the marl
from Loch-Carlinwark and by other manurial appli
ances. In the parish are the burgh of Castle-

KEL

88

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DougLas, [which see,] and the village of Kelton-hill.
The latter, situated 2 j miles seuth pf CaStle-Dpuglas,
was, till ef late, a place cf not a little consequence.
Here was annually held, on the first Tuesday after the
17th of June, O.S., probably the largest horse-fair
in Scotland, frequented by horse-dealers from Eng
land, Ireland, and the Lowlands of Scotland, and
attracting so large a concourse, that tents for the
sale of provisions and liquors were erected by per
sons from Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Gatehouse-of-
Fleet, and other towns. This fair, however, with
all its advantages, has been transferred to Castle-
Douglas. The parish is traversed by the great
turnpike between Dumfries and Port-Patrick, and
is otherwise well-provided with roads. Population,
in 1801, 1,905; in 1831, 2,877. Houses 479. As
sessed property, in 1815, £9,627  Kelton is in the
presbytery of Kirkcudbright, and synod of Galloway.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £246 18s. 2d. ; glebe
£20. Unappropriated teinds £211 17s. 4d. There
are three parochial schools, conducted by four teach
ers, and attended by a maximum of 434 scholars ;
and six non-parochial schools, conducted by six teach
ers, and. attended by a maximum of 150 scholars.
One of the teachers of the parochial schools is an
assistant ; and the other three have each £17 2s. 2d.
salary, with collectively £130 fees. Five of the
non-parochial schools are taught by females ; and
one of these five is a boarding-school  The present
parish comprehends the three old parishes of Kelton,
Gelston, and Kirkcormack. Of the united parish,
Kelton forms the north corner, Kirkcormack the
south-west, and Gelston the south-east corner. The
churches of Kelton and Kirkcormack belonged first
to the monks of Icolmkill, and next to those of
Holyrood ; and, at the establishment of Episcopacy
by Charles I., they were given to the bishop of Edin
burgh. The church of Gelston belpnged to the prior
and canons of Whithorn, and, in 1606, was given to
the bishop of Galloway. Vestiges both of it and of
the church of Kirkcormack still exist; and their
cemeteries continue to be used.
KELTON, a small village and port on the east
side of the Nith ; 3J miles south of Dumfries ; and
1J north of Glencaplc, on the boundary of the par
ishes of Dumfries and Caerlaverock, Dumfries-shire.
As a port, it is strictly identified with Dumfries, be
ing visited only by vessels employed in the trade of
that burgh, and unable to proceed further up the
Nith. The new quay between it and the town,
Glencaple to the south, and Kelton in the centre, are
simply a chain of posts to accommodate the difficult
navigation of the river. Ship-building is to a small
extent carried on at Kelton.
KELTY, a hamlet in Kinross-shire, in the parish
of Cleish, 5 miles south of Kinross, and 10 north of
Queensferry. KELVIN (The), a river which takes its rise in
the parish of Kilsyth, in Stirlingshire, and, after a
circuitous course, falls into the Clyde, 2 miles below
Glasgew. Near its spurce it formerly winded in a
serpentine manner through a fine valley, which it
pften everflowed ; but it is now confined in a straight
channel, with high embankments, to the great benefit
of the adjacent grounds. In passing through the
parish of East Kilpatrick it flows under the aqueduct-
bridge of the Great canal, which is 350 feet in length,
57 feet broad, and 57 feet from the top of the para
pet to the surface of the water of the river. It
stands upon four arches, each 50 feet wide, and 37
high. This beautiful bridge was planned by Mr.
Whitwprth, and executed by Mr. Gibb, betwixt June
1787 and June 1790. The Kelvin has numerous
water-falls, and drives a great deal pf machinery,
besides affording water to several large bleachfields.

Its banks exhibit a variety of beautiful landscapes ;
and, in some places, are entirely covered with wopd
pn bpth sides. ( ,
KEMBACK,* a parish in Fifeshire, on the sputh
bank pf the Eden. It is scarcely 3 miles in length
frem east tp west; and in breadth, frem north to
south, it varies from 1 to 2 miles. It is bounded on
the south by the parish of Ceres ; on the east by
that parish and St. Andrews ; on the north by Leu-
chars and Dairsie ; and on the west by Cupar. At
the west end the surface of the parish is level, with
a gentle inclination towards the Ec.en; but near
the east end it is varied and picturesque in a high
degree. Here it is intersecte'd by Dura- den, a ro
mantic little glen, through which flows Ceres burn
to join the Eden. East of this, the surface rises into
a beautifully formed and now finely wooded hill,
formerly called Nydie hill, but now more generally
Kemback hill. This hill runs from north to south,
or at right angles to the range of hills which bound
the How of Fife, and thus terminates this valley on
the east. The parish contains about 1,850 Scots
acres, of which the greater portion is arable, and the
rest in wood. The soil exhibits every variety, clay,
black loam, light sandy soil with a dry bottom, and
thin gravel ; and is upon the whole very fertile.
The valued rent of the parish is £2,312 13s. 4d.
Scots ; the annual value of real property, for which
it was assessed for the property tax, in 1815, was
£3,441 sterling. There is, properly speaking, no
village in the parish; but there are one or two ham
lets, and one has been recently built in Dura-den.
by David Yool, Esq., in connection with his large
spinning-mill. The post and nearest market -town
is Cupar, which is distant about 4 miles from the
church. Population, in 1801, 626; in 1831, 651.
In consequence of the erection of Mr. Yool's mill, it
must have lately received a considerable increase.
Houses, in 1831, 141. There are two spinning-
mills in the parish : Yool-field spinning-mill, belong
ing to David Yool, Esq., has a water-wheel, impelled
by Ceres burn, of 39 feet in diameter, 10 feet wide,
and equal to between 40 and 50 horse power. Blebo
mill, ppssessed by Messrs. Walker, is moved by a
water-wheel of 14 horse power, assisted in summer
by a steam-engine of 10 horse power. Kemback
mills consist of a meal mill, a bene mill, and a saw
mill. On the lands pf Myretpn, in this parish, a
quantity pf metallic ere, which en analysis was dis-
cevered to be rich lead ore, was discovered in 1722.
A copartnery was entered into between the pro
prietor, John Bethune, Esq. of Blebo, and some
other gentlemen, for the purpose pf working the
mine if proper veins shpuld be found ; and an over
seer and workmen were employed, who after some
labour came upon a vein which gave rich indications
of lead ; but, from the hardness of the rock, and ex
pense of blasting and working, it was ultimately
given up. After this a large nest of the purest lead
ore was accidentally discovered, about half-a-mile to
the west of that first discovered. It contained large
lumps of ore, one of 24 stenes weight, and several,
others weighing 10 and 12 stones weight ; and below
this a vein was found, cpntaining a rib of metal 3
inches thick, which afterwards widened to 7 inches.
In prosecuting this vein much annoyance was occa
sioned by water, and Mr. Bethune's partners getting
tired of the expense, it was given up. The prb-
* The name of this parish.— which is obviously Celtic— is pro.
bably derived from Kempach, 'the Field of battle;' although
there is certainly no traditioil to give support to the conjecture.
Kemp, as signifying *a battle,' or 'a warrior,' is found in both
the ancient Celtic and Teutonic languages. It is the origin of
our words camp, champion, and campaign. In some parts of
Scot laud the striving of reapers ill the harvest-held is still called
kemping. v

KEM

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KEN

pnetor, in 1748, let the mine tp a Captain Thyne,
whp began the wprk, and bpth he and his werkmen
cpnsidered it as exceedingly promising; but he was
nbliged te leave Scptland for the West Indies, and
the work has never since been resumed  This par
ish is in the presbytery cf St. Andrews, and syned pf
Fife. It was formerly a rectory belpnging tp the
archbishppric, and was gifted to the College of St.
Salyator on its institution by Bishop Kennedy. The
United College are now the titulars of the teinds,
and patrons of the church. The church of Kemback,
which is an old building, is pleasantly situated on the
western slope of Kemback hill. Stipend £157 7s. ;
glebe £24. The parish-teacher has the maximum
salary, with a free house and schppl-hpuse.
KEMNAY, a parish in the district pf Garipch,
Aberdeenshire, beunded pn the nprth by Inverury ;
pn the east by Kintpre ; pn the sputh by Cluny ; and
pn the west by Monymusk and Chapel-Garioch. It
is divided from Inverury, Monymusk, and Chapel
Garioch by the river Don ; and the ridge called the
Kembs intersects it from south-east to north-west.
It is between 4 and 5 miles in length from north to
south, by 3 in breadth. On the banks of the Don
there are rich, beautiful, and fertile haughs, but the
soil is elsewhere a very stony light mould on sand.
The low grounds, in general, are arable. There are
two mineral springs, the Kemb well and the Spa
well, at the foot of the Kembs. Kemnay-house is
beautifully situated amongst plantations, parks, and
tasteful pleasure-grounds, on the banks of the Don
near the middle of the parish. Thomas Burnett,
Esq., ancestor of the Burnetts of Kemnay, relation
and intimate friend of Dr. Gilbert Burnett, Bishop
of Sarum, and also friend and corresppndent of the
celebrated Leibnitz and other learned men of his
time, resided and was buried in this parish — Popu
lation, in 1801, 583; in 1831, 616. Houses 145.
Assessed property, in 1815, £1,200  The parish is
in the synod of Aberdeen, and presbytery of Garioch.
Patron, the Earl of Kintore. Stipend £158 19s. 2d. ;
glebe £10. Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 4d. ;
fees £40, besides a share of the Dick bequest. The
parochial school of Kemnay, from an article which
recently appeared in that extensively diffused and
powerful engine of instruction, ' Chambers's Jour
nal,' appears to be an admirably managed seminary.
A visiter thus describes it : " Our way was for some
time alongside the Don. We then left the river,
and passed for spme miles through a country gener
ally barren, till at length we descended upon Kem
nay, which appeared to me quite as a green spot in
the wilderness. I could imagine no simple rural
scene possessed of greater beauty than what was
presented by the little group of cottages constitut
ing the parish-school establishment, planted as they
are upon somewhat irregular ground, which for
some distance around has been laid put with gppd
taste, and exhibits a variety ef fine green shrubs.
A few years agp, the schppl and schppl-hpuse
were, as usual in Scptland, merely a ccuple of cot-
tages in juxtappsitipn. Mr. Stevenspn, the pre
sent teacher, has added pne new building after
anpther, till it is npw a ccnsiderable place. His
last additipn was a pretty large schppl-rpom, which
is constructed of timber, pitched on the top. One
must not wonder at the new buildings not being of a
very lasting kind, for not only has the teacher had
to do all at his own expense, but he has done it with
the certainty that all will become public property
when he dies or leaves his situation. The place,
nevertheless, seems sufficiently comfortable. The
new erections have been made as the views of the
teacher, respecting the duties of his charge, ex
panded, and as his boarding pupils became .more

numerous. After all, these are as yet only nineteen.
Generally, if there is a little garden for ccmmon
vegetables near a Scottish parish-school, it is all that
is to be expected. Here there is a remarkably neat
garden, situated on a piece of undulating ground,
comprising a pretty piece of water in a serpentine
form ; while the ground immediately round the new
schopl-rpom is laid out in shrubbery and flower-bor
ders, with seats and arbours, the whole being in a
style which might not shame a gentleman's mansion.
I have never seen finer vegetables, or eaten more de
licious fruit, than I did here. Judge my surprise
when I was toid that the whole is the result of the
labours ef the children, whc are thus taught an useful
and tasteful art, and at the same time indulged in a
physical recreatien highly ccnducive tc their health.
My curiesity was excited to know how their labours
were conducted. The garden and ground, I under
stood, are divided into compartments, and so many
boys are attached to each. These companies, as they
are called, have each a separate set of tools, all of
which are kept in the nicest order and arrangement
in a small wooden house erected for the purpose.
It was singular, you will allow, at a time when
industrial education is only beginning to be thought
of in England, to find it practised on a large scaler
and under the best regulations, in a remote and
barren part of the northern county of Aberdeen.
I was taken from the garden to a carpentry work
shop, where the boys every day exercise them
selves in the ingenious trade of the joiner. They
make part of the school furniture, seats for the gar
den and shrubbery, and many other useful articles.
We were now conducted into the school -room,
which I found to be a spacious apartment, fitted up
with all the conveniences of black boards, &c, as iu
the most improved schools in Edinburgh, with the
addition of something which I had never seen in any
similar place, namely, a variety of musical instru
ments hung upon the walls. I found only the boarders
present, for the day was the last of the week, and all
the native pupils had been dismissed, at the usual
early hour, to their homes. Mr. Stevenson, never
theless, gave us a small specimen of a concert. Some
boys took flutes, other violins, and one or two violas
or violoncellos. Mr. Stevenson also took his instru
ment, and assumed the office of leader. I then heard
several pieces of music, amongst which were some
sacred pieces, performed in a manner really astonish
ing, when the ages of the musicians were considered.
I may mention that Mr. Stevenson is himself a good
musician, and even a composer. The boys are of
all ages from six to nineteen, and several of them
are from distant parts of the world. Many have
made considerable progress in drawing, and in the
copying ot maps."
KEMPOCH-POINT. See Gourock.
KEN (The), a river of the district pf Glenkens,
Kirkcudbrightshire. It rises between Blacklarg
hill and Lengrigg hill pn the boundary with Ayr
shire, and, after a course of 1J mile south-eastward,
and of 2 miles south-westward through the northern
extremity of Dairy, begins to be, over all its extent,
the boundary-line between Carsphairn and Kells on
the west ; and Dairy, Balmaclellan, and Partcn on
the east, cutting the district pf Glenkens, formed by
all these parishes except the last, intc twp npt very
unequal parts. Its length of course, while dividing
the parishes, is 21 miles ; and over this distance it
describes the figure of the segment of a circle, run
ning, in its upper part, toward the south-west, and,
in its lower part, toward the south-east. At the
southern extremity of the parish of Kells, it is
joined from the west by the Dee, and from that
point to the sea, passes under the name of that

KEN

90

KEN

usurping tributary: see the Dee. The streams.
which flow into the Ken are very numerous ; but,
in general, are individually inconsiderable. _ But one
of them, Deugh or Carsphairn water, which joins it at
the point of its first touching the parish of Kells, is
oflonger course than itself, rising in three head- wa
ters in Ayrshire, and draining in two main basins
nearly the whole of the extensive parish of Cars
phairn. The Ken, over most of its iength, is singu
larly rich in the landscape-features, both of its im
mediate banks, and pf its mountain-basin. See
articles Carsphairn, Glenkens, and Kells.
KEN (Loch), an expansion of the river Ken,
immediately above the point where it is joined by
the Dee. It is about. 5 .miles long, and from £ to f
of a mile broad. On its: west side a range of hills
comes down from the interior, terminates abruptly
at its southern corner in a huge rock called Ben
in-hill, and over the central and northern part of
the lake presses almost close upon its edge. Loch-
Ken, approached from the south by a road' leading
up from Kirkcudbright along its left bank into the
interior of the Glenkens, offers delightful scenery
to the view. - Some islets, wholly or partially covered
with wood, are sprinkled on its surface. Its shores
are occasionally fringed and tufted with plantation.
At its head, a little westward of the river, appear
Kenmure-castle, in a most picturesque situation, —
and the small burgh of New Galloway, — with an in
tervening grove of stately elms, beeches, and pines.
Between these objects and the river stretches a level
tract of fine meadow and of fertile arable ground, —
the holm of Kenmure. Close upon the eastern edge
of the lake, embowered in wood, and finely seated,
appears the ruinous house of Shermours. A re-ex
pansion of the stream, over a length of 4J miles, after
the confluence of the Dee, is called Loch-Dee, — a
name applied also to a lake of 1J mile by #, in the
parish of Minigaff, whence, issues one of the Dee's
head- waters.
KENDAR (Loch), a beautiful sequestered sheet
of water in the parish of Newabbey, Kirkcudbright
shire, fed by springs, and the mists and rains that
ooze, through the fissures of the gigantic Criffel. It
is sometimes visited by wild swans.
KENEDAR, or Ken-Edgar. See King-Ed
ward. KENLOWIE (The), a small river in Fifeshire,
which, after a course of about 6 miles from near
Cupar, dividing the parishes of Kingsbarns and St.
Andrews, falls into St. Andrews bay a little below
Byrehills. It abounds with excellent trout.
KENMORE, a parish in the district of Breadal-
bane, Perthshire. To convey an idea of its topo
graphical figure and position, is not easy. In a
general point of view, its main body may be re
garded as forming the frame-work of the beautiful
mirror of Loch-Tay, and as bounded on the north
by Fortingall ; on the east by Dull, and by detached
parts of various parishes ; on the south by Comrie ;
and on the west by Killin. But this idea of even
its main body must be modified ; for compact stripes
of Weem and Killin, all but entirely detach a dis
trict of 6J miles by 3 on the west ; a detached part
of Weem, 3 miles by I A, lies embosomed in the north ;
and parts of other parishes, either compactly or in-
tersectingly, occupy the banks of Loch-Tay over half
its extent on the south. An entirely detached part
of Kenmore, 8i miles by 6, lies between Fortingall
and Killin, on the boundary with Argyleshire. An
other entirely detached part, 3i miles by 2J, lies 1|
mile eastward of the nearest point of the main body./
The greatest length of the whole parish, exclusive
of intervening territories, is about 20 miles ; its
greatest length, measured across these territories so

as to include them, is 30 miles ; its greatest breadth
is 7 miles ; and its superficial area is 62 square miles
The main body of the parish takes its tone and con
figuration frpm- the river which intersects it, and
which here expands into the lpng and surpassingly
beautiful stripe pf waters forming Lpch-Tay. The
features pf its scenery are well knewn to fame, and
attract crowds of tasteful visiters during the months
of warmth and verdure. But nearly all the objects
which please and delight are either identified or
scenically grouped with Loch-Tav, the river Tat,
and the princely mansion and demesne of T aymputh-
Castle, and properly occur to be noticed under
these heads, — which see. The Lochy rises in se
veral head-streams in the western detached portion
of the parish, and afterwards intersects a small part
of the main bpdy before uniting with the moreimpetu-
pus Dpchart in the haughs pf Killin, at the head pf
Loch-Tay. That lake stretching from south-west to
north-east, runs through the centre of the main body ;
but, at the lower end, is subtended by three or four
times more breadth of surface on its south-east than
on its north-west side. Tay river, emerging from
Loch-Tay, a few yards above the pleasant little vil
lage of Kenmore, has a course of 2 miles within the
parish, and at the point of leaving it, is joined by the
Lyon, after the latter having run li mile along the
north-east boundary. Numerous rills or streamlets
come down on both sides of the intersecting thread or
stripe of water — whether lake or river — but they are
all of brief course, and in no instance come from
beyond the boundary. The parish is thus, with
some exceptions, an elongated basin, sending up,
either at or within its lateral boundaries, a water-
shedding line of heights, and draining off the pro
duce of its own springs by one central and continu
ous channel. At the upper end of Loch-Tay, where
the still flowing waters of the Lochy come down to
aid those of the Dochart in forming it, is some rich
meadowland, constituting a patch of verdant holm in
the centre of the glen. At the lower extremity of
the lake, from the narrow efflux of Tay river, the
surface gradually expands into a beautiful plain, about
a mile wide, occupied by the princely mansion and
domains of Taymouth-castle. At the points where
the larger lateral streamlets enter Loch-Tay, are
deltas or little plains, rich in their soil, and lovely
in their aspect, but inconsiderable in extent. With
these exceptions, the surface of the main body of the
parish rises in a not very gentle ascent from both
sides of the long belt of water. In most parts, it
is all, for nearly a mile, either subjected to the
plough, or laid out in verdant pasture or covered
with plantation. Behind this green zone  this fringe-
work of varied and picturesque cultivation round
the lake — the surface puts on a russet-dress of heath,
tartaned and chequered and striped with verdure,
and undulates away upward in the curving lines of
beauty, till it assumes an utterly Alpine aspect, and
in one place on the north sends aloft the sublime and
far-seeing summit of Benlawers 3,944 or 4,015 feet
above the level of the sea : see Benlawers. The
western detached part of the parish, besides being cut
with the head-streams of the Lochy, is bounded for
5£- miles by Loch-Lyon and the main stream which
it receives and disgorges, and is traversed on its
north-west side by three rills tributary to the Lyon ;
and, being throughout a mountainous district, it
exhibits a congeries pf heights clpven and dissevered
in very varipus directions by ravines and glens. The
eastern detached part forms the basin of the chief
and lower part of the Quaich, before its entrance
into Loch-Freuchie ; and, cpnsisting pf the wider
portion of Glenquaich, with its screen of flanking
heights, considerably resembles in the configuration of

KENMORE.

91

its surface, the main bpdy pf the parish ; but for up
wards of a mile at its lower extremity, it exhibits,
on the banks of the Quaich, a dull flat face of swamp
and morass, which seems to offer defiance to the agri
culturist's arts pf improvement. A wide aggregate
expanse pf the surface pf the parish, comprehending
4,500 pr 5,000 acres, is ccvered with wppd, chiefly
Scptch fir, but composed also of oak, larch, lime,
beech, sycamore, and perhaps 9 or 10 other species.
The soil and climate seem peculiarly adapted to ar
boriculture ; and, in positions where no in vasion could
bj made by the plough — as on the precipitous sides,
for example, pf Drummpnd hill, and spme parts pf
' the Braes of Kenmore' — they produce groves
of trees remarkable for their thrivingness and bulk.
Agriculture, though zealously plied, is pent up
within narrow limits, and claims, as the arena
of ,its exploits, not more than one-eighth of the
whole superficies. The valleys and the water-
carried soils of the glens produce good crops of ex
cellent grasses. The belt of arable land along the
sides of Loch-Tay, consisting of a loamy soil
washed down by the rains from the higher grounds,
is well-adapted to cropping, and not a little produc
tive of oats, beer, pulse, potatoes, and other esculents.
The hilly land, carpeted chiefly with a light mossy
kind of soil, is naturally not unfriendly to vegetation,
but luxuriates principally in heath, bent, and coarse
grasses. Agriculture can never apparently make a
much farther inroad upon the district than it has al
ready done ; but must, even with the aid of the sister
arts of horticulture and arboriculture, leave three-
fourths of it in undisturbed possession of the cloud-
piercing birds, or of bro wsing flocks of sheep and cattle,
The parish is richly indebted to the Highland society,
and the spirited efforts of the Marquis of Breadalbane,
for directing the expansion of its productive capabi
lities, and arousing attention to the improvement
and care cf stpck. Upwards pf 12,000 sheep, chiefly
the black-faced sort, and about 3,000 black cattle,
principally the West Highland kind, are maintained
on its pastures  Limestone abounds, and is wrought
in various quarries. Several building-stones of re
markable beauty are worked in quarries, and exhibit
specimens in some of the most interesting local erec
tions. Quartz of a pure and brilliant whiteness may
be seen, in the walls of Taymouth dairy, and strewn
plentifully, by way of ornament, in front of the nice
ly white-washed cottages of Kenmore. A stone
which combines the characteristics of chlorite and
of talc slate, and which assumes a smooth surface
from the arts of the mason, has been used in the
construction of the modern or principal part of
Taymouth-castle, and contributes not a little, by its
texture and tintings, to the magnificence of aspect
worn by that superb pile. In a quarry not far from
the village of Kenmore, this stone is worked in a very
wide variety of ways, from the production of the
massive rude block, to that of the delicately carved
architectural ornament. Appearances exist among
the mountains of lead and iron and other ores.
With a very unimportant exception; the whole par
ish belongs to the Marquis of Breadalbane ; and it
enjoys the felicity of his personal residence, a great
part of the year, at Taymouth-castle, and of his
active personal promptings of its wellbeing.
The only antiquity worth notice are the ruins of a
priory, founded in 1 122 by Alexander I., and situated
on a picturesque little fairy-lopking, tree-clcthed
islet at the north-east end pf Loch-Tay, a few yards
above the bridge. " The ruins on the isle," says Sir
Walter Scott, " now almost shapeless, being over
grown with wood, rose at one time into the towers
and pinnacles of a priory, where slumbered the remains
of Sibilla, daughter of Henry I. of England, and con

sort of Alexander I. of Scotland. It was founded
by Alexander, and the care of it committed to a
small body of monks." But these monks appear to
have been expelled, or to have found occasion for
beating a retreat ; for the last residents of the place,
according to Sir Walter, were three nuns, distin
guished by a very singular species cf recluse habits.
Shutting themselves prefessipnally nut from society,
they periodically rushed intc its embrace ; and then
they "seemed determined to enjoy it in its most
complicated and neisy state ; for they came put pnly
once a-year, and that to a market at Kenmore.
Hence that fair is still called, Feill nam ban naomha,
' the Market of the Holy women.' There are np pre
cise data by which to determine the time ef the ex
istence of these nuns. It must have been subsequent
to the year 1565, for that was the year when a mar
ket was fpr the first time held at Kenmere." [Fair
Maid ef Perth.] In after times this island wpre
anpther face. When the bravery of Mentrpse car
ried every thing before bim in defence of the reyal
cause, which was nearly in its wane in England ; a
numerpus body of Campbells, against whom the
rigour of Montrose was chiefly directed, took pos
session of this island, where they fortified themselves
among the ruins. Montrose took, and garrisoned it ; .
and it continued in the hands of the loyalists till
1654, when Monk retook it.
The villages are three, — Sronfernan, Acharn,.and
Kenmore  Sronfernan stands on the north bank of
Loch-Tay, 2j miles above the efflux of the river
Tay ; and has a population of about 150. Acharn,
a neat quiet -looking, tree-shadowed village, stands
on the south bank of Loch-Tay, If mile above the
efflux of the river ; and has a population of about 90.
It is celebrated for its falls, which are formed by
a small burn in its course through the overhanging
woods above the village, and which are, we think,
quite equal to those of the Bran in the neighbour
hood of Dunkeld., — Kenmore, though the least
populous village of the three, possesses an hundred
times the importance of the other two united. It
occupies a charming site on a peninsula projecting
into the north-eastern extremity of Loch-Tay, on
the south side of the river, at the point of its efflux,
16 miles east-north-east of KiUin, and 23 miles
west-north-west of Dunkeld. The village, with its
neat white cottages, its commodious inn, its parish-
church, its handsome bridge of 5 arches across the
new-born or at least new-named river Tay, and its
close proximity to the gorgeousness of Taymouth
pleasure-grounds, and the finest scenery of Loch-
Tay, is well-known to tourists as one of the most
beautiful in Scotland; and as going far — especially
with the aid of its magnificent adjuncts — to redeem
the character of our country from the scern which
cur villages generally and top justly draw dpwn from
the Southron. Excepting, perhaps, the j eypus Amble
side, and the gay and elegant Keswick, no village in
England may be fairly pronounced to surpass Ken-
mere in the aggregate beauties of its aspect, as seen
in the foils and adornings of lake and vailey and
mountain encincturing landscape ; and even these,
while, on the whole, they claim decided superiority,
are marred by defects which have nc ccunterpart in
Kenmore. Half-way between Taymouth-castle and
the village, on the north -hank of the river, stands an
elegant monumental erection called the Cross, ex
hibiting very nice and rich architectural chiseiingg
in the beautiful species of building-stcne which is
quarried in the vicinity. In the neighbcurhppd pf
the village are a saw-mill driven by water-ppwer, l
and a small wppllen manufactory, — the latter em
ploying about 12 persons. Kenmere has 6 annual
fairs; pne on the first Tuesday of March, O.S., for

KEN

92

KEN

'horses and merchandise ; one on the 28th of June,
for general business ; pne pn the 26th pf July, for
hprses and wppI ; one on the 17th of September, for
cattle and agricultural produce ; one pn the Friday

Ken and Kells. The edifice is a conglomeration
pf several buildings of different ages : the older parts
exhibiting the turreted character which distinguished
the 15th century, and all of it having a castellated

refoTeZTa^rDPun^^rforTattle anl general form and imppsing ^^^g^£^
business; and Pne on the 22d of December, foragri- cious and elegant -'~ "^
cultural produce. Population, about 80. From the large and wel ^^^Z ' **„eXra Jcon-
viUage diverge, either immediately or at a brief dis- does honour to the taste of the collectors, and con
;."!?% i!„„! Uf ^mm„ni™tinn ' ThrM lead out tains, among other remarkable pictures, one, ot the
few extant genuine portraits of Queen Mary. When
or by whom the original portion of the present pile,
or rather the whole of a previous one which it must

tance, 6 lines of communication. Three lead out
from its centre, — one, the west entrance to Tay
mouth-castle, — another, the road along the bridge
northward, — and the third, a thoroughfare of com
munication with the south of Scotland. The north
road branches a little beyond the bridge, into a line
toward the fords of Lyon, and a well-kept turnpike
along the north side of Loch-Tay to Killin. The
south road, soon after leaving the village, forks into
three branches, — one leading up the south side of
Loch-Tay to Killin, — another leading over the hills
to Glenquaich, <and Glenalmond, — and the third, a
finely maintained turnpike, pointing the way to
Aberfeldy, Logierait, and Dunkeld. Population of
the parish, in 1801, 3,346 ; in 1831, 3,126. Houses
616. , Assessed property, in 1815, £21,181.
Kenmore is in the presbytery of Weem, and synod !
of Perth and Stirling. Patron, the Marquis of
Breadalbane. Stipend £253 14s. 9d. ; glebe £20.
According to an ecclesiastical survey in 1836, the
population then consisted of 3,087 churchmen, 70
dissenters, and 1 no-religionist, — in all,' 3,158. The
parish-church was built in 1761-2. Sittings 686.
Certain portions of the parish, though not disjoined
quoad sacra from the parish-church, have, by autho
rity of the presbytery, been put under the superin
tendence of missionaries stationed at Lawers for the
north-western part of the main body of the parish, —
at Ardeonaig for the south-western part of the main
body, — and at Amulree for the eastern detached por
tion, or Glenquaich district, as well as for portions
of other parishes. The western detached portion,
also, or Glenlochy district, is quoad sacra under the
superintendence of the minister of the parish of Kil
lin. The proportion of the population under the
minister of Kenmore is 1,148; under the missionary
of Amulree, 149; under the missionary of Ardeonaig,
279 ; under the missionary of Lawers, 848 ; and
under the minister of Killin, 734  A small Baptist
congregation, yielding an average attendance of from
30 to 40, was established in the parish in 1804.
Their place of worship is a building rented from the
tenant of the farm on which it is situated. Sittings
150. No stipend. — There are 10 schools, — one pa
rochial, attendld by a maximum of 76 scholars, — and
9 non-parochial, attended by a maximum of 605.
Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with
£19 12s. lOd. fees, and at least £13 10s. other emo
luments. Of the non-parochial schools, 3 are en
dowed by the society in Scotland for Propagating
Christian Knowledge, I is under the patronage of
the Dowager-marchioness of Breadalbane, and 5 are
conducted by young men entirely at their own ad
venture. KENMURE-CASTLE, the seat of Viscount Ken-
mure, occupies a delightful site at the head of Loch-
Ken, about half-a-mile south of the burgh of New
Galloway, in the parish of Kells, Kirkcudbrightshire.
It stands on an insulated circular mount, which, pre
vious to observing the rocky texture of one of its
sides, an observer would suppose to be artificial ;
and it appears to have been anciently surrounded by
a fosse, supplied with water frpm the Ken. The
castle is approached by a beautiful avenue, and has
around it a fine plantation, and forms a conspicuous
and superb feature in cne pf the most picturesque
landscapes in the sputh pf Scptland : See articles

have supplanted, was built, is a matter not known.
In early times, and even at a comparatively modern
date, it suffered much frem the ravages pf war, hav
ing been burnt beth in the reign pf Mary and during
the administratipn pf Cromwell. Originally, it is
said te have been a seat or stronghpld pf the Lerds
pf Gallpway. John Baliol, who succeeded to a great
part of the estates of those feudal princes, is reported
to have often made it his residence ; and omitting to
reserve it when he resigned his Scottish possessions
to the English king, he had it restored to him by a
special deed. Kenmure, after the triumph of the
dynasty of Bruce, passed intp the ppssessipn pf the
Dpuglasses ; uppn their forfeiture, it was granted by
the Crown tp the Maxwells ef Caerlavereck ; and in
1 the end pf the Wth century, or the beginning of the
16th, it was purchased, along with the lands of
Lochinvar, by a younger brether ef Sir Alexander
de Gordon of Berwickshire, the ancestor of the Dukes
of Gordon, and it has ever since remained in bis
family. The Gordons of Lochinvar or of Kenmure
claim strictly the same stock as the Gordons of the
north, and were originally from Normandy; and
after sitting down at Kenmure, they gradually ac
quired, by grant, purchase, or marriage, the greater
part of the lands in Kirkcudbrightshire. They were
distinguished by the confidence of their sovereigns,
and by such extreme hereditary attachment to their
persons and fortunes, as eventually involved their
house in prolonged ruin ; and they, at the same time,
sought tp be the friends of the people, and were
steady professors of the Presbyterian religion. Sir
John Gerdpn pf Lpchinvar was an unswerving fol-
lpwer pf Mary, and ran seripus hazards in her cause.
His sen and successor was one of the most distin
guished Scotsmen in the court of James VI. , In
May 1633, Sir John Gordon, the contemporary of
Charles I., was raised by that monarch to the dig
nity of the peerage, by the title of Viscount Ken
mure. This excellent nobleman singularly combined
attachment to the house of Stuart with unflinching
fidelity in the profession of religion ; and, much as
he is known for the honours conferred upon him- by
Charles — ampng the rest, the curipus pne ef char
tering a rpyal burgh within limits pn his estate,
whereas yet npt a human dwelling existed [see New
Gallpway] — he is greatly better knpwn fpr his in
timacy with Jphn Welsh and Samuel Rutherford, for
the important services he did the latter, and for the
tone of deep religiousness which flung its melody
over the closing scenes of his life. His amiable
lady, top — the third daughter pf Archibald, 7th
Earl pf Argyle, and the sister pf Lord Lorn— is inti
mately known to a numerous class in Scotland as the
correspondent of the quaint but unctuous Ruther
ford. In 1715, William, the 6th Viscount, took
an active part in the rebellion, and next year was
beheaded on Towerhill in London, entailing upon
his family the forfeiture of their title. It is said he
was urged to engage in the unfortunate enterprise
by the importunities of his lady.*; and the tradition
of the Glenkens still records, that, on the ominous
morning when he left Kenmure-castle, his charger—

KEN

93

KER

one of the finest animals of its kind, and remarkable
for its docility — thrice refused its master. The mat
ter in itself was of no mcment, and, but for what
followed, would have been since forgotten. For
some days, we believe, he threatened Dumfries; and
he kept a body of the rebel troops on Amisrield-
moor, ready for action, to the dismay of the loyal
burgesses, who expected their town to be sacked,
and such of their male population as were capable of
bearing arms to be forthwith draughted into the
Pretender's army. His descendants, inheriting his
estates — which by prudent management were pur
chased from the Crown — endeavoured by serving in
the army to make amends for their ancestor's error,
and distinguished themselves by patriotic concern for
the interests of their tenants, and for the general
welfare ; and, in 1824, they were, in the person of
the forfeited Viscount's grandson, restored, by act of
parliament, to their ancient honours. He who thus
became the 7th Viscount, was born in 1750, and
continued to enjoy his title and estates till his 91st
year. His lordship is succeeded by his nephew,
Adam Gordon, Esq., a lieutenant in the royal navy,
now Viscount Kenmure, a brave officer, who dis
played great gallantry in many severe actions on the
American lakes during the late war.
KENNETHMONT, or Kinnethmont, a parish
in Aberdeenshire, bounded on the north by Gartly ;
on the east by Insch ; on the south by Leslie and
Clatt ; and on the west by Rhynie. It is 6 miles
long from east to west, and 3 in breadth. The sur
face is diversified by planted eminences and hills, and
the parish is watered by several streamlets. Greater
part of the land is arable and productive. Annexed
to this parish is Christ's-kirk, formerly a parish, the
church of which is in ruins. Here, on the green
sward encircling the kirk, a fair was at one time held
in the night, and by the people hence called Sleepy-
market. It is contended, from these curious circum
stances, that this was the scene of ' Christ's-kirk on
the Green,' ascribed to James I. of Scotland. There
are some Druidical remains in the parish. Popula
tion, in 1801, 784; in 1831, 1,131. Houses 224.
Assessed property, in 1815, £1,451  Kennethmont
is in the synod of Aberdeen, and presbytery of Alford.
Patron, Hay of Rannes and Leith-Hall. Stipend
£195 2s. Id. ; glebe £15. Schoolmaster's salary
£25 13s. 4d. ; fees and other emoluments £12 10s.
2d. There are four private schools in the parish.
KENNET-PANS, a village 2 miles south of the
town of Clackmannan, and If west of the town of
Kincardine, Clackmannanshire. It stands on the
shore of the frith of Forth. Kennet, or New Ken-
net, is a modern village, IA mile from Kennet- Pans,
and half-a-mile from Clackmannan, neatly edificed,
and situated on the estate and near the mansion of
Bruce of Kennet. There is a railroad, about a mile
in length, from this harbour to Kilbagie distillery.
KENNOWAY, a parish in Fifeshire. It forms
an irregular parallelogram, 3% mjles in length from
east to west, and rather more than 2 miles in breadth
from north to south ; ascending gradually from the
south towards the north. The prospect from almpst
every part of the parish is extensive and beautiful;
commanding a distinct view of the island of May,
the Bass rock, Inchkeith, the shipping pn the Forth,
and the cpast sputh pf the Fprth, frpm Dunbar tp
the west pf Edinburgh, including the Lammermppr
hills. From the northern or elevated part of the
parish, the view embraces not only the prospect to
the south just described, but almost all Fifeshire, and
a great part of the counties of Angus, Perth, and
Stirling, and of the Grampian mountains. The par
ish is bounded on the south by the parishes of
Scoonie, Wemyss, and Markinch; on the east by

Scopnie ; pn the north by the parish of Kettle ; and
on the west by Markiiich. Of 3,750 imperial acres,
being the superficies of this parish, 3,470 are arable.
Coal, freestone, and whinstone, are wreught in the
parish, and a censiderable number ef the pppulatipn
are emplpyed in linen-weaving. There are three
villages in the parish : 1 st, Kenno way, which has a
sub-ppst-office attached tp that pf Leven, and a po
pulation of 862 ; 2d, Star, having a population of
232; and^Sd, Baneton, with a populatien pf 125.
The pppulatipn pf the parish, in 1801, was 1,466;
in 1831, 1,721. Heuses 378. Assessed property, in
181£, £5,251. Valued rent £4,131 Septs. Real .
rent £5,000. — On the farm of Duniface, in the south
ern part of this parish, is a round hill called the
Maiden-castle, which seems to have been the site in
ancient times of a British fort. Traditipn ppint3 it
put as having been a castle belenging tp Macduff,
Earl of Fife ; but this does not appear to be proba
ble, nor is there the slightest evidence of the fact.
In the village ef Kennoway is an old house in which
it is said Archbishop Sharp passed the night previous
to his being murdered; and in the first Statistical
Account the minister says that about fourteen years
ago — he wrote in 1793 — a woman had died, who
remembered to have seen the Archbishop on that
occasion, she having lived to an extreme old age 
The parish is in the presbytery of Kirkcaldy, and
synod of Fife. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £242
17s. ; glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds £9 13s.
The parish-church anciently belonged to the priory
of St. Andrews. It is obviously a building of great
antiquity, but the period of its erection is not known.
It was thoroughly repaired in 1832 ; sittings 463.
There is a chapel in the village of Kennoway con
nected with the United Associate Synod ; and an
other chapel connected with the Original Burgher
Synod. — The parochial teacher has the maximum
salary, and the legal accommodation. Average
number of pupils 120. There are besides two unen
dowed schools in the parish, one of which is a female
school. KERERA, or Kerrera, an island of Argyleshire,
situated in the sound of Mull, about 5 miles from the
island of Mull, and 1 mile from the mainland of the
district of Lorn, where it contributes to form the
excellent and romantic harbpur pf Oban. It is 4
miles in length, and 2 in breadth, and is included in ,
the parish cf Kilmore. Its surface is very hilly, and
many of the rocks have a volcanic appearance.
Kerera possesses twogood harbours, calledthe Ardin-
traive and Horse-shoe bay. There is a ferry from
this island to Achnacraig in Mull. " Kerera," says
an intelligent tourist, " excepting on its shores, has
no features of any kind to attract attention, unless it
be the inequality and confusion of the surface, which
is extreme. Not only is there nothing like level
ground, but the hilly parts are so steep and frequent,
the valleys so deep, and the whole so intermixed,
that the toil of walking over it is incredible. Its
want of beauty is, however, much recompensed by
the noble prospects which it affords of the bay of
Oban, and of that magnificent range cf mpuntains
which enclcses the Linnhe-lpch, with all the islands
that are scattered abeut its variegated sea. The
sputhern shpre ef the island affords one very wild
and picturesque scene, of which Gylen-castle proves
the chief object. On the margin of a high cliff im
pending over the sea, is perched this tall grey tower ;
the whole bay, rude with rocks and cliffs, presenting
no traces of land or of verdure, — appearing as if it
had, for uncounted ages, braved the fury of the
waves that break in from over the whole breadth of
the inlet and far out tp sea. A scene mere savage
and desolate, and mere in character with the desert-

KER

94

KEt

ed and melancholy air of this solitary dwelling that
seems to shun all the haunts of man, is not easily
conceived. This castle must have belonged to the
Macdougalls, as it is of a date at least equal to
Dunolly, and to the times when this family were
lords of Lorn. It was in Kerera that Alexander II.
died (July 8, 1249), when preparing to invade the
Western islands, then under the supreme dominion
of Norway and of Haco. The tale has something of
the superstition of the times, when there was a
solution for every dream in its being a warning from
the land of shadows. As his majesty lay in his bed,
there appeared to him three men ; one of them
dressed in royal garments, with a red face, squinting
eyes, and a terrible aspect, — the second being very
.young and beautiful with a costly dress, — and a third
of a larger stature than either, and of a still fiercer
countenance than the first. The last personage de
manded of him whether he meant to subdue the
islands, and on receiving his assent, advised him to
return home ; which warning he neglected. The
three persons were supposed to be St. Olave, St.
Magnus1, and St. Columba; although what interest
the latter could have in taking part with the two
Norwegian saints, does not appear ; as the piratical
invaders of that country had been early and bitter
enemies to his monastery."
KERLOACK, one of the Grampian mountains in
Kincardineshire, near the river Dee, rising 1 ,890 feet
above the level of the sea.
KERNIGERG, two small islands of, the Hebrides,
united at low water, lying between the islands of
Coll and Tiree.
KERSHOPE (The), a rivulet in the southern
extremity of Roxburghshire, or on the south-east side
of the parish of Castletown, or district of Liddesdale,
and belonging almost equally to Scotland and Eng
land. It rises on the east side of Whiteknowe,
within a few yards of one of the chief head-waters
of the English Tyne, within the limits of Liddes
dale ; and, after flowing half-a-mile eastward, it
forms over its whole remaining course of 8 miles,
during which it generally runs south-westward, the
boundary-line between Liddesdale on its right, and
Northumberland and Cumberland on its left. It
falls into the Liddel 2J miles below the village of
Castletown, and the same distance above the point
where the river leaves Roxburghshire. Like the
other streams of Liddesdale, it abounds in excellent
trout  On the top of Kershope hill, in the parish
of Yarrow, about 9 miles west-south-west of Sel
kirk, there stood a monumental stone called Tait's
cross. Chalmers informs us, from a manuscript de
scription of the shire of Selkirk by John Hpdge, in
1722, "that there was then tp be seen, at Tait's
cross, boughted* and milked, upwards of 12;000 ewes,
in the month, of June, about eight o'clpck at night,
at pne view."
KESSOCK (Wester), a ferry ever Loch-Beauly
to Inverness. It is in the parish of Knockbain, and
is accommodated with a pier and inn.
KET (The), a streamlet of 5£ miles length of
course, in Wigtonshire. It describes the figure of a
semicircle, having a point a little north of Burrow-
head for its centre. Rising near the sea in the par
ish of Glasserton, it flows through the burgh of
Whithorn, and, driving a corn-mill near its mouth,
enters the sea at the little bay called Port-Yarrock.
KETTINS, a parish in the south-west extremity
of Forfarshire ; bounded on the north-east by New-
it Boughted is a verb, from the substantive bought or ought,
which in the speech of shepherds means ' a fold for ewes,' while
they are milked. Every one knows the old song,—
11 Will ye go to tho ewebuchtw, Marion,
And wear In the aheep wi* me ?"

tyle ; on the east by Lundie ; on a small part of the
west by the Forfarshire portipn pf Cupar-Angus ;
and on all other sides by Perthshire. It has
nearly the figure of a hexagon, its south-east side
considerably indented, two sides ragged or irregular,
and each of the six measuring on the average about
2 J miles. But a detached portion, 1 mile long and
|"of a mile broad, lies 6 miles south-west from the
nearest point of the main body, surrounded by Col-
lace, Kinnaird, Kilspindie, and St. Martins in Perth
shire. The east side of the main body being bound
ed by fhe water-shedding line of the Sidlaw hills, the
surface first descends the slope of these hills, and
then glides gently down into the plain of Strathmore.
The greater or western part is nearly level, and well
cultivated and thoroughly enclosed. The lesser or
upland part is partly heathy, partly covered with
plantation, but chiefly disposed in pasturage. The
soil, throughout the lowlands, is in general fertile ;
but in the uplands it is thin and light. Two rivu
lets — one of 6 miles length of course, which comes
in from Perthshire and flows partly on the boundary
and partly in the interior, and one of 4 miles length
of course, which issues from a lochlet in the south
east extremity of the parish, and cuts it north-west
ward into two nearly equal parts — unite a few hun
dred yards above Cupar- Angus, or the point of their
passing into Perthshire, and, in their progress, drive
a considerable number of mills. A proportion of the
population are employed in the weaving of linen
fabrics, subordinately to the manufacturers of Dun
dee, and in conducting the operations of some bleach
fields. Close on the western verge of the parish, but
beyond its limits, and half-a-mile east of a bend ot
the river Isla, stands the Forfarshire portion of the
town of Cupar- Angus. A mile south-east of that
town, at mid-distance between the nprthern and the
sputhern extremities pf the parish, stands the village
pf Kettins, the site pf the church, and the metropo
lis of a parish which beasts np fewer than seven vil
lages. All the villages except Kettins, hpwever,
are at present inconsiderable hamlets; though an
ciently they seem to have been of more importance,
and, with one exception, were the seats of chaplain-
ries. Half-a-mile east of Kettins stands the modern
mansion of Haliburton-house, situated in a plain,
surrounded with stately plantations, and formerly the
ordinary residence pf the family whpse name it bears,
but now the property of the Earl of Aboyne. The
family of Haliburton are well known in connection
with the distinguished figure which they made in the
scenes of the Scottish Reformation ; aird, in the 17th
century, were owners of extensive lands adjacent to
their mansion. A quarter of a mile south of the
hamlet of Pitcur, and near 2 miles south-east of the
village of Kettins, are the ruins of the castle — that
of Pitcur — whence the chief branch of the family
derived their title. A mile south-west of Kettins,
environed by fine plantations and fertile fields, is
Lintrose-house, formerly called Todderance, and
once the seat of a lateral branch of the Haliburton
family, pne pf whpse offshoots had a seat in the col-
lege-of-justice, under the title of Lord Todderance.
In the detached part ef the parish and ceunty are the
mansion and manor pf Bandirran. At the hamlet pf
Cam'p-muir, three-quarters pf a mile nprth pf Kettins,
and close on the boundary with Cupar-Angus, are
vestiges of a camp supposed to have been Roman.
On the summit of a hill at the southern extremity of
the parish stood the castle of Dores, traditionally
reported to have been the residence of Macbeth. At
Baldowrie, near the northern extremity, is an erect
Danish monument, six feet high. The parish is tra
versed by the turnpike between Cupar-Angus and
Dundee, by the road between Perth and Newtyle,

KET

93

KIL

and by not a few cross-roads ; and recently, it has
received a rich accessipn to its facilities of communi
cation by the near vicinity to it of the Dundee and
Newtyle railway. Population, in 1801, 1,207; in
1831, 1,193. Houses 250. Assessed property, in
1815, £5,560  Kettins is in the presbytery of Meigle,
and synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £225 13s. 5d. ; glebe £10 Is. 4d. The
church had anciently six subordinate or dependent
chapels; situated respectively at Peatie, South Cos-
ton, Pitcur, Muiryfaulds, Denhead, and Kettins, and
most ot them surrounded with cemeteries. Parochial
schcplmaster's salary £30, with £32 fees, from £10
10s. tp £12 12s. other emoluments, and a dwelling-
house and small piece pf ground. Private schopls
are pccasicnally ppen.
KETTLE,* a parish in Fifeshire, pccupying a
pcrtipn of the valley of the Eden, on the south side
of that stream, and ascending partly over the range
of hills which form the southern boundary of the
strath. Its extreme length from east to west is
about 6i miles; its breadth varied; and its form
irregular". At the east end its breadth is nearly 2
miles ; about the middle it is nearly 3 miles ; and at
the west end for about 2 miles it is little more than
half-a-mile in breadth. It is bounded on the south
by the parishes of Markinch and Kennoway ; on the
east by Scoonie or Leven, Ceres, and Cults; on the
north by Cults and Collessie ; and on the west by
the parish of Falkland  There are five villages in
the parish; the largest of which is Kettle, situated
on the low ground on the south side of the Eden,
and north of the turnpike-road from Cupar to Kirk
caldy, by New-Inn. Population, 527 in 1831.
One of the two conflicting lines of projected railway
through Fifeshire, namely that called the Eastern
line, crosses in its progress this viUage on two high
bridges. The other villages are : Holekettle or
Burnside, on the public road, a short way to the
south-west. Population 202. Bankton-park, to
the north-west, and near the river. Population
146. Balmalcolm, about half-a mile south-east, also
pn the public road. , Population 115; and Coalton-
of-Burnturk, about a mile south-east of Balmalcolm
on the high ground. Population 71. Kettle is a
post-town, and the nearest market-town is Cupar.
Population, in 1801, 1,889; in 1831, 2,071. Houses,
in 1831, 431. Assessed property, in 1815, £7,047.
Valued rent £6,965 3s. 4d. Scots. A considerable
proportion of the population is employed in linen-
weaving  At the south-eastern extremity of the
parish, where it borders with Scoonie and Ceres, is
Clatto, the property of John Balfour, Esq. of Bal-
birnie. Here there are the remains of au old tower
which is said to have anciently belonged to a family
of the name of Seaton, of whom the tradition still is
that they were very notorious robbers and murder
ers. The old road from Cupar to Kinghorn passed
through Clatto-den, and in the face of the hill, which
forms its boundary, there is alleged tp be a cave,
which ccmmunicated with the tpwer pf Clatto and
had anpther opening tp the road, from which the
bandits rushed out uppn the unsuspecting passengers,
and, dragging them intp the cave, robbed and mur
dered them. The follpwing is the traditipnal ac-
cpurit of the discovery and punishment of these
• The name of this parish was anciently Lathrisk, or, as it
is sometimes spelt in old charters, Lorresk, from the rircum.
stance of the parish-church being formerly situated on the lands
ofthat name it the west end of the parish. The church, manse,
and glebe^aving been removed about 1636 to the village of
Keitfe the parish has from that time received the name of the
vMlage In old deeds the name of the village is somet.mes
written CatuL sometimes Katul. From that portion of the
Ends of Kettle on which the village is situated belonging an.
Sly to the Crown, the rillago a. well a. the parish Is often
tailed King's Kettle.

assassins. One of the Scpttish kings — said tp have
been James IV  happening to pass that way albne,
was attacked by a son of the laird of Clatto; but
the king, with one blow of his sword, cut off the
right hand of the robber, with which he had seized
hold of the bridle of his horse. The assailant in
stantly fled, and the king having taken up the sev
ered hand, rode off with it. Next day, attended by
a proper retinue, his majesty visited the tower of
Clatto, and demanded to see Seaton and his sons,
who were npted as hardy, enterprising men. The
eld man, affecting to ,be gratified by the king's re
quest, conducted his family intp the presence, but
it was cbserved that ene ef the sens was absent;
and, pn inquiry being made after him, it was alleged
he had been hurt by an accident, and was at the
mcment cenfined tp bed. The king, however, in
sisted on seeing him ; and, being led to his apart
ment, desired to feel his pulse. Whereupon the
young man held out his left hand, but his majesty
requesting to have the right, after many excuses,
the poor wretch was obliged to confess that he had
lost his right hand. The king then told him that
he had a hand which was at his service if it fitted
him; and the gory hand of the robber being pro
duced, the king explained how it came into his pos-
sessipn, and the whple family were thereupen appre
hended, tried, and executed, for the varieus robberies
and murders they had committed. Such is the tra
dition as to the castle and den of Clatto ; but it is
necessary tp mentipn that there is new no appear
ance of the cave, all trace of it having been obliter
ated by the breaking down of the banks of the den
at this plade  West of Clatto, and on the other
side of Clatto hill, is Dovan, belonging at one time
to a family of the name of Boswell, cadets of Bos
well of Balmuto, and now to Mr. Balfour of Balbir-
nie  This parish is in the presbytery of Cupar, and
synod of Fife. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £223;
glebe £3. The church, which was a vicarage be
longing to the priory of St. Andrews, originally
stood at Lathrisk ; , besides which there two chapels
in the parish, — one at Chapel, and the other at
Clatto. In 1636, the chapels having been suppressed
after the Reformation, the church was removed to
the village of Kettle, as more in the centre of the
parish than where it had hitherto stood. The pre
sent church was built about the year 1830; sittings
1,200; cost, with the price of the ground, £3,000.
It is in the pointed style of architecture, with a
handsome tower, containing a clock, and terminated
by ornamental pinnacles. It forms a rather fine ob
ject in the landscape of this part of the valley of the
Eden. There is a chapel in the village of Kettle
connected with the Relief synod  An excellent
school-house, fitted to hold 150 scholars, has been
erected within the last few years, and a good dwell
ing-house and garden for the teacher. His salary is
the maximum, and with the session and heritors'
clerkship, and the school-fees, which are low, may
amount to between £60 and £70 per annum.
KIL, or Kill, an adjunct of very frequent oc
currence in Scottish toppgraphy. Spme antiquaries
derive it from the Saxon King ; others, frem the
Latin cella ; pthers, frem the Gaelic rill — pronounced
keel  which means 'a circle,' and in which some
etymologists have found the radix of the Latin
caelum. According to the latter, all places in this
country having the prefix citt or kill, originally de
rived their names from the proximity of a Druidical
circle. It is, however, an historical fact, that when
names of places begin with this adjunct, it is gener
ally found that the place was originally the cell or
hermitage of a saint, whose name usually forms the
second half of the appellation; and the presumption

96

KILBARCHAN.

is that the word was borrowed by the Gaels from the
old Monkish Latin, cella. In the Highland districts,
Kil often implies 'a Burial-place,' probably from
there haying been originally a cell or chapelj or sta
tion of an early Christian missionary, in the neigh
bourhood. KILBARCHAN, a parish in Renfrewshire,
bounded by Kilmalcolm on the north-west, and in
all other directions by streams or rivulets, namely,
the Locter and Bride's burn on the south-west, the
Black Cart on the south and east,* and the Gryfe
on the north. Its extent is about 18J square miles,
taking the medium length from west to east at 7^,
and the breadth at 2i miles, containing about 9,200
English acres. It is of a triangular form, narrowing
to a point at the north-east, where the Gryfe and the
Cart unite.'and where these streams form the only
separation between this parish and those of Paisley,
Renfrew, Inchinnan, Erskine, and Houston, all of
which here closely approximate to each other. The
lower district of Kilbarchan parish, towards the east,
is flat, partly fertile land, and partly unreclaimed,
moss. Towards the west the surface becomes diver
sified with gentle risings, of which a great portion is
cultivated. The, whole abounds in beautiful scenery,
and is much embellished with plantations. There are
several pretty cascades on the rivulet Locher, which,
after bounding the parish for a short distance, as
already stated, enters it and runs nearly its whole
length, finally falling into the Gryfe. Coal and
limestone are wrought at several places. The low
part of the parish contains excellent freestone, and
the north-west osmond stone, which is in great re
quest for ovens. The principal freestone quarry is
one of great depth on the western declivity of an
eminence called the Bar-hill or brae, adjacent to the
town of Kilbarchan, on the east, and from it the
houses in the town were mostly built, The strati
fication of the rocks in this quarry has attracted
much attention, being scarcely in accordance with
the prevailing theories. Over the freestone there is
a stratum of coal, and above this, next the surface,
there is whinstone  On the north side of this hili
there is a precipice of perpendicular trap rocks,
nearly basaltic, incumbent on coal.
This parish contains some remains of antiquity,
the most remarkable of which is a huge fragment of
rock called ' the Clochodrick stone,' situate on an
elevated plain about 2 miles west of the town. It
is supposed to have formed part of a Druidical tem
ple, and the supposition is countenanced by the
name, which is apparently a corruption of the Bri
tish words Clocfi-y-Drywd, the ' Stone of the Druids,'
and by the situation, which commands an extensive
prospect, and is such as they usually selected for
the performance of their rites. This fragment is of
the same species of whinstone as the neighbouring
hills, and appears to have been hewn from a rock a
little to the east. It is about 22 feet long, 17 broad,
and 12 high, and of a rude oval figure, extending
east and west. At some distance around are seen a
few large grey stones; but as the land is in tillage,
it cannot be ascertained whether they once made
part of a sacred enclosure, or are merely accidental.
On the westward is the rivulet Bride's burn. This
stone gave its name to the adjacent hamlet and lands,
which are mentioned by the name of Clochrodric, so
far back as the year 1202, in a charter by Alan, son
pf Walter, the Steward.*— On the tpp of Bar-hill
* In the map of Renfrewshire given in the New Statistical
Account, the parish of Kilbarchan is, by an error in the colour
ing, represented as crossing the Black Cart, and as containing
the town of Johnstone, which is in the Abbey parish of Pais
ley, and a strip of land, about 4 miles in length, which belongs
to that parish and to those of Neilstnn and Lochwinnooh,
t Chartulary of the Monastery of Paisley, p. 14.

are the remains of an encampment, supposed frpm
its form to be Danish, consisting of a semicircular
parapet of lopse stpnes towards the sputh, and de
fended pn the nerth by the precipice already men
tioned  In the north-east of the parish are the
ruins of a narrow castle, called Ranfurly, or Ram-
pborlie, anciently the residence of the Knoxes.
About 120 yards south-east of this, pn an elevated
rock, cvertppping the castle, is a green mpund, all
pf forced earth, named Castle-hill. It is cf a quad
rangular form, the sides facing the four cardinal
points. A trench, dug out of the solid rock, sur
rounds its base on the east and part of the north and
south sides; the west side rests on the edge of this
steep rock. This mound is 330 feet in circumferr
ence at the base, 70 feet in diameter at the summit,
and 20 feet high. The top is hollow. There has
been an entrance into it on the eastern side. This
may have been an outpost of the Roman camp at
Paisley, distant 6 miles, of the site of which it com
mands a full view. The church of Kilbarchan was
dedicated to' St. Barchan.f and was a dependency cf
the monastery of Paisley. Of the ancient structure
therd are not any remains. In 1401, King Robert III.
ccnferred an endowment made by Thomas Crawford
of Auchinames for the support of a chaplain to offi
ciate at the Virgin Mary's altar in the parish-church
of Kilbarchan, and also in a chapel dedicated to St.
Catherine, which had been erected by Crawford
within the churchyard. On a farm, still called
Prieston, a little to the east of the castle of Ran
furly, there was another chapel which was founded
by the proprietcr of the estate. It was dedicated
to the Virgin; and the property called Kirklands
was annexed to it.
Some ancient families have belonged to this par
ish. From the Knoxes of Ranfurly were descended
John Knox, the Reformer, and Andrew Knox, whp
was appointed Bishop of the Isles on the restoration
of Episcopacy, in 1606, and was transferred to the
see of Raphoe in Ireland, in 1622. From them are
also sprung the Irish family of Knox, Visccunts
Northland, who, althpugh npt possessed of any pro
perty here, toek frpm this place their British title
pf Baron Ranfurly, and their Irish pne ef Earl, ccn
ferred, respectively, in 1826 and 1831. The estate
cf Ranfurly remained in ppssessien of the Knoxes
till 1665, when it was sold to the Earl of Dundon
ald, from whose family it was not long afterwards
acquired by the Hamiltons of Aitkenhead, now
Holmhead  Auchinames belonged to a branch of
the Crawfurds from the 14th century till the 18th,
when it was sold in portions tp different persons.
The superiprity was, hpwever, retained, in virtue pf
which the family— whp are preprieters in Ayrshire—
ccntinue tp style themselves as " of Auchinames."
The old castle has been completely demolished since
1762, when it and great part of the estate were sold
to John Barbour, merchant in Kilbarchan  The
lands of Waterston, anciently the property of a
family of the same surname, were soid by William
Waterston "of that ilk" to Sir William Cunning
ham of Kilmaurs in 1384. They now form part of
the Milliken estate. The surname of Waterston,
though not common, still occurs in Renfrewshire.. —
Another srnall inheritance that gave name to a family.
was Bruntchells (a cprruptipn pf Burntshields),
which was sold by Jphn Bruntchells, the last
cf his race, tc Lprd Sempill, in 1547  It is usual
tp represent as belenging tp this parish the Sem-
X The name of the parish is obviously derived from this
saint, with the Celtic word cit, signifying a church or chapel;
prefixed. St. Barchan'a Feast is mentioned in the poem on
Habbie Simpson, written about the beginning of the 17th cen.
tury. Identical with this is a fair, still held here annually,
called Barchan's day. "

96

KILBARCHAN.

is that the wprd was bprrowed by the Gaels from the
old Monkish Latin, cella. In the Highland districts,
Kil often implies ' a Burial-place,' probably from
there having been originally a cell or ehapelj or sta
tion of an early Christian missionary, in the neigh
bourhood. KILBARCHAN, a parish in Renfrewshire,
bounded by Kilmalcolm on the north-west, and in
all other directions by streams or rivulets, namely,
the Lecher and Bride's burn on the south-west, the
Black Cart on the south and east,* and the Gryfe
on the north. Its extent is about 18J square miles,
taking the medium length frem west tp east at 7i,
and the breadth at 2| miles, centaining about 9,200
English acres. It is of a triangular form, narrowing
to a point at the north-east, where the Gryfe and the
Cart unite, and where these streams form the only
separation between this parish and those of Paisley,
Renfrew, Inchinnan, Erskine, and Houston, all of
which here clpsely apprpximate tp each other. The
lpwer district pf Kilbarchan parish, towards the east,
is flat, partly fertile land, and partly unreclaimed
moss. Tewards the west the surface becpmes diver
sified with gentle risings, cf which a great pprtion is
cultivated. The whole abounds in beautiful scenery,
and is much embellished with plantations. There are
several pretty cascades on the rivulet Locher, which',
after bounding the parish for a short distance, as
already stated, enters it and runs nearly its whole
length, finally falling into the Gryfe. Coal and
limestone are wrought at several places. The low
part of the parish contains excellent freestone, and
the north-west osmond stone, which is in great re
quest for ovens. The principal freestone quarry is
one of great depth on the western declivity of an
eminence called the Bar-hill or brae, adjacent to the
town of Kilbarchan, on the east, and from it the
houses in the tpwn were mestly built, The strati
fication of the rocks in this quarry has attracted
much attention, being scarcely in accordance with
the prevailing theories. Over the freestone there is
a stratum of coal, and above this, next the surface,
there is whinstone. — On the north side of this hill
there is a precipice of perpendicular trap. rocks,
nearly basaltic, incumbent on coal.
This parish contains some remains of antiquity,
the most remarkable of which is a huge fragment of
rock called ' the Clochodrick stone,' situate on an
elevated plain abput 2 miles west pf the tewn. It
is supppsed to have formed part pf a Druidical tem
ple, and the supppsitipn is ccuntenanced by the
name, which is apparently a corruptipn pf the Bri
tish wprds Cloch-y-Drywd, the ' Stene pf the Druids,'
and by the situatien, which ccmmands an extensive
prospect, and is such as they usually selected fur
the performance, of their rites. This fragment is of
the same species of whinstone as the neighbouring
hills, and appears to have been hewn from a rock a
little to the east. It is about 22 feet long, 17 broad,
and 12 high, and of a rude oval figure, extending
east and west. At some distance around are seen a
few large grey stones; but as the land is in tillage,
it cannot be ascertained whether they once made
part of a sacred enclosure, or are merely accidental.
On the westward is the rivulet Bride's burn. This
stone gave its name to the adjacent hamlet and lands,
which are mentioned by the name of Clochrodric, so
Far back as the year 1202, in a charter by Alan, son
pf Walter, the Steward.*— On the top of Bar-hill
• In the map of Renfrewshire given in the New Statistical
Account, the parish of Kilbarchan is, by an error inthe colour.
ing, represented as crossing the Black Cart, and as containing
the town of Johnstone, which is in the Abbey parish of Pais.
ley, and a strip of land, about 4 miles in length, which belongs
'to that. parish and to those of Neilston and Lochwiunoch.
+ Chart ulary of the Monastery of Paisley, p. 14.

are the remains of an encampment, supposed from
its form to be Danish, ccnsisting pf a semicircular
parapet pf lppse stenes towards the sputh, and de
fended on the north by the precipice already men
tioned.  In the north-east of the parish are the
ruins of a narrow castle, called Ranfurly, or Ram-
phorlie, anciently the residence of the Knoxes^
About 120 yards south-east of this, on an elevated
rock, overtopping the castle, is a green mound, all
of forced earth, named Castle-hill. It is of a quad
rangular form, the sides facing the four cardinal
points. A trench, dug out of the solid rock, sur
rounds its base on the east and part of the north and
south sides ; the west side rests on the edge of this
steep rock. This mound is 330 feet in circumfer
ence at the base, 70 feet in diameter at the summit,
and 20 feet high. The top is hollow. There has
been an entrance into it on the eastern side. This
may have been an outpost of the Roman camp at
Paisley, distant 6 miles, of the site of which it com
mands a full view. The church of Kilbarchan was
dedicated to1 St. Barchan,f and was a dependency of
the monastery of Paisley. Of the ancient structure
therd are not any remains. In 1401, King Robert III.
conferred an endowment made by Thomas Crawford
of Auchinames for the suppprt pf a chaplain tp pffi-
ciate at the Virgin Mary's altar in the parish-church
of Kilbarchan, and alsp in a chapel dedicated to St.
Catherine, which had been erected by Crawford
within the churchyard. On a farm, still called
Prieston, a little tp the east of the castle pf Ran
furly, there was anpther chapel which was founded
by the proprietor of the estate. It was dedicated
tc the Virgin; and the prpperty called Kirklands
was annexed to it.
Some ancient families have belonged to this par
ish. From the Knoxes of Ranfurly were descended
John Knnx, the Reformer, and Andrew Knox, who
was appointed Bishop pf the Isles en the restpratipn
of Episccpacy, in 1606, and was transferred to the
see ef Raphee in Ireland, in 1 622. From them are
alsp sprung the Irish family pf Knpx, Viscounts
Northland, who, although not possessed of any pro
perty here, took from this piaffe their British title
of Baron Ranfurly, and their Irish one of Earl, con
ferred, respectively, in 1826 and 1831. The estate
of Ranfurly remained in possession of the Knoxes
till 1665, when it was sold to the Earl of Dundon
ald, from whose family it was not long afterwards
acquired by the Hamiltons of Aitkenhead, now
Holmhead — Auchinames belonged to a branch of
the Crawfurds from the 14th century till the 18th,
when it was sold in portions to different persons.
The superiority was, however, retained, in virtue of
which the family — who are proprietors in Ayrshire —
continue to style themselves as " of Auchinames."
The old castle has been completely demolished since
1 762, when it and great part of the estate were sold
to John Barbour, merchant in Kilbarchan  The
lands of Waterston, anciently the property Pf a
family of the same surname, were sold by William
Waterston "of that ilk" to Sir William Cunning
ham of Kilmaurs in 1384. They npw form part pf
the Milliken estate. The surname pf Watersten,
thpugh npt ccrnmpn, still cccurs in Renfrewshire 
Ancther small inheritance that gave name to a family.
was Bruntchells (a cerruptipn pf Burntshields),'
which was sold by Jphn Bruntchells, the last
of his race, to Lord Sempill, in 1547  It is usual
to represent as belonging to this parish the Sem-
t The_ name of the parish is obviously derived from this
saint, with the Celtic word cit, signifying a church or chapel,
E"™ St, Barchan's Feast is mentioned in the poem on
Habbie Simpson, written about the beginning of the 17th cen.
tur-y. Identical with this is a fair, still held here annually,
called Barchan's day. -

KIL

98

KIL

siderable horse-market  Cotton-spinning is carried
on at Linwopd and Bridge-pf-Weir. See eur
acccunts pf these places.
KILBERRY. See Kilcalmpnell.
KILBIRNIE, a parish in the nprth-west part pf
the district ef Cunningham, Ayrshire; bounded on
the north and north-east by Renfrewshire ; on the
east by Beith; on the south and south-west by
Dairy ; and on the north and north-west by Largs.
The parish stretches in length from north-west to
south-east, and is bisected lengthways through the
middle by Garnock-water. Routen-burn comes in
from Renfrewshire, traces the north-eastern boun
dary over a distance of 3J miles, and falls into Kil-
birnie-loch. Several rills rise in the western divi
sion, and flow eastward or southward to join the
Garnock. Kilbirnie-loch, a beautiful sheet of water
Ijj- mile long and half-a-mile broad, stored with pike,
perch, trout, and eel; and offering valuable facilities
for the transpprt pf cpal, stretches from sputh- west
to north-east on the boundary with Beith: which
see. Upwards of 250 acres of excellent land have
been reclaimed from this ancient lake. More than
a third of the parish on the north and north-west
is wildly pastoral, running up to the water-shedding
line of division with Renfrewshire, coming down
thence in a congeries of heathy hills, separated from
one another by moorland and moss, and altogether
fit only for the purposes of the sportsman and the
rearer pf stock. Abput a third declines gently from
the hills with a southern exposure, and presents
soils of sand, clay, and earth, which are far from
being infertile, and admit of transmutation into rich
loam. The remaining part of the surface — consider
ably less than one-third — lies low along the Gar
nock, and is carpeted, with some of the finest and
most fructiferous deep moulds of earth and clay in
Scotland. Except near the southern extremity,
there is little or no plantation. The climate is very
salubrious, and seems to resist epidemics. Coal is
worked  Kilbirnie-castle, situated toward the south,
about | of a mile west of the Garnock, and once
pleasantly situated among fine gardens and beautiful
pplicies, was built by the Crawford family nearly
350 years ago, and lnng inhabited by them as Vis
counts of Garnock; but, along with a modern ad
joining mansion erected about 150 years ago, and
soon after being repaired and beautified by the Earl
of Crawford, it was destrpyed by fire, and became a
_ roofless ruin  The parish is traversed by the turn
pike between Saltcoats and Glasgow, and enjoys the
rich accession to facility pf communication lately
furnished by tlje epening of the Glasgow and Ayr
railway. Population, in 1801, 959; in 1831, 1,541.
Houses 207. Assessed property, in 1815, £5,133.
— The village of Kilbirnie stands on the Garnock,
J of a mile west from Kilbirnie-loch ; 62 miles from
Edinburgh ; 20 from Glasgow ; 3 from Beith ; and
3£ from Dairy. About 90 years ago it had only
three houses ; but before the close of the century, it
counted 300 inhabitants, and in 1821 it had 800.
Its progress since, though prosperous, has npt been
proportionally rapid. A large cotton-mill, a con
siderable flax-mill, and a thread-manufactory, attest
its importance., In 1838 it had 80 looms, employed
on cettpn, silk, and woollen fabrics. In the village
is a place pf wprship belenging tp the Reformed
Presbyterians; and half-a-mile sputh pf it stands
the parish-church — Kilbirnie is in the presbytery pf
Irvine, and synpd pf Glasgpw and Ayr. Patron,
the Earl pf Eglinton. Stipend £192 12s. lOd. ;
glebe £18. Parpchial schcplmaster's salary £25
13s. 4d., with fees. There is a non-parochial school.
The St. Birinie or Birinar, to whom the church was
dedicated, and from whom it had its name, is said

to have been a bishop and confesspr, whp was the
instrument of converting the West Saxons, and who
died in the year 650. Other churches or chapels in
Scotland seem to have been dedicated to him, —
Kilbirnie having existed in the Boyne district ol
Banffshire, and in the Aird of Inverness-shire. The
church of Kilbirnie belonged anciently to the monks
pf Kilwinning,' and was served by a vicar. Lpng
before a village or even a hamlet grew up here, the
Earls of Eglinton, to whom the manpr passed after
the Reformation, procured for it the privileges of a
free burgh-of-barony.
KILBRANDON, a parish in Argyleshire, to
which that of Kilchattan is united. The united
parishes consist pf five farms pn the mainland of
Lorn, ppppsite Mull, and bpunded by the Atlantic
ccean en the west, and the spund pf Mull on the
north; and five islands, viz. Luing, Seil, Shuna,
Forsa, and Easdale : see these articles. The ex
tent cf the parish, including the narrow sounds which
intersect the islands, is about 10} miles, and its
breadth nearly 6 ; superficial area about 1 1 ,500 Scots
acres. The surface, hilly and mountainous, is best
adapted for pasture, but there are many arable fields,
which produce tolerable crops of barley and oats.
The coast possesses several excellent harbours, and
abounds with fish. Besides the valuable slate-quar
ries of Easdale and Luing, there are veins of silver
and lead ore, and of iron, zinc, and copper. Popu
lation, in 1801, 2,278; in 1831, 2,833. The popu
lation of the old parish of Kilchattan, including the
islands of Luing, Forsa, and Shuna, amounted, in
1831, to 1,100. A census of the united parishes, in
1836, gave the total population at 2,738, whereof
2,528 were churchmen. Houses 593. Assessed
property, in 1815, £13,251. — This parish is in the
presbytery of Lorn, and synod of Argyle. Patrons,
the Duke of Argyle, and the Marquis of Breadal
bane. Stipend £173 7s. Id..; glebe £14 10s. The
church is about a century old; but was repaired
about 25 years ago ; sittings 585. A catechist offi
ciates in the parish, which also enjoys the ministra
tions of Independent missionaries  There are two
parochial schools. The salary of one master is
£34, with £26 fees, and a house and garden ; of the
other, £25, with £25 fees, but no other emolument.
There were 4 private schools in the parish in 1834;
and a school in the island of Easdale, supported by
the Society for prppagating Christian knpwledge.
KILBRANDON SOUND, a narrow arm pf the
sea, which runs between Carradale in the peninsula
ef Kintyre and the isle pf Arran. This is usually a
good herring-fishing station.
KILBRIDE, a parish in Argyleshire, united to
Kilmore : which see.
KILBRIDE, a parish in the county of Bute, and
isle of Arran, extending 14 miles in length, and 7 in
breadth ; and comprehending the east and north-east
parts of the island, from Drippin on the south to
the Cock on the north. A ridge of mountains sepa
rates it on the west from the parish of Kilmorie.
It varies in breadth from 2 to 4£ miles; and has a
superficial area of about 42,000 imperial acres, of
which about 4,000 are under cultivation. , The soil
is hard and stpny, but, uppn the whple, tplerably
productive. There are twp safe harbours in this
district, viz. Loch-Ranza and Lamlash : see these
articles, and the general article Arran. In the
mountain of Goatfield, or Goatfell [see Arran], in
this parish, are found topazes or cairngorms of a
dark brown colpur, beryls, and pther precipus stones.
There are several quarries of freestpne and lime
stpne, and many places strongly indicate ccal. Free
stpne. slate, and blind-coal, are found at the nprthern
extremity. Barytes is quarried in Glens annox •

KILBRIDE.

99

see that article. The whole parish, with the ex
ception pf the farm pf Kilmichael, belengs tp the
Duke pf Hamilton. Pppulatipn, in 1801, 2,183; in
1831, 2,656. Houses 408. Assessed property, in
1815, £3,459 — This parish is in the presbytery
of Kintyre, and synod of Argyle. Patron, the Duke
of Hamilton. Stipend £259 3s. 4d.; glebe £20.
The parish-church is in the village of Lamlash. It
was built in 1773; sittings 560  A neat extension
church was opened at the village of Brodick in De
cember 1839.— There is an unordained assistant to
the two ministers of Arran at Loch-Ranza, salary
£41, from mortified money, to endure as iong as
there are only two parish-ministers in the island 
There is an Independent chapel at Glensannox; sit
tings 260 — There are 4 parochial schools. The
schoolmaster at Lamlash receives £19; at Brodick
£16; at Currie £4; and at Loch-Ranza £6 per
annum. There is an Assembly's schopl at Whiting
bay, the teacher pf which has £25 pf salary. There
is alsp a private schppl at Lamlash  Fpr general
details relative to this parish see our article Arran.
KILBRIDE (East), a large parish in the Mid
dle ward of Lanarkshire; bounded pn the north by
the parishes of Carmunnock and Cambuslang ; on
the east by Blantyre, Glassford, and Avondale ; pn
the south by Loudon and Avpndale ; and pn the
west by Loudon, Eaglesham, and Carmunnock. The
parish is termed East Kilbride to distinguish it from
West Kilbride in Ayrshire ; and compreb»ds the old
parish of Torrans, or Torrance, which was annexed
to it as an appendage before the Reformation, and
afterwards legally incorporated with it in 1589, by
the presbytery of Glasgow. The outline of the par
ish bears a partial resemblance to a sand-glass. In
length it is nearly 10 miles from north to sputh ; and
from east to west it varies from 2 tp 5 miles in
breadth. In general it is a high-lying district. Cross-
basket, the least elevated ground in the parish, is
abput 200 feet above the level of the sea; and the
summit of Eldrig, nearly 7 miles south of Cross-
basket, is computed to be, at least, 1 ,600 feet in
height. From Crossbasket to Eldrig there is a gra
dual ascent, formed by a regular succession of little
hills, with very little expanse of level ground be
tween them. The moorland part of the parish com
mences about 2 miles to the north of Eldrig, and
continues a considerable way down the south side of
the ridge, where Kilbride borders with Loudon. From
the extensive tracts of pasture here, great attention
has all along been paid to the breed and management
of milk cows ; and this perseverance has been amply
rewarded, fpr it is stated in the New Statistical Ac
count, " that the dairy-produce, in particular, is at
least four times as great as it was 40 years ago."
Vast quantities of butter, butter-milk, and cheese,
are supplied from it to Rutherglen and Glasgow. Ex
cepting upon the estates of Calder wood and Torrance,
planting has not proceeded to any great extent in
this parish, probably frem the great number pf small
possessions intp which it is subdivided. That the
spil will produce timber is readily evidenced by the
number of splendid trees, which even on very ex
posed situations surround the dwellings of landlord
and tenant ; but Mr. Ure, in his history pf East Kil
bride, tells us that cpnsiderable attentipn was paid tp
the rearing pf these ornaments pf the landscape.
The preparative process, which was an unusual pne,
and may probably be copied with advantage else
where, was as follows : — " The soil was prepared by
draining off the water. A handful of oats was thrown
into the bottom of the hole, dug for the young tree ;
over these about an inch of good earth was laid;
upon this the roots of the plant were carefully spread,
covered up with the best mould that could be got,

and the plant secured from the cattle. The oat".
having come to a state of vegetation, raised a proper
degree of heat, and thereby made the plant set forth
with vigour." — [Ure's History of East Kilbride.]
Notwithstanding the proximity of this parish to the
great coal-fields of Hamilton, Bothwell, and the
Monklands, this important mineral exists only to a
limited extent in East Kilbride, and the quality is
very indifferent, so much su that a great pertipn pf
the coal used by the inhabitants is brought frpm
pther districts. Limestpne and freestene, however,
beth pf excellent quality, abcund in the parish, and
are carried in large quantities to Pther places. The
principal lime-werks are at Thornton, Thornton-hall,
Braehead, and Limekilns; and there are extensive
freestone quarries at Lawmuir, Bogton, Benthall,
and Terrance. There is an ircnstone mine at Basket,
and tile- wprks at Springbank and Millheuse. Reman
cement is extensively found and wprked in the par
ish. The post-office is situated in the village pf Kil
bride, and there are three turnpike-roads which lead
through the parish. One pf these is the Glasgpw
road to Strathaven, which passes threugh the village
pf Kilbride, and traverses the parish for 5 miles ;
another extends from Kilbride to Eaglesham ; and a
third leads between Kilbride, Busby, and Carmun
nock. The parish-roads are well kept, — The village
of Kilbride was erected into a burgh-of-barony in
the reign of Queen Anne, and the burghers were
authorized to hold a weekly-market and four fairs
in the year. The market was discontinued half-a.
century ago ; three of the fairs have fallen into desu
etude, and the fourth, which is held in June, is not
regarded as of much importance to the district. In
addition to the town or village of Kilbride, the par
ish contains six other small villages, viz., Maxwell-
ton, Aldhouse, including Crossbill, Jackton, Brae
head, Kittochside, and Nerston. Population, in
1801, 2,330; in 1831, 3,789. From an enumera
tion taken in 1836, it would appear that of the
total population nearly 1,000 resided in the town of
Kilbride, and nearly 300 in Maxwellton. Assessed
property, in 1815, £16,363  -Kilbride is situated'in
the presbytery of Hamilton, and synod of Glasgow
and Ayr. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £280 8s.
5d. ; glebe £18. Unappropriated teinds £1,240
19s. 9d. Hamilton of Wishaw informs us that " the
tiends of Kilbryde did anciently belong to the chan
ter of Glasgow ; they are now all mortified to the
colledge of Glasgoyv, except twelf chalders of victuall
reserved to the minister for his maintenance, which
he yet enjoyes, with both the gleebsof Kilbryde and
Torrence." The parish-church was built in 1744, and
was extensively repaired in 1838; sittings 900. At the
rebuilding of the church, that part of the old edifice
which supported the belfry was allowed to remain,
and now answers the purpose of a steeple. An in
scription on the bell records that it was cast in 1590,
by one of the most celebrated founders in Europe. It
was rent, however, in 1689, from a violent ringing on
a day of public rejoicing, caused by the receipt of
the news of the defeat and death of Lord Dundee, or
' Clavers,' at the battle of Killicrankie. It is scarcely
necessary to detail, that Lord Dundee was regarded
as a most ungodly persecutor by the great mass of
the people in the west of Scotland, and his fall was
considered to afford good cause for a national jubilee.
 A Relief congregation was established in 1 79 1 , and,
in the same year, a church was built, calculated to
accommodate 913 sitters. The stipend of the min
ister is £120 per annum, with a manse, but no glebe.'
A Methodist church has also been recently estab
lished. — The principal parochial school is situated
at the village of Kilbride, and the salary is £34 per
annum, besides the ordinary school-fees. There are

100

KILBRIDE.

two auxiliary or side-schools, one at Jackton and the
other at Aldhouse. Salary of each £8 10s. per an
num, besides the school-fees. An excellent school
is supported in Maxwellton by the liberality of Sir
William Maxwell of Calderwood, and there is also
an unendowed school at Kilbride.
Previous to the reign of Robert the Bruce the greater
part of this parish belonged to the powerful family of
the Cummins, and the whole was forfeited at the
time of the death of John Cummin, who was killed
by Bruce at Dumfries. Hamilton of Wishaw says,
that "this baronie and paroch was given by king
Robert Bruce as ane part of the mariage portion of
his daughter Marjorie, to Walter, the Great Stewart
of Scotland ; and heth been alwayes reckoned since
as a part of the Prin cipalitie ; and the severall fam
ilies therein are said to be old, yett I hear not, of any
writts older among them than from John Earle of
Carrick, grand-child to King Robert, thereafter
called Robert the third." These lands afterwards
passed into the possession of Lindsay of Dunrod,
whose predecessor assisted the king at the killing
of the Red Cummin at Dumfries. This family, once
a potent one in the district, has been for long entirely
extinct, and they have left a very unenviable repu
tation behind them. " This family preferring the
Mains to Dunrod, their ancient family-seat near
Gourick, took up their residence in Kilbride. They
flourished in great wealth and splendour till little
more than a century ago, when the estate was sold
to pay the debt which the extravagance of its owner
forced him to contract. It is reported that the last
proprietor in the Dunrod family greatly exceeded all
his predecessors in haughtiness, oppression, and vice
of every kind. He seldom went from home unless
attended by 12 vassals well-mounted on white steeds.
Among the instances of his cruelty it is told that,
when playing on the ice, he ordered a hole to be
made in it, and pne pf his vassals, who had inad
vertently disobliged him in some trifling circum
stance, immediately to be drowned. The place
hath ever since been called Crawford's hole, frem
the name pf the man whp perished in it. Traditien
mentions this cruel actien as a cause, in the just
judgment pf Gpd, that gave rise tp his downfall.
It is told that, having worn put the remains of a
wretched life, he died iu one of the tenants' barns.
Such was the miserable end of one of the greatest
and most opulent families in this country." [Ure's
History of East Kilbride.] — The ruins of Mains
castle, once the splendid residence of the Cummins
and Lindsay, are still seen about a mile distant from
the church  The family cf which Sir William A.
Maxwell pf Calderwood is the representative is a
very ancient pne, and has been connected with the
parish since the reign of Alexander III. The man
sion-house of Calderwood, which has recently re
ceived extensive additiens, is a very splendid erec-
ticn, and in describing it as it appeared in his own
time, more than 40 years ago, the usually sedate Mr.
Ure appears to have been beguiled into the regions
of poetry. He says, " It is surrounded with banks
through which the Calder, in a variety of beautiful
meanders, takes its course. A delightful cascade
formed by nature fronts the house, at the distance
of about 200 yards. The fall, which is interrupted
by small breaks, renders the landscape extremely
agreeable. The scene, in general, being a mixture
of the grand, the romantic, and the beautiful, would,
in ancient peetry, have been celebrated as the en
chanted abodes of the rural deities." — The family
represented by Miss Stuart pf Torrance, the princi
pal proprietor in the parish, is one of the oldest in
the ceuntry, and it has long also possessed the pro
perty of Mains. The oldest part of Torrance house

is 500 years old, and about 100 years ago Colonel
Stuart placed over the entrance a beautiful stone.
having the arms of Scotland carved upon it, and
which for centuries had adorned the arched gate at
the chief or drawbridge entry to Mains castle. — The
celebrated Mrs. Jean Cameron resided for several
years previous to her death in East Kilbride. She
was of an ancient and distinguished family, and her
enthusiastic attachment to the cause of the ex
iled royal house of Stuart, with the efforts which
she made tp sustain its fortunes in 1745, made her
name well known in Britain. She kept the farms of
Blacklaw and Roddenhead in her possession, and
died in 1773, and was buried amid a clump of trees,
near the solitary hpuse pf Blacklaw at which she
resided. The place has since been called Mcunt
Cameron — A peculiar interest alsc attaches to this
parish as being the birth-place of the celebrated
Hunters, — Dr. William Hunter, eminent as a phy
sician and a scientific inquirer, and Dr. John Hunter,
eminent for his medical investigations, and his muni
ficent bequests to aid the cause of science. They
were born at Long-Calderwood, a place about a mile-
and-a-half north of the village of Kilbride. — In the
southern division of this parish is a place called
Flakefield, which gave rise to a surname which is
intimately associated With the rise and progress of a
branch of manufactures which contribute materially
to the advancement and prosperity of the city of
Glasgow.*^ * The particulars of the incident alluded to in the text are as
follow :— Previous to the commencement of the last century
two young men of the name of Wilson, the one from Flakefield
and the other from the neighbourhood, proceeded to Glasgow ,
and there commenced business as merchants. The. similarity
of the name having occasioned frequent mistakes in the way of
business, one of them for the sake of distinguishing him from
the other was designated by the cognomen of Flakefield, the
place of his birth, aud the real name soon became obsolete, both
the man and his posterity being known by the surname of
Flakeheld, instead of Wilson. The original bearer of the new
name put one of his sons to the weaving trade ; but the lad,
after having learned the business, enlisted about the year 1670,
in the regiment of the Cameronians, and was' afterwards
draughted into the Scottish guards. During the wars he was
sent to the Continent, where he procured a blue and white
checked hankenhief, that had been woven in Germany ; and at
the time a thought struck Flakefield that should it be his good
fortune to return to Glasgow, he would make the attempt to
manufacture cloth of the same kind. He accordingly preserved
with great care a fragment sufficient for his purpose; and beiti?
disbanded in 1700, he returned to his native city, with a fixed
resolution to accomplish his laudable design. A few spindlea
of yarn, lit for his purpose, was all that William FiakeBeld
could at that time collect; the white was ill.bleached, aud the
blue not very dark, but they were nevertheless the best that
could be found in Glasgow. About two dozen of handkerchiefs
composed the first web, and when the half was woven he cut
out the cloth, and 'ook it to the merchants, who at that time
traded in salmon, Scottish plaiding, Hollands, and other thick
linens. They were pleased with the novelty of the blue and
white stripes, and especially with the delicate texture of the
cloth, which was thin set in comparison of the Hollands The
new adventurer asked no more for his web than the nett prica
of the materials used, and the ordinary wages for his work •
and as this was readily paid him he went home rejoicing that
his attempt had not been unsuccessful. This dozen of hand
kerchiefs—the first of the kind ever made in Britain— was dis
posed of in a few hours ; and fresh demands poured so rapidlv
in upon the exulting artist that the remaining half of his little
web was bespoken before it was woven. More yarn was pro
cured with all speed; several looms were immediately filled
with handkerchiefs ot the same pattern ; and the demand in.
creased in proportion to the quantity of cloth that was manufac-
?•' . .¦ h-nghsh merchants who resorted to Glasgow for
thick linens were highly pleased with the new manufacture.
aud as they carried a lew with them, these rapidly sold, and the
goods met with universal approbation. The number of looms
daily increased and in a few years Glasgow became celebrated
for this branch of the linen trade. Variety in patterns and
colours was Boon introduced; the weavers in Paisley and the
adjoining towns engaged in the business, and it,soon became
both lucrative and extensive. Manufactures having once ob
tained a footing in Glasgow, others of a more important kind
wore attracted to the spot. Checks were followed by the
blanks or linen cloth for printing; to these were added the
muslin, and finally the cotton trade, fee. which have elevated
Glasgow to one of the proudest commercial and manufacturinz
positions in the world. It is painful to record, however, that
neither William Flakefield, nor any of his descendants, ever
received any reward or mark of approbation for the good ser-

KILBRIDE.

101

KILBRIDE (West), a parish pn the ccast of
the district of Cunningham, Ayrshire ; bounded on
the nprth by Largs ; pn the east by Dairy ; en the
south-east by Ardrossan; and on all other sides by
the frith of Clyde. It occupies the angle formed by
the recession of the coast-line on the opening or
commencement of the expansive bay pf Ayr pn the
nprth ; and presenting pne side to that bay, another
to the strait or sound between the coast and the
Cumbrays, and a third to the interior, is nearly of a
triangular figure. Its extreme length from north to
south is about 6 miles ; and its extreme breadth from
the promontory of Portincross eastward is about 3£
miles. The island of Little Cumbray is attached to
the parish ; but, having been separately noticed in
the article Cumbraes, it needs not here be kept in
view. A continuation of the rolling surface of hill
and upland which commences at Greenock, and forms
a sea-screen down the coast of Renfrewshire, comes
boldly in upon the parish, especially on its eastern
verge, and undulates over its whole area, softening
in character as it approaches the south. Alpng
the eastern frontier, the hills run so regularly and
loftily in a ridge as to form a natural boundary, and
send up one summit — that of Kame — nearly 1 ,000 feet
above sea-level. In the interior, as they deflect to
the west, they are in some instances concatenated,
and in others insulated ; and, in general, they de
cline in height as they approach the frith. The hills
are, in many instances, green to their sutfimits ; and,
regarded as a field of heights, are ploughed by vari
ous romantic little vales, bringing down their watery
tributes to the sea, and are occasionally made the
screen or protecting framework of luxuriantly tinted
haughs. From the summits of many of them views
are obtained, in peculiarly advantageous grouping, of
that magnificent landscape of far-stretching lowland-
coast, luscious in the beauties of cultivation, and
long expanse of bright blue sea, romantic in its
islands and its land-locking boundaries, and back
ground scenery of Highland heights, of soaring and
pinnacled mountain elevations, which is descried
from great multitudes of the rising grounds of Ayr
shire, and the stirring and arousing appeals of which
might have been expected tp produce more than one
' Ayrshire bard,' and to have provoked that one to
the breathing of more warmth of colouring over his
efforts at description. " At one view," says the
sufficiently unexcited writer in the Old Statistical
Account, " the eye takes in the broken land and
small sounds formed by the islands of Arran, Bute,
the two Cumbrays, and the coasts of Cowal and
Cantire ; the extensive coast of Carrick, from Ayr
to Ballentrae ; a wide expanded frith, with the rock
of Ailsa rising majestic in its very bosom ; the
stupendous rocks and peak of Goattield in Arran;
while the distant cliffs of Jura are seen just peeping
over the whole, in the back ground. Such a land
scape is exceedingly rare, and has always been par
ticularly pleasing to strangers." Five" riUs or burns,
with their tiny tributaries, all begin and end their
course within "the limits of the parish, and are the
only streams by which it is watered, but, in rainy
weather, they sometimes come down in a bulk of
volume and power of current which invest them
with importance. Kilbride - burn, the largest of
them, rises on the west side of Glenton-hill, flows
past the village of West Kilbride, and enters the
frith at Sea -Mill. South Annan -burn, near the
northern boundary, pursues its course through a
vices rendered by him, not only to Glasgow, but to the king
dom at large. Flakefield, however, having, during his service
in the army, learned to beat the drum, was in Mb old age pro- ,
moted to the office »t town-drummer, in which situation he
continued till his death :

romantic glen, and forms a series of beautiful ca
taracts, diminishing in depth of leap as the brook
approaches the sea. At the highest and principal
fall, the burn, emerging with a rapid current from
between two high hills, leaps right over a rocky
precipice 50 feet in height, into a deep and awful
chasm, the bottom of which is a capacious sphere,
smooth and regular as if hollowed out with the chisel.
Over the abyss project the beetling and menacing
rocks of the precipice ; and around it are a zone
and tuftings of natural wood, in which the oak, the
hazel, and the birch vie for the pre-eminence of
shade and verdure. The coast-line of the parish,
owing to the advantage gained by peninsularity of
form, is about 7 miles in extent. At the angle,
or south-west extremity, projects the promontory
of Portincross, terminating in a perpendicular wail
of rock 300 feet high, called Ardneil bank, or Gold-
berry-head, separated from the margin of the sea
only by a very narrow belt of verdant land, and ex
tending in a straight line of about a mile in length.
Natural wood, consisting of oak, hazel, ash, and
hawthorn, runs in thick tuftings along the base of
the precipice, and ivy, with gray and golden coloured
lichens, impresses a beautiful tracery of tint and of
aspect athwart its bold front. To approach the ter
rific summit makes even a man of firm nerve giddy ;
but to view it from below is to enjoy a rich feasting
of the taste and the fancy. Everywhere, except at
this remarkable headland, the coast of the parish
is low and shelving. From the northern boundary
to a point about two miles south, stretch the sands
of South Annan, of half-moon form, sheltered by a
curving recess in the land, measuring at their centre,
when the tide is out, about a mile in breadth, rich in
their beds of mussels, cockles, and other shell-fish,
and offering a favourite retreat to vast flocks of va
rious kinds of wild fowl. Limestone occurs at Ard
neil, and in some other localities, but too scantily
and of too poor a quality to be profitably worked. On
a conspicuous hill, caUed the Law, are quarried
millstones of a coarse sort of granite. The soil over
nearly four-fifths of the whole area, or up the sides
and over the summits of its almost incessant heights,
is poor, mossy, and moorland, on a subsoil of coarse
till, yet admitting, around the bases and on the lower
sides of the heights, not a few patches of loamy
and calcareous land of kindly and fertile character.
About two-thirds, or a little more, of the entire area
is regularly or occasionally subjected to the plough ;
and nearly one-third is naturally, and exclusively
pastoral. The district is characteristically devoted
to the dairy, the arable pastures being used and
esteemed for their produce in Dunlop cheese. The
parish is, in general, sufficiently enclosed ; but,
with some small exceptions, it is destitute of planta
tion, and has a naked and chilled appearance. At
Portincross is a small quay, offering accommpdatipn
at high water to vessels of 40 or 50 tons burden, and
used in making shipments for the Clyde. The road
from Greenock to Ardrossan runs along the parish,
and, along with subordinate roads, gives it an aggre
gate length of 22 miles broad, — preserved in good re
pair, and suitably provided with bridges. Pppula
tipn, in 1801, 795; in 1831, 1,685. Hpuses 215.
Assessed prpperty, in 1815, £7,006.
On a ledge pf rock, clcse uppn the sea, under the
bpld promontory of Ardneil bank, stand the ruinous
yet tolerably complete walls of the very ancient
castle of Portincross. The promontory being, with
the exception of the Rhinns of Galloway, the ex
treme western point of the Lowlands of Scotland,
and lying conveniently between Edinburgh and
Icolmkill, and also between Dundonald and Rothsay,
the castle was probably a halting-place of the Scot-

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tish kings en embarking either for Bute or for the
burying-place of their early ancestors. Some char
ters of the first and the second Stuarts purport to
have received the sign-manual at " Arnele," and
may possibly evince this castle — however small and
incommodious — to have worn, in a limited degree,
similar honours to those of the homogeneous castle
of Dundonald : see Dundonald. A brief distance
seaward from the promontory, at a spot where the
depth of water is 10 fathoms, sunk a principal ship of
the famous Spanish armada. Of several pieces of ord
nance which, about a century ago, were brought up
from her by means of a diving machine, one lies in a
corroded state on the shore beside the old castle. —
The most remarkable of the hills of the parish, espe
cially those called Tarbetrhill, the Law, Auld-hill,
and the Comb, or Caimb, or Kaim, were all used as
signal-posts, or the arena; of beacon-fires, during the
period , of the Danish invasions. On Auld-hill, are
remains of a circular building, which probably was
occupied as a watch-tower. On the Law, overlook
ing the village, are the ruinous walls of Law-castle,
a stately and very ancient tower, formerly one of
the seats of the Earls of Kilmarnock  Near the fine
cascade of South' Annan-burn, stand the ruins of a
very elegant mansion, formerly the residence of the
family of Semple, and now the property of the Earl
of Eglinton. The house was built in the reign of
James VI. by a Lord Semple, who brought the model
of it from Italy. A beautiful green hill, secondary
to the Kaim, but attached to it, rises with a bold
and sudden swell behind the house. Standing on
its summit, a spectator looks down upon the dis
mantled fabric of the once-elegant mansion, hiding,
as it were, the scathings of its beauty among a
number of very fine old elms, beeches, and ashes,
whose venerable boughs now bending to the earth
indicate their age ; and over the tops of the trees
and the ruin, he looks abroad on an expanded sheet
of water which, at full sea, seems to come in con
tact with them, and on an abundantly charming
and finely diversified grouping of that vast and
gorgeous landscape, which is seen from most of the
heights of the parish, — but nowhere with more ad
vantage of fore-ground and of general effect than
from this eminence. Immediately adjoining the ruin
of the Semple mansion, stands a neat modern cottage
ornee. Near the coast, about 1 or 1J mile south of
Southennan, in a position which originally was a
narrow and small peninsula running into a morass,
stands the ancient mansion of Hunterston, now oc
cupied as a farm-house, and sending up a square
tower of apparently high antiquity. The modern
mansion, a handsome new edifice, is nearer the sea.
. — Dr. Robert Simson, the well-known professor of
mathematics in the university of Glasgow and the
translator and editor of Euclid, and General Robert
Boyd, Lieutenant-governor of Gibraltar during the
notable siege of that great fort in 1782, were na
tives of the parish.
The village of West Kilbride is situated in a
well-sheltered hollow, f of a mile from the sea ; 1J
mile from Portincross-castle ; 4J miles north-west
from Ardrossan; and 7£ miies "south from Largs.
On the streamlet which runs through it are two
mills for grinding oats, a flax-mill, a mill for grinding
tanners' bark, and a mill for pulverizing charcoal.
A tannery empleys 8 pr 10 perspns. The chief em
ployments are weaving and hand-sewing in subordi
nation to the manufacturers of Glasgpw and Paisley.
In 1838, 85 harness- looms and 5 plain lopms were
emplpyed en fabrics in all the three departments pf
ccttpn, silk, and wnpllen. The condition pf the
weavers, as in most pther places, is painfully de
pressed. Near the centre cf the village, on a gentle

rising ground, stands the parish-church, a long nar
row mean-looking edifice, low in the walls and deep-
roofed. A meeting-house belonging to the United
Secession, is a neat and commodious structure. In
the village are three schools, one of them parochial,
and the others private, and unendowed ; a library,
containing upwards of 400 volumes; and three
Friendly societies, — one of them of considerably long
standing. Population of the village, about 1,020.
 West Kilbride is in the presbytery of Irvine; and
synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the Earl of
Eglinton. Stipend £202 12s. 7d. ; glebe £13 12s.
7d. Unappropriated teinds £383 18s. 2d. Parochial
schoolmaster's salary £27 ]7s. 8d., with £37 6s. 9d.
fees  The saint from whom the parish, like the
other Kilbrides of Scotland, has its name, is the
well-known Bridget, familiarly called Bride. The
church anciently belonged to the monks of Kilwin
ning, and was served by a vicar. In the parish there
were, previous to the Reformation, several chapels.
One stopd pn the cpast, 1£ mile sputh of the church,
at a place to which ft gave the name of Chapelton.
Another stood at Southennan, in the immediate vi
cinity of the ancient mansion of the family of Sem-
pell; and was built by John, Lord Sempil, in the
reign of James IV., and dedicated to Saint Inan,-—
reported, to have been a confessor at Irvine, and to
have died in the year 839. A third, subordinate like
the others to the parish-church, was dedicated to
Saint Begi* or Veg, said to have been a Scpttish
virgin and cpnfesspr, whp died in 896, and situated
in Little Cumbray. See article Cumbrays.
KILBUCHO, a. parish en the western verge ot
Peebles-shire, now consolidated with Broughton
and Glenholm: See these articles. It has a tri
angular form, with its apex pointing to the south ;
and is bounded oh the north by Lanarkshire, Skir
ling, and Broughton; on the south-east by Glen
holm ; and on the south-west by Lanarkshire. Its
north and north-east sides are each 4J miles, and its
south-west side 3J miles in extent. Toward its
north-west angle its boundary runs for \\\ mile
parallel with the 'course of the river Clyde, here a
considerable stream at only about a mile's distance.
Biggar-water, coming in from the north-west, traces
nearly the whole of the northern boundary. Kilbucho
rises on the side of Cardon-hill at the southern angle,
or extremity, runs \\ mile due north, and thence
flows north-eastward parallel with the south-east
boundary, till it falls into Biggar-water. Cardon
hill rises 1,400 feet above the level of the Tweed, at
3 miles' distance, still on the high ground or moun
tain-land of its origin. From this hill a chain runs
north-eastward till it strikes Biggar-water ; and over
the whole distance it forms a water-shedding line,
constitutes the bpundary, and consists pf heights
whpse sides and summits are cpvered with heath and
grass. At the base pf this ridge is a narrow and
pleasant vale watered by the Kilbucho. Screening
this vale on the north-west side, and parallel with
the first ridge, is a broader and less strongly featured
stretch pf heights, alse clpthed in mingled russet and
green. Beypnd this ridge, a beautiful valley, com-
paratively broader and finely decorated witn wopd
on the west, semewhat contracted as it advances
eastward, and again expanding as it forms an angular
junction with the former valley, stretches along
Biggar-water — In the north-east angle stands the
church of the united parishes; and li mile inward,
from the sputhern angle is the site pf the ancient
church pf Kilbucho. The saint frpm whpm the
parish has its name was either a female called Bega,
pf whpm nothing is known, or, more probably, by a
corruption nf the orthography, the celebrated Bede.
Tradition reports that a number of monks of Bede's

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order settled in the parish, and that they raised some
beautiful banks which still exist. A well of excel
lent water, also, bears the name of St. Bede's well.
The parish was anciently a rectory in the deanery of
Peebles. The barony of Kilbucho belonged, at the
accession of Robert I., to the Grahames of Dalkeith
and Abercorn ; it passed, in the reign of David II., to
the Douglasses ; it afterwards passed successively to
Lord Fleming and the Earl of Morton ; and acquired,
during the reign of Charles I., by John Dickson, it
continues to be possessed by that gentleman's de
scendants. KILCALMONELL, a parish in Argyleshire,
forming the northern extremity of the peninsula of
Kintyre. It is bounded on the north by the isth
mus of Tarbert. For a short distance, it compre
hends the whole breadth of the peninsula, from
Loch-Tarbert on the west to Loch-Fyne on the
east, till separated from the latter by the narrow but
long parish of Skipness, whose northern extremity
once formed a part pf Kilcalmonell. The western
side extends the whole length of West-Tarbert-
loch, which is about 12 miles, and stretches 4
miles beyond it, along the coast of the Atlantic
ocean. The breadth of Kilcalmonell is from 3 to
5 miles  The district of Kilberry is of a triangu
lar form, measuring about 7 miles on, each side;
bounded on the south by Loch-Tarbert, on the west
by the Atlantic ocean, and on the north-east by
South Knapdale. Its population, in 1831, was 993.
The surface exhibits great variety of hill and vale,
plains, woods, and lakes ; and the soil is no less vari
ous in its qualities, consisting of sand, clay, loam,
moss, and moor, which last pccupies at least one-
half of the parish. The arable soil is fertile, but
the climate is changeable, and liable to sudden tran
sitions. The principal crops are oats, barley, and
potatoes. The parish abounds with limestone and
shell marl, and the coast furnishes sea- ware in abun
dance. There are several harbours with fishing-
villages, from which busses are sent out tp the her
ring fishery. The entrance to Kintyre was formerly
defended by a chain of forts, one at each side of the
isthmus of Tarbert, and one in the centre. The
principal of them, the castle of Tarbert, is a fine
pld ruin, surmounting the rocks at the entrance of
the harbour. It is said that it was supplied with
water by a submarine passage, in pipes, across the
harbour. Tarbert was in the last century the seat
of a sheriffdom of the same name. There are the
remains of many other old forts in the parish, par
ticularly one with vitrified walls, and another with
a very thick wall of dry stones-, bpth built pn the
hill pf Dunskeig, which commands the opening of
Loch-Tarbert. There are also numerous cairns in
the parish. Partly situated in the Kilberry division
of this parish is Sliabh Gaoil; or, ' the Hill of Love,'
celebrated in. ancient story as the scene of the death
of Diarmid, the Achilles of the Fingalian heroes,
and the great progenitor of the family of Campbell,
who are known to this day by the name of Claim
Dhiarmaid, 'the Children of Diarmid.' Population,
in 1801, 2,952; in 1831, 3,488. Houses 456. As
sessed property, £9,250  This parish is in the
presbytery of Kintyre, and synpd pf Argyle. Patron,
the Duke pf Argyle. Stipend £218 5s. lid. ; glebe
£17 10s. There are two parish-churches, and ser
vice is performed in them alternately. Kilcalmonell
church was enlarged in 1828; sittings 600. Kil
berry church was built in 1821; sittings 700 
There is a missipn at Tarbert; chapel built in 1775;
sittings 400. Stipend £60, with £20 for manse and
glebe.i— There is an Independent church in the par
ish. — There are twp parochial schools, and 7 private
schools in the parish; but the minister repprted, in

1834, that there were abput 300 persons in the par
ish, above 15 years, whp cpuld npt read.
KILCHATTAN. See Kilbrandon.
KILCHENZIE. See Killean.
KILCHOAN. See Ardnamurchan.
K1LCHOMAN, » parish in Argyleshire, in the
island pf Islay; so named, it is said, from a St.
Chomanus, whp was sent hither by Columba to
preach the gospel. It is 14 miles long and 6 bread ;
and is mainly of a peninsular form, extending between
Lech-Gruinard and Lcch-Indaal. Around the cpast
the land is arable, producing good crops of corn,
barley, flax, and potatoes. There is one lake which
covers 100 acres of land. On it is a small island,
which has been once strongly fortified. Population,
in 1801, 2,050; in 1831, 4,822. Assessed property,
in 1815, £1,735. Houses, in 1831, 812  This
parish is in the presbytery of Islay and Jura, and
synod of Argyle. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£158 6s. 8d.; glebe £12. Church built in 1825;
sittings 608. An Independent chapel was built at
Port-Charlotte in 1830; sittings 200  Parochial
schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 4d. There is a
General Assembly's school at Gruinard, in the north,
part of the parish, and a Gaelic Society's school
near Port-Charlotte ; besides several private schools.
See articles Islay, Gruinard, and Port-Char-
LOTTE KILCHRENAN and DALAVICH, a parish in
Argyleshire. It extends 16 miles in length, and 8
in breadth ; comprehending about 96 square miles,
or 49,000 Scots acres, lying on both sides of Loch-
Awe : which see. The surface is diversified, and in
tersected by numerous streams descending from the
hills. Heath is the general covering ; but, since
the introduction of sheep-farming, the pasture is
more luxuriant, and the hills have assumed a greener
hue. On the shores of the lake there is excellent
arable land, natural pasturage, and much valuable
wood. That part of the parish which lies on the
sputh-east side pf Loch- A we, comprises the estate
of Sonachan. Population, in 1801, 1,052; in 1831;
1,466. Assessed property in Dalavich £1,286; in
Kilchrenan £1,114. Hpuses, in 1831, 189  This
parish is in the presbytery pf Lorn, and synod of
Argyle. Patron, the Duke of Argyle. Stipend
£170 15s. ; glebe £11. There are two parish-
churches, about 9 miles distant from each other,
and service is performed in them on alternate Sab
baths — There are parish-schools at Kilchrenan,
Dalavich, and Ardchonnal.
KILCHRIST. See Cilmechrist.
KILCHURN-CASTLE, a noble relic of feudal
ages, near the head of Loch-Awe, under the im
pending gloom of the majestic Bencruachan, which
rises in rocky masses abruptly from the opposite shore
of the lake. Amid the grandeur and variety which
that fine lake derives from its great expanse, and
the lofty mountains with which it is surrounded, it
cannot be denied that Kilchurn-castle forms its lead
ing and most picturesque object, —
" Is paramount, and rules
Over the pomp and beauty of a scene
Where mountains, torrents, lakes, and woods unite
To pay it homage."
There is no other ancient castle in the Western
Highlands that can compete with it in point of mag
nitude ; and none, even throughout Scotland at large,
can be compared with it for the picturesque arrange
ment of its buildings, the beauty and fine effect of
its varied and broken outline, or its happy appro
priateness to its situation. It stands upon a pro
jecting rocky elevation, at the head of the lake, where.
the water of -Orchy flows into it, and which is oc
casionally converted into an island when the river

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and loch are flooded by rains. Although now con
nected with the shore by an extended plain, obviously
of alluvial origin, and consequently forming a pen
insula, it seems certain that the rocky site of the
castle- must have been at one time an island; and
that the change has been produced partly by alluvial
deppsit, and partly by the lowering pf the waters of
the lake. Anciently it must have been a place of
great strength ; and its unusual size and extent
attest the feudal splendour and magnificence which
the knights of Glenorchy were accustcmed to gather
around them. But this fine relic pf baronial dignity
is npw a ruin, — " wild yet stately, — not dismantled
of turrets, nor the walls broken down, thpugh ob
viously a ruin," and hastening tp decay. The ex-
teripr walls are yet entire, but the mountain-blasts
sweep through its roofless halls, and the thistle
waves its head in the now silent court-yard  Kil-
churn, or as it ought to be written, Coalchuirn castle,
is said to have been first erected by the lady of Sir
Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, the ancestor of the
Ducal family of Argyle. Sir Colin, who was a
Knight-Templar, was absent on a crusade at the
time, and for seven years the principal portion of
the rents of his lands are said to have been expended
in its erection by his lady. The great tower was
five stories in height, the second story being entirely
occupied by the baronial hall. That necessary ap
pendage of a feudal castle, the dungeon, is on the
ground-floor, and appears tp have been sufficiently
dark, damp, and wretched to render utterly miser
able the unfortunate beings who, from time to time,
were forced to tenant it. The remaining portions of
the castle, which form a square enclP6ing the ceurt-
yard, thcugh pf cpnsiderable antiquity, are certainly
net so ancient as the tower, and doubtless have been
added at some mpre recent pericd. The second Sir
Colin of Glenorchy, surnamed Dubh, or Black, son
of the Knight- Templar, was proprietor of seven dif
ferent castles, — a sufficient evidence of the great
wealth which must have been possessed, even at that
early period, by the ancestors of the now powerful
family of Breadalbane. So late as 1 745, Kilchurn-
castle was garrisoned by the king's troops, and at a
much more recent period, it was fit to be inhabited.
One of the factors or overseers of the Breadalbane
estates, caused the roof to be taken off, merely to
obtain an easy supply of wood, to the irreparable in
jury of the castle, and the unavailing regret of its
noble proprietor, who was then absent. The greatest
care is now taken of its preservation ; but open and
exposed as it now is, time and the winter-storms will
soon work its deeay. There is a legend connected
with this castle, which has its counterpart in more
than one legend of feudal times, as well as in the
pages of Homer ; and may be worth relating here.
During the long absence of Sir Colin, the Knight-
Templar, he is said to have visited Rome, where
he had a very singular dream. ' He applied to a
monk for his advice, who recommended his in
stant return home, as a very serious domestic ca
lamity, which could only be averted by his pres
ence, was portended by his dream. Sir Colin im
mediately took his departure for Scotland, and,
after much difficulty and danger, reached a place
called Succoth, the residence of an pld woman whp
had been his nurse. In the disguise pf a mendicant,
he craved food and shelter fpr the night ; and was
admitted to the ppor woman's fireside. From a scar
on his arm she recognised him as the laird ; and in
stantly informed him of what was about to happen
at the castle. It appeared that for a long period, no
information had been received with regard to Sir
Colin, nor had any communication from him reached
his lady. On the contrary, it had been industriously

circulated that he had fallen in battle in the Hply
Land. Sir Colin perceived treachery pn the part of
some one : for he had repeatedly despatched clans
men with intelligence to his lady, and surely all of
them ceuld not have perished before reaching Scpt
land. His suspicipns were well-founded. Baron
MacCprquadale, a neighbouring laird, who had been
the most busy in propagating the report of Sir Colin's
death, had intercepted and murdered all the messen
gers. He had thus succeeded in convincing the lady
of the death of her husband ; and had finally won
her affections, and the next day had been fixed for
the marriage. Incensed at what he had just heard
frem the faithful nurse, Sir Cplin set put early next
merning for his castle pf Kilchurn, where he was
told his lady then resided ; and, as he followed the
romantic windings of the Orchy, the sound of the
bagpipe, and the acclamations of his clansmen who
had assembled to join the approaching festivity, were
wafted to his ears. He crossed the drawbridge, and
entered the gates of the castle — at this happy
season open to all — undiscovered and unregarded.
While he stood silently gazing on the scene of riot
which now met his view, he was asked what he
wanted. " To have my hunger satisfied, and my
thirst quenched," said he. Food and liquor were
plentifully put before him ; he eat, but refused to
drink, except frpm the hands pf the lady herself.
Informed pf the strange request of the apparent
mendicant, the lady, always charitable and benevo
lent, came at once and handed him a cup. Sir Colin
drank to her health, and dropping a ring into the
empty cup returned it to her. The lady, observant
pf the acticn, retired and examined the ring. It
was her own gift to her husband when he departed
pn his distant expedition ; it had been his talisman
in the field, and had been kept sacred by him. " My
husband! My husband!" she exclaimed, and rushing
in, threw herself into his arms. A shcut pf joy from
the clansmen rent the air ; and the pipers made the
ccurt-yard resound with the pibroch of the Camp
bells. The Baren MacCprquadale was allowed to
depart in safety ; but Sir Cplin Dubh, the son and
successor of the Templar, after his father's death
attacked the Baron, and overcoming him in battle,
took possessien pf his castle and his lands.
Wordsworth has addressed spme fine lines to
Kil cli urn-castle, concluding thus: —
" Shade of departed power,
Skeleton of unfleshed humanity,
The chronicle were welcome that should call
Into the compass of distinct regard
The toils and struggles of thy infancy !
Yon foaming flood seems motionless as ice ;
Its dizzy turbulence eludes the eye.
Frozen by distance ; so, majestic pile,
To the perception of this Age appear
Thy fierce beginnings, softened and subdued.
And quieted in character — the strife.
The pride, the fury uncontrollable
Lost on the aerial heights of the Crusades ! "
KILCONQUHAR, a parish in Fifeshire, extend
ing frpm the shpres pf the frith of Forth, towards the
north, about 9 miles in length. Its breadth at the
south is 3 miles ; about the middle 2 ; but towards
the north only from 1 to £ mile. It is bounded on
the sputh partly by the frith of Forth; and partly by
the parish of Elie ; on the east by the parishes of
St. Mpnan's and Carnbee ; on the nnrth by Cameron
and Ceres ; and pn the west by the parishes of New-
burn, Largo, and in part by Largo-bay. The Sur
face is highly diversified. Immediately from the
beach at the south-west end of the parish, Kincraig
hill rises tp the height pf abput 200 feet above the
level of the sea. Its southern front presents a per
pendicular rugged wall of trap rock, of picturesque

ST. KILDA.

105

appearance.* *rom the summit of this hill the
ground gradually descends towards the north, till it
becomes nearly level, and then gently ascends to
Reres and Kilbrackmont, where it is 600 feet above
the level of the sea. North of this it descends into
a deep ravine, and from thence it again rises for
two miles till it reaches its greatest elevation, about
750 feet, at Dunikeir-law. From thence it again
declines for two miles, and then again ascends to
Bruntshields, at the northern extremity of the par
ish. Colinsburgh [which see], situated in the
level portion of the southern part- of the parish, is
a well-built, thriving, little town. It was originally
built by Colin, 3d Earl of Balcarres, whp died in
1 722, and is named after him. The village pf Kil-
conquhar is situated near the church. Eabxsferry
[which see] pn the sea-ceast, inhabited principally
by weavers and cclliers, is a very ancient rpyal burgh.
The estate pf Kincraig, in the seuth- west extremity
of the parish, belonging to Miss Gpurlay, has for
nearly 600 years been the prpperty ef a family pf
that name, previpus tp which it belcnged to a family
of the name of Bickerten. Anciently it formed a
barony, and included many pther lands in varipus
counties. The original of the family was Ingclra-
musde Gourlay, who came from England, and settled
in Scotland, during the reign of William the Lyon.
Immediately east of the church and village of Kil-
conquhar, is Kilconquhar house, the property of Sir
Henry Lindsay Bethune, Bart. It is a handsome
edifice, surrounded with extensive enclosures finely
wooded. Kilconquhar formerly belonged to a family
of the name of Carstairs, from whom it came to the
ancestors of the present proprietor. Sir Henry is
descended from the ancient family of the Lords
Lindsay of the Byres, he was created a baronet for
his distinguished services in Persia. Immediately
north of Colinsburgh is Balcarres : which see.
Population, in 1801, 2,005; in 1831, 2,540. Houses
482. Assessed property £10,357. The average
amount of raw agricultural produce has been esti
mated at £24,632 ; the produce of mines, in coal
and lime, at £6,000. The average rent of land
is £2 per acre. The valued rent of the parish is
£9,546 3s. 4d. Scots. About 235 persons residing
in the villages are employed in weaving linen for the
manufacturers of Dundee, Kirkcaldy, and Leven ;
and a few of the men residing on the coast, go in July
and August to the herring-fishing in the north. —
This parish is in the presbytery of St. Andrews, and
synod of Fife. Patron, the Earl of Balcarres. Sti
pend £255 4s. 6d. ; glebe £27 10s. Unappropriated
teinds £396 2s. lOd. The parish-church was built
in 1821. It is an exceedingly handsome building in
the pointed style of architecture, with a fine tower
80 feet high, situated on a small knoll which forms
the churchyard, in the middle of the village of Kil
conquhar. In consequence of the great distance of
the northern part of the parish from the parish-church,
a chapel was erected at Largo ward in 1835; sittings
400. Stipend £75. There are three dissenting meet
ing-houses in the parish : 1st, One in connection with
the Relief Synod at Colinsburgh, built about 1800;
sittings 300. Another at the village of Kilconquhar,
in connection with the United Associate Synod, built
in 1795; sittings 270. Stipend £70; and 3d, An In
dependent meeting-house on the borders of the par
ish, near Elie, built in 1831 ; sittings 196. Stipend
£63. There are six schools in the parish. The
parochial teacher has the maximum salary, with
dwelling-house, schpol-house, and garden.
* In these rocks are several caves, called Macduff's. cave, the
Hall-cave, the Devil's-cave. Macduff is said to have lain con.
cealed iu the cave which bears his name, when flying from the
jealous rage of Macbeth.

KILDA (St.), pr Hirta, the mpstremete pf the
Scpttish Western isles, " Whose lonely race
Resign the setting sun to Indian worlds."
The nearest land tp it is Harris, on which the Butt
pf Lewis bears 82 miles east pf it. The Flannen
islands are 37 miles distant from it. It is abput 3
miles long frpm east tp west; 2 broad from north
to south; and 9J in circumference. The whole
island is fenced about with one continued perpen
dicular face of rock, of prodigious height, except
a part of the bay or landing-place on the south
east ; and even there the rocks are of great height,
and the narrow passage to the top is so steep, that
a few men armed only with stones could prevent
any hpstile multitude from landing on the island.
The bay is also of difficult access, as the tides and
waves are so impetuous, that, except in a calm, it
is extremely dangerous of approach. The surface
of the island is rocky, rising into four distinct
summits. The highest of these, called Conachan.f
was estimated by Dr. Macculloch to be 1,380 feet
above the sea-level; and presents on one side a pre
cipice of nearly this elevation. " It is a dizzy alti
tude," says Macculloch, " to the spectator who looks
from above on the inaudible waves dashing below.
There are some rock\y points near the bottom of this
precipice, — one of them presenting a magnificent na
tural arch, which, in any other situation, would be
striking, but are here lost in the overpowering vicinity
of the cliffs that tower above them. In proceeding,
these soon become low; but at the north-western
extremity, the island again rises into a hill nearly as
high as Conachan, terminating all round towards the
sea by formidable precipices, which are continued
nearly to the south-eastern point of the bay. Here
a rock, separated by a fissure from the island, dis
plays the remains of an ancient work; whence it has
derived the name of Dune."
The surface of the island is generally covered
to the depth of six or eight inches with a black
ish loam, on which rests a' thick verdant turf,
except on the tops of the hills where it is three
feet deep of moss. The soil is well-adapted for
corn ; but the violence of the west winds restricts
agricultural operations, and the natives prefer the rear
ing of sheep and goats, and catching of wild fowl, to
the more toilsome business of husbandry, and raise
only a small quantity of corn on the south-east de
clivity near the village. The soil, though naturally
poor, is rendered extremely fertile by ihe singular
industry of the inhabitants, who manure their fields
so as to convert them into a sort of garden. The
instruments of agriculture which they require are
merely a spade, a mallet, and a rake or harrow.
After turning up the ground with the spade, they
rake it carefully, removing every small stone, noxious
root, or weed that falls in their way ; and then,
with the mallet, pound down the stiff clods to dust ;
they then manure it with a rich compost, prepared
in the manner afterwards described. The inhabi
tants of St. Kilda sow and reap much earlier than
others in the same latitude. The heat of the sun,
reflected from the high hills upon the cultivated land
towards the south-east, is very great ; and the cli
mate being rainy, the corn grows fast and ripens
early. Harvest is commonly over before September ;
and, when it unfortunately happens otherwise, the
whole crop is liable to be destroyed by the equinoc
tial storms, which, in this island, are attended with
dreadful hurricanes and excessive rains. Barley and
oats are sown. Of the former, about 50 bolls are
generally brought every year to Harris, and the grain
f The Rev. John L. Buchanan, in his * Travels in the Western
Hebrides, from 1782 to 1794,' calls it Congara.

lOfi

ST. KILDA.

is said to be of superior quality. Potatoes have
been introduced, and cabbages ahd other garden-
plants. There are several springs, which form a small
burn that runs clnse by the village : this is situated
abput a quarter pf a mile from the bay pn the sputh-
east, and all the inhabitants pf the island live in it.
The number ef inhabitants, in 1764, was pnly 88;
but they were formerly mpre numerous ; and, under
proper regulatipns, the island might easily suppprt
300. Martin, whp visited it in 1690, and whp gives
a very interesting acccunt pf its inhabitants, found,
at that time, 180 persons; but, in 1730, one of the
St. Kildans cemingto Harris, was attacked with the
small-pcx, and died. Unluckily his clpthes were
carried tc the island next year, by pne pf his rela-
tions, and thus, it is supppsed, was the infecticn
communicated, which made such havock, that cnly
four grown perspns were left alive. , The houses are
built in twe pretty regular rows, facing pne anpther,
with a street running in the middle. They are nearly
fiat in the roof, like those of the Oriental nations ;
for, as the island is subject to hurricanes, if the
heuses were raised in the ropf, the first winter-
storm wpuld infallibly blpw them dpwn. The walls
are built of coarse freestone, without lime or mortar,
but made solid by alternate layers pf turf. In the
middle pf the walls are the beds — formed alsp pf stone,
and Overlaid with large flag-stones. — each capable of
containing three persons, and having a small opening
towards the house. All their houses are divided
into two apartments, the interior of which is the
habitaticn pf the family ; the pther, nearest the dopr,
receives the cattle during the winter-seasen. The
walls are raised to a greater height than is usual in
the other Western islands. This is done to allow
them to prepare the manure for their fields, which
they dp in the following manner. After having
burnt a considerable quantity of dried turf, they
spread the ashes over the apartment in which they
eat and sleep ; these ashes they cover with a rich
vegetable mould or' black earth ; and over this bed
of earth they scatter a • quantity of peat-dust : this
done, they water, tread, and beat the ccmpost intp a
hard flour, on which they immediately kindle large
fires, which they never extinguish, till they have a
sufficient stock of new ashes on hand. The same
operations are punctually repeated till they are ready
to sow their barley, by which time the walls of their
houses are sunk down, or rather their floors have
risen, about four or five feet. The manure thus pro
duced is excellent, and, scattered every year over
their fields, causes the land to yield large crops.
Though cleanliness is most necessary to health and
longevity, yet, in spite of the practice now related,
and some other equally filthy habits, the St. Kil
dans are as long-lived as other men. Their total
want of those articles of luxury which destroy and
enervate the constitution, and their moderate labours,
keep the balance of life equal between them and those
of a more civilized country. And though to most
landsmen -•' Weary, O weary ! it is to gaze
For vears on the blue main,
Round bounded but by the bright heavens
For which we pine iu vain,"
yet none are more attached to their 'natale solum'
than the primitive inhabitants of this remete islet.
Besides the habitations we have mentioned, there
are a number of cells, or storehpuses, scattered
ever the whele island. These are cpmppsed entirely
of stpnes, and are frem 12 to 18 feet in length, and
little more than 7 in breadth and height. Every
stone hangs above that immediately below it, not
perpendicularly, but inclining towards the opposite

side, so that the two upper courses are near enough
tcbe covered with a flat stone, giving the whole the
appearance of an arch. To hinder the rain from
penetrating this cell, the outward part is covered
with turf, which continues green and verdant for a
cpnsiderable time. In these the inhabitants secure
their peats, eggs, and wild fowl, — of which every St.
Kildan has his share, in proportion to the rent he pays,
or the extent of land he possesses. In this, as well
as their ancient customs, they regard with jealousy
any innovation  The St. Kilda method of catching '
wild fowl is curious. The men divide themselves
into fowling-parties, each of which generally consists
of four persons distinguished for their agility and
skill. Each party must have at least one rope about
30 fathoms long, made out of a strong raw cow-hide,
salted for the purppse, and cut circularly intp three
thongs pf equal length. These thongs, being closely
twisted together, form a threefold cord, able tp sus
tain a great weight, and durable enough to last two
generations. To prevent its receiving injuries from
the sharp edges of the rocks, it is covered with sheep
skins dressed in the same manner. This rope is the
most valuable piece of furniture a St. Kilda man can
be possessed of; it makes the first article in the testa
ment of a father ; and, if it fall to a daughter's share,
she is esteemed one of the best matches in the island.
By the help of these Topes, they examine the fronts
of the rocks. Linked together in couples, each hav
ing the end of the cord fastened about his waist, they
go down and ascend the most dreadful precipices.
When one is in motion, the other plants himself' on a
strong shelf, and takes care to have so sure a foot
ing that, if his fellow-adventurer should make a false
step, and tumble over, he may be able to save him.
When one has arrived at a safe landing-place, he
seats himself firmly, while the other endeavours to
follow. Mr. Buchanan says : " A man from St.
Kilda told in a company where I was present, that
he was one of the four men that catched four itts, or
pens, being 300 each, in the whole 1,200 solan-geese,
in one' night. That bird, after the hard toil of the
day at fishing without intermission, rising high in the
air to get a full sight of the fish that he marks out
for his prey before he pounces upon it, and each time
devouring it before he rises above the surface, be
comes so fatigued at night, that he sleeps quite
sound, in company with some hundreds, who mark
out some particular spot in the face of the rocks, to
which they repair at night, and think themselves
secure under the protection pf a sentinel, who stands
awake to watch their lives, and give the alarm, by
birl birl in time of danger, to awaken those under
his guard. The St. Kildians watch with great care
pn what part nf the island these birds are most likely
to light at night : and this they know by marking out
on which side of the island the play pf fish are,
among which the geese are at wprk the whple day ; ,
because in that quarter they are ready to betake
themselves to sleep at night. And when they are
fairly alighted, the fowlers repair tp the place with
their panniers, and ropes pf thirty fathoms in length,
to let them down with profound silence in their
neighbourhopd— to try their fortunes among the un
wary throng. The fowler, thus let down by one or
more men, who hold the rope lest he should fall over
the impending rocks into the sea, with a white towel
about his breast, calmly slides over the face of the
rocks till he has a full view of the sentinel ; then he
gently moves along on his hands and feet, creeping
very silently to the sppt where the sentinel stands
on guard. If he cries bir I bir I the sign of an alarm,
he stands back; but if he cries grog! grog! that of
cpqfidence, he advances withput fear of giving an
alarm, because the gepse takes the. fowler for one of

ST. KILDA.

107

the straggling geese coming intp the camp, and suf
fers him to advance. Then the fowler very gently
tickles pne pf his legs, which he lifts and places pn
the palm pf his hand ; he then as gently tickles the
other, which in like manner is lifted and placed on
the hand. He then no less artfully than insensibly
moves the sentinel near the first sleeping gopse,
which he pushes with his fingers ; pn which he
awakes, and finding the sentinel standing above him,
he immediately falls a-fighting him for his supposed
insplence. This alarms the whple camp, and instead
of flying off they all begin to fight through the whcle
company ; while in the mean time the common enemy,
unsuspected, begins in good earnest to twist their
necks, and never gives up till the whole are left dead
oil the spot. This goose is almost as large as a land
goose, of a white colour, except the tops of the
wings, which are black, and the top of the head,
which is yellow. The bill is long and sharp-pointed,
extremely hard, and pierces an inch deep into wood.
There is an act of parliament against the cruel man
ner of fastening herring on planks far out at sea, to
catch these darling geese, and a severe penalty against
transgressors of this inhuman act. A well-supported
fact concerning the strength of this fowl, is told by
one of the tacksmen of this island. Once when sail
ing towards St. Kilda, and entering upon a field of
sea where the geese were busy darting among the
fish, from on high, on each side of the large barge in
which he sat, and sailing fast before the wind, the
barge passed over a fish so quickly that a goose who
had marked it out, and rushing so violently through
the air, instead of the fish, on account of the unfor-
seen accident, darted his strong bill quite through
the barge, and was actually carried back to Harris
dead, with his bill through the plank, as a testimony
of the fact." [' Travels in the Western Hebrides,'
pp. 122 — 126.] — "Swift," says Dr. Macculloch, "in
his ' Tale of a Tub,' describes a land of feathers,
and perhaps he drew the hint from St. Kilda. The
air here is full of feathered animals, the sea is cover
ed with them, the houses are ornamented by them,
the ground is speckled by them like a flowery mea
dow in May. The town is paved with feathers, the
very dunghills are made of feathers, the ploughed
land seems as if it had been sown with feathers, and
the inhabitants look as if they had been all tarred
and feathered, for their hair is fuU of feathers, and
their clothes are covered with feathers. The women
look like feathered Mercuries, for their shoes are
made of a gannet's skin ; every thing smells of fea
thers ; and the smell pursued us over all the islands,
for the captain had a sackful in the cabin."
The laird of Macleod is the proprietor of St.
Kilda; and the island is visited annually by his
steward, to collect the rents, which are paid in
sheep, butter, and wild fowl, particularly solan-
geese. The island is surrounded with several small
insulated rocks, of which the principal are Soa and
Borera. Spars and rock-crystals are found on the
north side of the island.
" Of St. Kilda, who communicated his name to
the island," says Dr. Macculloch, " nothing seems
to be ascertained. At least I have searched the
Irish hagiology for him in vain. In Martin's time
(1690) it appears to have been known by the name
of Hirt or Hirta, — a term derived from the' parent of
Terra, by the same inversion as pur own earth. It
is a remarkable instance of the zeal or influence of
the early clergy, that in a spot like this three chapels
should have existed. They were extant in Martin's
time, and the traces of two still remain." Buchanan,
the historian, writes, that in his time the inhabitants
of Hirta were totally ignorant; but that the propri
etor sent a priest along with his procurator yearly

to baptize their children, and in the absence of the
priest every one baptized his own child. In this state
they continued for a hundred years after, until an igno
rant fanatic impostor grossly imposed on the people,
by claiming tithes ; but a part of them refused to
pay that tribute, alleging he was unqualified for the
profession, as he could not repeat the Lord's prayer.
Fifty years after his time, another dangerous impos
tor formed a design of raising a little spiritual empire
among them ; his name was Rore, and he had pene
tration enough to find out that ignorance was the
mother pf devetipn. This native nf Hirta, though
ignorant of letters, had great natural parts, and cen-
ceived a design cf enslaving the whele ccmmunity,
and making himself ford pf their ccnsciences, free
dom, and fortunes. He pretended tp have had sun
dry cenferences with Jchn the Baptist, and the Virgin
Mary. He taught his followers that each of them had
titular saints in heaven to intercede for them, whose
anniversary behoved to be kept by a splendid feast,
of which of course Rore himself was always par
ticipant. Private confession was his great engine,
and the greatest secrecy was enjoined on all novi
ciates, under the pain of hell-fire. But he was at
last enticed on board a vessel, and carried to Skye,
where he made public confession of his crimes, and
was never allowed to return to St. Kilda  St.
Kilda is generally understood to be ecclesiastically
annexed to the parish of South Uist.
KILDALTON, a parish in Argyleshire, forming
the south-east end of the island of Islay. It is 14
miles in length, and about 6 in breadth. There are
several harbours, particularly Loch-Knock, on which
is situated the small village of Kildalton, containing
about 100 inhabitants. The name of Knock is taken
from a high hill which rises in the figure of a sugar-
loaf near the head of the bay. About 2 square miles
are covered with natural wood. There are the re
mains of several Danish encampments, and many oi
the places bear Danish names. Population, in 1801,
1,990; in 1831, 3,065; in 1836, 2,222.— This par
ish, formerly a vicarage, is in the presbytery of Kin
tyre, and synod of Argyle. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £25. The island of
Texa with one family, and the inhabited islands of
Ardmore and Ardelister, are attached to it. The
parish-church was built about 1816; sittings 600.
There are parliamentary churches at Kilmeny, Oa,
and Portnahaven  Schoolmaster's salary £25, with
about £20 fees. There are 3 other schools, one of
which is a General Assembly's school, on the north
west boundary of the parish.
KILDEAN, the spot where the English army
crpssed the Forth to the fatal battle of Stirling ;
about half-a-mile above the present bridge of Stir
ling. Here probably stopd pne pf those numerous
cells or chapels which existed throughout Scotland
before the Reformation, but of which the name alone
has survived to the present day.
KILDONAN, a parish in the county of Suther
land, bpunded pn the nprth by Farr and Reay ; on the
east by Latheron in Caithness; pn the seuth by
Lpth ; and pn the west by Clyne and Farr. It ex
tends abput 24 miles in length, and is abput 5 miles
broad at the south end, and from 12 to 17 miles at
the other. It lies on each side of the river Helms
dale [which see], and the strath of Helmsdale, or the
strath of Kildonan, as it is sometimes called, compose
the principal arable portion of the parish. Into the
head of this strath a number of minor straths run
down from the high grounds, giving to the whole
parish a configuration somewhat resembling the form
of atree, of which Strath-Helmsdale forms the trunk,
and the minpr diverging straths the branches. The
general appearance is mountainous; but on the

108

KILDRUMMIE.

haughs, or low grounds, the soil is light, fertile, and
productive of tolerable crops. The mpst elevated
mountain, Bengriammore, has an altitude of nearly
2,000 feet. In the upper part of the parish are seve
ral small lakes, all abounding with trout, and some of
them with char. The principal of these are Lochna-
cuen, Lochleamnaclavan, Lochbadanloch, and Loch-
inruar. Red deer, grouse, ptarmigan, and black
cocks, are plentiful on the moors. The district con
tains numerous Pictish castles cr towers ; and there
are said to be three subterranean passages under the
Helmsdale, from fortifications on one side to fortifi
cations on the opposite side of the river. The parish
is subject to inundations from the sudden risings of
the river, and has been occasionally inundated by
water-spouts, one of which carried off a whole sheal-
ing or grazing, with the family and cattle.- Popula
tion, in 1801, 1,440; in 1831, 257. The decrease in
the population has been occasioned by converting the
whole parish into six large sheep-farms. Houses, in
1831, 33. Assessed property, in 1815, £1,244 
The parish is in the presbytery of Dornoch, and
synod of Sutherland and Caithness. Patron, the
Duke of Sutherland. Stipend £158 5s. 2d. ; glebe
£40  Schoolmaster's salary £27 13s. 4d. There
are three private schools.
KJLDR UMMIE,* a parish in the district cf Alford,
Aberdeenshire ; bounded on the north by Cabrach
and Auchindore ; on the east by Kearn and Cushnie,
with Leochel; on the south by Towie ; and on the
west by Cabrach. It is situated en the Den, abput
20 miles from its sources, and is surrounded on all
sides by hills, but consists, in itself, of a level valley,
between 2 and 3 miles square, with a narrow strip
stretching between the north side of Auchindoir and
the mountains, in an easterly direction, for 3 or 4
miles, " suggesting by its form, to a fanciful imagi
nation," — such as that of the author of the Statisti
cal Account of it himself, it would appear,, — " the
idea of the pasteboard kite which Dr. Franklin first
raised into the thunder-cloud." The soil is for the
most part a rich deep gravelly loam, supposed to be
amongst the most fertile in the county, and well
cultivated. The hills around afford excellent pas
turage. There are plantations of forest and fir trees
at Clova, Brux, &c, and a considerable extent of
natural birch-wood covers a bank overhanging a
rivulet winding near Kildrummie-castle  This par
ish is in the synod of Aberdeen, and presbytery of
Alford. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £158 I9s.
lid.; glebe £10  Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s.
4d. ; fees, &c, £11 6s. 4d. There is a private school
in the parish.-oPopulation, in 1801, 430; in 1831,
678. Houses 110. Assessed property, in 1815, £840.
Kildrummie-castle stands on an eminence rising out
of a level about 3 miles in length. The venerable
ruins, — at first hidden by a rising ground, — as you
approach them, burst at once on the view, so as to
produce the finest effect. The plain, through which
the Don seeks its winding course, is here dotted
jvith knolls, some of which are covered with wood ;
while on every side, lofty mountains form such a
barrier that the eye can discover no passage out of
( * The name Kildrummie, it has been said, is purely Celtic,
signifying 'the Little Burial mount.1 It seems, indeed, to
correspond with the situation, as the castle stands on a small
eminence. It may be doubted, however, whether Kildrummie
has_ not originally been a vulgar modification of Kyndromy ;
which might seem to have been its most ancient form, being
that in which it appears, not only in the Rotuli, but in the
Chartulary of Aberbrothock. According to this orthography,
it might be traced to the Gaelic ceann, cinn, ' head,' and druim,
in genitive drama, • the ridge of a hill,' and might thus signify
* the head,' or 'summit of the ridge,' which had been the site of
the most ancient tower erected here. In the map of the coun
ties of Aberdeen and Banff, by Gordon of Straloch, the name
of the fortress is by mistake given as Kurdrummie, which was
probably written Kindrummte.

the strath. The ground in the vicinity is moorish
and barren. There are two small defiles, denomi
nated the north and the south glen. The brook,
which issues from the latter, washes the walls of the
eminence on which the castle stands. The northern
side was secured by the steep banks of the brook,
which had been carried round the hill, on the east
and south, by artificial moats, the remains of which
are still to be seen. On the western side, on the
face of the eminence, the entrance to a subterraneous
passage, which communicated with the interior of
the fortress, is still visible, although now obstructed
by rubbish. ¦ Old people in the neighbourhood, how
ever, affirm that they have entered it ; and state that
it leads to apartments under the castle, so large and
lofty as to admit of a man sitting upright on horse
back within them. Although this passage is much
above the present bed of the rivulet, it is believed
that its channel was then level with the exterior
opening. According to local tradition, these vaults
were used as stables, cellars, and prisons. The cas
tle covers about a Scotch acre ; although three acres,
supplied by a draw-well, appear to have been in
cluded within the fortification. It originally con..
sisted, it is said, but of one great circular tower, of
five stories or floors, distinguished by the appellation
of 'the Snow tower,' in the western corner of the
present fabric. The only tower now standing is
that to the north-west. Of the Snpw tower, which
was situated on the south-west, the foundation only
remains. The walls of the building are from 10 to
12 feet in thickness. " Among bleak hills," says
Gough, " stand the magnificent ruins of Kildrummy-
castle, commanding a deep glen." According to his
inteUigence, "the Snow tower is near 50 yards high,
of seven stones [stories], each 30 feet high. In the
middle story a stone bench ranges round, with doors
opening to it from the wall, whence it is called the
court-house. The walls," he adds, are " 18 [eight?]
feet thick, now fallen in. On the north side is a
magnificent hall, 60 paces by 15, called Barnet's hall."
The chapel stood in the centre of the fortress, 60
feet in length, and in breadth 24. Three of the win
dows are still entire. This, if we may credit the
tradition of the country, was occupied as a magazine
of forage during the noted siege by the forces of
Edward I., in the year 1306. It is said that the be
siegers despaired of success until a piece of red-hot
iron, thrown through one of the • windows of the
chapel into the forage, occasioned such distraction
by the conflagration, that the castle was won by sur
prise and storm. The remains pf a burying-ground
may be yet seen, on the north side of the castle, im
mediately under the windows of the chapel. Great
quantities of bones have at different times been dug
up in the neighbcurhood, but scarcely any more valu
able remnant of former ages. This castle at an early
period was the property of the royal family. David,
the brother of William the Lion, and grandson ol
David I., was at the same time Earl of Huntington
in England, and of Garvyach or Garioch in the north
of Scotland. This Dawy Erie was of lauch
Of Huntyutowu, and Garvyauch.
Til Kyng Williame he wes brodyr.
Wvntoun's Cron. viii. 6. 235.
The venerable prior of St. Serfs says, that David
was " of lauch," or legally, heir of this earldom ; and
the magnificent castle of Kildrummie, during his
time, was the capital mansion of the earldom of Ga
rioch. With the daughter of David, it went to the
family of Bruce ; and from them, with the sister of
Robert I., to the family of Marr, when it became the
capital of Marr, as well as of Garioch. It must have
been part of the royal demesnes during the reign of

KILDRUMMIE.

109

Alexander II. For this prince having appointed St.
Gilbert, Bishop of Caithness, to be his treasurer in
the north of Scotland, the latter, " dureing the space
he had this office, built the castle and fortiesse of
Kildrume, in Marr, with seaven tours within the
precinct of the said castle." What is here said can
only be understood of the great additions made, by
this bishop, tp the original tower. The next men-
tinn we find made pf this fortress refers to the period
of the usurpation of Edward I. In his progress
through Scotland, a.d. 1303, he was at Kyndromyn,*
Oct. 8 and 9. Our accurate annalist, Lord Hailes,
has remarked that, after the unfortunate slaughter
of Comyn at Dumfries, Bruce " had not a single for
tress at his command but the castle of Kildrummie ;
and that," he justly subjoins, " was at toe great a
distance to be serviceable." From this circumstance
he infers, with great appearance of truth, that Bruce
had no premeditated intention to take away the life
of Comyn ; and that he had formed no plans, and
concerted no measures, for making his claim to the
Scottish crown effectual. The writer of the Old
Statistical Account has fallen into a mistake here,
in supposing that Bruce himself, as well as his queen,
escaped from Kildrummie during its siege by the
English, a.d. 1306; for our illustrious prince did not
himself seek refuge here after his defeat in the battle
of Methven, but wandered among the mountains of
Perthshire, with a very few adherents, among whom
was his brother Edward. As winter was approach
ing, he sent a younger brother, Nigel, with the Earl
of Athole, to conduct the Queen, and ladies in her
suite, to Kildrummie, as they could neither bear the
fatigue of travelling nor find sufficient sustenance.
Our good old Barbour accordingly gives us the fol
lowing account : —
 Thai war ay in sa hard trawaill,
Till the ladyis began to fayle,
That mycht the trawaill drey na mar. —
¦With that in hy to him callyt he
Thaim, that till him war mast priue:
Then amang thaim thai thocht it best,—
That the queyne, and the erle alsua,
And the ladyis, in hy suld ga,
With Nele the Bruce, till Kildroray.
For thaim thocht thai mycht sekyrly
Duell thar, quhill thai war wictaillit weile :
For Bwa stalwart wes the castell,
That it with strenth war hard to get,
Quhill that thar in war men and mete.
As thai ordanyt thai did in hv.
The Bruce, B. ii. v. 697, &c Edit. 1820.
The Queen, and Lady Marjpry, the daughter ef
Bruce by a former marriage, afterwards dreading tp
be besieged here, fled to the sanctuary of St. Duthac,
at Tain, in Ross-shire ; but the Earl of Ross violated
the sanctuary, and delivered them to the English.
The castle was afterwards besieged by the Earls of
Lancaster and Hereford. The magazine being
treacherously burnt, the garrison, deprived pf prpvi-
sipns, surrendered at discretion. The young and
handsome Nigel was condemned and executed at
Berwick by the English ; Christopher Seton, who
had married Bruce's sister, and his brother Alexan
der, met with the same fate at Newcastle. The
Earl of Athole received the death of a traitor at
London. The King did not learn the mournful tid
ings till he had resided for some time in Carrick. He
had his information from a lady, who was a near re
lation of his own.
 -Scho him t&uld, sit-hand full sar,
How that his brothyr takyu war
Iu the caatell off Kyldromy,
And destroyit sa welanusly ;
* There can be no doubt that Kildrummie ia here meant, as
he proceeded to Kynlos, in Moray, on the 10th, and to Elgin
on the 11th of the same mouth. This, in the 'Scala Chronicon,'
is denominated Kyndronu.

And the Erie of Athall alsua :
And how the queyne, and othyr ma,
That till his party war heldand,
War tane, and led in Ingland,
And put in felouu presenile, &c.
The Bruce, B. iv. p. 93.
As Perth had been taken by Edward Baliol, after
the fatal battle of Dupplin, he intrusted the keeping
of it to the Earl of Fife. Being retaken, a few
months after by the loyalists, Fife, with his lady and
children, was sent to Kildrummie, to be imprisoned
there. David Comyn, Earl pf Athpl, having, a. d.
1335, renounced his allegiance tp David Bruce, and
jcined himself tp Edward Baliol, was, by the English
facticn, made geverner pf Scctland. He acted very
insolently and tyrannically towards all the ad
herents of the family of Bruce; in consequence
of which William, Earl of Sutherland, with the
rest of the loyal nobility, appeared in arms against
him. He, "understanding that the lords were
assembled against him, left the siege of Kildrum
mie, in Mar, which then he had in hand, and with
thrie thpusand men he gave them battell in
the forest pf Kilblane. After a sharp and cruell
fight, Earle David wes overthrowne " and slain.
The castle of Kildrummy was at this time under the
charge of Lady Christian Bruce, who was married,
first, tp Gratney, Earl ef Marr; secondly, to Sir
Christopher Seton ; and thirdly, to Sir Andrew Mo
ray of Bothwell. Boethius mentions her as preefect
of the castle of Kildrumme. Abercromby designs
her "anheroick lady;" and Lord Hailes, in refer
ence to the time of this siege, says that " the castle
of Kildrummy" had been "hitherto the asylum of the
loyalists." We find it in possession of the family of
Marr, A. D. 1403. During the next year, Alexander
Stewart, a natural son of the Earl of Buchan, having
cast his eyes on the Countess, stormed her castle of
Kildrummie, and either by violence, or by persua
sion, obtained her in marriage. On the 12th of
August, 1304, she made over her earldom of Marr
and Garioch, with all her other lands, to the said
Alexander Stewart, " and the heirs to be procreated
between him and her, whom failing, to his heirs and
assignees whatever." In succeeding times this castle
was still considered as royal property. For, in the
reign of James IL, a.d. 1437, an act of Parliament
having been passed, that no lands nor possessions
belonging to the king be given to any man without
consent of the three estates, till the king should be
twenty-one years of age, it was agreed, in the year
1440, " for the good and quiet of the land, that the
king shotdd deliver up to Robert, Lord Erskine,
calling himself Earl of Marr, the castle of Kildrum
mie, to be kept by him till the king's majority, when
the said lord should come before the king, and the
three estates, and show his rights and claims as far
as law will. A. D. 1442, Earl Robert took a protest
at Stirling, in presence of the king and council, com
plaining against the chancellor for refusing to retour
him to the lordship of Garioch, and put him in pos
session of the castle of Kildrummie. He afterwards
besieged and took this castle. In 1448, in conse
quence of a new indenture, Lord Erskine obliged
himself to deliver it up." A. D. 1485-6, Alexander,
3d son of James III., had a charter, granting to him
all the lands and earldoms of Marr and Garvioch,
with the castle of Kildrummie. The earldom of
Marr was restored to John, Lord Erskine, a.d.
1565, after the family had been deprived of it for
130 years. Kildrummie castle, we learn, " was
burnt in Cromwell's wars; and the new house, built
by the lords of Elphinston on the south side, by the
Highlanders at the Revolution. It continued the
seat of the Marr family."
Before leaving this interesting ground, it may be.

KIL

110

KIL

proper to observe, that it exhibits some remains of
antiquity, obvipusly far mpre ancient than thpse pf
the castle. Abput a mile tp the nprth-east pf it, in
a level mppr pf cpnsiderable extent, a number pf
subterraneeus habitations have frpm time to time
been discevered, pf the same kind with those, in the
Orkney islands, denominated Picts' Houses. They
are spread over the space of a mile or two in dia
meter. Between forty and fifty have already been
opened. They are on a perfect level with the sur
rounding ground, sp as tp be mest frequently dis
cevered by the plough striking against some of the
large stones which form the >roof. The only open
ing to them seems to have been between two large
stones, placed in a sloping direction at one end, and
about 18 inches asunder, rising perhaps only a few
inches above the plain, so as to be scarcely percep
tible. By sliding down obliquely through this nar
row opening, to the depth of 5 or 6 feet, one reaches
a large vault, generally about the same height, up
wards of 30 feet long, and from 8 to 9 feet wide.
The walls are built of rude uncut stones, without
any cement, but so closely wedged together, that
the smallest of them cannot be moved from its place
by the strength of the hand. They form a curve,
bending inwards, so as to approach very nearly to a
complete arch ; large stones, 5 or 6 feet in length,
being laid over the opposite walls, by way of roof.
They are covered by a thin layer of earth; and are
so level with the ground, that one passes over them
without any suspicion that he is walking over the
habitations of his ancestors. What affords a strong
indication that these were inhabited only during
winter, is, that, in many instances, adjoining to each
of these caverns, there is a small square enclesure, pf
10 pr 15 paces each way, dug a fept pr two deep,
with the earth thrown outwards.*
KILFINAN, a parish in Argyleshire, in the dis
trict of Cowal, abput 17 miles nprth of the island of
Arran. It is nearly 17 miles in greatest length, and
from 6 to 7 in greatest breadth. The surface and
coast are very rugged, and the soil thin and poorly
cultivated. Loch-Fyne bounds the parish on the
west and ncrth-west ; pn the nprth and nprth-east
it is bounded by Strachur and Kilmpdan parishes.
The sputhern divisien is called Kerriff pr Kerry,
which is from a Gaelic word which signifies'a quar
ter or fourth-part of any thing. As it is by far the
most extensive division, and the parish-church is
within it, the whole parish often goes by the name
of Kerry. The northern division is called Otter,
which is also a Gaelic word, descriptive of a shal
low place over which runs a gentle current.' This
division of the parish is so called from a beautiful
sand bank, whichVts out into Loch-Fyne, in a ser
pentine form, near the seat of Campbell of Otter.
This bank is 1,800 yards long, from water-mark to
its remotest extremity at low water; and forms,
with the land on the south side, an oblique, and on
the north an obtuse angle. In time of spring-tides,
it is entirely covered at high- water ; but about three
hours after the turn of the tide, the whole appears
to within a few yards of its extremity. On the
north side of the bank the water is very deep ; on
the south side — where, according to conjecture, the
surface has been peeled off by the united force of
storms and a strong current — it is very shallow, and
ebbs a great way out in spring-tides. There are
several small lakes, which abound with trout ; and
the district is beautified by a considerable extent of
* See Stat. Ace xviii. 419, 420; also a very particular and
accurate account of those subterraneous dwellings, communi
cated to the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland, by John
Stuart, Esq., Professor of Greek, Marischal college, Aberdeen ;
and published, in the Society's Transactions, vol. ii. Part. i.
p. 53-65.

natural wood, particularly ash, of which last there ij
a thriving plantation around the mansion-house of
Otter. Cairns and duns, or rude circular ranges of
stones on the tops of eminences, are of frequent oc
currence in the parish  Population, in 1801, 1,432;
in 1831, 2,004. Houses, in 1831, 342. Assessed
property, in 1815, £5,013 — This parish is in the
presbytery of Dunoon, and synod pf Argyle. Patron,
Lampnt pf Lampnt. Stipend £182 3s. 4d. ; glebe
£8. The church is old, and was repaired in 1 759 ;
sittings 450. A missionary alternates between this
parish and Toward in Dunoon parish ; and a small
chapel has been erected near Ascog bay. — There are
two parochial, and five private schcpls in the parish.
KILFINICHEN and KILVICEUEN;t a parish
in Argyleshire, in the island pf Mull, pf which it
forms the south-west part. It is beunded on the
east and north-east by a ridge pf mountains which
separates it from the parish of Torpsay ; pn the seuth
an arm pf the Atlantic, which runs up to Lpchaber,
separates it from the islands pf Cplpnsay, Jura, and
Islay, and the mainland pf Argyleshire ; pn the west,
it is washed by the Atlantic ; en the north, an arm
of the sea called Lochrankeall; separates it from the
parish of Kilninian. In Lochrankeall lie the islands
of Innis, Inchkenneth and Eorsa, belonging to this
parish, and the islands of Ulva and Staffa, belonging
to the parish of Kilninian. From the parish of To-
rosay to the sound of Icolmkill— which is its greatest
length — it will measure about 22 miles in a straight
line, exclusive of the island of lona, or Icolmkill.
Its greatest breadth, when it meets the parish of
Torosay, is about 15 measured miles. The parish
is divided into four districts, viz., the island of lona,
Ross, Brolass, and Ardmeanach. The first three
lie to the south of Loch-Scridain — an arm of the sea
which runs 12 miles, from west to east, into this
parish ; the fourth district, Ardmeanach, lies north
of Loch-Scridain, and parallel to Ross and Brolass.
The island of lona lies in the Atlantic, and is sepa
rated from the west point of Ross by a narrower
channel called the sound of I : See article Iona.
The districts of Ross and Brolass are nearly of equal
extent, and separated from one another by a ridge of
hills of no great height. They stretch in a line from
the sound of I to the parish of Torosay, 22 miles,
which, as already mentioned, is the greatest length
of the parish. Their breadth is from 3 to 6 miles.
Ardmeanach jnins Brolass at the head of Loch-
Scridain, and is about 12 miles in length, and from 3
to 6 miles in breadth. The parish, in general, pre
sents a very barren aspect. Part of it is flat, but the
greater part of it is hilly, and only calculated for graz
ing. Ross is flat, except where it marches with
Brolass ; and the greater part of the surface is moss
and heath. Brolass has a northern exposure, rising in
a gentle ascent from Loch-Scridain. The soil is light
and dry, and the greater part of the surface consists-
of heath and rocks. Ardmeanach faces the south,
rising to a considerable height from Loch-Scridain.
Its soil and surface are similar to Brolass. A part
of this district, called Gribun, presents some good
t Pronounced Kilvickeen.— The several parishes into which
the island of Mull was divided iu the times of Popery, were all
united at the Reformation, aud called the parish ot Mull, lt
was then a part of the presbytery of Lorn. About the time of
the Revolution, all that part of Mull north of the Tarbert or
Isthmus at Aros, was erected into a parish, called the parish of
Kilninian. The rest of the island ol Mull continued to be one
parish for upwards of forty years after this period, and waa
called the parish of Ross. But beiog too extensive a charge, a
new parish was erected, called the parish of Torosay. What
remained was iu writings called the parish of KilSmchen and
Kilviceucu, from two places of worship, the one in Ardmeau.
ach, called Kilfinichen ; and the other in Ross, called Kilvi-
ceueu ; but in the country it is only known by the name of
i Ross, from a large district of it so called.— Old Statistical
j Account.

KIL

111

KIL

arable land. , Adjacent to Gribun is the fertile little
island pf Inchkenneth: which see. There are
three inccnsiderable lakes in Rpss. The largest pf
them is npt above a mile and a half in length, and
abput half-a-mile in breadth. There are six streams
in Brolass and Ardmeanach ; but they are not con
siderable except in time of rain. In times of rain a
thousand streams fall down the rocks of Burg, and
the rocks at Inimore and Carsaig. These rocks be
ing in some places perpendicular, and in all places
nearly so, and some hundreds of feet in height, the
streams rushing adown them form very magnificent
cascades ; and when a high wind blows against them,
the water is raised up in columns like smoke to the
skies. The shores may be called bold and reeky
throughput almpst their whple extent. Uppn the
sputh side pf the parish there is only pne creek in
Rpss, called Pprtuisgen, where a vessel pf abput 30
tons may anchor, but not in safety if the weather be
stormy. Upon the Ross side of the sound of I there
are two creeks, — one called the Barachan, and the
other Polltarve, or the Bull-pond, — where vessels
of considerable burden may anchor in safety, with
proper pilots. Loch- Lahich lies east of the sound of
I, at the distance of about 3 miles. This loch runs
about 2 miles from north to south into Ross, and is
one of the safest anchorages about the island of
Mull. A small arm of it running west, and called
Loch-Coal, is too shallow for any vessel to anchor
in. The whole of Loch-Scridain may be called a
road, but the best anchoring-ground is at Kilfinichen,
and another place at the head of the loch, called the
Narrows, where vessels may ride in safety from all
storms. The only mountains are those that divide
the parish from that of Torosay. The most remark
able of these is Benmpre : which see. Pppulatipn,
in 1801, not returned; in 1811, 3,205; in 1831,
3,819. Assessed property, in 181,3, £1,381. Houses,
in 1831, 679  The parish is in the presbytery of
Mull, and synod of Argyle. Patron, the Duke of
Argyle. Stipend £180 10s. 3d. ; glebe £15. There
is a church in each of the united parishes. Both
were built in 1804, and repaired in 1828. The
church of Kilviceuen is at Bonessan, and contains
350 sittings; that of Kilfinichen has 300 sittings.
There are two catechists employed in the parish.
There is a small Baptist church in Kilviceuen. —
There are 2 parish-schools, and 6 private schools.
The salary of the 1st parish-schoolmaster is £30 ; of
the 2d, £21 6s. 8d. Each has about £8 of fees.
KILGOUR. See Falkland.
KILL, Coila, or Coyl (The), a rivulet of the
district of Kyle, Ayrshire. It rises in the parish of
Dalmellington, flows 2 or 3 miles northward and
north-westward, till it touches the parish of Coys-
toun, and thence, over a direct distance of 8 miles,
first north-westward, and next westward, divides
that parish on the left from the parishes of Ochiltree
and Stair on the right, and then falls into the river
Ayr. It receives hardly a tributary, except in the
early part of its course, and is in general considerably
sinuous in its movements.
KILLACHONAN. See Fortingal.
KILLALLAN, a parish in Renfrewshire, united
with Houston in 1760.. See Houston and Kiu-
ALLAN. KILLARROW, a parish in Argyleshire, in the
island pf Islay, frequently termed Bownipre, from the
name pf the village in which the church is situated :
See Bowmobe. It is abput 15 miles long, and 8
broad. Superficial area about 49,920 imperial acres.
The surface is partly low, partly hilly, and cpvered
with heath. The parish is watered by the river
Luggan, which empties itself into a bay of the same
name. In this parish is the elegant residence of Mr.

Campbell, of Shawfield, the proprietor pf the island
Populatipn, in 1801, 2,781 ; in 1831, 4,898. Hpuses,
in 1831, 824. Assessed prpperty, including Kil-
meny.in 1815, £15,935  This parish is in the pres
bytery pf Isla and Jura. Patron, the Crpwn. It
was separated from Kilchoman abput 75 years ago,
by authority of the ceurt-of-teinds. Kilmeny was
attached to it at the same time, and continued at
tached till lately, when it was erected into a separate
parish by government. Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ; glebe
£10. Church built in 1767, and gallery erected in
1828; sittings 831  There is a small Independent
church, and also a Baptist church, in this parish —
There are twn parochial schppls, and twelve private
schools in the parish.
KILLASAY, pne pf the small Hebrides, en the
west ceast pf Lewis.
KILLEAN and KILCHENZIE, an united par
ish in Argyleshire, in the district of Kintyre, about
18 miles in length, and 3£ in breadth ; containing
26,250 Scots acres. The soil along the coast of the
Atlantic ocean is sandy and sharp, but, when well
manured, produces good crops of barley, oats,, and
potatoes ; higher up, it becomes mossy ; in the hills
there is little green pasture, being mostly covered
with heath. There are several Danish forts, some
rude obelisks, and the remains of a vitrified tower iu
this district. One of the obelisks measures 16 feet
above ground, and is 4 feet broad, and 2J thick 
Population of the united parish, in 1801, 2,520; in
1831, 2,866. Houses 453. Assessed property, in
1815, £17,449  The parish is in the presbytery of
Kintyre, and synod of Argyle. Patron, the Duke
of Argyle. Stipend £178 9s. ; glebe £10. There
are two churches, — one in Killean, and the other ir.
Kilchenzie, in which service is performed alternately
once a-fortnight in each. — There are two parochial
schools. One of the teachers has a salary of £31
6s. 6|d. ; the other has £20. There are five private
schools. KILLEAN, a beautiful secluded vale on the river
Foyers, in Inverness-shire. It is encompassed on
all sides by steep mountains ; but at the north end
there is a small lake about li mile in length, and
half-a-mile in breadth, from which the river sweeps
to the northward, through richly birch-clad hills.
The remainder of the glen is a perfectly level tract,
of the same width with the lake, and about 2 J miles
in length, covered vyith rich herbage, and traversed
by a small meandering river which flows into the
lake. See Foyers.
KILLEARN, a parish in the Western division of
Stirlingshire, but originally belonging to the Lennox,
or Dumbartonshire. Were the parish of Strathblane
incorporated with it, the two would form nearly a
regular rectangle; but Strathblane, which is much
the smaller of the two, and is itself somewhat rect
angular, being all indented within the area on the
south-east, Killearn consists of amain body stretching
east and west, and of a stripe or projection running
out southward from the south-west angle. The
main body measures in extreme length, from east to
west along the line of Endrick- water, excluding the
bends and windings of the stream, 6| miles; and, in
extreme breadth from the boundary opposite the
village of Balfron on the north, to the boundary a
brief distance beyond Easterton on the south, 3|
miles; and the projection southward measures 3J
miles in extreme length by 1£ or 1£ in average
breadth. The parish is bounded on the north by
Drymen and Balfron; on the east by Fintry; on
the south by Strathblane and Dumbartpnshire ; and
pn the west by Drymen. Endrick-water ccmes in
from the west, and — not reckpning its numerous
bends and meanderings — forms, for nearly 5 miles.

112

KILLEARN.

the northern boundary-line, flows If mile south-
westward through the nprth-west cprner of the
parish, traces for 1 \ the western boundary, and then,
being joined by the Blane, looks westward and leaves
the district. Blane-water comes in from the inner
angle of Strathblane, and flows 2 miles north-west
ward to its point of confluence with the Endrick.
Both these streams abound in salmon, pike, and eels,
and, at a certain season of the year, with roaches.
Several minor streamlets, particularly Carnock-burn,
which comes northward along the western beundary
to join the Blane a little above the junction with
the Endrick, and 5 burns which rise in the interior,
or near the sputhern boundary, and flow northward
to the Endrick, alsp abound with trout, and combine
with the two master-streams, supplied as they all
are with little shoals coming up from Loch- Lomond,
to render the parish one of the finest trouting dis
tricts in Scotland. Along the eastern and southern
boundaries of the main body pf the parish, and flank
ing spme what intp the interior, runs a hilly and
moorland ridge of pastoral, and, in spme instances,
picturesque surface, — the continuation of the upland
chain which commences near Stirling, and over two-
thirds pf the projecting part pf the parish, from the
southern extremity northwards, stretches a tract of
similar character. Commencing on the south-west
between the ends of these ranges, a valley stretches
alcng the ccurse cf the Blane till it touches the
Endrick, and thence runs up the course of the latter
stream te the nprth-east extremity pf the parish,
thus pussessing a semicircular form, and blending
the vale3 ef the Endrick and the Blane into » con
tinuous semi-zone. This valley is broadest on the
Blane and the lower part of the Endrick, averaging,
with the gentle slopes at the base of the hills, about
1 J mile, and becomes very considerably contracted
as it ascends to the eastern boundary. Everywhere
it is beautiful, and finely cultivated and wooded;
and, in not a few places, it is delightfully picturesque.
Seen from the heights and slopes round which it
semicircularly bends, it exhibits a foreground of fer
tile pastures and luxuriant fields, beautified by the
meanderings of a limpid stream, and the intersecting
frill- work of green enclosures, and foiled by a slowly
receding and very diversified back-ground in the
districts westward, perpetuating in one direction its
cwn soft and luscious character, sending up in an
other the bold forms pf the Lpmpnd hills, and pver
a various expanse carrying the eye away to where
the distant mountains of Argyle and Perthshire min
gle their azure-coloured summits with the clouds.
On pne hand, within the parish, ccme intp view
vast masses of basaltic pillars or natural colonnades
running in numerous directions; and on the other,
is seen a crystal stream leaping glitteringly down a
delightful cascade. Here a verdant wpod, in varie
gated windings, skirts the sides of the hills; and
there a deep glen, hollowed out by the work of many
ages, lays open to the view not a small part of the
bowels of the earth. On Endrick- water, where it
traces the western boundary, is the Pot of Gartness,
a deep linn shaped like a pot or caldron, into which
the river makes a tumbling and very picturesque
descent over a rock pf three pr four times alternated
precipice and ledge. On the estate cf Crpy, sputh
of the Blane, and on the western verge of the par
ish, are two attractive objects, Dualt glen, and the
waterfall of Ashdow.* The sides of the glen are
very steep, and, for a long course, exhibit a great
variety of trees and shrubs grouped in almost every
conceivable form; and they are at last connected
by a breastwork of freestone rock, which rises per
il A corruption probably of Uisk-dhu, that is, ' the Black
water.'

pendicularly up between them to the height of 60
feet, and clcses the glen, and over which the rivulet
Dualt makes an unbroken leap, and forms a cascade
finely in keeping with the grand and snlemn beauty
pf the scene. Half-a-mile frem the glen is Ashdpw,
a high rock pver which the water pf Carnock makes
a precipitate fall, and a deep and winding passage
for the stream among the rocks. The projecting or
pverhanging rocky banks, are wild beyond descrip
tion, nearly meeting in some plaees at the top, wid*-
ening below into beautiful and variform curvatures,
and everywhere romantically adorned with a profu
sion of shrubs and trees overhanging the clefts 
The soil, in the lowlands, or arable grounds of the
parish, is chiefly a stiff clay, which a drought bakes
intn great hardness, and which, fpr the mpst part, is
superincumbent on a wet cold till ; but, in some dis
tricts, it is a good loam, and, in all, it has been much
ameliorated by georgical operations. The hilly dis
trict contains several extensive moors and mosses,
and is chiefly occupied, the higher grounds in sheep-
walks, and the lower declivities in the pasturage of
black cattle. Much attention has been given to
the improvement of stock; and sheep and black
cattle of various breeds, the former about 30,000 in
number, are maintained on the pastures. On the
various streams are corn-mills, always well-supplied
with water-power. Limestone of two kinds occurs,
but not in circumstances to be largely worked. An
extensive stratum of an excellent millstone grit en
riches the estate of Balglass, and supplies the country
to a great distance with millstones. Sandstone oc
curs, but of cearse grain, and not of the best quality
for building. Several laborious but vain searches
have been made for ccal. On the banks pf the
Endrick have been found very numerpus jaspers,
brown, red, and green, intermixed in the term of
blotches and ramifications, and susceptible of a fine
polish and of being used as ornamental gems. Some
nodules resemble the bloodstone ; and others contain
a considerable portion of the zoned agate  A little
south of the village stands Killearn house, anciently
the seat of a cadet of the , Montrose family,' built in
1688, surrounded with numerous plantations, dis
posed in belts, clumps, and wildernesses. A mile
south-west on the Blane is Croy, embosomed in
plantation, and enriched with the picturesque scenery
already noticed. On the Endrick stands the elegant
and commodious mansion of Ballikinrain, Pn an estate
which belcnged for centuries tp the family pf Napier.
Not far from it, and also on the Endrick, are the
mansions of Boquhan and Carbeth, both embellished
with encincturing plantaticns. On the estate pf
Balglass, in the nprth-east cprner pf the parish, is
an antiquated castle, cr large dwelling-bouse, said
to have anciently been well-fortified, and tp have,
en pne occasion, offered Sir William Wallace a safe
retreat from danger. This place is noted for the vicin
ity to it of the Corries or Curries of Balglass, — natu
ral semicircular excavations on the western extremity
of the Campsie and Strathblane fells, some of them
more than a mile in diameter, and in several places
beautifully exhibiting the various mineral strata of
which the mountains are composed.— In the imme
diate vicinity of the Pot of Gartness, already noticed,
are the remains of a house in which John Napier of
Merchiston, the inventor of logarithms, resided dur
ing a considerable part of the period of his being
employed in his calculations. The incessant sound
of the cascade, it is said, never annoyed him, while
the clattering noise of a mill in the immediate neigh
bourhood so tore and shattered his thoughts that he
was frequently obliged to request the miller to stop
its movements. Accustomed frequently to walk
out in the evening in his night-gown and cap, and

KIL

113

KIL

wearing an aspect of deep abstraction, he earned the
reputation among the papisticated hobnails in his
vicinity of being a warlock. At a small farm-house
on the banks of the Blane, about a mile south from
the church of Killearn, was born, in 1506, the illus
trious George Buchanan. The farm, consisting of a
plough of land, was the property of his father, and
holds of the family of Drummikill from which his
ancestors descended, and was sufficient, with the
aids of industry and economy, to yield a competent
support. In the village of Killearn, and com
manding an extensive prospect, stands a monu
ment to his memory, erected by the gentlemen of
the parish and neighbourhood in 1 788. It is a well-
prppprtipned pbelisk, 19 feet square at the base, 103
feet high, having a cavity which diminishes from
6 feet square at the ground te a ppint at the height
pf 54 feet, whence a Norway pole is centinued tp
the top. The material is a white millstpne grit
found in the vicinity. In the foundation-stone was
deppsited a silver medal, enclosed in a hermetically
sealed bcttle, bearing the inscripticn :
In memoriam,
Georgii Buchanani,
Poetae et Historici celebcrrimi,
Accolis hujus loci, ultra ronferentibus,
Hsec columna posita est, 1788.
Jacobus Craig, architect, Edinburgen.
At Blairessan Spput-head, a little nprth pf the vil
lage, tradition reports a sanguinary battle to have
been fought between the Romans and the Scots.
So late as 1743, the parish was subjected to the in
cursions of Highland freebooters, and paid exactions
of black mail  The village of Killearn stands not
far from th» base of the hilly district, at nearly equal
distances from the Blane on the south and the En
drick on the west and on the north, 1\ miles from
Balfron, 16| from Glasgow, and 20 from Stirling.
Its population in 1769 was 74; ip 1831-, 388. At its
south end stands the parish-church. A cotton-mill
and a printfield, both situated on the Endrick, were
established in 1792; but are nc lpnger in existence;
there is, hewever, a small weollen factory. But the
manufactures of the parish are connected less with
Killearn, than with the village of Balfron, which stands
only£ of a mile north of the Endrick, and in the im
mediate vicinity of the factories. See Balfron.
Pppulatipn pf the parish, in 1801, 1,039; in 1831,
1,206. Houses 182. Assessed property, in 1815,
£6,731. — Killearn is in the presbytery of Dumbarton,
and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the Duke of
Montrose. Stipend £152 4s. 9d. ; glebe £12. Church
built in 1826; sittings 500; ccst £1,050. The
parish-scbppl is attended by a maximum pf 66 scho
lars. Schoolmaster's salary £31, with fees, and £14
other emoluments. Three non-parochial schools are
attended by a maximum of 133 scholars. The church
was anciently a parsonage, a^id was erected, in 1429,
into a prebend of the cathedral of Glasgow. Its saint
was Alders or Arns, a name corrupted into Earn.
KILLEARNAN, a parish in Ross-shire, extend
ing 5 miles in length, and 2 in breadth ; bounded on
the north by Urquhart; on the east by Kilmuir-
wester and Suddy; on the south by the Beauly
frith; and on the west by Urray. The soil is in
general favourable for cultivatipn. There are 2,500
acres under cultivation, and abput an equal number
under wppd, and 2,000 in pasture. The value pf
prpperty assessed, in 1815, was £2,520. There are
numerous cairns and tumuli, some of which are of
uncommon magnitude, in this district. The man-
sipn-hpuse pf Redcastle has been recently repaired;
but Kilcpy-castle is now a ruin. Population, in
1801, 1,131; in 1831, 1,479. Houses 293 — This
parish is in the presbytery of Chanonry, and synod
II.

pfRpss. Patron, MacKenzie ef Cromarty. Stipend
£199 16s. 7d. ; glebe £9  Schoolmaster's salary
£27 lis. 5Jd. There is a scheol suppcrted by the
Spciety for Prppagating Christian Knpwledge.
KILLIECRANKIE,* a celebrated mpuntain-pass
pn the river Garry; 1J mile abpve the point of its
cPnfluence with the Tummel; 15 miles nerth pf the
tpwn pf Dunkeld ; and on the western verge of the
parish of Moulin, in the district of Athole, Perth
shire. The dark lofty hills which fall abruptly cr
precipitously dewn on both sides of the narrow vale
of the Garry, approach here so close that the sha
dow of the one range flings a perpetual night over
the face of the other. From the present road, which
is carried along a sloping part of the ridge on the
left side of the river, the traveller looks up, on the
one hand, to the bare acclivitous ascent of the hills
teward their summit, and listens, en the pther, tp
the hearse and tumultuous roar of the Garry storm
ing its angry way along the bottom of the deep gorge
below. But the wildly romantic pass is so tufted
and overhung with a profusion of birch-trees tena
ciously clinging to the clefts cf the recks, that the
river is, in most places, invisible, and makes its pre
sence known only by its deafening noise; and, when
it does come into view, it appears rolling headlong
over a precipice, and lashing the waters of a deep
pool into a little sea of foam, and expending its
gigantic energies in throwing up amid the romance
around it a scene of awful magnificence. The pass
is between two and three miles in length, and, pre
vious to the era of laying open the Highlands by the
construction of military roads, was the most wild
and perilous of all the inlets to that vast fortress of
mountains, or to any of its interior retreats. A
footpath, hanging over a tremendous precipice, and
threatening destruction to the pedestrian as the re
sult of the least false step, was then the only facility
which it offered; but now an excellent road is car
ried along in such safety as to occasion no uneasy
emotion to persons acquainted with even the turn
pikes of Wales and of the Southern Highlands of
Scotland, and sends off, at the south end of the defile,
another road, by a picturesque arch across the Garry,
to run.-up the glen of the Tummel.
On some rough ground on the left bank of the river,
at the .north-western extremity of this pass, was
fought," on the 27th July, 1689, the celebraled battle
of Killiecrankie. It was on the 26th of July, 1689,
that Mackay began his fatal march from Perth at the
head of an army of 4,500 men. Of this force, a fair
1 proportion consisted of cavalry. At night he en-
I camped opposite to Dunkeld, so celebrated for the
' romantic grandeur of its scenery. Here, at mid-
| night, he received an express from Lord Murray
announcing that Dundee had entered Athole, in con
sequence of which event he informed him that he
had retreated from before the castle of Blair, which
he had for some time partially blockaded ; and that
although he had left the strait and difficult pass of
Killiecrankie between him and Dundee, he had posted
a guard at the i'urther extremity to secure a free pas
sage to Mackay's troops through the pass which he
supposed Dundee had already reached. Mackay seems
to have doubted the latter part of this statement, and
his suspicions were in some degree confirmed by the
fact, that Lieutenant-colonel Lauder, whom he de
spatched with a party immediately on receipt of
Murray's letter, to secure the entrance into the pass
from the vale of Blair, did not see a single man on
his arrival there. Discouraging as this intelligence
was, Mackay still determined to persevere in his
march, and having despatched orders to Perth tp
hasten the arrival of the six troops of cavalry he had
• Perhaps Coille-croithnuich, or 'the Wood of Trembling.'
H

114

KILLIECRANKIE.

.eft behind, he put his army in motion next morning
at day-break, and proceeded in the direction of the
pass, the mouth of which he reached a\ ten o'clock
in the morning. Here he halted, and. allowed his
men two hours to rest and refresh themselves before
they entered upon the bold and hazardous enter
prise of plunging themselves into a frightful chasm,
out of which they might probably never return.
Having received notice that the pass was clear, and
that there was no appearance of Dundee, Mackay
put his army again in motion, and entered the pass.
The idea that no opposition would be offered to
their passage through this terrific defile, which seemed
to forbid approach, and to warn the unhappy soldier
of the dangers which awaited him should he precipi
tate himself into its recesses, may have afforded some
consolation to the feelings of Mackay 's troops as they
entered this den of desolation ; but when they found
themselves fairly within its gorge, their imaginations
must have been appalled as they gazed, at every suc
cessive step, on the wild and terrific objects which
encompassed them on every side. But unlike the
Hessians who, in 1745, refused even to enter the
pass, from an apprehension that it was the utmost
verge of the globe, they proceeded at the command
of their general, on their devious course, and finally
cleared it, with the loss of a single horseman only,
who, according to an Athole tradition, was shot by
an intrepid adventurer, named Ian Ban Beg Mac-
Ran, who had posted himself on a hill, whence with
murderous aim he fired across the rivulet of the
Garry and brought down his victim. A well, called
in Gaelic, Fuaran u trupar, — Anglice, ' the Horse
man's well,'. — is shown as the place where he fell.
As soon as the five battalions and the troop of
horse which preceded the baggage had debouched
from the further extremity of the pass, they halted,
by command of the general, upon a corn-field, along
the side of the river to await the arrival of the bag
gage, and of Hastings's regiment and the other troop
of horse. Mackay then ordered Lieutenant-colonel
Lauder to advance with his 200 fusileers and a
troop of horse in the direction he supposed Dundee
might be expected to appear. This conjecture was
too well-founded, for Lauder had not advanced far
when he discovered some parties of Dundee's forces
between him and Blair. Being apprized of this,
Mackay galloped off to observe the enemy's motions
before making choice of the field of battle; but on
arriving at the advanced post, he observed several
small parties of troops, scarcely a mile distant, march
ing slowly along the foot of a hill in the direction of
Blair, and advancing towards him. Mackay, there
upon, sent orders to Balfour to advance immediately
with the foot. But these orders were no sooner
despatched than he observed some bodies of Dundee s
forces marching down a high hill within a quarter of
a mile from the place where he stood, in consequence
of which movement, he immediately galloped back
to his men to countermand the order he had just
issued, and to put his army in order of battle.
Dundee, who had been duly advertised of Mac-
kay's motions, had descended from the higher dis
trict of Badenoch into Athole on the previous day,
with a force of about 2,500 men, of whom about
one-fifth part consisted of the Irish who had lately
landed at Inverlochy under Brigadier Caiman. Some
of the clans Which were expected had not yet joined,
as the day appointed for the general rendezvous had
not then arrived; but as Dundee considered it of
paramount importance to prevent Mackay from es
tablishing himself in Athole, he did npt hesitate to
meet him with such an inferior force, amounting to
little mere than the half ef that under Mackay. On
his arrival at the castle of Blair, intelligence was

brought Dundee that Mackay had reached the pass
of Killiecrankie, which he was preparing to enter.
At a council of war which was held in the castle,
Dundee was strongly advised by the most of his
officers to dispute the passage of the pass, as they
did not consider it safe, from the great numerical
disparity of the two armies, to allow _Mackay to
enter the Blair till the arrival of the reinforcements.
which might be expected to join in two or three
days. Dundee, however, was of quite a' different
opinion, and after appealing to the feelings of the
Highlanders, whose ancestors, he said, acting upon
their national maxim never to attack a foe who could
not defend himself on equal terms, would have dis
dained to adopt the course proposed, he proceeded to
give his reasons for rejecting the advice offered him,
and which at once convinced them that he was right.
One principal reason stated by Dundee for allowing
Mackay to advance through the pass unmolested,
was the great advantage they would gain by engag
ing him on open ground before he should be joined
by his dragoons, who, from their being so formidable
to the Highlanders, would, if allowed by him to
come up, more than compensate any accession of
force which Dundee might receive. Another reason
not less important was, that in the event of Mackay
sustaining a defeat, his army wculd probably be
ruined, as he could net retreat back through the
pass withput the risk pf evident destructicn, whereas
shpuld the Highlanders suffer a defeat, they could
easily retreat te the mountains. Immediately above
the ground on which Mackay had halted his troops
is an eminence, the access to which is steep and diffi
cult, and covered with trees and shrubs. Alarmed
lest Dundee should obtain possession of this emi
nence, which being within a carabine-shot from the
place on which Mackay stood, would give him such
a command of the ground as would enable him, by
means of his fire, to force Mackay to cross the river
in confusion ; "he immediately took possession of the
eminence. Within a musket-shot of this ground is
another eminence immediately above the house of
Urrard, which Dundee had reached before Mackay
had completed his ascent, and on which he halted.
At this conjuncture, neither Hastings's regiment nor
Annandale's troop of horse had yet come out of the
pass, but Mackay, nevertheless, at once proceeded
to arrange his men in fighting order on a plain be
tween the edge of the eminence and the foot or com
mencement of the ascent to Dundee's position, which,
from its extent, enabled him to form his men in one
line along the eminence. In making his dispositions,
Mackay divided every battalion into two parts, and,
as he meant to fight three deep, he left a small dis
tance between each of these sub-battalions. In the
centre of his line, however, he left a greater interval
of space behind which he placed the two troops of
horse, with the design, when the Highlanders, after
the fire of the line had been spent, should approach,
to draw them off by this larger interval, and flank
the Highlanders on either side, as occasion should
offer. Mackay assigns as his reason for placing his
cavalry in his rear till the fire should be exhausted
on both sides, a dread he entertained of exposing
them to Dundee's horse, which consisted altogether
of gentlemen, reformed officers, or such as had de
serted, from Dundee's regiment when in England,
and with whom it could not be supposed that these •
newly-raised levies could cope.. Hastings's regiment,
which arrived after Mackay had taken up his ground,
was placed, on the right, and to which, for greater
security, was added a detachment of firelocks from
each battalion ; and on the extreme left, on a hillock
covered with trees, Lieutenant-colonel Lauder was
posted, with his party of 200 men, composed of the

KILLIECRANKIE.

115

elite pf the army. Mackay having been recognised
by Dundee's men busily employed riding along his
line, from battalion tp battalion, giving prders, was
selected by seme pf them for a little ball practice ;
but althpugh " their pepping shpt," which wpunded
some pf his men, fell around him wherever he mpved,
he escaped unhurt. After his line had been fully
formed, Mackay rede along the front, from the left
wing, which he committed to the charge of Brigadier
Balfour, to the right, and having ascertained that
every thing was in readiness to receive the enemy,
he addressed the battalions nearest, him in a short
speech. Whilst Mackay was thus occupied on the
lower platform, his gallant rival was equally busy
flying about on the eminence above, ranging his men
in battle array. He was particularly distinguished
amongst his officers by a favourite dun-coloured
horse which he rode, and by his plated armour,
which glittered in the sunbeams. Dundee, who had
arrived upon the higher platform about the same
time that Mackay had gained the ground he now
occupied, ranged his men in one line in the following
order : — On the right, he placed Sir John Maclean,
with his regiment divided into two battalions. On
the left, he posted the regiment of Sir Donald Mac
donald, commanded by the young chief and Sir
George Berkeley, and a battalion under Sir Alexan
der Maclean. In the centre were placed four bat
talions, consisting of the Camerons, the Macdonells
of Glengary and Clanranald, and the Irish regiment,
with a troop of horse under the command of Sir
William Wallace, who had early that morning pro
duced a commission, to the great displeasure of the
Earl of Dunfermline and other officers, appointing
him colonel of a horse-regiment. It may be ob
served, that neither Mackay nor Dundee placed any
body of reserve behind their lines. Mackay himself,
though an old and experienced officer, and a brave
man, was not without his misgivings; and as the
evening advanced without any appearance on the
part of Dundee of a desire to commence the action,
his uneasiness increased. Nor were his apprehen
sions likely to be allayed by the reply made by the
second son of Lochiel, who held a commission in his
own regiment of Scots fusileers, in answer to a ques
tion put to him by Mackay. " Here is your father
with his wild savages," said Mackay to the young
man, on seeing the standard of the Camerons, put
ting on at the same moment an air of confidence,
" how would you like to be with him?" " It sig
nifies little," answered the son of the chief, " what
I would like, but I recommend to you to be pre
pared; or perhaps my father and his wild savages
may be nearer to you before night than you would
like." The apparent irresolution of the Highlanders
to begin the battle was considered by Mackay as
intentional, and he supposed that their design was
to wait till nightfall, when, by descending suddenly
from their position, and setting up a loud shout,
according to their usual custom, they expected to
frighten his men, unaccustomed to an enemy, and
put them in disorder. As Mackay could not, with
out the utmost danger, advance up the hill and com
mence the action, and as the risk was equally great
should he attempt to retreat down the hill and cross
the river, he resolved, at all hazards, to remain in
his, position, " though with impatience," as he ob
serves, till Dundee should either attack him or re
tire, which he had better oppprtunities of dping than
Mackay had. Tp provpke the Highlanders, and tp
induce'them to engage, he ordered three small lea
ther field-pieces td be discharged, but they proved
pf little use, and the carriages being much tcp high,
for the greater cpnvenience pf carriage, broke after
the third firing.

Towards the close pf the evening, some of Dun.
dee's sharpshooters, who had kept up, during the
day, an occasional fire in the direction in which they
observed Mackay to move, by which they had wound
ed some of his men, as already stated, took posses
sion of some houses upon the ascent which lay be
tween the two armies, for the purpose of directing
their aim with surer effect. But they were imme
diately dislodged by a party of musketeers despatched
by Mackay 's brother, who commanded the general's
regiment, and chased back to their main body with
some loss. This skirmish Mackay supposed would
soon draw on a general engagement, and his expec
tations were accordingly speedily realized. It was
within half-an-hour of sunset, and the moment was
at hand, when, at the word of command, the High
landers and their allies were to march down the hill,
and, with sword in hand, fall upon the tiemblingand
devoted host below, whom, like the eagle viewing
his destined prey from his lofty eyry, they had so
long surveyed. Having determined, as much to
please his men as to gratify his own inclination, to
iead the charge in person, at the head of the horse,
Dundee exchanged his red coat, which he had worn
during the day, and by which he had been recognised
by Mackay's tropps, for anpther ef a darker colour,
to conceal his rank, and thereby avoid the risk of
being singled out by the enemy — a precaution justi
fiable by the rules of sound prudence, and quite con
sistent with the highest moral courage. That no
thing might be wanting on his part to work up the
feelings of his men to the highest pitch of heroism,
he harangued them in an enthusiastic strain. A pause
now ensued, and a death-like silence prevailed along
the line, when, on a sudden, it appeared in motion,
marching slp.wiy down the hill. The Highlanders,
who stript themselves to their shirts and doublets,
and whose appearance resembled more a body of
wild savages than a race of men, who, although
they could not boast of the civilization pf the in
habitants ef the south, were nevertheless superior
to them in many of the virtues which adorn human
ity; advanced, according to their usual practice,
with their bodies bent forward, so as to present as
small a surface as possible to the fire of the enemy,
the upper part of their bodies being covered by their
targets. To discourage the Highlanders in their ad
vance by keeping up a continual fire, Mackay had
given instructions to his officers commanding battal
ions, to commence firing by platoons, at the distance
of a hundred paces. This order was not attended to,
as Balfour's regiment, and the half of Ramsay's, did
not fire a single shot, and the other half fired very
little. The Highlanders, however, met with a very
brisk fire from Mackay's right, and particularly from
his own battalion, in which nc less than sixteen gen
tlemen pf the Macdpnells ef Glengarry fell ; but, un
dismayed by danger, they kept stear'ily advancing in
the face cf the enemy's fire, ef which they received
three rounds. Having now come close up to the
enemy, they halted for a moment, and having level
led and discharged their pistols, which did little ex
ecution, they set up a loud shout and rushed in upon
the enemy sword in hand, before they had time to
screw on their bayonets to the end of their muskets.*
The shock was too impetuous to be- long resisted by
men who, according to their own general, "behaved,
with the exception of Hastings's and Leven's regi
ments, like the vilest cowards in nature." But even
had these men been brave, as they were pusillani
mous, their courage would not have availed them, as
their arms were insufficient to parry off the tremen
dous strokes of the axes, and the broad and double-
* From this circumstance Mackay invented the present plan
of fixing the bayonet.

116

KILLIECRANKIE.

edged swords of the Highlanders, who with a single
blow, either felled their opponents to the earth or
struck off a member from their bodies, and at once
disabled them. While the work of death was thus
going on towards the right, Dundee, at the head of
the horse, marie a furieus charge pn Mackay's own
battalipn, and broke threugh it, pn which the Eng
lish herse, which were statipned behind, fled without
firing a single shot. Dundee, thereupon, rode off to
attack the enemy's cannon, but the officer who had
that morning produced his commission as colonel of
the horse, did not keep pace with Dundee, who, on
arriving near the enemy's cannon, found himself
alone. He, therefore, gave the horse a signal to
advance quickly, on which the Earl of Dunfermline,
who then served only as a volunteer, overlooking
the affront which had been put upon him, rode out
of the ranks, fellpwed by sixteen gentlemen, attacked
the party whp guarded the cannen and captured them.
As sppn as Mackay perceived that Dundee's grand
point cf attack was near the centre cf his line, he
immediately resolved to attack the Highlanders in
flank with the two troops of horse which he had
placed in the rear of his fine, for which purpose he
ordered Lord Belhaven to proceed round the left
wing with his own troop, and attack them on their
right flank, and he ordered, at the same time, the
other trppp tp proceed in the centrary direction,
and assail them on their left. Mackay himself led
round Belhaven's troop, but It had scarcely got in
front of the line when it got into disorder, and in
stead of obeying the orders to wheel for the flank of
the enemy, after some confused firing it turned upon
the right wing of Lord Kenmure's battalion, which
it threw into disorder, and which thereupon began to
give way. At this critical moment Mackay, who
was instantly surrounded by a crowd of Highlanders,
anxious to disentangle his cavalry, so as to enable him
to get them forward, called aloud to them to follow
him, and putting spurs to his horse galloped through
the enemy, but, with the exception of one servant,
whose hprse was shpt under him, npt a single herse-
man attempted to follew their general. When he
had gpne sufficiently far tc be put pf the reach cf
immediate danger, he turned reund to observe the
state of matters, and to his infinite surprise he found
that both armies had disappeared. To use his own
expression, " in the twinkling of an eye in a man
ner," his own men as well as the enemy were out of
sight, having gone down pell-mell to the river where
his baggage stood. The flight of his men must have
been rapid indeed, for although the left wing, which
had never been*attacked, had begun to flee before he
rode off, the right wing and centre still kept their
ground. Mackay now stood in one of the most ex
traordinary predicaments in which the commander of
an army was ever placed. His whole men had, as if
by some supernatural cause, disappeared almost in an
instant of time, and he found himself standing a soli
tary being on the mountain-side, not knowing what
to do, or whither to direct his course. Whether, had
they had the courage to follow him, the timid troop
would have turned the tide of victory in his favour,
may indeed be well doubted ; but it is obvious that
he adopted the only alternative which could render
success probable. Judging from the ease with which
he galloped through the Highlanders, who made way
for him, he thinks that if he had bad but fifty reso
lute horse such as Colchester's, he " had certainly,"
as he says, "by all human appearance recovered all,"
for although his whple line had begun tp give way
when he ordered the horse to follow him, the right
of the enemy had not then moved from their ground.
The plunder which the baggage offered was too
tempting a lure for the Highlanders, whose destruc

tive progress it at pnce arrested. It was in fact
splely tp this thirst for spoil that Mackay and the
few of his men who escaped owed their safety, for
had the Highlanders continued the pursuit, it is very
probable that not a single individual of Mackay's
army would have been left alive to relate their sad
disaster.* Mackay retired across the Garry without
molestation, and made a short halt to ascertain
whether he was pursued. Seeing no disposition on
the part of the Highlanders to follow him,- he began
to think of the best way of retiring out of Athole.
All his officers advised him. to return to Perth,
through the pass of Killiecrankie, but he saw proper
to reject this advice, and resolved to march several
miles up Athole and cross over the hills to Stirling.
It was represented to him, that if pursued by the
Highlanders, his men could make no effectual resist
ance, and he himself admitted that the objection
was well-founded; but he still adhered to his resolu
tion, because, as he apprehended more danger from
Dundee's horse than from the Highlanders, who
would be too busy securing their plunder to think
of pursuing him, his risk would be less by keeping
upon ground inaccessible to the operations of cavalry,
than by exposing himself in the open country beyond
the pass. Besides, he had no certainty that the pass
was not already secured, for the purpose of cutting
off his retreat, and tp have entered it, if seized upon,
would have been throwing himself into the jaws of
instant destruction. Giving orders, therefore, to his
men to march, he proceeded to the west along the
bank of the river, and had the satisfaction, when
about 2 miles from the field of battle, to come up
with a party of about 150 fugitives almost without
arms, under the command of Cplpnel Ramsay, who
was quite at a less what directipn tp take. Mackay
then continued his march along the edge of a rivulet
which falls into the Garry, till he came to some little
houses. Here he obtained, from one of the inhabi
tants, information as to the route he meant to fol
low, and having made himself acquainted, as far as
he could, by an examination of his map, with the
situation of the country through which he had to
pass, he crossed the stream and proceeded across the
hills towards Weem castle, the seat of the chief of
the clan Menzies, whose son had been in the action
with a company of Highlanders he had raised for the
service of the Government. He reached the castle
before morning after a most fatiguing journey, where
he obtained some sleep and refreshment, of which he
stood greatly in need, having since his departure be
fore Dunkeld, on the morning preceding, marched
about 40 miles through a tract of country, the greater
part of which was beset with quagmires and preci
pices. The news of Mackay's defeat had preceded his
retreat; and on his march, during the following day,
he found the country through which he passed in an
uproar, and every person arming in favour of King
James. The people of Strathtay alarmed at the ap
proach of Mackay's men, whom they took to be
Highlanders, and considering their houses and cattle
in danger, set up a dreadful shout, which so fright
ened Mackay's men that they began to flee back tp
the hills under an apprehensipn that the Highlanders
were at hand. Mackay and spme pf his officers pn
hprseback, by presenting their pistols and threaten-
• In a conversation respecting the battle between General
Wade and an old Highlander, who had fought at Killiecrankie,
the latter is reported to have spoken lightly of Mackay as a
commander, calling him a great fool, because he did not put his
baggage in front of his army at Killiecrankie. Wade dissented,
of course, but the old man insisted that the baggage should have
been placed before the line, in which caae Mackay, he observed,
would have gained the bRttle, as the Highlanders would have
first attacked the baggage, and would have thus fallen au easy
prey to Mackay's ai my.

KIL

117

KIL

ing the fugitives, succeeded in rallying them, but
pwing tp the thickness pf the mprning mpre than a
hundred escaped, all uf whpm were killed, stripped,
pr taken prisoners by the country people. Mackay
continued his march with very little halting all that
day, being Sunday the 28th of July, and arrived late
at night at Drummond castle, in which he had a gar
rison. Next day he reached Stirling with about 400
men. On the morning after the battle — for night
had thrown its sable curtain over the horrors of the
scene, before the extent of the carnage could be as
certained — the field ef battle and the ground between
it and the river, extending as far as the pass, present
ed an appalling spectacle in the vast numbers of the
dead which strewed the field, and whose mutilated
bodies attested the savage and unrelenting ferocity
with which Mackay's men had been hewn down by
the Highlanders. Here might be seen a skull which
had been struck off above the ears by a stroke from
a broad-sword — there a head lying near the trunk
from which it had been severed — here an arm or a
limb — there a corpse laid open from the head to the
brisket; while interspersed among these lifeless
trunks, dejectaque membra, were to be seen broken
pikes, small-swords, and muskets, which had been
snapt asunder by the athletic blows of the Lochaber
axe and broad-sword.* If the importance of a vic
tory is to be reckoned by the comparative numbers
of the slain, and the brilliant achievements of the
victors, the battle of Killiecrankie may well stand
high in the list of military exploits. Considering the
shortness of the combat, the loss on the part of
Mackay was prodigious. No less than 2,000 of his
men fell under the swords and axes of Dundee's
Highlanders, and about 500 were made prisoners.
Among the slain were Lieutenant-Colonel Mackay,
brother of the general, Brigadier Balfour, and several
other officers. Highland tradition reports that Bal
four was cut down by the Reverend Robert Stewart,
a Catholic clergyman, nephew to Stewart of Balle-
chen, for having contemptuously refused to receive
quarter when offered him by the priest. The same
tradition relates that Stewart, who was a powerful
muscular man, followed the enemy in their flight
down to the river, and tpwards the pass, wielding a
tremendous broad-sword, with which he cut down
numbers of the fugitives, and so much did he exert
himself in the use of his fatal weapon, that, at the
conclusion of the carnage, his hand had swollen to
such an extent, that it couid only be extricated from
the basket-hilt of his sword, by cutting away the net
work. But as the importance of a victory, however
splendid in itself, or distinguished by acts of indivi
dual prowess, can only be appreciated by its results,
the battle of Killiecrankie, instead of being advan
tageous to the cause of King James, was, by the
death of the brave Dundee, the precursor of its ruin.
After he had charged at the head of his horse, and
driven the enemy from their cannon, he was about
to proceed up the hiU to bring down Sir Donald
Macdonald's regiment, which appeared rather tardy
in its motions, when he received a musket-shot in his
right side, immediately below his armour. He at
tempted to ride a little, but was unable, and fell
from his horse mortally wounded, and almost imme-
* In allusion to this battle, the author of the memoirs of Vu-
count Dundee, says, " Then the Highlanders fired, threw down
their tusils, rushed in upon the enemy with sword, target, and
pistol, who did uot maintain their ground tivo minutes after the
Highlanders were amongst them ; and I dare be bold to Bay,
that were scarce ever such strokes given in Europe as were
given that day by the Highlanders. Many of General Mackay's
officers aud soldiers were cut down through the skull aud ueck
to the very breast ; others had skulls cut off above their ears
like night-caps ; some soldiers had both their bodies and cross.
belts cut through at one blow ; pikes and small swords were cut
like willows ; and whoever doubts of this, may consult the wit
nesses of the tragedy."

diately expired. In the Viscount Dundee, King
James lost the only man in Scotland possessed ol all
the qualifications necessary for conducting to a suc
cessful issue the great and important charge which
had been committed to him by his sovereign. Edu
cated in the strictest principles of toryism, he could
never divest his mind of the abstract ideas of passive
obedience and hereditary right, and to him. there
fore, any attempt to resist the authority of the so
vereign, no matter how far abused, appeared highly
treasonable. Hence the unrelenting perseverance
with which he hunted down the field conventicles,
which made him the terror of the unfortunate whigs,
and earned for him the unfortunate designation of the
' Bloody Clavers.' Though a thorough-paced, and,
in some degree, a bigotted Protestant Episcopalian,
the heresy of the successor of Charles II. as the re
ligion of James must have appeared to him, in no
respect altered his ideas of implicit fidelity to the
sovereign, nor did his views undergo any change
when the arbitrary and unconstitutional proceedings
of James seemed, to the leading men of the nation,
to have solved the great political problem, when re
sistance should commence and obedience end. In
his eyes, therefore, the revolution which drove the
unfortunate James from his throne, was a great na
tional sin, which. could only be atoned for by restor.
ing to him his crown, an object, in the accomplish
ment of which, he conceived all good men were
bound to lend a helping hand. These ideas ingrafted
upon a temperament peculiarly sanguine, made him
an enthusiast in favour of hereditary right, and his
appointment by the fallen monarch as the chosen one
by whose instrumentality his restoration was to be
effected, imparted a charm te his enthusiasm which
dispelled every difficulty which appeared to obstruct
the grand object of his ambition and his hopes.
With an inflexibility of purpose, which no tempta
tion could overcome, he steadily pursued the course
which the duty he conceived he owed to his sover
eign, and the natural inclination of his own mind
directed him to follow. But Dundee had not merely
the will, but what was of no less importance, the
ability, had he lived, to have executed the commis
sion intrusted to him. W hile as a military com
mander he had few equals, he stood unrivalled among
his cotemporaries in the art of gaining the affections
of his troops, and communicating to them a full mea
sure of the spirit which animated himself. His death,
therefore, was a fatal blow to James's prospects, and
with him the cause of the Stuarts may be said to
have perished. Dundee, and his friend Pitcur, who
also fell in the engagement, were interred in the
church of Blair-of- Athole.
KILLIGRAY. See Calligray.
KILLIN, f a large parish in the district of Bread
albane, Perthshire. It consists of a large main body
and two detached portions. One of the latter,
measuring 3£ miles by 4, stretches southward from
Loch-Tay at the distance of 3£ miles from the east
ern extremity of the main body ; and is bounded on
the east and west by portions of Kenmore ; and on
the south by Comrie. This district partakes uniquely
and strictly of the beautiful and romantic character
of the parts of Kenmore which contribute to form
the basin of Loch-Tay ; possessing at the edge of the
lake a broad belt of gently rising arable ground,
sheltered and embellished with plantation, and rising
up as it recedes toward the southern boundary in
f The Rev. Patrick Stuart, the minister of the parish at the
close of last century, doubted whether the word Cill-Fhinn,
signifying 'the Burying-place of Fingal,' or CilULinn, mean
ing ' the Burying-place of the Pool,' and pointing to the ruins
of a chapel and cemetery on the banks of the Lochy, were the
original of the modern name Killin , yet he seemed to give
his vote in favuur of CiU-tinn.

118

KILLIN.

grand mountainous elevations : see Kenmore. The
Pther detached pertipn, a square ef 1£ mile deep, lies
pn the nprth side of the river Lochy, 2| miles north
of the nearest point of the main body, has Fortin
gall on the north ; Kenmore on the east ; and a part
of Weem on the south "and west, and partakes the
general character of Glenlochy. The main body of
the parish extends, in a stripe averaging about 7 miles
in breadth, from the head or south-western end of
Loch-Tay to the boundary of the county with Ar
gyleshire,  a distance or extreme length ef 22 miles.
It is bpunded en the north by detached parts of Ken
more and Weem ; on the east by the main body of
Kenmore, by Loch-Tay, and by a part of Weem ;
on the south by Comrie and Balquidder ; and on the
south-west, west, and north-west by Argyleshire.
The district, strictly Highland in its topographical
appearances, takes its configuration mainly from the
course through its centre of the chief head-water of
the Tay. This stream — which rises on the extreme
western boundary, bears for 8 miles the name of the
Fillan, expands for 3 miles into a series of lochlets
which assume the general name of Loch-Dochart,*
and then runs 10J miles farther under the name of
Dochart river— bisects the district through nearly the
middle over its whole length, and gives it the aspect
of a long glen, bearing the designation first of Strath-
fillan, and next of Glen-Dochart, and flanked by
lofty hills, covered with grass and heath, and run
ning up on both sides to a water-shedding line along
the boundaries. But from a point 1^ mile south
west of the head of Loch-Dochart, a glen 4^ miles
in length, and watered by the romantic, rock-strewn
Falloch, descends south-westward toward the head of
Loch-Lomond; and — with the exception of a brief
part at its lower end — this, with its flanking hills, and
two or three tiny later glens, also lies within the dis
trict. See articles Strathfillan, Dochart, and
Falloch. Over a distance of 3 miles above the con
fluence of the Lochy and the Dochart, just before the
united stream enters Loch-Tay, the district includes
likewise the glen of the former river ; though here it
has embosomed within it a small detached part of Ken
more, stretching from the side of the Lochy to near
the Dochart. Numerous rills or mountain-torrents,
all, from the nature of the ground, brief in length,
rise near the northern and southern boundaries, and
run down to swell the bisecting central stream. Sal
mon and trout are the kinds of fish that abound most
in the larger waters, — lake and river. High hills,
few or none of them rocky, and almost all available
for pasturage, ruji in ridges on nearly all the boun
daries except the eastern, and roll down in congeries
or in insulated heights as they approach the central
glen. The highest is the well-known Benmore —
not, of course, the Benmore of Mull, with which
identity of name and similarity of interest are in
risk of occasioning it to be identified. This noble-
looking mountain is of a fine conical form, and,
according to Stobie' s map of the county of Perth,
rises 3,903 feet above the level of the sea. It
ascends from the pass between Glendochart and
Strathfillan,' on the south side of Loch-Dcchart,
and was, in former times, a deer-forest, but is now
occupied as a sheep-walk. A considerable aggre
gate extent of wood, both natural and planted,
decorates the parish, and, in most instances, thrives
and is luxuriant. Game, of numerous kinds, abounds.
The soil, at the west end of Loch-Tay, and in the
bottoms of Glenlochy and Glendochart, where it
suffers from frequent overflowings of the rivers, is wet
and marshy ; but, in other parts it is in general light
a A little north of Loch-Dochart are the lochlets EsBan and
Maragan ; and near the western boundary is Loch- Ynss,— all
three of iuconbiderable extent.

and dry, and, in favourable seasons, abundantly fertile.
The bottoms of the valleys are disposed chiefly in
meadows and arable grounds ; the hills rise with a
gentle slope, and are cultivated and inhabited to a
considerable height ; and the summits of the hills
and the heights of the mountains, in places where
grass gives place to rank heath, have been extensively
improved into available sheep-walks. More than half
of the whole territory is the property of the Marquis
of Breadalbane. Limestone abounds. Lead is worked
in the vicinity of the village of Clifton. Repeated
but vain search has been made for coal. Some in
teresting antiquarian and historical recollections are
connected with Strathfillan : which see. Lead
ing lines of road traverse all the great glens of the par
ish. The villages are Clifton [which see], and Kil
lin. The latter is beautifully and romantically situ
ated about half-a-mile from the head of Loch-Tay,
within the peninsula formed by the confluent rivers
Dochart and Lochy, 15| miles from Kenmore, 21f
from Callander, 20| from Inverarnan inn at the en
trance of Glenfalloch, 18ffrom Tyndrum, 27 from
Crieff, and 40 from Stirling. The windings of the
rivers in the plain around it, — the precipitate advance
of the Dochart, over a ledgy and declivitous bed in
a profusion of little cascades,. — the calm and gliding
movement of the gentler Lochy, — the aspect of the
surrounding hills, frilled and gemmed in many places
with wood, — and the long expanse of the exulting,
Loch-Tay, with its gently ascending and tufted and ul
timately magnificent heights of flanking hills, — serve
to render the site and neighbourhood of this village
grandly picturesque. So pleased was Mr. Pennant
with the majestic joyousness of the scenery around it,
thathe gave a view of it in his tour. " Killin," says Dr.
M'Culloch, " is the most extraordinary collection of
extraordinary scenery in Scotland, — unlike every
thing else in the country, and perhaps on earth, and a
perfect picture-gallery in itself, since you cannot move
three yards without meeting anew landscape. A busy
artist might here draw a month and not exhaust it.
* * Fir-trees, rocks, torrents, mills, bridges, heuses,
these preduce the great bulk pf the middle landscape,
under endless ccmbinatipns ; while the distances
more censtantly are found in the surreunding hills,
in their varied wppds, in the bright expanse ef the
lake, and the minute ernaments pf the distant valley,
in the rocks and held summit pf Craig-Cailliach,
and in the lnfty vision of Ben-Lawers, which towers
like a huge giant in the clouds, — the monarch of the
scene." A bridge which bestrides the Dochart, with
five unequal arches, offers good vantage-ground for
surveying some of the most striking features and
groupings of the landscape. Immediately below the
bridge, is a picturesque island formed by the Dochart,
covered with a fine verdant sward, and richly clothed
with pine-trees, in the dim centre of which is the
burial-place of the Macnabs, once the potent chief
tains of this district, but whose lineal representative
emigrated to Canada, with a number of his clansmen.
The village, though straggling and small, is a place
of considerable impcrtance ; and has an excellent
inn, and four annual fairs, and is the seat pf the
baren-bailie-ceurts pf the family of Breadalbane.
The fairs are held on the 3d Tuesday of January,
the 12th day of May, the 27th day of October, and
the first Tuesday, O.S., of November. Mostof the
villagers are tradesmen, who pay rent to the Marquis
of Breadalbane for a house, a garden, and an acre of
ground. In the neighbourhood of the village is a
small rising ground which tradition points out as
the grave of Fingal, but which on perforation halt-
a-century ago, afforded no evidence of having been
a tomb. Populatipn, in 1801, 2,048; in 1831,
2,002. Houses 365. Assessed property, in 1815,

KIL

119

KIL

£3,770  Killin is in the presbvtery pf Weem,
and synpd pf Perth and Stirling. Patron, the Mar
quis pf Breadalbane. Stipend £240 19s. 5d. ; glebe
£13 10s. Unappropriated teinds £566 19s. 6d. The
church was built in 1744, and repaired and con
siderably enlarged in 1832. It is situated at the
village, and has 905 sittings. The district of Strath
fillan was disjoined in 1836 by the presbytery, and
annexed to the new quoad sacra parish of Strath
fillan. Another portion of the parish is included in
the mission of Loch-tay-side. See these articles.
But on the other hand, parts of the parishes of
Weem and Kenmore have, by private arrangement,
been placed under the care of the ministers of Killin.
The quoad sacra population, corresponding with
these distributions, amounted, in 1836, to 1,982, 
1,082 of whom were in Killin; and 900, including 55
dissenters, were in Weem and Kenmore. The po
pulation of Killin, quoad civilia, was stated by the
minister, in the same year, to consist of 1,952
churchmen, and 50 dissenters  A Baptist congre
gation in tbe village was established about the year
1810, yields an attendance of from 8 to 30, and meets
in a rented schoolhouse  An Independent congre
gation, also in the village, was established upwards
of 25 years ago, yields an attendance of from 40 to
80, and assembles in a schoolroom  The parish-
school is attended by a maxim um of 80 scholars, and
9 non-parochial schools by a maximum of 351. Pa
rochial schoolmaster's salary £34, with £9 fees, and
£10 other emoluments. Three of the non-parochial
schools are supported by the Society for propagating
Christian knowledge, and two by the Marchioness of
Breadalbane. KILMADAN,* or Kilmodan, a parish in Ar
gyleshire, 12 miles long, and not half-a-mile broad,
being chiefly a long narrow glen surrounded by high
hills. It is bounded by Kilfinnan, Inverchaolain,
Dunoon, and Strachan parishes. The extent of
sea-coast is about 3 miles, and the shore is flat and
sandy, with sunk rocks. The river Ruel falls into
the head of Loch-Ridan. The tide ebbs at the head
of this loch above 2 miles. The soil is deep and fer
tile, excellently adapted for the culture of flax; but
good crops of oats, barley, potatoes, &c, are also
raised. The surrounding hills are covered with
heath, and their sides are occupied by small copses
of natural wood. Limestone is abundant. The cele
brated mathematician, Colin Maclaurin, professor of
mathematics in the university of Edinburgh, was
born in this parish  Population, in 1801,502; in
1831, 648. Houses 105. Assessed property £4,512.
— Tbe parish is in the presbytery of Dunoon, and
synod of Argyle. Patron, the Duke of Argyle.
Stipend £173 18s. 5d  Schoolmaster's salary £23,
with £12 fees. There are 2 private schools.
KILMADOCK — frequently named, after its kirk-
town and principal village, Doune — a parish near
the middle of the southern verge of Perthshire. It
is bounded on the north by a detached part of
S tro wan ; on the east by Dunblane and Lecropt ; on
the south-east by Kincardine ; on the south by Stir
lingshire ; and on the west by a detached part of
Kincardine, and by Pprt-pf-Monteith and Callander.
In extreme length, from the Bridge of Frew on the
* The most ancient name of this parish is said to have been
Glenduisk, signifying 'the Glen of the Btackwater.' After
wards a battle was here fought between Meckan, son of Mag
nus, King of Norway, and the Gaels, wherein it is said the
Norwegians were defeated and slaughtered on each side of the
stream which runs through the middle of the glen; and their
bodies being thrown into the river, gave the colour of blood
to it. Hence the river got the name of Ruail, and the parish
that of Gtendaruel, or Glenderwell, which signifies * the Glen
of Red Blood.' After the introduction ot Christianity into the
country, a place of worship was here consecrated to St. Modan,
aud called Cella Madam, or Kilmadau.

south, to the hill Ualug on the north, it measures 10
miles ; but it has an average breadth over J of a
mile of this distance, from the southern extremity,
of only half-a-mile ; and over 2£ miles further, of 2
or 2| miles ; it now suddenly expands to an extreme
breadth, of 8 miles, but again rapidly contracts, and,
over a distance of 4 miles from the northern extre
mity, has an average breadth of only 3£ miles. Its
entire area is computed to be 64 square miles. The
Forth runs in serpentine folds along the southern
boundary, making a distance of 3 miles in a straight
line from the peint pf touching to that of leaving,
but probably 6 miles alpng its channel. The Teith
runs diagenally from north-west, to south-east,
through nearly its broadest part, tracing the boun
dary | of a mile before entering, and 2A miles before
leaving, flewing 5 miles in a direct line within the
bpundaries, and bisecting the parish into nearly equal
parts. Goodie water comes in from the west near
the southern extremity, and runs 2£ miles eastward
to the Forth. Keltie water comes down from the
north, and runs 1J mile along the western boun
dary to the Teith. A stream rises in the northern
extremity, flows 4 miles in the parish, makes a de
tour of 3£ miles into Dunblane, and then flowing 2
miles, chiefly westward, falls into the Teith in the
vicinity of Doune. Four other considerable stream
lets, one of them about 6 miles in length of course,
rise in the north, and disgorge themselves into the
Teith. The smaller streams, as well as the larger,
not only beautify the district, but enrich it, abound
ing in trouts, and furnishing valuable water-power
for the driving of machinery. Springs are numerous
and good ; and one in the side of Uaighmor in the
north, leaps out from the solid rock in the manner
of a jet or spout. Three lechlets alsp make their
centributipn tp the general wealth pf waters, — Loch-
anaghaig, pr ' the Lake pf the level field,' in the cen
tre pf the nprthern divisinn ; Lpch of Watstown, cm
the bpundary, 1£ mile south-west of Doune; and
Loch-Daldurn, near the south bank of the Teith, 1J
mile after it receives the Keltie. Nearly the whole
of the district, which is immediately washed by the
streams, or contributes to form their banks, is beau
tiful and picturesque in its scenery. The Forth is
here opulent in the lusciousness of carse-landscape
through which it sinuously wends, and in the views
of Stirling-castle, and of the rejoicing scenes with
which it is grouped toward the east. The Teith is
all the way fine, and where it rolls past the ancient
castle ef Doune, near the village, and through the
beautiful pleasure-grounds of Newton on its left
bank, and along the picturesque groves of Blair-
Drummond, pressing in from the parish of Kincar
dine, it wears a delightful and exulting dress. The
Keltie, too, vies with the larger rivers, and flows
most of its way, where it touches the parish, through
the fine lawns of Cambusmore and Ballachallan.
Both Newton and Cambusmore were the residences
during some of his earlier years pf Sir Walter Scctt,
and must have cpntributed, alpng with the general
scenery cf the parish, and centermineus districts,
especially that pf Callander, tp form and sharpen his
exquisite and impassioned relish for the tints and tra
cery pf nature's depictings. Cambuswallace, Gar-
tincaber, Ccldpch, Craigh, Argaty, and other man
sions, with their pleasure-grounds and their groves,
add studdings of beauty to the district additional to
those of the mansions already named. From almost
every eminence in the parish, are seen superb views
of tbe rich valley of the Forth, the varied aspect of
a well-cultivated, well-sheltered, and extensive tract
of country, Stirling-castle, and the bold grand en-
cincturing of the Lomond and other hills. The sur
face, for a considerable wav upward from the Forth,

KIL

120

KIL

is level. Fiohi a point 2 miles west of Dpune, and
2J north of the Forth, a gentle hilly ridge runs
parallel with the Teith, 4 miles north-westward to
the extreme western point of the parish. Parallel
to this ridge, at a distance from it of 3 miles, runs
another and similar ridge, quite across the parish, —
the two ridges forming in their interior sides the
basin of the Teith. Up the whole north corner of
the parish rise the Braes of Doune, till at the boun
dary they send up considerable elevations. The soil
exhibits every variety, from the richest carse clay on
the plains of the .Forth, to the poorest heath-clad
moor on the hills of the north. The whole vale of
the Teith, the carse-grounds on the south, and much
of the other sections, are well-enclosed and highly
cultivated. Various roads, ramifying and intersect
ing one another, traverse the southern division of
the parish ; two run up the vale of the Teith, one
on each side of the river, leading the way from Stir
ling to the gorgeous scenery of the Trosachs and
Loch-Katrine on the one hand, and to that of Loch-
Earn and Loch-Tay on the other ; but no road in
vites the access of a wheeled vehicle beyond the
second ridge of the parish, or toward the Braes of
Doune. A bridge of two arches was thrown across
the Teith at Doune in 1535, by the patriotic Robert
Spittal, tailor to James V. The old castle and the
village of Doune are noticed in a separate article :
See Doune. Three-fourths pf a mile north-west of
Doune are the continuous hamlets of Buchany and
Burn-of-Cambus. Still nearer Doune, but on the
opposite bank ef the Teith, and cemmunicating with
it by a bridge, is Deanstpn. Here, for a lpng peripd,
have been extensive ccttpn-wprks, which, half-a-
century age, empleyed between 200 and 300 persons,
and which now give employment or support to about
one-third of the large population of the parish. At
Deanston has been established, also, a large iron-
foundry  Population of the parish, in 1801, 3,044 ;
in 1831, 3,752. Houses 426. Assessed property, in
1815, £15,465  Kilmadock is in the presbytery of
Dunblane, and synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron,
Lady Willoughby de Eresby. Stipend £288 7s. Id. ;
glebe £7. Unappropriated teinds £625 2s. 9d. The
parish-church is situated at the village ef Dpune.
Its predecessor, hcwever, pr that which was in use
till the year 1756, stopd in a different lecality, — cnce
the residence cf St. Madpc, pr Madpcus, and after
wards the site pf the monastery of St. Madoc, which
had six dependent chapels. This Madoc is the saint
who gives name to the parish. In Doune are two
meeting-houses, one belonging to the United Seces
sion, and the other to the Original Burghers. The
parish has a parochial school, and six unendowed
schools, aggregately attended by at least 590 scholars,
and has been, and still is, eminent for having well-
qualified and successful teachers. Parish school
master's salary not stated.
KILMAHOG, a hamlet in the parish of Callander,
Perthshire, situated on the left bank of the northern
head-stream of the river Teith, immediately above
its point of confluence with the southern head-
stream. A mile east of the hamlet is the village of
Callander ; and' f of a mile north-west of it, is the
celebrated pass of Leny.
KILMALCOLM,* a parish in Renfrewshire,
bounded on the north by Port-Glasgowandthe river
Clyde ; on the east by Erskine, Houstoun, and Kil
barchan ; on the south by Lochwinnoch ; and on the
west by Greenock, Innerkip, and Largs. This is
the largest parish in Renfrewshire, being about 6
miles square, and containing 19,800 English acres.
* This name is derived from King Malcolm III., who was
commemorated as a saint, and to whom the church was dedi.
cated.

A great part, particularly on the south and west
sides, is moorish land, rising to a considerable height,
and very bleak and barren. On the south side of
the parish is the extensive moss of Kilmalcolm."|-
The greatest expanse of country, of a uniform fea
ture, is a hollow plain, shelving both from south ana
north, towards the Gryfe and its tributary streamlets
in the centre. This is thickly scattered over with
farm-hamlets ; whilst the soil, which is incumbent
on rotten rock, is naturally fine pasture-land. Much
of it, indeed, is in cultivation, and produces good
crops of grain and potatoes, besides some clover and
turnips. More than 6,000 acres of this description
of soil are situated in one unbroken expanse in the
heart of the valley of the Gryfe. Here and there,
throughout the parish, are clumps of planting, which
give variety to the scenery. The parish abounds
with excellent water, the principal streams being the
Gryfe and the Duchal  The extensive barony of
Duchal, in this parish, was, for many ages, the chief
property and place of residence of the ancient family
of Lyle, Lord Lyle, which became extinct about 1556.
Twelve years before that date, most part of it was
sold by Lord Lyle to John Porterfield of that ilk.
It now belongs to James Corbett Porterfield, Esq.
The remains of the strong and romantic castle of this
barony stand upon the confluence of the Duchal with
another rivulet. In 1710, a mansion-house was
built about a mile east from this. The present man
sion was built in 1768. It stands on the right bank
of the Gryfe, and is well-sheltered with wood  The
barony of Dennistoun originally belonged to a family
of the same name, from whom it passed, about the
end of the 14th century, to Sir William Cunningham:
of Kilmaurs, ancestor of the Earls of Glencairn, by
marriage with Margaret, eldest daughter and co
heiress of Sir Robert Dennistoun. Finlayston, sur
rounded by extensive woods and plantations, on the
banks of the Clyde, is the mansion-house of this
estate, and was long the chief residence of the noble
family of Glencairn. On the death of John, the 15th
Earl, in 1796, it and the barony of Dennistoun (long
better known by the name of Finlayston), devolved
on Robert Graham, Esq., of Gartmore, wbo was son
of Margaret, eldest daughter of William, the 12th
Earl. In the time of that Earl of Glencairn, who
was among the first of the nobility that made pro
fession of the Protestant religion, his house of Fin
layston was a place of refuge for those of that faith,
and there John Knox dispensed the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper. The cups used upon this occasion
were two candlesticks of the finest silver. The
lower part or sole formed the cup, which was screwed
into the upper. These cups were used in the parish-
church at the dispensation of the sacrament so long
as the family of Glencairn continued to reside here.
They were then replaced by four copper cups, gilt,
furnished by the Countess of Glencairn, who, it is
said, carried along with her the venerated silver cups,
which, it is also reported, are still in the possession
of the relations of that family  The greater part of
the barony of Newark is in this parish, but the an
cient castle is in that of Port-Glasgow. Newark
also belonged to the Dennistouns. On the death ef
Sir Rpbert Dennisteun, it devplved pn Sir Rpbert
Maxwell, pf Calderwepd, whp had married his 2d
daughter, Elizabeth. It lpng afterwards passed to a
family named Cpchran, and then tc the Hamiltons.
It now belongs to Lady Shaw Stewart, whose father,
the late Robert Farquhar, Esq., purchased it from
Lord Belhaven — Cairncurran, which anciently form-
t In this district, when moss wants consistency, if dug in the
UBual way, it is formed into convenient pieces for fuel, and
spread abroad to dry. Thus prepared, it is locally tailed trrule.
the u having the sound ot the French letter.

KIL

121

KIL

ed part of the possessions of the noble family of
Lyle, was purchased from John, Lord Lyle, in 1544,
by Giles Campbell, wife ef William Cunningham, pf
Craigends, in Kilbarchan parish, and by ber dis
poned to their 2d son, William, to whose descendants
it has since belonged  North of this, on the right
bank of the Gryfe, is Craigbet, the property of Mr.
Graham — On the side of the parish adjacent to the
Clyde, are some pleasant villas  Kilmalcolm, on the
east side of the parish, is the only village it contains.
It is distant about 4 miles from Port-Glasgow, which
is the nearest market and post-town  Population
of the parish, in 1801, 1,100; in 1831, 1,613, of whom
367 were in the village. Houses, in 1831, 227.
Assessed property, in 1815, £9,384  Kilmalcolm is
in the presbytery of Greenock, and synod of Glasgow
and Ayr. Patrons,-the heirs of Dr. Anderson. The
church was built in 1833, and can accommodate
about 1,000 persons. Stipend £246 3s. 2d.j glebe
£16. Unappropriated teinds £634 8s. lid  Salary
of parochial schoolmaster £34 2s. 8d. (out of which
£3 is given yearly to the schools not parochial), and
about £10 arising from school-fees. The schools
not parochial are six in number, with one instructor
in each.
KILMALIE, a very extensive parish in the coun
ties of Argyle and Inverness. It is of an irregular
figure, and intersected by three arms of the sea. The
extreme points from north-west to south-east are 60
miles distant from each other ; and its breadth from
north-east to south-west is not less than 30 miles.
Its superficies has been estimated at 589 square miles,
or nearly 376,960 acres, measured in straight lines ;
but, adding the surface of hills and valleys, the ex
tent will be at least one-third more. The greater
part of the parish consists of high mountains and
hills, covered with heath, but affording excellent
pasture for numerpus flpcks cf sheep. Ampngst the
mpuntains is Bennevts : which see. In the valleys
upon the banks of the Lochy and Nevis, and in seve
ral other places, there is agopddeal pf arable ground
of different qualities ; but in general the soil is shal
low and sandy. On the coast the soil is fertile and
early. Tbe climate is rainy and moist, but healthy.
In several of the valleys are extensive lakes, of which
Loch-Archaio and Loch-Lochy are the chief:
which see. From these two lakes issue the rivers
Archaig and Lochy, which, with the Nevis, are the
principal streams in the parish. The rivers and
lakes abound with salmon ; and the creeks of the
coast afford herring and other fish in the greatest
abundance. In former times, the greater part of this
parish was overgrown with wppd ; at present abeut
14,000 acres are covered with plantations. Fort-
William, and the adjoining village of Maryburgh,
are situated in this parish .- See these articles. There
are several extensive caves, particularly one about 8
miles up the river Nevis, known by the name of
' Samuel's Cave.' It is of difficult access. In 1746,
this cave afforded a safe retreat to some Highlanders
who had been engaged in the Rebellion. Immediately
opposite to it is a beautiful cascade, formed by a
small rivulet, which, falling down the side of Ben-
nevis, forms an uninterrupted torrent for half-a-mile.
before it joins its waters to the Nevis in the bottom
of the valley  Upon the banks of the Lochy, on the
top of a dreadful precipice, are the remains of an an
cient castle, around which are the distinct traces
of fortifications  On the summit of a green hill,
1,200 feet in height, are the remains of a vitrified
castle, long forgotten in the annals of fame, and of
which even tradition has preserved nothing but its
name. It is supposed to have been a sort of out
work for strengthening Inverlochy-castle, when that
ancient edifice was a royal seat — In the parish are

several veins of lead ore, very rich in silver ; one in
particular, in the mountain of Bennevis. There arn
also quarries of marble, of beautiful colours ; and
limestone abounds. Most of the mountains are
composed of porphyry ; according to Williams the
mineralogist, the red granite of Bennevis is the
most beautiful of any in the wprld. There is an
excellent slate-quarry en the herders of Lochiel,
at the village of Ballachulish, partly in this parish,
and partly in the district of Appin. Population, in
1801, 4,520; in 1831, 5,566. Assessed property ,
£9,707. Houses 457. — This parish is in the presby
tery of Abertarff, and synod of Glenelg. Patron,
Cameron of Lochiel. Stipend £287 15s. 8d. ; glebe
£68. Kilmalie and Kilmanivaig were anciently
united, under the name of the parish of Lochaber,
but were disjoined about two centuries ago. A por
tion of the parish was recently erected into the quoad
sacra parish of Ballachulish : which see. The
districts of Fort- William and Locharchaig, are under
the charge of missionaries. Parish-church built in
1783; sittings 666.
KILMANIVAIG, a parish in Inverness-shire,
about 60 miles in length, its greatest breadth being
25. Superficies 300,000 acres. Its surface is much
diversified with ranges of lofty mountains, intersect
ed by extensive glens and rapid rivers, most of which
empty themselves into the Lochy: which see. Owing
to the dampness of the climate, and the irregular
surface, very little corn is raised throughout this
vast extent of country. In this district is the ancient
castle of Inverlochy, and the famous parallel road
of Glenroy : See these articles. Population, in
1801, 2,541 ; in 1831, 2,869. Assessed property, in
1815, £15,465. Houses, in 1831, 510  This parish
is in the presbytery of Abertarff, and synod of Glen
elg. Stipend £288 10s. 8d. ; glebe £35. Unap
propriated teinds £291 2s. 2d. Church built about
1812 ; sittings 300. The parish was formerly united
to Kilmalie, under the name ef Lochaber. It com
prises three ancient parishes, — Kilmanivaig Proper,
Killiechonile, and Kilfinan or Glengarry. Brae-
lochaber and Glengarry are now mission-districts
Of a population estimated by census in 1836 at 2,889,
1,464 were Roman Catholics ; a Roman Catholic
congregation has existed in the Braes of Lochaber
from a remote peripd. Their present chapel was
built abeut 1826; sittings 400. Stipend £25 —
Schoolmaster's salary £29 18s. 10d., with about £20
fees. There are eight private schools in the parish.
KILMANY, a parish in Fifeshire. Its extreme
length from west to east is about 6 miles ; but from
the irregularity of its form, its breadth is very varied.
Towards the west it is about 3 miles broad ; but it
suddenly contracts towards the east, and for about
nearly two-thirds of its length it is seldom more than
a mile, and in some places not above half-a-mile
broad. It is bounded on the south by the parishes
of Cupar and Logie ; on the east — where it is scarcely
a quarter of a mile broad — by that of Forgan ; on the
nprth by thpse pf Fprgan and Balmerine ; and on the
west by Creich and Meonzie. Few localities pre
sent mere features pf quiet rural beauty than this
parish. In the west, where it is broadest, it is a
succession of softly swelling hill and pleasant valley ;
and towards the east, where it contracts in breadth,
it occupies the southern slope of a range of hills, and
a portion of the bottom of a valley through which
the water of Motray seeks its way to the sea.
There are two hamlets in the parish. The one,
named Kilmany, is near the parish-church, towards
the east of the parish ; the other, Rathillet, is far
ther west, and not far frem the heuse uf Rathillet.
Rathillet-house is situated uppn the water pf Mptray,
the grounds of which are well-enclosed. The lands

122

KILMANY.

of Rathillet were the property of the Crown till the
reign of Malcolm IV., when, on the marriage of
Duncan, Earl of Fife, sixth in descent from Macduff,
with Ada, niece of Malcolm, the crown-lands of
Strathmiglo, Falkland, Kettle, and Rathillet in Fife,
and'of Strathbran in Perthshire, were conferred upon
, him by a charter, which is quoted by Sibbald. The
lands of Rathillet formed a portion of the lands be
longing to the Earldom at the time of the forfeiture,
when of course they again reverted to the Crown.
They afterwards became the property of a family of
the name of Hackston or Halkerston. One of this
family, David Hackston, proprietor of Rathillet, was
a leading man among the Covenanters during the lat
ter part of the 17th century; and has, in consequence
of various transactions in which he was engaged, ob
tained a rather questionable notoriety.*
Immediately to the north of the village of Kil-
many, there is a romantic den, called Goules-den,
through which a stream finds its way to the Motray.
This ravine seems to have been occasioned by a. dis
ruption of the trap-hills which bound the valley to
the north, and has been further worn down by the
stream which flows through it. Its banks have been
planted with trees, and walks made through it, which
render it of easy access ; and assuredly, though on a
small scale, it is eminently picturesque, and its little
waterfalls and overhanging rocks present a variety
of scenes of great interest. — North of Rathillet, and
on the face of a range of hills which form the north
boundary of the valley, with a tine southern expo
sure, is Montquhany, f the residence of David Gil-

* Little appears to be known confining him, till he is found
among' the party who murdered Archbishop Sharp at Magus-
moor, on the 3d of May; 1679. Hackston did not personally
assail the Archbishop, but he certainly approved of the deed;
and onl y objected to taking the command of the assassi ne on the
ground of his having a private quarrel with their unhappy vic
tim ; fearing it might be said that private revenge, rather than
the vindication of public justice, had led them to the commission
of the deed. Being obliged to conceal himself in consequence
of this murder, be retired for a time, to the north, but after
wards joined the main body of the Covenanters in Lanarkshire,
where a declaration was drawn up, which Hackston assisted in
proclaiming at the market-cross of Rutherglen, on the anniver.
sary of the restoration of Charles II. He fought at Drumclog,
and afterwards on the 22d of June at Bothwell-bridge, where
he commanded a troop of horse, and was the last to leave the
field of battle: indeed, had his advice been followed on that
day, the result might have bepn verv different from what it was.
He was now proclaimed a rebel, and a reward of 10.000 merks
offered for his apprehension. Fur a time he lurked about in
concealment with tlie remains of the party ; but was finally
taken prisoner at Airdsinoss by Bruce of Earlshall. He was
subsequently tried at Edinburgh, condemned, and executed,
with all the horrid circumstances forming the punishment of
treason. His head was fixed on the Netherbow : and different
portions of his dismembered body were fixed up at St. An
drews, Magus-moof*, Cupar, Burntisland, Leith, and Glasgow.
"Thus," says John Howie, of Lochgoin, the biographer of the
' Scots Worthies,' " fell this champion for the cause of Christ,
a sacrifice to prelatic fury, to gratify the lust and ambition of
wicked and bloody men. Whether his courage, constancy, or
faithfulness had the pre-eminence, it is hard to determine."
Hackston certainly appears to have been a man of determina
tion and courage, and much superior to the generality of the
party with which he had associated himself; but he was obvi
ously strongly infected with their erroneous views, or he never
could have allowed himself to believe that he was doing God's
work — as it was impiously Btyled— by sanctioning the commis
sion of murder. His heirs continued in possession of the estate
of Rathillet till towards the close of last century, when it was
sold by Mr.Hackston to Mr. Sweet, by whom again it was sold
to the late Mr. David Caldwell, the father of the present pro.
prietor. f Montquhany anciently formed a part of the estates of the
Earldom of Fife, and we find Duncan, the last Earl of Fife of
tde line of Macduff, giving the whole lands of Moulhany to
Michael Balfour, his relation, in exchange for the land- of Fit-
ttmcrieff, which grant was confirmed by David II. in 1353. Of
this branch of the family of Balfour, Knox says, it wa» a house
in which there was " neither fear of God nor love of virtue,
farther than the present commodity persuaded them." David
Balfour, son of the laird of Montquhany, was one of the mur
derers of Cardinal Beaton ; and his elder brother, Sir James
Balfour, subsequently of Pittendreich and Montquhany, joined
the assassins shortly afterwards, and was taken by the French,
when the castle of St. Andrews was surrendered to them in
July 1547, was sent to France, and confined in the same galley

lespie, Esq. — The population of this parish has been
for several years decreasing, owing to the enlarge
ment of the farms, and the consequent want of em
ployment for more than a limited number of the
with Knox. But they were not steady to their party, which
is obviously the cause of Knox's dislike to the house of which
they were descended- Sir James returned to Scotland in 1519,
and was appointed official of Lothian. On the breaking out of
hostilities between the Queen-retfentand the Lords of the con.
gregatinn in 1559, he at first joined the former, but latterly
came over to the Lords, though only apparently for the purpose
of betraying them, as a boy of his was taken with a writ, which
" did open the most Becret thing that was deviled in the cuun-
cel, yea, those very things which were thought to have been
known but to verv few." He escaped the search of the re.
formers of Fife in February 1560, when the Lords of Wemyss,
Seafield, and others were taken prisoners, and he was about
the same time appointed to the rectory of Fitsk. Shortly after
the return of Queen Mary from France, he was appointed an
extraordinary Lord of «ession, under the title of Lord Pitten
dreich, and about two years after (1563) he was made an ordi
nary lord. At the constitution of the commissary court of
Edinburgh in 1561, he was named to the first place, with a
salary of 400 marks, and was sworn a privy councillor in July
1565. The-e marks of royal favour excited the malice of his
enemies, and it was intended to have hanged him, on the night
of Rizzio's murder, but he made his escape. He was after.
wards knishted by the Queen, and appointed Clerk-register in
place of Mr. James Macgill, who was supposed to have been
concerned in that murder. In 1566 he was one of the commis
sioners for revising and publishing the old laws, called Regiam
Majestatpm, &c, and the acts of parliament. But now a black
page appears in the history of his life, as he ia said to have been
the original deviser of the murder of Darnley, to have framed
tlie bond for mutual support entered into by the conspirators,
and to have prepared the house of the Kirk -of -field, which be
longed to his brother, for the reception of the intended victim,
although he was not present at the murder. He was openly
accused of having been accessory to it, however ; and a paper of
the following tenor was affixed to the door of the tolbooth of
Edinburgh on the night of the I6th of February, a few days
after the deed had been committed : — *' I, according to the pro
clamation, have made inquisition for the slaughter of the king,
and do find the Earl of Bothwell. Mr. James Balfour, parson of
Flisk, Mr. David Chambers, and black Mr. John Spence, the
principal devisers thereof, and if this be n >t true apeir at Gil.
bert Balfour." He now became an active coadjutor for a
time, with the enemies of the unfortunate Queen who had so
honoured him ; although professedly he had not joined them.
Early in 1567, he was appointed deputy-governor oif Edinburgh.
castle under the Earl of Bothwell ; and, according to the ene
mies of Mary, it was to him that Bothwell, after the surrender
of the Queen at Carberry, Bent for the casket said to contain
tbe letters which formed the alleged evidence of her guilt.
Shortly after these transactions, he surrendered the castle of
Edinburgh to the Regent Murray, while the Queen was a pri
soner at Lochleven ; and he did so under such terms as no
honest man would have been connected with. These were,
1st, a pardon for his share in the king's murder ; 2d, a gift of
the priory of Pittenweem, then held hy the Regent incommen.
dam j 3d, an heritable annuity to his son out of the rents of the
Priory of St. Andrews ; 4th, a gift of £500 to himself; and 5th,
the delivery of the castle into the hands of his friend, Kirkaldy
of Grange. These terms being fulfilled, he resigned his office
of Clerk- register to please the Regent, who re-appointed Sir
James Macgill ; and Sir James Balfour was farther gratified by
a pension of £500. and promoted to be President of the court.
of-session on 6th December, 1567. He was present at the battle
of Langside, and was instrumental in obtaining that decisive
victory against his former benefactress- In 1568 and 1509, he
was engaged busily in intrigues for Mary ; and after the death
of the Regent he openly joined the party of the Queen. At the
time Maitland, and Kirkaldy of Grange maintained Edinburgh.
castle for the Queen, he joined them, and was in consequence
forfeited in August 1571. By the latter end of the following
year, however, he deserted their partv, made his peace with
Morton, and was a chief instrument in bringing about the paci
fication of Perth, which left Maitland aud Kirkaldy to the ten
der mercieB of their ruthless enemy. Ab if to fill up the mea
sure of his treachery to his former friends, he now informed
the Regent Morton, that Kirkaldy's brother was about to land
at Blackness with a supply of money from France, iu conse
quence of whicli measures were taken for intercepting it. In
1573 he was obliged to make his escape into France to avoid a
rialfnrhisahBreiD the murder of Darnley; but after James
VI. had assumed the reigns of government he returned to
organize a plan for the destruction of Morton, which he effected
by producing, it is said, the celebrated bond signed bv that
nobleman and others for the bupport of Bothwell, and other
written evidence of his guilt. The precise date of his death is
not Known, but it is supposed to have been about 1583. He
married Margaret, daughter of Michael Balfour of Burleieh
the Lords Balfour of Burleigh were descended. He is the
reputed author of the well-known collection of decisions ca.led
Balfour's Practics,' though this is questionable, as appear"
xl hOSe/VBtion8"ft.Lnrd HRiWB> Mr* Thomson, aild Mr.
lytler; but at any rate they must have been subsequently much
interpolated and added to after his time. Dr. RoLrts'.n sti*.
matises »r James as "the most corrupt man of his age,"— a

KIL

121

KIL

labouring class. In 1801, the population was 787 ;
in 1821, 751 ; and in 1831, 707. It is now under-
derstood to have still farther decreased. The culti
vated land in the parish extends to about 3,550 acres,
of which the soil varies very much in different situa
tions. Assessed property, in 1815, £6,805. Total
yearly value of raw produce raised, in 1835, £20,240.
The average rental of arable land is about £2 5s. per
acre ; and the gross amount about £8,500 or £9,000.
The valued rent of the parish is £5,332 10s. Scots.
Houses, in 1831, 148  This parish is in the presby
tery of Cupar, and synod of Fife. Patron, the United
College of St. Andrews. Stipend £225 7s. lid. ;
glebe £30. The church stands on a rising ground
near the village. The late Rev. Dr. John Cook, who
was for sixteen years professor of divinity at St. An
drews, was for nine years minister of this parish.
Dr. Cook was succeeded in Kilmany by the Rev. Dr.
Thomas Chalmers, now professor of divinity in the
university of Edinburgh ; and in this retired parish
that singular genius began first to appear, which has
since shone forth in him with so much brilliance. 
There is a chapel at the village of Rathillet, con
nected with the United Associate Synod  The par
ish-school is situated at Rathillet. The teacher has
the maximum salary. Besides the parish-school,
there are two female schools, one at Kilmany, the
other at Hazelton- wells, at the north-western extre
mity of the parish.
KILMARIE. See Ardnamixrchan.
KILMARNOCK (The), a considerable rivulet
of the district of Cunningham, Ayrshire. Over most
part of its course it is a double stream, or flows in
two head-waters. Both of these rise in the south
east corner of Renfrewshire, 1£ mile beyond the
limits of Ayrshire, and at points 3J miles asunder ;
and they pursue a course respectively of 9 and 10
miles, in a direction west of south, gradually ap
proaching each other as they advance, till they unite
at Dean-castle. The western or shorter branch
flows past Kingswell inn, and the village of Fen
wick, and very generally is called Fenwick-water ;
and the eastern branch, after having received from
the east a tributary nearly equal in length and bulk
to itself, is overlooked by the fine mansion and de
mesne of Craufurdland. The united stream has a
course of only 2 miles, flows past the town of Kil
marnock, and falls into the Irvine 3 furlongs below
Riccarton. KILMARNOCK, a parish in the district of Cun
ningham, Ayrshire ; bounded on the north by Fen
wick ; on the east by Loudoun ; on the south by
the river Irvine, which divides it from Galston and
Riccarton in Kyle ; and on the west by Kilmaurs.
It measures, in extreme length, about 9 miles; in
extreme breadth, about 5 miles ; and, in superficial
area, about 5,900 Scottish acres. The parish is tra
versed in its western division by Kilmarnock water.
The surface is in general flat, with a very gentle
declivity to the south. The soil is deep, strong, and
fertile ; but runs a little into a kind of moss toward
the north-east. All the area, with some trivial ex
ceptions, is arable. Nowhere, perhaps, in Scotland,
has agricultural improvement been conducted with
more enterprise, or carried out into happier results.
Oats, wheat, and barley, are raised nearly in the
sentence which infers no little degree of guilt in an aire wherein
all were so corrupt. It is confirmed, however, by Bannatyne,
who Bays that " whenever he sawtyine lieculd wag as the buss
wagged, and tak the way that might mak him advancement,
howbeit that the same were to the destruction of all honest and
gndlie men, and of his native country also." In the 17th cen.
tury Montquhany was acquired by Mr. James Crawford, a
cadet of a family of that name in the west country. A bout the
beginning of the present century it was purchased by the late
David Gillespie, Esq., of Kirkton, father of the present pro.
prietor.

proportions to each other of 23, 5 and I. Five or
six large corn-mills are worked by the water-power
of the streams of the parish, and prepare large sup
plies of oat-meal, both from local produce and from
Irish importations for the markets of the west of
Scotland. But great attention, as in other parts of
Ayrshire, is paid to the dairy, — the produce in cheese
alone being about equal in value to that in oats, and
double the value of produce in wheat. The whole
district is remarkably rich in its agricultural aspects,
and has been constantly plied with the skilful assi
duities of a local agricultural society, which was
formed so early as 1 792. Plantations occur around
the mansion of Craufurdland, and in some places in
the east and north-east ; but, in the other and ag
gregately large districts, they are tamely and coldly
represented by nothing better than the hedge-en
closure. The climate is very moist, but is far from
being unhealthy. Coal is very extensively worked j
nearly three times more being exported than what is
consumed in the factories and dwellings of the very
populous town and parish. A firm and beautiful
white sandstone has long been wrought, and fur
nishes excellent building material. Fire bricks are
to some extent made  The principal land-proprie
tors are the Duke of Portland, the Marquis of
Hastings, Craufurd of Craufurdland, Blane of
Grougar, Dunlopof Annanhill, and Parker of Assloss.
Dean-castle, the residence of the noble but unfor
tunate family of Kilmarnock, stands about i a mile
north-east of the town. It is of great but un
ascertained antiquity. In 1735, it was accidentally
reduced to bare walls and ruin by fire ; and, since
that period, it has been gradually crumbling toward
a total fall. The growth of an ash tree on the top
of an arch, and in the centre of the dining-room, was
regarded by superstitious credulity as the fulfilment
of some random or alleged prediction uttered during
the period of the last persecution. The ruin, as
seen from the south-west, has still a magnificent ap
pearance, and suggests the melancholy idea of fallen
grandeur  Soulis' cross, which gives name to a
quarter of the town, is a stone pillar 8 or 9 feet
high, placed at the south entrance of the High
church, and erected in memory of Lord Soulis, an
English nobleman, who is said to have been killed
on the spot in 1444, by an arrow from one of the
family of Kilmarnock. As it was mouldering to
pieces in the latter part of last century, the inhabi
tants re-edified it by subscription, and placed" a small
vane upon its top with the inscription " L. Soulis,
1444." — Rowallan-castle, situated on the north-west
verge of the parish, about 2£ miles from the town,
consists of a very ancient tower, in which Elizabeth
More, the first wife of Robert II. , is believed to
have been born, and of large and ornamental addi
tions erected about the middle of the 16th century;
but, in all its parts, it is hastening to decay  Crau-
furdland-castle, 1J mile north-east of Dean-castle,
exhibits a tower of high antiquity, and of great
thickness of wall, and a central structure of quite
modern erection and of fine Gothic architecture.
Besides the large town of Kilmarnock, with its
numerous inhabitants, the parish has several collier
villages and hamlets, containing aggregately a popu
lation of about 1,000. From the town roads, which
are kept in excellent repair, radiate in every direc
tion, — amongst others the continuation of the great
line of turnpike between Glasgow and Dumfries.
The Kilmarnock and Troon railway, which runs off
westward from the west side of the town, is of great
value for the exportation of coal, and the importa
tion of lime, slates, timber, grain, and other com
modities. The railway has a double line, each con
st ructeil of flat rails resting on blocks of hard stone,

124

KILMARNOCK.

and was completed in 1812 at a cost of more than
£50,000. The difference of elevation between the
depots at Troon and at Kilmarnock is only 80 feet.
A discouraging attempt having been made so early
as 1816 to place upon it the locomotive engine, horse
power alone continues to be employed. The annual
aggregate of portage is about 200,000 tons  A
branch-line to the Glasgow, Paisley, and Ayr rail
road, was opened in March 1843. Its terminus is in
Langlands-street, immediately behind the George
inn j and it joins the main line at the end of the 23d
mile from Glasgow; thereby rendering the distance
by railroad to the latter city nearly 34 miles ; the
length of the branch-line being lOi miles. Popula
tion, in 1801, 8,079; in 1831, "18,093. Houses
1,57*. Assessed property, in 1815, £20,175.
Kilmarnock is in the presbytery of Irvine, and
synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron of the quoad ci
vilia parish, or of the Laigh kirk, the Duchess of Port
land. There are three places of worship connected
with the Establishment, two of them quoad sacra ;
and there are eight belonging to various bodies of
dissenters, — all situated in the town. — The Laigh
kirk was built in 1802, and altered and enlarged be
tween 1827 and 1830. Sittings 1,457. The charge
is collegiate. Stipend of the first minister, £145 3s.
7d. ; glebe £20. Stipend of the second minister
£148 7s. 9d. ; glebe £11  St. Marnoch's church
was built in 1836, at a cost of about £5,000. Sit
tings 1,736. "It is intended," says the Commis
sioners' Report, "to apply to the presbytery to
assign a parochial district to it, when an endowment
is got for a minister." — The High church was built
by subscription in 1732, at a cost of £1,000. Sit
tings 902. Stipend £150. An assistant minister
has a salary of £80. This church has attached to it
a quoad sacra urban parish, { of a mile in its greatest
length, less than J of a mile in its greatest breadth,
and containing, in 1836, according to ecclesiastical
survey, a population of 1,677 churchmen, 1,325 dis
senters, and 212 no-religionists, — in all 3,214 per
sons. Deducting these from the population of the
entire quoad civilia parish, there remained, in 1836,
according to a survey of the ecclesiastical authori
ties of the Laigh kirk, 8,957 churchmen, 6,119 dis
senters, and 174 no-religionists, — in all 15,250 per
sons ; making a grand total in the parish of 18,464.
— A regular town-missionary preaches on the fore
noon of Sabbath in the free-school, which accom
modates about 150 persons ; and in the afternoon in
another school-room, which accommodates about
200. Salary £55. — A licentiate, very inadequately
supported by subscription, preaches in an old chapel
in the village of Crookedholm, 1J mile from the
town  The first United Secession congregation was
established in 1771 ; and their place of worship was
built in 1772. Sittings 725. Stipend £140, with a
house and garden worth upwards of £20, and £7
sacramental expenses  The second United Seces
sion congregation was established in 1774. Their
present place of worship was built in 1807. Sittings
751. Stipend £120, with a house, and at each sa
crament and each meeting of synod £5.— The Relief
congregation was established in 1814. Their meet
ing-house was built in 1832, at a cost of £4,047 12s.
7d. Sittings 1,493. Stipend £210, with £21 in
lieu of a manse  The Original Burgher congregation
was established in 1772, and was connected with the
Associate Synod till 1814, when it joined the Ori
ginal Burgher synod. Place of worship built in 1818,
at an expense of upwards of £1,000. Sittings 813.
Stipend £130, with a house and garden. — The In
dependent congregation was established in 1824.
Sittings in their chapel, 600. Stipend not stated,
and a house  The Reformed Presbyterian congre

gation was established in 1774. Their meeting
house was built in 1824, at a cost of £1,150. Sit
tings 730. Stipend about £100, with a house and
smalj piece of ground, and also £l0 as the rent of a
former manse— Respecting the congregation of Ori
ginal Seceders, and the Wesleyan congregation, the
Commissioners of Religious Instruction obtained no
information  The academy of the town is conducted
by 3 teachers, and attended by a maximum of 303
scholars. The classical teacher is the parish school
master, and has £34 4s. 4d. salary, with £94 15s.
fees, and a house and garden. The English teacher
and the teacher of writing and arithmetic have each
£15 salary, with respectively about £140, and from
£192 to £200 fees. Twenty-two non-parochial
schools are conducted by 28 teachers, and attended
by a maximum of 2,150 scholars  The saint from
whom the parish has its name was St. Marnock, said
to have been a bishop or confessor in Scotland, and
to have died in 322, and probably been interred in
this parish. Yet, though he was the patron-saint of
several other Scottish parishes, he is known only by
vague tradition, and cannot be referred to either in
evidence of the very early evangelization of the
country, or as a waymark in the path of its ecclesi
astical history. The church anciently belonged to
the monks of Kilwinning, and was served by a
curate. In 1619, the patronage, then held by Arch
bishop Spottiswood, was transferred to Robert
Boyd, the ancestor of the Earls of Kilmarnock ; in
the 18th century, it passed to the Earl of Glencairn ;
and about the year 1790, it was parchased from him
By Miss Scott, who afterwards became Duchess of
Portland. In 1641, the northern division of the
old parish was detached, and erected into the sepa
rate parish of Fenwick : which see.
Kilmarnock, a parliamentary burgh, and the
most important town in the west of Scotland south
of Paisley, occupies a low site, amidst flat and tame
though agriculturally rich scenery, on both sides of
Kilmarnock water immediately above its point of
confluence with the Irvine ; 9J miles from Mauch-
line ; 6J from Irvine ; 12 from Ayr ; 21 from May-
bole ; 32 from Girvan ; 28 from Largs ; 21 \ from
Glasgow; and 63£ by way of Glasgow from Edin
burgh. In the reign of James VI., it was a mere
hamlet, dependent upon the neighbouring baronial
mansion, Dean-castle ; and when, through the wealth
of the coal-mines in the vicinity and the enterprising
pursuits which they suggested and facilitated, it rose
to the stature of a town, it had all the ruggedness of
aspect and the filthiedness of dress indicative of
the vocation of a collier. At the close of last cen
tury it consisted solely of narrow and irregular
streets, and was extensively edificed with mean
thatched houses. But two events concurred with
the influence of the improvement-spirit of the age,
to effect a rapid and beautifying change on its ap
pearance. In 1800, a desolating fire broke out in
the lower part of the town called Nethertonholm,
and, aided by drought and a stiff breeze, ran rapidly
along both sides of the street, and made short and
full work of demolishing a long array of thatched
roofs ; and it cleared the way and afforded occasion
for a spirited effort, by subscription, both in the
town. and among patriotic persons at a distance, to
replace the old roofs with improved ones of slate.
About the same period, commissioners appointed by
an act of parliament which had been obtained by
the magistrates for improving the town, unspar
ingly removed nuisances, planned new streets, and
speedily flung over the place a renovated, airy, and
neat aspect. Yet the town is still remarkable for
the utter disproportion of its breadth to its length,
for the shortness, numerousness, and irregularity of

KILMARNOCK.

125

the thoroughfares at its nucleus, and for the strag
gling and dispersed position of several of its outskirts.
At the south end of the town, on the left bank of
the river Irvine, communicating with Kilmarnock
by a bridge which carries over the Ayr and Glas
gow turnpike, stands the small suburb of Riccar
ton: which see. From the north end of the bridge,
700 yards above the confluence of Kilmarnock water
with the Irvine, a street, bearing the names succes
sively of Glencairn-street and King-street, runs due
north, and in a straight line over a distance of 1,500
yards, or more than J of a mile, gradually approach
ing Kilmarnock water over 1,100 yards, running
alongside of it for 320 yards, and then, as the river
makes a sudden bend, passing over it, and opening
into an open and irregular area, the cross, market
place, or centre of the town. Nearly 400 yards from
its southern end, this street expands into Glencairn-
square, from the sides of which East Shaw-street
and West Shaw-street, each about 200 yards in
length, run off at right angles with Glencairn-street
respectively to the rivers Irvine and Kilmarnock.
Two hundred yards north of / Glencairn-square, two
very brief streets go off eastward and westward, the
former sending off at a short distance unedificed
thoroughfares to Richarland brewery, situated on
the Irvine to Wellbeck-street, 320 yards eastward,
and to the slaughter-house 120 yards to the north.
Opposite the last of these objects, Glencairn-street
sends off Douglas-street 120 yards to Kilmarnock
water. A little more than 400 yards farther north,
the same street, or rather the continuation of it
now bearing the name of King-street, sends off a
long zigzag but otherwise regular street-line 120
yards eastward, 120 southward, 320 south-eastward,
and again 200 southward to Irvine water, bearing as
it approaches the river the name of Wellbeck-street.
All the section of the tow" which consists of these
streets, with the exception of the north end of
King-street, is quite modern, and has a neat ap
pearance, its houses presenting fronts of polished
ashler, and a building material of fine freestone ;
yet it is entirely destitute of the attribute of com
pactness which is generally associated with the idea
of a town, and exhibits mainly an elongated and
slightly intersected street-line running nakedly down
the peninsula formed by the two rivers, and a sub
tending zigzag street-line drawn across the penin
sula. Portland-street, 380 yards long, Wellington-
street 280, and Dean-street 450, are continuations
nearly due northward of the Glencairn-street and
King-street line, and, with these streets, make the
extreme length of the town about 2,610 yards, or
very nearly 1£ mile. The line, however, from
King-street northward is but partially edificed, and,
for some distance, is bending and rather narrow.
Nowhere, too, is the town broader than 700 yards;
and over a very considerable part of its length it
has but a single street. From the north side of the
central area, at a point eastward of the commence
ment of Portland-street, and slightly radiating from
that thoroughfare, High-street runs along 600 yards,
till it is pent up by a small bend of the river. A
brief street intersects it 150 yards from its south
end, and sends off northward a thoroughfare parallel
with Portland-street and High-street, and running
between them. From the south side of the central
area go off two brief thoroughfares respectively
north-eastward and south-eastward, the latter lead
ing down to the academy situated within a curve
of the river. From the north side of the area also
two streets debouch. The more southerly of these
runs past the Laigh kirk 220 yards, to a point near
Kilmarnock house, and the depot of the Kilmarnock
and Troon railway, and forms the longest side of a

nearly pentagonal district of buildings which has five
exterior streets, and two intersecting ones, all brief
and more or less irregular, and on whose outskirts
are the cattle-market and the gas-works.
The town, as a whole, has a pleasing and airy as
pect, abounds in good and even elegant shops, and
exhibits a fair display of public buildings. At the
north end of King-street is a very broad bridge over
Kilmarnock water, which not only carries across a
spacious roadway, but also bears aloft on its east side
the town-house and the butcher-market. The town-
house, built in 1805, is a neat structure of two
stories, surmounted by a belfry ; and contains a
court-room and public offices. The Exchange build
ings, erected in 1814, are of pleasing architecture,
and have a large hall, which serves both as a well-
furnished news-room, and as a place of mercantile
resort. A very handsome and commodious inn,
erected by the merchants' society, is not a little
ornamental to the town. The Ayrshire banking
company's office, immediately opposite to it, is like
wise a very fine edifice. The academy, the work
house, the free-school, and five bridges over Kilmar
nock water, and one over the Irvine, if not elegant
structures, are at least agreeable for their utility:
Kilmarnock-house arrests attention and excites mus
ing thoughts, from its having been the mansion
whence the last Earl of Kilmarnock issued to take
part in the enterprise which cost him his life and
the forfeiture of his title and estates. The Laigh
kirk is remarkable for having spacious square stair
cases at the angles leading to the galleries, and still
more so for the event which occasioned their peculiar
conformation, as well as the re-edification of the
entire structure. In 1801, while a crowded con
gregation were assembling on a Lord's day for public
worship, the falling of a piece of plaster from the
ceiling of the former church, excited a general and
sudden fear in the masses who were already seated
in the galleries that the roof was about to come down,
and prompted a universal pell-mell rush to the stairs.
A stream of persons who were in the act of ascend
ing were met by the headlong torrent of the mass
moving downward, precipitated to the bottom, and
made the lowest stratum of a broad high pile of
human beings vainly struggling to move off from
the rush in the rear, and too numerous to be
speedily extricated by the efforts of parties clearing
the passages below. About 30 persons died from
suffocation on the spot ; and numbers more received
serious and permanent damage to their health. The
place of worship being now very wisely and philan-
thropically condemned by the heritors, its successor,
the present edifice, was constructed more on the
principle of securing confidence in its strength and
facilities, than with a view to contribute an archi
tectural decoration to the town. The High church
aspires to be, in some degree, a counterpart of the
conspicuous and very elegant church of St. Martin's-
in-the- Fields, at Charing-cross, London ; and, though
it wants the portico, that very important part of the
original, and is destitute of many of the ornaments
of its model, and sends aloft a tower of only 80 feet
in height, and, in general, is much curtailed in its
proportions, it will pass as a decidedly fine piece of
ecclesiastical architecture, and has been regarded as
the most successful production of the Scottish archi
tect, Gibb. Its roof, as to its interior ceiling, dis
plays much taste, and is supported by two rows of
very beautiful composite pillars. St. Marnoch's
church is a Gothic edifice, with an imposing front
and a sumptuous tower. The Relief church is pro
bably the most pretending and the neatest of the
numerous places of worship belonging to the religi
ous denomination with which it is connected ; and,

126

KILMARNOCK.

being surmounted by a lofty spire, is a conspicuous
and arresting object in the scenic groupings of the
town. The Independent chapel possesses neatness
in the exterior, and some novelty and pleasing ar
rangement in the interior. Other edifices in the
town, whether civil or ecclesiastical, suggest ideas
rather of direct adaptation to their respective uses,
than of accidental or ornate properties.
Kilmarnock is the well-known seat of very impor
tant manufactures,. — chiefly in the departments of
carpets, shawls, boots and shoes, bonnets and leather.
Its advantages, as to position and facilities, are abun
dance of coal, the circumjacency of a rich agricultural
district to supply it amply and cheaply with provi
sions, healthiness of climate, populoiisness of neigh
bourhood, and the current through it, or at its side,
of two considerable streams ; and these are so rich
as very fully to compensate its only disadvantage,
the necessity of land-carriage over a distance of 6 or
7 miles to a port, and were speedily seen in much,
if not all, of their value by the clear eye of the im
provement-spirit which, during last century, pere
grinated athwart Scotland. Though the incorpora
tions of the town are of long standing — the bonnet-
makers having been incorporated in 1647, and the
skinners in 1656, and the other bodies possessing
documents which, while of later date, are ratifica
tions of former grants — yet during many years and
several generations, the manufactures were very
limited as to both variety and amount. ' Kilmar
nock bonnets,' and ' Kilmarnock cowls,' or those
broad flat bonnets which are extensively worn by
the peasantry of the Lowlands, and those red and
blue striped nightcaps which still figure grotesquely
on venerable or hoary heads, and have often provoked
the flash of wit and the scathing of satire, were, for
a long period, the only productions by which the
town's manufacturing character was known or main
tained an existence. About 100 years ago, three or
four individuals conducted the principal trade, buy
ing serges and other Woollen articles from private
manufacturers, and exporting them to Holland. The
demand for woollen goods afterwards increasing, a
company was formed, and laid the foundation of the
modern and hitherto uniformly flourishing produc
tiveness of the place, by the erection of a woollen
factory. About the same time was introduced the
trade for which Kilmarnock, Ayr, and Irvine, con
tinue to be noted,— the making of shoes and boots.
Some fifteen years before the close of the century,
spinning-jennies for cotton, and a carding and spin
ning machine for coarse wool, were erected. In
1791, when the QJd Statistical Account of the par
ish was written, there were annually manufactured,
as to value, £21,400 carpets, £21,216 shoes and
boots, £15,500 leather, £6,500 printed calicoes,
£3,700 snuff and tobacco, £3,500 leather-gloves,
£2,251 cotton-cloth, £2,000 cabinet-work, £1,200
milled caps and mitts, and £7,800 bonnets, cover
lets, blankets, plaidings, serges, mancoes, saddlers'
cloth, saddlery, knit stockings, iron, and dyers'-
work. Since that date the town has boldly and
rapidly advanced in all the ancient departments of
its. manufacture, and has made very important addi
tions- in the articles of printed shawls, gauzes, and
, muslins of the finest texture, and some small addi
tion likewise in the department of silk fabrics.
Almost a characteristic property of the town is bold
ness and blitheness of enterprise, issuing uniformly
in success, or, at worst, in encouragement. In 1824,
,at a time when muslin-weaving was the work of an
ill-fed drudge, the manufacture of worsted printed
shawls was introduced to the Gr'eenholm printficld
of this town, and to Scotland, by an inventive and
spirited calico-printer, Mr. William Hall, and, not

only at the moment greatly relieved the muslin-
weavers, by providing them with remunerating em
ployment, but almost instantaneously grew to be
one of the most important manufactures of Kilmar
nock. So early as from 31st May, 1830, to 1st
June, 1831, only four years after its introduction, it
employed about 1,200 weavers and 2P0 printers, and
produced no fewer than 1,128,814 shawls, aggre
gately worth about £200,000. In 1837, the an
nual aggregate value was estimated at £230,000 —
The carpet-manufactory may, amidst conflicting
claims, be regarded as now the staple of Kilmarnock.
Even 20 or 25 years ago, it rivalled that of Kidder
minster in England, and had no competitor in Scot
land ; and about that time, or a little later, it was
greatly improved by the mechanical inventions of
Mr. Thomas Morton, a citizen who gives name to a
locality in the vicinity of the Gas-works, who taught
his townsmen at once to save time and labour, and
to achieve accuracy and an extensive variety in their
patterns, and who, so early as 1826, received public
demonstrations from the manufacturers of the town
of the debt of obligation which they felt his genius
had imposed. During the year 1830-1, upwards of
1,000 weavers were employed in producing Brussels,
Venetian, and Scottish carpets and rugs, the quality
and patterns of which were not surpassed by any in
the country. Three chief classes of carpets are ma
nufactured, all of which are woven with harness, —
Brussels carpets, of the kinds called "points" and
" combers," — Wilton carpets, woven exactly like
the former except that "the brass wires* are groved,
and that the rib is cut open with a sharp knife after
it has been fastened, — and Scotch carpets of three
qualities, 9 porters, 10£, and 13J. With the Wilton
carpets Buckingham palace was furnished. Another
very beautiful fabric called Persians, is woven in
the town for fire-screens, the weft being tied into
perpendicular warps by the hand, after the manner
of making rugs. The designs are beautifully exe
cuted from patterns procured from Berlin, prepared
there for ladies' work, and found to be well-adapted
to this fabric, and better executed than any which
can be obtained at home. The wages of the carpet
and rug weavers run from 12s. to 14s. per week
nett, and occasionally higher. The yearly value of
the carpet manufacture was estimated, in 1837, at
£150,000. The total number of hand-looms in the
town, in the various departments of woollen, cotton,
and silk, was, in 1828, 1,150, and, in 1838, 1,892;
and in the latter year, 1,800 of the number were
harness-looms. , The carpet-factories are six in num
ber, and recently have all been either rebuilt or very
much enlarged. Six mills, five of them on Kilmar
nock water, and the 6th and the largest on the Ir
vine, are employed principally in spinning woollen
or worsted yarn for the carpet factories and bonnet-
makers. The annual manufacture of bonnets now
exceeds 18,000 dozens in number, and amounts to
about £12,000 in value. The manufacture of boots
and shoes was estimated, as to the annual worth of
the produce, in 1831, about £32,000, and, in 1837,
about £50,000. The manufacture of leather, in the
latter of these years, was set down in value at
£45,000. Mr. Thomas Morton, the same ingenious
mechanist to whom the carpet manufacturers acknow
ledge so much obligation, introduced the rather novol
manufacture of telescopes, constructed at his private
expense a valuable observatory with suitable appa
ratus, and mounted there some telescope? of such
* The ribbed appearance on a Brussels carpet ia produced by
the insertion of long brass wires between the shots of the wool
len web, so us to raise the warps, the wires being drawn out
afterwards in succession. The selling price to the wholesale
merchant of Scotch carpets, in 183D, was 2s. lOd. per yard ; oi
Brussels carpets, 4s. 3d.

KIL

127

KIL

power and superior construction that he was invited
to furnish copies or duplicates of them to other ob
servatories. Of miscellaneous manufactures, includ
ing linens, cottons, silks, hose, telescopes, machin
ery, saddlery, hats, tobacco and candles, the valuj
of annual produce may range between £70,000 and
£100,000. The gas-works of Kilmarnock were erect
ed in 1823, by a joint-stock company holding £10
shares, and managed by a committee of twelve. The
town has branch-offices of the Bank of Scotland, the
Ayr Bank, the Commercial Bank of Scotland, and
the Ayrshire Banking company. The weekly mar
kets are held on Tuesday and Friday; and the annual
fairs on Shrove Tuesday, the 2d Tuesday of May,
the 3d Wednesday of July, and the 3d Wednesday
of October, O. S. The institutions, additional to
those already incidentally noticed, are a Reservoir
company, a Building company, a dispensary, an Agri
cultural society, a Merchants' society, a Society of
procurators, a Male and a Female Benevolent society,
a Female society for religious purposes, a Parochial
association in aid of the missions of the General
Assembly and other bodies, a public library, a paro
chial library, some circulating libraries, and a Philo
sophical institution. The town has a weekly news
paper, the ' Kilmarnock Journal,' and is noted for
having been the birth-place of the first edition of
Burns' poems. ,
Kilmarnock was made a burgh-of-barony in 1591,
by a charter of novo damns in favour of Thomas,
Lord Boyd, holding of the Prince and Steward of
Scotland. According to this and subsequent char
ters, ratified by a charter from the Crown in 1702,
power was given to the inhabitants to act as in
other free burghs-of-barony, and to the magistrates
to. present annually a leet of five persons to the su
perior, from which he should choose two bailies for
the succeeding year. In 1700, the magistrates pur
chased from the superior the whole customs and
common good of the burgh. After the passing of
the act 3 and 4 William IV., cap. 77, on the 9th
August, 1831, an invitation was given by the magis
trates and town-council to the burgesses to elect
annually eight persons, each rated at £12 rent and
upwards in the police books for their dwelling-
houses, from among whom the council should choose
by ballot four new councillors, and no opposition
being made by the superior, the invitation was acted
on, and passed into a law. The governingbody are
a. provost, four bailies, a treasurer, and eleven coun
cillors. Constituency, both municipal and parlia
mentary, in 1839-40, 630. The property of the
burgh was valued to the Commissioners on Munici
pal corporations at £3,675 5s. 9d. ; and the debts
due to it stated at £989 16s. ll^d. The revenue
during the year preceding their inquiry was £380
lis. 6id.; and the expenditure £256 14s. 9d. In
.1839-40 it amounted to £644 ]8s. lOd. The ma
gistrates exercise the jurisdiction reserved by the
jurisdiction act to burghs-of-barony then indepen
dent of the superior ; they entertain civil causes to
any pecuniary amount in the bailie-court, and are
assisted by the town-clerk as assessor; they exer
cise, in the (jailie-court, the functions of the dean-
of-guild's jurisdiction ; they exercise a criminal juris
diction in cases of assault, but remit other cases to
the sheriff; they hold in turn what is called the
convenue court, which exercises a summary jurisdic
tion, upon a verbal citation in cases not exceeding
6s. 8d. sterling, and proceeds by poinding and arrest
ment; and they appoint the tovvn-officers, and five
of the fifteen directors of the academy, with whom
lies the appointment of the masters. The fee pay
able by a stranger entering burgess is £4 4s. The
incorporated trades, with their respective numbers

in 1833, and the entry-fee they severally exact from
a stranger, are the skinners, 25, £3 6s. 8d., — the
tailors, 33, £6 6s.,_ the weavers, 49, £1 lis. 6d.,
— the bonnet-makers, 23, £7, — and the shoemakers,
74, £6 13s. 4d. None of them has more than £300
of funds, and two of them have less than £100.
The police of the town is regulated by an act of
parliament passed in 1810, and is excelled by that of
no town in Scotland for its vigour and utility. Kil
marnock unites with Dumbarton, Port-Glasgow,
Renfrew, and Rutherglen, in sending a member to
parliament. Population, in 1831, 16,072; in 1841.
17,844. The noble family of Boyd, the Earls of Kilmar
nock, were descendants of Simon, brother of Walter,
first Lord High Steward of Scotland. In 1661 Wil
liam, 9th Lord Boyd, was created Earl of Kilmar
nock. In 1745 William, the 4th Earl, took part in
the rebellion under Prince Charles Edward, and on
the 18th August, 1746, was beheaded, along with
Lord Balmerino, on Tower-hill. The eldest of his
three sons became, in right of his mother, Lady Ann
Livingstone, Earl of Errol; and in 1831, his grand
son, William, Earl of Errol, was created Earl of
Kilmarnock in the peerage of Great Britain.
KILMARONOCK, a parish at the foot or south
end of Loch Lomond, Dumbartonshire. It is bounded
on the north-east and east by Stirlingshire; on the
south by Dumbarton ; on the south-west by Bon-
hill; and on the north-west by Loch-Lomond. In
shape, it is a slender oval of 7 A miles from east to
west, by 3 miles from north to south ; with a paral
lelogram projecting from the south side 1\ miles
from north to south, and H mile from east to west,
and a stripe not J of a mile of average breadth run
ning up 1^ mile north-westward from the middle of
its north side. Loch-Lomond forms the boundary
over a distance of about 7 miles: all its curved south
end except for | of a mile, and also upwards of a
mile of its east side, being conterminous with the
parish. The river Endrick runs along the north
east boundary 5 miles in a direct line, and nearly
double that distance along the sinuosities of its chan
nel : it has a sluggish motion, — is navigable for flat»
bottomed craft, — contains pike, braize, perch, and
eel, — threads its inazy way along a large tract of
level and very opulent land, — and occasionally comes
down in such floods as convert some hundreds ol
acres into a lake isleted with clumps of trees. Gai-
langadd burn comes in on the extreme south, \\ mile
from its source in the parish of Dumbarton, flows 2
miles northward into the interior, and then runs 3J
miles eastward to the Endrick, forming, for 2| miles
of that distance, the boundary-line with Stirlingshire.
T wo rills rise in the parish and run north-eastward,
the one to Loch- Lomond, and the other to the En
drick. The plain on the Endrick is upwards of
3,000 acres in extent ; and is carpeted with a deep
rich loam, very favourable for either meadow-ground
or tillage. The southern projection of the parish
is moorish upland, sending up summits about 1,000
feet above sea-level; but it contains some excellent
limestone, has patches of arable ground, and affords
considerable pasturage. Where it is ploughed by
Gallangadd bum, it sinks into a fine glen, and is
beautified by a rather large and fine waterfall on the
stream. North of this hilly district, at 1J mile's
distance, rises slowly, on the south-east, from the
bosom of an opulent plain, the green and sylvan clad
hill of Duncruin, to the height of about 450 feet;
and pinnacling aloft into nearly a pointed summit, it
breaks abruptly down on the west and north sides
into the plain. This hill occupies a central position
in the parish, forms a conspicuous and romantic fea
ture in its landscape, and commands from its summit

KIL

128

KIL

fine groupings of the magnificent scenery of the
county  On the extreme west, running from Bal-
loch in the neighbouring parish of Bonhill, along the
shore of Lochlomond to Ross, is a hilly ridge, called
Mount-Misery, 2£ miles long, and about If broad.
At the north end, and on its declivity toward the
lake, it is richly planted. Sending up summits 800 or
900 feet above sea-level, and standing in the centre
of scenes which description and song and limning have
laboured unsuccessfully to depict, it commands —
notwithstanding its most lugubrious and forbidding
appellation — prospects of surpassing loveliness and
power of attraction. Away from its base, on the
north, flaunting far onward in a contracting stripe of
waters, stretches Loch-Lomond, gemmed with its
wooded islands, and screened with a bold and romantic
and apparently continuous range of mountains, Ben-
lomond lifting his towering summit in the north, and
the lofty Benledi breaking the sky-line in the distant
north-east. On the east, and toward the south, is
spread the richly tinted carpeting of the parish's own
luxuriant plains, foiled in the centre by the remark
able but interesting form of Duncruin ; and farther
off is seen the most part of Strathendrick, with a
varied and rich back-ground of hilly outline, from the
far-away Ochils on the one hand, to the neighbouring
Kilpatrick hills on the other. On the south, the vale
of Leven, with its thickly sprinkled objects of in
terest, lies expanded with the distinctness of a vast
map ; at its further end are seen the town and the
castle of Dumbarton ; and, in not very distant per
spective, some of the.delightful beauties of the Clyde,
and of the soft hills and wooded slopes of Renfrew
shire. On the west, the eye is carried in easy and
pleasing transition from the lusciousness of opulent
Lowland scenery, to the savage wildnessof the heath-
clad scenery of the Highlands ; resting for a moment
on the sylvan slopes which there gird Loch-Lomond,
and passing over the hills of Cardross and Row, away
to the bold mountainous distant elevations of Cowal.
A very large proportion of the parish is arable, and
well-enclosed. Nearly 670 acres are under wood.
The moorland districts maintain about 500 sheep, of
the black-faced breed, and some Highland black
cattle  Between Mount-Misery and Loch-Lomond,
on a rising ground about half-a-mile from the lake,
stands Batturrich-castle, built about seven years
ago, on part of the ruin of an ancient castle of the
same name, which seemed to have been once a mag
nificent edifice. Two miles north of it is Ross-
house, immediately on the banks of the lake. On a
rising ground in the vale of the Endrick, 2| miles
east of the nearest part of the lake, is Catter-house,
a fine old mansion, commanding a full view of the
lawn and wooded pleasure-grounds around Buchanan,
house, the seat of the Duke of Montrose, on the
Stirlingshire side of the river. The other mansions
are Ardoch, a little south of Ross, and Caldarvin, a,
little west of Duncruin hill. At Catter is a large
artificial earthen-mound, anciently the seat of courts-
of-justice. Near it the Duke of Lennox had a place
of residence, no vestige of which now remains. Kil-
maronock-castle, a ruin on the property of Robert
Maugoune, Esq. of Mains, seems the remnant of a
massive and important pile  The Dumbarton and
Drymen road traverses the whole length of the par
ish, nearly through its centre ; and the Glasgow and
Drymen turnpike intersects its east wing. An an
nual fair for horses is held at Craftammie, on the
second Tuesday of February ; and another, princi
pally for milk-cows, is held at the farm' of Ardoch,
on the last Thursday of April. Population, in 1801,
897; in 1831, 999. Houses, 151. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £4,288  Kilmaronock is in the pres
bytery of Dumbarton, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr.

Patron, the Duke of Montrose. Stipend £137 9s.
8d. ; glebe £11. Unappropriated teinds £45 15s. 2d.
The majority of the population are dissenters, and
chiefly attend a meeting-house in the parish belong
ing to the Relief. Parochial schoolmaster's salary
£31, with £26 fees, and £5 10s. other emoluments.
There are two non-parochial schools. The saint
from whom the parish has its name is the same as he
who gives name to the parish and town of Kilmar
nock. A powerful spring in the vicinity of the
church still bears the name of St. Marnoch's well.
The church was given, in 1325, by Robert I. to the
monks of Cambuskenneth ; and continued to be theii
property, and to be served by a vicar, till the Refor
mation. The parish had anciently two chapels, ves
tiges of which still exist.
. KILMARTIN, a parish in Argyleshire, of an ob
long figure, 12 miles in length, and about 3 in breadth ;
containing 18,000 acres ; lying on the west coast of
Argyleshire; bounded on the east for 6 miles by
Loch-Awe [which see], which separates it from
the parish of Glassry ; and on the west by that arm
of the sea called Loch-Craignish. The extent of
sea-coast is about 8 miles. In the south-west corner
of this district the surface is rather hilly than moun
tainous, with arable and pasture grounds intermixed.
In the north-east the surface is more rugged, but in
the valleys there are extensive fields of arable land.
The valued rent is £3,643 Scots. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £8,304. The valley in which the
church and village of Kilmartin are situated is one of
the most beautiful in the Highlands. Through this
vale runs the line of road from Kintyre to Fort-
William. Loch-Crinan is the principal harbour, not
only in this parish, but also on the western coast of
Argyleshire. It was this circumstance which in
duced it to be preferred for the canal across the
isthmus, though longer by 3 or 4 miles than the
isthmus of Tarbert: see article Crinan Canal.
Limestone is abundant. Population, in 1801, 1,501 ;
in 1831, 1,475. Houses, in 1831, 275  This parish
is in the presbytery of Inverary, and synod of Argyle.
Patron, the Duke of Argyle. Stipend £189 3s. 2d. ;
glebe £15  Schoolmaster's salary £30. There were
4 private schools in the parish in 1834.
KILMAURS, a parish in the district of Cunning.
ham, Ayrshire, stretching north-eastward from Irvine
water, which divides it from Dundonald in Kyle, in
a belt or stripe between the parish of Kilmarnock on
the east, and that of Dreghorn on the west. Its
greatest length is 6 miles; its greatest breadth 2J
miles ; and its area about 5,000 acres. The stream
let Garrier is its boundary on the west. Carmel
water — here very generally called Kilmaurs water 
cuts it lengthways into two nearly equal parts ; but
makes a debouch to the west, and runs upwards of
a mile in that direction, receiving the Garrier in its
way, before falling into the Irvine. This stream i3
of much value for its water-power in driving ma
chinery ; yet during a drought or a frost, it becomes
almost dry. The Irvine runs on the boundary for
nearly 2 miles, contains some salmon, trout, and eel,
and offers valuable advantages in its water-power.
The surface of the parish is a plain, undulated at
various intervals, and in various forms, with knolls
and rising grounds. Its little heights are generally
tufted with plantation, and give it a pleasant and
beautified appearance ; and, in many instances, they
command delightful prospects of the garden-like ex
panse of Kyle and Cunningham, — the gorgeous sea-
view of the Clyde, — and' the fine, and, at intervals,1
magnificent perspective of far-away hills and moun
tains on the horizon. About twenty or thirty years
before the date of the Old Statistical Account, the
parish was naked and unenclosed, utterly destitute of

KILMAURS.

129

roads, and dotted over with mean, paltry, incon
venient, filthified houses. But so early as the pub
lication of that Account, or several years before the
close of last century, all was completely subdivided
by ditches and thorn-hedges ; and new, regular, and
convenient houses, pleasantly situated, and looking
snugly out upon a smiling landscape, everywhere
gladdened the eye, and suggested ideas of activity,
neatness, and wealth. Prime attention — as in most
other parts of Cunningham — is here given to the dairy.
Coal abounds, and is extensively worked. Craig-
house is delightfully situated on the Irvine. Carmel-
bank stands a mile north-east of the former, on the
left bank of the Carmel. Near it is one of those
tumuli called Motes, which are believed to have been
seats of courts-of-justice. Busby-castle, unroofed
and ruinous, stands j of a mile north-eastward, on
the right bank of the Carmel. The parish is tra
versed by the Kilmarnock and Irvine turnpike, by
turnpikes which diverge from the town of Kilmaurs,
and by some other roads. Population, in 1801,
1,288; in 1831, 2,130. Houses 319. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £11,617  Kilmaurs is in the pres
bytery of Irvine, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr.
Patroness, Lady M. Montgomery. Stipend £261 Is.
3d. ; glebe £10. Unappropriated teinds £699 6s.
lOd. The parish-church is said to have been built
in 1404, and was repaired and reseated in 1804.
Sittings 550. At Gatehead colliery, where there is
a population of 167, a home missionary, a licentiate
of the Church of Scotland, attends to the religious
interests of the parishioners, and preaches in a school
room on the border with Dundonald parish. A
United Secession congregation in the town was
established in 1738. Their present place of worship
was built in 1789. Sittings 450. The minister has
a manse and garden  The parochial school is at
tended by a maximum of 85 scholars; and three non-
parochial schools by a maximum of 140. Parochial
schoolmaster's salary £25 13s., with £33 fees, and
£13 other emoluments. The master of one of the
other schools — which is situated at Crosshouse — has,
besides his fees, £6 from the heritors, and a house
and school-house by subscription — The saint from
whom the parish has its name is variously stated to
have been the Virgin Mary, or Marie, and a Scottish
saint called Maure, who is said to have died in the
year 899. The name of the original kirk-hamlet was
Cunningham; and this, too, became, from it, the
name of the family who held the manor. By the
forfeitures of the heir of the Morvilles, the Cunning
hams became tenants in capite under Robert I.
About the year 1450, they acquired the dignity of
Lords Kilmaurs ; and in 1488 they rose to be Earls
of Glencairn. Their cemetery occupies a place near
the church, was erected in 1600 by Earl James, and
contains a beautiful but defaced piece of monumental
ancient sculpture, to the memory of the 9th Earl,
the Lord-high-chancellor of Scotland. The name
Kilmaurs superseded the ancient one in the 13th
century. The church was given, during the reign
of William, by Robert, the son of Wernebald, the
progenitor of the Glencairn family, to the monks of
Kelso ; and was held by them till the Reformation,
and served by a vicar. In 1633, when Charles I.
erected the bishopric of Edinburgh, he granted to the
dean of St. Giles the church of Kilmaurs, with all
its tithes and revenues. In 1403 Sir William Cun
ningham founded at Kilmaurs, and endowed with
lands, revenues, and a mill in the vicinity, a collegiate
church for a provost, six prebendaries, and two sing
ing boys. After the Reformation the Earl of Glen
cairn took possession of the property. A chapel, with
an appropriate endowment for its chaplain, anciently
stood at Busby,
II.

Kilmaurs, the capital of the above parish, a
burgh-of-barony, and a considerable village, itands
on the right bank of Carmel water, 2 miles from Kil
marnock, and 6 from Irvine. It is pleasantly situ
ated on a gentle ascent, looking towards the south ;
and consists chiefly of one street, decorated at its
middle with a small town-house and a steeple, and
flanked by some by-lanes and back-houses. Its in
habitants are principally shoemakers, colliers, and
subordinates to the manufacturers of Glasgow and
Paisley. At one time about thirty cutlers, and a
good many tinkers, gave the town its character and
tone. The work of the cutlers was excellent. The
breakfast-knives of their manufacture were alleged
to be superior to the produce of even Sheffield or
Birmingham ; and were of the best metal, neatly
shaped, finely polished, and set in a haft of tortoise-
shell, or stained horn, girt with silver virlets.* On
the left bank of the river stands an old mansion
called the Place. This was the property of the Earls
of Glencairn ; but is only a fraction of the edifice
which was intended to be erected. The 9th Earl,
the chancellor, laid the foundation of a very exten
sive building ; but, owing to pecuniary embarrass
ments — which he incurred in the service of Govern
ment, and from which he vainly hoped to obtain
relief — he never was able to execute his plan. The
Place was occupied in the latter part of last century
by Lady Eglinton. A little north of it, on the farm
called jock's Thorn, are some vestiges of the ori
ginal or more ancient residence of the Glencairn
family. Kilmaurs had formerly a weekly market,
which was swamped by the neighbouring one of Kil
marnock; and it still has annual fairs in June,
August, and November. It was erected on the 2d
June, 1527, into a burgh-of-barony, by James V., at
the instance of Cuthbert, Earl of Glencairn, and
William, his son, Lord Kilmaurs. The charter con
tained powers to create burgesses, and elect bailies,
and other officers. In November of the same year,
the Earl of Glencairn granted a charter of the lands
erected, consisting of 240 acres, to forty persons in
equal portions, " for buildings and policy to be kept
up and maintained by them and their heirs," and to
be held " in feu farm and heritage and free burgage
in barony for ever." This charter — so unusual in its
main provisions — contains several curious particu
lars, especially a clause that " no woman succeeding
to an inheritance in the said burgh, shall marry with
out our special license." The effect of granting to each
of the original settlers so large a patch of rich land as
6 acres, though intended to make the place the seat
of manufacture, was to convert the next generation
into a race of petty landholders, averse to sedentary
employments, and contented with producing kail-
plants for markets throughout Ayrshire, Clydesdale,
Nithsdale, and Galloway. In 1793, the practice re
quired by the original charter that the burgesses should
be resident, and should, in no instance, possess more
than one tenement, began to fall into abeyance.
The burgh, therefore, no longer exhibits the curious
aspect impressed by the peculiar character of its ten
ures, and has suffered a great reduction in the num
ber of its burgesses. From the sale, division, and
particularly the union of tenements, the number of
" The keen edge," says the Old Statistical reporter, " which
they," the cutlers, " put on instruments requiring it, gave rise
to a mode of speech which is yet in use through the country.
A man of acute understanding, and quickness iu action, is said
to be aB sharp as a Kilmaurs whittle. An old Presbyterian
clergyman, in addressing himself to his audience, upon rising
to speak after a young divine, who had delivered a discourse in
flowery language and English pronunciation, said, * My friends.
We have had great deal of tine English ware amung us the day,
but aiblins my Kilmaurs whittle will cut as sharply as ony
English blade ;' meaning that the language of his own country
would be better understood, and do more good.'1

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persons entitled, in 1832, to be burgesses was only 18
or 19 ; and even that number was, by instances of
non-residence, minority, and succession of females,
reduced to 12. The burgesses are all councillors,
and have the exclusive power of electing two bai
lies, a treasurer, a fiscal, and a clerk. The property
of the burgh is very trifling. The revenue amounts
to about £11 or £12, and is expended in keeping up
the market-place, and the town-house with its spire
and clock. Population, in 1831, about 1,200.
KILMAVEONAIG, a suppressed parish compre
hended in Blair- Athole, Perthshire. The old parish-
church was re-edified by a community of Episco
palians in 1791, and continues to be used by them as
a chapel. Here also is a small Baptist chapel built
in 1836: See Blair- Athole. Kilmaveonaig means
the church or chapel of St. Eonaig.
KILMELFORT, or Kil-na-maol-phort, — i. e.
' The Church of the round Bays,' — an ancient parish
in the district of Lorn, and shire of Argyle, now
united to the parish of Kilninver. It is 12 miles
south of Oban, at the head of Loch-Melfort. An
excellent line of road has been made from hence to the
inn of Kintraw, a distance of 8J miles, under the
auspices of the Parliamentary commissioners ; which
completes the line pf road from Lochgilphead, by the
west end of the Crinan canal, to Oban ; and thence
branching-off to the northward by the ferries of Con-
nel, Shean, arid Ballachulish, to Fort- William. The
population of this district, in 1811, was 372: See
Kilninver. KILMENY, a parish in Argyleshire, in tbe island
of Islay, formerly united to K illarro w, but erected in
1826 into a government-parish. Its greatest length
is from 11 to 12 miles; greatest breadth 8 to 9.
Population, in 1833, 2,100. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £120 ; glebe £3 10s  The Gaelic school
society support a school in this district, which has
an average attendance of about 80 pupils.
KILMICHAEL-GLASSRY. See Glassary.
KILMICHAEL. See Arran and Kilbride.
KILMODAN. See Kilmadan.
KILMORACK, a parish in Inverness-shire, ex
tending about 65 miles in length from east to west,
and from 10 to 15 miles in breadth, and exhibiting
every variety of surface, scenery, and soil. It is
bounded on the north and east by Urray and Killear-
nan parishes ; on the south by the river Beauly and
the parishes of Kirkhill and Kiltarlity ; and on the
west by Kintail. The population is chiefly scattered
along the northern bank of the Beauly, in a district
about 30 miles in length, by 1J in breadth. The
village of Beauly [which see], has a population of
about 500. The total population of the parish was,
in 1801, 2,366 ; in 1831, 2,709. Houses 581. As
sessed property, in 1815, £7,581  The lower falls
of Kilmoraek are formed by the Beauly, about 2 miles
west of the village of Beauly. Here the river,
emerging from a narrow channel into which it has
been confined by lofty rocky banks, suddenly expands
into a fine semicircular basin, over the lower edge of
which it is precipitated in a series of small cataracts.
It is said that one of the wonders which the Frasers
of Lovat — who were lords of the manor — used to
show their guests, was a voluntarily cooked salmon
at the falls of Kilmoraek. For this purpose, a kettle
was placed on the flat rock on the south side of the
fall, close by the edge of the water, and kept full
and boiling. There is a considerable extent of the
rock where tents were erected, and the whole was
under a canopy of overshadowing trees ; and here the
company are said to have waited until a salmon fell
into the kettle, and was boiled in their presence.
Below these falls the stream flows on through a rich
slain. Above them, and for a space of about 3 miles

to the next group of waterfalls, the scenery is exqui
sitely beautiful. This spot is called the Drhuim,
and is thus described by the Messrs. Anderson : —
" This is the most completely Highland and beauti
ful part of the course of the Beauly : on either hand
the mountain-acclivities are rather steep and rocky,
and the valley between them is not a quarter of a
mile broad; but' woods of birch and fir encompass
the whole scene, especially on the north side ; and
the edges of the river are fringed all along with rows
of oak, weeping birches, and alders. In one part,
half up the strath, near the cottage of Teanassie, the
waters plunge through a rocky passage encircling
high pyramids of stone, standing up in the midst of
the stream, gigantic witnesses of its ceaseless and
consuming power. Immediately below, the turmoil
ceases, and the quieted element reposes in smooth
dark linns ; while the rocks at the same time recede,
and give place to soft daisied banks and sweet patches
of corn land. On the southern shore, on a high
conical mound rising above a perpendicular sheet of
rock, is Dunfion, a vitrified structure, which has re
cently been laid open for the inspection of the curious
by order of Mr. Fraser of Lovat. The same gentle
man has also formed a drive along the whole of his
side of the river, which thus comprehends, as a part
of his policies, this interesting piece of scenery. At
the further end of the Drhuim, the road begins to
ascend towards the interior of the country ; and here
the river is seen pouring down on each side of a high
rounded, hill, covered with oak and birch, at the
lower extremity of which it forms the second set of
small but beautiful cataracts. This wooded hill is
the island of Aigas — for the river parts into two, and
encircles it." The small picturesque island of Aigash
is bounded on the north by lofty crags which over
hang one branch of the river, which flows through
the deep gorge on that side ; and on the east by
similar eminences but of less height, where a bridge
which communicates with the mainland is placed.
On the south and west, the sides slope to the river,
which, from a rock above the bridge, called Craig-
Dhonnaich, forms a deep still sheet of water, with
scarcely any current as far as Erchless-castle, the
seat of the Chisholm, about 5 miles distant. This
calm flow of the stream forms a fine contrast with
the succession of broken falls and rapids which con
tinue, without intermission, from the island to Kil
moraek. The island is wooded with birch and oak,
and, at one period, was covered with very fine oaks,
some of which measured 20 feet in circumference.
These were all exchanged with the laird of Struy
for some houses in Inverness, and cut down about
40 years since. On a small point of land at the
western extremity of the island is a green knoll, sur
rounded by the ruins of a wall, which marks the spot
where the Lairds of Lovat had a sheiling from a very
early period ; and here Alexander, the 6th lord (who
was of a retired and studious character, and infirm
constitution), spent his last days, and died in 1557.
When the well-known Simon, Lord Fraser, after
marrying the Dowager-lady Lovat, was apprenensive
of an attack from her brother, the Earl of Tullibar-
dine, he retired with the lady into this retreat. In
the pursuit which was raised at the instance of the
Athole family, a herald was sent from Edinburgh to
summon Lord Simon to appear in court ; but such
was the dread of the officer for the still remaining
feudal power of a Highland chief, that he dared not
enter the island to deliver the charge, but left it
exposed in a cleft stick, on the north bank of the
river, in sight of the house 1 Some fine walks have
been cut amongst the young oak and ash trees, and
the beautiful birches which form the finest and most
graceful accompaniment to our Highland scenery;

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and these winding pathways conduct the visiter to
the most picturesque points, where the river is seen
dashing away between piles of grey rock and masses
of foliage, which in summer present every combina
tion of form and colour. The spot is altogether a
fairy island, — a nest of romance ; and its present in
habitants, with their flowing Highland costume, may
not unaptly be denominated Island-kings ; for they
are in some degree " monarchs of all they survey,"
and trace their descent from a long line of princes,
being the sole surviving descendants of Prince Charles
Edward Stuart — The western division of the parish
is very wild and alpine in character, and branches
into three distinct glens, namely, Strathglass, Glen-
strathfarrar, and Glencannich. from which respec
tively the Glass, Farrar, and Cannich descend, to
compose by the waters of their streams, in front of
Erchless-castle, above 5 miles above the upper falls,
the river Beauly  The ruins of Beauly priory,
founded in 1230, by John Bisset of Lovat, are inter
esting, though destitute of architectural beauty.
The Frasers, Chisholms, and Mackenzies, have bu
rial-places here  On the Muir of Ord. a little to the
east of Beauly, is held the most important cattle
fair in the north of Scotland : See Muir of Ord. 
This parish is in the presbytery of Dingwall, and
synod of Ross. Patron, Lord Lovat. Stipend £244
3s. 4d. ; glebe £8. Parish-church built in 1786;
sittings 506. It is 2£ miles west of Beauly, and the
same distance east of Aigash. There is a mission in
Strathglass ; where there is also a Roman Catholic
congregation  Schoolmaster's sa'ary £25 13s. 3d. ;
fees £24.
KILMORE,* a parish in Argyleshire, to which
that of Kilbride is united. The united parish is
situated in the district of Lorn, and comprehends the
island of Kerera. The form of the continental part
is nearly circular, about 6J miles in diameter. The
hills are low, and covered with heath ; the valleys
are almost all arable, but, bke most parts of Argyle
shire, little of them is cultivated. There is a lake
in the parish called Loch-Nell, about 2 miles in
length, and half-a-mile in breadth, from which a small
rivulet discharges itself into Loch-Feachan, an arm
of the sea. The coast is of a semicircular figure,
and, including creeks and bays, is nearly 20 miles in
extent. In general, it is high and rocky, possessing,
however, two excellent harbours, — one at the village
of Oban, and another at Dunstaffnage, besides two
in the island of Kerera. There are three ferries,
viz., Connel-ferry, over Loch-Etive ; Port-Kerera,
between the mainland and that island; and Mull-
ferry, between the latter and the island of Mull 
Population, in 1801, 1,854; in 1831, 2,109. Houses
138. Assessed property £6,741  This parish is in
the presbytery of Lorn, and synod of Argyle. Pa
tron, the Duke of Argyle. Stipend £249 8s. 6d. ;
glebe £40  There are two parochial schools; the
master of one of which has a salary of £25 ; of the
other £21. There are six private schools  See
articles Dunstaffnage, Kerera, and Oban.
KILMORE. See Kilninian.
KILMORICH, a parish in Argyleshire, now united
to that of Lochgoilhead. It is situated at the north
ern extremity of Loch-Fyne : See Lochgoilhead.
KILMOR Y, a parish in the county of Bute, and
isle of Arran, extending 24 miles in length, in a semi-
* "The oldest etymology of Kilmnre is Kil-moire : Oy, or
Oigh, signifying, in ancient Gaelic, ' the Church of the blessed
Virgin. It was also called Kilmbeanach, or ' the Middle burial-
place,' from being in the centre of the country. Lately it has
been called Kilmor, that is, ' the Great burying-place,'— mor
signifying ' great' or ' large,'— because the burial-ground around
this church was formerly of greater extent thau any other in
this part of the country. Kilbride is also derived from the
same root, K il, and signifies ' a burial-place,' or ' a.place of
worship, dedicated to St. Bridget.' "—Old Statistical Account.

circular form, from Largybeg-point to Loch-Ranza
and comprehending the south-west and north-west
sides of the island. It is separated from Kintyre on
the mainland by Kilbrandon sound. The sea-coast
is rugged and bold, and the surface is heath-clad and
mountainous. Beinbharfhion, or Benvarian, the
highest hill, has its top covered with snow the greater
part of the year. The soil produces only light crops
of oats, barley, &c. , and small quantities of flax. The
most fertile tract is the vale of Shisken. Consider
able numbers of black cattle, however, are annually
exported to Ayrshire. Loch-Iorsa, or Earsay, nearly
in the centre of the island, is about a mile in length.
Loch-Tanna is nearly 2 miles in length. Both these
lakes are of inconsiderable breadth. There is a small
harbour at the Blaekwater-foot, whence communi
cation is kept up with Campbelton by means of a
packet-boat. In this parish are several natural caves
of great extent, particularly one called the King's
Cove, on the west coast, which is said to have given
shelter to Robert Bruce when in distress, previous
to his ascending the throne. There are numerous
cairns and tumuli in the parish, and several rude up
right stones or obelisks, which are usually attributed
by the natives to Fingal and his brother heroes. The
ruins of the convent of St. Bride, at Loch-Ranza,
have entirely disappeared  Population, in 1801,
2,996; in 1831, 3,771. Houses 700. Assessed pro
perty £4,447  This parish is in the presbytery of
Kintyre, and synod of Argyle. Patron, the Duke
of Hamilton. Stipend £237 0s. Id. ; glebe £13.
Unappropriated teinds £142 Is. 4d. Church built
in 1785 ; enlarged in 1824; sittings 832. A church
was built at Clachan in 1805, at which service is
performed by the parish-minister every third Sunday.
There is another church at Loch-Ranza  There
are 1 2 schools in the parish, 4 of which are parochial.
— See articles Arran and Loch-Ranza.
KILMUIR, a parish of Inverness-shire, forming
the northern extremity of the isle of Skye. It is 16
miles in length, and 8 in breadth ; and is bounded on
the north by Shizart parish. The inhabited part of
the country, along the coast, is flat with gently rising
eminences; but the interior is mountainous, and
covered with heath. The extent of sea-coast is up
wards of 30 miles, possessing many safe harbours.
The shores are in general high and rocky, and,
towards the north point, terminate in a lofty promon
tory called Hunish, near which is a dangerous and
rapid current.— The harbour of Duntulm is the safest
in the island, near which, on a lofty perpendicular
rock, are the ruins of the superb castle of the same
name, the ancient residence of the Macdonald family.
There are several small islands on the coast, some of
which are inhabited by a family to look after the
sheep which pasture on them : their names are
Trodda, Tulm, Fladdachuain, Altivaig, and Fladda.
In the mountains, at an altitude of nearly 1,000 feet,
there is a singular secluded piece of ground, called
Quiraing, surrounded on all sides by high rocks,
and accessible only in three or four places. This
valley appears to have been a place of concealment
for the natives, when obliged to leave their houses
on account of invasion, and is so capacious as
to hold conveniently 4,000 head of black cattle.
There is a pool of beautifully limped water,
called Loch-Shiant, or Sianta, — ' the Sacred lake,'
long famed as a cure for many ailments ; and near
the church is a weak chalybeate. There are five
other small lakes  Population, in 1801, 2,555; in
1831, 3,415 ; in 1837, 4,011. Houses, in 1831, 652.
Assessed property, in 1815, £13  This parish is in
the presbytery of Skye, and synod of Glenelg. Pa
tron, the Crown. Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £8.
Church built in 1810; sittings 700. Previous to- the

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Reformation, it consisted of three parishes, Kilmuir,
Kilmaluag, and Kilmartin, which latter has been
assigned as a district to a government church at
Stenschell  There are 3 schools in the parish. Sa
lary of parish-schoolmaster £30. Another of the
schools is supported by the Society for propagating
Christian knowledge ; salary £15. The third is an
, itinerating Gaelic school in the southern district of
the parish  The celebrated Flora Macdonald is
buried in the churchyard of this parish. The follow
ing account of this heroine is taken from the ' New
Statistical Account': — "The story of the heroic
conduct of Miss Flora Macdonald, in conducting the
unfortunate Charles, in the disguise of a maid-ser
vant, from the Long-Island to Monkstadt in this
parish, is so well-known, that any detail of it here is
unnecessary. Many were the trials, and severe the
hardships, which fell to the lot of the gallant Miss
Flora subsequent to this adventure. She was soon
seized and brought prisoner to London, where she
was, with Kingsburgh and many others, confined in
the Tower. All admired the dauntless part which
she had acted, and her case excited so much interest
that she was visited by the great and noble of the
land. Among the rest, she had the honour of a visit
from Prince Frederick of Wales, great-grandfather
pf her present majesty, Queen Victoria. This gen
erous prince was so much struck with the simpli
city and dignity of the fair prisoner's character, that
he interested himself to procure her liberation.
When she had obtained her freedom, she found refuge
in the house of Lady Primrose of Dunipace, where
she was visited and loaded with honours by distin
guished personages of all ranks and shades of politics.
Returning to her native isle, she was married, in the
month of November, 1750, to Allan, son of Mr.
Alexander Macdonald, of Kingsburgh, who resided
at the time of his marriage at Flodigarry, in this
parish. Upon the death of her husband's father, his
son Allan succeeded him, and Flora, then Mrs. Allan
Macdonald, became lady of the mansion o'f Kings
burgh. She afterwards went to North Carolina with
her husband, where he took part in the civil war
which then disturbed the peace of that country.
After undergoing many hardships in that quarter,
they deemed it prudent to return to Skye. The
vessel in which they sailed from America was met
by a French privateer, and an action took place, in
which Flora appeared on deck, where, with her
wonted magnanimity, she inspired the seamen with
courage, and assured them of success. Although her
arm was broken in the engagement, yet her native
spirit of heroism was not in the least degree damped.
She never more left Skye. She had seven children,
five sons and two daughters, besides some who died
in infancy ; all her sons were officers, who distin
guished themselves in the service of their king and
country. Her daughters, on the other hand, became
officers' wives. Ann was the lady of Major Alex-
under M'Leod, and died at Stein, in this island, about
six years ago. Her second daughter, Francis, was
married to Lieutenant Donald M'Donald, of Cuide-
rach. Of this interesting family none are now alive.
The celebrated Flora lived to an advanced period of
life, and retained to the last that vivacity of charac
ter, and that amiableness of disposition, by which she
was always distinguished. On the 5th day of March,
1790, she departed this life, little more than two
years before the death of her husband. Her remains
were interred in the burying-ground of this parish,
within a square piece of coarse wall, which was
erected about the year 1766 to enclose the tombs of
the Kingsburgh family. Her funeral, it is said, was
attended by no fewer than 3,000 individuals of every
rank and class, and all were liberally served with

refreshment." Now that the spirit of Jacobitism Is
gone, and the world at large has ceased to regard the
claims of the House of Stuart, it is a matter of regret
that the dust of the memorable Flora, — in whose
bosom that spirit, so lofty and chivalrous, burned
with such unexampled fervour, — should be allowed
to moulder without a monument of the meanest de
scription to mark her tomb."
KILMUIR EASTER, a parish situated partly in
the county of Ross, and partly in that of Cromarty j
about 10 miles long, and on an average 4 miles broad ;
bounded on the north by Edderton and Kincardine ;
on the east by Loggie-Easter ; on the south by the
frith of Cromarty ; and on the west by Rosskeen.
It is situated on the frith of Cromarty, and commands
a finely variegated prospect of the peninsula and bay
of Cromarty. The shore is flat, and the soil sandy,
but tolerably fertile. Farther from the coast, the
soil becomes black and mossy, retentive of moisture,
and unfavourable for vegetation. The back-grounds
reach into the barren moory district of Ardmeanach.
Balnagown-castle is an elegant mansion, partly an
cient and partly modern, surrounded by extensive
plantations ; Tarbat-house is also a fine modern
building. New Tarbat, once the beautiful residence
of the Earls of Cromarty, has fallen to decay ; and
Delny, once the seat of the Earls of Ross, is also in
ruins. There are three villages in the parish, viz.,
Milntown, Bartaraville, and Portlich. Of these
Milntown is the principal, and has a population of
about 200  Population, in 1801, 1,703; in 1831,
1,551. Houses, in 1831, 339. Assessed property,
in 1815, in Ross, £6,211 ; in Cromarty, £5,331.
The real rental is about £3,800  This parish is in
the presbytery of Tain, and synod of Ross. Patron,
Mackenzie of Cromarty. Stipend £211 13s. 3d.;
glebe £8 10s. Church built in 1798; sittings 900.
— Schoolmaster's salary £32 2s. 9^d. There are 3
private schools.
KILMUIR WESTER and SUDDY, a united
parish in Ross-shire, now more generally termed
Knockbain : See Knockbain.
KILMUIR. See Duirnish.
KILMUN, a pleasing little village at the head of
the Holy Loch, in the district of Cowal, and parish
of Dunoon, Argyleshire. The district of Kilmun,
or that portion of the parish of Dunoon which formed
the original parish of Kilmun, had a population, in
1837, v of 833. There is a church at the village;
sittings 299. The minister of Dunoon officiates here
alternately with an assistant. We learn from Spotis-
wood, that " Kilmun was founded as a collegiate
church," in honorem Sancti Mundi Abbatis, by Sir
Duncan Campbell of Lochow, ancestor to the Duke
» " In the same burying place various members of the Kings.
burgh family were interred, as may be seen from the following
inscription on a marble slab, which was procured many years
ago by Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonald, of Exeter, to bo
placed over his mother's (Flora's) grave. The slab was, how
ever, broken in conveying it to this place from the south: aud
no fragment »r it is nowleft by tourists, who have carried it
ott in pieces as curiosities. The inscription was as follows •— .
In the family mausoleum at Kilmuir, lie interred the remains
of the following members of the Kingsburgh family, vii.. Alex.
ander Macdonald, of Kingsburgh ; his son Allan, his sons
Charles and James, his son John, and two daughters; and of
Mora Macdonald, who died in March, 1790, aged sixty-eight—
a name that will be mentioned in history, and if courage and
fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour.' 'She was a
woman of middle stature, soft features, gentle manners, and
elegant appearance.' So wrote Johnson. The remains of
floras last surviving daughter, Mrs. Major Macleod, were
consigned to their kindred dust about six years since. The
said Mrs. Major Macleod has left only one daughter. Miss Marv
Macleod, still alive at Stein.-So great was Flora's enthusiasm
tor the Prince aud his success, that she carried with her a part
of the sheet in which he slept at Kingsburgh, intending that.
when or where she might die, it might be used for her shroud!
tine brought it back from America, and it is said that Bcoordiui!
to her own request, it was the shroud in which she was lower
ed into the grave."— Nam Statistical Account.

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of Argyle, for a provost and several prebendaries,
with two singing boys, August 4, 1442. The char
ter, respecting his donations to this foundation, was
confirmed by James II. at Perth, May 12, 1450.
Camerarius gives to St. Mundus Abbot a very high
character ; asserting that, by the sanctity of his life,
and the number of his miracles, he was celebrated
to his time in the province of Argyle ; where, he
adds, apparently in the language of exaggeration,
many churches may be found dedicated to him, as
well as monasteries erected by him. He died a. d.
962. Dr. Smith mentions, as one of the most emi
nent disciples of St. Columba, St. Munna, son of
Fulchan, abbot pf Teachmhunna. Archdall says,
that " St. Munnu, the son of Fulcan, founded an
abbey" at Tachmon, or Teachmunnu, near Wexford
in Ireland. " This saint," he adds, " had one hun
dred and fifty-two holy disciples, and was zealously
attached to the ancient custom of celebrating the
feast of Easter ;" which proves that he was a Culdee.
He assigns his death, however, to the year 634.
Notwithstanding the slight difference in orthography,
and the greater one as to the date, this is undoubt
edly the same person who acquired such celebrity in
the western part of our country. In the western
aisle of the little church of Kilmun is the sepulchre
of the Argyle family ; an inner wall secluding it from
the other portions of the church, and a large door
opening into it at the farther extremity. Two small
Gothic windows light the interior. On entering,
there appears on either hand a broad dais, covered
with large stone slabs, and about three feet in height,
which extends the whole length of the sepulchre,
and on which are laid the coffins, five in number,
and containing the ashes of four Dukes and one
Duchess. Upon a lower and narrower dais, formed
by a niche in the wall that runs across between the
sepulchre and church, repose side by side the statues
of a lady and a warrior. The warrior lies armed
cap a-pee, with a huge sword by his side ; while
above him is a boar's head divided into two parts,
and also a number of old pieces of rusty armour,
such as iron beavers, war-gloves, swords, &c.
Within the churchyard of Kilirmn, and immediately
contiguous to the church, stands an old dilapidated
tower, probably once a residence of the Argyle fa
mily. Decay has been busy with its walls, and Na
ture, as if to avert their total overthrow, has closely
festooned them with ivy. From this tower a fine
avenue of old trees extends a short way towards the
upper extremity of the loch, and throws over the
place a solitary air of baronial stateliness with which
the paltry clachan in the back-ground very poorly
harmonizes. On both shores of the loch, a number
of tastefully built modern residences impart liveli
ness to the scene, and, farther down, the Lazaretto,
where vessels loaded with cotton discharge their
cargoes and perform quarantine, gives a fine termi
nation to the marginal prospect.
KILNINIAN and KILMORE, a parish in Ar
gyleshire, in the island of Mull. It forms a pen
insula in the north-west extremity of the island ;
extending 12 miles in length, and nearly of the same
breadth, and containing about 55,000 acres. To it
belong the inhabited isles of Ulva, Gometra,
Little Colonsay, and Staffa ; and the small un
inhabited cluster called the Treishnish Isles : see
these articles. The general appearance is hilly ; but
the arable land, on the coast, has a good soil and is
tolerably fertile. There is an excellent harbour at To
bermory, where a village of the samename was erected
by the British Society for improving the coasts and en
couraging the fisheries : see Tobermory. At Aros,
on the sound of Mull, there is also a harbour : see
Abos. There are five lakes in the parish, all of

which abound with excellent trout. Population, in
1801, 3,601 ; in 1831, 4,830. Houses, in 1831, 817.
Assessed property, in 1815, £11,810. — This parish,
formerly a vicarage with the parish of K il more, united
after the Reformation, is in the presbytery of Mull,
and synod of Argyle. Patron, the Duke of Argyle.
Stipend £230 19s. 3d. ; glebe £20. Tobermory
and Ulva have been erected into distinct quoad sacra
parishes ; and a portion has been attached to the
quoad sacra parish of Salen. Both Kilmore and Kil
ninian church were built in 1754; the former seats
350; the latter 300. Worship is performed alter
nately in each church both in Gaelic and in English.
— Schoolmaster's salary £25. There are four private
schools, one of which is a female school-of-industry
in Kilninian village.
KILNINVER, a parish in Lorn, in Argyleshire,
united with the parish of Kilmelfort, and forming
together nearly a square of 12 miles. It is bounded
on the west by tbe sound of Mull, and has a consi
derable extent of sea-coast along Loch-Feachan and
Loch-Melfort, two arms of the sea which intersect
it. The lower parts of the parish are smooth, with
a gentle declivity to the sea ; and consist of a light
loamy soil, yielding good crops of oats, barley, and
potatoes. The upper district is mountainous, and
covered with extensive natural forests and planta
tions. In this hilly district lie two considerable
lakes, — Loch Seammadale and Loch Tralig, — whence
issue the rivulets Euchar and Oude, which discharge
themselves into the sound of Mull. Population, in
1801, 1,175; in 1831, 1,072. Houses 126. Asses
sed property, in 1815, £1,933. — This parish is in the
presbytery of Lorn, and synod of Argyle. Patron,
the Duke of Argyle. Stipend £165 17s. 4d. ; glebe
£20 10s. The two parish-churches are about 8 miles
apart. Kilmelford church is a very ancient building,
seating about 300. Kilninver church was built about
60 years ago, and seats 300. Worship is performed
in each of the two churches alternately  There are
two parochial-schoolmasters. The salary of the one
is £34 4s., with about £20 fees ; of the other £20,
with £15 fees. There is also a private school.
KILPATRICK (East or New), a parish partly
in Dumbartonshire and partly in Stirlingshire ;
bounded on the north by Killearn and Strathblane ;
on the east by Strathblane and Baldernock ; on the
south by Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire ; and on the
west by Old Kilpatrick. It measures in extreme
length from north to south, 7£ miles ; in average
length, 6 miles ; in extreme breadth, 5£ miles ; in
average breadth, 3£ miles ; and in superficial area,
13,440 imperial acres. Kelvin water forms the
boundary 3 miles in a straight line, or about 5 miles
along its channel on the south or south-east ; and,
though an uninteresting stream for a little way
after first touching the parish, it afterwards quickens
its currents, sinuously wends between wooded, bold,
and romantic banks, and at last makes its exit in the
deep and highly picturesque glen beneath the Kel
vin aqueduct. The Allander — a streamlet of 10J
miles length of course, which brings down from a
reservoir in West Kilpatrick supplies of water-power
in dry weather for the mills in the Kelvin, and which
drives extensive machinery at Clober bleachfield and
other localities in East Kilpatrick — comes in from
the west 3 miles from its source, flows along the
boundary 1£ m^e on trie north, and 2£ miles on the
east, and then, after running 2j miles south-east
ward in the interior, proceeds eastward along the
boundary, to its confluence with the Kelvin. Du-
galdstone loch, an artificial lake of about 29 acres,
lies on the eastern boundary, within the beautiful but
neglected pleasure-grounds of the cognominal man
sion. Two other lochlets are in the parish, one in

134

KILPATRICK.

the demesne of. Kilmordinny, and the other, called
St. German's loch, supposed to have its name from
the fellow- labourer of St. Patrick in the mission to
Ireland, and profuse in the variety of the plants
around its margin. The Forth and Clyde canal
traverses the parish near its southern boundary,
from the Kelvin bridge 4 miles westward. The
northern corner of the parish, comprising an area
of about 4 square miles, is occupied by part of the
range of heights called the Kilpatrick hills or braes,
which run from Strathblane westward to Dumbuck.
The loftiest of them here rises about 1,200 feet
above sea-level. From these heights the surface slopes
rollingly and in bold undulations down toward the
Kelvin and the Allander ; almost everywhere arable,
yet presenting steep and stiff work to the plough,
exhibiting a very variegated and attractive land
scape, and only wanting more decoration from wood
to be pleasingly picturesque. The proportions of
the whole surface regularly or occasionally in till
age, and either waste or strictly pastural, are as 12
to 5. Freestone, of a very beautiful colour, and
much in request, is worked at Netherton of Gar-
scube. Coal, on the extremity of the Lanarkshire coal
field, is mined at Lawmuir, Garscube, and Castlehill.
Limestone is burned at Culloch. Clay iron- ore was
worked a short time in the coal district, but proved
not to be remunerating. An expensive but vain
search was, at one time, made in the Kilpatrick
hills for lead. Much of the importance of the par
ish is connected with the large manufacturing vil
lage of Milncavie : which see. Of several ham
lets, the only noticeable one is New Kirk, or New
Kilpatrick, 5£ miles north-west of Glasgow, and 2
miles south-west of Milngavie. It consists of only
a few houses, but is the site of the parish-church,
and has an annual though inconsiderable fair for
milk-cows on the 1st of May, O. S. In the parish,
chiefly at Milngavie, and other places, on Allander
water, are a cotton factory, two bleachfields, three
printfields, a distillery, a paper-mill, a snuff-mill,
and several corn-mills, — employing aggregately
about 900 persons. Killermont-house, the seat of
John Campbell Colquhoun, Esq., a spacious and
not inelegant mansion, stands on the Kelvin,
1J mile below tbe mouth of the Allander. Gar-
scube-house, the seat of Sir Archibald Campbell,
Bart., a modern mansion in the form of the Old
English manor-houses, stands a mile lower down
the river. Clober-house, similar in character to the
latter, stands on the Allanton, J of a mile above
Milngavie. The portions of the wall of Antoninus
which intersects this parish, remain nearly in the
same distinct state as when described by Gordon in
his 'Itinerarium Septentrionale.' The parish is
traversed lengthways by two lines of turnpike, and
across its breadth by three, and has a profusion of
subordinate and connecting roads. Population, in
1801, 2,112; in 1831, 3,090. Houses 274. As
sessed property, in 1825, £9,372  New Kilpatrick
is in the presbytery of Dumbarton, and synod of
Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the Duke of Montrose.
Stipend £270 3s. 10d. ; glebe £11 13s. 4d. Un
appropriated teinds £24 Is. 8d. The parish-church
wasbuiltin 1807-8. Sittings 704  A Relief meet
ing-house in Milngavie was built in 1799, at a cost
of about £500. Sittings 517. Stipend £100, with
a house and garden worth £24 or £25. — The parish
has a very respectable subscription-library; ,five Sab
bath schools, aggregately attended by an average of
190 scholars ; a parochial school, attended by a
maximum of 78 ; and five private schools, attended
by a maximum of 226. Parochial schoolmaster's
salary £34 4s. 4£d., with £10 fees, and £26 13s.
4tl. other emoluments  Till the year 1649, when

New Kilpatrick was detached, made independents
and provided with a separate church, it and Old
Kilpatrick were one parish, and strictly identical in
history. St. Patrick, the famous tutelary saint of
Ireland, is claimed as a native, and, at all events, had
the ancient church dedicated to him, and lent it his
name. The church, before the end of the 12th
century, was, in honour of St. Patrick, very richly
endowed with lands by Alwin, Earl of Lennox ; and
soon after it was, with all its property, given by
Maldowen, Earl of Lennox, to the monks of Paisley,
and, till the Reformation, was served by a vicar. In
the reign of James V., Lawrence Crawford of Kil
birnie founded a chapel at Drumry, within the limits
of the modern New Kilpatrick, and dedicated it to
the Virgin Mary, endowing it with the five-pound
lands of Jordan-hill in Renfrewshire. Some ruins
remain on the spot ; but they appear to be, not those
of the chapel, but the ruins of a tower or strength.
KILPATRICK (West or Old), a parish in
Dumbartonshire ; bounded on the north by Stirling
shire ; on the east by East Kilpatrick and Lanark
shire ; on the south or south-west by the Clyde,
which divides it from Renfrewshire ; and on the
north-west by the parish of Dumbarton. Its figure
is nearly a triangle, the base resting on the Clyde,
and the apex cut away to the depth of about 1£
mile. On the side along the Clyde it measures 7J
miles ; on the side coterminous with Dumbarton 6j
miles ; on the east side 6 miles ; and in superficial
area about 18 or 20 square miles. Allander water,
coming in from a lochlet a few hundred yards distant
in Dumbarton, runs 2$ miles north-eastward, ex
panding into an elongated lake, the reservoir of the
mills on the Kelvin, and traces for a brief way the
northern boundary. A stream of great value in the
parish, and the object of litigation and much dispute,
in consequence of its great water-power for the driv
ing of machinery, issues from two lochlets near the
boundary with Dumbarton, runs 4 miles south-east
ward to the village of Duntocher, and then 1J south
ward and south-westward to the Clyde at Dalmuir.
One-half or rather more of the area of the parish,
from the northern boundary downwards, is occupied
by the range of beautiful and very variegated heights.
called the Kilpatrick hills or braes. The range at
the eastern boundary is upwards of 2 miles broad ;
and it runs almost due west in undulating and parallel
lines of elevation till near the western extremity;
and there it converges very nearly to a point, and
breaks suddenly down in the bold, beautiful, stoop
ing brow of Dumbuck hill, which commands Dum
barton-castle. A good idea is formed of the face of
the parish, and delightful views obtained of its
scenery, from the level of the Clyde. For some little
distance from the eastern boundary; half-a-mile below
Renfrew ferry, nearly the whole breadth of the par
ish stretches away before the eye, a flat and well-
cultivated country on the fore-ground, a gently-
ascending inclined plane in the centre, and tame
and not very interesting heights in the distance.
About 2J miles from the eastern boundary, a rolling,
beautifully undulated surface, comes down to about a
mile from the river, sinuously ploughed by the pic
turesque little vale of the principal stream of the
parish, and exhibiting, through openings among its
verdant and frilled rising grounds, commanding
evidences, in the form of partially seen large fac
tories, of embosoming large villages, and a crowded
and industrious population. Two miles lower down,,
the Kilpatrick hills begin to press close upon the
river, at first leaving only a small corner of level
ground, and afterwards for 2£ or 2$ miles, when
they terminate in Dumbuck, coming down in a,
rapid declivity almost to the very edge of the river,

KILPATRICK.

135

or making a curving recess to admit a semicircular
little valley. While in the vicinity of the river,
they overlook portions of Renfrewshire,— chiefly the
policies and manor of Erskine-house, — which are
luscious in their scenery of lawn and grove, and
graceful varieties of richly-cultivated surface ; and
they present on their own sides, running up 1,200
feet above the level of the sea, the singularly
blended aspects of enclosed arable fields,  sweeping
and regular grassy ascents, — broken and variform
acclivities, here the naked rocky precipice, or the
dark-coloured scaur, and there the green expanse
of copsewood and plantation, — now almost the wild
outline of a Highland hill, and then the gentle and
luxuriant slopes and curvings of lowland knolls.
The scene at Erskine-ferry, or » little above the
point where the hills begin to press close upon the
river, and where the village of Old Kilpatrick lies
immediately on the right, partially hiding its white
houses among trees, and lifting the fine form of its
church and square-pinnacled little tower modestly
into view, has always been admired as a suitable
prelibation to a tourist from the east of what awaits
him on the lower Clyde, and on the banks of the
Leven and Loch-Lomond. From Dalnotter-hill,
west of the village of Old Kilpatrick, a view of
very rich groupings of this scene is obtained, and
one so exciting as to have been the subject of a
chef-d'ceuvre of at least one eminent limner. From
the heights immediately behind the village, and
after an easy walk from it of not many minutes, a
spectator sees before him the whole extent of
Renfrewshire; and, ascending a little higher, he
commands a prospect of Lanarkshire eastward to
Tintoc, — all Strathclyde stretching exultingly away
before him, till pent up by that curious mountainous
cone. From Duncomb, a hill 3J miles due north
from the village, and rising at the further side of
the range of the Kilpatrick braes, on the boundary
with Dumbarton, a tourist sees, through openings or
Over depressions of the southern part of the range,
much of the same extensive and magnificent land
scape southward, eastward, and westward, as from
tbe southern heights ; and he, at the same time,
looks north-westward over the gorgeous expanse of
Loch-Lomond, screened with the sublime forms of
the Lomond hills.
The soil, in portions of the plain along the Clyde,
is a deep clayey loam ; in other arable parts, it is
generally thin and sandy, or gravellish ; and over a
considerable portion of the uplands, it is heathy and
moorland. The arable grounds, the pastures, and
the woodlands, are respectively in the proportions to
each other of about 177, 161, and 19. Black cattle
fattened on the grazing-grounds are generally of the
Highland breed; and the sheep which walk the
moors are almost all of the black-faced species.
Provisions, of all sorts of home-produce, are as high-
priced as in Glasgow ; and those of foreign produce
must pay additional charges for carriage. Whinstone
for road-metal, and freestone of excellent quality as
building material, are wrought in several quarries.
Mines of ironstone, limestone, and coal — the last
resembling the Newcastle coal in quality — are
wrought in the vicinity of Duntocher. Besides the
qastle of Dunglass, noticed in a separate article,
and vestiges of hill-forts on several heights of the
parish, there are some interesting antiquities, almost
all Roman. Antoninus' wall, which came in from
the east and terminated at Dunglass, can now be
identified only in a few places, and even there is
traceable only in its fossa, and with the aid of writ
ings which described it before agricultural improve
ment levelled its last vestiges with the ground. A
Roman fort on a hill at Duntocher has nearly shared

the fate of the wall, but not without yielding me
morials to modern research. In 1775, were dis
covered under-ground on the side of the hill, several
rows of pillars, constructed of curious reddish-
coloured tyles, and forming a labyrinth of passages
of about 18 inches square, and floored over with
larger homogeneous tvles, the whole surrounded by
a stone wall, and conjectured to have been a sudo-
rium or hot-bath for the use of the neighbouring
garrison. In a field in the vicinity was found a Ro
man altar. Querns, vases, and coins, all Roman,
have also been discovered. Over the stream at
Duntocher is a very ancient bridge, frequently re
paired, and asserted by a current tradition to have
been of Roman erection. The principal landowners
are Lord Blantyre, William Dunn, Esq. of Dun
tocher, Andrew Buchanan, Esq. of Auchentorlie,
and Robert Glasgow, Esq. of Glenarbuck. The
demesnes of the third and the fourth of these greatly
enrich the scenery in the lower part of the parish.
The second, Mr. Dunn, while an extensive landed
proprietor, owns the principal manufactories of the
parish, and is a remarkable instance of how produc
tive mere mechanical skill and prudence may be of
wealth and eminence to tbe possessor, and of com
fortable employment to multitudes of industrious
operatives. The parish is remarkable for the number of its
villages, and the extent and variety of its manufac
tures, existing in the absence of anything which can
with propriety be called a town. The villages are
no fewer than 12 : — Old Kilpatrick, Duntocher,
Faifley, Miltonfield, Hardgate, Yoker, Dalmuir-
shore, Dalmuir, Bowling, Little-Mill, Dumbuck,
and Milton ; and contain,' with the exception of a
mere fraction, the whole of its large population.
Duntocher, Faifley, Miltonfield, and Hardgate, all
situated within the range of a mile on the average,
9 miles west of Glasgow, and from J to 1£ mile west
of the eastern boundary of the parish, contain up
wards of 3,000 inhabitants. Some of the other vil
lages are mere hamlets as to population, yet possess
either importance as seats of manufacture, or attrac
tion as fine features in a beautiful landscape  The
village of Old Kilpatrick, 1 J or 2 miles west of the
populous cluster, is a tidy, tranquil, and smiling place,
sitting like an aristocrat in the vicinity of the other
villages,: — nearly vieing with the best of thein in,
population, yet a stranger to the smoke or the stir
of their busy occupations. The seat of the parish-
church and a Relief meeting-house, of the parochial
school and two private schools, and of more than
one-third of the inns and dram-shops in the whole
parish, it is also legally a burgh-of-barony, had a
charter of erection in 1679, empowering the creation '
of burgesses and the election of bailies, and possesses
an unused jail, with its strong door and its iron-
railed windows, yet, for some unexplained reason,
has let all its privileges run to seed, and seems as
reckless of burgh-honours as of those of manufac
tures  Duntocher, and the three villages we named
along with it, have each a large factory for the spin
ning and weaving of cotton. The four mills are all
the property of Mr. Dunn, and employ about 1,400
persons, and produce annually about a million of
pounds weight of cotton yarn, and two millions of
yards of cotton cloth. At Faifley is a manufacture
of shovels and spades, which employs about 30 per
sons. At Hardgate are a dye-work and some small
nail-making establishments. At Miltonfield is a
large establishment for the bleaching and printing of
calicoes, which employs about 450 persons. Dunto
cher has a quoad sacra parish-church, a United Se-
j cession meeting-house, two schools, three libraries,
' and a friendly society. Faifley has a United Seces-

KIL

136

KIL

sion meeting-house,* a school, and a joint-interest in
the friendly society of Duntocher. At Cockney-
field, a little north of Faifley, are dye-works which
employ about 140 persons. — Dalmuir, and Dalmuir-
shore, are situated farther down the main stream of
the parish than the villages now noticed ; the latter
at the point of its falling into the Clyde, and the
former a little inland. At Dalmuir-shore is an old
and somewhat crazy quay for the use of small river
craft. This village has a dingy and almost dismal
aspect, and presents to the Clyde a low, blackened
range of buildings, occupied as a soda- work, which
foully stains the face of the general landscape. The
work employs nearly 100 persons, and produces soda,
chloride of lime, and oil of vitriol. At Dalmuir is
an extensive paper-manufactory, which employs
about 180 persons, and pays annually £10,000 or
£11,000 of government duty. This village has a
school  Bowling, Little Mill, and Dumbuck, are
small, but very cheerful hamlets, situated on the
Clyde, from 1 mile to 2J miles below the village of
Old Kilpatrick. Bowling has all the stir and inter
est connected with the entrance into the Clyde of the
Forth and Clyde Canal [see that article], and
possesses a yard of long standing for building vessels
of small burden. Little Mill has a ship-building
yard for the construction of large vessels, which em
ploys nearly 100 persons ; and a distillery, which
annually produces nearly 50,000 gallons. The vil
lage is the site of a school  Yoker and Milton stand
in the extreme eastern and western corners of the
parish, and contain a population respectively of about
80 and 160. The latter, snugly nestled in a recess
of the Kilpatrick hills, just before they terminate in
the hill of Dumbuck, and looking out over a verdant,
and wooded, and gentle slope of half-a-mile to the
Clyde, has a very pleasing appearance  The various
villages, as well as the landward parts of the par
ish, are richly provided with facilities of communi
cation. All the smaller steamers which ply on the
Clyde are at their service, offering conveyance almost
every hour of the day, and sometimes at intervals of
only half-an-hour, and easily accessible at Brick-
house, a little above Dalmuir, at Old Kilpatrick or
Erskine-ferry, at Bowling, and at Dunglass. Two
ferries convey carriages, carts, and cattle, across the
Clyde, serving in all respects as bridges, of easy
access, and abundantly safe; one called Erskine-
ferry at Old Kilpatrick, and the other immediately
beyond the eastern limit of the parish, between
Yoker-toll and Renfrew. The Forth and Clyde
canal, from the point of its commencement at Bowl
ing to that of its leading the parish, traverses a dis
tance of 4J miles, and offers important advantages
in the transmission of coal and manure. The Glas
gow and Dumbarton road traverses the parish at its
greatest length near the Clyde ; and another turn
pike communicates between Old Kilpatrick and Glas
gow, through Duntocher. A stage-coach runs daily
between Duntocher and Glasgow ; and carriers tra
vel daily in connexion with the several villages. —
Population, in 1801,2,844; in 1831,5,879. Houses
524. Assessed property, in 1815, £12,825  Old
Kilpatrick is in the presbytery of Dumbarton, and
synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, Lord Blantyre.
Stipend £250 5s. 2d. ; glebe £32 10s. The parish-
church was built in 1812. Sittings 810  The Relief
congregation in the village' of Old Kilpatrick was
established in 1793. Meeting-house built in 1794,
at a cost of £527 13s. Sittings 587. Stipend £95,
with a house and garden  Duntocher, and the vil
lages and territory in its vicinity, were erected into
• This, till a few months ago, when minister and congrega.
riim changed their denominational connexion, was an Original
Burgher meeting-house.

a quoad sacra parish in 1830: see Duntocher
The population of the quoad sacra parish Of Old
Kilpatrick, immediately after this disjunction, was
2,774; of whom 1,745 were churchmen, and 1,029
were dissenters. For a notice of the name, and
ancient state of the parish, see the article Kilpa
trick, New  Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34
4s. 4d., with £10 fees, and £7 other emoluments.
There are 1 1 non-parochial schools, each conducted
by one teacher.
KILRENNY.f a parish in Fifeshire, upon the
coast of the frith of Forth, which bounds it on the
south ; and bounded by the parish of Crail on the
east ; by Crail and Carnbee on the north ; and by
Carnbee, West Anstruther, and East Anstruther
parishes, on the west. A ridge of high rocks rises
from the beach, and the surface gradually ascends
towards the north. The valued rent of the parish
is £8,470 Scots; the real rent, in 1790, was £2,195
sterling; the annual value of real property, in 1815,
including that of the burgh, £6,805 sterling.
Houses, in 1831, 276. Population, in 1801, 1,043;
in 1831, 1,705  This parish is in the presbytery of
St. Andrews, and synod of Fife. Patron, Sir W. C.
Anstruther, Bart. Stipend £251 17s. lid. ; glebe
£27 10s. Unappropriated teinds £204 12s. 2d.
The church, which originally formed a vicarage be
longing to the abbey of Dryburgh, is centrically
situated in the village which bears its name  School
master's salary £34 4s. 4|d., with about £40 fees.
Besides the parish-school, which is at Upper Kil-
renny, there are two boys' schools at Cellardykes, a
female school, and an infant-school.
The burgh of Kilrenny consists of two villages :
Nether- Kilrenny or Cellardykes, which is on the
sea-coast, divided from Anstruther-Easter only by
a small burn, and forming with it and Anstruther
Wester apparently one long town; and .Upper Kil
renny, situated about half-a-mile inland, which con
tains the church, manse, two gentlemen's seats, and
a few cottages. Kilrenny is not, properly speaking,
a royal burgh, as so far as is known it never had a
royal charter ; and it holds feu of a subject superior,
Bethune of Balfour. It appears, however, to have
sent a member to the Scottish parliament ; and, in
1672, the magistrates presented a supplication to
parliament, setting forth that it never was a royal
burgh, and praying that it might no longer be consi
dered as such, but continue a burgh-of-regality.
This supplication was submitted to the privy council,
and it was afterwards, as appears from the minutes
of parliament, "expunged from tbe rolls, the same
being now no royal burgh by act of parliament."
Notwithstanding this, however, it continued after a
time to send a member to parliament, without any
objection, till the Union, when it was classed with
four other burghs in sending a member to the British
parliament, and by the reform bill it was conjoined
with Cupar, St. Andrews, Crail, Anstruther-Easter
and Wester, and Pittenweem, for the same purpose.
It is governed by a chief magistrate, 2 bailies, and
12 other councillors. The parliamentary and muni
cipal constituency, in 1840, was 51. Corporation
revenue £44 Is. 6d. Population, in 1831, 1,705 —
Nether-Kilrenny, or Cellardykes, is a fishing-station
of considerable importance. It has a small harbour,
which is not safe during gales from the east or south
east, when the fishermen are obliged to have recourse
t The name of this parish is said to have been derived from
tal!.y. ,d*J.icated. This taint, however, is not mentioned i if,
Keith's Calendar of Scottish saints; and it is more probable
that he churrh here was dedicated' to St. Ninian, a bVhmof
the 5th century, who had various churches and chapels dedic".
ted to him in Scotland. Ninian is still popularized into RiuBai.
and Kilnngau could easily be corrupted into Kilrenny.

KIL

137

KIL

to the harbour of Easter Anstruther, which labours
under the disadvantage that it can neither be left nor
entered except at certain states of the tide. In these
circumstances, it has been proposed to construct a
new harbour for both places at Craignoon,— an ad
vantageous situation, lying between the two burghs,
and equally convenient for both : see Cellardykes.
KIL SPINDLE, a parish in the lowland and east
ern part of Perthshire. Its form is nearly a square
3 or 3i miles deep, and presenting angles to the four
cardinal points of the compass. It is bounded on the
north-west by Scone, St. Martins, and two detached
portions of Kinnoul ; on the north-east by detached
portions of Forfarshire and Caputh, and by Kinnaird ;
on the south-east by Errol ; and on the south-west
by Kinfeuns, and the main body of Kinnoul. A nar
row belt on the south-east side lies in the Carse of
Gowrie, and is carpeted with a deep rich soil of mixed
clay and moss, which produces luxuriant crops. All
the other parts of the parish are hilly and moorish ;
but the slopes of the hills, toward the Carse, are cul
tivated to the summit, and are covered with a very
fertile soil. Among the hills, too, are many pleasant
little spots in hollows and glens, where the soil is
eminently good and fructiferous. The summits and
sides of the hills in the interior, and away to the
northern extremity, are generally barren, and, in
many places, are covered with a wet heathy sward,
thickly sprinkled with those whitish or grey whin
stone which indicate a poor, unkindly, bleak soil.
The streams which touch or traverse the parish are
all tiny rills, six in number. A considerable number
of the population are linen- weavers, in the employ of
the manufacturers of Dundee. Half-a-mile from the
eastern angle is the little village of Rait, on the old
road between Perth and Dundee, and once reckoned
a sort of half-way-house. Half-a-mile north of it
stands Fingask-castle, the elegant mansion of Sir P.
Murray Thriepland, Bart. Immediately south of the
village is the mansion of Gaston-hall ; and J of a mile
south is the hamlet or kirk-town of Kilspindie. Two
roads run eastward and westward through the parish ;
and one runs southward from Rait. Population, in
1801, 762; in 1831, 760. Houses 146. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £6,473  Kilspindie is in the presby
tery of Perth, and synod of Perth and Stirling. Pa
tron, Robertson of Tullibelton. Stipend £224 17s.
3d. ; glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds £67 lis. 5d.
Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with £10 fees,
and a house and garden. There is a non-parochial
school. The present parish comprehends the ancient
parishes of Kilspindie and Rait, which were united
prior to 1634. Vestiges of the church of Rait still
exist. KILSYTH, a parish in Stirlingshire; bounded on
the north by Fintry and St. Ninians } on the east by
Denny ; on the south by Cumbernauld and Kirkin
tilloch in Dumbartonshire; and on the west by
Campsie. It measures, in extreme length along its
southern boundary, 7 a miles ; in mean length, about
5 or 5£ miles ; in extreme breadth, from the point
where it is first touched by Carron-water on the
north, to a small bend in the Kelvin opposite the
parish-church on the south, 4| miles ; and, in super
ficial area, 24 square miles, or about 15,000 acres.
Carron-water, coming in from the west, traces the
northern boundary over a distance of 3A miles, flow
ing in short and frequent sinuosities through a broad
¦meadow, remarkable for its luxuriance, and for the
joyousness of the scenes which it exhibits during the
season of haymaking. Kelvin-water rises on the
southern boundary near Gateside, and flows along
that boundary, through a plain of small declivity and
of a soft loamy soil, in a deep artificial channel 5J
miles to the point of its leaving the parish. It for

merly straggled in many directions over the plain, Jn a
very shallow channel, gorged up into a pool at every
turn, overgrown with aquatic vegetables, diffusing,
wide and far around it, a little sea at every flood,
often ruining the hay and corn harvests, and render
ing several fields, naturally rich in soil, incapable of
cultivation; but in 1793 and 1794, a deep cut was
made, capacious enough to contain the whole of its
waters in the highest flood, flanked by low embank
ments admitting of being heightened, and all com
pleted at the cost of about £600. Several stream
lets which rise in the interior, and flow southward,
are remarkable for the great numerousness and vari
ety of the cascades and cataracts which they form,
and for the vast aggregate amount of machinery
which they drive. Bush-burn flows on the eastern
boundary, and is a tributary or head-stream of Bonny-
water. A mile, on the average, westward of it, flows
another head-stream of that water, Auchincloch-burn.
Next are Shawend-burn and Garrel-burn, both na
tural tributaries of the Kelvin, but now collected
into a large artificial lake lying about a mile east of
the town of Kilsyth, covering upwards of 70 acres,
shut up within romantic banks, and serving as a re
servoir to the Forth and Clyde canal. Further west
are Quinnie-burn and Inchwood-burn, the latter flow
ing for about a mile on the boundary, and then run
ning into the interior. Though none of the streams
have more than 4 miles length of course, they all en
rich the district by their water-power, and beautify
it by their cascades, more than many considerable
rivers do their far-stretching basins. Garrel-burn
is the most noticeable, and — like all the streams
in Scotland which bear the name of Garvald [which
see] — is rough, rapid, and turbulent. Within the dis
tance of l1 mile it falls 1,000 feet, and it necessarily
forms many cataracts and waterfalls. Yet though its
falls are very romantic, and in time of a great flood
even awful, they are in no single instance deeper than
50 feet, and are not much distinguished by sentimen
tal tourists. The southern district of the parish, or
nearly one-half of the whole area, is the highest part
of that strath which runs far westward from the
Carse of Falkirk, and which is traversed by the
Forth and Clyde canal. The surface, for a little
way northward from the boundary, is nearly a dead
level, little more than 1 60 feet above the level of
the Forth at Grangemouth; and farther north it
makes an undulating, broken, and rough ascent.
Though very bare of trees, this district, in conse
quence of being well-cultivated and enclosed, pre
sents a pleasing aspect. Between it and the belt of
meadow-land along the northern boundary, the whole
area swells boldly and variedly up in wild pastoral
heights, a continuation of the Campsie fells, called
the Kilsyth hills, lifting their summits from 1,000 to
1,368 feet above the level of the sea. The loftiest
of these hills commands a prospect which, if less
beautiful and variegated than that from the top of
Benlomond, is richer and more extensive. Part of
at least fourteen, if not sixteen counties, is under the
eye at one glance. Scotland is seen from sea to sea,
and over a still more extensive area from south to
north. The contrast between the Lowland and the
Highland part of the vast scene, strongly arrest the
attention. " If you turn your eye southward from
the frith of Forth to Clyde, and from Pentland and
Galloway to the Ochils and Kilpatrick hills, the
whole seems one extended fertile plain, or rather
like a beautiful garden sheltered on all hands by the
surrounding mountains, and divided into numberless
beautiful enclosures, like the compactments of a
flower garden. Nothing can possibly be a more
striking contrast to this than the prospect to the
north. For 70 or 80 miles it appears to be an end-

138

KILSYTH.

less succession of hill upon hill, overtopping one
another till they are lost in the distance of the pro
spect, and blended, with the blue clouds or azure
sky. In a foggy day, or frosty morning, the prospect
is truly picturesque. Being raised entirely above
the fog, the whole plain to the south appears like
the sea in a calm ; while the hills on the north seem
to rise like islands out of the main, or like the tu
multuous waves of the ocean in a storm." The soil
of the parish in that part of the southern plain which
is skirted by the Kelvin, is a rich fertile loam, from 2
to 2 A feet deep; in the smaller part of that plain
whose waters run eastward, it is thin, channelly,
and siliceous ; and in the upland districts it is in
general sandy, or gravelly and light, and, in some
places, almost wholly yields to a carpeting of small
stones of from four ounces to two or three pounds
weight. The climate, though moist, is salubrious.
The agriculture of the parish probably exhibits no
peculiarity except the historical one, that it intro
duced to Scotland the open cultivation of the po
tato. In 1728, when that esculent was known and
treated only as a tender exotic, Thomas Prentice, a
day-labourer here, set the example of raising it in the
open field;* and eleven years later, Robert Graham,
Esq. of Tamrawer, had here brought the practice to
such perfection, that he rented lands near Edinburgh,
Glasgow, Dundee, Perth, and Renfrew, for supplying
the public.
The parish is singularly rich in both the number
and the utility of its minerals. Coal is very abun
dant, stretching in thick seams from 4 to 16 fathoms
beneath the surface, and probably existing in other
and equally rich seams at a greater depth. That
wrought iu the western district is of prime quality ;
and that of the eastern district is a blind coal in great
request, and exported along, the canal to England,
Ireland, and formerly to Russia. Limestone, con
sisting of a conglomeration of small shells of all sizes,
* V The potatoe plant seems first to have been introduced
into Britain by Sir Walter Raleigh, in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth ; hue, for more than a century, its cultivation was
exceedingly confined, owing probably to erroneous modes of
cultivation, and to an improper manner of preparing it for food.
Iu the reign of James 1., this root was considered a great
rarity, and sold so dear as 2s. per pound ; and even so late as
the beginning of last century, it seems not to have entered into
the lists of agricultural produi-e. Bradley, who wrote about
the year 1720, and who treated expressly of new improvements
in horticulture, says of potatoes, — ' They are of less note than
horse-radish, radish, scorzonera, beets, and skerrit; but as they
are not without their admirers, I will not pass them by in si
lence.' The district of England where the potatoe was first
generally cultivated seems to have been Lancashire ; and, about
the same time, it was introduced to general use in Scotland.
Iu 1728," — as mentioned above, — '* a day-labourer, living near
Kilsyth, successfully Faised a crop of potatoes on a little plot of
ground attached to his cottage, aud was lortunate enough to
call the attention of his neighbours to the value of this hither
to neglected vegetable. By tbe annual sale of his produce
he soon realized what was to him a fortune, a sura of £300 ;
and meanwhile, the public attention being called to tlie plant,
it gradually made its way. It was not, however, till after the
year 174j, which was remarkable as a season ol scarcity, that it
came to be generally cultivated as a regular branch of held hus
bandry. I very well remember a near relative of mine men
tioning an anecdote which showed that, so late as the year 1755
or 1756, the potatoe was still a rarity iu Wigtonshire. This in.
cidetit « as, that a lady had brought some potatoes in her pocket
to church ou Sunday, to present to a friend, as something quite
new ; but the string of her pocket breaking as she was in the
act of going out on the dismissal of the congregation, she lost
her burthen in the passage, which created considerable specu
lation. Iu England, with the exception of Lancashire, the pro
gress of this esculent iuto a general cultivation was still lower.
It was known in Yorkshire only as a garden-plant down to
1700 ; and in Somersetshire we must date its introduction as an
article of farm produce, at least ten years later. After this
period, however, the value of the potatoe came to be very gen
erally appreciated ; and, in the year 1796, in the county of EsBex
alone, no fewer than 1,700 acres were planted with this root,
tor the supply of the London market. Potatoes seem to have
found their way into the Continent of Europe at a considerably
later period than into England, but they came more rapidly into
common use, and we may date their general cultivation there
t r.,m about the middle of last century."— Duncan's ' Philosophy
of the Seasons.'

from an inch in diameter till they become invisible to
the naked eye, and containing the greatest propor
tion of calcareous earth and the least proportion of
sand of probably any limestone in Scotland, is ex
tensively worked, and in great request. Freestone
of a beautiful white colour, sometimes tinged with
various shades of brown and yellow, easily chiselled
when fresh from the quarry, and hardening on expo
sure to the air, offers an abundant supply to demands
at a distance for the materials of ornamental masonry.
Ironstone has, for three-fourths of a century, been
worked here by the Carron company, and occurs in
a variety of forms. Balls or round masses, uniform
in shape, and having the outline of a flat-topped loaf
or apple-pudding, were long considered the richest
form in which it occurred. A very large vein of
blackband ironstone has recently been discovered.
A seam of stone, from 20 to 30 feet in thickness, has
furnished an annual supply of many thousand tons
for paving the streets of Glasgow. A vein of copper
was wrought during last century by the York Build
ing company. Large masses of grey and variegated
dull-coloured flint, and specimens of yellow and red
jasper, were discovered in 1791, or rather were then
brought into notice ; for the jasper possessing a very
fine grain, had even at that date found its way to
the lapidaries and seal-engravers of Edinburgh and
London. Tbe parish all lies immediately on the Caledonian
side of Antoninus' wall, and possesses, or has yielded
up antiquities in keeping with its position. At
Westerwood and Barhill, beyond the limits of the
parish, are two distinct Roman forts; and corre
sponding to these, within the limits, are two Pictish
forts, respectively at Cunny-park and at Balcastle.
That at Balcastle is perhaps the most beautiful, re
gular, and entire of all the Pictish forts in Scotland :
situated in a peninsula formed by two rills, rising on
all sides at an angle of 45 degrees, 300 feet in di
ameter at its base, and 150 feet on its flat summit,
and traditionally reported to be hollow in the in
terior. Several circular fortifications called ' Ches-
ters,' the Gaelic name for camps, have a strong mu
tual resemblance, and bear such marks of high anti
quity as to have been supposed coeval with the
Roman forts, or of earlier construction than An
toninus' wall. Various tumuli once existed; but
have been levelled in the course of agricultural im
provement. Besides earlier monuments, there^ are
some of the feudal times, and not a few of the event
ful period of strife between the tyrannical Stuarts,
and the martyrly Presbyterians of Scotland. In the
Barwood is an eminence, still called the Court-hill,
where the haughty barons of the dark ages were ac
customed to sit in judgment. Near Quinzie-burn is
another eminence called the Gallow-hill, where their
unrelenting sentences were put in execution. But
by far the most interesting antiquities, or antiquarian
reminiscences, are those connected with the battle of
Kilsyth, the most disastrous in which the Covenan
ters acted a part, and at once the most sanguinary
and the most victorious, whence the gallant but
utterly mistaken Montrose plucked wreathes of
blood-soaked garments in lieu of green laurel. This
battle was fought on the 15th of August, 1645. The
scene of action was the district immediately around
the hollow which now contains the artificial lake or
reservoir of the Forth and Clyde canal, a field so
broken and irregular, that, did not tradition and his
tory concur in identifying it, few persons could be
lieve it to have been the arena of any military opera
tion. Montrose and his men had hitherto been on
the losing side,— for they could scarcely regard their
victories over tumultuary armies at Tippermuir,
Aberdeen, and Inverlochy, as havinir been serious

KILSYTH.

139

achievements ; and they took up their ' ground in '¦
Kilsyth to their own liking, to abide the onset of
forces specially deputed against them by the Scottish
council under the command of Baillie, an officer of
reputation. But when Baillie arrived to make the
attack, he found his authority all but entirely super
seded by a committee, beaded by Argyle, and shorn
of power to exert subordinating influence on the
portion of the army placed specifically under his
control. Montrose's army consisted of only 4,400
foot, with 500 horse, while that of his antagonist
amounted to 6,000 foot and 1 ,000 horse"; but he had
the high advantages of having chosen his ground, of
possessing the supreme and the sole command, and
of having arranged his troops in the best possible
manner for confronting and overpowering his op
ponents. The weather being very hot, Montrose
bade his fellows doff their outer garments, — a cir
cumstance which gave rise to a tradition that they
fought naked ; and, making a general assault, he
almost instantly — aided or rather led by the impetu
osity of his Highlanders — threw his antagonists, re
serve and all, into such confusion, that prodigies of
valour, on the part of their nominal commander,
utterly failed to rally even a portion of them, and
incite them to withstand the foe. A total route
taking place, Montrose's forces cut down or cap
tured almost the whole of the infantry, and even
coolly massacred many of the unarmed inhabitants
of the country. Though Baillie's cavalry, for the
most part, escaped death from the conqueror, they
very numerously met it in fleeing from his pur
suit across the then dangerous morass of Dullater
bog. Incredible as it may seem, only seven or eight
persons in Montrose's army were slain. " It belongs
not to me," says the Rev. Robert Rennie, in the
Old Statistical Account, "to give any detail of that
engagement, in this place. Suffice it only to say,
that every little hill and valley bears the name, or re
cords the deeds of that day ; so that the situation of
each army can be distinctly traced. Such as the
Bullet and Baggage-know, the Drum-burn, the
Slaughter-how or hollow, Kill-e-many butts, &c. &c.
In the Bullet-know and neighbourhood, bullets are
found every year. ; and in some places so thick, that
you may lift three or four without moving a step.
In the Slaughter-how, and a variety of other places,
bones and skeletons may be dug up everywhere;
and in every little bog or marsh for 3 miles, especially
in the Dullater bog, they have been discovered in
almost every ditch. The places where the bodies
lie in any number, may be easily known ; as the grass
is always of a more luxuriant growth in summer,
and of a yellowish tinge in spring and harvest."
 In 1769-70, when the Forth and Clyde canal was
cut through Dullater bog, myriads of small toads,
each about tbe size of a nut or turkey bean, issued
from the morass, hopped over all the adjacent fields
northward to the extent of several miles, and were
so numerous as to resemble in motion the rebound of
.hail-stones in a heavy shower, and to count 10, or
even 20 or 30, in the space of a square yard. They
all went directly north, yet were never seen beyond
the summit of the hill, nor anywhere in considerable
number the following spring.— The parish is tra
versed near its southern boundary, and in its ex
treme length, by the Glasgow and Stirling turnpike
by way of Kilsyth ; and along the whole of that
boundary, it is nowhere more than half-a-mile, and
generally not more than 200 or 300 yards distant
from the Forth and Clyde canal. Sir William Liv
ingstone, who became a senator of the college of
justice in 1609, and the Rev. John Livingstone, a
man of letters and piety, who held pastoral charges
.successively in Ireland, at Stranraer, and at Ancrum,

were natives of Kilsyth. Population, in 1801, 1,762,
in 1831, 4,297. Houses 560. Assessed property,
in 1815, £9,317  Kilsyth is in the presbytery ot
Glasgow, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron,
the Crown. Stipend £271 6s. 7d. ; glebe £20.
Unappropriated teinds £78 12s. 8d. The parish-
church was built in 1816. Sittings 850.— A Relief
meeting-house, belonging to a congregation estab
lished about 70 years ago, cost £1,000. Sittings
559. Stipend £120, with manse and glebe. There
are two small Independent and Baptist congrega
tions. A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built here
in 1840. According to ecclesiastical survey in 1836,
the population then was 4,460 ; of whom 2,941 were
churchmen, and 1 ,453 were dissenters. — The parish
consists of two baronies, the East and the West,
called respectively Monaebrugh and Kilsyth. The
latter, till 1649, belonged to Campsie ; and did not
impose its name on the parish, to the expulsion of
the ancient one of Monaebrugh, till the close of the
17th century. In the western barony, at a place
still called Chapel-green, there was anciently a
chapel. Supposing this to have been dedicated to a
Romish saint of the name of Cetae, the word Kil
syth may be derived from that name, with the prefix
Cella, a church, chapel, or burying-ground. Or the
word may be an abbreviation of the Gaelic Kil-
abhuinnsith, ' Church of tbe River of peace,' and the
brook in the vicinity of the church may have been
considered as haunted by the Daoine Sitk, or Scot
tish fairies, called ' men of peace,' for fear of their
malign influence. The parish was anciently a par
sonage. There are three parochial schools, and two
non-parochial, the former situated respectively in the
burgh and in the west and east baronies. Salary of
the burgh schoolmaster, who employs an assistant,
£30, with £58 fees, £9 other emoluments, and a
dwelling-house ; of the east barony schoolmaster £12
6s. 3d., with £31 fees, £1 Is. other emoluments, and
a lodging ; of the west barony schoolmaster £9, with
£23 fees, £22 other emoluments, and a dwelling-
house. Average attendance at all the five schools,
365; and at evening schools, 150. Kilsyth is re
markable as the scene of two religious revivals which
occurred respectively in the years 1742 and 1839,
and excited great interest throughout the country.
Narratives of them were written and published by
the Rev. Mr. Robe and the Rev. Mr. Burns, the
incumbents at their respective dates.
Kilsyth, the capital of the above parish, a burgh-
of-barony, and a considerable village, stands J of a
mile north of the Forth and Clyde canal ; 5| miles
from Cumbernauld; 12£ from Glasgow; 12from Fal
kirk ; and 15 from Stirling. Seen from the banks of
the canal or from the neighbouring heights, it seems
to be bleakly nestled in a hollow, and has a dingy
and forlorn appearance. Its street-arrangements are
straggling and irregular ; and its edifices indicate
the pervading poverty, or very narrow competency,
of a community of cotton-weavers subordinate to
Glasgow. The original village ran along the banks
of the Garrel, at a time, of course, when that stream
was not diverted toward its present reservoir re
ceptacle ; and it then bore the name of Monaebrugh.
But about the year 1665, an entirely new town was
built on a small rising ground, called Moat-hill, and
took the name Kilsyth from the title of the proprie
tor. Soon after the new erection, the recently-built
nouses being at an inconvenient distance from the
stream, water was conveyed in earthen pipes from a
spring about J of a mile distant, and stored in a well
or cistern near tbe centre of the new town, bearing
an inscription of the date 1676. Since that period,
and especially in 1716, other cisterns were erected.
The town very recently began to enjoy the.addi-

KIL

140

KIL

tional luxury of being lighted at night with gas.
The parish-church stands at the southern extremity,
and is the only individual feature of the burghai
landscape which draws attention. In the town are
a library and a savings'-bank. Fairs are held in
January, March, May, August, and November.
Nearly the whole support of the place is weaving.
The number of looms, in 1812, was between 400 and
500; in 1828, it was 800; and in 1838, it was 1,020.
Only six, in the last of these years, were harness ¦
looms; all the other 1,014 being plain. Kilsyth is
a burgh-of-barony, erected by a charter from George
IV., dated 7th August, 1826. The magistrates are
a bailie, a dean-of-guild, a treasurer, and 4 council
lors. There are also a clerk and a procurator-fiscal.
— The right of election is in the inhabitants having
right by feu or lease of 19 years to a house and gar
den of the annual value of £5, and who have been
admitted burgesses. The dues of the burgess-tickets
are 5s  The bailie and councillors usually remain
two years in office ; but the election is annual  The
dues of entering burgess, and the fines imposed on
delinquents, are applied to defray the expenses of
administering justice  Custom dues were at one
time levied, but have been discontinued for a consi
derable time, in consequence of the burgesses refus
ing to pay ; and strangers also have disputed pay
ment. The burgh has no funds to try its right,
which besides is, it is said, rather involved in doubt.
— States of the revenue and expenditure are made
out annually, and are open to the inspection of the
community. The revenue arises at present wholly
from burgess entries and fines, and is not adequate to
meet the expenditure  The burgh has no property,
and there are no taxes or stents imposed by the
magistrates  The jurisdiction is confined to petty
offences. No stated courts are held. Population,
in 1835, 2,500. — Three-and-a-half miles north-east
of Kilsyth, stands the small village of Banton, the
site of the East barony school  Half-a-mile north of
the town are the ruins of Kilsyth-castle, anciently
the baronial residence of the Kilsyth, and junior
branch of the family of Livingstone. Sir James
Livingston offered to hold out the castle against
Cromwell, and otherwise maintained loyalty to the
house of Stuart during the period of the interreg
num, and at the Restoration was created Viscount
Kilsyth, and Lord Campsie. His second son, Wil
liam, the third Viscount Kilsyth, engaged in the re
bellion of 1715, was forfeited, and died in Holland.
He married first the widow of Viscount Dundee,
who brought him a son, and next Barbara, daughter
of Macdougal of Mackerston, who brought him a
daughter. The family burying-vault, 16 feet square,
having been entered, in 1795, for the purpose of
plunder, the embalmed bodies of one of these ladies
— most probably the second — and her infant, were
found in a state of apparently as complete preserva
tion as immediately after death. The vault is now
so closed up as to be inaccessible.
KILTARLITY, a very large and mountainous
parish in Inverness-shire, formed by the union of the
parishes of Kiltarlity and Conveth ; bounded on the
north-east by Kirkhill ; on the east by Durris ; on
the south by Urquhart; and on the west by Kilmo
raek. It is, including the mission of Strathglass, 40
miles in length, and about 8 in breadth, containing
240 square miles. There are three lakes in the par
ish: viz., Loch-Bruiach, Loch-Gorm, and Loch-
Neattie ; and it is watered by the Beauly, and the
three streams which form it. There are several
elegant mansion-houses, of which Beaufort, the seat
of the Frasers of Lovat, and Belladrom, are the
most remarkable. Population, in 1801, 2,588 ; in
1831, 2,715. Houses 601. Assessed property

£3,837  This parish is in the presbytery of Inver
ness, and synod of Moray. Patron, Fraser of Lovat.
Stipend £239 3s.; glebe £20. Church built in
1829; sittings 790  There is a Roman Catholic
chapel at Eskiesdale ; sittings' 500. Stipend £30.
Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 3d. There are three
private schools.
KILTEARN, a parish in Ross-shire, on the north
side of the frith of Cromarty, extending 6 miles along
the shore, and about 20 miles into the hills. It is
bounded by Allness on the east; by Contin and
Lochbroom on the north ; by Dingwall and Fod-
derty on the west ; and by Cromarty-bay on the
south. The hilly or mountainous district is, for the
most part, wild and uncultivated, consisting of a
mass of hills covered with heath, and interspersed
with extensive tracts of moor and mossy ground, and
valleys covered with coarse grass. Along the coast
the parish is arable, arid exhibits a rich appearance ;
the fields are regularly enclosed, and several elegant
seats are seen, surrounded with thriving plantations.
The total number of cultivated acres in the parish is
about 3,000. About five-sixths of the parish belongs
to the family of Munro of Fowlis, a family long dis
tinguished for the military characters it has pro
duced. Sir Henry Munro, who died in 1781, was
said to have been the 22d baron of Fowlis who had
enjoyed the estate of Kiltearn by regular lineal de
scent. Benuaish, or Benwyvis, is the most lofty
mountain in the parish : see Benwyvis. Besides
the Aultgraad [which see] and the Skiack, which,
formed by the union of several mountain-streams,
falls into the sea about half-a-mile from the mouth
of the Aultgraad, there are several other streamlets,
which take their rise from lakes among tbe moun
tains. The principal lake is Loch-Glass : which
see. There are flattering indications of coal in the
district ; but no vein of consequence has yet been
discovered. Several of the hills contain lead-ore 5
and shell-marl of a rich quality is abundant. Near the
house of Clyne is a remarkable piece of antiquity,
which appears to have been used by the Druids as a
place of worship. It is an oval figure, formed with
large stones set upright, similar — though on a smaller
scale — to Stonehenge in Wiltshire. There are the
remains of several ancient chapels. Population, in
1801, 1,525; in 1831, 1,605. Houses 325. Asses
sed property, in 1815, £3,897. The real rental was
estimated, in 1839, at £5,300. The only village is
that of Evantoun, which has sprung up within this
century, and contains a population of about 500.
This parish, formerly a vicarage, is in the presbytery
of Dingwall, and synod of Ross. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £249 9s. 6d. ; glebe £12. Church built in
1791 ; sittings 524.— There is a United Secession
chapel at Evantoun ; sittings 400  Schoolmaster's
salary £30, with about £20 fees. There is a pri
vate school at Evantoun.
KILVICEUEN, a parish in the island of Mull,
united to that of Kilfinichen. See Kilfinichen.
KILWINNING, a parish in the district of Cun
ningham, Ayrshire. It is bounded on the north by
Dairy ; on the east by Stewarton ; on the south by
Irvine and Stevenstone ; and on the west by Ardros
san. Its greatest length is about 7 miles; its
greatest breadth about 5 miles ; and its superficial
area 17J square miles. Along the east and north.
east, the surface is hilly ; and thence to the south,
south-west, and west, it slopes gently down in
knoUy or waving curves. Many of its heights and
hillocks are crowned with plantation, and are agree
able features in a lovely landscape. The southern
extremity is beautified bythe mansion and part of
the pleasure-grounds of Eglinton-castle : seethat
article. Three mosses, the largest upwards of 200

KILWINNING.

141

acres in extent, and from 12 to 16 feet in depth, oc
cupy separate localities, and furnish supplies of ex
cellent peats. Almost all the rest of the parish is
fully enclosed, richly cultivated, and sedulously de
voted either to the plough, or more specially to the
dairy. The soil, over nearly one-half of the whole
surface, is a stiff clay ; and over the other half it
is a light sandy loam. The climate is exceedingly
moist, rains being both frequent and severe, yet it
seems not unhealthy, — several persons having lived
considerably beyond the age of 80, and one to that
of 104, during 40 years preceding the date of the
Old Statistical Account. Coal abounds, and is
mined in several pits, and exported. Limestone,
prime in quality, and plentiful in quantity, occurs in
almost every district. Freestone is wrought in se
veral quarries, and is in request beyond local limits
as a building material. A chalybeate spring wells
up in the vicinity of the town, and has been
thought an antidote to nervous complaints. A
small lake, called Ash-en-yard or Ashgrove-loch,
situated at the south-western extremity, abounds
in excellent pikes and perches. Garnock and Lug-
ton-waters intersect the parish, the former south
eastward, and the latter south-westward, making a
confluence about a mile below Eglinton-castle ;
and are well-stored with different sorts of very fine
trouts, and with salmon. But the Garnock [which
see] often does damage by its inundations. Dusk
water, which also traverses the parish, issues from
a lochlet in the extreme north corner of the par
ish of Beith, flows J of » mile eastward, and 1|
mile southward, and then, over a remaining course
of 1_\ miles, runs south-westward to the Garnock,
If above the town of Kilwinning. All the streams
furnish an opulent amount of water-power for driv
ing machinery; and they have aggregately on their
banks a considerable number of small mills. The
parish is cut from north to south by the Glasgow
and Ayr railway, and by two turnpikes, and from
north-east to south-west by the turnpike from Glas
gow to Saltcoats. Population, in 1801, 2,700 ; in
1831, 3,772. Houses 541. Assessed property, in
1815, £13,786  Kilwinning is in the presbytery of
Irvine, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the
Earl of Eglinton. Stipend £266 12s. ; glebe £14
10s. Unappropriated teinds £781 17s. lOd. The
parish-church was built in 1771. Sittings 1,030 A
parochial missionary, a licentiate of the Establish
ment, assists in pastoral superintendence, and in
preaching, and receives upwards of £40 salary, from
the Earl of Eglinton, the minister, and evening col
lections. In the town are two dissenting places of
worship. The United Secession congregation was
established in 1825. Their meeting-house is a plain
oblong building, occupied for worship only in the
upper part ; let in the lower flat as a dwelling-house ;
and built in 1824 at a cost of nearly £300. Sittings
250. Stipend not less than £80. The Original
Seceder congregation was established in 1758. Their
present chapel was built in 1825, at a cost of more
than £600. Sittings between 500 and 600. Stipend
£128, withahouseand garden. Accordingto a survey
made by the parish-minister in 1835, the population
then was 4,1 11 ; of whom 2,561 were churchmen, 708
were dissenters, and 842 were persons unconnected
with any religious body,— the last class including all
persons who were not communicants in some church,
except the members of families whose heads were
communicants.* There are 7 schools, conducted by 7
teachers, and attended by a maximum of 390 scho
lars  Six of the schools are non-parochial ; and 2
« A survey made at thesametime by some dissenters, stated
the population to be 4,135; of whom 3,115 were churchmen,
and 1,020 were dissenters.

of that number afford tuition in the classics. Par
ochial schoolmaster's salary £37, with fees, and £20
other emoluments  The parish was anciently a
vicarage of the monastery of the town, and derived
its name from St. Winning, a Scottish saint of the
8th century. Near the manse is a fountain still
called Winning's well ; and on the 1 st of February
is held a fair, called Winning's-day fair. Soon after
the erection of the abbey, Kilwinning was known,
in all the circumjacent country, under the name of
Saig-town, thought by some to be a corruption of
Saints'-town ; and by this name it still is, or very
recently was, well known to the inhabitants. Be
fore the Reformation the church of the abbey served
as the parish-church,; and even when the abbey it
self was demolished, the church was allowed to
stand, and continued to be used till the erection of
the present edifice.
The abbey of Kilwinning was founded in 1140,
for a colony of Tyronensian monks from Kelso, by
Hugh de MSrville, lord of Cunningham, and Lord
High Constable of Scotland, and dedicated, like a
church which preceded it, to St. Winning. Robert
I., Hugh de Morville, John de Meneleth, the lord of
Arran, Sir William Cunningham of Kilmaurs, Sir
John Maxwell of Maxwell, and other opulent and
powerful personages, endowed it with very exten
sive possessions. Besides granges and other pro
perty, the abbey claimed the proprietorship of the
tithes and pertinents of 20 parish-churches, — 1 3 of
them in Cunningham, 2 in Arran, 2 in Argyleshire,
and 2 in Dumbartonshire. " According to the tra
ditionary account of the entire revenue of the monas
tery," says the statist in the Old Account, " it is
asserted that its present annual amount would be at
least £20,000 sterling." From Robert II. the
monks obtained a charter, erecting all the lands of
the barony of Kilwinning into a free regality, with
ample jurisdiction ; and they received ratifications of
this charter from Robert III. and James IV. The
monks appear to have been unusually expert in the
chicanery of priestcraft, and to have enthralled the
judgments and superstitious feelings of men in the
dark ages of their influence, fully more than most of
their contemporaries. They made so juggling a use
of some pretended relics as, on the credulous faith
of their virtues, to draw many offerings ; and they,
at the same time, made such an exhibition to the
public eye of shallow austerities, as to win for them
selves the credit of being superhuman in character.
James IV., when passing their place in 1507, made
an offering of 14 shillings to their relics. Hoveden,
thoroughly gulled with their base legends, gravely
relates, that a fountain in the vicinity of their monas
tery ran blood for eight days and nights, in the year
1184. The last abbot was Gavin Hamilton, of the
family of Rosslock, a hot opponent of John Knox,
and a zealous partizan of Queen Mary. In 1538, he
succeeded James Bethune, archbishop of Glasgow,
as abbot; and in 1571, was killed in a skirmish in
the Canongate of Edinburgh. According to tradi
tion, the buildings of the abbey, when entire, covered
several acres, and were stately and magnificent. In
1560, Alexander, Earl of Glencairn, one of the most
active and distinguished promoters of the Reforma
tion, acting by order of the States-general of Scotland,
almost destroyed them, leaving only the church and a
steeple, and so totally demolished what was strictly
monastic, thatall traces of even the foundations of the
walls have long ago utterly disappeared. In 1603—
after the abbey had been under the commendatorship,
first of the family of Glencairn, and next of the family
of Raith  its lands and titles, and various pertinents,
were erected into a temporal lordship in favour of
Hugh, Earl of Eglinton. Towards the close of list

142

KILWINNING.

century, the ruins which remained were repaired, at
very considerable expense, by the Earl of Eglinton
of the period ; and, from a drawing of them, made in
1789, they are exhibited in Grose's Antiquities.
Kilwinning, the capital of the cognominal parish,
and a populous manufacturing village, is pleasantly
situated on a gentle rising ground on the right bank
of the river Garnock ; 2£ miles from the nearest part
of the frith of Clyde ; 5£ miles north-east of Salt
coats ; 2f miles north-west of Irvine ; and 3| miles
south of Dairy. The town is ancient, and has a
dull, antiquated, dingy appearance ; yet borrows suf
ficient splendour from the loveliness of its environs,
and from reminiscences of its historical importance,
and from the beautiful and partially Gothic form of
its parish-church, with an elegant modern spire sur
mounting the tower of its ancient monastery, to be
an object of no little interest. It consists principally
of one street, winged by some lanes, and of some
rows of modern houses ; and stretches westward
from the river. The approaches to it are shaded
with trees, and flanked by beautiful fields. At its
east end is a height, called the Crosshill, on which
the monks anciently set up what they reckoned the
symbol of Christianity, to receive the initiatory
homage of the pilgrims who crowded to their
shrines. Part of the town is suburban, consisting
of an attached or adjacent village called Byres.
The ancient seat of monkish indolence and gilded
knavery is now the scene of manufacturing industry;
and acquires from the humble toils of its busy in
habitants, and especially from the moral enlighten
ment of a portion of their number, unutterably higher
attractions than it ever possessed in the pompous
fooleries and rueful grandeur of the cowled frater
nity who drew flocks of victims to their sumptu
ous ecclesiastical palace. The rattle of the loom,
and the humble prattle of Christian intelligence, as
substitutes for the choral chauntings of the missal,
amply compensate by their intrinsic utility all that
they lose in poetical effect. In the various depart
ments of silk, woollen, and cotton, the town had,
in 1828. 370 looms, and in 1838, 350. In the latter
year, 60 of the looms were harness, and 290 plain.
Near the end of last century, an extensive tannery,
and 3 small factories, 1 for carding cotton, and 2
for spinning it, were established. With the excep
tion of a few families, the whole population, not
only of the town, but of the landward part of the
parish, are of the working- classes, principally hand-
loom weavers, shopkeepers, labourers, and colliers.
The town has a branch-office of the Commercial
Bank of Scotland ; and it has two annual fairs.
Nor is the place deficient, proportionately to its
bulk, in charitable or friendly institutions.
A remarkable fact connected with the town — one
which occasions its name to figure prominently to the
present day in the proceedings of the gaudy and
flaunting associations, so extensively popular in our
country, who endeavour to make up by parade and
by boasted consciousness of importance, what they
want in usefulness and meaning — is, that it was the
cradle of free-masonry in Scotland, and, till not very
many years ago, was regarded with filial feelings, or
with those of nurslings, by all the lodges in the
kingdom. The community and conservation of a
real or supposed secret; — especially considering how
unreserved and open benevolence, or true goodness,
is in its abstract nature — seems the most question
able of all bonds of union, short of such as are posi
tively criminal, for forming and maintaining volun
tary associations ; yet it appears, with a numerous
proportion of men, to have in most ages possessed
peculiar attractions, and to have, in some instances,
been preferred to other bonds of union, at the risk

even of proscription and suffering. The Eleusinian
mysteries attained great respectability among the
ancient Greeks, and were protected bylaw. A class
of artificers, held together by the Dionysian myste
ries, too, possessed at one time the exclusive privi
lege of erecting temples and theatres, and were nu
merous in Syria, Persia, and Western Hindostan.
These ancient associations, on account of their cere •
monies all having connexion with pagan superstitions,
were proscribed by the Christian Roman emperors ;
yet they are believed to have been secretly continued,
under the pretence of ordinary assemblies for amuse
ment, and with a diminished amplitude in the observ
ance of pagan rites. Modern masonry — to the unini
tiated, at least, and almost certainly to even the ini
tiated — is so obscure in its early history and character,
that it neither, on the one hand, can it be distinctly
traced to either a connexion with these or other an
cient fraternities, or to some comparatively modern
outburst of the common tendency of mankind to
associate themselves in clubs and select communi
ties ; nor, on the other hand, can it be pronounced to
have had for its original object what seems mainly to
be its modern one — a pompous and ceremonial species
of conviviality, or the maintenance of freer notions,
bona fide on the subject of architecture, than the
circumstances of an iron age permitted to be public.
All that can fully be affirmed is, that, about the time
of the crusades, associations of free-masons, whose
members had a formal initiation, and distinguished
one another by secret signs, appeared numerously in
Europe, and acted a conspicuous part, if not in the
introduction of the Saracenic, or, as it is usually
called, the Gothic architecture, at least in the super
intendence of most of the magnificent erections in
which it was exemplified. Sir Christopher Wren,
as quoted by Grose — taking quite as high a flight in
positiveness of statement as could be at all safe —
says, " The Holy war gave the Christians who had
been" in the east " an idea of the Saracen works,
which were afterwards by them imitated in the west ;
and they refined upon it every day, as they proceeded
in building churches. The Italians (among which
were still some Greek refugees), and with them
French, Germans, and Flemings, joined into a fra
ternity of architects ; procuring papal bulls for their
encouragement, and particular privileges. They
styled themselves free-masons, and ranged from one
nation to another, as they found churches to be built
(for very many in those ages were every where in
building through piety or emulation). Their gov
ernment was regular ; and where they fixed near the
building in hand, they made a camp of huts. A sur
veyor governed in chief; every tenth man was called
a warden, and overlooked each nine ; the gentlemen
in the neighbourhood, either out of charity or com
mutation of penance, gave the materials and car
riages." [Antiquities. Vol. i. Pref. Note in p. 114.]
One of these fraternities either voluntarily came, or
were invited over from the continent, to take part
in building the abbey of Kilwinning ; and when on
the .spot, they seem to have communicated their se
cret, whatever it was, to some of the more respect
able natives who had no practical connexion with
the art of masonry, and thus to have formed the
earliest lodge of Scottish free-masons, But the fra
ternities on the continent, by holding their meetings
with shut doors, by binding themselves under the
sanction of an oath to keep all the uninitiated, no
matter how princely or prelatical, unacquainted with
their mysteries, and especially by fraternizing with
the usurping and dangerous military order of Knights
Templars, speedily drew upon themselves such
jealousies, anathematizings, proscriptions, and perse
cutions, as issued in their extinction. The parent

KIL

143

KIN

national lodges of Kilwinning in Scotland, and York
in England, with whatever offshoots they had
throughout the country, doubtless shared in the
general odium ; and though they survived the shock,
they continued for ages in obscurity. During the
reign of James I., however, Scottish free-masonry
walked abroad with the high bearing which has ever
since characterized it. That monarch, not long after
his return from England, patronized the mother-
lodge of Kilwinning ; and presided as grand-master
till he settled an annual salary, to be paid by every
master-mason of Scotland to a grand-master, who
should be chosen by the brethren, and approved by
the Crown, — who should be nobly born, or a clergy
man of high rank and character, — and who should
have his deputies in the different towns and counties
of Scotland. James II. conferred the office of grand
master on William St. Clair, Earl of Orkney and
Caithness, and made it hereditary in the family of
his descendants, the Barons of Roslin. Earl William
and his successors held their head-courts, or assem
bled their grand-lodges, in Kilwinning, as the seat of
the earliest fraternity. An uncommon spirit for free
masonry becoming diffused, many lodges were formed
throughout the kingdom, receiving their charters of
erection from the Kilwinning lodge, and combining
its name with their own in their distinctive titles.
In 1736, William St. Clair of Roslin, obliged to sell
his estates, and destitute of an heir, resigned to an
assembly of the lodges of Edinburgh and its vicinity,
all claim to the grand-mastership, and empowered
them, in common with the other lodges of the coun
try, to declare the office elective. On St. Andrews'-
day of that year, the representatives of about 32
lodges received the resignation, elected William St.
Clair himself their grand-master, set an example
which has ever since been followed, of testifying
respect for the part he acted, and constituted them
selves into the grand-lodge of Scotland, — an institu
tion whose influence or power has in a great measure
shorn tbe ancient Kilwinning lodge of its peculiar
honours, or at least superseded it in its paramount
place among the lodges. Yet, whoever takes any
interest in free-masonry, still looks with feelings of
pride or veneration to the Kilwinning lodge, and no
doubt gives a ready response to the remark of the
author of the Beauties of Scotland, " that the hum
ble village of Kilwinning, considered as the spot
where this order was preserved while it was extin
guished on the continent of Europe, and from which
it was to rise from its ashes, and spread to the rising
and the setting sun, enjoys a singular degree of
importance, which it could scarcely have obtained
from any other circumstance." " The records of the
Kilwinning lodge," says the Old Statistical Account,
" contain a succession of grand-masters, charters of
erection to other lodges, as daughters of the mother-
lodge, &c. The Earls of Eglintoune have succes
sively patronized this lodge. Some years ago, the
present earl made a donation to the fraternity of a
p'ece of ground, for building a new and very elegant
lodge; and, with many other gentlemen, anxious to
preserve the rights of the very ancient and venerable
mother-lodge, liberally contributed to its erection.
There is a common seal, expressive of the antiquity
of the mother-lodge, and of the emblems of the an
cient art of masonry, and by which charters, and all
other public deeds of the society, are ratified."
Archery is practised to the-present hour at Kilwin
ning, as an elegant and manly amusement. Though
the town, in this particular, exhibits only a taste
which is possessed in common with it by Edinburgh,
Musselburgh, Kelso, Peebles, St. Andrews, Irvine,
and other places, yet it outvies them all in the anti
quity of its company of archers, and in the principle

of utility, or of compliance with regal acts for regulat-
ing the military system of the state, on which they
were originally associated. The company are known,
though imperfectly, and only by tradition, to have
existed prior to the year 1488 ; and from that year
downward, they are authenticated by documents.
Originally enrolled by royal authority, they appear
to have been encouraged by the inmates of tbe abbey ;
and they, in consequence, instituted customs which
easily secured their surviving the discontinuance of
of archery as the principal art of war. Once a-vear,
generally in the month of June, they make a grand
exhibition. The principal shooting is at a parrot,
anciently called the papingo, and well known under
that name in heraldry, but now called the popinjay
This used to be constructed of wood ; but in recent
years has consisted of feathers worked up into the
semblance of a parrot; and is suspended by a string
to the top of a pole, and placed 120 feet high, on
tbe steeple of the monastery. The archer who
shoots down this mark is called " the Captain of the
popinjay ;" he is master of the ceremonies of the
succeeding year ; he sends cards of invitation to the
ladies, and gives them a ball and supper; and he
transmits the honours to posterity by attaching to
the badge of them, which was temporarily in his pos
session, a medal with suitable devices. The badge
received and transmitted is now, and since 1723 has
been, a silver arrow ; but from 1488 to 1688, it was
a piece of vari-coloured taffeta called a ' benn,' and
worn as a sash; and from the latter date till 1723,
it was a piece of silver-plate. Every person ac
quainted with the national novels of Scotland, will
recognize the Kilwinning festival, though fictioned
to be on a different arena, in the opening scene of
Old Mortality, when young Milnwood achieves the
honours of captain of the popinjay, and becomes
bound to do the honours of the Howff. Another
kind of shooting is practised for prizes at butts,
point-blank, distance, about 26 yards. The prize, in
this case, is some useful or ornamental piece of plate,
given annually to the company by the senior surviv
ing archer  The town is governed by a baron-bailie.
Population between 2,000 and 3,000.
KINCARDINE, a hilly parish in the counties of
Ross and Cromarty, above 35 miles in length, and
from 5 to 20 miles in breadth. It is bounded by
Assynt and Criech on the north; by Eddertown,
Rosskeen, and Fodderty on the east and south ; and
by Lochbroom on the west. At its east end it is
very narrow ; but it gradually widens, till, at the
western extremity, where ' the forest of Balnagown'
 which is a group of rude hills of great extent — is
situated, it is 20 miles in breadth. It consists of a
number of straths or glens, in which run several
rivulets, and of mountains covered with fine soft
heath, and affording excellent sheep-walks. The
coast of the frith of Dornoch, which also bounds the
parish on the north and east, is flat and sandy, afford
ing safe harbours for small vessels. There are several
salmon-fishings on the frith, and on the waters of the
Oyckel and Carron. The village of Kincardine is
situated on the coast, with a small harbour, about
14 miles west of Tain. Nigh to the church is a piece
of ground walled in, and terminating in alarge semi
circle appropriated to that ancient military exercise
known by tbe name of ' Weapon-shawing.' Knock-
birny, a mountain which divides this parish from As
synt, abounds with marble, both white and coloured ;
and, on Cairnchuinaig, topazes similar to those of
Cairngorm have been found. Population, in 1801,
1,865 ; in 1831, 1,887. Houses 441. Assessed pro
perty £1,997. Real rental, in 1840, about £5,000.—
This parish is in the presbytery of Tain, and the synod
of Ross. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £278 2s. j

KIN

144

KIN

glebe £8 16s. Church built in 1799; sittings 426.
Part of the south-west extremity of the parish, run
ning 30 miles west till it meets the parish of Loch-
broom, has been annexed quoad sacra to the Govern
ment church at Croick, about 12 miles from Bonar-
bridge. The mission of Rosehall extends into this
parish and that of Criech  The schoolmaster has
the maximum salary; there are seven private schools
in the parish.
In this parish is situated the mountain of Craig-
chonichan, or Craigcaoineadhan, — ' the Rock of La
mentation,' — where the gallant Marquis of Montrose
fought his last battle, and was defeated by Colonel
Strachan. It was Saturday, the 27th April, 1650,
when Strachan's officers were deliberating whether
they should move immediately forward, or wait till
Monday, " and so decline the hazard of engaging
upon the Lord's day," when notice being brought
that Montrose had advanced from Strathoyckel to
Carbisdale, — a movement which brought him 6 miles
nearer to them, — they made arrangements for at
tacking him without delay. Strachan advanced with
out observation as far as Fearn, within about 2 miles
of Montrose, where he concealed his men on a muir
covered with broom, whence he sent a party of
scouts under Captain Munro, to reconnoitre Mon
trose. Munro soon returned and reported that Mon
trose had pushed out a body of 40 horse to ascertain
their movements. .In order to deceive this body,
Strachan ordered one troop of horse out of the
broom, which being tbe only force observed by Mon
trose's scouts, they returned and reported to Mon
trose what they had seen. This intelligence threw
Montrose completely off his guard, who, conceiving
that the whole strength of tbe enemy consisted of a
single troop of horse, made no preparations for de
fending himself. In the meantime, Strachan formed
his men into four divisions. The first, which con
sisted of about 100 horsemen, he commanded him
self; the second, amounting to upwards of 80, was
given in charge to Hacket ; and the third, also
horse, to the number of about 40, was led by Cap
tain Hutcheson. The fourth division, which was
composed of a body of musketeers belonging to
Lawer's regiment, was commanded by Quarter-mas
ter Shaw. The deception which had been so well-
practised upon Montrose by Strachan, in concealing
the real amount of his force, might not have been
attended with any serious effect to Montrose, but
for another stratagem which Strachan had in reserve,
which proved his ruin. Strachan's scheme was first
to advance with his own division to make appear as
if his whole strength consisted at first of only 100
horse, and, while Montrose was impressed with this
false idea, to bring up the other three divisions in
rapid succession, and thus create a panic among Mon
trose's men as if a large army was about to attack
them. This contrivance was crowned with the most
complete success. Montrose little suspecting the
trick, was thrown quite off his guard ; alarmed at
the sudden appearance of successive bodies of ca
valry, he immediately gave orders for a retreat to a
wood and craggy hill at a short distance in his rear;
but before Montrose's men could reach their intended
place of retreat, they were overtaken when almost
breathless, as they were about entering the wood, by
Strachan's troopers, who charged them violently.
The foreign troops received the, charge with firm
ness, and, after discharging a volley upon the horse,
flew into the wood ; but most of the Orcadians
threw down their arms in terror and begged for
quarter. The Munroes and Rosses followed the
Danish troops into the wood and killed many of
them. Two hundred of the fugitives in attempting
to cross the adjoining river were all drowned. Mon

trose for some time made an unavailing effort to rally
some of his men, and fought with his accustomed
bravery ; but having his horse shot under him, and
seeing it utterly impossible longer to resist the
enemy, he mounted the horse of Lord Frendraught,
which that young and generous nobleman proffered
him, and galloped off the field ; and as soon as he
got out of the reach of the enemy, he dismounted,
and throwing away his cloak, which was decorated
with the star of the garter, and his sword, sought
his safety on foot. The slaughter of Montrose's
men continued about two hours, or until sunset,
during which time 10 of his best officers and 386
soldiers were killed. The most conspicuous among
the former for bravery was Menzies, younger of Pit-
foddles, the bearer of the black standard, who re
peatedly refused to receive quarter. Upwards of
400 prisoners were taken, including 31 officers,
among whom were Sir John Hurry and Lord Fren
draught, the latter of whom was severely wounded.
Among the prisoners taken were two ministers.
This victory was achieved almost without bloodshed
on the part of the victors, who had only two men
wounded. One of their troopers was drowned in
his eagerness pursuing the party of royalists who
perished in the river. After the slaughter, the con
querors returned thanks to God on the open field for
the victory they had obtained, and returned to Tain,
carrying the prisoners along with them. For several
days the people of Ross and Sutherland continued to
pursue some unfortunate stragglers, whom they
despatched. The result was most calamitous to
Orkney, as appears from a petition and memorandum
by the gentlemen of Orkney to Lord Morton in
1662, in which it is stated, that there was scarcely a
gentleman's house in that country " but lost either
a son or a brother." The particulars of Montrose's
flight and capture are detailed in our article Assynt.
KINCARDINE, a parish in the district of Men-
teith, about the middle of the southern verge of
Perthshire. It consists of two parts, both bounded
on the south by tbe river Forth, and detached from
each other, at the average distance of 2£ miles, by the
southern part of the parish of Kilmadock. The main
body or eastern section stretches between the Forth
and theTeith, from their point of confluence westward,
4 miles in a straight line up the former, and 41 up the
latter ; and measures on its west side, or along the
boundary with Kilmadock, 2f miles. The lesser or
western section stretches northward! between Port-
of- Monteith on the west, and Kilmadock on the east,
to an extended wing of the latter parish on the north,
in a stripe of mean length 3^ miles, and of mean
breadth l\ mile. The Teith divides the main body
from Kilmadock and Lecropt on the north-east ; and
the Forth divides both sections from Stirlingshire on
the south. In consequence of the Forth bending
from its general easterly course, and making a sweep
1£ or If mile northward to the point of junction
with the Teith, the area of the parish is greater than
would appear from the measurement we have stated,
and is supposed to amount to upwards of 6,000 acres.
Goody-water runs If mile along the western bound
ary of the smaller section of the parish, and the same
distance south-eastward through it, to fall into the
Forth, in the intervening projection of the parish of
Kilmadock. Both this stream and the Forth are
here dark-coloured in their waters, and have a muddy'
bottom ; and both in the bulk of their united vo
lume, and in the beauty of their banks, they are ex
celled by the Teith. The surface of the parish con
sists, over two-thirds of its extent which stretch up
wards from the Forth, of carse-lands, and over the
remaining third on the north of dryfield ; and is al
most everywhere nearly a dead level, or has at least

KIN

145

KIN

n very gentle slope toward the streams. But it pre
sents a series of grounds beautifully cultivated, well-
enclosed, and adorned on the Teith side with the
affluent and wooded demesne of Blair-Drummond ;
and lying in the widest part of the strath of Men-
teith, screened in the distance with the Lomond-
hills on the west, Benledi on the north-west, Ben-
voirlich and Stoontachrone on the north, the Ochils
on the east, and the hill-chain of Stirlingshire on
the south, it is the centre of a finely-featured and
warmly-tinted picture, set in a frame of superbness
and grandeur. The soil of the dryfield district is a
light loam, formerly studded with numerous nodules
of whinstone and a few of plumbcake stone, which
greatly obstructed tillage till they were blown with
gunpowder, and removed. The soil of the carse
district is a rich blue clay, lying upon a bed of gravel,
which comes near the surface at the northern extre
mity, and thence dips at the rate of one foot in a
hundred toward the Forth, allowing a great average
depth to the superincumbent clay. At various
depths, the carse has many thin beds of shells, par
ticularly of oysters. About 70 years ago, nearly
one-half of the whole carse-lands were covered
with a deep bog, well-known under the name of the
Kincardine-moss, which was of no other value than
for its produce in peats ; and, owing to the boldness
and novelty of the processes by which it was ren
dered arable and richly luxuriant, has obtained more
notoriety than probably any other scene of agricul
tural improvement. Various methods of improve
ment were tried, so slow in their progress, so limited
in their range, and of so little value in their results,
that they raised a doubt whether the arena of them
would not have been worth more to the proprietor
had it been the bed of a lake. Henry Home, Lord
Kames, a senator of the college of justice, and the
distinguished author of several learned publications,
within whose estate of Blair-Drummond the moss
lay, conceived the project of cutting it away piece
meal, and sending it adrift on the Forth, and having
commenced operations, was succeeded in the con
ducting of them by Mr. Home Drummond, his son
and heir : see article Blair-Drummond. In the
western section of the parish are the two contiguous
villages of Norriestown and Thornhill : which
see. The road from Stirling to Inversnaid runs
through both sections, and is connected with several
diverging roads. Population of the parish, in 1801,
2,212 ; in 1831, 2,456. Houses 470.' Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £8,070. — Kincardine is in the pres
bytery of Dunblane, and synod of Perth and Stirling.
Patron, Lady Willoughby de Eresby. Stipend £255
8s. Id. ; glebe £14. Unappropriated teinds £401
9s. 7d. The western section of the parish has a se
parate church, and forms the chief part of the quoad
sacra parish of Norriestown — The parish-school
is attended by a maximum of 74 scholars ; and 4
non-parochial schools by a maximum of 296. Parish-
schoolmaster's salary £30, with about £14 fees, and
£12 other emoluments.
KINCARDINE, a considerable village and sea
port on the north shore of the frith of Forth, in the
parish of Tulliallan, in the southern detached part of
Perthshire. It overlooks a contraction of the Forth
to a width of 5 furlongs, and has above it no part of
the frith wider than a mile. It is distant 5 miles
east from Alloa; 4 west from Culross ; 22 south
from Perth; and 25 north-west by west of Edin
burgh. Some salt-pans which originally impresse"d
on it a characteristic feature, and which amounted,
in 1 780, to fifteen in number, imposed on it the name
of West Pans ; but these long ago disappeared, and
allowed it to assume its present less vulgar, and
II.

somewhat appropriate name.* The houses of the
town, except in the old parts, are, in general, neat
and substantial, two and three stories high ; but they
are, for the most part, collocated into such narrow or
irregular street-arrangements, as, in spite of the aid
derived from the vicinity of some good villas, and of
a fine new parish-church, to exhibit a tout ensemble
not very prepossessing. The kirktown or village of
Tulliallan, is a suburb of the town, situated on its
north or inland side. The port, with the exception
of Leith, is one of the most considerable on the
Forth. So far back as 1786, it had 91 vessels of
aggregately 5,461 tons, — an excess over Alloa, at the
same date, of 200 tons. But it afterwards suffered
depression ; and though it rallied, and has, on the
whole thriven, it is far from now exhibiting a fruition
corresponding to the fulness of its early promise.
The number of shipowners is at least 50; but it is
hardly an index to the amount of commercial im
portance which the place possesses, but rather an
indication of a fondness which the principal inhabi
tants — in common with those of Kirkcaldy and some
other second-rate ports — have to possess property in
sea-craft. The shipowners constitute among them
selves a company for insurance against individual
losses at sea ; and, in 1839, had a capital in vessels
of £70,000. The trade of the port extends to the
shores of the Baltic, to those of the Mediterranean,
and to the West Indies and America ; but it consists
chiefly in the exportation of Coals to places not far
distant, and in the importation of Russian and
Swedish produce. The quay or pier, built by the
voluntary contributions of the shipowners, is good ;
and opposite to it is a roadstead capable of accom
modating 100 vessels of each 300 tons burden. Two
steam-vessels ply across the frith, conveying car
riages and cattle, and otherwise serving as a facile
succedaneum for a bridge ; performing the passage in
five minutes, and attaching importance to the town
by opening a main line of communication direct be
tween Glasgow and its dependent towns, and the
whole district of Fifeshire and Kinross. Ship-build
ing is conducted to a very noticeable extent, so many
as 9 or 10 vessels being occasionally at one time on
the stocks; but it is confined chiefly to the construc
tion of coasting vessels. In the town are a brewery,
and works for making ropes and sails. In the suburb
of Tulliallan is a distillery. Weekly markets are
held on Wednesday and Saturday ; and an annual
fair is held on the last Friday of July. The town
has branch-offices of the Glasgow Union bank, and
the Commercial bank of Scotland. Two meeting
houses, belonging respectively to the United Seces
sion, and to the Original Burghers, are situated
here.; and the parish-church stands in the suburb.
See Tulliallan. Kincardine is a burgh-of-barony.
Population, about 3,200.
KINCARDINE, a decayed village in the parish
of Fordoun, in Kincardineshire, anciently the capital
of the county to which it gives its name, till James
VI. removed the courts to Stonehaven, which is now
the county-town. It contains about 70 inhabitants.
KINCARDINESHIRE, — usually called the
Mearns, — a county on the north-east coast ;
bounded on the north by Aberdeenshire, from
which, in a great measure, it is divided by the
river Dee ; on the east by the German ocean ; and
* The word Kincardine is of Gaelic origin, and is said to
mean ' the Head of the shore.' As applied to the parish de
scribed in the preceding article, and lying west of Stirling, it
countenances the generally received hypothesis, that the upper
carse of tbe Forth was, at one time, the bed of a continuation
of the frith. The town we are now noticing, possibly occu
pies at present a similar relative position to the frith, to that
which belonged to the parish-church of Kiucardine-of-Menteith
when it received its name. K

146

KINCARDINESHIRE.

on the south and west by Forfarshire, front which
it is divided by the North Esk. The form is tri
angular, with its most acute angle stretching north
eastward to the city of Aberdeen, and terrninating
at Girdleness. The coast-boundary extends south-
westward for 32 miles, being the greatest length of
the county ; and its greatest breadth, from east to
west, is 24 miles. Square area 380 miles, or 243,444
English acres, of which 1,280 are covered with
water ; 120,000 consist of cultivated land, wood
land, improveable moor, &c. ; and the remainder of
mpuntains, hills, and general waste. The county is
locally divided into four districts, — the Grampian,
the Dee-side, the valley or Howe of the Mearns, and
the Coast-side.
The Grampian, or mountain-district, consists of
the eastern termination of what is popularly called
the lower chain of that mighty rampart of ancient
independence, the Grampian range : see Grampians.
This sterile, rugged, dreary, region stretches from
west to east, through the whole breadth of the
county, softening down almost to the verge of the
ocean, and separating the Dee-side district, on the
north, from the Howe of the Mearns, on the south.
Rising, in the midst of highly cultivated land, about 3
miles from the coast, with a height of 500 to 600 feet
— if not rather forming, first of all, the promontory
of Girdleness itself — this bleak and solitary, but sub
lime and grand division of the county rapidly in
creases in altitude, among a vast congeries of dark
brown hills, until, at the western extremity of the
district, about 20 miles from the sea, Mount Battock,
nearly 3,500 feet above sea-level, towers in height
beyond them all. On the top of this mountain the
counties of Kincardine, Forfar, and Aberdeen, join
their limits. About 6 miles eastward is Clochnaben,
or the White stone hill, remarkable for a protuber
ance of solid rock on its summit, about 100 feet in
perpendicular height, appearing, from the sea, like a
watch-tower, and forming an excellent land-mark to
coasting vessels.
" The four great land.marks on the sea
Are Mount-Mar, Lochnagar, Clochnaben, and Benochie."
About 4 miles distant, from Clochnaben is Kerlook,
from the top of which, at an altitude of 1,900 feet,
is commanded a most noble and extensive view over
the greater part of Aberdeenshire to the north, and
southwards as far even as the Lammermuir hills in
East Lothian. Six miles to the north-east is Cairn-
manearn, almost covered over its whole surface with
.-great boulders, or blocks of granite. The hill of
Fare was the scene of the battle of Corrichie, in
1562, between the Earls of Murray and Huntly, where
in the latter was slain. Cairnmount, in the south
front of the Grampians, is about 2,500 feet in height,
—over it passes the public road from the Howe to
the Dee-side. Strathfinella, also on the south, is re
markable for the manner in which it stands isolated
from the main body of the ridge, being cut off by a
narrow vale, of very pleasant aspect, but in many
places not 100 yards in breadth. In summer the
glens and deep hollows between the Grampian
mountains are somewhat enlivened by the fringe
of green pasture springing up by . the sides of the
different brooks, which alternately become either
dry channels or furious torrents ; but there reigns
throughout even these a cheerless, gloomy soli
tude, devoid, except in a very few places, equally
of human habitation or of marks of human industry.
In some of them, however, there are spots of sur
passing natural beauty. In a romantic situation on
one of these choice spots stands the shooting-lodge
of Glendye. The tract occupied in this county by
the Grampians is, on an average, from 16 to 18 miles

in length, by 6 to 8 in breadth. Square area 120
miles, or nearly 80,000 acres.
The Dee-side district extends from the sea west
ward, along 'the southern bank of the Dee for about
13 miles, and then along both banks 9 or 10 miles
further, comprehending also the valley of the Feugh.
In this district, which is peculiarly favourable to the
growth of timber, the face of the country is highly
embellished by the plantations, which here occupy a
greater extent of land than in any other part of the
county; the fir-plantations extending, in some places,
to the summits of the adjoining hills. At many
points, especially in the vicinity of the rising valley
of Banchory, the prospect along the Dee is rich and
beautiful. That part of the district which lies north
of tbe river, in its narrow valley, and to which the
preceding observations more particularly allude, is
much diversified in heights and flats, and has a
southern exposure. It contains about 26 square
miles, or 16,640 acres. The southern portion of
this district contains about 54 square miles, or
34,560 acres.
The Howe district is a low, champaign, and highly
cultivated country, diversified and ornamented by
thriving plantations, gentlemen's seats, and villages.
The ground being, in many places, composed of a-
bright red clay, gives the surface, when newly
ploughed, a very peculiar, but rich, warm and pleas
ing appearance, finely relieved and contrasted as it
is, especially in summer, with the green plantations,
fields and hedges. This division of the county con
stitutes the eastern termination of the Great strath
or valley of Strathmore, extending south- west wardly
from Stonehaven, in this county, with trifling inter
ruptions, to the frith of Clyde. Its length, within
the county, is about 16 miles. At the western boun
dary it is about 5 miles in breadth, but narrows to
wards the east, till, at the water-shed, 4 miles west
of Stonehaven, where it terminates, it is little more
than half-a-mile over. It is sheltered from the cold
northern blasts by the towering Grampians, which
here present a wall rising from 500 to 2,500 feet above
the level of the Howe, or plain ; while, from the un-
genial easterly winds, it is protected by the heights
of Garvock and Arbuthnot, forming a range of hills
attaining here and there an altitude of 500 feet, and,
in most places, displaying a surface cultivated nearly
to the summit. By the continuation of the Sidlaw
hills, including these ranges, and in this instance
particularly by the Garvock-range, the surface on the
southern border of the county, more especially along
the banks of the North Esk, is much diversified with
hill and dale. The great road from Perth to Aber
deen, through Strathmore, traverses this district, —
indeed, the Howe of the Mearns constitutes the only
proper access to the north of Scotland, owing to the
hills and mountains occupying, uninterruptedly, the
whole breadth of the country, except at this point ;
and it has, therefore, been the common passage for
armies since the earliest periods of history,  yet it
does not appear to have been the scene of any great
military achievement, unless, indeed, the grand en
counter between Agricola and Galgacus, called ' the
battle of the Grampians,' occurred here. The term
| Mearns,' is probably a word of local meaning, but
it is commonly supposed to have been derived from
Mernia, the name of a brother of Kenneth II., on
whom the district was conferred, while JEneas,
another brother, held the neighbouring county of
Forfar, hence also corruptly called Angus. The
whole county from this district is sometimes, but
erroneously, termed Mearns- shire.* The square
» The Mearns, nevertheless, and ' the men o' the Mearns'
appear to have beeu highly and peculiarly estimated, even from
ancient times. The expression just quoted is a proverbial one

KINCARDINESHIRE.

147

area of the Howe district is about 50 miles, or 32,000
acres. The Coast -side district is subdivided. From
Stonehaven southwards to the North Esk it ex
tends about 18 or 20 miles in length, by 4 to 5 in
breadth, flanked, on the west, by numerous hills not
exceeding 500 feet in height, some of which, gener
ally the most barren, cross this part of the district,
and terminate close to the sea, particularly between
Stonehaven and Bervie. The shore is bold and
rocky, rising, in general, from 100 to 300 feet in
height, and presenting a perpendicular face of rock,
whence the country expands inland into plain and
highly cultivated fields, laid out in all directions,
according as the rivulets or deep ravines bend their
course to the ocean from the conterminous hills.
The most conspicuous range of rocks on this part of
the coast is Fowlsheugh, noted as a rendezvous,
during summer, of innumerable flocks' of sea-fowl of
various kinds. In the face of this rock are several
caverns with natural arches, •galleries, &c. of great
extent and magnificence. Notwithstanding the vici
nity of the ocean, this part of the county is adorned
with some thriving plantations ; and almost close to
the shore itself there are trees of considerable mag
nitude, particularly at Brotherton, where a finely-
terraced old garden, although within reach of the
sea-spray, is remarked as being one of the most lux
uriant in this part of country. The road from Mon
trose to Aberdeen runs through this division. From
Stonehaven northward to the Dee the shore is also
bold and rocky, but the face of the country is gen
erally of a very inferior description. The general
aspect of a great part of this tract is the most wretch
ed and uninviting that can well be conceived. In
the vicinity of Stonehaven, and at Aberdeen, how
ever, and in some other parts, the lands display a
totally different appearance, — strenuous and extra
ordinary exertions have been made for tbe improve
ment even of its most barren and unpromising locali
ties. The square area of this northern division of
the Coast-side district is about 45 miles, or 28,800
acres ; that of the southern, 85 miles, or 54,400
acres. Besides the Dee and the North Esk [which see],
although they can scarcely, with propriety, be said
to belong to this county, no streams meriting the name
,of rivers have their course through Kincardineshire.
The principal streams falling into the German ocean
are the Cowie and the Carron, rising in the parish
of Glenbervie, and flowing through Fetteresso to
Stonehaven ; and the Bervie, rising in Fordoun, and
flowing between that parish and those of Glenbervie
and Arbuthnot, intersecting the latter in its course
to Bervie. Those falling into the Dee are the
Sheeoch, intersecting Durris parish, and the Aven,
which rises near Mount Battock, and skirts the north
western boundary to near its junction, in the parish
of Strachan, with the Dye, also from the Grampians
near Battock. Crossing the northern corner of Stra-
Ghan, the Aven enters the Dee in the parish of Ban-
cbory-Ternan. The only considerable stream falling
into the North Esk, within this county, is the Luther,
which rises among the Grampians, in the parish of
Fordoun, by two principal sources, surrounding
Strathfinella-hill : uniting in the parish of Lau
rencekirk, the Luther falls into "the Esk near Bal-
linaqueen. These streams, though of inconsiderable
magnitude, abound with trout and par; and their
banks and overhanging trees, with knolls and braes
adjoining, are, in many places, highly picturesque
and beautiful. No less so are many of the numerous
of old date ; and there is another still more directly flattering
to the men of the Mearns : ' I can dae fat I dow [can] : the men
o-tlie- Mearns can dae nae inair.*

other smaller streams and mountain-rivuletB which
polish, soften, and enliven the stern and rugged fea
tures of the alpine solitudes down which they flow
or trickle ; almost of themselves, when swollen or
full, dispelling all their solitude and gloom. The
Loch-of-Leys is the largest lake in the county, being
about 2 miles in circumference, and well-stored with
pike. The ruins of an ancient edifice are here sup
ported by piles of oak on an artificial, island. There
is no other lake of any magnitude. Besides the val
uable salmon-fisheries contained in some of the larger
streams of this' county, there are herring, cod, and
other fisheries on the coast. The cod and ling fish
eries commence in October and close in July ; and
the haddock, skate, and turbot fisheries — which are
carried on with great activity — begin about the 1st
of May, and end about the middle of July. The
herring-fishery is said to have declined in conse
quence of the fish having deserted this part of the
coast. The mineral treasures of the county are of no great
value. Over the whole Grampian district granite is
the most prevalent stone. The hill of Strathfinella,
however — separated, as already noticed, from the
Grampian range — is one entire mass of sandstone,
perfectly isolated. Sandstone is the chief quarry in
the Howe district. Blocks or boulders of. granite,
both of a whitish colour like the granite of Aber
deen, and of a reddish colour like that of Peterhead,
are scattered over all the country round the Gram
pians, having probably been detached ahd transport
ed through the instrumentality of such enormous gla
ciers as those alluded to under the article Glenroy,
the ancient existence and effects of which have re
cently been traced in this and many other districts
throughout Scotland. Part of the granite exported
from Aberdeen is taken from the hill of Nigg in this
county. Besides granite and sandstone, the other
prevailing rocks, especially along the ' coasts, are
basalt, whinstone, and plumpudding-stone. Lime
stone is found at Mathers on the Coast-side, whence
considerable quantities are taken for manure and
building purposes ; it is also found in various other
places, as at Tillywhilly, in the Dee-side district, and
near Fettercairn, and at Laurencekirk, in the Howe
of Mearns ; but as no coal has yet been discovered,
it is principally on the coast, where that important
mineral can be more easily obtained, that limekilns
are wrought to any considerable extent. At Stone
haven, and at Laurieston, in the Coast-side district,
quarries of sandstone afford excellent and durable
materials for building. At Whistleberry, in Kinneff
parish, millstones of excellent quality are made from
the pudding-rock found on the coast. Native iron
has been found in a field at Balnakettle, and indica
tions of iron-ore are met with elsewhere throughout
the county. In the vicinity of Cowie pipe-clay is
dug for household purposes, Jaspers, porphyry, and
specimens of asbestos, have been found in different
parts ; pebbles of great variety and beauty of colour,
and some value, are procured in every brook, par
ticularly in Arbuthnot and St. Cyrus ; and the
Scottish topaz, or Cairngorm, is sometimes found
amongst the Grampian streams. Zeolite is found,
and some of the caverns on the coast near Stone-
house abound with stalactites.
The soils are very various. The Grampian dis
trict may, in general, be said to be as devoid of soil
as of vegetation ; but there are considerable excep
tions, particularly along the base and lower altitudes
of the exterior hills and slopes on the Mearns-side,
where a deep rich loam is frequently found. The
soil in the Dee-side district, south of the Dee, as in
Durris and Maryculter, is, in many parts, stony and
thin, on a rocky substratum : there is also, however

148

KINCARDINESHIRE.

some deep black loam, though, on the river side, in
Maryculter, it is naturally thin and sandy. Clay and
gravelly soils are also found. North of the Dee the
soil consists chiefly of decomposed granite mixed with
a portion of moss. It is not naturally very produc
tive, though greatly ameliorated by cultivation. The
soil on the southern side of the Grampians, in the
Howe district, is pretty uniform in its nature. On
the northern side of the Howe, fronting the south,
it may be defined as a loam derived from gravel ; and
on the opposite side, fronting the north, a loam de
rived from clay. In both it resembles in colour the
red or grey sandstone, the chief kind of quarry known
in the district. Throughout the whole it is com
monly-productive, yet with varieties in its fertility.
The soil of the Coast-side, south of Stonehaven, is
of every description, in the lower parts, from the
richest and most productive loam on clay or gravel,
to the most worthless sand, clay, or moss. It is
oddly intermixed, — entire wastes lying, in some
places, contiguous to the most fertile fields. The
greater proportion, however, is of tbe latter descrip
tion, — some of the lands near the shore containing
the most productive soils in the county. North of
Stonehaven, as in Fetteresso arid Dunottar, the soil
is chiefly moss on a hard stony bottom, with a little
clay, loam, &c. In Banchory-Davinick it is light,
and either mossy or sandy, and in various parts has
been much improved  The climate of this county
is different in the different districts. In winter
and spring, the weather in the mountainous parts is
extremely severe, while in summer, especially in the
deep glens amongst the Grampians, the atmosphere
at times becomes unsufferably hot. In the low
country the climate has been improved of late years
by the "draining of bogs and mosses, and the spread
of plantations, and it is now in no way inferior to
the climate of other Scottish districts in tbe same
latitude. The average heat on the east coast, in N.
lat. 56° 58', and 150 feet above sea-level, between
the years 1805 and 1816, was 43° 8'; the average
greatest heat 64° 4'. The average number of fair
days in the year was 212.
Agriculture, in this county, has made rapid pro
gress during the present century. The writer of the
Old Statistical Account of Kinneff remarks, — and
the same sentiment is repeated by Sir John Sinclair
in his Statistical Analysis, — that " the farmers owe
their superior skill and management to Mr. Barclay
of Ury : — a gentleman, whose acknowledged merit
entitles him to have his name transmitted to pos
terity as the first, the most extensive, and judicious
systematic improver of land in the north of Scot
land." The improvements thus begun about 20
years previous to the date of the Old Statistical
Account, — or in the middle of last century, — have
been carried on with great spirit and success, down
to the present time. Draining, trenching, planting,
and enclosing, have been vigorously extended, and
are still in progress ; and the extraordinary exertions
made to reclaim even the most forbidding and hope
less soils already alluded to are said to have been
nowhere excelled. Since the construction of new
roads, affording easy access to every part of the
county, lime has been most extensively used as
manure ; upwards of 20,000 bolls having been im
ported yearly at Stonehaven alone for that purpose,
exclusive of all that might be burnt in the county
itself, or elsewhere imported. The most approved
systems of husbandry are adopted, and the soil is
cultivated in a style equal to any in Scotland. The
greater part of the arable land produces wheat, bar
ley, bear, oats, pease, beans, cloves, turnips, mangel-
wurzel, and ruta-baga ; and there is good evidence
that the style of cultivation is such as represented,

even from the fact that, of all the lands in tillage,
nearly a seventh part is yearly in turnip. This satis
factory state of matters is, in a great measure, attri
butable to the example set by the landed proprietors
themselves ; an example followed out with industry
and perseverance by an intelligent and spirited ten
antry. The average rent of land, in 1810, was 13s.
2d. an acre : valued rent of the county £74,921 Is.
4d. Scots : the real rent as assessed, in 1815,
£94,861, a sum far below the truth : in 1811, it was
estimated so high as £159,875. Since then the value
of land here has been greatly augmented, and the real
rent now approximates to £200,000. In the parish
of Nigg, at the period of the Old Statistical In
quiry, land, on the side next Aberdeen, was let at
£2 12s. 6d. an acre, downwards, while the medium
rent was 20s. : poor ground lower. At present, ac
cording to the New Statistical Account, the average
rent of all the arable land in the parish, is about £4,
or £4 10s. per acre. In Bervie, though the average
is lower, being £2 10s., some land brings even £6
an acre. The real rent of the parish of Laurence
kirk at the date of the Old Statistical Account, was
£2,000 sterling: .at the period of the New, £5,775.
Both the improvement of land and the breed of
stock have been encouraged by premiums given by
agricultural societies ; and on almost every farm the
rearing and feeding of cattle is united with the rais
ing of corn ; cattle being sometimes the chief de
pendence of the farmer. The same species of live
stock are reared as in the adjoining counties of For
far and Aberdeen. The pure short-horned breed
was introduced by Captain Barclay of Urie amongst
his celebrated stock of cattle and sheep. The stork
of cattle, some years since, was estimated at about
25,000 head, a fourth part of which were milch cows,
and nearly as many calves. The sheep, fed princi
pally in the extensive pasturages of the mountain-
districts, are generally of the black-faced species.
The stock was estimated at about 25,000, exclusive
of lambs. Pigs have been found to be a profitable
stock. Amongst the wild animals found in the
county are the fox, badger, otter, wild cat, weasel,
polecat, hedgehog, &c. Hares and rabbits swarm in
extraordinary numbers, and roe-deer are often found
in the woods. Grouse abounds in the muirs, and
black game is not uncommon ; there are also par
tridges, and pheasants are on the increase. Wood
cock, snipe, wild-duck, landrail, plover, teal, curlew,
and heron, are plentiful ; and wild geese, and occa
sionally swans, frequent the district between autumn
and winter. Falcons, sparrow-hawks, &c, are often
met with.
There are upwards of 80 separate estates in this
county : some of the largest of these have long been
in the same families. Two or three of them are
valued at a rental of more than £5,000 per annum ;
nine or ten from £3,000 to £5,000 ; about twenty
from £1,000 to £3,000; twenty-three from £500 to
£1,000, and the remainder at less than £500. Cul
tivated farms are in general about 200 acres in ex
tent, but many are far smaller. On the contrary,
pasturage farms in the hilly districts are, as usual,
much larger. The rent of a considerable proportion
of the tenants amounted to less than £50 per annum
at the period of the passing of the parliamentary
reforirf'act. Great improvements have of late years
been effected on the steadings of the farmers, and
their mode of living. The mansions of the proprie
tors are usually elegant, placed in choice situations,
and finely adorned with trees and pleasure-grounds.'
The principal of these are Inglismaldie, a seat of the
Earl of Kintore ; Arbuthnot-houser, the seat of Vis
count Arbuthnot; Fasque, of Mr. Gladston ; Durris,
Mr. Mactier; Fetteresso-castle, Mr. Duff; Crathes^

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Sir Robert Burnet ; Fettercairn-house, Sir John
Stuart Forbes ; Drumtochty-castle, Mr. Gammell ;
Urie, Captain Barclay ; Netherby, Mr. Silver ;
Dunottar-house, General Forbes.
There are 18 parishes, and parts of 3 others, in
this county. Of the southern parishes, 13 form the
uresbytery of Fordoun : the others belong to the
presbyteries of Aberdeen and Kincardine O'Neil.
According to returns published since 1835, the
number of " examinable persons" belonging to the
established churches was 19,539 : to other religious
denominations 1,975. The number of its parochial
schools is 22, conducted by 22 teachers, and attended
by a maximum of 1,230 scholars; and of its non-
parochial, 85 conducted by 86 teachers, and attended
by a maximum of 2,41 8 scholars. The poor of this
county are supported by voluntary contributions
alone. Population, in 1801, 26,349; in 1811,
27,439; in 1821, 29,118; in 1831, 31,431 ; thenum-
ber of families in tbe last census being 7, 1 36, whereof
2,976 were employed in agriculture, 2,281 in trade,
handicraft, &c, and 1,879 otherwise occupied. The
number of inhabited houses was 6,272. There are 7
or 8 small towns in the county, besides a few inland
villages, and 13 or 14 fishing-villages scattered along
the coast. The towns are Stonehaven, the county
town, Bervie, or Inverbervie, a small burgh — the
only royalty in the county — John'shaven, Laurence
kirk, Fettercairn, Fordoun, Auchenblae, &c, Drum-
lithie, Marykirk, and St. Cyrus, are the other prin
cipal villages inland. Of the fishing- villages Fiiidon
is the most noted. Previous to the Union, this
county returned two members to parliament : it no w
returns one member. Constituency, in 1840, 922.
Bervie unites with Montrose, Aberdeen, Brechin,
and Aberbrothwick, in also returning one member to
parliament. The manufactures of Kincardineshire are not very
extensive. Duck and dowlas linen-weaving is car
ried on at Bervie for merchants in Aberdeen, Dun
dee, and Arbroath : there are two flax spinning mills
in Bervie. About 230 hands are employed in the
linen manufacture in Benholme ; and at Auchinblae,
flax is spun into yarn, and manufactured into brown
linen : about 60 hands are employed at the spinning-
mill, and annually turn out 70,000 spyndles of spun
yarn, value £10,000. By the weavers at Auchinblae,
about 30,000 of these spyndles are annually made
into 117,680 yards of linen : value £8,350. The
price paid for weaving averages only Id. to ljd.
a-yard. At Arnhall is a small establishment for
carding and manufacturing wool into coarse cloth,
employing only females; and at Laurencekirk, a
flax-mill employing 32 hands, and a few handloom
weavers also • engaged in converting it into linen
, cloth. Caldhame is partly employed in the flax trade.
There is a distillery of whisky at Nethermill in Fet
tercairn, and an extensive one at Glenury : porter
and ale also have been brewed at Laurencekirk and
Stonehaven. At Laurencekirk the well-known
snuff-boxes are still manufactured. Kelp is pro
duced on the coast ; and in the dairies, butter and
cheese are made to a considerable extent beyond
what the home supply requires. On some farms
cheese equal to the very best Stilton is made : that
of Canterland is well known, and highly valued.
The principal exports are grain, potatoes, cattle,
pork, butter, eggs, whisky, ale, herrings, &c. : im
ports —lime, coals, timber, slates, and salt. Foreign
produce is principally supplied through Aberdeen,
and grain is chiefly exported through Montrose ; but
also at Stonehaven and Gourdon.
Kincardineshire has figured very little in history.
Such incidents as possess any interest or importance
will be found detailed under the special localities

with which they may have been more immediately
connected. The name of the county was derived
from Kincardine, formerly a small town in the parish
of Fordoun, where the courts were held till the year
1600, when it was found necessary to remove them
to Stonehaven, as "there was neither ane tolbuith,
nor any house for parties to lodge into for their en
tertainment." Kincardine, the ancient capital, has
now dwindled into a mere hamlet or farmstead. It
was connected with an ancient seat of royalty, called
Kincardine-castle, the foundations of which can still
be traced. The most interesting antiquities are Dun-
ottar castle, formerly the chief seat of the great Earls
Mariscbal, now an extensive and singular ruin : see
Dunottar ;— the ruins of the castle of Finella, noted
for its curious legend : see Fettercairn ; — part of
the Kame-of- Mathers, an ancient stronghold, pitched,
like an eagle's nest, on the point of a projecting rock,
in the parish of St. Cyrus ; — Green-castle, Kinneff-
castle, the castle of Morphie, Whisteberry-ca3tle,
and the Thane of Cowie's-castle, either in their
ruins, or at least their sites, are still pointed out. In
Fordoun, and near Stonehaven, are the remains of
Roman camps ; and at Raedykes those of one, either
Caledonian or Roman. A chariot wheel of massive
iron was dug up some years since. On Garvock
hill is still pointed out the Sheriff's kettle where the
Sheriff of the Mearns was boiled in a caldron : see
Garvock. In Durris, and at Aquhorthies, are
Druidical circles  Amongst celebrated writers con
nected with this county were, Dr. Arbuthnot Bar
clay, author of the Apology, Bishop Burnet, Lord
Monboddo, Dr. Reid, and Dr. Beattie.
KINCARDINE-O'NEIL, a parish in the district
of Kincardine-O'Neil, Aberdeenshire; bounded on
the north by Tough and Cluny ; on the east by Mid-
mar and Banchory-Ternan; on the south by Birse,
from which it is divided by the Dee; and oh the
west by Lumpbanan. It runs northwards from the
Dee to a length of about 7 miles, and averages 5 in
breadth, tapering to the north'': extent 30 square
miles. Houses 425. Assessed property, in 1815,
£3,091. Population, in 1801, 1,710 ; in 1831, 1,936.
It is partly hilly and pastoral, partly arable and well
cultivated, with a considerable extent of thriving
plantations. The village of Kincardine-O'Neil is
pleasantly situated on the left bank of the Dee, lining
the road from Aberdeen to Ballater, and command
ing an extensive view along the river's banks, upwards
towards the Grampians. This place is deemed an
excellent resort for invalids in summer. It is the
seat of a presbytery, in the synod of Aberdeen.
Patron, Sir J. Forbes, Bart. Stipend £232 4s. ;
glebe £12. Unappropriated teinds £162 15s. 7d. ;
The walls of the church are supposed to be about 300
years old. It was burnt down and restored in 1 733 ;
repaired in 1 799, and again in 1820. Sittings 608 —
There are three parochial schools in the parish.
Salaries of the three masters conjointly £67 19s. 7£d.
per annum, with £118 0s. 3s. fees, and other emolu
ments. KINCHARDINE. See Abernethy.
KINCLAVEN, a parish in the beautiful and fer
tile district of Stormont, Perthshire; bounded on
the north by Caputh ; on the east by Cargill ; on the
south by Auchtergaven ; and on the west by Auch-
tergaven and Little Dunkeld. It is of nearly an
oval form, extending north-eastward and south-
westward ; and measures 4f miles in extreme length,
and 3 miles in extreme breadth. The Tay circles
round more than one-half of its whole frontier, com
ing in on the north-west, flowing in large and sweep
ing sinuosities round the north, receiving the Isla on
the north-east, and leaving the parish on the south.
Including windings, it runs along the boundary over

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a distance of at least 10 miles; and almost every
where wears marks of destructiveness and impetuo
sity which do not in general characterize its course.
Though embankments were early thrown up along
its banks, it has at various periods cut them down,
and made remorseless and large invasions on the rich
corn-fields which they were designed to protect.
Three or four desolated tracts which it has aban
doned, and several islets in its present channel, are
evidences of its power and fury. Just before leaving
the parish, it forms a cascade, and falls into a very
deep linn, called the Linn of Campsie, containing'
great quantities of excellent salmon. Nearly in the
eentre of the parish, is a lake half-a-mile in length,
whence a stream, sufficient in water-power to drive
machinery, runs eastward to the Tay. The surface
rises gently from the Tay, and is diversified with
rising grounds all accessible to the plough, and of
inconsiderable elevation. Along the north and east
it is well cultivated and enclosed, and in some parts
wooded ; but in the interior, and toward the west,
it yields only patches to the plough, and has expan
ses of unkindly moorland. The soil, in a small part
on the south-west, is a rich black loam ; but, in
most parts, it is light and sharp, intermixed in some
districts with large water-worn stones, which ob
struct the operations of the plough ; and in the moor
lands it contains a small proportion of mossy earth.
— Kinclaven-castle stands in ruin on the Tay. The
following anecdote connected with this locality is
related in the Chronicle of Lanercost, lately printed.
The esquire by whom the Earl of Leicester was
slain, as a reward of this deed, was recommended by
Prince Edward, afterwards King Edward I., to his
sister Margaret, Queen of Scotland, and found the
Queen at Haddington : — " Queen Margaret was walk
ing, after supper, by the banks of the Tay, at Kin
claven-castle, in Perthshire, attended by her maidens
and esquires, and also by her confessor, who told the
story to the chronicler of Lanercost. The party sat
down by the river side, and the pompous esquire
who prided himself upon having slain Montfort, de
scended to the water's edge to wash his hands, which
in romping he had soiled with mud. As he stood
leaning over the stream, a damsel came softly be
hind, and pushed him in. He took the joke in good
part ; ' what do I care,' he exclaimed, ' even though
I were further out, I can swim !' But while amid
the laughter of the spectators he floundered about in
the water, he suddenly found himself sinking, and
shouted for assistance, which none present could
render : his boy(<who was playing near at hand, hear
ing his master's cries, ran up and plunged into the
river to save him, but they were both drowned.
' Thus (solemnly adds the chronicler) the enemy of
Simon, and servant of Sathan, who boasted he
was the cause of the death of a valiant knight,
perished in sight of all.'" — Arntully [which
see], situated in the south-west; and an antiqua
ted place, is the only village. Two or three
hamlets or clachans, straggle along the public
roads. At one of these, in the north-east, and upon
the Tay, is a good and commodious inn, the station
of a ferry. Three principal roads intersect the par
ish respectively northward, eastward, and north
eastward, the second and third along the Tay, and
the first through the village of Arntully, from Perth
to Caputh. Population, in 1801, 1,035; in 1831,
890. Houses 172. Assessed property, in 1815,
£2,726 — Kinclaven is in the presbytery of Dun
keld, and synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron,
Richardson of Ballathie. Stipend £276 lis.
5d. ; glebe £18. Parochial schoolmaster's salary
£34 4s. 4Jd., with about £24 fees, and about £7
other emoluments. In the village of Arntully is a

subscription school, attended by a maximum of 64
scholars. KINCRAIG. See Kilconquhar.
KINCRAIGIE. See Aliord.
KINDER (Loch), a lake 1J ml]e south of the
village of Newabbey, in the south-east part of New-
abbey parish, Kirkcudbrightshire. It is 1* mile
long from north-west to south-east, and f ot a mile
broad ; it abdunds with trouts ; it produces bul
rushes and reeds, the former gathered by chair-mak
ers, and the latter by weavers ; and it receives on the
north Glen- burn, a stream of 3 miles in length of
course, and discharges its surplus waters by a stream
running 2 miles south-eastward to the Solway frith.
Rising six or seven feet above the surface of the lake,
is an artificial mount of stones, resting on a frame
of large oaks, and supposed to have been construct
ed as a place of safe stowage for goods from the
maraudings of the Bor.derers. . The surrounding
manor which anciently constituted the parish, bore
the name of the lake, Loch-kinder. Even the whole
of the present parish, previous to the erection of the
church at Newabbey, was called Loch-kinder, or, by
an absurd pleonasm, Loch-kinder-locb. On an islet
in the lake stood the original parish-church.
KINEARNY, an ancient parish in the district' of
Kincardine-O'Neil, Aberdeenshire, now divided be
tween the parishes of Cluny and Mid-Mar. It is 6
miles north-west of Skene.
KINFAUNS, a parish at the western extremity
of the carse of Gowrie, Perthshire. On the west,
it commences about 1 J mile below the town of Perth ;
and it thence stretches eastward in an irregular
figure of above 5 miles long, and between 2 and 3
broad. It is bounded on the north by Kinnoul and
Kilspindie ; on the east by Errol ; on the south-east
by St. Madoes, and a detached part of Kinnoul ; and
on the south and west by the river Tay, which di
vides it from Rhynd and Perth. The Tay touches
it over a distance of nearly 4 miles ; has here neap-
tides of 6 feet, and spring-tides of 9 or 10£; is na
vigated by steamers and sailing-craft on their way to
Perth ; and is stored with excellent salmon, two rare
species of sea-trout, and various others of the fishy
tribes. Three streamlets rise in the interior, and
drain off the humidities pf the soil to the Tay. The
surface is beautifully, and even romantically varied.
The lands on the banks of the river are flat ; and at
the west end form a narrow belt, but rapidly expand
eastward into the carse of Gowrie. At a small dis
tance from the river, on the west, commences the
ridge of hills which runs away north-eastward to the
extremity of the county, and is continued, under the
name of the Sidlaws, through Forfarshire, to the
German pcean at Redhead. The commencing part
of this ridge, or what forms the screen of the low
lands of the parish, is remarkably fine and varied in
the southern declivity, and bears aloft a profusion of
wood, and forms a near and striking feature of that
brilliant landscape which arrests and transfixes a
tourist on his coming within view of Perth on the
mail-road from Edinburgh. The most remarkable
part is Kinnoul-hill at the west end, the southern
part of which is in the parish. The summit projects
in rugged cliffs of a seamy texture, and has, at dif
ferent times, sent down, over a rapidly descendingj
and almost precipitous declivity, large masses of rock
with prodigious momentum, to the plain below.
Both the steep front and the bold summit,  the lat
ter rising 632 feet above the level of the Tay,— are
picturesquely featured with wood. This hill, and
others Of the range, afford a variety pf 'delightful
prospects. From some places is beheld the course of
the Tay, for 18*or 20 miles,' enlivened by the sailing
craft and fishing-boats which flit along its bosom, and

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¦uperbly rich in the dress and garniture of its banks ;
westward are seen the windings of the Earn along
its far-stretching and pleasant strath ; and eastward
the whole expanse of the carse of Gowrie recedes
away from the foreground, screened on the north by
a sweep of hills, and foiled on the south by the ex
panding Tay, and the varied outline of Fifeshire, the
prospect terminating with the law and tower of
Dundee, and with the subsession of the low grounds
beyond into the German ocean. The soil, on the
flat grounds along the river, is a strong and very fer
tile clay ; on the grounds rising toward the hills, it
is an easy, deep, rich, black mould ; and in the level
parts of the eastern division inland from the Tay, it
is black mould, mixed in some places with clay, and,
in others, with sand. Whatever parts refuse sub
jection to the plough, are almost all covered with
plantation, and contribute both to picturesqueness
and utility. One plantation stretches down from
the northern boundary, 1J mile southward, and is
$ of a mile broad. — About 3 miles east from Perth,
with the Tay at less than half-a-mile distance in
front, and a snug and beautiful ensconcement of the
rapidly rising hilly ridge in tbe rear, stands on an
elevation sufficiently high to lift it fully into view,
from amidst its sylvan demesne, the superb edifice of
Kinfauns-castle, the seat of Earl Gray, built in 1822,
from a design by Smirke. This very elegant pile
arrests the attention of every stranger passing along
the Perth and Dundee turnpike, which runs be
tween it and the river ; and is universally admired
for being tastefully in keeping with the brilliant
scenery around it. The principal floor is composed
of a magnificent suite of apartments, comprehending,
besides a dining-room and two drawing-rooms, a
splendid vestibule and gallery full of statuary, &c,
a gorgeous library, a billiard-room, and a room which
Lord Gray calls his ' workshop,' containing the tools,
machines, and philosophical instruments, with which
he amuses his leisure. In all of these rooms there
are pictures by the first masters, constituting in
themselves an attraction of the highest order. One
by Guercino, in the principal drawing-room, 'the
Denial of Christ by Peter,' is greatly admired. The
estate of Kinfauns, before passing, during the last cen
tury, by matrimonial alliance into the possession of
John, Lord Gray, belonged successively to tbe fami
lies of Charteris, Carnegie, and Blair. In the castle
is still preserved a curious relic of the founder of the
first of these families, a double-handed sword, 5J
feet long, 2£ inches brpad at the hilt, proportionately
thick, with a round knob at the upper end nearly
8 inches in circumference. Sir Thomas Charteris,
commonly called Thomas de Longueville, who is
supposed to have wielded this terrible weapon, was,
as the record goes, a Frenchman, who killed a peer
at the court of Philip le Bel, was refused pardon and
escaped ; and, after having for several years pirati
cally scoured the seas, under the name of the Red
Beaver, was encountered and captured by Sir Wil
liam Wallace, on the latter's way to France. Par
doned, and even knighted by his king, at the inter
cession of the Scottish patriot, he followed Wallace
to Scotland, and shared his fortunes and exploits.
When Wallace was betrayed and carried to England,
Sir Thomas attached himself to Robert Bruce, after
wards followed in his wars for obtaining the crown,
and, according to some accounts, was the first person
vi ho plunged after the king into the water at the
taking of Perth. Kinfauns was conferred upon him
in guerdon of his bravery. About 90 years ago, on
opening the burying vault of the Charteris family
under the aisle of the parish-church, there was found
» head-piece made of several folds of linen, which
seemed to have been the sepulchral helmet ot Sir

Thomas, — part of the fictitious armour with which
his corpse was enshrouded. Another relic is pre
served in the castle of Kinfauns, — an iron flag or
vane, two feet long and one broad, turning upon an
iron staff eight feet high, bearing the date 1688, and
anciently displayed from the top of the castle as a
badge of the hereditary power of admiralty, which
was annexed to the estate of Kinfauns over the
fisheries of the Tay, down to Drumlie sands below
Dundee.* A mile south-east of Kinfauns-castle,
stands the mansion of Seggieden, on a site very
slightly above tbe level of the Tay, and almost close
to its margin. The family possess as an heir-loom
a drinking-horn, upwards of a foot deep, of Baccha
nalian celebrity, and anciently used in a similar way
to that of Rorie-More. Each heir of the family, in
order to prove his affinity to his race, had to drink
the full of it at a draught, accosted with the cry,
" Sook it out, Seggieden 1 Though it's thin, it's
weel pledged." And when he reached the bottom, he
blew a whistle to announce the completion of his
feat. The parish is traversed lengthways by both
the new and the old roads between Perth and Dun
dee, and enjoys many facilities of communication
from its vicinity to the former  Population, in 1801 ,
646 ; in 1831, 732. Houses 140. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £12,410  Kinfauns is in the pres
bytery of Perth, and synod of Perth and Stirling.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £242 lis. 6d. ; glebe
£11. Unappropriated teinds £381 18s. 9d. School
master's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with £13 Is. 6Jd. fees.
A non-parochial school is situated in a corner of the
parish, and draws most of its scholars from Kilspin
die, Kinnoul, and Scone.
KINELLAN. See Contin.
KINELLAR, » parish in the district of Mar,
Aberdeenshire ; bounded on the north by Fintray,
from which it is divided by the Don ; on the east by
Dyce and Newhills ; on the south by Skene ; and
on the west by Kintore. It extends about 4 miles
south-westward from the Don, but is only about 1J
mile in breadth, excepting towards the southern
part. Area 4,000 acres. Houses 84. Assessed
property, in 1815, £2,059. Population, in 1801, 309;
in 1831, 449. The Inverury and Aberdeen canal
intersects the north end of tbe parish. The surface
is undulating, and much exposed, though the emi
nences are partly covered with wood. The parish
is almost all cultivated, only a few acres being
planted, and npt more than a few patches consisting
of unprofitable moor. There are numerous tumuli
on a heathy common between Kinellar and Kin
tore, indicating the site of a sanguinary conflict
in ancient times. In one of several small cairns
formerly existing, were found, when opened, three
concentric circles of stones, within the innermost
of which were bones, still perfect, but white, as if
burnt with fire, and black within. On the farm of
Upper Auguhorsk, within sight both; of Drum and>
Harlaw, there is a large stone called ' Drum stone,'
on which, says tradition, Irvine, the redoubted Laird
of Drum, made his testament, immediately before he
went to the battle of Harlaw. In the wall of the
churchyard, there are some great stones, ten feet in
length, and four in thickness, resting on their sides ;
* For a number of years, Lord Gray has kept a rain-guage
on the tower of the castle. We subjoin the yearly indication!
since 1827:— 1828,
1829, 1830,1831,1832,
1833,

In.
34.40 36.00
36.8528.9586.15 83.65
196.00

1834,
1835,1836,
1837, 1838, 1839,

la.
23.2525.7534.17
27.49 30.93 82.71
174.3ft

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these appear to be the remains of a circle of large
stones that once stood in this situation. Another
smaller circle, of the same sort, appears to have been
placed on the summit of the adjacent hill of Bena-
chard. This parish is in the synod and presbytery
of Aberdeen. Patron, the Earl of Kintore. Stipend
£159 12s. 3d.; glebe £13 15s. Schoolmaster's
salary £26; fees, &c, about £16. There are two
private schools in the parish.
KINGARTH, a parish in the county and island
of Bute; forming the southern extremity of the
island, and having the parish of Rpthsay on the north
and north-west, and the frith of Clyde on the east,
south, and west. It is 6| miles in length, by 2£
in average breadth. Ascog, Scoulag, and Kilchattan
bays, indent the coast; the only headland is the
Garroch-head : which see. The highest elevation
is the Suidhe-Chatain, or ' Seat of Catan,' overlook
ing Kilchattan bay, which attains an altitude of
520 feet. Kerrycroy village, in Scoulag bay, has a
population of about 70; Kilchattan village, 160.
The soil is light and sandy, but fertile. Of about
8,400 acres, 4,000 are under tillage. The annual
rental is about £5,00p. Assessed property, in 1815,
£3,820. Mount-Stewart [which see], the seat
of the Earl of Bute, is in this parish, — Population,
in 1801, 875; in 1831, 746. Houses 132  This
parish is in the presbytery of Dunoon, and synod of
Argyle. Patron, the Marquess of Bute. Stipend
£196 10s. lid. ; glebe £9. The ancient chapel of
St. Blane [which see] is in this parish.— School
master's salary £25 13s. 4d., with about £24 fees.
There are three private schools.
KING-EDWARD, or Kenedar, anciently called
Ken-Edgar, a parish in Aberdeenshire ; bounded on
the horth by Gamrie ; on the east by Fyvie ; on the
south by Montquhitter and Turriff; on the west by
Alvah, from which it is partly divided by the Dev
eron ; and on the north-west by Banff, which divides
a small portion of the parish from the rest. The
form of this parish is irregular and oblong. It ex
tends from east to west about 1 1 miles, by 2 to 5 in
breadth, and contains about 28 square miles. Houses
436. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,668. Popu
lation, in 1801, 1,723; in 1831, 1,967. The surface,
though flat, is diversified with high and low grounds ;
it is intersected by King-Edward's-burn from east
to west, along the valley of that name, and by other
rivulets. The soil is in general dry and' gravelly,
with loam, but various ; and on the banks of
the Deveron very rich. The land is chiefly arable,
but to a considerable extent pastoral, or covered
with wood, and iij the eastern part abounding with
moss. The minerals are red sandstone, and some of
the older formations, including grenwacke ; iron ore
is said to have been found. A proportion of the
salmon-fishings in the Deveron belong to this parish.
The Earl of Fife is proprietor of the principal part of
both sides of tbe river. The principal seats are
Montcoffer-house, with part of Duff-house park, pro
perties of the Earl of Fife ; and Eden-house, the
residence of James Grant Duff, Esq. ; they are all
beautifully situated, and command very fine views.
On the right bank of King-Edward, or Kenedar-
burn, on a rocky eminence, near the post-road from
Banff to Turriff, stands the ruin of the ancient castle
of Ken-Edgar. It originally belonged to the once
powerful family of the Cumines, Earls of Buchan.
It appears to have been a place pf great strength.
Eden-castle is another ruin in this vicinity ; but
Craigstpn-castle, built in the 17th century by Ur
quhart of Cromarty, commonly called ' the Tutor,' is a
fine old edifice, in good preservation, and surrounded
with pleasure-grounds tastefully laid out. The house
of Byth is also an ancient fabric, but it has been

greatly enlarged and improved, and is now surrounded
and adorned with thriving plantations. The only
village is Newbyth : which see — The parish is in
the synod of Aberdeen,' and presbytery of Turriff.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £204 7s. lOd. ; glebe
£15. Church built in 1621 ; repaired about 60 years
since. Sittings 550. The eastern district of the
parish is under the charge of a missionary, who offi
ciates in a chapel at Newbyth, purchased and fitted
up by subscription as a church, upwards of 40 years
since. Sittings 412. Stipend £80 per annum, half
of which is paid by the Society for propagating
Christian knowledge, and the other half from the
funds of the chapel. — There is an Independent con
gregation at Millseat.' Church built in 1831 ; sit
tings 210. Minister's salary £40; but the minister
was never paid less than £50, and afterwards received
£60.^Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 4d., with £12
10s. 2d. fees, &c. There are four private schools.
KINGHORN, a parish in Fifeshire, on the shore
of the frith of Forth. It is about 4£ miles in length
from the south-east to the north-west, and very va
rious in breadth. At its southern boundary, it is
rather more than 3 miles in breadth ; but towards
the north-west it is scarcely a mile broad. It is
bounded on the south and east by the frith of Forth;
on the north by Abbotshall and Auchtertool ; and
on tbe west by Burntisland and Aberdour. The
surface of the parish is beautifully diversified by
rising grounds, and the whole has been brought to
a high state of cultivation. Population, in 1801,
2,308; in 1831, 2,579. Assessed property, in 1815,
£10,863. Houses, in 1831, 383  Immediately north
of the burgh of Kinghorn, there stood a castle which
was at one time a residence of the Scottish kings,
but no vestige of it now remains. The castle and
lands of Kinghorn were frequently pledged along
with others, in security for the jointure of the Scot
tish queens, till Robert II. disponed them to Sir
John Lyon, Lord Glammis, on his marriage with the
king's daughter. Patrick, 9th Lord Glammis, was
created Earl of Kinghorn by James VI., — a title
which was afterwards changed to that of Strath
more and Kinghorn, in the reign of James VII. It
was in riding from Inverkeithing towards the castle
of Kinghorn, that Alexander IIL'was killed in 1285-6,
— an accident which occasioned so much trouble
and shedding of blood in Scotland. The road then
wound along the top of the rocks which overhang
the sea ; the night was dark, and the king, con
trary to the wishes of his courtiers, was anxious
to proceed. His horse stumbled at a place about
a mile west of Kinghorn, and the king was thrown
over a lofty and rugged precipice and killed. Near
the rock thus fatal to Scotland's peace, is a mineral
well which was rather famous at an early period.
Dr. Anderson, physician to Charles I., and, we be
lieve, inventor of the celebrated Scots pills which
still go by his name, wrote a treatise on the na
ture and properties of this water, with directions for
using it — Grange, formerly belonging to the Kirk-
aldys of Grange, a family of great antiquity, who
held these lands previous to the reign of James II. ,
is in this parish. Sir James Kirkaldy of Grange
was Lord-high-treasurer of Scotland during part of
the reign of James V., and part of the regency of
the Earl of Arran. " He was considered (says
Crawford) one of the wisest and worthiest in the
nation ; but, through the interest of Cardinal Be
thune, he lost his office of treasurer." He after
wards engaged in the conspiracy to rnurder the Car
dinal, and though he may not have imbrued his own
hands in the prelate's blood, he was present with his
eldest son, his two brothers, a nephew, and two
other relations. His son, Sir William Kirkaldy of

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Grange, was a very conspicuous character during
the reign of Queen Mary and the minority of James
VI. He was governor of Edinburgh castle when it
was taken by the Regent Morton, and, notwith
standing the terms of the capitulation, he was, with
his brother Sir James, hanged at the market-cross
of Edinburgh. He was one of the ablest, and there
is every reason to believe, one of the most honest,
public characters of the period. Grange afterwards
became the property of a family of the name of
Skeen, and subsequently, by marriage with the
heiress, was the property of Carnegie of Boysack.
It is now the property of the representatives of the
late William Ferguson, Esq. of Raith. In the centre
of the town where the prison now stands, was an old
tower, which seems to have formed part of a reli
gious house, dedicated to St. Leonard. There is no
account of this institution, ho.wever, in Spottis-
woode's Religious Houses  This parish is in the
presbytery of Kirkcaldy, and synod of Fife. Patron,
the Earl of Strathmore. Stipend £245 19s. 7d. ;
glebe £19. Unappropriated teinds £693 12s. 7d.
The parish-church is situated in the burgh. It was
built in 1774; sittings 700. A portion of the parish,
including Westbridge, has been annexed tothe quoad
sacra parish of Inverteil or Westbridge. — A congre
gation in connexion with the Relief church was
formed here in 1779, and afterwards became con
nected with the United Secessipn. Their place of
worship has 554 sittings. Stipend £100  There is
a small Baptist church  Schoolmaster's salary £25,
with about £100 fees. Average number of pupils
110. There are two private schools.
Kinghorn,* an ancient royal burgh, the capital
of the above parish, occupying the face of a sloping
ground, directly opposite Leith, and at the distance
of 3 miles south from Kirkcaldy. The town had
risen to some consequence in the 12th century, when
it was created a royal burgh. The latest charter is
by James VI. in 1611. Till within the last fifty
years, Kinghorn was one of the most irregularly and
meanly constructed towns in the district, but of late
years it has undergone a variety of improvements,
and now possesses several substantial and modern
edifices; and a new gaol and town-house. A hand
some school-hpuse, enclpsed within an extensive
play-grpund at the west end of the town, was
built in 1829, and contains an infant-school- room, a
female school-room, a common school-room, and a
library and museum. Kinghorn possesses a small
and npt very good harbour, and though nominally
enjoying the importance of being the seat of the
ferry across the frith of Forth to Leith and New-
haven, all boats engaged in this thoroughfare land at
Pettycur, a hamlet, with a more accessible port, ly
ing about half-a-mile to the west. Parliamentary
notice has been given pf a bill fpr making a railway
through Fifeshire, which will commence at or near
the burgh-schoolhouse of Kinghorn, and terminate
at Ferry-Port-on-Craig ; with branches from the
Kinghorn terminus to Burntisland, and to Pettycur,
and to Kirkcaldy. The length of the main line be
twixt Burntisland and Ferry-Port-on-Craig will be
36£ miles, or, including the inclined plane down to
Burntisland, 37f miles. The projected line passes
over the town of Kinghorn on a viaduct 290 yards in
length, and thence, along the cliffs, to Seafield.f
» Kinghorn derives its name, according to some, from the
adjoining promontory of land, styled in Gaelic cean gorn or
garm,— 'the Blue head.' In the Old Statistical Account it is
suggested that, as the Scottish kings long had a residence in
the neighbourhood, the name may have been suggested by the
frequent winding of the King's horn when he sallied out for
the diversion of the chace in this neighbourhood.
t From Seafield it is carried across the West-burn on a high
bridge, and then on a viaduct at Abbotshall church, 170 yards
in length ; then across the East Den at Kirkcaldy on a high

The trade of Kinghorn is chiefly connected with the
spinning and preparation of lint for the linen manu
facturers of Fifeshire. The town possesses two large
lint-mills and spinning establishments, moved partly
by steam-power, and partly by water ; hand- weaving
is the other chief trade in Kinghorn. A subscrip
tion-library was established here in 1826. The civic
government is vested in a provost, 2 bailies; a trea
surer, town-clerk, and 18 other councillors. The
property of the town consists of lands and houses,
feu-duties, mills, harbour-dues, anchorage, and petty
customs. The whole is valued at £13,114. The
debt due by the town at Michaelmas 1832 was
£5,836 2s. 5d. The debt of the burgh in 1827,
according to a return made to parliament for that
year, was £7,220 2s. 5d. The ordinary annual
revenue of the burgh is about £670. It appears
that 153 acres of burgh-lands have been alienated
since the year 1647. The magistrates do not now
levy any taxes but those already-mentioned as sources
of revenue. They formerly levied 2d. Scots upon
each pint of ale brewed or tapped within the town,
and a tax upon all horses let for hire. The petty
customs are levied over the burgh, and also upon
certain lands held feu of the burgb. The parish-
church is maintained at the joint expense of the
burgh and the landward heritors of the parish. There
is also an assessment for the pppr. It appears frpm
a minute pf the head-cpurt pf Kinghprn, dated 14th
January, 1582, that in former times the magistrates
and^ burgesses in head court assembled were in
the habit of levying a tax exclusively upon the
shipowners of the port, called prime gilt, for the
maintenance of old infirm poor seafaring men, and
that they also fixed the price of bread and ale.
The jurisdiction of the magistrates extends over
the whole burgh, and the lands of Ross. The ma
gistrates have no patronage, except in tbe appoint
ment of the town-clerk and other burgh-officers.
The tpwn-council have a vote, along with the kirk-
session and presbytery of Kirkcaldy, in the presenta
tion to a bursary of £15 per annum to the united
college of St: Andrews. There is no guildry in
Kinghorn ; but there are five incorporated trades in
Kinghorn, viz. : hammermen, weavers, shoemakers,
tailors, and bakers. The burgh joins with Kirk
caldy, Dysart, and Burntisland, in electing a mem
ber of parliament. Parliamentary and municipal
constituency, in 1840, 34. Population of the town,
in 1821, 1,500; in 1831,2,579.
KINGLASSIE, a parish in Fifeshire, in the form
of a parallelogram, 5 miles in length, by 2 in aver
age breadth. It is bounded on tbe north by the river
Leven, which separates it from Leslie ; on the east
by Markinch and Dysart ; on the south by Dysart
and Auchterderran ; and on the west by the last,
Ballingry, and Portmoak. It is watered by the
Lochty and Orr, two tributary streams of the Le
ven. On the banks of these rivulets the surface is
flat, rising with a gentle ascent, and forming two
small ridges. The whole of it is arable, and above
bridge, atwhich point also an inclined plane goes down to Kirk.
caldy inclined at the rate of 1 in 15| ; then through below An
derson-street at Pathhead, and forward over the town of Dy,
Bart on a viaduct 260 yards long; then eastward near to
Wemyss, and through the ridge there by a tunnel : then west
ward over Orr-water on a high bridge 280 yards iu length ; and
through another ridge at Coalton where there is a cut 40 feet
deep; then across Leven- water on another high bridge 300
yards in length ; and through the ridge between Markinch and
New-inn, by means of two tunnels and an open cut already de
scribed ; merging from thence, it proceeds forward over what
might be called the valley of the Eden, on embankments from 25
to 47 feet deep, and more than two miles long, crossing in its
progress the village Kettle on two high bridges, each of 820
yards in length ; passes near to Cupar, and crosses the river
Eden twice in the parish of Leuchars and St. Andrews within
a quarter of a mile, to obviate which the river is to be diverted,
and then onwards to Ferry. Port-on.Craig.

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5,000 atres are under tillage. Tbe soil is partly a
deep clay, and partly a light loam, with some rich
pasture meadows. There are several freestone
quarries. Population, in 1801, 908; in 1831, 958.
Houses 198. Assessed property, in 1815, £6,019.
Kinglassie village lies 2 miles south-west of Leslie,
6 north of Kirkcaldy, and 7 from Kinghorn. The
small river Lochty runs through it. The popula
tion is about 3,801 . It has two annual fairs, on the
3d Wednesday in May, O. S., and the Thursday be
fore Michaelmas, O. S. An agricultural association
meets here annually in August  This parish is in
the presbytery of Kirkcaldy, and synod of Fife.
Patron, the Earl of Rothes. Stipend £223 4s. 4d. ;
glebe £18. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4J,d.
KINGOLDRUM, a parish in the south-eastern
extremity of the Grampian district of Forfarshire. It
is bounded on the north by the upper section of
Kirriemuir; on the north-east by Cortacbie; on the
east by the lower section of Kirriemuir ; on the
south by Airly ; and on the west by Lentrathen. It
is of an oblong or rather elongated oval form,
stretching north and south with an indentation on its
east side ; and it measures 6} miles in extreme length,
and very nearly 3 in average breadth. Prosen- water
runs 3 miles along the northern and north-eastern
boundary, and receives in its course Soho-burn,
flowing to it from Catlaw across the whole breadth
of the parish. Back-water, a large tributary of the
Isla, traces the boundary for about half-a-mile on the
south-west. Cromby-burn, a considerable brook,
rises in the interior, and runs very circuitously over
a course of about 6 miles to Back-water. Several
other streamlets, tributaries pf the Prpsen pr pf
Crpmby-burn, drain the parish and diversify its ap
pearance. The surface pn the north is mountain-
pus, sending up pn the nprthern bpundary the tpwer-
ing Catlaw, 2,264 feet abpve the level pf the sea,
and pther very cpnsiderable elevatipns ; and pn tbe
sputh it is hilly, but mildly featured and sipping,
and very generally arable. Cut varipusly and npt
abruptly asunder by the basins pf the streams, the
whole parish is rather a loftily rolling region, than
a pastoral or continuously upland district. Though
there is but little flat land, the slopes, especially in
the braes of Kenny and Baldovie in the south, are
so fully available for agriculture as even to bear
good crops of wheat. The soil in the arable parts,
is, in some places, a kind of clay, cold and wet, — in
others, a light sand, — but, in general, a rich black
mould. From abput the year 1770, manurial and
other operations have been well plied for accomplish
ing improvements. Catlaw and the other moun
tainous uplands, partly green and partly heathy, af
ford excellent pasture for sheep ; and are celebrated
for the delicacy and flavour of the mutton raised on
their herbage. The air, in most parts, is cold and
sharp, yet extremely healthy. The castle pf Balfour,
situated in the southern district, and superintending
the best and most extensive lands in the parish, is
a Gothic structure, built probably about the middle
of the 16th century, and formerly the seat of the
Ogilvies of Balfour, an ancient family descended
from that of Airly. On the summit of Catlaw is a
very large circular cairn bearing marks of fire. On
Shurrach-hill, westward of the church, are three
equidistant circles of large stones, locally called
' Druds altars,' a corruption apparently of Druids'
altars. In the southern district, on Cromby-burn,
4 miles west of the town of Kirriemuir, stands the
hamlet of Kingoldrum, the site of the parish-church.
To be a hilly country, the parish is very abundantly
supplied with roads. Population, in 1801, 577 ; in
1831, 444. . Houses 81. Assessed property, in
1815, £2,786  Kingoldrum is in the presbytery

of Meigle, and synod of Angus and Mearns. Pa
tron, the Crown. Stipend £159 4s. lid.; glebe
£9 6s. 6d. Schoolmaster's salary £23, with £10
fees, and about £3 5s. other emoluments. The
church was given about the end of the 12th century
by Sir Allan Durward of Lentrathen to the monks
of Arbroath, and continued in their possession till
the Reformation.
KINGOODIE, a village on the north shore of
the frith of Tay, near the south-east corner of the
parish of Longforgan, Perthshire ; 3£ miles west of
Dundee ; and 18£ east of Perth. It owes its ori
gin and chief support to the working of the quarry
of Kingoodie in its vicinity. The stone of this
quarry is probably the best building material in
Scotland, and has long been in request. The tower
of Dundee, built of it, in 1189, shows very little
appearance of decay; and the house of Castle-fluntly,
built of it, in 1452, has scarcely a stone affected by
the weather. It is what mineralogists call grain-
stone, bluish in colour, very hard, and capable of
the finest polish ; and it may be had in blocks of
any reasonable size, even 50 feet long, 16 broad,
and 3 thick. The stone, besides being used in ordi
nary masonry, has been much in demand for the
construction of docks and piers. A small harbour
was built at the village to facilitate the export of
the stone, and is used also for the importation of
coals ; but it is accessible, even at spring tides, only
by vessels which draw less than 10 feet water.
The village, during about 10 years of the present
century, when the demand for the stone rose to un
usual briskness, was one-third more populous than
at present ; but it still has a population of about
250, almost all connected with the quarry.
KINGSBARNS,* a parish in- Fifeshire, on the
east coast" of the county ; bounded by the parish of
Crail on the south ; by the German ocean on the
east ; by St. Andrews on the north ; and by St.
Leonards and Crail on the west. Towards the east
it measures about 2£ miles from north to south ; but
towards the west it is only 1 to l\ mile. A short
way from the south boundary of the parish, and sur
rounded by the parish of Crail, is a small disjoined
portion of the parish, which measures li mile in
length, and about J mile in breadth. There is
only one village in the parish, that of Kingsbarns.
Here two annual fairs are' held, in July and Octo
ber. At one time these were well-attended, and
considerable quantities of sheep and black cattle
were disposed of; they have now, however, dwindled
away, and are only frequented by hucksters and
small dealers. The soil of the east part of the
parish towards the shore is light and sandy, but
fertile, west of which it is generally a deep black
loam, in some parts tending to clay. In the west
ern and higher division of the parish the soil is
rather inferior, in many places strong and heavy,
and in others thin clay and muirish. There are
altogether 3,057 Scots acres in the parish, of which
2,8984 acres are regularly under the plough. Crail,
the post-town, is distant about 3 miles. Popula
tion, in 1801, 832; in 1831, 1,023. Houses, in 1831,
204. Assessed property £7,065  Near the north
ern boundary of the parish is Pitmilly, the residence
of David Monypenny, Esq., lately one of the lords of
session and of justiciary. The family of Monypenny
is of great antiquity in Scotland, and have held
the lands pf Pitmilly fpr upwards pf 600 years.
At the seuth-east cprner of the parish, near the
• The name is derived from the lands of Kingsbarns; where
there is said to have beeu a regal castle, in the barns attached
to which were stored the grain paid to the Crown, as the rent
of lands belonging to it in this district. The last remaining
portion of the foundation of this structure, consisting of some
large stones, was removed only a few years ago.

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sea. is the fine old mansion and grounds of Cambo,
the residence of Sir David Erskine, Bart  This
parish is in the presbytery of St. Andrews, and
synod of Fife. Patron, the Earl of Glasgow.
Stipend £251 18s.; glebe £29 15s. Unappro
priated teinds £129 8s. 7d. The church is situated
in the village. It was erected in 1631, and re
paired and enlarged in 1811, sp as tp hpld 650 sit
ters. Schpplmaster's salary £34 4s. 4id., with
abput £30 fees.
KING'S INCH, an eminence in the neighbour
hood of the burgh of Renfrew, sometimes denomi
nated the Castle-hill. It lies on tbe brink of Clyde ;
and as this river has often divided its waters here
into two branches, the rising ground between them
was — as in many other instances — called the Inch or
Island. In Bleau's atlas this is designed King's
Inch. It appears, for greater security, to have been
surrounded by a large and deep fosse. That several
of our kings have occasionally resided here, there
can be no doubt. As, during the reign of Robert
IL, our first king of the family of Stewart, the
barony of Raynfrev is mentioned in one ' Compo-
tum,' and in another we have an account of the ex
pense paid for carrying two tuns of wine from Black
ness to Renfrew, for the use of the king. It is
evident, indeed, that this barony had been long in
possession of the Stewarts. For, so early as the
reign of Malcolm Canmore, Walter, of this name,
for his fidelity to his sovereign, got from him the
baronies of Stratbgrief, Renfrew, and Kyle. His
descendant, Robert, Great Steward, when restoring
the authority of David Bruce, during the usurpation
of Edward Baliol, was supported by his own baro
nial vassals of Renfrew. In the* year 1316, on
Shrove- Tuesday, as the Lady Marjory, the daughter
of Robert, was returning from Paisley to the castle
of Renfrew, which was the principal residence of the
Lord-high-steward her husband, she was thrown
from her horse, and died in consequence of the fall.
The Cesarian operation was performed, but unskil
fully; whence her son, afterwards Robert II., having
received a scar in his eye, was commonly called
King Blear-eye. " The cross," says Abercromby,
" which was erected on the place, where this un
lucky accident happened, is to this day (but more un
reasonably) called Queen Blear-eye's Cross." They
still show her tomb in the old abbey of Paisley. It
is a proof, among many, of the uncertainty of human
greatness, that the site of the residence of oiir for
mer kings has been latterly occupied as a soap- work.
When this was erected, nothing remained of the
royal castle save the foundations of the walls ; and
it appears, from obvious marks, that the stenes em
ployed for this work were partly obtained from the
ancient building. At the bottom of the Castle-hill,
to the westward, is a place still called the Orchard ;
and a little farther, in the same direction, some'low
ground is yet known under the denomination of the
King's Meadows. It cannot easily be accounted for,
that a place, to which the family of Stewart were
evidently very partial, should have been alienated
from the Crown; especially as His Majesty still re
tains the hereditary title of Baron of Renfrew. The
earliest proof we have met with of this alienation is
in 1615, when " the lands of Inche, with the fishing
on the water of Clyde, and office of constabulary of
Renfrew," are given to James Lord Ross de Halk-
bed et Melvile, as heir of James Lord Ross, &c, his
grandfather, who died A. D. 1581. This manor after
wards came into the hands of the Earl of Abercorn,
as in part constituting his lordship of Paisley. At
a later period it became the property of the noble
family of Dundonald.
KING'S-KETTLE. See Kettle.

KING'S-MUIR, an extensive tract of wild un
cultivated ground in Fifeshire, acknowledged by no
parish, quoad sacra, but locally situated on tbe bor
ders of Denino and Crail parishes. It contains about
844 acres, and was originally the property of the
Crown ; but was given by CharleSj II. after the Re
storation to Colonel Borthwick, who had attended
him in his exile. It is now entailed on the family of
Hanno. A coal-work was wrought for some years
upon it to great advantage. Within this district
there is about 153 inhabitants.
KINGUSSIE * and INSCH, an united quoad civi
lia parish in Inverness-shire, in the centre of the dis
trict of Badenoch, about 21 miles in length, and 18
in breadth ; bounded on the north by Moy and Dal-
arossie ; on the east by Alvie ; on the south by Blair
in Athole; and on the west by Laggan. It is mostly
sheep-pasture ; and lying between the Monadhliadh
on the north, and the Grampian range on the south,
is, perhaps, more elevated above the sea, and farther
distant from the coast in every direction, than any
parish in tbe kingdom. The prevailing winds are
from the west and north-west. It is intersected by
the Spey, which here winds in a number of beautiful
curves through a fine meadow sprinkled with alder
and birch-trees. The meadow is elevated about 850
feet above sea-level, and is bounded by an elevated
slope also covered with trees, and, behind the shaggy
and abrupt rocks and mountains, forms a scene truly
picturesque. There are several other streams which
arise from small lakes in the parish, and empty them
selves into the Spey: among these are the Truim,
the Tromie, the Gynag, and the Calder. The largest
lake is Loch- Inch, from which one of the districts
takes its name. Loch-Ericht is partly in this parish.
The soil is a light sandy loam, in the lower ground
mixed with the slime deposited from the river when
it overflows its banks. According to a laborious
series of observations made at Kingussie in N. lat.
57° 4', and W. long. 4° 5', at an elevation of 750
feet above the sea, the mean temperature at 8h.
51m. morning, from 1st Nov., 1838, to 1st Nov.,
1839, was 48° 77'. A mine was opened some years
ago in this parish, and some specimens of ore, rich
in silver, were dug up; but the work was soon dis
continued, and has never been resumed. James
Macpherson, the celebrated translator of Ossian, Was
a native of this parish. Population of the united
parish, in 1801, 1,306; in 1831, 2,080. Houses, in
1831, 440. Assessed property, in 1815, £4,020 —
This parish is in the presbytery of Abernethy, and
synod of Moray. Patron, the Duke of Richmond.
Stipend £269 18s. 5d.; glebe £40. The district
of Insch has been recently erected into a sepa
rate quoad sacra parish : see Insch. School
master's salary £34 4s. 4£d. There are 6 private
schools. KINKEL, an ancient vicarage, now comprehended
in the parish of Trinity-Gask, Perthshire. The
church is in ruins. It is 3 miles north of Auchter-
arder. Near this is a stone bridge over the Earn.
See Trinity- Gabk.
KINKELL, an ancient rectory and prebend, now
united to Keithhall : which see. It is 2A miles
north of Kintore. The rector of Kinkell was parson
of the seven churches of Kinkell, Kintore, Kinellai,
Skene, Kemnay, Dyce, and Drumblade. This pat
ronage and parsonage, by the influence of Archbishop
Sharp, about the year 1662, were annexed to the
Principal of St. Leonard's college, St. Andrews. In
1771, the church was unroofed, and the materials
used for the new church at Montkegie. Its archi
tecture appears to have been rather elegant.
* The Celtic name is Ceannghiubhsaiche, 'the Head of the
Fir wood.'

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KIN

KINLOCH, a parish in Perthshire, now united
to Lethendy: which see.
KINLOCH-AILART, a hamlet in the district
of Arisaig. The cattle-market known under the
name of ' Ariniskle-Fank ' is held here on the 3d
Friday of May, and 3d Friday of Octpber.
KINLOCH- BERVIE, a quoad sacra parish,
divided frpm the parish pf Edderachylis [which
see] in 1834, by authority of the General Assembly.
Its greatest length is about 20 miles ; greatest breadth,
10 miles. Population, in 1836, 1,040. Church
erected in 1828-9; sittings 350. Stipend £120;
glebe £2.
KINLOSS, a parish in Morayshire ; bounded on
the north by the Moray frith ; on the east by Alves ;
on the south by Forres ; and on the west by the bay
of Findhorn, at the head of which it is situated. It
is about 3£ miles square, with a very level and well-
cultivated surface. Tbe village of Findhorn is ia
the parish : see that article. Tbe kirktown of Kin-
loss is situated at the south-eastern extremity of the
bay or lake, formed by the river Findhorn. Here
stands the ruin of Kinloss abbey open to a beautiful
view of the Moray frith, and the hills of Ross and
Inverness. It was founded by David I., in 1150,*
for monks of the Cistertian order, and confirmed by
a Papal bull, in 1 1 74. It must have been of very
considerable extent and magnificence, but the mate
rials were taken, in 1650, to aid in the construction
of Cromwell's fort at Inverness, and little else than
a mere outline of its extent was left. The abbots
were mitred and had a seat in parliament. One of
the most distinguished was Robert Reid, official of
Moray in 1530, bishop of Orkney in 1557, and some
time president of the court-of-session. He may be
said to have founded tbe Edinburgh university, hav
ing begun the fund from which it was built, by a
legacy of 8,000 merks, bequeathed for the purpose.
He was employed in various state-negotiations, and
assisted at Queen Mary's marriage with the dauphin
of France. At the Reformation, the revenues of
Kinloss abbey, according to Shaw, collated with
the Registrum Moraviense, amounted to £1,152,
besides numerous payments in kind. The whole of
the property, including farms in the counties of
Nairn, Inverness, Moray, Banff, Aberdeen, and Ber
wick, besides the lands in its vicinity, was seized,
and Edward Bruce, Esq., commissary of Edinburgh,
and afterwards a lord of session, was appointed com
mendator of the establishment; and, in 1604, was
elevated to the rank and title of Baron Kinloss. In
1633, his son, Thomas, was honoured, by Charles I.,
with the higher dignity of Earl of Elgin, — a title
still enjoyed by his descendants. It was at Kinloss
abbey that Edward I., intimidated by the wild hills
of Ross and Inverness which he saw before him,
was arrested in his conquering career, and, after stay
ing at the abbey twenty days, retraced his steps.
This parish is in the synod of Moray, and presbytery
of Forres. Patrons, the Earl of Moray and Brodie
of Lethen. Stipend £240 4s. 7d.; glebe £5. School
master's salary £34 4s. 4d. ; fee3 and other' emolu
ments £17. There is a private school in the parish.
* According to a popular tradition at one time prevalent,
King Duffus having, ou a particular occasion, preserved his
life.Tiy concealing himself beneath a bridge, on the site of this
abbey, reared a chapel in grateful commemoration of his escape.
The story is thus narrated by Dempster :— " Kilios; iu Moravia,
nomen habet a fluctibus, qui, prater omnis naturam, derepente
vicinq in carapo pullularent, duin Duffi Regis corpus revelare-
tur. Cmnohium, post duo fere Becula quem Duffus occubuit,
fundatum in memoriam miraculi quod ibidem contigisse memo.
ratur.V The event is similarly described by Boethius. Pursu
ing the narration he adds : " Nunc ibi crjenobium est, cum am.
Ehssimo templo, Divae Virgini sacro, atque auguBtissimo, eedi-
usque magnifies structure piorum coetu Cistertieusis instituti
insigne, nulli in Albione religionis observation secundum."

Population, in 1801, 917; in 1831, 1,121. Houses
224. Assessed property, in 1815, £699.
KINNAIRD, a parish in the district of Gowrie,
Perthshire. Its figure is an irregular heptagon, or
a square subtended by a triangle, 2 miles deep in the
square part, and 1 £ mile from the middle of the base
to the apex of the triangular part. It is bounded
on the north by Aberny te ; on the east by Abernyte
and Inchture; on the south-east by Errol; on the
south-west by Kilspindie ; and on the north-west by
detached ^arts of Caputh and of Forfarshire, and by
Collace. The south-eastern and considerably smaller
section stretches into the Carse of Gowrie ; and the
rest rises gradually up into what are called the Carse
braes. The soil, in the former section, is of the
rich and celebrious character common to the carse ;
on the south side of the braes', it is a mixture, in dif
ferent proportions of black earth and what is called
mortar, inferior to the carse soil, yet not a little fer
tile ; and on the north it is light and shallow, pro
ducing alternations of heath, bent, and verdure, and
fit enly fpr the pasturage pf sheep. The arable and
the pastoral, or uncultivated districts, are to each
other as 31 to 30. Several vantage-grounds in the
uplands command extensive and brilliant views,
cinctured on some sides by the bold forms of the
Grampian ranges, and the gentle outlines of the Fyfe
hills. The village of Kinnaird, and especially the
castle, situated a little north of it, occupy such van
tage-grounds ; and may, from this circumstance, have
obtained their name, — composed, as it is, of two
Celtic words which mean the high end or head.
Kinnaird-castle is an imposing ruin, much dilapi
dated, said to be about 600 years old, and anciently
the seat of the noble family of Kinnaird, now uncon
nected with the parish, and chiefly resident at Rossie
in Inchture. The parish lies about midway between
Perth and Dundee, and has good facilities of com
munication. Population, in 1801, 455; in 1831,
461. Houses 89. Assessed property, in 1815,
£639. — Kinnaird is in the presbytery of Dundee,
and synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £183 16s. 2d., and a glebe.
Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4id., with £18 fees,
and £4 other emoluments.
KINNAIRD, a parish in Forfarshire, now divided
between the parishes of Farnell and Brechin:
which see.
KINNAIRD'S-HEAD, a high promontory on the
coast of Buchan, Aberdeenshire, supposed to be the
' Promontorium Taixalium' of Ptolemy: see Fra
serburgh. From this point the coast trends due
west, on the one hand, and on the other, curves to
the south-east, forming the bay of Fraserburgh. On
the top of the promontory is the castle of Kinnaird's-
head, belonging to Lord Saltoun, and occupied,
since December 1787, as a lighthouse: it stands in
lat. 57° 42', long. 2° 1' west of London. The
lantern is 120 feet above the level of the tide at high
water, and is lighted from sunset to sunrise. The
light is fixed, and is seen at the distance of 15 nau
tical miles in clear weather. Cairnbulg bears, by
compass, 2 miles south-east, and Troup-head, 9
west-north-west, of this lighthouse.
KINNEDER, an ancient parish, now united to
Drainy in Elgin: which see. The remains of the
church are still to be seen here, and of an old palace
or castle adjacent to it, where the Bishop of Moray
resided before Castle-Spynie was built.
KINNEFF, with Caterline or Katerline, a
parish in Kincardineshire ; bounded on the north by
Dunnottar; on the east by the sea-coast; on the
south by a small part of Bervie, from which it is
divided by the water of Bervie; and on the west by
Arbuthnot and Glenbervie. Its form is triangular

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with an apex to the south, and it extends in length,
northwards, about 5 miles. Acres 6,408. Houses
204. Assessed property, in 1815, £5,490. Popu
lation, in 1801, 937; in 1831, 1,006. The coast is
bold and rocky, containing only two small creeks
for boats, at the fishing-hamlets of Gaphill and Ca-
terline : which see. The tide reaches the foot of
the rocks, which rise abruptly from 20 to 60 yards in
perpendicular height. The rock is for the most part
of what is called the ' pease-porridge ' or ' plum-
pudding' kind; and is thought to have the appear
ance of lava. The soundings all along the coast, at
100 yards or less from the shore, are frpm 8 tp 13
or 14 fathoms. There are no rocks which cannot
be seen at low water — The strata of the rocks dip
to the south-west from 30 to 40 degrees  The bold
shore leaving only a small space of the rocky bot
tom uncovered at low water, but a small quantity
of kelp is made. At Craig-David, a fishing-hamlet
near Bervie, David II. is said to have landed in a
storm. The soil of this parish, particularly along
the shore, is a fine rich loam with clay well-culti
vated, and yielding abundant crops. The actual
rental has been valued at £3,406. Numerous black
cattle are reared, with some sheep, horses, &c.
There are no quarries in the parish, except the coast
rocks. These make a strong, durable, straight wall,
but are rather too hard for hewing : they have been
used for millstones, being in great repute for such a
purpose. There are three old castles on the coast,
possessing traces of strong fortification; and two
ancient religious houses, chapels, or cells. One of
the castellated ruins is named Kinneff-castle, and
the old parish with which tbe abrogated parish of
Caterline was incorporated probably took its name
from this source  Kinneff is in the synod of Angus
and Mearns, and presbytery of Fordoun. Patron,
the Crown. Stipend £232 3s. 6d. ; glebe £28.
Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d. ; fees £12.
There is a private school in the parish. The cele
brated Dr. John Arbuthnot, intimate friend of
Pope and Swift, and physician to Queen Anne, lived
here for some time. His father, the minister of Ar
buthnot, was, at the Revolution, turned out of his
living by his chief and patron, Lord Arbuthnot,
who was then a very keen partizan ; on which, he
retired to his own property of Kingorny, where he
lived for some time, having his son, the Doctor, a
young man, along with him. Mrs. Granger, the
spirited wife of a minister of Kinneff, with her ser
vant-girl, succeeded in conveying the regalia of Scot
land out of Dunnottar-castle while besieged, and hid
them under the pulpit in the church of Kinneff: —
see Dunnottar.
KINNEL (The), a considerable rivulet of An-
nandale, Dumfries-shire. It rises between Auld-
man-hill and Harestane's-craig, in the extreme north
west of the parish pf Kirkpatrick-Juxta, within three
furlongs pf the spurce of pne pf the highest head
waters pf the Daer, pr mpre properly, the Clyde :
see that article. For 5£ miles it runs south-east
ward, along a fine pastoral valley between the lofty
Qiieensberry range of hills on the west side, and a
less imposing hilly range on the east side ; and re
ceives various tributary rills, the chief of which are
Earshag-burn on the left bank, and Lochan-burn on
the right bank, each 3 miles in length of course.
The stream now runs 2J miles southward, dividing
Kirkpatrick-Juxta on the west from Johnstone on
the east; and receives from the west the tribute of
the Duff Kinnel, after tbe latter has flowed 4 miles
from its source, chiefly along the boundary of John
stone. The Kinnel, from the point of touching
Johnstone, had become wooded in its banks; and,
running 2| miles southward through the body of

that parish, it sweeps past the splendid mansion and
demesne of Raehills, pccasipnally plpughs its way
alpng a very deep and finely-featured sylvan dell,
and altogether wears an aspect of mingled pictur-
esqueness and romance. Receiving on its right bank
a beautiful little tributary of 3 miles length of course,
it forms, for 2J miles, the boundary-line between
Kirkmichael on the west and Johnstpne pn the east.
Running a mile into the parish of Lochmaben, it is
joined from the west by the limpid but careering Ae
[which see] ; and thence south-eastward, 2 miles in
a straight line, but at least 4 along its channel, it
flows in serpentine foldings to the Annan at Broom-
hill. In the lower part of its course, it has, in gen
eral, a, level basin, yet so various and pleasing in
aspect, as to be a fine foil to the mirthful trotting
of the Stream along its pebbly path. The Kinnel's
entire length of course is about 19 miles.
KINNELL, a parish in the maritime district of
Forfarshire ; bounded on the north by Farnell ; on
the east by Craig; on the south-east and south by
In verkeillor ; and on the west by Guthrie and a de
tached part of Kirkden. It measures, in extreme
length, from east to west 4 miles ; and in extreme
breadth from north to south 2| miles. Lunan water
runs along its southern boundary for If mile, and a
tributary of that stream runs along the eastern-
south-eastern boundaries for 3 miles. The Pow
rises in the western extremity, and runs 2 miles
north-eastward to the point of its exit; and at that
point a tributary joins it, after having, for 2 miles,
traced the northern boundary. The Lunan afford
some good trouting; and at the place where it is
overlooked by the parish-church it forms a deep1
pool, whence the name of the parish, signifying ' the
Head of the pool,' is supposed to have been derived.
The surface of the parish is, in general, flat, enclosed,
and under good cultivation. On the east and north
it is sheltered and beautified by plantations. Four
or five hundred acres of moor in the north-east cor
ner, which formerly were waste, are now covered
with wood. Tradition assigns to the parish the
battle-field of an action between the Lindsays and
the Ogilvies in the reign of James II., and adds that
the spurred boot of a man slain in the pursuit was
taken off, and hung up in an ash adjoining to the
church, and belonging to the family of Airly. A
spur, covered with rust, measuring 8 inches in length
and 4J in breadth, and having a rowel as large as a
crown-piece, remained on the wall at the date of the
Old Statistical Account. The parish is intersected
northward by the turnpike from Arbroath to Bre
chin, and has a profusion of other roads. Popula
tion, in 1801, 783; in 1831, 786. Houses 159.
Assessed property, in 1815, £8,492.— Kinnell is in
the presbytery of Arbroath, and synod of Angus and
Mearns. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £229 10s.
lOd. ; glebe £14, besides 3 acres of cultivated moor.
Schoolmaster's salary £31, with £15 fees. There
is a small non-parochial school for females.
KINNELLAR. See Kinellar.
KINNESSWOOD, a sequestered village in Kin
ross-shire, in the parish of Portmoak, 5 miles east of
Kinross, containing about 320 inhabitants. It is
noted as having been the birth-place, in 1746, of the
youthful poet, Michael Bruce.
KINNETHMONT. See Kennethmont.
KINNETTLES, a parish on the frontier-line of
the Strathmore and the Sidlaw districts of Forfar
shire ; bounded on the east by Forfar ; on the south
by Inverarity ; and on the west and north by Glam
mis. It is nearly a parallelogram, stretching north
and south, 2J miles long, and If mile broad ; but has
at the north-west corner a triangular projection 1
mile, or | of a mile deep. The drain of Forfa.

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loch, or the early course of the sluggish Dean water,
flows along the whole of the northern boundary.
The Arity, or Kerbit, coming in from the south
east, flows 3J miles north-westward by the Dean,
partly in the interior, but chiefly along the western
boundary ; and, during its whole course here, it is a
cheerful and useful stream, enlivening the landscape,
driving machinery, and affording abundant sport to
the angler. Numerous springs supply the inhabit
ants with abundance of pure and soft water. One
of these, at the village of Kinnettles, is so prolific as
to fling up not much short of 40,000 gallons a-day.
Several chalybeate springs also exist, but not of any
medicinal repute. Through the centre of the parish
lengthways runs a hilly ridge, all enclosed, most of
it arable, and the rest covered with plantation. The
surface gently slopes from both sides, and from the
north end of the summit, and subsides into plains.
The plain on the west is watered by the Arity, and
forms a part of Strathmore. The soil is various ; in
some parts a brown clay ; in others a loam ; in others
loam mixed with clay or with sand ; in others so
light as to require rich manuring ; but in all exceed
ingly fertile. Fine enclosures, affluent fields, thriv
ing woods, numerous and neat mansions, and the
curving line of beauty pver the cpnfiguratipn pf the
general surface, impart tp the district a delight-
- fully attractive aspect. Whinstpne fpr road-metal,
sandstone for building material, and the well-known
' Arbroath stone' for pavementing, abound, and are
worked in several quarries. Douglastown, a stirring
little village, stands on the Arity at the western
verge of the parish, on the road between Forfar and
Glammis, 3J miles south-west of the former town,
and 2J miles east of the latter ; and has a population
of about 170. Here is a flax spinning-mill, erected
before the last century, and employing about 50 per
sons. In this village, and in other parts of the par
ish, nearly 100 persons are employed in weaving
osnaburghs, and other linen fabrics, or in spinning
and washing yarn, subordinately to the manufactur
ers of Dundee. Half-a-mile south-east of Douglas-
town stands the modern and very neat, though small,
village of Kinnettles, the site of the parish-church
and school. A neat stone-bridge of three arches
carries the' road across the stream at Douglastown ;
and four other considerable bridges are within the
parish. The Dundee and Forfar turnpike runs along
the east. A great accession has been made to faci
lity of communication bythe Dundee and Forfar rail
way. Population, in 1801, 567; in 1831, 547.
Houses 106. Assessed property, in 1815, £2,736.
— Kinnettles is in the presbytery of Forfar, and synod
of Angus and Mearns. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £11. Schoolmaster's salary
£34 4s. 4|d., with fees  An ancient chapel is sup
posed to have stood on a rising ground, called Kirk-
hill, near the present parish-church. A popish cha
pel was built after the Reformation in the southern
district, on the estate of Foffarty, and was destroyed
in 1745 by a party of royal dragoons. The parish
was less extensive before the Reformation than at
present, and till 1812 had a parish-church of appar
ently very high antiquity.
KI|JNIEL. See Borrowstounness.
KINNOUL, a dispersed, but very beautiful parish
adjacent to tbe town of Perth, but on tbe left bank
of the river Tay, Perthshire. It consists of five
parts, or four entirely detached sections. The prin
cipal one, for its populousness, its suburban position,
its being the site of the parish-church, and of many
interesting edifices, stretches 2 miles up and down
the Tay, and immediately opposite the town of
Perth, has a breadth of about 1 i mile, and is bounded
on the north and north-east by Scone, and on the

south-east and south by Kinfauns. The larger por
tion of this district is included within the- parliamen
tary boundaries of Perth. Another section called
Balthayock, measuring 1J mile by 1£, lies a mile to
the west ; and is slightly connected at its northern
extremity with a third section, a square f of a mile
deep, presenting angles to the cardinal points, and
called Murray's hall. These two sections, viewed
as a continuous district, are surrounded by Scone,
Kilspindie, and Kinfauns. Anpther sectipn, called
Balbeggie, measuring 1£ mile by jf, lies l\ nprth-
east of the nearest part of the Murray's hall section,
and is bounded on the east by Kilspindie, and on all
other sides by St. Martin's. The last section, called
Inchyra, stretches along the Tay, 3 miles east of the
first section, and 1 mile south of the section of Bal
thayock, and is bounded on the north-west and north
by Kinfauns, and on the east by Kinfauns and St.
Madoes. The Inchyra section forms part of the ex
treme west end of the carse of Gowrie, and possesses
the flatness of surface, and the surpassing fertility of
soil, which characterize that district. The other
sections consist chiefly of the summits and sides, or
belts of level land at the base of the commencing
part of the far-stretching hilly range which here rises
abruptly up near the Tay, and runs away to the coast
of the German ocean at Redhead in Forfarshire.
The soil is very various ; but in most places it is
rich, and, at the proper season, laden with crops ;
and in places where it is too poor, or too disadvan
tageous^ situated to admit of tillage, it is richly
superincumbent with wood. The hilly part sends
up two summits, mutually distant 2 miles, one in the
section immediately adjoining Perth, and tbe other
in the Murray's hall section, both of which command
uncommonly brilliant prospects. The former, well-
known- to all lovers of scenic beauty under the name
of the Hill of Kinnoul, presents in itself one of the
most fascinating objects of its class in Britain, and
vies successfully in its attractions with Richmond Hill.
Its southern front in the parish of Kinfauns [which
see], does not more strike by the boldness, pictur
esque features and sylvan dress of its rocky declivity,
than the slopes, and curves, and undulations of the
other sides, crowned and belted with wood, and pro
fusely embellished with little expanses of garden and
with numerous villas, peeping out from environing
shrubberies, excite thrills of pleasure by their rival
ries of meek beauty. On the north side a sinuous
road, called Montague's walk, in honour of the Duke
of Montague, who was in Scotland when it was
formed, offers an easy access for a wheeled vehicle
to the summit. At the top, the hill is cloven by a
steep hollow, called the Windy Gowle, near which,
in certain positions, is a nine or ten times repeating
echo. In a steep part of the rock, on the face of the
hill, is a cave, called the Dragon-hole, which is tra
ditionally reported to have been a hiding-place of
Sir William Wallace, and which became, after the
Reformation, the scene of some annual superstitious.
observances, such as occasioned the interference, and.
incurred the special censures of the Reformers. The
hill has yielded up tp research vast numbers pf fine
agates, some oynx stones, and a few cornelians, and
is remarkable for making choice contributions to tbe
herbarium of the botanist. Half-a-mile west of the
Tay stands the Perth Lunatic-asylum. Between it
and the river, and on all the lower slope of the hill,
or on the belt of lowland at its base, is a thick re
currence of mansions, villas, and neat houses.
Close on tbe bank of the Tay, stretching chiefly
along in one street line, diverging at right angles on
both sides, from the end of Perth bridge, stands the
village ot Bridgend, strictly a suburb of Perth, and
containing a population of about 2,000. Before 1771,

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when the new bridge was built, Bridgend was a
paltry and disagreeable place,— a stained and filthi
fied spot, on the face of an eminently lovely land
scape, — a straggling assemblage of mean houses, for
the accommodation of about 30 boatmen, who plied
the ferry across the river. But its present edifices
are all modern and pleasant, and in many instances
elegant. Three turnpikes, respectively from Dun
dee, Cupar-Angus, and Blairgowrie, diverge in it,
and debouch through it to the bridge. At its south
end, on a slight eminence overhanging the Tay,
stands the parish-church, a neat edifice, erected in
1826 from a design by Mr. Burn. Breweries and
some other works, though they hardly aid its beauty,
give employment to its population. South of the
church, along the bank of the Tay, 30 or 40 acres
were laid but, so far back as 1767, by Mr. James
Dickson of Hassendean-burn, in Roxburghshire, as
nursery-grounds; and were characterized by the
same taste and prosperity as those, originating in the
same quarter, which adorn the environs of Dumfries
and Hawick. To the cultivation of these grounds,
the whole vicinity of Perth owes, in a prime degree,
the wealth and exuberance of plantation and shrub
bery which so extensively beautify it. Bridgend lies
within the baronies of Kinnoul and Pitcullen, hold
ing of the Earl of Kinnoul, and entitled by charter
to a weekly market, and four annual fairs ; and, in
terms of the charter, the village is to be called the
burgh of Kinnoul, and may be the seat of the fairs
and market. But the inhabitants are reported by
the Commissioners on municipal corporations to
have no great reluctance, even despite their fear of
police assessment, to be placed in all respects within
the municipal jurisdiction of Perth. — Inchyra and
Balbeggie are also villages of the parish, respectively
situated in the sections whose names they bear : see
Inchyra. Balbeggie has 220 inhabitants, is the
site of a United Secession meeting-house, and is 4£
miles north-east of Perth, on the road from that
town to Newtyle  The ruins of the old castle of
Kinnoul, situated about £ of a mile south of the
parish-church, were traceable a few years ago, but
have now disappeared. At Balthayock, the seat of
an ancient family of the Blairs, are the massive ruins
of an old castle, ten feet thick in its walls, and sup
posed to have belonged to tbe Knights Templars.
Prince Charles Edward is said to have spent a night
here in 1745. The ruins occupy a romantic site at
the upper end of a deep dell, which is clothed with
herbage, and productive of some rare plants  Popu
lation, in 1801, 1,927 ; in 1831, 2,957. Houses 369.
Assessed property, in 1815, £2,172.
Kinnoul is in the presbytery of Perth, and synpd
pf Perth and Stirling. Patron, the Earl pf Kinnpul.
Stipend £269 16s. 9d. ; glebe £20. Unappropriated
teinds £203 7s. lOd. Sittings in the parish-church
1,000. The inhabitants pf Inchyra have a gallery ki
the church of St. Madoes, containing 65 sittings.
The United Secession congregation in Balbeggie was
established in 1794. Their meeting-house was
erected in 1832, and cost £500. Sittings 400. The
parish minister stated the population, in 1838, to be
3,000; of whom 2,060 were churchmen, 780 were
dissenters, and 160 were persons not known to be
long to any religious denomination. Two parochial
schools are conducted by two teachers, and attend
ed by a maximum of 85 scholars; and two non-
parochial schools — one of them for females — are
attended by a maximum of 136 scholars. Salary
of the first parish schoolmaster £34 4s. 4id.,'
with £19 17s. 5d. fees, and £5 lis. Id. other
emoluments; of the second £15, with £12 fees.
 The ancient church of Kinnoul was dedicated to
St. Constantine, who was the third Scottish king

of that name, and who assumed the cowl among the
Culdees at St. Andrews, and is denominated monk
and martyr in the Scottish calendar. The church
was given, in the reign of David Bruce, by Sir Robert
Erskine, proprietor of the barony of Kinnoul, Lord
of Erskine, and great chamberlain of Scotland, to
the monks of Cambuskenneth ; but, contrary to the
usual practice, it was allowed by the cowled frater
nity a rectory, and was maintained by the rectorial
tithes. Kinnoul gives the title of Earl, in the Scottish
peerage, tp a branch of the ancient and noble family
of Hay. Sir George Hay, Lord-chancellor of Scot
land, was, in 1627, created Viscount Dupplin and
Lord Hay, and, in 1633, raised to the dignity of Earl
of Kinnoul. He died next year ; and, in 1635, had
an elegant monument erected to his memory on the
north wall of the aisle pf the old church. In the
middle of it was a statue of his lordship as large as
life, dressed in his robes as chancellor, and embel
lished with escutcheons and armorial bearings. The
family-seat is Dupplin-castle, in the parish of Aber-
dalgte : which see.
KINORE, a suppressed parish in Aberdeenshire,
now comprehended in that of Huntly : see Huntly.
KINPIRNIE, one of tbe Sidlaw hills, on the
boundary between the parishes of Newtyle and
Nevay, in the extreme east of Forfarshire; 3 miles
south-east , of the town of Meigle. On its summit,
which rises 1,151 feet above the level of the sea, is
a tower which serves as a land-mark, and from which
St. Abb's Head is seen. The hill seems to have
been anciently used as a beacon post.
KINROSS-SHIRE, the smallest county in Scot
land. It is bounded on the south-east, east, and
south by Fifeshire, from which county it was politi
cally disjoined in 1426; and on the west and north-
west by Perthshire. The green range pf the Ochilta
separate it frpm Strathearn on the north ; while the
Lomond hills, Benarty, and the hills of Cleish, sepa
rate it from the surrounding parts of Fifeshire. The
Great North road, entering between Benarty and
the Cleish hills, intersects it from south to north;
and crosses the northern barrier of tbe Ochills by
Glenfarg. It is in length, from Auchmure-bridge
over the Leven, to Fossaway-kirk, near the Devon,
Iii miles; and in breadth 9| miles; being about 30
miles in circumference, and containing about 45,000
Imperial acres. The middle part is occupied by the
beautiful expanse of Loch-Leven [which see], the
bed of which is about 360 feet above sea-level; from
its banks the ground rises towards the north, with
a very gentle acclivity ; but, towards the south the
rise is more rapid, though by no means abrupt and
rugged. The soil on the low grounds is inclined to
clay; on the more elevated parts, it is light and
sandy; in the hilly district, moorish and barren.
The face of the country has a rich and cultivated
appearance. At least three-fifths of the surface, are
under the plough; and about 3,000 acres are in
wood. Limestone, coal, and ironstone are met with.
The hills are mostly composed of coarse whinstone,
in some of the fissures of which occur small veins of
lead ore. The valued rent of the county is £20,192
lis. 2d. Scots; the value of assessed property, in
1815, £25,805 ; the real land rent may be estimated
at £36,000 sterling. It contains the town of Kin
ross, which is the county-town, and the large
village of Milnathqrt [see these articles] ; and is
divided into the four parishes of Kinross, Port-
moak, Cleish, and Orwell : which see. Part of
the parishes of Fossa way and Tullibole, Arngask,
and Forgandenny, are in this county. The popula
tion, in 1801, was 6,725; in 1831, 9,072. Houses,
in 1831, 1,524. Families employed in agriculture,

KIN

160

KIN

in 1831, 440; in trades and handicrafts, 819. Clack
mannanshire and Kinross-shire were united into one
sheriffdom in 1807. These two shires now unite in
returning a member to parliament. Parliamentary
constituency of Kinross-shire, in 1840, 528.
KINROSS,* a parish in the abpve cpunty. It
extends about 3£ miles' from north to' south, and is
nearly of the same extent from east to west, contain
ing 5,600 acres. On the east it is bounded by Loch-
Leven; oh the north by Orwell; on the south by
Portmoak and Cleish, and on the west by Fossaway
and Tullibole. The surface is flat; in no quarter
rising 100 feet abpve the surface-level pf Loch-
Leven. The seil is partly clay, but chiefly a thin
blackish lpam pn a gravelly bpttpm. It is watered
by three small streams : viz. the Nprth and Sputh
Quiech, and the Gairney, which ppur their streams
intp the lake : see these articles. The small island
pn which Lpch-Leven castle stands is in this parish.
Kinrpss-hpuse is a large and elegant structure, built
in 1685 by the celebrated architect, Sir William
Bruce, fpr the residence pf the Duke pf Yprk, and,
it is said, frpm the fines levied on the Covenant
ers. It is now the property of Graham Mont
gomery; but is not inhabited. The old house,
for many generations the residence of the Earls of
Morton, was taken down in 1723. There is an ex
cellent trout-fishery on Loch-Leven, which is let
at about £200 of yearly rent. Population of the
town and parish, in 1801, 2,124; in 1831, 2,927.
Houses 454. Assessed property, in 1815, £5,146.
Real rental £9,175  This parish is in the presbytery
of Dunfermline, and synod of Fife. Patron, Graham
of Kinross. Stipend £184, 16s. 4d.; glebe £35.
Unappropriated teinds £116 16s. 9d. Church built
in 1832; cost £1,537  The United Secession church
has two cpngregatiens in the town of Kinross. The
stipend of one of the ministers is £120; of the other
£80. The town of Kinross, in the above parish, and
the county-town of the shire, is 16 miles south of
Perth; 13 north of Inverkeithing; 19 west of Cu
par; 23 east-north-east of Stirling; 18 east by north
of Alloa; and 27 north-west of Edinburgh. Popu
lation, in 1831, 2,200. It is finely situated at the
west end of Loch-Leven, and is intersected, through
out its length, by the Great road from Edinburgh to
Perth. Kinross was formerly a very mean place,
but has been much improved of late years ; a great
number of new houses have been built in a good
style, and the streets much improved and lighted
with gas. The county-hall is a handsome build
ing. It was erected in 1826, at an expense of
£2,000. A town-hall is now building by sub
scription, at an estimated cpst of £600. The
town is governed by a committee of the inhabi
tants, annually chosen at ~ public meeting. This
place formerly carried on a good trade in cutlery,
which is now abandoned. It also manufactured
brown linen to the amount of between £4,000 and
£5,000 annually, which is also given up ; and the
people are mostly employed in weaving cotton goods,
such as ginghams, pullicates, and checks, for the
Glasgow manufacturers. Tartan shawls of a fine
quality have lately been manufactured here with con
siderable success. There is a branch here of the
British Linen company's bank. It has four annual
cattle-fairs : viz. 3d Wednesday of March, 1 st? of
June, 3d Wednesday of July, and 18th October, all
O. S. Its weekly market, on Tuesday, has fallen
into desuetude. There are two extensive inns, a
* " The town of Kinross, lying at the beginning or head of a
point of land that runneth into the west side of Loch-Leven ;
and this is the reason of its name in the old language." — Irvine's
Historic Scoiica Nomenclatura.

curiing-club, two subscription-libraries, and several
benevolent and religious societies in the town.
KINTAIL.f a parish on the western coast of
Ross-shire; 18 miles long, and in general about 6
broad ; and comprehending three districts, viz. Croe,
Glenelchaig, and Glassletter. The whole is inter
sected by the two arms of Loch-Alsh [see Loch-
Alsh] called Lech-Lpung and Loch-Duich ; and sur
rounded by lofty mountains. The principal fresh
water lakes are Loch-a-Bhealich and Loch-Glass-
letter. The principal rivers are the Croe and the
Elchaig, flowing through the glens of these names.
The fall of the Glomach occurs in this parish : see
Glomach. The surface is wild and mountainous,
and the chief attention of the farmer is paid to the
rearing of black cattle and sheep. The parish is
mostly inhabited by the clan of Macrae. Tulloch-
ard, pn the nprth side of Loch-Duich, is elevated to
a great height, and is seen at a distance. Near the
manse is the tomb of Diarmid, one of the^ Fingalian
herpes, cpmppsed of large rough stones. Popula
tion, in 1801, 1,038; in 1831, 1,240. Houses 235.
Assessed property, in 1815, £18,520. There are
two fishing-villages, viz. Dornie and Bundalloch.
The inhabited portion of this district lies between
the north-east end of Loch-Loung, and the south
east end of Loch-Duich ; the rest being hill-grazings
with a few cottages  This parish is in the presby
tery of Lochcarron, and synod of Glenelg. Patron,
the Crown. Stipend £177 5s.; glebe £40.— There
is a Roman Catholic congregation at Dornie. There
are three catechists in the parish; and three schools.
Schoolmaster's salary about £27.
KINTORE, a parish in Aberdeenshire ; bounded
on the north by Inverury and Keithhall, with Kin
kell, from which it is divided by the river Don ; on
the east by Fintray, from which it is also thus
divided, and by Kinellar; on tbe south by Skene;
and on the west by Kemnay. It extends about 6
miles in length from north to south, and averages 3
in breadth, narrowing towards its northern extrem
ity: square area about 7,000 acres, exclusive of the
large common between it and Kinellar. Houses
236. Assessed property, in 1815, £2,577. Popu
lation, in 1801, 846; in 1831, 1,184. The Tuach
burn rises amongst the hills on the south-wesjtern
border, and, intersecting the parish north-east wardly,
falls into the Don about £ of a mile from the town
of Kintore. The parish is also intersected along the
course of the Don by the canal between Aberdeen
and Inverury, which runs through the town, and
has been of great advantage to the district in its
agricultural advancement. The surface of the land
gradually rises from the banks of the Don, south-
westwardly to the hills on its borders, and the soil
gradually deteriorates in the same direction. The
haugh by the river side is broad, and follows the
windings of the river for nearly 3 miles: it is very
deep in the soil, having been much enriched by the
former overflowings of the river, which in this vicin
ity runs so slowly that it has more the appearance
of a lake than a torrent : in a flood it has been known
to spread more than a mile in breadth, threatening
the town with inundation, especially when shoals of
ice came down, which cut the deep banks. A little
to the north-east of the town above Breedeshaugh,
the river forms the beautiful little island of Balbi
than. The lower district is arable, producing toler
ably good crops : there are also now several planta
tions. Anciently this district is said to have formed
part of a rpyal fprest; and the wprd Kintore is cer
tainly Gaelic, signifying 'the Head pf the wppd.'
This fprest is said tp have extended frpm the west
t From Ceann-da-shaill, ' the Head of the two Seas.'

KIN

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KIN

part of the parish eastward to the church of Dyce, a
space of 5 or 6 miles. Part of this forest, with a
hunting-seat or castle called Hall Forest, were given
by Robert Bruce to Robert de Keith, Great mari-
schal of Scotland, after the battle of Bannockburn,
and the district still remains in the hands of his de
scendants, the family of Kintore, having been be
stowed, in the 17th century, by the Earl Marischal,
pn his spn Sir Jphn Keith, whp was created Earl pf
Kintore by Charles II., in 1677, on account of his
alleged instrumentality in preserving the regalia of
Scotland during tbe troubles of the civil wars : — see
Dunnottar. Numerous cairns and tumuli in this
parish are supposed to indicate the scene of the
battle between the armies of Robert Bruce and Ed
ward I., after the defeat of Cumine, Earl of Buchan,
near Inverury. On the head of the hill of Creechie,*
it is said the Earl of Huntly pitched his camp when
marching southward previous to the battle of Cor-
reechie; and that having been already warned by a
wizard to "beware of Correechie," and hearing the
name of this place, he became alarmed, and imme
diately decamped, marching forth to the Hillof Fair;
in a hollow near which, called the Howe of Cor
reechie, the engagement took place. In the year
1754, or 1755, those parts of Kinkell, west of the
Don, namely, Creechie and Thainstown, were, by
decreet, annexed to Kintore, and the other part to
Mount-kiggie, now called the parish of Kinkell, and
Keithhall. The annexation took place in 1760, by
the death of the incumbent at Kinkell. This parish
formerly belonged to the presbytery of Aberdeen,
but by an act of synod, in 1702, it was for a time
annexed to Garioch, and has ever since continued in
the presbytery of Garioch, and synod of Aberdeen.
Patron, the Earl of Kintore. Stipend £184 8s. lOd. ;
glebe £23. Schoolmaster's salary £30, with fees,
&c, £28, besides a share of the Dick bequest.
There are two private schools in the parish.
Kintore, a royal burgh in the above parish, is
situated on the road to Aberdeen, near the Don, 12
miles north-west of Aberdeen, and 4 south-east of
Inverury, is a town of small size — containing only
84 houses — but of great antiquity, claiming priority
to Aberdeen as a burgh; and indeed, — according to
the writer of the Old Statistical Account, and others,
— priority, by no less than three centuries, to the
very earliest period when such burghai privileges
were first known in Scotland, namely, to the 12th
century. That it was elevated to the rank of a
royal burgh by Kenneth Macalpine is, therefore, by
no means probable ; but it may have been so in the
12th century. The only old charter it now possesses
is one by James IV., in 1506, confirming others of a
more ancient date — destroyed, it is alleged, by one of
its own provosts in the 17th century. By the gov
erning charter it was appointed to be governed by a
provost, two bailies, a treasurer, a dean-pf-guild, and
eight cpuncillprs. The set of the burgh not having
required any /periodical change in the officials, the
head of the Kintore family acted as provost for about
150 years previous to Act 3° and 4" William IV.
c. 76, in Schedule F. of which it stands. At the
period of the municipal inquiry, the police was main
tained by a town-serjeant, and one or two special
* The old names of places in this parish are generally Gaelic,
sb Creechie, Tillibin, Drumnaheath, Blairs, Anqnhiten, Dal-
wearie, and probably Tavelty, the old road to Aberdeen, called
the Eushlach, part of the road called the Skair, the fords of
Tillikae and Pitcurn, with the names of many of the fields. On
the extremity and top of a hill bordering with Skene, is Ward.
house, an English name, which, though it has no vestige of a
camp, nor of a house better than ordinary, has probably had a
watch and guard kept on it in perilous times: for this, the
situation well fits it, especially as it stands on ground nearly as
high as. any in the parish, and has an extensive prospect north
and south, and many hills at a distance are seen from it, even
the Grampian hills, and to the north, much of the Garioch.
II.

constables: no increase of the establishment was
thought necessary. Lord Kintore voluntarily paid
the whole expense of the municipal establishment,
even to the providing of a jail and town-house, as the
funds of the corporation were insufficient to main
tain its dignity ; the total income of the burgh being
£9 6s. Scots I— an additional sum of £1 13s. 4d.
sterling consisted of an annual amercement paid by
the family of Craigievar, to the poor of Kintore, for
the murder, within the burgh, of one of the family
of Gordon of Craigmile. The royal burgh of Kin
tore is thus said to have been " in the most impov
erished condition of almost any town in Scotland " 
an allegation,. the truth of which, to say the least of
it, seems very doubtful, since, poor as it was found
to be, though there was ' no property,' there was
also 'no debt.' The municipal commissioner re
ported that " it is thought Kintore ought to be re
lieved of the burdens incumbent upon a royal burgh,
and reunited with the county ; provision being made
for renewing the investiture of the property within
burgh, ' more burgi.' " It unites with Banff, Cullen,
Elgin, and Inverury, in electing a member of par
liament. Constituency, in 1840, 35. The popula
tion of the town is chiefly agricultural : it scarcely
exceeds 400 individuals. The chief export for canal
is granite, and the chief import lime. The town
consists of one well-built street with a neat town-
house, and the parish-church in the vicinity. Kin
tore gives the title of Earl to the younger branch of
the Keith family above alluded to. In 1838, An
thony, the 8th Earl, was created Baron Kintore, in
the peerage of the United Kingdom.
KINTRAW, a hamlet at the northern extremity
of Loch-Craignish, ' in the parish of Killmelfort,
Argyleshire. Here is a good inn, about 8| miles
distant from Killmelfort, to which an excellent fine
of road has been made, under the auspices of the
Parliamentary commissioners.
KINTYRE, or Cantyre, the southern division
of Argyleshire. It is a peninsula lying between the
frith of Clyde and the Atlantic ocean, and joined to
Knapdale by the narrow isthmus of Tarbert. It ex
pends about 40 miles from north to south, and is
about 6J miles in average breadth, consisting partly
of low and partly of high land ; and embraces the
parishes of Cambpellton, Gigha, Cara, Kil
berry, Kilcalmonell, Killean, Kilchenzie,
Saddle, Skipness, and Southend : see these
articles. The population, in 1811, was 18,285; in
1831, 20,632. Houses, in 1831, 3,131. Families
4,110. It contains several villages; but the only
town of consequence is the royal burgh of Camp-
bellton : which see. This district has, singularly
enough, up to the 17th century, been reckoned
among the South Isles ; and its history is mixed up
with theirs : see article Hebrides. The origin of
this was a stratagem of Magnus Barefoot, king of
Norway, who, having conquered the Isles, made an
agreement with Malcolm Canmore, by which the
latter was to leave Magnus and his successors in
peaceable possession of all the isles which could be
circumnavigated. Magnus had himself drawn across
the narrow isthmus between Kintyre and Knapdale
in a galley by which, it was allowed in these simple
times, he had succeeded in adding Kintyre to the
possessions accorded him by the treaty  [See Gre
gory's History of the Western Highlands, p. 14] —
In former times, when the Lords of the Isles ruled
in all the pomp of royalty, Kintyre was reckoned
part of their dominions. Bruce bestowed the keep
ing of Tarbert castle, then the most important posi
tion on the Argyle coast, on Robert, tbe son and
heir of Walter, the high-steward. Under David II.
the lands of Kintyre reverted to the descendants pf

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KIP

Angus Oig. In 1498, King James held his court at
a new castle he had caused to be erected at the head
of the bay of Campbellton, and Argyle was appointed
keeper of Tarbert castle. The Macdonalds, how
ever, stoutly and often successfully resisted the in
fluence of the Campbells in this quarter, until their
last and final suppression in 1615. In 1476, the
Earl of Ross was compelled to resign Kintyre and
Knapdale to the Crown.
KINTYRE (Mull of), the south-west point of
the peninsula of Kintyre, in N. lat. 55° 19'. W. long.
5° 40'. , It has a lighthouse, elevated 297 feet above
the sea at high water, situated on the rocks called the
Merchants. The light is fixed, and is seen at 22 miles
distance in clear weather. The point of Corse wall
bears S.S.E. from this, 26 miles; Portpatrick light,
S. by E. 37 miles ; the Maiden rocks, S. by W. j
W. distant 20 miles; Copeland light, S. by W. £ W.
distant 38 miles.
KIPPEN, a parish partly in Perthshire, and partly
in Stirlingshire ; yet quite compact, and all lying on
the south side of the Forth. It is bounded on tbe
north by Port-of-Menteith, by the western section of
Kincardine and by Kilmadock ; on the *ast by Gar-
gunnock ; on the south by Balfron ; and on the west
by Drymen. It measures, in extreme length, from
east to west, 6£ miles ; in extreme breadth, 4 miles ;
and in superficial area, 21 square miles. A parallelo
gram 4 miles long by 2J broad, occupying the; centre
of the parish, and extending from its northern to its
southern boundaries ; and a stripe f of a mile east
of this, measuring 2J miles by % a mile, running up
from the sputhern boundary, and quite surrounded
by Stirlingshire ; — are the pprtipn pf this parish
which belpngs tp Perthshire. Thus, while the par-
pchial bpundary-line is uninterrupted, the mere im
portant one of the counties suffers absurd and per
plexing intersections. The Forth wends stagnantly
and sinuously along the whole of the northern boun
dary, having commenced, a little before touching the
parish, that very serpentine course for which it is
remarkable. It has here a mean appearance, and is
confined within a narrow channel, by banks of from
10 to 20 feet in height. Yet, from vantage-grounds
in its vicinity, magnificent views are obtained of the
far-stretching strath through which it flows, from
Gartmore 4 miles west of the point where it first
touches the parish, away to the far-east, where the
rocks of Abbey's-craig and Craigforth, and the bold
form of Stirling castle appear like islands emerging
out of the carse, the whole richly embellished with
cultivation, and finely encinctured with ranges of
billy or mountainous elevations. A small brook,
called Boquhan-burn, comes in from the south near
its source, and flows for 4£ miles along the south
eastern and eastern boundary to the Forth. Another
brook, the Pow of Glinns, which rises within the
southern limits of the parish about 1£ mile west of
the former, flows southward to the Endrick, and
sends off its waters along with that stream, through
Loch-Lomond to the Clyde. Athirdbrook, rising still
a little farther west, and flowing 3£ miles northward
to the Forth, has sufficient water-power to drive ma
chinery. Along tbe Forth stretches a narrow belt
of haugh, very fertile, and equally adapted to tillage
and to pasture. Behind this extends a belt of carse-
ground, generally from half-a-mile to a mile in
breadth, but in some places broader. This forms
part of the great plain which extends on both sides
of the Forth from Gartmore to Borrowstounness ;
and possesses the same rich clay soil which elsewhere
characterizes the carse. Abput 300 pr 400 acres pf
it were in the same condition of moss from the dam
ming up of waters by tbe fall of the Caledonian
forest, as portions of Kincardine and other parishes.

But operations for removing the moss, and laying
open the subjacent clay, were commenced nearly a>
soon as the celebrated ones on the estate of Blair-
Drummond, and did not much differ from them in na
ture. From the carse the surface of the parish rises
at first abruptly, and then very gradually in most
places for about a mile, and in others further ; and
continuing for a considerable space to be flat or to
form a table-land, it declines toward the south.
Where this upland territory. springs from the carse,
or on the abrupt skirting at its base, it exhibits
the distinctive appearances of a river-bank deserted
by its stream. The land on the slow northern
slope, above the basement skirting, exhibits a pleas
ing view of fruitful fields, generally well-enclosed,
and occasionally intersected with glens, pouring
down their tiny rills. The table-land, and part of
the southern slope of the uplands, are over the
whole length of the parish a continuous moor, known
as the moor of Kippen. The southern slope, alto
gether little more than half-a-mile, is carpeted with
a soil lighter and less fertile than that of the north
ern slope. The interjacent valley, at its base be
tween this parish and Gargunnock, where it is tra
versed by Boquhan-burn, is very narrow. That
burn, says General Campbell, "which, descending
from the rock of Ballochleam, makes little impres
sion on the strata of limestone or iron, meets at
last with the red sandstone, through which it has
opened a passage, and wrought its soft materials
into a number of curious shapes, such as the wells
and caldrons of the Devon. It is yet remembered
when it burst through a large projection of the
rock, and threw the mill, with all its appendages, ,
on the other side of the bank." Limestone is
found on the southern boundary, and has been
burned for the improvement of the carse  On five
or six small heights in the parish are oval plains,
surrounded by ramparts, averaging 130 yards in cir
cumference, and variously conjectured to be of Ro
man, of Pictish, and of feudal origin. A sanguinary
affray having occurred respecting the course of the
brook which flows through the body of the parish
to the Forth, James V., who was at the time in
Stirling, ordered the stream to be taken from both
the contending parties, and turned into the channel
which it still retains. In former times, the district
was fearfully infested by marauding parties of -the
Highland clans; and, in 1691, it suffered special
consternation and loss from an irruption of tbe gillies
of Rob Roy. In 1745, when the rebel army passed
the Forth at the ford of Frew on their way to Stir
ling, the inhabitants suffered from their exactions.
Population, in 1801, 1,722; in 1831, 2,085. Houses
in Perthshire, 146; in Stirlingshire, 314. Assessed
property in Perthshire, in 1815, £3,082 ; in Stir
lingshire, £4,652.
Besides the village of Buchlyvie [which see]
on the west, the parish has, in its eastern division,
the village of Kippen. This stands on the turnpike
between Stirling and Dumbarton through Drymen
¦—a turnpike which traverses the extreme length of
the parish — 9£ miles west of Stirling, and 5 miles
east of Buchlyvie. It has a weekly market during
a brief period, in winter, and has annual fairs on the
1st Wednesday of January, the 2d Wednesday of
April, the 26th of May, and the 27th of October.
During half-a-century it was the seat of extensive
whisky distillation. An old act of parliament per
mitting a somewhat free manufacture of this article
within the Highland line, Kippen took full advan
tage of, claiming to be on the privileged side of that
Une, till a new act was passed in 1793. Population
of the village, in 1836, 600.
Kippen is in the presbytery of Dunblane, and

KIR

163

KIR

synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron, Erskine of
Cardross. Stipend £250 6s. 9d. ; glebe £12. Un
appropriated teinds £511 10s. The parish-church
was built in 1825. Sittings 800. In the parish,
quoad civilia, are two other places of worship ; but
they are within the bounds of the quoad sacra parish
of Buchlyvte : which see. According to ecclesi
astical survey of the quoad civilia parish in 1836, the
population then consisted of 1,638 churchmen, 491
dissenters, and 21 persons of unknown denomina
tional connexion, — in all, 2,050. Two parochial
schools are conducted by 2 teachers, and attended by
at most 82 scholars ; and 4 non-parochial schools,
conducted by 4 teachers, are attended by at most 204
• scholars. Salary of the first parochial schoolmaster
£27 15s. 6d., with £20 fees; of the second £5 lis.
Id., with £5 10s. fees, and £11 14s. other emolu
ments. The church, according to one account, be
longed anciently to the monks of Cambuskenneth ;
but, according to another and more probable one, it
was, in 1238, erected by an ecclesiastical convention,
acting under tbe authority of the Pope, into a per
petual can onry in the church of Dunblane. A chapel
formerly stood near the eastern boundary, and is
said to have been erected during the period of post-
Reformation Prelacy in Scotland, in consequence of
the indulgence granted by King James. The parish
is celebrated for the covenanting zeal of its inhabi
tants during the persecution by the Stuarts. In 1675,-
the Lord's supper was administered here to a very
numerous " conventicle" during the night. At the
battle of Bothwell, in 1679, a body of 200 or 300
countrymen, partly from this parish and partly from
Galloway, were placed as a guard upon the bridge,
and defended it with great gallantry. Various par
ishioners, in particular James Ure of Shargartoun,
underwent, till the Revolution, such severe hard
ships as were long feelingly remembered in the coun
try, and are pathetically and minutely detailed by
Wodrow. KIRK- ANDRE W'S, an ancient parish, now com
prehended in the parish of Borgue [which see], 5
miles west by south of Kirkcudbright. It is situ
ated on a bay, to which it gives name, where vessels
of light burden anchor occasionally in fine weather.
KIRKBEAN, a parish at the south-east extremity
of the stewartry of Kirkcudbrightshire, occupying a
peninsular place between the estuary of tbe Nith and
the body of the Solway frith. It is bounded on the
north by Newabbey ; on the east by the estuary of
the Nith ; on the south by the Solway frith ; and on
the west by Colvend. It is an oblong, 5 miles long
from north to south, and 3| miles broad ; but with
an indentation on its west side 1 J mile deep, and on
the average 1£ mile wide. Soutbwick water traces,
over a distance 'of 4 miles, the western boundary.
Kirkbean-burn rises in the northern boundary, and
runs 4J miles circuitously through the interior, to
the sea at Carse bay ; and is joined a* mile from its
mouth by Preston-burn, after the latter, also of local
origin, has performed a semicircular course of 4
miles in the interior. Kirkbean-burn has wooded
banks, and forms amid their shades a beautiful catar
act, a little above the village of Kirkbean. The
coast line is 9£ miles in length : the estuary of the
Nith is on the average 3 miles broad ; and the Sol
way frith is 10 miles broad. Flounders, skate, cod,
soles, shrimps, and some other species of fish abound ;
turbots are rare ; herrings come in shoals, at inter
vals of several years. The tides flow five hours
and ebb seven ; and, owing to their rapidity, they
occasionally upset vessels, and have been known to
tumble a ship's anchor a considerable way from its
place. The coast is low and sleachy, and slowly
gains accessions* of excellent salt pasture from the

recession pf the sea. On Southerness point, the
most southerly land, running J of a mile into the sea
from a base of 1 mile upon the body of the parish,
stands a tower, erected as a landmark for vessels.
Vessels often come to anchor here in three or four
fathoms at low water, to escape the collision of the
flood tide. Carse or Carsethorn bay, near the north
ern extremity of the parish, and 11 miles south of
Dumfries, is a safe anchoring place, and has a rude
harbour, and offers shelter to all vessels waiting a
•spring tide to take them up the Nith, or encounter
ing contrary winds when coming down. On the
northern boundary of the parish rises the imposing
form of the far-seeing Criffel, sending its summit
1,895 feet above the level of the sea, at a distance of
1| mile from the margin of the Nith, the south
eastern termination of a ridge which runs 10 miles
inland, and the monarch mountain of all the country,
lying south of the southern highlands. Along the
western boundary, or a little inward from it, over a
distance of 2| miles, runs a spur or offshoot of Crif
fel. From these heights the surface of the parish
inclines to the shore, and exhibits a rich, beautiful,
and extensive prospect, fields well-enclosed and highly
cultivated, and several clumps and belts of planta
tion. The soil, in general, is fertile ; on the north
west and west, it lies on limestone ; on the south
east it is a rich and deep clayey loam ; and on the
south or south-west, over a tract of 1,000 acres,
called the Merse, it is a light and sandy conquest
from the sea, nearly all arable. The parish claims
to have led the van in the south of Scotland in .the
march of modern agricultural improvement, and owed
its eminence, in this particular, to William Craik,
Esq., of Arbigland. Limestone abounds, and is
worked. Expensive but vain searches have been
made for coals. The mansion of Arbigland, with ita
grounds and sea-views, is a delightful place. The
village of Kirkbean, 12 miles south of Dumfries, and
the same distance east of Dalbeattie, occupies a
pleasant site on the Kirkbean-burn, almost surround
ed with little hills and rising grounds covered with
wood. The decayed and almost extinct village of
Preston, stands on the cognominal estate, once the
property of Regent Morton, and is said to have been
a burgb-of-regality, with tbe privilege of holding
four annual fairs. An ancient cross, seven feet high,
on a base of stone- wall about four feet square, com
memorates its former impprtance. There is anpther
village, Sputherness: which see. Twp ancient
castles, Cavens and Weaths, which bpth belpnged to
the Regent Morton, and which, with the barony of
Preston, were granted, on his forfeiture, to the family
of Nithsdale, are yet partially standing. On the
farm of Ardrie is a Druidical circle. Admiral John
Campbell, and the notorious Paul Jones, were na
tives of Kirkbean ; the former the son of the parish
minister, and born in 1719,— the latter the son of
John Paul, a gardener, and born about the year 1745.
An American recently repaired Paul Jones' native
cottage. The parish is well-provided on the east
and south with roads ; but it has only two thorough
fares, one on the south-west, and another on the
north, leading out of its own limits. Population, in
1801, 696 ; in 1831, 802. Houses 142. Assessed
property, in 1815, £6,504 — Kirkbean is in the pres
bytery and synod of Dumfries. Patron, the Duke of
Buccleuch. Stipend £202 12s. 8d.; glebe £18.
Parish schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 3£d., with £28
fees, and upwards of £25 other emoluments. There
are two non-parochial schools. The interest of £400
is divided among the teachers of all the three schools,
for the gratuitous tuition of the children of the poor.
Kirkbean is mistakenly supposed to have been an
ciently called Caerben, and to have contained the

KIR

a.G4

KIR

Caerben torigum of Ptolemy, — an object which must
be sought at what is now called Drummore-castle at
the mouth of the Dee. The parish seems to have
had its name from the dedication of its ' kirk ' to
Bean,  either St. Bean, the first bishop of Murthlac,
a saint of the 1 1th century, or more probably one of
two Irish saints, who both had the same name. The
church belonged of old first to the church, and next
to the college of Lincluden.
KIRKBOST, an island of the Hebrides, about a
mile long, and very narrow, lying on the west coast
of North Uist.
KIRK-BUDDO, an ancient chapelry in the shire
of Forfar, and parish of Guthrie, on the northern
bank of a rivulet to which it gives name, at the dis
tance of about 6 miles south-south-east of Forfar.
Here is a Roman camp called Hare Faulds. See
Guthrie. KIRKCALDY,* a parish situated on the shore of
a bay of the frith of Forth, about 18 miles south
west of the county-town of Cupar, and 10 miles di
rectly north of Edinburgh. It is of an oblong shape ;
about 2 miles in length from north to south, and
scarcely in any place more than three-fourths of a
mile in breadth from east to west. The sea-beach
is low and sandy, and the surface of the parish is flat
for a short way inland, when it rises suddenly to a
considerable height, and continues afterwards to have
a slight ascent to the northern extremity of the par
ish. It is bounded on the south by the Forth ; by
the parish of Dysart on the east ; by the same parish
and Auchinderran on the north ; and by the parish
of Abbotshall on the west. Originally the greater
part of tbe parish of Abbotshall formed part of the
parish of Kirkcaldy, the church pf which was a men-
sal church belonging to the monastery of Dunferm
line. In 1649, the presbytery, on an application
from the heritors, found that a new kirk should be
erected in the parish of Kirkcaldy, for the accommo
dation of the parishioners ; and recommended to the
commissioners of the parliament for surrenders and
tithes, to carry the erection into effect. The next
year, the new parish of Kirkcaldy, since called Ab
botshall, was erected; and the parish of Kirkcaldy
proper, has from that time been confined nearly to
the burgh, the burgh-acres, and tbe common land
and moor, comprehending in all an extent of about
890 Scots acres. The population of the parish in
1755, was 2,296; in 1801, 3,248; in 1831, 5,034.
The number of families, in 1831, was 1,002; of
which 30 were chiefly employed in agriculture ; and
532 in trade, manufactures, and handicraft. The
number of inhaDited houses was 463. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £9,374  This parish is the seat of a
presbytery, in the synod of Fife. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £172 3s. 7d. ; glebe £30. The parish-church
stands pn the rising ground north of the town. It
was rebuilt in 1807, and is rather a handsome struc
ture. There is also a chapel in Cowan-street, for
merly belonging to the original Burgher Associate
Synod, but now connected with the Established
church. There is also an Episcopal chapel in the
town; and the United Associate Synod have two
chapels here. Besides these different chapels, there
is an Independent congregation. Education is well-
provided for in the burgh, which has two parochial
or burgh-schools. One of the schools founded by
the late Robert Philip, Esq., of Edinshead, has been
erected in the burgh, at which, according to the will
of the benevolent donor, 100 children are educated
« This parish derives its name from the town of Kirkcaldy,
where there is said to have been in ancient times a place of
worship belonging to the Culdees; whence the name Kit-
culda, ' the Cell of the Culdees,' afterwards corrupted into
Kirkaldy.

gratis, each pupil receiving in addition 30s. annually
for cleJthing. There were 20 private schools, in
cluding boarding and day-schools, in this parish in
1834. The town of Kirkcaldy is a populous and thriv
ing sea-port, and also a royal burgh. The first no
tice we have of this burgh is in 1334, when it was
mortified by David II. to the monastery of Dunferm
line, with whom it continued till 1450, when the
commendator and convent conveyed to the bailies
and community, the burgh and harbour, the burgh-
acres, the small customs, the right of pasture on the
muir, the right to hold courts, &c. Previous to this,
it had only been a burgh-of-barony, holding of the
abbot and monastery ; but it was immediately there
after erected into a royal .burgh, with all the custo
mary privileges. Its original charter, and all the
privileges which it contained, were not only specially
ratified by a charter of confirmation granted by
Charles I. in 1644; but the burgh, for good and gra
tuitous services performed by it, was erected de novo
into a free royal burgh and free port, and new and
larger immunities granted to it. Nothing is authen
tically known of the state of Kirkcaldy at the time
of its being disjoined from, the lordship pf Dunferm
line ; but as the churchmen were among the earliest
cultivators of foreign commerce, it seems reasonable
to suppose that Kirkcaldy was the port of the monks
of that abbey, and that it consequently must have
received benefit from the foreign commerce of the
period such as it was. At a later period, and before
the Union with England, we know that the whole of
the burghs on the coast of Fife enjoyed a large share
oftrade, not only with the Continent, but with Eng
land. They were extensively engaged in the fisher
ies, and exported not only salted fish, but salt and
coals. Of the commerce of the period, Kirkcaldy
enjoyed a principal share ; and tradition relates, that
when this charter was renewed by Charles I., it had
100 sail of ships belonging to it. This tradition is
supported by the evidence of an authentic account
preserved among the records of tbe burgh, from
which it appears that 94 vessels belonging to the
port, had been either lost at sea or taken by the ene
my, between the year 1644, and the period of the
Restoration. These are said to have amounted in
value to the sum of £53,791 sterling. This severe
Ipss must have tended greatly to check the prosper
ity of the town ; but other occurrences connected
with the unhappy disputes of the period, must have
increased this in a great degree. At the time that
Dundee was taken by General Monk, the inhabitants
of Kirkcaldy lost goods to the value, of £5,000 ster
ling, which they had deposited there as a place of
security; and several of the wealthier inhabitants
suffered the loss of considerable sums of money which
they had lent to the committee of estates for the
public service, and which they found it impossible
afterwards to' receive. During the course of the
Civil war, 480 persons belonging to this burgh were
slain in battle ; of whom 200 were said to have been
killed at the battle of Kilsyth alone. All these
lpsses, aggravated by the suspensien of the trade with
Holland after the Restoration, brought ruin and deep
distress upon the burgh. . Indeed so much so, that in
1682, an application was made to the Convention of
burghs to consider its property, and to take mea
sures for easing it of its public burden. The parish,
however, having fallen under the displeasure of the
Court, for the part it had taken during the Civil war,
was not only refused all relief, but was rather bur
dened by an addition to its annual assessment of 2,000
merks. In 1687, a new application was made to the
Convention, when a visitation of the burgh was or
dered. A committee for the purpose met at Kirk.

KIRKCALDY.

caldy the following year, which, after proper inves
tigation, reported " that the custpms payable to bis
majesty were not the half of what they had been
some years before ; that this was occasioned by the
death of many substantial merchants and skippers,
and loss of ships and decay of trade , that many of
the inhabitants, some of whom were magistrates of
the burgh, had fled from and deserted the same ; that
so great was the ppverty pf the inhabitants, that all
the taxations imposed pn the tpwn cpuld dp no more
than pay the eight months' cess payable to the King,
and that with difficulty." Before the effect of this
report could be known, the Revolution took place,
into which the inhabitants of Kirkcaldy entered with
alacrity ; and in consequence of their conduct on the
occasion,* and a representation of their poverty, they
obtained an abatement of £1,000 Scots from their
annual assessment. This relief, and the security
which the country enjoyed after this great event, so
had its effect upon this burgh that its languishing
commerce began speedily to revive, and wealth again
to circulate among its inhabitants. The treaty of the
Union, however, again, for a time, put a stop to the
prosperity of Kirkcaldy. In consequence of the
taxes and customs which were imposed in Scotland,
and the numerous restrictions with which the trade
of the country was fettered by the English, com
merce every where declined ; nor did any place suffer
more than the various towns on the coast of Fife.
The shipping of Kirkcaldy, on which it had hitherto
mainly depended, fell rapidly into decay; and the
different wars which followed for more than half-a-
century, so continued to depress trade, that in 1 760,
Kirkcaldy employed no more than one coaster of 50
tons, and two ferry-boats of 30 tons each. On the
return of peace in 1763, the shipping trade imme
diately began to revive. In 1772, it had increased
to 11 vessels, carrying 515 tons, and 49 men; and
although its progress was retarded by the American
war, it ampunted at the clpse of that war to 12 ves
sels, carrying 750 tons, and 59 men. In 1792, its
shipping consisted of 26 square-rigged vessels, 1
sloop, and 2 ferry-boats, carrying, by the register,
3,700 tons, and employing 225 men. Some of the
larger vessels were employed in the trade to the Me
diterranean, the West Indies, and America ; but the
greater proportion was employed in the trade to Hol
land and the Baltic. The smaller vessels were em
ployed chiefly as coasters. Since then, its shipping
trade has gone oni regularly, and progressively in
creasing. In 1831, Kirkcaldy, with its immediate
creeks, possessed 95 vessels, measuring 10,610 tons,
and manned by 831 seamen. Kirkcaldy has for a
considerable time sent several vessels yearly to the
whale-fishery. The linen trade, which is now the staple manufac
ture of the town, appears to have been but little
attended to, till after the destruction of the foreign
trade, in consequence of the Union. At this time,
however, the manufacturers wove their own webs,
and probably purchased in the surrounding district :
little capital was consequently engaged in the trade.
In 1733, the whole amount of linen cloth stamped at
Kirkcaldy, was no more than 177,740 yards. In
* They found means to apprehend the Earl of Perth, who
was Lord-chancellor, and had managed the affairs of Scotland
under James ; and who knowing that he was generally obnox
ious ou account of the cruelties which he had practised on the
Presbyterians, withdrew himself as soon as the public mind
had declared in favour of the Prince of Orange. After detain.
ing that nobleman in prison five days, under a constant guard
of 301) men, they sent him under a convoy of three boats manned
with 200 hands, to Alloa, where they delivered him, on receipt,
into the custody of the Earl of Mar. The guard of 300 men
they found it necessary to keep up for four months, on receiv
ing information that a force was coming from the Highlands to
burn the town in revenge for Perth's apprehension.

1743, it had increased to 816,550 yards, the computed
value of which was nearly £11,000 sterling. But
this included not only the manufacture of Kirkcaldy,
but of the parishes of Abbotshall, Dysart, Leslie, &c.
The linen trade continued to be diligently prosecur
ted, and gradually to increase, till about 1 755, when
it amounted to about the value of £22,000 sterling ;
but in consequence of the war which then began, in
terrupting the intercourse with America and the
West Indies, the manufacture began to decline, and,
in 1773, had fallen to £15,000 sterling, and the fol
lowing year was still lower. Mr. James Fergus,
however, an enterprising manufacturer of tbe.period,
succeeded in opening up a new channel for disposing
of the manufactures of Kirkcaldy, by introducing
them into England, since which time they have gpne
pn rapidly increasing. In 1792, they emplpyed abput
810 lppms, pf which about 250 were in the parish,
abput 300 in the parish pf Abbotshall, about 100 in
Dysart, about 60 in Largo, and the rest in other
parishes. The total value of the manufacture at that
time was supposed to be about £45,000 sterling;
and at that time the manufacturers of Kirkcaldy pur
chased from the neighbouring districts goods to the
farther value of about £30,000 sterling. The manu
factures of Kirkcaldy consist almost exclusively in
weaving coarse linen, and coarse cotton goods ;
chiefly ticks, dowlas, checks, and sailcloth. These
are woven partly by power-looms, and partly by the
hand-lopm ; but the prpbability is, that erelpng the
whple pf these species pf goods will be wrought by
the ppwer-lpom. The spinning and preparation of
flax is also a considerable branch pf the manufactures ;
and in 1831 the merchants of the town possessed ten
distinct spinning establishments impelled by steam-
power. There are four bleachfields connected with
the town for bleaching the yarns ; a ropework ; a
distillery ; and two extensive iron founderies and
machine- works, at which spinning and other machin
ery is made. The manufactures of Kirkcaldy, how
ever, may be said to include that of many of the sur
rounding parishes ; the public works in which chiefly
belong to capitalists and merchants in that enterpris
ing and thriving burgh. The increase pf the trade
and manufactures pf this town led, in 1825, to the
formation of the Kirkcaldy Chamber of commerce,
of which the principal merchants and manufacturers
of the district are members ; and the object of which,
as elsewhere, is to attend to the varied interests pf
the mercantile and manufacturing cpmmunity. It is
managed by a cpmmittee pf directprs, and a chair
man. A weekly stpek-market fpr the sale pf grain
is held every Saturday, at which npt only tbe farm
ers and cprn-factprs pf a large surrounding district
attend, but also corn-merchants from the south side
of the Forth. Three cattle-mariets are held in the
course of the year, viz., in the months of February,
July, and October, which are well attended. There
are four branches of banking companies in the town,
viz., of the Bank of Scotland, the National bank of
Scotland, the Commercial bank of Scotland, and the
Glasgow and Ship bank. There are a public read
ing-room, well-furnished with metropolitan and pro
vincial journals ; a subscription library ; and a me
chanics' library. By the steam-boats which cross
the Firth from the harbour, from Pettycur, and from
Burntisland, there is ample communication with the
south; and by tbe coaches which pass daily from
Edinburgh, there is every facility of communication
with the north of Scotland.
The burgh is governed by a provost, two bailies,
a dean-of-guild, a treasurer, sixteen other council
lors, and a town-clerk. The magistrates have all
the powers possessed by magistrates of royal burghs,
and hold regular courts for the decision of civil

166

KIRKCALDY.

causes and the trial of crimes ; the town-clerk acting
as assessor. Justice-of-peace courts for the recovery
of small debts for the town and several surrounding
parishes, are also held here at stated periods ; and in
terms of a late act of parliament, the sheriff holds
circuit courts for the recovery of small debts six
times in the year, viz., in the months of January,
March, May, July, September, and November. The
income of ihe burgh for the year from October 1838
to October 1839, amounted to £1,942 sterling; and
its expenditure for the same period £1,511 sterling.
The debt, in 1832, was £8,646. The incorporated
trades of the town are seven : — the smiths, wrights,
and masons ; weavers ; shoemakers ; tailors ; bakers,
and fleshers. Previous to the Union, Kirkcaldy
sent a member to the Scottish parliament, and after
that event it sent one to the British parliament in
conjunction with the neighbouring burghs of Dysart,
Kinghorn, and Burntisland. This arrangement has
been continued since the passing of the reform bill,
Kirkcaldy being the returning burgh. The parlia
mentary constituency, in 1840, was 298 ; the muni
cipal, 277. It is also one of the polling-places for a
district of the county. The house rents of the burgh,
in 1817, amounted to £6,800 sterling. The annual
value of real property for which the burgh was as
sessed, in 1815, was £5,093 sterling, and the land
ward part of tbe parish £4,281 sterling.
The town consists chiefly of one long street run
ning from east to west on the low ground near the
sea-shore, about one mile in length; and several
cross streets and lanes ; partly running from it to
wards the sea, and partly ascending the high bank to
the north, where there is another street partly built,
running parallel to the principal one. The principal
street is in general narrow, crooked, and inconve
nient ; but in 1811, an act of pariiament was obtained
for widening and paving the streets, and lighting and
watering the town, since which considerable im
provements have been made. The town is well-
lighted with gas, first introduced in 1830, and is also
well-supplied with water. The main street has been
in many places widened ; and though many of the
houses are still irregularly placed, it has been much
improved by tbe erection of numbers of substantial
and elegant buildings. A number of elegant shops of
various kinds, especially those of drapers and haber
dashers, tend considerably tp prnament the tpwn,
while they shpw the wealth and respectability, npt
pnly pf the pccupiers, but alsp pf the cpnsumers, re
siding in the tpwn and suburbs, and the surrounding
district. The principal public building in the tpwn
is the tpwn-bpuse and jail, situated in the main street.
It is a handspme building in the Nprman style, of
recent erection, having the town-hall and public
offices in front, and the jail behind. The jail is the
best in the county. According to the report of Mr.
Hill, however, it had required tp be but little used,
which is certainly much tp the credit pf the burgh.
In 1836, when he visited it, there was npt a single
criminal cpnfined in it, and the average was npt above
three in a year ; the average of debtors confined was
still less.
The principal street, in so far as it is within the
burgh, is enly abput pne mile in length, yet it
stretches in the same irregular manner intp the
neighbouring parishes pf Abbotshall pn the west, and
pf Dysart pn the east, and frem its extreme length
when taken altogether, has obtained for Kirkcaldy
its well-knpwn appellatipn pf the " lang town."
This, when its extreme length is taken into consi
deration with its breadth, is not improperly bestow
ed, as from the western extremity of the Linktown
of Abbotshall, as the western suburb is called, to the
eastern extremity of Pathhead, ihe suburb on the

east, the distance is considerably more than 2 miles.
and including Sinclairtown and Gallowtown, stiL
farther to the north-east, the traveller landing at
Pettycur, and proceeding to the north-east of Fife,
is astonished at having to pass along apparently one
continued though irregular street of about 3J miles
in length.  The harbour of Kirkcaldy is situated
near the east end 'of the burgh. Though the pro
perty of the town, it is under the management of
Parliamentary commissioners. It is large, and has
good stone piers ; but has the disadvantage of being
dry at low water, even at the ebb of neap tides, so
that large vessels can only enter at or near the
stream. A. light was placed on the east pier in 1836.
It enjoys, however, a considerable coasting trade;
and also a trade with the Continent and the Baltic.
The Kirkcaldy and London shipping company have
two smacks, which sail regularly for London, and
return once a-fortnight ; and the Kirkcaldy and Leith
shipping company have four smacks, two of which
are in the Leith, and twp in the Glasgpw trade.
The harbpur is alsp visited, when the tide permits,
by the steam- vessels plying on the Forth, which land
and take On board passengers and goods ; but at low
water this is done by small boats, or by a small pier
which moves upon wheels upon the sands beyond
the harbour. The shore-dues and anchorage for
the year, from October, 1838, to October, 1839,
amounted to £1,460 sterling, and the commuted an
chorage for steam-boats to £206 sterling. Kirk
caldy is the seat of a custom-house, the jurisdiction
of which extends from St. Andrews on the east, to
Aberdour on the west. Anstruther is a sub-port,
with the supervision of all the creeks to the east of
Largo ; while Kirkcaldy has tbe immediate supervi
sion of the creeks or harbours of Largo, Leven,
Buckhaven, East and West Wemyss, Dysart, King
horn, Burntisland, and Aberdeur. The gress re
ceipts pf the custpm-hpuse in 1840, were £4,207 ;
but in 1839 were £6,524. The projected Eastern
Fifeshire railway line, crosses the East Den at Kirk
caldy on a high bridge, at which point an inclined
plane, 646 yards in length, goes down to Kirkcaldy
at the rate of 1 in 15J. A deviation of the rival
projected western line branches off to Seafield har
bour and to Kirkcaldy.
In the neighbourhood of Kirkcaldy, and especially
on the high ground to the north, are a number of
elegant villas and well-built houses, which with the
finely wooded ground surrounding Dunnikeir-house,
occupying the north part of the parish, and the still
more extensive and more magnificently wooded
grounds of Raith, in the neighbouring parish of Ab
botshall, add much to the appearance of the distant
view of the town, when seen from the only point
where a really distant view can be obtained, viz., the
sea, when entering the bay from the south-east or
south-west. In approaching the harbour from either
of these directions, and especially the last, the view
of the town with the surrounding country is exceed
ingly fine — Henry Balnaves of Hallhill, who figured
in the latter part of the reign of James V., and dur
ing that of his daughter Mary, and the regency of
her brother Murray, is said to have been a native of
Kirkcaldy. In later times, Kirkcaldy had the honour
of giving birth to the celebrated Adam Smith, who
successively occupied the chairs of moral philosophy
in the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. The
hpuse in which he was bprn— which has been but
recently taken dewn — was situated immediately tp
the west pf that npw occupied by the Bank pf Scpt
land. The Hpn. Mr. Oswald pf Dunnikeir, an emi
nent statesman and patriot, who long represented the
burgh in parliament, was also a native of this town.
He was grandfather of the present proprietor of Dun-

KIR

167

KIR

nikeir. The mansion-house of Dunnikeir in which
he resided, a large old-fashioned house, still exists in
the town.
KIRKCHRIST, a suppressed parish, forming the
southern part of the present parish of Twineham,
Kirkcudbrightshire. The etymology of the name is
suffi ;iently obvious. Its cemetery, and the ruins of
its church — the former still in use — are situated on
the right bank of the Dee, opposite the town of
Kirkcudbright. A nunnery, tbe site of which can
not now be exactly ascertained, anciently stood in
the parish; and is commemorated in the names of
two farms and a mill, High Nuntown, Low Nun-
town, and Nunmill, near the southern boundary.
See Twineham. .
KIRKCOLM, a parish occupying the northern
extremity of the Rhinns of Galloway, Wigtonshire;
bounded on the south by Leswalt; on the west and
north by the sea; and on the east by Loch Ryan.
It measures, in extreme length, from Kirkcolm point
on the north to Low Saughrie on the south, 5J
miles ; in extreme breadth, from a small headland at
the Scar, on the east, to the sea beyond Aires on
the west, a little upwards of 5 miles ; and in super
ficial area, about 11,650 imperial acres. A brook,
nearly 4 miles in length of course, rises in the inte
rior, flows westward, drives a large corn-mill, and
falls into Loch-Ryan at tbe head of the Scar. A
mile west of its mouth is a lake, called Loch-Connel,
about a mile in circumference ; whence proceeds
southward into the parish of Leswalt, a brook which
drives two mills. Nine or ten other rills drain the
district; but they are all necessarily very tiny. The
coast-line along Lochryan [which see] is 5J miles,
— the same distance, in consequence of its slight
sinuosities, as that between the extreme points of
the parish. Nearly 2 miles from the southern boun
dary-line a shelving sand-bank, a of a mile broad,
runs south-eastward, or obliquely, 1J mile into Loch
ryan, and is not quite under water, even in the high
est spring-tides. It is called the Scar. Between
its south-west side and the coast, is a beautiful basin,
called the Wig, capacious enough to shelter a large
number of small vessels. Beyond a small point of
land, called the Star, is a fine bank of prime oysters.
Crabs and lobsters, whitings, cod, and herring are
taken in the Loch ; but, on the west and north coast,
where fishing might be productive, it is much ne
glected. The coast, for 2J miles on Lochryan, from
the southern boundary, is low and sandy; and thence
 excepting at the small bay of Portmore, 1J mile
to the north, which offers good anchorage and shel
ter to large vessels — it is all the way, round to the
southern boundary on the west, a breastwork of
bold and ridgy rocks, torn with fissures, and near
the entrance of Lochryan deeply perforated with
caves. On the north-west is Corsewall Point
[which see], with its conspicuous lighthouse. The
surface of the parish is gently undulating, tbe rising
grounds so easy in ascent' as to be ploughed and cul
tivated to the summit. The soil, on a narrow belt
round tbe shore, is thin and sandy or gravelly ; in a
few patches, it is mossy or moorland; and, in most
places, it is either a rich loam, a deep clay, or a mix
ture of the two. The proportions of arable land,
and land either meadow, moss, pastoral, or waste,
are as 17 to 2. As regards plantation, the district
is exceedingly bare; but it is rich in the variety of
its botanical specimens. The climate is remarkably
salubrious. Near the north coast are the ruins of
Corsewall-castle, pnce a place pf strength, a tpwer
of great thickness pf wall. East of it, overlooking
Lochryan, is the modern mansion of Corsewall
house. The only village is Stewarton, which
see. Owing to the position of the district, the

roads are all strictly parochial; and, as a whole,
they are not in a very creditable condition. But
great advantage, as to means of communication, are
enjoyed from the vicinity of Stranraer, — that town
being only 34 miles distant frpm the sputh-west cpr
ner pf the parish. Population, in 1801, 1,191; in
1831, 1,896. Houses 349. Assessed property, in
1815, £6,516. — Kirkcolm is in the presbytery of
Stranraer, and synod of Galloway. Patron, the
Earl of Galloway. Stipend £216 5s. 3d. ; glebe
£15. Unappropriated teinds £244 0s. 7d. The
parochial school is attended by at most 60 scholars ;
and three non-parochial schools by at most 173.
Parish schoolmaster's salary £27, with £18 fees,
£5 10s. other emoluments, and a house and garden.
The ' Kirk' was anciently dedicated to St. Columba,
the name being abbreviated into ' Colm.' The church
was a free parsonage till the 13th century; and after
wards, till the Reformation, it was held by the monks
of Newabbey, and served by a vicar. The lands of
Galdenoch and Barjary, at the south end of the old
parish, were detached from it, in the middle of the
17th century, and annexed to Leswalt. In the
south-west corner of the parish, on the shore of
Lochryan, are vestiges of an ancient chapel dedicated
to the Virgin Mary, and called Kilmbrie, the church
of Mary. Beside it is the Virgin Mary's well,
celebrated among victims of Romish folly for alleged
miraculous powers of healing, and resorted to so late
as the close of the 17th century by the deluded pea
santry in the neighbourhood, for the cure of the sick.
A belief was entertained that its water would sink
away, and leave the well dry, if resorted to for one
fated to death, but that it would be abundant for all
comers in cases which were curable. So monstrous
a pretension is hardly made by the still enthralled
Romanists of Ireland on behalf of any one of their
ten thousand holy wells.
KIRKCONNEL, a parish at the north-west ex
tremity of Dumfries-shire, occupying the northern
corner of the district of Nithsdale. It is an irregular
and sinuously sided pentagon, bounded on the north
by Lanarkshire ; on the east and south by Sanquhar ;
and on the west and north-west by Ayrshire. It
measures, in extreme length, from the Glaister hill
on the north-east to the point where it is first touched
by Kello water on the south-west, 1 1 miles ; in ex
treme breadth, from the boundary beyond John's
Moss on the north-west to a bend of the Crawick at
Crawick holm on the south-east, 6 miles ; and, in
superficial area, about 26,500 imperial acres. The
river Nith, coming in from the west, flows eastward
4J miles through the interior, and 1J mile along the
southern boundary-line. Kello water, coming in
from the south-west, not far from its source, runs
5£ miles along tbe same boundary, and falls into the
Nith at the point where the boundary begins to be
traced by that river. , Crawick water flows 5£ miles,
measuring in a straight line, but between 7 and 8
miles, including its sinuosities, along the south-east
boundary. Spango water is formed of two head-
streams, which rise respectively near the centre of
the parish, and on its north-west verge, and run
each about If mile to a confluence ; and it then flows
4J miles eastward, to meet Wanlock water coming
westward through Sanquhar parish, and to unite its
waters with thpse pf that stream in fprming the
beautiful Crawick. Npt fewer than abput 50 rills,
varying frpm 5 furlongs to 4 miles in length of course,
rise in the interior, and pursue their way, the greater
part of them as independent streams, to the Nith, the
Kello, the Crawick, and the Spango. Two mineral
wells, on the farm of Rigg, 1 j mile west of the vil
lage of Kirkconnel, resemble respectively Merkland
spa in Galloway and Hartfell spa near Moffat; but

KIR

168

KIR

excel them in the strength of their waters; yet
though of tried efficacy, and tested by chemical ana
lysis, they have never acquired much celebrity. The
surface of the pasture, in its general features, is pas
toral and mountainous. In the south-west a range
of lofty elevations, chiefly moss-clad and swampy,
,or clothed in russet with sUght intermixtures of
verdure, occupy all the area from the boundaries till
within a mile of the Nith. On the north side of
that stream, the surface rises from 1J to 3 miles by
a Very slow and gradual ascent; and then sends up
parallel with the river a ridge of irregularly formed
heights; chiefly covered with verdure, and extend
ing from the towering Corsoncone, on the boundary
with Ayrshire, away to _the opposite extremity of
the parish. North of this range the surface is cold
and marshy, and exhibits an irregular congeries of
hills covered with heath and grass, and variously in
tersected with narrow valleys, deep glens, and wind
ing rivulets. Two-thirds of the whole area is hill-
pasture; about 6,100 acres are arable; about 180
acres are under wood ; and the remainder is princi
pally meadow and low pasture. The soil of the
arable part is poor and gravelly. About 12,000
sheep, and considerably upwards of 500 cows of the
Ayrshire breed, are maintained on the pastures.
Much attention is given to the dairy. Coal abounds,
but is not extensively worked ; limestone and iron
stone occur, but are neglected ; i and lead is supposed
to exist in several hills toward Crawick. The par
ish is traversed along the vale of tbe Nith by the
turnpike between Glasgow and Carlisle, and farther
north by the road from Glasgow, by way of Muir-
kirk, to a junction with the former line in the parish
of Sanquhar. On Crawick water, near its conflu
ence with the Nith, stands the small village of
Whitehill, compact with that of Crawick-Mtll
[which see], in the parish of Sanquhar. On the
left bank of tbe Nith, 3 J miles, north-west of the
town of Sanquhar, stands the modern and pleasant
village of Kirkconnel. The site of Old Kirkconnel,
and of the former parish-church, is If mile to the
north. The Duke of Buccleuch is the proprietor
of nearly the whole parish. Population, in 1801,
1,096; in 1831, 1,111. Houses 190. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £3,678  Kirkconnel is in the pres
bytery of Penpont, and synod of Dumfries. Patron,
the Duke of Buccleuch. Stipend £220 15s. lOd. ;
glebe £18. Unappropriated teinds £589 15s. 5d.
There are two schools, one of them private. Parish
schoolmaster's salary £26, with £3 other emolu
ments. The church of this parish, as well as several
other churches of Dumfries-shire, was dedicated to
a saint Connel or Congal, of whom nothing is cer
tainly known. A tradition exists here that the saint
was buried on Glenwhurry hill, in the vicinity of
Old Kirkconnel ; but it is unsupported by any monu
mental or documentary evidence. A saint Conwal,
a disciple of the memorable saint Kentigern, is said ;
to have been archdeacon pf Glasgpw as early as the
year 612. He, hpwever, is not likely to have been
the saint of the Dumfries-shire churches. The
church of this parish was anciently a vicarage under
the monks of Holyrood.
KIRKCONNEL, a suppressed parish in the dis
trict of Annandale — or, more strictly, intermediate
between Annandale and Eskdale — Dumfries-shire. It
forms the north part of the present parish of Kirk-
patrick-Fleming [which see], and is divided from
Middlebie on the west by Kirtle water. Its ceme
tery, occupying a romantic situation around tbe site
of its ancient church, still exists in a rich holm half
surrounded by the river, and contains the ashes of
two persons whose story throws an occasional dash
of sentimentalism over the conversation of almost

every peasant in lower Dumfries-shire, and has been
told in prose and song with nearly every variety of
pathetic cadence. The sum is — for we are topogra-
phists, and cannot linger upon a spot remarkable only
for its associations of pathos—" Fair Helen of Kirk
connel Lee," a lady of the name of Irving, and the
daughter of a gentleman of family, was loved by one
of the Bells of Blacket-house, in the conterminous
parish of Middlebie, but gave undisguised preference
to the suit of a youth called Adam Fleming, who clung
to her in admiration simply of her beauty. Bell,
aware that she and, ber accepted suitor were accus
tomed to meet on the banks of the Kirtle, concealed
himself in an adjoining wood to seize an opportunity
of assassinating his rival ; and the fair Helen having
observed him levelling his piece, and having suddenly
flung herself before it, he lodged in her body the fatal
ball which was intended for her lover. Adam Fleming,
who wore a sword, pursued the assassin and hewed
him to inches; he afterwards served as a spldier pn
the continent; but, unable to find quiet to his mind,
he returned home, threw himself on the grave of his
murdered mistress, and there sighed himself into the
sleep of death. Both his grave and the fair Helen's
are still pointed out in the ancient cemetery; and
the spots on which she and Bell were slain, are re
spectively commemorated by a heap of stones, and
by the tradition of the district.*
KIRKCOWAN or Kirkowan, a parish in Wig-
tonshire ; bounded on the north by Ayrshire ; on the
east by Penninghame; on the south by Kirkinner
and Mochram; and on the west by Old Luce and
New Luce. From Half-Mark on the north, to the
extreme limit on the south, it measures 14 miles .
but for 3 miles' distance from the southern boundary,
it has an average breadth of not more than 2£ miles,
and nowhere is it broader than 5J miles. Its area
is computed to rje about 31,600 imperial acres.
Bladenoch water rises near the northern boundary,
and tracing, over a distance of 3£ miles, that boun
dary with Ayrshire, falls, at the north-east extremity
of the parish, into Loch Macbeary. This lake having
expanded itself southward over a length of 1^ mile,
by an extreme breadth of half-a-mile, Bladenoch
water re-issues from it, and thence, till it leaves the
parish, traces the long and sinuous eastern boundary.
Tarf water, a mile after its origin in the north-west
corner of the parish, appears on the western boundary,
and, measuring in a straight line, runs along that
boundary 10 miles, — though, measuring along its
channel, it runs probably about 14; and it then sud
denly debouches, and flows 3J miles eastward to tbe
Bladenoch. From Loch Dirry, a tiny lake near the
* On one of the tomb-stones appears a sword, and a cross;
with the following inscription, now scarcely legible : " Hie
jacet Adam Fleeming." They are without date; but it is
probable they have lain there nearly three centuries. The
particulars of the story, though transmitted by tradition, have
never been doubted : according to these traditions, fair Ellen
was of the family of the Bells of Kirkconnel ; their residence—
which was commonly called Bell's tower, and which formerly
stood on the banks of the Kirtle, near the'burying-ground— was
tatten down many years ago; and the materials employed in
building the mansion-houBe of Sprinkell, the residence of Sir
John Maxwell, Bart. That the name of the favoured lover
was Fleming, appears from the inscription. It is said to have
been a family of considerable note in those parts formerly, and
the adjoining parish of Kirkpatrick-Fleming, probably derives
the addition from their name. That Fair Ellen received her
death, not from an arrow, but from a carbine, appears not only
from report, but is beautifully alluded to in the following
stanza of one of the many old songs on the subject :
" Wae to the heart that fram'd the thought I
Curst be the hand that fir\l the shot t
When in my arms Burd Ellon dropp'd,
And died for lave of me."
In another song, but evidently of a much more modern date,
her death is described otherwise :
" One morn as she sat at her wheal,
She Hang of fair El tenor's fate '.
Who fell by Btern jealousy's stoel,
As on Kirtle' s smooth margin she sate."

KIRKCUDBRIGHT.

169

northern limit, a brook runs sinuously 3£ or 4 miles
eastward to the Bladenoch. From Loch-Clougston,
a lake half-a-mile by $, near the southern boundary,
another brook flows to the same stream. Coming
in from Mochrum on the west, a third brook traces
eastward to the same receptacle the southern boun
dary over 1 J mile's distance. Rising within 3 fur
longs of the course of the first brook, a fourth
streamlet flows circuitously for 8 miles to discharge
itself, like the other running waters, in the Blade
noch. About mid-distance between the northern
and the southern boundaries, and stretching south-
westward till within half-a-mile of Tarf water, is a
chain of three lakes, conjointly 1£ mile in length.
The surface of nearly the whple parish is naturally
a series pf bleak mpors, with poor and thin soil;
which, though chiefly adapted to pasture, are not
unsusceptible of cultivation. The proportion which
the grounds under tillage bear to those which are
either pastoral or waste, is as 17 to 5. The Gal
loway breed of black cattle are here propagated in
great numbers for the Dumfries market. Nearly
10,000 black-faced sheep occupy the sheep walks.
Less than 300 acres of the whole area of tbe parish
is under wood. Slate of an inferior quality was, for
some time, worked. Granite, for door-posts and
lintels, and greywacke, for building material, are
extensively quarried. Near tbe southern extremity
are the ruins of Mindork-castle. On the Dumfries
and Portpatrick mailroad, which runs 4£ miles dia
gonally across the parish, stands Drumbay house, a
low thatched edifice, neat, snug, and even elegant.
On the Tarf, where it crosses the parish, and 1£
mile south of the Dumfries and Portpatrick turn
pike, stands the village of Kirkcowan, the site of
the parish-church. Near it, on the river, is a wool
len mill. Population, in 1801, 787; in 1831, 1,374.
Houses 265. Assessed property, in 1815, £6,080.
— Kirkcowan is in the presbytery of Wigton, and
synod of Galloway. Patron, Vans Agnew of Barn-
barroch and Sheuchan. Stipend £292 lis. 8d.;
glebe £6. Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 3d., with
£20 fees, from £8 to £10 other emoluments, and a
house and garden. There are three non-parochial
schools, two of them conducted by females. The
' Kirk' seems to have been dedicated to St. Keuin,
an abbot and a Scot of the western isles, at a time
when these isles were scarcely peopled by Scots.
The parish, accordingly, was anciently called Kirk-
uan. The church was granted by James IV. to the
chapel-royal of Stirling.
KIRKCUDBRIGHT, a parish at the middle of
the southern extremity of Kirkcudbrightshire ;
bounded on the north by Kelton ; on the east by
Rerwick ; on the south by the Irish sea ; and on tbe
west by the Dee, which divides it from Borgue,
Twineham, and Tongueland. It is a slender oblong,
measuring, in extreme length from the boundary be
yond Scar-hill, on the north, to Balmae-head on the
south, 8f miles ; in extreme breadth from the boun
dary east of Gribdie on the east, to a bend in the
Dee, at the burgh on the west, 3J miles ; in almost
uniform breadth over 4 miles from the southern ex
tremity, 1 mile 7 furlongs ; and, in superficial area,
about 22J square miles. The surface is, for the most
part, hilly, having but little extended plain. But
the hills are neither high nor rocky; they cpme
dpwn in gentle slopes and form very obtuse angles
with the plain ; and they are generally arable to tbe
summit, or at worst afford excellent pasture, . The
soil of the parish is, in some places, wet, upon a hard
cold till ; but in most, it is a light friable earth, with
a sharp gravelly subsoil, exceedingly fructiferous ;
and, in some instances, it is -deepest at the summit
of die hills. Agriculture and the feeding of sheep j

and black cattle are the chief care. The district,
naturally fertile, has been industriously cultivated ;
though not in the style of neatness and decoration
so delightfully apparent in many parts of Scotland.
Hedges, sylvan belts, and clumps of trees, are infre
quent in occurrence ; and gave place to the tame
and prosaic low stone fence. Yet, in spite of all dis
advantages, the country is beautiful in aspect, and
rich in its productiveness. On the west side are
several hundred acres of forest-trees, including about
18 species. Expensive, tasteful, and almost enthu
siastic efforts were made by the Earl of Selkirk, to
ward the close of last century, to dot the district
over with orchards. St. Mary's Isle, a promontory
south of the burgh, and the site of tbe cognominal
mansion and demesne, the seat of the Earl of Selkirk,
is a charming place: See Mary's Isle, St. No
parish in Scotland excels Kirkcudbright in the feed
ing of cattle, — in the fatness and fine quality of its
beef. A chalybeate spring exists near the burgh.
Ring-burn traces the eastern boundary for 4 miles,
and falls into the sea. Grange-burn rises near the
northern extremity, and runs 5 miles south-west
ward to the estuary of the Dee. Loch-Fergus, an
artificial lake, J a mile long, and lying f of a mile
east of the burgh, has two islets called Palace Isle
and Stable Isle, both of which bear decided marks
of ancient fortification, and appear to have been the
sites of castles or strengths of Fergus, lord of Gallo
way. A brook, 3 miles in length, comes down to
this lake from the northern boundary. The stream
lets noticed, and some lesser ones, refresh and cheer
the aspect of the country, and afford excellent trout-
ing. The Dee [which see], first running along as
a river, and next expanding intp an estuary, is pf
great value fpr its fishery, but chiefly fpr its naviga-
tipn. The parish has either vestiges pr the almost
entire forms of no fewer than 11 camps, 8 of them
British, and 3 Roman. One of the nearly entire
British camps is situated on tbe highest part of the
farm of Drummore, and commands a very extensive
prospect of the Solway frith and the Irish sea. It
is large and surrounded with a deep fosse. Judging
from its position and extent, the Britons probably
assembled at it in considerable force to repel either
the Romans, or the plundering Danes and Norwe
gians. Chalmers, in his Caledonia, supposes this to
have been the Caerbant torigum, ' the fort on the
conspicuous height,' mentioned by Ptolemy, and to
have been the frontier garrison of the Selgova; on
the western side of their possessions. Near it is a
large circular stone-built well, which seems to have
supplied it with water. A Uttle south-west of it,
at the entrance of Kirkcudbright bay, or the estuary
of the Dee, are vestiges of a strong battery erected
by William III., when his fleet was wind-bound in
the bay on his passage to raise the siege of London
derry. A little eastward, in a precipice on the
coast, is a cave running 60 feet into the rock, of
unequal height, narrow at the mouth, widening and
rising as it proceeds till it attains the height of 12
feet or upwards, and then contracting toward the
end. It was artificially furnished with a lintelled
door, and seems from its sequestered situation, and
the difficulty of access to it, to have anciently been
an important hiding-place. Not far from this cave
is a deep fosse, which marks the site of Raeberry-
castle, one of the stronghplds pf the pnce pewerf ul
family pf Maclellan pf Bombie. This castle ever-
hung a very dreadful precipice pn the coast, and
was -protected pn the nprth side by a deep fosse,
a thick wall, and a streng drawbridge. Sir Patrick
Maclellan, its proprietpr, near the middle pf tbe
15th century, was forcibly carried put pf it by the
truculent Earl of Douglas to undergo a tragical fate,

170

KIRKCUDBRIGHT.

which roused the slumbering indignation of the
country against the intolerably despotic Douglases.
See article Galloway. Nearly 2 miles east from
the burgh are utterly dilapidated vestiges of another
castle of the Maclellans, — that of Bombie, whence
they took their designative title. Some antiquities
of note fall to be noticed in connexion with the
burgh. The parish is abundantly segmented by
roads. Population, in 1801, 2,381 ; in 1831, 3,511.
Houses 489. Assessed property, in 1815, £14,953.
Kirkcudbright is the seat of a presbytery in the
synod of Galloway. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£281 10s. 2d.; glebe £ 16. Unappropriated teinds
£605 5s. 7d. The parish-church was built in 1836.
Sittings 1,510; of which 992 are the share belong
ing to the burgh. A Sabbath school of old stand
ing is attended by 300 scholars, and has a library.
There are two dissenting congregations, United Se
cession and Holy Catholic Apostolic. The latter
assemble in a dwelling-house, having about 80 sit
tings, and rented at £16. Their first angel or
minister was ordained in 1834, and has a variable
salary. The United Secession congregation was
established in 1819. Their meeting-house was com
pleted in 1822, and cost £1,100. Sittings 550.
Stipend £85, but variable and increasing. An ec
clesiastical survey in 1836 showed the population
then to be 3,467 ; consisting of 3,000 churchmen,
407 dissenters, and 60 not known to belong to any
religious denomination. The ' kirk' was dedicated
so early as the %th century to the celebrated Saint
Outhbert, — a name strangely transmuted, in its cog-
nominal place in the appellation of the parish, into
" Cudbright," and still more oddly fused, in popular
pronunciation, into " Coobry." The site of the an
cient church is commemorated by a cemetery J of a
mile north of the burgh, still called St. Cuthbert's
churchyard, and used as the burying-place of the
town's people. In this cemetery are some interest
ing ancient sepulchral monuments, which the good
taste of a burgher of Kirkcudbright has placed in
good order and repair ; ampng the rest spme, with
curipus but affecting epitaphs, in mempry pf wprthy
covenanters whp met a martyrly death in the circum
jacent country, famous for its sturdy defences of the
covenant. The church was given, in the 12th cen
tury, by Uchtred, sdn of Fergus, lord of Galloway,
to the monks of Holyrood, and was a vicarage under
them till the Reformation ; in 1633, it was given to
the bishop of Edinburgh ; and when Episcopacy was
abolished, it reverted to the Crown. In the town,
previous to the, Reformation, stood a church dedi
cated to St. Andrew; the chaplainries, cemetery,
and other pertinents of which were conferred on the
corporation of .the burgh at the overthrow of Pop
ery. In the northern extremity of the parish was a
chapel called Kilbride, dedicated to St. Bridget.
When post-Reformation Episcopacy was forced on
Scotland, the people of Kirkcudbright tumultuously
rose to prevent the settlement of an Episcopalian
minister in their church. A judicial commission,
appointed by the privy council, made . inquiry into
their conduct, and adjudged some women, as the
ringleaders, to the pillory. " Whether the women
or the privy council," sardonically remarks the au
thor of Caledonia, " were, on that occasion, the
most actuated by zeal, it is not easy to decide." —
To the ancient parish of Kirkcudbright, which was
small compared to the present one, were annexed, a
little after the middle of the 17th century, the par
ishes of Dunrod and Galtway. Dunrod forms the
southern part of the united parish. Its cemetery
continues to be used, and marks the site of the
church at the western base of an oblong hill, which
»nce may have exhibited a red appearance, — the

word Dunrod meaning the reddish hill. The church
was given, in 1160, by Fergus, when he assumed the
cowl, to the monks of Holyrood ; and it "afterwards
shared a common fortune with the church, of Kirk
cudbright. The ancient parish of Galtway forms
the middle part of the united parish. The name
signifies the bank or ascent on the water. The
cemetery, still in use, overlooks pne pf the stream
lets which flow intp the estuary pf the Dee. A
place near it is called, by a plepnasm npt uncpmmpn
in the Scettish tpppgraphical npmenclature, Gait-
way-bank. The church, with its pertinents, being
given by Fergus to the monks of Holyrood, was ap
propriated to the prior and canon of St. Mary's Isle,
a dependent cell of Holyrood abbey. — A convent for
Franciscans or Grey Friars was founded at Kirkcud
bright in the reign of Alexander II. ; but, in conse
quence of the ancient records having been carried -
off at the Reformation, it is very obscurely, known
to history. John Carpenter, one of its cowled in
mates, in the reign of David IL, was distinguished
for his mechanical genius ; and, by his dexterity in
engineering, he so fortified the castle of Dumbarton
as tp earn from the King an yearly pension of £20
in guerdon of his service. In 1564, the church of
tbe friary was granted by Queen Mary to the ma
gistrates of the town to be used as a parish-church ;
and when it became unserviceable, it yielded up its
site to a successor for the use of the whole modern
united parish. The ground occupied by the con
vent itself, and the adjacent orchards and gardens,
were given, in 1539, to Sir Thomas Maclellan of
Bombie  In the town is an excellent burgh aca
demy, conducted by three teachers, attended by
200 scholars, and affording tuition in Latin, Greek,
French, mathematics, and all the. departments of a
liberal English education. Two parochial schools
are attended by at most 134 scholars. Salary of
each of the masters £25 13s. 2d., with fees, and
from £2 to £7 other emoluments. Seven private
schools, conducted by seven teachers, are attended
by 300 scholars.
Kirkcudbright, a sea-port, a royal burgh, and
the county-town of Kirkcudbrightshire, is pleasantly
seated on the left bank of the Dee ; . 6 miles north
of the point where the river becomes lost in the
sea ; 21 miles from New Galloway ; 28 from Dum
fries ; 33 from Newton-Stewart ; 60 from Portpa
trick ; and 101 from Edinburgh. It is encincturcd
on the one side by the river, and on the other by the .
wooded portion of the parish, — sylvan slopes com
ing umbrageously down from the gentle heights on
the back ground, or stretching southward in a broad
belt of luxuriance till they become identified, , at a
mile's distance, with the almpst isleted peninsula
pf St. Mary's Isle, sending put an invasion of
forest-scenery on the bosom of the estuary. Seen
from a little distance, the town seems gay and
almost grand, more resembling a small but proud
city, than an inconsiderable and tinily populated
town. In the interior, it is regular, neat, clean,
and contains a larger proportion of recently built
houses than almost any other town in Scotland. A
society of rather singular character, consisting of
a large number pf inhabitants, whp build by sub-
scriptidn pf all the members a given number pf
houses annually, and dispose of each among the sub
scribers by a sert pf lottery, has achieved great
things, npt pnly in mpdernizing the tpwn, but in
throwing pver it an air pf taste and pretensipn which
is nearly without a parallel, pr even a tolerable imi
tation among Scottish towns of its size. Capitalists,
too, who have enough to live like gentlemen, but
not sufficient to purchase estates, and a numerous
staff of legal functionaries who possess an easy com-

KIRKCUDBRIGHT.

171

petency m connexion with the civil business of the
county, have adopted the town, either from choice
or from convenience, as their place of residence, and
contributed not a little to give it features of elegance
or polish. So long ago as 1764, it became supplied
with excellent spring-water by conveyance through
leaden pipes ; it has not failed, of course, to provide
itself with the modern luxury of gas-light ; and as to
other appliances of convenience and comfort, it has
them in a style of keeping with these.
The western and southern sides of the town are
formed by two streets, at right angles with each
¦ other, both of which, very absurdly, bear tbe name
of High-street. From a point on the bank of the
Dee, 200 yards west of a sudden debouch of the
river from a southerly to a westerly course, High-
street runs due south over a distance of 275 yards ;
and it then, while sending a slight elongation west
ward, runs due east over a distance of 400 yards,
At a distance of about 130 yards from the south
ward line of High-street, Castle-street runs parallel
with it and to the east of it, from nearly the river
side to the eastward line of High-street. Union-
street connects the parallel thoroughfares nearly at
their middle, in the manner of the connecting
stroke between the limbs of the letter H. Going
off from the north end of Castle-istreet, at an ob
tuse angle of about 55 or 60 degrees, Cuthbert-
street runs in a direction north-east by east over
a distance of 400 yards. Intersecting this street
obliquely, about two-thirds way from its commence
ment at Castle-street, St. Mary's-street stretches, a
brief space northward, leading the way to Tongue-
land-bridge, and sends off an unedificed thorough
fare southward to intersect the eastern High-street,
and afterwards fork into roads respectively to St.
Mary's Isle and to Dundrennan. Somewhat parallel
with this line to tbe east of it, but bending in the
form of a small segment of a circle, runs Millburn-
street, extending from tbe eastern termination of
High-street, to a point 650 yards to the north,
where, near the entrance of a small brook into the
Dee, are a mill and a tannery. All the streets,
with the exception of the last and of High-street,
possess more or less regularity of aspect, and con
sist simply of continuous lines of edifices. But
Millburn-street has a sort of suburban or village
character, and is sometimes spoken of, though in
correctly, as if it were not compact with the town.
High-street, on the other hand, wants a strictly
modern character, and is winged all the way along
both sides of both its lines with "closses," or
narrow brief alleys. Yet, in front, it has many
good houses, some handsome shops, and several
public buildings ; and in the rear it has little gar
dens, encompassed with neat walls, and sending oc
casionally up an ornamental tree ; so that, altogether,
it produces a pleasing effect.
Sixty or seventy yards south of the angle made by
tbe two lines of High-street stands the burgh aca
demy, a capacious and elegant structure, containing,
in addition to its proper accommodations, a large
room occupied by a public subscription-library. At
the west end of the east and west High-street,
looking down the north and south High-street,
are the old jail and a spire, — the latter a conspi
cuous oBject, and the former both a large and a
curious one. In front of the old jail stands the
market-cross, purporting, from an inscription on it,
to have been erected in 1504. On the opposite side
of the same line of High-street, but 70 or 80 yards to
the east, are the new jail and the county-hall, edi
fices erected in 1816, and of very creditable appear
ance. Directly opposite them is — what becomes
noticeable in a place like Kirkcudbright— a brewery.

On the bank ef the river, at the nprth end pf Castle-
street, and lpoking alpng that thoroughfare, stands
tbe neat and capacieus parish-church. In High-
street is the meeting-house belpnging tp the United
Secession, — a building pf agreeable aspect.
A little west pf the tpwn, very near the river, are
spme mpunds surrounded by a deep fosse, the re
mains pf a very ancient fprtified castle. The tide
probably flowed round it in fprmer times, and filled
the fesse with water. The castle— npw vulgarly
called Castledykes, but knpwn in ancient writings
as Castlemains— belonged originally to the Lords of
Galloway, when they ruled the province as a regality
separate from Scotland; and seems to have been
built to command the entrance of the harbour.
Coming into the possession of John Baliol as suc
cessor to«the Lprds pf Gallpway, it was, for some
time, during the war of 1300, the residence of Ed
ward I. and his queen and court ; and passing into
the hands of the Douglases, on the forfeiture of
Edward Baliol, it remained with them till 1455,
when their crimes drew down upon them summary
castigation, and in that year was visited by James II.
when on his march to crush their malign power.
Becoming now the property of the Crown, it offered,
,in 1461, a retreat to Henry VI. after his defeat at
Towton, and was his place of residence while his
queen Margaret visited the Scottish queen at Edin
burgh. In 1508, it was the temporary residence of
James IV., who, while occupying it, was hospitably
entertained by the burgh ; and, next year, by a char
ter, dated at Edinburgh, it was gifted, along with
some attached lands, to the magistrates for the com
mon good of the inhabitants. The land, though
alienated, at some period, by tbe corporation, and
though not within the burgh previous to the grant,
continues to be subject to burgage tenure  Not
very many paces west of the parish-church, or be
tween the northern terminations of Castle-street and
High-street, stands the ruinous but venerable form
of the castle of Kirkcudbright, built in tbe year 1582
by Thomas Maclellan of Bombie, the ancestor of
the Lords Kirkcudbright. It is a strong, massive.
Gothic building, lifting its upper work so boldly into
view as to give, conjointly with the towers of the
jail, distinctiveness and markedness of feature to the
burghai landscape ; and, at tbe time when it was
reared, it must have been a splendid, as it is still
a spacious edifice  At comparatively very recent
date, broad vestiges existed of town fortification.
At a time when th,e town consisted chiefly of a single
street running up from the harbour, it appears to
have been surrounded by a wall and a deep ditch, the
latter filled from the flowing tide ; and it had at its
two ends, strong gates, which, little more than 50
years ago, were pulled down to make way for new
houses. An English party who marched against the
town in 1547, in the stupid warfare about the mar
riage-treaty between Mary and Edward VI., narrate
that as they approached " Kirkobrie, they who saw
us coming barred their gates, and kept their dikes,
for the town is diked on both sides, with a gate to
the waterward, and a gate on the over end to the
fellward," — and that, in consequence, English force
was repelled by Scotch precaution.
Kirkcudbright has never been the seat of any
considerable manufacture or trade. Hector Boece,
indeed, describes it as, in his day, " ane rich town,
full of merchandise ;" but he seems either to have
been totally misinformed, or to have, amid the ac-
tionless penury of his age, reckoned that "riches"
and " merchandise " which, in the present stirring
and productive era, would be esteemed only the snug
competency and the village trade of a homely huck
ster'. During the disturbed and semi-anarchical pe-

172

KIRKCUDBRIGHT.

riod when the Dick Hatteraiks of the contraband
trade infested the coasts of the Solway frith, the in
habitants had such a connexion with the desperadoes
as comported ill with the prosperity of the town,
and exerted a malign influence upon the habits pf
their ppsterity at the moment when pther parts of
Scotland were starting in the career of modern pro
ductive industry. By a strange infatuation, too, the
town, when proposed to be the adopted site of the
first and very promising attempt to introduce tbe
cotton manufacture to Galloway, superciliously re
jected the offered advantage, and sent away the
gentlemen who would have done it a service to build
their factories at Gatehouse-of-Fleet. Hardly were
the erections on the Fleet completed, when Kirk
cudbright saw the suicidal tendency of its conductor,
and made a hasty attempt to retrieve its error.
Mules and jennies were erected ; weavers were
brought from a distance to work with tbe fly-shuttle ;
and a woollen manufactory was commenced. But so
Eoor has been the result, that, after the lapse of
alf-a-century, the only monuments of these seem
ingly promising exertions are 60 looms, all plain, and
all for cotton fabrics. A brewery, a tannery, a
grinding-mill — all already incidentally noticed — a
few stocking-frames, tbe means in two building-
yards of occasionally building one or two coasting-
vessels, even of as large burden as 250 tons, and the
appliances of the requisite number of the various
classes of artificers for local service, complete tbe list
of the town's establishments and tools of manufac
ture. Nor is its commerce on a much larger scale.
The aggregate tonnage of all the vessels belonging
both to the port and to the district within the range
of its custom-house establishment — exclusive of a
steamer which maintains a communication with
Whitehaven and Liverpool — is probably short of
2,000. Considerable quantities of oats, barley, and
potatoes are exported to the Clyde, but chiefly to
England. The merchants are obliged to make coal
their principal import ; yet they occasionally send a
small vessel across the Atlantic for West Indian
produce, and bring wine and other luxuries from
England. Yet the harbour is much the best on the
south coast of Scotland ; though, owing to the al
most complete recess of the peculiar tide of the Sol
way, it is fully suitable for such vessels only as can
take the ground. It is naturally safe, has good an
chorage, affords shelter from all winds, and extends
from the mouth of the river to the town about 6
miles. An islet called tbe Little Ross lies across its
entrance, allowing a channel on the east 1J mile
wide, safe and bold on both sides, and having behind
it a road, with 16 feet at low water, and 40 feet at
high water, where vessels may ride at safety in gales
from any point round three-fourths of the compass.
Above Little Ross are Balmangan bay, a consider
able inlet on the west, and Manxman's lake, a large
bay running up tbe east side of St. Mary's Isle.
Off the Isle a bar runs so far across the channel
as to impose on vessels the choice of sailing over,
in about 20 feet water at ordinary spring tides,
or steering along a narrow waterway close in with
the rocks. On the shore at the town is a fine
shelving beach, offering to vessels the alternative
of lying dry on its sands, or of riding at anchor
in the channel, with a depth of water 8 feet in
the ebb and 28 in the flood. The rise of the tide
being 20 feet, vessels of 200 tons have facility for
sailing 2 miles beyond the town to Tongueland,
where a natural barrier terminates the navigation :
See the article Dee. A natural harbour so expan
sive, sp varifprm, so advantageeus, and, amid the
impetueus and menacing tides pf the sputh coast pf
Scptland, so peculiarly sheltered, ought, one would

think, to have long ago rendered Kirkcudbright, not
only the entrepot for most of Galloway and Dum
fries-shire, but the seat of an extensive general com
merce maintained by local manufacture. Nature,
however, long remained here almost wholly un-
thanked by art, and even yet has been acknowledged
only to the extent pf expending abput £1,620 in
tbe excavatipn pf the harbpur, and the erectipn pf
new piers. " The harbpur," summarily repprt the
burgh-commissioners, " has great depth of water ;
but there is no trade or manufacture worth men
tioning; and the town appears stationary." Not
even the obvious and highly advantageous facility
of a bridge across the Dee, with a drawbridge for
the transit of vessels, either exists or seems to have
been contemplated. A ferry, by means of a curious
sort of boat, or Tongueland bridge 2 miles up the
river, serve tbe town's people, and all the country
on the south-east, as a succedaneum. Too little
intercourse even is maintained with the interior,
either for bringing to tbe domestic market a choice
supply of articles of consumpt from the farmer and
the grazier, or for prosecuting a retail trade pro
portioned in magnitude to the advantageousness of
the tpwn's position.
Nearly all the importance of Kirkcudbright arises
from its being the adopted home of small capitalists,
and the county-town of the stewartry. The seat
of the sheriff-court and of the practitioners of the
law, it draws from the circumjacent country no in
considerable annual sums as expenses of lawsuits.
The genteel or monied inhabitants do not, as in
most places, straggle in tbe outskirts in suburban
villas ; but they take up their place firmly and une
quivocally as citizens, — form proportionately a very
large portion of the population, and so deeidedly give
tbe place its tone that, among even tbe lowest classes,
an unusually high degree of liberal intelligence pre
vails. The richer burghers, too, instead of exhibit
ing those habits which generally characterize the opu
lent inhabitants of great manufacturing cities, seem
rather to take the tone of their manners from the
county gentlemen, and^-greatly to their credit — are
nearly utter strangers to tbe fashionable follies and
vanity and dissipation which are connected with the
flaunting promenade, the ball-room, and the theatre.
The town, as a whole, displays a relish rather for
the calm enjoyments of mind, than for the tumul
tuous and chiefly animal pleasures elsewhere in
vogue. Kirkcudbright has a branch-office pf tbe Bank pf
Scptland ; spme gppd inns, the principal pf which is
the Cpmmercial; a news-rppm; a Masonic-lodge;
a billiard-room ; a regatta-club ; and some benevo
lent and patriotic institutions. Anciently it was a
burgh- of-regality, and held of the Douglases, lords
of Galloway, as superiors. It was erected into a
royal burgh, in 1455, by charter from James II. ;
and, in 1633, it received another charter from Charles
I. The town is governed by a provost, 2 bailies, a
treasurer, and 13 ordinary councillors. The burgh
property is very considerable, and yields the whole,
except about £26 of a revenue, which, in 1832,
amounted to £936 9s. lOd. The expenditure for
tbe same year was £864 14s. 4d. ; and the debt
then due by the burgh £4,343 2s. The magistrates
exercise jurisdiction over only the old royalty, and
in 1833 had only 6 civil causes; and they have
little patronage, except the appointing of the town.
officers, and of the teachers of the burgh school.
The jail is in a fair condition. Burgess' fees are,
for a merchant and trader, £3 6s. 8d. ; for a mas
ter tradesman, £2 ; for a labourer, £1. Burgesses,
in 1832, 90. The incorporated trades with their
respective numbers, and the entry-money which

KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE.

173

they respectively exact from a stranger, are, square-
men, 36, £3 10s. ; tailors, 12, £5 ; clothiers, 20,
10s. ; hammermen and glovers, 13, £3 5s. ; shoe
makers, 17, £6; weavers, 22, £3. Kirkcudbright
unites with Dumfries, Annan, Sanquhar, and Loch
maben in sending a member to parliament. En
rolled constituency, in 1832, 111; but available con
stituency, 151. A weekly market is held on Friday;
and annual fairs are held on the last Friday of March
and September, and on the Friday preceding Castle-
Douglas, or Kelton-hill, mid-summer fair. Popula
tion, in 1831, 2,690.
Kirkcudbright gave the title, of Baron, in the
Scottish peerage, te the family ef Maclellan of Bom
bie. This family, once very powerful, the propri
etors of several castles, and wielding not a little
influence in Galloway, has already been incidentally
noticed. Sir Patrick Maclellan, proprietor of the
barony of Bombie, situated in the parish, incurred
forfeiture in consequence of marauding depredations
on the lands of the Douglases, lords of Galloway.
Sir William, his son — incited by a proclamation of
James H. offering the forfeited barony to any person
who should disperse a menacing band of gypsies who
infested the country, and capture the body of their
leader, dead or alive, in evidence of success — rushed
boldly in search of the proscribed marauders, and
earned back his patrimony, by carrying to the King
the head of their captain on the point of his sword.
To commemorate the manner in which he regained
the barony, he adopted as his crest an erect right
arm, the hand grasping a dagger, on the point of
which was a Moor's head couped, proper ; with tbe
motto, ' Think on,' — intimating the steadiness of
purpose with which he contemplated his enterprise.
Sir Robert, the 4th in descent from Sir William,
acted as gentleman of the bedchamber to James VI.
and Charles I. ; and, in 1633, was created by the
latter a baron, with the title of Lord Kirkcudbright.
John, the 3d Lord, was an eccentric, addle-headed
being, who, with all the impetuosity of a roused bull,
and with an amount of imprudence which brought
down his reason to a level with its instinct, ran right
forward in a pell-mell career along the path which
first offered, ready to be hooted or scared round into
a sideward or reverse career of similar character, to
the detriment of all w,ho had followed him in the
chase. He commenced by being a fierce opponent
of Cromwell and the Independents ; and being, at
the time, the proprietor of greater part of the parish,
he compelled his vassals to take arms in the cause of
the King, occasioned the ruin of the villages of Dun
rod and Galtway, by levying nearly all their male
population, sent off his recruits to fatten the soil of
Ireland with their carcases, and incurred such enor
mous expenses as nearly ruined his estates. But at
the Restoration, just when any royalist but himself
thought everything gained, and ran fleetly to the
King in hope of compensation and honours, he shied
suddenly round, opposed the royal government, —
sanctioned the riot, slightly mentioned in our paro
chial notice, for preventing the induction of an
Episcopalian minister, — and, at the time when the
women were sent to the pillory, was captured, along
with some other influential persons, sent a prisoner
to Edinburgh, and driven to utter temporal ruin.
His successors never afterwards regained so much as
an acre of their patrimonial property; and, for a
considerable period, were conceded their baronial
title only by courtesy, and, when they appeared at
the election of the representative peers of Scotland,
suffered the indignity of having to vote under pro
test. One of them was the ' Lord Kilcoubrie,'
whom Goldsmith, in his sneers at the poverty of the
Scottish nobility, mentions as keeping a glove-shop

in Edinburgh. In the reign of George III. they
were at last formally and legally reinstated in their
honours ; but, in 1832, at tbe death of the 9th Lord,
tbe title — alternately a coronet and a football, now
glittering on the head, and now tossed in the mire
by the foot of every wayfarer — sank quietly into ex ¦
tinction. KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE, prescriptively call
ed a stewartry, but, in every practical and real point
of view, a sheriffdom, shire, or county, in the west
ern division of the southern border of Scotland, con
stituting the eastern part, and very nearly two-
thirds of the whole extent, of the province of Gal
loway. It is bounded on the north-west and north
by Ayrshire ; on the north-east and east by Dum
fries-shire ; on the south by the Solway frith and
the Irish sea ; and on the west by Wigtonshire. Its
outline is irregular, but approaches the figure of a
trapezoid. It lies between 54° 44' 35" and 55° 19'
north latitude, and between 3° 33' and 4° 35° longi
tude west from Greenwich ; and it measures in ex
treme length, from north-west to south-east, 44 miles ;
in extreme breadth 31 miles, in minimum breadth 21
miles ; and in superficial area 855 square miles, or
547,200 statute acres. These are the measurements
given in Chalmers' ' Caledonia;' but those brought
out in a survey by Mr. Ainslie, and adopted in. the
Rev. Samuel Smith's ' Agricultural View of Gallo
way,' assign to it a spmewhat larger area, compre
hending 882.57 square miles, or 449,313 Scottish
acres. Its southern half has, as natural boundaries,
the river and estuary of the Nith on the east, tbe
sea and the Solway frith on the south, and the
river Cree and Wigton bay on the west; but its
northern half is traced by natural boundaries only
partially and at intervals, — by the Cairn for 7 J miles
above its confluence with the Nith, — by a water-
shedding line of mountain summits for 11£ miles
south-eastward of its north-east angle, and, with
trivial exceptions, 15 or 16 miles sinuously west
ward of that angle, — by Locb-Doon and its tributary
Gala-lane for 8^ miles on the north-west, — and by
the river Cree, from the north-west extremity south
ward to the southern division of the county. Kirk
cudbrightshire has no recognised or nominal subdi
visions, except that tbe four most northerly parishes
are called Glenkens [which see] ; but it admits, or
rather exhibits, a very marked natural subdivision
into a highland district, and a champaign country
thickly undulated with bills. A straight line drawn
from about the centre of Irongray parish to Gate-
house-of-Fleet, or to the middle of Anworth parish,
has, with some exceptions, the former on tbe north
west, and the latter on the south-east.
The highland or north-west district comprehends
about two-thirds of the whole area, and is, for the
most part, mountainous. Blacklarg, at the point
where the stewartry meets with Dumfries-shire, as
cends to the height of 2,890 feet above sea-level ;
and it is nearly equalled, or boldly imitated in its
cloud-ward aspirings by numerous other summits.
The heights, all along the boundary, and for some
way into tbe interior on the north, are part of what
is often termed the southern highlands, or the broad
alpine belt which stretches across the middle of the
Scottish lowlands ; they ascend, in the aggregate,
to elevations little inferior to thpse of any other part
of that great belt ; and, extending themselves down
to the sea on the west, and parallel to Dumfries
shire on the east, they form, in their highest sum
mits, a vast semicircle, whence broad and lessening
spurs run off into the interior. The straths spread
out by the streams of the region, as they recede
from the higher grounds, and accumulate into rivers,
form an inconsiderable proportion, probably not one-

174

KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE.

tenth, of the whole district. The south-eastern, a
comparatively champaign division of the county,
when viewed from the northern mountains, appears
like a great plain, diversified only by a variety of
shades, according to the colour, size, or distance of
the heights upon its surface. So gentle, too, is its
cumulative ascent from the sea, that the Dee, at the
point of entering it, or even a long way up the strath,
on the highland side of the dividing line, is only 150
feet above the level of the sea. Yet about one-
fourth of its whole area is either roughly hilly, or,
in a secondary sense, mountainous ; while much the
greater proportion of the other three-fourths, though
fully under cultivation, is a rolling, broken, hilly sur
face, and, for the most part, continues its bold undu
lations down to the very shore of the estuary and the
sea. On the south-east the conspicuous Criffel rises
up almost from the margin of the Nith to a height of
1,895 feet above sea- level, and sends off a ridge 8 or
9 miles westward in the direction of Dalbeatty, and
a second low ridge away south-westward parallel
with the coast to the vicinity of Kirkcudbright.
These heights, though greatly inferior to the ranges
in the north-western division, and seemingly insig
nificant — owing partly to their distance — when
viewed1 from them, are, in reality, far from being
inconsiderable; and Ufting their craggy cliffs and
dark summits immediately above tbe margin of the
sea, they form scenery highly picturesque, and occa
sionally approaching the sublime. Over all parts of
the county the uplands are, for the most part, broken
by abrupt protuberances, steep banks, and rocky
knolls, diversified into every possible variety of
shape ; and even in the multitudinous instances in
which they admit of tillage, either on their lower
slopes or over all their sides and their summit, they
rarely present a smooth and uniform arable surface.
In the neighbourhood of Dumfries, throughout
most of Terregles and part of Troqueer and Iron-
gray, where, apart from artificial division, the terri
tory forms a portion of the beautiful and exulting
strath of Nithsdale, stretches a smooth and level
tract, carpeted with a mixture of- sand and loam,
and possessing facilities of cultivation and improve
ment beyond any other part of the county. Along
the banks of the Nith, from Max*velltown down
ward, and for some distance lying between the for
mer tract and tbe river, extends a belt of merse land,
at first narrow and interspersed with ' flows,' but
broader in Newabbey and Kirkbean, and compre
hending about 6,000 acres either of carse or of a rich
loam, partly on a gravelly bottom, and partly on a
bottom of limestone. From Terregles, south-west
ward to the Dee, extends a broad and large tract,
comprising Lochrutton, Kirkgunzeon, and Urr, and
part of Kirkpatrick-Durham, Crossmichael, Kelton,
Buittle, and Berwick, which, while hilly, has com
paratively an unbroken surface, carpeted with a
strong soil, though often upon a retentive subsoil,
'and peculiarly adapted for tillage. The broken por
tions of this tract, and the general area of the other
parts of the comparatively champaign district, are
subject to exceedingly less waste than a stranger
to their peculiarities, who should glance at their ap
pearance, would imagine. The knolls conceal, by
the perspective pf their summits, cpnsiderable flat in
tervals amongst them ; and while themselves seeming,
frpm the furze and brushwood which crowns their
summits, to be unfit for cultivation, are usually cover
ed with a very kindly soil, of sufficient depth for the
plough. Of an extremely broken field, not more than
one-half of which would seem to a stranger available
for tillage, the proportion really and easily arable often
amounts to four-fifths. Except in loamy sand and
the merse tracts near Dumfries, the soil of nearly all

the ploughed ground of the stewartry, comprehend
ing not only the great south-east division, but the
fine strath of the Ken and the narrower vale of the ¦
Cree, is dry loam of a hazel colour, and therefore
locally called hazelly loam, but often degenerating,
more or less, into gravel. The bed of schistus on
which it lies is frequently so near the surface as to
form a path to the plough, and probably where the
rock is soft, adds by its attrition to tbe depth of the
soil. In the highland division rich meadows, luxu
riant pastures, and arable lands of considerable aggre
gate extent, occur along the banks of the rivers, on
the sloping sides of the hills, in vales among the
mountains, and along the margins of little streams.
A large part of the Glenkens, too, exhibits highland
scenery in such green garb as characteristically dis
tinguishes Tweeddale. But with these exceptions,
the far-stretching district is in general carpeted with
heath and ' flows,' a weary and almost desolate waste,
a thin stratum of mossy soil yielding, amidst the pre
vailing russet, such poor grass that the sheep which
feed upon it, and are strongly attached to it, would,
were there not intervening expanses or belts of lux
uriant verdure, soon perish by emaciation. With
large bases, lofty summits, and small intervals of
valley, the mountains exhibit aspects of wild bleak
ness diversified by picturesqueness and romance, and
sometimes sending down shelving precipices from
near their tops, they are inaccessible to the most
adventurous quadruped, and offer their beetling
cliffs for an eyry to the eagle ; while far below,
among the fragments of fallen rocks, the fox finds a
retreat whence he cannot be unkenneled by the
huntsman's dogs.
Kirkcudbrightshire sends out a few very trivial
rills as head- waters of tbe Ayrshire or Carrick rivers,
and receives some equally unimportant contribution*
in return ; but, with these exceptions, it is a con -
tinuation of the great basin of Dumfries-shire, and,
as far as the joint-evidence of the disposal of its
waters and the configuration of its great mountain-
chain could decide, it was naturally adjudged to the
place which it long legally held as a component part
of that beautiful county. What Eskdale is to Dum
fries-shire on the east, Kirkcudbrightshire, in the
sweep of its mountain-chain to near the coast beyond
tbe Dee, is on the west ; and all the vast' intervening
territory is a semicircular area, with an arc of high
land ridges sweeping round it from one end till nearly
the other of the north side of its chord, and pouring
down all its waters to the south. The stewartry,
unlike Dumfries-shire, has no expanded plain for
concentrating its streams before giving them to the
sea, and, in consequence, discbarges much of the
drainings of its surface, in inconsiderable volumes of
water. Apart from the Nith, the Cairn and the
Cree, which belong only to its boundaries, its chief
streams are the Urr, the Ken, the Dee, and the
Fleet, each of which is separately described in the
present work. Lakes are very numerous, and, in
some instances, are remarkable for either the rare
species, or the great numerousness of their fish; but,
excepting Doon on the boundary, and Ken and Kin
der in the interior, all of which are noticed in their
place, they are individually so inconsiderable both in
size and in interest, as to challenge attention only in
the sketches of the parishes to which they belong.
Perennial springs every where well up in great abun
dance, and afford an ample supply of excellent water
for culinary uses. Of chalybeate springs, which also
are numerous, the most celebrated is that of Lochen-
brack [which see], in the parish of Balmaghie. The
Solway frith, becoming identified on the west with
the Irish sea, sweeps round, from the head of the
estuary of the Nith to the head of Wigton bay, in au

KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE.

ample semicircular coast-line of 50 miles, exclusive
of sinuosities. The coast, on the east, is flat ; but
elsewhere it is, in general, bold, rocky, here per
forated with natural caves, and there sending aloft
beetling cliffs, tempting daring adventurers to hazard
their lives in gathering the samphire. Along the
whole coast, i permanent recession of the sea has
taken place, — not very apparent or productive of any
great advantage, indeed, in tbe high and roeky re
gions, but very evident and resulting in a bequest of
the rich territory of the Merse, in the flat tract along
the Nith. Besides the estuary on the east, and the
gulf or large bay on the west, the Solway forms, at
points where it receives streams, very considerable
natural harbours, running up into the country in the
form of bays or small estuaries. The principal are
Rough frith, at the mouth of the Urr, Heston bay,
and Aucbencairn bay, at the mouth of rivulets a lit
tle eastward, Kirkcudbright bay, at the mouth of the
Dee, and Fleet bay, at the mouth of the Fleet.
Though all the waters which wash the coast are rich
in the finny tribes, they rarely tempt tbe apathetic
inhabitants of the coast to spread the net or cast the
line, and have not prompted the erection of a single
fishing village, nor, of course, the formation of any
community of professed fishermen. Sea-shells and
shelly sand, which are thrown up in great profusion,
have greatly contributed to fertilize the adjacent
grounds ; and they are accompanied, for lands to
which it is more suitable, by large supplies of sea
weed. The most prevalent rock is what Dr. Hutton calls
schistus, including schistus proper and greywacke.
Its strata are mixed, various, and dissimilar. Some
of them, locally called whinstone, are of hard and
compact grain, blue or greyish brown in colour, for
tbe most part taking an irregular fracture, but fre
quently splitting into parallel slices fit to be used as
coarse slates. The beds vary from half-an-inch to
many feet in thickness. With the harder grain is
mixed, in all different proportions, a soft, shivering,
argillaceous stone, which easily yields to the wea
ther, and locally bears the name of slate-band. The
strata are, in general, not far from being perpendi
cular, though they lie at every dip from an absolutely
vertical to a nearly horizontal position ; and they
are often singularly contorted; and are sometimes
intersected with veins or dykes of porphyry. Much
of the mountainous part consists entirely of granite.
In various spots along the shores of Colvend and
Rerwick, a softer species of granite occurs, and is
quarried into millstones. Limestone, sandstpne, and
pther secondary strata, occasionally intermixed with
plumpudding-stone, appear eastward of Kirkcud
bright, but do not extend far into the country. The
district in the neighbourhpod of Dumfries lies on
sandstone. In Kirkbean limestone of excellent qua
lity abounds ; and in other districts it occurs, but so
poor, or in such small quantity, as not to draw
attention. From the rocky nature of the stewartry,
abundance of suitable material is everywhere found
for buildings and fences. Coal has been sought in
laborious and expensive searches ; but has promised
to reward exertion only in Kirkbean, and even there
has been found in too great paucity to pay the costs
of mining. Shell-marl of the finest quality has been
everywhere found at intervals, in lakes and mosses,
within 12 miles of the sea. The richest supply of it
has been furnished by Carlinwork loch : see article
Kells. Ironstone seems to abound in Kells, Urr,
Carsphairn, Buittle, Rerwick, Colvend, and other par
ishes ; but owing to the want of skill, of enterprise,
of fuel, or of all three united, it has been turned to
little account. A copper mine was worked for some
time in Colvend, but, seemingly without sufficient

reason, was abandoned. A stratum of lead ore seems
to run through the country frpm Minigaff pn the
Cree, in a nprth-east directipn, tp Wanlpckhead and
Leadhills, pn the beundary between the counties of
Dumfries and Lanark. A vein of lead, of a rich ore,
exists also in the parish of Anwoth.
In early times, the stewartry appears to have been
covered with woods ; and at a comparatively recent
period it had several extensive forests; but it re
tains only scanty portions of its natural woodlands,
and these chiefly along the banks of the rivers.
Agricultural improvement was commenced in the
12th century, principally by the settlement among
the rude inhabitants of colonies of monks, and was
carried to a greater extent both in tillage and pas
turage, than could well be expected in tbe rough
circumstances of the period. From various and very
unequivocal intimations^ the country appears to have
been much more fruitful in grain and other agricul
tural produce in 1300, than at the beginning of the
18th century. But disastrous wars and desolating
feuds swept in rapid and constant succession over
cultivated fields, and soon reduced them almost to a
wilderness. So ruthlessly was agriculture thrown
prostrate and maltreated that, toward the close of
the 17th century, small tenants and cottagers, who
had neither skill, inclination, nor means to improve
the' soil, were allowed to wring from it, in the paltry
produce of rye, and bear, and oats, any latent ener
gies of " heart" which it still possessed, and on the
miserable condition of paying the public burdens,
were permitted to sit rent-free on farms which now
let for at least £200 a-year. Modern improvement
commenced early in the 18th century, and was not
a little remarkable both in the character and in tbe
early history of its first measure. Sir Thomas Gor
don of Earlston having erected upon his property »
stone fence about 4 miles in extent, several other
prpprietprs sparingly, but firmly, fpllpwed his ex
ample. But fences seemed te the semi-savage squat
ters tp whom utter mal-administration had given
almost entire possession of tbe soil, not less an in
novation, than a signal of war, upon their rights ;
and, in April and May 1724, they provoked an in
surrection, and were all thrown prostrate by the
"levellers." The infatuated insurgents, who were
instigated by tbe harangues of a wild preacher who
mistook his vocation, having been dispersed and
broken by six troops of dragoons, the work of en
closing was resumed with greater vigour than bad
guided its commencement, and speedily resulted in
impressing an impulse on practical and skilful care
for the right management of the soil. Tbe discovery,
or at least the manurial application, of shell-marl in
1740, formed an important era, and occasioned the
conversion into tillage of large tracts which had
hitherto been employed exclusively in pasture. The
suppression, in 1765, of the contraband trade with
the Isle of Man pointed the way to the exportation
of agricultural produce, and occasioned it rapidly to
become a considerable trade. The institution, in
1776, of the society for the encouragement of agri
culture in Galloway and Dumfries-shire was a still
more important event. William Craik, Esq. of Ar
bigland, the spirited and ingenious chairman of the
society, introduced new rotations of crops, new
methods of cultivation, new machinery, and new
modes of treating cattle, and is justly considered as
tbe father of all the grand agricultural improvements
of the stewartry. At the commencement of the
present century, Cplpnel M'Dowal of Logan made
great achievements in the reclaiming of mosses. In
1809, the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright Agricultural
society arose to urge forward a rivalry with Dum
fries-shire and other adjacent counties; and before

176

KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE.

being a twelvemonth old, it numbered 130 members,
all landholders and practical farmers, with tbe Lord-
lieutenant and the member of parliament at their
bead. Both before the close of last century and
during the course of tbe present, plantations, espe
cially on the grounds of Lord Daer and the Earl of
Selkirk, have risen up to shelter and beautify the
country; but, even with the aid of about 3,500
acres of copsewood, remaining from the ancient for
ests, they are far from being sufficient in extent or
dispersion to shield the country from imputations
of nakedness ef aspect, or prevent it from appearing
to a stranger characteristically wild and bleak. Farm
houses exhibit the greatest possible diversity, — con
tinuing, in some instances, in tbe same wretched state
as before agricultural improvement began,— and ris
ing, in others, to a competition in commodiousness
and elegance with any buildings of their class in
Scotland. Farms, in the highland district, usually
vary in size from 6 to 12 square miles ; and, in the ar
able or cultivated grounds, they sometimes extend to
500 or 600 acres, but probably average about 200.
The ordinary currency of leases is 19 years. The
fences, in far the greater prepprtipn of instances, are
the dry stpne walls, distinctively knpwn as Gallp
way dykes; but, in the.vicinity pf Dumfries, and a
few pther Ipcalities, they consist of various sorts of
hedges, all ornamental in the featuring they give the
landscape. Agricultural implements are simply the
approved ones known in other well-cultivated coun
ties. Systems of cropping are necessarily various,
not only throughout the stewartry but very often
in the same parish. The cultivation of wheat is con
fined chiefly to the district adjacent to Dumfries, and
to the carse-lands and other strong soils in New-
abbey and Kirkbean. Oats are the staple produce,
and obtain much attention by changes of seed within
the stewartry itself, by importation of seed from the
eastern counties of Scotland, and by other measures
fitted to stimulate and improve. The cultivation of
turnips has a large place in talk, and a considerable
one in practice. No crop is, in general, so well
managed as that of potatoes. The purple-red po
tato seems the favourite* both with tbe soil and the
people. The cultivation of artificial grasses has
been long practised, and for upwards of thirty years
has prevailed in all the improved districts. The
extent of meadow-grounds in the stewartry, taken
jointly with Wigtonshire, is probably not less than
one-twentieth of tbe whole area.
The breeding and rearing of cattle, seems a pur
suit naturally suggested by the soil and climate of
Kirkcudbrightshire jointly with Wigtonshire, and
has long been a favourite object of the farmers. Few
countries can boast of pastures whose grass has such
a beautiful closeness of pile, and which, after a
scourging course of crops, so rapidly return to their
natural verdure and fertility. The breed of Gallo
way cattle — peculiar to the district, though now ex
tensively known by importations from it— are almost
universally polled, and rather under than Pver tbe
medium size, — smaller than tbe herned breed ef Lan-:
cashire pr the midland counties, and considerably
larger than any of the Highland breeds. Their pre
vailing colour is black or dark-brindled. The fol
lowing, says the Rev. Samuel Smith, in his ' Agri
cultural View of Galloway,' " are the characters of a
true Galloway bullock. He is straight and broad in
the back, and nearly level from tbe head to the
rump, closely compacted between the shoulder and
ribs, and also betwixt the ribs and the loins — broad
at the loins, not however with hooked bones or pro
jecting knpbs; so that, when viewed above, the whole
body appears beautifully rounded like the longitudi-
nal section of a roller. He is long in the quarters,

but not broad in tbe twist. He is deep in the chest,
short in the leg, and moderately fine in the bone —
clean in the chop and in the neck. His head is of a
moderate size, with large rough ears, and full but
not prominent eyes, or heavy eyebrows, so that he
has a calm though determined look. His well-pro
portioned form is clothed with a loose and mellow
skin, adorned with long, soft, glpssy hair." The
breed has, in some parts of the country, been mate
rially injured by intermixture with the Irish, the
Ayrshire, and some English breeds. But the off
shoots of foreign crossings or admixtures are recog
nizable among the native stock even after fifty or
sixty years have elapsed to efface their peculiarities;
and they are now held in little estimation, and sought
to.be substituted by the purest and choicest propa
gation of the native variety. Few of the cattle are
fed for home consumption. Excepting fat cows, for
the small towns and villages, and about one-fortieth
of the prime cattle for the tables of the opulent, tbe
whole stock are sent chiefly, at three and three and
a-half years old, to the markets of Dumfries and
England. The principal sales are at St. Faiths and
other markets in Norfolk; but many are effected on
the spot, and many more in the Smithfield of Lon
don. Vast numbers of transfers, too — chiefly from
inferior or better lands — are made at the weekly or
monthly trysts of Castle-Douglas, and Gatehouse in
Kirkcudbrightshire, and Glenluce, Stranraer, and
Whithorn in Wigtonshire. The number sent an
nually out ofi Galloway, previous to the date of the
Agricultural Report, was supposed to be 20,000;
and the entire stock of Kirkcudbrightshire in 1814,
was estimated at 50,000  In the moor and moun
tainous districts, sheep-husbandry has long been
sedulously, plied; but, in other districts, it meets
very trivial attention. Long-woolled Lincolnshire
sheep  here called mugs — were tried and failed. The
Leicestershire merinos, the Herefords, and the Shet-
lands were also introduced, but secured little favour.
Tbe Southdown, the Cheviot, the Morf, and the
Mendip breeds, have had more success, and, jointly
with varieties previously in the district, tenant the
sheep-walks in singular motleyness of character.
Smearing or salving is practised. The number of
sheep in tbe stewartry, in 1814, was estimated at
178,000. Some remnants still exist of a breed of
horses peculiar to Galloway, and in high estima
tion for the saddle, small in size, but exceedingly
hardy and active. The breed has been, in a great
measure, lost by the solicitude of farmers to have
horses of greater weight, and better adapted for the
draught. The stewartry's number of horses, in
1814, was estimated at 6,000. Great attention here,
as in Dumfries-shire, is paid to the produce of pork,
— chiefly for the Dumfries market, and, through it,
for supplying the demands of England. So far back
as 1810, when this object of care was of compara
tively recent date, the number of swine in Galloway
was supposed to be 10,000, or about one, on the
average, for every family of the inhabitants  Bees
are much attended to in T wynholm, Borgue, Tongue
land, and Kirkcudbright, and there produce honey
equal, if not superior, to any in the world. — Few
districts in Scotland, except the Highlands, are more
abundant than Kirkcudbrightshire, both in number
and variety of game,
The manufactures and commerce of the stewartry
are very inconsiderable. Soap, leather, and paper
are manufactured to aggregately a small amount.
The woollen manufacture, though seriously attempt
ed, never had success. The cotton manufacture has
been tried in most of the towns and villages ; but, ,
with rare exceptions, it has either died out, or wears
an emaciated appearance. Other manufactures are

KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE.

177

too unimportant to challenge separate notice. Com
merce is almost wholly confined to the exportatipn
of grain, wool, sheep, and black cattle, and the im
portation of coals, lime, wood, groceries, and soft
goods. The ports of the district, as compared to
what they were a century ago, exhibit marvellously
little of the progress which elsewhere generally
characterizes Scotland.
Kirkcudbrightshire, considering the highland com
plexion of the greater part of its surface, is not be
hind any part of Scotland in the important accom
modation of roads. Within the parish of Kells are
vestiges of an ancient road. Lithgow the traveller
praises, in 1628, "the roadway inns," and, at the
same time, makes np complaint of the roads, — seem
ing to imply, by his silence, that they were not bad.
In 1764, a great military road was constructed from
Carlisle to Portpatrick, and, pf course, traverses the
stewartry. Since then, much attention has been
paid to roads of all sorts, from the main-line to the
ramification of the parish-road leading; up to a single
farm, as a grand ancillary of agricultural improve
ment. In consequence of the acts of 1 780 and 1 797,
which converted statute labour into money payment,
and then doubled the assessment and authorized tolls,
the roads of the stewartry, both in their structure
and as to their extent, have been greatly improved.
A fair idea of their multitudinous ramifications can
be formed pnly by examining a large travelling map.
During the Roman period in Britain, Kirkcud
brightshire was occupied, alpng with pther extensive
territeries, by two British tribes, — the Selgovse, east
of the Dee, and the Novantes west of that stream.
British strengths line the whole frontier of the two
tribes along both sides of the Dee, and occur in con
siderable numbers both eastward and westward in
the interior, interspersed with the sites ef Roman
garrisons, placed to overawe a people who could not
be easily subdued. Caves, subterraneous excava
tions, and other remarkable hiding-places, resorted
to by the inhabitants; in barbarous times, perforate
tbe cliffs on the rocky coast, and occur in various
inland localities. The most notable is one in the
parish of Buittle. Druidical temples, or circles of
upright stones, occur in sections, or entire, in the
parishes of Kirkbean, Colvend, Kirkgunzeon, Loch-
rulton, Parton, Kelton, Rerwick, Kirkmabreck, and
Minnigaff. A remarkable roeking-stone exists in
Kells. Cairns and tumuli abound, and, in numerous
instances, have yielded up to research spme curious
antiquities; but they can be npticed pnly in the
articles pn the parishes where they eccur. Picts'
kilns and murder-holes — the former of which abound
in Minnigaff and Kirkmabreck — seem to be peculiar
to Galloway; and if so, are comparatively modern
werks rather than strictly ancient. A Reman road,
branching pff through Glencairn frpm the great road
up Ni tbsdale, [see article Dumfries-shire,] passed
through tbe lands of Altry in Dairy, to the farm of
Holm in Carsphairn, proceeded thence across the
ridge of Polwhat to the north-west extremity of the
parish, and there entered Ayrshire to penetrate by
Dalmellington to the frith of Clyde. Vestiges of
the part of this road which traversed Kircudbright-
shire still exist. A very ancient work, probably
erected by the Romanized Britons, and intended for
defence of the inhabitants on its south side, consists
of a strong wall 8 feet broad at the base, built for
the most part of stones, but occasionally of stones
and earth, and strengthened on the north side by a
fosse. Bearing, in most places, the name of the
Devil's dyke, but in some those of the Roman dyke
and the Auld-Head dyke of Scotland, it has. been
traced from Lochryan in Wigtonshire to the north
east border of Kirkcudbrightshire on the boundary
II.

with Nithsdale, and seems to have sinuously ex
tended to upwards of 53 miles in length. The prin
cipal ecclesiastical antiquities are the abbeys of Dun-
drennan, Tongueland, and Newabbey, the priory of
St. Mary's Isle, and the convent, and afterwards the
college, of Lincludeh, each of which will be found
noticed in its proper place.
The civil history of Kirkcudbrightshire is rapidly
sketched in the article Galloway. The Gaelic
people of the district, who for so many years retained
their own laws and practised their own usages, would
not permit the introduction among them of a sheriff
dom. Till 1296, what is now the stewartry, was
considered as a part of Dumfries-shire. Throughout
the 13th century, a violent struggle was maintained
between the power of ancient usages, and that of
the municipal law of recent introduction. The in
fluence of the Comyns, under the minprity of Alexan
der III., introduced a justiciary, — a beneficial change
which was continued after Baliol's dethronement.
The forfeiture of the Comyns placed the lordship
of Galloway in the possession of the illustrious
Bruce, and — Western Galloway being already under
the jurisdiction of the sheriff of Wigton — seems
to have occasioned the erection of Eastern and
Central Galloway into the present stewartry 
In 1369, the audacity of Archibald Douglas tne
Grim wrenched, for himself and his heirs, from the
weakness of David II., the lordship of Galloway,
and with it the stewartry to which it gave appoint
ment and power. But in 1455, when, on the for
feiture of the Douglases, the lordship of Galloway
reverted to the Crown, the steward of Kirkcud
bright became again the steward of tbe king. Though,
for a long time, the territory continued to be nomi
nally viewed as, in some respects, comprehended in
Dumfries-shire, the steward was quite as indepen
dent as the sheriff, and, within bis own territory,
regularly executed, in discharge of his office, the
writs of the king, and the ' ordinances of parlia
ment. Before the commencement of the civil wars
under Charles I., all trace of jurisdictional connexion
in any form whatever with Dumfries-shire had dis
appeared. But from 1488 till the abolition of herit
able jurisdictiPns in 1747, the stewartry was en
thralled by the imposition of a baronial or feudal
i character upon its supreme pffice. After the fall of
James III. in that year, Patrick, Earl of Bothwell,
obtained a grant of the powers of steward till the
infant James IV. should attain tbe age of 21 years.
In 1502, Sir John Dunbar of Mochrum got, for himself
and his heirs, a grant for 9 years of the offices of stew
ard, of Kirkcudbright, and keeper of Thrive-castle,
with their revenues, their lands, and their fisheries.
Early in tbe reign of James V., Robert Lord Max
well obtained a similar grant for 19 years ; and in
1526, he received the offices and their pertinents as
a regular hereditary possession. At the abolition of
heritable jurisdictions, Henrietta, the Countess-dow
ager of Hopeton, and the legal representative of the
Maxwells, was allowed £5,000 in compensation for
the stewartship. Various other jurisdictions per
plexed and chequered the district. The Stewarts
of Garlies, who became Earls of Galloway, had a
separate jurisdiction over all their estates in Mini-
gaff and Kirkmabreck, and, in 1747, received for it
£154 9s. lOd. The Lords Herries ruled separately
over 'the regality of Terregles,' and, in 1747, were
allowed for their jurisdiction £123 4s. Id. The
provosts of Lincluden, the abbot of Dundrinnan, the
abbot of Tongueland, the abbet pf Newabbey, and
the bishop of Galloway also, had territories inde
pendent of the steward. The regality of Almorness,
and some eight or nine baronies, were likewise sepa
rate jurisdictions. When all the feudalities wera
M

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178

KIR

pvertbrpwn, the emancipated stewartry was placed
under a stewart-depute, whese functions were the
same as those of the sheriff-depute. The first stew
art-depute, at a salary of £150 a-year, was Thomas
Miller, advocate, who, rising to the top of his pro
fession, became president of the Court-of-session,
and left a baronetcy with a fair name to his family.
 The district west of the Urr belonged anciently
to tbe bishopric of Galloway, and composed the
deanery of Desnes; and the district east ef that
river belpnged tp the bishppric pf Glasgpw, and was
comprehended in the deanery pf the Nith. A simi
lar ecclesiastical divisipn — simply substituting synods
and presbyteries fer bishpprics and deaneries — cen-
tinues tp exist. The district east of the Urr belongs
to the synod of Galloway, and is distributed into 18
parishes, 16. pf which cpnstitute the presbytery pf
Kirkcudbright, while two are included in that of
Wigton; and the district east of the Urr, distributed
into 10 parishes, belongs to the synod and the pres
bytery of Dumfries.
Kirkcudbrightshire has two royal burghs, Kirk
cudbright and New Galloway, and several consider
able villages, — Maxwelltown, Gatehouse-of-Fleet,
Creetown, Dalbeattie, Castle-Douglas, and Dairy.
It sends one member to parliament. Constituency,
in 1839, 1,331. There are few large estates. The
valued rent of the whole stewartry, in Scottish
money, is £114,571 19s. 3d.; the annual value of
the real property, as assessed in 1815, was £213,308.
Population, in 1801, 29,211; in 1811, 33,684; in
1821, 38,903; in 1831, 40,590. The population, in
1831, was distributed into 871 occupiers of land
employing labourers; 490 occupiers of land not em
ploying labourers ; 2,648 agricultural labourers ;
1,056 labourers not agricultural; 529 manufacturing
operatives ; 2,299 persons employed in retail trades
and handicrafts,; 440 capitalists ; 118 male-servants;
and 2,378 female servants. The total number of
families, in 1831, was 8,283; of inhabited houses,
6,604. — In 1834, there were 49 parochial schools,
conducted by 55 teachers, and attended by a mini
mum of 1,830 scholars, and a maximum of 3,549;
and 56 non-parochial schools, conducted by 60 teach
ers, and attended by a minimum of 888 scholars, and
a maximum of 1,839.
KIRKDALE. See Kirkmabreck.
KIRKDEN, a parish in the Sidlaw district of
Forfarshire, bounded on the north by Dunnichen,
Rescobie, and Guthrie ; on the east by Inverkeilor ;
on the south by Inverkeilor and Carmylie ; and on
tbe west by Dunnichen. It measures in extreme
length from east to west 5| miles ; and in extreme
breadth from north to south 2A miles ; but it is n early
bisected by an interjecting part of Dunnichen 1J
mile by 1, and comprehends only about 4,000 acres.
An entirely detached .section, measuring 1£ mile by
f.-lies a mile north of the north-east part of the
main body, is chiefly covered with wood upon natu
ral moorland, and has a population of only 4 families.
The surface of the main body of the parish lies at
probably 250 pr 300 feet above the level of the sea ;
but it is not in itself hilly, except at the west end,
and even there has more an undulating than an upland
aspect. About 1,200 acres of the area are dry kindly
land, mixed with small stones, and called by the far
mers a beachy soil ; about 900 acres are deep dry
land upon a bed of till ; and the rest is naturally wet
Bnd spongy, lying upon a bed of cold clay, but has
been greatly improved by draining. Nearly the
whole parish is adorned and sheltered by a judicious
interspersion of wood. . The climate is salubrious,
and in general clear ; but is remarkable for dense
dark fogs rolling in from the German ocean, and
settling down for several hours in successive even

ings in spring. Lunan-water, coming in from the
west, runs 2£ miles along the northern boundary ;
and Finny or Vinny-burn, coming in frpm the sputh-
west, flows 3£ miles along tbe boundary, and then
2 miles sinuously in the interior, joined in the way
by a rill of 4 miles length of course from the south
west, and falling into the Lunan just before it leaves
the parish. The streams furnish eels and excellent
burn-trout ; and are subordinated to the driving of
machinery. Manufactures, in connexion with Dun
dee, and in the linen staple, engage a large part of
the pppulatipn. Their chief local seat is the mpdern
village pf Friockheim, situated in the north-east
corner of the parish, on the bank of the Lunan, and
near the Arbroath and Forfar railway. The village
was commenced by Mr. Andson, is arranged upon a
regular plan, maintains itself by the spinning and
weaving of coarse linen fabrics, and has a population
of about 550. The parish has no peat within itself,
and little in its neighbourhood ; and gets all its fuel
from Arbroath, distant from the nearest point 6
miles. The turnpike between Arbroath and Brechin
runs across its east end ; and roads send off ramifica
tions over all its surface. On a plain between the
Finny and the Lunan stands an obelisk, with nearly
effaced sculpturing of horses and other objects, sup
posed to have been erected upon the defeat of the
Danes by Malcolm II. On the baronies respectively
of Id vie and Gardyne, are two artificial mounds called
Laws, tbe scenes, in feudal times, both of judicial
trial and of capital punishment. One of them is now
covered with plantation. The castle of Gardyne,
built in- 1568, with a capacious modern addition, oc
cupies a romantic situation on the brink of a preci
pice overlooking the richly-wooded course of the
limpid and purling tributary of tbe Finny, half-a-mile
above their point of confluence. Population, in 1801 ,
674; in 1831, 1,039. Houses 213. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £2,935. — Kirkden is in tbe presbytery
of Arbroath, and synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron,
the Crown. Stipend £157 18s. 5d. ; glebe £13.
The church was built in 1825. Sittings 525. The
village of Friockheim, and a district around it, be
long to tbe quoad sacra parish of Friockheim:
which see. According to ecclesiastical survey, in
1836, the population of the whole parish quoad civilia,
was then 1,137 ; of whom 1,087 were churchmen,
and 50 were dissenters  Schoolmaster's salary £25
13s. 10d., with from £11 to £12 fees, and £6 other
emoluments. There are two non-parochial schools.
KIRKDOMINiE, an ancient chapelry within the
old parish of Girvan, but included in the modern
parish of Barr, in the south of Carrick, Ayrshire.
The, chapel stood on an eminence on the north bank
of the Stincher, and belonged to tbe monks of Cross-
raguel. The inhabitants of the circumjacent coun
try petitioned, in 1639, <to have it erected into a par
ish-church, but do not seem to have been heard.
When the parish of Barr was erected in 1653, the
ropf pf the chapel was, with singular ecpnpfn'y, car
ried off and placed on the new parish-church. A
great annual fair is held at Kirkdominse. See Barr,
KIRK-FORTHAR, an ancient chapelry in the
district of Kirkcaldy, and shire of Fife. About the
beginning of the 17th century, it was suppressed and
annexed to the parish of Markinch. The chapel is
in ruins, but the burying-ground is still in use. It is
lOJmiles north of Kirkcaldy.
KIRKGUNZEON, a parish in the south-east di
vision of Kirkcudbfightshire ; bounded on the north
by Lochrutton ; on the east by New-abbey ; on the
south by Colvend ; and on the west by Urr. It is
of an oblong form, stretching north and south, with
a small westward projection at its south-west cor
ner ; and has an extreme length, of 7 miles, and an

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179

KIR

extreme breadth of 4 J miles. A rivulet which issues
frem Lpch-Milton in Urr, and 2 miles south of its
point of efflux touches Kirkgunzeon, and which bears
successively the names of Milton-burn, Craichty-
burn, Culloch-burn, Kirkgunzeon-burn, and Dal-
beattie-burn, flows 7£ miles sinuously along the
western boundary, washes the village of Dalbeattie,
falls into the Urr about 3 furlongs after leaving the
parish, and is for a little way navigable by small
craft coming up from the sea. Three or four minor
brooks water the interior. The surface of the par
ish is, in general, hilly ; yet contains a considerable
proportion of fine flat land. The hills, the greater
section of which ranges from north to south along
the east, are, in some instances, heathy and fit only
for sheep pasturage, but, in other instances, are co
vered with soil and verdure, and serve either for til-'
lage or for the feeding of black cattle. The lowlands
are, for the most part, very fertile ; but, till im
proved by draining and the removing of obstruc
tions, were rendered in a great degree impracti
cable to the plough by swamps, little stony hillsr
and large isolated blocks of stone. Though culti
vated and enclosed, and quite lovely enough in the
eyes of the mere farmer, even these best parts of
the parish have a chilled and naked appearance,
nearly destitute of trees, and chequered with thin
stripes of stone dyke as a succedaneum for the
lively hedge. Prime attention is given to the rear
ing of black cattle. At Barclosh, Corrah, and
Drumcultran are ancient towers or castles, the first
once the seat of the family of Herries, and tbe se
cond built by Sir John Maxwell, who obtained by
marriage the estate and titles of Terregles. There
are also a Druidical temple, and several Roman
camps. In the south-west projection of the parish
stands the village of Dalbeatme : which see. The
parish is bisected lengthways by a turnpike, and has
an aggregate of about 13 miles of other roads. Po
pulation, in 1801, 545; in 1831, 652. Houses 107.
Assessed property, in 1815, £3,921  Kirkgunzeon
is in tbe presbytery and synod of Dumfries. Patron,
Maxwell of Terregles. Stipend £158 6s. 6d. ;
glebe £12. Salary of the schoolmaster, who em
ploys an assistant, £30, with about £15 fees, and a
house and garden. The teacher of a non-parochial
school has £4 4s., and fees.. — The parish was an
ciently called Kirkwinnyn, and has its name from
the same saint as Kilwinning in Ayrshire. The
church, with its pertinents, was given by Uchtred,
the son of Fergus, Lord of Galloway, to the monks
of Holm-Cultram, in Cumberland ; and continued
with them till they took part in the English wars
against David Bruce ; and it was then, in 1 369,
given to Sir John Herries of Terregles, and made
a free parsonage. A separate commisariat, inde
pendent of that of Dumfries, anciently extended
over Kirkgunzeon, and was hereditarily held by the
Earls of Nithsdale ; but, like other jurisdictions of
its class, it was abolished in 1747.
KIRKHILL, a parish in Inverness-shire, consist
ing of two united parishes, called Wardlaw and Far-
nua. It extends about 8 miles in length, and from
1 to. 3 in breadth. It lies along the Moray frith,
having Inverness on the east, Kiltarlity on the
south, and Kilmoraek on the west ; forming a fine
plain of 4 miles extent, from which the surface
gradually rises to the hilly country. The low grounds
are of a rich clay loam, but higher up it becomes
more thin and gravelly. It is watered by. the
Beauly, which falls into the frith at this place.
Here are the remains of two Druidical temples,
much defaced; and on a moor are a number of
tumuli, which are said to point out the place of a
desperate engagement between two rival, clans.

Population, in 1801, 1,582; in 1831, 1,715. As
sessed property, in 1815, £6,494. Houses 374. This
parish is in the presbytery of Inverness, and synod
of Moray. Patron, Hercules Scott. Stipend £247 ;
glebe £16  Schoolmaster's salary £30, with about
£55 fees. There were two private schools in 1834.
KIRKHILL, a village in the parish of Pennicuick,
Edinburghshire. It stands on a rising ground pn the
left bank pf the Nerth Esk, half-a-mile north-east
ef the village pf Pennicuick ; and is inhabited chiefly
by papermakers and weavers. Pppulatipn 500. ,
KIRKHILL. See Kinnettles.
KIRKHOPE. See Yarrow.
KIRKINNER, a parish in the south-east of Wig
tonshire ; bounded on the north by Bladenoch- water,
which divides it from Penningham and Wigton ; on
the east by Wigtcn bay, which divides it from Kirk
mabreck in Kirkcudbrightshire ; on the south-east by
Sorby and Glasserton ; on the south-west and west
by Mochrum ; and on the north-west by Kirkcowan.
It measures in extreme length, from the point where
it is first touched by Bladenoch- water on the nprth,
to an angle south-west of Dowalton-loch on the
south, 6| miles ; and in extreme breadth, from the
coast due east of the parish-church on the east, to
the point where Malzie- water enters on the west, 5J
miles ; but from the line of its greatest length it
gradually contracts to 2| miles on the east, and to
5 J on the west ; and it has a superficial area of nearly
24 square miles. Wigtpn bay, over the 2| miles of
its touching the parish, diminishes in width at high-
water from 4| to 2£ miles, and, at low water, from 3
or 3£ miles to 2 furlongs, leaving at the efflux of the
tide a belt of dry sands, on the Kirkinner side, from
| to If of a mile broad. For a mile, and occasionally
upwards of a mile, inland, stretches from nprth tp
sputh a belt ef carse greund, — flat, deep, and very
fertile fields ef clay. All the rest pf the surface is a
cpngeries pf little hills, gentle in their outline, ver
dant in their clpthing, and, in some instances, wear
ing crowns of plantation on their summits. Except
for about half-a-mile inward from the carse, it has,
in general, a thin and light soil, and does not seem
to have been naturally fertile ; but by means of sea-
shell, marl, and lime, it has been affluently improved ;
and now it everywhere exhibits a well-cultivated
and cheerful appearance. Very nearly the whole
has been subjected to the plough ; even mosses have
been reclaimed and made arable ; and not an acre
can properly be called waste. Dowalton-Loch
[which see] is on the south-east boundary. Malzie-
water, coming in from the west, flows 1 J mile through
the interior to the Bladenoch. Lane-burn rises in
five head- waters in the interior, and, measuring from
the longest one, flows along a channel of about 6J
miles ; remarkably serpentine on the carse-grounds
to the Bladenoch, a brief distance above its em
bouchure. The Bladenoch, up which the tide flows
for 2 miles, furnishes trout, salmon, and spirlings,
and has a small harbour at Baldoon. The modern
mansion of Barnbarroch-house, the seat of Colonel
Vans Agnew, surrounded by an extensive wopded
demesne, and almpst isplated by three of the ramifi
cations of Lane-burn, adorns the centre of the parish.
The ancient castle of Baldoon, situated on the
Bladenoch, and once the seat of the Dunbars of
Baldoon, from whom it passed by marriage to the
Earls of Selkirk, and afterwards by purchase to the
Earls of Galloway, was the scene of an incident
which is believed to have suggested the. "plot of
Sir Walter Scott's ' Tale ef the Bride pf Lammer-
mppr.' There are vestiges ef two circular camps.
The parish is well provided with- reads ; and being
distant, at its nearest point, less than half-a-mile
from Wigton, the county Ttown, it. enjoys consider-

180

KIRKINTILLOCH.

able facilities of communication. Population, in
1801, 1,160; in 1831, 1,514. Houses 261. Asses
sed property, in 1815, £16,247  Kirkinner is in tbe
presbytery of Wigton, and synod of Galloway.
Patron, Vans Agijew of Barnbarroch and Sheuchan.
Stipend £230 2s. ; glebe £20. Unappropriated
teinds £51 9s. 8d. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s.
4£d., with £28 fees, £6 other emoluments, and a
house and garden. There are three non-parochial
schools  The ancient church was dedicated to St.
Kenneir — abbreviated into Kinner in the name of
the parish — a virgin said to have suffered martyrdom
at Cologne in 450, The church was granted by
Edward Bruce, Lord of Gallpway, tp the mpnks pf
Whithorn; but, in 1503, was exchanged by them
for that pf Kirkandrew in Kirkcudbrightshire, in
order that it might be annexed to the chapel-royal
of Stirling. As taxed in Bagiment's roll, it was tbe
highest benefice in the county. — The present parish
comprehends, as its north-west corner, the small an
cient parish of Longcastle, named after an edifice on
an islet in Dowalton or Longcastle-loch. The ruins
of the church still exist about half-a-mile from the
lake. The parish was anciently a rectory, and was
annexed to Kirkinner in 1630. Its name is occa
sionally joined with that of Kirkinner in designating
the united parish.
KIRKINTILLOCH, a parish in Dumbartonshire,
forming the western half of the detached part of
that county, and lying 4|- miles east of the nearest
point of its main body. It is bounded on the north
by Campsie and Kilsyth, in Stirlingshire; on the
east by Cumbernauld ; on the south by New Monk-
land and Cadder, in Lanarkshire ; and on the west
by Cadder. In extreme length from east to west,
it measures 6| miles ; at its west end it is 2 miles
broad, but has an indentation there to the depth of
a mile ; it slowly and regularly expands till, at its
east end, it is nearly 3i miles broad ; and it con
tains an area of about 10,700 English acres. Kel
vin-water comes in from the east, and except over
pne brief space of § of a mile where the frontier
overleaps it, flows along the whole of the northern
boundary ; but it has not here reached any of its
scenes pf beauty and romance, and crawls sluggishly
along, with the aspect more of a Dutch canal than
a Scottish stream. Luggie, or Logie- water comes
in also frpm the east, runs If mile alpng the sputhern
boundary, and flpws chiefly westward, but partly
northward, in the interier to the Kelvin at tbe
town of Kirkintilloch ; and though it generally has
the same dull, repulsive aspect as the Kelvin, 'yet,
for about a mile from Duntiblae to Oxgang, it
moves between high, wooded, and interesting banks.
The Forth and Clyde Canal [which see] ex
tends from east to west, a little inward from the
northern boundary. The surface of the parish, lying
all within the great valley, traversed by that canal,
though shielded by the lofty and often abrupt range
of Campsie-fells on the north, and screened by con
siderable undulating elevations on tbe south, is an
almost imperceptibly declining plain, with a north
ern exposure, everywhere variegated with waving
swells, and nowhere, except in ene place ef small
extent, warted with rugged pr rocky protuberances.
Tbe soil along the Kelvin is of a deep marshy na
ture, and liable to be overflowed ; on a small tract
in the north-east corner, it is a light reddish earth, on
a whinstone and gravelly bottom ; around the town
of Kirkintilloch, it is a light black loam, 16 or 18
inches deep, on a reddish tilly bottom ; in the south
ern and eastern districts, it is a strong clay ; and
in detached little patches in various localities,
amounting in the aggregate to about 140 acres, it
is black peat moss. Hardly one-half of the area is in

regular tillage ; about 300 acres are ander wood :
about 300 more are waste ; and an aggregate num
ber not easily estimated, are very unpicturesquely,
though very usefully, occupied by the canal and its
banks, by the path of tbe Edinburgh and Glasgow
railway, by the town of Kirkintillpch, by the wprks
and yards pf collieries, and by the multitudinous
appliances of a busy and multifarious manufacture.
Coal abounds, and is extensively mined at Shirva
and at Barhill, both near the Kelvin. At the latter,
on the summit of the rising ground, are nearly 30
kilns for the conversion of coal into coke, which,
in dark nights, diffuse far-seen streamers on the
lower clouds, and whence large exportations of
coke are made to Glasgow. Limestone, freestone,
and ironstone also abound  Antoninus' wall ran
through the parish for 6 miles from east to westf, and
had here three large forts and watch-towers. Its most
easterly post was a fort, still traceable, enclosing an
area of 150 square yards on the summit of Barhill,
and commanding a view of almost the whole course
of the wall frem the Forth to the Clyde. The
middle post, now nearly effaced from the intersec
tion of it by the canal, and from other causes, was
at the village of Auchende wic, and appears to have
been a rectangular fort of 150 yards by 70. The
westerly post, still in most parts tolerably distinct,
was a fort, now called by way of distinction the
Peel, on a rising ground at the west end of the
town of Kirkintilloch, enclosed an area 90 yards by
80, and had the singular property of being situated on
tbe north side of the wall  An ancient quadrangular
tower, once a strength of the Boyds, Earls of Kil
marnock, exists in a nearly entire but ruinous condi
tion  The parish is traversed through the town of
Kirkintilloch, by the turnpike between Glasgow and
Kilsyth, and has, in addition, about 20 miles of ex
cellent roads. The Monkland and Kirkintilloch rail
way comes in from the south to the canal near the
town. The Edinburgh and Glasgow railway will
touch the town and run through the whole length
of the parish. The canal has been of incalculable
advantage for the conveyance both of goods and of
passengers. The number of persons who enter the
passage-boats at the station here averages about
2,000 per month. Population, in 1801, 3,210; in
1831, 5,888. Houses 615. Assessed property, in
1815, £7,446  Kirkintilloch is in the presbytery of
Glasgow, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron,
the Hon. Admiral Fleming. Stipend £262 Is. 3d.;
glebe £10 8s. Unappropriated teinds £643 10s. 3d.
The parish-church was built in 1644. Sittings 740.
— A part of the parish, comprehending sections of
both its town and its landward districts, and con
taining a population of about 2,700, was recently
erected into the quoad sacra parish of St. David's. The
church was built in 1837. Sittings 1,012  There are
three dissenting places of worship, all situated in the
town. The United Secession congregation was
established in 1765. Sittings 620. Stipend £137.
— The Original Burgher congregation was established
in 1801. Their place of worship was built in 1806,
and cost £800. Sittings 700. Stipend £105. The
Wesleyan Methodist congregation, established in
1817, assemble in a schoolroom. Sittings 170 
An ecclesiastical survey made in 1836, exhibited the
population then as consisting of 3,629 churchmen,
2,349 dissenters, and 200 non-descript;— in all 6,178
persons. — Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s.
4Jd., with fees, and about £4 other emoluments.
Six non-parochial schools, — one of which is en
dowed, and one is a boarding-school,  are con
ducted by 7 teachers, and attended by^ a maxi
mum of 545 scholars  Kirkintilloch, "anciently
written Kirkintulach, and etymologically Caer-

KIR

181

KIR

pen-tulach, 'the Fort at the end of the bill,' thus
taking its name from the Reman post at the west
end of the town, anciently comprehended both the
present parish and that of Cumbernauld ; but, at the
close of the reign ef James IV. , it began tp be called
Lenzie, after the name pf the barony. The ancient
^church was dedicated to St. Ninian, and stood near
Oxgang, where its cemetery still exists ; and it was
given before 1195, to the monks of Cambuskenneth,
and continued tp be a vicarage under them till the
Reformation. In the town stood a chapel dedicated
to the Virgin Mary, and endowed with the lands
and mill of Duntiblae. This is now the parish-
church ; and, though incommodious and very old,
withstppd a recent sharp litigatipn fpr being super
seded by a new edifice. In 1649, a decree of the
commissioners for planting new churches ordered
the division of Lenzie into two parishes, and, a few
years afterwards, was carried into execution. The
new parishes were for some time called Wester
Lenzie and Easter Lenzie; but eventually took
their modern names from the sites of their respective
churches. Kirkintilloch, the capital of the parish just
described, and a burgh-of-barony, stands on Luggie-
water, immediately above its confluence with the
Kelvin, 3 miles south-east of Campsie, 5 miles south
west of Kilsyth, 7 miles north of Glasgow, and 49
miles west of Edinburgh. Its site has the singular
advantage of being touched by a great line of turn
pike, by the Forth and Clyde canal, and by the
Edinburgh and Glasgow railway. It is an irregularly
built, strangely arranged, confused looking little
town, conveying by its aspect the idea of such entire
devotement to trade and manufacture as precludes
nearly all attention to the graces of exterior appear
ance. A steeple surmounting a court-house and jail
gives the place a sort of burghai feature. A gas-
work, sending aloft its slender stalk, evinces also
regard for comfort. But the vast majority of tbe
edifices indicates the mass of the inhabitants to be a
community of cotton- weavers. ' The castle of Kirk
intilloch, once a considerable strength, the property
first of John Comyn, and next of the ancestor of the
Honourable Admiral Fleming, has entirely disap.
peared. The town has a branch-office of the West
Bank of Scotland, a savings' bank, a subscription
library, a parochial library, some charitable or friendly
institutions, and more than a complement of inns and
ale-houses. A small weekly-market is held on Satur
day ; and annual fairs, chiefly for cattle, are held on
the second Tuesday of May, the last Thursday of
July, and tbe 21st day of October. Two distilleries
produce upwards of 115,000 gallons a-year; a silk
hat-manufactory employs upwards of 20 persons ;
an iron-foundery is in brisk operation ; a calico-
printfield has work for about 120 persons; and a
variety of handicrafts, common to every town, em
ploys, in the aggregate, about 120 workmen. But
the weaving of cotton fabrics — principally lappets
with a few purls and victories — yields tbe mass of
the inhabitants what may indifferently or debatedly
be called a maintenance and a starvation. The wea
vers are glad to earn even seven or six shillings a-
week ; yet they have multiplied in number with a
rapidity of increase which, viewed in connexion with
the poverty of their vocation, seems quite unaccount
able. They amounted, a little before the close of
last century, to only 185, but now amount to about
2,000, — only a fourth of whom, however, are heads
of families. The number of hand-looms was, in
1828, 1,200; and, in 1838, 1,963. Those of the
latter year, with the exception of eight, were all
plain  The town is said to have been erected into,
a burgh-of-barony by William the Lion. From its

successive superiors, the Comyns, the Flemings, and
the Earls ef Wigton, it received charters granting
and confirming the rights of electing magistrates,
holding a weekly-market, and maintaining burgh.
courts. From time immemorial the burgh has in
cluded two kinds of property, — the Newland mail
ings, which may be considered the landward part,
and the burgh acres, upon which the greater part of
the town is built. A Newland mailing is a piece of
land rated in the cess-books at £18 Scots. The
right of electing the magistrates is in the burgesses ;
but it is the immemorial practice of the burgh to
admit as such pnly the proprietors of the Newland
mailings, to the exclusion of the proprietors of the
burgh acres, and all others. The burgess must be
feudally vested in at least onerhalf of one of the
Newland mailings. The magistracy consists of 2
bailies, 12 councillors, a treasurer, and a town-clerk,
chosen yearly by the burgesses; these are 22 in
number, 16 of whom are resident. The inhabitants
who are not burgesses have no voice in the election
ef tbe magistrates, pr in the management pf the
burgh's affairs. The burgh has ne property, except '
the court-heuse and gaol. The revenue is wholly
derived from casualties of superiority drawn on the
entries of vessels in the lands, over which the ma
gistrates are the superior's irrevocable commissioners.
The income is about £30 per annum, and is applied
to keeping up the public buildings and establishment,
and paying the interest of debt. The debt is about
£300. There are no taxes levied under authority
of the magistrates. The prpprietprs within burgh
are taxed with the landward part ef the parish.
The boundaries are extensive, the burgh lands ex
tending nearly 3 mHes in length, by f of a mile in
breadth. The jurisdiction claimed is equally exten
sive with royal burghs. In civil cases the bailies
judge to an unlimited amount ; in criminal, they
confine themselves to petty offences. The cases of
either kind are not numerous. There are no stated
courts. The town-clerk acts as assessor ; and is
paid by court-dues and fees on charters. There are
no exclusive privileges or incorporations. Popula
tion about 4,400  When the army of Prince Charles
Edward came down upon the town from Stirling
shire, in 1745, one of their number was coolly shot
from a lurking-place in* one of the streets. The in
habitants were, in consequence, subjected to a heavy
fine; and next year, when the army was returning
from the south, they fled everywhere in panic, falsely
apprehending that their town was destined to the
flames. Kirkintilloch was the first place in the west
of Scotland scourged by Asiatic cholera.
KIRKLAND, a village in Fifeshire, in the parish
of Wemyss, 1 mile west ef Leven, and 1 nprth of
Mcthill. Here is one of the most extensive flax
spinning-mills in Scotland, belonging to Nelson and
Co. It gives employment te 681 persens, and an
nually censumes abput 1 ,000 tpns pf flax. The vil
lage is wholly inhabited by the wprking pepple at
the mills. Population, in 1836, 543. There is a
school here, chiefly supported by the Company.
KIRKLAND, or Kikkfield Bank, a pretty
village in the parish of Lesmahagow, situated about I
mile west of the town of Lanark. The Clyde, which
at this place makes a beautiful sweep, and contains
a romantic little wooded island, is here spanned by a
substantial bridge ef three arches. The inhabitants
are chiefly engaged in weaving.
KIRKLAND. See Saline.
KIRKLISTON, a parish bisected by the river
Almond, having the part on the left side of that
stream in Linlithgowshire, and the part on the right
side in Edinburghshire. It is bounded on the north
by Abercorn, Dalmeny, and Cramond ; on the east

182

KIRKLISTON.

by Corstorphine and Ratho ; on the south by Kirk-
newton ; and on the west by Uphall, Ecclesmachen,
and a detached part of Dalmeny. It is very irregular
in outline ; but has an extreme length, from east to
west, of 5J miles, and an extreme breadth of 4£
miles, and is computed to contain about 1 2 square
miles. The portion in Edinburghshire is about one-
fourth of the whole. , The Almond has, in the par
ish, a course of 4J miles from south-west ,to north
east in a straight line, but of about 6£ or 7 along the
sinuosities of its channel ; and it runs upon a broad,
and, in many places, a rocky bed, occasionally be
tween sloping and high banks, pleasing and cheerful
in its appearance, but at times so flooded and im
petuous that, to correct its mischievousness, its
beauty has, in some parts, been necessarily impaired
by high embankments. Brox-burn, coming in from
the south-west, flows | of a mile along the western
boundary, and then 1J mile through the interior to
the Almond. Two or three other streams — tiny
brooks — drain the district. Springs are abundant
and not a little various, affording ample supplies of
pure water, and offering solutions of magnesia, lime,
and iron. The Edinburgh Union canal goes If mile
westward through the southern wing, and, having
debouched in the parish of Uphall, re-enters the par
ish, and passes 1£ mile through it nprthward. The
surface of the whole area is a slightly upland plain
diversified with very gentle swells. The soil varies
from a strong clay to a rich black mould, the only
exceptions being a few haughs of light earth and
deep sand. In a few places the clay land is very wet,
and demands much labour from the cultivator. But
the whole parish, though containing, a century ago,
extremely little enclosed ground, partook early the
benefits of the agricultural movement in the Lo-
thians, and long before the. publication of the Old
Statistical Account was all arable. Plantation is
more scanty than comports with scenic effect, but
yields to the more useful ornaments of the rich and
mellow grain. The cultivation of turnips and cab
bages in the fields was introduced here by the Earl
of Stair. Sandstone, limestone, and whinstone oc
cur, all of kinds suitable to be used in various sorts
of masonry. A beautiful and durable building-stone
is quarried on the farm of Humbie. Numerous but
vain searches have been made fer cpal. Afield sputh-
west pf the village pf Kirklistpn is ppinted put pn
which Edward I. encamped, in 1298, pn his way tp
Falkirk. A mpnumental stpne pn the right bank of
the Almond, less than £ of a mile within the limits
of the conterminous parish of Cramond, bears the
name of the Catstane, supposed to be a corruption
of Constantine, and is believed to commemorate the
slaughter near the spot of Constantine the usurper,
in a pitched battle, in the year 995, with Kenneth
the brother of Malcolm, the 2d King of Scotland,
and the commander of his army. Some large stones
in a field 2J miles higher up the river, and imme
diately adjoining the Edinburgh and Glasgow turn
pike, are thought to commemorate the battle, and
to indicate the principal scene of the contest. Stone
coffins, heads of spears, and other reHcs of a general
engagement, have, at various periods, been found in
the vicinity. On the left bank of the Almond, £ of
a mile after it enters the parish, stands a very ancient
baronial pile, called Eliston, and supposed to have
been anciently a hunting-castle of the kings of Scot
land.— Half-a-mile south of the village of Winch-
burgh stands the fine old ruin of Niddry castle, once
the property of the Earls of Wintoun, and tbe asy
lum fpr a night of Mary of Scotland, when fleeing
from Lochleven to join her party at Hamilton  On
the Almond, among some aged trees near Clifton-
hall, is a well-preserved monumental stone, dated

1645, ever the grave ef the proprietpr pf the adjacent
grounds, who, according to one account, was the
last victim of plague in Scotland ; and whose body,
from tbe unwillingness ef every one to attend his
funeral, was interred in his garden by a domestic —
Half-a-mile west of tbe Almond, and the same dis
tance north of the Edinburgh and Glasgow turnpike,
stands the interesting mansion of Newliston, pnce
the favpurite seat pf the Stair family, but npw the
property ef James Maitland Hpg, Esq. The plea
sure-grounds around it were laid put by the cele
brated Jehn Earl ef Stair, whp inherited the estate
from his mother, and resided here twenty years; and
are said to have been disposed, in the lines and
clumps and other figures of their trees, in exact re
semblance of the array of the British troops on the
eve of the battle of 'Dettingen. The Earl of Stair,
and his grandmother, Dame Margaret, the 1st Lady
Stair, and the original of Lady Ashton in Scott's
tale of ' the Bride of Lammermoor,' lie interred —
the former without monumental marble or inscrip
tion — in tbe family vault in Kirkliston church. The
other mansions, besides Newliston, are Fox-ball,
i of a mile east of Kirkliston, and Clifton-hall,
Hallyards, and Ingleston, in the Mid-Lothian section
of the parish  Four hamlets, Niddry, Gogar-stane,
Clifton, and Newbouses, have aggregately about 180
inhabitants. Two villages, Winchbt/roh and New
bridge, shall be separately noticed. The village ot
Kirkliston is pleasantly situated on a rising ground
between a bend of the Almond on the south, and the
line of the Edinburgh and Falkirk turnpike on the
north, 9 miles west of Edinburgh, and 7J miles east
of Linlithgow. Though possessing some good mo
dern houses, it presents, on the whole, a squalid ap
pearance, more in keeping with the moral features of
Munster or Connaugbt than with the opulence and
taste and order of the Lotbians, and is a blot on the
face of the fair landscape which surrounds it. At its
' west end is a distillery of upwards of twenty years
standing. The place has an inn, and a complement
of ale-houses ; and on the last Tuesday of July is the
scene of a motley gathering misnamed a fair. Popu
lation about 600  Three great turnpikes' traverse
the parish, — that between Edinburgh and Glasgow
by way of Bathgate, that between the same cities by
way of Linlithgow and Falkirk, and that branching
off from the second at Kirkliston, and running down
to Queensferry. Owing to its- bisection by these
roads and the canal, tbe parish witnesses in transit
the greater part of the vast traffic and intercom
munication between tbe east and the west of Scot
land. It is cut also by the line of the Edinburgh and
Glasgow railway, and is the scene of the most stu
pendous, or, at least, the most striking and' magnifi
cent object thrown up in the construction of that
great national work, — the viaduct of upwards of
thirty towering arches, connected by an earthen em
bankment with another bridge of ten or, twelve
arches more across the vale of the Almond. An
aqueduct of no mean character, for the amount and
other qualities of its masonry, carries across the same
vale the Edinburgh Union canal. Population, in
1801, 1,647; in 1831, 2,265. Houses 398. As
sessed property, in 1815, £14,869  Kirkliston is
in the presbytery of Linlithgow, and synod of Lo
thian and Tweeddale. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£285 10s. 2d. ; glebe £27. Unappropriated teinds
£29 3s. 3d. The church is very ancient, and be
longed to the Knights Templars. On its south side
is a doorway, not now used, which exhibits a fine
specimen of Saxon architecture. Sittings between
700 and 800. From the proprietors of the church
the parish was anciently called Temple-liston. But
the kirktown acquiring the name of Kirk-liatpn to

KIR

183

KIR

distinguish it from several other places which were,
with some prefix, the name of the whole manor,
Kirkliston came to be the parochial designatipn.
The manpr pf Listpn was granted tp the Knights
Templars in the 12th century, and, with spme dila-
pidatipns, was enjpyed by their successprs, the
Knights pf St. John, till the Reformation. The
church, with much of the adjacent lands, was grant
ed — though at what date is uncertain — to the bishop
of St. Andrews; and while served by a vicar, was
enjoyed by the bishop as a mensal benefice. Parish
schoolmaster's salary £34, with fees, £4 2s. other
emoluments, and a house and garden. There are 5
non-parochial schools, attended by a maximum of
268 scholars  An entirely detached portion of the
parish, called Liston-Shiels, and usually reckoned to
belong to Kirknewton, lies among the Pentlands.
See Liston-Shiels. v '
KIRKMABRECK, a parish at the south-west
extremity of Kirkcudbrightshire ; bounded on the
north by Girthon ; on the east by Girthon and An-
woth ; on the south-west by Wigton bay, which
divides it from Wigtonshire ; and on the north-west
by Minigaff. In extreme length it measures, from
Craig Ronal on the north, to an angle on Wigton bay
at the boundary with An woth on the south, 10 miles ;
and in breadth it averages, for 3 miles from the north,
3J miles, — for 4J miles further, 4^ miles, — and thence
to the southern extremity, 2£ dr 2£ miles. Wigtoif
bay, or more properly the estuary of the Cree, ex
pands, while it touches the parish, from a breadth of
2 j furlongs to a breadth of 3J miles ; and offers to
tbe inhabitants tbe wealth of its fisheries and the
1 advantages pf its navigation . Pilnour- water, cpming
dpwn from the north, runs for | of a mile along the
western boundary before falling into the estuary ;
and, at the point of first touching the parishes, re
ceives on its left bank a streamlet which traces for
3| miles the north-west boundary. One of the twp
chief head-waters pf the Fleet forms tbe bpundary-
line fpr 3£ miles on tbe west. Moneypool-burn,
flowing 6 miles south-westward from the north-east
corner, and receiving several tributary rills in its
course, falls into Wigton bay at Creetown. Four or
five other streamlets drain the parish, and run into
the bay. Several mineral springs, particularly one
on the lands of Peble, have been found useful in
cases of dyspepsy. The country all along the bay
has a delightful appearance, chequered and tufted
with wood, dotted with gentlemen's seats, carpeted
with a rich soil of clay and gravel, and finely fea
tured with enclosures and the tints and depictings of
thorough cultivation. But the surface inclines every
where upward from the bordering belt, and soon be
comes a congeries of mountains, partly green and
partly clothed in a mottled intermixture of heath and
verdure, and of strictly a pastoral character. Yet
the mountainous region, except along the north-west
frontier, breaks down at intervals into gentle slopes
and pleasant valleys and narrow stripes of lowland,
watered by the meandering streams, and worked, by
means of an exuberant supply of sea-shells and other
manurial substances, into finely cultivated lands.
Great attention is paid to the pasturing of sheep,
and the rearing of black cattle. The parish is famous
for a beautiful granite, with which it abounds, and
of which some fine edifices have been built ; and it
contains small veins of coarse limestone, and some
lead ore. Along the estuary of the Cree are four
quadrangular towers with battlements ; and, in vari
ous localities are tumuli, one of which, called Cairn-
holy, or tbe Holy Cairn, is an object of much local
curiosity, and the subject of conflicting but magnilo
quent traditions. Of the mansions of the parish the
chief and the most interesting is Kirkdale, situated

in the southern corner, on Wigton bay. Approach
ing it along the coast from the west, the mansion
rises to the eye with a sort of magic effect. It is of
modern erection, constructed of the fine granite of
the parish, stately and spacious, after a very elegant
design by Mr. Adams, the granite beautifully po
lished. The mansion, too, while an attractive object
in itself, is one of the most advantageously situated
in Scotland for the extent and grandeur of the pano-
ramo hung around it ; for it cpmmands a npble pros
pect of the Irish sea, — of the country extending up
the western bank of the Cree, — Of the town of Wig
ton and its environs on the opposite side of the bay,
— and of the land stretching out, in a sort of pro
montory, to form the point of Whithorn, the Candida
Casa of Bede. On Wigton bay stands the little
burgh of Creetown : which see. Half-a-mile north
of it is the fine mansion of Barholm, the seat of the
superior of the burgh. The parish is traversed along
the coast by the great turnpike between Carlisle and
Portpatrick, and westward in the interior by the old
military road from Dumfries to Newton-stewart ;
and it has two or three other lines of road. Pppula
tipn, in 1801, 1,212; in 1831, 1,779. Heuses 268.
Assessed property, in 1815, £6,325  Kirkmabreck
is in the presbytery ef Wigton, and synpd of Gallo
way. Patron, the Crown and Barholm. Stipend
£249 6s. 6d. ; glebe £16. Unappropriated teinds
£85 7s. 3d  Parish schoplmaster's salary £34 4s.
4£d., with £31 fees. There are 5 npn-parpchial
schppls, attended by a maximum pf 126 scholars —
To the ancient parish was annexed, in 1636, tbe
whole of the old parish of Kirkdale, except a very
small part, which was assigned to Anwoth. The
church of Kirkdale, dedicated to the archangel
Michael, stood in the valley of a small stream
which falls intp Wigtpn bay abput half-a-mile belpw
Kirkdale-house ; and is cemmemerated by its ceme
tery, which is still in use. In tbe reign ef James
IV. it belpnged tp tbe Cro wn ; and it was then given
tp the mpnks pf Whithprn, and cpntinued with them
till the Refermatipn. The church pf the ancient
parish pf Kirkmabreck belpnged, in popisn times, tp
tbe abbey of Dundrennan ; and, in 1621, it was, with
all its tithes and pertinents, granted to Sir Rpbert
Gprdpn pf Lpchinvar and his heirs. Kirkmabreck
and Kirkdale, after this gifting away pf the tempor-
alities pf the fermer, were annexed te the parish pf
Anwoth; but, in 1636, were placed in their present
position. The old church of Kirkmabreck— still
visible in its ruins, and commemorated by its ceme
tery, If miles south-east of Creetown— was now su
perseded by a new church in that little town, —
anciently the site of a chapel. A little south of the
old cemetery, at a place now called Kirkbride mills,
there was of old a chapel dedicated to St. Bridget,
and called Kilbride or Kirkbride.
KIRKMAHOE, a parish in Nithsdale, Dumfries
shire. Its greatest length, from the point where
Gonckstane-burn comes down upon it in the north,
to the angle at Fisher's Isle on the south, is 74 miles;
and its. greatest breadth, from the boundary near
How Bothom on the east, to an angle near Auld-
girth bridge on the west, is 4£ miles. But from the
line of its extreme breadth southward, or over 4J
miles of its greatest length, it uniformly and almost
regularly contracts, till it terminates in a point ; so
that it comprehends an area of only 18| square miles,
or 9,545£ Scottish acres. It is bounded on the north
by Closeburn; on the north-east by Kirkmichael;
on the east by Tinwald; on the south-east by Dum
fries ; on the south-west by Holy wood and Dunscore ;
and on the north-west by Keir and Closeburn. The
river Nith, excepting over a space of half-a-mile
where it first flings one fold intp the parish, and next

KIR

184

KIR

sends a curve beyond it, runs along the whole south
west boundary, — a distance, in a straight line, of 6£
miles. Its appearance arid properties here are no
ticed in the articles Dunscore and Holywood.
The water of Ae, coming down from the nprth, runs
along the whole of the north-east boundary, — a dis
tance of 2| miles. Gonckstane-burn, coming down
from the north-west 1J mile from its source, traces
the northern boundary for f of a mile, and then runs
2| miles south-eastward, through tbe interior to
the Ae. Duncow-burn cuts the parish lengthways
into not very unequal parts, and falls into the Nith a
little below Millhead. Auchenbeatty-burn, after
tracing for 1 J mile the north-west boundary, runs 3J
miles south-eastward to Duncow-burn. Lochar
water rises in the interior, and, after running f of a
mile eastward, flows 3J miles along the eastern boun
dary, receiving from the parish, a little before leav
ing it, a tributary of 2£ miles length of course. The
waters of the parish thus belong chiefly to Nithsdale ;
partly, through the Ae, to Annandale ; and partly,
through the Lochar, to the intermediate district of
Lochar Moss. The small streams contribute many
features of romance to the aspect of joyous beauty
produced by the vicinity pf the Nith ; npw hiding
themselves frpm the teurist in curipusly fprmed
caves which they have hellpwed out in the rocks,
and now bounding fantastically upon his view in tbe
glittering leap and garrulous noise of very fine cas
cades. The surface, in all the southern division, is
nearly level, or but slenderly diversified ; and, in gene
ral, rises gently from the Nith, till, in the northern divi
sion, it becomes a congeries of heights, some of which
rise from 600 to nearly 800 feet above the level of
the sea. From some of the summits of its uplands,
a brilliant view is obtained of the beautiful vale of
the Nith, broadly fringed in the distance by the spray
of tbe Solway tide, and foiled by the bold forms of
Criffel and the Cumberland hills, in the far-away
back-ground. At the middle of last century, the
parish had only two carts, and was almost wholly
waste ; but now, with the exception of the chief
part of its uplands, amounting to about one-third of
its whole area, which is unreclaimed and pastoral, it
competes in the opulence of its cultivation, and tbe
luxuriance of its crops, with the best districts of
Scotland. Along the Nith is a rich holm or haugh
of alluvial soil, mixed with clay. About 500 acres,
chiefly near the middle of the parish, are under wood.
The elegant mansion of Dalswinton [which see]
overlooks on one side an isleted lake, and on the
other a sweep of the Nith, opposite Tower Isle and
Ellisland ; and — apart from its being the seat of the
chief proprietoi* of the parish — is highly interesting
for its historical associations. On the little lake in
its pleasure-grounds, were conducted the celebrated
experiments of tbe late Patrick Miller, Esq., in steam
navigation. In tbe vicinity, Allan Cunningham spent
his boyhood ; and, in a letter to the minister of the
parish, from which extracts are made in the New
Statistical Account, he has preserved some interest
ing reminiscences of the relics of the Comyn. Part
of the walls of Comyn's-castle, burnt by Bruce after
Kirkpatrick had the proprietor "sicker" in Dum
fries [which see], are reported by him to have been
standing in 1792. " They were, he says, 12, and in
one place 14 feet thick; and 'bits of burnt wupd'
were still clinging tp them. He nptices the pld cpw-
hpuse pf Dalswinton as a great curiosity ; and says
that he had seen it entire, with its 'heavy stone
vault,' its ' outer door of wrought iron,' and its
'inner door traced with broad iron. bars, fastened
with iron rivets.  The Nith," Mr. Cunningham
remarks, " instead of circling the scaur of Ellisland,
and running nigh the Isle, directed its course by

Bankfoot, and came close to the castle; and he
remembers ' a pool near the old hpuse of Dalswinton,
called Comyn's pool, which belonged to the old water
course, and connected itself with the back water in
the Willow isle, by the way ef the Lady's meadow.
Here Cemyn is alleged te have sunk his treasure-
chest befere he went tp Dumfries, leaving it in charge
ef the water-sprite. A net, it is said, was fixed in
this pepl, to which a small bell in the castle was at
tached, which rang when a salmon was in the snare 1'
' The golden pippins and honey pears ' which were
produced in the orchard, on or near the place once
occupied by the notable pool, must not be overlooked.
The pippins grew on six remarkable trees : the pears
on the same number of trees were no less remarkable,
and the fruit, for flavour and sweetness, could not
then be ' equalled in any other garden in tbe dis
trict.' " [New Statistical Account of Scotland, Noi
II. p. 59, 60.] — Milnhead and Carnsalloch, both on
the Nith, not far from the southern extremity of the
parish, are the principal other mansions. In various
localities are circular moats, and the vestiges of fprts
and tumuli. Kirkmahoe village is a small, poor-
looking place, 4 miles north of Dumfries, noticeable
only for its being the site of the parish-church, a
fine Gothic edifice, beautifully screened with trees.
Quarrel wood, If mile farther north, is the site of a
Reformed Presbyterian meeting-house, once of some
note in the surrounding country, the cradle of Ca-
meronianism, but now almost wholly disused. Dun-
cow and Dals wintpn are separately npticed. The
aggregate population of all the villages is only about
500. At Glencarrick, in the north, is a small dis
tillery. The principal road is a turnpike which runs
up the vale of the Nitb, to join the Dumfries and
Glasgow stage-road immediately beyond the limits
of the parish at Auldgirth bridge  Population, in
1801, 1,315; in 1831, 1,601. Houses 321. As
sessed property, in 1815, £10,077  Kirkmahoe is in
the presbytery and synod of Dumfries. Patron, the
Duke of Buccleuch. Stipend £238 8s. 4d. ; glebe
£14. Unappropriated teinds £341 10s. 6d. Three
parochial schools are attended by a maximum of 286
scholars. Collective salaries of the masters £31 6s.
6Jd., with £36 fees, and £3 3s. other emoluments.
A voluntary school is attended by a maximum of 47
scholars, taught by two masters, and provided with
a new school-bouse built by subscription, and super
intended by a few heads pf families  Hagiegraphy
nowhere furnishing a St. Mahp, Chalmers derives the
name of the parish, like the name Mayo in Ireland,
from the Irish magh, and makes it mean ' the Ghurch
in the plain field.' The church was dedicated to St.
Quintin, and, notwithstanding a grant of it by David
II. to the monks of Arbroath, continued to be a
rectory ; and, in 1429, was constituted a prebend of
Glasgow, and made a perpetual vicarage. In the
northern section of the parish, at a place still called
Kilblane, anciently stood a church dedicated to St.
Blane. KIRKMAIDEN, a parish occupying the southern
part of the Rhinns of Galloway, in Wigtonshire. It
is bounded on the north by Stoneykirk, and on all
other sides by tbe sea; and runs southward, in a
peninsular stripe, terminating in the Mull of Gallo
way: see Galloway (Mull of). Its greatest
length, from Chapelrossan bay on the north, to the
south side of the Mull on the south, is 9| miles ; and
its greatest breadth, from Killiness point on the east,
to the coast-line of Clanyard Fell on the west, is 4£
miles ; but, having an average breadth of only 24 or
2J miles, "its superficial area is between 23 and 24
square miles. Fresh water and chalybeate springs
are abundant and copious. The encincturing sea
affords a profusion and a great variety of fish, 

KIRKMICHAEL.

185

mackerel, mullet, and whiting, — red cod, turbot, sole ]
and skate, large oyster, crab and lobster, and a num
ber of other species. A large part of the coast-line,
especially on the west, is a continuous curve of bay
and headland. The bays of East Tarbet and West
Tarbet are mutually opposite, and narrow the con
nexion of the Mull of Galloway with the body of the
parish to an isthmus 2$ furlongs broad. Portnessock
and Clanyard bay, each running a mile inward from
the general coast-line, both on the west side, the
former If, and the latter 3J miles at its head or cen
tre from the northern boundary, are the deepest in
dentations made by the sea. Chapelrossan bay at
the northern boundary, and Drummore and Killiness
bay, respectively 5 J and 6f miles south of it, are the
principal bays in the east, but make indentations only
two or three furlongs deep. Portnessock and Drum-
more bays afford good anchorage and shelter, and are
provided, respectively at Port-Logan and Drummore,
with small quays. The coast, particularly toward
the Mull, is rocky and bold ; and along the west, it
is curiously perforated with caves and caverns, and
rent and contorted with fissures. Many of the caves
are difficult of access, and small at the mouth, but of
capacious interior. One of them has a hollow worn
in its floor, and a stalactite suspended from its roof,
in consequence of a perpetual dropping. Sea-weed
is abundunt on the beach, and samphire plentiful
among the precipices. Two-thirds pf the surface pf
the parish consists partly of a broad but not high
mountainous belt, extending from sea to sea, and
partly of congeries of heights, many of which, though
not lofty, are bleak and wild, while others are slightly
tufted with plantation. Even the more level third
of the surface is roUing and hillocky. About one-
eighth of tbe whole area is rocky pr mossy moor
land ; considerably more than one-half is disposed in
pasture; about 250 acres, chiefly around Logan-
house, near the northern bpundary, are under wepd ;
and between a fourth and a third of the whole is
arable. But agriculture is here sluggish in its move
ments, and displays none of the enterprise, and doci
lity, and inventiveness, which distinguish it in so
many parts of Scotland. A large proportion of the
soil is of quality to require much draining, and has
not been duly worked into heart by that compara
tively easy appliance. Slate-rock was, for some
time, extensively worked in several quarries. Free
stone and whinstone everywhere abound. The chief
proprietor of the parish is Major Macdowall of Logan.
Vestiges of ancient strengths, said to be Pictish, and
ruins of castles Dunmore and Clanyard, and ef the
old mansion of Logan, are the principal antiquities. A
great curiosity is Logan fish-pond : see article Logan.
Two villages — Drummore with 300 inhabitants, and
Port-Logan with 180 — stand at the heads respectively
of the bays of Drummore and Portnessock. Drummore
has four or five small sloops, engaged almost solely in
exporting agricultural produce, and importing coals
and lime. Both villages maintain communication by
carrier, with Stranraer. One line of road runs along
the whole east coast ; and another runs partly on the
west coast, and partly in the interior. Owing to
the parish being the most southerly land of Scot
land, and running out to a latitude south of the town
of Durham, its name, reversed into Kirk-maiden, is
sometimes coupled with that of John-O'-Groat's-
bouse, to indicate the extremes of the country.
Population, in 1801, 1,613; in 1831,2,051. Houses
392. Assessed property, in 1815, £7,069  Kirk-
maiden is in the presbytery of Stranraer, and synod
of Galloway. Patron, the Earl of Stair. Stipend
£150 16s. 5d. ; glebe £8. The church was built in
1638, and is a crazy, disagreeable edifice, with only
275 sittings. At Drummore is a preaching-station of

the United Secession. The parish-minister stated the
population in 1836 to be 2, K)0 ; of whom 1 ,922 were
churchmen, 166 were dissenters, and 12 were nen-
descripts  The ancient church was dedicated te St.
Medan, ef whpm little is knpwn; and stepd in the
sputh end pf the parish, en the lands ef the Mull.
In the vicinity ef its site are a cave called St. Me-
dan's cave, and a cylindrical hpllpw in the rpck, filled
with tbe pverflpwing tide,, associated with various
very modern antics of superstition, and called Chapel
well, or the well of the Coe. The church, previous
to the Reformation, was a vicarage under the monks
of Saulseat. At Maryport-baven, anciently stood a
chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
KIRKMICHAEL, a parish in Carrick, Ayrshire;
bounded on the north and north-east by Dalrymple ;
on the east by Straiton ; on the south by Dailly ; and
on the west by Kirkoswald and Maybole. Its great
est length, from north to south, is 12 miles ; its great
est breadth is 5 miles and 6^- furlongs ; and its super
ficial area is 36 square miles. The river Doon flows
for several miles along the northern boundary ; and
Girvan water, coming in from the east, and taking
its leave at the north, flows windingly through the
interior. Beth rivers are beautiful in their scenery,
and valuable in their water-pewer. Dyrock water,
issuing frem Shankstpn loch, runs 4£ miles south-
westward to the Girvan at Kirkmichael village, re
ceiving in its way some large tributary rills. Six
lakes, one at Kirkmichael, one a mile north-west of
Drummore, three in the north-east corner, and one
on the eastern boundary, cover aggregately about
110 acres. The last and largest is Loch-Spulander,
not far from being equal to all the others united.
The vale of the Girvan is, in most parts, of consi
derable breadth ; and though not a plain, has numer
ous patches of level ground, and undulates with a
pleasing diversity of gentle outline. All the district
west of it is hillocky and swelling, but has not an
upland aspect. A surface now level, and now diver
sified with heights, lies along the north. The par
ish, in all these districts, has an arable, enclosed,
sheltered, and very cheerful appearance. The whole
eastern division is of bolder features, rising as it
recedes, till it sends up lofty summits, — one of them
upwards of 1,600 feet above the level of the sea ;
yet it is free from naked rock, nearly free from moss
and heath, and carpeted all over with fine green pas
ture. About one-thirteenth of the entire area of the
parish is covered with wood, planted and natural,
and disposed not in one great forest, but in such de
tachments as give out features very pleasingly orna
mental. Freestone occurs, and is worked in one
quarry. Limestone abounds, and is profusely worked.
Shell-marl has been found in small quantities. One
hill is supposed to contain lead. Vain searches have
been made for coal. On a romantic site overlooking
the Doon, and surrounded by large lawns and a
wooded demesne, stands Cassillis-CAstle : which
see  . On Girvan-water, a little south-east of
Kirkmichael village, stands Cloncaird-castle, the
property of Henry Ritchie, Esq., once a baronial
mansion with a vast quadrangular tower in tbe
style of the 16th century, but now modernized into
one of the most elegant seats in Ayrshire, sur
rounded with pleasure-grounds, and occupying a
picturesque site  Upwards of a mile north-west
of it, and on the west side of the village, is the
large fine mansion of Kirkmichael-house, the prp
perty ef Colonel Shaw Kennedy. — A mile and a-half
south-east of Cloncaird-castle, on the banks of the
Girvan, within the limits of Straitpn parish, yet
flinging all its attractions, and sending most of its
charming pleasure-grounds into Kirkmichael, stands
the elegant mansion of Blairquhan, the property of

186

KIRKMICHAEL.

Sir David Hunter Blair, Bart  The parish has very
considerably a manufacturing character. An exten
sive tile- work, a bone-mill, a large saw-mill, a flax-
mill, and several corn-mills, exist in various locali
ties. Manufactures apart from them are connected
almost wholly with the villages of Kirkmichael and
¦Crossbill. Fifty years ago, hardly a house of these
villages existed. Both are large, neat, and clean,
and present so agreeable an appearance to the eye,
that a stranger would be far from suspecting them
to be the abode principally of poor half-starved hand-
loom weavers. Kirkmichael straggles picturesquely
alengbpth sides pf the Girvan, between Kirkmichael-
hpuse and Cloncaird-castle, 3£ miles east of Maybole,
and 10 miles south of Ayr. Around it are finely
variegated rising grounds, and beautiful little expan
ses of plantation ; and interspersed with its houses
are trees and little gardens. At its north end, on
Dyrock water, stands the parish-church, with its
romantic burying-ground, encinctured with large old
ash trees. Crossbill is situated 1 J mile to the south
west, and 3 miles frpm Maybple. Its principal part
is a lpng regular street ef pne-story hpuses, com
mencing at the Girvan, running, over most of its
length, at right angles with the stream, and then
debouching to the north. This street is winged at
a little distance with shorter lines of buildings. A
brief way from its north side stands its quoad sacra
parish-church, a small, unpretending, but neat edifice.
At the further end of the street, after its debouch, is
the, large school-bouse of the village. Various car
riers, either connected with the parish, or passing
through from Girvan and Newton- Stewart, maintain
communication between the villages and Ayr and
Glasgow. Numerous females are employed in Ayr
shire needle-work. Other females, as well as most
of the men, are hand-loom weavers. Crossbill and
Kirkmichael are reported by the hand-loom weavers
commission to have had, cumulatively with Maybole,
1,700 hand-looms in 1828, and 1,360 in 1838. The
fabrics woven are chiefly mulls and jaconets, pulli
cates, and imitation thibets. The gross average of
a weaver's earnings is six shillings a-week. A dark
picture of tbe weavers, and especially of the manu
facturers' agents, is sketched in the report of the
commission : see Maybole. The population of
Kirkmichael, in 1836, was 570 ; and of Crosshill 989.
The roads pf the parish are ample, and in excellent
condition. Population, in 1801, 1,119; in 1831,
2,758. Houses 414. Assessed property, in 1815,
£8,745 — Kirkmichael is in the presbytery of
Ayr, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, tbe
Crown. Stipend £261 4s. ; glebe £17. The church
was built in 17£7, and is in a very good state of
repair. The southern part of the parish, including
the larger of the villages, was erected in 1839 into
the quoad sacra parish of Crosshill. A preaching-
station of the United Secessien was cpmmenced at
that village in 1836 ; but has since, in a cpnsiderable
degree, been. discontinued. The pppulatipn, accord
ing to the parish minister's survey in 1836, was then
2,856; of whom 2,567 were churchmen, and 289
were dissenters. Of the latter class, 140 were Sece-
ders connected with tbe congregation of Maybole.
The ancient church was called Kirkmichael of Gem-
ilston, and given to the prior and canons of Whithorn.
—Parish schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with
about £30 fees, and £4 other emoluments. There
are two non-parochial schools, both situated at
Crossbill. KIRKMICHAEL, a parish of an elongated oval
form, stretching north and south, in Annandale,
Dumfries-shire. It is bounded on the north by
Kirkpatrick-juxta; on the north-east and east by
Johnstone ; on the south-east and south by Loch

maben ; on the south- west by Tinwald" and Kirk-
mahoe ; and on the west by Closeburn. Its greatest
length is 9 miles, and its greatest breadth 4J ; and
its superficial area is 26 J square miles, or 13,323
Scottish acres. Kinnel- water washes, for 2| miles,
the eastern boundary. The water of Ae, coming
down from the north within a mile from its source,
circles along the boundary on the west, south-west,
and south, over a distance of 12J miles, to a point
only i of a mile from its confluence with the Kinnel.
Glenkiln and Garvald or Garrel burns, flow south
ward to the Ae, dividing tbe parish into three nearly
equal parts. [See separate notices of the streams in
their respective places.] In the north, on a moun
tain summit, is a very deep lochlet of small extent,
and without fish ; and in the south is another loch
let, four or five acres in extent, stpred with pike and
eel. Between the Ae and Glenkiln-burn, and be
tween Glenkiln-burn and Garrel-burn, twe mpuntain
ranges run down from the northern boundary, to
points south of the middle of the parish, and send up
summits ef from 1,000 to 1,500 feet above the level
of the sea. The surface in the south and south-east
is,' iii general, level, but diversified with rising
grounds. Along the Ae and tbe Kinnel are belts of
beautiful holm. The soil on most of the low grounds
is exceedingly fertile, but yields in various lpcalities
tp patches pf moss, aggregating about 500 acres ; and
in the middle districts it is, for the most part, dry and
gravelly, occasionally russeted with heath, but chiefly
yielding grain crops pr pasture. A little mpre than
pne-tbird pf the whple area is arable ; somewhat
more than one-half is sheep-walk; several little ex
panses are meadow land ; and between 300 and 400
acres are covered with coppicewood and plantation.
Veins of ironstone and ochre, and weak chalybeate
springs, are numerous. ¦ More than half of the parish
belongs to the Duke of Buccleuch. The principal
mansion is Kirkmichael-house, a beautiful edifice
built in 1833, the seat of John S. Lyon, Esq. A
branch of tbe great Roman road which led from Ne-
therby in Cumberland to the chain of forts built by
Lollius Urbicus between the Forth and the Clyde,
can still be traced through a moss in the parish, and
seems to have terminated at a castellum, which is
now the minister's garden, and two sides of which
are still very distinct. A small fort in the Knock
wood, occupying the summit of a steep rocky accli-'
vity, and commanding an extensive view to the south,
bears the name of Wallace's-house, and is said to
have been garrispned by the Scpttish patript to con
front the castle of Lochmaben. Not far from it is a
large stone called ' sax corses,' or vthe six corpses,
commemorative of the slaughter on the spot of Sir
Hugh of Moreland and five of his men, who chased
Wallace from an attempt on Lochmaben-castle.
Vestiges of ancient fortifications and British camps
are numerous. Npt a few ancient cpins, and pther
small antiquities, have been fpund beneath the seil.
The sputhern district ef the parish is traversed south-
westward by the turnpike from Edinburgh to Dum
fries, and has other lines of road ; but the northern
division nearly bids defiance to the entrance of a
wheeled vehicle. Population, in 1801, 904; in 1831,
1,226. Houses 201. Assessed property, in 1815)
£6,166 — Kirkmichael is in the presbytery of
Lochmaben, and synod of Dumfries. Patron, the
Duke of Buccleuch. Stipend £246 8s. lid. ; glebe
£18. Unapprepriated teinds £61 0s. 8d. School-
master's salary £34 4s. 44d., with abput £20 fees,
and a house and garden, and a small piece pf land!
There is a non-parochial school. The present parish
comprehends a large part of the ancient parish of
Garvald : which see.
KIRKMICHAEL, a parish at the north-east ex-

KIRKMICHAEL.

187

tremity pf Perthshire ; bounded pn the nprth by
Aberdeenshire ; en the east by Ferfarshire ; en the
south-east by detached parts of Rattray, Caputh, and
Bendochy ; on the south by a detached part of Blair
gowrie, and by Cluny and Dunkeld ; and on the
west by Logierait, by a detached part of Dowally,
and by Moulin and Blair-Athol. It measures, in
extreme length from north to south, 1 7 miles ; in
extreme breadth 7 miles; and in superficial area
about 100 square miles. Its south-western division,
a district of 6 miles by 4J, consists of the greater
part of Stratbardle, watered by the Ardle, and
screened on both sides by mountain ranges. Its
nprthern and central divisien, cpnsiderably the larger
district, cpnsists pf the whple pf Glenshee, watered
by the Shee, with its broad belts pf mpuntain
screens, and the smaller glens which cpnverge intp
it pn the nprth: see articles Strathardle and
Glenshee. Its south-east corner is a district
nearly circular, somewhat more than 2 miles in dia
meter, lying on the west side of tbe river called
Black water. The whole parish is of a mountainous
and strictly Highland character, more elevated, cold,
and unsheltered, than either Athole to the west, or
Marr to the north. The military road from Cupar-
A ngus to Fort-George passes along Glenshee ; and an
other gopd road runs alpng Stratbardle. Is the midst
pf a large high moor, is a cairn 270 feet in circumfer
ence, and about 25 feet in height ; surrounded at a
little distance, and at different intervals, with a host
of smaller cairns, in groups of 8 or 1 0. A furlong to
the west are distinct vestiges of 2 concentric Druid
ical circles, respectively 32 and 50 feet in diameter.
In other directions round the great cairn are vestiges
of 6 or more single circles, from 32 to 36 feet in dia
meter. About a mile north-east, on a flat-tppped
eminence, stands a remarkable rocking-stone. In
shape, it is nearly a rhombus, the greater diagonal 7
feet, the lesser 5 ; in weight, it is about 3 tons ; and
in position, it so rests on the suecumbent rock, that
by suffering repeated pressure it will rock to the
height of a foot, and make 26 or more vibrations be
fore returning to repose. At points, or on small
eminences, respectively 60, 100, and 150 yards north
of the stone, and 120 yards west of it, are pairs of
concentric Druidical circles, in every case 32 and 45
feet in diameter ; each pair having adjacent a single
circle from 32 to 36 feet in diameter. In the vicinity
are other relics of similar character ; and on the hills
between Strathardle and Glenderby, are other cairns
and circles. Population, in 1801, 1,568; in 1831,
1,568  Kirkmichael is in the presbytery of Dun
keld, and synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron,
Farquharson of Invercauld. Stipend £158 6s. 7d. ;
glebe £10. The parish-church was built in 1791,
and is situated in Strathardle. Sittings 596. A
chapel in connexion with the Establishment stands
in Glenshee : which see. A detached part of Ca
puth, called Craigton pf Dalrulzeon, measuring 1£
mile by f , and lying on the south-eastern boundary,
is considered by use and wont as belonging quoad
sacra to Kirkmichael. The parish minister's survey,
in 1836, exhibited tbe population as then 1,518; of
whom 1,459 were churchmen, and 39 were dissent
ers. " Two parochial schools are attended by a maxi
mum of 161 scholars. Salary of the first master £34
4s. 4Jd., with £19 17s. 5d. fees, and £5 lis. Id.
other emoluments ; of the second master £15, with
£12 fees. Two non-parochial schools are conducted
occasionally by four teachers, afford an extensive
range of tuition, and are attended by a maximum of
136 schplars.
KIRKMICHAEL, a large parish in Banffshire,
occupying the whole of the inland or south-western
extremity of the county, from beyond Cairngorm

mountain to the confluence of the Aven with the
Spey, on the north-west, and to the sources of the
Livet, in In vera von parish, on the sputh-east. It
tapers very much tp the nprth and sputh, but it is
bpunded on the north and north-east by Inveraven ;
on the south and south-east by Aberdeenshire ; and\
on the west by the district of Badenoch, Inverness-
shire. The form, ' to a fanciful imagination,' very
much resembles the, wings of a bat spread out, with
curious symmetry, to the north and south, in a west
ward flight. The extreme length is about 25 miles ;
the breadth varies from 1 mile to 6 ; square area
29,500 acres. Houses 338. Assessed property, in
1815, £2,233. Population, in 1801, 1,332; in 1831,
1,741. The parish consists chiefly of the great wild
strath or vale of the Aven, which intersects it from
its source in Loch-Aven, near Cairngorm, to its
confluence with the Spey. The water of Altnach
divides it a considerable length from Inverness-shire ;
and on the other side its borders are skirted by the
heights which separate the counties of Banff and
Aberdeen. Indeed it is separated on every side by
natural barriers from the surrounding and more open
districts, — " from the parish of Strath-don, toward
the south, by Leach '-mhic-ghothin, ' the declivity of
tbe smith's son ;' — from the parish of Cromdale toward
the north by Beinn-Chromdal, ' the Hill of the wind
ing dale :' — these are two long branches of hills, that,
running in an easterly direction, project from the
northern trunk of tbe Grampian mountains. From
the parish of Abernethy toward the west, it is sepa
rated by moors and hills, that connect Cromdale hill
with Glenavon ; — from the parish of Inveravan, by
moors, and hills, and narrow defiles." In the Gaelic,
the vernacular idiom, the district is called Strathaven,
or rather, according to the writer of the Old Statis
tical Account, Strath-dtb-fhin, from ' Strath,' a dale,
'ath,' a ford, and 'Fin,' the hero Fingal.* The
surface of the land is mountainpus, but diversified
with plains and valleys ; its general aspect, hewever,
is bleak and selitary tp a high degree. " In crossing
the centre pf it," observes the autbpr pf the Statis
tical Account, " few cheering objects attract the eye
of tbe traveller. From detached hills covered with
heath, and destitute of verdure, where here and there
a lonely tree marks the depredations of time, he na
turally turns with aversion. But, should he happen
to pass after a heavy fall of rain, when the numerous
brooks that intersect the country pour their troubled
streams into the roaring Avon, he must commiserate
the condition of the inhabitants, at such a season,
precluded from the rest of the world, and even from
enjoying the society of each other. Frequently in
winter the snow lies so deep, that tbe communica-
* It is generally written. Strath-avan, avan being the appel
lative for a river. "But the former etymon," observes the
same writer, " approaches much nearer to the provincial pro
nunciation. It is further confirmed by a stanza, which is still
recited by the old people of the country,—
Chnidh mobheans bhatha',
Ain uisg ath-fhin, nan clachan sleatntvuin;
'S Ijln. cnaidri mo bheans' bhatha', _
Bheirmeid ath-fhin, ainm an arohuin.
* On the limpid water of the Blippery stones, has my wife been
drowned ; and since my wife has there been drowned, hence
forth its name shall be the water of Fingal.' It is the tradition
of the country, that in one of Fingal's excursions in pursuit
of the deer of the mountains, after having crossed the river he
was followed by hiB wife, who being carried down by the vio
lence of the stream, sunk, and was drowned. To commemo
rate this melancholy event, in which the hero was tenderly
interested, he uttered the above stanza. Since that period, the
water, whiclrVas formerly called Au-uisgegeal, or 'the White
water,' in allusion to its transparency, assumed by an easy
transition the name of the ford or river of Fingal. In Monkish
history, the parish derives its ecclesiastic name from St, Mi
chael, to whom the chapel, where now the kirk stands, was
anciently dedicated. If this account be true, it may be observ
ed, that the tutelary patron, ever since the period of his elec
tion, has paid little regard to the morality of his clients." This,
be it remembered, was not written in the 19th century.

KIR

188

KIR

tion between it and other ceuntries becemes almpst
impracticable. The banks ef the Avon, however,
are pleasant enough, and in different places tufted
with groves of birch, mixed with some alder." A
beautiful and much more poetical description of this
interesting glen, by Professor Wilson, has been
already given under article Aven 'Loch) s which see.
The soil is various ; but in general it is a mixture of
sand and black earth. On the elevated plains there is
a tolerably fertile mould ; on the declivities a reddish
earth and gravel ; and on the^tops of the hills gravel
and moss. A small proportion only of the soil is
arable. Some forests and glens afford pasture for
black cattle and sheep. There are few enclosures,
and no plantations of note; but although the natural
poverty of the country, 40 miles from the nearest
sea-port, seems ill-calculated for the advancement of
-agriculture or manufactures, the general march of
improvement has even penetrated to the wilds of
Strath-ath-fhin. In the mountains there is abun
dance of limestone, which is in very general use by
the farmers ; and also of freestone, ironstone, slate,
&c. : precious stones are sometimes found. The small
village of Tomantoul [which see] is in this par
ish. Kirkmichael appears to have been a complete
stronghold of those superstitious, but poetical and
often beautiful fancies, which have so universally pre
vailed in the contemplative regions of the Scottish
Highlands, and which still, to a certain extent, sub
sist in these romantic glens, in all their preternatural
and imaginative forms, at least, — if not in all the
more substantial and appalling powers, which un
enlightened faith in such creations — unsubstantial
and airy though they be, in form — enables them to
exercise over the ignorant believer. As a record of
these curious psychological phenomena, in fprm and
ppwer, the lengthened detail by tbe reverend writer
of the Old Statistical Account of Kirkmichael is
both learned and interesting; and we regret that our
limits do not permit us to present our readers even
with a brief abridgment of them.
The same author's account pf the dress, manners,
character, &c, pf the inhabitants ef this sequestered
district, end of last century, is of a very graphic and
peculiar description, savouring not a little now and
then itself of something like a prevalence of rougher
and less delicate ideas, and of less fastidious and freer
modes of speech, at Tomantoul, in the 18th century,
than, we opine, npw prevails ampng the wprthy in
habitants pf Kirkmichael. On the subject pf dress :
— " Since the year '45," says eur authprity, "there
is a cpnsiderable change pn the dress pf the people
of this district. By a singular kind of policy — as if
rebellion lurked in the shape and colour of a coat
— at the above period, the ancient dress was pro
scribed, and none durst wear it without running the
risk of a rigorous prosecution. It was consequently
superseded by the Low country dress. To the an
cient braces, or truish and belted plaid, succeeded
strait breeches, and an awkward coat of a uniform
colour, — sometimes a long surtout dangling down to
the heels, encumbering tbe freedom of motion. The
barbarous policy of Edward the First did not more
effectually destroy the spirit of the indignant Welsh,
by tbe murder of their bards, than the prohibition of
their ancient garb, that of the poor Highlanders. In
the enthusiasm of patriotism, Mr. Fraser of Lovat
got the prohibitory act repealed, in order, according
to his own emphatic words, ' to divert the minds of
the people from Transatlantic notions.' Let meta
physicians, if they choose, trace the connexion. But,
though this respectable gentleman, with the view of
making them gepd subjects, precured liberty te the
Highlanders of expesing their naked pesteriers tp
the north wind, on their bleak mountains, few availed

themselves of the privilege. * * * Since 1745
the women too have altered their apparel. Before
that period, they sometimes wore white blankets
covering their heads, sometimes their shoulders-
drawn forward by their hands, surrounded on each
side by a fold. These, as fashion varied, were suc
ceeded by barred plaids, or blankets, where different
colours blended, crossing each other at right angles,
somewhat distant, and bearing a Square space in the
middle. Wearied of barred plaids, they betook them.
selves to Stirling ones, and now duffle Cardinals begin
to have the ascendant. Formerly, their hair flowed
in easy ringlets over their shoulders; not many years
ago, it was bpund behind intp a cue ; now it spreads
into a protuberance on the forehead, supported by
cushions; sometimes, it is plain, and split in the
middle. But who can describe the caprice of female
ornament — more various than tbe changes of the
moon !" '
Of the manners, character, &c, prevalent in this
district end of last century the account is by no
means flattering: in fact, they are represented to
have been unfettered as the winds, by any law,
divine pr human. — " No monopolies are established
here," says he; "no restraints upon the industry of
the community. All of them sell whisky, and all
of them drink it. When disengaged from this busi
ness, the women spin yarn, kiss their inamoratos, or
dance to the discordant sounds of an old fiddle. Tbe
men, when not participating in the amusements of
the women, sell small articles of merchandise, or let
themselves occasionally for days' labour, and by these
means earn a scanty subsistence for themselves and
families. In moulding human nature, the effects of
habit are wonderful. This village, to them, has
more than the charms of a Thessalian temple. Ab
sent frpm it, they are seized with the mal de pais ;
and never did a Laplander long mpre ardently fpr
his snpw-clad mpuntains, than they sicken tp revisit
the barren moor of their turf-thatched hovels. Here
the Roman Catholic priest has got an elegant meet
ing-house, and the Protestant clergyman the reverse
of it; yet, to an expiring mode of worship, it would
be illiberal to envy this transient superiority, in a
country where a succession of ages has witnessed its
absurdities." This parish is in the synod of Ross, and pres
bytery of Chanonry. Patron, the Earl of Seafield.
Stipend £121 Is. Od. ; glebe £10. Unappropri
ated teinds £148 13s  Tomantoul, the upper
part of the parish, is one of the new Government
districts. It was erected into a quoad sacra par
ish, in 1832, by an act pf the General Assembly,
and a Gevernment church erected. Kirkmichael
has net been divided, however, quoad civilia;
and an additional parochial school, belonging to the
entire parish, has been placed in the quoad sacra
parish under the Schoolmasters' act of 1803; the
original salary of the teacher being divided. The
salary of the former is the maximum ; fees, &c, £10:
of the latter, £17 3s. 4d.; fees, £11 10s.
KIRKMICHAEL, a parish in the counties of
Ross and Cromarty, to which were added, about the
end of the 17th century, the two parishes of Culli-
cudden and St. Martins. It is sometimes called
Resolis. The united parish lies along the south
coast of the frith pf Cromarty, between it and the
Ardmeanach [which see], and extends about 8
miles in length, and 3 in breadth. Kirkmichael
forms its eastern section; Cullicudden, its western.
The soil is various, but a black light loam most pre
vails. There are a greater number of Danish en
campments in this than in any other parish in the
north. There are also several old castles; and three
modern seats of the proprietors, viz, Braclangwell,

KIR

189

KIR

New-hall, and Poynterfield, which are surrounded
with extensive plantations, Freestone abounds, and
there have been found some strata of limestone, in
terspersed with veins' of rich lead ore. Assessed
property, in 1815, £3,078. Houses 336. Popula
tion, in 1793, 1,234; in 1836, 1,508; of whom 147
were in the village of Jemimairlee, and 42 at Gor
don's mills — This parish is in the presbytery of
Chanonry, and synod of Ross. , Patron, Mackenzie
of Newhall. Stipend £219 6s. 7d.; glebe £12.
Unappropriated teinds £209 lis. lid. There are
three schools within the district. Parochial school
master's salary £30.
KIRKNEWTON, a parish in the western part
of Edinburghshire ; bounded en the north by Kirk
liston and Ratho ; on the east by Ratho and Currie ;
on the south and west by Mid-Calder ; and on the
north-west by Linlithgowshire. In form it is not
far from being a parallelogram; and in extent, it
measures about 15 square miles, its mean length from
north to south being about 5 miles, and its mean
breadth about 3. Almond-water, coming in from
the south-west, runs 2 miles along the western and
north-western boundary, and then passes into Kirk
liston. Linhouse- water, coming down from the south,
runs along the whole of the western beundary till it
falls into the Almend. The Water ef Leith, alsp
coming down from tbe south, runs 3 miles along
the eastern boundary, and then debouches into Cur
rie. Gogar-burn rises in three head-waters in the
interior, and with one of them traces fpr 2 miles the
eastern boundary. The southern district, or nearly
one-half of the whole area, runs up among the Pent-
lands, but is not rocky or steeply mountainous, and
affords, in its green hills, excellent sheep pasturage.
The northern district is level, or but gently diver
sified in its surface ; and is fertile, beautifully culti
vated, finely chequered with wood, and sumptuously
adorned with some mansions and demesnes. One of
the finest seats is Meadowbank, whose proprietor
at the close pf last century — Lord Meadowbank, a
senator pf the College-of-j ustice — was the chief im
prover and beautifier of the district. The other
mansions are Ormiston-hill, Calderhall, Bellfield,
Linburn, and Ormiston. The celebrated Dr. CuUen
was proprietor of Ormiston-hill, and an active agri
cultural improver, and lies interred in the parish
cemetery. From several vantage-grounds is seen
one pf the richest and mpst beautiful prospects in
Scotland, — the wide expanse of the Lothians with
a picturesque view of Arthur's seat,, — tbe frith of
Forth, a great part of Fife, the Ochil hills, — por-
tipns, in fact, of 13 counties stretching magnificently
away from the eastern termination of the Lammer-
moors to the mountain-heights in the west of Scot
land. The parish is traversed across its whole
breadth by the south road between Edinburgh and
Glasgow; and, in its southern division, is abundantly
provided with other roads. The village of Kirk-
newton stands a mile south of the main line of road,
1 1 miles west of Edinburgh. Tbe principal village
is East Calder: which see. Population, in 1801,
1,071 ; in 1831, 1,445. Houses 262. Assessed prp
perty, in 1815, £9,830. — Kirknewton, anciently a rec
tory, is in the presbytery pf Edinburgh, and synod
of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patrons, the Duke of
Buccleuch and the Earl of Morton. Stipend £282
16s,, lid. ; glebe £20. The present parish compre
hends the ancient parishes of Kirknewton and East
Calder. See Calder (East), A detached district
called Liston-Shtels [which see], belongs quoad
sacra to the parish. At the village of East Calder
is a United Secession meeting-house. Schoolmas
ter's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with from £35 to £40
fees. There are two non-parochial schools.

KIRKOSWALD, a parish in Carrick, Ayrshire;
bounded on the north by Maybole ; on the east by
Kirkmichael and Dailly ; on the south by Dailly and
Girvan ; and on the west by the frith of Clyde. It
measures along the sea-coast 6 miles, and contains
nearly 11,000 Scottish acres. The coast is, for the
most part, a sand-beach, with a beautiful and rich
carpet of grass to the very sea-mark. The northern
part is peculiarly favourable for sea-bathing; and
even in spite of the absence of a village, or a fair
sprinkling of houses to serve as bathing-quarters,
attracts to the farm-houses and cottages in its vici
nity a considerable number of visiters. The surface
inland luxuriates in an utter opulence of beauty, and
the panorama seaward, over the vast landlocked frith
of Clyde, with Ailsa-Craig so clearly defined in its
centre, as to seem not more than 2, while really from
1 1 to 18 miles distant, is thrilling and magnificent.
From many a point in the interior, too, but especially
from the summit pf Mpchrum-hill, must part pf Ayr
shire, and a sea of heights far beyond its further
limits, are added to the prospect. The surface of
the parish is surprisingly and very beautifully diver
sified. To describe it as hilly, though abstractly
correct, is morally erroneous ; for it suggests ideas
of ruggedness or boldness of outline, or of cold and
tame gatherings of pastoral heights utterly foreign
to the district. Its hills are neither numerous nor
very high ; and yet, in consequence of the breadth
of their bases, they leave little of the area, except
along the sea-board,, to be smoothed down into level
ground ; and they are very diversified in form, but
generally waving and decidedly beautiful in outline.
The most remarkable is Mochrum, an exceedingly
flat and broad-based cone, with curved or undulating
sides, mantled all over in fine thriving plantations,
and esplanaded with a spiral carriage-way leading up
to its summit. This hill is an imposing and even
sumptuous feature in the general landscape of the
country, as seen from almost any point in the inte
rior, but particularly as seen from the frith. So
powerful, too, is its physical attraction on this humid
coast, that it frequently acts completely as an um
brella to the district around its eastern side ; and a
person who drives round its west side from Maybole,
and returns the same day, may leave the town in a
drought, get a thorough drenching during bis drive,
and, on bis return, pass a distinct line, beyond which
not a drop of rain has fallen. Between Mochrum
and the sea, the forest which comes wavingly down
its slow descent, continues to stretch away to the
very beach, slightly interrupted with lawn, and arti
ficial lake, and gorgeous castellated mansion and
offices,  the seat and demesne of the Marquis of
Ailsa: see article Colzean-Castle. The whole
of this division of the parish, the north-west com
prehending probably one-fifth of the entire area, is
either so regularly set with plantation, or so thickly
belted and chequered and patched with trees, as to
seem one continuous forest. Along all the south
east, likewise, is a profusion of wood ; and in some
other districts, is quite enough for the purposes of
both shelter and ornament. Nearly all the rest of
the parish is regularly or occasionally under tbe
plough ; and all is finely enclosed with neat walls or
thriving hedges. The soil west of the great post-.
road between Ayr and Girvan, which bisects the
parish lengthways, is, in general, a very rich loam
mixed with a considerable quantity of clay; and east
of that road, the surface being higher, the soil is
more light and humid, intermixed with some elay,
and lying on a freestone bottom. Several marl-pits
have yielded up large treasures to the farmer. , Two
large hillocks within 30 yards of sea-mark, and 10
yards apart, and which had existed from time imme-

KIR

190

KIR

monal, were accidentally discovered to consist of a
substance which resembled coal-ashes, and which was
found for some purposes, to be a good manure.
" Although above 1,000 cart-loads have been taken,"
says tbe statist in the Old Account, " yet there re
main in the two hillocks, at a moderate computation,
above 3,000 loads more. > Tradition does not inform
us whence these ashes came in such quantity. There
is no vestige of any building whatsoever, nearer than
the old farm-house, and the place is 4 English miles
distant from any coal- work. It has been supposed
they are the effects of barbarous superstition in
times of idolatry in this country." Immediately
south-east of Mochrum is a lake which covers 24
Scottish acres, and 1£ mile south of it is another
about two-thirds its extent. A stream, formed by
head-waters issuing from both, runs 4| miles south-
westward past the village of Kirkoswald to the sea
at Turnberry. Five or six other independent stream
lets rise in tbe interior, or near the eastern boundary,
and run to the sea; and these, with their tiny tribu
taries, welling up from numberless springs out of
every hill, supply the parish with abundance of pure
water. A valuable mine of coal, consisting of 5
seams, from 6 to 15 feet thick, caught fire about the
middle of last century, resisted all attempts to ex
tinguish the combustion except being abandoned,
and though wearing toward extinction, continued to
burn at the date of the Old Statistical Account, 45
years after it became ignited. The white fishery on
the coast is plentiful, and employs a number of boats.
.—On the coast, 3 miles south of Colzean castle, are
vestiges of the ancient castle pf Turnberry ; and
clpse en the ppst-road, 2£ miles north of the village
of Kirkoswald, are the stately ruins of Crossraguel
Abbey : see these articles. Half-a-mile south-east
of Colzean is the house or castle of Thomaston,
traditionally said to have been built in 1335, by a
nephew of Robert Bruce, anciently very strong and
capacious, inhabited so late as a century ago, and
now the property of the Marquis of Ailsa. Within
a mile of Turnberry-castle, on the height which
swells up between it and the village of Kirkoswald,
lies the farm of Shanter, now annexed to another
farm, and denuded of its buildings, and the scene no
longer of such smuggling and bacchanalian exploits
as those of the ' Tam o' Shanter,' the tenant who
occupied it in the days of Burns. In other particu
lars, besides connexion, through this farm, with the
horrific tale, whose scenes are laid in Alio way kirk,
the parish owes some notoriety to the Ayrshire bard.
— The village of Kirkoswald occupies a picturesque
site on the west or shore-road between Ayr and
Girvan, 4 miles south-west , of Maybole, 13 miles
from Ayr, and 8 miles north-east of Girvan. It is
of considerable size, and neatly edificed, the site of
the parish-church, of a commodious inn, and of a
large fine schoolhouse ; the seat on the 5th of Au
gust of an annual fair, and its buildings chiefly con
structed of sandstone, and covered with slate. Po-
# pulation of the parish, in 1801, 1,679; in 1831, 1,951.
Houses, 341. Assessed property, in 1815, £10,544.
. — Kirkoswald is in the presbytery of Ayr, and synod
of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£212 15s. ; glebe £6. Parish-schoolmaster's sa
lary £30, with £40 school-fees, and £5 and some
trifling few other emoluments. The parochial
school is attended by about 100 scholars; and three
non-parochial schools by about 80  Tbe saint of
the parish was Oswald, a Northumbrian king, who
showed great zeal in propagating the form of pro
fessed Christianity with which he was acquainted,
but was slain at Oswestry on the 5th of August, 642,
and canonized after his death. The ancient church,
standing within Turnberry manor, was, for several

centuries, called Kirkoswald of Turnberry. Origi
nally it belonged, by gift of Duncan, who became
Earl of Carrick, to the monks of Paisley, but seems
tp have been granted te them on the condition, which
they did not fulfil, of their establishing in Carrick a
monastery of their order; and the monastery of
Crossraguel being founded by Duncan a little be
fore his death, the church was transferred to the
monks of that abbey, and continued to be a vicarage
under them till the Reformation, During part of
the 17th century, it was held by the bishop of Dun
blane. In 1652, about one-fourth of the ancient
parish, consisting of a tract on the north-west side
of Girvan water, was annexed to the parishes of
Dailly and Girvan. The old church, which had
served for ages, and seemed to have undergone many
alterations, stood on a very low site, a little north of
the rising ground which bears aloft tbe present
edifice. KIRKOWEN. See Kirkcowen.
KIRKPATRICK-DURHAM, a parish in Kirk
cudbrightshire ; bounded on tbe north by Dumfries
shire ; on the east by Kirkpatrick-Irongray and Urr;
on the south-east by Urr ; on tbe south-west by
Crossmichael ; and on the west by Parton and Bal-
maclellan. In extreme length, from Blackmark on
the north to tbe point where Urr-water leaves it on
the south, it measures 10| miles ; over 8£ miles, from
the north downwards, it varies in breadth from 2|
to 4% miles; thence, to the southern extremity it
tapers to a point ; and it contains altogether about
38 square miles. Urr-water, coming down from the
north, runs along the whole western and south
western boundary, and is tenanted by salmon, sea-
trout, burn -trout, and pike. Aucbenreach-burn
comes down from the north-east, and runs 3^ miles
alpng the eastern and south-eastern boundary, ex
panding over 1J mile of that distance into Loch-
Auchenreach, from a furlong to £ of a mile in breadth.
Four brooks rise in the interior, and run south-west
ward to the Urr. Two principal head-streams of
Old-water, a tributary of tbe Cairn or Cluden, rise
1£ mile within the eastern boundary. Seven lakes,
all inconsiderable in size, diversify the landscape ;
one of them in tbe north, three near the middle, and
three toward the south. The surface of the parish
has, in general, a southern exposure, rising slowly
till about the middle, and afterwards ascending more
boldly, and at last becoming entirely upland. Tbe
northern division has few arable patches, and does
not excel even in its pasture ; but, for tbe mpst part,
clpthed in russet, and stretching away in moorland,
it is distinguished chiefly fpr the abundance of its
game. The southern division, though thin- and
sandy in its soil, is almost entirely arable, and pro
duces rich and luxuriant crops. The cb'mate is pe
culiarly salubrious. The parish is cut diagonally at its
broadest part by tbe turnpike between Dumfries and
Newton-Stewart, and a brief way in the south-east by
that between Dumfries and Kirkcudbright; and it
is well-provided with other roads. The hamlet of
Bridge-of-Urr, with a population of about 50, stands
at the southern extremity of the parish. The vil
lage of Kirkpatrick-Durham, with a population, in
1836, of 512, stands If mile north of the 'Bridge of
Urr, 6 miles nprth of Castle-Douglas, and 13 west of
Dumfries. It has a pleasant appearance, and is alto
gether modern, having been commenced only about
the year 1785. Brisk exertions, but vain, were made
to render it tbe seat of cotton and woollen manufac
tories. Attempts, in worse taste, but, for a time,
eminently successful, were made to give it impor
tance, by laying out a race-course in its vicinity, and
drawing to it vast concourses of fashionable idlers,
and rustic runaways from useful and healthy toils.

KIRKPATRICK-FLEMING.

191

An annual fair is held here on the last Thursday of
March. The village of Crockelford stretches so far
into the parish as to number among its population
about 90 of the parishioners. Population of the par
ish, in 1801, 1,007; in 1831, 1,487. Houses 279.
Assessed property, in 1815, £6,978  Ku-kpatrick-
Durham is in the presbytery and synod of Dumfries.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £288 19s. 5d.; glebe
£10 16s. The parish-church was built in 1748, and
enlarged in 1797; sittings 374. A schoolhouse, 5 miles
from the church, was enlarged in 1836, to serve as a
sort of chapel-of-ease; and a licentiate of the Estab
lishment was to be attached to it, supported by an al
lowance from a private individual. The parish-minis
ter stated, in 1836, that 190 of the population were
dissenters, and all tbe others churchmen. There are
3 parochial schools, attended by a maximum of 166
scholars ; and 1 non-parod^al, attended by a maxi
mum of 64. Salary offTne first parochial school
master £31 6s. 2J d., with about £30 fees, and tbe
interest of £200 other emoluments ; of the second
£16 10s., with about £10 fees ; of the third £3 6s.,
with about £24 fees  Tbe church was anciently a
vicarage under the monks of Newabbey. On the
bank of the Urr, at a place still called Kirkbride,
stood, of old, a church dedicated to St. Bridget.
KIRKPATRICK-FLEMING, a parish in Annan
dale, — or, more strictly, in the district intermediate
between Annandale and Eskdale, — Dumfries-shire.
It is bounded on the north by Middlebie ; on tbe east
by Half-Morton and Gretna ; on the south by Gretna ;
and on the west by Dornock, Annan, and Middlebie.
Its greatest length, from the point where it begins
to be touched by Kirtle-water on the north, to the
boundary south-west of Rigbead on the south, is 6^
miles ; and its greatest breadth, from the point where
the Black Sark leaves it on the east to the western
boundary a little beyond Scotsfield, is 4| miles. But
over four-fifths of its length, from the north down
ward, it has a varying breadth of from If to 3 miles ;
and it comprehends altogether an area ef 16$ square
miles, pr 8,535 Scpttish acres. Kirtle-water, cpming
in frpm Middlebie, runs 5 miles alpng the nprthern
and western boundary, and 2i miles south-eastward
through the interior ; pure and transparent in its
waters ; rich in the variety, though not in the quan
tity, of its finny tribes ; green and. gay in the copse-
wood clothing of its banks ; and exceedingly beauti
ful — at intervals picturesque and romantic — in the
scenery of its basin. The head-water and a princi
pal tributary of the Black Sark rise in the interior,
and flow eastward, each about 2 miles before pass
ing tbe frontier. Numerous perennial springs co
piously supply the inhabitants with the purest water.
One of these, about £ of a mile from the mansion of
Springkell, was declared by Mr. Pennant to be the
largest spring he had ever seen, except the famous
one at Holywell in Flintshire ; and it emits a stream
which, unaided by any tributary, has sufficient water-
power to drive a mill. Four mineral springs — one
of them ^imilar to the Moffat spa, and three similar
to the celebrated Hartfell spa near Moffat — are re
sorted to by invalids, and have acquired some fame
for their medicinal properties. The surface of tbe
parish slowly rises in a pleasing variety off successive
waving swells from south to north ; and is furrowed
into three sections by the beautiful vale of the Kirtle,
where that stream runs across the interior, and by
' the trough of a brook called LoganJburn, which runs
westward to the Kirtle, between 2 and 3 miles from
the northern boundary. From several vantage-
grounds extensive and brilliant scenery stretcnes.in
every direction, except northward, before the eye.
The soil of two-thirds pf the area is a thin stratum
of 'putrified vegetable matter, inclining te mpss, su

perincumbent pn a bed pf clay ; and pver the rest
pf the area is varipus, but kindly and fructiferous.
Abeut 600 imperial acres are under wepd; about
2,000 are in moorland pasture; about 800 or 900 are
unreclaimed moss ; and two-thirds, or a trifle more,
of the whole area are regularly or occasionally in tillage.
But the wood is so dispersed along the whole vale of
tbe Kirtle, and in belts in the interior, and the unarable
grounds are so disposed in patches, or relieved in their
appearance by neighbouring expanses of arable ground,
that the surface, frilled with thriving hedges, gemmed
with mansions and demesnes, and finely variegated
with its own undulations, universally wears a pleasant
and smiling aspect. Freestone, red, grey, white, and
chocolate-coloured, abounds, — each variety in a dis
trict of its own ; and is in extensive request, even in
places far distant, as a material for public buildings
and architectural ornaments. A marble quarry near
the northern boundary, yields large blocks of grey
marble clouded and tinted with red, capable of a fine
polish, and vying with some celebrated varieties in
beauty. Limestone occurs on the estate of Sprin-
kell in beds 30 feet thick, and is burned with coals
fetched from Cumberland. The parish seems, in
common with the district around it, to have been
thickly studded with towers, generally three stories
high, battlemented at the top, and used as strengths
during the feudatory wars of the Borders. The old
tower of Woodhouse, on tbe Kirtle, is still partially
standing ; and is said to have been the first house in
Scotland entered by Robert Bruce when fleeing from
Edward Longshanks. A little north of it stands the
cross of Merkland, an octagonal and slightly tapering
stone 9 feet high, upon a socket of 2£ feet ; supposed
to have been erected, in 1483, in memory of a Master
of Maxwell, warden of the marches, who, after a
victorious skirmish with tbe Duke of Albany and
the Earl of Douglas, was assassinated on tbe spot.
The tower of Redhall, now extinct, but anciently
the chief seat of the Flemings, was, in one of Ed
ward's later incursions into Scotland in favour oi
Baliol, attacked, when only 30 fighting-men were
within its walls, by a whole English army ; and so
resolute were its defenders that they kept the assail
ants in play for three days, and then, rather than
surrender it, gave both it and themselves to the
flames. Modern mansions occur at brief intervals
on both banks of the Kirtle; and five of them are on
the left bank, or, within the limits of the parish.
Sprinkell, tbe most northerly, is a superb Grecian
edifice, the seat of Patrick Maxwell, Bart. Alder-
beck, belonging to the same proprietor, and Lang-
shaw and Wyesbie are pleasing edifices. Mossknow,
the seat of Colonel Graham, attracts attention by
the beauty of its own form and of its encincturing
landscape; and Cove, the seat of Francis Irving,
Esq., by the dash of romance which is thrown over
its appearance and its site. Tbe parish has no vil
lage, yet counts among its populatipn between 100
and 200 cettpn- weavers, empleyed by manufacturers
in Carlisle. The mail-road between Carlisle and
Glasgpw runs diagpnally through the parish; and
the turnpike between Annan and Edinburgh, by
way of Langholm and Selkirk, intersects the former
at the western boundary, and runs diagonally to the
north-east. Population, in 1801, 1,544; in 1831,
1,666. Houses 302. Assessed property, in i815,
£7,377. — Kirkpatrick-Fleming is in the presbytery
of Annan, and synod of Dumfries. Patrons, Miss
Muir of Redhall, and Sir Patrick Maxwell, Bart.
Stipend £225 15s. Id,; glebe £25. There are 2
parochial schools. Salary of the first master £25
13s. 3d., with £30 fees, and £4 other emoluments ;
of the second £25 13s. 3d., with £20 fees, and £2
10s. other emoluments. Three schools reported as

KIR

192

KIR

non-parochial, are, an infant school and two Sabbath
schools, attended by at most 210 scholars, and con
ducted by 15 teachers  The present parish compre
hends tbe ancient parishes of Kirkpatrick, Irvine, and
Kirkconnel. Kirkpatrick church was given by Robert
Bruce to the monks of Giseburn. Logan chapel,
which belonged to it, stood on Logan-burn, and is
commemorated in the name Cbapel-knowe, still ap-
pUed to its site. The ancient Irvine, small in its
dimensions, forms the middle part of the united par
ish. See article Kirkconnel.
KIRKPATRICK-IRONGRAY, a parish of irre
gular outline in the north-east of Kirkcudbrightshire ;
bounded on the north by Dumfries-shire ; on the
south-east by Terregjes ; on the south by Loch-
Rutton ; on the south-west by Urr ; and on the west
by Kirkpatrick-Durham. It measures in extreme
length from east to west 8J mile^s, and in extreme
breadth 5f miles ; but really consists of a parallelo
gram 5 % miles by 4, and three triangles respectively
on its east, its north, and its south sides, — the chief
of the triangles, that on the east, being about 3 miles
deep and very acute in its extreme angle. Glenes-
land-burn, not far from its source, strikes the north
west corner of the parish, and then flows 3 miles
along its northern boundary. The Cairn, or Cluden,
here comes down from the north-west, swallows up
tbe former stream, and succeeds it in tracing the
northern boundary, — keeping along the frontier for
6J miles. Old-water — or, as it is sometimes called,
the Old- water of Cluden — comes in from Kirkpatrick-
Durham in two head-streams which soon unite, and
flows 3-J miles eastward, and 2J miles northward,
through the interior to tbe Cairn. Very near its
mouth a highway descends towards its path, and
brings a tourist suddenly into tbe vicinity of a bridge
across its course, to which the roar and bellowing of
the water at the place has given the name of the
Routing bridge. Spanning the stream from two per
pendicular rocks, the bridge stands in such a gorge
as to afford a very limited but romantic prospect.
Above the level of the spectator's eye, right before
him in the rocky chasm, the stream wheels abruptly
into view, and instantly commences a tumbling de
scent over a rugged, rocky declivity of 24 or 30 feet,
and then leaps over a precipice 10 or 12 feet deep, so
near the bridge as almost to wash it with the spray.
Clon, pr Cargen- water, drawing one of its bead-
streams from the interior, is, for 2 miles, the south
ern boundary-line. Tbe north-west corner of the
parish is chiefly occupied by a mountain or consider
able hill called Bishop's Forest. This height has a
very broad and irregular base ; and is fringed on all
sides with woods or arable grounds, and ploughed in
some parts to the summit. On the side next the
Cairn it is closed with plantation for half-a-mile from
its base ; yet, seen from a distance, it seems patched
with heath, and watted with naked rock, and has a
pastoral but commanding appearance. Tbe south
west corner of the parish is a cold expanse of moor
land sheep-walk, warming, as it proceeds eastward,
into tracts of arable but not very fertile land. Along
tbe course of Old-water are belts of level and welk
cultivated ground. AU eastward of this the surface,
first slightly billy and afterwards a plain, wears a rich
and luxuriant appearance, carpeted with a dry kindly
mould, sectioned beautifully off with enclosures, and
possessing other features which harmonize with its
immediate vicinity te the opulent level basin of tbe
lower Nith. In the upland district much attention
is given to sheep husbandry, and the rearing of Gal
loway black cattle. Very large quantities of marl
were found in the parish, and usefully expended
in the first and stimulating efforts of agricultural im
provement, The parish is not touched by any great

line of road, yet has a fair proportion of subordinate
roads, and enjoys important advantages from lying,
at its nearest point, within 2£ miles of Dumfries.
Population, in 1801, 730; in 1831, 912. Houses 14a
Assessed property, in 1815, £6,478.^The parish is
in the presbytery and synod of Dumfries. Patron,
Oswald of Auchencruive. Stipend £231 6s. 2d. ;
glebe £25. Unappropriated teinds £284 18s. 2d.
There are 2 parochial schools. Salary of the mas
ters £50 16s. 8d., with £29 15s! fees, and £1 14s.
other emoluments  The church was anciently a
rectory in tbe deanery of Nith. William de Herries,
the 2d son of Sir Herbert Herries, was rector in 1453.
There were anciently two chapels, one near Glenhead,
in the south-west corner of the parish, still commem
orated by its cemetery, and the other on the north
side of the parish, on the bank of the Cairn near
Dalwharn. KIRKPATRICK-JUXTA, a large parish in the
north of Annandale, Dumfries-shire; bounded on
the north-west and north by Moffat ; on tbe east by
Mof&t and Wamphray ; pn the sputh by Jphnstpne
and Kirkmichael; and pn the west by Cleseburn
and Lanarkshire. On its east side, which is tracked
the whele way by the river Annan, running nearly
in a straight line, it measures 7£ miles en its south
side, it measures from angle to angle 6J miles, but
receives one triangular indentation, and protrudes
another li mile deep ; and it , extends on its west
side 4 miles, on its north-west side the same dis
tance, and on its north side one mile. Its super
ficial extent is 30J square miles, or 15,430 Scottish
acres. ,A belt of land, partly level and partly hilly,
lying along the bank of the Annan, is the most
valuable district of the parish. A range of consi
derable heights, nearly mountainous, screens this
belt, and runs the whole length of the parish from
north to south. A basin, spread out at the bottom
into a narrow vale, occupies tbe surface over a
breadth of 3 or 3 miles westward, and is drained by
the Kinnel. A broad range of mountains, slenderly
cut by tbe Kinnel's head-streams, rises up from this
basin, occupies all the area westward, and sends
up on the boundary with Closeburn the towering
and grand summit of Queensberry, 2,140 feet above
the level of tbe sea. One-third of the whole par
ish is in tillage, and two-thirds are pastoral pr
waste. Wood is not abundant, — covering little
more than 200 acres. Everywhere, except along the
Annan, the general appearance is bleak. The soil
of the arable parts is shallow, but dry and not un
fertile. Greywacke or blue stone, and trap rock, are
quarried as building material. Besides the Annan
and tbe Kinnel, tbe parish has the Evan, the Garpel,
and the Duff Kinnel. The Evan, coming down from
the north, flows for 3 miles nearly parallel with the
Annan, at about a mile's distance from it, between
low ridges of hill, and then runs eastward to the
Annan at a point where Moffat-water disembogues
itself on the opposite bank. The Garpel traces for 2
miles tbe north-west boundary, and then runs 3
miles south-eastward through the interior to tbe
Evan, forming, half-a-mile above the cenfluence, a
cpnsiderable cascade. The Duff Kinnel expends
nearly its whele ceurse in tracing part of the south
ern boundary. Numerous perennial springs not only
furnish the inhabitants amply with pure water, but
send off suppliesby pipes to the village of Moffat.
Several chalybeate wells might draw attention, but for
the vicinity and well-earned fame of the spas in the co
terminous parish. The Roman road up Annandale
[see Dumfries-shire] has here distinct vestiges.
Cairns are very numerous ; and also circular en
closures on hills, supposed to have been used for
sheltering cattle from marauders. Of several ruin-

KIR

193

KIR

ous towers, which have been surrounded by ditches
and walls, the most remarkable is tbe old castle of
Auchincass, within the peninsula formed by the
Evan and the Garpel. It is strong in position, sur
mounting precipices and encinctured by morass, and
was 15 feet thick in its walls. Tbe building be
longed, at one time, to Randolph, Earl of Murray,
regent of Scotland ; and at another to the Douglases
of Morton. The tower of Lochwood on the left
bank pf the Annan, was anciently of considerable
strength, the property of thevJohnstones. Craigie-
lands, the seat of Mr. Younger, is the only notice
able mansion. The farm-buildings on tbe Duke of
Buccleuch's property are modern, and in a superior
style. The only village is Craigielands, built by
Mr. Younger, neat in its appearance, and regular in
its plan, but with fewer than 100 inhabitants. Popula
tion of the parish, in 1801, 596; in 1831, 981.
Houses 158. Assessed property, in 1815, £5,957 
Kirkpatrick-Juxta is in the presbytery of Lochma
ben, and synod of Dumfries. Patron, Johnstone of
Annandale. Stipend £195 0s. Id., besides vicar
age teinds; glebe £10. There are two parochial
schools, the one permanent and tbe other temporary,
jointly attended by at most 76 scholars. Salary of
the first master £34 4s. 4d., with £15 fees, and
about £3 10s. other emoluments ; of the secpnd
£17 2s. 2d., with £15 fees, and about £3 10s. other
emoluments. There are 3 non-parochial schools,
attended by at most 142 scholars  The ancient par
ish was a rectpry in the deanery of Annandale.
" On the 3d of July, 1489," says the author of Cale
donia, " a cause was heard by the lords auditors in
parliament, at tbe instance of Mr. Clement Fairlie,
parson of Kirkpatrick-Juxta, and Robert Charteris
of Amisfield, his lessee, against several persons for
the spoliation of the Pasch-reckoning,* of the said
Kirk, and the penny offerings on St. Patrick's day,
amounting to 10 marks; and for the spoliation of
200 lambs, which were valued at £18, and a sack of
ti|he-wool containing 24 stone, that was valued at
£12 ; and for unjustly possessing and labouring the
40 shilling land belonging to the said kirk. The
lords ordained the defenders to make full restitution,
and give satisfaction for the damages ; and they
issued a precept to tbe steward of Annandale to en
force this judgment." The present parish was built
at the close of last century, Its predecessor was an
instance of the sort of spirit which, for a consider
able time, presided over the outward affairs of the
Establishment; for, built about the year 1676, it
continued to be a low house thatched with heath
till 1736, when it was raised in the walls and covered
over the roof with slate.
KIRKTOUN, a parish in Roxburghshire, con
sisting of a stripe 8 miles long, and, on tbe average,
li mile broad, stretching from the north-east to the
south-west ; and bounded at tbe two ends by Upper
and by Lower Cavers ; on tbe south-east side by
Hobkirk and Upper Cavers ; and on the north-west
side by Hawick and Lower Cavers. A head-stream
of Allan- water touches it for a mile on the south.
Slitrig-water runs across it 2£ miles from its south.?
west end, but has a course of only 1£ mile within its
limits. Between these streams the surface is rugged
and mountainous, and fit only for pasture ; and
north-eastward of the Slitrig, it chiefly undulates in
small green bills suitable as pasturage, but partly
with the hollows between them, subjected to the
plough. A section of the bold broad form of Rub-
berslaw lies within the north-east corner. The
soil on the arable grounds is poor and shallow, but
has felt the power of georgical appliances. The

" The offerings at Easter.

II.

parish is nearly bare of plantation ; and has no anti.
quities, no remarkable usages, no valuable minerals,
no rare botanical specimens, no sporting-grounds, no
ale-house, no toll-bar, nothing whatever to interest
" the philosopher, tbe politician, or the moralist,"
if we believe the writer of the Old Statistical Ac
count, except what he calls "the uncommon fact,"
that, for ages past, its history is summed up in the
impressive, the sublimely pathetic declaration of
scripture, " One generation passetb, and another
cometh." Dr. Leyden, the celebrated orientalist,
was partly educated in Kirktoun school, and lived
at the time with his parents in a cottage on the
farm of Netber Tofts. The road from Hawick to
Newcastle, and that from Hawick to Liddesdale,
run at such intervals across the parish as to cut
into two nearly equal parts. Population, in 1801,
320; in 1831, 294. Houses 50. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £3,530  Kirktoun is in the pres
bytery of Jedburgh, and synod of Merse and Te
viotdale. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £173 17s. ;
glebe £11. The church is of unknown date; but
was altered about 1760, and repaired in 1775.
Sittings about 200. The minister stated the po
pulation, in 1836, to be 283,— distributed into 134
churchmen, 144 dissenters, and 5 nondescripts —
Schoolmaster's salary £26, with £15 fees.
KIRKURD, a parish in Peebles-sbire ; 5J miles
long 'from east to west, from 3 to 4 miles broad,
and comprehending 6,620 English acres; bounded
on the north by Linton ; on the north-east by
Newlands ; on the east by Stpbo ; pn the south by
Stobo and Bfpughton ; pn the seuth-west by Skir
ling ; and on the west by Lanarkshire. Tartb- wa
ter, a tributary of the Lynn, falls uppn its north-west
angle, and runs 4 miles along tbe whole of itsnorthern
and north-eastern boundary ; silent and slow in its
movements, multitudinous in its pools, and unusually
rich in tbe size and flavour of its trouts. Dean-
burn rises close on the southern boundary, and
runs northward to the Tartb, cutting the parish
into two not very unequal parts. The surface all
lies high above sea-level, is beautifully diversified,
and, in general, rises gradually from the Tarth to
the southern bpundary. A water-shedding chain
of heights stretches along the whole of the south
ern and south-western frontier, and sends up, among
other summits, that of Pyked Stane or Hell's
Cleuch, 2,100 feet above tbe level of the sea: See
Pyked Stane. The soil, toward the Tarth, is
chiefly loam; in one large farm it is clay; and, in
other parts, it is of a gravelly nature. One-third
of the whole area is arable; 600 acres are under
plantation; and nearly all tbe rest is sheep-walk.
The woods and enclosed and cultivated grounds be
ing almost all on the north, and phalanxes of plan
tation pressing down upon the frontier from the
conterminous parishes, the vale of the Tartb pre
sents a rich and very beautiful appearance. Castle-
craig and Cairnmuir-houses, both elegant modern
mansions, the seats respectively of Sir Thomas G.
Carmichael, Bart., and John Lawson, Esq., are em
bosomed in tbe groves, and contribute the attrac
tions of their pleasure-grounds te the beauties ef
the landscape. Near Castlecraig is a copipus sul-
phurepus spring, similar tp those of Moffat and
Harrowgate, stronger than the former and weaker
than the latter. In the parks pf Castlecraig are
twe artificial mpunds, surrounded with an irregu
larly fermed dyke, and suppesed te have been used
as moats pr seats pf feudal justice. Respectively
eastward and westward ef them are twe circular
fprtificatipns called the Rings and the Chesters,
supposed to have been military erections. The
parish is traversed aleng the vale pf the Tarth by
N

194

KIRKWALL.

the post-road between Glasgow and Peebles, and
along the vale of Dean-burn by that between Edin
burgh and Dumfries by way of Moffat ; and it en
joys advantages from being distant only 8 miles
from Peebles and, 5 from Biggar. Population, in
1801,327; in 1831, 318. Houses 58. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £1,993  Kirkurd is in the presby
tery of Peebles, and synod of Lothian and Tweed-
dale. Patron, Sir T. G. Carmichael, Bart. Stipend
£158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £24. Tbe church was built
in 1766. Sittings about 300. Schoolmaster's salary
£34 4s. 4id., with £12 fees, and about £2 10s.
other emoluments. The ancient church stood half-
a-mile east of the modern one, and is commemorated
by its cemetery, which continues to be in use. The
church, with its pertinents, belonged in the 12th
century to the bishop of Glasgow, but was given by
him to the hospital of Soutra [see Fala], and, in
1462, was, along with the other property of that
hospital, transferred by Mary of Gueldres to the
Trinity or College church of Edinburgh.
KIRKWALL and St. OLA, two united par
ishes on the mainland of Orkney. Tbe track of land
which stretches around Kirkwall, and which forms
the country parish, under the name of St. Ola, was
in all probability a parish before the town was built,
and derived that name — but at what period, or on
what occasion, it is uncertain — from Olaus or Olave,
a saint, and also a king of Norway. The mean
length and breadth of the parish is about 5 miles.
The soil throughout is very various. In some
parts, especially towards the bills or high grounds,
we meet with a mixture of cold clay and moss ;
near the shore it is generally of a sandy nature ; rich
black loam is also to be met with in a few places,
especially near Kirkwall ; and not only there, but in
almost every other parish in the country, the soil is
shallow, with a bottom of rock that is soft and
mouldering. The shores of the parish are not
very high, but rocky. There are now very few
trees in this county-y, if we except a few fruit-trees
in Kirkwall. They seem, however, to have grown
in considerable numbers formerly ; for in the peat
mosses, which are common in many of the islands,
they are dug up nearly as'frequ intly as in other parts
of the kingdom. Population in 1801, 2,621 ; in
1831, 3,721. Houses 510. Assessed property, in
1815, £3,973  This parish is in the presbytery of
Kirkwall, and synod of Orkney. Patrons, the ma
gistrates and town-council of Kirkwall. It is a col
legiate charge. The stipend of each minister is £158
6s. 7d. ; but the glebe of the fii st charge is valued at
£42 4s. ; that ef the 2d, at £25 The parish-church
is the cathedral pf St. Magnus; sittings 835. — A
new church in connexion with the Establishment,
and seating 1,000, has been recently erected, at a
cost of £1,400  There is a United Secession con
gregation, which was established in 1796. Chapel
cost £1,600; sittings 1,411. Stipend £200, witb
manse and garden, and some extras  An Original
oeceder congregation was established in 1825 ; chapel
built in 1824, at a cost of £700 ; sittings 400. Sti
pend £70, with manse.. — An Independent church
has existed here about 32 years. Chapel built in
1823, at a cost of £515; sittings 410  The burgh
school is the parochial school. Salary of master
£38, with about £50 fees. There were 16 private
schools within the parish in 1834, attended by about
500 pupils.
Near the centre of tbe parish stands the ancient
burgh of Kirkwall, built in a narrow strath which
extends from the harbour of Kirkwall on the north,
to the bay of Scalpa on the south. Its appearance
to travellers approaching from Stromness is thus de
scribed by Lord Teignmouth : " A town so extensive,

on the northern shore of Orkney, on an isthmus of
about three miles in breadth, between tempestuous
seas, is an object of much interest: and there is
•something peculiarly striking and imposing on such
a spot, in the appearance of the massy pile and lofty
towers of a cathedral, and the more so when it is
viewed as almost the only unimpaired specimen of
those stately monuments of ecclesiastical grandeur
which adorned Scotland previous to the Reformation.
On one side of the cathedral, rise the venerable ruins
of the ancient castle of the Earls of Orkney, and on
the other those of the palace of the bishops : whilst
the masts of the vessels, clustered together in the
harbour, indicate the present commercial impor
tance of the metropolis of the Northern isles."
[' Sketches,' vol. i. p. 245.] — The town is washed
on its northern extremity by the sea, which here
forms the deep bay of Kirkwall ; and on the west
ern side by a pleasant inlet of the sea, called the
Ouyce or Piery sea, which flows by tbe back of the
gardens at high water. It is nearly an English
mile in length from north to south ; its breadth is
very inconsiderable; and it has only one principal
street, paved with large flags, inconvenient from its
narrowness, and having the ends or gables of the
houses generally placed towards it. A small rivulet
runs through its' northern extremity, and falls into
the Piery sea. Population of the burgh, in 1831,
3,056. The time when, and the persons by whom,
this place was founded, are both of them lost in the
darkness of antiquity. The Danes, we are informed,
called it Kirkivog. Both Buchanan and Torfaeus
are of opinion that this word should have been writ
ten Cracoviuca ; and that it has first been corrupted
in Circua, and thence to Kirkwall. But all these
words are said to signify the same thing, namely,
Kirkvaa or Kirkwaa, ' the Great church,' or perhaps
' the Church of St. Magnus.' — Tbe number of bouses
in the town at the end of last century was about
300 ; in 1831, they amounted to 400. Many of these
houses bear strong marks of old age ; the doors and
windows are small, the walls uncommonly thick, and
almost all the apartments narrow, gloomy, and irre
gular. To this form, however, there are also many
exceptions; for such of them as have been lately
repaired or rebuilt, and particularly such new ones
as have been . erected, may, both for elegance and
conveniency, compare with those of any other
town of the same extent in Scotland  The ca
thedral of St. Magnus, tbe King's castle, and
the Bishops and Earl's palaces, are tbe only build
ings here that are in anywise remarkable. The
first of these is the most perfectly* preserved ca
thedral in Scotland, "and looks," says Miss Sin
clair, " almost as large as the whole city put toge
ther." Rognwald, Count of Orkney, we are told,
laid the foimdatipn pf it in the year 1138. Bishep
Stewart, whp lived in the time of James IV., made
an addition of three pillars or arches to tbe east end
of it; with a window, which, for grandeur and
beauty, is far superior to any others in the fabric.
Robert Reid, the last Popish bishop of the see of
Orkney, added three pillars to the west end of it,
which were never completely finished, but which, in
point of elegance, are much inferior to the former.
The length of this stately fabric, on the outside, is
226 feet; its breadth 56; the height of the main
roof is 71 ; and, from the level o'f the floor to the
top of the steeple, was 133 feet. Unfortunately the
steeple was struck down by lightning several years
ago. The roof is quite entire, and supported by a
row of 14 pillars on each side, besides 4, the most
magnificent of the whole church, that supported the
steeple. ¦ The circumference of the pillars which
support the roof is 15 feet; and that of those on

KIRKWALL.

195

which the steeple stood 24 feet nearly. In it there
was an excellent chime of bells, which, by the inscrip
tion upon them, appear to have been founded by
Robert Borthwick, in the castle of Edinburgh, in
1528 ; they were furnished to the cathedral by Bishop
Maxwell. The east window of the cathedral is 36 feet
high, by 12 broad, including a circular rose-window,
at the top, 1 2 feet in diameter. There is a window in
the west end somewhat similar, but much smaller ; as
also a rose- window on the south gable of the cross,
of like form and dimensions with that on the top of the
east window. " The effect of the massy and regu
larly-formed columns," says Lord Teignmouth, "is
.mposing. The nave is covered with monumental
inscriptions, commemorating magistrates and other
principal inhabitants of Orkney, and a few stone
coffins are scattered about. The partial gleams of
day admitted through the small discoloured windows
which line the aisles, half-choked with grass, aug
ment the sepulchral appearance of this portion of the
cathedral. The original design of its builder, pushed
beyond its scope by the culpable negligence of its
present guardians, would incur the censure of those
who object to the usual gloomy character of Gothic
minsters, designating them rather as mausoleums of
dead men than as temples of the living God. But if
we regard the nave as the vestibule of the choir,
through which we pass from the restless scenes of
this world to the peaceful sanctuary of another, as
suredly the records of human mortality, and ' the
scrolls which teach us to live and to die,' are by no
means inappropriate appendages of its hallowed ar
chitecture, nor has the epithet ' religious ' been ill
applied to the ' dim light' by which we peruse them.
The choir, the only remnant of choral architecture
which has survived the Reformation in Scotland, is
kept with much care. It is furnished with stalls,
and adorned by a very elegant east window. The
service of the kirk is regularly performed in it every
Sunday. The expenses of the repairs of the cathe
dral are defrayed partly by the Exchequer, and partly
by a bequest of a pious individual for that parti
cular purpose, called in Scotland a mortification.
The present state of the cathedral at Kirkwall con
firms the well-authenticated fact, that tbe tide of
devastation which overthrew the ancient establish
ments of Scotland at the Reformation, spent its fury
ere it had reached Orkney; and the prejudice against
episcopacy is said to be less violent here than in other
parts of Scotland." — Opposite to the cathedral, on
the west side of the street, stood the King's castle.
Time, and the ravages of war, have long since laid
it in ruins. No tradition remains by whom it was
founded ; though it is probable that it was built by
some bishop of Orkney. The walls of it are very
thick, the dimensions large; and the stones with
which it is constructed are so firmly cemented toge
ther that it is more difficult to dig them from the
rubbish in which they are buried, than it would be
from a quarry. This fortress seems to have been in
good repair, and a place of no inconsiderable strength,
in the days of Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney.
This man was son of Robert Stewart, natural son of
James V., who, in 1581, was created Earl of Orkney.
Earl Patrick was a man of a haughty turn of mind
and cruel disposition, and having committed many
acts of oppression against the people, and ef rebellion
against his sovereign, in order to screen himself from
the punishment he so justly deserved on that account,
was forced to take refuge in this castle, which he
maintained with much desperate valour for some time
against the king's troops, till it was at last taken and
demolished. The same Earl built an extensive and
elegant mansion on the east side of the town, known
by the name of tbe Earl's palace. From the date

above the principal door, it appears to have been
built in 1607. One very spacious and elegant hall
forms the chief part of the mansion. Its dimensions
are 58 feet long, 20 broad, and 14 high. There is a
large chimney on the side, and a lesser one on the
north end of it. A fine Gothic window, 12 feet by
13, lights it from the south; and on the east there
are two, not much different in form, and each
12 feet by 12. The-building consists of only two
stories. The ground floor is divided into a num
ber of vaults or cells, with little slits of windows.
Near the door, which is entered from the north, is a
beautiful stair, which', by three flights of steps, leads
to the hall ; below which is a well built of cut free
stone, and furnished with water by leaden pipes un
der ground, from the high land to the east of Kirk
wall. Like other fabrics reared at the same period,
variety seems to have been more studied here than
uniformity. For a long time past it has been un
roofed ; and no person has dwelt in it since Dr.
M'Kenzie, who died in 1688, was bishop of this place.
— Almost adjoining to this, stands the ruin denomi
nated the Bishop's palace, of much greater antiquity;
for neither record, nor even tradition, has ventured
to assert anything respecting either the time or cir
cumstances of its foundation. So long ago as 1263,
— the year in which Haco, King of Norway, under
took an expedition against Alexander III., King of
Scotland, on account of a dispute that had arisen
about the Western Isles, — it would appear to have
been a place of consequence. This monarch, on
returning from the mouth of the Clyde and the High
lands of Argyleshire — where he had spent the summer
in waging war with tbe Scotch, with little success —
resolved to winter in Orkney ; and, for this purpose,
stationed his ships in the harbours about the main
land, while he himself took up his quarters in Kirk
wall. Here be kept court in a ball in the Bishop's
palace for some time, till, worn out with disease, — .
occasioned, perhaps, by disappointment, and the
fatigues of his unsuccessful campaign in the south, —
he expired, after a lingering illness, and was interred
with much pomp in the Cathedral church of Kirk
wall, near the steps that lead to the shrine of St.
Magnus, Earl of Orkney. Bishop Reid repaired or
rebuilt several parts of this ancient mansion, " but
it is now," says Miss Sinclair, " worn to rags."
The commerce of this place, though it can by no
means be called flourishing, is rather in an improving.
condition. The principal articles exported are beef,
pork, butter, tallow, hides, calf-skins, rabbit-skins,
salt fish, oil, feathers, linen-yarn, and coarse linen
cloth, kelp, and, in years of fruitfulness, corn in con
siderable quantity. The manufacture of linen-yarn
was introduced 1747 ; and — as every innovation com
monly is among a rude and ignorant people — it was
at first very unpopular. It soon, however, triumphed
over those difficulties, and was diffused pretty gen
erally among the islands. For the space of 15 or
20 years, while under the management of one or a
few men, it flourished much, and produced for exr
port annually near 25,000 spindles of yarn. After.
that period it began to decline. The manufacture
of kelp was for a long series of years more fortunate
than that of linen-yarn. About the year 1,730,. it is.
said to have been introduced, and, like the yarn, bad
long to struggle hard against the strong stream of
popular prejudice. The writer of the Old Statisti-.
cal Account says that the lower classes " represented
to the proprietors, how hurtful this new business
was likely to be, for they could have no doubt of its
driving the fish from the coast, and it would there
fore ruin the fishing; they were certain it would
destroy both the corn and the grass ; and they were
much afraid that it might even prevent their women .

KIR

196

KIR

from having children!" From the year 1740 to
1760, the price is reported to have been 45s. per
ton, and the money which it is believed to have
brought into the country during that period near
about £2,000 per annum. The average price for
the subsequent ten years amounted to about 84s.
per ton, and the whole Value to the place to above.
£6,000 sterling per annum. Of each ton at the
market from the year 1770 to 1780, the price rose
at a medium to about £5, and the gross sum which
the proprietors in that time received for it was not
less than £10,000 per annum. For 13 years pre
ceding 1791, the value of a ton was nearest to
£6, and the quantity each year to the sum of
£17,000 sterling. "Thus," says Dr. Barry, "in
the space of fifty years, the proprietors of these
islands, where tbe seasons are very deceitful, and
the crops can by no means be depended upon for
subsisting the inhabitants, have received, in addition
to their estates, the enormous sum of £370,000
sterling." This manufacture, however, has been
extinguished here, as elsewhere, by the introduction
of foreign barilla  In a royal charter, to be imme
diately noticed; mention is made of the " old erec
tion of our burgh and city of Kirkwall in Orkney by
our noble progenitors of worthy memory, in ane haill
burgh royal," and " of the great and old antiquity
of our said city." Tbe oldest charter to which the
Municipal commissioners had access is one granted
by James III. , dated 31st March, 1486, ratifying and
approving of all previous charters, rights, and privi
leges conferred upon the burgh, and containing an
enumeration of lands and other kinds of property.
On the 8th of February, 1536, James V. confirmed
the charter of James III. This is deemed the gov
erning charter. It was confirmed by Charles II. on
I5th May, 1661, and in tbe same reign there was
passed a statute of ratification in favour of the burgh,
viz., 1670, c. 42. The property of the burgh at
present consists, first, of a small farm called Walli-
wall, estimated as worth £450. Secondly, of some
small crofts, the aggregate rent of which is between
£4 and £5. There are also certain waste lands,
for which no rent is paid, and over which the inha
bitants of the burgh and neighbourhood exercise a
right of pasturage. Thirdly, of the kelp-shores of
Quanterness and Calmness, which were let for nine
years, commencing with the season of 1825, for a
slump sum' of £300. Fourthly, feu-duties arising
from a considerable extent of ground parcelled out
amongst numerous feuars, and payable in very small
sums. The total amount is £37 3s. lid., which,
estimated at 20 years' purchase, will be worth £743
18s. 4d. Fifthly, of the ancient and magnificent
cathedral of St. Magnus, the town-house, slaughter
house, and grammar-school. The cathedral and the
other public buildings cannot be ranked under avail
able property. The aggregate value, therefore, of
the real property is £1,198 18s. 4d. besides the kelp
shores. On the 23d of May, 1828, an Act was
passed, 9th Geo. IV., c. 58, for maintaining, enlarg
ing, improving, and regulating the harbeur pf the
burgh pf Kirkwall. The trustees are the provost
and six other members of the tpwn council fpr the
time being, three registered pwners of ships trading
to and from, and belonging to the burgh, and three
land-owners of the county of Orkney. The debts due
by the burgh are trifling. The revenue of the burgh
consists of three portions — first, feu-duties and rents,
amounting annually to £62 13s. lid.; secondly, cus
toms and market-dues, amounting to £1 1 12s. 6d. ;
and, thirdly, of tbe proceeds ot tbe stent. The
amount of the cess payable to Government is only
£26 16s. 2d., but about £60 has been the average
annual amount levied from 1824 to 1833 inclusive,

under the name of ' stent.' Were the whole revenue
available, its total amount would be £107 10s. i^d.
The civil patronage of the burgh is unimportant.
The ecclesiastical patronage is more important, as the
magistrates and council are — as already stated-
patrons of the collegiate church of St. Magnus,
The commissioners found that, in the last instance,
the patrons consulted all the male communicants,
and presented agreeably to tbe wishes of the ma
jority. The magistrates are also patrons of the
grammar-school. No particular regulations have
ever been made for its government. The salary
paid by the magistrates is £l0, and the fees, as regu
lated by them, are extremely moderate. The average
number of scholars for the last 10 years has exceeded
100. There is, under the management of the magis
trates and council, the sum of £500 mortified by
Baren Stuart Mpncrieff, fpr the purpese ef annuallv
distributing the interest ameng a large number pf
indigent perspns. It is vested in heritable security,
and the distribution is made accprding tp lists pre
pared by a committee, and deposited with the town-
clerk. No change had been made on the sett of the
burgh since the year 1819. The council consists of
a provost, 4 bailies,- a dean-of-guild, a treasurer, and
16 councillors; in all, 23. The number of persons
resident within the parliamentary boundaries, whose
rents in property or tenancy amount to £10 per an
num, is about 100. There is no police act or police
establishment. This is to be regretted in one re
spect, as the streets of the burgh are in a state of
great and dangerous disrepair; but, in other re
spects, it is comparatively immaterial, as crime is
extremely rare in this part of the country. Tbe
burgh joins with Wick, Dornoch, Dingwall, and
Tain, in electing a member of parliament. The
town-hall is a building of a good appearance, forming ,
a piazza in front; the first story is divided into
apartments for a common prison ; the second con
tains an assembly-hall, with a large room adjoining
for courts of justice; and the highest is set apart as
a lodge for freemasons. The sheriff, commissary,
and admiralty-courts of Orkney and Zetland are held
in Kirkwall. Justice-of-peace, courts are held here
at short intervals ; as also the courts of the burgh.
There are branches of the Commercial and National
banks here. Kirkwall fair, a market of great anti
quity, is held on the first Tuesday after the 11th of
August, and continues that week and the following.
It is attended by merchants from a very great dis
tance, and into the brief period in which it is held,
a great proportion of the commerce of these northern
islands is, as it were, concentrated.
KIRK-YETHOLM, remarkable for its moral
peculiarities, situated on the right bank of Beau
mont-water, opposite tbe village of Town-Yetholm,
near tbe centre of Yetholm parish, li mile from the
nearest part of the English border, and 8 miles
south-east of the town of Kelso, Roxburghshire. It
is ruled by a baron-bailie, under the appointment of
Mr. Wauchope of Niddrie, the superior ; has two
annual fairs, one in summer for cattle and cheviot
hogs, and one in winter for cattle, ewes, and wed-
ders; is the seat of the parish-church, and an unen
dowed school ; and has, jointly with Town-Yetholm,
a population of about 1,000; — its own population,
so far back as 1797, having been 305. Yetholm
common, a wild moor of considerable extent, on de-
bateable ground between Scotland and England, is
claimed by the villagers, and yielded to their posses
sion for the cutting of their turf and the grazing of
4iheir cattle. Lodgings of the meanest kind, and at
all degrees of low price, are let out to single wan
derers who cannot elsewhere get a home; and these,
with other characteristics of the place, have crowded

KIRRIEMUIR.

197

it with a population for whom no employment offers
in the vicinity, and who swell the ranks ef pauper
ism, smuggling, and equivocity pf pursuit. But
what, fpr a very lpng period, has been the distinctive
feature pf tbe place, is its being the residence pf a
tribe pf gypsies, apparently descendants ef the family
pf the Faas, and probably dating back their occu-
pancy pf the village tp abput the beginning pf last
century. They cannpt be regarded as identical er
akin in character to their wild ancestors who were
chased into Europe from Egypt or Hindostan ; and
they have, to a considerable extent, yielded to the
influence of civilization, or, more properly, of Chris
tian and literary instruction plied upon them from
without; yet they have physical marks in their
dusky complexion, their Hindoo features, and their
black penetrating eyes, peculiar to themselves, and
still broader peculiarities of a moral kind, in their
erratic habits, their deep aversion to enlightenment,
their attachment to migratory occupations, and their
almost thorough seclusion from their . neighbours,
amounting very nearly to the possession and con
servation of the Hindoo caste, which defy all doubt
as to their being in a very emphatic sense gypsies,
— the most noted, and probably the largest tribe of
that singular race in Scotland, and quite a study to
the philosopher, and an object of stirring interest to
the missipnary - spirited Christian. They have a
language pf their pwn, which they are chary ef
speaking when ethers, than gypsies, are within ear-
shpt ; and they very rarely — or never, perhaps, ex
cept when Christianizing influence brings them be
yond the pale of their caste — intermarry with per
sons not belonging to their tribe. Nearly the whole
of them are ' muggers,' wandering dealers in earth
enware; and, except during winter, they circulate
in single families, or occasionally in parties of two
families, round beaten tracts of country, pitching
tiny tents by the way-side, or on unenclosed grounds
for their shelter, and sleeping, with slender comforts
of blanket or matress, upon the ground. When on
their excursions they steal and plunder, and are be
lieved to live quite as much by acts of dishonesty as
by those of their professed calling ; but, when at
home, they, are quiet, or quarrel only among them
selves, aud pursue a course fitted, in a degree, to
win the confidence of their neighbours. Their
number, in 1797, was 50, and in 1817, was 109.
KIRRIEMUIR — vulgarly pronounced Killa-
muir — a large parish in Forfarshire, consisting of two
detached parts, 2£ miles asunder, and lying respec
tively among the Grampians and in Strathmore. The
northern or Grampian district is 1 1 miles in extreme
length from north-west to south-east, and 4} miles
in extreme breadth, but tapers to a point at the
north-west end, and over most of its length is not
more than 3J miles broad, and comprehends 18,000
imperial acres. It is bounded ort tbe north and
north-east by Clova ; on the east by Cortachy ; on
the south by Kingoldrum ; and pn the sputh-west
by Lintrathen and Glenisla. ' The whole district is
hilly and mountainous, commencing on the south
with Catlaw, the frontier mountain of the Grampi
ans, and the highest ground in the parish, elevated
2,264 feet above the level of the sea, and stretching
away north-westward in two screens or series of
heights, whose inner sides form the basin of the
Prosen, and both of which are ribbed or laterally
cloven down by numerous glens and deep ravines,
sending along to the Prosen their tributary torrents.
Every part of tbe frontier or boundary pf the dis
trict, except tbe gorge through which the Prosen
makes its exit, and a line 2J miles down to that point
from the north traversed by a tributary rill, consists
of a water-shedding ridge of summits, dividing the

interior from the basin of the South Esk, and ita
j tributaries on the one side, and from that of the Isla
| and its head- waters on the other. The hills of the
district are, in a few instances, rocky, and, in a few,
verdant, except at their summits ; but they are, in
general, clothed in heath, with stripes and patches
of grass along the beds of the little streamlets which
trickle down their sides. The soil is partly thin and
light, partly mossy, and in general wet. Consider
able patches and expanses of natural wood still grace
the district, — the remains of an ancient pervading
tumultuous sea of trees which have bequeathed to
the upper part tbe name pf the Forest of Glenprosen;
and, but for the nibblings of the flocks of sheep which
now claim the territory as their own, would speedily
spread away in a new expanse of birches and other
trees, forming a modern and continuous forest. Ex
cepting about 2,000 acres, partly arable and partly
fine pasture and meadow, the whple area is wildly
pastoral, or altogether waste  The southern, or
Strathmore district of the parish, measures 5| miles
in extreme length from north to south, and 5J miles
in extreme breadth from east to west ; and contains
about 16,000 imperial acres. It is bounded on the
west and north-west by Kingoldrum ; on the north
by Cortachy and Tannadice ; on the east by Oathlaw
and Rescobie; on tbe south by Forfar and Glammis ;
and on the south-west by Airly. For about a mile
from the southern boundary the surface is almost
flat; for 2 miles more it rises gently, and forms
nearly a continuous sloping bank ; and it then, when
within a few hundred yards of the town, breaks
steeply down, and stretches north and sputh fpr
nearly a mile in a hollow or den about 100 feet deep.
East and west of the town it is nearly all level, or
but slightly diversified ; and northward it delightfully
undulates in dale and rising ground, and sends up, in
the north-west corner, hilly heights, called the braes
of Inverquharity, laden with plantation, or cultivated
to their summits. The soil, in considerable belts
along the north and the south, is sandy ; but on tbe
central and larger part of the area, is, for the most
part, a black mould, on a bottom of what is provin-
cially called mortar. The whole district is culti
vated up to apparently its highest capabilities of
improvement, and is rich and beautiful in aspect.
About 11,000 acres are regularly or occasionally in
tillage ; about 2,000 are under plantation, about 500
are occupied by houses, roads, and water ; and tbe
remaining 2,500 consist, to a small extent, of mosses,
but are chiefly disposed in pasture. The plantations
are finely arranged in clumps, and little expanses in
the north, tbe east, the west, and the centre ; and
the southern division, which is now tbe barest, is
traditionally said to have been part of the forest of
Platane, extending westward to tbe hill of Finhaven
in the parish of Oathlaw, once the shelter during a
winter of the forces of Sir Andrew Murray, the co-
patriot of Sir William Wallace, and so dense in the
phalanx of its trees, that a wild cat might have
leaped upon its boughs from end to end of its limits.
The river Prosen rises in the furthest nook of the
upper district of the parish, and cuts the whele dis
trict, lengthways, inte nearly equal parts, swollen in
its progress by ten considerable brooks, and by other
smaller rills ; and after traversing an intermediate
territory, it strikes the lower district near Prosen,
Haugh, and runs for 2£ miles along the. northern
boundary. The South Esk, coming down at an
acute angle from the north-west, here swallows up
the Prosen, and hence traces the northern boundary
for 1J mile. The Carity, coming in from Kingold
rum, flows over 5J miles in tbe interior, at a brief
distance from the Prosen and the Esk, and falls into
the latter stream at Inverquharity. These rivers

198

KIRRIEMUIR.

swarm with a small red trout of excellent flavour,
much coveted by the angler, and preferred by many
gourmands to salmon. The Gairie [which see]
rises in the vicinity of the town, and bisects the
southern division of the lower district of the par
ish : previous to 1 740, when the lake of Kennar-
dy was drained, it "was a considerable stream ;
but now, in a dry summer, it has scarcely suffi
cient water-power to drive a mill. The lake of
Kinnordy, a little' north-west of the town,1 is, at
present, about a mile long and half-a-mile broad,
repulsive in appearance, and exhaling noxious mi
asmata; but before being drained, for sake of its
rich stores of shell-marl, it was a fine sheet of
water, and abounded in perch,' pike, and tbe large
silver-coloured eel. Limestone is worked to some
extent, and burnt with turf in small kilns. Among
the primitive formations of Glenprosen, consisting
of hornblende slate, mica-schist, and gneiss, are some
garnets and rock-crystals. Most of the southern dis
trict consists of either the old red sandstone forma
tion, or the red schistose sandstone, occasionally in
terrupted by 'trap rocks. Mr. Lyell, in tbe Edin
burgh Journal of Science, notices with interest a
dike of serpentine on the farm of Balloch, running
east and west, nearly vertical, but with a slight
northerly inclinatipn ; and regards it as finely illus
trating the connexion between serpentine and green
stone, and the effects of dikes of serpentine upon
contiguous stratified rocks. The mosses of Kin
nordy and Balloch are regularly cut for supplies of
fuel. A little west of the town is a large semi-
globular artificial mound called the Court-hillock,
and beside it a pond called the Witch-pool; both of
which seem to have been in requisition for the pur
poses of feudal justice and superstitious jurisprudence.
In various localities are tumuli and uninscribed mon
umental stones. On tbe soil of this parish were
fought skirmishes arising out of the feuds of the
clan Ogilvie; and, in particular, a sanguinary battle,
fought in 1447 between that clan and the Lindsays,
and fatal to 500 of the Ogilvies. The sward was
often ensanguined also by the rieving expeditions
and the incursions for the levying of ' black mail,'
made from the fastnesses of the Grampians. A con
siderable number of querns, arrow-heads, and battle-
axes have been found. Two canoes or antique boats
were discovered, one in a cave, and tbe other im
bedded in a bog. A little north-west of the hill
which overlooks the town, are two rocking-stones,
in the immediate vicinity of each other, one consist
ing of whinstone and tbe other of porphyry, and
both of themlarge and ponderous blocks  Near the
confluence oi the Carity and the South Esk, stands
the castle of Inverquharity, a Gothic edifice of cut
stone, erected previous to the 15th century, and in
a state of good preservation. Three stories consist
each of one apartment; and a fourth story is divided
into two. The walls are about 9 feet thick, project
ing considerably near the top, and terminating in a
parapet not more than a foot thick. A path is car
ried round between the parapet and the roof wide
enough to allow three men to walk abreast; and
over the gateway, it is perforated through tbe pro
jecting wall with three square apertures, to admit
of missives being dropped or shot upon persons at
the gate. On one side of the front of the edifice,
are some vestiges of a wing, reported to have been
demolished in 1445 by the Earl of Crawfurd in a
feud between the Lindsays and the Ogilvies. Sir
John Ogilvie, the founder of the family of Ogilvies
of Inverquharity, 3d son of Walter Ogilvie of Auch-
terhouse, received in 1420 the lands and barony of
Inverquharity from his brother, the heir of Auchter7
house. Alexander, one of his descendants, was cap

tured at .the battle of Philiphaugh, fighting with
Montrose, and executed at Glasgow. Another de
scendant fought with the dethroned James at the
battle of the Boyne in Ireland, and eventually fell in
an engagement on the Rhine. On the Prosen, in the
upper district of the parish, stands Baluabotb, the
seat of the Honourable Colonel Ogilvie of Clova,
the brother of the Earl of Airly. Other mansions
in the parish are Kinnordy and Shielhill, both the
property of Charles Lyell, Esq. ; Logie, the seat of
'John Kinloch, Esq., pf Kilry; and Ballandarg, the
seat pf Francis Graham, Esq., of Morphin. The
two villages of Ellenortown and Marytown have
jointly a population of less than 250. Roads diverge
in all directions from the town of Kirriemuir, and
intricately ramify the lower district of the parish.
The higher half of the upper district has no road
whatever; and the lower half has roads only up the
Prosen, and the vale of one of the tributary streams.
Population of the parish, in 1801, 4,421; in 1831,
6,425. Houses 1,099. Assessed property, in 1815,
£9,292. Kirriemuir is in the presbytery of Forfar, and
synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron, Lord Douglas.
Stipend £246 4s. 8d.; glebe £11. The church was
built in 1786. Sittings 1,240. The upper district
of the parish is included in a mission on the Royal
bounty: See article Glenprosen. A portion of
the lower district, containing, in 1836, a population
of 2,622 persons, 2,155 of whom were churchmen,
was erected in 1836 into the quoad sacra South par
ish of Kirriemuir. The church was built in the
same year, and cost about £1,340. Sittings 1,021.
There are in the quoad civilia parish four dissenting
congregations, their places of worship all situated in
the town. The Scottish Episcopalian congregation
has existed since 1561. Their chapel is the private
property of Mr. Lyell of Kinnordy, and was built
in 1795. Sittings 800. Stipend between £60 and
£70  The United Secession congregation was es
tablished in 1772. Sittings in their place of worship
500. Stipend £100, with a manse and garden. The
Relief congregation was established in 1829. Their
place of worship was originally a town-hall, and was,
in 1833, purchased and fitted up with galleries, at a
cost of £820. Sittings 604. Stipend £120  The
Original Seceder congregation was established in
1 788. Their meeting-house was built in 1807, at a
cost of £700. Sittings 400. Stipend £90, with a
house and garden, and £6 15s. 6d. for sacramental
expenses. — An ecclesiastical survey of the quoad
civilia parish, in 1836, showed the population then
to be 7,193; of whom' 5,836 were churchmen, 1,334
were dissenters, and 23 were nondescripts. — The
naroehial school is conducted by three teachers,
classical, commercial, and English, and is attended
by at most 209 scholars. Salaries £36 7s. 2d., with
£128 fees, and £10 other emoluments. There are
15 non-parochial schools, conducted by 15 teachers,
and attended by at most 624 scholars  Besides the
parish-church, there were anciently in the parish
five places of worship; one in the town of Kirrie
muir, a piece of ground adjoining which is called in
old writs the Kirkyard; one in Glenprosen, which
continued to be in use till the time when the mo
dern chapel in the district was erected; one at a
place called Chapeltown, about 3 miles north of the
town ; one at Killbill, about the same distance east
of the town ; and one near Ballinshae, the site of
which is still enclosed with a wall, and used as tbe
burying-place of tbe Fletchers of Ballinshae.
Kirriemuir, a burgh-of-barony, and a town of
considerable antiquity and provincial importance,
stands partly ou level ground and partly on an in
clined plain in the centre of the lower district of the

KIR

199

KNA

parish, to which it gives name, 5 miles north-west
of Forfar; 5 north of Glammis; 16 from Dundee;
and 58 from Edinburgh. The lower part is screened
and shut in from a view of the circumjacent country
by the brow of tbe den; but the higher part com
mands a prospect of nearly the whole of Strathmore.
The hill Pn tbe skirt of which it hangs, ascendingly
recedes from it toward the nprth- west, breaks bpldly
and precipitously down on the south, has in every
other direction a gentle gradient, and exhibits from
its broad summit an extent and brilliance of pano
rama equal to many of tbe most celebrated landscapes
in Scotland. On the east are, the picturesquely un
dulating heights of Finhaven hill, and far beyond
them the Grampians of Kincardineshire, belted on
the horizon with the German ocean; on the north
and west are the shelving ascents and the mysterious
vistas, the far-stretching surgy sea of elevations, tbe
mist-gathering mountain-pinnacles, and the dark and
frowning and vastly varied forms of tbe Angus and
the Perthshire Grampians ; and on the south, away
as far as the eye can reach, stretches the many-tinted
valley of Strathmore, with its picturesque array of
towns, castles, churches, plantations, lakes, and
streams, flanked by the soft and luxuriant forms of
the long range of Sidlaw hills. The town consists
of several streets, arranged and mutually connected
in a manner similar to the arms and shaft of an an
chor. Though containing numerous mean and un
gainly houses, it has an improved and thriving appear
ance, and gives indications of the presence both of
taste and of successful industry. The parish-church
is a very handsome edifice, with a neat spire and
clock. The Episcopalian chapel also sends aloft a
spire, and contributes a fine feature to tbe burghai
landscape. The Relief meeting-house, built as the
town-hall in 1815, has been reclaimed from the usage
so common in the public buildings of Forfarshire
towns, of being laid out in the lower story in shops,
and figures pleasingly as an ecclesiastical edifice.
The town has many good shops, and is lighted at
night with gas  Since the middle of last century, it
has been the seat of an extensive manufacture of
brown linen. So early as 1792, tbe annual value of
its produce in osnaburgbs and coarse linens was
about £30,000. Before the century closed, the
number of yards annually stamped was upwards of
1,800,000; and in 1819-20, it was 2,376,711. In
1826, a great fall of wages took place, and a check,
the influence of which continues to be felt, was
given to the' progressive enlargement of the manu
facture. The number of looms at present worked
is about 2,000, employed on dowlas, sheeting, and
osnaburghs, chiefly for exportation. Dundee is al
most wholly the immediate market of the weavers,
and supplies most of their work. The best work
men earn about 8 shillings nett per week, inferior
workmen 6s., and aged persons and boys 4s. The
nett weekly average of all the looms may probably
be 5s. 6d. The weavers seem poor but not in actual
distress; and, as a community, are admitted to be
expert and skilful in their vocation. No other trade
than that of weaving is carried on — The town has
an excellent news-room, a subscription library, a
circulating library, a large Sabbath school library, a
Bible soci^fy, an auxiliary Missionary society, a Sab
bath school society, a Ladies' society in aid of the
education of females in India, about a dozen Friendly
societies, a Poors' Medical relief fund, two local
Education funds apart from tbe parish school, and
jointly upwards of £9,000 in amount, and a branch-
office of tbe British Linen company's bank. A
weekly market, equal to any in Forfarshire, is held
on Friday; and annual fairs, for sheep, cattle, and
horses, are held in June, July, October, and Decem

ber — The town is a burgh-of-barony under Lord
Douglas ; but, as a burgh, has neither property,
revenue, nor debt. No taxes are levied, except
some customs by the superior at fairs and markets.
The streets are kept in repair from the statute laboui
conversion money of the county, to which tbe in
habitants contribute. A baron bailie, appointed by
the superior, is the only magistrate ; and he is not
in the practice of exercising any jurisdiction. The
burgh is under the charge of the county police, and
is watched and protected by a sufficient force; and
is the seat of a monthly small debt court held by the
county justices-ofpeace, and tbe residence of a pro
curator-fiscal, who inquires into offences which are
prosecuted before the sheriff. About 120 inhabi
tants pay rents or have property to 'the amount of
£10 a-year, and about the same number to tbe
amount of from £5 to less than £10. Population
4,000  A feud, similar in character, but inferior in
importance, to that between Perth and Dundee, an
ciently existed between Kirriemuir and Forfar : See
article Forfar. Though the town is ancient, few
authentic and no interesting events in its early his
tory are known.
KIRTA, one of the smaller Hebrides, near the
west coast of Lewis.
KIRTLE (The), a beautiful and classic stream
of the district intermediate between Annandale and
Eskdale in Dumfries-shire. It rises in the extreme
north of the parish of Middlebie, within half-a-mile
of a head- water of the Milk, a tributary of the An
nan on the west, and within 1J mile of a head-
stream of Waucbope-water, a tributary of the Esk
on the east. Flowing 3| miles due south, and re
ceiving tributary brooks from the hills, it falls upon
the parish of Kirkpatrick-Fleming, and for 5 miles
divides it from Middlebie, Annan, and a detached
part of Dornock. It then runs 2J miles south-east
ward through its interior ; and after a further course
of 2 miles in the same direction through the parish
of Gretna, enters the Solway frith at Kirtle-foot.
See articles Kirkpatrick-Fleming and Gretna.
KITTERICK, a mountain overlooking tbe stream
Palmure, and suddenly rising to the height of 1,000
or 1,200 feet, in the parish of Minnigaff, Kirkcud
brightshire. At its base, on the bank of the stream,
shut out for six weeks in winter from the rays of tbe
sun, are the humble ruins of the hut in which Dr.
Alexander Murray, the celebrated linguist, was born;
and around is the wild and sterile, the rude and
sublime scenery amid which his early genius was
cradled. KLOACHNABANE, a hill in the parish of
Strachan, Kincardineshire; elevated 2,370 feet above
sea-level. On tbe summit is a large rock, accessible
only at one side, called ' the Stone of Kloachna-
bane,' an excel'«nt land-mark fpr ships at sea.
KNAIS v, x he), a rivulet of the parish of Mutbil,
Perthshire. It rises in Glenlich-horn, and flows
south-eastward past the steep banks on the west
boundary of Ardoch camps to the Allan, a mile below
the bridge of Ardoch. Its length of course is 8 miles.
KNAPDALE, an old division of Argyleshire, ly
ing between the isthmus of Crinan and Tarbert, so
denominated from the inequality of its surface, —
Cnapdale, or Knapdale, in Gaelic, signifying ' hill
and dale.' It is about 20 miles in length, and 16 in
breadth ; and is bounded on the west by the Atlantic
ocean ; on the north by Loch-Gilp, Loch-Crinan,
and the Crinan canal ; on the east by Loch-Fyne
which separates it from Cowal, and by the narrow
isthmus of Tarbert ; and on the south by Kintyre.
It is intersected by the lochs of CaolisporIt and
Swen [which see] ; and the interval between these
arms or the sea is finely diversified with woods,

KNA

200

KNiO

rocks, fields, and lakes. The greater part of the
district, like the rest of Argyleshire, is rugged and
mountainous, with fertile fields interspersed. A
cluster of small islands on the west coast belpngs tp
it ; on one of which is tbe ruin of a chapel. This
district contains numerous small chapels, which ap
pear from their antiquity to have been founded very
soon after the introduction of Christianity into the
kingdom. KNAPDALE (North), a parish in Argyleshire,
now in the district of Islay ; separated in the year
173* from the parish of South Knapdale ; both par
ishes being previous to that time known by the
name of Kilvick-Charmaig. North Knapdale ex
tends 14 miles in length, and 8J in greatest breadth.
Towards the north and east tbe surface becomes
rugged, and is elevated into lofty mountains, of
which Cruacblussa is the highest. Loch-Swen in
tersects the parish, dividing it into two nearly equal
parts ; and there are a few small lakes among the
hills. Population, in 1801, 2,401 ; in 1831, 2,583.
Houses 398. Assessed property, in 1815, £4,797.
There are two small villages, Ballenach and Targ-
vallich, each containing about 180 inhabitants. — This
parish is in the presbytery of Inverary, and synod of
Argyle. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £164 6s.
lOd. ; glebe £22. Unappropriated teinds £20 16s.
3d. There are two parish-churches,— one at Kil-
micbael, Inverlusay, seating 432 ; the other at Tay-
vallicb, seating 896 ; the former built in 1819, the
latter in 1827. They are on opposite sides of Loch-
Swen, and tbe minister officiates in them alternately.
— There are three parish-schools ; each master has a
salary of £17 2s. 2d. There are also two private
schools. KNAPDALE (South), a parish in Argyleshire,
adjoining to North Knapdale, and extending to
Loch-Tarbert. It is 16 miles in length, and 5J in
breadth. The soil is chiefly of a mossy nature, ly
ing upon a stratum of sand ; but in the low grounds
it is loamy. Very little of the parish is arable, and
that which is ploughed, or dug with the spade, pro
duces so light crops that it is found more advantage
ous to throw it out into sheep-walks, or pasture-
lands for cattle. There is a lead mine on the estate
of Campbell of Inverneil, which was wrought some
years ago ; and in tbe same neighbourhood are seve
ral springs containing metallic impregnation. Ruins
of ancient chapels are frequent in this parish. Popu
lation, in 1801, 1,716; in 1831,2,137. Houses 346.
Assessed property, in 1815, £2,740  This parish is
in tbe presbytery of Inverary, and synod of Argyle.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £158 18s. 6d. ; glebe
£10. There) are two parish -churches, — one built at
Inverneil, and tbe other at Achoish, both about the
year 1775. The soutb-east end of the parish lies
within Tarbert mission-district. Tbe minister offi
ciates two Sabbaths at Achoish, the third at Inver
neil. There are three parish-schools ; salary of each
master £12 12s. There are also three private schools.
KNOCK, a hill in Banffshire, elevated 2,500 feet
above the level of tbe sea, which, on account of its
great height, affords an excellent land-mark in navi
gating the Moray frith. The parishes of Grange,
Fordyce, and Ordiquhill, meet in a point at its top.
KNOCKANDO, a parish in Morayshire, bounded
on tbe north by Dollas ; on the east by Rothes ; on
the south and south-west by Inveraven, from which
it is separated by the river Spey ; and on the west
by Cromdale and Edenkillie. It is about 10 miles in
length from west to east, and 2 in breadth. Popu
lation, in 1801, 1,432; in 1831, 1,497. Houses 313.
Assessed property, in 1815, £1,987. The surface is
hilly or mountainous. The soil is various : near the
river Spey, it is sandy : on the higher grounds, black

mould with gravel, and nearer the hills, a heavy clay
soil, and moss : the alluvial deposits consist of clay,
bog, iron-ore, peat, fullers' earth and marl. Multitudes
of black cattle, and a number of sheep, are pastured
on the bills ; and at Wester Elchies are a few of
those singular and rare animals, the Thibet sheep.
They were sent home from India by Mr. Grant, the
proprietor of the estate, but have not thriven well,
owing, it is thought, to the damp climate. They
have been subject to a disease in the feet — from the
moisture of the ground it was thought — and we re- ,
collect hearing of a grave proposal to put shoes or
boots on their feet. A cross-breed has prospered,
but the wool has degenerated, though, still pf a very
spft and decidedly superior texture : the mutton is
prime, and the lamb of the most delicate quality.
The rocks in this parish are all primitive. Here is
the rock of Tomdow, the most dangerous of all the
obstacles in the way of the numerous rafts of tim
ber that are floated down the Spey. Near Easter
Elchies, at the eastern extremity of the parish, is
one of the two celebrated rocks named Craig-El-
lachie ; the other is in Rothiemurchus, and the dis
trict of Strathspey is comprehended between them.
Signals by fire to convene the inhabitants on tbe ap
proach of an enemy were wont to be made in former
times, from one of these rocks to tbe other : hence
the motto of the Grants, — ' Stand fast, Craig El-
lachie.' At this most picturesque and interesting
spot a handsome iron bridge, 160 feet in span, was
thrown acrpss the Spey : see Aberlour. There is
np river but tbe Spey in the parish. There are se
veral burns, hewever, ameng which are thpse pf
Knpckandp and Aldarder: all the streams here were
fearfully swollen during the floods of 1829, and oc
casioned great damage to tbe crops, live stpek, hpuses,
and inhabitants. The Aldarder, during the flppds,
undermined a waterfall in its course, 80 feet in height,
and left a chasm or ravine, from 290 to 300 ells ii-
breadth, and 60 to 100 feet in height. The Knock-
ando-burn and its flood, are thus graphically de
scribed by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder : . — " The
Knockando-burn, entering frpm the left, is extremely
small ; but it was swollen by the flppd tp a size
equal tp that pf the Spey in its Prdinary state. The
high promontory, on the neck of which the manse of
Knockando stands, shoots forwards towards the
steep opposite banks of the burn, interrupting the
continuity of its haughs by a narrow pass, leaving
room only at the base of the precipice for two cot
tages, a small garden, and a road. Where the glen
opens, a little way above, there stood a carding-mill,
a meal-mill, and the houses of their occupants. Of
the two cottages at the bottom of the promontory,
one was inhabited by the old bellman, his wife, and
daughter, and a blind beggar-woman, who had that
night sought quarters with them : the other was
tenanted by a poor lame woman, who kept a school
for girls and young children. After the flood, the
prospect here was melancholy : the burn, that for
merly wound through the beautiful haugh above the
promontory, had cut a channel as broad as that of
the Spey from one end of it to the ether. The
whele weod was gone, the carding-mill had disap
peared, the miller's house was in ruins, and the
banks below were strewed with pales, gates, bridges,
rafts, engines, wool, yarn, and half-woven webs, —
all utterly destroyed. A new road had recently
been made, and all the burns were substantially
bridged; but with the exception of one arch, all
yielded to the pressure ef the flppd. Mr. Grant
pf Wester Elchies' damage is estimated at £820.
The parish ef Knpckandp returned 12 cases ef fa
milies rendered destitute by this calamity."  The
principal mansipns in this parish are — Wester Elchies,

KNO

201

KNO

a castellated edifice standing on a commanding emi
nence, and formerly an out-post to Castle- Grant in
Inverness-shire ;— Knockando-house, beautifully si
tuated on the banks of the Spey, surrounded by
woods, amidst Highland scenery of a very picturesque
description, terminated by the blue and lofty heights
of Cairngorm and Ben Avon in the distance;—
Glengunnery, or the cottage of the Clune,— a seques
tered and romantic residence on the bank of the
Knockando-burn, — built of wood, in 1827, and
thatched with heather, as a hunting-lodge, by tbe
late Charles Grant, Esq. of Wester Elchies ; and
Easter Elchies, in a wood, near which is the rural
and sequestered churchyard of Macallan, with a frag
ment of the church- wall, still visible but mouldering
away. Several other ancient chapels or religious
houses are said to have formerly existed in this par
ish, and there are remains of a Druidical temple.
The only manufactures are those carried on in a
number of meal, carding, thrashing, and saw, mills ;
— weaving and spinning to a small extent, — and the
distillation of spirits of excellent quality, at Cardow
and Macallan. The only village is Archiestown, on
the moor of Ballintomb, consisting of one principal
street, a square, and several bye-lanes ; and contain
ing 230 inhabitants. The parish is in the synod of
Moray, and presbytery of Aberlour. It includes the
whole parish of Macallan or Elchies, which appears
to have merged in that of Knpckandp ; there being
no legal record of annexation in existence : in 1683
they were under separate pastors, but, in 1712, were
under only one. Patron, the Earl of Seafield. Sti
pend £158 6s. 7d. ; glebe £13. Church built in 1757,
and repaired and altered, but not enlarged, in 1832.
Sittings 477. There is an Independent congrega
tional chapel, built in 1818; sittings 200; minister's
salary £40. Here are two parochial schools, one in
Macallan, and the other in Knockando-proper.
Salary of each £25 18s. 3id. ; fees £8, and £10
respectively ; besides a share each of the Dick be
quest. There are four private schools.
KNOCKBAIN, a parish in Ross-shire, formed by
tbe annexation, in 1756, of the parishes of Kilmuir-
Wester and Suddy. It is from 6 to 7 miles in length;
and from 5 to 6 in breadth ; and divided by a branch
of the Moray frith, called the bay of Munlochy.
The surface is level, rising gradually from the coast
towards the north, and the soil is in general toler
ably fertile. Population, in 1801, 1,859; in 1831,
2,139. Houses 468  This parish is in the presby
tery of Cbanonry, and synod of Ross. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £232 18s. 8d. ; glebe £22. Un
appropriated teinds £92 14s. 9d  Schoolmaster's
salary £34 4s. 4Jd. There are two private schools.
KNOCDOLIAN, a mountain in Ayrshire, in the
parish of Colmonell, elevated 1,950 feet above the
.level of tbe sea. See Colmonell.
KNOCKFARRIL, a small conical eminence,
forming the eastern extremity of that ridge of moun
tains which bounds Loch-Ness on the north-west
side. It is situated about a mile to tbe north of In
verness, and is accessible on two different quarters,
viz., the west and south-east ; the former affording
entrance by a narrow level ridge, joining the hills on
Loch-Ness, and the latter from an easy ascent from
the high ground, abpve Inverness. On appreaching
the hill frem the west, we meet with a read cut
through the reck, from the bottpm tp the top, in
mpst places 10 feet bread, and nearly as deep, wind
ing fpr abput 70 feet in an easy serpentine direc-
tipn, by which we gain an ascent pver a steep rock,
otherwise quite inaccessible from that quarter. This
road, in Mr. Fraser Tytler's opinion, 'is undoubtedly
a work pf art, and the vitrified matter pn tbe tnp is
the enly thing which indicates the effect of fire;

there being no appearance of pumice-stone, lava, not
basaltes about the bill. "But the circumstance."
says he, " which, in my apprehension, evinces in the
most satisfactory manner, that these appearances of
the effect of fire on the summit of the hill, are not
the operation of Nature, but of art, is the regular
order, and disposition of those materials, the form of
the ground, and the various traces of skill antl con
trivance, which are yet discernible, though consider
ably defaced, either by external violence or the ob
literating hand of Time." On ascending by the
road, there appears, towards the middle, on the
right hand, a small platform overhanging tbe pas
sage, and inclining by a very gentle declivity to
wards the ridge of the rock. A few enormous
stones are placed upon the platform, and on the
edge, and extremity of it, which have evidently
been guided by art into that position, it being im
possible that they could have rested there had they
been rolled down from tbe higher parts. The ob
vious reason for placing them in such a position has
been, that on an alarm of danger they might be pro
jected into the path below, which could have been
done by the efforts of a very few men ; and when
this was done the passage would be entirely ob
structed, or at least rendered so difficult that it could
be defended by a few, against a number of assailants.
Some other large stones are placed on an eminence
to the left, probably with a view to block up a hol
low channel by which an enemy might have at
tempted to ascend. When we come to the top of
the hill, a few feet below the rampart which crowns
the whole, there appears an outward wall, approach
ing on the sides of tbe bill, so near the upper
rampart, as to have only a trench of 10 or 12 faet
wide between them. This outward wall is in some
places so low, as to be almost level with the rock,
though in other places it rises to the height of 2
or 3 feet ; but even where lowest it may be traced
by a line of vitrified matter sticking fast to the rock
all along, and nearly of the same breadth; which is
almost 9 feet. The remains of this wall are strongly
vitrified, except in one place on the north side,
where, forabout 70 yards, the rampart is formed only
of dry stones and earth. At the east side, Where the
hill is more accessible, there is a prodigious mound
of vitrified matter, extending itself to the thickness
of above 40 feet. At the south-east corner, and ad
joining to this immense mound, is an out-work,
consisting of two semicircular vitrified walls, with a
narrow pass cut through them in the middle, which
appears to have been another, and perhaps the prin
cipal entrance to the fort. The inner wall surround
ing the summit of the hill, enclpses an pblong area
of about 75 yards long, and 30 broad, rounded at
each of the ends like the outward wall ; it shows
some imperfect traces of having been defended by
four turrets or bastions : a number of small tumuli
of earth, with a stone in the centre, are more dis
cernible. On the east side, a portion of the internal
space appears separated from the rest by two ranges
of stones fixed in the earth, forming a right angled
parallelogram. This separation is immediately discer
nible to the eye from the circumstance of the whole
of the enclosed summit being carefully cleared from
stones ; those that form this division, and the single
one in the middle pf the circle of tumuli, being the
only ones to be seen. It is difficult to conjecture
the design of this separated, space. Perhaps It has
marked the residence of those of a higher Tank, or
served as a temple of devotion. On the east end1 of
the area, on the summit, there is a well, six feet in
diameter, now nearly filled up.
KNOX (John). See New Aberdeen.
KNOYDART. See Glenelg.

KOO

202

KYP

KOOMB, a small island on the north coast of Su
therlandshire, upon which are the remains of a cha
pel and burial-ground.
KYLE, the middle district, anciently tbe middle
bailiewick, of Ayrshire. It is bounded on the north
by the river Irvine, which divides it from Cunning
ham ; on the north-east by Lanarkshire ; on the east
by Dumfries-shire ; on the south by Kirkcudbright
shire ; on the south-west by the river Doon, which
divides it from Carrick ; and on tbe west by the
frith of Clyde. The river Ayr rising on its eastern
boundary, and traversing it westward to the Clyde,
divides it into Kyle-Stewart on 'the north, and
King's- Kyle on the south. Its chief streams, addi
tional to the Ayr, are the Coyl and the Luggar, tri
butaries of that river, — the Cessnock, a tributary of
the Irvine, — and the Nith, which drains its south
east corner, and passes into Dumfries-shire. Its
quoad civilia parishes are Dundonald, Riccarton,
Galston, Craigie, Symington, Mauchline, Sorn,
Muirkirk, Monkton, Tarbolton, Newton, St. Qui-
vox, Stair, Auchinleck, Ayr, Coylton, Ochiltree,
"Old Cumnock, New Cumnock, Dalrymple, and Dal-
mellington, — all in the presbytery of Ayr. Total
population, in 1831,56,066; inhabited houses 7,554;
families 11,435; families employed in agriculture
2,228; families employed in trade, manufactures, and
handicrafts 5,353. For other particulars, see article
A. Y Ft SI J IRK
KYLE-AKIN. See Loch-Alsh.
KYLE-RHEA. See Loch-Alsh.
KYLES-OF-BOTE, a narrow and remarkably
picturesque arm of the frith of Clyde, which se
parates the north-west part of the island of Bute
from the districts of Kerry and Cowal, on the main
land, in Argyleshire. After passing Port-Banna-
tyne bay, on the left, and leaving the mouth of Loch-
Striven to the right, and passing the delightfully situ
ated mansion of South-hall, which overlooks the whole
bay of Rothesay, the Cumbraes, a long sweep of the

Ayrshire coast, and a great part of Bute, we find our
selves sequestered in the Kyles, and rapidly nearing
the small ferry of Culintraimh. Here everythiflg
assumes a truly Highland aspect. The glen becomes
more narrow, the hills more steep ; and along their
rugged acclivities, as artlessly situated as tbe rocks
with which they are strewn, appears the rudely con
structed shieling of the fisherman or shepherd; while
at wider intervals is seen the farmer's better-con
structed cottage, surrounded, haply, with a few
patches of cultivated soil, appropriated to the produc
tion of potatoes, oats, and barley. At length the most
picturesque part of the Kyles is reached, where the
passage narrows into tbe size of a small river, and
where, at a short distance, the eye in vain searches
for an opening through which to proceed — the hills
being so closely joined, as to appear like one immense
barrier surrounding the extremity of an inland lake.
Here lie three small rocky islands, exhibiting the ap
pearance of having once been exposed to the action
of fire, from which cause they have received the
name of the Burnt Islands. On one of them stand
the remains of a vitrified fort ; and, a short way
farther on, at the mouth of Loch-Ridan — which now
beautifully opens to the view — there appears the
small but celebrated Isle of Ealan-Gheirbig :
which see. Leaving the mouth of this loch on the
right, and, while bending suddenly to the left, the
farther passage of the Kyles gradually and gracefully
evolves itself, until the character of a strait is lost
in the wide expanse of water that encircles the soli
tary Inchmarnock, and is overlooked bythe lofty and
distant peaks of Arran. At this sudden bend of the
Kyles, so picturesque is the scenery, that no one can
behold it under a favourable aspect of the heavens,
without intense admiration.
KYPE (The), a small stream in Lanarkshire,
which rises on the borders of Lesmahago parish, and,
dividing it from Avont.ale, falls into the Avon, a few
miles above its junction with tbe Clyde.

¦¦<_mKWfmlt&m&

MLMliS

KIL.CHURN CASTLE.

LAD

203

LAG

LADY, a parish forming the north-eastern part pf
tho isle of Sanda, Orkney, and comprehending 8
square miles. Populatipn, in 1801, 830 ; in 1831,
858 ; in 1841, 909. Hpuses in 1831, 144 ; in 1841,
175. Assessed property returned with Sanda. — This
parish is in the presbytery of the North Isles, and
synod of Orkney. Patron, the Earl of Zetland.
Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £4 8s.— There are 2 pri
vate schools, but no parochial school. , See Sanda.
LADYBANK, a recently erected village in the
parish of Collessie in Fifeshire. Population, in
1R41, 102. Houses 17. The Edinburgb and North
ern railway here divides into two branches, one
branch going towards Perth, by Collessie, to join the
Scottish Central line, and the other, by Springfield,
towards Newport, where the ferry crosses to Dundee.
The railway company will have their depots for en
gines and carriages here.
LADT-ISLE, an uninhabited rocky islet, % furlongs in
length from north to south, and i of a mile in breadth, 2 miles
S w. of Troon-point, 5 J miles NN W. of Ayr pier, and 5 j miles
S W. by S. of the mouth of Irvine-water, in the bay of Ayr. Im
portance attaches to it on account of its affording, in the large
open bay in "which it lies, and along a great extent of coast
from Galloway to Tairley-roads unprovided with harbour or
anchorage for large vessels, the only place of shelter from
westerly winds. See Lapfoch.
LADYKIRK, a parish on the eastern verge of
the Merse, Berwickshire. Its greatest length, from
north-east to south-west, is 4 miles; its greatest
breadth, 2J miles ; its superficial area, 3,100 imperial
acres. It is bounded on the north-west by Whit-
some ; on tbe north-east by Hutton ; on the south
east by tbe Tweed, which divides it from England ;
on the south by Coldstream; and on the west by
Swinton. The surface gently rises from the Tweed,
and is diversified with a few swells, but, in general, is
level, fertile in soil, and well-suited to the dominion
of tbe plough. About one-fourth is disposed in per
ennial pasture, and devoted by a deed of entail to the
grazing of a peculiar and highly valued breed of
short-horned cattle. About 50 or 60 acres are cov
ered with trees. All the rest of tbe area is cropped
in tbe most approved methods of husbandry. A
white micaceous sandstone lies beneath a large part
of the surface, and a reddish sandstone occurs in the
west ; but tbey are nowhere quarried. The Tweed
rolls the full flood of its beauty in a thrice-repeated
•curve 3 miles along tbe boundary ; and is stationed-
pff in several places for its salmon-fisheries. On its
opposite bank stands Norham-castle. Previous to
the erection of Berwick-bridge — built apparently
in the reign of Elizabeth — a ford at this place often
gave passage across tbe river to armies of invasion,
and occasionally pointed out spots in the vicinity as con
venient scenes of international conference and nego
tiation. Holywell-haugh, an adjacent field, was the
place of meeting between Edward I. and the Scottish
nobles to adjust the dispute respecting the succession
to the Crown of Scotland. The jparish-church, situ
ated near the river, was, in tbe reign of Mary, the
scene of a treaty concluded by commissioners, and
supplementary to that of Chateau-Cambrensis. James
IV., when crossing the ford at the head of his army,
was in hazard of being swept away by the swollen
current, and vowed, if be should be delivered, to
build a church in honour of ' Our Lady.' The erec
tion which sprang up in fulfilment of his vow, was
called Ladykirk, and, usurping tbe place of the more
ancient parochial church, imposed its name on tbe

parish. Ladykirk-house, in the south-east corner on
the Tweed, is the only mansion. A little north of it
is the village of Upsettlington ; and in the northern
comer of tbe parish stands that of Homdene. Both
are ancient villages. The population of Horndene,
in 1841, was 124, in 39 houses. Tlie population of
Upsettlington in the same year was 99. The north
road between Berwick and Kelso touches tbe parish
for 1 J mile on the north-west ; and subordinate roads
intersect one another in the interior. Population, in
1801, 516 ; in 1831, 485 ; in 1841, 504. Houses in
1831, 108 ; in 1841, 110. Assessed property, in 1815.
£5,407; in 1842-3, £4,557.— Ladykirk is in the pres
bytery of Chirnside, and synod of Merse and Teviot
dale. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £170 16s. 2d. ;
glebe £20. The church — originally a handsome cru
ciform Gothic edifice, but utterly destroyed in its ap
pearance by modem alterations and additions — was
built in 1,500. Sittings about 300. At Homdene, is
a United Secession meeting-house. Parish school
master's salary £25 13s. 3|d., with about £13 fees. —
The present parish comprehends the ancient parishes
of Upsettlington or Ladykirk on the south, and Hom
dene on the north. The former was anciently a rec
tory ; and the latter belonged, till tbe Reformation,
to the monks of Kelso. Robert Byset, who obtained,
during the 12th century, the manor of Upsettlington,
founded, in the reign of David I., an hospital at Hom
dene, dedicated it to St. Leonard, and gave it, with its
pertinents, to tbe monks of Kelso, obliging them to
maintain two paupers on the foundation, and to sup
port an officiate in the hospital chapel. At a place
still called Chapel-park, a little north of Upsettling
ton, are faint traces of an ancient building, — either
the hospital, or some other ecclesiastical edifice. In
the vicinity are three fountains, graced with modern
pillars, inscribed respectively with tbe names of St.
Mary's, the Monk's, and the Nun's well.
LADYKXRK, a district in tbe island of Stronsay.
Population, in 1831, 274; in 1841, 316. Houses 66.
See Stronsay.
LADYKIRK, or North Kirk, a district in the
island of Westray. Population, in 1831, 834 ; in
1841, 846. Houses 193. The only village is that of
North Kirk or Pierwall, which had 95 inhabitants
in 1841. See Westray.
LADYLOAN, a quoad sacra parish in Forfarshire,
embracing part of the parish of Arbroath and part of
St. Vigean's. Population, in 1841, 2,016.
LADY-YESTER'S. See Edinburgh.
LAG. See Dunscore.
LAGAN- AULACHY, an ancient chapelry, now
united to the parish of Little Dunkeld.
LAGGAN, a parish in Inverness-shire, in Bade
noch ; about 21 miles in length. Tbe breadth of the
inhabited part is about 3 miles ; but, taking its boun
daries on tbe north and south, the average breadth is
not less than 18 or 20 miles. It has Boleskine on
tbe north ; Kingussie on tbe east ; the mountains of
Perthshire, separating it from Fortingal and Blair-
Athole,,on tbe south ; and Kilmanivaig on the west ;
and occupies the southern extremity of tbe county.
The road from Fort- William to Kingussie traverses the
centre of the parish. The surface is mountainous, and
intersected by long narrow glens and valleys. Tbe Spey
takes its rise from a small lake of the same name in tbe
western extremity of this parish ; and, issuing from
Glenshirra in the form of a tiny stream, runs in a north-

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204

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eastern direction, throughout its whole length, through
a level district well-wooded and studded with country
mansions, farm-houses, huts, and bothies. The great
majority of the population of the parish is domiciled in
this plain ; and the principal mansion is Cluny-castle.
It receives the Mashie about the middle of the parish,
and the Truime at its eastern extremity: both of
which rivers descend to it from the Grampians on the
south. The Pataig is noticed in the next article. A
portion of Loch-Ericht belongs to this parish. There
are several other lakes, of which Loch-Laggan [see
next article] is the chief. Nearly in the middle of
the parish on a rock, 300 feet in height, part of the
ridge which separates Strathmashie from Glenshirra,
are considerable remains of a fortification ; the walls
are about 9 feet thick, and built with flag-stones with
out mortar. Population, in 1801, 1,333; in 1831,
1,196; in 1841, 1,201. Houses 235. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £4,706 ; in 1843, £6,967.— This parish
is in the presbytery of Abertarff, and synod of Glenelg.
Patron, the Duke of Richmond. Stipend £158 6s.
7d. ; glebe £14. The church is a plain building of
. grey granite of recent erection, surrounded with a
burial-ground and some tall larches, and on the north
side of the Spey, 10 miles from Ardverikie. The old
church is situated on a grassy eminence at the north
east or upper end of the loch. There is a Roman
Catholic chapel on a prominent site in Glenshirra ;
and the majority of the parishioners are Roman Ca
tholics. Schoolmaster's salary, £34.
LAG-GAN (Lhch), a loch in the above parish ; about 8 miles
in length, and from 1 to If mile in breadth. It gives origin, at
its western extremity, to the Spean, which, flowing through
Glenspean, joins the Lochy near where that stream leaves
its parent lake. Although inferior in point of picturesque
beauty to Lock-Arkeg, Loch-Laggan, among the Inverness-
shire lakes, is a beautiful expanse of water ; and the surround
ing mountains are not deficient either in variety of outline, or
in grandeur of form. Its shores are deeply indented, the hills in
some places throwing out long narrow promontories, while in
other places the loch dips in graceful bays over sandy flats. It
is consequently impossible for the eye to catch more than a sec
tion of the loch at one view. We are indebted for the following
description of this loch chiefly to the columns of that spirited
Scottish journal ' The Daily Mail.' Approaching from Fort-
William along the course of the Spean you reach the western
extremity of the loch. The Spean flows sluggishly along the
edge of a sandy mound, which encloses the end of the loch,
and which is so equal in its height, and so smooth and level
on its surface, that it might be mistaken for an artificial em
bankment erected for the purpose of damming back the waters
of the loch. A few straggling peaks of the Ben Nevis' range
of mountains rise upon the view at the distant verge of this
bank, and form a suitable boundary to the west end of the
loch. The road passes close along the northern shore, and
commands an excellent view of the expanse of water and its
adjoining scenery. The south side of the loch is enclosed by
two distinct hills, whose curved ridges rise gradually from the
water's edge towards the west, and drop down in abrupt and
broken lines as they stretch alon^ to the east. These hills are
divided by a spacious corrie, which descends in green slopes
to the side ofLthe loch, and exposes to view a new range of
mountains in me back-ground. The sides of the hills which
rise along the loch are steep and precipitous, but not rudely
so—their declivities being covered with fine natural woods,
consisting chiefly of birch, rowan, alder, and hazel trees, whose
dark foliage intermingled with the brilliant verdure which
clothes the rocks to their summits, impart a warm and culti
vated, rather than a wild and savage aspect to the scene. The
last of the two hills comes to an abrupt termination about
half-way up the loch, as if abashed by the presence of Ard-
verikie-lodge and its Royal inmates, situated some half-mile
or so further on. Around the lodge, and onward to the east
ern extremity of the looh, the land sweeps back in gradually
ascending heights, covered with a mantle of deep green; and
extending backwards, in successive corries, till lost amid the
dark outline of distant hills. This is the forest-ground of
Ardverikie. The aspect of the northern shore differs in some
respects from the southern. It is skirted throughout its whole
length by a range of loftier and wilder hills, which, however,
do not approach the edge of the loch so closely as those on the
opposite side. The intermediate space is occupied chiefly with
huge rough mounds, covered with loose masses of stone, clumps
of trees, and a rather luxuriant under-covering of grass and
bracken. About half-way up the loch, the mountain is cloven
by a deep circular ravine, or corrie, which as it issues from
the hill, opens out into a wide and declivitous expanse of
meadow-land. This green slope, intersected by rows of hazel
and alder-trees, and watered by a streamlet which gushes
from the bottom of the ravine,*is partially cultivated. The
house of Aberairder— the only remaining farm on the borders

of Loch-Laggan— occupies an eminence in the centre, and
still affords an asylum, in this dreary region of deer and muir-
fowl, to the depreciated and persecuted genius of agriculture.
On the road-side, two or three miles beyond Aberairder, stands
Loch-Laggan inn,— a house of respectable exterior. The
houses mentioned, together with a few cottages inhabited by
gamekeepers, scattered over the forest, comprise the whole of
the human dwellings within many miles gf Loch-Laggan.
Yet the ruins of old corn-kilns, and other traces of .social life
and industry, which meet the eye in several quarters, point
back to a time when population was a great deal more nu
merous, Tbe loch is well stored with trout, but, though pos
sessing excellent spawning-ground, salmon are deprived of
access to the lake by a fall in the river 8pean. A proposal to
break down the obstructing rock has not yet been carried into
effect. It was but little known, however, till about twenty
years ago, when the opening of the great Highland road-
from the east to Fort- Willi am afforded easy access to its
shores. Since then it has become invested with the pres
tige of royalty, the hunting -lodge of Ardverikie on its
banks having been chosen as the sojourn of Queen Vic
toria for a few weeks in the months of August and Sep
tember 1847. See Ardverikie, Loch-Laggan is fed by num
berless mountain-torrents, the largest of which, the Paettag,
or Pataig, or Paatack, brings down with it the drainage of a
large tract of country known as Ben-Aulder forest. This
stream, after flowing 6 miles in a NNE. direction, changes its
course by a rapid bend and runs westward into the loch with
an ample current confined for some short distance betwixt
grey precipitous rocks, but making its escape from this gorge
by sweeping over a ledge of rock, with a fall of 8 or 10 feet, in
a broad and almost unbroken stream. Tradition has been
busy with Loch-Laggan and its shores, as with almost every
lake or mountain iu the Highlands. In early ages its beauty,
or the game with which its mountains abounded, attracted
royalty. " Fergus, the first of our kings,"1 long prior to the
time when the Castle of Inverlochy became a royal residence,
made this lake and its mountains the scene of his amusements.
See article Ardverikie. It was across the hills which bound
the northern and eastern shore of Loch-Laggan that " Charlie
and his men ,y marched to meet the army of King George,
when the chivalry of the Highland clans first drew them into
the romantic and generous struggle of *' the 45." It was
among the corries of Ben-Aulder to the south that " the
Prince," as he is called par excellence among thepeople, took
refuge towards the close of his wanderings. Within a few
miles of the lodge where Her Majesty sojourned in 1847, his
solitude and danger, shared by the ancestor of the present
Cluny, the last male descendant of the Stuart dynasty in the
direct line lurked. With a price of £30,000. upon his head,
surrounded by enemies who hunted him like a wild beast,
without followers, and in poverty, Charles relied upon the de
votion which had sacrificed everything for his cause, and re
mained in safety during the last days of his stay in the High
lands. LAGLEY. See Pekgus (St.).
LAIGHWOOD, a barony in the parish of Clunie,
Perthshire ; the property of the Athol family.
LAIRG, or Lajkig, a parish in Sutherlandshire ;
bounded on the north by Farr ; on tbe east by Ro-
gart ; on the south by Criech ; and on the west by
Assynt and Edderachylis. Loch-Shin intersects the
parish throughout nearly its whole extent : see that
article. There are several small lakes in the parish,
which is intersected by five rapid streams. The whole
district is hilly and barren ; and is now almost entirely
turned into sheep-walks. There is 'a good deal of
wood, particularly birch. Population, in 1801, 1,209 ;
in 1831, 1,045 ; in 1841, 913. The gradual decrease
is attributable to emigration. The hamlet of Lairg
numbered 16 houses, and a population of 69 in 1841.
Houses 203. Assessed property, in 1815,' £2,891 ; in
1843, £1,912. — This parish is in the presbytery of
Dornoch, and synod of Sutherland and Caithness.
Patron, the Duke of Sutherland. Stipend £166 13s. ;
glebe £13. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d.— There
are a Pree church and school in the parish, for whose
use a neat suspension-bridge has been erected oyer
the river Shin.
LAMBA, a small island of Shetland, on the north
east coast of the mainland, in Northmaven.
LAMBERTON, a suppressed parish conterminous with the
liberties of Berwick, and now annexed to Mordington, Ber
wickshire. The church stood on an eminence 8 miles north
of Berwick, on the road to Eyemouth, and J of a mile east of
the road to Edinburgh. The site is still marked by part of the
ruin of the outer walls, and is the burying-place of the family
of Renton of Lamberton. The marriage-treaty of the Princess
Margaret of England with James IVT of Scotland stipulated
that she should, without any expense to the bridegroom, be
delivered to the Scottish king's commissioners at Lamberton
church ; and she is said by tradition to have been married.

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here, but really was espoused at Windsor and carried to tho
king at Dalkeith. In 1517 she returned to Lamberton-kirk a
widowed Queen. In 1573 a convention, which led to the siege
of Edinburgh-castle, was made at this church between Lord
Ruthven, and Sir William Durie, the marshal of Berwick.
The parish of Lamberton was small, and anciently belonged
to the monks of Coldingham. After the Reformation it was
annexed to Ayton ; and m 1650 it was disjoined, and united to
Mordington. Lamberton toll-bar— which lies between the
rums ot the church and the line of the North British railway,
but is hid from passengers along the line— for some time vied
with Gretna as a place of inglorious espousals between run
away couples from England.— A 3-feet seam of coal was dis
covered here in 1841-2, which is now working. Limestone and
fireclay also exist in the district.
LAMBHOLME. See Holme-Sound.
LAMERTON. See Lamberton.
LAMTNGTON, a parish in the upper ward of
Lanarkshire, comprehending, the two old parishes of
Lamington, or Lambinstoun, and of Wandel or Hart-
side. On the north it is bounded by Wiston and
Symington; on the west hy Crawford) ohn ; on the
south by Crawford ; and on the east by Culter. The
parish is situated on the east bank of the Clyde, and
bordering on it, and extends nearly 9 miles in length,
by about 4 in breadth. Its form resembles a rectangle,
whose opposite sides are equal. It contains about 1 1,000
imp. acres, or 21"75 sq. miles. There are some fertile
holms in the parish; but its general characteristics
are those of a cold and mountainous, though healthy,
district, as may be known from the fact, that some
of it rises to an elevation of 1,400 feet above the
level of the sea. The superficies contains every va
riety of soil, though none of it is remarkable for rich
ness. A post-office was established in the village of
Lamington in 1839. By charter from Charles I.,
Lamington was erected into a weekly market-town,
with the privilege of holding two fairs in the year ;
but these soon fell into decay ; and the principal busi
ness of the district is now transacted at Biggar. The
parish has good facilities of accommodation, the turn
pike-road from Biggar to Dumfries passing through
it. The village is distant about 12 miles from
Lanark, the county-town, 33 from Edinburgh, and 37
from Glasgow. It is said — though not upon the
most accurate grounds — that the farm of Coldchapel
in Wandel is equidistant from the sea-ports of Annan,
Ayr, Greenock, and Leith ; "so that," as the Old
Statistical Account says, " this parish may be reck
oned in the centre or. heart of the country." There
are several burns or rivulets in the two baronies,
though none of them are worthy of note save from the
beauty they lend to the landscape of this otherwise
bleak district, and the excellent trout-fishing which
they occasionally afford. Population, in 1801, 375 ;
in 1811, 356; in 1821, 359; in 1831, 382; and in
1841, 358 ; with 79 inhabited houses. The decrease
of population, since 1831, is satisfactorily accounted
for by the fact, that the small pendicles have been
generally thrown into large farms. Assessed pro
perty in 1815, £3,335; in 1842-3, as returned to pro
perty and income-tax, £3,667. — The parish is situated
in the presbyteiy of Biggar, and synod of Lothian
and Tweeddale. Patrons, Lord Douglas, and Mr.
Baillie of Lamington, who present alternately. Sti
pend £120 10s. 8d.; glebe £15 10s. The church is
situated on the confines of the two old parishes, and
though it has been more than once repaired, part of
it is of great antiquity. The ' cutty stool,' or stool
of repentance, remained in this kirk longer, perhaps,
than in any other in Scotland, having been only re
moved in 1828. The ' Jouggs' also — which consisted
of an iron collar- attached by a chain to a staple in
the wall, and in which the necks of those who had
been guilty of crime were enclosed, while they re
mained for hours doing penance before the gaze of the
people — were but recently removed. The manse was
built in 1822. Lamington and Wandel were united

into one parish in the 17th century ; and it is recorded,
that in 1642, when a vacancy of the combined charge
took place, a violent quarrel arose between the Earl
of Angus and Baillie of Lamington, ,as to which of
them should enjoy the patronage of the charge. Both
presented different persons to ifc; but after a long
litigation before the presbytery and General assembly,
the latter favoured the claims of Mr. Andrew M'Ghie,
the presentee of the Earl of Angus, and ordained him
to be/Settled. This was resisted by the Lamington
family, and the church record of the time bears, that
"when Mr. Andrew M'Ghie offered to preach, he
was barred by the Ladie Lamingtoune and some
other women, wha possessed the pulpit in a tumultu
ous and disorderly way; and she declared that no
dog of the house of Douglas .should ever bark there V
Por this outrage, this said ' Ladie Lamingtoune,' and
other delinquents, were imprisoned in the tolbooth
of Edinburgh; and her husband, Sir William Baillie,
was fined in 1,000 merks. The right of patronage
caused many a strife between these families after
wards, and it was only settled by the court-of-session
in 1821, after a vacancy of five years, when Lord
Douglas and Mr. Baillie of Lamington were declared
to be the joint patrons, with the right to present
alternately. There were formerly two schools in the
parish; one iii Lamington, and the other in Wandel;
but there is now only one, situated in the village of
the former name. The salary is £25 per annum,
with £10 12s. of school-fees. — There is little of his
torical interest attaching to this parish. During the
reign of David H. the barony of Lamington passed
into the family of Sir William Baillie, who obtained
a charter for it from that king ; and his descendants
have possessed it up to the present time. In the Ap
pendix to Nisbet's Heraldry, it is stated in the account
of this family, that the celebrated Sir William Wal
lace acquired the estate of Lamington by marrying
an heiress, surnamed Broadfoot ; and that Sir William
Baillie obtained it by marrying the eldest daughter
and heiress of Wallace. This statement, however, is
not supported by any authentic authority, and is un
doubtedly incorrect. Sir William Wallace left no
legitimate offspring, but his natural daughter is said
to have married Sir William Baillie of Boprig, the
progenitor of the Baillies of Lamington. Pemale
heirs have often held this estate, but the name has
always been assumed by the gentlemen whom they
have married, and thus it still remains in the family
and name of the Baillies. The barony of Wandel
belonged originally to a family named Garltin, or
Jardine, the predecessors of the Jardines of Apple-
garth in Dumfries-shire ; but in the reign of Charles
I. it passed from them to the family of Douglas, with
whom it still remains, being now held by Lord Dou
glas. Thus there are only two proprietors in the
united parishes of Lamington and Wandel. — There
is a Roman camp at Whitehill near Culter, at one
end of Lamington ; and at the other, at Coldchapel,
there are two Roman camps. There are no ruins of
any note in the parish. The castle or tower of Lam
ington — which was a splendid building of the olden
time, and of unknown antiquity — remained entire till
about 60 years since, when an ignorant factor de
molished it for the purpose of erecting farm-houses,
byres, and stables from the wreck of walls which had
stood the storm and sunshine of 600 years.
LAMLASH, an excellent harbour on the south
east side of the island of Arran, where vessels of
any size, and almost in any number, can safely lie at
anchor. It is sheltered from the sea by the Holy
Isle, which bears 22 miles south \ west from Gir
van; 15 south-south-east from Ayr; and 7 north
east J east from Cumbrae light. On each side of
the Holy Isle there is a good entrance into the bay.

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A rock with only 8 feet water on it at low springs,
lies about a fourth of the way across the southern
entrance, off Kingscross point. There is a small
village of the same name at the bottom of the bay.
See articles, Arran and Kilbride.
LAMMERMOOR- HILLS, a broad range of
moorish heights, stretching eastward from the vale
of Gala-water, in the south-east extremity of Mid-
Lothian, to the German ocean at the promontories
of Fast-castle, Ernscleuch, and St. Abb's-head, in
the parish of Coldingham, Berwickshire. From the
middle of the lofty mountain-range which begins at
Cheviot in Northumberland, and, passing into Scot
land, runs quite across it to Lochryan, — from the
most elevated part of it, called the Louthers or the
Hartfell heights, at the meeting point of the counties
of Dumfries, Lanark, and Peebles, a less lofty and
less remarkable range goes off north eastward, and
tumultuously rolls across Peebles-shire to the vale
of the Gala, and, but for being cloven or ploughed
through by this vale, would, under the name of the
Lammermoor-hills, be continuous to the sea. The
Lammermoors all lie within East-Lothian and Ber
wickshire ; commencing at their extreme western
limit, forming, for two-thirds of their extent, a
southern screen, or belt of uplands to Mid-Lothian,
and constituting — if the Lammermoor part of Lau
derdale be included — nearly one-half of Berwick
shire. The range forms, with the loftier and com
manding chain of the Cheviots and the Louthers,
whence it diverges, the vast triangular basin of the
Tweed, — shuts out from the Ochil-hills a prospect of
the Cheviot range, — and overlooks, stretching away
from its north base, the grand expanse of the great
body of the Scottish Lowlands, till they are pent up
by the stupendous and seemingly impenetrable bar
rier of the far-extending and thousand-summited
Grampians. The Lammermoors are, in themselves,
an extensive curvature of, for the most part, wild,
cheerless, unsightly heights, — nowhere bold and
imposing in aspect, and often subsiding into low roll
ing table-lands, of bleak moor. They were at one
period clothed with forest, and must then have been
as bewildering to the traveller as grandly sylvan in
their vast contribution to the landscape. They still
have natural woods hanging on some of their steeps,
and, in such localities, are warmed out of their chilli
ness of aspect ; but over their summits, and down
their higher slopes, they are almost everywhere
nakedly -dressed in heath. Yet lovers of pastoral
seclusion may find pleasure in gazing on the great
flocks of sheep which tenant their higher grounds ;
while stirring agriculturists will look with glee on
the considerably ascents which have been made by
the plough on their lower declivities. The soil in
nearly all the upper parts is a light peat mould ; and
even in some of the lower parts — as in the parish of
Westruther — it is a swampy moss. But elsewhere
the prevailing peat is mixed with sand and clay, or
gives place to comparatively kindly soil ; and in the
vales and lower slopes, irrigated by the numerous
streams which are collected on the broad ridge, and
coming trottingly to the plains, are belts and expan
ses of fertility, and agricultural, as well as scenic,
beauty. Primary micaceous schist composes the entire
range, not only of the Lammermoors, but ot the
heights which continue it through Peebleshire, till
it joins the metalliferous mountains about the sources
of the Clyde. Lammerlaw, which rises in the parish
of Lauder, and gives name to the whole range, has
an altitude of 1,500 feet. Among other chief or
remarkable summits, according to the measurements
of Blackadderin his survey of Berwickshire, Criblaw
has an elevation of 1,615 feet; Clint-hill, 1,544;
Tippet. knowes, 1,323; Manslaughter-law, 1,273;

Twinlaw-hill, 1,260; Earlston-hill, 1,200; Great
Dirrington-law, 1,145; Ayrhouse-hill, 1,054; Be-
merside-hill, 1,011; and Cockburn-law, 912: see
Berwickshire. '
LANARK, a parish in the Upper Ward of the
county of the same name, and situated nearly in the
centre of that shire. It lies along the eastern bank
of the Clyde, which divides it from Pittenain and
Carmichael on the south, and from Lesmahago on
the west. Carluke bounds it on the north, and Car-
stairs on the east. It is of an irregular form, is fully
6 miles in length, and varies from 3 to 5 in breadth.
With the exception of the precipitous and highly
romantic banks of the Clyde and the Mouse, the land
of the parish generally consists of an elevated level,
the highest parts being the moors of Lanark and Lee,
which are about 760 feet above the sea-level. There
are no hills in the parish which deserve the name.
The soil, which lies upon a substratum of old red sand
stone, of different degrees of thickness, is very vari
able in quality. The orchard husbandry is practised
in this parish, but not extensively; and terms of late
years have been so unremunerating, that this branch
of industry is more likely to decline in future than to
increase. The total amount of produce in the parish
has been estimated at < about £25,000 per annum.
The country is beautifully diversified with timber,
consisting both of old natural wood, and of modern
plantation ; and in the former respect the estates of
Lee, Bonnington, and Cleghorn, are richly orna
mented. The banks, too, of the Clyde and Mouse,
are beautifully fringed with natural wood and plan
tation. In the vicinity of the mansion of Lee, are
two trees, which are celebrated in the district alike
for their age and size. The first is a majestic oak,
understood to be one of the few remains of the olden
Caledonian forest ; it is called the Pease tree, is 60
feet in height, 30 in circumference, and though it
still continues to bourgeon and blossom, the effects
of time have carved out such a hollow in the trunk,
that ten persons have been able to squeeze them
selves into the cavity. The other is a splendid larch,
whose-branches tower to the height of 100 feet, with
a circumference of trunk of 18 feet, and is altogether
one of the most gigantic specimens of the kind in the
country. Regarding the salubrity of Lanark, the
following statement, made half-a-century ago by Mr.
William Lockhart of Baronald, in the Old Statistical
Account, is still perfectly applicable. He says : 
" This parish, from its high, dry, and airy situation,
is perhaps as healthy a one as in Scotland. Being
situated in the centre of the island, it is equally free
from the eastern fogs and the violence of tbe western
rains, so that the air is always pure and clear. The
climate, although drier than about Glasgow, or even
Hamilton, is certainly somewhat wetter than about
Edinburgh, but is more than compensated by tht
absence of the eastern fogs, so disagreeable in the
neighbourhood of .that city. Spring droi'ghts fre
quently retard the crops very considerably, and some
times spring frosts. Heavy rains in July and August,
which are pretty common here, have a similar effect
in keeping back the harvest; but in general the
crops are earlier than in the neighbouring parishes,
and even more so than those lying much lower and
further down the Clyde." Although in the imme
diate vicinity of the great western coal-field, Lanark
may be said to be entirely destitute of the more valu
able kind of minerals. There is a post-office situ
ated in the town of Lanark, and the parish enjoys
the most ample means of communication, possessing
15 miles of turnpike-road. There are stage-coaches
to and from Edinburgh and Glasgow daily in summer,
and less frequently in winter. There are here two
bridges over the Clyde one of them called the Old

LANARK.

207

bridge, about a mile below the town, and a very mid
dling structure, built in the 17th century ; the other
called the Hyndford bridge, fully 2 miles from the
town, is a modern erection of great lightness and
elegance. There are five bridges over the Mouse ;
and one of these, the Cartlane bridge, which was
constructed about 18 years ago by the celebrated
Telford, is remarkable for its beauty and boldness of
design.. It has three arches, of 52 feet span each ;
the height from the channel of the stream to the para
pet is 1 25 feet, and to the spring of the arch it is 84.
The parish contains the ancient royal burgh of Lan
ark, and the large and thriving manufacturing village
of New-Lanark, which will be found noticed under
their respective heads. The gross population of the
parish was, in 1801, 4,692 ; in 1811, 6,067; in 1821,
7,085; in 1831, 7,672; and in 1841, 7,666. As
sessed property, £9,715. Houses, in 1831, 824.
This parish contains some of the most beautiful
objects of river scenery in the kingdom, viz., the falls
of Bonnington, Corra Linn, and Stonebyres, which,
when "summer days are prime," court and receive
the visits of tourists from many lands ; but for a full
description of these, the reader is referred to the
article Clyde. Cartland Crags form a very beauti
ful feature in the natural phenomena of the parish of
Lanark, and are nearly as much visited by tourists
as the falls themselves : see Cartland Crags.
A few years ago, the elegant bridge already noticed,
of three arches, was erected, and spans the chasm at
its lower extremity. The architecture is entirely in
keeping with the scenery around, and adds the orna
ment of art to the majesty and beauty of nature.
•The parish is situated in the presbytery of Lanark,
and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the Crown.
Further particulars regarding its ecclesiastical state
will be found in the next article.
There are few historical details connected with the
parish which do not more properly belong to the
town. The old Roman road passes through it, and
the remains of a Roman station are still visible in a
park in the neighbourhood of Cleghorn-house. The
ingenious General Roy conceives that this camp was
the work of Agricola. It extended 600 yards in
length, by 420 in breadth, and would afford accom
modation for two legions on the Polybian establish
ment, or 10,500 men. On Lanark moor, on the side
of the Mouse opposite to Cleghorn, another small ex
ploratory camp on the Romans is situated. The great
Roman road alluded to, and well-known by the name
of Watling-street, traverses this moor; from thence
it passes the Mouse a little to the east of Cleghorn
bridge, then through the enclosures at Cleghorn,
leaving Agricola's camp on the right, and from thence
by Collylaw, Kilcadzow, Coldstream, and Zuilshields,
to Balstane, near Carluke. About a mile north of
the burgh, and perched upon tbe very brink of Cart-
lane Craigs, 200 feet above the bed of the stream, are
seen the remains of a curious old stronghold, called
by some Castledykes, and by others the castle of the
Quaw. Nothing is known of the date of its erec
tion, or of its object. The picturesque ruins of
a lofty tower occupy a prominent situation on the
hanks of the Mouse. It is called Castlehill, and the
Lockharts of Cambusnethan take their title from it.
Tbe most ancient families in the parish are those of
Lee and Cleghorn ; but the names of many eminent
and remarkable men have been associated with it.
Sir, William Wallace resided in it, after his marriage
with the heiress of Lamington. The Rosses of La
mington are the representatives, in the female line, of
this olden family, and in their mansion-house at Bon
nington, in the parish of Lanark, are preserved some
interesting relics of the patriot, which were brought
from the old castle of Lamington. There is a por

trait of the hero, which is averred by tradition to be
a very correct likeness. There is also a heavy oaken
seat, which has been known for many generations by
the name of ' Wallace's chair;' and the large posts
which compose its frame-work have a sufficiently
ancient appearance so far as to justify the tradition.
The third relic is an ancient drinking cup, composed
of oak, with a silver hoop round the rim, and one of
the oldest known to exist in the country. It is
called ' Wallace's quaich.'* Sir William Lockhart
of Lee, a great statesman and general under tbe
Protector Cromwell, and under Charles II., and who
was at the same time Lord- justice-clerk, was born
in the parish, and received the rudiments of his edu
cation in Lanark school. Dr. William Smellie, the
celebrated accoucheur, and author of the treatise on
Midwifery, was born in the neighbouring parish of
Lesmahago, but educated at Lanark ; and the learn
ed and ingenious General Roy, who was born in the
neighbouring parish of Carluke, was also educated
here. Dr. Smellie bequeathed to the school his
valuable library, with £200 to provide a room for its
accommodation. William Lithgow, the noted tra
veller, was born in the parish, and set out from it in
early life, returning to it after a lapse of many years,
frightfully maimed and disfigured in body, and shat
tered in constitution, the result of cruel treatment
in those foreign countries in which he had travelled.
He died here, and was buried in Lanark churchyard,
but no vestige of his ' tomb can now be traced.
Robert Macqueen, the late Lord-justice-clerk of
Scotland, better remembered for brutality and heart-
lessness on the bench than for his ability, was born,
and received his early education in the parish. He
took his senatorial title of Lord Braxfield from his
estate of that name in the neighbourhood of Lanark.
The estate of Jerviswood, the patrimonial inherit
ance of Baillie the martyr, is situated here, and it is
recorded that he found concealment in a recess in the
mansion-house from the ruthless soldiery who pur
sued him. Sir John Lockhart Ross, so justly dis
tinguished for his naval exploits, was born in Car-
stairs, but became connected with this parish by his
marriage with Lady Ross Baillie, by whom he ac
quired the charming property of Bonnington. He
built the present mansion-house, and frequently
resided in it. The pious David Dale, who deserves
an honourable niche in the historical annals of the
parish, from his having founded the village and cot
ton manufactory of New-Lanark. He is still spoken
of with much affection by the elders of the village.
His son-in-law, Robert Owen, the founder of the
new code called the " Social System," is also well-
known in the parish, from his having been the mana
ger and part proprietor of the New-Lanark works,
which he finally left in 1827, not, however, until he
had made an abortive attempt to introduce the prac
tice of that system which he promulgated for the
renovation of society.
The celebrated Zee Penny is deposited at Lee-
house, a fine old mansion, modernized within the last
few years in the castellated form, and the seat of Sir
Norman Macdonald Lockhart, baronet, the represen
tative of a long and illustrious line of ancestors. In
the olden time, this stone or penny was held in great
repute from the medicinal virtues which were attri
buted to it, not only for healing the diseases of bes
tial, but for its effects in restoring the human species
* The silver hoop alluded to bears the following inscription :
At Torwood I was cut fiom that known tree,
Where Wallace from wanes toyls took sanctarie.
For Mar's sonnes I'm only now made fitt.
When with the sonnes of Bacchus they shall silt.
Sir Walter Scott mentions having examined the roots of this
celebrated tree in early life. They were all that then remained.

208

LANARK.

from disease and danger. This ancient relic is a
small triangularly shaped stone, of what kind lapida
ries are unable to determine, and is set in a silver
coin, which from the appearance of a cross upon it,
is supposed to be a shilling of Edward I. The way
of applying the remedy was by drawing the stone
once round and dipping it three times in a goblet
of water, of which the patient drank, or applied the
liquid to the wound. This process was known by
the phrase of three dips and a sweil. This talisman
has been in the family of the Lockharts of Lee ever
since the days of Robert the Bruce, and according to
well-authenticated tradition it came into their pos
session in the following manner : — Sir Simon Locard
of Lee accompanied the good Sir James Douglas in
his mission to deposit the heart of the Bruce in the
Holy Land ; and to defray his expenses, a deed still
in existence, dated 1323, shows that he borrowed a
sum of money from Sir William de Lindsay, prior of
Ayre, to whom he gave an annuity bond for £10
over his lands of Lee. From Sir Simon's services in
this mission, the name of Locard was changed to
Lock-heart or Lockhart, and the armorial bearings
of the family show a heart within a lock, and the
motto, Corda serata pando. Although the good Sir
James Douglas was killed fighting with the infidels
in Spain, Sir Simon made his way to the Holy Land,
and in the course of his encounters there took pri
soner a Saracen chief, for whose liberty a large sum
of money was offered by his lady. In counting out
the amount of the ransom-money, the lady dropped
this gem from amongst it, and evincing great eager
ness to pick it up, the Scottish knight made inquiry
regarding it, and reluctantly these were explained,
upon which Sir Simon declared that it must form
part of the ransom, otherwise the Saracen chief
would remain in his fetters. Her affection for her
husband being stronger than her regard for the talis
man, the lady yielded it up, and it has ever since

remained the property of the Lockhart family. The
house of Lee used often to be resorted to by the
diseased to be healed by its virtues, and more than
once the Lee penny has been lent to~individuals or
public bodies for the same purpose, but always for a
short period, and upon due security being given for
its safe return. In the reign of Charles I., when the
plague was- raging in Newcastle, the corporation ob
tained the loan of the Lee penny, and gave a bond of
£6,000 in security. Its effects seem to have been
extremely beneficial, for the corporation were dis
posed to forfeit the bond, and retain the stone ; but
the laird of Lee would not agree to this appropria
tion, and his penny was accordingly returned. On
another occasion, about the beginning of last century,
it was applied for by the husband of a Lady Baird of
Saughtonhill, near Edinburgh, and was exhibited in
her case with great efficacy. The lady had been
bitten by a rabid dog, and symptoms of hydrbphobia
are said to have commenced before the magic stone
arrived; but by drinking the water in which it had
been dipped, and by bathing her in it, Lady Baird
was completely restored ! The coin, to which a
small silver chain is attached, is preserved in a gold
box, the gift of the Empress Maria Theresa to the
father of the celebrated Count Lockhart. The Lee
penny has been beautifully introduced by Sir Walter
Scott in his novel of ' The Talisman.' Up to a
very late period, the supposed virtues of this ancient
relic were occasionally called into requisition, espe
cially by the peasantry, and its effects were often
those which have been ascribed to it; but it is now
well known that where a cure was performed the
patient was more indebted for it to his imagination
than to the Lee penny.*
* The using of the Lee penny was nt one time the subject of

Lanark, a royal burgh, and capital of the par-
ish and of the upper ward of the* county of the
same name, is beautifully situated upon a rising
slope of ground, about 300 feet above the level
of the Clyde, adjacent to the town, and about
650 feet above the level of the same river at Glas
gow. It is situated in 55° 34' of N. latitude,
and 3° 5' of W. longitude. It is nearly in the centre
of the Lowlands, being 25 miles distant from Glas
gow, 31 from Edinburgh, 35 from Stirling, and 47
from Ayr. It is one of the most ancient burghs in
Scotland, and was in the days of our fathers a place
of much 'greater importance than at the present time,
as may be learned from the fact of which we are in
formed by Buchanan, that, in 978, Kenneth II. held
a parliament or assembly at Lanark, which is the
first mentioned in history. At a very early date,
but when no record exists to tell, it was accorded
the importance of a royal town, and Malcolm IV.,
in granting a toft in Lanark, mentions it as in burgo
mto; and his successor, William, speaks of it in the
same terms. According to the best authority, how
ever, Lanark was erected into a royal burgh as early
as the reign of Robert I., who, in the fourth year of
his reign, granted it a charter, which is confirmed by
the latest charter in favour of the burgh, granted by
Charles I. The burgh had obtained charters from
monarchs subsequent to Robert, containing special
privileges, and these are also confirmed in the char
ter of Charles I. In the reign of David II., LanarK
had attained such importance that it was enacted by
a parliament held at Perth in 1348, that while the
burghs of Berwick and Roxburgh continued in the
possession of the English, the burghs of Lanark and
Linlithgow should be admitted in their place, as
members of the court of four burghs. The charter
of Charles I. is not now in existence, but the instru
ment of sasine is among the records of the town.
From the precept of sasine the charter appears to
have conveyed or confirmed to the burgh large landed
property, which is particularly described. A consi
derable portion ot this property is alienated, but a
large portion still remains. By the charter — besides
the usual privileges of a royal burgh in regard to
fairs and customs — there is granted a right of sheriff
ship within the territory of the burgh. There is
also specially renewed a grant of Queen Mary made
to the royal burghs, and each of them, " Pro auxilio
suorum burgofum et sustentatione eorum ministrorum,
et pauperum," of the rents, altarages, and chapels
within the liberties of the burghs. Further, there
are granted to the provost, bailies, councillors, and
community of the burgh certain lands, gardens,

inquiry before the church-courts, and the following extract
from the minutes of the period may be interesting : —
" Copy of an act of the Synode and Assembly apud Glas
gow, the 25th of October, Syuode session 2d.
" Ouliilk daye amongest the referies of the brethern of the
ministrie of Lanark, it was propondit to the Synode that Gawen
Hammiltoune of Raploch had preterit ane complaint before
them against Sir Thomas Lockhart of Lee, anent the supersti
tious using of ane stone, set in silver, for the curing of deseased
eattel, qulk the said Ganen affirmed cuuld not belawfullieused,
and that they had delerit tn give any dcsisioune tlierin till the
advise of the Assemblie might be heard concerning the same.
The Aseetnblie having inquerit of the matter of using therof,
and particular)}? understood be examinatioune of the said laird
of Lie and otherwise, that the custom is oulie to cast the stune
in sume water, and give the deseasit eattel therof to drink, and
yt the same is dune wt-out using onie wordes, such as charm
ers use in their unlawful practi6ses— and considering that in
nature there are munie thinges sein to work strange effect, qrof
no humane witt can give a reason, it having pleasit God to
give unto stones and herbes a special virtues for the healling of
mony iunrinities iu mau and beast — aud advises the brethern
to surcease thair process, as qr-in they.perseive no ground of
offence — aud admouishes tlie said Laird of Lie in the using of
the said stone, to tak heid it be usit heir after wt the least
scandall that poBsihlie may be  Extract out of the bookes of
the Assemblie holden at Glasgow, and subscribed by thair clerk
at thair cuinmand. — Mr. Robert Young, clerk to the Assemblie
at Glasgow."

LANARK.

20.9

houses, tofts, &c. within the burgh, which had be
longed to the preaching friars, and certain altarages,
named and described, with the right and patronage
and presentation of the hospital of St. Leonard, for
the benefit of the poor within the burgh. Lanark,
too, lays claim to having been at one time a royal
residence, though it is long since all traces of its site
have passed away. Upon a small hill between the
town and the river, the royal castle is said to have
stood; and that such did exist within the precincts
of the town is not to be doubted, from the fact of
William the Lion having dated from ifc, in 1197, the
charter to the burgh of Ayr; and further, history
informs us that the castle or castelany of Lanark
was mortgaged as part of the security for the jointure
of the niece of Philip of France in the marriage ne
gotiated between her and the son and heir of John
Baliol. We also learn that, in the 13th century,
the stronghold of Lanark was in the possession of
the English. It is long, however, since Lanark has
eeased to be regarded otherwise than as a pretty,
quiet, healthful, rural town, attracting, in summer,
many tourists, from its proximity to the romantic
Falls of Clyde, and whose inhabitants are supported
principally by a small share of manufactures, and the
trade of the surrounding country population.
It consists principally of one main line of street,
bearing respectively the names of the High-street
and Westport, with several lanes diverging on either
side, and the parish-church occupying a prominent
position nearly in the centre of the town, in the
niche over the eastern door of which is placed a co
lossal statue of the patriot Wallace, cut by the sculp
tor Forrest. Although they may be snug enough
within, there are few of the houses which have any
pretensions to elegance of appearance without, and
many of them are still covered with thatch, accord
ing to tbe custom generally prevalent in the old
Scottish towns in the last century. Many of the
shops in the principal street, however, have a pol
ished and tasteful appearance ; but the most tasteful
erections within it are, the Clydesdale hotel, the
principal inn, and the property of a company of share
holders ; the Deautiful building erected a few years
ago by the Commercial bank for the accommodation
of their braneh here; and the county-buildings, con
taining the county-offices in front, and the jail for
the upper ward behind. The latter is a very chaste
and graceful structure, built in the Grecian style, the
foundation-stone of which was laid in March, 1834,
and the erection completed in 1836. Previous to
this, the old prison of Lanark excited the derision
of every one, from its being such an exact repre
sentation of a small Scotch burghai prison of the
olden time, where neither criminal nor debtor was
found to remain longer within its walls than suited
their own convenience. The town is lighted with
gas prepared at a work erected in 1832, at a place
called Steel's cross in the western outskirts of the
town. The principal industrial occupation is hand-
loom weaving, at which about 800 persons are em
ployed within the town, and when this is mentioned,
it may be at the same time understood that their
circumstances are of the poorest kind, from the re
cent painful depression of this once flourishing and
vigorous, but now wretchedly depressed branch of
trade. The writer of the New Statistical Account
says: " The misery they have suffered has had the
unhappy, but too common effect of plunging some
of them [the weavers] into careless and dissipated
habits; but the majority are well-behaved and in
telligent men, and bear their hardships with com
mendable patience." As a proof of the downhill
course of this unfortunate profession, he adds tlje
following facts: "On Martinmas fair day, 1812, a
II

general strike took place and continued for nine
weeks, because a certain description of work, 1200 pul
licates, fell from 8d. to 6d. per yard. For the last
three years the same description of work has been,
upon an average, at l^d. Accustomed at the former
period to better days, the weaver believed that 6d.
was too low a rate to afford him a livelihood, and it
is only because it came upon them gradually that
they have been able to survive the present depres
sion. Forced by the pressure of immediate wants,
they are accustomed to put their children of both
sexes upon the loom at the early age of nine or
twelve, by which means their numbers are continu
ally augmenting, and the evil is increased." Shoe-
making is a much more thriving branch of business,
at which about 100 persons are engaged in the town,
chiefly for the supply of the Glasgow market, and a
few are also made for foreign export. There are
three breweries, in which business is done to some
extent; and there are also three mills, two of them
for grinding flour, chiefly for the supply of the town
and neighbourhood. Upwards of 100 females are
employed in flowering or embroidering lace, for which
the remuneration is very small; but nevertheless it
contributes materially to enable the humbler classes
to eke out a scanty subsistence. There are none of
the other trades sufficiently extensive, or character
istic of the place, to require notice. There are two
markets held weekly in the town, on Tuesdays and
Saturdays, and there are seven fairs annually, for the
sale of black cattle, lambs, and horses. By the cen
sus returns of 1841, the population of the burgh of
Lanark, exclusive of the parish, is 4,818.
The inhabitants are in general an orderly and most
respectable class of people, and from the excellence
of the seminaries amongst them, their mental status
is much more elevated than their worldly position.
Annually, numbers of the younger inhabitants hive
off to Glasgow and elsewhere in search of a wider and
more remunerative field for their industry, and in
their new professions it has been generally found
that they exercise all the probity and industry of a
semi-rural life. Within the town there is a savings'
bank established in 1815, religious societies, bene
volent societies, and a library. The amusements of
the inhabitants are generally of a very innocent and
primitive kind, and in cases where crime has been
perpetrated within the town or parish, it most gen
erally happens that the guilty party is not a native.
These amusements consist of following the old cus
tom of riding the marches, which is done annually
upon the day after Whitsunday fair, by the magis
trates, burgesses, and inhabitants generally. It is
called here the Lanemar, Landsmark, or Langemark
day, probably from the Saxon word langemark. At
all events the custom is of Saxon origin, and is be
lieved to have been established in Lanark in the
reign of, or somewhat posterior to the reign of, MaU
colm I. One of the march or boundary stones is
placed within the channel of the river Mouse, and
for the purpose of impressing the boundaries of the
burgh on the minds of those who attend the proces
sion for the first time, it is not unusual to duck them,
or at least as many as will submit to the immersion,
in the stream. The day is generally observed as a
gala, and horse and foot races, with other rustic
sports, are held on the moor. Until within these
last thirty years, another great annual festivity in
the town of Lanark, and which had been observed
from time immemorial, was the Candlemas proces
sion of the scholars of the grammar-school. On this
occasion the youth who presented the teacher with
the largest gratuity or offering was called the king,
and upon the Saturday before Palm Sunday, he
walked through the town surrounded by his guards
O

210

LANARK.

and other school-fellows, bearing large and small
branches of a willow kind, ornamented with daffo
dils, mezereon, and box tree.
The sheriff-substitute for the upper ward holds
his court at Lanark, and here the member of parlia
ment for the county is nominated, and the return
made. The town itself, which is governed by a
provost and bailies, aided by the council, joins with
Falkirk, Hamilton, Airdrie, and Linlithgow, in choos
ing a burgh representative. According to the recent
report of the Parliamentary commissioners, the pro
perty of the burgh amounted in gross value to
£25,784 Is. 2d., consisting of lands, houses, a mill,
feu-duties, a common of 500 acres, an extensive
plantation, six shares in the Clydesdale hotel, &c. ;
and at the same period, in 1831, the yearly revenue
amounted to £927 18s. 8£d. In 1839, it had in
creased to £1,158. At the time of the report the
debt amounted to £8.027, and the commissioners
do not give much credit to the parties under whose
managi.ment it was contracted. It has almost all
grown into existence since the beginning of the
present century.* Since that period, however, the
affairs of the burgh have been placed under a more
judicious management, and they have improved ac
cordingly. For more than two centuries, the keep
ing of the weights and measures for Scotland was
committed to the care of the town of Lanark. The
old act of the 20th June, 1617, bears, "in respect
that the keeping and outgiving of the weights of old
to the burrows and others, &c. was committed to
the burgh of Lanark," the "care of the weights"
should be again intrusted to it. These olden na
tional standards are still preserved, and bear the
arms of the burgh, viz. a spread eagle with two
beads. They were measured by Professor Robison
in 1790, and again a few year's afterwards, for the
purpose of adjusting the standards of Edinburgh.
The pound weight was then discovered to have lost
about 7 grains English troy, giving 7,613 grains
instead of 7,620 grains, which it should have con
tained by the act of parliament. Even with this
error, however, the Lanark standard was better as
certained than any in Europe, with the exception of
that at Brussels. A new set of standard weights
were transmitted from London to Lanark at the time
of the Union, and are of very beautiful workman
ship, bearing the following date : " Primo Maii Anno
Dom. 1707  A. R  An. Regni VI." The act of
1826, by legalizing the Imperial standard, has super
seded the old national weights committed to the
keeping of Lanark, and they are now only retained
as relics which the burgh would be sorry to part
with. The early ecclesiastical history of Lanark is not
nevoid of interest. The ancient parish-church was
dedicated to Kentigern, the founder of the episco
pate of Glasgow, and the patron saint ; but it does
not appear at what time, or by whom, it was erected,
although it is known to have been in existence at
the beginning of the 12th century. The large bell,
which swung in it for centuries, and was afterwards
removed to the present parochial church, had upon
it three several dates, showing the various periods
at which it had been refounded, one of them so far
* Mr. _ William Lockhart of Baronald, the compiler of the
Old Statistical Account, gives the following curious remarks,
and the result would prove, that whatever faults may be charge
able against the Lanark magistrates of former times, that of
indebting the burgh good was not one of them. "The manners
of the inhabitants," says he, "as to diet and drink, are consi
derably changed within these twenty years, which may be ex
emplified from the public entertainments of the magistrates.
Formerly their debauch was a moderate meal, with a few bot
tles of ale or porter, and a dram or two ; and in gala days a
little punch. Now they have superb entertainments, with
punch, port, aud even claret.1'

back as 1 1 1 0. This old church, the ruins of which,
now sadly dilapidated, stand about a quarter of a
mile south-east from the town, has been an elegant
Gothic building of hewn stone, divided in the middle
from end to end, by a wall supported upon pillars,
forming five or six fine arches, and around it is the
burial-ground and cemetery where the " rude fore
fathers" of the town and parish for many generations
repose. From Blind Harry's Metrical history of the
exploits of Sir William Wallace, it would appear
that in these days this was the only church in the
town; for in 1297, he makes his hero pass
" On from the kirk that was without the town."
This church, with its tithes and pertinents, was
granted by David I. in 1150 to the monastery which
he had previously founded at Dryburgh. At Cleg
horn, in the same parish, there existed in the 12th
century, a chapel, which the canons of Dryburgh
claimed as belonging to the church of St. Kentigern
at Lanark, and their right to it was affirmed by ec
clesiastical commissioners appointed by the Pope to
decide the question. This parish-church, with all
its pertinents, &c. was retained by the canons of
Dryburgh till the Reformation, and till then they
enjoyed the rectorial revenues, a vicarage having
been established for serving the cure. Besides the
chapel at Cleghorn, there were various others in the
parish. The Templars possessed some lands at East
Nemphlar, and erected a chapel there, the ruins of
which recently stood about a mile and half north
west from the burgh. Within the town a chapel
was dedicated to St. Nicholas, which at one time
contained four different altars. One of these was
dedicated to the Virgin, and called ' Our Lady's
altar;' another was consecrated to the holy blood of
our Saviour, and called the ' Haly bluid altar ;' a
third was dedicated to St. Catherine ; and a fourth
to St. Michael. About half-a-mile east from the
town stood St. Leonard's hospital, in connexion with
which a chapel was also founded, which served not
only the hospital, but the people upon the estate-
which supported it. Several of these chapels were
well-endowed; and among others it may be men
tioned that Stephen Lockhart of Cleghorn, granted
in mortmain the place of Clydesholm, with the pro
fits arising from the passage-boat upon the Clyde,
for the support of a chaplain at the altar of St.
Catherine, in St. Nicholas chapel, at Lanark, and
this grant was confirmed by the king in 1491. The
lands attached to St. Leonard's were, after the Re
formation, formed into a parish of the same name;
but by act of parliament in 1609, St. Leonard'^ kirk,
with the greater portion pf the territory belonging
to it, was incorporated with the parish of Lanark,
and the edifice fell into ruins. Almost all the cha
pels in the parish having been ruined by the fer
ment of the Reformation, and the lands and tithes
having passed into various hands, the old parish-
church of St. Kentigern remained the principal,
if not the only place of worship in the parish,
after, however, having been stripped of all the re
lics of its former priests. In February, 1589-90,
the presbytery taking this matter into consideration,
resolved that "the kirk of Lanark should be re
moved from the auld place to a situation within the
town;" but notwithstanding of this resolution, the
kirk, or its ruins at least, still remain in the ' auld
place ;' and continued to be regarded as the parish-
church till 1777, when the present edifice was built
in the centre of the town. Before this period, how
ever, the church of St. Kentigern had become ruin
ous, and the inhabitants of the town attended wor
ship in the chapel of St. Nicholas, which had passed
into the bands of the magistrates at the time of the

LANARK.

211

Reformation. From the time of Charles II. till 1 750,
tbe patronage of the parish was claimed and exer
cised by the Lockharts of Lee ; but about that time
a contest took place concerning the right of patron
age, which was now claimed not only by Lockhart
of Lee but by the Crown, the town of Lanark,
and Lockhart of Cleghorn. Presentees were simul
taneously presented by the Crown, and the Laird of
Lee, and as the populace favoured the claims of the
Crown, some unruly tumults took place, and several
of the rioters were tried by the court-of-justiciary,
and punished. The question of the right of patron
age came before the Court-of-session, which decided
it in favour of Lockhart of Lee ; but upon being ap
pealed to the House of Lords, the decision of the
iower court was reversed, and the patronage has
since been exercised by the Crown. The parish-
church, as has been stated, was built in 1777, and it
underwent an extensive repair in 1834. At the
period of its erection it was contracted that it should
be seated for 2,300 sitters ; that number, how
ever, cannot be accommodated. The stipend, paid
by 199 heritors, amounts to £305 8s. lOd. ; glebe
£15. Unappropriated teinds £585 Is. 2d. An
ciently very elegant silver communion-cups were
presented to the parish-church by the Laird of
Lee; and Lady Ross Baillie also gifted to it a
handsome baptismal bason, a clock, a pair Of stoves,
&c. Previous to the institution of a quoad sacra
church and parish within the bounds of Lanark,
a missionary in connection with the Establishment
used generally to officiate at New Lanark  The
United Secession congregation was formed in 1791,
in which year the church was built, to accommodate
690 sitters. The minister has £100 per annum, with
a manse and garden  The first Relief congrega
tion was formed in 1 794, and in the following year
a church, which now accommodates 1,085 sitters,
was built at an expense of more than £1,200. It has,
however, been since repaired, and is considered to
be worth £1,400. Stipend £150 per annum, with
an advance of 7£ per cent, on every £100 of the
congregational debt which is paid off. — The second
Relief congregation was established in 1836, when a
church, to accommodate about 800 persons, was built
at an expense of about £1,000. Stipend £120 per
annum  The Original Burgher congregation was
established about 1827; and the church, for the ac
commodation of 275 sitters, was built in 1829, at an
expense of nearly £400  An Old Independent
congregation was established at New Lanark more
than 50 years since, but the numbers are still,
and have always been, inconsiderable  There are
altogether 12 schools in the parish, at which the
ordinary branches are taught. Formerly the princi
pal, or grammar-school of Lanark, enjoyed consider
able reputation, anil attracted scholars from parts far
beyond the bounds of the parish, but although it has
fallen off somewhat in this respect, it is still a most
respectable and well-conducted seminary. The sal
ary of the rector is £40 per annum, with about the
same amount accruing from school -fees, and £20
annually arising from the office of session-clerk. The
salary of the usher or assistant is £20. There are
28 bursaries connected with this school, of various
degrees of value, but after the school-fees are paid,
they may generally leave from £2 to £3 each for the
benefit and support of the boys who enjoy them.
The magistrates are the patrons. Nine of them
were founded in .1648, by Mr. John Carmichael,
commissary of Lanark, who mortgaged the lands of
Batiesmains for their endowment. The others were
endowed at various times by the family of Mauldslie,
one of the Earls of Hyndford, and a chamberlain
named Thomson. A free-school for the education

of 50 poor children was founded in the town some
years ago by a lady named Wilson, who mortgaged
£1,200 for the purpose.
Lanark is celebrated in Scottish history, especially
in the chronicles of Fordun and Blind Harry, as being
the scene of the first exploits of the patriot Wallace.
The accounts of this early part of his career are some
what obscure ; but the popular belief and tradition
is, that the insolence and oppression of the English
sheriff of Lanarkshire, William de Hesliope, having
become insupportable, Wallace joined or instigated
a rising of his countrymen, and, defeating the common
enemy, put the obnoxious sheriff to death in the town
of Lanark. The time of this occurrence is laid in
1297. Blind Harry, who enters fully into this de
tail, relates that Wallace having married a lady of
the name of Braidfoot, the heiress of Lammington,
lived with her privately at Lanark, and that while
there a scuffle ensued in the street between Wallace
and his friends and a body of Englishmen. The
patriot, having been overpowered, fled, first to his
own house and then to Cartlane Craigs, upon which
the sheriff, Hesliope or Hesilrig, seized his wife, and
put her to death. In revenge for the deep injury he
had sustained Wallace gathered a party of his friends,
attacked Hesliope in the night, and- killed him with
240 of his band. Tradition informs us that the
house in which Wallace resided was at the head -of
the Castlegate, opposite the church ; and that a pri
vate vaulted archway led from this house to Cartlane
Craigs ; but the truth of the latter tradition seems
extremely questionable. In 1310 the garrison was
delivered up to Robert Bruce, when the town was
finally freed from the presence of the English. Lan
ark is next noticed in history in connection with the
Covenanters, who, on 12th January, 1682, entered
the town, and affixed a declaration to the market-
cross, denouncing the king, Charles II., as perjured,
excommunicating him, and renouncing their alle
giance. For this bold deed the privy- council fined
the town in 6,000 merks, and issued processes against
the landed proprietors, for not having seized the in
surgents, or prevented the indignity which they had
offered to the King. William Hervie and some other
persons were soon after executed for their partici
pation in publishing the Lanark declaration, or for
having been present at Bothwell brig. Hervie's
grave is still pointed out in the churchyard.
Lanark gives the title of Earl to the noble house
of Hamilton. William, the 2d Duke, who died of
the wounds he received at the battle of Worcester,
was created Earl of Lanark in 1639.
LANARK (New),' a large and handsome manu
facturing village, situated on the right bank of the
Clyde, about a mile above the town, and in the par
ish of Lanark. It is the creation of the late philan
thropic and enterprising David Dale, who, in 1784,
feued the site of the mills and the village, and a
quantity of ground around them, from the late Lord-
justice-clerk, Braxfield. At that time the spot was
little more than a morass situated in a shelving dell,
but the inventive founder soon saw that the site
might be turned to great advantage by diverting the
waters of the Clyde into a power for the moving of
machinery. The first -mill was begun in 1785, and
a subterraneous passage of about 300 feet in length
was hewn through a rocky mount for the purpose of
an aqueduct.* The height of the fall of water is 28
* The Old Statistical Account says, " In September, 17S5,
while digging the open part of this aqueduct, there uas found
the skeleton of tlie Bison Scoticus, or urus, described by Caesar,
Lib. VI., which has beeu extinct in Scotland for above SOO
years. The cores or flints of the horns are still preserved, one
in the College of Glasgow, and another in iny possession [Mr.
Lockhart of Baronald j ; the last, though not entire, is 2 feet in
length, and next the head measures above 15 inches in circum
ference."

212

LANARKSHIRE.

feet. In 1788 a second mill was built, and was
nearly roofed in, when the first was totally consumed
by an accidental fire, but it speedily rose from its
ashes, and was rebuilt and ready for the machinery
in 1789. Since then various extensions have been
made, until it is now the most extensive cotton
manufacturing establishment in the county of Lan
ark. About 1,400 of the inhabitants are employed
directly in the mills, or as auxiliaries to them, and it
seems to be a settled rule that no one shall set himself
down in the village except he shall be connected with
the mills. The factory, or factories, at New Lanark,
are, perhaps, the most healthy in the kingdom.
There is here none of the confined atmosphere and
other disadvantages which belong to establishments
of a similar kind erected within the crowded lo
cality of a large manufacturing town ; the situation
is open and healthful, pleasant, from its beautiful
situation on the Clyde, and the utmost attention is
paid by the proprietors and managers to the cleanli
ness of the dwellings, and the well-being of the
people. None of the children are allowed to enter
the mills until they are ten years of age, and previous
to this, and for two or three years after it, a species
of compulsory though excellent system of education
is enjoined by the proprietors upon the parents.
The school, which is thus patronized by the com
pany, is called the institution, and by its means New
Lanark has escaped the stigma, which attaches to
many other manufacturing communities, of permit
ting their youth to grow up in immorality and igno
rance. The inhabitants, therefore, from this early
judicious training, are, in general, an orderly, intel
ligent, and most creditable class of people, and al
though originally gathered from many different parts
of the kingdom to found the new village, their na
tional characteristics have been merged or amalga
mated into a combination which has produced dis
tinctive feelings and habits peculiarly their own.
The majority of the present inhabitants are the de
scendants of the original settlers, collected from
various parts of the Highlands. Although the result
of founding this manufacturing colony has been very
successful, Mr. Dale does not appear to have been at
all fastidious in his selection of the early inhabitants,
as may be learned from the following account, writ
ten in 1794: — " In 1791 a vessel carrying emigrants
from the Isle of Skye to North America, was tkiven
by stress of weather into Greenock, and about 200
were put ashore in a very destitute condition. Mr.
Dale, whose humanity is ever awake, offered them
immediate employment, which the greater bulk of
them accepted. And soon after, with a view to
prevent further epigration to America, he notified
to the people of Argyleshire and the Isles the en
couragement given to people at the cotton mills ;
and undertook to provide houses for 200 families
in the course of 1792. These were all finished last
summer (1793), and a considerable number of High
landers have of late come to reside at New Lanark."
[Old Statistical Account.] — Mr. Dale, as part pro-
prietoi and manager, was succeeded by his son-in-
law, Mr. Robert Owen, whose visionary notions and
projects for the regeneration of the social system of
mankind have made his name too notorious in the
kingdom: For a number of years he devoted much
attention to the education of the children, and pro
pounded several plans for the amelioration of the
inhabitants, which were at first regarded with a
kindly eye, but have since been deservedly scouted
as incompatible with the well-being of the fabric of
social humanity. It is only fair to mention, however,
that Mr. Owen's name is still mentioned by tbe vil
lagers with respect and even attachment, from the
personal kindness and generosity which he displayed

towards them. In 1827 this individual ceased to
¦have any connection with these works, which are
now managed by Messrs. Walker and Co — The vil
lage is within sight of the falls of Corra-linn and
Dundaff. LANARKSHIRE,* a large, wealthy, and impor
tant county in the western division of the Lowlands,
and the most populous in Scotland. It is bounded
by the counties of Dumbarton and Stirling on the
north ; Dumfries-shire on the south ; Ayr and Ren
frewshire on the west; and Linlithgow, Edinburgh,
and Peebles shires on the east. It is situated be
tween 55° 18' 40", and 55° 56' of North lat. ; and
between 3° 24', and 4° 22' 51" West long, of Green
wich. The extreme length of the county from south
east to north-west, is about 54 miles ; and the great
est breadth in the centre is 33 miles; but at the
extremities it becomes narrowed to the extent of
little more than 10 miles. It contains an area of
926 square miles, or 471,278 Scots statute acres,
equal to 584,800 imperial acres. It is divided into
three divisions or wards, called the Upper, Middle,
and Lower wards; but formerly the county was
much more extensive, and there were only two divi
sions, called the Over and Nether wards of Clydes
dale. Hamilton of Wishaw, in his ' Description of
the Sheriffdom of Lanark,' says, " The shyre .of
Lanark was anciently of greater extent than now it
is; for there was comprehended in it the whole
sheriffdome of Ranfrew, lying laigher upon Clyde,
called of old the Baronie of Ranfrew, (and is yett
so designed when the Prince's titles are enumerate,)
untill it was disjoyned therefra by King Robert the
Third, in anno 1402, at such time as he erected what
had been his father's patrimonie before his accession
to the Crown, in ane principalitie in favour of his
sone Prince James. And then, because of the large
ness of its extent, it was divyded into two wairds,
called the Upper and the Nether waird; and" the
burgh of Lanark declared to be the head-burgh of
the upper waird, and Rutherglen of the Nether waird :
and since the dissolving of the shire of Ranfrew from
the sheriffdome of Lanark, the burgh of Lanark is
the head-burgh of the sheriffdome of Lanark, and
Rutherglen the head-burgh of the Nether waird
thereof." Such is the account of Hamilton of Wi
shaw, whose research and painstaking render him
generally worthy of credit ; but other accounts affirm
that the disjunction of Renfrew from Lanarkshire
did not take place till the reign of James II. It is
unnecessary to quote the arguments and evidence of
the various writers as to the period of this disjunc
tion. It is enough for our purpose, that previous to
the first quarter of the 15th century, Lanarkshire
was much more extensive than it now is. The
county continued to form only two wards until the
middle of the last century, when, from the increase of
the population, it was deemed judicious to form it
into three wards; viz., the Upper ward, of which
Lanark still continued to be the chief town ; the
Middle ward, of which Hamilton was appointed the
chief town and seat of justice; and the Lower ward,
of which Glasgow took the place of Rutherglen as
the metropolis. Glasgow is, of course, the head
quarters of the circuit-justiciary and other courts,
and the residence of the sheriff-depute and two sub
stitutes ; but substitutes are also appointed over the
Middle and Upper wards, and hold their courts at
Hamilton and Lanark. Including the various quoad
eivilia parishes into which the city of Glasgow has,
* The uame of the shire is believed to be derived from that
of the couuty-town. Lanark derives its Celtic appellation from
the British Ltanerch, which signifies in Welsh, ' a vale, or level
space of ground.' Several places in Scotland, .which have the
name of Lendrick, are understood to be derived from the same
British source.

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LANARKSHIRE.

213

from time to time, been divided, there are, in all, 48
parishes in the shire; viz., 

In the Upper Ward.

Lanartc, I-esmahago,Carmichael,Fittenain,Covington,
Symington, wUtun aud Roberton,
Douglas,
Crawford,
Crawfordjoho,Small part of Moffat,

Coulter,
Lamington and Wandel I,
Libber ton,
Biggar, Walstun,.
Dolphiuton, Duusyre,
Caruwath,Carstairs,Carluke.

In the Middle Ward.

Hamilton,
Blantyre,East Kilbride,
Avoudale, Gms.-tuid,
Stone house,
Dalaerf,

Cambusaethan,
Suotts,Dalxiel,Bothwell, East or New Monkland,
West or Old Monkland.

In the Lower Ward.

The parishes in Glasgow,
Barouy parish,
Calder,Cambuslang,

Rutherglen,
Carmunnock, Govan,
Part of Cat heart.

Miles.

Lower ward .

7875

Middle ward

. SOS -50

Upper ward

511-75

Of the total area or superficies of the county, the
three wards contain the following proportions : —
Scotch
Statute Acres.
40,878
. 153,951
Total miles 926 Total statute acres 471,273
By the government census of 1831, there were in
Glasgow and the county of Lanark, 58,747 inhabited
houses,. 234 building, and 2,423 uninhabited. In
the same year, the population of the various wards,
and the total for the county, was as follows : —

Town and
Village
Population.

Aural
Pupulatioo.

Total.

Lower ward
Middle ward
Upper ward

208,736
. 37,18£ 17,121 .

8,100
27,55118.U9G

216,836 64,7*3
3i>;211

263,016 53,741 316,790
By the census of 1841, there were in Glasgow and
the county of Lanark, 81,376 inhabited houses;
804 building, and 3,840 uninhabited; andin the same
year the population of the wards,, and of the county,
was as follows : —

Lower ward"
Middle ward
Upper ward

800,593 96,772
36,834

This total comprises 82,730 distinct families, includ
ing 211 ,666 males, and 222,533 females. From the last
census it appears that a very great increase of popu
lation has taken place in different parts of Lanark
shire since 1831. Glasgow, including the suburban
parishes, has increased 39"37 per cent. In New
Monkland parish, including the burgh of Airdrie, the
increase, since 1831, has been 107 91 per cent. ; and
in the parish of Old Monkland, the increase has been
10537 per cent. ; and Bothwell parish has increased
1(J0'75 per cent. There has been an increase of po
pulation in all the parishes of the Middle and Lower
wards since the former census, though in some of
these parishes the increase has been much smaller
than in others. In Kilbride, the increase being 0-50
per cent. ; in Carmunnock, 3"61, and so on. In the
Upper wardj again, it appears that a decrease of po
pulation has taken place in some of the parishes since
1831, amounting, in Biggar, to 2'61 per cent., in
Carmichael to 878 per cent., &c. ; the total increase
of population in the county being about 37 per cent.

It also comes out that, of the whole population of
the county of Lanark, the inhabitants of the royalty
of Glasgow amount to 28'29 per cent. ; those of ba
rony parish to 25-15 per cent. ; of Gorbals parish, to
11 '54 per cent., &c. There is a very great difference
in the proportion of males and females residing within
the various parishes of Lanarkshire. In Blantyre
there are 1367 '52 females for every 1,000 males, and
in Old Monkland there are only 796'80 females to
every 1,000 males. This difference may be attri
buted chiefly to the nature of the public works car-
tied on in: these parishes, — a greater number of fe
males being required for the cotton-works of Blan
tyre, and a greater number of males for the iron and
coal works of Old Monkland. Of the whole popu
lation of Lanarkshire, including; Glasgow, there are
1051-34 females to every 1,000 males, — beings 31 '07
females more than is the case in the proportion of
females to the same number of males in the whole
of England. In 1801, the population of Lanarkshire
was 146,699; in 1811, 190,924; in 1821, 244,387;
and in 1831, 316,790. From 1801 to 1811, the in
crease was 31 per cent. ; from 1811 to 1821, the in
crease was 27 per cent. ; and from 1821 to 1831, the
increase was 30 per cent.
The parishes in Lanarkshire are formed into four
presbyteries, with a few additions from other coun
ties; viz., the presbyteries of Lanark, Hamilton,
Biggar, and Glasgow,-^-and the majority of them are
situated in the synod of Glasgow and Ayr, of which
they constitute the major portion.
In a county of such vast extent, it is reasonable
to believe that every variety of soil and aspect is
developed. The Upper ward contains about three-
fifths of the whole superficies, and while it is the'
most extensive, the land is, at the same time, the
least valuable. It consists, to a great extent, of
moorland pasture, with ' hills on hills confusedly
hurled;' and though by far the larger portion of this
division is uncultivated, and cannot be deemed ca
pable of much agricultural improvement, there are
sunny and fertile spots between, which are at once
pleasing to the eye, and profitable to the agricultur
ist. Even in the wildest parts of the Upper ward,
these verdant holms stretch to a considerable extent
along both bapks of the Clyde and its tributaries,
and where they are adorned with new plantation, or
dotted with old timber, the landscape is one of sur
passing loveliness. Many of the hills are covered
with verdure to the summit, and the quality of the
sheep, which are reared upon them, speak intelligibly
of the richness of the pastures, but withal, the gen
eral aspect of the district is sterile and uninviting j-
and the loftiness and stern grandeur which charaC-'
terize even the bleakest of the Highland mountains,
are unknown to the hills of Lanarkshire. Mr.
Naismith, describing this part of the county in 1794^
says, " The mountains are so huddled together, that
their grandeur is lost to the eye of a beholder. When
he traverses a hollow, only the sides- of the nearest
mountain are presented to his view, and when he
climbs an eminence, he sees nothing but a confused:
group of rugged tops, with the naked rock frequently
appearing among the herbage." As the hills undu
late towards the Middle ward of the county, their
aspect is much softened, and the country presents
every alternation of sylvan sweetness, with hill and
dale, wood and wold, meadow and streamlet. The
scenery of various localities; in the Upper ward, are
well known from this cause to tourists, of which
the Falls of Clyde, near the town of Lanark, is not
the least interesting portion. There is no part
of Scotland in which industry, perseverance, and
the lights of science, as applicable to agriculture,
have more successfully developed themselves than in

214

LANARKSHIRE.

the Upper ward, where native sterility has been
overcome by the improved practice, and increased
knowledge of the husbandman, and along the great
mail line of road from Glasgow to Carlisle in parti
cular, smiling arable farms have risen up, where, 30
years ago, there was nothing but stinted herbage,
unproductive moss, or luxuriant furze or heather.
Even the pasture-lands have been much improved of
late by the new system, and particularly by the ex
tent to which tile-draining has been carried in this,
as well as in every other part of the county. This
picture, however, only applies to a small portion of
the Upper ward, and though the soil is daily changing
for the better, still its general characteristics are
those of churlishness. Wheat has been grown, but
not extensively, for it has been found that this grain
has never paid the farmer, except in the most pro
pitious and sunniest seasons. Oats, however, are
extensively cultivated, and for them the soil appears
to be by nature adapted, as well as for barley,
though not to the same extent. Potatoes are raised
in large amount, and they thrive as well, and are of
as fair quality, as those grown upon the lower and
warmer districts of the county. Turnip husbandry
has also been introduced here with considerable suc
cess, and on the whole, by changing for the better
the old system of rotation, it has been the means of
considerably increasing the products of the soil. In
former years flax was grown to considerable extent,
spun into yarn by the women of the district, and
sold by them into the markets of Lanark, Carnwath,
Biggar, and others ; but the facilities for the intro
duction of flax from the Baltic, and more than this,
the cheapness and improved quality of cotton-cloth,
has almost extirpated this species of cultivation from
the land, and those industrious dames who spent
their days in ' Twining out a thread wi' little din,'
are now rarely met with* either in cot-house, hamlet,
or village.
The Middle ward is much less mountainous than
the Upper, and at its commencement the loftiness of
the hills falls away, and the declivity extends to
wards the north-west. The surface is everywhere
broken into inequalities, and throughout there is
little level space, except the valleys on each bank of
the Clyde: which see. The cultivated land of this
ward is generally from 250 to 300 feet above the
level of the sea, and even this elevation is consider
ably lower than the locality of the town of Hamil
ton. The soil is as various as the undulations it
presents, but in general it may be said to consist of
clay, intermixed with sand, and along the valley of
the Clyde rich . alluvial soils are met with upon a
gravel bed. Within these last 20 years, the mosses
in this district were computed to extend to more
than 40,000 acres, or nearly one-third of the whole
ward ; but a considerable extent of these have now
been brought under tillage, by the enterprise of the
tenant and the encouragement of the landlord, and
every year sees the unprofitable dominion of the
morass lessened. If the soil is various, its produc
tions are equally so. In some of. the wet and cold
districts which are met with in Shotts and. else
where, wheat is generally as little cultivated as in
the pastoral parishes of the Upper ward ; but it is
vyorthy of remark that there are none of the divi
sions of the Middle district which cannot boast of
some portions of fertile soil within their bounds,
particularly if they are watered by any of the tribu
taries of the Clyde. In ordinary cases, however,
every kind of produce which enters into the far
mer's catalogue is here cultivated with success. The
most fertile portion of the Middle ward is that
extending on each bank of the Clyde, stretching
from Lanark to below the town of Hamilton, and

comprehending part of Cambusnethan, with the par-
ishes of Dalserf, Hamilton, Blantyre, Dalziel, Both-
well, and Old Monkland. A great portion of this
territory is owned by his Grace of Hamilton, and the
Lord of Douglas, and all of it is in a high state of
cultivation. The landscape here is peculiarly soft
and inviting. For all the elements of rural sweet
ness, the drive between Lanark and Hamilton is not
perhaps equalled by any other in the kingdom, if we
except perhaps that along the banks of the Esk be
tween Langholm and Langtown, on the Scotch and
English border. The hills never rise certainly into
towering magnificence, but they swell gently to a
considerable elevation on either bank of the river,
and are generally either covered with luxuriant pas
ture, or thriving copsewood to the very summit.
The glades, too, generally present the bold front of
some olden mansion of a Lord of the manor, with
its beautiful policy, studded by timber of ancient
growth; or mayhap the elegant modern dwelling
of a proprietor, who has replaced by it the keep
or tower which served as a dwelling-place to his
fathers. Here, too, are the orchards which, in
spring time and summer,- are well and truly desig
nated the pride of Clydesdale. It is said that orchard
husbandry was introduced into this district by the
Romans, but whether or not this may be the case, -
the banks of this noble stream have long been
celebrated for the fruits they bear ; and, though
this species of cultivation is not now so profitable as
it used to be, it is still followed to a great extent,
and it will be matter of much regret if this part
of the country should at any time be deprived of
its choicest, chastest ornament, from the worldly
considerations of pounds, shillings, and pence. [See
article on Clydesdale.] In the end of April, or
beginning of May, when the gorgeous flush of blos
som decks the trees, and the perfume scents the
gale, the traveller feels as if he were in reality in
the land of the Faery, where " apple-blossom is
strewn upon the wind." It is for its mineral wealth,
however, that the Middle ward is so much and so
deservedly celebrated ; but this subject will be forth
with noticed.
The Lower ward comprehends a fertile district,
but it is the least interesting of the three, so far as
the external beauties of nature are concerned. It is,
however, by far the most important, from possessing
the city of Glasgow, and that immense hive of popu
lation, whose ingenuity and untiring industry has done
so much to enrich the northern part of the kingdom,
and render the phrase of " puir auld Scotland" an
unmeaning and obsolete one. It might be expected
from the leviathan maw which is here required to be
filled, that for miles around Glasgow, the soil would
either be laid out in pasture, or in gardens devoted
to the rearing of kitchen-produce. Such is not the
case, however, and it is to be regretted. Corn fields
press upon the very suburbs, but Glasgow has to
depend principally upon Ireland and the east coast
of Scotland for the vegetables which are every day
used by high and low.
The Clyde— which so far as the West of Scotland
is concerned, may aptly be termed the " Father of
Waters"— receives into its bosom all the rivers or
streamlets of any note in this county. First is the
Daer, which, had full justice been done to it, should
have given that well known name which the Clvde
now bears. Then there is the Duneaton, which rises
at the base of Cairntable-hill, and, after a course of
a few miles through Crawfordjohn parish, joins the
Clyde. The Douglas flows through the lovely dale of
that name, and empties itself into the Clyde a little
above Bonnington-falls ; the Culter divides the par
ish of that name, and passes through a smiling glen;

LANARKSHIRE.

215

the North Medwin waters the parish of Carnwath,
and is joined by the South Medwin before mingling
its united stream with the Clyde ; the Mouse, rising
in Carnwath, flows through Carstairs into the parish
of Lanark, winds through the charming glen of
Cartlane-craigs, and falls into the Clyde opposite
Kirkfield-bank, about a mile from the town of Lan
ark ; the Nethan rises in Lesmahago, and after flow
ing through a most beautiful district of country,
studded with the seats of the landed aristocracy,
joins the Clyde at Clydesgrove ; the Avon rises on
the borders of Ayrshire, divides the parish of Avon-
dale or Strathavon; it then enters Stonehouse, and
becomes the boundary between this parish and Glass-
ford, and at another part between it and Dalserf; it
then passes on to Hamilton, where the channel be
comes bold and romantic in a high degree, the banks
occasionally rising to the height of 300 feet above
the bed of the dashing stream, and the summits
crowned with gnarled oak of the growth of cen
turies; having forced its way through this rocky
course, it then enters the fertile holms of Hamilton,
and completes its course by mingling with the Clyde
at Hamilton-bridge. The South Calder rises in "the
bleak moorland district of Linlithgowshire, near
Tarrymuck, and after passing between Shotts and
Cambusnethan on the one hand, and between Dal
ziel and Shotts on the other, and finally forming a
part of the boundary of Bothwell, falls into the
Clyde after a course of nearly 20 miles. The
North Calder has its rise near Bertram- Shotts,
and after watering Old Monkland, increases the
Clyde at Daldowie; the Calder- water, or for dis
tinction's sake the Rotten Calder, rises on a moor
in East Kilbride, and flowing through that parish
by the name of the Park-burn, passes into Blan
tyre parish, at which it commingles with the Rotten-
burn, and after skirting that parish, Kilbride, and
Cambuslang, joins the Clyde at Turnwheel. Lastly,
we have the classic Kelvin, which takes its rise in
the parish of Kilsyth in Stirlingshire, and towards
the close of its course divides Govan parish from
the Barony parish of Glasgow, losing its waters in
the Clyde opposite the pretty village of Govan.
[See separate articles on these streams.] The county
is little celebrated for its lakes or lochs. The Crane-
loch is situated in a wild and bleak district in the par
ish of Dunsyre, at an elevation of 800 feet above the
level of the adjacent streams ; it is about a mile in
circumference. The White-loch, also about a mile in
circumference, is situated in Carnwath, but instead
of being bleak and inhospitable in appearance, it is
fringed on two sides by some fine timber. Lang-
loch, situated between the town of Lanark and
Hyndford-bridge, is a sheet of water of great length,
though remarkably narrow. Bishop's-loch covers
between 80 and 90 acres in the parish of Old Monk-
land ; Woodend-loch, 50 acres ; and L6chend-loch,
40 acres. Lam-loch is a large sheet of water in the
parish of Cadder ; and here is also Loch-Grog, of
smaller extent, and gradually becoming less, from
the progress of draining. There are also Robroyston-
loch, which is rapidly undergoing the same process ;
Johnston-loch, nearly a mile in circumference ; and
Gastinqueen-loch of less extent. There are the
Hogganfield and Frankfield lochs in the Barony-
parish, the water from which turns the wheels of
the town mills. The last we shall notice is a lake
or reservoir formed by art for a most important pur
pose, viz., for supplying the Monkland and the
Forth and Clyde canals. It is situated in the par
ishes of New Monkland and Shotts, and its superficies
extend to more than 300 acres.
The mountains in Lanarkshire which deserve the
jame, are all situated in the hilly range of the south.

em division or Upper ward. Those principally
worth mention are the lofty Louthers, on the bor
ders of Dumfries-shire, which have an average ele
vation of 2,450 feet above the level of the sea, and
the highest peak towers to the height of 3,100 feet ;
Culter-fell is 2,330 feet; Tinto is 2,236 feet; Cairn-
table, on the borders of Ayrshire, is 1,630 feet;
Dolpinton-hill is 1,550 feet ; and Dunsyre-hill 1,230
feet. Perhaps the highest inhabited land in Scot
land is situated in this county, viz., the mining vil
lage of Leadhills, which is 1,300 feet above the level
of the sea. The town of Lanark has an elevation
of 656 feet. The Middle and Lower wards possess
no elevated features of this kind, but are in general
so open in their view towards the frith of Clyde,
that from any portion of the rising ground varying
from 150 to 200 feet above the level of the sea, the
spectator may descry on a clear day the serrated
peaks of the Isle of Arran, at a distance of 50 miles.
Respectable as Lanarkshire has now been ren
dered in an agricultural point of view, by the en
terprise of her proprietors and farmers, it is not
from the productions of its surface-soil that the
district has become by far the most populous and
wealthy in Scotland, and its name has become known
to the uttermost parts of the sea. It is to her ample
possession of the mineral treasures of coal, iron, and
lead, that this shire owes its supremacy over all
other districts in North Britain, and the majority of
those in England. A detailed geological description
of the county would be too voluminous for these
pages ; but a vidimus of the various strata may not
be uninteresting, though brief. In the Upper ward,
the mountainous ranges are generally composed of
grawacke, or trap-rock, and indeed these constitute
the principal formation of the extensive range of
hills, which, with greater or less of regularity, run
from the confines of the county of Ayr to the
Pentlands. In treating of this subject, Mr. 'Patrick
gives the following comprehensive account in his
valuable work : — " If," says he, " we take the gra
nite rocks of Galloway as the base, we have super
incumbent upon them ; first, the grawacke of Lead-
hills and Wanlockhead ; second, the red sandstone
over which the Clyde is precipitated at Lanark ;
and, third, the coal formation of the Middle and
Lower wards, consisting of bituminous shale, coal,
grey limestone, grey sandstone, and clay ironstone,
thus affording a beautiful illustration of the transi
tion and carboniferous epochs." The lofty terri
tory of Leadhills is perhaps the most ancient min
ing district in Scotland. Lead has been success
fully worked here for several centuries, and besides
rich veins of this mineral, gold and silver have been
found to exist in it, and have been worked, parti
cularly in the reign of James V. of Scotland, who
employed miners from Germany in this service.
The precious metals were no doubt found, and
coins struck from them, called the bonnet-piece ;
but it was soon discovered that even gold might
be bought too dear, or, in other words, that the
cost of the workmanship far exceeded the value of
the precious metal which it produ'ced. The search
for gold and silver was therefore abandoned, and
the occupation of the miners has been confined to
the working of lead. Copper ore has been found
in this mineral district in small quantity, and a
vein of antimony is known to exist, but neither are
sufficiently abundant to encourage the working on a
large scale. Spars of every kind, some of them sur
passingly beautiful, are found to accompany the prin
cipal mineral, lead, the veins of which generally run
south-east and north-west, with an eastward dip
of one foot in three. Lead is known to exist in
sorop nf the parishes adjacent to Crawford, in

216

LANARKSHIRE.

which Leadhills is situated, but it has not been
worked, and possibly it may have been ascer
tained, that it could not be worked to compete
with the ancient and long-opened mines of Lead
hills in Lanark, and Wanlockhead in Dumfries-shire.
Ironstone is known to exist in most of the parishes
of the Upper ward, but it has only been worked in
those of Carluke and Carnwath; and with the excep
tion of an interval of a few years, works have been
in operation in the latter for a period of sixty years.
The black-band ironstone, which is the most valu
able, is found abundantly in Cambusnethan, and the
Shotts company have furnaces constantly in opera
tion. In Bertram- Shotts, the mineral is also abun
dant and easily worked, EJid there are two extensive
works in separate divisions of the parish, one of
which was erected in 1787, and the other in 1802.
Old Monkland is also rich in this mineral treasure,
and from it the extensive works around are partly
supplied, including those of Carron, Clyde, Gart-
sherrie, and Calder. Old Monkland, however, is the
principal seat of this manufacture. It is, in every
sense of the word, a land of iron ; and the flames
which belch from its numerous furnaces serve to
illumine the country for miles around on the darkest
nights. About twenty pits are in the course of be
ing worked, producing in abundance the valuable
black-band, which contains in general so much coal
intermixed as to melt itself with little or no addi
tion of fuel. Here there are 35 furnaces in blast, and
about 20 more are intended to be erected in the
course of the next few years. But exhaustless as
the under ground supplies may seem, there cannot be
a sufficient quantity raised to teed the many furnaces,
and in consequence, a great proportion of the iron
stone used is brought from the other parishes above-
named. The vast extension of the engineering or
machine-making trade of Glasgow and the west of
Scotland, during the last twenty years, but more
particularly the introduction of railroads at a still
more recent period, have given an impetus to the
iron manufacture which is scarcely credible ; and it
may be truly said, that thousands now derive from it
their daily bread, and princely fortunes have been
accumulated almost with the rapidity, and certainly
with much more of credit and honesty, than charac
terized the aggrandizing efforts of the first Spaniards
in Peru, or the early English adventurers to the
East. As one instance of the value of ironstone
upon an estate, it is matter of fact and publicity, that
on the lands of Rochsilloch, in the parish of New
Monkland, belonging to Sir William Alexander, the
mines produce an annual revenue of £12,600 ; while
the soil which covers so much treasure did not, when
let for tillage, produce above £500 yearly. It is
not easy to ascertain the aggregate amount of the
mineral produce of Lanarkshire, by reason of its
vastness ; but as a proof of its rapid and great growth,
it may be stated, that the Monkland district is known
to turn out nearly 200,000 tons annually, while only
a few years previous to 1800, it did not produce more
than 4,000 tons. There are also extensive works at
Govan, in the immediate vicinity of Glasgow, where
four blast furnaces are in operation, and as many
more in the course of erection. The flames from
these works illumine the houses of many thousands
of the population on the south-east side of Gorbals.
It may also be mentioned, that to many of the iron
establishments in the county, bar-iron manufactories
are being joined, and this trade — which is new in this
district, or at least new on a large scaler — promises to
become a source of increased industrial occupation,
and of wealth. Great as the iron trade of Lanark
shire already is, it is apparent even to one who has
looked very cursorily into the matter, that it is still

only in its infancy, for it possesses within itself the
elements of almost boundless extension. [For addi
tional particulars see Glasgow, under the head Iron
trade.~\ Valuable, however, though the iron of Clydesdale
may be, it derives its great value from a still more
important subterranean treasure, viz., the coal-field
of the same district, which is by far the most exten
sive and valuable in Scotland. It forms tbe best
part of that great field which crosses the northern
part of the kingdom from east to west, and stretch
ing in Lanarkshire to the extent of 30 miles. It has
been reckoned that the coal-field of this county con
tains 110 square miles, and in the ordinary accepta
tion of the term, the supply may be said to be ex
haustless. The geological positions of the various
strata are so well described by Mr. Naismith in his
agricultural survey of Clydesdale, that it has been
deemed advisable to transfer his account to these
pages. Mr. Naismith says : — " A number of these
strata or seams lie above that which is generally
called, around the city of Glasgow, the upper coal,
because it is the first that is found worth digging to
any extent. This stratum is composed entirely of
what is called rough coal in Scotland, except a small
part near the middle of it of a kind called splint. 2.
About 16 or 17 fathoms under that lies the ell coal,
so called because it was first found of this thick
ness, but it is frequently from 4 to 6 feet thick. It
is composed of two kinds, called yolk and cherry coal,
with sometimes a parting of splint, and sometimes
not. This is a fine caking coal, or what is called in
England a close-burning coal, and is much esteemed
for the blacksmith's forge. 3. At from 10 to 17
fathoms below the last, lies the seam called the main
coal, from its possessing all the good qualities found
in any of the other strata. It contains rough coal,
splint, and parrot, or jet coal, and is preferred to all
the others as the most profitable. Its thickness is
from 3£ to 9 feet. Sometimes a thin bed of stone is
found about the middle of the seam, and the thick
ness is 10 feet. 4. About 13 or 14 fathoms lower
lies the humph coal. It consists of yolk and rough
coal, with a thin parting of splint. In some places
it is without the splint, and unworkable, being much
interlaced with these lamina; of stone, and a kinil of
petrified black clay called blaise, black bituminous
shale, and slate clay. 5. Below the humph coal lies
the hard coal, sometimes at 14 fathoms distant. It
consists solely of splint and parrot coal, and is found
to be the best in the county for the smelting of iron.
It is also very good for family use. 6. At a fathom
and a-half lower is found the soft coal, from 30 inches
to 6 feet thick. It is composed of the rough, yolk,
and cherry coals, cakes much in burning, and is es
teemed a good coal for the blacksmith's forge. 7.
About 13 or 14 fathoms below this lies a coal, called
about Glasgow the sour-milk coal. As it burns slowly,
and affords but a weak heat, it is what the miners
call a lean coal, and has therefore been but little
wrought. There are a number of these seams under
the sour-milk coal, all of a lean quality, and gene
rally much interlaced with laminse of stone, blaise,
or shiver. Under the last mentioned have been
found several strata of excellent lime ; and more of
these thin seams of coal again have been discovered
under the lime, but all of them which have yet been
tried are of a lean quality. The lime found'near the
surface on the elevated ground, is supposed to be a
continuation of some one or other of the last men
tioned strata, found under the coal, which, in the
course of their natural rise, have come within reach,
in the places where the superincumbent strata of
coal, and all its accompanying fossils, did not exist ;
as lime worth the working has never yet been duV*

LANARKSHIRE.

217

covered above these coal strata, nor in any place,
till after the valuable seams of coal have skirted out
at the surface ; and any coal which has been found
under the surface-lime is of the same lean quality with
that which lies under the deep buried strata of lime.
The above is the number and order of the coal strata
everywhere along the Clyde, where they are entire.
However, this is not always the case. All the min
eral strata lie inclining towards the river on both
sides, generally somewhat obliquely, and with vari
ous degrees and directions of declivity, rising, as
they recede from it, till they skirt, or, as it is ex
pressed by miners, crop out one after another; so
that the first coal which is found in some places is
perhaps the third or fourth in the above mentioned
order. These are distinguished by the name of the
Clyde strata, or seams of coal, and not only lie along
the sides of that river, through all the plain country,
but branch out less or more along the principal
streams, on some of them to a great extent. Besides
these there are other seams of coal in the county, of
a somewhat different nature. In the parish of Shotts
a fine yolk coal is wrought, resembling the coal found
upon the sides of the Forth, and supposed to be a
continuation of one of the same strata. Upon the
sides of the Douglas river are extensive collieries,
which supply some of the southern provinces where
that fuel is wanting. The coal here is also similar
to that on the Forth. On the south-west boundary
of the county is coal of the same quality with that
wrought on the coast of Ayrshire. It crops out at
the surface about the middle of Avondale parish.
There are still some other variations in the coal strata
which merit attention. Near the northern boundary
of the county a species is found distinguished by the
name of the blind coal, from its burning with intense
heat without flame. This must no doubt have been
deprived of the fixed air by means of subterraneous
fire. It is used for the same purposes as coke, and
even preferred to coke artificially made, its effluvia
being still less offensive. The blind coal is always
found under a covering of horizontal whin; and
where the same seam is traced till it comes under
the freestone rock, its qualities are entirely changed,
and it becomes in every respect the common pit-
coal. Another species of coal, the qualities of which
are directly opposite to those of the last, is found in
different parts of the county. It is here called the
cannel or light coal, and is said to be the parrot or
jet coal of the third seam in the above enumeration,
divested of the other kinds which accompany it when
the seam is complete. But when this is found alone,
it seems to be still more exquisitely inflammable ; it
takes flame the moment it is brought in contact with
the fire, and a small fragment of it may be carried
about in the hand like a flambeau, and will continue
for a long time to give a vivid light."
Limestone is found abundantly throughout the
coal district, and some of it is of excellent quality.
It is generally found below the lowest coal stratum,
and rarely is it got near the surface. It is found in
the following parishes, and worked to considerable
extent in many of them, viz. Carluke, Carnwath, East
Kilbride, Avondale, Glassfdrd, Stonehaven, Lesma-
hago, Douglas, Hamilton, and Blantyre. Freestone
of excellent quality is found throughout the county,
and in all the coal districts. It is found in distinct
strata of red and white, and sometimes of a mixed
colour, and so beautifully blended as to resemble
marble. The colour of the houses, however, will
generally denote the description of stone which pre
vails in the vicinity; but it is generally found that
on the east side of the Clyde the red sandstone pre
dominates, while on the west and south the white
stone is the standard. The parish of Carluke is par

ticularly rich in fossil remains, as well as many others
in the coal district. Some years ago nearly thirty
fossil-trees were discovered standing in their natural
position on the banks of the Kelvin, in the parish of
Govan ; but the most interesting organic remains are
those of plants, animals, and shells, some of them of
a kind and race now extinct. It would, however,
be tedious to enter upon this subject in detail. It
may only be stated, that no other county in Scot
land presents a more extensive field for the research
of the geologist. There are few of the parishes in
the county, too, which cannot boast of a mineral
spring, or springs, which are used to considerable
extent, especially by the lower orders.
The wind in this county is computed to blow
about two-thirds of the year from the south-west
and west, over a vast ocean, where no land inter
venes to prevent its coming to the coast saturated
with the moisture of the vast Atlantic. The winds
from the east are sharper, blow less frequently, and
their force is somewhat broken by the high land on
the east side of the country ; so that the cold damps,
so prevalent on the east coast, do not often arrive
here, and consequently the cold is moderate. In
tense frost is seldom of long continuance, and deep,
long-lying snow is rare. Wind from the north-east
is next in frequency io that from the south-west,
which is generally attended by fair weather. Rains
from the north-west, north, and north-east, are nei
ther frequent nor heavy, but are little conducive to
vegetation. One cause of the slow and imperfect
progress, and consequent lateness of the Lanarkshire
harvests, is, that when a course of dry weather does
not happen in the early part of spring, the seed-time
must either be deferred to a late period, or the seed
committed to the crude soil in an improper state of
reception. The Lanarkshire breed of horses claims particular
notice. The present breed was introduced into
Scotland nearly two centuries ago, by one of the
predecessors of the Duke of Hamilton. He brought
into the country six coach-horses, all stallions, ori
ginally from Flanders, and sent them to Strathaven,
the castle of which was then habitable. They were
of « black colour, and extremely handsome. The
farmers of the neighbourhood, readily embracing the
opportunity, crossed this foreign breed with the
common Scottish mare, and thereby procured a breed
superior to either. From this a strong and hardy
race of horses was soon spread through the country.
Those of a smaller size are well-adapted for the
plough, on account of their quick step and steady
draught ; and those of a larger size are employed in
carts upon the high roads. The colts are sold at the
fairs of Lanark, Carnwath, Rutherglen, and Glas
gow, and are in request all over Scotland and Eng
land. The loads which some of these horses draw
are immense.
The rise and progress of the manufactures of
Lanarkshire belong so intimately to the history of
Glasgow, that it is not necessary to treat of them at
length here. Previous to the beginning of the last
century, manufactures either did not exist in Scot
land, or they were of the most contemptible kind,
and this will readily be believed when the fact is
stated, that, for 20 years after its establishment in
1695, the bank of Scotland could not employ £30,000
annually in the business of the whole kingdom.
Branches of the bank were established in several of
the Scottish towns, and Glasgow amongst the rest,
but after a trial, the bank directors found themselves
compelled to give up their provincial offices, and
bring their books; notes, and specie to Edinburgh
"by horse carriage." Even so late as 1727, the
counties of Perth and Forfar possessed more exten

218

LANARKSHIRE.

sive manufactures than Lanarkshire. About 1750,
however, the beneficial effects of the union had
begun to be felt, and the industry and resources
of the county to be fully developed. Two banks
were then started in the city of Glasgow — the one
by Dtinlop, Houston, and company, and the other by
Cochran, Murdoch, and company. The trade with
Virginia sprung up and flourished, and the various
new trades and manufactures which it called into
existence and fostered, extended their benefits over
the whole county. But its great rise may be dated
from 1784, when the cotton trade was introduced,
after Arkwright's magnificent invention had become
fully understood, and its practice was open to the
whole country from the expiry of the patent. Lan
arkshire was particularly qualified for embracing this
new trade — first, from its possession of an exhaust-
less supply of coal, and next, from possessing the
sea-ports on the Clyde, by means of which the mer
chants of Glasgow could hold communication with
almost all the markets of the world. Wealth flowed
into the county ; old coal mines were worked on im
proved principles with renewed spirit, and new ones
opened. The iron trade was called into existence ;
crowds of population thronged not only into Glas
gow, but to those localities in the county where
these mineral treasures most abounded ; the super
ficies of the land, from the near presence of a wealthy
commercial and manufacturing capital, grew in fer
tility and beauty, and thus Lanarkshire received an
impetus which has long since accorded her the first
rank for population, wealth, and importance among
the counties of Scotland.
Although a commercial and manufacturing aristo
cracy have now grown up in the county by the most
honourable of all pursuits, for in benefitting them
selves they have vastly benefitted others, there still
remain many ancient families of note, the ancestors
of some of whom are not unworthily known to Scot
tish history. A few may be named ; and first,
the Hamiltons, the Duke of which is the premier
peer of Scotland ; to this family also belong the
noble houses of Belhaven and Dalziel, and many
others of the same name of honourable status in the
county ; the old Douglases of the Angus line are
lineally represented on the female side, by Baron
Douglas, and collaterally by other families of the
county. There are still, too, the Lockharts of Lee,
with many offshoots from the parent branch ; the
Baillies of Lamington, the Rosses of Bonnington,
the Colebrookes of Crauford, the Veres of Stone-
byres, &c. There are also many goodly and noble
mansions scattered over the county, in addition to
the well-known palace of Hamilton, and the castles
of Douglas and Bothwell, but as these are fully no
ticed in the description of the parishes in which they
are situated, it is not necessary here to repeat.
The county of Lanark returns one member to par
liament, and had a constituency of 2,705 voters in
1832, and of 4,001 voters in 1841. Glasgow, within
its bounds, returns two members. Lanark, Hamilton,
and Airdrie, within the county ; Falkirk in Stirling
shire, and Linlithgow, in the shire of that name, re
turn a burgh-member ; and Rutherglen in the Lower
ward, is associated in a similar privilege with the
burghs of Kilmarnock, Dumbarton, Port-Glasgow,
and Renfrew. Thus the county is represented in
the Commons' House of parliament directly or indi
rectly by five members.
The number of parochial schools within the
county, in 1834, was 72, and of schools not par
ochial, 352. The former were attended, between
Ladyday and Michaelmas 1833, by a maximum of
about 27,000 pupils, and a minimum of about 19,250.
As Lanarkshire derives its great importance from

its modern improvements, rapidly advancing popula
tion, manufactures, and mineral wealth, it is not
surprising that its former history is much less inter
esting and eventful than that of many other districts
in North Britain, which are now vastly inferior to
it in population, wealth, or importance. Originally,
Lanarkshire was peopled by the ancient tribe of Bri
tons called the Damnii, and their language may still
be traced in the names of the waters and various
other places in the district. These barbarians gave
place to the Romans, whose temporary possession of
these parts may still be traced by the remains of
their roads and camps in many parts of the county,
and also by their tombs, utensils, and weapons of
warfare, which have often been turned up by the
ploughshare or the spade in the process of excavat
ing and embanking. In subduing the original in
habitants the Romans did much to civilize them,
and introduce the arts of industry and peace ; and it
is recorded, as has been already observed, that they
were the first to beautify and enrich the face of the
country by the planting of those orchards for which
Clydesdale has for ages been so famous. The in
road, however, of the Scandinavian and other savage
tribes, pressing upon the heart of the Roman empire,
induced them to withdraw their legions, artificers, and
husbandmen from the extremities of their dominions,
and thus Clydesdale was again left in the possession
of the semi-barbarous Damnii. By them was founded
the kingdom of Strathclyde, which gradually extended
until it included within its ample limits Liddesdale,
Teviotdale, Dumfries shire, Galloway, Ayrshire,
Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, part of Peebles-shire,
the western part of Stirlingshire, and the greater
portion of Dumbartonshire, forming, indeed, a king
dom which embraced the greater part of Scotland
south of the Forth, with the exception of ancient
Lothian. Sometimes they were united under one
valorous chief, and at others the leaders of subor
dinate tribes in the general confederacy contended
for the mastery. Meantime these Strathcludensians
were often assailed by the Picts, from the northern
side of the Forth, by the Scoto-Irish from Cantyre,
or the Saxons from the north of England, who en
vied them their fair domains on the Clyde. Their
capital was taken, their dominion circumscribed, yet
were they never formally conquered, though it is
believed, that after the union of the Scots and Picts,
they were amalgamated with the other rude ma
terials which formed the Scottish dynasty under
Kenneth. Many of the Strathcludensians preferred
expatriation to acknowledging any other sovereign
but one of their own choosing; and with heavy
hearts they left the warm vales of Clydesdale, and
wending their path southward, found an abiding-
place among the hills and dales of Wales. After the
formation, of the Scottish kingdom, Lanarkshire suf
fered more or less from the domestic conflicts be
tween the kings and Gallovidian chiefs, or the wars
of England. , The history of this period is uninter
esting, however, although Lanarkshire continued tp
progress in rustic wealth, and its civilization was
accelerated by the foundation of the bishopric of
Glasgow, and the settlement, in the district, of sev
eral distinguished Flemings, from a family of which
people were descended the once all-powerful ami
haughty Douglases. The death of Alexander III.,
without male issue, left the kingdom a prey to in
trigue, contest, and competition, which only ended
after years of domestic strife by the consolidation of
the independence of the kingdom, which was achieved
by Bruce at Bannockburn. But the precursor to
this was the patriotic exertions of the celebrated Sir
William Wallace, whose first exploit was that of
driving the English out of the town of Lanark. The

LAN

219

LAN

•good Sir James Douglas,' perhaps, contributed more
than any other man to the eventful triumph of Bruce,
and, in consequence, that part of the county in which
his estates and castles were situated was more than
once subjected to the fire and sword of the English.
After this, however, Lanarkshire enjoyed a long
period of domestic peace, until power and prosperity
had changed this celebrated family from being the
best and first subjects of the Crown into its most
turbulent and dangerous rival : see Douglas. In
the reign of James II. the ambition of the Douglases,
added to the intrigues of the 1st Lord Hamilton,
plunged Lanarkshire into the horrors of civil war,
and the following account of one of the royal raids
will show what this unfortunate district suffered
from the turbulence of its chiefs : — " In March, 1455,
James the Second cast doune the castel of Inver-
avyne ; and syne incontinent past to Glasgu, and
gaderit the westland men, with part of the Areschery
[Irishery], and passit to Lanerik, and to Douglas,
and syne brynt all Douglasdale, and all Avendale,
and all the Lord Hammiltoune's lands, and heriit
them clerlye ; and syne passit to Edinburgh, and
fra their till the forest, with one host of Lawland
men. And all that wald nocht cum till him furtho-
with, he tuke their guids and brynt their places, and
took faitle of all the gentilles clerlie. And all this
time the Lord Hamiltoun was in England till have
gottyn suplie, and couth get name bot gif the Douglas
and he would have bene Englismen, and maid the aith.
And incontinent after, the king passit in proper per
son, and put an sege till Abercorn : And within iii
days Lord Hamiltoun- come till him till Abercorn,
and put him, lyf, landis, and guidis, in the King's
will purelie and seinpillye, throu the menys of his
ewe James of Levingston, that tyme Cbalmerlane of
Scotland. And the King resavit him till grace, and
send him on incontinent with the Erll of Orknay,
that tyme Chancellar of Scotland, till remain in ward
in the castel of Roslyne, at the King's will. And
thus he [Lord Hamiltoun] left the Erll of Douglas
all begylit, as men said." [Gray's MS. Chronicle.]
Such was one of the inflictions upon Lanarkshire
from the ambition of its local chiefs ; but from this
period the county has little place in local history till
the escape of Queen Mary from Lochleven-castle,
the assembling of her army at Hamilton, and its de
feat by the Regent Murray at Langside, near Glas
gow. Again the county was peaceful till the thirty
years war of the persecution, caused by the resistance
of the Scottish Presbyterians to submit to ' black
prelacy,' which was sought to be imposed on them
by the royal Charleses. The western counties were
the chief scene of this devoted resistance to oppres
sion, and the punishment inflicted by the ' Highland
host,' the battles of Drumclogand Bothwell, and the
sufferings unto the death by this heroic people, by
famine, ill-usage, and military persecution, are too
well-known to require a minute detail here. In all
these, however, Lanarkshire had her full share. But
the revolution of 1688 brought more peaceful times,
and it is a fact not generally known that the declara
tion of the Prince of Orange was published at Glas
gow before its publication in any other part of Scot
land, though it is proper to state that this publicity
was not given to it by the magistrates of the city.
In proportion, however, as Lanarkshire ardently
favoured and supported the Revolution, it bitterly
opposed the Union of 1707. The Duke of Hamilton
and several of the barons were also loud and sincere
in their opposition ; and there was scarcely a town
or village in the county which did not make a de
monstration against this then obnoxious national
measure. The Glasgow rabblers are spoken of in
terms the reverse of courteous by the historians of

the Union ; but no outbreak of moment took place,
and it is no stigma cast upon the reflection of our
forefathers to assume, that while they regarded that
great measure as one which cut up their nationality
by the roots, they could not foresee the vast advan
tages which would result to this part of Scotland by
participating in the trade of England, and having
free access to her colonies. Since this period there
is nothing in the civil history of Lanarkshire but
that which is common to the whole kingdom. — The
sheriffdom of Lanark was formed at a very early
date, and is believed to have been in existence so
early as the reign of the lawgiving David I. Is
these early and troublous times, it was held by vari
ous persons, and finally fell into the grasping bands
of the Douglas family, who held it as a hereditary
source of honour and power. After their downfall,
it was granted in fee to the Hamiltons, who held it
as a hereditary appendage to their titles and posses
sions for many generations. Occasionally, but rarely,
it was held by other noblemen, and among others by
the Earl of Selkirk, upon whom the office was con
ferred in 1716, the heir of Hamilton being then
under age, and held by him till his death in 1739.
Upon the death of the Earl, James the 6th Duke of
Hamilton took possession of the office, as heredi
tary sheriff, without any formal grant ; and upon a
change of system being about to take place, he
claimed, in 1747, the sum of £10,000, as compensa
tion for the sheriffdom. This claim was disallowed
by the judges ; but they allowed him £3,000 for
the lordship and jurisdiction of the regality of Ham
ilton. At this time, Mr. "William Cross, advocate,
was appointed the first sheriff of Lanarkshire under
the new system, the salary being then £200 per
annum. LANGHOLM, a parish in Eskdale, Dumfries
shire ; bounded on the north by Wester Kirk and
Ewes; on the east by Ewes and Canobie; on the
south by Canobie and Half-Morton ; and on the west
by Middlebie and Tundergarth. Its greatest length,
from a bend in the Tanas above Peterburn on the
east, to the boundary beyond Glenlaggan head on
the west, is 8 miles ; its greatest breadth, from an
angle north-east of the point where the Esk comes
down upon it on the north, to the point where Ir
vine-burn strikes the boundary on the south, is 6J
miles ; and its superficial area is 30 square miles, or
15,272 Scottish acres. The Esk, approaching from
the north, flows 1 J mile along the western boundary
of a considerable northerly projection of the parish,
and then runs 4} miles — measuring in a straight line
— through the interior; but it makes several bold
windings, and divides about one-third of the parish
on its left bank, from the remaining two-thirds on
its right. Ewes water, approaching also from the
north, but at a point a mile east of the Ewes, runs
I ^ mile to a confluence with that stream at the town.
Tarras- water, after striking the north-east angle of
the parish, wends along the whole eastern and south
eastern boundary, and joins the Esk when just about
to make its exit. Wauchope-water rises, under the
name of Laggan-burn, in the extreme north-west cor
ner, and performing a double-curved course in the form
of an inverted and prostrate S, drains very nearly all
the western and larger division of the parish, and
falls into the Esk at the town of Langholm, a few
yards below the point where it. is entered on the
opposite bank by the Ewes. Irvine-burn rises in
the interior, runs 1£ mile southward, and then traces
the boundary 1 £ mile eastward to the Esk. Excel
lent trout abound in all the four principal streams,
are largest in the Tarras, and are of peculiarly deli
cate flavour both in that river and in the Wauchope.
No district in the south of Scotland is more attrac-

220

LANGHOLM.

tive than Langholm to both the angler and the
fowler. In the western district are three medicinal
springs, — one sulphureous, which is said to give re
lief in scrofulous and cutaneous disorders, — and two
chalybeate, one of them very strong. The ground
along the Esk and the- Ewes is flat, and well-shel
tered by plantations and thriving hedges; and having
a light loamy soil, cultivated with care, it yields the
most luxuriant crops. A few orchards in the vici
nity of the town are very fructiferous. Other parts
of the parish, comprehending most of its area, con
sist chiefly of smooth hills, verdant to their summits,
and parcelled out into sheep-farms. The propor
tions of arable land and of pasture over the whole
area, are to each other very nearly as 2 to 13. Up
wards of 400 acres are under plantation. The Dean
banks, through which the post-road passes along the
west side of the Esk, and the woods of Broomholm
on the opposite side form a fine forest, consisting of
many valuable as well as beautiful trees. Farm-
buildings and enclosures are in a style subservient
alike to utility and to ornament. Whatever skill
and enterprise could suggest has been achieved for
the improvement of both the arable and the pastoral
grounds. From 8,000 to 10,000 Cheviot sheep feed
on the pastures, and undergo the process of smearing.
The breed of black cattle reared is the Galloway.
Lead-ore occurs on the farm of Westwater, and on
the estate of Broomholm. Coal commences at Lang-
holm-bridge, and stretches away thence beyond the
parish to the Solway frith. The chief proprietor of
the parish is the Duke of Buccleuch. Langholm-
lodge, a seat of the Duke, and Broomholm-house,
' the seat of George Maxwell, Esq., are both delight
fully situated on the left bank of the Esk, the for
mer half-a-mile above the town, and the latter If
mile below it. Over the Ewes, between Langholm
lodge and the town, is a beautiful bridge, 100 feet
in span. Over the Esk, uniting the old and the
new parts of the town, and forming the commence
ment of the road into upper Eskdale, is another bridge
of three arches. The two bridges stand nearly par
allel, and are not above a gun-shot from each other,
the two rivers uniting immediately below them.
About half-a-mile south of the town, leading off
from the post-road at a paper-mill to the right bank
of the Esk, is a third bridge of three arches. Tbe
road which comes down the right bank of the Ewes,
passes through the town, and then runs along the
left bank of the Esk, is the great mail-road between
Carlisle and Edinburgh, and also the post-road be
tween Carlisle and Berwick, the roads becoming
identified at the town of Hawick. A road, going
off from the town westward, runs 54 miles up Wau
chope- water and one of its tributaries, and then points
the way into Annandale and Nithsdale. The Roman
road of communication between Netherbie and Cas
tle O'er, or Overbie, can still be traced to have en
tered the parish at its south-east corner, crossed the
Esk a little above Broomholm, and run thence north
westward till it passed into Westerkirk. Langholm-
castle, a plain square tower or peel-house, now in a
state of ruin, was anciently the property of the
Armstrongs, the powerful family of Border free
booters : See Canobie. On Langholm -holm,
"Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie, and his gallant
companie of thirty-six men," when going to meet
King James V., " ran their horse and brak their
spears," when —
" The ladies lookit frae their loft windows,
Saying, God send our men well back again I"
At the confluence of the Esk and the Ewes is a small
fragment of a castle, formerly the property of the
Nithsdale family, lords of regality of Eskdale. Wau-
chope-castle, romantically situated on the brow of a

precipice, overlooking the rush of Wauchope-water
among pointed rocks, and the pendent oaks and
underwood of a picturesque bank on the opposite
side, was the first residence of the Lindsays in Scot
land, and bears marks, in the vestiges of the fosse
and other outworks, of having been a place of strength.
This family, from the manor of Lindsai in Essex with
Malcolm Canmore, received from him the lands of
Wauchopedale — the name still given to the basin of
the Wauchope— and diverged into the family of
Crawford, and the other noble families of their name.
Pennant, when visiting the house of Broomholm,—
in the vicinity of which an old tower was taken
down about a century ago, — was of opinion that it
stands in the centre of the site of an old British
town, and corresponds to Caesar's description, " Op-
pidum sylvis paludibusque munitum quo," &c. Cass.
de Bell. Gall. Lib. v. 17. The castle of Barntalloch,
near Staplegorton, which surmounted a rocky precis
pice on the Esk, and around which was a burgh-of-
barony, with an annual great fair, has utterly disap
peared. The towers of Irvine, Nease, Hill, and
Cawfield, also are among, the things which were.
About 60 years ago were found in the parish Roman
coins, chiefly denarii aurei, of the reigns of Nero,
Vespasian, Otho, and Domitian. Population, in
1801, 2,039; in 1831, 2,676. Houses 407. As
sessed property, in 1815, £6,134.
Langbolm gives name to a presbytery in the synod
of Dumfries. Patrons, the Crown and the Duke
of Buccleuch. Stipend £222 8s. 8d. ; glebe £27
10s. Unappropriated teinds £285 8s. lid. The
church was built in 1779. Sittings about 800. In
the town are two meeting-houses, belonging respec
tively to the United Secession and the Relief. — Pa
rochial schoolmaster's salary £34, with £40 fees, and
£20 other emoluments. The parish-school is at
tended by a maximum of 100 scholars ; and 3 non-
parochial schools by a maximum of 159. One of
the latter is a free school, recently erected by one of
the heritors, and brings the master the interest of
£600, on condition of gratuitously teaching 25
children ; and another has attached to it a salary of
£3, with a house and garden. Several female
teachers also have schools attended aggregately by
about 80 scholars.— To Langholm belongs quoad
sacra, the quoad civilia parish of Half-Mobton:
which see. The parish proper, or quoad civilia,
comprehends the ancient parishes of Staplegorton
and Wauchope. Staplegorton includes all the dis
trict east of the Esk, and also some territory on its
west bank. The church stood on the east side of
the Esk, above Patholm, and is still commemorated
by its burying-ground. The parish, as to its eccle
siastical property, was given, in the 12th century,
by William de Cunigburo, to the monks of Kelso;
and it passed at the Reformation to the Earl of Rox
burgh, but was purchased back by the Crown, and
enjoyed, for a brief period, by the bishop of Gallo
way. The old parish of Wauchope consisted of the
district now called Wauchopedale. The church was
given, in the 13th century, or earlier, to the priory
of Canobie, a cell of the abbey of Jedburgh ; antl
after the Reformation, it passed to the Earl of Buc
cleuch. The church stood near the old castle of
Wauchope; and its burying-ground yet remains
The present united parish was erected in 1 703. The
presbytery of Langholm was formed in 1743, at the
demolition of the presbytery of Middlebie, by unit
ing to the five parishes of Eskdale, the parish of
Castletown, formerly in the presbytery of Jedburgh
— Among eminent natives of Langholm are Admiral
Sir Thomas PaSley, who played a conspicuous part
under Earl Howe, in the sea-fight of 1st June, 1794;
Colonels John Little and Matthew Murray, who

LAN

221

LAN

made a figure in the wars against Tippoo Saib;
William Julius Meikle, the translator of ' Camoens
Luciad;' Thomas Telford, Esq., the celebrated civil
engineer; Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm; and
David Irvine, LL.D., librarian to the faculty of
advocates, and the author of the ' Life of George
Buchanan,' and other works.
Langholm, a burgh-of-barony and the capital
of the above parish, and of Eskdale, stands on the
Esk at the confluence with it of the Ewes and
. the Wauchope, 12 miles from Longtown, 21 from
Carlisle, 18 from Annan, 30 from Dumfries, and 23
from Hawick. The town is embosomed in one of
the sweetest landscapes in Scotland, — neither ex
tensive, romantic, nor grand, but, in the strictest
sense, beautiful. The old part of the town, or what
is called Old Langholm, stands on the east bank of
the Esk, immediately below the influx of the Ewes,
and stretches south-eastward along the Edinburgh
and Carlisle road. It consists of one principal street,
with a market-place near its middle. Many of the
houses are in a superior style for a place of its size ;
and all are roofed with blue slate quarried in the
vicinity. At the market-place stand the town-hall
and jail, built in 1811, ornamented with a spire, and
handsome in appearance, and having in front a mo
nument [now erecting] to Admiral Sir Pulteney
Malcolm. On a rising ground behind the town
stands the parish-church. Several good shops en
liven the street, and the Crown inn is well known
to travellers, tourists, and sportsmen. The new
part of the town, or New Langholm, stands on
the west bank of the Esk, immediately above the
influx of Wauchope-water, and bestrides the road
which leads from the town to Upper Eskdale. It
consists of nearly 150 houses, built in regular street
arrangement, in the form of a triangle. The inhabi
tants are mostly trades-people, and pay a small quit-
rent for their house and garden ; and, for from 3s. to
14s. an acre on leases of 14 years, they have 2 or 4
acres of land, — 2, if their house be one story high, and
4, if it be 2 stories. They have also, for 18s. a-year,
a cow pastured on a common set entirely apart for
their use. The feus are all held from the Duke of
Buccleuch. The village was commenced in 1778;
and several years before the close of the century it
numbered about 100 bouses. A cotton manufactory
was, about 50 years ago, established at New Lang
holm ; but it has at times been threatened with ex
tinction, and employed at the commencement as
many persons as it does still,. — between 80 and 100.
But the weaving of serges, checks, and shepherds'
plaids, and the manufacture of woollen yarns and
hose, though not individually important, aggregately
afford considerable employment. Tbe number of
handlooms for cotton-fabrics in the town and its
vicinity was, in 1828, 300,— and, in 1838, 250,— all
plain.1 The town has likewise a distillery, a brewery,
and some dye-houses. Looking at the great advan
tages of the place — abundance of coal and peat, a
profusion of water-power, and far superior facilities
of communication to those of the thriving towns of
Hawick and Galashiels — a stranger is puzzled to
comprehend why its manufactures are not abundantly
prosperous. The town has branch-offices of the
British Linen company's bank, and the National bank
of Scotland ; two subscription libraries, — one of
them large and rich ; a farming society ; a friendly
society; and asavings' bank. A weekly market is held
on Wednesday ; and four annual fairs,— one of them
on the 26th of July for Jambs, and one of the prin
cipal fairs in the South of Scotland, — and the others
on the 16th of April, the last Tuesday of May, O. S.,
and the 4th Tuesday of September, for the hiring of
farm-servants and the sale of stock — The town was

erected into a burgh-of-barony, by a charter fiom
the Crown, dated 7th April, 1643. The Duke of
Buccleuch is the superior, and appoints a baron-
bailie, who again appoints a depute. Courts are
sometimes held for trial of assaults, and other petty
offences. But the cases for trial are few ; and the
punishment inflicted is generally fine or imprison
ment, — the fine being given to the poor. A volun
tary association of the inhabitants attends to matters
of police, — chiefly the lighting and cleaning of the
streets. The expense amounts generally to about
£50, and, so far as not defrayed by an annual dona
tion of 40 guineas from the Duke of Buccleuch, is
made up by subscription. The members of the asso
ciation annually elect a committee of 7, and vest
them with the police executive. The population is
about 1,900. The number of persons whose rents,
in property or tenantry, amount to £10 and upwards,
is 85; and the number whose rents amount to £5,
and are under £10, is 106  The town is noted,
among the curious, for the manner in which it tamed
shrews, and for the character which — previous to
Christian enlightenment driving notions of witch
craft out of fashion, and showing that the thing
called so in the Bible was simply heathen divination
— it ascribed to its witches. An instrument called
" the branks," was so formed as to fit firmly upon
the head, and to project into the mouth a sharp spike
for commanding and squeezing down the tongue.
The tool was kept by the chief magistrate, and hung
up in terrorem before the scolds of the place. What
ever woman was too shrewish to be overawed by its
moral influence, was treated to an acquaintance with
its physical powers; and, having had it imposed on
her as a head-gear, was paraded through the town
under the roar of ridicule, and the taunts of scorn.
Few shrews, it is said, allowed their tongues, when
once released, to wag so wildly again as to bring
them a second time acquainted with "the branks."
Dr. Plot, the historian of Staffordshire, records that
a similar discipline was once practised in that county,
and sagaciously opines that it is " much to be pre
ferred to the ducking-stool, which not only endan
gers the health of the patient, but also gives the
tongue liberty betwixt every dip, — to neither of
which disadvantages this is at all liable." The Lang
holm witches, it seems, were as extraordinary speci
mens of womanhood in their class, as the Langholm
vixens were in theirs, and demanded proportionably
sharp methods of punishment. Usurping the craft
of the accoucheur, they were wont — so the mon
strously absurd superstition of the time believed — to
transfer the anguish of parturition from the mother
to the father ; and, in an age when, to the infamy of
Scotland, the faggot was lighted for many an aged
female who happened to have lost the bloom of
health and contracted a love for retirement, these
reputed witches, possessing such extraordinary
powers, were, of course, severely done to death. A
spot in the neighbourhood of Langholm- castle is still
pointed out where some of them were burnt during
last century.
LANG-NEWTON, an ancient vicarage, in the
district of Jedburgh, valued, in 1,120, at eight
merks. The churchyard continues to be used. It
anciently belonged to the monastery of Jedburgh,
and is now annexed to the parish of Ancrum. See
Ancrum. LANG SIDE, an inconsiderable village in the
north-west of the parish pf Cathcart, Renfrewshire,
distant about 2 miles south of Glasgow, and 7 miles
and 2 furlongs east of the cross of Paisley. Here,
on 13th May, 1568, the adherents of Queen Mary
were completely defeated by the Regent Murray :
See Cathcart and Cbooks,to{i At the field of

LAN

222

LAR

battle, on the summit of a height called Camphill,
there is a circular or elliptical enclosure, about 360
feet in circumference, to which the name of ' Queen
Mary's camp' is commonly attached. This is mani
festly a popular perversion of fact, for neither the
Queen nor her army ever reached that hill ; and as
to the Regent, he only took possession of it at the
beginning of the engagement. Indeed, the scene of
the conflict was so unpremeditated, that neither
party had time to form any intrenchment. That in
question is probably of Roman formation. It com
manded an extensive view of the surrounding coun
try, and was within a few miles of the Roman sta
tion at Paisley. The battle of Langside forms the
subject of some interesting and stirring passages in
Scott's historical romance of ' The Abbot.' The
latest and most accurate account of it is given in
Mr. Tytler's 'History of Scotland.'
LANGTON, a parish in the centre of Berwick
shire, lying partly in the Merse, and partly among
the Lammermoor-hills ; and bounded on the north
by Longformacus ; on the north-east by Dunse and
Edrom ; on the south by Edrom and Polwarth ; and
on the west by Longformacus. It is nearly triangu
lar, but with sinuous outline ; and, measuring in a
straight line, extends 6 miles on its north-easi side;
4£ on its south side ; and 3£ on its west side. Its
area is about 7,21)0 acres. About four-sevenths of
the surface from the northern angle downwards is
upland, divided into sheep farms of heathy and
coarse grass pasture, and commanding a view of the
whole luxuriant expanse of the Merse and of North
umberland, as far as Wooler. The heights are called
Langton-Edge, and have an extreme altitude of
about 900 feet. The Lowland division has, in gen
eral, a reddish loam well-adapted to the raising of
oats and barley, and, in some fields, deep, rich, and
fructiferous in wheat; and it is all finely enclosed
with stone or hedge fences, and beautifully che
quered with plantation. The proportions of arable
ground, and of ground covered with wood, are as 10
to 3. Of four rills which rise in the interior, and
run eastward as tributaries of Blackadder-water, two
run for a considerable way respectively on the south
ern and on the north-eastern boundary, and one —
Langton-burn, a strong, clear stream — drains a large
part of the parish, flows, for some time, between
steep banks richly clothed in copseWood, and after
wards meanders among the fine scenery of Langton
wood. On a hill in the farm of Raecleugh-head are
distinct traces of two military stations, supposed to
have been Danish. On Camp-muir, in the farm of
Langhope-birks, are traces of an encampment made
by a party of troops, both foot and horse, stationed
there, in the reign of William and Mary, to overawe
the Jacobites. In the vicinity of a place called
Battle-moor, several urns and stone-coffins have
been found. The ancient little town of Langton
straggled over a length of about half-a-mile, and dur
ing the unsettled period of the international wars,
was a place of some consequence. Like other Border
towns, it suffered at different times from incur
sions, and in particular, was burnt in 1558 by Sir
Henry Percy and Sir George Bowes. But, in 1 760,
it was peacefully rased to the ground, and substi
tuted, at about half-a-mile from its site, by the
pleasant modern village of Gavinton : which see.
The estate of Langton, including very nearly all the
parish, as well as part of Dunse and Longformacus,
was purchased, in 1758, by David Gavin, Esq., and
immediately made the scene of georgical and plant
ing operations, which raised it to , opulence and
mantled it in beauty. Through his daughter, who
became first marchioness of Breadalbane, it passed
into the possession of the present Marquis ; and now

 with the fine mansion and ornate grounds of Lang-
ton-house in its centre — is one of the loveliest spots
in the Merse. The turnpike between Dunse and
Edinburgh by way of Lauder, runs through the low
land district, and sends off a branch here toward
Greenlaw. Population, in 1801, 428; in 1831,443.
Houses 88. Assessed property, in 1815,£5,644 —
Langton is in the presbytery of Dunse, and synod
of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the Marquis of
Breadalbane. Stipend £214 19s. lid. ; ^lebe £24
2s. Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 2d., with about
£24 fees  During the reign of David I., the manor
of Langton, with the advowson of the church, be
longed to Roger de Ow, a follower of Earl Henry,
the heir- apparent of the throne. De Ow gave the
church, with its pertinents, to the monks of Kelso;
and was succeeded in the possession of the manor,
first by the family of Vetereponte or Vipont, one
of whom fell in the battle of Bannockburn, and
next by the family of Cockburn, one of whom was
created a baronet by Charles I., and the last of
whom sold it to Mr. Gavin.
LANG WALL (The), a river in Caithness,
which, joined by the Berriedale, falls into the sea
near the Ord, or southern extremity of the county.
LANTON, a village at the west base of Dunian
hill, a little east of the Berwick and Carlisle turnpike ;
2^ miles west of Jedburgh, 12 miles from Kelso,
and 9 from Hawick, in tbe parish of Jedburgh,
Roxburghshire. It is a poor-looking place, the site
of a semi-parochial school, and a preaching-station
of the Establishment, the inhabitants of the district
around it not having easy communication with Jed
burgh in consequence of the intervention of the
Dunian. Population, about 230.
LAOGHAL (Loch), a lake in the parish of
Tongue, Sutherlandshire; about 4 miles long, and
I broad. From it the river Torrisdale takes its
rise. On the sides of this lake rise the lofty moun
tains of Benlaoghal and Benhope.
LAPPOCH, a dangerous rock, about 100 yards
long, and dry at low water, in the bay of Ayr. It
lies about l| mile south-south-west of the bar of
Irvine ; and is in aline with Irvine steeple, the half-
tide rock and Lady-Isle : See Lady- Isle. Between
it and the coast is a broad channel from 7 to 8
fathoms deep.
LARBERT, a parish in Stirlingshire, part of
the united parish of Larbert and Dunipace. It is
bounded on the north by the Pow, which divides it
from St. Ninians ; on the north-east by Airth ; on
the east by Bothkennar ; on the south by the Car-
ron, which divides it from Falkirk ; and on the west
by Dunipace. In itself it is nearly a square 2| miles
deep ; but, since about 1620, it has been united on
equal terms to Dunipace, and it measures, jointly with
that parish, 8 miles in length from east to west, and
about 2 miles in mean breadth. The ground, over both
parishes, is for the most part level, with a soil light
and dry, and in part clayey ; and it is beautifully
cultivated, enclosed, and sheltered, and teems with
the attractions of hiansion and demesne, of neat
farm-stead and fertile fields, and of stirring villages
and important manufactures. Herbertshire house is
a fine old baronial mansion celebrated in the ancient
ballad of Gil Morice, as tbe " Lord Bernard's Ha'."
Kinnaird-house was once the residence of the Abys
sinian traveller Bruce, a native of the parish, and
was the scene of his death and of the seemingly
trivial accident which occasioned it ; and it possesses
many memorials of him in the curiosities which he
brought from the wide and wondrous field of his re
searches. The other mansions are Larbert, Duni
pace, Woodside, Oarron-hall, Carron-Park, and Car-
brook. The chief village and scene of stir and raanu-

LARGO.

223

facturc is Carron : which see. The villages of Kin-
nuird and Stenhousemuir, situated in the vicinity of
Carron, are occupied by colliers employed in rich
neighbouring coalmines. Carronshore is sepa
rately noticed. Larbert, running along the Edin
burgh and Stirling turnpike from the bank of the
Carron, is a pleasant village, 2 miles from Falkirk
and 9 from Stirling, delightfully situated, command
ing a charming view of the surrounding country, and
adorned with an elegant Gothic church. Dunipace,
as to its interesting antiquities and other objects, has
been separately described. Near Carron stood the
famous Arthur's Oven : which see. At Larbert
is a Danish fort. The Roman causeway from the
camp of Carmuirs in Falkirk, across the Carron a
little west of Larbert, and stretching nearly in a
straight line to Stirling-castle, is still entire in many
parts both in Larbert and Dunipace. The great
north road from Glasgow to Perth and the turnpike
from Edinburgh to Stirling, cut the united parish
northward, to become identified 5| miles after leav
ing it at St. Ninians. Population, in 1801,4,217;
in 1831, 5,526. Houses 710. Assessed property,
in 1815, £7,950  The united parish is in the pres
bytery of Stirling, and synod of Perth and Stirling.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £271 3s. 4d. ; glebe
£26 10s. Unappropriated teinds £1,180 2s. 8d.
The ancient churches were chapels subordinate to
the church of Egglis or St. Ninians ; and they were,
along with that church, given by Robert, bishop of
. St. Andrews, to the monks of Cambuskenneth.
There are two parish-churches ; that of Larbert,
built about 1820 ; and that of Dunipace, in 1833.
In 1838, measures were adopted and subscriptions
commenced for erecting a quoad sucra parish-church
in the eastern district of Larbert. The parish
minister officiates alternately in the parish-churches,
and employs either a stated or an occasional assist
ant. An ecclesiastical survey, in 1838, exhibited the
population as then consisting of 4,085 churchmen,
and 1,455 dissenters, — in all 5,540 persons, chiefly
Carron-iron-workmen, calico-printers, colliers, and
Carron carters. Two parochial schools are attended
by a maximum of 142 scholars; and ten private
schools by a maximum of 444. Salary of each parish-
schoolmaster £34 4s., with fees, and a house and
garden. LARGO, a parish in Fifeshire, at the bottom of
the bay of the frith of Forth to which it gives name.
It extends to the north, at the east end, for about
4£ miles ; but at the west end, little more than 3
miles. Its breadth on the south, along the shore, is
only about 2J miles ; but at the north it is about 4£
miles. On the south it is bounded partly by Largo
bay, and partly by the parish of Newburn ; on the
east by the parishes of Newburn and Kilconquhar ;
on the north by the parish of Ceres ; and on the west
by the parish of Scoonie. The shore is in general
low and sandy, but the ground soon begins to rise
towards the north. The surface of the parish is
throughout exceedingly diversified by rising grounds
and valleys, and beautifully ornamented with wood
of various kinds. On the east side of the parish,
and at the distance of about 2 miles from the shore,
Largo-law rises to the height of about 910 feet above
the level of the sea. It is of a beautiful conical
form, green to the summit, where it is cleft in two,
and exhibits a series of basaltic columns. From this
hill, a splendid and extensive view of the whole sur
rounding country, the frith of Forth and its islands,
and the opposite shore of the Lothians, is obtained.
West of Largo-law a deep ravine, called Keil's den,
and through which flows a small burn, intersects the
parish from north to south, for about 2 miles. It is
finely wooded, is exceedingly picturesque, and forms

a favourite walk for persons residing at Largo during
the summer for the benefit of sea-bathing. Houses,
in J831, 479. Assessed property, in 1815, £8,281.
The population, in 1801, was 1,867; in 1831, 2,567.
Of this population about 1,761 resided in villages,
and 806 in the country  The villages are Lower
Largo, including Temple and Drummochy, situated
near the sea, with a peculation, in 1831, of 567 ;
Upper Largo, with a population of 413; Lundin-
mill, population 453; and Backmuir of Gilston, and
Woodside, population 316. A steam-boat plies twice
a- day between Largo and Newhaven during summer,
and once during the winter- months. The harbour,
which is at the mouth of the Keil-burn, is not good,
but has been considerably improved by General Dur
ham, so that the steam-boat can, in general, enter
the harbour and land passengers at the pier. There
are three small vessels belonging to it. In old times a
trade was carried on from this place with Campvere
and Rotterdam in coal, salt, iron, sandstone, &c. ;
and more recently with Norway in wood ; but the
whole of this is now at an end. The nearest market-
towns are Leven and Colinsburgh, each about 3 miles
distant  The estate of Largo, the most extensive
in the parish, is now the property of Thomas Calder
wood Durham, Esq., who succeeded to his uncle, the
late General James Durham. At no great distance
from the village of Upper Largo, is the mansion-
house, — an elegant modern dwelling, situated on a
pleasant slope, with a southern exposure, and sur
rounded with enclosed grounds, well laid out, and
richly ornamented with a great deal of fine wood. The
barony of Largo was conferred by James III. in 1482,
by charter under the great seal, on Sir Andrew Wood,
his naval commander, in acknowledgment for his
brilliant achievements against the English.* The
objects of antiquity in this parish are more than
usually numerous, and some of them peculiarly inter
esting. Within the grounds which surround Largo-
house is a circular tower, which formed part of the
old castle inhabited by Sir Andrew Wood, and which,
it is alleged, once formed a jointure-house of the
queens of Scotland. On the banks of the water of
Keil, to the north of Largo-house, is an old square
tower, part of the castle of Balcruvie, anciently also
called Pitcruvie. In all probability this castle was
erected by Sir John Lindsay, as a separate residence
* An account of this brave man, who retained the friendship,
not only of James III., but of his son, James IV., has been
given in our article Fifeshire. Sir Audrew, like Commodore
Trunion, brought a considerable portion of his nautical ideas
and manners with him on shore. He caused a canal to be
formed from his house almost down to the church, aud on this
he used to sail iu his barge in state every sabbath-day! From
the descendants of Sir Andrew, this barony came to a Mr.
Peter Black, and from him to Sir Alexander Gibson of Dune,
who, in August, 1663, during his father's lifetime, had a char
ter, " Alexander Gibson, junioride Dune, terrarum ImrouiaB
de Largo, &c." . He does not appear to have long retained them,
but to have disposed of them to Sir Alexander Durham, 3d
son of Sir James Durham of Pitkerrow, descended frurn Sir
William Durham of Grange, a man of rank and distinctiou,
who figured during the reign of Robert Bruce. Sir Alexander
Durham was a great loyalist, and for his services to the toyal
family was knighted by Charles II., and appointed lord-lyon,
kiug-at-arms, in 1660. He was also a colonel of a regiment,
and receiver-freneral of the laud-tax of Scotland. His elder
brother, James Durham of Pitkerrow, was also of the loyai
party, and a captain in Sir Alexander's regiment. Afterwards
he betook himself to the study of theology, and became an emi
nent divine. He was first one of the ministers of Edinburgh,
also one of the King's chaplains, and attended his majesty to
the battle of Dunbar. He was afterwards minister of the High
church of Glasgow, and the author of several works on diviuity.
He married Margaret, daughter of Sir — — Mure of Glauder-
ston, widow'of the well-known Zacharias Boyd, his colleague.
By this marriage he had two sons ; Francis, who succeeded his
uncle, Sir Alexander, iu the estate of Largo: and James, who
succeeded his brother Francis. He married Margaret, daughter
of Sir Thomas Rutherford of Hunthill, who, upon the' failure
of issue male of her father aud brother, became heir of line to
the title of Lord Rutherford, ou which account he quartered
the arms of Rutherford with those of Durham. The late Gen
eral James Durham was his great-grandson.

224

LARGO.

during his father's lifetime. The tradition is, that
Balcruvie belonged to the family of Crawford ; but
this is a mistake originating in the fact that the
family of Lindsay, at a subsequent period, succeeded
to the estates and titles of the Earl of Crawford. In
the centre of the present house of Lundin, which is
of modern erection, there is a square tower of great
antiquity, which formed part of the ancient castle of
Lundin, the residence of the family of Lundin 
There is another class of antiquities, however, in
this parish of far more ancient date, and of much
greater interest than attaches to these old towers,
interesting though they no doubt are. South-east
of Lundin house, and between it and the high road,
are three upright stones, of red sandstone, commonly
called "the standing stones of Lundin," which have
obviously formed part of one of these circles of stones,
believed to have been Druidical temples ; and of which
Stonebenge in England is the largest and most re
markable example now existing. The Lundin stones
are rude blocks of a triangular form, and are each
about eighteen feet in height, and supposed to be
nearly as much below ground. The fragments of a
fourth stone, which appeared to have been of equal
magnitude, recently lay near them. Sibbald says,
that in his time it was alleged, " that some ancient
sepulchres had been found in their neighbourhood."
By some it has been supposed that these stones were
erected in commemoration of the death of some of
the Danish chiefs, who fell in battle here, during the
time they were making incursions on our shores;
but this is an extremely improbable conjecture, and
there seems to be no reason to doubt, that they are
remains of the Druidical worship. In the lawn in
front of Largo-house is one of those carved stones
called Runic. A considerable number of years ago
one-halt of this stone was found on the estate of
Largo ; and, at a subsequent period, the other half
was found at a place more than a mile distant. Be
ing found to be part of the same ancient relique,
they were built into a wall in order to preserve
them ; but General Durham had the two pieces re
moved, and erected on a pedestal, in their present
situation on the lawn. This singular monument pre
sents on the one side a Maltese cross, something like
that on the cross at Crail; the upper part of the
stone presenting a circle, ornamented in the style of
a part of Crail cross, and one of the side slabs of the
St. Andrews sarcophagus. On the right side of the
body of the cross, below the transepts, are two fishes
or serpents intertwined, having heads like horses ;
and on the left, something like a figure sitting
having an elephant's head, of which the trunk is ap
parent. The bony of the cross has been ornamented
with a variety of carving, some of which would ap
pear to have been serpents intertwined. The reverse
side of this monument represents the usual hunting
scene which this class of remains almost invariably
represents. — On an artificial rising ground or tumulus
to the north of Largo-house, called Nome's law, about
the year 1819, a man digging sand, it is reported, came
accidentally upon a stone coffin, in which he found a
complete suit of scale-armour, which, with the shield,
sword-handle, and scabbard, was entirely of silver.
A few portions of the armour were rescued from de
struction, but the greater part is known to have been
disposed of by the finder to different silversmiths 
The late Sir John Leslie, K. G., professor of natural
philosophy in the university of Edinburgh, was born
in this parish in 1766. In the village of Lower Largo,
Alexander Selkirk was born in 1676. Little is known
of him in early life, except that he went to sea; and
that on one occasion when at home, he committed an
assault on his brother, which led to his being brought
before the kirk-session of his native parish, Iu 1703,

he engaged as sailing-master on board the Cinque
Ports, bound for the South sea, and having quar
relled with the captain, he was put ashore on the
uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez, where he re
mained in entire solitude four years and four months.
He was at length discovered, and brought to Eng
land by Captain Wood Rogers; and subsequently
returned to Largo, where he remained for some time.
From his adventure in the island of Juan Fernandez,
Daniel Defoe took the hint for his inimitable romance
of Robinson Crusoe. Selkirk brought home with
him his gun, sea-chest, and drinking cup, which he
had with him on the island ; and they are still pre
served, in the house in which he was born, by the
descendant of one of his brothers.
This parish is in the presbytery of St. Andrews,
and synod of Fife. Patron, Durham of Largo. Sti
pend £253 9s. 7d. ; glebe £31. Unappropriated teinds
£140 14s. The parish-church is situated in the vil
lage of Upper Largo. It was built in 1817, and in
1826 there was taken into the new building, an aisle
belonging to the old church, which supported the
spire, and bears the date of 1623. It is seated to
accommodate upwards of 800 — There are two dis
senting chapels in the parish, both situated in the
village of Lower Largo : a Relief chapel and a Bap
tist chapel. The number of dissenters within the
parish is about 200. There are four schools in the
parish. The parochial teacher has the maximum
salary. Of the three other schools, two have sal
aries of £5 each from the heritors, besides their
school-fees. A subscription library has been estab
lished for a number of years, and contains upwards
of 500 volumes. — By a deed of mortification dated
7th July, 1659, John Wood, a younger son of the
family of Wood of Largo, bequeathed the sum of
£68,418 Scots for the purpose of building and en,
dowing an hospital within the parish, for the main
tenance of 13 indigent and enfeebled persons of the
name of Wood, besides a gardener, a porter, and a
chaplain ; the building was commenced in April 1665,
and completed about the end of the same year. It
appears to have been first inhabited about Candle
mas, 1667. The following is the account given by
Lamont in his Diary of this : " 1665, April. — About
the beginning of this monthe, the hospittall att the
church of Largo in Fyffe, appointed to be buelded
by the deceassed John Wood, was founded at this
tyme, by Robert Mill, measter measson in Edb., and
some men that he hyred for the worke, some meas-
sons, some qwarriers, some barrowmen, to the num
ber of 18 or 20 persons, or thereby. He vndertooke
to bueld itt for a penny, and to deliver the keys to
the ouerseirs, viz. Er of Weyms, Lundy, Largo,
Kirke sessiown of Largo, Balfowre, Pat. Scot of
Langshaw, and Sr Tho. Gourlay of Kincragie, and
Mr John Alleys advocat in Edb. Some say that he
was to have for the worke, being compleit, nyne
thowsande inerkes scots, and iff itt was founde
weill done 500 merkes more. About the end of An.
1665, the rooffe was put on this buelding, and sclait-
ed and glased. It consisted of thrie rooffes, one to
the east, one to the north, and one to the west.
The entrie of itt looked to the sowth. It was a
buelding that consisted of 14 divers rowmes, with a
publicke hall ; in each rowme ther was a bed, a
closett, and a lowme, being all fyre rowmes, with a
large garden ; a stone bridge for its entrie ; a howse
besyde for the gardiner two stories high. About 6
persons were entered to stay att the said hospitall
abowt Candelmisse 1667." In 1830 this building
was found to be in a state of great decay, and a new
one was erected by the patrons, which is not only
much more commodious but is an elegant and orna
mental building, in the Elizabethan style. The de-

LARGS.

225

signs were furnished by Mr. James Leslie, civil
engineer. The whole expense of the erection was
£2,000 sterling. It is fitted to accommodate 1 6 in
dividuals, each having a sitting and a sleeping apart
ment. In the centre is a large hall, where the in
mates are conveyed to prayers, morning and even
ing ; above which is a room for the meetings of the
patrons. The annual allowance to each inmate is
£15 sterling, paid monthly, and a supply of vege
tables. The funds arise from the interest of £2,000
sterling, and the rent of a farm, which averages about
£280 sterling. The patrons are the Earl of Wemyss,
the lairds of Largo, Lundin, and Balfour, with the
minister and kirk- session of Largo. Little is known
of Mr. Wood, the founder, except that he was a
cadet of the house of Wood of Largo ; that he was,
as Lamont says, " sometime a courtier," that he was
designed of " Orkie," and that besides this hospital,
he founded a school at Drumeldrie, and built at his
own expense, a wall round the churchyard at Largo.
LARGS, a parish in the extreme north-west of
Cunningham, Ayrshire ; bounded on the north and
east by Renfrewshire ; on the south-east by Kilbir
nie and Dairy ; on the south by West Kilbride ; and
on the west by the frith of Clyde. Its length from
Kelly-burn, which forms its boundary on the north,
to a point a little south of the village of Fairley, is
about 9 miles ; its breadth, from the hill of Stake on
the east to the village of Largs on the west, is 3|
miles; and its area is estimated at 19,743 acres.
The hills, which begin to rise in the parishes of
Greenock, Kilmalcolm, Lochwinnoch, Kilbirnie, and
Dairy, meet in a kind of general summit at the east
ern boundary of Largs, and hem it in so curidusly
from all the cultivated country t.o the north, east,
and south-east, as to have occasioned the proverbial
expression, " Out of the world, and into the Largs."
The uplands gradually descend as they approach the
shore ; and they terminate in abrupt declivities, some
of which are almost perpendicular, as if part of their
base had been forcefully dissevered. Yet, though
the hills are high, they are but thinly patched with
heath, and have a coat of prime pastoral verdure,
and, in some instances, exhibit undoubted marks of
having once been cropped with grain. For a mile
from the northern boundary, the uplands form at their
base what seems an impregnable bulwark or perpen
dicular massive breastwork of rock, rising in some
places 50 or 60 feet above the road, and seeming to
overhang it. When covered with icicles, and lit up
by sunshine in winter, this huge natural wall is a
gorgeous object, a stupendous cabinet of the richest
gems. South of the point where it terminates, a
conical mountain, green to the top, contributes a
feature alike bold and beautiful to the landscape.
Farther south, the grounds fall off in gentle gra
dients, and yield in fine slopes to the course of Nod-
desdale- water, a considerable stream. Behind the
village of Largs, the country opens into a beautiful
plain, extending nearly a mile from the beach to the
foot of the mountains. No parish in the west of
Scotland, and few in the Highlands, can surpass
Largs in the beauty and romance of the landscape
which stretches along its own area, or is hung out
within view of both its uplands and its plains. Its
coast-line is almost parallel with that of Bute, and
looks right across to that beautiful island, to the en
trance of the Kyles of Bute, to Toward-Point in
Cowall, to a profusion of fine headlands, and wooded
slopes, and broken surfaces coming down thence and
from the Larger Cumbray, to kiss the waters of the
Clyde, and to the magnificent and singularly varied
alpine scenery which rises up in the distance, and
makes acquaintance with the clouds. About one-
sixth of the whole area of the parish is arable; about
II.

1,000 acres of tbe high grounds are of little value;
a fair and even large proportion of the sea-board or
low grounds, is frilled and clumped with wood; and
the rest of the area is devoted to the pasturage of
sheep and black cattle, chiefly for the market of
Glasgow. The soil of the arable land in the south
ern district is light and sandy, producing tolerable
crops with little culture, if the season be not unusually
dry; and, in the northern district, is a light red
earth, lying on rock of the same colour, and inferior
to the former for both tillage and pasture. Neither
lime nor coals worth working have been discovered
in the parish, and cannot be procured nearer than
Stevenston, 11 miles from the southern boundary.
Gogo- water, 5£ miles in length of course, rises near
the eastern limit, and runs westward to the frith
immediately south of the village of Largs. Noddes-
dale-water, 6 miles long, rises near the north-east
extremity, and runs south-westward to the frith, at
a point just a mile north of the mouth of the Gogo.
" Noddesdale," says Sir John Sinclair's statist, "is
a very impetuous stream. It runs through Mr.
Brisbane's pleasure-grounds, where it has often com
mitted great depredations. Mr. Brisbane has fre
quently endeavoured to embank it, and has been at
great pains and expense in raising mounds of earth
to turn its course, but in vain." Rigghill-burn, ris
ing very near the source of Noddesdale, enters the
frith 2| miles farther north. Kelly-burn, welling
up on the northern boundary, traces it for 3| miles
westward to the sea. Rotten-burn, rising on the
north-eastern boundary, runs along it for 3£ miles
north-westward, and passes into Renfrewshire. The
fisheries along the coast are of considerable value,
and send their produce to the towns on the Clyde 
Kelburn-house, a seat of the Earl of Glasgow, 1£
mile south-east of the village of Largs, and half-a-
mile from the shore, is remarkable for the romantic
scenery of a glen a quarter of a mile long, imme
diately behind it. At the head of the glen is an
abrupt, rough, lofty precipice, over which leaps a
brook into a path just wide enough to permit the
flow of its waters. From the sides of the path, the
ground rapidly ascends, mountain high, forming a
chasm which, if naked, would be tremendous, but
which is so clothed with trees, and otherwise deco
rated by art, as to be beautiful. Near the house, the
brook leaps over another precipice, 50 feet sheer
down, into a vast basin which seems scooped out of
both sides of the glen. — Brisbane-house, the seat of
Sir T. Brisbane, Bart., 1J mile north of Largs, is
another fine mansion, surrounded with picturesque
grounds. In the house is preserved an oaken chair,
dated 1357, and carved on the back with the arms
andinitials of the Brisbane family  Skelmorly-castle,
2 miles farther north, the property successively of
the Montgomerys of Skelmorly, the Montgomerys
of Coylsfield, and the Earls of Eglinton, was built
partly in 1502, and partly in 1636  Knock-castle,
built about 350 years ago, but now in ruins, was the
property of an ancient family of the name of Fraser,
descended from John Fraser, 3d son of Hugh
Fraser of Lovat. The circumjacent lands were
granted to Fraser in 1402, by Robert III., and are
now part of the Brisbane estate. — The castle of
Fairley [see Fairley], built in 1521, and now be
longing to the Earl of Glasgow, was the property of
the ancient family of Fairley, said to be descended
from a natural son of Robert IL, and will be remem
bered as the scene of the ballad " Hardiknute." — A
small hill called Margaret's-Law, having been opened
in 1772, in search of materials for enclosures, was
found to be an artificial accumulation of stones,
amounting to 15,000 cart-loads, and having in its
centre five stone-coffins with human skulls and bones,
P

226

LARGS.

and earthen urns, which were believed to have been
there since the battle of Largs. The grand antiqui
ties of the parish are memorials of this battle, fought
on the 2d October, 1263, between Haco of Norway,
and Alexander III. of Scotland. Haco, to enforce
his claims on the sovereignty of the Hebrides, sailed
up the frith of Clyde with a numerous fleet and
army, and anchored in the sound between the coast
and the Cumbrays. Alexander had used every stra
tagem to gain time, and at length lay encamped, with
about 1,500 well-appointed cavalry, and a numerous
host of inferior soldiery, on the heights behind Largs
overlooking the sea. On the night preceding the 2d
October, Haco suffered fearful damage from a power
ful storm blowing right up the frith and sound upon
his fleet, and, in the morning, was obliged, while
most of his forces were either drowned or struggling
for the preservation of his remaining ships, to effect an
embarrassed landing with a dispirited band only about
900 in number. Instantly confronted with the fresh
and strong force of Alexander, part of the Norwegian
little army was driven back into the sea, and part
retired sword in hand, and fighting all the way, to a
place a little below Kelburn. A few more of the
Norwegians having landed, the apparently over
powering force of Alexander was resisted in a con
tinuous fight, till the cloud of night sheltered Haco's
little shattered remnant, and allowed them to with
draw to their ships. Haco got leave from the Scot
tish king peacefully to inter his numerous followers
who had fallen ; and, in a few days afterwards, he
collected the relics of his fleet, and sailed away to
Orkney, there to die in December under the pressure
of his sorrow. The chief scene of the contest is sup
posed to have oeen a large plain southward of the
village of Largs, still presenting a recumbent stone
10 feet long, which once stood upright, and is be
lieved to have been placed over the grave of a chief
tain ; and vestiges of cairns and tumuli formed, as is
said, over pits into which the bodies of the slain were
thrown. Within the parish of Dairy, immediately
beyond the south-east boundary of Largs, is a farm
called Camphill, where the Scottish army are said to
have encamped previous to the engagement. Be
tween that place and the village of Largs, is Rout-
don-burn, having on its bank a cairn in which a
stone-cof$n was found, and supposed to have received
its name of Routdon or Routdane, from having been
the place where a detachment of Haco's army were
routed. Some way down the burn is Burly-gate;
nearer the sea, in the Earl of Glasgow's plantations,
is Killing-craig ; and farther .to the south is Kep-
ping-burn, where, it is said, a number of the fleeing
Norwegians were met by Sir Robert Boyd, ancestor
of the Earls of Kilmarnock, afterwards the tried friend
of Robert Bruce, and put to the sword  The parish
has only three lines of road, one along the shore, and
one north-westward, and one westward, from the
village of Largs. At the southern extremity of the
parish stands the village of Fairley : which see.
Population, in 1801, 1,361 ; in 1831,2,848. Houses
393. Assessed property, in 1815, £6,259.
The village of Largs is beautifully and salubri
ously situated on the coast, 8£ miles from Innerkip,
9 from Kilbirnie, and 13£ from Saltcoats. It is built
upon a large deposit of gravel, that must at one time
have formed part of the channel of the frith. Its ap
pearance is neat and cheerful, and, in connexion with
the scenery around it, is eminently beautiful. The
place is a favourite retreat during the summer months,
of families from Glasgow, Greenock, and other towns,
for ruralizing and sea-bathing ; and is, in all respects,
worthy of the abundant patronage it enjoys. Numer
ous pleasant and even handsome buildings line its
little streets, built and arranged in a style to afford

equal accommodation and comfort to visiters chary
of their enjoyments. Smiling villas straggle away
from its ends, or surmount knolly heights in its vici
nity. A handsome parish-church lifts conspicuously
into view an ornamental spire. A quay, sufficiently
good for speedy and safe landing of passengers and
goods, is overlooked, after a considerable interme
diate esplanade, by a fine terrace, or single-sided
street. All the very rich and extensive marine and
land prospect, noticed in our account of the parish,
is hung out before it. An air so pure surrounds it
as to have enabled it stoutly to compete with Rothe
say the fame of being the Montpellier of the west of
Scotland. An elegant suite of baths — four of them
modelled after those at Seafield between Leith and
Portobello, and one of them a vapour-bath — was built
in 1816 by public subscription. Connected with the
baths are a reading-room and library ; and in other
parts of the town are circulating libraries. Four or
five steam-boats touch daily in summer, and one or
two daily in winter, on their way between Glasgow
and intermediate places on the one side, and Mill
port, Ardrossan, and Ayr, on the other ; and they
have access at all states of the tide, the depth of
water almost at the very shore being several fathoms.
A large part of the inhabitants depend mainly on
rents, and perquisites, and profits drawn from sum
mer visiters ; a few are maintained by the fisheries ;
and a considerable number act as the poor subordi
nates of the Glasgow manufacturers. In 1838, there
were in the town and its vicinity 150 hand-looms, all
plain, and employed in cotton fabrics. There is also,
we understand, a small manufactory of tartan. The
place has a branch-office of the Western bank of Scot
land, and severalbenevolent and religious institutions.
A weekly market is held on Thursday ; and annual
fairs are held on the 1st Tuesday of February, the 2d
Tuesday of June, the 3d Tuesday of July, and the
4th Tuesday of October. The June fair falls on
St. Columba's day, vulgarly called Colm's day ; and,
though now of very diminished importance, was an
ciently the rendezvous of Highlanders and Lowland-
ers for the mutual exchange of their commodities,
and exhibited probably more grotesque moral scenes
than any which can now be witnessed in Scotland.
Hucksters in the Highland clachans, and pedlers
among the Highland wastes, rubbed the edge off the
fair's importance, and steam-boat intercommunica
tion has all but wholly demolished it. Yet the sta
tist in the Old Statistical Account, writing not quite
half-a-century ago, says : — " This fair is famous over
the west of Scotland, and continues from Monday to
Thursday. Great numbers of people, from 40 to 50
miles round, resort to it, some for business, and some
for pleasure. Upwards of 100 boats are often to be
seen, on this occasion, riding in the bay. The whole
week is a kind of jubilee to the inhabitants, and a
scene of diversion to others. Such a vast multitude
cannot be accommodated with beds ; and the High
landers, in , particular, do not seem to think such
accommodation necessary. They spend the whole
night in rustic sports, carousing and dancing on the
green to the sound of the bagpipe. Every one who
chooses is allowed to join in this, which forms their
principal amusement." At each end of the village is
a moat, the supposed seat of feudal courts of justice.
On a small holm at Outterwards, on Noddesdale-
water, were discovered the foundations of several
small buildings, huts or cottages, said to have been
the retreat of numbers of the inhabitants from a visit
of the plague which, in 1644, desolated the village.
On the north side of the parish-church is an aisle
of singular character, built, in 1636, by Sir Robert
Montgomery pf Skelmorly. It is richly and taste
fully carved, and forms an arch and two compart-

LAR

227

LAS

ments, supported by 18 pillars of the Corinthian
order, surmounted with cherubim. Above the arch
is a small pyramid, finished at top with a globe. On
the roof are painted the twelve signs of the zodiac,
several views of the mansion of Skelmorly, and the
figure of a lady, a member of the Skelmorly family,
receiving a mortal kick from a horse. In various
parts are also texts of Scripture and escutcheons.
Below is a vault, to which Sir Robert usually re
paired at night for devotion and meditation, — in a
sense burying himself alive. Two leaden coffins,
containing the remains of Sir Robert and his lady,
Margaret Douglas, daughter of an ancestor of the
Dukes of Queensberry, occupy separate niches. On
Sir Robert's is inscribed, —
" Ipse mini prasmortuus fui : Fato funera,
Prrfiripui. Unicum, idque Caesariuro
Exemplar, inter tot mortales secutus."
This obviously alludes to the emperor Charles V.,
who had his obsequies performed before his death ;
and may be translated, " I predeceased myself; I
anticipated my destined funeral ; alone, among all
mortals, following the example of Caesar." Sir
James, a successor of Sir Robert, displayed a moral
eccentricity of another kind : he first acted a distin
guished part among the presbyterians at the Revolu
tion, and afterwards became an ultra-jacobite, and
plotted for the restoration of the Stuarts. — The vil
lage has no charter whatever to regulate its govern
ment, and is not a burgh either of barony or of rega
lity. No means are possessed for the administration
of law but such as proceed from the sheriff's autho
rity, whose court is at Ayr, 30 miles distant ; from
the acting and authority of justices of the peace resi
dent in the town and neighbourhood ; and from the
barcn-bailie appointed by the superior, who now
rarely interferes. The justices hold a court monthly,
which has a clerk and fiscal, where cases of small
debt and breaches of the peace are tried ; but they
cannot dispense with written papers in even the most
petty cases, nor punish delinquents summarily, as in
police-courts, — so that even a trivial assault cannot
be prosecuted for, but at an expense of several pounds.
Population of tbe village and suburbs, in 1831 , 2,045.
. — Largs is in the presbytery of Greenock, and synod
of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the Earl of Eglinton.
Stipend £246 5s. lid.; glebe £36 8s. Unappro
priated teinds £688 17s. 5d. The church was built
in 1812, and enlarged in 1833. Sittings 1.268 —
There are two dissenting meeting-houses, both situ
ated in tbe village of Largs. The United Secession
congregation was established in 1 780 ; built their
first meeting-house in 1781, and rebuilt it in 1826,
with manse and offices, at a cost of £1,340. Sittings
690. Stipend £130..— The Relief congregation was
established in 1833. Meeting-bouse built in 1838,
at a cost of £550. Sittings 460.— There is a small
Roman Catholic congregation in the town. — An ec
clesiastical survey in 1837-8, showed the population
of the quoad saera parish then to be 2,140 church
men, 820 dissenters, 11 nondescripts, — in all 2,971. —
The south end of the parish is included in the quoad
sacra parish of Fairley : which see. The paro
chial school was attended, in 1834, by only three
scholars, and eleven private schools by a maximum
of 433. Parish schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 3£d.,
with £1 10s. 6d. fees, and theinterest of £175 4s.
8d. other emoluments.— The district of Cunningham
appears to have anciently formed two distinct terri
tories,  the southern and larger one called Cunning-
nam, and the northern and smaller one called Largs.
On the death of Alan, lord of Galloway, in 1234, the
lordship of Largs was inherited by his daughter De-
vergilla ; from her it passed to her son John Baliol,
the competitor for the Scottish crown ; and on his

forfeiture, it was conferred by Robert Bruce on his
son-in-law, Walter, the steward of Scotland. Hither
to the church had been a rectory ; but now it was
given by Walter to the monks of Paisley, and it
continued with them till the Reformation. In 1587,
the tithes and patronage, in common with the other
property of the monks, were erected into a temporal
lordship, with the title of Lord Paisley, in favour of
Lord Claud Hamilton. In 1621, they were inherited
by James, Earl of Abercorn ; and in the reign of
Charles I., they passed to Sir Robert Montgomery
of Skelmorly. The church was dedicated to St.
Columba. LARKHALL, a large village and quoad sacra
parish in the parish of Dalserf, in the Middle ward
of Lanarkshire. The church, built in 1835, , at an
expense of £900, contains 720 sittings. There are
also a Relief and an Independent church here. Pop
ulation of the quoad sacra parish 2,200.
LASS WADE,* a parish in Edinburghshire ; bound
ed on the north by Colinton and Libberton ; on the
north-east by. Dalkeith and Newbattle; on the east
by Cockpen and Carrington ; on the south by Peni-
cuick; and on the west by Penicuick and Glencross.
Its greatest length, from north to south, is 8 miles ;
and its greatest breadth 6; but nowhere, except over
a very brief distance at its north end, is it broader
than 3 miles. A projecting wing at the north-west
extremity is occupied by the eastern termination of
the Pentland hills, covered partly with heath, and
partly with fine pasture. An extensive tract, from
the southern boundary to about 2 miles into the in
terior, is moorish and mossy upland, bleak and un
sheltered. The rest of the surface, comprising much
the greater part, is a rich and beautiful plain, gen
erally fertile in its soil, primely managed in its hus
bandry, opulently shaded and adorned with wood,
and very picturesquely featured and diversified in its
scenery. About 1,000 acres are covered with copse-
wood and plantation, — oak, ash, elm, Scotch fir,
spruce, and larix. The North Esk comes down
upon a point about a mile from the south-west ex
tremity, runs 1J mile along the western boundary,
and then, assuming a north-easterly direction, cuts
the rest of the parish into nearly equal parts. Its
bed, while traversing the plain, is a deep and singu
larly romantic, long, sinuous, bold ravine ; paved, in
many places, at the bottom, with ledging and vari
form rocks; often steep, perpendicular, and even
overhanging on its sides ; and almost everywhere, in
tiny plain or slope or swell or precipice, profusely
adorned with copsewood and trees. Recesses, con
tractions, angularities, rapid and circling sinuosities,
combine with the remarkably varied surface of its
sides to render its scenery equal in mingled pictur-
esqueness and romance to any in Scotland. The
river seems all the way to be merrily frolicsome ; now
rushing along a shelving gradient, now hiding itself
behind rocks and weeping woq(l, and making sudden
but always mirthful transitions in its woods. Vari
ous ancient and interesting edifices, and a series of
modern mansions and villas, crown the precipices, or
sit ensconced in the fairy nooks. Tbe most remark
able, of the former, are the castle and the chapel of
Roslin, and the old mansion and the caves of Haw-
thornden : which see  Among the numerous gen-
tlemen's seats which line both sides of the river,
Mavisbank, resembling an Italian villa, Dryden and
Rosebank, on the left bank, and Auchindinny, Pol-
* The name is popularly said to have originated in the cir
cumstance of a lass doing the Bervice of a ferry-boat, and wad
ing across the' river with travellers; but is derived by the
learned George Chalmers from the Anglo-Saxon Laeswe, and
the Old English weyde, meaning jointly * a well-watered pas
ture of common use,' and not obscurely descriptive of the site
of the village.

228

LASSWADE.

ton, Glenesk, Goston, and Eldin, on the right bank,
are the chief. Eldin, the last of these, was the seat
of John Clerk, Esq., the author of the celebrated
work on naval tactics. Many villas and cottages
straggle along at intervals, or hang on the outskirts
of Lasswade and Roslin; and are occupied chiefly
as summer-houses, as scenes of ruralizing, as places
which vie in sunniness and beauty with retreats
among the fascinating streams and lakes of Lom-
bardy, by tbe citizens of Edinburgh. One of the
cottages near the village of Lasswade was the resi
dence, during some of the happiest years of his life,
of Sir Walter Scott. But the grandest modern
structure is Melville-castle, situated, nearly a. mile
below the village, on a secluded but charming piece
of low ground, on the left margin of the Esk, sur
rounded by high banks, picturesque, wooded, and
adorned. This fine castellated edifice, with circular
towers, the seat of Viscount Melville, was built near
the end of last century on the site of an ancient edi
fice of the same name, which tradition incorrectly
says belonged to David Rizzio, and was occasionally
inhabited by Mary. Melville-castle was visited in
1822, and much admired, by George IV  Along the
Esk, chiefly between Roslin and Lasswade, are sev
eral paper-mills and bleachfields; at 1^ mile above
Roslin, is an ex-tensive gunpowder manufactory; and
at Lasswade are a paper-mill, a distillery, a candle
manufactory, oatmeal and barley mills, an iron and
brass-foundry, and a manufactory of fine carpets and
damasks. The carpet manufactory is peculiarly
celebrated. While Brussels and Wilton fabrics,
similar to those of Kilmarnock, are produced, a me
chanical improvement has superseded the necessity
of draw-boys, and the new machine is simpler than
a jacquard. The Persian fabric produced at Kil
marnock is here extended to broad carpets, the weft
being 6hot across by means of a cross-bow; and the
carpets are woven in this way in their entire breadth,
the pattern being tied in by boys, as in the Persian
rugs. The workmen earn in gross wages from 20s.
to 25s. per week; but are frequently idle, waiting
six or eight days for webs. The number of looms,
in 1828, was 21 ; in 1838, 50. The parish has long
been famous for its oatmeal. Through the recommen
dation, as is believed, of the first Lord Melville, its
produce in this article, drew the notice of George III.,
became the breakfast material of his numerous family
during their years of childhood, and was regularly
furnished to the royal residence by a miller of the
village named Muter. Great quantities of fruit,
vegetables, and daily produce are sent to the market
of Edinburgh. Except the north-west corner, where
primitive rocks rise up in the Pentlands, the whole
parish lies upon the various secondary formations
summarily called the coal-metals, including sand
stone, clays of great variety, a very great number of
distinct seams of coal, and three strata of limestone.
On the west side of me river the metals stand much
on edge, having, in some places, a dip of 65 degrees.
The workable coal-seams, in the barony of Loan-
head, are 25 in number, and from 2to 10 feet thick;
and by a cross level mine from the river, have been
worked from the grass downward to the depth of
270 feet. On the east side of the river, the metals
have so small a dip, amounting to about 1 in 7 or 8,
that the coal-seams, in contradistinction to the edge
coals, as they are called, on the west side, have got
the name of the flat broad coals. - One of the coal
mines, on the boundary with Libberton, was acci
dentally ignited about the year 1770, and during
upwards of twenty years resisted every effort made
for the extinction of its fire. Besides furnishing
supplies for loeal consumpt and to other quarters,
the parish sends annually about 30,000 tons of coals

to Edinburgh  Near the house of Mavisbauk is a
supposed Roman station, pointed out in General
Roy's maps as the place where the Romans passed
the North Esk on their way to Cramond. Tbe chief
object is a circular earthen mound of considerable
height, begirt with ramparts, now cut into terraces;
where have been found antique weapons, bridle bits,
surgical instruments, and other relies. In a neigh
bouring farm is a tumulus, whence have been dug urns
filled with burnt bones. Near Roslin is the scene
of a battle, or rather of three battles in one day,
fought, on the 24th February, 1303, between the
Scotch and the English, conflictingly narrated by thp
historians of the two nations, but painted by those
of Scotland in colours not a little flattering to Scot
tish bravery. During a truce, Ralph Confrey, trea
surer to Edward I., invaded Scotland at the head of
30,000 men, well-armed, and mostly horsemen. With
a view to plunder, he divided them into three bodies,
and, on reaching the neighbourhood of Roslin en
camped them in three stations. Hearing of his in
vasion, Sir Simon Fraser and Sir John Comyn, drew
together at Biggar as many men as they could hastily
muster, amounting to 8,000, or at most to 10,000;
and with these they expeditiously marched in search
of the enemy. Falling unexpectedly on the first divi
sion of tjie English, the Scottish forces totally over
threw and routed them, driving those who escaped
the sword and capture confusedly back on the second
camp. While the Scotch were dividing the spoil, the
second English division suddenly alarmed, and in
motion, precipitated themselves to the conflict, and
met the same fate as the first division. Scarcely had
the Scotch begun to take a refreshment, when a third
army appeared in view; and though thinned in num
bers and exhausted by fatigue, they were strong in
the moral energy of having in so brief a space won
two battles, and rushing impetuously on the crest
fallen reserved body of the English, soon dealt them
the carnage and discomfiture with which the other
invading bodies had been punished. Blundering tac
tics on the English side, and skill and animation on
the side of the Scotch, thus worked out for the lattei
the boast of conquering in one day three armies, each
of which was fully equal to them in numbers, and
probably superior in appointments— The village of
Lasswade is most picturesquely situated on the left
bank of the North Esk, 6 miles south-east of Edin
burgh, and 2 miles west of Dalkeith ; and it is unit
ed by a good stone-bridge to the village of West-
mill of Lasswade, politically comprehended in the
parish of Cockpen, but forming compactly with it
one little town. On the Cockpen side are some of
the public works, and a large proportion of the pop
ulation. The united village stands on too romantic
a site to have regularity of street arrangement con
sistently with picturesqueness of effect. Its white
washed church surmounts a height rising up from
the left side of the dell, and its pretty stone cottages
lie embosomed below in woods and luxuriant gar
dens, the whole encompassed with scenery of un
common beauty. The fixed population in Lasswade
proper is about 260; but, owing to the influx during
summer of numerous lodgers, from Edinburgh and
elsewhere, it receives for that part of the year large
additions. The village of Roslin [which see] is
3 miles' distant. The populous village of Loan-
head [which see], stands half-way between Lass
wade and Roslin, half-a-mile north of the river.
Springfield, with a population of about 200, chiefly
paper-makers, and situated 14 mile above Lasswade,
immediately on the right bank of the Esk, at the
bottom of the dell, is noted for its rural beauty.
Auchindenny, also inhabited by paper-makers, and
on the right bank of the river at the boundary with

LAT

229

LAT

Penieuick, is distant from the villages of Lasswade
and Penieuick respectively 5 miles and 1£ mile.
Harper's brae and Pentland are hamlets on the out
skirts of the parish. The turnpike from Edinburgh
to Dumfries, by way of Howgate, bisects the parish
lengthways; that from Edinburgh to Peebles runs
across it through the village of Lasswade ; and that
from Edinburgh, down Gala-water, briefly touches
its northern extremity. But a prime facility of com
munication is connexion with the Edinburgh and
Dalkeith railway. Population, in 1801, 3,348; in
1831, 4,252. Houses 874. Assessed property, in
1815, £19,417 — Lasswade is in the presbytery of
Dalkeith, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale.
Patron, Sir George Clerk, Baronet. Stipend £180
4s. Id.; glebe £35. Unappropriated teinds £15
lis. Id. Church built about 1792. Sittings 1,000.
— An United Secession congregation was established
in the village of Lasswade in 1830; and' their place
of worship, built in the same year, cost, along with
a manse, £1,950. Sittings 655. Stipend £160,
with a manse and garden worth £50.  The Re
formed Presbyterian congregation of Loanhead was
established in its present form in 1818; but dates,
through meetings held in the village of Pentland and
in adjacent places among the Pentland hills, as high
as the times of the persecution. Their place of wor
ship was built about 53 years ago. Sittings 400.
Stipend £90, with a house and half-an-acre of ground,
and expenses of attending church courts  The
southern part of the parish was erected, in 1835,,
into the quoad sacra parish of Roslin : which see.
Deducting that district,, the parish measures 6 miles
by 3, and, in 1838, was reported by the minister to
have a population of 1,800 churchmen, and 810 dis
senters, — in all, 2,610 persons. The quoad sacra
parish comprehends the original parish of Lasswade,
the chief part of Melville, and a considerable part of
Pentland : see Melville and Pentland  Lass
wade was anciently the richest parish in Mid-Lothian
except St. Cuthberts. The church, with its perti
nents, became, in the 12th century, a mensal church
of the bishop of St. Andrews ; it afterwards was a
prebend of St. Salvator's college, St. Andrews; and,
in the reign of James III., it was, by the Pope's
authority, transferred to the dean of the collegiate
church of Restalrig. Long after the large accessions
from Pentland on the west, and Melville on the
north, were made to the territory, the old parochial
place of worship, which had witnessed every change
from before the Reformation till the final settlement
of the Church of Scotland in her present form, con
tinued to be in use ; and it no w exists, not far from
its conspicuous modern successor, in the form of a
frail ruin, timidly ensconced from the public gaze
amidst a cluster of trees. One of its aisles is the
ourying-place of the noble family of Melville, and
contains the ashes of the first Lord Melville, the
distinguished figurant in the ministry of Mr. Pitt 
The parochial school is attended by at most 70
scholars. Master's salary £34 4s. 4jd., with £48
fees. Eleven private schools are attended by a
maximum of 637 scholars ; and afford tuition in
French, music, drawing, and the more common de
partments. LATHERON, a parish in the county of Caith
ness, situated at the southern extremity of the shire;
and bounded by Halkirk on the north; Watten and
Wick on the north-east ; the German ocean on the
south-east; and Loth and Kildonan on the west.
It extends 27 miles north from the Ord, along the
coast; and is from 10 to 15 miles broad. The area
has been estimated at 140,000 imperial acres, of
which about one-tenth are arable. The appearance
is diversified, partly flat, and partly mountainous,

intersected by several stfaths or valleys, which are
watered by small rivers running from the high lands
to the sea. The principal rivers are the Dunbeatb,
Langwell, and Berriedale, all of which contain sal
mon, and have their source at from 12 to 16 miles
from the sea. There are three large hills, — Mor-
ven, Scaraben, and the Maiden Pap. The coast is
bold and rocky, but possesses several harbours. The
principal headlands are the Ord, Berriedale-head,
and Clythness. The herring, cod, salmon, and lob
ster fisheries are actively prosecuted on the coast.
In 1838, these fisheries employed 325 boats, and
2,540 hands in all ; and the number of barrels of fish
cured exceeded 40,000. The soil is in general poor
and stony; but the average rent of arable land is
25s. per acre. On the hills are fed great numbers
of sheep and blaek cattle. Along the sea-coast there
are several old castles, which have been of consider
able strength in former times, besides the remains of
many Pictish houses and cairns. One of the prin
cipal of these is Achaistal castle. William Suther
land, commonly called ' William More,' or ' William
the Big,' from his gigantic stature, was born in this
parish, about the end of the 14th century: he mea
sured 9 feet 5 inches in height, and his body is said
to have been well proportioned. Population, in
1801, 3,612; in 1831, 7,020. Houses 1,354. As
sessed property £1,414. — There is no market-town.
Tbe largest village is Lybster with a population of
about 400 — This parish is in the presbytery of
Caithness, and synod of Sutherland and Caithness.
Patron, Sir James Colquhoun, Bart. Stipend £219
5s. ; glebe £15. Church built in 1 734 ; repaired in
1822; sittings 900. Unappropriated teinds £225
18s. 2d. Berriedale church was built in 1826; sit
tings 300. Lybster church, in the village of that
name, was built in 1836 ; sittings 805. There is a
mission at Bruan in the eastern extremity of the
parish  There" are one parochial school,, and 14 pri
vate schools in the parish. The salary of the parish
schoolmaster is the maximum. About £340 has
been left in different benefactions to the poor of this
parish. LATHRISK. See Kettle.
LAUDER, a parish consisting of a large main
body and a small detached section, in the district of
Lauderdale, Berwickshire. The detached section
is nearly a square, 1£ mile deep, lies 1J south of the
nearest point of the main body, and is bounded on
the east by Legerwood and Earlston ; partly on the
south by the latter parish ; and on all other sides by
Melrose in Roxburghshire. The main body is nearly
a parallelogram, stretching from north-east to south
west, with an isosceles triangle attached to it on the
north-west ; — the parallelogram measuring 9| miles
by 4£, and the triangle 3| on its short side, and 5J
on each of its equal sides ; and it is bounded on the
north-east by Haddingtonshire, Longformacus, and a
detached part of Cranshaw; on the south-east by
Westruther and Legerwood; on the south and south
west by Melrose in Roxburghshire; and on the west
by Stow in Mid Lothian and by Channelkirk. The
area of the whole parish is about 58 square miles.
Leader- water rises in the extreme north-west corner,
flows 5J miles along the boundary with Channelkirk,
runs 4£ miles south-eastward through the interior,
forms for J of a mile the boundary with Legerwood,
and after traversing the intermediate space, traces
the whole eastern boundary of the detached sec
tion, and passes away from the parish. Whaplaw-
I burn, 5| miles long, Earnscleuch-water, 6£ or 7
] miles long, and Blythe-water 7J or 8 miles long,
J all rise in various head-waters very near the north
east boundary, and flow south-westward to the
Leader. The last of these streams — Blythe-water

230

LAUDER.

—jointly with its main tributary, traces for 6f miles
the south-east boundary. Perennial springs, both
many and copious, well up from sand or gravel, or
from whinstone rock, and give an abundant supply
of prime water. The surface along the north-east
extremity, an extent of 8 miles, is the water-shed
ding line of the Lammermoor hills, and includes
Lammerlaw, the summit which gives name to the
broad and far-stretching range. For some way into
the interior it has the bleak aspect and russet dress
by which the higher grounds of the Lammermoors
¦are distinguished ; but as it becomes furrowed and
watered by the streams, it becomes verdant and even
beautiful, the hills moderate in height, mostly green,
and at last, in many instances, ploughed to the sum
mit. From the southern extremity upward extends
the vale of the Leader, varying, for a long way, from
2 miles to 1 mile in breadth, and not yielding domi
nion to the hills till it has traversed two-thirds the
length of the parish. All this vale, as well as much
of the slope which forms its screens, is beautifully
cultivated, and has a fine appearance. Depressions
in the hilly ranges form openings from its side, and
pleasingly diversify the landscape. About one-third
of the entire area of the parish is arable ; carpeted
with a soil, in general light and dry, — in many in
stances clayey, — and over a considerable extent richly
loamy and superincumbent on sand or gravel. Though
only about 200 acres of matured wood beautifies the
district, a large amount of young plantation is thriv
ingly on the growth. The uplands are, for the most
part, excellent sheep-walks, and maintain numerous
flocks of Cheviots, and a few of the black-faced
breed. Whinstone rock, of a kind excellent both as
building material and for road metal, is abundant.
Slate occurs, but of inferior quality. Copper-ore
likewise exists, but not plentifully enough to com
pensate mining. There are in the parish several
hamlets, the largest containing, in 1837, only 69
persons. Many Pictish and Scottish encampments,
either round or oval, are in the parish and its neigh
bourhood ; and many tumuli exist on Lauder-moor,
on the old road to Melrose. Fragments of swords,
bows, and arrows, found on the moor — the arrows
pointed with flintstone^-indicate the place to have
been the scene of ancient though unrecorded and
forgotten battles. Between the burgh and the
Leader stands, on a beautiful lawn, Lauder fort, now
called Thirlestane Castle : which see. Lauder
was the birth-place of Sir John Maitland, Lord
Thirlestane, who, in the reign of James VI., filled
the offices successively of lord-privy-seal, secretary-
of-state, and chancellor of Scotland; and it enjoyed,
for a brief period, the ministry of the Rev. James
Guthrie, the first of the Scottish martyrs after the
Restoration. The chief landed proprietors are the
Earl of Lauderdale, the Marquis of Tweeddale, and
Lord Maitland. The parish is traversed down the
vale of the Leader, and then eastward by the eastern
mail-road between Edinburgh and London, and has
a turnpike on the other side of the Leader. Popu
lation, in 1801, 1,760; in 1831, 2,063. Houses 356.
Assessed property, in 1815, £12,621.
Lauder gives name to a presbvtery in the synod of
Merse and Teviotdale. Patron', the Earl of Lauder
dale. Stipend £272 Is. 7d. ; glebe £18. Unap
propriated teinds £181 2s. 2d. The church was
built in 1673, and repaired in 1820. Sittings 773 
In the parish are two dissenting congregations. The
United Secession one was established, and built their
chapel, of 432 sittings, in 1794. Stipend £100;
with the interest of £100, a piece of land worth £1
10s., and a house, garden, and stable, worth about
£20. The Relief congregation was established in
1836, and their place of worship built next year at

a cost of £500. Sittings 320, with space for enlarge
ment. The population was stated by the parish-
minister, in 1837, to consist of 1,516 churchmen, 518
dissenters, and 34 nondescripts, — in all, 2,068 per
sons.  The parish-school is attended by a maximum
of 120 scholars, and 3 private schools, by a maximum
of 128. All are situated in the burgh. Parish-
schoolmaster's salary, who employs an assistant, £30,
with £70 fees, and £7 15s. of other emoluments. —
The presbytery of Lauder is of later date than the
regimen of the Reformation, having been formed only
in 1768; and includes 7 parishes in Berwickshire,
and 2 in Roxburghshire. The ancient parish-church
appears to have early been of great value ; and in
the ancient Taxatio was appreciated at 90 marks,
while that of Channelkirk was appreciated at only
40. In the reign of David I., the advowson, along
with almost the whole of Lauderdale, was given to
Sir Hugh Morville, constable of Scotland; and
through many a changeful age it continued an appur
tenant of the manor, till it passed into the posses
sion of Devorgillar, the wife of the first John Baliol.
By this lady, the church, with its pertinents, was
given to the monks of Dryburgh ; and it continued
to be a vicarage under them till the Reformation.
The parish-church, which preceded the present
structure, stood on the north side of the town op
posite Thirlestane-castle, and was, in July, 1482, the
scene of the meeting of the Scottish nobles which
issued in the murder of James the Third's menials
on Lauder bridge, arid in the capture and imprison
ment of the king. The house in Lauder in which
the king was seized was not long ago standing.
Subordinate to the parish or mother church were
anciently two chapels. One stood at Redslie in the
detached part of the parish, and is commemorated
in the name Chapel, borne by a farm in its vicinity ;
and the other stood on the right bank of the Leader
at the southern extremity of the main body of the
parish, and dedicated to St. Leonard's. The for
mer was confirmed by Malcolm IV., and the latter
given by Sir Richard Morville, who died in 1 189, to
the monks of Dryburgh. Contiguous to St. Leon
ard's chapel stood an hospital, dedicated to the same
saint, and founded, during the Scoto-Saxon period,
probably by Sir Hugh Morville. Both structures
are commemorated in the name St. Leonard's, borne
by a mansion near their site. ' St. Leonard's banks'
are celebrated in Scottish song.
Lauder, an ancient town, a royal burgh, the
seat of a presbytery, and the capital of Lauderdale,
runs along the turnpike between Edinburgh and
Kelso, parallel with the river Leader, at the distance
of nearly half-a-mile from that stream ; and is dis
tant 7 miles from Earlston, 12 from Greenlaw, 17
from Kelso, 18 from Dunse, 21 from Coldstream, 21
from Jedburgh, 25 from Edinburgh, and 32 from
Berwick. It is a very inconsiderable burgh, situated
in a thinly peopled district, — a place of no trade but
what is strictly local, — a town, in all respects sta
tionary, having had no extension of its buildings for
a great period of years, and giving no prospect ot
future extension either immediate or remote. The
main part of the town is a single street, 700 jrarda
long, of very various width, and not quite straight,
stretching from north-west to south-east along .the
highway : upwards of 400 yards from its north-west
end, the street attains its greatest width, and begins
to be split over the distance of about 110 yards into
two thoroughfares, by a line of buildings running
along its middle. The north-west end of the bisect
ing line is the town-house, with the jail, dingy, and
of very unburghal appearance. The jail may be
used as a temporary lock-up-house for petty brawl
ers, or for persons not committed for trial; but it

LAUDER.

231

has no suitable accommodation as a place of pro
longed confinement for either criminals or debtors.
The parish-church stands a little off the street-line,
immediately south-west of the town-house ; and,
though cruciform and pretending, is a poor unim-
posing edifice. The site of an ancient cross in front
of the town-house, is marked — as in Edinburgh,
Glasgow, and some other places — by a radiated pave
ment. Diagonally across the north-west end of the
main street, stretching nearly east and west, is an
other street, partly one-sided, and altogether 350
yards long. Describing the segment of a circle on
the south-west side of the main street, and running
nearly parallel to it on the north-east side, are two
thoroughfares, almost altogether unedificed, and
bearing the absurd names of the Upper and the
Under Backsides. The park wall of Thirlestane-
castle screens the whole of the north-eastern of
these thoroughfares, and forms on that side the
boundary of the burgh ; and the lawn and other
grounds of the noble residence occupy all the space
thence to the Leader. The whole town is plain and
irregular in its houses, desolate and chilly in the as
pect of its streets, cold and stagnant in the seeming
animus of its people's occupations, and, in genera],
just as dull a place as can well be conceived. Yet
it has a tiny sort of importance as the scene of a
small weekly corn-market, and as the residence of
mechanics and small retailers. In the town are a
branch-office of the bank of Scotland, a subscription
library, a mechanic's library, two Sabbath school
libraries, a friendly society, a free-mason's society,
and a bible and missionary society. The Lauder
dale agricultural society, under the patronage of the
Earl of Lauderdale, also holds its meetings in the
town. Annual fairs are held in the beginning of
March for selling seed-corn, and hiring hinds ; in
April and October for hiring half-yearly farm-ser
vants; in June for milk-cows; and in July for lambs.
Four coaches daily pass through the town, between
Edinburgh on one side, and Dunse, Kelso, and New
castle, on the other  -Lauder is the only royal burgh
in Berwickshire, and unites with Haddington, North
Berwick, Dunbar, and Jedburgh, in sending a mem
ber to parliament. Constituency, in 1832, 34; of
whom only 21 were resident burgesses; in 1840, 56.
Municipal constituency in 1840, 52. The burgh
is believed to have been erected during the reign of
William the Lion. The early charters having been
lost amid the anarchy and violence of the Border
wars, a charter of novo damns was given by James
IV. in 1502, and ratified next year by parliament.
As defined under the Reform act, the burgh excludes
the town's common, and a considerable landward dis
trict, comprehended in the old royalty, but includes
a small portion of formerly uncomprehended kirk-
lands to the south-west of the town. The burgh
property is of very considerable value, lies under
peculiar circumstances, and consists mainly of a com
mon upwards of 1,700 acres in extent, and having
895 of its acres arable. The common is said to have
been possessed for a long period by the burgesses as
their private property, and the rights of possession
are also said to have been anciently regulated by
certain rules, varying as the burgesses were resident
or non-resident within the town. The arable land,
consisting chiefly of the three hills of Scaralawbill,
Staunchlawhill, and Chesterhill, is said to have been
cropped in rotation; and the proceeds of the portion
under tillage were equally distributed by lot among
the whole of the burgesses, while the resident bur
gesses alone possessed a right to the pasturage upon
which each was entitled to graze a certain number of
cattle. The debt of the town having accumulated
to an inconvenient amount, the magistrates, about

the year 1814, enclosed a part of the common with
the view of letting it as an arable farm to tbe best
bidder, and disposing of the rents for the purposes of
the burgh. This enclosure, however, was resisted
by some of the burgesses, who, in virtue of a clause
in the charter of James IV., claimed a feudal title
to the common. A long and keen litigation now
ensued before the court-of-session, and, in 1825,
ended in favour of the magistrates and town-council.
The common is much more valuable than might be
supposed from the rents or grass-mails stated in the
accounts. Every resident burgess is accustomed to
send so many cattle, horses, and sheep, to pasture
on the common, for small rents nearly elusory.
There is also a part of the common each year in
tillage, which, in like manner, is given to such per
sons, whether resident or not, as may possess burgess
acres in lease and otherwise, and may choose to take
part of it for nominal rents. These portions for
tillage are given by lot, and the extent of land as
signed to each is proportioned to the number of bur
gess acres which the party drawing the lot possesses,
and that whether he be entered a burgess or not.
These lots are drawn for periodically, according to
the course of cropping thought suitable for each
division of the common, to be thrown into tillage.
The magistrates and council fix the rents both of the
pasture and tillage, and also lay down the course of
cropping. The regulations are always entered in
the minutes of council. As the possession stands
at present, however, comparatively few inhabitants
or proprietors within burgh derive any benefit from
this common, which is appropriated and divided
among those who have been enabled to purchase
the privilege of burgesses on the high terms pre
scribed by the corporation. In this manner a few
make a monopoly of the whole common property
of the burgh, and this, too, at *, time when it is
difficult to raise funds for completing important
public works necessary in the burgh for the comfort
and health of the inhabitants. In 1833, the revenue
of the burgh was £307 7s. 9d. ; its expenditure
£326 18s. ll£d. ; the revenue from its property in
cluded in the total revenue, £264 15s. 3d. ; debts
due to it, £341 19s. 9|d. ; debts due by it, £2,913
19s. 7*d. In 1839-40, the revenue was £280.
Among charges of expenditure are some curious
ones for a burgh,— such as for tar and butter,
for rams, for grazing rams, and for tavern-bills.
There are no incorporated trades, Ihe burgesses
forming the only public body. By the regula
tions of the town-council, alleged to have been
confirmed by usage, the right of being entered bur
gesses is made dependent on the possession of a small
portion of a tract of land situated between the town
and the common, which is termed ' a burgess acre.'
No party is made a burgess who has not one of these
burgess acres ; and an entrant is, moreover, made to
pay the comparatively larger entrance-fine of £30.
The ground in question was in early times divided
into 315 burgess acres; but in consequence of the
reduced number of burgesses, and the difficu-iies
attending the allocation of the town's common, a
new division took place in 1744, and the number of
burgess acres is said to have been then fixed at 105.
The size of the burgess acre, therefore, now became
enlarged, and was made to consist of a lot varying
from an acre-and-a-half to three acres Scots. These
lots were at one time of great value, from the privi
lege which they conferred, or at least enabled the
proprietors to acquire ; and it is still of considerable
value. Hence, although really not worth more than
£60, each of these burgess acres, or lots, at one time
was sold for £250 ; and though the value is consider
ably fallen since the decision of the case in 1825, in

LAU

232

LAU

favour of the magistrates, these lots still bring prices i
varying from £150 to £200. There has been no I
change in the sett of the burgh for a very long pe- I
riod. The number of the council is 17, consisting
of 2 bailies and 15 councillors, of whom 4 annually
retired prior to the Reform act. As there were in i
1832 no more than 21 resident burgesses, and as the
terms of admission to the rights of a burgess are so
exceedingly high, a monopoly of a very severe and
exclusive description in such a community as that of
Lauder has evidently been established in the persons
of those who have latterly obtained the privilege of
burgesses, and the 17 councillors are obviously
chosen by 21 individuals who seem to possess, or at
least to claim, a personal interest in the property of
the town adverse to the rest of the community.
The magistrates appoint their town-clerk, treasurer,
and 2 town-officers, — one of whom acts as drummer,
and the other as jailer, and they have a voice in the
election of the burgh-schoolmaster; but they possess
no other patronage ; nor have they, so far back as
the recof ds extend, exercised civil jurisdiction of any
importance. There is no established police, and the
streets are not lighted or watched. A subscription
was commenced about ten years ago to bring the
town, what it greatly needed, a supply of water;
but, at the date of the commissioner's visit in 1833,
it was stated to be insufficient. Population of the
burgh, in 1837, 1,043.
LAUDERDALE, an ancient district of Berwick
shire, the western one of the three into which the
county was divided. In geographical distribution,
and agricultural properties, Berwickshire is all
strictly divisible into simply the Lammermoors and
the Merse ; the upper and the lower parts of Lauder
dale belonging respectively to these just as distinctly
as any other part of the county. The limits of
Lauderdale, so far as the usage of calling it a dis
tinct district, cannot be defined, and must probably
be understood as including simply the basin of the
Leader and its tributaries, so far as the basin is in
Berwickshire. Even anciently the limits appear to
have been very different in successive periods, and
to have marked fluctuations both in the kind and in
the extent of the civil jurisdiction within them.
Maps of Lauderdale, Merse, and Lammermoor, were
made by Timothy Pont in the reign of Charles I.,
and inserted in Blaeu's Atlas Scotite. The author
of Caledonia — guided apparently by these maps —
states the area of Lauderdale to be 105 square miles,
— that of Lammermoor to be 138J, — and that of the
Merse to be 202J. At the abolition of hereditary
jurisdictions, the" Earl of Lauderdale received the
same compensation for the regality of Thirlestane as
for the bailiery of Lauderdale, — £500. For a notice
of the noble family to whom the district gives title,
see article Thirlestane-Castle.
LAUDER BURN, an inconsiderable brook, which
— 1 mile after its rise in the parish of Melrose 
traces for 1£ mile north-westward the boundary-line
between Roxburghshire and Berwickshire, and then
runs 3 miles north-eastward and eastward through
the parish, and past the south end of the burgh of
Lauder to the Leader, f of a mile below Thirlestane-
castle. LAURANCE (St.). See Slamannan.
LAURENCEKIRK, or Lawrencekirk, an
ciently Conveth, a parish in Kincardineshire;
bounded on the north by Fordoun; on the east,
south-east, and south by Garvock; and on the south
west by Marykirk. The form is triangular; its
greatest length being from south-west to north-east
4 miles ; and its greatest breadth from south-east to
north-west 3£ miles: square area 5,381 imperial
acres. Houses 360. Assessed property, in 1815,

£5.272. Population, in 1801, 1,215; in 1831.
1,886; in 1838, about 2,000. The parish is watered
by the Luther and its tributaries. A ridge of hills
runs from east to west through the whole district,
sloping gradually to the south and north, in gentle
and picturesque undulations of surface. The soil
south of the Luther is chiefly a deep and fertile clay
loam, incumbent on clay and freestone: to the north
it is moorish and every way inferior. Of the arable
land 5,000 acres are in a good state of cultivation :
there are also some thriving plantations. Amongst
live stock, great attention is paid- to the rearing .of
black cattle, chiefly for the London and the Glasgow
markets. To the former, they are now frequently
sent by steamers from Aberdeen, Montrose, and
Dundee. The parish is in the presbytery of For
doun, and synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron,
St. Marv's college, St. Andrews. Stipend £243.
9d. 8d. ;" glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds £673
12s. 4d, Church built in 1804, and enlarged by 194
sittings in 1819: total sittings 766. There is an
Episcopalian chapel, built in 1793; sittings 205; sti
pend about £100 per annum, with parsonage-house
and glebe: the stipend is partly secured on the estate
of Johnston, by deed of Lord Gardenstone, who pro
cured funds ifor the erection of the chapel to which
he himself largely contributed. A Berean congre
gation was established in 1801 . There are three libra
ries of a public nature in this parish; one, consisting
of upwards of 1,000 volumes, belonging to the Epis
copal clergy of the diocese of Brechin, and contained
in the Episcopal chapel; another, founded by the
late Lord Gardenstone as ' the Public Library of
Laurencekirk;' and a parochial library, consisting of
about 300 volumes. There are four Friendly socie
ties in the parish, and the Mearns-shire Farmers'
society holds its meetings at the village of Laurence
kirk  The parochial schoolmaster's salary is £20;
fees and other emoluments £40 9s. 5d. ; besides up
wards of 10 bolls of meal. There are 8 private
schools in the parish.
Laurencekirk, a village, and burgh-of-bar
ony, in the above parish, is situated on the road
from Perth to Aberdeen ; 93 miles north of Edin
burgh ; 10 north-west of Montrose ; and 7 west of
Bervie. It chiefly consists of one street, about a
mile in length. In 1730, the population did not
exceed 80 persons, and, in 1762, it had even de
creased to 54. At this period the estate of John
ston was purchased by the late talented and eccen
tric Lord Gardenstone, a judge of the Court-of-
session, distinguished for his speculative turn of
mind, and his successful cultivation of the belles
lettres. His lordship having determined on creating
a to wn here, in 1 765 laid out a part of his property
in building ground, began to build, and soon at
tracted settlers. In 1779,, he obtained for his new
village the status and privileges of a free burgh-of-
barony, the Crown charter empowering the inhabi
tants triennially to choose a bailie and four council
lors, and to hold a weekly market and an annual
fair, collect dues and customs, &c. : the extent and
nature of the jurisdiction granted to the magistrates,
however, has been a subject of uncertainty. The
public-spirited proprietor also built an elegant inn,
with a select library and museum adjoining to it,
chiefly for the amusement of travellers ; and he en
couraged, and contributed liberally to, tbe establish
ment of a bleachfield, and the introduction of the
linen manufacture. At the present time hand-loom
weaving forms the chief dependence of the whole
parish. The population of the village, since the
Old Statistical Account was written, has increased
from 500 to upwards of 1,400 inhabitants, while the
rural population has actually diminished about 100.

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The spread of machinery, however, has been operat
ing injuriously here, as elsewhere, on the poor hand-
loom weavers. They are chiefly employed by com
panies in Aberdeen. A new and local species of
manufacture — that of snuff-boxes — has sprung up,
and obtained for the village no little fame. The
Laurencekirk snuff-boxes are made of wood, in a
style similar to those of Cumnock in Ayrshire. It
was in the little inn of Laurencekirk that the cele
brated Dr. Pitcairn first encountered the afterwards
still more celebrated Ruddiman, then the parish
schoolmaster. Being much astonished with the
youth's learning, he drew him from his obscurity by
procuring him an appointment in Edinburgh, where
his valuable talents were secured for the use of a
more extended circle than the parish school of Lau
rencekirk commanded. It is a remarkable circum
stance, also, that Laurencekirk, small and thinly
peopled as it formerly was, had the additional merit
of giving birth to the illustrious Dr. Beattie, who,
in a way somewhat similar to the case of Ruddiman,
was brought into notice by Lord Gardenstone ; his
lordship having found him acting as schoolmaster of
the adjacent parish of Fordoun.
LAURIESTON, a considerable village in the
parish, 1^ mile east of the town, of Falkirk, Stirling
shire. It stands on the mail-road hetween Edin
burgh and Falkirk, and is the site of three private
schools, and of a very recently erected quoad sacra
parish-church. Its inhabitants are principally nail
ers, agricultural labourers, and weavers. It was
enlarged by Sir Lawrence Dundas, and from him
took the name of Laurencetown, abbreviated into
Laurieston; but it was called originally Langton,
and afterwards Merchiston. Population, in 1831,
1,306. LAVEN-CASTLE. See Innerkip.
LAWERS, a mission, in the parishes of Kenmore
and Weem, Perthshire. It measures 5 miles by 4,
and is under the Society for propagating Christian
knowledge. About 55 years ago, the mission of
Ardeonaig or Lochtayslde [which see] was dis
joined from Kenmore and Weem; and from that
mission the mission of Lawers was disjoined in
1833. The church was built in 1833, at the expense
solely of the late Marquis of Breadalbane. Sittings
550. Stipend £50; glebe £12. The population
consists wholly of small farmers, agricultural labour
ers, and artisans ; and, according to the missionary's
report, amounted, in 1836, to 1,050.
LAWRENCE (St.). See Haddihgton.
LAX AY, a small island- on the south-east coast
of Lewis.
LAXFORD (The), a river in Sutherlandshire,,
which takes its rise from Loch- Stalk, in the parish
of Edderachylis, and falls into an arm of the sea
called the bay of Laxford, where there is excellent
anchorage. LEADER (The), a small river traversing the
district of Lauderdale, Berwickshire, and, for some
distance, dividing that county from Roxburghshire.
After leaving the main body of the parish of I<au-
der [which see], it pursues a course of 6 miles
almost uniformly due south to the Tweed, 2 miles
below Melrose. For 1£ mile it divides Legerwood
in Berwickshire from Melrose in Roxburghshire ; for
1£ mile it divides Legerwood and Earlston from the
detached part of Lauder; for £ of a mile it runs
across a small projection of Earlston; and thence to
the Tweed,, it. divides Earlston from Melrose. It
runs with considerable rapidity, is a good trouting
stream, and boasts some fine scenery on its banks,
particularly as it approaches the Tweed. Some of
the localities which overlook it are celebrated in the
old song of ' Leader haughs and Yarrow.'

LEADHILLS, a mining village, in the moorland
parish of Crawford, situated at the southern extrem
ity of the county of Lanark, about 1,300 feet above
the level of the sea, and perhaps the highest inha
bited land in Scotland. It is 46 miles from Edin
burgh ; 44 from Glasgow; 15 from Douglas mill;
and 16 from Thornhill in Dumfries-shire. The
aspect of the country around is of the most sterile
description imaginable, consisting of hills above hills
of scanty herbage or heather, and elevated though it
may be, the village occupies a position in a valley,
from one side of which a bleak lofty ridge ascends
to the height of 2,450 feet. The view from this
point is truly magnificent, embracing on the north
the Pentland hills; on the south, the ample sweep
of the Solway frith, the Isle of Man, and beyond the
mountains of Hellvellyn and Skiddaw in Cumber
land ; and on the west, the eye ranges over Ailsa-
Craig, the serrated peaks of the Isle of Arran, the
lofty Benlomond, and the Paps of Jura. This in
hospitable region has attracted to it an industrious
community from the lead which has been worked
there almost, it may be said, from time immemorial.
It is surmised that the prevailing mineral was first
worked here by the Romans ; at all events, they are
known to have worked lead-mines in England ; one
of their principal military roads passed through the
parish of Crawford, and the remains of their camps
and stations are still visible in the neighbourhood.
If worked by that enterprising people, a long period
of inactivity followed ; for it is matter of pretty
authentic tradition, that one of the recent lead veins
in modern times, was discovered by a man named
Matthew Templeton, in 1517, though the written
records, concerning their operation, do not reach
further back than about the year 1600. Leadhills
is only about a mile distant from the sister mining
village of Wanlockhead in Dumfries-shire [which
see], the former belonging to the Earl of Hopetoun,
the latter to the Duke of Buccleuch, and constituting
between them perhaps the richest lead-mining district
in the country. Besides galena, no fewer than nine
species of lead-ore occur here. In the zenith of the
trade, in 1810, Leadhills produced about 1,400 tons
annually, valued, according to the then current price, at
more than £45,000; but of late years both the price
and the quantity produced have materially fallen off,
the mines only yielding from 700 to 800 tons annu
ally, and in consequence, the circumstances of the
villagers are not so comfortable as they were wont
to be. The works are managed by the Scots Min
ing company, who have at all times a responsible
agent resident upon the spot, and the rent of the
Earl of Hopetoun,, the proprietor, is said to be every
sixth bar of lead produced. Gold is found in all the.
neighbouring streams in minute particles, and at one
time the search for this precious mineral was con
ducted on a very extensive scale, and in the reign of
Elizabeth both English and German miners were
employed at Leadhills, in this work, by special con
sent of the then Scottish regent. In particular, Sir
Bevis Buhner, by command of Queen Elizabeth, and
by permission of James VI., spent portions of several
years in superintending these operations, and gold
was found, part of which was fashioned into the
coin called the bonnet or unicorn piece. A detail
of these operations, in manuscript, in still preserved
in the Advocates' library in Edinburgh^ in which it
is stated,, that occasionally native gold was found in
these hills of the weight of from one to several
ounces. In recent times, however, the quantities
recovered have been quite insignificant in amount,
and these have been obtained more by accident than
design, for more than two centuries have elapsed
since the regular mining operations for the acquisi-

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tion of this precious metal were abandoned. The
inhabitants of Leadhills, who are almost entirely
supported by the mines, have long maintained the
character of a primitive and excellent race. Almost
secluded from the busy world beyond — unvisited
either by the tourist or the commercial traveller, they
nestle in their bleak mountain homes, and contrive
to make themselves comfortable by an orderly life,
spent in the pursuit of knowledge and the practice
of industry. So early as 1741, a library was estab
lished amongst them, which now numbers nearly
2,000 volumes, and this so far accounts for the re
mark of casual visiters, that they are here surprised
to meet with men who mix so little in the busy
world, and yet know infinitely more of its concerns,
and of history and science, than the great mass of
well-paid workmen in our large towns and cities.
The soil is of the most wretched description, and
under ordinary circumstances only fit for the main
tenance here and there of a flock of black-faced or
mountain sheep. But the Earl of Hopetoun having
kindly granted portions of land rent-free to the min
ers, for the sake of improvement, this has given full
scope to spade husbandry, and they have reclaimed,
as it were from the wilderness, the soil of nearly a
mile square around their dwellings. Although only
two cows were kept in the village 100 years ago,
there are now between 80 and 90, and the produce
of the little fields of the miners is principally hay,
potatoes, and oats — the two latter, however, a most
precarious crop in backward seasons. The main
supplies of the miners and their families is drawn,
therefore, from more fertile districts around, and
about the beginning of winter a large supply of oat
meal is stored by the company, and sold out to the
inhabitants at a moderate rate. Leadhills has the
honour of having given birth to Allan Ramsay, the
author of the pleasant pastoral of the ' Gentle, Shep
herd,' and whose reputation as a Scottish poet would
have been an envied one, but that the immortal
ploughman bard of Ayrshire succeeded bim. Ram
say's father was manager of the mines, and he was
born there in 1686, where he spent his earliest years.
The site of the cottage is still pointed out. There
is a quoad sacra church in the village, and the emo
luments of the. minister are from £70 to £80 per
annum, with a house; the schoolmaster has about
£30, and also a free house. Leadhills is a post-
town, and there are two fairs held in the year, prin
cipally intended for the supply of the villagers with
some of the necessaries of life; but they are gener
ally well-attended by the surrounding rural popula
tion. Inhabitants, in 1836, 1,207.
LECROPT,* a parish of compact form, having
about two-thirds of its extent in Perthshire, and
about one-third in Stirlingshire, and lying, at its
nearest point, within 1 fc mile of the town of Stirling.
It is an oblong, stretching north-westward and south
eastward ; and is bounded on the north-east by Dun
blane ; on the east by Logie ; on the south by St.
Ninians ; on the south-west by Kincardine ; and on
the west by Kilmadock. Its mean length is about
2} miles; and its mean breadth about If. The
Teath traces the whole of the boundary on the
south-west, a distance, in a straight line, of 2J miles,
and then falls into the Forth ; the united stream, or
the Forth, traces the whole of it on the south, a
distance of 1 mile in a straight line, but of about
2 along the channel ; and the Allan traces the whole
of it on the east, a distance, in a straight line, of
1J mile. The streams produce salmon, trout, pikes,
and perches. Across the Forth, after it begins to
* Lecropt— or Lecrorh, Letcroch, 'the half of the hill,' in
allusion to the conngu ration of the surface— anciently belonged
to the monks of Cambuskenneth.

touch the parish, extends from bank to bank a ledge'
of rocks which terminates the flow of the tide and
the navigableness of the river. On the rocky ledge
are the well-known cruives of Craigforth, which,
when kept in proper repair, produce a great capture
of salmon. All the rivers, but especially the Allan,
wear here richly ornamental dresses ; and just after
the Allan comes down upon the parish, are the sweet
scenes of the Bridge of Allan and the circumjacent
country. See Allan [Bridge of]. Through
the middle of the parish, lengthways, and almost
from end to end, extends a beautiful bank. All the
surface south and south-west of this is rich carse
ground, without a single stone or pebble, tastefully
enclosed, and in the fullest and most luxuriant cul
tivation. From the bank north-eastward, the sur
face rises with a gentle ascent, partakes the charac
ter of what, in the vicinity of carse lands, is called
dry field, is all enclosed either with stone walls, or
hedge and ditch, and exhibits many opulent results
of agricultural improvement. A great variety of
thriving planted trees shelter and adorn the dry field ;
and a large remnant of an ancient natural forest, con
sisting chiefly of oaks, is cut twice in 24 years, and
affords a plentiful supply of timber for the various
purposes of husbandry. The carse is too valuable
for grain crops to be more than very thinly sprinkled
with trees. From the bisecting bank, and from
points of upland beyond it, magnificent prospects are
obtained of the rich flat basin of the Teath and the
Forth, and of the zone now of low heights, now of
bold hills, and now of grand mountain-summits
which encinctures it. The parish is conspicuous for
the produce of the orchard and the aviary ; and it has
several grain mills, and mills for the manufacture of
coarse paper. An artificial eminence on the east side of
the palish seems to have been a post of tbe Romans,
near the great road to the church at Ardoch. Near
the elegant mansion of Keir, f of a mile north-west of
the church, is one of the chain of rude forts, all called
Keir's, which run along the north face of the strath
of the Teath, and were built by the Caledonians to
watch tbe motions of the troops stationed on the
great Roman wall. In the immediate vicinity of the
church are those very marked monuments of feudal
times and jurisprudence, a Court-hill and a Gallow-
hill. The road from Stirling to Callander traverses
nearly the extreme length of the parish. Population
of the Perthshire part, in 1801, 260; in 1831, 189.
Houses 33. Assessed property, in 1815, £1,790.
Population of the Stirlingshire part, in 1801, 248;
in 1831, 254. Houses 41. Assessed property, in
1815, £3,383  Lecropt is in the presbytery of Dun
blane, and synod of Perth and Stirling, Patron,
Stirling of Keir. Stipend £147 13s. 8d. ; glebe
£16 10s. The church is a very beautiful modern
Gothic edifice. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d.,
with about £12 fees, and about £3 other emolu
ments. There is an infant school.
LEDNOCK (The), a rivulet of the parish of
Comrie, Perthshire. It rises in the north-west ex
tremity of the parish, and flows 8£ miles south-east
ward to the Earn at the village of Comrie, forming,
over the last 2J miles of its course, tbe boundary-
line with the Monivard. The valley along which it
passes lies from 200 to 350 feet above sea-level, is
romantic in its scenery, and takes from the stream
the name of Glenlednock. Several fine cascades oc
cur on the stream, particularly one called the Cal
dron, about a mile above its mouth. Small trout
are abundant.
LEE (The). See North Esk.
LEET (The), a rivulet of the Merse, Berwick
shire. It rises near the extreme north of the parish
of Whitsome ; flows 5 miles south-westward through

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that parish and Swinton, — divides, for 2 miles south
ward, Swinton and Coldstream on tbe east, from
Eccles on the west, — and runs sinuously 5 miles
south-eastward over a geographical distance of 3|
miles, through Coldstream parish to the Tweed at
the town of Coldstream.
LEGERWOOD, a parish of very irregular out
line, with two large angular projections on its east
side, and two smaller ones respectively at its north
ern and southern extremities, in the western part of
Berwickshire. It is bounded on the north-west by
Lauder ; on the north- east by Westruther ; on the
east by Gordon ; on the south-east and south by
Earlston ; and on the west by the detached part of
Lauder, and by Melrose in Roxburghshire. Its ex
treme length from north to south' is 5£ miles; its
mean breadth is between 2£ and 3 miles ; and its area
is about 15 square miles. The southern division is
wholly occupied by a very broad based height, called
Legerwood-hill, whose summit is geographically from
1 to 1£ mile in the interior of the parish, and whose
sides slope gently to the southern, eastern, and west
ern boundaries. The north corner sends up 1.090
feet above sea-level, around an imposing elevation
called Boon-hill. From this height a hilly ridge runs
southward near the western boundary till not far
from the north base of Legerwood-hill ; and thence
it sends off a ridge north-eastward to the most east
erly point of the parish. The glens or vales among
the hills are of considerable width ; and, together
with the soft slopes of the uplands, surrender very
nearly one-half of the entire area, carpeted generally
with a deep dark-coloured mould, to the stated or
occasional dominion of the plough. About 300 acres
are under wood. Both natural and cultivated pas
tures are devoted to sheep-husbandry ; and give the
district very much the appearance of being primely
a sheep-walk. The breeds pastured are the Cheviot
and the Leicester. Pure and perennial springs
abound. Blythe-water, or Boon-dreigh, traces all
the north-western boundary a distance of 2£ miles ;
and Leader- water, into which the Blythe falls, traces
all the western boundary, a distance of 2J miles.
Several brooks drain the interior, and run along the
glens. The chief landed proprietors are tbe Mar
quis of Tweeddale and Henry Ker Seymer, Esq. of
Morriston. Birkhill-side, the chief inhabited man
sion, and the seat of Colonel Shillinglaw, another
proprietor, stands on the Leader. A few houses of
the kirk-town of Legerwood are not a village, —
gcarcely even a hamlet. Towers or peel-houses are
at Whitslaid and Corsbie. British camps appear to
have been on Legerwood and Birkenside hills. The
newturnpike between Edinburgh and Jedburgh passes
along the west side of the parish ; and that between
Edinburgh and Kelso runs across one of its east
ern projections. Population, in 1801, 495; in 1831,
565. Houses 92. Assessed property, in 1815,
£4,923. — -Legerwood is in the presbytery of Lauder,
and synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, Ker
of Morriston. Stipend £205 4s. 6d. ; glebe £15.
Unappropriated teinds £86 8s. lOd. Walter Steward
of Scotland obtained from Malcolm IV. the lands
of Legerwood and Birkenside, and gave the church,
with its pertinents, to the monks of Paisley. School
master's salary £28, with a house and garden, £20
fees, and £5 10s. other emoluments.
• LEITH, a district suburban to Edinburgh, lying
between it and the frith of Forth, and comprising its
port, some outskirts of its streets, part, of its parlia
mentary territory, and a considerable portion of its
environs. Parochially, Leith is divided, quoad civilia,
into North Leith and South Leith, and quoad sacra,
into the additional parishes of Newhaven, St.

Thomas', and St. John's. Newhaven will be
noticed in a separate article.
North Leith is bounded on the north by the
frith of Forth ; on the east and south-east by the
Water of Leith, which divides it from South Leith ;
and on the south and west by St. Cuthbert's. It is
of an oblong form lying east and west ; measures
about 1£ mile in length by half-a-mile of extreme
breadth; and has an area of only about 270 acres.
Its surface is level, or very slightly variegated ; and,
with the exception of some garden grounds, and a
few fields, is all covered by villas, vby the villages
of Newhaven and Hillhouse-field, and by the town
of North Leith. Between North Leith and New
haven, the coast has, to a considerable breadth, been
washed away by the frith, and has received the aid
of a very powerful bulwark of stone to protect it
from further loss. In the year 1595, the links ot
North Leith, lying along the coast, were let at an
annual rent of 6 merks, while those of South Leith
were let at a rent of 30 ; so that they must then
have been one-fifth of the extent of the latter, or
nearly A of a mile long, and two or three hundred
yards in breadth. For many years, however, they
have entirely disappeared ; and what must formerly
have been an expansive and beautiful plain, is now
an irreclaimable waste, regularly flooded by the tide,
and displaying at low water a thick aspersion of
stones and pebbles washed completely free from
mould or soil. The population of tbe parish, in 1801,
was 3,228; in 1831, 7,416. Houses, in 1831, 448.
According to an ecclesiastical survey in 1835, it was
then 7,559 ; of whom 4,758 nominally belonged to the
Establishment, 2,383 were known to belong toother
denominations, and 418 were not known to profess
connexion with any religious body. The parish-
church was built in 1815-16. Sittings 1,768. Sti
pend £285 9s. ; glebe, including sums derived from
fees and rents, £394 16s. 4d. Two missionaries
maintained, by the parochial mission of North and
South Leith, and salaried at £50 each, labour in the
districts respectively of Newhaven and Hillhouse-
field, and of Coalhill, Brigend, and adjacent places 
An United Secession congregation in the parish was
established in 1816, and erected a place of worship
in 1819. Sittings 1,100. Stipend £280.— North
Leith, previous to the Reformation, belonged partly
to the parish of Holyrood-house, and partly to that,
of St. Cuthbert's. The port of Inverleith, as it was
then called, the village of Newhaven and the ad
jacent fields, which jointly constituted the St.
Cuthbert's portion, were, along with one-half of the
fishery, given by David I. to the monks of Holy-
rood. A chapel, in the reign of James IV., was
built in North Leith by Robert Bellenden, abbot
of Holyrood, endowed by him, and dedicated to St.
Ninian. This chapel continued subordinate to the
abbey till the Reformation ; but, along with the
chaplain's house, the tithes, and other pertinents,
it was, after that event, purchased by the, inhabi
tants from John Bothwell, the commendator of
Holyrood. The spirited purchasers immediately
rebuilt both the place of worship and the parson
age ; and, in 1606, obtained an act of parliament
erecting the district intp a parish. In 1630, the
commissioners for teinds and plantation of kirks
added Newhaven and the rest of the area which
had belonged to St. Cuthbert's. In 1633, the parish,
thus enlarged, was annexed to the episcopate of
Edinburgh. Anciently an hospital and a chapel,
dedicated to St. Nicholas, stood on the site of the
Citadel ; and they are commemorated in the name
of the alley called St. Nicholas'- wynd. North Leith
is in the presbytery of Edinburgh, and synod of

236

LEITH.

Lothian and Tweeddale.. Patrons, the heads of fa
milies. In 1834, there were 16 schools ; one of
them parochial, conducted by a master and an assist
ant ; and attended by a maximum of 63 scholars ;
and 15 non-parochial, conducted by 18 teachers, and
attended by a maximum of 1,033 scholars. Parish
schoolmaster's salary £21, with about £8 fees, and
£40 arising from the offices of recorder and session-
clerk. Assessed property, in 1815, £15,415.
South Leith is bounded on the north-east by
the frith of Forth; on the south by Duddingston
and Canongate ; and on the west by some- parishes
of the Royalty of Edinburgh, and by St. Cuthbert's
and North Leith. It is nearly triangular in form ;
measures 2| miles on the north-east side, 2| on the
south side, and 1 J on the west side ; and has an area
of about 1,200 acres. The boundary is traced for
some way with Duddingston by' the Fishwive's-
causeway; it then passes nearly along the road be
tween Edinburgh and Portobello till past Jock's
Lodge ; it next makes a projecting sweep so as to
include Parson's-green ; and after skirting Arthur's-
seat and the King's-park it runs along the north back
of Canongate, debouches through Low Calton, goes
down Leith- walk till nearly opposite the mansion of
Pilrig, and then moves due westward in a zigzag
line to the Water of Leith, and follows that stream
to the sea. The parish thus includes, besides its
landward districts, Calton-hill, parts of Calton and
Canongate, Abbey-hill, Norton-place, the east side
of Leith-walk, Jock's Lodge, Restalrig, and the
whole town of South Leith. Except on Calton-hill
the soil, not occupied by buildings, is all susceptible
of high cultivation, and has had imposed on it dresses
of utility and ornament in keeping with its close.
vicinity to the metropolis. Irrigated and very fertile
meadows, green and beautiful esplanades laid out as
promenading-grounds, neat, tidy, and extensive nur
series, and elegant fruit, flower, and vegetable gar
dens, combine, with a few corn-fields, and the little
lake of Lochendj and a profusion of odoriferous en
closures, and a rich sprinkling of villas and their at
tendant flower-plots, to render the open or unedified
area eminently attractive. The east corner is part
of the lands formerly called the Figgate Whins, not
able alike for their having been abandoned to barren
ness, disposed of for almost a nominal compensation,
and georgicaily worked into fertility. The built dis
tricts, which are compact with the metropolis, have.
been noticed in the description of Edinburgh. Se
parate articles are devoted also to Calton-hill,
Jock's Lodge, Lochend, and Restalrig. The
mansions and* villas are so numerous that to notice
all would be tedious, and to notice a few would be
invidious. The beach, all the way from South Leith
to the eastern boundary, is not a little attractive to>
sea-bathers ; a fine clean sandy bottom, — an inclina
tion or slope quite gentle enough to assure the most
timid, — and a limpid roll, or ripple, or burnished face
of water, the very look of which is luxury on a sum
mer's day. Population of the parish, in 1801, 12,044;
in 1831, 18,439. Houses 1,443. Assessed property, in
1815, £29,048  The parish is a collegiate charge in
the presbytery of Edinburgh, and synod of Lothian
and Tweeddale. Patron of the first charge, the
Crown ; of the second, the kirk-session and the incor
porations. Stipend of the first minister £395 19s.
lid., with a glebe worth £80> and an allowance of
£80 for a manse ; of the second minister £247 Is. 2d.
Unappropriated teinds £636 2s. 4d. The parish-
church is of unascertained antiquity, but is supposed
by Maitland, in his history of Edinburgh, to have
been built prior to the year 1492; and it has under
gone no alteration, within the memory of man, ex
cept the removal, in 1791, of a gallery which stood

across a window, and obstructed the light. Sittings
1,347. Three missionaries, maintained by the Unit
ed parochial mission, salaried at £50 each, and all
licentiates of the Establishment, officiated, in 1835,
at five preachings-stations, — respectively in Restalrig,
Burns-street, the Charity school-house, Lawrie's-
close, and Broad-wynd. Two missionaries, maintain
ed by the Leith town-mission, but unsanctioned by the
Establishment ministers, also laboured in the parish.
The dissenting congregations of the parish are eight.
The Episcopalian congregation of St. James' chapel
was established about 115 years ago; and received, 41
years ago, an accession of a non-juring congregation
of an earlier date. The chapel was built in 1805,
at the expense of about £1,600. Sittings 38a Sti
pend £200. The minister holds a service every
Sabbath morning at Piershill-barracks — The Wes
leyan Methodist congregation was established some
years previous to 1818. Their place of worship was,
along with three or four attached houses, built in that
year at an expense of £5,000 ; but was afterwards
contracted in its accommodation. Sittings 400. Sti
pend £120i — The United Secession congregation of
Kirkgate, was established in 1775. Sittings in their
place of worship 1,025. Stipend £260  The Inde
pendent congregation! was formed in 1805, and their
chapel was built in 1826, at a cost of £2,000. Sit
tings 520. Stipend £100  The Relief congrega
tion's place of worship was built in 1825. Sittings
1,230. Stipend £210  A congregation in Storey's-
alley, calling itself Independent, was commenced in
1832. The meeting-house is the property of the
United Secession congregation of the Links, was
built 54 years ago, and is rented for £18. Sittings
660. Stipend £50  The United Secession congre
gation of the Links was formed about the year 1786;
and their present place of worship was erected about
14 years ago. Sittings 1,254. Stipend £262  The
Separatist congregation was established in 1818, and
assembles for worship in a Mason-lodge in Constitu
tion-court, rented at £2 12si Sittings from 200 to
300. No stipend  An ecclesiastical census of 1835,
including St. John's quoad sacra parish, and a small
district, included in the quoad sacra parish of Porto
bello, showed the population- then to be 15,792; of
whom 7,423 belonged to the Establishment, 7,360
belonged to other denominations, and 1,609 were
not known to belong to any religious body  In 1834
26 schools, all non-parochial, were conducted by 26
teachers, and attended by a maximum of 1,815 scho
lars, and a minimum of 1,489.
The ancient seat and name of the parish of South
Leith was Restalrig. In 1214 Thomas de Restalric, or
Restalrig, made a grant of some tenements which he
describes as situated " southward of the High-street,"
probably the present Leith-walk, " between Edin
burgh and Leith;" and, in conformity with the usage
of the period, he perhaps had a church on the manor,
from which he took his name. A church, with par
ochial jurisdiction, existed at Restalrig, at all events,
in- 1296 ; for,; in that year, Adam of St. Edmunds,
"parson of Restetok," swore fealty to Edward I.,
and had a precept for the delivery of all his rights*..
During the reign of Robert I. tbe Logans obtained
possession of the manor and the advowson ; and they
continued to exercise the power of both barons and
patrons till the commencement of the 1 7th century,
when they suffered forfeiture for participation in
Gowrie's conspiracy. A collegiate establishment was
organized in the church ; but it does not seem to
have interfered" with the patronage. The establish
ment was set up by James IH. and at first included
only a dean and canon, supported bythe revenue of
the parish-church of Lasswade ; in 1512 it received
from James IV. the addition of six prebendaries

LEITH.

237

supported by the revenues of the parsonage of St,
Mary of Rothesay, by a rent of £20 from the King's
new works in Leith, and bythe chapelry of St. Tred-
nan's isle, which had been erected in Restalrig
church ; and in 1515 it got from James V., the ac
cession of two singing boys, and the grant of the ten
pound lands of the parish of Kirkhill, and some rents
and tenements in Canongate. A chapel, dedicated
to the Virgin Mary, and situated in the town of
South Leith, preceded, for probably a century, the
origin of the collegiate establishment ; and was en
riched with many donations and annuities for the
support, within it, of altars or chaplainries dedicated
to St. Peter, St. Barbara, and probably other saints.
To this chapel — the choir of which was destroyed in
1544 by the English invaders under the Earl of Hert
ford — the General Assembly of 1560 drove the par
ishioners, by dooming the parish and collegiate church
to destruction as a monument of idolatry. The rev
enues of the chaplainries or altarages were now ap
propriated for the support of the reformed ministers,
and half-a-century later, or in 1609, the chapel of
St. Mary was constituted by act of parliament the
parish-church, and invested with all the revenues
and pertinents of Restalrig. The cemetery of the
ancient church continues to be in use for the dead,
and the walls and area of the chapel for the living 
A canonry or preceptory of religious knights, called
canons of St. Anthony, and the only establishment
of its class in Scotland, was, in 1435, founded in the
town by Robert Logan of Restalrig. The canons
were brought from St. Anthony of Vienne in France,
the seat of their order ; and they followed the rule
of St. Augustine. They had, on the south-west
corner of the alley which was named from them St.
Anthony's- wynd, a church, a cemetery, a monastery,
and gardens; they possessed various lands, tene
ments, and rents about Edinburgh and Leith ; they
got a grant of the church of Hales, in East Lothian ;
and they obtained a right to a Scottish quart of every
tun of wine which was imported into Leith. In 1614
the preceptory was suppressed ; its right of wine was
transferred to the magistrates for the uses of the
town ; and all its other rights and possessions were
given to tbe kirk-session for endowing a benevolent
establishment under the name of King James' hospi
tal. Not a vestige of the buildings now_remains, ex
cept some old vaults. But the seal of the convent —
exhibiting St. Anthony habited in a hermit's mantle,
with a book in one hand, a staff in the other, a belled
sow at his foot, and a cross over his head, and bear
ing the legend, " S. Commune Preceptoriae Sancti
Anthonii Prope Leicht," — is preserved in the Advo
cates' library.
St. John's of Leith was, in 1834, divided from
the parish of South Leith by the General Assembly.
It is a town parish f of a mile long, and J of a mile
broad. According to the minister's survey, in 1835,
its population consisted then of 1,497 churchmen,
1,290 dissenters, and 148 nondescripts, — in all, 2,935
persons. The church was built in 1770, as a chapel-
of-ease, and has at various periods been repaired. Sit
tings 1,000. Stipend £250, with a manse worth £18.
St. Thomas' of Leith, was erected intoat/Moad
sacra parish by the General Assembly of 1840. The
church was gifted to the Establishment by John
Gladstone, Esq., of Fasque ; and is a remarkable and
solitary instance of a place of worship, in reformed
Scotland, having had the power of patronage im
posed on it by the sole deed of an ecclesiastical
court. The same General Assembly which made the
boldest of all demonstrations in support of a veto
upon presentations, and which preceded a stirring
movement in demand of the abolition of all patron
age, took St. Thomas' church into its communion,

and invested it with quoad sacra parochial jurisdic
tion, on the admitted and stipulated ground that the
election of its minister should be patronial ! In Feb
ruary, 1841, Mr. Gladstone presented a minister to
the charge.
Leith, the sea-port of Edinburgh, a parliamentary
burgh, and a populous and important tpwn, stands
as to its proper or assigned boundaries, from f to If
mile north of Edinburgh, — as to its street-lines and
edificed area, connected with Edinburgh by the long
street called Leith-walk, and extensively built on
both sides, — and as to parochial territory, intermin
gled with Edinburgh, as regards both the metropolis
edificed area and its parliamentary burgh. The
limits of Leith, as a town, were, previous to 1827,
quite uncertain. What popularly bore the name,
comprehended the barony of South Leith, part of
North Leith connected with the burgh of Canongate,
the regality of citadel belonging to the corporation of
Edinburgh, and the bailiary of St. Anthony's, belong
ing to the kirk-session of South Leith. In 1827,
the boundaries were adjusted by a statute providing
for the municipal government of the town and sub
urbs ; and, generally speaking, were, Seafield toll-
bar on the east, the frith of Forth on the north, the
stone-bridge at Leith-mills-on the west, and the foot
of Leith-walk on the south. This territory was to
be called ' The Town of Leith.' More extensive
boundaries were assigned by the 2d and 3d Will. IV.,
cap. 65; and, in a general view, these are the frith
on the north, a line from Lochend to the frith on the
east, the middle of Leith-walk on the south, and
Wardie-burn on the west. The burgh, if it filled
this territory strictly as a town, would vie with the
metropolis in extent ; for, in that case, it would be
a town of 7 furlongs in breadth from north to south,
and of 2J miles or upwards in length from east to
west. The limits include all the parish of North
Leith, with, of course, tbe large suburb and separate
harbour of Newhaven, — a portion of St. Cuthbert's,
about equal in extent to North Leith parish,. — and
very nearly one-third of the parish of South Leith.
Viewed apart from arbitrary allocations, and regard
ed simply as a compact field of streets and houses,
Leith, with the addition of its portion of Leith-walk
and of some small suburban and straggling extensions,
measures about f of a mile in length, and, at its
broadest part, half-a-mile in breadth,— the length
being parallel with the frith.
The site of the town is disadvantageous for the
purposes at once of the port, the police, and the
artist, — affording indifferent accommodations and ca
pacities for a harbour, poor facilities for the drain
age and cleaning of the streets, and little scope for
the imposing or agreeable intersectioning of thorough
fares, or location of public buildings. An expanse
of low ground, generally as level as a bowling-green,
receding from a flat sandy beach, which is left dry
by the ebbing tide over a mile's breadth from high-
water mark, could not, by even surpassing skill, be
made the arena of either a picturesque town, or a very
prosperous and facile port. The water of Leith,
indeed, bisects the dreary level, or the insensibly
descending slope; but it is here a sluggish, and,
at most seasons, an inconsiderable stream, having
scarcely power enough to carry its own freight of
alluvium into the sea, and no capacity for sweeping
tidily away the drainings of a large town, or bringing
boldly up into its recess a deep flood, or a sufficient
sea-room of ship-bearing tide. The town, like its
cognominal parochial territory, is cut by this rivulet
into the divisions of North Leith and South Leith.
A stone-bridge, built by Robert Ballendean, abbot
of Holyrood, to afford the inhabitants on the east
side access to the chapel which he erected in North

238

LEITH.

Leith, was, for a long period, the only medium of
connexion between the two divisions. This vener
able bridge having been at length removed, its place
was supplied by two wooden drawbridges, which,
besides doubling the facility of communication, admit
the entrance and the egress of vessels on the bosom
of the tide. On the southern outskirts of the town,
too, a handsome stone-bridge was, several years ago,
erected over the river, to carry a thoroughfare from
the foot of Leith-walk direct into North Leith.
Seen from any of the high grounds of Edinburgh, or
even closely examined in a walk round its own imme
diate environs, the town appears to be, if not pictur
esque, at least neat, showy, in some places beautiful,
and in others eminently elegant. But, with some not
very trivial exceptions, it is a field of waste lands and
manure plots, with the enclosures and approaches of a
garden,— -a confused arena of filthy alleys and squalid
lanes, and dingy streets, — encinctured with a broad
belt of gay and attractive buildings. North Leith,
which contains the docks, and anciently compre
hended the citadel and the chief seat of traffic, was
of old a congeries of low houses, huddled into groups
or irregular lines, and straddling their way among
nuisance in front and in rear, very much in the style
of a Portuguese or Spanish town of the present day.
But within the last thirty years, and particularly
since about 1818, it has undergone great and reno
vating changes ; and besides being disencumbered of
the ungainly citadel and a crowd of pauper tene
ments which cowered slothfully in the vicinity, it
now presents toward the south and the west some
entirely new streets, which vie in elegance with those
of the second-rate parts of the New Town of Edin
burgh. Leith-walk, which, in consequence of its
connecting thoroughfare along the new bridge with
North Leith, may be viewed as common to the two
divisions of the town, though in its own direct north
ward course it leads right into the. principal thorough
fares of South Leith, — this spacious and beautiful
street, so far as it belongs to Leith, is even more
attractive than in its Edinburgh portion, rising in a
gentle, almost imperceptible, and very regular ascent,
— alternately edificed with neat houses or splendid
mansions, and ruralized with nursery-grounds, or
openings to the fields, — and commanding, over all its
length, one of the most superb views of Arthur's-
seat and the Calton-hill, and the waving surface and
outline of Edinburgh. Diverging a little eastward
from the foot of Leith-walk, a brief thoroughfare
leads the way into Leith-links. This is a beautiful
grassy plain of nearly a mile in length from west to
east, and of very considerable breadth, used as the
play-ground of a company of golfers, and as the
bleaching-ground and public promenade of the inha
bitants of the town. On its east side, it is skirted by
some fine fields and pleasure-grounds, and looks up
an agreeable ridgy slope which intervenes, to the
ancient village of Restalrig ; on its seuth side, it has
a rugged and rather picturesque frame-work of va
ried scenery, partly urban, and partly seaward ; and
on its south and west sides, it is edificed with rows
of private houses, and in two or three instances mot
tled with public edifices, which would be as harmo
nious with the immediate outskirts of Edinburgh, as
they are highly ornamental to those of Leith. Im
mediately behind the west side of the Links, but
with the intervention of some brief and limited streets
and places, modern in structure, and of fair appear
ance, Constitution-street leads down toward the sea
from Leith-walk, and, at its termination, sends off
Bernard-street westward, to communicate with the
quay near the beach. Both of these streets are mo
dern and spacious, generally well-edificed, and in
some places handsome. Somewhat parallel with

Constitution-street, going off, like it, in continuation
of Leith-walk, and forming with it at the point of
plunging into tbe town a very acute angle, is Kirk-
gate,  a street containing many modern houses, but,
in general, orientally narrow, and looking foully like
a street of Lisbon. From the foot of Kirkgate, a
thoroughfare, more disagreeable still, and bearing
the dreary, but not inexpressive name, of Tolbooth-
wynd, goes off westward to the quay, at a point
south of the termination of Bernard-street. This
wynd and Kirkgate are noticeable chiefly from their
having anciently formed the outlet from the quay to
the country, and the path of communication between
the metropolis and the harbour. The quay is the
most ancient part of the town ; and, apart from its
accommodation for vessels, consists of a terrace or
one-sided street, curiously and antiquely varied in
the appearance of its houses, and winding paralleled
with the river for about half-a-mile from tbe shore.
From this terrace, alleys and lanes diverge eastward,
to be crossed and chequered with narrow thorough
fares connecting them, and to form with these the
great body of the town, or at least the seat of by far
the greater part of its population. But one broad
daub with the brush will give a picture of them all,
— " they are, for the most part, irregularly and con
fusedly built,"— and are " extremely filthy, crowded,
and inelegant."
The Exchange buildings, erected at the cost of
£16,000, and situated at the foot of Constitution-
street, are a large and elegant structure in the' Gre
cian style of architecture, three stories high, orna-
mentedwith Ionic pillars, and containing a hotel, a
spacious assembly-room, and a commodious public
news-room. The whole pile and its accommodations,
while they showily adorn the town, rather display
the taste and public spirit of a few individuals, than
indicate the amount of the town's prosperity, or tbe
range of its commercial importance.— The Custom
house, built in 1812, at the cost of £12,000, and
situated at the North Leith, or west end of the
lower drawbridge, is a noble edifice, likewise in the
Grecian style, and adorned in front with pillars and
pediment  The new Court-house, built at the ex
pense of £3,300, and situated at the corner of Con
stitution-street and Charlotte-street, is a square
building, by far the most elegant edifice in the town,
and forming, both in chasteness of design, and in
neatness of execution, a very favourable, though
limited specimen of modern architecture. Its inte
rior arrangements are as commodious as its external
aspect is agreeable, and afford accommodation for
both the sheriff-court and the police establishment.
— The Leith Bank's office, built in 1806, situated on
the south side of Bernard-street, is a small but neat
and. even handsome building, surmounted by a vane.
. — The Tolbooth, situated on the south side of the
Tolbootb-wynd, occupies the site of a predecessor
which was built in 1565, and became decayed or
ruinous after the commencement of the present cen
tury. The modern edifice was erected in 1822, at
the expense of the city of Edinburgh, and is in the
Saxon style of architecture. But though it has
several suites of well-lighted cells, and is said to be
' a very complete jail,' it remained, at the date of
the commissioners' Report on Municipal Corpora
tions, and possibly remains still, unlegalized. An
objection having been judiciously made to its secur
ity, the court- of-session refused an application to
legalize it ; and a misunderstanding having after
wards arisen between the corporation of Edinburgh
and the community of Leith, the place was neglected,
and not allowed the benefit of any further proceed
ings in its favour. A lock-up-house, consisting of
cold, damp, and unhealthy cells, such as endangered

LEITH.

239

life, was coolly permitted to do for the police-prison
ers the honours and offices of the sinecure tolbooth.
— The Seafield baths, situated at the eastern ex
tremity of the Links, overlooking one of the finest
parts of the delightful beach, and built in 1813 at
an expense of £800, are a capacious and neat
structure, containing a hotel and suite of baths,
constructed and arranged on a plan which has been
thought worthy of imitation in later erections of the
same class at other sea-bathing resorts. The estab
lishment was erected by shareholders, and does not
want from good management; but, owing to its
distance from Edinburgh, it has proved a failure 
The Grammar-school, or High school, built in 1806,
and situated on the south-west corner of the Links,
is a spacious oblong building, in the Grecian style
of architecture, surmounted by a small spire and
clock, and internally arranged into excellent apart
ments for two classes in classics, two in English, one
in mathematics, and one in writing and arithmetic.
The predecessor of this edifice — which is neither
burgh-school nor parish-school, but is anomalously
managed by several bodies who have no mutual con
nexion — stood in the Kirkgate, and, unlike the
present one, was endowed with considerable funds.
— Dr. Bell's school, built in 1839, and situated in
Great Junction-street, the thoroughfare between the
foot of Leith-walk and the Stone-bridge, is a large
and elegant Gothic edifice. The amount of funds
transferred from the bequest of Dr. Bell, the well-
known founder of the Madras system of education,
for the establishing and endowing of this school,
was nearly £10,000  The Trinity-house, erected
in 1817, at the cost of £2,500, and occupying a con
fined site on the west side of Kirkgate, is a hand
some Grecian edifice, the successor of a venerable
building which stood on the same spot, and was
erected in 1555. In one apartment there is an an
cient view of Leith ; and in the large hall used for
the meetings of the masters, there are several good
portraits, particularly one of Mary of Lorraine by
Mytens, and one of Admiral Lord Duncan. From
time immemorial the shipmasters and mariners of
Leith received from all the vessels of the port, and
all Scottish vessels visiting it, certain duties called
' primo gilt,' which were expended in aiding poor
sailors ; and near the middle of the 16th century
they acquired a legal right to levy the prime gilt
dues, and apply them in maintaining an hospital,
and sustaining ' poor, old, infirm, and weak mari
ners.' Previous to 1797, the association, though
calling itself ' The Corporation of Shipmasters of
the Trinity-house of Leith," were a corporation only
by the courtesy of popular language, and possessed
the powers of only a charitable body ; but in that
year they were regularly erected by charter into a
corporate body, whose office-bearers were to be a
master, an assistant-master, a deputy-master, a ma
nager, a treasurer, and a clerk, and were vested with
powers — reserving, however, the powers of the cor
poration of the city of Edinburgh — to examine, and
under their common seal to license persons to be
pilots, and to exact admission-fees from the licenti
ates. During the year ending 25th December, 1 833,
their income was £2,159 Is. 5d., and their expendi
ture £2,335 9s. Id. ; and, in 1834, their property in
houses, government stock, and other items, amounted
to £17,761, and their annual revenue from prime
gilt to £756 7s. 6d.— The Markets of Leith, occu
pying the site of the old custom-house and excise-
office, a little east of the jail in Tolbooth-wynd, are
commodious and of creditable appearance, and have
their areas surrounded with neatly constructed stalls. ,
They were long but vainly demanded by the inhabi
tants from the corporation of Edinburgh, who had

power to hinder or promote their erection ; they
were eventually reared, in 1818, by the impelling
influence of a voluntary subscription, and by means
of a compromise which subjected them to feu duties
to Edinburgh of £219; and when completed, they
formed a prominent and very vexatious subject of
dispute in the course of a long and mischievous mis
understanding between the metropolis and its port.
Ancient civil edifices, extinct public buildings, and
remarkable localities form quite as interesting a chap
ter in the topography of Leith as that of existing and
modern public structures. Not the least noticeable
were its fortifications. Those which rendered it a
walled town were raised in 1549, amid the hurricane
which swept over Scotland during the infancy of
Mary; they were built by D'Esse, the French gen
eral, to give Mary of Lorraine's party a footing against
Edinburgh castle, which held out for the Protes
tants; and they were strong enough to offer success
ful defiance to all the besieging efforts of the Pro
testant forces. Captain Colepepper, in Sir Walter
Scott's tale of ' the Fortunes of Nigel,' indeed speaks
of them with merry and swaggering contempt. " You
speak," says he, " of the siege of Leith; and I have
seen the place. A pretty kind of a bamlet it is, with
a plain wall or rampart, and a pigeon-house or two
of a tower at every angle. Daggers and scabbards !
if a leaguer of our days had been 24 hours, not to
say months, before it, without carrying the place
and all its cock-lofts one after another by pure storm,
they would have deserved no better grace than the
provost-marshal gives when his noose is rieved."
The rampart was octagonal, with a bastion at each
of the eight angles. The first bastion, called Ram
say's fort, was situated on the east side of the river
between the beach and the west end of the present
Bernard-street,, and was designed to protect the
harbour. The wall ran from this in a south-east
direction ; and the second bastion stood on the
site of the present Exchange buildings, and long
survived in some remains which were ascended by a
flight of stone steps, and used as a promenade under
the name of the Ladies'- walk. The site of the third
bastion was opposite the point where Coatfield-lane
now joins Constitution-street; that of the fourth
was at the top of Kirkgate ; that of the fifth is not
accurately known. The wall came down on the
river exactly 115 yards below the site of the new
stone-bridge at the saw-mills, and was connected
with its continuation on the west side of the stream
by means of a wooden-bridge. The sixth bastion,
though its site, like that of the fifth, is not precisely
ascertained, must have stood on the west side of the
river, and in its immediate vicinity ; the seventh
stood near the site of the citadel ; and the eighth
stood at the Sandport, overlooking the harbour, and
corresponding with Ramsay's fort on the opposite
side of the stream. Of the various forts, one was
called St. Anthony's, from the vicinity to it of St.
Anthony's preceptory ; and another, and the chief,
was called the Block-house, and formed the grand
outlet for sallies upon besiegers. The wall was con
structed wholly of stone, and seems to have been a
line of stout masonry ; and the bastions were of great
strength. The fortifications, after the triumph of
the Protestant party in 1560, were so far destroyed
as to be rendered useless; they were temporarily
re-edified in 1571, by the Earl of Morton, during
the regency of the Earl of Lennox ; but they have
long since been so entirely razed as to betray an oc
casional and small vestige only during the yawn of
some ephemeral excavation. On the links are still
some moundish, though inconsiderable, memorials of
works thrown up by the besieging Protestant forces,
either to cover their advance toward the rampart, or

240

LEITH.

to mount their artillery for playing upon it and its
defenders  The citadel of Leith was greatly en
larged, and, in fact, chiefly constructed, by the army
of Oliver Cromwell. It stood on the North Leith
side of the river, and covered a considerable area.
It was pentagonal in outline, or in its exterior de
fence, with a bastion at each of the five angles; and
it had a principal gate opening to the east. In the
interior it had a ledgy ascent of fortification, excel
lent magazines, stores, and houses for the garrison,
a suitable place of worship, and a spacious court
yard. After the Restoration, these erections were
in a great measure destroyed, and the site of them
granted to the Duke of Lauderdale, then prime min
ister for Scotland to Charles II. No vestige of the
defences now remains, except a Saxon archway, and
a few yards of the wall, — the archway now sur
mounted by a modern house. . — Lord Balmerino's
house, a stately old mansion, stood a little off the
line of Kirkgate, between Charlotte-street and
Coatfield-lane, and was entered by a low arched
close from Kirkgate, and through a garden from Con
stitution-street. Charles II., when invited, in 1650,
to Scotland by the Scottish parliament, slept in this
house on the night after his arrival at the port. The
house was taken down only three or four years ago.
— Various fabrics compete for the notoriety of hav
ing been the residence, during the period of her mili
tary quarrel with the Protestants, of Mary of Lor
raine, the Queen-regent, and fhe mother of Queen
Mary. What seems to have been the real house,
and that also which received for a season Oliver
Cromwell, was a building of rather elegant exterior,
situated in Queen-street, formerly called the Paunch-
market. The house was taken down within the last
two years. Its window-frames were all formed of
oak, richly carved ; and the panellings of the doors
were of the same wood, and beautifully embellished.
— A fine old mansion, spacious, of imposing aspect,
sculptured with crowns, sceptres, and other decora
tions, and said to have been the residence of the
Regent Lennox, stands between the end of Tol
booth-wynd and St. Andrew's-street, in a filthy
court pompously called Parliament-square, and en
tered by a small lane leading off from the north side
of St. Andrew's-street, nearly opposite the end of
the Sheep's-head-wynd  The King's-work, a clus
ter of very ancient buildings, occupying a large area,
and occasionally graced with the presence of majesty,
stood between Bernard-street and the Broad-wynd.
— The house inhabited by the parents of John Home,
the author of ' The Tragedy of Douglas,' and in
which he was born in 1722, stood at the corner of
Quality-street, and was pulled down 15 or 20 years
ago, to make room for new buildings. — The locality
formerly called Little London is between Bernard-
street and Quality-street  The Timber-bourse is
in the vicinity, and though entirely changed in appear
ance, it retains its ancient name; slightly disguised
in the corrupted form of Timber-bush — The spot
on which George IV. landed, on occasion of his visit
to Scotland in 1822, is in front of the Ship-tavern,
and is indicated by an iron plate with an inscription.
— Leith-fort stands about half-a-mile west of the
custom-house. Originally it was merely a battery
of 9 guns, hastily constructed in an emergency for
defending the harbour toward the close of the Ame
rican war ; but it has long been a spacious artillery
barracks, and a station for a considerable park of
artillery, and is kept in excellent order.
The ecclesiastical edifices of Leith demand a mo
ment's notice additional to the statistical details re
specting them given in our account of the parishes.
The parish-church of North Leith, situated at the
western extremity of the town, and in the vicinity

of Leith-fort, is a very handsome though unpretend
ing structure, built in a plain style of architecture,
with a fine portico and columns, and surmounted by
a tasteful spire 140 feet high. In consequence of
the commercial transfer of its original transfer by
money-purchase from the commendator of Holyrood
to the inhabitants of the town, it possesses the at
tributes — rather remarkable in a Scottish parish-
church of the present day — of being free from pa
tronage, and of bringing its minister, though by
commutation into money-payment, the tithes of all
the fish landed on the beach. The old church, the
re-erection by the public-spirited purchasers imme
diately after the Reformation, still stands in a by
street near the end of the upper drawbridge, aban
doned to secular purposes, and lifting its wan and with
ered spire as if in deprecation of the neglect and con
tumely heaped on its old age and venerable history.
— The parish-church of South Leith, the ancient
chapel of St. Mary, situated in Kirkgate, is a time-
worn but sturdy Gothic structure, originally cruci
form, but deprived of its nave in 1544 by the Earl
of Hertford. In 1674, a stone tower, sending aloft
a spire of wood and metal, was erected at the west
end ; and, in 1681, a clock was added. In the south
west corner of the cemetery which surrounds the
church, stood King James' hospital. David Lindsay,
who baptized Charles I., and became Bishop of Ross,
and Logan, the author, real or reputed, of prose and
poetical works of great fame, but the inglorious and
but lately detected pirate of some manuscripts of the
Scottish Kirke White, Michael Bruce, were minis
ters of this church. — St. John's church, situated in
Constitution-street, is a plain but very spacious edi
fice ; and attracts notice from having been so long
the scene of the unctuous and odoriferous ministra
tions of Dr. Colquhoun, the author ot several very
devout and much appreciated though somewhat
scholastic works— St. Thomas' church, situated on
the Sheriff-brae, is clustered with a manse, a school-
house, and an asylum, and forms with them an ele
gant range of Gothic edifices, constructed at a cost
of £10,000, from a design by John Henderson, Esq.
of Edinburgh. The asylum is a refuge and an hos
pital for persons afflicted with incurable diseases, and
accommodates 10 patients and inmates.— The Epis
copalian chapel, situated in Constitution-street, is a
neat edifice, and draws attention from the literary
celebrity of its minister, Dr. Michael Russell, the
author of a continuation of ' Prideaux's Connexion
of Sacred and Profane History,' and of some other
elegantly composed works  The United Secession
chapel of Kirkgate is noticeable, chiefly from asso
ciation with one of its ministers, Mr. Culbertson,
who wrote an expository work on the Apocalypse,
and died about 20 years ago  The United Seces
sion chapel of North Leith, situated near the Cita
del, has a Gothic front, and wears an aspect of some
pretension.— The United Secession chapel of the
Links is a very fine edifice, more tasteful than most
modern buildings of its class, quite ornamental to
the district in which it stands, and forming with the
Grammar-school a fine feature in the architectural
fringing of tbe very spacious and airy promenade 
The Relief chapel, situated in Great Junction-street,
vies with the two modern Secession chapels ; and
the Independent place of worship is a pleasing struc
ture. The modern ecclesiastical edifices, in the ag
gregate; display more taste than almost any equal
number erected at similar cost in other localities.
Leith harbour consists .of the gut formed by the
discharge of the water of Leith, and is entirely tidal.
It was formerly, with the exception of being tra
versed by the shallow and unimportant stream, quite
dry at low water ; and even yet it has then a very

LEITH.

241

trifling depth. The water of Leith, having to make
its way to the sea across the very broad flat shore
called Leith-sands, and alternately flooded by the
tide and left entirely dry, the channel was, in its na
tural state, subject to much fluctuation, according to
the different direction of the wind and set of the
tides. A bar, too — such as is thrown up at the en
trance of every river-harbour — lies across its mouth,
and must necessarily be formed at the point where
¦the antagonist currents of the river and the tide be
come equal in force, bring each other up into equi
poise or stagnation, and let down in a deposit
whatever silt they contain. The river, constantly
and to an important amount, variegates both the
depth of the harbour and the height and position of
the bar, according to the fluctuations which occur in
the volume of its water, or the rapidity of its dis
charge ; for, in a season of drought, it leaves every
thing open to the invasion of sediments from the
tide, and in a season of rain, it scours away lodg
ments made on its bed, drives seaward and diminishes
in bulkiness the bar, and deepens the channel to
ward the side streams of the frith. All attempts,
therefore, to obtain a good or practicable harbour at
Leith, were necessarily limited to tbe erection of
broad piers far seaward at points not touched by the
river, or the construction of long pier lines fitted to
divert the current of the tides and give the river a
mastery over them, and enable it to sweep away or
diminish the bar, and to the cutting of docks for the
reception of vessels on the bosom of high water, and
the maintaining of accommodation for them beyond
the ruthless mercy of the receding tide. A wooden
pier was constructed, or a previously existing one
renovated, by the Earl of Hertford, when he visited
the port in 1544; but it was destroyed on his de
parture, and has left no relic to indicate its exact
site. Another wooden pier was erected early in the
17th century, and, during about 240 years, buried its
strong pillars in a compact bed of whinstone and
clay, and withstood the rough contacts of shipping
and the weather; and has at last,, only a few months
ago, disappeared before the progress of costly and
massive improvement. Between the years 1720 and
1730 a stone pier, in continuation of this wooden
one, which very trivially assisted the poor natural
facilities of the harbour, was carried 100 yards sea
ward, constructed partly of stones from the ruins of
a curious coal-pit at Culross ; and this, in some de
gree, remedied the difficulty and hazardousness of
the navigation inward, but still left the entrance of
the harbour encumbered with a bar, shifting and un
safe. Contemporaneous in origin with this improve
ment was the oldest dock, commenced in 1 720, and
situated on the west side of the river, behind a house
not far from Bridge-street, and bearing tbe date 1622.
During the remainder of the 18th century, various
surveys and reports were made with a view to fur
ther improvement ; but they led to nothing except
the construction in 1777 of a short pier, afterwards
known as the custom- bouse quay. The accommoda
tion for shipping was insufficient and unendurable,
the common quays being the chief landing-places,
and the channel of the river offering to vessels only
a seat of uncovered and adhesive mud at the recess
of the tides ; and as the trade of the port rapidly
increased toward the close of the century, the ac
commodation loudly demanded both enlargement and
amelioration. The late John Rennie, Esq., civil
engineer, was now employed, in 1799, to examine
the ground, and to form designs of docks and ex
tended piers on a scale somewhat proportioned to the
amount of the emergency. The gravamen of his
report was, that no permanent and uniform depth of
water along the harbour or gut of the river could be
TI.

obtained, and no achievement could be effected to
ward the extinction of a shifting bar, except by
carrying a pier or weir on the east side of the channel
quite across the sands into low water, but that by
this means 3 or possibly 4 feet of additional depth of
water might be obtained ; yet, though the soundness
of his principle has been vindicated by the result of
subsequent operations which were undertaken by its
guidance, little or nothing was done at his sugges
tion, nor for many years afterwards with regard to
the piers or entrance. An immediate result, how
ever, was the construction of a splendid suite of docks,
at the cost of about £285,000. Two wet docks,
each 250 yards long and 100 wide, were, with three
graving-docks on their north side, commenced in
1800 and completed in 1817, and were protected
from the sea by a strong retaining wall. A third
and larger dock oh the west, designed to reach nearly
to Newhaven, was projected ; but this and all kin
dred matters which accorded with the magnificence
of Mr. Rennie's designs and of the intentions of his
employers, the town-council of Edinburgh, were
thrown into abeyance during that eminent engineer's
life by a total failure of funds. In 1824, in response
to renewed and aroused demand, the late Mr. W.
Chapman of Newcastle was employed to make sur
veys and plans ; and as the result of his report, and
of subsequent voluminous correspondence with gov
ernment on the subject of a naval and store-yard,
the eastern pier was extended about 1,500 feet so as
to have an entire length of 2,550 feet, or more than
half-a-mile, a western pier and breakwater was
erected to the extent of 1,500 feet, and terminating
within 200 feet of the other, and a part of the west
ern end of the western dock was set apart as a store-
yard for the naval service. After many and agitat
ing movements to find some remedy for the admitted
and great existing evils, Mr. Walker and Mr. Cubbitt,
two eminent engineers in London, were sent down
in the winter of 1838^9, by the Lords of the Trea
sury, to undertake jointly the duty of providing their
lordships " with such a plan as will secure to the
port of Leith the additional accommodation required
by its shipping and commercial interests, including
the provision of a low- water pier," the cost being
limited to £125,000. These gentlemen, after in
specting the ground, and considering the previous
plans of various engineers, differed from each other
in opinion, and formed and recommended three dif
ferent designs, — Mr. Walker two, and Mr. Cubbitt
one. The details of only that to which the Lords
of the Treasury gave preference, and which was one
of Mr. Walker's, need be stated. This plan, by
which the present harbour is rendered subservient to
the projected improvement, is to extend a break
water, with a platform, to 2,000 feet beyond the
present pier-head, but of greater strength that} the
existing pier. This breakwater runs, on the plan,
nearly directly north from the pier-head, curving in
wards at the extremity. On the opposite or west
side, a breakwater is to be carried out from the
north-west angle of the wet docks, and at right
angles to the shore, for the space of about 2,300
feet, when it turns off directly north to the extent
of 1,000 feet, curving inwards until it faces the op
posite point of the eastern breakwater, the two ends
converging something like a lobster's claw, and
leaving an intervening space or harbour entrance.
Opposite and parallel to this western breakwater,
but at a distance of 320 feet, Mr. Walker proposes
to run a quay of 1,450 feet length from the dock
walls, by which means an inner harbour will be
formed 1,450 feet in length, and 320 feet in width,
with a depth of 12 feet at low-water. The existing
breakwater, of course, falls to be removed. At first
2

242

LEITH.

the estimated cost of this eastern harbour, which was
£1 22,000, did not include an entrance from the above
inner harbour into the docks ; but on tbe suggestion
of the Lords of the Treasury, Mr. Walker subse
quently reported, that his plan could be so modified
as to admit of a lock on the inner harbour, without
interfering with the general design, or materially
with the estimate. This modification involves an
alteration in the mode of constructing the eastern
breakwater of the outer harbour, and the 1,450 feet
quay of the inner harbour, the diminished cost of
the alteration affording, we presume, a sum sufficient
for a new communication with the docks, which the
Lords of the Treasury (insider a sine qua non. The
leading feature of this eastern plan is, that the break
waters are carried out to a depth of 10 or 11 feet at
low-water spring tides, which can be increased by
dredging to 12 feet.
By far the worst circumstance which, in modern
times, has damaged the port, and one which has even
very seriously menaced its trade with ruin, is its
predicament in reference to steam-vessels. Some
steamers built to ply from it have been so constructed
as, with a sacrifice of their speed or sailing powers,
not to suffer much injury from entering the harbour;
but others — and these just the sort of vessels which
are intrinsically most serviceable to a great port,
such as the Watt, the Soho, and the Monarch — can
not approach.
To attempt even a summary of the financial his
tory and relations of the harbour, in a way to be
, intelligible, would, without devoting a space to the
topic which our limits forbid, and no reader's patience
could endure, be utterly vain. The town-council of
Edinburgh, in a rugged and perplexing superiority
over Leith, the origin and general nature ot which
we have afterwards to relate, involved almost every
detail in the affairs and vicissitudes of the harbour
in the labyrinth of a financial history, which no man
can traverse without a guide; and when the city
became bankrupt in 1833, the confusion and rubbish
which choked up every pathway of this labyrinth
became such, that even a guide himself was almost
nonplussed how to proceed. In lieu of a useless
effort at history, we shall give four tabular views
of the affairs during several years preceding the date
-of the city's insolvency: —
NO. 1.— ABSTUACT ACCOUNT OF THE REVENUE ANO EXPENDITURE
Hi L VI llh TO THE DOCKS OF LEITH, IN 18*7, 1830, AND 1833.
Tear to 15th Year to 15lh Tear to 15th
May, 1827. May, 1830. May, 1833.
Sums ofgross revenue, £6,942 8 6 £9,738 19 0 £9,664 0 4
Sum of expenses of
management, im
provements,' repairs,
&c  7,070 18 1 3.H1 13 0 2,611 1 9
Nett revenue.
With a shortcoming
for the first year of
Which applied to the
payments to exche
quer on account of
debt to government,
With £10,350 due, hut
unpaid for year 1833,

6,567 6 0 7,052 18 7

11 9 10,350 0 0

10,350 0 0

Makes deficiency. 783 1 3 3,782 13 11 3,297 1 4
NO. II  ABSTRACT ACCOUNTS OF THE GR0SS,PROllUCK OP THE
HARBOUR OF LEITH, FROM WHITSUNDAY 1826, TO WHITSUNDAY
1833.
1.— Abstract Account in relation to the Shore Dues levied at Ihe
Port of Leith, from Whitsunday 1826, to Whitsunday 1833.
, Gross produce.
From Whitsunday 1886, to Whitsunday 1827, £6,800 7 0
Do. 1827, Do. 1828, fi.327 15 0
Do. 1828, Do. 1829,
Do. 1829, Do. 1830,
Do. 1830, Do. 1831,
Do. 1831, Do. 1832,
Do. 1832, Do. 1833,

Sum,

45,018 2

2  Abstract Account of Berthage and Flag or Light-dues,
levied at the Port of Leith, from Whitsunday 1826, to Whit
sunday 1833. Gross produce.
£1,027 7 7
936 5 4
944 0 9
910 19 I
U3I 16 1
8S7 17 2
902 22 7

From Whitsunday 18-26, to Whitsunday 1827,
Do. 1827, Do. 1828,
Do. 1828, Do. 1829,
Do. 1829, Do. 18)0,
Do. 1830, Do. 1831,
Do. 1831, Do. 1832,
Do. 1832, Do. 1833,

Sum,

6,540 18 8

No. 111. — ABSTRACT OF THE GROSS AND NETT PRODUCE OP THE
HARBOUR ANI1 DOCltS OP LEITH,— THE PAYMENTS MADE TO
GOVERNMENT ON ACCOUNT OF IMTERI'ST ANO SINKING FUND
UN ITS DEBT,— FROM WHITSUNDAY 1826, TO WHITSUNDAY 1833.

Paid to Govern
ment by City o(
Kdinburgh, on
Account of in
terest and Sink
Gros..
Nett.
ing Fund.
From
Whitsunday
1826,
to 1827,
£14.770 3 2
£3.775 1.1
7
£659 11 9
1827,
to 1828,
15,267 13 8
7,573 16
10
81.397 7 0
1828,
to 1829,
15.718 13 10
10,314 12
10
10,350 0 0
182H,
to iaio,
16,856 17 6
11,126 6
4
10,350 0 0
1830,
to 1831,
17,501 15 9
11,747 14
4
10,350 0 0
1831,
to 1832,
16,612 19 2
11,817 11
H
10,350 0 0
1832,
to 1833,
16,965 13 0
12,217 14
7
10,350 0 0
113,823 16 3
68,603 10
3
73,806 18 9
NO. IV. — ABSTRACT ACCOUNT IN RRLATION TO THE MERK PER
TON. LEVIED AT THE PORT OF LEITH, FROM WHI'ISUNDAY 1826,
r TO WHITSUNDAY 1833-
Gross Produce.
Nett Produce.
From Whitsunday
1826, to 1827,
. £4,001 16 11
£1,927 18 10
1827, to 1828,
. 3,871 16 0
2,327 10 9
1828, to 1829,
3.550 19 10
2 5H9 2 7
1829, to 1830,
. 3,754 16 9
2,472 3 6
1830, to 1831,
3,875 10 2
2.677 17 1
1831, to 1832,
. 3,524 11 3
2,479 6 4
1832, to 1833,
3,491 14 6
2,505 & 3
26,071 5 7
16,979 4 5
The harbour and docks are now under the manage
ment of commissioners specially appointed according
to the acts 1st and 2d Victoria, cap. 55, 27th July,
1838 ; and they appear, after a long period of fluc
tuation, and latterly of serious declension in pros
perity, to have attained at last a thriving condition.
Their present state may be judged of by the follow
ing summary of custom-dues received during the years
ending 5th July, 1839, and 5th July, 1840, and dur
ing the quarters ending at the same dates : 
Receipt ended July 5th, 1840, . . . £597,772 3 2
July 5th, 1839, . . 546,888 16 5
Increase  £50,883 6 9
Receipt for quarter ended July 5th, 1840, £160.877 5 5
July 5th, 1839, 136,451 18 6
£24,425 6 II
A view of the tonnage of shipping belonging to the
port, shows a steady and rapid increase from the
middle of last century till its close, a slow increase
thence till 1826, and a decrease of 3,601 tons be
tween that year and 1835.
Steam-vessels, either from Leith orfrom Newhaven,
ply to Hamburgh and Rotterdam once a-fortnight -j,
to London every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
and Saturday; to Hull every Wednesday and Satur
day; to Newcastle every Wednesday and Friday;
to Berwick-upon-Tweed every Wednesday and Fri
day; to Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, and places
intermediate between the last and the Forth, once
a week; to Inverness, Fort-George, Invergordon,
Cromarty, Findhorn, Burgbead, Banff, and places
farther south, twice a-week ; to Aberdeen, Stone
haven, Johnshaven, Montrose, and places farther
south, four days a-week; to Montrose, Arbroath
and places intermediate between the latter and the
Forth, once a-week; to Dundee, Elie, Anstruther,
LEITH.

'24tS

and Crail, daily; to Dysart, Leven, and Largo,
twice a-day; to Kirkcaldy, Kinghorn, Pettycur, and
Burntisland, several times a-day; and to Stirling,
calling at Queensferry, Charleston, Bo'ness, Kincar
dine, and Alloa, once a day. The London and Leith
Old Shipping company have five smacks and a schooner
which sail from Leith on Tuesdays and Fridays.
'1 he London and Edinburgh Shipping company have
seven smacks which sail from Leith on Tuesdays and
Fridays, an hour before high- water. The London,
Leith, Edinburgh, and Glasgow Shipping company
have six sailing-packets which leave Leith for Lon
don on Tuesdays and Fridays, and a steam-convey
ance for goods between Leith, Glasgow, and Greenock
on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The Car
ron company have four smacks which sail from Leith
for Liverpool on or about the 7th, 17th, and 27th of
every month. The Hull and Leith Shipping com
pany have vessels regularly plying between Leith
and Hull. The Leith and Newcastle Old Shipping
company have three vessels. The Leith, Hamburgh,
and Rotterdam Shipping company have seven vessels
which sail from Leith every alternate Tuesday and
Friday. The Inverness and Leith Shipping com
pany two vessels. Another company have two smacks
between Inverness and Leith, one of which sails
from Leitb every eight days. The Ross and Moray
shire, the Thurso, the Wick and Leith, and the Leith
and Helmsdale Shipping companies, have each two
smacks plying regularly between Leith and the ports
indicated in their titles. The Elie and Leith Shipping
company have two packets, one of which leaves Leith
every Thursday and Friday about two hours before
high-water. One of two — Anstruther and Leith
packets — sails from Leitb every Tuesday and Friday.
The Kirkcaldy and Leith Shipping company have
two packets, one of which leaves Leith every Wednes
day and Saturday. The Leith and Greenock Ship
ping company have four vessels plying between Leith
and Greenock. The Dundee, Perth, and London
Shipping company have four smacks which sail on
Wednesdays and Saturdays from Leith to Dundee
and Perth. The Stirling and Leith Shipping com
pany have five smacks. Several ships belonging to the
port are employed in the Greenland whale-fishery ;
and a considerable number trade with distant foreign
ports, especially with those of the Baltic and the
West Indies. The larger vessels occupy the docks,
and the coasting vessels lie, for the most part, in the
harbour of the river.
Along the south side of the docks stands a line of
lofty and spacious warehouses, almost all of origin
contemporaneous with the'docks, and employed for
bonding corn, wines, and other importations, and for
kindred purposes subservient to the business of a
harbour. In consequence of the want of a powder-
magazine, gunpowder sent from the mills of Mid-
Lothian for embarkation, and too dangerous a com
modity to be admitted to any ordinary storing-place,
or to lie on board of vessels in the harbour, has fre
quently, when vessels do not sail at the time ex
pected, to be carted back to await the postponed
date of sailing, and, in some instances, has been
driven six times between the mills and the port, a
distance each time, in going and returning, of 20 or
24 miles, before it could be embarked. Opposite the
entrance of the harbour is a round Martello tower.
On tbe end of the old pier stands a lighthouse for
the guidance of vessels entering the harbour: it has a
stationary light, and exhibits it during the period of
there being not less than 9 feet of water on the
bar. Some distance landward of it on the pier,
stands a signal-tower, whence a series of signals are
displayed during the day to proclaim the progress or
retrogression of the tide. The general anchoring-

ground of vessels is 2 miles from land ; and, in the
[ case of large steamers, is westward of Leith, or
nearly opposite Newhaven. The roadstead during
the war was the station of an admiral's guard-ship
and several cruizers. The quarantine- station of the
port is Inverkeithing bay on the Fife coast, 6J miles
in a direct line north-west by west of the entrance
of Leith harbour.
The principal articles of importation from foreign
countries are wines, tobacco, timber, hemp, tallow,
and West Indian produce. The whole Baltic trade
with the east of Scotland was at one time con
centrated in Leith ; but it has been so spiritedly and
successfully competed for by Kirkcaldy, Arbroath,
Montrose, and Aberdeen, but especially by Dundee,
as to have left to its old haunt but a scanty memo
rial of their former intimacy. In connexion with the
naval station in the roads, the port enjoyed much
prosperity during the war from a place for the con
demnation and sale of prize- vessels ; and, in conse
quence of Buonaparte's notable continental scheme
of prevention, it was the seat of an extensive traffic
for smuggling British goods into the continent by
way of Heligoland, which employed many vessels,
crowded its harbour, and greatly enriched not a few
of its inhabitants. Foreign speculations, however,
came, in numerous instances, to be severely unsuc
cessful ; and their failure, combined with the disad-
vantageousness of the harbour, and the oppressive
ness of dues, to produce that efflux of prosperity the
ebb of which seems now to have been reached to
give place, it is hoped, to a steady and wealth-bear
ing flood.
Leith, though not in a strict sense a manufacturing
town, or the seat of any staple produce, possesses
a great variety of productive establishments, — ,
some of them of considerable or even great magni
tude. Ship- building is carried on in several yards,
and has produced many large steamers and bulky
sailing-vessels. The Fury, the first line-of-battle
ship constructed in Scotland after the Union, was
built on the site of the present customhouse. A
Government steamer, larger than any steam-ship
ever previously built in Leith, and a merchant-ship
larger than any sailing-vessel ever previously con
structed in the place, were both commenced in 1840.
— Two sailcloth-factories, belonging respectively to
Messrs. Hay St Co. and to Mr. Hutton, had, in 1838,
100 looms, and employed workmen on wages vary
ing, according to the individual's age or strength,
from 10 to 16 shillings  Along the shore of South
Leith are seven huge conical chimneys, manufac
tories of glass, chiefly in the department of common
ale and wine bottles. This manufacture — which,
more than any other, gives a characteristic trait to
both the employments and the burghai landscape of
Leith — is usually supposed to have been introduced
by English settlers in the time of Cromwell  In the
centre of the town a corn-mill, propelled by steam,
and of stupendous dimensions as compared with the
usual buildings of its class, towers aloft in its huge
bulk above the surface of the little undulating sea
of roofs, and forms a bold variety in the sky-line of
the town. This establishment was commenced in
1829-30, and, very heterogeneously, is united in the
same premises to a suite of baths of all sorts, to which
access is afforded on low rates of charge  Ware
houses of great extent are the seats of an extensive
traffic with large districts of Scotland, for the trans
mission to them of wines, foreign and British spirits,
and similar or kindred articles of luxury. Other
manufacturing establishments than those already
named, are some manufactories of cordage, several
breweries, a distillery, places for the rectifying ol
spirits, an extensive sugar-refining establishment, a

244

LEITH.

large meat-preserving work, some soap and candle
manufactories, and several cooperages and saw-mills.
The banking-offices in Leith are those of the Leith
Banking company, the Edinburgh and Leith bank,
the Commercial bank of Scotland, the National bank
of Scotland, the British Linen company, the Bank
of Scotland, and the Royal bank of Scotland. The
institutions of the town, additional to some which
have been incidentally mentioned, are the Savings'-
bank society, the Branch Railway company, the
Gas-light company, the Public library, the Mechan
ics' institution, the Mechanics' friendly society, the
Philharmonic society, the Society of Carpenters, the
Society of Shipowners in the frith of Forth, the
Auxiliary Missionary society, the Juvenile Auxiliary
Bible and Missionary society, the Auxiliary society
for promoting Christianity among the Jews, and for
aiding the British and Foreign Bible society, the
Religious Tract society, tbe Seaman's Friend society,
the Local Sabbath School society, the Boys' Cha
rity school, the Society for relief of the destitute
sick, the Female society for relieving aged and in
digent women, and the- Leith Dispensary and Edin
burgh and Leith Humane society. A newspaper was
commenced in the town in 1809, but did not succeed ;
nor can publishing enterprise in any department be
expected, so far to compete with the lofty literary
movements of the metropolis, as to find a fair arena
in such close vicinity as Leith. The only periodical
publication of the town is the ' Commercial List.'
Leith races, which have furnished a subject of
drollery and satire to several writers, and figure in
the conversation of thousands of persons still living,
as scenes of surpassing grotesqueness and folly, owed
their origin, like the theatre of Edinburgh and other
matters of popular dissipation, tothe influence of the
corrupt times which immediately succeeded the Re
storation, and of the demoralizing sojourn of the
Duke of York, the future James VII., in the Scot
tish metropolis. During fifty years after their in
troduction they shared the attention of the loose
youths of the period, with cock-fighting and various
other forms of brutal pastime. The course or racing-
ground was Leith-sands, an expanse, as we have al
ready had occasion to notice, regularly covered by
the flowing tide, and peculiarly heavy, from fhe soft
ness and yieldingness of its surface, for the fleet tread
of a mettled racing-horse. Yet, in spite of the un-
favourableness of the ground, and of its being avail
able only during the recess of the tide, the races seem to
have been annually maintained, with hardly an inter
mission, till the year 1816; and they were conducted
and enjoyed with a degree of spirit and of enthu
siastic abandonment to fun and dissipation unknowii
in most other racing-grounds. They usually occur
red in the last week of July or the first week of
August ; and, being formally under the patronage of
the magistrates of Edinburgh, were regarded as the
signal of a carnival-week to all the children, fools,
and fashionable idlers of the metropolis and its vici
nity. The city-officers usually walked in procession,
jn full costume, every morning of the week, from the
council-chambers to the racing-ground, one of their
number bearing aloft on the top of a long pole what
was called ' the City purse,' flauntingly decorated
with ribbons, and tbe town-drummer beating a tattoo
at his heels. Crowds of youths on the outlook from
every street and alley on the line of march, and pre
ferring ' gaun doon wi' the purse' to a less pompous
mode of travelling to the races, made constant and
grotesque additions to the ridiculous procession, and,
long before it reached Leith, swelled it out to a sea
of heads, hatted, bonnetted, and bare, in the midst of
which bobbed hither and thither the ribbony ' city
purse,' unrelieved by any other object on which the

eye could rest, and appearing like a painted buov
on the distant waves. This motley processioi , and
the masses who preferred securing good vantage-
ground to the eclat of escorting the purse, covered
eVery spot whence a view could be obtained ot the
race, or where an outbreak of any sort could be ob
tained to the fermenting spirit of frolic in their
breasts. The pier was crowdedly occupied as »
stand ;' the outskirts of the sands were flanked by
a long array of canvassed and blanketed booths for
the sale of intoxicating liquors; and large parts of
the area were occupied by showmen, mountebanks,
hobby-horsemen, thimble-riggers, wheel-of-fortune-
men, and other adepts in the crafts of corruption and
legalized cozenage. Each day's racing was but a
prefatory flourish to a career of criminal folly ; the
foolish wealthy moving off the grounds to scatter
their remaining wits on tbe floors of ball-rooms and
places of assembly, and the foolish vulgar continuing
on the ground to dispute its possession with the
town-guard, and to raise skirmishes and battles which
sometimes ended in a general melee, rolled up Leith-
walk, and threatened to destroy the public peace ot
the metropolis. On Saturday, the last day of the
races, a 'subscription' for the horses beaten during
the week, gave the quadrupeds of the carnival an
opportunity of contesting tbe negative honour of not
being the worst runner of the year, and afforded to
the bipeds an occasion of bringing the follies of the
week to a grand finale of boisterousness, outrage,
unreason, and even bloodshed. In 1816 the races —
not so much to put an end to the disgracefulness
of their accompaniments, as for the sake of having
ground which should be literally 'the turf— were
removed to the Links of Musselburgh. Yet, so
strong was the dissatisfaction occasioned by the re
moval, and so intense the longings of many persons,
even after a lapse of 13 or 14 years, to witness again
such follies as the, credit of the town should seek to
be forgotten, that attempts were made, in 1839 and
1840, to have the Leith races restored.— A favourite
amusement, manly and healthful in its character, but
liable to be adventitiously associated with some repul
sive abuses, is the ancient game of golf, played upon
the Links. A house, for the special use of the golfers,
stands near the end of the eastern road, overlooking
the play-ground. Previous to the erection of this
building, a tavern on the west side of the Kirkgate,
was tbe favourite resort of many players after a bout
of their amusement, and the scene of many an unbe
coming revel. A number of lively, addle-headed,
aged gentlemen, about the middle of the 18th cen
tury, made golfing almost their sole employment;
and, though all upwards of 70 years of age, are de
clared by Smollett never to have gone to bed with
out swilling the larger part of a gallon of claret.
Charles I., James VII., and many persons of dis
tinction, have golfed on Leith links ; but the golfers
— though doubtless with crowds of honourable ex
ception — have so far associated their pastime with
follies which are intrinsically quite foreign to it, as
to have made its resources for healthful exercise not
quite compatible with nicety of moral or at least re
ligious reputation.
Leith is now governed by a provost, 4 bailies, a
treasurer, and 10 councillors. But its government
was anciently very anomalous, inefficient, and change
ful, and altogether enthralled to Edinburgh ; and
even as reported on by the commissioners on muni
cipal corporations, it exhibits a strange and absurd
medley. 1. There is the burgh-of-barony of South
Leith, of which the council of Edinburgh are the
superiors. 2. North Leith forms a, part of the re
gality of the Canongate, of which regality likewise
the council of Edinburgh are the superiors. 3. There

LEITH.

245

is the regality of the citadel of Leith, which is locally
situated within North Leith, but which is legally a
separate and independent territory. That regality
was, in 1663, conveyed bythe Earl of Lauderdale to
the council of Edinburgh, who thus acquired the
right of nominating bailies of regality. 4. There is
a separate territory adjoining South Leith, called
' St. Anthony's,' the bailie and clerk of which are
appointed by the kirk-session of South Leith, by
virtue of a charter of James VI., dated 2d March,
1614. The magistrates of South Leith have not
been in the use of exercising jurisdiction over that
territory, as bailies or justices of the peace. 5. The
magistrates and council of Edinburgh have an ad
miralty jurisdiction, which extends over South and
North Leith, the Citadel, Newhaven, the whole of
the parliamentary burgh, and likewise Edinburgh
and its suburbs. This jurisdiction is believed to
have been originally still more extensive, compre
hending a district of several miles round Edinburgh.
It is exercised by the council of Edinburgh, by ap
pointing admirals. At the last election the powers
were conferred on the provost of Leith as admiral,
and on the bailies as admirals-depute. 6. By the 3°
and 4° Will. IV. c. 77, there are conferred upon the
magistrates and council, elected in terms of that
statute, the jurisdiction and powers competent to
magistrates of royal burghs. These extend over the
whole parliamentary boundaries. 7. By the 7° and
8° Geo. IV. c. 112, s. 4, powers are given to the
sheriff-depute of the county of Edinburgh to appoint
"a sheriff-substitute in and for tbe said town of
Leith, and such district adjoining thereto as to the
said sheriff-depute shall seem proper for the due ad
ministration of the same." And by section 5 the
iudge-admiral of Scotland was empowered to grant
"to the said sheriff-substitute of the said district of
the town of Leith a deputation of his the said judge-
admiral's powers and jurisdiction over the bounds
and territories of the said district of the town of
Leith, and upon such part of the waters of the frith
of Forth as the said judge-admiral shall judge ne
cessary and expedient." And if such deputation
shall be granted, " the commissioners of police of
the said town of Leith shall be obliged, and they are
hereby obliged and required, to make payment to
the said sheriff-substitute, in addition to any salary
to be received' by him from any other source as
sheriff-substitute, of the sum of £200 per annum, to
be paid half-yearly, and to be raised and levied by as
sessment upon the property within the district afore
said." The ordinary powers of a sheriff-substitute
and admiral-depute are conferred by the 6th section.
These rights of jurisdiction extend over " the town
of Leith," according to the boundaries described
under the 2d and 3d sections, the tenor of which was
formerly stated. In terms of these sections a sheriff-
substitute and admiral-depute was appointed, who
receives a salary of £300 a-year from the Crown,
and is bound to reside within the town of Leith.
8. By the 129th section of the same statute it is en
acted, " That the said magistrates and the said sheriff-
substitute, or any one of them within their respective
jurisdictions, shall have jurisdiction in all offences,
matters, and things relating to the police of the said
district of the town of Leith, arising under this act;"
but under the proviso (130th section), "that nothing
in this act contained shall be construed to confer
upon the magistrates, or any of them, any power or
authority beyond the limits of their respective exist
ing jurisdictions." The jurisdiction of the magis
trates was exercised by holding courts in South
Leith, both as bailies of that barony, and as bailies
of the separateand independent territory of the re
gality of Citadel. The court of admiralty was like

wise held in South Leith. The magistrates sat by
virtue of their appointment from the council of
Edinburgh, and acted with the assistance of an as
sessor, who likewise was appointed by that council.
The present magistrates bold. their bailie-court by
virtue of their statutory powers, and their admiralty-
court by virtue of their appointment, in the same
place, and according to the same forms. In terms
of the statute, the sheriff-substitute and tbe magis
trates, as judges of police, must hold their courts
within the ' Town of Leith.' The town-council
have the appointment of the town-clerk, with a
salary of £30 and fees ; an assessor, with a salary of
£50, but no fees; and two town-officers, with a salary
each of £15 and fees. The property, revenue, ex
penditure, and debts of the town, as exhibited in the
Report of the Commissioners on Municipal corpora
tions, are too complicated in themselves, and too
much affected by connexion with the insolvency of
Edinburgh, to be intelligibly stated within reasonably
small limits. Even a tabular view of the general
state of the funds, which we shall quote, is subject
to the modifications that the debt it mentions of
£2,564 Is. 4Jd. from the market-trustees was ui
very doubtful recovery, and might be worth only
£960, and that the sum of £150 15s. which it men
tions as due by the commissioners of police, was at
tached by arrestment on the dependence of an action
at the instance of the town-council of Edinburgh,
for an alleged preferable claim. The tabular view
is as follows : — Charge.
Court-house, value of ...
Trustees of Leith new markets, debt doe from
Commissioners of Police of Leith, sum due by
them for rent of court-house, £119 15s., aud
feu-duty of dung-depot, £31, for half-year
ending Whitsunday 1832
Ditto, ditto, half expense of feu-contract of
dung-depot .....
Ditto, ditto, half-year's rent of dung-depot, due
at Martinmas 1833 ....
Leith Bank, . balance due on general cash ac
count, No. 3. . .
Ditto, ditto, on market ditto. No. 4. .
Balance in clerk's hand, on account current

£ s.

d.

3,260 10

85

2,564 1

45

31

10 6 7i

£6,089 18

-'i

3,200 618

0 4

0 6

18
25

70

10 0

Discharge.
Mr. Inch, sum due to him
Leith Bank, debt due to
Rev. Dr. Bell's trust, balance
due to ou account current
Sundry claims
£2,228 6 3J
There are in the town four principal corporations, —
the ship-masters, the traffickers, the malt-men, and
the trades  The sbip-masters, ordinarily called the
Trinity-house, have been already noticed in connexion
with their public building  The traffickers or mer
chant company have lost their charter, and are merely
a benefit society, without the power of compelling
entries. Applicants for membership are admitted by
ballot, and may be excluded without reason assigned.
The number of members, in 1833, was 100 ; the
value of property, £7,000; the annual income, £707
10s. 7d. ; . the annual expenditure, £577 12s. 9d. ;
the annual allowance to a widow, £20. — The malt-
men are noticed in the statute 1503 cap. 92 ; were
deprived of their deacon in the reign of James VI. ;
and had their privileges restored in 1665. They
claim no exclusive privileges ; and practise the same
mode of admission as the traffickers. Terms of
membership are £20 entry-money, and £1 annual
payment. In 1833-4 their property amounted to
£2,798 3s. Id.; their annual income, £187 lis. 6d. ;
their annual expenditure, £157 16s. lid.; their an
nual allowance to a widow, £7 10s. ; the num-
246

LEITH.

ber of their members 25 — The Trades' corpora
tion is multiform. Independently of any of the
particular trades, there is a body called ' the Con-
venery,' consisting of nineteen members delegated
from each trade, all deacons and treasurers, and con
stituting, or deemed to be, a separate corporation.
But the body, though as ancient as at least 1594, is
of doubtful origin, was voted by several of the trades'
corporations, in 1832, to be useless, has, since then,
a very questionable existence, and needs not be far
ther noticed. The incorporated trades are nine, —
Wrights, coopers, hammermen, bakers, tailors, cord-
iners, Ueshers, barbers, and weavers. In 1834, the
Wrights were 50 in number ; their entrance-fee, to a
stranger, from £53 lis. to £143 6s. 6d., according
to the person's age ; their property about £6,000 ;
— the coopers were 32 ; entry-money from £60 to
£100; property about £2,000; — the hammermen
were 1 1 ; entry-money £25 ; property £440, be
sides church-seats; — the bakers were 24; entry-
money £100; property about £5,400;— the tailbrs
were 19; entry-money £40; property about £3,000,
subject to a debt of £1,300; — the cordiners were
19; entry-money £35; property £1,800, subject to
a debt of about £1,200 ; — the fleshers were 5 ; entry-
money £60 ; property and debt each about £128 ;
but the former, aided by a rental of £8 from church-
seats, and a small revenue called ' Box pennies,' ex
acted as a duty on cattle and sheep from fleshers who
do not enter with the corporation; — tbe barbers were
pretty numerous, and their property yielded about
£12 a-year ; — the weavers were 25 ; entry-money
£1; property £125, and some church-seats. All
the corporations, except the weavers, possess' the
usual exclusive privileges within the burgh-of-barony
of South Leith, aud have enforced them with more
or less rigour ; and all received their powers by seals
of cause, of ancient dates, granted by Logan of Res
talrig. Numerous tradesmen beyond the limits of
the privileged district exercise the same callings as
those within that district  The commissioners of
police consist of the magistrates of Edinburgh and
Leith, the masters of the corporations and certain
other functionaries ex-officio ; and of representatives
chosen by the occupants of houses whose rents
amount to £15. The electors vote in ten wards.
A police assessment, not exceeding Is. 6d. per pound,
is imposed on the occupants of all houses and other
subjects of upwards of £3 yearly rent. In the year
1832-3 the amount of assessment was £3,362 15s.
3d. ; of monies received, £5,254 12s. 5d. ; of ex
penditure, £5,654 3s. 3d. The inhabitants, about
the year 1750, raised a voluntary contribution to
bring water to the town in a leaden pipe of 1 £ inch
bore from Lochend ; and they afterwards contribut
ed to the expense of the great improvements in
Edinburgh by means of the bridges, on condition
that they should receive a share of the new supply
of water about to be brought to the metropolis. Till
very lately they had to content themselves with the
puddled produce of the lake ; but they are now sup
plied from the same pure sources as the inhabitants of
Edinburgh. The gas-light company, who furnished
coal-gas for lighting the streets at night, have part
of the metropolis within the range of their supply.
Besides the ordinary police force of the town there is
a dock-police, consisting merely of watchmen around
the docks, paid and superintended by the dock-com
missioners. The superintendent of the town-police
has no authority over them ; but as the dock-com
missioners have no police-office, they bring their
prisoners to that of the town  Leitb unites with
Musselburgh, Portobello, and Newhaven in sending
a member to parliament. Parliamentary and muni
cipal constituency, in 1839, 1,272.

I On the 28th of May, 1329, the city of Edinburgh
obtained from Robert I. a grant by charter of " the
| harbour and mills of Leith with their appurtenances,
for the payment of fifty-two merks yearly." The
town-council of the city, not content with this pri
vilege, took possession of the ground adjacent to
the harbour, along the banks of the river. Toward
the close of the century, Sir Robert Logan of Res
talrig, the baronial superior of tbe grounds, and a
man of heartless, greedy, and rapacious character,
contested their assumed claims, and obliged them to
take a concession of them from him by purchase and
charter. On the 31st May, 1398, he granted them
by charter a right to waste lands in the vicinity of
the harbour for the erection of quays and wharfs,
and for the loading of goods, and a liberty to have
shops and granaries on these lands, and to break the
grounds of his barony with roads for the service of
navigation. Sir Robert afterwards teased and per
plexed the town-council with points of litigation ;
and he eventually roused them to adopt a strong
measure for satiating at once his avarice and their
own ambition. Bought over by them with a large
sum of money drawn from their treasury, the un
principled baron, in February 1413, granted them
an extraordinary charter, "an exclusive, ruinous,
and enslaving bond," restraining the inhabitants of
Leith from carrying on any sort of trade, from pos
sessing warehouses or shops, and from keeping inns
or houses of entertainment for strangers, and thus
flinging the place, in the guise of a manacled slave,
at the feet of the metropolitan purchasers. But the
town-council of Edinburgh, not even yet content
with the power accorded them over Leith, ordained,
in the year 1485, that no merchant of Edinburgh
should become partner in business with an inhabi
tant of Leith, under penalty of 40 shillings, and of
a year's deprivation of the freedom of the city ; and
on future occasions, they enacted that no revenue of
the city should be farmed by an inhabitant of Leith,
or by any person in partnership with a Leithian, —
and that no staple goods should, except under a se
vere penalty, be either sold in Leith, or deposited
in any of its warehouses. Edinburgh's extraordinary
rights were duly confirmed, and afterwards carried to
an acme, by royal charters. James I., by a charter
dated 4th November, 1454, granted to Edinburgh
" the haven-silver, customs, and duty of ships, ves
sels, and merchandize coming to the road and har
bour of Leith." And James III., on 16th Novem
ber, 1482, granted to them a charter, containing a
1 detail of the customs, profits, exactions, commodi-
I ties, and revenues of the port and road of Leith.
By a grant of James IV., dated 9th March, 1510, a
i right was given to the city of Edinburgh to the new
port, denominated Newhaven, lately made by the
said king on the sea-coast, with the lands thereunto
belonging, lying between the chapel of St. Nicholas
and the lands of Wairdie brae, with certain faculties
and privileges. By a charter bearing the same date,
James IV. confirmed the charter by Logan of Res
talrig, formerly mentioned. On 8th October, 1550,
Mary ratified an act and decreet of the Lords-of-
session against the inhabitants of North Leith, " ad
judging the provost and bailiffs of our said town of
Edinburgh to be proper judges for the said inhabi
tants in the petty customs of Leith, belonging to
our foresaid town of Edinburgh." The Queen-
regent, Mary of Lorraine, in 1555, granted the in
habitants of Leith a contract to erect the town into
a burgh:of-barony, to continue valid till she should
erect it into a royal burgh; and as a preparatory
measure, she purchased, overtly for their use and
with money which they themselves furnished, the
superiority of the town from Logan of Restalrig

LEITH.

247

But she did not fulfil her engagements, and is gen-
enally alleged to have been bribed with 20,000
merks from the city of Edinburgh to break them.
Mary, her daughter, among other shifts to raise
money in her difficulties, mortgaged, in 1565, to
Edinburgh the superiority of Leith, redeemable for
1,000 merks; she requested the town-council by
letter, in 1566, to delay the assumption .of the supe
riority; but she obtained short indulgence, and could
not prevent the consequences of her hasty act from
falling on the devoted town. On the 2d of July,
1567, the citizens of Edinburgh marched in military
order to Leith, went through some evolutions de
signed to represent or constitute a capture or con
quest, and formally trampled the independence of
the town in the dust. Many severe laws, in years
succeeding this epoch, were enacted relative to the
public and tbe private trade of Leith. James VI.
was plied by the inhabitants with appeals and efforts
designed to draw from him some deliverance from
their thraldom; but he accepted some private ar
rangement with the town-council of Edinburgh, and
placed the powers and supremacy of that body on
higher vantage-ground than before. On the 25th
March, 1596, he empowered, by a letter of gift under
the privy-seal, the corporation of Edinburgh to levy
a certain tax during a certain period, towards sup
porting, erecting, and repairing the bulwark, pier,
and port of Leith; and on the 15th March, 1603, he,
by a charter of confirmation and novo damus, con
firmed all the grants which had been made to them
from the commencement of their ascendency. This
confirming charter demands a moment's detail as
exhibiting, in their matured form, the oppressive
powers which Edinburgh, till so recent a date,
wielded over all the interests of Leith. After a
special enumeration, there were confirmed all other
charters, statutes, and rights in favour of the town
of Edinburgh, " together with the aforesaid ports
and roads of Leith and Newhaven, anchorage and
customs, great and small, belonging to the said town,
both within and without the said burgh, ports, and
districts aforesaid;" and all jurisdictions, fairs, and
markets, and all other liberties used and wont.
Among a number of rights granted of new to Edin
burgh there are the following, which relate to Leith
and Newhaven. First, For all sorts of merchandise
coming in and going out at the ports of Leith and
Newhaven, which ought to be weighed in Edinburgh,
freemen of other burghs breaking bulk to pay for
each stone-weight one penny; and unfreemen, whe
ther they break bulk or not, two pennies. Secondly,
The port of Leith, and adjoining houses, " with all
the privileges, customs, and conveniences thereunto
belonging, and, in particular, all the privileges, cus
toms, harbour, dock, and shore silver, anchorage,
golden pennies, exactions, rents, duties, and casual
ties of the said port, haven, road, and towns of
Leith and Newhaven," according to a table inserted,
which is " to be observed and kept by all our sub
jects and strangers using the said ports of Leith and
Newhaven, to be published in the said town of
Leith, that none may pretend ignorance," , A table
is then engrossed, enumerating certain duties on ar
ticles both of necessity and luxury, the amounts of
which are lower to freemen than to unfreemen.
Thirdly, Certain places are annexed to Leitb.
Fourthly, There is a clause strictly forbidding and
discharging the housing and keeping foreign mer
chandise and timber within any other part of Leith
except "the common closets," since called 'The
Burse,' under pain of escheat to the town of Edin
burgh, and empowering duties to be levied for ware
house-room. Fifthly, Power is granted to enlarge
and extend the said port, shore, and haven of Leith

towards the sea, with the bulwarks on both sides of
the river, and to build, strengthen, and fortify the
same in a substantial manner, both for duration and
the safety of ships. Sixthly, Confirmation is given
of the grants by Logan of Restalrig, and there are
conferred of new the port of Newhaven and its ap
purtenances, together with the duties already named,
including haven and shore silver, anchorage, dock
silver, and golden penny. And, seventhly, By dif
ferent clauses the jurisdiction is confirmed. This
charter was followed by one of confirmation and
novo damus by Charles 1., dated 23d October, 1636,
which it woultl be superfluous to recite, as the clauses
are substantially the same as those which have been
detailed. The earliest mention of Leith which has been
traced occurs in the charter of the abbey of Holy-
rood, founded by David I., in which it is called In-
verleith. In 1313, and again in 1410, all the vessels
in the harbour were burnt by the English. In 1488,
it was seized by the insurgent nobles who rose against
James III., and was the scene of an interview be
tween James IV. and the celebrated Sir Andrew
Wood, who kept the mastery of the frith of Forth.
In 1511, either in Leith or at Newhaven, " ane varie
monstrous great schip called the Michael," was built,
and, according to Pitscottie, required such a mass of
timber for her construction, " that she waisted all
the woodis in Fyfe, except Falkland wood, besides
the timber that came out of Norway." In 1544, the
Earl of Hertford, at the head of 10,000 men, took
possession of Leith, seized all the vessels in the har
bour, left the place in keeping of 1,500 soldiers till
he burned Edinburgh and wasted the circumjacent
country, and then, on taking leave with his army
and booty, committed the whole port to the flames.
Three years afterwards, the same general, who had
now become Duke of Somerset, and was fresh from
the fatal battle of Pinkie, again set it on fire, though
not with such an amount of injurious effect as be
fore; and, on this occasion, carried off 35 vessels
from the harbour. From 1548 to 15B0, Leith, by
becoming the fortified seat of the court and head
quarters of the Queen-regent's army and of her
French auxiliaries, figured prominently in the greater
part of the stirring events which occurred during the
civil war between Mary of Lorraine and the Lords
of the congregation. Its port received the shipping
and the supplies which were designed for the Queen-
regent's service ; its fortifications enclosed alternately
a garrison and an army, whose accoutrements had
no opportunity of becoming rusted; and its gates
poured forth detachments and sallying parties, who
fought many a skirmish with portions of the Protes
tant forces on the plain between Leith and Edin
burgh. In October 1559, the Lords of the congre
gation regularly invested the town with an army,
and attempted to enter it by means of scaling-lad
ders; but they could make no impression, and were
eventually, and with great slaughter, driven back
by a desperate sally of the besieged. In April of
the next year, the forces of the congregation, now
aided by an army of 6,000 men undef Lord Grey
of Wilton, despatched to their assistance by Eliza
beth, again invested the town, and, on this occasion,
inflicted upon it a protracted, disastrous, and sangui
nary contest. Leith, though suffering dreadfully
from famine, kept the besiegers, during two months,
fully at bay, yet without acquiring any advantage.
Both parties being at length heartily tired of the con
test, and willingly entering into a treaty which stipu
lated that the French forces in the town should
leave the kingdom, and be allowed to retire unmo
lested, Leith was immediately dismantled and re
stored to tranquillity. Tbe discovery, in late years

248

LEITH.

of several cart-loads of horses' heads in a closed up
well at the head of the Links, was a singular but
very expressive monument of the slaughter which
the siege occasioned. On the 20th August, 1561,
Queen Mary landed at the town* to take possession
of the throne of her ancestors, and attracted such de
monstrations of joy as gave it a widely contrasted
appearance to that which it had worn for a series of
years. No vestige now remains of the pier which
received her, and which must have been constructed
subsequently to the destruction of the original one
by the Earl of Hertford. During the minority of
James VI., Leith figured in various transactions
which belong strictly to the general history of the
kingdom. From November 1571 till August of next
year, and again in 1596-7, the town was the seat
of the High Court of Justiciary ; and in 1572, it was
the meeting-place of a General Assembly which made
some important enactments. In 1578, an act of
parliament was passed to prevent " the taking away
great quantities of victual, flesh, from Leith, under
the pretence of victualling ships." A reconciliation
having, in the same year, been effected between the
Earl of Morton and the Scottish nobles opposed to
him, the Earls of Morton, Argyle, Montrose, Athole,
and Buchan, Lord Boyd, and several other persons
of distinction, dined or caroused together in an hos
telry of Leith kept by a William Cant. In 1584,
the town was appointed the chief fish-market'for
herrings and the other produce of the Forth. On
the 6th May, 1590, James VI., after lying six days
n the roads, landed at the pier with his queen,
Anne of Denmark, and excited shouts of jubilation
"rom the inhabitants. In 1610, thirty-eight English
sailors were hanged within high- water mark on the
sands for piracies in the Western Islands, — thirty of
them in July, and eight in December. In October
1643, the Solemn League and Covenant was sworn
and subscribed with great solemnity, and many grave
demonstrations of thorough zeal by the inhabitants.
Four years afterwards 2,430 persons, constituting
about one-half of the entire population, were, in the
course of six or eight months, swept away by the
plague. The churchyard's being utterly deficient in
accommodation for their bodies, many of them were
buried in the Links, near Wellington-street, and on
the north side of tbe road leading to Hermitage-hill.
Till very recent times, masses of half-decayed bones
wrapped in the blankets in which the victims died,
have in many instances been dug up in the trenching
of the adjoining fields and gardens. So fearful were
the combined ravages of the plague and an accom
panying famine, that parliament, believing the num
ber of the dead to exceed that of the living, empow
ered the magistrates to seize, for the use of survivors,
whatever grain they could find in warehouses and
cellars, and allowed them to make payment at their
leisure, and to find means of making it by appeals to
the humanity of their landward countrymen. In
1650, after Cromwell's defeat of the Scottish forces
at Dunbar, Lambert, his major-general, while he
himself proceeded to Edinburgh, took possession of
Leith. A monthly assessment of about £22 sterling
was now imposed on the town, and, after so very
recent and terrible devastations irom pestilence and
famine, was felt to be a grievous exaction. On
General Monk's appointment to be commander-in-
chief, he adopted Leith as his head-quarters and his
home; and, while residing in the town, he induced
many English families of considerable wealth and
of great mercantile enterprise to become settlers.
The incomers gave a grand impulse to the mercantile
spirit of the port, and established some manufactures
which continue to flourish till the present day; yet,
though they felt painfully the restrictions imposed

bythe dominant town-council of Edinburgh, and had
a' republican government to appeal to for redress,
they did not succeed in extricating the inhabitants
from any part of their ancient thraldom. Though,
so early as 1610, * Henry Anderson had obtained
tbe privilege of running a huge and cumbrous four-
wheeled vehicle between Edinburgh and Leith, at
the fare of two shillings Scottish, or twopence ster
ling, the town-council, in 1660, granted " libertie
and tolerance to William Woodcock, late officer in
Leith, to fitt and set up ane haickney coatch, be
twixt Leith and the fute of Leith-wynd in Edin
burgh." In 1691, Viscount Tarbet, afterwards 2d
Earl of Cromarty, and two persons of the names of
Mowat and Sinclair, raised a tavern brawl of great
notoriety in a greatly frequented hostelry in the
Kirkgate, and were concerned, while the brawl
lasted, in the murder of a French Protestant refugee
and military officer named Elias Parret Sieur de la
Roche. In 1705, Captain Green of the Worcester,
and three of his crew, were hanged within flood-
mark on the sands, for a very curiously discovered
piracy and murder, committed in 1703 on the crew
of a Scottish vessel off the coast of Malabar. Dur
ing the rebellion of 1715, Brigadier Macintosh of
Borlam, and a party of Highlanders who followed
his banner, briefly occupied the citadel, and, being
menaced by the Duke of Argyle who was at the
time in Edinburgh, hastily plundered the custom
house, flung open the doors of the prison, and made
a night retreat over the sands at low water. " The
approach of 50,000 cannibals," says Alexander Camp
bell, the historian of Leith, " could not have dis
composed the heroic Edinburgbers more than did
the proceedings of old Macintosh and his little band.
The volunteers were called to arms: the whole pug
nacious strength of the town, consisting of cohorts
from the Canongate, and hogs from St. Mary's- wynd,
were summoned forth to battle." In 1778, the re
volted Seaforth regiment of Highlanders [see Edin
burgh], made Leith the scene of some of their
movements. Next year, 50 Highlanders, who had
been recruited for the 42d and 71st regiments, muti
nied at Leith, whither they were brought for em
barkation, and firmly refused to go on board the
transports. A Serjeant of a party of the South Fen
cibles, who were sent from Edinburgh castle to ap
prehend the mutineers, having been twice and fatally
poniarded in an attempt to do his duty, a melee
occurred in front of the street line between the Old
Ship tavern and the Britannia inn, in the course of
which a captain of the Fencibles was killed, and 12
of the Highlanders were killed, and 20 severely
wounded. In 1779, the noted Paul Jones appeared
in the frith, and struck such a panic into the inhabi
tants that a battery, the embryo of the present fort,
was hastily constructed to dispute his entering the
harbour; but he was driven away by a storm, and
providentially hindered from inflicting damage on
the town. In 1822, Leith had all the eclat of being
the scene of George IV. 's arrival to visit his Scottish
metropolis. See Edinburgh.
While, this page is passing through the press, we
have received the following details of the census of
Leith as taken in 1841 :

I.— South Leith.

Parish of South Leith,
Population in 1831,

Inhabited Houses. Population.
3,422 19,712
18,490

Apparent increase, ....
But deduct Piershill-harracks, and seamen
at home, neither included in census ot
1831 
Real increase in last ten years,

1,273

397

LEI

249

LEN

II.— North Leith.
Parish of North Leith, .... 1,448
Population in 1831, . .
Apparent increase, ....
Butdeduct Leith fort, and seamen at home,
neither included in census of 1831,
Real increase in last ten years,
Parliamentary Burgh op Leiih.
Total of the parishes of Si.uth and North
Leith, as given above, added, . . 4,870
But deduct part of South Leith parish
within the parliamentary burgh ol Ed
inburgh,  559
Also part of South Leith within the par
liamentary burgh of Portobello, . 19
Also part of South Leith not in any
burgh; Jock's Lodge and Restalrig,
including Piershill-barracks, . 86
All without the parliamentary burgh of
Leith,  664
Parishes of South and North Leith within
burgh of Leith,  4,206
Add part of St- Cuthbert's parish within
the parliamentary burgh of Leith, . 372
Seamen and others in "the vessels in the
uocks, ......
Total population at home in burgh of
Leith,  4,578
Seamen at sea or in foreign parts,
Excess of other persons temporarily ab
sent over those temporarily present in
Leith on the night of 6th June, 1841,

Deduct persona in docks not belonging to
Leith, 

8,2307,416 814354
460

3,229 109

23,933 2,224

26,523 566

111
27,150 342
26,808
Parishes within Burgh of Lf.ith.
Parish of South Leith within burgh of Leith,
excluding St, John's, . . . 2.1R0 12,290
Sr. J.. Ini's quoad sacra parish, . . 578 3,413
Parish of North Leith within burgh of Leith,
excluding Newhaven, . . . 1,048 6,128
Newhaven quoad sacra parish, . 400 2,102
V.irish of St. Cuthbert's within burgh of
Leith,  S72 2,224
1,578 26.157
Add excess of seamen abroad, persons in
docks, aud others temporarily absent
above those temporarily present, 651

Total,

26,808

The oldest person in Leith is a man who is 100 years of age ;
his wife is 80. There is one woman above 95, and three men
above 90.
The apparent increase in the parishes of South and North
Leith is 2,087 ; but the true increase is only 1,336.
LEITH (Water or), a small river of Edinburgh
shire, entering the frith of Forth at Leitb harbour.
It rises at the south-east extremity of the parish of
Mid-Calder, from three springs, at a place called
Leith-head, on the west side of one of the Pent-
lands, named West Cairn-hill, within a mile of one
of the sources in Peebles-shire of one of the head-
streams of Lyne- water, a tributary of the Tweed.
Having flowed 3 miles northward through Mid-
Calder, it receives a tiny tributary from Cauldstane-
slap, a noted pass between Tweeddale and Mid-
Lothian. It now runs 3 miles between Kirknewton
on its left bank, and Mid-Calder and Currie on its
right; 4J miles through Currie, receiving on the
right the waters of Bevilaw burn; 2£ miles, mea
sured in a straight line, but a much greater distance
along its channel, through Colinton; 1 mile circui-
tously, partly across a tiny wing of Colinton, and
partly between that parish and Corstorphine on its
left bank, and St. Cuthbert's on its right ; 4 miles,
measured in a straight line, through St. Cuthbert's,
and | of a mile between North and South Leith. Its
general direction, after leaving Mid-Calder, is north

east; and its entire length of course in a straight
line is about 19 miles, and including windings about
25 or 26. During a drought, or even in weather but
very moderately dry, the Water of Leith is a trivial
stream, and has not a volume greater than that of
many a burn or short-coursed brook; but, in a sea
son of rain, it'becomes swollen and impetuous, and
combines the characteristics of a river and a moun
tain torrent. While in the vicinity of Edinburgh it
wanders along a deep and picturesque dell ; but be
tween the metropolis and Leith it is so completely
drawn off in dry weather into a mill-lead as to leave
its channel almost empty, and, from being made a
common-sewer, becomes at all times, except during a
freshet, a real nuisance to the population of its banks.
The stream, in general, has a large share of the
picturesqueness and romance whjch distinguish so
many of the rivers of Scotland. At one time it
trots along deep narrow glens amid rocks and hang
ing woods ; and at another it glides among beautiful
haughs, fertile in corn and grass. On its banks are
extensive plantations, many elegant mansions, several
fine rural villages, one of the most superb suburban
districts of Edinburgh, and the most densely peopled
portion of the town of Leith. Among its bridges
are an elegant stone one built in 1840, and the via
duct of the Edinburgh and Newhaven railway, both
at the village of Cannonmills, — the stupendous and
magnificent Dean-bridge behind Moray-place in the
western New town of Edinburgh, — the viaduct of
the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway, a mile farther
up ; — and the aqueduct of the Union canal at Slate-
ford. The Water of Leith is probably tbe most use
ful stream of its size in Scotland ; for even some
years ago it drove in the course of 10 miles, 14 corn-
mills, 12 barley-mills, 24 flour-mills, 7 saw-mills, 5
fulling-mills, 5 snuff-mills, 4 paper-mills, 2 lint-mills,
and 2 leather-mills, — the rent of some of which, in
the vicinity of the metropolis, was then upwards of
£20 sterling per foot of waterfall. In the ravine,
J of a mile above Stockbridge, and on the old road
by the Dean from Edinburgh to Queensferry, stands
the ancient village called Water of Leith. It is
an irregularly built mean-looking place; but has
some extensive flour-mills and granaries.
LEITHEN (The), a rivulet of Peebles-shire,
rising in the extreme north-west angle of the parish
of Innerleithen, and falling into the T weed exactly
a mile after passing Innerleithen church. See Inner
leithen. LEITHOLM, a village, 7| miles north-east of
Kelso, and 5J miles east of Greenlaw, on the north
road between Kelso and Berwick, in the parish of
Eccles, Berwickshire. It has a Relief meeting.?
house, and a voluntary school, and was anciently the
site of a Romish chapel, subordinate to the parish-
church. An old ash called ' the Chapel-tree,' and a
hillock which it surmounts called ' the Chapel-
knowe,' indicate where the chapel stood. The area
of what was the cemetery is now subjected to tbe
plough, but at no late date gave up bones and pieces
of coffins. Population about 350.
LEITOWN, a village with about 110 inhabitants,
in the parish of Errol, Perthshire.
LEMPITLAW, a village with about 140 inhabi
tants, an endowed school, and 3 small farm-steads,
with accompanying cottages, 4| miles east of Kelso,
in the parish of Sprouston, Roxburghshire. The
village gave name to an ancient parish now annexed
to Sprouston : which see.
LEMNO. See Aberlemno.
LENNEL, the ancient name ot the parish ol
Coldstream, and also an existing village in that
parish, Berwickshire : see Coldstream. The an
cient village, or kirktown, stood on the steep bank

250

LENNOX.

of the Tweed, a mile below Coldstream, and was
destroyed by predatory incursion during the Border
wars. The ruins of the church still exist; but
great part of the cemetery has been swept away by
the Tweed. The modern village bears tbe name of
New Lennel, and is inconsiderable in size. The
mansion-houses of Lennel and Hirsel are in the vici
nity respectively of the ancient church and chapel
of the parish.
LENNOCK (The), a small stream in the parish
of Birnie, Morayshire, tributary to the Lossie.
LENNOX, the ancient county of Dumbarton,
comprehending the whole of the modern county and
a large part of Stirlingshire, and part of the counties
of Perth and Renfrew. The original name was
Leven-ach, ' the field of the Leven,' and very appro
priately designated the basin, not only of the river
Leven, but also of Loch-Lomond, anciently called
Loch-Leven. Levenachs, in the plural number,
come to be the name of all the extensive and con
tiguous possessions of the powerful Earls of the soil;
and, being spelt and written Levenax, was easily and
naturally corrupted into Lennox. In the 13th cen
tury, Lennox and the sheriffdom of Dumbarton ap
pear to have been co-extensive; but afterwards, in
consequence of great alterations and considerable
curtailments upon the sheriffdom, they ceased to be
identical. The origin of fhe earldom of Lennox is
obscure. Arkil, a Saxon, and a baron of Northum
bria, who took refuge from the vengeance of the
Norman William, under the protection of Malcolm
Canmore, appears to have been the founder of the
original Lennox family. His son Alwyn seems to
have been the first Earl. But dying, when his son
and heir was a minor, early in the reign of William
the Lion, David, Earl of Huntingdon, received from
the king the earldom in ward, and appears to have
held it during a considerable period. Alwyn, the
2d Earl, recovered possession some time before
1199. Maid wen, the 3d Earl, obtained from Alex
ander II., in 1-238, a confirmatory charter of the
earldom as held by his father; but was not allowed
the castle of Dumbarton, nor the lands, port, and
fisheries of Murrach. In 1284, Earl Malcolm con
curred with the ' Magnates Scotias,' in swearing to
acknowledge Margaret of Norway as heir-apparent
to Alexander the Third's throne; and, in 1290, he
appeared in the assembly of the states at Birgham,
and consented to the marriage of Margaret with the
son of Edward I. Next year, when Margaret's death
opened the competition for the Crown, Malcolm was
one of the nominees of Robert Bruce ; and resist
ance to England becoming necessary, he, in 1296,
assembled his followers, and, with other Scottish
leaders, invaded Cumberland and assaulted Carlisle.
While Sir John Menteith, the faithless and inglori
ous betrayer of the patriot Wallace, prostituted his
power as governor of Dumbarton-castle, and sheriff
of Dumbartonshire, in favour of Edward I., Malcolm
went boldly out, and achieved feats as a supporter of
Robert Bruce; and he continued, after Bruce's death,
to maintain the independence of the kingdom, till, m
1333, he fell with hoary locks, but fighting like a
youthful warrior, at Halidonhill. In 1424, after the
restoration of James I., Earl Duncan became involved
in the fate of his son-in-law, Murdoch, Duke of Al
bany, the Regent ; and for some real or merely im
puted crime, which no known history specifies, he
was, in May next year, along with the Duke and
two of the Duke's sons, beheaded at Stirling.
Though Duncan left, by his second marriage, a le
gitimate son, called Donald of Lennox; yet his
daughter Isabella, Duchess of Albany, while obtain
ing to regular entry to the earldom as heiress, ap
pears to have enjoyed it during the reign of James

II. ; and she resided in the castle of Inchmurrin m
Loch Lomond, the chief messuage of the earldom,
and there granted charters to vassals, as Countess of
Lennox, and made gifts of portions of the property
to religious establishments. After this lady's death
in 1459, a long contest took place for the earldom
between the heirs of her sisters, Elizabeth and Mar
garet, the second and third daughters of Duncan,
whose priority of age was not ascertained by evi
dence, or admitted of keen and plausible dispute.
The vast landed property of Lennox was dismem
bered or cut into moieties; but the honours, tbe
superiority, and the principal messuage of tbe earl
dom — the grand object of dispute — could be awarded
to only one part, and were not finally adjudged till
1493. Sir John Stewart of Darnley had married
Elizabeth ; and their grandson, besides being de
clared heir to half the Lennox estate, became Lord
Darnley and Earl of Lennox. Sir Robert Menteith
of Rusky had married Margaret; and their moiety of
the Lennox estate, came, with the estate of Rusky,
to be divided, in the persons of their great grand
daughters, the co-heiresses, between Sir John Hal
dane of Gleneglis, who had married the elder, and
Sir John Napier of Merchieston, who had married
the younger. - In 147), the earldom being in the
king's hands by the non-entry of any heir was given,
during his life, to Andrew, Lord Avondale, the
chancellor. After the fall of James III., John Lord
Darnley appears to have been awarded the Lennox
honours by the new government; and, in 1488, he
sat as Earl of Lennox in the first parliament, and
received for himself and his son Matthew Stewart,
the ward and revenues of Dumbarton-castle, which
had been held by Lord Avondale. But only next
year he took arms against the young king, drew be
sieging forces upon his fortresses both of Crookston
and Dumbarton, suffered a defeat or rather a night
surprise and rout at Tilly-moss, on the south side of
the Forth above Stirling, saw the castle of Dumbar
ton, which was maintained by four of his sons, yield
to a vigorous siege of six weeks, headed by the king
and tbe ministers of state, and, after all, succeeded
in making his peace with government, and obtaining
a full pardon for himself and his followers. Matthew,
the next Earl, whose accession took place in 1494,
led the men of Lennox to the fatal field of Flodden,
where he and the Earl of Argyle commanded the
right wing of the Scottish army, and, with many of
their followers, were hewn down amid vain efforts
of valour. John, the son and successor of Matthew,
played an active part during the turbulent minority
of James V. In 1514, he, along with the Earl of
Glencairn, assailed the castle of Dumbarton during
a tempestuous night, and, breaking open the lower
gate, succeeded in taking it; in 1516, he was im
prisoned by the Regent Albany, to compel him to
surrender the fortress as the key of tbe west, and
was obliged to comply ; and, in 1526, he assembled
a force of 10,000 men, and marched toward Edin
burgh to the rescue of the young king from the
power of the Douglases. Matthew, the next Earl,
a very conspicuous figurant in history, obtained, in
1531, for 19 years, the tenure of the governorship
and revenues of Dumbarton-castle. Early in the
reign of Mary, some French ships arriving in the
Clyde with supplies for the queen, he, by artful per
suasion, got the captains to land 30,000 crowns of
silver and a quantity of arms and ammunition in the
castle; and he immediately joined with other mal
contents in an abortive but comprised and pardoned
attempt to overthrow the government. In May and
June 1544, he secretly entered the service of Henry
VIII., engaging every effort to seize and deliver to
England the Scottish queen, the isle of Bute, and

LEN

251

LEN

the castle and territories of Dumbarton, and obtain
ing from the king the Lady Margaret Douglas in
marriage, and lands in England to the annual value
of 6,800 marks Scots. Sent soon afterwards to the
Clyde with 18 English ships and 600 soldiers, he was
civilly received by George Stirling of Glorat, whom
he had left in charge of Dumbarton-castle as his
deputy ; but he no sooner hinted to that official his
design, and offered him a pension from Henry, than
he and his Englishmen were turned out of the for
tress, and compelled to return to their ships. The
Earl and his party now ravaged and wasted, with
fire and sword, the islands of Arran and Bute, and
other places in the west; and in October, 1545, he
was declared by parliament to have incurred forfeit
ure. He continued an active partizan in the hostili
ties against Scotland of Henry VIII. and his suc
cessor, received from the former a grant of the
manor of Temple-Newsom in Yorkshire, and during
20 years, remained in England an exile from his na
tive land. Father of the ill-fated Lord Darnley, the
husband of Mary, and grandfather of James VI., he
eventually rose in the revolving politics of the period
to the uppermost side of the wheel, and for a period
filled the office of Regent, and vice-regally swayed
the sceptre of his grandson. Holding at Stirling-
castle, in September, 1571, what the opposite party
in politics called ' the black parliament,' he was mor
tally wounded in an attack made upon the town by a
small force who designed to take the fortress by sur
prise. The earldom of Lennox now devolved on James
VI. as the next heir; and in April, 1572, it and the
lordship of Darnley, with the whole of the family
property and heritable jurisdictions, were given to
Lord Charles Stewart, the king's uncle, and Lord
Darnley's younger brother. But he dying in 1576
without male issue, they again devolved to the king,
and were given, in 1578, to the king's grand-uncle,
Lord Robert Stewart, bishop of Caithness, — resigned
by him in 1579, in exchange for the earldofci of
March, — and given, in 1579-80, to Esme Stewart,
Lord D'Aubigny. In August, 1581, Esme, this last
favourite among the royal kinsmen, and the holder
of the office of chamberlain of Scotland, was raised
to the dignity of the Duke of Lennox and Earl of
Darnley; and his son Ludovic, the second Duke,
received from the king additional offices and grants
of property, and, among other preferments, was
made custodier of Dumbarton-castle, and the owner
of its pertinents and revenues. In 1672, Charles,
the 6th Duke, dying without issue, the peerage, with
all its accumulated honours and possessions, went
once more to the Crown, devolving on Charles II.,
as the nearest collateral heir male; and the revenues
of the estates were settled for life on the dowager
Duchess. In 1680, Charles II. granted to his ille
gitimate son, Charles, born of Louise Renee de
Penancoet de Keranalle, Duchess of Portsmouth and
D'Aubigny, the dukedom of Lennox, and earldom
of Darnley in Scotland, and the dukedom of Rich
mond and earldom of March in the peerage of Eng
land. After the death of the Dowager-duchess in
1702, the Duke of Richmond and Lennox sold the
whole of his property in Scotland, the Marquis of
Montrose purchasing most of it, as well as many of
its jurisdictions. In 1836, Charles, 5th Duke of
Richmond and Lennox, succeeded to the Gordon
ggf-a+pg In the reign of James IV. the sheriffdom of Dum
bartonshire was made hereditary in the family of
Lennox, Earl Matthew obtaining, in 1503, a grant
which united the office to the earldom. The' office
continued a pertinent of the Earls and Dukes for
two centuries, and was usually executed by deputy-
sheriffs of their appointment. The Marquis of

Montrose, who was created Duke in 1707, purchased
at once the sheriffdom of the county, the custodiership
of Dumbarton castle, and the jurisdiction of the re
gality of Lennox, along with the large part of the
Lennox property bought from the first Duke of
Richmond and Lennox. The Earls and Dukes of
Lennox had a very ample jurisdiction over all their
estates, both in and beyond Dumbartonshire, com
prehended in the regality of Lennox ; and their vas
sals also had powers of jurisdiction within the lands
held by them, subject to the remarkable condition
that all the criminals condemned in their courts
should be executed on the Earl's gallows. At the
abolition of heritable jurisdictions in 1748, the Duke
of Montrose claimed for the regality of Lennox
£4,000, but was allowed only £578 1 8s. 4d.
LENNOX-HILLS, a range of heights stretching
east-north-eastward from Dumbarton to Stirling,
along the middle of the ancient district of Lennox.
The range is interrupted by the valley of the Blane,
and, from Dumbarton thither, is called the Kilpatrick
hills. The name Lennox-hills is more strictly ap
plied to the heights between the valley of the Blane
and Stirling, which, in their various parts are called
the Killearn, the Campsie, the Kilsyth, the Dundaff,
the Fintry, and the Gargunnock hills. The range,
after being interrupted by the valley of the Forth,
passes on, under the name of the Ochil-hills, till
it reaches the vicinity of the Tay. Throughout the
whole of the strictly Lennox-hills, and in a less de
gree in the Kilpatrick-hills, are stupendous colon
nades and precipices of basalt. In the parishes of
Killearn, Strathblane, and Fintry, in particular, the
arrays of basaltic columns are magnificent. The
hills are composed chiefly of trap and whinstone, and
offer many features of interest to the mineralogist
and the philosopher ; nor do they less challenge the
attention of the agriculturist and the grazier. *In
the Dundaff section, indeed, a stunted heath oc
cupies a considerable space, though not to the ex
clusion of excellent pasturage ; but everywhere else,
the hills, with very trivial exceptions, are carpeted
with fine grass, unsurpassed for pasturage in Scot
land. The soil is chiefly arenaceous, mingled with
till. The summits rise in Campsie to the height of
1,500 feet, and in Kilsyth to the height of 1,300;
but in many places they ascend no higher than to be
inconsiderable hills. See article Campsie -Fells.
LENNOXTOWN, a considerable village in the
parish of Campsie, Stirlingshire ; 9 miles north of
Glasgow; 6^ west of Kilsyth; 20 from Stirling;
and about a mile from the southern base of Campsie-
fells. A calico printing establishment in the village
employs upwards of 800 persons. Two other similar^
establishments, two bleachfields, and several col-"
lieries and limeworks, are in the vicinity. The
Campsie alum- work is at the east end of the village;
contributing, in its huge red mounds of burnt alum
schist, and its little forest of tall brick chimney-
stalks, a grotesque feature to the landscape in which
it lies. Lennoxtown is the polling-place for its dis
trict of Stirlingshire, the seat of sheriff and of jus-
tice-of-peace courts, and the site of a Relief meeting
house, a Roman Catholic chapel, several private
schools, and a handsome new infant school-house,
built at a large cost, and chiefly by subscription.
The village stands on the grounds, and is under the
superiority, of J. L. Kincaid Lennox, Esq., who
claims to be the direct descendant and the nearest
heir in the male line of the ancient or original noble
family of Lennox. A mile west of the village stands
Lennox castle, the seat of that gentleman, one of
the most spacious and superb mansions in Scotland.
The edifice is built in the old Norman style of archi
tecture, and commands from its lofty towers an in-

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teresting though not very extensive prospect. As
it was commenced only 4 years ago, it wants as yet
the rich accompaniments of wooded and ornamented
demesne, but promises, from the plans adopted for
laying out its grounds, to be as rich in the dress of its
immediate landscape as in the beauty and sumptu-
ousness of its own features. Population of Lennox-
town, in 1841, 2,821. See article Campsie.
LENTRATHEN. See Lintrathen.
LENY (The Pass of), commencing two miles
west of the village of Callendar, carrying up a road
much frequented by tourists from that village to
Loch-Earn-head, and constituting a narrow and most
romantic mountain-gorge, partly occupied by Loch-
Lubnaig, and partly traversed by the broken and
impetuous stream which rushes thence as a head
water of the Teath, is thus described by Sir Walter
Scott in the opening scene of the Legend of Mon
trose : " Their course had been, for some time, along
the banks of a lake, whose deep waters reflected the
crimson beams of the western sun. The broken
path, which they pursued with some difficulty, was
in some places shaded by ancient birches and oak-
trees, and in others overhung by fragments of huge
rock. Elsewhere the hill which formed the north
ern side of this beautiful sheet of water, arose in
steep but less precipitous acclivity, and was arrayed
in heath of the darkest purple." Its beauties have
also been immortalized in the poem of ' The Lady
of the Lake.'
LENZIE. See Kirkintilloch.
LEOCHEL (The). See Leochel and Cushnie.
LEOCHEL-CTJSHNIE, an united parish in Aber
deenshire ; bounded on the north by Alford ; on the
cast by Tough, and Lumphanan ; on the south by
Tarland; and on the west by Towie. It extends
from east to west about 6 miles ; and from north to
south 3 to 6 miles. Houses 203. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £1,035. Population, in 1821, 766;
in 1831, 1,077. The surface of Leochel is hilly;
but the hill of Corse is the only remarkable eleva
tion. Cushnie lies at the head of a large open glen,
and is mountainous and rocky. The small river
Leochel rises in this united parish by three sources ;
and running northwards, enters the Don near Al-
fordkirk. The soil in the valleys here is a strong and
fertile clay, — on the hill-sides, a rich and equally fer
tile loam. The parish is, for the most part, arable and
well-cultivated; but tbe hill-tops are chiefly covered
with heath, and abound with various sorts of game.
Around Craigievar-castle, the seat of Sir Charles
Forbes, Bart., are extensive and thriving planta
tions. Here are ruins of other two ancient castles,
— those of Lenfcurk and Corse : — the latter was
long the seat of the family of Forbes, one of whom,
Patrick Forbes of Corse, born in this castle, became
bishop of Aberdeen, and author of a Commentary
on the Revelation, and other works: he died in
1635. There are several Druidical temples in this
parish, and on the top of Corse-hill are vestiges of
an encampment. Cushnie was annexed to Leochel
in 1798. The parish is in the synod of Aberdeen,
and presbytery of Alford. Patrons, Sir John Forbes,
Bart., and Lumsden of Cushnie. Stipend £196 10s.
5d. ; glebe £18  There are two parochial schools :
salary of master of Cushnie school £25 13s. 3id.,
with £13 fees, and other emoluments : of Leochel
school £25 13s. 3£d., with £8 fees. There are
two private schools, one of which was endowed by
Sir Charles Forbes.
LEONARD'S (St.). See articles Andrews
(St.), and Lauder.
LERWICK, a parish on the mainland of Shet
land. It extends about 6 miles along the coast;
but is nowhere above a mile in breadth. On the

east and north-east it is bounded by the sea, which
separates it from Bressay island, and forms the ex
cellent harbour called Bressay sound : see Bressay.
The surface is rocky and mountainous ; but there
are fine arable fields on the sea-coast, the soil of
which, though light and sandy, is fertile and pro
ductive. Near the north end of the town is a small
fortification, originally erected by Cromwell, but re
paired in 1781, called Fort-Charlotte, which com
mands the north entry to Bressay sound. There
are the remains of two ancient Danish castles, about
a-mile-and-half south from the town. Population,
in 1801, 1,706; in 1831, 3,194. Houses 386. As
sessed property, in 1815, £2,906. — This parish is in
the presbytery r»f Lerwick, and synod of Shetland.
Stipend £113 1 ». 9d. Patron, the Earl of Zet
land. There are an Independent and a Methodist
chapel in the town. The landward part of the par
ish is called Gulberwick.
Lerwick, a town in the above parish, and the
seat of the courts of the stewartry. It is situated
on the spacious harbour called Lerwick or Bressay
sound ; and derives its consequence from its being,
the seat of the courts of law, and the resort of
vessels employed in the whale and herring-fishery,
which make this bay their place of rendezvous. It
consists of one principal street next the quay, with
several lanes branching off; no regularity has been
observed in ^former times in the position of the
houses, some of which, project almost quite across
the street. Lerwick contains about 1,000 inhabi
tants. Straw-plaiting is the only species of manu
facture carried on here. The general appearance of
the town has of late years been much improved by
several handsome houses, built in the modern style.
Lerwick was founded about the beginning of the
17th century, but has a much older appearance than
many towns of treble its age.
LESLIE, a parish in Fifeshire, at the southern
base* of the Lomond-hills, between them and the
river Leven, which traverses its southern boundary,
dividing it from Kinglassie. It is intersected by two
smaller streams, one flowing from the north to the
south, the other from the west, and both joining
the Leven a little below Leslie-house. The exten
sive woods which surround Leslie-house, that of
Strathendry and other places, with the streams, and
varied and undulating nature of the ground, give
much interest and beauty to the entire landscape of
the parish. Its length from east to west is nearly
5 miles ; its breadth, about 2 miles. It is bounded
on the south by the parish of Kinglassie ; on the
east by Markinch ; on the north by Falkland ; and
on the west by Portmoak in the shire of Kinross.
Population, in 1801, 1,609; in 1831, 2,749. The
village of Leslie is a burgh-of-barony holding under
the Earls of Rothes. It is governed by two bailies
and sixteen councillors. The records are said to go
back for 300 years. There is a sub-post-office depen
dent on Kirkcaldy in the village. There are no
weekly markets, but there are two fairs,  one in
spring for the sale of cattle and show of horses,
which is well attended, and the other in autumn,
which has much fallen off of late years. The po
pulation of the burgh in 1831, was 1,821. The
nearest market-towns are Cupar and Kirkcaldy.
The number of imperial acres in the parish, either
in cultivation or occasionally in tillage, are 4,324 ;
the number in pasture, but which have been culti
vated, 965 ; the number in wood, 350 ; and in un
divided common, 27. The average amount of raw
agricultural produce of the parish has been calcu
lated at £7,450 sterling. The produce of mines,
lime, and quarries, at £300. The annual value of
real property "for which the parish was assessed, in

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253

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1815, was £6,411 sterling; the valued rent is
£4,561 Scots. The manufactures of this parish are
very considerable, there being six mills for spinning
flax, the largest of which are those of Prinlaws, be
longing to Mr. Fergus, partly moved by the water
of Leven, and partly by steam. There are three
bleachfields in the parish. Weaving of linen and
cotton goods is also carried on to a considerable ex
tent. At the east end of the parish is Leslie-house,
with its magnificently wooded grounds, the resi
dence of the Earl of Rothes. This house was
built, and great additions made to the plantations,
by the celebrated Duke of Rothes, Lord-chancellor
of Scotland during the reign of Charles II. It ori
ginally formed a quadrangle, enclosing in the centre
an extensive court-yard, but three of the sides were
burnt down in December 1763. The fourth side
was repaired, and forms the present house. The
picture-gallery in this part of the building, which is
hung with portraits of connections of the family, is
three feet longer than the gallery at Holyroodhouse.*
— This parish is in the presbytery of Kirkcaldy, and
synod of Fife. Patron, the Earl of Rothes. Sti
pend £257 8s. 6d. ; glebe £18. The church of
Leslie stands near the village, and was erected in
1820. It is, a handsome structure, seated for 850.
— There is also a chapel in connection with the
church of Scotland at Prinlaws, the incumbent of
which, besides preaching on Sabbath, teaches the
school there, and receives a salary from Mr. Fer
gus  There are two chapels in connection with the
United Associate synod in the parish; also a chapel
connected with the Associate synod of Original Se-
ceders, and a small congregation of Baptists  The
parish-school is situated at the village of Leslie :
the teacher has the maximum salary. . The teacher
of the school at Prinlaws has also a salary besides
his fees. There are three or four other schools in
tie-parish, the teachers of which are unendowed.
LESLIE, or Lesly, a small parish in the district
of Garioch, Aberdeenshire ; bounded on the north
by Kinnethmont ; on the east by Premnay ; on the
south by Keig, and Tullynessle ; and on the west
by Clatt ; square area 4 miles. Houses 96. As
sessed property, in 1815, £1,018. Population, in
1801, 367 ; in 1831, 473. This parish is rather hilly
in its aspect, but the soil is good, consisting, in the
lower grounds, of a rich and deep mould ; and in
the higher, of a lighter loam, — both very fertile.
* Among the pictures at Leslie-house may be mentioned
those of the fifth Earl and his Countess, by Jamieson ; the
Duke and Dochess of Rothes ; the celebrated Duke of Lauder
dale and his Duchess; the Princess of Modena; General John,
Earl of Rothes, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Archbishop Tillot
son ; and a portrait of Rembrandt by himself. Some fine spe
cimens of tapestry also adorn the walls, the subjects of which
are partly scriptural and partly classic; but the brightness of
the colouring is now considerably diminished from the effects
of time. Among the curious relics of former times still pre
served in the house, may be mentioned the dagger with its
slie.itli, used by Norman Leslie, master of Rothes, at the mur
der of Cardinal Beaton ; and the magnificent Bword of state
carried by the Duke of Rothes at the coronation of Charles 11.
at Scoue. The ancient family of Rothes derive their descent
from Bartholomew, a Flemish baron, who settled with his fol
lowers in the district of Garioch, in Aberdeenshire, in the reign
of William the Lion. He obtained the barony of Lesly in that
district, from which his descendants adopted their name. Nor
man de Lesly, the 4th in descent from him, obtained from Alex
ander 111., in 1283, a grant of the Woods and lands of Fetkill,
which came afterwards to be called LeBly ; and which have
since remained in the possession of the family. George de
Lesly of Rothes, the 9th in descent from the first settler, was
created Earl of Rothes previous to March, 1457. John, the 6th
Earl of Rothes, was created Duke of Rothes, Marquis of Bal-
lenbreich. Earl of Lesly, Viscount of Luirtoun, Lord Auch-
moutie and Crfskieberry in 1680, with remainder to his male
issue only ; and his lordship having only two daughters, these
honours became extinct. His eldest daughter, however, suc
ceeded to the original titles, and having married Charlee, 5th
Earl of Haddington, 'her eldest son became 7th Earl of Rothes,
and her second son 6th Earl of Haddington. The present noble
lord iB the 14th Earl of Rothes, and 16th Lord Lesly.

The water ofGadie, celebrated by the elegant Latin
poet, Arthur Johnstone, runs through the parish
from west to east. In several places, towards the
south, a beautiful species of greenish-coloured
amianthus is found, and is usually converted into
snuff-boxes or other trinkets. Several remains of
druidical -temples and cairns, and an encampment,
have been traced. The parish is in the presbytery
of Garioch, and synod of Aberdeen. Patron, Hay
of Rannes. Stipend £158 14s. 6d. ; glebe £11 5s.
— Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 4d., with fees, &c.
£16 16s. Id.
LESMAHAGO, a large and important parish in
the Upper ward of Lanarkshire, stretching along
the south-west bank of the Clyde ; bounded by the
parishes of Dalserf and Carluke on the north ; by
Douglas and Muirkirk on the south ; by Lanark and
Carmichael on the east ; and by Strathaven and
Stonehouse on the west. It is about 14 miles in
length, and in several parts is 12 in breadth, and
contains 34,000 acres. The greater part of the
superficies of this parish is at least 500 feet above
the level of the sea; and, on the western side, where
they divide the counties of Lanark and Ayr, the
mountains frequently rise to an elevation of 1,200
feet. The celebrated Falls of Clyde, viz. Bonmton,
Corehouse, and Stonebyres, are formed in the course
of the river along the borders of Lesmahago. " The
banks of the Clyde in- this parish are very bold, ris
ing in many places abruptly into hills of considerable
height, everywhere divided into deep gullets, formed
by the numerous brooks and torrents which fall into
the river. Tbe intermixture of coppice-woods,
plantations of forest trees, and sloping open glades;
of swelling eminences, deep ravines, and towering
hills on both sides of the river, added to the wind
ings of its copious stream, and the magnificent falls
above-mentioned, exhibit to the eye. of the passenger,
at every change of situation, new landscapes strik
ingly sublime and beautiful." [Old Statistical Ac
count.] The parish is watered, in addition to the
Clyde, by the Peniel, the Douglas, the Logan, the
Nethan, the Kype, the Cannar, and some still more
insignificant streamlets, which all find their way into
the Clyde. Two- thirds or nearly three-fourths of
the land in the parish, is under cultivation. The
principal village or post-town in the parish is called
Lesmahago, or, more properly, Abbey-Green, from
being built upon part of the lands attached to the
principal religious house in the district in former
times. It lies in a beautiful position on the banks
of the Nethan, about 6 miles from the town of Lan
ark. The names of the other village's are Kirkheld-
bank, Kirkmuirhill, Boghead, and Nethanfoot, be
tween all of which and the city of Glasgow, the
communication is easy and frequent both by coach
and carrier. The great Glasgow and Carlisle mail-
road, and the Glasgow and Lanark road, run through
the parish for several miles, and in addition to these
the parish-roads are extensive and well-kept, and
all the streams which occur in their course are
spanned by substantial bridges. Not more than the
third of the families in the parish are employed in
agricultural pursuits, the great majority being sup
ported by weaving, working at the coal-mines or
lime-works, or acting as country artisans. In 1801,
the population was 3,070; in 1811, 4,464; in 1821,
5,592; in 1831, 6,409; and, in 1841, 6,902,— com
posed of 3,416 males, and 3,486 females. There are
1,428 inhabited houses. Assessed property, in 1815,
£17,481. — The parish is in the presbytery of Lan
ark, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr, and comprises
one of the very few parochial districts in Scotland
in which the charge is collegiate, which it has con
tinued to be since the Reformation. The church is

254

LESMAHAGO.

situated in the village of Abhey-Green, and was re
built and enlarged in 1804 for 1,330 sitters. Tbe
stipend of both ministers is the same, viz. £283 4s.
2d. per annum ; each of them has a manse, and
the 1st minister a glebe, the 2d a garden. The
value of the glebe is about £20 per annum, and
of the garden about £5. Unappropriated teinds
£403 9s. 8d. Patron of both charges, the Duke of
Hamilton. There is a quoad sacra church in the
parish, called the North church  The Original
Burgher congregation was established in 1813, and
a church was built in 1816, at an expense of £600,
calculated to accommodate 530 sitters. The minis
ter has a manse, and a stipend of £100 per annum 
The United Secession congregation at Crossford was
established in 1830, in which year the church was
built at an expense of £350, for 350 sitters. The
minister has a stipend of £88 per annum, with £4
for sacramental expenses, in addition to a manse and
glebe. There is also a small congregation of Old
Independents, in which an elder officiates without
any emolument  The parish is well-supplied with
the means of education, by six or seven schools, in
addition to the parochial one. The principal or
parochial master has the maximum salary of about
£38 per annum, with fully £40 as school-fees, in
addition to perquisites arising from the office of ses
sion-clerk. The heritors have granted the value of
a chalder annually, which is divided among the teach
ers of other schools in the parish not strictly paro
chial ; and in all, about 600 children usually attend
school at the same time in the different seminaries
within the bounds.
Lesmahago was celebrated in the olden time for
its monastery. It was also called Lesmachute, from
Les or Lys, signifying, in the old British language,
'a green,' 'a court,' or 'an enclosed place,' and
Machute, a saint, who died in the 6th century, and
was buried in the parish. A church was founded at
a very early period in this place, and dedicated to
this saint. Many relics connected with him were
found and deposited in the holy building, and it ap
pears from the accounts of the old Scottish treasurer,
that James V. having obtained a bone of St. Machute,
or Mahago, caused it to be encased in silver, gilt, by
one John Mossman, a goldsmith in Edinburgh, at
considerable expense, so that it might be carefully
preserved. The tomb of the saint was illuminated
by a number of wax-lights, and various donations
were from time to time granted to the monks of
Lesmachute for this purpose. Among others, Robert
I. made a grant of a rent of 10 marks sterling, from
his mills of Carluke, in lieu of which the monks were
required to find #number of wax-lights, of a pound-
weight each, to burn on Sundays and festival-days
at the tomb of St. Machute. In the reign of David
I. the church and lands of Lesmahago, with all their
pertinents, were granted to the abbot and monks of
Kelso, that they might hold the church as a cell of
Kelso. At the same time, the king granted to the
church of Lesmahago the privilege of a sanctuary,
to which all persons might flee for protection, with
the exception of those who were guilty of murder
or dismembering. The abbot and monks of Kelso
accordingly erected buildings here, and transferred
to it a number of their own order, dedicating the
new monastery to the Virgin Mary and St. Machute.
Being less liable than Kelso to be annoyed by the
invasions ot the English, Lesmahago frequently
formed a safe retreat to the monks of the former
place ; but still it was not altogether exempt from
the effects of these hostile incursions. About 1336,
John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, and brother of
Edward III., ravaged Clydesdale with a body of
English troops, and took up his residence for a time

' at the abbey of Lesmahago ; before leaving it, be
burned the monastery and church, and sacrificed a
number of people who had taken shelter within the
walls. The Earl of Cornwall soon after joined his
brother Edward at Perth, and some of the historians
of the time state that a quarrel having arisen be
tween the king and earl, caused by the haughtiness
of the latter, he was stabbed by the monarch,' and
soon thereafter died, thus avenging, according to
Wyntown, the burning of the abbey. That tbe
Earl of Cornwall died at Perth in October 1336, is
undoubted, but whether the burning of the monas
tery had anything to do with his death, or whether
he fell by the hands of his royal brother, is more
questionable. The monks of Lesmahago were en
riched by the bequests or donations of pious indivi
duals, or by the purchase of lands, and at various
times they received charters of protection and im
munity from the Scottish kings, by whom also their
territory was erected into a barony, with the usual
jurisdiction. At the Reformation, when the old
order of things was overturned, and the tomb of the
saint violated and destroyed, the rental of the mon
astery, according to Keith's History, was as follows:
—£1,214 4s. 6d. Scots; 15 chalders, 8 bolls, 1 fir
lot, and 2 pecks of bear; 41 chalders, 8 bolls, and 3
firlots of meal; and 4 chalders, 3 bolls of oats. The
church property of this opulent monastery, passed
in succession into the hands of several great families
until it was finally purchased in tbe early part of the
17th century, from the Earl of Roxburgh, by James,
Marquis of Hamilton. During the ferment of the
Reformation, the fine ecclesiastical erections con
nected with the monastery, fell a sacrifice to the
zealous fury of the Reformers, the whole being con
sumed by fire, with the exception of the tower which
supported the spire of the church. The precincts
of th'e monastery were long celebrated for their beau
tiful gardens, and the present village of Abbey-Greeli
is built upon a part of the olden lawn. The parish
still retains the privilege of holding a weekly market
and annual fairs, which, however, are not now re
garded as of much importance. There is little of
interest connected with the civil history of the par
ish. When Queen Mary escaped from Lochleven,
she remained for a few days in the Castle of Dra-
phane or Craignethan, and the room in which sha
slept, before she passed on to the fatal field of Lang.
side, is still pointed out amongst the ruins, which
occupy a bold and rugged position at the junction of
the streamlet Nethan with the river Clyde. This
was anciently the residence of Sir James Hamilton,
a bastard son of the Earl of Hamilton, who in the
reign of James V. acquired an unenviable notoriety
from his fierce disposition and cruel actions. In
recent times, the ruins of Craignethan have become
still more famous, from their undoubted identification
with the Tillietudlem of ' Old Mortality :' see Craig
nethan. The inhabitants of Lesmahago acted a pro
minent part in the struggle against the imposition of
'black prelacie ' in the reigns of Charles II. and James
II., and many of the Covenanters who fell at Both-
well bridge were natives of the parish. The drum
and colours used by them on that memorable occa
sion are still preserved. Several of the pious heroes
ot that time are buried in the churchyard, where
their monuments still exist: amongst others, that of
the good David Steel, who was killed by Captain
Cnchton, a trooper, whose very name is still con
sidered a polluted thing in the parish. It was in
Lesmahago that the celebrated Colonel Rumbold
was apprehended by Hamilton of Raploch in 1685
after the dispersion of the army of Argyle Ruml
bold is remembered as having been one of the chief
movers m the Ryehouse plot. At a later period,

LES

255

LET

Macdonald of Kinloch-Moydart, aide-de-camp to
Charles Edward Stuart, was apprehended here,
while on his way to join the Prince during his chi
valrous march in England, by a young clergyman
named Linning, and a joiner named Meikle. For
this service, Linning was afterwards rewarded by
being appointed one of the ministers of the parish ;
but the Highlanders, on their return north, burneol
Meikle's bouse in revenge. The unfortunate Mac
donald was conveyed from Lesmahago to Edinburgh
Castle, and from thence to Carlisle, where he was
tried, condemned, and executed. A Roman road is
known to have passed through a part of the parish,
but it has long since been obliterated by the hand of
improvement; a Roman vase and Roman coins have
been found in the parish, and some years ago an
ancient Caledonian battle-axe was dug up, and is
now in the possession of the proprietor of the estate
of Blackwood.
LESSUDDEN. See Boswell's (St.).
LESWALT, a parish in the Rhinns of Galloway,
Wigtonshire ; bounded on the north by Kirkcolm ;
on the east by Loch-Ryan and Stranraer ; on the
south-east by Inch ; on the south by Portpatrick ;
and on the west by the Irish channel. Its greatest
length, from north to south, is 8 miles ; its greatest
breadth is 7 miles ; and its area is 56 square miles.
Its form is not very far from being a square. The
surface, except along Loch-Ryan, where it becomes
level, is very hillocky and broken. Large tracts of
moss, in some quarters compete for prominence with
fine meadows, pasture-grounds, and arable lands on
others. The soil, over a great part of the eastern
division, is rich and fertile ; but, toward the Irish
channel and along the south, it is, in general, sandy,
gravelly, or otherwise very thin and poor. A large
proportion of the entire area is abandoned wholly to
sheep and cattle. The coast-line, on the west, about
8>miles in extent, is bold, rocky, broken, and con
torted, abounding in awful cliffs, cavernous openings,
and precipitous chasms. Except in a creek, called
Saltpan, where salt used to be manufactured, and
where a small harbour might be constructed, about
midway between the two extremes of the parish,
access is nowhere possible to a vessel on the west.
But in Soleburn-bay in Loch- Ryan, 3 miles north of
Stranraer, vessels lie in great safety, and discharge
manurial cargoes for the use of the farmer. Fine
red cod and other fish abound on the coast, but are
unheeded by the parishioners, and allowed to be
picked up by boatmen from Portpatrick. Oysters
abound in Loch-Ryan. Two considerable brooks,
Soleburn and Pooltanton, both frequented by salmon,
rise in the interior, and run, the former to Soleburn-
bay in Loch-Ryan, and the latter southward to
achieve a longish course to the head of Luce-bay in
the parish of Old Luce. Several unimportant rills
run to the Irish channel. Red sandstone and grey-
wacke — the latter often of very fine appearance —
are quarried as building material. The climate,
though very changeable, and subject to severe
storms, and long series of heavy rains, is far from
being unhealthy. Lochnaw-castle, in its loch, wood,
and estate, forms the grand and almost only attrac
tion of the parish. Since it passed to Sir Andrew
Agnew, Bart., from his father, it has, in every par
ticular, been remarkably improved. The castle
stands on an eminence 5| miles north-west of Stran
raer, is a very ancient edifice, and bears marks, in
the remains of a very deep fosse, and in other parti
culars, of having once been strongly fortified. On its
west side is a very beautiful lake, nearly half-a-mile
long, once drained, and its bed turned into meadow-
land, but reinstated in its watery honours and deco
rations by the present proprietor. A plantation

around the castle contains some old trees, but has
chiefly been raised within the last 28 or 30 years,
and forms the only exception to the treelessness of
the parish. The estate of Lochnaw, especially in the
vicinity of the castle, has been richly improved and
tastefully decorated. Good roads run along Loch-Ry
an, past Lochnaw, and along the Irish channel. Four
villages, Clayhole, Hillhead, Foulford, and Broad-
stone, have unitedly upwards of 900 inhabitants,' but
are all situated within the parliamentary burgh of
Stranraer. Population, in 1801, 1,329; in 1831,
2,636. Houses 448. Assessed property, in 1815,
£7,315  Leswalt is in the presbytery of Stran
raer, and synod of Galloway. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend, £142 13s. 7d. ; glebe £15. The church
was built in 1828. Sittings 550. An ecclesiastical
census of 1836 showed the population then to be
2,640; of whom 1,704 were churchmen, 876 were
dissenters, and 60 were nondescripts. The dissent
ers, and also some churchmen, are connected with
congregations in Stranraer. Five large farms oi
Kirkcolm are attached quoad sacra to Leswalt  Th?
parish-school was attended, in 1834, by 212 scholars,
and five private schools, one of them a boarding-
school, by 154. Parish schoolmaster's salary £25
13s. 3d., with from £10 to £20 fees, and from £5
to £10 other emoluments. The church was an
ciently a vicarage under the monks of Tongueland.
LETHAM, a village in Fifeshire, in the parish of
Monimail, 4 miles west of Cupar, and 5 east of
Auchtermuchty. Population 440. There is a fan-
held here in the first week of June.
LETHEM, a considerable village in the parish of
Dunnichen, Forfarshire; 5J miles from Forlar, and
1 1 from Arbroath. It stands on the swell or summit
of a table-land, and commands a somewhat extensive
prospect. Attached to it in a hollow on the south,
traversed by Vinney-water, is a minor village called
the Den of Lethem. The late Mr. Dempster of
Dunnichen was the founder of Lethem, and he laid
out for it such a regular and extensive plan as indi
cated alike refined taste and overheated expectation.
The earliest settlers delighted in their old age to "
chaperone a stranger through corn-fields, and along
rugged paths,, pointing out to him, far away from
the village, street lines, and sites of city-greatness,
which his most heated fancy failed to see either in
the rough spots before him, or in the visions of fu
turity. Yet the place has not wanted prosperity,
and is steadily, though slowly, on the increase. A
linen-hall has been converted into a school-house. A
spinning-mill, in the Den of Lethem, employs a num
ber of persons ; but a large proportion of the inha
bitants, women and youths as well as men, are
weavers in the employ of the manufacturers of Dun
dee. Two fairs are held in the village for the sale
of cattle and the hiring of servants. The place has
two meeting-houses, — one Independent, and the
other United Secession : it has also a library. Po
pulation about 1,000.
LETHENDY and KINLOCH, two parishes in
the north-east division of Perthshire, united within
the last 50 years. Their mutual position is un
favourable to their joint description. Lethendy is a
stripe of 3 miles in length from east to west, with a
mean breadth of about 1 mile, but sends northward
an angular projection from its north-east corner;
and it is bounded on the north by Clunie ; on the
east by Blairgowrie ; on the south by Caputh ; and
on the west by Caputh, Clunie, and a small detached
part of Caputh. The Tay formerly washed part of
its southern side, but has retired southward, from half-
a-mile to 2 miles, by cuts made at different periods,
leaving, in several places, marks of its former course.
Lunan-water runs across the north-east projection,

256

LETHNOT.

and along the eastern boundary. The soil, in the
western half, is a black mould inclining to reddish
clay, exceedingly rich, and adapted to every kind of
crop ; but, toward the east, it becomes blacker, more
wet, and less productive. The district is a hanging
plain, inclining to the south, and throughout is highly
cultivated. In the south-east corner are about 50
or 60 acres of natural wood. Two roads, one from
north to south, and the other from east to west, cut
the parish into four nearly equal parts  Kinloch is
a curiously outlined irregular stripe stretching from
north-north-west to south-south-west ; 9 miles in
extreme length, 2J in extreme breadth, but rarely
more than 1 mile broud, and tapering at its southern
extremity to a point which touches the angle of the
north-east projection of Lethendy. It is bounded
on the north by Bendocby ; on the west by Blair-
Gowrie ; on the south-west by Clunie ; and on the
west by Clunie and a detached part of Blair-Gowrie.
Drummellie-loeh, 1 mile long and half-a-mile broad,
stretches along the south- west boundary. Rae-loch
and Fenzies-loch, both of very considerably smaller
dimensions, lie respectively § of a mile east and 1£
mile south-east of the former, — the latter being on
the eastern boundary, and very near the point of
contact with Lethendy. All the lakes abound in
pike, perch, and eel. A brook coming in from Clunie
runs 2J miles along the south-west boundary to
Drummellie-loch. Lunan-water, having entered the
same lake on the side of Cluny, emerges from it on
the south-west boundary, and flows 1£ mile along
that boundary to Lethendy. In this stream, and in
the lake, fat or good-conditioned trout are found
earlier in the season than in any other waters within
a considerable distance. Lornty-burn runs across
the parish at its broadest part, forms the southern
boundary of an easterly projection 1| mile from the
main body of the parish, and passes on to fall into
Airdle-water 1J mile onward in Blair-Gowrie. Air-
die- water traces the whole of the northern boundary,
yet touches the parish for only 1*, mile. From both
t Rae-loch and Fenzies-loch, and also from a marsh
connected with the former, vast quantities of rich
shell marl have been carried away to the great im
provement of circumjacent soils. Between the lakes
Drummellie and Rae stands the mansion of Marlee,
beautifully embosomed among wood. The surface
of the parish, for 24. miles from the extreme southern
angle, is flat ; and thence till within a mile of the
Airdle, it rises in a slow though broken or varied
ascent. Cochrage-height, properly a muir and high-
lying moss, abounding in grouse and blackcock, is
the only eleva(jon which can be called a hill. Two-
thirds of the parish from the south upward, in the
beautiful lakes and richly-cultivated fields of the
plain, in tbe southern exposure of the enclosed and
agriculturally improved ascent, and in the plantations
of the estate of Marlee and the seats and woods of
other proprietors, exhibit a scene of calm and pleas
ing beauty. Near Loch-Drummellie is a Druidical
temple. On a projection of the steep bank of the
deep glen traversed by Lornty-burn, stands the castle
of Glassclune, < of very high but unknown antiquity,
and originally a place of very great strength. A
muir in the parish exhibits a vast number of tumuli,
called the Haer-Cairns, and has half-addled the heads
of many antiquarians by its stout claims to be re
garded as tbe scene of the far-famed battle of the
Grampians. Had Jonathan Oldbuck been owner of
the place, he would at least have had such relics on
it as would have made defiance to the spoil-sport of
the most peering gaberlunzie. The parish is cut
fromeastto west bythe road between Blairgowrie and
Dunkeld, and from south to north by that between
Kinclaven and the bridge of Cally: Population of

Lethendy, in 1801, 345; in 1831, 306. Houses
68. Assessed property, in 1815, £1,040. Popu
lation of Kinloch, in 1801, 367 ; in 1831, 402.
Houses 73. Assessed property, in 1815, £2,795.
 The united parish is in the presbytery of Dunkeld,
and synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £211 Is. Id.; glebe, value not stated.
Salary of the Lethendy schoolmaster £25, with
about £12 fees, and about £3 other emoluments ;
of the Kinloch schoolmaster £35, with about the
same fees and other emoluments as tbe other master.
The united parish has acquired notoriety, inferior only
to that of Auchterarder and that of Marnoch, from
the working of tbe General Assembly's Veto act.
See article Auchterarder.
LETHNOT, a parish in the northern part of the
Grampian district of Forfarshire ; bounded' on tbe
west and north by Lochlee ; on the north-east by
Edzell; on the south-east by Strickatbrow and
Menmuir ; on the south by Fearn and Tannadice ;
and on the south-west by Cortachie. Its extreme
length, from J:he source of the highest head-stream
of West- water on the west to the point where that
stream leaves it on the east, is 13 miles; and its
greatest breadth, from West- warren on the north to
the point where it is first touched by Pelphrie-burn
on tbe south, is 5J miles ; but, for 6 miles from its
west end it expands from a breadth of only 1£ mile
to one of only 3| ; and over its eastern half it has
a mean breadth of not more than 4 miles. Ex
cept along the south-east, a distance of 4i miles,
and along an adjoining mile on the north-east, the
whole parish is walled in by water-shedding lines
of the Grampians, running up at the western ex
tremity to nearly the highest summits of the Bin-
chinnin mountains, and enclosing as they trend
along in the figure of a slender oval, the basin of
all the upper streams of West- water. That stream,
under the name of the water of Saugh, rises cldse
on the western extremity, and flowing generally
south-eastward, but making one large detour, cuts
the parish lengthways into two nearly equal parts;
and it then, suddenly debouching, runs 2J miles
north-eastward along its south-east boundary. About
a dozen considerable brooks, besides smaller ones,
cleave down the congeries of hill and mountain which
occupies the main area of the parish, and run slant
ingly to West- water. In most of these is the com
mon trout, aiidin West- wateritself are three species of
freshwater trout. Pelphrie-burn, approaching from
the south-west, runs 2£ miles along the south-east
boundary, till it meets Westwater, falls into it, and
drives it along that boundary in a continuous line.
Inward from this water boundary-line — altogether
5 miles in length — is a belt of arable ground, aver
aging, even up to the ploughable limit of the hills,
not more than J of a mile in breadth. Nearly all
the rest of the parish, except some haugh-ground
in the glen of West- water, is either strictly pastoral,
or wildly waste. The soil of the arable land is,
in somii places, clayey, and, in others, a rich loam
on a till bottom. A great number of chalybeate
springs exist in various localities, are in some in
stances strong, and have proved beneficial ; and tbey
seem to have been denied the honours of fashion
able resort simply on account of the pastoral se
clusion of the- district. The parish has no road in
its west end, but in the arable part, and two-thirds
way up its central glen is sufficiently provided with
both roads and bridges. A hundred years ago the
inhabitants were in a semibarbarous condition, and
are reported by the statist in the Old Account to
have, as to many leading points of civilization, un
dergone wondrous changes within from 20 to 50
years of the date of his writing. Population in

LET

257

LEU

1801, 489; in 1831, 404. Houses 94. Assessed
property, in 1815, £749. Lethnot is in the pres
bytery of Brechin, and synod of Angus and Mearns.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £158 6s. lid. ; glebe
£5. Schoolmaster's salary £34, with £10 fees, and
a house and garden. A small school is maintained
in a remote part of the parish by private subscrip
tion during four months in winter— The present
parish comprehends the ancient parishes of Lethnot
and Navar, lying respectively on the left and the
right sides of West-water, and united in 1723. Leth
not, previous to that date, formed one charge with
the very spacious adjacent parish of Lochlee, the
minister preaching one Sabbath in the latter, and
two in Lethnot. Navar gave the title of Baron
to the Earls of Panmure.
LETTERFEARN, or Ardintoul, an extensive
district in the parish of Glensbiel, Ross-shire. It
stretches along the banks of Loch-Duich, and con
tains upwards of 6,300 imperial acres, of which
about 560 are arable, 530 home-pasture, and the
rest hill-grazing. See Glensheel.
LETTERFINDLAY, an inn, 14 miles north-east
of Fort- William ; on the eastern bank of Loch-
Lochy, on the great military road to Inverness.
LEUCHARS,* a parish in Fifeshire, on the north
bank of the Eden and its estuary, which divide it
from the .parish of St. Andrews. It is bounded on
the south by the parishes of Kemback and St. An
drews ; on the east by the German ocean ; on the
north by the parishes of Ferry-port-on-Craig and
Forgund ; and on the west of those of Logie and
Darsie. The breadth of the parish from south to
north is very varied : for a considerable portion of
its extent towards the east.it is scarcely 4 miles;
and at the extreme west, where a part of it sepa
rates the parishes of Logie and Darsie, it measures
only from 1 to 2 miles in this direction. Its length
from east to west is equally varied : for about a
mile in breadth, near the south, it is 6| miles ;
farther north, it is only 4£ miles in length. From
south-west to north-east it measures about 8 miles.
The general appearance of the surface of the parish
is that of an extensive plain, seldom more than 15
feet above the level of the sea ; but towards the
west and north-west, it gradually rises, till it reaches
the summit of that portion of the Ochil-hills which
separates it from the parish of Logie. From va
rious situations on these heights, an extensive
view of the level part of the parish of St. Andrews,
and of the German ocean is obtained. The parish
generally is bare of wood ; but in some places this
ornament of the land is not deficient. There are
two villages in the parish, Leuchars and Balmullo.
Leuchars contains about 614 inhabitants, and is
situated about a mile from the south boundary of
the parish, and about half-way between the east and
west boundaries. There is a penny post-office in the
village, dependent upon the post-office at Cupar.
The other village, which contains 250 inhabitants,
is situated on the line of road from Cupar to Dun
dee. Two fairs are held annually at the village of
Leuchars, for the sale of cattle and small wares ;
but, like those in many other small towns and vil
lages, they are now but little attended. Population,
in 1801, 1,687; in 1831, 1,869. In the western divi
sion of the parish the soils are clay, soft loam, and
gravel ; but in the east and north-east it is light and
* The name of this parish is of Celtic derivation, and de
scriptive of what the appearance of that portion of it, in the
neighbourhood of the castle and village at one time was:
Llwhur in the ancient British, and Lochur in the Irish, means
• a stream that forms pools and marshes;' and, until they tfrere
drained, the low and level grounds, for miles to the east. and
west of the village of Leuchars, were under water for the
greater part of the year.
¦ II.

sandy, and for a considerable extent in Tentsmuir
entirely sand. There are 6,310 Scots acres under
regular cultivation ; 3,060 acres of poor clay, and
light land often in pasture; and 360 acres under
wood. The value of assessed property, in 1815,
was £14,957 — Nothing now remains of the ancient
castle of Leuchars, although its site is still pointed
out, a short way north of the village. It stood upon
a bank of earth, on the edge of a swamp, and was
surrounded by a deep broad ditch, which enclosed
about three acres of ground, and must have been a
place of great strength in former times. It was no
doubt the residence of the Celtic chief, Ness, the
son of William, whose daughter was married to
Robert de Quinci ; and it appears to have been the
principal residence of their son, Seyer de Quinci,
Earl of Winchester, and where he held his baronial
court, as many of his charters are dated thence ; and
in a dispute with Duncan, the son of Hamelin, about
the lands of Duglyn, in the Ochils, he brought Dun
can to acknowledge a release of his claims, in his
court, " in plena curia mea apud Locres." In 1327,
it was taken and demolished by the English, under
the Earl of Pembroke, but was no doubt subse
quently rebuilt  South-east of the village of
Leuchars is Earlshall, said by Sibbald to have been
anciently a portion of the estates of the Earls of
Fife, who had a residence here, whence it derived
its title of Earlshall. — The fine old house of Earls
hall is beautifully situated amid venerable trees, and
forms an exceedingly interesting object in the land
scape of this part of the parish. It appears, from
initials, arms, and dates, on various parts of the house
and offices, to have been erected towards the close of
the 16th or beginning of the 17th century ; but prin
cipally by William Bruce, whose initials and arms
with those of his wife, Dame Agnes Lindsay, and
the dates 1617 and 1620, are still to be seen. The
house was inhabited until sold to the present pro
prietor, and might at no great expense be still ren
dered habitable. The object of greatest interest in
this house is the great hall, which' is 50 feet in
length by 18 in breadth, with a fine arched roof on
which are painted and emblazoned the arms of the
family, and of a number of noble families with whom
they claimed affinity  North of Earlshall, and north
east of the village of Leuchars, is Pitlethie, the pro
perty of William Lawson, Esq. Here there is said
to have anciently been a royal hunting-seat. In a
field near the present house there stood till lately a
venerable spreading thorn tree, on which tradition
says the king's hawks were accustomed to roost. In
the first Statistical Account it is said that it was
James VI. who used this place as a hunting-lodge.
We should rather, be inclined to think, however,
that it must have been James III. or James IV. who
had a residence here, as Sir WiUiam Bruce of Earls
hall had a charter of the lands of Pitlethie from the
latter monarch, which he afterwards conferred upon
his second son, Robert Bruce. But whichever of
the Scottish kings it was, it is very obvious that this
neighbourhood, from its vicinity to the sea-shore, to
the estuary of the Eden, and being surrounded with
marshes, must have been well-calculated for enjoying
the sport of hawking  East and north-east of this
part of the parish to the German ocean, is an ex
tensive flat sandy tract of ground called Tentsmuirs,
which appears to have been at one time submerged,
and has either been laid dry by the retreat of the sea,
or by a slight upheave of this part of the coast.
Formerly this tfact was inhabited by a number of
small crofters, who were rude in their manners, and
at one time much given to smuggling. They were
alleged to have been descended from some Danes
shipwrecked' upon this part of the coast; but Mr.
R

LEU

258

LEV

Kettle, in his first statistical account of the parish,
says he had been able to find no authority for this
statement  These crofters have now been all for
many years removed, and the muir formed into some
extensive farms. A great portion of it, however, is
incapable of cultivation, and is employed in rearing
sheep ; the rabbits which at one time occupied a
considerable part of it having been nearly all extir
pated. This parish is in the presbytery of St, An
drews, and synod of Fife. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £238 lis. lOd. ; glebe £30. Unappro
priated Crown teinds £527 lis. 8d. The church
formerly belonged to the priory of St. Andrews, the
monks of which drew the tithes and supplied the
cure. It is situated in the village of Leuchars ; and
is an old building, which appears to have been
erected at four different periods,* but is comfortable
» The eastern portion of the building, which has formed the
original church, is obviously of great antiquity, and is exceed
ingly interesting as exhibiting a beautiful example of ancient
architecture. It is in the Norman style : and is worthy of par
ticular notice, as being the only parish. church in Scotland now
remaining in that early style. It consists of two parts, a rec
tangular portion which had formed the chancel, and a semicir
cular apsiB at the east end, of less breadth and height, in which
the altar had been placed. Its extreme length within the walls,
- from what had formed the western entrance to the cast end of
the apsis is 33 feet j the breadth of the chancel about 18 feet,
and of the apsis 12 feet. The height of the walls of the chancel
is 22 feet, and of those of the apsis about 18 feet. The thick
ness of the walls is about 3 feet. The walls of the chancel ou
the outside, both ou the south and north, present two stages or
stories. The lower stage is ornamented with four double col
umns, and two single columns at each end, with ornamented
capitals, from which spring semicircular arches, which inter
lace each other, forming pointed arches at their intersection.
Above these arches there is a band or fillet forming the hase of
the second story, and supporting four double and two Bingte
columns as on the lower stage. From these spring five aemi-
circular'arches, ornamented with a double moulding, the inner
being a zigzag or chevron moulding, such as is generally fouud
on buildings of this style, and tile outer a billet moulding.
Above these arches is a range of corbels carved into grotesque
heads, supporting the upper part of the wall which slightly pro
jects, and from which Bprings the roof. The wall of the chan
cel is pierced in the second story with two windows on .the
south side and one on the north : they are narrow and semicir
cular at top, and are ornamented on the inside with pillars, and
rich mouldings from the soffets of the arches. The apsis also
presents two stories. They are both decorated with pillars and
arches with chevron and billet mouldings, and surmounted by a
range of grotesque corbel heads, as on the chancel ; but the
arches of the lower stage do not interlace each other as in the
lower stage of the chancel. The upper stage of the apsis is also
fiierced with three windows similar to the chancel, and simi-
arly ornamented in the inside ; one of these fronts the east, one
the south-east, and the other north-cast. A lofty arch opened
from the apsis iuto the chancel, and another appears to have
formed the western entrance, both of which are oruamented
with three slender pillars. The portion of the church imme
diately west of this seems to have been erected at a subsequent
period, and to have formed a nave, whilst the chancel then
formed the choir of the church. A third portion appears to
have been added about the period of the Reformation, to in
crease the accommodation, and a fourth portion, forming an
aisle on the north, some time in the last century, for the same
purpose. The three last erected portions form the present
place of worship, the communication with the older portion
except a small door being now closed up. The floor of the old
chancel is formed of grave-stones, and it is now little else than
a tomb. One of the grave-stones has the figure of a lady carved
upon it, and from the inscription, had been placed there in
memory of Dame Agnes Lindsay, the wife of William Bruce of
Earlshall, who appears to have erected a considerable portion
of that ancient mansion. The appearance of this unique
piece of Norman architecture has been considerably injured by
modern alteratiou. The windows on the south side of the chan
cel, and one in the apsis, have been built up, and square win
dows inserted, divided by a single stone mu'llion. The roof of
the apsis, too, has been destroyed by the erection of an ugly
belfry over it, and the other two windows are partially blocked
up by a rude arch thrown across the building to support It It
is highly to be wished that these modern barbarisms were re
moved, and that this beautiful little chapel were restored, as
far as possible, to its original appearance ; which might be done
at no great expense. Nothiug is known as to the exact period
when this portion of the church was built; but from the style
of the architecture, it must have been in the 12th, or early In
the 13th century. Robert de Quinci obtained the lordship of
Leuchars by marriage with the daughter of Ness during the
reigu of William the Lyon ; and his son Seyer de Quinci, Earl
of Winchester, succeeded him in 1190, and died in 1219. As he
resided at Leuchars-castle, and had his principal court there, it
seems extremely probable that it was erected by him, some
time between these two periods, as a place of worship for him
self aud his family.

and well-lighted, and seated for 850 sitters.— There
is only one dissenting chapel in tbe parish, which is
situated at the village of Balmullo. It is connected
with the Associate Synod of Original Seceders. The
parish school is in the village of Leuchars, and is
well-attended. Besides his fees, the teacher has a
dwelling-house and school-room, the maximum salary,
and the interest of 2,000 merks Scots, witn a glebe
of two acres of land bequeathed by the Rev. Alex
ander Henderson. Besides the parish-school there
are three other schools in the parish. One of these
is supported by Mr. Lindsay, of Balcarres, and in it
sewing apd English reading are taught at a cheap rate.
The other two are supported by the fees alone, and
are well-attended. There is also a well-attended
Sabbath evening school. A parish-library has been
instituted by private subscription, which contains a
considerable number of volumes on general literature.
Where the schoolhouse now stands, there was once
a chapel dedicated to St. Bennet, of which Sir
Thomas Wemyss was chaplain at the Reformation.
No remains of it now exist, but stone coffins enclos
ing human bones have been found near its site. It
is said that a chapel also stood near the house of
Ardit, where a small field was called the glebe ; and
at Easter Dron there was another chapel and bury
ing-ground, where a field also retained the name of
the glebe. On Craigie-hill an earthen vase was
found in 1808, which contained 100 silver coins in
excellent preservation. They were Roman, and
mostly of the emperors Severus, Antoninus, Faus
tina, &c.
LEUTHER. See Luther.
LEVEN, a village in the parish of Scoonie, in
Fifeshire ; 9 miles east of Kirkcaldy, and 2 south of
Kennoway. It is situated at the mouth of the river
Leven, which here forms a safe harbour for small
vessels, admitting vessels of 300 tons burthen at
spring-tides. There is another harbour at the an
cient and decayed town of Methill, about a mile to
the west. Between Methill and the mouth of the
Leven there are some fine open links or downs. On
the inner side of these downs lies the neat vil
lage of Dubbieside, belonging to the parish of Mark-
inch, which is connected by a handsome suspension-
bridge with the town of Leven. This very useful
erection cost altogether about £530, which was
raised in shares by a joint-stock company. A half
penny is charged for each person passing. The sta
ple trade of Leven is the weaving of linen goods,
which employs a considerable number of hands. For
the preparation and spinning of flax there are exten
sive works at Kirkland, on the right bank of the
Leven, about half-a-mile above the town. It con
sists of two principal streets, which run parallel to
each other, with a variety of cross lanes branching
off from them ; and contains about 2,000 inhabi
tants, who are chiefly employed in the manufac
ture of coarse linen. There are here a brick and a
tile-work, a bone-mill, a flax spinning-mill, and an
iron-founrlery. It has seven annual fairs, viz., on
the 2d Wednesday in April, O.S. ; the 2d Wednes
day in June, and the 1st and last Wednesday in July ;
the 3d Wednesday in August ; the 3d Wednesday in
September; and 3d Wednesday in October. The
Commercial bank has a branch here. See Scoonie.
LEVEN-CASTLE. See Innerkip.
LEVEN (Loch),+ a beautiful expanse of water,
t " The name, Lochleven, finely discriminates its gentle im
agery, Ltwc, Brit., Loch, Gael., signify ' a lake,' 'an inlet of
the sea,' 'a large diflusion of inland water." Llyvn, Liyvyn,
Brit., 'smooth,' 'even,' 'level;' Leamhain, Gael., mh as »,
' Bmooth,' ' plain,' ' even ;¦ Ltwc-Llyvn, Loch-Leavain, • the lake
of tbe tranquil or waveless water.' Perhaps from Llwyven,
Brit., ' au elm,' or Llwyvin, • belonging to, or abounding with
elm-trees,' Loch-Leven may have been denominated ¦ the Lake
or Elms ;' and, probably, of old, these trees may have been nu
merous on its shores."— Kennedy's ' Gtcnochel,' vol. i. p. 144.

LOCH-LEVEN.

259

in the immediate neighbourhood of the burgh of Kin
ross, and in the south-east quarter of the small shire of
that name. Its circumference is about 10 or 1 1 miles ;
and its bosom is studded with several little islands]
which break the uniformity of its surface and increase
its beauty. The general character of the scenery
which surrounds it is soft and gentle, and not alto
gether deficient in variety. The vale of Kinross
environs it on the west and north-west, with all its
variety of plantations, arable and pasture-fields, plea
sure-grounds and other materials of rural beauty.
On this side, also, close to the margin of the lake,
are seen the ancient town of Kinross, and Kinross-
house, with its adjacent garden and grounds : see
Kinross. About a mile east from this, also near
the lake, are the ruins of Burleigh-castle : which
see. The plain of Orwell bounds the lake on the
north ; the western termination of the Lomond-hills
on tbe north-east ; and the hill of Bennarty on the
south-east side. In this direction, lying between the
West-Lomond hill and the low hill of Balbedie, is a
level tract of carse-ground, about 3 miles in length
and 1 in breadth, through which the Leven flows,
after leaving the lake, towards the frith of Forth.
" Loch-Leven," says a statistical writer, "is popu
larly, believed to be mysteriously connected with the
number eleven, being eleven miles round, surrounded
by eleven hills, fed by eleven streams, peopled by
eleven kinds of fish, and studded by eleven islands.
But some of these properties seem quite fanciful ;
others are untrue." The chief islands in the lake
are only two in number ; the island opposite Kinross,
on which the ruins of the castle stand, and the Inch
of Loch-Leven, or St. Serfs isle, near the east end,
on which are the remains of a religious house. This
religious house, it is alleged, must have been ori
ginally erected here upwards of a thousand years ago;
but only a trifling fragment of the ruins is now left.
A few sheep and cattle, which feed upon its grassy
surface, are now the only inhabitants of St. Serf's
isle; but something has been done of late to improve
the appearance of these islets, by transporting soil to
them, and planting a few trees on them. The island
on which the ruins of the castle stand is about 2
acres in extent ; and here, it is said, a fortress was
first built by Congal, the son of Dongart, king of the
Picts. "In the wars which harassed Scotland, dur
ing the minority of David II., the castle of Loch-
Leven was held in the patriotic interest by Allen de
Vipont, against the troops of Edward III., who
acted in behalf of Edward Baliol. John de Strivilin
blockaded it, erected a fortress in the churchyard of
Kinross, which occupies the point of a neighbouring
promontory ; and, at the lower end of the lake,
where tbe water of Leven issues out of it, it is said,
that he raised a strong and lofty bulwark, by means
of which he hoped to lay the castle under water, and
constrain Vipont to surrender. The water continued
to rise daily, and the besiegers thought themselves
certain of success, when, the English general and
most of his troops having left the camp to celebrate
the festival of St. Margaret at Dunfermline, the be
sieged, seizing the favourable opportunity, (June 19,
1335;) after much labour and perseverance, broke
through the barrier, when the water rushed out with
such impetuosity, as to overwhelm the English en
camped on that side." Loch-Leven, however, de
rives its chief historical interest from the fact of its
castle having been tbe prison of Queen Mary, after
her surrender to the confederated 'Lords at Carberry
Jiill. In the reign of Robert TIL, a branch of the
family of Douglas, had obtained a grant of the castle
of Loch-Leven, with lands on the shore of the lake.
In the middle of the 16th century, Sir Robert Doug
las of Loch-Leven, the near kinsman of the famous

James Earl of Morton, and stepfather to the equally
well-known James Earl of Murray, natural brother
to the Queen, was, in consequence of his connexion
with the leaders of her disaffected subjects, selected
as the jailer of the unfortunate Mary, who was im
prisoned here on the 16th June, 1567. Here, on the
4th July following, she was visited by Lord Ruthven,
Lord Lindsay of the Byres, and Sir Robert Melville,
in name of the confederated lords, by whom she was
forced to sign an instrument, resigning the crown
to her infant son, who, a few days thereafter, was
inaugurated at Stirling under the title of James VI.
The scene which then occurred, as well as the sub
sequent escape of the Queen, have been made lead
ing incidents, by Sir Walter Scott, in his novel of
' The Abbot;' and few descriptions in fictitious nar
rative can be compared, for graphic delineation and
intense pathos, with his account of the unhappy
lady's resignation of the crown of her fathers. The
leading features of his picture are, no doubt, histo
rically true; but the filling up is entirely the work
of his own creative fancy. Who that has read this
narrative, and looks upon the ruins of the castle of
Loch-Leven, can fail to recollect this admirable
piece of historical painting — for so we are entitled to
call it : the tears of the defenceless Queen, the de
termination of Ruthven, and the stern rudeness of
old Lindsay of the Byres ? On the 2d of May, 1568,
after an imprisonment of about eleven months, Mary
effected her escape from the castle, by the aid of a
young relation of the family. A previous attempt,
made on the 25th of April preceding, had been dis
covered, and George Douglas, the younger son ol
Sir Robert, was expelled the castle for being con
cerned in it. Nothing daunted, however, she still
meditated her escape ; and George Douglas, continuing
to hover in the neighbourhood, was enabled to keep
up a correspondence with her, and with others in
the castle. " There was in the castle," says Sir
Walter Scott in a note to ' The Abbot,' " a lad,
named William Douglas, some relation probably of
the baron, and about eighteen years old. This
youth proved as accessible to Queen Mary's prayers
and promises as the brother of his patron George
Douglas." This young man stole the keys of the
castle from the table where they lay, while his lord
was at supper. " He let the Queen and a waiting-
woman out of the apartment where they were se
cured, and out of the door itself, embarked with
them in a small skiff, and rowed them to the shore.
To prevent instant pursuit, he, for precaution's sake,
locked the iron grated door of the tower, and threw
the keys into the lake.* They found George Douglas
and the Queen's servant, Beaton, waiting for them,
arid Lord Seyton and James Hamilton of Orbieston
in attendance, at the head of a party of faithful fol
lowers, with whom they fled to Niddrie castle, and
from thence to Hamilton." Tradition still points
out the spot on the south side of the lake where
Queen Mary landed : it is at some distance from
Kinross, in which town her opponents were quar
tered. Her subsequent defeat at Langside, and her
immediate flight into England, were within a few
days, the unfortunate result of her long-meditated,
and well-executed escape from Loch-Leven. f
* A bunch of large keys, supposed to be those thrown into .
the lake on this occasion, were discovered in the month of
October, 1806, on the sandy shore of the lake, near Kinross-
house. Another bunch of eight ancient keys were found, a
few years ago, in the bed of the lake, between the old church
yard of Kinross, and a small island about half-a-mile from the
castle. -J Queen Mary was not the only prisoner of eminence who
had been confined in this castle. The Earl of Northumberland,
after his rebellion in England, having been seized in Scotland,
was confined in it for three years, from 1569 to 1572, when he
was badely given up to Elizabeth, by whom he was executed.

LEV

260

LEV

The castle of Loch-Leven with its court-yard
occupied a considerable portion of the island : the
remaining portion was chiefly occupied by the gar
den. It is now a mere waste, but it still exhibits a
few fruit trees in a wild and decayed state. The
court-yard, formerly rank with nettles and hemlock,
was cleared out in the summer of 1840, and the accu
mulated soil removed from different parts of the build
ings. The great tower, or keep, of the castle, stood in
the north-west corner of the court-yard, on the side of
the island next Kinross. It is of a square form, four
stories in height, the walls being upwards of six feet
thick. The entrance is in the second story, and must
have been ascended to by an outside stair, having
probably a drawbridge at top ; but all vestiges of
this stair have now disappeared. The door opened
at once into the great hall of the castle, which oc
cupied the whole of the second flat of the building.
Immediately within the door-way, and at the en
trance to the hall, is a square opening into the
vaults below, which must have been covered
with wood. The intention of this seems obvi
ously to have been an additional means of de
fence ; because, though after all the outworks
had been gained by the enemy, and the de
fences to the door of the keep forced, the gar
rison, occupying the hall, could have thrown
down this opening any of the assailants who might
attempt to cross it. The two upper stories of the
keep appear to have been occupied as bedchambers.
The court-yard, which was of considerable extent,
and surrounded by high walls flanked at the corners
by towers, contained a variety of buildings for the
accommodation of the family and the garrison.
Among these, not the least important was the chapel,
which stood west of the great tower, and on the west
side of the court-yard. At the south-east corner is
a round tower which flanks and must have defended
the south and east walls, in which it is said Queen
Mary was confined. Of course, there is only the
authority of tradition for this ; but if it was the case,
the poor lady had but small accommodation during
her imprisonment. The entrance to the court-yard
was by an arched door-way in the north wall, imme
diately adjoining the great tower, by which it was
consequently entirely commanded. The island on
which the castle stands, is at no great distance from
the western shore of the lake ; and between it and
the point of a promontory on that side, a causeway
Of large stones runs beneath the water, which is here
So shallow, that, in dry seasons when the surface is
low, a man can wade along this extraordinary
pavement. How such a work was executed, or
for what purpose, it is not easy to discover. The
trout produced in Loch-Leven are of acknowledged
excellence. The following remarks regarding this
fish are from the Statistical report : — " The high
flavour and bright red colour of the trout, seem
evidently to arise from the food which nature has
provided for them in the loch. A considerable part
of the bottom is oozy and spongy, from which aquatic
herbs spring up in abundance ; and so vigorous are
they in many parts as, towards the beginning of au
tumn, to cover the surface with their flowers. The,
trouts, especially when large, lie much in that kind
of bottom ; and gentlemen accustomed to make ob
servations in angling, know well that, even in clear
running rivers, where their course takes a direction
through a long tract of meadow or oozy ground, the
trout which feed on that ground, if of size, are gen
erally more or less of a pink colour in the flesh.
But what appears to contribute most to the rich
taste of Loch-Leven trout, is the vast quantity of a
small shell-fish, red in its colour, which abounds all
over the bottom of the lake, especially among the

aquatic weeds. The trouts, when caught, have often
their stomachs full of them. These observations
may account for a phenomenon of another kind. In
Loch-Leven are all the different species of hill, or
burn, or river-trout, that are to be met with in Scot
land, evidently appearing from the different manner
in which they are spotted. Yet all these different
kinds, after being two years in the loch, and arriv
ing at three quarters or a pound weight, are red in
the flesh, as all the trout of every kind in the loch
are, except, perhaps, those newly brought down by
floods, and such as are sickly. The silver grey trout,
with about four or five spots on the middle of each
side, is apparently the original native of the loch,
and, in many respects, the finest fish of the whole."
The fishing is alleged to have been considerably in
jured by a partial draining of the loch which has been
effected at an enormous expense, but with a dispro
portionate beneficial result; — the value of the land
reclaimed amounting to little more than the cost of
the works. The height of the loch being considerably
reduced, it was feared at one time that the small
island containing the castle, would become joined to
the main land by the subsiding of the water, and would
lose its classic associations by becoming a suburb of
Kinross. The appearance of the island, by being
raised higher out of the loch than before, is, how
ever, much improved, while the dark and massy
ruins of the castle still frown over the silvery waters
of the lake as in days of yore  The annual average
rise and fall on the loch is about 3 feet ; but in the
autumn of 1839 it rose 15 inches within 48 hours.
LEVEN (The), a river in Fifeshire, which issues
from the south-east end of Loch-Leven, and, after a
course almost due east of about 12 or 14 miles, falls
into the sea at the town of Leven. It is joined by the
Lothry a short way below Leslie-house, and by the
Orr half-a-mile above Cameron-bridge. The Leven.
is a pure and limpid stream, whose waters are pecu
liarly adapted to the purposes of bleaching and pa
per-making. Its current is very rapid, having a fall
of no less than 310 feet in the above distance.
LEVEN (.The), a beautiful though brief river of
Dumbartonshire, carrying off tbe tributary and su-
perfluent waters of Loch-Lomond, from the foot of
that lake at Balloch, to the Clyde at Dumbarton-
castle. Notice of most particulars connected with
it has been taken in the article Bonhill : which see.
During the first half of its course, it bisects the par
ish of Bonhill; and, during the second half, it di
vides that parish and Dumbarton on the east from
Cardross on the west. Owing to the purity of its
water, its banks are dotted with print-works and
kindred manufactories. The vale along which it
flows is exquisitely beautiful, and teems with popu
lation. On its banks are the large villages of Alex
andria, Bonhill, and Renton, and the burgh of Dum
barton, with its suburb of Bridgend. Mr. Galbraith
has calculated the quantity of water discharged by
the Leven to be about 59,939 cubic feet per minute,
when .the river is rather below its average height;
or 877,925,685 tons per annum.
LEVEN (Loch), an arm of the sea, on the west
coast of the Highlands, protruded a length of 12 or
13 miles inland, from Loch-Linnbe ; and separating
the county of Argyle on the south, from Inverness-
shire on the north. On the Argyleshire side is
Balahulish, with its slate-quarries, and in tbe vi
cinity is the famed vale of Glencoe : see these
articles. A small river called the Leven, the issue
of a series of small lakes farther to the east, flows
into it at the head. Macculloch says — "It is with
justice that Glencoe is celebrated as one of the wild
est and most romantic specimens of Scottish scenery;
but those who have written about Glencoe, forget to

LEV

261

LEW

write about Loch-Leven, and those who occupy a
day in wandering from the inns at Balahulish through
its strange and rocky valley, forget to open their eyes
upon those beautiful landscapes which surround them
on all sides, and which render Loch-Leven a spot
that Scotland does not often exceed, either in its
interior lakes or its maritime inlets. From its mouth
to its furthest extremity — a distance of 12 miles —
this loch is one continued succession of landscapes
on both sides, the northern shore being accessible by
the ancient road which crosses the Devil's Staircase ;
but the southern one turning away from the water
near to the quarries. The chief beauties, however,
lie at the lower half; the interest of the scenes di
minishing after passing the contraction which takes
place near the entrance of Glencoe ; and the furthest
extremity being rather wild than beautiful."
LEVEN-SEAT, a mountain in the parish of
Carnwath, in Lanarkshire, 1,200 feet above the
level of the Clyde.
LE VERN (The), also written Lavern and Laveran,
a small river in Renfrewshire, which has its source in
the Long-loch, a lake in the parish of Neilston.
Taking a north-easterly course, it passes the villages
of Neilston, Barrhead, and Hurlet, and receives
other two rivulets, called the Kirkton and the
Brock, and finally falls into the White Cart, near
Crookston-castle, about 3 miles south-east of Pais
ley. It exhibits various scenes of sequestered and
even romantic beauty. Before reaching the level
ground, its velocity is very considerable, and there
are several waterfalls which may justify the deriva
tion of the name from the Celtic words laver-an,
signifying 'the noisy stream.' The cascades in Kil-
loch-glen form a miniature resemblance of the three
celebrated falls on the Clyde. On the banks of the
Levern are six cotton-mills, four printfields, three
bleachfields, and other works, giving employment
to a great number of people. It appears from the
privy seal register, under date 3d December, 1553,
that the noble family of Sempell, besides being her
itable sheriffs of Renfrewshire, held the offices of
coroner and mayor in the bounds betwixt this river
and the Black Cart. The English chronicler, Ailred
or Ethelred, incorrectly called Aldred, when mention
ing the clans who composed the numerous army of
David I. at the battle of the Standard, in 1138, says
that the men of Lothian, with the islanders and the
Lavernani, formed the third line. (Tertium cune-
um, Laodenenses, cum Insulanis et Layernanis, fe-
cerunt.) But who were the Lavernani? To this
puzzling question, George Chalmers, in his Account
of Renfrewshire, confidently declares, " The answer
must be,  the men of Lavernside, one of the finest
streams in this country, which, after many a circle,
joins the White Cart below Paisley, near Crookston-
castle."* This answer, although accepted by sub
sequent writers as sufficient, we are disposed to con
sider unsatisfactory. The Levern is an inconsider
able stream, which runs a course of only about 10
miles ; and it is very improbable that, in the year
1138, when the small district it traverses was thinly
peopled, and overrun with wood, there could have
gone from thence so many fighting men as would
form a division of an army so large as the Scottish
host at the battle of the Standard. Even at the
present day, when the district teems with inhabi
tants, the supposition would be improbable. In
short, the conclusion arrived at by Chalmers appears
to have been founded merely on the similarity of
words, and it is manifest that he was unacquainted
with this quarter of the country ; for he twice over
states that the junction of the Levern with the
»¦ Caledonia, vol. iii. p, 703,

White Cart is below Paisley, instead of above it.f
We are inclined to concur with the judicious Hailes,
who says, " I prefer the opinion of those who ob
serve that the people of Lorn are here understood.
In the Gaelic language they are called Labhern, pro
nounced Lavern. This word, extended by a Latin
termination, might naturally enough have produced
Lavernanus, Lavernani." % In support of this opin
ion, we would add, that Lorn was an extensive and
warlike region, and that soldiers from it were more
likely to be mentioned by name, and to be ranged
with the men of the isles, than the few that the dis
trict now treated of could have sent forth to battle.
LEVERN, a quoad sacra parish in Renfrewshire,
traversed by the above river, from which it received
its name. It was formed in 1834 by authority of the
presbytery, from the south-east part of the Abbey
parish of Paisley, and, to a small extent, from the
parishes of Eastwood and Neilston. The extent of
the parish is 2,275 acres ; greatest length 3 miles ;
greatest breadth 2J miles. It is chiefly landward.
There are several small villages or hamlets. Ac
cording to a survey taken by the minister, assisted
by an elder, in 1837, the population then consisted
of 1,373 churchmen, 392 dissenters, and 10 persons
not known to belong to any denomination, — in all
1,775. Of these there were 144 resident in that
portion of the parish which was disjoined from East
wood, and 16 in that which was disjoined from
Neilston. The parish is in the presbytery of Pais
ley, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patrons, the
communicants. The church was built in 1834, and
opened for public worship in 1835. Including ses
sion-house, gates, and porches, since added, the cost
was £889 8s. Id. Sittings 660. The stipend is
liable to fluctuation. The minimum is £84; and
there is a house and garden, whose annual value is
£20  A Wesleyan Methodist congregation was
established in 1810. It assembles in the upper part
of a building, which was erected in the same year,
and cost £2,000. Sittings 650. The average amount
of stipend is about £100. A furnished house is pro
vided for the minister.
LEWIS,§ one of the largest of the Hebrides
parted by two arms of the sea into two divisions, —
the southern, called Harris, and the northern, Lewis.
The whole island is 82 miles long from the sound of
Bernera to the Butt of Lewis, in a direction running
south-west and north- east ; and the average breadth
may be II miles; superficies 451,000 acres. The
total length of Lewis is 40 miles, from the boundary-
line to the Butt; and its greatest breadth is rather
more than 20. Lewis belongs to Ross-shire; but
Harris is annexed to the county of Inverness: see
Harris. The surface of Lewis — which is of a tri
angular figure, with the apex to the north — is not so
rugged and mountainous as the southern district;
and the low grounds are covered with lakes, mosses,
and swamps. On the coast, the land is of a sandy
soil, but is tolerably fertile when well-manured with
sea-weed. The numerous bays of Lewis, — Loch-
Bernera, Loch-Roig, Loch-Carlowa, with their sub
ordinate indentations, — Loch-Luerbost, Loch-Ren-
hula vig, Loch-Seaforth, and Loch-Clay, afford great
quantities of shell-fish; add the coasts are well-
adapted for the white fish and herring fisheries,
which are prosecuted to advantage. The rocky
cliffs which form the Butt, or northern extremity of
Lewis, rise to the height of 60 or 80 feet, and are
broken into very rugged and picturesque forms. The
loftiest mountain is that of Suaneval, which Dr.
t Sopra, and (same vol.) p. 581, note.
% Annals, vol. i. p. 78.
i. The etymology- of this name is very doubtful. It is com
monly used with' the article, ' The Lewis.'

262

LEWIS.

Macculloch supposes to be nearly equal in height to
Clisseval in Harris, or about 2,700 feet. A group
of hills, on the north side of Loch-Bernera, attain a
height of about 800 feet. Gneiss is the predominant
and fundamental rock. The rivers abound with
trout and salmon. From the number of large roots
of trees which are everywhere dug up, it would ap
pear that, in former times, the island had been
clothed with wood ; but there is now scarce a tree
to be seen, except in a small plantation of birch and
hazel in the neighbourhood of Seaforth-house, the
seat of Lord Seaforth. Every part of the island
' exhibits monuments of antiquity, as duns, fortified
castles, Druidical edifices, cairns, and upright stones.
The most remarkable one, which appears to have
been subservient to the religious rites of the Druids,
is near the small village of Calarnish, in the parish
of Uig: see Uig. Besides the town of Storno-
way [which see] there are several small villages.
The chief employment of the inhabitants is the rear
ing of sheep and black cattle, and the fishery. Lewis
is divided into four parishes; viz., Barvas, Lochs,
Stornoway, and Uig: see these articles. A num
ber of small adjacent islets and rocks belong to the
district of Lewis, some of which are inhabited, but
the greater number are too trivial to deserve particu
lar notice.— Population, in 1801, 9,168; in 1831,
14,541. Houses 2,904.
The reports of the Glenkens society state, that
the huts of the peasantry of Lewis " are, in general,
indescribably filthy. There is only an annual sweep
ing of their houses. The people and cattle are under
the same roof, and on the same area. Very few of
the country dwellings have a single pane of glass.
There is one hole in the roof to allow the excess of
smoke to escape, and another on the top of the wall;
the latter at night, or during a storm through the
day, being stopped with a wisp. Wood is so scarce
and so dear that it cannot be had in sufficient quan
tity to make a good roof. The roofs have no eaves.
The thatch in general is made of stubble or potato-
stalks, which are spread on the scanty wooden roof,
and bound by heather or straw ropes, which again
are at each side of the roof fastened by stones, called
anchors, resting on the top of the broad wall. On
this wall it is no unusual sight to see sheep and
calves feeding, and making a short passage into the
byre through the roof 1 The doors of the houses are
so low, that whoever would gain admittance must
humble himself, and continue in that posture till he
reach the fire, which is always in the middle of the
floor, and very often he must grope his way, or be
led by the hand. From the slightness of the wooden
rafters, much straw or stubble cannot be laid for
thatch, but just sufficient to exclude the daylight.
The thatch is not expected at first to keep ont much
rain until it is properly saturated with soot ; but to
compensate for this defect, the inmates are practical
chemists ; they keep plenty of peats on the fire ;
the interior is soon filled with smoke; the smoke
and increasing heat repel the rain, for a great pro
portion of what falls on the roof is returned to the
atmosphere by evaporation. These houses, after a
smart shower, appear like so many salt-pans or brew-
houses in operation." This account is said to apply
very generally to the habitations of the whole of the
small farmers. Good management of any kind is
not to be expected from people whose domestic ha
bits are so barbarous. They depend upon the pro
duce of the place for almost every thing. Even their
clothing is almost exclusively of their own manufac
ture. Their time, when occupied at all, is " devoted
indiscriminately to the mixed avocations of husbandry,
fishing, kelp-making, grazing," &c. Their agricul
ture is wretched. " The women are miserable slaves;

they do the work of brutes, carry the manure in
creels on their backs from the byre to the field, and
use their fingers as a five-pronged grape to fill them.
The thatch of the houses saturated by the smoke
with sooty particles is considered valuable, for every
summer the roof is stripped, and the inner layer of
straw, which contains the soot, is carried carefully
to the potato or barley field, and strewed on the
crop. Small tenants and cottars generally till the
ground by the Chinese plough of one stilt or handle,
and the cas-chrom, a clumsy instrument like a large
club shod with iron at the point, and a pin at the
ancle for the labourer's foot. It is a disgrace to see
women working with it. No sickle is used for the
barley among the small tenants : the stalk is plucked,
the ground is left bare." The return is very scanty
in some places, occasionally insufficient for the con
sumption of the population. It can excite no sur
prise that, with all these discomforts, the inhabitants
of the Lewis, in the opinion of a medical man resi
dent on the spot, " may be said to die at an early
age." Still they are deeply attached to the land of
their birth ; a great proportion of them are alto
gether uneducated ; and it is said that the people of
Barvas even keep their children from school, lest,
being thus made acquainted with better countries,
they should be induced to leave their own inhospi
table home.--Macculloch made here a discovery of
a race of people entirely different from the ordinary
Highlanders. We shall allow him to tell the circum
stance in his own words: — "At the Butt, which
forms the northern headland, we found many boats
employed in fishing ; and their whole style appeared
so new, that we lay to for the purpose of bringing
one of them alongside. They were manned by nine
men, having eight rowers in double banks, — a prac
tice nowhere else in this country. We found them
a lively, good-humoured people, totally unlike, in
manners as well as persons, to their neighbours.
They present an interesting singularity in the popu
lation of these islands, being of pure Danish origin,
although speaking unmixed Gaelic, as our seamen
assured us. It would not have been easy to mistake
them for Highlanders; as they resembled exactly
the people whom we had every day met manning the
northern timber-freighted ships. Fat and fair, with
the ruddy complexions and the blue eyes of their
race, their manners appeared peculiarly mild and
pleasing, although their aspect seemed, at first sight,
rude enough ; their hair being matted, as if from
their birth it had never been profaned by comb or
scissors; and their dress being of woollen only, with
conical caps, and without handkerchief or vestige of
linen. We found, on subsequent inquiry, that they
constituted an independent colony, if it may so be
called ; scarcely mixing with their neighbours, and
never indeed but when brought unavoidably into
contact with them, as at markets : the other inhabi
tants, in return, considering them in the light of
foreigners, and maintaining no voluntary communi
cation with them. They were, however, well-
spoken of, as acute and intelligent, and as being
very industrious fishermen. They possess this green
northern extremity of the island in joint tenantry ;
and their agriculture appeared to be carried on in
the same slovenly manner that it usually is upon
this system. Judging from their aspect, however,
we considered them as much better fed than their
neighbours, and understood that they only fished for
their own consumption. The existence of a detach
ment of the original Northmen who so long pos
sessed a large share in these islands, in a state ol
such purity, and of a separation which is almost
hostile, appears a remarkable circumstance ; but it
is, perhaps, more remarkable that it should be the

LEY

263

LIB

case nowhere else, and that the breed should,
throughout all the rest of the islands, have so com
pletely coalesced with the native Celts. Even in
Shetland and Orkney, where a separate northern
breed might have been more naturally expected,
nothing of this kind occurs, nor do the natives of
these islands present, by any means, such distinct
traces of a Scandinavian origin as this little com
munity. The characteristic circumstance of the
matted hair, is peculiar to these few individuals,
yet scrupulously preserved ; and it must have de
scended, with them, from the most ancient times.
That the whole of this island, or at least the greater
part, was originally Norwegian, is not improbable ;
and Macleod, to whom, as chief, it belonged, was
unquestionably of northern descent."
LEYS. See Banchory-Ternan.
LHANBRYD, or St. Andrew's Lhanbryd, a
parish in Morayshire ; bounded on the north by the
Moray frith; on the east by Urquhart; on the south
by Elgin; and on the west by Drainy, from which
it is separated by the Lossie. Its length, from north
to south, is upwards of 4 miles : breadth, from east
to west, about 3 miles. Houses 211. Assessed
property, in 1815, £1,826. Population, in 1801,
799; in 1831, 1,087  This parish forms a plain diver
sified with low hills. The soil is sandy, but in gen
eral fertile ; 4,000 acres of the land are under culti
vation, and about 700 are under wood. The partial
drainage of Spynie-loch, which lies on the confines of
this parish, has been noticed under article Drainy :
which see. There are an extensive distillery here,
and two other manufactories, in one of which wool
is converted into blankets, flannel, &c. : at Newmill
there is a cast-iron foundery. There is a Druidical
monument in this parish nearly entire : another has
been latterly destroyed  The parish is in the pres
bytery of Elgin, and synod of Moray. Patrons, the
Crown and the Earl of Moray. Stipend £206 19s. ;
value of glebe not stated. Schoolmaster's salary
£27 15s. 6d., bequeathed by an ancestor of the
family of Fife, besides other resources, amounting,
in all, nearly to the maximum allowed by 43° Geo.
III. cap. 54 : fees £10 per annum. There is a pri
vate academy at Calcots. The Rev. William Leslie,
author of a Survey of the Province of Moray, &c.
was minister of this parish. He died in April, 1839,
at an advanced age.
LIBBERTON, a parish in the upper, ward of
Lanarkshire, including the old parish of Quothquan,
or Quodquam, which was annexed to it in 1669. It
is bounded by Carnwath on the north ; Symington
and Biggar on the south ; Biggar and Walston on
the east ; and Covington and Pittenain on the west.
Its form is very irregular; it extends about 7 miles
in length, 4£ miles in breadth, and contains about
14 square miles, or 8,700 imperial acres. The face
of the country exhibits considerable diversity in ap
pearance. The western division along the banks of
Clyde, presents an extensive stretch of haughs or
fertile soil, which are frequently overflowed by the
inundations of that river. As the land recedes from
the Clyde towards the eastern side of the parish, it
becomes elevated, the grain later in ripening, and less
productive. The parish is both pastoral and agri
cultural, and in all there may be about 500 acres of
plantation scattered here and there over its surface.
In addition to the Clyde, the parish is watered by
the North and South Medwins, which form a junc
tion here, before they discharge their waters into
the larger river. It is worthy of note that a small
branch of the South Medwin, instead of running to
the west, like the parent-stream, flows off to the
eastward, divides at Dolphinton, the counties of
Lanark and Peebles, and then falls into the Tweed.

The only hill or mountain in the parish which de
serves notice is Couthboun-Law or Quothquan-Law,
which rises 600 feet above the level of tbe Clyde, is
green and verdant to the very summit, and forms
altogether a most beautiful feature in the landscape.
Upon this hill is shown a large rough stone, hol
lowed out in the middle, which is dignified with the
name of Wallace's chair, from the popular tradition
which exists in the country, and which the people
dwell on with fond delight, that the patriot warrior
was at one time located here, and held conferences
with his band before the battle of Biggar. Accord
ing to Blind Harry, Sir Thomas Gray, a priest, who
attended Wallace, and assisted in recording his pa
triotic actions, was parson of Libberton. This hon
our has been claimed for the parish of Liberton in
Mid-Lothian ; but it is well known that Clydesdale
is the principal scene of the deeds of daring of this
heroic man. The only public road in the parish is
that between Glasgow and Peebles, which traverses
it about a mile, and the parish roads are not gen
erally in the best order. Carnwath is the post-town
and nearest market; it is fully 2 miles from the
church of Libberton. There are no valuable miner
als, the coal which is used being principally conveyed
from Douglas or Carnwath, at a distance of from 8
to II miles from the respective portions of the parish.
Population, in 1811, 749; in 1821, 785; in 1831,
773; and in 1841, 790, with 175 inhabited houses.
Assessed property, £3,790  Libberton is situated
in the presbytery of Biggar, and synod ofTjOthian
and Tweeddale. Patron, Sir Norman Macdonald
Lockhart of Lee and Carnwath. The church was
built in 1812 for 450 sitters, which is quite suffi
cient for the wants of the parish. Stipend £22P
3s. Id.; glebe £16  The ordinary branches ot
education are taught in the parish. The salary
of the parochial master is £30 per annum, with
about £20 of school-fees, and other emoluments,
consisting of session-clerkship, &c. There is also
a school at Quothquan, supported by a small mor
tification, and the school-fees. There are attached
a free dwelling-house and school-room. The prin
cipal proprietors in the parish are Sir N. M'Doi-
ald Lockhart, and Mr. Chancellor of Shieldhill
and Quothquan. This portion of the Lockhart
estates was sold by the 4th Earl of Carnwath, in
1676, to Sir George Lockhart, afterwards President
of the Court-of-session, who was assassinated in
March 1689, and they have remained in the family
ever since. The lands of Quothquan and Shield-
hill have, however, been in possession of the Chan
cellor family for more than 400 years, a charter being
still extant containing a grant of them by Lord
Sommerville to the ancestor of the Chancellor fam
ily. The proprietor of the estate in the time of
Queen Mary took part with that fair and unfortu
nate princess, and was engaged at the battle of Lang-
side, in consequence of which his mansion-house at
Quothquan was soon afterwards burned down by
the adherents of the victorious Regent Murray.
The residence was then removed to Shieldhill, its
present site. The parishioners of Libberton were
amongst those who zealously took part in the re
sistance to Episcopacy in the time of Charles II. ,
and in Wodrow's history it is stated that the parish
of Libberton was fined £252 8s. Scots, and Quoth
quan £182 16s. Scots, for nonconformity. James
Chancellor of Shieldhill was imprisoned after the
battle of Bothwell bridge, on the charge of having
harboured some of the fugitive insurgents, but he
was soon thereafter liberated for lack of proof-
There are some obscure remains of a camp or forti-
cation in the parish, believed to be of Pictish origin.
LIBERTON, a parish in Edinburghshire, stretch-

264

LIBERTON.

ing from near the eastern termination of the Pent
land hills to within a few yards of the frith of Forth
at Magdalene bridge, and from the immediate vicin
ity of Edinburgh to within a mile of Dalkeith. It
consists of a main body, not far from being square,
presenting angles nearly to the cardinal points of the
compass, and measuring about 2J or 3 miles deep;
and of two angular projections from its north corner,
— one, half-a-mile broad at its base, running j of a
mile north-north-westward to Salisbury Green, — .
and the other, 1£ broad at its base, running 3, miles
north-eastward to the vicinity of the frith of Forth.
Its area is variously computed tq contain 4,140 and
upwards of 4,700 acres. It is bounded on the north
west by St. Cuthbert's; on the north hy Dudding
ston; on the east by lnveresk, Newton, and Dalkeith;
on the south by Lasswade; and on the west by
Colinton. The parish is one of the richest and most
beautiful in the Lothians. Its surface is exquisitely
diversified, with low broad ridges, gentle rising
grounds, undulating swells, and intermediate plains,
nowhere attaining sufficient elevation to be called a
hill, nor anywhere subsiding long from the -constant
and ever-varying curve of beauty. The Braid hills
and the Blackford hills send down their cultivated
eastern slopes within the western limits. As to
relative position, the parish lies in the very core of
the rich hanging plain or northerly exposed lands of
Mid-Lothian, and commands from its mild heights
prospects the most sumptuous of the urban landscape
and romantic hills of the metropolis, the dark form
and waving outline of the Pentland hills and their
spurs, the minutely featured scenery of the exulting
Lothians, the frith of Forth, the clear coast-line and
white-washed towns and distant hills of Fife, and
the blue bold sky-line of mountain-ranges away in
the far perspective. The parish itself has a thou
sand attractions, and is dressed out in neatness of
enclosures, profusion of garden-grounds, opulence of
cultivation, elegance or tidiness of mansion, village, '
and cottage, and busy stir and enterprise of popula
tion which indicate full consciousness of the imme
diate vicinity of the proudest metropolis in Europe.
Two rivulets, thoagh very inconsiderable in volume,
diffuse vegetable wealth along their banks, and drive
a surprisingly large number of mills. One of them,
approaching from the west, runs first 1£ mile along
the southern boundary, then 4£ miles north-eastward
through the interior to Niddry Mains, and then 1£
mile along the northern boundary, to fall into the
frith a few yards onward at Magdalene bridge. The
other, Braid-burn, runs across it on the north over
a distance of only 2| or 2£ miles, coming in from
St. Cuthbert's, flowing past Nether Liberton, and,
passing away into Duddingston. The soil of the
parish, though naturally poor and unkindly, has, in
most parts, been improved by gepfgical appliances
into a rich and very fertile loam, and is, in other
places, but oyer comparatively a small extent, either
a thin wet clay or a dry gravel. Hardly an acre of
waste ground exists, and where the soil continues to
be inferior, skill and labour are rapidly enriching it ;
and owing to the vicinity of Edinburgh, the prevail
ing good land pays exceedingly high rents. Nearly
six-sevenths of the whole area are constantly sub
jected to the plough, and the rest is disposed in gar
dens, shrubberies, wood, and grass. Mines of great
value, of various produce, and of cpnsiderable anti
quity, exist at Gilmerton and Burdiehouse : See
these articles. Quarries of prime sandstone for
building exist at Straiton, Craigmillar, and Niddry.
At St. Catherine's, a mile south of Kirk-Liberton
village, is a bituminous spring, anciently called the
Balm well, which partly holds mineral oil or petro
leum in solul'ion, and partly throws it up in numer

ous little masses to the surface. The well was, iij
popish days, made a convenient tool of priestcraft,
figured in monkish legends and popular credulity as
an object of miraculous origin, had an annual pro
cession made to it by a body of nuns in honour of
St. Catherine, was honoured with the visit and some
special attentions oif James VI., and enjoyed the
fivme — founded probably on some instances of real
utility — of having high, perhaps supernatural, power
oyer certain diseases. Close Qn the western extrem
ity of the parish, is the hill of Galachlaw, famous
as the site of Oliver Cromwell's encampment, in
1650, with a force of 16,000, previous to the battle
of Dunbar. A little east of it, at Mortonhall, are
some tumuli, supposed to have been of Roman ori
gin. Borough-muir, a place repeatedly made promi
nent in the warlike history of Scotland and its me
tropolis, is within the parish. In the demesne of
Drum, the ancient residence of the family of Somer,-
ville, stands part of the old market-cross of Edin
burgh, removed thither in 1756. But the grand
civil antiquity of the parish is Craigmillar Castle :
which see. Besides Mortpnhall and Drum, there
are the mansions of Inch House, built in 1617, —
Brunstane, built by Lord Lauderdale in 1639,—
Niddry, an ancient baronial edifice, modernized and
extended by a recent addition, — Southfleld, — More-
dun, — St. Catherine's, — MountVernon,— Sunnyside,
— and several villas. At eight of these are large,
beautiful, and very fructiferous gardens; and at
Niddry and Moredun are very splendid holly hedges,
of great height and density, and of massive and im
posing aspect. The villages of Gilmerton, Bur
diehouse, and Niddry, are separately noticed.
Kirk-Liberton, the site of the parish-church, and a
neat small village, stands on the summit of a low
broad-based ridge, 2| miles from the Tron church
of Edinburgh. Nether Liberton, | of a mile nearer
Edinburgh, is only a small hamlet. About 15 other
villages and hamlets are in the parish, but ppssess
importance only in the aggregate. The parish is
traversed across its main body by four of the great
lines of turnpike which diverge from the metropolis,
and across its eastern projection by the Edinburgh
and Dalkeith railway. Population, in 1801, 3,565;
in 1831, 4,063. Houses 865. Assessed property,
in 1815, £28,904.
Liberton is in the presbytery of Edinburgh, and
synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £326 14s. 7d. ; glebe £20. Un
appropriated teinds £306 0s. 9d. The parish-church
was built in 1815. Sittings 1,430. |t is a hand
some semi-Gothic structure, surmounted by a square
tower with pinnacles, and forming a conspicuous and
pleasing object in the landscape environing Edin
burgh. The minister's survey, in 1835, showed the
population to have then, from the rasure of a village
and other causes, decreased to 3,562,— of whom
2,873 were churchnien, and 643 were dissenters.
The populous village and district of Gilmerton are
now detached quoad sacra from Liberton, and make
a separate parish. A preaching-station of the Es
tablishment is maintained at the village of Niddry.
Parish schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with £46
fees, and £2 8s. 9Jd. o.ther emoluments: There are
eight private schools — An hospital anciently stood
at Upper Liberton, a little west of Kirk-Liberton;
and may have occasioned the name Leper-town, sup
posed to be the original form of the modern appella
tion Liberton. At the same place stood, till within
the last ten years, a tall peel-house or tower, which
made some pretensions to have belonged to a baron
called Macbeth, who held a considerable part of the
lands of Liberton during the reign of David I., tmfl
witnessed some of David's charters. In connexion

LIC

265

LIF

with this barony, Liberton comes first ecclesiasti
cally into notice, as a chapelry erected by him, and
subordinated to the church of St. Cuthbert. The
chapel, situated at Kirk-Liberton, was probably de
dicated to the Virgin, there having been a spring
near it called Our Lady's well ; and it had attached
to it a glebe of two oxgates of land. With St.
Cuthbert's church, David I. granted the chapel to
the canons of Holyrood; and he gave also to the
same parties, from Crown property, brushwood of
his woodlands of Liberton, and the tithes of a mill
at Nether Liberton. In 1240, the chapelry, at the
request of the abbot of Holyrood, was disjoined by
the bishop of St. Andrews from the parish of St.
Cuthbert's, and constituted a rectory belonging to
the abbey ; and thence till the Reformation, it was
served by a vicar. For a brief period succeeding the
year 1633, it was a prebend of the short-lived and
inglorious bishopric of Edinburgh ; and, at the final
abolition of episcopacy, it reverted to the disposal
of the Crown. Subordinate to the parish-church,
there were in popish times two chapels. St. Cath
erine's, the more ancient, stood in the vicinity of
the existing cognominal mansion and bituminous well.
The chapel was surrounded by a burying-ground,
but, along with that accompaniment, was completely
demolished after the Reformation, and long ago has
quite disappeared. The other chapel stood at Nid
dry, close to the site of the present mansion, and is
commemorated by its burying-ground, which con
tinues to be in use, and by some faint vestiges of its
walls. It was founded in 1389 by Wauchope of
Niddry, dedicated to the Virgin Mary ; and was after
wards re-endowed by a descendant with h manse
and glebe. At the Reformation, both the chapelry
and its revenues were attached to Liberton church.
A chapel built by James V. at Bridgend, and a pres-
byterian chapel, built at Craigmillar during the in
dulgence given by James VII., still exist, and are
used as stables. The Borough-muir, as appears from
a charter of confirmation dated 1516, belonged, at
one time, to the nuns of Sheens, votaries of the
Italian St. Catherine of Sienna. — . Among distin
guished natives of the parish have -been Mr. Clement
Little of Upper Liberton, who founded the College
library of Edinburgh, — Sir Symon de Preston of
Craigmillar, in whose house as provost in Edinburgh
Queen Mary was lodged on the night after the affair
of Carberry-hill, — Sir John Gilmour of Craigmillar,
who was Lord-president of the Court-of-session
about tbe period of the Restoration, — Gilbert Wau
chope and Sir John Wauchope of Niddry, the former
a member of the celebrated Reformation parliament
of 1560, and the latter a distinguished Covenanter,
and a member of the General Assembly of 1648, —
and Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees, who, from 1692
till 1713, filled the office of Lord-advocate of Scot
land. The Wauchopes of Niddry have had a seat
in the parish for nearly 500 years, and are probably
the oldest family in Mid-Lothian. In the Transac
tions of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries is a paper
on Liberton, containing minute and learned notices
of its families and localities.
LIBO (Loch). See Neilston.
LICHART, or Luichart (Loch), a lake in
Ross-shire, on the borders of the parish of Gairloch,
about 4 miles in length, and from half-a-mile to 1
mile in breadth. It discharges itself by a river of
the same name into the Conan : which see.
LIDDEL (The), a river of the parish of Castle
town, Roxburghshire, and of the western part of the
boundary with England. It rises in the extreme north
corner of Castletown, in a vast bog called Dead
water, the source also at some miles' distance of the
English Tyne ; receives, in the early part of its

course, many considerable feeders, which all ap
proach and enter it at considerably acute angles;
and runs 16 miles south- westward, swollen at dif
ferent stages by the Hermitage, the Tweeden, the
Blackburn, and the Tinnis, when it is joined, on its
left bank, by Kershope-water, the boundary, for 7\
miles, with England. For 10 miles from its source
its banks are bleak and naked, — in most places, a
mountain gorge or glen; but afterwards they are
spread out in a beautiful though not broad valley,
carpeted with fine verdure, adorned with beautiful
plantations, and screened by picturesque heights.
After its confluence with the Kershope, it continues
its south-westerly direction, becomes beautifully
sinuous, and runs in a straight line 7£ miles to the
Esk, dividing Castletown 2£ miles, and Canobie in
Dumfries-shire 5 miles from England. Its additional
tributaries are numerous, but all individually small.
In all the lower part of its course, its banks are
sylvan, picturesque, and, at intervals, romantic; and,
at a cataract called Penton-linns, 3 miles from the
confluence with the Esk, they are wildly yet beau
tifully grand. Stupendous rocky precipices fall sheer
down to the bed of the stream, and wall up the
water within a narrow broken channel ; they have,
along their face on the Scottish side a terrace- walk
carried along a ledge, and affording a view of the
vexed and foaming stream, torn into shreds and
lashed into foam among tbe obstructing rocks of the
cataract; and they are- fringed and patched in their
crevices with a rich variety and fine tinting of ex
uberant copsewood. In the middle of the cataract
rises from the river's bed a solitary large rock
crowned with shrubs, whose broken and wood-
adorned summit figures majestically in a conflict
with the roaring waters during a high flood. At
its confluence with the Esk a sort of promontory is ,
formed, on which stand the ruins of a fort called in
the district the Strength of Liddel. The Liddel is
an excellent trouting-stream.
LIDDESDALE, a district of Roxburghshire,
drained by the Liddel, taking its name from that
stream, and identical, as to both limits and history,
with the parish of Castletown : which see. The
lordship of Liddesdale seems to have been early the
property of remarkable men. It was forfeited, in
1320, by William Soulis, when he plotted against
Robert Bruee ; it was granted by Robert Bruce to his
son Robert, who soon after died ; it was transferred,
in 1342, by David 1,1., to William, Earl of Douglas;
and, after various forfeitures, it went finally into tbe
possession of the prosperous and potent family of
Scott. In 1747, the Duke of Buccleuch received
£600 as compensation for its hereditary jurisdiction,
which was then abolished.
LIFF and BEN VIE, an united parish in the south
west extremity of Forfarshire, and south-east of Perth
shire ; bounded on the north by Auchterhouse ; on the
north-east by Strathmartine and Mains ; on the east
by Dundee; on the south by the frith of Tay; and
on the south-west and west by Perthshire. It is
nearly a parallelogram of 3 J miles by If stretching
north and south. The streams which drain it, with
the exception of Dighty- water, which, with a small
tributary, forms the northern boundary, are described
in the article Invergowrie : which see. The surface
rises, in general, from tbe Tay, and forms, on the west,
a part of the Carse of Gowrie. The soil, in the south
ern division, is either clay or a black-coloured loam;
and, toward the north, it is, in general, light andsandy,
and rests occasionally on rock or mortar. Agricultural
prowess and taste are everywhere apparent. The
eastern division approaching within 1£ mile of the
burgh of Dundee, the lands of it pay high rents, and;
enjoy every appliance of improvement. Very exten-

266

LILLIESLEAF.

sive plantations stretch along the north ; and woods,
abundant enough for shelter and ornament, fling their
shade over the other districts. Near the centre of
the parish stands Camperdown-house, — so named
from Admiral Lord Duncan's victory of 1797. The
edifice now used as the family-mansion in place
of Lundie-house, is constructed of white sand
stone, exhibits a fine specimen of Grecian architec
ture, and is now the property of Admiral Lord
Duncan's son, the Earl of Camperdown, raised to
the earldom in 1831. Lundie, the paternal property
of the Earl, stands in the north-east corner of the
parish. Half-a-mile south of the village of Liff
stands Gray-house, the family-mansion of Lord Gray,
finely situated on a gentle ascent amid large old trees.
Upwards of 2 miles west of Gray-house, near the ex
tremity of the western projecting stripe of the parish,
stands the spacious mansion of Balrudderie, erected
by the keen and skilful agriculturist, Mr. Webster.
Close on the western boundary of the main body of
the parish, 4J miles from Dundee, stands the village
of Liff, and, a mile south of it, stands the hamlet of
Benvie. Both are ancient, and were for some time
prosperous, but have suffered grievous decay and de
sertion. Some dozen bouses have recently been
erected on tbe Perthshire side of the stream which
divides the two counties. In the villages, in some
hamlets, and in detached houses, reside a large pop
ulation strictly suburban in position, employment,
and character to Dundee. The weaving of linen
fabrics for the Dundee manufacturers is extensively
conducted. Freestone abounds in the parish. In
the neighbourhood of Lundie-house was discovered,
toward the close of last century, a subterranean
building of several apartments, rude in structure,
and uncemented by mortar. Close on the boundary
.with Dundee is a place called Pitalpie, or Pit of
Alpin, from having been the scene of that memor
able engagement, in the 9th century, between the
Scots and the Picts, when the former lost victory,
many nobles, and their king: See Dundee. The
parish is traversed by the turnpikes from Dundee re
spectively to Newtyle, Blairgowrie, and Perth, and
by various other roads, and enjoys other facilities of
communication with seaward places by means of its
vicinity to Dundee  The Dundee harbour trustees
have a claim for shore-dues beyond Invergowrie-
burn. Population, in 1801, 2,194; in 1831, 4,217.
Houses 740. Assessed property, in 1815, not re
turned  The parish is in the presbytery of Dun
dee, and synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron,
Earl Gray. Stipend £267 17s. 4d. ; glebe £18
18s. Unappropriated teinds £1,006 14s. 6d. A
very populous part of tbe eastern division is in
cluded in the quoad sacra parish of Lochee. Liff
and Benvie were united in 1 758. The schools, ex
clusive of those in Lochee parish, are two,  one of
them private. Parochial schoolmaster's salary, £34
4s. 4Jd., with £36 15s. fees.
LILLIESLEAF, a parish in the north-west divi
sion of Roxburghshire ; bounded on the north-west
by the Roxburghshire part of Selkirk parish; on the
north by Bowden ; on the east by Ancrum ; on the
south by Minto and a detached part of Selkirkshire ;
and on the west by Ashkirk. Its extreme length from
east to west is 5 miles ; its mean breadth is about 2
miles and a furlong; and its area is upwards of 7,000
acres. Ale-water, remarkable for the fine quality
of its trouts, forms, for half-a-mile, the southern
boundary; flows 3 miles north-eastward through the
interior, runs 3 miles debouchingly along the north
ern and eastern boundaries, and passes away east
ward into Ancrum. Several broad low ridges, and
waving alternations of slope and valley, diversify
the surface of the parish ; and though all capable of

cultivation, and at one time subjected to the plough,
are distributed in nearly equal proportions into arable
lands and pasture. About 600 acres are planted, and
about 50 are mossy and waste. The soil is partly a
light sand, partly clay, and partly a rich loam. Two
marl pits have given up much treasure to the arable
grounds. Agriculture wasgreatlyimprovedhereby the
example and exertions of Sir John Buchanan Riddel],
Bart, of Riddell ; but, upon tbe death of that gen
tleman in 1819, his extensive lands, which had been
nearly all disposed in arable farms, were laid out in
grass, and, for the most part, continue to be un-
ploughed. On the left bank of Ale-water, | of a
mile west of the village of Lilliesleaf, stands Riddell-
house. Soon after the death of Sir John B. Riddell,
Bart., this mansion and the Riddell estate were sold
to a gentleman of the name of Sprot ; yet, in spite
of their having found a new proprietor, they possess
a strong antiquarian interest. " The family of Rid
dell," says Sir Walter Scott, in his Notes to the
' Lay of the Last Minstrel,' "have been verv long
in possession of the barony called Riddell or Ryedale,
part of which still bears the latter name. Tradition
carries their antiquity to a point extremely remote,
and is in some degree sanctioned by the discovery of
two stone-coffins,— one containing an earthen pot
filled with ashes and arms, bearing a legible date,
a. d. 727, tbe other dated 936, and filled with the
bones of a man of gigantic size. These coffins were
discovered in the foundations of what was, but has
long ceased to be, the chapel of Riddell, and, as it
was argued with plausibility that they contained the
remains of some ancestors of the family, they were
deposited in the modern place of sepulture, compa
ratively so termed, though built in 1110." A well-
informed and elegant historian supposes the family
to have settled at Riddell in the 7tb or the 8th cen
tury. Grants of land, or confirmation charters and
bulls, were given to them before the close of the
12th century, by David I. and Malcolm II., and by
Popes Adrian V. and Alexander III. From the
earliest traceable ancestor of the family down to him
who died in 1821, the lands of Riddell and the
Whittunes descended, through a long train of ances
tors, without once diverging from direct lineal suc
cession. Mr. Archibald Riddell, brother to the laird
of Riddell, was a devout, zealous, distinguished
covenanting minister, a little after the middle of the
17th century, took part with the celebrated Black-
adder in conducting field-preachings in the south,
and, about the year 1679, suffered imprisonment
from the persecutors, who truculently wielded the
civil power. Lilliesleaf, or Lilsly-muir, was the
scene of frequent ' conventicles,' as they are called,
— multitudinous and endangered assemblies of the
Covenanters for hearing the word of God. Many
of the parishioners appear to have been stout oppo
nents of the court-religion, — and several seem to
have suffered for their principles. Frequent skii-
mishes occurred in the parish with the troops of the
persecutors ; and a numerous party of presbyterians,
on their march to Both well-bridge, were attacked
by an overpowering force, fled to Bewley-moss in
the parish, and sank in the morass. In 1771, when
the old church was pulled down, a coffin, containing
several human skulls— lodged there, it is supposed,
to prevent their being exposed on the ports of the
neighbouring towns— was found beneath one of the
seats — The village of Lilliesleaf stands a little north
of the centre of the parish, 6 miles east of Selkirk,
9 north of Hawick, and 10 west of Jedburgh, and 6
south-west of Lessudden. It has a population of
about 400, is tbe site of the parish-church and of a
meeting-house of the United Secession, and straggles"
to a great length along both sides of a road, in

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267

LIN

houses of generally poor appearance. Tbe place
has no manufacture, no stir, no command of fine
scenery, nothing whatever to relieve its pervading
monotony and dulness. On the estate of Riddell
is a saw-mill. The parish has no turnpike, but is
not destitute of good subordinate roads. Population,
in 1801, 673; in 1831, 781. Houses 146. Assessed
property, in 1815, £6,328  Lilliesleaf is in the
presbytery of Selkirk, and synod of Merse and Te
viotdale. Patron, the Duke of Roxburgh. Stipend
£243 8s. 5d. ; glebe £17. Unappropriated teinds
£80 19s. 3d. Schoolmaster's salary £30, with £13
13s. 4d. fees, and about £10 other emoluments. A
non-parochial school was attended, in 1834, by 72
scholars  In 1128, David I. granted to the monks
of Kelso the tithes of the mill of Lilliesleaf, and also
30 acres of land lying between the Ale and the vil
lage. The ancient church was of high but of unas
certained date, and, in the Inqujsitio of Earl David,
was found to have belonged, before the year 1116,
to the church of Glasgow, and was early confirmed
to the bishopric of that city by several papal bulls.
At Hermiston, in the southern extremity of the par
ish, there was anciently a church, which also be
longed to Glasgow. At a place still called Chapel,
half-a-mile north-east of the village, formerly stood
a chapel, around which was a cemetery called Cha
pel-park. LIMEKILNS, a considerable village and sea-port
in Fifeshire, in the parish of Dunfermline ; 3 miles
south of that town ; 4 west of Inverkeithing ; and
4 east of Torryburn. The harbour is excellent, ad
mitting with ease, at stream-tides, vessels of 300
tons burden. It carries on an extensive trade in
lime and coal. It had 1,127 inhabitants in 1836. —
A United Secession congregation was established
here in 1784. Church built in 1825; sittings 1,056;
cost £2,000. Stipend £150, with manse.
LINCL0DEN, an ancient and ruined religious
house, H mile north of Dumfries, but situated on
the right bank df the Cluden or Cairn at its conflu
ence with the Nith, in the parish of Terregles,
Kirkcudbrightshire. The house was originally a
convent for Benedictine or Black nuns, and was
founded by Uchred, son to Fergus, and father to
Roland, lords of Galloway. But about tbe end of
the 14th century, Archibald, Earl of Douglas, and
Lord of Galloway, called the Grim, expelled the nuns
on account of debauched conduct, and converted the
establishment into a college or provostry, for a pro
vost and 12 canons, — afterwards so altered as to ad-
rait a provost, 8 prebendaries, 24 beadsmen, and a
chaplain. The Earls of Douglas, when in the zenith
of their power, expended considerable sums in orna
menting the place, and, when wardens of the West
marches, adopted it as their favourite residence.
From what remains of the ancient building, which
is part of the provost's house, the chancel, and some
of the south wall of the church, an idea may easily
be attained of its former splendour. The choir, in
particular, was finished in the finest style of the flo
rid Gothic ; the roof was treble, in the manner of
that of King's college, Cambridge ; -and the trusses,
whence sprung the ribbed arch-work, are covered
with armorial bearings. Over the door of the ves
try are the arms of the Grim Earl, the founder of
the provostry, and those of bis lady, who was heiress
of Bothwell. Both he and Uchred, the founder of
the nunnery, were buried in the place! In the
chancel is the elegant tomb of Margaret, daughter
of Robert III., and wife of Archibald, Earl of Dou
glas, 1st Duke of Teronan, and son of Archibald the
Grim. " Her effigy," at full length, says Mr. Pen
nant, "lay on the stone, her head resting on two
cushions; but the figure is now mutilated; and her

bones, till lately, were scattered about in a most in
decent manner, by some wretches who broke open
the repository in search of treasure." The tomb is
in the form of an arch, all the parts most beautifully
carved. On the middle of the arch is the heart, the
armorial bearing of the Douglases, guarded by three
chalices set crosswise, with a star near each, — the
chalices supposed to be emblematic of the office ot
the Douglases, as cup-bearers of Scotland, the stars
the original bearings of the family, and the heart the
proud addition made to their insignia after the good
Sir James carried that of Robert Bruce to the Holy
Land. On the wall is the inscription : "Al'aidede
Dieu;': and at some distance beneath: "Hie jacet
D — na Margaretta regis ' Scotia? filia quondam Co-
mitessa de Douglas, D — na Gallovidise et Vallis
Annandiae." In the front of the tomb are nine
shields, containing as many coats-of-arms, one with
only the stars, others with the stars and heart, and
others of their lordships of Galloway, Annandale and
Liddesdale. Along the walls of the ruin are a pro
fusion of ivy and a few dwarfish bushes, and around
are a few trees which form an interrupted and ro
mantic shade. On the north is a meadow, sleepily
traversed by the Cluden, and sending up umbra-
geously over the stream a pile of alders. On the
east is a lovely little plain, spread out like an espla
nade, half its circle edged with the Cairn, and the
beautifully majestic Nith. On the south-east were,
not long ago, very distinct vestiges of a bowling-
green, flower-garden, and parterres ; and beyond them
is a huge artificial mound, cut round to its summit
by a spiral walk, and surmounted all round by a
turf-seat which commands a fascinating view «f the
' meeting of the waters,' immediately below, and of
the joyous and warm-hearted landscape which en
virons Dumfries. The place is much cherished, and
fondly spoken of by the inhabitants of that polished
burgh, and was a favourite haunt of the poet Burns.
— The provosts of Lincluden were in general men
of considerable eminence ; and they, in several in
stances, held important offices in the state. The
first was Elese ; the second was Alexander Cairns,
chamberlain to the Earl of Douglas ; the third was
John Cameron, who was appointed in 1424, and
afterwards to be secretary, lord-privy-seal, and chan
cellor of the kingdom, archbishop of Glasgow, and
one of the delegates of the church of Scotland to
the council of Basil; the fourth was John Macgil-
hauck, rector of Parton, and secretary to the Coun
tess-dowager of Douglas ; the fifth was Halyburton,
whose arms were carved on the south wall of the
church; the sixth, John Winchester, who afterwards
became bishop of Moray ; the seventh, John Meth
ven, who became secretary-of-state and an ambassa
dor of the court; the eighth, James Lindsay, in 1449,
who was made keeper of the privy-seal, and an am
bassador to England; the ninth, tenth, and eleventh,
were persons of the name of Livingstone, Herries,
and Anderson, men of family and note ; the twelfth
was Andrew Stewart, 3d son of Sir James Stewart,
the Black knight of Lorn, and he was, at the same
time, dean of faculty of the university of Glasgow,
and afterwards became bishop of Moray ; the thir
teenth was George Hepburn, uncle to the 1st Earl
of Bothwell, and, while he held several benefices,
he was also lord-treasurer of Scotland, and eventu
ally fell at the side of his monarch on the field of
Flodden ; the fourteenth was William Stewart, son
of Sir Thomas Stewart of Minto, and he became,
in 1530, lord-treasurer of Scotland, and afterwards
bishop of Aberdeen ; and those who followed were
a Maxwell and three Douglas^. The last was Mr.
Robert Douglas, a bastard son of Sir. James Douglas
of Drumlanrig. He was appointed provost in 1547,

LIN

268

LIN

obtained an act oflegitimation in 1559, and was allow
ed to enjoy the benefice during about 40 years after
the Reformation. His grand-nephew, William Dou
glas, the heir of Drumlanrig, obtained a reversion of
the provostry, and after Robert's death, enjoyed its
property and revenues during his own life. Succeed
ing to the family estates of Drumlanrig, and created
1st Viscount Drumlanrig, and next Earl of Queens-
berry, he got vested in himself and his heirs the pa
tronage and tithes of the churches of Terregles,
Lochrutton, Colvend, Kirkbean, and Caerlaverock,
belonging to the college, and also a small part of its
lands. But the major part of the property of tbe
establishment was, in 1611, granted, in different
shares, to Sir Robert Gordon of Lochinvar, and to
John Murray.
LINDEAN. See Galashiels.
LINDORES ABBEY. See Newburgh.
LINDORES (Loch). See Abdie.
LINGA, a small island on the west of the isle of
Stronsay, from which it is separated by Linga sound.
It is sometimes distinguished from another smaller
islet of the same name to the north-west of Stron
say, by the title Muckle Linga.
LINGA, two of the. smaller Shetland isles, one
lying between Yell and the mainland, and the other
between Yell and Unst.
LINGAY, a small island of tbe Hebrides, belong
ing to the parish of Barra [which see], and noted
for its black cattle and deer.
LINKTOWN of Kirkcaldy, a village or sub
urb, adjoining to that burgh, but lying in the parish
of Abbotshall : which see.
LINLITHGOW,* a parish of nearly a square
form, its sides parallel with the lines of latitude and
longitude, with a projection on the west side, in
Linlithgowshire or West Lothian. Measured gen
erally, its square is a mile and a furlong deep, and its
western projection 2 miles long, and a mile and a
furlong in mean breadth ; but measured from ex
treme points, in the sinuosities of its outline, it ex
tends 4£ miles due south from Bonside ; and 6^ miles
due east from the most westerly bend of the Avon.
Its area is supposed to be 7,600 Scottish acres. The
parish is bounded on the north by Borrowstounness,
* The orthography of the name of this place has been very
various. The most ancient form in which it appears, is that
of the charter of David 1. This, in the Register of the Privy
Seal, in a confirmation by Robert III'., is Linlithgu. Maitland
gives us Lrnlitcu, from what he calls "the beautiful original
in the archives of Edinburgh" Elsewhere, a charter of the
same prince is referred to, in which he confers on the prior
and canons of^St. Andrews, "in puram et perpetuam eleemo-
Bynam, eoclestam Buam de Linlydgu." In Ayloffe's Charters,
it appears both as Linliscu and Lynlithkou. The accurate 1 ).
Macphersou had met with other varieties, as those of Linlis-
coth, Linlinsco, and Linlithquu. Even so early as the era of
Robert II. it occasionally appears, in the abbreviated form of
Lithcu, nearly the same which is still retained as the vulgar
name of this burgh. It is also written Lithgv. John Hardynge,
most probably from the- manner in which he heard the name
expressed, in his peregrinations through Scotland, in the reign
of Henry V., in order to collect proofs of the dependency of
our ancient kingdom on the English crown, uses the ortho
graphy of Lithcowe, Lithkowe, and Lythko. " I can furm no
conjecture," says Dr. Jamieson, "as to Buchanan's reason for
denominating this place Limnuch-um. Irvine has explained
Linlithgow as signifying ' the Lake of the black hound.' litis
corresponds with the Gaelic etymon that has been given,
founded ou some Billy tradition about a black bitch, that was
found fastened to a tree on the east Bide of the loch. Some,
indeed, who hare traced the word to a Gaelic origin, have as
serted that Linnh leachgu signifies ' the Lake or Pool of the
black ascent,' or, * heathy slant;;' dubh, ' black,' taking the
sound of cu or gu.frnm Its construction with the preceding
terra, denoting ascent. It may, however, be from the old Bri
tish. Baxter has fancifully deduced the latter part of the
name, Lithgow, from C. B. ladh coit, which he renders ' curia
sylvarum.' As llyn also denotes a lake, perhaps more strictly
than the Gaelic synonyme, llyth is used to express that which
spreads out, lied breadth ; and cau a hallow, cw n concavity.
It may thus signify, • theviroad hollow on the Lake,' or * the
Lake of the Broad hollow ;' as the lake is undoubtedly the most
striking object iu this site."

Carriden, and Abercorn ; on the east by Abercorn
and the eastern part of Ecdesmachan ; on the south
by Uphall, the western part of Ecdesmachan, and
Bathgate ; and on the west by Torphichen and Stir
lingshire. The surface toward the south is hilly, or
gently upland, and, at a distance of from 1 to If
mile from the southern boundary, sends up what, in
a champaign country like West Lothian, are notice
able summits. These are three in number, all on a
line, each two at an interval of If mile. The eastern
one, called Binny-craig, was once fabled by super
stition to be a favourite haunt of the fairies; the
middle one is properly a congeries of heights, called
Riecarton-hills ; and the western one, which is the
highest and bears the name of Cocklerue, or Cuckold
le Roi, rises about 500 feet above sea-level. The
northern division, though diversified in surface, may -
be regarded as nearly a plain. The soil in the south
and south-east is a pretty strong clay, stiff, and upon
a retentive subsoil, more suited to pasturage than
to the plough ; and, in all other parts, is generally
light and free, easily cultivated, and rich in its re
turns. Georgical skill, and the improver's taste,
have walked athwart every section and corner of the
parish, and frilled it with hedges and rows of trees,
and brought it all into prime cultivation. The river
Avon, beautiful in the features of the deep and
tufted glen along which it flows, and not a niggard
in its store of trouts, and aiding calico-printing and
bleaching operations by the plenty and purity of its
waters, runs along the western boundary 3$ miles in
a straight line, but at least 5 along its sinuous chan
nel. Nethermill-burn and Main-burn both rise in
the south-west corner, and flow the former north
eastward, and the latter eastward, each briefly linger
ing on the boundary before passing into the conter
minous territory. Lochend, formed by an expansion
of Mains-burn, a little south-east of Riccarton-hills,
is a very tiny lake  Linlithgow-loch, stretching
| of a mile eastward,, immediately north of the
burgh, and covering about 80 acres, is a fine sheet
of water, well stored with pike, perch, and eels,
and having an islet toward its east end. This lake
was anciently, and we believe is still occasionally
frequented by wild swans, f A profusion of excel
lent spring water, particularly in the burgh and its
f In the ' Mercurius Caledonius* of January 25, 1661, we
find the following curious illustration of the wretched' servility
of the press in connexion with the swans of Linlithgow : —
" At the towo of Linlithgow, equally renowned for its anti
quity and loyaltie, his Majesty hath a palace upon the skirt of
a most beautiful lake. This same lake hath been ever famous
for the numbers of swans that frequented it: inasmuch, that
Borne of our poetical philosophers are of opinion, that if there
bee a civil government amongst the birds, aud if divided in
several companies or corporations, that this same lake was the
hall or meeting-place of the swans. But to the business which
is must miraculous, and I hope shall serve for a good use, to
convince such as are heretical in their allegiance to our dread
soveraign, when this kingdom, as England, was oppressed with
usurpers, they, put a garrison in this same palace of his Ma
jesties: which no sooner done,. but these excellent creatures,
scorning to live in the same aire with the contemners of his
Majesty, they all of them abandoned the lake, and was never
seen these 10 yeares, till the fir6t of January last, a daye re
markable, both for his Majesty's coronation at Scoue, and the
sittiug down of this present parliament ; but which is strange,
they observed, just about the same time of the day that his
MajeBty's commissioner entered the parliament-house and sate
in the chair of state, did a squadron of these royal birds alight
in the lake, and by their extraordinary motions, and conceity
interweavings of sweaming, the country people fancied them
revelling at a country dance for joy of our glorious restora
tion. Much might be said in praise of these stately animals,
but that we have some butterfly-brained phanatiques amougst
us, that hearing me mention the beauty of their silver downs,
and the excellencie of their melodious tunes, they will instantly
conceive that I were metaphorically and mysteriously magni
fying a quoir of musiciaus in white surplices. Neither do 1 der
sire to incur the displeasure of the inhabitants of the Myre of
Meagle, who are governed by a synod of black-nebbed geese J
besides. I know the danger it's to jest with wooden. witted
dolts, that have the seams of their understanding 0n the out
side of their noddles."

LINLITHGOW.

269

neighbourhood, is celebrated in the rude rhymes
known to almost every child in the Lowlands : 
" Glasgow for bells,
Lithgow for wellB," &c.
When the Glasgow water-works, in consequence of
a series of accidents, not long ago failed, for a series
of weeks, to supply the dty with water, many casks
were daily sent along the canal for a supply from
Linlithgow. A well at Canibber was formerly much
resorted to as a reputed chalybeate of similar pro
perties to the spa of Moffat ; but, for upwards of
half-a-century, has been totally neglected. Coal
abounds in several parts ; and excellent limestone is
worked in the south. Freestone is scarce, and so
situated as not to be much quarried. A silver mine,
in the southern extremity, is said to have anciently
yielded much wealth to the Haddington family.
Groat pieces, coined from its produce during the
time of Linlithgow being a royal residence, are still
in the repositories of the curious. The place where
the metal was smelted, lies westward of the town,
and is still called Silver-mill ; but the ore is either
exhausted, or hitherto has eluded modern search.
On the tract of ground east of tbe town, still called
Boroughmuir, though a muir no longer, but finely
cultivated, Edward I. encamped on the night previ
ous to his defeating the troops of Wallace in the
battle of Falkirk. On the same ground, upwards
of 50 years ago, were found in an earthen urn about
300 Roman coins, probably the collection of a vir
tuoso. Nearly a mile north-west of the town is the
scene of a sanguinary conflict, begun opposite the
priory of Manuel, but fought out here, between the
Earls of Arran and of Lennox, during the minority
of James V. Though the precise spot cannot now be
exactly identified, it was long distinguished by one
of those rude memorials to which every passenger
contributed a stone, and which was called ' Len
nox's cairn.' Near this spot, and possibly identical
with it, is a field anciently used for military exer
cises and feats, and still called the joisting-haugh.
Immediately west of the town are two rising
grounds, one of which is traditionally said to have
been anciently the seat of feudal courts of justice.
The plain below it still bears the name of Dooms-
dale. On the hill of Cuckold le Roi — alleged by
some to have got its name from the infidelity of
one of the Scottish queens — are vestiges of a mili
tary station. At the bottom also is the appearance
of the ditch ; and on the summit is a cavity, called
Wallace's cradle, which is reported to have given
frequent shelter to the Scottish patriot. On an
eminence in the south-east of the parish are more
distinct traces of a camp. But the grand anti
quities occur to be noticed in our aecount of the
town. Among various mansions, Woodcockdale,
Champfleurie, and others, are elegant and orna
mental. Half-a-mile south-west of the town is a
distillery ; and at Bonnytown, 1£ mile north-east,
is another. A calico printing establishment, a
bleachfield, and several grain mills, are situated on
the Avon. At the first of these, about a mile west
of the town, stands, on the Edinburgh and Stirling
mail-road, the village of Linlithgow-bridge, chiefly
inhabited by the calico-printers. The establishment
was begun in 1 786, and set flourishingly out with
an array ot 200 workmen, but very soon fluctuated
in its prosperity. The parish is traversed by the
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, the Sla-
mannan Railway, and the Union Canal : See
these articles. It is traversed also from east to
west over 4| miles, by the Edinburgh and Glasgow
north road, and, in various directions, by turnpikes
radiating from the town toward Borrowstounness,

Bridgeness, Blackness, Bathgate, and Whitburn 
Among noted persons, natives of the parish, or
connected with it, may be mentioned Stewart of
Purdovan ; Ninian Winzet ; James Kirkwood, Bin-
noch ; and Rob Gib. Purdovan possessed consider
able property in the parish, was repeatedly provost
of the burgh, represented it in the last Scottish par
liament, and wrote the remarkable statutory book
as to the proceedings of Presbyterian church courts,
which has long been the Vade mecum of every
sciolist in the intricacies of Presbyterial law. Ninian
Winzet was rector of the burgh school at the Refor
mation, and is said to have been preceptor to some
of the Royal family ; but figures chiefly as the
elected champion of Popery in logical tiltings with
John Knox, and as a sort of confessor for his worth
less creed, — -having been banished from the kingdom,
and made abbot of the Scottish convent at Ratisbon.
James Kirkwood was rector of the same school at
the Revolution, and made himself remarkable by
satirizing the pragmatic town-council in a piece en
titled ' The History of the Twenty-seven Gods of
Linlithgow,' by offering valuable suggestions to the
parliamentary commissioners on colleges, and by
composing, at tbe commissioners' request, a Latin
grammar, which held the place of universal text
book in Scotland till displaced by Ruddiman's Rudi
ments. Binnoch figures in a story — afterwards to be
told — which ascribes to him a singularly clever cap
ture of the castle, and ranks him high as a patriot in
the stirring period of Bruce's struggle with Edward
I., and reminds one of the stratagem ascribed to
Ulysses in the Trojan war. Some lands in the south
of the parish were given to Binnoch as a reward,
and still bear his name, softened into Binny. The
Binnings of Wallyford were said to be descended
from him ; and, in allusion to the transaction which
brought him fame and wealth, had for their arms a
hay wain, with this motto, " Virtute doloque."
Rob Gib, of facetious memory, acted as buffoon to
James V. ; and gave, on one occasion, a severe re
proof to the obsequious courtiers, saying that he had
always served his master "for stark love and kind
ness ;" and received from the King the property of
West Carriber on the Avon, which his descendants
continued to enjoy till some time during last cen
tury.* Population of the parish, in 1801, 3,596; in
1831, 4,874. Houses 504. Assessed property, in
1815, £17,627.
Linlithgow gives name to a presbytery in the
synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £304 9s. 3d. ; glebe £11. Un
appropriated teinds £1,029 6s. 2d. The church,
* The mansion-house of Carriber is only to be traced in the
remnant of the foundation, near the banksof the Avon ; buta
stone on which the family-arms had been emblazoned, and
which formed an ornament to Rob's old mansion, is preserved
in the southern gable of the farm-steading of Carriber, on the
east side of the road, between Linlithgow and Torphichen.
Not long ago, there was found, in the garden of Dr. Baird,
Linlithgow— evidently at one time a part of the royal domain —
a gold ring in excellent preservation, and having the words
' Rob Gib's Contract,' engraved ou the inside of it. From the
fashion of the outside embellishment, as well as the engraving
within, it is clearly of ancient manufacture : but whether it
ever graced the finger of one of the beauties of the Scottish
court, and had been dropt from her fair hand while walking
in the royal park, we may conjecture, but cannot decide. In
the Register of Retours for the county of Linlithgow are the
following entries : — " May 28, 163ft
" Jacobus Gib olim de Carriber, haeres Robert! Gib de Carri
ber, avi," x. 364. " April 14, 1631.
"Jacobus Gib de Carriber, Domini Joannis Gib de Knock,
militis, patris," xi. 170.
From these entries we may infer that King James knighted the
son, though he did not deem it prudent to lay the weight of
that honour on the shoulders of the father.

270

LINLITHGOW.

which is very ancient, and will be noticed in the ac
count of the town, was repaired and enlarged in
1813. Sittings 1,100. The charge was once col- j
legiate, but has long been single. In the town are |
three dissenting places of worship._The first United i
Secession congregation was established in 1770, or j
earlier. Their present place of worship was built in
1834, and cost £1,150. Sittings 546. Stipend£140.
— The second United Secession congregation was
established in 1738. Their first place of worship
stood at Craigmailen, between 3 and 4 miles of the
town, and their present place was erected in the
town in 1805-6. Sittings 480. Stipend £110, with
a manse worth nearly £20. — Tbe Independent con
gregation was established in 1802 ; and their chapel
was built in the same year, and afterwards twice en
larged, at a total cost of about £600. Sittings 380.
Stipend £80.— -The population of 1831, assumed to
be that also of 1888, was, in the latter year, stated
by the parish-minister to contain 1,300 dissenters,
and calculated by one of the Secession ministers to
contain 1 ,526, — all the rest being churchmen. There
were, in 1834, 9 schools, conducted by 11 teachers,
ahd attended by at most 547 scholars. One of them
was the burgh grammar-school, conducted by a
rector and an assistant, and affording tuition in
Greek, Latin, French, mathematics, and the more
ordinary departments. Salary of the rectory £30,
with £70 fees ; of the assistant £15, with £35 fees.
A school, additional to the 9, is situated a little out
of the town, was founded by a lady, ahd affords gra
tuitous instruction to females. — The present parish
comprehends the ancient parishes of Linlithgow and
Binning, which were united after the Reformation.
Binning parish is the eastern district. See article
Binning. The church of Linlithgow was dedicated
to St. Michael, and, along with its pertinents, was
given by David I. to the prior of St. Andrews. A
perpetual vicar afterwards served it, and incidentally
acted as the King's chaplain. John Laing, one of
its vicars, rose, in 1474, to be bishop of Glasgow ;
and George Crichton, another of them, became, in
1500, abbot of Holyrood, and, in 1522, bishop of
Dunkeld. Crichton 's attachment to his old vicarage
induced him to erect on the chancel of "the church
a durable roof, adorned with the arms of the see of
Dunkeld, and with the initials of his name. Within
the parish-church were erected several chaplainries;
at the west part of the town anciently stood a chapel
dedicated to St. Ninian ; and at East Binning, in
the southern extremity of the parish, stood another
chapel. In 1606 and 1608, general synods were held
at Linlithgow. In 1633, the minister of the parish
was made one of the prebendaries of the diocese of
Edinburgh ; and in 1635, the advowson of the church,
in common with other property which bad belonged
to the prior of St. Andrews, was given to the arch
bishop of St. Andrews as compensation for the loss
of that part of his diocese which was erected into
the see of the metropolis  On the south side of the
town, on an eminence still called Friars'-brae, in the
vicinity of a well also still called the Friars', an
ciently stood a convent of Carmelites or White
Friars, founded by the inhabitants in 1290, and de
dicated to the Virgin Mary. In the east part of the
town were not long ago some remains of a religious
house, — probably those of a monastery of Domini
can or Black Friars, which is said to have existed
in the town. East of the town, there was of old an
establishment of Lazarites ; and on their extinction
or secularization, it was converted by James I. into
an hospitium, or place of entertainment for pilgrims,
and dedicated to Mary Magdalene, and placed under
the government of a preceptor. The eminence at
the base of which it stood, still bears the name of

Pilgrim's-hill; and one of the anciently instituted
fairs of the town is still called Mary Magdalene's
fair. Sir James Hamilton of Finard obtained, in
1528, all the lands belonging to the hospitium ; but
he afterwards plotted against the life of his sover
eign, and was executed as a traitor.
Linlithgow, an ancient royal burgh, the seat
of a presbytery, the capital and county-town of West
Lothian, and formerly the residence of kings, stands
in 55° 58' 35" north latitude, and 3° 35' 50" longi
tude west from Greenwich ; 16 miles west of Edin
burgh; 8 east of Falkirk; 3 south of Borrowstoun
ness ; 7 north of Bathgate ; and 31 from Glasgow.
It is pleasantly situated in a hollow along the south
side of Linlithgow-loch, sheltered by ridges of rising
ground along both the north and the south. A
single street running due west 650 yards from the
toll to the site of the ancient cross, — afterwards
making two bends and ending in a south-westerly
direction at the West Port, and measuring altogether
J of a mile in length, constitutes the great body of
the town. Very brief lanes and narrow alleys wing
both its sides, running off from it at right angles.
The road going off north-eastward to Blackness and
Bonnytown from near the east end, is partly edificed
for about 250 yards ; and a thoroughfare, branching
off at an acute angle on the south side 160 yards
from the toll, and wending sinuously to the West
Port, has a number of houses, but no continuous
street-line. The High-street is broad and airy to
ward the east, becomes contracted and gloomy for
some distance westward of its middle, and again ex
pands toward its south-western termination. Many
of the houses belonged of old to the knights of St.
John, who had their preceptory at Torphichen, and
some were the property of grandees who nestled under
the warm wing of the royal court. Nearly all these
buildings have a mean and decayed yet substantial
appearance, suggesting impressive moral lessons to a
well-toned contemplative mind, and indicating con
tentment on the part of the great and wealthy of a
former age with a modicum of domiciliary comfort at
which many a proud burgher or enriched speculating
weaver of the present day would turn up his nose in
scorn. A slow process of rebuilding has been going
on during upwards of half-a-century ; and has, to a
considerable extent, modernized the street. But
the town has, of late years, had very little enlarge
ment; and during a long period after ceasing to be
the home of kings and grandees — particularly after
the union of the crowns, and again after the union
of the kingdoms — it declined in opulence, in trade,
and in every attribute of importance. Yet it con
tinues to bear many marks of ancient grandeur, and
is grouped with objects which make it a fine subject
for the pencil. The magnificent ruins of its royal
palace, — the venerable fabric used as the parish-
church, and situated so near the palace as to form
almost a part of it, — the grand terrace, which bears
both aloft, and is sheeted on three sides with watei.
— the lofty trees which look as if they were coeval
with the sacred and royal piles which they adorn,—
the beautiful expanse of the lake half-encincturing
these objects, and spread from end to end of the
town like a mirror, to reflect a silvered copy of its
features, — the plantations alternated with pasture-
ground and waving fields all round the environs, —
and even the motley architecture of the town, the
mixation of cumbrous and dingy old houses with neat
and sprightly new erections, — form altogether an
agreeable and uncommon picture.
At the middle of the town, just before the High-
street begins to debouch toward tbe south-west, and
at the foot of the thoroughfare leading up to the
church and the palace, stands the Town house, lt

LINLITHGOW.

271

was built in 1668 by Sir Robert Miln of Barnton,
chief manager of the burgh, and afterwards altered
by the substitution of a modern sloping roof for one
of an oriental kind, leaden and flat. Besides other
accommodations, it contains a large council-chamber,
a completely furnitured sheriff court-room, an apart
ment for a masonic lodge, and a spacious room oc
cupied by a library. The ground-floor is occupied
as a gaol; and the cells in use are without fire-places,
very small, dark, damp, and cold, and accustomed to
be indiscriminately tenanted by debtors and by felons.
The Town-house is surmounted by a spire and clock,
and has a not unpleasing appearance. Attached to
it on the back is a building, erected about 60 years
ago, disposed in the lower part as a corn-market, and
originally in the upper part as a prison for debtors.
Behind it is tbe burgh-school, rebuilt about the year
1816. Beside the Town-house, at the commence
ment of the thoroughfare leading northward, is a
small open area, where anciently stood the market-
cross. On the site of the cross stands the Cross-
well, an object of great architectural elegance and
local celebrity. The present structure was erected
in 1805, and is believed to be an exact fac-simile of
the original, except that the carvings are more fin
ished, the proportions of the figures more symmetri
cal, and the general grouping more harmonious. It
is of a fantastic and whimsical appearance, hexagonal
in form, profusely adorned with grotesque sculptur-
ings, constantly emitting 13 jets of water from the
mouths of curious figures of animals, and surmounted
by a lion rampant supporting the royal arms of Scot
land. In its renovated form it was planned, and its
richest sculpturing executed, by Robert Gray, an
Edinburgh artist, who had only one hand, and wielded
his mallet by a fixture upon the stump of his hand-
less arm.
About 120 yards north of the well, or of the line
of High-street, stands the church, a venerable and
impressive pile, an exhibition of mingled elegance
and strength, and one of the most entire and beauti
ful specimens of Gothic architecture in Scotland.
It is 182 feet in length from east to west, 100 feet
in breadth, including the aisles, and about 90 feet in
height; and it sends up from its centre a lofty tower,
formerly terminating in an imperial crown, and con
tributing a highly ornamental feature to the burghai
landscape. The crown, however, no longer exists.
Its weight being thought injurious to the structure
beneath, it was removed a few years ago. Some
of the windows are extremely elegant. An array of
statues anciently figured on the exterior, but, with
one exception, were demolished at the Reformation,
and are now commemorated by their vacant niches.
The statue which escaped was that of St. Michael,
the adopted patron of the town ; and it too might
probably have shared the fate of its fellows, had it not
stood higher both in popular estimation and especially
in physical altitude, — occupying a place not easy of
assault. St. Michael's name — whose real character
even Protestants in general do not seem rightly to
understand — is usually assodated with both the church
and the town, in a manner which has provoked the
profane jests of witlings, and which ill accords with
the enlightenment of modern times. At a well
named after him near the East Port, he is figured as
saying that " St. Michael is kind to strangers;" and
in the town's arms he retains just the place and the
character which a Popish age assigned him, while
underneath is the motto: "Vis Michaelis collocet
nos in coelis." The original edifice is of uncertain
date, but very probably was erected by David I.,
the founder of so many rich and grand ecclesiastical
structures., Its nave was, in 1424, destroyed by
lire, and, in its present form, has a more modern ap

pearance than the rest of the pile. The roof of the
chancel, erected, as we formerly noticed, by George
Crichton, and ornamented with his armorial bearings
as bishop of Dunkeld, is both elegant and durable.
A plan was formed and commenced by James V. to
erect in the interior a throne and twelve stalls, for
himself and the knights of the Thistle ; but, in con
sequence of his sudden death, it was not carried into
execution. Tbe west end was of old used as a
burying-place of the great, a sort of mimic West
minster Abbey; but it was stripped of its tomb
stones, and converted into a stable for the horses of
his dragoons, by Oliver Cromwell. Only the east
end is now used as a place of worship, separated from
the other end; and when last repaired, it was put,
at the expense of nearly £4,000, into a condition
corresponding with the grandeur of the fabric. Of
the various chaplainries and altars which anciently
existed in the church, St. Catherine's is the only
one whose name survives. The aisle in which the
altar stood is a recess on the south side, covering
the burying vault of the family of the attainted Earl
of Linlithgow. While sitting "at evensong" in
this aisle, says tradition — and certainly in the church,
says history— James IV. saw the strange masquerade,
passed off upon him as an apparition, which warned
him against his fatal expedition to England, termi
nating in the battle of Flodden.* In digging a grave
* " We learn from Pitscottie, that ' at this tyme the king
came to Lithgow, quhair he was at the counsall verrie sad and
dollorous, makand his prayers to God, to send him an guid slic
es iii his voyage.' From the mode of expression, it might at
first view be inferred, that his majesty was iu the council-
chamber when he received this warning. But it would appear,
that the introductorylaoguage is meant merely to give the reason
why the king came to Linlithgow at this time ; that it was to
hold a cooucil on the state of public affairs. Xn some manuscripts,
indeed, the reading is, ' where he happened at the time to be
for the council.' Buchanan, accordingly, assigns this pretended
apparition to the church during vespers. ' Rex Limnuchi ves-
pertinas in aede sacra caotiones (ut turn moris erat) audit,' &c.
The more generally received tradition is that given by Sir
Alexander Seton, that the king was * at evening service in St.
Catherine's aite,' when *the ghostly visitor appeared to him
before his invasion of England.' For, in the progress of the
narrative, according to the more correct copies, Pitscottie says,
that the mau who appeared came in at the kirk door. He also
states, that ' the royal family had a private entry from the pal
ace, by a door in the north wall of the church.' This unearthly
monitor is described aB ' ane mau clad in ane blew gowue,
belted about him with ane roll of lining, and ane pair of brot-
tikines on his feitt — Bot he had nothing on his head, bot syd
hair to his shoulderis, and bald befoir. He seemed to be ane,
man of fiftie yeires. — When he saw the king he gave him no
due reverence nor salutatiouu, but leined him doun gruflingia
vpoun the desk, and said, *' Sir king, my mother has send me
to the, desiring the not to goe quhair thow art purposed, quhilk
if thow doe, thow sail not fair weill in thy jorney.uor non that
ia with the. Fardder, shoe forbad the, not to mell nor vse the
counsell of vomen, quhilk if thow doe, thow wil-be confoundit
and brought to shatue.*'-' The story, as here related, breathe
the genuine spirit of the Church of Rome, in that idolatrous
honourgiven to the Virgin Mary at the expense of the Son of
God. For he is evidently represented by the ' man of fiftie
yeires ;' and made to act and speak as inferior to his earthly
mother. From her the message proceeds, as well aB the prohi
bition and coinmination. No Protestant can hesitate in view
ing the whole as a plot, on the part of the nobles, to deter the
king from this mad undertaking. From that part of the pro
hibition which respects melting with women, it has been sup
posed, with much probability, that the queen was privy to the
stratagem. Buchanan gives this story on the testimony of Sir
DavidLyndsay of the Mount, 'a man of approved worth and
honesty, aud of a learned education, who, in the whole course
of his life, abhorred lying ;' adding, * If 1 had not received this
story from him as a certain truth, 1 had omitted it as a romance
of the vulgar.' His readers, however, might feel a strong curi
osity to know why Buchanan has given it in so different a form.
For he makes the pretended heavenly visitant entirely to draw
a veil over the usurped rights of parental authority. Accord
ing to hie narrative, he merely sayB, * I am sent to warn thee —
I am commanded also to tell thee.' When relating the vision
as a certain truth, has he deemed it most prudent to keep 'The
Mother of heaven ' in the shade, that he might not subject his
whole narration to the ridicule of a more enlightened age ? Sir
Walter Scott has fitly introduced this vision into his ' Mar-
mion,1 making Sir David Lyndsay the narrator :
The wondering Monarch seemed to seek
For answer, and found none :
And when lie raised his head to speak,
Toe munituT was gone.

272

LINLITHGOW.

within the church near the end of last century, there
was found a stone tablet of elegant sculpture. One
compartment exhibits our Saviour praying, while
the three select disciples are asleep; and the other
represents his betrayal by Judas, his seizure by the
guard, and his healing the ear of Malchus, while
Peter sheathes the sword. The stone was broken,
but not to the essential injury of the figures.
Immediately north of the church stands the mag
nificent ruin of the palace, the most remarkable ob
ject in Linlithgow. The eminence which bears it
aloft advances almost into the middle of the locb,
and, when viewed from the north, has the appear
ance of an amphitheatre, with a descent on the three
sides, and terrace-walks on the west. The palace
occupies about an acre of ground, and though heavy
in appearance from its almost total want of windows,
and care-worn and haggard in aspect from the ruin-
ousness of its condition, is still a picturesque and beau
tiful object; and something has of late years been done
by tbe Barons of exchequer to preserve it from fur
ther dilapidation. At the head of the avenue lead
ing up to it from the street is a fortified gate
way, formerly ornamented with now the scarcely
traceable insignia of the knightly orders of the Gar
ter and the Golden fleece, St. Michael and St. An
drew, the last founded by James V. , and the others
presented to him respectively by Henry VIII. of
England, Charles V. of Germany, and Francis I.
of France. On the east side, at the head of a sweep
ing avenue still lined with trees, stands the grand
gateway, with the place for the portcullis, but in a
neglected and obsolete condition. Over the interior
is a niche in which formerly stood an elegant statue
of Pope Julius II., with the tiara, or triple crown,
or bonnet ; originally accompanied, as is said, by
the statues of two cardinals in smaller niches, one
on each side. Julius, quite an adept in popecraft,
presented James V. with the sword of state which
still, very ingloriously, forms part of the Scottish
regalia; and bought him up, by flattery and a nursing
of his vanity, to oppose the progress of the Refor
mation. The statue, in its moral associations, was
more curious than offensive, and might, had it been
allowed to remain, have suggested many a lesson on
the text of folly and chicanery being self-outwitted;
and, though it long escaped the rage of the pope-
hating modern Scotch, it was eventually demolished,
early in the last century, by a blacksmith of the
town, who, in a neighbouring church, had heard
Popery denounced, and who possessed the habits
more of a good conscience than of a refined taste.
East of the grand gate lay the gardens. The palace
consists all of polished stone, and is a large hollow
quadrangle, generally five stories high, with towers
at the corners. In the centre of the interior area
or square was a fine well, adorned with several sta
tues, and so constructed as occasionally to form high
and beautiful jets d'eau, but now a mass of confused
ruin. On the east side above the grand entrance
was the Parliament-hall, believed to have been com
menced by James IV., and finished and decorated by
his successor. Originally it was a splendid apart
ment, with a beautifully ornamented chimney at one
end, and surmounting a magnificent piazza; but it is
The Marshal and myself had cast
To stop him, as he outward past;
But dghler than the whirlwind's blast.
He vanished Irom our eyes,
Like sunbeam on the billow cast.
That glances but, and dies. Cani. iv. st. 17.
This is a faithful version of the truly graphical description
given by our old naive historian. ' Before the king's eyes; and
in presence of oil the lords that were about him.—this man
vanished away, and could noways be seen or comprehended
but vanished away as he had been a blink of the sun, or a whin
»f the whirlwind.' "—Dr. Jamieson. V

now a roofless, ragged, and despoliated ruin. On
the south side was the chapel, supposed to have been
built by James V. At the north-west angle is a
small department, called the king's dressing-closet,
curiously ornamented, and looking out upon the
lake. In one of the sides is a room 90 feet long,
304 feet wide, and 33 feet high ; having at one end
a gallery with three arches. Many of the win
dows, and some of the doors, on the north or most
modern and magnificent side, have, with accom
panying ornaments, the initials of the name of James
VI., by whom it was erected shortly after his visit
to Scotland in 1617, the pediments over the win
dows bearing the date of 1619. On the west or
oldest side, where a tower or peel-house formed the
nucleus of the whole palace, is shown the apartment
in which Quegn Mary was born. Narrow galleries
run quite round this side, to preserve the communi
cation with the apartments. In one of the vaults
below James III. found shelter from an attempt at
assassination on the part of some of bis rebellious
subjects. The site of the palace was, at the dawn
of authentic history, a Roman fort or station, and
sent off a communication, intended apparently to
serve both as a road and as a line of defence, to An
toninus' wall, at a point in the parish of Falkirk
nearly opposite Callendar-house. Edward I., ac
cording to Fordun, built a peel or castle on the spot
in 1300, and spent there the Christmas of next year.
On settling the kingdom, and retiring to England in
1 305, he left it garrisoned under the charge of Peter
Lubard. Two years afterwards it was taken and
demolished by Bruce, aided by the curious device
and successful stratagem of the peasant Binny or
Binnock. the William Tell of Scotland. " Binny,
who was known to the garrison, and had been em
ployed in leading hay into the fort, communicated
his design to a party of Scottish soldiers, whom he
stationed in ambush near the gate. In his large
wain he contrived to conceal eight armed men, cov
ered with a load of hay, a servant drove the oxen,
and Binny himself walked carelessly at his side.
When the portcullis was raised, and the wain stood
in the middle of the gateway, interposing a complete
barrier to its descent, the driver cut the ropes which
harnessed the oxen; upon which signal the armed
men suddenly leapt from the cart, the soldiers in
ambush rushed in, and so complete was the surprise,
that with little resistance, the garrison were put to the
sword, and the place taken." [Tytler's ' History of
Scotland,' vol. i. p. 291.]— The castle was doomed to
perpetual ruin by the manly Bruce, who relied chiefly
on the moral energy of his followers' courage, and
little on the appliances of physical strengths and for
tifications; but it appears to have been rebuilt by the
English during their brief possession of Scotland
under the minority of David II., and seems after
wards to have been improved or renovated by David
himself. Aprecept of David granted the " peel of
Linlithgow" to John Cairns, and enjoined him to
"build it for the king's coming." The place was
now occasionally, but in a very subordinate manner,
a royal residence. Though James I. but seldom oc
cupied it, several of his coins bear the legend, "Villa
de Linlithe." In 1424, in common with the towi
and the nave of the church, it was destroyed by fire
and is called by the continuator of Fordun, in nar
rating the event, " the palace ;" but whether it wa
slightly or ruinously injured, is matter of debate
and who, in the supposition of its having been de
stroyed, was its re-edifier, is a fact not known to
history. " The palace" of the period was probably
a mere tower, provided with vaults below, and com
fortable apartments above, and only a degree larger
or more dignified than the peel-houses of the borders

LINLITHGOW

273

and by some parties it is contended still to exist,
though in a very ruinous condition, in the core of
the west side or oldest part of the quadrangular edi
fice. James IV. preferred it to all his other resi
dences, and built its eastern side. In the time of
James V., who also made large addition's to it, his
consort, Mary of Guise, on being conducted to it,
said " she had never seen a more princely palace ;"
and she afterwards proved the sincerity of her com
pliment, as far at least as the palaces of Scotland
were concerned, by preferring it to any other of the
king's residences, and spending in it a large part of
her time. The pile, in its quadrangular and final
form, was completed by James VI. Though, after
the union of the crowns, it suffered from desertion,
it continued to be habitable till January 1746. When
the royal army were on their march in pursuit of the
Pretender's forces, Hawley 's dragoons occupied the
hall on the north side of the quadrangle, and, in tbe
hurry of their departure, left some fires in a condi
tion to ignite the building. Before the danger was
discovered, the roof was mantled in flame ; and, be
ing covered with lead, it sent down such a shower
of melted metal as entirely precluded any attempt
to arrest the conflagration. Its vestiges of splen
dour and the beauty of its site, aided a little by
imagination, still bring before the visiter's view the
princely pile so cheerily sung in the ' Lay of the
Last Minstrel:" " Of all the palaces so fair
Built for the royal dwelling,
In Scotland, far beyond compare
Linlithgow is excelling:
And in its park in jovial June
How sweet the merry linnet's tune,
How blythe the blackbird's lay!
The wild buck bells from ferny brake,
The coot dives merry on the lake,— .
The saddest heart might pleasure take
To see a scene bo gay."
No other edifices demand notice. Nor, even as to
trade and commerce, is there much to interest. The
Union canal is conducted along the rising ground on
the south of the town, at the distance from the
High-street of from 70 to 450 yards, and has a small
basin less than 100 yards from the High-street, and
near the east end of the town. But sensibly as the
modern prosperity of the town has been aided by it,
it will probably receive from the Edinburgh and
Glasgow railway incalculably greater advantages,
and possibly a great arousing to its half-dormant en
ergies. The railway passes along between the town
and the canal, and, as well as the latter, commands a
very fine view of the church, the palace, and the lake.
At the side of the canal, 400 yards from the West
Port, is one tannery, and on the north side of the
lake, near its west end, is another. These establish
ments form the pivot on which the chief trade of the
town has, for generations, turned. The art of pre
paring leather is said to have been introduced by the
soldiers of Cromwell; and, though still carried on
with a degree of vigour, seems to be prosecuted with
diminishing success. In 1793, there were 17 tan
ners, 18 curriers, and 13 skinners; and, in 1826,
there were only 12 of the first class, 6 of the second,
and 5 of the third. Sboemaking has moved parallel
with the sister art, and shared its vicissitudes. Dur
ing the last war the town supplied very large quan
tities of shoes to the army, besides sending supplies
to .Edinburgh and other markets; and it still, though
in a noiseless and declining way, competes in the art
with the brisker and more productive towns of Ayr
shire. In 1793, shoemaking employed about 100
persons; and in 1826, it was conducted by 17 mas
ter artisans. Trade in, lint and linen yarn was at
one time carried on to a great extent, and enriched
several persons engaged in it with handsome fortunes ;

but it long ago became extinct. Manufactures in the
departments of beautiful damask linen, of diaper,
of muslin, of carpets, of stockings, and possibly of
other fabrics, have all been sanguinely introduced,
flourishingly commenced, and carried coolly on to
either extinction or insignificance. The Commis
sioners' Report on Handloom-weavers, published in
1839, knows nothing whatever of the town, and
does not assign to it so much as one loom. A quar
ter of a mile from the west end of the lake, on a
streamlet which carries off its superfluent waters
toward the Avon, is a paper-mill. The town has
also a brewery, and claims an interest in the two
distilleries in its vicinity, and in the printfield at
Linlithgow-bridge. A weekly market is held on
Friday; and annual fairs are held on the Friday after
the 2d Tuesday of January, on the 25th of February,
on the 3d Friday of April, on the 2d Thursday of
June, on the 2d day of August, and on the 1st Friday
of November. In the town are a branch-office of
the Commercial bank of Scotland, more than the
usual proportion of inns and public bouses, an ex
cellent public library, and a fair amount of benevolent
and religious institutions.
, Linlithgow ranks as the sixth in order of the Scot
tish burghs. The town-council are 27 in number,
of whom 19 were of the guildry, and 8 trades bur
gesses. The magistrates, chosen by the council from
among its own members, are a provost — whose pre
decessors formerly exercised a right of sheriffship
within the liberties of the burgh — four bailies, a
dean-of-guild, and a treasurer. The council has no
patronage except the appointment of the usual burgh-
officers, and the nomination of the two teachers of
the burgh-school. The magistrates have power of
jurisdiction over a mile in every direction beyond
the royalty, but practically exercise it only within
burgh. The village of Blackness [see that article]
stands on the territory of the burgh, and is nominally
under the jurisdiction of the council, receiving annu
ally from their nomination a delegate or bailie. Ex
cept in the most trifling police offences, the magis
trates are relieved from all judicial care, where
criminal or civil, by the residence within the burgh
of the sheriff-substitute. The burgh has, for a long
period, been deeply in debt. So far back as 1692,
the magistrates reported to the convention commis
sioners that they owed £18,235 6s. 8d. Scots ; and
in 1832 it had increased to £8,141 4s. 5d. sterling,—
many of the recent obligations having been incurred
by raising money for discharging older ones/and pay
ing up accumulated and neglected interest of ancient
burdens, the origin or first purpose of which had be
come untraceable. The annual revenue, as reported
by the commissioners on the Municipal Corporations,
probably that for the year 1832, was £710 17s. 6d.;
and the annual expenditure £743 13s. 2d. In 1839-
40, it amounted to £716. There is no local police
statute, nor any assessment for police purposes. Wa
ter flows plentifully from the wells, but is not distri
buted into the houses. The town is well-lighted at
night with gas; the streets are kept tolerably clean
by a scavenger; and the public peace sufficiently pre
served, in ordinary circumstances, by the two jail
ers,  all at a very small expense, and from the com
mon funds of the burgh. A stranger pays only £1
Is. of a fee to be admitted a burgess; but must pay
£5 to the corporation of the guildry. This corpo
ration has an accumulated fund of £1,007, lent to the
burgh at 4 per cent, interest; and has £35 10s.
arising from rents of property, — about £3 yearly
received for licenses granted to unfreemen to trade,
 five shares, worth £50, in the gas company, — and
a seat, purchased for £148, in the parish-church.
The funds are rigidly applied to charitable and
S

274

LINLITHGOW.

proper purposes ; and though strictly available to
only decayed members, are used for the benefit of
members' widows and daughters. There are eight
incorporated trades: smiths, weavers, bakers, wrights,
tailors, shoemakers, fleshers, and coopers, — possess
ing the usual exclusive privileges, but no right of
presenting to hospitals or schools.. Their funds are
small and declining, and, in some instances, have
been formally extinguished by a common distribution
among the members. The corporations are generally
and enlightenedly of opinion that their exclusive pri
vileges are mischievous to society, and useless to
themselves. Linlithgow unites with Falkirk, Airdrie,
Hamilton, and Lanark, in sending a member to par
liament. Constituency, in 1832, 115, of whom 71
were burgesses; in 1840, 80. The municipal consti
tuency, in 1840, was only 77. There are, besides the
corporations, seven unincorporated fraternities, —
gardeners, dyers, hecklers, whipmen, wool-combers,
skinners, and tanners. As at Hawick and some
other places, the old practice — once probably of some
use, but now unqualifiedly ridiculous — of ' riding the
marches,' is still annually observed in June, and
consists of a motley procession followed by convivi
ality or carousing. The magistrates, council, corpo
rations, and fraternities, are mounted on horseback,
the treasurer and the deacon carrying silk flags em
broidered with the town-arms, and, along with a
general turn-out of the inhabitants, especially bawl
ing children and friskish youngsters, they move
round the boundaries of the burgh. Such idle tom
foolery is too stale for the improved taste of the
19th century, and must speedily share the fate of the
Crispin processions and other vulgar pageants, — relics
of a dark and vain age, which modern good sense
has, in most localities in Scotland, consigned to ex
tinction. The town's seal has on one side the figure
ui' Michael the archangel, — bis wings expanded, his
foot treading on the belly of a serpent, and his spear
piercing the reptile's head. The arms proper of the
town alludes to some obscure legend respecting a
dog found chained to a tree on the islet of the lake;
and consists of the figure of a dog tied to a tree
with the motto — .' My fruit is fidelity to God and
the King.' By act of parliament in 1621, Linlithgow
was made custodier of the standard firlot measure, and
intrusted with the distribution of copies of it among
other burghs; while Stirling was the appointed
place of the jug for liquids, Edinburgh of the ell,
Perth of the reel, and Lanark of the pound. The fir
lot for oats and barley contained 31 Scotch pints, or
3,205£ cubic inches; and for wheat and pease 21|
pints, or 2^97£ cubic inches; but, since the introduc
tion of the imperial measures, is a matter merely of
antiquarian curiosity. Linlithgow had once an exclu
sive right of trade on the coast from the water of
Cramond to the mouth of the Avon, and had Black.
ness specially assigned to it as its port. At that
place it conducted a considerable export and import
trade ; and there it had warehouses, and a custom
house establishment. Partly through its own decay,
and partly through the influence of tbe family of
Hamilton, Borrowstounness carried away its cus
tom-house honours; and altogether, by successful
rivah y, Queensferry took possession of its influence
on the coast. So strenuous an 'opposition did Lin
lithgow make to the erection of Queensferry into a
burgh, that it wrung by compromise, the hard terms
from its rival, of the latter paying it annually the
sum of 10 merks Scotch, admitting the freemen of
Linlithgow to all its immunities without reciproca
tion, and giving the Linlithgow burgesses through
their dean-of-guild the option of purchasing, before
it was unloaded, half the cargo of every foreign ship
which arrived. Population of tbe burgh, in 1811,

2,557; in 1821, 3,112; in 1831, 3,187. Houses, in
1821, 324; in 1831, 316. Assessed taxes payable
from'the burgb, £310 13s. Id.
Linlithgow probably received its name from the Bri
tons. King Achaius, according to fable and Sibbald,
was the founder of the town, and erected on its site a
cross which vulgar antiquaries have called King Cay's
cross. From the similarity of name, but without any
other evidence, the town has been identified with the
Lindum of the Romans; and chiefly, if not altogether,
on the vague testimony of tradition, it is thought to
date as high as any existing town in Scotland. In
the 12th century it comes distinctly into notice as a
King's burgb, — the term royal burgh being then un
known in Scotland. But its possessing this charac
ter does not necessarily imply more than its being in
itself a mere hamlet,— possibly of quite recent ori
gin ; every village or cluster of houses on a royal
demesne having, according to the usage of the period,
the name of a King's burgh. Before David l.'s
accession, a chapel appears to have been erected on
the promontory now occupied by the church and the
palace ; and during that monarch's reign, he had a
castle in the place to overlook a grange which" be
longed to him, and to receive his person in the course
of his ranging from manor to manor for consumption
of the stock. But whether the castle occupied the
site of the peel afterwards built and rebuilt by the
English, and made the nucleus of the palace, is a
point on which no document or monument seems to
throw any light. David granted to the abbot and
canons of Holyrood, " omnes pelles arietinas, ovinas
et agninas de Linlithgu de meo domine," — all the
skins of the rams, sheep, and lambs, of his demesne
of Linlithgow. The place was then the King's
town in demesne; and the rents and profits, or
'firms,' were let by the King to the community.
At the demise of Alexander III., before it bad yet
obtained a charter, it was governed by two bailies,
John Raebuck and John de Mar, who, along with
ten of the burgesses or principal inhabitants, were
compelled, in 1296, to swear fealty to Edward I.
The ' firms' had been mortgaged by Alexander III.
to the King of Norway, and after the former's death,
were allowed to run in arrear; and at two different
dates writs of Edward I. were addressed " prepositis
de Linlithgow," requiring the payment respectively
of £59 2s. Id., and of £7 4s. lOd. as arrears to the
Norwegian King. In 1334, Edward Baliol trans
ferred to Edward III. the constabulary, the town
and the castle of Linlithgow, as part of the price
paid for the assistance given him to his short-lived
usurpation. In the parliament of David II., held at
Perth in 1348, it was ordained in reference to the
four burghs which, according to the law of the pe
riod, exercised jurisdiction over the rest, " that so
long as the burghs of Berwick and Roxburgh are
detained and holden by English men, the burghs of
Lanark and Lithcow shall be received and admit
ted in their place." Linlithgow is proved, by this
document, to have already been made a royal burgh,
though at what previous date is not known. But
its earliest ascertained charter was granted by Robert
II. in the 18th year of his reign, " burgensibus et
communitati burgi de Linlythqw,'' and conferred
on them the small customs and profits of the town
itself and the harbour of Blackness, subject to an
yearly payment of £5 sterling. In 1386, Robert II.
granted to his son-in-law, Sir William Douglas,
£300 sterling out of the great customs of Linlith
gow, Edinburgh, Dundee, and Aberdeen, and to
other persons he granted various pensions out of the
burgh-mails or great customs of Linlithgow. These
grants are evidence that, in an age so uncommercial,
the town possessed some trade, and had risen to

LINLITHGOW.

275

considerable importance. Undei the Regent Albany
und James I., Linlithgow appears to have been un
fortunate, and was twice burnt, — first in 1411, and
next in 1424. James II., at his marriage in 1449,
settled on his bride, Mary of Gueldres, as her dower,
the lordship of Linlithgow and other lands, amount
ing in value to 10,000 crowns; James III., at his
marriage in 1468, to Margaret of Denmark, settled
on her, as ber dower in the event of his demise, the
palace of Linlithgow with its circumjacent territory ;*
and James IV. at his marriage in 1503, with Margaret
of England, gave her, in dower, the whole lordship
of Linlithgow, with the palace and its jurisdic
tion and privileges. In 1517, Stirling and his fol
lowers, who had attempted to assassinate Meldrum
on the road to Leith, seized the palace, at a moment
probably when it was very slenderly guarded ; but
they were speedily pursued by De la Bastie, the re
gent's lieutenant, and were beleagured and captured.
In 1526 occurred the battle of Linlithgow, already
incidentally noticed, which was designed to rescue
James V. from the domination of the Earl of Angus,
and which led to the slaughter of the Earl of Len
nox by Sir James Hamilton, after quarter had been
given. Hamilton was rewarded by Angus for his
truculent deed with the captaincy of the palace;
and afterwards becoming a favourite of James V.,
he showed the faithlessness and atrocity of his na
ture by attempts, both in the palace of Linlithgow
and in that of' Holyrood, to assassinate the King.
In 1540, James V.,, by a special charter, empowered
the town, for the first time, to add a provost to their
magistracy ; and in the same year, while Mary of
Guise, after her marriage, festivities had been cele
brated in Fife and at Stirling, was delighting herself
with the beauty and luxuries of Linlithgow palace,
Sir David Lindsay's Satire of the three Estates was
represented before the King, the Queen, the ladies
of the court, and the authorities and common inha
bitants of the town, and appeared, in spite of its
utter grossness, to please all parties. On the 7th
December, 1542, Mary of affecting memory, whose
history invokes so many tears for both her crimes
and her sufferings, and gives out such deep tintings
of tragical romance, was born in the palace, and be
came, from the hour of her birth, the object of
thrilling interest to all who had deep interests in
th-e political framework of the period. Her father lay
on his death-bed at Falkland, and on being told that
a daughter was born to him, he instantly thought of
his throne, and of the alliance Which had brought it
to the Stuarts, and exclaiming, "Is it so? Then
God's will be done ! It came with a lass, and it will
go with a lass," he turned his face to the wall, and
expired amid a paroxysm of grief. The infant re
maining for many months in the palace with her
mother, the place became the frequent scene of poli
tical intrigue ; and next year, after it had been sur
feited with English bribes and with plots and trea
son, the mother, warmly apprehensive for the child's
safety, collected an army, and got themselves con
veyed from the palace to Stirling-castle. In 1545 a
parliament met at Linlithgow on the 1st of October,
and again on the 1st and the 19th of December. In
1552 a provincial council of the clergy was held in
the town, to attempt measures for appeasing the
popular outcry against the utter corruption of the
Popish establishment; but it found itself too far
* Some specifications in the ratification by parliament of the
inarriage-settlements, show the sources of revenue possessed
by the lordship: tneBe, besides the estates or lands, were the
palace, the lake, and the park of Linlithgow; the great and
email customs and firms ol the burgh j the fines and escheats
of the several courts of the justiciary, the chamberlain, the
Bheriff, and the bailies ; the wards, reliefs, aud marriages, within
the lordship, and the patronage of the churches.

gone in moral rottenness to possess any virus of self-
reformation. In 1559, the Earl of Argyle, Lord
James Stewart and John Knox came to Linlithgow
on their celebrated march from Perth to Edinburgh,
and demolished the monastic houses. About this
period houses in the town were the property and
occasionally the residence of the Duke of Chatel-
herault and other highly distinguished courtiers. On
the 23d of January, 1569-70, the Regent Murray,
in passing through the town, was shot, in revenge
of a private injury, by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh.
The house from which the assassin took his aim be
longed to Archbishop Hamilton of St. Andrews, and
stood on a site now occupied by a plain lumpish tene
ment ; and it had a projecting balcony overlooking
a narrow part of the street, and affording full com
mand of the Regent's person while he moved slowly
and on horseback. The murder is the subject of Sir
Walter Scott's ballad of ' Cadzow-castle;' and the
carbine with which it was perpetrated is preserved
at Hamilton-palace. The assassin escaped, fled to
France, and remained in voluntary exile. Murray,
during his progress from Stirling, was fully apprised
of his danger, but could not control the circum
stances of his position. John Hume, an attached
follower, entreated him, on the very morning of the
murder, not to pass through the town, but to ride
round the back of it, and offered to lead him to the
spot where the assassin lay in wait, and might easily
be seized. Murray consented to act on the advice,
but found himself so wedged up by crowds of the
populace, that he was obliged to follow the originally
intended route. The body was removed to Stirling,
thence by water to Leith, and thence to Holyrood-
house, and was buried in St. Anthony's aisle in St.
Giles' church.* Some months after the murder, the
* James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh was nephew to the
Archbishop of St. Andrews. He had been condemned to death,
ivith six other gentlemen of distinction, — two of them of his
own name, the barons of Innerwick and Kincavil, — and, with
them, had been led out to execotioo for his share in the battle
of Langside; but, at the intercession of the reformed clergy,
the Regent spared their lives, and ordered them all back lo
prison. James Hamilton was a cadet of the docal house of
Chatelherault; his father, the first of his family, being David
Hamilton, fifth son of John Hamilton of Orbistou. His estate
was situated iu the parish uf Bothwell and county of Lanark,
whence he had his designation. He had married Isabella bin.
clair, daughter and co-heiress of Sinclair of Woodhouselee in
Mid-Lothian, and this lady was the innocent cause of the un
fortunate catastrophe. Hamilton had contrived to make his
escape from prison ; but as the act of forfeiture remained in full
force against him, he was compelled to lurk among his friends.
Whether the Regent had any particular hatred towards him
cannot now be ascertained ; yet certain it is, that the act of for
feiture was removed from all the gentlemen taken prisoners in
that affair, Bothwellhaugh excepted. After tbe confiscation of
Hamilton's estate, his wife— who had remained there during
her husband's abseuce, never imagining that her own inheri
tance was to be also doomed to the same calamity — proceeded
to Woodhouselee, thinking that on her own patrimony sue
might with security await the issue of more prosperous tunes.
But in this she was mistaken. Sir James Bellenden, Lord-
justice-clerk, one of the favourites of the Regent, had iiskt-a
and obtained the estate of Woodhouselee. As Bellenden knew
that Hamilton's lady resided on the property, he applied to the
Regent for an act of possession ; and, accordingly, some officers
were sent to Woodhouselee, who secured the house, and turned
the uolortunate lady, iu a cold and stormy night, and in a state
of ill health, naked into the fields. Before the morning dawn
ed, she had become furiously deranged. The enormity of the
latter provocation, in addition to the injuries he had already
borne, completely overcame Hamilton's prudence ; -and from
that moment he resolved to avenge his wrongs on the Regent
himself, whom he believed to be the grand author of this injus
tice. ¦ Nor did he conceal his intentions. He openly avowed,
wherever he went, that he would endeavour to effect Moray's
destruction; and he accordingly watched his enemy's motions
for some time, but was invariably disappointed in his daring
purposes. At length, unfortunately, an opportunity offered,
which Hamilton determined to improve. There are a number
of entries or passages — called in Scotland closes — which havo
an open outlet from the principal street of the town to the
fields ; and there is a tradition, that, on the night before the
assassination, these were all chocked up with whins. This
tradition, if not true, is at least plausible, for Hamilton well
knew that there would be an immediate pursuit, and the whins
might contribute to his Bafety by causing a brief delay. Th»

276

LINLITHGOW.

English army which entered Scotland to revenge the
Regent's death, or readjust the arrangements which
it had unsettled, burnt the Duke of Chaterherault's
house in Linlithgow, and threatened to destroy the
whole town. The parliament, during that distracted
year, was proposed to be held in Linlithgow; but
the Regent Lennox, marching thither in October,
prevented the intended meeting. In 1584, the rents
both of money and victual of the lordship of Lin
lithgow were appropriated for supporting Blackness-
castle, estimated at much more than its real impor
tance. In 1585, a parliament was held in the town
for establishing the Protestant councillors who had
recently placed themselves at the head of James the
Sixth's government. In 1587, a grant of the park
and woods and keeping of the castle was made,
through the king's feebleness, to Sir Lewis Bellen
den, the justice-clerk. In 1591, by a charter of
James VI., all the lands and rents which had belonged
to the choristers, chaplains, and prebendaries of Lin-
lithgow-church, were granted to the burgb " in usum
et sustentationem lectoris (et) campanarii in dicta ec
clesia;, etin suble vamen pauperum hospitalis dicti bur-
gi." Atthe King's marriage in 1592, the barony, lands,
and palace were, according to former usage, given in
dowry to his bride, the Princess Anne of Denmark.
In 1594 an act of parliament ratified a charter of
James, confirming " twa auld infeftmentis grantit of
auld be his hienes predicessouris to the burgh of
Linlithgw, quhairof the ane is maid of the said
burgh with the small custumes and port of Blaknes,
the uther of the frie custuming of certaine wearis,
without ony dewtie to be payit thairfoir." In 1596,
Linlithgow afforded refuge to the King from the
tumult of Edinburgh; and seven years later, it shared
the grief and degradation of the metropolis, resulting
from James' accession to the English crown, and his
consequent abandonment of his native palaces. Some
time in the beginning of the 17th century, the town
was the scene of a singular instance of revenge. One
Crawford, while at school, had been stripped of his
coat by a person in the town, who found him tres
passing on his ground. Having gone abroad, and
risen in the army, he returned to Linlithgow many
years after, and avenged the dignity, by stabbing the
man who offered it on the very spot. Accounts vary
with regard to some of the circumstances that fol
lowed, though they all agree with regard to his hav
ing been beheaded at the cross. According to some,
after lying concealed a night or two in the Burgh-
assassin took his Btation in a wooden gallery fronting the street ;
and, that he might the more secorely accomplish his purpo-e
without exciting suspicion or notice, while iu tlie act, he first
spread on the floor of the room a large feather-bed, that the
noise of his feet in his movement might not be heard, and then
hung up a large black cloth opposite the window, that none
without might observe his shadow. "His next care," says an
author, who graphically describes this scene, " was to cut a
hole a little below the lattice, sufficient to admit the point of
his harquebuss; and to add to the security of his flight, he ex
amined the gate at the back of the house, and tiuding it too low
for a man to pass onder on horseback, with the assistance of
his servant he removed the lintel, and kept his horse in the
stable ready saddled and bridled. After all these preparations
he calmly and deliberately waited the approach of the Regent,
who had slept the preceding night in the town. " After the
deed he was pursued several miles, and was at one time on the
point of being taken ; his horse, breathless and almost ready to
sink, coming to a broad ditch, plunged into it, and stuck fast.
A few moments' delay would have placed Hamilton in the hands
of justice; but he drew his dagger, aud plunged it into his
Bteed behind. The horse thus stimulated to a desperate exer
tion, extricated himself, and leaped across the ditch. . The as
sassin fled first to Hamilton, and then sought shelter with his
brother-in-law, Muirhead of Lauchope, who received him, and
protected him for the night. The following day he was accom
panied a part of his way by this relative, and after a brief con
cealment about the town of Hamilton, he effected his final
escape to France, where he died, 6onie years afterwards, ex
pressing great contrition for the execrable crime he had com
mitted. His pursuers, having discovered that he had been
sheltered at Lauchope, plundered and burnt it to the ground.
See article Bothwell,

muir, he was apprehended, convicted, and put to
death. Others say, that some years after, being op
pressed with the weight of blood be surrendered
himself to justice, requesting only to be indulged as
to the mode of execution. His tomb is still to be
seen on the south of the church,_and, though now
defaced, is said to have had engraved on it the figure
of the instrument by which he suffered, and which
himself procured for the purpose. In 1617, James
VI., in the course of his visit to Scotland, made a
progress to Linlithgow; and at his entrance to the
town, was met by James Wiseman, the burgh peda
gogue, enclosed in a plaster figure resembling a lion
and was addressed by him in the following doggerel
speech : —
" Thrice royal Bir, here do I you beseech,
Who art a lion, to hear a lion's speech ;
A miracle ! for since the days of Msop,
No lion, till those days, a voice dared raise up
To such a majesty! Then, king of men.
The king of beasts speaks to thee from his den,
Who, though he now enclosed be in plaister,
When he was free, was Lithgow's wise schoolmaster.
" This,'' sarcastically remarks a cotemporary, " may
look ineffably ridiculous ; but when people were ac
customed to hear the familiar pedantic character of
James emblematized by court-flattery as a lion, they
might well be excused for such an anomalous
masquerade as a schoolmaster in the guise of
the same animal. In truth, there could not have
been a more apt emblem of the King himself, who
was neither more nor less at any time than a peda
gogue enclosed within a plaster-cast of majesty."
[Chambers' Gazetteer, Art. Linlithgow.] — In 1633,
Charles I., when at Edinburgh, intended to visit
Linlithgow, and had the palace put in order for his
reception, , but did not accomplish his object. A
charter of this King, probably ratified by the parlia
ment of 1640, extended the jurisdiction of the ma
gistrates "infra omnes publicas vias, itinera, et se-
mitas extra occidentalem portum dicti burgi ad pon-
tem de Even occidentaliter, et similiter circum circa
dictum burgum undique per omnes alias partes infra
dictas publicas vias et semitas per spatium mille
passuum." The same charter granted the right of
holding markets, and the jurisdiction of all fairs and
markets held within the space prescribed as the ex
tent of the burgh jurisdiction, and likewise the right
" custumas eorum, secundum donationes et cartas
per majores nostros in favorem dicti pi-ccpositi, bal-
livorum, et consuium prius concessas, exigendi."
In 1646, when Edinburgh was scourged by the
plague, Linlithgow afforded refuge to the senatus
of the university, and flung open her palace for the
session of parliament. In 1662, on the anniversary
of the Restoration, the town signalized itself by a
surpassingly strange act of succumbency to the hier
archical and persecuting Stuarts, — an act which was
without a parallel even in the excited and tumultu
ous times in which it occurred, — the burning of the
Solemn League and Covenant. The deed must be
regarded, however, rather as a wanton expression of
zeal to which the many were impelled by a few, than
as an act authorized by the magistrates, or approved
by the sober portion of the community. The chief
actors were Mr. Mylne, one of the bailies, and Mr.
Ramsay, then minister of the parish. Ramsay's con
duct was singularly foiled and set off in ignominious-
ness by his having formerly sworn the Covenant, and
been so zealous on its behalf as rigorously to press it
upon others. Changing his principles with the times,
proclaiming himself an apostate, and courting an
assiduous apostate's reward, he was first made dean
of Glasgow, then bishop of Dumblane, and after
wards was raised to the see of Ross. The town gave
a sumptuous entertainment to James VII. when in

A.JnllfiTtcaii)t C° London XEclitLbrargk

LINLITHGOWSHIRE.

277

Scotland before his accession to the throne ; and is
said to have long felt — and perhaps may be feeling still
— the pressure of the debt incurred by getting up,
on the occasion, a magnificent display. The last
historical event in which it figures was its suffering
from the rebellion of 1745-6, and being then, as we
have seen, denuded of the physical attractions as
formerly of the political importance of its palace.
I inlithgow gave the title of Earl to the family of
Livingstone, also Earls of Callendar, attainted in
1716 in consequence of James, the fifth Earl, tak
ing part in the first rebellion in favour of the de
throned Stuarts.
LINLITHGOWSHIRE, or West Lothian, ly
ing along the south side of the frith of Forth, nearly
midway between the German ocean and the frith of
Clyde, has, in a general point of view, a triangular
outline. Its sides face the north, the south-east,
and the west. The northern side is nearly straight
in outline, but suffers intrusions each about 1£ mile
deep, upon both its angles ; the south-west side is
indented by the parish of Mid-Calder 2 miles by
1 J ; and the west side has an indentation of a square
1£ mile deep along the north side of Blairmuckhill-
burn, — a projection, immediately north of this, 3J
miles long and 2^ broad, — and again an indentation
nearly semicircular, 4| miles along the chord, and
2J miles deep. The county is bounded on the north
by the frith of Forth, which divides it from the de
tached part of Perthshire and from Fifeshire ; on
the south-east, except at the indentation from Mid-
Calder, by the river Almond and its tributary
Briech- water, which divide it from Edinburghshire;
and on the west by Blairmuckhill-burn, Barbachlaw-
burn, Calder-water, and artificial lines which divide
it from Lanarkshire, and mainly by Avon- water, and
its tributary Polness-burn, which divide it from
Stirlingshire. Measuring in straight lines, it ex
tends on the north side 15 miles; on the south-east
side 20J ; and on the west side 14A. But, in con
sequence of the peculiar outline of the west side,
the south-west half of the county is nearly a par
allelogram 10i miles by 7£, while the other half is
very nearly a regular isosceles triangle, the longest
side lying along the Forth. The area, according to
Armstrong's map of the Lothians, is only 112 square
miles, or 71,680 statute acres; but, according to
Arrowsmith's map of Scotland, it is 121 square miles,
or 77,440 statute acres.
The surface, though almost all champaign, is wav
ing and beautifully diversified, nowhere subsiding
over more than a very small space into flatness. Its
eminences, with a few gentle exceptions, are ris
ing grounds, knolls, elongated hillocks, and incon
siderable hills; and all, while they impart variety
and picturesqueness to the landscape, very trivially
subtract from the value of the ground, either bear
ing aloft arrays of thriving plantation, or affording
verdant and good pasturage, or yielding their sides
and their summits to the dominion of the plough.
The most remarkable of them form a range or
rather line of summits from Bowden, on the march
of Torphichen and Linlithgow parishes, obliquely
south-eastward through the middle of the county.
Cairn-maple, the most prominent summit of the
line, rising up on the march between the parishes
of Torphichen and Bathgate, has an altitude of
1,498 feet above the level of the sea. The Kipps-
hills, the Knock-hills, and the Drumcross-hills, all
form conspicuous parts of this range, but do not
rise to any great elevation. Cocklerue, or Cuckold
le Roi, near its west end, is one of its principal
summits, yet attains a height of only 500 feet.
More noticeable eminences, because delightfully pic
turesque, are variously distributed throughout the

northern parts of the county along the Forth. The
most conspicuous are Mons-hill, Craigie-hill and
Dundas-hill in Dalmeny, Craigton-hill and Binns-
hill in Abercorn, and Irongarth in the parish of
Linlithgow. All the heights of the county com
mand uncommonly varied and pleasing views of
the Lothians, — of Stirlingshire, — of the fine ex
panse of the Forth, with its shores receding in
gentle and undulating slopes, sprinkled with the
seats of the nobility and gentry, "and richly orna
mented with wood, — of the varied and fine southern
exposure of Fifeshire, — and of dimly-seen moun
tain ranges forming a serrated sky-line in the far
perspective. The middle and western districts ot
the county are the most hilly ; the northern are
the most beautiful, and become at intervals nearly
luscious in their sweetness ; the southern are the
most tame, and least valuable, containing much
moorland and morass, and swelling into few con
siderable or pleasant rising grounds.
The principal streams of the county are the Al
mond, across its southern division and along its south
eastern boundary, and the Avon 12 miles along its
western boundary. Logie-water, a tributary of the
Avon in Torphichen parish, drains much of the
western division, through its head-waters, Bar-
bauchlaw-burn and Ballencrieff-water. Brox-burn
and several smaller streamlets drain the eastern di
vision, and run into the Almond. Nether-mill-burn,
Dolphinston-burn, and some tiny brooks, run north
ward to the Forth. The streams are sufficient for
the purposes of draining and irrigation, and enrich
the county with much water-power for the driving
of machinery ; but they are wholly uninteresting to
the angler, the operations of agriculture and manu
facture having forced the finny tribes from their
haunts. The only lakes are one on the boundary
between Dalmeny and Kirkliston, Lochcoat in Tor
phichen, and Lochend, and chief of all Linlithgow-
loch, in the parish of Linlithgow. The Forth, both
as an object of ornament and as a contributor of profit,
is of great importance to the county, cheering the
inhabitants by its changeful phases of beauty, and
supplying fish for food, sites for salt-pans, and har
bours for traffic. On the beach at the western ex
tremity, 2,000 acres are left dry at every reflux of
the tide, but except at this point, the coast, for the
most part, suddenly rises into a ridge adorned by
culture and plantations. The Forth, along the whole,
assumes a singular variety of aspects ; and, washing
or forming hills and promontories, winding bays and
mimic estuaries, lofty shores, cultivated fields, and
brilliant mansions and demesnes, takes the appear
ance of a great lake, a noble river, or a broad sea,
according to the points of view in which it is seen.
Medicinal springs exist near the village of Tor
phichen, on the estate of Kipps in the same parish,
near Carribber-house, in the parish of Linlithgow,
near the church of Ecdesmachan, and in the vicinity
of the saltworks of Borrowstounness.
Linlithgowshire abounds with the most useful
minerals. Coal, in a workable state, exists in al
most every district, and was well-known, and gen
erally worked, so early as during the reign of Alex
ander III. A coal mine at Borrowstounness was
worked beneath the sea half-way across the frith,
and had a principal outlet or shaft half-a-mile from
the shore at a moat or quay in 12 feat depth of wa
ter. The average annual coal-produce of the county,
about 20 years ago, was 44,000 tons ; but it has been
greatly increased since the opening of the Union
canal  Limestone everywhere abounds, and is man
ufactured at great profit, and distributed to general
advantage. Freestone seems to stretch beneath the
whole county ; and, for the most part, but especially

278

LINLITHGOWSHIRE.

toward the coast, it is of excellent quality. Slate-
stone, whinstone, and grey granite, occur in various
localities. A basaltic rock, with many of its pillars
in the form of well-defined regular prisms, and the
rest columnar masses separated by channels, forms
almost perpendicular breastwork 60 or 70 feet high,
and 750 feet long, on the south side of Dundas-hill in
the parish of Dalmeny. Shell-marl lies athwart a
bog of about 9 acres near the foot of the basaltic
colonnade, and occurs also in Linlithgow-loch, and
in the parishes of Abercorn and Uphall. Ironstone
abounds in Borrowstounness, Torphichen, Bathgate,
Abercorn, and probably other parishes. Veins of
silver were formerly worked in the parishes of Bath
gate and Linlithgow, but eventually became either
uncompensating, or exhausted. Mundic has been
found in the riyulets of Torphichen. Fullers' earth,
potters' clay, brick clay, and red chalk are found in
the parish of Uphall.
The county, though aggregately rich in its agri
cultural capabilities, has all the varieties of soil from
bad to the best, which can depress or invigorate hus
bandry. Of the whole area, according to proximate
calculation, 19,900 acres are clay, either of prime
carse kind, or otherwise of good quality; 22,700 are
clay, on a cold bottom ; 9,500 are loam ; 9,500 are
light gravel and sand ; 14,000 are moorland and high
rocky ground; 1,500 are moss; and tbe remaining
460 are occupied by lakes and rivers. Owing to the
general lowness of the county, its nearness to the
Forth, and the prevalence of south-west winds, its
climate is, in general, temperate as to heat, and mo
derately dry, neither very cold nor very sultry, char
acterized rather by gentle .showers than by violent
rains, and is altogether, if not prime, at least of the
second-rate character enjoyed in the kingdom. Dur
ing the Scoto-Saxon period, a profusion of natural
wood seems everywhere to have waved over the
surface ; and this, in an age when pasturage formed
the prime object of attention to the exclusion or de
preciation of tillage, must have been quite congenial
to the .interests of husbandry. An expanse of natural
wood, 70 acres in extent, still exists near Kinneil
house on the Forth. During very many years past,
the land-owners have paid great attention to plant
ing, and, besides richly embellishing the lower
grounds, have spread out expanses of thriving wood
on the moorland heights. About one-third, or pro
bably more, of the entire area, is disposed either in
woodlands, or in old pastures and artifidal grasses.
All the area, too, is, with fractional exceptions, en
closed by almost all the variety of stone and hedge
fences whifih ingenuity has contrived. David I. was,
in his day, the greatest farmer in West as well as in
Mid-Lothian ; was probably the introducer, or at
least the improver, of horticulture ; and certainly,
on his grange at Linlithgow, practised husbandry
with a skill and success which his barons could not
excel, and which, however incognizant of the true
principles of agriculture, must have had benign re
sults at the midnight hour of the dark ages. Yet,
while the cultivators were almost all villeyns who
laboured, not for their own profit, but for the benefit
of others, agriculture could not be carried on with
much amelioration to its art. Throughout the Scoto-
Saxon period, and for ages afterwards, every manor
had its village, its mill, its kiln, its malthouse, and
its common for the general use of the villagers.
The husbandmen used oxen in their ploughs and
waggons ; they cultivated the same grain ; they pas
tured the same beasts ; they aimed at the same pro
fits. Yet, throughout the Scoto-Saxon period, espe
cially during the peaceful reign of Alexander III.,
there was a slow progress of 'melioration, similar in
its causes and character to that experienced in Ber

wickshire, Haddingtonshire, and Edinburgh
shire. [See these articles.] But the rancorous
war of 70 years which followed the demise of Alex
ander III., plunged the whole county into ruin. Tbe
charters of the period are crowded with records of
devastation. Domestic feuds were to the full as de
structive as foreign inroads. During tbe feud be
tween Earl Douglas and Crichton, the Chancellor,
for example, Crichton, in 1445, ravaged the Earl's
manor of Abercorn, and, among other waste, drove
away a race of mares which he had brought from
Flanders. The whole intercourses of life were op
pressive, the strong constantly overpowering the
weak. The art of cultivating the ground, with
the exception that gardening became general in the
reign of James VI., appears to have helplessly wel
tered under the blows inflicted on it till about the
close of the first quarter of last centoiry. The
formation of the society of improvers in 1723 pro
bably gave the first impulse to Linlithgowshire as
to other counties. A sale of manure, at one shilling
a bushel, by one Higgins and his copartners at CufF-
about, near Borrowstounness, in 1725, seems an. in
dication of returning enterprise. John, Earl of Stair,
began, in 1728, to introduce, from his residence in
the parish of Kirkliston, new maxims of husbandry,
and new modes of cultivation ; he was the first who
practised the horse-hoeing husbandry ; he sowed ar
tificial grasses ; and he cultivated turnips, cabbages,
and carrots by the plough. Charles, first Earl of
Hopetoun, imitated and even excelled the illustrious
Earl of Stair ; but they both died in the decade of
1 740, before their plans were matured, or their prin
ciples duly appreciated.' About 25 years before the
close of the century, a race of projectors arose who
went beyond the noblemen in usefulness, — some
practical farmers, who, with clear heads, enterprising
hearts, and sufficient capital, professionally under
took to rent farms and estates with design to im
prove them, and then, for an adequate profit, relin
quished them to farmers who had less skill but were
willing to learn. Except that more attention is
given to turnips and other green crops, the system of
agriculture now pursued is, in all respects, similar to
that of the other Lothians. Farm-steads are gener
ally in a creditable and neat condition. Farms are,
for the most part, from 70 to 200 acres in extent ;
but in some instances comprehend only 50 acres or
less, and in some they rise to 300. Besides some
small proprietors near Linlithgow and Borrowstoun
ness, about 40 landholders possess the grounds of the
county, and have incomes from them ranging be
tween £200 and £6,000.
Considering its wondrously rich facilities as to
coal, useful minerals, central position, and ample
means of communication by both land and sea, Lin
lithgowshire is strangely poor in manufactures. A
cotton mill and a flax mill at Blackburn, some tan
neries and shoe-making establishments at Linlithgow,
extensive salt-works at Borrowstounness, a soap-
making establishment at Queensferry, 520 looms at \
Bathgate, and 218 at Whitburn, kept in motion by
the manufacturers of Glasgow, small ship-building
yards, and two or three distilleries and breweries,
constitute nearly the whole amount of outward man
ufacturing display. The traffic in coal is very ex
tensive, and employs more persons than any thing
else except agriculture ; the traffic in freestone and
salt is also of some importance; but traffic in all
other departments combined is very inconsiderable.
The first turnpike in Linlithgowshire was that
from Edinburgh to Queensferry, made in 1751. But
now it equals the best counties of Scotland, and sur
passes most of them, in the number and excellence
of its roads. All the three great roads between

LINLITHGOWSHIRE.

279

Edinburgh and Glasgow, by way respectively of
Linlithgow, Bathgate, and Whitburn, and also two
other turnpikes, one near the coast and one near the
southern boundary, run across it from east to west ;
several lines of turnpike traverse it from north to
south; "and subordinate roads are so numerous and
so minutely ramified, in every district and nook, as
to look on the map like the tracery of a pervading
labyrinth. Both the Union Canal and the Edin
burgh and Glasgow Railway [which see] bisect
it from east to west. Its sea-ports are Queensferry,
Blackness, and Borrowstounness. Its royal burghs
are Linlithgow and Queensferry. Its other towns
and considerable villages are Bathgate, Whitburn,
Blackburn, Borrowstounness, Broxburn, and Kirk
liston. The county returns one member to parlia
ment. Constituency, in 1839, 702. The valued
rent of the whole county, in Scottish money, is
£74,931 19s. 2d.; the real land-rent, in 1808, was
£64,518; and the annual value of real property, as
assessed in 1815, is £97,597. The population, ow
ing probably to the want of Jarge or manufacturing
towns, and to the concentration of attention chiefly
on a steady and judicious course of agriculture, has
undergone less proportional increase during the last
century than in most other districts of Scotland.
Population, in 1801, 17,844; in 1811, 19,451; in
1821, 22,695; in.1831, 23,291. .The total number
of families-in the last of these years, was 5,014; of
males 10,995; of females 12,296; of occupiers of
land employing labourers 295 ; of occupiers of land
not employing labourers 179 ; of agricultural labour
ers 952; of labourers not agricultural 1,100; of
manufacturing operatives 560; of persons employed
in retail trades and handicrafts 1,547 ; of capitalists
233; of male servants 101 ; of female servants 858;
of inhabited houses 3,400 ; of uninhabited houses 203.
Linlithgowshire is ecclesiastically divided into the
quoad civilia parishes of Abercorn, Bathgate, Bor
rowstounness, Carriden, Dalmeny, Ecdesmachan,
Kirkliston, Linlithgow, Livingstone, Queensferry,
Torphichen, Uphall, and Whitburn, — one of which,
Kirkliston, is but partly in the county. These 13
parishes, along with 4 in Stirlingshire and 2 in Edin
burghshire, constitute the presbytery of Linlithgow.
The seal of this presbytery, composed of brass and
larger than a crown-piece, was discovei'ed between
50 and 60 years ago in an old repository. Engraved
round it are the words, ' Sigillum presbeterii Lin-
lichovo,' and in the centre are some decorations,
the date 1583, and the words, ' Verbum autem Dei
nostri stabit in aeternum. Esa. 40.' A Culdee es
tablishment was organized at Abercorn about the
year 650; and this, in 684, became the seat of the
short-lived bishopric of the Picts. The county was
for several generations part of the diocese of Lindis-
farne, and was afterwards comprehended in that of
St. Andrews. The ancient deaconry of Linlithgow
had probably the same limits as the modern presby
tery, and, at all events, included not only the whole
county itself, but several parishes in Stirlingshire and
Edinburghshire. At Kirkliston the bishop of St.
Andrews had a sort of sovereignty under the king's
grant, extending to all the lands of the see south of
the Forth. During the short-lived Protestant bish
opric of Edinburgh, Linlithgowshire was included in
its territory. Though the knights of St. John had
their seat at Torphichen [which see], there were
anciently in the county few religious houses. Two
monasteries and a hospitium at Linlithgow, and a
Carmelite convent near Queensferry, were the chief.
In 1834, there were 13 parochial schools, conducted
by 13 teachers, and attended by a maximum of
787 scholars, arid a minimum of 352; and 48 non-
parochial schools, conducted by 55 teachers, and

attended by a maximum of 1,678 scholars, and a
minimum of 650.
At the Christian epoch, Linlithgowshire was in
habited by the British tribe of the Gadeni. But its
civil history, so far as peculiar to itself, has almost
all been rapidly sketched in our articles on the town
of Linlithgow, and tbe port and castle of Black
ness, and will be found told, in most of its small
remnants, in our parochial or distinct notices of its
respective scenes. Cairns and sepulchral tumuli, the
monuments of the more ancient inhabitants, exist on
the Lochcoat hills, on the Forth near Barnbougle-
castle, in the vicinity of the village of Kirkliston,
and on the south bank of the Almond at Livingstone.
Remarkable standing-stones, Druidical or monumen
tal, occur in the wood of Abercorn, in the vicinitj
of Bathgate, and in the parish of Torphichen. Ves
tiges of British forts exist on Cuckold le Roi hill in
Linlithgow, on Bowden-hill in Torphichen, and or.
Cairnpaple-hill and Binns-hill, south-eastward in the
Bowden range. Agricola, after conquering the Lo
thians, passed, in the year 83, from Carriden to the
opposite shore of the Forth in search of the Hores-
tii. Twenty years later was constructed from Car
riden to the Clyde Antoninus' wall : which see.
From the Roman station at Cramond, a Roman road
proceeded by Barnbougle-hill, and across Ecklin moor,
where its remains continue distinct, westward to the
end of the wall at Carriden. Roman towers were
reared along the Forth, but cannot now be traced.
Vestiges of a small Roman camp occur a little east
of Abercorn. Edwin, who assumed the Northum
brian sceptre in the year 617, stretched his jurisdic
tion from the Humber to the Avon, and laid the
foundation of a power over even the northern ex
tremity of this kingdom which occasioned Linlith
gowshire, in common with the other Lothians, to be
known to Kenneth, the son of Alpin, and the leader
of the Scots to the conquest of the country, by
the name of Saxonia. The chief strengths of the
ages succeeding the Scottish conquests, are the peel,
afterwards enlarged or re-edified into the palace, of
Linlithgow, the peel of Livingstone, the square tower
of Ne wyearfield, the castles of Blackness, Barnbougle,
Kinneil, Abercorn, Niddrie, Mannerston, and Bridge-
house, vestiges of a castle which gave a retreat to
Walter Steward of Scotland, in a morass near Bath
gate, the tower-house of Meidhope, Castlelyon below
Kinneil-castle, and now overflowed by the frith, the
tower of Torphichen, and a ruined baronial residence
at West Binny. Existing peerages of the county
are Hopetoun, Torphichen, and Abercorn, and ex
tinct ones are Livingstone and Linlithgow.
West Lothian first appears on record as a sheriff
dom, or shire, in the reign of Malcolm IV. ; it con
tinued to be so in full power during the long reign
of William the Lion, and nominally, though the she
riffs passed away, till the accession of Robert Bruce.
The district now became a constabulary, and re
mained under this subordinate form till probably the
reign of James I. or James II. West Lothian was
again in undoubted possession of the honours of a
sheriffdom in the reign of James III., though when
or how it reacquired them are points not known.
In the progress of weakness and distraction, the
office, of sheriff became hereditary. In 1600, it was
granted to James Hamilton, the eldest son of Claude,
Lord Paisley, and to his heirs ; and soon after the
Restoration it was given hereditarily to John Hope
of Hopetoun, the ancestor of the Earls of Hopetoun.
At the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions in 1747,
the Earl of Hopetoun claimed as compensation £3,000
for the sheriffdom of Linlithgow, and sums for the
sheriffdom of Bathgate, the regality of St. Andrews
at Kirkliston, the bailiary of Crawfbrdmuir, and the

LIN

280

LIN

regality of Kirkheugh, sums which made a total of
£7,500, and was allowed £4,569. Kirkliston and
other lands were a regality with an attached bailiaryj
Bathgate was long a barony, and afterwards became
a separate sheriffwick. Torphichen was a regality
first of the knights of St. John, and next of the
Lords Torphichen. Other regalities were Kinneil
under the Duke of Hamilton, Philipston under the
monks of Culross, and afterwards the Earl of Stair,
and Brighouse and Ogleface under the Earl of Lin
lithgow. Linlithgow was a hereditary royal bailiary
belonging, like the last-named regality, to the Lin .
lithgow family. Baronial jurisdictions were Aber
corn, Livingston, Carribber, Dalmeny, Barnbougle,
and Strathbrock. These various jurisdictions, so
licited by the ambition, and granted by the impolicy,
of former times, confounded rather than promoted
the justice of Linlithgowshire, and were long pros
tituted to the interests of individuals rather than
dedicated to general convenience.
LINN, the vulgar Scotch for a pool or deep reach,
in the bed of a river. It is evidently derived from
the Gaelic Linne, which is the Welsh Llynn, and
perhaps radically the same with the Greek Xipm.
Ramsay, in his ' Gentle Shepherd,' uses the word to
designate the rocky or precipitous bank which usu
ally overhangs such a pool; and we suppose the
unfortunate wight, so well-known to all lovers of
our Doric muse, who 'spak' of putting an end to the
tortures of slighted love by 'louping ower,a linn,'
attached a similar construction to the term ; other
wise the resolve to leap over the linn, was doubtless
an infinitely more prudent one than that of leaping
into it.
LINNHE (Loch), an arm of the sea, stretching
between the districts of Appin and Morvern in Ar
gyleshire, in a north-easterly direction, frpm the
sound of Mull, as far as Coran ferry, where it takes
a northerly direction, and acquires the name of Loch-
Em,: which see. It gives off, on its eastern side,
first, Loch-Etive, then Loch-Creran, and farther
in Ward, on the same side, Loch-Leven: see these
articles. The island of Lismore [which see] lies in
the mouth of Loch-Linnhe ; and there are several
smaller islands interspersed through it.
LINTON, a parish occupying the north-west
corner of Peebles-shire; bounded on the north-west,
north, and north-east, by Edinburghshire; on the
east and south-east by Newlands ; on the south by
Kirkurd; and on the south-west and west by Lan
arkshire. It approaches the form of a flying kite,
its apex pointing to tbe south ; and measures, in its
greatest length from Bore Stane on the north to the
confluence of Dean-burn and Tarth-water on the
south, 10^ miles ; and, in its greatest breadth, in a
line due eastward from the point where it is first
touched on the west by Dryburn, 7£ miles. The
North Esk rises in the northern extremity, and runs
4 miles along the north-eastern boundary, receiving
from the parish the beautiful little tribute of Carlops-
burn, and partly washing, partly forming, just when
entering Edinburghshire, the tranquil and classic
scenery of Habbie's Howe : see that article. Med
win -water flows 3J miles along the western boun
dary to Garvaldfoot, there very curiously splits itself
into two streams, the larger one, and that which re
tains the name of the Medwin, debouching into La
narkshire to fall eventually into the Clyde, and the
smaller one running 4£ miles farther along the boun
dary, to assume the name of the Tarth, and to join
the Lyne in a progress to the Tweed. Lyne-water
rises on the west side of Weather-law, within half-
a-mile of the source of the North Esk, and flows S\
miles south-eastward through the interior of the par
ish, and 2 miles southward along its eastern boun

dary. Numerous tributaries of the Lyne drain the
sides of the parish ; but the most considerable of
them is West-water, a streamlet 4£ miles long, and
running obliquely through the interior to the Lyne a
right bank. Slipperfield-loch, 1£ mile west of the
mouth of West-water, measures about 1J mile in
circumference, abounds in pike and perch, and is
frequented in summer by flocks of water-fowl, and
in winter by crowds of curlers. Around it on all
sides stretches an expanse of heathy moor, 2,000 or
2,500 acres in extent, apparently defying georgical
art, yet receiving impressions from the practices of
the improver. Two-thirds of tbe entire area are
mountainous and hilly, strictly upland and pastoral,
covered, to a considerable extent, with verdure, but
clothed, in the case of many heights, with heath very
slightly intermixed with grass. In the north-east
corner is a moor similar to that around Slipperfield-
loch, but smaller in extent. Beautiful stripes of
arable land stretch along the Lyne, and the lower
part of the North Esk. The soil on the low
grounds of the Esk is clay superincumbent on lime
stone, and on other ploughed grounds, is either a
sandy loam upon a gravelly bottom, remarkably well
suited to the turnip and the potato, or a reclaimed
and progressively improving moss. The parish is
famous for its variety of the Cheviot breed of sheep,
and sends off supplies for propagation in distant dis
tricts, and has usually on its pastures about 10,000.
Agricultural operations are conducted here with an
enterprise surpassing expectation on so disadvanta
geous an arena. Plantations, though aggregately
scanty, beautify the finest part of the vales of the
North Esk, the Lyne, and the Medwin, and are of
noticeable extent in the extreme southern corner.
Excellent white freestone is worked at Deepsyke-
head and at Spittlehaugh, and is carried from the
former place to every part of Peebles-shire. Coal is
mined at Carlops, at Coalyburn, and at Harlamuir.
Limestone is burnt at Carlops, and at Whitefield and
Bents, to the extent of 21 ,000 bolls annually ; and
occurs in abundance at Spittlehaugh and at Badens-
gill. Lead has been repeatedly but vainly searched
for in the hill called Leadlaw. Fuller's earth occurs
in a small seam below Bridgehouse on the Lyne.
Blue marl lies in a stratum two feet thick above the
lime-rocks of Carlops and Spittlehaugh. Many
pebbles are found of great beauty, and similar iu
kind to the Cairngorm stone. A mineral spring,
curiously called Heaven-aqua well, and somewhat
resembling the spa of Tunbridge, bubbles up to the
north of Linton village. The parish is traversed
south-westward, and cut into not very unequal parts
by the turnpike from Edinburgh to Dumfries by way
of Biggar, whence a branch strikes off a little north
of the village of Linton, and runs southward point
ing the way to Moffat; but it is otherwise very
indifferently provided with roads. The village of
Carlops [which see], and some interesting objects
in its vicinity, are separately noticed. The village
of Linton — or, as it is sometimes called to distinguish
it from a namesake in Haddingtonshire, West Linton
— stands on the left bank of the Lyne, on the road
from the metropolis to Moffat, 16£ miles from Edin
burgh, and 11 from Biggar. Its population is about
400. The place is irregularly built, and has an an
tique and curious appearance, a considerable propor
tion of the houses presenting their gables to the
street. Most of its inhabitants are weavers, or
traders dependent on its market; Though finely
situated for a woollen manufacture, lying in the
vicinity of coal, on a stream of much water-power,
and in the midst of a sheep country, its manufactur
ing connexion is solely with cotton, and in subordi
nation to Glasgow. In 1838 it had, jointly with

LINTON.

281

Carlops, 100 looms. The village has long been
celebrated for its sheep-markets, which are of such
proverbial importance, that a Tweeddale man ex
hausts his superlatives, and mounts the summit of a
climax, when he affirms any throng or crowd to be
' as great as Linton mercat.' The first fair is held
on the Friday before the first Monday of April. It
is also a hiring-market for servants. The second
fair is held on the day before the 3d Wednesday
after the 11th June. It is for the sale of ewe and
wether-hogs of the black-faced breed. The num
ber of sheep on the ground varies from 15,000 to
25,000. The sheep disposed of are chiefly hogs or
sheep of the first year, and are sent to Lammer
moor, Fife, Forfar, and Perth shires, and to various
parts of England. West Linton is a burgh-of-rega-
lity under the superiority of the Earl of March.
Pennicuick, in his Poetical Address, in 1689, to the
Prince of Orange, calls it ' the submetropolitan of
Tweeddale." The village gives the title of baron
to the Earl of Traauair. Population of the parish,
in 1801, 1,064; in 1831, 1,577. Houses 269. As
sessed property, in 1815, £5,649  Linton is in the
presbytery of Peebles, and synod of Lothian and
Tweeddale. Patron, the Earl of Wemyss. Stipend
£232 14s. lid.; glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds
£115 7s. At the village of Linton is a United
Secession meeting-house. A number of the parish
ioners belong to a Relief congregation in the conter
minous parish of Newlands. — The parish, or kirk-
town, has its name from the Lyne or Lyn, and an
ciently had the adjunct to that name of Roderick.
The church of Linton-Roderick, from the reign of
David I. till the Reformation, was a vicarage under
the monks of Kelso. In the 13th century, a chap-
lainry, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was established
at Ingliston, in the south-west corner of the parish.
A chapel, attached to an hospital, anciently stood on
the Lyne, at a place to which it gave the name of
Chapel-bill. The parish-school had, in 1834, 96
scholars, and a private school 34. Parish-school
master's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with £35 10s. fees, and
£10 other emoluments.
LINTON, a parish of an elongated but bent form,
stretching the one-half northward, and the other
half north-eastward, in the north-east extremity of
Roxburghshire. It is bounded on the north-west
by Sprouston ; on the east by Northumberland ; on
the south-east by Yetholm and Morebattle ; on the
east of the southern part, and on the south by
Morebattle; and on the west by Eckford. Its
breadth varies from 1£ to 2J miles; its extreme
length from south to north is 3i miles, and thence
to the north-east 3 miles, — in all 6J ; and its area is
6,500 acres. Kail- water forms the boundary-line for
a mile on the south, and a small tributary of that
stream for 3£ miles on the west. The south-west
corner is a beautiful level, 300 acres in extent, rising
only a few inches above the Kail, subject to inunda
tions, and forming part of a lovely plain of 12,000
or 15,000 acres, surrounded on all sides by green and
arable ascents, and by mansions and demesnes which
delight, not less by their local associations with
Allan Ramsay, Thomson, and other names, than by
their fine landscape features. In the Linton part of
the valley lies Linton-loch, an interesting piece of
water. It is nearly circular, and about thirty acres
in area; but, having been drained, it exhibits the
appearance of a green morass, broadly dotted with
several pools. Large trout, similar to those of
Loch-Leven, tenant the pools ; but, shielded by the
entanglements of the morass, they cannot easily be
reached by anglers. Moss, in several strata— aggre
gately about 12 feet deep, in which were found vast
accumulations of hazel-nuts— forms the upper part of

the morass ; and shell-marl, rich in quality, various
in colour, and in some places nearly 20 feet deep,
lies beneath it. In the marl have been found a sur
passingly large set of deer's horns, and skeletons of
various animals, one of them exceeding in size that
of a horse. The lake obviously appears but a rem
nant of a magnificent sheet of water, which anciently
covered the whole large valley in which it lies. All
the valley abounds with pure and copious springs.
Hoselaw-loch lies within a mile of the north-eastern
boundary, and sends off a streamlet into England to
become tributary to Beaumont- water. It is a beauti
ful sheet of water, of an oblong form, 30 acres in
extent, abounding in perch and silver eels, and af
fording ample sport to anglers. Westward from
the lake stretches a moss of great extent, and of bad
quality of peats. A mile south-west of this moss,
and about the centre of the parish, is another moss
better in the quality of its peat, and covering some
shell-marl. The south-east corner of the parish is
an undulating ascent from the edge of the plain, ter
minating in Linton-hill on the boundary, the most
considerable district of the summit. Along the
north-west verge is an interrupted line of low
heights, the principal of which are Blakelaw, Hose-'
law, and Kiplaw; and parallel to it along the south
east boundary, runs a low ridge called the Gradon-
hills. Swells and variform elevations also diversify
the surface of the interior. All the eminences, ex
cepting the summit of Linton-hill, are wholly arable ;
and the level and low grounds, excepting 70 or 80
acres under plantation, and the large expanses of
moss, are in a state of rich cultivation. The pro
portions of arable and of waste grounds are to each
other as 19 to 7. The soil, on the plain of the
south-west corner, is partly a strong retentive clay,
and partly a deep loam superincumbent on sand or
gravel ; and in other districts it consists variously
and mixedly of clay, loam, sand, and gravel. Whin
stone abounds, and occasionally encloses seams of
rock-crystal. Sandstone is quarried at Froyden.
Coal exists in thin seams, but does not compensate
mining. On an ancient stone on the south wall of
the parish-church is the figure of a horseman spear
ing the mouth of an animal resembling a dragon.
Underneath it, according to tradition, were inscribed
the words : —
" The wode laird of Lariestone,
Slew the wode worm of Wirmieston,
And won all Linton paroshine."
William de Somerville, to whom the monument re
fers, and who was founder of the noble family of
Somerville? slew, in the reign of William the Lion,
a monstrous bear, wolf, or serpent, which greatly
devastated the district, and is supposed to have been
the last which infested it; and he obtained from the
King, as a reward, a large part of the lands of the
parish. A place is pointed out as the animal's den,
and bears the name of ' the worm's hole,' and the
ground in its vicinity is called Wormington. The
crest of Lord Somerville's arms has the inscription,
' The wode laird,' and contains other allusions to his
ancestor's exploit. William de Somerville, after
obtaining the property in the parish, became chief
falconer to the King and sheriff of Roxburghshire ;
he built Linton-tower, which was used as his family
seat till their removal to Carnwath [which see], in
the end of the 14th century ; and he was buried in
the choir of Linton church, the sepulchre of many
of his descendants Linton-tower, now nearly un
traceable, stood on a rising ground near the church,
and seems to have been surrounded by a fosse. A
hollow on its site is the vestige of its dungeon. The
tower was hazarded in sturdy oppositions of its
owners to the aggressions of England in the days of

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LIS

Wallace and Bruce; and, in the reign of Henry
VIII., it was first dilapidated by the warden of the
English marches, and next utterly destroyed by the
Earl of Surrey, The parish, both from lying imme
diately on the Border, and from its being part of
what were anciently called ' the dry marches,' and
one of the most facile thoroughfares between the
kingdoms, was peculiarly exposed to the rough and
sanguinary contacts of the Border wars. Graden-
place, J of a mile south-west of IJoselaw-loch, shows
traces of a fbrtalice surrounded by a moat, and was
the seat of the Kerrs of Graden, little inferior in the
coarse fame of Border warfare, to their namesakes
of Fernihirst. On the summits of various rising
grounds are remains of circular encampments. On
the farm of Frogdan is a spot called the ' tryst,'
marked by several upright stones, and anciently the
place of rendezvous for parties about to make a foray
into England. A narrow opening between two
heights, along the side of Linton-loch, bears marks
of having been fortified, was defended by the rising
ground of artificial formation, which now bears aloft
the parish-church, and seems to have been viewed as
a pass or as a favourable point for standing at bay
against a pursuing foe. In various localities tumulis
abound, enclosing earthen urns with human bones ;
and, in one place, they are so numerous as to iden
tify the spot with the scene of some extensively
murderous onslaught. The principal landed pro
prietor is Robert Pringle, Esq. of Clifton, M. P. for
Selkirkshire. Linton and Hoselaw, once villages of
note, have become extinct. The parish is bisected
eastward by the turnpike from Kelso to Yetholm,
and has facilities of communication from being, at its
nearest point, only 3 miles distant from Kelso. Po
pulation, in 1801, 403; in 1831, 462. Houses 79.
Assessed property, in 1815, £4,324. — Linton is in
the presbytery of Kelso, and synod of Merse and
Teviotdale. Patron, Pringle of Clifton. Stipend
£239 2s. lOd. ; glebe £12. Unappropriated teinds
£308 2s. 3d. The parish, like that of the same
name in Peebles-shire, was anciently called Linton-
Roderick. Its church was, in the 12th century,
given by Richard Comyn to the monks of Kelso ;
but it was maintained by them as a rectory. The
present church is a small antique strong edifice, situ
ated in the south end of the parish, half-a-mile from
the Kail. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with
£13 fees, and £7 other emoluments.
LINTON (East), a large and prosperous village
in the parish of Prestonkirk ; 5^ miles east of Had
dington ; 6 west of Dunbar ; and 6£ south of North
Berwick, Haddingtonshire. It stretches north and
south along the left bank of the river Tyne, at a fine
large bend made by the stream ; and rests, at its south
end, on the great mail-road between Edinburgh and
London. The place had an extensive distillery,
which has been recently dismantled, an inn, and
an array of drinking - houses ; and is the site of
a United Secession meeting-house, two endowed
schools, a subscription school, two private schools,
a subscription library, and a branch of the East Lo
thian itinerating libraries. It was anciently a burgh-
of-barony; and, during harvest, has a large weekly
market, on Monday, for hiring reapers. A few yards
to the north of it stands the parish-church. The
village, but without the modern affix of ' East,' gave
name, from the epoch of record till the Reformation,
to the parish in which it stands : see Prestonkirk.
Population 720. The river Tyne, while sweeping
round the southern side of the village, falls into a
large and deep linn. A few salmon are occasionally
caught at this fall.
LINTRATHEN, Lentrathen, or Glentra-
then, a parish in the Grampian district of Forfar

shire ; bounded on the north-east by the Grampian
section of Kirriemuir ; on the east by Kingoldrum ; '
on the south by Airlie and Alyth ; and on the west
by Glenisla. Its greatest length from north to south
is 12 miles, and its greatest breadth 5J. Over two-
thirds of the length from the south the breadth varies
from 4 miles to the maximum; and over the remain
ing third it tapers regularly to a point. The parish
lies in the outskirts of the Grampians, and is, for the
most part, a sea of heights from 500 to 1,000 feet
above the level of Strathmore, of bleak, barren, and
chilly aspect. Along the southern boundary, and
some way up the middle of the interior on the banks
of the principal streams, are sloping belts of arable
ground, considerable in area, and not deficient in
fertility. But most of the lands in tillage are thinly
carpeted with a moorish soil, and produce corn of
very inferior quality. Among the hills in the in
terior are several valleys fit only for pasturage. The
heights are, for the most part, heathy ; and, in the
north corner, are wild and desolate. Few trees
anywhere relieve the pervading dreariness. The river
Isla flows for 5J miles along the western and south
ern boundaries. Back-water rises in the extreme
north corner, traverses a deep mountain furrow
or narrow vale called Glendamf, receives several
highland brooks, and, after having flowed due south
from its source till within 2 miles of the southern
boundary, runs 4 south-eastward in the interior, and
1 mile south-westward along the boundary to a con
fluence with the Isla. Opposite the parish-church,
li mile before touching the boundary, it forms a
small cataract. Melgam- water drains the east side
of the parish, and falls into Back-water a little above
the church. Lintrathen-loch, circular in outline,
upwards of a mile in diameter, fed by mountain rills,
and sending off its superfluent waters to Back-water,
lies 4 of a mile west of the church, and abounds in
pike, perch, and trout. Communication between the
northern district and the southern is interrupted -by
impracticable heights ; but, in the most peopled
parts, is accelerated by roads. Population, in 1801,
919; in 1831,998. Houses 224. Assessed property,
in 1815, £449. — Lintrathen is in the presbyery
of Meigle, and synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron,
the Earl of Airley. Stipend £159 2s. ; glebe £12.
The church was built in 1802, and slightly repaired
in 1829. Sittings 408. The minister stated, in
1836, that, excepting six dissenters, all the parish
ioners belonged to the Establishment. The ancient
church belonged to the priory of Inchmahome.
Schoolmaster's salary £29 18s, 9|d., with £26 fees,
and £5 other emoluments. Two private schools are.
open during winter.
LINTROSE. See Kettins.
LINWOOD, a village in the north-east of the
parish of Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, on the left bank
of the Black Cart, distant If mile from Johnstone,
and 3£ from the cross of Paisley. The river is here
passed by a stone-bridge of one arch, erected about
the year 1762. The village, which mostly stands
on the estate of Blackston, was built on a regular
plan. It is of modern origin, having arisen from a
large mill for the spinning of cotton, which was
established at this place in the end of the 18th cen
tury, and which gives employment to the most of
the inhabitants. It is contemplated to build a church
in Lin wood, and for this purpose £500 has been
subscribed. The population is about 1,000.
LISMORE, an island of the Hebrides, belonging
to Argyleshire, and situated at the mouth of Loch-
Linnhe, about 8 miles from Oban. It is a narrow
uneven rocky ridge, about 9 miles long, and from 1
to 2 miles broad ; containing about 8,000 acres, and
lies entirely upon a limestone rock. The surface w

LIS

288

LIV

rugged and sprinkled with abrupt projecting rocks,
but the soil is a rich black loam, formed from lime
stone, and extremely fertile. Deer and ox horns of
uncommonly large size have been frequently dug up
in the bogs and mosses. It was anciently the seat
of the Bishop of Argyle, who was frequently named
' Episcopus Lismoriensis ;' and a great part of the
cathedral remains, the chancel of which is used as
the parish-church. The walls of the bishop's castle
remain pretty entire at Achinduin, 4 miles west of
the cathedral. There was formerly a Roman Ca
tholic college on this island, at Kilcheran, but it has
been recently removed to Aberdeenshire. There
are several vestiges of fortified camps, and an old
castle with a fosse and drawbridge, said to have
been erected by the Danes. Lismore contained, in
1801, 1,329 inhabitants; in 1831, 1,790. Assessed
property, in 1815, £1,250. Houses, in 1831, 303 
Between the island of Lismore and the coast of Mull
lies a rock known bythe name of ' The Lady's rock,'
of which the following historical anecdote is related.
" Lauchlan Cattanach Maclean of Do wart bad mar
ried Lady Elizabeth, daughter to Archibald, second
Earl of Argyle ; and, either from the circumstance
of their union being unfruitful, or more probably
owing to some domestic quarrels, he determined to
get rid of his wife. Some accounts say that she had
twice attempted her husband's life ; but, whatever
the cause may have been, Maclean, following the
advice of two of his vassals, who exercised a con
siderable influence over him from the tie of fosterage,
caused his lady to be exposed on a rock, which was
only visible at low water, intending that she should
be swept away by the return of the tide. From this
perilous situation, the intended victim was rescued
by a boat accidently passing, and conveyed to her
brother's house. Her relations, although much ex
asperated against Maclean, smothered their resent
ment for a time, but only to break out afterwards
with greater violence; for the Laird of Dowart
being in Edinburgh, was surprised, when in bed, and
assassinated by Sir John Campbell of Calder, the
lady's brother. The Macleans instantly took arms,
to revenge the death of their chief, and the Camp
bells were not slow in preparing to follow up the
feud; but the government interfered, and, for the
present, an appeal to arms was avoided." — Gregory's
' History of the Islands and Isles,' pp. 127, 128.
LISMORE and APPIN,* an united parish in
Argyleshire, extending, from the south-west end
of Lismore, to the extreme part of CeanloChbeg, 63
miles in length, by 10, and in some places by 16 in
breadth. It is bounded by the seas that divide it
from Afdchattan and Kilmore to the south and south
east ; by Glenorchy or Clachandysart on the east, at
the King's house; by Kilmalie on the north-east;
by Suinart, a part of the parish of Ardnamurchan,
on the north-west ; by Morven on the west ; and by
the Island of Mull, and the great Western ocean, on
the west and south-west. It is intersected by sev
eral considerable arms of the sea, and comprehends
the districts of Airds, Appin, Duror, Glencre-
ran, Glencoe, and the island of Lismore, [see
these articles,] besides the district of Kingairloch,
which stretches for about 12 miles along the north
* " Killmuluag, and Island Mund, were the old names of
these parishes, and the only names by which they are designed
in the Teind records at Edinburgh. Killmuluag literally signi
fies 'the Cell or Chapel of St. Mitluag,' a saint of the 7th cen
tury, who was the first diguitary here, and probably laid the
foundation of the cathedral. Island Mund signifies ' the Island
of St. Mungo,' — a small island in Loch-Leven in Glencoe, dedi
cated to that saint. The island has been long the common
cemetery of the inhabitants of Glencoe. Lismore, the modern
name of this parish, signifies ' Large, or extensive gardens.'
Lis, or Lios, in the Celtic language, denotes ' a garden.'"— Old
Statistical Account.

side of the Linnhe-loch, and contains a population of
about 300. The extent of sea-coast belonging to
the united parishes is not less than 90 miles. There
are two ferries from Lismore to the opposite coast
of Appin. Population of the united parish, in 1801,
3,243 ; in 1831, 5,365. Assessed property, in 1815,
£10,060. Houses, in 1831, 786  This parish is in
the presbytery of Lorn, and synod of Argyle. Pa
tron, the Duke of Argyle. Stipend £212 12s. 2d. ;
glebe £17. Service is performed alternately at Lis
more and Appin. The church of Lismore, part of
tbe ancient cathedral, seats 540. The church of
Appin was built in 1749, and enlarged in 1814 ; sit
tings 350  The district of Kingairloch and the
Braes of Morven were erected, in 1829, into a mis
sion. Stipend of missionary £85, paid by the com
mittee of the Royal bounty  Glencreran also forms
a mission. Salary £80  There are Episcopalian
congregations at Ballahulish and Portnacroish. —
There are two parochial schools ; the salary of one
master is £27, with about £12 fees; of the other
£19, with £11 fees. There is also one private
school. LISTON-SHIELS, a district among the Pent
land hills, belonging quoad civilia to the parish of
Kirkliston, and quoad sacra to that of Kirknewton,
Edinburghshire. It lies south-east of both parishes,
distant, at the nearest point, ¦{ of a mile from the
latter, and 4J miles from the former. The district is
nearly a square 1J mile, deep ; bounded on the north
by Currie ; on the east by Pennicuick ; on the south
by Pennicuick and Peebles-shire ; and on the west
by Mid-Calder. It sends its tiny streams northward
from near its southern limits, and is one of the most
bleak parts of the Pentlands.
LITTLE DUNKELD. See Dunkeld (Little).
LITTLE FERRY. See Dornoch.
LIVET, a small river in Banffshire, is a tributary
of the Avon. It gives the name Glenlivet to the
district through which it flows. See Glenlivet.
LIVINGSTONE, a parish in the south-east divi
sion of Linlithgowshire. It is, in a general point of
view, a long narrow stripe, stretching south-west
ward and north-eastward, but has two expansions,
the one sudden, narrow, and tapering, and the other
more slow and less excursive. In extreme length it
measures 6$ miles ; for 2 miles from the south it has
a mean breadth of less than a mile ; over the next
mile of its length it so projects westward as to have
a breadth of nearly 3 miles ; for a mile further it is
narrowed to J of a mile , and over the rest of its
length it has a mean breadth of about 2 miles. It is
bounded on the north-west- by the southern part of
Ecdesmachan ; on the northeast by Uphall ; on the
east and south-east by Edinburghshire ; on the south
west by Whitburn ; and on the west by Bathgate.
Almond-water, for 1% mile, runs along the south
edge of its angular westerly projection, and then runs
3i miles north-eastward, a mile of this distance across
the interior, and the rest of it along the south-east
ern boundary. Briech-water comes down from the
south-west, and flows along the south-eastern bound
ary to a junction with the Almond. The surface of
thj parish is gently diversified, all arable, all enclosed,
finely adorned with rows of plantation, and general!)
carpeted with a loamish clay superincumbent on till
Agriculture has here made great achievements, and
is joyous in their results. Dechmont-law, in the
north corner, is the principal eminence. Coal, iron
stone, limestone, and freestone abound. Living
stone-house and Blackburn-house are fine mansions
embosomed in wood. The principal village is Black
burn : which see. Dechmont has about 170 or 180
inhabitants. Livingstone, the kirktown, 14 miles
west of Edinburgh, and 6 east of Whitburn, is an-

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cient, and figures a little in history ; but is now a
small decayed hamlet on the bank of the Almond,
on the south road between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
' The bonnie lass of Livingstone,' so well-known to
Scottish song, is said to have kept a drinking-house
a mile west of the village. The parish is traversed
diagonally and across one of its projections by the
Edinburgh and Glasgow road by way of Whitburn ;
and south-westward, close on its northern boun
dary by the Edinburgh and Glasgow road, by way of
Bathgate ; and, besides various subordinate roads, it
has three other turnpikes, two of which connect
the two Edinburgh and Glasgow roads, at points
where they are less than 2 miles asunder. Popula
tion, in 1801, 551 ; iii 1831, 1,035. Houses 216.
Assessed property, in 1815, £6,608. — Livingstone
is in the presbytery of Linlithgow, and synod of
Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, the Earl of Rose-
berry. Stipend £188 12s. ; glebe £12. The parish-
church, situated at the village of Livingstone, was
built in 1732, and new roofed in 1837. Sittings 263.
A school-room, in the village of Blackburn, was, in
1838, used as a preaching-station of the Establish
ment, precursory to the erection of a quoad sacra
church. Sittings 120. Minister's salary £50. An
Independent chapel, in Blackburn, was built in
1825-6. Sittings 200. Maximum stipend £35. An
ecclesiastical survey of 1838, showed the population
then to consist of 631 churchmen, 349 dissenters, and
14 nondescripts, — in all 994 ; of whom 432 resided
in Blackburn. The parish-school was attended, in
1834, by 53 scholars ; and two private schools, by
98. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s., with
a house and garden, £8 fees, and £2 other emolu
ments. — Tbe peel of Livingstone, the undoubted
memorial of a baronial strength, stands a little east
of the church, with high ramparts, and with deep
ditches full of water. Leving, whoever he was,
probably resided here as early as the reign of Alex
ander I., and gave name to the manor and parish.
' Thurstanus filius Levingi,' Thurstan the son of
Leving, witnessed a charter of Robert the bishop of
St. Andrews, confirming a grant of the church by
David I. to the monks of Holyrood. Under these
monks the church was anciently a vicarage. The
parish, till 1730, when two-thirds of its area was
disjoined and made independent, comprehended, be
sides its present limits, all the parish of Whitburn.
LOANHEAD, a beautifully situated and populous
village in the parish of Lasswade, Edinburghshire.
It stands 5 miles south-east of Edinburgh, half-way
between the villages of Lasswade and Roslin, half-a-
mile from the lift bank of the North Esk. The in
habitants are principally colliers or persons connected
with the paper-mills. But the village has several
good houses, offers a fine summer retreat from the
metropolis, and rejoices in the vicinity of some
beautiful mansions and pleasure-grounds, and of the
exquisite river scenery between Roslin and Lass
wade. It possesses the unusual village luxury of a
supply of water by pipes, and is the site of a brewery,
and of a Reformed Presbyterian meeting-house.
LOANHE AD-BY-DENNY, a manufacturing vil
lage in the parish of Denny, Stirlingshire. It stands
at the point where the Great north-eastern turnpike
from Glasgow forks into the roads to Perth by Stir
ling, and to Edinburgh by Falkirk, 5 miles west of
Falkirk, and 4 north-east of Cumbernauld. There
is here a United Secession meeting-house.
LOCHABER,* a district of Inverness-shire,
* This extensive district is supposed to have derived its name
from a small lagoon near Corpaco, sometimes called Loch-na-
i-'upper, or ' the Lake of Horns,' but it is more likely to be de
nominated from the confluence of lochs : viz. Liunhe-loch,
Loch-Leven, aud Locn-Eil, which are arms of the sea that meet

bounded on the east by Badenoch; on the south
by Athol, Rannoch, and Argyleshire ; on the west
by Moidart; and on the north by the lakes and
rivers which occupy the Great Caledonian glen. It
is perhaps one of the most dreary, mountainous, and
barren districts in Scotland. The chief produce of
the country is black cattle, for which it has been
long famed. The final stand of the wolf in Great
Britain was made in the Lochaber mountains, a
region in appearance well-calculated for the kennel
or retreat of these ferocious animals, where, in
1680, the last fell by the' hand of Sir E. Cameron of
Lochiel.* LOCH-ACHRAY. See Achrat.
LOCH-ALINE. See Aline.
LOCHALSH, a parish on the west coast of Rnss-
shire. Its greatest length is about 28 miles ; great
est breadth 8 miles. The inhabited partis computed
to be 10 miles long, and 5 broad. The figure of the
inhabited part approaches to a quadrangular penin
sula, being enclosed by the sea on three sides. The
kyle, or narrow sea, which separates the adjacent
island of Skye from the main land of Scotland, is its
western boundary ; the bays of Loch-Duich and
Loch-Long encompass it on the south; and the range
of high hills which divides the east from the west
coast of Scotland bounds it on the east. The gen
eral appearance is hilly, but not so mountainous as
the other districts in the neighbourhood. On the
coast the soil is rich, and a great part of it lies on a
bed of limestone. The superficial area is about
55,000 Scottish acres, of which 1,500 only are under
tillage, and about 2,000 under wood. Population,
in 1801, 1,606; in 1831, 2,433. Houses, in 1831,
463. Assessed property £4,459. — This parish is in
the presbytery of Lochcarron, and synod of Glenelg.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £160 17s. lOd. ; glebe
£48. Church built about 1806 ; sittings 650  A
district containing about 530 persons has been an
nexed to the quoad sacra parish of Plockton:
which see. — Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 6d. ;
with about £25 fees. There are other two schools
besides the parish school, supported the one by the
Inverness Education society, the other by the General
Assembly. LOCH-AN-EILAN. See Duthil.
LOCHANS, a village in the Rhinns of Galloway,
Wigtonshire. It stands on the mailroad between
Stranraer and Portpatrick, distant 1£ mile from the
former, and 5 miles from the latter, partly within the
parish of Portpatrick, but chiefly within that of Inch,
Population 200.
LOCH-ARD. See Ard.
LOCH-ARKEGG. See Archaig.
LOCHAR-MOSS, an extensive morass, inter
mediate between the lower parts of Nithsdale and
Annandale, Dumfries-shire, and distributed among
the parishes of Dumfries, Caerlaverock, Tinwald,
Torthorwald, Mousewald, and Ruthwell. Itstretches
northward from the Solway frith in a stripe, 10 miles
long, and from 2 to 3 miles broad; and, over its
whole extent, is nearly a dead level. Tradition
asserts it to have been originally covered with wood,
next inundated by the sea, and converted into a bay
navigable to nearly its head, and next choked up by
the wreck of vegetation, and the deposits of the
Solway tide, and thus transmuted into a morass at
here and communicate with the Sound of Mull. Four large
lochs of fresh water send their united waters by the river Lochy
into the sea at Fort- William. The abers, in Scotland, are u'nu
formly applied to the confluence of waters : here it is applied
to the confluence of lochs.
t Wolves continued in Ireland after this period ; the last pre.
Bentment was made for killing wolves in the county of Cork,
about the year 1710; though a wolf is mentioned as having
been killed in the sister-kingdom as late as the year 1730.

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first impervious but gradually consolidated into a bog.
The peasantry around it preserve the tradition in
the following couplet : 
" First a wood, and then a sea,
Now amoBs, and e'er will be."
Beneath the moss is a thick stratum of sea-sand, oc
casionally mixed with shells, and other marine de
posits. From this stratum ha ve been dug many large
fragments of ancient vessels, some antique canoes or
curraghs, formed from the trunk of single trees, and
several iron grapples, small anchors, and other relics
of local navigation. One of the excavated canoes
was of large size, formed of the trunk of a venerable
oak, and hollowed out apparently by fire. Antiquarian
investigation has suggested curious probabilities as
to the ancient existence of a sea-port near the north
east extremity of the morass. Above the stratum
of sea-sand are found many large and seemingly aged
trees. These are chiefly fir, but also include oak,
birch, and hazel — the last with their nuts and husks;
and they all lie with their tops towards the north
east, seemingly indicating by their position that they
were eradicated and thrown prostrate by the rush of
the impetuous tide, aided probably by the south
western blast. The river Nith, some persons con
tend, andently flowed along this tract; but some
swells in the ground between the head of the morass
and the present bed of the river, seem unfavourable
to the theory. Robert Bruce — if tradition may be
credited — could not pass the moss in his progress
from Torthorwald castle to meet Comyn at Dum
fries, but pursued the very circuitous route of skirt
ing it round by the Tinwald hills. The moss, even
so late as his time, seems thus to have been impass
able ; but it is now traversed by four lines of road,
three of them excellent, but all curiously, and, to a
stranger, startlingly elastic beneath the motion of a
loaded vehicle. One of the roads was formed by
money which was due to a stranger from some mer
chants of Dumfries, which was never claimed by him
or his heirs, and which, after lying out at interest
upwards of 40 years in vain expectation of its be
ing demanded, was obtained as a gift by the town,
and expended on this important public work. The
morass is far from being useless or of generally repul
sive aspect. Portions of it abound with grouse and
other game, and have their own attractions to the
sportsman ; other portions are regularly cut into
excellent peats, and furnish supplies of fuel, large in
quantity, and of great value to a county dependent
on marine importation and inland carriage for coal ;
and other portions, of very considerable aggregate
extent, are converted into pastures and arable grounds,
and are tufted or frilled with plantation. Much of it
is green, and pleasant, resembling more a pastoral
valley than a morass. Near its north end is the spa
cious racing-ground of Tinwald-downs, once sur
passed in Scotland, as to the kind of celebrity which
such an object possesses, only by the racing-ground of
Kelso. On one of the roads which traverse it stands
the pleasant little village of Trench ; and close on
its margin, in various directions, are the villages of
Roucan, Collin, Blackshaws, Bankend, and Green-
mill. In 1785, after a very dry summer, the moss
accidentally caught fire, and burnt to a great extent
till the fire was extinguished by a heavy fall of rain ;
and in the dry summer of 1826 it became once
more ignited, burnt with rapidly-extended progress,
-and, before the destructive flames could be subdued,
carried them beneath and around the sites of several
cottages. LOCHAR- WATER, a small river of Dumfries
shire, cutting Lochar-moss lengthways into nearly
equal parts. It rises in the parish of Kirkmahoe,
and, after running a mile eastward to the boundary,

assumes a southerly direction, and flows 11 miles
between the parishes of Kirkmahoe, Dumfries, and
Caerlaverock on the west ; and those of Tinwald,
Torthorwald, and Mousewald on the east. It now,
over a distance of 4 miles, describes a demi-semi-
circle between Caerlaverock and Ruthwell ; and,
before losing itself in the Solway, it forms an estuary,
lj mile in length, and half-a-mile in mean breadth.
Between Dumfries and Tinwald it so splits its wa
ters as to enclose an islet, £ of a mile long, and J
of a mile broad, called Tinwald Isle- The stream
is, in the last degree, sluggish, and wears, in most
places, the appearance of a mossy, stagnant, vege
tating pool, entirely contrasted to the prevailing
character of the gliding, the purling, the trotting, or
the careering running waters of Scotland. From
head to foot of Lochar-moss — a course, including
windings, of at least 12 miles — it has a fall of only
11 feet. The stream contains pike, perch, trout,
and eel, has a salmon-fishery at its mouth, and is
frequented by otters.
LOCH-AVICH. See Avich.
LOCH-AWE. See Awe.
LOCH-BORLEY. See Durness.
LOCH-BRACK. See Balmaclellan.
LOCHBROOM, a parish in Ross-shire, bounded
by Assynt on the north ; Kincardine and Contin on
the east ; Gailloch on the south ; and the Minsh on
the west. It is of an irregular figure, and is com
puted to be 36 miles long, and 20 broad. The greater
part consists of wild uncultivated mountains and hills,
covered with moss and heath, which, however, afford
good pasture to numerous herds of black cattle and
flocks of sheep. There is a considerable extent of
arable land, chiefly on the coast and in the straths.
The arable soil is shallow, but tolerably fertile. The
parish is divided into four districts: namely, the Aird,
Lochbroom Proper, the Little Strath, and the Laigh.
There is a mountain-lake called Loch-Broom, about
3 miles in length, and 1 in breadth ; from which a
rapid river called the Broom or Braom 'descends
into the Big-loch below the parish-church. The
Laigh is watered by tbe meikle river which descends
from Loch-na-Sealgh, a beautiful sheet of water
about 6 miles in length. Ullapool, one of the villages
established by the British Society, is in this parish ;
and there are two other fishing-stations, one at Isle-
Martin, 5 miles north of Ullapool, and another at
Isle-Tanera, a mile north of Isle-Martin. Besides
the harbour of Ullapool [which see], the whole
coast is indented with numerous safe bays. The
islands of Ristal, Tanera, Isle-Martin, Isle-Green
yard, and the Summer-isles, belong to this parish.
The ruins of numerous ancient fortifications are to
be seen in the parish. Population, in 1801, 3,533;
in 1831, 4,615. Houses, in 1831, 917. Assessed
property, in 1815, £1,995  This parish is in the
presbytery of Lochcarron, and synod of Glenelg.
Patron, Mackenzie of Cromarty. Stipend £298 10s.
9d. Church built in 1817; repaired in 1835; sit
tings 1,200  There is a Government-ehurch at Ul
lapool. — Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s., with about
£6 fees. Of the population about two-thirds can
neither read nor write.
LOCH-BROOM. See Mauchline.
LOCHCARRON, a parish in Ross-shire, situated
on an arm of the Western ocean, into which the river
Carron falls: see Carron. It is upwards of 14
miles long, and from 5 to 6 broad, and is a beautiful
Highland country. The arable soil is fertile, partly
clay and partly sand ; but the climate is wet and
rainy. The number of cultivated acres is about
1,300. Assessed property, in 1815, £513. Present
rental about £2,500. At the Ferrytown of Strome
are the remains of a castle, anciently the property oi

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the Macdonalds of Glengary ; and there are the re
mains of two other fortified buildings at Janetown
and at Laganduin. Lochcarron has produced several
excellent Gaelic poets, particularly the three Mac-
kenzies, some of whose poems are to be found in
Macdonald's collection. Population, in 1801, 1,178;
in 1831, 2,136. Houses 383  This parish is the
seat of a presbytery, in the synod of Glenelg.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £158 6s. 7d. ; glebe
£17 10s. Church built in 1751 ; sittings 300.—
The parish-schoolmaster has the maximum salary.
LOCH-CATHERINE. See Katrine.
LOCH-CLACHAN. See Daviot, Inverness.
LOCH-DOINE, a small picturesque loch in the
parish of Balquhidder, Perthshire. It is an expan
sion of the same river, the Balnaig, which afterwards
forms Loch-Voel and Loch-Lubnaig, and in time of
floods, forms one sheet with Loch-Voel.
LOCH-DUICH, an arm of the sea, or rather of
Lochalsh, which extends, in a north-east direction,
into the parish of Glensheil, Ross-shire, about 6
miles. It sends off a branch to the north-east, about
a mile long, called the Little loch.
LOCH-DUNDELCHACK. See Dundelchack.
LOCH-DUNGEM. See Kells.
LOCHEE, a quoad sacra parish, and a large man
ufacturing village, in the vicinity of Dundee, Forfar
shire. The parish is 1£ mile in extreme breadth,
and less than 2 miles in extreme length ; it lies,
quoad civilia, partly in the parish of Dundee, and
partly in that of Liff and Bervie ; and it was erected,
in 1834, by act of the General Assembly. Its popu
lation, according to an ecclesiastical survey in 1835,
was then 3,685; consisting of 2,497 churchmen, 829
dissenters, and 359 nondescripts; and it was sup
posed by the minister to have increased in Novem
ber 1837, to 4,000. The church was built by sub
scription in 1829, and cost about £2,000. Sittings
1,144. Stipend £155. An United Secession chapel
was built, by a newly-organized congregation, in
1826-7, and cost £800. Sittings 567. Stipend
£132. There were, in 1834, seven schools, three
of them conducted by females, and all attended, in
the aggregate, by 318 scholars. The village occu
pies a comparatively large space, being uncontinuous
and dispersed, and has a poor though industrious
appearance. Its inhabitants — comprising the great
bulk of tbe population of the parish — are, almost
without exception, of the poor and working classes,
labourers and handicraftsmen, — but principally wea
vers, employed by tbe manufacturers of Dundee.
The village stands 1£ mile north-west of Dundee, is
included within the parliamentary boundaries of that
burgh, and may, in all respects, be viewed as its
suburb. LOCHENBRECK, a powerful and celebrated
chalybeate spring, in the parish of Balmaghie, Kirk
cudbrightshire. The water is strongly impregnated
with sulphate of iron and carbonic acid, flows co
piously, is transparent, and not unpleasant to the
taste, and acts as a powerful tonic and diuretic. In
cases of dyspepsy and debility, patients given up by
the faculty have found, it a restorative; in cases of
ague, patients have been relieved by it; and even in
obstinate intermittents, they have found it a cure
when other remedies have failed. Improved lodg
ings were erected 30 years ago in its vicinity, and an
excellent road to it made from the town of Gate-
houseof-Fleet, 7 miles distant. See Balmaghie.
LOCHEND, a small lake, a mile north-east of
Edinburgh, and J of a mile west of Restalrig, in the
parish of South Leith, Edinburghshire. On the top
of a rock overhanging it, and close to the modern
farm-stead, are the ruins of the Castle of Logan of
Restalrig. Lochend, at one time, supplied the town

of Leith Nwith water  A small lake of the same
name occurs in the parish of Linlithgow.
LOCHEND. See Dunbar.
LOCH-FEOCHAN. See Kilninver.
LOCH-FETTY. See Beath.
LOCH-FITHIE. See Forfar.
LOCH-GAIR. See Gairloch.
LOCH-GELLY, a village in the parish of Auch
terderran, Fifeshire; 8 miles north-west of Kirk
caldy, and 6 east of Dunfermline. The inhabitants
are chiefly weavers and colliers. It has three annual
fairs: viz. on tbe 1st Thursday in April, O. S.; 3d
Wednesday in July, and 3d Wednesday in Septem
ber. It contains about 78J inhabitants: SeeAucH-
terderran. LOCHGILPHEAD, a village and a quoad sacra
parish in Argyleshire. The parish was divided from
the parishes of Glassary and South Knapdale, by
authority of tbe presbytery of the bounds, in 1828.
It is a district of about 5 miles in length, and 3 in
breadth; with a population estimated, in 1836, at
2,726. The church was built in 1828 at the expense
of Government, and enlarged in 1834; sittings 506;
cost £750. Stipend £120, paid by the Exchequer,
with a manse and glebe ; and a voluntary addition
of £30 from the congregation  A Baptist congre
gation has been established in the village of Loch
gilphead since 1818. Chapel cost £450; sittings
300. Salary about £60  The Congregational Union
have a mission-station here  There are two villages
in the parish: viz. Lochgilphead at the northern ex
tremity of Loch-Gilp, with a population of 1,300;
and Ardrishaig, with a population of 300, at the
distance of 2 miles. Lochgilphead is a thriving vil
lage, having daily communication with Glasgow and
Inverary by the steam-boats on Loch-Fyne and the
Crinan canal. There are a branch of the Glasgow
Union bank here, a distillery, and a good school here.
LOCH-GLENGAP. See Twyneham.
LOCHGOILHEAD, a parish in Argyleshire, in
the district of Cowal, to which that of Kilmorich is
joined. The united parish is about 30 miles in
length, and from 6 to 20 in breadth ; exclusive of a
district belonging to it, 5 miles in length, which is
annexed, quoad sacra, to the parish of Inverary. It
lies along the western coast of Loch-Long; receives
its name from the local situation of the .church, at
the head of Loch-Goil, a small arm of the sea which
runs off in a north-west direction from Loch-Long. ¦
It is bounded on the north by Killin, Glenorchy, and
Arroquhar; on the east by Loch-Long; on the south
and south-west by Kilmun and Strachur; and on
the west by Loch-Fyne and Inverary. The surface
in general is very rugged, consisting of barren moun
tains, are interspersed with huge rocks and preci
pices, and, till of late, covered with heath; but,
since the introduction of sheep, they have begun to
exhibit the appearance of verdure. Upon the west
side of Loch-Long, and upon both sides of Loch-
Goil, the coast is bold and steep, and the hills high
and craggy. The shore, upon both sides of Loch-
Fyne, as far as this parish extends, is more flat and
accessible.; the land is. high, but nqt so rocky or
steep. The barrenness of the ground along the
coasts of Loch-Goil and Loch-Long is partly con
cealed, and the wildness of the scene agreeably diver
sified, by extensive natural woods which cover the
land near the coast, and rise to a considerable dis
tance from the shore. Some of the mountains, which
form the western extremity of the Grampian range,
are situated in this parish : as Benuna, so called
from the richness of its grass ; Benanlochan, from
the fresh- water lake which washes its base ; Ben-
luibhain, abounding in herbs ; Benthiolaire, remark
able for its springs and water-cresses ; and Ben-

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donich, called after a saint of that name. These,
and some other hills in this parish, rise to a great
height. There are two small lakes in the parish,
well-stored with trout. The coast is well-culti
vated, and its produce repays the farmer for the
labour he bestows on it. This district lying on the
banks of Loch-Fyne and Loch-Long, is well-situated
for the prosecution of the fisheries. There are
three castles in the district : viz. Dunduramh, Ard-
kiulass. and Carrick. The castle of Dunduramh is
a large and strong tower, of an irregular figure, with
small turrets above the angles in the wall. It is
built in a low situation, close to the sea; and, as the
access to it by land must have been very bad, the
most frequent communication would probably be by
boats. Above the gate of the castle is the following
inscription : 1596.
J. MAN. BEHOLD. THE. END. OF. ALL. BENOUGHT.
WISER. THAN. THE. HIESTES. i. TRUST. IN. GOD.
The castle of Ardkinlass* is composed of three
sepaiate towers, each of them fronting an area with
in. The space, between tbe towers, is defended by
a strong wall, about 15 feet high. In the course of
this wall is the great gate, which is defended by
small round turrets in flank, with apertures, through
which those who assailed the gate might be annoyed
with arrows, or with fire-arms. The gate is de
fended by a small tower rising immediately above it.
Around the area, and within the walls, are smaller
buildings, for lodging servants, for holding arms, and
for storehouses and cellars. The period when it was
built is not known; but there is evidence of its hav
ing been repaired in the year 1586. The old residence
of the family of Ardkinlass — of which the ruins can
now scarcely be, traced — was at a small distance from
the present castle, but in a more commanding situa
tion — The place of greatest antiquity and strength,
in this district, is the castle of Carrick.f This castle
is built upon a rock, which was formerly surrounded
hy the sea by means of a deep ditch. The entry to
the castle from the land was by a drawbridge, which
was defended by a strong wall and two small towers.
The castle itself is of an oblong figure, but not per
fectly regular, as the architects, in laying the foun
dation, "kept in some places by the very edge of the
rock. It is 66 feet long, and 38 broad, over walls,
the side-wall is 64 feet high, and 7 feet thick. Be
tween the castle and the sea, there is a part of the
rock which was surrounded by a high and strong
wall built round the edge of the rock; within this
space 100 men might conveniently stand, for the de
fence of the castle, if it was attacked by sea. Before
the invention of gunpowder, the castle of Carrick
could only be taken by surprise; it was scarcely
possible to storm it, nor could it be taken by block
ade, as it had always a free communication with the
sea, for a vessel of any burden may swim along the
side of the rock. The time in which this, castle was
built is not ascertained : it can be traced up as far
as the end of the 15th century, but it is probably
much older. The tradition of the country is, that
it was built by tbe Danes. It was burnt by the
Athole-men. Nothing now remains but the walls ;
and these are not entire. The rocks are chiefly
moorstone; spar of great variety of forms is often
found. There is some granite and jasper, and lime
stone is found in several quarries. There is a vein
* Ardkinglasa, probably Aird achoinglaiss, • the Residence of
the gray dog.' The great extent of plain ground around Ard- j
kinlass permitted the proprietors to indulge in the pleasures
of the chase, the favourite amusement of the times. Aird gen
erally means the residence of a great family; it seems to ex
press the same meaning which the word place conveys in some
parts of the low country of Scotland.— Old Statistical Account.
+ Carraig signifies 'a Kock.1

| of lead ore, said to be very rich in silver, at the head
' of Loch-Fyne, which has never been wrought.
i Population, in 1801, 1,145; in 1831, 1,196, of whom
611 were resident in Kilinorick. Assessed property,
in 1815, £4,690. Real rental, in 1790, £2,500
Houses, in 1831, 101 .—This parish is in the pres
bytery of Inverary, and synod of Argyle. Patron,
Callander of Ardkinlass. Stipend £167 9s. 9d. ;
glebe £37 10s. There are two congregations : one
at Lochgoilhead, and another at Kilmorick. Sit
tings in LocLgoilhead church, 305 ; in Kilmorick
church, which was built in 1816, 258  Schoolmas
ter's salary £30. There were eight private school"
in 1834.
LOCHGOIN, a small hamlet in the parish of
Eaglesham, 4 miles from the village of that name,
and 2 from Kingswell. Its situation is solitary and
wild, there being no human dwelling near it, and
tbe ground around it being chiefly a barren muir.
The present house is but a late erection, — it occu
pies, however,' the precise site of the old building
which sheltered many an excellent Covenanter, in
times when persecution in its worst form disgraced
and polluted our then unhappy country. Its present
occupant is a descendant of the worthy John Howie
of Lochgoin, who, in times of extreme peril, divided
his scanty meal with the proscribed Covenanters,
and often braved the troubles and the dangers ot
dark nights and darker enemies, to carry food into
their concealments. Though frequently in imminent
hazard, he escaped every snare set for his life. At
length he was obliged to banish himself from bis
country; but he lived to see the happy revolution
of 1688, and to return to his native land, and to his
own beloved solitude of Lochgoin, where he indited
' The Scots Worthies,' a volume which will be read
when others of far more pretension are forgotten.
Among those who were often indebted to the friendly
shelter of Lochgoin, was Captain John Paton — a
stern Covenanter — who was of much use to his com
panions and their cause in various skirmishes, and
particularly at the battles of Pentland and Both well-
bridge; and who, after escaping the fangs of his
ruthless pursuers for many years, was at last seized,
tried, and executed. To this worthy man John
Howie was strongly attached ; and various portions
of his property constitute a few of the relics of our
national struggle for religious independence which
are to be found at Lochgoin.
LOCH-IN-DAAL, an arm of the sea deeply in
denting the southern side of the island of Islay. It
is shallow, but abounds in fish, and is much resorted
to by shipping. The shores present good arable
land. LOCHINDORB. See Edenkeillie.
LOCHINVAR. See Dalrt.
LOCHINVER. See Assynt.
LOCHLEE, a large parish in the extreme north
of the Grampian district of Forfarshire; bounded on
the north by Aberdeenshire ; on the east by Edzell ;
on tbe south by Lethnot, Cortachie, and Clova; and
on the west by Clova and Aberdeenshire. It is an
oblong, 13 miles by 8, stretching east and west. Its
area is about 104 square miles. Everywhere, except
over 6i miles on the east, it is hemmed in by a
water-shedding line of mountains. Its whole sur
face is ruggedly highland, consisting of wild and
high mountain-ranges, partially and narrowly cloven
asunder by glens. Mount Keen and Mount Battoch,
both on the boundary, the former on the north, and
the latter on the north-east, rise respectively 4,000
and 3,465 feet abbve sea-level. Other summits along
the boundary and in the interior attain altitudes of
from 2,000 to 3,000 feet. The heights' are, for the
most part, steep, rocky, and covered with heath,

LOC

288

LOC

bent, or moss : and even the lower slopes and the
valleys are, to a considerable extent, dressed in rus
set. Only a trifle more than one-fourth of the area
is inhabited ; all the rest being triumphant mountain-
wilderness, or the free walk of the wandering flock.
Black-faced sheep and small cattle of the Angus
breed browse on the pastures. Not more than
1,400 acres have ever been tilled; and but small
additions could be advantageously reclaimed. The
soils of the arable grounds is thin and light, generally
superincumbent on gravel, but becomes productively
stimulated by lime. Natural woods are small in
extent, and plantations are unknown. Limestone
abounds ; and a vein of lead ore has been traced for
several miles, but, after a trial, was found to be un
compensating to the miner. All the head-streams
of East water, or the North Esk, rise in the parish,
and swell the stream to considerable bulk, before
it passes into Edzell. See Esk (The North).
Three-fourths of a mile west of the church, a little
south of the centre of the parish, and in the course
of the river Lee, is a very beautiful little lake 1J mile
long, and 3 furlongs broad, at the east end of which
stood the ancient church, and which imposed its
own name of Lochlee on the whole parish. — The
author of ' Attic Fragments,' speaking of this lonely
sheet of water, says. — " Close by its eastern margin
are the ruins of the little church and school-house
of Lochlee, the latter interesting to the lovers of
Scottish literature, by having been the residence of
Ross,* the author of ' Helenora, or the Fortunate
Shepherdess,' a poem which, though it be now as
much a sealed book to the fashionables of Scotland,
as the writings of Gower, or even Alfred himself,
are to those of England, yet contains some of the
most romantic descriptions that ever were written,
and preserves traces of customs and traditions not
to be found elsewhere. We came to the house, or
rather the ruin ; and, as was fitting for meditation
for such a scene, we came without a guide to break,
by ill-timed though well-meant information, the
chain of our reflections. It had been the very mini
mum of human dwellings. There were two apart
ments, the largest not ten feet square: and yet here
the humble and contented bard had taught the youth
of the glen, reared a numerous family, written poems
and songs, and been the life and admiration of all
around him. A single apartment had been his par
lour, his bed-chamber, and bis study; that apart
ment had but one little window, and near this we
saw, or fancied we saw, the marks of his rude chair
and little table "in the clay floor. Withinside the
garden, small in proportion to the house, was a little
bank of camomile, upon which the bard used to rest
when fatigued; and below, a few stunted trees in
the deserted churchyard, was the walk along which
he used to study. There was a wildness of desola
tion, but at the same time a calm holiness of repose,
about the place that came over me, I know not
how; and for the moment, I felt that, if (which is
not very likely) my own bones should become ob
jects of interest or inquiry, I would rather have them
laid in the lone solitude of Glenlee, where they would
be visited only by the casual traveller, amid the wild
simplicity of nature, than huddled up in the church
of St. Peter, Westminster, where, while the worms
fed upon myself below ground, the dean and chapter
would feed upon my monument above." Opposite
the manse are the ruined walls of the castle of lnver-
mark, built in the early part of the 16th century, and
* In 1726, Ross married Jane Cattanach, the daughter of a
farmer in AberdeenBhire, and descended by her mother from
the ancient family of Duguid of Auchiiihove. In 1732, by the
influence of his-friend, Mr. Garden of Troup, he was appointed
school master of Lochlee, in Angus ; and the rest of his life was
spent in the discharge of the duties of this humble office.

inhabited by the family of Lindsay of Edzell, the an
cient lords of the soil. Lord Panmure is no w the sole
heritor. Several roads penetrate far into tie inte
rior, and one leads across the bold mountain-boun
dary into Aberdeenshire. Population, in 1801, 541 ;
in 1831, 553. Houses 119. Assessed property, in
1815, £395. — Lochlee is in the presbytery of
Brechin, and synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron,
the Crown. Stipend £158 6s. 7d. ; glebe £20.
The parish-church is of modern erection, and has
about 270 sittings. Three miles east of it is a small
but neat Episcopalian chapel. About one-fifth of
the population are Episcopalians. The parish school
was attended, in 1834, by 28 scholars. Master's
salary £34 4s. 4d., with £5 lis. Id. and 6 bolls of
meal other emoluments. Two other schools were
attended, in 1834, by 73 children. One of them is
endowed by the Society in Scotland for propagating
Christian knowledge, and yields £10 salary, and £7
or £8 fees, with other advantages ; and the other
has attached to it about £15 salary, with bed, board,
and washing.
LOCHLIN. See Fearn.
LOCH-LING, an arm of the Atlantic ocean, in
the shire of Ross. It forms the northern boundary
of the peninsula of Kintail.
LOCH-LINNHE, an arm of the Atlantic ocean
which separates the shires of Inverness and Argyle;
extending in a north-easterly direction from the
sound of Mull, as far as Fort- William, where it
takes a northerly direction, and acquires the name
of Loch-Eil : which see.
LOCHMABEN, a parish in Annandale, Dum
fries-shire; bounded on the north by Johnstone; on
the east by Applegarth, Dryfesdale, and Dalton ; on
the south by Dalton and Mousewald ; on the west
by Torthorwald and Tinwald ; and on the north
west by Kirkmichael. Its extreme length from the
point where it is first touched by tbe Annan on the
north to the boundary near Breconrig-side on the
south, is 8| miles. Its breadth, for 2 miles on the
north, averages If mile ; for 3J miles further, it va
ries from 2£ to 3£ miles; and, in the south, the
parish runs out in two projections, one 1 J long by £
broad, and the other 3 miles long by half-a-mile
broad. The area is 16J square miles, or 10,750
English acres. The highest ground is along the
western boundary, but it is the summit merely of a
long waving swell, and all acknowledges the do
minion of the plough. The surface descends in a
very gentle and finely diversified gradient, till nearly
mid-breadth of the parish ; and thence, excepting
some easy rising grounds toward the north, it every
where subsides into a rich and beautiful plain. Ex
cepting three small mosses, which are of great value
to the inhabitants for fuel, the whole parish is arable,
though a considerable proportion of it is disposed in
meadow-land and pasture. The soil toward the
west is light and gravelly, but, in other parts, is
uncommonly rich, consisting over a large area of the
finest alluvial loam, occasionally nine feet deep, and
everywhere abundantly fructiferous in every descrip
tion of crop. The land is too valuable to admit of
much plantation ; but it has fine enclosures, and is
sheltered by wide files of trees, and, in three or four
localities, beautified with little expanses of wood.
The climate — though various topographical features
would seem to evidence against it — is very healthy
and promotive of longevity. Red sandstone is
quarried in thin slabs for roofing, and in blocks for
building. All tbe mineral strata, like this, are of
the secondary formation, and dip to the south. Few
districts in Scotland have such plenty of water, and
probably none combine so abundantly wealth of
waters with opulence of soil and quiet beauty oi

LOCHMABEN.

289

landscape. The river Annan, in mazy folds, runs
along most of the eastern boundary, and looks, on
tbe bosom of the exuberant plain, like a waving
thread of silver on a fabric of tesselated green and
yellow velvet. The Kinnel runs diagonally across
the north end, south-eastward to the Annan, over a
distance of 2| miles in a straight line, but at least 5
miles along its pebbly channel, musical in the gur
gling sound ot its motion, limpid in its waters, and
graceful and sweetly varied in its banks. The Ale
runs a mile on the north-west boundary, and one-
fourth of a mile into the interior to the Kinnel, over
looked on the Lochmaben side by a fine natural bank
or gentle ridgy elevation covered with alders, birches,
and hazels, and rioting over a pebbly bed on the
other side very much greater in breadth than fairly
belongs to the volume of its waters. So large and
expansive, and almost continuous, are the lakes of
this parish, that the ancient burgh, which stands
amongst them, appears from the rising grounds which
command a view of it to be situated on an island, in
the midst of a curiously outlined inland sea. Not
many years ago one of the lakes, called Grumbly-
loch, was drained and converted into a meadow ; and
so amazingly fertile is its ancient bed, that, in a
withering season which exsiccates all vegetation, it
produces two luxuriant crops of hay, and, in ordi
nary seasons, it has been known to yield no fewer
than five. The lakes which still remain are eight in
number, — five of them of considerable extent. The
Castle-loch, immediately south of the burgh, mea
sures 200 acres ; Halleath-loch, east of the burgh,
80; the Mill-loch, north-west of the burgh, 70;
the Kirk-loch, west of the burgh, 60; and High-
tae-loeh, south-west of Castle-loch, 52. Nowhere
do they, at any season, exceed 52 feet in depth; and
over a great aggregate extent they are shallow, and
in many places, from the shore inward, they are
thickly overtopped with reeds. Two kinds of loch-
trout, one usually weighing from 2 to 5 pounds, and
the other from 12 to 14 pounds, — pike, occasionally
weighing from 25 to 35 pounds, — perch, loach, roach,
skelly, banstickle, and eel, are taken in all tbe lakes ;
and green back, bream, and vendace or vendise, are
taken in addition, in the Castle-loch. The last of
these — the vendace — is believed to be peculiar to
this lake, and has drawn great attention both from
naturalists and from epicures. The fish measures
from four to six inehes in length, and resembles a
herring in form, anatomy, and flavour, but exceed
ingly delicate, and esteemed by gourmands the most
delicious of the finny tribes. When newly caught,
it has a brilliant silvery white appearance, slightly
azured along the back, and partially on the sides.
Its head is curiously and beautifully crowned or
marked with the well-defined figure of a heart, in a
brownish transparent substance, through which the
brain is seen. The fish cannot, so far as is known,
be taken with bait or the artificial fly ; but iriust be
caught with a net, and generally frequents the deepest
parts of the lake, or the vicinity of the mouth of a
tiny rill, called the Vendace-burn. Many and very
careful, but uniformly vain, attempts have been made
to transfer a breed of the vendace to other waters.
The fish is no sooner touched or exposed to the air
than it dies. For protecting it, or rather for judi-
cionsly regulating the amount of its capture, a Ven
dace club has for a considerable time existed, composed
of the gentlemen of the district.* The Halleaths-
* The local name of the Vendace is Vangis or Juvangis. Per
haps it is the same fish with the Gwiniad of Wales, and the
Pollen of Lough-Neagh in Ireland ; but Sir William Jardine
is not sure whether there is any authentic station for it either
in England or Wales. Professor Agassiz considers the Vendace
of (he Lochmaben lochs to be distinct from the Coregonus Ma.
ranula of the continental ichthyologists. Minute Entomos-
II.

loch is frequented by the heron, — the Annan and the
Ae are visited by the kingfisher, — the Castle and
Hightae lochs swarm with the wild duck, the coot,
and the teal, and occasionally are furrowed by the
cormorant, — and all the lakes are the resort, during
severe winters, of wild geese and swans. In the
small mosses, and at the foot of turf -fences, the ad
der has so often a lodgment, and exercises so deadly
a power, as to occasion general dread among the
inhabitants ; but it is supposed to be watched, and
partly kept down, by the heron. The number of
landowners, in consequence of the singular distribu
tion of the lands of Fourtowns, and the minute par
celling out of the burgh-roods, is about 250; but
the principal in the parish are Johnston of Halleaths,
Dickson of Elshieshields, the Marquis of Queens-
berry, the Duke of Buccleuch, and Sir William Jar-
dine, Bart, of Applegarth. Halleaths is a pleasant
mansion, embosomed among wood between Hall-
eaths-loch and the Annan. Newmains is a neat but
unsheltered mansion, on the road between the burgh
and Dumfries. Broomhill, Todhill-muir, and Rig-
head, are good houses. Elshieshields, situated on an
eminence overlooking the Ae, at the termination of
the wooded bank, is an old but not warlike structure,
one part of it rising abruptly to a considerable height,
and imparting to the whole, as seen from a distance,
the appearance of a dilapidated tower. Spedlin's
tower, the ancient residence of the Jardines of Ap
plegarth, situated on the Annan opposite the modern
mansion of Jardine-hall in the conterminous parish,
is vastly thick in its walls, has round turrets at its
angles, and is strongly vaulted. Over the centre of
the arched and fortified door by which it is entered
are the armorial bearings of the Jardines, with the
date 1605; and along its exterior walls are green
coatings of ivy, while around it are some beautiful
trees. Tbe parishioners, who are generally a full
century behind most parts of the Lowlands in re
ceding from the superstitions of the dark ages, have
made this tower the scene of one of their most no
table ghost-stories. In tbe southern district of the
parish are four villages. See article Fourtowns.
An excellent road communicates on the west with
Dumfries, and on the east with Lockerbie, — a good
but little frequented road between Glasgow and
Carlisle runs from north to south ; and other roads
radiate from the burgh. Population, in 1801, 2,053;
in 1831, 2,795. Houses 549. Assessed property
in 1815, £6,297.
The grand attraction of the parish is the paternal
residence of the Bruce, and the objects with which
it and its history are associated. Lochmaben-castle
stands a mile from the burgh, on the extreme point
of a heart-shaped peninsula which juts a considerable
way into the south side of the Castle-loch. Across
the isthmus at the entrance of the peninsula are
vestiges of a deep fosse which admitted at both ends
the waters of the lake, and converted the site of the
castle into an island, and over which a well-guarded
drawbridge gave ingress, or refused it to the inte
rior. Within this outer fosse, at brief intervals, are
a second, a third, and a fourth, of similar character.
The last stretched from side to side of the •peninsula
immediately at the entrance of the castle ; it was
protected in front by a strong arched wall or ledge,
behind which a besieged force could shield them
selves while they galled, at a distance, an approach
ing foe: and it had at the centre a drawbridge which
led into the interior building, and which was pr ,-
bably the last post an enemy required to force ..
order to be master of the fortress. Two archways at
the north-eastern and south-western angles ot the
trarSe appear to constitute the greater part of the nourishment
of this fish.

290

LOCHMABEN.

building, through which the water of the fosse was
received or emptied, remain entire. But no idea can
now be formed of the original beauty or polish either
of this outwork or of the stupendous and magnificent
pile which it assisted to defend. Gothic hands be
gan generations ago to treat the castle of the Bruce
as merely a vulgar and convenient quarry ; and, for
the sake of the stones, they have peeled away every
foot of the ashler-work which lined the exterior and
the interior of its walls. So far has barbarian rapa
city been carried, that now only the heart or packing
of some of the walls is left, exhibiting giant masses
of small stones and lime, irregularly huddled together,
and nodding to their fall. Many portions of the
skinned and ghastly but once noble and aerial pile
have been precipitated from aloft, and lie strewed in
heaps upon the ground ; the stone and the lime so
firmly cemented, that scarcely any effort of human
power can disunite them. The castle, with its out
works, covered about 16 acres, and was the strongest
fortress in the Border, and, till the invention of gun
powder, all but impregnable. But what remains
can hardly suggest, even to fancy itself, the greatness
of what the Goths have stolen. Only one or two
small apartments can be traced, arid they stand in the
remoter and less frequented part of the castle, and,
therefore, excite but little interest. But a few years
ago a farmer's dwelling-house and offices, built of the
stones of the ancient edifice, profaned the precincts;
the potato-house was dug into the brow of the third
fosse ; and the bold features of the military works
around were smoothed down to suit the convenience
of a man who cared exemplarily for his pigs and oxen,
but had not a nook in his recollection for a line of
patriot Kings, or the stirring occurrences of the most;
eventful periods of Scotland's history. Many houses
in Lochmaben, including the new school-house, are
built of materials torn from the castle ; and one in
habitant of the burgh warms his toes beside a pair of
fine jambs which once rested on the paternal hearth
of the Bruce.* The enclosed spot around the castle
is naturally barren, and fitted only for the raising of
wood; and its present growth of trees, if allowed to
bend their branches quietly over tbe ruin to the so
lemn music of the winds, would harmonize well with
the solitude of fallen greatness. The view of the
i loch and of the circumjacent scenery, from all points
in the vicinity, is calmly and impressively beautiful,
and strongly disposes. a reflecting mind to indulge in
teeming and pleasingly tumultuous reminiscences of
the past. The date of the castle is uncertain, but pro
bably was the latter part of the 13th century, — the pe
riod of the competition of the Crowns. Tradition,
though unsupported by documentary evidence, as
serts the castle to have been not the original Loch
maben residence of the Bruces, but only a successor
of enlarged dimensions, and augmented strength. f At
a brief distance south of the town, on the north-west
* A curious example will illustrate the surpassingly Gothic
spirit of the modern Lochmaben-meu. An inhabitant of the
neck, one of ' the King's kindly tenants,' in the immediate
vicinity of the castle, found, many years ago, a key of very vast
proportions, supposed to have been that of the castle's chief
gate. The key was put up to auction among the hobnails for
2a. 6d. ; and not finding a purchaser at a price believed to ex
ceed by a few farthings the value of its metal in-pounds' weight,
it was coolly handed to a blacksmith to be converted into a pair
of Bpades for cutting turf i
f it is asserted in the Old Statistical Account, that " this
ca^le was built by Robert Bruce, the first of that name, King
of Scotland.'.' This, however, is extremely improbable, tor the
following reasons urged by Dr. Jamiesoo. Before the asser
tion of his right to the Crown, he could not have engaged in
the erection of so strong a fortress, without exciting the sus
picion of Edward I. He had neither1 opportunity nor means
lor carrying on such a work during the time of his arduous
struggle ; and when this was terminated by the defeat of his
enemies, and the establishment of peace, he had business of far
inure importance to occupy his atteution. We discover no
veatige, in any of our public records, of his being thus engaged-

side of the loch, is a large rising ground called Castle-
hill, and pointed out as the site of the original castle,
and even as the alleged^ birth-place of the first royal
Bruce. That a building of some description an
ciently crowned the eminence, is evident from the
remains of an old wall still dug up an inch or two
beneath the surface of the summit, and from the
vestiges of a strong and deep intrenchment carried
completely round the base. Tradition says that the
stones of this edifice were transferred from the
Castle-hill, across the intervening part of the lake,
to the point of the heart-shaped peninsula on the
southern shore, as materials for the more modern
erection ; and it adds, that a causeway was construct
ed, and still exists, across the bed of the lake, to
facilitate the convenience. But here monuments,
documents, and physical probabilities, concur in re
fusing corroborative evidence. The original castle,
situated at such convenient nearness to the burgh,
was, we may conclude, devoured piece-meal by the
proved castle-eaters of the town, and the more mo
dern Castle seems, as to its ashler- work, to have been
constructed of stone from Corncockle-moor, the
quarry in the parish which continues to be worked.
The Castle-hill commands a fine view of the burgh,
of the beautiful lakes, and of a considerable expanse
of the luxuriant How of Annandale. Near it is a
lower hill or mount, called the Gallows-hill, on which,
in ancient times, a formidable gallows constantly
stood, and was seldom seen during the Border wars
without the dangling appendage of one or two rei
vers. The baronial courts of Lochmaben, and even
occasional warden courts, were probably held on the
summit of the Castle-hill, whence the judges beheld
their sentences promptly and rigidly carried into
execution. The first mention that is made of this place is by
Humphrey Lluyd, who has said that Constantine,
King of Cumbria, was killed at Lochmaben about 870.
But this seems to be a mere fabrication. Robert de
Brus, the son of that noble knight of Normandy, who
came into England with William the Conqueror, and
first possessed the manor of Skelton, being in a state
of friendship with our David I., while prince, received
from him, when he came to the throne, the lordship
of Annandale, with a right to enjoy his castle there,
with all the customs appertaining to it. This grant
was made a.d. 1 124. A charter, granted by William
On the contrary, from one of them it seems probable that the
castle of Lochmaben came into the possession of his nephew
Randolph, Earl of Morray, who is recognised as Lord of An
nandale. Besides, had King Robert been more partial to castle-
huildiog than he was, he would most likely havegtven the pre
ference to Turnberry. lt is to be observed that, in several
deeds of Edward 111., mention is made both of a castle and of
a peel at Lochmaben ; as in a letter irom him to Adam de Car
ry, whom he designs his " seneschal of the castle,, peel, and
lands of Lochmaben and Annandale," in a grant to William de
Bohun, and in another to Henry de Percy. [Rotul. Scot. i. 276,
b. ; 399, a.'; 479, 6.1 Distinct from both these castles, there ap
pears to have been one more ancient than either of them,
erected in one of the seven or eight Jochs reckoned up in this
neighbourhood. According to tradition, there was a nun
nery in the largest of them, where a castle afterwards stood ;
and some who. are acquainted with the Gaelic, contend, that
Lochmaben signifies * the Loch of the Maidens,' or * the Luch
of the Fair.' Dr. Jamieson says: " I should be disposed to
doubt this derivation, were it for no other reason than this,
that although maighdean is rendered in modern Gaelic, a maid
en, it is obviously a term borrowed from the Gothic, as not a
vestige of it appears, either in the old British, or in ita kindred
dialect, the Armorican. In the latter, the only similar words
are the derivatives of the verb maga, which conveys rather a
different idea from that of ' maid,' as Minifying to act the part
of a nurse. As this fortress was apparently within the limits
of the kingdom of Sti-at-Clyde, the jiame may have been formed
from the WeUh tlwch, — mebyn and maban, — *a babe.' Another
mode of orthography, however, occurs in one old deed. Robert
I. grants a charter to Thomas, son of John of Carruthers, of
Musfald, &c., dated at 'our manor of Lochmalban.' Could
we view this as the original form of the word, it might be
traced either to the Gaelic loch maol ben, or to the Welsh UwrU
moel ban, both signifying ' the Lake of the bald,' or ' smooth,
eminence.'"— Palaces oj Scotland, pp. 101, IUi,

LOCHMABEN.

291

the Lion to Robert, 3d Lord of Annandale, confirming
to him the property possessed by bis father in that
district, is dated at Lochmaban. This is supposed to
have been granted between the years 1165 and 1174.
The church of Lochmaben was one of those which
Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale, gave to tbe monks
of Gyseburn, in Yorkshire, about the year 1183.
Bruce, the competitor for the throne, and the grand
father of Robert I., died at his castle of Lochmaben,
a.d. 1295, or, according to Leland, 1296. In the
year preceding his death, he granted a charter, dated
at this fortress, confirming a convention between the
monks of Melross, and those of Holmcultram. " This
old castle of Lochmaben," it is said by Chalmers in
his ' Caledonia,' [iii. 78, 79,] "continued the chief
residence of this respectable family, during the 12th
and 13th centuries. Robert de Brus, the first Earl
of Carrick, of this dynasty, probably repaired the
castle at Annan." As a stone, taken from the ruins
of Annan-castle, bears his name, with the date 1300,
the conjecture seems to be formed, with great pro
bability, that the family had continued previously to
reside at Lochmaben. According to the testimony
of our venerable minstrel, that hero, who so long
withstood all the power, and all the bribes, of the
royal Norman usurper, — he whom English writers
have called 'a public robber,'* who could be van
quished only by the vilest treachery, — the immortal
Wallace,. — took the castle of Lochmaben. As he
had only a few men with him, the deserted state of
the place made it comparatively an easy acquisition.
He thus addressed himself to the gallant Sir John
Grahame, and his other companions : —
" I wald sailye.s. giff b ye think it may be,
Lowmaban houss, quhilk now is left allayne ;
For weill I wait c puwer in it is lewyt d nayne. e
Carlauerok als yeitf Maxwell has in baud;
Aud we had this, thai mycht be bath g a wand
Agayne Ii Sotheroun.i that now has our cuntre.
Say quhat ye will, this is the best, thiuk me." k
Srhir Jhone the Grayme gaiff 1 fyrBt his gud con-ent;
Syne all the layff, m rycht with a haill eutent. a
To Lowmaban rycht haistely thai ryd.
The old bard subjoins a characteristic trait of the in
variable conduct of Wallace to the defenceless :
 Qohen the ladie had thaim seyne,
" Grace," scho cryit, "for hym that deit o on tre."
Than Wallace said, " Mademe, your noyia lat be. p
To wemeo yeit we do bot litill ill ;
Na yong childir we lik fur to spill, q
Wallace, B. V. v. 997. 1033.
After the death of John Bohun, Earl of Hereford,
this castle was given to Edward, of the same name.
It was a.d. 1335, in the keeping of William Bohun,
whom Randolph, Earl of Moray, " found in his own
castle of Lochmaban, and bearing sway over all his
own lands of Annandale, when he returned from his
captivity in France." In the year 1366, it is spoken
of as the property of Humphrey de Bohun, who is
authorized to victual and repair it. In July 1298,
Edward I. took possession of Lochmaben-castle ;
and, in 1300, when we find him here a second time,
he strengthened this fortress, with that of Dumfries,
placing adequate garrisons in them, with ample sup
plies, and appointing a governor for each. To this
fortress Bruce fled, A.D. 1304, on his way from Lon
don, before erecting his royal standard. Having met,
near the west marches, a traveller on foot, whose
appearance was suspicious, he found, on examination,
that he was the bearer of letters from Comyn to the
English king, urging the death or the immediate im-
* Qnidam latro publicus, Willielmus Waleys. KDyghton,
col. 2513— Ille latro, ibid. 251ti.
a Assail. b If. c Know. dLeft. e None.
I As yet, still, g Both, h Against- i Englishmen.
k In iny apprehension. 1 Oave. in Remainder, n Design.
o Died. V Cease lo cry. q Destroy.

prisonment of Bruce He beheaded the messenger,
and pressed forward to his castle of Lochmaben,
where he arrived on the seventh day after his depar
ture from London. Hence he proceeded to Dum
fries, where the fatal interview between him and
Comyn took place.
At the accession of the Bruce to the Scottish
throne [see article Annandale], he conferred his
paternal inheritance, with its chief seat, the castle of
Lochmaben, on Randolph, Earl of Murray. When
Edward III. obtained from the inglorious Edward
Baliol the county of Dumfries as part of the price
for helping him to a usurped and dependent throne,
he appointed a variety of officers over Lochmaben-
castle, and garrisoned the fortress in defence of the
wrongful cause of England. In 1342 the Scots made
a strenuous attempt to capture tbe castle, but were
repulsed ; and next year David II. 's particular forces,
whom he was imprudently- leading into England,
were stoutly resisted* and severely harassed by its
garrison. David, exasperated by the repeated disas
ters inflicted on him, in 1346 vigorously assaulted the
fortress, took it, and executed Selby its governor.
By the fatal upshot of the battle of Durham, which
speedily followed, the castle changed both its pro
prietor and its tenants. John, Earl of Moray, falling
in that battle, the castle passed by inheritance to his
sister, Agnes, the Countess of March, and from her
was transmitted, through the reigns of Robert II.
and Robert III., to her son, Earl George ; and David
II. becoming the English king's prisoner, tbe castle
once more opened its gates to an English garrison.
Even after David II.'s restoration, Edward III. re
tained the district of Annandale, and kept the for
tress well-garrisoned to defend it ; but though con
nived at by the pusillanimity ot the Scottish king,
his dominion was pent up, by the bravery of the
people, within«the castle's own narrow limits. Sal
lies and forages of the garrison, provoked frequent
retaliations, occasioned incursions into England, and
led, in particular, to a hostile race, in 1380, into
Westmoreland, and the carrying away of great booty
from the fair of Penrith. In 1384 the Earl of Doug
las, and Archibald Douglas, lord of Galloway, whose
territories had been infested by the garrison, marched
in strong force against the castle, besieged and cap
tured it, and, by effecting its reduction, drove the
English from Annandale. In 1409 the castle was
resigned by the Earl of March to the Regent Albany,
and conferred, along with the lordship of Annandale,
upon the Earl of Douglas. In 1450, when the Earl
of Orkney was sent to quell some fierce outrages of
the dependents of the Douglas, and, though acting
by the King's authority, was opposed and defied,
James II. marched an army into Annandale, and took
and garrisoned Lochmaben-castle. In 1455 the castle,
in common with the lordships of Annandale and Esk
dale, became the property of the Crown by the at
tainder of the Earl of Douglas. Till the union of
the Crowns it was preserved as a Border strength,
and belonged either personally to the kings or to
their sons ; and it was maintained and managed by a
special governor. In a progress made by James IV.,
in the year 1504, against the disorderly inhabitants
of the south, he, on the 17th of September, left Loch
maben, on his way to Edinburgh, by Peebles. It ap
pears, from the treasurer's accounts, that, in 1503-4,
this prince built a large hall in the castle of Lochma
ben, and made great repairs and improvements on
that fortress, from 1503 to 1506. We may perhaps
view it as a proof of the interest which James IV
took in the preservation of this royal fortress, thai.
he consigned the custody of it to Robert Lauder of
the Bass. For there is extant a grant, dated 16th
March, 1511, to the said Robert, of the office of cap-

292

LOCHMABEN.

tain and keeper of Lochmaben castle, for seven years,
with many perquisites. Among others, the 'land
stolen frae the king ' is bestowed upon the captain,
as his property, During the minority of James V.,
Robert, Lord Maxwell, being a favoured counsellor
of the queen-mother, was by her intrusted with the
keeping oifthe castles of Lochmaben and Thrieff, for
nineteen years, with the usual privileges. In the
year 1565, when Queen Mary pursued, into Dum
fries-shire, those who had broken out into rebellion
on account of her marriage with Darnley, she, ac
companied by him, visited Lochmaben-castle, which
was then in the custody of Sir John Maxwell. In
1588, when James VI. was prosecuting his quarrel
With Lord Maxwell, he summoned bis various castles
to surrender. They all obeyed, except Lochmaben,
which was defended by one of the same name. It
was given up, however, after two days firing. In
consequence of the forfeiture of Lord Maxwell, and
the vesting of all bis estates and offices ih the crown,
a.d. 1609, James, in the year 1612, granted the
government of this castle, with the barony of Loch
maben, to John Murray, ' grome of his Maiesties
bedchalmer,' who was created Viscount of Annarid,
and Lord Murray of Lochmaben, and afterwards
Earl of Annandale. From him descended the noble
family of Stormont, now merged in that of Mans
field. The title of Constable and Hereditary keeper
of the palace of Lochmaben is claimed, both by the
Earl of Mansfield and by the representative of the
Marquis of Annandale. During the troubles in the
reign of Charles I., the Earl of Nithsdale, (formerly
Lord Maxwell,) having suffered greatly in conse
quence of his steady adherence to the king, was
obliged to sell, not only great part of his estate, but
also his offices of Steward of Annandale, and Con
stable of Lochmaben-castls, with the lands and emo
luments which were attached to the constabulary.
James Murray, the 2d Earl of Annandale, dying
without issue, the honours of Lochmaben were, a.d.
1661, transferred to James Johnston, Earl of Hart-
fell. The governor had a salary of £300 Scotch — a
considerable sum ih former days — together with the
fishing of the lochs. He bad also, for the mainten
ance of the garrison, from every parish of Annandale,
what was called Laird a Mairt, or, a lairdner mart
coW, which, it was required, should be one of the
fattest that c6uld be produced, besides thirty-nine
meadow geese, and ' Fasten's e'en ' hens. A century
has not elapsed since this tax was exacted. Although
the right of fishing in all the lochs is granted, by a
charter of James VI., to the borough of Lochmaben,
yet the proprietors of the castle have always enjoyed
the exclusive privilege of fishing in the castle and
mill-lochs with boats, nets, &c. About the year 1730
the inhabitants of Annandale, galled with the exac
tions made upon them by the Marquis of Annandale,
the hereditary constable and nominal governor, re
sisted payment of his wonted claims, stoutly litigated
his rights, and bbtaihed from the Court-of-Session a
decree forbidding t!he future levying of his usual re
ceipts. At the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions,
in 1747, the Marquis claimed £1,000 as compensa
tion for his governorship ; but was not allowed a
farthing. The dilapidation of the castle was pro
bably commenced not long after the place was aban
doned as useless ; but it must have been mainly in
cited by the triumph of the people over pretensions
based on the ludicrously sinecure 'office of its noble
hereditary governor. Our good old Bellenden, in
his translation of Boece, has given a very curious
picture of the character of the anciefit inhabitants of
this district, and of the original reason of the erec
tion of the castle. " In Annandail is ane loch namit
Lochmaben, fyue mylis of lenth, and foure of breid,

full of uncouth fische. Besyde this loch is ane cas-
tell, vnder the same name, maid to dant the incur
sion of theuis. For nocht allanerlie in Annandail,
bot in all the dalis afore rehersit ar mony Strang and
wekit theuis, inuading the cuntre with perpetual!
thift, reif, & slauchter, quhen thay se ony trublus
tyme. Thir theuis (becaus thay haue Inglismen
thair perpetuall ennymes lyand dry mafche apon -
thair nixt bordour) inuadis Ingland with continewal
weris, or ellis with quiet thift: and leiffis ay ane
pure and miserabill lyfe. In the tyme of peace, thay
are so accustomit with thift, that thay can nocht
desist, bot inuadis the cuntre — with ithand heir-
schippis  This vail of Annand wes sum tyme namit
Ordouitia, and the pepill namit Ordouices, quhais
cruelteis wes sa gret, that thay abhorrit nocht to eit
the fiesche of yolding prisoneris. The wyuis vsit
to slay thair husbandis, quhen thay wer found cow-
artis, or discomfist be thair ennymes, to give occa-
sioun to otheris to be more bald & hardy quhen
danger occurrit." Whatever might be their cha
racter in that early period, they have in later ages
showed, at least, a good deal of humour in their de
predations. Of this we have an amusing proof in
the ballad of the ' Lochmaben Harper,' who, having
been seized with a strong attachment to the Lord
Warden's ' Wanton Brown,' made his way to Car
lisle-castle, although blind, and so enchanted the
whole company, and even the minions, by the charms
of his music, that he found means, not Only to send
of the warden's charger, but to persuade him, that
while he was exerting himself to the utmost to gra
tify the company, some one had stole his own ' gude
gray mare,' and thus to secure far more than tbe
value of all his pretended loss.
" ' Allace ! allace ! quo* the cunning auld harper,
' And ever allace that I cam here I
lu Scotland 1 lost a'braw cnwt foal ;
In England they've stown my gude gray mare I'
" Then aye he harped, and aye he carped ;
Sae sweet were the harpings he let them hear .
He was paid for the foal he had never lost,
And three times owe'r lor his ' gude gray mare.' "
Additional to the castles there are, in the landward
part of the parish, two or three other civil antiquities.
Half-a-mile north-west of the town, overlooking the
Mill-loch, is a rising ground called Woody, or Din-
woody-castle. The summit, though possessing no
vestige of building, is surrounded with a trench very
distinctly marked, and bears a large crop of whins 
In a field south- west of the town is the circular trace
of a toWer, which anciently possessed a wild and
stirring fame. It is called Cockie's-field, from one
John Cpck, or O'Cock, who resided in it, and was
one of the most renowned freebooters of Annandale;
An old ballad, still extant, details his feats of arms,
dilates on his great personal strength, and narrates
the manner of Wis death. A party of the King's
foresters, to whoiri he had been an intolerable pest,
and whom be had relieved of the care of many deer,
chanced one day to find him asleep in the forest, cau-'
tiously beset him, and were determined upon his de
struction. John, suddenly awaking, and percdving
at once the snare into which he had fallen, and the
hopelessness of escape, resolved to make his captors
pay dearly for his life ; and before they could over
power him, he laid seven of their number corpses at
his feet — In the south-west corner of the parish is
a large and very beautiful artificial mound of earth,
perfectly circular, quite entire, and terminating in a
sharp tower. It is called both Rockhall-moat and
the Beacon-hill ; and possibly served both as a moat
or seat of feudal justice, and as a beacon-post for
descrying the movements of the Border marauders,
and giving alarm in the event of predatory incursions.

LOCHMABEN.

293

Its position is on the summit of a low but conspi
cuous ridge which divides Nithsdale, or rather the
district of Lochar-moss, from Annandale, and com
mands a map-like and very brilliant view of a very
large part of the champaign country of Dumfries
shire, a portion of Galloway, and all the Solway
frith — The parish has remains of several Roman
encampments ; and must have been traversed, along
a path easily pointed out, by Agricola on his march
from Brunswark hill to Glota and Bodotria.
Lochmaben gives name to a presbytery in the
synod of Dumfries. Patron, the Earl of Mansfield.
Stipend £264 19s. 2d. ; glebe £10. Unappropriated
teinds £108 3s. 2d. The parish-church was built
in 1819. Sittings 1,200. The minister stated the
population, in 1835, to consist of 2,374 churchmen,
445 dissenters, and 9 nondescripts, — in all 2,828 per
sons. There are two dissenting places of worship.
The United Secession meeting-house, situated in a
suburb of the burgh, was built in 1818. Sittings
800. Stipend £80. The Reformed Presbyterian
meeting-house, situated in Hightae, was built about
43 years ago by a Relief congregation, and bought
from them by the present congregation, established
in 1828, for £70. Sittings 325. Stipend £60. Par
ish schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with less
than £25 fees, and interest of £200 other emolu
ments. There is an endowed school at Hightae [see
Fourtowns]. This school, and the parochial one,
were attended, in 1834, by 148 scholars ; and four
private schools were attended by 265  The ancient
church was given by Robert de Bruce, the ancestor of
the royal Robert, and the husband of Isabel, the na
tural daughter of William the Lion, tp the monks of
Gisburn ; but it afterwards, with reservation of some
of the pertinents to the monks, resumed its status as a
rectory, immediately inspected by the Bishop of Glas
gow. In the 15th century the magistrates of the
burgh endowed in the church an altarage or chap-
lainry dedicated to the Virgin Mary. On the lands
of Rokele, now called Rockhall, in the south-west
corner of the parish, anciently stood an endowed
chapel ; tbe pertinents of which, though seized by
lay bands after the Reformation, now yields some
proceeds to the parochial incumbent. Some other
chapels existed in the parish ; but cannot now be
very distinctly traced.
Lochmaben, a very ancient town, a royal
burgh, and the seat of a presbytery, is beautifully-
situated on the immediate banks of large, fine, and
nearly encincturing lakes, 4 miles from Lockerbie, 8
from Dumfries, 15 from Moffat, 30 from Carlisle, 70
from Glasgow, and 65 from Edinburgh. The town
is 3£ furlongs in length, and, in its principal street-
line, stretches due north and south. Over I J fur
longs from the south end there is but one street,
overlooked by the parish-church on the south, and
the cross and town-house on the north. This street
is spacious, and has several genteel houses, most of
them small and neat. The rest of the town consists
of a narrowed continuation of the principal street on
a straight line with it ; a street contracting into an
alley, running 250 yards north-west from the cross ;
a street longer than this, going off from it near the
cross, and running due west along the road to Dum
fries ; and, a street of 400 yards, branching off from
the last, and running north-eastward to the northern
extremity of the town. All these thoroughfares are
of mean appearance, relieved at long intervals by the
form of a large or good house, but predominantly
lined with one story buildings, which hold a mjddle
character between plain cottages and dismal huts.
Less than a furlong from the north end of the town,
is the small suburb of Barrows , and a furlong be
yond this is the smaller suburb of Bogle-hole. The

whole town and its adjuncts impress even a native
of the parish, after he has moved from home and re
turns, with a feeling of utter dreariness. Were all
swept away, and the site covered with forest, or
even yielded up to the farmer, but especially were it
decorated with grove and lawn in a style harmonious
with the placid and beaming beauty of the landscape
in which it lies, it would be one of the loveliest spots
in Scotland, and aid, instead of marring, busy and
tumultuous meditation on the crowding reminiscences
which its historiographic neighbourhood pours upon
the mind. But dingy, desolate, and leaden-eyed as
its present aspect is, the place appears a mockery at
once of its own ancient greatness, of the opulent
scenes around it, and of the antiquarian magnificence
of objects in its neighbourhood.
The public buildings of the town, existing, declin
ing, and extinct, demand some notice. The church
is a handsome edifice of ashler-work in the pointed
style, with an elegant square tower, and is tastefully
situated on a very gentle swell, overlooking the
Castle-loch, and all tiie champaign country to the
east. It cost upwards of £3,000, and is the chief,
in fact the only ornament of Lochmaben. Its pre
decessor stood at the west side of the town, on the
margin of the Kirk-loch ; and was a Gothic edifice,
with a large choir, and dedicated to Mary Magdalene.
The Maxwells, after their defeat, in 1593, by the
Johnstones, in the fight of Dryfe sands, [see Dryfes-
dale,] having taken refuge in this church, the John
stones fired it, and compelled them to surrender.
Near the site of the church is St. Magdalene's well,
enclosed with a stone and lime wall, and a covering
or roof of freestone. The town-house is a small and
very unimppsing structure, surmounted by a com
paratively new steeple, like an ancient matron trim
med out in a young girl's modern head-dress. Above
is a court-house, in requisition chiefly by dancing.
masters, and for gala-parties ; and below is a miser
able jail of two apartments, quite unfit for either the
lodgement or the detention of a culprit, and superin
tended by an aged man who does not reside in its
immediate vicinity. The steeple, according to the
date upon it, was erected in 1745, the year in which
the Pretender marched through Lochmaben on his
way from Carlisle to Dumfries. In an arched shade
beneath this structure the meal-market is held ; and
immediately before it is the public cross, — a tall
stone fixed in a freestone socket, and presenting a
very time-worn appearance. Lochmaben cross is
remarkably like the burgh, both in its shabby plain
ness and in its improvident history. When Elshie-
shields-castle was built, the town-council, delighted
with what they thought the goodly aspect of the
stone which now forms the cross, and which lay
among the rubbish accumulated by the masons,
offered for its possession the mill and mill-lands of
the burgh tq the proprietor of Elshieshields and his
heirs for ever, and joyously effecting their bargain,
set up the stone in burgh-cross fashion as a proud
monument to posterity of their taste and public
spirit. The mill and mill-lands which formed fhe
price have long yielded Dickson of Elshieshields the
sum of £100 a-year. The only other noticeable
building is the Secession meeting-house, a plain but
airy and pleasipg edifice surmounting a slight emi
nence between Barrows and Bogle-hole, and com
manding a far-stretching view of the How of Annan
dale. A considerable manufacture of coarse linen cloth,
for sale unbleached in the English market, was at
one time carried on, but has totally disappeared.
The only manufacture now is the working of a few
stocking-looms. A large trade — if trade it can be
called — is driven both in the town and throughout

LOC

294

LOC

the parish, in the feeding of pigs, to aid supply for
the smart demand of England for Dumfries-shire
pork. A large proportion of the inhabitants farm
small crofts, and rear their families as a sort of ped
dling farmers. Annual fairs — two of them more gala-
days for children and rustic idlers than occasions of
any real business, and the other two hiring-fairs for
farm-servants — are held four times a-year. A weekly
market of some importance is held during winter for
pork. A stage-coach maintains communication in
transit between Dumfries and Langholm. The town
has three inns and a subscription library. The
authorities are a provost, three bailies, a dean-of-
guild, and ten councillors, including a treasurer.
The provost acts ex-officio as justice-of-peace for
the county ; but his jurisdiction, jointly with that
of the other magistrates in the burgh, is extremely
trifling. There are some corporate bodies with ex
clusive privileges ; but the entrance-moneys are so
trifling that they can hardly form an obstacle to any
settler. The burgh is irretrievably bankrupt. Its
only property and revenues amount to £113 15s. 6d.
a-year, with the town-house and half an acre of land ;
and its debt is £3,605 17s. 3d. The whole property,
so far as attachable, was sequestrated some years ago
by the Court-of-session, and is under the management
of a j udicial factor, who pays the small wonted allow
ance to town-clerks, gaoler, and officers. Gross neg
ligence, if not wilful mismanagement, preceded the
declaration of insolvency ; and, in particular, a sale
of a farm was effected for £1,350, to the provost of
the day's father-in-law, and was not minuted in any
of the books of the town-council. But though, in
all senses of civil reference, fallen and woe-begone,
the burgh looms largely and magnificently to the
view when seen through the haze of antiquity.
Under the warm wing and fattening fosterage of the
Bruces, it must have sprung into energy before the
close of the 12th century, and speedily acquired pro
bably more importance than any other town in the
south-west of Scotland. Like other Border-towns,
it suffered severely and lost its records from the
incursions of the English; but it is traditionally
asserted to have been erected into a royal burgh soon
after Bruce's accession to the throne. Its last char
ter was granted, in 1612, by James VI., and confirms
all the early charters. The town was twice burnt
by the English,_first, in 1463, by the Earl of War
wick ; and next, immediately before the granting of
its last charter. In 1484 the recreant Earl of Doug
las and the treacherous Duke of Albany attempted
to plunder the#town on St. Magdalene's1 fair day;
but they were repelled by the inhabitants. Loch
maben unites with Dumfries, Annan, Sanquhar, and
Kirkcudbright, in sending a member to parliament.
Constituency, in 1839, 41. Population, in 1931,
within the old royalty, 1,100; but within the new
and more limited royalty assigned by the Reform
act, 966.
LOCH-NA-GAR, or Loch-na-Garaitjh, a lofty
mountain of the Grampian ridge, in the united par
ish of Crathy and Braemar, Aberdeenshire. Its
elevation is 3,777 feet above sea-level. On the top
there is snow all the year round. The ' dark Loch-
na-gar' has been celebrated by Lord Byron in a well-
known ballad of great beauty. In the ' Edinburgh
New Philosophical Journal' for 1830, we find the
view from the summit of the mountain thus de
scribed : " In one direction our view extended to the
sea at Aberdeen ; in another the vast granite group
of Cairngorm, with its well-known summits, viz.
Bin-na-muick-dui, Cairngorm, Bin-na-buird, Bin
Aven, rose before us in massive magnificence: to the
south, in the distance, rose the trap-hill named Dun
dee-law, the trap cones of the Lomonds in Fifeshire,

and the beautiful porphyry range of the Pentlands
near Edinburgh ; and, towards the west, the wild
and rugged alpine country of Athole and Badenoch
added to the interest of this varied scene. Around
the mountain, we observed several frightful corries,
. bounded by dreadfully rugged precipices. We de
scended into one of them in order to examine the
snow which it contained, — snow which remains all
the year round. The mass of snow was thirty yards
square, several feet thick ; at the surface its textdre
was loose, but below was hard and composed of
granular concretions, and had much of the glacier
character. We met with parties of topaz-diggers in
search of the topaz, beryl, and rock-crystal, which
occur iuathis and other granite mountains of the dis
trict, in the granite, either in drusy cavities or as
disseminated crystals. The topaz-diggers find the
gems only in the alluvium, or broken granite, and
generally in that covering the bottoms of corries, or
spread round the foot of the higher granite summits. " *
LOCH-NA-G AUL, an inlet of the Atlantic ocean,
on the confines of Inverness-shire and Argyle, nearly
opposite to the point of Sleat in the island of Skye.
There is an excellent parliamentary road from Ari-
saig, on the shores of this loch, to Fort- William, with
a ferry over the Lochv river. Its length is 37 miles
1,087 yards.
LOCH-NA-MHOON. See Aviemore.
LOCH-NA-SEALGH. See Loch-Broom.
LOCHNAW. See Leswalt.
LOCHRUTTON, aparish in the eastern division
of Kirkcudbrightshire ; bounded on the north-west
by Irongray ; on the north by Irongray and Ter
regles ; on the east by Troqueer ; on the south-east
by Troqueer and Newabbey ; and on the south-west
by Kirkgunzeon and Urr. Its form is nearly ellip
soidal, with a small angular protrusion on the south.
Its greatest length from east to west is 5£ miles ; its
greatest breadth is 4£ miles ; and its area is about
7,000 acres. Toward the south, the west, and the
north-west, the surface is hilly ; but elsewhere it is
an arable valley, interspersed with knolls, mosses,
and meadows. The whole prospect forms a kind of
amphitheatre, and looks slopingly toward Dumfries,
distant from the nearest part 3J miles. The soil,
though various, is, in general, a light shallow loam,
either on white granite, or on a gravellish, and in
many places a cold, springy bottom. Agriculture
has walked very improvingly over it, and annually
extracts from it a large surplus produce for exporta
tion. The hilly district was originally heathy ; but,
for the most part, it has completely exchanged its
russet for deep green, or waving yellow. About 350
acres are moss, — worth much in a district where fuel
is expensive.; and about the same number are marsh
or woodland. A little east of the centre of the par
ish is Lochrutton, a lake, a mile in length, and half-
a-mile in mean breadth, from which the district has
its name. In the middle of it is a circular islet, about
halfa-rood in extent, partly artificial, and every
where covered with large stones, founded on a frame
of oak planks, and thickly dotted in summer with
flocks and nests of sea-gulls. The lake contains pike
and perch, and emits a streamlet containing trout.
Nearly 2 miles westward is a smaller lochlet called
Deadston-loch. Merkland-well, long a celebrated
and much-frequented spa in the parish, though now
somewhat forgotten by whimsical fashion, is a strong
chalybeate, effectual in agues and in dyspeptic and
* Those, Dr. Macknight remarks, who employ themselves in
searching for tho gems, pay the proprietors a small rent lor the
..berty ut searching. The part of the Cairngorm group which
lies to the east, and is called Ben- Aven, is at present reckoned
the most productive, yielding the proprietor about £150 or
£200 a-year. The field is Baid now lo bo nearly exhausted.—
Vide Wemerian Memoirs, vol. iii. pp. 117, 118,

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nervous disorders, and exceedingly light and very
diuretic. Limestone occurs, but of inferior quality.
Shell-marl has been dug up in large quantities from
the mosses. On a hill in the extreme east there is
a Druidical circle of 9 stones and about 170 feet in
diameter. The spot commands one of the richest
and most extensive prospects in the east of Gallo
way. Vestiges exist of several peel-houses, some of
which appear to have been surrounded with a fosse.
One of them very ancient, and called Castle-of-hills,
in a Scottish Chronicle of the reign of James VI., is
still entire. On the corner-stone of a porter's lodge
attached to it, as a modern excrescence, is the date
1598. The Dumfries and Portpatrick mailroad
runs across the parish near the northern boundary ;
and other excellent roads traverse it. Population,
in 1801,514; in 1831, 650. . Houses 114. Assessed
property, in 1815, £4,174.— Lochrutton is in the
presbytery and synod of Dumfries. Patron, the
Duke of Buccleuch. Stipend £182 6s. 4d. ; glebe
£15. Schoolmaster's salary £30, with £10 10s.
fees, and £5 10s. other emoluments. There is a
private school  The' parish was anciently a vicarage
under, first, the nunnery ; and next, the collegiate
church of Lincluden.
LOCH-RYAN. See Ryan (Loch).
LOCHS, a parish in Ross-shire, in the island of
Lewis, so named from the great number of small
lakes which are interspersed over its surface. It is
about 18 miles in length, exclusive of numerous in
lets which extend its line of coast to upwards of 90
miles; the average breadth is about 9 miles. A
great part of it is a peninsula, called the Forest of
Lewis, formed by Loch-Seafort and Loch-Erisort.
Along the coast it has a bold and rocky appearance ;
in the interior, the surface is moory and inhospitable,
and there is no soil fit for culture, except what has
been forced into some kind of cultivation in the
creeks by use of sea-weed as a manure, and the in
dustry of the inhabitants. The Shiant or Holy
Islands belong to this parish : see Shiant. Popu
lation, in 1801, 1,875; in 1831, 3,067. Houses 630.
— This parish is in the presbytery of Lewis, and synod
of Glenelg. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £158 6s.
7d. ; glebe £20  Schoolmaster's salary £28.
LOCH-SPULANDER. See Kirkmichael.
LOCH-STROAN. See Kells.
LOCH-TAY-SIDE. See Ardeonaig.
LOCHTIE (The), a rivulet tributary to the
Lossie, in the parish of Dallas, Morayshire : which
see. LOCHTOWN. See Longforgan.
LOCH-TURRET, a lake in the parish of Moni-
vaird, Perthshire, about a mile long, and a quarter
of a mile broad.
LOCHTY (The), a small river in Fifeshire,
which takes its rise in the parish of Kinglassie, and,
after an easterly course of 8 or 9 miles, falls into the
Orr a little above its junction with the Leven.
LOCHWINNOCH,* a parish in Renfrewshire,
bounded on tbe north by Kilmalcolm ; on the north
east by Kilbarchan ; on the east by the Abbey par
ish of Paisley and Neilston ; and 08 the south and
west by Beith and Kilbirnie in Ayrshire. It ex-
* The name is vulgarly pronounced Lochinoch, the accent
being laid on the first syllable, and the guttural.-, being sounded.
It was spelled in from 30 to 40 different ways before the present
orthography was finally adopted. In Semple's work, published
1788, it is 'Lochiuioch.' The first syllable of the name evi
dently refers to the lake or loch in the neighbourhood of the
village, but the derivation of the remainder is doubtful : it may
either be innich, the genitive of the Celtic word innis, a small
island referring to an islet in the lake ; or Winnoc, a saint to
whom it is said a chapel was here dedicated. There appear to
have been three different saints of that name,— one, if not two
of whom, was a native of Britain ; another was an Irish saint.
Other derivatives have been suggested, but they are quite
fanciful.

tends. about 12 miles from east to west, and, where
broadest, about 6 miles from north to south ; and
contains 19,219 English acres, of which 9,000 are
cultivated, or capable of cultivation; 9,119 are in
pasture, of all sorts ; 700 are covered fay wood ; 300
by water; and 1 00 by gardens and orchards. The
value of raw produce is about £14,000. In aspect
this parish is greatly diversified. Part consists of
high and bleak hills in the back ground ; and part of
a low winding valley of great fertility and beauty.
This valley, with the shelving country towards it on
both sides, contains nearly the whole population.
In its centre is a fine lake, and it is also ornamented
with plantations, whilst the houses of its numerous
small proprietors are each set down under the shade
of a few old trees in the midst of well-cultivated
spots of ground. The whole strath has a warm and
cheerful appearance, insomuch that worthy George
Robertson, in his description of 1818, waxing poeti
cal for once, justly pronounced it " the very Vale of
Tempe of Renfrewshire." The highest hills in the
county are situated in the western extremity of this
parish. One of these heights — appropriately called
Misty-law — is about 1,240 feet above the level of
the sea ; and another, the hill of Staik, is a few feet
higher. The prospect from Misty-law extends over
12 counties, including the frith of Clyde and its
islands. This, hill is surrounded by moorlands,
which abound with game, and afford tolerable pas
ture for sheep. Another range of high land, mostly
arable, passes through the eastern part of the parish.
The lower grounds are clay and loam ; the higher,
exclusive of moor, are a light dry soil, on rotten rock
or whinstone. Coal is wrought at Hallhill, and lime
stone at Howwood. Freestone and other kinds of
stone for building abound, and quarries are opened
when they are required. About 2 miles north-west
of Castle-Semple house is a magnetic rock, of which
the following description was given in the Statisti
cal Account of 1795: "The compass was sensibly
affected all round the rock to the distance of 150
yards. The effect was most remarkable on the east
and west side of it, and, in every direction, it was
greater as the compass was nearer to the rock itself.
In its immediate vicinity, or nearly in a perpendicu
lar direction above it, the position of the needle
was very unsteady and irregular, and as the compass
was gradually brought nearer the ground, the devi
ation from the magnetic meridian was more remark
able, and the vibrations more rapid. When the
compass was set on the ground, the north pole of
the needle invariably directed itself to one small
space of the rock, on whatever side of it the needle
was placed." f The lake already mentioned is pro
perly called Loch- Winnoch, but more commonly from
the estate it adjoins Castle-Semple loch: which see.
When covered with ice, it forms an excellent arena
for the invigorating game of curling, which is keenly
prosecuted by the parishioners. Here, upwards of
half-a-century ago, a famous bonspiel was played be
tween Douglas, Duke of Hamilton, popularly called
'the Sporting Duke,' and Mr. Macdowall of
Castle-Semple, and their respective tenantry, when,
after a long protracted contest, his Grace's party
gained the day by one shot. In the north-west of
the parish is a sheet of water called Queenside-
loch, containing about 21 acres; and in the opposite
extremity is one much less, called Wa's-loch, which
is remarkable for the quantity of water-lilies it pro
duces. The river Calder runs wholly within the
parish. It rises on the north-west, on the borders
of Ayrshire, and pursues a winding course towards
Castle-Semple loch, which it enters near the vil-
t Iu the New Philosophical Journal for July— October, 1831
there is an article respecting such rocks.

296

LOCHWINNOCH.

lage. On this river are some romantic wate/falls,
and its banks, which are overhung with wood, both
natural and planted, are exceedingly picturesque.
Their beauties were first pointed out by Alexander
Wilson, the ornithologist of America, who, although
not a native of this parish, resided in it for some
years before his emigration, and founded several of
his poems on its scenery and incidents. He thus
lamented the neglect to which all his time the banks
of the Calder had been doomed : —
" Say, ye blest scenes of solitude and peace,
Strayed e'er a bard along this hermit shore ?
Did e'er his pencil your perfections trace ?
Or did his muse to sing your beauties Boar ?
Alas! methinks the weeping rocks around,
And the lone stream, that murmurs far below,
And trees, and caves, with solemn hollow sound
Breathe out one mournful melancholy ' No I' "
This river is crossed by three bridges. The highest,
that of Brigend, is of considerable antiquity. The
property adjacent to it occurs under that name in
the 16th century, and is still so called. The arch
of this bridge is very fine, and the mason- work more
elegant than is now usually employed in such struc
tures. Originally it was very narrow, but was re
paired and widened in 1814. The second bridge, at
Calderhaugh, was built in 1769, and the lowest up
wards of twenty years ago. Several burns either
flow within the parish or bound it. Next to the
Castle-Semple property, the history of which has been
described under that article, the second large pro
perty in the parish is Barr, which anciently belonged
to a family named Glen. John de Glen, the first
that occurs, swore fealty to Edward of England in
1296. The family became extinct in the person of
Alexander Glen in 1616, and the lands of Barr were
acquired by a branch of the Wallaces, who appear
to have afterwards assumed the surname of Hamil
ton. Barr continued in the possession of the Ham
iltons till about 1 788, when it was sold to Mr. Mac-
dowall of Castle-Semple. About 22 years afterwards
it was purchased by James Adam, Esq., who, in
1820, sold it to William Macdowall, Esq., nephew
of the gentleman just named, and representative of
the Macdowalls of Garthland and Castle-Semple.
By Mr. Macdowall the mansion-house, (which stands
on that part of the barony called Garpel,) was prin
cipally built, and the thriving plantations which sur
round it formed. Here he resided, esteemed by the
parishionors for his innate worth and deeds of un
ostentatious open-handed charity. He died at Barr-
house in his 70th year, and was succeeded by his
brother. At hjg death he was vice-president of the
Maitland club, (a distinguished literary association,)
and one of the deputy-lieutenants of the county.
Barr-loch, which covered about 250 English acres,
was so well drained by Mr. Adam during his pro
prietorship, that its site is now only occasionally
and partially inundated after a heavy fall of rain in
winter. In summer it waves with luxuriant crops
of oats and hay. The castle of Barr is agreeably
situated on an eminence on the south side of the
road leading from Lochwinnoch to Kilbirnie. It is
a high oblong tower, of 4 stories, the walls of which
are entire, but without a roof. From the walls
having both slits for arrows and ports for guns, the
building may be referred to the 15th century, when
the people of this country were passing from the one
mode of warfare to the other. Above the door are
the initials of one of the former proprietors, the
Hamiltons, and his wife  In the south-eastern ex
tremity of the parish is a barony called Auchenba-
thie- Wallace, to distinguish it from another called
Auchenbathie-Blair, which belonged to a different
family. The former belonged to the Wallaces of
Elderslie, and is mentioned- by Blind Harry as one

of the places that Malcolm Wallace, father of the
hero, "had in heritage." On this property there
are the remains of a small castle called the tower of
Auchinbathie. The only other objects of antiquity
we have to mention are the remains of two hill-forts,
the one on the farm of Castlewa's, and the other on
Knockmade, a hill near the Kame.* On 18th
June, 1685, a skirmish took place at Muirdykes,
in the eastern part of the parish, between the
Government troops commanded by Lord Ross of
Hawkhead, and a remnant to the number of 75, of
those who had joined in the rising under the Earl of
Argyle. T,he latter, under the command of Sir John
Cochran, having taken up a position within some
enclosures, bravely repelled the enemy, and kept
their ground till nightfall, after which both parties
withdrew from the field. Sir John's men then dis
persed, and the Earl himself having been previously
taken prisoner near Inchinnan, the unfortunate en
terprise came to an end— Besides the proprietors of
Castle-Semple and Barr, the chief land-owners in
the parish, in the order of their valuations, are Mrs.
Barr, Robert Fulton, Esq. of Hartfield; Ludovic
Houston, Esq. of Johnston ; the family of the de
ceased William Cochran, Esq. of Ladyland ; and
William Patrick, Esq., writer to the signet. The
rest of the parish is broken down amongst small
proprietors amounting to nearly 130. The lands of
Beltrees belonged to a distinguished family, the
founder of which was John Sempill, youngest son
of the 3d Lord Sempill, and husband of Mary Liv
ingston, sister of Lord Livingston, and one of the
maids of honour to Queen Mary. His son, Sir
James Sempill, enjoyed the confidence of James
VI., and was the author of several works in prose
and verse. Robert Sempill, the son, and Francis,
the grandson, of Sir James, inherited his poetical
talent. In our account of Kilbarchan, there is
some farther notice of this family, which is now re
presented by James Stuart, Esq., merchant in Green
ock, great-grandson of that Robert Sempill who died
in 1789.
In this parish there are two cotton-mills, namely,
the old mill erected about 1788, and the new mill in
1 789, which give employment to upwards of 500
workers. There is also a mill for carding and spin
ning wool, erected in 1814. It is in the third story
of a building near the Calder, the under part of which
is one of the largest and most complete corn-mills in
the country. The bleaching of goods is extensively
carried on. In 1835, there were about 200 hand-
loom weavers, employed by Paisley and Glasgow
houses. Population of the parish, in 1831, 4,515;
in 1841, 4,716. Houses, in 1831, 538. Assessed
property, in 1815, £13,730  The parish is in the
presbytery of Paisley, and synod of Glasgow and
Ayr. Patrons, the heritors. About 1813, the pat
ronage was bought from Mr. Macdowall of Castle-
Semple's trustees for £1,550, and disposed of among
77 heritors, holding more or less shares from 1 to 5,
and having votes proportioned to the number of their
shares, each of which cost £10. The church was
built in 1806; sittings about 1,150. Stipend £277
Is. 6d. ; glebe £19 10s. Unappropriated teinds £998
2s. 6d.- — In the village there is a mission-station be
longing to the Establishment, opened 7th December,
1834. The chapel is a school-room fitted up with a
pulpit and moveable seats ; sittings 237 ; salary of
missionary £60. There is in the village a church
belonging to the United Secession body, built in
1792 at the cost (including the manse, &c.) of about
£1,200; sittings 503; stipend £100, with £6 for
* The former is described in the New Statistical Account of
the parish, p. 96 ; the latter is not, but a notice of it will be
found iu the Paisley Magazine, p. 524.

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sacramental expenses, besides a house and garden.
Salary of parochial schoolmaster £34 4s., (from which
£5 is paid yearly to one of the schools not parochial,)
with school-fees varying in the branches taught ; and
£25 annually arising from an endowment. There
are 9 other schools, with one teacher to each. There
is hardly a person in the parish who cannot read.
The village of Lochwinnoch is on the north
west side of Castle-Semple loch. The situation is
very pleasant, being sheltered in all directions ex
cept the south-east, either by rising grounds or thick
plantations. The place consists of a main street
half-a-mile long, with some streets crossing it at
right angles. The houses are generally of two sto
ries and covered with slates. There is a branch
bank in the village. The cross of Lochwinnoch is
distant 9 miles and 6 furlongs from that of Paisley.
Population of village, in 1838, 2,636. Besides How-
Wood, [which see,] the only other village in the
parish is Glenhead, the population of which, in 1831,
was 53.
LOCHWOOD- CASTLE. See Johnstone,
Dumfries-shire. LOCHY (Loch), a lake in the district of Loch
aber, in Inverness-shire, forming one of the chain of
lakes which occupy a large portion of Glenmore-nan-
Albin, or ' the Great glen of Scotland.' It is about
14 miles long, and not mqjp than a mile broad. Its
boundaries on either side, throughout its whole
extent, are lofty mountains, which rise up sudden
and unbroken. Their outline is without variety,
and after passing the mouth of the water of Archaig,
there is neither bay, promontory, nor turning of the
lake, of size sufficient to break the disagreeable uni
formity. A narrow valley, its bottom filled with an
extensive sheet of water, presents a dreary vista, of
which the termination cannot be seen ; and a sense
of tiresome vacuity is the result of a visit to Loch-
Lochy. Near the western end of the lake, however,
where the water of Archaig enters, there is some
relief to the scenery here described. The fine bay
which here sweeps on towards the glens of Achna-
cary, the Mil-dubh, — the broken rocks and rich
woods which ornament these little valleys, — the
wooded and heathery knolls which are scattered
about, — the mansion-house of Lochiel, and the plea
sant farm-house of Clunes, — afford an agreeable re
lief to the tourist, who has sailed up Loch-Lochy
from the east. From Loch-Lochy to Loch-Linnhe,
a long dreary flat moss extends for about 10 miles,
of which but a small portion has been attempted to
be cultivated. Through this moss the river Lochy
flows. The Spean — a rough mountain-torrent—
joins its waters to the Lochy, near where it leaves
the lake , and so rapid is the current of the united
streams, that it is said they disgorge into the sea
with such force as to preserve their stream entire for
a, long way without any very perceptible mixture
with the salt water. On the banks of the Lochy,
near its junction with the sea, stands Inverlochy-
castle : which see.
LOCHY (The), a river of the Glenmore-nan-
Albin, Inverness-shire. It issues from the south
west end of Loch-Lochy by a new channel artificially
cut fot»it, about 600 yards south-east of the point at
which the lake receives the Caledonian canal. Con
tinuing for some time to run in its new channel, it is
conveyed at Mucomre-bridge, a mile below Loch-
Lochy, into the course of its former tributary, the
Spean, and it becomes lost in that stream for j of a
mile, but resumes its name when the united current
falls into the old channel of the parent stream at
Garelochy. Its length of run is about 10 miles,
generally parallel to the line of the canal, and it falls
into Loch-Eil at Fort- William, within a few yards of

the embouchure of the Nevis, precipitating itself with
such force and rapidity into the marine lake, as to
preserve, for a considerable distance, both distinctness
of current and freshness of water. An excellent
ferry is maintained on the river, about 2 miles above
Fort- William, and is provided ou each side with a
good quay ; yet it forms for all classes, but especially
for cattle-dealers, a poor succedaneum for a substan
tial and commodious bridge.
LOCHY (The), a small river of Breadalbane,
Perthshire. It rises on the north side of Bepchallin,
in the extreme south of the most westerly detached
part of Kenmore, and runs 3j miles northward, and
2| north-eastward to the eastern limit of that dis
trict. It now, for. 3 miles eastward, bisects a part
of Weem, but has on its north bank a small section
of Killin; it next, for 4| miles south-eastward, runs
across parts of Kenmore, of Weem, and of Killin,
and it finally flows 1^ mile through Killin to the
Dochart, into which it gently flows a little above
the entrance of that river, into Loch-Tay. The
Lochy is a stream of very varied and high attrac
tions ; and, in the lower part of its course, contri
butes its quota to the superb scenery round Loch-
Tay-head. It is about 15 miles in length of course,
and gives the name of Glenlochy to the vale which it
traverses. See Glenlocby.
LOCKERBY, a neat, stirring, and prosperous
little town jn the parish of Dryfesdale, and district
of Annandale, Dumfries-shire. It stands on the
mailroad between Glasgow and Carlisle, 4 miles from
Lochmaben, 6 from Ecclefechan, 12 east from Dum
fries, 10 north from Annan, 16 south from Moffat,
17£ west from Langholm, 26 from Carlisle, and 72
from Glasgow. Its site is midway between the An
nan and the Milk, with a luxuriant plain intervening
on the west, and rich soft hill scenery undulating
toward the east. The town stretches north and
east, and is flanked on the east by a beautiful rising
ground called Lockerby-hill, and gives easy access to
some scenery on the Milk, perhaps the loveliest in
Annandale. Like most towns on the Border, as
well as some in other localities, it originated in the
protection and influence of a castle, or fortalice. On
a ridgy rising ground, nearly surrounded by two loch
lets, now drained, and one of them anciently tra
versed by the great Roman road up Annandale,
stands an ancient quadrangular tower, the seat, in
old times, of the Johnstones of Lockerby, a branch
of the family of Johnstone of Lochwood, the ances
tor of the late Marquis of Annandale, and of the
present Marquis of Queensberry. Around this tower
grew up a hamlet, which gradually swelled into a
village, an,d eventually, by the liberal policy of grant
ing feus and long tacks, increased to the bulk of a
small and provincially important town. But though
the place is of remote origin, and is the scene of
some curious traditionary tales, it comes into notice,
and maintains a vantage-ground before the view, al
most solely as the seat of a vast lamb-fair, and of
considerable pastoral traffic. After the union of the
Crowns, and the commencement of international
friendly intercourse, English dealers annually met at
the village of the sheep-farmers of Dumfries- shire,
and bought their surplus stock for the southern mar
kets. The ' tryst,' as the meeting was called, was
held on the skirt of Lockerby-hill; but is increased
in extent, with the internal prosperity of the vil
lage, and especially with the augmentation of interr
course between the nations, till it could no longer
be held within the limits of its original arena. Some
person — though no document or tradition gives tfae
name of the public-spirited individual — now granted
for the holding of the tryst, the whole hill in perpe
tuity as ' a common ' to the town. This common,

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—above 100 acres in extent, — was once, in some
way or other, dependent on the city of Glasgow ;
but the right of superiority having been bought up
by the ancient and now noble family of Douglas of
Lockerby-house, it is let out by auction to a person
who exacts a small sum per score for the lambs shown
on it, and who, in some good years, pays £30 to the
proprietor for one day's collection. The lamb-fair
is the largest and last in Scotland, from 30,000 to
40,000 lambs being usually on the ground; (in 1840,
the number shown was nearer 50,000;) and the day
being the 2d of August, O. S., unless that be a
Saturday, a Sunday, or a Monday, and in that case
the following Tuesday. The supply of stock to
this market, particularly of Cheviots and crosses, is
yearly increasing from wider ranges of country.
Besides the lamb-fair, and a market for wool on the
hill, there is on the same day a fair, or rather a gen
eral gathering for frolic and folly in the town, at
which the whole country, for 10 or 12 miles round,
is generally assembled. The crowd consists of per
sons of all ranks and ages, from the meanest plebeian
to .the proudest patrician of the land, — of servants
to hire, and of masters to hire them, — of merry-
andrews to' raise laughter, and of jackanapes and
hobnails to make it. Even the sage and aristrocra-
tic burghers of Dumfries themselves flock to the
rendezvous in hundreds — as the Grecians did of old
to the Olympic games — and seldom fail to meet there
as many adventures in a single day as serve them for
subjects for rude mirth and small talk during the
subsequent twelvemonth. Another fair, but much
less notable than the former, is held on the 2d of
October, O. S., with the same exception as to date
as the other. HiringJ-markets for servants, attended
by great concourses of people, are held on the 2d
Thursday of April, and on the 16th day of October,
both O. S. Free markets, chiefly for the sale of
pork, and in some instances of cattle and horses, are
held on the 2d Thursday of January, February,
March, April, and May; on the 3d Thursday of
June, called the Midsummer market; on the 16th day
of October, if a Thursday, and if not, on the Thurs
day following; on a Thursday in November, three
weeks after that of October, and called the Mar
tinmas market; on a Thursday, a fortnight after this
Martinmas one ; and, lastly, on the Thursday pre
ceding Yule or Christmas.' All are calculated in
O. S. During winter also, there are, chiefly for the
sale of pork, weekly markets. So great is the traffic
in pork, that £1,000 is sometimes paid down for it
by bacon-curers in one day. The town, in fact, is a
rival of Dumfries [which see], in this curious and
enriching traffic raised by the passion of Englishmen
for the swine-flesh .of the Scottish Border, and de
rives from it, and from the numerous and crowded
markets and fairs, an amount of support which goes
far to compensate the want of manufacture. But
Lockerby is likewise a retail-depot of every sort of
goods for all central and much of northern Annan
dale, and has an array of grocers, haberdashers,
druggists, and miscellaneous venders, as well, as
handicraftsmen, which far outbulks the propor
tions of its own population. The town has branch-
offices of the Southern bank of Scotland, and the
Western bank of Scotland ; two inns, one of which
is a pbsting-house ; various literary and religious in
stitutions ; and two places of worship, — the parish
one, with 640 sittings ; and one of the United Se
cession, with 570: See Dkyfesdale. Population,
in 1836, 325 families, or about 1,600 individuals.
— Of the five different railway lines which have beea
projected to connect England and Scotland, one runs
from Carlisle by Lockerby and Beattock, and sends
off a branch at Symington to Edinburgh: making an

actual distance of 97 miles 44 chains, between Car
lisle and Edinburgh, and 100 miles 74 chains from
Carlisle to Glasgow. It has also been proposed to
carry a branch from Thankerton, — a point about 2^
miles nearer thaii Symington to Glasgow,. — to the
Edinburgh and Glasgow railway, which it would
join at a distance of about 7 miles from Edinburgh.
The length of this branch would be 30 miles 41
chains. LOGAN, or Port-Logan, or Port-Nessock, a
village at tbe head of Port-Nessock bay, in the par
ish of Kirkmaiden, Wigtonshire. Population 180.
It is rather a dreary-looking place, but is a summer
resort of sea-bathers. The old mansion-house of
Logan is an interesting structure  The fish-pond at
Logan, formed in 1800, and repeopled since by many
successive generations of cod, is an artificial basin
of salt-water, 30 feet deep by 160 in circumference,
— reckoning from the top to the bottom of the rock.
The area within is hewn from the solid rock, and
communicates with the sea by one of those fissures
or natural tunnels so common on bold and precipi
tous coasts. Attached to the pond is a neat Gothic
cottage for the accommodation of the fisherman; and,
round and round, the rock is surmounted by a sub
stantial stone- wall at least 300 feet in circumference.
In every state of the wind or tide, — in winter as well
as summer, when not a single boat dare venture to
sea, — the proprietor can command a supply of the
finest fish, and study at his leisure the instincts and
habits of 'the finny nations.'*
* From the inner or back door of the lodge, a winding stair
way conducts you to the n-ual halting-place, — a large flat stone
projecting into the water, and commanding a view of every part
of the aquatic prison. -When the tide is out this stone is left
completely dry; and here a stranger perceives with surprise a
hundred mouths, simultaneously opened, to greet his arrival.
Fishes, in fact, hear as well as Bee ; aud the moment the fisher
man crosses his threshold, the pond is agitated by the action of
some hundred fins, and otherwise thrown into a state of perfect
anarchy and confusion. Darting from this, that, and the other
corner, the whole population move, as it were, to a common
centre, — elevate their snouts, — lash their tails, — and jo.-tle one
another with such violence, that on a first view they actually
seem to be menacing an attack on the poor fisherman, in place
of the creel full of limpets he carries. Many of the fishes are
so tame, that they will feed greedily from the hand, and bite
your fingers into the bargain, if you are foolish enough to al
low them. Cod appears to be the prevailing species of fish in
this pond ; but there are also bluchin or glassin, haddocks, liouu-
ders, and various other kinds. Two other salt-water ponds for
similar purposes exist in Scotland;— one in Fife, and the other
in Orkney. Our Roman Catholic ancestors-— in whose religious
system a provision for a supply of fish was almost as indispen
sable as a house to protect themselves from the weather—have
left us numerous testimonials of their diligence and expense
in tbe construction 'of fish-ponds. Almost every old family-
residence, particularly in England, is still furnished with the
ancient vivaria for keeping fish, or exhibits the ill-concealed
remains of them ; bnt the excavation of new ones is, in these
modern days, of very rare occurrence. Iu France and Ger
many, the rents paid for carp-ponds are enormous; the carp
are there fed and attended to with as much care as the sheep;
and why not in this country ? For, be it remembered, that al
though the abundant supplies of fish which our coasts afford
might make it less an object with us to increase their quantity
than it is on the continent, yet these supplies are, from the Btate
of the weather aud other causes, uncertain, aud therefore must
be variable in price. Now, if our lakes and rivers were well.
stocked with hah, of greater variety and of better quality than
those always found there, a supply would always he had at
market, and the tables of the gastronome would no longer be
at the mercy of the fishmonger. We have before us the descrip
tion of a fish-preserve, which we are surprised has not been
imitated by geutlemen who have the means, and who, we
should think, would be glad to have the opportunity ol fur
nishing their establishments with fish at times when that lux
ury may be scarce or unattainable. A small stream is led irom
a river through a large oblong excavation in the adjoining
ground. This excavation is protected ail round (the soil being
mould that would have beeu washed down by the water) by
walls, in which are left deep recesses below the level of the
surface of the water. A small house is built over one end of
the excavation, in the floor of which is a large trap-door, which,
when open, allows one to see the water. Through this trap
door it is customary to give the fish their food. Aod when the
door of the house is shut, so as to prevent the admission of
light, and the trap-dour opened, every fish that is in the stew
is distinctly visible as they cme for their food. This plan gives
the proprietor au opportuuity of taking out, by means of 9

LOG

299

LOG

LOG AN (The), or Looan-hotjse-water, a pasto
ral and romantic rivulet, associated with various in
teresting antiquities and reminiscences, and traversing
to the North Esk a sequestered vale which diagon
ally cleaves the Pentland-hills in the parishes of
Pennicuick and Glen cross-burn, Edinburghshire. The
stream is known as the Logan, only or chiefly in his
tory and song; and is now popularly called Glen-
cross-burn. See Pennicuick. and Glencross.
LOGAN (The), a river in Lanarkshire, which
takes its rise in the hills which separate the parishes
of Lesmahago and Muirkirk, and running eastward
for 8 miles, joins the Nethan, which has its source
ir the same mountains.
LOGIE, anciently called Logie-Murdoch, a par
ish in Fifeshire ; bounded by the parishes of Dairsie
and Leuchars on the south ; on the east by Leuchars
and Forgan ; and on the north and west by the par
ish of Kilmany. Its superficial extent is about 3,343
imperial acres, whereof 2,770 are arable. Occupy
ing a portion of the south-eastern extremity of the
Ochill-hills, which are here broken up into several
parallel ridges or small mountain-ranges, its general
surface is irregular and hilly, and considerably ele
vated above the valley of the Eden. The highest
eminence in the parish is Lucklaw-bill, near its east
ern extremity, which rises about 600 feet above the
level of the sea; and from whence there is an ex
tensive view, particularly towards the north, where
it commands the whole of the east coast as far as
Arbroath. This hill consists of a yellow coloured
felspar porphyry, very hard and susceptible of a fine
polish ; the summit is compact flesh-red felspar.
Tradition says that the Kings of Scotland, when
residing at Falkland, or St. Andrews, used to fol
low the chase on this hill, in consequence of which
it is called the King's-park. The only village in
the parish is a small one near the parish-church.
Population, in 1801, 339; in 1831, 430; in 1838,
410. Houses 92. Assessed property, £4,282. On
the south side of the parish, and not far from the
church, is the place and lands of Logie, which be
longed, in the reign of Robert III., to Sir John
Wemyss of Reres and Kincaldrum, ancestor of the
Earls of Wemyss. In the reign of James VI., the
lands of Logie were possessed by a younger branch
of' this noble family.* — About the middle of last
small landing-net, any particular fish, either for the purpose of
consumptioo, or for weighing it, and examining its gradual
increase. The rapidity with which the fish grow to a large
size in this confinement is truly astonishing, — some of them
gaining many pouods in weight in the course of a single sea
son. The water which ia admitted at one end of the stew is
allowed to escape at the other end,— thus keeping up a constaot
soccession of fresh water for the use and comfort of the bcaly
inhabitants. The food which is supplied to them consists of
minnows and other small fish, or the entrails of calveB, fowls,
&c, cut into mouthfuls.
« In the ' Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,' Sir Walter
Scott has published a ballad called ' The Laird of Logic,' founded
on an incident which occurred to Wemyss of Lngie, who ap
pears to have been a yoiine; gallant at the court of the Scottish
Solomon " In the year 1592," says Sir Walter in his introduc
tion to the ballad, "Francis Stuart, Earl of Bothwell, was agi
tating his frautieand ill-concerted attempts against the person
of James VI., whom he endeavoured to surprise in the palace
of Falkland. Through the emulation and private rancour of
the courtiers, he found adherents even about the King's person,
among whom it seems was the hero of the ballad." The ad
venture which gave rise to the ballad is thus stated in a curious
chronicle which has been published under the title of ••The
Historie of King James the Sext.' " In this close tyme, it for-
tunit that a gentleman callit Weymis of Logye, being also in
credence at court, was delatit as a traffekker with Frances erle
Bothwell; and he beiDg examinat before king and counsall,
confessit his accusation to be of veritie, that sundry tymes he
had spokin with him, expresslie aganis the King's inhibitiouu
proclamit on the contrare, whilk confession he subscryvit with
his hand : and because the event of this mater had sik a success,
it sail also be praysit be my pen, as a worthie rjirne, proceeding
from honest chest love and charitie, whilk sold on na wayis be
obscurit from the posteritie for the gude example ; and there
fore I have thought gude to insert tlie same for a perpetual
nicmorie. Queen Anne, our noble princess, was servlt with

century the lands of Logie were the property of
Walter Bowman, Esq., who long resided at Egham
in Surrey. This gentleman executed a very strict
entail of the property, and along with it he entailed
his library under very minute injunctions for its pre
servation. He had travelled much on the continent,
and appears to have collected a considerable portion
of his books there. The library contains many
valuable editions of the classics, a valuable collec
tion of engravings, and a great number of maps and
charts. By the terms of the entail, tbe heir is pro
hibited from lending the books ; but he is hound to
keep a suitable room for the library in bis house,
and to permit any studious friend of the proprietor to
consult it. He is also bound to have a bason, with
water aud a towel, that the books may not be soiled
by unclean hands. Women and children are ex
pressly prohibited from having access to the library!
The only ancient house in the parish is the ruins of
the castle of Cruivie, on the lands of Straiton, the
property of Robert Lindsay, Esq. All that remains
of this building is the square tower, which bears marks
of considerable antiquity. Anciently these lands be
longed to the Ramsays of Colluthie, — a family which
ended in an heir female. The lands of Cruivie
were purchased by John Anstruther, Esq. of Ardit,
who was appointed sheriff of the county in 1811:
and after his death were purchased by the father-
in-law of the present proprietor. — This parish is in
the presbyteiy ot Cupar, and synod of Fife. Patron,
the Crown. Stipend £205 2s. 5d. ; glebe £12. The
parish-church anciently belonged to the abbey of
Balmerino, the monks of which drew the teinds and
supplied the cure. After the Reformation, Balme
rino and Logie were under the charge of one minis
ter; but about 1571, Logie was supplied with a
reader. Shortly after that date a clergyman was
appointed for each of the parishes, which arrange
ment has continued ever since. Tbe present church
was erected in 1826; sittings 280. John West,
author of a System of Mathematics — a work of
some repute — was son of a minister of the parish,
about the middle of last century. He became an
Episcopal clergyman in the island of Jamaica ; and
at his death left some valuable mathematical papers
which came into the hands of the late Sir John
Leslie, and which it was his intention to have pub
lished, with a memoir of the author. — There is no
school except the parochial one in the parish. The
teacher has the maximum salary, and in addition, 50
merks Scots per annum, the proceeds of an old mor
tification by an heritor of the parish for the support
of the reader, — an office now rendered unnecessary
dyverss gentilwemen of hir awn cuntrie, and naymelie with
ane callit Mres Margaret Twynstuuu,* to whome this gentil-
man, Weymes ot Logye, bure great honest affection, tending
to the godlie band of marriage, the whilk was houestlie re-
quytet be the said gentilwoman, yeaeven.in his greatest mis
ter; for how-some she understude the 6aid gentilman to be in
distress, and apperautiie be his confession to be puneist to the
death, and she having prevelege to ly in the queyni's chalmer
that same verie night of his accusation, whare the King was
also reposing that Hame night, she came furth of the dure pre-
velie, bayth the prencis being then at quyet rest, and past to
the chalmer, whare the said gentilman was put in custodie to
certayne of the garde, and commaudit thayme that immediate.
lie he sould be broght to the King and Queyne, whareunto they
geving sure credence obeyit. Bot howsome she was cum bak
to the chalmer dor, Bhe desyrit the watches to stay till he sould
cum forth agayne, and so she closit the dur, and convoyit the
geutilmau to a windo' wl.are Bhe ministrat a long corde unto
him, to convoy himself doun upon ; and sa be hir gude cheri-
table help, he happelie escapit be the subteltie ot love." Spot-
tiswoode calls the hero of this tale John Wemyss, younger of
Logie ; and he adds that the keepers, waiting opon his return,
stayed there till morning, and then found themselves deceived.
Tins, with the manner of the escape, ministered great occasion
of laughter ; and not many days alter, the King being pacified
by the Queen's means, he was pardoned, and took to wile the
gentlewoman who had hazarded her credit for his safety.
* According to Spottiswoode the name was Twynlico

LOG

300

LOG

from the appointment of a minister. He has also a
free school-room, a dwelling-house and garden.
LOGIE, a parish lying in the shires of Stirling,
Perth, and Clackmannan. Though compact in it
self, it exhibits a notable instance of whimsical in
tricacy and confusion in the territorial allotments of
tbe counties ; for the portion of it which belongs to
Stirlingshire is in two sections, one of them quite
detached from the county ; and the portion of it
which belongs to Clackmannanshire, is cut off from
the body of that county by the portion which belongs
to Perthshire. About one-fifth of it, on the south,
is the Clackmannan part ; and the other four-fifths
are nearly equally divided between Perth and Stir
ling. The parish is 4| miles in length from south
to north, and 4 or 3| in mean breadth. It is bounded
on the north-west and north by Dunblane; on the
east by Alloa; on the south by the Forth, which
divides it from St. Ninians and Stirling ; and on the
west by Allan water, which divides it from Lecropt
and Dunblane. In the north-east and north it runs
up among the Ochil hills ; it thence descends in a
hanging plain of dryfield to about its middle ; and
then, over one-half of its whole area, stretches away
toward the rivers in strong and beautiful carse-
ground, unsurpassed in its opulence by any in the
kingdom. The district is smilingly and variedly
beautiful, richly cultivated and adorned in its low
grounds, and finely picturesque in its pastoral up
lands. Its southern boundary has the far-folding
sinuosities, and the silveiiy edging of romantic cur
vatures, which distinguish the most capricious part
of the links of the Forth. One of the peninsulas
within the links is graced with the venerable ruins
of Cameuskenneth Abbey : which see. The
centre of the parish is ornamented with the man
sion, and the wqoded pleasure-grounds pf Airthrie
castle, a seat of Lord Abercromby. One of the
Ochils, a high conical hill called Dumyat, lifts the
eye over parts pf 12 counties, and feasts it with one
of the most magnificent, as well as extensive, pros
pects in Scotland. Half-a-mile north of its base,
a very fine well issues from more than 60 springs,
bears the name of the Holy well, and is said to have
been anciently an object of superstitious veneration
and crowded resort on the part of the Roman Catho
lics. Toward the west are the mineral wells of
Airthbey: which see. Silver and copper ores oc
cur among the Ochils. A mine of copper was for
some time flattered in its operations by the appear .
ance of a very rich vein ; but it became uncompen
sating, and was abandoned. The village of Logie,
or Blair-Logii?, stands in the centre of the parish,
near the meeting of the counties, at the entrance to
Glendevon among the Ochil hills; and, with its neat
little church, and its broad zone of warm-coloured
and very diversified landscape, has a singularly pleas
ing appearance. See, for other villages, Menstrie
and Allan (Bridge of). A distillery, a woollen
manufactory, and a small paper-mill employ all the
labouring class not connected with agriculture. The
parish is traversed by the Stirling and Perth turn
pike, the Stirling and Callander road, and by other
thoroughfares. Population, in 1801, 2,166; in 1831,
1,945. Houses 348. Assessed property, in 1815,
£14,481 — Logie is in the presbytery of Dunblane,
and synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron, the Earl
of Dunmore. Stipend £263 10s. 2d. ; glebe £19.
Unappropriated teinds £880 3s. 2d. The parish-
church was built in 1807 ; sittings 644  A Relief
congregation in Blair-Logie was formed in 1761 or
1762. Sittings in their chapel 400. The minister
has a bouse and garden  The lands of Cambusken-
nech, with a population of 200, are annexed quoad
sacra to Stirling. The parish, exclusive of these

lands, was stated by the incumbent, in 1836, to have
a population of 1,827; of whom 1,086 were church
men, 706 were dissenters, and 35 were persons not
known to belong to any religious denomination. The
Clackmannanshire part of the parish includes the
sites of the ancient chapels and hermitages of Lupno,
north-west of Menstrie, on the western bank of the
stream which flows into the Devon. The parish
school was attended, in 1834, by 73 children ; and
three private schools by 164. Parish schoolmaster's
salary £30, with £33 fees.
LOGIE-ALMOND, a district on the north bank
of the river Almond, opposite the parish of Methven,
and immediately west of that of Monedie, Perthshire.
About 80 or 100 years ago, it was, by authority of
the court of teinds, disjoined from the parish of
Monzie, to which it originally belonged, and annexed
quoad sacra to that of Monedie. The district mea
sures 3 miles by 2J. The soil adjacent to the river
is partly a light loam and partly gravelly; and, on
rising grounds and hills in the interior and on the
north, it is a deep till mixed, with moss. The up
lands are divided intp sheep-walks, and abound with
all kinds of game- Near the Almond are some ruin
ous castles ; and elsewhere are two Druidical circles.
The district anciently formed the meeting point of
the three dioceses pf St. Andrews, Dunkeld, and
Dunblane; and is traditionally said to have been a
place of cqnferepce on the part of the three bishops.
— Logie- Almond, and small portions of the parishes
of Redgorton, Auchtergaven, Fowlis- Wester, and
Methven, were a few years ago erected into a chap-
lainry, or formally connected with a chapel, without
being made Si quoad sacra parish. The united dis
trict measures 6 miles by 2|; and, in 1838, had 1,114
inhabitants,. — 681 of whom were in Logie-Almond,
93 in Redgorton, 95 in Auchtergaven, 162 in Fowlis-
Wester, and 83 ip Methven; while 1 86 of the whole,
according to the Established minister's survey, were
churchmen, and 428 were dissenters. The chapel
was originally a place of worship in connexion with
the parish of Monzie, and was thoroughly repaired,
in 1834, at a cost of £150. Sittings 285. Stipend
from £50 to £60. In Logie-Almond a United Seces
sion congregation was established about 1751. Their
present place of worship was built, in 1811, at an
expense of upwards of £400. Sittings 450. Sti
pend £69, with a glebe worth £12, and a manse and
offices built, in 1801, at a cost of between £200 and
£300. The sole heritor of the united district is Sir
WiUiam Drummond Stewart of Grandtully.
LOGIE-BR1DE. See Auchtergaven.
LOGIE-BUCHAN, a parish in the district of
Buchan, Aherdeenshire ; bounded on the north by
Cruden ; on the east by Slabs, which divides it from
the sea; on the south by Foveran; and on the west
by Ellon. The river Ythan, here navigable at full tide
for small sloops, crosses it from west to east, dividing
it into nearly equal proportions. It extends, from
south-west to north-east, in a curved form, about 9
miles, by about 2 miles in mean breadth. Houses
123. Assessed property, in 1815, £2,367. Popu
lation, in 1801, 539; in 1831, 684. The surface of
this parish is rather flat, with occasional eminences:
the soil, in general, is fertile ; but it is said to be
less so on the banks of the river than elsewhere,  a
circumstance rather unusual. The land is ara'ble,
and in an excellent state of cultivation ; but presents
no object of particular interest. The well-known
song, ' Logie o' Buchan,' is sometimes, but erro
neously, supposed to celebrate this parish  Logie-
Buchan is in the presbytery of Ellon, and synod of
Aberdeen. Patron, Buchan of Auchmacoy Sti
pend £191 1,6s. 8d.; glebe £12 10s. Unappropri
ated teinds £11 lis. 9d. The church is situated

LOG

301

LOG

on the right bank of tbe river Ythan. Schoolmas
ter's stipend £25 13s. 4d. ; fees, &c. £12 7s. 6d.
Two dame schools are occasionally kept.
LOGIE-COLDSTONE, a parish in the district
of Cromar, Aberdeenshire ; composed of the parishes
of Logie and Coldstone, united in 1618. It is
bounded on the north by Strathdon and Towie;
on the east by Tarland and Coul ; on the south by
Glenmuick; and on the west by Strathdon. The
length from east to west is about 6 miles : the breadth
may be stated at 3.J miles ; but it is narrow in the
middle. Houses 204. Assessed property, in 1815,
£2,353. Population, in 1801, 861; in 1831, 910.
The surface is interspersed, in the interior, with a
number of small hills and large moors, abounding
with game: on the hill of Morven, ptarmigan and
white hares are found. A proportion of the soil is
arable and fertile; but the district, in general, is
bleak and uninteresting, though considerable im
provements have been effected. The parish is wa
tered by three rivulets forming Daven-loch [which
see] and tributary to the Dee. There are several
large cairns and Druidical circles. This parish is in
the presbytery of Kincardine-O'Neil, and synod of
Aberdeen. Patrons, the Crown and FarquharsOn
of Invercauld. Stipend £217 9s. 3d.; glebe £16.
Unappropriated teinds £91 lis. 7d. — Schoolmaster's
salary £26 ; fees, &c. £24, besides a. share of the
Dick bequest.
LOGIE-DURNO. See Chapel-of-Garioch.
LOGIE-EASTER, a parish in the counties of
Ross and Cromarty ; bounded on the north by Tain ;
on the north-east by Fearn ; on the east by Nigg ;
on the south by Kilmuir ; and on the west by Kil-
muir and Edderton. Its length is 7 miles ; and its
breadth about 3 miles. The surface is uneven, but
by no means rugged. The soil is, in some places, a
strong deep clay ; in others a rich black mould ; in
others a light earth on a sandy irretentive subsoil.
Sands have been extensively reclaimed, arid are in a
very improved state of cultivation. Wheat is more
plentifully produced than any other grain, and is ex
cellent in quality. The prevailing rock is the old
red sandstone. Thriving plantations are somewhat
extensive ; and some natural wood flourishes on the
ground of Ulladale. The largest stream bisects the par
ish eastward, and popularly bears the comprehensive
name of Abhor, or 'river. ' Of three other rivulets
or burns, one, after heavy rains, overflows its banks,
and sometimes considerably damages the adjacent
fields, washing away the soil, and spoiling the grass.
The water of one of several very fine springs was once
superstitiously thought to have a predictive power;
and, when-carried, iii any quantity, into the presence
of a sick person, was alleged to change colour if he
would die, and to retain its limpidness if he would
recover. The climate seems to possess less than
average salubrlousness. ' The mansions are Culrossie
and Shandwick, the seats respectively of Rose Ross,
and Charles C. Ross, Esq. The estate of Balna-
gown in the parish gives' designation to its proprie
tor Sir Charles Ross, Bart. Several cairns stand
on both sides of one of the burns, and are tradition
ally said to indicate an ancient battle in which some
Scottish forces worsted an army of Danes. A gal
lows hill in the centre of the parish, and a deep
small pond in its vicinity, called Poll a bhaidh, or
' the Pool for drowning,' were noted, in the days of
hereditary jurisdiction, as places of capital punish
ment. " About 40 years ago," writes the Old Sta
tistical, reporter, " died a man who vvitnessed the
last execution in the pool, that of a woman for child
murder." An annual cattle- market is held in May
at Blackhill. The manse and £huf ch, Situated near
the middle of the parish, are 2 miles north Of Park-

hill post-office, and 5 south-south-west of the burgh
of Tain. The Great north mail-road runs along the
east, and a turnpike goes into the interior ; but no
road lays open the district in the west. Depopula
tion has occurred by the enlarging of farms. Popu
lation, in 1801, 1,031 ; in 1831, 934. Houses 226.
Assessed property, in 1815, £5,247  Logie-Easter
is in the presbytery of Tain, and synod of Ross.
Patron, M'Kenzie of Cromarty. Stipend £236 19s.
Id. ; glebe not known. Unappropriated teinds £55
17s. lOd. The church is a neat and commodious
structure ; and commands from the summit of a ris
ing ground a charming view, southward, of the bay
and town, arid environs of Cromarty, and eastward
of the parishes of Nigg, Fearn, and Tarbat, and the
coast of the German ocean. In 1834, the parish
school was attended by 106 scholars, and another
school by 58. Parish schoolmaster's salary £30,
with £6 fees.
LOGIE-PERT, a parish in the extreme north of
the maritime district of Forfarshire; bounded on the
north and north-east by the North Esk, which divides
it from Kincardineshire; on the south-east by Mon
trose ; on the south by Montrose and Dun ; on the
south-west by Dun and Strickathrow; and on the
west by Strickathrow. Its outline is ellipsoidal, but
with a tapering toward the east; and its extent is
nearly 5 miles from east to west by 3 from north to
south. The surface rises from the North Esk, at
first gently, and afterwards more rapidly, so as to
attain a commanding though not strictly a hilly ele
vation; and, in a minor section, it slopes to the
south. The high ground commands a noble view of
the Grampians, of the intervening plain, and of a
considerable part of Kincardineshire. The soil, in
the northern division, is a deep clay which sponta
neously yields rich crops of grass, and yields large
returns to cultivation ; and in the other districts, it
is partly a light loam, and partly blackish moorland,
superincumbent on clay. About 300 acres are waste;
and all the rest of the area is disposed in arable
grounds and plantations, in tbe proportions to each
other of 3J to 1. Abundance of wood, wealth of
soil, and the achievements of husbandry, impress on
the parish a peculiarly snug and cheerful aspect. Of
various springs of excellent water which refresh the
inhabitants, a copious one near the site of the old
manse of Pert is reputed to be antiscorbutic, and one
in Martin's den produces so plentifully that its stream
would fill a pipe of a foot in interior circumference.
The North Esk, while skirting the boundary, is beau
tiful in its banks, and produces excellent trout and sal
mon. Freestone, of good quality, abounds ; but is not
much worked. Limestone was formerly mined and
burnt to a great extent; but eventually proved uncom
pensating. On the North Esk are two seats of consid
erable manufacture. The Logie works, a mile from
the eastern extremity, and 4£ miles from the town
of Montrose, consist of a flax-spinning mill, which
employs about 130 persons, and a bleachfield for
linen-yarns, which employs nearly 50. These works
belong to a company in Montrose. The Craigo
works, nearly a mile farther up jtbe river, belong to
a company in London, and consist of a flax-spinning
mill, machinery for finishing cloth, a bleachfield, and
a soda work, which jointly employ about 150 per
sons. Though the population of the eastern section
of the parish is chiefly gathered round the vicinity
of the manufactories, they are nowhere congregated
into a village. The chief mansions are Craigo, in
the south-east corner, and Gallary, on the North
Esk, the seats respectively of David Carnegie, feq.,
and James Lyall, Esq., the two largest landowners.
Nearly a mile west of Craigo-house are three remark
able tumuli, called the Laws of Logie, two of which

302

LOGIERAIT.

have been opened, and found' to contain unusually
large human skeletons, and some kindred relics.
The parish is cut across its north-west nook by the
west road between Dundee and Aberdeen, and across
its east end by the road from Montrose to Fetter
cairn. The bridge which carries the former over
the North Esk is a solid structure of three arches,
said to have been built by the celebrated Erskine of
Dun ; and that which carries over the latter is an
elegant erection of four arches, built in 1814. Popu
lation, in 1801, 908; in 1831, 1,359. Houses 233.
Assessed property, in 1815, £5,173. — Logie-Pert
is in the presbytery of Brechin, and synod of Angus
and Mearns. Patrons, the Crown and the New col
lege of St. Andrews. Stipend £219 3s. 2d. ; glebe
£18. Unappropriated teinds of Logie, £38 3s. 2d. ;
of Pert, £28 15s. Id. The church was built in
1775, by voluntary subscription among the parish
ioners, at a cost, it is supposed, of about £300; and
has never been repaired. Sittings 502. The min
ister stated the population, in 1836, to consist of
1,310 churchmen, 90 dissenters, and 4 nondescripts,
¦ — in all, 1,404 persons. The present parish com
prehends the ancient parishes of Logie-Montrose,
composing its eastern division, and of Pert, compos
ing its western division. The parishes were united
by act of parliament between 1610 and 1615. The
ruins of the old church of Logie stand in a romantic
hollow or low ground on the North Esk, half-a-mile
from the eastern extremity ; and those of the old
church of Pert stand also on the river 4J miles fur
ther west. The parish school was attended, in 1834,
by 33 scholars ; and 5 private schools by 117. Par
ochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4d., with about
£10 7s. 6d. fees, and £10 6s. other emoluments.
There are two savings banks and a library.
LOGIERAIT, a large and dispersed parish in the
northern division of Perthshire. Part of it is sur
rounded on all sides, to a depth of many miles, by
the parish of Fortingall in Breadalbane. This part
has a length from north to south of 4J miles, and a
mean breadth of 3| miles ; it lies on the south side
of Loch-Rannoch, from 1 \ to 5 miles from the east
end of the lake ; it has a belt of plantation a mile
broad from the lake southward; and it thence tower-
ingly recedes to a water-shedding line of alpine sum
mits along its southern boundary. The nearest other
part of the parish to this is a detached section, 11£
miles to the east, surrounded on all sides by the parish
of Dull, and parts of the curiously scattered parish of
Weem, and extending in a stripe of irregular but gen
erally narrow breadth, 4£ miles from north-west to
south-east, where it strikes the Tay. This district
is cut asunder atross its narrow middle by the looh
of Glassy ; it has a lochlet near its north-west ex
tremity ; and it is softened into amenity and beauty
toward the Tay; but elsewhere, it is wildly pastoral.
The next part of the parish is surrounded on all sides
by Dull, runs parallel to the former part at generally
a mile's distance, and is a stripe of 3j miles in length,
and J of a mile in mean breadth stretching south
eastward to the Tay. This part has on its north
eastern boundary the loch of Derculich, J of a mile
in length, and possesses over a large proportion of
its area, espedally toward the Tay, a cultivated and
ornamental aspect, foiled by lofty grounds at its
centre and in the north-west. The fourth and chief
part of the parish, or its main body, lies at the nearest
point, half-a-mile east of the part just noticed, and
14 miles in a straight line east of the part in Ran-
noch. It consists of an irregular triangle, and an
attached parallelogram. The triangle lies between
the rivers Tay and Tummel, from their point of
confluence upward ; it measures 6 miles along the
Tummel in a straight line on the north-east, and is

there bounded by Moulin, by part of Dowally, and
by its own attached parallelogram ; 6\ miles along
the T.iy on the south, and is there bounded by Little
Dunkeld and Dull ; and 4£ miles from the Tummel
to the Tay on the west, but sends westward a pro
jection of 4 or 4J square miles in area, and is there
bounded wholly "by Dull. The parallelogram rests
one end for 2 miles on the Tummel, and for 1 mile
on the Tay, subsequent to the confluence of the
rivers; it recedes north-eastward 5£ miles by 3 ;
and it is bounded on the north-west by part of
Dowally ; on the north-east by Strathardle in Kirk
michael; on the south-east by Dunkeld ; and on the
south-west by Little Dunkeld ; and by its own at
tached triangle. Two-thirds of the parallelogram,
from the north-east boundary downward, are occu
pied by the Braes of Tullimet, which give name to
a favourite Scottish air. Among the Braes are three
lakes, — the largest, Loch-Hoishne, circular in out
line, and about \\ mile in circumference. A broad
belt of the parallelogram upon the Tummel is arable
ground. The triangle has an area singularly varied
and beautiful. Along the Tummel, or the north-east
side of the triangle, stretches Slesbeg, or ' the nar
row country,' having woodlands which, in several
places, go down to the very brink of the river, and,
in one place, are very extensive. Slesbeg is flanked
over its whole length by a bold abrupt ridge of
heights which terminates, at the south-east, in preci
pitous rocks. Parallel to this ridge, and close on the
south-west boundary, runs another ridge of similar
character, enclosing several lochlets, and sending
down mountain-brooks to drain the diversified sur
face intervening between it and the other ridge.
The hills here and elsewhere, are, in their summits
and higher acclivities, partly covered with heath,
and partly a wild and triumphant exhibition of naked
and menacing rock. Along the Tay is a beautiful
broad belt of arable ground, forming part of Strath-
tay, and finely adorned with wood. The area here,
and along the two sides of the Tummel, and up the
lower slopes of the hills which acknowledges the
dominion of the plough, and displays the attractions
of full cultivation, aggregates nearly 3,000 acres.
So far back as the date of the Old Statistical Ac
count, the country had advanced singularly far in
georgical skill and achievement, and in acquaintance
ship with the best tools and appliances of husbandry.
Among the rocks is a variety of talc ; in one part of
Strath-tay, are several strata of limestone ; and in
some mosses fossil wood is occasionally found. Fruit-
trees and garden-shrubs agree well with the soil, and
are plentifully reared. The rivers frequently over
flow their banks, convert the low grounds into tem
porary lakes, break down barriers, and sweep away
land to the enlargement of their channels, and fling a
dash of wildness and sublimity over the landscape.
The country, in its ordinary state, ranks high in
scenic attraction. " A rock, not above a mile from
the church," says the statist, " commands a prospect
of a great part of the parish. The windings of the
rivers, the rich vales, the sloping corn-fields and pas
tures, the hanging woodlands, and the awful moun
tains which rise at a distance to confine the view..
form, all together, one of the noblest landscapes, for
extent, variety, beauty, and grandeur, that the eye
can behold." Along the Tay, as. well in the de
tached sections as in the main body, are some fine
mansions. The village of Logierait lies 8 miles
east of Aberfeldy, and 8£ north of Dunkeld. It is
finely situated on the banks of the Tay, here a noble
stream, and is noted for the distillation of whisky
in its vicinity, and conducts to some extent a manu
facture in linen yarn. Here Charles Edward located
the prisoners whom he carried off from the field o3

LOG

303

LOM

Piestonpans; and here Rob Roy made his escape
after being apprehended bythe Duke of Athole in
1717. A cross the Tummel, a mile above its confluence
with the Tay, and across the Tay J- of a mile below
the confluence, are chain ferry-boats for the convey
ance of passengers, cattle, carts, and carriages. Good
roads run along the Tay, and along both sides of
the Tummel. Druidical stones and ruins of ancient
Romish chapels occur in various quarters. Cairns
formerly existed in several places, but have been re
moved. A Roman urn and a medal of Trajan were
found in the parish. The ruins of a beacon-house
stand on a rock 2 miles from the manse. The ruins
of a castle, said to have been the residence of Robert
III. after he resigned the government to his brother,
the Duke of Albany, surmount a high bank near the
Tummel ferry. The area of the castle is elliptical,
and the fosse is in tolerable preservation. Popula
tion, in 1801, 2,890; in 1831, 3,138. Houses 680.
Assessed property, in 1815, £7,030  Logierait is in
the presbytery of Weem, and synod of Perth and Stir
ling. Patron, the Duke of Athole. Stipend £231 16s.;
glebe £10. Unappropriated teinds £303 18s. 3d.
The parish-school was attended, in 1834, by 32
scholars ; and 9 other schools, by 498. Parish-school
master's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with £5 15s. 9d. fees.
Of the non-parochial schools, one is a free school,
another is endowed by the Society for propagating
Christian knowledge, and some are very small.
LOGIE- WESTER, a parish in Ross-shire united
to Urquhart : which see.
LOING (The), a small river of the western di
vision of Ross-shire. It divides Kintail on its left
bank from Lochalsh on its right ; uniformly pursues
a south-westerly course ; falls into the bead of Loch-
Long conjointly with the Elchaig coming from the
east-south-east ; and, though having an entire run
of only about 9 miles, is fed by so many mountain-
streams as to be subject to very sudden and great
freshets. Salmon once abounded in the rivulet, but
is now comparatively scarce.
LOMOND-HILLS (The), two beautiful coni
cal trap hills, situated in the shires of Fife and Kin
ross, and visible to a considerable distance. The
East Lomond, which is in the parish of Falkland in
Fifeshire, and is the most regular and beautiful, isgen-
erally stated to be about 1,260 feet above sea-level,
and 900 feet above the valley which separates it from
the Ochills ; but Mr. Cunningham, in his ' Geology
of the Lothians,' estimates its altitude at 1,466 feet.
This hill contains limestone and coal. The West
Lomopd, which is in the parish of Portmoak in
Kinross-shire, is usually stated to be about 40 feet
higher, but Mr. Cunningham estimates it at 1,721
feet. At its base lies the beautiful and placid Loch-
Leven. Between the two principal Lomonds there
rises another point which is sometimes distinguished
as the Mid-Lomond, and composed of sandstone and
trap strata, surmounted by a greyish black basalt. In
some parts the Lomonds present a face of regular
columnar trap. See Falkland.
LOMOND * (Loch), the Queen of Scottish lakes,
distant about 20 miles from Glasgow, and 6 from
Dumbarton. It lies principally in Dumbartonshire,
but Stirlingshire bounds a portion of its eastern
* This lake has received its present name from Benlomond,
which probably derives its appellation from the British Llum-
mon, signifying ' a Beacon.' It is only since the 14th century
that the lake has received its present name. Anciently it was
called Loch- Leven, as appears from the chart ularies of Lennox
and Pai&ley, in which the lake and the river are frequently
mentioned. In 1225, Maldowen, Earl of Levenachs, grants to
the monastery of Paisley the right of fishing "pertotam lacum
meutn de Levyn." — Chart. Paisley, No. 316. The river which
issues from it retains the name formerly common to it and the
lake.

shore. It is nearly 30 milts lo.ig, and at its south
ern end, from 8 to 10 miles broad ; at the middle,
however, and towards the northern extremity, its
breadth is greatly diminished, — in some places to
less than a mile. The depth of the lake varies as
much as its breadth : the southern portion seldom
exceeding 60 feet, whilst north of Luss, it increases
to 200 and 360 feet. Thirty islands, of different
sizes, are scattered over its surface, some of which
rise to a considerable height, and most of the larger
ones are finely wooded. See articles Inch-Cail-
liach, Inch-Clair, Inch-Conachan, Inch-Croin,
Inch-Galeraith, &c. The lake lies completely
imbedded amidst different ranges of hills. At the
south end the Kilpatrick-hills terminate near Kil-
maronock; on the western shore are the mountains
of Luss and Arrochar ; at the upper extremity tower
the mountains of Glenfalloch; and on the eastern
shore the great chain of the Grampians terminates
in Benlomond. These ranges of hills are inter
sected by deep glens, and by numerous mountain-
streams which pour their waters into the lake. The
rivulets Fruin, Luss, Finlas, and Duglass, with
many- smaller streams, drain the highlands of Dum
bartonshire ; but the largest river which runs into
Loch-Lomond is the Endrick, which flows into the
south-east corner of the loch.
It is said that the waters of Loch-Lomond have
increased considerably during the lapse of ages ; and
in Camstradden-bay, more than 100 yards from the
shore, the ruins of houses are alleged still to be
visible beneath the water. These traditionary re
ports have the sanction of the learned Camden,
who, in his ' Atlas Britannica,' speaks of an island
existing in his time, called Camstradden, situated
between the lands of that name and Inch-Cavanach,
on which, he adds, was a house and an orchard.
This island has now disappeared : such an accident
may have occurred, however, without any increase
of the waters of the lake. Indeed, the supposition
of such an increase is inconsistent with the appear
ances presented by the river Leven, whieh would
rather lead to the supposition that the waters ot
Loch-Lomond had become lower than they once
were. Loch-Lomond was at one time famed for
three wonders — "waves without wind, fish without
fin, and a floating island." The swell in the widest
part, particularly after a storm, has no doubt given
rise to the belief in the first of these marvels. Vipers
are said occasionally to swim from island to island,
and this may account for the second. In Bleau's
Atlas, 1653, it is said, "Les poissons qu'ils disent
n'avoir pas de nageoires, qu'ils apellent vulgairement
Paones, sont un(espece d'anguilles, e'est pourquoyil
ne faut pas s'en estonner." Various accounts have
been given of the floating island — one, that it was
constructed of large square beams of oak, firmly
mortised into one another, by a Keith Macindoill,
or Keith the son of Dollius, who is said to have been
contemporary with the famous Finmacoull or Fingal,
and consequently to have lived in the 5th century.
Camden appears to have heard of the floating island,
and he adds a fourth wonder. " As for the floating
island," says he, "I shall not call the truth of it in
question, for what could hinder a body from, swim
ming that is dry and hollow, like a pinnace, and very
light ? And so Pliny (lib. 8, epis. 20,) tells us that
certain green lands, covered with rushes, float up
and down on the lake of Vundimon. But I leave it
to the neighbours, who know the nature of this
place, to be judges whether this old distich of our
Neckham be true : —
"Ditaturfluvius Albania, saxea ligna
Dat Lomund inulta frigiditate potens.

304

LOCH-LOMOND.

Scotland's enriched with rivers, timber thrown
Into cold Lomuud's waters turns to stone."*
Loch-Lomond has, with great justice, been styled
the Queen of Scottish lakes. The beauty of some
portions, and the splendid magnificence of other parts
of its scenery, are nowhere else to be equalled. Cus
tom cannot stale its infinite variety. At the south
end it is broad and expanded, and its ample bosom
agreeably and picturesquely diversified by the numer
ous islands with which it is gemmed. The hills in
deed have not here the true Highland aspect, but
they are softly swelling, and have a green and pas
toral appearance ; and the open valleys smiling in the
sunshine, everywhere present scenes of calm and
quiet beauty. Numerous splendid mansions, with
their richly wooded grounds, are studded around the
shores, at the bases of the hills, or the openings of
the valleys, adding the beauties of cultivation and art
to those of nature. But it is the inconceivable va
riety afforded by numberless projecting headlands
and receding bays, and by all the crowd of fairy
islands which lie scattered over the surface of the
lake, ** As quietly as spots of sky
Among the evening chords,"
which forms the distinguishing charm of the whole,
and presents an inexhaustible source of pleasure and
delight to the cultivated tourist. Towards the north
end of the lake the scene becomes very different,
and acquires a really Highland character. Here the
lake is narrowed to the appearance of a river, wind
ing amidst bold and rugged mountains, which, in
some places, seem as if they were about to close
over it. The hills rise to a greater height, and their
bare and serrated tops present a bold and broken
outline, often enveloped in mist and clouds, and for
a great part of the year covered with snow. The
valleys are deep and narrow, and their sides are every
where marked by the rough and rugged beds of
mountain-torrents. A great poet has said, that, " In Scotland, the pro
portion of diffused water is often too great, as at the
lake of Geneva, for instance, and in most of the Scot
tish lakes. No doubt," he continues, " it sounds
magnificent, and flatters the imagination, to hear at
a distance of masses of water so many leagues in
length and miles in width ; and, such ample room
may be delightful to the fresh- water sailor, scudding
with a lively breeze amid the rapidly shifting scenery.
But who ever travelled along the banks of Loch-
Lomond, variegated, as the lower part is, by islands,
without feeling that a speedier termination of the
long vista of Blank water would be acceptable, and
without wishing for an interposition of green mea
dows, trees, and cottages, and a sparkling stream to
run by his side ? In fact, a notion of grandeur as
connected with magnitude, has seduced persons of
taste into a general mistake upon this subject. It is
much more desirable for the purposes of pleasure,
that lakes should be numerous and small or middle-
sized, than large, not only for communication by
walks and rides, but for variety, and for recurrence
of similar appearances. To illustrate this by one
instance : how pleasing is it to have a ready and fre
quent opportunity of watching, at the outlet of a
lake, the stream, pushing its way among the rocks,
in lively contrast with the stillness from which it has
escaped ; and how amusing to compare its noisy and
turbulent motions with the gentle playfulness of the
breezes that may be starting up, or Wandering here
and there, over the fainty-rippled surface of the
broad water 1 I may add, as a general remark, that
in lakes of great width, the shores cannot be dis-
* Gibson's Camden, vol. iii. p. 1216.

tinctly seen at the same time ; and therefore contri
bute little to mutual illustration and ornament ; and
if the opposite shores are out of sight of each other,
like those of the American and Asiatic lakes, then
unfortunately the traveller is reminded of a nobler
object; he has the blankness of a sea-prospect with
out the grandeur and accompanying sense of power."
Thus far the sentiments of one, whose opinion on
such points is not to be lightly gainsayed or contro
verted. But we think the following remarks on the
passage just quoted, by Professor Wilson, will carry
along with them the suffrages of most of our readers :
— " We shall not be suspected," says the Professor,
" of an inclination to dissent, on light grounds, from
any sentiments of Wordsworth. But finely felt and
expressed as all this is, we do not hesitate to say that
it is not applicable to Loch-Lomond. Far be it from
us to criticise this passage sentence by sentence ;
for we have quoted it not in a captious, but a rever
ent spirit, as we have ever done with the works of this
illustrious man. He has studied nature more widely
and profoundly than we have ; but it is out of our
power to look on Loch-Lomond without a feeling of
perfection. The 'diffusion of water' is indeed great;
but in what a world it floats 1 At first sight of it,
how our soul expands ! The sudden revelation of
such majestic beauty, wide as it is and extending
afar, inspires us with a power of comprehending it
all. Sea-like indeed it is, — a Mediterranean sea, —
enclosed with lofty hills and as lofty mountains, —
and these indeed are the Fortunate Isles ! We shall
not dwell on the feeling which all must have experi
enced on the first sight of such a vision — the feeling
of a lovely and a mighty calm ; it is manifest that the
spacious ' diffusion of water' more than conspires
with the other components of such a scene to pro
duce the feeling ; that to it belongs the spell that
makes our spirit serene, still, and bright, as its own.
Nor when such feeling ceases so entirely to possess,
and so deeply to affect us, does the softened and sub
dued charm of the scene before us depend less on the
expanse of the ' diffusion of water.' The .slands,
that before bad lain we knew not how — or we had
only felt that they were all most lovely — begin to
show themselves in the order of their relation to one
another and to the shores. The eye rests on the
largest, and with them the lesser combine ; or we
look at one or two of the least, away by themselves,
or remote from all a tufted rock ; and many as they
are, they break not the breadth of the liquid plain,
for it is ample as the sky. They show its amplitude ;
as masses and sprinklings of clouds, and single clouds,
show the amplitude of the cerulean vault. And then
the long promontories — stretching out from opposite
mainlands, and enclosing bays that in themselves are
lakes — they too magnify the empire of water ; foi
long as they are, they seem so only as our eye at
tends them with their cliffs and woods from the re
tiring shores, and far distant are their shadows from
the central light. , Then what shores ! On one side
where the lake is widest, low-lying they seem and
therefore lovelier — undulating with fields and groves,
where many a pleasant dwelling is embowered, into
lines of hills that gradually soften away into another
land. On the other side, sloping back, or overhang
ing, mounts beautiful in their bareness, for they are
green as emerald ; others, scarcely more beautiful,
studded with fair trees — some altogether woods.
They soon form into mountains — and the mountains
become more and more majestical, yet beauty never
deserts them, and her spirit continues to tame that
of the frowning cliffs. Far off as they are, Benlo
mond and Benvoirlich are seen to be giants ; mag
nificent is their retinue, but they two are supreme,
each in his own dominion ; and clear as the day is

LON

305

LON

here, they are diademed with clouds. It cannot be
that the ' proportion of diffused water is here too
great;' and is.it then true that no one 'ever tra
velled along the banks of Loch-Lomond, variegated
as the lower part is by islands, without feeling that
a speedier termination to the long vista of blank
water would be acceptable, and without wishing for
an interposition of green meadows, trees, and cot
tages, and a sparkling stream to run by his side ?'
We have travelled along them in all weathers and
never felt such a wish. For there they all are — all
but the ' sparkling stream to run by our side,' and
we see not how that well could be in nature.
4 Streams that sparkle as they run,' cross our path
on their own ; and brighter never issued from the
woods. Along the margin of the water, as far
as Luss — ay, and much farther — the variations of the
foreground are incessant ; ' had it no other beauties,'
it has been truly said, ' but those of its shores, it
would still be an object of prime attraction ; whe
ther from the bright green meadows sprinkled with
luxuriant ash-trees, that sometimes skirt its margin,
or its white pebbled shores on which its gentle bil
lows murmur, like a miniature ocean, or its bold
rocky promontories rising from the dark water rich
in wild flowers and ferns, and tangled with wild roses
and honeysuckles, or its retired bays where the
waves dash, reflecting, like a mirror, the trees which
hang over them, an inverted landscape.' The islands
are for ever arranging themselves into new forms,
every one more and more beautiful ; at least so they
seem to be, perpetually occurring, yet always unex
pected, and there is a pleasure even in such a series
of slight surprises that enhances the delight of ad
miration. And alongside, or behind us, all the while,
are the sylvan mountains, ' laden with beauty ;' and
over and anon open glens widen down, upon us from
<:hasms ; or forest glades lead our hearts away into
the inner gloom — perhaps our feet ; and there, in a
field that looks not as if it had been cleared by his
own hands, but left clear by nature, a woodman's
hut. Half- way between Luss and Tarbet the water
narrows, but it is still wide ; the new road, we be
lieve, winds round the point of Firkin, the old road
boldly scaled the height, as all old roads loved to
do ; ascend it, and bid the many-isled vision, in all
its greatest glory, farewell. Thence upwards pre
vails the spirit of the mountains. The lake is felt to
belong to them — to be subjected to their will — and
that is capricious ; for sometimes they suddenly
blacken it when at its brightest, and sometimes
when its gloom is like that of the grave, as if at their
bidding, all is light. We cannot help attributing the
' skiey influences' which occasion such wonderful
effects on the water, to prodigious mountains ; for
we cannot look on them without feeling that they
reign over the solitude they compose; the lights and
shadows flung by the sun and the clouds imagination
assuredly regards as put forth by the vast objects
which they colour ; and we are inclined to think
some such belief is essential in the profound awe,
often amounting to dread, with which we are in
spired by the presences of mere material forms. But
be this as it may, the upper portion of Loch-Lomond
is felt by all to be most sublime. Near the head, all
the manifold impressions of the beautiful which for
hours our mind had been receiving begin to fade ;
if some gloomy change has taken place in the air,
there is a total obliteration, and the mighty scene
before us is felt to possess not the hour merely, but
the day. Yet should sunshine come, and abide a
while, beauty will glimpse upon us even here, for
green pastures will smile vividly, high up among the
rocks ; the sylvan spirit is serene the moment it is
touched with light, and here there is not only many
II.

a fair tree by the water-side, but yon old oak wood
will look joyful on the mountain, and the gloom be
come glimmer in the profound abyss. Wordsworth
says, that ' it must be more desirable, for the pur
poses of pleasure, that lakes should be numerous,
and small or middle-sized, than large, not only for
communication by walks and rides, but for variety,
and for recurrence of similar appearances.' The
Highlands have them of all sizes — and that surely is
best. But here is one which, it has been truly said,
is not only ' incomparable in its beauty as in its di
mensions, exceeding all others in variety as it does
in extent and splendour, but unites in itself every
style of scenery which is found in the other lakes of
the Highlands.' He who has studied, and under
stood, and felt all Loch-Lomond, will be prepared at
once to enjoy any other fine lake he looks on ; nor
will he admire nor love it the less, though its chief
character should consist in what forms but one part
of that of the Wonder in which all kinds of beauty
and sublimity are combined."
Two steam-boats now ply upon the lake, and by
leaving Glasgow in tbe morning, the tourist may sur
vey its majestic scenery, and return to take his ease in
his inn, in the city, the same evening. But from such an
excursion, only a very faint and limited idea of this
splendid scenery can be formed. To obtain anything
like an adequate conception of its many beauties, it is
necessary to spend days upon its banks, to wander
over the hills and amid the silent glens, and to visit its
numerous islands, many of which are of themselves
sufficient to form a day's excursion. A trip in the
steam-boat, to obtain a general survey of the whole,
will concentrate the recollections of the tourist, and
impress his memory more distinctly  At the south
end of the lake, and not far from where the river
Leven issues from- its waters, are the ruins of Bal-
ioch-castle, a stronghold of the Earls of Lennox in
the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. Many of their
charters are dated from this castle. The Earls of
Lennox appear to have erected their castle on
Inch-Murrin in the 13th century, probably during
the turbulent period of the succession wars ; after
which the castle at Balloch was seldom visited by
them, and was ultimately allowed to go into de
cay  A long-entertained project for executing a
canal from the lake near Balloch to the Clyde at
Bowling-bay has recently been revived.
LONCARTY. See Luncarty.
. LONG (Loch), a belt of marine water, a long
northward ramification of the frith pf Clyde, ex
tending between the district of Cowal in Argyle
shire, and the parishes of Roseneath, Row, and Ar-
rochar, in Dumbartonshire. Over the whole of its
length, it prevailingly looks almost right along ail
the lower parts of the frith ; and if it were but the
inlet of a considerable river, would, as to both ex
tent and direction, possess far the highest daim to
be regarded as the upper frith. It opens from the
Clyde nearly opposite Gourock, and, with a breadth
of from 2 miles to 6 furlongs, stretches away about
22 miles into the interior. At quarter distance from
its entrance it opens, on the west side, into the fine
small bay of Ardintenny ; and, at half-distance, it
sends off, on the same side, and in a north-westerly
direction, Locs-Gon,: which see. At two points
on the Dumbartonshire^ide, it is distant respectively
from the head of the Gair-loch only 1 £ mile, and from
Tarbet on Loch-Lomond only If mile, Its general
depth is from 15 to 20 fathoms, and its tidal current
runs at the rate of about 2 miles in the hour. It is
occasionally lined by a sandy beach, or pressed by
banging plains and banks of verdure, but in general
is hemmed in by declivitous or mural rocks. Seen
from the entrance, or from ground on the opposite
V

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306

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shore of the frith which commands a view of it, it
preserves, for some distance on the east, a beautiful
softness of feature which is almost lowland ; but on
the west it is skirted by alpine heights, which are
rutted, stern, and heathy, over side and summit, and
begin to smile in verdure, or wood or cultivation,
only in belts along the margin of the water, and it
then becomes lost amid a dense crowd of rolled and
broken mountain masses, — that wildly tempestuated
sea of Alps on which a rollicking and facetious taste
has imposed the quizzing name of Argyle's Bowling-
green. But seen from a singularly wild glen which
wends round its head, or from almost any point in
f.he vicinity of Arrochar inn, the loch possesses much
distinctiveness and great grandeur of scenery : See
articles Arrochar1 and Glencroe. During summer
two steam-boats ply every lawful day from Glasgow
up Loch-Long, the one to Arrochar, and the other
to the head of Loch-Goil; and during winter they
ply three times a-week.
LONG (Loch), a marine projection from the
head of Loch-Alsh iii Ross-shire. It has the form
of the segment of a circle ; and bending from a north
erly to an easterly direction, separates the district
of Loch-Alsh from that of Kintail. Its extreme
length is about 4 miles; and its mean breadth nearly
half-a-mile. Loch-Duich and it go off in such a
manner in opposite directions from the head of Loch-
Alsh,- as to present on the map very nearly the out
line of a pair of antlers. Loch-Long, though injected
among wild mountains, is not without attractions ;
and, in consequence of the value of its fisheries, has,
on its Kintail bank, the two considerable fishing
villages of Dornie and Bundallocb.
DONGA, a small island in the Skye group of the
Hebrides. It lies 1£ mile north-east of Scalpa, and
£ miles north-north-west of Pabba, and measures
about 1 i mile in circumference. It is, as to geog-
nostic character, entirely composed of red sandstone;
it forms an uneven table-land, everywhere abrupt on
the coast, and about 200 feet high ; and it is merely
the habitat of sheep, and the resort of gulls and cor
morants. LONGANNAT, a small village on the Forth, in
the parish of Tulliallan, in the detached part of
Perthshire. A freestone quarry, in its vicinity, and
bearing its name, has, from time immemorial, been in
great reputation. The stone is durable, quite white,
and of small grain, and admits a fine smooth polish.
The demand for it was long greater than the quar-
riers could supply. The quarry has not only fur
nished materials for many houses of the first archi
tecture in' the circumjacent territory, but has con
tributed to public buildings in Edinburgh, in Aberdeen,
and even, it is said, in Amsterdam. At the village
are some slight ' vestiges of a pier, reported to have
been built by a Dutch company, to facilitate the ex
portation of the stone.
LONGCASTLE. See Kirkinner.
LONGFORGAN, a parish stretching in a narrow
oblong south-eastward from the Sidlaw hills to the
frith of Tay, in the extreme east of Perthshire. It
is bounded on its north-west end by Forfarshire ;
along its north-east side by Fowlis- Wester and by
Forfarshire ; on its south-east end by the frith of
Tay ; and along its south-west side by. Inchture,
Abernyte, and Cargill. Its greatest length is 7 miles,
and its greatest breadth 3;- but it contracts so much in
some places as to have an aggregate area of only about
8,990 imperial acres. The streams, though tiny, are
powerful enough to drive some saw-mills, three corn-
mills, and a lint-mill. The chief of them rises in the
north-west extremity, runs 2J miles in the interior,
wends 3£ miles along the south-western boundary,
and then runs 2 miles eastward to the frith at Burn-

side park. The coast-line is 3J miles; and &ola
mile from its east end it is bold and steep, and ter
minates m the rocky promontory of Kingoodie. At
that point a beautiful and gently inclined bank com
mences ; thence it sweeps away in a receding direc
tion and in the form of a crescent from the Tay ;
and at the distance of 3 miles it abruptly ends in a
bluff point called the Snabs of Drimmie. This elon
gated rising ground is from 120 to 150 feet high,
bears aloft on its crest, If mile from its south-east
end, the village of Longforgan, and commands, from
every point, but especially from tbe Snabs of Drim
mie and the site of the, village, a noble and uninter
rupted view of the Carse of Gowrie, the frith of
Tay, and the north coast of Fife. The land of the
bank is carpeted, for the most part, with a deep black
loam, and, under the skilful and ornamental husban
dry with which it is plied, is alike beautiful and fruc
tiferous. Southward and westward of it, to the Tay
and the lower part of the south-western boundary,
the surface is as level as a bowling-green, covered
with rich carse clay, crowned with the happiest fruits
of cultivation, and formiug part of the celebrated
Carse of Gowrie. In a parallel, half-a-mile north of the
village of Longforgan, a valley runs quite across the
parish, flanked on the one side by the bank which
has been noticed, and on tbe other by a slow ascent
or hanging plain, which towards the north shoots up
hilly elevations, and becomes identified with the far-
stretching range of the Sidlaws. Three summits,
Dron, Balle, and Lochtown, all at the north-west
end of the parish, are conspicuous, and have altitudes
respectively of 667, 992, and 1,172 feet above sea-
level. Somewhat less than 200 acres of the whole
area is disposed in bill-pasture; and all the rest is dis
tributed into arable grounds and woodlands in tbe pro
portion to each other of 9 to 2. Such a profusion of
wood as 1,600 acres, clustered in groves and drawn out
in belts and in hedge-rows, combines with the luscious
and varied beauty of the ploughed lands, to give the
district a snugly comfortable and very opulent appear
ance. About one-half of the wood is old, and com
prises upwards of 13 species, including all of the most
beautiful and majestic. Of five orchards, one at Mon-
organ is reckoned the best in the Carse of Gowrie, and
has been long famous for its fruit. Magnificent gar
dens, extensive and richly furnished, adorn the estate
of Castle-Huntly. The houses of the parish, and
those of many a spot far distant from it, owe much
to its quarries of peculiarly excellent freestone. Be
sides the noted one of Kingoodie [which see], there
is one in the upland district whose stone is so white,
compact, and smooth as to compete with the best
building sandstone in Scotland. Shell-marl, very
pure and white, and occasionally embedding uncom
monly large red deer's horns, was dug up and sold to
a vast amount after the epoch of agricultural improve
ment. Coal was long belieyed to exist, but eluded
expensive and frequent search  Castle-Huntly, tbe
most remarkable object in the parish, i3 borne aloft"
on the summit of a towering rock, which, on its
south-west side, rises sheer up from the dead level
of the carse, and on the east subsides gradually into
the plain. The castle, though of unascertained date,
is believed to have been built by Andrew, the 2d
Lord Gray of Fowlis, and named after his lady, ,a
daughter of the Earl of Huntly ; and so massive and
strong is it in its masonry that, though it has braved
the blasts of four centuries, it defies the corrosions
of time and the elements more lustily than most piles
of the present century. In 1615 it passed by pur
chase, along with the circumjacent estate, into the
possession of the Strathmore family, then Earls of
Kinghorn; and becoming a favourite residence of Earl
Patrick, it received the name of Castle-Lyon, and

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the estate, by charter of Charles II., in 1672, was
erected into a lordship, called the Lordship of Lyon.
In 1777 it was purchased and renovated, both in itself
and in its ground, by the son-in-law of John, Lord
Gray, whose ancestor had built it, and the father of
its present proprietor George Paterson, Esq. ; and
from him it had a restoration of its original name,
and the addition of wings, embattled walls, round
tower and corner turrets, which, while it was mo
dernized within, enhanced in the exterior its grandly
castellated appearance  Drimmie-house, the resi
dence of Lord Kinnaird, whose proprietorship, and
Mr. Paterson's jointly, extend over nine-tenths of the
parish, was, a few years ago, razed to the ground.
Rossie Priory, his present seat, stands within the
limits of Inchture, but sends a large part of its fine
demesne into Longforgan. Mylnefield-house stands
f of a mile north of Kingoodie, on a rising ground
amid tastefully arranged grounds. Lochtown-house
is situated in the north-east. The village of Bal-
bunnoch, neat, modern, and small, stands in the
south-east corner. The village of Kingoodie is
separately noticed. Lochtown, in the north, is a
mere hamlet  The village of Longforgan, covering
about 30 acres, and straggling along the turnpike be
tween Perth and Dundee on the crest of the fine
bank which overlooks the Carse, stands 6 miles from
Dundee, 16 from Perth, and li from the nearest
point of the frith of Tay. It consists of a principal
street and several lanes. The place probably ori
ginated in the erection of accommodation for the re
tainers of the Baron of Huntly-castle ; but it has
long been stationary or retrogressive'. In 1672 it
was erected into a free burgh-of-barony by charter of
•Charles IL, in favour of Patrick, Earl of Strathmore,
and endowed with a pomp and array of privilege
which, when viewed iu connexion with its present
-condition, look like the trappings of a court-dress
upon a ploughman. Three fairs, on the first Wed
nesday of June, and the first Wednesday of October,
and the last. Monday of April, are still held, chiefly
for the sale of cattle, and that in June also for the
hiring of servants ; but they decline in importance
ahd require stimulating aids. The village has a sav
ings' bank and a library, and, jointly with the parish,
about 150 looms subordinate to the manufacture of
Dundee. Population of the village 450. — Besides
the Perth and Dundee turnpike, the parish has abun
dant roads ; and it enjoys facilities from its own port
of Kingoodie, and from the vicinity of the rich and
varied communications of Dundee. Population, in
1801, 1,569; in 1831; 1,638. Houses 338. As
sessed property, in 1815, £26,315. In 1615 an
estate in the parish of Longforgan, Perthshire, was
purchased by Lord Strathmore for £2,222; in 1777
it was resold at £40,000 ; and now the present ren
tal is more than the purchase-money in 1615.— Long
forgan is in the presbytery of Dundee, and synod of
Angus and Mearns. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£268 3s. 4d. ; glebe £\S. Unappropriated teinds
£207 13s. lid. The church is a handsome, modern,
and. very spacious structure, erected by Mr. Paterson
of Castle-Huntly. The parish-school was attended,
in 1834, by 62 scholars ; and three other schools, by
113. Parish schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4d., with
about £16 fees, and £14 other emoluments — In a
dell on the high grounds of Dron are the ruins of a
chapel which belonged to the monks of Cupar-
Angus, and of its attendant cemetery. Only tbe
gables remain, one of them perforated with a large
window, whose top is a pointed arch springing from
pilasters. On the grounds of Monorgan are vestiges
of a cemetery which also had, most probably, its
presiding chapel: On the eastern boundary, but now
in the parish of Benvie united to Liff, are vestiges of

a Roman camp ; and on the summit of the hill of
Dron are faint traces of an oval fortification two
Scottish acres in area. In the midst of a plantation.
of firs, on what was anciently the moor of Forgan, is
a tumulus 15 or 18 feet high, and 84 feet in diameter,
called the Market-knowe, from having been the scene
of ancient traffic, but proved to have been originally
a barrow, by its yielding up to research coffins and
human skeletons. In various parts of the parish
many ancient coins, chiefly Scottish and English,
have been found.
LONGFORMACUS, a parish consisting of two
slender oblongs transversely attached to each other,
and of a small isolated section in the Lammermoor
district of Berwickshire. The larger oblong stretches
from north to south, in extreme length 8£ miles, and
in mean breadth a fraction more than 2A; and is
bounded on the north by Haddingtonshire ; on the
east by Abbey St. Bathans, Dunse, and Langton ;
on the south by Greenlaw; and on the west by
Westrutber, by the two parts of Cranshaws, and by
the connecting line between it and the other part of
its own parish. The smaller oblong stretches from
east to west, goes off from the former oblong about
third way from its northern boundary, tapers to a
point at its west end, measures 7£ miles in extreme
length, and li in mean breadth ; and is bounded on
the north-west and north by Haddingtonshire and
the upper section of Cranshaws ; on the south by
the lower section of Cranshaws and by Lauder ; and
on the south-west by Lauder. The isolated section
lies 2 miles east of the nearest point of the main body,
measures 1J mile by 1£, and is bounded on the south
east by Buncle ; on the south by Dunse ; and on all
other sides by Abbey St. Bathans. The area of the
parish is about 33 square miles. The whole district
lies among the Lammermoor hills,, and partakes, for
the most part, of their dreariest properties. Meikle-
Cess-law, on the boundary with Haddingtonshire,
and near the western extremity, is one of the highest
of the Lammermoors. Dorrington-Great-law and
Dorrington-Little-law, the former 1,145 feet high,
are fine conical hills, visible at a great distance.
The statist in the New Account calls attention
to the fact that a farm in the parish bears the
name of Otterburn, and hints the possibility of
this, and not the famous locality in Northumber
land, having been the scene of the noted fight
between Douglas and Hotspur. ' The small village
of Longformacus, provided with an inn, stands on
the Dye, where it runs across the parish, 6J miles
west of Dunse, and 7£ north of Greenlaw. A road
between Haddington and Coldstream passes through
the parish, but is badly kept ; and other roads are of
meagre extent and in miserable plight. Population,
in 1801, 406; in 1831, 425. Houses 72. Assessed
property, in 1815, £3,039  Longformacus is in the
presbytery of Dunse, and synod of Merse and Teviot
dale. Patron, Home of Longformacus. Stipend
£221 19s. Id. ; glebe £33. Unappropriated teinds
£75 6s. lOd. The church is more than a century
old, and has about 200 sittings. — The present parish
comprehends the ancient parishes of Longformacus
and Ellim, which were united before the year 1750.
The barony of Longformacus belonged, in old times,
successively to the Earls of Moray, the Earls of Dun
bar, and tbe Sinclairs of Roslin, and seems always to
have had attached to it the advowson of the church.
Ellim also belonged to the Earls of Dunbar ; and
after their forfeiture was given, by Robert III., to
Thomas Erskine. The ruins of the ancient church
and hamlet are traceable on the north bank of, the
Whitadder, near the passage which is still called
Ellim-ford. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4d., with
£10 fees, and a house and small piece of ground.

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303

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LONG-ISLAND, the largest group of the Western
Islands, separated from the continent by the broad
sound called the Minch, and from the Skye group by
the considerable sound called the Little Minch. This
group, owing both to its extent and the distinctness
of its position, has occasionally monopolized the whole
Hebridean name, and, by genera» consent, is called
the Outer Hebrides. Its popular and prevailing name
of Long-Island seems to have arisen from observa
tion of the closely continuous contiguity of the num
erous islands which compose it; or probably from
a consentaneous belief that they were all formerly
united, and have undergone disseverment by the ero
sion of the weather and the sea. The principal
islands, reckoning from the north southward, are
Lewis, Harris, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist,
and Barra ; and the secondary and minor islands 
diminishing from considerable islets to mere rocks —
are too numerous to bear separate mention. From
the Butt of Lewis, on the north, to Barra-head, on
the south, they extend south-south-westward about
120 miles ; and they have, probably, a mean breadth
of about 8 miles. Many of them are separated only
by channels which are dry at low-water, or by very
narrow belts of sea which are navigable only by yawls
and wherries. Their largest marine bisection is the
sound of Harris, between the cognominal island and
North Uist, remarkable for the number of its islets,
and the great variation of its currents. The Lewis
part of the group, about 40 miles in length, belongs
to Ross-shire ; and all the remainder belongs to In
verness-shire. Excepting a peninsula of conglomer
ate east of Stornoway, a hard variety of gneiss, fre
quently traversed by veins of granite and of trap,
composes the whole of the Long- Island group ; and
is so nearly uniform both in its own character and in
the surface which it produces, as to admit of little
variety in description. A dead level prevails in Ben
becula and some islets, and allows access to the rock
only from some pool of water or accidental breach ;
mountainousness pervades the district of Harris, and
sends summits aloft to an altitude of between 2,000
and 3,000 feet ; and a moderate, generally an incon
siderable hilliness, reigns over most part of the other
districts. South of the sound of Harris the tumu-
lated ground occurs principally along the east coast;
and gives place, along the centre, to an extensive
tract of peat-moss,, and, in the west, to broad bands
of arable sandy soil, and downs of shell sand. The
general aspect of the country, owing to the total
absence of wood, and the prevalence of heath and
peat-bogs, is cheerless and desolate. Yet the popu
lation is so great, so positively redundant, that, in
spite of the appliances of fisheries, a remedy against
an altogether undue pressure in the means of sub
sistence can be found only in emigration. A large
proportion of the inhabitants, especially in the south
ern half of the group, are Roman Catholics, who, in
the style which prevails in Ireland, very numerously
sanction early marriages, and form a surprisingly low
estimate of what constitutes the comforts or the ne
cessaries of life.
LONG-NEWTON. See Ancrum.
LONGNIDDRY, a decayed, curious, and anti
quated village in the parish of Gladsmuir, Hadding
tonshire. It stands a little south of the Edinburgh
and North Berwick turnpike, half-a-mile from the
nearest part of the frith of Forth; 21 miles from
Port-Seaton ; 3£ from Tranent ; and 5| from Had
dington. It is straggling and irregular, and but the
wreck of a formerly large and important little town.
™, population is about 200. Several streets have
wholly disappeared, the houses having been razed
by the score to give place to the operations of the
plough. A baronial mansion-house, whicn once pre

sided over the village, is now let out to a tenanj,
and wears a desolate appearance. Longniddry sug
gests some pleasing reminiscences of John Knox.
See Gladsmuir.
LONGSIDE, a parish in the district of Buchan,
Aberdeenshire ; bounded on the north by Old Deer
and Lonmay ; on the east by St. Fergus and Peter
head ; on the south by Cruden ; and on the west by
Old Deer. The form is an irregular square, about
5 miles in diameter, and containing 19 square miles.
Houses 582. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,398.
Population, in 1801, 1,825; in 1831, 2,479. The
surface is, in general, so level, that, till embankments
and other expedients were resorted to, the Ugie —
which runs along the northern boundary of the par
ish, while the principal tributary to that river inter
sects it from west to east — was wont to overflow
its banks, and lay a large portion of the land under
water. Amongst the remedial projects suggested,
previous to the embankment, was the idea of a canal,
along the banks of the river, from the village of Old
Deer to its mouth, near Peterhead, a distance of
about 10 miles. The soil of this parish is light,
easily improved, and in a good state of cultivation.
There are considerable plantations, and peat-moss
for fuel is abundant. The soil is superincumbent on
granite, some of which is very beautiful. At the small
village of Kilmundy woollen doth was at one time
manufactured to a considerable extent, and weaving,
wool-combing, and flax-spinning, are still carried on
in the parish. There are two other villages besides
that of Kilmundy, namely, Longside and Mintlaw.
The Episcopal chapel in the former was for 65 years
the scene of the ministrations of the Rev. John Skin
ner, author of the celebrated songs ' Tullochgorum,"
' the Ewie wi' the crooked horn,' &c. an ' Ecclesias
tical history of Scotland,' and various other learned
works. " This excellent and venerable clergyman,"
says a cotemporary, " one of the best scholars of his
time, and a correspondent of Burns, resided at Lins-
hart, a small cottage consisting of ' a butt and a
ben,' or kitchen and parlour, and his income scarcely
exceeded that of Goldsmith's country pastor, who
was ' passing rich with forty pounds a-year.' " — This
parish is in the presbytery of Deer, and synod of
Aberdeen. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £217 9s.
4d.; glebe £17. Unappropriated teinds £213 lis.
5d. A new church has been built, and was opened
on 7th August, 1836; sittings 1,000. The Episcopa
lian congregation above alluded to, has existed here
since the Revolution : chapel built in 1800: sittings
551. The income is solely derived from seat-rents :
income from 1831 to 1835 inclusive £34 to £38
half-yearly. There are three parochial schools in
this parish: salary of principal schoolmaster £31
6s. 7d.; fees, &c. £24. Each of the others has a
salary of £10, with about £16 of fees. The two
subsidiary schools were established in 1829. There
are also 8 private schools.
LONMAY,. a parish in the district of Buchan,
Aberdeenshire; bounded on the north by Rathen
and the North sea ; on the east also by the sea ; on
the south, by Crimond, from which it is divided by
Strathbeg loch ; and on the west, by Strichen and
Rathen. It runs north-east and south-west foi
about 10 miles, by 4 in extreme breadth : area, 24
square miles. Houses 369< Assessed property, in
1815, £3,226. Population, in 1801, 1,607; in
1831, 1,798. The surface is chiefly disposed into
two extensive plains, running north and south, di
vided by two or three small ridges running from
west to east, and watered on the south-west and
south by a branch of the river Ugie. The land near
the shore is flat, and the beach low and sandy. The
soil is various, but chiefly light, dry, and sandy, rest-

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ing on the red sandstone formation in the north plain.
In other parts the soil is clay. The mosses were
once extensive, but much land has been reclaimed.
There is a line of benty sand-hillocks on the east ;
and to the north a fine expanse of grassy links or
downs, affording excellent pasture for cattle and
sheep. The whole district is well-cultivated, and
upwards of 200 acres have been planted within the
last twenty years. Trench-ploughing is practised.
The breeds of cattle, sheep, and horses are in course
of great improvement. Limestone is found in the
north-eastern part of the parish, but sienite and
greenstone are the prevalent rock. The chief man
sions are Cairness-house, an elegant residence, de
signed by Playfair, and tastefully adorned with plea
sure-grounds and plantations, and Crimond- mogate
mansion, another handsome edifice, recently erected.
There are two fishing-villages on the coast, one of
which is named St. Colm. The only antiquity
is a Druidical circle at Newark, Crimond-mogate.
A castle named the Castle of Lonmayonce existed
on the links near the sea  The parish is in the pres
bytery of Deer, and synod of Aberdeen. Patron,
Gordon of Beithlaw. Stipend £225 13s. 3d. ; glebe
£18 15s. Unappropriated teinds £224 7s. 4d.
Church built in 1787. Sittings 649. Access to the
church being impeded to the inhabitants of the lands
of Kinninmonth and Crimond-mogate, by a large
tract of mossy bad roads and distance, a new church
has been erected by subscription in the district of
Kinninmonth : sittings 360. The presbytery have
been petitioned to have the district annexed to the
new church, — including parts of Strichen, Deer,
Longside, and St. Fergus, — erected into a parish,
quoad sacra. An Episcopalian congregation was
established here shortly after the Revolution : sit
tings 342. Stipend about £50. There are three
parochial schools : salary of first master £28 ; fees
£23 8s., besides £25 from the Dick bequest : —
salary of second master £21 6s. 3d. ; fees £21 6s.
3d.; — salary of the third master £10; fees £15.
There is one private school.
LORN,* a district in Argyleshire ; bounded on
the north-west by Linnhe-Loch, which divides it
from Morvern ; on the north by Loch-Leven, the
river Leven, and the chain of lochlets drained by the
Leven, which divide it from Inverness-shire ; on the
east by an arbitrary line across the Moor of Ran-
nocb, and by the great central southward ridge of
Grampians, which divide it from Breadalbane in
Perthshire; on the south by brief arbitrary lines,
and chiefly by Lochs Awe, Avich, and Melfort,
which divide it from Cowal and Argyle ; and on the
west by Lower Loch-Linnhe, which divides it from
Mull. Its extent from north to south varies be
tween 33 and 22 milqs, and from east to west be
tween 32 and 15. The district of it which extends
along the coast opposite to Mull and Morvern, and
possesses the extreme length of 33 miles by a mean
breadth of about 9, bears more emphatically, or by
more uniform usage, the name of Lorn ; and is di
vided into Upper Lorn, lying north of Loch-Etive,
and including Appin and Airds, — Middle Lorn, lying
immediately south of Loch-Etive, and including
Muckairn, — and Nether Lorn, lying immediately
north of Lochs Melfort and Avich, but separated
from Middle Lorn by no natural boundary. The
remaining district nearly all lies north of the north
end of Loch-Awe, and is chiefly distributed into
Glenorchy, Glencoe, and the minor part of the Moor
of Rannoch. The coast-district, watered by many
*This is evidently a modern contraction, if not a corruption,
of the ancient name of this interesting district,— a district so
frequently alluded to by the Scottish historian and antiquarian.
The Gaelic orthography is Labhrin, pronounced by the Gael
of the district Laurin.

lakes and rivulets, and possessing along their banks
much arable land, a considerable aggregate of wood,
and extensive results of assiduous and skilful culti
vation, is the most fertile and pleasant district of
Argyleshire. It anciently formed the focus of the
Dalriadan Scottish kingdom, and possessed both its
capital town and its royal castle, the chief residence
of its kings. See Beregonium, Dunstaffnace,
and Dalriads. Its name seems to have been given
it from Labhrin or Loarn, one of the three brothers
sons of Ere, who, in 503, immigrated from the Irish
Dalriada, and founded the Scottish monarchy; Loarn
having adopted this district as the seat of his nascent
tribe, while his brothers Fergus and Angus adopted
respectively Kintyre and Islay. The district is rife
in remains of religious structures, both Druidical and
Christian, and of ancient towers, and fortified places.
Lorn gives the title of Marquis to the Duke of Ar
gyle's eldest son. In 1470, one Earl of Argyle was,
created Baron of Lorn; and, in 1701, another was
created Duke of Argyle, and Marquis of Lorn and
Kintyre. The presbytery of Lorn, in the synod of
Argyle, comprehends 7 quoad civilia and 3 quoad
sacra parishes.
LORNTY (The). See articles Clunie and
Lethendy. LOSKENTIR. See Harris.
•¦ LOSSIE (The), a small river in Morayshire,
which issues from Loch-Lpssie, near the centre of
the county, in the parish of Edenkillie, and runs north
wards and north-eastwards through Dallas, and by the
royal burgb of Elgin, to the Moray frith, at Lossie
mouth, in the parish of Drainy, — a course upwards
of 26 miles in length. This river is too small for
navigation beyond its mouth. Since the great floods
of 1829, which swelled the Lossie to inundation,
with serious damage to the vicinity, large embank
ments of earth have been raised at great expense
along the margins of the river to prevent a recur
rence of similar calamities.
LOSSIEMOUTH, a village, the sea-port of El
gin, at the mouth of the Lossie, in the parish of
Drainy, county of Moray, 5 miles north-east of El
gin. The harbour here being small and without
sufficient depth of water, a new one has been erected
by a company incorporated by act of parliament in
1834. The work was finished and opened end of
1829. The depth of water obtained is 12 feet at
neap-tides, and 16 feet at spring-tides. There is
an inner harbour, completely protected, and provided
with many conveniences for shipping. The expense
was estimated at £20,000. The undertaking is
likely to be successful ; the coasting trade has in
creased ; several vessels now belong to the port, and
the place is fast rising into importance. The im
provement is of vast advantage to the trading and
agricultural interests of Elgin, and the surrounding
district ; a direct and uninterrupted communication
with London and other markets by steam, &c, for
exports of farm-stock and grain, and for imports of
merchandise and coals being thus opened up. The
population of Lossiemouth, in 1831, was 535. See
also article Drainy.
LOTH, a parish on the east coast of Sutherland
shire. It is bounded on the north-west and north
by Kildonan; on the north-east by Caithness; on
the east and south-east by the Moray frith ; and on
the south-west and west by Clyne. It forms a stripe,
extending 11£ miles north-eastward, with a breadth
of from 2 to, nearly 4 miles. The Ord of Caithness,
at the north-east boundary, rises, with mountain
vastness, sheer up from the ocean, and forms a stu
pendous barrier along the whole march with Caith
ness : see Ord. A range of steep hills, whose lof
tiest summits attain altitudes of about 1,900 abovei

LOT

310

LOU

sea-level, extends along the inner frontier of the
parish in a line nearly parallel with the sea-coast ;
and, excepting at a point about 3 miles from the
Ord range, where it is cloven by the fine strath of
the Helmsdale, it forms over all its extent a water-
shedding boundary. The surface, from the summit-
line of this ridge sea-ward, is first a very rapid de
clivity, and next either a hanging plain, or a level
expanse of alluvial land, all fertile, cultivated, and
embellished. The ravines cut down by streamlets
along the descending surface are very marked and
full of character, and contain some striking and highly
romantic touches of landscape. One of them, the
Alt-Colle, is little else than a winding, mural-faced,
remarkably deep gorge. The largest has, in a sense,
the capacity of a glen, and is called, par excellence,
the glen of Loth ; it is flanked by the most moun
tainous heights of the parish ; and it wends its way
amongst them with a Highland wildness which occa
sioned it to be peopled by the superstition of former
times with many an imp and terrific worker of won
ders. The river Helmsdale, a large and fine stream,
has a course of about 2 miles in the parish, and falls
into the sea 3 miles from the Ord of Caithness. It
was never spanned by a bridge till 1811, and, being
subject to sudden and terrific floods, and very often
impassable, it had the reputation of being at all times
a perilous stream, and frequently an utter obstruction
to travelling. Pennant calls it, ' the very dangerous
water of Helmsdale, rapid and full of large stones.'
The streamlet Loth, which traverses Loth-glen,
though without any perennial source, and almost
dry in summer, used formerly to be at times more
formidable to travellers than even the Helmsdale ;
and, as seen from the bridge by which it is now ren
dered always passable, it still exhibits the sudden,
and impetuous, and fearful speats which once caused
it to be viewed with terror. Not only this stream
let, but some utterly tiny rills in the parish, possess
the sanguinary fame of having, in some of their brief
but tremendous onsets from the hills, tripped up
travellers and careered away with them to the sea ;
and they ceased to make additions to a fame so lugu
brious only at the very modern epoch of piercing the
extreme north of Scotland with parliamentary roads.
Tbe Loth enters the sea in an artificial channel cut
through a rock 20 feet high, by the late Lady Jane
Gordon, Countess of Sutherland; and it was, in con
sequence, diverted from swamping many acres of
excellent low land which lay upon the banks of its
former channel. The sea-coast is co-extensive with
the extreme length of the parish ; and, excepting at
a few rocky headlands, and the stupendous protru
sion of the Ord, it is, for 5 miles from the north, a
line of low rock or coarse gravel, and, over the re
maining distance, a low and level beach of sand.
The tidal currents along the sea-board are so strongly
and peculiarly affected by the projection of the Ord,
as to bring close to the shore unusually large and
enriching shoals of herring. The rocks of the low
grounds along the coast are oolitic, — consisting of
limestone, conglomerate, various-coloured shales, and
white and red sandstone, and they exhibit marks of
much derangement, often dipping within a limited
area, in very different directions and very different
angles. The prevailing rock of the hills is a species
of large-grained porphyry, unusually frangible, and
yielding with comparative facility to the erosion of
running water. The soil is in general good, and
quite equal to the best in the county. The arable
lands were formerly scourged almost to destruction,
and, at the date of the Old Statistical Account, had
been alternately cropped with bear and with oats or
pease every season within the recollection of the
oldest men or even their fathers; but they are now

nursed with seasons of fallow and "green crop, which
allow only two years in five to grain. The fisheries
of the parish are very productive, and, under the
name of Helmsdale, are known for their produce
; far and wide.' The villages are Helmsdale and
Port-Gower : which see. Helmsdale-Castle, a
plain-looking ruin, on a rising ground overlooking
the cognominal river, was a hunting-seat of the
Sutherland family; and is noted as the scene, in
1567, of the murder, by poison, of the 11th Earl of
Sutherland and his Countess. The assassin, Isabella
Sinclair, had for her object the succession of her
own son to the earldom, and suffered the startling
retribution of seeing him drink, to his immediate
destruction, a poisoned cup which she had prepared
for the only son of Lord Sutherland ; and when sht
was condemned for her crimes to die ignominiously
in Edinburgh, she committed suicide on the day ap
pointed for her execution, and attempted to fasten
the odium of her wickedness upon her cousin, George,
Earl of Caithness, whom she asserted to have been
her instigator. Three or four of those circular Scan
dinavian erections, erroneously called Pictish towers,
formerly stood in the parish; and one at Lothbeg
was entire at the period of Pennant's Tour ; but all
have either disappeared or survive only in shapeless
masses of disintegrated and moundish walls. Three
hunting-houses, in Loth-glen, of the kind called
Uags, and interestingly described by Pennant, have
likewise vanished. A number of cairns on a field
are said to indicate the scene, and to embowel the
memorials, of a bloody engagement between the men
of Sutherland and those of Caithness. The parish,
besides being traversed over its whole length by tin
Great north parliamentary road, has good roads up
the Helmsdale and the Loth, which converge in Kil-
donan, and pass away to the North sea at Port-
Skerry. Population, in 1801, 1,374; in 1831, 2,234.
Houses 415. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,450.
— Loth is in the presbytery of Dornoch, and synod
of Sutherland and Caithness. Patron, the Duchess-
countess of Sutherland. Stipend £162 8s. 7d. ;
glebe not known. The parish-church is a recent
erection, and one of the most handsome in the north
of Scotland. Schoolmaster's salary £34 Is. 7d.
There are three non-parochial schools. Ancient
chapels stood respectively at Helmsdale, at Navidale,
and at Easter Garty ; and, in the first and the second
of these localities, are commemorated by their ceme
teries, which continue to be used.
LOTHIAN, a district on the south side of the
frith of Forth, anciently of larger limits than those
assigned to it by modern usage, but still regarded as
commensurate with the three shires of Haddington,
Edinburgh, and Linlithgow, which are called respec-
tivetyEast, Mid, and West Lothian. Lothian gives
the name of Marquis to the noble family of Kerr of
Fernihiist. The Kerrs figured much in the Border
wars: they were made Earls of Lothian in 1606,
and advanced to the dignity of a inarquisate in 1701.
LOTHRY (The), a small river in Fifeshire, which
rising in the Balla moss, and running south-east for 6
or 7 miles, falls into the Leven, below Leslie-house.
LOUDOUN,* a parish occupying the south-east
corner of Cunningham, Ayrshire; bounded on the
north by Fenwick; on the east by Lanarkshire; on
the south by Irvine water, which divides it from
Galston in Kyle ; and on the west and north-west
* The name seems a pleonasm, Law-dun, — 'the Hill, the
hill.' The round conical elevation, which enlivens the south
west corner, and forms a remarkable feature in the landscape,
is of the class which the Scoto-Irish called 'dun,' and the
Scoto-Saxon Maw;' and by a singular triplicate of honours,
it wears as its designation not only both these words, but also
the modern ' hill,' — Law-dun-hill, or Loudouu-hill, — the hill,
the hill, the hill.

LOU

311

LOV

by Kilmarnock. Its length from east to west is 9
miles; and its breadth at the west end is 3, and to
ward the east end about 7. The surface is the upper
extremity of tbe fine strath of Irvine water, and,
though some height above sea-level, is champaign,
, and only gently sloping. A large part of it near the
centre, and especially along the extreme east, is moss.
The soil of the arable grounds — which constitute at
least three-fourths of the whole area — is, in a few
places, light and gravelly, but, in most, a rich deep
loam, greatly improved by lime. John, Earl of
Loudoun, who succeeded to the earldom in 1731,
was the first agricultural improver in the district.
He commenced his operations in 1733, by making
roads through the parish ; he procured an excellent
bridge to be made across Irvine water ; and he got made
thence, and from his own house to Newmills, a road,
which was the first constructed by statute- work in
the county. These measures, as commencing ones
to his becoming the father of agriculture in the dis
trict, he adopted apparently from his recollecting a
time when carts or waggons belonging to his father
and his father's factor were the only ones in the par
ish.; but he also plied vigorously the work of plant
ing and enclosing; he is said to have planted upwards
of a million trees, chiefly elm, ash, and oak; and, in
general, he bequeathed to it a pervading character
of rich cultivation and of tidy, sylvan beauty.* Coal
and limestone ' abound, and both are extensively
worked. The lime_stone is, in some places, 9 feet
thick, very near the surface, and not interrupted by
water. Loudoun-hill, the highest ground in the
parish, and situated in its south-east extremity, is
famous for two battles. One of these was fought
near it in 1679, and took name from the neighbour
ing farm of Drumclog in Avoridale [see Avondale] ;
and the other was fought in 1307 between Bruce
and some English troops under the Earl of Pem
broke, and is called the battle of Loudoun-hill. Not
far distant a skirmish occurred between Wallace and
a party of English, whom he surprised carrying pro
visions to Ayr ; and is commemorated by a heap of
stones called Wallace' cairn. On the eminence next
in elevation to Loudoun-hill, is the foundation of a
Druidical temple, composed of large broad whinstones.
The sanctum is 10 feet in diameter, and less injured
than the rest. Cairns are numerous. In the hamlet
of Auldton, and near the village of Derval, are ruins
still called castles, and resembling Danish forts. The
Knights-Templars had lands in the parish : see Der
val. In the village of Newmills is a very small and
very old castle belonging to the family of Campbells
of Loudoun. On the summit of a rising ground, by
the side of a brook, about half a- mile east of the
present sumptuous mansion, are the ruins of an an
cient castle which belonged to the same family, and
was destroyed about 350 years ago by the clan Ken
nedy, headed by the Earl of Cassilis. The modern
magnificent pile stands embowered among wood, in
the south-west part of the parish, 5 miles east of
Kilmarnock, and less than a mile north of Galston,
on the bank of the Irvine. The structure singularly
combines the attractions of massive antiquity with
* Loudoun-castle was one of the first places in the west of
Scotland where foreign trees were planted. " John, Earl of
Loudon," Walker observes, "formed at Loodon-castle, in Ayr
shire, the most extensive collection of willows that Jias been
made in this country, which he interspersed in his extensive
plantations* Wherever he went, during his long military ser
vices, he sent home every valuable sort of tree that he met
with. All the willows he found cultivated in England, Ire
land, Holland, Flanders, and Germany, as also in America and
Portugal, where he commanded, were procured and sent to
Loudon. Zu 1806, aud again in 1631, we found a number of tine
old trees at Loudon-castle ; we recollect, in particular, robinias,
gleditschias, American- oaks, hickories, walnuts, tax odiums,
acers, poplars, and a variety of others." Some are recorded hy
Dr. walker as having been remarkably line specimens in 1780.

the light gracefulness of modern architecture. One
square tower with a battlement was erected proba
bly in the 12th or the 13th century. Another tower
larger and higher, battlemented and turreted, was
built about the 15th century, and lifts its solemn and
imposing form commandingly above a surrounding
mass of modern building. A large addition, greatly
improving the pile, was made, in 1 622, by Chancellor
Loudoun. But the chief parts, enough in themselves
to constitute one of the largest and most stately
castles in the west of Scotland, were completed so
late as the year 1811. The library, 50 years ago,
contained about 10,000 volumes. In the enclosures
near the house is a Druidical ruin ; and in the garden
were found, 60 or 70 years ago, 10 entire brass-swi
vels, all 6-pounders, marked with the Campbell's
arms, but unmentioned by any document or tradition.
The noble proprietors of tbe castle, whose title of
Earl is taken from the parish, are a branch of the
great family of Campbell, and obtained the dignity
of Lord Loudoun in 1601, and that of Earl of Lou
doun in 1633. The 1st Earl was a staunch Cove
nanter, became Chancellor of Scotland in 1641, and
acted a conspicuous part in the stirring events of the
times. The Earl of Moira married, in 1804, Flora,
Countess of Loudoun, only child of James the 5th
Earl ; and in 1816 was raised to the dignity of Mar
quis of Hastings. His son George, while second
Marquis of Hastings, is 6th Earl of Loudoun. The
Countess Flora died only in 1840, and was the mo
ther of the lamented Lady Flora Hastings, the sister
of the present Marquis. The principal villages, and
the seats of manufacture, are Newmills and Der
val : which see. The chief roads are a turnpike
eastward along the Irvine, and another southward
to Galston. ' Loudon's bonny woods and braes' are
the subject of one of Tannahill's most hackneyed
songs. Population, in 1801, 2,503; in 1831, 3,959.
Houses 506. Assessed property, in 1815, £10,850.
— Loudoun is in the presbytery of Irvine, and synod
of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the Marquis of Has
tings. Stipend £190 lis. 3d.; glebe £35. The
parish-church, not an old building nor in bad condi
tion, stands at Newmills. There are two dissenting
places of worship ; the one belonging to the United
Secession, and situated in Newmills; the other be
longing to the Reformed Presbyterians, and situated
in Darvel. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with
about £40 fees and about £10 other emoluments.
The parish school was attended, in 1834, by 118
scholars ; and 4 private schools by 1 70. James, the
son of Lambin, obtained from Richard Morville, who
died in 1 1 89, the constable and minister of William
the Lion, the lands of ' Laudon,' and took from them
the name of James de Laudon. His daughter and
heiress carried the property to Reginald Crawford,
the sheriff of Ayr ; and another heiress, in the reign
of Robert I., transferred it and that of Stevenston,
by marriage, to Duncan Campbell, the progenitor o
its subsequent noble owners. The church, previous
to the Reforjnation, was a vicarage under the monks
of Kilwinning.
LOUISBURGH, a suburb of the town of Wick,
Caithness-shire. It extends along the north side of
the burgh, lies quite contiguously, and is all included
in tbe parliamentary boundaries. It was commenced
in the latter part of last century, and is built on the
entailed estate of Lord Duffus, on leases of 99 years.
Population, in 1840, 380. See Wick."
LOVAT, a hamlet in the parish of Kirkhill, In
verness-shire ; half-a-mile south-east from Beauly.
Here stood the tower and fort of Lovat, founded in
1230, anciently the seat of the Bissets, near the
eastern bank of the Beauly, in a rich and fertile
country. , It gave the title of Baron, attainted in

LOV

312

LUB

1745, and restored in 1837 in the person of Thomas
Alexander Fraser of Lovat.
LOVAT-BRIDGE. See The Beauly.
LOWES (Loch of the), a lake in the northern
extremity of the parish of Ettrick, Selkirkshire. Its
name, rendered into English, assumes the form- —
either pleonastic, or not a little ambitious — of ' the
Lake of the Lakes.' It extends from south to north ;
measures about a mile in length, £ of a mile in
breadth, and 11 or 12 fathoms in depth ; and is tra
versed by the drain-like stream of the nascent Yar
row. Only a narrow neck of land divides it from
the celebrated St. Mary's-Loch. See Mary's (St.).
The two lakes seem, beyond a doubt, to have been
originally one, and to have diffused their waters, and
maintained control, a considerable way to the north
east. The Loch of the Lowes has at present a level
of only 15 inches above St. Mary's; and, at its north
end, it is entered from opposite sides by the burns of
Oxcleugh and Corsecleugh, which seem to have gra
dually dammed it up by their depositions into a sepa
rate lake.
LOWLANDS (The), the popular name of all
the area of Scotland not included in the Celtic dis
trict of the Highlands : which see. As the Low
lands constitute Scotland Proper, and occupy the
chief place in our introductory article on the whole
kingdom, and are minutely exhibited, part by part, in
our articles on their several counties, they need not
be the subject of separate description. The use of
the Scottish dialect of the English language, or of
that language north of the Tweed, in any dialect
except the guttural brogue of "a Highlander, is the
grand characteristic. Large plains, such as those of
the Merse, of East Lothian, of the Howe of Annan
dale, of Lower Nithsdale, of Kyle, of Strathclyde,
of the Howe of Fife, and of Strathearn and Strath
more, — and extensive undulating tracts, or gently
hilly districts, such as those of the hanging plain of
Mid-Lothian, of West-Lothian, of Wigtonshire, of
Cunningham, and of large parts of the shires of Ren
frew, Kircudbright, Stirling, Fife, Forfar, and Aber
deen, — present physical aspects of velvet softness, and
silken beauty, and golden opulence, totally contrasted
to the rugged, hardy, and sterile features of the chief
and characteristic portions of the Highlands. But,
on the other hand, the very broad belt of mountain-
heights which runs from the Cheviots in Northum
berland quite across Scotland to the western waters
on the coast of Galloway, which sends off through
all Peebles-shire and Selkirkshire a broad and far
extending spur in the Lammermoor range along the
frontiers of Berwickshire and East-Lothian to the
German oceanV and which itself occupies large por
tions of the counties of Roxburgh, Dumfries, Kirk
cudbright, Lanark, Ayr, and Wigton, is far excelled
in literally ' low-land' characteristics by many a dis
trict in the Highlands, and, in some instances, vies
in bold outline' in alpine altitude, and in heathy or
rocky wildness, with" all the parts of the Highlands
except the most savagely or sublimely grand. Man
ners also, — at least such as relate to dress, amuse
ments, and civil life, — are rapidly ceasing to mark a
difference between the Highlanders and the Low-
landers. Yet in religious matters, in political creed,
in whatever implies independence of mind and free
dom of inquiry, the LowlaUfler has a manliness, and
differs from his neighbour, with a frank boldness, and
takes rank to the apparent prejudice of his worldly
interest, with a promptitude and a firmness, to which
the Highlander, generally speaking, continues to be
a stranger. While the Highlands have stepped but
a degree or two beyond that outward 'uniformity*
which — if we read history aright since the days of
Constantine the Great — is the badge of enslavement

of conscience, and sits upon a country with a steadi
ness proportioned to the degree of its enthralment,
the Lowlands are distinguished by the fraternal ri
valry of kindred sects, and the kindly emulation of
patriotic and enlightening institutions, indicating
sturdy and well-directed concern for moral and intel
lectual improvement, to an extent unsurpassed by
any, and equalled or competed with by only two
countries in the world. But in the particulars o-
language and of dress, Lowland-Scotland, while for
getful enough of nationality, to take lessons of the
stranger, and occasionally to blush for its own an
cient characteristics, has probably, for a generation
or two past, been 'gaining a loss.' The broad mu
sical Doric of her dialect as exhibited in the rhymes
of her bards, and the profuse wealth and singular
expressiveness of her verbiage as displayed in Dr.
Jamieson's Dictionary, scarcely vindicate a modern
Lowlander's solicitude to pass for a Cockney or a
Southron ; and the simple and tidy dresses of the
grandmothers and grandfathers of the present genera
tion, — dresses which were as much in vogue, just as
they were as becoming, when a man or a matron :
was 45 years of age as when he was 30, — may, de
spite 6f their coarseness, make fops and pretty maid
ens look, even in their own eyes, ridiculous when ¦
donning and sporting importations from Paris as
changeful and numerous as the months of a century,
and as freakish and whimsical as the vagaries of an
irregular imagination.
LOWS (Loch of the), a beautiful small lake in :
the parish of Caputh, Perthshire, 1J mile east of
Dunkeld, on the road from that town to Blairgow- :
rie. It is a principal one of the fine chain of small
sylvan lakes which stretches along and beautifies the
district of Stormont.
LUBNAIG (Loch), a fine sheet of water in
Perthshire. The greater portion of the Scottish
lakes are merely expansions of some stream, the
waters of which being intercepted at the gorge or
lower opening of a glen, spread themselves out and
form a lake, in the depths of which the river is for
a time apparently lost. Loch-Katrine, Loch-Ach-
ray, and Loch-Vennachoir, are thus formed by the
southern or principal branch of the Teith, in the
several glens through which it takes its course. The
northern branch of this river — more generally, how
ever, called Balvaig — which joins it previous to its
reaching Callander, likewise forms during its very
devious windings from its source in Dumbartonshire,
a series of three lakes: viz., Loch-Doine, Loch-
Voel, and Loch-Lubnaig. The last of this chain of
lakes is situated at the north-eastern base of Ben-
ledi, about 4 miles south-west of Callander. It is
nearly 5| miles in length, but is scarcely half-a-mile
in breadth at any part. Going from Callander,- the
traveller approaches the lake through the celebrated
pass of Leney. A road has now been formed along
the banks of the stream which flows from Loch-
Lubnaig ; but such is the nature of the ground, that
even yet a few men might maintain the pass against
an army. The splendid scenery, however, arrests
the attention of the traveller ; and his taste is gra
tified with all the variety that mountain, rock, wood,
river, and waterfall, can combine and present to form
the picturesque. After issuing from the pass, Loch-
Lubnaig comes into sight, and here the best view of
it is obtained. From the great height, and the bold
and rugged appearance of the mountains amidst
which this narrow winding lake lies imbedded, the
scenery which surrounds it is exceedingly striking.
Benledi is a most prominent object, — and that por
tion of it which overhangs and darkens the waters
of the lake exhibits a grand but very singular ap^
pearance. At some remote period, the mountain

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/

seems to have been broken over at the top, and the
enormous fragments scattered down its side, like the
debris or ruins of a former world. Armandave,
Ardcbuilerie-Beg, and Ardchullerie-More, at differ
ent distances, raise their giant-forms in frowning
reajesty above the lake, and throw their broad dark
.... fbadows over it. Stern grandeur is the character
istic of the scenery around Loch-Lubnaig, — imposing
sifence reigns around, — and a sense of utter loneliness
enters into the very soul of the beholder. The
genius of solitude seems here to have taken up his
abode. About half-way up the east side of the lake
stands Ardchullerie-house, rendered peculiarly inter
esting, as having been many years the residence of
Bruce of Kinnaird, the celebrated traveller. In this
retired spot, amid the stern, majestic features of na
ture which it presents, be wrote the account of his
travels; and here he found an asylum from the abuse
and persecution which their publication brought upon
him. At Loch-Lubnaig the tourist is again among
the scenery of the ' Lady of the Lake.' It was up
the pass of Leney that the cross of fire was carried
by young Angus of Dun-Craggan, who had just been
obliged to leave the funeral of his father in order to
speed forth the signal.
" Benledi saw the cross of fire ;
It glanced like lightning up strath. Ire ;
O'er dale and hill the summons flew,
Nor rest, nor peace, young Angus kuew;
The tear that gathered on his eye.
He left the mountain-breeze to dry;
Until where Teith's young waters roll,
Betwixt him and a wooded knoll,
That graced the sable strath with green,
The chapel of Saint Bride was seen."
Here the messenger delivers up the signal to Nor
man of Armandave, who was about to pledge his
troth at the altar to Mary of Tombea; and the
bridegroom leaving his unwedded bride, starts off
with the cross along the shores of Loch-Lubnaig,
and away towards the distant district of Balquhidder.
The chapel of Saint Bride stood on a small and ro
mantic knoll between the opening of the pass of
Leney and Loch-Lubnaig; and Strath-Ire, along
which the cross is said to have glanced like lightning,
is situated at the south end and along the eastern
side of Loch-Lubnaig. Armandave is on the west
side of the loch, and Tombea, the residence of Nor
man's bride, is also in the neighbourhood. Loch-
Lubnaig has been said to be the only water in Scot
land in which char is to be found, but this is a mis
take, as that fish is found in Loch-Awe and several
other Highland lakes, as well as in the lakes of
Sutherlandshire. LUCE (The), a river partly of Ayrshire, but
chiefly of Wigtonshire. Till within 6J miles of the
sea it consists of two streams, called the Main- water
of Luce and the Cross-water of Luce. Main-water,
the more westerly of these, rises in the parish of
Ballantrae, on the south side of Benerard, a hill
1,430 feet high; and it runs southward 3J miles to
the frontier-line, and 2| miles south-westward along
the boundary of Ballantrae and New Luce, in the
counties respectively of Ayr and Wigton, wearing
the aspect of a bleak mountain-stream, and augment
ed by many cold and brawling feeders. The stream
now runs 5 miles in a direction east of south, be
tween the Wigtonshire parishes of New Luce and
Inch, to its confluence with Cross-water ; and, be
sides smaller brooks, receives in its progress Drum-
orawhorn-burn, a streamlet 6 miles long. Cross-
water rises between Craignahurrie and Benea hills,
in Ballantrae, and flows 3J miles deviously to Wig
tonshire, and 1£ along the boundary; and it then
runs south-westward, south-eastward, and westward,
'8 miles, through New Luce, to the confluence with

Main-water. The united stream, or the Luce pro-
per, divides, for li mile, New Luce from Inch,_in-
tersects, for £ of a mile, a wing of New Luce, 
divides, for a mile, New Luce from Old Luce, — and
then runs through Old Luce to the head of Luce
bay ; and, over its whole course, it has a southerly
direction, is, on the average, 30 feet wide, and, ex
cept in floods, can be passed on foot. The river
once abounded in salmon and sea-trout ; but it has
been ruinously overfished. For 14 mile before be
coming lost in the bay, it expands into a small
estuary, which is dry at low-water ; and within this
estuary, between the water-marks of ebb and of
flood, it makes a confluence with Pooltanton- water.
LUCE-BAY, a gulf or very large bay, broadly
and deeply indenting the most southerly land in
Scotland, and converting the southern half of Wig
tonshire into two peninsulas, a long and narrow one
between this bay and the extremity of the frith of
Clyde, and a broad one between it and Wigton bay.
The entrance of the gulf is between the Mull of
Galloway on the west, and Burrowhead on the east.
Measured in a straight line, direct from point to point, :
this entrance is 18J miles wide ; and the length of
the bay, measured in a line at right angles with the
former to the commencement of the little estuary
of Luce-river, is 16£ miles. Its whole area is
probably about 160 square miles. Over a distance
of 3| miles from the commencement of the estuary
at its head, it expands, chiefly on the west side,
to a width of 6| miles ; and thence to the en
trance, its coast-line, on the west, runs, in gen-.
eral, due south, or a little east of south, and that
on the opposite side trends almost regularly due
south-east. At its head the sea-board is low, and,
at the efflux of the tide, displays a sandy beach of
half-a-mile mean breadth ; but elsewhere it is all,
with some small exceptions, bluff, bold, rocky, and
occasionally torn with fissures and perforated with
caverns. The bay contains various little recesses
and tiny embayments, some of which are capable of
being converted into convenient harbours; and it
also offers to a seaman, who is acquainted with it,
some anchoring-grounds, in which he may safely let
his vessel ride in almost any wind. In hazy weather
vessels sometimes mistake the bay for the Irish chan
nel, and, when steering a north-westerly course,
suddenly take the ground on its west coast. The
mistake, when it happens, is almost certain destruc
tion ; for the tide no sooner leaves a struck ship than
she settles so adhesively down upon quicksands that
subsequent tides serve only to dash her to pieces
But since the erection of the light-house on the Mull
of Galloway, errors have become comparatively in
frequent, and navigation proportionally safe. Two
rocks, called the Big and the Little Scare, lie re
spectively 1£ mile and 2£ miles within the strait
between the Mull of Galloway and Burrowhead, the
former 5| north-east by east of the Mull, and the
latter at % of a mile's further distance.
LUCE (New), a parish in Wigtonshire ; bounded
on the north by Ayrshire ; on the east by Kirk
cowan ; on the south by Old Luce ; and on the west
by Old Luce and Inch. A wing, 1J mile long and
from ^ to lj broad, projects lengthwise to tbe west.
Excepting this, arid some ruggedness of outline, the
parish is a parallelogram, stretching north and south,
and measuring 8| miles by o|. The surface is irre
gular, and generally broken and abruptly undulating.
Along the banks of the rivers, and in a few hollows,
it presents little belts or patches of level ground ;
but, for the most part, it is upland and moorish.
The heights, though not mountainous, are either
bare rocks or have thin dresses of heath, of moss, or
of a coarse grass called sprett. Only, or barely,

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enough of grain is raised for local use ; and prime
attention is given to the rearing of sheep and of
black cattle. Considerable improvements have been
made in the working of the soil, and in the structure
and arrangement of farm-steads ; but- not by any
means proportionate to those of most parts of Scot
land. Plantation, though at once peculiarly suited
to the ground, and likely to be richly compensating,
and greatly needed for the shelter of the land and the
sweetening of the climate, is all but totally unknown.
The rocks are of the stratified transition class. Lead-
mines were in two instances worked nearly a century
ago, but were found to be unremunerating. The
principal landowner is the Earl of Stair. The illus
trious Alexander Peden — the devout and steady Co
venanter, whose character has been so grossly miscon
ceived by the vulgar, in connection with the ' prophe
cies ' palmed or fathered upon him after his death —
was minister of the parish during three years preced
ing 1 662, the notable period of the inglorious ejections
achieved by the ecclesiastical dictator Charles II. The
village of New Luce,, with fewer than 200 inhabi
tants, all labourers and artisans, stands at the con
fluence of Cross- water and Main- water, 5 miles north
of Glenluce. A Voad runs along Main-water, and
two others go off eastward and north-eastward from
the village. Population, in 1801, 368; in 1831, 628.
Houses 114. Assessed property, in 1815, £2,776 —
New Luce is in the presbytery of Stranraer, and
synod of Galloway. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £12. The church is modern,
and abundantly spacious for the population. School
master's salary £25 13s. 4d., with £5 fees, and £1
13s. other emoluments. New Luce and Old Luce
anciently formed one parish, called Glenluce, and
were separated and made distinct erections in 1647.
For a short time succeeding 1661, under the rule of
episcopacy, they were reunited ; but, in 1689, at the
abolition of episcopacy, they were permanently separ
ated. The monks of Glenluce abbey were anciently
proprietors of the original extensive parish, and had
over it a regality jurisdiction. Within its limits were
two chapels, also claimed by the monks, — the one
was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and called Our
Lady's chapel ; and the other was dedicated to the
Saviour, and called Christ's chapel or Kirk-Christ.
A small bay or creek on the coast of Old Luce still
bears the name of Kirk-Christ bay, from the latter
of the chapels having stood in its vicinity. The
church of New Luce, for. some time after its erection,
was popularly called the Moorkirk of Luce.
LUCE (Ol9), a parish in Wigtonshire ; bounded
on the north by New Luce ; on the north-east by
Kirkcowan ; on the east by Mochrum ; on the south
by Luce bay; and on the west by Stoneykirkand Inch.
Its greatest length, in a line due east from the point
where it is first touched by Pooltanton- water, is 10£
miles; and its breadth varies from If to 1\. A lake,
J of a mile long, lies 2£ miles south-east of the village ;
two smaller ones lie 3J miles to the east; and a tiny
one lies % of a mile to the south. Copious springs
of pure water abound. The sea-board of the bay is
in some parts sand, in others gravel, and in others
clay ; and it subsides into a fine sandy beach half-a-
mile broad, which is dry at low-water. In the small
estuary of the Luce and the Pooltanton, vessels of
not more than 60 or 70 tons are accommodated with
a harbour ; and in that estuary also, and the sea-
grounds in its vicinity, there is a considerable salmon
and sea-trout fishery. Cod, flounders, and shell-fish
are taken in the bay. Along the coast and up the
banks of the Luce are some level lands, richly culti
vated, well-adorned with plantation, fully enclosed,
and of warm appearance. The surface everywhere
else is hilly and irregular, but nowhere mountainous,

or, in a strong sense, upland. The spirit of improve
ment, which was long lulled to slumber by a smart
and compensating demand for black-cattle, but whjch
became roused by the provocative of low and dimin
ishing prices, has of late years walked athwart the
once bleak and chiefly pastoral area, and effected
great and enlivening results. The arable grounds
are now, to those which are waste and pastoral, in the
proportion of 3 to 1 . The prime obj ect of interest in
the parish is Glenluce abbey ; but that and the village
have been noticed in the article Glenluce : which
see. The chief heritors are the Earl of Stair and
Sir James Dalrymple Hay, Bart. The house of
Balkail above Glenluce, Park an ancient castle on
the right bank of the Luce, and Genoch on the
Pooltanton, are fine mansions surrounded with wood.
Carscreuch, 2 miles north-east of Glenluce, is an
ancient but ruined seat of the Earls of Stair. The
ruins of the castle of Synniness stand on the coast
south-east of the mouth of the Luce. Population,
in 1801, 1,221 ; ih 1831, 2,180. Houses 371. As
sessed property, in 1815, £12,112 — Old Luce is in
the presbytery of Stranraer, and synod of Galloway.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ; glebe
£30. The parish-school was attended, in 1834, by .
100 scholars; and five private schools by 130. Parish
schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 3d., with between
£30 and £40 fees, and about £4 or £5 other
emoluments. A' United Secession meeting-house is
situated in Glenluce. The ancient ecclesiastical
condition of the parish is noticed in the preceding
article. LUCE. See Hoddam.
LUCKLAW-HILL. See Logie, Fifeshire.
LUDE, an ancient parish in Perthshire, now com
prehended in Blair- Athole : which see.
LUFFNESS, a small bay on the south coast ot
the frith of Forth, between the parish of Aberlady
and that of Dirleton, Haddingtonshire. The bay
now bears the name of Aberlady, but figures in his
tory, under that of Luffness, as the port of Hadding
ton. That ancient burgb having been for ages a sort
of commerdal metropolis, where the court of "the
four burghs " assembled, under tbe chamberlain, to
decide on the disputes of traffic, conceived the no
tion of becoming a sea-port, though upwards of 5
miles from any harbour, and obtained from James
VI. a charter vesting it with full powers over the
bay of Luffness. But the town was baffled nearly
as much in its marine commerce, as afterwards in its
repeated efforts at manufacture ; and at the epoch of
the Revolution it bad connected with its port just
one vessel, of 80 tons burden, and £250 estimated
value. In 1739, the estate of Luffness was bought
by the Earl of Hopetoun for £8,350. See Aber
lady. LUGAR (The), a brief but beautiful rivulet of
the district of Kyle, Ayrshire. Its principal head-
streams, Glenmore and Bella waters, rise in the east
of the parishes of Old Cumnock and Auchinleck,
and run each about 5J or 6 miles, not far distant
from each other, to a junction f of a mile above
Logan-house. The united stream runs S miles west
ward between Auchinleck on the north, and Old
Cumnock on the south, to a confluence with the Ayr
near Barskimming. In its progress it passes the
villages of Cumnock and Ochiltree, and the superb
mansions of Dumfries and Auchinleck. Its banks
are sometimes deep ravines, wooded to the top, —
sometimes high perpendicular walls of rock, or naked,
overhanging and menacing crags, — sometimes gentle
slopes, or undulating declivities waving with trees,
— and sometimes a series of little green peninsulas,
curvingly cut asunder by the sinuosities of its chan
nel. A round hillock, called the Moat, nearly isleted

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by the stream, and situated above the village of
Cumnock, commands an exquisite view over a con
siderable extent of the picturesque and romantic
banks. The rivulet, at its junction with the Ayr,
seems equal to it in volume of water. Hence Burns'
epithet of ' stately Lugar.'
LUGGATE (The), a rivulet of the parish of
Stow, Edinburghshire. It rises in two small head
waters on the north and the south sides of the Sole, in
the south-west extremity of the parish, close on the
boundary with Peebles-shire ; and running first 3|
miles eastward, and next 3£ miles south-eastward,
falls into Gala water at Haugh-head, a mile below
the village of Stow. It is throughout a cold moun
tain-stream, fed by many chilly naked little rills, and
subject to sudden and turbulent overflowings.
LUGGIE (The), a rivulet of Lanarkshire, and the
detached part of Dumbartonshire. Issuing from a small
lake on the boundary between the counties near the
south-east extremity of the parish of Cumbernauld,
it runs 6£ miles westward along the boundary, aug
mented in its progress by four or five feeders from
Lanarkshire. Assuming now a direction a little
north of west, it flows 3J miles along the interior of
the parish of Kirkintilloch ; and then debouching,
runs a mile northward, beneath an aqueduct of the
Forth and Clyde canal, and past the town of Kirk
intilloch, to the Kelvin. Excepting for a brief space
in the parish of Kirkintilloch, where it blushes into
beauty, it is a dull uninteresting stream, sluggish in
its motion, and ditch-like in its banks.
LUGGIE (The), a rivulet of Linlithgowshire,
of brief course under its proper name, but formed of
two considerable head- waters. Its farthest source is
Bog water. This rises in the parish of Bathgate,
1 J mile north-east of the town; makes a circuit of
6 miles round the south, when, running in a north
erly direction, it passes the west side of the town ;
and now flowing deviously 1J mile farther, takes
the name of Ballencrieff-water ; and, under this
name, it runs 1£ mile north-westward on the boun
dary between Torphichen and Bathgate to the point
where it contributes to form the Luggie. Barbauch-
law, the other bead-stream, rises in Lanarkshire ;
and, excepting brief sinuosities, and a mile of due
northerly course immediately before joining the Bal-
lencrieff, moves uniformly toward the north-east.
After flowing 2J miles in Lanarkshire, it runs for 3
furlongs into Torphichen, then describes for 2 miles
the boundary between that parish and Lanarkshire,
and then, over 3J miles to its termination, divides
Torphichen from Bathgate. The united stream of
the two head-waters, now strictly the Luggie, com
mences half-a-mile north of Bridge-castle, and has a
course of less than a mile north-eastward to the
Avon not far from Crawhill. Its length, to the head
of Bog water, is 10 miles, and to the head of Bar-
bauchlaw-burn 10J.
LUGTON (The), a rivulet partly of Renfrew
shire, but principally of Cunningham in Ayrshire.
Excepting very numerous but not large curvatures,
and 1 j mile of westerly course immediately above its
termination, its uniform direction is south-west. It
rises half-a-mile north of Loch-Libo, in the parish of
Nielston, Renfrewshire, and, after traversing that
lake, and making a distance from it of 1£ mile, it
enters Ayrshire, divides Beith and Kilwinning on its
right bank from Dunlop, and Irvine on its left, and
falls into the Garnock 2 miles from the town of Ir
vine, and the same distance, in a straight line, from
Irvine harbour. For a mile above its mouth it tra- j
verses the richly-wooded pleasure-grounds of Eglin
ton castle, and | of a mile above its mouth has that
princely mansion on its brink.

LUGUT. See Luggate.
LUI (The), a branch of the Dee descending from
Benmhuicdhu, through Glenlui, and the forest of
Mar, and joining the Dee on its northern side, about
3 miles below the linn of Dee.
LUINA (Loch), a name occcasionally given to
Loch-Avich in Argyleshire. See Avich.
LUING, an island in the parish of Kilbrandon,
Argyleshire. It is 6£ miles in length, and rarely
more than one in breadth. It is separated on the
north from Seil by a strait scarcely 300 yards wide ;
and it thence extends due southward at a distance of
from 1£ to 3J miles from the coast of Nether Lorn,
and the entrance of Loch-Melfort, with the islands
of TOrsay and Shuna upon its east side. As grouped
with these two islands and with Seil, it exhibits an
extensive range of picturesque and pleasing scenery.
The surface is in general low, though never abso
lutely flat, along the coasts and in the southern dis
trict ; but, as it recedes northward, it rises into many
rocky eminences and cliffs, shows a slight tendency
toward the formation of two distinct ranges, and at
tains an extreme altitude of between 600 and 700
feet. Clay slate forms at once the great mass of the
island, and the source of popular employment and
support. A large population is segregated here — as in
Seil — for the manufacture of roofing slates. The cul
tivation of the soil is in an improved state on the low
grounds, the hollows, and the gentler declivities, and-
has been warmly fostered by the pressure of popula
tion. Mr. Raspe, who was employed by the pro
prietors to survey some of the Western Islands, as
serts that lead, zinc, and silver, have been found in
Luing ; but Dr. M'Culloch suggests doubts as to the
accuracy of his report.
LUING (Sound of), a strait along the west side
of the southern half of the cognominal island just
described. It measures 4 miles in length, and 1^ in
mean breadth ; and divides Luing and Aruluing from
Scarba, Lunga, Ormsa, and one or two islets.
LUMPHANAN, a parish in Aberdeenshire,
bounded on the north by Tough ; on tbe east by
Kincardine-O'Neil; on the south by Birse, from
which it is divided by the Dee ; and on the west
by Coul. It extends from north to south about 6
miles, and from east to west 6 miles. Houses 183.
Assessed property, in 1815, £1,690. Population, in
1801,614; in 1831, 947. This parish consists of
low land surrounded by hills, the most considerable
of which are Mealmead and Craiglich, the latter of
which rises steeply for about a mile from tbe arable
land. The name of Lumphanan signifies 'thebarelittle
valley ;' but the low grounds are by no means bare
now ; being well-cultivated and highly productive.
The soil varies from a deep loam to a thin sand, ac
cording to the elevation from the low lands. In tbe
south-eastern part of the parish there is a consider
able but shallow lake, susceptible of being drained,
and named Auchlossen : see that article. The
principal stream is tbe burn of Lumphanan, besides
which several other rivulets intersect the parish.
There are a few remains of ancient fortifications,
and some cairns, one of which, about a mile north
from the church, on the brow of a hill, is alleged to
be that of the usurper Macbeth, who, according to
tradition, was here slain by Macduff,- in single com
bat, as he fled northwards, and was buried under this
cairn, though Shakspeare makes Dunsinnan the
scene. ' Indeed several places lay claim to this ' ho
nour ;' but Lord Hailes, upon the authority of An
drew Wynton, attributes the event to Lumphanan.
This parish is in the presbytery of Kincardine-O'
Neil, and synod of Aberdeen. Patron, Sir John
Forbes, Bart. Stipend_£153 18s. 3d. ; clebe £10.

LUM

316

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Church built in 1762; sittings 383  Schoolmaster's
salary £27 ; fees, &c. £15 2s. There is a private-
school. LUMSDEN. See Auchindoir.
LUMSDEN, an ancient manor in the parish of
Coldingham, Berwickshire, belonging to a family of
that name so early as the reign of David I. The
ancient peel of Lumsden probably occupied the site
of the present farm-house of East Lumsden ; but in
the early part of the 14th century the Lumsuens re
moved their family-abode to Blanerne on the banks
of the Whitadder, where its picturesque remains
still exist.
LUNAN (The), a river of Forfarshire. Issuing
from a spring called Lunan-well, in the parish of
Forfar, it runs 2£ miles north-eastward to Rescobie-
loch, half the distance in the interior of Forfar, and
the other half on the boundary with Rescobie.
While traversing the lake, and for half-a-mile fur
ther, it bisects Rescobie ; over the next 2J miles,
during which it expands into Balgaves,-loch, it di
vides that parish, on its right bank, from Aberlemno
and the northern section of Guthrie on its left ; and
thence to the German ocean, except for 3 miles,
where it cuts off a wing of Inverkeilor, it has Kirk-
deh and Inverkeilor on the right, and Guthrie, Kin
nell, and Lunan on the left. Its course, for 3J miles
above its embouchure, is north-easterly ; but, from
entering Rescobie-loch to that point, it is due east
ward. Its length is 16$ miles ; and its terminating
point is at Lunan-bay in the vicinity of Redcastle.
It flows with a clear current, and abounds with trout
and pike.
LUNAN (The), a rivulet of Perthshire, formed
by various picturesque rills emptying themselves into
the sylvan and beautiful loch of Lows, in the parish
of Caputh. Speedily after its efflux from that lake,
it becomes lost for f of a mile in the circular loch of
Butterstone. Issuing thence it runs 2 miles east
ward, and 1£ south-eastward — nearly all this dis
tance in the parish of Clunie — and for another J of a
mile expands into a lake, the Loch-Clunie. A mile
farther east, it is once more a lake, or, for IA mile,
is lost in Loch-Drumellie. Running now 3} miles
south-eastward it divides Kinloch and Blairgowrie
on its left bank from Clunie, Lethendy, and Caputh
on its right, and falls into the Isla, 2 miles east of
Meiklour. See Clunie.
LUNAN, a small parish on the coast of Forfar
shire ; bounded on the north by a detached part of
Maryton ; on the east by Lunan-bay ; on the south
east and south- vv^st by Inverkeilor ; on the west by
Kinnell ; and on the north-west by Craig. It is an
oblong 2f miles in extreme length from east to west,
and 1£ in mean breadth. A small rapid rill, leaping
along in cataracts sometimes 20, or 30 feet deep, and
traversing a beautifully romantic dell, called Buckie-
den, occasionally perpendicular on its sides, and
generally gemmed with the polyanthus, the cowslip,
and other flowers and shrubs of the joyous wilder
ness, forms its boundary-line on the north. Lunan-
water, limpid in its waters and pebbly in its strand,
traces the boundary on the south-east. The beach
of the marine boundary on the east is fine and re
freshing ; but will be noticed in the next article.
The surface rises rapidly from the sea and the Lunan
till it attains a height of' nearly 400 feet above sea-
level, and then recedes in a scarcely perceptible
ascent, almost in a table-land to the further boun
dary. Seen from the Inverkeilor side of the Lunan
near the sea, it has the appearance of a richly-culti
vated hill-side, with a fine southern exposure, and
blanched and cadaverous in its beauty from the al
most total absence of both shrubbery and trees. Its
summit-land commands an extensive and enlivening

prospect of the German ocean, and an expanse of
country on the coast. The soil, for a brief way on
the shore, is sandy ; on the lower declivities is deep
and rich ; on the higher grounds is frequently shal
low; and on the average, is good and fertile. The
arable and the uncultivated grounds are in the pro
portion to each other of about 7 to 2. A dark-blue
moorstone rock abounds, and is quarried for building.
The chief landowner is the Earl of Northesk. Lu-
nan-house on the coast, and Arbiku-house on the
south-west, are the mansions of the only other heri
tors. Various localities have names indicating the an
cient vicinity — supposed to be at Redcastle — of a
royal residence. See Inverkeilor. Walter Mill,
or as some historians call him, Sir Walter Mill, the
last Scottish martyr in the cause of the Reformation,
was priest of Lunan during 20 years preceding his
renunciation of popery. He was burnt at St. An
drews, in the 82d year of his age [see article St.
Andrews, p. 40]. Alexander Peddie, nearly the last
surviving priest of compelled prelacy, and allowed by
sufferance to retain his cure after the abolition of
Episcopacy, was minister of Lunan till 1713, and be
queathed to the parish some plate for the commu
nion-service, on the singular condition that it should
be lent when required to any Episcopalian congre
gation within a distance of 7 miles. The parish
is obliquely bisected by the mailroad between Dun
dee and Aberdeen; and is distant, at the nearest
parts, 6 miles from Arbroath, and 3£ from Mon
trose. "Population, in 1801, 318; in 1831, 298.
Houses 72. Assessed property, in 1815, £1,558.
— Lunan is in the presbytery of Arbroath, and synod
of Angus and Mearns. Patron, the Crown. Sti
pend £158 0s. lOd. ; glebe £15. Schoolmaster's
salary £28 17s. 3d., with £25 fees, and £5 10s.
other emoluments. The church was anciently a
vicarage under the monks of Arbroath.
LUNAN-BAY, a beautiful semicircular indenta
tion of the German ocean, 5 miles in extent of
coast line, in the parishes of Inverkeilor, Lunan,
Maryton and Craig, Forfarshire. Its coast for a
mile at each extremity is bold and rocky, occa
sionally exhibiting pyramidal columns upwards of
100 feet in height ; and, over the intermediate or
central 3 miles, in the middle of which enters Lu
nan-water, it is a low sandy beach, slightly chequered
with small stones, and regularly flanked with bent-
covered knolls, and immediately overlooked by the
high grounds of Lunan. Beautiful varieties of sea-
shell, and occasionally some jasper and onyx gems
are found along the strand. The bay has a fine
sandy bottom, and affords safe anchorage in any
storm except from the north-east and east.
LUNCARTY, a suppressed parish and a village
in the Strathmore district of Perthshire. The par
ish was anciently a rectory, is now incorporated with
Redgorton, and forms the north-east division of its
main body. The village stands near the Tay, 4
miles north of Perth, and has about 230 inhabitants.
Luncarty bleachfield has long been reputed the most
extensive in Britain. Its grounds comprehend up
wards of 130 acres. The water-power by which
the works are driven includes the whole volume of
the streams Ordie and Shochie, carried along an
artificial canal, and also a considerable volume led
out from the Tay by means of a dam run nearly
across the river. Four falls of the water-power are
effected, and impel 24 sets of beetles. The works
bleach about two millions of yards of linen-cloth in
the year, and employ upwards of 120 hands. Lun
carty is famous in connection with the decisive over
throw of the Danes, about the year 990, by Kenneth
III., romantically aided by the peasant-ancestor of
the noble family of Hay. The scene of conflict is

LUN

317

LUN

on the Tay, 2 miles above the confluence with it of
the Almond. It was marked till the end of last cen
tury by many little tumuli, through which the farmers
long shrunk to drive the plough ; and it has still two
monumental stones, one of which, four feet high,
bears the name of Denmark. The narrative of the
battle, as given by Boethius, Fordun, and Buchanan,
has been said by Lord Kaimes to possess 'every mark
of fiction ;' but it by no means exceeds possibility,
and vouched by both historiographers and some mo
numents, is very probably an instance of the romance
of real occurrences excelling that of the novelist's
idle fancies. The Danes, strong in numbers and
fiery in resolve, landed on the coast of Angus, razed
the town and castle of Montrose, and moved across
Angus and along Strathmore, strewing their path
with desolation, and menacing Scotland with bon
dage. Kenneth the King heard at Stirling of their
descent, and hastened to take post on Moncrieff-
hill, or in the peninsula of the Earn and the Tay ;
but while there organizing the raw troops, whom he
had swept together, and waiting the arrival of
forces suited to his exigency, he learned that Bertha
or ancient Perth was already besieged. Arraying
what soldiery he had, and debouching so as to get to
northward of the enemy, he marched to Luncarty,
saw the Danes posted on an eminence to the south,
and next day taunted and provoked them to a trial
of strength on the intervening level ground. The
rush of the Danes was dreadful ; it shook the plu
mage from the wings of the Scottish army, and
seemed about to transfix the main body ; but it was
keenly observed by three puissant ploughmen, father
and sons, of the name of Hay, or flaia, who were at
work in a field on the opposite side of the river, and
were bold enough to attempt to infuse their own
courage into the faltering troops. Seizing the yoke
of the plough, and whatever similar tools were at
hand, they crossed the Tay at a ford, and arriving
just at a crisis when the wings had given way, and
the centre was wavering, they shouted shame and
death against the recreant who should flee, and pre
cipitated themselves with such fury on the foremost
of the Danes, as to gain the Scots a moment for ral
lying at a spot, still called Turn-again hillock. Hay,
the father, seemed regarded as if he had been super
human, and had no difficulty in drawing some clans
to follow in his wake; and plunging with these down
a deep ravine, while the battle was renewed on
ground at a little distance from the original scene of
action, he rushed upon the Danes in flank and rear,
and threw them into confusion. A band of peasants,
who seem to have been lurking near or drawn to
gether from curiosity, now raised a loud shout of
jubilation, and were supposed by the Danes to be a
new army. The invaders instantly ceased to fight;
they became a mingled mass, a jostling and bewil
dered herd, of routed men ; and, not excepting their
leaders and their king himself, they either were hewn
down by the sword, or perished in the river. An
assembly of the states, held next day at Scoon, de
creed to give the peasant-conqueror the choice of
the hound's course, or the falcon's flight of land, in re
ward of his bravery. Hay having chosen the latter,
the falcon was let off from a hill overlooking Perth,
and flew eastward to a point a mile south of the
house of Errol, alighting there on a stone which is
still called ' the Hawk's stane.' All the intervening
lands were given in property to Hay's family ; but
they have since been either alienated, or parcelled
out among various lines of descendants.
LUNDIE and FOWLIS-EASTER, two par
ishes united in 1618, but lying contiguously, the for
mer in Forfarshire, and the latter in Perthshire.
Each has its church, its kirk-session, its poors'-box,

and its session register and its school, and likewise
possesses some distinctive peculiarities. Lundie is
3 miles long, varies in breadth from 1£ to 3, and has
an area of 3,258 acres ; and it is bounded on the
north by Newtyle ; on the east by Auchterhouse ;
on the south by Fowlis ; and on the west by Kettins,
— all, except Fowlis, in Forfarshire. Along the
north and west the surface is part of the Sidlaw-
hills, heathy on the higher grounds, but verdant and
rich in pasturage on the southern slopes. The cen
tral and southern sections are champaign, and car
peted with productive soil. Four lakes — the largest
called Long-Loch, and measuring \ of a mile in
length — lie at the foot of the hills, cover jointly an
area of about 110 acres, abound in pikes, perches,
and eels, and are supposed to be bedded with marl.
From tbe lakes, the head-streams of Dicbty-water
run eastward through the parish, incipiently laden
with the rich alluvial spoils which the river deposits
on the low lands in its progress, particularly in the
parish of Dundee. Nearly two-thirds of the parish
are arable, and upwards of 100 acres are meadow-
ground. At a small hill in the vicinity of the lake
of Pitlyall, and about 60 feet above its level, the
surrounding Sidlaws form a kind of amphitheatre,
and give back to a loud cry, or to a slow strain of
instrumental music, a remarkable distinct threefold,
or even fourfold, echo. The greater part of the
parish belongs to the Earl of Camperdown. Some
manufactures employ a few of the inhabitants 
Fowlis-Easter has a triangular form, and measures
3J miles on its north side, 2£ on its east side, and
4£ on its south-west side. Its area is 1,944 acres.
It is bounded on the north by Lundie and Auchter
house ; on the east by Liff; and on the south-west
by LiflF and Longforgan. Black-law, in the north
west corner, is the only hill. The general surface
of the parish slopes gently to the south, and is fully
enclosed, and beautifully cultivated. A lake, called
the Piper-dam, and covering 55 acres, was drained
for sake of its marl and its peat. Two-thirds of the
parish are in tillage, and the remaining third is dis
posed chiefly in forest-ground and pasturage. Fowlis
was the first district in an extensive tract of the
conterminous counties in which a regular rotation of
crops was attempted. The church of Fowlis, ac
cording to an inscription still partly legible on a large
oak-beam which supported the organ-loft, was built
in the year 1142, in fulfilment of a lady's vow, wrung
from her by solicitude for her husband's safe return
from the wars of the crusade. Sir Andrew Gray,
the ancestor of Lord Gray, made it collegiate with
suitable endowments in the reign of James IL, and
placed in it a provost and several prebends. The
edifice is 89 feet long, and 27| wide, and is all built
of hewn stone. A cross surmounts the east gable/
another 8 feet high is in the burying ground ; and a
third, 14 or 15 feet high, formerly stood J of a mile
to the north. Remains of fonts exist at the west
end of the church, and on the exterior and in the
interior of its door. Beside it is the burying-vault
of Lord Gray. The two parishes are traversed by
the turnpike between Dundee and Blairgowrie. Po
pulation of both, in 1801, 693; in 1831, 778. Houses
87. Assessed property, in 1815, £167 — The
united parish is in the presbytery of Dundee, and
synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron, the Earl of
Camperdown. Stipend £201 0s. lid.; glebe £9.
The minister officiates alternately in the two church
es. Salary of each of the two schoolmasters £30,
with about £20 fees.
LUNDIN. See Largo.
LUNESTING, a parish in Shetland now annexed
to Nesting : which see.
LUNGA, a small island on the west flank of the

LUS

318

LUS

sound of Luing. It extends about 2£ miles by f of
a mile north and south ; and is separated at its ends
by very narrow straits, from Ormsa and Scarba.
The strait at the south end, between it and Scarba,
is obstructed on the east by a rocky islet, and has a
tumbling and impetuous tidal current quite as violent
and grandly scenic as that of the far more celebrated
Corrievrekin. Lunga consists of a long irregular hilly
ridge, generally less than 500 feet above sea-level,
but occasionally rising to nearly 1,000. This ridge
is disposed in uneven, rocky, and often naked emi
nences, interspersed with patches of boggy ground
and heath, as Well as with occasional coppices of'
birch and alder ;' and it admits neither level ground
nor more than tiny pendicles of such declivity as can
be cultivated, even with the spade. On the western
side, it is almost entirely bare and abrupt ; and on
the eastern side, it is skirted by shelving rocks, but
descends somewhat more gently, and displays a
greater extent of verdure. Quartz rock occupies the
western side, and clay slate the eastern, both inter
mingled with other schistose substances, and tra
versed by numerous trap veins. From the different
eminences of the island, the views are extremely in
teresting; on the east the glassy surface of the
sound of Luing smoothly gliding along in circling
eddies like a majestic river ; and, on the south, the
vexed and foaming current of the mimic of Corrie
vrekin, overhung by the grand form of Scarba, stoop
ing down in one vast yet varied mass, to rocky shores
and a wooded amphitheatre, and finely contrasted
with the long low lines of the opposite coasts, and
with the numberless islets and rocks which adorn
and diversify the almost retiform sea.
LUSCAR. See Carnock.
LUSS, a parish in Dumbartonshire; 8} miles long
from north to south, from 2£ to 5 miles broad, and
about 33 square miles in superficial extent ; bounded
on the north by Arrochar ; on the east by Loch-
Lomond; on the south by Bonhill and Cardross; and
on the west by Row and Loch-Long. Alpine moun
tains, some of them towering aloft to nearly 3,000
feet above the level of the sea, spread out their bases
over much the larger part of the area. But tbe
congeries of mountains, even where most compact,
is cloven down into glens of such wild beauty and
gorgeous picturesqueness, as quite to relieve the
rugged aspect of the bold landscape. Along the
northern boundary, and for a brief way in the inte
rior, is Glen-Douglas, 4J miles in length, traversed
all the way by fhe little stream which gives it name,
and opening at Inveruglas, or its mouth, upon the
ferry across Loch-Lomond to Rowerdennan at the
foot of Benlomond. Two and a quarter, and 3£
miles southward, are Glenmaachan and Glenma-
curn, converging into the sylvan and joyous glen of
Luss, and aggregately with the latter curving 6
miles south-eastward, and traversed by the two head
waters, and the united volume of the streamlet
Luss to the village. Farther south, Glenfinlas,
watered by its cognominal brook, stretches 3 miles
south-eastward, and then runs, in a wooded dress,
li mile eastward to Loch-Lomond, opposite Inch-
in urr in. Near the southern boundary the lower part
of Glenfruin, noted as the scene of a sanguinary
figit in 1603, between the clans of Macgregor and
Colquhoun, goes 2£ miles eastward and north-east
ward to a point 1 £ mile south of the termination of
the former glen. The only low-lying surface stretches
along Loch- Lomond from the southern boundary to
Ross-Dhu, the seat of Sir James Colquhoun, Bart.,
2 miles south of the village; and is partly level,
partly a waving plain, and partly a regular ascent,
which soon rises up in acclivity, and becomes lost in
the aspirings of the mountains. Many hundred acres,

on the low grounds, up the sides and hollows of the
glens, and along Hie whole brink of Loch-Lomond,
are covered with wood, much of it natural, and very
beautifully grouped. From the southern boundary
to the village.a series of fine little headlands run out
into Loch-Lomond; and north of the village the
surface rises up from the very margin of the lake,
merely'admits of a feathered belting of wood, and
then soars away into mountain. The varied super
ficial outlines of the parish, its low grounds and its
uplands, its woods and its glens, contribute largely
and very gorgeously to the magnificent framework in
which the pictured beauties of the most boasted of
the Scottish lakes is set. Some of the loveliest
baskets of shrubbery, too, which rest on the lake's
waters, are contributed by Luss; for Inchtavan-
ach, Inchconachan, Inchlonaig.Inchgalbraith,
and Inchfriechlan, are all within its limits. See
these articles. Two of the most admired views of
the lake and of the scenery which environs it, are
obtained from the highest grounds of Inchtavanach,
and from Strone-hill in the vicinity of the village.
Loch- Long touches the parish, or rather a protru-
sion-of it, over a distance of only J of a mile. Co
pious springs of excellent, water are numerous. The
extent of land in tillage is greatly narrowed — though
highly to the advantage of the scenic attractions of
the parish — by several hundreds of acres of the best
arable grounds being disposed in lawn, pasture, and
plantation around Ross-Dhu. The extensive hill
pastures maintain numerous herds of Highland black
cattle, and large flocks of blackfaced sheep. A free
stone quarry supplies building material for local use ;
and quarries of greyish-blue and of dark-blue slate,
at Camstraddon and Luss, yielding a large and en
riching produce' for exportation. On the Fruin are
a saw-mill,, a grain-mill, and a mill for paring down
logwood ; and on the Luss above the village are a
saw-mill and a grain-mill. About 1J mile south of
the village are the remains of a large cairn called
Carri-na-Cheasoig, 'the cairn of St. Kessog.' This
saint is said to have suffered martyrdom near the site
of the cairn in the 6th century, and to have been
buried on the site of the church ; and be was an
ciently worshipped by the Romanists as the tutelary
of the parish. Haco of Norway, during his invasion
of 1263, spread bloodshed and devastation through
Luss and its islands. Alwyn, the second Earl of
Lennox, granted the lands of Luss to the dean of
Lennox ; and from the dean's descendants the lands
passed, in the 14th century, to the Colquhouns of
Colquhoun. One of the Colquhouns, called Sir
John, was, in 1474, made Lord-high-chamberlain of
Scotland, became, in 1477, governor of Dumbarton-
castle for life ; and, in 1478, was killed in defending
the fortress from besiegers. The celebrated Rev.
John M'Laurin, known generally in connection only
with his subsequent ministry in Glasgow, and the
recent distinguished scholar and Gaelic translator,
Dr. John Stuart, were ministers of Luss. The
beautiful and very picturesquely situated ' village of
Luss stands on the margin of Loch-Lomond, distant 9
miles from Helensburgh, and 1 3 from Dumbarton. The
place is a crowded resort of tasteful tourists during the
balmy months of the year, and has a good inn. A fair
is held in it for sheep and lambs on the 3d Tuesday of
August. The population of the village is about 260.
The turnpike from Dumbarton to the Highlands
passes along the margin of the lake through the vil
lage, and two other turnpikes cut the southern divi
sion, the one coming northward from Helensburgh,
and the other going westward up Glenfruin. Popu
lation, in 1801, 953; in 1831, 1,181. Houses 191.
Assessed property, in 1815, £4,233  Luss is in the
presbytery of Dumbarton, and synod of Glasgow and

LUT

319

LYN

Ayr. Patron, Sir James Colquhoun, Bart. Stipend
£219 13s. 3d. ; glebe £17. The amount of unap
propriated teinds cannot be ascertained. The church,
' with about 500 sittings, and excellent in its masonry,
was built in 1771. The parish, previous to the Re
formation, was a rectory, and between 1429 and that
epoch was a prebend of the cathedral of Glasgow,
and was served by the prebendary's vicar pensioner.
The ancient parish was greatly more extensive than
the modern. In 1621, the forty pound lands of
Buchanan, on the east side of Loch-Lomond, were
detached from it, and incorporated with Inchcailliach,
the modern Buchanan : in 1659, the lands of four
proprietors, at the south end of the lake, were an
nexed to Bonhill; and, in 1658, all the extensive
territory on the north, which now constitutes Ar
rochar, was made independent; but, on the contrary,
the lands of Caldannach, Presstelloch, and Conglens,
which anciently belonged to Inchcailliach, have, in
modern times, been united to Luss ; and the lands
of Bannachrae, within the limits of Row, are at
tached to it quoad sacra. A chapel, subordinate to
the parish-church, anciently stood on the lands of
Buchanan. Besides the parochial school, there are
a private school, a school for females, and supported
by Lady Colquhoun, and a school maintained by the
society in Scotland for propagating Christian know
ledge. Parish schoolmaster's salary £34, with from
£9 to £12 fees  rLuss is remarkable for the salubri-
ousness of its climate. Mr. Pennant, in 1769, speci
fied six of its inhabitants whose united ages were
540; and the Rev. Dr. Stewart, in his Statistical
Report of 1792, specified other six whose joint ages
were 502.
LUTHER, or Leuther, * small river in Kin
cardineshire, rising in the Grampian hills, north of
Drimitoughty, and running east, then southwards,
through Fordoun [which see] and Laurencekirk,
to the North Esk.
LUTHERMOOR, a small village in the parish of
Marykirk, Kincardineshire.
LUTHRIE. See Criech.
LYBSTER, a village and a quoad sacra parish, on
the west coast of Caithness-shire. The village stands
at the bead of Amherst-bay, a little east of the great
north mail-road, and 13 miles south-west of the town
of Wick. It was commenced, in 1802, by the late
Lieutenant-general Sinclair ; and, already of consid
erable size, it promises to become a place of impor
tance. Many of its houses are good; and new ones
are annually added. Most of its inhabitants are
maintained solely by the herring-fishery; and they
have amongst them about 100 boats. The village
has a post-office, a friendly society, one or two
schools, and two annual fairs. Population about
400.  The quoad sacra parish lies, quoad civilia, in
the parish of Latheron; and is in the presbytery of
Caithness, and synod of Sutherland and Caithness.
The church is situated in the village, and was built
in 1836-7, at the cost of £832. Sittings 805. Sti
pend £100. The parish comprehends a landward
district which, jointly with the village, has a popu
lation of upwards of 2,500. Its erection arose from
the Church-extension scheme of the General As
sembly, and ranks as the first result of that scheme
north of Inverness. . A preaching-station in con
nexion with the United Secession was commenced
at the village in 1835, but has been abandoned.
LYDOCH (Loch), a lonely sheet of water in
the moor of Rannoch, in the north-western corner
of Perthshire. The distance from the inn at King's-
house to the western extremity of the lake, is about
6 miles; from the eastern, or lower extremity, to
the head of Loch-Rannoch, it is much the same.
Loch-Lydoch is about 7 miles in length, and about

a mile in breadth. About 4 miles from its eastern
end it separates into two distinct branches of almost
equal size and length — the one of which stretches
almost due west, while the other takes a south-west
direction ; thus giving it the appearance of a huge
fork, with the handle towards Loch-Rannoch. The
moor of Rannoch and Loch-Lydoch are described by
Dr. M'Culloch in his usual caustic yet graphic man
ner : " Pray imagine the moor of Rannoch ; for who
can describe it? A great level, (I hope the word
will pardon the abuse of it,) 1,000 feet above the
sea, 16 or 20 miles long, and nearly as much wide,
bounded by mountains so distant as scarcely to form
an apprehensible boundary; open, silent, solitary; an
ocean of blackness and bogs, a world before chaos ;
not so good as chaos, since its elements are only
rocks and bogs, with a few pools of water-bogs of
the Styx, and waters of Cocytus, with one great,
long, sinuous, flat, dreary, black, Acheron-like lake,
Locb-Lydog, near which arose three fir-trees, just
enough to remind me of the vacuity of all the rest.
Not a sheep nor a cow; even the crow shunned it,
and wheeled his croaking flight far off to better re
gions. If there was a blade of grass anywhere, it
was concealed by the dark stems of the black, black,
muddy sedges, and by the yellow, melancholy rush
of the bogs."
LYNDALE. See Snizort.
LYNE (The), a river of Peebles-shire, the next
in local importance to the Tweed. It rises in vari
ous little head-waters close on the boundary with
Edinburghshire; one of them on Weatherlaw, a very
brief distance from the sources of the North Esk,
and the Water of Leith ; another of them on West
Cairn-law, the largest of the Pentlands, 1,800 feet
high ; and several of them draining Cauldstane-slap,
a grand mountain-pass, or place of egress, from T weed-
dale to the north. The Lyne, receiving in its pro
gress Baddingsgill-burn, West-water, and numerous
mountain-rills, runs 5| south-eastward through Lin
ton, 2 miles southward between Linton on the west
and Newlands on the east, and 3| in the same direc
tion through Newlands. It is now joined, half-a-mile
below Drochil-castle, by Tarth-water, which bears
along with it the tributary waters of a branch of the
Medwin, on its right bank, runs 4 mifes south-east
ward between Stobo and Manor on the right, and New-
lands, Lyne, and Peebles on the left, and falls into the
Tweed 2J miles in a straight line above Peebles. Its
entire length of course is 151- miles, or, including sinu
osities, about 20. The Lyne is a good trouting-stream.
LYNE and MEGGET, two parishes in Peebles
shire, widely apart in position, but strictly identified
in their ecclesiastical connexion and statistics. Lyne
is nearly circular, with a small square northerly pro
jection; and is bounded on the north by Newlands';
on the north-east by Harehope-burn, which divides
it from Eddlestone ; on the east and south-east by
Meldon-burn, which divides it from Peebles; on the
south and south-west by Lyne- water, which divides
it from Stobo; and on the west by Howe-burn, and
Stevenston-hill, which divide it from Newlands.
The circle is 2} miles in diameter, and the square
projection \ of a mile deep. A stripe of low ground
stretches along the Lyne, sharp and gravelly in its
soil, and bleak and naked in its aspect, but plied to
a certain extent with the plough. The rest of the
area is upland and strictly pastoral, once covered
with natural wood, but now adorned with scarcely a
tree. In the south-west, overlooking the Lyne, are
vestiges of a Roman camp 6 acres in extent, and oc
cupying a singularly advantageous site. The Glas
gow and Peebles turnpike runs along the Lyne 
Megget is distant geographically 8 miles, but along
the shortest practicable path 14 miles. It lies on

LYN

320

LYCv

the southern verge of the county, and is bounded on
the north by Manner; on the east and south-east by
Selkirkshire; on the south-west by Dumfries-shire;
on the west by Tweedsmuir; and on the- north-west
by Drummelzier. It measures nearly 6 miles from
east to west, and between 6 and 7 from north to
south ; St. Mary's Loch, for 1 mile on the south-east,
belongs to it in common with Yarrow. Megget- water
rises in the extreme west, and, running due east to
St. Mary's Loch, cuts the parish into almost equal
parts. The ground is very hilly and solitarily pas
toral. The summits and higher acclivities are clothed
with heath and coarse grass ; but the lower slopes
afford excellent pasture. Moorfowl abounds." A
species of eagle, from the heights on the boundary
with Dumfries-shire, sometimes carries off a young
lamb, even in view of the shepherd. Two old
towers, whose ruins still exist, seem to have accom
modated the Scottish kings when hunting in the
forest. Though the district has no modern road,
traces exist of several roads stretching in various
directions, and probably cut out for the accommoda
tion of the royal hunters. On Glengabbern-burn, a
tributary of Megget-water, are some traces of a
search for gold, which Boethius, Buchanan, and other
writers, say was successful. Population of Lyne
and Megget, in 1801, 167; in 1831, 156. Houses
25. Assessed property, in 1815, £2,244. — The
united parish is in the presbytery of Peebles, and
synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, the Earl
of Wemyss. Stipend £153 9s. Id. ; glebe £25.
The parishes were united in 1620. Lyne was origi-
•nally a chaplainry subordinate to Stobo, but after
wards became a rectory. The church is a solid
structure, built previous to the Reformation, but
re-seated and otherwise repaired in 1831. Sittings
70. The pulpit is a remarkable piece of mechanism,
imported from Holland, in 1644, by Lady Yester.
Megget place of worship is a chapel built upwards of
33 years ago, and kept in repair by subscription.
Sittings 70. What seems to have been the ancient

church, is a ruin, surrounded by a cemetery still IB
use, at Henderland. The famous freebooter, Cock-
burn of Henderland, was interred in the cemetery.
The minister ascertained the population of the two
parishes, in 1835, to be 166,-40 of whom were dis
senters. His services are given, two sabbaths to
Lyne, and one to Megget. Salary of the Lyne
schoolmaster £25 13s. 3|d., with £15 fees and £2
10s. other emoluments; of the Megget schoolmaster
£7, with £4 fees and £1 15s. other emoluments.
LYON (The), a river of Breadalbane, Perth
shire. It rises on the south-east side of Benachastle,
in a long south-westerly projection of the parish of
Fortingal, close on the boundary with Glenorchy in
Argyleshire, runs If mile north-eastward across the
projection, and then describes the segment of a circle
over a distance of 5| miles between Fortingal on its
left bank, and the most westerly section of Kenmore
on its right. At midway of the 5| miles it expands _
into Loch-Lyon. Leaving Kenmore, it runs 23 miles
along Fortingal, part of the distance north-eastward;
but generally in an easterly direction ; and then, over a
distance of 1| mile south-eastward, dividing Dull on
its left bank from a part of Weem on its right, it
falls into the Tay1, 2^ miles after that magnificent
river's efflux from its cognominal lake, and amidst
the gorgeous scenery which surrounds Taymouth-
castle. Its entire length of course is 32 miles. Of
a host of mountain-tributaries, which on both banks
come obstreperously down upon its path, the longest
is Glenmore-water, 1\ miles in length, and joining
it at the point of its leaving Fortingal. The Lyon
has two considerable cascades, — the one called the
Sput-baan at the entrance of its glen, and theother
the fall of Moar, 4 miles above Glenlyon church.
At the latter it leaps over a considerably lofty pre
cipice into a deep narrow pool, and, when swollen,
yields a large produce of salmon. The river tra
verses the districts of Glenlyon and Fortingal
proper ; and, as to the nature and aspect of its bason,
is described under these titles.

PASS OF LENT.

MAB

321

MAC

M

MABERY (Loch), or Macbeary, a small lake
in Ayrshire and Wigtonshire, but chiefly in the latter,
stretching southward between the parishes of Pen-
ningham and Kirkcowan. It is 1J mile in length,
and half-a-mile in breadth. On one of several islets
which stud its bosom are the remains of a large cas
tellated building and garden. The superfluent waters
of the lake form the river Bladenoch.
MACDUFF, a sea-port town and burgh-of-barony
in the parish of Gamrie, county of Banff, distant about
1 ^ mile east of Banff, on the opposite side of the river
Deveron, and the bay of Banff. The communication
between the two towns is opened by a magnificent
bridge on which there is no toll. Macduff is a mo
dern town, having risen, since 1732, from little else
than a mere collection of fishermen's huts, to be a
place of considerable size and importance, containing
a number of regularly planned street* and good houses,
with one of the best harbours in the Moray frith, and
a thriving and rapidly increasing trade. The popula
tion, in 1812, was 1,300, but it has since increased
to about 2,300 ; and during the season of the herring
fishery it is upwards of 3,000. Previous to 1783 it
was called ' Down.' In that year it received a char
ter of Novodamus from the Crown, at the desire of
the proprietor, James, Earl of Fife, erecting it into a
' free and independent burgh-of-barony.' The rate
of the harbour-dues being about one-half lower than
those of Banff harbour, and the port itself, though
subordinate in customs matters to Banff, being pre
ferable to its rival in situation, depth, and accommo
dation, Macduff has much more import and export
traffic than Banff. The harbour is the private pro
perty of the Earl of Fife. The amount of the har
bour and shore-dues, for 1831-2, was £248 10s. ;
for 1832-3, £267. The chief exports are grain,
cured herrings, — for which this is the most impor
tant station between Cromarty and Fraserburgh, —
salmon, cod-fish, live cattle, and cured pork, to Lon
don, Leith, and some other places in the south. The
chief imports are lime and bone-manure, coals, gro
ceries, &c. ; and from Sweden, iron and deals; Russia,
hemp ; and Holland, flax. Herrings are sometimes
exported to Prussia and other foreign parts. Mr. In
gram has erected works for the manufacture of sugar
from the white beet-root in this neighbourhood. The
establishment is on a small scale, but is the first of
the kind that has yet been formed in Scotland. For
further particulars see Banff. — Macduff is included
in the parliamentary boundaries of the burgh of Banff;
and contained, at the time of the municipal inquiry,
80 houses worth £10 a-year and upwards. The
commissioner observes, that there was a feeling in
Banff favourable to an unity of municipal jurisdic
tion in the two towns ; but in Macduff the feeling
was unanimously the reverse. The police of Mac
duff was found to be efficient, and no other solid
ground of union could be urged, — On the contrary,
the commissioner was of opinion that evil would ac
crue to the inhabitants of Macduff by an extension
of the municipality of Banff over it, while Banff
would be nowise injured by a continuance of the
actual position ; he therefore thought that the pre
sent case should form an exception to the general
rule that municipalities should extend over terri
tories within the parliamentary boundaries. Macduff
has a town-house and a jail. The Earl of Fife's splen
did seat, Duff-house, is in the vicinity. The church,
II.

or rather chapel, is prominently situated on an emi
nence. It is a neat edifice with a handsome spire, and
Lord Fife, who gives the clergyman a small income,
has adorned the precincts by erecting a cross in a con
spicuous and picturesque position. A portion of the
parish was annexed, upwards of 60 years since, by
authority of the presbytery, to this chapel ; but as
already noticed under article Gamrie [which see],
it has not yet been erected into a parish quoad sacra.
MACDUFF'S CROSS. See Newburgh.
MACHAIG, a small circular lake nearly a mile in
diameter, 3j miles north of the village of Doune, in
the parish of Kilmadock, Perthshire. Its banks are
wooded and beautiful. A streamlet carries off its
superfluent waters by a circuitous route to the Teith,
a little below Doune.
MACHAN. See Dalserf.
MACHAR (New), a parish in the district of
Buchan, Aberdeenshire; bounded on the north by
Udney ; on the east by Belhelvie ; on the south by
Old Machar and Dyce, from the latter of which it is
divided by the river Don ; and on the west by Fin
tray and Keith-hall. In its northern district is Stra-
locb, which belongs to Banffshire, though, of course,
totally disintegrated from that county : see note to
article Fergus (St.). In length, from north-west
to south-east, this parish measures about 9 miles ;
and in breadth, from east to west, 2 to 3 miles.
Houses 243. Assessed property, in 1815, £2,286.
Population, in 1801, 925; in 1831, 1,246. The
road from Aberdeen to Old Meldrum intersects the
parish. Its surface is in general rather level, and
the soil various but for the most part arable and
well-cultivated. There are extensive plantations,
especially in the southern district, in the vicinity of
the Don ; and in this quarter also is a beautiful little
lake called Bishop's-loch, anciently Loch-Goull, on
an islet in the midst of which the Bishops of Aber
deen resided before the chantry was erected. The
ruins of their castle still exist. The islet is finely
adorned with trees. There are some good mansions
and farm-houses in this parish. Its vicinity to Aber
deen is very advantageous to the district. There are
few or no objects of antiquarian or historical interest;
but on a moor within the parish an engagement took
place, in 1447, between the Royalists and Covenan
ters, in which the latter were victorious. The ancient
name of the parish was the Upper Parochin of St.
Machar, — a saint to whom was dedicated the cathe
dral of Old Aberdeen, or rather the kirk of Kirk-
town, on the site of which the cathedral was after
wards built: the parish itself was part of the dean
ery of St. Machar : see article Aberdeen  It is in
the presbytery and synod of Aberdeen. Patton, the
Earl' of Fife. Stipend £217 9s. 4d. ; glebe £16.
Schoolmaster's salary £30, with £8 8s. fees, &c.
There is a private school in the parish.
MACHAR (Old), or Old Aberdeen. See
article Aberdeen.
MACHERS (The), a large and broad peninsula,
lying between Luce-bay and Wigtdn-bay, and con
stituting the south-eastern one of the three great
divisions of Wigtonshire. The name is Celtic, and
signifies 'flat or low country.' Though the boundary-
line between and the larger district called the Mdors,
is not well-defined, the Machers may be viewed as
including the parishes of Whithorn, Glasserton, Sor-
bie, Kirkinner, and most of Mochrum, and as com
X

MAC

322

MAD

prehending an area of about 64 square miles. Yet,
measured in a line, from the estuary of the Luce and
the Piltanton at the head of Luce-bay to an expan
sion of the estuary of the Cree between Carty-port,
and at the head of Wigton-bay, it would include all
Mochrum, and parts of Old Luce, Kirkcowan, and
Penningham, and comprehend at least 104 square
miles. MACHLINE. See Mauchline.
MACHONY, a rivulet of the parishes of Muthil
and Blackford, Perthshire. It rises in several head
waters on the heights of Blair-in-roan, flows 7 miles
through Muthil, forms, for 1 mile, the boundary-line
between that parish and Blackford, and then runs 2^
miles to the Earn, a little above Kinkell. Its gen
eral direction is easterly; its tributaries are small but
numerous ; and its waters abound in excellent small
trout. Though itself unattractive in a land rich in the
romance and beauty of its streams, its name, along with
that of Blair-in-roan, excites a little attention, — the
one meaning ' a battle,' and the other ' the spotted
Battle-field.' Some antiquaries point to it, and strive
to give it stirring interest, in connexion with the
vexed question respecting the field of the battle of
the Grampians. See Ardoch.
MACHRIHANNISH-B AY. See Campbellton.
MADDERTY, a parish of triangular form in
Strathearn, Perthshire. It is bounded on the north
by Crieff and Foulis- Wester, and measures, on that
side, 5J miles ; on the south-east by Gask and
Trinity Gask, and measures, on that side, 4j miles ;
and on the south-west by Trinity Gask and Crieff,
and measures, on that side, 3 miles. The surface is
level, carpeted with good soil, wholly arable, and
well-enclosed and cultivated. Along the greater
part of the northern boundary runs the Pow, or
Powaffray, a stagnant yet fitful stream, moving
sluggishly in an artificial canal 6 feet deep and 24
wide, but subject to inundations which now injure
the adjacent low grounds and now enrich them with
alluvial or manurial deposits. The south-western
boundary runs between 1 and 1 J mile distant from
the Earn. The chief object of interest in the parish
is the ruined abbey of Inchaffray : which see.
There are two hamlets or rather clachans called
Bellycloine and Craigs. The mansions are Dubb-
heads, Woodend, and Dullary. A few of the par
ishioners are employed in the manufacture of coarse
linen ; but the great majority are connected with
agriculture. The parish is traversed by the ancient
Roman road from the camp of Ardoch to the Tay ;
and is distant, at the nearest point, 2 miles from
Crieff. Population, in 1801,, 560; in 1831, 713.
Houses 137. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,528 
Madderty is in*the presbytery of Auchterarder, and
synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron, the Earl of
Kinnoul. Stipend £224 17s. 3d. ; glebe £11. Un
appropriated teinds £267 6s. 6d  The parochial
school was attended, in 1834, by 90 scholars '; and
a private school by 64. ParisTi-schoolmaster's sal
ary £34 4s. -4id., with £12 fees, and a house and
garden — Madderty gave the title of Baron to James,
the second son of the 2d Lord Drummond, and the
ancestor of the Viscounts of Strathallan. He was
created Lord Madderty in 1609.
MADDY (Loch), a large indentation of the sea
on the east side of the island of North Uist. It
stretches into a low flat country consisting pf a
brown, peaty, boggy land ; and cuts it into innumer
able islets and peninsulas, which in summer afford a
scanty herbage for a few animals, and, in winter, are
abandoned to wild geese, wild ducks, swans, and
sea-gulls. So remarkable are its projections and
sinuosities, that, while its waters do not cover an
urea of more- than 9 square miles, its coast-line has

been found by measurement to extend to 200 miles.
Those fuci which are used in the making of kelp
greatly abound along its shores ; they are, for the
most part, cut every three years; and, about twenty
years ago, they annually amounted, in the gross
weight of what was cut, to 7,200 tons, and, in the
quantity of kelp which was produced, to 300 tons.
In the entrance of the loch lies a group of islets,
separated from one another by depths of sea of from
7 to 15 fathoms, and distant, at their nearest point,
a mile from any shore, yet covered with such a thick
bed of alluvial clay and rubbish as indicates their
former connexion with some higher tract of land,
and records those changes which produced the great
sinuosities of the loch. Between these islets and
the shore, and about £ of a mile from the latter, are
two remarkable detached rocks, which serve as marks
to mariners, and bear the names of Maddy-More and
Maddy-Grisioch. Both are about 100 feet in height,
irregularly columnar, and abrupt or predpitous ; and,
consisting of a compact and dark bluish grey basalt,
present the phenomenon of being the only specimens
of basaltic rock which occur in the entire group of
Long-Island. MADOES, or MADOIS (St.), a small parish at
the east end of the Carse of Gowrie, Perthshire ;
bounded on the north-west by Kinfauns ; on the east
Kv Errol ; on the south by the frith of Tay ; and on
the west by the Inchyra district of Kinnoul. Its
greatest length, from north to south, is 1 J mile ; its
greatest breadth is ljmile; and its area is only 1,152
imperial acres. The surface seems, on a hasty survey,
to be a perfect level, but really consists of two smaller
esplanades and a larger one, respectively about 3, 9,
and 14 feet above the level of the Tay, and of a slow
swell whose ridgy summit has an altitude above the
Tay of about 60 feet. The district lies opposite the
mouth of the Earn, at the part of the Carse of Gowrie
where that golden and fructiferous plain expands in
the full breadth and blush of its beauty, and becomes —
with the intervention of the Tay, J of a mile broad —
the continuation eastward of the fine valley of Strath
earn. The soil, toward the river, is a deep strong
clay, and, on the higher grounds, it is a rich brown
loam ; and, in both species, it is very fertile and in
exquisite cultivation. Excepting about 30 acres dis
posed in plantation, and about 60 laid out in perma
nent pasture, the whole area is constantly in tillage.
A quarry of sandstone similar to that of Clashbennie,
in the conterminous parish of Errol, is worked at Cot-
town.* Near the eastern boundary is a stone of some
historical note, called ' the Hawk's stane,' and referred
to in our article Luncarty ; and in the churchyard
is an elaborately sculptured and very beautiful Runic
monument  Pitfour-castle, the residence of Sir John
Stuart Richardson, Bart., the sole heritor of the par
ish, is a spacious quadrangular edifice, surmounting
an artificial terrace, environed by tastefully dispos
ed and ornamented pleasure-grounds, and vieing in
wealth of aspect and power of attraction with the
noble and splendid mansions of districts in its neigh
bourhood — A few of the parishioners are weavers
employed by the manufacturers of Dundee. Two
hamlets, Cottown and Hawkstone, have each about
50 or 60 inhabitants. The parish is bisected by the
* The more correct or entire organic remain of an unknown
kind of fish referred to in our article EnnoL, as having recently
engaged the attention of Professor Agassiz, was found in this
quarry, and sent to him by the minister of the parish, who says
respecting it, in the New Statistical Account: " It proves to
be a new species of the genus Holoptychus, which he [M. Ag
assiz] has named Holoptychus nobilisBimus. Other species of
the same genus have been found in the limestone ot Bardie.
house, Edinburgh, [see Burdikhouse,] and in the Oamrie de.
posit, Banffshire ; but this individual, Agassiz writes, ' will
enable ine at length to define precisely the character of the
genus which I have named Holoptychus, from the folds of the
acales.'"

MAG

323

MAI

mail-road between Perth and Dundee ; and has a
pier, of recent erection and great utility, on the Tay.
Population, in 1801, 295; iii 1831, 327. Houses 70.
Assessed property, in 1815, £4,376  St. Madoes is
in the presbytery of Perth, and synod of Perth and
Stirling. Patron, Sir J. S. Richardson, Bart, of
Pitfour. Stipend £207 8s. 8d. ; glebe £80. Un
appropriated teinds unascertained, owing to the lo
cality in the teind-omce respecting the parish being
lost. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with £9
17s. 10^d. fees, and £4 10s. other emoluments.
The parish is supposed to have its name from St.
Madoch, or Modoch, whom tradition and Keith make
a bishop in Scotland in the 3d or 4th century, or sev
eral, probably six or seven, centuries before a diocesan
bishop existed in the country, and from whom Kil
madock is supposed also to have its designation ; but
St. Madoes has a popular or vulgar appellation among
the inhabitants of the district which defies etymolo
gical analysis, and seems to be of some antiquity, —
the curious name Semmiedores.
" The stannin stanes o' Semmiedores,"
are mentioned in an old ballnd.
MAGNUS BAY (St.), a spacious bay on the
west coast of the mainland of Shetland. It mea
sures 8J miles at the entrance, expands to 1 1 miles,
and indents the land to the depth of 7 miles. It
enters between the headland of Eshaness, in the
parish of Northmaven, on the north, and that of
Sandness in the cognominal parish on the south ;
but has in its mouth, half-a-mile from the latter, the
.sland of Papa-Stour; so that it is reduced at the
entrance to an open channel of only 6 miles broad.
Around its inner verge are the islets of Vemantrey,
Mickle Roe, Little Papa, and Linga, besides various
holms and skerries ; and projecting from it into the
-and are various bays or voes, which contain safe and
excellent anchorage for any number of vessels, of
any burthen, — particularly Hillswick, Olna frith voe,
Gron frith voe, and Unzie frith.
MAGUS-MUIR, a district on the western skirts
of the parish of St. Andrews, and the eastern of
Ceres parish, Fifeshire, formerly wild and bleak, but
now in great part tamed of its savage and sterile
aspect by the culture of the plough. It is celebrated
in history as having been the scene of the murder of
the tyrannical Archbishop Sharp, on the 3d of May,
1679. The spot where, according to tradition, the
'rude deed' was done, is about 4 miles from St.
Andrews, on the lands of Stratbkinness, the property
of Mr. Whyte Melville, where there is a stone erected
to the memory of some of the Covenanters who,
having been taken at Bothwell-bridge, were brought
here and executed, and their bodies hung in chains
on the site of the murder, as if to appease the arch
bishop's manes, for the greater part of them had
never been in Fifeshire till the day preceding their
execution. MAIDEN-CASTLE. See Kennoway.
MAIDEN-CASTLE. See Campsie.
MAIDEN-CASTLE. See Falkland.
MAIDEN-CAUSEWAY, an ancient line of road,
proceeding from Bennochie into the woods of Pito-
drie. It is paved with stones, and about 14 feet
wide, and has every appearance of having been a
vicinal way of the Romans.
MAIDENKIRK. See Kirkmaiden.
MAIDEN-PAP, a hill in Caithness-shire, in the
parish of Latheron, elevated nearly 2,000 feet above
the level of the sea.
MAIDEN-SKERRY. See Northmaven.
MAIN (The). See Inch, Wigtonshire.
• MAINLAND of ORKNEY. See Orkney.
MAINLAND of SHETLAND, the largest of

the Shetland islands, comprehending about one- half
of their whole area, and much the larger moiety of
their population. It extends nearly due north in a
long ragged band of territory, from Sumburgh-head
in north latitude 59° 52' 18' , to Fethaland point, in
latitude 60° 38' 20". Its length is usually computed
at 60 miles, and occasionally exaggerated to 90 or
even upwards of 100; but does not seem, as mea
sured in a straight line, to exceed 56. Its breadti.,
over 17 miles from Sumburgh-head, never exceeds
4i miles, and probably does not quite average 3;
over the same distance, from Fethaland point, it is
exceedingly various, but seems to average about 4£
miles ; and over the intermediate distance it gradu
ally swells out from the ends, and then bursts sud
denly out in the middle to an extreme measurement,
from Railsburghness on the east to Sandness on the
west, of 20J miles. But all the way round, and
especially in the' central and chief district, the
island is so constantly and whimsically indented
by projections of the sea, as to have an utterly inde
scribable outline, and to be, in nearly all practical
respects, a numerous cluster of islets. Seen from
its loftiest ground, Rona's hill, a bold height in the
parish of Northmaven, which commands a view of
the entire archipelago, 'it is altogether undistinguish-
able as a single island, and appears as if cut to pieces,
by its very numerous and deeply indenting friths and
voes, into community of character with the smaller
islands which hang upon its flanks. Only one spot
on the whole mainland is more than 2 miles distant
from either a limb or the body of the sea, and even
it is distant not 2i miles; and greatly the larger part
of the area lies within one mile of some beach. At
one point, called Mavis-Grind, between the parishes
of Northmaven and Delting, only an isthmus of 100
yards, most of which is overflown by spring-tides,
prevents the island from being quite bisected; and
at several other points, isthmuses are not very much
broader. Excepting Fair Isle, situated midway to
Orkney, Mainland contains, in Sumburgh-head, the
most southerly land in Shetland. As to surface,
geognostic character, statistics, and nearly all the
details of a topographical notice, this island so ex
tensively identifies itself with the whole group that
information respecting it claims to be arranged under
the article Shetland Isles. Its parishes, though
in most instances including adjacent minor islands,
are Dunrossness, Lerwick, Sandsting, Tingwall,
Walls, Delting, Nesting, and Northmaven.
MAINS and STRATHMARTINE, two par
ishes, lying near the southern extremity of Forfar
shire, and united in 1799. The united parish is
bounded on the north by Tealing ; on the east by
Murroes and Dundee ; on the south by Dundee and
Liff; and on the west by Liff and Auchterhouse.
Its extreme length from the points on the west and
the east where it is first and last touched by Dighty
water, is 5 \ miles ; its extreme breadth, in a line due
north and south falling upon Hilton, is 3£ miles; and
its area is about 7,060 imperial acres. The parishes
are nearly equal in extent. Mains is of very irregular
figure on the east, .and Strathmartine of almost square
form on the west. The whole surface of the united
parish is a beautiful strath, rising gently on both
sides from a line along the centre, to waving heights
of less than 400 feet above sea-level. All is enclosed
with thorn-hedges, or agreeably shaded with trees ;
all, excepting about 1 40 acres of moorland and rocky
hillocks, and about 440 acres of plantation, is sub
ject to the plough ; all has a sweet and delightful
appearance, the resort of flocks of singing birds, and
the home of many of those soft beauties of landscape
which most soothe and cheer the human inhabitant.
The soil has some alluvial or haugh ground, and

MAI

324

MAK

elsewhere is, in general, a deep, fertile, black loam,
superincumbent on gravel, clay, or rock. The strath
is traversed from end to end, right along the rniddle,
by Dighty-water, and long took from it the name of
Strathdighty. Frithy-water forms the boundary-line
for 3 miles on the north. A very copious and sweet
spring, called Sinavey, bursts perennially from a rent
in the face of a rock at the castle of Mains. Free
stone abounds in Strath martine ; and slate or Ar
broath stone-quarries are wrought. The alluvial
character of this district has been denied, but it is
presumed that the disciples of Agassiz would find
within it additional arguments for their theory. It
is intersected by a chain of hillocks, composed of
boulder and gravel, to the collection of which the
force and direction of the present waters seem quite
inadequate. Having traversed the parish of Auch-
terhouse, it approaches the Dighty near the western
extremity of Strathmartine, and following its north
ern bank to the boundary of Mains, it crosses the
stream. Continuing eastward, it again passes to
the northern bank, near the ill-fated pigeon-house,
whence it diverges northward. Occasionally lost
or concealed, it enters the parish of Murroes, and
sports in romantic diversity along the northern boun
dary of the lands of Ballumbie, crossing the Frithy
about a mile above its confluence with the Dighty.
A few years ago many boulders of great size were
exposed on the lands of Wedderburn at or near this
chain, belonging to rocks quite exotic to this district.-
In the progress of improvement they have generally
been interred where they lay, or applied to draining
or road repairing. Manufactures, akin to those of
Dundee or subordinate to them, employ three-fourths
of the population, run stragglingly the middle of the
strath and are conducted with the aid both of steam
and of the water-power of the Dighty. Some of
these establishments have occasioned the disappear
ance of lesser ones which, as they figured 50 years
ago, presented numerically a more imposing array;
for there were then no fewer than 33 mills of various
sorts in Mains, and 10 in Strathmartine. Many of
these, however, were very small concerns. Bleach
ing has increased, but flax-spinning is conducted only
at one establishment, the last of 7 which existed
here thirty years. Claverhouse, the residence and
estate of that keen-edged tool of persecution, the
Viscount Dundee, is now included within the estate
of Balmuir, the property of Lord Douglas  On the
boundary with Tealing stands Martin's stone, com
memorative, according to the legend, of one Martin
having slain a dragon which, on a Sunday evening,
killed and ate up, one after another, nine maiden
sisters — The farish is traversed for some distance
by the Dundee and Newtyle railway, by the Dundee
and Forfar turnpike, and by various turnpikes and
subordinate roads. Nine bridges bestride Dighty-
water. Dundee being only 1 or 1£ mile distant from
the nearest part of the parish, an extensive and daily
intercourse exists with its markets, its manufactories,
and its port. Population, in 1801, 1,442; in 1831,
2,011. Houses 195. Assessed property, in 1815,
£6,585. — The united parish is in the presbytery of
Dundee, and synod of Angus and Mearns. Patrons,
the Crown and Mr. Laird of Strathmartine. Stipend
£217 8s. 4d.; glebe £35. In 1834, two. parochial
schools were attended by 140 scholars; and three
private schools by 45. Salary of each of the parochial
schoolmasters £34 4s. 4id., with £60 fees, £15 other
emoluments, and a house and garden. The present
parish-church was built in 1800. Sittings about 900.
The church of Strathmartine, abandoned after the
union of the parishes, was built so late as 1779, only
20 years before its abandonment. The church of
Mains was very ancient, and before being abandoned

had become ruinous, but retained its original font,
and had a small press secured by an iron door, the
depositary probably of sacred relics — Mains was
anciently called Mains of Fintry, from Fintry-castle,
the most conspicuous of its architectural objects.
This castle, along with most of the property of the
parish, belonged for centuries to the Grahams of
Fintry, one of whom was the fierce Claverhouse,
and the last that distinguished patron of agricultural
and mechanical enterprise, Robert Graham, Esq., the
friend of Burns.* Not a local memorial now remains
of the family except a name, some ruins, and their
mausoleum. MAISTERTON, an ancient parish in the shire of
Edinburgh, now comprehended in the parish of New-
bottle. This small parish adjoined Cockpen on the
west; and on tbe north, east, and south was sur
rounded by Newbottle. See Newbottle.
MAKERSTON, a parish in the Merse district
of Roxburghshire ; bounded on the north by Smail-
holm and Kelso ; on tbe east by Kelso ; on the south
east and south by the Tweed, which divides it from
Roxburgh and Maxton ; and on the west by Ber
wickshire. Its extreme length, in a line drawn from
east to west over Luntonlaw, is 3J miles; its ex
treme breadth in a line due north and south over
Mannerhill, is 2£ miles ; and its area 2,854 impe
rial acres. The district is distant, at the nearest
point, only 1 j mile from Kelso, lies in the immediate
vicinity of Fleurs and Roxburgh castles, has a south
ern exposure along one of tbe finest parts of the
magnificent Tweed, looks up the brilliant wending
vale of the Teviot, and largely partakes tbe sump
tuous and attractive character of so noble » neigh
bourhood. The surface is a gently hanging plain,
declining slowly from the northern boundary to the
Tweed. The soil, in the south, is a rich loam super
incumbent on sandstone or gravel ; and in the horth
is a thin clay on a retentive bottom ; but in the latter
district as well as in the former, it is thoroughly cul
tivated, and under excellent management. Excepting
about 80 acres of wood, the whole area is in tillage.
Makerston-house, the seat of Sir Thomas Makdou-
gall Brisbane, Bart., the principal landowner, is an
elegant residence, situated on the Tweed, surrounded
with fine old woods, and commanding a very beauti
ful prospect up the Teviot. Tbe parish is touched
for 2 miles on the north by the Edinburgh and Kelso
turnpike. Population, in 1801, 248; in 1831, 326.
Houses 58. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,693.
— Makerston is in the presbytery of Kelso, and
synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the Duke
of Roxburgh. Stipend £219 14s. 7d. ; glebe £25.
Unappropriated teinds £358 Is. lOd. Schoolmas
ter's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with £17 fees, and £4 10s.
other emoluments. The manor of Makerston be
longed, at the middle of the 12th century, to Walter
Corbet, who gave the church and a carrucate of landi
to the monks of Kelso; and before 1220, it passed,
by marriage with Christiana Corbet, into the pos
session of William, the son of Patrick Earl of Dun
bar. The monks of Kelso, trying to be liberal to
the grandchild of their benefactor, granted of their
free-will to Christiana and her husband permission
to hold religious services in the chapel of their own
manor ; and for this doughty and magnanimous feat
of monkcraft they were rewarded by a release of all
* Whatever was the connection of the two families, the
Uaverhouse branch was probably the elder, for the superiority
ot both estates went with that of Claverhouse to Lord Douglas
by whom it is still held. Their armorial bearing was the sime
the spelling of the name was different. The last of the Claver
house branch, by male descent, was Alexander Grahame, Esq.
pt Dnntrnne, who died about the beginning of this century.
leaving his name, arms, and two-thirds of his property, to his
nephew William Stirling Grahame, Esq.. ''

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MAN

claims which the parties whom they so distinguish-
edly benefited might have on their estates.
MALZIE- WATER, a rivulet of Wigtonshire. It
carries off the superfluent waters of six contiguous
lakes, two of them of considerable extent, in the
parish of Mochrum [which see], and runs 6 miles
southward, but chiefly eastward in that parish and
in Kirkinner to the Bladenoch, J of. a mile above
Torhouse. MANGERTON, an old strength in Liddesdale,
on the eastern banks of the Liddel, about a mile
south of the village of Castletown. It was the chief
seat of the warlike Border-clan, the Armstrongs.
Tradition has handed down the following story, highly
illustrative of the fierce spirit of the lairds of Man-
gerton. We give it in the words of Sin Walter
Scott : " There is a large stone in Liddesdale, called
the Laird's Jock's stone. It takes the name from a
furious Scottish champion, called the Laird's Jock,
because he was the eldest son of the Laird of Man-
gerton, chief of the clan of Armstrong. He suc
ceeded his father in command of the warlike tribe to
which he belonged. Frequent defiances at that time
passed between the Scots and English on each side of
the frontier, but the Laird's Jock's size and strength
rendered him superior to all men in single combat,
and he wielded a huge two-handed sword which
no one could use but himself. At length he became
old, decrepit, and finally bed-ridden, and was obliged
to resign the command of the tribe to his son, a gal
lant young man, but far from being his father's equal.
Of that the old man seemed sensible, for be never
would resign possession of the sword which had won
so many victories. At length a brave young English
man — one of the Fosters, if I recollect right; — sent
a challenge to the best Scotsman on the opposite side
of the Liddel, to fight him in single combat at what
was called the Turney-holm — a flat space of ground
used for such encounters. The old champion took
great interest in this challenge, which was accepted
by his son, and for the first time put him in posses
sion of the favourite sword. He caused himself to
be transported in a species of sledge, or litter, to
witness the combat, and was placed on the stone,
which still bears his name, wrapped up in blankets,
and attended by his daughter, a beautiful young wo
man, who was her father's constant guardian and the
nurse of his old age. The combat begun, and (by
treachery, say the Scots,) the young Armstrong fell,
and the victorious duellist seizing the huge two-handed
sword, brandished it aloft as the trophy of the field.
At this distracting sight the old giant, who had long
been incapable almost of turning himself in bed, start
ed up, the covering falling partly from .him, and
showing the wreck of his emaciated frame, and ut
tered a cry so portentously loud, as to be heard for
miles around. He was borne back to his own tower
of Mangerton, where he died in a few hours, which
he spent in lamentations, not for his son, whom he
never named, but for the loss of the noble sword
which in his hands had won so many victories."
MANOR, Mannor, or Manner, a parish in
Peebles-shire ; bounded on the north by Stobo
and Peebles ; on the east by Peebles and Selkirk
shire; on the south by Megget; and on the west
by Drummelzier and Stobo. Its greatest breadth,
from the Tweed, J of a mile above the moutb
of Lyne-water on the north, to the highest source
of Manor-water on the south, is 8| miles; its
breadth varies between 1 mile and 5| miles; and
its area is 18,110 acres. The Tweed traces the
boundary for 3J miles on the north-west and the
north. Manor-water, rising close on the southern
boundary, and uniformly pursuing a northerly course,
traverses the parish for 6£ miles nearly along the

middle, and then runs wendingly 2f miles near or
along the eastern boundary to the Tweed, If mile
above Peebles. About 16 streamlets, most of them
tiny mountain-rills, and the chief of tbem Newholm-
hope-burn, Glenrath-burn, and Haddleshope-burn,
not more each than 3£ miles in length, come trans
versely down upon the Manor, ploughing their way
along ravines and glens. The streams, especially
Manor-water, were long h'gbly celebrious for their
fishy produce; but, like a spoiled beauty, have been
ruined by their fame. Manor-water still swarms
with pars, but has now few salmon or sea-trout, and
contains hardly any of the rich yellow and dark-
coloured burn-trout in which it was formerly so pro
lific. The boundary-line, except over the northern
and narrow third of the parish, is formed by water-
shedding mountain- ridges ; and all the interior, ex
cept a narrow vale along the Manor, and some beau
tiful haugh-ground upon the Tweed, is strictly and
wildly upland. Excepting two heights, one iii the
interior and one on the boundary, all the elevations
constitute an elliptical range, narrow on the south,
broad along the sides, and shorn down into plain, or
cut away, on the north. The acclivities are in gen
eral bold and rapid; and toward the source of the
Manor, or the head of its vale, they closely approach,
and are precipitous and towering. Many of them
are scarred, or, in local phrase, sclentered, and re
flect the sun's rays with a brilliance which gives
warmth to the tillage in the vale. All appear, at
least wherever the rock looks out from the surface,
to consist of greywacke, the strata running north and
south, and dipping to the west; and on their higher
acclivities are heathy, but on their sides and their
lower acclivities are in general more or less grassy.
The loftiest summit is Dollar-law: which see.
Scrape, on the boundary with Drummelzier, has an
elevation of more than 2,000 feet, and nearly all the
summits rise from between 1,600 to 1,900 feet above
sea-level. The valley-grounds, the haughs, and the
arable heights, amounting in the aggregate to about
1,700 acres, are drained, fully enclosed, and in ex
cellent cultivation; and though carpeted with clay
and loam of no great, depth, are fertile to a degree
surpassing theory in so bleak a region. Wood, in
belts and clumps on the lower grounds, and in strag
gling detachments up the narrow basins of the minor
streams, occupies an aggregate area of about 400
acres. In the vale of the Manor, about 1£ mile north
of the church, between two mountainous and boldly
ascending heights, and in the midst of a morass, is a
British or Danish camp. On an acclivitous conical
height called Chesters, a mile distant, are fortifications
of loose stones from 26 to 32 feet wide, with an exte
rior elliptical wall upwards of 650 feet in circumfer
ence, usually pronounced Roman on the evidence
chiefly of the name of their site, and in utter defiance
of that furnished by their form. Coins not long ago
found in or near the fortifications were English, and
some of them comparatively modern ; yet others re
ported to have been formerly found in it were — has
tily perhaps — pronounced Roman. Castles, towers,
and peel-houses — or buildings of one or other of these
classes according to the power and resources of the
proprietors  were anciently so numerous in the par
ish as to prove it one of the most stirring arenas of
the Border feuds and forays. They stood in sight
of each other, crowned with means of raising alarm-
fires, and formed at once individual fortalices able to
resist attacks, and a chain of beacons sending suddenly
up at need signals of fire by night and of smoke by day.
Connected with these and other memorials of a free-
booting age, is the remarkable path called the Thief
Road : which see. On the summit of Woodhill, an
eminence rising in the midst of a plain, there is, savs

MAN

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Armstrong, " some appearance of a building called
Macbeth's-castle, but probably a place for the wor
ship of the Druids to the heathen god Woden (!)"
" Standing-stone," says the same writer, " is a large
rude monument which, from its situation on Bellum
or War-rig, may have been erected to commemorate
some remarkable event. From the appearance of the
impression of several horses' feet having been cut on
the stone, it is thought to have been the site of a
fair." But the object in the parish which now ex
cites by far the greatest interest is the cottage of
' the Black dwarf,' situated on Woodhouse farm in
the vale of the Manor. The deformed and eccentric
creature, David Ritchie by name, built the cottage
and garden walls exactly as they at present stand,
and was buried in Manor churchyard. Sir Walter
Scott became acquainted with him, and bad oppor
tunities of marking those physical and moral features
which are so boldly limned in his tale, while on visits
to the late Professor Ferguson at his mansion of
Hallyards. Three convergent roads, the longest 1£
mile, in the north end of the parish, send off a car
riage-road 2J miles up the vale of the Manor ; and
thence a bridle road leads southward to the boun
dary, where it traverses a quaggy marsh called the
Foul-bridge, and mounts ruggedly and perilously over
Bitch-craig into Megget. Population, in 1801, 308;
in 1831, 254. Houses 35. Assessed property, in
1815, £3,403  Manor is in the presbytery of Pee
bles, and synod of Lothiaij and Tweeddale. Patron,
the Earl of Wemyss. Stipend £148 16s. 3d. ; glebe
£30. Schoolmaster's salary £30, with £14 fees and
£1 5s. other emoluments  Manor was anciently a
mere chaplainry, under the rectory of Peebles, and
formed jointly with it the prebend of the archdea
con of Glasgow. The present parish-church, situ
ated on the Manor 1 £ mile above its confluence with
the Tweed, was built about the middle of the 17th
century. Its predecessor, the place of worship of
the chaplainry, seems to have stood at Manortown,
If mile farther up the river. A chapel dedicated to
St. Gordian, who was martyred by Julian the apos
tate, and whose fame seems to have travelled in some
unusual way to the recesses of Tweeddale, anciently
stood in the vale of Newhope-burn 4 miles south of
Manortown, and is commemorated by some slight
vestiges. Not far south-west of the present parish-
church is a pedestal called ' the Font stone,' which
of old supported the font of Manor chapel.
MANUEL. See Emanuel.
MANXMAN'S LAKE. See Kirkcudbright.
MARCH^ See Merse.
MARCHMONT. See Greenlaw and Kelso.
MAR, or Marr, an ancient district of Aberdeen
shire, lying principally betwixt the Don and the
Dee, on the south-western quarter of the county,
and comprising the sub-divisions of Braemar, or the
mountainous division; Mid-Mar, or the middle divi
sion between the Don and the Dee ; and Oromar, or
the lower and better cultivated division. Mar is not
now one of the recognised district divisions of the
county : see Aberdeenshire. It still gives the
title of Earl to the ancient family of Erskine.
The origin of this earldom is lost in antiquity. In
1065, Martacus, Earl of Mar, is witness to a charter
of Malcolm Canmore in favour of the Culdees of
Loch-Leven. The first historical notice of the
Erskines is one of the 13th century, when the
heads of the family were only Lords Erskine. In
1436, James II. created or confirmed Thomas, the
9th Lord Earl of Mar; but it was forfeited by
John, tbe 11th Earl, who took part as leader in
the insurrection of 1715; after which it remained
in abeyance till 1824, when it was restored by act
of parliament in the person of John Francis Er

skine, a lineal descendant of the family. No part
of this district belongs to the Earls of Mar.
MAREE (Loch), a magnificent lake in Ross-
shire, in the parish of Gairloch. It lies in a situa
tion so sequestered, and is so difficult of access, that
few or no travellers have ever visited it. Pennant
and Macculloch are, we believe, the only two, who.
previous to ourselves, have made the attempt; but
how rich the reward when attained, and how trifling
the labour and the danger when compared with it !
Loch-Maree is a noble sheet of water, about 20 miles
in length, and varying from 1 to about 3 or 4 miles in
breadth. It is fed by innumerable mountain-streams ;
and its superfluous waters , are carried off at the
north-western extremity by the Ewe : which see.
The mountains which surround Loch-Maree are of
great height, and of a beautifully characterized and
irregular outline, so that the shores of the lake pre
sent an inexhaustible variety of the most romantic
and interesting scenery. The most remarkable are
Sleugach, or, the High - mountain, the File moun
tain, Benlair, Benbharchan, and Craegtolly. Sleu
gach, in the Gruinard, is said to be upwards of 3,000
feet in height, and from it Lewis, with the town and
bay of Stornoway, can be distinctly seen. The ef
fect of this superb mountain, seen at once from its
base to its summit, is, perhaps, more striking than
that of any mountain in the Highlands. The File
mountain, which is on the opposite side of the lake
from Sleugach, is exceedingly remarkable. It seems
to be composed of quartz rock, and entirely destitute
of verdure ; but nothing can be more striking than
the effect of sunshine upon its different pointed,
rocky, and nearly inaccessible summits. At the
western extremity, Benlair is a principal feature in
the landscape — graceful, solid, broad ; and where its
skirts descend steep into the water, tbe scenes are
peculiarly original and grand. The northern mar
gin of Loch-Maree presents a great variety of close
scenery, consisting of rocky and wooded bays, and
creeks rising into noble overhanging cliffs and moun
tains ; here also are displayed some of the finest gen
eral views of the lake. But there is one portion of
the margin of the lake so peculiar as to deserve the
most minute description, and that of Dr. M'Culloch
is so vivid and so true, that we cannot refrain from
extracting it : "In one place in particular, the re
mains of a fir forest, in a situation almost incredible,
produce a style of landscape that might be expected
in the Alps, but not among the more confined scope
and tamer arrangements of Scottish mountains. Im
mediately from the water's edge, a lofty range of
grey cliffs rise to a great height ; so steep as almost
to seem perpendicular, but varied by fissures and by
projections covered with grass and wild plants.
Wherever it is possible for a tree to take root,
there firs of ancient and noble growth, and of the
most wild and beautiful forms, are seen rising above
each other, so that the top of one often covers the
root of the succeeding, or else is thrown out hori
zontally in various fantastic and picturesque modes.
Now and then some one more wild and strange than
the others, or some shivered trunk or fallen tree,
serves to vary the aspect of this strange forest, mark
ing also the lapse of ages, and the force of the win
ter storms which they have so long braved." [Vol.
II. p. 300.] — The bosom of Loch-Maree is orna
mented by numerous islands of varied size and ap
pearance. They are about twenty-seven in number
and lie chiefly in a cluster on the middle of the lake,
at which place it has its greatest breadth. The
largest of these are Ealan-Sooin, Ealan-Maree. Ealan-
Rory-mhor, and Ealan-Rory-bheg. Ealan-Sooin, or
St. Swithin's Isle, contains a surface of about 30
acres of ground, beathy, with a small lake and a

MAR

327

MAR

few fir-trees. Ealan-Rory-mhor was planted with
firs about twenty-five years ago ; and Ealan-Maree
is beautifully wooded with every variety of timber.
Thousands of the herring-gull breed on Ealan-Rory-
mhor; the grey goose breeds annually among the
islands of this loch, and, it is believed, only there in
Scotland. Roe-deer haunt amidst the islands, and
may be seen on their margins, or swimming from one
to another. The lake is supposed at one time to
have had a much lower level than it has at pre
sent, and it is thought that this has been occasioned
by the accumulation of sand and gravel at the lower
end, by which the water was dammed in. Indeed
there is some reason to think, that Loch-Maree
and Loch-Ewe, an arm of the sea into which the
river Ewe flows, originally formed one lake, under
the name of Loch-Ewe, as the village at the head
of Loch-Maree is named Cean-Loch-Ewe, or ' the
Head of Loch-Ewe.' The heightening of the sum
mit level of this lake is also confirmed, by the ex
istence of huge stepping-stones, between the islands,
which can be seen in dry seasons beneath the water.
" It was," says Dr. M'Culloch, " with some diffi
culty that we explored our way through the laby
rinth of islands in the centre of this lake : as they
are little raised above the water, and covered with
scattered firs, and thickets of birch, alder, and holly.
while they are separated by narrow and tortuous
channels. The features of the whole are so nearly
alike, that no part can be distinguished from another. "
Loch-Maree affords admirable sport to the lovers of
angling, being well-supplied with a great variety of
fish, among which are salmon, eels, char, and trout of
every species; among the latter, the gizzard-trout, a
rare species, is to be found. At the lower end of Loch-
Maree are the remains of iron-smelting furnaces,
erected and conducted, many centuries ago, by some
gentlemen from Fifeshire, who migrated here for the
purpose, and whose descendants, as well as those of
the workmen they brought hither, are still distin
guishable by their names, as Kemp, Cross, Turner,
and others. There is no beauty in tbe grounds im
mediately at the head of the lake, as they there
spread out into *- marshy and level plain ; but the
burying-ground on the margin of the water, with the
rude stones which cover the graves, and the umbra
geous trees which overshadow it, are worthy of a,
visit. Seen however from the head of Glen-Dochart,
which has its lower termination at the head of Loch-
Maree, the effect was to us as surprising and en
chanting as it was unexpected. The lake sparkled
bright in the evening sun ; the lofty mountains were,
at their summits, tinged with his golden fays, while
in the hollows, and nearer their base, they were
wreathed in mist and light clouds. The effect of
this was to increase to a prodigious degree their ap
parent height, — to make every hollow on their
rugged sides seem a deep and inaccessible glen, —
and to enlarge to an almost immeasurable extent the
lake and the hills which rose at its extreme distance.
It was altogether a scene of enchantment never to
be forgotten. The white peaked summits of the
File mountain sparkled, like the spires and turrets
of an emerald palace, the work of some Eastern ma
gician, or of the genii of Arabian romance ; forming
a splendid contrast to the dark and rugged Sleugach
on the opposite side of the lake.
Loch-Maree has derived its present name, since its
separation from Loch-Ewe, from Ealan-Maree, which
tradition affirms was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
In ancient times it was the residence of a recluse or
hermit, the odour of whose sanctity is still preserved
among the simple inhabitants of the surrounding dis
tricts. It contains a burying-ground : the spot has
been chosen on an island — as we so often see in the

Highlands — to prevent depredations from the wolves
of ancient days. On this island there is a sacred
well, in which, as in the pool of St. Fillans, lunatics
were dipped, while the usual oblations were left on
its margin, or on the branches of an adjoining holly tree.
— There are various traditions with regard to Loch-
Maree and its islands, one of which regarding Ealan-
Maree may here be mentioned. Here, it is said, is
the place of burial of a Norwegian prince, and a
daughter of a king of Ireland, whose fates are thus
related. They were to be married, and the cere
mony was to be performed in Ealan-Maree, by a holy
man who resided oh it. The prince arrived at the
time agreed on, but his bride had not yet reached
the island. Learning shortly afterwards that a ship
had arrived at Pol-Ewe, he sent messengers to
make inquiries, desiring them as they returned up
the lake to hoist a white flag if they were the bearers
of good news, but a black one if their news should
prove the contrary. On reaching Pol-Ewe they
found the princess had arrived, and they set outwith
her to conduct her to their master. In sailing up
the lake, however, by way of putting their master's
love to the test, the messengers hoisted the black
flag at their mast head. The prince, on seeing this,
either died of grief or put a period to his existence.
On her arrival the princess also died of grief. The
lovers were buried close beside each other, and two
large stones still mark the site of their graves. The
stones have both had figures and characters carved
upon them; but these are now quite obliterated and
defaced  Ealan-Rory-mhor was anciently inhabited
by John Roy, the grandson of Hector Roy, who was
the first of the present family of MacKenzie of
Gairloch. He occupied it as a place of security for
his family, from the attacks of the M'Leods, who
having been driven from the possession of the sur
rounding lands by Hector Roy, frequently afterwards
endeavoured to regain their ancient domains. This
island was afterwards inhabited by Alexander, or
Allister, the son of John Roy, who is still talked of
in tradition as a man of great valour and wisdom 
The M'Leods had anciently a castle on Loch-Tolly,
a small lake near Loch-Maree. In this castle, a sis
ter of Hector Roy, who was married to' a M'Leod, with
two of her sons, were savagely murdered by their
younger brother, who took possession of the lands.
Hector Roy obtained letters of fire and sword against
the murderer, and his adherents ; drove them from
the lands, took possession of them himself; and the
shores of Loch-Maree and Gairloch have ever since
been the property of his descendants. ,
MARK (The). See The North Esk.
MARKINCH, a parish in Fifeshire, about 7 miles
in length from north to south, and in breadth, from
east to west, from 5 to 2 miles. Superficial area
about 7,000 acres. Its form is very irregular, being
deeply indented in several places by neighbouring
parishes. It is bounded by the parish of Wemyss
on the south ; by Kennoway on the east ; by the
parishes of Kettle and Falkland on the north ; and
by those of Leslie, Kinglassie, and Dysart, on the
west. A small detached portion of the parish, se
parated from the rest by the parish of Wemyss, lies
at the mouth of the river Leven, on the shore of the
frith of, Forth. It is separated from the parish of
Scoonie by the Leven. The surface is generally
undulating, presenting alternately hill and valley,
which run from east to west. The rivers Leven and
Orr, which flow through it, add much to the beauty
of the scenery, besides the benefit which they confer
on the manufactures of the district. In 1815, the
annual value of real property assessed in the parish,
was £14,226 sterling; the valued rent is £10,171
13s. 4d. Scots. Population, in 1801, 3,130; in 1831,

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MAR

4,967. Houses 750. The village of Markinch is
pleasantly situated about half-a-mile to the north of
the Leven, and about 2 miles from the northern ex
tremity of the parish. It is populous and thriving,
and enjoys a considerable share of the linen manu
facture. There are six other villages in the parish :
Thornton, Milntown of Balgonie, Coaltown, Kirk
forthar feus, Dubbieside, with a population of 373,
and Star, which is partly in the parish of Kennoway.
¦ — The manufactures of this parish are very exten
sive, and, though varied, are chiefly connected with
the linen trade. The spinning of linen yarn is also
carried on to a considerable extent. The spinning
mills at Balgonie, belonging to Messrs. Baxter and
Stewart, are the largest; and are impelled by two
water-wheels, on the Leven, which together are of
55 horse-power. They contain machinery for spin
ning flax and tow, both long staple and broken staple.
The quantity of flax consumed at the mills in the
year 1838 was 475 tons ; and besides the tow pro
duced from the flax spun, about 100 tons of imported
tow was also used. The total cost of flax and tow
used was above £25,000 sterling. There are about
265 persons employed at these mills ; and the aver
age quantity of yarn spun per week is 10,000
spyndles. The yarns spun are, with the exception
of the heavier tow-yarn, either sold in the district
adjoining, or exported to France. The heavier tow-
yarns are manufactured by the proprietors into can
vass, sacking, &c, chiefly for the London market.
There are also large spinning-mills at Haugh-mill,
near Cameron-bridge ; and a mill at New Inn, for
spinning linen-yarn. Near Plasterer's Inn is a mill
for spinning wool. It is moved by a water-wheel of
10 horses' power, and makes about 45 stones of
woollen-yarn per week. There are five bleachfields
in the parish, where the bleaching of linen-yarn is
extensively carried on : Rothes bleachfield, Balgonie
mill bleachfield, Haugh-mill bleachfield, ' Lochty
field, and New Inn bleachfield. At Balgonie about
400 tons of linen-yarn are bleached annually, at
Haugh mill about the same quantity, and at Lochty
from 500 to 600 tons of yarn. The paper mill at
Auchmuty, was originally erected in 1810, and has
since been improved by the introduction of the ma
chine generally used in making paper. Above a ton
of fine rags are consumed here daily in making cart
ridge, coloured, printing, and writing papers. Brown
and grey papers are manufactured at Rothes mill, and
also at Balbirnie. At Thornton, the Messrs. Tennant
and Company of Glasgow, have an extensive chemi
cal work for ii_e manufacture of sulphurio acid ; and
there is a large distillery at Cameron bridge. — Bal
gonie castle is one of the principal objects of anti
quarian notice in the parish. The buildings are ob
viously of different ages, but the castle is still in re
pair, and formed one of the residences of the Earl of
Leven within the last fifty years. The great tower
is the most ancient, and was probably erected about
the 14th or 15th centuries. It is situated on the
banks of the Leven, about 36 feet above the bed of
the stream. It is 80 feet high, with a battlement at
the top, and is 45 feet in length, by 36 in breadth,
over the walls. The walls of the two lower stories,
which are arched with stone, are 8 feet thick. The
remaining buildings form an extensive quadrangle,
enclosing a court, and.a portion of them are said to
have been erected by the first Earl of Leven  The
house of Balfour is remarkable, as containing an ori
ginal portrait of the well-known Cardinal Bethune,
and of another Mary Bethune, one of the Queen's
four Marys.— At Brunton an ancient tower at one
time existed, said to have been the remains of a re
sidence of the Earls of Fife ; and from it, it is al
leged, in popular tradition, there was a subterrane

ous passage to the Maiden-castle in the neighbour
ing parish of Kennoway. — At Bandon there is also
the ruins of an ancient tower, and at Kirkforthar the
remains of a chapel which once existed here, but was
suppressed previous to the Reformation — Of anti
quities of a more ancient date, in all probability,
than any of these, may be mentioned an ancient cross,
which stands on a rising ground to the north of the
village of Markinch, and near the garden entrance to
Balbirnie. It is a broad slab about 7 feet high, but
without any carving, so far as can now be discovered.
Immediately east of this cross, and on the opposite
side of the public highway, is a small hill of an ob
long shape, about 200 yards in length, called Mark-
inch hill. It is remarkable from the drcumstance of
its northern declivity presenting six regular terraces
at different heights, about 20 feet broad, and extend
ing the whole length of the hill. Formerly these ter
races were to be seen on entering Markinch from the
north ; but the hill was planted by the late General
Balfour, and the terraces, consequently, in a great
measure, concealed. They are obviously artificial ;
but the purpose for which they were intended is not
so plain. Colonel Miller thinks this hill has been a
Roman station ; and that by them tbe terraces were
constructed ; others think that games were anciently
held in the low ground to the north, and that the
terraces were made for the convenience of the spec
tators. The fact of the low ground, and also of that
which surrounds the hill on which the church of
Markinch stands, having been anciently a marsh,
would seem to be inconsistent with this idea.
Stone-coffins, or cistvaens, have been found in the
parish, containing calcined bones. — This parish is in
the synod of Fife, and presbytery of Kirkcaldy. Pa
tron, the Crown. Stipend £267 17s. ; glebe £30.
Unappropriated Crown teinds £457 19s. 2d. ; col
lege teinds £25 17s. 4d.
The church of Markinch is noticed in very ancient
records. Hugo, the ancestor of the family of
Wemyss, the second son of Gillimichael, fourth Earl
of Fife, conferred the church of Markinch with a
toft, and the teinds belonging to the same, upon the
canons of St. Andrews, which was confirmed by his
son Hugo, previous to 1171. s The tower of the
present church is of great antiquity, though certainly
not by any means of that age which has been attri
buted to it, that of the 9th or 10th century ; though
we should be inclined to assign it to the 14th or 15th
century. The spire, however, which surmounts it,
is of comparatively modern erection, and the church
was partly rebuilt and enlarged in 1806; sittings
1,360. It is situated in the village of Markinch.
The small parsonage of Kirkforthar was annexed to
Markinch about the beginning of the 17th century.
Two chapels have been erected, which have since
had districts assigned them, as quoad sacra parishes,
at Milntown of Balgonie, and the village of Thorn
ton on the south-west boundary of the parish:
which see. The parochial school is in the village of
Markinch, and is ably taught, and well attended.
The teacher has the maximum salary, with a good
house, garden, and school-house. Besides the parish-
school, there are eight other schools in the parish.
There is a chapel at the village of Markinch in con
nection with the United Associate Synod ; sittings
300; and another in the same connection at Dubbie
side ; sittings 400. The stipend of the former is
£100; of the latter £84.
MARLEE (Loch), or Drummellie. See ar
ticles Lethendy and Stormont.
MARNOCH, a parish in Banffshire ; bounded on
the north by Boyndie, Banff, and Alvah; on the east
by Forglen ; on the south by the Deveron, which
divides it trom Inverkeithnie, and partly from Rothie-

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may ; and on the west by Rothiemay, Grange, and
Ordiquhill. Its form is irregular, extending to about
10 miles in length, by 4 to 5 in breadth : square area
about 35 miles. Houses 556. Assessed property,
in 1815, £4,407. Population, in 1801, 1,687; in
1831, 2,426 — The surface is in general rather level,
with hills surrounding it on the north, east, and west.
The soil varies from a rich loam to clay and moor
land. On the banks of the river the land is very
fine and generally arable. There are extensive and
beautiful plantations, and the district is well-culti
vated, except the hilly parts on its borders which are
well-adapted for pasturing black cattle, some thou
sands of which are annually reared in the parish.
Marnoch is now celebrated in the annals of the Church
establishment, from the proceedings connected with
the presentee having caused the suspension and ulti
mate exclusion of the majority of the presbytery of
Strathbogie by tbe General Assembly.* The parish
is in the presbytery of Strathbogie, and synod of
Moray. Patron, the Earl of Fife. Stipend £219
15s. 5d. ; glebe £15. Unappropriated teinds £373
13s. 7d. Church built in 1792; repaired about the
year 1830; sittings 837. It was stated to the eccle
siastical commissioners, in 1836, that it was desirable
a preacher should be placed, under the control and
superintendence of the parish-minister, in the thriv-
* The presentee to the parish of Marooch, Mr. Edwards,
whose presentation was dated in April, 1837, was vetoed. The
presbytery applied to the superior erclesiastical courts for ad
vice, aod they directed the presentee to be rejected. The pre
sentee applied to the Court-of-session in 1839, which directed
the presbytery to take him on trial, and admit him to the charge
should he be found competent. Thus perplexed hy two masters,
the presbytery, by a majority, decided on obeying the civil
court, and on the 19th February, 1810, foond Mr. Edwards duly
qualified. Immediately on their doing this, the commission of
the General Assembly commenced its sittings. To this body the
presbytery were instructed to report their proceedings, and they
did so. Several motions were made, and the Commission ulti
mately suspended seven clergymen, forming the majority of the
Strathbogie presbytery, from their functions, which they directed
others to perform in their place. Mr. Edwards, meanwhile,
brought an action against the presbytery, to the effect, that that
body, and the whole individual members thereof, should be de
cerned and ordained forthwith to admit and receive the pursuer
as minister of the church and parish of Marnoch according to law,
or otherwise to make payment to him of £10,000 sterling of
damages and expenses. Mr. Cruickshank and others, forming
the majority of the presbytery, gave in defences, admitting
generally the accuracy of the statements in the libel, and add
ing,— *¦ The present defenders, who are the majority of the
presbytery, are willing to yield obedience to the decrees of the
court, by which it has beeu found and declared that they are
bound to admit and receive in terms of the statute, the pur
suer." On these defences the pursuer closed the record with
the majority. On the other hand, the Rev. Mr. Robertson and
three other members, an apparent minority of the presbytery,
lodged separate defences, opposing the pursuer's claims, and the
jurisdiction of the court to take cognizance of them, and urging
a variety of pleas, which rendered it necesBary for the pursuer
to make up a record with these parties, by condescendence and
answers in the usual form. In the meantime, the pursuer
moved for decree, in terms of the first conclusion of the libel
against the majority of the presbytery, who had closed the re
cord, and did not oppose decree to this effect. But the other
defenders opposed this motion, on the ground that Mr. Cruick
shank and his brethren had wroogously assumed the title of
• The presbytery of Strathbogie,' and that no decree ought to
be issued against them in that character. The motion thus
made and opposed was submitted to the consideration of the
court upon an interlocutor and elaborate note by Lord Cunning-
hame, as Lord-ordinary ; and on the 18th of December, 1840, the
court pronounced the following interlocutor: "The Lords, on the
report of Lord Cunninghame, ordinary, having heard the coun
sel for the pursuer, and also the counsel for the defenders, the
Rev John Robertson, William Duff, Harry Leith, and David
Dewar, for their interest, against decree going out against the
defenders on the cloBed record betwixt the pursuer and the
presbytery of Strathbogie, and majority of the members thereof,
Decern against, the presbytery of Strathbogie, and the Rev.
John Cruickshank, William Allardice, James Walker, William
Masson, James Thomson, William Cowie, and James A. Cruick
shank, being a majority of the said presbytery, in terms of the
first conclusion of the libel, and allow the decree to go out and
be extracted ad interim, dispensing with the minute-book;
find the defenders, the said John Robertson, William Duff,
Harry Leith, and David Dewar, liable to the pursuer in the
expenses occasioned by their opposition, both before the Lord-
ordinary and in the inner house ; allow an account thereof to
be lodged, and remit the same to the auditor to tax and be re
ported on ; quoad ultra remit the cause to the Lord-ordinary.

ing village of Aberchirder, which is in this parish.
There is here an Episcopalian congregation estab
lished about 25 years ago. Sittings in chapel 1 00 ;
minister's salary about £20 per annum, including £10
from Scottish Episcopal fund : chapel vacant in 1837.
A Baptist congregation was established in 1806 ; and
a United Secession congregation was established in
1826. A Roman Catholic congregation has also ex
isted here from time immemorial. Chapel built in
1801 ; repaired in 1831 ; minister's salary about £22
10s., but variable. Schoolmaster's salary £30; fees,
&c, £20 to £30, besides a share of the Dick be
quest. There is a private school in the parish.
MARTIN, a small inhabited island iu the parish
of Lochbroom, and county of Cromarty. It lies in
the frith, or elongated bay of Lochbroom, 4 miles
north north-west of the village of Ullapool, and is
separated from the coast of the district of Coygach
by a channel of little more than half-a-mile in breadth,
The island measures about 5 miles in circumference.
MARTINHAM (Loch), a lake in the parishes
of Coylston and Dalrymple, chiefly in the former, in
the district of Kyle, Ayrshire. It stretches from
north-east to south-west, in a stripe 1 £ mile in length,
and 1 furlong in mean breadth. From Loch- Fergus,
a smaller lake lying half-a-mile to the north-west, it
receives one stream, and at its own north-eastern
extremity it receives another, and these it sends off
at its other end, in a stream 2i miles long, to the
Doon near Dalrymple church. Its waters abound
in pike, perch, and eel, and are frequented by wild
geese, wild ducks, the teal, and the widgeon. Some
of its pike have weighed nearly 30 pounds. On the
bosom of the lake is an islet so completely wooded,
as to look like a basket of foliage ; amidst its woods
are the ruins of an ancient manor-house, 100 feet
long, and 30 wide ; and both the ruined walls and
the trees which surround them are thickly overrun
with ivy. On a graceful low promontory on the
north-west side of the lake, stands Martinham-lodge ;
and here and elsewhere the banks are so beautifully
sylvan as to render the lake a peculiarly refreshing
retreat amid the play of a summer sun's rays.
MARTIN'S (St.), a parish in the Strathmore
district of Perthshire; bounded on the north by
Cargill; oh the east by Collace and a detached part
of Forfarshire; on the south-east by Kilspindie and
the Balboggie section of Kinnoul; on the south
west by Scone ; and on the west by the river Tay,
which divides it from Redgorton and Auchtergaven.
Its greatest length from the boundary near Bogs on
the east to the point where the Tay leaves it on the
west, is 5| miles; and its breadth varies from If
mile to 4J miles. The section of Kinnoul lying
contiguous to it is entirely an indentation. Several
streamlets are powerful enough to drive corn and
lint mills. The Tay, while for 2£ miles it touches
the parish, is beautiful in its aspect, and valuable for
its salmon-fishings. The surface, though neither
hilly nor the reverse, rises considerably above the
level of the Tay, and is much diversified by troughs,
rising grounds, and undulations. Plantations are
extensive enough to give a warm appearance to the
interior ; copse- woods fringe and feather the edge of
the Tay; and enclosures and culture spread neatness
over the whole area. The soil in general is a black
mould on till, but very much improved; and toward
the river it is naturally good and fertile. Freestone
everywhere abounds, and is extensively quarried.
The other chief minerals are limestone and rock-
marl. Vestiges are very distinct of a Roman road
leading from the ancient Bertha eastward, past Berry
hills, Ditchmuir, and Byres toward the parish of Car-
gill. Several Druidical temples are observable. The
house of St. Martin's is a fine modern mansion. A

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considerable number of the parishioners, are employed
in the coarse linen manufacture. The turnpike from
Perth to Blairgowrie goes northward through the
parish ; and that from Perth to Cupar- Angus runs
north-westward through its southern division. The
nearest part of the parish is distant only 3| miles
from Perth. Population, in 1801, 1,136; in 1831,
1,135. Houses 204. Assessed property, in 1815,
£4,437 — St. Martin's is in the presbytery of Perth,
and synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £192 7s. 8d. ; glebe not as
certained. Unappropriated teinds £58 13s. Id.
Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with £18 12s.
5d. fees, and £5 10s. other emoluments. There is
occasionally a private school attended by about 40 or
50 children  The present parish comprehends the
ancient parishes of St. Martin's and Cambusmichael,
united upwards of 150 years ago. The church of
St. Martin's became that of the united parish, and
anciently lay within the diocese of Dunkeld, and was
a mensal church of the abbey of Holyrood. The
church of Cambusmichael — still indicated by its ruins
beside the Tay on a low plain of the class which the
Gaelic language calls ' Cambus ' — anciently was in
cluded in the diocese of St. Andrews, and belonged
to the abbacy of Scone. A small chapel stood be
side it within the limits of the cemetery.
MARTIN'S (St.). See Kirkmichael, Ross-
shire. MARTIN'S (St.). See Haddington.
MARTLE, or, according to local pronunciation,
Markle, a hamlet in the parish of Athelstaneford,
and shire of Haddington. It is 4£ miles north-east
of Haddington. According to Buchanan, it was
anciently called Miracle, from a miraculous incident
which he relates concerning a battle fought here :
See Athelstaneford.
MARY'S (St.), ISLE, a peninsula, 1£ mile in
.ength, and 3 furlongs in mean breadth, in the parish
of Kirkcudbright, Kirkcudbrightshire, formed by the
main channel of the estuary of the Dee on the west,
and a bay advancing inland from the broader part of
that estuary on the east. The retreat of the sea, so
noticeable along the whole coast of Kirkcudbright
shire, is peculiarly observable in this peninsula. The
sea, in former times, made the place literally an isle,
and also covered at every tide at least one-half of its
present cultivated surface. The west side is high
ground, defended by a border of rocks ; but the east
side visibly discloses from end to end, in large shell-
banks, the former line of high water. The whole
peninsula is ornately occupied with the wooded and
very beautiful epleasure-grounds of the Earl of, Sel
kirk, and presided over by his lordship's principal
residence in their centre. The grounds are elegantly
laid out in winding sylvan walks, and gardens and
lawns of uncommon elegance ; and form a gorgeous
environ, at only | of a mile distant of the burgh of
Kirkcudbright. The family of Selkirk are among
the most aristocratically descended in the south of
Scotland, and are nearly allied to the chief houses
both of Hamilton and of Douglas  A priory, founded
m the reign of David I. by Fergus, Lord of Galloway,
occupied the isle till the Reformation ; and having
been dedicated to the Virgin Mary, occasioned its
ancient name— which was the Isle of Trahil or Trayl
—to be superseded by that of St. Mary's Isle. The
priory was called ' Prioratus Sanctse Mariae de Trayl.'
It was the seat of canons-regular of the order of St.
Augustine; and being given by. jts founder to the
abbey of Holyrood, became a dependent cell of that
establishment. The prior was a lord of parliament.
The priory was surrounded with high walls, which
enclosed an extensive area. The outer gate was
distant at least half-a-mile from the priory, and stood

at a place about the same distance from the town,
and still called the Great Cross. The inner gate led
immediately to a group of cells, the habitations of the
monks, and was called the Little Cross. All the
buildings were swept away about 150 years ago, to
give full scope for beautifying the ground as a noble
demesne. While the Earl of Selkirk was extending
his garden toward the close of last century, 14 hu
man skeletons were discovered by the workmen,
placed regularly along side of one another with their
feet to the east, occupying a spot quite different from
the burying-ground of the monks, one of them dis
tinguished by some monumental honours from the
rest, and all the remains possibly of persons interred
previous to the existence of the priory. David
Panther, or Panitor, was prior of St. Mary's Isle
toward the middle of the 16th century. See article
Cambuskenneth. He was one of the most eminent
literary men of his day, and wrote letters, published by
Ruddiman in 1772, which afford a model of classical
Latinity; but, according to Buchanan, he was a pro
fane man, and instigated persons ^t court to all man
ner of impurities ; and, according to John Knox,
" eating and drinking was the pa^tyme of his lyif."
He died at Stirling on the 1st of October, 1558.
Robert Richardson, descended from a line of respect
able citizens of Edinburgh, and previously promoteo
to the offices of lord-treasurer and general of the
mint, was made commander of St. Mary's Isle about
the year 1560 ; and he used such adroitery, in spite
of1 laxity of morals, or rather probably with the aid
of it, as to hold all his lucrative situations under
both Mary and her son. Large estates were pur
chased by him; and at his death, in 1571, were left
to his two sons, Sir James Richardson of Smeaton,
and Sir Robert Richardson of Pencuitland  The
noted Paul Jones, when infesting the coast with
his fleet in 1778, made a descent on St. Mary's
Isle, with the view of seizing the Earl of Selkirk as
a hostage during the war with America. His lord
ship being from home, all the silver-plate in his
mansion was seized and carried away; but it was
returned uninjured and without cost, seven years
after the depredation.
MARY'S (St.) LOCH, «. beautiful sheet of
water in tbe shire of Selkirk, about 10 miles from
Innerleithen, and 31 from Edinburgh. It is only
about 4 miles in length ; and, with the lesser lake of
the Lowes, lies imbedded amid hills in the bosom of
a beautiful and pastoral country. " There are few
spots," says an anonymous writer, " where there is so
little that is repulsive to man, and yet so few traces
of his presence. You may scan the abrupt green
hills on either side, from the water's edge to their
summits, without seeing any work of human art,
save scattered here and there on the declivities those
mysterious looking circular sheep-pens, which look
like so many gigantic dogs' collars dropped from the
clouds, and remaining where they fell. The banks
sink abruptly down into the lake, the waters of which
are exquisitely transparent. Wordsworth says  he
must have seen it in a fine sunny day, as we did 
' Through her depths St. Mary's lake
Is visibly delighted,
For not a feature of those hills
Is in the mirror slighted.'
It is, in fact, a most minute and faithful looking-
glass to all the hills, and they look as clean and
smooth as if they had shaved themselves by it. The
whole scene must have indeed been very different
from its present aspect, when these abrupt hills were
covered with dusky pines; 
' They saw the derke forest them before
They thought it awsome for to see,' '
says the ballad of the outlaw Murray, describing the

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advance of the King's ' full 5,000 men,' in one of the
expeditions of the Jameses to make war on the
rievers." Sir Walter Scott, in his Introduction to
the second canto of ' Marmion,' has given a most
faithful and graphic description of this loch, which
our readers will thank us for transferring to our
pages : —
" Oft in my mind such thoughts awoke
By .lone St Mary's silent lake.
Thou knnw*st it well,— nor feo, nor sedge,
Pollute the pure lake's crystal edge ;
Abrupt and sheer, the mountains sink
At once upon the level brink ;
And just a trace of silver sand
Marks where the water meets the land.
Far in the mirror, bright aod blue,
Each hill's huge outline you may view ;
Shaggy with heath, but looely bare.
Nor tree, nor bush, uor brake is there,
Save where, of land, yon slender line
Bears thwart the lake the scattered pine.
Nor thicket, dell, uor copse you spy
"Where living thing concealed might lie ;
Nor point, retiring, hides a dell.
Where swain, or woodman lone, might dwell ;
There's nothing left to Fancy's guess, 
You see that all is loneliness ;
And silence aids, — though the steep hills
Send to the lake a thousand rills.
In summer-tide so soft they weep,
Tlie suund but lulls the ear asleep ;
Your horse's hoof-tread sounds too rude—
So stilly is the solitude!"
The whole of the scenery from Peebles to Inner
leithen — the famed St. Ronan's — is rich in wood and
dale, and highly cultivated. Oil leaving St. Ronan's
for St. Mary's loch, and crossing the Tweed, we
pass the stately and ancient house of Traquair.
After which, and after passing ' the Bush aboon
Traquair,' well-known in Scottish song, and the
parish-church on the right, the traveller plunges
amongst the mountains, and soon finds himself in a
wild pass of about 5 miles in length. On emerging
from this, the lonely Yarrow all at once bursts on his
view ; and here for a time nothing is seen but moun
tains covered with sheep, and the cottage, long asso
ciated with the name and writings of the Ettrick
Shepherd, which stands at a short distance east of
the lake, and which, more than any other feature in
the landscape, will hereafter make St. Mary's loch
an object of interest — of enthusiasm to all lovers of
poetry. Almost every mountain and stream in ' the
Forest' have been hallowed by the genius of the
bard, who
" Found in yonth a harp among the hills,
Dropt by the Elfin-people; and whilst the moon
Entranced hung o'er still St. Mary's loch,
Harped by that charmed water, so that the swan
Came floating onwards through the water-blue,—
A dreamlike creature listening to a dream ;
Aud the Queen of the Fairies rising silently
Through tbe pure mist, stood at the shepherd's feet,
Aud half-forgot her own green paradise,
Far in the bosom of the hill, — bo wild !
So sweet! so sad! flowed forth that shepherd's lay."
At the north end of the loch stands the ruined tower
of Dryhope :* which see.
Opposite the farm of Dryhope, on the other side of
the lake, is the farm-steading of Bowerhope ; and,
* Dick of Dryhope was a well-known freebooter in the 16th
century ; and his name was pretty familiar to the Commission
ers for settling differences between the Scotch and English
marches. At one of these meetings the warden of Bewcastle
complained, that in July, 1586, the Laird's Jock — a worthy of
whom some further notice will be found in our article Man.
certon— Dick of Dryup and their complices, had taken, by open
force, 400 kine and oxen from the Drysykes of Bewcastle. And
Andrew Rootledge of the Nook, complained upon the same
individuals for 400 kine and oxen stolen, besides burning his
honse, corn, and ' insicht.* On both these charges Dick<atid
his friends were ' fouled ' for not appearing. The tower of
Dryhope, however, of which the ruins remain, was not the re
sidence of Dicky. His residence, now called * The Auld Wa'y
is far up the Hope, in one of the strongest places for the resi
dence of an old border-Chieftain that can well be imagined. Un
less they had been assisted by a traitor-guide, Dicky might have
defied all the troopers of England to have found him out.

behind it, the lofty and precipitate Bowerhope-!aw,
of which the bard of Ettrick, contemplating its mas3
in winter, has sung,  '
" But winter's deadly hues shall fade
On moorland bald and mountain shaw,
And soon the rainbow's lovely Bhade,
Sleep on the breast of Bowerhope-law."
At the head of the lake, and directly over the old
tower, are the braes or four hills of Chapelhope,
the rugged and broken outskirts of which are cele
brated as the last retreat of the persecuted Cove
nanters. More distant, and peeping over these, is
the top of Carrifrangans, a dreadful precipice in
Moffatdale. Towering above Carrifrangans, though
not so distant, is the pointed summit of the White
Coomb [which see], the highest mountain in the
south of Scotland. On the same side is a hill called
the Brakenlaw. Here the river Meggat joins the
lake after flowing through Meggatdale, a wild dis
trict, and the principal bunting-scene of the royal
Stuarts in this part of the' country. At the foot of
the Braken-law is seen, though indistinctly,, the
ruined chapel and burial-place of St. Mary's, from
which the lake derives its name. This, also, the
poet's pen has rendered a classic spot. In this lonely
place the bones of many an outlaw mingle with the
dust ; and here the shepherd of the present day still
finds his last resting-place.
" For though in feudal strife a foe
Hath laid our Lady's chapel low,
' Yet still beneath the hallowed soil,
The peasant rests him from his toil :
And-, dying, bids his bone6 be laid
Where erst his simple fathers prayed."
This ancient chapel is the subject of many tradi
tions, and of a variety of ballads and poetry of an
cient and modern date.
" St. Mary's loch lies shimmering still,
But St. Mary's kirk-bell's lang dune ringing !
There's naethiug now but the grave-staoe hill
To tell o' a' their loud psalm-singing !"
Among the ballads, that of ' the Douglas tragedy ' has
been rendered familiar to the reading world by Sir
Walter Scott in the ' Border Minstrelsy.' The Lord
William and Lady Margaret of that ancient ditty,
were buried in the chapel.
" Lord William was buried in St. Mary's kirk,
Lady Margaret in 'Mary's quire ;
Out o' the lady 's grave grew a bonny red rose,
And out o' the knight's a brier.
" And they twa met, and they twa plat,
And fain they wad. be--near ;
And a' the world might ken right weej,
They were twa lovers dear.
" But by and rade the Black Douglas,
And wow but he was rough I
For he pulled up the bonny brier
And flang'd in St. Mary's loch."
An ancient and very popular tradition has also given
the ground-work of Mr. Hogg's ballad of ' Mess
John ;' and the chapel is the scene of the principal
incident in his ballad of ' Mary Scott.' Here the
daughter of stern Tushilaw is supposed, by the poet,
to have been brought for interment ; here she awaked
from that sleep which appeared to all the sleep of
death ; and here was married to her lover, Pringle,
Lord of Torwoodlee.
MARYBTJRGH, a considerable village in the par
ish of Kilmalie, Inverness-shire. It stands at the
mouth of the rivers Lochy and Nevis, on the east
side of Loch-Eil, at a point where that long inden.
tation of the sea suddenly bends toward the west-
north-west, and 1 ^ mile south of where it is entered
by the Caledonian canal. It is 17 miles east of
Strontian, 29^' southwest of Fort -Augustus, and
74 north of Inverary. Owing to its being situated
in the immediate vicinity of Fort- William, it very

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generally assumes the fort's name, and is known by
it in distant parts of the kingdom, almost to the ex-
elusion of its proper name of Maryburgh. The vil
lage and the fort originally bore the names respec
tively of Gordonsburgh and Inverlochy, — the former
from being built on the property of the noble family
of Gordon, and the latter from being situated at the
embouchure of the Lochy; but, after the accession
of the Orange family to the British throne, they as
sumed the names of Maryburgh and Fort- William,
in honour of the consort-sovereigns. Maryburgh con
sists of one long street running parallel to the water,
and close to its edge ; and of several short narrow
streets at right angles with the chief one. It has a
missionary church of the Society for propagating
Christian knowledge, an Episcopalian chapel, a Ro
man Catholic chapel, a parochial school, a religious
library, a literary library, a Bible society, two re
spectable inns, an office of the National bank of
Scotland, and an office of the British Linen com
pany's bank. Annual fairs are held in June and
November, and occasion the transaction of a con
siderable amount of business ; but a weekly market,
though nominally held, is so thinly attended as to
render the day of it little discernible from any other
business-day of the week. The inhabitants, for the
most part, depend so entirely on the herring-fishery
for their maintenance, that when it fails they -are
destitute. A quay has recently been constructed at
the place, jointly by private subscription, and by the
fishery commissioners. A regular communication is
enjoyed north-eastward to Inverness, and southward
along the coast and through the Crinan canal to
Glasgow, twice a-week in summer and once a-week
in winter, by the Glasgow and Inverness steamers.
A sheriff-substitute of Inverness-shire, having juris
diction also over the nearest portion of Argyleshire,
. esides and holds his courts in Maryburgh. Popula
tion between 1,200 and 1,500.
MARYBURGH, a small village in the parish of
Cleish, Kinross-shire. It stands on the road be
tween Perth and North Queensferry, 4 miles south
of Kinross, and 7£ north-east of Dunfermline.
MARYCULTER, a parish in the county of Kin
cardine; bounded on the north bythe river Dee;
on the east by Banchory and Davenick ; on the south
by Fetteresso ; and on the west by Durris. It ex
tends from the south bank of the Dee, opposite
Peterculter, to the Grampians, and is of an oblong
form, 6 miles in length from east to west along the
Dee, by 2 in breadth. Houses 187. Assessed property,
in 1815, £1,911. Population, in 1801, 710; in 1831,
960. The whctte of this district is rocky, and the
surface incumbered with stones, except in some small
haughs and dales on the river side, where the soil is
sandy and naturally thin ; on the rising midland it
becomes deeper and blacker ; but southwards it turns
to moss, turf, and swamp. Vast improvements, how
ever, have been latterly effected, oh ground which
" thoroughly to improve, enclose, and-render toler
ably fertile, says the author of tbe Old Statistical
Account, "may be almost termed u, new creation."
The district is well- wooded. The principal mineral
formation is granite, particularly gneiss in large
masses ; iron-slag and potters'- earth are also found.
The only antiquities are some small cairns. The
ancient name of the parish is said to have been Maria?
Cultura. The Knights-Templars seem to have an
ciently frequented part of this district. The man
sions are those of Maryculter, Kingcausie, Heath-
cote, and Auchlunies, several of which are very pic
turesquely situated. — The parish is in the presbytery
and synod of Aberdeen. Patron, Duff of Fetteresso.
Stipend £171 12s. 2d.; glebe not returned. School
master's salary £30; fees, &c. £15. There are four

private schools in the parish — -At Blairs, near the
Dee, is St. Mary's college, a Roman Catholic insti
tution, established in 1829, for the education of
youths designed for the priesthood. It is under the
direction of a president, three professors, and a pro
curator. From 35 to 45 pupils are usually in course
of education.
MARYKIRK, or Aberluthnet, a parish in Kin
cardineshire ; bounded on the north by Fordoun and
Laurencekirk; on the east by Garrock and St. Cyrus;
on the south by the river North Esk ; and on the
west by Fettercairn. It occupies the eastern extre
mity of the Howe or Hollow of the Mearns, and is
of an irregular square form, measuring 4 miles in
length, by 3 to 4 in breadth. Area 7,591 square
acres. Houses' 442. Assessed property, in 1815,
£6,539. Population, in 1801, 1,530 ; in 1831, 2,032.
The surface is exceedingly level ; the soil, in general,
fertile and well-cultivated, though various ; and the
aspect of the country very beautiful. There are
some fine residences surrounded with policies and
thriving plantations; of these the principal are,
Inglismaldie, Balmakewan, Hatton, and New Thorn
ton. The Luther, which intersects the parish,
and the North Esk, are here crossed by substantial
bridges ; and near the banks of the Esk, on the road
between Montrose and Laurencekirk, stands the vil
lage of Marykirk, in a beautiful situation surrounded
with woods and lawns. There is another village
named Luthermoor. The parish and the principal
village were anciently called Aberluthnot, a word of
Gaelic etymology, bearing allusion, it is thought, to
the situation of the village, in the centre of which
the church was built, and to the small rivulet that
passes by, and the lands that surround it  The par
ish is in the presbytery of Fordoun, and synod of
Angus and Mearns. Patron, Crombie of Phesdo.
Stipend £231 13s. 2d. ; glebe £8. Unappropriated
college'teinds £119 8s. 7d. Church built in 1806;
sittings 638. Being situated near one extremity of
the parish, it is recommended, in the report of the
Commissioners of Religious instruction, that a new
church, with 500 to 600 sittings, should be erected at
Luthermuir. There is an United Secession congre
gation at Muirton, established about 1758: chapel
built in 1769, and rebuilt in 1824; sittings 430;
minister's stipend £68 10s., with glebe, &c. £15.
There is a Congregational church at Sauchieburn,
established about 1772. Schoolmaster's salary £30 ;
fees, &c. £21 10s. There are six private schools in
the parish.
MARYPORT, a creek 2£ miles north of the Mull
of Galloway, on the east coast of tbe parish of Kirk-
maiden, Wigtonshire, one of about sixteen tiny bays
which indent the outline of that peninsular parish.
Though this creek is currently called a port, the only
real harbours in the parish are Drummore, 1$ mile to
the north, and Portnessock on the west coast.
MARYTON, a parish consisting of two detached
estates in the maritime district of Forfarshire. The
larger estate, called Old Montrose, the property an
ciently of the great family of Montrose, but now of
Sir James Carnegie of South Esk, Bart., is bounded
on the north by the river South Esk, which divides
it from Dun ; on the north-east by Montrose-basin,
which divides it from Montrose ; on the east and
south by Craig ; and on the west by Farnell. Its
length, from north to south, is 2£ miles ; and its
breadth expands from 1J mile, toward the north, to
2 \- on the extreme south. Pow- water is its boundary
for % of a mile with Farnell ; and Haugh-burn bisects
it north-eastward to Montrose-basin. The southern
extremity rises in a hillocky ridge, and sends up from
a base of rock 300 or 400 feet above sea-level, a bulky
artificial eminence, called Maryton-law, intended pro-

MAS

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bably as a beacon-post,1 or as a seat of feudal justice,
a.id commanding a fine view of the German ocean,
with the rich carpeting of Craig parish on the fore
ground, — of the harbour, basin, town, and links of
Montrose, foiled by the undulating heights of Kin
cardineshire, in the distance, — and of the rich green
strath of the South Esk, with the town of Brechin
in the centre, and the bold ascents and rugged sky
line of the Grampian mountains on the back-ground.
Excepting this hillocky-screen along the south, the
whole area is nearly level, and consists, on the sur
face, of a very fine loam, or of powerful wheat-bear
ing carse-land, both in a state of prime cultivation.
Part of the rich ground has very recently been won
from the tides of Montrose-basin. Navigation is
practised at spring-tides, by vessels of 50 or 60 tons
to Old Montrose place, about half-way up the coast
line of the district ; and confers the double advan
tage of bringing up coals and lime, and bearing away
grain and esculent roots. Vestiges are visible of the
foundations and moat of the old castle of Bonnyton,
anciently the residence of the Woods of Bonnyton,
whose estate, once separate, is now incorporated
with that of Montrose. — The lesser estate and dis
trict of the parish is called Dysart, lies from 6 to 11
furlongs south of the larger district, and belongs to
David Carnegie, Esq. of Craigs. It measures 2£ miles
in extreme length from east to west; varies in
breadth from a furlong to 1 J mile ; and is bounded
on the east by the German ocean ; on the south by
Lunan ; and on all other sides' by Craig. The ro
mantic dell called Buckyden is its boundary-line for
a considerable way with Lunan : which see. The
coast-line, about a mile in length, is bold, and sends
off the surface at a considerable elevation above sea-
lere*-. The whole area lies higher than that of Old
Montrose, excepting the latter's southern bank, and
is carpeted with naturally a much poorer soil ; yet it
is all enclosed and under culture  The whole parish
comprehends about 2,180 acres, of which about 100
are in pasture and under wood, and all the rest in
tillage. A coarse stone, a species of trap, is quarried
in several places as road-metal and material for stone
fences. Old Montrose is traversed by the turnpike
between Montrose and Forfar, and Dysart, by the
great north mail-road. Both districts have high ad
vantage from the near vicinity of the town and port
of Montrose. Population, in 1801, 596; in 1831,
419. Houses 79. Assessed property, in 1815,
£5, 1 79. — Maryton is in the presbytery of Brechin,
and synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £198 6s. 9d. ; glebe £18. The church
stands in the south-east corner of Old Montrose,
and has more than sufficient accommodation for the
parishioners. Schoolmaster's salary £30, with £10
fees, £4 other emoluments, and a house and garden.
There is an endowed school on the boundary with
Craig : which see.
MASTERTON, a small village in the parish of
Dunfermline, Fifeshire. It is situated upon an emi
nence, and commands fine prospects of the frith of
Forth, and the adjacent country. Here is an hos
pital for four widows, founded and endowed in 1676,
by Sir Henry Wardlaw of Pitreavie. Each widow
is entitled to receive 6 bolls of oatmeal, and 40s. in
money per annum. It is 1J mile north-north-west
of Inverkeithing. Population 126.
MAUCHLINE,* a parish nearly in the centre of
the district of Kyle, Ayrshire. It measures about
7£ miles in length from north to south, from 2 to
4 miles in breadth, and about 24 square miles in
« The name in the Gaelic, Magh-linne, ' the plain with the
pool ¦' and alludes to the site of the town on a plain traversed
by a streamlet, in which are three cascades or linns falling into
little noole.

area ; and is bounded on the north by Craigie and
Galston ; on the east by Sorn ; on the south by
Auchinleck and Ochiltree ; and on the west by
Stair and Tarbolton. Mauchline-hill, forming part
of what is called ' the Long-ridge of Kyle,' and at
taining a considerable altitude, rises a little north
eastward of the town, runs in a ridge westward about
a mile in the parish, and terminate? at Schioch hill
in Tarbolton. The ridge commands a magnificent
view of nearly all Ayrshire and the frith of Clyde,
foiled on the south by Cairnsmuir and other alpine
summits of Galloway ; on the west by the Paps of
Jura towering up behind the bold mountains of
Arran ; and on the north by Benlomond and adjacent
sky-scaling heights looking over the undulating hills
of Renfrewshire. Excepting in Mauchline-hill the
surface of the parish is, in general, flat, with a gentle
prevailing declination to the south. About 340 acres
of marshy ground and declivities are covered with
wood ; a patch of the medium size of a field is moss ;
and all the rest of the area is arable, fully enclosed, ex
cellently cultivated, and cheerful in aspect. A large
tract of land, formerly called Mauchline-moor, ex
hibits no traces of its ancient condition, and vies with
many a naturally favoured spot in its culture, its en
closures, and its belts of wood. The soil, in the
vicinity of the town, is light and sandy ; in a few
localities, is a rich loam ; and, over the greater part
of the parish, is of a clayey nature. Coal, limestone,
and ironstone abound, but are so thin in the strata
that they have ceased to be worked. White sand
stone, much esteemed for its colour, for the fineness
of its grain, and for its durability, is quarried at
Deaconbank ; and excellent red sandstone, from
strata of great thickness, is worked in the vicinity of
the town. The river Ayr runs across the south end
of the parish, between steep red sandstone rocks
40 or 50 feet high, overhung by wood, and both
beautiful and romantic. Of several caves cut out of
the rocks, resembling those at Auchinleck, noticed
by Dr. Johnson, one bears the name of Peden's cave,
and is said to have been a frequent hiding-place of
the celebrated Alexander Peden during the period of
the persecution. Lugar-water joins the Ayr, on its
left bank, a little above Barskimming. Cessnock-
water runs north-westward through the northern
part of the parish. Lochbroom, 24 miles north-west
of the town, is a lake of 60 acres in area, resorted to
by wild geese, and wild ducks, and occasionally by
swans, and emitting a streamlet which drives two
corn-mills and falls into the Cessnock. Respectively
2 miles north-east of the town and l\ mile south of
it, stand the villages of Auchmillan and Haugh, — the
former with about 40, and the latter with nearly 100
inhabitants. At Haugh is a woollen-factory, em
ploying between thirty and forty persons, and en
gaged chiefly in spinning yarn for the carpet manu
facturers of Kilmarnock.— On Mauchline-moor, in
1647, a party of the King's troops were defeated by
a party of Covenanters ; and their military chest, it
is said, was found, many years afterwards, hid on the
scene of action. Five Covenanters were martyred
in the parish under the reign of James VII., and were
commemorated by a tombstone — now substituted by
a recently erected monument — at Mauchline town-
head, both bearing the inscription :
" Bloody Dumbarton, Douglas, and Dundee,
Moved by the Devil and the Laird of Lee,
Dragged these five men to death with gun and sword,
Not suffering them to pray nor read God's word :
Owning the word of God was all their crime,
The eighty-five was a saint-killing time."
The celebrated reformer and martyr, George Wishart,
was invited, in 1544, to preach in the church of
Mauchline; and, on his arrival, he found the place

334

MAUCHLINE.

guarded by a party of soldiers, posted there to resist
him by the sheriff of Ayr, a heated opponent of the
Reformation. Some of tbe country-people proposing
to force an entrance, he dissuaded them, saying : " It
is the word of peace I preach unto you ; the blood
of no man shall be shed for it this day. Christ is as
mighty in the fields as in the church ; and He him
self, when he lived in the flesh, preached oftener in
the desert and by the sea-side, than in the temple of
Jerusalem ;" and he then moved away to Mauchline-
moor, followed by a multitudinous assembly, and there
preached to them upwards of three hours  The par
ish is traversed by the post-road between Glasgow
and Dumfries, by three other turnpikes, and by sev
eral subordinate roads; and enjoys means of easy
intercourse with every part of the circumjacent
country. Of several useful bridges over the Ayr,
one at Barskimming, built by the late Sir Thomas
Miller, and consisting of a single span, 100 feet wide
and 90 high, is the most elegant erection of its class,
and, at the same time, one of the greatest curiosities
in the parish. Population, in 1801, 1,746; in 1831,
2,232. Houses 329. Assessed property, in 1815,
£8,216. — Mauchline is in the presbytery of Ayr,
and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the Mar
quis of Hastings. Stipend £230 19s. lid. ; glebe
£20. Unappropriated teinds £33 3s. 5d. The par
ish-church, situated in the town, was built in 1829.
Sittings about 1,100. There is in the town a place
of worship belonging to the United Secession. The
parish-school was attended, in 1834, by 182 scholars;
and four private schools by 134. Parish school
master's salary £34 4s. 4,}d., with £40 fees, and £10
other emoluments  This parish was anciently of
great extent, comprehending, besides its present
area, the far-spreading territory which now consti
tutes Sorn and Muirkirk ; and, in all its expanse, it
belonged to the Stewarts, and formed part of their
princely domain of Kyle-Stewart. George Chalmers
— whose minute and dry but learned and accurate
researches have furnished us with antiquarian notices
of many a parish — speaks in so interesting a manner
respecting ancient Mauchline, that he must be quot
ed in full detail. " At the commencement of the
reign of William, in 1165," says he, " Walter, the
son of Alan, granted to the monks of Melrose the
lands of Mauchline, with the right of pasturage, in
his wide-spreading forest on the upper branches of
the Ayr river ; extending to the boundaries of Clydes
dale : and the Stewart, also, gave the same monks a
carrucate of land, to improve, in the places most con
venient ; all which was confirmed to them by King
William, at the request of the donor. The monks
of Melrose planted, at Mauchline, a colony of their
own order ; and this establishment continued a cell
of the monastery of Melrose till the Reformation.
In the before-mentioned grant of the lands of Mauch
line, or in the confirmations thereof, there is no
mention of the church of Mauchline. It is, there
fore, more than probable that the parish-church of
Mauchline was established by the monks of Melrose,
after they had become owners of the territory : and
it is quite certain that the church belonged to them.
It is apparent that the country which formed the
extensive parish of Mauchline, was but very little
settled when the monks obtained the grant from the
first Walter. This fact shows, that during the reign
of David I., and even during the reigns of his grand
sons and successors, Malcolm IV. and William, Ren
frew and Ayr were inhabited chiefly by Scoto-Irish,
who did not supply a full population to the country.
The monks afterwards acquired great additional pro
perty in the district, and contributed greatly to the
settlement and cultivation of it. They obtained
ample jurisdictions over their extensive estates of

Mauchline, Kylesmure, and Barmure, which were
formed into a regality, the courts whereof were held
at Mauchline. This village was afterwards created
a free burgh-of-barony, by the charter of James IV,,
in October, 1510. Before the Reformation there
were in this parish two chapels ; the one on Green-
ock-water, in the district which now forms the par
ish of Muirkirk, and the other on the river Ayr, on
the lands that now form the parish of Sorn. This
last was dedicated to St. Cuthbert, and stood1 a little
to the eastward of the present village of Catrine, on
a field which is still called St. Cuthbertsholm. The
church of Mauchline, with its tithes and pertinents,
continued, at the Reformation, to belong to the
monks of Melrose, who also held the extensive
barony of Kylesmure and Barmure, in that parish ;
and the whole was granted, in 1606, to Hugh, Lord
Loudoun. An act of parliament was then passed,
dissolving from the abbey of Melrose the lands and
barony before -mentioned, and the parish-kirk of
Mauchline, with its tithes ahd other property ; and
erecting the whole into a temporal lordship to Hugh,
Lord Loudoun; and creating the to wn of Mauchline
into a free burgh-of-barony, with a weekly-market
and two fairs yearly. The great effect of such grants
was only to make one ungrateful, and a dozen dis
contented. The monks had done fifty times more
good to the country than the Loudouns ever essayed.
In 1631 the large district which forms the parish of
Muirkirk was detached from Mauchline, and formed
into a separate parish. In 1636 it was settled that
the district which is now included in the parish of
Sorn should be detached from Mauchline, and formed
into a separate parish ; and a church was built at
Dalgain in that year ; but, from the distractions that
followed, the establishment of this new parish was
not fully completed till 1692. The parish of Mauch
line was thus reduced to less than a fifth of its
former magnitude."
Mauchline, a village or small town of Ayrshire,
the capital of the parish just described, is situated
at the intersection of the Glasgow and Dumfries,
and the Edinburgh and Ayr turnpikes ; 1 J mile north
of the river Ayr ; 2 miles from Catrine ; 5 from Tar-
balton; 6J from Old Cumnock; 7 from Galston; 10
from Kilmarnock; 12 from Ayr; 30 from Glasgow;
and 62 from Edinburgh. Its environs are a delight
fully cultivated country, studded with fine mansions.
The town is neatly edificed, has a pleasing appear
ance, and, measured by the bulk of its population*,
looks prosperous and important. Its charter as a
burgh-of-barony having been lost, about 125 years
ago, in the conflagration of the Register-office of
Edinburgh, it has not re-acquired power to elect its
own magistrates. Its peace, however, is well-pre
served by a baron-bailie and neighbouring justices of
peace. The parishrchurch, occupying a site in the
centre of the town, is highly ornamental to it, and
has been pronounced one of the most handsome ec
clesiastical edifices in Ayrshire. It is chiefly Gothic,
and built of red sandstone ; and at the cast end it
sends up a tower 90 feet in height, and surmounted
by turrets. Its predecessor, a lumpish, plain, sombre
building, well-known to most Scotchmen, and asso
ciated in the minds of many with profane thoughts,
as the scene of Burns' ' Holy Fair,' stood for six cen
turies on the same site, surrounded by the public
burying-ground. A lock-up-house, built about 12
years ago, has two cells, but is designed as a place
of only brief confinement. The town has a branch-
office of the Commercial bank of Scotland ; a savings'
bank ; two good inns ; far more than enough of ale
houses; a public library; and four schools. An
nual fairs, chiefly for cattle, are held on the last
Wednesday of January, the 2d Tuesday of May, ths

MAV

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MAX

17th day of June, the 22d day of July, the last
Tuesday of August, the 27th day of October, and
the 2d Tuesday of December, all old style ; and a
horse-race occurs in the end of April. The weaving
of cotton goods employs a large proportion of the in
habitants. In 1828, the town, jointly with Catrine,
had 300 hand-looms ; and in 1838, it had 1 75. Mauch
line vies with Cumnock and Laurencekirk in the
manufacture of wooden snuff-boxes and cigar-cases.
The workmen, about 60 in number, are singularly
expert in the arts of hingeing, polishing, and painting
the boxes, and display a skill which fixes the pleased
attention ,of a stranger. Burns has given great no
toriety to Mauchline in his poems, and associated its
name, and that of many objects in itself and its vicin
ity, with some of his most clever, and at the same
time most daringly unhallowed pleasantries. The
farm of Mossgiel, on which he resided nine years, and
which he subleased from Mr. Gavin HamUton, writer
in Mauchline, lies about a mile north-west of the
town: see article Mossgiel. An old edifice, the
relic of tbe ancient priory, and the residence in Burns'
days of Mr. Hamilton, called Mauchline-castle, and
situated near the church, was the scene of some, of
his amours, and contains a room in which he wrote
his very profane parody called ' the Calf.' The cot
tage or change-house of ' Poosie Nancy,' or Agnes
Gibson, which was one of his chief resorts in quest
of the ' clachan yill,' and the scene of his piece called
' the Jolly Beggars,' stands nearly opposite the church
yard-gate. It was " the favourite resort," says Allan
Cunningham, " of lame sailors, maimed soldiers, wan
dering tinkers, travelling ballad-singers, and all such
loose companions as hang about the skirts of society."
Separated from the gable of this house, only by the
commencement of an intervening lane, stands the
public-house kept by John Dow, another great resort
of Burns, a, thatched plain building of two stories.
On a pane on one of its back windows the poet wrote
the absurd epitaph on his host, representing Dow's
creed to be simply a comparative estimate of the
value of his several liquors. Tbe lane which strikes
off between these bouses is the Cowgate, along which
' Common sense,' or the poet's correspondent Dr.
Mackenzie, escaped when a certain minister appeared
at the tent. In the churchyard, so painfully asso
ciated with the demoralizing images, and in some in
stances too just satire of our bard's ' Holy Fair,' may
be seen the graves of the Rev. Mr. Auld, Nanse Tin-
nock, and some other persons whom he made the butt
of his rhymes. Various scenes of his exquisite lyrics,
. — pieces in which the effusions of his genius may be
enjoyed with less pain and damage to the moral
feelings, — occur along the banks of the river Ayr.
Population of the town, in 1821, 1,100; in 1831,
1,364. MAVISTONE, or Culbin-Sands, an extensive
tract of sandy ground on the coast of Morayshire,
traditionally said to have once been one of the most
fertile and valuable districts in the county: see Dyke
and Movl
MAUL-EAL AN- AN, two islets at the entrance of
Loch-Assynt, on the west coast of Sutherlandshire.
MAXTON, a parish in the northern part of Rox
burghshire ; bounded on the north by Berwickshire
and Makerston; on the east and south-east by Rox
burgh ; on the south-west by Ancrum ; and on the
west by St. Boswells and Berwickshire. It is a
parallelogram of 31 by 2i miles, stretching south-
westward and north-eastward; but wants the north
west corner, and has an area of about 4,510 acres.
The Tweed sweeps majestically and in beautiful
curves 4 miles along the western and northern boun
daries, along a path of red sandstone, and between
alternately sloping and steep banks of great beauty.

The southern corner of the parish is occupied bj
the north-east end of the high ridge called Lilyard's
edge, famous as tbe scene of the battle of Ancrum-
muir : see Ancrum. Half-a-mile north of this rises
a hill called Moorhouselaw. All the rest of the sur
face is a plain gently sloping to the Tweed. Nearly
700 acres are planted, chiefly with ash, larch, elm, and
oak. About 10 acres are bog. None of the area is
unenclosed. The village of Maxton, on the Melrose
and Kelso turnpike near the Tweed, was anciently
a place of some importance, and is even said to have
had 4,000 or 5,000 inhabitants ; but it now consists
of a few wretched huts, the shaft of its ancient cross
standing before them, and the foundations of its an
cient houses occasionally marring the plough in the
adjacent fields. Another village, called Rutherford,
and situated 2 miles to the east, has totally disap
peared  About 1 \ mile north-east of Maxton, on a
high bank overlooking the Tweed, stand the ruins
of Littledean tower, built in the form of a crescent,
and anciently a place of some strength. The Kerrs
of Littledean, a family of considerable Border fame,
resided here, and have a burying vault adjoining the
church  In the north-east corner of the parish, on
a rocky height overhanging the Tweed, is a nearly
circular camp about 480 feet in circumference, called
Ringly hall, and defended on one side by the river,
and on other sides by moats and ramparts. An Eng
lish army is traditionally reported, though without
mention of date or occasion, to have occupied this
position for several days, confronted by a Scottish
force, who were ensconced on the opposite bank of
the river in a ravine which retains, from the occur
rence, the name of 'the Scots hole.' The English,
being superior in numbers, forded the Tweed, and,
after a severe encounter with the Scotch on a rising
ground still called the Plea-brae, suffered complete
discomfiture. Tbe spot at which the English passed
was called Rue-the-ford, on account of their having
had so grievous cause to regret fording the river, and
transferred its name, altered into Rutherford, to the
lands around it, and the now extinct village in its
vicinity. If thin traditionary story be correct, it
must be so ancient as to refer to a time preceding the
epoch of authentic Border history.— A Roman road,
which crosses the Tweed near Melrose, and the Te
viot near the mouth of the Jed, runs along the whole
south-western boundary of Maxton. On the face of
Moorhouselaw-hill, overlooking it, are traces of a
Roman camp. Population, in 1801, 368; in 1831,
462. Houses 83. Assessed property, in 1815,
£4,574  Maxton is in the ' presbytery of Selkirk,
and synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, Sir
W. H. Don of Newton. Stipend £211 15s. 10d.;
glebe £10. Unappropriated teinds £'283 9s. lid.
Schoolmaster's salary £46, with £22 5s. 6£d. fees,
and a house and garden — The present parish com
prehends the ancient parishes of Maccuston or Mac-
kiston and Rutherford. The monks of Melrose re
ceived, at the end of the 12th century, a carrucate
of land in the parish of Mackiston or Maxton ; and
in 1227 made an agreement with the parson to pay
4 marks of silver annually, as a composition for the
tithes of this land. The church was dedicated to
St. Cuthbert. Walter, the Steward of Scotland,
received from Robert I. the barony of Maxton, along
with other lands forfeited by William Soulis ; and
he gave the cburcb, with 4 acres of arable land, to
the monks of Dryburgh, subjecting it to them as a
vicarage till the Reformation. The advowson of the
church of Rutherford anciently belonged to the Earls
of Douglas, and was afterwards possessed by Ruther
ford of Rutherford ; but it went into abeyance when
the church was abandoned. In Rutherford parish
there was an hospital dedicated to Mary Magdalene,

MAX

336

MAY

used as an hospitium for strangers, and a retreat for
the poor and the infirm, and given by Robert I. to
the monks of Jedburgh.
MAXWELL. See Kelso.
MAXWELL-HEUGH, a village on the south
bank of the Tweed directly opposite the eastern part
of the town of Kelso, in Roxburghshire. It stands
on a heugh or elevation up which gently ascends the
Berwick and Carlisle turnpike from Kelso bridge.
Its site is one of the most brilliant which village can
occupy. The view of town and country landscape
enjoyed in the descent from it to the bridge, is one
of the richest in the vicinity of Kelso : see article
Kelso. Among a profusion of wood which sur
rounds the village, one poplar-tree in its immediate
neighbourhood is 31 feet in girth at the surface of
the ground, and 16 feet high before sending off a
branch, and has been computed to contain nearly
900 cubic feet of timber. Maxwell-heugh is a place
of high antiquity, and had a seat of the Earl of Mor
ton in the reign of Elizabeth. Its name is taken
from its site, — a ' heugh ' in the ancient parish of
' Maxwell.' Population about 100.
MAXWELLTON. See East Kilbride.
MAXWELLTOWN, a quoad sacra parish and a
burgh-of-barony in the eastern extremity of Kirk
cudbrightshire. The parish is about 4^- miles in ex
treme length, upwards of 1 mile in extreme breadth,
and about 3,200 acres in area ; and is bounded on
the east by the river Nith, which divides it from the
parish of Dumfries. It was detached quoad sacra
from the parish of Troqueer, in 1834, by authority
of the General Assembly. Its population, in 1835,
according to an ecclesiastical survey, was 1,945; of
whom 370 belonged to the Establishment, 238 were
dissenters, and 1,337 had no right to a sitting in any
place of worship. All, with but a very trivial ex
ception, reside in the burgh. Five hundred are as
poor as paupers, and 500 more are in a condition but
one degree better. The parish-church was built as
a chapel-of-ease in 1829, and cost £2,500. Sittings
1,225. Stipend £150. Two-thirds of the congre
gation are ultra-parochial, and scattered at consider
able distances over various surrounding parishes.
The dissenters are connected with congregations in
Dumfries  The burgh-of-barony extends in a stripe
along the Nith, directly opposite the town of Dum
fries, and nearly equal to it in length. A street or
alley immediately on the Nith north of the New
bridge, is a retreat of squalid misery, a nestling-place
of low immigrant Irish, an utter satire upon the
beautiful and proud royal burgh which confronts it
on the other side of the stream. A street parallel
to this brings down the Glasgow and Dumfries turn
pike, is straight and spacious, has several good
houses, and, near the middle, on its west side, ex
hibits a burgh or public building of neat exterior.
A street at right angles- with these, and on a line
with the Newbridge, carries westward the Dumfries
and Portpatrick mailroad, is also straight and spa
cious, and at its west end goes gracefully off into the
country in a series of villa-like houses. A wide brief
street forking into two between the bridges, a street
somewhat parallel to it on the west, and one or two
other thoroughfares are in general of poor appear
ance, and but slightly relieved of their plain, low,
and dingy aspect by a sprinkling or an occasional se
ries of tolerable houses. The whole burgh, so far
as it presses on the river, or from the northern ex
tremity till below the old bridge, so far imitates
London as to have no terrace or street-line looking
out upon the stream, but it entirely wants even a
mimic resemblance of the picturesqueness of archi
tectural outline exhibited by the vast metropolitan
prototype. Yet seen either from Dumfries or from

almost any point of view near or distant on the east
side of the river, it gives out features to a glowing
and very lovely landscape which add much to its at
tractions and its warmth. A beautifully curved hill
swells up at the south end but a brief distance from
.the brink of the river, and bears aloft a conspicuous
cylindrical pile which figured a landscape- view of the
whole lower vale of the Nith, first with four huge
arms, and afterwards with two, as a wind-mill, but
is now tastefully fitted up, and supplied with suit
able instruments as an observatory. Along the face
of this fine rising ground, fronting Dumfries, stands
a range of elegant houses. On the brink of tbe stream,
with but a narrow belt, of plain intervening from
the base of the hill, stands a complete suite of large'
grain mills, each mill supplied with water-power in
one of several parallel dams, extending from a strong
high water, built diagonally across the whole breadth
of the river. Maxwelltown, under its original name
of Bridgend, was, till comparatively a very recent
date, one Of the most disorderly and ill-conditioned
villages in the kingdom, — resembling much more a
suburb of Limerick or Galway at a period of rest
lessness and insubordination, than a suburb in the
18th and 19th centuries of the metropolis of the
south-west of Scotland. Sir John Fielding, the well-
known London magistrate, said, that whenever a
delinquent got along the bridge from Dumfries into
Maxwelltown, he eluded all further search or pur
suit. The village's position in a different county
from that of Dumfries, its destitution of all local or
special magistracy, and its almost entire abandon
ment to poor and squalid settlers from a distance, all
contributed to impress upon it an unusually bad char
acter. The fine ruins of Lincluden college, and some
other antiquarian remains in the environs of Dumfries,
suffered much from tbe Goth and Vandal spirit of
the inhabitants ; and fences, young trees, corn-fields,
and general property, throughout an extensive cir
cumjacent country, were so injured by their destruc
tive and immoral habits, that complaints are lugu
briously detailed in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical
Account of several of the parishes. Now, however,
the town has a remarkably improved character, as to
at once its architecture, its police, its trade, and the
entire manners and aggregate polish of its population.
In 1810, a charter was obtained from the Crown
erecting it into a free burgh-of-barony; and in no
case has a similar measure been more extensively or
decidedly productive of good effects. The burgh is
governed by a provost, two bailies, and some coun
cillors. In matters of trade and commerce, it is
unique with Dumfries : which see.
MAXWELTON. See Paisley.
MAY (.The), a small island in the mouth of the frith
of Forth, lying 6 miles south from the burgh of Crail,
and about the same distance from Anstruther-Wester.
It is about 1 mile long, and three quarters of a mile
broad. It consists entirely of greenstone, of a dark
gray colour tinged with green. The shores are pre
cipitous, but the surface is upon the whole flat :
hence perhaps the name May or Magh, which in
Celtic signifies 'a Plain.' The western extremity,
which is the broadest, presents cliffs of about 160
feet in elevation, with a tendency towards the co
lumnar structure. The eastern extremity subsides
into a long low ridge or reef. Kittiwakes, auks,
guillemots, terns, titlarks, cormorants, and gannets
are the species of birds commonly seen upon it. The
southern coast has the most fertile appearance. In
the words of Ferguson, " Here, the verdant shores
Teem with new freshness, and regale our sight
With caveB, that ancient Time, iu days of yore,
Seqoester'd for the haunt of Druid lone,
There to remain in solitary cell.

MAY

337

MAY

It has a well of fine water and a small lake, and
affords excellent sheep-pasture. There are upon it
the ruins of a priory, which formerly belonged to the
abbey of Pittenweem ; and of a chapel, which was
dedicated to St. Adrian, who was killed by the
Danes in 870, and buried here. The saint's shrine
was formerly much resorted to in cases of barren
ness. William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews,
purchased it from the monks, and bestowed it upon
the canons-regular of the priory. After the Refor
mation, the island came to the Balfours of Mont-
qubandie, and subsequently to Allan Lamond, who
sold it to Cunningham of Barns. Alexander Cun
ningham of Barns obtained a charter fromCharles I.,
of the island, with liberty to build a lighthouse, for
which a tax was imposed on all ships passing up the
frith. He erected a tower 40 feet high, on the top
of which a fire of coals was constantly kept burning.
This proved of much service to the navigation of the
frith, although vessels would often run within half-
a-mile of the island before the light was discernible.
The architect of this tower is said to have been
drowned on his return from the island, in a storm
supposed to have been raised by Some old women,
who were in consequence burned as witches. With
the estate of Barns, the island was purchased by
Scott of Scotstarvet, upwards of 120 years ago, and
came to the late General Scott of Balcomie, by whose
daughter, the Duchess of Portland, it was sold for
£60,000 to the Commissioners for Northern lights.
In 1815-16, they rebuilt the tower, and fitted it up
with oil lamps and reflectors. The beacon was lit
up on the new plan on February 1st, 1816. It is
situated in N. lat. 56° 12', and W. long. 2° 36'.
From the lighthouse, Fifeness bears, by compass, N.
by E. 4 E., 5 miles ; and tbe Staple-rocks lying off
Dunbar S. by W. J W., 10 miles; the Bass S. W.
i W., 7 miles; and the Bell-rock N. E., 15 miles.
The light resembles a star of the first magnitude,
and may be seen from all points of the compass, at
the distance of about 7 leagues. It is elevated 240
feet above the medium level of the sea. The ex
pense of the light, in 1839, was £572 13s. 3d. A
rent of £21 is received by Government for the pas
ture and birds on the island. The Isle of Mav is
occasionally visited by parties of pleasure in the sum
mer months. At one time about 15 fishermen and
their families resided on the isle ; but now the only
inhabitants are the two light-keepers and their fa
milies. MAY (The), a small but beautiful river of the
south-cast division of Perthshire, rising among the
Ochil hills, and terminating in Strathearne. Having
issued from the side of John-hill close on the point
where the four parishes of Auchterarder, Dunning,
Glendevon, and Fossaway meet, it runs 6 miles
north-eastward; 2| miles of this distance through
Dunning ; 2 between Dunning on the left, and For
gandenny on the right ; and 1£ partly in Forgandenny
and partly between it and the most southerly section
of Forteviot. It now runs 2£ miles northward, most
of the distance through Forgandenny, and a brief
way on the boundary with the main body of Forte
viot ; and it then finally enters Forteviot, and, after
a course through it of li- mile westward and 1|
northward, falls into the Earn a few yards below
Forteviot bridge, and about a mile above Dupplin
castle. Its entire length of course is between 11
and 12 miles. Its tributaries are numerous ; but, its
course being for most of the way among the Ochils,
they are all small. After entering Forteviot, its
path, its banks, and its motions afford a continued
leries of thrilling subjects for the pencil and the
The thick green woods which surround the

fling their shadows over its rapids and its cataracts j
and they still exhibit many specimens of the birches
which, more than a century ago, became the topic
of Mallet's popular ballad of ' the Birks of Inver
may,' set even then to an air which bad long before
borne the same name. Among several falls of the
stream, two are noted for their attractions ; the linn
of Muckersey, where the river leaps over a perpen
dicular rock of 30 feet in height ; and the Humble-
bumble, where, among rugged rocks, and weep
ing trees, and tufts of shrubbery, and many an ele
ment of romance, the stream tumultuates in a cata
ract of such wild and unwonted sounds as to have
suggested its uncouth Humble-bumble designation.
Among the woods of Invermay, particularly on the
brink of the frolicking current, grow some rare plants,
rendering the locality an inviting one to a botanist.
On the banks of the river, near its most romantic
scenery, anciently stood the Pictish city of For
teviot, the seat of the court of Pictish kings, and an
object of warlike contention at the period imme
diately preceding the fall of the Pictish power. The
river mixes its name also with the private history of
one of the Scottish kings.
MAYBOLE, a populous and important parish,
occupying the north-west corner of the district of
Carrick, Ayrshire. It is bounded on the west and
north-west by the frith of Clyde ; on the north-east
by Ayr ; on the east by Dalrymple and Kirkmichael ;
and on the south and south-west by Kirkoswald. Its
greatest length, in a straight line, is 9 miles, but by
the nearest practicable road is 12 ; its greatest
breadth, in a straight line, is 5 miles, but by the
nearest practicable road is 7 ; and its area is 33$
square miles. The eastern and south-eastern dis
tricts are an undulating plain, very diversified in
surface, never subsiding long into a level, nor ever
rising into decided upland. The other districts are
a sea of heights, partly arable, and partly pastoral,
so pleasingly and rapidly diversified in superficial
outline as to want nothing but a free interspersion
of wood to be delightful rambling-ground to a lover
of fine scenery. Along tbe middle of the hill dis
trict, parallel with the frith, and li mile distant
from it, stretches a range of summits nearly 2 miles
long, attaining an extreme altitude of 924 feet above
sea-level, and bearing the name of Brown Carrick
hill. This range, though heathy in itself, and rising
like a screen to intercept a view of the gorgeous frith
and its frame- work from the interior, commands one
of the most gay, magnificent, and extensive pros
pects in Scotland. On the south-east and south
stretches the rugged and surgy surface of Carrick,
expanding away in alternations of green height and
brown bold upland till it becomes lost among the
blue and hazy peaks of the southern Highlands of
Scotland; on the south-west and west are fhe broad
and brilliant waters of the frith of Clyde, with many
a sail like a sea-bird skimming the surface, and the
rock of Ailsa riding like an ark on the wave, and
with tbe sublime frame-work of the bold and ser
rated mountains of Arran1 veiled in 'misty exhala
tions, or festooned and curtained with clouds of
every form and hue ; on the north, immediately under
his eye, extends the huge sylvan furrow of the
Doon, with the monument of Burns glittering like
a gem on its edge; and away thence stretches the
luxuriant and vast plain of Kyle and Cunningham
pressed inward in a long sweeping segment by the
frith, gaily spotted and chequered with towns which
look like cities in the distance, with a profusion of
mansions and demesnes, and with all the adornings
of a rich and well-cultivated country, and gliding
dimly away in the' peispective into the gentle heights

house of Invermay come down upon its margin, and of Renfrewshire, overlooked in the far horizon by
II. Y

338

MAYBOLE.

Ihe blue or clouded summit of Benlomond. The
same prospect, in much of its extent and most of its
elements, is seen from a thousand vantage-grounds
of this arousing and inspiriting land of beauty ; but
nowhere are its scope so unbroken, its groupings so
superb, and its effect upon the mind so exquisitely
thrilling. Should any one wonder that Burns grew
up on the threshhold of this home of romance, and for
many years might have daily gazed on its gorgeous
visions, and yet has not made an allusion to it in
his writings, he must remember that the bard, though
possessing a keen and delighted eye for tbe beauties of
nature, was the painter rather of manners than of land
scape, — the type in poetry not of Salvator Rosa, but
of Hogarth and the limners of Holland. The river
Doon, over 4£ miles in a straight line, but over 7 or
8 along its numerous graceful curvatures, forms the
boundary-line on the north-east. But over j of a
mile above its embouchure it forsakes its ancient
bed, and places a small portion of the parish, a
piece of haugh-ground, on its left bank. Along
nearly all its connexion with Maybole, it has a
deeply-furrowed, dell-like path, profusely and beau
tifully covered with copsewood and trees. Girvan-
water forms the boundary for a short distance on the
south-east ; and is there a mirthful fine-clad stream.
Rannoch-burn, running 2| miles westward along
an entwisting glen to the sea, traces part of the
southern boundary. The interior running waters,
owing to the configuration of tbe surface, are ne
cessarily mere rills : the largest gathers a consider
able volume in five or six sources on Brown Carrick
hill, and runs in an easterly course of 4 miles to the
Doon near Auchendrum. Of four or five tiny loch
lets, all lying in the south-east, the only noticeable
one is Heart-loch, whose outline is exactly desig
nated by its name, and whose appearance in a wood
ed hollow, with vegetation coming freely up on the
outer surface of its waters, is softly beautiful. Per
ennial springs of excellent water are numerous,
especially on the site and in the vicinity of the town;
and one of them, called the Well-trees' Spout,
emits a stream powerful enough to drive a mill
wheel, or between 160 and 170 imperial gallons per
minute. Of various mineral springs, formerly of
medicinal repute, but all now neglected^ tbe most
remarkable is St. Helen's well, 2£ miles north of
the town on the high road to Ayr, — anciently asso
ciated with Popish superstition, and reputed to have
the power on May-day of healing or invigorating
sick or delicate infants. The geological structure of
the coast is interesting for its correspondence with the
strata of Arran. Nearly 1 ,000 acres in the parish are
planted, about 3,000 are moorland and hill and mea
dow pasture, and between 16,000 and 17,000 are in
tillage. Considerable attention, though by no means
so much as in any Cunningham parish, is paid to the
dairy. Towers or castles, the ancient residences
of brawling feudal chiefs, were numerous, amount
ing in all to at least 15  Dunure castle is perched
on the brink of a projecting rock, 3 miles south
west of the Heads of Ayr, rises high above the
waves, bears evident marks of high antiquity,
was formerly surrounded by a ditch and a wall,
and presents to the mind a sort of rude and gloomy
grandeur  Grenand, or Greenan castle, half-way
between the mouth of the Doon and the Heads of
Ayr, is a tall, gaunt, lanthorn-looking pile, rising
nakedly upon the margin of the sea, on a stripe of
level beach, flanked by a bold bank ; and, as seen
with the Clyde for its back-ground, it has a haggard
aspect, strikingly suggestive of the misery of feudal
times — The castles of Newark, punduff, and Kil-
kenzie, like the two just named, are quite superan
nuated, yet not strictly ruinous ; but. all the others

 the castles of Aucherulrane, Smithstown, Beoch,
Craigskean, Garryhofne, Doonside, Dalduff, Glen-
ayas, Sauchrie, and Brochlock, are much dilapi
dated, or have left but a few vestiges — Numerous
camps occur, so small and of such rude construction,
as evidently to have been thrown up by small invad
ing bodies of those Irish who subdued the Roman
ized British tribes. Tumuli, the burying-places of
a field of carnage, are frequent. The whole parish,
as we shall more fully see in our notice of the town,
was, in common with districts around it, fiercely
tyrannized over in ancient times by the Kennedies ;
and exhibits not a few memorials of having been the
constant scene of murders, melees, feuds, and crimes
of atrocity perpetrated by these despots and their
underlings. So vast was the Kennedies' power, and
so keen their feudal partisanship, that an old ballad
says : — " 'Twixt Wigton and the town of Air,
And laigh doon, by the Cruves o' Cree
You shall not get a lodging there
Except ye court a Kennedy."
Culroy, a clean, rural, little village, stands 3} miles
north of the town on tbe low road to Ayr. Dunure,
the only other village, is.small and unprosperous; yet
has the character of a sea-port. Its harbour, immedi
ately north of Dunure-castle, is situated on the west
side of a small bay, and on a projecting point of
land, 7 miles south of the town of Ayr. Round the
point of land, the water is from 4 to 20 fathoms
deep, with a level, clean, sandy bottom, and good
anchorage. Front this deep water, a passage is cut
15Q feet wide at bottom, through the rock, to a
square basin which comprehends from 700 to 1,000
feet of quay. The whole of tbe basin is completely
sheltered by high ground, and screened by lines of
buildings forming a square. The access from the
sea is easy and safe in almost any wind ; and the
egress is so facile, that a vessel, as soon as she gets
out of the mouth of the harbour, can at any time
and at once work to sea. The depth of water in the
passage and the basin is 12 feet at ordinary spring
tides ; but it is capable of being artificially increased
to nearly 30 feet. Yet good, and seemingly very
valuable as Dunure harbour is — especially on a coast
so inhospitable to shipping as that of Ayrshire — it
has hitherto, since its construction in 1811, been of
small practical use, and has even been allowed to
crumble toward ruin. An occasional sloop freighted
with lime or bone-dust, and a few fishing-boats, are
the only craft which grace it with their presence, or
which the inhabitants of tbe drcumjacent country
require for their Lilliputian commerce. The parish,
besides having some cross-roads, is traversed by
three leading lines of road diverging from the town
and converging at Ayr, — the coast road wending se-
micircularly down Rancoch-glen, and along the coast
— the high road leading nearly in a straight line, but
over very uneven ground, to Ayr, — and the low road
running eastward of the former, and used as the
thoroughfare of the Glasgow and Port-Patrick mail.
Population, in 1801, 3,162; in 1831, 6,287. Houses
798. Assessed property, in 1815, £19,716.
Maybole is in the presbytery of Ayr, and synod of
Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£314 6s. 7d. ; glebe £30. Unappropriated teinds
£70 7s. 2d. The parish-church was built in 1808,
and altered and improved in 1830. Sittings 1,192
A preaching-station in connexion with the Establish
ment, and accommodated generally in a barn and occa
sionally in a school-house, was in 1836, commenced
in the district beyond Brown Carrick hill, by the
parish schoolmaster, a licentiate of the Established
church. Another preaching-station was occasionally
maintained by the parish-minister in the, village of

MAYBOLE.

339

Culroy. An United Secession congregation was
established in the town in 1797 ; and, in the same
year, built a place of worship at the cost of £400.
Sittings 555. Stipend £100. A Methodist chapel
in the town was, in 1836, occupied once a-month as
an outpost of the Episcopalian minister of Ayr, but
has since been unused by any congregation. Sittings
from 150 to 200. Tbe population, according to a sur
vey by the parish-minister and his elders in 1835,
consisted then of 5,033 churchmen and 1,329 dis
senters, — in all, 6,362 persons. The parish-school,
conducted by a master and an assistant, was attend
ed, in 1834, by 156 scholars; and 12 other schools,
conducted by 13 teachers, were attended by 605.
Parish schoolmaster's salary £34, with from £90 to
£.100 fees — The present parish comprehends the
ancient parishes of Maybole on the south, and Kirk
bride on the north. The church of Maybole, an
ciently dedicated to St. Cuthbert, was given, in the
reign of Alexander II. by Duncan of Carrick, son of
Gilbert of Galloway, to the Cistertian nuns of North
Berwick, whose convent was founded soon after
1216; and continued -to belong to them, and to
figure as a vicarage established by the bishop of
Glasgow till the Reformation. The entire revenues
of the vicarage were estimated in the reign of James
V. at only £53 6s. 8d. ; and half of even these was
annexed, for some time before the Reformation, to
the prebend called Sacrista Major in the collegiate
church of Glasgow. At the Restoration, the rev
enues of the parsonage, the glebe excepted, were
held on lease by Thomas Kennedy of Bargany, for
the yearly payment of £22, twenty oxen, and twelve
cows. In 1451 , a chaplainry was founded in the
church by Sir Gilbert Kennedy of Dunure, dedicated
to St. Ninian, and endowed with the lands of Lar-
genlen and Brochlock. A chapel, subordinate to the
parish-church, anciently stood on the lands of Auch-
endrane : and other chapels, according to a manu
script account of Carrick, by Mr. Abercromby, minis
ter of Maybole at. the period, were traceable at the
end of the 1 7th century  The church of Kirkbride
was given to the same parties as the church of May
bole, and by the same donor, and continued in their
possession till the Reformation. The annexation of
its parish to Maybole occurred probably in the days
of Popery, and certainly before 1597. In that year,
the church of Maybole figures as the place of wor
ship for both parishes, and, by an act of parliament,
was formally separated from tbe convent of North
Berwick, and established as a rectory.- The ruins
of the church of Kirkbride, on the shore about half-
a-mile north of Dunure castle, are still distinctly
observable, surrounded by a burying-ground which
continues to be used, and in the vicinity of a field
which bears the name of the priest's land or glebe.
— In 1371, Sir John Kennedy of Dunure founded,
near the parish cemetery of Maybole, a chapel for
one clerk and three chaplains ; dedicated it to the
Virgin Mary, and endowed it with the five mark
lands of Barrydoych and Barrelach ; the six mark
lands of Treuchan, and various other sources of
revenue. This collegiate chapel seems to have been
the earliest establishment of its class in Scotland ;
and afterwards, when similar ones arose, it was called
a collegiate church, and its officiates were styled
provost and prebendaries. During part of the reigns
of James III. and James IV., Sir David Robertson was
provost; and, in 1525, Mr. Walter Kennedy, rector of
Douglas, canon of Glasgow, and rector of the univer
sity of Glasgow, was appointed to the office. The
ground on which the town stands, belonged to the col
legiate church. T wo houses, which were the domiciles
of two of its priests, and orchards which belonged to
the domiciles of the others, still exist. The church

itself is now the burying-place of the. Marquis of
Ailsa and other parts, whose ancestors arrested the
progress of the pile toward ruin ; and is surrounded
by a planted and neat patch of ground enclosed
within a wall.
Maybole, a burgh-of-barony, an ancient town,
and still the reputed capital of Carrick, stands near
the southern extremity of its cognominal parish, on
the mailroad between Glasgow and Port-Patrick ;
12 miles from Girvan, 25 from Ballantrae, 9 from
Ayr, 22 from Kilmarnock, 44 from Glasgow, and 81
from Edinburgh. It stands chiefly on the declivity
and partly'along the skirts of a very broad-based and
flattened hill, with an exposure to tbe east, the
summit of the hill intervening between it and the
frith and coast of the Clyde ; and it commands a
pleasant and somewhat extensive vuewover one-half
of the points of tbe compass into the interior of
Carrick. An old rhyme, using one of. several obso
lete variations of the town's ancient name says, —
" Minnibole's a dirty hole,
lt sits aboon a mire. ' '
This representation, in the sense usually attached to
it of the town being situated on miry ground, is
now, and probably always was, incorrect. A broad
belt of deep green meadow, nearly as level as a
bowling-green, stretches along the base of the hill,
and seems anciently to have been a marsh ; but it
could not have been a marsh of a miry kind, or other
wise than green and meadowy, nor does it, even at
present, form the site of more than a very small and
entirely modern part of the town. The whole an
cient site is declivitous, abounding with copious
springs of pure water ; and, . not improbably was
clothed in its natural state with heath. Two sets
of names, both very various in their orthography,
but represented by the forms Maiboil and Minnybole,
were anciently given to the town ; they have greatly
perplexed etymologists, and seem to have bewildered
the usually astute George Chalmers ; but they may,
Professor Gray thinks, be referred to Gaelic roots,
which make them mean, ' the Heath-ground upon
the marsh,' and ' the Heath-ground upon the mea
dow.' A town built upon a heathy declination,
and closely skirted by a meadow, or even a grassy
marsh, may thus, without 'sitting aboon a mire,'
be both ' Minnibole' and Maybole. The lower
streets of the town, called Kirklands, Newyards,
and Ballong, are not within the limits of the burgh,
and consist almost wholly of weavers' houses and
workshops, tidier and in every respect better than
similar buildings in most other towns. The main
street runs nearly north and south, and — with the
exception of a brief thoroughfare going off west
ward at right angles from its middle— occupies the
highest ground within the burgh. A considerable
space, deeply sloping between it and the low-lying
suburbs, is disposed to a small extent in the ancient
cemetery and the relics of the collegiate church ; to
a greater extent in four or five incompact and irre
gularly arranged streets ; and to a yet greater extent
in fields and gardens which give all the intersecting
thoroughfares a straggling or detached appearance,
and impart to the whole t,own a rural, airy, and
healthful aspect. The only parts which draw the
attention of a stranger, are the Main street, and
what is called the Kirk-wynd. These are narrow,
and of varying width, quite destitute of every mo
dern attraction, and sinless of all the ordinary graces
of a fine town ; yet they . possess many features of
antique stateliness, decayed and venerable magnifi
cence, and even fading dashes of metropolitan great
ness, which strongly image the aristocratical parts of
Edinburgh during the feudal age. As the capital of

340

MAYBOLE.

Carrick, the place anciently wielded more influence
over its province than the modern metropolis of the
kingdom does over Scotland, and was the site of
winter,residences of a large proportion of the Car
rick barons. As the seat, also, of the courts of jus
tice of Carrick bailiery,— the place where all cases
of importance in a roistering and litigating age
were tried, — it derived not a little outward respecta
bility from the numbers and wealth of the legal prac
titioners who made it their home. In connexion,
too, with its collegiate church and its near vicinity
to Crossraguel abbey, it borrowed great consequence
from the presence of mitred or influential ecclesiastics
who, in a dark age, possessed more resources of
power and opulence than most of the nobility. No
fewer than 28 baronial mansions, stately, turreted,
and strong, are said to have stood within its limits.
Two of several of these which still remain figure in
association with such interesting history that they
must be specially noticed.
The chief is the ancient residence of the Ailsa or
Cassilis family, the principal branch of the Kennedys.
The building stands near the middle of the town,
bears the name of the Castle par excellence, and is a
high, well-built, imposing pile, one of the strongest
and finest of its class. It was the place of confine
ment for life of the Countess of Cassilis, a daughter
of the 1st Earl of Haddington, who eloped with the
Gipsy leader, Johnnie Faa. [See article Cassilis
Castle.] The town's-people assume looks of so
lemn mystery when turning a stranger's attention to
the building, and tell strange traditions respecting
the lady and her days of duresse. The Earls of Cas
silis, directly and through the medium of collateral
branches of their family, wielded such power over
the province that they were called both popularly
and by historiographers, " Kings of Carrick ;" and
they used the castle of Maybole as the metropolitan
palace of their " kingdom." Gilbert, the 4th Earl,
who lived in the unsettled period succeeding the
commencement of the Reformation, pushed his power
into Galloway, and by murder and forgery seized the
large possessions of the abbey of Glenluce. He, for
some time, saw his uncle abbot of Crossraguel ; but,
the office passing to Allan Stewart, who enjoyed the
protection of the Laird of Bargany, he rapaciously
desired to lay hands on all its revenues and temporal
rights. His brother, Thomas Kennedy, having
at his instigation enticed Stewart to become his
guest, the unprincipled Earl conveyed the ensnared
abbot to Dunure castle, the original residence of the
Cassilis family, and there, by subjecting him to such
torments as have rarely occurred but among the Ame
rican Indians, or in the dungeons of the Spanish In
quisition, forced him to resign by legal instruments
the possessions of the abbacy. A feud arose from
this event, or was aggrayated by it, between the
Earls of Cassilis and the Lairds of Bargany, and at
last issued in very tragical events. In December,
1601, the Earl of Cassilis rode out from Maybole
castle at the head of 200 armed followers to waylay
the Laird of Bargany on a ride from Ayr to his house
from Girvan- water ; and on the farm of West Enoch,
about half-a-mile north of the town, he forced on the
Laird an utterly unequal conflict, and speedily
brought him and several faithful adherents gorily to
the ground. The Laird, mortally wounded, was
carried from the scene of the murderous onset to
Maybole, that he might there, if he should evince
any symptom of recovery, be despatched by the
Earl as ' Judge Ordinar ' of' the country ; and thence
he was removed to Ayr, where he died in a few
hours. Flagrant though the murder was, it not
only — through manoeuvring and state infiuence highly
characteristic of the period — passed with impunity,

but was formally noted by an act of council as good
service to the King. The Laird of Auchendrane,
son-in-law of the murdered baron, was one ot trie
few adherents who bravely but vainly attempted to
narry the onslaught, and he received some severe
wounds in the encounter. Thirsting for revenge,
and learning that Sir Thomas Kennedy of Colzean,
intended to make a journey to Edinburgh, he so se
cretly instigated a party to waylay and murder him,
that no witness existed of his connexion with them
except a poor student of the name of Dalrymple, who
had been the bearer of the intelligence which suggested
and guided the crime. Dalrymple now became the ob
ject of his fears ; and, after having been confined at
Auchendrane, and in the isle of Arran, and expatriated
for five or six years a soldier, he returned home, and
was doomed to destruction. Mure, the Laird, hav
ing got a vassal, called James Bannatyne, to entice
him to his house, situated at Chapel Donan, a lonely
place on the coast, murdered him there at midnight,
and buried bis body in the sand. The corpse,
speedily unearthed by the tide, was carried out by
the assassin to the sea at a time when a strong wind
blew from the shore, but was very soon brought
back by the waves, and lodged on the very scene of
the murder. Mure, and his son who aided him in
the horrid transactions, fell under general suspicion,
and now endeavoured to destroy Bannatyne, the
witness and accomplice of their guilt ; but the un
happy peasant making full confession to the civil
authorities, they were brought up from an imprison
ment into which the King, roused by general indigna
tion, had already thrown them, and were placed at the
bar, pronounced guilty, and summarily and ignomini-
ously put to death. These sanguinary and dismal
transactions form the groundwork of Sir Walter
Scott's dramatic sketch, called ' Auchendrane, or
the Ayrshire Tragedy.'
The house now occupied as tbe Red Lion inn,
was anciently the mansion of the provost, and is not
able as the scene of a set debate between John Knox,
the reformer, and Quentin Kennedy, uncle of the 4th
Earl of Cassilis, and abbot of Crossraguel. An ac
count of tbe transaction, written by Knox himself,
was, with all its obsoleteness of verbiage and antique-
ness of phraseology, republished in 1812 by Sir Alex
ander Boswell, from a copy — the only one extant —
in his library at Auchinleck. The debate was occa
sioned by a challenge, on the part of the abbot, given
in the church of Kirkoswald ; it was arranged in the
course of an interesting correspondence, during which
Knox laboured to obtain for it a large audience and
conspicuous publicity; it was conducted in a dingy,
pannelled apartment, in the presence of 80 persons
equally selected by tbe antagonists, and included
several nobles and influential gentlemen ; it lasted
for three days, and was eventually broken off through
the want of suitable accommodation for the persons
and retinues of the select auditors ; it consisted partly
of idle quibbling and logomachy, partly on Knox's
side of powerful and impassioned appeal, chiefly of
controversy respecting the priesthood and offering of
Melchizedek in connexion with the doctrines of sac
rifice and the popish mass, and in no degree of argu
ment on the grand points at issue between Roman
ists and the Reformed; and it ended in the virtual
prostration of the abbot under the weight of Knox's
blows, and in healthfully arousing and directing pub
lic attention as to the foul doctrinal corruptions of
the Romish creed. The members of a ' Knox club,'
instituted in the town to commemorate the event,
and consisting, of all classes of Protestants, hold a
triennial festival to demonstrate their warm sense of
the religious and civil liberties which have accrued
from the overthrow of the Romish domination.

MAYBOLE.

341

The noticeable civil buildings, additional to the
two mentioned, are the ancient town-residence of
the Lairds of Blairquhan, now used as the tolbooth,
—the ancient residence of the Lairds of Kilhenzie,
now the White Horse inn, — the ancient residence of
the Kennedys of Knockdow, now called the Black
house,  the house occupied by Sir Thomas Kennedy
of Colzean, now the property of Mr. Niven of Kirk
bride, — the ancient residence of the Kennedys of
Ballimore, situated in the Kirk-wynd, — the ancient
residence of the abbots of Crossraguel, called the
Garden of Eden,— and the Town-hall, a cumbrous old
pile with a low, heavy, spiral tower, situated at the
Cross. Though the town has not one modern public
civil building, it abounds in commodious and com
fortable dwelling-houses, greatly superior, for every
domiciliary use, to even the best of its remaining
baronial mansions. The parish- church is a plain
edifice, and might even claim to be neat were it not
disfigured by a small steeple which looks like a bur
lesque upon architecture. The United Secession
chapel arrests attention chiefly for having a deep slice
cut away from one of its corners, — occasioned by a
very bigotted and discreditable attempt to prevent
its erection.
Maybole, in every thing except its buildings, has
been singularly denuded of its ancient character ; and,
after passing through a season of great depopulation
and decline consequent on the abolition of hereditary
jurisdictions, has risen into considerable importance
as a busy outpost of the cotton-manufacturers of
Glasgow, and a ready receptacle of the immigrant
weavers of Ireland. It has no manufacture what
ever of its own, beyond the usual produce of handi
craftsmen for local use; and figures simply as a seat
of population, where the Irish weavers and the agents
of Scottish employers conveniently meet. Incomers
from Ireland have been so numerous as almost to
counterbalance the aboriginal inhabitants, and give
law to the place ; and, many of them being Orange
men, they make periodical party-demonstrations, such
as give some trouble to the sheriff, and excel in bold
ness most which occur in even Orangeized Ulster.
Excepting a few coarse woollens and blankets, all
the fabrics woven are pullicates, imitation thibets,
and mull and jaconet muslins. Maybole, jointly with
tbe villages of Crosshill and Kirkmichael, had, in
1828, 1,700 hand-looms, and, in 1838, 1,360. The
gross average of wages earned by each weaver is
about 6 shillings per week. The Report of Assist
ant Hand-loom Weavers' commissioners, says that
tbe morals of the Maybole weavers are " apparently
very low," and gives some details respecting them
and the agents which we do not choose to repeat. The
procurator-fiscal believes the value of weft annually
stolen in these parishes [Maybole and Kirkmichael],
mounts to £1,300 per year, and that warp is sent
oy ' small corks ' at Glasgow to certain weavers at
Maybole, to be wefted there with ' bowl ' weft, so
called because women who sell bowls were employed
to buy it.
Maybole appears to have been erected into a burgh-
of-barony by a charter of James V., dated at Edin
burgh the 24th November, 1516. This charter gave
to the inhabitants full power to buy and sell, within
the burgh, wine, wax, woollen and linen cloth, and
the power and liberty of " having and holding, in the
said burgh, bakers, brewers, fleshers, and venders as
well of flesh as fish, and all other tradesmen belong
ing to a free burgh-of-barony." It granted, likewise,
" that there be in the said burgh free burgesses, and
that they have power, in all time to come, of elect
ing annually bailies, and all other officers necessary
for the government of the said burgh." The power
of electing their own magistrates does not appear to

have been exercised by them for more than a century.
The records of the burgh prior to 1 721 have been
lost, but they are preserved from that time, and it
appears that the burgh was then, and has ever since
been, governed by a council, consisting of 17 mem.
bers elected for life. When a vacancy occurs by the
death or resignation of a councillor, or by his leaving
the burgh, it is filled up by a person elected by the
remaining councillors. The council choose two bai
lies and a treasurer yearly out of their own number.
The property of the burgh consists of the town-
house, flesh-market, and slaughter-house; a piece of
ground called the Ball green, and another piece of
ground, of about four falls in extent; and a pew in
the gallery of the church, occupied by the magistrates
and council. There is a debt of £30 due to the
burgh from the parish conversion money. The debt
due by the burgh amounts to £37 Is. 5d. The
revenue is derived partly from the property, and
partly from street custom, market-dues, fees from
entries of burgesses, amounting to about £5 per an
num on the average of the last forty years, and from
an annual tax imposed upon the inhabitants, called
stent, amounting, for the year 1832, to £40 17s. 6d.
The total revenue of the burgh, for the year 1832,
was £68 5s., and upon the average of the six years
previous it was £65 per annum. The expenditure
for the year 1832 was £63 2s. 3d. The magistrates
have j urisdiction over the whole burgh, and possess
the usual powers of the magistrates of burghs-of-
barony, which were independent of the superior pre
vious to the passing of the Act 20, Geo. II. They
hold a weekly court, in which petty delinquencies,
and personal actions to any amount are tried ; and they
judge in a summary manner in actions called 'Cause
way complaints,' when the sum at issue does not
exceed 6s. 8d., and in general services of heirs. From
1820 to 1833, the average annual number of criminal
cases before the burgh court was 10, of civil cases 7.
The magistrates have no assessor but the town-clerk,
who has no salary for the judicial part of his duty;
and the council patronially elect only the town-clerk,
who has £4 4s. a-year and fees, — the procurator-
fiscal, who has £2, — the collector of stent, who has
10 per cent, on the amount collected, — and two town-
officers, each of whom has £1 Is. and fees. A bur
gess-right must be obtained by any person who would
manufacture or trade within the burgh, and costs to
a stranger £1 Is., and to the son of a burgess 10s.
6d. The number of burgesses, in 1833, was 205, of
whom 137 were resident. There are not within the
burgh any incorporated crafts possessing exclusive
privileges. The town is lighted with gas, and sup
plied with water, from the common good; the police
is regulated by the magistrates in virtue of their
powers at common law ; and the streets are main
tained and cleaned at the expense of the turnpike-
road trust funds of the county. A weekly market
is held on Thursday; and annual fairs are held on
the first Tuesday of February, O. S., and on the last
Tuesday of April, of July, and of October. The
town has branch-offices of the Ayr bank and of the
Ayrshire banking company; » savings' bank; nearly
40 inns and ale-houses; a subscription and circulating
library ; a parochial school ; and an agricultural asso
ciation called the Carrick Farmers' society. In 1833,
the population, within burgh, was about 3,000, and
in the streets of Kirklands, Newyards, and Ballony,
about 1,000; and, in the same year, the number of
householders within burgh whose rents amounted to
£10 was about 55, and in the adjoining streets 27,
— of householders whose rents were £5, but less
than £10, was within burgh 184, and in the adjoin
ing streets 40.
Maybole, till after the commencement of the pre-

MEA

342

MEA

sent century, was, in a great measure, isolated from
other towns, and from all Scotland except its own
immediate precincts. The deadening influence which
fell upon it after it lost its metropolitical character
and importance, placed defences around it almost as
impassable as the moat and the exterior fortifications
of a feudal castle. Access to it was neither invited
by its inhabitants, nor desired on tbe part of most
strangers ; and by the few who sought it, it was not
easily obtained. But — through the exertions chiefly
of Mr. Niven of Kirkbride — excellent roads have been
opened to it from every direction, and various appli
ances set up to bring it into terms of free communi
cation with other parts of Scotland. An extensive
carrying-trade to Glasgow, rendered necessary since
the introduction of cotton weaving, has gradually
familiarized it with the metropolis of the west, and
has led to a numerous transference of the enterprising
or adventure-seeking part of its population. The
Glasgow and Port-Patrick mail daily passes through
it, to both the north and the south ; -a stage-coach
between Girvan and Ayr runs through it twice
a-week; a stage-coach of its own runs daily to Ayr;
and an impulse, not of trivial value, has been given
by the opening of the Glasgow and Ayr railway. —
The climate, though very humid, is said to be mark
edly salubrious. Maybole escaped the visitation of
Asiatic cholera, and is traditionally reported to have
escaped the plague. Instances of longevity are nu
merous. " Within these 5 years," says tbe Old Sta
tistical Account, " Mr. David Doig, schoolmaster at
Maybole, died at the age of 104. About three years
ago, a woman died here, aged 105. In this town
there are at present 10 persons, whose ages put to
gether amount to upwards of 900 years." — The Rev.
Dr. Macknight, the well-known theological writer,
was minister of Maybole for 16 years, and, respec
tively in 1756 and 1763, while he held the office,
published his ' Harmony of the Gospels ' and his
' Truth of the Gospel Histories.' The Rev. Dr.
Wright, the author of a volume of Sermons, suc
ceeded Dr. Macknight. A surviving successor is the
Rev. George Gray, now Professor of Hebrew and
Oriental literature in the University of Glasgow.
MEADOW- MILL, a village, with about 160 in
habitants, in the parish of Tranent, very near the
boundary with that of Prestonpans, and on the road
between Preston and Seaton, Haddingtonshire. It
is of modern erection, and stands on the field of the
battle of Prestonpans, fought in 1745. Its name
occurs in a well-known Jacobite song. A little south
of it stands the elegant form of Stiell's hospital; and
immediately north of it is tbe projected line of the
Great North British railway. See articles Preston
pans and Tranent.
MEALFOURVOUNIE, a mountain in the parish
of Urquhart, Inverness-shire. It rises on the west
side of Loch-Ness, between the terminations of Glen-
Urquhart and Glen-Morriston, 19 miles south-west
of Inverness. Its name describes it as ' the lumpish
height of the cold moor.' Tbe mountain is broad-
based and round-backed; sends up, from a broad
stage at four-fifths of its whole elevation, a dome-
shaped peak, which constitutes the remaining fifth
ot its altitude ; and attains altogether an eleva
tion above sea-level of 6,700 feet according to the
Ordnance survey ; but according to some other au
thorities, of 3,060 feet ; and according to others,
even 3,200 feet. The great mass of the moun
tain, from the summit downward, consists of coarse
conglomerate, whose abraded portions are gneiss,
granite, quartz-rock, mica-schist, and sandstone, co
hering with extremely little cement ; and its lower
declivities, including seemingly its whole base, con
sist of a hard compact splintery rock, which has

usually been described as primary red quartz-rock,
but which may be stratified sandstone completely in
durated, and in a great measure divested of its strati
fication by the subjacency of granite, and which is so
hard and crystalline as to be quarried and regularly
used for causewaying tbe streets of Inverness. The
upper stage or peak of the mountain is proximately
perpendicular on the west, and almost mural on the
north and south; and it is connected with the rest
of the mountain, on the east, by a long tapering ridge.
On the western side, at the bottom of the peak, is
a lochlet of about 4 acres, which was once believed
to be unfathomable, always equally full, without any
outlet, and incapable of being frozen; but which has
now for a considerable time been known to be fluc
tuating and comparatively shallow, and whence flows
toward Loch-Ness a rill always romantic, and, in
rainy weather, powerfully scenic, descending in the
brief distance of 2 miles a height equal to that of the
entire course of the Tweed, tumbling along a broken
channel down the face of a sublime mountain-frontlet
of rock, waving around it in its lower course a gay
assemblage of trees, and performing two singularly
beautiful cascade-leaps amidst overhanging foliage
of the richest tints. On the west side of this rill,
near its source, and nearly 1,500 feet up the mountain,
is a rocking-stone of about 20 feet in circumference,
which is moveable by two persons. The view from
the summit of Mealfourvounie is grand and extensive,
and comprehends the whole of the Glenmore-nan-
Albin, from Fort-George on the north-east to Fort-
William on the south-west, a distance of more than
70 miles. On the north the eye wanders over vari
ous scenery away to tbe mountains of Ross and
Caithness; and, on the south, it expatiates over the
whole of Stratherrick and the country watered by
the head-streams of the Spey. Immediately below
Loch-Ness stretches slenderly along, like a narrow
ditch, deeply sunk within steep banks; and at 6 miles'
distance, the Fall of Foyers glitters in its belt of
shining spray between sheets of dark-brown moun
tain, like the light of the sky struggling through a
vertical fissure in the heights. Mealfourvounie is
noted for being the first landmark seen by mariners,
after they pass the Moray frith round Kinnaird-head,
or from the south, and for guiding their navigation
over most of that vast gulf.
MEARLSFORD. See Falkland.
MEARNS,* a parish in Renfrewshire ; bounded on
the north by Eastwood and Cathcart ; on the east
by Carmunnock in Lanarkshire ; on the south-east
by Eaglesham; on the south by Fenwick, and south
west by Stewarton, both in Ayrshire ; and on the
west by Neilston. Its greatest length is about 7
miles ; greatest breadth from 3| to 4 miles ; extent
about 11,000 acres. The surface, which is beauti
fully diversified with gentle eminences or small
green hills, gradually rises from the north-east to
the south-west, where there is a moor of consider
able extent. In the moor there are three lakes, the
largest of which— the Brother-loch— is 3 miles in
circuit, and abounds with trout. A few score yards
to the south-west is a sheet of water of very small
dimensions, called the Little-loch ; and about f of
a mile farther in the same direction, is the Black-
loch, which is about half the size of the first men
tioned one, and contains pike. The soil in general
is light, lying on a bed of rotten rock, excepting
small tracks on a clay bottom, in the lower part of
* The name may be derived from the British Maeronas a
country inhabited by herdsmen or dairy people. This name
does not appear to have been applied to any particular nlace
but was the appellation of a considerable district In the Booth'
east of Renfrewshire. ' Johan Petyt de Miernes' swore fee fv
&M V tne'Itrn^ «>* ^ "" ""' <""'* " ™2

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MEG

the parish. This district has always been distin
guished for its fine pasture ; and even in the present
times of extended cultivation, it is chiefly appropriated
to pasturage and the purposes of the dairy. Besides
the White Cart on the east, and the Earn on the
south-east border, there are within its bounds several
small streams, on the banks of which bleachfields and
other works have been set down. The great road
from Glasgow to Kilmarnock, and another from that
city to Stewarton, run through the whole length of
the parish ; and the road from Paisley to Eaglesham
crosses it. The population of the parish, in 1801,
was 1,714; in 1831, 2,814. Houses, in 1831, 286.
Assessed property, in 1815, £11,964.
About half-a-mile north-west from the parish-
church stands the village of Newton-of-Mearns,
vulgarly pronounced Nitton, and incorrectly called
'Newton-Shaw' by some topographers, who were
probably misled by observing a place named Shaw
set down immediately underneath Newton in the
maps. As a burgh-of-barony, it has the right of
holding a weekly market,' and two annual fairs. It
consists of a single street on the top of an eminence,
commanding a pleasant prospect over the country.
The population is upwards of 300. If this be the
' Nova villa de Mernis,' (Newtown of Mearns,) men
tioned in two donations by Sir Herbert Maxwell to
the monastery of Paisley, between the years 1272
and 1316, it boasts a considerable antiquity, and
affords an instance of a place continuing to be de
scribed by a name centuries after it had ceased to be
applicable  On the banks of the Cart, at the north
east corner of the parish, is the village of Busby,
where the spinning of cotton has been carried on
since the year 1780. There is also a printfield. The
greater portion of the village, within which is the
cotton-mill, is in this parish. The smaller portion,
which contains the printfield, belongs, quoad civilia,
to East Kilbride, but is annexed, quoad sacra, to
Carmunnock. The population of Busby is about
1,000. Here there is a church of the Associate
Synod, to be afterwards noticed.
The earliest name that appears on record, in con
nection with this parish, is that of Roland of Mearns,
who is mentioned as a witness to tbe donation which
Eschina, wife of Walter the Steward, gave to the
monastery of Paisley in the year 1177. Robert of
Mearns appears in the same capacity in a grant made
to that establishment in 1250. In the 13th century,
the barony of Mearns came by marriage to the
Maxwells of Caerlaverock, afterwards Lords Max
well, and Earls of Nithsdale. About tbe year 1648,
it was sold by the Earl of Nithsdale to Sir George
Maxwell of Nether Pollock, from whom it was soon
afterwards acquired by Sir Archibald Stewart of
Blackball, to which family it has since belonged.
The castle of Mearns is a large square tower, situ
ated on a rocky eminence, about a mile south-east
of the village of Newton. It is surrounded by a
strong wall, and seems to have been secured by a
drawbridge. It has long been uninhabited, the pro
prietors having their residence at Ardgowan. Dis
mantled though this ancient stronghold now is, it
has, on more than one occasion in our day, received
within its walls the people of the district, at balls
given by the Mearns troop of the lately disembodied
yeomanry cavalry of Renfrewshire, which numbered
among its officers several members of the distin
guished family to which the castle belongs  The
lands of Upper Pollock in this parish give name to
one of the oldest families in Scotland; " Peter of
Pollock, son of Fulbert," the first on record,
granted the church of Pollock to the monastery
of Paisley in the reign of Malcolm IV., about the
middle of the 12th century ; and towards the end

of that century, Helias, another son of Fulbert, gave
to the monastery the church of Mearns. The de
scent of the family from a third son, Robert, is traced
by Crawford and Robertson in their History of Ren
frewshire, pp. 37 and 289. The estate now belongs
to Sir Robert Crawford Pollock, Baronet, repre
sentative of the family. The mansion-house, which
was built about the end of the 17th century, stands
on a rising ground, embosomed among old timber.
This estate is called Upper Pollock, to distinguish
it from Nether Pollock, the property of an ancient
branch of the Maxwells, situate about 4 miles to the
north, in a lower part of the county. On each there
was a chapel, which disappeared soon after the Re
formation  There are numerous small proprietors
who mostly occupy their lands without the inter
vention of tenantry, and form a highly respectable
class of 'inhabitants  We may here mention that
Professor Wilson of Edinburgh college, passed part
of his boyhood in the manse of Mearns, under the
tuition of the late amiable minister, Dr. George
M'Latchie. In more than one article in a cele
brated periodical publication, have we recognised
from the pen of that eloquent writer, descriptions of
the pastoral region now under notice.
The parish is in the presbytery of Paisley, and synod
of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, Sir Michael R. S.
Stewart, Bart. The church is very old. The exact
period of its erection is not known. It was last
altered and enlarged in 1813. Sittings 705. Sti
pend £262 18s. 4d. ; glebe £20. There are in the
parish two places of worship belonging to the United
Associate Synod. One is in- the village of Newton,
and was built in 1743. Sittings 490. Stipend £120,
besides a manse and glebe, the latter worth £18 or
£20. The other is at Busby, and was built in
1836. Sittings 400. Stipend not known. Salary
of parochial schoolmaster £34 4s., £20 of which he
pays to an assistant, with £63 school-fees, and £4
annually other emoluments. There are three other
schools, with one teacher in each.
MEARNS, an ancient and popular designation of
the county of Kincardine : which see.
MEDWIN (The), or Methven, a streamlet in
Lanarkshire, rising in the high lands of the parish ot
Dunsyre. Near its source it is divided by a mill-pond
at Garlefoot, which produces the anomaly of one
portion of its waters flowing into the Tarth, a tribu
tary of the Tweed, and the other portion into the
Clyde. " The case is this," says the author of the
' Picture of Scotland :' " The greater part of the water
of the East Medwin is diverted from its course near
the head by a miller, who permits it, when it has
done its duty, to run off into the Tarth, one of the
tributaries of the Tweed. This matter has been
tbe cause of several lawsuits ; for the miller, who
has a right to half the water, has been more than
once accused of drawing off more than his full share.
It is additionally remarkable, that the well out of
which the Medwin rises, sends off a distinct rill to
the water of Leith ; wbereby the frith of Forth is
also connected with the two seas."
MEGGET, a parish in Peebles-shire, forming the
basin of a rivulet of its own name, and often popu
larly designated from it Meggetdale. The parish is
united to Lyne : which see.
MEGGET (The), a rivulet of the parish of
Westerkirk, Eskdale, Dumfries-shire. It rises in
the extreme north of the parish, very near the
boundary with Roxburghshire, and flows 6£ miles
southward to a junction with Stennis-water. The
united stream, about half-a-mile farther south, falls
into the Esk in the vicinity of Waulkmill. The
Megget is strictly a mountain-stream, fed by four or
five large and as many small brawling brooks. It

MEI

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MEI

has attractions for the angler, flows in the vicinity
of a noted antimony mine, and washes the mining
village of Jamestown: which see.
MEIG (The), a rivulet of Ross-shire. It rises
on the Scouvna-Vertach mountains, which form the
water-shed between the streams of tbe eastern
and western seas, and the boundary between the
parish of Contin on the east, and that of Loch-
Carron on the west ; it flows 5J miles eastward
through Glen-Uiag to Loch-Benachan ; and, after
traversing that lake, runs 9 miles east-north-eastward
along Strathconan, and falls into the Conan 1J mile
below Loch- Luichart.
MEIGLE, a parish on the eastern verge of Perth
shire ; bounded on the north by Alyth and Forfar
shire ; on the east, south-east, and south by Forfar
shire ; and on the south-west and west by Forfarshire
and Cupar- Angus. Its greatest length, from south
west to north-east, is 5£ miles ; its breadth, for 3
miles from the south-west end, varies between 2|
and 1£ miles, and over the remaining part of the
length averages about 1 mile. Dean-water, main
taining the sluggish character which pervades it over
its whole course, creeps 3£ miles along the north
west boundary. The river Isla, sweeping away the
Dean, and occasionally inundating its banks with the
freshets which it brings down from the Grampians,
continues the boundary-line for 2 miles. Meigle-
burn, coming in from Newtyle, waters the south
western and larger district, and augments the Dean
a mile above that stream's influx to the Isla. The
parish lies in the centre of Strathmore, and has no
other variation of surface than a few very gentle
rising grounds. The soil, in some places, is sandy ;
in others, is clayey ; but, in most, is a rich dark colour
ed loam. The whole surface is enclosed, and beau
tifully cultivated. Belts and groves of trees cover
nearly 200 acres. Red sandstone, suitable for build
ing, is worked in two quarries ; and shell-marl has
been removed in considerable quantities from a small
bog near the southern extremity. Drumkilbo, a mile
east of the village, is a fine mansion, embosomed in
wood. Kinloch-house, 1^ mile west of the village,
is pleasantly situated. Meigle-house and Potento
contribute to adorn the district.— Belmont-castle,
the seat of Lord Wharncliffe, f of a mile south of
the village, is an elegant modern quadrangular pile,
agglomerated with the old tower of a former man
sion. Situated on a gentle eminence 204 feet above
the level of half-flood mark at Panbride, commanding
an extensive view of the plain and hill-screens of
Strathmore, and surrounded with gardens and woods
and lawns, whjch conspire to render it one of the
most delightful residences in eastern Perthshire. In
Belmont-park is a tumulus called Belliduff, which
tradition assigns as the spot on which Macbeth fell
in combat with Macduff; and at some distance stands,
almost erect, a block of granite, 20 tons weight, called
Macbeth's stone, and said to be monumental of one
of his generals. These objects, and the traditions
connected with them, though they fail to prove that
Macbeth was not slain at Lumphanan in Aberdeen
shire, may probably show that Meigle was the scene
of some of his fighting  The chief antiquities of the
parish are some very antique and curious monuments,
in the churchyard, associated with the name of the
fabulous King Arthur's faithless wife, Vanora, Guin-
evar, Wanor, or Vanera. According to the doubt
ful account recorded in Scotland's ancient annals,
Vanora was taken prisoner in a battle between the
army of King Arthur and the united forces of the
Scots and Picts, and was carried away along with
other spoils, and kept in miserable captivity for some
time on Barryhill in Alyth. " The character of that
unfortunate personage " says Dr. Playfair, "has been

drawn in the blackest colours. She has been repre
sented as one who led a lascivious. life, and held an
unlawful correspondence with Mordted, a Pictish
king, which provoked the jealousy of her husband,
and escited him to take up arms, in revenge of the
injury. As a punishment of her enormous crimes, it
is added, she was torn in pieces by wild beasts ; her
body was buried at Meigle, and a monument erected
to perpetuate her infamy. Whether this detail be
genuine, or has arisen from the symbolic characters
on the stones, it is impossible to determine. That
monument seems to have been composed of many
stones artfully joined, and decorated with a variety
of hieroglyphical or symbolical characters, most of
which are of the monstrous kind, and represent acts
of violence on the person of a woman. On one stone
are three small crosses, with many animals above and
below. On another is a cross adorned with various
flowers, and the rude representations of Ashe's, beasts,
and men on horseback. On a third is an open cha
riot drawn by two horses, and some persons in it ;
behind is a wild beast devouring a human form lying
prostrate on tbe earth. On a fourth is an animal
somewhat resembling an elephant. On another, 8
feet long, and 3 feet 3 inches broad, standing upright
in a socket, there is a cross. In the middle are sev
eral figures with the bodies of horses, or camels, and
the heads of serpents ; on each side of which are wild
beasts and reptiles, considerably impaired. On the
reverse is the figure of a woman, attacked on all sides
by dogs and other furious animals. Above are sev
eral persons on horseback, with hounds, engaged in
the chase. Below is a centaur, and a serpent of
enormous size fastened on the mouth of a bull. Ac
curate drawings of those stones are to be found in
Pennant's Tour. Many other stones, which origi
nally belonged to this monument, have been carried
off, or broken in pieces, by the inhabitants of this
place. As several of those which remain have been
removed from their proper position; as many of the
figures are defaced ; and as we are, in a great mea
sure, unacquainted with the art of decyphering hiero
glyphics, the history delineated on Vanora's monu
ment is now irrecoverably lost. The antiquary may
amuse himself with the fragments which remain ;
but he can scarcely form one plausible conjecture
with respect to their original meaning and design.
The fabulous Boece records a tradition prevailing in
his time, viz. that, if a young woman shall walk over
the grave of Vanora, she shall entail on herself per
petual sterility. But, whatever apprehensions of
this nature the fair sex in his time might have enter
tained, the most credulous are not now afraid of
making the experiment."— The village of Meigle is
pleasantly situated on its cognominal rivulet, in the
centre of the parish, at the intersection of two turn
pikes, 13 miles north-west of Dundee, 6J north-east
of Cupar- Angus, and 5} south-west of Glammis.
It seems to have been a village, and was, at least, a
burying-place before the introduction of Christianity ;
but it is an inconsiderable, meanly built place, with
only about 300 inhabitants. An ancient weekly-
market has fallen into disuse. A modern fortnightly
tryst for cattle causes a little stir. Annual fairs are
held on the last Wednesday of June and October.
An Edinburgh and Aberdeen coach passes through
daily ; and a coach communicates with the terminus
of the Dundee and Newtyle railway, 2 miles distant.
Population of the parish, in 1801, 946 j in 1831, 873.
Houses 179. Assessed property, in 1815, £6,408.—
Meigle, anciently tbe occasional residence of the
Bishops of Dunkeld, is the seat of a presbytery, in
the synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £237 19s. 2d. ; glebe £18. Unappropriated
teinds £30 3s. Id. The parish-school was attended.

MEI

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MEL

in 1834, by 47 scholars, and two other schools by
167. Parish schoolmaster's salary £34, with £16
fees, and £5 other emoluments.
MEIGLE. See Galashiels.
MEIKLE- FERRY, a strait of the Dornoch frith,
about 2 miles in width, 3 miles west-north-west of
Tain. The strait is on the direct line of the great
north road to Wick and Thurso ; but, owing to shoals
in the channel, and to sudden gusts of wind from the
environing mountains, the ferry established on it is
one of the most dangerous in Scotland. In 1709 no
fewer than 99 persons, proceeding from the Suther
land side to a fair on the Ross-shire coast, were
drowned by the upsetting of the ferry-boat in the
middle of the passage. At the construction of the
Great Northern road, in 1811, an iron bridge was
thrown across a narrow part of the frith, at Bonar,
10 miles higher up, anil cost £14,000. But the route
by this bridge occasioning a waste of travelling equal
to its distance up the frith, the mail-coach, after hav
ing for years pursued it, adopted the old route, and
now crosses at Meikle-ferry. It is proposed to erect
low-water piers at this ferry.
MEIKLE (Loch), a lake about a mile long, and
half-a-mile broad, near the centre of Glen- Urquhart,
in the parish of Urquhart. Inverness-shire. Its banks
are adorned with the houses and grounds of Loch-
letter, Lakefield, and Sheuglie. The glen comes
down upon it with the expansion of a strath ; but,
immediately after passing it, becomes contracted and
winding. Luxuriant birches swarm on the gently
sloping banks behind the fine fields of Lakefield and
Lochletter, and climb the steep acclivities of the
narrowjng glen below, and combine with tbe glassy
surface of the lake and the bold contour of the moun
tains, to render the place one of the most captivating
of the close scenes of the Highlands.
MEIKLENDOVIE. See Alford.
MEIKLEOUR, a village in the parish of Caputh,
Perthshire ; 21 miles south-west of Cupar- Angus.
MEIN- WATER, a rivulet of Annandale, Dum
fries-shire. It rises on the north-east side of Risp-
hill, in the north of the parish of Middlebie, within a
few yards of the source of one of the tributaries of
the Milk, and flows 4J- miles southward, and i\
south-westward to the Annan, at a point J of a mile
south of Hoddam church. Its course is chiefly in
Middlebie ; but, for 2 miles above its mouth, is partly
in the Hoddam, and partly between these two par
ishes. It has three tributaries, all from the north,
and none exceeding 3J miles in length of course.
The stream runs, for some distance above its termi
nation, among land of a gravelly soil ; and it frequently
overflows its banks," alters its channel, and sweeps
away embankments.
MELDRUM— anciently called Bethelnie — »
parish in Aberdeenshire; bounded on the north by
Fyvie and Tarves ; on the east by Tarves and Bour-
tie ; on the south by Bourtie ; and on the west by
Daviot and Fyvie. Its form is irregular, extending
about 6 miles from north to south, by 2 to 4 from
east to west, — area 7,474 imperial acres. Houses
391. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,784. Popula
tion, in 1801, 1,584; in 1831, 1790. The surface is
hilly, a ridge of no great height, however, extending
from the northern extremity or the parish north
westwards. On the southern and south-western
aspects the soil is rich and fertile ; but the summits
are in general covered with a poor heath. There are
numerous detached clumps of trees scattered through
out the parish, besides several extensive plantations.
Nearly 6,000 acres are either cultivated or occasion
ally in tillage. The land is partly adapted for pas
turage. Agriculture is in an advanced state. The
inhabitants are supplied with fuel from the mosses,

which exist within the parish. There are several
granite quarries. Meldrum-house is a fine residence
in the antique style of architecture surrounded with
beautiful scenery. The remains of a Roman en
campment existed till recently on Bethelnie farm ;
and other antiquities, chiefly earthen urns, have been
found. The parish is in the presbytery of Garioch,
and synod of Aberdeen. Patron, Urquhart of Mel
drum. Stipend £223 19s. lOd. ; glebe £28. Un
appropriated teinds £40 17s. 5d. Church built in
1684; enlarged in 1767, and new seated in 1810.
Sittings 674. An Episcopalian congregation has ex
isted here since the Revolution. Chapel built in
1813; sittings 170. Stipend £50, with a house and
ground. An United Secession congregation was
established in 1825. Chapel built in 1822; sittings
312. Stipend £85 ; house and garden £15. School
master's salary £28 per annum ; fees, &c. £14 per
annum, besides the interest of £200, bequeathed for
education of poor children, and a share of the Dick
bequest. There are three private schools in the
parish. MELDRUM (Old), a market-town and burgh-
of-barony in the above parish, distant 18 miles north
west of Aberdeen, and 5 north-north-east of In
verury, on the road from Banff to Aberdeen. There
are a number of good houses in the town ; but the
streets are very irregularly built. The situation is
pleasant. The town-hall and town-house are re
spectable edifices. The church, and the Episcopal
and Secession chapels, above noticed, are within the
burgh. — Old Meldrum was erected into a burgh-of-
barony in 1672., The inhabitants appear to possess
a spirit of enterprise, — they are chiefly merchants,
professional men, tradesmen, handicraftsmen, anti
labourers. There is a good weekly-market for pro
visions ; and during the winter and spring months a
market is held every fortnight for the sale of cattle
and grain. There are also two annual fairs in May
and November. A considerable manufacture of cot
ton goods is carried on. There are also a brewerv
and a distillery ; and in tbe vicinity are several corn-
mills. The population of the town, in 1821, was
950; in 1831, 1,004.
MELGAM, or Melgun (The), a rivulet of the
parish of Lintrathen, Forfarshire. See Lintra
then. MELLERSTAIN, a village in Berwickshire, in
the parish of Earlstoun ; 8 miles north-west of Kelso.
MELLFORT (Loch), a small projection of the
sea on the coast of Argyleshire. It enters between
points Degnish and Ashnish, opposite the island of
Luing ; is 1 \ mile broad at the entrance, and ex
tends 4 miles inland, in an east-north-easterly direc
tion, along the southern boundary of Nether Lorn.
Its name means ' the Lake of the high eminences or
lumps of land,' and may be regarded as descriptive of
its scenery. Several islets lie on its bosom; and
Mellfort-house overlooks its north-east extremity.
MELROSE, a large and important parish in the
extreme north of Roxburghshire, forming a north
erly projection of that county between Selkirkshire
and Berwickshire, to the southern extremity of
Mid-Lothian. It is bounded on the north by Lau
der ; on the east by Lauder, Legerwood, Earlston,
and Mertoun ; on tbe south by St. Boswell's, Bow-
den, and the Lindean part of Galashiels ; and on the
west by Galashiels and Stow. Its greatest length
from Blinkbonnie on the north-west, to Newton on
the south-east, is 10J miles ; and its greatest breadth
from the Leader, at Broadwood-Shiel to Gala- water
at Whitelaw, is 6£ miles. But it is in a general
view a slender oblong, 4J miles broad, with one ex
pansion and two considerable contractions, and has
an area of 45 square miles. The Tweed — nowhere

346

MELROSE.

more brilliant and picturesque than here, or combin
ing richer varieties of attractive feature, though
grander in the vicinity of Peebles, and more beauti
ful in the vicinity of Kelso — forms the boundary-line,
1£ mile north-eastward with Selkirkshire, receives
on its left bank the Gala, runs 4£ geographical miles
in bold sweeps eastward through the interior, re
ceives the Leader nearly at right angles from the
north, and finally, before leaving the parish, rolls 1
mile westward, and 1£ southward, along the boun
dary with Berwickshire. Bowden-burn, traversing
u gentle dell, traces the southern boundary 1£ mile
past the village of Newton-Dryburgh to the Tweed,
at the romantic spot which is overlooked by the
bold statue of Wallace, and graced with the monu
ment of the poet Thomson, and the suspension
pedestrian bridge leading to Dryburgh-abbey. Cauld-
shiels-loch, and another small lake, form, with- a
brook which they send off to the Tweed, J of a mile
above Abbotsford, the southern boundary, for 1£
mile with Lindean. Gala-water — gay and trotting
in its motion, traversing in succession a narrow vale,
a wide semicircular recess, and a fine level haugh,
now gently pastoral on its banks, now beautifully
wooded, and now broadly and enlivenedly chequered
with the factories and bleachfiekrs of Galashiels —
traces the boundary for 4£ miles along the south
east. The Leader, washing the base of the beautiful
Cowdenknowes, and flowing between wooded and
cultivated slopes, forms the boundary-line for 4J
miles on the east. Allen-water, traversing the pro
totype of the Glendearg of Sir Walter Scott's mo
nastery, and almost hid in many places by overhang
ing woods, runs southward from near the northern
extremity at Blinkbonnie to the Tweed, a little above
Pavilion. Numerous tiny rills rise in the interior,
and flow toward the larger streams, contributing, by
their mimic dells and knots of copse-wood and sil
very glitter of current, to adorn a district of no com
mon wealth in the number and loveliness and rivalry
of its running waters. The whole of the bold fine
eastern summit, half of the far-seeing central one, and
the northern skirt or lower declivity of the western
one, of the Eildon hills, are in the parish, and form an
imposing screen along its southern boundary. [See
Eildon-hills.] A person entering by the turnpike
from the south crosses the brokenly furrowed bed of
Bowden-burn, ascends the north-eastern skirt of the
Eildons, with a finely cultivated slope going down
from the right to a narrow and almost obstructed
part in the path of the Tweed, and l1 mile after
crossing the boundary, he sees suddenly revealed to
him the vale of Melrose, with its villages and or
chards and opulent luxuriousness, — its sinuous, shin
ing, gorgeous belt of intersecting river,— -and its
framework of romantic braes feathered all over in
many parts with plantation, and cloven picturesquely
down with tbe receding vales of the Leader, the
Allen, and the Gala. The panorama of the vale,
either as seen from this point, which places Cowden
knowes and the fine recess of the Leader, and the
whole north hill-screen fully on the back-ground, —
or from vantage-ground, in the vicinity of the town,
which places the elegant and graceful remains of the
Abbey on the foreground, and brings tbe luscious or
chard-beauties of the vale and the fine knoll which
bears aloft the parish-church fully before the eye, —
or from the declivities between the foot of Gala and
that of Allen-water, whence Abbotsford is seen as
a prime attraction, and the eye is carried over a
long sweep of the Tweed, and the Eildon hills show
their finest proportions, and lift two beautiful cones
against the sky back-ground, — is one of the most un-
mingledly interesting, one of the landscapes which
mo.t combine grandeur with beauty and fertility, in

the south of Scotland  " The valley of Melrose,"
says the New Statistical Account, "must have been
a noble lake at some remote period, the Tweed en
tering it by a narrow inlet, across which Melrose-
bridge is thrown, and leaving it by a narrow outlet
at Tweedwood, before the formation of which, the
whole space, enclosed by the Eildon and Gattonside
hills, must have been a continued sheet of water. A
substratum of water-sand, dense or penetrable by
the spade, pure or gravelly, is always met with in
digging a few feet below the surface. At a compa
ratively recent period, less than two centuries ago,
the course of the Tweed seems to have been on the
south side of the valley. A fine rich flat, now on
the south side of the river, is called Gattonside-
haugh, and its feudal tenures show that it once ac
tually formed a part of the Gattonside lands, which
are on the north side of the river. In these tenures
a right is retained to an ancient church- way, severed
by the Tweed, along which the inhabitants used to
pass of old to the Catholic service in the abbey.
Near the village of Newstead the old channel of the
river is beautifully marked ; and what was formerly
a deep pool and perilous eddy, across which Claver
house is said to have been ferried, is now a fine mea
dow, but still continues to be called 'the' wheel.'
The change in the course of the Tweed seems to
have been aided by human industry, as a strong em- ,
bankment is necessary to prevent it from resuming
its old domain." — Between one-fourth and one-third
of the area of the parish lies south of the Tweed,
and, excepting on the Eildon-hills and a patch of
moorland stretching from their western base, is all
in cultivation. The district north of the Tweed is,
over an extent of 25 square miles, strictly upland
and pastoral, bleak, unsheltered, and scoured in
winter by fierce winds ; yet it yields so largely to the
plough, either regularly or occasionally, on the banks
of the rivers, and up the lower acclivities of the hills,
as to have arable grounds and natural pasturage in
proportion to each other of 5 to 3. The soil in the
southern district of the parish is chiefly a strong
clay, excellently adapted for wheat ; along the Tweed
is of a fine, light, dry nature, fit for all kinds of
grain ; and, in the northern district, is first a light
earth mixed with sand, and superincumbent on
gravel, — next, a strong clay upon till, full of springs
and very wet, — and, next, moss. Georgical opera
tions of every sort have been conducted boldly, ex
tensively, and with skill, and have worked great
achievements. At least 1,200 acres, and probably a
larger number, which formerly were either waste or
of small pastoral value, are under plantation. Grey-
wacke, which abounds over all the north and west,
with a north-easterly dip, is worked as building ma
terial. A species of conglomerate, which occurs at
Quarry-bill, west of the town, is also used for build
ing. Though sandstone occurs in the south-east
corner of the parish, that used for masonry is brought
from Sprouston or from Belshaes in Ancrum. Large
quantities of prime shell-marl is found beneath some
of the mosses in the north. The antiquities of the
parish belong either to the town of Melrose, to
Old Melrose, or to the Eildon-Hills  In the
vicinity of the Tweed are nearly twenty mansions
and villas; but though they contribute to the spark
ling beauty of the vale, and aggregately live in
the imagination as rich dottings on its landscape,
they are flung individually into insignificance by the
mighty spell of Abbotsford : see that article. The
villages oI'Dernock, Gattonside, and Newstead,
all stand in the vale of Melrose, and are separately
described. Buckholmside and Darlingshaugh lie com
pactly with Galashiels, and are described in the
article on that town. The locality of Old Melrose,

MELROSE.

347

and the town of Melrose, require distinct sections
of the present article  Newton, or Newton-Dry-
burgh, is a poor village, with about 160 inhabitants,
situated on the southern verge of tbe parish, 2| miles
south-east of Melrose, and half-a-mile from the
Tweed, and is noticeable only as the site of a United
Secession chapel, celebrated as the scene of the early
ministerial labours of the devout Dr. Waugh, who
was translated from it to London, and whose me
moirs kindle and glow with reminiscences of the
enthusiasm with which, in his advanced years, he
remembered the scenery in its neighbourhood  The
parish is traversed for 10 miles, chiefly along the
Gala and the Tweed, by the Edinburgh and Newcastle
turnpike by way of Jedburgh, for 5£ miles down the
Leader and the Tweed by the new road from Edin
burgh to Jedburgh, — and for 2 miles westward past
Abbotsford, by tbe turnpike from Dernock to Sel
kirk. Population, in 1801, 2,654; in 1831, 4,339.
Houses 728. Assessed property, in 1815, £16,532.
Melrose is in the presbytery of Selkirk, and synod
of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the Duke of
Buccleuch. Stipend £233 16s. 6d. ; glebe £7 13s.
4d. Unappropriated teinds £472 9s. 4d. The par
ish-church was built in 1810. Sittings 953. A quoad
sacra parish-church was recently built in the villages
which form part of the town of Galashiels. — The
United Secession congregation of Newton was estab
lished in 1771, and their place of worship was built
next year at a trifling expense. Sittings 452. Sti
pend £100, with £8 for sacramental expenses, and a
house and garden  A United Secession congrega
tion in the town of Melrose was established in 1822;
and next year built a place of worship at a cost of
£441 5s. Sittings 443. Stipend £95  A survey
by the elders of the parish-session, made in 1836,
exhibited the population as then consisting of 3,212
churchmen, 1,238 dissenters, and 78 nondescripts, —
in all, 4,528 persons  Parochial schoolmaster's sa
lary £30, with about £40 fees, and £25 15s. other
emoluments. There are 11 private schools of the
ordinary character, and 1 boarding school for ladies,
— the 12 schools conducted by 14 teachers, and at
tended by about 400 scholars. Attendance at the
parish-school, from 73 to 84. — The ancient church
of Melrose, which stood at the present village,
appears to have belonged, from the time of the
local suppression of the Culdees, till the year 1136,
to the monks of Coldingham ; in that year, at the
founding of the Cistertian abbey, it was obtained
from them by David I., in exchange for the church
of the Virgin Mary in Berwick ; and thence till the
Reformation, it became strictly identified with the
abbey in its history. The original name of the par
ish was Fordel; and this, in 1136, was substituted
by Melrose, the name of the site of the Culdee
establishment, arrogated and assumed in that. year
by the new-fledged Cistertian abbey. Three chapels
.inciently stood in the district north of the Tweed.
One was situated at the village of Gattonside, was
regularly built of freestone, and seems to have been
appurtenant to some manor. Another, dedicated to
St. Columba, the far-famed founder of the Culdee
establishment of lona, and giving to its site his
abbreviated name with the adjunct, signifying a field
or pasture, stood at Colmslee, on Allen-water, and
had anciently in its neighbourhood the dairy of the
Melrose monks, and still survives in some observable
vestiges. The third chapel, called Chieldhelles, and
consisting of handsome stone architecture, stood in
the north-east corner of the parish, on a tiny tribu
tary of the Leader, and still gives its name to the
spot which it occupied.
Old Melrose, situated 2J miles east of, the
present town, now consists, as to architecture, of a

fine and superbly circumstanced private mansion.
But the name strictly belongs to a peninsula 5 fur
longs long, and between from 2 to 3 broad, formed
by a reduplication of the Tweed. The banks, all
round, are lofty and wooded, varied with perpendi
cular rocks jutting like buttresses from top to bot
tom, and the surface rises from them on all sides in
a regular, smooth, grassy ascent, till it terminates in
a small table-ground, crowned with the modern man
sion, and both constituting and commanding a most
beautiful scene. This promontory took the name of
Melrose, afterwards transferred to the new town
and to the whole parish, either from the Irish, MaoU
Ross, signifying 'the Bald projection;' or from the
British, Mell-Rhos, signifying ' the Projection of the
meadow.' Old Melrose was the site of a Culdee
establishment, one of the earliest on the continent of
Scotland. Eata, one of the twelve disciples who
accompanied Aidan, the founder of the bishopric of
Lindisfarn, from lona to Northumbria, seems not to
have followed his master in accommodating himself
to incipient prelacy, and, at all events, turned early
aside from immediate co-operation with him to be
come the apostle of the upper vale of the Tweed.
Eata appears on record, in the year 664, as the abbot
or head of the Melrose establishment. His successor
was Basil, a person whom Bede describes as " dis
tinguished for his virtues and of a prophetic spirit."
Cuthbert, one of the most famous saints of Scot
land, probably one of the most zealous and enlight
ened of her early missionaries, and afterwards the
nominal bishop of Lindisfarn, and the real labori
ous itinerating preacher of Northumbria, entered the
establishment under Basil, and succeeded him in its
presidency. Basil's fidelity and success are attested
in his having given name to the neighbouring parish
of St. Boswell's; and those of Cuthbert, mingled
with some leaning toward the begun developments
of prelacy, lie broadly stamped on the early ecclesi
astical history, and reminiscences of the south-east
of Scotland and the north-east of England, — the
whole of the ancient Northumbria. The Culdee
establishment of Melrose, says Milne, " was a fa
mous nursery for learning and religious men, who were
filled with zeal for propagating the Christian reli
gion, particularly among their neighbours the pagan
Saxons." Nor does it seem to have been less illus
trious for resisting the innovations of Romanism ; for
John of Melrose was one of several Culdees who
boldly accused Boniface, a special emissary of the
Pope to Scotland, as " the fabricator of falsehoods,
the troubler of peace, and of the Christian religion,
and the corrupter of it both by word and by writing;"
and he is particularly recorded to have made him
self obnoxious to the Romanists by impugning the
Papal dogmas. But however simple, evangelical,
and anti-Romish the establishment may have been,
it suffered, in common with the parent-college of
lona, the foul fate of afterwards being hugged and
habilimented by the greasy monks of Rome as an
early offshoot of their own ' original, semper-eadem,
only true Catholic church ;' and, as figuring forcedly
in their fellowship, it is patched all over with tbe
monstrous romancing legends of their system of ' ly
ing wonders.' Dricthelmus, in particular, is, in spite
of the regular denunciation of celibacy being a char
acteristic tenet, called one of its ' monks ;' and is
made to render the place as notable for his austeri
ties, as ever Finchal was for those of St. Godric. He
" was restored to life after being dead an entire
night. During that space he passed through pur
gatory and hell, had the beatific vision, and got very
near to the confines of heaven. His angelic guide
gave him an useful lesson on the efficacy of prayer,
alms,- fasting, and particularly masses of holy men ;

348

MELROSE.

infallible means to relieve the souls of friends and
relations from the place of torment." The estab
lishment flourished and enjoyed peace during two
centuries ; but before or about the middle of the 9th
century, when the Saxon power was broken by the
ascendency of the Scots, and incursions were made
from the north to the upper and lower Tweed, it
was overthrown either by Kenneth II. or by Ken
neth III. At a future period, after it had remained
for a season in utter desolation, Aid win, Turgot,
and some other Culdees, came from " Girwy to
what was formerly the monastery of Mailros, but
then a solitude ; and being delighted with the retire
ment of that place, began to serve Christ there."
But they were subjected to great injuries and per
secutions on account of their peculiar doctrines, by
King Malcolm ; and menaced by him with death,
and by the superior of Girwy with excommunica
tion if they remained, they speedily withdrew from
it the fading glories of Culdeeism. The place was
never again the site of a college ; but became a
mere chaplainry, dedicated to St. Cuthbert, and en
dowed with the privileges of a sanctuary. The
foundations of a stone wall were not long ago trace
able, which defended the establishment on the ac
cessible side, and stretched from bank to bank of the
Tweed across a narrow part of the isthmus. At
the entrance, about the middle of the wall, stood a
house, built probably for the porters, and still giv
ing the name Red-house to its site. The place
where the chapel stood continues to be called the
Chapel-knowe ; and adjacent places on the Tweed
yet bear the names of Monk-ford, and Haly-wheel, —
the holy whirlpool or eddy. The original buildings,
like those of lona, were almost certainly such as
could not have left any tracts. Bede, speaking gen-
erally-of the ecclesiastical erections of the early Cul
dees, says they were all of oak, and thatched with
reeds. The remarkable causeway called the Gerth-
gate, leads off from Old Melrose, past the site of the
Culdee chapel of Colmslee, to Soutra-hill: See Fala.
Another ' abbey,' of which no records exist, but
which seems to have been intermediate between
the establishments of Old and New Melrose, stood
in the vicinity of Newstead : which see.
Melrose, a burgh-of-barony, and the capital of
the north-west of Roxburghshire, is delightfully
situated at the north base of the Eildon hills, 3
furlongs south of the Tweed, on the coalescent
roads between Edinburgh and Jedburgh by way of
Galashiels, and between Selkirk and the towns of
Berwickshire ; 7 miles from Selkirk, 4 from Gala
shiels, 11 from Jedburgh, and 35 from Edinburgh.
Though graced with some modern and neat houses,
it is an antique and dingy place, strongly contrast
ing in the bald, blackened, coarse forms of its time-
worn houses, with the surpassing architectural mag
nificence of its Abbey, and the gorgeous beauty of its
circumjacent landscape. Tbe body of the town con
sists of three lines of houses, arranged along the sides
of a triangular open area. A modern and pleasant
little street leads out at the west corner toward
Galashiels ; and narrow, crazily edificed, brief tho
roughfares lead off at the other corners toward Gat
tonside and Jedburgh. Some of the houses display
on their lintels, and amid the general plainness of
their walls, sculptured stones traced with the I.H.S.
and other popish devices, and affording obvious in
dication of the Abbey having — in the unceremonious
Goth style, so general, till a recent date — been used
as a mere vulgar quarry. In the centre of the tri
angular area stands the Cross, bearing marks of being
coeval with the Abbey. A literal cross anciently
surmounted the structure, and, according to the
usage of popish times and things, recdved homage

from pilgrims preliminarily to their entering the pre
cincts of the monastic pile ; but this was destroyed
in 1604, and substituted by the crest of the Had
dington arms. About a rood of land, called tbe
Corse-rig, in a field near the town, is held by the
proprietor on the condition of his keeping the Cross
in repair. Another cross anciently stood at a place,
half-a-mile westward on the road to Dernock, still
called the High Cross. The jail, a plain, small,
modern structure, occupies the site of a curious an
cient one, and is disposed in one vaulted cell for the
confinement of prisoners, and a small granary for the
reception of tbe Duke of Buccleuch's feudal grain.
On a stone still preserved of the old jail, the arms
of Melrose are sculptured, — a ' mell,' or mallet, and a
' rose, — a punning hieroglyphic version of the town's
name. The parish-church is a modern, plain, but
neat and pleasing edifice, surmounted by a spire, and
situated on a rising ground a few perches west of the
town. A modern wire-bridge for foot-passengers
maintains a communication near the town, across the
Tweed, with the north side of the vale. The stone-
bridge which carries across the Edinburgh turnpike
is I5 mile to the west, near the village ot Dornock.
Melrose was long famed for the manufacture of a
fabric called Melrose land-linen, commissions for
which were received from London and foreign coun
tries. So early as 1668, the weavers were incor
porated under a seal-of-cause from John, Earl of
Haddington, the superior of the burgh ; and for a
considerable period preceding 1 766, the quantity of
linen stamped averaged annually between 33,000
and 34,000 yards, valued at upwards of £2,500.
But toward the end of last century, the manufac
ture rapidly declined ; and, long ago, it utterly and
hopelessly disappeared. Cotton weaving, subordi
nate^ to Glasgow, was introduced as a succeda-
neum, and had a short period of success ; but it,
too, has become extinct- A bleachfield commenced
with the view of arresting the decline of the linen
manufacture, and for a time steadily and largely
prosperous, is now grazing-ground for cattle. A
woollen trade, so singularly propitious in Rox
burghshire, was tried, and temporarily gave fair
promises ; but it likewise was scared off from the
vicinity of the old Abbey, and became domiciled at
Galashiels. An ancient fair in spring, called Kier
(or Holy) Thursday fair, and afterwards corruptedly,
Scarce Thursday fair, was of old a famous carnival
season, and, on becoming an occasion of mere busi
ness, dwindled away to extinction. Annual existing
fairs, all for cattle, are held on the first Wednesday
of June, the 12th day of August, and the 22d of
November. Tbattheld in August has recently be
come of great note as a sheep-market. The fair
of St. Bos well's [which see] is annually held within
the barony, although beyond the burgh, of Melrose.
The town has .branch-offices of the Commercial
bank of Scotland, and the British linen company's
bank ; a savings' bank ; three friendly societies ; a
subscription-library ; an excellent inn and posting-
bouse ; an unblushingly large proportion of ale
houses ; and two missionary societies.
On tbe 28th August, 1609, a charter was granted
in favour of John, Earl of Haddington, erecting Mel
rose into a burgh-of-barony ; and, on the Wth Feb
ruary, 1621, a charter of novodamus was granted in
favour of Thomas, Earl of Melrose. The baronial
jurisdiction originally extended over lands in eight
counties south of the Forth and Clyde, but does not
now extend practically beyond the parishes of Mel
rose and St. Boswell's. The regality or barony was
afterwards acquired by the family of Buccleuch,
but the powers of creating a magistracy conferred by
the charter have always lain in abeyance. No trea>

MELROSE.

349

surer, councillors, deacons, or burgesses have ever
been created. The rights of the burgh are even said —
though without distinct historical evidence — to have
been abolished. But whatever be the precise legal
character of the territory, a baron-bailie, or a depute,
is nominated by the lord-of-erection, and has never
been authorized to exercise, and never has exercised,
powers beyond those of an ordinary baron-bailie.
No courts are now held within the burgh ; and since
1819, the only civil cases tried have related to bar
gains at Melrose and St. Boswell's fairs, and have
been decided summarily on the spot. There is nei
ther property, revenue, expenditure, nor debt ; and
the only taxes levied are the customs of the fairs,
which belong to the superior. In 1833, the popula
tion within tbe burgh, including Danielton, was 740;
and in Melrose itself, there were 22 houses of £15
of yearly rent and upwards ; 20 of from £10 to £15 ;
and 34 of from £5 to £10.
Melrose Abbey — as an establishment for Cistertian
monks — was founded by David I. in 1 1 36. Its site
is a piece of level meadow, immediately north-east of
the town, and about + of a mile south of the Tweed.
The original edifice is said to have been completed
in ten years, but was either wholly or partially de
stroyed by fire in 1322, and must have been greatly
inferior in magnificence to its successor. What now
remains of the re-edificed structure exhibits a style
of architecture ascertained to belong to a later age
than that of David, and gives distinct indications of
having been in an unfinished state at the Reforma
tion, — appearances of rough temporary closings-up of
design, with a view to subsequent resumption and
completion. While the nucleus of the building was
constructed at one effort, under the reign and patron
age of Robert Bruce, and aided, perhaps, by some
preserved and renovated portion of the original erec
tion of David I., the entire edifice, in the extension
of its parts, and in the immense profusion of its archi
tectural decorations, seems to have been the progres
sive work of upwards of two centuries, extending
from 1326 till the Reformation. The Cistertians
were noted for their industrious habits, and their
patronage and practice of such departments of the
fine arts and practical science as were known in the
Middle ages ; and, in common with all the monastic
tribes, they regarded the embellishing of ecclesias
tical edifices up to a degree as high as their scien
tific and financial resources could produce, as pre
eminently and even meritoriously a work of piety.
The vast magnificence of the Abbey, with its innum
erable architectural adjuncts and sculptured adorn
ings, seems thus to have been tbe result of a con
stant, untiring, and ambitious effort of the resident
monks, powerful in their skill, their numbers, their
leisure, and their enthusiasm, and both instigated and
aided by the munificent benefactions which made con
tinual additions to their originally princely revenues,
and testified the applause of a dark but pompous age
for the sumptuousness of the dress thrown around
the fane of religious pageants. The architecture is
the richest Gothic, combining the best features of
its gracefulness and elaboration, and everywhere
showing a delicacy of touch, and a boldness of execu
tion, which evince the perfection of the style. The
material, while soft enough to admit great nicety of
chiselling, possesses such power of resistance to the
weather that even the most minute ornaments retain
nearly as much sharpness of edge or integrity of fea
ture as when they were fresh from the chisel. The
Abbey, though inferior in proportions to many works
of its class, and only about half the dimensions of
York minster, is tbe most beautiful of all the eccle-
siastical structures which seem ever to have been
reared in Scotland; and has seldom, in aggregate

architectural excellence, been surpassed, or even
equalled, by the edifices of any land. What remains
is only the principal part of the church, with some
trivial fragments of connexion with the cloister.
From observable indications on the north side of the
standing ruin, the cloister appears to have been a
square 150 feet deep, surrounded with a spacious
arcade or piazza, and lined along the east, west, and
north walls witb the habitations of the monks.
Though the Abbey was regularly noticed in topo
graphical works, and figured boldly in history, and
lifted up its alluringly attractive form before the eye
of every traveller along the Tweed, it excited so
little attention, previous to the present century, as
to be coolly abandoned to the rough dilapidations of
persons who estimated its sculptured stones at the
vulgar quarry-price of building material ! Much care
has, in recent times, been used, at tbe expense of the
proprietor, to strengthen its walls, slate the remain
ing part of the roof, and furnish various other means
of conservation; and it has its reward in a promise
that the pile will yet long stand to give practical
lessons in majestic architectural beauty. The place
incidentally owes nearly all its modern fame to ' the
mighty Minstrel,' whose princely earthly domicile at
Abbotsford on the west, and his low last resting-
place in Dryburgh on the east, compete with it in
challenging the notice of the tourist. Sir Walter's
adoption of it and tbe town, as the St. Mary's and
the Kennaquahair of his tales of ' The Monastery' and
' The Abbot,' brought it boldly before the gaze ot
the myriad admirers of the national novels of Scot
land; and his well-known personal enthusiasm in
making it his chief and favourite retreat from study,
and in passing successive hours in scanning over, for
the five hundredth time, its labyrinth of graces, drew
towards it the wondering eye of the judiciously imi
tative crowds who looked to him as a master of taste.
But what first roused attention to it, and kept up
the vibration in every subsequent thrill of interest in
its attractions, was the masterly description of it
which corruscated upon the world in the publication
of ' The Lay of the Last Minstrel.' Two extracts,
though already familiar to many a reader, may be ac
ceptable as vivid pictures of the most remarkable
parts of the pile, and fine specimens of the enchant
ing power of tbe painter. The one describes the
beautifully fretted and sculptured stone-roof of the
east end of the chancel :
*' The darkened roof rose high aloof
On pillars lofty and light and small ;
The keystone that locked each ribbed aisle
Was a fleur-de-Iys or a quatre-feuille ;
The corbells were carved grotesque and grim ;
And the pillars, with cluster'd shafts so trim,
With base and with capital flourish'd around,
Seem'd bundles of lances which garlands had bound.*'
The other passage describes the surpassingly elegant
and beautiful eastern window :
" The moon, on the east oriel shone,
Through slender shafts of shapely stone
By foliaged tracery combined :
Thou would'st have thought some fairy's hand
'Twixt poplars straight the osier wand
In many a freakish kn.it had twin'd;
Then framed a spell, when the work was done,
And changed the willow-wreaths to 6tone."
As to a prose description, one by Mr. Hutchinson,
copied by Grose, and mangled by some other writers,
is so rich that, though inapplicable in some small de
tails to the present condition of the pile, especially
in what relates to nuisances and the fitting-up ot a
modern church, we prefer the adoption of it to any
attempt of our own.
" The view from the entrance iuto tlie churchyard is noble.
This church is in the form of a cross ; the south end of the tran.
sept presented itself in front; the arching of the doorway is
composed of a semicircle, with various members of the most

,350

MELROSE.

delicate work falling; behind each other, supported on light and
well-proportioned pilasters; on each side is a projection of rich
Tabernacle work. The corners of this end of the structures are
composed of angular buttresses, terminated by spires of Taber.
nacle work. These buttresses are pierced with uiches for sta
tues. The pedestals and canopies are of the lightest Gothic
order, and ornamented with garlands of flowers in pierced
work ; abovn the south gate are several niches for statues, de
creasing in height as the arch rises, in which some mutilated
effigies remain, many in standing positions, others sitting, said
to represent the apostles ; but by their apparel I conceived they
were representations of the patrons ol the church. In the centre
are the arms of Scotland, a lion rampant in reverse, with a
double treasure ; above which is the effigy of John the Baptist,
to tlie waist, suspended on a cloud, casting hi* looks upwards,
and bearing on his bosom a til let, inscribed 'Ecce Alius Dei.'
This is a very delicate sculpture, and in good preservation. Ou
the buttress, east of the door, is the effigy of a monk suspended
in like manner, supporting on his shoulders the pedestal of the
niche above ; in his hands a tillet is extended, on which is in
scribed • Passus e. q ipse voluit.' On the western buttress is
the like effigy bearing a fillet, inscribed * Cuvenit Jesu. seq.
cessabit umbra.1 . These two sculptures are of excellent work-
inaiiHhip. To the westward of this last effigy is the figure of a
cripple, on the shoulders of one that is blind, well executed;
under which you read ' Uncte Dei-' Above the south door is
an elegant window, divided by four principal bars or mullions,
terminating in a pointed ivrch ; the tracery light, and collected
at the summit into a wheel ; the stonework of the whole win
dow yet remaining perfect. This window is 24- feet in height
within the arch, and 16 iu breadth : the mouldings of the arch
contain many members, graced with a filletting of foliage ; the
outward member runs into a point of pinnacle-work, and en
closes a niche highly ornamented, which, it is said, contained
the figure of our Lord. There are eight niches which sink gra.
dually on the sides of the arch, formerly appropriated to receive
the statues of the apostles. The whole south end rises to a point
to form the roof, garnished with an upper moulding, which is
ornamented with a fillet of excellent rose-work : the centre is
terminated by a square tower. It will suffice to remark in this
place, that the pedestals for statues, in general, are composed
of five members of cornice, supported by palm boughs, or some
other rich-wrought foliage, and terminating at the foot in a
point with a triple roll. The caps, or canopies of the niches,
are composed of delicate Tabernacle work, the spires ornament
ed with mouldings and a fillet of rose work, and the suspended
skirts graced with flowers. The interior of the canopy its of
ribbed work, terminating in a suspended knot iu the centre.
This description will do to carry the reader's idea to every par
ticular niche, without my running into the tediousness of repe
tition. At the junction of the Bouth and west members of the
cross a hexagon tower rises, terminating in a pinnacle roofed
with stone, highly ornamented ; from hence the aisle is extended,
e>o as to receive three large windows, whose arches are pointed,
each divided by three upright bars or mullions, the tracery
various and light; some in wheels, and others in the windings
itf foliage. These windows are separated by buttresses, orna.
inented with niches. Here are sculptured the arms of several
of the abbots, and that also of the abbacy, ' a mail and rose.'
These buttresses support pinnacles of the finest Tabernacle
work. From the feet of these last pinnacles are extended bows
or open arches, composed of the quarter division of a circle,
abutting to the bottom of another race of buttresses, which arise
at the side wall of the nave ; each of these last buttresses also
supporting an elegant pinnacle of Tabernacle work, are orna
mented with niches, in two of which Btatues remain; one of
St Andrew, the other of the Holy Virgin ; the side-aisies are
slated, but the nave is covered with an arched roof of hewn
Btone. From the west end of the church is continued a row of
buildings, containing five windows, divided by the like but
tresses, the tracery of two of the windows remaining, the rest
open ; each of these windows appertained to a separate chapel,
appropriated and dedicated to distinct personages and services ;
the places of the altars, and the fonts, or holy-water basons,
still remaining.
" At the western extremity of this structure, on the last but
tress, are the arms of Scotland, supported by unicorns collared
aud chained; the motto above broken, the Letters EGIS only
remaining. On one side is the letter I, on the other Q; and a
date, 1505, which was the second year of the marriage of king
James IV., a marriage concerted at this abbey between the
King in person, and Richard Fox, then bishop of Durham.
" Iu 1649, the fury of reformation still existing, the elegant
statues which ornamented this place were most sacrilegiously
demolished. A tradition prevails here, that one of the persons
so employed, on striking at the Babe in the Virgin's arms, re
ceived a contusion which disabled him for ever from such use
less occupation, and struck such a panic on liin associates that
they fled, and left the mischievous business uuperfeeted.
" The east end of the church is composed of the choir, with
a small aisle on each side, which appear to have been open to the
high altar. This part is lighted by three windows towards the
east, and two side windows in the aisle : the centre window is
divided by four upright bars or mullions; the traceries are of
various figures, but chiefly crosses, which support a large com
plicated cross that forms the centre; the arching is pointed, and
part of the tracery here is broken. The side lights are near as
high as the ceutre, but very narrow, divided by three upright
bars or mullions ; the mouldings of the window arches are small
and delicate, yet ornamented with a fillet of foliage. On each
side of the great window are niches for statues ; and at the top
there appear the effigies of an old man sitting, with a globe iu
his left hand, rested ou his knee, with a young man on his right :

over their heads an open crown is suspended. These figures, I
presume, represent the divine personages. The buttresses at
this end terminate fn pinnacles of Tabernacle work 5 the mould
ings and sculptures are elegantly wrought.
" The north end of the cross aisle of the abbey is not much
ornamented without, it having adjoined to the cloister and other
buildings. The door which leads to the site of the cloister (the
building being demolished) is a semicircular arch of many mem
bers ; the fillet of foliage and flowers is of the highest finishing
that can be conceived to be executed in freestone, the same be
ing pierced, the flowers and leaves separated from the stone
behind, and suspended in a twisted garland. In the mouldings,
pinnacle-work, and foliage of the seats which remain of the
cloister, I am bold to say, there is as great excellence to be
found as in any stone-work in Europe, for lightness, ease, aud
disposition. Nature is studied through the whole, and the
flowers and plants are represented as accurately as under the
pencil. In this fabric there are the finest lessons, and the great-
est variety of Gothic ornaments, that the island affords, take
all the religious structures together.
"The west side of the centre tower is yet standing; it ap
pears to have supported a spire; a loss to the dignity and beauty
of the present remains, to be regretted by every visitant: the
balcony work is beautiful, being formed of open rose-work.
The present height of the tower wall is seventy-five feet.
,( The length of this edifice, from east to west, is 258fpet, the
cross aisle 137 feet, and the whole contents of its ichnograpliy
943 feet.
"¦ We entered at the south door, and no expression can con
vey an idea of the solemn magnificence which struck the eye :
the roof of the north and south ends of the transepts remai ub,bu p.
ported by intersecting groins, in various directions, of the light
est order; the joinings ornamented with knots, some sculp
tured with figures, and others of pierced work in flowers and
foliage ; the arching of the interstices constructed of thin
stones, closely jointed; over the choir, part of the roof of like
workmanship still remains. The side-aisles are formed by light-
clustered pillars, richly capitalled, with garlands of flowers and
foli.ige disposed delicately in the mouldings; in some the figures
of animals are interspersed. The pillars which supported the
tower towards the east are gone, so that three sides of it are
down, leaving a chasm, through which you look up towards
the remaining quarter.
"The north aisle is lighted by a circular window, represent
ing a crown of thorns, which makes an uncommon appearance.
Here are the effigies of Peter and Paul, one on each side of the
tower, but of inferior sculpture.
"It is said Alexander II., king of Scotland, lays buried at
the high altar, and that an inscription denoted Ins tomb. But
no such inscription is now to be found. There is a marble
tomb, the form of a coffin, ou the south side of tne high altar;
but it bears no inscription, and iB supposed to be that of
Waldevus, or Walter, the second abbot, who was canon
ized. The chronicle of Mailross contains this anecdote, ' that
Ingeritn, bishop of Glasgow, and four abbots, came to Mail
ross to open the grave, after twelve years interment, when
they found ihe body of Waldevus uucorrupted : on which,
with a religious rapture, they exclaimed, "¦ Vere hie homo Dei
est." ' They afterwards placed a marble monument over the
remains. ¦"' Many of the noble line of Douglas lay here ; among whom
is James, the son of William, Earl of Douglas, who was slain
at the battle of Otterburn, and interred with all military hon
ours. Lord Liddisdale, who was styled the flower of chivalry,
de Valoniis, Vauxs, Somerviles, Balfours, and many other men
of note, lay in the chapter house.
" In the morning, at sunrise, we again returned to these
splendid ruius, which had even occupied the visions of our
sleep : we yet had to take a survey of the nave of the church,
which is now used for worship. On opening the door, it is
not to be expressed the disagreeable scene which presented it
self: this place is filled with stalls ; in the disposition of which
irregularity alone seems to have been studied : some are raised
on upright beamB, as scaffolds, tier above tier ; others supported
againBt the walls and pillars: no two are alike in form, height,
or magnitude ; the same confusion of little and great, high and
low, covers the floor with pews : the lights are so obstructed,
that the place is as dark as a vault : the floor is nothing but the
damp earth ; naatiness and irregularity possess the whole scene.
The fine workmanship of the pillars, whose capitals, forflowers
and foliage, exceed all the rest of the building ; the ribs of the
arches, and the ornaments of their intersections, are scarce to
be seen in the horrid gloom which possesses the place.
" Here are several ti.-mbs of eminent personages ; on tlie
north wall is inscribed, under a coat of armour, ' Here lies the
Ta0A of.tne house «f Zair.' Many altars, basons for holy water,
and other remains of separate chapels, appear in the aisleB ;
among which are those of St. Mary and St. Waldave.
*> In one of the aisles in this part of the church is an inscrip
tion, cut in a fair letter, but of what import I cannot discover ;
NUNAM : KATINE

XHOMETE ; s :

; PATJLI : GUTHB.
PETB : K. : ETIGIN.'

The monks, for whose residence David I. founded
the Abbey, were Cistertians, brought from Rievalle,
the first of their order, who obtained footing in Scot
land; and, according to general Cistertian usage, they
dedicated the establishment to their patron-saint, the
Virgin Mary. David, that " sail* saunt for the croon

MELROSE.

351

o Scotland," made them the chief of their class, or
the mother-establishment of the kingdom, and he-
stowed on them the church of the parish, extensive
lands, and numerous privileges. Their original gift
from him consisted of the lands of Melrose, Eildon,
and Dernock, the lands and wood of Gattonside, #ie
fishings of the Tweed along the whole extent of these
lands, and the rights of pasturage, of pannage, and of
cutting wood for fuel and building, in the forests of
Selkirk and Traquair, and in that lying between the
Gala and the Leader. Other possessions in the form
of lands, churches, and privileges, were afterwards
so rapidly heaped on them by David, and by his suc
cessors and subjects, that, against the close of the
13th century, they had vast property and various
immunities in the counties of Roxburgh, Berwick,
Selkirk, Peebles, Dumfries, Ayr, Haddington, and
Edinburgh. In 1192, Hassendean, in its church,
tithes, lands, and other emoluments, was given by
Jocelin, bishop of Glasgow, to the monks, on condi
tion of their establishing at it a house of hospitality,
" ad susceptionem pauperum et peregrinorum ad do
mum de Melros venientum ;" and it now became the
seat of a cell, where several of their number resided,
to execute the trust of relieving the poor, and enter
taining the pilgrim : see Hassendean. In some
year between 1181 and 1185, a bull of Pope Lucius
exempted the monks from paying tithes for any of
their possessions. The monks were now large pro
prietors, with numerous tenants ; great husbandmen,
with many granges and n umerous herds ; lordly church
men, with uncommon privileges, high powers, and
extensive influence. But a pertinacious controversy
had long existed between them and the men of Stow,
or the vale of Gala-water — then called Wedale — re
specting two objects of great importance in that age,
i — pannage and pasturage, under the several proprie
tors; and, in 1184, a formal settlement of the con
troversy, emphatically known in history as ' the peace
of Wedale,' was made by William the Lion, assisted
by his bishops and barons. Yet, during such times,
disputes among cattle-drivers and swine-herds could
hardly be prevented, and, when adopted by their su
periors, were sometimes carried up to tumult and
homicide. In 1269, John of Edenham, the abbot,
and many of his conventual brethren, for the crimes
of violating the peace of Wedale, attacking some
houses of the bishop of St. Andrews, and slaying
one ecclesiastic, and wounding many others, were
excommunicated by a provincial council which sat
in Perth. As Melrose stood near the hostile border,
it was usually involved in the rancorous events of
Border feud and international war. In 1285, the
Yorkshire barons, who had confederated against King
John, swore fealty to Alexander II. in Melrose chap
ter-house. In 1295, Edward I. granted the monks
a protection ; and on August of next year, while he
rested at Berwick after the general submission of
Scotland to his usurping and dominating interference,
he issued a writ commanding a restitution to the
monks of all the property which they had lost in the
preceding melee. In 1322, at the burning and de
solating of the Abbey by Edward II., William de
Peebles the abbot, and several of the monks were
slain. In 1326, Robert Bruce made a most munifi
cent grant,for the re-edification of the Abbey, amount
ing to £2,000 sterling — a vast sum at that period —
from his revenue of wards, reliefs, marriages, escheats
and fines within Roxburghshire; and he seems to
have afterwards made other grants, and to have been
followed in his money-giving patronage by David II.
In 1328, writs were issued to the abbot by Edward
III. for the restitution of pensions and lands which
they had held in England, and which had been taken
from them, during the war, by the king's father.

In 1334, the same monarch granted a protection (o
Melrose, in common with the other abbeys of the
Scottish border; in 1341, he came from Newcastle
to keep his Christmas festival in Melrose abbey; and
in 1348, he issued a writ "de terris liberandis ab-
bati de Meaurose," to deliver to the abbot his lands.
Richard II., in 1378, followed the example of Ed
ward in giving a protection of the monks; yet in
1385, when he made his expedition into Scotland,
he set fire to the Abbey, in common with other reli
gious houses on the Border. But, four years after
wards, the monks were indemnified for the damage
he did them, by the grant of two shillings on each
of 2,000 sacks of Scottish wool, and of a portion of
the king's custom on hides and woolfels, exported
at Berwick; and, in 1390, they received from Richard
a formal renewal of protection. During the period
of rude, waste, and rancorous warfare which inter
vened between the rebuilding of the edifice under
Robert Bruce, and the commencement, or precurrent
events of the Reformation, the Abbey must have
sustained many more shocks than are recorded; yet
it seems to have rebounded from each blow with
undiminished or even increased vigour, and, in spite
of temporary demolitions, made steady progress in
financial greatness and architectural grandeur. But
during the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and
Elizabeth, it suffered collisions and dilapidations,
chiefly from the English and partly from the Scotch,
too severe, and in too troublous times to issue other
wise than in its ruin. In 1544, the English pene
trated to Melrose, and destroyed great part of the
abbey; in 1545, led by Lords Evers and Latoun,
they again pillaged it, and were pursued and beaten
on Ancrum-moor [see Ancrum] ; and, in the same
year, they recrossed the Border under the Earl of
Hertford, and a third time laid the Abbey waste.
" The English commanders," says George Chalmers,
whom, with a collateral reference to other authori
ties, we are chiefly following, " were studious to
leave details of the destruction that they committed,
which only perpetuates their own disgrace." At
length, in 1569, the nobility of Scotland and their
military retainers, uni!er the sacred name of the Re
formation, and with an unjust reflection of the odium
they incurred on John Knox and bis fellow-reform
ers, completed by pillage, defacement, and delapida-
tion, what the English had left to be done in order
to the conversion of the pile into an unroofed, gut
ted, partially overthrown, and altogether yawning
ruin. Though the monks of Melrose were exempted by
charters and custom from rendering military service
to the Crown; yet they fought under James the
Steward of Scotland, during the war of the succes
sion ; and again they foughtunder Walter the Steward,
in strenuous support of the infant-prince, David
Bruce. Declarations were afterwards made by both
stewards, and subsequently confirmed by the Duke
of Albany, on the day of the'feast of James the
Apostle, in 1403, that the military service of the
monks having been rendered by the special grace ot
the abbot and convent, and not in terms of any duty
they owed to the Crown, should not be regarded as
any precedent for their future conduct. Owing to
mutual benefits, a very intimate connection seems
to have existed, from the days of Bruce, or from the
foundation of the monastery, between the abbots of
Melrose and the Stewarts of Scotland. In 1541,
James V., by a sacrifice of his public policy to his
private feelings, solicited and obtained from the
Pope, the abbey of Melrose, in addition to that of
Kelso, to be held, in commendam, by his natural
son James. At the Reformation, when the lands,
rights, and privileges of religious houses were an-.

MEL

352

MER

nexed to the Crown, those belonging to Melrose
abbey were granted by Queen Mary to James, Earl
of Bothwell. Becoming lost to him by forfeiture in
1568, they were next, through the influence of the
well-known Earl of Morton, bestowed on James
Douglas, the second son of William Douglas of l.och-
leven. Some years later, they again sought an
owner, and, with some exceptions, were erected into
a temporal lordship in favour of Sir John Ramsay,
who had protected James VI. from the rapier of
Gowry, who was created Viscount of Haddington,
and Earl of Holderness in 1606, and who, in 1625,
died without issue, leaving the estates to fall back
to the Crown. Sir Thomas Hamilton, who, from
his eminence as a lawyer, rose to high rank and great
opulence, who was created Earl of Melrose in 1619,
and who afterwards exchanged this title for the
vacant one of Earl of Haddington, eventually ob
tained the Abbey and the greater part of its domains ;
and, in more recent times, he has been succeeded in
the splendid heritage, by the family of Buccleuch.
At the epoch of the Reformation, when the monks
were obliged to give up an account of their rentals,
the revenues of Melrose abbey were variously stated ;
but on one authority, they are recorded to have con
sisted of £1,758 Scottish,— 19 chalders, 9 bolls of
wheat, — 77 chalders, 3 bolls of bear, — 44 chalders,
1 boll, 2 firlots of oats, — 14 chalders of meal, — 8
chalders of salt, — 105 stones of butter, — 10 dozen of
capons, — 26 dozen of poultry, — 376 moor-fowls, —
340 loads of peats, — and 500 carriages. Out of this
large revenue, were assigned 20 marks to each of 1 1
monks and 3 portioners, and 4 bolls of wheat; 1
chalder of bear, and 2 chalders of meal, Teviotdale
measure, to the monks.
MEI. SETTER. See Walls.
MELVICH, a township, the seat of an inn, a
post-office, an assembly's school, and a small hamlet,
in Glen Halladale, in the parish of Reay, Suther
landshire. Its position is on the left bank of the
river Halladale, immediately above the debouch of
that stream into. Melvieh bay; and on the road be
tween Thurso and Tongue, 24 miles west by south
of Thurso, and 8 miles east of Strathy. On the
opposite bank of the river, and at the head of the
bay, stands conspicuously the mansion of Bighouse,
long the seat of the ancient branch of the chiefs of
the clan Mackay, and now the property of the
Countess of Sutherland.
MELVILLE, an ancient parish on the North
Esk, now united chiefly to Lasswade, and partly to
Dalkeith, Edinburghshire. An English baron called
Male settled in the locality under the reign of Mal
colm IV., and called his manor Male-ville. He was
Vieecomes of Edinburgh castle under Malcolm IV.,
and Justiciary under William the Lion. The family
acquired other lands in Mid- Lothian during the 13th
century, and remained in possession of their ancient
manor till the reign of Robert II. The original
stock now ending in a female heir, Agnes, her pos
sessions passed by marriage to Sir John Ross of Halk-
head, whose descendants were, by James IV., cre
ated Lords Ross. The barony of Melville remained
with them till 1 705 ; and in the course of last cen
tury, it was purchased by David Rennie, and passed,
by marriage with his daughter, to Henry Dundas,
created Viscount Melville in 1802. Melville castle,
the residence of the present noble owner, is noticed
in our article on Lasswade. Melville church was
given by its founder to the monks of Dunfermline,
and continued with them till the Reformation; yet, i
contrary to the usual practice, it was maintained as
a rectory, the monks simply holding the right of
presenting to the benefice. In 1633, the barony of
Melville which formed the greater part of the par

ish, was united to Lasswade, and the barony of
Lugton to Dalkeith. .
MENGALAY. See Mingala.
MENMTJIR, a parish in the northern part of For
farshire; bounded on the north-west by Lethnot;
onjlthe north-east by Strickathrow; on the east by
Strickathrow and Brechin: on the south by Brechin
and Caraldston; and on the west by Fearn. Its
greatest length, in a line due east and west over
Tigertown, is 6£ miles; its greatest breadth, in a
line dueporth and south over Brown Caterthun, is
4 miles; and its superficial extent is about 15£ square
miles. The southern half of the parish forms part
of Strathmore, is flat, retains some marshy grounds,
and seems anciently to have been what the name Men-
mure or Menmore is said to signify, ' a great moss.'
Most of this flat is now reclaimed and arable, of fair
quality in its soil, enclosed and sheltered with fences
and with belts of wood, and under advanced and
skilful cultivation. The whole of this district is
traversed lengthways, at an average distance of 5
furlongs from the boundary, by Cruick-water, mean
dering in constant, freakish, but brief sinuosities.
The soil, while towards the stream sharp and grav
elly, becomes loamy as it recedes; and on the slopes
which skirt the plain, it improves into a deep sandy
clay, very fertile, and showing an expanse of luxu
riant land. The northern part of the parish consists
of the first gradient in the stupendous shelving ascent
of the Binchinnin Grampians. At the east end are
the heights of White and Brown Caterthun, remark
able for their antiquities : see Caterthun. West
ward of them runs Menmuir-hill, a ridgy height, 2J
miles to the western boundary. North of this, in a
nook of the parish which projects between Fearn
and Lethnot, rises Peat-hill, the first of a water-
shedding series or ridge of heights which runs 15
miles transversely up the Binchinnin region to its
highest summit line. West-water, one of the two
great head-branches of the North Esk, flows a mile
along tbe north, receiving, at the point of impinge
ment, Pelphrie burn, after the latter's course of 2|
miles on the same boundary. A chalybeate spring,
on the farm of Bathall, was formerly in much re
pute, but became long ago neglected. A portion of
the inhabitants, as in most parishes of Forfarshire,
work in a small way in the linen manufacture. Two
lines of road stretch respectively west and north ;
and subordinate roads abound in the southern dis
trict. ,The nearest point is only 1J mile distant
from the town of Brechin. Population, in 1801,
949; in 1 831,. 871. Houses 188. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £4,031  Menmuir is in the pres
bytery of Brechin, and synod of Angus and Mearns.
Patron, Erskine of Bathall. Stipend £158 2s. 5d. ;
glebe £10. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd.,
with £15 fees.
MENSTRIE, a village at the southern base of
the Ochil hills, on the road from Stirling to Dollar,
and on the boundary between the parish of Alloa in
Clackmannanshire, and the Perthshire part of the
parish of Logie. It is distant 2 miles from Alva, 4
from Alloa, and 5 from Stirling. A streamlet flow
ing past it, from the Ochils to the Devon, renders it
an advantageous site for woollen manufacture. A
considerable and growing trade has long been car
ried on in the fabrication of serges, Scotch blankets,
and various other woollen goods. Population 500.
MENTEITH. See Monteith.
MERCHISTON, a fortalice near the summit
of the Borough-muir, within 1J mile of Edinburgh.
It consists of a square tower of the 15th century,
with a projection on one side, and considerable
modern additions. It was from a very ancient
period the patrimony of the family of Napier ; and

MER

353

MET

here the celebrated inventor of the logarithms was
born. MERKLAND. See Kirkpatrick-Fleming.
MERSE, or March (.The), an extensive cham
paign, and very fertile district, occupying the eastern
part of the Scottish border. In modern political
distribution of territory, it is the largest and most
southerly of the three districts of Berwickshire, and,
according to Timothy Pont's survey of that county
in the reign of Charles I., contains 202J square miles,
or 129,600 statute acres; in loose popular phrase
ology, it is the whole of Berwickshire, and strictly
identical with the county ; and in topographical no
menclature, based on strict reference to uniqueness
of geographical feature, it is the whole low country
lying immediately north of the Tweed; semicircu-
larly screened by the Lammermoor-hills and the
heights of Teviotdale, and including all the political
Merse of Berwickshire, and all the district of Rox
burghshire which lies on the left bank of the Tweed.
Ancient political usage not only sanctioned the last
of these senses, but carried the Merse into the low
lands of Teviotdale, and viewed Roxburgh-castle,
situated on the right bank of the Tweed, as the
capital of the whole district. The name is combined
with that of Teviotdale as the designation of a
synod, the second in the General Assembly's list.
For other particulars, see article Berwickshire.
MERTON,* a parish in the extreme south-west
of Berwickshire, forming the most southerly land,
and a projection beyond the prevailing boundary-
line of the county. It is bounded on the north by
Earlston ; and on all other sides by Roxburgh
shire. It sends out a rectangle 1J by 1 mile on the
north, and two peninsulas, respectively about 1 mile
and J of a mile long on the south, and consists, in
addition to these, of an oblong stretching east and
west 4J miles by 2. Its superficial extent is about
5,550 acres. The T weed, wearing its richest dress
of sumptuous beauty, flows along the whole western
and southern boundary, and in its progress makes
three large and unusually fine reduplications, one of
which sweeps round Dryburgh abbey, another the
church of Merton, and the third, on the opposite
bank, the beautiful peninsula of Old Melrose. The
ground rises, in a great variety of gradient and out
line, eastward and northward, from the river, — is
agreeably diversified with fine hedge-rows and thriv
ing plantations, — and exhibits, in its diversity of
haugh and bold bank, cliffy, steep, and gentle ascent,
rolling surface, and level table-land, a scene of great
picturesqueness within narrow limits. The view
which meets the eye in passing from the village of
Newton on the opposite bank, to visit Dryburgh
abbey and the modern monumental erections in its
vicinity, is, for its smallness of scope, one of the most
delightfully impressive in Scotland : see Dryburgh.
But from the summit of Bemersyde-hill in the west,
where the ground in general is high, the parish,
while picturesque in itself, commands a prospect of
the vale of Melrose, and of a long eastward stripe. of
the basin of the T weed, a near view of the Eildon
hills, and a distant one of the blue Cheviots, unit
edly a landscape of exquisite loveliness and many
a romantic feature. " Wood, water, hills, ruins,
and fertile fields," are words which do not even give
a fair list of its elements, and afford no hint what
ever of the warm colours, the fine groupings, and
the bold contrasts and blending beauties of the scene.
The soil, toward the Tweed, particularly in the
haughs, is sharp with a gravelly bottom ; and else
where it is, with, few exceptions, a stiff clay super-
* The name ia Bimply the Saxon Mere-tun, ¦ the Habitation of
the marsh,' and refers to a spot long ago drained, and improved
into a glebe in the vicinity ol the mauae.
II.

incumbent on till. About 500 acres are planted.
Reddish coloured sandstone, very durable, and ad
mitting a fine polish, abounds along the Tweed, and
formerly was quarried  Merton-house, the seat of
Lord Polwarth, situated on the Tweed near the
church, is a fine mansion  Dryburgh-house, the
seat of Sir David Erskine, in the immediate vicinity
of the abbey, is a plain old house amid a balmy scene
of woods and orchards. — Bemersyde-house, the seat
of James Haig, Esq., is an ancient hut pleasant man
sion J of a mile south-east of Old Melrose. The
family of Haig, says Sir Robert Douglas, "is of
great antiquity in the south of Scotland; and in our
ancient writings, the name is written De Haga.
Some authors are of opinion that they are of Pictish
extraction; others think they are descended from
the ancient Britons ; but as we cannot pretend, by
good authority, to trace them to their origin, we shall
insist no farther upon traditional history, and deduce
their descent by indisputable documents from Petrus
de Haga, who was undoubtedly proprietor of the
lands and barony of Bemersyde in Berwickshire, and
lived in the reign of King Malcolm IV. and William
the Lion." Captain Clutterbuck is made to say, in
' the Monastery,' that his friend the sage Benedic
tine could tell to a day when the De Hagas settled
in the country. A remote tradition, towering up in
admiration of the antiquity of the family, affirms
that it will never become extinct ; and having been
thrown into a doggerel rhyme, it has, like some other
things of the sort, been fathered upon Thomas of
Erceldoun, and called a 'prophecy. Should ' Haigs
in Bemerside ' fail in the direct male-line, either col
lateral descendants or female heirs may probably
keep such a possession of the property as will be
quite sufficient to save the credit of Thomas with
his credulous admirers  There are in the parish
three hamlets. Easy communication is everywhere
open in the interior, and across the northern and
eastern boundary; but on the two sides washed by
the Tweed, no egress exists for wheeled vehicles, —
the nearest carriage-bridge being that of Drygrange,
a mile above Old Melrose. Population, in 1801,
535; in 1831, 664. Houses 128. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £5,974. — Merton is in the presby
tery of Lauder, and synod of Merse and Teviotdale.
Patron, Scott of Harden. Stipend £251 19s. 8d. ;
glebe £14. Unappropriated teinds £66 3s. 4d.
Schoolmaster's salary £30, with fees, and £4 4s.
other emoluments. The ancient church was given
by David I. to the canons of Dryburgh, and remained
a vicarage under them till the Reformation.
METHILL, a small sea-port town, and now »
quoad sacra parish, in the parish of Wemyss in Fife ;
on the shore of the frith of Forth, 1 mile west of
Leven, about half that distance west of Dubbieside,
aud 1 mile east of Buckhaven. In 1662 it was
erected into a free burgh-of-barony by the Bishop of
St. Andrews. It has the reputation of having a
better harbour than that of any town in the neigh
bourhood ; but the entrance was long well-nigh
choked up by a mass of stones which were swept
away by a storm, in 1 803, from the termination of
the east pier. This is now being remedied, and ex
tensive repairs and improvements on the harbour are
contemplated. In 1811 the population was 388 ; in
1831, 509.  An extension church has been erected
in this village; cost £1,050; sittings 800; and a dis
trict attached to it with a population of about 1,700.
METHLICK, a parish in Aberdeenshire; bounded
on the north by New Deer; on the east by New
Deer and Tarves ; on the south by Tarves ; and on
the west by Fyvie. It extends 6 miles in length
frpm north to south, by 5 in breadth from east to
"west. Houses 324. Assessed property, in 1815,
Z

354

METHVEN.

£2,471. Population, in 1801, 1,215; in 1831, 1,439.
The surface is hilly, and the soil indifferently fertile.
The hills are partly covered with heath, but the
arable land is in excellent cultivation. The district
is watered from north-west to south-east by the
Ythan, on the banks of which there are thriving and
highly ornamental plantations. Limestone is found
in the parish  It is in the presbytery of Fllon, and
synod of Aberdeen. Patron, the Earl of Aberdeen.
Stipend £159 13s. 7d. ; glebe 5 acres. Unappropri
ated college teinds £266 4s. 6d. Schoolmaster's
salary £28: fees, &c, £31 10s., besides a share of
the Dick bequest. There are two private schools
in the parish.
METHVEN, a parish in the Strathmore district
of Perthshire ; bounded on the north by Monedie ;
on the north-east and east by Redgorton ; on the
south by Tippermuir and Gask ; and on the west by
Fowlis- Wester. Its outline is fiearly that of a quad
rant, — the point or apex turned toward the south
east. Its extreme length along the chord of the arc,
or between the points where the river Almond ap
proaches and departs, is 6 miles ; its extreme breadth
from the middle of the arc to the apex, or in a
straight line south-west from Lynedoch-house, is 44
miles; and its area is about 17 square miles, or 10,700
acres. The surface is agreeably diversified with hol
lows and rising grounds, but is nowhere hilly, and in
general slopes to the south, and terminates in a nar
row plain. In few districts has georgical operation
wrought higher achievements in reclaiming waste
and stubborn ground, and covering it with the beau
ties of husbandry and the forest. Though so late as
fifty years ago a large proportion was moorish com
mon, all the area, with very trivial exceptions, has
now a warm, sheltered, rich, and highly cultivated
appearance. The soil in the north is thin, sharp
loam ; and, in the other districts, is principally clay,
but gives place to tracts of loam and gravel. The
wood of Methven is a natural forest, upwards of 200
acres in extent, chiefly oak, birch, and hazel, and has
long been periodically cut as coppice. Plantations
spread away to the aggregate extent of not less than
1,500 acres, and are so disposed in rows and belts
among the arable grounds, and in clumps, crowning
the rising grounds, as to give a cheerful aspect to the
landscape. The New Statistical Account mentions
three remarkable trees; — the Pepper- well oak at
Methven-castle, 17£ feet in girth a yard from the
ground, 284 feet in the circumference of its branches,
and 700 cubic feet in its solid contents, — the Bell-
tree, an ash in the churchyard, supposed to be co
eval with the earliest religious establishment in the
parish, and measuring 20 feet in girth 3£ feet from
the ground, — and a black Italian poplar at Tipper-
mallo, planted in 1776, and measuring, in 1836, 11|
feet in girth a yard from the ground, and 300 cubic
feet in solid contents. Almond-water describes the
segment of a circle over a distance of 6£ miles, cut
ting off from the main body of the parish part of the
lands of Lynedoch, but elsewhere running along the
boundary. It flows in a large and rapid current be
tween bold and rocky banks, which are alternately
bare and wooded ; and in passing the estate of Lyne
doch, and the, woods of Methven-castle, it furnishes
some very picturesque and romantic views. A stream
called the Pow, or Powaffray, rises in two head
waters in the west, one of which runs 2£ miles along
the boundary, and the other convergently to it in the
interior; and the two uniting at the apex of the par
ish, the joint stream goes away to become tributary
to the Earn. Another stream, likewise called the
Pow, rises near the sources of the former, and runs
in a zigzag course, 4J miles through the interior,
past the village of Methven, and 3 miles along the

southern boundary to the Almond. Light-grey sand
stone and greenstone abound, and are quarried — the
former for building, and the latter for causewaying
and Macadamizing. — Methven-castle, the seat of
Robert Smythe, Esq. of Methven, and a fine baro
nial edifice of the 17th century, stands on a bold
acclivitous rising ground, f of a mile east of Meth
ven village. Its park is celebrated as the scene of
Robert Bruce's defeat in 1306 by the English troops,
under the Earl of Pembroke — Lynedoch-house —
properly Lednoch — the property and occasional resi
dence of Lord Lynedoch, occupies a very beautiful
site on the left bank of the Almond, If mile north
east of Methven village. About half-a-mile north
west of Lynedoch-house, in a secluded spot, caller}
Dronach-haugh, at the foot of a beautiful bank or
brae of the same name on the Almond, is the grave
of ' Bessie Bell and Mary Gray,' celebrated in pa
thetic song. Bessie Bell, according to the common
tradition, was daughter of the laird of Kinvaid, and
Mary Gray of the laird of Lynedoch. Mutually at
tached in strong and tender friendship, they lived
together at Lynedoch, when the plague broke out in
1645; and to" avoid it, they retired to a romantic
spot, called Burn-braes, on the estate of Lynedoch,
and there, in a bower or temporary dwelling, lived
in complete seclusion. A young gentleman of Perth,
an admirer of both, visited them in their solitude,
for the purpose, it is said, of supplying them with
food ; but unhappily he communicated to them the
very pestilence from which they had fled. Falling
victims to the disease, they were, according to the
usage of the period, refused sepulture in the ordi
nary burying-grounds, and slept together, as they
had latterly lived, amid a scene of solitude and ro
mance. Major Berry, a former proprietor of Lyne
doch, enclose'd with tasteful care the spot in which
they were buried, and consecrated it to the memory
of their famed and pathetic friendship.— The parish
is traversed westward by the turnpike between Perth
and Glasgow by way of Crieff. Two good roads run
northward; and various subordinate ones connect
the main lines. Population, in 1801, 2,073; in 1831,
2,714. Houses 460. Assessed property, in 1815-,
£13,614. The increase in the population has taken
place chiefly upon the estate of Mr. Smythe of Meth
ven, who has feued out a great many building leases.
The village of Methven stands a little south of the
centre of the parish, on the road between Perth and
Glasgow ; 6 miles from Perth, 1 1 from Crieff, and
58 from Glasgow. It is very neatly edificed, and is
the site of the parish-church, and of a United-Seces
sion meeting-house. The inhabitants are chiefly
employed in handloom cotton- weaving, and have most
of their work, through resident agents, from manu
facturers in Glasgow. Annual fairs are held in May
and October. The village has a savings' bank, a
spacious masonic lodge, a friendly society, and an
agricultural association. Its population is about
1,000 — The village of Almond-bank stands on the
riyer Almond, 2£ miles east of Methven. At Wood-
end, in its vicinity, is a quondam paper-mill, now
fitted up as a power-loom weaving-factory. In this
establishment, and in other neighbouring publie
works which, stand beyond the limits of the parish,
the inhabitants of Almond-bank, about 300 in num
ber, are chiefly employed  A manufacture of " broad
and narrow brown linens, broad and narrow hams,
and a few white broad linens," which, in 1787, pro
duced 44,996 yards, and in 1792 rose to 140,448, is
now extinct. Manufactures of paper conducted at
two mills, and of household cloth, formerly some
what extensive, have also disappeared.
Methven is in the presbytery of Perth, and synod
of Perth and Stirling. Patron, Smythe of Methven.

MET

355

MID

Stipend £273 16s. lid.; glebe £30. Unappropriated
teinds £424 18s. 5d. Church built in 1783; sittings
628. The parish-school was attended, in 1834, by
140 scholars ; and two private schools — one of them
situated at Almond-bank — were attended by 130.
Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with
£25 fees, and from £5 to £10 other emoluments 
The earliest religious establishment of the parish
was a collegiate church, founded and endowed with
lands and tithes, in 1433, for a provost and several
prebendaries, by Walter Stuart, Earl of Athole. An
aisle, now the burying-place of the family of Mefh-
ven, and anciently connected with the original
church, has a stone sculptured with the royal lion of
Scotland, surmounted by a crown, and inscribed be
neath with some defaced and illegible Saxon charac
ters, and would seem, from this evidence, to have
been erected by some of the royal family, — probably
by Margaret, the mother of James V. , when residing
at Methven-castle. Colenus, idly reputed the 79th
king of Scotland, is said to have been killed in the
neighbourhood of Methven, by Richard, Thane of
Methven, for injuring his daughter. Before 1323,
the lands of Methven belonged to the Mowbrays,
whose ancestor, Roger Mowbray, a Norman, accom
panied William the Conqueror to England. " A
branch of this family," says the Old Statistical Ac
count, " afterwards established itself in Scotland,
and became very flourishing. To Sir Roger Mow
bray belonged the baronies of Kelly, Eckford, Dal
meny, and Methven, lying in the shires of Forfar,
Roxburgh, Linlithgow, and Perth ; but, for adher
ing to the Baliol and English interest, his lands were
confiscated by Robert I., who bestowed Eckford,
Kelly, and Methven, on his son-in-law, Walter, the
8th hereditary lord high-steward of Scotland, whose
son, Robert, was afterwards king, and the second of
the name, in right of his mother, Marjory Bruce,
daughter of Robert I. The lordship of Methven
was granted by him to Walter Stewart, Earl of
Athole, his second son, by Euphame Ross, his sec
ond wife ; and, after his forfeiture, remained in the
Crown a considerable time. It became part of the
dowery lands usually appropriated for the mainte
nance of the queen-dowager of Scotland, together
with the lordship and castle of Stirling, and the lands
of Balquhidder, &c, all of which were settled on
Margaret, queen-dowager of James IV., who, in the
year 1524, having divorced her second husband,
Archibald, Earl of Angus, married Henry Stewart,
second son of Andrew Lord Evandale, afterwards
Ochiltree, a descendant of Robert, Duke of Albany,
son of King Robert II. Margaret was the eldest
daughter of Henry VII. of England, in whose right
James VI. of Scotland, her great-grandson, succeeded
to that crown on the death of Queen Elizabeth. She
procured for her third husband, a peerage from her
son, James V., under the title of Lord Methven,
anno 1528; and, on this occasion, the barony of
Methven was dissolved from the Crown, and erected
into a lordship, in favour of Henry Stewart and his
heirs male, on the Queen's resigning her jointure of
the lordship of Stirling. By Lord Methven she had
a daughter, who died in infancy, before herself. The
Queen died at the castle of Methven in 1540, and
was buried at Perth, beside the body of King James
I. Lord Methven afterwards married Janet Stewart,
daughter of the Earl of Athole, by whom he had a
son, Henry IL, Lord Methven, who married Jean,
daughter of Patrick, Lord Ruthven, and was killed ,
at Broughton by a cannon-ball from the castle of
Edinburgh, in 1572, leaving a son, Henry III., Lord
Methven, who died without issue. This third Lord
Methven is mentioned on the authority of Stewart's
Genealogical Account of the House of Stewart. In

the year 1584, the lordship of Methven and Bal
quhidder was conferred on Lodowick, Duke of
Lennox, in whose illustrious family it continued till
it was purchased, in 1664, by Patrick Smith of Bra-
co, a great-grandfather of the present Lord Methven,
from Charles the last Duke ; who, dying without
issue, anno 1672, his honours, (of winch Lord Meth
ven was one,) with his estate and hereditary offices,
fell to Charles II. as his nearest male-heir ; the
King's great-grandfather's father, and the Duke's
being brothers."
MEY, an ancient barony and chapelry, now incor
porated with the estate of the Earl of Caithness, and
still imparting its name to various localities in the
parish of Canisbay, Caithness-shire. Mey-head, or
St. John's-head, is situated 2 miles south-west of
the island of Stroma, in the Pentland frith, and was
the site of the ancient chapel of Mey, dedicated to
St. John. Immediately off this headland is a dan
gerous piece of sea, jagged with some rocky islets
which look up from the surface only during ebb-tide,
and bear the designation of the Men of Mey. A
locality on the coast, 3 miles west of the headland,
is called the Mill of Mey, and is the site of a Scot
tish Baptist place of worship. Loch-Mey lies half-
a-mile south of this ; is of no great depth, and mea
sures about 1^ mile in circumference. The hamlet
Mey stands J of a-mile south of the lake, on the
coast road from Thurso, and 13 miles east of that
town r and it possesses a post-office, and commands
an extensive field of limestone deposit: see Ca
nisbay. MICHAELS (St.). See Cupar.
MIDDLEBIE, a parish partly in Annandale and
partly in the tract lying between that district and
Eskdale, Dumfries-shire. Its form is oblong, 6{ miles
by 3, stretching in a direction north-east by east ;
and it has, at the south-west corner, a lateral projec
tion, measuring 3J miles by 1£. The whole area is
24J square miles, or 12,600 Scottish acres. The
parish is bounded on the north and north-west by
Tundergarth ; on the east by Langholm ; on the
south-east and south by Half- Morton, Kirkpatrick-
Fleming, and Annan ; and on the west by Hoddam.
The surface along the south and south-west is low
and undulating, along the centre shoots up consider
able rising grounds, along the north and north-east '
becomes wild and mountainous, and altogether forms
a transition-tract between the agricultural valley of
lower Annandale and the pastoral heights of upper
Eskdale. About 300 acres, chiefly on a hill in the
south-west corner, are planted ; between a fifth and
a fourth of the whole area is in tillage ; and all the
remainder is pastoral or waste. The soil is very vari
ous, but, for the most part, is either a stiff or a loamy
clay. Limestone is rich and plentiful, and, in its
worked state, is a staple produce and enriching to
husbandry. Freestone of a reddish colour abounds.
Expensive but hitherto vain searches have been made
for coal. Kirtle-water rises in the north-east corner
of the parish, runs 7J miles partly in the interior and
partly along the southern boundary, and, for some
time before taking its leave, assumes the sweetly
picturesque dress on which the pen of taste has loved
to dilate. Mein-water rises close on the northern
boundary, and has much the greater part of its course
in the interior and along the margin before falling
into the Annan : see Kirtle and Mein. Of vari
ous peel-houses which anciently existed here, the
only extant one is the ruinous tower of Bfackett-
house. At Birrens, a little south of the parish-
church, are perfectly distinct remains of the fossae,
aggeres, and prsetorium of a Roman camp, one
of the least damaged, and, in some other respects,
most remarkable in Britain. It lies 2£ miles south-

MID

356

MIL

east of the kindred one on Brunswark-hill in Hod
dam  The 'Bells of Middlebie,' was formerly a
phrase noted and current in Dumfries-shire, owing
to the great preponderance of the name among the
parishioners. One of the Bells of Blackett-house
figured in the tragical story of ' Fair Helen of
Kirkconnel Lee:' see Kirkconnel  Dr. Currie of
Liverpool, the author of ' The Life of Burns ' and
of other works, was a native. ^Three villages, Water-
beck, Eaglesfield, and Kirtlebridge, have jointly a
population of about 600. Cotton and linen weaving
employs nearly fifty persons. The Glasgow and Lon
don mail-road passes through the parish. Eccle-
fechan is distant from the nearest point only half-a-
mile, and Annan 3£ miles. Population, in 1801,
1,507 ; in 1831, 2,107. Houses 398. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £8,083  Middlebie is in the pres
bytery of Annan, and synod of Dumfries. Patron,
the Duke of Buccleuch. Stipend £218 lis. ; glebe
£27 10s. The church vwas built in 1821 ; sittings
534. A monthly service connected with the Estab
lishment was commenced at Eaglesfield. A Relief
congregation was established at Waterbeck in 1790,
and two years afterwards built a place of worship at
the cost of £400 ; sittings 490 ; stipend from £70 to
£85, with a manse and garden. According to an ec
clesiastical survey made in 1836, the population then
consisted of 1,288 churchmen, and 906 dissenters, —
in all, 2,194 persons  The present parish compre
hends the ancient parishes of Middlebie, Penersax,
and Carruthers, which were united in 1609. Middle
bie, means in Anglo-Saxon 'the Middle dwelling or
middle station,' and distinguishes the Roman work
near the church from those of Netherbie in Cumber
land and Overbie in Eskdale-muir, in opposite direc
tions, and each about 10 miles distant. The lands
of Middlebie belonged, before the Reformation, to
the noble family of Carlyle, and, for the most part,
passed, in the reign of James VI., into the possession
of Sir James Douglas of Drumlanrig, the ancestor of
the Dukes of Queensberry. — Penersax, written also
Penesax and Pennisax, vulgarized into Penersaughs,
and perhaps originally Pen-y-sax, 'the summit of the
Saxons,' lay along the Mein, and forms the western
part of the united parish. Its church stood on the
south side of the Mein, but has long ago disappeared.
The lands of Penersax belonged, in the 15th century,
to Kilpatrick of Dalgarnock, passed, in 1499, to Car
ruthers of Mousewald, and, in the reign of James
VI., were acquired by the Drumlanrig family  On
a height above the site of the ancient hamlet of Car
ruthers stood a British fortlet, whence came the
name Caer-rhvthyr, 'the fort of the assault.' Carru
thers forms fhe eastern part of the united parish.
Its lands anciently belonged to the Earls of Both-
well ; they fell to the Crown by the forfeiture of
Earl James in 1567 ; they were given by James VI.,
along with the earldom, to his worthless nephew
Francis Stewart, and were forfeited by that traitor
in 1592 ; and they subsequently followed the lands
in their vicinity into the possession of the Douglases
of Drumlanrig. AH the three parishes were anciently
rectories. Middlebie, for some time after the Re
formation, was the seat of a presbytery. But, in
1743, it was shorn of the honour, in favour of Annan
and Langholm.
MIDDLETON, a village in the parish of Borth-
wick : which see.
MIDLEM, a village in the parish of Bowden, Rox
burghshire, 3£ miles east of Selkirk, and 5i south of
Melrose. It is the site of a place of worship belong
ing to the Associate Synod of Original Seceders, and
of an endowed school. Its feuars, jointly with those
Of the village of Bowden, have an undivided common
of 30 acres of grass-land. Population about 300.

MID-MAR, a parish in Aberdeenshire ; bounded
on the north by Cluny ; on the east by Echt ; on the
south by Kincardineshire ; and on the west by Kin
cardine-O'Neil. It thus lies in that part of the
county between the Dee and the Don. The form is
that of an irregular square measuring 4 miles by 4J ;.
superficial contents 9,780 square acres. Houses 224.
Assessed property, in 1815, £1,800. Population,
in 1801, 803; in 1831, 1,056. The surface of this
parish is in general level, the only eminence merit
ing notice being the hill of Fare : which see.
On the moor of Daharick, a battle is said to have
been fought between Wallace and Cumyn. A
rivulet that runs through that tract is called Dou
glas-burn, from the name of a hero who fell in this
engagement  The parish of Mid-Mar is in the
presbytery of Kincardine-O'Neil, and synod of Aber
deen. Patron, the Crown and Sir J. Forbes, Bart.
Stipend £233 14s. 7d. ; glebe £14. Schoolmaster's
salary £27 ; fees £19 5s. 6d., besides a share in the
Dick bequest. There are three private schools in
the parish.
MIDSTRATH. See Birse.
MIGDALL, a small lake about 2 miles long and
1 broad, in the parish of Criech, Sutherlandshire. It
lies about 1J mile north of the Dornoch frith ; and
abounds with small trout.
MIGVIE, a parish in Aberdeenshire, united to
that of Tarland : which see.
MILBUY. See Mullbuy.
MILDUBH (The). See Archaig.
MILK (The), a rivulet of Annandale, Dumfries
shire. Rising in the north-east extremity of Tun-
dergarth, it arrives, 1£ mile from its source, at the
northern boundary of that parish ; and thence, over
a distance of 9J mUes, it divides Tundergarth, on its
left bank, from Hutton and Corrie, Dryfesdale and
St. Mungo on its right. Its prevailing direction
over this part of its course, except for \\ mile of
southerly run at the end, is south-west; and it re
ceives in its progress Corrie- water from the north,
and about twenty independent and chiefly very short
and tiny brooks. Leaving Tundergarth it flows
southward 2| miles through St. Mungo, and 1 mile
between that parish and Hoddam to the Annan, half-
a-mile above Hoddam-castle. In the upper half of
its course it is a chilly mountain stream ; but over
most of the lower half it has fringings of wood and
of pleasing landscape. About midway in its progress
through St. Mungo it is overlooked by the man
sion of Castlemilk. Its waters abound in trout.
MILLGUY. See Milngavie.
MILLHEUGH, a small village in Lanarkshire,
in the parish of Dalserf, upon the road leading from
Glasgow to Carlisle.
MILLHOUSE, a manufacturing village in Forfar
shire, in the parish of Liff and Benvie, 3 miles north
from Dundee.
MILLPORT, a neat modern village and much
frequented bathing-place on the island of Greater
Cumbray, Buteshire. It stretches round a plea
santly sheltered small bay at the south end of the
island ; partly overlooks the Lesser Cumbray, and
partly confronts the opening through Fairley road to
the vast bay of Ayr or eastern side of the frith of
Clyde ; and is situated 2£ miles west of the nearest
part of the Ayrshire coast, 5 miles south-west of
Largs, 1 1 miles south-east of Rothsay, and 24 miles
south of Greenock. Its form is that of the segment
of a circle ; its houses are almost all neat, two storey,
whitewashed structures; its handsome parish-church,
surmounted by a low square tower, and apparelled
in sober sandstone brown, looks out from an area in
the middle of the curve ; and the entire appearance
of the place is airy, clean, and not a little pleasant

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But for a total absence of wood in the environs, the
village and its vicinity would be one of the most
beautiful places on the Clyde. Yet either the spot
itself, or any one of several vantage-grounds in its
immediate neighbourhood, commands magnificent
views of nearly the whole frith of Clyde, the highly
cultivated and richly wooded slopes of the Ayrshire
sea-board, thickly embellished with villas and with
the body and wings of Fairley and Largs, the spiry
and bold mountains of Arran, the gentle and charm
ing coasts of the Isle of Bute, the rugged outlines of
the Argyleshire alps, — a tout ensemble of grand and
beautiful and picturesquely varied sea and land scen
ery, always refreshing, and, in certain tintings of the
oft-rich drapery above, absolutely thrilling. The
harbour of the village, though of small capacity, can
contain vessels of considerable burthen; and has a
fine pier, erected ehiefly at the expense of the Mar
quis of Bute. The depth, at low-water, is 6 feet,
and, at high-water, 14 feet. Immediately adjacent
to the harbour is a good anchoring-ground capable of
accommodating several ships, fully protected by two
islets called the Allans, and affording safety to ves
sels during the prevalence of the most violent storms.
Fifteen or sixteen sloops belong to the place, some
carrying so few as 14, and none more than 40 tons
each; two steam-boats maintain daily communica
tion with Glasgow and places intermediate ; and,
since the opening of the Glasgow and Greenock rail
way, passengers for Glasgow have the option of land
ing at Greenock, and proceeding thence by railway.
Millport depends, to a large extent, for its support
on the influx during summer of temporary residents
from Glasgow; it wears almost wholly and even
characteristically the aspect of a sea-bathing quarter ;
and it has steadily risen and maintained its footing in
popular favour. The operative part of the popula
tion are employed either in the fisheries, or in weav
ing for the manufacturers of Glasgow. The number
of looms is about sixty. The village has two day-
schools, one of them parochial ; two Sabbath-schools,
each provided with a small library; a Provident-
bank ; a Friendly society ; a parochial library of con
siderable variety and extent ; and a Bible and Mis
sionary society. Population, in 1840, 932.
MILLS-OF-FORTH. See Milnathort.
MILLTOWN, a small village on the banks of
the Ruthven, in the parish of Auchterarder, Perth
shire. MILNATHORT, a large village in the parish of
Orwell, Kinross-shire. It stands at the intersection
of the mailroad between Edinburgh and Perth, ana
tbe post-road between Stirling and Cupar-Fife ; 1|
mile north-north-east of Kinross ; and 14 miles south
of Perth. North Queich-water, one of the feeders
of Loch-Leven, and a breeding-stream of that lake's
celebrated trouts, flows past the village J of a mile
before terminating its course ; and was, till very re
cently, spanned here by a crazy, shabby old bridge
which did little credit to the excellent line of road to
which it belonged. Anew structure, however, is now
in process of erection. Milnathort is a neatly edificed
village, and one of the most industrious and thriving
seats of population between the Tay and the Forth.
Tbe inhabitants, for a long series of years, were em
ployed chiefly in cotton-weaving ; but, owing to the
decline of wages which has involved the whole cot
ton-weaving tribe in penury, they, almost at one
bound, leaped, about three years ago, into the new
and much more remunerating occupation of weaving
tartan shawls and plaiding ; and, though their old
workshops were, in general, too small to admit the
larger looms which became necessary, they broke
alertly through the difficulty, and, when other re
sources did not offer, obtained accommodation in

large airy buildings constructed on speculation for
their use, and let to them in "stances" for hire.
The villagers, viewed as a community, are charac
terized by enterprise, enlightenment, and an ad
vanced state of social progress. A large portion of
them also count ancestry from some of the earliest
and staunchest Seceders, and maintain with firmness
the principles of the Secession. Their village, be
ing the nearest large one to the seat of the Rev.
Ebenezer Erskine's long-continued ministry in the
adjacent parish of Portmoak, became an early strong
hold of dissent; and has, to a great extent, wit
nessed in miniature the scenes of the general Seces
sion history. Annual fairs are held, for the sale of
fat cattle, on the second Thursday of February, and
the Thursday preceding the 25th of December ; and,
for the sale of cattle, sheep, and horses, on the last
Wednesday of April, old style, the 9th day of July,
the 29th of August, and the 5th of November. A
weekly market — the only one of its class in the coun
ty — is also held for the sale of corn by sample. Com
munication is maintained with the towns respectively
of the south and the north, by coaches in daily
transit between Edinburgh and Perth. The village
is the site of the parish-church, a United Secession
meeting-house, an Original Burgher meeting-house,
the parochial school, and two or three private
schools ; and it has a large public library, known as
the Milnathort library, — three libraries connected
severally with its three places of worship, — and a
branch savings' bank. It is lighted with gas from
the same works which supply the town of Kinross.
Population, in 1801, 959; in 1831, 1,772. The
name of the village popularly in use is Mills-of-
Forth ; a name most probably suggested by the de
signation Forthrif, which anciently belonged to the
circumjacent district.
MILNGAVIE, popularly Millguy, a prosperous
manufacturing village on Allander - water, in the
Stirlingshire part of the parish of East or New Kil
patrick; 4 miles south of Strathblane, 4| east of Dun
tocher, and 7 north-west of Glasgow. At the village
there are extensive works for calico-printing and
cotton-spinning ; and in its vicinity are bleachfields,
a distillery, and other public works. The place has
good shops, maintains daily communication by a stage
coach with Glasgow, and makes stout demonstrations
of speedily becoming a seat of extensive population
and traffic. Its inhabitants amounted, at the begin
ning of the century, to about 200; and, in 1831, to
1,162. The present population is about 1,500.
Here are a Relief meeting-house, a library, an
infant-school, and some kindred institutions ; also a
neat extension church.
MILNPORT. See Millport.
MILNTOUN. See Kilmuir-Easter.
MILTON, a fishing village on the coast of the
parish of St. Cyrus or Ecclescraig, Kincardineshire
MILTON of Balgonie. See Balgonie.
MILTON. See Cyrus (St.).
MINCHMOOR, a broad-based, wide-spreading,
but short mountain-ridge, running north and south
between the parishes of Traquair and Yarrow, in the
counties respectively of Peebles and Selkirk. The
highest summit rises 2,285 feet above sea-level. A
little north of this, an old road crosses the ridge
communicating between Peebles and Selkirk. This
road, from the great altitude to which it rises, and
the wildness of the scene which it traverses,* is a
* Sir Walter Scott, in a letter to Miss Joanna Baillie, in
which he speaks of a volume of tragedies about to be published
by her, has this very striking and romantic passage : — " Were
it possible for me to hasten the treat I expect by such a compo
sition with you, 1 would promise to read the volume at the si
lence of uoonday, upon the top of Miuchmuir, or Windlestraw-
law. The hour is allowed, by those skilful in denionology, to

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remarkable specimen of the ancient straightforward
thoroughfares, which scorned a detour, and bristled
boldly up in the face of formidable obstructions.
The road was the path of Montrose's retreat from
Philiphaugh ; and it is still used by foot-passengers
who scorn the luxury of a level but circuitous tho
roughfare. By the wayside in a wild part of the hill,
there is a spring called Cheese-well, which was an
ciently believed to be under fairy government, and
is said to have received its name from the practice of
passengers dropping into it bits of cheese as offerings
to the fairies.
MING ALA, or Mengalay, an island nearly
at the southern extremity of the Outer Hebrides, or
archipelago of Long-Island. It lies 9 miles south
west of Barra ; and is separated from Pabba on the
north-east by the sound of Mingala, which is If mile
wide, and from Bernera on the south-west by the
sound of Bernera, which is 5 or 6 furlongs wide. Its
exti eme length is 2J miles from north-east to south
west ; and its extreme breadth is If mile. Its south
west coast is remarkably bold and precipitous ; and
rises almost sheer up from the sea in towering cliffs
of gneiss. Innumerable flocks of puffins, razorbills,
penguins, and kittiwakes frequent these cliffs in
summer ; and they disappear early in autumn with
their young. The highest ground on the island ap
pears to be short of 1,000 feet above sea-level ; and
the general surface is pastoral, yet such as to main
tain a human population of about 50. See Barra.
MINGARRY CASTLE, an ancient fortalice on
the south coast of Ardnamurchan, Argyleshire. It
overhangs Loch-Sunart, and looks across it south
ward along the Sound of Mull; and, it confronts
south-westward the body of Mull island, and
• sternly placed.

O'erawes the woodland aud the waste."
Its distance due north from Tobermory is 7 miles.
The fortalice, though strictly a ruin, is in a state of
proximate integrity; and must be regarded as one of
the most interesting architectural antiquities of its
class. It skirts the edges of a projecting and preci
pitous rock, about 24 feet high ; and is defended on
the land side by a dry ditch. The entire structure
is a hexagon of three larger and three smaller sides,
which regularly alternate. Two of the sides toward
the land are occupied with the castle, which has
three stories, divided into six apartments, and ap
proached by a central staircase ; and the other sides
are formed by a dead wall, and interiorly disposed
partly into outhouses, and partly into a small trian
gular court., Battlements surmount all the sides ;
but are so narrow that they could have afforded
small scope for the working of artillery. A few
loopholes constitute the only external openings.
The whole hexagon is upwards of 200 feet in cir
cumference ; and the enclosed castle is 50 feet in
length. The fortalice was anciently the seat of the
Maclans, a clan of Macdonalds, descended from
Ian, or John, a grandson of Angus Og, Lord of the
Isles. During the Marquis of Montrose's enterprise
be as full of witching as midnight itself; and, 1 assure you, I
have felt really oppressed with a sort of fearful loneliness
when looking around the naked and towering ridges of deso
late barrenness, which is all the eye takes in from the top of
such a mountain, — the patches of cultivation being all hidden
in the little glens and valleys, or only appearing to make one
sensible how feeble and inefficient the efforts of art have been
to contend with the genius of the soil. It is in such a scene
that the unknown author of a fine but unequal poem, called
1 Albania,' places the remarkable superstition which consists in
hearing the noise of a chase, with the baying of the hounds, the
throttling Bobs of the deer, the hollos of a numerous band of
huntsmen, and the ' hoofs thick-beating on the hollow hill.' I
ha"e often repeated his verses with some sensations of awe iu
such a place, and 1 am sure yours would effect their purpose as
completely."

of 1644. Allaster Macdonald of Colkitio, a partisan
of the Marquis, and commander of the Irish auxilia
ries, besieged and captured it. John of Moidart,
captain of Clanranald, was commissioned by the
Marquis of Argyle to recapture it ; but he seized the
opportunity of being in arms, to send relief to the
place, and to lay waste Argyle's district of Sunart.
The name Mingarry means the destroyed den, or the
reduced fort.
MINNICK (The), a rivulet of the parish of San
quhar, in upper Nithsdale, Dumfries-shire. It rises
on the west side of Lowther-hill, 1 mile from the
source of El van- water, a tributary of tbe Clyde, and
1J mile south from the village of Leadhills in Lan
arkshire, and flows 6 miles westward to the Nith, 2
miles below the burgh of Sanquhar. Three brooks,
each nearly equal to itself in bulk, give it the tribute
of their waters. Some wildly romantic spots occur
oh its banks, interesting both in themselves, and in
association with traditions of the Covenanters.
MINNICK (The). See Minnigaff.
MINNIEHIVE, or Minnyhive, a village in the
parish of Glencairn, Dumfries-shire; 16| miles
north-west of Dumfries, 35£ north of Kirkcud
bright, and 7 south west of Thornhill. It stands
on Dalwhat-water, a few hundred yards above its
confluence with the Cairn, and communicates by a
bridge with Dunreggan, a smaller village on the op
posite bank. Here are a United Secession meeting
house, and two subscription libraries. Annual fairs,
chiefly for the hiring of servants, are held in March,
July, and October. A fair or market for lambs was
commenced in 1835. The town has, of late years,
had considerable increase in the number and neat
ness of its houses. In the early half of the 17th
century, a charter was given it, erecting it into a
burgh-of-barony, and conferring on it the privilege
of a weekly-market. A pillar 9 feet high, on a cir
cular pedestal 5 feet high, stands in the centre of the
village, bears the date 1638, and seems to have been
erected as a market-cross. Near the village is a
monument, to the memory of the Rev. James Ren-
wick : see Glencairn. The population of Minnie-
hive, Dunreggan, and another small village, is jointly
about 1,000.
MINNIGAFF, a large parish in the extreme west
of Kirkcudbrightshire; bounded on the north by
Ayrshire ; on the north-east by Kells ; on the east
by Girthon ; on the south-east and south by Kirk
mabreck; and on the south-west and "west by the
counties of Wigton and Ayr. Its form is oblong,
with a waving and serrated outline. Its greatest'
length, from the confluence of Ence-water and the
Cree on the north-west, to the boundary at the base
of Knocklinn on the south-east, is 17 miles; its
greatest breadth, from the mouth of Pulgowan-burn
on the north-east to a bend in the Cree, 1| mile
above Newton-Stewart, in the south-west, is 11|
miles; and its superficial contents are about 150
square miles. On the boundaries and in the interior
are about 20 lakes and lochlets, most of them imbo-
somed among wild hills, in districts either aban
doned to desolation or trodden only by the shepherd
and his flock, and cold, naked, and cheerless in their
scenic properties. The chief are Loch-Moan, on the
north-west boundary, 1J mile long, deeply indented
in outline, and studded with several islets ; Loch-
Enoch, 5 miles eastward on the same boundary, 2J
miles in circumference, variously isleted within, and
jagged all round with peninsulas without; Loch-
Neldricken, 1£ mile south of Loch-Enoch, f of a
mile long, and half-a-mile broad ; Loch- Valley, half-
a-mile farther south, nearly a mile long, and of slen
der breadth; Long-loch and Round-loch, the for
mer a stripe f of a mile in length, the latter a cir-

MINNIGAFF.

359

eular sheet, half-a-mile in diameter, and both within
<• mile south of Loch- Valley; Loch-Dee, a mile
south-east of Round-loch, 1J mile long, and J of a
mile broad, the reputed source of the Galloway Dee;
Loch-Trool, 2 miles east of Loch-Dee, stretches
south-westward in a narrow stripe of If mile long,
and wearing at its lower end a gently picturesque
dress; Loch-Grannoch, on the eastern boundary, 6J
miles south-east of Loch-Dee, 2$ miles in length, but
touching the parish for only 1 mile, and belonging
chiefly to Girthon ; and the Loch of Cree, a slender
expansion of the river Cree, 2J miles in length, ter
minating 3£ miles above Newton-Stewart, beauti
fully wooded, and lovely in its banks. The river
Cree, from its source in Loch- Moan, till 1J or 2
miles below the point of its beginning slowly to open
into an estuary, has its whole course, at first shiver-
ingly bleak, and afterwards genially pleasant, along
the north-western, western, and south-western boun
daries. The distance over which it drains the par
ish is between 22 and 23 miles. Not fewer than
about 24 independent rills, besides 3 considerable
streams, flow into it from Minnigaff, many of them
of short course, nearly all gurgling or brawling among
hills, most of them akin in character to the major
part of the lakes, but a few finely wooded, and cleav
ing down delightful vistas among the hills. Min-
nick- water, coming down from Ayrshire, runs 7 miles
southward, and 1 J mile south- westward to the Cree,
a little above the Loch of Cree, traversing, except
near its termination, a dreary country, and receiving
numerous rills, and in particular the superfluent
waters of Lochs Trool, Round, Long, Valley, and
Neldricken, in one accumulated stream. Polckill-
water rises a mile south of Loch-Trool, and flows 4|
miles southward, and the same distance south-west
ward to the Cree, immediately above Newton-
Stewart. Pilnour-water rises 1£ mile west of the
New-bridge of Dee, and runs 10 miles south-west
ward and southward, all in the interior except a mile
above its mouth on the boundary with Kirkmabreck
to the Cree, at the point where that river leaves the
parish. The river Dee, first under the name of Coo-
ran-lane, and next under its proper name, runs, from
its sources in Dry-loch, Loch-Dungeon, and Long-
loch, to a little below the New-bridge of Dee, 10
miles along the eastern and south-eastern boundary.
These streams and streamlets, with their very nu
merous tributaries, cleave the whole district into a
labyrinth of broken surface, — prevailing upland,
everywhere, and in all directions, ploughed, with
glens and ravines. The district, though not strictly
alpine, is one of the most rudely highland in the
south of Scotland. Excepting in a warm nook of
about 6 square miles in the extreme south, and in
some beautiful but narrow stripes along the principal
streams in the west, it is everywhere rugged, very
extensively heath-clad, and, for the most part, alto
gether and irreclaimably pastoral. Of several sum
mits which attain an altitude above sea-level of about
1,600, or 1,700 feet, the chief is Cairnsmuir on the
south-eastern boundary. Tbe heights which crowd
the interior have aggregately a grand effect, and form
many stern yet imposing prospects. A few goats,
some Galloway cattle, and at least 30,000 sheep,
browse on their sides and in the intervening hollows.
Some tumuli, and other rude and simple monuments
of remote antiquity, are scattered on their surface.
Though seemingly inhospitable, the hills are compa
ratively little snow-clad, and enjoy a mildness of
climate denied to many Scottish districts of much
lower ground. From the southern and finely culti
vated corner of the parish upward along the vale of
the Cree, several pleasing prospects open among the
heights, extending up the courses of the streams.

The higher declivities are, in many instances, clothed
all over with plantation ; the lower slopes form fine
green pasture; and the valley-grounds are richly
cultivated, and. occasionally are ornamented with
mansions and embellishing woods. The vale of
Pilnour-water, in particular, presents some charming
wild scenes. The stream is sometimes obstructed
with rocks, and impetuously breaks away from them
chafed with detention; its banks are plentifully
wooded; its gambols are overlooked by the mansions
of Bardrocheid and Bargaly; and its hill-screens rise
and open, and close in many diversified forms. In
the vale of the Cree, within a mile of Newton-
Stewart, stand the mansions of Mochramore and
Kerrochtree, the former on the river, the latter di
rect inland, both forming fine objects in a beautiful
landscape. In the vale of Polckill-water, or rather
in that of a brook tributary to it, 2J miles north of
Newton-Stewart, stands Garlies-castle, the original
seat of the Earls of Galloway, and that which gives
them the title of Baron. The lead-mines of Moch
ramore were once a source of considerable wealth ;
they gave rise to a populous village, occupied solely
by miners ; they were wrought with great earnest
ness; but at length the veins became greatly ex
hausted, and new ones ceased to be discovered. A
plain, below Kerrochtree -house, is said to have
been the scene of some ancient battle, and has a
standing-stone and some cairns as monuments of the
event. Partly in the parish, though chiefly in Pen-
ningham, Wigtonshire, stands the town of Newton-
Stewart. See that article. Nearly 2 miles east
of it stands the village of Craigtown. Almost sub
urban to Newton-Stewart, and a little north of it at
the mouth of Polckill-water stands the ancient vil
lage or clacban of Minnigaff, the parish-church sur
mounting an eminence in its vicinity. The view
down the Cree, from vantage-ground near the church,
composed of the course of the river, straggling
houses along its banks, the village, a green hill fea
thered with trees, and in general a rich and variegated
narrow valley, is eminently pleasing for the altitude
of its objects and the warmth of its colours. The
parish is traversed across its south-east end by the
great road between Dumfries and Portpatrick, —
south-eastward from this road, by a branch commu
nication toward Creetown, — and northward along
the Cree and the Minnick by a road into Ayrshire ;
but over by far the greater part of its area it remains
quite inaccessible to any wheeled vehicle. Popula
tion, in 1801, 1,609; in 1831, 1,855. Houses 310.
Assessed property, in 1815, £10,914  Minnigaff is
in the presbytery of Wigton, and synod of Galloway.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £254 4s. lOd. ; glebe
£20. Unappropriated teinds £72 5s. lid. School
master's salary £34 4s. 4|d., with £31 6s. fees, and
£1 6s. other emoluments. A non-parochial school
was attended, in 1834, by 160 scholars, and the pa
rochial school by 65  The name Minnigaff was writ
ten, in several monuments of the I3th and 14th cen
turies, Monygove; and alludes, in its Erse or Gaelic
origin, to the stony moorland which prevails among
the hills. The church was a free parsonage at the
commencement of the 13th century, as 'the parson
of Monygove' then witnessed a charter of John,
bishop of Galloway ; but it was afterwards given to
the monks of Tongueland, and it followed the fates
of their property both before and after the Reforma
tion. There were anciently in the parish two cha.
pels subordinate to the mother-church. Some mea
sures adopted about the year 1684, to provide it with
a second modern church at ' the house of the hill,'
seem not to have succeeded, and possibly have nevei
since been renewed. But dissent has provided some
church-accommodation at Newton-Stewart.

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MINSH (The), the broad sound which separates
the northern part of the Long Island group of the
Hebrides from the continent of Scotland, and, at its
south end, becomes split into two straits by the Isle
of Skye. Its mean breadth is about 35 miles.
Though the passage of this sound is annually per
formed by a large portion of the vessels engaged in
the Baltic trade, the commissioners of the Northern
Lights have not yet provided it with a single beacon.
One lighthouse stands on Scalpa, at the point of
transition from the Minsh to the Little Minsh, and
another stands on Cape Wrath, to guide the naviga
tion out of the north end of the Minsh ; but, nei
ther along the coast of Lewis, nor on any opposite
point of the continent, is there any similar appliance.
A packet sails once a-week across the Minsh, from
Pol-Ewe to Stornoway, and is partially maintained
by a contribution of £130 a-year from government ;
but, as it existed in 1836, is described as " an ill-
found vessel, its tackling ill-suited to bad weather,
and its crew insufficient" in number. Generally
throughout the year, and invariably during the four
winter months, the wind in the Minsh veers round
to the west and south-west at noon. The meaning
of the name is ' the stormy sea.'
MINSH (The Little), that sound which sepa
rates the central part of Long Island from the isle of
Skye. Its breadth is tolerably uniform, and proba
bly averages 16 or 17 miles. See preceding article.
MINTO, a parish in Roxburghshire ; bounded on
the north by Lilliesleaf; on the north-east by An
crum ; on the east byt Bedrule ; on the south-east
and south by Cavers ; on the south-west by Wilton ;
and on the west by a detached part of Selkirkshire.
Its form is oblong, but suffers contraction toward the
west, and slowly tapers to nearly a point on the east.
Its greatest length in, a straight line, east and west,
over the northern summit of its two hills, is 5$
miles; its greatest breadth, in a line nearly due north
from Teviotbank, is 3 miles ; and its area is about
8f square miles. The river Teviot, flowing over
numerous fords, along a pebbly bed, and between,
banks singularly varied and highly picturesque, runs,
for 3J miles, generally along the southern and south
eastern boundary, but over this distance intersects
on the side of Minto some small portions of Cavers.
Except for i of a mile on the extreme west, where
the land rises abruptly up in a bold,- sylvan, and
beautiful bank, a belt of haugh-ground about 1 or 1 J
furlong broad, lies along the margin of the stream.
Flanking all the haugh except its east end, there is
either a steep bank, or a rapid swell ; behind both
of which the surface, excepting at two places where
it is ploughed into dells, and at two others where it
towers aloft into hills, rises with a slow and almost
regular gradient away to the northern boundary.
The westerly dell, traversed by a cleat rivulet trot
ting along beneath projecting ledges, and oversha
dowing copsewood and trees, is the romantic Has
sendean ; which see. The easterly dell combines
the soft beauties of a noble demesne, the picturesque
varieties of the lake, the cascade and the purling
stream, the fine attraction of the densely wooded
glen, and the stern features of the dark and wild
ravine, and is altogether a home of romance. Near
its head a high weir thrown across it produces both
a fine little sheet of water above, .and a bold and
freakish waterfall below. A smooth green bank
rises slowly up from the edge of the artificial lake,
and bears aloft the elegant and noble pile of Minto-
house, — a mansion more luxuriously situated than 19
in 20 of its class, commanding through vistas among
a profusion of wood, rich and glowing views athwart
the vale of the Teviot, and itself ensconced from
the gaze of all who do not penetrate the fairy-land

of its demesne. A stranger in approaching the dell
by one of the serpentine walks which wind along its
sides, and among the highly embellished grounds in
its vicinity, is suddenly surprised with the noise of
the waterfall below the lake, the view being inter
cepted by a thicket ; and on advancing, he gets an
instant revelation of the fall, a spanning bridge, the
lake, the wooded sides of the ravine, and the im
posing form of the mansion ; and he feels a degree
of enhancement more engrossing than what, in even
the choicest spots of luxuriating beauty, accrues from
the view of so limited a landscape. Below the fall
the dell becomes less ornate, and subsides into its
natural wildness, but continues till near the Teviot
to be delightfully fascinating. A furrowed tracery
in the ground, but nowhere deep enough to be even
a mimic glen, brings down a pretty trotting stream
let at mid-distance between the dells, and discharges
its watery freight across the haugh, directly opposite
the bold and beautiful bank which screens the vil
lage of Denholm from the Teviot. A mile west,
and north-west by west of Minto-house, rise the
two hills of the parish, based on a considerably ele
vated table-land, and shooting up to an altitude of
about 870 feet above sea-level. They are regularly
ascending, green, broad-shouldered, elevations, and
figure conspicuously from almost every point of view
in one of the richest landscapes of Teviotdale, and
are seen at a great distance, and imagined to possess
far more than their real altitude, from the Newcastle
road to Edinburgh by way of Kelso, dividing with
the Eildon-hills the attention of the traveller from
England, who peers into the opening view of Scot
land. Somewhat continuous with the hills, but after
an intervening depression, runs eastward behind
Minto-house, a broad hilly ridge, becoming bold and
towering as it advances the Teviot, and when near
that stream it breaks almost sheer down in the ro
mantic assemblage of cliffs called Minto crags. The
cliffs are avast mass of trap-rock; and they soar into
different points, form various platforms in their as
cent, and attain an elevation above sea-level of 721
feet. Along their base are strewn huge rocky blocks,
detached from the beetling precipices; over their
rugged face, studded with projecting and menacing
ledgy fragments, are lichens, ivy, fern, and various
wild floral plants ; and clothing their sides, and par
tially crowning their summits, are picturesque clumps
and sheets of plantation. " The view from the
summit," — we quote the words, though we have
repeatedly on the spot shared the ideas, in this par
ticular, of the New Statistical Account — " is highly
diversified and beautiful. The windings of ' the silver
Teviot,' through a pleasing vale, sometimes con
tracted, and again expanding, can be traced above
and below for many a mile, the prospect on the one
hand being terminated by the fine outline of the Lid
desdale hills, along with those on the confines of
Dumfries-shire, and in the opposite direction by the
smoother and more rounded forms of the Cheviots.
Ruberslaw, the highest hill in this vicinity, rises im
mediately in front, with Denholm-dean, celebrated
by Leyden, on the right, and the narrow bed of the
Rule on the left ; while behind, to the north, are
distinctly seen the Eildon hills, the Black-hill, Cow-
denknowes, and more remotely Smailholm-tower,
Hume-castle, and the low, dark skyline of the Lam
mermoors." — " A small platform on a projecting
crag," says Sir Walter Scott, " is termed Barnhill's
bed. This Barnhill is said to have been a robber
or outlaw. There are remains of a strong tower
beneath the rocks, where he is supposed to have
dwelt, and from which he derived his name. On the
summit of the crags are the fragments of another
ancient tower, in a picturesque situation."

MIN

361

MOC

" On Minto-crags the moonbeams glint,
Where Barnhill hewed his bed of flint ;
Who flung his outlawed limbs to rest,
Where falcons haug their giddy nest,
'Mid cliffs from whence his eagle eye
For many a league his prey could spy,
Cliffs doubling on their echoes borne,
The terrors of the robber's horn, —
Cliffs which for many a later year,
The warbling Doric reed shall hear,
When some sad swain shall teach the grove,
Ambition is no cure for love."
Teviot-bank, situated on the bank behind the burgh-
ground, three furlongs east of Hassendean, is a mo
dern mansion in the old English style, from an elegant
design by William Burn, Esq., and forms a marked
and pleasing feature in the general landscape. The
village of Minto, situated midway on the swell to
ward the base of the hills, nearly three furlongs west
of Minto-house, and commanding much of the Teviot
dale part of the prospect seen from Minto-crags, is
a singularly pleasant little cluster of neat cottages
traced with parasitical and flowering shrubs. Its
population, in 1831. was 108. Grouped with it is
the parish-school, a large neat building, and a place
of some local note ; and a few yards west of it stands
the parish-church, a Gothic edifice with a square and
pinnacled tower, a conspicuous object which, seen
from a little distance, forms a delicate tracery against
the back-ground, and, in itself, is one of the most
handsome country rural churches in Scotland. The
manse, half-a-mile to the south, on lower ground,
washed by the central brook of the parish, is in the
style of a Tuscan villa, and exhibits kindred taste to
that which gently and joyously luxuriates over most
of the objects and surface of this interesting district.
About 800 acres of the parochial area are under plan
tation, — chiefly oak, elm, ash, larch, and spruce, and
including many very large and beautiful trees ; about
1,500 acres are in pasture ; and little more than 800
own the dominion of the plough. The soil toward
the Teviot is a light loam ; farther north it is a strong
clay lying upon till ; and, wherever tilled, it has been
profusely and with fine results subjected to the most
approved georgical operations. The sheep fed on the
pastures are of the Cheviot and Leicester breeds.
The parish is traversed by no greater a road than
that between Hawick and Lilliesleaf, and has no
other artificial communication across the Teviot than
a pedestrian suspension-bridge opposite Denholm ;
yet it has sufficient outlets and interior roads, and is
distant, at the nearest points, only 3£ miles from
Hawick and 4 from Jedburgh. Population, in 1801,
477 ; in 1831, 481. Houses 85. Assessed property,
in 1815, £4,515. — Minto, anciently an independent
parsonage, is in the presbytery of Jedburgh, and
synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the Earl
of Minto. Stipend £205 12s. 9d. ; glebe £40.
Unappropriated teinds £287 Is. 8d. Schoolmaster's
salary £34 4s. 4id., with £25 fees, and £10 10s.
other emoluments. The present parish comprehends
the ancient parish of Minto, and part of that of Has
sendean. The original barony appears to have been
much more extensive than even the present, and
much more the anti-Reformation parish ; for Robert
Bruce granted to William Barbitonsoris two parts of
the lands of ' Kirkborthwic,' and three parts of ' the
miln thereof,' 'infra baroniam de Minthou;' and
Kirkborthwick is about 9 miles west-south-west from
Minto  The noble family of Elliot, whose title of
Earl is taken from the parish, and whose distinguished
history* has deeply entwined its name in the chaplets
of modern renown, and made it figure in the annals
of literature and diplomacy, and in the topographical
nomenclature of the proud metropolis of Scotland,
came into possession of the ascendant portion of its
lands only at the recent period of the Union, ' >

On

the 30th of April, 1706, Sir Gilbert Elliot obtained
a grant of the barony of Minto, in Roxburghshire,
with the patronage of the church, the tithes, and
with the manse and glebe of Minto, and also a grant
of the barony of Headshaw, with the patronage of
the church of Ashkirk, and the tithes thereof."
[Warrant Book.] — Sir Gilbert — a son of Gawin
Elliot of Midlem mill, and a grandson of Gilbert
Elliot of Stobbs, called ' Gibbie wi' the gowden gar
ters,' and of Margaret Scott of Harden, commonly
called ' Maggy Fendy'— acted a stirring part in the
wars of the Covenanters, under the last of the reigning
Stuarts, and narrowly escaped destruction for his en
thusiastic attachment to the cause of Presbyterianism
and religious liberty ; he was one of the Scottish de
putation to the Prince of Orange to adjust measures
for giving him the British crown ; he was appointed
clerk to the privy-council at the Revolution, was
made a baronet in 1 700, got a seat in the College-of-
justice under the title of Lord Minto in 1705, and
died in 1718, at the age of 67. Dr. M'Crie, in his
'Life of Veitch,' says, "When Lord Minto visited
Dumfries, of which Mr. Veitch was minister after
the Revolution, he always spent some time with his
old friend, when the conversation often turned on the
perils of their former life. On these occasions his
Lordship was accustomed facetiously to say, ' Ah !
Willie, Willie, had it no been for me, the pyets had
been pyking your pate on the Nether-Bo w-port !' to
which Veitch replied, ' Ah 1 Gibbie, Gibbie, had it
no been for me, ye would hae been yet writing papers
for a plack the page !' " Sir Gilbert Elliot, the second
of the name, and the son of the first, was also a mem
ber of the College-of-justice, and became successively
a Lord-of- session, a Lord-of- justiciary, and Lord-
justice-clerk ; and, with the aid of one of his sis
ters, made a singular escape from an enraged party of
Jacobites, during the last rebellion, by hiding himself
among Minto-crags. The sister who, on this oc
casion, played the heroine, was Miss Jane Elliot, the
authoress of one of the three exquisite lyrics known
in Scottish song under the common name of ' The
Flowers of the Forest.' The 3d Sir Gilbert Elliot
sat in parliament, first for Selkirkshire, and next for
Roxburghshire, and became Treasurer of the navy ;
and he wrote the fine pastoral,
" My sheep I've forsaken, and left my sheep-hook,
And all the gay haunts of my youth I've iorsook,"
inserted in the note on Minto-crags in the ' Lay of
the Last Minstrel.' The 4th Sir Gilbert, figuring
from the commencement till nearly the close of the
wars with France, filled the offices successively of
Governor of Toulon, Viceroy of Corsica, Minister
plenipotentiary at Vienna, President of the Board of
control, and Governor-general of India; and was
raised, in 1797, to the peerage under, the title of
Baron Minto, and, in 1812, received the addition
al dignities of Viscount Melgund and Earl Minto.
His son, the present Earl, succeeded to the family
estates in 1814, married, in 1806, the daughter of
Patrick Brydone, Esq., author of the well-known
' Tour in Sicily,' sat early in parliament, and rose to
the offices successively of Minister-plenipotentiary to
the court of Berlin, and First Lord of the Admiralty.
MISTY-LAW. See Lochwinnoch.
MIULIE (Loch), a small lake near the head of
Glenstrathfarrar, in the north-west extremity of In
verness-shire. An islet on its bosom was the retreat
of Lord Lovat after the ruinous defeat at Culloden ;
and the summit of an adjacent mountain was his post
when helplessly surveying the conflagration of his
mansion, and of the houses of his clansmen.
MOCHRAMORE. See Minnigaff.
MOCHRUM. See Kirkoswald.

362

MOCHRUM.

MOCHRUM, a parish on the south coast of Wig
tonshire; bounded on the north and north-east by
Kirkcowan ; on the east by Kirkinner and Glasser-
ton ; on the south and south-west by Luce-bay ; and
on the west by Old Luce. Its form is irregularly
oblong, stretching from the north-west to the south
east, and first contracting and next tapering to a
point at the south-east end. Its greatest length,
from an angle a little north of Drumden to the ex
treme south-east corner, is 12 miles ; its breadth
varies between a few yards and 5| miles, but averages
between 4J and 4J miles ; and its area is about 52£
square miles. The sea-coast, 9J miles in length,
forms, for a mile from the north-west extremity, a
steep rocky hill overhanging the sea, altogether inac
cessible from without, but traversed along the brink
by a road- which was constructed by the filling up of
deep caves and the removing of vast rocky blocks ;
and hence, to the south-east extremity, it is a stripe
of flat smooth gravel beach 50 yards in mean breadth,
flanked by a bold and precipitous bank, which, for
the most part, forbids access from the sea, but, in
several places, is cleft by creeks and tiny bays.
Though there are several landing-places for small
boats, the only harbour or accessible point for sailing-
craft is at Port- William : which see. Mackerel,
cod, whitings, and other fish are caught in great
quantities, and salmon and herring to a small amount,
off the coast. No fewer than eighteen independent
brooks, all of local origin, trickle along to the shore.
Port- William-burn, the largest of the eighteen, issues
from Clalcarroch-loch, a small circular lake, and has
a course of only 4J miles to Port-William-bay. A
brook, circling round from Glasserton, traces the
eastern boundary over a distance of 2 miles to the
sea. White-loch, | of a mile long and 3 or 4 fur
longs broad, lies in the south-east corner, encinctured
with wood and overlooked by Merton-house, the
elegant and commodious seat of Sir William Maxwell
of Monreith, Bart. On its banks, near the modern
mansion, stands the old family castle of the Maxwells,
rearing its head amidst a clump of lofty trees ; and
in the vicinity are vantage-grounds which command
an extensive and delightful view, embracing Luce-
bay, dotted with the huge rocks of Bigscar, and
zoned with the far-sweeping coast-line which boldly
terminates at the Mull of Galloway, — and a wide
expanse of the Irish sea, now melting away into the
horizon, now broadly studded with the Isle of Man,
and now screened in the far perspective with the
blue mountains of Mourne in Ireland, or the tower
ing Skiddaw, and its compatriot heights in Cumber
land. Near the north-west end of the parish, amidst
a wide tract of moorland, lies a cluster of six lakes.
Two of them, Mochrum-loch and Castle-loch, have
each several islets, and measure upwards of li mile
by half-a-mile ; and these, with the other four, which
are much smaller, send off their superfluent waters
in one stream, forming Malzie- water : which see.
At the north end of Mochrum-loch, and south of the
smaller lakes, stands an ancient tower or castle,
called the Old Place of Mochrum, which, seen from
a little distance, has a curious and picturesque ap
pearance, and looks, amidst the lakes, almost like a
large ship at sea. A lake, 1 J mile east of Mochrum-
loch, nearly circular, and about half-a-mile in diameter,
3ends off an independent tributary li mile north
eastward through the parish toward the river Blad
enoch. Endrick-loch, six furlongs long and three
broad, emits one of the rills which run to the coast.
Three or four other lochlets send off streamlets either
to Luce-bay or to the Bladenoch. Numerous springs
afford a copious supply of the purest water. The
general surface of the parish is of the broken cha- j
racter which prevails in Wigtonshire, neither level

nor mountainous, its flat grounds very limited, anfl
its hills of no great elevation. Large tracts, at both
ends of the parish, spreading round the numerous
lakes, consist chiefly of rocky eminences and mossy
swamps, bleak and barren in their general aspect,
and thinly interspersed with small patches of good
dry arable land. The foil, for several miles along
Luce-bay, is, for the most part, either a fine light
or a strong deep loam, exceedingly fertile ; and, to
wards the centre of the parish, it gradually becomes
thin and stony. Only about 200 acres are under
plantation. The villages, besides Port -William,
which shall be separately noticed, are Edrick, with
a population of 200, and Mochrum, with a popula
tion of 60. The parish lies midway between the
village of Glenluce on the west, and both the towns
of Whithorn and Wigton on the east; and is traversed
by the roads from both the towns through Glenluce
to Stranraer. Population, in 1801, 1,113; in 1831,
2,105. Houses 587. Assessed property, in 1815,
£8,316  Mochrum is in the presbytery of Wigton,
and synod of Galloway. Patron, the Crown. Sti
pend £153 3s. 5d. ; glebe £20. The church, situ
ated in the village of Mochrum, 2 miles north of
Port- William, was built in 1794, and enlarged in
1822 and 1832. Sittings 700. There is a Relief
meeting-house at Port-William. The parish min
ister estimated the population, in 1836, to consist of
about 1,600 churchmen and about 500 dissenters.
The parish-school was attended, in 1834, by 44 scho
lars ; and seven private schools by 281 . The teachers
of two of the private schools receive respectively
£15 and £10 from Sir William Maxwell of Mon
reith. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £31, with
£16 fees, and £4 other emoluments  Mochrum
was anciently a vicaraje of the canons of Whithorn.
In 1606 the church was granted, along with other
property which had belonged to the canons, to the
Bishop of Galloway; in 1641 it was transferred to
the University of Glasgow ; in 1661 it was restored
to the Bishop of Galloway ; and, at the final aboli
tion of Episcopacy, it reverted to the Crown. A
chapel anciently stood near the old castle of Merton.
Another chapel, dedicated to St. Finnan, and called
Chapel- Finnan, or Chapel-Fingan, stood on the coast
under the cliff. Its ruins figure in an account of
Galloway, written in 1684, yet are still extant 
The lands of Mochrum were given, in 1368, to
Thomas Dunbar, second son of Patrick, Earl of
March. The Dunbars, who descended from him,
took title from Mochrum, had their seat at the Old
Place of Mochrum, and figured somewhat distiu-
guishedly as a family. Cadets of the house founded
the families of Dunbar of Clugston and Dunbar of
Baldoon, the latter now represented by the Earl of
Selkirk. Gavin Dunbar, son of Sir John Dunbar of
Mochrum, became prior of Whithorn about the year
1504, was afterwards made preceptor to James V.,
and became, in 1522, Archbishop of Glasgow,  iu
1526, Lord-chancellor of Scotland; and, in 1536,
one of the Lords of Regency during the King's visit
to France. The family was raised to the baronetage
in 1694, and is now represented by Sir William
Rowe Dunbar, Bart. — The Maxwells of Monreith
settled in the parish in the early part of the 17th
century. John Maxwell, younger of Monreith, acted
a distinguished and military part among the Cove
nanters, stood high in fame among their leaders, and
made narrow escapes from martyrdom in their cause.
Another celebrated and recently deceased offshoot of
the family was Sir Murray Maxwell, commander of
the Alceste in the Amherst embassy to China, aid-
de-camp to William IV., and, at his death, under
appointment to the governorship of Prince Edward's
Island.

MOFFAT.

363

MOFFAT, a parish, chiefly in Dumfries-shire, and
partly in Lanarkshire. The Dumfries-shire part
projects northward from the adjacent regions of
the county, and forms the northern extremity of
the district of Annandale. It is bounded on the
north by Lanarkshire and Peebles-shire ; on the east
by Selkirkshire, Eskdalemuir, and Hutton and
Corrie; on the south by Wamphray and Kirkpa
trick-Juxta; and on the west by Lanarkshire. Its
greatest length from east to west is 14 miles ; and
its greatest breadth is 8i ; but it is very deeply in
dented by Kirkpatrick-Juxta, and has an area of only
56J miles. The Lanarkshire part is quite contigu
ous, lies on both sides of Evan-water, touches the
Dumfries-shire part along the east and the south, is
bounded on the other two sides by the parish of
Crawford, and contains two farms, having an area of
3i square miles. For 24 miles along the west, north,
and east, the boundary-line is formed by the highest
summits or water-shedding line of the southern Alps
of Scotland, which attain here their highest altitude,
and send off hence their long broad spur across the
counties of Peebles and Selkirk toward the Lam
mermoors. Evan-water cuts a gorge in the north
west through this mountain-barrier; and coming
down from Crawford, flows j of a mile on the boun
dary between that parish and Moffat, and then gal
lops impetuously over a rocky and declivitous bed,
3f miles southward to Kirkpatrick-Juxta, at Middle-
gill. Cloffin-burn rises in three head-streams in the
extreme west, and runs 3 miles south-eastward and
eastward to the Evan, at the point of its entering
Kirkpatrick-Juxta. Garpel- water rises in the south
west extremity, runs nearly 2 miles along the south
ern boundary, and then passes away to become af
terwards tributary to the Evan. The river Annan
rises in the extreme north, and runs 8£ miles almost
due south, but over the last 5 miles is the boundary-
line with Kirkpatrick-Juxta lying on its right bank ;
and while on this boundary, 1£ mile before ceasing
to touch Moffat, it receives at one point Evan-water
on its right bank, and Moffat-water on its left. Ele
ven local independent streams join it in Moffat, all,
except one, on its left bank ; the most considerable
being Granton, Well, and Frenchland burns, respec
tively 3 J, 4, and 3 miles long. Moffat-water rises
in the extreme north-east, and runs I <),' miles almost
direct south-west to the Annan ; augmented in its
progress by 15 mountain rills. Loch-Skene [which
see] supplies the earliest of these rills on tbe right
bank, — that in the course of which occurs the cele
brated waterfall called the Grey Mare's Tail :
which see. The courses of even the three chief
streams, the Evan, the Annan, and the Moffat, are,
for a long way, sheer gorges, overhung by steep and
often almost inaccessible hills, admitting little more
than space for excellent though hanging roads, and
possessing at their upper end, even on the beds of
the streams, an altitude of about 1,000 feet above
sea-level. That of the Evan nowhere in the parish
expands into a vale, but continues throughout a
wild, heathy, naked mountain-pass ; that of the
Moffat slowly opens into a belt of meadow and arable
land ; and that of the Annan, 3J miles before the
river leaves the parish, and just before it reaches the
village, suddenly expands into a beautiful valley of
considerable breadth, the commencement of the rich
strath or ' The Howe' of Annandale, magnificently
screened on three sides by towering uplands, and
blooming and cheerful athwart the surface with lux
uriant vegetation. A singularly fine scene in the gorge
or glen of one of the brooks is called the Bell-craig,
supposed to be a corruption of Belled- craig, the pro
vincial pronunciation of Bald-craig. About 3,800
acres of the whole area of the parish are in tillage;

about 450 are under wood ; and upwards of 34,000 are
wildly and irreclaimably waste, or pastoral. The soil
in, the valley ground is alluvium ; on the lower de
clivities of the hills, it is a light dry gravel, in most
places tolerably deep and fertile ; and on the higher
grounds, it produces grass and heath, and rarely
yields to the predominance of moss. The mountains
on the boundary include Hartfell, which we have
separately noticed, and about one-half of those men
tioned in the article Dumfries-shire, as forming
the northern screen of the county. The heights
along Moffat-water vie in elevation with those along
the boundary ; so that one-half, or upwards, of the
parish is occupied with the loftiest Scottish moun
tains south of the Forth and Clyde. Nearly all the
heights are curved and regular in outline, broad in
their summits, and clothed with vegetation on their
surface. Saddleback, If mile south-east of Hartfell,
is a curious exception, being so narrow at the top
that a person may bestride it, and sit as on a saddle,
and see two beautiful streamlets trickling away from
its opposite bases. The eagle, anciently, and even
at a comparatively modern date, a multitudinous in
habitant of the Moffat Alps, now rarely meets the eye
of an observer of the cloud-capped landscape. Vestiges
still exist in this parish of the Roman road which
passed up Annandale, and is noticed in our article on
Dumfries-shire. In its vicinity are traces of some large
Roman encampments. Three miles south-east of
the village are vestiges of a British encampment.
Near the road from the village to the well, is a high
conical mount, anciently surrounded with a deep
ditch, and now enclosed and planted, and appearing
a beautiful object from the road; and a few hundred
yards west of it is another and smaller mount. A mile
east of the Roman road, in a deep sequestered gler,
are two artificial excavations in freestone rock, capa
cious enough to accommodate a number of cattle.
In various localities are ruins of peel-houses and old
towers, built with sea-shell mortar  The wild and
terrific wilderness along the upper part of Moffat-
water is the scene of many a stirring tradition re
specting the gatherings and hidings of the persecuted
Covenanters, and their narrow and romantic escapes
from the bloodhound pursuit of Claverhouse and his
dragoons. The gorge of the stream seems to have
been regarded as a defensible pass ; while deep se
clusions among the towering and impracticable
mountains behind were treated as places of ensconce-
ment and elusion from pertinacious pursuit. On an
eminence, which commands the convergent ravines
of Moffat water and Loch-Skene burn, there are
vestiges of a rude battery thrown up to defend the
country toward the north-east; and another emi
nence on which parties were stationed to note to
the congregations assembled in the ravines the ap
proach of danger, is still called the Watch-hill  The
parish is traversed by turnpikes leading northward
respectively toward Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Sel
kirk, along the vales and gorges of the three principal
streams. Population, in 1801, 1,610; in 1831,2,221.
Houses 361. Assessed property, in 1815, £9,976 
Moffat is in the presbytery of Lochmaben, and synod
of Dumfries. Patron, Johnstone of Annandale. Sti
pend £260 5s. ; glebe £25. Unappropriated teinds
£122 16s. 6d. The church was built about the
year 1790. Sittings 1,000. There is in the village
a United Secession meeting-house. The parochial
school, and another school which had been endowed
for nearly 200 years, were, in 1834, united under
the direction of a headmaster and an usher. The
parochial schoolmaster's salary, previous to this
measure, was £25 13s. 3d., with fees, and £5 other
emoluments. Six private schools — one of them an
excellent boarding-school — were, in 1834, attended

364

MOFFAT.

by 160 scholars  The church of Moffat was one of
the churches of Annandale transferred, in 1174, by
Robert de Bruce to the bishop of Glasgow ; and
it was afterwards constituted one of the prebends of
the see. A chapel anciently stood between the An
nan. and the Evan at a place still called Chapel.
Moffat has been called the Cheltenham of Scot
land, and is more distinguished for its medicinal wa
ters than any place north of the Sark and the Tweed.
The wells are three. One of them, called the Hart-
fell-spa, is noticed in the article Hartfell. An
other, called distinctively and emphatically Moffat-
well, is a strong sulphureous water, about lj mile
north of the village, made easily accessible by an
excellent carriage-road. Adjacent to it are a long-
room, stables, and other requisite accommodations.
It oozes out of a rock of compact greywacke, con
taining interspersed pyrites. A bog in the vicinity
probably co-operates with the pyrites in the grey
wacke to afford the sulphureous impregnation. The
water has an odour resembling that of Harrowgate,
but is not quite so strongly sulphureous. It has a
somewhat saline taste ; it sparkles in the glass like
champaign ; and it is so remarkably volatile that it
can be drank in perfection only at the fountain. No
closeness of cork can prevent some of its best quali
ties — those of its sulphuretted hydrogen gas — from
forsaking it in bottles. Being used as a wash, and
for warm bathing, it is now conveyed to the village
in pipes ; but, to serve its purposes, as an internal
medicine, it needs still to be taken at the spa. The
well is coated on the sides with a yellowish grey
crust of sulphur ; and, when allowed to remain some
days quiescent or unpumped, it becomes covered
with a yellowish white film of sulphur. A chemical
analysis of the water was first made in 1759, by
Mr. M'Kaule, and afterwards successively by Mr.
Milligan, Dr. Plummer, and Dr. Garnet. According
to the last — Andersonian Professor of Glasgow, and
afterwards lecturer to the Surrey Institution — a
wine gallon of it contains 36 grains of muriate of
soda, or common salt, 1 0 cubic inches of sulphuret
ted hydrogen gas, 4 cubic inches of nitrogen gas,
and 5 cubic inches of carbonic acid gas. The well
was discovered, or came into notice as a spa, up
wards of two centuries ago, and has ever since at
tracted invalids from all parts of the kingdom. Its
water is pronounced a powerful remedy in all scro-
phulous and scorbutic cases, in affections of the
lungs, in gravel, in rheumatism, and in dyspepsy,
biliousness, and other complaints of the stomach
and bowels ; it is very light, and powerfully diu
retic ; and it figures in common fame as the means
of achieving " most wonderful cures." — The third
well is near Evan bridge, about 1J mile south of
the village, within the parish of Kirkpatrick-Juxta,
and was discovered by Dr. Garnet. This does not
issue from the earth as a spring, but is formed
in pools by solution in warm weather, when the
rain water dissolves and imbibes iron and alum from
the clay. It is a weaker chalybeate than the wa
ter of Hartfell spa, strongly resembling the Har
rowgate chalybeate ; and though now much ne
glected, might, it is thought, prove useful in cases
where that of Hartfell would be too astringent.
According to Dr. Garnet's analysis, a wine gallon
of it contains 2 grains of oxide of iron, 13 cubic
inches of carbonic acid gas, and 2 cubic inches of
nitrogen gas.
The village of Moffat stands on a beautiful rising
ground on the left bank of the Annan, 1£ mile above
the influx of the Moffat and the Evan ; 1 6 miles north
of Lockerby; 21 north-east of Dumfries; 14 south
east of Elvanfoot; 50 south of Edinburgh; and 54
south-east of Glasgow. The declivity of its 'site

commands a fascinating prospect of the upper vale
of the Annan, richly luxuriant in its fields and hedge
rows, finely chequered and spotted with wood, gaily
embellished with water, villa, mansion, and demesne,
and picturesquely screened with gentle green ac
clivities, overlooked on the back-ground by sublime
alpine summits. Sheltering plantations rise all around
its vicinity, climb the finely curved outlines of the
Gallow-hill, immediately on the north, stretch away in
a little sheet of forest on the west and the south, and
give the environs of the village both a warm and an
adorned appearance. The spire of the church ap
pears, when viewed in some directions, to rise ele
gantly from the midst of an extensive grove. Moffat,
standing 300 feet above the level of the sea, at the
head of the luscious valley which stretches away in
an expanding stripe from its site 20 miles to the
Solway frith, at the entrance of three grand inlets
to the deepest wildernesses and most tremendous
chasms of tbe southern Highlands, and only 4J miles
south of Erickstane-brae-head, whence issue streams
that run from the highest ground in the south of
Scotland, east, west, and south to the Atlantic, the
Germari, and the Irish seas, it commands from its
own site, and from vantage-grounds in its immediate
neighbourhood, many singularly picturesque Mend
ings and groupings of Highland and Lowland scenery,
and probably yields to no watering-place in tbe world
for mingled grandeur and beauty of position. In it
self, too, it is a pretty, tidy, smiling village, with
modest and yet dressy attractions to the gay lounger
and the fashionable invalid. The principal street of
which it consists stretches north and south down
the slow declination of the rising ground; it is spa
cious, handsomely edificed, exceedingly smooth and
clean, dry within an hour after the heaviest rains,
and altogether so disposed as to form a most agree
able promenade for both inhabitants and strangers.
Its centre has of late years been widened into re
cesses so as to form a moderately-sized square. In
the middle of the square is a cistern for public use,
and affording a copious supply of the purest spring-
water, fetched in leaden pipes beneath the bed of the
Annan, from the parish of Kirkpatrick-Juxta. An
elegant set of baths were erected a few years ago on
a superior plan, with a large apartment to serve as
both a public reading-room and an assembly-room.
Connected with the edifice is a fine bowling-green.
The meal-house and market-house are commodious.
Among the other buildings are two good inns, vari
ous minor places of entertainment, and many good and
recently built houses fitted up as private lodgings for
the use of visiters. Abundance of good provisions
may always be had, brought from the balmy districts
to the south ; and supplies of an hundred luxuries
exist which are unknown in the ordinary village or
sequestered town. A regular market is held once
a-week; and annual fairs are held on the 24th of
June, or the Tuesday following, — on the 29th of
July, or the Tuesday following, — and on the 20th
of October and the 1st Tuesday of November, O. S.
There is a branch-office of the Glasgow Union bank
in the village. It is also the seat of a monthly
justice-of-peace court; and, though formerly not
well-attended to in its police, is now kept quiet by
special constables and peace-officers.
The climate of Moffat is so mild and healthy as to
attract invalids and occasional residents whose cases
do not require any use of the spas. Showers ap
proaching it from any point over three-fourths of
the compass, and threatening todischarge themselves
on the vale, are very frequently drawn down to ex
haustion by the vast mountain-screen in the vicinity.
The lands which environ the village are so gravelly
and irretentive that moisture, when it falls, very

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speedily disappears, and gives no aid, either to mo-
rassy stagnation in the fields, or to a bemiring of the
public roads. " Typhus," says the reverend statist
in the New Account, " has often prevailed in Glas
gow, Edinburgh, Carlisle, and other cities, when there
was no such distemper in Moffat. Providence averted
even the cholera, though severe in Glasgow, and
especially in Dumfries, with which there was daily
intercourse, only two or three doubtful cases having
occurred, and among strangers affected before they
reached Moffat. If the climate be the cause of any
local distempers, the writer has never heard of it,
nor the medical friends he has consulted on the
point." A few goats, for supplying strangers with
milk, have long been kept in the neighbourhood of
Moffat-well. The milk, owing to the peculiar ex
cellence of the pasture, is thought to be of the best
kind; it has long and steadily been in request; and,
from the first of June till the end of August, it is
sent every morning and evening to the village, or
may be had at the place where it is milked  The
environs of the village are sprinkled with villas which
combine neatness or elegance with comfort. Outhe
north bank of Moffat-water, 1£ mile south-east of
the village, stands Dumcrieff, once the seat of the
late Dr. Currie of Liverpool, the editor of Burns'
works, and now the property of Dr. Rogerson.
Several other mansions, and among them a subsi
diary seat of the Earl of Hopetoun, contribute, in
themselves and their grounds, fine scenic features to
the environs. All the public thoroughfares leading
to the village are safe-, easy, and pleasant; bridges
on the roads are good ; public promenades and stroll
ing-grounds have a trimmed and inviting aspect;
nuisances of every description are prevented; post
ing facilities to every desirable extent are furnished
at the principal inn ; and mail-coaches are daily in
transit on the roads through the parish from the
south toward both Edinburgh and Glasgow. — All
the antiquities, curiosities, and remarkable scenes
noticed in our account of the parish, and in the ar
ticles Hartfell, Grey Mare's Tail, and Loch-
Skene, are accessible to parties in quest of recreation,
and form a pleasing and rather rich variety of re
source for the rambler and the man of taste. A
thousand localities easily reached will richly gratify
the botanist, the mineralogist, and the general stu
dent of natural history. Craigieburnwood, and the
moat on Coatshill opposite Earl Randolph's tower,
offer fine retreats for pic-nic parties. Queensberry-
hill, whose summit commands a clear view of a vast
and very gorgeous panorama, is accessible to the
lover of landscape who begins to get strength at the
wells. Even the glowing lakes, and ' dowy dens,'
and verdant braes of Yarrow, with the tower of
Dryhope, the birth-place of Mary Scott, are not
altogether beyond reach  Moffat is historically as
sociated with only one event of note: in the year
1333, while Scotland lay bleeding and ignominiously
enthralled at the feet of usurpation, Sir Archibald
Douglas, at the head of 1,000 horsemen, marched
down by night upon the village, surprised and de
feated the forces of Edward Baliol, slew or captured
various distinguished English officers and near rela
tives of the vassal-king of Scotland, and obliged the
mocker and usurper of royalty to run a race of dis
persion and flight to the Solway.— Among eminent
persons connected in any way with Moffat, are
Bishop Whiteford of Brechin, who was a landed
proprietor in the parish in the reign of Charles I.,
and whose daughter, the wife of James Johnstone of
Gorehead, is said to have been the discoverer of the
medicinal properties of Moffat-well,— Dr. Moffat,
an eccentric but talented native, an object of some
personal notice by Cromwell, and the author of a

Treatise on Dietetics, — the good James Earl of Hope
toun, whose family inherited the Johnstone property
in the parish, and who himself occasionally resided
at Moffat-house, — the Rev. Dr. Walker, translated
from the pastorate of the parish to the Natural His
tory chair of Edinburgh, — and Mr. Macadam, the
famous road-maker, who died at the village in 1836
in the 81st year of his age. The population of the
village, irrespective of strangers, is about 1,600,
MOIDART. See Moydart.
MOIN (The), an extensive mountainously moor-"
ish tract of country, on the north coast of Suther
landshire. It lies partly in the parish of Durness,
and partly in that of Tongue; extends due south
ward from the coast at Whitenhead; and measures
about 12 miles by 4 J. Its elevation, a very brief
way from the shore, is upwards of 1,300 feet; and,
though variegated by several ranges of bold and
rugged heights, it continues somewhat uniform, and
bears aloft a broad and dreary expanse of bog, till,
at the southern extremity, it shoots grandly up in
the alpine height of Ben-Hope: which see. The
passage of this wild tract, lying directly in the way
between Tongue and Eriboll, or between east and
west of the extreme north of the continent, was for
merly the laborious work of an entire day; but, in
consequence of the construction of the new line of
road, at the late Duke of Sutherland's expense, along
the coast, it is now the easy and comfortable task of
a single hour.
MOLL, an ancient parish in the shire of Rox
burgh. The district of Moll comprehended the
country on the upper branches of Bowmont-water,
which lies under the eastern range of the Border-
mountains. The church and village of Moll stood
upon the Bowmont; and there is even now, on the
banks of that mountain-stream, a hamlet, commonly
known by the corrupted name of Mow-haugh ; and
a little lower may be seen the ruins of Mow-kirk.
This ancient parish is now comprehended in the
parish of Morebottle. It is 12 miles south-east by
east of Kelso.
MOLLINBURN, a populous and thriving vil
lage in the parish of Cadder, Lanarkshire ; situated
at the south-east extremity of the parish, on the
road from Glasgow to Perth. There is a good sub
scription school-house here.
MOLMONT. See Galston.
MONAD-LEADH MOUNTAINS, an elongated
group of lofty and rugged heights, extending from
south-west to north-east, in a line parallel to the
Glenmore-nan-Albin, and occupying the central dis
tricts of the southern division of Inverness-shire.
They rest on a high base or table-land of dreary
heathy moor; and are comparatively flowing in their
outlines, unbroken in their declivities, and free from
abruptness or jaggedness of aspect. They embbsom
extensive glens where great herds of black cattle
feed, and send down slopes where large flocks of
sheep are pastured ; yet they contain irksome soli
tudes, vast and dreary wastes, which are abandoned
to the grouse and the ptarmigan, the roe and the
red deer. In their upper or south-west district they
contain the sources of the chief head-streams of the
Spey, the Dulnain, the Findhorn, and the Nairn;
and, in their lower district, they chiefly divide Strath.
dearn, or the vale of the Findhorn, on the north-
west, from the upper vale of the Spey on the south
east. The mountains consist principally of granite
and quartz rock.
MONAEBURGH. See Kilsyth.
MONANCE (St.). See Abercrombie.
MONCRIEFF, or Mordun, a hill immediately
north of the Bridge-of-Earn, and 2^ miles south of
Perth, celebrated for the surpassingly rich view

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which it commands. Strathearn, the Carse of Gow
rie, the river and the estuary of the Tay, the hill of
Kinnoul, the city of Perth, castles, mansions, woods,
and far-away mountains, lying like clouds on the fur
ther verge of a sea of beauty, are the main elements
of a landscape which none but a chief artist — and
even he only in his happiest moods — may tolerably
depict. Compact trap or greenstone almost entirely
composes the hill, and on the south side displays a
columnar formation. Patches of conglomerate ap
pear near its western extremity, but cannot easily
be traced as to either their thickness or their extent.
The mailroad between Edinburgh and Perth is car
ried over the bill. The height of the hill above sea-
level is 756 feet.
MONEDIE, a parish a little east of the centre of
Perthshire; bounded on the north by Auchtergaven ;
on the east by Auchtergaven and Redgorton ; on the
south by Redgorton and Methven ; and on the west
by Fowlis- Wester. It has the form of the segment
of a circle, the concavity resting on the south ; and
measures 9 miles in extreme length, from 1| to 3
miles in breadth, and about 18 square miles in su
perficial area. The principal streams are the Al
mond, the Ordie, fhe Shochie, and Milton-burn. The
western division of the parish, comprising two-thirds
of the whole area, forms part of the southern decli
nation of the first tier or range of the Grampians,
sends up on the north some summits to the height of
about 1,800 feet above sea-level, but subsides and at
length admits of arable grounds as it approaches the
Almond. The eastern district is champaign, and but
slightly diversified in surface, beautifully cultivated,
well-sheltered with woods and fences, and warm and
rich in aspect. The soil near the three principal
streams is a light alluvium ; in the interior level
grounds is alternately a black loam and a strong red
earth; and on the higher grounds is principally a
cold wet till. About 1-1 3th of the whole area is
under plantation ; and the remaining part is arable
and pastoral in the mutual proportion of 9 to 11.
Slate of an inferior quality, and grey sandstone of
fine grain, and well-adapted to architecture, are
worked each in one quarry. A flax spinning-mill,
of recent erection, and driven by water-power.
from the Almond, employs fifty or sixty persons.
The old castle of Kinvaid, the home of ' Bessy
Bell,' the companion of ' Mary Gray,' [see Meth
ven,] seemed, according to the Old Statistical
Account, to have been built before lime was known
as a cement; but it has now quite disappeared.
Close in the western boundary stands poised on a
tapering end a block of stone, about 12 feet high
and 18 feet in girth, called the Kor-stone: this
and some smaller stones, circularly arranged, are
supposed to be Druidical. An excellent road tra
verses the parish along the course of the Shochie.
Population, in 1801, 1,157; in 1831, 1,028. Houses
198. Assessed property, in 1815, £11,512  Mone
die is in the presbytery of Perth, and synod of Perth
and Stirling. Patron, Lord Lynedoch. Stipend
£215 19s. lid.; glebe £14. The parish-church is
a substantial building, erected about 27 years ago.
Sittings 460. The western district of the parish ori
ginally belonged to the parish of Monzie, and is now
a distinct chapelry. [See article Logie-Almond.]
In that district there is a United Secession chapel,
built in 1811, at a cost of upwards of £400, and
belonging to a congregation formed in 1751. Sit
tings 450. Stipend £96, with a glebe worth £12.
Connected with the chapel is a schoolhouse, which,
independently of wood and slates given by the pro
prietor, cost £50. According to a survey made by
tbe parish-minister some years before 1838, the po
pulation then consisted of 721 churchmen, 327 dis

senters, and 3 nondescripts, — in all 1,051 persons;
of whom 716 belonged to the western or Logie-
Almond district, and 335 to the eastern district, or
that of Monedie proper. The original parish was,
previous to the Reformation, a free parsonage and a
prebend of Dunkeld. Alexander Myln, the pre
bendary of it, toward the close of the 15th century,
wrote a work, entitled ' Lives of the Bishops of
Dunkeld,' which has recently been reprinted in the
Transactions of the Literary and Antiquarian So
ciety of Perth. The parish, after the Reformation,
belonged to the presbytery of Dunkeld till about the
period of the annexation to it of Logie-Almond.
The parish-school was attended, in 1834, by 54
scholars, — and two private schools by 124. Paro
chial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with about
£10 fees, and about £5 16s. other emoluments.
MONESS. See Aberfeldie.
MONIFIETH, a parish on the southern verge of
Forfarshire ; bounded on the north and north-east by
Monikie ; on the east by Barry ; on the south by the
frith of Tay; and on the west by Dundee and Mur-
roes. Its greatest length from the boundary opposite
West Denside on the north, to Broughty-ferry on
the south, is 5 miles ; its breadth along the coast is
4 miles, — 24 miles into the interior is 2 miles, — and
thence to the northern extremity tapers like the
outline of a cone; and its superficial area is supposed
to be 3,710 Scottish acres. Dighty-water, coming
in from Dundee, runs 2J miles westward, and half-a-
mile southward to the frith at Milltown, enriching
the land near its course with- alluvial deposits, and
making several fine descents for yielding water-
power to machinery. Murroes-burn traces the west
ern boundary for a mile, and joins the Dighty at the
place where that stream enters the parish. Buddoiv
burn comes down upon the extreme north, traces for
1£ mile the western boundary, runs 1J mile south
eastward across the interior, and afterwards, just
before falling into the frith, runs 3 furlongs along the
eastern boundary. About 400 acres of low sandy
beach along the frith appear to have been once under
water, and possess but a partially improved and not
rich soil. It has been supposed that nearly 1,600
acres of land might yet be reclaimed from the sea in
Monifieth bay. Behind these ' links,' east of the
Dighty, extends for a mile an almost level plain, the
soil of which is at first light and sandy, but extremely
fertile, and afterwards becomes a rich black loam.
Behind the links, west of the mouth of the Dighty,
the ground forms an elongated swell or low ridge,
bold on the south, and gently sloping on the north,
running westward between that stream and the frith.
The rest of the parish has in general a southern ex
posure, and is diversified with gentle swells, and with
the species of hills called laws. The soil is in gen
eral an excellent black loam, but deteriorates in
quality toward the north, and eventually becomes,
over a small tract, tilly and moorish. The highest
ground is Drumsturdy- muir -law, 2J miles from
the shore, and supposed to rise 530 feet above sea-
level. The hill is of a beautiful oval form, green
over all its sides and summit, a very fine feature in
the landscape, and measuring 133 yards by 66 on the
superficies of its top. A charming view is obtained
from it of Forfarshire to Arbroath, — the German
ocean till lost in the horizon, — the frith of Tay, the
bay of St. Andrews, the rich expanse of Fife, and
the hills of Lothian, — the level and pleasant tract
westward along the Tay, the tower, and crowded
harbour, and picturesque landscape of ' Bonny Dun
dee,' part of the Carse of Gowrie, and the fine long
hill-screen of the far-ranging Sidlaws. Around the
summit of the hill are the broad foundations of an
ancient fortress, with several large vitrified masses

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of sandstone and whinstone firmly compacted by
fusion. A little south-west of this hill is the Gal-
low-hill of Ethiebeaton, said to have been the scene
of summary feudal justice under the barons, who
owned the grounds of Ethiebeaton, Laws, and Or-
nochie. Plantations climb the sides of various rising
grounds, and expand around the seats of Fintry or
Linathen and Grange, — situated, the former, an ele
gant modern mansion, at the point where the Dighty
enters the parish, and the latter, displaying marks of
ancient magnificence, J of a mile north of where that
stream falls into the estuary. Mills of various sorts
are ranged along the Dighty ; and a number of looms
are worked in the employment of Dundee manufac
turers. The villages are Broughty-ferry, Drum-
sturdy-Muir [which see], and Monifieth. The last
stands in the south-east corner of the parish, east 3
miles from Broughty-ferry, and 7 from Dundee. It
stands on the face of a rising ground, half-a-mile
from the frith, and consists chiefly of thatched cot
tages, but has a somewhat extensive iron-foundry.
In the burying ground surrounding the church — itself
a plain but conspicuous building — are some beauti
fully carved antique tomb-stones, more tasteful and
ornate than usually occur in a rural cemetery. The
parish is traversed eastward by the mailroad to
Aberdeen, and the road from Dundee to East and
West Haven, and by the Dundee and Arbroath rail
way. Population, in 1801, 1,407; in 1831, 2,635.
Houses 547. Assessed property, in 1815, £6,481.
— Monifieth is in the presbytery of Dundee, and
synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron, Lord Pan-
mure. Stipend £255 8s. Id.; glebe £12 10s. Un
appropriated teinds £136 13s. 7d. A district in the
east is included in the quoad sacra parish of Brough
ty-ferry : which see. The ancient parish was a
free parsonage, in the diocese of St. Andrews; and
it had before the Reformation four chapels ; one at
Broughty-ferry, where there is still a burying-ground,
— one on the banks of the Dighty at Balmossie-mill,
the foundation-stones of which were dug up near
the end of last century, — one on that spot in the
land of Ethiebeaton, which is still called Chapel-
Dokie, — and one at the village of Monifieth. Pa
rochial schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 3£d., with
£8 10s. fees, and £3 6s. 8d. other emoluments.
There are in the Broughty-ferry district six schools,
and in the rest of the parish three private schools.
One of the Broughty-ferry schools belongs to the
kirk-session of Dundee, and yields the master a sa
lary of £9 18s. 6d., with fees.
MONIKIE, a parish in the maritime district of
Forfarshire ; bounded on the north-west by Murroes
and Inverarity ; on the north-east by the southern
section of Guthrie, and by Carmylie ; on the east
and south-east by Panbride and Barry ; and on the
south-west and west by Monifieth and Murroes. Its
greatest length in a straight line between two angles
which terminate it on the north and south, is 7 miles ;
its greatest breadth in a line due east and west over
the parish-church, is 5 miles. The surface is diversi
fied by several hills. A small tract in the extreme
south corner consists of sandy downs. The land for
2a miles, thence northward, is distinguished for fer
tility, has a southern exposure, and presents a warm
and wealthy appearance. A large elongated hill or
hilly ridge, called Dunie or Camustown, now inter
poses from cast to west, and sections-off a colder
climate and an inferior soil lying to the north. The
district behind it, comprising about two-thirds of
the whole area, is at first comparatively cold and
moist, yet not unproductive, and eventually becomes
an extensive tract of moorland,— now partially re
claimed, and under tillage, but chiefly covered with
plantation, and appended to the pleasure-grounds of

Panmure-house, in the contiguous parish of Panmure.
A deep and winding ravine, traversed by one of the
streamlets, and called Denfiend, or the Fiend's den,
bisects the central hilly ridge, and, at a place where
its sides are precipitous, is spanned by a single arch
of a strong massive bridge. Near a place called the
Cur-hills, in the southern district, are a number of
cairns, called the Hier-cairns, the monuments of some
ancient battle, and the depositaries of stone-coffins,
urns, and human bones. South of this place, in a
bed of marl, there were found, nine feet below the
surface, several hugely homed heads of deer. At
the village of Camustown stands a large upright
stone, said to mark the place where Camus, the
Danish general, was slain and buried after the battle
of Barra, in 1010. On Camustown or Dunie hill,
surmounting a summit which commands a view of
large portions of seven counties, stands the ' Live
and let Live Testimonial,' an elegant erection raised,
in 1839, by the tenantry of Lord Panmure, "to per
petuate the memory of a nobleman who, through a
long life, has made the interests and comforts of his
tenantry his sole and unwearied- object." The Testi
monial is situated 1 mile north of the Dundee and
Aberdeen mailroad, 2 miles south-west of Panmure-
house, and 5k miles north-west of Buddonness, and
is now one of the most conspicuous landmarks over
a great expanse of ocean and estuary, on the east
coast of Scotland. It was constructed from a de
sign by John Henderson, Esq. of Edinburgh, and
consists of a broad lower basement of rustic-work,
capacious enough to contain an apartment for visiters,
and accommodation for the keepgT, — a quadrangular
upper basement, the angles of which are flanked
with heavy open buttresses, — and a colossal cylin
drical column rising up into a balustrade, and sur
mounted by an ornamental vase. A stone-pillar
stands in the centre of the cylinder, and carries up
to the top a lightning-conductor in its interior, and
a spiral stair on its exterior. A marble bust of Lord
Panmure by Chantrey, stands in a niche in the visit
er's room. The height of the Testimonial from the
ground to the summit is 105 feet. The villages of
the parish are Gouldie, Camustown, Craigton, Mo-
nikie, and one or two hamlets ; but they are all small.
The parish is traversed by the Dundee and Aberdeen
mailroad, and the Dundee and Arbroath railway.
Population, in 1801, 1,236; in 1831, 1,322. Houses
268. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,089.— Moni-
kie is in the presbytery of Dundee, and synod of
Angus and Mearns. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£239 lt?s. 9d. ; glebe £12. Unappropriated teinds
£182 14s. Id. Besides the parish- school, there are
two subscription schools. Parish-schoolmaster's
salary £34 4s. 4|d., with about £22 fees, and £5
other emoluments.
MON1MAIL,* a parish in Fifeshire, occupying a
portion of the central valley of the county. It forms
an irregular ellipse, the extreme length of which
from east to west is 4| miles ; the extreme breadth
from north to south scarcely 4 miles. It is bounded
on the south by the parishes of Collessie and Cults ;
on the east by Cupar; on the north by Cupar,
Moonzie,. Creich, and Dunbog; and on the west
by Abdie and Collessie. The surface is naturally
beautiful in its outline, presenting towards the north
a fine range of hills, of which the Mount-hill is
the highest, while the southern portion is generally
more level, and diversified by soft and gentle un
dulations. There are three villages in the parish,
* The name of the parish is in all probability derived from
Monadh, ' a Muir,1 and Meal, ' a round-shaped hill :' Monadh,
Meal, ' the Muir of the round-shaped hill.' It is no doubt
characteristic of what the locality once was, although the muir
would now be rather difficult to find.

368

MONIMAIL.

the largest of which is Letham : which see. The
other two villages are Monimail situated near the
church, containing a population of 80, and Easter
Fernie containing 60 inhabitants. The population
has been gradually though slowly increasing for
many years, tn 1755 the return was 884; in 1801,
1,066; in 1831, 1,230. Houses 260. During this
period the amount of the agricultural population has
considerably decreased ; and the cause of the general
addition to the population is- the increase of weavers
in the parish. There are about 3,000 acres under
cultivation, in the parish ; in pasture, including the
grounds around gentlemen's seats, 2,000 acres ; and
500 acres in wood. The annual amount of raw pro
duce has been estimated by the Rev. Mr. Brodie at
£20,100, the total rental at about £8,000. In 1774
it was £2,500. Value of assessed property, in 1815,
£10,229. — Balgarvie, at the eastern extremity of
the parish, is a plain commodious modern house, with
a southern exposure, and grounds well-laid out. In
old times it belonged to a branch of the family of
Balfour, from whom were descended the Lords Bal
four of Burleigh. " It is said," says Sir Robert
Sibbald, "that there was here a strong castle,
which was taken and levelled, by Sir John Petts-
worth as he was marching with the English forces
to the siege of the castle of Cupar in the reign
of King Robert I." Of this castle, if there ever
was one here, not a vestige now remains  Over
or Upper Rankeilour, one of the seats of George
W. Hope, Esq., is a very elegant house, built by
the late General John, 4th Earl of Hopetoun ; the
grounds are magnificently wooded, many of the
trees being of great size and beauty. Upper Ran
keilour originally formed a portion of the property
of the family of Rankeilour of that Ilk ; but at an
early period it became the property of a branch of
the Sibbalds of Balgony,* with whom it remained
* David Sibbald, the third brother of Sir James Sibbald,
Bart., of Rankeilour, was keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland,
under the Earl of Kinnoul, who was appointed Lord-high-
chancellor in J622. He was father of the celebrated Sir Robert
Sibbald, Knight, M.D., author of the * History of Fife,' and of
various other valuable works. Sir Robert was born in 1641,
and became a student in Edinburgh college, where he remained
for five years; after which, in March 1660, he went to Hol
land, and remained for a year and a half at Leyden, studying
anatomy aud surgery. On leaving Leyden, he went to Paris,
where he remained nine months pursuing* his studips with
great assiduity; and after visiting various places in France,
lie came over to London, whence he returned to Edinburgh in
October, 1662, and commenced the practice of medicine. Some
years after, he and a Dr. Balfour, who had heen long in France,
formed the design of instituting a Botanic garden in Edin
burgh ; and for this purpose procured an enclosure in the
Abbey-yards, which they were very soon enabled to stock
with a collection of 800 or 900 plants. Other physicians in
Edinburgh joined them, and subscriptions were raised for the
support of tjhe garden. About r679 Sir Robert— who had al
ready been making collections for an accurate Topographical
account of the kingdom— received from Charles II. his patent
to be his Geographer for Scotland, and another to be his Phy
sician there, with his Majesty's commands to publish "the
natural history of the country, and the geographical descrip
tion of the kingdom." « This," says Sir Robert, in his auto
biography, "was the cause of great pains, and very rauch to
ine, in buying all the books and MSS. I could ge£ for that use,
and procuring information from all parts of the country, even
the most remote isles. I employed John Adair for surveying,
and did bestow much upon him, and paid a guinea for each
double of the maps he made. He got much money from the
gentry, and an allowance from the public for it; but notwith
standing the matter was recommended by a committee of tlie
counsel, and my pains and progress in the work represented,
yet I obtained nothing, except apatent for one hundred pounds
sterling of salary, from King James VII., as his physician. I
got only one year's payment." Notwithstanding this discour
agement, however, Sir Robert proceeded in his exertions ; and
in 1682, he published an advertisement with queries which was
distributed over the whole kingdom. In 1683, he published in
Latin and in English, an account of the projected work, what
had been effected, and what required yet to be done, with pro
posals for printing it. Shortly before this time he had pro
jected, and was the principal instrument in the institution of
the College of Physicians, for incorporating which a royal pa
tent was procured. In 1682, he was knighted by the Duke of
York. In 1684, his * Scotia IlluBtrata' was published, seventy
copies of which he says he gave away in preBentB. In 1685, Sir

till the reign of Charles II., when it became the
property of Sir Archibald Hope, grandson of the
famed Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall. f A monu
mental pillar has been erected to the memory of the
late Earl of Hopetoun on the summit of the Mount-
hill, the highest point in this parish. It is a plain
Doric column, 92 feet in height, surmounted by a
square capital of 15 feet. It is hollow within, and
there is a narrow spiral staircase by which there is
an ascent to the top, from whence a fine view of the
vale of Stratheden, and the friths of Forth and Tay,
is obtained.— South-west of Rankeilour is Wester
Fernie, the seat of Francis Balfour, Esq. This house
is obviously of great antiquity, and has at one time
been a place of considerable strength, surrounded
by marshy ground which defended its approach.
Fernie appears to have been part of the original
estate of the earls of Fife ; and the vulgar tradi
tion is, though there is no authority for the sup
position, that it was one of Macduff's castles.— .
North of Fernie ahd Rankeilour, is the Mount,
now the property of Mr. Hope, but once the resi
dence of Sir David Lindsay, Lord Lyon-King-at-
Arms, during the reign of James V. ; a circumstance
which will ever make it interesting to Scotsmen,
who value the early literature of their country.^
Robert embraced the Roman Catholic religion, and was incon
sequence nearly assassinated by a mob, who surrounded the
house iu which he resided, and broke into it, while he with
difficulty escaped by the yard behind, They forced their way
into his room, searched his bed, and at length went away after
having sworn that they would * Ratnellet him.' After this he
went for a time to London, where the conduct of the Jesuits
with whom he came in contact, and the evil influence they ex
ercised over the mind of the king so struck him, that as he
says, " I repented of my raahness, and resolved to come home,
and return to the church I was born in." He accordingly im
mediately put his prudent resolution into effect, and in 1685,
was appointed by the magistrates of Edinburgh professor of
medicine in that university. From this time till 1712, scarce a
year passed without some work proceeding from his pen, in
many of which he exhibited deep antiquarian research, exten
sive observntion, and judicious inquiry into the actual state of
Scotland. His work on Roman Antiquities in Scotland, ap
peared in 1707 ; his history of the Shires of Stirling and Lin
lithgow in 1710; and four separate works on Roman Antiqui
ties, and a description of the Orkney islands, in 17 1 1. Two edi
tions of his history of Fife appeared during his lifetime, the
most correct of which is that of 1710. The period of Sir Ro
bert's death is not known, but in 1722, a catalogue was printed
at Edinburgh, of "the library of the late learned and ingeni
ous Sir Robert Sibbald of Kipps, Doctor of medicine," which
were to be Bold by auction. It seems probable he had died not
long previously. Many of his MSS. aud printed books were
bought by the Faculty of advocates for their library.
f Mr. Thomas Hope of Rankeilour, the eldcBt son of Sir
Archibald, was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates
in 1701. He appears to have paid great attention to the theory
and practice of agriculture. It was chiefly through his exer
tions that an Agricultural society was formed at Edinburgh in
1723. This society, which was styled 'The Society for Im
proving in the Knowledge of Agriculture,' held its first meet
ing on the 13th day of July, 1723, and had the merit certainly of
being the first Agricultural society instituted in the United
Kingdom. It consisted- of upwards of SOO members, but it
only existed for about 20 years. Mr. Maxwell of Arkland, au
eminent Scottish improver, published a selection irom their
transactions in 1743, shortly after the dissolution of the society.
X Sir David Lindsay was descended from Sir 'William Lind
say of the Byres, ancestor of the Lords Lindsay of the Byres.
Sir William Lindsay's Becond son obtained the lands of Gar-
mylton, in the county of Haddington, as his portion. He had a
son David, who acquired the Mount from Pitblado of that Ilk,
the previous proprietor, and died about the year 1507, leaving
five bous, of whom David the poet, was the eldest, and as such
succeeded to his father's estate. He appears to have been born
at the Mount, about the year 1490, and received his earliest
education at the burgh-school of Cupar, after which he was
sent to the university of St. Andrews in 1505, tho year of
Knox's birth, and only two years before his father's death.
He left the university in 1509, when he was about nineteen
years of age, and, aB appears from statements by himself in his
poems, entered shortly afterwards iuto the service of James
IV. and his Queen. On the birth of James V. in 1513, he en
tered into attendance on him as a page of honour. During the
boyhood of the king, the young poet appears to have been in
trusted only with hm amusements, while his education was di
rected by Gawyn Dunbar, au ecclesiastic of great ment and
learning. Sir David's account in his * Complaynt' of his play
ful occupations is exceedingly graphic and pleasing. After
telling that " he lay nichtlie by the king's cheik," he goes on
to relate

MONIMAIL.

369

"West of Fernie is Melville-house, the seat of the
Earl of Leven and Melville. The house was erected,
in 1692, by George, 1st Earl of MelviUe, in the fash
ion then prevalent in Scotland. It is a large square
" Hon as ane chapman beris trig pack,
I bure thy Grace upon my back;
And sanity mes strialingis on my neck
Dansand with mony bend and beck.
The first syllabis, thai thou did mute
Was pa — da — lyn, upon the lute;
. Then playit I twenty springs perqueir,
Quhilk was great plesotir for to heir.
Fra play, thou leit me never rest.
But gynkertoun, thou luttit ay best ;
And ay quhen thou come frae the scule,
Then I beauffit to play the fule."
Lindsay continued in his attendance on the King till 1524.
During his retirement from court, the poet seems to have
sought the muse at his residence on the Mount, and to have
looked with grief on the domination of the Douglases over
both prince and people, as appears from several of his earlier
pieces, which take their colour from the miseries of the time.
In 1528 the King effected his escape from the thraldom he had
been kept in. This change in the government is soon observ
able iu the writings of the patriotic poet, as we see in his
1 Dreme,' which heproduced towards the end of 1528. Lindsay
did not allow the King to forget his old companion; he knew
that ** in the court men gat nathing without opportune asking,"
and his 'Complaynt,' which was written In 1529, appears to
have produced the desired effect, as next year he was inaugur
ated Lyon-King-at-Arms. and made a knight. As his ordinary
fee of office, the King assigned to Sir David four chalders and
nine bolls of victual, out of the lands of Luthrie ; and, in 1542,
gave to him for life " twa chalderis of aittis to his hors corn, to
be takin up yierlie of his Aienes kane aittis of his lands of Over
Dynmure." This appointment seems to have brightened up his
'engyne,' as he had.hinted it would, and he now began his at
tacks on, the churchmen, in his * Complaynt of the Papingo,'
which appeared in December, 1530. In April, 1531, Lindsay
was Bent with Campbell and Panter to Antwerp, for the pur
pose of renewing the ancient treaty of commerce with the
Netherlands. They were well-received by the Emperor Charles
V., and succeeded in the object of their mission. Shortly after his
return Lindsay married Janet Douglas, of what family is not
known ; but his marriage does not appear to have been pro
ductive of much happiness, and he died without issue. He
now occupied himself upon his drama, * A Satyre of the Three
Estatis,' which was exhibited in 1535 ; and in J536 he produced
his 'Answer to the King's Flyting,' and his ' Complaynt of
Basche.1 In 1535 he, with Sir J. Campbell of Lauder, again paid
a visit to the Emperor to demand iu marriage for his sovereign
one of the,pnncesses of his house. They were well-received,
were shown the Emperor's nieces, and brought their pictures
to the King; but James does not appear to have been satisfied,
or perhaps had conceived that a connection with France would
be more politic, for next year an embassy was sent to that king
dom, which was accompanied by Lindsay as Lion-herald to de
mand in marriage a daughter of the house of Vendome. The
poet was detained a year at the court of France, when the
King himself arrived to make his own choice. Neglecting the
daughters of Vendome, James fixed his choice on Magdalene
of France, who survived but forty days after her arrival in Scot
land. Upon her death Lindsay published his * Deploratioun of
the Deith of Queen Magdalene,' in which he introduces by a
striking prosopopoeia an expostulation with Death. In 1538
Lindsay was employed in designing and conducting the devices
with which the second marriage of the king was celebrated, of
which Pitscottie has given an account; and on this occasion he
produced his 'Jesting betwixt James Watson and Jhone Bar
bour.* At Epiphany, 1539, his drama was performed at Lin
lithgow to the great amusement of the court and the mortifica
tion of the clergy ; and it was probably about this time that his
'Supplication against Syde Tails' appeared. In 1539-40, on the
arrival of Sir Ralph Sadler as ambassador from Henry VIIL,
Lindsay was sent to receive him, was the means of communi
cation between him and the King and Queen, and acted a con
spicuous part ia the intriguing scene which ensued. In 1541,
the poet, now in his fiftieth year, entailed his estates of Gar-
mylton Alexander, the Mount, and his other lands on himself
aud Janet Douglas his wife, in conjunct fee and life-rent, with
remainder to his heirs male whatsoever. In December, 1542,
Lindsay was doomed to witness the death of the monarch who
had so long honoured and rewarded him, and, as Lyon-king,
must have directed the ceremony of his funeral. His connec
tion with James V. was now at an end, but Lindsay appears
still to have interested himself in public affairs. He eat for the
burgh of Cupar in the parliament which met in March, 1542-3 ;
declared the Earl of Arran heir to the crown in the event of
the death of Queen Mary ; and, with Kirkaldy of Grange and
others he " travelled to promote the governor and to give him
faithful counsel," The arrival of the Abbot of Paisley, the na
tural brother of Arran, led to a union of the hitherto conflict
ing interests of the Queen-mother, Cardinal Beaton, and the
Regent; and the result was, according to Knox, that Lindsay
and other honest and godly men were banished the court. His
office, however, &till led to his being occasionally employed in
state affairs. In March, 1543-4, he was sent by the Regent to
Charles V. to redeliver the order of the Golden fleece, which
had been conferred by that sovereign on the Scottish king. He
did not return to Scotland till the autumn of the year; and he
shortly afterwards published * Kitteis Confession,' for the ob
vious purpose of bringing auricular confession into disrepute.
12.

building consisting of two principal stories, and a
basement and attic. Two deep projecting wings en
closed a court at the original front, the entrance to
which is ornamented by winged Mercuries. The
front has since been changed, and a new entrance
has been made at what was formerly the back eleva
tion ; the court is now laid out as a parterre, and
decorated with shrubs and flowers. The park which
surrounds Melville-house is enriched with a great
quantity of noble trees, most of which were probably
planted when the house was built, though some of
them may be even more ancient. The old approach
is very grand, having on each side a double row of
beech-trees of great height and beauty; this ap
proach, however, although the trees still remain,
has now been superseded, and a winding approach
through a richly wooded park has been adopted. The
name of Melville as applied to the grounds around
the house is comparatively modern, the park and en
closures including portions of the lands of Monimail,
of Letham, and of Halhill. — The lands of Monimail
anciently belonged to the Archbishop of St. Andrews,
who had a castle here, a portion of which still re
mains to the north of Melville-house. It was origi
nally built by Bishop William Lamberton who died
in June 1328, and appears to have been enlarged and
improved by Cardinal Beaton, as a head with a car
dinal's cap is carved on different parts of the walls.
Archbishop Hamilton resided at the castle of Moni
mail during a severe illness, when he was attended
and cured by the famous Italian physician, Cardan.
About a mile from the site of the old church is a
strong spring of pure water, which is known by the
name of Cardan's well; so called, says tradition, be
cause it was by the use of this water that the physi-
In the parliaments which sat at Edinburgh in November, 1544,
at Linlithgow in October, 1545, and at Edinburgh in August,
1546, he again sat as representative for the burgh of Cupar.
Cardinal Beaton having been assassinated ih May, 1546, the
conspirators retained possession of the castle of St. Andrews,
till July, 151/7, when it was surrendered to the French. At
Easter of that year the conspirators were joined by John Knox,
and there he was met by the Lyon-king, who appears to have
visited the castle of St. Andrews for the purpose of lending his
influence in persuading Knox to preach. Shortly after this he
published his 'Tragedie of the late Cardinal,' iu which Keith
says, he " has raked together all the worst things that could be
suggested against the prelate." In 1548 Sir David was de
spatched to Christian, King of Denmark, to solicit ships for pro
tecting the Scottish coasts against the English; and to nego.
ciate a free trade for the Scottish merchants, particularly in
grain. He was successful in his endeavours to obtain a free
trade ; but the ships were not granted by the Danish king.
When at Copenhagen, Lindsay became acquainted with his
countryman Dr. Macabeus, who was an early reformer, and
had fled from St. Andrews to avoid persecution. After hia re
turn from Copenhagen he published ' The Historie and Testa
ment of Squire Meldrum,' the most pleasing of all his poems ;
and, in 1553, he finished the last and greatest of his works, ' The
Monarchic,' which must have been the result of the labour of
years. In 1554-5 he is found still acting in his office of Lord-
lion, having in January that year held ' a chaptour' of heralds,
in the abbey of Holyrood-house, for the trial and punishment
of William Crawar, a messenger, for abuse of his office. Sir
David lived to see the 'Reformation established, for which he
had so long laboured ; but it is worthy of notice, that although
he saw the return of Knox, and observed the number of per
sons " who were ready to jeopard lives and goods for the setting
forward of the work of Reformation," he never appeared per
sonally at any of the meetings of the Reformers, after they be
gnu to act openly against the established government; nor does
his name appear at the bond of association entered into by the
Congregation, in 1557. He died a short time previous to April
1558, and is supposed to have been interred in the burial-place
of the Lords Lindsay of the Byres, iu the church of Ceres.
Tradition affirms that Sir David composed most of his poems
op the top of the Mount-hill ; and a spot of ground now cover
ed with wood is said, about seventy years ago, to have still been
called * Sir David's Walk.* A lar^e portion of the south front
of the old castle in which he lived, stood in a ruinous state about
ninety years ago : the admirer of Sir David, howev »r, will now
search in vain for any relic of the Lyon-poet at the Mount A
modern farm-house occupies the site of his castle ; and although
a carved stone is preserved in the wall of the offices, which had
been in the ancient castle, it represents the arms and initials of
oue of his successors, not those of the poet. The Mount re-.
mained with the family, at (he time Sibhald published his His
tory of Fife, in 1710; and afterwards passed to the ancestor of
the present proprietor.
2 A

370

MONIVAIRD.

cian cured the Archbishop. A belief long prevailed
as to its medicinal properties, and within the last fifty
years many persons used to frequent it. Its reputa
tion, however, is now gone, and its situation almost
forgotten. This parish is in the synod of Fife, and presbytery
of Cupar. Patron, the Earl of Leven. Stipend £257
10s. 3d. ; glebe £12. Unappropriated teinds £857.
2s. 3d. The church of Monimail, originally a mensal
church belonging to the archbishopric of St. Andrews,
was built in 1796;* sittings 600  There are five
schools in the parish. The parochial school is situ
ated at the village of Letham. The master has an
excellent dwelling-house and garden, the maximum
salary, and a small sum yearly mortified to the school
master and reader of the parish. From these sources,
with the school-fees, his income may be about £70
per annum. The average number of scholars attend
ing the different schools during the winter season is
about 150. There are two parish-libraries, one of
which contains a good selection of books in general
literature, the other consists exclusively of religious
publications. MONIVAIRD and STROWAN, two parishes,
united both civilly and ecclesiastically, and lying
chiefly in the upper end of Strathearn, Perthshire.
Bach consists of a main body and a detached sec
tion ; the main bodies mutually contiguous, and the
detached sections entirely isolated. Monivaird, as
to its main body, is bounded on the west, north
west, and north, by Comrie ; on the north-east by
Comrie and Monzie ; on the east by Monzie and
Crieff; and on the south by the river Earn, which
divides it from the main body of Strowan, and
from Comrie ; and it measures in extreme length
from north to south 6£ miles ; in extreme breadth
along the Earn 5A miles ; and, in area, about 30J
square miles. The detached part of Monivaird lies
2 miles south of the south-west extremity of the
main body; is nearly an equilateral triangle mea
suring 1| mile along each side; is bounded on the
south-east by Muthill, and on the north and the
south-west by Comrie ; and occupies part of the
vale and the right mountain-screen of Glenartney,
drained by Druchill-water. The main body of
Strowan stretches along the south side of the Earn
all its length opposite to the main body of Moni
vaird ; is bounded on the east and south by Muthill,
and on the west by Comrie ; and measures in ex
treme length from east to west 3| miles ; in ex
treme breadth 1 J mile ; and in area about 5J square
miles. Its detached section lies 4 miles south-west
of the nearest part of the main body ; and 1J mile
south of the detached section of Monivaird ; is
bounded on the west and north by Comrie ; on the
east by Muthill ; and on the south by Kilmadock ;
measures 3 miles both in extreme length and in ex
treme breadth, and about 6| square miles in area ;
and occupies the south-east side of the head of Glen
artney, or of the congeries of hills, traversed by ra
vines and glens, and drained by the head-streams of
Druchill water. See article Glenartney. A large
part of the united parish is hilly or mountainous.
The heights which > stretch along the south-east
boundary of the Glenartney districts, and the south
ern boundary of the main body of Strowan, divide
the waters which are tributary to the Forth from
those which are tributary to the Tay ; and the
heights along the northern extremity of Monivaird
divide the basins of the Earn and the Almond.
Most of the loftier heights are very rocky and heath.
* The bell of the old church— which was removed about
ninety years ago, when the one still itt use was put up in its
stead— had been used, as appeared from an inscription upon it,
Irom the time of Robert Bruce.

clad ; yet they have many patches and expanses of
verdure, and furnish sustenance to numerous flocks
of sheep. Those in the north of Monivaird are
among the highest Grampians which flank Strath
earn. Benchonzie, which is the highest, and stands
on the boundary, has an altitude above sea- level of
2,923 feet. About 40 acres on its summit are co
vered with a species of moss, and have given rise
to its name, which, in Gaelic, means the mossy
mountain. Near its eastern base is a cluster of
small conical hills, which strike the eye of every
stranger as a curious lusus natures. Torlum, a hill
on the southern extremity of Strowan, rises 1,400
feet above sea-level. The lesser hills, and tbe
broken slopes gliding down toward tbe Earn, are
picturesque in their forms, richly clothed with
copsewood, and gaily crowned with forest. In
nearly all its objects and features, the parish, espe
cially in its large and compact part, is wealthy in
the pleasing varieties and the thrilling romance of
landscape. Glenturret, extending south-eastward ¦
through all the upland district of Monivaird, has
some grandly savage yet softened scenery. Near its
middle stretches Loch-Turret, about a mile long and
4 of a mile broad, surrounded by very bold craggy
mountains. At the head of the glen, daily covered ,
with the early shadow of Benchonzie, towering up
acclivitously on its west side, lies Loch-an-muan, a
small lake, remarkable for the great number of trouts
which are collected in a small opening in its middle,
the only part where it is free from weeds. A mile
north of the Earn, and at the base of the shelving
series of heights, lies the loch of Monivaird, cover
ing about 30 acres, containing pike, perch, and eels,
and once rich in stores of shell marl which have dif
fused fertility and vegetative beauty far beyond its
immediate banks. The lake is embosomed among
hanging woods, green and cultivated fields, and syl
van hills ; and reciprocates embellishments with
the pleasure-grounds and the elegant mansion of
Ochtertyre overlooking it on the north-west. On
its banks is a fine echo, produced, it is supposed,
from the walls of an old ruinous castle, situated on
a gently rising ground running into the middle of the
lake. The castle stands on the same side as Och
tertyre, and was anciently a place of strength, sur
rounded with water, and accessible only in one place, '
and by a drawbridge. Glenlednock [which see]
belongs on its east side to the parish for 2_\ miles
above the point of opening upon the village of
Comrie, and becoming identified with Strathearn,
shares between Monivaird and Comrie the most
romantic parts of the course and banks of its stream.
The oak seems to be a particular favourite of the
soil of the united parish ; it is alluded to in song : —
" By Auchtertyre there grows the aik;M
and, along with the birch and some other species, it
forms a large aggregate amount of natural forest.
But the district thrivingly rears all kinds of wood
produced in Scotland ; and is very richly adorned,
especially on the estates of Lawers and Ochtertyre,
with a profuse amount and a very great variety of
planted trees. Among several mansions of much
taste and beauty, that of Lawers, the residence of
Lord Balgray, is pre-eminent, not only for its own
elegance, but for the delightfulness of its situation,
sheltered on all sides by a forest of tall trees, and
yet commanding a brilliant prospect of the far-
stretching luxuriance of Strathearn. This strath,
so far as it belongs to the parish, has beautiful cur
vatures in the placid and smiling course of the lovely
stream whence it derives its name. The haughs on
the banks of the Earn are frequently overflown, and
oroduces rich crops. The banks or skirts of the

NEW MONKLAND.

371

hills flanking the haughs have very long been en
closed, plentifully manured, and judiciously culti
vated ; and vie with the alluvial land in opulence of
soil and volume of produce. Beyond these banks
cultivation, cheered by good improvable soil, has
walked far up the ascents ; and at the line where it
ceases, begins a strife between deep verdure, and the
heath, and the naked rock, for ascendency ; the lus
cious beauties of the valley melting gradually away
into the robustness and the majesty of the upland
scene — The parish has many attractions to the zo
ologist, and especially to the sportsman. The eagle,
the kite, the raven, and the falcon, build their nests
in the craggy precipices of Glenturret. A few ptar
migans are met with on the summit of Benchonzie.
Grouse, dotterell, plover, and " several migratory
birds," says our authority, " whose names are not
very well known here," are found generally on the
hills. A species of hare, which is of a bluish colour
in summer, and white as snow in winter, is occa
sionally met with in the uplands. The wild duck,
the teal, the widgeon, and other water-fowl fre
quent the lakes ; and all the birds which usually
breed in a woody Country, pour their melody upon
the low grounds. Partridges, hares, and rabbits
abound ; and foxes, badgers, wild-cats, martins, and
otters, are not infrequent. — On the state of Ochter
tyre are vestiges of two Roman posts of observation,
commanding views of the camps respectively at
Dalginross and on the muir of Orchil. On a hill,
the Gaelic name of which means Castlehill, and
whose position js about 3 miles east of Dalginross,
are traces of a fortification of uncertain origin.
Many sepulchral cairns existed near the Earn, but
have been removed as material for stone fences. A
very large one, called Cam Chainichin, ' the monu
mental heap of Kenneth,' still exists some miles
north of the church of Monivaird, and is supposed to
have been raised to the memory of Kenneth IV.,
sirnamed the Grim, who, according to the register
of St. Andrews, was slain " at Moieghvard in 1001."
Near the western extremity of Monivaird are two
Druidical temples. The compact and large part of
the united parish is traversed by two roads along
Strathearn ; and the detached sections are cut by
the road between Comrie and Callander. Popula
tion of Monivaird, in 1801, 641; in 1831, 531.
Houses 98. Assessed property, in 1815, £10,691.
Population of Strowan, in 1801, 392 ; in 1831, 395.
Houses 73. — Monivaird and Strowan are in the pres
bytery of Auchterarder, and synod of Perth and
Stirling. Patron, the Crown and the Earl of Kin
noul. Stipend £261 7s. lOd. ; glebe £30. School
master's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with £15 fees, and
£7 otheremoluments  Colonel Dow, author of ' The
History of Hindostan,' was a native of Monivaird.
" The modern name Monivaird," says the Old Sta
tistical Account, " is a corruption of the ancient,
which was Moivard, as appears by a grant made by
the Earl of Stratherne, in the beginning of the 13th
century, of the church of St. Servanus, or Serph of
Moivard, to the monastery of Inchaffery. The an
cient name is still retained, in the speech of a few
inhabitants of the parish, who use a corrupted
dialect of the original language of Scotland. The
origin of the name cannot easily be traced. Its
etymology is Gaelic ; being made up of two words,
Moi Vard, signifying 'the plain of Bards.' Strowan
is probably a corruption of St. Ronan, the tutelar
saint of Strowan parish."
MONKLAND (New), a parish in the Middle
ward of Lanarkshire, forming its northern boundary
from the counties of Dumbarton and Stirling. It is
nearly 10 miles in length, by about 7 in breadth at
the broadest part; and is bounded by the following

parishes, viz., on the north by Cumbernauld and
Kirkintilloch; on the south by Bothwell and Shotts;
on the east by Torphichen and Slamannan ; and on
the west by Cadder and Old Monkland. Much of
the parish is situated at an elevation of from 600 to
700 feet above the level of the sea, but the rise is
so gentle and continuous that there is nothing in the
district which deserves the name of a hill or moun
tain. These elevated lands are situated in the centre
of the parish, and run from east to west over its
whole length, declining on each side to the waters of
Calder and Loggie, which are respectively its boun
daries on the south and north. It is thus a beautiful
open country, agreeably diversified by vale and gentle
rising, with a soil exhibiting many features of vari
ety. The district was, for a long period, particularly
during the war, famous for its culture of flax. In
some years, so much as 800 acres were under this
species of crop; but the welcome advent of peace,
and still more, the cheapness and universal introduc
tion of cotton-cloth, has rendered flax-cultivation
here, as in every other part of the country, so un
profitable that it has been almost entirely aban
doned, with the exception of a few patches here
and there still grown for private family use. Exclu
sive of minerals, and the town of Airdrie, the land
ward reriai of the parish is believed to be about
£13,000 per annum. The most important feature
connected with New Monkland, however, is the
mineral wealth with which it is abundantly blessed — a
blessing which has enriched the proprietors, increased
the population, and raised Airdrie within a few years
from the condition of an inconsiderable village to that
of a bustling and important town, with a share in the
election of a member of parliament. So far back as
the writing of the Old Statistical Account, it is stated
that " coal and ironstone are, or may be, found al
most on every farm." And since then these minerals
have been worked most extensively, and are still in
the course of rapid increase. The quality of the
coal is only equalled by its abundance, which in
many places is found in seams from 9 to 10 feet ir.
thickness. The ironstone is found both in balls and
seams, and much of it is of the valuable kind called
Black-band, which is so abundantly mixed with coal
as to require little addition of fuel in the burning.
Almost all the extensive iron- works in this district
of country are to a certain extent supplied with iron
stone from this parish, including those of Clyde,
Cadder, Chapel-hall, Gartsherrie, and Carron. Lime
stone is worked in the parish, particularly in the nor
thern division of it, but not to great extent. Several
mineral springs, too, exist, chiefly of the chalybeate
kind; but the Monkland-well, near Airdrie, is the
most famous, and at one time long enjoyed an exten
sive reputation for its efficacy in the cure of scorbu
tic, scrofulous, and other cutaneous diseases, as well
as for complaints in the stomach and eyes. At one
period this well formed a favourite resort even for
the wealthy and fashionable citizens of Glasgow and
its neighbourhood ; but its character as a watering-
place has long departed from it, both from a falling
off— undeserved it may be — in the reputation of the
springs and from the lack of features of rural beauty
which have been borne downby the onward march of
a bustling and industrious mining and manufacturing
population  The turnpike-road between Edinburgh
and Glasgow, by Bathgate and Airdrie, runs through
the southern end of the parish; and. the recently
formed road from Carlisle to Stirling intersects the
parish from north to south. The Ballochney rail
way connects itself with the Kirkintilloch, and the
Garnkirk railway, and ,thus brings New Monkland
and its produce into easy and rapid communication
with both Edinburgh and Glasgow; and the same

372

OLD MONKLAND.

service is performed by the Monkland and the Forth
and Clyde canals. The extensive reservoir for the
supply of these splendid water-ways is situated
partly in this parish and partly in the parish of
Shotts. It extends over nearly 300 acres of land.
In addition to the town of Airdrie [which see],
there are several thriving villages in the parish, of
which Colston, Clerkston, Greengairs, and Riggend
may be named. In point of population, few districts
in Scotland have advanced with greater rapidity
than that within the bounds of New Monkland, and
there are few in which that advance has a fairer
prospect of being steadily continued. The follow
ing table exhibits its progressive increase during a
period of 40 years : In Airdrie. In the Country. Total.
1801, . . . 2,715 1,868 4,613
1811, . . 3,474 2,055 5,529
1821, . . . 4,860 2,502 7,362
1831, . . 6,594 3,273 9,867
1841, . . . 12,396 8,119 20,515
The increase of population in this parish, including
the burgh of Airdrie, since 1831, has thus been 107-91
per cent. Assessed property, in 1815, £13,903.
Houses, in 1831, 1,262; in 1841, 3,635  New Monk-
land is in the presbytery of Hamilton, and synod of
Glasgow and Ayr. Patrons, the heritors and eld
ers. Stipend £265, with a glebe of 10 acres, worth
from 21s. to 25s. per acre. Unappropriated college
teinds £398 3s. 9d. The parish-church was built
in 1777, and repaired in 1817, and is capable of
accommodating 1 ,200 sitters. One-fourth of these
sittings belong to the inhabitants of Airdrie, which
is about two miles distant, but the larger portion
are held by the heritors and their tenants. In addi
tion to the new quoad sacra parishes which have
been formed in Airdrie, there are congregations be
longing to the Established church at Clerkston, and
Broomknoll, to which quoad sacra parochial territo
ries have been allocated. There are several churches
in the town and parish, in connection with the
United Secession, the Reformed Presbyterian con
gregation, and the Independent congregation, almost
all of Which are well attended, and in a thriving
state: see article Airdrie  The salary of the
parish schoolmaster is £30 per annum, with house
and garden, about £30 of school-fees, and about £20
annually of other emoluments. In addition to this
there are1 a number of private schools in Airdrie, and
schools exist at Mosside, Riggend, Greengairs, Clerk
ston, and Plains. In 1834, the number of schools
not parochial was returned at 15, attended by 817
children. The parishes of Old and New Monkland were for
merly united in one district, or parish, under the
name of the barony of Monkland ; but a disjunction
took place in 1640, When this extensive district was
erected into two parishes under the names of Old
or West Monkland, and New or East Monkland.
The name of Monkland was obtained from the dis
trict having been the property in early times of the
monks of Newbottle. In the early part of the reign
of Malcolm IV., that monarch granted to the mon
astery a large tract of territory, which extended from
the boundaries of Lothian on the east, to the Clyde
on the west, and which constituted a hundred pounds
lands of the ancient extent, the monks having ample
jurisdiction over all of it. Excepting the lands and
manor-place of Lochwood, which belonged to the
bishop's of Glasgow, the monks of Newbottle pos
sessed every acre of territory in what are now Old
and New Monkland, a considerable part of which
they held in their own hands for cultivation, and let
out the remainder in lease. From documents still
extant, it appears that they obtained permission from
the landed proprietors of the west of Scotland as

well as those in the Lothians, for free passages for
themselves, their servants, cattle, and goods, from
their monastery of Newbottle to their domains in
Clydesdale; and from King Alexander II. they ob
tained similar grants of free passage by the usual
ways, with permission to depasture their cattle for
one night, on every part of their route, excepting
upon the meadows and growing corn. The rectorial
revenues of Monkland were joined to those of Cad
der, in forming a rich prebend, which was held as the
appropriate benefice of the subdean of Glasgow; and
although the period of this arrangement is not known,
it continued till the Reformation. Previous to this
era. a chapel was erected at Kipps, on the borders
of the present district of New Monkland, which wag
the property of the Newbottle monks, and the abbots
are said to have held annual courts at it, when they
levied their rents and feu-duties, and transacted the
other business pertaining to their barony of Monk-
land. This chapel was destroyed at the stormy
period of the Reformation, and its site can scarcely
now be pointed out. About the same time, the
monastery of Newbottle was overthrown, and all
the fair domains which had so long remained in the
possession of the monks was wrested from them.
In 1587, the barony of Monkland was granted in fee
to Mark Ker, the commendator of the monastery, '
and at the same time he was created Lord New
bottle; but afterwards the barony was divided, and
parcelled out into various hands. A portion called
Medrocs fell to the share of Lord Boyd, but a still
larger share of the barony was acquired by the wily
and hoarding Sir Thomas Hamilton of Binning, the
King's advocate of the times of James VI. He ob
tained a charter for it from that monarch in 1602,
and at the same time a grant of the patronage of the
churches of Cadder and Monkland. Sir Thomas
subsequently sold the barony to Sir James Cleland.
whose son and heir, Ludovick, disposed of it to
James, Marquis of Hamilton. In 1639, the Marquis
secured his purchase by a charter from the king;
granting him the lands and barony of Monkland,
with the right of patronage of the churches of Cad
der and Monkland, to be held of the king, in fee,
for the yearly payment of a trifling sum in the name
of bleach-ferm. In the reign of Charles II., the
College of Glasgow purchased from the Duchess of
Hamilton the patronage and tithes of the subdeanery
of Glasgow, as well as of the churches of Cadder
and Monkland ; and for this a charter was also ob
tained from the king, which was ratified by act of
parliament in 1672. Subsequently to this period,
the heritors of the parishes of New and Old Monk-
land purchased the right of presentation to both these
parishes from the College, under authority of the
act 1690, respecting the purchase of church-patron
age, and it has since been exercised by the heritors
and elders. The tithes of both parishes, however,
still belong to the College of Glasgow, out of which
the stipends of the parochial ministers are paid.
MONKLAND (Old), a parish in the Middle
ward of Lanarkshire, extending for several miles
along the eastern bank of the Clyde, and forming
part of the old barony of Monkland, alluded to in
the above article. It is bounded on the north by the
parishes of New Monkland, Cadder, and the barony
of Glasgow; on the south by Bothwell; on the east
by New Monkland and Bothwell; and on the west
by Cambuslang and Rutherglen, from which it is
separated by the Clyde. The form of the parish is
irregular, extending to 10 miles at its greatest length,
and varying from 2 to 4} in breadth. The appear
ance of the land is generally flat, or gently undulat
ing; and whether the fertility of its superficies, or
the abundance of its mineral treasures are considered,

OLD MONKLAND.

373

Old Monkland is one of the most important and
wealthy parishes in the county of Lanark. The
writer of the Old Statistical Account says,  " A
stranger is struck with the view of this parish. It
has the appearance of an immense garden. The soil
is of three kinds. Along the banks of the Clyde and
Calder, which wash this parish for 9 or 10 miles,
there is a strong clay. Here are produced luxuriant
crops of every grain, especially of wheat ; sometimes
from 12 to 16 bolls are taken off an acre. The
middle of the parish is a light sand, affording excel
lent crops of oats and potatoes. Towards the north
are considerable tracts of moss." This account,
penned half-a-century ago, is still generally true, if
we except the fact that improved culture has vastly
increased the production of the soil, and that the
rapid advance of population, and the majestic pro
gress of the mineral trade, have sadly marred those
features of rural loveliness for which the district
was formerly celebrated. Withal, there are few dis
tricts which combine so much of the attributes of
country life with the bustle and stir of manufactures;
for the soil of Old Monkland is dotted at every little
distance with the ornate villas of the aristocracy of
the western capital, — with the blazing furnaces and
tall chimneys of the iron and coal works, — with stripes
of thriving plantation, and clumps of old wood, —
with orchards, grassy holms, or waving grain, — and
with the homely farm-steading, or lowly home of the
cottar. From the facilities of obtaining lime and
manure both by canal andr railway, a soil — which is
naturally fertile — has been improved to the highest
degree, and it has been estimated that the gross
agricultural 'produce, including the rental of the
houses, now amounts to more than £40,000 per an
num. In respect of fertility of soil and salubrity of
climate, the district of Old Monkland is much su
perior to New Monkland ; and has been regarded as
the most productive soil which anywhere covers the
great mineral fields. Here, as in the sister-parish, flax
used to be extensively cultivated many years ago, and
some of the fanners might have so much as from 20 to
30 acres annually under crop ; but, from causes noticed
in the former article, its cultivation has either entirely
ceased, or become very partial. It is to its almost ex-
haustless stores of coal and iron, that Old Monkland
owes its principal celebrity, — a celebrity which, as re
gards tbe former, is of very long standing. In an ac
count of the parish published before the beginning of
the present century, it is said : " This parish abounds
with coal ; and what a benefit it is for Glasgow and
its environs to be so amply provided with this neces
sary article ! There are computed to be a greater
number of colliers lere than in any other parish in
Scotland." The progress in the coal-trade, since
the period alluded to, has been almost magical; and
as no year passes without an additional number of
pits being sunk, while the old ones continue in
vigorous operation, it would seem that scarcely any
limits can be set to the vast aggregate mineral
production of which the district is capable. The
more that the applications of industry and capital
are brought to bear upon it, — the more that the facili
ties of transit are increased, — the more are the abun
dance and capabilities of this parish and the adjoining
ane developed. The coal — which is here always found
above the lime — is worked in pits of from 30 to 100
fathoms in depth. The following account of the
position of the principal working-seams, which we
take the liberty of transcribing from the ' New Sta
tistical Account),' drawn up by the Rev. William
Patrick, cannot fail to be interesting' to all mineral
ogists:  " 1. The upper coal; coarse, and seldom
workable ; its average distance above the Ell-coal is
from 14 to 16 fathoms. 2. The Ell or Mossdale coal ;

three to four feet thick, of inferior estimation in this
parish, and generally too thin to work ; but in some
places a thick coal, and of excellent quality. 3. The
Pyotshaw, or rough- ell; from three to five feet thick,
and from seven to ten fathoms below the Ell-coal.
4. The main coal. It often unites with the above,
and forms one seam, as at Drumpellier in this par
ish. These two seams are thus sometimes in actual
contact, and in other instances separated by a wide
interval of six or seven fathoms. 5. Humph coal;
seldom thick enough to be workable in this parish,
and generally interlaid with fragments of freestone,
about ten fathoms below the main coal. 6. Splint-
coal ; about four fathoms below the Humph, and of
very superior quality. It varies from two to five feet
in thickness, and is mostly used for smelting iron.
This seam, when of any considerable thickness, is
justly esteemed, when got by the proprietors here, a
great prize. 7. Little coal; always below splint, the
distance varying from three fathoms to six feet. It
is from three to three-and-a-half feet in thickness, and
is a free, sulphury coal of inferior quality. 8. The
Virtue- well, or Sour-milk coal, from two to four feet
thick, occurs from 26. to 28 fathoms below the splint.
9. The Kiltongue coal lies 22 fathoms below the
Virtue- well, and like it, is from two to four feet in
thickness. 10. The Drumgray coal lies six fathoms
below the Kiltongue, and perhaps from 60 to 100
fathoms above the first or upper band of limestone.
It is seldom more than 1 8 or 20 inches $iick. There
are, besides these 10 seams, about 23 smaller seams
between them, none of which are of a workable
thickness. The total thickness of the coal-measures
above the lime may be about 775 feet." The same
account adds : " This large and important coal-field
is much intersected with dikes, and a knowledge of
these is a knowledge of the strata, and of the man
ner in which they are affected by them." Still more
than to its coal, however, is the parish of Old Monk-
land in recent times, indebted to its ironstone and
iron- works : although it is proper to mention that the
ore for the supply of the latter is, to a great extent,
drawn from the adjoining parish of New Monkland.
The introduction of the hot air blast, the increasing
demand for iron for railway and other purposes, but,
above all, tbe abundant possession of the most valu
able of all the iron metals, — viz., the Black-band, —
which contains so much coal as nearly to burn itself,
— are the main causes which have contributed to the
almost unparalleled advance of Old Monkland in
population and prosperity. To the burning of iron.
stone has been added within the last two or three
years, works and machinery for the manufacture of
bar or malleable iron ; and this branch of this great
business is now in the course of rapid extension, and
promises, at no distant period, to enable the propri
etors to export largely to England an article which
was at one time exclusively imported from that divi
sion of the kingdom. Everywhere is heard the brattling
of machinery, — the sonorous stroke of mighty ham
mers,  and the hissing and clanking of the steam-
engine; and the flames which perpetually belch from
the craters of its numerous furnaces, and for miles
around illume the country on the darkest nights,
have not inappropriately earned for Old Monkland
the title of the ' Land of Fire.' Fortunes have
been realized here in the iron-trade, with^ a rapidity
only equalled by the sudden and princely gains of some
of the adventurers who accompanied Pizarro to Peru.
It is understood that the profits of a single estab
lishment in this line during the year 1840, were
nearly £60,000; while little more than 20 years pre
viously the co-partners of this company were earning
their bread by the sweat of their brow, in following
the agricultural vocation of their fathers. Another

374

OLD MONKLAND.

instance is that on the property of Rochsilloch the
annual rent for raw minerals now amounts to about
£13,000 per annum, while for farming- purposes
alone it would not let for more than a few hundreds ;
and a few years ago, before its mineral-wealth was
so well developed, the fee-simple, or entire proprie
tary of the whole, would not have amounted to
what is produced from it in a single year! The
principal iron-works in this parish, or in the imme
diate borders of it, are — Gartsherrie, Cadder, Dun-
dyvan, Monkland, Summerlee, Clyde, and Carnbroe,
producing amongst them by far the larger portion of
the iron manufactured in Scotland, and giving em
ployment to thousands of persons in the large village
of Coatbridge, and other communities rising in the
parish. The first of these, though not now the most
extensive, was the Clyde iron- works, erected in 1786,
upon ground feued from James Dunlop, Esq. of
Garnkirk. At the outset there were only two small
furnaces, consuming about 20,000 tons of coal per
annum, though tbe amount of pig-iron produced
is not stated. Even in 1806, the produce of pig-
iron in the whole of Lanarkshire did not amount
to 10,000 tons yearly ; now the furnaces of Old
Monkland alone are computed to produce 200,000
tons, with an expenditure of 600,000 tons of coal,
and an incredible quantity of lime. But as has been
already stated, this gigantic item in our national
resources is still only in its infancy. It is computed
by many who have looked clpsely into the trade,
that the mineral productions of the Monkland dis
tricts, great as they are, bid fair to be doubled in a
few years ; and it is scarcely possible to estimate the
auxiliary or adjunctive branches of industry which
their extension may call into being.* The following
* We shall here introduce a few important particulars from
a paper ' On the State and Prospects of the Iron-trade in Scot
land and South Wales, in May, 1839,' read before the Liverpool
Polytechnic society on the 13th June, hy Joseph Johnston, Esq.,
Iron-merchant, Liverpool. In 1802 Great Britain possessed 168
blast-furnaces, yielding a product of 170,000 tons ; and this pro
duct amounted, in 1806, to 250,000 tons, derived from 227 coke-
furnaces, of which only 159 were in activity at once. In 1820,
the make of iron had risen to 400,000 tons ; and in 1826 to about
600,000 tons. From 1823 to 1839, the iron-trade saw many fluc
tuations; the price of lorge pig-iron varying from £2 10s. to
£10 per ton at the works ; but the make of this country was
still increasing, and in 1838, I believe it reached to upwards of
1,000,000 tons. The introduction of the hot-blast formed quite
a new era in the iron-trade ; and consequent increase of pro
duce of iron — particularly in Scotland, where this invention
was first applied— has been incredibly great, and is still pro
gressing.— There are in Scotland 52 furnaces in blast, 5 out, 7
building, and 24 contemplated. Supposing the whole of these
furnaces to be in full activity by the end of the year 1842, and
giving the average produce of 100 tons per week to each fur
nace, we shall have Scotland alone producing 457,600 tons of
foundry cast-iron per year, equalling the make of the United
Kingdom 20 years ago. Sixty-live out of the eighty-eight fur
naces 1 have enumerated are situated in or about the Monk-
lands, to the Bouth aud south-east of Glasgow, and distant from
that city 7 to 10 miles. The works in that districtliave the com
mand of the Black-band ironstone, which my informant states
to be so great an advantage that without it the trade would
not be worth following. Three of the largest makers of iron
iu Scotland are directing their attention to the manufacture of
bar-iron, and with every prospect of most complete success.
The Monkland Iron-company are erecting mills aud forges ca
pable of making 230 tons malleable iron per week. Dunlop,
Wilson, & Co., of Dundyvan, are making preparations to en
able them, when in full operation, to produce 300 tons of bars,
fee weekly. William Dixon, Esq. of Govan iron-works, has
now ready for immediate working, capabilities for producing
200 tons of malleable iron per week ; his mills and forges are
on the outskirts of Glasgow, and are known as the Glasgow
Iron-works, Town-head. The Muirkirk Irou-company have 4
blast-furnaces, 3 of which are iu blaBt, with an average produce
of about 40 tons of bars weekly, and ihe capability of extending
to 100 tons, without increase of power. This' statement com
prises the present, and, so far as is known, the prospective
operations in the malleable iron-trade in Scotland, with the
exception of two small forges, tho Lancefleld and the Gart
ness where they puddle a little from white iron. In an in
teresting work published by Mr. Scriveuor in 1841, upon the
history of the Iron-trade, we learn that the recent introduc
tion ol the hot-blast has led to a vast saving in the expendi
ture of coal in the Scotch iron-works. In 1829, 8 tons, 14 civt.
ol coals were required to produce a ton of iron ; but when the
hot-blast was introduced in the following year, a tou of irou

account of the position of the ironstone strata is
borrowed from the account to which we have al
ready been indebted,— viz., that of Mr. Patrick, in
the New Statistical Account — and in addition to Old
Monkland, has a partial application to the ironstone
strata of New Monkland. He says:—" 1. The Up-
per Black-band. It lies about 24 fathoms above the
Ell-coal, as indicated in the succession of strata given
above. It is of very local occurrence, like all the
ironstones, and has only been found worth working at
Palace-craig. It is of inferior quality, and only about
18 inches thick. 2. The Black-band, also called
Mushet's Black-band, from the name of the person-
who first worked it to any extent. This is the great
staple commodity for the supply of the iron-market,
and when found to any extent is a certain source of
wealth to the proprietor. Its average depth below
the splint is about 15 or 16 fathoms, and it varies in
thickness from 14 to 18 inches, and occupies an area
of from 8 to 10 square miles. 3. Airdrie-hill Black-
band. In this property, which is in New Monkland,
there is a band of ironstone, varying from 2 to 4
feet in thickness, lying about 3 feet below the Black-
band, or Mushet's-band. It is found only in part of.
the lands of Airdrie-hill, and is by far the most local
of all the ironstones." — There are a number of quar
ries in full and active operation in the parish, and
from the vast quantity of building in progress, the
trade is a very profitable one. The quarries pro
duce abundance of red freestone, white freestone,
white pavement-stone, whinstone, and greenstone.
There is no lime worked in Old Monkland. — A good
deal of weaving is done for the Glasgow market in
the parish, and there are also other manufactures in
progress. The Clyde forms the western boundary of the par
ish, entering it at Daldowie, and near the same point
the North Calder, which runs through the parish for
a short distance, falls into the Clyde. There are
various streamlets in the district which all find their
way to the Clyde. Bishop-loch in the parish covers
an area of about 80 acres ; Woodend-loch, 50 acres,
and Lochend, 40 acres. The means of communica
tion in this important parish are now of the most
was obtained with only 2 tons, 134, cwt. of coals. The hot Mast
has been tried in England, but with inferior success, owing to
the difference in the quality of tbe coals. Mr. Serivenor more
than hints his fears, that the Scotch iron may in consequence
drive the English out of the market. In the text a prediction
has been hazarded, regarding the vast extension or the iron-
trade, which may be reasonably looked for, and that this pre
diction is not altogether viBionary may be gathered from the
following passage from Mr. Scrivenor'a book: — u It is truly
astonishing, when we look back and consider in how few years
the iron-mauufacture has arrived atits present vast extent, and
that this rapid increase has occasioned no heavy accumulatious
of stock. The iron-trade, in common with all other trades, feels
the effect of any general stagnation, but not from over-produc
tion, as with its growth new channels of consumption have
kept pace. The endless detail into which the foundry-trade
branches itself, the almost universal fabrication which it em
braces, consumes a very large proportion of the make ; in
buildings, iron is becoming a very general substitute for wood ;
railroads may also be particularly mentioned as consuming a
very considerable quantity of manufactured as well as cast-iron,
but principally the former. It would be endless to show where
it has been, within a few years, introduced: but we cannot omit
noticing its recent application to the building of ships. < The
success attending these first trials cannot but lead to the con.
elusion, that, for the future, ships will very generally be made
of iron iustead of wood; and if so, what a field it opens to the
ironmaster, and how greatly it will add to the consumption !
1 he plates of which the ships will be built, must necessarily be
of a very superior description of iron, involving a greater waste,
and consequently increasing the consumption of pig-iron; and
those works must be benefited, the quality and character of
whose iron stands high ; as where the safety of hundreds or
thousands of individuals is at stake, the very best irou alone
sliould be used. With increased facilities of procuring iron at
a reasonable price, America, and also France— provided that in
this latter country the duties are reduced— will become large
purchasers ; and our iron-trade, unlike many of tlie other
mariutactureB, being altogether the production of our own soil,
will continue to give employment to hundreds of thousands of
our population, to the grrat advantage of the country at large,
as well, we trust, as the individual benefit of the iron-niaster."

MONKLAND CANAL.

375

ample kind. In addition to parish and turnpike
roads, no fewer than four great railways enter or
are connected with the district,— viz., the Garn-
kirk and Glasgow Railway, the Monkland and
Kirkintilloch, the Ballochnie, and the Wishaw
and Coltness : [see these articles.] The Monkland
and Glasgow Canal [which also see] extends
through almost the entire length of the parish. By all
of these means there is cheap and constant communi
cation with Glasgow, both for passengers and mineral
and agricultural produce. There is nothing in this
populous parish which properly deserves the name
of a town ; but there is a succession of villages which
are rapidly rising in wealth and population, and some
of the principal far outstrip, in architecture and busi
ness activity, several of the royal burghs of Scotland
which boast an antiquity of centuries. The names
of these are Coatbridge, Langlone, Dundyvan, Bai-
lieston, and Crosshill. There is also an extensive
and rising village-population at the following locali
ties: viz., Tolcross, Carmyle, Broombouse, and Tox-
ley, Merriston, Bargeddie, Barrachine, Dykehead,
and Coatdyke. The population of this parish has,
like that of New Monkland, increased with railroad
speed, especially between the years 1831 and 1841,
as will be seen by the following statement of its
progressive rise: —

Years.
In 1755, 1791,
1S011811,l€2l,1831,1841,

Population. 1.813
. 4,000
4,006 5.4696 933 '
. 9,.'i80
19.075

The last total, viz. of 1841, is made up of 10,
males, and 8,725 females, the unusual disparity of
sexes being easily accounted for by the vast immigra
tion of workmen into the parish of late years, in
consequence of the great increase of the iron-trade.
The rate of increase in the population, between the
years 1831 and 1841, has been 105.37 per cent. The
number of houses, in 1831, was 1,499. At the cen
sus of 1841 there were in the parish 3,362 inhabited
houses, 123 uninhabited, and 75 building. The num
ber of distinct families was 2,486.
The assessed property in the parish in 181 5, amount
ed to £19,806  Old Monkland is situated in the pres
bytery of Lanark, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr.
Patron of the parish-church, the heritors and kirk-
session. Stipend £263 14s. 7d. The glebe extends
to 3£ acres, valued at £2 10s. per acre, with £8
paid in lieu of grass glebe. Unappropriated teinds,
(belonging to the college of Glasgow,) £439 lis.
The parish-church was built iu 1 790, and the interior
accommodation has been increased since 1822, until
it is now capable of accommodating 902 sitters.
There are also quoad sacra parishes at Crosshill and
Gartsherrie, — the former church being built to ac
commodate 600 sitters ; and the latter — which is a
very elegant structure, principally erected by the
munificence of the Messrs. Baird of Gartsherrie —
calculated to accommodate 1,500. The cost of the
erection was £3,300, and the bell alone is valued at
£180. The minister has a manse and a bond for
£150 per annum, which may be increased with the
rise of the seat-rents. There are also some thriving
dissenting congregations within the district  There
are one parochial school, and three branch-schools in
the parish, — the salary of the principal master being
£31, and that of each of the others £6 15s. lid.
The parish is otherwise abundantly supplied with
the means of education by the private schools, or
those not parochial, at which the fees are extremely
moderate. For particulars regarding the ancient
history of Old Monkland, anv New Monkland.

MONKLAND, or MONKLAND AND GLAS
GOW, CANAL. This artificial water-way forms
an excellent means of communication between the
city of Glasgow, and the rich coal and iron districts
in the parishes of New and Old Monkland, distant
from it about 12 miles. From a statement by Mr.
Dugald Bannatyne, when manager of the canal in
1815, it appears that the undertaking was suggested
to the magistrates of Glasgow in 1769, as a means
of securing to the inhabitants of that city, at all
times, a plentiful supply of coals; and they, after
having employed the celebrated James Watt, who was
then resident in Glasgow, to survey the ground, ob
tained an act of parliament for carrying out the mea
sure, the Corporation of the city subscribing a num
ber of shares to the stock. Under this first act, the
canal was begun in 1771, and about 10 miles of it were
executed. The first 2 miles of the canal, extend
ing from the basin to the bottom of Blackhill, are-,
upon the level of the upper reach of the Forth and
Clyde canal; the other 8 miles, beginning at the
top of the Blackhill, are upon a level 96 feet higher
The communication between these levels was at
that early time carried on by means of an inclined
plane, upon which the coals were lowered down in
boxes, and re-shipped on the lower level. The
capital necessary to complete the undertaking was
by this original act declared to be £10,000, divided
into 100 shares; but this sum was found to be alto
gether insufficient ; for, in addition to expending it,
a debt of some amount was contracted in executing
the above part only of the operations. The con
cern, in this unfinished state, produced no revenue;
and the creditors naturally became pressing. A
number of the stockholders, too, refused to make
advances either for the liquidation of the debt, or
for the completion of the plan. The whole stock
of the company was consequently brought to sale,
and purchased, in 1789, by Messrs. William Stirling
and Sons of Glasgow, at £25 a share ; the original
shares having cost the subscribers £203 each. These
gentlemen, immediately after acquiring the property,
proceeded to complete the canal; and in 1790, having,
in conjunction with the proprietors of the Forth and
Clyde canal, procured a second act of parliament,
empowering the latter to make a junction between
these navigations, by a cut from their basin at Port-
Dundas in Glasgow, to the Monkland canal basin,
built locks at Blackhill, and extended the Monkland
canal to the river Calder, which was introduced into
it; and that navigation was made the aqueduct for
passing the supplies of water from this stream, and
a reservoir formed upon it, to the Forth and Clyde
canal. On these operations the Messrs. Stirling are
understood to have expended £100,000. The Monk-
land canal is 35 feet broad at the top, and 24 feet at
the bottom. The depth of water upon the lock-
sills is 5J feet. To connect the upper and lower
levels, at Blackhill, there are two sets of four double
locks of two chambers; each chamber is 71 feet long
from the gates to the sill, and 14 feet broad; the
ascent in each being 1 2 feet. The level at the top
of the Blackhill is continued to Sheepford, 8 miles,
where there are two single locks of 11J feet each,
after which the canal goes on upon the level it has
then gained to tbe river Calder. The supplies of
water for the Monkland canal are derived from the
contiguous streams, from the river Calder, as before
mentioned, and from the reservoir at Hill-end, be
yond Airdrie, covering 300 acres of ground near the
source of that river, and which was formed at the
expense of tbe proprietors of the Forth and Clyde
navigation. The boats which navigate the canal
are about 70 feet in length, by 12 feet in breadth, and
are from 4 to 4£ feet in depth. They are dragged

376 MONKLAND AND KIRKINTILLOCH RAILWAY.

by one horse ; and carry from 50 to 60 tons of coal
or iron of 12 cwt. each. The rate of tonnage allowed
by these early acts to be levied on coals and other
articles carried upon the canal, was 2d. per ton per
mile; but the whole of this sum has not at any time
been exacted. The price of coals delivered in
Glasgow, in 1775— the period at which this mineral
was at first brought along the canal — was 2s. 6d. per
cart or waggon of 12 cwt. ; but it is scarcely neces
sary to say that this very moderate figure has since
been very much advanced. From the advantage
which the canal offers of easy communication with
both tlje East and Western seas, and from its un
limited command of coal, the vicinity has always
been considered favourable for the establishment of
manufactures, especially of a bulky nature. For a
long series of years at the outset, the revenue of
the canal was wholly absorbed by the expenses in
cidental to the extension and improvement of the
undertaking. In 1807, when a dividend first began
to be made, the gross revenue amounted to £4,725;
and, in 1814, it was £5,087 : although the navigation
during this year was stopped during eleven weeks,
principally by the severe frost, but partly on account
of some necessary repairs. From 1814 or 1815, up
to the year 1825, the traffic continued without much
variation ; but about the last-mentioned date a great
impulse was given to the coal and iron trade by the
establishment of railroads in the mineral districts,
along the line of which an enormous amount of capi
tal has been profitably invested in the formation of
foundries and coal-works. The Canal company were
not slow in availing themselves of these iron pathways
as feeders to their own trade ; and accordingly, wher
ever it has been practicable, they have formed load
ing basins and wharfs on the canal, connecting them
by offsets with the railways in the vicinity. The
additional traffic resulting from this source has been
very great; advancing in fact in a ratio commensu
rate with the facilities of communication or transit
which capital, judiciously applied, has called into
existence. So much has this increase been developed,
that it has had the effect of trebling the annual rev
enue within the last ten years, and it is still pro
gressively on the advance. In 1840 the revenue
amounted to £20,000, and the market-price of the
original £100 shares was £2,000, upon which a divi
dend of £5 per cent, was paid. At this date (Oc
tober 1841) the shares sell readily at £2,800 ; and
by act of parliament, obtained last session, each ori
ginal share was subdivided into 80, the price of
which is £35. When the railways were first pro
jected, much alarm seems to have been excited among
the Canal proprietors lest the trade should be entirely
diverted from their navigation to the new channels ;
and acting under this apprehension, the company
reduced their dues to about one-third of the rate
which had been charged up till that time, and while
the concern has nevertheless continued to pay ad
mirably, these have not been again raised. It is a
fact worthy of notice, that although previously to
the opening of the Garnklrk and Glasgow Rail
way [which see], which, from running parallel with
the canal, comes more immediately into competition
with it, the passage-boats rarely carried so many as
20,000i passengers in a year, yet, in the face of that
competition, .the number of passengers has been gra
dually increasing, and during the year preceding the
period at which this is written, no fewer than 70,000
persons have been carried by the company's boats.
For the purpose of rendering the canal as complete
as possible, and of facilitating the transit of its traffic,
a very large sum has been recently expended by the
company in the formation of new works, and of
these the principal are: — 1. Additional reservoirs in

the parish of Shotts, all uniting in the river Calder
which flows into the canal at Woodhall, near Holy-
town, thereby insuring an abundant supply of water
at all times. 2. Extensive loading-basins and wharfs
connected with the Monkland and Kirkintilloch rail
way, near Dundyvan iron-works, and others adjoin
ing the same railway, in the neighbourhood of Messrs.
Baird's works at Gartsherrie. 3. New locks at
Blackhill, near Glasgow, which, when completed,
will form probably the most splendid work of the
kind in the United Kingdom. These locks will then
consist of two entire sets of four double locks each,
(either set being worked independently of the other,)
which have been constructed at an outlay of upwards
of £30,000. The parishes through which the canal
passes are those of Old and New Monkland, and
the Barony of Glasgow. There are three branch-
canals from the main water-line, viz. one to Cadder
iron- works near Airdrie, about a mile in length; an
other to Dundyvan iron-works, extending to about
a quarter of a mile ; and a third to Gartsherrie works,
about a mile long. It is scarcely necessary to say
that coal and iron form the staple traffic and princi
pal support of the Monkland canal. Of these articles
the immense aggregate of nearly 500,000 tons was
carried along this canal in the course of the year
1840; and it is expected that a. fifth more will be
carried during the current year, 1841. Besides the
above, there is a large quantity of timber, manure,
&c, transported along the canal at a very moderate
rate, the beneficial effects of which are plainly visible
in fertilizing and beautifying the face of the country
along both sides of the banks.
MONKLAND AND KIRKINTILLOCH
RAILWAY. This railway forms an important
connecting link between the rich mineral fields,
and coal district, in the parishes of Old and New
Monkland, and the city of Glasgow, and also the
extensive and increasing iron-works in the vicin
ity of Coatbridge. The act authorizing the ope
rations was obtained in 1824, being 5 Geo. IV.
cap. 49. The original capital of £32,000 was sub
sequently increased by £20,000, in terms of an act
of 1833, being 3 and 4 of William IV. cap. 114;
and the stock was further increased, in 1840, by
£34,000, making a total of £86,000. The rail
way was opened in 1826. It had originally only a
single line of rails, with convenient passing places,
being adapted solely for horse-haulage ; and the
trade upon it for the first three or four years was
comparatively small. As the mineral resources of
the district became developed, however, its traffic
increased with amazing rapidity, and during the last
few years it has been of the most extensive description.
In 1839 the amount of coal, iron, and other goods pass
ing along the line amounted to 878,597 tons; and
in 1840, to 1,081,863 tons. At the outset, the rail
way was laid with fish-bellied rails of the weight of
28 lbs. per yard; but these have all been replaced
by parallel rails at the rate of 56 lbs. per yard, and
at the same time it has been formed a double line
throughout, while in various parts there have been
three, four, and five lines of rails laid, to give every
facility to the increasing traffic, which is now almost
entirely moved by locomotive power. The com
pany have at present 10 locomotive engines, 8 of
which are daily in use ; and they have also erected
large and commodious workshops for building and
repairing their engines at Moss-side, the eastern ter
minus or junction with the Ballochney Rail
way : which see. The length of the line, from the
southern terminus at Palace- craig, to the northern
terminus at Kirkintilloch, is 10J miles; and includ
ing its branch to the eastern terminus, at its junction
with the Ballochney railway at Kipps' byre, it is

MON

377

MON

12$ miles in length, traversing in its course the par
ishes of Old and New Monkland, Cadder, and Kirk
intilloch. The latter, as has been stated, is its
northern terminus, and here a commodious basin has
been formed for the loading of vessels of every size,
from the smallest scow to the largest vessel which
navigates the Forth and Clyde canal, and by this
canal it is brought into communication alike with
the East and Western seas. The western terminus
of the line is at Gargill, where it forms a junction
with the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway [which
see], and by means of this line, as well as by the
Monkland canal, it communicates with the great
manufacturing and commercial city of Glasgow. The
Monkland and Kirkintilloch railway also connects
itself with the rich mineral districts traversed by the
recently opened Wishaw and Coltness railway; and,
from what has been stated, it will be seen that this
line is connected with the Garnkirk and Glasgow
railway to the west; the Rallochney railway to the
east ; the Wishaw and Coltness railway, and Monk-
land canal, to the south-west; and the Forth and
Clyde canal to the north-west. The difference of
level between the eastern terminus at Kipps' byre,
and the northern terminus at Kirkintilloch, is 134
feet, giving 1 in 111 as the average gradient; but
the gradients vary in different parts of the line from
1 in 60 to 1 in 5,200. The width of the gauge of
rails is 4 feet 6 inches, and the cutting throughout
the line is moderate, the largest cut being at Bed-
lay, where its depth is about 30 feet, for the length
of about one furlong. The Monkland and Kirk
intilloch is not properly of itself a passenger-line,
although passengers are carried along a portion of it,
in connection with the Garnkirk and Glasgow and
the Slamannan railways. It has, on the whole, how
ever, been a most successful line of railway, as will
be seen from the following note of its increasing
revenue :

BTATB OP THE REVENUE OF MON Kl AND AND KIRKINTILLOCH

RAILWAY.

1828,

.

£2,837 13 11

1929, .
1830,

3,480 5 0

3,538 4 1
1831, .
3,6112 1 6
1832,*
3,278 1 i_
1833, .
4,578 15 8
1834,
6,1181 17 3
1835, .
0,2li0 3 9
1836,
.
6,792 11 11
1837, .
7,203 1 9
1838,
. .
11,172 18 0
1839, .
,
13,985 10 0
1840,
.
16,991 3 7
It is scarcely possible to point out a railway which
has had more the effect of benefitting the line of
country through which it runs, than the Monkland
and Kirkintilloch. Previous to its formation, the
lands in the neighbourhood were comparatively shut
up; their mineral fields were comparatively unpro
ductive ; and only a thatched cottage was here and
there seen to dot the surface. But the railway
once in operation, a change, as if effected by magic,
came over the face and feelings of the district.
Public works were erected, — population gathered in
masses by thousands, — splendid edifices were called
into existence, — and property, once considered almost
valueless, excepting for the scanty returns of its til
lage or herbage, became a mine of wealth which may
enrich many succeeding generations. As a proof of
this, it may only be stated that the once humble and
unpretending village of Coatbridge has, within these
two or three years, started into lusty life as a thriv
ing and populous town, with buildings which will
bear comparison with those in the capital of the
* The falling off in the revenue, this year, is accounted for
by an extensive strike of the colliers ; and by the breaking out
and subsequent ravages of the cholera at Kirkintilloch.
west, in addition to its established and dissenting
churches, and its handsome branch of the Western
bank of Scotland. But it would seem indeed that
there is scarcely any limit to the prosperity which
may await these mineral districts, in connection with
the easy and rapid mode of transit which this rail
way affords.
MONKTON-HALL, a small village on the left
bank of the river Esk, a mile north of Musselburgh,
in the parish of lnveresk, Edinburghshire. While
the Scottish army lay around it previous to- the bat
tle of Pinkie, a hurried and imperfect parliament was
convoked in the village, and enacted that the nearest
heir of any person who should fall in the battle
should, if the slain were an ecclesiastic, receive a gift
of his benefice, and, if a layman, have his ward, non-
entresse, relief and marriage free.
MONKTON and PRESTWICK, an united par
ish on the coast of Kyle, Ayrshire ; bounded on the
north and north-east by Dundonald, Symington, and
Craigie ; on the east by Tarbolton and St. Quivox ;
on the south-east and south by St. Quivox and
Newton-upon-Ayr ; and on the west by the frith of
Clyde. Its greatest length from north to south is
3J miles ; its breadth is from 1 J to 3 J miles ; and its
area is between 9 and 10 square miles. Two brooks
—one of which, called Powburn, is powerful enough
to drive two corn-mills — run across the parish to the
sea. The coast-line is about 2j miles long, low, flat,
and sandy, looking tamely up from a very slow dip
of submerged beach, and variegated with bluffs and
sandy knolls covered with bent. The surface of the
interior rises slightly from the frith, but looks to the
eye almost a dead level. The soil along the coast,
and over a considerable part of the southern district,
is light sand incapable of tillage ; in the central dis
trict, is a deep, rich loam ; and in the north and
north-east, is a strong earthy clay. The grounds
subject to the plough, and those which are waste or
in pasture, are nearly in the proportion to each other
of 24 to 7. The arable grounds are enclosed, for the
most part, with ditch and hedge, and finely sheltered
with belts of wood ; and exhibit results of the most
assiduous and skilful cultivation. The unreclaimed
lands serve for the pasturing of young cattle, and
owing to the warmth of the climate, saline deposi
tions, from the proximity of the sea, are judged con
ducive to the recovery of weak sheep. About 50
acres are under wood, nearly all plantation. Coal
was till very recently worked for 30 years from a seam
now nearly exhausted, lying within 6 or 7 fathoms
of the surface ; and it has been worked for about 25
years from a seam nearly 40 fathoms from the surface,
and 4£ feet thick. A quarry of excellent sandstone,
both red and white, is open near the shore. Of various
mansions and villas, the chief are Fairfield, Adamton,
and Orangefield. The village of Monkton i6 situated a
mile from the sea, and 4 miles north of Ayr, and has
a population of about 380. It is touched by the
Glasgow and Ayr railway, and by the turnpike be
tween Glasgow and Portpatrick, by that between
Ayr and Irvine, and by that between Mauchline and
Irvine. Other villages are Prbstwick and Prest-
wick-Toll : which see. Population, in 1801, 986 ;
in 1831, 1,818. Houses 281. Assessed property
in 1815, £6,377  This parish is in the presbytery
of Ayr, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron,
Reid of Adamton. Stipend £203 16s. lOd. ; glebe
£35. Unappropriated teinds £598. The parish-
church, situated half-way between the villages of
Monkton and Prestwiek, and built in 1837, after a
design by David Bryce, Esq., of Edinburgh, is at
once a conspicuous landmark, a commanding feature
in the landscape, and one of the most handsome eccle
siastical edifices in Ayrshire. Sittings 825. The
MON

378

MON

old parish-churches are still standing, and were both
iu use till 1837. That of Monkton is from 3$ to
nearly 4 feet thick in the walls, has long been bent
off the perpendicular on one side, is roofed chiefly
with oak, and has the traditionary fame of being the
very building near which Sir William Wallace had
the remarkable dream recorded in the 7th book of
tbe poem of Blind Harry. The church of Prestwick
is probably of equal antiquity, has stone buttresses
at the east end, serves as a landmark, and commands
a beautiful prospect of the frith of Clyde  The par
ishes were united in the 17th century, and consisted
of the old parish of Monkton, which was anciently
called Prestwick, the old parish of Prestwick, which
was anciently called Prsstwick-burgh, and the chapel
district of Crossby, which, previous to the Reforma
tion, belonged to Dundonald. Prestwick lies on the
south, Monkton in the middle, and Crossby on the
north. The first had its name from being the ' habi
tation of a priest ;' the second from becoming the
property of monks ; and the third from having ' a
dwelling at a cross.' The church of Monkton was
anciently dedicated to St. Cuthbert, and that of
Prestwick to St. Nicholas ; and both were given by
Walter", the son of Allan, the first Steward of Scot
land, to the monks of Paisley, and continued to be,
the former a vicarage, and the latter a chaplainry,
under them till the Reformation. In 1779, the
southern part of Prestwick was detached from the
district, and erected into the parish of Newton-upon-
Ayr — Between Prestwick and Prestwick Toll, stand
some ruins of an ancient hospital for lepers, dedicated
to St. Ninian. The establishment is traditionally
said to have been founded by King Robert Bruce,
who was himself afflicted with leprosy, the result of
hard fare, hard living, and hard work. It was endowed
with the lands of Robert-loan, now called Loans, in
Dundonald parish, with the lands of Sheles and Spi-
tal Sheles, and some other lands in Kyle Stewart,
and it was governed by a prior or guardian, and had a
chaplain. How many persons were originally main
tained by it cannot now be known. Wallace of
Newton acquired, in the reign of James II., its
lands of Spital-Sheles, the hereditary governorship
of its other lands, and the hereditary possession of its
office of keeper; and in 1515, Hugh Wallace of
Newton resigned the whole in favour of his brother
Adam. All that now remained of its revenue, were
the feu-duties payable from its lands granted in fee-
farm ; and this was thenceforth distributed in equal
shares among eight objects of the greatest charity, 
the leprosy having long disappeared. The right of
appointing the recipients belonged for a long time to
Wallace of Craigie, but was'purchased in 1 787 by the
burgh of Ayr. Robert Gordon, in his description of
Kyle, written in the reign of Charles 1.^ mentions the
chapel of the hospital, and says that the persons ad
mitted to the charity were then lodged in huts or
cottages in the vicinity — Parochial schoolmaster's
salary £34 4s. 4£d., with fees, and about £5 other
emoluments. The parish-school was attended in
1834 by 116 scholars ; and a private school by 52
MONREITH. See Glasserton.
MONRITHMONT, or Monteithmont Moor,
a moorish tract of about 2,000 acres, stretching north
ward from the most northerly part of the Sidlaw hill
range in Forfarshire. It was once a waste common,
unowned by any parochial district ; but is now almost
all a densely planted forest, and is understood to be
distributed among the parishes of Farnell, Kennel],
Kirkden, Guthrie, and Brechin,— about three fourths
being included in the first.
MONS-HILL. See Dalmeny.
MONTEITH, Monteath, or Menteith, a dis
trict occupying the south-west part of Perthshire

Excepting the parish of Balquidder which anciently
belonged to the stewartry of Stratnern, the district
comprehends all the lands west of the Ochil hills in
Perthshire, whose waters discharge themselves into
the Forth. The vale of thu Teith, whence the name
is derived, occupies the < antral and larger part, but
is flanked on the one sidr. by the Perthshire section
of the upper vale of the Forth, and on the other side
by the lower part of tne vale of the Allan. The
entire district is about 28 miles in extreme length
from east to west, and 15 in extreme breadth ; and
includes the whole of the parishes of Callander, Aber-
foyle, Port-of-Monteith, Kilmadock, Kincardine, and
Lecropt, and part of the parishes of Kippen, Dun
blane, and Logie. Large tracts of it are eminently
rich in the finest elements of landscape. Previous
to the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions, Mon
teith was a separate or independent stewartry.
The district anciently gave the title of earl to a
branch of the noble family of Graham. The earldom
was created in 1428, became conjoined with tbe earl
dom of Airth, and since 1694 has been dormant.
MONTEITH (Loch of), a fine sheet of water in
the parish of Port-of-Monteith, Perthshire ; of a
circular form, and about 7 miles in circumference.
Its shores display none of that rude magnificence and
grandeur which is the usual characteristic of High
land scenery ; but, on the other hand, they present
an aspect of soft and pastoral beauty which soothes
and gratifies the soul, filling the contemplative mind
with thoughts calm and quiet as its own transparent
waters. The northern shore is beautifully adorned
with oak, Spanish chestnut, and plane trees of ancient
growth, — the remains of those which adorned the
park of the Earls of Menteith. Some of the chestnut-
trees are 1 7 feet in circumference, at 6 feet above the
ground; and, from counting the rings at the last
thinnings of the wood — which was about 60 years
ago — it is certain that they must be above three cen
turies old. On the same side, the manse and church
of Port-of-Monteith, with the elegant mausoleum of
the family of Gartmore situated close on the margin
of the water, increase the interest of the scene. The
lake contains three islands, two of which, from the
noble wood that adorns them, add greatly to the
beauty of its expanse ; a long, narrow, wooded pro
montory, which runs far into the water, diversifies
the southern shore. The larger island is called Inch
mahome, or Inchmahoma, or ' the Isle of Rest;' and
well is it named so, for a more calm and quiet abode
could not easily be selected than might here be found
for a contemplative and pious mind: see Inchma-
home. The island immediately to the east, which
is less in size, is called the Island of Tulla, or the
Earl s Isle. Tulla signifies, in Gaelic, ' a hall ;' and
on this island the Earls of Menteith, the ancient
r£[ of the dlstrict of Monteith, had their residence.
The smallest island is called the Dog Isle, where the
Earls had their dog-kennel; while the stables were
situated on the western shore of the lake. Of the
chapels attached to the priory of Inchmahome, one
was situated at the east end of the lake, about a fur
long north from its outlet, and close to the shore, on
what is now the property of General Graham Stir
hng; another was at Arnchly, 'the Field of the
bword, about a mile from the west end of the lake;
a third at Cappellerroch, in the Barony of Drummond ;
a?d a f?urtu at Balquahapple, formerly the property
of the family of Drummond.
In our article on Inchmahome, we have stated that
the Princess Mary found an asylum in the priory
when a child, after the disastrous battle of Pinkie,
fought in September, 1547: on a gentle eminence,
close to the margin of the lake, there still remains a
boxwood summer-house, with a beautiful hawthorn

MON

379

MON

tree in the centre, in which, it is said, the youthful
princess often amused herself.— The ruins of the
residence of the Earls of Menteith still exist on the
island of Tulla. The buildings occupy almost the
whole island, and enclose a small court-yard. The
most spacious of the houses was at one time divided,
into three apartments. In the lower story was the
hall, furnished, as appears from an inventory of the
furniture, dated 1694, with "a pair of virginalls,"
with " my lord and ladye's portraits, and hangings
before them ;" " ane house knock, and case thereof;"
" ane large table," and " ane folding table." This
room was also hung " with green drogit hingings,
with gilt rods." Above the hall were bed-rooms,
each containing "a standing bed;" and in a tower
behind were three other bed-rooms. On the east
side of the island was a building called the brew-
house ; here was a bed-chamber, which appears to
have been "'hung with green," and furnished with
two beds, " one of green stuffe, with rods and pands
conforme," the other of " red scarlet cloath." This
" brew-house chamber" was besides decorated with
a red table-cloth, and " a red scarlet resting-chair."
The heat of the brew-house seems to have had at
tractions for sleepers, for not only had it above it the
gorgeous chamber we have described, but on each
side were what is termed " to-falls," in which there
were three beds, one brown and the others red.
The kitchen and the servants' apartments were on
the west side of the island ; and on the south is the
ancient towerof Tulla, frowning loftily over its more
modern neighbours. Nothing is known of the erec
tion of this tower ; but as there is no mention of any
furniture belonging to it in the inventory already
quoted, it appears that even then it had ceased to be
occupied by the Earls of Menteith as a residence. A
portion of the island of Inchmahome was occupied
by these nobles as a garden ; and their pleasure-
grounds were situated on the northern shore of the
lake, around the romantic hill called Choilledun, and
on the farm now called Portend  In a tour to the
Trosachs, published many years ago by Mr. Macnair
of Glasgow, an account of this lake is given. He
there mentions a singular mode of fishing, said to
nave been at one time practised here, but which has
now grown entirely into disuse. This was fishing
by geese. A line, with a baited hook, was tied to
the leg of a goose, which, thus accoutered, was
allowed to take its position in the lake. In a short
time it usually happened that a voracious pike would
swallow the bait, whereupon a violent struggle would
ensue between the two. Much noise and a great
deal of flapping of wings is made by the astonished
goose, as the pike after remaining stationary for a
time, now and then darts away like lightning, drag
ging him along. The goose at length prevails, and
the pike is secured.
MONTEITH (Port of), a parish in the district
of Monteith, Perthshire ; bounded on the north by
Loch-Vennachoir, which divides it from Callander ;
on the north-east by Callander and Kilmadock ; on
the east by the detached part of Kincardine ; on the
south by the Forth, which divides it from the Perth
shire part of Kippen, and from Stirlingshire ; and on
the west by Aberfoyle. Its greatest length in a line
east and west over Lochend is 7 miles ; its greatest
breadth from the east end of Loch-Vehnachoir to the
Forth opposite Puddle-holes, is 6^ miles; and its
area is about 32 square miles. -The lochs of Mon
teith and Vennachoir [see these articles] give
great brilliance to the landscape. The Forth, in
cluding the ceaseless and beautifully bold curvings of
its course, touches the parish over a distance of at
least 12 miles ; and just when entering, it debouches
from among the grand hill scenery of its origin and

early course, and begins to move with the slow proud
pace of conscious queenly beauty along the magnifi
cent valley which thenceforth forms its broad smooth
path. Goody-water, issuing from Loch-Monteith,
flows 3J- miles eastward through the interior. Loch-
Drunkie, « mile long, zoned with wood, and en
sconced among towering heights, lies on the western
boundary, and sends off a streamlet 1| mile long to
Loch-Vennachoir. Loch of Letter, Loch of Roskie,
and Dow-loch, are a chain of lochlets in the north
east, whence issues a tributary of the Goody, 2$
miles in length of course, chiefly along the eastern
boundary. Lochan-Ballach, a mile from Loch-Ven
nachoir, forms abeautiful round basin, about half-a-
mile in circumference on the highest summit of a
lofty ridge of heights. The' northern district, com
prising about one-third of the whole area, is wildly
upland, consisting of a congeries of rocky and moun
tainous elevations, chiefly covered with heath, and
admitting cultivation only in some confined hollows,
and along some narrow skirts. The south-east cor
ner comprises a part of Flanders moss, in all respects
similar in character to the famous one of Kincardine,
but still in a great measure useful for nothing but its
supply of fuel. The rest of the area — including a
district 2£ miles by 1£, lying on the south side of the
Forth, not comprehended in the measurements we
have given of the parish, and constituting the quoad
sacra parish of Gartmore : which see — is nearly all
level, consisting along the Forth of rich carse land,
and toward the hills of dry field, and presenting an
aspect of high culture and great agricultural wealth
and beauty  Gartmore-house, situated in the centre
of the Gartmore district, crowns a rising ground, and
commands a view of the whole valley of the Forth,
till it becomes lost in the horizon. The fields to the
south and east are well dressed ; and those on the
west and north are somewhat rocky, but much im
proved, and extensively planted with thriving trees.
Near the hous'e is Suir, noted as the spot where Rob
Roy is said to have taken from the factor of the
Duke of Montrose his collection of rents. Cardross,
situated on the north bank of the Forth, where the
river glides slowly, smoothly, and in silence, appears
to have anciently been the best house in Monteith,
and retains many marks of former magnificence. The
land around it is of the richest mould, dressed down
to the river's edge, and carries the finest and the
closest grass ; and the trees are stately and vigorous.
suited to the approach of a great place, — many of
them planted before the Reformation, especially the
planes, which never turn a shoulder to the blast. The
parish is traversed along the middle westward by the
road between Doune and the south bank of the head
of Loch- Katrine, and northward by two roads from
Stirlingshire, which converge, and run toward Cal
lander. Population, in 1801, 1,569; in 1831, 1,664.
Houses 284. Assessed property, in 1815, £8,553.
 This parish is in the presbytery of Dunblane, and
synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron, Erskine of
Cardross. Stipend £269 16s. 9d. ; glebe £8. Un
appropriated teinds £518 18s. Id. In 1834, the
parish-school was attended by 59 scholars, and three
private schools by 137. Parochial schoolmaster's
salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with £15 fees, and £9 19s. other
emoluments  Additional to the parish-church, situ
ated on the north bank of Loch-Monteith, and the
quoad sacra parish-church of Gartmore, there is a
place of worship belonging to the Establishment at
Ruskie, in the north-east district.
MONTQUHITTER, a parish in Aberdeenshire,
bounded on the north by King Edward ; on the east
by New Deer ; on the south by Fyvie ; and on the
west by Turriff. It extends about 9 miles from
north to south, by 6 from east to west. Houses 422.

380

MONTROSE.

Assessed property, in 1815, £2,248. Population, in
1801, 1,710; in 1831, 2,004. The surface is uneven,
and the whole district was formerly very moorish and
barren; but it has been considerably improved. Tbe
land is watered by two streams, contributary to the
Deveron, and the other to the Ythan, and themselves
receiving the waters of numberless and copious
springs. On the banks of the streams the soil is
deep and fertile, producing excellent crops. Some
extensive tracts of poor land elsewhere throughout
the district have been rendered arable. Joseph
Cumine, Esq., of Auchry, who founded the village
of Cumineston, was a great benefactor to the district,
enclosing and subdividing it into farms and fields,
and changing its whole aspect. He also introduced
the linen-manufacture, and tbe spinning of linen-
yarn. Garmond is another village of modern date.
At Lendrum in this parish, tradition relates that a
great battle, which continued three days, was fought
between Donald of the Isles and the Thane of
Buchan, in which the former received a final over
throw. A prophecy was long current that corn
growing on ' The Bloody Butts of Lendrum' would
never be reaped without strife and bloodshed amongst
those engaged in the work, and it is said to have been
surprising how often this prediction was literally
fulfilled ; " a circumstance which may be easily
accounted for," says the author of the Statistical
Account, " by the trepidation, or the furor which,
according to the respective constitutions of the reap
ers, is inspired by the recollection of this awful scene. "
The locality here known as Finlay's mire, indicates
the spot where some Covenanters were cut off by
the Ogilvies : heads of spears, &c, have been found
in an exhausted moss in this vicinity  The parish is
in the presbytery of Turriff, and synod of Aberdeen.
Patron, the Earl of Fife. Stipend £191 6s. 5d. ;
glebe .£18. Unappropriated teinds £295 2s. 2d.
Church built in 1764; enlarged in 1792. Sittings
1,050. An Episcopalian congregation was estab
lished at Cumineston in 1791. Chapel built in 1792.
Sittings 98. Minister's salary £53 10s  School
master's salary £29 18s. lOd. ; fees, &c, £23 10s.,
besides a share in the Dick bequest. There are five
private schools in the parish.
MONTROSE, a parish in the north-east extre
mity of the maritime district of Forfarshire ; bounded
on the north by Logie-Pert and Kincardineshire ; on
the east by the German ocean ; on the south by the
South Esk, which divides it from Craig ; and on the
west by Montrose basin, and by Dun. Its greatest
length from the mouth of the North Esk to a slight
bend in the South Esk at the harbour, is 4 miles ;
its greatest breadth, in a line east and west over
Kinnobar, is 3 miles and 5 furlongs ; its breadth, for
a mile south of the mouth of the North Esk, does
not average more than a furlong, and for ]£ mile
north of South Esk, averages between 6 and 7 fur
longs ; and its superficial area is about 3,080 Scottish
acres. The North Esk runs 3 miles along the northern
boundary, chiefly between high and wooded banks;
and forms various islets, and is, altogether, charmingly
picturesque. The South Esk touches the parish only
while running between Montrose basin and the sea :
See South Esk. Tayock-burn, coming in from
Dun, runs 1£ mile south-eastward, partly in the in
terior and partly along the boundary, to the north
east corner of Montrose basin. This basin is an ex
panse of nearly ellipsoidal outline, and about 7 miles
in circumference, alternately sheeted with pent-up
water, and exposed in the naked repulsiveness of
sand and sludge at the influx and the recess of the
tide. At high water, it has a charming aspect, looks
like a fresh water and brilliantly zoned lake, washes
the walls of the gardens which subtend the whole

west side of the town, and, by the regular and rapid
rush of waters which it occasions in the action of
the tide, both promotes the cleanliness of the burgh
and prevents the formation of a bar injurious to
navigation across the mouth of the river. An at
tempt was at one time made, by running a dike from
near the Forthill, along the bank of the South Esk
toward the estate of Dun, to cut off a considerable
part of the basin, and convert the strong carse clay
which forms its bed into arable land. But the dike,
in consequence of misunderstandings among the
parties interested, was very slowly constructed ;
and, just when nearly completed, it was laid pros
trate by a storm. The work was, not long ago,
traceable, and bore the name of the Drainer's dike.
Wild geese arrive in great flocks at the basin about
the end of October, and remain till March, frequent
ing the wheat stubble, or the green wheat fields on
the low grounds during the day, and spending the
night on the lagoon. Flocks of wild ducks alter
nate or reverse the possession of the two localities
with the geese. Swans visit the basin in severe
storms, but speedily depart. A list of the other
aquatic birds which frequent the locality, as well as
of the varieties of the duck and the goose, as drawn
up by Mr. Thomas Molison of Montrose, and pub
lished in the New Statistical Account of Craig, is so
curious that we append it in a note.* The beach
along the sea-coast is pure sand, dipping at so fine a
gradient beneath the wave, and affording so velvety
and uniform a carpeting for the feet, as strongly to
allure even the most timid to the luxury of sea
bathing. A low bank of bluffs, and sandy knolls,
thinly clad with belt, flanks the line of floodmark
from Esk to Esk. Behind this bank, and parallel to
its whole length, stretches a belt of undivided com
mon, a sandy or very light-soiled verdant tract, nar
row in the north and centre, but widening toward
the south, and eventually occupying the whole pen
insula between the basin and the sea, except the site
of the burgh and its outskirts. Land of naturally
the same description — sandy to a great depth, and
capable of bearing but slender vegetation — lies for 6
or 7 furlongs from flood-mark all the way along to
the North Esk ; and, behind the belt of common, it
is, on the north, covered with a plantation of firs,
and, toward the town, subjected to a scantily pro
ductive tillage. A mound or low bank of round
water-worn stones, only a few yards in breadth, and
used as the line of the Great North mailroad, runs for
a mile parallel with the sea, and flanks the sandy
grounds. West of this mound, the lands are all
powerfully fertile, and under prime cultivation. The
surface slowly rises toward the north-west, and attains
its highest elevation on the boundaries with Dun and
Logie-Pert; and though even here of very inconsi
derable height, a fine view is obtained hence of the
whole parish, the basin and the town, the windings
*"The oyster-catcher and sea-pyot; water-rail, water.oil-
Zf i.ts i WM late'y seen in the ba8'n- ""d afterwards shot
at .btnie- house ; the common heron and bittern, tlie curlew and
whimbrel; the common snipe and jack-snipe ; the common
godwit, Cambridge greenshank and redshank; the shore sand
piper, common sandpiper, black sandpiper, spotted sandpiper,
dunbin.purre, little stint, and turn-stone; the commou galli.
nule ; the common coot: the tippit, dusky, little and black.
chin grebes : the razor-bill, penguin, puffin, and little auk ; the
common, black, and spotted guillemot: the great northern
j "ii" , e,r' less8^• fln>t-8peckled, second-speckled, redthroat,
and blackthxoat divers; the common, lesser, Sandwich and
brown terns or sea-swallows ; the black-backed, herring, wagel.
common, winter, black-headed, kittiwake, and Arctic gulls ; the
stormypetrel , the goosander, dun-diver, red.breasted mergan.
aer, and smew merganser ; the grey lag-goose, white-fronted,
bean, barnacle, brent, eider-duck, velvet, sooter, mallard, hook.
bill, scaup, gadwale, wigeon, and shieldrake, pochard, pintail,
long-tailed, golden-eye, and tufted ducks; the teal-duck also
has been found on its eggs on Mountboy wood ; the cormo
rant, created Bhag or skart crested-shag, gannet or solan-
goose.

MONTROSE

381

<tf the South Esk among rich fields and embellished
lawns, much of the upper end of Strathmore studded
with mansions and feathered with wood, tbe round
tower and antique steeples of Brechin, the vast and
galleried amphitheatre of the Forfarshire and Kin
cardineshire Grampians, and a far-stretching expanse
of the German ocean, specked with the white sails of
merchant-craft, and occasionally with the dark form
of a steam-ship. The gentle general swell, the sum
mit of which gives this landscape to the eye, is called
Montrose-hill. No earths useful in manufactures
have as yet been discovered, except clay for bricks ;
limestone is worked on the estate of Hedderwick ;
and stone for building needs to be fetched from
Brechin. The parish is traversed for 3 miles by the
Great North mailroad ; 2 miles by » road going off
from it to Marykirk bridge ; and nearly 1 mile by
the road also going off from it toward Brechin. Po
pulation, in 1801, 7,974; in 1831, 12,055. " Houses
1,190. Assessed property, in 1815, £22,017.
Montrose is in the presbytery of Brechin, and synod
of Angus and Mearns. The charge is collegiate. Pa
tron of the first charge, tbe Crown ; of the second
charge, the Town-council. Stipend of the first minis
ter £292 5s. Id. ; glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds
£90 6s. 8d. Stipend of the second minister — de
rived from an assessment upon house-rents Within
the burgh, at the rate of 5d. per pound, in virtue of
an act of the Scottish parliament in 1690, authorizing
a maximum assessment of Is. per pound — £340.
The parish-church was built in 1791, and is double-
galleried. Sittings 2,500. A missionary labours
throughout the whole parish, and is supported by a
society whose committee and contributors belong to
all the religious denominations in the town. In
1834, a portion of the town district of the parish was
erected into the quoad sacra parish of St. John's.
After deducting this territory, the population of the
parish of Montrose, according to an ecclesiastical
survey in 1836, consisted of 6,040 churchmen, 1,924
dissenters, and 984 nondescripts, — in all 8,948 per
sons ; and according to an ecclesiastical survey of
the same year, the population of the quoad sacra
parish of St. John's consisted of 2,500 churchmen,
1,083 dissenters, and 168 nondescripts, — in all,
8,751 persons. The church of St. John's was built
as a chapel-of-ease in 1829, and cost £3,969. Sit
tings 1,430. Stipend £150, with about £20 for pro
viding communion elements  There are eight dis
senting congregations, all whose places of worship
are in the burgh. The first United Secession con
gregation was established about the year 1750. The
church was built in 1 750, and repaired and lofted in
1788; and, including a churchyard which surrounds
it, was supposed, in 1836, to be worth from £500 to
£600. Sittings 550. Stipend £90.—The second
United Secession congregation was established in
1787 ; and their present place of worship was built
in 1824, at a cost of £1,100. Sittings 750. Stipend
£115  The Wesleyan Methodist congregation was
established in 1793. Their chapel was built in 1814,
and cost upwards of £900. Sittings 300. Stipend
£60. — The Scottish Episcopalian congregation have
no record of the date of their establishment. Their
place of worship is a hall belonging to a society
of masons, and rented at £16. Sittings 170. Sti
pend various  St. Peter's Episcopalianj^ongregation
is in connexion with the EstablishsCTZ Eng
land, and date's from the period when jip^opacy
ceased to be the Established religion of Scotland.
Their place of worship was founded in 1722, and
opened in 1724. Sittings about 800. Stipend
£186, with the interest of £600 bequeathed, to
build a house for the minister  The Independent
congregation was established in 1800. Their chapel,

not originally designed to be a place of worship,
was bought, floored, seated, and galleried at the
cost of £625. Sittings 550. Stipend £80 
The Scottish Baptist congregation was established
about the year 1830, and in 1836 assembled in a
school-house gratuitously given for their use by the
magistrates of the town  The Baptist congrega
tion was established about the year 1812; and their
chapel was built about 14 years later at the cost
of £400. Sittings 200. Stipend, the surplus of
the ordinary collections over the expenses of the
congregation  In 1834, there were 27 schools, con
ducted by 34 teachers, and attended by 1,632 scho
lars. At the Montrose academy, the instruction
consists of English, writing, arithmetic, Greek,
Latin, mathematics, geography, and French. Salary
of the rector £50, with £100 fees ; of the first La
tin teacher £40, with £90 fees ; of the second La
tin teacher £50 ; of each of two teachers of writing
and arithmetic £25, with £100 fees ; of the first
English teacher £40, with £120 fees ; and of the
second English teacher £25, with £80 fees. In
1834 the academy was attended by 200 males and
147 females. Of the other schools one is situa
ted landward, and brings the teacher £2 from the
kirk-session, a house, a garden, and a free school
room ; another is a charity school, supported by a
mortification, and bringing the teacher a salary of
£36, with a house, garden, and school-room ; a
third is also a charity school, supported by a morti
fication, and brings a male and a female teacher, the
latter of whom teaches needle-work, the interest of
£900 in equal shares ; a fourth is an infant school,
supported by subscription, and yielding a salary of
£50 ; and a fifth and a sixth are schools belonging to
the trades, differing from private schools only in the
school-rooms being rent-free.
Montrose, a royal burgb, a sea- port, and an im
portant town, stands in 56° 34' north latitude, and
2° 10' longitude west from Greenwich ; 8 miles east
of Brechin, 12 north of Arbroath, 18 northeast of
Forfar, 22 south of Stonehaven, 30 from Dundee,
38 from Aberdeen, and 70 from Edinburgh. Its site
is in the peninsula which forms the south end of its
cognominal parish. The town stretches one side of
its whole length north and south along Montrose
basin ; it expands a large wing south-eastward along
the South Esk ; and it claims as burgh-lands, partly
dotted over with buildings, and partly disposed in
public promenade, or unenclosed common, the whole
" links" lying between it and the ocean on the east.
The ground beneath and around it, excepting three
hillocks or knolls on the basin, and the low sand
bank along the margin of the links, is nearly all
a dead level. Its' flat and nearly insulated position
might, at first thought, be supposed repulsive to
both the valetudinarian and the lover of landscape ;
but, on the contrary, it is at once salubrious and
eminently picturesque. Tbe dryness of the soil,
the absence of all marsh and stagnant water, and
the sweeping action of the current between the
basin and the sea, act favourably on the climate j
and to a person approaching from the south, and
coming in view of the town from the high ground
traversed by the public road in the parish of Craig,
the fine sweep of the broad South Esk fringed
with shipping, docks, and variform edifices, and
stretching out to the sea on the right, — the large
circular basin set round with richly-cultivated fields,
and forming the foreground to a far-spreading ex
panse of luxuriant landscape on the left, — the town
lifting up several imposing structures, and retiring
in a large broad field of architecture in front, — the
receding prospect behind it exhibiting a fine variety
of swell and hill and plain, and of mansions, fields, and

382

MONTROSE.

woods, till the eye ceases to discern distinctive fea
tures, — andthe dark, vast amphitheatre of the Gram
pians, piled shelvingly against the sky, and forming
a stupendous mountain-bulwark at 20 miles dis
tance, — altogether present one of the most diversified
and magnificent views in the United Kingdom.
The town, as entered by the suspension-bridge
over the South Esk, commences in two streets,
forking-off from the end of the bridge, running
somewhat parallel, each about £ of a mile long, and
both leading north-eastward to the head of the prin
cipal street. That next the basin bears the name
of Bridge-street, and is straight, spacious, modern,
and neatly though not entirely edificed. The other
bears the names of Upper-Fishergate and Castle-
street, and is narrow, of unequal width, winding,
antique, and disagreeable. Murray-street, tbe prin
cipal thoroughfare, runs due north, and is nearly half-
a-mile long. Commencing continuously with Castle-
street, and 100 yards east' of the end of Bridge-
street, it is at first a spacious area, split into two
thoroughfares by a suite of old grim buildings ; it
next bas a moderate width, and is subtended on the
east by the town-house and kindred edifices ; it now,
over a distance of 300 yards, becomes a street of un
common spaciousness, or rather a slender, elongated
rectangle ; and it finally goes off' in a straight line,
of fair breadth and reputable appearance. In its
expansive part, it has lofty houses, excellent shops,
and decidedly a city-aspect ; yet, several of the
houses being of the gable-end construction, and
most of them seeming to economize space, it
strangely but pleasingly blends ancient and oriental
with modern and airy features. A spacious road,
called the Mall, continues the line of Murray-street
about 5 furlongs northward ; and is thickly sprinkled
with edifices, — the mansion, the villa, but chiefly the
humble cottage. Two hundred yards east of the
end of the bridge commences a thoroughfare, which
makes nearly the segment of a circle over two-thirds
the length of the town, forming a kind of parallel to
both Castle-street and Murray-street, and then bends
slightly sea-ward till it debouches into the links.
This street is called for a short way Apple-wynd,
and afterwards Back-street ; it is of very unequal
width, now a mere alley, and now a spacious road
way ; and, with some pleasant exceptions, is mean
and dingy in its houses. Of some seven or eight com
munications which run westward from it, the only
noticeable ones are the New-wynd and John-street,
both opening into the very wide part of Murray-
street,' each about 220 yards lpng, and the latter en
tirely modern and neatly edificed. Running out into
the links, iifl continuation of John-street, is Union-
street, erected since 1838, and terminating at some
extensive factories of earlier erection. From the
middle of New-wynd, a narrow but closely-built
street, called West Back-street, wends upwards of
J of a mile to the head of the Mall. , Along the
east side of the town facing the links, and com
municating with the South Esk at the flag-staff east
of the end of Apple-wynd, runs what is called the
Walk, chiefly a terrace, or one-sided street line,
containing many comfortable and elegant houses. A
triangular space lying east of its south end, and mea
suring, nearly i of a > mile along the South Esk, is
occupied with various clusters and streetlines of
houses, the chief of which are River-street, parallel
with the river, and Commerce-street and Dock-
street, running up. into the links.
The town-house presents its west side to the nar
row commencing part of Murray-street, and its front
to the elongated parallelogram ; it has an arcade be
low, and makes a fine termination to the long spa
cious area in the centre of the town ; and it con-

| tains a council-room, a guild-hall, a court-room, a
coffee-room, and a large apartment occupied as a
public library. The jail, built about 9 years ago,
is a neat and substantial structure ; and has wiped
away the disgrace of the old prison, consisting of
two or three miserable cells, in the lumpish and
crazy town buildings at the south end of Murray-
street. The parish-church, situated immediately east
of the new town-house, is a huge plain building,
measuring 98 feet long by 65 over walls, and possess
ing no other noticeable property but its size. A
rickety and deformed steeple which formerly marred
the whole burghai landscape, was taken down in
1832, and substituted by an elegant and massive
Gothic tower, erected at a cost of £3,000, from a
design by Gillespie Graham, Esq. of Edinburgh, —
the tower rising to a height of upwards of 100 feet,
and surmounted by a spire of nearly the same height.
St. John's church, situated in John-street, is a hand
some Grecian edifice. St. Peter's church, situated
intne links, due east from the parish-church, is a
neat structure, handsomely fitted up in the interior:
and provided with an organ. The second United
Secession congregation's place of worship, and the
Methodist chapel, both situated in West Back
street, are unadorned but pleasing erections, free
from the gowstiness of the old meeting-house style.
The Montrose academy, standing on the links, 150
yards south of St. Peter's church, is an elegant and
commodious structure, surmounted by a neat dome.
Near the academy stands the school of the seven in
corporated trades, built in 1832. At the north end
of the walk stands another of the public schools.
Dorward's house of refuge, built in 1839, and afford
ing accommodation for 200 inmates, is a neat build
ing in the Old English style of architecture. William
Dorward, Esq., merchant in Montrose — a gentleman
of eminent excellencies, and large and enlightened
benevolence — gave for tbe erection and endowment
of this institution £10,000, expended about £600 on
furniture and additional building, and placed tbe
whole under the management of 24 trustees. The
Lunatic asylum, situated on the links, J of a mile
south-east of the academy, and 250 yards from the
river, is an extensive and commodious edifice, ori
ginally built in 1780, and afterwards repeatedly en
larged. The establishment is managed by the provost,
the first bailie, and the two parish-ministers of Mon
trose, five ministers of neighbouring parishes, eleven
landed proprietors in the country, and thirty inhabi
tants of the burgh ; it has a keeper, a matron, and
a resident medical superintendent ; it affords accom
modation for a large number of sufferers, and has
sometimes about 70 within its walls ; and it has
proved an eminent advantage to a large portion of
the northern section of the county. A royal charter
was obtained for it in 1811. An infirmary and a dis
pensary were formerly connected with it, — giving
relief annually to some hundreds of out-of-door pa
tients, besides a few received within the walls ; but
a new and separate infirmary was erected in 1839,
after a design by Mr. Collie of Glasgow, at the cost
of £2,500, is situated near the bridge, and promises
to be much more beneficial as an independent than
formerly, as a subordinate establishment.
Till near the end of last century, communication
was maintained across the South Esk with the burgh
and the great road to Aberdeen, only by means of a
ferry at Ferryden. In 1 793, a colossal timber-bridge
was built across the gullet between Inchbrayock and
the burgh, and was esteemed a wonderful erection;
but in consequence of an ill-advised narrowing of tbe
channel at its site, the rapid current soon carried away
its original bottom, and threatened to sweep it off
from the foundation ; and, after various expedients

MONTROSE.

383

were adopted with only temporary success to prevent
its destruction, it eventually became a piece of mere
shaking, fragile patchwork, and was condemned. A
magnificent suspension-bridge destined to succeed it,
and designed by Captain Samuel Brown of the royal |
navy, was founded in September, 1828, and finished
in December, 1829, at a cost of about £20,000.
The distance between the points of suspension is
432 feet. Each of the two towers, the tops of which
form these points, is 23J feet high from the foundation
to the roadway, 44 feet from the roadway to the top
of the cornice, and 3J feet in the entablature, — in
all 71 feet; is 40i feet broad at the cutwater, and
39£ at the roadway ; and is perforated by an arch
way 18 feet high, and 16 feet wide. Of four coun
ter-abutments for securing the chains, and which are
115 feet distant from the towers, each consists of an
arched chamber, a strong counterfort, a tunnel, and
lying spandrel arch. In these the backstay-chains
are strongly imbedded and fastened by great plates ;
and thence they rise to channels on the tops of the
towers. " The bars of which the main [suspending]
chains consist measure 8 feet 10 inches from centre
to centre of the bolt-holes, 5 inches broad between
the shoulders, and 1 inch thick throughout. All the
main links or bars are of the same thickness, except
those in the to wers, which are -j^th of an inch thicker,
and of length to suit the curve of the cast-iron sad
dles. Each main suspending chain — of which there
are two on each side of the bridge one over the
other, placed one foot apart — consists of four lines
of chain-bars. The joints of the upper main chains
are over the middle long bar in the lower chains ;
and the suspending rods which support the beams on
which the roadway is laid, are 5 feet distant from
each other. The chains are of wrought cable-iron ;
the beams are of cast-iron, formed with open spaces
26 feet 8 inches long, 10 inches deep at the neck of
the tenons, and 1 inch thick in every part between
the flanges." [New Statistical Account.] The
roadway is 26 feet broad between the suspending
rails ; the planking or platform is bolted to the iron-
beams, and overlaid with a composition of coal, tar,
pitch, and broken metal, impervious to water, and
deadening the hollow noise caused by the tread of
horses and the motion of vehicles ; along the sides of
the platform runs an ornamental cornice, contrived
so as to lessen the vibration of the bridge ; and a
stripe of the roadway at each side is disposed for
foot-passengers, and railed off from the carriage-way
by a handsome guard-chain. Such was, and such,
with some differences of detail as to the roadway,
still is, the suspension-bridge of Montrose. But the
splendid and seemingly powerful erection has, on
two occasions, suffered appalling accidents. " A
crowd having assembled on it," say the Messrs.
Nicol, " to witness a boat-race, and a rush taking
place to the east end as the boats passed through,
the upper chain gave way, owing to an imperfection
about one of the saddles on the top of the north
tower, and fell, resting on the lower chain. Several
persons were caught between the chains, and killed
on the spot ; but fortunately the under chain proved
sufficient to support the additional weight, otherwise
the whole party would have been precipitated into
the water. The bridge was speedily repaired during
1838; but in October that year a fearful gale tore
up and destroyed about two-thirds of it, which were
thrown into the river; but tbe main chains were
uninjured, and the roadway has been re-constructed
on an entirely new and substantial plan by Mr. J. M.
Rendal, civil engineer, at an expense of upwards of
£3,000. Including all repairs, the whole cost of the
erection has been nearly £27,000. The duties levied
.rt the bridge vield an annual revenue of £1,500." At

the time when the bridge was erected, the central
arch of the stone one across the southern channel of
the South Esk, was taken down, and substituted by
a revolving drawbridge which allows vessels to trade
upward to Old Montrose. See articles Inchbrayock
and Maryton. Forthill, a small eminence standing
close upon the river at the site of the suspension-
bridge, and anciently crowned with a fortification,
was cut through during the preliminary operations
for the erection of the bridge, and disclosed a stratum
of human bones nearly 14 feet thick.
The harbour of Montrose extends from the bridge
650 yards down the South Esk, opposite Inchbray
ock, and is very commodious, and furnished with
excellent quays. A good wet dock was constructed
during last century ; a patent slip for the repairing
of vessels was provided at a latef period ; and a dry
dock was a few years ago constructed on the opposite
bank. Two lighthouses stand on a line, 400 yards
apart, between the harbour and the sea, to guide
vessels into the river during the night. Connected
with them is a house, occupied by the keeper of the
lights, and provided with appliances for the recovery
of persons who have suffered shipwreck. Vessels of
all sizes navigating the coast have, at all times of the
tide, sufficient water to enter the harbour ; but, the
entrance being narrowed by a rock called the Stone,
which projects from the south side, they have, in
certain states of the wind, some difficulty in taking
the river. As a port of the custom-house, with a
complete establishment, Montrose comprehends with
in its bounds the whole coast, from the lights of Tay
on the south, to Bervie-brow or the Tod-head on
the north, and of course includes Arbroath, East
and West Havens, Gordon and Johnshaven. The
shipping belonging strictly to its own harbour, or
exclusive of that belonging to these subordinate
ports, was —
In 1789, 53 vessels of aggregately 3,543 tons.
In 1820, 83 .... 7,910
In 1831, 106 . . . . 10,300
In 1835, 108 .... 11,000
In 1838, 115 . . . . 15,000
Four large vessels were long employedin the Green
land whale-fishery, and fully shared the fates of that
precarious trade ; four regular traders sail to London,
two to Leith, and two to Glasgow ; one steam- vessel
has, for some time, plied to London every ten days,
and another to Leith daily; and the rest of the ship
ping is employed in the Baltic and the coasting trades.
The principal foreign import is flax, annually brought
from the Baltic to the amount of about 2,500 tons.
Timber, chiefly fir, is brought from the same quarter
to the annual amount of between 1,500 and 1,600
loads. Hemp and tallow are the only other imports
from abroad, and are very small in quantity. The
imports coastwise are principally coal, lime, slate,
and iron ; but, besides some other articles, they in
clude also almost all the wines and foreign spirits
which are consumed in the circumjacent country,
and which are bonded at the port till taken out for
consumption. Foreign exports scarcely if at all ex
ist; manufactured goods and other articles designed
for foreign markets being sent coastwise for exporta
tion from Dundee, London, Leith, and Glasgow.
Exports for home-markets consist, with the excep-"
tion of some pavement or ' Arbroath stones,' of
agricultural produce, fish, and pork. The grain sent
from the port is said to be greater in quantity, and
to be not lower in quality, than that sent from any
other in Scotland. In 1835, there were shipped
23,695 quarters of barley, 3,452 of pulse, 3,343 of
oats, 1,425 of wheat, 65 of rye, and 114,560 stones
of potatoes. A great part of the produce of excel
lent salmon-fishings in the river, and along the coast.

384

MONTROSE.

is sent in a fresh state to the London market [see
Ferryden] ; and to the same market and other
parts of England are sent vast quantities of dried
and salted cod. In 1835, the quantity of salmon
shipped was 1 ,882 boxes, and of cod 902 barrels. In
the same year cured pork was shipped for London
to the extent of 202 tons ; but it has since greatly
increased in quantity, and become an article of staple
trade. The manufactures of the town are very consider
able both in importance and in variety. Four flax
spinning-mills are driven by steam-power aggregately
equal to 129 horse-power, and produce nearly 900,000
spindles a-year. Three other mills connected with
the town, but situated on the North Esk, one in the
parish of Montrose, two in that of Logie-Pert,
[which see,] and all driven by water-power, produce
about half the quantity of the town-mills. Between
500 and 600 looms, five-sixths of which are in fac
tories, are all employed on the heavier and finer linen
fabrics, — dowlas, sheetings, sailcloth, and bagging.
The largest article is bleached dowlas, and the next
largest bleached ducks. The aggregate annual quan
tity of all the fabrics woven is about 25,000 pieces,
exclusive of a very considerable produce at agencies
in the neighbourhood. " The average nett weekly
earnings of all classes of weavers," say the commis
sioners on Hand-loom Weavers' Report, published
in 1839, " was stated by them to be 6s. 8d. ; but,
as stated by the manufacturers, and corroborated by
the examination of their books, was from 7s. 6d. to
8s. 6d. Saturday afternoon and Monday are gener
ally idle days : the average of working hours per
week may be about 70. Embezzlement has been
only lately suspected. Intern perance always increases
with any advance of wages. The weavers here
were on remarkably good terms with their employ
ers, to whose liberality they consider themselves
much indebted. They find little difficulty in getting
an advance of wages without dispute, whenever the
state and prospects of the trade are good." The
minor manufactories are two large tan-works, a foun-
dery, two extensive rope-works and sail-making
establishments, five breweries, a starch-work, two
soap and candle works, and two large establishments
for making machinery. Ship-building, both for the
port of Montrose and for other ports, has long been
carried on to a considerable extent, and with a ratio
of increase nearly proportioned to the slow but
steady prosperity of the town. Bricks and tiles are
made in the vicinity. The species of snuff-box gen
erally known as the Cumnock box was made in
Montrose before being known in Ayrshire, and still
continues to be produced, but not in such quantity
as to compete with Cumnock and Mauchline.
Montrose had for some time a parent-bank, which
disappeared in 1828; and it has at present branch-
offices of the British Linen company's bank, the
Bank of Scotland, the Dundee Union bank, and the
National bank of Scotland. There are in the town
a natural and antiquarian society, established in 1837,
and a museum of mineralogy, zoology, and antiqui
ties; a commercial news-room, and an exchange
coffee-room ; two weekly newspapers — the Montrose
Review, of long standing, and the Montrose Stand
ard, of recent origin ; a public subscription-library,
founded in 1785, and containing between 7,000 and
8,000 volumes, a library belonging to the Montrose
Reading society, and two parochial libraries consist
ing chiefly of religious books; an ancient hospital
fund, under the management of the town- council,
vielding between £160 and £190 a-year in monthly
pensions to the poor, consisting of the proceeds of
church-lands and teinds granted to the town in 1587
by James VI., and amounting in stock, at 30th Sep

tember, 1833, to £4,431 Is. 10d.; various educa
tional and charitable institut.ons, connected with
public buildings, at which we have already glanced;
Bailie James Auchterlony's charity, founded in 1752,
and consisting of the interest of £560 for the general
poor,  Miss Mill's, instituted in 1803, the interest
of £467,— Mr. Mill's fund, the interest of £1,000,
 John Erskine, Esq. of Jamaica's charity, a bequest,
dated October 1786, of £2,000 for the benefit of 10
poor families with each three children, and of £3,000
for educating and maintaining 8 fatherless or mother
less poor boys, and which having been advantage
ously vested in the lands of Harvieston, Kincardine
shire, annually yields each of the 10 families about
£13, and each of the 8 boys about £18, besides ag
gregately £50 a-year to an additional teacher in the
grammar-school, — David White's free-school.founded
in 1816, for 100 poor children, and his fund of £800
for the benefit of 20 householders, — Miss Jane Strat-
ton's charity, established in 1822, and consisting of
a mortified fund of £1 ,800, employed in equal shares
for the education of 42 boys and 35 girls, and for
the support or aid of 10 poor gentlewomen, — An
drew Frazer's charity, instituted in 1826, * fund of
£500, tbe interest of which is annually expended on
the 26th of February, in the distribution of coals and
meal to the poorest inhabitants, — Mrs. Innes' fund,
the interest of £1,000 for 10 poor widows.—Miss
Graham's fund, the interest of £100,— Mr. Cooper's
fund, the interest of £50, — a society, founded in
1799, for the relief of the destitute sick, — a society,
founded in 1806, for the relief of indigent women, —
and Miss Jane Thomson's fund, instituted in 1838,
and consisting of the interest of £3,500, and £30 of
annual rent from property in John-street, for half-
yearly distribution among 5 poor men and 5 poor wo
men, inhabitants of the town, and of good character.
Notwithstanding the great length of this list, and
the very important pendicles of it anticipated in our
notice of public buildings, we believe it is not com
plete, and must refer the curious for fuller informa
tion to 'the Angus and Mearns Remembrancer,'
published annually, and to the local sketches of the
Messrs. Nicol. The inhabitants of Montrose will
appear to any man, from a glance at the institutions,
and especially at the charitable ones, compared with
the amount of the population, to be aggregately a
very different class from that of many a manufac
turing town of the same bulk. They singularly
combine intelligence with industry, largely benevo
lent and liberal feeling with the arts of acquiring
wealth, concern for intellectual and moral culture
with care for the appliances of outward respectabi
lity, and appreciation of the best features of social
life with indifference, or even contempt, for the fop
peries and the monkeyisms of rabble-aristocraoy.
Though they probably include a larger proportion of
families in opulent or easy circumstances than, with
at most four or five exceptions, are to be found in
any town of Scotland, no one needs be surprised that
they have fixed a cold and withering look upon the
amusements of the theatre and the turf. A race
course was at one time tracked out on tbe links, on
as fine ground for the purpose as anywhere exists;
but it has not once, for a long series of years, been
the scene of so much as one race. A theatre, too,
was built in Bridge-street ; and, after being the oc
casional resort chiefly of apprentices and strangers,
and then standing several years, assuming an appear
ance of premature desolation, was converted into
dwelling-houses. Players, some five or six years
ago, occasionally visited the town, and perhaps still
do so, performing in places of temporary accommo
dation, but receiving no countenance from the re
spectable inhabitants, and obtaining, as is thought,

MONTROSE.

385

very slender remuneration for their trouble. The
fine healthful game of golf seems the chief amuse
ment away from their own hearths which the Mon-
trosians care for ; it is much practised by persons of
every rank and age, on one of the best grounds for
the purpose in Scotland. Cricket likewise is a good
deal practised on the same grounds,  the links.
The burgh of Montrose is of high antiquity ; its
first charter is from David I. The burgh place is
to be held with all privileges and freedoms, " adeo
libere sicut bona villa mea de Perth de me tenetur."
David II., by a charter dated 1st May, in the fortieth
year of his reign, of new grants the burgh of Mon
trose to the burgesses and community thereof " cum
territoriis et communi pastura dicti burgi sibi adja-
centibus, cum piscariis infra aquas de North Esk et
South Esk, in crovis, yaris, et retibus antiquis, et
consuetis et pertinentibus ad dictum burgum, cum
molandinis, sive ad ventum, sive ad aquam, et eorum
multuris, cum tolloneo, parva custuma, curiis et
earum exitibus habendis et tenendis in locis dicti
burgi debitis et consuetis, cum moris, maresiis, se-
mitis atque viis, necnon cum omnibus aliis et singulis
libertatibus, commoditatibus, aisiamentis, ' et justis
pertinentiis quibuscumque, tam infra dictum burgum
quam extra, tam sub terra quam super terram, ad
praedictum burgum spectantibus, seu quoquo modo
juste spectare valentibus, in futurum adeo libere et
quiete, plenarie, integre et honorifice, bene et in
pace, sicut aliquis burgorum nostrorum Scocie * * * *
conceditur." — In virtue of this charter, the petty
customs, multures, weigh-house, flesh-market dues,
&c, have been levied. About 58 years ago the meal
and malt mills were disused, and since then no mul
tures have been exacted. By a charter of King
James IV., dated 20th September, 1493, that
monarch gave and granted to " our lovittes, the
aldirmen, balzies, consale, and communitie of our
burgh of Montross, and their successoris perpetual-
lie, siklike privilegis, freedoun, charges and anker-
ages, to be raist and taken at the pere, port and
bavin of oure said burgh, of all schippis, crearis, and
botis pertening to our leigis and strangaris, as is
grantit and given be our maist nobill progenitors to
the ports of Leyth and Dundee, or any otheris
within our realme." In virtue of this charter the
magistrates levy shore-dues, anchorage, and plank-
age at the harbour, by which they uphold piers,
buoys, and moorings within the harbour. The pro
perty of the burgh consists of lands, houses, feu-
duties, the harbour, shares in Marykirk-bridge,
seats in the churches, money lent to the trustees of
the Forfar road, and money in the bank ; it amount
ed, in 1832, in gross value, to £54,986 12s. 3d. ;
and. after the deducting of debts, and all liabilities,
it snowed a free balance of £27,442 16s. 7^d. In
1833, the revenue was £3,184 3s. 8£d. ; the ex
penditure £4,700 17s. 10d., — extraordinary expenses
having been incurred by important local improve
ments. The corporation revenue in 1839-40 was
£3,007. The assessments by authority of parliament
are that for the second minister's stipend, the cess
or land-tax, and twopence on the pint of ale and
beer for supplying the town with water ; by autho
rity of charter the shore and harbour dues, the petty
customs, the weigh-house dues, and the fleshmarket
dues. ; and by authority of the head court, an assess
ment for lighting the town, amounting, in 1833, to
6d. per pound of. rent, — an assessment for a night
patrol or police, amounting, in 1833, td 3d. per
pound of rent ; three farthings per ton on all vessels
clearing out from the harbour for the maintenance of
|the light-houses, and of a bonded wood-yard ; and
an assessment of 4d. per pound of rent on all
houses above £3 within burgh, in aid of the kirk-
II.

session's funds for the poor. The head-court, or
municipal assembly of the citizens, has been regu
larly held at least once a-year for about 150 years
back. The burgh is governed by a provost, 3 bailies,
a dean-of-guild, a treasurer, and 14 councillors.
In the charter of erection by King David I., the
burgh lands are said to contain " quatuor carucatas
terre cum dimidia ;" but the privileges of the bur
gesses are thereby declared to extend " de aqua de
Thawhoke usque Findon, et de Findon per partes
boreales usque ad aquam de Carndy, et sic descen-
dendo per partes australes usque ad aquam de
Deychty, sicut currit in Dromlay." The magistrates
and council, however, exercise: no jurisdiction over
this extensive territory; and the royalty of the
burgh, over which the jurisdiction of the magistrates
extends, though not exactly defined, is understood
to be circumscribed by the German ocean on the
east, by the river South Esk on the south, by the
Constable-hill on the south-west, by the burn of
Tayock (or Thawhoke as it is called in the old
charter) on the west, by the lands of Newmanswalls
on the north-west, and by the lands of Wardhouse
and Charleton on the north  The Constable-hill,
which the town acquired by purchase, and which
is included in the parliamentary boundaries, is
consequently beyond their jurisdiction. A weekly
court is held by one of the bailies  There are no
pecuniary limits to the magistrates' jurisdiction in
civil causes  One of the town clerks acts as as
sessor to the magistrates  The civil offices in the
patronage of the magistrates and council are those
of — two town clerks, whose salaries and emoluments
average about £51 ; — the procurator-fiscal, who ia
elected annually after the appointment of the magis
trates, and has no salary ; — the chamberlain, who is
also elected annually, is a member of the council,
and receives £50, or 50 guineas, per annum ; — the
master of the hospital, and the treasurer, also mem
bers of the council, who receive no salaries, and the
greatest part of whose duties is done by the cham
berlain, who keeps all the accounts belonging to the
offices; — three town Serjeants, including the gaoler,
who receives 15s., the others 10s. 6d. per week; —
the constable, whose business is to keep the town
free of vagrants, and who receives 9s. per week ; —
the coal-meter and his servants, whose business is to
weigh coals delivered from the ships to the inhabi
tants of the town ; — and the other offices are those
of the second minister of the quoad civilia parish,
and the rector, and all the teachers of Montrose
grammar-school  There are 7 incorporated trades j
and a guildry. The trades, with the respective
number of their members in 1833; and the entrance-
fees severally exacted by them from strangers, are
blacksmiths, 43, £5 ; wrights, 45, £5 ; shoemakers,
33, £5; weavers, 53, £2 10s.; masons and slaters,
39, £10; bakers, 27, £5; and tailors, 41, £5. They
possess funds, which they apply to the relief of sick
and poor aged members; but, in no instance, have
any right of presenting, or of being presented to
schools, hospitals, or similar institutions. The in
corporation of the guildry enjoys the exclusive pri
vilege of carrying on merchandise within the burgh.
The number of guild-brethren alive at Michaelmas
1831 was 269. In 1709 they were reported to be
about 200  The fees exacted on entry are, — for
strangers, £16 16s.; — for apprentices, £10 10s. ;_
sons and sons-in-law of guild-freemen, £8 8s. — No
sums are paid annually by members  Previously to
1816 the magistrates and council took the exclu
sive management of the funds of the guildry ; but
that year the guildry obtained the control of their
own funds, and received from the magistrates the
sum of £150, said to belong to them. At Michael-
2b

386

MONTROSE.

mas 1831 the funds amounted to £170 Os. 8d. :
the annual rent of these funds is paid quarterly to
the decayed members of the incorporation, and to
the widows and children of decayed members left
in indigent circumstances. The fees of entry for
burgesses aTe, for strangers, £4 4s; for apprentice
to a freeman, £3 3s. : for a freeman's son or son-in-
law £2 2s. ; besides 5s. to town-clerk, and 3s. to
the town-officers. — Tbe town is lighted at night
with gas by a company formed in 1827 ; and supplied
with water brought in pipes from a place about 3
miles distant in the parish of Dun. Private water-
pipes are allowed to houses on payment of 2£ per
cent, on the rent. The, streets have of late years
been well-paved and superintended; and are kept
clear of every sort of nuisance. A weekly-market
is held pn Friday, when the chief part of the grain
shipped at the port is sold by sample, and all de
scriptions of farm and garden produce are exposed ;
and annual fairs are held at Whitsunday and Martin
mas, chiefly for the hiring of servants. Montrose
unites with Arbroath, Brechin, Forfar, and Bervie
in sending a member to parliament. Constituency,
in 1839, 387. Population, estimated in 1709, at
6,000; in 1801, at 7,000; and, in 1821, at 9,000;
stated in the New Statistical Account, written in
1835, to be 11,500; and amounting, in 1841, to
15,094. . Montrose, according to Boethius, was anciently
called Celurea. Very conflicting and uncertain
opinions have been advanced as to the etymology of
its modern name, and are thus succinctly disposed of
by a contemporary : — " In Latin, it is called Mantu-
rum by Ravenna ; and by Cambden, Mons Rosdrum,
' the Mount of Roses ;' in French, Mons-trois, ' the
three hills or mounts ;' in the ancient British, Mant-
er-rose, 'the mouth of the stream;' in the Gaelic,
Mon-ross, ' the promontory hill,' or Moinross, 'the
promontory of the moss ;' or meadh (pronounced
mu) ain-ross, 'the field or plain of the peninsula.'
The second of these derivations, though the
most unlikely of all, is countenanced by the seal
of the town, which bears the ornament of roses,
with the following motto : — ' Mare ditat, Rosa de-
corat,' — the sea enriches and the rose adorns ; but
the two last, hesides being the most probable, cor
respond best with the pronunciation of the name by
the common people in the neighbourhood, and by
all who speak the Gaelic language, to wit, Munross." '
[Chambers' Gazetteer.] — Montrose is named in Dal-
rymple's Annals of Scotland, under the year 1244,
as one of the principal towns of the kingdom which,
in that year, were destroyed by fire. A castle of
very ancient origin, formerly crowned the summit of
Fort-hill ; and, on the authority of Sir James Bal
four and of Wynton,. contests the notoriety of having
been the scene of King John Baud's humiliation
to Edward of England, and divestment of his royal
robes and crown : — «
" This Jo'hn the Baliol, on pnrpos
He tuk and browcht hym til Munros,
And in the castell of that town,
That then was famous in renown,
This1 John the Baliol dyspoyled he
Of all his robys of ryaltie. ,
The pelure tuk offhis tabart,
Tume tabart he was callyt aftyrwart." WVNTON.
Montrose, according to Froissart, was the port
whence Lord James Douglas, at the nead of a nu
merous knightly retinue, embarked in the spring of
1330 to fulfil the last charge of King Robert Bruce,
to carry his heart to Jerusalem and deposit it in the
holy sepulchre. In the rolls of the parliament held
in Edinburgh in 1357 for ransoming David II. from
his English captivity, Montrose figures in the very

centre of the royal burghs, eight preceding and eight
following it ; and would therefore appear to have at
that period attained very considerable consequence.
The inhabitants of Montrose suffered severe and
arbitrary oppressions from John Erskine, Laird of
Dun, the grandfather to the celebrated reforming
companion of John Knox, and from members of his
family; and eventually driven beyond patience by
their tyranny, obtained, in 1493, a royal warrant
calling them to account for their conduct. In 1534,
the tyrant's grandson, the illustrious Erskine of
Dun, afterwards superintendent of Angus, intro
duced Greek literature into Montrose, and estab
lished there a seminary in which the Greek language
was taught by persons brought by him from France.
This seminary was the earliest appliance in Scot
land for conveying a knowledge of Greek. Andrew
Melville, born in tbe contiguous parish of Craig, of
ten styled the father of presbytery in Scotland, and
justly regarded as the reviver of Scottish learning,
and the founder of Scotland's literary greatness, was
educated in this seminary ; and when he removed in
his 14th year to the university of St. Andrews, he
astonished his teachers, none of whom understood
Greek, by displaying acquaintanceship with the
learned language. James Melville, the nephew of
Andrew, also attended this seminary, and, in his diary,
gives some interesting details of the management of
the school, and of kindness shown to him by the
parish minister. In 1612, Montrose witnessed the
birth within its precincts of James Graham, Marquis
of Montrose, the distinguished figurant in the civil
wars of Scotland, first as the champion of tbe Cove
nant, and next and chiefly as the enthusiastic parti
san' of the infatuated Stuarts. From May 1648 till
February 1649, the plague desolated the town, driv
ing crowds to the country in panic, and making such
fearful havoc among those who remained, that a large
tumulus is pointed out to the present day, on the
links immediately north-east of the town, as the
place where many victims to it were interred. At
the commencement of the 18th century, John
Young, a citizen of Montrose, who had been sent by
the magistrates to Holland to learn the best known
methods of constructing and working windmills, was
the only person found in Scotland to understand the
management of pumps in coal-works.' In December
1 715, the Chevalier, missing the Frith of Forth, whi
ther he designed to steer with his French fleet,
sailed into Montrose, and commenced there his pre
posterous expedition; and in February 1716, he
spent a night in the town, went by a back-door from
his lodgings to those of the Earl of Mar, walked
thence by a private footpath with two attendants
to the sea-side, and there was taken on board a ves
sel prepared to carry him off, and made his escadfe to
France. The house in which he lodged was that in
which the Marquis of Montrose was bom, and long
commanded attention as the most noted ancient tene
ment of the town, but, a considerable number of
years ago, was removed. The noble family of Gra
ham, who have had from Montrose the titles suc
cessively of Earl, Marquis, and Duke in the peerage
of Scotland, have long ceased to possess any con
nexion of interest with either the town or its vicinity,
MONYMUSK, a parish in Aberdeenshire, bound
ed on the north by Oyne ; on the east by Chapel-of-'
Garioch and Kenmay ; on the south by" Cluny ; and
on the west by Toughaand Keig. It measures from
4 to 5 miles in each direction. Houses 188. As
sessed property, in 1815, £2,301. Population, in
1801, 901; in 1831, 1,011. The river Don inter
sects the parish in a south-easterly direction, first
dividing it from Oyne on the north. The soil is
chiefly a light loam, interspersed with fields of a

MONZIE.

387

clayey nature, both of which are extremely produc
tive. The arable land, lying chiefly on the banks of
the Don, is enclosed, well-cultivated, and highly em
bellished with plantations, of which there are up
wards of 4,000 acres in the parish. The hills are
partly covered with wood, partly in heath, and partly
in pasture : the waste and pasture lands are estima
ted at about 3,000 acres. The parish abounds with
excellent granite, much of which has been shipped to
London and elsewhere. Iron ore has been discovered,
containing, it is said, 13-20th parts of iron ; but it
has not been worked, on account of the scarcity of
fuel ; felspar has been worked for the Staffordshire
potteries, but the land-carriage was felt to be too
expensive. The only building of note in the parish
is Monymusk-house, on the southern bank of the
Don. There is a distillery ; and two saw-mills are
well employed. The chief antiquities are Pitfichie-
castle, said once to have belonged to the family of
General Hurry or Urrie, of note in the time of the
Covenanters ; two Druidical circles, an ancient cha
pel, &c. King Robert Bruce is said to have halted
with his army, immediately before the battle of In
verury, at Campfield, near Monymusk-house. — The
parish is in the presbytery of Garioch, and synod of
Aberdeen. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £202 15s.
6d. ; glebe £12 6s. The church, situated in the
village of Monymusk, is very ancient, supposed to
have formed part of the priory of Monymusk, founded
in the 11th century by Malcolm Canmore. Sittings
580  There is also an Episcopal chapel in the vil
lage. Sittings 150  Schoolmaster's salary £26;
fees, &c, £17 10s. Lord Cullen's school is endowed
from a mortification by Sir Francis Grant of Cullen,
Bart., late of Monymusk, and one of the senators of
the College-of-justice. Schoolmaster's salary about
£50. Ten or twelve poor scholars are taught gratis
at this school, and an equal number at the parochial
school, part of the master's salary being derived from
this mortification. There are three or four private
schools in the parish.
MONZIE, a parish in the centre of Perthshire ;
bounded on the north by a detached part of Ken
more and by Dull ; on the east by Fowlis- Wester ;
on the south by Crieff; and on the west by Moni
vaird and Comrie. Its form, which is very irregular,
may, in a general view, be regarded as a square or
broad rectangle, deeply indented at each of the four
angles. Its greatest length from east to west is 9
-miles ; its greatest breadth is 8 miles ; and its area
is about 48 square miles. Its southern boundary is
the skirt or lowest declivity of the Grampians ; and
its area all runs up among the first or frontier gallery
of the broad and broken Grampian range. Two-
thirds of it are a congeries of very high hills, partly
green, but mostly covered with heath, bleak and
naked, rarely trodden by human foot, cut down by
narrow, swampy, bent-clad flats, and abandoned as
irreclaimable wilderness to the pasturing of High
land or black -faced sheep. The other third, how
ever, is singularly rich in the beauty, variety, and bold
ness of scenic romance  The rivulet Barvie, which
runs 4 miles along the western boundary to the
southern extremity, has nearly its whole course along
a broken, rapidly descending, and very deep dell ;
and leaps from ledge to ledge in an almost constant
succession of small cascades, sometimes 100 feet be
low the brow of its banks, and ail the way overhung
by steep rocks, partly naked and frowning, and partly
dressed out in a profusion of natural wood — The
rivulet Keltie, which runs parallel to the Barvie,
about a mile east of it, over a distance of 3| miles in
the interior, comes r\oldly and shiveringly down for
half its length among the mountains, enters the
delusion of a dark ravine, and, becoming pent up by

a pressure of rocks to a breadth of five feet, tumbles
tumultuously down a smooth rocky precipice, 90 feet
in height, into a pool 43 feet broad, called, along
with the cascade, Spout-bay. The stream now con
tracts within a very narrow bed, — runs along a
thickly wooded dell, 150 feet deep, — performs seve
ral leaps of 10 feet among inaccessible steeps, — steers
its way in a channel through solid rock, at one place
12 feet wide and 9 deep, at another 6 feet wide at
top, 12 feet wide at bottom, and 10 feet in depth, —
and finally debouches into a plain through a rocky
gorge, only about 4 feet wide. All the way along
the dell, there is an artificial footpath, for the accom
modation of the tourist; and in full view of Spout-
bay stands a hermitage, where a stranger may survey
and admire the cascade  The river Shaggie rises, as
do also the two former streamlets, in the loftiest
hill-range of the parish, runs 4^ miles south-east
ward, southward, and south-westward, in the inte
rior, receives the waters of the Keltie, traces for a
mile westward the southern boundary, and, drinking
up the Barvie, passes away to become tributary to
the Earn. Its upper course is between high banks
luxuriantly clad in copsewood, and is picturesquely
varied by three waterfalls, — one of them, a mile
above the village of Monzie, over very rugged rocks,
55 feet high, from a platform 18 feet broad, into a
pool or basin 43 feet wide : and, from a point a little
below this fall, where its banks suddenly widen and
break down into a plain, its lower course is along a
rich and blooming valley, the seat of two-thirds of
the whole population. — Near the head of the valley
stand the village of Monzie and the parish-church ;
and | of a mile to the south-west, appears the fine
form of Monzie-house, peering out from amongst a
grove of stately and aged trees, several of which vie
in their bulk and efflorescence with the monarch-trees
of almost any forest in the kingdom. Seen from
vantage-ground east of the church, the general land
scape is one of no common interest ; in the fore
ground lies the luxuriant and warmly tinted valley,
with the house and woods of Monzie in the centre,
presiding over a hill-encinctured expanse of rich fields
and lawns, and with the picturesque Knock at the
side, lifting up masses of pine into communion with
the clouds ; and in the perspective stretches the dark,
frowning rampart of the Comrie hills, overlooked in
the far-distance by the misty summits of Benvoirlich,
Benmore, and Benledi, faintly cutting a sky-line
against the blue back-ground of the heavens  North
of the mountain-range, whence spring the streams^
already noticed, runs the Almond, — traversing the"
extreme length of the parish, fronj west to east, —
maintaining all the way, with the exception of 2
miles south-eastward, a direction due east, — and
tracing, for 2 miles before it takes its leave, the
boundary-line between Monzie on the north, and
Fowlis- Wester on the south. Over its whole course
within the parish, but especially toward the east,
where it traverses the singular gorge called the Small
glen of the Almond, or emphatically Glenalmond,
the stream, both in itself, and especially on its banks,
is a continuous chequered belt of thrilling romance
see articles Almond and Glenalmond. Near th&
large cave, midway up the face of a stupendous rock,
and capable of accommodating 60 men under arms,
mentioned in the former of these articles, grows a
solitary and very ancient pine, far away from any
kindred tree, and preserved from the touch of the
credulous by a tradition which says, that if any per
son cut a branch from it, he dies and it lives ; and
beside it is a natural adjustment of stones into
arches and corridors, called 'the Kirk of the wood;'
so curiously constructed, as almost to seem a Work
of art. In a particular part of the glen, among the

388

MONZIE.

hills, there is a distinctly repeating verbal echo ; and,
in the Small glen, owing to its sinuosities offering
obstructions to a free current of the air, and to the
absence of all lateral communication, whirlwinds are
formed, which have occasionally lifted horsemen from
their saddle, and obliged travellers to seek shelter
for hours behind the rocks, and a sound is produced
so loud, hollow, and reverberating, that strangers
almost invariably mistake it for thunder. Tempests
and whirlwinds occasionally sweep the whole hill
country, unroofing houses, overturning stacks, tear
ing up heath and broom, and even rolling along large
stones ; slight shocks of earthquakes are sometimes
felt coming east from Comrie ; and waterspouts and
sudden inundations from rain sometimes spread deso
lation along the valleys. In 1756, a waterspout,
breaking out in the heights above the village of Mon
zie, took its course down the Shaggie, raised it 20
feet perpendicular at the bridge, and swept entirely
away a bank near the village, which cost £500; and
left behind in its sudden subsession, such quantities
of fish, that the inhabitants carried them home in
basketsful. Two years later, the water, during a
heavy rain in the hills, collected on the top of the
brae near Monzie, and carried down such a quantity
of earth into the Shaggie, as left a den 200 feet long,
upwards of 100 feet wide, and 70 feet deep. Slate
of excellent quality is worked in Glenalmond ; red
sandstone, compact and durable, is quarried on the
estate of Cultequey. Plantation, chiefly of larch,
oak, ash, Scotch fir, elm, and willow, covers several
hundred acres ; and natural wood forms considerable
stripes and patches on the banks of the streams.
Cultequey-house is pleasantly situated in the south
east corner of the parish, on a peninsula formed
by the two head-streams of the Pow, or Powaffray.
¦ — About 2 miles east of the church, on high ground at
the lower end of the deep narrowdefile of Glenalmond,
— the only pass through the frontier Grampians over
a distance of 40 miles, — are vestiges of a large camp,
defended on two sides by water, and on the other sides
by morass and precipice. It is about 180 paces long,
and 80 broad. It is traditionally called the Roman
camp, and has been alleged to have accommodation
for 12,000 men  On a moor immediately east of it,
several acres were till lately thickly dotted with
cairns, some of which measured from 10 to 14 paces
in diameter ; and from their sepulchral contents, as
well as other evidence, it appears to have been the
scene on which some ancient armies sustained the
shock of conflict and carnage  Two miles to the
north, enclosing the summit of the high hill of Dun
more, overlooking Glenalmond, and completely com
manding that romantic pass, is a strong fort, inacces
sible on all sides but one, defended by a deep trench
30 paces beyond the walls, and consisting of strong
stone bulwarks, in some places double, partly vitri
fied on the west side, and enclosing an area of about
half-a-rood. The erection is believed to be Celtic,
and has by some, who credulously follow the legends
of tradition, been regarded as the habitation of Fingal
after his house was burnt by Gara. Even that house
itself is said to have stood near the camp at the lower
end of the glen, at a locality called in Gaelic Fian-
teach, ' Fingal's-house.' The statist in the Old Ac
count, who is one of the believers, adds, " And we
know both his [Fingal's] father and his son are
buried here;" and elsewhere he tells us that a par
ticular cairn " is called Cairn-Comhal, in memory of
Fingal's father ;" that " there is a small camp on the
south side of the parish, hear to Cultequey, called in
Gaelic Comhal Cults, i. e. Comhal's battle;" and
that " tradition says Comhal fought here, but lost
the battle." The locality of the ' Cairn-Comhal' is
a moor 2 miles east of ' Fianteach,' pn which there

are, or lately were, many cairns and tumuli. In its
vicinity is a fort called Lene, twice as large as that
on the hill of Dunmore, exceedingly strong, sur
rounded by two ramparts 20 feet apart, and each 20
feet thick, the inner wall measuring 240 paces in cir
cumference. Other antiquities, Druidical, Roman,
and Celtic, occur, or have been dug up; but except
ing the reputed grave of Ossian [see Almond],
about which there has been much rencontre of wit,
and respecting which the old statist stoutly says,
"We are certain that the famous Caledonian bard;
Ossian, lies here;" they are too numerous and mi
nute to bear separate notice — The village of Gil
merton [see that article] stands on the boundary
with Fowlis- Wester, and has about 240 inhabitants
within Monzie. The village of Monzie has very
long been stationary, and possesses a population of
about 120. A fair called St. Lawrence's used to be
held at the village on the 22d and 23d of August ;
and it is still, as to the former of these days, held
here for lambs, sheep, and black cattle ; but as to
the latter of them, it has been transferred to Crieff,
3 miles distant, and ranks as one of that town's eight
annual fairs. The parish is traversed by the High
land road up Glenalmond, and by roads leading to the
entrance of the glen from Crieff and Monivaird 
Population, in 1801, 1,157; in 1831, 1,198. Houses
253. Assessed property, in 1815, £4,243.— Monzie
is in the presbytery of Auchterarder, and synod of
Perth and Stirling. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£158 16s. lid. ; glebe £27. The church was built
in 1831 . Sittings about 500. Affixed to the wall
of the church is an ancient instrument of punish
ment, which belonged to the old church, and seems
to have been Used in the rough period of superstition '¦
and semi-barbarism, and is called the jougs. The
modern parish was greatly altered in boundaries from
the ancient one by the Court-of-session in 1702.
Two large and contiguous tracts, which occupy its
present centre, and which belonged respectively to
Crieff and to Fowlis- Wester, were annexed to it;
and two detached districts— those of Logiealmond
and of Innerpeffray — which lay at a considerable dis
tance respectively to the east and to the south, were
separated from it, and united, the former to Monedie,
and the lat< er to Muthil  Near Buchandy bridge,
at the loweT end of Glenalmond, are the ruins of St.
M'Bean's chapel, surrounded by a cemetery still
partially in use. Near the north-east corner of the
parish, in a most romantic situation, stood another
chapel, now quite erased, but commemorated by its
cemetery. Tradition says, that on the evening be
fore the battle of Luncarty, 60 men took the sacra
ment here, all of whom went to the field, and only
6 returned. In 1834, the parish-school was attend
ed by 71 scholars ; and a private school in Gilmerton
by 75. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d.,
with £27 16s. 6d. fees, and £5 7s, 6d. other emolu
ments. MOONZIE, a parish in Fifeshire, probably tbe
smallest rural parish in Scotland. Its greatest length
from north to south is scarcely 2 miles; and its
greatest breadth from east to west is about the same.
In some places, however, it is scarcely half-a-mile in
breadth. The surface is finely diversified by various
round shaped hills of no great eminence, presenting
in other places, particularly where it marches with
Kilmany, level flats of considerable extent. , It is
bounded on the south by the parish of Monimail ; on
the east by Cupar and Kilmany ; on the north by
Kilmany and Creich; and on the west by Creich.
It contains about 1,100 Scotch, or 1,375 Imperial
acres. The valued rent of the parish is £1,789
Scots. The real rent was, in 1793, £1,000 sterling;
in 1815, it was assessed for the property-tax on a

MOO

389

MOR

rental of £2,763 sterling. Population, in 1801, 201 ;
in 1831, 188. Houses 45. There are only two ob
jects possessing any antiquarian interest in the par
ish, — Cairnie castle, commonly called the Lord's
Cairnie, an ancient seat of the Earls of Crawford ;
and the old house of Colluthie, the remains of the
residence of the Ramsays of Colluthie. The castle
of Cairnie is said to have been built by Alexander,
3d Earl of Crawford, commonly called Earl Beardy
from his great beard, or the Tiger Earl from the
fierceness of his disposition. All that remains of this
ancient stronghold of the once powerful family of
Crawford is the keep or donjon, and a round tower
which had formed a defence for the wall with which
the court-yard was surrounded. This ruin is four
stories high, and appears to have lost nothing of its
original height, with the exception of the bartizans
which surrounded its roof. It is 53 feet in length,
and 42 in breadth, without the walls. The walls
are strongly built, and between five and six feet
thick. The ground-floor — as is common in such
structures — appears to have been entirely occupied
by cellars, having arched stone-roofs. The second
floor was occupied entirely with the great hall, which
is about 40 feet in length, and above 20 feet in
breadth. The defence of the castle and its outworks
was anciently strengthened by a broad morass which
appears to have entirely surrounded the slight rising
ground on which they were situated  The house of
Colluthie is said to have been erected by Sir William
Ramsay* of Colluthie, who, about 1356, married
Isabel, Countess of Fife, daughter of Duncan the last
Earl of Fife of the ancient race of Macduff. There
seems, however, little reason to believe that the
house — which is still habitable — was erected by this
Sir William, as that would make it about 100 years
older than the castle of Cairnie. The house, the
walls of which are very thick and of great strength,
has been repaired as far as'possible to preserve it, by
the present proprietor, Mr. Inglis. From the thick
ness of the walls, indeed, one would be inclined to
think that this building had at one time been loftier
than it now is ; but of this there is no certainty, as
its whole appearance has been much modernized and
altered in many ways. — This parish is in the synod
of Fife, and presbytery of Cupar. Patron, the Earl
of Glasgow. Stipend £187 17s. lOd. ; glebe £30.
* Sir William Ramsay of. Colluthie appears to have visited
France in 1356, — probably previous to his marriage with the
Countess of Fife. He went in the suite of the Earl of Doug
las, who was also accompanied by Archibald de Douglas his
kinsman, brother to the kuight of Liddesdale. The Earl offered
his services, and that of the knights and squires who accom
panied him, to John of France, then apposing the English in
vasion under Edward the Black prince. They were present
at the battle of Poictiers, on the I9th of September, 1356, when
Archibald de Douglas was made prisoner by the English, but
effected his escape through the presence of mind of Sir William
Ramsay. The story is thus told by Fordun : " Archibald
Douglas having been made prisoner along with the rest, ap
peared in more sumptuous armour than the other Scottish pri
soners, and, therefore, he was supposed by the English to be
some great lord. Late in the evening after the battle, when
the English were about to strip off his armour, Sir William
Ramsay of Colfuthy happening to be present, fixed his eyes on
Douglas, and affecting to be in a violent passion, cried out,
* You cursed, damnable murderer, how conies it, in the name
of mischief, {ex parte Diaboli,) that you are thus proudly
decked out in your master's armour 1 dime hither, and pull
off my boots !' Douglas approached trembling, kneeled down,
and pulled off one of the boots : whereupon Ramsay, taking
up the boot, began to beat Douglas with it. The English by-
atanders imagining him out of his senses, interposed, and
rescued Douglas. They said, that the person whom he had
beaten was certainly of great rank and a lord. ¦ What, he a
lord,' cried Ramsay, • he is a scullion, and a base knave ! and,
as I suppose, has killed his master.' Go, you villain, to the
field, search for the body of my cousin, your master, and when
you have found it, come back, that at least I may give hira a
decent burial '.' Then he ransomed the feigned serving-man
for forty shillings; and having again buffeted him smartly,
cried, 'Get you gone I fly!' Douglas bore all this patiently,
carried ou the deceit, aud was soon beyond the reach of hie
euemies."

The church stands on a rising ground at the western
extremity of the parish, and forms a conspicuous ob
ject from the Newburgh road. It is a plain building
with a belfry at the one end. It was gifted by Wil
liam Malvoisin, Bishop of St. Andrews, to the min
istry of Scotland's Well, — an institution founded by
him previous to 1238, and in which he planted a
colony of the 'Fratres Sanctae Trinitatis de redemp-
tione captivorum.'f It appears from the charter, that
the church of Moonzie was dedicated to the Holy
Trinity ; it also appears, that the parish was at this
time called Urhithumenesyn. The name was after
wards spelled Uchtermonsey, as in 1513, Alexander
Crawford of Uchtermonsey succeeded his nephew in
the earldom of Crawford. In consequence of the
gift of the Bishop, the brethren of the ministry drew
the tithes of the parish for their support, and sup
plied the cure ; and this arrangement continued till
the Reformation. After that event, it was con
joined with the parish of Cupar, about 1564 ; and in
1576 a reader appears to have been appointed. In
1625, seven years after the parishes of Cupar and
Tarvet were conjoined, Mr. James Wedderburn was
appointed minister, since which time it has continued
a separate charge. The parish-schoolmaster has the
maximum salary, and a good house and garden.
MOORFOOTHILLS, a range of moorish hills
on the southern boundary of Edinburghshire:
which see.
MORAR, a territorial district and a lake on the
west coast of Inverness-shire. The district is
bounded on the north by Loch- Nevis, which divides
it from Knoydart ; on the east by the district of
Lochiel ; on the south by Arisaig ; and on the west
by the Sound of Slate. Its extreme length, from east
to west, is 19 miles ; and its breadth varies between
4 and 9. Loch-Morar bisects a great part of it length
wise, and divides it into two nearly equal sections,
which are called respectively North and South Mo-
rar. The lake is 10J miles long, and from 5 furlongs
to 1| mile broad ; it is overhung nearly all round,
and, at a very brief distance, by water-shedding
Highland heights, but has a fringing of wood upon
its immediate banks ; it is fed on tbe east by stream
lets coming from the lochlets Beoraich and Ana-
mack ; and it discharges its perfluent waters on
the west by a stream of only a few furlongs in length
into a small bay. North Morar belongs to the parish
of Glenelg, and South Morar to that of Ardnamur-
chan ; and both are included, in a large sense, in the
comprehensive district of Lochaber. Morar is, with
few exceptions, peopled by Roman Catholics ; and,
in 1836, was provided, by voluntary subscription,
with a new Roman Catholic chapel.
MORAY FRITH, a gulf in the extreme north
east of Scotland ; a sea rather .than a bay or an
estuary; the largest projection, and at tbe same
time one of the most regular, which the ocean makes
into the Scottish coasts. Loosely defined, but with
reference chiefly to its interior waters, it is the iEs-
tuarium Vararis of ancient geographers. Its limits,
as assigned by the modern hydrography of the coun
try, are somewhat various, and not very, distinctly
understood ; but, on the whole, they distribute into
two easily ascertained parts, an exterior and an in
terior  The exterior frith comprehends all the open
sea south-west of a line between Duncansby-head in
Caithness-shire and Kinnaird's-head in Aberdeenshire,
onward to the entrance of the inner frith between
Tarbetness in Ross-shire, and Burgh-head in Mo
rayshire. It blends with the German ocean on the
f The purpose of this institution was to form a receptacle
for religious pilgrims ; and the resident friars collected chari
ties which were applied to the redeeming of Christians, who
had become slaves in the Turkish dominions.

390

MORAY.

north-east, and, along the artificial line of con
nexion with it, measures nearly 80 miles ; it has the
counties of Caithness, Ross, and Cromarty on the
west, and measures on that side about 70 miles ; and
it has Morayshire, Banffshire, and Aberdeenshire on
the south, and measures along that coast about 57
miles. Except at an opening on its west side, im
mediately north of Tarbetness, where it sends off
the Dornoch frith, and at a smaller opening on the
same side, 8 miles south of Duncansby-head, where
it expands into Keiss or Sinclair bay, it has a singu
larly uniform coast-line, sufficiently diversified with
gentle curvatures to be freed from monotony, but
uncut by deep incisions, and everywhere marked
with only tiny bays and small headlands. The prin
cipal rivers which enter it on the west are the Wick,
the Berriedale, the Helmsdale, and the Brora ; and
on the south are the Findhorn, the Lossie, the Spey,
and the Doveran. All the coasts of the frith, from
Wick round to Kinnaird's-head, are rich, and have
become industriously plied in their fisheries ; and, in
particular, they yield immense quantities of herrings,
though aggregately of inferior quality to those of the
fisheries dn the west coasts of Scotland— The in
terior Moray-frith, where it opens from the exterior
between Tarbetness and Burgh-head, is about 16
miles wide. It thence projects south-westward, to
Ardersier or Fort-George, 24 miles along the coast
of Ross and Cromarty, and 22 along that of Moray,
Nairn, and Inverness. Fifteen miles south-west of
Tarbetness, between the north and the south Sutors
of Cromarty, which rise like the sides of a huge gate
way to admit its ingress, it projects the Cromarty
frith between Ross and Cromarty. From its entrance
to Ardersier, it gradually contracts, till, over a dis
tance of 2 miles, it is only from 1 to 1J mile broad.
After passing Ardersier, it suddenly expands, and
thence to Kessock-ferry, at the mouth of the river
Ness, a distance of 9 miles, it has a mean breadth of
about 3 miles ; but there it suffers rapid though brief
contraction to about half-a-mile, and, by a caprice in
topographical nomenclature, loses its name, and is
declared to terminate. A continuation of it 7 miles
westward, by an extreme breadth of 2 miles, is called
the frith or loch of Beauly : see Beauly Loch.
The interior Moray frith, except in its outer skirts,
presents quite a contrast to the exterior frith as to
at once the wealth, the abundance, and the variety
of its fisheries ; and though possessing along its
coasts some regular communities of fishermen, af
fords them such small employment, that they gen
erally resort to the fishing-grounds north of Tarbet
ness. For-ianotice of some geognostic phenomena
connected with the frith, and of the general appear
ance of its coasts, see following article.
MORAY (Province of), a large district in the
north-east of Scotland, now without any political
assignment of territory, yet quite distinct in the
popular application of its name, the extent of its
geographical limits, and the individuality of its phy
sical features and historical associations. Though
its boundaries are very variously stated by topo-
graphists, they may easily be ascertained by refer
ence jointly to ecclesiastical jurisdiction and to phy
sical configuration ; the extent of the modern synod
having been little altered from that of the ancient
diocese, and the surface of the country forming, with
slight exceptions, a convergence of upland troughs,
from a stupendous line of water-shed, to a great com
mon plain or laterally prolonged lowland basin. The
Moray frith, inner and outer, naturally constitutes
the boundary on the north-east and the north. The
boundary-line for the other sides commences be
tween the embouchure of the Doveran and that of
the Spey; it penetrates the country south-west-

Ward up the water-shed between these rivers ' and
their tributaries, till it seales the Cairngorm moun
tains, and touches the great central mountain-range
of Scotland ; it then turns westward, and moves ¦
along the summit ridge of that range till it passes the
head of Loch-Laggan, and arrives at the sources of
the Spey ; it now proceeds north-westward to the
head of Loch-Lochy, and thence northward till it
falls upon the river Beauly at the cascade of Kil
moraek ; and it finally passes down that river and
Loch-Beauly north-eastward to the Moray frith.
The province thus comprehends all Elginshire, all
Nairnshire, a considerable part of Banffshire, and
nearly a moiety of continental Inverness-shire.
The eastern half of the province is aggregately
much more lowland than the western ; the mountains
which everywhere occupy the south, coming down
with increasing approach to the north, till, for some
distance on the west, they render the whole country
characteristically highland. The northern district
as a whole is champaign, and may be described as a
band of country prolonged for 60 miles from east to
west, with a breadth of from 2 to 12 miles, and a
superficial area of about 240 square miles. This
long belt of lowlands is greatly diversified with
ridgy swells, and terraced or low hilly ranges disposed
parallel to the frith ; and is intersected by the rivers
Ness, Nairn, Findhorn, Lossie, and Spey, running
across it to the sea. The grounds behind the low
lands appear, as seen from the coast, to be only a
narrow ridge of bold or alpine heights, rising like a
rampart to guard the orchards and the woods, and
the rich expanse of waving fields below from all in
vasion ; but, when approached, they disclose them
selves in file behind file of long and broad mountain
masses receding, in all the wildness and intricacy of
Highland arrangement, to a distant summit-line.
Much the larger portion may be viewed as simply
the screens of the vast glen, — the long and grand
mountain-strath, of the Spey, and of the numerous
tributaries which cut their way to it along lateral
glens) another and considerable portion, partly iden
tical with the former, are the vastly fissured masses
of the Monadleagh mountains, flanking the Findhorn
and its head- waters ; and a third, though' much
smaller section, consists of the heights which tower
up from the sides of the east end of the great glen
of Scotland, admitting, amidst a little wilderness of
alps, broad clefts and long narrow vales of picture
and romance. Yet, so much opened are the High
land districts of the province, and so practicable
many of the> declivities to the plough or to other
instruments of cultivation, that the bottoms and the
reclaimed or reelaimable sides of the valleys are
estimated to comprehend about one-third of the en
tire area.
Nearly all the intenest of Moray as a province, and
often all the associations of its name, are connected
with its lowlands. The coast of the country is al
most everywhere low ; and the sea-board is remark
able for a great terrace bank which extends from
the mouth of the Spey to Inverness, and thence up
the great glen to Loch-Ness. This terrace rests
upon a base about 14 feet above ordinary high wa
ter-mark, and possesses in itself an elevation above
that base of about 76 feet ; it sometimes juts out
into the sea in the form of headlands, but generally
overlooks a belt of low plain lying between it and
the beach, and occasionally recedes several miles
into the interior ; and it varies in breadth from a few
hundred yards to two miles, and is nearly horizontal
in its surface. Other terraces or terraced banks
occur behind along the skirts of the hills, but are
uncontinuous and of comparatively small extent.
Except along its skirt, where the vertebras of whales

MORAY.

391

and the saltwater shells of existing species have
been found, the great terrace, so far as has been
ascertained, does not contain any marine deposit,
or discover any decided mark whatever of marine
formation. It seems even free from either fossils or
fragments of any organized bodies, except a few
stumps of oak and fir trees, and consists throughout
of the sandy particles, the rolled pebbles, and the
massive boulders of all the rocks common to the
circumjacent country. White sandstones and corn-
stqnes, which occur in sites in the west, have been
carried away in loose, fragments, and deposited on
hills about Portsoy and Banff, at and beyond the
eastern frontier of the province ; and a beautiful red
porphyritic granite, which occurs at Calder and Ard-
clach between the Nairn and fhe Findhorn, appears
sprinkled in rolled boulders over the country as far
east as the mouth of the Spey. Harmoniously with
these appearances in the diluvial formation of the
lowlands, the rocky escarpments on the sides of the
interior mountains face generally to the south and
the west, and neighbouring accumulations of their
debris dip, in their slopes or inclined planes, toward
the northwest. Hillocks of drifted sand, free above
tide mark from all shells and other organic remains,
and seemingly brought down from the diluvial ter
races bythe action of the prevailing south-west wind
of the climate, extend for many miles along the mar
gin of the frith, from Burgh-head to the vicinity of
Nairn, and are continually changing their forms and
their relative positions.* A curious and singular
formation, locally designated 'the Moray Pan or
Coast,' occurs in various low grounds in the east,
and occasions the worker of the soil no little per
plexity and labour. It is a thin stratum of sand
and gravel, brought chemically into contact with
black oxide of iron, seemingly by infiltration from
above,, and glued by it into a hard compact mass ; it
is so hard as to break any plough which forcibly
touches it, and, at the same time occurs at the in
convenient shallowness of scarcely a foot from the
surface ; it offers unconquerable resistance to the
attempts of any trees or shrubs to penetrate it with
their roots, and even kills every plant whose fibres
come in contact with it ; and it so baffles all ordi
nary methods of georgical operation, that the farmer
has no certain way of counteracting its malign effects
upon the soil, but patiently to demolish it with tbe
* The following notice of these waste and dreary hillocks
occurs in the 'Sketches' of Lord Teigomouth : — "A sand
bnnk extends aloog the coast, from the western shore of tlie
Findhorn river, nine miles in length, and two in breadth.
It consists of finely-pulverized sand, unmingled with shells or
pebbles, cast up into innumerable hills, some of which rise to
120 feet, and are so steep thatthey cannot be ascended without
difficulty, as at each step the leg sinks knee-deep in the yield
ing material. Not a blade of vegetation appears to vary the
dreary surface, excepting reeds, which appear. at a distance of
about half-a-mile from the shore : and nothing is visible, ex
cept from the top of some of the highest hills, but a boundless
wilderness of saud, reminding eastern travellers of the deserts
of Arabia. A compass is almost necessary to direct one's
course across it; and, during a gale of wind, it would be diffi.
cult to escape being overwhelmed bythe drift. Houses and
various veBtiges of great antiquity — of which Sir William dim
ming possesses one apparently of Roman origin — have occa
sionally been disclosed. The accumulation of this vast aggre
gate of moving sands has been gradual. The barony of Cuibin,
which it covers, was one fertile in natural productions, and
adorued with villages." An account of the province of Moray,
written hy Boethius, dates the commencement of the sand-
drift in 1097, the same year in which the well-known * Good
win Sands' were formed on the coast of Kent; and it adds,
— " The desolation was completed prior to the year 1(595.
The narrative of the act of parliament then made to prevent
the pulling up of bent — a reedy grass which establishes itself
in this wild region — relates that the barony of Cuibin, and
house and yards thereof is quite ruined and overspread with
sand. Tradition, conjoined with the narrative of the act of
Karliament, relates that the desolating visitation began in the
arvest of the year 1097, and before the end of the spring
thereof, had whelmed more than 1,200 acres of fertile land."

pickaxe, and expose it in fragments to the attrition
of the weather.
The lowlands of Moray have long been known to
fame for mildness and luxuriousness of climate. A
certain dryness of atmosphere, in particular, has been
repeatedly celebrated by historians and poets. But
this property, so delightful in itself, seems to have
intimate connexion with the equally though lugubri
ously celebrated phenomenon of " the Moray floods."
The high broad range of mountains on the south
west shelter the lowlands from the prevailing winds
of the country, and exhaust many light vapours and
thinly charged clouds which might otherwise pro
duce such drizzlings and frequent gentle rains as
distinguish the climate of most other lowland dis
tricts of Scotland; but, for just the same reason,
they powerfully attract whatever long broad streams
of heavy clouds are sailing in any direction athwart
the sky, and, among the gullies and the upland glens,
amass their discharged contents with amazing rapi
dity and in singular largeness of volume. The rivers
of the country are, in consequence, peculiarly liable
to sudden freshets and disastrous floods. One gen
eral and tremendous outbreak, in 1829, in which
they desolated glen and plain, fore up woods and
bridges and houses, and powdered and carpeted
scores of square miles with the wreck of regions
above them, afforded an awful exhibition of the pe
culiarities of the climate, and will long be remem
bered, in connexion with the boasted luxuriousness
of Moray, as an illustration of how chastisement and
comfort are blended in a state of things which is
benignly adjusted for the moral discipline of man,.
and the correction of moral evil. So full an account
of the floods, and so generally accessible to the read
ing population, has been given by the graphic pen
of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart., that we' need
not attempt to give any details. A single example
which may, on a small scale, serve as an illustra
tion of the whole, will be found quoted from the
baronet's work in our article on Knockando. The
average annual fall of rain at Elgin, considerably
east of the middle of the lowlands, was, for three
yeaVs ending in 1829, 25.355 inches ; and the aver
age temperature for the same period was 48° 33'.
Probably no part of Scotland, not even East
Lothian, that exulting retreat of masterly agricul
ture, can compete with Moray in the number and
brilliance of the spontaneous testimonies which have
been borne to its capabilities and wealth as orchard
and tillage ground. We must, in ordinary duty as
topographists, repeat some of these which have be
come irksomely hackneyed, and add one or two
which have been less frequently noticed. A very
.old and common saying asserts, according to some
versions, that Moray has 15, and according to others
that it has 40 days more of summer than most other
parts of Scotland. George Buchanan extols the
province as superior to any other district in the
kingdom in the mildness of its climate, the richness
of its pastures, and the profit arising from its fruit
trees. Whitelock, referring to the time of Oliver
Cromwell, says, " Ashfield's regiment was marched
into Murray-land, which is the most fruitful coun
try in Scotland." William Lithgow, after glancing
at Clydesdale and the Carse of Gowrie, says, " The
third most beautiful soil is the delectable plain of
Moray, whose comely gardens, enriched with cornes,
-plantings, pasturage, stately dwellings, overfaced
I with a generous Octavian gentry, and toped with a
I noble Earl, its chief patron, miy be called a second
i Lombardy, or pleasant meadow of the north."
I Bishop Leslie, with the warm and partial feelings
| of a son of the soil, says, '• Regio est una pra

392

MORAY.

caeteris omnibus apud nos ob amoenitatem celebrata.
Est enim plana, minime palustris; quaa crebro saltu;
odoriferis herbis, pratis tritico, omni frumenti ge-
nere, pomiferis hortis ac littore finitimo plurimum
delectat. Ulic aura sala berrima, variores multo
nebula; atque pluviae quam usquam alibi, atque adeo
magna propterea nobilium virorum seges." Sir Ro
bert Gordon of Straloch, describing the province in
1640, says, " In salubrity of climate, Moray is not
inferior to any, and in richness and fertility of soil
it much exceeds our other northern provinces. The
air is so temperate, that when all around is bound
up in the rigour of winter, there are neither lasting
snows nor such frosts as damage fruits or trees.
There is no product of this kingdom which does
not thrive there perfectly ; or, if any fail, it is to
be attributed to the sloth of the inhabitants, not to
the fault of the soil or climate. Corn, the earth
pours forth in wonderful and never-failing abundance.
Fruits of all sorts, herbs, flowers, pulse, are in the
greatest plenty, and alf early. While harvest has
scarcely begun in surrounding districts, there all is
ripe and cut down, and carried into open barn
yards, as is the custom of the country ; and, in
Comparison with other districts, winter is hardly felt.
The earth is almost always open, the sea navigable,
and the roads never stopped. So much of the soil
is occupied by crops of corn, however, that pasture
is scarce ; for this whole district is devoted to corn
and tillage. But pasture is found at no great dis
tance, and is abundant in the upland country, and a
few miles inland ; and thither the oxen are sent to
graze in summer, when the labour of the season is
over. Nowhere is there better meat, nor cheaper
corn, not irom scarcity of money, but from the
abundance of the soil." These testimonies all pre
cede the era of modern agricultural improvement ;
and, so far as we are aware, they have no counter
part in the times since that era began. Moray,
when other districts became aware of their poverty,
and made a sudden and strenuous movement towards
wealth, was, in a great measure, contented to live on
the fame of its opulence ; and, while congratulating
itself on the " ease combined with elegance" of its
natural position, eventually was excelled in the
luxuries of the farm and the orchard by many a
district which had been comparatively a desert.
About the beginning of the present century, it had
entirely lost its famed pre-eminence ; and, while
still distinguished by the superior earliness, fertility,
and warmth of its soil, it exhibited a condition of
agriculture, as to at once tenure, croppings, manur
ing, and nearjy every other detail, which rendered
any aggregate number of its naturally rich acres less
valuable than many an equal area in the south-east
of Scotland which, but 30 years before, had been
mere wild pasture, or almost moorland waste. Such
a laggard had Moray become, even at an earlier pe
riod, in following the footsteps of its reputation, that
Principal Robertson, when he came to see it, ex
claimed in surprise, " Is this the fine province of
which I have heard so much ?"
Some details which afford a view of both the suc
cessive stages and the present condition of the agricul
ture of the province, have already been given in our
article on Banffshire and Inverness-shire [which
see], and such others as are of any value, we reserve
for the articles on Morayshire and Nairnshire,
particularly the former. We shall here do no more
than bring together a few facts, common to the low
lands of the whole province, which exhibit the con
dition of things a century ago, and present them in
edifying contrast both to the ancient fame of the
country, and to its present fine state of improvement.
Leases were in general unknown ; and when given,

were too short to be of any practical value. Land
was minutely subdivided into mailens, crofts, and
small farms ; and, at the same time, knew little or
nothing of the luxury of enclosures. Tenants were
segregated into villages or townships, somewhat in
the style which still prevails in Orkney and Shet
land; and they had their arable grounds in run-rig,
and their pasture-lands in common. Green crops,
artificial, and provisions of every sort for tbe hyber-
nal sustenance of cattle, had not been heard of, or if
heard of, were despised. Some of the animals of the
flock were slaughtered at the end of autumn, and con
verted into salted meat ; and the others were, with
no small difficulty, kept alive during a severe winter,
and very frequently were, as the phrase went, " at
the lifting" in the spring, — so lean and attenuated,
that they had to be lifted from the ground, and as
sisted to the pastures. A rude and primitive plough,
drawn by four or six oxen, and attended or worked
by two drivers and a ploughman, moved lumberingly
across every arable field, and shallowly scratched the
weed-woven surface. The slede or sledge, and the
kelloch, were beginning to supersede the simple
horse-borne pannier; the former a wooden frame
without wheels, the latter a similar frame with
wheels formed of semicircles of solid board, and
fastened to an axle which revolved in wooden hoops,
and both surmounted by a conical wicker basket of
no great capacity, and drawn by means of horse-hair,
hemp, or twisted straw ropes, knotted together and
fastened to wooden pins. The labourers in the field
allowed most of the spring to pass away before com
mencing their appropriate toils ; and, during a sum
mer day, they worked a few hours in the morning,
abandoned themselves to a long sleep toward noon,
and, if nothing occurred to interest them in the house,
or set them a-gadding from home, resumed their
labour for a short period in the evening, Famines,
or years of comparative scarcity, even in spite of the
natural fertility of the soil, ware, in consequence, far
from being infrequent. During the summer of 1743,
' the dear year,' so memorable over all Scotland, .
thousands of the people of Moray wandered among
the fields devouring sorrel, the leaves and stems of un
filled pulse, and whatever could mitigate the famishing
corrosions of hunger ; and multitudes died of diseases
contracted by partial inanition, and not a few of
literal, absolute starvation. Even so late as 1782,
the noted year of the ' frosty har'st,' the province
severely writhed under the scourge of scarcity. ,
The food, dress,' and manners of the inhabitants
at the same epoch, or a century ago, were in keeping
with their modes of husbandry. Oats, rye, barley,
and pease-bread were the staff of life. Various
weeds and wild herbs, particularly the nettle and
the mugwort, were gathered to give substance and
relish to their thin oatmeal brose. Unskinned pease,
boiled into a soup, were a rare and coveted dish.
' Sowens,' now so well-known among the peasantry
in some of the rich agricultural districts on the Scot
tish border, and still a favourite dish and a regular
article of food throughout the north-east of Scotland,
were universally in use. Cakes, formed of oatmeal-
bran fermented to a slight degree of acidity, and
therefore only a hardened ' sowens,' but containing
some aromatic seeds, were the bread of luxury on
occasions of festivity. The potatoe did not begin to
be generally cultivated till about the year 1750. A
' kail-yard ' was a rare object among the peasantry
so late as about 1790 ; and a garden, even at a con
siderably later date, was never or rarely seen as an
appendage of a farm-stead. Milk, except during part
of the summer half year, was a rarity ; and home
made beer, with hops, or more commonly without
them, was used among such persons as could afford

MORAY.

93

it, as a succedaneum. Fish were occasionally in
use ; and, in their dried state, they were eaten with
a home-grown and coarsely prepared mustard ; but
the fisheries were very partially and inefficiently
plied ; and the shoals of herrings which now every
where enrich the coast were allowed undisturbed
occupancy of every bay and creek. — Corn-mills,
though known, were too few or costly or unappre
ciated to have yet superseded the use of the ancient
hand-mill or quern. Barley was decorticated by
being first softened in water and next beaten with a
peculiarly shaped wooden mallet in a hollow stone ;
but in this prepared state it was only a hebdomadal
luxury,. — the distinguishing delicacy of the Sabbath-
day dinner. Poultry and eggs seem to have been all
disposed of as ecclesiastical contributions and the
payment of rents. — The dress of all the common
people was simple, unvaried, and chiefly of home
grown and home-made material. ' Hodden-grey,' or
a light blue cloth formed of wool from their own
flocks, spun and woven in their own homes, and
dyed with the indigenous herbs of their own fields,
was the universal clothing material of the men. The
work-day costume consisted of a short coat of this
fabric, short knee-breeches, long stockings, and a
broad flat blue bonnet; and even the full dress for Sab
bath and for festal occasions, only substituted a long
coat, of great size, of uniform cut, and with huge
ornate brass buttons, — a coat so carefully preserved
that one specimen often equipped grandsire, father,
and son, and may even yet be occasionally seen on
some patriarchal figure at church or market. Flax,
grown in their own fields and manufactured in their
own homes, furnished much of the material for the
dresses of the females ; and the high muslin ' mutch'
or the flat ' toy,' such as are still used by the Nor
man and Flemish women, universally formed the
female head-gear. — Sir Robert Gordon, from whom
we have already quoted, and who writes respecting
the state of things in Moray two centuries ago, says :
" In the lowlands along the coast the natives suffer
inconvenience from the want of turf or fuel, which
is the only hardship experienced by that happy region ;
and that is only felt in a few places. It must be
owned that they generally counteract the cold by
hard drinking ; but those who exert themselves in
dustriously in the labours of agriculture little feel or
care for it. There is plenty of foreign wine, and
cheap enough, in all the towns. I remember when
I was a boy, on my way home from Paris, finding
wine at Rouen much dearer than it sold, a few
months afterwards, on the Moray coast. Both had
been brought from Bourdeaux, but the difference
was caused by the lowness of our duty. But be
sides wine they have their native liquor, called aqua
vita; ; and when that is to be had, which is seldom
wanting, they reject even the most generous wines.
This liquor is distilled from beer mixed with aro
matic plants. It is made almost everywhere, and in
such abundance that there is plenty for all. They
swallow it in great draughts, to the astonishment
of strangers ; for it is excessively strong. Even the
better classes are intemperate, and the women are
not free from this disgrace. Travelling in the depth
of winter, in the severest cold, fortified with a jug
of this liquor, and a few small cheeses, (for they
care little about meat and bread,) they perform im
mense journeys on foot without inconvenience." Il
licit distillation became, at a later period, the means
of demoralizing thousands, and shaking the whole
frame- work of society ;. but, in consequence princi
pally of a change in the excise laws, it has almost
wholly ceased to disgrace and damage the district.*
» A work to which we have been indebted for a number of
our details, contains much matter which ia interesting to na-

Moray, at the epoch of record, or about the close
of the 1st century, was possessed by the British
tribe of Vacomagi ; one of those communities who,
after and even sometime before the period of the
Roman abdication, figured predominantly in the his
tory of North Britain under the name of Picts.
Their towns, while a separate tribe, were Tarnea,
in Braemar, immediately beyond the south-eastern
limits of Moray ; Banatia, on the east side of the
Ness, about 600 yards below its efflux from Loch
Ness ; Ptoroton, on the promontory of Burgh Head ;
and Tuessis, on the east bank of the Spey, a little
below the parish-church of Bellie. In the early
Pictish periods the Vacomagi seem to have held a
predominant or at least a distinguished place among
the confederated tribes ; and, at all events, appear
to have had within their territory the earliest seat
of the Pictarian monarchy : see Inverness. When
the Scots, bursting beyond the limits of Dalriada,
and pushing their stealthy but sure conquests north
ward among the western Highlands, arrived at the
uplands which form the mountain-rampart of Moray,
they drove the Picts into the plains, and maintained
entire possession of the alpine fastnesses and inter
vening glens : see Dalriads, and historical section
of Introduction. The distinction between the
boundaries of the Picts and those of the Scots was
long preserved in Moray, and can be traced in the
topographical nomenclature throughout the province.
Among the charters of Dunbar of Grange, one granted
ii. 1221 by Alexander II. to the abbacy of Kinloss, and
referring to the lands of Burgy, names as a boundary
Rune Pictorum, ' the Picts' cairn ;' another charter
from Richard, Bishop of Moray, granted after the
year 1187 to the same abbacy, mentions Scoticum
molendinum ; and a road among the hills to the east
of Dollas from the highland to the lowland districts
of the province, is to this day, or, at least, was forty
years ago, called the Scots road. After the Pictish
and the Scottish dominions became consolidated into
one monarchy, the Scandinavian vikingr made fre
quent descents on the plain of Moray, and even en
thralled it for long consecutive periods : see Orkney.
Thorstein the Red, Sigurd, and Thorfin ruled over
it, either independently or with slender acknowledg
ment of the superiority of the Scottish kings, from
the commencement of the 10th till the middle of the
1 lth century. The Scandinavian settlers intermarry
ing with the Scottish and the Pictish Celts, a mixed
race arose who seem to have been a necessitous, un
settled, turbulent people. Their chiefs or maor-
mors soon began to assume the name of Earls ; and,
having some connexion with the reigning family,
they advanced pretensions to the throne, and con
vulsed the country by rebellions against the sover
eign, and by deeds of regicide. They killed Malcolm
I , in 959, at Ulern, supposed by Shaw to be Aldern ;
they killed King Duffus at Forres, in 966, when he
came to punish them for their crimes ; and, about
the year 1160, they raised a grand rebellion against
Malcolm IV., and so provoked him by the daring
and unweariedness of their strife, that, after over
whelming them with his army, he transported all
who had assumed hostile arms, including the greater
part of the population, to the southern districts of
the kingdom, as far as Galloway, and gave their
homes and their lands into the possession of stran
gers. The name Moray, originally Murref, and in
modern times Murray, was, up to this time, a com
mon cognomen in the province ; but, in consequence,
as is supposed, of this dispersion, it is now a rare
name among the natives, and at the same time oc
curs often in the cdunties south of the Grampians.
lives of Morayshire.-' Sketches of Moray.' Edited by William
Rhind, E»q. Edinburgh, 1839.

394

MORAY.

Both Malcolm IV., after expatriating the rebels, and
his successor William the Lion, appear to have fre
quently resided in the province ; for, from Inver
ness, Elgin, and various others of its localities, they
dated several of their charters. Among the new
families who were brought in to replace the expatri
ated, the chief are supposed to have been the power
ful Earls of Fife and Strathern, and the once potent
Comyns and Byset Ostiarii ; among the original
families who remained were the Inneses, the Calders,
and others ; and among those who speedily appeared
in the possession of extensive property and great
local influence, the chief was the family of De Mor
avia, whose founder, or at least whose earliest figur
ant, was Freskinus, Lord of Duffus. The mixed
and altered race who henceforth were sons of the
soil, lived for many centuries apart from their Celtic
neighbours ; and — as still appears by the resemblance
of the vocalic sounds of the provincial idiom to
those of the languages spoken north of France* —
they retained in speech, and probably in customs,
many of the characteristics of their semi- Scandina
vian predecessors. They appear also to have be
come, if not effeminate, at least greatly more peace
able, less hardy, and less acquainted with the use of
arms than the stern mountaineers of the upland dis
tricts of Badenoch and Lochaber. Either from the
superior richness of the country, or from the com
paratively easy and peaceful character of the inhabi
tants, the Highland caterans regarded the plain of '
Moray as open and ever-available spoliage-ground,
where every marauder might, at his convenience,
seek his prey. So late, in fact, as the time of
Charles I., the Highlanders continually made forays
on the country, and seem to have encountered mar
vellously little resistance. The Moray men, it has
been remarked, appear to have resembled the quiet
saturnine Dutch settlers of North America, who,
when plundered by the red Indians, were too fat
either to resist or to pursue, and considered only
how they might repair their losses ; and Pennant
supposes that, in consequence of their being so
mixed a race, Picts, Danes, and Saxons, and alto
gether aliens to the pure Celtic communities of the
mountains, the Highlanders thought them quite ' fail-
game,' and never exactly comprehended how there
could be any crime in robbing 'the Moray men.'
So late as 1565, as appears from the rental of the
church-lands in that year, the inhabitants of the pro
vince remained entirely a distinct people from the
Highlanders, and all bore such names of purely Low
land origin as are still common around Elgin ; and
not till a comparatively recent period did declining
feuds and the prejudices of clanship permit social
intercourse and intermarriages with the neighbouring
Gordons, Grants, and Macphersons. Moray, in con
sequence of the attachment of its people to the cause
of the Solemn League and Covenant, and the Mar
quis of Montrose and his ally, Lord Lewis Gordon,
having adopted it as one of their principal scenes of
action, suffered more disasters than perhaps any
other district of Scotland from the civil wars under
the last of the Stuarts. So severe and memorable
were the inflictions upon it by Lord Lewis Gordon,
that an old rhymer classes his name with the Scot
tish designations of two of the worst plagues of an
agricultural country :
* The natives, except among the well-educated classes, dis
play a singular fondness for the slender ee, as in rneen for moon,
spee-n for spoon, and freet for fruit ; aud uniformly substitute
the short tor the broad a and o, as in al for»all, la for law,
AgUBt for August, clos for close, rod for road, and not for note.
They also pronounce such words as filthy, will, and which, as
il written fulthy, wull, and futch ; suppress r in many words,
as in fist for first, and hosB for horse; and use the gutturals
fh and eh much more freely than tho inhabitants of the other
.owlaud districts of Scotland.

" The gule, the Gordon, and the hoodie-craw.
Are the three warst things that Moray ever saw.'
Montrose, after his victory of Inverlochy, in 1645,
made a desolating descent upon the province, de
stroying the houses of all persons who would not
join his standard, and inflicting upon the towns of
Elgin, Cullen, and Banff the disasters of an indis
criminate pillage. Yet much as their country suf
fered- in consequence of their opposition to the pre-
latic schemes of the Stuarts, " the men of Moray, in
general, or at least in the upper parts of the country,
became Presbyterians more from accident than from
temper. During the alternations of Presbytery and
Episcopacy which took place at the Reformation,
they did not at all discover that decided preference
to presbytery which marked the western and south
ern counties. Had no greater zeal existed elsewhere,
the island would probably at present have had but
one national church. At the Revolution few of the
clergy of this province conformed to presbytery, but
availed themselves of the indulgence which the go
vernment gave of allowing them to remain in their
benefices for life upon qualifying to the civil govern
ment : and, in order to cherish presbytery, it was
necessary, from time to time, to send clergy from
the south country to serve the cure." [Beauties of
Scotland, vol. iv. p. 508.] — The Moray men never,
except in a small minority of instances, experienced.
that aversion to holidays which distinguished both
the staunch Presbyterians of Scotland and tbe noble-
minded Puritans of England ; and — probably with
out adverting to the origin of the practice — they still
very generally, and in methods of glee and festivity,
celebrate St. John's day, St. Stephen's day, Christ
mas day, and, in a less degree, some other holidays.
The original earldom of Moray existed before the
era of modern authentic history ; and, as to its na
ture, its extent, and the line or succession of indi
viduals who held it, is an object of little more than
vague conjecture. About 1131, Angus, Earl of
Moray, was slain by the Scots at Strickathrow ; in
1171, William the Lion promised to grant the earl
dom to Morgund, son of Gillocherus, Earl of Mar j
and, during the reign of that King, Malcolm, Earl of
Fife, and William Comyn, Earl of Fife and Justici
ary of Scotland, were successively Custodes ot
Moray. Any accounts additional to these meagre
particulars, are too ill- vouched to be trusted. But
about 1314, the earldom breaks full upon the view,
in joint distinctness and magnificence, as the princely
gift of Robert Bruce to his tried and trusty com
panion in arms and patriotism, Thomas Randolph.
Its boundaries, as then established, considerably
differed from those of the ecclesiastical province ;
yet comprehended to a large extent, the same terri
tory, and were almost equally extensive : they com
menced at the mouth of the Spey, and, except for
including the lands of Fochabers and Boharm on
the east bank, they went up the bed of that river
all the way to the marches of Badenoch; thev
then included the lands of Kincardine, Glencairn,
Badenoch, Maymez, Locharkedh, Glengarry, and
Glenelg, along the north-west limits of Argyleshire,
and the shores of the western sea ; and they next
ran along the marches of the earldom of Ross, till
they fell upon the river Farrar, and thence went
down that stream and the Beauly to the Moray
frith. The estate and the title of the earldom,
according to the original principle of peerages,"
were inseparable, the title' becoming defunct upon
the alienation of the estate. Thomas, the 2d Earl
of the Randolph line, and the son of the first, suc
ceeded to the possessions in 1331, and was killed
in the battle of Duppliu in 1332. John, his bro-

¦ i

MORAYSHIRE.

395

ther, succeeded him, and was killed in the battle
of Durham in 1346. Patrick Dunbar, Earl of March,
and son-in-law of the 1st Earl, Thomas Randolph,
was next heir according to the law and usage of
Scotland, but was excluded by a limitation in the
original charter to heirs-male; yet he was called
Comes Marchia; et Moravias, Earl of March and
Moray. His second son, John, was made Earl of
Moray in 1372 ; but received his earldom shorn of
the large districts of Badenoch, Lochaber, and Ur
quhart. The next Earls were Thomas, the son of
John ; and James, the nephew of this Thomas. The
nearest akin were now two daughters ; and Archi
bald Douglas, who was married to the younger, and
was brother to the Earl of Douglas, and enjoyed in
his favour all the powerful influence of his semi-
regal family, was made Earl of Moray in 1446 ; but
be joined his brother's rebellion in 1452, was killed
in 1455, and left his title and possessions a forfeit
to the Crown. The earldom was, in 1501, obtained
by James Stuart, the bastard son of James IV. ; but,
at his death, in 1544, it was again without an heir.
In 1548, it was given to George, Earl of Huntly ;
and, in 1554, it was resumed by the Crown. It was
next, after a lapse of eight years, bestowed on James,
bastard son of James V., prior of St. Andrews, and
afterwards the well-known Regent of the kingdom.
This Earl — the founder of the Moray family, or an
cestor of all the subsequent Earls — held his posses
sions by a variety and an intricacy of grants, which
occasioned perplexity respecting their inheritance.
In February 1561-2, he obtained the charter of the
earldom ; in January 1563-4, he obtained another
charter, limiting the succession to heirs male; in
June 1566, he obtained a third charter, throwing
open the succession to his heirs general ; and, in
1567, he obtained from parliament a ratification of
the charter of 1563, limiting the succession to his
heirs male. He was slain in 1570-7] ; and left no
male heir. In 1580, James Stuart, the son and heir
of James Stuart of Doune, received from James VI.
the ward and marriage of Elizabeth and Margaret,
the daughters of the deceased Earl ; and a few days
afterwards he married Lady Elizabeth, and assumed
the title of Earl of Moray. As his claim to the
earldom was doubtful, a charter was given him in
1592 by James VI. and the Scottish parliament,
ratifying to his son all the charters granted to the
Regent and the Lady Elizabeth. This, as it con
firmed both what declared the succession general,
and what limited it to heirs male, rendered the
entire principle of the family succession inexplicable.
Earl James, therefore, lost no time in obtaining an
entirely new charter, whose provisions accorded with
the earliest given to the Regent. This Earl was
murdered in 1592. A series of three Earls, each
the eldest son, now followed, and died respectively
in 1633, 1653, and 1700. Two brothers of the
last of these next followed, and died respectively
in 1735 and 1739. A series of three eldest sons
next succeeded ; the last of them the present Earl,
born in 1771, and Earl since 1810. The other titles
of the family are Baron Doune, of the year 1581,
Baron St. Colme, of the year 1611, both in the peer
age of Scotland, and Baron Stuart of Castle-Stuart,
of the year 1796, in the peerage of Great Britain.
The family seats are Darnaway-castle in Moray
shire, Donibristle-castle in Fifeshire, Castle-Stuart
in Inverness-shire, and Doune-lodge in Perthshire.
" The Lowland situation of Moray, joined to the
amenity of its soil and climate, must have pointed
it out as a desirable locality for our first religious
establishments. It was early visited by tbe Culdees,
the first messengers who brought the pure spirit of
Christianity from the primitive churches of the east.

Subsequently, about the beginning of the 11th cen
tury, numerous religious establishments from Italy
planted the Romish religion in the province, and,
from that period till the Reformation, the church
engrossed the chief sway, and held extensive posses
sions in the district. A bishopric was established
about the year 1100. The abbey of Kinloss, and
the priories of Urquhart, Pluscarden, and Kingussie,
besides several other religious houses and hospitals,
quickly followed ; and the province was regularly
subdivided into parishes, and churches or chapels
were erected in each." [Sketches of Moray.] — A
notice of the bishopric, and of its history, revenues,
bishops, and cathedral, is given in the article Elgin:
which see. — The synod of Moray, in the presbyte-
rian Established church of Scotland, comprehended,
in 1839, the presbyteries of Strathbogie, with 12
parishes ; Abernethy, with 6 quoad civilia and 3
parliamentary parishes ; Aberlour, with 5 parishes ;
Forris, with 6 ; Elgin, with 9 ; Nairn, with 6 ; and
Inverness, with 7 quoad civilia, and 2 quoad sacra.
— The Scottish Episcopalian united diocese of Ross,
Argyle, and Moray, possesses in Moray 5 congrega
tions ; respectively at Elgin, Duffus, Fochabers, In
verness, and Beauly  The Roman Catholic north
ern district of Scotland, whose seat of influence is
Aberdeen, counts in Moray 11 congregations  The
United Secession have, in the province, 9 congrega
tions ; the Independents, 8 ; and the Original Sece-
ders, 1.
MORAYSHIRE—often called Elginshire, from
the name of its capital — is the central division
of the province of Moray. It is bounded on the
north by the Moray frith ; on the cast and south
east by Banffshire ; on the south by Inverness-shire ;
and on the west by Inverness-shire and Banffshire.
Over 25 miles on the east its boundary is traced by
the river Spey ; and over 24 miles on the west it is
formed by a ridgy water-shed, the north-eastern pro
longation of the Monadleagh mountains ; but every
where else, except along the Moray frith, the boun
daries are altogether artificial. Even the Spey is a
boundary-line only at intervals, or with interrup
tions; and has on its left bank, one farm belonging to
Banffshire, and, on its right bank, no fewer than six
pendicles of Morayshire, — each of which are from 5
to 9 miles in length. The county itself, however, is
not compact ; but consists of two separate, though
not widely detached, parts. The larger part lies oh
the north ; and is not very far from having the out
line of an equilateral triangle. A straight line, from
angle to angle, along its north side, measures 24J
miles, but everywhere cuts off a belt of sea board
which, in general, is narrow, but a little west of the
Lossie has a breadth of 4,'> miles; a straight line
along the south-east side, measures 25| miles, and,
except for cutting off a projection beyond the Spey
of 6 miles by 5, everywhere falls on or near the
boundary ; and a straight line along the south-west
side, measures 24£ miles, but, over 7 miles, falls
slightly beyond the boundary, and, over 11, falls
slenderly within it. The smaller division of the
county is separated from the larger by the interven
tion of a detached district of Inverness-shire, and by
two very small detached districts of Nairnshire ; and
lies to the south-west at the distance of from 3J to
5 miles. Except for a connecting neck of less than
a mile, upon the Spey, a little below the church of
Abernethy, this division would consist of two de
tached parts. Its western part lies on the left bank
of the Spey, is bounded by that stream for 7 miles,
and measures 12 miles from north to south, and 9 in
the opposite direction ; and its eastern part forms the
largest of the county's sections on the right bank
of the Spey, and extends 9 miles north-west and

396

MORAYSHIRE.

south-east, with a breadth of from 4 to 6£ miles.
The superficial contents of the county are, in all
authorities, so very variously and loosely stated, that
they seem never to have been even proximately
ascertained. Leslie's ' View of the Agriculture of
Nairn and Moray,' assigns as the area of these coun
ties conjoined, about 800 square miles, or 512,000
English acres : the author of ' The Beauties of Scot
land' assigns 800 square miles to Morayshire alone ;
and Oliver and Boyd's Almanac for 1839, says that
the area of Morayshire is 840 square miles, or
537,600 acres, of which 120,000 are cultivated,
200,000 uncultivated, and 217,600 unprofitable."
" No good plan of this shire," says the ' Introduc
tion to the Atlas of Scotland,' "is known to exist
better than Timothy Ponts. There have been se
veral plans of detached portions, but none of great
extent." Tbe sea-board part of the greater of the two
detached districts of the county is, in a general
view, a champaign country, and contains more
amenities of climate, and wealth of cultivation, and
beauty of landscape than any other territory of
equal extent in the northern Lowlands. Its breadth
ranges between 5 and 12 miles, and probably aver
ages about 7. A pendicle of it in the north-east
consists of the greater portion of the Cuibin sands,
noticed in tbe preceding article ; and, of course, is
all deduction from both worth and beauty. All
the other portions are an expanse of low country
diversified by many gentle rising grounds, and by
the large terrace and the pleasant ridges noticed in
the description of Moray ; and, being everywhere
laden with crops, or arrayed in wood, or adorned
with pleasure-grounds, or gemmed with towns and
mansions, they present occasionally a luscious, and
often an attractive picture. The district behind the
plain ascends rapidly from hill to mountain, and be
comes nearly throughout a wilderness of upland pas
ture, intersected with glens and vales along tbe
course of streams enclosing numerous though small
plains of great fertility and beauty, and containing
along the skirts of the heights much land which
luxuriates in verdure, or yields returns to the la
bours of tillage. The district in the extreme south
is called Brae-Moray, and differs from the central
mountain-ground chiefly in being extensively occu
pied with thriving forests of natural pine.
Though the champaign district has a northern ex
posure, and lies within the 58th degree of north
latitude, it possesses singular mildness of climate.
The hardier grinds of fruit, all the varieties of the
apple, and most of the varieties of the pear and the
plum, might, by a little attention, be abundantly
produced on every farm ; and fruits of greater deli
cacy, the apricot, the nectarine, and the peach, ripen
sufficiently on a wall in the open air. The wind
blows from some point near the west during about
260 days in the year ; and, in the summer, it is for
the most part a gentle breeze, and comes oftener
from the south than from the north side of the west.
Winds from the north-west or north generally bring
the heaviest and longest rains ; and winds from the
south or south-east usually bring only slight or
drizzling showers, occasionally accompanied with
thunder. The district presents no object so ele
vated as to attract the clouds while they sail from
the mass of mountains on the south toward the alps
of Sutherland. Winter is singularly mild, and, for
a very brief aggregate period, sheets the ground
with snow ; summer rarely commences its charac
teristic warmth till July ; and autumn, in some years,
is uniformly the driest and most pleasant season,
and, in others, is rainy from about the equinox till
after the middle of October. In the upland districts,

rain falls to the amount of 5 or 6 inches more than
the medium depth upon the coast; the seasons are
often boisterous and severe ; and an unpropitious
and stormy climate often forbids or thwarts the
operations of husbandry.
The Spey, with the aid of its tributaries, drains
rather more than a moiety of the whole area of the
county. Dulnain- water, coming in from Inverness-
shire, and running to the Spey, cuts the western
and larger section of Brae-Moray into nearly equal
parts. Nethy- water drains most of the eastern sec
tion of Brae-Moray. Other tributaries of the Spey
in the county are very numerous ; but in no instance
have more than about 6 miles length to run. The
Lossie rises and has its whole course in the county ;
and makes a long curving sweep through nearly the
centre of the lowlands, washing in its progress
the site of Elgin. The Findhorn, the most scenic
stream of all Moray, and rich in the number and va
riety of its landscapes, runs 11 miles in the extreme
west of the county, but, over part of this distance,
a little before debouching to the sea, expands into
Findhorn-loch. Dorbar-water issues from Loch-an-
durb, flows parallel with the western boundary at
about a mile's distance from it, and after a run of 8
miles, falls into tbe Findhorn below Reluglas. The
other streams of the county are all inconsiderable
brooks  The loch of Spynie, situated in the cogno-
minal parish, was formerly a conspicuous lake of 3
miles in length, but is now much reduced by drain
ing. Loch Cots, in the same neighbourhood, was
originally marine, and, in the 13th century, is de.
scribed as a bay, in the. cartulary of Moray. Loch-
na-boe, at no great distance from these other lakes,
covers about 60 acres, and is surrounded by a forest
of firs, planted about the year 1773 upon a barren
heathy moor. Locb-an-durb, nearly 4 miles in
length, and upwards of 1 mile in breadth, is situated
amid a mountainous waste very nearly at the meet
ing-point of the three counties of Moray, Nairn, and
Inverness. The other lakes of Morayshire are too
inconsiderable to require separate notice — Chaly
beate springs occur in every corner of the district,
but are in no instance much distinguished for their
medicinal properties. Such wells as in Romish
times were reputed holy, are generally of pur,e wa
ter, free from any mineral tinge.
The general geognostic features of the county
are glanced at in the article on the province. Sand
stone occurs in sufficient plenty and excellence to
construct vast cities ; and, in various localities, is
quarried for every purpose of architecture, and for
pillars, rollers, and paving-flags  Limestone occurs
in several places near the coast ; it began to be
quarried upon the estate of Glass-green about the
year 1 740 ; and it is no w worked in various quarries.
— Coal is stored up by conjecture under the unex
plored depths of the sandstone beds and the harder
layers of tbe limestone strata ; but has often baffled
search, and almost extinguished hope  Lead was
mined for in the Coulard-hill, west of Lossie-mouth,
about the year 1773; but it occurred only in small
nodules, and was. abandoned. — Iron ore is belie ved to
exist in abundance in the high country ; and about
the year 1730, an iron foundery, once of high consi
deration, but long ago almost forgotten, was estab
lished by the York building-company at Coulnacoil
in Strathspey, — Shell marl occurs in the marshy vale
of Litie, in a lochlet of 20 acres at Kinstorie, in the
loch of Spynie, in the hill of Bencagen, and in a
small hill on the estate of Clankum  A thin light
slate, of a blue or grey colour, is quarried at Clunie
in Rafford. Several schistose rocks, so laminated
that they form slabs or slates, occur among the primi
tive formations of the uplands. A stone, of a purple

MORAYSHIRE.

397

colour, highly indurated by a ferruginous matter, ad
mitting the smoothest polish, but in a slight degree
diaphanous, occurs about Rothes on the Spey, and
has, under the name of porphyry, been formed upon
the lapidary's wheel into toys and trinkets. — The
cultivated soil of the county may be classified under
the general names of sand, clay, loam, and reclaimed
moss. Sand, or a light soil in which sand predomi
nates, extends, with inconsiderable exceptions, over
the eastern half of the lowlands, or all Speymouth,
Urquhart, St. Andrews, Lhanbryd, and Drainy, the
eastern part of Spynie, the greater part of Elgin,
and the lower lands of Barnie and Dollas. A clay
soil prevails throughout Duffus and Alves, part of
Spynie, and small pendicles of the sandy district. A
loamy soil covers extensive tracts in Duffus, Alves,
and Spynie, and nearly the whole of Kinloss, Forres,
Dyke, the lower lands of Rafford and Edinkilie, and
the plains or alluvial grounds of the highland straths.
A clay-loam covers a considerable part of Knock-
ando — Moss, worked into a condition for tillage,
occurs in rather large extent in Knockando, and in
pendicles in the other champaign districts, almost
always in the lowest situations, superincumbent
upon sand, and so peculiar in quality as to emit on a
hot day a sulphureous smell, and strongly affect the
colour and formation of rising grain ; and it occurs
also on the flats and slopes of the lower hills of the
uplands, quite peaty in quality, but corrected in its
sponginess by an intermixture of sand. • If all the
arable grounds were distributed into 63 parts, the
sandy soils would be found to cover 24 of these, the
clay soils 11, the loam soils 27, and the reclaimed
moss soils 1. — The lowlands of Alves and Kinloss
resemble the landscape between Cambridge and
Ware, except that they are more diversified by the
dwellings of the farmers, and lines of trees around
their gardens, and they are, therefore, not only lus
cious in beauty, but altogether free from patches
of inferior or uncultivated soil. But the other
champaign districts have all considerable or notice
able interminglements of waste, — fields or tracts
thickly covered with whin-bushes, brooms, the most
stunted and useless kind of heath, or an almost
irreclaimable species of peat-earth ; and the far-ex
tending upland regions are prevailingly moor and
mountain wilderness, — a country clothed in russet,
freckled with naked rock, and largely abandoned to
beasts of chase and the alpine-nested fowl. Les
lie's ' Agricultural View of the Counties of Nairn
and Moray,' published in 1811, estimates the amount
of waste grounds in the two counties at 301,680
Scottish acres, in a supposed total of 407,200.
Forests of natural wood, as is proved by the ex
istence of large trunks of oaks and pines in the
mosses and in the beds of streams, anciently covered
the greater part of the champaign country, and
formed part of the Sylvae Caledoniae of early histo
rians. Cultivation, for ages, did not venture to
contest the possession of the valleys with wolves
and other wild animals ; and, compelled to find a
retreat in the most secure positions, commenced its
operations on the upper slopes of the hills, still ob
scurely traced with ridges and other marks of tillage.
But emboldened by usage, and becoming skilful by
practice, it gradually came down from such unprofit
able altitudes, invaded the thickets with fire, waged
a warfare of extermination against the four-legged
foes of improvement, and won the mastery succes
sively -of the lower slopes and the hanging or level
plains. Though tillage must long have been much
less practised than pasturage, and could make but
sorry efforts compared to what it achieves in modern
times wheat is mentioned by early historians as a
large 'article of produce, and, in common with other

grains, was raised in sufficient quantity for the sup
ply of all local demands. At the era of the Refor
mation, however, agriculture seems to have suffered
a serious decline, — for then the amount of wheat in
the Bishop of Moray's rental was only 10 bolls,
while that of barley was 1 ,232 ; and, in the times
which immediately succeeded, all classes became so
engrossed with the ecclesiastical and political move
ments which tumultuously agitated all Scotland, that
they had neither leisure nor inclination to improve
the soil. The enactment of some beneficial laws to
regulate the valuation and purchase of tithes, the
establishing of parish schools, the dividing of com
mons, and eventually the conservation of woods,"
and the forming of enclosures, were the only circum
stances which, during the long period of a century
and a half, prevented the history of agricultural pro
gress from being a total blank. So disastrous in the
county were the seven years of scarcity which visited
the province, [see preceding article,] that the ma
gistrates of Elgin established a police for burying, at
every dawn, the bodies of such miserable wanderers
in quest of food as during the preceding night had
fallen a prey to hunger in tbe highways and the
streets. — At the close of the first decade of the pre
sent century, improvement had asserted much mas
tery over most of the arts of both georgy and hus
bandry. The ploughmen were then skilful in trim
ming the plough and forming the furrow; the plough
itself was as fine in structure, and simple in manage
ment, as that of any of the advancing counties of the
aroused kingdom ; the grounds about the dwellings
of the proprietors — though not those of the distant .
or exterior farms of estates — were enclosed ; a por
tion of every large and of every well-managed farm
was disposed in summer fallow ; a regular system of
rotations, with a due place to green crops and their
virtual fallowing, was generally in practice ; drain
ing, manuring, irrigating, and embanking, had re
ceived a considerable amount of attention ; and, in
general, indications were afforded, which have since
been progressively verified, that both proprietors and
tenants were aware how rapidly other regions of
Scotland had risen from poverty to wealth in agri
culture, and were resolved to be no laggards in the
stir and efforts of national improvement  A forest
of natural pine, on the Strathspey frontier toward
Inverness-shire, and partly within that county, covers
an area of nearly 20,000 acres ; and has long sup
plied, by the floating down of its thinnings to Gar-
mouth, an article of large and advantageous traffic.
Other natural woods, consisting of birch, hazle,
alder, and a few paks, occur in little groves and
stripes along'the banks of the rivers, and several of
the smaller streams ; and, in some instances, have
been enlarged by plantation ; but, in the champaign
country, they are all of very limited extent. Planta
tions began generally to be formed about the year
1770; and they now cover many hills of moderate
height, and a great proportion of the grounds in all
parts of the county which are unfit for cultivation.
Those of the smaller proprietors bear, in general,
a larger proportion to the extent of their estate than
those of the greater proprietors ; the latter, how
ever, being still considerable. Tbe trees first planted
were exclusively Scottish firs; but from about the
year 1800 these began to be gradually cut out, and
substituted by larch, and the harder kinds of timber
 Pew farms comprehend 300 acres ; a considerable
number range between 300 and 140 ; another consi
derable number range between 120 and 60 ; a number
larger than that of both these Classes range between
50 and 20 ; and some upon the skirts of the larger
farms, or upon the sides and bottoihs of the glens,
range between 18 or 12 to 6 or 5 — In 1811, the

MOR

398

MOR

landed proprietors of the county were 41 in number ;
5 had estates of from £4,328 to £15,000 ; 7 from
£1,549 to £2,615; 8 trom £400 to £764; and 14
from £7 to £372. The valued rent of the county,
in 1674, was £65,603 Scots. The real .property, as
assessed to property-tax in 1815, was £73,288 ; and,
in 1842-3, £99,298.
Blankets and wearing apparel of wool and of flax,
are, to a large extent, of home manufacture. Much
flax is spun for the Aberdeen manufacturers, and some
coarse woollen cloth, called plaiding, is made in pri
vate families. A manufactory of woollen cloth, which
employs about 50 workmen, has long been established
in St. Andrews Lhanbryd. Tan-works have long
existed in Elgin and Forres ; and a small iron-foundry
exists at Newmill. But the chief manufacture — one
so extensive as even a dozen years ago to have an
nually paid £50,000 to government within the El
gin excise — is that of whisky. — Though black cattle
and agricultural produce are the principal articles of
export, there are some years in which no demand for
cattle exists, and some in which little corn can be
spared. Most of the grain exported is shipped at
Findhorn, Lossiemouth, and Garmouth ; and disposed
of at Leith, Dundee, and London. Sheep and swine
are generally purchased by the Aberdeen butchers.
Pork and salted beef are snipped at the new harbour
and village of Burgh-head. Timber, chiefly from
Strathspey forest, is annually exported to the value
of nearly £2,000; and salmon to the value of £3,000.
The principal imports are flax, ropes, hard and soft
soap, and foreign bar-iron. The fairs of the county
are in no instance considerable markets for sheep ;
and are less valued by the farmers than those of
Banffshire. They amount altogether to about seven
teen in the year, and are held at Elgin, Forres, Find
horn, Lhanbryd, and Garmouth.
Roads.] — One grand line of road runs along the champaign
country through Langbride, Elgin, and Forres : and carries
subordinate lines, aggregately amounting to about 70 miles,
running athwart the same district. A great line passes up the
Spey, but, over several miles, is on the Banffshire side of the
river. Another line passes up the Findhorn and the. Dorbac,
to the former at Grantown in Inverness-shire. One line con
nects Elgin and Rothes ; and another diverges from Strath
spey up the Dulmain.
Railways.] — A.full share of the speculative railway enter
prise of 1845 has been directed to this northern county. One
projected line, 44i miles long, including branches, with a pro
posed capital of £300,000, passes from Inverness to Elgin,
through the towns of Nairn and Forres. The west end of this
line will be in connection with the Caledonian canal, while the
east end will unite with the projected Aberdeen and Elgin
railway by Banff; and also with another projected and com
peting line, 76 miles in length, known as the Great North of
Scotland line from Aberdeen, up the valley of the Don, and
by Huntly and Keith, to Elgin. — From the Inverness and Elgin
line, branch lines are projected to Lossiemouth and to Burgh-
head harbours. — Another projected line, commencing at the
bridge of Craigellachie, passes along the hanks of the Spey,
through Rothes, to the suspension-bridge, where it joins the
Great North railway, already noticed, and is identified with it
for 10 miles to .Elgin, where it proceeds in a direct line to the
harbour of Lossiemouth. The total length of this line, known
as the Morayshire line, is 21 miles. Proposed capital, £50,000.
— Another projected line, which will intersect the southern
part of the countv, is that from Perth to Inverness, 136 miles
in length, passing Dunkeld, and proceeding through Athole and
Strathspey, to the town of Nairn, where it will join ihe Elgin
and , Inverness line. There are some other projected lines
connected with this district, all of which may De regarded as
directly competing lines with those we have mentioned.
Morayshire contains two royal burghs, Elgin and Forres ;
the small town of Pochabers, and the villages of Garmouth,
Urquhart, Lossiemouth, Bishopmill, Findhorn, Rothes, Balna-
ton, and Burgh-head. The principal mansions are Gordon-
castle, the Marquis of Huntly ; Tarnaway-castle, the Earl of
Moray; Innes-house and Blervie, the Earl of Fife; Auch-
madie's-house, Grant; Ballindalloch-castle, Sir George Mac-
pherson Grant, Batt. ; Duffus-house, Dunbar; Grant-Lodge,
Grant ; Inverugy, Young ; Logie, dimming ; Muirtown, Munro ;
Orton-house, Duff ; Springfield, Macdonald ; Tannochy, Ur
quhart ; Castle-Grant, Newton-hoUBe, and'Sanquhar-house. —
The principal antiquities are Kinloss abbey, thepriory of Phis-
carden, the ancient porch of the church of Duffus, the Cathe
dral, and other ancient structures of Elgin ; an ancient well
at Burgh-head, Duffus-castle, Eothes-caatle, Spynie-palace,
Michael Kirk, at Gordonstown ; Mortlach pillar, Bervie-tower,
.and Sweno's stone, and other antiquitiBS at Forres. — Moray

shire contains the fifteen entire parishes of Alves, St. Andrewa,
Lhanbryd, Birnie, Drainy, Duffus, Elgin, Speymouth, Spynie,
and Urquhart, constituting the presbytery of Elgin ; Dallas,
Edinkillie, Forres, Kinloss, and Rafford, constituting, with the
addition of Dyke, the presbytery of Forres ; and Knockando,
in the presbytery of Aberlour. It also shares with Banffshire
the five parishes of Bellie and Keith in the presbytery of
Stathbogie, and Boharm, Inveraven, and Rothes, in the pres
bytery of Aberlour ; with Nairnshire, the parish of Dyke in the
presbytery of Forres ; and with Inverness-shire, the three
parishes of Abernethy, Cromdale, and Dulhill, in the presby
tery of Abernethy. In 1834 there were twenty-one parochial
schools, conducted by twenty-seven teachers, and attended
by from 817 to 1/259 scholars ; and seventy non-parochial
schools, conducted by eighty-eight teachers, and attended by
from 2,609 to 3,159 scholars. An Edinburgh Morayshire society
was instituteu, in 1824, for charitable purposes, and the en
couragement of education in the county of Moray.
The county unites with Nairnshire in sending a
member to parliament. Constituency, in 1839-40,
750 ; in 1842-3, 726. The sheriff-county-court and
the commissary-court are held at Elgin every Friday,
during session ; the sheriff-small-debt-court is held
every alternate Thursday; and j'ustice-of-peace small-
debt-courts are held monthly on Monday. The seats
of courts, under the new small-debt-act, are Foch
abers, on the 3d Saturday of November, March, and
July ; Forres, on the 3d Monday of each alternate
month, beginning with January; aad GrantcTwn, on
the 3d Wednesday of November, March, and July.
Population, in 1801, 26,705; in 1811, 28,108; in
1821, 31,162; in 1831, 34,231; in 1841, 35,012.
Inhabited houses, in 1831, 6,919; families, 7,768.
Houses, in 1841, 8,154; but in most of the returns
flats and outbuildings have been reckoned as distinct
houses. The number of paupers on the books of the
kirk-session in 1836 was 970; in 1841, 1,037. Amount
of relief distributed in 1836, £899; in 1841, £1,176.,
MORBATTLE. See Morebattle.
MORDINGTON, a parish in the extreme east
of Berwickshire ; bounded on the north - west by
Ayton ; on the north and north-east by the German
ocean ; on the east and south-east by the liberties
of Berwick; on the south and south-west by Whit-
adder-water, which divides it from Hutton ; and on
the west by Foulden. Its extreme length, from the
sea at Ross on the north to the Whitadder, J of a
mile east of Paxton on the south, is 4J miles ; its
breadth, for 2i miles from the south end, is nowhere
more than J of a mile, and at the widest part, far
ther north, is less than 2 miles ; and its area is 3,523
acres. The Whitadder touches the parish for 2 miles,
moving in bold serpentine folds between steep banks
of wood-bearing sward and moss-covered rocks, pos
sessing many features of high natural embellishment,
and abounding in trout, salmon, and eels. A brook
which rises and runs a mile in the interior, traces for
If mile the western boundary to the Whitadder.
The coast — measuring 2J miles between the par
ochial limits, and, with the exception of an indenta
tion in the extreme north, trending in the direction of
south-east by south—is throughout a bold precipitous
breast- work of rock, perforated with caverns, abutted
with projections, and occasionally screened with vast
masses of detached rock rising grandly or sublimely
from the bosom of the sea. In the extreme north a
sufficient recess of the rocky breast- work occurs to
admit between its base and the sea a site for the ro
mantic 'and secluded fishing-hamlet of Ross; and
there a tiny brook has sliced down the cliffs with a
vertical fissure, and, in a season of rain, leaps along
in a series of picturesque cascades, finely harmonizing
m scenic effect with the surgy sea-foam feathering
the beach, and the smoke from the cottages on the
margin of the ocean eddying in the breeze. Cod, ling,
haddock, and other varieties of white fish, have long
been caught in great quantities for the Edinburgh
market; and lobsters and crabs are taken in abun
dance, the latter for consumpt in the vicinity, and
the former for smacks which visit the coast at stated

MOR

399

MOR

intervals, and carry them to London. The surface
of the parish, over the south half of the length, is
flat, with a slight declination to the Whitadder ; and
over the northern and broader half rises to a con
siderable elevation, undulated on the west side with
many rival eminences, and falling off in a slope on
the east. Heights on the west side command a mag
nificent prospect of the Merse, and a large part
of Durham and Northumberland, with the wooded
, banks of the Tweed, the Whitadder, and the Black-
adder on the foreground and in the centre, and the
dark rampart of the Cheviots, the picturesque forms
of Rubberslaw and the Eildon hills, and the bald
tame outline of the Lammermoors in the distance ;
and the heights on the east side command a gorgeous
sea-view, variegated with Holy Island, Bambrough-
castle, and other striking objects on the bosom and
the skirt of the liquid picture. The soil, for some
distance from the Whitadder, is a stiff clay well-
adapted for wheat and beans ; thence to the coast it
is, in general, a light loam, excellent for raising tur
nips, and sound for grazing sheep ; but on the loftiest
parts of the high grounds it is thin and poor, and
includes considerable pendicles of heath-land and of
bog and morass. The arable and the uncultivated
grounds bear to each other the proportion of 26 to 9.
Between 25 and 30 acres, all in the southern district,
are under plantation. Freestone abounds ; ironstone
occurs in sniall veins ; limestone is plentiful but of
inferior quality ; and coal exists in accessible seams
of little more than respectively one foot and two
feet thick. Mordington-house, situated near the
base of the uplands of the parish, 3£ miles from Ber
wick, was that in which Cromwell established his
quarters, when he, for the first time, passed the
Tweed. Edrington-castle, existing in ruin on a steep
rock, overhanging the Whitadder, and totally inac
cessible from the west, seems to have been a solid
and substantial strength, well-fitted, in feudal times,
to check incursions and depredations from the south
side of the Tweed. It was frequently the scene of
strife during the Border wars, and was more than
once an item among the objects of treaty between
the Scottish and the English kings. In 1534 Henry
VIII., in demonstration of his friendship for Scotland,
restored it to James V., from whom it had been taken
during an international war. On the boundary with
Ayton, occupying a singularly commanding site on a
crowning summit of the uplands, called Hab or Hab-
chester, are broad and distinct vestiges of a Danish
camp, consisting of two trenches whose mounds, 18
or 20 feet high, appear to have been faced with large
stones toilsomely procured from the bed of the Whit
adder. About a mile south-east of it is an abrupt
hillock, still called ' the Witch's knowe,' on which
a person was burnt for the imputed crime of sorcery,
so late as the beginning of last century. Not far
hence is a sequestered glen, said to be the locality of
' Tibby Fowler o' the Glen.' The parish is bisected
by the road between Berwick and Edinburgh, and
crossed, at its narrowest part, by that between Ber
wick and Chirnside. Population, in 1801, 330; in
1831, 301. Houses 55. Assessed property, in 1815,
£3,203. — Mordington is in the presbytery of Chirn
side, and synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron,
Renton of Lamberton. Stipend £157 lis. 8d. ;
glebe £37 10s. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4.i-d.,
with fees, and £1 Is. other emoluments. The pre
sent parish comprehends the ancient parishes of Mor
dington and Lamberton : see Lamberton. The
ancient Mordington was very small, comprising less
than the half of the united parish. The barony of
Mordington, with the patronage of the church, be
longed at the epoch of record to Agnes de Morthing-
ton and her husband, Henry Halyburton ; it was

given by Robert I. to Thomas Randolph; Earl of
Moray ; it passed at the death of John, the 3d Earl,
on the disastrous field of Durham, to his sister, Black
Agnes, Countess of Dunbar ; it seems to have been
given as a dowry to her daughter Agnes, on the
latter's marrying James Douglas of Dalkeith ; and it
continued with the descendants of this Douglas till
the Reformation, and eventually gave them the title
of Baron in the Scottish peerage, — a title which be
came dormant in 1796.
MORE (Loch), a lake 1| mile long and f of a
mile broad, in the Highland part of the parish
of Halkirk, Caithness-shire. Streamlets which it
gathers in several directions above, and sends off in
one current to the north, are the head-waters of the
river Thurso. The lake, jointly with the united
stream, give the glen which they occupy the am
bitious name of Strathmore.
MOREBATTLE, a parish in the extreme east
of Roxburghshire ; bounded on the north-west and
north by Linton ; on the north-east by Yetholm ; on
the east, south-east,, and south by Northumberland;
and on the west by Hownam and Eckford. It con
sists of a slender oblong, stretching north-north-west
ward, and becoming contracted toward the northern
extremity ; and of a westerly projection, commencing
2 miles from that extremity, and measuring 2J miles
by 2J. The greatest length of the oblong is 9J
miles ; its greatest breadth is 4£ miles ; and the joint
area of it and the projection is about 39 square miles.
The surface, excepting over two small tracts respec
tively in the extreme west and in the extreme north,
consists entirely of hills and narrow valleys, and runs
up along the whole boundary with England to the
highest summits of the Cheviots. Its heights vary in
altitude between 500 and 2,000 feet above sea-level,
command, in many instances, very grand, extensive,
and map-like views of Teviotdale, Merse, and Nor
thumberland, fringed on the east by the German
ocean; and generally have a gracefully curvilinear
outline, and a deep verdure, or even embellished
cultivation of dress, which form a charming contrast
to the usually stern features of a mountainous dis
trict. On the eastern and southern boundary rise
Blackhag, Chillhill or the Scbell, Arkhope-cairn,
Cocklaw, and Windygate-hill ; a little way into the
interior are the heights of Sourhope, Blackdean,
Plainlaw-green, Cove, Woodside, and Clifton, — the
last rising beautifully aloft like a vast dome ; west
of Beaumont-water are the hills of Swindon, Bel-
ford, and Grubit ; and west of the Kale are those of
Gateshaw and Morebattle. Only a fair proportion
of wood is wanted to complete the blending of gran
deur into beauty, effected by the district's natural
form and clothing. Beaumont- water rises in five or
six head-streams at the southern extremity, and runs
7 miles north-westward and northward, trotting
along a fine pebbly path, between deeply verdant
banks, sometimes careering in a rapid and then sleep
ing or eddying in a pool, watering for nearly 6 miles
a narrow but delightful valley, and possessing power
ful allurements to the angler. Kale-water comes
down from the south at a point 21 miles west of the
Beaumont, runs 2| miles northward, nearly half of
this distance being along the boundary with an in
dentation on its right bank of Hownam, makes a sud
den turn, and runs 2 miles westward, chiefly along
the boundary with Linton and Eckford, to its exit
from the parish ; and, over its whole course, rivals
the Beaumont in all its pleasing attractions. On
the boundary with Linton [which see] is the curious
little sheet of water called Linton-loch ; and on the
boundary with Yetholm [which also see] is Yet-
holm or Primsideloch. Carbet-house, on the Kale,
| of a mile south of the, village of Morebattle, was

MOR

400

MOR

burnt, in 1522, by the English in revenge of a foray
partly headed by its proprietor, Launcelet Ker of
Gateshaw, into Northumberland ; and, about thirty
years ago, it was renovated by Sir Charles Ker.
Whitton-house, If of a mile south-west of the vil
lage, was dilapidated by the Earl of Surrey during
his extensively destructive inroad in the reign of
Henry VIII., and is now in a, ruinous condition.
Various towers and peel-houses of the parish which
figure in the Border records have disappeared. On
some of the heights are vestiges of British encamp
ments, and circular rows of perpendicular stones
called ' Trysting stanes,' of unascertained design or
origin. Several villages, in former ages not incon
siderable in size, have disappeared. The village of
Morebattle stands on the Kale, in the western pro
jection of the parish, at the point where the river be
comes the boundary-line with Linton, 4 miles south
west of Yetholm, 5$ miles west of the nearest point
of the English border, 7 miles south-east of Kelso, and
9 miles north-east by east of Jedburgh. It contains
about 300 inhabitants, consists chiefly of two story
slated houses, and would be a pleasant place but for
the vile nuisance of every house regaling itself with
a stench-hole in front. Carriers travel thrice a-week
between it and Kelso. Roads traverse the vales of
the Belmont and the Kale, and are connected by a
road on the north. Population, in 1801, 785; in
1831, 1,055. Houses 180. Assessed property, in
1815, £13,613.— Morebattle is in the presbytery of
Kelso, and synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron,
the Duke of Roxburgh. Stipend £234 lis. 8d. ;
glebe, value not stated. Unappropriated teinds
£676 9s. 7d. The parish-church, situated in the
village, was built in 1757. Sittings between 400
and 500. An United Secession congregation, whose
place of worship also stands in the village, is the
oldest in the south of Scotland. Their first minister,
Mr. Hunter, was ordained in 1739, and was the
earliest. Secession licentiate ; and he officiated sum
mer and winter for some years after ordination in a
tent on Gateshaw-brae. The original meeting
house stood at Gateshaw, and the present one was
built about the year 1760. A great religious meet
ing, conducted by a body of Secession ministers from
a distance, was held in 1839 on Gateshaw-brae, to
celebrate the centenary of Mr. Hunter's ordination.
Two parish-schools, — the one in Morebattle and the
other at Mowhaugh, in the vale of the Beaumont —
were, in 1834, attended by 147 scholars, and a private
one in Morebattle by 35. Salary of the first parish
schoolmaster £34 4s. 4d., with £36 8s. 5d. fees, and
£8 other emoluments; of the second £17 2s. 2d.,
with £10 fees. The interest of a mortification of
£1,500 is expended in maintaining poor and destitute
orphans, and paying fees for their education. The
present parish comprehends the ancient parishes of
Morebattle and Moll or Mow. Merebotle, which is
the old orthography of the name, means, in Anglo-
Saxon, ' the dwelling place at the marsh,' and alludes
to the ancient circumjacency of marshy ground at
the site of the village. The church of Merebotle
belonged in some manner to the cathedral of Glas
gow so early as the 12th century, but was tbe sub
ject of pertinacious controversy as to the right to its
temporalities ; and eventually was, in 1228, declared
to be a prebend of Glasgow, while the archdeacon of
that see should receive thirty iherks a-year for a
mansion, but should claim nothing of the rectory.
There were anciently two chapels in the parish, —
the one at Clifton on Beaumont- water, and the other
at Whitton, now called Nether -Whitton. The
Moll — meaning in the British ' a bare, bald or naked
hill' — included the highest grounds, or southern and
south-eastern parts of the united parish. Its village,

called Moll, or corruptedlyMow, stood on Beaumont-
water at Mowhaugh, the present site of the second
or subordinate parochial school, and its church stood
a little lower on the river. Both the monks of
Kelso and those of Melrose received grants of the
church, and had their disputes respecting it settled
in 1269,  the Kelsoites acquiring the ascendency.
MORHAM, a small parish in the centre of Had
dingtonshire ; bounded on tbe north by Haddington
and Preston ; on the east by Whittingham ; on the
south-east by Garvald ; and on the south and west
by Haddington. It is an oval stretching north-north
eastward, nearly pointed at the extremities, measur
ing respectively 2J miles, and I mile 5 furlongs at
the axes, and sending off an easterly projection 1£
mile long and 3 furlongs broad from near its north
end. Its area is 1,458 Scottish acres. Its surface
is a waving gently inclined plain, dipping to the
north ; but, excepting a pleasant tiny glen on the min
ister's glebe, wants the rich and fascinating aspect
which generally distinguishes the lowlands of East
Lothian. Its highest ground is about 300 feet above
sea-level. Its only stream, Morham burn, collects
its head-waters on the southern boundary, and in
Garvald runs 2£ miles northward and westward
through the interior, traces the western boundary
for a mile, and then passes away to fall 1^ mile
farther on into the Tyne. Its climate is remarKably-
clear and healthful, a bright sunshine being often
enjoyed, while the vale of the Tyne is enshrouded
in fog, and diseases and epidemics which have wasted
adjacent districts having never entered its precincts.
The soil is in general a clayey loam, — in most places
rich, and in all productive ; and it is everywhere
in excellent cultivation. A coarse, soft sandstone is
quarried ; and coal was formerly worked, but has been
abandoned. Roads, though good, are inconvenient ;
and communication with any quarter cannot be main
tained except by the facilities of Haddington, distant
from the nearest part 1J mile. Population, in 1801,
254; in 1831, 262. Houses 50. Assessed property,
in 1815, £2,765  Morham is in the presbytery ol
Haddington, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale.
Patron, Miss Dalrymple of Hailes. Stipend £156 Is.'
5d. ; glebe £10. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4^d.,
with £36 15s. fees, and £2 other emoluments.
MORISON'S-HAVEN, a harbour 5 furlongs west
Of the village of Prestonpans, in the parish of Pres
tonpans, Haddingtonshire. Though small, and pos^
sessing only ten feet of water at Spring-tides, it is,
for craft which can enter it, one of the safest har
bours on the Forth. By right of charter, granted
by James V. in 1526, and afterwards ratified by
parliament,' the monks of Newbotle — in modern
orthography Newbattle — constructed it as a port
whence they might export the coal which they had
discovered on their lands of Prestongrange. Its
original was Newhaven, but — following the fashion
of courtiers, and doing homage to new possessors —
it was afterwards changed successively to Achieson's-
haven and Morison's-haven. The harbour serves as
a port to Prestonpans, and has in its vicinity a ma
nufactory of brown earthen- ware.
MORISTON (The), a river partly of Ross-shire
but chiefly of Inverness-shire. It rises at the head
of Glen-Clunie, in the former county, runs 5 miles
eastward to Loch-Clunie, and, while traversing that
lake, passes into Inverness-shire, and thence it has a
course of 17 miles prevailingly eastward to Loch-
Ness, at Invermoriston. It gives the name of Glen-
moriston to all the vale below Loch-Clunie, and to
the parish, which consists principally of that vale,
and is now united to Urquhart. Its chief tributary,
is tbe Luing, which, 2 miles below Loch-Clunie,
comes down upon its right bank from Loch-Luing.

MOR

401

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The Moriston is an impetuous but romantic stream ;
it, for the most part, wildly riots, now from side to
side, and now along ledges of a deep rocky channel ;
it once, not far from its embouchure, forms a very
fine cascade ; and it occasionally breaks loose from
the restraints of a narrow and ravine-like channel,
and steals abroad into tiny lacustrine expansions,
embracing wooded islets or picturesque rocks. It
has repeatedly, in its moods of repletion and wrath,
swept quite away such bridges as intruded on its
path ; but it is now, 8 or 9 miles from its embou
chure, spanned by a handsome new bridge which ap
pears strong enough to withstand its brawling. The
lower part of its vale is uncommonly beautiful ; of
varying width; profusely wooded with oak, birch,
ash, aspin, and larch ; and occasionally sheeted with
trees up to the very summits of the hills. See
Glen- Moriston.
MORMOND-HILL, a small but conspicuous hill
in the district of Buchan, Aberdeenshire. It is
situated at « point where the parishes of Fraser
burgh, Rathen, and Strichen meet, 6.i miles south-
south-west of Kinnaird-head. Though possessing
an altitude of only 810 feet above sea-level, it is a
good land-mark to mariners. Its form is conical.
MORNINGS IDE, a village and quoad sacra par
ish in the quoad civilia parish of St. Cuthbert's,
Edinburghshire. The village is pleasantly situated
on a southward slope, on the road leading from Edin
burgh to Biggar, Peebles, and Dumfries; ]A mile
south of Port-Hopetoun, and 2^- miles distant from
the Tron-church, Edinburgh. Between it and the
metropolis lie Boroughmuirhead and Burntsfield-
Links. The village is an agreeable and worthy en
viron of Edinburgh, and forms a summer-resort of
the citizens ; and it so competes with lnveresk the
fame of being the Montpellier of the east of Scot
land, as to allure invalids to its precincts for the
benefit of its dry and salubrious air. Here stands the
City and County Lunatic asylum of Edinburgh, ori
ginally a capacious edifice, and subsequently enlarged
from designs by Mr. Burn, so as to receive 230 in
mates. It is finely situated in the midst of a policy of
about 50 acres in extent. The quoad sacra parish-
church, erected in 1837 from a design by Mr. Hender
son, is a small but neat edifice. An interesting object
is a large school, which was one of the earliest to win
the fame of reform from the dry and mechanical
methods of a bygone period. All around the village,
mansions and villas so thickly occur as almost to
jostle one another in strife for sufficient pleasure-
ground, — Greenhill, Merchiston-castle, New Mer-
chiston, Burntsfield-house, Craig-house, Hermitage
of Braid, St. Margaret's convent, Falcon-hall, Ca
naan-bank, Canaan-grove, Canaan-lodge, Woodburn,
Woodville, East Morningside, Whitehouse, and sev
eral others.
MORTLACH, a parish in the Moray district of
•Banffshire. It is bounded on the north by Boharm ;
on the north-east by Botriphnie; on the east by
Glass and Cabrach ; on the south by Inveraven ; and
on the west by Inveraven and Aberlour. It is of an
oblong form, but sends the lands of Glenmarky and
Edinglassie, in the form of a wedge 3 miles deep,
into the parish of Glass ; and it extends from north-
, north-east to south-south-west. Its greatest length
is 12 miles ; its greatest breadth, exclusive of the
cuneiform projection, is.5J miles ; and its superficial
extent is about 35,000 acres. From a mountainous
line of water-shed across the south end of the parish,
two glens extend 7£ miles north-eastward at the
distance from each other of from 2 to 2J miles. The
eastern glen then suddenly debouches to the west,
runs direct across to a junction with the other glen,
and thence, with the expansion of a valley, goes 3
II.

miles north-north-westward to the boundary with
Boharm. The stream of the western glen is the
Dullan ; and that of the eastern and of the united
glen is the Fiddich, — giving the name of Glenfiddich
to all the district which forms its basin. The chief
summits on the mountain-boundary of the south,
are Coryhabbie-hill and Cook's-cairn, which look
down into Glenlivet; the screen of much of the west
side of the western glen is the huge and broad-based
Benrinnes, whose vast mass fills a large part of the
neighbouring parish, and whose summit, wooing the
clouds at an altitude of 2,747 feet above sea-level,
looks away to the far-distant coast of Caithness ; and
the grounds which form the other screens of the
glens, though less elevated than Benrinnes, are lofty
enough to be fit attendants on it as a monarch-moun
tain. A small stream called- Marky, rising on the
east side of the eastern screen of Glenfiddich, cuts
the projecting district of the parish into the delly
vale called Glenmarky, and trots rapidly down the
descent to meet the Deveron near the house of
Edinglassie, where that river just touches the boun
dary, and makes a fine sweep away toward Huntly.
Glenfiddich is one of the loveliest straths in Scot
land ; and contains many mixations of the sweet
and the wild, the bold and tbe beautiful, — many
blendings of those features of landscape which in
vite the pencil and play upon the imagination. The
whole parish, in fact, exhibits such variety of hill
and dale, wood and water, arable grounds and flock-
clad pastures^ as render it rich in landscape. Even
in winter, the trees skirting the rivers with their
snowy foliage, and the mountains soaring aloft in
dresses of virgin white, furnish views abundantly
pleasing and grotesque. One of the finest scenes is
the Craig of Balveny, with its old castle, and its en-
cincturing objects ; and another is the Giant's chair
on the river Dullan, with the pretty little cascade,
called the Linen Apron, and the folds and wavings
of the surrounding drapery. The arable grounds
amount to only about one-seventh of the whole
area, and, for the most part, lie pretty high along
the two principal streams. Some haughs occur ; but
they are not extensive. The uplands are clothed to
the extent of about 600 acres with wood ; and else
where they are variously moorland and coarse pas
ture, but are in general duskily dressed out in heath.
The sheep are of the black-faced breed, and the
black cattle are a cross between the Aberdeenshire and
the Highland breeds. Granite, of a kind well-suited
for building, is abundant. A dark clay-coloured slate,
of pretty fair quality, is worked in several quarries.
Limestone is very plentiful, and, in spite of a dearth
of fuel, is extensively worked. A variety of lime
stone, both on the Dullan and the Fiddich, amounts
in quality to an inferior marble. Appearances of
alum and lead are observed on the burn of Tullich,
belonging to Kininvie. A laminated rock occurs in
one or two places of a nature suitable for whetstones
or hones. The soil of the arable grounds is almost
all loamy, deep, and fertile. The air, though some
what moist, is pure and salubrious. Several chaly
beate springs occur ; and they are pretty powerful in
their medicinal virtues, and have been found useful
in cases of gravel and dyspepsy. A petrifying spring
exists near the house of Kininvie. A small but deep
lake, called Lochpark, in a den confined by two al
most perpendicular hills, near the road to Botriphnie,
produces the new-born Isla, a tributary of the De
veron, and is the home of pikes and the retreat of
wild ducks  Mortlach is famous as the scene of a
signal victory achieved by Malcolm II., in 1010, over
the Danes. He had been beaten by these foemen
the preceding year, and compelled to leave them in
possession of Moray. Returning from the south
2c

402

MORTLACH.

with a reinforced and powerful army, he burned to
expel the intruders, and found them in readiness to
give him battle. The armies came in sight of each
other near the church of Mortlach, and engaged a
little to the north. Three of the Scottish generals
fell in the first shock of collision ; and panic and con
fusion followed among the Scottish troops. The
King was reluctantly borne along with the retreat
ing crowd till he was opposite the church of Mort
lach, then a chapel dedicated to St. Molach ; and
here, while his army were partially pent up in their
flight by the contraction of the vale and the narrow
ness of the pass, he performed some of the showy
rites of saint-worship, and rallied and roused his
troops with an animated appeal to their patriotism,
and, placing himself at their head wheeled round
upon the foe, threw Enotus, one of the Danish gen
erals, from his horse, and killed him with his own
hand. The Scots, now flung back from fear to
enthusiasm, made an impetuous onset, carried vic
tory in their van, and thickly strewed the ground
with the corpses of their foes. The scene of the
second and finishing conflict seems to have been a
few hundred yards south-west of the castle of Bal-
veny, the more ancient part of which was proba
bly then in existence ; and may have been the fort
noticed by historians as near the field of battle.
Two old castles, Auchindune and Balveny, both in
habited less than 150 years ago, are worthy of notice.
Auchindune-castle occupies a commanding site, on
a green conical mount, overlooking #the Fiddich.
It is supposed to have been built by Cochrane, the
favourite of JameS III. ; it formed, with all its
barony, a part of the lordship of Deskford ; and, till
1535, it belonged to the Ogilvies, but then passed to
the Gordons. Apiece of admirable workmanship,
in the Gothic style, appears in tbe central apartment
of the building. Balveny-castle surmounts a beauti
ful eminence on the Fiddich, a little below the influx
of the Dullan, and commands a rich though limited
range of charming scenery. The structure is of vari
ous dates, and very magnificent. Tradition calls the
oldest part of it a Pictish tower. In the front, and
high over its iron and massive gate, is inscribed a
motto of the Stuarts, Earls of Athole, descriptive of
the savage valour and unhappy circumstances of the
times : — Fvrth. Fortvtn. and. Fil. Thi. Fat-
tris. The castle belonged successively to the Cum
mings, the Douglases, and the Stuarts ; it passed,
in the 16th and 17th centuries, into the successive
possession of several other families ; and it is now
the property of the Earl of Fife. In 1446, there was
a Lord Balveny of the name of Douglas. Both
Auchindune^nd Balveny castles, were strongly for
tified by art, and had their walls, their ditches, and
their ramparts. Another old building of inferior note
at Edinglassie, is remarkable chiefly in connexion
with an appalling instance of the miseries of civil
war, and of the tyrannical and detestable power
which was often wielded by the chieftains and barons
of the feudal age. Some of the Highland clans, on
their march from Strathspey through Mortlach to
Strathbogie, in 1690, the year of the engagement on
the haughs of Cromdale, having burnt the house in
prosecution of the public dissensions of the period,
the laird, whose name was Gordon, seized 18 of
them at random, when they were returning a few
weeks after, and hanged them all on the trees of his
garden. Mortlach claims to be the scene of the
Scottish song of ' Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch.' The
Glacks of Ballach mentioned in the lyric is a re
markable pass near the castle of Auchindune. A
claim, though a contested one, is made also upon the
song of ' Tibby Fowler in the Glen.' The old statist
says, Tibby " lived in the braes of Auchendune,

and was a plain-looking lass, with a swinging tocher.
—The old village of Mortlach stands on the Dullan,
half-a-mile above its confluence with the Fiddich ; but
has dwindled away to insignificance. The modern
thriving village of Dufftown stands half-a-mile north
of Mortlach, and is distant 9 miles from Keith, 29
from Banff, and 118 from Edinburgh. It was com
menced in 1817 on tbe property, and under the pa
tronage of the Earl of Fife ; and has at present a
population of nearly 800. It is the seat of a post-
office and the site of a jail,— the latter built in 1826;
and it enjoys the surveillance of a justice-of-peace.
Annual fairs are held here on the first Wednesday of
April, old style ; the Monday before the first Tues
day of June ; the second Thursday of July ; the
third Thursday of August ; and the Saturday before
the second Tuesday of October, old style. Balveny-
house, a seat of the Earl of Fife, is a large modem
mansion on a low site, and of cheerless appearance,
about ^ of a mile below the old cognominal castle.
Turnpike roads diverge north-eastward, northward,
and north-westward from the parish to Keith, Focha
bers, and Elgin ; but, at the date of the New Sta
tistical Account, in 1836, they remained, as to both
road and bridge, unrepaired from the disasters of the
great flood of 1829. Population, in 1801, 1,876 , in
1831, 2,633. Houses 478. Assessed property, in
1815, £5,574.
Mortlach is in the presbytery of Strathbogie, and
synod of Moray. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £191
17s. 7d. ; glebe £8. Unappropriated teinds £407
3s. 7d. Sittings in the parish-church 886.—A mis
sion on the Royal Bounty, measuring 5 miles by 3,
and containing, in 1837, a population of 579, em
braces the district of Glenrinnis, and, as to the num
ber of its people, belongs to Mortlach and Aber
dour in the proportion to each other of 436 to 143.
Its church was built a good many years ago at the
expense jointly of the heritors and the inhabitants.
Sittings 258. Stipend £60  A Roman Catholic
congregation was established in the parish in 1794.
Their chapel, a neat structure, is situated in Duff
town, and was built in 1834, at a cost, jointly with
a house and offices, of upwards of £1,000. Sittings
160. Stipend, the proceeds of the seat- rents  In
1834, the parish-school was attended by 111 scho
lars ; and 6 other schools by 276. Parochial school
master's salary £34 4s. 3d., with about £25 fees,
an allowance from Dick's fund, and £8 other emo
luments  Malcolm II., immediately after the vic
tory of Mortlach, got the parish-church converted
into a cathedral, and the village into the seat of a
diocese. Beyn or Bean, the first bishop of Mortlach,
wielded the crosier about 30 years, and was interred
in the village. Donortius and Cormac, the second
and the third bishops, jointly tilled the see upwards
of 80 years. Nectan, the fourth and last bishop*
was, in the 14th year of his preferment, removed by
David I. to. Aberdeen, and became, by his transla--
tion, the first bishop of that city. The bishopric of
Mortlach, thus transmuted into that of Aberdeen,
lasted from 1010 to 1139. In the order of prece
dence, it was next to St.SAndrews, or ranked as the
second diocese in Scotland ; yet, as to both juris
diction and endowments, it comprehended only the
churches and church lands of Mortlach, Cloveth,
and Dulmeth  The ancient cathedral survives, and
is the present parish-church. Its walls are believed
to stand very nearly as they were raised in the 11th
century ; and are so strong that they might, it is
thought, withstand the erosion of hundreds of years
to come. The structure is venerable only for its
age, and possesses none of the magnificence or the
nice architectural decorations which usually distin
guish cathedrals. An addition made to it about 12

MOR

403

MOR

years ago, and some repairs upon itself, have some
what modernized its appearance  Dr. Lorimer, the
author of a treatise on Magnetism, was a native of
Mortlach. MORTON, a parish in upper Nithsdale, Dum
fries-shire ; bounded on the north by Durrisdeer ;
on the north-east by Lanarkshire ; on the east and
south by Closeburn ; and on the west by Penpont
and Durrisdeer. It is an oblong of 5| miles by 2J,
extending north and south ; with an eastward pro
jection 1^ mile by li attached to its north end. Its
area is 12J square miles, or 6,496 Scottish acres.
The river Nith comes down from the north at an
acute angle upon the western boundary a little be
low its middle, — traces that boundary for 1J mile,
making a beautiful bend in its progress, — cuts off for
5 furlongs a small wing, — runs all the way in a lim
pid stream upon a pebbly bed, — and, as to its fishy
produce, is noticeable only as a notorious scene of
rabid and demoralizing practices of poaching. Car
ron-water, a garrulous and pleasant stream, and at
tractive to the angler, runs 3 miles along the west
ern boundary to the point where that boundary is
first touched by the Nith, and there yields up its
treasures to the queen-river of the district. Cample-
water, a pellucid stream, trotting along upon pebbles
between varied and pleasing banks, rises in the ex
treme north-east, runs 1£ mile southward through
the eastward projection, traces the eastern and south
ern boundaries over a distance of 5£ miles, and then
departs into Closeburn to fall into the Nith only 3
furlongs farther on near Kirkbog. Along the Nith,
and a short way up the Cample, are beautiful belts
of very rich holm or haugh, liable to be overflowed,
but well-protected by embankments. Screening the
holm-lands, a considerable ridge of rising ground
swells up from their margin, somewhat bold near the
middle, but gentle in gradient at the ends. Crown
ing the summit of this ridge stands the large, clean,
and very pretty village of Thornhill, [which see,]
commanding one of the most softly and sweetly pic
turesque views in the south of Scotland. North
eastward from the village rise two other hilly banks,
parallel and of different height, running across the
parish like huge natural galleries. Beyond the more
northerly, the surface descends at a gently gradient,
and forms a valley ; and then it shoots up in bold
pastoral heights, which occupy about one-third of
the whole area, form part of the southern Alps of
Scotland, attain altitudes of 2,500 and under, and
climb up to the water-shedding-line between the
two grand basins of the Lowlands. The soil of the
first or most southerly low ridge of the parish is a
light but fertile loam upon a gravelly bottom ; of the
ridges immediately north of Thornhill, of the interior
valley, is partly alluvial, and all excellent ; and is
deeper; but was a colder subsoil ; of the mountain
ous district, gives frequent way to the naked rock,
and is elsewhere so thin and poor as to bear only a
mottled sward of heath and coarse grass. About
1,200 imperial acres still unreclaimed, and lying prin
cipally between Thornhill and the valley of the base
of the mountains, are abundantly capable of cultiva
tion. Nearly 600 imperial acres are under wood ;
three-fourths of which is thriving and matured
plantation, and the other fourth partly young planta
tion and partly oak and birch copse wood. The
whole parish, except one farm, belongs to the Duke
of Buccleuch. Nearly in the centre of the parish,
2£ miles north of Thornhill, on the brink of a glen,
traversed by a little tributary of Cample, stands
Morton-castle, one of the least dilapidated ruins of
its class in Nithsdale. What remains, though but a
fractional part of the original structure, measures
100 feet by 30 in area. The south front is nearly

entire, rises to the height of 40 feet, has at each cor
ner a circular tower about 12 feet in diameter, and is
from 8 to 10 feet thick in the wall. The glen on
one side with its water dammed up, and deep in-
trenchments on the other sides, must have rendered
the place a seat of great strength. Of several very
conflicting accounts which are given of the proprie
torship of this castle, we prefer that of the Macfar-
lan manuscripts in the Advocates' library as quoted
by Grose. According to this account, the castle is
of unascertained origin ; was kept in the minority
of David Bruce, by Thomas Randolph, Earl of Mo
ray ; and afterwards passed into the possession of
that branch of the Douglases who became Earls of
Morton, gave them their title, and was allowed by
them, in their solicitude about other strengths, to go
to ruin. Yet the castle has smart competition for the
honour thus assigned it. At New Cample, near
Thornhill, Mrs. Buchan and her followers took post
after their expulsion from Irvine : which see. The
village of Carronbridge stands on Carron-water 3
furlongs above its influx to the Nith ; and is partly
in Durrisdeer, but chiefly in Morton, with a popu
lation in the latter of about 200. Three-fourths of
the parish, from the northern boundary downward,
are sinless of a road. The lower district is traversed
through Thornhill by the convergent roads from
Dumfries and from Galloway by way of Minniehive
and Penpont, which become divergent at Carron
bridge toward Glasgow and Edinburgh. Population,
in 1801, 1,255; in 1831, 2,140. Houses 350.
Assessed property, in 1815, £3,030  Morton is in
the presbytery of Penpont, and synod of Dumfries.
Patron, the Duke of Buccleuch. Stipend £236 2s.
7d. ; glebe £25. Unappropriated teinds £366 8s.
3d. An United Secession meeting-house is situated
in Thornhill. The parochial school was attended,
in 1834, by 81 scholars ; and 4 private schools, by
221. The ancient or original church was probably
built either by Dunegal, the great proprietor of
Strathnith, in the reign of David I., or possibly by
some earlier individual; and, before the end of the
12th century, it was given by Donegal's grandson,
Edgar, to the monks of Kelso, and thence became a
vicarage till the Reformation.
MORTON. See Half-Morton.
MORTOUNE. See East Calder.
MORVEN, or Morvern, a mountainous parish
on the coast of the mainland of Argyleshire. It
forms a large peninsula, extending south-westward
between Lochs Suinart and Linnhe, to the Sound of
Mull, and connected with the district of Ardgour by
a peninsula of 6 miles. Its outline is proximately
triangular. It is bounded on the north by Loch-
Suinart and Glen-Tarbert, which divide it from the
parish of Ardnamurchan ; on the south-east by Linnhe-
loch, which divides it from the district of Lorn; and
on the south-west and west by the Sound of Mull,
which divides it from the cognominal island. Its
greatest length from east to west is 20 miles; its
greatest breadth is 15 miles ; and its superficial ex
tent is 65,000 acres. But three farms having been
annexed to the parliamentary parish of Strontian,
the extent quoad sacra is reduced to 60,000 acres.
The present parish comprehends the ancient parishes
of Kilcolumkill and Kiltuintaik, the date of whose
annexation is unknown ; and it has its modern name
from the ancient Gaelic appellation Mor-Earran, ' the
great division or lot.' Whether this district either
exclusively or par excellence is the Morven of Os
sian, seems more than doubtful. " The word Mor
Ven, as used in the poems of Ossian," says the Rev.
Norman M'Leod, in the Old Statistical Account,
'• is derived from the Gaelic words ' Mor Bkeann,'
i. e. ' of the great mountains,' and seems to have

MOR

404

MOR

been a general term for the Highlands or hilly
country. The common notion is, that the whole
Highlands were the country of Fingal and his heroes,
for in every part thereof, as well as in this parish,
there are names derived from them and their achieve
ments. The whole Highlands might justly be called
' Duthaich nam mor-Bheann,' or ' country of high
hills.' But a Highlander never gives that name to
this parish, but calls it A mhor-earran." Morven is
not excelled by any parish in the Highlands by the
number and greatness of its physical obstructions to
interior intercommunication, and the practical work
ing of the parochial economy. Nearly throughout,
it is rugged in the extreme, and intersected by deep
and pathless glens, and cut into isolated divisions by
lakes, swamps, and rapid and dangerous torrents;
and it has experienced hardly any of the valuable
improvement which elsewhere has so generally ame
liorated the Highlands by the construction of roads.
A chain of lakes, partly marine and partly fresh
water, commencing with Loch-Teagus on the north,
and terminating with Loch- Aline in the south-west,
nearly isolates most of the district lying along the
Sound of Mull, and containing the parochial places
of worship from the upper and much the larger dis
trict of the parish, called the Braes of Morven.
Though the population is partly segregated in a few
small hamlets, and in an entirely modern little vil
lage in the neighbourhood of Kilcolumkill, it is, for
the most part, quite dispersed athwart the country,
and, in the case of 14 or 15 families, is located on
two islands in Loch-Suinart. All the interior is
hilly, heathy, and interesting. Few, if any, of the
heights possess what writers on landscape call char
acter ; and none attract notice even by their special
largeness or altitude. Yet they very extensively
yield good pasture ; and, at the date of the Old Sta
tistical Account, they maintained upwards of 14,000
sheep, and 2,500 black cattle. All the waste parts
abound with deer and other game. Such arable
ground as exists lies at the bottom of the hills, and
principally along the Sound of Mull ; and, in the
latter locality, it is nearly all declivitous, often steep,
and to a great extent much elevated above the level
of the sea. The soil in general is a poor, light, open
earth, and in some places is intermixed with gravel
and small stones. Some valuable expanses of wood,
Consisting chiefly of birch, with interspersions of oak
and ash, relieve the prevailing dreariness of several
districts, and bring much profit to the proprietors,
and they exist alpng the whole side of Loch-Suinart,
the south and south-east district which overlooks
the junction of Linnhe-loch and the Sound of Mull,
and the whoje encincturing coast of Loch-Aline.
Morven, as to its geognosy, consists principally of
gneiss, which has been originally covered by a de
posit of secondary rocks, consisting of limestone and
sandstone, with coal occasionally interspersed; a
deposit so overwhelmed by trap, which in its turn
has been much abraded and worn away, as to pre
sent to an observer a confused and obscure object of
geognostic study. The situation of the coal is, on
certain occasions, very remarkable ; and occurring as
it does on the summits of primary mountains exceed
ing 2,000 feet in elevation, it is quite fitted to startle
a geologist nearly as much as a coal-surveyor. On
elevated spots, in various parts of the parish, but
especially along the coast of the Sound of Mull, are
Druidical circles of various diameters, but in no in
stance exceeding 24 feet. Dunien, Fingal's fort or
hill, situated on the farm of Fiunarg, and now part
of the glebe, is a Curious round rock of considerable
height, very steep, yet partly covered on the sides
with a green sward, and washed at the base with a
frolicsome stream which moves between high banks,

and leaps along in little cataracts. The area on the
top of the hill measures about half-a-rood, bears evi
dent marks of having been encircled by a wall, and
commands an extensive prospect. Ardtornish-castle,
once a place of great strength and historical impor
tance, survives in only a few ruinous vestiges on a
promontory projecting into the Sound of Mull. This
fortalice was one of the numerous seats of the Mac
donalds, lords of the isles ; and in 1441 it became
the scene of the formation of the celebrated treaty
with Edward IV. But Loch-Aline both presents to
the view the most interesting antiquity of Morven,
and concentrates an amount of exquisite landscape,
which goes far to compensate the prevailing dreari
ness of the rest of the district. See Aline (Loch).
The main feature at the head of this loch is a castle,
which possesses the reputation of having been be
sieged by Colkittle for the Marquis of Montrose, and
which is boldly perched on a high rock overhanging
the water, as if the architect had chosen the situa
tion where the effect would be the finest. The castle
is very strong as a piece of masonry, and occupies,
on the ancient system, a very strong military posi
tion ; and though only a square tower with turrets
and a corbel table, it exhibits such uncommonly fine
proportions as render it markedly beautiful, and
stands on so commanding and highly scenic a site
as to make it one of the most picturesque of the
Highland castles. " The part of Loch- Aline which
is adjacent to the castle," says Dr. M'Culloch, from
whom we have borrowed our notices of the fortalice,
" is rocky, intricate, and various with ornament, and
receives two very romantic streams, which, forcing
their tortuous way in deep and irregular, rocky and
wooded channels, fall into it at opposite angles.
Here, indeed, the lake deserves the name of beauti
ful, as far at least as beauty can result from that
species of close mountain-scenery, and from the
accumulation in a small space of woods and rocks,
and brawling streams and cascades and wild bridges,
intermingled also with farms and fields, and gra
dually blending with the more placid scenery of
the loch itself." Population; in 1801, 2,083; in
1831, 2,137. Houses 393. Assessed property, in
1815, £2,289  Morven is in the presbytery of Mull,
and synod of Argvle. Patron, the Duke of Argyle.
Stipend £155 2s." 3d. ; glebe £27 10s. Unappro
priated teinds £6 13s. 5d. There are two parish-
churches belonging respectively to the two ancient
parishes, and both surrounded with burying-grounds,
which anciently were enclosed, and had the privilege
of sanctuary. The church of Kiltuintaik, * the cell
of Winifred,' was built in 1780; and that of Kilco
lumkill, ' the church of the cell of Columba,' was
built in 1799. Sittings 300 and 500. Both stand
on the shore of the Sound of Mull. The minister
officiates four times a-year at a station in the inte-
rior, and occasionally at other remote parts of the
parish. There are two catechists. A Roman Ca
tholic priest resides in the parish, and officiates in
two private houses. Stipend £37. The population,
excepting about 50 or 60 Romanists, and 15 Episco
palians, are all Church-of-Scotlandmen. There are
3 parochial schools, attended by about 200 scholars.
Salary £34 4s. 4£d., divided among the three teach
ers, with each about £8 fees.
MORVEN, a very high hill in the southern district
of the parish of Latheron, Caithness-shire, and not
far from the boundary with Sutherlandshire. One
account says, it is " elevated about a mile above the
level of the sea ;" another says, it is " supposed to
be more than a mile above the level of the sea;" but
both, we suspect, over-estimate its altitude. The
mountain is an unfailing barometer, an invariably
correct indicator of approaching rain or drought, to

MOR

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MOU

the whole county, and is seen very far out at sea,
and serves as an important landmark in storms. Its
summit commands a view of nearly all tbe vast Mo
ray frith, and much of the numerous counties which
recede inland from its beach.
MORVEN, a mountain in Aberdeenshire, on the
borders of the parish of Logie-Coldstone, rising
2,700 feet above the level of the sea.
MOSSBURN-FORD, a hamlet in the shire of
Roxburgh, and parish of Oxnam, on the river Jed,
which is fordable here ; 3 miles south-east of Jed
burgh. There is a tower here nearly entire, and
built and divided in the same manner as that at Dol-
phiston, but far inferior in strength.
MOSS-FLANDERS, an extensive district on the
north side of the river Forth, in the shire of Perth.
' MOSSGIEL, a small farm-hamlet, about half-a-
mile to the north of the town of Mauchline in Ayr
shire, on the left side of the road to Kilmarnock,
celebrated as having been for several years the resi
dence of the poet Burns. It is utterly destitute of
landscape beauty ; but the poet's fame has clothed
it with a beauty and interest of » higher order.
Hither romantic pilgrims shall betake
Themselves frnra distant lands. When we are still
In centuries of sleep, his fame will wake,
And his great memory with deep feelings fill
These scenes that he has trod, and hallow every hill.
Our readers would scarcely excuse our omitting
Wordsworth's fine sonnet on this bleak but conse
crated spot: —
" 'There!' said a stripling, pointing with rauch pride
Towards a low roof with green trees half-concealed,
* Is Mossgiel Farm, and that's the very field
Where Burns ploughed up the Daisy.' Far and wide
A plain below stretched seaward, while, descried
Above sea-clouds, the Peaks of Arran rose ;
And, by that simple notice, the repose
Of earth, sky, sea, and air, was vivified.
Beneath ' the random bield of clod or stone,1
Myriads of daisies have shone forth in flower
Near the lark's nest, and in their natural hour
Have passed away : less happy than the one
That, by the unwilling ploughshare, died to prove
The tender charm of poetry and love."
The farm-steading, a very plain low house, with
one small room and a kitchen, may still be seen,
shaded by a few trees, on the west side of the Glas
gow and Dumfries turnpike. The house continues
nearly in the same state as when Burns occupied it,
and was tenanted by his brother Gilbert till the year
1800. While residing here, he published, by the
advice of his superior and patron, Mr. Hamilton, the
first edition of his poems.
MOSSPAUL, a stage-inn on the mailroad be
tween Edinburgh and Carlisle, situated at the east
base of Wisp-hill, between the sources of the Te
viot and those of the Ewes, on the boundary be
tween the parish of Ewes in Dumfries-shire, and that
of Cavers in Roxburghshire ; 9£ miles north of Lang
holm, and 12i south of Hawick.
MOSS-TOWER, a hamlet in the shire of Rox
burgh, and parish of Eckford ; 5 miles north-east of
Jedburgh. Part of the walls of a strong building
were to be seen several years ago in this village,
which is so denominated from its situation in a marsh.
From a passage in Ridpath's ' Border History,' it
appears that the Earl of Sussex, in 1570, with an
English army, burnt and razed Moss-Tower, then
belonging to Buccleuch.
MOTHERWELL, the principal village in Dal
ziel, a parish in the Middle ward of Lanarkshire. In
old charters it is called Moderville, and lies near a
celebrated spring called the 'Well of our Lady,'
from which the inhabitants are partly supplied with
water. Bythe census of 1841, the parish of Dal
ziel contained a population of 1,457, — about one-
third of whom resided in the village of Motherwell.

MOTRAY (The), a small river in Fifeshire.
which takes its rise in Norman's law, in the parish
of Abdie, and, after a short and gentle course, falls
into the Eden, about half-a-mile below the Guard-
bridge : see Kilmany.
MOULIN, a Highland parish, nearly at the north
east extremity of Perthshire ; bounded on the north
by Blair- Athole ; on the north-east and east by
Kirkmichael ; on the south-east and south by Kirk
michael and part of Dowally ; on the south-west by
Logierait ; and on the west by Dull and Blair-
Athole. Its outline is irregular ; but may be viewed
as an oblong extending north-eastward, and sending
off from its ends two considerable north-westward
projections. Its greatest length is between 16 and
17 miles; its greatest breadth between 8 and 9; and
its area between 60,000 and 70,000 acres. The river
Garry, coming down from the north7west, cuts off a
small wing 1J mile by f, and traces the western
boundary a mile southward to the Tummel ; and tbe
latter stream thence runs 3£ miles along the south
western boundary. Both streams abound in common
river trout, and in salmon, sea-trout, and grilse; and
are gorgeously, at times terrifically, grand in their
scenery. The Garry, while running in the interior,
traverses the celebrated pass of Killiecrankie,
[which see,] and over all its connection with the
parish is wildly and sublimely impetuous. The
Tummel, though all the way to its junction with
the Garry tumultuous and rapid, here becomes
tranquilly majestic, and sweeps proudly along amid
scenery softened down from grandeur into exquisite
beauty. The Girnag, approaching from the south
east, runs 2| miles south-westward to the Garry at
the upper end of Killiecrankie. Six or seven inde
pendent streamlets, the largest 4 miles long, rise in
the interior, and run to the Garry and the Tummel.
Parallel to these rivers, and at 4| miles' distance, a
water-shedding line of summits runs across the par
ish ; separating the south-west division of it which
belongs to the district of Athole, from the north
east division which belongs to the district of Strath
ardle. The river Briarachan, coming down from the
north immediately behind this line of heights, runs
| mile southward on the boundary, and If mile south
eastward, and 3i eastward through the interior to
the point where it contributes to form the Ardle.
The Arnate approaching from the north not far from
its source, and 5i miles north-east of the Briara
chan 's point of approach, runs 6£ miles southward to
a confluence with the Briarachan. The Ardle being
formed by the union of these streams, runs a mile
south-eastward to its exit from the parish. In nearly
all the running waters, rills and rivulets as well as
rivers, cascades, occur, and, in several instances, are
unusually beautiful. Those at Edradour and Ur-
rard are particularly admired, and have been cele
brated in song. The parish consists of a congeries
of hills cloven down by vales or glens along the
course of the streams. The highest ground is the
pyramidal and very conspicuous Benvrackie :
which see. The other hills, considered as Highland
heights, are not of mountainous bulk or altitude.
Yet they exhibit several high and abrupt precipices,
and are, for the most part, clad in heath. Those of
Glenfernate [which see, and see also Strath
ardle] are exceptions, being beautifully verdant.
The arable land is level in the How of Moulin, but,
in general, gently declines toward the rivers ; and it
aggregately amounts to about 2, 700 acres. The soil
in the Athole district is tolerably deep and fertile ;
but, in the Strathardle district, is shallower, and
yields lighter crops. The fields around the village
of Moulin, constituting the How, a space of 1J mile
long and half-a-mile broad, are among the most fer-

MOU

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MOU

tile in the Highlands of Perthshire, and have been
called the garden of Athole. About 2,000 acres are
under wood, part of it natural, and upwards of a
half planted within the last 60 years. The principal
rocks are mica-slate, interveined by quartz. Lime
stone occurs in boulders of a fine marble texture,
and in a bed considerably to tbe east of them, which
forms part of a continuous field extending from the
south-west of Perthshire to the north-east of Aber
deenshire ; but, owing to the dearth of fuel, very
little of it is worked. Millstones are formed from a
rock at a considerable elevation, and rolled down
the hill on an axis. A marl-pit exists half-a-mile
from the Moulin ; and has yielded up three skulls of
an animal believed to be of the species which Caesar
calls Uri, and which were found in the Hercynian
forest in Germany. The first found and largest of
them measures 26J inches to the extremity of the
upper jaw, 13 inches in the greatest circumference
of the pith, 3£ inches in the diameter of the eye-
socket, and 10| inches between the eyes. — A curious
ruin, variously conjectured to have been a religious
house and a castle of the Earls of Athole and Bad
enoch, and seemingly erected in the 11th or 12th
century, stands in the neighbourhood of the village
of Moulin. It appears to have measured in area 80
feet by 76, to have had a round turret at each cor
ner, and to have stood in a lochlet which has been
drained and planted. More or less of the walls on
three sides, and most of one of the turrets remain.
The stones are unhewn, pinned with small flat
stones, and cemented with lime and sand, so ad
justed that they must have been poured in as a thin
jelly. Tradition says that it was successively the
retreat and the sepulchre of a number of per
sons infected with plague ; and deters the country
people from removing any of the stones lest they
should be smitten with the pestilence  Small cir
cular works, supposed to have been Pictish forts,
and circles or ellipses of stones reputed to have been
Druidical temples, are frequent. Seven or eight
mansions, chiefly situated on the Garry and the
Tummel, contribute greatly to the natural beauty of
the landscape, both bythe elegance of their own
forms, and by the embellishments of their demesnes.
There are two villages, Pitlochry [which see] and
Moulin. The latter is situated in the southern corner
of theparish, l^mile from the Tummel, 12miles north
of Dunkeld, and has about 300 inhabitants. An an
nual fair is held here on the first Thursday of March.
Manufactures and large machinery, excepting some
thrashing-mills, are all located at Pitlochry. The
parish is travewsed by a road up the Tummel and
the Garry, by another up the Ardle and the Bri
arachan, and by a third which connects them. Popu
lation, in 1801, 1,908; in 1831, 2,022. Houses 422.
Assessed property, in 1815, £6,050  Moulin is
in the presbytery of Dunkeld, and synod of Perth
and Stirling. Patron, the Duke of Athole. Stipend
£150 14s. 3d. ; glebe £26 13s. 4d. The church
was built in 1831. Sittings 650. An ecclesiastical
survey, made in 1836, exhibited the population as
then consisting of 2,043 churchmen and 38 dissenters,
— in all, 2,081 persons  The district on the right
side of the Garry, containing a population of 208,
was, in 1836, annexed quoad sacra to the new
church at Tennandry  In 1834, the parish- school
was attended by 56 scholars, and five private schools
by 301. Parish schoolmaster's salary £34 4s., with
£10 fees, and £9 and a house additional emoluments.
The distinguished Dr. Stewart, who died minister
of Canongate, Edinburgh, was translated to that
charge from Moulin. During his ministry in this
parish, a remarkable and permanently beneficial re
vival occurred, which caused a great sensation at the

period, and is detailed in the Rev. J. Sievwright's
interesting memoir of the Doctor. Dr. Duff, the
church of Scotland's first missionary to India, —
Professor Forbes of the Oriental literature chair in
King's college, London, — Donald Macintosh, the
compiler of the Gaelic 'Proverbs,' — and Captain
Campbell of Finnab, well known for his gallant de
fence of the unfortunate Scottish colony of Darien,
were all born in Moulin.
MOUNT-BATTOCH. See Lochlee.
MOUNT-BLAIR. See Alyth.
MOUNT-KEEN. See Lochlee.
MOUNT-STEWART, the seat of the Marquis
of Bute, in the island and county of Bute. It oc
cupies a fine site on the east coast of the island, 4
miles south-south-east of Rothesay ; and commands
a rich view of the frith of Clyde, the Cumbrays, and
the coast of Ayrshire. The mansion was built in
1718, by James, second Earl of Bute. Its exterior
is plain, unimposing, and so devoid of even proxi
mate ornament that it might be improved by a few
ordinary touches of the trowel. Yet the leaden
water-pipes at its angles are each decorated with
eight coronets, " reminding us of the gouty old peer
in ' Marriage a, la Mode,' who put a coronet on his
crutch.'" The door is converted into a glass win
dow ; and bears an inscription in doggerel verse,
written by Prince Charles, when in concealment on
the island. The picture-gallery is a large and pleas
ant room, completely pannelled over with portraits
of celebrated persons ; and, in particular, contains
a portrait of Rubens by himself, interesting portraits
of the great Lord Bute, tbe Duchess of Lauderdale,
and Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans and daughter of
Charles I., Lady Mary Wortley Montague, and
Lady Mary Menzies. The plantations around the
house are extensive, and contain many noble and
gigantic trees. The kitchen-garden exhibits the
apricot, the fig-tree, and other exotic plants in com
pany with the more usual fruit-trees and vegetables ;
and the flower-garden displays a profusion of exotics,
and is singularly rich in horticultural attractions.
" The flower-garden at Mount-Stewart, nearly a
mile distant from the house," says Miss Sinclair,
" is situated in a very picturesque, irregular piece
of ground, inclining toward the sea ; and you will
think I am copying a page out of some fairy tale,
when you read a description of it. No shop for
artificial flowers looks more brilliantly gay ; and
the richly adorned beds of roses and other bloom
ing plants, were each like one of Madame Devis's
boxes from Paris. A gigantic family of native
silver firs are arranged in tall majestic solemnity
around the gay foreigners, which form a curious
contrast. Exotics scarcely to be reared, who have a
green-house elsewhere, flourish in this garden, as
if they mistook Bute for the tropics, and seem to
rind no difficulty in accommodating themselves to
the climate. Cape heaths flower luxuriantly in the
open air, remaining out all winter, as well as stand
ard plants of the magnolia grandiflora, which have
risen to the height of 18 or 20 feet. Myrtles blossom
here like hawthorn trees ; sweet almonds ripen j
geraniums are on fire with scarlet flowers; fuschias
and camellias have been enlisted among the hardy
plants ; and we observed two cork-trees very thriv
ing, so that the noble proprietor might not only have
an yearly vintage, but also grow his own corks. In
short, it seems as if that which flowers once a-year
elsewhere, blossoms twice here, and what grows 6
feet high in other places of the empire, grows 12
feet high in this more favoured spot."
MOUSE (The), a romantic streamlet arising
in the parish of Carnwath, in the Upper ward of
Lanarkshire. It has a brief but tortuous course,

MOU

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MOY

and aftes: many a "jouk and turn," falls into the
Clyde, a little below the town of Lanark. Towards
the termination of its course, the scenery on both
banks of this streamlet are strikingly beautiful,
especially as it forces its way through the gorge of
the Cartland crags. See articles Lanark, and
Cartland Craos.
MOUSWALD, a parish midway between the
rivers Nith and Annan, and from 2 to 7 miles north
of tbe Solway frith, Dumfries-shire. It is bounded
on the north by Lochmaben and Dalton ; on the
east by Dalton ; on the south by Ruthwell ; and on
the'west by Tortherwald. Its form is an oblong,
extending north and south, and measuring 4i miles
by about 1}, with an indentation 5 furlongs deep at
the middle of the west side, a smaller indentation at
the south- east extremity, and a south-eastward pro
jection 2 miles long and 5 furlongs in mean breadth
from the middle of its east side. Its area is 8£
square miles, or 4,725 Scottish acres. The surface
is diversified by some rising grounds, which are
ploughed to the summit, and the highest of which
has an altitude of about 680 feet above sea-level ;
but, in general, it is champaign, or even quite flat.
Nearly 900 acres at the south end are part of Lochar
Moss: which see. The arable and the uncultivated
grounds aggregately bear the proportion to each other
of about 33 to 10. Lochar- water touches, for a few
yards, the south-west extremity. Wath-burn, com
ing in near its source from the north, moves along the
whole western boundary to the Lochar, wearing the
aspect, for most of the way, of a mossy, grass-
grown ditch. Four independent rills, the largest
3 miles long, rise in the interior, and run or slug
gishly creep to Wath-burn. Springs of pure water
are both copious and numerous. St. Peter's well,
in the vicinity of the church, is a continuous spring
for about 100 feet ; and falling into the largest tri
butary of Wath-burn, prevents it from ever freezing
for a considerable way below their point of conflu
ence. The higher grounds command, under differ
ent groupings, and with the addition of a map-like
view of lower Nithsdale, and probably with a greater
brilliancy of effect, the thrilling yet soothing, and
the extensive prospect seen from White Wooen-hill
in Dryfesdale : which see. Vestiges or ruins exist
of five old Border strengths. Tbe least dilapidated
is at Raffles ; and the largest and strongest is at
Mouswald-Mains or the Place. A statue of Sir
Simon Carruthers, the owner of the latter, the laird
of Mouswald, and the son-in-law of one of the
Queensberry family, lies in the aisle of the church,
its head pillowed, its feet on a lion, and its hands in
the elevated posture of supplication ; but it has nei
ther date nor inscription. Several camps occur,
probably British ; and one at Burronhill has a strong
double fosse. Of several cairns, one about 1£ mile
east of the church, measures 288 feet in circumference,
bears the name of Tryal-Cairn, and is near a place
culled Deadmangill, where, tradition says, malefac
tors were executed, after being tried at the Cairn.
Rockhall, situated near the northern extremity, and
the seat of Sir Robert Grierson of Lag, Bart., the
principal landowner, is the only mansion. The
village of Mouswald stands considerably south of
the centre of the parish, 7 miles south-east of Dum
fries, on the low road betweea that town and An
nan, and has about 150 inhabitants. . Three hamlets,
Woodside, Cleughbrae, and Banks, have jointly a
population also of about 150. Both roads between
Dumfries and Annan run through the parish south
eastward, and other roads are both plentiful enough
and good. Population, in 1801, 705; in 1831, 786.
Houses 152. Assessed property, in 1815, £4,216.
 Mouswald is in the presbytery of Lochmaben, and

synod of Dumfries. Patron, the Marquis of Queens-
berry. Stipend £220 15s. ; glebe £20. Unappro
priated teinds £56 Is. 9d. Parochial school master's
salary £25 13s. 4d., with £9 10s. fees. There is
one private school. The present church is a fine
recently-built edifice on a conspicuous site beside
the village ; and supplanted one which was of high
but unknown antiquity. Tbe original church was
dedicated to St. Peter. The name, Mousward, was
anciently spelt Muswald and Moswald, and, bearing
the meaning of ' the Wood -near the moss,' is very
descriptive of the position as well as of what seems
to have been the original appearance of the site of
the church.
JMOY and DALAROSSIE, an united parish,
forming the district of Strathdearn, partly in Nairn
shire, but, as to far the greater part of its extent, in
Inverness-shire. It is bounded on the north by Cal-
der and Ardclach ; on the east by Duthil ; on the
south by Alvie ; and on the west by Dunlichty and
Daviot. Its length from north-east to south-west is
about 30 miles; and its mean breadth is about 5
miles. It entirely consists of two glens, — that of
the upper part of the river Findhorn, extending from
end to end of the parish, and constituting its main
body,  and that of Loch-Moy, and the rivulet Fun-
tack, opening into the southern part of the former,
and coming down upon it from the north-north-west.
The glen of the Findhorn, or Strathdearn proper, so
called from Earn, the Gaelic name of the river, is
strictly a close mountain-vale, broadly screened with
ranges of the Monadleadh mountains, and possess'ng
an average breadth, across its low grounds, of only
about f of a mile. Numerous recesses or tiny lateral
glens bring down to its river the tribute of their
mountain-brooks ; they are, for the most part, cul
tivated over half-a-mile or more from their mouth ;
and, owing to their having been made the retreats
of herds of cattle during the heat of summer, they
bear the name of shielings. The main glen is first
closed up, and next narrow at its head; it afterwards
possesses a long stretch of alluvial banks and ter-.
races, dotted at every turn with farm-houses, and
extensively plied with cultivation ; and, toward the
north-east, it collapses into a dark ravine called the
Streens, whose sides are formed by precipitous moun
tains of granite. The Findhorn bursts at the head,
of the glen from several springs, and chiefly from a
fissure in a large rock, called the Cloven-stone, and
courses along the whole vale with such rapidity as
never for a moment to loiter, and often to tear away
soil and heavier obstructions in the way of any whim
sical deviation from its path, and occasionally comes
down in such powerful and almost instantaneous
freshets, as seize and sweep away headlong whatever
has ventured upon its shallowest and seemingly most
tranquil fords. High winds often invade the strath,
and career onward in tempestuous .eddies, tearing up
trees, unroofing houses, and contesting with the
river's floods the fame of power — The lesser chief
vale of the parish, or the glen of Moy, is only about
4J miles in length. Near its head lies Loch-Moy,
about li mile long, and half-a-mile broad ; a beauti.
ful sheet of water, whose immediate scenery, com
pared to the general irksomeness of the glen, has
occasioned it to be described as resembling a gleam
of sunshine on a cloudy day, yet one that renders the
adjoining waste darker and more dreary. A hanging
forest of birch surrounds it ; and, in summer, has a
beautiful appearance. At its north end stands Moy-
hall, the family-residence of Macintosh of Macintosh;
a commodious modern mansion, consisting of a mid
dle square and two wings. On its west side are the
church of Moy and the manse pf the united parish.
Of two islets in the lake, the larger contains ruin*

MOY

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of an ancient castle, the former seat ot the Macin
toshes, chiefs of the powerful clan Chattan, — some
vestiges of a street, which seem to indicate that part
of the clan probably lived as an immediate body
guard round their chief; and a handsome granite
obelisk, 70 feet high, on a base of about 20 feet
square, erected, in 1824, to the memory of the late
Sir jEneas Macintosh, Bart. The smaller islet con
sists simply of a collection of loose stones, said to
be artificial ; it was anciently used by the chiefs as a
prison; and, within the recollection of persons still
living, it contained a gallows, the fearful instrument
of capital punishment at the bidding of a baron.
Legendary story is rife with incident respecting the
islets, the castle, and the loch of Moy ; and — eom-
' bined with a recital of old clan fights, as detailed by
Sir Robert Gordon, of ' the curse of Moy,' as told
in song, and of the heroism of Lady Ann Duff, the
wife of Lachlan Macintosh of Macintosh, who acted
so conspicuous a part in rescuing Prince Charles
Edward in 1746 — it makes ample offerings to the
curiosity and the excited feelings of a stranger visit
er. — The mountain-ranges of the parish are not re
markable for either form or altitude : they have easy
and tame outlines, and nowhere rise more than 2,500
feet' above sea-level; and they consist almost wholly
of gneiss and granite. Upwards of 90,000 imperial
acres on these heights are either waste-ground or
sheep-pasture ; and about one-fourtb of that area is
held in common by the tenants of different farms. In
spite of the vicinity of the district to Inverness, the
great focus of ameliorating influence over the High
lands, agriculture, sheep-husbandry, and every de
partment of industry and social well-being have made
such trivial advance amid the general movements of
the last half-century, that the writer, in the New
Statistical Account, commences his notice of the
parish with the ominous statement ; " There is, per
haps, not a parish in Scotland which has undergone
less change than this, since the time of the former
Account. The face of the country, the state of
agriculture, and the manners of the people, are still
the same ; the latter, perhaps, a little modified by
the influence of education." All the land subject to
the plough measures considerably less than 3,000
imperial acres, and probably not more than one-third
of this area is under constant or regular tillage. The
soil of the thoroughly arable pendicles is in general
good, and, in favourable seasons, produces plentiful
crops. — Birch, aspen, and mountain-ash, are indige
nous over the whole parish, and at one time covered
its hills and glens with a continuous sheet of forest.
Coppices to the%ggregate extent of between 1,100
and 1,200 acres still exist, and are periodically,
though not very systematically, thinned. Planta
tions, principally of larch and Scottish fir, exist to
the extent of nearly 500 acres. Mr. Macbean of
Tomatin, a principal and resident heritor, has of
late years planted about 1£ million of trees, and
will probably find imitators of his example as a
planter  The parish is traversed for 10 miles by the
great Highland road between Perth and Inverness,
and is intersected in its various districts by statute
labour roads. A handsome bridge over the Find
horn, with arches of wood resting on pillars of stone,
and erected at a cost of £2,600, replaces a stone-
bridge which was swept away in the memorable flood
of 1829. The other bridges are constructed of tim
ber, and too slender to resist the wild freshets which
assail them. Moy-church is distant about 12 miles
from Inverness. A monthly cattle tryst, during
each of the months of summer and autumn, and an
annual lamb-fair on the 3d Friday of August, are
held at Freeburn-inn, near the middle of the parish,
and are in general well-attended by cattle-dealers 

Population, in 1801, 1,355; in 1831, 1,098. Houses
244. Assessed property, in 1815, £4,079 — This
parish is in the presbytery of Inverness, and. synod
of Moray. Patron, Macintosh of Geddes. Stipend
£234 3s. 4d. ; glebe £12. Unappropriated teinds
£188 17s. At what date Moy and Dalarossie were
united is not known. Churches still belong to both,
and are in use on alternate Sabbaths. That of Moy
was built in 1765, and repaired in 1829 ; and that of
Dalarossie, centrally situated in the vale of the Find
horn, was built in 1 790. Sittings of each about 450.
Excepting two or three Episcopalians, the whole
population are claimed by the Established church.
There are 7 schools, one of them parochial, one for
girls, and five by private enterprise for ordinary edu
cation. Parochial-schoolmaster's salary £30, with
£10 fees, and about £1 10s. other emoluments.
The name Moy, which is the Gaelic Magh, and
means a ' meadow,' seems to have been imposed after
the destruction of the ancient forest. The original
name was Starsach-na-Gael, ' the gate of the Gael
or Highlanders,' and alluded to an important pass
about a mile below the site of the church of Moy, so
narrow between high mountains that a few men
could defend it against numbers, and intercept the
inhabitants of the alpine regions from passing down
to the low country toward Inverness. The ancient
proprietor or chieftain found this pass so command
ing that he exacted and readily received from the
neighbouring clans a tax called ' the steak or callop
of the booty,' for permitting them transit with their
cattle plunder. A large cavern in the vicinity of the
pass was made the retreat of women and children while
the tribe were absent in predatory excursions in the
low country. Aided by the natural strength of the
pass, and by the facilities of the ground so to post a
few men, that they might seem a powerful force,
Donald Fraser Smith, with a handful of Highland
ers, drove back the Earl of Loudoun during the re
bellion of 1746, from an attempt to surprise Prince
Charles Edward at Moy-hall. Dalarossie is a cor
ruption of Dalfergussie, 'tbe valley of Fergus.'
MOYDART, a territorial district and a marine
loch in the south-west extremity of Inverness-shire.
The district is bounded on tbe north and north-east
by Morar; on the south-east and south by Loch-
Shiel, which divides it from Ardgour and Suinart ;
and on the west by the Deu-Caledonian sea. Its
greatest length from east to west is 18 miles ; and
its mean breadth is 7 miles. Its coast-line, every.
where irregular, is very deeply indented by pieces
of the sea, particularly by Lochs Ailort, Na-Nua,
and Moydart. Its interior is thoroughly Highland,
and possesses little interest. Some wood along
Long-Shiel and portions of the sea-coast, soften
the prevailing wildness. It is traversed across the
north by the road from Fort- William to Arisaig, and
contains the latter village, the old ferry-station to
Skye. The district forms part of the enormous par
ish of Ardnamurchan. Loch-Moydart is situated on
the southern boundary, and continues the narrow
communication from Loch-Shiel outward to the sea.
It penetrates 5 miles into the land, but over two-
thirds of its length it- is split into two channels by
the island of Shona. The south or main channel has,
at its entrance, two islets mantled with plantations
of birch and larch ; ^it its head it is adorned with
Kinloch-Moydart, the mansion of Colonel Robert
son Macdonald; on its south shore it is overhung by
the bold form of Castle-Tirim [which see] ; but
everywhere else it has a dull, bald skirting of cold,
unrelieved heathy hills.
MUCHALS. See Fetteresso.
MUCK, a small verdant island of the Hebrides, in
the parish of Small Isles, Argyleshire It lies 4j

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miles north-west of Sanna, in Ardnamurchan, and
3$ miles south-south-west of the island of Eig ; and
it measures about 2 miles in length, and less than 1
mile in breadth. Its surface is everywhere undu
lated, and presents in every part the rocky faces of
the basaltic terraces which occasion its undulations.
Only one decided hill shoots up from the general
level of the low inequalities ; and this is situated
near the western extremity, and attains an altitude
of about 600 feet. The shores are, in general, low
and rocky ; but, near the west end, they rise into
cliffs of about 50 or 60 feet in height. The soil of
all the interior is fertile when in tillage, and naturally
bears a perennial sward of rich fine grass. A suffi
cient number of springs exist to furnish an ample
supply of pure water. Trap of the predominant
varieties of basalt and fine greenstone, occasionally
inclining to be amygdaloidal, forms the body of the
island ; but is proved by tbe protrusion of different
beds of sandstone and limestone at the bay of Cam-
usmore, to lie upon the upper members of the second
ary strata. Peat, owing to the peculiar structure of
the island, does not occur ; and requires to be pro
cured at great toil and expense, and with some
uncertainty, from Ardnamurchan, or from Eig and
Rum. The fishing of cod and ling is a chief occupa
tion, and very productive. Shelter for fishing-boats
is afforded in numerous recesses of the coast; and
two small piers for their accommodation exist in two
creeks. Population about 200, all connected with
the established church. The parish minister, when
officiating in the island, preaches either in a tent or
in one of the farm-houses. — The name of Muck in
Gaelic hJEilan-nan-muchd, 'the Island of swine;' and
has been unceremoniously translated by Buchanan
into Insula Porcorum  On the north side of the
island lies Eilan-nan-each, ' the Island of horses;' an
islet of inconsiderable extent, but swathed in excel
lent pasture. Between Muck and it is a foul, rocky,
narrow channel, which ebbs dry at spring-tides.
MUCK (The). See Barr.
MUCKAIRN, a parish in the northern part of
Mid- Lorn, Argyleshire. It. lies along the south
shore of Loch-Etive, immediately east of the united
parish of Kilmore and Kilbride. It stands annexed
quoad civilia to the parish of Ardchattan, [which
see,] but, in 1829, it was erected quoad sacra into a
separate and parliamentary parish. A large proportion
of the population is segregated in the village of Bun-
awe : which see. During upwards of two years suc
ceeding August 1837, the parish remained unoccupied
by a minister, and lay in complete disorder, as to its
ecclesiastical affairs, in consequence of the presentee
by the Crown being vetoed by the parishioners. The
church and manse, both excellent structures, in the
vicinity of Bunawe, were placed in deplorable ne
glect, the shutters all closed, the garden a picture of
desolation, and everything apparently testifying the
pressure of some great calamity ; and the parish itself
was so far abandoned that its only supply of religious
ministration was- miscellaneous preaching furnished
every third Sabbath by the presbytery of Lorn.
Muckairn has a parochial school ; and, as to eccle
siastical patronage and endowments, occupies a com
mon footing with other parliamentary parishes.
MUCKART, a parish in the south-east division
of Perthshire ; bounded on the north-west and north
by Glendevon ; on the north-east and east by Fos-
saway ; on the south-east and south by Fossaway
and Dollar ; and on the west by Dollar. The Devon
[which see] flows along all sides except the west
and the north-west, — everywhere traces the boun
dary in its progress except cutting off two farms in
the extreme south, — touches the parish for 7£ miles,
 and, while in contact with, displays the chief deep

romance of its scenery. Two burns, both tributary
to the Devon, but running in contrary directions,
trace, for some distance, the western and north
western boundaries. The parish is 4| miles long in
a straight line south-westward from the Crook of
Devon ; from a few yards to lj£ mile broad over 1£
mile of the north-east end, and from 1 £ to 2J over
the rest of the area ; and 4,500 acres in superficial
extent. A spur of the Ochil hills runs 1 \ mile east
ward in the northern extremity, and terminates in a
conical summit called Seamab, and rising 1,350 feet
above sea-level. There are two other heights called
Blairhill and Lawhill. All the hills are of fine out
line, verdant on the sides, covered on the top with
bent or heath, and excellent pasture-ground for
sheep. The middle and east parts of the parish lie
between 500 and 600 feet above sea-level, and the
lowest ground on the west upwards of 60 feet. The
soil, in a small part, is clay, but, in general, is light
and gravelly, and, in the lower grounds, is sandy,
but produces very good oats and barley. The arable
grounds and the grounds uncultivated are mutually
proportioned as 27 to 13. About 300 acres of the
uncultivated grounds are undivided common ; and
nearly the same aggregate area — not included in
either class — is under wood. Coal is extensively
mined for transmission to Strathearn ; limestone is
worked, but only for local use ; and ironstone occurs,
but is not worked on the Muckart side of the Devon.
Two little villages, called the Pool and the Yetts of
Muckart, have jointly, with a hamlet or two, about
220 inhabitants. One turnpike bisects the parish east
ward, running between Dollar and the Crook of Devon,
and another bisects it northward from the Rumbling
bridge. Population, in 1801, 538; in 1831, 617.
Houses 113. Assessed property, in 1815, £2,977 
Muckart is in the presbytery pf Auchterarder, and
synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £20. The parish-church
is an ancient, superannuated, and incommodious build
ing. A meeting-house of the United Secession in the
parish has nearly 400 sittings. In 1834 the parish-
school was attended by 73 scholars, and a private
school by 55. Parish schoolmaster's salary £25 6s.
8d., with about £17 fees, and £1 10s. other emolu
ments. MUCROSS. See St. Andrews.
MUGDRUM, a small island in the river Tay,
nearly opposite Newburgh. It is about a mile long
and 200 yards broad, cbntaining about 32 acres, of
which the greater portion is under cultivation. The
navigable channel of the river is here about 1,000
feet wide, the remainder being a shoal fast filling up
with mud. The projectors of the Western Fife
railway propose to cross the river here by a bridge
2,000 feet long, 95 feet high from high-water level
on the south side of the river, and 83 feet on the
north to the line of the rails ; to be composed of eight
stone piers and two stone abutments, with nine la
minated timber arches of from 180 to 200 feet span
each. The estimated cost of the proposed structure
is £77,000. See Newburgh.
MUICK. See Glenmuick.
MUIR-OF-ORD. See Ord.
MUIR A VON SIDE — popularly Moranside — a
parish in the extreme east of Stirlingshire, forming
in upwards of one-half of its area an eastward pro
jection beyond the extreme line of the contiguous
parishes of the county. It is bounded on the north,
east, and south-east by Linlithgowshire; on the
south by Linlithgowshire and Slamannan; on the
west by Falkirk; and on the north-west by Pol-
mont. Its form is nearly a slender oval, stretching
from south-west to north-east. Its greatest length,
from the point where it is first touched bythe Avon

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to a sudden bend of that river half-a-mile east of
Kinneil-mill, is 6 miles and 5 furlongs ; its greatest
breadth, in a line north-westward by west over Can-
die, is 3J miles; and its area is about 14J square miles.
The river Avon so circles round the parish as not
only to give it its name, but to form on all sides, ex
cept the west and north-west, its boundary-line ; it
traverses, while in contact with it, a distance, mea
sured in straight lines and regular segments, of 10£
miles, but measured along its beautifully sinuous
bed, of probably 15 or 16 miles; and over most of
the way it is richly curtained with wood, or tra
verses a romantic and lusciously featured vale or
dell, or otherwise possesses features of high scenic
interest. A considerable tract of land in the south
is unreclaimed moss ; another tract parallel to it,
though reclaimed, retains a strong dash of its former
mossy character ; and all the other lands, constitut
ing by far the larger part of the area, are of warm
aspect and in prime cultivation, embellished with
lines and occasional clumps of plantation, and car
peted partly with a light and gravelly soil toward
the Avon, but chiefly with a clayey -soil in the in
terior. Ironstone occurs ; and coal, though once
comparatively neglected, has of late been so much
worked as to have occasioned the recent erection of
a colliers' village. Numerous mills of various kinds
stand on the Avon, and are propelled by its water-
power. Various mansions and villas dot the parish
and enrich its landscape. Muiravonside-house, on
the Avon, is an elegant mansion. Half-a-mile north
of the church stands the old castle of Almond, sur-
founded by a fosse, and formerly a seat of the Earls
of Callender. Three quarters of a mile above Lin-
lithgow-bridge, on the Avon, stands Emanuel
Priory : which see. The parish shares the interest
of the magnificent aqueduct of the Union Canal,
and the superb viaduct of the Edinburgh and Glas
gow Railway, across the Avon ; and is traversed
by the works which these bridges carry over, and
also by the Slamannan Railway : see these arti
cles. Within half-a-mile of its north end it is bisected
by the Edinburgh and Falkirk mail-road ; and over
all its area it is profusely chequered with subordinate
roads. Population, in 1801, 1,070; in 1831, 1,540;
in 1841, 2,238. Houses, in 1831, 295; in 1841,
395. Assessed property, in 1815, £6,001  Muir-
avonside is in the presbytery of Linlithgow, and
synod of Lothian and Tweedale. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £225 3s. 4d. ; glebe £9. Unappropriated
teinds £90 19s. 9d. The parish-church was built
about 33 years ago, and is in good repair. Sittings
500 — An*United Secession congregation was estab
lished, and built a place of worship at Avonbridge
in 1803. Sittings 308. Stipend £60, with £7 for
sacramental expenses, and a house and garden  An
ecclesiastical survey, made in 1834, exhibited the
population as then consisting of 1,229 churchmen,
and 173 dissenters, — in all, 1,402 persons. But
since that time there has, as appears above, been a
great increase, in part permanent, by the erection of
the colliers' village, and, in part temporary, by the
constructing of the railways. The parish-school was
attended, in 1834, by 126 scholars, and a private
school by 90. Parish-schoolmaster's salary £34 4s.
2fd., with £24 fees, and a glebe worth £6.
MUIRDRUM, a small village pn the Great North
mail-road to Aberdeen and Inverness, 6 miles from
Arbroath and 12 from Dundee, in the parish of Pan-
bride, Forfarshire. It • is noticeable chiefly as the
seat of a post-office.
MUIRHOUSE. See Murroes.
MUIRKIRK, a parish in the extreme north-east
of Kyle, Ayrshire, containing tbe most easterly land
in the county. It is bounded on the north and east

by Lanarkshire ; on the south and south-west by>
Auchinleck ; and on the west and north-west by
Sorn and Galstone. Its greatest length, from east to
west, is 9 miles ; its greatest breadth, from Forrest-
cairn to Stoney-hill, is 8$ miles ; and its area is about
58 square miles. On all sides except the west and the
north-west, or over a sweeping segment of 25 miles,
its boundary is a water-shedding line of summits.
The surface of the interior is a rough, broken, dreary
expanse of moorish hills, averaging from 800 to 1,000
feet in altitude, tame in outline, darkly heathy in
general dress, now rising in solitary heights, and now
forming ridges which run toward almost every point
of the compass, slenderly intersected with uninter
esting valley-grounds, and nearly altogether destitute
of either grandeur or any other attraction of land
scape. Cairntable, on the boundary with Lanark
shire, near the south-east extremjty, is the highest ,
ground, attains an altitude of 1,650 feet above sea-
level, and commands, on a clear day, an extensive
and diversified prospect. About the middle of the
eastern boundary, and half-a-mile inland from it, are
two artificial lakes, jointly covering 121 acres, cut
out at the beginning of the century by Messrs. Finlay
& Co. of Glasgow, as reservoirs to supply their cot
ton-works at Catrine. Issuing from the first of these,
and traversing the second, the river Ayr runs 8 miles
westward through the parish, cutting it into very
nearly equal parts. Of numerous independent streams,
all of local origin, which join it in its progress, the
chief on its right bank are Powness, Greenock, and
Whitehaugh- waters, respectively 3, 9£, and 5 miles
long, and on its left are Garpel water and Procribe-
burn, respectively 4 and 2 miles long. The Ayr and
the Greenock have a few eels, and abound with
blackish coloured trouts. Only about one-thirtieth
of the area of the parish is in tillage ; about two-
fifteeths have been ploughed, but cannot fairly be
reckoned arable or cultivated ground ; and. all the
remainder, excepting about 200 acres of plantation,
amounting to five-sixths, are either totally waste
or wildly pastoral. A natural forest waved its
shadow, in tbe 12th-century, over a large part,
perhaps nearly the whole, of the surface ; and has
left dreary memorials both in such names as Nether-
wood and Harwood, worn by utterly treeless farms,
and in long trunks and branches deeply buried in
moss. The mountain-ash is the chief tree which
appears to grow spontaneously ; it adorns the wild
est scenes ; and unexpectedly meets the eye by
the side of a barren rock or sequestered stream,
seldom seen except by the inhabitants of the air or
the solitary shepherd and his flock. Coal lies on
both sides of the Ayr, at no greater a depth than 60
fathoms, in six seams aggregately 30£ feet thick, and
severally 3J, 3, 7, 9, 2$, and 5£ ; and is mined on
the most approved plans and in very large quantities
both for exportation and for local consumpt and ma
nufacture. Ironstone occurs in the coal-field in five
workable seams, so thick that three tons of stone are
obtained under every square yard of surface. Lime
stone likewise plentifully occurs, and is worked
jointly with the ironstone and the coal. Lead and
manganese have been found, but not in such quantity
as to be remuneratingly worked  The parish is
deeply and pathetically associated with the martyrly
history of the Covenanters. Of various monuments
the most remarkable is the tomb-stone of the emi
nent and devout Scottish worthy, John Brown:
see article Priesthill. On the top of Cairntable
there was anciently, according to tradition, a place
of worship, and there are still two large cairns.
Tbe villages are Glenbuck [ which see ] and
Muirkirk, noticed below. The parish is traversed
eastward by the turnpike between Ayr and Edin-

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burgh, and southward by the road between Glas
gow and Dumfries by way of Strathaven. Popula
tion, in 1801, 2,560; in 1831, 2,816. Houses 442.
Assessed property, in 1815, £3,820  Muirkirk is
in the presbytery of Ayr, and synod of Glasgow and
Ayr. Patron, the Marquis of Hastings. Stipend
£157 17s. 3d.; glebe £20. The parish-church was
built in 1813. Sittings 913  An United Secession
congregation was established in the village of Muir
kirk in 1822 ; and next year built a place of worship
at the cost of £900. Sittings 380. Stipend £71 
An Independent congregation was established in
1799 or 1800. Their place of worship, also situated
in Muirkirk, was originally two dwelling-houses, is
let as a school-room during the week, and, along
with adjacent ground, was valued, in 1836, at pro
bably £50. Sittings 130  According to an eccle
siastical survey made in 1 836, the population then
consisted of 2,596 churchmen, 320 dissenters, and 33
nondescripts, — in all, 2,949 persons. Parish-school
master's salary £28, with £30 fees, and £5 other
emoluments. There are four non-parochial schools,
— one of them supported by the Iron- works company.
Till 1631 the parish was included in Mauchline:
which see. The church erected in it, at its being
made independent, was appropriately called 'the Kirk
of the Muir,' — abbreviatedly Muirkirk,— and more
formally the Muirkirk of Kyle.
Muirkirk, a village near the centre of the cog-
nominal parish on the river Ayr, at the intersection
of the Ayr and Edinburgh, and the Glasgow and
Dumfries roads, 13 miles south of Strathaven, 14
miles east of Mauchline, 25£ north-east by east of
Ayr, 43 miles north-north-west of Dumfries, 30 miles
south-east by south of Glasgow, and 51 miles south
west of Edinburgh. The village is of modern date,
was brought into existence and nursed by the dis
covery and smelting of iron-ores, originally bore tbe
name of Garan, from a height on which its earliest
houses stood, and is thus noticed in the Old Statis
tical Account : " The only village, or rather clachan,
as they are commonly called, that deserves the name,
lies at a small distance from the church, by the side
of the high-road, on a rising ground called Garan-
hill, which therefore give name to the range of houses
that occupy it. They have increased greatly in num
ber since the commencement of the works, and new
houses and new streets have risen around them.
Many new houses, besides some of them of a very
neat structure, have been built at the works them
selves, and others are daily appearing that will, in a
short time, greatly exceed, in number and elegance,
those of the old village, formerly, indeed, tbe only
one that the parish could boast." The place has not
had uniform prosperity, and continues to be subject
to fluctuations and retrogressions; but, on the whole,
it flourishes as the seat of a great and very gloomy
manufacture of iron, and at present numbers about
2,000 inhabitants, all dependent on the iron- works.
These works comprise three large blast furnaces for
making pig-iron, an extensive forge for making bar-
iron, a foundery, some works for the manufacture of
British or coal-tar, and some extensive works for
tiles and lime. The pig-iron made here is reckoned
by founders soft, easily melted, and of thebest quality;
and the bar-iron, owing partly to the peculiar mode
of working it, and partly to the suitable quality of
the coals, is superior to any produced in Britain, and
little if at all inferior to the best produced in Sweden.
The New Statistical Account says, that the materials
consumed in making one ton of pig-iron are 2 tons
12 cwt. of ironstone, 8 tons 12 cwt. of coals, and 19
cwt. 3 quarters of lime ; and that; in 1837, 400 work
men were employed, and worked eight hours a-day
during six days in the week. Connected with the

iron-works are some canals and railways of limited
extent. The village, as a place of residence, can be
tolerable only by the hardy and prosaic class who
actually inhabit it ; its dense envelopment in murky
smoke, — its deeply dingy or sepulchral tints from coal
pits and furnaces, — its unmusical and deafening clang
of rude vulcan operations, — and its environment with
a landscape of treeless, heathy, moorland hill, ren
der it to persons of taste and sensitiveness almost
the beau ideal of what is disagreeable and dreary.
Coals are obtained for private consumpt at about 3s.
6d. or 3s. 9d. per ton. The village has three friendly
societies, two large circulating libraries, two inns, and
more than the usual proportion of ale-houses, and
annual fairs, ill-attended and of inconsiderable im
portance, in July, August, and December.
MUIRTON. See Marykirk.
MULDONICH, one of the Barra islands at the
south end of the outer Hebridean archipelago. It
lies 1J mile south of the mainland of Barra, and 2
miles west of Vatersa. It measures only about 2£
miles in circumference, is composed wholly of gneiss,
and consists of a single hill, which rises 600 or 700
feet above sea-level. Its name means ' the bill of
Duncan.' Though little or nothing is known of the
legendary hagiology of the Highlands, St. Duncan,
whoever he was, must have been a person of impor
tance, as the Sabbath is frequently called Di Donich,
'Duncan's day.'
MULIGRACH, tbe most northerly of the Sum
mer islands, lying between the promontory of Ru-
mone and the entrance of Loch-Broom, on the west
coast of Cromartyshire. Sandstone strata, of which
it wholly consists, can be traced gradually undulating
from a horizontal position till they become nearly
vertical, and then they lose their marks of stratifi
cation. The change of position is accompanied by
fissures and caverns, indicating subsidence, or the
operation of some analogous cause, after the forma
tion of the last deposits of rock. The island has a
circumference of probably not more than 2£ miles,
and is not inhabited.
MULL, a large island in Argyleshire, the third in
magnitude of all the Hebrides. It is separated from
Ardnamurchan on the north, by the lower part of
Loch-Suinart, — from Morven on the north-east by
the Sound of Mull, — and from Lorn on the west by
the lower part of Loch-Linnhe, and is washed on all
other sides either by the main body of the Deucale-
donian sea, or by brief sounds of it flanked on the
outer side by islands of inconsiderable size. So much
is Mull indented by bays and marine lochs, that,
though measuring, in extreme diameter, not more
than 35 miles, it possesses a' circumference along
sinuosities of its coast of upwards of 300 miles. Its
greatest length west-south-westward from the point
of Dowart, opposite the southern extremity of Lis
more to the small headlands on the Sound of Icolm
kill, is about 30 miles ; its greatest breadth, in a line
from the northern extremity over the summit of
Benmore, to a point below the farm of Scourr, in
the Ross of Mull, is about 25 miles ; and its super
ficial extent, as estimated by Mr. M'Donald in his
' General View of the Agriculture of the Hebrides,'
is 420 square miles, or 210,000 Scottish acres. Were
a line drawn from Treshnish point, opposite the island
of Treshnish on the north-west, to the headland on
the west side of the entrance of Loch-Buy, the main
body of the island lying between that line and the
continent would be nearly a parallelogram of 25 miles
by 14, extending north-north-west and south-south
east ; but, besides suffering other and very consider
able intrusions from the sea, would be indented on
the south-west to the extent of nearly 8 miles by
Loch-na-Keal, and the parts of the island livng be-

412

MULL.

tween the "line and the main ocean, would be only
64 miles in length of the peninsula of Gribon be
tween Loch-na-Keal and Loch-Scridon, and nearly
all or about 16 miles of the long peninsula called
the Ross of Mull, which runs out to the Sound of
Icolmkill, and, notwithstanding its great length,
possesses a mean breadth of little more than 4 miles.
Mull may be summarily characterized as having a
boisterous coast, a wet and stormy climate, and a
rough, unpromising, and trackless surface, redeemed
only by fine spots ' few and far between' in sheltered
valleys, or more frequently at the head of bays and
the bolder inlets of the sea. " We passed the head
of Loch-Frisa," says Lord Teignmouth, " and viewed
from its shore the lofty summit of Benmore. Mull
is, with the exception of some patches of arable
land, a vast moor." Yet, as if willing to say some
thing which might mitigate the effects of so unmea
sured an anathema, his lordship adds: "Near Tober
mory is a sequestered scene of much beauty, recalling
to the Italian traveller in miniature the recollection
of Terni. Sacheverel, 150 years ago, was struck
with its resemblance to Italian scenery. A lake is
enclosed by an amphitheatre of hills covered with
oak, interspersed with torrents, forming picturesque
cascades." " The rapidity," say the Messrs. An
derson, " with which its rocks decompose, prevents
the island from having much picturesque beauty;
and the tourist will be but ill rewarded in searching
for fine scenery at any distance from the coast. Of
an altitude exceeding 3,000 feet, the central group of
mountains — among which Benmore rises supreme —
vie in height with the Cuchullins of Skye, and, like
that chain, bring down immense volumes of rain and
vapour on the island." A miniature or reduced copy
of Dr. M'Culloch's picture of the island, which he
sections off into five divisions, will give a sufficiently
minute view of its contour and physical character.
. — The district lying north of the isthmus between
the head of Loch-na-Keal and the mouth of Aross-
water, is all hilly and irregular, yet, though high,
cannot be called mountainous. Geognostically a trap
district, it everywhere presents that terraced aspect
whence the trap formation has its name, and rises in
numerous stages from the shores to a maximum ele
vation in the interior of from 1,200 to 1,500 feet.
Its coasts are now grassy slopes — now cliffs — and
now rocky terraces, the first of the successive stages
which recede into the interior ; and they occasionally
give place, in deep bays, to small sandy beaches,
formed of broken shells. Picturesqueness occurs
charily and at long intervals along the shores, and is
quite unknown in the interior. A few of the pro
montories and columnar ranges on Loch-na-Keal and
the Sound of Alva, are either clothed with ivy or
decorated by the scattered remains of oak and ash
coppices, and present solitary studies which are not
deficient in interest to an artist ; and some basaltic
veins, in the same localities, have been left alone
amidst the erosion and decomposition of the softer
rocks which once enclosed them, and now rise high
above the surface with such resemblance to the ruined
walls of castles, that, at a little distance, only the
experienced eye of a mineralogist can detect their
true character. The district thus noticed contains
the topographical subdivisions of Mornish, Mishnish,
and Quinish. — A second district includes all Gribon
and a small part of Torosay, or the whole of the
peninsular territory lying west of a line drawn from
the head of Loch-Scridon, past the west base of
Benmore to Loch-na-Keal. This consists of just
such trappean terraces as occupy the area of the
former, but acquires an altitude of not much less
than 2,000 feet, maintains this altitude over an ex
tensive table-land, and, while descending by inter

rupted slopes on the south to level shore's on Loch-
Scridon, breaks down on the west first in steep de
clivities, and next in high cliffs, which jointly have
an elevation of at least 1,000 feet above sea-leveL
Of various caves in this part of the island which
form objects of attraction to *, numerous class of
visiters, one known by the name of Mackinnon's, is
dark, lofty, profound, and imposing on the imagina
tion, yet presents nothing but an abyss of vacancy
in which the eye vainly seeks for any distinctive
object on which it may momentarily repose. Near
this an open and arched but shallow excavation of
great size penetrates some secondary strata; and in
consequence of filtrations of small rills charged with
calcareous matter, is adorned along the room with
huge though rude stalactites. Ash-trees and ivy
mantle over the walls and top of the exterior,' and,
in combination with the sublime background of
towering cliffs, produce a scene of great effect and
admirable colouring. The rocky strata of the coast
in the vicinity of the caves resemble an irregu
lar and huge inclined staircase, the surface looking
to the land, and the outer edges turned upwards at
a considerable angle. A pedestrian, in traversing
them from the beach, laboriously surmounts one step
only perhaps to be conducted to a lower point than
that from which he ascended; and not till he has
crossed a vast number of the alternate elevations
and descents does he find himself on land even but a
small degree higher than the level of the beach. — A
third district, which may be designated the moun
tainous, extends due eastward from the second to
the Sound of Mull, and flanks the coast of that
Sound from the kirk of Torosay, or the castle of
Aros to a point between Macalister's bay and the
head of Loch-Don. Irrespective of the vast and
towering form of Benmore [which see], it attains,
over the greater part of its extent, an average eleva
tion of nearly 2,300 feet above sea-level; yet, on
the north and east it gradually subsides in altitude,
and eventually gives place to a belt of flat shore
along the Sound  .A fourth district occupies all the-
area south of the former, and westward to a line ir
regularly drawn between Shiha and Buncssan in the
Ross of Mull. This territory, in common with all
the others yet named, is trappean ; it possesses, over
far the greater part of its area, uniformly high land;
and in its coast-line it is strongly marked by lofty
cliffs from Inimore to Loch Buy, but eastward of
that bay declines into the flat shores and indented
outline of Loch-Spelis and Loch-Don  The last
district is the western part of the Ross of Mull, and
extends inland from the extremity of that long pen
insula only between 5 and 8 miles. It geoghostioally
consists of primitive or of granitic and metamorphic
rocks, yet blends with the trap along the line of
contact ; and it is either disposed in small and nu
merous rugged eminences through which the naked
rock very frequently projects, or presents the more
undulating features which attend the schistose vari
eties of gneiss — The various modifications of trap
rocks which prevail over the four principal districts,
give place, in the Benmore region, to syenite and a
blue claystone ; and they elsewhere have interspersed
among them, in positions of much distortedness, beds
of limestone and sandstone belonging to the lias and
oolitic series. Agates, zeolites, and the other enclosed
minerals of basaltic and amygdaloidal rocks, occur in'
considerable numbers; carbonized wood has been
discovered; and hypersthene, though not yet met
with, probably exists. A fine red granite is found
at the promontory of Ross.
Excepting on the small rocky district at the point
of the Ross, and on a few of the summits in the
mountainous tract, the soil of Mull is both deep aud

MUL

413

MUN

fertile, and bears a considerably larger crop of pas
ture in a given space than that of Skye. Yet Mull,
of all the Hebrides, is least adapted for the cultiva
tion of grain, and is compelled to exchange part of
its abounding flocks of cattle for imported corn.
Both proprietors and tenants have, for a consider
able series of years, occupied themselves principally
as graziers, and have experienced both an augmenta
tion in the quantity and an amelioration in the qua
lity of their stock. The Tweedale breed of sheep
has been universally substituted for the ancient
Highland ; and a few Cheviots may be found on the
low lying farms. The horses of the island have long
been noted for hardiness; but, in consequence of
improvements in husbandry, and alterations in the
value of land, they have, of late years, decreased
much in number. Woods at one time were so rife in
Mull as to be celebrated for their extent and beauty;
but, except in a few neglected coppices, chiefly of
oak intermixed with birch and hazel, they have long
since vanished. Larch, fir, and other trees have, to
a noticeable extent, been planted in the north ; and
the ash grows with great vigour and beauty in
sheltered situations in the east ; but planes, so noted
for their indifference to the power of winds, seem
unhappily to be almost entirely unknown  Of sev
eral fresh-water lakes, the largest are Loch-Erison
in the north, Loch-Uisk in the south, and Loch-Ba
near the head of Loch-na-Keal. In a bay on the
north-east called Bloody bay, a little north of Tober
mory, -a sea-battle was fought in the 15th century,
between Angus of the isles and the Earls of Craw
ford and Huntley. The island, though singularly
poor in antiquities, and possessing few and tame
specimens of those dullest of all objects of antiqua
rian curiosity, barrows, cairns, and grave-stones,
contains three interesting examples of the semi-an
cient fortalice, — the castle of Aros, overhanging the
Sound of Mull in tbe vicinity of the cognominal
hamlet, — Duart-castle, looking up Loch-Linnhe, and
garrisoned till lately by a detachment from Fort-
William, — and the castle of Moy standing in the
vicinity of the modern mansion at the head of
Loch-Buy. [See articles Aros and Duart.] The
only town is Tobermory : which see. Mull, to
gether with the adjacent small islands of Gome-
tra, Ulva, lona, Staffa, and some others, is di
vided into the three quoad civilia parishes of Kil
finichen, Kilninian, and Torosay, two of which have
each two parish-churches, — and the five parliament
ary parishes of Tobermory, Kinlochspelvie, Salen,
Ulva, and lona, the last including not only all the
island which gives it name but part of the Ross of
Mull. The presbytery of Mull includes all these
parishes, another quoad civilia one among the islands,
and two quoad civilia and two parliamentary parishes
on the continent ; and it meets on the first Tuesdays
of March, May, and November. Population of Mull,
including all the territory within its parishes, in 1801,
8,367; in 1831, 10,538. Houses 1,817. Assessed
property, in 1815, £13,191.
MULL (Sound of), a long band of sea between
the island of Mull and the continent of Scotland. It
is identified at its north end with the lower part of
Loch-Suinart, and on the south with the lower part
of Loch-Linnhe, and is uniform and undisputed in
designation only between the headlands at Bloody-
bay and Duart-castle, — a distance of about 19 miles.
As thus limited, it is planted on the continent side
only by Morven, measures from 11 furlongs to 3J
miles in breadth, and possesses only five or six islets,
all of them quite inconsiderable. But regarded as
including the whole band of sea which divides Mull
from the continent, it may be viewed as commencing
on the south between the headland at Loch-Buy and

Macmarquesas point in Seill island, and cannot mea
sure less than 36 miles in length, while it has occa
sionally a breadth of from 8 to 10 miles, is flanked by
Mid and Nether Lorn and part of Ardnamurchan, and
possesses the large island of Kerrera, besides various
minor islands. Tbe Sound, even limitedly under
stood, has depth enough to bear vessels of the largest
burden ; it sweeps in beautiful curvatures between
comparatively mountainous and moorish shores, which
are occasionally relieved by pendicles of deep ver
dure, and patches of birch and hazel coppice ; and in
all directions it is closed up in the distance by chains
of wild and alpine heights, the chief of which are
the prodigious masses agglomerated round Ben- Cru-
achan. " On each cape and promontory, as we wind
along finely," say the Messrs. Anderson, "the frag
ments of the dark grey walls of the ancient Scandi
navian burghs, and the shattered and picturesque
battlements of more recent castles, rise up before us,
recalling the thoughts of the stern olden time, when
the whole of these shores were exposed to continual
warfare and invasion. In fine weather a grander and
more impressive scene, both from its natural beauties
and historical associations, can hardly be imagined.
When the weather is rough, the passage is both diffi
cult and dangerous, more particularly from the ' con
flicting tides that meet from strait and lake,' and from
the sudden gusts of wind that issue from tbe moun
tain glens. In clear moonlight, also, the sail is most
delightful ; and then, —
' Awaked before the rushing prow
The mimic fires of ocean glow,
Those lightnings of the wave ;
Wild sparkles crest the broken tides.
And flashing round the vessel's sides,
With elvish lustre lave 1' "
MULL OF GALLOWAY. See Galloway.
MULL OF KINTYRE. See Kintyre.
MULLBUY, or Milbuy, a very broad based and
extensive ridgy hill in that district on the east coast
of Ross and Cromarty, which is called Ardmeanach,
or ' the Black isle.' The hill — though only about 500
feet high — extends from the moor of Ord to the town
of Cromarty, — a distance of about 16 miles, and
forms the spine of the peninsula between Beauly
frith and all the upper part of the frith of Cromarty.
Though half waste, and existing for the most part
in commonage, this huge but gently featured hill
was long ago pronounced by the best judges to have
soil as good and as capable of improvement as any
part of the peninsula, and to be, over every foot of
its ground, quite accessible to the plough.
MUNGO (St.), a hill in Aberdeenshire, noted
for its volcanic appearances. See Huntly.
MUNGO (St.), a parish in Annandale, Dum
fries-shire ; bounded on the west, north-west, north,
and north-east by Dryfesdale; on the east by Tun
dergarth and Hoddam ; on the south by Cummer-
trees ; and on the south-west by Dalton. Its great
est length, from the south-east base of Lockerby-
hill on the north to the confluence of the Annan and
the Milk on the south is 5 miles and 1 furlong ; its
breadth over \\ mile at the north end slowly ex
pands from a few yards to 1£ mile, and over 1£ mile
at the south end rapidly expands from a few yards
to 1 .'; mile ; its greatest breadth in a line east and
west over Righead and Brecken-hill, is 3 miles and
1 furlong ; and its area is about 5,000 imperial acres.
Milk-water, maintaining a southerly direction, runs
1^- mile along the boundary with Tundergarth, 2£
miles through the interior, and 1 mile along the
boundary with Hoddam, to a junction with the An
nan at the south-east extremity of the parish ; and
over all this part of its course, its banks are clothed
with natural wood, and slope beautifully toward the

MUN

414

MUR

stream. The river Annan traces the boundary for
3 miles over the whole south-west and south, mak
ing some large and graceful curves in its progress ;
and it flows for a mile along a vale screened by richly
wooded heights, and over the other 2 miles, be
tween softly featured but still pleasing banks.
Both it and the Milk formerly abounded in salmon,
herlings, and fresh water and sea- trout; but, since
the general use of lime manure, they have been less
plenteously stored. In the Annan, 1J mile after it
first touches the parish, there is a pool called the
Rockhole — or vulgarly Rotchel — of an astonishing
depth, formed in the middle of a rock, and at one
time furnishing, by a singular mode of fishing called
grappling, incredible quantities of salmon. Springs
of the purest water, welling up from the rocks, and
maintaining in some cases an equable temperature
over, the whole year, abound and are copious. A
heavy shower of sea water, raised by a whirlwind
off the highly-crested and careering tide of the Sol
way, at the distance of 8 miles on t}ie south-west,
fell some years ago on this parish and Tundergarth,
and, under the evaporating powers of a clear sun,
speedily left filmy incrustations of salt on foliage
and grass. The surface of the parish, seen from
heights which command a map-like view of it in the
distance, appears to be level ; but, though not strictly
hilly, it has such swells and heights as, with the aid
of Brunswark-hill in the contiguous parish of Hod
dam, and the wooded rising grounds of Kirkwood in
Dalton to constitute, on a nearer inspection, a very
gracefully, varied, and pleasing landscape. Nutholm-
hill, flanking the course of the Annan, but subsid
ing slowly into level ground toward the south, has
an elevation of about 200 feet above sea-level ; and
Barrhill and Breckonhill form a ridge parallel to it
on the north, and possessing an altitude of about
250 feet. About 300 acres are under wood, chiefly
plantation ; and the same number, or upwards, are
uncultivated ; and partly irreclaimable  Castlemilk,
situated on a rising ground, on the left bank of the
Milk north of Breckonhill, is at once the most at
tractive object in the parish, the seat of its princi
pal landowner, Thomas Hart, Esq., and the scene
of nearly all its antiquarian associations. Originally
built and possessed by the Bruces, the ancient
lords of Annandale, it passed as the marriage-
dowry of the daughter of King Robert Bruce to
Walter, High Steward of Scotland, and descended
to their son Robert, the first of the Stewarts who
came to the Crown. It afterwards went by marriage
to the Maxwells, and was sold by them to the
Douglases, and has been subsequently fated with a
repeated-change of proprietors ; but it still gives
name to a branch of the most ancient family who
owned, except the Bruces, — the Stewarts of Castle
milk, in the parish of Carmunnock, Lanarkshire.
See Carmunnock. It was besieged, during the
minority of Edward VI., by Protector Somerset,
whose station during the siege was not long ago
traceable, and is called Cannon-holes ; it was after
wards invested by Oliver Cromwell, resisted for a
considerable time his attacks, and had not many years
ago, in its vicinity, distinct traces of , its intrench-
ments ; in 1707, it was dismantled and modernized
into a dwelling-house; and in 1796, it was entirely
rebuilt. The mansion is embosomed in natural
wood and plantation, and environed with a lusci
ously beautiful country  The London and Glasgow
mailroad, and a road from Annan which joins it im
mediately after entering Dryfesdale, traverse the
•parish northward, and a road diverging from the lat
ter traverses it up the river Annan. The southern
extremity of the parish is distant 5£ miles from An
nan, and the northern extremity only half-a-mile

from Lockerby. Population, in 1801, 644; in 1831
791. Houses 132. Assessed property, in 1815,
£3,502  St. Mungo is in the presbytery of Loch
maben, and synod of Dumfries. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £173 12s. 10d. ; glebe £40. In 1834, the
parish school was attended by 86 scholars ; and a
side school by 20. Parochial schoolmaster's salary
£34 4s. 4d., with £40 fees  The ancient parish was
called Abermele, from the confluence of the Mele or
Milk with the Annan ; and the name was changed
into Castlemele or Castlemilk so early as before tbe
year 1170, the date of the erection of the Bruces'
fortified residence. The church was confirmed by
Robert de Bruce in 1174, to the episcopate of Glas
gow, and became a mensal church of that see till
the Reformation. The bishops of Glasgow are con
jectured  chiefly from some remains visible. at the
end of last century of an ancient village, and of an
extensive garden with a fish-pond — to have had a
residence in the parish. Owing to the church hav
ing been dedicated to St. Kentigern, it has, since the
Reformation, borne that saint's vulgar name of
Mungo. The parish was, for a short period suc
ceeding 1609, annexed to Tundergarth.
MUNLOCHY, a village in the parish of Knock
bain, or Kilmuir- Wester, in Ross-shire. It stands
on the road from Inverness to Fortrose, at the head
of Munlochy-bay, an indentation of the Moray frith,
2 miles in length, and opposite Culloden-head. The
village is 6 miles south-west of Fortrose, and 7 north
of Inverness. It is an excellent fishing-station.
MUNNOCK (The). See Ardrossan.
MURROES — properly but obsoletely Muir-
house — a parish near the southern extremity of
Forfarshire ; bounded on the north by Inverarity ;
on the east by Monikie and Monifieth ; on the south
by Monifieth, by the main body of Dundee, and by
Mains ; and on the west by Mains, by the detached
parts of Dundee, and by Tealing. Its form is ex
ceedingly irregular, a projection going off westward
from its south end, and all the detached part of
Dundee being an indentation on its west side. Its
greatest length from north to south, measured over
the middle of the Dundee indentation, is 4\ miles;
its greatest breadth from east to west, in a line over
the parish church, and falling upon the southern
part of the indentation, is 3J miles; its mean breadth,
measured at intervals on the sort of segment which
it forms round the indentation, is about 1 1 mile ,
and its area is about 7 square miles. Fithie-water,
pursuing a south-easterly direction, runs 2 miles be
tween it on the right bank and Tealing, and the
detached part of Dundee on the left; and afterwards
flows | of a mile through the interior, leaving the
parish just after having split its waters to form an
islet. Murroes-burn, coming in near the north-west
extremity li mile below its source in Tealing, runs
4 miles south-eastward" and southward, sweeps
closely past the parish-church, and a mile after leav
ing the parish falls into the united stream of the
Dighty and the Fithie. Several mills are driven by
the streams. A large part pf the parish was formerly
marsh and moss, but has to a considerable extent
been reclaimed and made subject to the plough, and
has all been so far drained as no longer to send up
pestiferous miasmata to the atmosphere. Some of
the land, not mossy, is moorish. The southern dis
trict is nearly all carpeted with a good and even rich
soil; and is, to some extent, sheltered and embel
lished with wood. A valuable marl pit on the estate
of Powrie, contributed largely to the enriching of
the land — Near the right bank of the Fithie, a little
before it leaves the parish, stand the remains of the
castle of Ballumbie, anciently a fortified residence,
and now th» property of Lord Panmure. lt an-

MUR

41*

MUS

ciently belonged to the family of Lovell, nnd was
the home of the celebrated Catherine Douglas, the
wife of one of that family, and the heroine whose
arm was fractured in an attempt to protect King
James I. from the assassins who murdered him in
Perth — At Easter Powrie, now called Wedderburn,
also on the right bank of the Fithie, are the remains
of another castle, anciently the residence of Gilchrist,
Thane of Angus, from whom all the Ogilvies in
Scotland are said to be descended ; and afterwards
the property of Wedderburn of Wedderburn, the
representative of the noble family of Scrymseour of
Dudhope and Dundee. A considerable part of the
population are weavers, employed by the Dundee
manufacturers. The parish is traversed across its
south-west projection by the Dundee and Aberdeen
turnpike by way of Forfar, and enjoys great advan
tages from being distant, at the nearest part, only
2J miles from Dundee. Population, in 1801, 591 ;
in 1831, 757. Houses 109. Assessed property, in
1815, £6,930  Murroes is in the presbytery of Dun
dee, and synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £172 4s. 8d. ; glebe £15. School
master's salary £34 4s. 4d., with £24 fees, and *
house and garden.
MURTHLY-CASTLE, the seat of the Stew
arts of Grandtully, in the parish of Little Dun
keld. The new mansion is one of the most mag
nificent in Perthshire, whether we regard its archi
tectural elegance, or the surpassing beauty of its
situation. The present proprietor, Sir William
Drummond Stewart of Grandtully and Logieal-
mond, has restored an old chapel upon his grounds
at Murthly to nearly its primitive appearance, and
fitted it up with an altar as a Roman Catholic place
of worship.
MUSAY, or Queen's Island, a small island in
Shetland, probably not more than 1\ miles in cir
cumference. It lies about half-a-mile from the east
coast of the Sandwick part of Mainland, and about
7 miles south by west of Bressay.
MUSSELBURGH.a considerably importanttown,
an ancient burgh of-regality, and now a parliament.
ary burgh, in the parish of lnveresk, Edinburghshire.
Viewed apart from contiguous and neighbouring
places which are comprehended within its parlia
mentary and jurisdictional boundaries, it stands on
the right bank of the river Esk, 3 furlongs south of
the frith of Forth ; 3 miles west of Prestonpans ; 4
miles north of Dalkeith ; 2£ miles east of Portobello ;
and 5!_ miles east of Edinburgh. Its site is a fiat
expanse only a few feet above sea-level, fringed on
the north by fine sandy downs called Musselburgh
links, lying between it and the frith, and flanked on
the south by a beautiful ridge of rising grounds,
which is picturesquely crowned with the church and
village of lnveresk. But its boundaries as a burgh
are, Ravenshaugh-burn on the east, the lands of ln
veresk on the south, the burn at Magdalene-bridge
on the west, and the sea-beach on the north. They
extend 2| miles in extreme length from east to west,
J of a mile in extreme breadth southward froTh the
mouth of the Esk, and about 400 yards in mean
breadth over about half-a-mile at each of the ends ;
and they comprehend the considerable town of Fish
errow lying compactly with Musselburgh along the
opposite bank of the river, the large village of New
bigging stretching in one street with some appen
dages about i of a mile southward from near the
middle of Musselburgh to the extreme southern
boundary, Magdalene salt-works near Magdalene
bridge, and the villages of West-pans and Leven-
hall, near the mouth of Ravenshaugh-burn. Such a
long broad field of partly compact and partly inter
rupted town, — skirted with the links of Musselburgh

and Fisherrow, and with the luxuriant and gemmed
slopes of lnveresk, — washed with the gay and brilliant
waters of the frith of Forth, — bisected with the broad,
shallow, limpid, pebbly stream of the Esk, — feathered
all over with the trees and bushes of blooming gar
dens, and embellished all around with mansions,
villas, pendicles of lawn and plots of flowers and
shrubbery, — render Musselburgh, as to the first im
pression it makes upon a stranger, and even to the
eye of a person who is familiar with its defects but
feels them tenfold compensated by abounding advan
tages, one of the most calmly delightful towns, small
or great, in Scotland.
Musselburgh proper consists of a High-street, run
ning 650 yards eastward from the end of tbe New
bridge; a street called Mill-bill, running 4.50 yards
north-eastward from the end of the timber-bridge to
the links; a spacious but short thoroughfare running
southward from the ends of the timber-bridge to the
High-street; another spacious thoroughfare commu
nicating between the High-street and Newbigging;
and various lanes and alleys, running parallel with
these last thoroughfares. The High-street is not
quite straight, and varies much in breadth ; at the
centre, and in the east end, it is very spacious; and,
in spite of defects, it altogether pleases the eye more
than the main street of probably any other Scottish
town of equal bulk. The town has a large propor
tion of self-contained houses, many of them in the
style of villas ; it presents a fair array of good shops,
and of municipal and marketing appliances; it is well
and somewhat regularly built ; and it has such free
dom from the intermixture prevalent in second-rate
Scottish towns of low, thatched, or otherwise mean
houses, as to possess, in comparison with other places -
of its size, a city-like character. The High-street
is the thoroughfare of the Edinburgh and London
mailroad. On its north side stands the Musselburgh
Arms, a very commodious and an old-established
and well-conducted inn. On the same side, west of
the inn, and quite in the centre of the town, stands
the tolbooth, a place curious both in appearance and
in history. It was built in 1590, of materials taken
from the chapel of Loretto, afterwards to be noticed;
and is said to have been the earliest marked instance
in Scotland of a secular erection raised from the
dilapidation of an ecclesiastical edifice. During two
centuries the brutum fulmen of the Vatican, the bit
ter but idle cursing of the papal conclave, was an
nually hurled at the good people of Musselburgh for
" the sacrilege," roughly reminding them that no
want of will was felt on the Pope's part to ruin and
jail them as completely as their fathers had done the
chapel. The tolbooth, originally uncouth and gaunt,
was a few years ago partially renovated and hand
somely ornamented. Its accommodations for pri
soners are a debtor's-room, a lock-up-room, and a
cell. A large number of captured rebels were im
prisoned in it between February and September
1746, and appear to have been unceremoniously lit
tered upon straw. Attached to the tolbooth is the
town-hall, a, more modern erection, containing the
council-room and an assembly-room. Humbly but
venerably surmounting these buildings, is a spiral
steeple much more ancient than the tolbooth, and
endurable only for its antiquity. Its primitive clock
bears the date 1496 upon the dial, and is said to have
been a present to Musselburgh from the Dutch States
to encourage the continuance of an extensive com
merce with their towns.
Eighty yards above an islet which the Esk forms
at its mouth, a timber-bridge carries across a rail
way. Above this are three bridges for maintaining
the ordinary communication with Fisherrow, and
places to which its thoroughiares lead. The lowest,

416

MUSSELBURGH.

situated 330 yards above that of the railway, and
opening into the High-street of Fisherrow, is a sub
stantial timber-bridge resting on cast-iron pillars,
and renovated in 1838. Near this bridge stands a
mansion built in 1840 by a leather-merchant, Mr.
Legate, greatly the most elegant house in the
town, and out of keeping in its finery with the pre
vailing character of the surrounding architecture.
About 250 yards above the timber-bridge stands
the main communication across the river, and that
which carries over the Edinburgh and London mail
road, an elegant stone-bridge of 5 elliptic arches,
erected in 1807 from a design by Sir John Rennie,
very nearly level in its roadway, and a great orna
ment to the town. About 220 yards higher up stands
a venerable stone-bridge, supposed, from its being on
the direct line between the Pretorium at lnveresk
and the harbour of Fisherrow, from its connexion at
the ends with remains not long ago extant of an an
cient causeway, and from various architectural fea
tures in its structure, to have been built by the Ro
mans. It is narrow in the roadway, and high in the
centre ; it was formerly defended in the .middle by a
gate, some traces of which exist in the side- wall ;
and it has three arches, each 50 feet wide, with a
spring of only 10 feet, and the segment of the circle
so much depressed in several parts towards a straight
line as apparently to indicate that the frame or cover
must have sunk during the process of erection. This
bridge is now used only by foot-passengers, and,
with a continuance of the care which is practised to
ward it, may still occupy its place and be useful for
centuries; but it is remarkable as the grand tho
roughfare for ages between the south-east of Scot
land and the metropolis, as an important pass during
English incursions and invasions undertaken in the
international wars, and as the bridge by which armies
poured along to neighbouring fields of fatal and
memorable conflict. It is, says Chambers in his
History of the Rebellion of 1745-6, "a structure
over which all of noble or kingly birth, that had
approached Edinburgh for at least a thousand years,
must certainly have passed; which has borne pro
cessions of monks, and marches of armies, and trains
of kings ; which has rattled under the feet of Mary's
frolic steed, and thundered beneath the war-horse of
Cromwell." While the Scottish army were passing
along this bridge to the field of Pinkie, the master of
Montrose and several other persons were killed upon
it by shot from the English vessels lying off the
mouth of the river. A mound was thrown up at
lnveresk churchyard by Protector Somerset of Eng
land to defend the bridge as a pass, and was after
wards used for the same purpose by Cromwell. The
Chevalier's Highland army traversed the bridge in
1745, on their way to the field of Prestonpans.
" Departing from Duddingston," says Chambers,
" the insurgents soon after fell into the post-road,
and continued their march till they entered the Mar
ket-gate of Fisherrow, an old narrow street leading
to the bridge, in passing along which Charles bowed
to the ladies who surveyed him from the windows,
bending to those who were young or beautiful even
till his hair mingled with the mane of his charger.
The army now passed along the ancient bridge
which there crosses the Esk. Proceeding directly on
ward, the column traversed not the town of Mussel
burgh, but the old kirk-road, as it is called, to ln
veresk, and entered the street of Newbigging about
the centre. It then marched along the precincts of
Pinkie-cleuch, and sought the high grounds near
Carberry." — According to Mr. Stephenson's plan for
the Great North British, oi East coast line of rail
road, that line would be carried across the Esk, on
the north of the town, at a distance of 5^ miles from

the Edinburgh terminus, by a viaduct 200 yards in
length, and 34 feet in height.
On the margin of the links, immediately beyond
the ancient eastern gate of tbe town, stood a cele
brated chapel and hermitage dedicated to our Lady
of Loretto. The place had similar fame in Scotland
to its romancely storied prototype in Italy ; and,
though not professing to enclose the very cottage of
the Nativity, or any other ancient edifice of Pales
tine, fetched to it by miraculous flight through the
air or navigation across the ocean, was believed to
share the physical sanctity and the powers of super
natural cure which the fables of superstition ascribed
to the Italian Loretto. The Musselburgh chapel was
of high but unascertained antiquity, and probably owed
much of its importance to the haze which rested on
its early history, and which possibly provoked the
imagination of heated votaries to assign it an origin
quite as extraordinary as that which was claimed by
its prototype. Keith says that it was connected
with the nunnery of Sciennes in Edinburgh; but he
perhaps means no more than that the ladies of that
establishment were retained to patronize it, or, for
reasons of superstition or interest, used their influ
ence to extol it to their dupes. Pregnant women
sent their child-bed linen to it to be consecrated in
order to their safe and easy recovery, and accompa
nied their commission with large presents of money;
and pilgrimages of young men and maidens, of invalids
and roues of tbe great laden with care and the small
harassed by disaster, were made to it from all parts of
the country, in quest of blessings supposed to be pur
chasable with money, and enjoyable in companion
ship with sin. A solitary ascetic who inhabited the
attached cell of the hermitage, added greatly to the
celebrity of the place. The importance of the herT
mit was afterwards singularly evinced by the inci
dent told by Knox in his History of the Reforma
tion, of his having written in his name, by request
of the Earl of Glencairn, a satire on the hypocrisy of
the Romish priests, entitled " Ane Epistill direct
fra tbe halie Hermeit of Alareit to his brethren the
Gray Friars," and beginning,
" I Thomas Hermeit in Lareit,
Sanct Francis Ordour do hairtilie greit."
Even James V. himself performed a pilgrimage to it
on foot from Stirling, in August 1530, before setting
sail to seek among the daughters of France a partner
for his throne. Yet the chapel became, if not a Pa
phos, at least a place of somewhat kindred character, —
a noxious meeting-place of young men and women, — a
scene of barter between the tricks and gains of priest
craft and the indulgence and chartering of vice. " Sir
David Lyndsay of the Mount, Lord Lion King-at-
arms," whose satires are well known to lacerate
priestcraft to the bones, and to salve its bleeding
flesh with spices, found no fitter, no less pitied, sub
ject for his cat-o'-nine tails and his rude salving than
the chapel of Our Lady of Loretto. " Parts of
Musskelborowe towne, wi' the chapel of Our Lady
of Lauret," were destroyed in 1544 by the English
army under the Earl of Hertford ; and the chapel,
though afterwards thoroughly re-edified or repaired,
was soon frowned away from its stenchy site by the
Reformation, and, in just penance for its crimes of
chicanery and pollution, made acquainted, stone by
stone, as we have seen, with convicted and acknow
ledged malefactors. " Of this building, which must
have been of considerable dimensions," says the New
Statistical Account of lnveresk, written in 1839,
" no vestige now remains, save a cell measuring 12
feet by 10, covered by a circular wooded mount. In
the roof is inserted a strong iron bar, with an oaken
pulley attached, but for what purpose seems doubt
ful. In 1831, the present proprietor of the villa of

MUSSELBURGH.

417

Loretto, the Rev. Thomas Langhorne, caused part
of the earthen floor to be dug up, when a number of
'human skulls were discovered, some of which were
in complete preservation, and remain so. Over the
entrance is an antique carved stone, but from the
date on it, 1634, it must have been placed there at
a period subsequent to the destruction of ' the cha-
pelle of Lauret.' The present villa of Loretto,
which is extensive and commodious, appears to have
been built during the last century, and is surrounded
by delightful gardens and orchards." — In the town
of Musselburgh, there were anciently two other
chapels, similar in character to that of Loretto, but
of much less note  Four hundred yards south of the
villa of Loretto, gracing the south-east outskirts of
the town, and presenting in itself, in its grounds,
and in their historical associations, singularly engross
ing attractions, stands Pinkie-house : see article
Pinkie  At the east end and on the south side of
High-street, stood till about the year 1809, the house
in which died, in July 1332, the great Randolph
Earl of Murray, the friend and compatriot of "the
good Lord James" Douglas, and the second in com
mand under Robert Bruce in tbe field of Bannock-
burn. It was a two-storied house, buttressed in
front, with conical Flemish windows, each surmount
ed by a sculptured rose. The ground-floor was dis
posed in <t vaulted passage or corridor 6 feet wide,
and in two apartments with arched roofs,- each 14
feet square, and, from the floor to the centre of the
arch, 8 feet high. The house might well have been
the best in the town at the remote date of its erec
tion. The inhabitants are said by tradition to have
formed a guard round the house during the celebrated
inmate's illness, and to have received some notable
reward in the form of privilege conferred on the
town from tbe Earl of Mar, the succeeding regent.
On the site of the house now stands Morison's-haven
Operative Masonic lodge, — an institution which
originated at the place whose name it bears [see
Morison's-haven], and whose localization in Mus
selburgh seems quite as curious as the proud charac
ter of the lodge's site.. — In the back street called
the Dam-brae, stands the Musselburgh Kilwinning
lodge, built in 1612. Near it in the same thorough
fare, is a spring of great repute for culinary uses,
called the Vicar's well, and anciently belonging to
the parsonage of the vicar of lnveresk. — At the west
end of High-street stands a house which figures in
the letters of Humphry Clinker as that in which Dr.
Smollett was received by Commissioner Cardonell 
In Fisherrow, near the end of the timber-bridge, stands
the plain villa of Eskside, the residence of Profes
sor Stuart; and within the precincts of its garden is
a, detached, tasteful, two-storied, circular building,
beautifully mantled in ivy, the study of the Profes
sor's son Gilbert, in which several of his works were
written, and one of the most arresting objects in the
landscape seen down the Esk from tbe new bridge.
The manse of lnveresk, built in 1806, and situated
in the south-west of Musselburgh near the Vicar's
well, is noticeable as probably occupying the site of
the ancient or popish parsonage-house, and especially
as having supplanted a predecessor of great note, in
association with literature. During the incumbency
of tbe late Dr. Carlyle, the former manse, built in
1681, was a favourite resort of Robertson, Hume,
Campbell, Logan, Mackenzie, Smollett, Home, Beat-
tie, and other distinguished literati of the last age ;
here a large part of the tragedy of Douglas was
written; here, among the papers of Dr. Carlyle,
was found a complete copy of Collins' long-lost
"Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlands;" and
here, at an earlier period, were composed the ser
mons of Williamson. Ecclesiastical buildings in the
II.

town, and antiquities and interesting mansions in its
vicinity, are noticed in the article Inveresk: which
see. The links of Musselburgh, long noted for pro
menading, golfing, and archery-ground [see Inver
esk], were, in 1816, adopted as the scene of horse-
racing for the district environing Edinburgh [see
Leith], and were trimmed and furnished with ap
pliances suited to the sport of testing and witnessing
the comparative locomotive powers of the fleetest
horses. A curvilinear or irregularly oval race-course,
measuring about 1,000 yards in its greater axis, less
than 400 in its lesser axis, and about 2,400 in its cir
cumference, stretches eastward from a point 100
yards west of the Esk, and impinges for a consider
able way close upon the sea. At the part of it which
is nearest the town, and about 100 yards from Lor
etto, there is a well-constructed stand. Races, un
derstood to be those of Edinburgh, but claiming
intermixedly the prefix names of it and of Mussel
burgh, have, since 1817, been run here every autumn -r
and the races of the Caledonian hunt also are run
here every third year. The moral scenes at these
races are free from the roistering and the coarseness
which so greatly characterized those at their Leith
predecessors, yet they exhibit many bioad features
of fashionable dissipation. — Close on the race-course,
at it west end, is the powder-magazine ; and between
it and the frith stands the gas- work, erected in 1832,
which supplies both Musselburgh and Portobello with
gas. On the links of Musselburgh, in 1638, the
Marquis of Hamilton, acting as the representative
of Charles I., and bearing a commission to destroy
the power of the Covenanters, was met by so many
thousands of that noble and undaunted people, and
saw such demonstrations of their might and resolu
tion, as utterly blenched the warm hue of the ruth
less hopes he cherished. Moving from these links
along the coast to Leith, he found the line of his
whole route flanked with the triumphant partisans
of the Covenant ; and on approaching the rising
ground near the Leith academy, was petrified to see
so many as about 600 Presbyterian ministers arrayed
in the caps, and bands, and gowns of Geneva, and
calmly but sternly glancing defiance at his master's
purpose to make Prelacy the religion of Scotland.
In 1650 the chief part of the infantry of Oliver
Cromwell encamped on the links, while his cavalry
were quartered in the town ; and they remained here
during nearly two months. The spot on which
Cromwell's own tent was pitched is still pointed out
opposite Linkfield-house.
Musselburgh possesses a singular combination of
advantages as a seat of manufacture ; but was long
fluctuating, disastrous, and unimportant, and event
ually has become peculiar and spirited in its manu
facturing history. A broad-cloth manufactory, be
gun in the end of the 17th century, was long carried
on in great perfection, though not to great extent.
A kind of checks called Musselburgh stuffs were, in
the early part of the 18th century, fabricated in large
quantities from coarse wool, at the price of from 2£d.
to 5d. per yard, and chiefly exported to America for
female servants' gowns ; but soon after they were
entirely jostled out of the market by cheaper and
more showy fabrics of cotton. Wodllen cloth, both
coarse and fine, continued to be made in small quan
tities toward the end of last century, but has since
altogether ceased to be a Musselburgh article of pro
duce. About the year 1750 a cotton manufactory
was commenced, and employed in the town and its
environs about 200 looms, but it was speedily swamp
ed by. successful competition in other parts of Scot
land. A manufacture of thicksets, waistcoats, hand
kerchiefs, and some kindred fabrics set flourishingly
2 D

418

MUSSELBURGH.

off, though on a small scale, toward the end of last
century, and it too has disappeared. A china manu
facture was begun about the same time, or earlier, at
Westpans, and received some encouragement from
the nobility and gentry on account of the neat embel
lishments of its ornamental china ; but as it could not
produce table-china cheap enough for common sale,
so it was abandoned. Its place is now occupied by
a pottery for the coarser sorts of earthenware. Dye
ing is another occupation which once formed a promi
nent part of the town's trade, and has declined nearly
to extinction. A starch-work at Monkton, south of
Musselburgh, paid, in 1792, no less than £4,064 13s.
4d. of excise duty, but was given up on the following
year A salt-work, of long standing, exists at Mag
dalene Pans. The brewing of ale and beer occupies
now only one brewery, very recently occupied two,
and in the latter part of last century was a very ex
tensive trade. The tanning and currying of leather
is carried on in three large establishments, employs
about eighty workmen, annually consumes .900 or
1,000 tons of bark, and supplies principally the mar
kets of Edinburgh and Glasgow  A sail-cloth manu
factory, established in 1811, was at first small, but
has gradually increased to a great extent, and now
occupies large premises, and employs a steam-engine
of 55 horse-power. This factory produces sail-cloth
of flax, both warp and weft, highly or moderately
bleached, — of flax warp and tow weft, various in
quality and bleachedness, — and of tow, both warp
and weft; but the superior are the kinds chiefly
woven. The wages of the workmen fluctuate be
tween 5s. and 22s., but average perhaps 9s. 6d. clear.
Three factories, one of them very large and begun
about the year 1820, the others small and begun
since 1838, are employed in the weaving of hair
cloth, and are the only Spottish establishments of
their class. The principal fabric is a cloth for chair
and sofa-covers, made of hair weft and dyed tow
warp, woven entirely by women, assisted by ' ser
vers,' whose work is a succedaneum for the shuttle,
and yielding 8s. 8d. of weekly wages to the weaver,
and 4s. 4d. to the server. Another fabric is a beau
tiful white one, with coloured stripes and figured
work, made of cotton warp and hair weft, for covers
to drawing-room furniture and boys' caps, and yield
ing, on the average, 6s. of weekly clear wages.
House of Commons horse-hair carpeting, introduced
to the use of the house on the recommendation of
Dr. D. B. Reid, is a fabric woven only here, made
of yellow hair warp and black hair weft, with a bor
der of chestnut hair on each side, is a yard wide and
very thick, and pays wages of from 10s. to 12s. a-
week. — A manufactory of fishing nets, established in
1820 by Mr. Paterson, the ingenious inventor of a
method of weaving them, which long baffled his skill
but became educed from persevering and laborious
experiment, now employs about twenty looms, and
produces about 2,500 yards of net per Week. Another
manufactory of the same kind — the result of an in
vention quite independent of Mr. Paterson's, and
entirely different from it in the manner in which it
knots the net — was established six years ago by Mr.
Robinson the perspicacious inventor, and has already
risen to considerable importance. — The gardens of
Musselburgh, besides an unusually large proportion
of such as are strictly private, and wholly or partially
devoted to embellishment and luxury, include many
large ones called mail-gardens, whose produce, chiefly
in leek seed and in esculent plants, is a large article
of export to the markets of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Leek-seed matured here has long been esteemed the
best in Scotland, and continues to enjoy its reputa
tion. The harbour of Musselburgh, or more properly

that of Fisherrow— slightly noticed in our article on
that town  is situated more than half-a-mile west
of tbe mouth of the Esk, and dates so high as the
period of the Roman province of Valentia. From a
Roman military station, around which also was a
municipium or colony of citizens, at Inveresk [see
that article], a causeway led down along the old
bridge to the harbour ; and from two other Roman
ized localities, at a much greater distance, other cause-
ways led down to the same point. From ruins which
have been discovered in digging the foundations of
many houses in Fisherrow, the immediate vicinity of
the harbour would seem also to have been very an
ciently a seat of population, and very probably the
site of a colonia Romana. In the middle ages, also,
a commerce appears to have been carried on between
it and Holland, so large as to draw the special atten,
tion of the Dutch States, and excite their wishes for
its continuance. Yet the harbour is at present so
shallow as to have only i\ feet of water at neap tides.
This fact, jointly with one formerly glanced at, that
the English vessels, in 1547, got so close into the
mouth of the Esk as to fire destructively upon the
troops passing along the old bridge to the field of
Pinkie, appears to intimate that the sea has some
what receded. The circumstance that the approaches
of the old bridge are completely beyond the reach of
the tide, proves, at all events, that the sea has not
encroached. The haroour stands on the edge of an
expanse of loose sand at a point where there is no
outward current either to form a bar or to wash
away sleech. At the commencement of the present
century it was in a rude condition, fit for little else
than the accommodation of fishing-boats, and even
yet it has greatly too short and ill-contrived though
substantial a quay. The pier so breaks the action pf
the tide that a lodgment of sand is made on the inner
side, such as renders the depth 2 or 3 feet less tban
on the outer side ; it has been pierced with an arch
way, carrying through a pipe for attempting — but
quite vainly — to wash out the sand by water poured
in from a reservoir ; and it is improvable only in the
way in which improvement upon it is likely soon to
be attempted, by running it considerably out to sea;
but even then will not render the place a good har
bour. Yet the trade, in spite of all disadvantages,
has of, late, years rapidly and greatly increased.
Though no vessel belongs to the port, many coasting-
vessels of this country, and vessels of Norway, Prus
sia, and Holland, resort to it in preference to Leith.
The number annually clearing from it is between 200
and 250, averaging each between 60 and 70 tons. A very
rich coal-field around Musselburgh, perforated with
numerous shafts, and plied by swarms of miners, fur
nishes a chief article of export, as well as of local
enrichment. The other exports are principally bricks
and tiles. The imports coastwise are very miscel
laneous, and from abroad are chiefly timber, bark,
skins, bones, rape, and oil-cake. An attempt to run
a steamer between Musselburgh and Berwick was
defeated by the inconvenience of the harbour.
Musselburgh has branch-offices of the Commercial
bank of Scotland and the Western bank of Scotland;
a savings' bank ; a public reading-room ; a subscrip
tion library; a circulating library; five or six friendly
societies ; a clothing society ; and two mortifications
called Hastie's fund and Bruce's fund, the latter for
lending out money to industrious tradesmen, and the
former for clothing and educating destitute orphans,
and affording aid to the aged and tbe infirm. Eccle
siastical and school notices are given in the article
Inveresk. Musselburgh schools have long been so
famous that a club of distinguished men, who were
educated in them, holds periodical meetings in Edin
burgh to keep alivethe reminiscences of their school-

MUSSELBURGH.

419

boy days. As the climate is singularly healthy, and
the situation advantageous for out-of-door exercise,
and the best masters for modern languages, drawing,
music, and other ornamental departments, can always
be obtained from Edinburgh, boarding-schools are
very successful and of more than average reputa
tion — Musselburgh, from 1792 till near the close
of the continental war, figured conspicuously as the
site of military wooden barracks, so extensive that
they often accommodated upwards of 2,000 men, of
the militia and volunteer cavalry. In 1797, and at
subsequent dates. Sir Walter Scott, as quarter
master of tbe Edinburgh light-horse, flung all the
romance of his society over the place, aided by a
novelist of totally different character, whose princi
pal work is as disgustingly notorious as Sir Walter's
writings are celebrious, the well-known 'Monk
Lewis,' then a resident in Fisherrow. So important
to the town were the barracks, that when the last
regiment marched out of them, a wag rather graphi
cally laconized the result, by writing on the walls
' A town to let.' Yet half-pay-officers and retired
capitalists, in considerable numbers, compensated the
loss ; and, in spite of the powerful competition of
Portobello, they, in many instances, make the town
their home, and benefit it by their presence  An
annual fair is held once a-year ; it was formerly a
scene of great business, and continued several days ;
but it is now without traffic, and lasting two days
affords mischievous occasion for the lessening of salu
tary moral restraint. Communication is maintained
with Edinburgh by coaches along the road, and by
railway from Fisherrow, during almost every hour of
the day.
Musselburgh is governed by a council of 12. The
magistrates exercise j urisdiction in the bailie court, and
in the justice-of-peace court. They also hold a small-
debt-court for sums not exceeding £5 ; and on the
same days they hold a civil court, in which they are
competent to judge to any extent in point of value.
In criminal cases of an aggravated nature, they merely
examine the offenders, and send them to the sheriff;
and in those of a trivial nature, they punish arbitra
rily by imprisonment or fine. The civil cases be
tween 1820 and 1833 varied in number annually
from 209 to 430, two-thirds of them being small-
debt cases, and not above 30 on the average an
nually being of a nature which required to be sent
to the assessor. The criminal cases, during the
same period, averaged 18 a-year ; they were prin
cipally cases of petty theft and riot, but included
4 charges of manslaughter, and 3 others of aggra
vated character. An assessor who assists in decid
ing civil processes, does not attend in court, but is
consulted in cases in which the proceedings are
conducted in writing. In other cases, the magis
trates take the advice sometimes of the town-clerk,
and sometimes of the procurator-fiscal. The office
bearers appointed by thetown-council are the procura
tor-fiscal, salaried at £15, with the same fees as are paid
in the sheriff courts, — an assistant treasurer and master
of works, salaried at £40,— a clerk, an agent, a sur
geon, a shore-master, a billet-master, keepers of the
steel-yard, fire-engine, and town-clock, together with
an additional town-officer, severally salaried at from
£1 to upwards of' £16 16s., — several burgh officers,
who receive no salaries, — and the rector of the
grammar-school of Musselburgh, and of 2 salaried
teachers of English, one in Musselburgh proper, and
the other in Fisherrow. — Very extensive property
formerly belonged to tbe burgh ; but, many years
ago, it was to a large amount sold or feued. The
existing property, Consisting of very numerous items,
was valued, in 1833, at £35,000 ; and the debt was
stated, at the same time, to be £12,123 8s. — The

revenue for the year ending September 1833, was
£2,01 1 4s. ; and the expenditure for the same year,
£2,197 3s. 8Jd. The taxes or customs, shore and
harbour duties, levied by the magistrates, amounted
to £517 lis. 4d. of the revenue. Of this sum
£230 accrued from what are called Gentie's cus
toms, — atax levied in terms of the town's charter
upon carts, waggons, and cattle, which was imposed at
a time when wheeled carriages for purposes of luxury
were unknown, and which falls with undue weight on
the poorer pait of the population. The corporation-
revenue in 1839-40 was £2,022 14s. Id.— The rights
of a burgess cost, for a burgess' eldest son lis. 1,-jd.,
for a soldier £1, and for a stranger £1 6s. 8d., with
3s. 6d. or 5s. to the town-clerk ; and persons not
burgesses must pay 3s. 4d. a-year for leave to carry
on business. There are 7 incorporated trades 
Police affairs are managed, not by any separate
establishment, but by the town-council, or a su
perintendent whom they appoint. Though of late
years greatly improved, they still require amend
ment. Musselburgh is far from being as clean or tidy
a place as many a town which has not a tithe of its
wealth, aristocracy, intelligence, and topographical
advantages  The town unites with Leith and Porto
bello in sending a member to parliament. In 1833,
the number of householders whose rents were £10
and upwards, was 315, of whom 110 were burgesses;
and of householders whose rents were less than £10
but not less than £5, was 165, of whom 37 were
burgesses. The parliamentary and municipal con
stituency amounted, in 1840, to 297. Population, in
1831, including Fisherrow and Newbigging, 7,024.
Population of the parliamentary burgh, in 1841,
6,328. Inhabited houses, in 1841, in that part or
the burgh bounded on the north by the Esk, 406 ;
in the quoad sacra parish of North Esk, bounded
on the south by the Esk, 520. Number of families
in 1841, 1,394.
Musselburgh is believed to have derived its name
from a mussel-bank near the mouth of the Esk. But
its earliest name was Eskmouth or Eske-muthe ; and
its next, including the manor over which it presided,
was Musselburghshire. As Eske-muthe it is men
tioned by Simeon of Durham so early as the 7th cen
tury, and seems to have been a seat of population
throughout the whole Northumbria-Saxon period.
In 1201, the barons of Scotland assembled at ' Mus-
chelburg' to swear fealty to the infant son of William
the Lion, afterwards Alexander II. In the reign of
David I., a grant was made by that " sair saunt to
tbe Croon," of the manor of Great Inveresk, or
'Musselburghshire,' comprehending Musselburgh,
Fisherrow, the church of Inveresk, with its tithes and
other pertinents, and the mills and fishings of the
manor, to the monks of Dunfermline ; and this grant
was confirmed in 1236 by a bull of Gregory IX., and
at other dates by deeds of David I.'s successors.
From the original grants the monks enjoyed a bar
onial jurisdiction over the manor ; and from its con
firmations, they acquired the increased jurisdiction
of a regality. Alexander II., in 1239, granted to
the monks a right of free forestry over all the lands
of the district; and Robert III. gave them all tbe
new customs leviable within the burgh. The vicars
whom the monks sent or appointed to officiate in
the church of Inveresk were sometimes called " vi
cars of Muscilburg," and appear, among distinguished
or influential men, as witnesses to many charters. A
dispute in the 13th century respecting temporalities
between the vicars and the monks, which seems to
have been keen, and which was terminated by a de
cision of the diocesan bishop that the vicars were en
titled to the small tithes and the offerings at the
altars of ' Muscilburg,' excepting the fish of every

420

MUTHILL.

kind, and the tithes of the mills for which they were
to pay the monks annually ten merks, seems evi
dence that, even at that early date, the altar of Our
Lady of Loretto, and possibly the altars of the other
chapels of the town, had become the resort of devo
tees. The regality of Musselburgh and the pro
perty connected with it passed after the Reformation
to Lord Thirlestane, and descended with some dilapi
dations, to his posterity the Earls and Dukes of
Lauderdale till 1710. See Inveresk. The town
is still in possession of a charter granted by John,
Earl of Lauderdale, to the bailies, treasurer, council,
and community of the burgh, confirming various an
cient charters and rights granted to them by the
abbots of Dunfermline, the oldest of which is there
stated to have been given and granted by King David
(I.) in the 34th year of his reign. There is also men
tion made in the charter by Lord Lauderdale of a
charter and infeftment by Robert, Commendator of
Dunfermline, with consent of the conventicle breth
ren, in favour of the bailies, councillors, and com
munity of the burgh for the time being, dated 1 1th
December, 1502, granting and confirming to them all
and whole the burgh of Musselburgh, and ground
and lands of the same, with liberties, and advan
tages, as freely and' honourably as any other burghs
of barony or of regality within the kingdom of Scot
land, or which of law, or the practice of the realm,
belong to them ; with power of entering burgesses,
privileges of harbour and trades, of holding three
weekly markets, and a fair during eight days at the
Festival of the Apostle James. The last mentioned
charter also empowers the bailies and community to
elect annually, at Michaelmas, two bailies, a trea •
surer, and officers to a sufficient number for the ad
ministration of justice, with power to hold courts
and punish malefactors ; and to levy small customs
and harbour dues  Lord Lauderdale's charter also
confirms two other . charters of different lands,
mills, multures, knaveships, &c, given to be held
in feu, which are described at great length ; and
it contains a clause of novodamus of all liberties
and privileges, harbours, stations, and receptacles
for ships, anchorage and shore-dues, bridge curs-
toms, creating and appointing free burgesses, with
power of sale, &c, another fair for the space of two
days on the 16th and 17th October, electing magis
trates, holding courts, punishing malefactors, and, if
needful, of putting them to trial and torture. It
further gfves the power of granting infeftments, and
also a clause in virtue of which it has been the prac
tice of the" magistrates to grant titles according to
the manner used in burgage tenure, viz., "also of
cognoscing, entering, and seizing the heirs of the
foresaid free tenants, in the foresaid lands, tene
ments, and others, respectively above specified,
when their certain right is clearly manifest, accord
ing to tbe old usage and custom of the said burgh."
This charter was confirmed by Charles IL, on 21st
July, 1671 : and under this last confirmation the
property of the burgh is now held. In 1632, a
charter under the great seal erected Musselburgh
into a royal burgh ; but, in the same year, in con
sequence of a compromise between its own magis
trates and those of Edinburgh, a decreet of reduc
tion of the charter was obtained by the latter from
the privy council. But it still wanted none of the
rights of a royal burgh except that of representation
in parliament; and this it obtained bythe great na
tional measure of 1832. It now, therefore, differs
from a royal burgh in nothing but the name 
Though it reaped consequence from the Reform
bill, and contributed in . its celebrated schools his
early education to Mr. Thomas ; Drummond, Lord
Althorpe's secretary, by whom the bill is said to

have been drawn up, it was, with the exception of
Queensferry, the only town in Scotland which, im
mediately after the great change, returned a majority
of conservative councillors.
MUTHILL, a large parish, a little south of the
centre of the southern half of Perthshire ; bounded
on the north by the main body of Strowan, and by
Crieff and Madderty ; on the east by Trinity-Gask
and Blackford ; on the south by Dunblane ; and on
the west by detached parts of Strowan and Moni
vaird, and by Comrie. It is so irregular in out
line as not to be even proximately reduceable to
any known mathematical figure, but is nevertheless
compact. Its greatest length from tbe boundary at
Longsholls on the east, to the east base of Benour-
hill on the west, is 10| miles; greatest breadth from
the point where the river Earn first touches it on the
north, to Nethermill on Allan-water in the south, is
8J miles ; and its area is probably about 76 square
miles. The river Earn, running in the direction of
south-east by east, washes the northern district for
ih miles, measured in a straight line, and about 7
measured along its sinuosities; over three-fourths of
the distance it is the boundary with Crieff, and over
the other fourth it cuts off on its left bank the lands
of Innerpeffray, which once formed a detached part
of Monzie: see Monzie. Allan- water, coming down
from the east, runs for 2 miles along the boundary
on the south. The Machony and the Knaik [see
these articles], rise very near each other close on the
western boundary, and traverse the parish length
wise, the former eastward to the Earn, and the latter
eastward and south-eastward to the Allan. Loch-
Balloch is a tame small lake in the north-west,
whence runs a brook to the Earn. The pond of
Drummond is a splendid artificial sheet of water,
nearly a mile long and about half-a-mile broad, on
the lands of Drummond in the north, curtained round
with wood, overhung on one side by a high rocky
bank, and enlivened on its bosom with numerous
swans and geese. The western half of the par
ish is bleak, barren, and wildly pastoral, aud lies
within the Highlands; and the eastern and north
eastern half luxuriates in the picturesqueness and
fertility of strath and glen, of pleasant slopes and
diversified surface. The north-east corner, consist
ing of a large tract, is one of the most delightful
parts of the luscious Strathearn. Along the margin
of the level and hanging grounds of this district,
sweeps circuitously a hilly ridge, green and culti
vated, terminating at the west end in the most con
spicuous object in the parish, the hill of Torlum.
This elevation alone fixes the eye which is turned
toward the district from a distance on the east, and
seen thence, seems to preside over lands partly level,
and partly rising, which have nothing to dispute or
lessen its supremacy : it is an exquisitely outlined cone,
towering high above the circumjacent grounds, and
lifting a forest of pine into communion with the
clouds. Along the south side of the ridge which
ends in this fine hill; lies a narrow vale, the basin of
the Machony ; and screening the vale along the
other side, runs a naked and chilly upland range,
akin in character to the Highland heights of the
west, and abruptly losing itself among their huddled
mass. This range comrriences on the east in what
is called the Muir of Orchil, bears the name of Cor-
ryaur, runs along the parish in a line not far from its
middle, forms the water-shed between the tributaries
of the Forth and those of the Earn, and naturally
divides the parish into two great districts, which
may be designated Ardoch on the south, and Mu
thill proper on the north, and which belong respec
tively to Strathallan and Strathearn. The Strath-
allan district, except in its western or Highland part,

MUTHILL.

421

may be viewed as generally declining to the Allan ;
and as to all the properties of naturally geographical
boundary, engrossingly interesting antiquities, beauty
of landscape, separate village, and ecclesiastical and
school establishments, is essentially a distinct parish :
see article Ardoch. ' Muthill proper, or the Strath
earn district, forms a landscape of many and very
pleasing attractions. A spectator looking down
upon it from Corryaur, " sees the parish-church, a
stately Gothic edifice, with its adjacent cleanly vil
lage, looking through the rows of shrubs and trees,
— roads in several directions, half shaded over with
limes and chestnuts, — large fields in the highest state
of cultivation, and the winding Earn moving slowly
through them. But this is not all. On his left is
Drummond-castle, full in view, whose shattered
walls remind him of other days; and behind it is
Torlum-hill, 1 ,400 feet above the level of the sea,
unsurpassed for beauty in its conical shape and its
evergreen trees; and then before him is lofty Ben-<
choan and Turret-glen, and the Knock with Crieff
on its sloping side; and on his right the far-extend
ing prospect to the hills of Sidlaw." [New Statis
tical Account.] — About 2,500 acres in the parish are
planted ; and the rest of the area is in nearly equal pro
portions arable and uncultivated  The principal an
tiquities of the parish, Ardoch-camp and Drummond-
castle, are both separately described. Commanding a
view eastward to the distance of 40 or 50 miles, is a
small rock close by Drummond-castle, called Eagle's
Craig, and, by the country people, Beacon-hill, the
top of which is flat, and covered to a considerable
depth with ashes. Several Roman roads intersect
this parish, and vestiges of Roman camps are nu
merous. Large single standing-stones, from 10 to
14 feet high, are numerous; and remains of Dru-
jtlical temples are not unfrequent  The village of
Muthill stands on the mailroad from Glasgow to
Perth, 4 miles south of Crieff, 17 from Stirling, and
nearly the same distance from Perth. In tidiness of
aspect, neat rusticity of architecture, and scenic

beauty of position, it has few equals in Scotland.
Markets, which now gave it importance, have been
swamped by its vicinity to Crieff. A few of its in
habitants are cotton- weavers in the employ of Glas
gow manufacturers, and the rest are principally agri
cultural labourers. Its population is about 1,300.
An excellent library, left by the late Lord Madderty,
provided with a librarian, and rich enough to be an
acquisition to a city, exists for the use of literary
persons at Innerpeffray. Three distilleries in dif
ferent parts of the parish produce annually about
100,000 gallons. Population, in 1801, 2,880; in
1831, 3,297. Houses 453. Assessed property, in
1815, £14,937  Muthill is in the presbytery of
Auchterarder, and synod of Perth and Stirling.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £243 1 7s. 5d. ; glebe
£30. Unappropriated teinds £180 13s. Id. The par
ish-church was built in 1828, and is one of the most
elegant in the country  An Episcopalian chapel has
long existed in the village of Muthill  An United
Secession chapel stands at Greenloaniiig in the quoad
sacra parish of Ardoch. A chapel — dedicated to St.
Patrick — anciently stood in the sequestered High
land district of Blair-in-roan, and is commemorated
in a well called St. Patrick's, which is absurdly re
puted to be efficacious in the cure of hooping-cough.
A Culdee establishment is contended by some writers
to have stood in the parish. Muthill — in the days
of popery and prelacy — was the residence of the dean
of Dunblane; and, for some time after the Reforma
tion, the seat of the presbytery, which afterwards
took name from Auchterarder. Its presbyterian
ministers — commencing with Hally, who served it
for half-a-century, and figured in the revival scenes
of Cambuslang — have been men remarkable for pas
toral worth and personal piety. Barclay, the foun
der of the sect of Bereans, was a native of the par
ish. In 1834, the parochial school was attended by
99 scholars, and eight private schools by 350. Pa
rochial-schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with
£16 10s. fees, and £12 10s. other emoluments.

PORT-OF-MONTEITH.

NAB

422

NAI

N

NABEE (Loch), or Loch-Nabeau, a small lake
in Morayshire, in the parish of St. Andrew's Lhan
bryd. It is about 3 miles in circumference, is fre
quented by flocks of wild geese and ducks, and is
sometimes visited by swans.
NAIRN, a parish on the coast of Nairnshire, and
in the province of Moray. It is bounded on the
north by the Moray frith ; on the east by Auldearn ;
on the south by Calder ; and on the west by Arder
sier. It expands at the ends, and greatly contracts
in the middle, so as to have proximately the outline of
an hour-glass. Its greatest length from north to south
is upwards of 8 miles ; its greatest breadth, from east
to west, is 6 miles; and its superficial extent is
between 25 and 30 square miles. It all lies within
the champaign country, or great plain of Moray.
The hill of Urchany, at one of the south corners, is
the highest ground, and only noticeable eminence.
For some distance from the skirt of this height the
surface descends in a gentle slope ; and along the
sea-board it becomes low and flat. The river Nairn
bisects the parish north-eastward and northward to
tbe frith. The soil on the banks of the river is
sand mixed with clay ; in the southern district, is a
rich and heavy mould; and about Kildrummie, around
the town, and along the coast by Delnies, is light
and sandy. A pendicle of about 400 acres around
the town is probably the most pleasant low ground
in the north of Scotland. Salmon are somewhat
extensively taken in the river, shell-fish at its mouth,
and haddocks, skate, cod, ling, flounders, and her
ring, in the frith. On the north side of the hill of
Geddes are vestiges of an old edifice, called Caistel
Fionlah, — ' Finlay's- castle,' — about 78 feet long, and
nearly half as broad. It was surrounded with a
ditch, still visible, round the middle of the eminence.
A little east of the same hill are the remains of the
castle of Rait, built at a remote but unascertained
period, and the residence for some time of a branch
of the powerful family of Comyn. At a place .called
Knock-ma-gillan, a little below this castle, 18 of the
Macintoshes were slain by the Comyns in a feudal
brawl. At Easter-Geddes are the remains of an old
chapel, the burying-place of the family of Kilravock,
surrounded with a public cemetery. Lady Kilravock,
and her husband, Hugh Rose of Geddes, obtained, in
1293, a charter from King John Baliol, confirming
to them and their heirs the lands of Kilravock and
Geddes. The chapel was founded in 1473, dedicated
to the Virgin Mary, and endowed with £5 Scots and
a small glebe. Its chaplain was to perform dailv
offices, not only for the soul of the founder, but also
for the souls of his predecessors, and of his heirs and
successors ./or ever," — a pretty plain intimation that
the masses would ever be useless. Tbe parish car
ries two roads up the river, and two parallel to the
coast. Population, in 1801, 2,215; in 1831, 3,266.
Houses 721. Assessed property, in J815, £1,762 
Nairn is the seat of a presbytery, in the synod of
Moray. Patron, Brodie of Brodie. Stipend £284
2s. 10d.; glebe £18. Unappropriated teinds £347
2s. Id. The parisb-church was built in 1810-11.
Sittings 902. A catecnist, paid by voluntary sub
scription, divides his labours between Nairn and
Auldearn. — An United Secession congregation was
established in the parish about 65 years ago. Their
meeting-house was built in 1815, at a cost of about
£820. Sittings 512. Stipend £110.— An Inde

pendent congregation was formed in May, 1801.
Their chapel was built in 1804, at the cost of £575.
Sittings 416. Stipend about £46 from the congre
gation, and £20 from the Congregational Union 
The parish-school, at the date of the Education Re
port in 1834, was in a most inefficient state. Salary
about £30 with £10 fees, and £7 other emoluments.
There are a prosperous academy, established, a few
years ago, by the inhabitants of the burgb ; two
flourishing schools in the landward district,- sup
ported by the society for propagating Christian
knowledge; and four other schools; — in all, seven
#n on-parochial schools, conducted by eight teachers,
and attended by about 300 scholars.
NAIRN, a small town, a royal burgh, and the
capital of Nairnshire, is situated on the left bank of
the river Nairn, immediately above its embouchure ;
1 1 miles east by south of Forres ; 23 east-south-east
of Elgin ; 31 J east of Fochabers : 18 north-east of
Inverness; 86 north-west by west of Aberdeen; and
194 north-north-west of Edinburgh. Nearly the
whole town has a dingy and very antiquated appear
ance. Its principal street, called Main-street, com
mences close on the river A of a-mile from the frith,
and runs away south-westward to the distance of 3£
furlongs. This thoroughfare is nearly straight, and
tolerably spacious ; and has the irksomeness of its
old-fashioned aspect relieved by one or two fine
modern publiclbuildings. All the other old thorough
fares are narrow confined lines, either huddled in a
mass round the foot of Main-street, or sneaking-
crowdedly from its sides. Charles-street is a new,
solitary, and partially edificed line along the river
and harbour, from the foot of Main-street to the
frith. Cawdor-street and Cumming-street are newly
planned, and spacious lines, the former parallel with
the frith at a furlong's distance, the latter crossing it
at right angles, and both situated north-west of the
old town, along the margin of the town-links. Several
good new houses have been erected also on the south
west wing of the old town. The streets, not long ago
noted for having the most uneasy pavement of any in
the kingdom, are now well-paved; and, in 1839,
they began to enjoy the luxury of gas. The river,
just before coming abreast of the town, forms an
island of 1^ furlong in length, and opposite the lower
end of the island is overlooked by the parish-church ;
and after passing the bridge two-thirds down the
town, it continues to run direct along to the frith,
leaving to the right its old channel which diverged
among sandy grounds to the north-east, and formed
a little island. The bridge was originally an excel
lent and substantial structure, built in 1631 or 1632;
but it sustained much damage, — first from a flood in
1 782, and next from tbe great flood of 1829. An
inscription upon, a stone of it, which long ago fell
into the river, is ' Gulielmus Rose de Clava,' with
the motto, ' Non est Salus, nisi in Christo : Soli
Deo Gloria.' At the south-west end of the town
stand the academy, a handsome structure, and a neat
monument to the memory of Mr. John Straith, who
was 40 years schoolmaster of the parish. Near the
middle of High-street, and on its north-west side,
stand the town and county buildings, erected in
1818. Tbe structure is the principal public edifice
and architectural ornament of Nairn ; and it has a
fine appearance, and is surmounted by a handsome
spire. Its interior contains the town and county

NAIRN.

423

jail, and a court and county hall ; the latter very
elegant and spacious, and occasionally used as a ball
room. In a recess opposite this structure stands the
United Secession meeting-house. On the same side
as the town-house, and less than 100 yards to the
north-east, stands Richardson's hotel. This is noted
both as a good inn and as the scene of an annual
autumnal festivity, called the Nairnshire Harvest
Home, and possessing strong attractions for persons
who cannot find happiness enough in the retirements
of quiet society, and of home and the closet. The
original town occupying, perhaps, not quite the same
site as the present, and one more seawards, was de
fended by a castle. Buchanan informs us that, as
far back as the time of Malcolm I., the Danes cap
tured this castle, and cruelly used its custodes or
keepers. But every vestige of the structure, and
even its site, were long ago overwhelmed by en
croachment of the sea.
Nairn is distinguished for the dryness and healthi
ness of its situation, for its cheapness of provisions,
and for the excellence of its beach and its artificial
appliances for sea-bathing. It is, in consequence, a
favourite summer resort of sea-bathers, and is pro
vided with cold and hot salt-water baths. Several
reminiscences and objects both in the town and its
vicinity, possess interest for strangers, or make
pleasing appeals to the imagination. The town was
long noted for standing so exactly on the boundary-
line between the Highlands and the Lowlands, and
being so completely bisected by the mutual repul
sion of the Moray men on the east, and the kilted
Gael on the west, that the Lowland Scottish dia
lect was spoken at the one end of the street, and
the Gaelic language at the other. According to a
tradition of the place, James VI., when one day af
ter his accession to the English throne, twitted about
the smallness and unimportance of the towns of his
native kingdom, wittily declared that he had " ae
toon in Scotland, the toon o'. Nairn, sae big that the
inhabitants spake two different languages, and the
folks at the ae end o't could not understand the
folks at the ither." West of the town is the field
on which the Duke of Cumberland encamped his
army on the day before the battle of Culloden. The
insurgents, aware of his position, came down the
banks of tbe Nairn from Culloden with the design
of attacking him by surprise ; but they were too
late in their movements, and, being overtaken by
tbe dawn, were obliged to halt and return. Their
fatigue and want of sleep occasioned by the long
and useless night-march are sometimes assigned as
a chief reason of their having sufferea so signal and
total a discomfiture in the action of next day. The
field of battle lies 9^ miles south-west of Nairn.
Kilravock (popularly Kilrawk) castle, a seat of
Colonel Rose, the descendant of one of the oldest
and most respectable families in Moray, stands on
the left bank of the Nairn, 6 miles on the way to
Culloden ; and lifts over the stream a range of cas
tellated buildings, and a very ancient tower. A
museum of paintings, armour, and writings in this
mansion excels every other collection in the north.
The mother of Henry Mackenzie, the author of the
' Man of Feeling,' and the lady admired by Lord
President Forbes, and made the heroine of his song,
' Ah ! Chloris, could I now but sit,' were daughters
of the House of Rose, and residents at Kilravock.
Less than 4 miles south of Nairn stands Cawdor or
Calder-castle, teeming with curious associations :
See Calder. Within a range of 5 miles round the
town  and, in about half the instances, within a
range of li mile — are about 17 or 18 mansions, va
rious in their attractions, and jointly contributing
much richness to the landscape.

A harbour was constructed at Nairn, in 1820,
chiefly according to a plan by Mr. Telford ; and, in
cluding a sum paid for tbe deterioration of a fishery
by changing the course of the river, cost not less
than £5,500. Most of the work having been swept
away, or otherwise demolished, by the flood of 1829,
the inhabitants have made laudable exertions for its
restoration. The trade of the town, though under
stood to be thriving, must always be very limited;
as the Highlands commence at a short distance to
the south, and Inverness and Findhorn supply the
adjoining coast districts. The chief articles of im
port are coal, lime, groceries, soft goods, and other
merchandise ; and of export are fish and fir-timber.
The fishing and the curing of herrings are conducted
with much enterprise and success ; and the former
employs many boats, while the latter has appro
priated to it a kind of factorial building. Salmon-
fishing likewise gives some emplbyment. A weekly
market is held on Friday ; and annual fairs for horses
and cattle are held on the third Friday of April, — on
the 19th of June, if a Tuesday, or, if not, on the
first Tuesday after, — on the 13th of August, or first
lawful day after. Campbeltown fairs, — on the fourth
Tuesday of September, — on the Friday after the
third Tuesday of October, — and on the first Friday
of November. The April and October fairs are ap
propriated also to the hiring of servants, and the
August fair to tbe hiring of reapers. The town has
branch-offices of the Caledonian bank, the National
bank of Scotland, and the British Linen company's
bank. Communication is enjoyed with Inverness
and the north on the one hand, and Aberdeen and
the south on the other, by the daily.transit of the
royal mail. A stage-coach runs every lawful day to
Nairn from Elgin : and, on its arrival, a passage-
boat, wind and weather permitting, starts for Cro
marty. " Nairn," says the Report of the Commissioners-
on the Municipal Corporations, " appears to have
been founded by William the Lion. ' Alexander II.
made a grant to the Bishop of Moray ' in excambium
illius terre apud Invernaren, quam dominus Rex
Willelmus, pater meus, cepit de episcopo Moravi-
ensi, ad firmandum in ea castellum et burgum de
Invernaren.' The lands and town were granted by
Robert I. to his brother-in-law, Hugh, Earl of
Ross; and they probably continued in the possession
of that family till the forfeiture of John, Earl ot
Ross and Lord of the Isles, in 1475. At that period
the tenure of the lands in Nairnshire, which had been
formerly held under the Earls of Ross, was changed
to a Crown-holding ; and a similar change very pro
bably took place with regard to the town of Nairn,
which then begins to be styled in records the King's
burgh, and the royal burgh of Nairn ; unless it may
be thought that the terms of Robert l.'s grant of the
Earldom of Moray to Thomas Ranulph (which can
not be easily reconciled with the Earl of Ross's char
ter) are sufficient to prove that Nairn, as well as
Elgin and Forres, was then of the rank of a royal
burgb." Any charters erecting the town into a
royal burgh, or granting or ratifying its privileges,
appear to be lost. But a charter of confirmation,
though not copied, was confirmed by an act of par
liament in 1597 ; and that act specially prohibits all
who are not freemen and burgesses " from presum
ing to use or exercise the liberties and privileges per
taining to the said burgh and burgesses thereof within
the bounds and limits set down in the foresaid in-
feftinent." A considerable 'extent of landed pro
perty formerly belonged to the burgh; but it has
almost all been alienated. The proceeds of lands
which yielded a price of £3,478, and produce annual
feu-duties of £10 10s., were all, with the exception

424

NAIRNSHIRE.

of £210 in price, and £3 10s. 6d. in feu-duties, ex
pended since 1820 upon the construction of the har
bour and the building of the jail. The revenue in
1833 amounted from all sources to £141 12s. 8d. ;
and the expenditure, consisting of salaries to officers
and a schoolmistress, public burdens, subscription to
the academy, repairs of jail and harbour, and some
incidental items, amounted to £151 14s. 3d. The
burgh-debts amounted in the same yearto £240. The
corporation-revenue in 1839-40 amounted to £294
8s. 4d. The only local tax isastent, which has become
merely nominal. Any person, in order to trade
within the burgh, must be an ordinary burgess. The
number of burgesses, in 1833, was about 71 , of whom
about 35 were merely honorary. The fees of ad
mission exacted from handicraftsmen are £1 Is.,
and from merchants £8, besides small sums to officers.
Temporary licences are occasionally granted to un
freemen. There are no minor corporations or crafts.
The town-council consists of a provost, 3 bailies, a
dean-of-guild, a treasurer, and 11 councillors. Muni
cipal and parliamentary constituency, in 1840, 72.
The jurisdiction of the magistrates in criminal mat
ters has gradually narrowed to cases of petty thefts
and assaults ; and, as regards even these, it is in
cumbered with such oppressive modes of procedure
as almost entirely put it in abeyance. Such civil
cases as come before the bailie court are few and
trifling, and seldom litigated ; any civil cases of im
portance being generally carried to the sheriff-court.
The only patronage of the town-council is the ap
pointment of the burgh-officers and a schoolmistress.
The burgh unites with Inverness, Forres, and For
trose, in sending a member to parliament. The po
pulation within the burgh-boundaries is but an un
important fraction less than that of the parish. In
1841, it amounted to 2,687 ; and in that year the
burgh contained 663 inhabited, and 47 uninhabited
houses. — Nairn gave thetitle Of Baron in the Scottish
peerage to the ancient family of Nairn ; and the title
afterwards diverged to a younger branch of the ducal
family of Athole. The peerage was created in 1681,
attainted in 1746, and restored in 1824, and it has
been dormant since the death of William, 6th lord,
in 1837. It is said to be represented bythe Baroness
Keith of Banheath and Stonehaven- Marischal.
NAIRN (The), a river of Inverness-shire and
Nairnshire, in Moray. Its source is.near the central
water-sheds of the boldly-mountainous district of
Badenoch, at a point 9 miles, in a straight line, east
of the middle of Loch-Ness. Its course, from end
to end, is, with few and slight deviations, toward
the north-east ; and, measured in a straight line, ex
tends to about 30 miles. Over 16 miles from its
source, it is wholly an Inverness-shire stream ; over
the next 6 miles it runs across a district in which
that county and Nairnshire are irregularly dovetailed
into each other ; and over the remaining 8 miles, it
flows wholly in Nairnshire. Till about the point of
its ceasing to touch Inverness-shire, it is a Highland
river, and gives the name of Strathnairn to the glen
or widening vale which it traverses. Its immediate
banks are green meadows and pasture-fields, with a
few patches of corn land; and its flanking heights are,
for the most part, barren heathy mountains. Some
clumps and little belts of alder and birch occasionally
make a pleasant fringe-work on its margin ; and
arrays of plantation and ornamental grounds over
look its progress past the house of Aberarderand on
the property of Farr. But, in general, its valley
exhibits only tbe repose of pastoral life, and pos
sesses neither the power of landscape, nor the ac
tivity of life which shakes up the quietude of a
tourist, and stirringly appeals to his imagination.
Yet " its long green meadows, on which clusters of

cottages are seen at wide intervals from one another,
the very absence of striking objects in the landscape,
the stillness that hangs over the face of nature, in
terrupted only by the gurgling of the little rills that
fall into the sombre and slow-moving waters of the
Nairn, impress upon the solitary traveller, as he
passes along, subdued and tranquil feelings." [Guide
to the Highlands.] After leaving Inverness-shire,
it traverses a low country, and is overlooked and
enlivened by Kilravock-castle, various mansions, and
the town of Nairn. Tts influx to the Moray frith
occurs 8 miles east of .he great contraction of the
frith at Ardersier, and 9 miles west-south-west of
the embouchure of the Findhorn. It is called, in
Gaelic, Visge Nearne, or 'Water of Alders,' from the
great number of trees and shrubs of that species of
wood which anciently grew upon its banks ; and it
has communicated its name to the parish and county
in which it terminates its course. During the great
floods of 1829, the Nairn was swollen into terrific
proportions with the other Moray streams ; but it
worked havoc chiefly toward the end of its path on
the estates of Kilravock and Cawdor, and at the
burgh and harbour of Nairn.
NAIRNSHIRE, a small county, consisting of »
main body and several small detached districts in the
province of Moray, and of a detached district in
the ancient earldom of Ross. The main body is
bounded on the north by the Moray frith ; on the
east by Morayshire ; on the south-east by the de
tached part of Inverness-shire; on the south by
Morayshire ; and on the south-west and west by
the main body of Inverness-shire. Its greatest
length, from north to south, is 19 miles ; its breadth
at the coast and mean breadth over 9 miles into
the interior, is 8 miles ; its maximum breadth at a
point where, after having suddenly expanded, it
sends off to the west a long slender projection, is
16J miles ; and its minimum breadth, at the end of
a gradual contraction toward the southern extremity,
is 3£ miles. One detached part lies among wild
mountains 2£ miles east of the main body ; mea
sures about 4J miles by 1 ; and is bounded on the
south by the detached part of Inverness-shire, and
on all other sides by Morayshire. One pendicle,
about a mile long, lies in the vicinity of Grantown,
5 miles south-east of the main body ; and another
pendicle of not larger extent, lies on the right bank
of the Spey, at the distance in a direct line of about
19 miles. Another detached part lies immediately
south-west of the sources of Nairn river ; is sur
rounded on all sides by Inverness-shire ; measures
5 miles by 3| ; and is 4 miles east of Loch-Ness,
I3J south of Inverness, and 28 south-west of Nairn
The detached . part in Ross lies along the river
Conan and the east side of the head of the Cro
marty frith ; consists of the barony of Ferrin-
tosh, and contains the parish-church of Urquhart
[see these articles]; measures 4^ miles bv 3; and
is \ of a mile east of Dingwall, and 6J mires north
west of Inverness. The area of the whole county
is said to contain 200 square miles, or 128,000
acres ; and its acres are stated to be in the propor
tion of about 70,000 cultivated, 30,000 uncultivated,
and 28,000 unprofitable.
The first and the second detached portions which
we named are patches of wild upland ; the pendicle
on the Spey is a tiny contribution to the vale of that
river ; and the detached part near Loch-Ness is the
upper part of the mountain-glen of Farigag-water.
Tbe sequel of our description must refer wholly to
the main body of the county  Between two-thirds
and three -fourths of the area, from the southern boun
dary downward, are covered with Highland heights,
amassed in broad and in frequently cloven mouiir

NAI

425

NAV

tains, but ploughed throughout by the romantic and
picturesque vale of the Findhorn : see Findhorn
, and Ardclach. The sea-board district is part of
tbe fine large plain of Moray [see that article] ; and,
over a breadth of from 1 mile to nearly 6 miles from
the coast, is low and flat. The climate strictly re
sembles that of Morayshire: which see. The river
Nairn runs north-eastward across the western wings
of the uplands, and nearly the centre of the lowlands;
and the Findhorn, at 7 or 8 miles' distance, runs in
a parallel direction through the uplands, achieving
within the county a run of 1 1 J miles. A small stream
in the lowlands, north-west of the Nairn, expands
into the isleted Loch of the Clans, 1± mile long, and
forms likewise a second but smaller lake. The soil
of the lowlands, east of the Nairn, is a rich free loam ;
superincumbent on sand or gravel; and, west of that
river, is a stiff rich clay, or a sharp mould inclining
to gravel. The arable land in the hilly district,
crossed by the Findhorn, bears a small proportion to
the waste ; and, except on tbe banks of the brooks,
has a sandy soil full of gravel and small stones. The
greater part of the county is unenclosed. Natural
woods cover 8,000 acres, and plantations at least
4,000. Shell marl occurs in large quantity in a small
loch called Conan, and in a moss called Lity. Coal
has been thought to exist, and has been searched for
in the same neighbourhood. A dark blue stone, which
burns in the fire but does not lose bulk, and which
after encineration remains solid, is worked in one
quarry. The principal antiquities are those noticed
in the articles on the parish and burgh of Nairn.
The only manufacture is that of woollen-cloth. The
low country is well-provided with roads ; and the
high district has one road up the Findhorn, and
another at right angles with it which crosses the
river at the bridge of Dulsie. In 1839 the county of
Inverness applied to the Commissioners of Highland
roads and bridges, to construct anew road into Nairn
shire near the coast. Nairnshire, as to segregation
of dwellings, contains the royal burgh of Nairn, the
burgh-of-barony of Auldearn, and several small vil
lages. Its principal "mansions are Cawdor-castle
and Delnies-house, the Earl of Cawdor ; Kilravock,
castle, Rose ; Kildrummy, Rose ; Beath, Dunbar ;
Kinsteary-lodge, Gordon ; Lethen-house, Brodie ;
Millbank, Macintosh ; Nairngrove, Macfarlane ;
Nairnside, Falconer; and Viewfield, Grant. — The
county contains the entire parishes of Nairn, Calder,
Ardclach, and Auldearn, in the presbytery of Nairn ; and
parts of Croy in the same presbytery ; Dyke in that
of Forres ; Moy and Petty in that of Inverness ; and
Urquhart in that of Dingwall. The last of these is
in the synod of Ross, and all the others are in that
of Moray ; Dyke is shared with Morayshire ; Ur
quhart with Ross-shire ; and Croy, Moy, and Petty
with Inverness-shire. The education returns of
1834 report under the head of Nairnshire only the
four entire parishes; and exhibit four parochial
schools, conducted by four teachers, and attended by
at most 384 scholars, — and fourteen non-parochial
schools, conducted by fifteen teachers, and attended
by at most 532 scholars  Nairnshire unites with
Morayshire in sending a member to parliament.
Constituency, in 1838, 107. The county sheriff-
court is held every Friday during session ; and the
Sheriff small-debt-court every alternate Friday of
that period, and occasionally during vacation. The
Justice-of-peace small-debt-court is held on every
alternate Monday. The valued rent, in 1674, was
£15,162 10s. ll|d. Scottish; and the annual value
of real property, as assessed in 1815, was £14,902.
Population, in 1801, 8,257; in 1811,8,251; in 1821,
9,006; in 1831, 9,354; in 1841, 9,923. Inhabited
houses, in 1801, 1,940; in 1841, 2,396.

NA-NUA (Loch), a projection of the sea on tbe
coast of Moidart, Inverness-shire. It and Loch-
Ailort are identical for 5 miles, and have a mean
breadth of about 4 miles ; and, after they fork into
distinct bays, Loch-Na-Nua penetrates 3J miles
into the interior, and has a mean breadth of about
1| mile.
NANTHORN. See Ednam.
NAORSAL, a small island lying immediately off
the extremity of the peninsula of Rinns in Islay, and
containing the headland called the point of Rinns.
NATHANSTIRN. See Nenthorn.
NAVE, a small island lying off the entrance of
Loch-Gruinart, on the west coast of Islay.
NAVER (Loch), a lake in Sutherlandshire, in
the parish of Farr; about 11 miles in length, and
from 1 to 2 in breadth. Its shores are rude and
solitary, but by no means picturesque in general,
although there are here and there some spots which
seem entitled to that appellation. The hills which
surround it are not very lofty, with the exception
of Benchlibrigg, which rises far above the others,
neither are they very varied or interesting in their
outline. Immediately below Benchlibrigg, on a
little island near the opposite shore, is one of those
interesting remains of antiquity called Pictish towers
or forts. It is, like all the others, of a circular form,
and built of large stones laid upon each other with
out cement. The head of Loch-Naver is distant 21
miles from Lairg ; and solitary as many of the High
land roads are, few of them can be said to be more
so than this. Indeed, throughout the whole way
from Lairg to Ault-na-harrow, near the head of
Loch-Naver, not a house or a human habitation is
to be met with. Nay, we do not think there is a
single tree to be seen on that long extent of 21
miles ; at any rate, if there is one, we have no recol
lection of it. Nor is there a mountain of any height
to relieve the scene, with the exception of Ben
chlibrigg, which comes into view shortly after leav
ing Loch-Sbin. A wide extended, undulating, moor
land surface, solely devoted to the pasture of sheep,
is all that meets the eye in this part of Sutherland.
NAVER (The), a river of Sutherlandshire,
usually reckoned the largest in the county, but pro
bably maintaining that status only when in flood.
Its principal head-waters are Bagasty- water, rising
within 4£ miles of Loch-Shin, — Mondale- water, ris
ing close on the boundary of Farr with Eddera-
chyllis, — and a tributary of the latter, issuing from
Loch-Maddy at the meeting-point of Farr, Eddera-
chyllis, and Tongue. The first and second of these
flow respectively from the south and the west to the
head of Loch-Naver ; give their names, with the pre
fix of ' strath,' to the vales which they traverse ; and
have each a run of about 8 miles. The Naver, after
issuingfrom its cognominal lake, flows 18 miles north-
north-eastward and northward to the bay of Torris-
dale on the North sea. Just when debouching from
Loch-Naver it receives a large stream which comes
from Loch-Coir-na-fearn ; and, at various parts of
its course, it is augmented by considerable tribu
taries. The river, for a Highland one, is not rapid,
and displays much tranquillity and many amenities.
It is bordered by broad bands of luxuriant meadow,
and naturally arable land, occasionally ornate in
blooming copses ; and is flanked, behind these, with
verdant hills, overlooked in the distance by lofty
mountains. In ancient times, towers extended in a
chain of mutual communication along the whole of
its strath ; and, not many years ago, comfortable
houses of tacksmen, and the dwellings of about
1,200 dotted its banks; but now, shepherds' abodes,
cowering in solitude at long and measured intervals,
are the only indications of man's acquaintance with

NEA

426

NE1

its pleasures. " Wormwood and a little raised turf
alone mark the places " where small hamlets, similar
to what are seen in most Highland glens, once stood ;
" the down of the thistle comes blowing from the
sod over the roof-tree, the fires are quenched, and
the owners are far from the land of their fathers."
In gazing on so fine a tract as the banks of the Naver,
and marking its abandonment to the sheep and the
oxen, the most liberal economist questions whether
the enlarging of farms, and the extension of sheep-
husbandry, and the expatriation of the old clansmen
from their glens, have not been carried too far. The
Naver is the best stream for salmon in the northern
Highlands. NEARTAY, a small Hebridean island in the
sound of Harris. It lies 2£ miles north of North
Uist, and 3 miles east of Bernera.
NEIDPATH-CASTLE. See Peebles.
NEILSTON,* a parish in Renfrewshire; bounded
on the north by the Abbey parish of Paisley; on
the north-east by Eastwood ; on the south-east by
Mearns ; on the south by Ayrshire ; and on the west
by Lochwinnoch. The statements of its extent
greatly differ. By measurement its length has been
found to be 6| miles, and its breadth fully 4£ miles,
containing 36 "square miles. This is exclusive of the
baronies of Knockmade and Shutterflat, which have
been disjoined from Neilston, ahd annexed, the for
mer to the parish of Dunlop, and the latter to that
of Beith, both in Ayrshire. This disjunction was
quoad sacra lantum, and these baronies are still in
Renfrewshire, and contribute to it all their public
burdens. Including them, the length of the parish
is 10£ miles, and its breadth 5 miles. In the eastern
division, which is flat land, most kinds of grain are
cultivated to advantage ; but westward the ground
rises considerably, and though much of it be tilled it
is best calculated for pasturage. The Fereneze and
Loch-Libo-side hills, forming one ridge, from 400 to
900 feet high, for several miles from north-east to
south-west, are cultivated, except some tracts covered
with heath-bent and moss. Since about the year
1796 much moss -land has been reclaimed on the
estates of Loch-Libo-side and Hartfield. The total
yearly value of raw produce raised from lands, sheep,
and cows is nearly £130,000. The climate is as
diversified as the soil. This, as the inhabitants re
mark, is indicated by the coming out of the leaf of
the poplar. In the low or eastern district around
Barrhead the leaf appears ten days earlier than in the
middle, and three weeks earlier than in the high dis
trict. The highest hills are Neilston-pad (so called
from its resemblance to a pillion) and Corkindale-
law, which rise from 820 to 900 feet above the sea.
From these hills the prospects are grand and exten
sive, especially from Corkindale-law, which com
mands' the half of the counties of Scotland. The
principal stream is the Levern, which pursues a north
easterly direction, and divides the parish for nearly
4 miles into two parts : see Levern. There are
several other rivulets, the principal of which are the
Brock and Kirkton-burn. There are three small lakes.
The Long-loch, on the south-east of the parish, is
about a mile in length and half-a-mile in breadth, with
a depth of from 16 to 18 feet, — it abounds with trout.
Loch-Libo is a minute lochlet covering 16 acres. Its
pretty scenery drew from William Semple the fol
lowing description, which will remind the reader of
* This name is probably compounded of the words Neil's-
toum, 'the Town of Neil,' from a person bo called having seti led
here in early times. It first uccurs iu a grant of the patronage
of the church by Robert Croc to the monastery of Paisley soon
after the year 1160. Hespecting the etymology, tlie New Sta
tistical reporter makes boine judicious observations, bating the
anachronism of representing that date as having been " 251
years before the days of Malcolm III."

' The Groves of Blarney :'—" The small lake or
basin at the east end, which is formed by the gentle
current, is surrounded by a number of young plant
ing and shrubs of various kinds, which separate it
from the other parts of nature, and shade in this
retreat a kind of silence by solitary paths, which
are now and will be long frequented by sentimental
visiters, and a safe asylum for the tuneful bird."
With better taste Dr. Fleming, in the New Statis
tical Account, says : " Loch-Libo presents a scene
of unparalleled beauty. Its lofty hills, on both sides,
are wooded with fine old trees to the water's edge.
Its oblong or oval figure pleases the eye, while its
smooth and glassy surface, disturbed only by the
heron, wild and teal-duck, swimming and fishing
upon it, give it animation. Standing at the turn of
the road, as you ascend northward, above the Shil-
ford toll-bar, and looking west when the sun, in a
fine summer evening, is pouring his rays upon it, its
effect is enchanting." The third lake, Cawpla-loch,
is also of small dimensions. There are several large
artificial collections of water for the use of the works
to be afterwards mentioned. The streams and other
collections of water contain not only trout of the com
mon species, but also trout similar to tbe char of the
lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland. Springs of
the purest water abound. The largest at ' Aboon
the Brae,' issues from the solid rock, discharging 42
imperial gallons every minute. Coal, limestone, and
sandstone are wrought. Lime and ironstone are
found in great abundance both in the east and west
extremity of the parish. As respects mineralogy,
specimens of the zeolite family are found in great
plenty and variety. — This parish is distinguished for
its manufactures. The spinning of cotton was begun
here in 1780, when a mill was built at Dovecotball,
being tbe second of that description in Scotland.
The printing of calicoes and the bleaching of cloth
was commenced about 1773. In 1837 the parish
contained six large cotton-mills, eight printfields,
and eight bleachfields, besides a variety of other
works. The lands of Neilston, Crookston, Darnley, and
others in this county, belonged, in the 12th century,
to a family named Croc, from whom they passed, in
the succeeding century, to a branch of the illustrious
House of Stewart by marriage with the heiress,
Marion Croc. This branch became Earls and Dukes
of Lennox, and to it belonged Henry Lord Darn
ley, husband of Queen Mary and father of James VI.
of Scotland. In progress of time the estate of Neil
ston passed from them, and was divided amongst a
number of proprietors. In the New Statistical Ac
count, p. 323, Crawford is represented as saying in,
bis History of Renfrewshire, that " passing from the
House of Stewart, the lordship of Neilston came by
marriage into that of Cunningham of Craigends;'
whereas Crawford, p. 39, merely makes that statement
with regard to a portion called Arthurlie, which had
belonged to abranch of the Darnley family. Arthurlie
now belongs to various proprietors. Portions of it,
with handsome mansions on each, belong to William
Lowndes, Esq., and James Dunlop, Esq. The trans
mission of the various estates since Crawford's time
ate given by his continuator, Robertson, pp. 299 and
300. The most ancient family in the parish is that
of Mure of Caldwell, on whose estate there is a
commodious mansion-house, planned by the architect
Adam, and commenced in 1773.
The village of Neilston is situated on a cheerful
and healthy spot on the brow of an eminence over.
looking a great expanse of country. Lower down
are Barrhead, Newton, Ralston, and DovecothalL
which lie contiguous with the Levern, and may be
considered as one village. Neilston is 5± miles from

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427

NES

the cross of Paisley. Grahamston, another vil
lage, has been separately described.
The population of the parish, in 1801, was 3,796.
According to a census taken by the elders in the
end of 1835 and beginning of 1836, the population
then amounted to 9,187, of whom 1,879 were in
Neilston village, and 2,738 in Barrhead, Newton,
Ralston, and Dovecothall. Houses, in 1831, 712.
Assessed property, in 1815, £13,072. The parish
is in the presbytery of Paisley, and synod of Glas
gow and Ayr. Patron, Alexander Speirs, Esq. of
Elderslie. The church is said to have been built
about 1 763, but the style of a Gothic window shows
that a portion must be referred to a much more re
mote, date. It was repaired and enlarged in 1 798,
and again repaired in 1827. Sittings 830. Stipend
£262 18s. 5d. ; glebe £24. Unappropriated teinds
£904 lis. 6d. It is proposed to erect a quoad sacra,
parish-church at Barrhead, and to annex a district
to it. At that place there is a church of the United
Secession congregation, built about 1796, at the
supposed cost of £600. It was a few years after
wards furnished with galleries, and was greatly en
larged in 1822, at a cost of about £800. Sittings
838. Stipend £150, besides a small sum annually
to assist in paying house-rent. At Barrhead there
is a finely situated Roman Catholic chapel, which was
opened bythe Bishop on 17th October, 1841. By
the above census of 1835-36, there were 1 ,091 Ro
man Catholics in the parish, being upwards of one-
ninth of the whole inhabitants; whereas, in 1791,
there was only one person of that persuasion. This
is mainly attributable to the numbers who resort
hither from Ireland to find employment at the mills
and other works. In 1834, there were one parochial
school, and 12 other schools, with one instructor to
each. The salary of the parochial schoolmaster was
£34 4s. 4d., with fees regulated according to the
various branches taught.*
NEISH. See Earn (Loch).
NELL (Loch), a small lake in the parish of Kil-
more and Kilbride, Argyleshire. It is about 2 miles
long and half-a-mile broad, extends south-south-
westward, and sends a brief stream to the head of
the marine bay Loch-Feachan. The two churches
and the manse of the united parish are all within 1J
mile of its south end.
NENTHORN, a parish in the extreme south of
Berwickshire, forming — over four-fifths of its length
—a projection into Roxburghshire, and bounded on
all sides by that county, except on the west, where
it marches with Earlston, and about a mile on the
north, where it marches with Hume. It is a slender
oblong, indented on both sides, and at one point,
near the middle ; and extends in the direction of
south-east by east. Its greatest length, from the
Eden, opposite Mellerstain on the west, to the
point where that stream ceases to be connected with
it on tbe east, is 4i miles ; its breadth at the broad
est part 1 j mile, and at the narrowest j of a mile ;
* The Statistical Account of this parish, published in 1792,
was one of the three which Sir John Sinclair had translated
into French, and transmitted to the French Chamber of Com
merce, in order to show the progress which manufactures had
made iu some of the rural parishes of Scotland. The Rev.
John Monteath, D. D., now the venerable minister of Hous
toun, was minister of Neilston at that time, and, we presume,
was the author of the account in question, which well deserved
the distinction it obtained. The present incumbent in Neilston,
the Rev. Alexander Fleming, D.D., has worthily followed in
the footsteps of his predecessor, by contributing in the New
Account a mass of valuable information respecting this impor
tant district. We observe he testifies to the -peaceable and
orderly demeanour of the inhabitants during the disturbances
of April 1820 (not 1819 as he prints it) : see p. 323; There are
also given (p. 342) some details of the celebrated litigation re
specting church-accommodation, maintained by him and the
parishioners with the heritors, for seven years preceding April
1838.

and its area is between 5J and 5i square mi!es. The
river Eden, approaching from "the north, runs lj
mile along the western boundary, suddenly bends
and runs 2A miles along the southern boundary,
crosses the parish at its narrowest part, runs 1£
mile' along the northern boundary, and then makes a
bend, runs for half-a-mile in the interior, and passes
away into Ednam. It has its course for a consider
able way between a scaur 100 feet high, and an
easily sloping bank ; and at one place, near Newton
Don, it falls over a perpendicular face of rock be
tween 30 and 40 feet in height. The lands com
mence at the western extremity in a hilly rocky
ridge, proceed thence in regular, wide, and soft un
dulations, and subside toward the east into the beau
tiful- plain of the Tweed H mile above Kelso, and
in the immediate vicinity of the gorgeous Ducal de
mesne of Fleurs. The soil at the west end is poor
and moorish, and lies in cold till ; but everywhere
else it is a rich and fertile clayey loam. About 30
acres are a marshy lake ; upwards of 300 acres are
under wood ; and all the rest of the area is enclosed
and cultivated. Marl, both shell and clay, has been
found in considerable quantity ; sandstone and trap,
both suitable for building, abound ; and basalt occurs
in beautiful five-sided and six-sided pillars. Newton
Don, the seat of Sir William Don, Bart., the repre
sentative of the Earls of Glencairn, and the principal
landowner of the parish, stands amidst finely embel
lished pleasure-grounds, | of a mile from the extreme
eastern boundary, overlooking one of the most lusci
ously beautiful landscapes in the south of Scotland.
Nenthorn-house, the quondam seat of the Kerrs of
Littledean, and now the property of James Roy,
Esq., is the only other mansion. Two villages
which formerly existed in the parish, Nenthorn and
Newton, are extinct. The turnpike between Edin
burgh and Kelso cuts the parish lengthwise into
almost equal parts. Population, in 1801, 395; in
1831, 380. Houses 69. Assessed property, in 1831,
£3,838. — Nenthorn is in the presbytery of Kelso,
and synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £172 8s. lid. ; glebe £20. The
church was built in 1802. Sittings 135. The min
ister supposed the population in 1836 to be the same
a6 in 1831, and distributed them into 280 churchmen
and 100 dissenters  The parish appears to have
been established during the 13th century, and was
formed of the manors of Nathansthirn and Newton,
lying respectively west and east of the line where
the Eden passes from the southern to the northern
boundary. The chapel of Nathansthirn became the
parish-church, that of Newton continued to be a
chapel ; both, previous to the parochial erection,
were subordinate to the church of Ednam; and both
were given in 1316-7, by the bishop of St. Andrews
to the abbot of Kelso, in exchange for the church ot
Cranston in Mid-Lothian. The manors belonged in
the 12th century to the Morvilles, the hereditary
constables of Scotland, and followed the fortunes of
their other possessions till the downfall and forfei
ture of John Baliol. Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s.,
with £7 10s. fees, and a house and garden worth £5.
NESS (Loch), a beautiful and well-known lake,
distinguished by some striking peculiarities, in the
north-east division of Inverness-shire. It is the
longest, the largest, and, with the slender exception
of Loch-Dochfbur, the most northerly of the chain
of fresh-water lakes which occupy the Glenmore-
nan-Albin, and carry along the navigation of the
Caledonian canal. It extends, with singular straight-
ness, from south-west to north-east; and, at its ex
tremities, is distant respectively 28 miles from Fort-
William, and 6 from Inverness.' Its length is 23
miles and 56 chains ; and its breadth, from 2 miles

428

LOCH-NESS.

at the north-east end, averages about 5 furlongs,
then suddenly expands to upwards of 1 \ mile, and
thence to the south-west extremity averages about
a mile, and is remarkably uniform. The rivers Oich
and Tarff enter it within very brief space of each
other, at its upper end ; the streams Foyers and
Farikaig, besides some rills, enter it upon its right
bank; and the Morriston and the Coiltie enter it
upon its left. Two considerable bays expand at
Invermorriston and Urquhart, and receive the Mor
riston and the Coiltie. Loch-Dochfour, somewhat
less than half-a-mile in breadth, and \\ mile in
length, is in a sense a continuation north-eastward
of Loch-Ness, and communicates with it, or at least
receives its superfluent waters, by a narrow channel
of about \ of a mile in length. The depth of Loch-
Ness in the middle is from 106 to 130 fathoms; and,
within 250 or 300 feet of the shore, is often from 40
to 50 fathoms. Its waters, in consequence, never
freeze ; and, even after escaping from it, they reach
the sea, in the short run of the river Ness, before
they can be cooled to the congealing point.
Except on the narrow part at the north-east end,
where a fine belt of low ground stretches along the
right bank, and is decorated all over with the wooded
parks of Aldourie, the mountain-ranges which flank
the great glen come direct down upon the lake, and
even plunge their bases within the margin of its
waters: They forrh two long lines of stupendous
rampart, straight, lofty, and acclivitous ; and render
the prolonged and very narrow range along the lake
like the restricted view seen through a fixed tele
scope. They sweep down now with a rapid slope,
and now with an almost precipitous fall, and are
rugged, rocky, and heath-clad, with ruts and escarp
ments worn by the rush of torrents and the erosion
of the elements; yet, athwart their skirts and lower
declivities they are luxuriantly sheeted with forest,
—the birch, the oak, the elm, the ash, the hawthorn,
the aspen, and a thick underwood of holly, sloe, and
hazel. So dense is the richly tinted mass of foliage,
that a stranger surveying it from the bosom of tbe
lake feels as if there were not space for another leaf.
The two mountain-ranges are, generally, nearly equal
to each other in elevation, and have an average alti
tude above sea-level of between 1,200 and 1,500
feet. But about the middle of the left-hand range
rises the stupendous huge-based Mealfourvounie,
sending up a dome-shaped summit to the height of
upwards of 3,000 feet, and shaking down far-flaunt
ing skirts of picturesqueness to the lake : see Meal
fourvounie. Two ravines bring down the chief
streams on the right, and two highly scenic vales,
Glens Morriston and Urquhart, bring down those on
the left; but no other opening cleaves the continuous
piles of mountain, or variegates their character of
sublime mural enclosure and impassable rampart. A
few pendicles of arable land, tiny but pleasant patches
of green and brown and yellow, occasionally and at
wide intervals, open like a kind of glades among
the woods; successive terraces also, in the ancient
style of cultivation among the mountains of Pales
tine, are here and there carried along the face of the
acclivities, and laden with the fruits of tillage; the
two glens of Morriston and Urquhart, on tbe north
west, come exultingly out upon the lake, and make
a charming display of large cultivated fields, and good
and pleasant dwellings ; and a limited number of
mansions and objects of interest, as we shall after
wards see, hang upon the skirts of the hills, or sit
snugly ensconced in some beautiful weather-worn
recess. But all else is one continuous sublime natu
ral tunnel; the long narrow belt of water its path,
the mountains and their wooded skirts its sides, and
the cerulean or cloud-laden ether its arch.

Loch-Ness, as to the groupings, the lights and
shades, and the minute and characteristic objects of
its scenery, may be advantageously viewed both in
a trip along its waters, and in a tour along its banks. ,
Owing to the great length of the range of vision,
the mountains, as seen from the surface of the lake,
lose much of their grandeur, and seem at times to
be clothed, in their most ornate parts, rather with
luxuriant grass than with wood. Yet seen nivert-
edly in their images in the water, they form, with
the over-arching sky and the richly-tinted cloud, a
series of pictures absolutely gorgeous. " The whole
magnificent scene," says Miss Sinclair in narrating
an excursion in a skiff upon the lake, " was reflected
upside down in the water so distinctly, that we
could scarcely tell tbe substance from the shadow.
This effect was most amusing, as the high road
skirted along the water side for many miles, while
far down in the crvstal tide we saw a repetition of
every traveller, wood-cutter, cart, or carriage— no !
 there were no carriages, — but abundance of cattle
and horses. For the first time in my life, I now
saw in the water exactly what we used as children
to suppose the antipodes would appear, with a sky
far beneath, while men, trees, and animals were per
fectly at ease, with their heads downwards, and their
feet supernaturally adhering to the earth. The ap
pearance of amazing depth, occasioned by seeing the
clouds reflected so far below us, had a sublime effect."
But for some distance, round the influx of the water
of Foyers, the tumultuousness with which thatgrandly
picturesque stream tumbles upon the lake, and runs
riot among its waters, destroys the pervading mir-
rory smoothness of the surface, and raises a tumu-
lated and broken little sea. The lively writer whom
we have just quoted says that, at this place, she en
countered more sea than at all the other Highland
ferries united, and that the little boat hopped along
the waves with such unequal and terrifying motion as
threatened every instant to end in its being " whum-
melled."— The road along the north-west side of
the lake brings out its beauties to most advantage;
and has such numerous windings and various eleva
tions as lead, at almost every step, to new group
ings, or to pleasing diversification of shade and of
apparent magnitude. At one time the tourist looks
from the naked shoulder of a hill, or the summit of
some precipitous skirt of the mountain athwart all
the bright far-stretching expanse of the lake ; and at
another, and but a pace or two onward, he dives
low into a dense forest, and sees the lake only at
intervals, and in small tesselated patches, glittering
between the vistas of tbe wood, and intricately cut
with the tracery of branches and foliage. Approached
from Inverness, the whole basin of the lake bursts
upon the view at a point 3 miles from the town, and
is seen receding away between its parallel screens ol
mountain, till it becomes lost to the eye in the hazy
distance. At the head of the lake, on the flat grav
elly peninsula which divides it from Loch-Dochfour,
stand the ruins of the old church of Bona ; the ruins
of an old baronial strength called Castle Spiri
tual ; and the traces of a Roman encampment, on
the site of the aboriginal British town of Banatia.
The hills, for a few miles, are precipitous, granitic,
reddish in colour, and slenderly relieved with either
wood or verdure, and are somewhat descriptively
called Craigderg, or the Red Rocks. In a hollowy
recess high on the face of the heights farther on, lies
ensconced the hamlet of Aberiachan, famous as the
wild and almost inaccessible retreat in former times
of bands of whiskey-smugglers. Wood, particularly
the birch, looks out in clumps and mimic groves from
all the district beyond the Red rocks, but, north
east of Glen-Urquhart, does not luxuriate in the

NES

429

NES

profusion which everywhere else characterizes the
banks of the lake. At the opening of Glen-Ur-
quhart — one of the loveliest and most sumptuous vales
in the Highlands — stands the large good inn of Drum-
indrochet, about 15 miles from Inverness ; and on a
commanding site, on the more westerly of two little
promontories which run out into the bay of Ur
quhart, rises, 2 miles south-west of Drumindrochet,
the picturesque form of Urquhart-castle, — a strong
hold grey with age, and not a little famous in the
annals of the 14th and two following centuries: see
Urquhart. The road, all the way from this fortalice
to Invermorriston, a distance of 11 miles, commands
scenes of very high beauty, and passes through richly
disposed and abundant woods, aud, for the most part,
at a considerable elevation above the level of the lake.
" The profuse intermixture of oak with birch and
alder," say the Messrs. Anderson, in reference to
this tract, " adds much to the richness and tone of
colouring. Dark and dense masses of pine are fre
quently seen crowning the craggy heights above,
while beneath, the rowan and hawthorn trees min
gle their snowy blossoms, or coral berries, with the
foliage of the more gigantic natives of the forest.
The road is overhung by the fantastic branches of
the yet youthful oak, while the stately ash, rooted
in the steep declivities below, shoots up its tall,
straight, and perpendicular stem, and with its scat
tered terminal foliage slightly screens the glassy lake,
or purple-ground colour of the opposite hills ; and
the airy birch droops its pensile twigs round its sil
very trunk, ' like the dishevelled tresses of some
regal fair.' Fringing rows of hazel bushes line the
road; and in autumn their clustering bunches of nuts
invite the reaching arm." At the opening of Glen-
Morriston, the antiquated yet modernized mansion of
the proprietor of the glen, forms, amidst some fine
parks, a pleasing foreground to a superb grouping of
rocky and sylvan landscape. In the same vicinity
stands the small but comfortable inn of Invermorris
ton ; and a little beyond it is a cascade of large
volume of water, amid a ravine and broken rocks,
so distinctively featured and arranged as to woo the
efforts of the draftsman. From this point to Fort-
Augustus, at the head of the lake, a distance of 7
miles, the road for the most part proceeds along a
low terrace or very narrow belt of plain, close to the
lake's margin, and overhung with avenued ranks of
birch and hazel; and about a mile from Fort-Augus
tus, it so rises as to command a good view — though
not a first-class one — of the fort, the neighbouring
village, a large part of Loch-Ness, and the continu
ation of the great glen up tbe course of the river
Oich. Hitherto the tourist has kept near the lake,
arid been able always to command views of its scen
ery; but, on leaving Fort- Augustus to return to In
verness down its south-east side, he is, for 12 miles
to tbe mouth of the Foyers, conducted through
Stratherrick, between screens of granitic hills, the
left-hand range of which flanks and excludes the
lake. See Stratherrick. But he is richly com
pensated by finding on his way the surpassingly fine
cascade scenery of the fall of Foyers [which see] ;
nor in the part of the lake's banks from which he is
excluded, does he lose more than a repetition of the
wooded skirts of hills, altogether unvariegated by
the presence of a house or any remarkable conforma
tion of the ground. At the mouth, of the Foyers,
where the road resumes its progress on the margin
of tbe lake, the house of Foyers peeps out from
amidst an opulent expanse of luxuriant birch. From
this place to Inverfarikaig— a distance of nearly 3
miles  the road climbs along the face of the hill, and
passes the white-washed mansion of Boleskine, fig
uring conspicuously in the elevation, and marking

the near vicinity of the spot where Prince Charles
Edward was received by Lord Lovat after the battle
of Culloden. Inverfarikaig presents only the repul
sive objects of a few smoky hovels and a small pub
lic-house; but it points the way to a strikingly grand
and romantic pass a little way up the ravine of tbe
river, and it is conspicuously overhung by a small
house called the General's Hut, which commands a
magnificent extent and variety of the lacustrine
scenery, and is said to have been the head-quarters
of General Wade while superintending tbe forma
tion of the military road along Loch-Ness. From
Inverfarikaig to Dores — a distance of 8 miles — the
road passes close by the water's edge ; and though
not overshadowed with much wood over the first
half of the distance, it afterwards traverses such a
closely compacted wilderness of wood and coppice,
amid extended vistas, a stilly repose, and a charming
freshness, which drew upon it from Dr. Macculloch
the eulogium of being unequalled in the Highlands
for adding novelty to beauty. " It is," says he, " a
green road of shaven turf holding its bowery course
for miles through close groves of birch and alder,
with occasional glimpses of Loch-Ness and of the
open country. I passed it at early dawn, when the
branches were still spangled with drops of dew ;
while the sun, shooting its beams through the leaves,
exhaled the sweet perfume of the birch, and filled
the whole air with fragrance." At Dores, a small
village with a neat church and manse, 8 miles from
Inverness, the lake makes its sudden terminal con
traction, and nearly completes the circuit of its
scenery ; yet, in exulting farewell to the tourist, it
spreads out before him probably the richest one of
all its views, just as he surmounts arising ground
beyond the village, and is about to take leave of its
banks. In spring, and occasionally ''n the other seasons,
large volumes of vapour arise from Loch-Ness, and
sailing along the south-westerly winds to the low
sea-board, discharge themselves in fertilizing showers.
After a snow-storm, or about the beginning of a
thaw, they often assume the most fantastic shapes ;
and, by expending part of their warmth and moisture
upon the snow-clad mountains, they occasion such
parallel and party-formed black streaks among the
snow as indicate the course and relative tempera
tures of the winds, and make the mountains seem as
if shirted in a hugely striped fabric  Loch-Ness has
the remarkable and mysterious property of being
violently agitated during the occurrence, at even a
distant part of the world, of an earthquake. On
the 1st of November, 1755, at the time of the great
earthquake at Lisbon, it was suddenly upheaved, and
rolled itself with amazing impetuosity in a billowy
volume toward its bead, and there discharged a wave
200 yards up the river Oich, at a level five feet above
the margin of the stream ; and after experiencing a
continued ebb and flow for about an hour, it amassed
a huge ridge of billow, tossed it 30 feet up its north
west bank, and then subsided into its ordinary repose.
NESS (The), a river conveying the superfluent
waters of Loch-Ness to the Moray frith, in Inverness-
shire. Its direction is north-eastward, and its length
of course about 8 miles. Its channel is gravelly,
slowly and regularly inclined, and, on the average,
about 180 feet wide. The river has a gentle and
equable current, combining the ornamental proper
ties of majestic movement with the useful ones of
water-power over machinery. Its mean depth is, in
summer, about 3 feet, and in winter 6 or 7. A brief
way before entering the frith, it is sheeted on both
banks, but particularly on the right, by the town of
Inverness ; add immediately below the town it ex
pands into a harbour, and offers accommodation to

NES

430

NEW

the steamers and sailing craft which ply from the
capital of the Highlands. Two islets, enclosed within
its waters a little above the town, are naturally orna
mental, and have been brought by horticulture and
bridge-building into a very high state of artificial
embellishment : see Inverness. The water of the
river has a purgative power over persons not accus
tomed to drink it, and is supposed to owe this power
to its holding in solution the decomposed matter of
certain confervas and mosses, which its high temper
ature keeps constantly vegetating in its channel.
NESTING, a parish nearly in the middle of the
eastern district of Shetland. It comprehends the
ancient parishes of Nesting, Lunnesting, and Whal-
say, and a district of detached islands, formerly un
der the care of a missionary on the royal bounty.
Nesting and Lunnesting extend along tbe east coast
of Mainland from Gletness to Lunnanness; and mea
sure, in extreme length, 18 miles, and in extreme
breadth 4 miles. Whalsay consists principally of the
island of that name, lying nearly 3 miles east of the
¦ nearest part of Lunnesting: see Whalsay. The
detached district of islands consists chiefly of Fair-
Isle, Toula, and the Out-Skerries; but, with the
exception of the last, have again been placed under
the care of a missionary: see Skerries. The prin
cipal marine indentations on the mainland are Cat-
firth, Doure, and Vidlauvoes; and the principal
headlands are Railsburgh, Eswick, Stavaness, and
Lunnanness. The physical and agricultural features
of the district have a common character with most
of Shetland. Shipwrecks often happen on the coast,
and excite the prompt sympathies and services of the
inhabitants. A letter of thanks was on one occasion
sent, in name of the Empress Catherine of Russia,
by her ambassador at London, for services rendered
at Whalsay during the wreck of a Russian frigate.
Population, in 1801, 1,941; in 1831, 2,103. Houses
342. Assessed property, in 1815, £1,318  This
parish is in the presbytery of Burravoe, and synod of
Shetland. Patron, the Earl of Zetland. Stipend
£150 8s. 6d., besides vicarage teinds; glebe £12.
There are three churches respectively situated in the
three conjoined parishes, and built respectively in
1792, 1768, and 1733; and a thatched house is used
as a church in the Skerries. All, excepting that of
Nesting, and even it only at the season of commu
nions, have sufficient accommodation for the parish
ioners. But the extensiveness of the parish, the
total want of roads, the perilousness of the friths,
rapid tideways, mosses, mountains, and uncertainty
and tempestuousness of climate, prevent the minister
from regularly rotating his services in the churches;
or exercising a due amount of week-day superintend
ence. Nesting has a Sabbath-school. Lunnesting
has a Methodist chapel, with from 150 to 200 sit
tings, but with public worship only once a-month.
According to ecclesiastical census in 1836, the po
pulation, excepting 266, were all Church-of-Scot-
landmen, and amounted to 2,181; of whom 785
were in Nesting, 779 in Lunnesting, 560 in Whalsay,
and 57 in the Skerries. The population are widely
dispersed, seldom more than 70 or 100 persons being
assembled in one group of farms, or one ' town.'
They are almost all both farmers and fishermen, and
often exercise other mechanical professions. The
average rent of farms is £5, and the highest £13.
Lunnesting has a parochial-school, and a school be
longing to the society for propagating Christian
knowledge. Nesting has a stated adventure school ;
and Whalsay and Skerries have had occasional ad
venture schools. Parochial- schoolmaster's salary,
£25 13s., with £1 17s. fees.
NETHAN (The), a river in Lanarkshire, which
rises in the hills which separate the parishes of Les-

mahagow in Lanarkshire, and Muirkirk in Ayrshire,
and, running north-east through Lesmahagow par
ish, is joined by the Logan and other streams, and
falls into the Clyde a little below Craignethan-castle.
It is a beautiful stream, and its banks are finely di
versified with hanging woods, green holms, and corn
fields. See Craignethan. The projected Clyries.
dale line of railway communication between England
and Scotland is proposed to be carried across the
Nethan by a viaduct 232 feet in extreme height I
This structure would be more than three times the
height of the North bridge of Edinburgh. The
Dean bridge in Edinburgh, the Cartland-Craigs
bridge in Lanarkshire, the Pont-y'-cysylte aqueduct
in North Wales, the Corby bridge on the Newcastle
and Carlisle railway, and tbe bridge across the Wear
at Sunderland, were all looked upon as very lofty
structures, most of them exceeding 100 feet in
height; but the Nethan viaduct overtops them all
by at least 100 feet. — in other words, it is nearly
double the height of the highest of them all.
NETHY (The), a rivulet of Inverness-shire and
Morayshire. Its source is on the west side of Ben-
na-Bynack, one of the heights of the Cairngorm
mountain-range, and scarcely a mile west of the
boundary with the southern extremity of Banffshire.
It runs about 8 miles northward through Badenoch,
and 4 miles northward and north-westward through
the south-east district of Morayshire ; and falls into
the Spey within a mile of the church of Abernethy.
It gives the name of Abernethy to the parochial dis
trict, and of the Braes of Abernethy to the. amass
ment of hills within the drainage of its head-streams
and feeders. In dry weather, it is a mere brook ;
but, after rains or thaws, it swells high, and serves
to float timber from an expanse of pine-forests on its
banks to be conveyed down the Spey in rafts to
Garmouth. NEVAY. See Essie.
NEVIS (The), a small river in the south-west of
Lochaber, Inverness- shire. It rises amidst a mass
of mountains geographically 6 miles east of the sum
mit of Bennevis, and runs 7 miles west-south-west
ward, 4J northward, and 1 westward, to Loch-Eil at
Fort- William. It is overhung, over two-thirds of
its course, by the southern and western fronts of the
vast monarch-height, Bennevis. Its career is rapid;
and it forms several very romantic cascades. The
narrow vale which it traverses derives from it the
name of Glen-nevis ; it is, for '4 miles opposite the
south side of the mountain, adorned with wood ; and,
some miles from Fort- William, it has a large and
curious rocking-stone, and, farther up, the vitrified
fort of Dundornadill : which see.
NEVIS (Loch), a long inlet of the sea, in the
parish of Glenelg, and between the districts ot
Knoydart and Morar, Inverness-shire. It is about
13 miles long, and varies in breadth from 2 miles to
2 furlongs. Mountains almost everywhere rise from
its margin ; and, in many places, are sheeted far up
with wood,— flinging, by their forms and altitude
and dress, not a little scenic interest over the lake.
On the north shore stands the curious Celtic man
sion of Macdonell of Glengarry, built by the late
Colonel Macdonell, so noted by common fame as the
last perfect specimen of a Highland chieftain. The
house has no ceiling, and no other artificial floor
than an adjustment of clay and hard sand ; and its
two chief rooms are constructed from the floor to
the roof tree with strong wattle work.
NEWABBEY, a parish on the east coast ot Kirk
cudbrightshire ; bounded on the north-west by Loch-
rutton ; on the north and north-east by Troqueer j
on the east bythe estuary of the Nith, and the frith
of Solway ; on the south by Kirkbean ; on the south'

NEWABBEY.

431

west by Colvend ; and on the west by Kirkgunzeon.
Its greatest length, from Lanecroft on the north
west to the mouth of Nunbly burn on the south-east,
is 8& miles ; its greatest breadth, in a line north
eastward from Rise-hill, is 4 miles and 5 furlongs;
and its area is about 25^ square miles. The district
on tbe sea-board, comprising upwards of one-fourth
of the whole area, is regularly enclosed, and highly
improved, and commands a noble prospect of the
Solway frith and the coast of Cumberland. Its
soil is, in some parts, rich carse clay on a dry sub
soil, but, in general, a light brown loam, from 6 to
10 inches deep, superincumbent on fine dry gravel,
deepening by liming, and becoming blackish in pro
portion as it is richly manured. The upper district
consists of rocky hills, and muirs, and mosses ; yet
contains numerous pendicles of arable ground. Its
soil lies on a bed of wet, cold till, and is slowly and
not abundantly productive ; but when well-manured,
and enjoying comparative drought, it yields excellent
crops. A water-shedding chain of very lofty heights
forms for 8 miles the southern and western boundary-
line, commencing with the magnificent Criffellonthe
coast, [see Criffel and Kirkbean,] and continued
by Abbey-fell, Thorter-fell, Rise-hill, Long-fell,
Bow-hill, and Lowtis-hill. The Nith and the Sol
way, where they form the eastern boundary, are re
spectively about 2 and 12 miles broad ; during the
recess of the tide, they are mere sandy wildernesses,
threaded by the wandering fresh water stream ; and
at the flow of the tide, they exhibit in its richest form
their peculiar phenomenon [see Glencaple], and
have a depth in spring-tides of 15 or 16 feet. A
streamlet called the Newabbey Pow rises among the
hills in the west, and runs 5J miles eastward to the
Nith at the boundary with Troqueer ; augmented in
its progress by about 12 brooks, the chief of which,
on the right bank, are Kinharvie and Loch- Kinder
burns. This stream is navigated for some way up
by vessels of 60 or 70 tons, which import lime, shells,
and coal, and export agricultural produce and char
coal. There are in the parish three lakes, — Kin
der, which we have separately noticed, Loch-
arthur in the north-west corner, about | of a mile
long, and half-a-mile broad, and Lochaber on the
north-east boundary, nearly equal in size. The latter
two abound with pike. The village of Newabbey
stands oh tbe Pow, 1£ mile from the Nith, and 7
miles south of Dumfries. Population, in 1836, 366.
Population of tbe parish, in 1801, 832; in 1831,
1,060. Houses 223. Assessed property, in 1815,
£4,979  Newabbey is in the presbytery and synod
of Dumfries. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £233
2s. Id.; glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds £254
6s. Id. The church was built prior to the Refor
mation, partly rebuilt about 35 years ago, and inter
nally enlarged 1 7 years later. Sittings 416, A Ro
man Catholic chapel exists at the village, but since
1832 has been neglected in favour of one in Tro
queer. The population, according to a survey in
1836, was then 1,048; of whom 936 were church
men, and 112 were dissenters. There are three par
ochial schools. Salary of the first master £29 18s.
9|d., with fees, and £3 other emoluments; and of
each of the other masters £10 13s. 10|d., with
fees. There is likewise a private school — The an
cient parish long took its name from Loch-Kinder.
The church was, in 1275, given by the Lady Devor-
gilla to the monks of Newabbey ; and, during the lat
ter period of Protestant Episcopacy, was possessed
by the bishop of Edinburgh. The present parish com
prehends, in addition to the whole of the ancient
parish, the western half of that of Kirkconnel, an
nexed to it in the reign of Charles L
The ruins of the Abbey, whence the parish has

its modern name, are an imposing object in the
centre of a magnificent landscape. They occupy
the middle of a fine level field of about 20 acres,
called the Precinct, in tbe vale of tbe Pow, and in
the immediate vicinity of the village, enclosed by a
stone wall 8 or 10 feet high, built of granite stones
of very great size. A dilapidation of the edifice
was effected to a great extent on a pitifully mer
cenary bargain for giving it up as a quarry, and was
prevented from being carried on to extermination by
a subscription of £40 being raised on the part of
some neighbouring gentlemen, as the price of desist
ing. The chapter-house, part of which remains, was
what chiefly suffered from the barbarous dilapidator,
and is said to have been an elegant piece of architec
ture. The church is the principal part of the ex- I
istingruin. The measurements, as communicated by
Dr. Clapperton to Grose, are : Height of the tower
90 feet; length of the whole church, 200 feet;
breadth of the middle aisle, 25 feet; breadth of the
side aisles, 15 feet ; transept, 102 feet ; breadth of
the arches, 15 feet; diameter of the columns — of
which there are six — at the base, 4J feet ; height
of the shafts of the columns from base to capital,
10 feet ; base of the columns supporting the tower,
10 feet; height of the shaft of these columns 20
feet. In the roof of tbe south transept is an es
cutcheon, charged with 2 pastoral staves in saltire ;
over them a heart, and beneath them 3 mullets of 5
points, 2 and 1 ; said to be the arms of the abbey.
An inscription over the escutcheon is, from its
height and want of light, illegible ; but is said to be
" Christus Maritus meus," — rather an odd motto for
a fraternity of monks. On the south side of the
ruinous pile stands the parish-church, formed out of
part of the connected edifices, and in the vicinity of
a small gate leading into the abbey, of a singulai
style of architecture, surmounted by a bell, and
bearing several defaced carvings in basso relievo,
with two escutcheons. In the burying-ground east
of the abbey church are some ancient tombstones :
on one a cross, with a large and broad sword on its
sinister side  The abbey was founded in 1275 by
Devorgilla, third daughter of Alan, lord of Gallo
way — niece to David, Earl of Huntingdon — widow
of John Baliol of Bernard-castle, who died in 1269,
— and mother of John Baliol, the mean and merce
nary suitor for a dependent crown. Her husband's
body seems to have been buried in a church or cha
pel on or near the site of the abbey ; and this cir
cumstance may have been the reason of the abbey's
being built. When Devorgilla died in 1289, at the
age of 80, the heart of her husband — which she had
caused to be taken out of his body, to be embalmed,
and to be deposited in a box of ivory, bound with
silver and enamelled — was solemnly shut up with
her own body in sepulture, near the bigh altar.
Hugh de Burgh, the prior of Lanercroft, according
to the manuscript chronicle of that house, composed
an elegy for Devorgilla, which was inscribed on her
tomb : —
" In Dervorvilla moritur sensata Sibil In..
Cum Marthaque pia, contemplativa Maria
Da Dervorville requie, rex sunime, potiri,
Quam tegit iste lapis, cor pariterque viri."
" In Dervorgil, a sybil sage doth dye, as
Mary contemplative, as Martha pious;
To her, O deign, high King, ! rest to impart.
Whom this stone covers, with her husband's heart."
The abbey, owing to the characteristic circumstance
of its foundress' sepulture, was called Sweetheart,
Duzquer, Douze-coeur, Dulce-cor ; and it probably
had its more modern name from its being altogether
or nearly the last edifice of its class erected in the
province. The monastery was colonized by Cister-

NEW

432

NEW

tian monks, and appears to have been richly endowed.
Grose assigns to it some possessions, which appear
from the charter of the bishopric of Edinburgh, to
have belonged to the abbey of Holyrood. But, irre
spective of these, it owned the churches of New-
abbey, Kirkpatrick-Durham, Crossmichael, Buittle,
and Kirkcolm, the baronies of Lochkenderloch and
Lochpatrick, and much other property. In 1513,
the monks placed themselves and their tenants under
the protection of Lord Maxwell ; in 1544, they feued
to his family at a low rate, in compensation for ser
vices done them, their barony of Lochpatrick ; and,
in 1548, they gave him the five- mark lands of Loch-
Arthur, and constituted him heritable bailie of the
whole jurisdiction over all their lands. The pro
perty was, in 1587, vested in the Crown by the an
nexation act; granted, in 1624, to Sir Robert
Spottiswood and Sir John Hay ; resigned by them,
in 1633, in order to be given to the bishop of Edin
burgh ; given back soon after the suppression of
Episcopacy, to Sir Robert Spottiswoode ; and sold
by his heir to the family of Copeland. Part of it,
however — consisting of the lands of Drum in New-
abbey  was burdened with a mortification by Queen
Anne in favour of the second minister of Dumfries.
The last and only noted abbot was Gilbert Brown,
who had a written controversy, on the doctrines of
Romanism, with the celebrated John Welch of Ayr.
Brown's treatise, though short, is erudite, and as
far excels in literary properties the writings of his
own brethren of the period, as it is inferior in argu
ment, truth, and usefulness to the production of the
Reformer. Welch wished to have a viva voce and
public disputation, but could not conquer Brown's
dislike to the measure as likely to damage his re
putation. Calderwood says, that Brown sat in the
parliament of August 1560, which approved the
Confession of Faith. " Brown," says Dr. M'Crie,
" was a busy trafficker for Rome and Spain, and a
chief instrument of keeping the south of Scotland
under ignorance and superstition." In 1596, he was
denounced by the commissioners of the General As
sembly to the King as a Jesuit and excommunicated
Papist, and recommended to be seized and punished;
and in 1605, he was with difficulty apprehended by
Lord Cranston, captain of the Border guard, and, after
brief confinement, banished from the kingdom. He
died at Paris in 1612  Near the abbey, but on higher
ground, in a healthy situation, and commanding an
extensive prospect, stands a ruin called the Abbots'
tower, the quondam occasional residence of the ab
bots of Newabbey. A view of the ruin is given by
Grose. NEWARK-CASTLE, a venerable ruin on the
right bank of the river Yarrow, in the parish and
county of Selkirk. It stands on a peninsula cut out
by the encircling stream, amidst a fantastically wild
scene of grandeur and beauty ; but, though reno
vated, and in a state of tolerable conservation, it is
inhabited only by the moping owl and the chattering
daw. Its distance from the confluence of the Yarrow
and the Ettrick is 2£ miles, and from the burgh of
Selkirk i\. It belongs to the Duke of Buccleuch,
whose beautiful and princely seat of Bowhill stands
a little lower down the river ; and, in the years of
her widowhood, it was the residence of Anne, Duch
ess of Buccleuch and Monmouth, whose husband,
James, Duke of Monmouth, was beheaded for insur
rection in the reign of James II. Newark is the well-
known scene in which ' the Last Minstrel' is made
to sing his 'lay' to the sad-hearted Duchess :
" He passed where Newark's stately tower
Looks out from Yarrow's birchen bower ;
The Minstrel gazed with wishful eye —
No humbler resting-place was nigh.

With hesitating step, at last,
The embattled portal-arch he passed,
Whose ponderous grate and massy bar
Had oft rolled back the tide of war,
But never closed the iron door
Against the desolate and poor.
The Duchess' marked his weary pace,
His timid mien, and reverend face,
And bade her page the menials tell
That they should tend the old mau well :
For she had kuown adversity.
Though born iu such a high degree ;
In pride of power, in beauty's bloom,
Had wept o'er Monmouth's bluody tomb!"
The appearance of Newark-castle, and of the land-
scape in its vicinity, is finely etched by Wordsworth.
•' That region left, the vale unfolds
Rich groves of lofty stature.
With Yarrow wiuding through the pomp
Of cultivated nature ;
And, rising from these lofty groves,
Behold, a ruin hoary !
The shattered front of Newark's tower,
Renown'd in Border story." Yarrow Vi9iTBn,
Mary Scott, the flower of Yarrow, is supposed by
many to have been born in Newark-castle ; but she
really was a native of the neighbouring parish, and a
daughter of the Scotts of Dryhope : See Yarrow.
The scene of the beautiful old ballad, called ' The
Sang of the Outlaw Murray,' though also belonging
to Yarrow  in our notice of which it shall be glanced
at  is almost universally identified by the common
people with Newark-castle.
NEWARK-CASTLE. See Maybole.
NEWARK-CASTLE. See Port-Glasgow.
NEWBATTLE,* a parish in the eastern division
of Edinburghshire ; bounded on the north-west by
Lasswade and Dalkeith ; on the north by Dalkeith
and Cranston ; on the east by Cranston ; on the
south-east and south by Borthwick; and on the
west by Cockpen. Its form is that of a triangle,
rounded at the corners, presenting its sides to the
north, the west, and the south-east, and deeply in
dented on the last of these sides. It measures along
the west 4 miles ; along the north nearly the same
distance ; and along the south-east 4J miles ; and
has an area of about 8 square miles. The South
Esk runs half-a-mile on the southern boundary, and,
after making a detour of nearly 2 miles into Cock
pen, runs 2£ miles along the western boundary, and
leaves tbe parish in the immediate vicinity of Dal
keith. From the beautiful and romantic vale of this
stream the surface gradually rises to a ridge, 2 miles
distant, whose loftiest point attains 680 feet above
sea-level ; and thence it falls, almost regularly, off
to the eastern and northern frontiers. A nodule or
slight summit on the hilly ridge commands an en
chanting view of the rich circumjacent country, and
is crowned by a quadrangular enclosure, about 3
acres in area, believed to have been a Roman camp,
and now densely phalanxed with plantation. The
south-east slope of the ridge was not long ago a waste
marsh ; but, by draining and other operations, has
become opulent and beautiful arable ground. The
south-west slope, also a brief period ago a mimic
wilderness, now nearly all has a rough, green, vel-
veted surface of thriving trees, or owns the dominion
of the plough, and vaunts the chastely ornamental
enclosure. The western and northern slopes de
scend in a sheet of retentive sandy earth, which gradu
ally gives way, first to a strong clay and next to a
good loam ; and are well-enclosed, and under the
best process of agriculture. The low ground, or
vale of the river, is all over a rivalry between the
* The ancient and strictly proper name is Newbotle. The
Saxon word 'botle' signifies simply a residence; aud the prefix
' New' was assumed probably in contradistinction to Eld-botle
or Old-hotle in Haddingtonshire. As iu the case of Morebattle
and other places of kindred names, the original ' botle' has been
irretrievably corrupted into ' battle.'

NEWBATTLE.

433

wealth of a very deep and fertile alluvial soil, and
the soft romance of a gaily wooded landscape. Gar
dens and orchards are so extensive as to yield an
annual produce for the market worth between £400
and £500. The coal measures lift their immediately
superincumbent strata to the surface toward the
apex and on the river-ward sides of the hilly ridge,
and dip at a very acute angle toward the course of
the stream ; and they constitute, within the limits
of the parish, a mineral field equal in wealth to that
of any equal extent of territory in the kingdom.
Limestone and sandstone are obtained in plenty from
surface quarries; and coal can be mined in upwards
of twenty seams, of from 1 J to 8 feet thick. To
facilitate the exportation of tbe mineral produce, a
private railway was constructed a few years ago at
the expense of the Marquis of Lothian; and is
carried across the vale of the South Esk by a via
duct 1,200 feet long, supported over most of its
length by stone pillars, and at the river by three
cast-iron Gothic arches, each 65 feet in span, and
the main one 70 feet high. The railway is 1 J mile
in length, joins the Edinburgh company's railway at
Dalhousie-mains, and communicates by it with the
terminus or depot at St. Leonard's in Edinburgh.
The turnpike from Edinburgh to Kelso, by way of
Lauder, bisects the north-east wing of the parish ;
and that from Edinburgh to the extensive districts
reached through the vale of Gala- water runs closely
parallel to the western boundary, and passes beneath
the viaduct of the railway. The ancient village,
now the pitiful hamlet, of Newbattle, stands in the
lowest grounds of the vale of the Esk, a mile south
of Dalkeith, sheltered in nearly every direction by
rising grounds, and embosomed among orchards and
gardens. Its little cluster of plain houses, and its
aspect of desertion and decay would ill accord with
the surrounding landscape, but for the adjunct of the
parish-church, a grotesque building, with an equally
grotesque spire, squeezed into seclusion by a press of
trees, and for the near vicinity of the principal gate
to the pleasure-grounds of Newbattle-abbey. There
are three other villages, all inhabited chiefly by col
liers, — Easthouses, with 400 inhabitants, 1 mile east
of Newbattle ; Westhouses, with 150, about 2 miles
to the south-east; and Stobhill, with 210, situated
2J miles to the south. Population of the parish, in
1801, 1,328; in 1831, 1,882. Houses 352. As
sessed property, in 1815, £8,722  Newbattle is in
the presbytery of Dalkeith, and synod of Lothian
and Tweeddale. Patron, the Marquis of Lothian.
Stipend £183 4s. 7d. ; glebe £21. The church was
built in 1727, and is in good repair. Sittings about
400. A preaching-station, in connection with the
Establishment, was commenced at Stobhill in 1837,
and a chapel afterwards built with 305 sittings, and
capacity for 600. A district, chiefly from Newbattle,
and partly from Cockpen, Temple, and Borthwick,
and containing a population of about 1,200, is annexed
to the chapel. Original salary £60. According to
an ecclesiastical survey, in 1836, Newbattle had then
1,636 churchmen, and 379 dissenters ; or a total
population of 2,015  The present parish of New-
battle comprehends the ancient parish of Maisterton,
and the Abbey parish of Newbattle. Maisterton
adjoined Cockpen on the west, and was surrounded on
all other sides by Newbattle. Its whole area and its
church were acquired at successive but early epochs
by the Monks of Newbattle, and secured for ' their
proper use.' The Abbey-church of Newbattle arose,
in the 12th century, out of the establishment of the
monastery. — In 1834 the parish-school was attended
by 79 scholars; and four private schools by 172.
Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 9d., with
about £25 fees, and £8 10s. other emoluments.
II.

Newbattle-Abbey, the prime object both of
antiquarian and of modern interest in the above
parish, was anciently, as its name imports, a monas
tery, and is now the seat of the Marquis of Lothian.
David I  that prince of monk-feeders, and prime
Scottish saint of the Romish calendar — founded the
monastery in 1140 for Cistertian monks, and fetched
to it a colony of these cowled followers of the Bur-
gundian Bernard from Melrose. Though he showed
them less lavish favour than he prodigally expended
upon the fraternity of Holyrood, he gave them in
comparably more of worldly substance than decent!}
comported with the austereness of their professions.
He bestowed on them the district of Morthwaite,
now called Moorfoot ; the lands of Buchalch on the
Esk ; some lands, a salt- work, and rights of pastur
age and wood-cutting in the carse of Calendar in
Stirlingshire ; a salt- work at Blakeland in Lothian ;
the right of pannage, and the privilege of cutting
wood in his forests ; and the patronage of several
churches, with a right to some of their revenues.
David's example — one of many kindred courses of
priest and monk exalting conduct, which procured
him canonization from the pope — was followed by
Malcolm IV., by the Countess Ada, the widow of
Earl Henry, by William the Lion, who gave the
monks the lands of Mount Lothian, and, with some
special services, confirmed the grants of David and
Malcolm, and even by a very unlikely sort of person
to fling a gold purse at a cowl, Alwin, the first
abbot of Holyrood, who relinquished to the inmates
of the new abbey, the lands of Petlendreich on the
Esk. Various other persons emulated the effort to
turn the professed mendicants into virtual princes,
and gave them lands in the country, tofts in the
town, and churches in the several shires. Alexander
II..  who delighted to reside at Newbattle — obtained
a grave there for his consort, Mary; and deeply
moved by so affecting an acquisition, he gave the
condescending owners of the place various donations
and rights for the salvation of himself and his pre
decessors, and for the salvation of Mary his spouse,
" que corpus suum apud Newbotle sepeliendum re-
liquit." The monks, enriched with specie, likewise
acquired much property and many privileges by pur
chase ; and, in particular, they obtained the lands of
Monkland in Lanarkshire, and secured the right of
cutting a road to them for their proper use. In
1203, Pope Innocent, by a bull, confirmed all their
possessions and privileges ; and, by another bull, he
prohibited all persons from levying tithes from lands
which they either held or cultivated. In 1293,
WiUiam de Lindsay gave the monks an annuity of
£20 sterling, which he received from Symington in
Ayrshire, and directed it to be distributed in speci
fied modes which exhibit at once the ganderism of
the wealthy laity, and the sly epicurism of the cau
tious monks, in a rude and superstitious age. His
grant directed that 140 shillings sterling should be
given annually to the monks ' ad pitancias,' a small
extra portion of meat and drink on some festival ;
that, every Sunday, two shillings should, for their
solace, be distributed among the monks to amend
their usual diet; and these momentous cares disposed
of regarding the prime ' poor,' the professed ' men
dicants,' that the abbot should be bound under a
penalty to bestow, on stated days, certain charities
on the poor of Haddington and Ormiston. David
II. gave the monks a charter, enabling them to hold
their lands within the valley of Lothian in free for
estry, with the various privileges which belonged to
a forestry. But tbe monks— though figuring chiefly
as astute and rapacious accumulators of worldly pro
perty, incidentally conferred great advantages on the
incipient but engrossingly important occupations of
2 E

NEW

434

NEW

husbandry, of mining, and of commerce ; for they
incited and directed agricultural operations, they dis
covered, and perhaps were the first to discover Scot
tish coal, and brought it from the mine, and they
constructed a sea-port, and gave Scotland a speci
men of the arts of traffic : see articles Hadding
tonshire and Morison's-Haven  The first abbot
of Newbattle was Radulph, who, in 1140, accompa
nied the colony from Melrose. John, the I8th ab
bot, had to act a part in the difficult transactions
respecting the succession to the Crown after the
demise of Alexander III. ; in March, 1290, he sat
in the great parliament at Brigham; in July, 1291,
he swore fealty to Edward I. in the chapel of Edin
burgh-castle; and in 1296, he again, with his monks,
swore fealty to Edward, and, in return, obtained
writs to several sheriffs for the restoral of his pro
perty. In January, 1296-7, Edward directed his
treasurer, Cressingham, to settle with the abbot for
the 'form' due bythe abbey of Newbattle for his
lands of Bothkennar. Whether Abbot John wit
nessed the accession of Robert Bruce is uncertain.
In 1385 the abbey was burnt during the furious in
cursion of Richard II. ; and during the 40 years
which followed, the monks were employed in its re-
edification, Patrick Madour, who was abbot in
April, 1462, collected the documents which at pres
ent form the chartulary of Newbattle ; and in Oc
tober, 1466, he instituted a suit in parliament against
James, Lord Hamilton, " for the spoliation of a
stone of lead-ore," taken from the abbot's lands of
Fremure in Clydesdale, and triumphantly compelled
the coronet to make compensation, and do obeisance
to the cowl. Andrew, who was abbot in May, 1499,
granted his lands of Kinnaird in Stirlingshire to
Edward Bruce, 'his well-deserving armiger,' for the
yearly payment of 16 merks; and in December, 1500,
he gave to Robert Bruce of Binning and his wife,
the monastery's lands of West Binning in Linlith
gowshire, for the yearly compensation of four shil
lings. James Hasmall was probably the last abbot ;
he was present at the parliament of November, 1 558 ;
and, while he governed the 'abbey, it was burnt dur
ing the invasion of the Earl of Hertford. Mark
Ker, the second son of Sir Andrew Ker of Cossford,
becoming protestant in 1560, obtained the vicarage
of Linton ; and, in 1564, was made the first com
mendator of Newbattle. In 1581 he obtained a rati
fication by parliament of his commendatorship ; and
he appears to have annually drawn from the abbey
property, £1,413 Is. 2d. Scottish, besides 99 bolls
of wheat, 53 bolls 2 pecks of bear, and 250 bolls 2
firlots of gats, — subject, however, to several dis
bursements, and particularly the remarkable one of
£240 Scottish to six aged, decrepit, and recanted
monks. He died in 1584, an extraordinary lord of
the court-of-session. His son, Mark, had a rever
sion of the commendatorship ; on succeeding to it,
he had it formally confirmed ; and, in 1587, he ob
tained from the facile James VI. a grant of the whole
estates of the monastery as a temporal barony, and
afterwards, in the same year, got the grant ratified
by parliament. In October, 1591, he was dignified
with the title of Lord Newbattle, and had his ba
rony converted into a temporal lordship; and in the
parliament of next year he saw his title and its basis
finally recognised. In 1606, he was created Earl of
Lothian; and, in 1701, Robert, the 4th Earl, who
was a member of the privy-council of King William,
was raised to the dignity of the marquisate  The
buildings of the monastery have long ago been either
wholly demolished, or, in any srnall remains which
may exist, entirely concealed from observation bv
the erection on their site of the present noble man
sion, the seat of the Marouis of Lothian, and the

successor in name of the extinct abbey. An ancient
wall which surrounded the monastery still retains
the name of the Monkland- Wall, and is in some
places in tolerable preservation. The mansion — the
present Newbattle-abbey — is a large, commodious*
modern edifice, and evinces, especially in its interior
arrangements, good taste and judgment in the archi
tect. Several folio manuscripts, which formerly be
longed to the monks, enrich the library : they are
written on vellum, in the Saxon character, and are
adorned in every page with pictorial illustrations of
tbe subjects which they treat: the most highly
finished are ' Jean Boccace des cas des Nobles
Hommes et Femmes, 1409,' — ' John Tikyt Hymni,'
— ' Titus Livius, per P. Berceun,' — and ' Augustin
de la Cite de Dieu.' Many valuable paintings and
portraits enrich the gallery, particularly a Titian, a
Morillio, several Vandykes, and some family por
traits. A lawn of upwards of 30 acres expands
around the mansion. On one side it is watered by
the South Esk, which, after brawling among the
rocks of Cockpen, flows along the park in a quiet
stream, and is overhung with plantations; and on
the other side it is skirted by a waving line of woods,
which, complying with the ascents and undulations
of the banks, stretches upward in a many-curved
surface, and exhibits a beautiful variety of shades.
The belts of wood which flank the two sides of the
lawn approach each other at the ends, and, on a
grand scale, embower the mansion and its park, and
exclude them from exterior view. At the east end
stands a bridge across the Esk, of high and unknown
antiquity, rudely built, and overspread with ivy.
Newbattle-abbey was visited in 1822 by George IV. ;
and it has within the hall a brass-plate, in the form
of a shoe, on the spot on which his majesty set foot.
NEWBIGGING, a suburb of the burgh, partly
compact with the town, and all within the parlia
mentary boundaries of Musselburgh, in the parish of
Inveresk, Edinburghshire: see Musselburgh.
NEWBIGGING, a frequent name of hamlets,
especially in Perthshire and Forfarshire. One of
these in the latter county, not far from Dundee, is
the site of an United Secession meeting-house.
NEWBIGGING. See Carnwath.
NEWBRIDGE, a small village on the river Al
mond, and on the turnpike between Edinburgh and
Glasgow by way of Bathgate ; 9 miles from Edin
burgh, in the Mid-Lothian section of the parish of
Kirkliston. The place is remarkable chiefly as the
scene of extraordinary mortality by cholera, in April,
1832. Of fJ5 human beings, who then constituted
its whole population, 11 were cut off in the course
of 10 days. Present population about 100.
NEWBURGH, a parish forming the extreme
north-west part of Fifeshire. It is of very irregular
form ; a portion of it lying along the margin of the
river Tay; and the remaining portion stretching to
the south, across the ridge of the Ochils. It has
thus something of the appearance of an ill-shaped
boot, or of the letter L reversed. The portion
which forms, as it were, the foot of the boot, or the
horizontal part of the L, stretches along the Tay,
and is about 2 miles in length from east to west, by
scarcely half-a-mile in breadth from north to south;
while the other portion is nearly 3 miles in length,
from north to south, by three quarters of a mile in
breadth from east to west. It is bounded on the
north by the Tay; on the west, partly by the parish
of Abernethy, in Perthshire, and partly by Abdie ;
on the south by Abernethy, Auchtermuchty, Col
lessie, and Abdie; and on the east by Abdie. The
northern part of the parish is a beautiful and finely
wooded level; the southern portion, which occupies
the ridge of the Ochils, is an alternate series of hills

NEWBURGH.

435

and valleys. Here Craigsparrow rises to the height
of 600 feet; and the Blackcairn to that of 800 feet
above the level of the sea. The soil of the land in
the northern division, north-east of the town of
Newburgh, is a rich clay, not inferior to any part of
the carse. In the upper part of the parish it is gen
erally either a loose black loam, or a compact ferru
ginous mould, of little depth, but of great fertility.
The number of imperial acres in the parish are 1,145;
of which there are 737 in cultivation ; 280 are waste
or in pasture; 88 under wood; and 40 under fruit-
trees. The principal woods are those of Mugdrum,
which cover about 34 acres ; Pitcairly, about 1 2 acres ;
and about 41 acres of the lands belonging to the
town of Newburgh which have been lately planted
with larch, spruce, and Scotch firs. The orchards
owe their origin here, undoubtedly, to the skill and
industry of the memks, and the venerable remains of
the trees they planted are still to be seen around the
abbey of Lindores; In 1815, the annual value of
real property assessed for the property-tax, was
£3,429 sterling; but this included the rents of pro
perty within the burgh. Tbe real rent of the parish
at present is about £2,400 sterling; the valued rent,
£2,174 Scots. Population, in 1801, 1,936; in 1831,
2,642. Houses 322. — This parish is within the pres
bytery of Cupar, and synod of Fife. Patrons, the
Earl of Mansfield, and Hay of Leys. Stipend £225
14s. 2d. ; glebe £40. The parish-church is situated
in the town of Newburgh. It is a new and elegant
structure, capable of containing 1,000 persons. The
number of persons in the parish belonging to the
established church, in J836, was 1,656. Besides the
parish-church, there is a chapel in connexion with
the United Associate Synod. The persons attend
ing this chapel and their families form very nearly
one-third of the whole inhabitants of the parish. —
There are also three small meeting-houses of Bap
tists, Methodists, and Independents. The total
number of dissenters in the parish, in 1836, was
1,008. The parish-school, at which there is an
average attendance of about 100 pupils, is in the
town of Newburgh. Besides his fees, the teacher
has the maximum salary, a school-house, house and
garden, a glebe of nearly four Scots acres, which lets
for £9 per annum, and a sum of £1 15s. sterling,
arising from feu-duties and altarage money. There
are two other general schools in the town, and a
female-school, which are unendowed. There are
also two schools for females in the suburbs, which,
though not within the parish, really belong to it, as
the pupils almost wholly come from the town of
Newburgh. Originally this parish formed part of
the neighbouring parish of Abdie, there being a cha
pel within the burgh, dedicated to St. Catherine;
besides the church of the monastery of Lindores, in
the immediate neighbourhood. After the Reforma
tion, the parishes were disjoined, by act of Synodal
assembly, with consent of all having interest. In
1632, this tacit separation was sanctioned by the
commissioners for the surrender of teinds; and New
burgh was erected into a separate parish. By a
subsequent application, a portion of the parish of
Abernethy was disjoined and annexed to that of
Newburgh. North-east of the town, and at the extremity of
tbe parish, on a gentle rise, in the middle of the rich
clay land near the Tay, stand the ruins of the an
cient abbey of Lindores. This monastery was founded
in 1178, by David, Earl'of Huntingdon, brother of
William the Lion, and heir-presumptive to the Scot
tish throne, after his return from a crusade in the
Holy Land, in commemoration of his escape from
shipwreck, and of his having taken Ptolemais from
the Saracens. He planted it with monks of St.

Benedict, of the order of Tyronensis, and dedicated
the church to the Virgin Mary and St. Andrew tbe
apostle. The monks were brought from the abbey
of Kelso. The monks of Lindores drew tbe tithes
of twenty-two parish-churches which belonged to
them. In 1208, Sibbald says, he finds that there
resided in the monastery an abbot and 26 monks.*
* The first, abbot, Fordun says, wag named Guido; and Spot-
tiBWoode, in his ' Religious Houses,' says, "there is a bull of
Pope Innocent III., granted at Late ran, iu the year 1198, the
second year of his pontificate, confirming all the lands aud pri
vileges granted to the monastery, and addressed 'Guidoni,
Abbati nmuasterii Sanctae Marias de Lundores ejusquu fratri-
bus.' " lu the beginning of the 15th century, Lawrence, who is
said to have been 'magnus theologus et vita venerabiiis vir,'
was abbot of Liudorea. He was appointed by tbe Pope to the
important office of inquisitor in Scotland. In this office he was
etern and severe ; and it was by him that Resby aud Crawar,
•lie earliest of our Scottish martyrs, were condemned to the
flames. We have a more favourable view, however, of Law
rence of Lindores, when we hud him associated with Bishop
W;u dlau-, in founding the university of St. Andrews, ai.d ex
plaining to the students the fourth book of the Seoteuues of
Peter Lombard. John, another abbot of Lindores, was pre-
cent at the condemnation of Sir John Borthwick for hereby, in
May 1540. He was afterwards appointed ajudge in the Court-
of-session. In August 1560, he attended the parliament which
established the reformed religion, and was appointed a lord of
the. articles, much to the displeasure of the Popish party, who.
stigmatized him as an apostate. John Leslie, the celebrated
Bit-hop of Ross, and the faithful adherent to the unfortunate
Mary, Queen of Scots, succeeded the abbot Johu. Some doubts
have been thrown ou the parentage of this prelate by Knox,
who, in his history, calls him "a priest'B get;'1 but in the ac
count of his life, prefixed to his negotiations in hehalf of his
mi&treaB and sovereign, during the time of his confinement iu
England, he is taid to have been born of creditable and honour
able parents. In 154-6, he was advanced, by the bishop of Aber
deen, to the character of an acolyte iu his cathedral church ;
and in 1550, he was canon of Aberdeen and Ellon, prebend of
Aberdeen, and pel petual vicar of the parish-kirk of Dyke. He
now applied himself to the study of law, and with this pur
pose went to France, where he studied the canon and civil
laws for four years at Puictiers, Toulouse, and Paris. There
he was made doctor of laws, and lectured for nearly a twelve.
mon tii in the sehouls of law. He returned to Scotland in 1554,
was appointed olficialof Aberdeen on 15th April, 1558, and in
ducted into tlie paiEouage and prebeud of Oyne in 1559. He
disputed with the Reformers at Edinburgh iu 1561; and was
selected by the Catholic party to proceed lo France, and invite
Queen Alary to leturu to Scotland, after the death ut Francis
Ik He went accordingly, aud attended the Princess home;
and whb shortly afterwards appointed a privy councillor, and,
in 1564, an ordinary lord-ol-sebSion. Not long afterwards he
obtained the abbacy of Lindoreb, in commendam ; and in' 15(55
was appointed to the see of Ross, Bibhop Leslie was one of
the Queeu'e lords, who, in June 1567, tried to route the citizens
of Edinburgh to resist the associated lords. After the impris
onment of the Queen, he returned to his diocese; but having
heard of her escape, he hastened to join her at Hamilton. He
accompanied his unfortunate mistress to Carlisle, and was one
of the most zealous of her commissioners, in September 156b.
He was also ambassador from Mary to Elizabeth, and was most
indefatigable in his exertions to befriend the imprisoned Queen.
Among others, he entered deeply into the intrigue with Nor
folk, and was iu consequence deprived of his privileges as am.
basbador, and committed first to the charge of the Bishop of
Ely, and latterly to the tower of London, from which he was
liberated after a confinement ot two years, only on condition
of his leaving the country. He now went to France, where
he remained till 1575, when he proceeded to Rome, where he
contmued three years, and where he published his history.
For several years after this he wandered from court to coui i,
vainly endeavouring to rouse the Catholic princes iu behalf of
Mary. He was, in 1579, appointed vicar general of the archi.
episcopal church of Rohan; aud, in 1593, was provided with
the biohopric of Constances in Nonnaudy, but was prevented
from enjoying his preienuent by the troubles of the period.
At length he retired to Brussels, where he died on the 3d May,
1596, in the 69th >ear of his age. Besides his history, — the
Latinity of which is held as only second to Buchanan,— Bishop
Leblie wrote and published several treatises in defence of the hon
our and interest ol Queen Mary ; and the ' Pious Consolations,*
which amidst his own distresses he yet found time to write for
her use, cheered her cruel solitude aud gained for him her grati
tude. One of the last actions ot Mary's life was to address Philip
11. of Spain on his behalf, whom she styles the most pious, able,
aud devoted of her servants. He certainly was the most emi
nent individual both as a prelate, statesman, and historian, who
ever held the abbacy of Lindores. After the removal of Bishop
Leslie to the continent, the Hon. Sir Patrick Leslie of Pitcair.
lie, second son of Andrew, 5th Earl of Rothes, received itm
abbacy of Lindores in commendam. He was high in favour
with James VI. HiB eldest son Patrick had the abbacy of Lin.
dores erected into a temporal lordship in his favour, and was
created Lord Lindores, 31bt March, 1600 ; but was tor a time
only styled Master of Lindores, in consequence of his father
taking the title during life. He wan succeeded by his brother
James, who is styled the 3d Lord. A great portion of the

436

NEWBURGH.

The site of the monastery of Lindores on the fine
carse-land which here borders the Tay, and was
formerly part of the forest of Black Earnside, must
have been peculiarly beautiful, commanding a view
of the opposite shores of the Tay, and a portion of
the valley of Strathearn; and the several buildings
it contained were no doubt in a style of grandeur
commensurate with its wealth and importance. The
latter, however, is in a great measure matter of con
jecture, as little of the ruins now remain to give any
idea of its extent or the beauty of its architecture.
The first outburst of the Reformers was no doubt
attended with an equally destructive attack on the
monastery of Lindores as that experienced by so
many other venerable buildings throughout the king
dom ; but Lindores abbey has been peculiarly unfor
tunate, as it seems long afterwards to have formed
a quarry from which the inhabitants of Newburgh
obtained stones for repairing or erecting their houses.
The consequence is, that the whole of the polished
ashler stones with which the walls of the church and
other buildings were faced, both outside and inside,
have been removed, and almost nothing now remains
of the walls, but the internal packing of small stones
and lime which rilled up the space between the ashler
fronts. A thick matting of ivy serves however, in
part, to conceal the long-continued dilapidations
which ruthless hands have made on these interesting
ruins. If we might be allowed to form any conjec
ture as to the style of the church, we should suppose
it to have been what is now usually styled the Early
English, that is, the first and simplest form in which
the Pointed style is anywhere found. The appear
ance of the groinings on the roof of two small vaulted
crypts, which are yet entire, would seem to favour
this conjecture, lt may, however, have been in the
Norman style, which immediately preceded the Early
English, and was for a time coeval with it; indeed
both of these styles were practised about the era of
the erection of this monastery. The wall which
surrounded the precinct of the abbey is still pretty
entire, and within it and in its immediate vicinity,
are still to be seen many of the " vastly big old pear
trees," mentioned by Sibbald. One of these is par
ticularly worthy of notice for its great size and age ;
although it is now, from the breaking down of one
of its principal branches, a third less than it was a
few years ago. When we saw it in 1839, it was,
notwithstanding its age, and that it is beginning to
decay internally, literally loaded with fruit, lt is
said that David, Duke of Rothsay, eldest son of
Robert II., who was barbarously murdered at Falk
land, by the^ contrivance of his uncle, the Earl of
Fife, and Sir John Ramorney, was buried here; but
this is doubtful, as it is also said he was buried in
tbe old church of Kilgour, near Falkland. A stone
coffin is pointed out at Lindores, which is said to
have been that of the Prince; but this is mere vague
conjecture; for any thing that appears, it may have
been the resting-place of some of the abbots of the
monastery. The last of the Earls of Douglas, after
a life of trouble and turmoil, found a peaceful retreat
lands of Lindores were apprized in favour of John Bayne of
Pitcairly, in consequence of debts incurred by James, the 3d
Lord. David', the 5th Lord, dying without issue, was suc
ceeded in the title by Alexander Leslie of Quarter, the grand.
son.iif Sir John Leslie of Newton, a younger brother of Sir
Patrick Leslie the commendator, and 1st Lord Lindores, who
became 6th Lord. HiB son Francis John, the 7th Lord, died
without issue, when the title was claimed by Leslie of Linn-
quhat, who voted as Lord Lindores in several elections ; hut
at the general election, 24th July, 1790, his votes were objected
to ; and the House of Lords, pn 6th June, 1793, resolved that
" the votes given by the Lord Lindores at the Baid election
were not good." Since then, the title has remained dormant;
and the lands are now in the hands of other families. The
lands of Lindores, within this parish, are the property i ' David
Balfour Hay, E-q: of Leys.

for his old age, and died within the walls of this
monastery in 1488.*
Mugdrum-house lies upon the Tay, at the west
end of the parish, and in tbe immediate neighbour
hood of Newburgh. If, is a large heavy looking
building, erected in 1786, but beautifully situated
near the river, amid extensive and very fine old
woods. The old house stands nearer the water,
and is still inhabited and in good condition, but it is
much smaller in size than the new house. Within
the woods of Mugdrum, a short way westward of
the town, there is a very interesting relic of anti
quity known by the name of Mugdrum cross. " The
term Mugdrum is obviously," says Dr. Anderson,
" a corruption of Magriden, the saint in whose hon
our it may have been erected, and to whom the lands
of Mugdrum were dedicated." The cross consists
of an upright square pillar of stone, fixed into a
large oblong stone as a base. The cruciform part is
not now to be seen, as the upper portion has been
broken off; but there seems little reason to doubt,
both from the appearance of the stone itself, and
from its resemblance to other crosses still existing,
that it originally had transepts which gave it the
form of a cross. The east face is divided into four
compartments, the upper two of which together oc
cupy nearly one-half the stone. They obviously
each contained the representation of a man on horse
back, but the riders and the posterior portion of
both horses have disappeared from the decay of the
stone. The third compartment contains two figures
also partially effaced, the first and smaller of which
appears to be a horse ; while the other, the head of
which has disappeared, seems to be a bullock with
a yoke round the neck. In the lower compartment
there are five figures apparently representing a boar-
hunt, — the boar and four dogs being pretty distinct.
The northern side presents two serpentine orna
ments, which are often seen on monuments of this
description. The cross was measured, in 1774, by
James Cant, editor of ' The Muses Threnodie,' when
the following results were obtained : — Height of
pedestal, 2 feet 2 inches; length, 6 feet>, breadth, 3
feet 6 inches; height of the cross from the top of
the pedestal, 11 feet 9 inches; breadth, 2 feet 4
inches ; thickness, 1 foot 2 inches. The cross is
* He was the 9th Earl of the elder branch of that noble house.
Afrer the death of his brother, who, in 1451-2, was poniarded
iu Stirling castle by James II., he made a feeble attempt to
avenge that deed upon the king: but wanting the energy of his
race, aud vacillating and procrastinating in his counsels, he
was deserted by his principal friends, and obliged to fly. into
England. * There he was well-received, aud from thence, aided
by the power of England, he made mafay unsuccessful inroads
upon the Scottish border. At length, wearied of exile, he aud
the Duke of Albany made an attempt to establish themselves
in Scotland. With a small force he crossed the Border, trust
ing that his former friends and followers would fly to his stand
ard ; but in this he was disappointed, for the most powerful of
the Border-chiefs, little inclined to lollow his fallen fortunes,
attacked and defeated him at Burnswark in Dumfries-shire.
He was taken iu flight by a son of Kirkpatrick of Closeburn,
one of his own vassals. A grant of lands had been offered for
his person, and he appears to have been willing that it should
be obtained by young Kirkpatrick. " Carry me to the king,"
said he, " thou art well-entitled to proflt by my misfortune ;
for thou wast true to me while I was true to myself." The
young man wept bitterly, and offered to fly with the Earl into
England. But Douglas, weary of exile, refused his proffered
liberty, and only requested that Kirkpatrick would not deliver
him to the King till lie had secured his own reward. Kirkpa
trick not only did this, obtaining the lands of Kirkiuichael for
his service, but successfully stipulated for the safety of the
aged nobleman ; and the last of the Douglasses was allowed to
retire to Lindores, muttering as he left the royal presence,
" He who may no better be, must be a monk." The following
verses are said to have been made upon his assuming the cowl :
" Quod rides rasumque caput, cellaque'recessum
Quodque cucullatis fralnbus anumerer ?
Fortuna volvente vicos fiet raodn princeps,
Picbeius ', monarchus sffipe monacna fuit."
Why do you laugh to see my shaven crown ?
My cell, my cloiater, and my hooded gown?
This is the power of that Soveraine Queen,
By whom monks, monarchs; monarchs, monks have been.

NEWBURGH.

437

considerably sunk into the pedestal, which is one
solid block of stone. The weight of the column
with its pedestal may probably be about 5 tons.
" It consists," says Dr. Anderson, " of white sand
stone, similar to Macduff's cross, the nearest locality
of which is the Lomonds, about 8 miles south, with
the hilly ridge of the Ochils intervening." This
opinion of so skilful a geologist as Dr. Anderson, is
peculiarly illustrative of what Cant says, in his letter
to Paton, was the local tradition with regard to
these two very ancient, reliques : "The cross and
pedestal are of freestone, the same with that of
Macduff's cross, and the antique steeple of Aber
nethy. Tradition says that the stones were dug out
of a quarry on the Lomond hills, about 5 miles
south." It is certainly rather singular that Sir
Robert Sibbald appears to have been ignorant of the
existence of this interesting monument, as he has
omitted any mention of it in his History of Fife.
About three quarters of a mile south-west of
Mugdrum cross, are the remains of another cele
brated cross, Norman Macduff's cross, on which so
much has been written, both in prose and rhyme.
It is situated upon. the high ground, in an opening
of the Ochils which forms a pass from the valley of
Strathearn into tbe central portion of Fife. This
cross is said to have been broken in pieces by the
Reformers, on their way from Perth to Lindores;
and nothing now remains but the large square block
of freestone which formed the pedestal. This stone
is 3 feet 9 inches high; 4 feet 7 inches in length, by
3 feet 9 inches in breadth at the base ; and 3 feet
4 inches in length, by 2 feet 8 inches in breadth at
the top. There are several holes or indentations
on its different faces, which tradition says were nine
in number, and in which nine rings were at one time
fixed. There is no appearance of any socket in
which the cross had been fixed ; so that it must have
been placed upon the surface of the stone, without
any other support than that of its own base. No re
mains of the broken cross are to be seen in the neigh
bourhood. Cant says that the pieces were removed
by the inhabitants of Newburgh, and built into some
of the houses of that town. This cross, like that
at Mugdrum, was dedicated to St. Magridden, who
appears to have been the patron-saint of the district,
and to whom the church of Ecclesia Magriden, or
Exmagirdle as it is now called, in Strathearn, was
also dedicated. It formed a girth or sanctuary , for
any of the clan Macduff, or any related to the chief
within the ninth degree, who had been guilty of
"suddand chaudmelle," or unpremeditated slaughter.
In consequence of this privilege, any person entitled
to take advantage of it, and requiring its security,
fled to the cross, and laying hold of one of the rings,
punishment was remitted on his washing nine times
at the stone, and paying nine cows and a colpendach
or young cow; the nine cows being fastened to the
rings. What peculiar or occult quality was con
sidered to dwell in the number nine, we do not pre
tend to be able to explain; but we see the privilege
only extended to the ninth degree of kindred, the
stone contained nine rings, the oblation offered to
St. Magridden was nine cows and a colpendach, the
washings were nine, and a powerful spring called
the Nine wells, where it is supposed the ablutions
took place, still takes its rise at no great distance
from the cross. This spring, or rather collection of
springs, is copious, and of the purest quality, and
being collected together forms a considerable stream,
which has lately been profitably employed in the
operations of a bleachfield.* A short way west of
* The privilege of the clan Macduff is said to have been often
claimed, not only by the direct members of that powerful body,
but by others who considered they were within the privileged

the pass in which stands the cross of Macduff, and
on the slope of the Ochils, is a small cairn of stores,
known by the name of Sir Robert's Prap. It marks
the place where a fatal duel occurred about the close
of the 17th century, between Sir Robert Balfour of
Denmiln, and Sir James Makgill of Lindores.
Newbcrgh, a royal burgh situated within the
above parish. It consists chiefly of one long well-
built street, about half-a-mile in length, a range of
houses fronting the harbour, and some lanes leading
down to the ' shore.' To the south of the town, but
within the parish of Abdie, a considerable number
of houses have been recently erected, in consequence
of the increased trade and manufactures of the town.
In passing through Newburgh, the stranger will at
once perceive, from the number of handsome dwell
ing-houses, and from the appearance of the shops,
that it is, for its extent, a wealthy and increasing
town. Its situation on the Tay is exceedingly plea
sant, and from the gardens attached to the houses,
and the numerous fruit-trees with which they are
planted, few small towns have a more beautiful ap
pearance when seen either from the river, in going
up or down, or from any prominent part of the neigh
bouring coast. The only public buildings in the town
are the town-house, which is surmounted by a spire,
and was erected in 1815; and the parish- church,
which was erected in 1833. Newburgh is a town of
considerable antiquity, and owes its origin to the
abbots of the monastery of Lindores in its neighbour
hood. It was erected into a burgh-of-barony by
Alexander III., in 1266, in favour of the abbot and
convent, with all the usual privileges of burghs-of-
barony. In the charter it is called ' novus burgus
juxta monasterium de Lindores;' and it seems, there
fore, probable that there was a more ancient burgh
in the neighbourhood belonging to the abbey, any
trace of which however is now lost. In 1457 it was
erected into a royal burgh ; on the 4th of July, in
that year, John, Abbot of Lindores, granted to the
burgesses of Newburgh the land of Vodriffe and the
hill to the south of it — about 400 acres in all — for
which they were to pay to the abbot, homage and
common service used and wont, with 40 bolls of
barley. These acres now belong chiefly to a number
of individual proprietors, and are held in free burgage,
though they pay an annual fee-duty partly to tbe
Crown and partly to the proprietor of the Abbey-
lands of Lindores. In the year 1631, Charles I.
confirmed the ancient royal charter ; but the burgh
never exercised its right of sending a member to the
degree. Among the persons who are said lo have claimed the
right, and to have had their claim allowed, were the laird of
Arbuthnot, for being concerned in the murder of Melville of
Glenbervie, sheriff of the Mearns j Spens of Wormiestun, for
the murder of one Kinninraond ; and Sir Alexander Moray of
Abercairney, who had been concerned in the slaughter of one
Spalding, in the year 1397. It was on all occasions necessary
when the privilege of Cross-Macduff was claimed, that proof
should be given of consanguiuity within the limited degree ;
and where in any case the claimant failed in establishing his
right, he was instantly put to death, and buried near the stone.
There were formerly several artilicial cairns and tumuli around
the cross, and one rather larger than the rest about fifty yards
to the north ; but the progress of agriculture which has brought
the ploughshare over the fields around the cross, has now re
moved all traces of them. These tumuli were supposed to have
been the burying-places of those who had been executed here
in consequence of failing to establish the necessary relation
ship ; but no attempt has ever been made to ascertain the truth
of this report. *' Superstition," says Cant, " forbids the open
ing of any of them ; no person in the neighbourhood will assist
for any consideration, nor will any person in or about New
burgh travel that way when dark, for they affirm that spectres
and bogles, as they call them, haunt that place." With the
removal of tbe traces of the graves, it is probable that the
superstitious fears attached to the .spot will also disappear, if
they be not already among the things that were. Sir Walter
Scott has made the traditions and antiquities of this place the
subject of a short dramatic poem, entitled * Macduff's cross,' in
which, with his usual felicity, he has embodied correct local
descriptions, and the various traditions with which the time-
honoured relics of this district have been surrounded.

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Scotish parliament, and consequently, at the Union,
was not included in any of those sets of burghs on
whom was conferred the right of sending a repre
sentative to the British parliament. At the passing
of the Reform bill, it might have been expected that
the wealth and importance of Newburgh would have
entitled it to be conjoined with some of the other
burghs of Fife in the election of a member ; but this
appears to have been overlooked, and its inhabitants
who possess the requisite franchise vote only for the
member for the county. Newburgh is governed by
two magistrates, and fifteen councillors, with a town-
clerk. The magistrates have the usual civil and
criminal jurisdictions within the royalty; and hold
courts at regular periods for the decision of questions
which are brought before them. The royalty ex
tends U mile to the south and west beyond the
town, but a considerable part of the town and har
bour in the north and east lies beyond it. The
sheriff holds a circuit-court once a quarter for the
recovery of small debts, in terms of the late act.
The gaol of Newburgh, which is the ground-floor of
the town-hall, is only used as a lock-up-house ; per
sons charged with a crime requiring more than a
night's imprisonment are transmitted at once to the
county-gaol at Cupar. The income of the burgh is
chiefly derived from the rent of land belonging to
the town, which has greatly increased of late years,
and is now about £170 per annum. The debt due
by the burgh, in 1834, was :

Heritable, Personal,

£1,400 0 0
250 0 0

£1,650 0 0

The magistrates and council levy no taxes except
the customs and market-dues, and a small tax upon
the inhabitants, producing about £10 yearly, to pay
the interest of the money expended by the community
in bringing water into the town. The property of
the burgh consists of 174 Scotch acres of land — of
which 87 acres are arable, and about 87 not arable —
32 acres of young plantation, the town-house, gaol,
corn-market, and granary, the burgh's share in the
parish-church as an heritor in the parish, and debts
due to the burgh, being arrears of rents and feu-duties.
The linen manufacture is extensively carried on
here, and has made great progress of late years. In
the 17th century, Cunningham, in his essay on Cross
Macduff, describes Newburgh as ' » poor country
village;' and till pretty far in last century, although
gradually improving, it remained much the same.
Until within a few years of the publication of the
first Statistical Account — 1793 — the inhabitants of
Newburgh had been chiefly employed in husbandry ;
but the linen-trade had occupied them to a certain
extent, and when that account was published, the
greater portion of the people were employed in that
manufacture. At that time, however, there were
only two persons who employed workmen ; the
greater part of the linen manufactured being woven
by individual weavers on their own account, who
sold their webs, when finished, at Perth, Dundee,
Cupar, Auchtermuchty, and Glasgow. The principal
branch of manufacture is the weaving of what is
called dowlas, for which a ready market is found in
London, Leeds, and Manchester ; large quantities are
also exported to the West Indies and South America
direct from Newburgh. The number of looms em
ployed within the town, in 1833, was 564 ; the num
ber of webs manufactured, 23,600 ; value £128,325.
In 1838 the value of goods manufactured was
£170,000 sterling. The merchants of Newburgh
also carry on a very considerable trade in grain,
which has been much increased and facilitated by the
establishment of a weekly stock-market, to which the

farmers of the surrounding district bring their grain.
The harbour of Newburgh, usually called 'the shore,'
consists of a long pier parallel to the river, and five
projecting piers at right angles to it. There is,
always here considerable stir and bustle ; and not a
little real business going on. There are vessels to
the amount of about 1,600 tons belonging to the
port; and two packets are regularly employed in
bringing from Dundee the raw material used in the
linen-manufacture, and carrying away the manufac
tured goods. Besides this, and the shipping of grain
and potatoes, there is a considerable importation of
wood from America, Norway, and Memel, and of
coals from the north of England. The steam-boats
which ply daily between Perth and Dundee touch at
Newburgh ; and many of the vessels bound for Perth
are often obliged to wait here for the flow of the
tide, and in some instances to discharge a part of
their cargo before they can proceed up the river.
Ship -building has recently been commenced at
Newburgh, with appearance of success. A com
pany for supplying the town with gas was formed
in 1836, and having erected suitable works, began
to make gas in October, 1837. There are two
fairs here yearly, at which markets were formerly
held, but these have now degenerated, and tbe fairs
are merely seasons of amusement to the inhabitants.
One of these is called the Race fair, when foot and
pony races take place. The other is called the Hag
gis fair. The origin of this name is supposed to be
from the hagabag, or coarse linen, formerly sold at it.
A branch of the Perth bank was opened here in
1800, and continued to do business till 1811, when
it was withdrawn. Newburgh did not again enjoy
the benefit of a local bank till 1833, when the in
creased importance of the town induced the Com
mercial bank of Scotland to establish a branch here.
In 1834, the Central bank of Scotland, whose prin
cipal establishment is at Perth, opened a branch here.
A branch of the Fifeshire National Security Savings'
bank has been established in Newburgh. In 1841, the
population amounted to 2,491 ; and in that year the
burgh contained 291 inhabited and 2 uninhabited
houses. NEWBURGH, a village in the parish of Foveran,
Aberdeenshire, 5 miles south-east of Ellon, and 10
north of Aberdeen. It occupies a pleasant site near
the confluence of a tide-expanded streamlet with the
Ythan, J of a mile above the latter's influx to the
ocean ; and it possesses important facilities for both
a manufacturing and a fishing station.
NEWBURN, a parish in Fifeshire, situated on
that part of the frith of Forth called Largo-bay,
which bounds it on the south ; and bounded by Largo
on the west, and Kilconquhar on the north and east.
It extends 3£ miles in length, and 2 in breadth. The
soil is in general fertile, and almost all arable and
enclosed. Superficial area 2,400 imperial acres. Po
pulation, in 1801, 412; in 1831, 418. Houses 84.
Assessed property £4,318  This parish is in the
presbytery of St. Andrews, and synod of Fife. Pa
tron, Craigie of Dumbarnie. Stipend £200 15s. 6d. ;
glebe £25. Church built in 1815  Besides the
usual endowments from the parish, the parochial-
schoolmaster has a liberal allowance for teaching
poor children, in consequence of John Wood, Esq.
of Orkie, having mortified that estate, for the pur
pose of erecting and maintaining a free grammar-
school in this parish. This free-school has existed
in the parish since the year 1658.
NEWBYTH, a village in the parish of King-
Edward, Aberdeenshire; 5£ miles south-west of
New-Pitsligo, 6 north-west of New-Deer, and 13
south-east o'f Banff. It was founded in 1764 by
James Urquhart, Esq., upon his estate of Byth. It

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stands on a rising ground, and consists of two streets,
which cross each other nearly at right angles. Many
of its inhabitants have small lots of land in a fertile
little tract of country lying to the south and east. The
village is the site of a chapel in connection with the
Establishment, of a side parochial-school, and of two
inns ; and it has a subscription-library, a savings'
bank, and three annual fairs. Population about 310.
NEWHALL, a romantic locality chiefly in the
parish of Penieuick, Edinburghshire, and partly in
that of Linton, Peebleshire ; 3 miles south-west of
Penieuick, and 13J from Edinburgh. The mansion
of Newhall stands on the left bank of the North
Esk, within a curvature of the stream, 4 miles from
its source, and while it forms the boundary-line be
tween the counties. During the 16th century, and
an unknown period preceding, it belonged to the
family of the name of Crichton. In 1646, Dr.
Pennycuick became its proprietor ; and, in his works,
he mentions some particular plants found upon the
grounds. He was proprietor also of Romanno, — a
place not far distant in the parish of Newlands ; and
he there, in 1677, witnessed, with strong interest, a
serious squabble between two parties of gypsies. In
1683 he built a dovecot on the scene of the quarrel,
apparently to show his wit in the following very
homely distich : —
" The field of gipsy blood which here you see,
A shelter for the harmless dove shall be."
About the period of tbe Union, Newhall was ac
quired by Sir David Forbes, Knight, and afterwards
it was inherited by his son, Mr. John Forbes, advo
cate, and became a favourite resort of some of the
most eminent literati of the last century. While
inhabited by the Crichtons it was an irregular castle,
and, with its appendages, covered the whole breadth
of the point on which it stands, formed by a stripe
or low spur from the base of the Pentlands, cloven
down on each side by a deep ravine, and terminating
in the glen of the Esk. Tbe ground-floor in the
front of the present building, was part of one of the
towers ; it is vaulted in the roof, and has on every
side slits for defence ; and it is so strong as, in one
place, to have a closet cut out of the thickness of
the wall. The eastern ravine is overhung by the
remains of a small round tower, with some vaults,
and it is densely filled with wildly growing trees,
and threaded by a dark and romantic rill, which leaps
along in several beautiful cascades, and flings up its
spray amid the deep shades and concealment of the
woods. The western ravine is overhung by a point
on which anciently stood a religious establishment of
some note, and a prison remembered, at the close of
last century, to have been recently in use; and
though this ravine is dry, it vies with the other in
romance, and, like it, is shaded with thick foliage.
A walk goes round the site of the chapel and prison,
forming a noble terrace from the west end of the
house looking up the glen, and over to a mineral
well among copsewood and pines on the other side.
A farm in the immediate neighbourhood bears the
name of Spital, and probably formed an endowment
for supporting, under the management of the reli
gious foundation of Newhall, an hospital or hospice
for the refreshment and shelter of travellers. About
half-a-mile above Newhall, amid a general flattening
and widening of the Esk's banks, the stream en
counters a contracting and forking ridge of lime
stone ; and, forming a linn, bounds down in succes
sive leaps to a circular pool, which, under birches
and shrubs, and upon a bed of pebbles, spreads out
between the rocks and a little verdant expanse. On
the face of a promontory which looks up to this
beautiful and sequestered spot, and is formed by the

sudden expansion of the glen, is a round turf-seat,
known in romantic association as Mary's Bower,
commanding a full view of the linn, and terminating
a winding path along the north brink of the glen.
About half-a-mile below Newhall, Monk's-burn, run
ning upon rotten whin, enters the glen of the Esk
in several considerable falls, and amidst much fine
landscape, and is overlooked at its mouth from the
opposite side of the Esk by an upland called the
Steel, said to have got its name from being the
scene of a skirmish with a straggling detachment of
General Monk's army. A little below this stream,
and on the left bank of the Esk, is a clear and deep
lake, surrounded with rising knolls, and on three
sides, by the wooded banks of the river sweeping
round far beneath ; and the lake has no visible sup
ply, outlet, or variation, and always laves the green
sward at the foot of its dry and undulating banks.
When a spectator stands at the eastern extremity at
tbe mellowing of a summer's noon, and the fish be
gin to leap, and the sun gets behind the ornamented
farm-house of Old Harleymuir on a height beyond
the ri ver above the Steel, and throws his warm em
purpling rays on the Carlop's-bill in the distance to
the right, the scene in view forms as enchanting a
picture as the pencil could well select. Numerous
other landscapes and objects of alternately soothing
and thrilling interest exist on the grounds or their
vicinity'; the chief of which are the scene of Allan
Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, described in our article
on Habeie's-Howe, and some antiquities noticed in
the articles Carlops and Linton.
NEWHAVEN, a quoad sacra parish, a consider
able fishing village, and a harbour on the frith of
Forth, 1 mile west of North Leith, and 2 miles north
of Princes-street, Edinburgh. The parish was
erected by authority of the presbytery of Edinburgh
in 1838, and, as to population, consists chiefly of
the village, which is situated, quoad civilia, in the
parish of North Leith. Newhaven had, in the 15th
century, a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and
was designated from it, in a style characteristic of
the period, " Our Lady's Port of Grace." A small
part of the outer wall of the chapel still exists in the
burying-ground, in the centre of the village. James
IV., who patronized the ecclesiastical erection, en
couraged the coeval formation of a village, made it
the site of a dockyard, and conferred upon it certain
burghai privileges. The town-council of Edinburgh,
becoming jealous of the consequence which it pro
mised to attain, and exercising the same selfish and
grasping policy which prompted them to enthral
Leith, and purchase the royal charter of Mussel
burgh, bought, in 1511, from James V.,the village
and the harbour, with all their pertinents and rights.
As a haven, formed, named, and patronized by the
Crown, and possessing greater depth of water than
Leith, and as the site of accommodation both for the
building and the harbourage of vessels, it might early
have rivalled and superseded Leith ; but it was
crushed into insignificance by the policy of Edin
burgh, and — so late as the epoch a few years ago ot
the disruption of the municipal power of the metro
polis through insolvency, and the completing of a
grand effort to form a suitable harbour for the great
commerce ot Alid-Lothian — it has been permanently
condemned to lose the fruit of its natural advantages
in consequence of the difficulty of removing the great
house and warehouse establishments of merchants
fixed at Leith. Yet, though it continued for a long
period to be a mere residence of fishers, with a rude
and miserable pier, it has, in modern times, greatly
increased in size, and acquired several marked ele
ments of importance. By an arrangement between
the tiustees of the Fife ferry and Government, a

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very substantial low-water stone-pier was erected,
enclosing a commodious harbour for wherries and
fishing-boats, and accommodating the numerous
steam-vessels which ply, at all hours, between the
two sides of the frith. Other steam-vessels, and
even those of the London and Edinburgh steam com
pany, avail themselves of this pier ; but, its end be
ing nearly dry at low water, they can rarely lie along
side to take in or discharge, and receive advantage
from it chiefly through the troublesome medium of
boats. About 500 yards west of the stone-pier, a
chain-pier was constructed in 1821, by Captain Sa
muel Brown of the Royal Navy, at an expense of
£4,000. It is upwards of 500 feet long, and 4 feet
wide, extends to a depth at low water of from 5 to 6
feet, and serves for the use of steam packets to Stirling,
Queensferry, and various other places above and be
low Leith ; yet it comes far short of affording suffi
cient accommodation for either the number or the
bulk of steam-vessels which frequent the harbours
of Edinburgh. Upwards of a mile to the west is the
new and better pier of Granton : which see. In
the vicinity of the chain-pier are the terminus of the
Edinburgh and Newhaven railway [see article Edin
burgh], and a considerable number of villas and sea
bathing cottages, feus of the Trinity-house of Leith,
and bearing, in common with the pier, the name of
Trinity. In front of these buildings, and at the east
end of the village, the beach dips down into excel
lent bathing -ground, and is the grand resort of pedes
trian bathers from Edinburgh. Newhaven promised
at a time not long past to rise into a summer-retreat
of aristocrats and capitalists, and, to a trifling ex
tent, it has this character in its outskirts ; but it has
become jilted and forgotten in consequence of the
sprightly attractions of its rival, Portobello. The
body of the village is ungainly, irregular, noisome,
abounding in exterior open staircases, rude and un
tidy in its houses, and redolent of the offals of fish
and every sort of nuisance in its streets. Yet it has
some inns and profusion of public-houses, and pos
sesses some note as a resort of the citizens of Edin
burgh for fish-dinners. Two great thoroughfares
connect it with Edinburgh ; the one by the villas of
Trinity and the village of Canonmills, and the other
by Bonnington and Claremont-street ; and both are
scoured almost every hour by coaches and omnibuses,
which connect the metropolis, through the Newhaven
ferries, with most districts intheuonh. The village,
as to its political position, is included within the par
liamentary and municipal boundary of Leith, and, as
to the relation of its harbour to the custom-house,
belongs to the port of that town : see Leith  The
inhabitants, in spite of the filth which surrounds their
abodes, are an industrious, hardy, and thriving race.
They have for centuries formed a peculiar and ex
clusive community, all more or less mutually related
by marriage, and rarely intermarrying with others
than natives of the village. The males are mostly
all fishermen, weather-beaten and athletic, and so
trained from youth to spend most of their waking
hours on the sea, that they are expert in nothing but
handling the sailing-tackle and the net. Their wives,
and daughters, — well known in Edinburgh, and par
tially known by report throughout Scotland, as " the
Fishwives of Newhaven," — are a sturdy corps of
Amazons, so distinguished by peculiar habits as to
be quite a study to the observer of human nature.
They partake all the broad features which mark the
character of their sisterhood of Fisherrow [see
that article], and share with them the trade of supply
ing the markets of Edinburgh and Leith with fresh
fish. But they possess additional features which are
less apparent in the Fisherrow women ; and, during
two-thirds of the year, they have exclusively the

trade of supplying the capital with oysters. They
carry, in their creels or huge willow-baskets, loade
quite as heavy as any borne by their rivals ; they en
tirely equal them in the masculine character of their
strength and habits; and when their husbands or
fathers are detained from the sea by tempestuous
weather, they coolly assign them female domestic
duties, and go themselves in search of employment
to earn the means of household support. When pro
voked, they exhibit a rude power of tongue, a coarse
ness and seaman-like vulgarity of abuse, which rival
those of their Billingsgate contemporaries. They
are so celebrated, too, for their exorbitant attempts
at extortion, — very frequently asking three or four
times the sum for their goods which a skilful pur-
chaserinducesthem to take, — that other trades, when
annoyed by purchasers cheapening their wares, or
offering a much lower price than has been demanded,
are in the habit of exclaiming, " What ! would you
make a fishwife o' me !" Yet they are honourable
among themselves, and peaceable and orderly as mem
bers of the general community ; and though a very
hard working class, and accustomed, in keeping with
their habits and pursuits, to eat and drink in the style
of city carters and porters, they do not indulge in an
excessive use of ardent spirits. They dress in a
manner at once coarse, costly, and peculiar, — suffi
ciently tidy when viewed in connexion with their
occupation, and not a little interesting to the lover
of the picturesque. Inconsequence of their having
to support their heavy creels with the whole muscu
lar power of the head and neck, they wear no head
dress but a napkin, and have attached to their loads
a broad belt, which they rest across their forehead
when moving, and let slip over their head when
about to exhibit their merchandise. They usually
wear a jerkin of blue cloth, and, on their neck and
bosom, several fine neckerchiefs; and they wrap
themselves up in a profusion of petticoats of dif
ferent stuffs and colours, two or three being regu
larly adjusted on the person, and others so contort
ed into twists and bundles below the waist as to
produce a strange bulkiness and grotesqueness of
appearance  Newhaven gave, at one time, the
name of Viscount to an English family of the name
of Cheyne, who never had any property in its vi
cinity. Charles Cheyne of Cogenho. in Northamp
tonshire, became, in 1681, the first Viscount New
haven ; and his son, who died in 1 738, was the se
cond and last.
NEWHILLS, a parish in the south-east corner of
Aberdeenshire. It is bounded on the north by Dyce ;
on the north-east and east by Old Machar ; on the
south by Banchory and Peterculter; and on the
west by Skene and Kinnellar. It is nearly a rect
angle of 5J miles by 4J ; and contains nearly 17,000
acres. The surface in the north-east is low and level,
but elsewhere is in general hilly, and toward the
west may be called mountainous. The soil, over
much the larger part of the area, is black, light, shal-
lowy, and spongy, incapable of icsisting the influence
of either much heat or much cold ; but, in the small
level district, it is a deep rich mould, on a good sub
soil, and productive of early and luxuriant crops.
Upwards of 600 acres are under wood ; nearly the
same number are in commonage ; nearly 1,800 are
waste land or mountain pasture ; and the remaining
area is either regularly or occasionally turned over
by the plough. The Don traces the boundary for
2 miles on the north-east, and while in contact
with the parish, gives up excellent salmon, as well
as pike and trout. Six brooks, tributary to it or
the Dee, abound with small trouts and eel. There
are several chalybeate springs. The antiquities are
a large cairn, several tumuli, the vestiges of an old

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chapel, and some remains of a Druidical temple. A
cave in one of the dens of the hill of Elrick is sup
posed by the vulgar to penetrate for miles under
ground, and celebrated in their legends as the resi
dence of a noted robber and his gang. Two beauti
ful and chief mansions are Springhill and Hazelhead,
the seats respectively of Mr. Forbes and Mr. Ro
bertson ; and other pleasant houses are Fairley,
Gateside, Waterton, Sheddocksley, Crailston, and
Newhills. Five or six vast quarries of blue granite
employ about 260 men, and furnish large supplies
of stones both for use and for shipment at Aber
deen. On the Don are 3 paper-mills, employing
about 150 persons ; 2 snuff-mills; a large brewery ;
and 10 grain mills, — 2 of them for flour. Annual
fairs for cattle and horses are held at Greenburn on
the second Tuesday of May, old style ; the second
Thursday of June, old style, and alsp on the day
before St. Sair's, in the same month; the last
Thursday of July ; the last Wednesday of Septem
ber ; and the third Tuesday of October, old style.
The parish is traversed by the roads from Aber
deen to Inverurie and Strathdon; and enjoys rich
facilities of communication from being within 2
miles of Aberdeen. Population,,™ 1801, 1,305; in
1831, 2,552. Houses 421. Assessed property, in
1815, £2,875  Newhills is in the presbytery and
synod of Aberdeen. Patron, the Earl of Fife. Sti
pend £414 12s. 2d. ; glebe £45. Unappropriated
teinds £76 Is. 7d. Parochial schoolmaster's salary
£32 2s. 3d., with fees, and about £6 other emolu
ments. There are two private schools. The parish
of Newmills anciently formed the south-east corner
of the originally very extensive parish of St. Machar.
The lands of Capelhills — a name probably derived
from Capella, a chapel — were, in 1663, mortified for
the maintenance of a minister, and made the site of
a church. These lands consist of nearly 700 acres ;
and they were previously purchased from the town of
Aberdeen, and were now devoted to ecclesiastical
use, by a person of much benevolence of character,
George Davidson of Pettans, an Aberdeen burgess.
This gentleman mortified also his lands of Pettans,
in Belhelvie, for the support of the ministers of
Aberdeen; aud erected a bridge over Buxburn, a
rapid stream in Newhills, in which he had witnessed
some persons perishing. The lands of Capelhills, on
being rendered ecclesiastical, assumed the name of
Newhills, and communicated to the other parochial
lands with which they were associated. The original
church was three years a chapel-of-ease, and received
parochial erection in 1 666. A quite modern edifice
now occupies its place.
NEWINGTON, an elegant modern suburb of the
Old town of Edinburgh. It forms the extreme south
of the city ; occupies a site on the very gentle slope
of the southern one of the three hills, where it nearly
becomes lost in the plain ; and is magnificently over
looked, on the north-east by the centre and most
towering part of the bold curve of Salisbury crags,
and the most precipitous and picturesque face of
Arthur's-seat. Minto-street, which runs through its
centre, is the grand thoroughfare between Edinburgh
and all parts on the border west of the Lammer
moors ; and forms an approach to the city delightful
to persons travelling from England. This fine street,
most of whose houses are in the villa style, and
chastely elegant, is broadly winged on both sides,
with brief streets, and spacious " places," and clus
ters of villas, which beautifully combine the seclu
sion and airiness of the country with the pretensions
and advantages of the town.
NEW KEITH. See Keith.
NEWLANDS, a parish in the north of Peebles-
hire ; bounded on the north by Edinburghshire ; on

the east by Eddlestone and Lyne ; on the south by
Stobo; on the south-west by Kirkurd; and on the
west by Linton. It is 9 miles in extreme length
from north to south, 3 miles, or a little more, in
mean breadth ; and 11,000 or 12,000 acres in area.
The river Lyne, flowing in a southerly direction,
runs 2| miles along the western boundary, and 3f
through the interior; and receives on its left bank,
in drainage of a large part of the parish, the streams
of Dead and Flemington burns. The Tarth de
scribes over 2| miles the whole of the south-western
and southern boundary to the Lyne. These streams
are in request with the angler. A ridge of gently-
ascending heights extends between the Lyne and the
Tarth, occupies the south-west corner of the parish,
and is divided between the empires of verdure and
the forest. Along nearly the whole of the west side
of the parish extends a hilly range bearing vari
ous subordinate names, and the general one of Kelly-
heads, parallel to the Pentlands, and interrupted only
by the glen of Flemington-burn. Along the west
base of this range lies the vale of Dead-bum and
of the Lyne, forming the central belt of the par
ochial area, and comprising most of its arable ground.
The hills are, for the most part, green and heath-
less, and frequently dotted and clumped with wood.
Trees thrive in every part of the parish, and cover
about 340 acres. The land occasionally or regu
larly in tillage comprises upwards of 3,300 acres ;• it
is chiefly a clayey loam, with a subsoil of close stiff
till ; and it is, in general, enclosed with hedgerows
and fences, and otherwise finely sheltered. Much
attention is given to the dairy; the produce of
which is sent to the Edinburgh market. A quarry
of excellent red sandstone, in the hill of Broomy-
lees, supplies all the county. Several rich beds of
marl have yielded up their treasures to the soil. A
species of till abounds which contains alum. Veins
of iron-ore occur on the lands of La Mancha ; one of
them affords a considerable quantity of native lead-
stone ; several contain manganese ; and all, . with
one exception, are either the finest grain ore, or hae
matites, and that grain in mixture. The coal forma
tion stretches beneath the major part of the surface;
but in none of its ingredients, except in one instance
limestone, is at present worked for the market. Coal,
for local consumpt, and even for burning lime, is im
ported from the contiguous parish of Linton. Of
chalybeate springs, which are numerous, one near
La Mancha contains a great part of aerial acid, which
holds the iron in solution  On the tops of several
hills are circular strong walls called rings. Drochil-
castle, situated at the confluence of the Lyne and
the Tarth, and not very much dilapidated, is said to
have been built by Morton, Regent of Scotland, but
not finished when he. was beheaded. The mailroad
from Edinburgh to Dumfries, by way of Noblehouse
and Moffat, traverses two-thirds of the length of the
parish; and a turnpike goes off from it down the Lyne
toward Peebles. Population, in 1801, 950; in 1831,
1,078. Houses 186. Assessed property, in 1815,
£5,339. — Newlands is in the presbytery of Peebles,
and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, the
Earl of Wemyss. Stipend £243 14s. 2d. ; glebe
£26. Unappropriated teinds £56 12s. 5d. The
church is a very ancient building, and exhibits a
strange medley of Gothic archwork, and modern
angular masonry. There is in the parish a Relief
meeting-house, built soon after the origination of the
sect. The parish-church belonged, for a time, to
the monks of Dunfermline, but afterwards became
a free rectory. In 1834, the parish-school was at
tended by 55 scholars; and two non-parochial schools,
by 1 14. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4d.,
with £15 fees, and £5 other e-noluments  Lord

NEW

442

NEW

Chief Baron Montgomery, the first Scotchman who
acquired the dignity of Lord Chief Baron, was »
native of the parish. The Rev. Charles Findlater,
author of the Agricultural Survey of Tweeddale,
one of the ablest of the series of works to which it
belonged, was long the parish-minister. Dr. Alexan
der Pennycuick, the author of a small volume of
poems, and of a poetical description of Tweeddale,
was for some time proprietor of Romanno. See
Newhall. NEWLISTON. See Kirkliston.
NEWMILL, a village in the parish of Keith,
Banffshire. It stands on the left bank of the Isla,
1.J mile north of Keith, and 8 miles south-east of
Fochabers; and consists of two parts, Old and New.
Population about 600. See Keith.
NEWMILLS, a village in the parish of Torry-
burn, Fifeshire, on the verge of the county, — the
burn dividing it from Perthshire ; half-a-mile west of
Torryburn, and one and a half eastof Culross. Here
are the remains of a pier, once of considerable extent.
NEWMILNS, a large village, and burgh-of-ba
rony, in the parish of Loudoun, Ayrshire. It stands
on the right bank of the river Irvine, 2| miles east
of Galston, l^ west of Darvel> 7 from Kilmarnock,
1 8 from Ayr, and 24 from Glasgow. The weaving of
muslins is the principal occupation of the inhabitants.
In 1828, the number of handlooms in Newmilns
and Garvel was 800; and in 1838, it was 1,130, —
of which 700 were plain, and 430 were harness.
" A great number of the cotton handloom weavers,"
says the parliamentary Abstract of Education Re
turns in 1834, " weave harnesses, a kind of work in
which each weaver requires ' a draw-boy' or girl to
assist him. This kind of fabric was introduced here
about two or three years ago, and the children who
are employed are generally from 7 to 10 or 11 years
of age." The village has a United Secession meet
ing-house, an excellent market, and annual fairs in
February, May, August, and October. Newmilns
was erected into a burgh-of-barony by royal charter,
dated 9th January, 1490. " There are," says the
Report on Municipal Corporations, " 140 burgesses.
Each burgess, at his admission, pays certain dues,
which are said to be trifling, but the particular
amount has not been specified. The average amount
per annum is stated at about 40s., which is applied
in keeping the streets in repair. It is not said
whether the burgesses enjoy any exclusive privilege
or monopoly of trade. As to the burgh's situation
in respect of property, revenue, debts, and expendi
ture, no other information has been obtained beyond
a general statement that ' the whole income of the
burgh consists in the customs, public green, and feu-
duties, which in all do not yield £10 per annum.'
— The burgh-accounts are kept by the treasurer.
They are made out annually, and examined and
passed by the magistrates and council. They are
said to be open to the inspection of the community.
. — The nomination of magistrates and council is in
the burgesses. They are elected annually, the bur
gesses choosing 15 councillors ; and these again ap
pointing two bailies, a chancellor, treasurer, and
town-clerk  No explanation has been given as to
the nature or extent of jurisdiction exercised by the
magistrates ; but it would appear that they exercise
a petty criminal jurisdiction, for mention is made in
the return of certain fines imposed upon delinquents,
the amount of which, however, does not exceed 10s.
annually, and is given to the poor." The Marquis
of Hastings, as Earl of Loudoun, is the superior.
Population, in 1821, 1,543; in 1831, 1,650.
NEWPORT. See Forgan.
NEWSTEAD, a village in the vale and parish of
Melrose, Roxburghshire. It stands on the right

bank of the Tweed, about a mile east of the town
of Melrose, on the road to Edinburgh by way of
Lauder. The scenery around it is exquisitely beauti
ful. Near it is a Roman camp, upwards of 1J of a
mile in circumference. The village not improbably
had its name from the erection in its vicinity of a
successor to the venerable, and too early extinct
church or ecclesiastical establishment of the Culdees
at Old Melrose: see Melrose. During the long
interval which elapsed between the overthrow of
the old Melrose church — the edifice so intimately
associated with the names of St. Boswell and St.
Cuthbert — an ecclesiastical structure was built in a
field adjoining the village which still bears the name
of Red Abbey Stead. Stones which formed part of
the edifice have recently been dug up ; they belong
to the new red sandstone formation ; and they seem
to have been quarried from the thin upper strata of
the sandstone beds of Dryburgh, — those very beds
the lower and thick strata of which furnished the
beautiful and fine-grained materials of the far-famed
abbey of New Melrose. The colour of the stone
seems clearly to have originated the name of Red
Abbey. All history of the edifice, except some
vague tradition, is lost. Population of Newstead
about 240.
NEWTON, a parish in the north-east division pf
Edinburghshire. It is a parallelogram of somewhat
more than 2 miles by l|, and presents its angles
to the cardinal points. Area 1,256 English acres.
It is bounded on the south-west and the north-west
by Liberton ; on the north-east by Inveresk ; and
on the south-east by Inveresk and Dalkeith. Its
western angle is exactly 3 miles from Edinburgh, on
the road to Dalkeith ; and that road runs along the
whole south-west side, over about half the distance
on the boundary, and over the' other half slightly in
the interior. A burn, which falls into the North
Esk immediately above the junction with the South
Esk, strikes the south angle and the road at the
same point, about J of a mile from Dalkeith, and
runs along the south-east boundary till within a few
yards of its mouth. The surface of the parish is
level, or but slightly undulated; and it is every
where finely cultivated, and beautiful and exultant
in appearance. No fewer than 19 seams of coal run
through the parish in a northerly direction. Six of
them, of from 2 to 4 feet each in thickness, are
called flats, and lie in an almost horizontal position.
The other 13, each from 2 to 10 feet thick, are called
edges, and lie at nearly an angle of 90 degrees. The
coal has been mined for upwards of 2£ centuries,
continues to be wrought with vigour, and has become
smartly in demand from the transit along the surface
of the Edinburgh and Dalkeith railway. Colliers'
villages and hamlets, consisting of long rows of red-
tiled cottages, impart a grotesque clothing to the
landscape, and in some instances, as in those of
Cuckold's-raw, Red-raw, Adam's-raw, and Cauld-
cots, wear no less grotesque names. Edmonstone,
Sheriffhall, and Little France— the first, the most
considerable village, and situated near the 4th mile
stone from Edinburgh — are grotesquely named in
another fashion, their names being any thing but an
index to their appearance. The aggregate popula
tion of the villages, in 1838, was 416, and that of the
collier population 1,010. Newton, near the east
angle, is a neat mansion ; and Edmonstone, in the
vicinity of the cognominal village, is an elegant seat,
surrounded by fine plantations. Population, in 1801,
1,060; in 1831, 2,274. Houses 449. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £10,351  Newton is in the presby
tery of Dalkeith, and synod of Lothian and Tweed-
dale. Patron, Wauchope of Edmonstone. Stipend
£155 4s. 4d.; glebe £135 6s. 4d.,_all of which,

NEW

443

NEW

except £20, consists of interest of a sum paid for
coal under the glebe, and secured on the lands of
Edmonstone. The church was built in 1742, and
re-seated in 1819. Sittings 430. The minister he- |
lieves the last census to have been much overstated ; I
and, in 1838, found the population to be 1,728,— of
whom 1,365 were churchmen, and 363 were dissent
ers. The present parish comprehends the ancient
parishes of Newton on the south-east, and Wymet
— now corrupted into Wolmet — on the north-west.
Both parishes, of which Wymet was the larger,
anciently belonged to the monks of Dunfermline,
and were incorporated with their lordship and re
gality of Musselburgh ; and, after the Reformation,
they were included in James the Sixth's grant to
Lord Thirlstane. The parish-shoolmaster provides
and 'pays an assistant, and has of salary £34 4s. 4£d.,
with £60 fees, and £37 other emoluments. Attend
ance, in 1834, at the parish-school, 184; at 5 non-
parochial-schools, 252. Two of the latter are for
females, and one is an infant-school.
NEWTON, the name of many villages, hamlets,
farm-steads, mansions, and villages throughout the
Lowlands of Scotland; hardly one of which is of
sufficient importance to require separate notice.
'New-tons' and 'Kirk-towns,' whenever they be
come noticeable, are used to assume a less diffusive
and more individualized name.
NEWTON, a village in Fifeshire ; 1 mile east of
Falkland, containing about 180 inhabitants.
NEWTON-DRYBURGH, a pleasantly situated
village, and the site of » Secession meeting-house,
in the parish of Melrose : which see.
NEWTONHALL, an estate and mansion jn the
parish of Gifford in Haddingtonshire, still occupied
by a family of the name of Newton, one of whom,
accompanying James VI. to England, is supposed —
according to one tradition in Sir Isaac Newton's
family — to have been the ancestor of that great
philosopher. NEWTON-OF-MEARNS. See Mearns.
NEWTON-SHAW, or Newton-of-Sauchie, a
large and thriving village in the parish and shire of
Clackmannan. It stands H mile south of the river
Devon, H mile north of Alloa, 5 miles north-west
of Kincardine, and 7J miles east of Stirling. It
was built for the accommodation of the work-people
employed by the Devon iron-company. A dissenting
preaching-station was established in it in 1837. Po
pulation, in 1838, upwards of 880.
NEWTON-STEWART, or Newton-Douglas,
a small town and a burgh-of-barony, on the river
Cree, chiefly in the parish of Penninghame, Wigton
shire, and partly in that of Minigaff, Kirkcudbright
shire. It stands on the great Galloway road between
Dumfries and Portpatrick; 8 miles north of Wigton,
26 east of Stranraer, ]7| west by south of New
Galloway, 50 west of Dumfries, about 80 from
Glasgow, and 98 from Edinburgh. A younger
branch of the Stewarts, Earls of Galloway, possessed
the estate of Castle-Stewart, built upon it at his
own expense a few houses to form the nucleus of a
village, called the place Newton-Stewart, in honour
of the family-name, and held out some advantages to
attract settlers. The earliest feu-contract is dated
1701. The idle, the giddy, those who hung loose
upon societv, were the first to flock to the incipient
town. The advantages of the feus invited some
peasants who had accumulated a few pounds. Smug
gling did something to promote its advancement. A
decent inn or two, a few shops, and some work
rooms for ordinary artisans, were soon called for by
its bein" a convenient stage between Ferry-town-ot-
Cree and Glenluce, and a suitable depot and resort
for an extensive tract of circumjacent country. By

these and other appliances, the population was raised,
10 or 12 years before the close of last century, to
about 900. Mr. W. Douglas, the same respectable
and enterprising merchant, who became proprietor
of the village of Carlinwark, and changed its name
to Castle-Douglas, now purchased the estate of
Castle-Stewart, altered the name of its village to
Newton-Douglas, obtained for the place under this
name a charter, erecting it into a burgh-of-barony,
and commenced vigorous efforts to make it a seat of
important manufacture. A company, with Mr.
Douglas at its head, erected, at an expense of up
wards of £20,000, a large factory for spinning cot
ton, and connected it with the introduction ana
support of cotton- weaving. A Mr. Tannahill, under
the patronage of Mr. Douglas, commenced a small
manufacture of coarse carpets. A tannery had long
before been established, and now received stimulat
ing encouragement, and was managed with great
judgment and sufficient success. These and many
other circumstances concurred to promise that the
village would, under its new lord, rapidly rise to be
a place of no small consequence ; but they flattered
and promised incomparably more than they performed.
The new name of Newton-Douglas soon fell into
disuse, and gave place to the original name of New
ton-Stewart. The carpet-factory proved an utter
failure. The cotton-factory worked well for a few
years, declined, was abandoned,- stood for years un
occupied, and, in 1826, was purchased by Lord Gar-
lies for a twentieth part of the original cost, and
converted into a quarry for the building of cottages
and farm-houses. The tanning and the currying of
leather is the only trade which continues to prosper.
The weaving of cotton, though still kept up by the
manufacturers of Glasgow, is rapidly on the decline.
The number of handlooms, in 1828, was 311 ; and,
in 1838, it was only 100. The purchasing of wool
for the markets of Lancashire, partly on commission
and partly on personal risk, is now the staple trade.
Bacon-curing also was introduced about 10 years
ago, and employs annually a capital of about £6,000.
There is likewise an extensive brewery. The town
has branches of the British Linen company's bank,
and the Southern bank of Scotland; some insurance
agencies ; nearly 40 inns and public-houses ; a sub
scription-library ; a public reading-room ; a masonic
lodge ; a weavers' society ; a clothing club ; a horti
cultural society ; and an agricultural society. It is
the site of the parish-church of Penninghame, a Re
lief meeting-house, a, Cameronian meeting-house, a
Roman Catholic chapel, the Douglas endowed cha
rity-school, and various other schools : See Pen
ninghame. A weekly market is held on Friday ; a
monthly cattle-market is held on the 2d Friday of
each month; a horse-market is held in February,
June, and November ; and annual fairs are held in
March, June, July, and October. The business
done at the cattle and horse markets is great and
increasing ; but that at the fairs is little more than
an empty pretext, an unmeaning sanction to idleness
and folly. Sea-communication is maintained from
a harbour at Carty, about 1| mile down the river,
whence vessels of from 35 to 45 tons trade regularly,
and vessels of a larger size trade occasionally to va
rious ports. The Galloway and Liverpool steamer
sometimes runs up the river, but in general can be
communicated with no nearer than Wigton bay. The
London and Portpatrick mailcoach is in daily transit;
and two other mail- vehicles run daily except on Sab
bath,  the one to Girvan, and the other to Stranraer
by way of the Mahars. Carriers travel regularly
to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dumfries, Girvan, and the
chief towns of Wigtonshire  Newton-Stewart, un
like Gatehouse-of-Fleet, and other modern towns,

444

NEWTON-UPON-AYR.

Was not began to be edificed upon any regular plan ;
and, in consequence, long bore the appearance of a
straggling and whimsical village,— builders raising
their houses high or low, small or great, on a line
with others, or in recesses or projections, as caprice,
accident, or convenience suggested. Irregularity has
been so far corrected that the place now consists
chiefly of a long principal street, with the town-
house, its only ornament, in the centre. At the
close of last century the houses were all thatched,
and mostly of one story; but now, in the case of
more than one-half, they are slated, and of two sto
ries. The bridge across the Cree, which connects
the main body with the suburban section of the
town, is constructed of granite with freestone para
pets. The population has, for many years, been nearly
stationary, and amounted, in 1831, to 2,241.
NEWTON-UPON-AYR, a small parish on the
coast of Kyle, Ayrshire. It is bounded on the north
by Prestwick ; on the east by St. Quivox ; on the
south by the river Ayr, which divides it from the
burgh and parish of Ayr ; and on the west by the
frith of Clyde. It is an oblong, stretching north
and south, and broadest at the middle ; and it mea
sures 1| mile in length, and a mile in extreme
breadth. The coast is flat, sandy, and of gloomy
aspect; yet, at the northern extremity, projects a
brief way in an inconsiderable rocky point. The
surface of the interior is very nearly a dead level,
and lies very slightly above high-water mark. The
soil is naturally a barren sand, but has been greatly
improved by intermixture with blue shale, fetched
up from the coal-mines. Nearly 350 acres are ar
able ; and about 100 are waste or in pasture. The
coal-formation under-stretches the whole parish, but
has been much disturbed by the upheaving of trap,
and is exhausted in its workable coal-seams. An
apparently inexhaustible quarry of good freestone is
worked in the north. All the parish, excepting 9
or 10 acres, belongs to the freemen of the burgh of
Newton-upon-Ayr. Nearly all its features of in
terest, as well as the mass of its inhabitants, belong
also to the burgh. Population, in 1801, 1,724; in
1831, 4,020. Houses 453. Assessed property, in
1815, not returned  This parish is in the presby
tery of Ayr, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Pa
tron, Thirteen delegates annually chosen by the free
men of the burgh. Stipend £245;* glebe £13 10s.
The church was built by the freemen in 1777, and
enlarged in 1832. Sittings 1,032. By ecclesiastical
census in 1835 and 1836, the population was then
4,037 ; of whom 2,960 were churchmen, 990 were
dissenters, and 87 were nondescripts. The parish
was disjoined in 1779 from that of Monkton and
Prestwick, by authority of the Commissioners for
the plantation of kirks ; and the management of all
the civil affairs of the church was assigned to the
thirteen delegates who wield the patronage. The
teinds still belong to Monkton. In 1834, the parish-
school was attended by 116 scholars; and three non-
parochial schools by 198. Schoolmaster's salary
£34 4s. 4Jd. with fees.
Newton-upon-Ayr, a burgh-of-barony in the
above parish, and a suburb of the royal burgh of
Ayr, presses on one side on the right bank of the
river Ayr, and on another on the frith of Clyde, and
lies compactly on a third side with Wallace-town, a
conjoint suburb. The principal street is about 2,100
feet long and 80 broad; but is far from being neatly
edificed. Three or four streets lie between it and
the sea, are regularly planned, and form a new town ;
« Consisting of £60 from the burgh, modified by decree of
the. Court-of-teinds ; £90 from the exchequer ; and a gratuity
of £95 from the burgh since 1833, and depending upon the leu
ting of the seats.

but as yet they are only partially built. Three other
small streets belong to the old town. The council-
house, erected about the commencement of the pre
sent century, and the parish-church, are the only
public buildings, both very unpretending in archi
tecture, and the former surmounted by an humble
steeple. The town, within less than a century and
a-half ago, consisted entirely of one-story houses,
thatched and of mean appearance. Towering above
these, and situated in Garden-street, amidst gardens
and trees, stood Newton-castle, the seat of the Ba
ronet Wallace of Craigie, a castellated edifice of the
kind common in the later feudal times. The town
was, for a long time, dependent chiefly on the col
lieries, and when they ceased, it remained stationary;
but, during the last 40 years, it has sprung into
energy under the influence of trade and manufacture.
Ship-building and rope and sail-making are the oldest
occupations: in 1791, they employed respectively 50
and 10 workmen; and, at the present date, they
hold their ancient ground, but have made small if
any advance. Four foundries employ about 50 work
men, and produce all sorts of iron and brass machin
ery and tools. Two salt-pans are little more than
a nominal manufacture, and employ only four or five
persons. About 400 weavers, and upwards of 600
hand-sewers, work for the warehouses of Glasgow.
The finest kind of the famed Ayrshire needle- work
is confined to Ayr and its vicinity, and has a large
number of its fair workers, chiefly young women, in
Newton. The descendants of a colony of fishermen
from Pitsligo, and places in its vicinity in Aberdeen
shire, who long were a peculiar race in dress and
habits, and conducted an extensive traffic, are now
in a comparatively reduced condition, employ them
selves chiefly in white fishing, and have no wider
market than Ayr and its immediate neighbourhood.
Newton possesses a joint interest with Ayr in the
harbour of that town, has a railway to it from the
coal-mines in the parish of St. Quivox, and exports
nearly all the coals, the traffic in which constitutes
the chief part of the harbour's trade. Improvements
which to a great extent have been made on the har
bour have not been completed on the Newton side.
A wooden lighthouse, inelegant but useful, was
erected on the north side in 1827, to supply the
place of one which was built in 1790, and under
mined by the encroachments of the sea.
Newton-upon-Ayr has so curious a burgh-consti
tution that a pretty full digest of the account of it
in the Report of the Commissioners on Municipal
corporations cannot fail to gratify. The date of the
erection of the burgh "is not known. Its origin
is traditionally ascribed to a grant by Robert the
Bruce, in favour of 48 of the inhabitants, who had
distinguished themselves in his service at Bannock-
burn in 1314. No satisfactory evidence of this can
be referred to; but it is matter of history that
Robert was at the parliament held at Ayr, 26th
April, 1315, when the crown of Scotland was settled]
on him and his descendants; and it appears certain
that the erection of the burgh of Newton must have
occurred some time between 1208-14 and 1446.
King James VI. granted a new charter to the burgh
in 1595, proceeding upon the narrative, inter alia,
of certain ancient writings and title-deeds having
been exhibited to his Majesty and his treasurer,
' quibus antiqua fundatio erectio et libertas dicti
burgi clare et lucido testantur, quamvis occasione
bellorum pestis temporumq. turbulentorum intra
regnum n'rum pro tempore occurentium, antiqui
evidenti litere et infeomenta dicti burgi, destructa
combusta et consumpta fuisse.' After the clause
granting of new, and erecting the burgh, there is in
the charter the following clause : ' Cum potestate

NEWTON-UPON-AYR.

445

etiam et plenaria libertate dictis burgensibus et in-
habitantibus dicti burgi ac eorum successoribus, eor.
terras communes acras et particatas ejusdem parti-
endi ac dividendi, et easdem in feudifirmam asseda-
tionem seu rentale aut alias prout eis magis videbitur
expediens et commodius, burgensibus ac liberis civi-
bus et incolis ejusdem burgi et nullis aliis assedandi
et locandi.' The number of burgesses amongst
whom this partition was made competent is not
mentioned in this charter, but minutes or entries in
the old records have been exhibited by the present
magistrates, to establish that they then amounted
to 48. In 1600, King James VI. granted another
charter, narrating that the erection of the burgh of
Newton was beyond tbe -memory of man, and that
the lands and others therein mentioned had been
given and disponed 'burgensibus liberis et inhabi-
tantibus ejusdem eorum heredibus et successoribus,
de quibus ultra hominum memoriam in possession e
extiterunt.' It then ratifies and confirms the char
ter of 1595, ' cum integris contentis privileges et
immunitatibus in eodem specificatis;' and all other
prior rights granted ' prefato burgo" de Newtoun de
Air burgensibus et inhabitantibus ejusd. eorumq.
predecessoribus heredibus et successoribus quibus-
cunq.' There is then a disposition of new of the
burgh and its pertinents ' prefato burgo ac balivis
consulibus burgensibus et liberis incolis ejusdem
eorumq. successoribus in proprietate et hereditate,'
with all the privileges and immunities in the use or
possession of the burgesses and inhabitants, and their
predecessors in times past. And there is a revoca
tion of all rights to others prejudicial to the grant in
this charter, on the narrative, ' Ac nos inde volentes
burgenses et inhabitantes dicti burgi eorumq. heredes
aut successores nullatenus ledi nee prejudicari in
eorum t'riis prediis possessionibus privilegiis et liber-
tatibus ejusdem ipsis eorumq. predecessoribus per
nos nrosq. nobilissimos progenitores temporibus pre-
teritis concessis et confectis, sed ut eadem cum pre
fato burgo burgensibus et liberis ejusdem eorumq.
heredibus et successoribus pro perpetuo tempore
futuro absq. ullo obstaculo seu impedimento remane-
bunt.' After the grant of the lands and others to
the burgesses, and their heirs and successors, this
charter of 1600 proceeds to confer on them the power
of electing bailies, treasurer, burgess councillors, and
other officers necessary for the government of the
burgh, and also the usual privileges of trade, and of
holding fairs and markets ; and, generally, the privi
leges and powers conferred by a grant of burgh,
especially in regard to jurisdiction." From records
of their own which have, from a very ancient period,
been kept by the freemen, the following points were
sought to be established, — that prior to the date of
the existing charters, the territorial possessions of
the burgh were enjoyed by the individual freemen
patrimonially, each having in old times had his own
" daill" given to him, at the periodical partition of
the lands, " according to the auld ordour used and
wont,"  that the right of a freeman was heritable as
well as patrimonial, inasmuch as sons, — whom fail
ing, sons-in-law, — were entitled to succeed to the
right on the father's demise, and to enter to the
freedom in his stead, — that the number of freemen
entitled to " daills " of the common property was
limited, and in 1604, the date of the first daill after
the existing charters, the limitation was held and
understood to be precisely 48, which is said to have
been agreeable to the established law and custom, —
and that this ancient heritable and patrimonial right
of the 48 freemen to have each his "daill" of the
common property was subjected, in 1604, to the
burden of paying a very large debt which had been
contracted on the lands. The state of possession,

from the earliest period till the present, is alleged
to have been conformable with this patrimonial and
heritable character of the right. The casting of the
" daills" is regularly recorded; and, except between
1604 and 1771, even the particular lots and names
are mentioned. A cast which took place in 1771,
was, with the view of remedying evils which re
sulted from the short duration of former casts, or
dained to continue 57 years. At the expiration of
that cast in 1828, a surpassingly bold one was made,
ordaining the continuance of the lots' to be for 999
years. Till the date of this remarkable resolution, the
patrimonial rights were never the subject of separate
personal titles, and the record in the community books
of the entrance of a freeman, and of the right which
that entrance gave him to a share of the common
property, constituted the only title to his "daill;"
but, in 1833, the community resolved that the ma
gistrates and council should grant feu-rights, for
payment of an illusory feu-duty to such of the free
men as should choose to hold their possessions by
charter and sasine. — The community have, from the
operation of various causes, had vacancies in their
number, and have uniformly wielded the power of
disposing of them by sale. Non-residence in burgh
incurred, in early times, a forfeiture of right ; the
operation of the original law of succession, which
admitted only sons or sons-in-law, produced, while
it was in force, many vacancies for want of proper
heirs ; and the commission of crimes or misdemean^
ors, and the non-payment of the proportion of the
original debt, have always been understood to incur
a nullification of rights. Admissions to the vacan
cies occasioned by these means are regularly entered
in the minute-books, and were procured by a money-
payment, which latterly was ordained to be £30.
The rights of sons and sons-in-law to succeed to
their father's freedom was recognised in the earliest
times; and in the minutes of date 16th December,
1680, in appointing a new cast, it was ordained,
" the said daills to be this day casten and dewydit
by lot to those who lineallie succeed to the samyn,
according to the former acts, and the antiquitie of
freemen and burgesses, as the several acts of the
said toune do prescrive." But subsequently the
right was extended to the widows of freemen ;
and rules were drawn up, and have been uniformly
observed, by which daughters as well as sons, and
collaterals as well as descendants, have been ad
mitted to the succession. Few instances of sales of '
the rights of freemen occurred till within the last
half century. The value of the right, indeed, was
comparatively trifling till the discovery of a rich
seam of coal in the lands, about the year 1765.
Since that date the right of freedom has become a
valuable property, and the list of transferences that
have taken place within the last 40 years shows
about 30 freedoms that have passed into the posses
sion of singular successors, the price varying, at dif
ferent dates, from £70 to £500. The mode of
transference, from the peculiarity of the right, has
necessarily been peculiar. The freeman wishing to
dispose of his right renounces it in favour of the
community, at a fixed price, to be given out of new
by them to the purchaser. It was at one time cus
tomary for the community to purchase rights of free
dom to be disposed of by public roup to the highest
bidder. Irt these cases, the renunciation by the free
man ceding his right was in favour of the community
ad remanentiam. But, in other cases, the renuncia
tion was the mere form by which the right of the
person with whom the old freeman had transacted '
was completed. The freedoms are said to have been,
in some instances, attached and sold by creditors;
and the freemen, as the heritable possessors of their

NEW

446

NEW

respective lots, have been held liable for the propor
tion of teinds payable from their lands. The free
men, in addition to the property divided by daills,
have, at various times, obtained, out of the common
property of the burgh, steadings of ground for build
ing to be held in feu for payment of a feu-duty, and
have had them laid off into 48 lots, in the same man
ner as the daills. A considerable tract of the burgh
property remains undivided and possessed in com
mon; and in the year 1831-2, it yielded £134 16s.
of rental. The coal revenue, and the rent of the
common moor, have invariably been divided among
the 48 freemen. The other revenues are received
by the treasurer, and disbursed under the direction
of the community at their discretion; the amount
has always been annually exhausted in improving
the lands, and in defraying expenses of management;
and any surplus which remained of the funds divided
among the freemen has likewise been usually em
ployed in the improvement of lands. A large amount
of the common fund, however, was employed in
building a church at the epoch of the erection of the
parish. The revenue of the burgh, for the year
preceding Michaelmas 1832, was stated to be £436
12s. 6d. ; the expenditure for the same year £347
5s. ; and the debts then due by the burgh £1,300.
Poor's stent is the only assessment by the magis
trates and council; it is levied from all houses above
£2, by a collector named by the council, and is dis
tributed by the kirk-session; and during 10 years
preceding 1833, it amounted to 4d. per pound of real
rent. The cess levied is very trifling. The council
of the burgh consists of two bailies, one treasurer,
and six councillors, who are annually elected by the
burgesses. They possess all the jurisdiction in point
of law, which burghs-of-barony, independent of the
superior, prior to 1748, are entitled to claim. But
they have been accustomed to exercise jurisdiction
only in processes of sequestration for rent and petty
breaches of the peace. Even this limited jurisdic
tion has not extended to above six cases annually
since 1820. There are no incorporated trades within
the burgh enjoying exclusive privileges. But the
freemen annually, at the Beltan (May-day) Court
held by them, enact, that no unfreeman shall trade
or manufacture within the bounds of the burgh with
out leave. The law, however, has not been en
forced for 40 years, all persons being permitted to
trade without licence or fees of any sort. The
- magistrates and council have no patronage ; but the
office-bearers of the burgh, viz., clerk, treasurer,
and officer, are appointed by the community of free
men, and such of their eldest sons us are entered as
young fretmen. The magistrates and treasurer get
£5 per annum each, and the clerk £10 yearly, the
officer £5 5s. The only fees paid to the clerk and
officers consist of 2s. 6d. on the entry of every free
man. " It is impossible," say the Commissioners,
"to close this account of the burgh of Newton-
upon-Ayr without observing that the rights of the
community, as regards the property originally con
ferred upon this burgh, have, by the successive en
croachments of the freemen, been placed upon a
very peculiar footing ; and it well deserves being
considered whether some steps should not be taken
for vindicating the public interests against such en
croachments, and still more for the prevention of
similar encroachments in future. In so far as the
freemen have lately directed their efforts to the con-
veision of a temporary title of possession, — nowise
incompatible with the eventual resumption of the
subjects when required for the public service of the
burgh,— into a permanent feudal right, which is in
tended to divest the burgh for ever of all interest in
their own estate, — the Commissioners think it may

be questioned whether every such usurpation be not
illegal, and at variance with the chartered rights of
the community." Newton is comprehended within
the parliamentary boundaries of Ayr. No actual
list of the £10 proprietors or occupiers has been
furnished; but, in 1833, there were 218 occupants
of £5 yearly and upwards, — about 100 of whom
were computed to have tenements at or above
£10. The population of the town, according to
the New Statistical Account written in 1837, was
then 3,768. !
NEWTYLE, a parish at the south-west verge '
of Forfarshire, quadrangular in form, and presenting
its angles nearly to the cardinal points. It measures
2£ miles by 2; and is bounded on the north-west
by Perthshire; on the north-east by Nevay and
Glammis; on the south-east by Auchterhouse ; and
on the south-west by Lundie and Kettons. The
surface runs up on the south-east, and on one-half
of the adjacent sides, to a water-shedding line of the
Sidlaw hills; and, declining north-westward, it set
tles down into a pendicle of the level ground of
Strathmore. The chief heights are Kinpirnie
[which see], on the north-east boundary, Newtyle
hill, on the south-west boundary, and Hatton hill
about midway between them. An opening or pass
through, the Sidlaws, between the hills of Newtyle
and Hatton, bears the name of the Glack of New
tyle, and is traversed by the turnpike from Dundee
to Newtyle and Meigle, and by the Dundee and
Newtyle railway. The greater part of the parish is
carpeted with a mixed soil of black earth and clay,
and is fertile and well-cultivated. The arable grounds
amounted, 50 years ago, to 1,600 acres. The vil
lage of Newtyle, situated 11 miles from Dundee,
3 miles from Meigle, and about 1 mile from the
parochial boundaries respectively on the north-west
and the two adjoining sides, is rapidly rising from
village "obscurity to the importance of a trafficking
and bustling town. Standing on the highway be
tween Dundee and Strathmore, and at the terminus
of the railway constructed for draining to the great
sea-port the produce of the magnificent strath, and
holding communication by the railway several times
a-day with Dundee, it is necessarily and very rapidly
becoming » depot for grain and other agricultural
produce, and a central point of concourse to a far-
stretching inland territory. The inhabitants as yet,
however, are almost exclusively weavers of linen
fabrics, chiefly sheetings, for the manufacturers of
Dundee. Near the village to the east are the ruins
of Hatton-castle, built, in 1575, by Laurence, Lord
Oliphant ; and in the vicinity of these ruins are some
discernible traces of what is called the Castle of
Balcraig, — Bailie Craig, ' the town of a rock situ
ated at the foot of a hill.' At Auchtertyre, three
furlongs west of the villages, are some traces of a
camp, said to have been occupied for some nights by
the army of the Marquis of Montrose, while the
Marquis himself lodged at a neighbouring castle,
after burning the house of Newton of Blairgowrie.
Population, in 1801, 718; in 1831, 904. Houses
181. Assessed property, in 1815, £6,111  New
tyle is in the presbytery of Meigle, and synod of
Angus and Mearns. Patron, Lord Wharncliffe.
Stipend £163 14s. 4d.; glebe £1 10s. The church
was built about 72 years ago, and enlarged in 1824
and 1835. Sittings 498. A United Secession con
gregation was established in the parish in 1835.
Sittings in their place of worship 400. A survey
by the parish-minister, in 1836, exhibited the popu
lation as then amounting to 1,120; of whom about
1,082 were churchmen, and about 38 were dissent
ers. In 1834, the parish-school was attended by
97 scholars; and two non-parochial schools by 34

NIC

447

NIG

Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with about £15
fees, and from £3 to £5 other emoluments.
NICHOLAS (St.). See New Aberdeen.
NIDDRY, a village in the parish of Liberton, 3
miles south-east of Edinburgh, and If south of Por
tobello, Edinburghshire. It is rural and compara
tively sequestered, stands on the ascent of a gentle
swell, and commands a magnificent view of some of
the richest grouping of the Lothian and Forth and
Fifeshire scenery. But, in itself, it consists princi
pally of a long row of red-tiled cottag?s, inhabited
principally by colliers. The place is embalmed in
associations of enlightened and persevering volun
tary effort to promote the highest, the religious
well-being of its inhabitants; it has enjoyed the
gratuitous and untiring labours of several eminent
dissenters ; and latteriv it has become a preach
ing-station in connection with the Establishment.
Niddry is the name of a gentleman's seat in the
vicinity of the village; and, with various adjuncts,
the word designates several places in the eastern
or' projecting wing of the parish of Liberton:
which see.
NIELSTON. See Neilston.
NIGG, a parish, forming the most southern part
of the district of Easter-Ross, on the east coast of
Ross-shire. It is bounded on the north by Logie-
Easter and Fearn ; on the east and south-east by the
Moray frith ; and on the south and west by Cromarty
frith and Logie - Easter. Its greatest length is 6
miles ; its greatest breadth 2 miles ; and its superfi
cial extent about 14 square miles. It extends north
eastward, and is nearly all peninsulated. The hill
of Nigg, anciently called the bishop's forest, extends
along the Moray frith from tbe farm of Shandwick
on the northern boundary, to Dunskeath at the point
of the peninsula, and there beetles up in what is
called ~the North Sutor of Cromarty. This hill is
about 5 miles long, and 1 mile broad ; varies in height
from 300 to 500 feet, and commands very extensive
and magnificent views of the vast expanse of the
Moray frith, of its long projections into the land,
and of the very diversified and occasionally rich
country which forms the curiously intersected sea
board. Its coast-side breaks almost sheer down in
rocky cliffs, often 300 feet in height, picturesquely
torn and perforated with fissures and caves, and in
the very romance of beauty, chequered with patches
of verdure and extensive escalades of ivy. The rocks
have pinnacles for the eagles' eyry, points for the nests
of all the different sorts of hawks, and inviting retreats
for great flocks of cormorants, and other sea-fowl, on
their return from hatching-places in Caithness and
the northern isles. About 1,000 acres lie waste; and
only about 2,500 acres are in tillage. The planta
tions cover an area nearly equal in extent to the
waste land, and produce from their thinnings cargoes
of coal-props for the miners of Newcastle. Neither
sheep nor black cattle are objects of much attention.
Flocks of goats find sustenance on the cliffs ; and
owing to the prevalence of rich grasses and medici
nal herbs on their giddy walks, are prized for the
restorative and salutiferous properties of their milk.
The sands of Nigg are a bay of the Cromarty frith,
projected northward along the boundary-line be
tween Nigg and Logie-Easter, so as to belong to
both parishes, measuring about 2 miles in breadth at
the south end, and 1 mile at the north, and alternately
forsaken and submerged by the refluxes of the tide.
A thick stratum of sea-shells, about a foot from the
surface, long supplied the adjacent country with large
quantities of manure, and would continue to be pro
ductive, but has been superseded by the use of lime.
Quicksands were formed in the excavations of this
stratum, and often sucked down the unwary traveller,

or even beguiled a parishioner to the jaws jointly of
death and the grave; and among several deep pits
which still exist in the lower part of the bay, and
have very recently been fatal to strangers, one called
the Seals pool, may never be approached but at
the almost certain peril of destruction. On a small
moat at Dunskeath, overhanging the sea, are traces
of the foundation of a fort, which was built, in
1179, by William the Lion, to suppress tumults
and disperse robbers, and which is mentioned by
Sir David Dalrymple in his history of Scotland.
At Shandwick-place, and in the church-yard, are
obelisks, akin to one in Fearn, which are tradition
ally said to have been erected over the bodies of
three sons of a king of Denmark, or a king of the
seas, who, in the days of the Vikingr, were drowned
in shipwreck off the coast. The obelisks have
various hieroglyphic sculpturings ; and, on a side of
one of them, is a handsomely executed cross. A
dangerous rock on which the commemorated dead
are said to have been wrecked, lies not half-a-mile
distant from the shore, stretches 2 or 3 miles in
almost a straight line from west to east, is not visible
at high-water, has occasioned modern and very seri
ous disasters, and curiously bears the name of ' the
King's sons;' and three several objects on the high
precipitous coast are called respectively ' the King's
harbour,' ' the King's cave,' and ' the King's path.'
The principal mansion is Bayfield, the seat of Robert
Mitchell, Esq  Three fishing-villages in the parish
have jointly about 430 inhabitants, and upwards of
30 fishing-boats. The largest is Shandwick, with a
population of about 190. The parish lies directly
opposite Cromarty, is distant from it about 1^ mile,
communicates with it by a regular ferry, and is tra
versed by the road from it to Tain. Population, in
1801, 1,443; in 1831, 1,404. Houses 314. As
sessed property, in 1815, £1,177  Nigg is in the
presbytery of Tain, and synod of Ross. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £234 8s. ; glebe £10. Unappro
priated teinds £194 19s. 7d. The parish-church is
of unknown date of erection, and was repaired about
50 years ago, and again, in 1836. Sittings between
400 and 500. An United Secession congregation was
established in the parish in 1765. Their present
place of worship was erected in 1803. Sittings 627.
Stipend £120, with house, garden, and small glebe.
The Seceders of the parish amount to about 500,
and constitute the entire population of the village of
Shandwick. A notable 'intrusion' case occurred in
Nigg in 1756, the parishioners, almost to a man, with
stood the presentee for three years, and expended
£500 in legal proceedings against him ; and, when
worsted, they very numerously became staunch Se
ceders. The bishops of Ross anciently held Nigg as
a mensal church, and had a residence in the parish.
Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 2s. 2|d., with
£5 fees, and £4 other emoluments. The dissenters
have a school of their own, and there are two private
schools. NIGG, a parish in the extreme north-east of Kin
cardineshire ; bounded on the north-west and north
by the river Dee, which divides it from Aberdeen
shire ; on the east by the German ocean ; and on the
south and west by Banchory-Devenich. Its greatest
length, from north-north-east to south-south-west,
is a little upwards of 4 miles ; its greatest breadth,
in the opposite direction, is 3 miles ; and its super
ficial extent is 3,376 acres. In the north-east corner
the land, turning into a ness or promontory projects
into the sea, and is called Girdleness : which see.
A bold breast of rock from 60 to 80 feet high,
covered with grass and herbage, overhangs the sea
along all the east coast. A bank or gently graduated
ascent, higher in the south than in the north, rises

NIN

448

NIN

behind, and is arable for some distance from its base.
A heathy ridge of hill, about 200 feet above sea-level,
goes off from the summit, and near the middle of the
bank, runs quite across the parish, and is crowned
with two huge cairns, which are seen, and serve as
landmarks at several leagues' distance on the sea.
A valley and hill occur north of this ridge ; and two
•haughs extend along the Dee and the side of the
height which runs out to Girdleness. A belt of land,
upwards of a mile broad, extending the whole length
and through the middle of the parish, is, with slight
exceptions, an unarable, wild, and uninhabited tract
of moss and heath, profusely strewn and intermixed
with stones. A very hard granite, now of a beauti
ful blue and now of a purple or party-coloured
hue, abounds both as native rock and as boulder,
and supplies abundant materials for enclosing and
building. Large quartz veins occasionally intersect
the granite. Causeway-stones are worked in several
quarries, chiefly for shipment to London ; but,
though long a principal article of export, they have,
in » great measure, ceased to be in demand. The
Dee, while in contact with the parish, forms the
harbour of Aberdeen, and falls into the sea. Torry-
pier, projecting into it from the Nigg side, is the re
sort of vessels for unloading lime and shipping stones ;
but is now much less frequented than in former years.
Above it lie the boats ot the fishermen, and pilots of
the village of Torry ; and in its vicinity stood, some
years ago, a boiling establishment of a Greenland
company. A small bay or creek, called Grey Hope,
close to the Girdleness lighthouse, is noted as the
scene, in 1813, of the shipwreck of the Greenland
ship ' Oscar.' The bay of Nigg, immediately south
of Girdleness, is of semicircular form, and nearly
half-a-mile in diameter. Burnbank- harbour and
Alton's-harbour, farther south, are two creeks for
merly the scene of considerable fishing settlements,
which have gone almost wholly into decay. Cove-
harbour, situated about a mile from the southern
boundary, affords accommodation to nine or ten boats
belonging to fishermen in the village of Cove, and
offers refuge to boats retreating before a stout north
easterly wind. Several caves and natural arches
perforate the rocky coast ; and one of them in this
vicinity seems to have originated the name of Cove.
Along the coast is a free open sea. Lorstown-loch,
on the south-west boundary, is oblong in form, and
covers 27 acres. The principal villages of the par
ish are Cove and Torry, with a population of 400
arid 370: see Cove and Torry. The other villages
are Charlestown, with a population of 200 ; and
Burnbank^with a population of 60. On the haugh
upon the Dee are the ruins of an edifice which belong
ed to the abbey of Arbroath, and retains the name
of Abbots'-walls. The parish is traversed length
wise, near its western boundary, by the Great North
road to Aberdeen. Population, in 1801, 1,148; in
1831, 1,648. Houses 303. Assessed property, in
1815, £2,621  Nigg is in the presbytery and synod
of Aberdeen. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £160
2s. ; glebe £27 15s., besides a part not valued.
The parish-church is a handsome and quite modern
structure, surmounted by a quadrangular tower, so
conspicuously situated as to be seen from a great dis
tance, and to command an interesting prospect.
Parochial schoolmaster's salary £30, with about £20
fees, and £6 other emoluments. There are five
non-parochial schools. The whole parish belonged,
before the Reformation, to the abbey of Arbroath;
and the church was anciently dedicated to St. Fiacer
or Fittick:
NINE-MILE-BURN, a village 12J miles from
Edinburgh, on the road from Edinburgh to Dumfries,
not far from the romantic locality of Newhall, in

the parish of Penieuick, Edinburghshire. Popula
tion about 110.
NINIAN'S (St.) — vulgarly and locally St.
Ringan's— a large and* very important parish in
Stirlingshire. It is bounded on the north by Kin
cardine, Lecropt, Stirling, Logie, and Alloa ; on the
east by Airth ; on the south by Larbert, Dunipace,
Denny, and Kilsyth ; on the south-west by Fintry ;
and on the west and north-west by Gargunnock. Its'
greatest length from the point where Pow-water
leaves it on the east to Carlin's-linn on Burnfoot-
burn on the west, is 13 miles; its greatest breadth,
from the confluence of the Forth and the Teith on
the north to Carronbridge at the south-east base of
Dundaff-hill on the south, is 8 miles ; and its area is
about 70 square miles. Loch-Coulter [which see]
lies near the southern boundary, and is the only con
siderable lake. Bannockburn-water [see Bannock-
burn] derives one of two principal head-streams
from Loch-Coulter, and the other from the north
side of Earl's-hill, and has its whole course in the
parish north-eastward to the Forth. Carron-water
runs for 5 miles eastward along the southern boun
dary ; receives from the interior Earl's-burn, a
streamlet of about 5 miles in length of course ; and
frequently overflows a considerable tract of meadow
land, and some arable grounds on its banks. Pow-
water drains a section of the parish by two head-
streams, the one of which rises near Bannockburn-
house, and runs 3| miles eastward to the boundary,
while the other rises on the southern boundary at
Garcaiber, and runs about the same distance, chiefly
eastward along that boundary, and partly northward
along the eastern boundary, to a confluence with the
former ; and the united stream, after further describ
ing the boundary | of a mile north-eastward, passes
away into Airth. The Forth — except where the
small parish of Stirling abuts into St. Ninian's — .
flows along the whole of the northern boundary ;
and while touching the parish, it receives on the
hither side the Bannock, and five or six rills or
streamlets, — on the further , side, the Teith, the
Allan, the Devon, and various rivulets, — and per
forms the most graceful of those remarkable sinuo
sities, and exults in some of the richest blandish
ments of beauty and picturesqueness and romance,
by which its course and its scenery are distinguislied.
See the article Forth Some of the flat grounds
on its banks are invaded by its freshets, — particu
larly a large farm called Boll-for-nought, which pro
bably has its grotesque name from its having been
gained, at a comparatively recent period, from the
regular superfluence of Water. The surface of the
parish, like that of adjacent districts, is naturally
divided, in the language of the county, into carse,
dryfield, and moorland. The carse was, for many
centuries, and up to the epoch of modern agricultu
ral improvement, a flat morassy wilderness ; but
now it is justly esteemed the most fructiferous de
scription of land in Scotland ; forms the chief part of
the far-famed Carse of Stirling ; and wears all the
habiliments of the chastest affluent adorning, and the
most luscious beauty. The dryfield rises suddenly,
and considerably above the level of the carse ; pre
sents, along the boundary-line, the general appear
ance of the banks of a river, — affording clear indica
tion of having been land long before tbe carse ceased
to be the bed of a frith ; occupies by much the most
extensive section of the parochial area ; and is, in
general, arable and in a state of beautiful cultivation.
The moorland lies, in a sense behind the dryfield,
but, in strict truth, forms a proximately triangular
section in the south-west ; it comprises about a
fourth, or somewhat more of the whole area; it at
tains an altitude considerably higher than that of the

ST. NINIAN'S.

449

dryfield, and swells up into elevations which belong
to the east end of the long broad range of the Len
nox-Hills [which see] : and, though in many places
arable, and on every farm possessing capacity to sup
ply its own inhabitants with food, it is on the whole
most profitably employed in the rearing of black
cattle and sheep. Nearly all the dryfield and a great
part of the moorland appear to have been, at a com
paratively recent period, covered with wood. The
royal forest of Dundaff must have comprehended the
high grounds at the extreme south of the moorland
which still bear the name of Dundaff; and the royal
forest of Stirling can hardly fail to have compre
hended the extreme northern division of the dryfield.
Even the carse must, at one time, have been forest
ground ; and, in consequence of the felling and the
natural fall of its trees, and the settlement upon it
of numerous tribes of the long-familied moss-plants,
it certainly formed, at the epoch of the battle of
Bannockburn, an almost impassable morass. At
present, and increasingly for 60 or 70 years past, the
face of the whole country — which naturally is beau
tiful, and derives rich adornings from the forms of
the encincturing hill-ranges, and the fantastically
lovely windings of the Forth, — exhibits the embel
lishments of innumerable enclosures, many thriving
plantations, various smiling villages, and not afew ele
gant mansions and villas.. — Coal everywhere abounds;
limestone — so rich as to yield out of 96 bolls only
one boll of sand or refuse — is plentiful; freestone
and ironstone likewise add much to the mineral
wealth. The coal is of very superior quality, burns
with a bright flame, emits a great heat, and has very
little sulphureous impregnation ; and, it seems to be
inexhaustible in quantity, and is worked for the sup
ply of the northern parts of Stirlingshire, and the
southern parts of Perthshire, and for considerable
exportation by tbe Forth. The collieries of Ban
nockburn, Auchinbowie, and Pleanmuir, are the
most ancient, and perhaps the most frequented ; but
new pits are from time to time opened. The chief
manufacture is that; of tartans at Bannockburn.
Other manufactures are cotton- weaving, the tanning
of leather, nail-making, and the distillation of malt
spirits. The principal estates and mansions are
Touch, Touch- Adam, Polmaise, Sauchie, Bannock
burn, Craigforth, Auchinbowie, Stuart-half, Throsk,
Carnock, Grunyards, Plean, and lands belonging to
the town and hospitals of Stirling. The villages,
with their respective population, in 1838, are St.
Ninian's, with 1,329, noticed below; Bannock
burn, with 1,927, noticed in its appropriate place;
Cambusbarron, 2 miles west of St. Ninian's, with
485 ; Milton and Whins, half-a-mile south of St.
Ninian's, with 433 ; Newhouse and Bellfield, half-a-
mile north of St. Ninian's, with 348; Charteris-hall,
with 170; Bannockburn colliery, with 479; Green
yards colliery, with 238 ; Auchinbowie colliery, with
154; Plean colliery, with 146; and a suburban part
of the town of Stirling, with 420. The turnpike
from Stirling to Glasgow extends 4J miles south
ward through the parish, sends off 1 mile from the
northern boundary the turnpike south-south-west
ward to Falkirk and Stirling, and, in either its trunk
or its two branches, is lined bythe major part of the
villages. Another turnpike at right angles with it,
and emerging from the southern extremity of the
town of Stirling, stretches westward to communicate
with Buchlyvie and Drymen, and eastward to com
municate with places lying immediately on the Forth.
Population, in 1801, 6,849; in 1831, 9,552. Houses
1,706. Assessed property, in 1815, £41,518.
St. Ninian's, owing to its being debateable ground-
between the Saxon powers on the south and the
Pictish and Scottish powers on the north, was pro-
II.

bably the scene of many rude and unrecorded skir
mishes and great deeds of arms; and, in compara
tively more modern times, it was the theatre of three
important and memorable battles. The earliest of
the three was the battle of Stirling, fought on the
13th September, 1297, between the Scottish troops
under the patriotic Wallace, and an invading English
army under Hugh Cressingham, and John, Earl of
Surrey and Sussex. When the English came in sight
they beheld the Scottish army posted near Cambus-
kenneth, on the hill now called Abbey-craig ; and
they for some time continued harmlessly to gaze on
the confronting array, while their generals despatched
two cowled messengers to attempt to buy Wallace's
submission by an offer of peace, till they were stung
by taunts from the patriot knight to march toward
the timber bridge which then stood at Kildean, and
to rush across the river. After a large portion had
crossed, the Scottish advanced to the main attack,
and sent off a strong detachment to take possession
of tbe bridge. Many of the English wheeling round
to retreat to the north bank, some of them were pre
cipitated into the river, and others became squeezed
into a mass upon the bridge, and, either by their ag
gregate weight, or in consequence of a previous stra
tagem of Wallace in sawing through the main beam,
brought down the whole fabric in a wild crash, and
were ingulphed in the waters. Those of the Eng
lish who had formed, and stood to sustain the shock
of the main attack, fought for a while with great
bravery, under ^he conduct of Sir Marmaduke
Twenge, an officer of noted experience and courage;
they induced the Scottish to make a feint of retreat
ing, but soon saw them stand at bay, and make a
vigorous onset, and, at the same moment, were at
tacked in the rear by a party who had made a com
pass round the Abbey-craig; and they were at length
entirely routed, and — in addition to those who were
drowned in the river — left tive thousand of their
number, among whom were Cressingham and a
nephew of Sir Marmaduke Twenge, slain upon the
field. The defeat seems to have been effected about
the place now called Corn-town, near the Forth, and
to have been completed at the Torwood, — a forest,
the only surviving part of which is now in the united
parish of Larbert and Dunipace. The victory was
the most signal which Wallace ever gained in a re
gularly fought field, and cost him but an inconsider
able loss in slain  The second of the great con
flicts on the theatre of St. Ninian's was the cele
brated and boasted battle of Bannockburn, and
is duly noticed in our article on that locality. The
third was the battle of Sauchie, or of Sauchieburn,
or Stirling, fought on the 11th June, 1488, between
James III. and his insurgent nobles. The two
armies met on a tract of ground, now called Little
Canglar, on the. east side of the streamlet of Sauchie
burn, about 2 miles south of Stirling, and 1 from
the field of Bannockburn. The malcontent army
was 18,000 strong, and was ranged in three divi
sions, commanded respectively by Lords Home and
Hailes, by Lord Gray, and by officers acting as
prompters to the Prince of Scotland, a youth of 15.
The King's army is variously stated in strength, and,
was also disposed in three divisions, commanded,
we are not told under what arrangement, by the
Earls of Menteith and Crawford, the Lords Erskine,,
Graham, Ruthven, and Maxwell, and Sir David,
Lindsay of Byres. The King was armed cap-a-pie,,
and mounted on a stately charger, presented to him.
by Sir David Lindsay, with the assurance that he
might at any moment trust his safety to the ani
mal's agility, and surefootedness, provided he could.
keep his seat ; but where he was stationed, or what
part he proposed to take in the impending engage-
2 F

450

ST. NINIAN'S.

ment, we are not informed. The malcontents saw
their first line driven back, at the onset, by the
royalists ; but, the second division speedily giving
support, all became composed and firm; and they
soon, not only recovered their ground, but pushed
the first and the second lines of the royalists back
to the third. James III. was not noted for courage,
and rapidly lost the little he possessed ; and— previ
ous to the striking of any decisive blow — he put
spurs to his horse, and galloped off, with the view,
as is conjectured, of getting on board his fleet,
which lay in sight at 5 miles' distance. After the
King's flight, his troops continued to fight with
great bravery ; but, eventually finding themselves
unable to stand their ground, and disheartened by a
flying rumour of the King's death, they began to
retreat towards Stirling, and were allowed to retire
without much pursuit. The victorious army lay all
night upon the field, and next day marched to Lin
lithgow. The number of slain on both sides must
have been great, as the action was of several hours'
duration, and stubbornly maintained ; and, on the
loyalists' side, it included the Earl of Glencairn, and
some other persons of high rank. As the King, in
his flight, was on the point of crossing the Bannock
at the village of Milltown, a mile east of the field of
battle, his horse started at the sight of a pitcher
which a woman, in the act of drawing water, threw
from her at the sight of a man riding toward her at
full gallop. James was thrown violently to the
ground, and sustained such damage* from his fall and
the weight of his armour, that he fainted away ; and
was removed, by the miller and his wife, into a mill
in the immediate vicinity, and treated by them,
though ignorant of his rank, with every possible
care. When he had somewhat recovered, he told
who he was; and, supposing himself dying, called
for a priest. The miller's wife flew in search of a
ghostly adviser, and, meeting a party of the malcon
tents who had observed the King's flight, and were
endeavouring to track his steps, entreated that, if
there were a priest among them, he would stop and
" confess his majesty." " I," said one of them,
whose name is not certainly known, " I am a priest:
lead me to him." Being introduced, he approached
on his knees under pretence of reverence, treacher
ously ascertained that the King thought he would
recover if he had the aid of a surgeon, and then
stabbed him several times in the heart. The scene
of this tragedy is still standing, and bears the name
of Beaton 's-mill, which it is said to have received
from the miller who figures in the narrative. When
more spacious mills were erected in its vicinity, it
was converted into a dwelling-house ; it has also
been renovated in the upper part, and undergone va
rious repairs ; but, in the lower parts of its walls,
the stones of which are much mouldered by the
weather in the lapse of ages, it is strictly the same
which received the unfortunate monarch.
St. Ninian's is in the presbytery of Stirling, and
synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron, the heads of
families. Stipend £345 3s.; glebe £30. Unap
propriated teinds £2,700 13s. 8d. Stipend of an
assistant £50, from the heritors, and between £70
and £80 by voluntary contribution. The church
was built in 1751, has not since been altered, and is
cold, damp, and uncomfortable. Sittings 1,500. A
ehapel at Buckieburn, in the moorland district, 5
miles from the village of St. Ninian's, is officiated in
monthly or oftener by the minister or his assistant.
A quoad sacra parish-church was built in 1838 at
Bannockburn, for a district with a population of
about 3,000. Estimated cost £1,728. Another
quoad sacra parish-church was erected in 1839 at
Plean, in the southern extremity of St. Ninian's.

Estimated cost £400. Sittings 300. In its imme
diate vicinity is an asylum, founded by the late Col
onel William Simpson, for the residence and support
of indigent old men, preferentially such as have
served in the army or navy ; and, in 1840, it had 22
inmates, and possessed capacity and resources for the
reception of more. The trustees of this charity
gave ground for the site of the Plean church, and for
a cemetery; and agreed that the chaplain of the
asylum should be the minister, without any additional
salary. A Relief congregation was established in
1774; and their place of worship was built two years
earlier, at a cost of about £1,100. Sittings 1,340.
The charge is collegiate. Stipend of the first min
ister £105, with a manse and grounds worth £25;
of the second minister, £120; with an allowance to
the two alternately of £5 at each communion. A
United Secession congregation was established in
1835. Their place of worship — built in 1797 — was,
in 1837, purchased and repaired at a cost of £468.
Sittings 450. Stipend £100. An ecclesiastical cen
sus taken in 1836, but supposed by the minister to
have made omissions, exhibited the population as
then 9,379; of whom 4,428 were churchmen, 4,839
were dissenters, and 112 were nondescripts. In
1834, the parish - school was conducted by two
teachers, and attended by 100 scholars; and 15 non-
parochial-schools, were conducted by 15 teachers,
and attended by 865 scholars. Salary attached to
the parish-school, £34 4s. 4£d., with about £65 fees.
— St. Ninian's figures conspicuously in the history of
what is ecclesiastically called intrusion. In March,
1734, Mr. James Mackie was inducted with the con
sent of the heritors, but in opposition to the will of
a great proportion of the parishioners ; and, during
his incumbency of nearly 20 years, about one-half of
the inhabitants of the parish are said to have become
Seceders. In June, 1773, after almost the whole of
the parishioners had opposed the settlement of a Mr.
David Thomson, and had carried on a process against
him during eight years before the General Assembly,
he was forcibly inducted. TJie great body of the
adherents of the Establishment now went off, and
were formed into the congregation of Relief. But
previous to Mr. Thomson's death in 1787, his hear
ers were indulged with the choice of an assistant,
and began gradually to augment in number ; and in
1788, they bought up from voluntary contributions,
and at a cost of between £600 and £700, the rights
of the patron — A chapel — dedicated to the Virgin
Mary— anciently stood at Skoek, about a mile down
the stream from Bannockburn. The Kirk of Moor,
or ' Kirkamuir,' is stated apart from St. Ninian's in
the commissary's list of parishes ; and the place of
worship — now pulled down — stood about 3 miles
south- west of the present moorland chapel of Buckie
burn, and was under the patronage of the family of
Montrose. — St. Ninian's parish was originally called
Ecclis, the Gaelic name for church, and a word closely
akin in structure to the Latin ecclesia, of the same sig
nification. The saint from whom the parish has its
modern name is, in Ireland, called Ringan, and in
Scotland, indifferently Ringan and Ninian. Monkish
legend says much respecting him, but credible his
tory very little. About the year 452, the Scottish
ecclesiastics became infected with the Pelagian here
sy, and, according to most historians, were visited
by Palladius from Rome, with the view of recover
ing them from error. Ninian is mentioned among
Palladius' disciples as highly distinguished by both
learning and sanctity. He is said— but on very sus-
spicious authority— to have occasionally inhabited a
cave on the sea-shore of Wigtonshire, and to have
founded a monastery at Candida Casa, the site of
the modern Whithorn, and, in the middle ages, of

NIN

451

NIT

the cathedral of the see of Galloway. His labours,
whatever they might be, were probably confined to
Galloway, or, at most, to the province of Valentia ;
as the country north of that province does appear
not to have received Christianity till a later date.
Many churches and chapels, though all apparently in
times succeeding the overthrow of Culdeeism, and
the introduction of popery, were dedicated to his
memory.* Near the south port of Stirling, within
the limits of the great St. Ninian's parish, is a very
copious and pure spring, anciently dedicated to the
saint, and still called St. Ninian's well. Various
localities in cities and towns are also named after St.
Ninian, and in some instances commemorate eccle
siastical structures, dedicated to his tutelage.
The village of St. Ninian's stands nominally 1
or li mile south of Stirling, on the great southern
turnpike immediately above its forking into the lines
respectively to Edinburgh and to Glasgow; but by
means of the Stirling suburb of Melville-place, and
of the conjoint village of Newhouse and Bellfield,
it is, with two brief interruptions, really continuous
with Stirling; and though forming rather a far-off
and straggling appendage than a suburb, it is com
prehended within the parliamentary boundaries. The
village consists chiefly of one long antiquated and
not spacious street. Many of its houses are white
washed, and made, by the simple ace. dent of colour,
to wear a comparatively lively appearance; but most
are old-fashioned, clumsy, and utterly destitute of
sprightliness or grace. Many bear rude but curious
sculpturings, — some of considerably ancient dates,
and others of the tools of the tradesmen to whom
they originally belonged. On one are the principal
implements of a smithy, with a horse-shoe and nails;
and on another are the utensils of an old-fashioned
inn or public-house, the pint-stoup and the punch
bowl particularly conspicuous. The steeple of the
town stands at a considerable distance from the
church, and rarely fails to excite the traveller's sur
prise at so singular a divorce. The church — which
was attached to it, the predecessor of the present —
was used by the Highland army, in 1746, as a pow
der-magazine, and, either from design, or more pro
bably by accident, was blown up on the eve of their
retreat to the north. The explosion very -strangely
left the steeple uninj ured, yet it shattered the church
almost to atoms, and left scarcely one stone upon
another; it killed several of the Highlanders, and
some of the natives ; and it was heard in one direc
tion at Dunblane, and in another at Linlithgow.
The village has a share in the Bannockburn and
Stirling staple manufacture of tartans, and other
woollen stuffs; it is the seat of an extensive manu
facture of nails, which have the reputation of being
very superior in quality ; and it takes part in the
tanning of leather and other departments of the par
ish's productive labour. The Relief meeting-house
is situated in the village, and occasions a presbytery
of the Relief body to take name from St. Ninian's
instead of Stirling. Dr. Robert Henry, one of the
ministers of Edinburgh, and the author of a well-
known voluminous History of Britain, was a native
of St. Ninian's.
NINIAN'S (St.) ISLE. See Dunrossness.
* Thus- we have Kil Ninian in Mull; Kil St. Ninian in Col
monell; St. Ninian's. in Alyth; St Ninian's chapel, now a ce
metery, in Banffshire; St. Ninian's in lnverness-shire ; Nouc-
kill or St. Ninian^ chapel in Kultearn ; th.- chapelry of St.
Ninian in the cathedral church of Ross; the chapelry of St.
Ninian in the cathedral church of Elgin; St. Ninian's chapel
in Castle-hill, Aberdeen ; St. Ninian's dispel at the west port of
Linlithgow ; St. Ninian's chapel i" the parish of St. Vigean's,
in the vicinity of which is St. Ninian's well, ouce a reputed
cure for many diseases; St. Ninian's chapel on Rouna-Eiugan,
or Ninian's Point, in Bute ; and St. Ninian's chapel in Ringau's,
or Rouyan's isle, in Shetland.

NINIAN'S (St.). See Govan.
NISBET, a small village in the parish of Pencait-
land, Haddingtonshire, situated on the left bank of
the Tyne; 4J miles south-west of Haddington.
NISBET, an abrogated parish in Roxburghshire,
now united to Crailing : which see.
NITH (The), the largest of the three chief rivers
of Dumfries-sliire, and that which gives the name
of Nithsdale to the western division of the county.
Two of its three principal head-streams rise on the
north side respectively of Prickeny and Benbain-
hills, 2J miles asunder, and both on the boundary
between the parishes of New Cumnock and Dalmel-
lington in Ayrshire ; and they run, the one 4 miles
northward, and the other 3£ miles north-eastward,
to a junction at Waterhead. The united stream
then runs 2£ miles east-north eastward, and receives
on its right bank the third head- water, a streamlet
5 miles long ; and thence it flows 5£ miles eastward
to the boundary between Ayrshire and Dumfries
shire, passing the village of New Cumnock, and
receiving in its vicinity from the south, Connal-burn
and the beautiful and rapid Afton-water. Its sub
sidiary tributaries hitherto are not fewer than about
25; but they are, most part, the tiniest rills, coldly
creeping out from among moss and heath. The
Nith itself, till after it gets quite away from Ayr
shire, is one of the most cheerless of streams, slug
gish, shallow, seldom more than 15 feet wide, deeply
tinctured with moss, and rarely graced with planta
tion, copse, a sheet of verdure, or even a bold bank
to relieve the dreary monotony of its brown moor
land landscape. After entering Dumfries-shire, it
flows 5 miles eastward through the parish of Kirk
connel, and 8 miles south-eastward to Enterkinfoot
in Durisdeer, H mile of the distance, being on the
boundary between Kirkconnel and Sanquhar, and 4i
miles through the interior of the latter, and it then
assumes a southerly direction over a distance of 7
miles, through Durisdeer, along the boundary be
tween Morton and Penpont, and across small wings
of Morton and Closeburn, to the confluence with it
of the Skaar. Its chief tributaries thus far, are, on
its right bank, Kello- water between Kirkconnel and
Sanquhar, Euchan-water and Polbioke and EUiock-
burns in Sanquhar, Marburn between Durisdeer and
Penpont, and Skaar- water at the termination of the
southerly course ; and, on its left bank, Aymer-
water in Kirkconnel, Crawick-water between Kirk
connel and Sanquhar, Minnick-water in Sanquhar,
Enterkin-burn in Durisdeer, Carron-water between
Durisdeer and Morton, and Cample-water in Close-
burn. The principal architecture on its banks are
the pleasant village of Kirkconnel, the ancient burgh
and ruined castle of Sanquhar, the magnificent ducal
palace of Drumlanrig in Durisdeer, and, on a rising
ground a little to the east in Morton, the large" and
beautiful village of Thornhill. Its banks till below
Sanquhar, though quite redeemed from the dreari
ness which characterizes them in Ayrshire, are
simply agreeable, consisting chiefly of a verdant vale
overlooked by variform but not grand or bold moun
tain-land ; but they are afterwards exquisitely rich
in almost all the varieties of the choicest landscape,
now exhibiting a narrow and acclivitous pass thick
with copse, or crowned with grove, shaven down
into the naked scaur, or rugged, shelving or preci
pitous with rock now bursting abroad into an ex
panse of valley, blooming and luscious as a garden,
and screened with warm-coloured and finely out
lined mountain-heights, and now presenting such
rapid alternations of slope, undulation, haugh, and
hill as surprise and charm a tourist by the mingled
wealth and number of the transitions. From the
confluence with it of the Skaar, it flows over a dia-

45'2

NITHSDALE.

tance of 11 \ miles south-east by southward to a
point 5 furlongs above the confluence with it of the
Cairn ; it then makes a bold and beautiful sweep of
| of a mile westward ; and thence, over a distance
of 8 or 8£ miles, it runs nearly due southward to the
Solway frith. Its sinuosities are numerous, and in
some places constant; but, with the exception
noticed, they are never bold, though always grace
ful, and do not impair the general or prevailing char
acter of the direction. Over all the distance south
of the Skaar — abating some trifling pendicles in the
parish of Holywood — the river forms parochial
boundary-lines ; and has on its right bank, Keir,
Dunscore, and Holywood in Dumfries-shire, and^
Terregles, Troqueer, Newabbey, and Kirkbean in
Kirkcudbrightshire ; and, on its left bank, Close-
burn, Kirkmahoe, Dumfries, and Caerlaverock, all
in Dumfries-shire. Its chief tributaries in this divi
sion, are, on its right bank, the Cairn or Cluden,
between Holywood and Terregles, the Cargen in
Troqueer, and the Newabbey Pow in Newabbey;
and, on its left bank, Duncow-burn in Kirkmahoe.
Tbe architecture which overlooks it consists of a
profusion of mansions at intervals in all the parishes,
and occasionally in thick files of the venerable ruins
of Linoluden college in Terregles, of the ruined but
still splendid monastery of Newabbey in Newabbey,
of the glad and lovely burgh of Dumfries, with its
less attractive Galloway suburb of Maxwelltown,
and of the beauteous and cheerful sea-port village of
Glencaple in Caerlaverock. For 3£ miles after re
ceiving the Skaar, the river runs between the beau
tiful grounds of Keir, slowly rising like a green and
softly wooded gallery on the one hand, and the fine
expanse of the singularly improved and now luxuri
ant plain of Closeburn, darkly overhung by the
Que.ensberry heights on the other; it now becomes
pent up for about 2 miles by the low and delight
fully variform terminations opposite to each other of
spurs from the mountain-ranges on the back-ground,
and, while traversing this space it is decked out with
mansion, and demesne, and wood, and lawn, amidst
nooks and recesses, hilly abutments and diversified
slopes, till picturesqueness becomes absolutely pro
fuse and almost excessive. On its clearing the sort
of gorgeous pass — in the course of which the great
Nithsdale road crosses it by the well-known " Auld
Girth brig" — the hills recede from it in sweeps which
respectively describe the arc of a circle ; and while
they form soft and finely-featured screens which ter
minate on the one side in the low green heights of
Mousewald, and, on the other, in the bold grand
form of Criffel, they enclose an oval plain of from 6
to 8 miles in breadth % and along the centre of this,
the joyous and pebbly Nith trots amidst constant
verdure, and multitudinous gardens and other ele
ments of the most luscious landscape, to the sea.
About 2.^ miles below Dumfries, it begins slowly to
expand into an estuary ; and between Craiglebock-
rocks and the tiny headland at Caerlaverock-castle,
where it fairly becomes lost in the Solway frith, 4J
or 5 miles below the point of begun expansion, it
attains a breadth of 2J miles. A high wier or " caul"
is carried across it at Dumfries, to divert its water-
power to the burgh's suite of large grain mills ; and
beyond this obstruction the tide does not rise. No
where is the magnificence, or at least the rare and
romantic character, of the famous Solway tide dis
played with finer effect than in the estuary of the
Nith : see Glencaple. Owing principally to the
tide's impetuosity, the navigation of the river is dif
ficult to seamen unacquainted with its peculiarities ;
but it has been greatly improved, and is identified
with considerable traffic. The Nith, exclusive of all
minor bends and windings, has altogether a course of

about 49 miles ; but, if viewed in connexion either
with its scenery or the agricultural wealth of the
country which it drains, it possesses a degree of im
portance much beyond the proportion of the length
of its stream, pr the volume of its waters. In the
bleak or upper part of its course, it is celebrated for
the excellence of its trout; and, near the sea, it
abounds with salmon.
NITHSDALE, the western one of the three
great divisions of Dumfries-shire, so named from its
being drained and traversed by the river Nith. Ex
cept that the Ayrshire and the Kirkcudbrightshire
portions of the natural basin of the Nith and its tri
butaries are not included in what is called Nithsdale,
we should, were we to attempt to describe the dis
trict, do little more than repeat what we have said
in the preceding article on the river. The soil, in
most parts of Nithsdale, is light and dry ; capable,
except in frost and snow, of being ploughed at any
period during the winter ; and well-fitted for an early
reception of the seed-furrow. But in the larger part
of the other two divisions of the county the soil is
wet, and, when ploughed early in winter, is so apt
to run into grass, and to have corn sown upon it
choked, that it cannot, without imprudence on the
part of the husbandman, receive the seed-furrow till
spring. One plough on a farm in Nithsdale, will, in
consequence, turn up nearly as much ground as two
will do in the wet parts of the other districts.
Owing to so important a difference, the Nithsdale
farms are, in general, much larger than those of
Annandale and Eskdale  The district even yet is of
not very well-defined limits, or has along its east
side much ground which is debateable between it
and Annandale ; but anciently it had still more un
certain and occasionally shifting limits, and probably
included at times, not only all or nearly all the ter
ritory actually drained by the Nith, but tracts of
country on its exterior. The original name was
Strathnith or Stranith. In the reign of David I.,
Stranith was possessed by Dunegal, a Gaelic chief.
To this eminent person — who is scarcely mentioned
by history — genealogists trace up the descent of the
celebrated Randolph, Earl of Moray. Four sons of
Dunegal appear, after his death, to have shared
among them his extensive possessions of Stranith ;
only two of whom — Randolph and Duvenald — can
now be traced. Randolph, the eldest son, possessed
a large share ; and, as the head of the family, he was
superior of the whole, and transmitted the designa
tion of Lord of Stranith to his posterity. He mar
ried Bethoc, the heiress of the lands of Bedrule and
Buecastle in Teviotdale, and gave his name Ran
dolph as a surname to his descendants. Thomas
Randolph, his grandson, who was lineally Lord of
Stranith, and became, in 1266, sheriff of Roxburgh,
and from 1269 to 1278, the chamberlain of Scotland,
married Isabel, the eldest daughter of Robert Bruce,
the daughter of the Earl of Carrick, the sister of
Robert Bruce, the restorer of the monarchy. Their
son was the famous Sir Thomas Randolph of Stra
nith, who, for his eminent services, obtained from
his uncle the earldom of Moray, the lordship of An
nandale, and other estates. Duvenald, the younger
son of Dunegal of Stranith, appears to have obtained
the barony of Sanquhar, the lands of Morton, and
some other possessions in Upper Nithsdale ; and he
was probably the Duvenald who, along with Ulgric,
led the men of Galloway at the battle of the Stand
ard in 1138, and fell in the conflict. His descendants
assumed, in the 13th century, the surname of Edgar
from the name of his son ; and they continued, in
the 14th century, to hold various lands in Dumfries
shire. Richard Edgar, during the reign of Robert
Bruce, possessed the castle and half the barony of

NIT

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NOR

Sanquhar, with some adjacent lands; and Donald
Edgar obtained from David II. the captainship of
the clan Macgowan in Nithsdale. Other consider
able families enjoyed, at an early period, some pos
sessions in the district. Sir John Comyn possessed
the manors of Dalswinton and Duncow ; and the pro
genitors of the Lord Maxwells possessed Caerla
verock, and held out its ancient castle against many
a stout siege. Under Robert II. Nithsdale obtained
new superiors. Sir William Douglas, natural son
of Archibald Douglas, Lord of Galloway, married
Giles, the daughter of the King, received with her
a grant of Nithsdale, and was constituted sheriff of
Dumfries. His only child, his daughter Giles-
called, in the encomiastic language of a simple age,
' the Fair Maid of Nithsdale,' and who inherited her
father's lordship and sheriffdom — married, first,
Henry Sinclair, the Earl of Orkney, and next, in
1418, Alexander Stewart, the son of James, who
was the brother of Robert II., and had obtained
from Robert Bruce the lands of Durisdeer. Her
son, by her first marriage, was William, Earl of
Orkney, and inherited Nithsdale and the sheriffship
of Dumfries; but, in 1455, he was induced to resign
the two latter to James II. for the earldom of
Caithness. Sir Robert Crichton of Sanquhar is,
1457, called Vicecomes de Nithsdale, and again, in
1459, is called sheriff of Nithsdale; and his son Ro
bert obtained, in 1464, from James III., a confirma
tion of the sheriffship, and in 1468, a grant of the
office of coroner of Nithsdale. The two offices of
sheriff and coroner between the Restoration and the
Revolution, passed into the possession of the Dou
glases of Drumlanrig. This family — whose eventual
identification with the Scotts of Buccleuch, has
placed under the shadow of the united ducal coronets
of Buccleuch and Queensferry such magnificent por
tions of Nithsdale, Eskdale, Teviotdale, Ettrick-
forest, and other districts in the border counties — ¦
continued to hold the offices till the abolition of all
hereditary jurisdictions. In 1620, Robert, 8th Lord
Maxwell, was created Earl of Nithsdale. William,
the 5th Earl, took part with the Pretender in 1745,
and was attainted, and condemned to be beheaded ;
but, through the address and courage of his Countess,
the Lady Winifred Herbert, a daughter of the Mar
quis of Powys, he made an extraordinary escape
from the Tower.
NITSHILL, a village in the quoad sacra parish
of Levern, Renfrewshire, 4 miles distant from Pais
ley. Population, in 1841, 821.
NOBLEHOUSE, a stage inn, 18 miles south of
Edinburgh, and 3 east of Linton, on the road from
Edinburgh to Dumfries, and in the parish of New-
lands, Peebles-shire.
NOCHTIE (The), a rivulet of 7 miles length
of course, in the parish of Strathdon, Aberdeenshire.
It rises close on the boundary with Banffshire, and
runs south-eastward to the Don.
NODESDALE (The), an interesting stream in
the parish of Largs : which see.
NORAN (The), a clear, rapid, and beautiful
stream in the northern division of Forfarshire. It
rises between Common Cotes and Mount Sned, on
the boundary between Tannadice and Lethnot;
flows 4J miles southward and 1 mile south-eastward
in the interior of the former parish ; and then runs
3J miles south-eastward, and } of a mile south-south
eastward, between Tannadice on its right bank and
Fearn and Caraldstone on its left, to a confluence
with the South Esk, between Roughmount and
Wardend. The Noran is an excellent trouting
stream. An elegant mansion, called Noranside, with
a suite of offices, was recently erected on its banks.
NORMAN'S LAW. See Abdie.

NORRIESTOWN, a quoad sacra parish and vil
lage in the district of Monteith, Perthshire. The
parish consists of certain portions of the quoad civilia
parishes of Port-of-Monteith, Kincardine, and Kil
madock, disjoined quoad sacra, in 1652, by an act of
the Scottish parliament. Its length is about 7 miles,
its breadth about 5 miles, and its area about 35 square
miles. Population, in 1841, 1,284. Houses 240.
Tbe church was rebuilt in 1812, and repaired in
1833, at a cost of £1,100, obtained by local assess
ment. Sittings 870. Stipend £95 ; glebe £12. An
endowment on the parish, called the Norriestown
fund, was obtained by collections in tbe congrega
tions of the seven northern synods, consists of the
rents of two farms in which the proceeds were
invested, yields a gross annual amount of £134,
and is under the trusteeship of the General Assem
bly — The village stands nearly in the centre of the
detached part of Kincardine, 2 miles north of the
Forth, 6 south-east of Callander, and 10 west of
Stirling, on the road to the south side of Loch- Ka
trine. Population, in 1841, 105. It is now conti
nuous with the village of Thornhill, and, along with
it, stands on both sides of the road along the summit
of a rising ground. Most of the inhabitants are la
bourers ; a few are employed in tanning. Popula
tion of Thornhill, in 1841, 531.
NORTH BERWICK. See Berwick [North].
NORTH BRITISH RAILWAY.— This important branch, in
the railway system of Scotland, extending along the eastern
coast, from Edinburgh to Berwick-upon-Tweed, is 58 miles in
length. The act for its formation was obtained in July 1844,
and it was opened to the public on the 18th of June, 1846. On
leaving the terminus under the North Bridge in Edinburgh, it
passes by a tunnel under the south-east shoulder of the Cal
ton-hill, skirts Portobello on the south, passes Musselburgh a
little to the south of Inveresk, the station-house being 6| miles
from Edinburgh, and then bends northwards and runs paral
lel to the coast, to the Meadowmill station, 10! miles from
Edinburgh, and mid-distance between Prestonpans and Tra
nent. Leaving Meadowmill, it intersects the district of coun
try on which tlie battle of Prestonpans was fought in 1745, and
at 13! miles from Edinburgh reaches the hamlet of Longnid-
dry, where the Haddington branch, i_ miles in length, joins it
from the south. At 13! miles from Edinburgh, it reaches Red-
house station ; at 15|, Ballencrieff station ; at 17!, Drem station,
and at 23! Linton, the great central station for the district of
East Lothian. From Linton it proceeds to the seaport town of
Dunbar, 29 miles distant from Edinburgh ; whence it passes hy
Eastburns, Bilsdean, and Dunglass, to the Cockburnspath sta
tion, 37 miles distant from Edinburgh. The scenery near this
station is very beautiful, and the line crosses a ravine at Dun
glass by a magnificent viaduct of which the principal feature
is an arch 130 feet in height, and 130 feet in span. The next
station is Grant's House,in Berwickshire, 41$ miles from Edin
burgh ; the next, Reston station, 46| miles. From Reston, the
line pursues a somewhat devious course till it reaches the Ay-
ton station 50! miles from Edinburgh. From this point it runs
in a north-east direction, and then turns eastward and runs
pretty close on the sea-beach, from Burnmouth to the tempo
rary station at Berwick, 58 miles distant from. Edinburgh, In
addition to the branch-line to Haddington, already executed
and in vigorous operation, the company contemplate executing,
1. Two short branches, each about a mile long, the one strik
ing off from near Bankton, to Tranent ; and the other from
near the same point, to the town of Prestonpans and the har
bour of Cockenzie. 2. A branch about five miles long, from
the main line near Drem, to the burgh of North Berwick, one
of the best frequented sea-bathing quarters on the Forth ; and
3. A branch about nine miles long, to Dunse, the principal
town in Berwickshire.
NORTH FERRY. See Queensferry.
NORTHMAVEN, or Northmavine, a parish in
Shetland, comprehending the northern part of Main
land, and a number of environing islets. The main
land part is washed on the west and north by the
Atlantic ocean ; on the east by Yell-sound and Sulem
voe, which separate it from the island of Yell and
the parish of Delting; and on the south by an isthmus
of only 100 yards, nearly all submerged at spring
tides, and by St. Magnus-bay, which divide it from
the parishes of Delting, Aithsting, Papa-Stour, and
Sandness. Its length is 16 miles, its greatest breadth
8 miles, and its superficial extent about 80,000 acres.
Its outline is proximately triangular, but has many
irregularities. The cultivated lands, or farms — here

NOR

454

NUT

called ' rooms ' — bear a very small proportion to the
hill and pasture-grounds, and are mere scattered pen
dicles situated near the shore and round the bays.
On each side of the isthmus, at the south end of the
parish, the hills rise almost perpendicular. Seven
miles from the northern extremity rises Rona-hill,
or Mons Ronaldi, the highest ground not only in
this parish but in all Shetland, stated in the Old
Statistical Account to be 3,944 feet of ascertained
altitude, but estimated by Dr. Edmonston at cer
tainly not more, though possibly less, than 2,000 feet.
This hill is generally the first Scottish land seen by
ships approaching from the north- west; and it com
mands a prospect of all Shetland. On its summit is
a rude antique structure surmounted by a pyramidal
tower of small stones. Islets, holms, stacks, and
solitary rocky pillars, form an almost continuous
cordon round the parish, and, at all times, but espe
cially in a storm, render its coast grandly picturesque.
The chief of them, for size and pasture, are Lamba,
Eagleshay, Nibon, and Gunister. Among the most
remarkable are a rock which rises sheer up on all
sides, and, at a few miles distance, has the appear
ance of a ship with all her sails set ; two very high
and quite inaccessible pillars in its vicinity, on which
the larger, kind of cormorants nestle in alternate
years; and a rock, called the Maiden Skerry, whose
summit has never been trodden by man, and affords
undisturbed nestling-ground to the largest or black-
backed gulls. Other islets and objects still more
remarkable will be noticed in the article Shetland
Isles. The west coast of the parish consists, in
several places, of stupendously high crags, which
seem to have been rather rent and abraded by storm
and billow than torn by volcano or upheaved by
earthquake. The northern extremity is a small pe
ninsula, called Fetheland, and enclosed by a stone
fence. The principal voes which indent the coast
are Hillswick and Sandwick, on the south ; Hamna,
Rona's, and Sand, on the west ; and Burra, Cola-
firth, Quoyafirth, Gluss, and Sulem, on 'the east.
The antiquities are, a chain of watch-houses, similar
in structure to that on Rona's hill, and many remains
of burrows, or dunes, commonly called.Picts' houses,
but none of them entire or of remarkable magnitude.
Population, in 1801, 2,045; in 1831, 2,386; in 1841,
2,504. Houses 407 ; in 1841, 456. The population
of Hillswick, the principal village, in 1841, was 211.
Houses 34. Assessed property, in 1815, £245 
Northmaven is in the presbytery of Burravoe, and
synod of Shetland. Patron, the Earl of Zetland.
Stipend £158 6s. 7d.; glebe £15. The parish-
church is situated at Hillswick, in the south-west,
and was built in 1733, and re-seated in 1822. Sit
tings 583. Another parish -church existed in the
south-east; but, on becoming ruinous, was abandoned
in 1761. A Wesleyan Methodist congregation was
established at North Rae in 1825. Their chapel
was built in 1828, at a cost of £97 ; and is used also
both statedly for a Sabbath-school, and occasionally
for service by ministers of other denominations.

Sittings 208. Stipend moderate and variable. An
Independent congregation was established at Sulem
in 1810. Their place of worship was built in 1828,
at a cost of £40 or £50. Sittings 160. Stipend
not known. About 250 of the parishioners are dis
senters. In 1834 the parish-school was attended by
50 scholars, and six private schools by 130. Paro
chial-schoolmaster's salary, £25, with £4 fees.
NORTHMUIR, » village in the parish of Kir
riemuir, Forfarshire. Population, in 1841, 297.
Houses 65.
NORTH YELL. See Yell (North).
NOSS, an island in the parish of Bressay, Shet
land, about 5 or 6 miles in circumference, lying east
of Bressay, and separated from it "by a narrow and
dangerous sound. Population, in 1841, 24. Houses
3. The island is reckoned one of the most fertile
and pleasant in Shetland. A promontory on its
east side is called Nosshead. But the most inter
esting object connected with it, and one of the great
est curiosities in Shetland, is a holm or islet on its
south side, called tbe Holm of Noss. This islet,
only 500 feet long, 170 broad, and 160 high, is per
fectly mural, rises sheer up to its greatest altitude
on all sides from the sea, and possesses a level and
richly -swarded surface. The opposite rock, on
Noss island, is also mural, and of the same height as
the Holm; and is separated from it by a channel 240
feet wide. A wooden trough or cradle suspended
to ropes and made to acquire a sliding motion, and
possessing sufficient capacity for conveying a man
with one sheep at a time, serves to keep the Holm
in command as a valuable piece of sheep pasture.
A rock called the Noup towers up like a stupendous
tower in the vicinity of the Noss, and attains, on
one side, a precipitous and almost perpendicular
height above sea-level of not much less than 500
feet. NOSS-HEAD, a bold rocky promontory on the
south side of Keiss or Sinclair's bay, 3J miles north
east of Wick, Caithness-shire. A little west of it
stand the ruins of Castle-Girnigoe, the chief ancient
baronial stronghold of the Earls of Caithness. From
a cove or small bay, called Mursligoe, and frequented
by seals, a, dry passage leads through a rock into a
vast cave under Noss-head.
NOTH, a hill in the parish of Rhynie and Essie,
Aberdeenshire. It is of a conical form, and rises
about 600 feet from its base, and at least 1,000
above the level of the sea. Some appearances on
its summit have been variously regarded as the re
mains of a vitrified fort, or the indications of an ex
tinct volcano.
NUNGATE, asuburb of Haddington: which see.
NUNRAW. See Garvald.
NUN'S-ISLAND, an islet in the Hebrides, in
the immediate vicinity of lona. Its sole interest
consists in its being the scene of some doubtful pas
sages in th<> Monkish or Romish version of the his
tory of the Culdees : see Iona.
NUTHILL. See Falkland.

OA

455

OBA

O

OA, a parliamentary parish in the island of Islay.
It belongs quoad civilia to the parish of Kildalton ;
and ^fccupies the south-eastern peninsula of the island.
The church is of modern erection. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £120; glebe £3. The name Oa,
indifferently with that of Keannoath, belongs topo
graphically, as well as parochially, to the peninsula.
On the summit of the rock which forms the western
extremity of the point of Oa, stands the old castle or
fort of Dun-Aidh. The structure, though quite a
ruin, indicates quondam possession of very remark
able strength ; and it presides over a scene of much
impressivendss and grandeur.
OATHLAW, a parish in the centre of Forfar
shire ; bounded on the north by Tannadice ; on
the east by Aberlemno; on the south by Aber-
lemno and Rescobie ; and on the south-west and
west by Kirriemuir. It is 6 miles long from east to
west, and nowhere more than 3 miles broad. Area
3,870 acres. Its ancient name, and the name still in
use of several of its chief localities, is Finhaven :
which see. From the summit of the hill of Fin-
haven, which forms a ridge along the southern boun
dary, the surface slopes gently into Strathmore, and
stretches out toward the other boundaries in a plain.
The soil is, in general, clayey and retentive ; and,
though much improved by marl from Rescobie, and
by draining, is repressed in its energies by the dis
tance and dearth of lime. Upwards of 2,800 acres
are arable, and about 900 are under plantation. Neat
and commodious farm-steads, well -trimmed haw
thorn enclosures, and a profusion of wood disposed
in ornamental belts, give the district a peculiarly
snug appearance. The river South Esk traces for
$ of a mile the northern boundary, passes away for
2| miles into the parish of Tannadice, resumes for
half-a-mile its course along the boundary, runs for
1J mile across the interior, and then for half-a-mile
traces the southern boundary. It here flows be
tween very low banks, occasionally floods the adja
cent grounds and changes its channel, and is, in gen
eral, shallow, and about 46 or 47 yards broad. Sal
mon formerly abounded in it, but are now very
scarce. The rivulet Lemno runs 4 miles north
eastward to the South Esk, — one-fourth of this dis
tance on the southern boundary, and the rest in the
interior. A bore of upwards of 150 feet having been
made in an unsuccessful search of coal, a very power
ful spring of excellent water wells up from it, but is
artificially covered from view, and carried off in a drain.
The hill of Finhaven consists of conglomerate. In
the west end of the parish, and at a considerable
depth, is a quarry of excellent freestone. A flax-
spinning-mill, which employs about 60 work-peo
ple, and the small village of Finhaven, stand on the
South Esk, a little above the confluence with it of
the Lemno, 5J miles north-north-east of Forfar.
The west road between Dundee and Aberdeen
touches the village, and passes 4 miles diagonally
through the parish  On the north bank of the Lemno
there are traces of a Roman camp, called the camp
of Battledykes, more than double the extent of the
celebrated one at Ardoch. It measures about 2,970
feet in length; 1,850 feet in breadth, and about 80
acres in area; and now forms a good and well-worked
farm. The pretorium is the only part now visible ;
but some small urns and other minute antiquities,
which were dug up within it, are preserved in the
vicinity. A grand Roman iter connected it with the

camp of Ardoch; and smaller iters connected it north
ward with camps at Wardykes and Haerfaulds, dis
tant respectively 11 and 19 miles. — Near Finhaven..
castle grew a famous chestnut-tree, 42 feet in girth a
foot from the ground, 33 feet in the smallest part of
the trunk, 35 feet at the offshoot of the branches, 23
in the largest grain, and " 13 feet in the smallest.
Population, in 1801, 384; in 1831, 533. Houses 76.
Assessed property, in 1815, £2,558.— Oathlaw is in
the presbytery of Forfar, and synod of Angus and
Mearns. Patron, the Marquis of Huntly. Stipend
£158 5s. 2d. ; glebe £18. Schoolmaster's salary
£34 4s. 4^(1., with £9 14s. fees. Some vestiges
exist, a little below Finhaven-castle, of an ancient
church, called the church of Aikenhauld, which
seems to have been the church of the barony of Fin
haven, and was probably that of the original parish.
OBAN, a quoad sacra parish, on the coast of
Mid-Lorn, opposite the north of Kerrera, and the
middle of Mull, Argyleshire. It is in the presbytery
of Lorn, and synod of Argyle ; and consists of part of
the town of Oban, and a small landward district. Its
greatest length is about 4 miles ; its greatest breadth
about 2J miles ; and its superficial extent from 5 to
6 square miles. It was disjoined in 1834 from the
united parish of Kilmoreand Kilbride. About seven-
eighths of the whole population reside in the town.
According to an ecclesiastical survey made between
December 1835 and April 1836, the population then
consisted of 1,398 churchmen, 148 dissenters, and
80 nondescripts, or 1,626 persons. Only about one-
fourth speak English. No fewer than about 1,300
belong to the poor and working classes, principally
labourers and artisans; the rest are chiefly small an
nuitant pensioners, shopkeepers, and publicans. The
Gaelic population, themselves about 1,200, are said
to be " all very poor." The parish-church was built
in 1821 as a chapel-of-ease, and cost £1,142 18s.
ll£d. Sittings 530. Stipend £100, with £8 6s. 8d.
for communion elements. The Society for propa
gating Christian knowledge formerly contributed £30,
and now contributes £20 of the stipend. This so
ciety contributes also to the maintenance of ». paro
chial school. Salary £5, with a house and £15
fees, subscriptions, and donations. A Sabbath school
is taught in the parish-church  An United Secession
place of worship, for the uses of a then nascent con
gregation, was built in 1836, and cost £310. Sit
tings 257. It was constructed and is maintained
partly by aid from the congregation of the Rev. Dr.
King, Glasgow. Stipend £90  An Independent
congregation was formed about 36 years ago. Their
chapel was built in 1820, and cost about £450.
Sittings 300. Stipend from £40 to £50, partly
paid by the Scottish Congregational Union — A Bap
tist congregation dates obscurely to about the year
1817. Oban, a parliamentary burgh, and a thriving little
town and sea-port, is situated in the quoad civilia
parish of Kilmore, 25 miles south-east of Tober
mory, 33 west-north-west of Inverary, 35 south-
south-west of Fort- William, 24 north of the west
end of the Crinan canal, 92 north-west by north of
Glasgow, and 136 west-north-west of Edinburgh.
The site of the town is singularly happy, as to at
once scenic interest, burghai comfort, and commer
cial influence. Its command of the Western islands,
both in their finest groupings into landscape, and in
nearly all their facilities for communicating with;

456

OBAN.

their principal marts and sources of supply, has oc
casioned the town to be called the Charing-cross of
the Hebrides; its position midway between the
Caledonian and the Crinan canals, its consequent
power of pouring the productions of the north and
the south over most of the Hebrides and of the in
terior of Argyleshire, and its immediate and com
plete influence over all the chief marine highways
of the west, and the most practicable paths of in
gress to the interior, have rendered it the virtual
capital of the Western Highlands ; and the salubri-
ousness of its air, the cleanliness of its streets and
houses, the agreeableness of its sea-beacb, the wealth
of its environs in natural and artificial objects of at
traction, and the beauty, the power, the exulting
brilliance of the scenes in nature which hang in gor
geous panorama around it, unite in demanding for it
a high character as a watering-place and a chosen
home of annuitants. The town stands at the head
of a small bay which recedes from the sound of Ker-
rera, and has a boldly indented coast, backed by
moderate-sized hills. The southern entrance to the
sound bends so far inward from the bay as to become
lost to the view; the northern entrance, though all
seen from the town, is shut up, at 5 miles' distance,
by the island of Lismore; so that the portion of sea
which lies under the eye appears quite landlocked,
and has scenically all the attributes of a large, intri
cate, and romantic lake. The environing lands are
sufficiently high to produce'repose in the landscape,
and afford protection from the violence of winds;
yet not so high as to confine the vision to a limited
range, or prevent the grand revelation in the distance
of vast alpine heights, with the play around them of
vivid cloud-scenery, and the war of storms. The
cliffs on the north side of the bay are lofty and bold,
and are finely embellished with trees and overspread
ing ivy; and, from their brow, they lift the eye
athwart an expanse of island and coast scenery whose
combined extent and magnificence are not excelled
by any kindred view in Britain. In the interior,
too, the whole foreground is pleasing ; and is set off
with superb effect by a back-ground of no common
character, " the blue broad-shouldered, and double-
peaked Ben-Cruachan, swelling in the distance into
gigantic proportions."
Oban is of comparatively quite recent origin, and
has risen rapidly from a trivial commencement. Its
nucleus, twenty-six years before Dr. Clarke visited
it, consisted of but a single thatched house with five
inhabitants. In 1713 arose the first house which it
possessed of any consequence, a storehouse erected
by a trading company of Renfrew. The sagacity
which gave it this accession soon became general,
and very markedly appreciated the site of the town
as the best station for commanding the trade of the
far west of Scotland. During the progress of last
century, the place was constituted one of the ports
of the custom-house; and, when it began fully to
demonstrate its advantageousness of position, it drew
attention from the Duke of Argyle and Mr. Camp
bell of Combie, the proprietors of its grounds, and
won from them a willingness to grant, to a consider
able extent, encouraging building leases. Two bro
thers of the name of Stevenson, who settled in it in
1778, introduced to it different departments of traf
fic, and, while they enriched themselves, greatly
aided its advancement, and promoted the prosperity
of the country in its neighbourhood. The opening
of the Crinan and Caledonian canals, the construc
tion of parliamentary and statute labour roads in
the interior, the introduction and improvement of
steam-navigation, the general and rapid amelioration
of the Highlands, the sudden and vast expansion of
traffic between the western coasts and islands and

the Clyde, and the origination of trade between the
Highland west and very distant parts of the empire,
have all kept the prosperity of the town in steady
movement, and occasioned an annual, though safely
small, addition to the number of its houses.
The front view of the town from the bay exhibits,
behind a dry sea-beach, about an hundred substantial
houses, and two large and good inns. The main
body of the town is cut into two parts by a jmall
stream. In the eastern division stands the cnurch
of the quoad sacra parish, a neat and even handsome
structure. On a commanding site, cheerily looking
out upon the bay, stands the custom-house, built in
1763. If other public buildings be inquired for, they
are not found; town-house, court-house, gaol, quoad
civilia church, burgh academy, assembly-room, sub
scription reading-room, and public buildings of every
class which usually grace the streets and areas of
burghs, being all, with the single exception of a
FreemasonVhall, unknown and probably undesired^
But such buildings as exist, though nearly all pri
vate, produce a greatly better tout-ensemble than
the mingled edifices of pretension and of meanness,
which compose the architecture of not a small pro
portion of Scottish towns. They are all white
washed with lime ; they possess much aggregate
neatness ; and they compose a town of decided cheer
fulness of aspect. — The harbour and anchoring-
ground of the port are particularly good. There
are two commodious quays; one of which was im
proved and enlarged in 1836. The bay is semicir
cular, has a depth of from 12 to 24 fathoms of water,
is quite sheltered from every wind, and affords at all
times a safe retreat to ships of any burden. Several
vessels belong to the port. The imports are prin
cipally rniscellaneous goods, from Glasgow and Liver
pool, and the exports chiefly pig-iron, whisky, wool,
fish, kelp, and Easdale slates. The port is a central
point for all the shipping which visits the north
western parts of Scotland, or passes through the
Caledonian canal ; and it has constant and animat
ing communication by steam-vessels with Glasgow,
Greenock, Tobermory, and Inverness ; and in sum
mer sends off steamers to Staffa, lona, Skye, Stor-
noway, and Liverpool. In 1839 the number of
steamers which constantly plied from it, either di
rectly or in transit, was six. The chief manufac
tures are the making of whisky in two distilleries,
and the making of silk and straw hats. But the pro
duce of the ordinary departments of artisanship ia
required not only for the town, but for an extensive
district around it; and both the iron- works of Bun-
awe and the slate-quarries of Easdale are, in a sub
ordinate sense, manufactures of Oban, or at least
sensibly affect its prosperity  The town is regarded
as one of the most pleasant summer-retreats in the
Highlands, is much frequented as sea-bathing quar
ters, forms the rallying point and the metropolitan
haunt of tourists "in search of the picturesque"
over western Argyleshire and the southern and cen
tral Hebrides, and, in each of these capacities, adds
noticeable items to its means of maintenance. Its
markets are supplied well and at low rates with
farm and garden produce ; and its inns and steam
boats furnish facilities which, a few years ago, would
have been surpassingly luxurious in the Highlands,
for exploring continental and Hebridean scenes. A
public coach runs daily in summer between the Cale
donian hotel in Oban and the Argyle hotel in Inver
ary. — The town, additional to the offices and insti
tutions incidentally noticed, has an Excise office, an
office of the National Bank of Scotland, a stamp
office, 5 insurance offices, a reading-room and circu
lating library, a ladies' boarding-school, and a ladies'
charity female school. A weekly market is allowed

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by charter to be held on Friday; and annual fairs
are held for horses on the first Tuesday and Wed
nesday of March, and for cattle on the Monday and
Tuesday before the last Wednesday of May, on the
Friday and Saturday before the last Wednesday of
October, and on the last Tuesday and Wednesday
of November.
The parliamentary boundaries of Oban, as fixed by
the Reform act, are thus described : " The space on
the mainland included within a circle described with
a radius of one-half mile from the point as a centre,
where the street leading to the old Inverary road
meets the street along the shore." But the real ter
ritory of the burgh is more extensive, and consists
of the lands of Oban and Glenshellich, with the
ferry-house, and miller's croft and loch, and of the
lands of Glencrutten, comprehending Upper Glen-
crutten, Lower Glencrutten, and Glencruttenbeg.
The Duke of Argyle was superior of the whole, and
proprietor of Oban and Glenshellich, and Mr. Camp
bell of Combie was proprietor of Glencrutten ; and
they granted the lands in portions under leases. The
town was first erected into a burgh-of-barony in
1811, by a charter of resignation, novodamus, and
erection, under the great seal, in favour of the Duke
of Argyle. This charter having been set aside by
the court-of-session, and Mr. Campbell having ac
quired the superiority of Glencrutten, another char
ter was granted, in 1820, in favour jointly of Mr.
Campbell and the Duke. Two provisions or inci
dents of both charters were set aside by the Reform
bill, — the first, that burgesses residing within that
part of the territory which lies beyond the parlia
mentary boundaries; and the second, that all inhabi
tants having a right to a house and garden-ground
by feu or lease, for 19 years, whatever the value,
were entitled to elect the burgh-magistrates and
councillors ; and now only those can take part in the
municipal elections who are qualified by local posi
tion, and by paying rent, or possessing subjects of
£10, to vote for a member of parliament. The mu
nicipal and parliamentary constituencies are thus
identical, and amounted, in 1840, to 64. The town
is governed by two bailies, a treasurer, a dean-of-
guild, and four councillors. The first municipal
election took place in 1817. The burgh is repre
sented in parliament jointly with Ayr, Irvine, Camp-
bellton, and Inverary. Corporate trades and sec
ondary corporations of every sort are happily un
known ; and burgess-ship is not required to entitle
any person to manufacture or trade within the burgh.
Dealers in spirituous liquors alone, and with great
propriety, are subject to a certain amount of control,
and do not obtain licences from the justices-of-peace
without being recommended by the magistrates. The
burgh has no public institutions, no property, no
annual revenue, and no debt. Such occasional small
sums as compose a public fund, are usually applied
in charity to the poor, or for burghai purposes, and
have, in no instance, produced a more showy act
than the expenditure of £30, in procuring to the
inhabitants a better supply of water. A dean-of-
guild, a nominal treasurer, a town-clerk, a procura
tor-fiscal of court, a burgh-officer, and six constables,
who constitute the municipal and police staff of the
place, are all appointed by the burgesses at the an
nual elections; and excepting the town-clerk, the
procurator-fiscal, and the burgh-officer, who are
entitled to fees for any actual service performed, they
have no public emoluments. The jurisdiction of the
magistrates extends over not only the parliamentary
burgh, but the whole territory of the burgh-of-ba
rony ; but it disposes of very few civil cases, and of
no other criminal ones than those of petty delin
quency. The want of a prison, and the expense of

sending prisoners to so great a distance as Inverary
entirely defeat the exertions of the magistrates to
prevent crime, and even oblige them, when a petty
delinquent cannot pay a fine, to let him off with im
punity. In virtue of the powers conferred by the
charter, they have, from time to time, made certain
regulations as to matters of police ; but, possessing
only very limited means of enforcing them, they
cannot be said to maintain a police influence or re
straint. Population, in 1801, 1,854; in 1831, 2,836.
— Oban commands, within an easy distance, or by
cheap and facile means of conveyance, not a few ob
jects of very high interest, both scenic and antiqua
rian. In its immediate neighbourhood are Dunol-
ly, Dunstaffnage, and Beregonium ; and not far
from it, or easily accessible, are Loch-Etive, Loch-
Awe, Iona, and Staffa, — articles on all of which
will be found in their appropriate place in our work.
OCHIL HILLS, a range of mountains com
mencing in the parishes of Dunblane and Logie in
the south of Perthshire, about 2 miles from the river
Forth in the vicinity of Stirling, and extending in an
east-north-east direction to the frith of Tay. The
range runs parallel to the Grampians or mountain-
rampart of the Highlands ; it forms the screen on
the Lowland side of Strathallan and Lower Strath
earn, — component parts in the large sense of Strath
more; and it lies across the head of the whole penin
sula of Fife, magnificently defending it, and the low
ground of Kinross, Culross, and Clackmannan, from
the scourge of the storms, which come careeringly
down the glens and gorges of the Grampians. Its
length is about 24 miles, and its average breadth
about 12. Its south-east side, especially toward the
Forth, is very steep, and, in some places, almost
perpendicular; and even its north-west side rises,
on the whole, with a greater abruptness than be
longs to most of the Scottish ranges. Its summits
are highest at its south-west end, and might, espe
cially there, as well as in other parts of the range,
be termed mountainous, but for the vicinity of the
Highland alps. Two of the summits overlooking
the Forth are Bencleugh, or the hill of Alva, in the
parish of Tillicoultry, 2,300 feet above sea-level, and
the loftiest of the range ; and Demyat-hill, in the
parish of Logie, 1,345 feet above sea-level, advancing
a little from the contiguous range, breaking almost
sheer down in stupendous rocky cliffs into the plain,
and commanding a prospect over the basiri of the
Forth and its tributaries, which, for united gorgeous-
ness and extent, is probably not surpassed by any in
Britain ; and the Ring's Seat, about 4 miles from
Dollar, which attains an elevation of 2,000 feet
above the valley of the Devon at Dollar, or 2,160
feet above the level of the sea. The prospect from
the summit of this last-mentioned hill is thus de
scribed : "I had now under my eye a circular space
of 100 miles in diameter, comprising nearly one-third
of the surface of Scotland, and probably two-thirds
of its wealth. On the north were the rugged Gram
pians of Aberdeen and Inverness-shires, rising in
ridge behind ridge. In the outer line — which is low
and uniform — the pass of Killiecrankie is distinctly
seen as a great natural chasm. Below is the well-
wooded plain of Perthshire, a part of which is con
cealed by the spurs or branches of the hills on which
you stand. On the west the higher parts of the
chain of the Ochils confine the view, but you easily
distinguish the summits of Benmore, Benledi, Ben
lomond, and various hills near the Atlantic. On the
south the eye roams over a vast and fertile region,
extending from Campsie-hills to the Lammermuir
chain, including Edinburgh, Arthur's-seat, the Bass,
Pentland-hills, and part of Stirlingshire. The De
von is seen immediately below, winding through the

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458

OCH

valley like a silver thread. Beyond it is the bay of
the Forth, clear, luminous, and tranquil like a mir
ror, and enshrined in the centre of a richly culti
vated country. The windings in its upper part,
with the islets, capes, and peninsulas which they
form, are seen to more advantage here than from
Stirling-castle. The small hills between the Ochils
and Kincardine do not present the slightest inequa
lity of surface, but seem sunk and confounded with
the valley of the Devon; while the fields, that cover
the whole space with their hedge-rows and stripes of
planting, look like the diminutive plots of a nursery.
On the south-east is seen Kinross, with Loch-Leven
and its two islets, and beyond these the black mural
front of the Lomonds, variegated with streaks of
red. On the other side of the frith is seen the un
dulating and well-wooded district of West Lothian,
and the fertile carse of Falkirk, in the middle of
which an opaque cloud marks the site of Carron.
The lower part of the frith is specked with little
vessels, and perhaps right before you is a steam
boat, which, when seen upon a pretty large surface
of water, with its long train of smoke, forms, in jny
humble opinion, a picturesque object in the land
scape, in spite of all the poets have said in its dis
paragement." Most of the range is of a beautiful
green, and affords excellent sheep-pasturage; and it
is sliced down in all directions by defiles and broad
valleys, which acknowledge the dominion of the
plough, and are in a state of fine cultivation. The
Ochils everywhere present rich groupings of delight
ful scenery, and pleasing pictures of rural fife ; swell
ing hills, verdant to their tops, and thickly dotted
with sheep and cattle; rivulets trotting along the
gorges and the vales, or falling in hoarse murmurs
from precipitous cliffs ; and villages, hamlets, and farm
houses, skirted or enclosed with wood. Offshoots
of the range, but so low that they rarely lift a sum
mit more than 500 feet high, run down the whole
peninsula of Fife, and, along with the beautiful
Lomond-hills, and some less considerable isolated
hills, impart to it that undulated contour which so
pleasingly characterizes its appearance. These off
shoots and the main range may be viewed as enclos
ing the outer edge or north-east extremity of the
great coal-field of Scotland, which extends, though
not without marked interruptions, from the river
Girvan in Ayrshire to the banks of the Eden in
Fife. The main range is unusually rich in its min
erals; and, besides yielding up round its base large
supplies of coal and of stratification superincumbent
on the coal-measures, has furnished from its interior
large quantities of various valuable metals. " In
those parts of it which lie in the parishes of Alva,
Logie, Dollar, and Tillicoultry, veins of copper and
lead have been wrought to a considerable extent :
the copper-ore in particular is very rich, and gener
ally found enclosed in a matrix of sulphate of barytes
or cawk. About the year 1715, Sir John Erskine of
Alva, with the assistance of some miners from Lead
hills, discovered a very rich vein of silver : it made
its appearance in small threads, which, being fol
lowed, led to a rich mass of ore ; some of it was so
rich, that 14 ounces of ore yielded 12 ounces of sil
ver. A sum not greater than £50 sterling had been
expended on it when this discovery was made ; and
during the space of 13 or 14 weeks, ore was produced
to the value of £4,000 per week ; and it is said that
Sir John drew from £40,000 to £50,000 besides
what was purloined by the workmen. When this
mass was exhausted, the silver-ore began to disap
pear, and lead and other minerals were discovered,
on which all farther search was given up. Cobalt
has likewise been found in different parts, equal to
that imported from Saxony. Arsenic and iron have

also been found;" and the latter is extensively
worked. .
OCHILTREE, a parish nearly in the centre of
Kyle and of Ayrshire ; bounded on the north by
Stair; on the east by Old Cumnock and Auchinleck;
on the south by New Cumnock and Dalmellington ;
and on the west by Stair and Coylton. It is 8 miles
long, 5 miles broad, and a little upwards of 24 square
miles in area. The surface consists of ridges partly
pastoral and partly arable, and of intervening dingles
of moss, meadow, and arable land. The ridges gen
erally run from east to west, are of various lengths,
and toward the south have an altitude of about
1,000 feet. A thriving plantation, of no great
breadth, stretches nearly across the parish parallel
with the Ayr road; and this, with the plantations
of Barskimming, Auchinleck, and Dumfries-house,
in the adjacent parishes, relieves the landscape from
coldness and moorishness of aspect. Moss of vari
ous depths covers a considerable area, both in the
uplands and in the low grounds, generally rests on a
yellowish clay, and frequently expands into flow
moss or wet bog. The soil, for the most part, is a
clayey loam, superincumbent on stiff retentive clay,
and, without deep and close draining, it resists the
processes of improved husbandry ; and even where
well mixed with alluvium washed down upon it from
the heights, it remains exuberant in rushes, sprets,
and kindred vegetation. About two-thirds of the
whole area is regularly or occasionally in tillage.
Coal and ironstone exist, but are not worked ; and
freestone is abundant. Marl of an inferior quality
has been found ; but lime requires to be imported.
There are two lochlets, — one covering about 27
acres, and the other less. The Lugar — running
north-westward, and not far from its confluence with
the Ayr  traces, for about 2 miles, the north-eastern
boundary. Burnock-water rises in the southern
extremity, and runs northward to the Lugar at the
village. The Coyl, or Coila or Kill, running in the
same direction, touches the boundary in some points
in the west. Faint vestiges exist of two baronial
mansions which belonged to the ancient proprietors of
the Ochiltree estate. A ruined square tower lifts
its gaunt grey form amid the wilds of the most up
land region ; but is unatoried by either document or
tradition. The turnpike between Ayr and Cum
nock runs across the north end of the parish ; and
subordinate roads, to the amount of about 16 miles,
intersect other districts. The landowners are 10 or
12 in number, and nearly all non-resident : the chief
are the Marquis of Bute, and Sir James Boswell of
Auchinleck. Population, in 1801, 1,308; in 1831,
1,562. Houses 272. Assessed property, in 1815,
£8,782. — The village of Ochiltree is pleasantly situ
ated on the left bank of the Lugar, immediately be
low the confluence with it of the Burnock. It
stands on the Cumnock and Ayr road, 4 miles from
the former, 11J from the latter, and 13 from Kilmar
nock. It lias about 30 handlooms, employed in cot
ton-weaving; a considerable trade in hand-sewing,
conducted chiefly by young women, and fitted to
unnerve them for any other employment or class of
duties ; a manufactory of reaping hooks ; a small
trade in snuff-box-making ; and a share in the vari
ous kinds of artificers' work required by a rural and
agricultural population. Annual fairs are held on
the second Wednesday of May, and the first Tues
day of November. Population 650  The parish is
in the presbytery of Ayr, and synod of Glasgow and
Ayr. Patron, the Marquis of Bute. Stipend £246
10s. Id.; glebe £15. Unappropriated teinds £172
7s. lid. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4id., with
£25 fees, and £11 3s. 4d. other emoluments, in
1834 the parish-school was attended by 115 scholars.

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459

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and 2 private schools by 70. The parish, till 1653,
comprehended, in addition to its present territory,
what now forms the parish of Stair. In the 12th
and 13th centuries it was a rectory, under the pa
tronage of the lords of the manor; but, before 1321,
it was granted by Eustace, the daughter and heiress
of Sir WiUiam Colville of Ochiltree, to the monks
of Melrose. In 1530, the barony of Ochiltree was
exchanged by Sir James Colville with Sir James
Hamilton of Finnart, for the barony of East Wemyss
in Fife ; and, in 1534, it was exchanged by its new
possessor with Andrew Stewart, Lord Avondale, for
the barony of Avondale in Lanarkshire. In con
sequence of the latter exchange, Stewart was, in
1542—3, cseated Lord Stewart of Ochiltree, instead
of Lord Stewart of Avondale. Andrew, Lord
Ochiltree, the son of the preceding lord, acted a
stirring part in the Reformation, and obtained a
grant of all the church-lands and property of the
parish, which had been held by the monks of Mel
rose. OICH (Loch), a lake in Inverness-shire, forming
the summit-level of the Caledonian canal; from
which, as from a centre, it descends towards the
eastern and the western seas. It is not above 4
miles in length, nor more than a mile or a mile and
a- half in breadth. The hills on the north side are,
like those of Loch-Lochy, of rather an insipid cha
racter ; but the scenery on the south has consider
able variety, and is among the finest on the line of
the canal. Here, at the opening of Glengarry, where
the water which gives name to the glen joins the
lake, amidst lofty and beautiful woods overtopped
by bold and majestic mountains, are situated the
ruins of the ancient castle, and near it tbe present
mansion-bouse of Invergarry, the principal residence
of the late Macdonald of Glengarry, the chieftain
of a considerable branch of that powerful sept ; by
many held to have been the head of the clan ; by all
looked upon as the last genuine specimen of a High
land chief. In him the spirit of clanship was as
strong as ever warmed the heart of a Highlander;
and within the dwelling of Glengarry, the last re
mains of ancient manners and institutions found a
refuge from the influence of modern feelings and
modern innovations. The ruins of the castle of
Invergarry [which see] are in the immediate
neighbourhood. OICH (The), a brief river of the great glen,
Inverness-shire. It conveys the superfluent waters
of Loch-Oich, north-eastward, but in the line of the
segment of a circle, with the concavity facing the
south-east to the bead of Loch-Ness, and it has alto
gether a run of only 5£ miles. At its head stands
the bare slated house of Aberchalder, where Prince
Charles Edward concentrated his forces before com
mencing his march toward the low country. The
part of the glen which the Oich traverses is occu
pied by low, rocky, and heath-clad hills ; and brings
down, on the left bank of the river, the public road,
and, on the right bank, the Caledonian canal. The
rivulet Tarff falls into Loch-Ness, about 400 yards
west of the mouth of the Oich ; and, on an alluvial
bank, in a pleasant peninsula, between the two
streams, and close upon the lake, stands Fort-Au
gustus. OIKELL (Thej, Oickel, or Oykell, alargeand
romantic river of Sutherlandshire and Ross-shire. It
rises in the parish of Assynt in Sutherlandshire, tra
verses two small lakes ; and, from about 7 miles be
low its source, till it falls into the head of Dornoch
frith, it invariably divides the two counties. Its
length of course, exclusive of sinuosities, is about
32 miles ; and its direction is, for one-half of its
way, south-easterly, — for the next fourth, easterly, —

and, for the remaining fourth, east-south-easterly.
The Dornoch frith is strictly its estuary; and, if
recognised in its due connection with it, would add
at least 15 miles to its length. The Oikell's princi
pal tributaries are the Cassley on its left bank. — a
little more than half-way on its course; the Shin, on
the same bank, 7£ miles lower down ; and the Car
ron, on its right bank, just before it enters the Dor
noch frith. Several hundred yards above the inn of
Oikell-bridge, and 7 miles above the influx of the
Cassley, the Oikell, tumbling over a remarkably
rugged and declivitous path, makes a series of wild
cataracts, which terminate in one bold and very for
midable fall. The banks which overhang this mul
tiplied linn, are quite precipitous, and exhibit from
their crevices, at spots where no soil can be detected
by the eye, several large fir-trees springing up from
curiously twisted roots. For several miles below
this point, the vale of the stream, or Strathoikell, is
flanked by dreary heath-clad hills, and derives relief
from the pervading irksomeness only by occasional
clumps of stunted birch, and a few verdant mea
dows on the margins of the stream. Three miles
above the influx of the Cassley, an impetuous burn
tumbles headlong into the vale; and at a brief dis
tance from its mouth rises an elevated and pictur
esque bank, sheeted with verdure, and sunned into
beauty, but lugubriously crowned with an unenclosed,
forsaken, and melancholy burying-ground. This
part of the vale is called Tutumvarach, — a name
which alludes to a fierce and successful onslaught,
early in the 15th century, upon a freebooting party
of the Macleods of Lewis by a body of the men of
Sutherland. From Tutumvarach to the Cassley the
stream trots tortuously along a winding strath ; and,
while markedly Highland in its screens, has a pro
fusion of birch and alder coppice upon its imme
diate banks, and, in one place, is overhung by a
whole forest of firs coming down the mountain's
side from the clouds. At the junction of the Cass
ley a fine view is obtained of Rosehall-house, em
bosomed in luxuriant and very extensive woods, near
the foot of Cassley-glen, and of the old walls of
Castle-na-Coir, situated on a meadow on the left
bank of the Oikell. The river is navigable by boats
from the sea to Rosehall, and brings up the tide to a
point only 1£ mile farther down. The united waters
of the Oikell and the Cassley form a fine large
river, and make a well-defined boundary-line between
Ross and Sutherland. The strath, down to Bonar-
bridge at the head of the frith, is everywhere beauti
ful, and forms part of the ancient district of Ferrin-
busklyne or Sleischillis, which the bishops of Caith
ness obtained, in the 12th century, as a gift from
the Earls of Sutherland. From Rosehall to about
3 miles above the influx of the Shin, it forms on the
one side a craggy barrier, and on the other a low
expanse of continued forest, and winds perpetually
in its progress ; and, lower down, it has extensive
meadows along the edges of the stream, highly orna
mental clumps of coppices on the declivities, and
groups and sprinklings of neat stone-cottages, pic
turesquely perched on rocky heights, and seeming
to blush with consciousness of the deep pervading
beauty which they survey.
OLA (St.), or St. Olaus. See Kirkwall and
St. Ola.
OLDHAMSTOCKS, a parish partly in the north
of Berwickshire, but chiefly in the extreme east of
Haddingtonshire, and consisting of a main body and
a small detachment. The detached part is nearly a
square li mile deep, and lies all in Berwickshire, 1|
mile east of the southern part of the main body ; and
it is bounded on the north-west by Cockburnspath ;
on the south-west by Eye-water, which divides it

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460

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from Abbey St, Bathan's; and on the south-east and
the north-east, by a tributary of the Eye, which
divides it from Coldingham. The main body re
sembles in form the blade of a sickle or reaping-
hook, with the convexity or back of the blade facing
the west; and it is bounded on the north-east by
the German ocean ; on the east by Cockburnspath
and Abbey St. Bathan's; and on the south-west,
west, and north-west by Innerwick. Its greatest
length, measured curvingly along its centre, is 8£
miles; and its breadth varies from 1 mile to 2|.
Except about 2i square miles at the extreme south,
the whole is in Haddingtonshire. The coast is bold
and rocky, and extends but l£ mile. The surface,
for about 1£ mile from the sea, is but slightly un
dulated ; and thence it consists of heights which at
first are but swells and hillocks, and afterwards form
part of the slowly climbing ascent of the Lammer
moors. The soil is in general sharp and dry, very
fertile toward the sea, but barren and moorish to
ward the south. The lower division is highly cul
tivated and finely embellished with wood; but the
upper division is entirely pastoral, and chiefly bleak
and heathy. Numerous rills rise a little south of
the centre of the parish, and flow northward, east
ward, and southward, occasionally cutting out defiles
and glens which are not a little picturesque. The
chief are Dean-burn, which runs across the parish at
the village, traces for 2 miles to the sea the boun
dary between the counties, and traverses, over great
part of its course, a romantic wooded dell; Eye and
Heriot waters, which, while they rise in the parish,
speedily leave it on the east; and Whare-burn and
Monnynut- water, tributaries of the Whittadder, the
latter of which runs for 2.A miles on the boundary
with Innerwick. In the lower district, coal, lime
stone, ironstone, and freestone occur; but the coal
has been worked only in the upper stratum, which
lies near the surface. On Dean-burn stands Dun-
glass-house, the elegant modern mansion of Sir
James Hall of Dunglass, occupying the site of an
ancient and storied castle of the same name : see
Dunglass. The Edinburgh and London mailroad,
and the Dunbar and Dunse turnpike cross the par
ish, the one in the immediate vicinity of the sea,
and the other about 2 miles in the interior. On the
former, about midway between the boundaries, stands
the hamlet of Bilsdean, and on the latter, also about
midway between the boundaries, stands the village
of Oldhamstocks, the site of the parish-church, and
the scene of great annual fairs for sheep and cattle
on the first Tuesday of July and November. Popu
lation of the parish, in 1801, 575; in 1831, 720.
Houses 131. Assessed'property, in 1815, £3,820 
Oldhamstocks, anciently a rectory, is in the presby
tery of Dunbar, and synod of Lothian and Tweed-
dale. Patron, Hunter of Thurston. Stipend £297
J 5s. 6d. ; glebe not stated. Schoolmaster's salary
£25 15s. with £18 19s. fees, and £5 19s. other
emoluments. There are two private schools, one in
each of the villages.
OLDNEY, or Oldernay, a small island belong
ing to the parish of Assynt, and lying on the west
coast of Sutherlandshire. It flanks the south side
of the entrance of Loch- Assynt; gives the name of
Oldney-bay to a piece of sea between it and the
point of Store, and is distant about J of a mile from
the coast. Its length is supposed to be a mile, and
its greatest breadth a of a mile. It is swarded with
excellent pasture, and belongs to a sheep-farm of its
own name on the adjacent part of the continent.
A little flat island called Crona lies on its south side.
OLD WATER, or Old Water of Cluden, a
rivulet in the extreme east of Kirkcudbrightshire.
lt rises on the east side of Aughenhay hill in the

north of the parish of Kirkpatrick-Durham, and runs
5| miles eastward through that parish and to Kirk-
patrick-Irongray to near the middle of tbe latter,
receiving Shelloch-'burn on its left bank, and Glen-
burn on its right; and it then makes a sudden bend,
and runs 2_t miles northward to the Cairn, at a point
5£ miles above that stream's confluence with the
Nith. See Kirkpatrick-Irongray.
OLRICK, a parish on the north coast of Caith
ness-shire. It is bounded on the north by Dunnet-
bay; on the east by Dunnet parish; on the south by
Bower; and on the west by Thurso. Its greatest
length, from north to south, is about 5 miles; its
greatest breadth is about 3£ miles ; and its superfi
cial extent is about 15J square miles. The surface
is neither mountain nor plain. The uncultivated
parts are wholly green, and quite free from both
heath and rock. A congeries of verdant little hills
occupy the south, and, on the whole, arrange them
selves into three amphitheatres intersected by nu
merous rills and vales. A most luxuriant pasturage
covers all these gentle uplands, and not only affords
ample grazing for cattle in summer, but furnishes them
with natural hay for their support in winter. To
wards the sea, the surface, with the exception of
some sandy links along the beach, is one continued
track of rich cultivated soil. So little moss exists
that inconveniences and discomfort arise from the
want of a sufficient supply of peat fuel. About three-
fifths of the entire area are in tillage; about 500
acres are links and moss; 20 acres are under wood;
and all the remainder is pastoral, but might easily
be subjected to the plough. The soil, in the flat
districts, is a deep clay, with occasional and limited
intermixtures of sand and till. Loch-Durran, mea
suring about 3 miles in circumference, has been com
pletely drained, and affords inexhaustible supplies of
shell-marl. Limestone, sandstone, gray slates of a
light durable kind, and blue flags, all abound. The
flags are excellent materials for flooring and foot
paths ; they occur from 1 to 6 inches thick, and may
be raised of any reasonable extent of superficies;
they require no top-dressing, but are capable of re
ceiving a very fine polish; and they are annually
shipped to the amount of between 300,000 and
400,000 square feet, and are in high request in sev-
eral of the principal cities of Britain. The coast
line of the parish measures not more than 2 miles;
and is rugged and shelving, but not bold. Respec
tively at its east and west extremities are the small
bays of Castlebill and Murkle, — opening from the
south side of Dunnet-bay. Both bays were formerly
noted for the extent of their fisheries and their man
ufacture of kelp, 10,000 cod and ling having been
dried in one summer at Murkle, and from 15 to 20
tons of kelp being made ; but — excepting salmon-fish
ing, which is let to a tenant; — both fish and sea- ware
are now almost wholly neglected. Castlehill-bay
is provided with a neat and commodious harbour,
whence the flags, flooring-stones, hearthstones, man
tel-pieces, and table-stones raised in the neighbour
ing quarries are exported; and Murkle-bay, were it
better known, might be rendered a safe retreat from
the tempestuous boiling of the Pentland frith to
vessels in distress, or retarded by wind or tide. The
name Murkle is supposed to be a corruption of Mort-
hill, ' the Field of death,' and to allude to a victo
rious slaughter of Danes in a pitched battle between
them and the natives. In various localities are 6
or 7 of the antiquities popularly called Picts' houses.
On the top of the hill of Olrick are evident vestiges
of a watch-tower. This hill, though of inconsider
able altitude, commands a view of the southern
islands of Orkney, — of great part of Caithness, backed
by the Sutherland hills, — and of nearly all the Moray

OPS

4C1

ORD

frith, closed up in the horizon by the county coasts
of Elgin, Banff, and Aberdeen. At the head of Castle-
hill-bay stands the village of Castletown: which
see. The chief mansions are Olrick-house and Rat-
tor, the seats respectively of James Smith, Esq., and
James Traill, Esq., who, with the Earl of Caithness
and Sir J. G. Sinclair, Bart., are the principal land
owners. The road from Wick to Thurso traverses
the parish. Population, in 1801, 1,127; in 1831,
1,148. Houses 201. Assessed property, in 1815,
£3,291  Olrick is in the presbytery of Caithness,
and synod of Sutherland and Caithness. Patron,
Sir James Colquhoun, Bart. Stipend £191 8s. 8d.;
glebe £8. Unappropriated teinds £27 3s. 7<1. The
parish-church was built about the year 1633. Sit
tings 403. An ecclesiastical census of 1836 showed
the population then to amount to 1,352, only 88 of
whom were dissenters. A church, dedicated to St.
Columba, anciently stood near the eastern boun
dary, and has bequeathed to its site the name of St.
Coomb's kirk; and it is traditionally said to have been
suddenly wreathed and inhumed in sand-drift during
a nocturnal storm. A nunnery anciently stood on
the estate of Murkle, and has permanently imposed
the name of Closters or Cloisters on a rill which
runs past its site. There are four schools ; three of
which are maintained solely by fees. Parochial
schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4|d., with £9 fees
and £7 other emoluments.
OPSAY, an islet in the sound of Harris, about
1J mile in circumference, 2J miles north-north-east
of North Uist, and 3£ south-east of Bernera.
ORANSAY, an island in the Islay group of the
Hebrides, quite connected at low water with Colon
say, and fully described in our article on that island.
See Colonsay.
ORANSAY (Isle), an islet, a harbour, and a
commercial establishment, in Sleat parish, in the
island of Skye. The islet is small, and serves prin
cipally to cover and protect the whole entrance to
the harbour, and to give name to the locality on the
coast. The harbour is in the sound of Sleat, 3
miles north of Knock, and directly opposite Loch-
Hourn, on the continent. It is naturally commo
dious, thoroughly sheltered, and, in every respect,
excellent; and is much frequented by shipping. The
commercial establishment at the place belongs to
Colin Elder, Esq., and is small but thriving. Here
also is a small inn. Isle Oransay is regularly visited
by the Glasgow steamers on their way to and from
Portree; and it thus maintains constant communi
cation with the north of Skye, and the south-west
of Scotland.
ORBANSAY, a small island in the Hebrides,
about I of a mile long, lying immediately east of the
northerly projection or peninsula of Barra, and 2£
miles west-north-west of Gigha.
ORCHY (The), a beautiful stream in Argyle
shire, which has its head- waters in Loch-Tulla, and
discharges itself into the north-eastern head of Loch-
Awe. See Glenorchy.
ORD, a flat and sandy moor, the southern part
of Mullbuy, in Ross-shire : see Mullbuy. The
north road from Inverness by way of Beauly enters
it immediately beyond the county boundary. Great
cattle, sheep, and horse markets, for which it is
well-adapted, and which take name occasionally from
Beauly, but more generally from itself, are held on
this moor, on the third Wednesday of April, the
second Wednesday of May and June, the third Thurs
day of July, September, and October, and the second
Wednesday of November. The October market at
the Muir of Ord is generally the most important of
the year, as at that time farmers and dealers attend
from a great distance to lay in their stock of winter

ers, or dispose of their surplus stock. Tie Muir of
Ord is also fast increasing in importance as a cattle
tryst. Agriculture has made rapid strides in the
northern counties ; and the different breeds of stock
are reared with skill and success. Many thousands
of cattle are shown, and farmers attend from the
counties of Elgin, Banff, Aberdeen, and Forfar.
The unsold cattle are usually re-exhibited at Bog-
bain, 5 miles from Inverness, on the Perth road
Two upright stone-pillars rise up from the moor,
and are said to commemorate an ancient feat of arms
connected in some way with the prophesied extinc
tion of the clan Mackenzie ; and eastward of them
is a very large number of stone circles and cairns.
ORD OF CAITHNESS, a stupendous granitic
mountain on the east coast of the north of Scotland,
at the boundary between Caithness and Sutherland.
It rises with frightful rapidity of ascent right up
from the sea, occupies about 9 or 10 miles of the
coast, and forms the commencement of a long liioiin-
tain-chain which runs north-westward, and continues
to divide the counties. The public road into Caith
ness passes over this enormous natural barrier at an
elevation of 1,200 feet above sea-level, and expends
a whole stage upon it and its huge ramifications.
Previous to 1811, when this road was made, the
only land-ingress to Caithness proceeded along the
edge of a tremendous range of precipices, which so
overhung the sea as to be quite appalling to both
horse and rider. " The Ord of Caithness," says
Miss Sinclair, " was formerly pre-eminent for being
the most dangerous bit of road in Scotland. . . .
During the last century, whenever the late Earl of
Caithness, my grandmother Lady Janet Sinclair, or
any of the chief landed proprietors, entered that
. county, a troop of their tenants assembled on the
border of Sutherland, and drew the carriage them
selves over the hill, a distance of two miles, that
nothing might be trusted in such a scene to the dis
cretion of quadrupeds. . . The mail-coach now
rattles down the whole descent of the Ord, scarcely
deigning even to use a drag!" According to an old
established superstition, no Sinclair may without
fearful foreboding of evil cross the Ord on a Mon
day; forty Sinclairs, led by the Earl of Caithness,
having on that day ventured over the barrier toward
the field of Flodden; where — with the exception of
the drummer, who was dismissed before the battle
began — all were cut down by the sword.
ORDIE (The), a rivulet in the Strathmore dis
trict of Perthshire, giving the name Strathord to a
.large section of the parish of Auchtergaven. It
issues from a small lake in the hill of Tullybelton,
and runs 5J miles east-south-eastward through the
heart of Auchtergaven, receiving nearly all the
streams by which that large parish is drained. It
then runs 2J miles south-eastward between Monedie
on the right, and Auchtergaven and Redgorton on
the left, receives on the right the large tribute of the
Shochie, and runs half-a-mile along an artificial cut
made for it, by the Luncarty company, through a
steep bank to Jhe Tay, a little above Luncarty. It
is an excellent trouting stream.
ORDIQUHILL, a parish in the north-east of Banff
shire; bounded on the north-west by Fordyce; on the
north-east by Boindie ; on the east and south by Mar
noch ; and on the south-west and west by Grange. Its
length, from east to west, is 3 J miles; its breadth is
2£ miles; and its superficial extent is about 5,500
acres. The surface, toward the north, is, for the
most part, flat; but elsewhere it is boldly tumulated;
and, on the south-west boundary, it rolls aloft a hill
called the Knock, 1,640 feet above sea-level. A
stratified bed of moss, from 15 to 20'feet deep, covers
the summit of this hill, and, at various places, passe,

462

ORKNEY ISLANDS.

down tne declivity in lines of communication with '
mosses round the base. About-one half of the whole
parish has never been touched by the plough ; and,
excepting about 500 acres, appears to be irreclaim
able. The soil of the arable grounds is, in general,
deep, but lies upon a cold and retentive bottom.
About 400 acres have been planted with larch, ash,
Scottish fir, and other trees. The larger part of the
area rests on gneiss and coarse micaceous schist.
Park-house, the seat of Colonel Gordon, the sole
heritor, is an elegant mansion. The village of Corn-
cairn [see that article] stands 7 miles south of
Portsoy, and has about 60 inhabitants. Mr. Walter
Goodall, author of a ' Defence of Queen Mary,' was
a native of Ordiquhill. The parish is traversed
southward by the roads from Banff and Portsoy to
Huntly. Population, in 1801, 510; in 1831, 655.
Houses 138. Assessed property, in 1815, £1,38Q. —
Ordiquhill is in the presbytery of Fordyce, and synod
of Aberdeen. Patron, the Earl of Seafield. Stipend
£185 6s. 7d. ; glebe £6 10s. Unappropriated teinds
£55 18s. 7d. The church is a neat modern struc
ture. Schoolmaster's salary £21 9s. 6d., with 8
bolls of oatmeal, £10 8s. fees, and £1 10s. other
emoluments. There is a dame school in Corncairn.
ORKNEY and SHETLAND, a county in the
extreme north of Scotland, consisting of the Ork
ney Islands, the Fair Isle, and the Shetland
Islands : see these articles. The area of the county
is 1,325 square miles, or 848,000 acres ; and of this
220,000 acres are cultivated, 112,000 are pastoral,
and 516,000 are unprofitable. The valued rent, in
1674, was £56,551 9s. Id. Scots, but was exclusive
of fisheries and the kelp-manufactory. The annual
rent of real property, as assessed in 1815, was
£20,938. Population, in 1801, 46,824; in 1831,
58,239 ; in 1841, 60,007. Inhabited houses, in 1831,
10,296 ; families 11,805. Inhabited houses, in 1841,
11,426. The county returns one member to parlia
ment. Constituency, in 1839, 526. Kirkwall, the
only royal burgh, is the county-town. Though
the two archipelagos have long been nominally one
county or stewartry, Shetland, till the passing of
the Reform bill, had no vote for a member of parlia
ment, and occupied the anomalous position of being
part of the United Kingdom, and yet lying beyond the
pale of the British constitution. Even the Reform
bill has very doubtfully invested it with the fran
chise. On account of the regular line of post be
tween Orkney and Shetland being by way of Leith,
and of the former having communication with less
frequently and facilely than with the southern coun-,
ties of Scotland, the Shetland poll-books, at the first
election in which it acted, could not, even though a
powerful steamer was employed to carry them, be
brought to Kirkwall within the time specified by the
act; and delay, doubt, debate, and rioting were the
result. — The county is ecclesiastically distributed into
two synods, five presbyteries, and thirty quoad civilia
parishes, assisted by five parliamentary churches.
The synods are Orkney and Shetland; and the pres
byteries are Kirkwall, Cairstqn, and North Isles in
the former, and Lerwick and Burravoe in the latter.
The parishes in Kirkwall, are St. Andrews, Evie,
Holme, and Kirkwall, with the parliamentary church
of Deerness; of Cairston, are Bersay and Harray,
Firth and Stennis, Hoy and Giaemsay, Orphir, Sand-
wick, Strouiness, and Walls and Flota ; of North
Isles, are Cross and Burness, Lady, Rousay and Eagle-
shay, Shapinshay, Stronsay anil Eday, and West
ray and Papa, with the parliamentary churches of
Westray and North Ronaldshay; of Lerwick, are
Bressay, Dunrossness, Lerwick, Sandsting, Ting-
wall, and Walls, with the parliamentary churches of
Quarff and Sandwick; and of Burravoe, are Delting,

Fetlar Nesting, Northmavine, Unst, and Yell. In
1834 there were in the county 28 parochial-scho61s,
attended by 1,980 scholars; and 1 1 3 schools non par
ochial, attended by 2,179. An Orkney and Shetland
society exists in Edinburgh for relieving distressed
natives of the county casually visiting Edinburgh and
Leith. THE ORKNEY ISLANDS
 the Orcades of the Romans — form the southern
section or archipelago of the northern isles of Scot
land. They are separated from tbe north-eastern
extremity of continental Scotland and of Caithness
by the Pentland frith'; they measure in extreme
length, from north to south, about 57 miles, and in
extreme breadth, from east to west, about 27 miles :
they are, at their southern extremity, with the ex
ception of the Pentland Skerry, from 6 to 12 miles
distant from the coast of Caithness ; and they lie
between the parallels of 54° 47' and 59° 20' north
latitude, and between 2° 4' and 3° 23' longitude west
of Greenwich. Their aggregate area is computed to
be about 384,000 acres ; of which 84,000 are sup
posed to be in a productive state, and 300,000 pas-
toral or waste. They are grouped with considerable
compactness ; being separated from one another by
sounds or straits which are seldom more than 5, and
very often less than 2 miles wide. About two-thirds
of their whole area, comprising the mainland and
several other large as well as many smaller islands,
forms a strictly compact ellipsoidal group on the
south ; the longer axis extending due north and south,
and the general compactness being disturbed only, or
at least chiefly, by an interior expansion of sea on the
south, called Scapa flow. Along the north-east of
this group lies a belt of sea, of about 5 miles in mean
breadth, called, respectively at the north-west and
at the south-east end, the Westray and the Stronsay
friths. The other third of the aggregate area is
arranged nearly in the form of three limbs of a
Greek cross ; ranging the two continuous limbs
north-westward and south-eastward along the side
of this sound, and sending off the transverse limb in
a direction nearly due north-east. The number of
inhabited islands is 29; of small islands, locally called
Holms, covered with herbage, and regularly or occa
sionally stocked with cattle or sheep, is 38 ; and of
rocky islets, called Skerries, which carry little or no
herbage, and are altogether waste, is very consider
able, but not accurately ascertained.
So full a description of each of the inhabited
islands will be found in its appropriate place in our
work, that we shall here only so far notice them as
to indicate their relative magnitude and mutual posi
tions. Pentland Skerry, the most southerly, and
about equidistant from Caithness and Orkney pro
per, is a barren islet, important only as the site of a
lighthouse, and inhabited by but one family. South
Ronaldshay forms the south-east district of the greater
or ellipsoidal group, and, next to the mainland, is the
seat of the greatest population. S wanay lies west of
the southern extremity of the former, in the middle
of the southern entrance to Scapa flow ; but is only
about a mile long, and has few inhabitants. Hoy and
Waas or Walls are considered as two islands, but are
really one, sectioned into very unequal parts by the
very deep indentation from the east of au elongated
bay, called Long Hope ; they form the south-west
district of the ellipsoidal group, have a much larger
area than South Ronaldshay, but contain the highest
land in Orkney, and are thinly peopled. Faray,
Rasa, and Cava, are three small islands triangularly
grouped immediately off the middle of the west coast
of Hoy, and aggregately subsisting but few inhabi-

A.I"tilliirtaii & C1? .LoncLcm. & E Ri-nTmrrfl

ORKNEY ISLANDS.

463

tnnts. Flota lies immediately south-east of this little
sub-group, equidistant between Hoy and South
Ronaldshay, in the centre of the channel leading
up to Scapa flow, and is 3 miles long and 2 broad.
Graemsay, a comparatively small but productive island,
lies near the north-east extremity of Hoy, in the centre
, of Hoy mouth, or the western entrance to Scapa
flow. Burray, measuring 4 miles by 1, stretches
lengthwise parallel to the north end of South Ron
aldshay, and is separated from it by Water sound,
1 mile in breadth. Lambholin, 3 miles in circum
ference, lies north of Burray, in the middle of Holme
sound, or the eastern entrance to Scapa flow. Po
mona, or tbe Mainland — the seat of considerably
more than one-half of the whole Orcadian popula
tion, the site of the capital and of Stromness, and
not so much a continuous continent as an aggrega
tion of peninsulas and isthmuses, sectioned off by very
deeply indenting bays, a territory which bulks very
largely in the archipelago, yet has an area far beneath
the proportion or ratio of its population — screens the
whole north side of Scapa flow, and of its western
and eastern entrances, Hoy and Holm sounds, and
extends, in a broad expanse of land, to the north
west extremity of the general ellipsoidal grouping.
Copinshay, 1 mile by half-a-mile, and subsisting only
7 persons, lies about 2J miles east of the eastern extre
mity of the Mainland, and forms an excellent landmark
for ships. Shapinshay, about 7 miles by 5, lies 2 or
3 miles north-east of the Mainland, forming the south
west screen of tbe Stronsay frith. Damsay, the Or
cadian Tempe. small but beautiful, lies in the centre
of the bay of Firth, a deep indentation of the Main
land due south-west of Shapinshay. Gairsay, 2 miles
by 1, and consisting chiefly of a conical green hill,
lies 2 miles north-west of Shapinshay, and 1| east of
the Mainland. Weir, or Wire, small but populous,
lies 2 miles north of Gairsay. Rousay, nearly a
square of about 18 or 20 square miles, forms the
northern extremity of the ellipsoidal group. Eagle-
shay, a slender oblong of 2£ miles in length, flanks
the east side of Rousay, is separated from it by a
narrow marine belt, called Howa sound, and, jointly
with it, forms the south-west screen of Westray
frith. Enhallow, small but fertile, lies between
Rousay and the Mainland  The twenty-one islands
now enumerated — excepting Pentland Skerry, lying
to the south — form the larger or ellipsoidal Orcadian
group ; and the remaining eight constitute, with their
Holms and Skerries, the lesser group, or that lying
north-east of the Stronsay and the Westray friths.
Stronsay, 7 miles by 4, forms the south-eastern ex
tremity of the group, and screens its cognominal
frith. Papa-Stronsay, a beautiful islet 3 miles in
circumference, lies north of Stronsay, embosomed in
one of its bays. Eday, 5 miles by nearly 2, stretch
ing north and south, screens, on the south-west, the
inner extremity of Westray frith, or the part where
that frith merges in the frith of Stronsay. Faray, a
small oblong, lies west of Eday, separated from it
by a narrow sound. Westray, containing about 14
square miles, forms the north-west extremity of the
northern group, and the north-east screen of the
Westray frith. Papa- Westray, 4 miles by 1, stretch
ing north and south, is separated from Westray, on
the north-east, by a sound 1£ or 2 miles broad.
Sanday, about 12 miles long by about I£ of mean
breadth, extends due north-eastward from a point
about 1| mile north-east of Eday. North Ronald
shay, the most northerly of the Orkneys, and con
siderably populous, is separated, on the north-east,
from Sanday by North Ronaldshay frith, a sound
upwards of 2 miles broad, and of very dangerous
navigation. These islands appear to have been at one time a

continuous territory, and not improbably were at
tached to continental Scotland. Their geognostic
features, in confronting coasts, have, in general, an
exact correspondence; and their intersecting and se
parating friths and sounds are, to a great extent, so
shallow as to offer serious obstacles to navigation.
Viewed as an unique territory, they are abruptly and
boldly, though not in an alpine sense, mountainous
in the extreme south-west; tbey speedily subside into
hills as they recede from the south-western sea
board ; they fall off in gentle slopes in the interior,
and, with some exceptions, they stretch away to
ward the east and north-east in valleys or undulating
plains which are rarely 100 feet above sea-level.
The strictly rugged or boldest district is confined to
Hoy and Walls ; and occasionally exhibits some of
the finest rock- scenery in Scotland, — blendings of
shattered cliffs and stupendous precipices, with basins
of water now smooth and translucent as glass, and
now whirling and maddened like the wreaths and
eddies of a whirlwind of snow. . With the exception
of a little chasm at Rackwick, the whole coast of
about 15 miles is a precipitous mass of freestone
rocks, from 300 to upwards of 500 feet high, in some
places perpendicular and smooth, in others, rent, and
shivered, and broken down into huge fragments, and,
in a few, overhanging the sea and frowning on its
dark and stormy surges. The heights inland from
this coast-line, and those of the hilly but less rugged
district, or of Rousay, the western sections of Po
mona and Eday, and parts of Westray and South
Ronaldshay, are soft in outline, and either rounded or
gently curvatured ; and, in common with the cliffs,
they are bleak and sterile, seldom wearing any other
vegetation than heath, and extensively abandoned to
the moorfowl and birds of other species. The high
est ground is the hill of Hoy, which has an altitude
above sea-level of about 1 ,600 feet. The surface of
the low grounds is now heathy, now covered with
coarse pasture, and now vividly green or mellow,
with good or even rich crops of grain ; and it has
not a few spots, and some entire valleys, which have
been pronounced by strangers equal, in the opulence
of their gramineous clothing, to some of the best
lands in England. Yet from the utter absence of
trees, or even of tall shrubs, except in a few gar
dens principally around Kirkwall, from the great
prevalence of heath, from the general want of dis
tinctive contour along the surface, and from the
constant monotonous alternation of low bleak grounds
and rock-dotted belts of sea, the aggregate land
scape is far from possessing attractions to one who
has dwelt among the scenic beauties of either the
Lowland or the Highland continent. " If, how
ever, the tourist has the good fortune to be in
Orkney during a storm, he will cease to regret the
absence of some of the softer and more common
beauties of landscape, in the contemplation of the
most sublime spectacle which he ever witnessed.
By repairing at such a time to the weather-shore,
particularly if it be the west side, he will behold
waves, of the magnitude and force of which he could
not have previously formed any adequate concep
tion, tumbling across the Atlantic like monsters of
the deep, their heads erect, their manes streaming in
the wind, roaring and foaming as if with rage, till
each discharges such a Niagara flood against the op
posing precipices as makes the rocks tremble at their
foundations, while the sheets of water that imme
diately ascend as if from artillery, hundreds of feet
above their summits, deluge the surrounding country,
and fall like showers on the opposite side of the
island. All the springs within a mile of the weather-
coast are rendered brackish, for some days after
such a storm. Those living half-a-mile from the

464

ORKNEY ISLANDS.

precipice, declare that the earthen floors of their cots
are shaken by the concussion of the waves. Rocks
that two or three men could not lift, are washed
about, even on the tops of cliffs which are between
60 and 100 feet above the surface of the sea when
smooth, and detached masses of rock of an enor
mous size are well known to have been carried a
considerable distance between low and high water
mark." [Anderson's Guide to the Highlands.] — To
this we may add a very beautiful poetical sketch of
their scenery, though a night-piece : —
Night walked in beauty o'er the peaceful sea,
Whose gentle waters spake tranquillity.
With dreamy lull the rolling billows broke
In hollow murmurs on the distant rock ;
The Bea-bird wailed along the airy steep ;
The creak of distant oar was on the deep.
So still the scene, the boatswain's voice was heard,—
The listening ear could almost catch each word.
From isles remote the house-dog's fitful bay
Came floating o'er the waters far away.
And homeward wending o'er the silent hill,
The lonely shepherd's song and whistle shrill ;
The lulling murmur of the mountain-flood,
That sung its night-hymn to the solitude ;
The curlew's wild and desolate farewell,
As slow she sailed adown the darksome dell :
The heath-cock whirring o'er the heathy vale ;
The mateless plover's far-forsaken wail ;
The rush of tides that round the Islands ran,
And danced like maniacs in the moonlight wan, —
All formed a scene so wild, and yet so fair,
As might have wooed the heart from dreams of care,"
* * * ' * *
The coast-line of nearly all the islands, except
along the stern cliffs of tbe south-west and west, is
exceedingly curved, dentulated, and jagged, forming
numerous recesses for bays and landlocked havens in
which fleets of the largest vessels may securely ride.
The harbour of Long. Hope in Hoy, and that of
Widewall, directly opposite, in South Ronaldshay, in
particular, afford shelter amid all winds, except a
gale from the north, to vessels passing through the
Pentland frith ; arid for safety, depth of water, great
extent, and ease of access, they are inferior to few
in the world. The impetuous tides of the Pentland,
which have a velocity of nearly 3 miles at neap, and the
careering speed of 9 at spring, are nearly if not quite
equalled by those of some of the intersecting sounds
and friths ; yet, in common with these, they are re
pelled into eddies and countermotion as they ap
proach the land, and are so much curbed and modi
fied as to be navigable in clear weather with pro
bably as little danger as those,of any part of the coast
of Scotland. Ordinary neap tides rise about 3£ feet,
and ordinary spring tides about 8 ; maximum neap
tides rise upwards of 6 feet, and maximum spring
tides 14 ; minimum neap tides rise not above 2 feet,
and minimum spring tides only 5. Within a league
of the western coast, the depth of water is from 40
to 50 fathoms ; but at the same distance on the east
side, it does not exceed 32.
The Orkneys, owing to their peculiar situation,
have,a much less inequitable heat than the continent,
and are strangers to the extremes both of summer
heat and of winter cold. They have little snow,
less frost, and never any great continuance of either.
The mean heat throughout the year is 45° ; and the
widest general range of the thermometer is between
25° and 75°. Rain often falls heavily, and is sup
posed to have a deeper aggregate than over an equal
extent of country in most parts of Scotland. In
1811, a year of more than average humidity, the
quantity was 29.05 inches. The heaviest rains and
the prevalent and strongest winds are from the
south-west and the south-east. Winds between the
north-west and the north-east are cold but dry and
salubrious ; and they prevail during spring, and
sometimes till past the middle of June, checking the
progress of vegetation. Calms are of short duration ;

and sudden changes in all the elements of weather
occur oftener than in other parts of Scotland. Fogs
are common even in summer; and both form and
disperse with singular rapidity. Thunder-storms are
most common in winter, amid high winds, and con
tinued falls of rain or snow. \ The spring is cold and
tardy; the summer, though of short continuance,
is remarkable for rapidity of vegetation ; and the
winter is, in general, a continued series of hign
winds, heavy rains, and ever-varying storms. Dur
ing about a month at mid-summer, the light,' owing
jointly to the highness of the latitude, and the Su
perior reflecting power of water over land, is so
strong at midnight that, when the sky is clear, a
student may either read in the open air, or regale
himself with the continued music of the lark, the
land-rail, and other feathered songsters. The night
of this halcyon season is but a mellowed and a balmy
day, possessing the odours and the melodies and the
wakeful activities of the hours of the sun's power,
without any of their over-mastering influences or
their scorching and dazzling glare. Even the win
ter nights, notwithstanding what has been fabled
about their monopolizing and terrible dominion, give
place at the very solstice to 6 hours of day-light ;
and, when not lit up with the moon, have very fre
quently a brilliant, and richly tinted, and sublimely
fitful play of the aurora borealis, such as both yields
a beautiful though faint light, and invites the well-
toned mind to admiring and devout contemplation.
Primitive rock occurs only in the district around
Stromness, in the south-west of Pomona, and im
pinging upon Grsemsay. It consists chiefly of gneiss,
confusedly stratified and often running into granite;
it is everywhere disturbed and dislocated in its im
perfect strata by veins of quartz and felspar ; it oc
casionally gives place to beds of hornblende ; and, in
one locality, it passes into micaceous schist, freely
gemmed with garnets. The rock forms a hilly rough
ridge about 6 miles in length, extending north-west
ward and south-eastward, behind Stromness. The
gneiss of Orkney seems totally to want the metalli-
ferousness which so generally distinguishes that rock
in other regions. Around the primitive strata lies a
zone of conglomerate, whose base is argillaceous or
silicious. All other parts of the islands, south-east
and north, appear to lie upon a field of schistose
strata, very various in their composition, and rang
ing from the transition series considerably up the
secondary formation. The prevailing varieties are
greywacke and greywacke slate ; sometimes thin
and black, and occasionally used for slating, and
sometimes massive, and dark blue, and a good build
ing material. Another variety is bituminous shale,
not very plentiful, laden in one place with soft bitu
men, or petroleum, and assuming in some places the
appearance of glance coal. A third variety is lime
stone in thin beds, seldom pure, rarely more than
two feet thick, nowhere abundant, yet occasionally
good, and burnt as a building cement. Sandstone
of the newer formations, grey, red, and brown, and
sometimes, though rarely, streaked and variegated,
constitutes the bold heights and fantastic cliffs and
pinnacles of Hoy  Secondary porphyry in several
varieties, and secondary trap in the forms of green
stone, basalt, and amygdaloid, break through the
schists and sandstone in all ttfe islands, sometimes
forming caves and hollow swells, sometimes rising in
large pinnacled nodules, sometimes shooting out into
the sea in points and headlands, and everywhere dis
arranging and contorting the stratified masses with
their veins and dykes  Veins of iron-ore, chiefly
brown hemalite, traverse the sandstone of Hoy ;
they were ordered to be explored by the Carron
company soon after the establishment of their

ORKNEY ISLANDS.

465

works ; but though known to yield from 40 to 60
per cent, of iron, they have not yet been found of
workable breadth. Small veins of galena of lead-
glance are found among the schistose rocks, particu
larly in Pomona. One little mine, where several
veins lie contiguously near the manse of Stromness,
yields a little silver, and has been occasionally
worked for about a century. Veins of heavy spar,
or prismatoidal barytes, traverse the same rocks, or
are found associated with the veins of galena. Lime-
spar or calcareous spar is very common ; and on the
east side of Shapinshay, it is so abundant that it might
be burnt into manurial lime. A compound of sulphate
of barytes and carbonate of strontia, which has been
treated as a new species, and called Barystrontianite
irom its composition, and Stromnesite from its geo
graphical position, occurs in association with the
heavy spar of Stromness. The different varieties of
bog-iron, yielding from 30 to 38 per cent, of iron,
occur in considerable quantity, chiefly on the sides of
the hills toward their base, and in the vicinity of
springs  Though sand, in some places, and clay or
moss, in others, is found of great depth, the general
soil of Orkney is shallow, lying upon either till or
rock within two feet of the surface, and often so
near as to be touched by the plough. Much the
greater part of it is peat or moss, forming, from
the nature and nearness of the subsoil, a wet, spongy,
and irreclaimable moorland. Yet a Considerable pro
portion of the moss is what the inhabitants call yarfa
soil, consisting of bent moss, and easily improve-
able. Loams, of various degrees of tenacity, and,
in some instances, though never to any great ex
tent, approaching to clay, cover an area next in
magnitude to that of the mosses. Sandy soils are
extensive ; and, in a few spots, particularly in
Westray, Stronsay, and Sandy, they degenerate into
beds of loose, drifting sand, entirely sterile, and su
perincumbent on the real soil. Had not a beneficent
Providence zoned most of the islands with a belt of
indurated argillaceous and silicioiis debris, which is
so hard as strongly to resist the action of the waves,
and which, when pulverized and used as a manure,
enriches the prevailing soils, the prevalently arena
ceous character of the rocks, and the alluvium of
Orkney might have exposed it to fearful havock
from the ocean, in the way both of invasion and of
, accumulating the materials for a deluge of drifting
sand. Of the arable lands, probably about one-third
have sandy soils, a larger proportion have different
sorts of loam, and the remainder have yarfa or dry
benty moss."— Shell marl, consisting of fresh water
shells in a basis of clayey chalk, is a common but
much neglected production, occurring in almost every
considerable meadow or marsh, but grossly unappre
ciated for its manurial powers. Tufaceous limestone
or calc-tuff, though similar in value, and though fre
quently seen incrusting the rocks and vegetation in
the vicinity of springs, is seldom applied to any use
ful purpose. — Moss of the depth and composition of
peat is not so abundant as to prevent scarcity of fuel
in several districts of the islands, or to -render its
conservation and even its increase objects of little
public interest. Its ingredients, besides the herba
ceous plants found in every moss-soil, are birch,
hazel, Scottish fir trees, and the cones of the pitch
pine; a circumstance- which seems to argue that the
country was anciently robed to a considerable ex
tent in forest, or, at all events, was not so cheerlessly
destitute as it now is of dendritic embellishment.
Peat for fuel is usually dug in the end of May or be-
¦ ginning of June, and carried home in July.
Nearly all the land of Orkney is freehold, but
-burdened with payments in kind to the Crown, or to
the Earl of Zetland, as the down's donatory. These
II.

payments, though of various origin, all bear the
name of feu-duties, and are exigible on account either
of the Crown's having come in the place of the king
of Norway, to whom the islands paid tribute till
1468, or of its having acquired rights by purchase
and forfeiture, or of its having inherited the claims
of the bishop of Orkney. So enormous are the
feu-duties, that the property is, in most instances,
little more, as to actual value, than nominal, or dif
fers from a high-rented leasehold only in the useless
honour of an empty title. A considerable propor
tion was originally held under udal or allodial ten
ure, — a system which required no written right ; but
owing to very numerous and frequent transferences
by sale, it has come, in the great majority of in
stances, to be held under charter and sasine, as in
every other district of Scotland. Lands are occu-
piedeither by the proprietors themselves, by tacks
men who farm a part and let the remainder, or by
tenants who farm all they rent. Farms are of vari
ous sizes, from 6 or 8 acres, to several hundreds, or
even upwards of a thousand ; but they are for the
most part small, averaging probably 10 or 11 acres;
and when very large, they consist chiefly of exten
sive tracts of open grazing-ground, or the uninhab
ited islets called holms. Though many of the far
mers are men of considerable property and good
education, the great body have but a slender capital
and rank in the social scale, simply as peasants. The
cultivated portions of farms are in a manner peculiar
to Orkney, and so numerously as everywhere to im
press upon it a characteristic feature, flung or main
tained together in clusters called towns. An Orca
dian town is a portion of ground, partly arable and
partly in pasture, always — except where there is a
marine or some other natural boundary — separated
from what is called ' the hill,' or the common moor,
by a massive encincturing turf-dyke ; it is provided
with a number of houses corresponding to the num
ber of clustered farms, and severally occupied by the
different farmers, whether proprietors or tenants ; it
was all originally, and in general still is, in runrig,
belonging mixedly to the farmers, but apportioned
to them in their respective shares; and it has patches
of grass-land, and sometimes separate pieces of
ground near the houses called ' tumails,' or little
enclosures called ' quags.' The lands composing
the towns are of very various dimensions; and,
whether penny-lands, merk-lands, farthing-lands,
cowsworths, or wearing particular modifications of
these uncouth and quite indeterminate denomina
tions, those of any name in the same town are of
equal extent; and when they are ' planked,' as the
local phrase is, or thrown into severalty, by proces
ses for separating the runrig, and erecting marches
among the several proprietors, they are, after due
measurement, divided, in both their arable and their
grass-grounds, in the proportion of the number of
penny-lands, and lands of various other denomina
tions legally belonging to the several claimants.
Each resident in a ' town,' besides his possessions
within the dyke, has the privilege of sending his
live stock to ' the hill,' or common moor, and lib
erty, according to the nature of his rights, to cut
turf in the mosses, and gather manurial sea-weed on
the shore.
Though the continuance to a great extent of the
mischievous system of runrig represses and impedes
improvement, the arts of husbandry have, during the
last 30 years, made great progress, and arrayed them
selves in a modern and graceful dress. The old
Orkney plough, which continued to be ' still too
much used' in 1814, the date of the Agricultural
Report of Orknev> and which had only one stilt,
without either ground-wrist or earth-board, and,
2 G

466

ORKNEY ISLANDS.

when at work, received against one side the pres
sure of the ploughman's weight, and was drawn by
three or four oxen or small horses yoked abreast,
and which oniy scratched some soils, and slided along
others ;  this antique but absurd instrument is now
completely discarded, and can be met with only in
the museum of the antiquary. The old mode of
portage, by means of ' the clibber and mazy,' balanced
across the backs of horses, and bearing from the ends
or at the horses' sides strange-looking heath-baskets,
called creels, or quite as strange straw ones, called
' cubbies' and ' cazies;' this mode of portage, which
was used in transporting all sorts of heavy or bulky
articles, and which made the largest part of horses'
labour consist in carrying home peats from the
mosses, and which is still practised to a sufficient
extent to treat a visiter to the islands with the sight
of an antiquated custom highly illustrative of the
semi-barbarous social order of bygone times, has now
so generally yielded to the use of the very simple
two- wheeled vehicle, whose introduction contributed
so large a share in revolutionizing the Highlands,
that in a parish where, at the end of last century,
there were only 1 1 carts, at least 200 may now be
found. Some gentlemen-farmers, and some large
proprietors who farm part of their estates, put their
arable grounds under a regular rotation of crops,
make a free use of turnip-husbandry, judiciously
cultivate the artificial grasses, and, in general, set
an enlightened and enterprising example of improved
methods of agriculture, which begins to be admired
and to attract followers among the smaller farmers.
By far the chief extent of the arable land of the
islands, however, is periodically tortured out of
heart by an alternate cropping of oats and bear, and
is sustained as long and as fully as possible in its
energies by a liberal dosing of sea-weed, but re
mains a stranger to nearly all those amenities of
husbandry which can always keep a soil from even
an approach to exhaustion, and yet draw from it a
more continuous and greatly a more opulent produce
than when it is wrung and overworked by continual
demands for grain. Potatoes, though introduced
about 75 years, continued to be both scantily and
incorrectly cultivated several years after the opening
of the present century ; but they are now regularly
raised on every farm, and at once form an important
part of the farmer's diet, and serve to clean a small
portion of his farm.
On account of the damage to crops by the frequent
gales of autumn, by blights from the sea-spray, and
by the general humidity of the climate, and on ac
count also of the comparatively great equableness of
the temperature, and the short continuance in win
ter of snows or frost, circumstances so favourable for
the rearing of black cattle and sheep, pasturing
seems much more suitable than husbandry for most
of the land in Orkney ; and, it is said, would long
ago have become general but for the peculiar nature
of the tenure ; and, even under the present system,
is so far an object of attention with tenants as to be
made more than tillage to contribute to the paying
of their rents  The cattle of the islands do not
seem to be of a breed materially different from those
of Caithness and Sutherland ; they are larger in size,
and would even exceed their own largeness were
they not when young very often half-starved in win
ter; and, as to colour, they are black, white, and
brown, and, in a few instances, party-coloured, mot
tled, or brindled  The only breed of native sheep
seems to be the avis Cauda brevi, ' the short-tailed
sheep ' of Iceland, Shetland, the Hebrides, the inte
rior of the Highlands of Scotland, and, in general,
the far or mountainous north of Euror-v:. Sheep of
this breed, confusedly, and to the most untraceable

extent mixed with other breeds, and amounting
jointly with them to about 50,000, run wild in the
hills and common moors, so little tended and so
abandoned to a state of nature, as at once to escape
improvement in themselves, and to. yield but trivial
advantage to their owners. But on holms or sepa,
rate grazing islands, and On some peninsulas artifi
cially shut out from the adjacent commons, there are
some thriving and profitable flocks of Swedish Me
rinos, South Downs, Cheviots, arid approved cross
breeds  The first horses of Orkney were probably
imported from Norway, and, for many ages, were
not much different from those of that country in
size and shape. But those now generally used ap
pear to be descended from the breed of the northern
counties of Scotland ; and they are reared in such
numbers as to be sent back in considerable annual
supplies to the land of their origin — The swine —
though somewhat resembling the native breed of
the Highlands — are very different from that which
prevails in the lower districts of Scotland. They
are of a middle size, generally black or dark-red in
colour, flat-bodied, with backs highly arched, carry
ing a quantity of long stiff bristles over a fleece of
coarse wool, their ears erect and sharp-pointed, their
nose amazingly strong, and their whole figure and
appearance — as well as their habits, while they range
at will over hill or common, or are allowed posses
sion of an entire island — bearing a closer resemblance
than is found in any other of our domesticated breeds,
to the wild boar  Rabbits are found in most of the
islands; they occupy an extensive warren in Burray;
and in one year 36,000 rabbit-skins were shipped
from Stromness. — Poultry of all sorts are reared;
the common sorts everywhere, and particularly geese.
The manufacture of linen-yarn and cloth, for a
considerable period previous to the commencement
of the present century, was somewhat extensively
conducted ; but it received a severe check from the
difficulty and uncertainty of obtaining flax during the
war with the continent ; and it has since dwindled
away into a state approaching extinction. — The ma
nufacture of kelp, during the halcyon days of that
rude and easy and congenial employment, was pur
sued with such avidity, and so fondly clung to as a
staple, that perspicacious economists were at no loss,
even so early as 1806, to foretell that it would be
' the ruin of Orkney.' The greatest annual export
occurred in 1826, and amounted to 3,500 tons, bring
ing into the country, at the rate of £7 per ton, the
sum of £24,500. The events which have destroyed
the manufacture elsewhere have destroyed it here,
and, by rendering its recovery hopeless, have dam
aged all and completely ruined some of the principal
landed proprietors  Straw-plaiting, for ladies' bon
nets and gentlemen's hats, has been a large but fluc
tuating manufacture. It was introduced about the
beginning of the century, and, about 10 or 15 years
after its introduction, employed 6,000 or 7,000 fe
males, and annually brought into the country about
£20,000. The material then employed was split
ripened wheat-straw; and the produce could be
worked into only a flimsy, colourless, brittle piece
of head-gear, which soon and deservedly lost the
favour of fickle fashion. When a successful imits>
tion, by the Messrs. Muir of Greenock, was made
of the Leghorn plait, and found, under the name
of Tuscan, a speedy promise of general patronage,
the Orcadian damsels were easily instructed to sub
stitute the unripened, unsplit, boiled, and bleached
straw of rye, for the former material, and, to em
ploy themselves upon the new fabric, chiefly for the
Messrs. Muir, and also for smaller manufacturers.
But they never could work as numerously, or as re-
muneratingly with it, as with the slender split wheat-

ORKNEY ISLANDS.

467.

straw ; and they have, more than once, come into
rude collision with the wayward caprices of that
viewless and subtle but powerful controlling power
called fashion, which has them entirely at its mercy.
They numbered, 7 years ago, about 3,000 ; annually
producing about 2,000,000 yards of plait ; and were
paid with the pitiful earnings of only from Is. 6d.
to 2s. 6d. per week. They, for a long series of
years, were collected in groups into confined apart
ments, and are understood to have seriously suffered
in the moral character of the many, from the corrupt
ing influence of the evil communications of the few ;
but they have latterly worked in their own homes,
and, while freed from an outward mischievous pres
sure upon both their health and their hearts, they find
their employment an incentive only to cleanliness
and neatness  The only other manufactories are
three distilleries, — two of them at Kirkwall, and one
at Stromness. Their annual produce, which amounts
to about 14,000 gallons, is unhappily not more than
the amount of local consumpt.
The fisheries were long shamefully neglected, or
seemed to be all but forgotten amid the absorbing
attention which was given to the manufacture of
kelp. Lobster-fishing is the only department of
some standing ; it was introduced by an English
company ; and, for several years preceding 1814, it
annually produced for the London market about
120,000 lobsters, and brought into the country about
£1,500. It is still vigorously conducted, and sends
off its produce in welled smacks, which make regular
weekly calls at appointed stations ; but it now pro
duces only about 100,000 in the year, and, as they
have for some years decreased in both size and plen-
teousness, it may be considered as seriously on the
decline. The cod-fishery was carried on about half-
a-century ago, in the neighbourhood of Stronsay,
and afterwards was, for many years, neglected ; it
was revived and extended generally among the islands
during the latter period of the war with continental
Europe, the fishing-ground being less exposed than
the Dogger bank to annoyance by the enemies' priva
teers ; but it again fell into neglect ; and, at present,
it has been of only a few years' continuance, but is
conducted by well-appointed sloops, and has a pro
mising appearance. The herring-fishery, down to
about twenty-five years ago, had scarcely an exist
ence, owing, as some say, to the want of enterprise,
or, as others say, to the want of herrings ; it sud
denly rose to such importance, however, as, in 1820,
to produce for exportation 1 7,989 barrels ; and,
though it afterwards declined, it so rallied and pro
gressed as, in 1832, to produce 65,000 barrels, and
bring into the country about £32,500. English and
Scottish whale-ships annually touch at the islands of
both Orkney and Shetland, and obtain from them a
large proportion of their quota of men for working
the Baffin-bay fishery. When the ships resorted to
Davis' straits, so many as sixty would have called in
one year, taking, on board 1,400 men, and leaving
about £18,000; but since they began to resort to
Baffin's-bay, and required men to continue away
from home during the harvest months, when their
domestic • services were most wanted, they have had
less connexion with the country, and allow the quon
dam harpooners of the king of the arctic seas to em
ploy themselves, more benignly for their morals, in
catching the edible tribes of the seas which gird their
own islands.
The registered vessels of Orkney and Shetland,
in 1833 — much thelarger proportion of them belong
ing to Orkney — were 78, carrying 4,049 tons and 319
seamen. They are, for the most part, schooner-
rigged ; they are well-built, uninsured, worked by
able and sober seamen, and subject to fewer acci

dents than vessels of most other districts ; and they
trade chiefly with the ports of England and of Ire
land. In 1770, the vessels were 17, carrying 825
tons and 76 seamen, and exporting produce to the
value of £12,018 ; and, in 1800, they were 21, carry
ing 1,375 tons and 119 seamen, and exporting pro
duce to the value of £39,677. The commerce of
the country, both outward and inward, in bygone
times and at present, exhibits a motleyness, and a
width of range, and the occasional prominence of
curious articles, which at once amuse the observer
and illustrate the social condition of the people.
The exports of 1806, for example, consisted of kelp,
bear, beef, pork, pork-hams, calf-skins, cow-hides,
tanned-leather, seal-skins, cow-hair, feathers, tallow,
butter, fish-oil, linen-cloth, linen-yarn, rabbit-skins,
otter-skins, quills, malt, dried podlies, small fish,
eggs, woollen stuff, oatmeal, dried cod and ling,
wool, slates, ale, and live cows and oxen ; and the
imports of the same year, as exhibited in a table be
fore us, consisted of no fewer than 100 items, some
of them curious for their littleness and simplicity,
such as ' 1 bottle turpentine,' ' 2 carts complete,'
'3 bundles spades,' and '6 casks whitening;' and
some remarkable for their multifariousness and in
trinsic variety, such as ' haberdashery,' ' apothe
caries' ware,' 'confections,' and 'groceries,' — 'ginger
bread' and 'candy-sugar' being allowed to form
separate items. The imports of late years, say the
Messrs. Anderson in their excellent ' Guide to the
Highlands,' " may be stated to be annually a few
thousand pounds less" than the exports. ''They
consist of a great variety of articles, which would be
best understood by an inspection of an Orkney shop,
which is a sort of bazaar, the keeper of which is
grocer, clothier, haberdasher, hosier, hatter, silk-
mercer, ironmonger, tobacconist, &c. &c. A con
siderable annual quantity of wood from various
places, and coals from Newcastle, are also imported."
One or two elegant mansions, a small n umber of
neat and comfortable villas, and the manses of the
parish-ministers, are the only Orcadian dwelling-
houses of note out of Kirkwall. The farm-buildings
are, in many instances, substantial and convenient,
and occasionally they are expensive and aim at con
sideration ; but they consist, at best, of a dwelling-
house, and a detached barn and cow-house, with
inferior offices ; and, in the case of nearly all the
small farmers, whether proprietors or tenants, or the
retainers of gentlemen-farmers, they are single build
ings, miserable primitive cottages, with an exterior
blotched round by the excrescences of peat-stalk,
kiln, and dunghill, and an interior laid out for the
accommodation of man, beast, and fowl.. These
cottages are generally built with stones and clay, or
with stones and clod, and are slenderly and clumsily
covered, almost every year, with a little fresh straw.
The door is sometimes less than 5 feet high, and
affords ingress and egress to every inmate, whether
biped or quadruped, plumeless or feathered. While
many cottages, like the abodes of the better sort ot
farmers, have detached out-houses, they are, as a
class of buildings, characteristically at once dwelling-
house, cow-house, and hen-roost. The cows, foi
the most part, occupy their own end of the building,
though a few calves, or a favourite cow, may be seen
in 'the butt,' or end of honour, in company with the
family; and fowls and geese, while assigned an ap
propriate place, are fully admitted to the comforts
of the central fire, blazing on the middle of the
earthen floor, and sending up to a constant canopy
of smoke supply ample enough to compensate the
upward drainage through an avviy aperture, and
various undesigned crevices in the roof. Around the
fire, during the long winter nights, sit the family.

468

ORKNEY ISLANDS.

the men making or mending some utensils of hus
bandry, the women plaiting straw or plying the
needle, and both seemingly more contented and. free
from sensible discomfort than the trim and refined
peasants and farmers of Lowland Scotland and merry
England. The cottages, besides the main apartment,
have generally an interior one, or 'ben,' which is
used, on great occasions, as a bed-room ; they some
times have, between the two apartments, a space for
lumber ; and, in their general character and accom
modations, even in spite of their broad and dark
faults, they are superior to house3 of the same rank
in some of the northern districts of the mainland of
Scotland. Attached to each cottage, and connected
with the barn, is a small round antique-looking
tower, used as a kiln, — an appurtenance rendered
necessary by the absence of any public or purchas
able means of drying corn.
The Orcadians, though of the same parental stock
as the Shetlanders, have fewer and less marked
peculiarities of manner, and, maintaining a far freer
and more frequent intercourse with the Scottish
Lowlanders than with them, experience toward them
the same feelings of strangeness which are enter
tained in the far south. The better classes are
noted for their politeness ; and even the middle and
lower orders assume to be so much superior in good
breeding to the corresponding orders on the con
tinent, that, come from what quarter emigrants may,
they are able to impart a polish to their manners.
The language spoken is a dialect of the English,
considerably purer in vocables and pronunciation
than that spoken in almost any part of the Lowlands
of Scotland, but marked in the utterance by the
sibilant and guttural softness whieh belongs more to
the Celtic than the Saxon tongues. Funerals, as in
England and Ireland, are attended promiscuously by
men and women. The dress, the customs, and all
characteristic properties, have little or nothing in
common with those of the Celtic Highlanders. The
food of the peasantry, in summer, is pottage for
breakfast, bread and milk for dinner, and either of
these for supper ; and, in winter, it consists of the
same fare, variegated with potatoes, which are en
riched occasionally with butter or fish, or very rarely
with butcher-meat; and in both seasons of the year
it frequently gives place, for both dinner and supper,
to a meal of cabbages furnished from the well-stocked
kail-yard which every cottage has as an appendage.
All classes are, in the aggregate, as intelligent and as
distinguished for attendance on the ordinances of
Christianity as those of almost any part of Scotland.
The paflronage of the parochial places of worship,
except that of two parliamentary churches, which
belongs to the Crown, and that of Kirkwall, which
belongs to the Town-council of the burgh, is all in
the hands of the Earl of Zetland. The ministers of
the Establishment have made great exertions, by
their own activity and by the employment of assist
ants, to supply tbe deficiencies which have arisen
from the union of parishes, or are occasioned by
physical obstructions and the dispersedness of popu
lation ; and they have been rivalled, perhaps stimu
lated, in their work by efforts of great enterprise
and missionary devotedness, and not a little success
on the part of dissenters, particularly the United
Seceders and the Independents. In 1839 the United
Secession had in the islands eleven congregations, all
provided with settled ministers, and constituting the
entire care or jurisdiction of a presbytery ; the Inde
pendents had three congregations provided with set
tled pastors; the Original Seceders had two; and
the Baptists had several stations. For the statistics
of the Establishment, see Orkney and Shetland.
Superstitions of the same idle and wild character as

those which prevailed till a comparatively late period
in even the Lowlands of Scotland, and which still
unqualifiedly inthral nine-tenths of the peasantry of
Ireland, have, during the last forty years, been in
the progress of expulsion from Orkney, and have,
to a chief degree, disappeared. Yet a considerable
number of natives still tell stories of fairies and their
elfish pranks, and tremble to turn a boat at the com
mencement of a voyage contrary to the course of the
sun, and apply pet names to the elements to propi
tiate their favourable influences in culinary or agri
cultural operations. The common people are inured
to great fatigue, and are very adventurous both in
fishing during rough weather and in climbing the
rocks for sea-fowl and their eggs. In some parts
they sweep the faces of bold cliffs and perpendicular
or overhanging sea-coast in the same manner as the
Norwegians, the Icelanders, and the people of St.
Kilda, — one person being danglingly lowered down
at a rope's end by others to the place where the birds
nestle ; but, in general, they practise a method of
their own, one party rowing, under the rocks where
the fowls build, a boat provided with a large net, and
fastening to the upper corners of the net two ropes
lowered down from the top of the rocks, and another
party, stationed at the top, and who had let down
the ropes, hoisting up the net till it is spread op •
posite the cliffs where the birds are sitting, holding it
there while the boatmen below suddenly affright the
birds, and make them fly out in disorder, with the
sound of a rattle, and then immediately enclosing
them in the bosom of the net, and-lowering the prize
into the boat. — Of various distinguished persons
whom Orkney claims as natives, two of the best
known, at least in the literary world, are Mrs. Brun-
ton, the amiable authoress of ' Self-Control,' ' Dis
cipline,' and several other well-toned works of ima
gination, and Malcolm Laing, Esq., the author of a
widely diffused history of Scotland, who was buried
in the cathedral of Kirkwall.
The Orkney islands seem to be the Cape Orcasof
Diodorus Siculus, which, in the year 57, he notices
as an extremity of Britain ; and they were, if not
subdued, at least surveyed, by the Roman fleet which
sailed round the north of Scotland in Agricola's
memorable campaign of the year 84. Under their
classical or Romanized name of Orcades, they be
came familiar to the Romans, from their communi
cations with the Celtic inhabitants of Britain, before
the Scandinavian rovers appeared in the British seas.
Ore is one of the three principal isles of Britain
mentioned by the Welsh Triads ; and it stands as
the Welsh name of the Orkneys in Davis' and Rich
ards' Dictionaries. Orck, in the British language,
signifies what is outward, extreme, or bordering, and
aptly designates the relative position of the islands
during the British period ; and joined to ynys, enys,
or inis, the words respectively in British, Cornish,
and Gaelic, for an island, it occasioned the group, as
Romanizing or purely Celtic influence prevailed, to
be variously denominated Orcades, Orcadia, Orcha-
dia, Orchades, Orkenies, and Orkneys. Such is the
apparently clear and natural origin of the name as
traced by that astute etymologist, the author of
' Caledonia.' Yet a writer in the Edinburgh Ency
clopedia, speaking " undoubtedly," but assigning a
reason only " probably," and substituting "a large
marine animal" for a word, says, " The origin of
the name is undoubtedly Teutonic, and is probably
derived from Orkin, a large marine animal which has
been applied both to whales and seals. Orkneys
therefore, means ' land of whales or of seals.' "—
The stone monuments which still remain, appear to
indicate that the Orkney islands were colonized dur
ing an early period by the posterity of the same

ORKNEY ISLANDS.

469

people who settled Western Europe. Druid monu
ments abound, and, in one instance, [see Stenness,]
are so magnificent as to be inferior, in the estimation
of antiquaries, only to those in Salisbury plain, and
celts, flint arrow-heads, flint axes, and swords made
of the bone of a whale, have numerously been found ;
yet such monuments, so characteristic by the Celtic
tribes, and so common throughout the territories
which were possessed by the Celtic Britons, are al
together unknown, and have been untraceable, in
Shetland. Not the Scandinavians, then, who col
onized alike the archipelago of Orkney and the archi
pelago of Shetland, but the same Celtic people who
colonized South and North Britain, seem to have
been the original or earliest inhabitants of the Ork
neys. A tradition accordingly came down to the
15th century that two nations, denominated Peti or
Pape, possessed these islands during ages before the
more recent arrival of the Scandinavians. Yet, ow
ing probably to some physical cause, the original
people seem to have disappeared at some period prior
to the Roman discovery of the country. The names
of places in Orkney are almost as universally Teu
tonic as in Shetland ; and exhibit such slender and
doubtful traces of Celtic influences as would seem to
prove that it had substantially ceased long before
the epoch of the new colonization by the Scandina
vian rovers. Celts paved the way for the Teutonic
race even in Scandinavia itself, and, as settled there,
were the giants of Rudbeck ; and, in that country
as in Orkney, they ceased to have any decided
monuments in the topographical nomenclature. Ta
citus asserts the Orcades to have been subdued by
Agricola, but uses language too general to throw
light on their condition. Pomponius Mela mentions
them about the middle of the 2d century, and states
their number at 30. Pliny numbers them at 40.
Ptolemy brings them back to 30. Solinus, writing in
240, and looking possibly at only the considerable
southern islands, reduces them to 3, and pronounces
them uninhabited by men, and " only," according
to Richard, " the haunt of seals, and ores, aTid sea-
mews clang." Chalmers, contemplating their deso
lation at this period, and not flinging away his for
mer etymology of their name, which is necessary in
order to account for at once the " Orcades" of the
Romans, " the Ore" of the Welsh, and the " Inis-
Orc" of the Gaelic people of the neighbouring coast,
thinks it not improbable, "if we may believe Wolf,"
as to Orh or Oerck, meaning in Danish, " a desert
or uninhabited place, that the Danes, on visiting the
islands, and seeing their wilderness appearance, gave
them, from that word and oee or ey, "an isle," the
name Ork-ees, " the . uninhabited isles;" or, con
templating the abandonment of the islands to " seals,
ores, and sea-mews," and, observing that in ichthy
ology ore or orca, signifies a monstrous sea-fish, he
even thinks it possible that the Scandinavians de
rived or formed the name Ork-ey out of that word,
and their own ey, " an isle." Truth, we would con
jecture, lies between, and points to the British de
rivation as that of the original name, or the name as
it became known to the Romans, — and at one or
other of the Teutonic derivations as that which,
suggesting itself and seeming graphic to the Scandi
navians, recommended the original name to their
adoption. The Orkneys appear to have become, toward the
close of the 3d century, or early in the 4th, the
harbours of the ferocious seamen of northern Eu
rope ; and, in the time of Constantine, they loomed
so bulkily in the distant view, as, at the division of
the empire, to be specially mentioned along with
Gaul and Britain as the patrimony of the emperor's
youngest son. In 366, the great Theodosius pur

sued the fleet of the northern pirates into their usual
haunts, and, in a panegyric by Claudian on his vic
tory, is said to have stained the Orkneys with tbe
effusion of Saxon blood : —

. Maduerunt Saxone fusio

Orcades; incaluit Fictorum sanguine Thule,
Scotorum cumulus ftevit glacialis lerue."
In 570, Columba found one of the Orcadian chiefs
at the court of the Pictish king Bridei IL, and ar
ranged with him a mission of his disciple Cormac to
the Orkneys. Cormac was possibly less successful
than most of his fellow-Culdees, who either did not
remain long in his adopted field of labour, or was not
succeeded in it, as other Culdee missionaries were in
theirs, by a college of preaching brethren ; for he
figures no further in the known history of the islands,
and did not prevent thetn from being, for generations
afterwards, an adopted home of Scandinavian hea
thenism. The islands, in an age rather of naval en
terprise than of domestic industry, must have been
but thinly inhabited and little cultivated. Yet their
inhabitants, living chiefly by adventure, and signal
ized by reckless daring, seem frequently to have in
vaded the coasts of Pictavia ; and, somewhere
between 674 and 695, they were vigorously re
pulsed from one of their attacks by Bridei IV., and
pursued by him into their usual retreats, amidst their
shoals and isles. For two centuries afterwards they
appear very dimly, and but as a phantasmagoria in
history. Yet, during that period, many congenial
colonists were very probably driven to share their
bleak retreat and common exile from the frequent
perturbations of their parent country ; and, as Well
as the older settlers, they most likely yielded little
subjection to any sovereign, and still less obedience
to any government, and looked with stirring interest
on the wild sea-kings wielding the dominion of the
German main, and coming down with the swoop of
an eagle, at intervals of their own choosing, upon
whatever points they pleased of the Hebridean, the
Pictavian, and the Scottish coasts.
In 870, Harold Harfager, or the Fair-haired, one
of the chiefs of Norway, who had been dissatisfied
with the territories he possessed, and had introduced
discord and civil war among the little states around
him, achieved by a naval victory the union and con
solidation of the Norwegian provinces in subjection
to his sway. Many of the princes and people, dis
gusted with his usurpations, or compelled to flee
from his anger, left their native land, made a lodg
ment on Iceland, the Faroes, and the Hebrides, but
especially on Orkney and Shetland, and thence sailed
out in piratical or retaliative expeditions to intercept
the trade and ravage the coasts of his kingdom. In
876, Harold, having equipped a fleet of invasion,
made a descent on both the Orkney and the Hebri
dean islands, and subdued both, and established
them under the authority of his vigorous govern
ment. On his return to Norway, he conferred the
administration of Orkney on Ronald or Rognovald,
Count of Merca, and the father of Rollo, the famous
invader of Norway, and the great-great-grandfather
of William the Conqueror. In 920, Sigurd, the bro
ther of Ronald, received by peaceful cession from
him the Orcadian dominion ; and he afterwards added
to it Caithness, Sutherland, Easter Ross', and Moray ;
and he eventually fell on the battle-field in the last
of these districts, attempting to fight his way to
further conquest. The two brothers are jointly—
and sometimes the one, sometimes the other, singly
— reckoned the founders of the Orcadian dynasty.
A long line of Scandinavian earls or jarls who suc
ceeded them, affected the style of independent princes
in Orkney ; maintained possession of Caithness and

470

ORKNEY ISLANDS.

Sutherland, and made their power to be felt in various
parts of both the eastern and the Hebridean coasts
of northern Scotland ; wore the attributes and
wielded the influence of enterprising and dauntless
reguli ; and, amid the dissensions of Norway, and
their own plundering and piratical excursions, pro
bably yielded but slight obedience to the Norwegian
kings. Gottorm, tbe nephew of Ronald, and after
wards Hailed his son, succeeded to the Orcadian
earldom ; but both were stupid and incompetent, and
were allowed a hasty quaff of the luxuries of power.
Rollo and Einor, brothers of Hailed, competing for
the succession, the former "gained a loss "by de
feat, marched off to try his fortune in France, and
became Duke of Normandy, leaving to Einar the
icicled little throne of Orkney, and opportunity to
earn the curious fame of being the first to teach the
Orcadians to use turf for fuel, — a fame which shows
how primitive was their condition, and which has
occasioned him to be known in history under the
name of Torf-Einar. At or toward the close of the
10th century, Christianity, in the corrupted or pa-
pisticated form in which it had been set up in the
north-west pf continental Europe, was forcibly in
troduced to Orkney, and made to supersede any
slender remains, if indeed any remains there were, of
its Culdee form, under the influence of Olaus, the
first nominally Christian king of Norway. In 996,
Sigurd, the 14th Earl, succeeded to the dominion ;
he enjoyed the Orkneys, Caithness, and Sutherland,
with a tribute from the Hebrides, and also, for a
time, established his power on the coasts of Ross
and Moray ; he was of the blood of the Vikingr,
and did not disparage the race by his adventures ;
and he, for years, made the eastern shores of Scot
land writhe under the torture of his frequent piracies
and forays, but, in 1,006, bound himself up from fur
ther harassing his neighbours by marrying, as his se
cond wife, a daughter of Malcolm IL, the Scottish
king. . Yielding himself fully to the rough blandish
ments of those motives which were most seductive
among the Vikingr, and, wearied with the dull
amenities of repose around his own shores, he sailed
away to the aid of Sigtrig, the sea-king of Dublin,
and, in April, 1014, fell in the bloody field of Clon-
tarf, fighting against the renowned Brian Boramh,
the King of all Ireland. A wild ode was composed
in celebration of his fate, and has been translated by
Gray, under the title of " the Fatal Sisters." Einar,
the eldest of four sons, whom he left by his first wife,
succeeded to his earldom. But Torfin, his son by
his second wife, the grandson of Malcolm II. of Scot
land, onfy five years old at his father's death, and
left in the Scottish king's care, was immediately
put by Malcolm into military and tutorial possession
of Caithness, and such other territories as had still,
after his many conflicts, remained to Sigurd on the
Scottish shore. Torfin resembled his father in sta
ture of body, vigour of mind, and ambition of en
terprise ; he commenced, at the age of fourteen, his
career as a Vikingr ; he often, during his grandfather's
reign, disquieted the coasts of Scotland by his ruth
less and piratical exploits ; be refused the usual
tribute to the good Duncan, and necessitated him to
march into Moray to enforce its payment ; and he,
at last, engaged in avowed warfare against Scotland,
and held in scorn the favours it had bestowed.
While, in an attitude of revolt, he rushed into hardy
conflicts with "brave Macbeth, who well deserved
that name ;" and, though represented in a doubtful
tone by Torfaeus as the successful party in the strife,
is poetically, and perhaps truly, sung by Shakspeare
as defeated and overawed by the " peerless Mac
beth." Yet he was neither crushed in power, nor
sobered in ambition ; he engaged in hostilities with

his half-brothers in Orkney, slew one in battle, corn-
pelled another to flee, and wrested from the eldest
several islands ; he forced the Hebrides to purchase
his forbearance by payment of tribute ; he emulated
the Scottish kings in splendour, and possibly
equalled them in power ; and at length, wearied with
savage grandeur, and feeling " the compunctious
visitings of nature, "he went to Rome in .search of
remission of his crimes, and returning with mitigated
emotions from the seat of priestly delusion and pre
tended pardon, he died about the year 1074, at the
age of 65. Torfin's successors, as well as some
whom we have named of his predecessors, main
tained the peculiar dominion, and exhibited the char
acteristic properties of the Vikingr. The whole race
of Scandinavian earls, jarls, or sea-kings, were con
sidered high in rank, skilful in peace, and almost re
doubtable in war. They intermarried with the noble
families of neighbouring countries, with the daugh
ters of the petty kings of Ireland, and with the
powerful royal families of Norway in Scotland.
Commanding fleets to which antagonist powers had
little or nothing to oppose, and roving from point
to point of attack with a swiftness and a caprice
which continually put vigilance to fault, they were
known and feared along the sea-board of every
territory within their reach ; and sharing in the
Norwegian expeditions against Scotland and Eng
land, or occasionally exhibiting, in expeditions of
their own, the colours of the predatory hosts from
the European continent, they were confounded with
other assailants of the British shores under the
general name of Danes, and figure in masques along
the pages of English and Scottish historians as the
constant and hereditary scourges of their countries.
Their followers probably comprehended, not only
the subjects of their proper dominions, but many
independent adventurers, who only served with
them for a time, or were periodically, or at inter
vals, attracted to their standard by the news of an
intended expedition, or the prospect of war and
plunder. They nursed their people for conflict by
encouraging them to reap the fruits of the earth dur
ing the mellowness of autumn, and treating them to
festivity during the gloom of winter ; and then, in
summer, they bounded away to the Western Islands
or the Scottish shores, to England or to Ireland,
to conduct " predatory excursions against their fel
low-men, much in the same manner as their descen
dants of the present day join in expeditions against
the fish of the neighbouring seas, or the leviathans of
Greenland. These were the men,
' Who for itself could woo the approaching fight,
. And turn what some deem danger to delight.' "
From the year 1098, when Magnus Barefoot, the
powerful king of Norway, castigated the Orcadians,
and made them smartingly feel his superiority, the
Earls acknowledged their dependence on the Norwe
gian crown, and formally declared their allegiance ;
and, at a later date, when refinements began to be
observed in the courts of the northern princes, they
even received from the kings of Norway regular in
vestiture. At length, about the year 1325, the
male line of the ancient Earls, the descendants of
Ronald, failed in the person of Magnus V., leaving
the earldom to pass into an entirely new current of
both possessors and events. The succession of the
Scandinavian Earls is carried down to its close, and
the exploits of each stirring individual of the series
are fulljj exhibited in the Orcades of Torfaeus, a
work which he compiled from the ancient sagas and
the Danish records, and are shown with sufficient
amplitude in the abridgment of Torfasus' work in
Dr. Barry's History of Orkney.

ORKNEY ISLANDS.

471

On the failure of the Scandinavian dynasty, the
earldom passed to Malis, Earl of Strathearn, who
was married to the only daughter of the last Earl,
Magnus V.; and afterwards, in 1379, it passed to
" the lordly line of high St. Clair " or Sinclair.
While William Sinclair, the 3d of his name, held the
earldom, the young king of Scotland — James III. —
pressed with the difficulty of Christian I., king of
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, having demanded
payment of a long arrear of " the annual of Norway "
—married Margaret, the princess of Denmark; and,
in 1468, obtained as her dowry 2,000 florins in money,
and the impignoration of Orkney for 50,000 florins,
and of Shetland for 8,000 more. As the islands
were never ransomed from the pledge, they thence
forth became politically and entirely attached to
Scotland. In 1470-1, the earldom of Orkney and
the lordship of Shetland were, as to their "haill
richt," purchased by James III. from the Sinclairs,
and annexed by acts of parliament to the Crown,
not to be alienated, except in favour of a lawful son
of the king. The power of the Orcadian bishop,
however, which had grown up from littleness to
grandeur under the administration of the later Earls,
was, to a certain extent, co-ordinate with that of
the king as lord of the islands. " The old bishopric
of Orkney was a greate thing, and lay sparsim
throughout the haill parochines of Orknay and Zet
land. Beside his lands, he had ye teinds of auchteen
kirks: his lands grew daily, as delinquencies in
creased in the countray." Many small proprietors,
too — the udallers — had heritages intermingled all
over both archipelagos, with the lands of the king
or the quondam Earls, and with those of the bishop ;
and, while they paid scats and other articles to the
regnant superior of the soil, they claimed to retain
Norwegian customs, and to be governed by Norwe
gian laws. In 1474, and at two subsequent dates,
leases for various periods of years were given of the
earldom to the bishop, and occasioned the country,
till the death of James III. in 1488, to be almost
entirely, in its civil matters, under prelatic adminis
tration. In 1489 and 1501, Henry Lord Sinclair, a
descendant of the quondam Earls, obtained from
James IV. " leases of the earldom, at the low rate of
£336 13s. 4d. Scottish, at which it had been leased
to the bishops; and though he fell in 1513 at Flod-
den, the property was, at the same rent, continued, by
successive leases to Lady Margaret, his widow, till the
year 1586. In 1529, the Earl of Caithness and Lord
Sinclair, either to usurp the renewed lordship of the
whole purchased earldom, or to take forcible posses
sion of Lady Margaret's lease, or to adjust some
question arising out of intermixture of rights, or to
extinguish the udal holdings of the ancient inhabi
tants, and to subject them to feudal grantees of the
Scottish crown — for all these reasons have been, by
turns, assigned — invaded Orkney with an armed
force, and were encountered by the governor of
Kirkwall castle, heading the Orkney-men and others
at Summerdale or Bigswell in Stenness ; and there
they sustained a disastrous and extinguishing defeat,
the Earl of Caithness and 500 of his followers being
slain, and Lord Sinclair and all the survivors of the
force made prisoners. In 1530, a grant of the islands,
in form of a feu, was — in defiance both of the settle
ment by parliamentary acts under James III., and
of Lady Margaret Sinclair's lease — given to the Earl
of Moray, the natural brother of James V. ; but it
proved nugatory, and never brought any proceeds
of the islands into the grantees' possession. About
1535, James V. made a personal visit to Orkney 
the only royal visit which was ever made to it bv
either the Stuarts, or the present dynasty, both de
scendants of Ronald, the founder of the Scandinavian

earldom ; and during his stay, at Kirkwall, he was
hospitably entertained in the bishop's palace, and
received the homage of the loyal among the natives,
and directed maritime surveys to be made of the
intricate navigation of the surrounding and inter
secting seas ; and, at his departure, he carried off to
the seat of justice the more turbulent and dangerous
of the inhabitants. In 1540, the favourable leases
to Lady Margaret Sinclair terminated by a general
act of annexation and revocation. Oliver Sinclair
of Pitcairns was the last lessee of his family ; and he
obtained, for an advanced annual rent of £2,000
two successive leases, the latter of which expired in
1548. His name is associated with one of the most
humiliating transactions recorded in the history of
our country, — the disloyalty of the Scottish nobles,
the dishonour of the Scottish arms at Solway moss,
and the consequent captivity of the army, and heart
breaking of the promptest and most enterprising of
the Stuart dynasty. The family of Sinclair in Ork
ney may be regarded as having been extinguished at
the premature death of James V., and they have
now, on the scene of their ancient greatness, and
the seat of their ancient residence and power, no
memorial except the rubbish of their castle,
"  Where restless seas
Howl round the storm-swept Orcades,—
Where erst St. Clair bore princely sway
O'er isle aud islet, strait and bay ;"
— " Still nods their palace to its fall,
Thy pride and sorrow, fair Kirkwall."
The earldom of Orkney became part of the jointure
of the widow of James V. immediately after his death,
and remained with her till her own death in 1560;
and, when she was called to the regency, it was
placed by her under the administration of Bonot, a
Frenchman, whose appointment was extremely un
popular. How it was disposed of during 15 years
following her death, is not known. At the acces
sion of Mary the country began to be subjected to
a series of changes and oppressions, in its masters
and their tyrannies, which to a great extent revolu
tionized its condition, and continue to tbe present
day to affect very deeply in many points the most
important interests of individuals and of the whole
community. In 1564, Lord Robert Stuart, the natu
ral brother of the queen, received by written charter,
for an annual rent of £2,000 13s. 4d. Scottish, " all
and whole the lands of Orkney and Zetland, with all
and sundry the isles belonging and pertaining there
to, with all and each of the castles, towers, forta-
lices, woods, mills, multures, fishings, tenants, ser
vice of free tenants, with the whole superiority of
free tenants, advocation, donation of churches, and
with the office of sheriff of Orkney, and sheriff of
the Fouldrie of Zetland." James, Earl of Bothwell,
for a brief moment, in 1567, enjoyed an annulment
in his favour of this grant to Lord Robert, and was
plumed with the high designation of Duke of Ork
ney; but, if ever he at all obtained infeftment, he
had but momentary possession, for, exactly a month
after the date of the marriage-deed, which assigned
him Orkney with its new title, he fled from Car-
berry-bill, and for ever lost sight of his phantasma-
gorial dukedom. At the close of the same year a
question was agitated in parliament " quhider Ork
nay and Zetland sal be subiect to the commone law
of this realme, or gif thai sal bruike thair awne
lawis ? — when it was found that thai aught to be
subiect to thair awne lawis." Lord Robert Stuart,
on obtaining possession of the earldom, had as com
mendator or abbot of Holyrood, exchanged his tem
poralities with the bishop of Orkney for those of the
bishopric, thus uniting in himself the rights both of
the Earl, or the Crown and the bishop; and, a little

472

ORKNEY ISLANDS.

before the queen's marriage, he got a right to her
third of the revenues of Holyrood abbey, or a pen
sion of £990 of money, besides a large quantity of
every sort of grain, and was in consequence pre
vented from clamouring at the change which was
made in favour of Bothwell. The earldom, or
crown estate of Orkney, is said by some authorities
to have been resumed by him on Bo.tbwell's dis
grace ; but from an extant act of parliament it ap
pears to have, for 14 years, or till 1581, regularly
yielded up its revenues for behoof of the Crown.
In 1581 it was restored to him by act of parliament,
with the same latitude of possession and loftiness of
jurisdiction as when originally granted by Mary ; in
1587 it was revoked by another act of parliament,
and for two years afterwards was let out for £4,000
Scottish a-year, to Sir John Maitland of Thirktane
and Sir Ludovick Ballantine, who were respectively
Lord-chancellor and Justice-clerk; in 1589 it was
re- granted to Lord Robert Stuart for an annual rent
of £2,073 6s. 8d. Scottish; and in 1591 it was in-
fefted to his lordship in life-rent, and his son Patrick
in fee. After Lord Robert's death, which occurred
in 1592, and another resumption made by the Crown,
Patrick got charters, in 1600, of both the earldom
and the bishopric, so that their joint rights were
concentrated in his person; yet he obtained not, as
Mary's grant gave to his father a right either to
"the whole" lands and isles of Orkney and Shet
land, or to the feudal superiority over the landhold
ers, but, on the other hand, was bound to administer
justice according to the peculiar laws of the region
before it belonged to the Scottish crown. Both his
father and he, however, were proud, avaricious,
cruel, and dissipated; and, whether they possessed
power legally, or could wield it by extortion and
usurpation, they cared not, provided they could so
work it as to demolish the rights and liberties of
their people, and amass for themselves the influences,
the monopolies, and the possessions of tyranny.
Udal lands and tenements were free from taxation
to the Crown, or vassalage to a lord superior ; they
could not be alienated, except by what was called,
"a shynde bill" obtained with the consent of all
heirs in the Fouldry court ; and, at the death of a
possessor, they were divided, without fine and in
equal portions, among all their children. Earls
Robert and Patrick aimed with their whole energy
to destroy the system, and to introduce feudal ten
ures; they so summoned and adjourned the great
Fouldry court, as to possess a master-key to its
movements; they perverted both this court and every
other by the introduction of their creatures ; they
silenced and overawed the refractory udallers by
means of a licentious soldiery; and they employed
their rights over the temporalities of the bishopric
as a pretext for levying fines from such landholders
as jncurred any censure of the church. They, in
consequence, wrested much landed property from
the rightful owners, and terrified not a few of the
udal proprietors into a surrender of their peculiar
privileges, an acknowledgment of feudal vassalage,
and an acceptance of tenure by charter. The rents
of the earldom being paid chiefly in kind, too, they,
in order to increase the amount of proceeds with
out changing the nominal bulk, twice arbitrarily
increased in value the weights used in the country ;
raising the mark, which was originally 8 ounces, first
to 10 and next to 12, and the lispund, which was
originally 12 pounds, first to 15, and next to 18.
Earl Patrick even excelled his father in outrageous
despotism; he compelled the people to work like
slaves in carrying on his buildings and other works;
he confiscated the lands of the inhabitants on the
most trivia! pretences ; he summarily distrained the

moveable goods of any man who dared to leave the
islands without his own or his deputies' special
licence; and — in crowning display of at once his
savageness and his avarice — he ordained that " if
any man tried to supply or give relief to ships, or
any vessel distressed by tempest, the same shall be
punished in his person, and fined at the Earl's plea
sure." Such lugubrious wailings and indignant com
plaints were eventually and increasingly addressed
to the throne, in appeal from his multiplied oppres
sions, that he was at length recalled, shut up in
prison, and accused of high treason. His natural
son, the bastard of Orkney, aided by about 500 per
sons — probably military retainers who identified their
own interests with the family's illegal greatness — ,
made an ineffectual attempt to achieve some feat in
his favour. The miserable Earl was abhorred over
the scene of his despotisms; he was violently sus
pected at court ; he was vigilantly prosecuted by
Law, the bishop of Orkney; he probably suffered
from contorted and exaggerated because interested
accusation ; and, in 1612,, by really a judicial murder,
however foul were his crimes, he was ignominiously
hanged at Edinburgh. His name, particularly in
Shetland, continues to the present day to be men
tioned with antipathy and disgust.
The lands of the earldom, under the pretext that
a forfeiture might injure those proprietors who had
resigned their udal tenures and taken out charters,
were not, according to the usual course, declared
forfeited immediately upon Earl Patrick's attainder.
Many of the proprietors were instantly alarmed intp
the measure of asking and accepting charters from,
the Crown in the usual feudal form; and all, under
apprehension that another taskmaster might be set
over them akin in character to the two last, impor
tuned the king to annex the islands inalienably to
the Crown. James VI. thus all but completed the
ruin of the feudal tenures ; and he, at the same time,
mocked the distracted islands with a most unkingly
double-tonguedness of treatment. He formally an
nexed " the lands and earldom of Orkney and Zetland
to the Crown to remain in time coming," and he ad
monished the people by proclamation against all fear
of the islands reverting "to their former condition,
of misrule, trouble, and oppression;" yet he made no
restoration of the lands which had been unlawfully
seized by the last Earls, he set up the rental of Earl
Patrick as the rule for future guidance, and, to com
plete his tantalizing, he immediately began to let
them out on high terms to a series of farmers-gen
eral. Sir James Stewart of Kilsyth held them for
a brief period. Sir George Hay of Kinfauns, the
Lord-chancellor, next rented them for 40,000 merks
Scottish a-year ; but, probably finding them no great
bargain, after they had been so long plundered by
the two Stewarts, he resigned them at the end of 3
years. The inhabitants, after being for a short period
oppressed without mercy by some other farmers-
general, petitioned the king that no man might " be
interponed between his majesty and them, but that
they might remain his majesty's immediate vassals. '
In response to this appeal the islands were, for a few
years, closely annexed to the Crown; but they again
began to be leased out for rents, high or low accord
ing to the interest the lessees had with the court or
the ministry, and to be subjected as before to such
ceaseless maltreatment as was utterly incompatible
with social prosperity, or with advance in the arts.
In fact, for two centuries after their cession by Nor
way to the Crown of Scotland, Orkney and Zetland
seem to have been much in the condition of a Turk*
ish province undergoing the rival and emulating
scourgings of a quick succession of rapacious pashas.
In 1643, they were, with all the regalities belonging

ORK

473

ORM

to them, granted by Charles I. m mortgage to
William, Earl of Morton, but were redeemable by
the Crown in payment of an alleged debt of £30,000.
They were, however, mortgaged by the next Earl
to assist Charles, and were afterwards confiscated by
Cromwell. At the Restoration in 1662, they were
given back to the Earl of Morton ; and under the
arbitrary control of the Earls, Chamberlain, Douglas
of Spynie, the Fouldry court was abolished. In 1609
they were again, by act of parliament, annexed ' for
ever ' to the Crown ; and, during upwards of 30 years,
they were anew leased out to various farmers-gen
eral. In 1707 they were restored in the old form
of a mortgage — redeemable by the Crown for £30,000,
but subject to an annual feu-duty of £500 to James,
Earl of Morton, and were placed under his jurisdic
tion as their admiral and hereditary steward and
justiciary. In 1742, Lord Morton, though his rev
enues from the islands were computed to amount to
£3,000 sterling a-year, pretended that they did not
yield a rental equal to the interest of the alleged
mortgage, and contrived, on this pretext, to get an
act of parliament declaring them irredeemable. In
1747, at the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions, he
was compensated for those of Orkney and Shetland
with £7,500; and, in 1766, after being harassed
with complaints, quarrels, and lawsuits, he sold the
estate for £60,000 to Sir Lawrence Dundas, the
grandfather of the present Earl of Zetland. One of
the lawsuits, and the chief one which annoyed the
Earl of Morton, was a judicial attempt on the part
of the proprietors to get the weights which regu
lated their rental in kind restored to their original
value; but it proved unsuccessful. Sir Lawrence
Dundas, in his turn, met a similar defeat ; for, con
ceiving soon after he made his purchase, that he was
entitled to higher powers than had been wielded by
his predecessor, he made an expensive but vain effort
to get them recognised by the law-courts. In later
times the Dundas family, who continue to enjoy the
great estate, have flung many amenities over islands
which were so long desolated by oppression, and
have erected so many monuments in the hearts of
the people, and sprinkled so many improvements over
the surface of the soil, as furnish materials for an
altogether new era in their history.
The lands which belonged to the bishops of Ork
ney, and which lay intermixed on every island, par
ish, and even township, with those of the earldom,
were, about the close of the 16th century, so
exchanged and compacted as to be substituted by
continuous and unique lands in Pomona and other
islands. The jurisdictions of the bishopric and of
the earldom were, at the same time, rendered dis
tinct, and instead of perpetuating the contentions
which arose out of their union, began to be exer
cised with concord to the country. Bishop Law,
by whose influence these changes were effected, and
who interested himself much in the civil welfare of
Orkney, was, in 1615, translated to Glasgow. His
successor, threatened with excommunication by the
General Assembly which met at Glasgow in 1638,
and awed by its proceedings in pronouncing the
abolition of episcopacy, quietly resigned his see.
The bishopric was afterwards, for a short time, re
vived ; nor, till about the year 1 700, did it wholly
yield to the ascendency and final establishment of
Presbyterianism. The revenues of the see have,
since that period, been either held by the Crown,
and managed by an agent, or leased out to the hold
ers of the earldom, or to farmers-general ; and at
present they are under the control of the commis
sioners of the Queen's woods, forests, and land-
revenues, to be expended, as is believed, for the
benefit of the Crown.

ORMISTON, a parish in the middle of the west,
ern verge of Haddingtonshire; bounded on the north
by Tranent; on the east by Gladsmuir, Pencaitland,
and Salton; on the south by Humbie; and on the
west by Cranston in Edinburghshire. Its length,
from north to south, is 4J miles ; its breadth, owing
to deep indentations and projections on its east side,
is exceedingly changeful, and varies from 3 furlongs
to 3£ miles ; and its area is 3,245 acres. The sur
face, along the southern frontier, is somewhat upland
and bare ; but everywhere else it is low, beautifully
cultivated, and richly embellished with wood and
hedge enclosures. About 30 parts in 33 of the whole
area is in tillage; and between 160 and 180 acres are
under plantation. Gardens abound, and, in two in
stances, send a large produce of fruit and vegetables
to the Edinburgh market. The Tyne runs 1 \ mile
north-eastward in the interior, and J eastward along
the south edge of one of the projections. It is here
a mere streamlet, about 8 miles from its source, and
does little more in summer than serve to drive a
mill ; yet it occasionally comes down in large fresh
ets, and lays the adjacent meadows under water.
Bellyford-burn — a tributary of the Tyne in Pencait
land — flows eastward a mile along the northern boun
dary, and the same distance through the interior of
a projection. Coal exists in at least three workable
seams ; but, south of the Tyne, appears to have
been worked at a date beyond record, and is nearly
exhausted. Some curious occurrences have tran
spired connected with the discovery of its excavated
seams. Much of what remains lies at an inconsider
able depth beneath the surface. Limestone abounds
in the south, and has long been extensively worked.
Freestone is plentiful, and in several places has been
quarried, but appears to be but an inferior building
material. Ironstone seems to exist, but has not ac
tually been discovered  Nearly in the centre of the
parish stands Ormiston-hall, a seat of the Earl of
Hopetoun, the proprietor of the whole parish. Part
of the old mansion-house of the manor stands about
200 yards to the west, and is consolidated with
buildings which form the suite of offices and servants'
houses. The modern mansion consists of four parts,
three of them built at various periods since 1747,
when the estate was purchased by the Earl of Hope
toun, and one by the former proprietor in 1745. In
the old house George Wishart the Reformer, then
under the protection of Cockburn its proprietor, was,
in January 1545, made prisoner bythe Earl of Both-
well, and thence led away to martyrdom, under the
infamous Cardinal Beaton, at St. Andrews. In the
garden flourishes a remarkable yew-tree, under which
the venerable martyr is said to have occasionally
preached. The tree is probably upwards of 3J cen
turies in growth; having been considered old in 1561 j
it measures 18 feet in girth, 38 feet in height, and
180 feet in the circumference of its branches, or the
area which they overlie. — In the south corner of the
parish are vestiges of a circular camp, British or
Danish. A profusion of roads chequers the area,
and, among them, a turnpike from north to south.
Population, in 1801, 766; in 1831, 838. Houses
185. Assessed property, in 1815, £4,446  The
village of Ormiston is pleasantly situated on the left
bank of the Tyne, and on the turnpike-road through
the parish, 1J mile west of Pencaitland, 2J miles
south of Tranent, 6 miles from Dalkeith, 8 from
Haddington, and 12 from Edinburgh. It consists
principally of one broad street extending east and
west. Some of the houses are of two stories ; and
these, as well as some cottages, are occasionally let
to genteel families as summer retreats. Gardens are
attached to all the principal houses, stocked with
fruit-trees and shrubs, and, in some instances, well-

ORM

474

ORW

enclosed with stone-walls. The village is shaded
with wood, stands in the vicinity of the Earl of
Hopetoun's beautiful demesne, and presents soft but
powerful attractions to lovers of quiet, balmy, rural
landscape. Toward the end of last century it had a
bleachfield, a starch-work, a distillery, and a brew
ery ; but it is now bereft of them all, and has be
come the home chiefly of an agricultural people. In
the centre of it stands an old cross, on the site of an
ancient Roman Catholic chapel, which remained en
tire at the end of last century, and was then used as
the parish school-house, but has since been removed.
The village is a station of the Haddington itinerat
ing libraries, and has a small library of its own.
Population, in 1792, 600; in 1838, 330 — Ormiston
is in the presbytery of Dalkeith, and synod of Lo
thian and Tweeddale. Patron, the Earl of Hope
toun. Stipend £230 4s. 3d.; glebe £15. Unap
propriated teinds £210 13s. lid. Schoolmaster's
salary £29 18s. 9d., with about £30 fees. There
are two private schools  The ancient church was
dedicated to St. Giles ; and was granted, with its
pertinents, to the hospital of Soutra. When the
possessions of that hospital were annexed by the
widowed queen of James II. to her collegiate church
of Trinity in Edinburgh, the ecclesiastical revenues
of Ormiston were distributed in equal shares among
the four prebendaries of Ormiston, Gileston, Hill,
and Newlands, belonging to her college. The estate
of Peaston, which now forms the south end of the
parish, was annexed to it after the Reformation ; and
previously belonged to Pencaitland. The descend
ants of the Orme, whoever he was, who gave name
to the original parish, possessed it during the 12th
and 13th centuries. In 1368 it passed by marriage
to the family of Cockburn, and remained with them
till the middle of last century. The Cockburns
were, for several generations, distinguished as law
yers and statesmen, figuring illustriously both in
the college-of-justice and in parliament. John, the
last but one of the family, acted a prominent part in
the negociation of the National Union, and repre
sented Haddingtonshire in successive parliaments of
the United Kingdom from 1707 to 1741. But his
grand fame is, that he was the grand promoter of
modern agricultural improvement in East Lothian, —
the model farming-ground of Scotland, the originator
at Ormiston of the first bleachfield in the kingdom,
and the introducer of various other though less sig
nally useful arts and establishments.
ORMSA, a Hebridean islet about 1J mile in cir
cumference, lying north of Lunga, and separated
from it by a narrow sound. A lighthouse was built
on its western extremity in 1823-4.
ORONSAY, a small fertile island of the Hebrides,
in the district of Jura and Colonsay, from which
latter island it is separated by a narrow channel.
The walls of a priory, said to have been founded by
St. Columba, still remains, a fine relic of the religious
antiquities of the Hebrides. See Colonsay.
ORPHIR, a parish in the southern district of
Pomona, Orkney. It is bounded on the north-west
and north by Stenness and Forth ; on the east by
Kirkwall ; and on the south and west by Scalpa flow.
It is nearly a parallelogram extending from east-
north-east to west-south-west, and measures 7 miles
by about 3J. A range of hills runs along the north
western and northern boundary, lifting the highest
summit 700 feet above sea-level ; and the surface
thence to the sea is a tumulated descent, giving,
amidst a continued series of hills and dales, a pre
vailing southerly exposure. Ihe eastern district is
characterized by heathy rising grounds and large peat
mosses, whence fuel is supplied to both Orphir and
Kirkwall. The soil of the other districts is pre

dominantly clay or moss, separate or in mixture;
and, when well-manured, it yields, even under in
different culture, more than sufficient produce for
local use. A few places near the coast have a rich
loam mixed with stones. The Loch of Kirbister, a
little south-east of the centre of the parish, is be
tween 2 and 3 miles in circumference, abounds with
excellent sea-trout, and sends off a streamlet of suf
ficient water-power to drive extensive machinery.
The sea-coast, including sinuosities, extends to 12
miles ; it has, in general, a bold rocky shore of from
40 to 50 feet high, and it is finely indented with bays
and creeks, one of which, called the bay of Houton,
is protected by an islet at the entrance, and forms a
safe harbour for small vessels. Mineral springs occur
in every district ; and one at Scoridale has long been
famous for its tonic, diuretic, and antiscorbutic pro
perties. Sandstone abounds ; trap, of a kind suit
able for building, is frequent ; some excellent flag
stones are quarried ; fine white and blue clay, such
as serves for colouring hearth-stones, is dug up in
Staugro-bay; and bog iron-ore is comparatively
plentiful. The island of Cava [which see] belongs
to Orphir. About a mile east of it is a curiously
formed rock or skerry, well-known to seamen, and
fantastically called the Barrel of Butter. In the
churchyard are the remains of a very ancient build
ing, rudely resembling the Pantheon at Rome, a ro-
tundo, open at top, 20 feet high, 18 feet in diameter
and sending out, on the east side, a vaulted recess,
the site probably of an ancient altar. Remains of
Romish chapels — of which this seems to have been
one — occur in every district. Barrows or tumuli
are numerous. An ancient circular tower, about
180 feet in circumference, stands in the district of
Swanbister, and probably was the residence of Sueno
Boerstrop, who was killed at the house of Paul, one
of the Norwegian Counts of Orkney. — The parish is
advantageously situated for commerce; and is tra
versed by the road from Kirkwall to Stromness.
Population, in 1801, 864; in 1831, 996. Houses
210. Assessed property, in 1815, £1,166. — Orphir
is in the presbytery of Cairston, and synod of Orkney.
Patron, the Earl of Zetland. Stipend £158 6s. 7d. ;
glebe £12. There are a parochial school and two
mortification schools. Salary attached to the former
£26 with fees  A hill behind the manse commands
a view of twenty-five islands and twenty-three par
ishes, or of most of Orkney and much of Caithness
and Sutherland, with a large expanse of the eastern
and western oceans. Orphir is supposed to have its
name from yarfo, or 'fire-land,' a species of fuel-
earth with which its eastern district supplies the
circumjacent country.
ORR (The). See Auchterderran.
ORR (Loch). See Ballingray.
ORRIN (The), a river of the south-east of Ross-
shire. ' It rises on the north side of Craig-Mon, 5
miles north of Loch-Monar, and has an easterly
course of about 27 miles to the Conan, below Brahan-
castle in Urray. A little below its source it expands
into the lochlets Negin and Neriech. The Orrin is
a very irregular stream ; now very generally fordable,
and now rolling along in sudden and vast floods which
spread terror and devastation over lands adjacent to
its banks. A wooden bridge thrown across it behind
the manse of Urray, at the expense of Mr. M'Kenzie
of Seaforth, was swept away by a flood in 1839 ; but
has been replaced by a stronger erection at the ex
pense of the county.
ORWELL, a parish in Kinross-shire ; bounded
on the west by Perthshire ; on the north by Perth
shire and the Kinross-shire section of Forgandenny ;
on the north-east, east, and south-east by Fifeshire j
and on the south by Loch-Leven, and by Kinross

OTT

475

OXN

and Fossaway. Its greatest length, from north-west
to south-east, is 9£ miles ; its greatest breadth is
about 3£ miles ; and its superficial extent is about
21 square miles. The surface, in all the southern
and south-eastern districts, is low, prevailingly level,
and diversified with gentle swells and rising grounds;
and thence it gradually rises into hilly heights, called
the braes of Orwell, and then, toward the northern
border, shoots suddenly up into a frontier range of
1 the Ochills, with summits of about 1,000 or 1,100 feet
above sea-level. About 500 acres are waste or pas
toral ; between 600 and 700 are under wood, princi
pally oak, ash, and pines ; and all the rest of the area
is regularly or occasionally in tillage. The prevailing
rock is the old red sandstone, extensively dislodged
and not a little contorted by trap. A mass of clay por
phyry, unusually hard and compact, occupies several
miles in the west ; and a smaller, though still vast,
mass of greenstone occurs in the east. The stream
called the South Queich begins to touch the north
west extremity of the parish a little below its source ;
and, before passing into Kinross, runs nearly 5 miles
along the western and southern boundary. The
North Queich rises very near the north-west ex
tremity ; makes some beautiful little cascades among
the hills ; and, over a course of about 6 miles south
eastward to Loch-Leven, drains the greater part of
the parish. Pure water wells up in many a spring ;
and may anywhere be obtained by » brief boring.
Loch-Leven touches the parish over 1£ mile along
the north-east of the lake. The oniy village is
Milnathort : which see. On the farm of Or
well, and near Loch-Leven, are two standing stones,
respectively 6£ and 8 feet high. About half-a-
mile south-east of Milnathort stand the ruins of
Burleigh-Castle : which see. Among the Ochills
stands Cairn-a-vain, formerly a prodigious collection
of loose stones, but now much reduced by the loss
of many hundreds of cartloads which were carried
away for dike-building. The parish is traversed
northward by the public road from Edinburgh to
Perth, and eastward by that from Stirling to Cupar.
Population, in 1801, 2,036 ; in 1831, 3,005. Houses
455. Assessed property, in 1815, £8,201. — Orwell
is in the presbytery of Dunfermline, and synod of
Fife. Patron, Graham of Kinross. Stipend £155
19s. lid.; glebe £20. The parish - church was
built in 1729; sittings 646. An United Secession
meeting-house was built at Milnathort in 1764; sit
tings 756. An Original Burgher meeting-house was
built at Milnathort in 1737, and rebuilt in 1821;
cost £600 ; sittings 550. Stipend £100.— A small
part of the parish is attached quoad sacra to Arngask.
In the reign of Robert Bruce, Orwell was only a
chapelry ; and, in its ecclesiastical interests, was
given by that king to the monks of Dunfermline.
Besides the parish-school there are two private schools
taught by females, and two others for general rudi-
mental education. Parochial schoolmaster's salary
£34 4s. 4£d., with about £40 fees.
OTTER. See Kilfinan.
OTTERBURN. See Longformacus.
OTTERSTON (Loch). See Dalgetty.
OTTERVORE, a piece of sea, 4J miles by 2, at
the north end of the Barra group of Outer Hebrides.
It extends westward between Gigha and a vast
powdering of islets on the south, and Fuday on the
north, to the isthmus between the main body and the
northerly peninsula of Barra. The name is some
times applied, more largely, to the whole sound be
tween Barra and South Uist.
OUDE (The), a rivulet of Nether Lorn, Argyle
shire. lt rises among the braes of Lorn, and has a
run of between 7 and 8 miles eastward to the head
of Loch-Melfort, in the parish of Kilninver. About

2 miles below its source it expands, for 1J mile,
into Loch-Tralig.
OVERBIE. See Eskdalemuir.
OVERTON, one of three divisions of the village
of Smalholm, in the parish of Smalholm, on the
turnpike between Kelso and Edinburgh, 5£ miles
north-west of the former, Roxburghshire. Jointly
with the other divisions, West Third and East Third,
its population is 360.
0XNA, a small inhabited island in the parish of
Tingwall, Shetland. It measures about 3 miles in
circumference, and lies about 4 miles south-west of
Scalloway. OXNAM (The), a rivulet of Roxburghshire. It
rises in the parish of Oxnam, 2J miles from the Eng
lish border, r,uns 5J miles north-north-westward to
the village whence it derives its name, and then
moves northward another mile through Oxnam, a
mile on the boundary between it and Jedburgh, 1£
miles across the neck of territory which connects the
main body of the northern division of Jedburgh with
its eastern wing, and 2 miles through Crailing, past
the village of that name, to the Teviot, J of a mile
above the village of Eckford. Above the village of
Oxnam it flows amid the glens and gorges of pastoral
uplands ; and afterwards it moves along in many
serpentine windings between generally steep and
romantic banks. Its tributaries are numerous, but
all inconsiderable, and chiefly mountain rills in the
parish of Oxnam. It abounds in excellent trout, and
has a sufficient quantity of salmon to tempt the ille
gal practice of spearing by torch-light.
OXNAM — anciently Oxenham — a parish in the
eastern division of Roxburgh ; bounded on the north
by the northern section of Jedburgh ; on the east by
Hounam and Northumberland ; on the south by
Northumberland ; and on the west by the southern
section of Jedburgh and by Southdean. It is an
irregular oblong, stretching north-north-westward,
and runs out into a point on the north ; and it mea
sures 10 miles in extreme length, 5 miles in extreme
breadth, and 33 square miles in area. The southern,
and part of the eastern boundary, except for a brief
way where it is touched by the English river Coquet,
near the rilly source of that stream, is formed by the
water-shed of the Teviots, between Blackhall-hill
and Fairwood-fell, a distance of 7 miles. The
swells or summits of the ridge have an altitude of
less than 2,000 feet; but they lift the eye away to
the German ocean, and command a magnificent and
map-like view of the vast tract of alternately brilliant
and luscious country enclosed between the screens of
the Cheviot, the Hartfell, and tbe Lammermoor
mountain-ranges. The interior, generally viewed, is
a sea of dome-like hills, smooth and green, and grace
fully curved in their outline, diminishing in altitude
as they recede from the monarch heights of the fron
tier, and eventually admitting tillage up their soft
ascents. One valley, the basin of the Oxnam, lies
along the centre of nearly two-thirds of the parish,
and is beautifully undulated and otherwise diversified
in its surface. Ravines, and picturesque defiles, and
romantic dells, ploughed up by the long action of the
mountain streams, run in various directions among the
hills, adorned, over much of their aggregate extent,
with an imposing distribution, and a rich exuberance
of natural wood. Belts and clumps of plantation,
amounting in all to 600 acres, and consisting chiefly
of the Scottish fir and the larch, climb the upland
ascents, or crown the summits of "the gentler emi
nences. So many elements of attractive landscape
are foiled rather than marred by a frequent carpeting
of heath and bent on the depressions or intervening
flats of the hills. Pasture-grounds and arable lands
are in the proportion to each other over the whole

OXN

476

OYN

of 36 to 5. The chief flocks are Cheviot sheep, —
some of the choicest of that valued breed. Agricul
ture has made rapid strides both in reclaiming and
enriching a various soil, and in improving its own
skill and practices. The river Jed touches the par
ish, for If mile on the west, and fringes it there with
one of the most beautiful sections of its much and
justly admired dell. A tributary of the Jed, akin to
it in character, joins it at the point of its running
against the parish, and previously traces for 1£ mile
the western boundary. The Oxnam — see preceding
article — drains the greater part of the parish. The
Kail rises in several head-streams in the extreme
south, and runs 4 miles northward into Hounam, at
the distance all the way of about 1£ mile from the
water-shed of the Cheviots. Limestone exists near
the Jed ; but being under a deep cover, and at a great
distance from coal, cannot be worked. Sandstone,
of firm texture and a beautiful whiteness, and be
lieved to belong to the coal measures, abounds in the
south, intersected by a thick dyke of trap. The
transition rocks prevail in the north. A chalybeate
spring of some repute wells up near Fairloans in the
south. A Roman causeway — that which has been
traced from Boroughbridge in Yorkshire to the Lo
thians by way of St. Boswells — forms the whole east
boundary, and is a favourite resort and squatting
ground of the border 'muggers' or gypsies. Three
old forts — survivors of the numerous strengths which
studded this battle-territory of a thousand Border
raids, and places so strong in masonry that building
materials may be taken more easily from a natural
quarry than from their walls — exist in partial preser
vation respectively at Dolphiston, at Mossburnford,
and on an eminence on the east side of Oxnam- water,
about 500 yards west of the church. The chief
landowners are the Duke of Roxburgh and the Mar
quis of Lothian. Two villages, Oxnam and New
bigging, which formerly made some rural figure, have
— with the exception that the former continues to
be 'the Kirktown' — entirely disappeared. Annual
fairs, for the sale of sheep and lambs, and a tryst for
the hiring of shepherds, all of very recent establish
ment, are held on respectively the 31st of July, the
15th of October, and the 25th of March. A road,
coming up from Jedburgh, whence the church is 4
miles distant, leads into the vale of the Oxnam at the
church, and forks into two lines, one extending to
the Roman causeway, and the other to the Jedburgh
and Newcastle turnpike  Population, in 1801, 688;
in 1831, 676. Houses 118. Assessed property, in
1815, £8,248. — Oxnam is in the presbytery of Jed
burgh, and synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron,
the Crown. Stipend £237 Is. 7d. ; glebe £16.
Unappropriated teinds £1,196 18s. 5d. Schoolmas
ter's salary £25 13s. 4d., with £10 fees, and £7 10s.
4d. other emoluments. The ancient church be
longed to the abbey of Jedburgh, and was served

by a vicar. A chapel, the ruins and cemetery ol
which still exist, stood at Plenderleitb. The bar
ony of Oxnam was given by David II. to Sir
Duncan Wallace, and his consort the Countess of
Carrick. OXTON. See Channelkirk.
OYKEL. See Oickel.
OYNE, a parish in the district of Garioch, Aber.
deenshire. It is bounded on the north-west and
north by the river Shevock, which divides it from
Insch and Culsalmond; on the north-east by the
Ury, which divides it from Rayne; on the east by
the parish of Chapel-of-Garioch ; on the south by
Monymusk ; and on the west by Tough and part of
Bremnay. The Don forms part of the southern
boundary-line ; and the rivulet Gady runs eastward
through the parish to the Ury. The greatest length
of the parish from north to south, is 6 miles ; the
greatest breadth is 3J miles ; and the superficial ex
tent is about 11,000 imperial acres. The mountain
of Bennachee towers aloft a little south of the centre
of the parish; and, during winter, obstructs- the ac
cess of a portion of the parishioners to the parish-
church. The lands of Tillyfour, lying south of it,
are comparatively infertile, and have only about 100
inhabitants. The lands on the north are rich and
early ; and usually salute harvest eight days sooner
than any neighbouring parish. Part of the estate of
Pittodrie lies within the boundaries, and is richly
planted. Tillyfour-house, situated amidst much
wood, is a pleasant summer seat, presiding over
scenes of beauty and romance. Westhall-house re
joices in the centre of a profusion and a great variety
of trees ; and possesses the honour of association with
some of the earliest modern plantations in the north.
The old statist, writing 6 or 8 years before the close
of last century, says : — " Mr. John Horn, advocate,
about 90 years ago, beautified this place very much
with several plantations of firs, which throve so
well, that it is said he himself was buried in a coffin
made out of a fir-tree of his own planting. He like
wise made out a fine avenue from the entry of his
house, which at last ascends a pretty green hill, on
the top of which he built a small lodge of two rooms,
and called it- Parnassus. He ornamented his seat
with a great number of pleasure- walks, with statues
in them, which show a great deal of taste, consider
ing how long it is since these walks were laid out."
The antiquities are two Druidical temples, one ol
them of great extent  Population, in 1801, 518; in
1831, 796. Houses 148. Assessed property, in 1815,
£1,744. — Oyne is in the presbytery of Garioch, and
synod of Aberdeen. Patron, Erskine of Pittodrie.
Stipend £161 Is. ; glebe £15 15s. The church was
built in 1807. Sittings from 450 to 500. School
master's salary £30, with £12 10s. fees, and £4 5s.
other emoluments. A private school is conducted
by a female.

PAB

477

PAI

PABBA, a small island of the Barra group of
Outer Hebrides. It lies 6£ miles south of the main
land of Barra, 2J south-south-west of Sandera, and
1? north-north-east of Mingala. Its length is nearly
1 J mile, and its breadth is about 1 mile. It consists

II

' a single hill, all of gneiss, rising about 800 feet
above sea-level, and presenting a somewhat precipi
tous face to the west. A few fishermen inhabit its
eastern and flatter end  The sound of Pabba divides
the island from Sandera, and is studded with the
islets Lingay and Grianimull.
PABBA, a flat and fertile pasture-island of the
Skye group of Hebrides. It lies across the entrance
of Broadford-bay in the Skye parish of Strath ; and
is 2£ miles south-east of Scalpa. Its figure is nearly
a circle of about a mile in diameter. It forms a flat
table scarcely 60 feet high ; is abrupt and precipitous
on the south-east side, but on the opposite side de
clines to the water's edge ; and is surrounded with
low reefs, which cause a foul shore. Its rocks are
predominantly limestone, corresponding with those
of the opposite coast of Skye ; but toward the south
east they become micaceous shale, with numerous
interspersions of rounded nodules of trap. At the
north end of the island are remains of a small chapel.
PABBA, an inhabited island of the parish of Har
ris, and at the north-west end of the sound of Har
ris, in the Outer Hebrides. It lies 3£ miles north of
Bernera, and 2J west of Cape Difficulty, in the main
land of Harris. It measures 2J miles from east to
west, and 1J mile from north to south. Seen from
sea, it has a conical appearance ; and it sends up a
peak to probably 1,000 feet above sea-level. It for
merly was, to a noticeable extent, productive in
corn ; but it has, in a great degree, been rendered
infertile and desolate. Sand-drift has overwhelmed
its south-east side; the spray from the Atlantic
almost totally prevents vegetation in the north-west ;
and only on the south-west, where it is sheltered by
Bernera, does the island retain anything like its for
mer noted fertility.
PAISLEY, a parish in the upper and finest dis
trict of Renfrewshire. It is bounded on the north
and north-east by the parishes of Renfrew and Govan,
in which direction it approaches within 2 miles of the
Clyde ; on the east by Eastwood ; on the south by
Neilston ; and on the west by Lochwinnoch and Kil
barchan. In point of extent, this is the third parish
in the county, and, as regards value, by far the first.
From north-east to south-west, it stretches out nearly
9 miles in length. It is so deeply indented on all
sides by corners of adjoining parishes, that its breadth
varies from half-a-mile to 5£ miles, in consequence of
which, notwithstanding its great length, and, in some
parts, breadth, it only contains 16,153 imperial acres,
which may be arranged thus : — Arable or in cultiva
tion, 12,500; natural pastures and meadows, 1,500;
moss, sites of houses, roads, waters, &c, 1,153;
woods and plantations, 1,000. The surface, for the
most part, waves gently, and frequently swells into
beautiful little eminences. A considerable portion
to the north of the town of Paisley is a perfect level,
having been anciently moss, which extended in 1719,
when a survey was made, to 300 acres, but has since
been mostly reclaimed by the operation of burning.
The southern border of the parish rises into a range
of hills called Paisley or Stanely Braes, known also,
at least in one part, as ' the Braes of Gleniffer,' which

have been celebrated in song by Tannahill. Their
highest point is 760 feet above the surface of the
river Cart at high-water mark at Paisley. Though
interspersed with moss and heath, they afford good
sheep-pasture, and where they decline into lower
ground, a considerable part is in cultivation. In
these heights there is a picturesque glen with a water
fall. The view from Duchal-law, the eastern sum
mit, is varied, beautiful, and extensive, comprising
the towns of Glasgow and Paisley, with villages,
mansions, and hamlets, thickly scattered. The soil
of the parish is, in general, thin, with a bottom of
gravel, more frequently of till, very retentive of
moisture. In the flat grounds, and along the banks
of the rivers, it is rich and fertile ; less so, thinner,
and more stony, as it rises to the south  The prin
cipal river is the White Cart : which see. See
also the Black Cart and the Levern, which partly
bound the parish. Several rivulets proceed from the
hills on the south. One of these, bearing the pretty
name of the Espedair, and aptly termed in ancient
Latin writings a torrent (Jorrens), comes brawling
down to the White Cart, into which it falls above
the Abbey-bridge of Paisley. To the westward are
the Candren and Altpatrick burns, which lose them
selves in the Black Cart. Near the Candren is a
saline spring, called Candren-well, a pamphlet strong
ly recommendatory of which was written by the late
Robert Lyall, M.D. Within the town is the Seed
hill-well, a slightly mineralized spring, which was
formerly used as a tonic  Coal, sandstone, limestone,
greenstone, and ironstone, abound : see, in particu
lar, Househill, Hurlet, and Quarrelton. The
principal sandstone quarry is that of Nitshill, which
gives employment to nearly 100 men. Aluminous
schist is abundant at Hurlet. Fire-clay and blue-
clay are prevalent in the lower part of the parish ;
and potter's-clay occurs at Brediland, where coarse
earthenware is manufactured. — With regard to estates
and mansions, those of Hawkhead, Househill,
and Johnstone, have been already noticed. About
a mile east from Paisley is the estate of Ralston, long
possessed by the respectable family of Ralston " of
that ilk," by whom it was sold about the beginning
of the 18th century. In 1800, nearly the whole of
it was acquired by the late William Orr, Esq., who
built a handsome mansion, called Ralston-house, on
part of the adjacent lands of Ingliston, which he had,
3 years previously, bought from the Earl of Glasgow.
Throughout the parish, and especially in the vicinity
of the town, there are many neat villas. — The parish
contains not a few objects of antiquity. Near the
base of the Gleniffer-braes is an old tower called
Stanely-castle, which is of unknown date. This
barony first occurs in the 14th century, as belonging
to the Dennistons, from whom it passed to the Max
wells, and from them, in the 17th century, to the
Lords Ross of Hawkhead, to whose descendant and
representative, the Earl of Glasgow, it now belongs.
The structure consists of a quadrangular body, with
a projecting rectangular tower to protect the en
trance ; has contained four stories ; and is about forty
feet in height. A cornice at the top, the corbels of
which project considerably, gives an agreeable finish
to the pile. It was unroofed in 1714, and has since
remained in a ruinous condition. It stands at the
south-western extremity of the reservoir lately formed
for supplying Paisley with water. The reservoir has

478

PAISLEY.

given an entirely new character to the appearance of
the venerable ruin. They are mutually improved ;
the fine sheet of water supplies the place of bare
uninteresting fields, and the castle — " yon hoary
veteran, grey in arms," — imparts grace and dignity
to the scene.. — In the field on the south of the castle,
are the shaft and pedestal of an ancient stone cross,
between four and five feet high, the cross piece at
the top being awanting. On the edges, the remains
of wreathed work are visible. Semple (p. 238,)
mentions a similar object, called ' the Stead-Stone
cross,' as existing in his time at Auldbar, 2 miles, or
so, to the east. He calls them, 'Danish stones;'
but they were more probably devotional crosses, set
up in Popish times. On a rock at Harelaw Craigs,
in the same neighbourhood, are 72 small holes of an
oval form, an inch deep, and placed at irregular dis
tances, the origin of which' is unknown. — On the
right bank of the Levern, below Barrhead, is the
ruined tower of Stewart's Raiss, once the property
of Stewart of Halrig, a branch of the noble family of
Darnley — Cardonald, an antique structure, embow
ered in wood, on the right bank of the Cart, 3 miles
east of Paisley, has belonged to the Blantyre family
since the reign of James VI., and was once a seat of
theirs, but is now let to various tenants  Adjacent
to the town, on the south-east, is the barony of
Blackhall, belonging to the Shaw Stewart family,
and granted to their ancestor, Sir John Stewart, by
King Robert III. The charter is dated on the 12th
day of December, in the 6th year of the King's reign,
which, as he ascended the throne on 19th April,
1390, corresponds to the year 1395, not 1396, as has
hitherto been represented. The house is a strongly
built plain old pile, and affords a specimen of the
confined and homely accommodation enjoyed by fami
lies of consequence so recently as 1710, when Crau-
furd mentions it as " one of the seats " of the Black-
hall family. Latterly it was occupied by a farmer,
but now it is unroofed and deserted, and presents a
very dismal appearance. Of the " beautiful plant
ing ' with which it was adorned in Craufurd's time,
not a shrub remains  On the western side of the
parish lay the barony of Cochrane, the original seat,
and for five centuries the property of the family bear
ing that surname, ennobled as Lords Cochrane and
Earls of Dundonald. About the year 1750, it was
sold by Thomas, 8th Earl of Dundonald ; and as his
lordship, 16 years afterwards, sold the abbey lands of
Paisley, the family ceased to have any connection
with a county where they had long been of great
consideration. The greater part of the estate of
Cochrane now belongs to Mr. Houstoun of John
stone. The ruJhs of the manor-place have been
completely swept away since 1810, and the plough
now passes over their site  To the interesting loca
lities of Crookston and Elderslle, separate arti
cles have been devoted. The Abbey of Paisley, by
far the most important antiquity in the district, will
be more appropriately introduced hereafter.
The Town of Paisley is situated near the centre
of the parish, and is spread out on both sides of the
river White Cart, 3 miles from its junction with the
Clyde. The distance of the cross of Paisley from
that of Glasgow is 7J miles. From Greenock, Pais
ley is distant 16 miles, and from Edinburgh 52 miles ;
all these calculations being by the turnpike roads.
The original burgh, or older part of the town, is
chiefly built on and around a fine terrace-like emi
nence that runs westward from the Cart, and partly
on the north side of a similar eminence running par
allel on the south. On the east side of the river,
which is crossed by three stone-bridges, the ground
is level, and is principally occupied by the New-town,
the building of which was commenced in 1779, having

been planned and feued out by James, 8th Earl of
Abercorn, the proprietor of the ground on which it
stands, who named the most of the streets in honour
of the manufactures of the place. Contiguous to
these, but forming no'part of the plan, are Wallneuk,
Croft, Smith-hills, and other streets, which were be
gun earlier in the same century. The suburb called
the Seedhill is of much older date, and is the only
part of the town, on this side of the river, which be
longs to the original burgh. On the east of the town
is the suburb of Williamsburgh ; on the south are
Dovesland, Lylesland, and Charleston ; and on the
west Maxwelton, Ferguslie, and Millerston. The
parliamentary burgb, as formed under the act of
1832, includes the old and new towns, with the above
and other suburbs, and is spread over a surface of
about 3 miles by 2J, including a very small portion
of the parish of Renfrew. From the nature of the
surface, and the manner in which the streets branch
out on the low grounds, leaving open space between
them, it was thought proper, in defining the parlia
mentary burgh, to draw a regular boundary, by tak
ing points chiefly on rising grounds. To have fol
lowed any other course, would have made intricate
boundaries ; and it was necessary also to leave space
for the increase of the town. The main street runs
from east to west, under various names, for about 2
miles, forming part of the road from Glasgow to
Beith and the coast of Ayrshire. Another long line
of streets passes through the town from north to
south — but with some deflections. — being the conti
nuation of the road from Inchinnan, and merges in
that to Neilston. Although the situation of Paisley
is pleasant, it cannot, in point of elegance, cope with
some of the larger towns of Scotland. Many of the
streets, it is true, are regularly formed, and of hand
some houses there are not a few; but the effect of
these is often marred by the lowly thatched dwellings
with which they are surrounded. An accurate plan
of the town and its environs, from an actual survey
by James Knox, was published in the year 1822 ; and
a new edition, with the necessary changes and im
provements, by George Martin, was published in
1837. Though of comparatively recent date as a seat of
manufactures, Paisley is of venerable antiquity. It
was the site of a station formed by the Romans dur
ing their occupation of Scotland between the years
80 and 446, and designated by Ptolemy, the ancient
geographer, Vanduara. By Camden it is called Ran-
duara, and by Chalmers, in his Caledonia, Vanduarc'a,
one or other of which has been usually adopted by
subsequent writers ; but they were undoubtedly in
error, as the word mentioned by the geographer,
given in Roman characters, can have no other form -
than Vanduara. This was probably a Latinized mo
dification of the British words wen dur (white water),
applied by the natives to the White Cart, which
flowed past the eastern side of the encampment.
Misled by the fancied similarity of name, Camden
regards Renfrew, which is 3 miles to the north, as
the site of the station ; but the lo wness of the ground
there rendered it quite unsuitable for a place of de
fence and observation ; whereas Paisley was pecu
liarly fitted for such a purpose, as it occupied an
isolated height, and commanded an extensive view of
the surrounding country, including the Roman road
down Clydesdale, and the termination of Antoninus'
wall at Dunglass. But we are not left to conjecture
respecting the site of the station in question; for
writers of authority have given minute descriptions
of considerable remains as existing at Paisley at no
distant date: We allude to Bishop Gibson* and
* Gibson's edition of Camden's Britannia, p. 918,

PAISLEY.

479

Principal Dunlop, * both of whom wrote in the end
of the 17th century, and George Craufurd, + whose
work was originally published in 1710. All their
accounts are to the same effect ; and with regard to
Dunlop and Craufurd, it is to be observed that they
resided in this neighbourhood, and had every oppor
tunity for inspecting the objects described. Princi
pal Dunlop says : — " At Paisley there is a large
Roman camp to be seen. The praetorium, or inner
most part of the camp, is on the west end of a rising
ground, or little hill, called Cap Shawhead, on the
south-east descent of which hill standeth the town
of Paisley. The praetorium is not very large, but
hath been well fortified with three foussees and dikes
of earth, which must have been large, when to this
day their vestiges are so great that men on horse
back will not see over them. The camp itself hath
been great and large, it comprehending the whole
hill. There are vestiges on the north side of the
foussees and dike, whereby it appears that the camp
reached to the river of Cart. On the north side, the
dike goeth alongst the foot of the hill ; and if we
allow it to have gone so -far on the other side, it hath
enclosed all the space of ground on which the town
of Paisley stands, and it may be guessed to be about
a mile in compass. £ Its situation was both strong
and pleasant, overlooking the whole country. I
have not heard that any have been so curious as to
dig the ground into this praetorium ; but when they
tread upon it, it gives a sound as if it were hollow
below, where belike there are some of their vaults.
Near to this camp, about a quarter of a mile, stand
two other rises or little hills, the one to the west,
the other to the south, which, with this, make
almost a triangular form, where have been stations
for the outer guards. The vestiges of these appear,
and make them little larger than the praetorium of
the other camp, of the same form, without any other
fortification than a foussee and dike." From this
description, it is manifest that the praetorium, or
general's quarter, stood on the site of the present
bowling-green at Oakshawhead, and that the two
hills occupied as outposts were at Woodside and
Castlehead. The expansion of the town, and the
cultivation of the country, have almost obliterated
these interesting memorials of the invaders. In sup
port of the above account, we may add, that Horsley
in his Britannia Romana, published in 1732, (p. 377,)
takes Paisley to be Vanduara, and says ;— " There
are yet some visible Roman remains at it, as well as
a military way leading to it." This way was traced
by Gordon in 1725, but can be no longer seen. It
diverged to the left at Glasgow, from the great
Clydesdale road, and passing the Clyde at a ford
which existed till 1772, went across the country to
Paisley. The well-known street in Paisley, called
Causewayside, may have taken its name from its run
ning by the side of the Roman causeway. In Bleau's
map, 1654, " Causwaysid" is represented as at a little
distance from the town. Beyond Paisley, on the
west, no Roman station has yet been found, though
some roads have been traced, and coins and armour
discovered. .
The Romans having finally quitted Scotland in
the 5th century, the name of Vanduara was lost, and
no place connected with its site occurs till the year
1157, when King Malcolm IV. granted a charter in
favour of Walter, the son of Alan, first of that family,
Steward of Scotland, confirming a gift (not now ex
tant) of certain extensive possessions which King
» Description of Renfrewshire, in Appendix to Hamilton of
Wishaw's work, printed by the Maitland Club in 1831, p. 146.
+ Craufurd's Renfrewshire, ed. 1818, p. 14.
j Thin, it must be recollected, means the small town, as it
existed about the year 1680.

David, who reigned from 1124 to 1153, had conferred
upon Walter. Lands called ' Passeleth ' formed part
of those specified in the grant, and were identical
with the modern Paisley.§ There, on the east bank
of the river, Walter founded a monastery, about the
year 1163. At that time there does not appear to
have been any village at the place, but one soon arose
on the opposite bank, inhabited by the retainers arid
" kindly tenants" of the monks, to whom, as it stood
on their lands, it belonged. In 1488, the village was
created a free burgh-of-barony, but for some centu
ries it made little progress, the population having
been only 2,200 in 1 695. A view of the town and
abbey, in 1693, is given in Slezer's ' Theatrum Scotiae.'
The earliest symptom of external traffic occurs about
the same time, in Principal Dunlop's 'Description of
Renfrewshire,' where it is stated (p. 145,) that by
the river " boats come to Paisley with Highland tim
ber and slates — 6,000 in a boat — fish of all sorts, and
return with coal and lime." Thus we find that, in
the end of the 17th century, coal and lime were sent
from hence to the Highlands, in return for timber,
slates, and fish ; but there is no notice of any manu
factures : yet there must have been some such, for
Craufurd only a few years afterwards says (p. 61,) :
— " This burgh has a weekly mercat, on Thursday,
where there is store of provisions. But that which
renders this place considerable is its trade of linen
and muslin, where there is a great weekly sale in its
mercats of those sorts of cloath ; many of their in
habitants being chiefly employed in that sort of manu
factory." About the same time (1710) Hamilton
of Wishaw (p. 73) described Paisley as " a very
pleasant and well-built little town ; plentifully pro
vided with all sorts of grain, fruitts, coalls, peats,
fishes, and what else is proper for the comfortable
use of man, or can be expected in any other place of
the kingdome." From this graphic notice, Paisley
appears to have been a very desirable place of abode.
It then consisted of one principal street (the High-
street), about half-a-mile in length, running west
wards from the river, with some wynds and lanes in
different directions.
It was not long after the Union with England, in
1707, when a free trade was opened with that coun
try, that the spirit of manufacture began to show
itself in Paisley. The fabrics produced were made
upon such just and economical principles, and with
so much taste and judgment, that they found a ready
market not only at home, but likewise in the neigh
bouring kingdom. At first they consisted of coarse
checkered linen cloth, and imitations of striped mus
lins, called bengals ; afterwards of checkered linen
handkerchiefs, some of them fine and beautifully
variegated by the manner in which the colours were
disposed. These were succeeded by fabrics of a
lighter and more fanciful texture, consisting not only
of plain lawns, but likewise of such as were striped
with cotton, and others that were ornamented with
a great variety of figures. About the year 1730 the
making of white sewing thread — known by the name
of ounce or nuns' thread — was begun by the inhabi
tants, and was prosecuted to such an extent, that
Paisley became the principal seat of that manufac
ture. Towards the end of the century it began to
decline, and was gradually superseded by an article
made of cotton, in which branch eight or nine fac
tories, propelled by steam, are now employed. This
_ In ancient deeds the name is also written Passelet, Passelay,
and (Latinized) Pasletum. It afterwards became Paslay, Pau
ley, and finally, in the 18th century, assumed the present form-
— Paisley. Of this name various etymologies linve beeu sug
gested. Those who are curious in such investigations are
referred to Mr. Ramsay's book on Renfrewshire, p. 6, and the
New Statistical Account of Paisley, at the beginning of the
article.

480

PAISLEY.

cotton thread meets with an extensive sale through
out the kingdom. By the middle of the 18th cen- j
tury, the making of linen gauze was a considerable
branch of trade in Paisley. In 1 759 the manufacture |
of silk gauze was first attempted here in imitation of |
that of Spitalfields. In consequence of the taste of
the masters, and the patient application of the work
men, their success was complete ; and the result was,
that elegant and richly ornamented silk gauzes were
issued from Paisley in such vast variety as outdid
everything of the kind that had formerly appeared.
Companies came down from London to carry on this
manufacture in Paisley, where it prospered to an un
exampled extent. Indeed, it not only became the
great distinguishing business of the town, but it filled
the country round to the distance of 20 miles, and
the traders engaged in it not only had warehouses in
London and Dublin, but employed persons in Paris
and other great towns on the continent for selling
their goods. About 1785 the change of fashion, on
which this trade must entirely depend, had an un
favourable effect. It was gradually dropt, and as it
was necessary that new and varied fabrics should
be brought forward to meet the change of fashion,
muslin goods next engaged the attention of the arti
sans of the district. The skill of the Paisley weavers
was consequently directed to this object, and pro
ductions from their looms were soon exhibited which
surpassed the muslins of any other part of the king
dom. This branch rose to an unexampled height of
prosperity. Of late years comparatively little has
been done in it; but the fabrics, . which are chiefly
designed for the London market, are not surpassed
anywhere in point of taste and elegance of execution.
The ornamenting of muslins by fine needle-work em
ploys a great number of young women, and is carried
to great perfection. In 1817 the silk gauze began
to revive, and has since thriven well ; so much so
that Paisley now furnishes nearly all the silk gauzes
that are used in the kingdom, with the exception of
those exported from France.
In 1805 the shawl manufacture was introduced in
this place, and has gradually become the staple trade
of the place. Imitations were at different times
made of Thibet shawls and Cashmere shawls, and of
the striped scarfs and turbans worn by the nations
of the east, which, from their resemblance to the
skin of the animal of the name, are called zebras.
For making the Cashmere shawls the genuine wool
is imported, and the first cloth of this description
made in Britain was fabricated in Paisley. Another
beautiful and ingenious species of shawl manufac
tured here is*that known by the French name of the
caterpillar, chenille. This name it received from its
variegated colour and softness of feel ; and it is often
labelled in shops with the very descriptive words,
velours au sole (velvet on silk). About the year
1823 the manufacture of crape dresses, damask and
embroided shawls, similar to those imported from
Canton, was introduced to Paisley, and has since
been extensively prosecuted. But the shawls chiefly
made now are of three qualities; — the first is wholly
silk ; the second, half silk and half cotton ; the
third, wholly cotton. The total sales, in 1834, were
estimated at nearly a million of pounds sterling, and
in subsequent years they were considerably greater.
Machinery, invented by a Frenchman, has, since that
year, been advantageously employed in finishing the
shawls, in the operation of clipping, which was for
merly done in a tedious and comparatively clumsy
way by the hand. All the trades depending upon the
shawl branch have necessarily increased, in particular
that of dyeing, in which from 400 to 500 hands are
employed. In the beginning of 1837 the number of i
looms employed in all kinds of weaving in Paisley

was ascertained to be about 6,000; of which 5,700
were employed by Paisley houses, and the remaining
300 by Glasgow ones. About 2,000 looms were em
ployed in the country by Paisley capital, chiefly in the
neighbouring villages, but including some hundreds
in Kilmarnock, Perth, Largs, Strathaven, &c. At
that time the number of apprentices to the looms in
Paisley was 728, — harness - weavers, 5,350; plain
weavers, 650; female weavers, 40, — in all, 6,040.
Each harness- weaver requires a draw-boy, for whom
he pays, on an average, 3s. 6d. per week off his
earnings. The jacquard machine, used in place of a
draw-boy, has lately been attempted here in an im
proved form.
In the town there are two large factories for spin
ning cotton, and one on a smaller scale ; one large
silk throwing mill ; and one power-loom factory for
cotton cloth used in the printing of silks and other
fabrics, has lately been attempted, but on a small
scale. The town has alsoiSeveral founderies of iron
and brass, flour-mills, and timber-yards, three brew
eries, two distilleries, one large soap-work which
has been in operation since 1776, and one large tan-
work which was established about the same time.
In and around the town are several bleachfields.
We do not here take any account of the mills and
other works at Johnstone, Elderslie, and other vil
lages at some distance, though within the limits of
the original parish of Paisley.
Besides the manufactures before-mentioned, others
have at different times been carried on here. About
1748 a large stocking-factory was established in
New-street, and some time after other two were
commenced in the town, but the business was given
up about 1760. In 1772 the fabrication of silk rib
bons, both flowered and plain, was begun, but it
only lasted for six years. In 1788 a company began
the manufacture of tapes, for which a low range of
buildings, called 'the Knitting-factory,' was built on
the north side of the town, on the line of the road to
Greenock. In 1818 about 100 people were employed
in this branch, and produced goods of the value of
£6,000 yearly.
Paisley was the seat of a regality court, but had
no corporate rights or separate municipal jurisdiction
till 1488, when it was erected into a free burgh-of-
barony by charter from King James IV., granted in
favour of tbe abbot of the monastery, who, as su
perior, was invested with the right of electing an
nually a provost, bailies, and other officers. In 1490
the abbot, George Shaw, with consent of his chapter,
disponed the burgh, with sundry lands and privileges,
to the provost, bailies, burgesses, and community
thereof, to be held of him and his successors for
payment of certain burgage farms and annual rents.
King James' charter having been granted during his
minority, it was confirmed by him in 151?. In 1648
the burgh obtained from parliament a ratification of
its rights and privileges. Lord Cochrane, after
wards Earl of Dundonald, having, as will appear in
the sequel, become superior of the burgb, the bailies
and community, in 1658, purchased from him the
superiority of the burgh, and the right of electing
the magistrates ; and in 1665 they obtained an inde
pendent tenure from the Crown by charter of King
Charles II. Though Paisley is in form a burgh-of-
barony, its jurisdiction and privileges are, in most
respects, similar to those usually possessed by royal
burghs. Real property within the burgh is held in
feu of the magistrates, council, and community.
According to an ancient and peculiar practice (the
validity of which has been sanctioned by the Su
preme court) investiture was given in burgage
lands — but not houses — by a very simple pro-
cess. The heir, or other person holding a con-

PAISLEY.

481

yeyance to lands, and desiring to be entered or
invested in place of the ancestor, or granter of the
conveyance, appeared personally, or by attorney,
and, in the usual manner, made symbolical re
signation of his right in the hands of the magistrates,
for the purpose of obtaining what is termed ' new
and heritable booking.' This 'booking' consists in
the registering of the res gesta (including a descrip
tion of the land, and a statement of the party's right
in connexion with the person last ' booked ') in the
chartulary of the burgh ; and an authenticated copy
or extract under the hands of the town-clerk, was
held to complete the investiture, without charter,
sasine, or any other written instrument. This prac
tice, however, became exposed, in process of time,
to great inconveniences, and is now little resorted
to, except in the transmission of property in the dif
ferent churches. It seems to have come down from
the time of the monastery, when the entry of vassals
Was recorded in its books. Till 1 739 the burgh was
governed by two bailies ; but in that year the ma
gistracy was enlarged to three bailies, a treasurer,
and seventeen councillors. In 1812 the munici
pality was increased by the appointment of a pro
vost, the office having remained in abeyance since
the erection of the burgh. Under the act of parlia
ment, passed 28th August, 1833, the council is com
posed of a provost, four bailies, a treasurer, and ten
ordinary members. The magistrates are ex qfficiis
justices-of-the-peace for the county ; and the provost
holds, in addition, the. honourable office of deputy-
lieutenant. In 1837 there were forty-two justices-
of-the-peace residing in the town and neighbourhood ;
in 1841 they amounted to 60. The Report made by
the Commissioners on Municipal Corporations, stated
the heritable property of the burgh, in the year from
September 1832 to September 1833, as worth £53,914
8s. 7d., according to a valuation made upon oath by
persons appointed for the purpose. Added to this,
debts due to the community to the amount of £4,210
14s. lid., made the property of the burgh amount
altogether to £58,125 3s. 6d. Its revenue during
the same year amounted to £3,848 12s. 7d., arising
from rents of houses, lands, and church-seats, casu
alties of non-entry, feu-duties, and burgess entries,
dues of river and flesh-market, and other items.
The expenditure, including the payment of the in
terest of debts during the same period, had been
£3,778 14s. 4d., leaving a surplus of £64 18s. 4d.
in favour of the town for that year. The debts of
the burgh, in 1833, amounted to upwards of £33,000;
leaving a surplus of property or assets, in favour of
the town, of about £25,000. The commissioners
say : " It appears, on inspection of the books, and
from the annual statements of balance sheets, that
this debt has been gradually increasing since the
year 1802, when it was about £18,000. But during
that time many public works have been executed by
the magistrates, which were stated to have rendered
the contraction of these debts unavoidable ; nor did
it appear that there had been any misapplication of
the funds." In September 1841 the revenue of the
corporation amounted to £3,474 Is. 9d. The value
of its property at that time was £69,047 15s. Id. ;
and the debts due by it were £43,086 14s. 9d.;
leaving a surplus, in favour of the community, of
£25,961 0s. 4d.
Under the Reform act of 1832, Paisley returns
one member to parliament. Previously the town
had no voice in the representation, farther than that,
till the year 1770, the chief magistrate voted in name
of the burgh, at all elections of a member for the
county. Within four years from the first election
under the Reform act, Paisley had not fewer than
four representatives, namely, Sir John Maxwell of
II.

Nether Pollock, Baronet; Sir Daniel K. Sandford ;
Captain Alexander G. Speirs of Culcreuch; and the
present member, Archibald Hastie, Esq., a native of
the town and a highly respectable merchant in Lon
don. These rapid changes were caused by the re
signation of the three first members. The consti
tuency, parliamentary and municipal, as ascertained
in 1841, amounted to 1,175. The ancient boun
daries of the burgh, described in the charter, are
much less than those fixed on for parliamentary and
municipal elections. These last include that part of
the town on the east side of the Cart, together witn
a large agricultural district which lies wholly in the
Abbey parish, except a very small portion on the
north, belonging to the parish of Renfrew.
In 1806 an act of parliament was passed for form
ing two police-establishments, one for the burgh
comprising nine wards, and one for the suburbs com
prising six wardst This separation having been found
inconvenient, the establishments were united in 1836.
Each ward returns two commissioners, making thirty
in all, besides the sheriff-substitute, and the provost
and bailies, who are commissioners ex qfficiis. The
right of election is vested in householders who pay
£5 or upwards of yearly rent. The expense is de
frayed by an assessment on the inhabitants. The
income for the year ending on the first Monday of
October 1841, was £2,634 17s. 6d., and the expen
diture £2,417 17s., leaving a surplus income of
£217 0s. 6d.
Paisley is lighted with gas, in virtue of an act of
parliament passed in 1823, by which a company was
incorporated. The capital was £16,000, which has
since been doubled. The works are advantageously
situated on the north-west of the town.
Until lately great inconvenience was experienced
from the want of a sufficient supply of water. Some
of the inhabitants drew it from public and private
wells, and from barrels and cisterns into which rain
was conveyed from the roofs of houses; while many
others purchased water from persons who made a
trade of carting it along the streets in large barrels,
and selling it at the rate of one penny for ten gallons ;
the water thus sold being partly filtered from the
river, and partly procured from wells and springs in
the neighbourhood. In 1825 a company was formed,
and an act of parliament obtained, for raising water
from the river ; but objections by the proprietors of
the Sacel and Seedhill mills, to the abstraction of
water without an amount of compensation to which
the company were unable or unwilling to agree,
caused the scheme to be abandoned. A few years
afterwards an ingenious and much respected towns
man, James Kerr, M.D., after a laborious examina
tion of the Gleniffer-hills, called the attention of the
public to the practicability of procuring from thence
an ample supply of the desired element, by the in
terception of the drainage and the formation of a
reservoir at Stanely. The scheme having been ap
proved of, a capital of £40,000 was speedily sub
scribed, and in 1835 an act of parliament for carrying
the scheme into effect was obtained. The works
were commenced in 1836; were opened on 13th
July, 1838; and have since been in full operation.
Perhaps there are none in Britain so perfect in de
sign, and so beautifully and substantially executed.
Paisley enjoys great facilities of communication
with all parts of the country. Turnpike roads lead
to it in various directions. A canal from Glasgow
to Johnstone, opened in 1811, passes Paisley. By it
goods and passengers are conveyed. It was originally
intended that this canal should proceed to the sea at
Ardrossan, but the intention has been abandoned.
It is led over the river by a beautiful aqueduct
bridge on the east side of Paisley. A railway foi
2 H

482

PAISLEY.

the conveyance of goods and passengers between
Paisley and the river Clyde near Renfrew-ferry— a
distance of 3J miles— was opened in 1837. The line
of railway to Glasgow and Ayrshire, opened in 1840,
and that to Greenock, opened in 1841, have been
described in separate articles. In consequence of a
short canal, to avoid the shallows at Inchinnan bridge,
having been cut, and of the river Cart having been
deepened soon after the year 1786, the river is navi
gable up to the town for vessels of from 60 to 80
tons burthen. Additional improvements upon it,
for which an act of parliament was obtained, have
been in progress since 1835. The expenditure on
these for the five years ending November 1840,
amounted to £19,032 7s. 4£d. A branch of about
J of a mile in length from the Great canal to the
Clyde, nearly opposite the mouth of the Cart, was
opened in 1840, for the benefit of the Paisley trade.
With regard to public buildings, the first place is
due to the Abbey-church of the monastery, which,
as has already been incidentally stated, was estab
lished here by Walter the High Steward, about the
year 1163. It was founded for monks of the Clu-
niac order of Reformed Benedictines, who were
brought from the priory of Wenlock in Shropshire,
his native county, and was specially dedicated to St.
James the Apostle, St. Mirinus, and St. Milburga.
The latter was the patroness of the parent-house of
Wenlock. Mirinus — or, as he is popularly called,
Mirren — was a confessor who, in early times, passed
his life in this vicinity, and became the tutelar saint
of the place. The monastery was so munificently
endowed by the founder and his successors, and other
pious persons, that it became the most opulent in the
south of Scotland, with the exception of Kelso. By
the original constitution it was ruled by a prior, but
in 1219-45 it was raised to the rank of an abbacy.
This was the burying-place of the Stuarts before
their accession to the throne of Scotland ; and even
after that period, it was sometimes employed as such,
Robert III., and the two consorts of Robert II.,
having been entombed here. Fordun records that
this monastery was burnt by the English in 1307.
It was afterwards rebuilt, and greatly enlarged and
embellished. The greater part, if not the whole of
what now exists, appears to have been built in the
15th century, by Abbot Thomas Tarvas, who died
in 1459, and Abbot George Shaw, who ruled here
from 1472 to March 1498-9.* A tower or steeple
which had, by its own weight, and the insufficiency
of the foundation, given way ere it was well com
pleted, was rebuilt at immense cost by John Hamil
ton, the last abbot, in the 16th century; but about
the end of the same century it again " fell with its
own weight, and with it the quire [choir] of the
church."f The remains of the strong clustered pil
lars that supported the tower are still to be seen.
The buildings of the monastery, with its orchards
and gardens, and a small park for fallow-deer, were
surrounded by a magnificent wall, upwards of a mile
in circumference, formed of squared freestone, and
adorned with statues. This wall was constructed
by Abbot Shaw, in 1485, as appears from an inscrip
tion on a stone which was originally fixed on it, and
now forms the lintel of a house in Lawn-street. The
wall remained nearly entire till 1781, when the Earl
of Abercorn sold the stones to the feuars of the New
Town, by whom they were used in building their
bouses. A portion which has escaped destruction
is still to be seen in its place near the Seedhill bridge.
• See the Auchinleck Chronicle, where (p. 19,) " the mony
notable thing-is" done by Abbot Tarvas towards re-edifying
the structure are recorded; and Craufurd (p. 17), who says
that the " wall, with most part of the fabric of the abbey that
now stands, was built" by Abbot Shaw.
t Appendix to Hamilton's Description, p. 147.

The church, when entire, appears to have consisted
of a nave, a tower, a choir, and a northern transept,
with the chapel, whose proper name is ' St. Mirren's
aisle,' but which is better known by that of ' the
Sounding aisle.' It does not appear that there was
a southern transept, the aisle just mentioned partly
occupying what would have formed its site. The
edifice has been 265 feet in length, measured over
the walls. The internal measurement of the nave is
93 feet in length, and 59£ feet in breadth, including
the width of the aisles. The transept measures in
ternally 92i feet by 35, and the choir, which has
been without aisles, 123£ by 32 feet. The measure
ment of the transept is carried across the church to
the wall of the Sounding aisle. The west front of
the church is an elevation of much dignity, composed
of a central and two lateral compartments, separated
and flanked by buttresses, three of which are termi
nated by recently erected cones, a similar one of
which is on the east end of the nave. These cones
are by no means ornamental. The aisles are lighted
by pointed windows, in the decorated style. On the
north wall towards its west end, is a porch, above
which is erected the present vestry. Through this
porch is an entrance in a style of architecture some
what similar to that of the western. On the left
wall of the portico is a Latin inscription, which tells
that John de Lithgow, abbot of the monastery, chose
this for his place of sepulture, on the 20th day of
January, 1433. The clerestory windows are twelve
in number, and are on each side of the main body of
the nave. The eastern gable of the nave is merely a
screen of modern masonry filling up the western arch
beneath the place where the great tower stood. On
the outside of this gable may be traced the remains
of a mural tablet, apparently erected to tbe memory
of the unfortunate John Hamilton, the last of the
abbots, who was ignominiously put to death at Stir
ling in 1571, for adhering to the cause of Queen
Mary. The initials J. H., amd the Hamilton arms,
with the motto ' Misericordia et Pax,' are still visi
ble. But neither the modern part of the gable, the
window inserted in it, the bell-turret that rises above
it, nor the roof of the building, also of modern date,
are at all in keeping with the other parts of the edi
fice  The interior of the nave is truly magnificent.
Ten massy clustered columns, 17 feet in height, with
simple but elegantly moulded capitals, divide the
aisles from the body of the fabric. Of these columns,
the circumference of each of the two nearest the
west is more than double that of any of the others,
plainly indicating that they were intended by .the
architect, in connection with the front wall, to sup
port two western towers. From the imposts of the
columns spring pointed arches, with delicate and
graceful mouldings. From a floor formed above the
first tier of arches, spring those of the triforium.
Above the triforium rises the clerestory, the arches
of which are simple, pointed, and narrow, but of just
proportions. The original roof, which has given
place to a simple coved one, was finely groined with
sculptured bosses, at the intersections of the ribs,
of which a specimen is still to be seen, towards the
west end of the southern aisle. The modern east
window, in the inside, is filled with stained glass,
and beneath it is a white marble monument, erected
by the county of Renfrew in 1810, in memory of
William MacDowall, of Castle-Semple and Garth-
land, Esq., lord-lieutenant and member of parliament
for Renfrewshire. The nave has been employed as
a parish-church ever since the Reformation. It un
derwent a thorough repair in the year 1789. Stoves
were introduced into the edifice in 1832 ; and having
since been again cleaned and repaired, it forms not
only one of the most magnificent, but also one

PAISLEY.

483

of the most comfortable places of worship in Scot
land. — The transept, although ruinous, displays in its
northern window a fine relic of monastic grandeur.
The window, about 25 feet in height, by 18 in
breadth, occupies the greater part of the space that
intervenes between the 'graduated buttresses which
support the northern angles of the transept. It is
formed within an arch of beautiful proportions, and
of the decorated kind. The walls of the choir are
now levelled to within ten feet of the ground. The
font still remains, with a niche on each side near the
east end of the south wall. A little to the west, in
the same wall, are four recesses, supposed to have
been stalls or seats for the priests.
South of the nave, and closely adjoining to it, is
the cloister-court, from which entrance is afforded to
St. Mirren's aisle, a building on its east side, which
is understood to have been erected about the year
1499 ; for in that year James Craufurd of Kilwynnet,
burgess of Paisley, and his wife, founded and endowed
a chapel " in the church of the parish of Paisley, on
the south side thereof, to the altar of Saints Mirren
and Columba." This building is about 24 feet long,
by 24 broad. Beneath a window in the east gable,
now blocked up, is a series of sculptured figures,
chiefly representing ecclesiastics engaged in various
offices of the Romish ritual. In the south is the
font. Under the elevated pavement at the east end
is a vault, 14 feet deep, the burying-place of the
Abercorn family, and on the north wall is an inscrip
tion in memory of three infant childien of Lord
Claud Hamilton. Nearly in the centre of the lower
floor is an altar tomb, which, after having lain for
many years in a mutilated state in the cloister-court,
was, about the year 1816, reconstructed, coated with
stone-coloured cement, and placed in its present shel
tered situation, under the direction of the late Dr.
Boog, senior minister of the church. On the top is
the figure of a female in a recumbent posture, with
hands closed in the attitude of prayer. This monu
ment is popularly called ' Queen Bleary's Tomb,'
and is said to have been erected in honour of Marjory
Bruce, daughter of the renowned King Robert, and
wife of Walter the High Steward, who died in 1326.
But that princess never was queen, and it is not
known that she could be fitly designated by the epi
thet of ' Bleary.' If not referring to her, the monu
ment may represent one of the consorts of her son,
Robert IL, who, from a remarkable inflammation in
one of his eyes, was called ' King Bleary.' This
chapel being vaulted, and containing nothing but the
monument, has an echo so striking as to have ob
tained for it the name of 'the Sounding aisle.'
Instrumental or vocal music performed in it has a
curious effect, from the prolongation and consequent
mingling of the notes.
After the Reformation, Lord Claud Hamilton, a
younger son of the Duke of Chatelherault, became
commendator of this abbacy. In 1587, the whole
property of the monastery, which he held for life
only, was erected into a temporal lordship, and
granted to him and his heirs and assigns in fee, and
he was raised to the peerage with the title of Lord
Paisley. His eldest son was, in his lifetime, created
Earl of Abercorn. In 1652, his grandson and suc
cessor, the 2d Earl, sold this opulent lordship to the
Earl of Angus, from whom, next year, the larger
part of it was purchased by Lord Cochrane, after
wards Earl of Dundonald. Great portions were at
different times sold by the Dundonald family. In
1 764, what remained was repurchased from Thomas,
8th Earl of Dundonald, by James, 8th Earl of Aber
corn, to whose successor, the Marquis of Abercorn,
it now belongs.
On the south side of the abbey buildings is an an

cient mansion, of old called ' the Place of Paisley,
which was successively the residence of Lord Pais
ley, and of the Earls of Abercorn and Dundonald.
The last proprietor of the Dundonald family having,
between 1758 and 1764, demolished the gateway, and
feued off the adjoining ground for building, the ap
pearance of this place was entirely changed, and it
was rendered unfit for a family residence. It was
therefore let out to tradesmen's families, and now
presents a gloomy aspect.
The next edifice which demands attention is that
called 'the County Buildings,' erected in 1818-21,
at an expense of about £28,000. This pile stands
on the west bank of the river. Its general form is
quadrangular, and the style of the exterior castel
lated. The front division contains a court-house,
county-hall, council-chambers, and a number of offi
ces for different departments of public business. The
eastern range consists of the correction-house and
common jail, with a chapel. The former prison and
court-house stood at the Cross, and occupied the site
of the new portion of what has long been known as
the Saracen's Head inn. They were removed when
the County Buildings were erected; but the spire
which was attached to them still remains  On the
opposite side of the area of the cross are the Coffee-
room buildings, erected in 1809. The upper part is
adorned with Ionic 'pilasters, and includes a large
elegant and comfortable reading-room  The Town's
hospital for maintaining the poor, was opened in
1752, and a small asylum for lunatics was since add
ed. The Dispensary was established in 1786, and
about 15 years afterwards a commodious House of
recovery or Infirmary, for the reception of persons
labouring under contagious disease, was built  The
Grammar-school was founded and endowed by royal
charter, dated 3d January, 1576, and was kept in the
street called School- wynd till 1802, when the present
building adjacent tp the High-church was erected.
Near the head of Moss-street, on the east side, are
the Exchange buildings, erected in 1837, partly on
the site of what was till then the Fleshmarket. On
the opposite side there stood till the beginning of this
century the tron or custom booth, and above that a
place dignified by Semple (p. 318,) with the name
of ' the Assembly-hall,' where, 60 years since, the
young people of the town were taught the accom
plishment of dancing. — At the suburb of Williams-
burgb, barracks for the accommodation of a battalion
of infantry were erected in 1822.
Of the places of worship to be afterwards noticed,
we may here particularize the High Church, a hand
some building with a lofty spire, which occupies an
eminence, and is seen from a great distance ; St.
George's church, a spacious Grecian structure ; one
of the Secession churches, also Grecian ; and the
Episcopal chapel, which is of chaste Gothic. AH
these are modern structures.
Paisley was formerly the town-residence of some
of the families of the nobility and gentry of the county.
On the north side of the High-street, a short distance
above the Cross, stands a mansion once the property
of the Lords Sempill, and bearing their arms, with
the date 1580. On the opposite side of the same
street westwards, is a tenement which was built in
1594, and belonged to the family of Ferguslie. Far
ther west, a little above the head of New-street,
there stood the mansion of Cochrane of Craigmuir.
To these have to be added the families of Abercorn,
and Dundonald, successive occupants, as already
seen, of the mansion contiguous to the Abbey.
Although Renfrew is the county-town, Paisley has
been the seat of the court of the sheriff of the county
since 1705, when it was ' transported' hither in vir
tue of a warrant by the sheriff-principal. In 1815,

484

PAISLEY.

the county was divided into two wards, the upper of
which was annexed to the court at Paisley. The
practitioners before the courts here form one of the
few legal bodies in Scotland that enjoy peculiar pri
vileges, a royal charter having been granted to them
on 24th June, 1803. The number of members, resi
dent and non-resident, "in 1841, is 47.
The Paisley Commercial Banking company, a
joint-stock undertaking, was established in 1839.
There are besides branches of two Edinburgh and
two Glasgow banks, and a National Security Savings'
bank, instituted in 1838. The Paisley bank, estab
lished in 1787, and the Paisley Union bank, estab
lished some years afterwards, were discontinued, the
former in 1837, and the latter in 1838.
There is a weekly market held on Thursday; and
fairs, each of three days' duration, are held in Febru
ary, May, August, and November. Horse-races are
run on two of the days of the August fair. They
were instituted by the town-council, so far back as
the year 1608; but it was only of late that they at
tracted any attention beyond the district. The
' Paisley Meeting' is now a fashionable resort. The
race-course has been much improved, and no longer
includes part of the turnpike road to Greenock.
An association, called the Philosophical Institu
tion, was established in 1808, for the delivery of
lectures on different branches of science and litera
ture, and has since been carried on with various de
grees of success. A Mechanics' Institution, which
had existed for some years, was incorporated with it
in 1825. There are three public libraries — the Pais
ley, with above 5,000 volumes, the Trades', and the
Theological. There are several printing presses, and
one newspaper, the Advertiser, which was com
menced in 1824, and is published on Saturday.
Alexander Wilson, a poet of some note, but much
better known as the Ornithologist of America, and
Robert Tannahill, one of our finest song-writers,
were natives of Paisley, and both belonged to the
working class. The town also claims as natives two
of the Edinburgh professors, John Wilson, Esq., and
John Thomson, M.D.
In 1590 all the parishes in Renfrewshire, except
ing those of Eaglesham and Cathcart, were formed
into a presbytery, the seat of which was established
at Paisley. This arrangement continued till May,
1834, when, by a decree of the General Assembly,
seven parishes in the lower part of the county were,
with Largs in Ayrshire, and Cumbray in Bute,
formed into a presbytery, having its seat at Green
ock. In 1841, the presbytery of Paisley contained 12
quoad civilia parishes, and 10 quoad sacra parishes
and churches. It belongs to the synod of Glasgow
and Ayr.
Till the year 1 736 Paisley formed one parish, and
contained only one church — the Abbey. Owing to
the increase of population, a charter was obtained in
1733, from Lord Dundonald, the patron of the par
ish, granting liberty to the magistrates and com
munity to build within the burgh, a church or
churches, the patronage of which was to be vested
in the magistrates and town-council. In 1736 a
church was, in consequence, built at the foot of
New-street, and the burgh was erected into a sepa
rate parish, by a decree of the Lords-commissioners
for the plantation of churches. The population con
tinuing to increase, another church was built in 1 756.
Being situated on the most elevated part of the
town, it was distinguished by the name of the High
Church, while the former erection, from its relative
situation, was denominated the Laigh Kirk or Low
Church. In 1781, it was found necessary to add a
third place of worship, which, from its situation be
tween the other two, received the name of the

Middle Church. The burgh, which had hitherto
continued one parish, was, on 20th February, 1789,
by a decree of the court of teinds, divided into three
parishes, which were called from their several
churches, the Low church parish, the High church
parish, and the Middle church parish. The patron
age of these belongs to the magistrates and town-
council, and the stipends of the ministers are paid
out of the funds of the burgh. Since 1834, several
quoad sacra parishes and churches have been erected
out of these  The earliest congregation of dissenters
in Paisley was one of Antiburghers, formed about
the year 1750, and which, since its union with the
Burghers in 1820, has been styled the First Congre
gation in the town belonging to the United Asso
ciate synod. Many other bodies of dissenters have,
from time to time, been formed, as ,will appear from
the following details, which are chiefly derived from
the Appendix to the Eighth Report by the Commis
sioners of Religious Instruction, who visited Paisley-
in January 1838.
1. Abbey Parish.— Since the burgh was sepa
rated from it in 1736, the original parish has been
distinguished by the name of the Abbey Parish, or,
more properly, the parish of the Abbey of Paisley.
Its greatest length is 9£ miles, its greatest breadth 5 J.
It is partly landward, and partly town. The great pro
portion of the population is assembled in the New
Town and suburbs of Paisley, and in large villages.
Bythe census of 1831, the population of the parish,
quoad civilia, was 26,006. According to a survey taken .
in the end of 1835, the population, quoad sacra, was
17,248, of whom there belonged to the Established
church 9,040; to other denominations, 7,406; not
known to belong to any denomination, 802. The
church has already been described. Sittings 1,158.
The parish has had the benefit of two ministers since
1 648. The stipend of the minister of the first charge is
£376 Is. Id.; manse andglebe £67. Stipend of minister
of second charge £362 15s. 2d.,without manse or glebe.
Patron of both, the Marquis of Abercorn. Unappro
priated teinds£l, 6157s. lOd. The parish, quoad civi
lia, comprehends the quoad sacra parishes of Elders-
lie, Johnstone, and Levern : which see ; and a
portion annexed, quoad sacra, to the South church
parish  The Second Relief congregation, Thread-
street, established in 1807, assembles in a church
built in 1808, at a cost of more than £3,000. Sit
tings 1,640. Stipend rather more than £200. The
late minister of this congregation, the Rev. James
Thomson, D. D., a pious and learned man, who
died in 1841, was Professor of Divinity to the Re
lief synod. Paisley is the seat of one of the pres
byteries of that body  The Second United Seces
sion congregation, Abbey-close, was established in
1765, and built a church there in 1769. The
church was rebuilt in 1827, at a cost of £2,588
19s. 3d., besides nearly £300 for a hall, vestry, and
library-room. Sittings 1,178. Stipend, in 1837,
£260  The Roman Catholic congregation was
established, and built a place of worship in 1808,
at a cost of at least £4,000. Sittings 906. The
minister has no fixed salary. He is allowed to
take from the funds of the congregation what is
necessary for his decent support. In 1838, it was
computed that the total population connected with
the congregation was about 8,000, one-half of whom
were resident in the town of Paisley, and the other
half in some neighbouring parishes. — The Old Scot
tish Independent congregation was established in
1784 or 5; and assembles in a part of the Abbey
buildings, which is rented from the proprietor, the
Marquis of Abercorn. Sittings 200. Mr. James
M'Gavin, who had been pastor for nearly 42 years,
and who has since died, stated to the commissioners

PAISLEY.

485

in 1838, that " he never received one shilling in his
life for preaching." — The Primitive Methodist con
gregation was established in 1833, and assembles in
the hall of the Philosophical Institution, which is
rented from the directors, who also make use of it.
Sittings 300. Stipend £45, besides a house for the
minister, which is provided and furnished by the
church, and all taxes paid.
2. Low Church Parish  This, as already
stated, was formed in 1782. Length, three-fourths
of a mile ; breadth, half-a-mile. It is almost wholly
town. A small part is landward, but it is included
within theboundariesof theburgh, and is uninhabited.
A portion has been disjoined quoad sacra, and an
nexed to the South parish. The population, in
1831, was 6,955. In 1838 it was 6,934, 1,800 of
whom belonged to the disjoined portion. Of the
6,934, there belonged to the Established church,
3,229 ; to other denominations, 2,651 ; not known
to belong to any denomination, 1,054. The present
parish-church was built in 1819 by the magistrates
and council, aided by subscriptions from private in
dividuals and incorporations, who retain property in
it in proportion to their subscriptions. The cost,
including vestry, presbytery-house, piece of ground,
expense of opening streets, &c, was upwards of
£7,000. Sittings 1,850. Stipend £300, paid out
of the burgh's funds. The congregation removed
to this church in 1820. It is in George-street, and
when built received the name of St. George's, by
which name the parish has also been often called.
The New Jerusalem congregation was established
in 1834, and assembles in a room of a dwelling-house
occupied by the leader, whose services are gratui
tous. Sittings 18.
3. High Church Parish  It is about one mile
in length, and one-fourth of a mile in breadth. It
was formed in 1782, and is wholly town. Quoad
civilia, it includes the quoad sacra parish of Martyrs,
and had, in 1831, a population of 14,621. Accord
ing to a census taken by the elders in December
1835, there were in the parish quoad civilia 14,988
persons, of whom 5,672 belonged to the Establish
ment; 6,612 to other denominations; and 2,706
were not known to belong to any. The church
was built by the community, in 1756, and the spire
about 1770. The expense — according to Semple,
p. 307— was about £2,300. Sittings 1,890. Stipend
£300  The Reformed Presbyterian congregation
was established in 1804. The place of worship was
erected in 1811, and with a manse and garden, and
a burying-ground, cost about £3,000. Sittings 955.
Stipend £110, besides manse and garden. The
Rev. Andrew Symington, D. D., minister of the
congregation, is professor of divinity to this body of
dissenters  The Third United Secession congrega
tion, St. James'-street, was established in 1819, and
in 1820 the church was built at a cost of some
what less than £2,000. The congregation was
originally connected with the Independents, but, in
the course of a few years, that portion to whom
the property belonged, joined the Secession synod.
.Sittings 1,212. Stipend £200.— The Fourth con
gregation of the United Secession, George-street,
was at first in connection with the Original Burghers,
and continued so until April 1835, when the majority
resolved to connect themselves with the Secession
body. The place of worship was built in 1822, and
cost about £1,700. Sittings 1,058. Stipend £110.
 The First Relief congregation, Canal-street, was
established in 1780. The church was built in 1783,
and, together with the session-house and manse,
cost £2,800. Sittings 1,545. Stipend £150.— A
congregation of the body terming itself "the Holy
Catholic Apostolic Church," was established in 1835,

and assembles'in a building held by payment of a
rent of £20 per annum. Number of sittings not
stated. Average attendance, in 1838; about 50 
The Berean Baptist congregation was established in
1 798, and meets in the upper floor of a building in
Barr-street, which is their own property, and was
erected in 1819, at a cost of £300. Sittings 200.
The pastors receive no emolument. — The Scottish
Baptist congregation, established in 1 795, assembles
in the upper part of a house in Storie-street, which is
their own property, and was erected, in 1799, at a
cost of above £800. Sittings 410. The pastors
have no emolument. — The Unitarian congregation
was established in 1808, and assembles in a chapel,
which, with the property connected with it, con
sisting of two dwelling-houses and a workshop, be
longs to a joint-stock company, composed of mem
bers and attenders. The property was built in 1818,
and cost £490. Sittings in chapel 170. The pastors
enjoy no emolument.
4. Middle Church Parish— This is in extent
upwards of a square mile. Greatest length li mile,
greatest breadth about 1 mile. It was formed in
1782, and is a town parish with a small section of
the country. Quoad civilia it comprehends the quoad
sacra North parish. In 1831 the population quoad
civilia was 9,884. According to a census taken by
tbe 'elders the population quoad sacra, in January
1838, was 6,834; of whom there belonged to the
Established church, 3,554; to other denominations,
2,805; to no denomination, 475. The church was
built in 1781-2, by subscription, sale of seats, &c,
and cost upwards of £2,000. Sittings 1,555. Sti
pend £300  The Independent congregation was
first established in the High Church parish, about the
year 1796, and latterly in this parish, in May 1834;
in a chapel then finished, at a cost of £850. Sittings
450. Stipend £90. — The first congregation of the
Secession church in Paisley was, as we have already
had occasion to state, established about the year 1750;
They built a place of worship about 1762, at the
head of the alley thence called Meeting-house-lane,
and at the east end of what is now called Oakshaw-
street. In 1781 the church was enlarged; and in
1825-6 it was rebuilt at a cost of £4,071 ]7s. lOd.
Sittings 954. Total allowances to minister, includ
ing house-rent, £199 19s. — A congregation of Ori
ginal Burghers, which had existed for about thirty-
six years, met for worship in this parish in May 1837.
Sittings 270. Stipend £75. It was dissolved in
1839.  On 23d November, 1817, a congregation of
Protestant Episcopalians was established in Paisley.
They met in a school-room till May 1819, when a
building in New Snedden-street, previously occupied
by various bodies of dissenters, was taken on a lease
of fourteen years. In May 1833 they removed to a
neat edifice built for them, fronting St. James'-street;
It is called Trinity chapel, and cost, with the site,
about £1,200. It is capable of containing 600 peo
ple, though, as yet, seated for about 350 only. In
1838 the clear income of the minister, including bap
tismal dues, did not exceed £56. Under his imme
diate pastoral care there are about 700 souls ; but in
his district far more than double that number of
Episcopalians reside.
5. North Church Parish. — This is a quoad sacra
town parish, divided from the Middle parish in 1834.
Its extent is about 1 square mile; greatest length
rather more than 1 mile ; greatest breadth nearly 1
mile. The population, by a census taken in 1835 by
the elders, was 2,928; of whom 1 ,580 belonged to
the Established church ; 1,139 to other denomina
tions ; and 209 were not known to belong to any.
The church was finished in 1834, and cost about
£1,700, which, with the exception of £300 from the

486

PAISLEY.

General Assembly's fund, was raised by means of
collections and subscriptions, chiefly in Paisley. Sit
tings nearly 1,000. Stipend £100. Patrons, the con
gregation  The United Methodist congregation,
established in September 1834, assembles in a large
hall rented from a private individual, and fitted up
for their use. Sittings 202. Stipend £50.
6. Martyrs' Church Parish  Another quoad
sacra town parish, divided from the High Church
parish in 1836. «. Extent 20 acres ; greatest length
400 yards ; greatest breadth 220 yards. In January
1838 the population was 3,412; of whom there be
longed to the Established church, 1,338; toother
denominations, ,1,421 ; not known to belong to any,
653. The church was built in 1835, and cost £2, 120
3s. 6d., which was, to a certain extent, defrayed by
subscriptions, — the Church Extension committee
having granted £300. Sittings 1,200. Stipend £80,
and £20 for communion expenses. Patrons, the con
gregation. 7. South Church Parish  A third quoad sacra
district, disjoined from the Low and Abbey parishes
in 1837. It is half-a-mile long, and one-fourth of a
mile broad, and is partly town and partly landward ;
the whole population, however, (at least in 1838,)
being in the town. The population, in 1835-7, was
3,447 ; 1,149 of whom belonged to the Established
church, 1,281 to other denominations, and 1,017 were
not known to belong to anv. The church was built
in 1835-6, and cost £2,129' Is. 6^d., which was de
frayed partly by subscription and collections, partly
by a grant of £400 from the Church Extension fund.
Sittings 972. Stipend £100, secured to the extent
of £80. Patrons, the congregation.
8. Gaelic Church  In 1834 this place of wor
ship was received into the number of churches in the
Paisley presbytery, but no parochial locality has been
assigned to it. The chunch was built by subscrip
tion in 1793, and cost about £1,800. Patrons, the
congregation. Sittings 1,085. Stipend £110, and
a manse. The congregation is scattered over the
town, and the villages and country districts within
5 or 6 miles of it. In 1837 the Highland population
was computed as follows: — Town population, in
cluding a small number of dissenters, 2,000 ; coun
try population, belonging to the Established church,
1,396; belonging to other denominations, 84; — total,
3,480. In this estimate the children of native High
landers were included, although born in the low
country and understanding English ; but the minister
believed that he had reckoned none but such as un
derstood Gaelic better than English. The Highland
population fluctuates to a considerable extent as to
persons, butn6t as to its gross numbers. They con
sist almost entirely of the poor and working classes.
As respects education, it appears from the report
of the presbytery to the General Assembly, in 1834,
that there were then in the Abbey parish thirty-two
schools, attended by 2,318 scholars, and in the town
parishes thirty-three schools, attended by 2,458 scho
lars. This amount of persons receiving instruction
is greatly less than what it ought to have been, in
proportion to the population, which, at the date in
question, was about 58,000.* The above return,
however, did not include Sunday-schools, which,
in 1836, were attended by 4,198 persons. Since
the date of the return considerable additions to the
* In a parliamentary paper entitled ' Abstract of Education
RetuniB,' (Scotland,) 1834, we find the following remark under
the title 'High Church Parish,' (of Paisley,) p. 621  " It is a
singular fact that of the families employedin factories, agreater
proportion of the children are attending school than of the
families of weavers or labourers, and this goeB far to demon
strate the wisdom of some clauses in the Factory hill."— On the
same page the Middle Church parish is erroneously stated to
be " entirely landward." Its true conditiou is stated on our
preceding page.

means of education have been made. These chiefly
consist of three school-rooms erected, and one en
larged, by means of a government grant of £700,
augmented by the liberality of the inhabitants ; an
infant school built by public subscription; and a
small seminary endowed by the late Mr. and Mrs.
Corse of Greenlaw. In 1836 an association was
formed for the erection of an institution to be called
' The Paisley Academy,' for the benefit of those
whose circumstances might enable them to give to
their children the higher branches of instruction ;
but this laudable project not having met with suffi
cient support, has, at least for the present, been
abandoned. In the course of a few years great bene
fit will accrue to the children of the poor from a
liberal endowment made by John Neilson, Esq. of
Nethercommon, a native of Paisley, who died
in November 1839, and who had, in company with
his father and brother, long carried on the busi
ness of grocers and drysalters in the town. This
gentleman, by his deed of settlement, set apart
a portion of the residue of his estates, amounting to
about £18,000, to form an endowment in Paisley for
educating, clothing, and outfitting, and, if need be,
maintaining of boys who have resided within the par
liamentary boundaries of the town for at least three
years, whose parents have died either without leav
ing sufficient for that purpose, or who, from misfor
tune, have been reduced, or who, from the want of
means, are unable to give a suitable education to
their children. Although the trustees are, by the
deed, appointed to purchase a suitable piece of ground
in the town for the erection of an institution-house
within five years from the testator's death, yet they
are not to build it till after the expiry of that period ;
so that they will have ample time to mature their
plans. We may here mention another endowment,
also made by a native of the town, though not
precisely of an educational nature. The late Miss
Elizabeth Kibble, by her deed of settlement, dated
27th August, 1840, set apart £7,500 to be applied
by trustees " in founding and endowing in Paisley an
institution for the purpose of reclaiming youthful
offenders against the laws."
Bythe returns of 1801, 1811, and 1821, Paisley
ranked as the third town in Scotland in point of
population, coming next to Glasgow and Edinburgh.
By 1831 Aberdeen exceeded it to the amount of a
few hundreds, and now, in 1841, while Aberdeen
has increased still more in proportion, Dundee has
got ahead of both, thus reducing Paisley to the rank
of the fifth town. In truth, this place, once so pros
perous, has retrograded. In the course of 1841
an unparalleled number 'of manufacturing houses
have become bankrupt ; and in the end of the year,
while these sheets pass through the press, the desti
tution of the working classes, caused by the want of
employment, is most appalling ; insomuch that (chil
dren and other dependents being included) about a
fifth part of the population are maintained by public
charity. It is gratifying to be enabled to add, that
this deep distress is patiently borne, and that for its
alleviation the sympathies of the benevolent through
out the empire are unceasingly exerted.
According to the government census of 1841 , there
were within the parliamentary boundaries of Paisley
10,133 inhabited houses, 671 uninhabited, and 9
building. The population within the boundaries was,
by the same census, 43, 125. The population of the
town and Abbey parishes, in 1841, was 60,963. E-
lustrative of the statistics of these, we subjoin a
statement prepared by Mr. Wilson of Thornly. That
statement, it will be observed, makes the popula
tion within the parliamentary limits somewhat more
than the gpvernment return.

PAISLEY. 487
Population of the Abbey and Town parishes of Paisley, during Fifty Years, from the Comparative
Account of the Population of Great Britain in the years 1801, 1811, 1821, and 1831, (page 400,) and
other sources. The whole area of these Parishes, *25'24 Square miles, = 16,153 Imperial acres.
Area of the Parliamentary district, *5-50  = 3,520 
Valuation in the County-books, or Cess-roll, £11,782 Scots.
Land Rent in the year 1791,  £10,200
 in the year 1810  24,000
Annual value of the real property as assessed, April, 1815,  75,125

POPULATION.

Numbeus of both sexes in
1,000 of the population.

Increase every
10 Years.

Ratio of
Periodical Increase.

Year.

Families.

Average to
a Family.

Total
Persons.

Males.

Females.

Males.

Females.

17911801 1811 182118311841

5,485 6,936
8,058 9,940
12,308
12,359

4-484-49
4-55 4-73
4-67
493

24,59231,179
36,722
47,00357,46660,963

11,83614,41316,457
21,74226,522
28,098

12,756
16,766
20,26325,26130,944 32,865

481462448462461 461

519538 552538539539

6,5875,543
10,28110,463 3,497

26 8 per cent.
17'8 per cent.
28' per cent.
22'2 per cent.
6' per cent.

Increase in 50 years, 147 per cent.

36,351

STATISTICS OF THE ABBEY AND TOWN PARISHES FOR THE YEAR 1841.

Families.

Average to
a. Family.

Total.

Males.

Females.

6,8205,539

4-77 5-12

32,582
28,381

14,79913,299

17,783
15,082

12,359

...

60,963

28,098

32,865

Civil and Political Subdivisions.

Parliamentary District contains the

Families.

Average to
a Family.

Total.

Males.

Females.

Numbers of both
' sexeB in 1,000 of the
Population.

Males.

Females.

6,820 3,309

4-77 493
5-41

32,582 16,308

14,799 7,681

17,783 8,627

454 471 465

;- 546529 535

Suburbs, &c, within the Parliamen-

Total within the Parliamentary
bounds, (exclusive of four fami
lies at Sandyford, in Parish of

10,129 2,230

48,890 12,073

22,480 5,618

26,410 6,455

Inhabitants outwith, or beyond the

Total Burgh and Abbey, 

12,359

60,963

28,098

32,865

¦ Increase in Ten Years. Total. Males. Females.
In the Burgh,  1122 = 339  783
In Abbey parish,  2375 = 1237  1138

3497 = 1576

1921

Inhabitants on
Area. Population. one Square Mile
Square Miles. in the year 1841.
•Parliamentary District  550  48,890  8,889
Landward Division, comprehending Johnstone, ...19-74  12,073  611

2524

60,963

2,415

PAL

488

PAP

PALDIE, or Paldiekirk, a small village in the
parish of Fordoun, in Kincardineshire, noted for its
three days' fair, vulgarly called Paddy fair, which
begins on the 1st Tuesday after 1 1th July : See
Fordoun. PALKILL- WATER, a rivulet in the parish of
Minigaff, Kirkcudbrightshire, rising in the centre of
the parish, and running 4 miles southward and 4|
south-westward to the Cree, at Newton-Stewart.
PANBRIDE, a parish on the south-east verge of
Forfarshire ; bounded on the north by Carmylie ; on
the north-east and east by Arbirlot, and a detached
part of St. Vigean's ; on the south-east by the Ger
man ocean ; on the south-west by Barry ; and on
the west by Monikie. Its figure is the small seg
ment of a flat ring, the convex side turned to the
south-west ; and it measures nearly 5 miles in length
from north to south-east, 2 miles in mean breadth,
and 5,400 acres in area. The coast, 2£ miles in ex
tent, is flat and very rocky, with a pebbly beach,
which occasionally affords some gems. The interior
is, in general, flat, but rises toward the north. The
soil, toward the coast, is sandy ; in the central dis
trict, is clay or loam ; and, toward the north, is
moorish. Three-fourths of the whole area is arable,
and, in general, beautifully cultivated ; and 600 acres
of the Other fourth are under plantation. Two rivu
lets, both originating in Monikie, and the larger tra
versing 8£ miles from its source to the sea, run south
eastward through the parish — one of them a mile
along the south-east boundary— form a confluence
a mile from the sea, and discharge their united waters
midway between East arid West Haven. The im
mediate basin of both is, in many places, a rocky
dell, with steep and almost perpendicular sides of
from 20 to 50 feet high ; and that of the larger bears
the name of Battie's den, and is spanned, at a ro
mantic spot, by a bridge which carries across the
Great North mail-road. Limestone, but of an in
ferior quality, arid not in plehty, exists ; and sand
stone, both of an excellent sort for building, and of
the slaty kind which yields the Arbroath paving-
stone, abounds and is worked. There is in the par
ish a small flax spinning-mill. The chief villages are
the Havens, (East and West,) and Muirdrum :
which see. The others are Skrine, half-a-mile north
of East Haven, and Panbride, the site of the parish-
church, half-a-mile north of West Haven. In the
north-east of the parish, 2 miles from the ' Live and
Let Live Testimonial,' [see Monikie,] stands the
spacious artd stately mansion of Panmure, surrounded
by an extensive and richly wooded demesne, and
commanding, toward the south and the east, a pleas
ing seaward prospect. In its vicinity are the vaults
and foundations of the old castle of Panmure, long
the seat of the cognominal Earls. James, the 4th
Earl of Panmure, was attainted, in 1716, for having
shared in the rebellion of the previous year. The
Honourable William Ramsay Maule, representative
of the ancient Earls, and the brother of George, the
9th Earl of Dalhousie, was, in 1831, created Baron
Panmure of Brechin and Navar, in the peerage of
Great Britain ; and is the proprietor of the modern
mansion, and landowner of the whole parish. Fish'
eries and a small marine commerce are connected
with the Havens. The Edinburgh and Aberdeen
inail-road, and the Dundee and Arbroath railway, run
across the parish, near its middle. Population, in
1801, 1,588; in 1831, 1,268. Houses 297. Assessed
property, in 1815, £9,649  Panbride is in the pres
bytery of Arbroath, and synod of Angus and Mearns.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £231 Is. lid.; glebe
£10. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4^d., with
£23 3s. 6d. fees. There are two non-parochial
schools,— one of them for females. The church,

which is very ancient, was originally dedicated to
St. Bridget ; and the usual abbreviation of the lady's
name, with the prefix Ballin, so common in Irish
topographical nomenclature, signifying ' a town,' and
abbreviated and euphonized into Pan, gives the mo
dern name of the parish, and, without any euphoniz
ing of the prefix; gives its earlier name of Balbride.
The ancestors o'f Hector Boethius, or Boece, were,
for several generations., proprietors of the barony of
Panbride ; and the historian himself is generally sup
posed to have been a native of the parish.
PANNANICH, a village and celebrated mineral
wells in the parish of Glenmuick, Aberdeenshire.
The village stands on the right bank of the Dee, 1£
mile east of Ballater, 18 miles east Of the road across
the Grampians, by Castleton of Braemar, to Focha
bers, and 39 miles west of Aberdeen. The wells are
the most frequented in the northern counties ; and,
except for being situated amid a richer landscape
•than the sister-spring of Cumbria, might be regarded
as the Gilsland Spa of Scotland. They issue from
the north side of the hill of Pannanich, and derive
from it their name. The water is strongly impreg
nated with gaseous acid, and is said to possess a
considerable resemblance to the Seltzar water in
Germany. Its healing virtues were discovered about
70 years ago by an infirm and aged female in the
vicinity i who experienced a cure in such remarkable
circumstances as instantly gave the wells celebrity.
Mr. Farquharson of Monaltrie, on whose grounds
the spa is situated, cleared away obstructions,
taught the water to flow freely, covered in the spring,
built several houses for the accommodation of visiters,
constructed a public and a private bath, and, at a
mile's distance toward Ballater, erected a large and
commodious house, called Pannanich-lodge. In the
lodge are a spacious public room, and a considerable
number of private apartments, besides rooms for
servants ; and attached to it are offices, particularly
carriage-houses and stables. The water of the wells
has been found useful in scorbutic and scrofulous
disorders, dyspepsy, stone, and gravel. There is an
excellent inn at the village.
PAPA-STODR, a suppressed parish and an
island in the west of Shetland. The parish is now
annexed to Walls : which see. The island, the
principal part of the parish, lies on the south side of
the entrance of St. Magnus-bay, about 2 miles from
the promontory of Sandness. Its length, from south
east to north-west, is about 2J miles; and its
breadth is about \\ mile. It possesses several sm all
voes or creeks, which afford shelter to the fishing-
boats of tbe inhabitants. Its appearance in summer,
as approached from St. Magnus-bay to House-voe, is
delightful ; the land lying in a sort of amphitheatre,
and displaying rich sheets of grain and potato crops.
Its soil is, in general, fertile; produces very rich
grass; and, when well-manured With sea-weed,
yields good returns to the husbandman. Part of
the interior or common pasture was converted almost
into wilderness by the miserable practice of cutting
up and carrying away the sward either for fuel or
for manuring the arable lands. The excellence of
the beaches tor drying fish occasioned the resort to
them, last century, of a great English fishing com
pany. On the south side are several magnificent
and very curious caves, the abodes of numerous
seals: see Shetland. Around the coast are various
picturesque and even sublime porphyritic stalks _
rocks shooting perpendicularly up from the sea— like
stupendous towers or castellated keeps. The Stack
of Snalda is a grand perpendicular column of rock
probably 80, and at least 60 feet high, altogether
inaccessible by man, and proudly possessed by the
monarch eagle. Some time in last century an eagle

PAP

489

PAR

belonging to the Stack, while carrying a lamb from
the mainland, dropped it still alive at Mid-Sater in
Papa-Stour. The lamb was instantly rescued from
his feathered majesty by a boy who happened to be
within a few yards of where it fell ; and, being a
female, it established a breed on a farm where sheep
were previously unknown. The Frau-a-Stock, or
Lady's Rock, is accessible only to very practised and
adroit climbers, and has on its summit the vestiges
of a small human dwelling. It is said, by one ac
count, to have been the abode of a Norwegian lady,
who made a vow of celibacy, and retreated hither to
be protected from the solicitations of suitors ; but
who was driven from her wild asylum by a bold
udaller of Islesburgh who scaled the rock ; and, by
another account, to have been the prison of a fair
lady whom her father placed here to be out of the
way of a favourable lover, but who was rescued, and
made prize of by the very lover in person. Papa-
'Stour is the only part of Shetland where the ancient
Norwegian amusement of sword-dance, noticed in
Sir Walter Scott's ' Pirate,' and minutely described
in Dr. Hibbert's Account of the Islands, is still pre
served. — Two other islands in Shetland bear the
name of Papa, but are smaller than Papa-Stour, and
individually inconsiderable ; and all three appear to
have been, in the earliest period of Scottish eccle
siastical history, the retreat of certain Irish mis
sionaries or ' papas,' who either sought refuge from
some commotion in their own country, or, like Co
lumba, came to proclaim in dreary lands, and among
a barbarous and heathenish people, the unsearchable
riches of the gospel of divine grace. Papa-Stour is
provided with a parochial place of worship, and re
ceives visits regularly from a Methodist minister,
and occasionally from an Independent. Population,
in 1838, 370.
PAPA-SOUND, a village in the island of Stron
say, Orkney. It is of quite recent origin, and, in
1838, had a population of 216.
PAPA-STRONSAY, a beautiful little island on
the north-east side of Stronsay, Orkney. The strait
or channel which divides it from Stronsay is from 2
to 4 furlongs broad ; and, while deriving from it the
name of Papa-Sound, gives that name in turn to the
Stronsay village. Papa-Stronsay is about 3 miles in
circumference, flat, and so fertile that, under proper
management, it might be made one continued corn
field. It has vestiges of two ancient chapels, which
were dedicated to St. Nicholas and St. Bride ; and,
midway between them, an eminence called the Earl's
Knowe, which seems to have been a burying-ground.
The island has but few inhabitants.
PAP A- WESTRAY, a beautiful and very fertile
island in Orkney. It lies 1 J mile west of Akerness,
and 1| mile north of Sponness, in Westray, and 23
miles geographically due north of Kirkwall, but
about 26 miles bythe shortest sea-track. Its length,
from north to south, is 3£ miles ; and its greatest
breadth is about 1 mile. The surface rises gently
toward the middle, and terminates on the north in
the headland well-known to mariners as the Mull of
Papa. Its soil is very fertile, carries fine natural herb
age, and is, to the extent of 1 ,000 acres, under regular
cultivation. In its south-east corner is a small fresh
water lake, with an islet, on which are the ruins of
an ancient chapel dedicated to St. Tredwall. On
the shore is annually manufactured a large quan
tity of kelp. Two miles north of the island lies an
extensive and very prolific fishing-bank, long well-
known to the islanders, and latterly an object of in
terest to parties at a distance. Papa- Westray an
ciently formed a separate and independent parish;
and, though now annexed to Westray, has still its
Own parochial place of worship : see Westray.

There is a Society school on the island. — Population,
in 1814, about 200 ; in 1838, 335  On this island
Ronald, Earl of Orkney, was killed by Thorsin, Earl
of Caithness.
PAPLAY. See Holme.
PARKHEAD, a village in the Barony parish of
Glasgow, situated about 2 miles to the east of the
city. It is principally inhabited by the humbler
orders of society, consisting of handloom weavers,
carters, and labourers. — The population, in 1841,
amounted to 1,150. Houses 260. The Glasgow
water-works, erected in 1806, and situated upon the
Clyde, are in the immediate vicinity of the village. -
PARTICK, a beautiful and romantic village in
the parish of Govan, lower ward of the county of
Lanark. It is situated on the banks of the classic
Kelvin, near its junction with the Clyde, and within
about 2 miles of the city of Glasgow, to the humbler
classes of whose citizens it forms a favourite summer
resort, both from the beauty of the locality, and the
reputed salubrity of the air. Here are several public
works, in addition to the extensive flour-mills and
granaries belonging to the incorporation of bakers of
Glasgow, which were granted to them by the Re
gent Moray immediately after ( his victory over the
forces of Queen Mary at Langside. It is recorded
that the bakers of Glasgow were very serviceable in
supplying the army with bread, while quartered in
the neighbourhood ; and upon the Regent returning
thanks after the battle, Matthew Fawside, the dea
con of the bakers, took this favourable opportunity
of craving the mills of Partick — or Pertique as it
was then termed — which belonged to the Crown, for
his craft. They were at once granted, and have ever
since remained the property of the incorporation.
Until a recent period, the ruins of an old mansion,
said to have been a country-residence of tbe Arch..
bishop of Glasgow, stood on the west bank of the
Kelvin, a little below Partick. It was supposed to
have been built in 1611 by Archbishop Spottiswood.
This version of its identity is how, however, ascer
tained to have been erroneous ; for documents are in
existence to prove that it was erected by, and be
longed to, George Hutcheson of Lambhill, one of the
founders of Hutcheson's hospital in Glasgow. The
contract for its erection, entered into by George
Hutcheson with William Millar, a mason in Kilwin
ning, is still preserved by one of the descendants Of
the Hutcheson family. With characteristic caution
the standard foot expressed in this contract, is de
clared to be " ye said George's awn fute." There
are three places of worship in the village, viz., Par-
tick church in connexion with the Establishment,
built in 1834, at an expense of £1,000, and seated to
accommodate 580 persons; Partick Secession churchy
built, in 1824, for 600 sitters ; and Partick Relief
church, built, in 1824, for 840 sitters. That portion
of Partick which lies to the south and east of the
Kelvin, with apopulation, in 1841, of 501, is within
the parliamentary boundaries of Glasgow.
PARTON, a parish in the northern division of
Kirkcudbrightshire, immediately south of the Glen
kens. It is bounded on the north by Balmaclellan ;
on the east by Kirkpatrick-Durham ; oh the south
by Crossmichael ; and on the west by Balmaghie and
Kells. Its greatest length from east to west is 6|
miles ; its mean breadth is about 4J miles ; and its
area is about 28 square miles. The surface is highly
tumulated, but nowhere strictly mountainous ; and
over a large part of its area, both high and low, is
clothed with heath. A considerable ridge runs about
4 miles along the north. A congeries or field of
heights occupies the centre. Lands, which formerly
were prolific in furze and broom, but are now in a
fine state of cu.tivation, spread out along the south.

PAT

490

PAX

The soil of the arable grounds, both in the last of
these districts, and in belts along the east and west,
is, in general, light, and unsuited to heavy crops.
The prevalence of stone enclosures, the almost total
absence of wood, and the largeness of the soil's dress
of russet, render the landscape generally dreary. At
least 1,000 black cattle and 3,000 sheep stock the
pastures. Slate exists, and was at one period quar
ried. A mineral spring affected for a while to com
pete with the old spa of Moffat, but had an evan
escent reputation. Seven lochlets, all inconsiderable
in size, are plentifully stored with trout. Urr-water
— here a paltry, bare, and cold stream — traces the
whole of the eastern boundary, an extent of 4 miles,
and receives one burn from the northern boundary,
another from the southern, and two from the interior.
The Ken and the Dee, from about the middle of
Loch-Ken to about the middle of Loch-Dee, spread
their laky folds along the whole of the western boun
dary, an extent of 5£ miles, and completely relieve
on that side the prevailing tameness and plainness of
the landscape. The stripe of water, while in con
tact with the parish, is from 100 yards to half-a-mile
broad, and from 10 to 30 feet deep ; it abounds in
pike of from 3 to 40 pounds, and in perch of from 1
to 4 or 5 in weight J and it frequently usurps pos
session of large tracts of meadow-land. Near the
church is an artificial circular mound 120 yards in
circumference at the base, and surrounded with a
ditch from 6 to 9 feet deep, and about half-a-mile to
the north is another nearly twice the circumference
of the former, and enclosed with two ditches. Other
antiquities are some caims and a small Druidical
circle. Excepting 3£ miles of the road from Dumfries
to Newton-Stewart, by way of New Galloway in the
extreme north-east, the parish has no good road, and
very little of any sort ; and it is, at the nearest point,
10 miles distant from the nearest sea-port. Popu
lation, in 1801, 426; in 1831, 827. Houses 133.
Assessed property, in 1815, £4,994  Parton is in
the presbytery of Kirkcudbright, and synod of Gallo
way. Patron, Miss Glendonwyn of Parton. Stipend
£231 6s. 2d. ; glebe £21. Unappropriated teinds
£210 0s. 3d. The population consisted, in 1836,
according to the minister's statement, of 673 church
men, 109 dissenters, and 1 nondescript, — in all 783.
The parish-church was built in 1834. Sittings 418.
A preaching-station was established in 1836 on the
water of Urr. There is a small private Roman
Catholic chapel, in which the priest of Dalbeattie
officiates twice or thrice a-year. The ancient church
was called Kirkennan, from St. Innan to whom it
was dedicated ; and stood a mile east-north-east of
the present church, near a hamlet which still bears
its name. The name Parton — of debated origin 
was assumed before the end of the 13th century.
James Hepburn, brother of the 1st Earl of Both-
well, was rector of Parton in the reign of James IV.,
and rose to be abbot of Dunfermline, and bishop of
Moray. In 1458, Sir Simon Glendonwyn obtained
a confirmation of the barony, baronial rights, and pa
tronage of Parton. In 1834, two parochial schools
were attended by 1 1 7 scholars ; and a private school
by 20. Salary of the first parochial schoolmaster
£31 6s. 6d., with £16 fees, and £2 10s. other emo
luments ; of the second £20, with £8 16s. fees, and
£1 5s. other emoluments.
PATH-OF-CONDIE, or Pathstruie. b small
weaving village, in the parish of Forgandenny, 4 miles
east south-east of Dunning, Perthshire. It is the
site of a United Secession meeting-house. See For
gandenny. Population 50.
PATH-HEAD, a quoad sacra parish, and a con
siderable town, in the south-western extremity of the
parish of Dysart, Fifeshire, half-a-mile east of Kirk

caldy, and three quarters of a mile west of Dysart.
The town is seated on a plain, gently sloping to the
precipitous rocks on the shore. It consists of three
streets, pretty regularly built ; ahd is divided into
two districts, — Dunnikier, the superior of which is
Oswald of Dunnikier; and Sinclairtown, belonging
to the Earl of Roslyn. It formerly enjoyed a great
trade in nail-making, which is now decayed ; but it
still carries on an extensive manufacture of tykes
and checks  Below the town, on a precipice almost
surrounded by the sea, stands the old castle of Ra-
venscraig, once the seat of the ancient family of St.
Clair, but now in ruins. — In 1811, the town con
tained 1,692 inhabitants, in 1831, 2,090  This
quoad sacra parish has a handsome church, origi
nally erected at a cost of £3,000, and now ves
ted in the presbytery of Kirkcaldy. There are
here an endowed school for 100 children, and three
unendowed schools. See Dysart.
PATH-HEAD, a village in the parish of New
Cumnock, Ayrshire. Population, in 1831, 361.
PATH-HEAD, a large and pretty village in the
northern extremity of the parish of Crichton, 11J
miles from Edinburgh, 5 from Dalkeith, and 3J from
Fala, Edinburghshire. It runs up the northern de
clivity of a hill, past the base of which sweeps the
infant Tyne ; and it lines for some way both sides ot
the Edinburgh and Kelso road by way of Lauder. Its
chief street is broad and straight, and consists mostly
of one-story and well-built houses. A considerable
number of the inhabitants are colliers. Four public
coaches pass through it daily. Beautiful scenery and
several fine demesnes in the vicinity unite with the
intrinsic cheerfulness of the place to render it a plea
sant summer-retreat. In the village are a circulating
library and an infant school ; and at Ford, in its im
mediate neighbourhood, is a United Secession meet
ing-house. Population 750.
PATNA, a village and a quoad sacra parish in
Ayrshire. The village stands on the left bank of
the Doon, and on the road between Ayr and Dum
fries, 10 miles south-east of Ayr, 7 east of Maybole,
and in the north corner of the parish of Strauton.
Its houses lie almost as aspersedly among the fields
as a handful of sown corn does among the clods.
The landscape around it is confined, tumulated, and
bleak. The working of coal and limestone, both of
which abound in the neighbourhood, gives employ
ment to the inhabitants. Population 236. The'
quoad sacra parish comprehends pendicles of no fewer
than six parishes, — Straiton, Kirkmichael, Dalmell-
ington, Ochiltree, Coylton, and Dalrymple ; and has
a population of about 630. The church was built in
1837. An United Secession meeting-house was built
in 1838, and a neat manse for its minister in 1840.
Both places of worship are situated in the village,
and are neat but very small. There is in the village
an endowed school.
PATTAIG (The), a wild mountain-stream in the
south-west corner of Badenoch, Inverness-shire. It
rises in Ben-Aulder forest, far from the habitations of
men, and runs 6 miles northward, and 2A miles west
ward to the head of Loch-Laggan. While its waters
pass through the Spean and the Lochy to the west
ern ocean, one stream, which rises within li mile of
it, passes through Loch-Ericht, Loch-Rannoch, the
Tummel, and the Tay to the Eastern ocean; and
another stream, which rises within 3 miles of it, passes
through the Spey to the Moray frith. The Pattaig,
about midway between its source and its em
bouchure, expands into a lake of its own name,
which measures about f of a mile both in breadth
and in length ; and above this lake it is called first
Caman-water, and next Culrea- water.
PAXTON, a village in the parish of Hutton, 4J

PEA

491

PEE

miles west of Berwick, and 10 miles east of Dunse,
Berwickshire. It stands i of a mile north of the
road between Berwick and Kelso, and about 1£ mile
from the beautiful suspension-bridge, called the Union
bridge, across the Tweed. It is the site of a school-
house, and had, in 1831, a population of 270. In its
vicinity is a brick and tile work. The ancient par
ish of Paxton is now comprehended in Hutton :
which see.
PEATHS, or Pease, a deep, thickly-wooded,
and picturesque ravine or chaism, over which is
thrown a remarkable bridge, in the parish of Cock-
burnspath, Berwickshire. See Cockburnspath.
During the period of the international wars, this
ravine was one of the strong passes for defending
Scotland. Patten, in his account of the Duke of
Somerset's expedition, thus describes it :  " We
marched an vm mile til we came to a place called
the Peaths. It is a valley turning from a vi mile west
straight eastward, and toward the sea a xx skore, a
xx skore brode from banke to banke above : so
steepe be these bankes on eyther syde, and depe to
the bottom, that who goeth straight doune shall be
in daunger in tumbling, and the commer up so sure
of puffyng and payne ; for remedie whereof the tra
velers that way have used to pas it, not by going
directly, but by paths and footways, leading slope-
wise; of the number of which paths they call it
somewhat nicely indeed, ye Peaths. A brute a day
or two before was spred among us that hereat ye
Scottes were very busy a working, and how here
we should be stayed and met withal by them,
whereunto I harde my Lordes Grace vow that he
wold put it in prose, for he wolde not step one
foote out of his course appointed. At oure com-
ming we found all in good peace. Howbeit the
syde wayes on either syde most used for eas were
crost and cut of in many places, with the castying of
travers. trenches, not very depe indede, and rather
somewhat hinderyng than utterly letting ; for whi
ther it were more by pollecie or diligence — as I am
sure neyther of both did want: — the ways by the
pioners were sone so well plained, that our army,
caryage and ordenaunce were quite set over after
sunset, and there as then we pight our campe."
PEATLAW, a hill in the parish and county,
and 2 miles north-west of the town, of Selkirk,
situated in the peninsula between the Tweed and
the Ettrick, 3 miles above their confluence, and
possessing an altitude above sea-level of 1,964 feet.
PEEBLES, a parish nearly in the centre of Pee-
bleshire ; bounded on the north-west and north by
Eddleston ; on the east by Innerleithen ; on the
south-east by a detached part of Traquair and by
Selkirkshire ; on the south-west by Manor ; and on
the west by Stobo and Lyne. Its outline is exceed
ingly irregular ; and its extent is 7i miles in extreme
length from north to south; 5 miles in extreme
breadth; and 18,210 acres in area. The Tweed, run
ning prevailingly eastward, but making several wide
detours, moves majestically across the centre of the
parish, over a distance geographically of 4£, and along
its channel of 6 miles. A great and permanent con
traction at the river of the southern half-length of
the parish, occasions the stream to form the boundary-
line 1 J mile after the first contact, and half-a-mile
before departing. The Tweed is here 500 feet above
sea-level; and though it has now performed only
one-third of its course to the sea, it has fallen 1,000
feet, or two-thirds of the aggregate height between
its source and its embouchure. Its banks, for some
distance after it becomes connected with the parish,
are confined and simply pleasing ; but at the bridge
and onwards, they expand into a vale of considerable
breadth, possessing almost every element of scenic

beauty. The Lyne, immediately above its conflu
ence with the Tweed, flows half-a-mile along the
south-west boundary. Meldon-burn, a streamlet of
4J- miles in length, traces the western boundary of
the northern division 2J miles southward to the Lyne.
Manor- water runs l.£ mile northward along the west
ern boundary of the southern division to the Tweed,
1 i mile below the mouth of the Lyne. Eddlestone-
water bisects the northern half of the parish south
ward, and enters the Tweed at the town of Peebles.
Three other considerable streamlets, and several
minor ones, run either to the Tweed or to the Ed-
dlestone, — one of them tracing for 2 miles southward
the eastern boundary. All the streams abound in
trout; they are much frequented by anglers; and
they yield a surprisingly large aggregate of produce.
Floods, which are frequent, and occasionally large,
and which used to keep up for several days their
watery invasions, are now, in consequence of a ma
tured system of drainage, carried speedily and career-
ingly away down the descent of the basin. The fine
vale of the Tweed sends, on the one hand, a detach
ment strictly akin to itself up the Eddlestone, beyond
the parochial limits ; and is continued, on the other,
by a short but beautiful vale up the Glensax and
Cruxton burns, which unite a mile before falling into
the Tweed. Hills occupy the rest of the area, sec
tioned off into little ridges or clusters,, or isolated
eminences, by the glens or gorges which give water
way to the streams. The hills are, in no instances,
very high ; and, in the aggregate, much lower than
those of most other parishes in the county ; they are
soft and finely curved ; and, except in a heathy game
district, in the extreme south, they are luxuriantly
green. The vales and the acclivities which screen
them are profusely embellished with wood, being to
the large amount of about 1,700 or 1,800 acres
covered with modern and thriving plantation. Up
wards of 3,000 acres are in tillage. The soil, in the
bottom of the vales, is clay mixed with sand ;. on the
interior edge of the vales, is generally loam on a gra
velly subsoil ; and, on the skirts and sides of the hills,
is a kindly and rich earth. The pastoral grounds
produce a fine herbage, and sustain, besides black
cattle, about 8,000 blackfaced and Cheviot sheep.
Greywacke, the prevailing rock of the county, is the
chief stone of the parish, and, from the fineness ot
its texture, furnishes an excellent building material.
Sandstone is unknown. Transition limestone exists,
but cannot be profitably worked. The climate is
singularly pure and healthy. Situated in the centre
of an extensive hilly region, the frontiers of which
are mountain-ridges, the parish has rain from all
quarters in so moderate a degree as to bulk not more
than 25 or 26 inches in the year ; and usually not
one day in a twelvemonth is it visited by the eastern
fog  On the hill of Cademuir — Cadhmore, 'the
great fight ' — a broad-backed upland in the south
east, are remains of camps and nearly 200 monumen
tal stones, the transmuted vestiges of military pos
session first by the Britons and next by the Romans,
and of a great and sanguinary local conflict. Camps
and rings, the monuments of war in early times, and
of predatory invasion in the feudal ages, surmount
many of the hill summits. — Neidpath-castle, the chief
landward antiquity, is situated about \ of a mile west
of the old town of Peebles, on a rock overhanging
the north side of the Tweed. It is the strongest and
most massive of the numerous fortalices which sur
vive in the county from the feudal period; and,
though ruinous and partly fallen, still exhibits to the
eye a bulky and imposing, yet lumpish, square pile.
Its walls are ) 1 feet thick ; they, last century, re
ceived, without damage, the imperforation of a stair
case ; and they are agglutinated with a cement almost

492

PEEBLES.

as hard as the greywacke of which they are built.
Its site is at the lower end of a wide semicircular
bend of the Tweed. The concave bank, or that on
the side of the castle, is very steep, and of great
height ; about 40 years ago, was thickly feathered
over with wood, from its top to the river's brink ;
and, in its form ahd features, it is a Vast romantic
amphitheatre. The convex bank commences with a
little plain half encircled by the river, and rises in a
bold and beautiful headland, which seems to stand
sentinel over the bend. Amidst this scene, the cas
tle commands, on the north-west side, an important
pass ; and, on the east, it overlooks the opening vale
of the TWeefl, and the bridge and town of Peebles.
Dr. Pennectiick, in his description of Tweeddale,
thus celebrates it :
" The noble Nid Path Peebles overlooks,
With its fair bridge, and Tweed's meandering brooks,
Upon a rock it proud and stately stands,
And to the fields about gives forth commands."
The wood which embowered the castle and embel
lished the landscape, was avariciously destroyed by
the last Duke of Queensberry, either meanly to im
poverish the estate before it should fall to the heir
of entail, or to fling what proceeds of it he could
into the lap of his natural daughter. Wordsworth
sings the ingloriousness of his conduct, and the na
tural scenic powers of the landscape, in the following
sonnet :
"Degenerate Douglas! oh, the unworthy Lord,
Whom mere despite of heart could so far please,
And love of havoek, (for with such disease
Fame taxes him,) that he could send forth word
To level with the dust a nuble horde,
A brotherhood, of venerable trees,
Leaving an ancient dome, and towers like these,
Beggared and outraged ! Many hearts deplored
The fate of those old trees; and oft with pain
Tbe traveller, at this day, will stop and gaze
On wrongs, which Nature scarcely seems to heed :
For sheltered places, bosoms, nooks and bays,
And the pure mountains, and the gentle Tweed,
And the green silent pastures, yet remain."
The castle was anciently the chief residence of the
powerful family of the Frasers, — proprietors first of
Oliver-castle in Tweedsrmiir, and afterwards Of a
great part of the lands from that to Peebles, — sheriffs
of the county, and progenitors of the families of Lo
vat and Saltoun. The last male of them in Tweed-
dale, was the brave Sir Simon Fraser, who so sig
nally distinguished himself in the triple action of
Roslin-moor : see Lasswade. In 1312, the castle
passed by marriage to the Hays of Yester, the ances
tors of the Earls and Marquises of Tweeddale; and,
when Charles II. marched for England, it was garri
soned by Johfl, the 2d Earl, for the King's service,
and held out against Cromwell longer than any other
place south of the Forth. In 1686, it was purchased
by the 1st Duke of Queensberry, and settled by him
on his second son, the Earl of March ; in last century,
it was the home of the early life of the 3d Earl of
March, who became by inheritance the 4th Duke of
Queensberry ; and, at the latter's death without male
issue in 1810, it was transmitted to the Earl of
Wemyss, the descendant of a daughter of the Queens
berry family  About 2J miles below the town, and
contributing a feature to the landscape of the vale,
but situated a few yards beyond the parochial boun
dary, stands Horsburgh-castle : see Innerleithen.
About 1J mile south-south-east of Peebles, upwards
of a mile from the Tweed, and on the right bank of
Glensax-burn, stands Hayston, " a pleasant dwell
ing," says Dr. Pennecuick, " with a long and rising
avenue of trees from the river and bridge," and the
mansion whence the family of Hay, Bart., take their
designation. Three-fourths of a mile below Peebles,
on the right bank of the Tweed, is Kingsmeadows,
the present seat of the Hay family, richly embel

lished with encincturing woods. The chief seats in
the vale of the Eddlestone are Winkstone, Chapel-
hill, Venelaw-house, and Rosetta. At the head of
Soonhope-burn; east of Winkstone, is the old castle
of Shieldgreen, a lofty ruin, and once a seat of bpu-
lence. The parish, fpr an upland one, is singularly
well provided with roads ; no fewer than eight di
verging from the burgh, or its immediate vicinity,
and one of these sending off two ramifications before
arriving at the boundary  Population, in 1801,
2,088; in 1831,2,750. Houses 455. Assessed pro
perty , in 1815, £9,255. — Peebles is the seat of a
presbytery, in the synod of Lothian and Tweeddale.
Patron, the Earl of Wemyss. Stipend £298 3s. ;
glebe £24. Unappropriated teinds, £64 10s. 8d.
Tbe parish-church, two places of worship belbnging
to the United Secession, one belonging to the Relief,
and one to the Episcopalians, are all situated in the
burgh. There is no parochial school. A burgh
grammar-school has an average attendance of 55
scholars, from 40 to 46 of whom are boarders. Sa
lary £10, with a large house and a small garden,
jointly worth £50, the emoluments accruing from
the boarding Establishment, and £18 fees. A burgh
English school has an attendance of from 60 to 100.
Salary £38, with from £35 to £40 fees, and about
£5 other emoluments, but no house. A school for
females is salaried by the burgh with £10, but not
provided with a school-house. Of 6 unendowed
schools, 3 are taught by males, and 3 by females. Ih
1834, the 9 schools of the parish were conducted by
12 teachers, and attended by 500 scholars. On
Eddlestone-water, about 1£ mile above the town,
anciently stood a chapel, in the vicinity of the site of
the mansion to which it has bequeathed the name of
Chapel-hill ; and in the extreme east of the parish, at
a place which is now known as Chapel-yards, stood
an hospitium dedicated to St. Leonard, designed for
the relief of the indigent and the infirm, and given ih
1427 by James I. to his confessor, David Rat, a
preaching friar. Other ecclesiastical antiquarian no
tices belong properly to the town.
Peebles, an ancient royal burgh, and the capital
of Tweeddale, is situated 6 miles west-north-west of
Innerleithen, 22 west-north-west of Selkirk, 22 south
of Edinburgh, 27 east of Lanark, 47 J east-so\ith-east
of Glasgow, and 54 north-north-east of Dumfries.
Its site is on the north bank of the Tweed, and on
both banks, but chiefly the east one, of the Eddie-
stone ; exactly on that part of the convergent vales
of the parish which commands the richest view all
round of the low grounds, with their mansions, an
cient castles, woods, and demesnes, and of the en-
cincturing screen of green and beautiful hills, over.
hung in the distance by a perspective of waving
mountain-heights. The Tweed at the place runs
nearly due eastward, or in the direction of east by
south ; and the Eddlestone approaches it in a direc
tion due southward, till within 850 feet of falling
upon it at right angles, and then, contrary to the
usual manner of ' the meeting of the waters,' bends
upward along the basin of the parent stream, runs
1,000 feet south-westward, and debouching round
the point of a peninsula, thus fashioned by it in the
form of a << , disembogues itself by three channels,
enclosing two islets, into the Tweed. The point or
extremity of the peninsula is occupied as a bowling-
green ; and the south side of it is disposed in a beau •
tiful promenade and play-ground called Tweed-green.
The High-street, a spacious and airy thoroughfare,
runs from near the bowling-green 750 feet along the
ridge of the peninsula to the cross; and thence 250
or 300 feet eastward to the East-port. From the
cross the Northgate, or Northgate-street, a narrow
and subordinate thoroughfare in comparison with the

PEEBLES.

493

High-street, runs nearly 900 feet due northward,
lying parallel over most of its length with the course
of the Eddlestone. Various brief streets and alleys
go off at right angles from these main thoroughfares ;
chiefly Portbrae, communicating from the lower end
of High-street with Tweed-bridge,— School-wynd,
communicating from the middle of High-street with
the burgh schools, situated on the margin of Tweed-
green, — Old Vennel, leading down from the East-port
to the lower end of Tweed-green,— and Bridgegate,
communicating from the lower end of Northgate with
the upper one of two bridges across the Eddlestone.
All these parts of Peebles, located in the peninsula
and along the left bank of the Eddlestone, and a few
houses on the south side of the Tweed, constitute
the New town. The ancient district, or Old town,
is of small extent, and consists almost entirely of a
single street, 1,400 feet long, 300 feet distant from
the Tweed, coming down the face of a high ground
parallel with that river, and bending for a short way
up the right bank of the Eddlestone. The houses of
the Old town, though in a few instances modern, are
so generally old and thatched, as to have a pervad-
ingly wan and wealthless aspect. Two bridges, one
a stone erection of a single arch, and the other a
timber bridge for foot passengers, the former on a
line with Portbrae and Tweed-bridge, and the latter
on a line with Bridgegate, connect the Old town and
the New. The New town is of motley character ;
but it has a pleasing, modern, and recently-improved
appearance in its High-street ; and it elsewhere pos
sesses many good houses, and some detached man
sions and neat villas. The aggregate aspect of all
Peebles, in spite of the place occupying one of the
most charming sites, and being curtained with one of
the most delightful landscapes in Scotland, is ren
dered cold and dingy by the prevalence of grey and
ashy blue in the hues of its masonry. A wall which
originally encinctured all the New town north of the
Tweed, has now, except at the exterior side of some
gardens parallel with Northgate, entirely disappeared.
Tweed-bridge is a structure of unknown antiquity,
various in the architectural style of its different parts,
and probably as vairious in the dates of their respec
tive erection. It has five main arches in the ordi
nary channel of the river, and three smaller ones at
the ends to admit the transit of a flood ; and, till 3
or 4 years ago, when it was improved and widened,
it measured only 8 feet between the parapets, and,
in consequence, had not roadway for two oppositely
moving vehicles. A little below the town a light,
handsome iron-bridge, constructed in 1818 for foot-
passengers, spans the Tweed, at a point where it is
108 feet wide. On the south side of the High-street
is a large and very commodious tontine inn, erected
in 1808. At the west end of High-street stands a
neat modern building, used as the town and the
county jail. In the same locality, on a small rising
ground, stands the parish -church, a plain but sub
stantial edifice, built in 1784, and surmounted by a
steeple which is more massive than elegant or neat.
The church, by being Romanistically placed due east
and west, instead of being set right in front of the
whole length of the High-street, is made to look
squintingly down the thoroughfare ; and, by wanting
some cheap graces of architecture which it should
naturally have received, it wears an air of looking at
the burgh, and being looked at in return, with deri
sion. In the roadway of High-street near the cross,
is a well dedicated to St. Mungo, from which the
town obtains a plentiful supply of water.
At the western extremity of the Old town are the
ruins of St. Andrew's church, occupying the site of
an earlier ecclesiastical erection, the pristine parish-
church of Peebles. The ruins, in the state in which

they existed toward the end of last century, are de
picted in a drawing by Grose ; but they were even then
greatly dilapidated ; and they have since suffered such
decay, that little more than the wreck of the tower or
steeple remains above ground. The cemetery around
it continues to be the ordinary burying-ground of the
parish. That the original church on the site was
one of Culdee erection, one belonging to the British
people, one connected with a social and a religious
state long prior to that of the Anglo-Saxon period,
is extremely probable. From some very old free
stone in its walls, the church which survived in ruin
to a comparatively recent date, and which must have
been built several years before the close of the 12th
century, appears to have been the successor, and; to
a certain extent, the re-edification of a church greatly
more ancient. At the Inquisitio of David I., the
church of Peebles is noted as existing, and as belong
ing to the see of Glasgow. Ingelram, whom David
made chancellor of the kingdom in 1151, and who
became bishop of Glasgow in 1164, was previously
rector of Peebles, and archdeacon of Glasgow. The
church in which he was rector, that which comes into
view at the epoch of record, was dedicated to the Vir
gin Mary ; but probably did not receive the name of
St. Mary's church till it ceased to be Culdean, and
became the scene of the Romish ritual of the Anglo-
Saxon or Anglo-Norman colonists. David I. granted
to chaplains of St. Mary's church — who probably were
of his own appointing, or whose altarages he institu
ted — the corn and the fulling mills of Innerleithen,
with extensive mulctures and the adjacent lands.
In 1195, the new church, that dedicated to St. An
drew, was consecrated by Joceline, Ingelram's suc
cessor in the bishopric. In this church, and in its
predecessor, the bishops of Glasgow occasionally held
their synods. Joceline, or his successor, in order to
settle a dispute with his ardideacon, assigned him a
revenue out of the church's pertinents ; and thus
converted the rectory of Peebles into a vicarage.
An altar in St. Andrew's church, dedicated to St.
Michael, had a special endowment for the services of
" a chappellane, there perpetually to say mes, efter
the valo w of the rents and possessiouns gevin thereto,
in honour of Almighty God, Mary his modyr, and
Saint Michael, for the hele of the body and the sawl
of Jamys, Kyng of Scotts, for the balyheis, ye burges,
and ye communite of ye burgh of Peebles, and for the
hele of their awn sawn sawlis, their fadyris sawlis,
their modyris sawlis, their kynnis sawlis, and al
Chrystyn sawlis." St. Andrew's had various other
chaplainries ; it continued to be used as the parish-
church till the Reformation ; and it was then wilfully
damaged, rendered unfit for use, and abandoned.
The archdeacon of Glasgow continued till that epoch
to be rector both of it and of the church of Manor,
and is believed to have annually drawn from the two
parishes parsonage tithes to the amount of 6,000
marks. Part of the vicarage tithes was at the Refor
mation assigned by the patron of the parish to the
master of the burgh grammar-school. The dragoons
of Cromwell are said, when engaged in the siege of
Neidpath-castle, to have used the church as their
horses' stable.
Two hundred yards north of the east end of the
Old town stand the ruins of the conventual church
of the Holy Cross, one of the four in Scotland
called Ministries, and founded for 70 Red or Trinity
friars. The entire building was a hollow quadrangle
124 feet by 110; and the church formed the south
side of the square, and measured 1 64 feet by 26 within
walls. In the front wall was inserted a small open
arch over the spot containing the relics which oc
casioned the erection of the structure ; and by this
means worshippers of the relics or devotees of the

494

PEEBLES.

shrine had access both from without and from within
to the object of their veneration. The side-walls
of the church were 22 feet high ; and the front was
perforated and embellished with five large" Gothic
windows. The convent or cloistered residence of
the friars formed the other three sides of the square;
its ground floor was vaulted ; and its side walls all
round were 1 6 feet asunder, and 14 feet high. From
the abandonment of St. Andrew's church, till the
opening of the New town church in 1784, the
church of the Red friars was used as the parochial
place of worship ; and till the beginning of last cen
tury, the cloisters, which had, at the Reformation,
undergone some change in their interior arrange
ment, were occupied as schoolrooms of the burgh
schools, and dwelling-houses of the schoolmasters.
Only a fragment of the church now remains ; and the
cloisters have been obliterated. A steeple was, after
the Reformation, added by the town, and inscribed on
_ a corner-stone with its name ; and this exists as a sort
of post mortem memorial of the ancient building to
which it was attached. So rapidly, after its relin
quishment as public schools and church, did the ori
ginal pile disappear, so rapaciously did the burghers
seize upon it as a convenient quarry for cottage,
cowhouse, or sty, and so magnanimously indifferent
were the authorities to the work of dilapidation,
that even the Protestant steeple might have been as
bodily run away with as the Popish convent and
mass-house, had not a neighbouring gentleman, for
the sake of defending an enclosed family burying-
vault, fenced the fragment and scared away the
stone-eaters. The church of the Holy Cross owed
its foundation to a very common event, which yet,
from the superstition of the times, created a great
popular sensation. On the 7th of May, 1261, as we
learn from Fordun, there was found on the spot
which became tbe site of the church, and, " in the
presence of honest men, kirkmen, ministers, and
burgesses, a certain magnificent and venerable
cross," which seemed to have been very long in
humed, and was supposed to bear marks of mar-
tyrly or even higher sacredness. As a stone box
which enclosed it bore tbe inscription, " The Place
of St. Nicolaus, Bishop," the sapient opinion was
instantly adopted that it had belonged to a Culdean
saint and prelate of the name of Nicolaus, who had
been martyred in the year 296, under the Maxi-
mian or Dioclesian persecution ! I Such a medley
of anachronisms betrays at once the ignorance, the
impudence, and the characteristic craft of the cowled
priests of Rome who had, but three or four genera
tions befort, been let loose on Scotland to trick the
country into abbey-building, and the prelatic domi
nance of the priesthood ; but it was by no means
gross enough to provoke the suspicion, or to act
otherwise than to charm the credulity of that su
perstitious age. Even the discovery, " in the same
place, about three or four paces distance from the
part where that glorious cross was found at," of
" the holy reliques of his [St. Nicolaus'] body cut
assunder in bitts, or collops, and pieces, laid up in a
shrine of stone," could not suggest to " the honest
men and burgesses," that the whole inhumation was
a monkish imposture, and an act probably of not
many days' date ; but, on the contrary, operated on
them like demonstration, that, by the bequest to
them of the uncorrupting flesh and the thaumatur-
gical cross of a primitive martyr, their town would
henceforth be the theatre of sacred prodigies. Nor
did the adroit impostors of the cowl permit them to
be /disappointed. For, "in the place where it was
found," says Fordun, " there was, and are yet, fre
quent miracles done by that cross ; and thither the
people with holy vows and oblations to God de

voutly flocked, and still do, from all parts ;" and,
says another writer, " the place, while the piety of
our ancestors continued, was famous by the glory
of its miracles, and repaired to by a wonderful con
fluence of people." Alexander III., then only 21
years of age, drenched with the lessons of monkish
tutorage, and prompted or urged by the bishop of
Glasgow, lost no time in erecting over the spot
" the magnificent church" and cloisters ; and he gave
for its support about 50 acres of excellent circumja
cent land, and various other endowments. In addition
to, the original relics, a prodigious addition was made
to the thaumaturgical and lucrative appliances of the
foundation by the accession — though at what precise
date does not appear — of a pretended piece of the
true cross of our Lord ; for a charter of James V.
says, respecting the church, " quhair ane part of ye
verray croce yat our salvator was crucifyit on is
honorit and keepit." An oath in the reputed royal
poem of " Peblis to the Play," in the words, " By
the Haly Rude of Peebles," shows in what deep
veneration the fictitious relic was held. A founda
tion so rich in relics could not, in an age when all
religious well-being was treated as an affair of mer
chandise, fail to be rich in worldly wealth. King
Robert IV., to whom its minister, Friar Thomas,
was chaplain, gave it the lands of King's-meadow.
The noble and opulent family of Frazer, the pro
prietor, in the 13th century, of the greater part of
Tweeddale, bestowed upon it several princely dona
tions. Frazer of Forton, in Athelstaneford, gave it
a right to an annual revenue of grain from his lands,
so considerable in value as to have come down by
entail to the Earl of Wemyss as heir to the proprie
tor after the abolition of Scottish monkery. James
V. gave it a splendid mansion in Dunbar, built by
the Countess of the 7th Earl of Dunbar, and
only daughter of the royal Bruce, for a community
of Red friars who were suppressed ; and other parties
gave it lands in the parish of Cramond, houses in
the West Port of Edinburgh, and various other
donations of soil and tenement. All these pos
sessions seem to have been transferred to William,
Earl of March, second son of the 1st Duke of Queens
berry, at the Revolution and the Union. But con
nected with various chaplainries and altarages which
existed in the church, there were numerous endow
ments of partial, and in some instances, entire rents
of houses, by the burgesses of Peebles for the
" sawll-heil," or soul-welfare of particular indi
viduals ; and all these, as well as similar property
connected with altars in St. Andrew's church, were
granted, in 1621, by James VI. to the community
of the burgh, on the condition of their paying an
annual rent into the exchequer, and offering daily
prayers for the royal donor.
On the rising ground near the point of the pen
insula now crowned by the modern parish-church,
anciently stood a chapel, attendant upon Peebles
castle. Whatever the castle was, it does not figure
in history, appears in record solely or chiefly through
the medium of its chapel, and, as a building, has,
for ages, been traceable only by tradition. The
chapel was of great but unascertained antiquity; and,
along with a carrucate of adjacent land, and ten shil.
lings a-year out of the firm of the town, was granted
by William the Lion to the monks of Kelso. It
stood a little eastward of the site of the present
church, looking righr, along the High-street; it was
a long, narrow, Gothic structure ; it was, for a long
period after the Reformation, the meeting-place of
the kirk-session and the presbytery, and the scene of
the celebration of marriages ; and it stood and was
in use, till pulled down at the erection of the modern
church.— Other chapels, particularly one dedicated

PEEBLES.

495

to the Virgin Mary, and called our Lady's chapel,
anciently stood in the town, but are now untraceable
in both their history and their ruins  The contem
poraneous existence of the three churches of St.
Andrews, the cross, and the castle, with their re
spective towers, seems to have suggested to Timothy
Pont, the compiler, at the middle of the 17th cen
tury, of Bleau's Atlas Scotiae, the conceit of search
ing out triads of objects in Peebles, and celebrating
the town by the parade of as many as he could dis
cover. " Celebris est haec civitas," says he, " quin-
que ternis ornamentis, nempe, tribus templis, tribus
campanilibus, tribus portis, tribus plateis, tribus
pon^ibus." The quaint Dr. Pennecuick, delighted
with the conceit, adopts and enlarges it in his usual
style of versification : —
" Peebles, the metropolis of the shire,
Six times three praises cloth from me require..
Three streets, three ports, three bridges it adorn,
And three old steeples by three churches borne.
Three mills do serve their turn in time of need,
On Peebles' water and the river Tweed.
Their arms are proper, and point out their meaning,
Three salmon-fishes nimbly counter-swimming."
Several localities and old houses in Peebles pre
sent, in their names, their association, or their ap
pearance, memorials of ancient importance or bygone
interest. Usher's-wynd, Borthwick's-walls, Castle-
hill, King's-house, King's-orchards, and some others,
are names which still indicate that the town was at
one time often graced with the residence or the visits
of royalty. "Money," says the writer of the Agri
cultural Report of the county, " would seem to
have been coined in the town ; an -house still retain
ing the name of Cuinzee Nook." A strand across the
High-street is called Dean's gutter, and an edifice
immediately to be noticed is called Dean's house, —
names which indicate the residence or influence as
parish minister of the archdean of Glasgow. An
old house of agreeable aspect, now sectioned off into
small apartments for families of the working-class, is
called Virgin's Inn, and, not improbably, was a nun
nery. Dean's house, situated in the immediate vi
cinity of Dean's gutter, was the town residence in
Peebles, of the noble family of March, and the natal
mansion of the last Duke of Queensberry. The
edifice is somewhat castellated, has on one of its
corners a curious pepper-box turret, and admits in
gress only by an arched passage leading through to
the back courtyard. This house is believed to have
been the scene of a highly romantic, though merely
traditional, incident, which forms the subject of
Sir Walter Scott's ballad of " The Maid of Neid-
path." When Neidpath castle, says the story, was
inhabited by the Earls of March, a mutual passion
was cherished by a daughter of the family and a
son of the laird of Tushielaw in Ettrick. The
young man could not win the consent of his loved
one's parents tq his happiness, and went abroad.
The proud Earl soon saw his daughter becoming
the victim of consumption, induced by her grief,
and, as the only means of saving her life, agreed
that her lover should be recalled. On the day when
young Tushielaw was expected to pass through
Peebles on his way to Ettrick, the fond, though
greatly enfeebled, young lady caused herself to be
removed to the balcony of her family's town resi
dence that she might see him as he rode past. So
acute were her organs, from the united effects of
disease and eager anxiety, that she is reported to
have heard and recognised his horse's footsteps
long before they were detected by the ear of any of
her attendants. But her lover, totally ignorant that
any change had occurred in her appearance, and en
tirely unapprized, and unexpectant of her being in

the town, rode past without recognising her, or
even slackening his pace. She reeled beneath the
shock of his seeming heedlessness, and, after a brief
struggle, died in the arms of her attendants  The
cross of Peebles stood in the centre of a spacious
area, at the intersection of High-street and North-
gate, and still bequeaths its name to the locality.
It resembled the Cross of Edinburgh, both in the
elegance of its structure, and in the barbarousness
of its fate, possessing beauties too sublimated to be
seen by the fat bailies of a rotten burgh, and ordered
off the thoroughfare to give " ample scope and verge
enough" to donkeys and their drivers.
Peebles has not all the natural facilities to be a
seat of manufacture which it is reputed to possess ;
and though twitted about its want of enterprise,
actually labours under want of resources. Water is
plentiful, but water-power is scanty, and is nearly
all pre-engaged ; coal is distant and dear ; and com
munication with the coast and the great towns is
expensive and slow. Yet, as the metropolis of an
extensive, though thinly peopled, district, it has a
considerable depot trade ; nor is it destitute of even
a decent amount of manufacture. In a suite of
waulk-mills on Eddlestone- water waulking and dye
ing are an established employment, and the fabricat
ing of plaiding, flannel, and coarse woollen cloth, in
all parts of the process from carding onward, is
somewhat briskly conducted. Stocking-making em
ploys a few workmen. One brewery exists at Ker-
field, about a mile to the east, and another on the
Tweed, at the head of Tweed-green. A suite of
corn mills — the same to which Dr. Pennecuick's
linesallude — stands on the Tweed, behind the Castle-
hill. The tanning and the working of leather are
carried on in Northgate. The manufacture of fine
cotton fabrics was introduced from Glasgow at the
beginning of the century ; but, as in other places,
and more than in most, it has greatly declined, and
involves its operatives in penury and straits. The
fabrics woven are chiefly cambric handkerchiefs with
borders ; and the clear weekly earnings of a weaver
average six shillings. The weavers, as numerously
as possible, migrate to the woollen district of Gala
shiels and Hawick, or obtain employment from far
mers and gardeners. The number of handlooms, in
1828, was 190 ; and, in 1838, it was reduced to 50.
— The town has a branch-office of the British linen
company's bank ; a savings' bank ; a printing-press ;
a reading-room ; a subscription-library ; a masonic
lodge ; about 30 inns, public-houses, and whisky-
shops ; 2 friendly societies ; and a curling and cours
ing club. Three free fairs, according to James VI. 'a
charter to the burgh, were, for some time, held an
nually ; each of two of them for 48 hours, and the
other for 8 days, " according to use and wont." Se
ven annual fairs were afterwards held, each of 6 for
one day, and Beltein for 2 days, — Yule, Fasten's
E'en, Beltein, St. Peter's Hook, Runt, and St.
Andrew's. Only 4 — one of them of very recent
establishment; — are now held ; the chief on the 1st of
March and in the beginning of October. A weekly
corn and meal market is held on Tuesday.
Peebles was formerly much celebrated for games
and amusements, which probably kings in some in
stances introduced, or at which they presided.
" Peblis to the Play" — an antiquely written poem,
written in the same stanza as " Christis Kirk of the
Green," and first published by Pinkerton in 1783 —
pertinaciously ascribed by some critics to James I.,
as pertinaciously regarded by others as an impossible
production of his pen, and quietly affiliated by not a
few to the parodial genius of Allan Ramsay — gives a
fair idea of the ancient pastimes, and, in a humorous
manner, exhibits them as a tissue of rustic merri-

496

PEEBLES.

ment and athletic sport. They are noticed in the
opening stanza of James l.'s undoubted poem : —
" Wes nevir in Scotland hard nor sene
Sic dansing nor deray,
Noutlier at Falkland on the Grene,
Nor Pebillis at the Play ;
As wes of wowarris as I wene.
At Christis Kirk on ane day :
Thair came our kitties weshen clone,
In thair new kirtillis of gray,
Full gay,
At Christis Kirk of tlie Grene that day."
Yet Tytler, the enthusiastic admirer of James I.,
and the editor of his Poetical Remains, but one of
those critics who will not allow ' Peblis to the Play'
to be ascribed 'to him, says, " The anniversary games
or plays of Peebles are of so high antiquity that, at
this day, it is only from tradition, joined to a few re
mains of antiquity, that we can form any conjecture
respecting the age of their institution, or even trace
the vestiges of what these games were. That this
town, situated on the banks of the Tweed, in a pas
toral country, abounding with game, was much re
sorted to by our ancient Scottish princes, is certain.
The plays were probably the golf, a game peculiar to
the Scots, foot-ball, and shooting for prizes with
bow and arrow. The shooting butts still remain.
Archery, within the memory of man, was still kept
up at Peebles ; and an ancient silver prize-arrow,
with several old medallions appended to it, as I am
informed, is still preserved in the town-house of
Peebles." A party of the royal company of archers
have, for many years, attired in the elegant costume
of the Scottish bowmen, repaired annually to con
tend for this " ancient silver prize-arrow ;" and they
keep up the practice of obliging or permitting the
successful competitor to add to it a silver medal, in
scribed with his name and the date of his victory.
The bowling-green at the point of the peninsula is a
favourite resort of all classes of the inhabitants.
Angling in the Tweed and the Eddlestone, and va
rious other trouting streams, within an easy dis
tance, steals largely on the time of both burghers
and visitants. Abundance of game in the uplands
which screen the vales draws sportsmen from a dis
tance. The mineral well and the Border games of
Innerleithen belong to Peebles very much as the
affairs of a suburb belong to an adjacent city. Salu
brity of climate, delightful combination of town and
rustic life, ample facilities for all sorts of healthful
exercise, a fair amount of literary and social appli
ances, and a well-earned celebrity in the character of
its seminaries, unite to render Peebles an attractive
scene of retirement for various classes of annuitants.
Peebles, at the passing of the Reform act, was dis
franchised as a burgh, and thrown into the county ;
and, before that date, it united with Selkirk, Lin
lithgow, and Lanark, in returning a member to
parliament. Its town-conncil are a provost, 2 bailies,
a treasurer, and 13 councillors, elected according to
the provisions of the Reform act. Constituency 94.
The magistrates have jurisdiction only over the
property held burgage ; they hold courts only when
business requires, and chiefly for the service of
heirs ; they have not, for many years, held any re
gular courts ; they, between 1820 and 1833, tried
about 45 cases of sequestrations for rent, but pre
sided in no other civil actions ; they wield criminal
jurisdiction only in cases of petty delicts ; and, when
necessary, they are assisted by the town-clerk as as
sessor. Their patronage is confined to the election
of the town treasurer, with a salary of £5 10s. 8d.;
the town-clerk, and the procurator-fiscal, paid by
fees ; the teachers of the burgh schools, paid by
salary and fees ; three burgh officers, each salaried
at £6 ; and the town-drummer, scavenger, and

grave-digger. The property of the burgh yields
an annual rental of about £506 ; and its nett debt
at Michaelmas, 1832, was £5;150 3s. 5d. The
revenue, in 1832, was £649 14s. 6d. ; and the ex
penditure, in the same year, was £767 17s. 6d. The
taxes levied are cess, petty-customs, and pontage of
Tweed bridge; the first amounting to £9 6s. lOd.
a-year, and the second and third jointly to £101.
The qualification of burgess and guild-brother used
to be requisite to a trader ; but is now seldom insisted
upon, and rates at a low fee. The only incorporated
craft is that of the weavers ; whose number, in 1832,
was 32, and their admission-fee 25s. All matters of
police are regulated by the magistrates and town-
council. The streets and shops are lighted with gas.
Justice-of-peace courts, and the courts of the sheriff,
are held in the burgh. The population within the
royalty, in 1841, was 1,908; inhabited houses, 354.
Peebles seems to have been a seat of population
in British, or, at latest, in Romanized British times.
Its name is a British word, or the moulding of «
British radix, which signifies ' shielings,' or the
shingly and slender domiciles of a rude people.* Its
site is one of those fertile and mountain-sheltered
vales of the Tweed which are known to have been
very early settled, and which were the scene of some
of the earliest enterprises of evangelization and social
enlightenment. Strongly protected on some sides by
the thick forest of Ettrick, and on others by high
and broad ridges of mountain-rampart, its naturally
fortified position would necessarily invite settlement
as a. retreat and a security from hostile invasion.
The town comes first distinctly into notice at the
beginning of the 12th century; and it had then a
church, a mill, and a brewery, and, though in the
midst of a naturally poor and thinly peopled district,
possessed sufficient wealth and importance to be
immediately pushed into prominent connexion with
the see of Glasgow. The Gastle, with its chapel
and other accompaniments, was probably coeval with
| the date of record. Ingelram, while rector of Pee
bles in the 12th century, vigorously defended, in a
provincial council at Norbam, and afterwards in the
papal court at Rome, the independence of the Scot
tish church, against Roger, Archbishop of York's
claim of superiority; and he carried his point with
Pope Alexander III., and was translated from his
rectory to the bishopric of Glasgow, not only with
out the archbishop's concurrence, but in spite of his
opposition. Peebles, from about the date of record
at tbe commencement of the Anglo-Saxon period,
was a king's burgh, or royal demesne, and was fre
quently visited by the Scottish princes for the sake
of the pleasures of the chase. Alexander III. was
much attached to it, and, as we have seen, rendered
it attractive to both himself and crowds of devotees,
by the erection in it of the Cross church. In 1296,
William de la Chaumbre ' the baylliff,' John the
vicar, several burgesses, and ' tote la communite de
Peblis,' swore fealty to Edward I. at, Berwick.
In 1304, Edward, then lord paramount, granted
Peebles, with its mills and pertinents, to Aylmar de
Valence and his heirs. Robert I., when he had be
come lord of the ascendant, conferred on the burgh
* Dr. Dalgleish, the writer of the Old Statistical Account of
the parish, falling into a rather natural mistake, says that the
name "seems plainly to have been taken from the pebbles
with which the soil abounds, particularly where the town was
firBt built." The astute and caustic George Chalmers — whose
predilections, however, induce him to fling most of his causti
city at presbyterian modes and ministers— drily remarks on
this : " The learned minister of Peebles derives the obscure
name of his parish from the pebbles under his feet, though wo
are not told, indeed, that pebbles are very plentiful in this an.
cient town of the British tribes. We thus sometimes see an
tiquaries '  collecting toys,
Like children gathering yMltt on the shorV "

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Y '! Dr,mm,,h„T III f.v„„/-l„l
3 Etiillatim II Manor
~V~ Y 4 Gtmlwlm 12 ShvldnSs
. &, SHwerhMvm J3 Teebhs
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A.Iti3L»rrcra A C? IojuIojj. .1 E'lmlyi

PEEBLES-SHIRE.

497

the privilege of holding a market. In 1334, Edward
Baliol conveyed to England, as part of the purchase-
money of a dependent crown, " villam et castrum et
vicecomitatum de Peblis." In 1357, the burgh
sent two representatives to the parliament which
was called to grant an aid for the ransom of David
II. In 1366, David II. granted it a charter of the
chapel of St. Mary in Peebles, and the mill of Inner
leithen. James I. seems occasionally to have visited
the town on his hunting excursions; and by those
who regard him as the author of ' Peblis to the
Play,' is believed to have been residing in it, and to
have just witnessed its now obsolete festival of Bel
tane, or Beltein — the fire of Baal — when he com
posed that poem. James II. gave the burgh one
charter, and James IV. gave it two. A charter, the
governing one, granted by James VI. in 1621, recites
and confirms former ones, none of which are now
extant; and is to the provost, bailies, councillors,
and community of the burgh. It confirms to them
the burgh, with all its former liberties, privileges,
and possessions, including power to hold courts, use
merchandise, and levy customs, not only within the
burgh but also through the shire, to institute a mer
chant guild and guild court, to hold a weekly market
and three annual fairs, and draw customs, tolls, &c.
thereat, and ,to draw the customs used and1 wont of
the bridge over Tweed. It further grants powers
to the said provost, &c. " of making and publishing
acts, statutes, and orders for the common good and
advantage of the said burgh, and for the defence of
the liberties and privileges of the same, by assem
bling and calling together all the inhabitants and
burgesses of the said burgh, to be observed under
such penalties as to them shall seem expedient, with
special power to them, within the territory of the
said burgb, of putting to final execution the said
acts and orders." The charter confirms or grants
various lands particularly named and described ; and
also all prebendaries, chaplainries, altarages, and hos
pitals, within the burgh, with the rents and profits
thereof, and all payments, out of the 'lands or tene
ments of the burgh, to any chapel in other parts of
Scotland. A great part of the lands described ap
pear from their names to have been long ago alien
ated. In 1545 the Earl of Hertford reduced the
town to ashes, but spared the churches and the
cross ; and in 1604 it was partially reburnt, but by
an accidental fire. In 1566-7, Lord Darnley was
for some time pent up in Peebles in a sort of exile,
and gave occasion to the historian Buchanan to load
the place with charges of poverty, and of being
haunted with thieves, which seem far from having
been warranted by facts. In 1585, the Protestant
lords passed through it in their march against the
Earl of Arran at Stirling. " The inhabitants," says
Pennecuick, speaking of both the town and the
county, " are of so loyal and peaceable dispositions,
that they have seldom or never appeared in arms
against their lawful sovereign; nor were there
amongst that great number twelve persons from
Tweeddale at the insurrection of Rullion-green or
Bothwell-bridge. Of their loyalty they gave suffi
cient testimony at the fight of Philiphaugh, where
several of them were killed by David Leslie's army,
and others, the most eminent of their gentry, taken
prisoners." In 1745 a detachment of the troops of
Prince Charles Edward encamped a day at Peebles,
on their way to Dumfries ; but they obtained no re-
cruits, nor did they inflict any damage beyond being
the occasion of some needless alarm. While Buon
aparte threatened Britain with invasion, this ancient
burgh was second to no place in the United King
dom in the display of loyalty; and jointly with the
county, out of an available population of 8,800,
II.

mustered no fewer than 820 effective volunteers
and yeomanry, besides furnishing its proportion to
the militia.
The arms of Peebles allude to the increase in the
number of salmon at their annual spawning migra
tion to the upper waters of the Tweed and the
Eddlestone; and they express the allusion by the
device of one salmon represented as swimming up
the stream, andtwo represented as swimming down,
and by tbe motto, " Contra nando incrementuin."
Above the shield appears St. Andrew with his cross,
the adopted tutelary of the town, because the patron
saint of the most ancient of the churches. The
three fishes in the armorial bearings have long been
associated with a local drinking usage most destruc
tive to social morals : the inhabitants piquing them
selves on the series of triads by which their town
has been so long distinguished, observing how an in
stance of the ternary idea stands out in the town's
arms, and seemingly feeling the treble thirst which
follows a gormandizing dinner on fish, rarely sit
down, no matter in how small a party, to any pota
tion without consuming to the supposed honour of
their burgh three bottles, three tumblers, or three
measures, in some way, of intoxicating drink. " As
much good liquor," says a contemporary, " we almost
believe, has been shed on this account as would keep
the river in flood for a week." Peebles gives the
title of Viscount to the Earl of Wemyss and March.
PEEBLES-SHIRE, or Tweeddale, a county in
the interior of the southern division of Scotland,
situated between 55° 24' and 55° 50' north latitude,
and between 2° 45' and 3° 23' longitude west of
London. It is bounded on the north and north-east
by Edinburghshire; on the east and south-east by
Selkirkshire; on the south by Dumfries-shire; and
on the south-west and west by Lanarkshire. Ita
boundary-line, on the north and north-east, is partly
a water-shed, partly the water-course of rills or in
cipient rivulets, and partly altogether artificial ; on
the east is arbitrarily carried across the basin and
current of the Tweed ; on the south-east and south is
chiefly a water-shed, and partly the course of rills
and the waters of St. Mary's-loch ; and in the west
is one-half a water-shed, and another half partly arti
ficial but chiefly the course of the eastern Medwin,
of Biggar-water, and of Spittal-burn. Its form is
irregularly triangular ; the sides being disposed along
the north7east, the south-east, and the west; the
north-east side having a symmetrical projection of
2£ miles deep, and the south-east side, a slender in
dentation of 7; all the three angles being slightly
rounded. In straight lines between the angles, or
between the middles of the roundings which repre
sent them, the north-east side measures 20 miles,
the south-east side 27, and the west side 28}. The
extreme length, from north to south, is about 30
miles; the extreme breadth, from east to west, is
about 22 miles; and the area, according to Arm
strong, is 251,320 English acres, — according to Find-
later, the writer of the Agricultural Survey of the
County, is 229,778 English acres, — and, according to
Chalmers, the author of ' Caledonia,' whose data ap
pear to be the most correct, is 216,320 English acres,
or 338 square miles.
The surface lies aggregately higher than that of
any other county in the south of Scotland, and is a
continuous, tempestuated sea of heights, a congeries
of hilly clusters and mountain-ranges, which direct
their spurs and their terminations to every point of
the compass. The lowest ground is in the narrow
vale of the Tweed, immediately within the boundary
with Selkirkshire, and lies between 400 and 500 feet
above sea-level. The Tweed's entire course, in the
segment of a circle, from the extreme south-west
2 i

498

PEEBLES-SHIRF.

corner, round by the very centre, on to the eastern
angle of the county, over a distance along the chan
nel of about 41 miles, forms a great artery into which,
with the exception of the few rills on some parts of
the boundaries, all the water-courses, like so many
veins, pour their liquid accumulations. But this
long sweep of central basin is, over a great propor
tion of its length, a series of mere gorges, affording
space for little more than waterway and public road;
and nowhere does it expand into vales of more than
about 3 miles broad, and seldom into haughs of
more than a few furlongs; while its screens are
oftener bold heights, or abrupt banks, than gentle
declivities and hanging plains. The grandly and
prevailingly tumulated county everywhere, in a gen
eral view, recedingly rises from this great line of
drainage, iniseries of shelving but quite irregularly
disposed ascents toward the boundaries ; and is cloven
down into a ramified or almost tesselated texture by
rivulets and brooks, which rarely riyal the Tweed
in the breadth of their conquests from the hills,
and are frequently squeezed between the sides of
deep ravines and narrow glens. On the south the
surface is so densely and grandly mountainous as
utterly to forbid all interior traffic, and barely to
allow one wild outlet to Dumfries-shire ; on the east
it permits communication with the exterior world
only by passes near the Tweed; and on the north it
is penetrable only through three gorges among the
hills, and along an equal number of stupendous elon
gated furrows, the narrow glens of southward streams.
The mountain water-shed for 12 miles, partly along
the western but chiefly along the south-eastern boun
dary adjacent to the southern angle, and also spurs
and protrusions thence into the interior, are the
summits of the Hartfell group, [see Hartfell,] the
highest Scottish ground south of the Forth and the
. Clyde, and the nucleus of the great mountain-ranges
which extend from sea to sea, and constitute the
southern Highlands of Scotland. Nearly all this
district, as well as the inward continuation for a con
siderable way of its heights, has alternately a bleak
and a dismal aspect, presenting little other evidence
of the ken of man than the solitary cots or shielings
of shepherds, occurring at drearily long intervals,
and heavily relieved in their appearance of loneliness
only by the sounds of the moorfowl and the brows
ing of the fleecy flock. Along the south-east, or
the boundary with Selkirkshire, a lofty but uncon-
tinuous series of heights maintains north-eastward
to the Tweed, an elevation but slightly diminished
from that of the more alpine district ; and, among
other summits, it sends up Blackhouse-hill to the
altitude of 2,360 feet above sea-level, Scawed-law
to the altitude of 2,120, and the wide-spreading
obese mountain of Minchmuir to the altitude of
2,285. Even along the north-east boundary, the
rim of the complicated county basin is so high as to
have the summits of Windlestraw and Dundroich
respectively 2,295 and 2,100 feet above sea-level.
Along the north the surface subsides, for a consider
able way, into little more than hilly swell, and no
where possesses a loftier summit than Cairn-hill,
whose altitude is 1,800 feet. Along the west the
highest ground, even where the boundary is a water
shed, lies somewhat in the interior, and, among other
heights, has those of Pykestane, Broughton, and
Cadon, with elevations above sea-level of respec
tively 2,100, 1,483, and 2,200 feet,— and in the val
leys, or rather on the streams at the base of these
heights, the surface has an elevation of at least 800
feet; but, for several miles at two points, both
where Biggar-water enters the county, and where
Medwin-water splits into two files, and sends off its
forces divergently to the Tweed and the Clyde, the

general level, though upland, is comparatively low,
and hangs doubtfully on the common lip of the
Tweeddale and the Clydesdale basins. Excepting
the highest grounds on the south, and a. ridge west-
south-westward from Minchmuir, which is black,
craggy, and doleful with deep and terrible precipices
and chasms, tbe heights of the county, whether hilly
or mountainous, are, for the most part, finely curved
in their form and beautifully verdant in their dress ;
they are easy of ascent, abundant in herbage, and
free from the hideous mosses and the horrid , preci-
pices which characterize so many of the Highland
mountains ; though wild, they can hardly be called
romantic, and, though high and large and too great
to comport with ordinary beauty, they want suffi
cient abruptness and majesty for the sublime ; but,
by being blended in the view with dale and glen and
glittering streams and hanging woods, they afford
many and charming specimens of the softly and pic
turesquely grand.
The Tweed is so dominantly ihe river of the
county as to have popularly imposed upon it, since
at least the 12th century, the name of Tweeddale.
The only streams which do not pay their tributes to
the Tweed, are the Clydesdale, half of the Medwin
on the west, and the head-waters of the North Esk
and the South Esk on the north, two streams which
traverse Edinburghshire, unite at Dalkeith, and enter
the frith of Forth at Musselburgh. The other or
interior streams, from their having at most only half
the length of the county to traverse, are necessarily
all of inconsiderable bulk; and are chiefly, on the
right bank of the Tweed, Fruid-water, Talla- water,
Glensax-burn, and Quair-water, and, on the left
bank of the Tweed, Biggar, Lyne, Eddlestone, and
Leithen waters, with Holms-water, a tributary of
the Biggar", and West-water, and Tarth, or East
Medwin, water, tributaries of the Lyne. Megget-
water, on the south, finds its way to the Tweed,
not in the indigenous manner of the other streams,
but as a tributary of the Yarrow, and by it of the
Ettrick, through Selkirkshire. The only lakes of
the county — additional to St. Mary's-loch, which
touches its south-eastern margin for about a mile,
and conveys the Megget to the Yarrow — are Water,
or Eddlestone-loch in Eddlestone, Gamesliope-loch
in an uninhabited glen in Tweedsmuir, and a small
lake on the estate of Slipperfield in Linton. The
chief medicinal springs are those of Heaven-aqua
well in Linton, and the celebrated spa of Innerlei
then, — resembling respectively the medicinal wells
of Tunbridge and of Harrowgate.
Tweeddale, like all hilly countries, is variable in
its climate. Owing to its midland -situation, it is
exposed to rain equally from both seas ; it has less
aggregate fall of moisture than the sea-board on
either the east or the west ; it has been known to
have, at its centre or at Peebles, only 24'936 inches
of rain, when the town of Dumfries had 36'9 ; and
yet, owing to flying clouds and partial falls, it bas
fewer days free from rain or snow than even the
west coast. The higher the elevation of the sur
face, the greater is the degree of moisture. The
spring-months have often a prevalence of cold east
erly winds ; and the months of winter are rigorous.
Immediately after sunset, in the end of August and
the early part of September, a low, creeping, frigid
mist, or hoar-frost, locally called ' rhyme ' or ' cran-
creugh,' is frequently seen during a dead calm, par
ticularly after a series of rainy days, to settle down
on low lands lying by the sides of streams, lakes and
morasses ; and, if succeeded, on the following day,
by bright sunshine, it puts an end to the vegetation
of the year. It does small damage to produce that
is hard ripe ; and as to oats and some other spe-

PEEBLES-SHIRE.

499

cies, if it attack them while the juices in the ear are
in a watery st^, it does not prevent their matura
tion ; but, if it attack them at any stage interme
diate between the watery and the hard mature, it
renders every species unfit for seed, and of very in
ferior value for food. Classing the south with the
west, and the north with the east, the winds blow
oftener from the westerly points than from the east
erly, in the proportion sometimes of 4 to 3, and at
other times of 5 to 4. The medium height of the
barometer at Peebles, is, in summer, 29'2, and in
winter 29 ; and the range of the thermometer —
though rarely approaching the extremes — is between
81 of Fahrenheit, and 14 below zero. Chronic
rheumatism, locally called ' the pains,' is frequent,
but decreasingly so, among old persons of the poorer
classes ; inflammatory fevers sometimes prevail in
spring; yet few diseases are known which have their
origin from damp or putrid exhalations.
Peebles-shire is comparatively rich in minerals.
Coal abounds in its north-east extremity, forms the
westerly termination of the coal-field which extends
about 15 miles by a breadth of 7 or 8 on both sides
of the North Esk to the sea at Musselburgh, and
supplies with fuel the whole county, excepting parts
which more conveniently obtain it from Lothian.
Carboniferous limestone exists plentifully in the
coal-district, and is quarried and burnt for manure
over the same extent of the county which is supplied
from the same district with coal. Substances fer
menting with vinegar, and variously described now
as shell-marl, and now as marly clay, sometimes
occur in tough indurated strata of a dark-blue co
lour, lying above the limestone rock, and at other
times are found in white calcareous, in the vicinity
of springs issuing from limestone, and are occasion
ally covered with a stratum of moss ; but they have
not challenged attention for georgical uses, and appa
rently have escaped any very careful examination,
on account of the ample supply and the suitableness
of lime. An endless variety of clays lies over a
considerable part of the carboniferous formation,
including a very thick bed of fire-clay, like that of
Stourbridge, and a small seam of fullers' earth.
Alum-slate likewise abounds ; and ochres, both red
and yellow, with veins of manganese, occur. White
freestone, in the same region as all these minerals,
is plentiful; and red freestone, of a firmer texture
than the white, furnishing good blocks for building,
and containing seams, whence excellent pavement-
flag is obtained, forms a hilly ridge, called Broomy-
lees, bisecting the district lengthwise, forming the
boundary between the two coal-field parishes of
Newlands and Linton, and affording ample scope for
workable quarries. Greywacke and greywacke slate
 here, contrary to the general application of the
popular and too comprehensive word, called whin
stone  are the prevailing rocks throughout the great
body of the county. The greywacke, though every
where used for more or less refined masonry, and
though the building-stone of the towns of Peebles
and Innerleithen, is often either so laminous in its
contexture, or so intersected with cutters, as to fly
in all directions under the hammer, and to be inca
pable of receiving a dressed and regular shape. The
blue clay-slate of Stobo, which occurs in two seams,
and resembles that of Ballachulish in Argyleshire,
has long been in esteem, and is worked for the sup
ply of Edinburgh, of the vale of the Tweed as far
as Kelso, and of the Upper ward of Lanarkshire.
Some limestone, compact and fine enough to take
the polish of white ornamental marble, — a bed of
ironstone, and some iron-ore, neither of them rich
enough to be remuneratingly worked,— a vein of
native loadstone,— galena or lead-ore, which formerly

was mined in several places for lead, and proved to
be accompanied by some silver ; — these, in addition
to the minerals of the coal-measures and of the strata
above them, occur in the small but opulent carboni
ferous district. Galena is found in the glen of one
of the tributaries of the Quair ; and gold was for
merly found-in the parish of Megget, — the poorest
parish, with all its gold, in Tweeddale.
The soils of by far the greater part of Peebles
shire never was, and probably never will be, turned
up by the plough ; and that of the arable grounds
comprehends a very extensive variety. Moss, from
4 or 5, to 10 or even 20 feet deep, is found in almost
every hollow and patch of level, in the higher parts
of the county. At the bottom of the bed it is always
of the deepest black colour, of homogeneous consis
tency, and convertible into the most solid and power
ful peat ; and nearer the surface it is of a tobacco-
colour, has a more spongy contexture, and consists
chiefly of the interlaced fibres of plants in various
stages of decay. Moss of another kind is exten
sively found on high grounds, lying generally upon
a considerable declivity, and forming a soil of from
2 to 4 feet thick, upon a highly retentive or even
impervious subsoil or sand or clay till. In its natural
state it is always moist, but operated upon by geor-
gic and manurial processes, or mixed by the plough
with the ingredients of the subsoil, it assumes a va
riously workable and fertile character. A natural
mixture of moss and sand, a variety of what is usu
ally called moorish soil, is pretty common on the
skirts of heath-clad hills, and on high dry-lying flats,
especially in the parish of Linton. A mixture of
sand and clay in various proportions, with often the
addition of freestone, limestone, ironstone, or grey
wacke gravel, very generally covers the skirts of
most part of the hills, at the highest elevations to
which cultivation is extended. The same, soil mixed
with clay, and eventually predominated over by it,
generally carpets the declivities in the upper ranges
of their arable limits. A mixture of clay and sand,
generally deep and fertile, with often a great propor
tion of the gravelly and stony debris of the prevail
ing grey wacke, generally covers the lower and gentle
gradients of the declivities, immediately above the
troughs or little plains of the streams. A soil, pre
vailingly light and sandy, and increasingly so toward
the margins of the streams, but sometimes having a
clayey intermixture, and occasionally yielding to a
strong clayey predominance, is spread out athwart
the haughs. Loams of the various classes of clayey,
sandy, gravelly, and stony, occur only in the old
croft lands, those which have been blackened and
mellowed by long and constant manuring and culti
vation, and occur only in the haughs amd on the
hanging plains which press immediately on their
flank. The forest of Leithen, the forest of Traquair, a
wing of the great Ettrick forest, and a vast expanse
of copses imtthe central district, and in the west and
the north, adorned and sheltered nearly all Tweed-
dale, giving rise to pasturage, and tempering the
bleak winds and the withering frosts. So early as
the reign of David I., this wavingly and warmly
woodland territory was disposed in the demesnes of
princes, the granges of monks, and the manors of
barons, and was embellished with their mansions,
their churches, their mills, their kilns, and their
brewhouses; and whether from the resources of the
chase and of pasturage, or from the proceeds of an
early but forgotten cultivation, it maintained a po
pulation more efficient and not less numerous than
belongs to it after six centuries of changes, and amid
the boasted refinements of modern economy. In
those days farming was blended with grazing, the

500

PEEBLES-SHIRE.

labours of the plough with the cares of the shep
herd; corn was raised in quantity to employ the
mills of the manors ; dairies were numerous ; and
orchards were cultivated with a passion which seems
to have been inherited from the British Gadeni.
The wide seat of the Tweeddale woods, like that
of Ettrick forest, and by kindred processes of de
molition [see Ettrick Forest] became stripped of
its thick genial dress, and exposed to the erosion of
the hoar-frost and the blast of withering winds,
little else than masses of brown hill, and- expanses
of dismal moor, mocked with the rude tufting of the
pigmy heath and the stunted furze. The prosperity
of the district, from 1097 till 1297, was blasted by
four following centuries of wretchedness. Yet Dr.
Pennecuick, who published his well-known Descrip
tion of Tweeddale in 1715, saw its resuscitation
commence ; and he even praised the young nobility
and gentry for beginning to form plantations, which he
foresaw would, in many ways, enrich just as surely
as they tended directly to embellish. The farmers,
though beginnipg to acquire a character for industry
and enterprise, were still somewhat wilful in preju
dice, and tenacious of old customs; they would not
suffer ' the wrack' to be taken off their lands, be
cause they supposed it to keep the corn warm ; nor
sow their bear-seed till after ' Runchie-week,' ' the
week of weeds,' or the first week of May, had, with
its imaginary malign influences, passed away; nor
plant trees or hedges, lest they should wrong the
undergrowth and shelter birds ;' nor ditch or drain a
piece of boggy ground, because, by doing so, they
would lose a few feet of grass; nor refrain from
making their cattle lean, small, and low-priced, by
overlaying their grounds, because they loved the
notion of what they called ' full-plenishing.' Pen
necuick, by showing the farmers their prejudices, and
teaching the gentry the properties of plants, is him
self entitled to praise as one of the earliest improv
ers. Sir Alexander Murray of Stanhope, about the
years 1730-40, raised plantations, and inculcated on
his neighbours the doctrines of improvement. Even
the Earl of Islay, the far-famed Duke of Argyle,
made choice of a moss at the Whim in Newlands, as
the scene of a grand georgic experiment, and showed
to the country an inspiriting example of agricultural
enterprise. But James Macdougal, a small farmer
of Linton, originally from the neighbourhood of
Kelso, was the first person to introduce the rotation
of cropping, the cultivation of turnips for the use
of sheep, the growing of potatoes in the open fields,
and some other practices of unostentatious but
powerful utility. The Duke of Queensberry having
begun about the year 1788, to receive fines of his
tenants, and give them compensatory leases of 55
years, the notion of property of more than half-a-
century's continuance speedily prompted the erection
of commodious houses, the making of enclosures,
and the conducting of variform enterprises of recla
mation and improvement. Yet, till within 10 years
before the close of last century, the practical ma
nagement of arable farms continued to be compara
tively skilless. Now, however, and increasingly,
Peebles-shire, in the proportion of its natural capa
bilities, rivals even Haddingtonshire itself — that mo
del farming-ground of Scotland — in the methods and
most beneficial practices of husbandry. To detail
what the methods are, what the rotation of crops,
what the treatment of the various soils, and what
the adaptations of produce to geognostic position
and meteorological influence, would only be to men
tion those which, in the estimation of all scientific
and skilful agriculturists, are tbe most approved.
The county, as to its configuration and entire phy
sical character, is essentially and at the same time

vigorously pastoral ; and possibly may one day be a*
confessedly the model- ground for sheep husbandry as
East Lothian is for tillage. The number of sheep
upon its pastures was, in 1814, 1 12,800, and is at pre
sent only about 102,000 ; but it is likely to augment
to its former amount. Nearly the whole annual pro
duce in live stock, as to at once lambs, wedders,
and cast ewes, is sent to the south of England.
Over nearly one-half of the county, constituting
the south-east district, the Cheviot breed not only
predominates, but constitutes unmixedly almost the
whole stock ; and, over the rest of the area, it now
yields to the predominance of the blackfaced breed,
now shares about equal dominion with it, and now
—though in a limited district — is crossed with the
Leicester sheep. A curious circumstance, the causes
of which do not seem to have been yet investigated,
is that, while on both banks of the Tweed in the
south-west division of the county, the sheep are in
general and indiscriminately healthy, no sooner does
the river debouch eastward than all along its south
bank, till it enters Selkirkshire, the sheep are tenfold
more subject to the diseases called " sickness," and
" louping-ill," than those on the left bank,— no dis
cernible difference appearing to exist in their posi
tion, or in the influences which affect them, except
that the walk of the one has in general a northern,
while that of the other has in general a southern,
exposure  The number of black cattle is about
5,000. The Tees-water and the Ayrshire breeds
are distributed very nearly in the same way as the
two breeds of sheep, — the Tees- water corresponding
in territory with the Cheviot, and the Ayrshire with
the blackfaced. Much attention is given, in some
districts, particularly in the north, to the dairy. —
Since about the beginning of the present century-
horses have been advanced to the working-stations
on farms which formerly were occupied entirely by
oxen; and they number about 1,200 — Swine, in
consequence of a local but decreasing prejudice
against their flesh, and the absence of any sufficiently
exciting demand from without, are very limitedly
reared  Poultry are sometimes imposed as rent in
kind ; but, except in so far as additional numbers are
needed to meet so foolish an imposition, they are
reared only in such numbers as can feed themselves
on the offals of barn-yards. Rabbits are found wild
on the sand-hills of Linton. Pigeons do not thrive,
and are rarely seen.
The whole landed property, as it stood in 1814,
was held by about 60 proprietors ; 13 of whom had
estates of about £100 each, 24 of from £100 to
£400, 15 of from £400 to £1,000, and 8 of from
£1,000 to £4,000. About 80 farmers rented farms
of from £100 to £500 of yearly rent ; and a much
greater number farms of from £20 to £80. The
smaller farms, chiefly arable, consist of from 40 to
100 acres, and in one or two instances rise to 200.
Few of the sheep-farms comprehend less than 600
or 700 acres, and most comprehend from 1,000 to
4,000 ; but though sometimes disposed nominally by
admeasurement, they are in general let out according
to their capacity, or are estimated by their known or
appreciated power of supporting so many head of
black cattle, and scores of sheep. About one-fifth
of the county- territory lies under strict entail ; and,
in various features of both progress and management,
is some degrees inferior to the rest of the area. The
farmers, as a body, are intelligent, sober, industrious,
and successful ; and rarely afford an instance of dot-
tish and stubborn antiquatedness in practice, or of
bankruptcy in their business. The houses of those
whose rent exceeds £50, are almost all substantial,.
neat, and comfortable residences. Cottiers are a class
nearly, or in a great measure, unknown, their place

PEEBLES-SHIRE.

501

being supplied by day-labourers, who plod their long
and weary way between the scenes of their toils and
the lanes of Peebles or Linton. The peasantry, or
even all classes except the few individuals who have
received a polished education, are, in general,
strangely characterized by ignorance of music.
Pennecuick says, " Music is so great a stranger to
their temper that you shall hardly light upon one
amongst six; that can distinguish one tune from an
other ;" and his editor, who wrote a century after
him, says, " In confirmation of this general want,
it has been remarked, that from a band of Tweeddale
shearers a song is scarcely ever to be heard ; that a
ploughman seldom enlivens his horse by whistling a
tune ; and that, although the scenery is so purely
pastoral, the sound of a pipe, or flute, or cow-horn,
or stock-in-horn, or even of a Jew's harp, is a rare
occurrence in travelling through it." The popula
tion are, in general, a simple, primitive, unsophisti
cated race, quite alive to the substantial comforts
and the real refinements of modern improvement,
but uncontaminated by the tastes which have
starched up one moiety of some communities in an
utter artificiality of character, and have begreased the
other moiety with the dripping unguents of luxury,
or the malodorous lubrications of vice.
The sum of the manufactures of Peebles-shire will
be seen by a glance at our articles on Peebles, Inner
leithen, Carlops, and Linton. Viewed in connexion
with the extent and resources of the county, and
especially with the purity and great aggregate power
of its waterfalls, and the numerous highly advantage
ous sites for paper and spinning mills, for bleach
fields, for woollen-works, and for general manufac
tories, the amount of existing machinery for factorial
produce is surprisingly small. Peebles-shire ranks
as low in manufactures as some districts in the in
terior of the Highlands, though it might rank as high
as the most prosperous districts in the Lowlands.
Though the county-town itself, indeed, and the small
district around it, jointly containing one-fourth of
the whole population, do not enjoy much water-
power, why should not the coal-district in the north
rival the busy paper-mill and carpet-work industry
of Penieuick and Lasswade, or the majority of the
vales in the interior, and on the south-east rival the
highly-prosperous woollen districts on the Gala and
the Teviot, — districts quite as disadvantageously
situated as they with respect both to coals and to
facilities of communication ? Excepting the exporta
tion of the surplus produce of the sheep, dairy, and
arable farms, the whole commerce consists in the im
portation and retail of the small amount of goods re
quired for local consumpt. — About one-fifth of the
compact area of the county, lying on the right side
of the T weed, is so ill-provided with roads, having
only footpaths or miserable mere hoof-formed tracts,
as to be quite impervious to a wheeled vehicle.
Other districts, considering that the country is so
tumultuously hilly, are well-provided. The road
from Edinburgh to Dumfries, by way of Biggar,
passes through the north-west wing. The better
road from Edinburgh to Dumfries by way of Moffat
traverses the extreme length of the county, down
the Dead-burn and the Lyne, and up the higher
Tweed. The road between Glasgow and Kelso
traverses the extreme breadth of the county down
the Tarth and the Lyne and the lower Tweed. The
road from Edinburgh respectively to Peebles and to
Innerleithen passes along the dales of the Eddlestone
and the Leithen. On all these roads there are both
public coaches and public carriers  Additional to
the fairs of Peebles and Linton, noted in the articles
on these towns, annual fairs are held at Eddlestone
on the 25th of September, old style, or, if that day

be a Sabbath, on the Monday following ; at Brough
ton, 9 days after Eddlestone fair, or on Monday, if
the ninth day fall upon a Sabbath ; and at Skirling,
on the first Tuesday after the 26th of May, new
style, — on the first Wednesday of June, old style, —
and on the 4th of September, old style, or on the
Monday following, should the 4th be a Sabbath.
The principal gentlemen's seats in Peebles-shire
are Traquair-house, the Earl of Traquair, Darn-
hall, Lord Elibank; Kingsmeadows and Haystone,
Hay, Bart. ; Castle-craig, Carmichael, Bart. ; New
Posso, Nasmyth, Bart. ; Stobo-castle, Montgomery,
Bart. ; Glen-Ormistone, Stewart, Esq. ; Holylee,
Ballantyne, Esq. ; Kailzie, Campbell, Esq. ; Glen,
Allan, Esq. ; Drummelzier-house, White, Esq. ;
Polmood, Hunter, Esq. ; Rachan, Loch, Esq. ;
Mossfennan, Welch, Esq. ; Quarter, Tweedie, Esq. ;
Barns, Burnett, Esq. ; Cairnmuir, Lawson, Esq. ;
Whim, Montgomery, Bart. ; Lamancha, Macintosh,
Esq. ; Magbiehill, Rev. Mr. Berresford ; Romanno,
Kennedy ; Portmore, Mackenzie, Esq. ; Horseburgh
castle, Horseburgh, Esq., &c, &c. The only town
is Peebles, till recently a royal burgh ; and the only
villages are Innerleithen, Linton, and Carlops. The
county returns a member to parliament. Constituency,
in 1838, 782; in 1841, 803. Valued rent, in 1674,
£51,937 Scottish. Realproperty,asassessedinl815,
£64,182. The number of crimes charged, in 1832,
was 22, and convicted 1 7 ; charged in 1833, was 24,
and convicted 16 ; charged in 1840, 7, and convicted,
7. The sheriff-court for the county and the sheriff
small-debt court are held on every Tuesday from the
15th of October till the 4th of April, and from the
15th of May till the last Tuesday of July. — Tweed-
dale unites with Lothian in giving name to the first
synod on tne General Assembly's list. Its parishes
are only 14 in number, 2 of which belong to the
presbytery of Biggar, and attach it to the synod
of Lothian and Tweeddale, while the other 12 con
stitute the presbytery of Peebles. In 1834, there
were 16 parochial schools, conducted by 17 teachers,
and attended by a maximum of 858 scholars ; and 14
non-parochial schools, conducted by 17 teachers, and
attended by a maximum of 685 scholars. Popula
tion, in 1801,8,717; in 1811, 9,935; in 1821, 10,046;
in 1831, 10,578. In 1831, there were 1,789 inhabited
houses ; 2,072 families ; 5,342 males ; and 5,236
females. In 1841, the number of inhabited houses
was 2,119. Population 10,520.
The portion of' the ancient British Gadeni who
inhabited the districts on the upper Tweed, are be
lieved to have intermixed less with foreign races, and
to have sent down their British blood to their mo
dem successors on the soil in a stream of greater
homogeneousness, than their brethren either of their
own tribe, or of any of the tribes south or east of the
Grampians. The natural mountain-barriers around
their territory, the impervious forests which hemmed
them in on the side of Ettrick, and the strong artifi
cial bulwark of the Catrail flung fencingly across the
inlets to their fastnesses, all served both to repel
foreigners approaching from without, and to shut up
in an exclusive fellowship the occupying community
within. The county, accordingly, abounds with the
monuments of the Britons. Its topographical nomen
clature is replete with denominations from their sig
nificant language. The existing names of nearly all
the waters, of eight of the parishes, and of a vast
number of the mountains, hills, and knoUy swells,
are British. Remains of Druidical oratories or cir
cles exist at Sheriffmuir in Stobo, at a place in
Tweedsmuir near the church, and at Gatehope in
Innerleithen ; and are said by tradition to have ex
isted also at Hairstanes in Kirkurd, and Quarter
Knowe in Tweedsmuir. Sepulchral tumuli occur,

502

PEEBLES-SHIRE.

or stone-coffins with human remains have been found
at Mundick-hill, at Chapel-hill, above Spital-haugh,
and in the neighbourhood of King-seat in Linton, —
in the parks of Kirkurd, and at Mount-hill in Kirk-
urd, — by the side of the Tweed, in Glenholm, — on
Kingsmuir, in Peebles, — near Shiplaw, in Eddle
stone, — near Easter Hartree, in Kilbucho, — on She-
riffmuir, in Stobo, — and in the vale of the Tweed
between Tweedhope-braefoot and Bield. But by
far the most illustrious of the British sepulchral
monuments, and one which occasions those of their
warriors to be almost utterly forgotten, is the re
puted grave of their poet Merlin, or Myrrdin :* see
Drummelzier. Memorial stones, commemorative
of events in the history of the Gadeni, yet possibly
in some instances the ' grandes lapides' which were
set up by kings to ascertain the true limits of dispu
ted boundaries, occur on the Tweed, in Traquair,
and Innerleithen, — on Bellanrig, in Manor, — on She-
riffmuir, in Stobo,— and on Cademuir, in Peebles.
Four strengths or hill-forts are traceable on Cade
muir, 2 on Janet's-brae, 1 on Meldun-hill, 1 on the
hill above Hutchinfield, 1 near Hayston-Craig, 1 on
the hill above Wham, and 1 on Ewe-hill-craig, all in
Peebles ; remains of several occur in Manor, parti
cularly of 5, two of which are on one hill; and
traces, more or less distinct, exist of several called
' Chesters,' in Innerleithen, of 3 in Eddlestone, of 6
in Newlands, of 2 in Linton, of 3 in Kirkurd, and of
2 in Skirling. " Armstrong the surveyor," says
Chalmers, " was induced by his folly to laugh at the
country people, who believe those British hill-forts
to be Roman, because most of them are called ' Ches
ters ;' and he is prompted by his ignorance to talk
confidently of those hill-forts being constructed ' not
only to secure cattle,' but as exploratory camps to
' the lower forts.' By ' the lower forts,' he absurdly
alludes to the old towers of recent times, which were
built during the anarchy which succeeded the sad
demise of Robert Bruce. The map-maker thus con
founds the open hill-forts of the earliest people, with
the close-fortlets of the latest proprietors. With
the same absurdity, he talks of the Druid temples
being constructed for the worship of Woden ; and
with an extraordinary stretch of stupidity, he sup
poses some of the sepulchral tumuli of the ancient
Britons to have been erected to direct travellers
from one place to another. The popular tradition
of the country, however, assigns these hill-forts, as
well as all the British works, to the Picts, who were
ancient Britons, as we have seen. Some of the less
intelligent of the local antiquaries ascribe those very
primitive works to, the Roman legionaries." — Though
the Romans conquered Tweeddale, and kept it in mi
litary possession, they seem to have had power over
it chiefly in consequence of its being isolated among
districts which they completely commanded, and do
not appear to have held it under any severe restraint,
or by means of much fortified position within its own
* Myrrdin's poetry may still be seen in the Welsh Archaeo
logy published by Owen ; and though written by a Caledonian
Briton so long ago as the 6th century, is still intelligible to any
person moderately acquainted with Welsh. Merlin, like other
gifted men whose story was handed down to a dark age by
tradition, and exaggerated in ages of ignorance by superstition,
was alleged to be a prophet, and, in popular credulity, stood
accredited in vaticination, before the period of Edward III.
" At the epoch of printing," says the author of ' Caledonia,'
"which was also the era of popular prophecy, every absurd
saw was attributed to noted men, who still lived in the popular
voice, — to Merlin of the sixth century, to Bede of the eighth,
and to Waldeve of the twelfth. During ages of ignorance, aud
times of superstition, the prophecy of traditional characters be
came extremely grateful to the popular taste." For once, this
very astute but bigotted writer opens his eyes to the surpassing
follies and romancings of a state of things which he generally
admires, or that which intervened between Culdeeism and the
Reformation ; only he wears the appearance of very anachron-
ou, placing " the ages of ignorance and times of superstition, of
which he speaks, ajter instead of before" the epoch of printing!.

limits. They carried through it neither of the great
roads which they constructed northward on the ljnes
of their Caledonian conquests, nor did they lead into
it from either of them a communicating branch. The
Watling-street, which courses from Cumberland into
Clydesdale, approaches, indeed, within half-a-mile of
the western extremity of Tweeddale, at a point
where there is a natural passage from the Clyde to
the Tweeddale; and they probably made this open
ing, with the connection to which it led by Watling-
street with their strong posts in Clydesdale, a succe-
daneum for all artificial means of access to averawe
the district. Vestiges of only three Roman camps
exist ; one on the east bank of the Lyne, near Lyne
church, one at Upper- Whitefield in Linton, and one,
though of doubtful character, in Manor.
During the 9th century, the Britons of Tweed-
dale, in common with those of Strathclyde, felt
severe pressures from the Scoto-Irish on the west,
and the Saxons on the east, and numerously emigra
ted to Wales. After the kingdom of Cambria, with
which the remainder were incorporated, was over
thrown by the Scottish king in 974, a portion of the
Scoto-Irish came in, not as hostile intruders, but as
fellow-subjects of a congenerous people, and soon
began to give a complexion to the language and the
institutions of the community. Aware of the signi
ficance of British names, and seeing the fitness of
their application to the several objects, they seem to
have extensively adopted the pre-existing terms of
the topographical nomenclature, or to have new-
modelled them to suit the variations of their own
language. The British glyn and enwe, for example,
which respectively mean ' a deep narrow vale,' and
' a knob,' or metaphorically a hill,' were retained in
the Irish or Celtic glen and cnoc of the same signifi
cation. Yet a very long list of purely Celtic names
of places in Peebles-shire might be given, and would
afford distinct evidence of how far the Scoto-Irish
people spread over the district, and how long they
exerted an influence on its speech. The Scoto-
Saxons, who were the last race to multiply the blood,
and to assume the mastery of Tweeddale, have a con
siderably less proportion of monuments in its nomen
clature than what belongs to them in even the dis
tricts immediately adjacent ; and, from the fact that
such names as they imposed are strictly the same as
to dialect with those of Selkirk and Roxburgh, but
somewhat different from those of Dumfries-shire,
they appear to have immigrated from not the west,
but the east side of England. How they entered,
whether as incursionists in the days of the Northum
brian monarchy, or as peaceful subjects after the
commencement of the Scoto-Saxon period, is not
known ; but, by whatever title, or at whatever pe
riod, they came in, they eventually prevailed in the
district, and established feudal settlements among
the Scoto-Irish, and the descendants of the original
Britons. Two great classes of antiquities belong to one or
other of the races who had possession after the Ro
man abdication, — terraces and castles. The terraces
are noticed in the Introduction to our work ; and,
though they have counterparts in some other districts
of Scotland, they are singularly prominent in Tweed-
dale. The largest, called Terrace-hill, is near New-
lands ; another, called Moot-hill, occurs a mile to
the north ; appearances of two others exist at Kirk
urd and Skirling ; and several are traceable in the
vicinity of Peebles. They were constructed proba
bly by the Romanized Britons, who abundantly
evinced their capacity for such works by construct
ing the Catrail ; and though afterwards appropriated,
in some instances, as seats of feudal justice, they
seem evidently to have been intended to accommo.

PEF

503

PEN

date spectators in viewing some description of public
sports. — Castles or Peel-houses, almost all very
closely of the simple and model kind described in
our Introduction, formed a thick dotting over Tweed-
dale ; they belonged, as a specific and characteristic
class of buildings, to the wild feudal barons of the
age succeeding the Saxon ascendency ; and, by both
their numerousness and their relative position, they
are a striking evidence of how rude and marauding
were the manners of the period. They were, by
mutual arrangement of their proprietors, built within
view of one another, as a sort of cordon of fortalices ;
on bartizans which surmounted t'nem, beacon-fires
were kindled at a moment of invasion, to announce
to the district that a foe was approaching ; the smoke
ga ve the signal by day, and the flame by night ; and
over a tract of country 50 miles broad, along the
banks of the Tweed, and 70 miles long, from Ber
wick to the Bield. intelligence was, in a very few
hours, conveyed. " As these are not only antiqui
ties, but evidences of the ancient situation of the
country, and are now most of them in ruins, it will
not be improper to mention those along the Tweed
for 10 miles below Peebles, and as many above it.
Thus Elibank tower looks to one at Holylee, this to
one at Scrogbank, this to one at Caberstone, this to
one at Bold, this to one at Purvis- hill, this to those
at Innerleithen, Traquair, and Griestone, this last to
one at Ormistone, this to one at Cardrona, this to
one at Nether Horsburgh, this to Horsburgh-castle,
this to those at Hayston, Castlehill of Peebles, and
Nidpath, this last to one at Caverhill, this to one at
Barns, and to another at Lyne, this to those at
Easter Happrew, Easter Dawick, Hillhouse, and
Wester Dawick^ now New Posse, this last to one at
Dreva, and this to one at Tinnis or Thanes-castle,
near Drummelzier."
The districts on the upper Tweed were not formed
into a shire or sheriffdom till near the close of the
13th century. David I. and Malcolm IV. respec
tively call the county Tueddal and Tuededale, and
seem to have had no notion of designating it as 'a
shire.' But owing to the existence of two royal
castles, the one at Peebles, and the other at Tra
quair, there were, in the reigns immediately succeed
ing Malcolm IV., two sheriffdoms, named, not from
Tweeddale, but from the seats of the royal castles.
A curious precept of Alexander II. to his sheriff and
bailies of Traquair, commands them to imprison all
excommunicated persons within their jurisdiction.
The two sheriffdoms probably continued throughout
the disastrous times which succeeded the demise of
Alexander III. Yet before the epoch of Edward I. 's
ordonance settling the government of Scotland, in
1305, the sheriffdom of Peebles had ingulfed that
of Traquair, and extended over all Tweeddale ; and,
from about the time of the accession of James I., it
became hereditary in the Hays of Locherworth. In
, 1686, John, the 2d Earl of Tweeddale, and the lineal
descendant of the Hays, sold it, with his whole estates
in the county, to William, Duke of Queensberry ;
and, in 1 747, the Earl of March, the Duke's second
son, who had received it from his father, received in
compensation for it, and for the subordinate regality
of Newlands, the sum of £3,418 4s. 5d. The first
sheriff on the new regimen was James Montgomery
of Magbiehall, who rose to be Chief Baron of the
Exchequer. — Tweeddale gives the title of Marquis
to the noble family of Hay, created Baron Hay of
Yester in 1488, Earl of Tweeddale in 1646, and Mar
quis of Tweeddale, Earl of Gifford, and Viscount of
Walden, in 1694. The family-seat is Yester-house,
Haddingtonshire. PEFFER (The), a rivulet chiefly in the parish
of Fodderty, in Cromarty and Ross-shire. It has a

run of only about 5 miles, and flows eastward to the
head of the Cromarty frith, a little north of Ding
wall. It is chiefly remarkable for giving name to
the now beautiful and noted district of Strath-
peffer : which see.
PEFFER, two streamlets in the northern division
of Haddingtonshire. They rise within a brief dis
tance of each other in a meadow in the parish of
Athelstaneford, and flow, the one westward to Aber-
lady-bay, and (lie other eastward and north-eastward
to a creek 1 j mile north-west of Whitberry-head.
The western Peffer has about 6£ or 7 miles of course ;
and, except for J of a mile immediately below its
source, flows the whole way between Dirleton on
its right bank, and Athelstaneford and Aberlady on
its left. The eastern Peffer has 6 miles of course,
though measured along its nominal tributary but real
head-water of Cogtal-burn, it has at least 8; and
it flows, over most of the distance, through Preston
and Whitekirk. Each stream has a fall, from source
to embouchure, of not more than 25 or 30 feet, and
is, consequently, sluggish in its motion, looking like
a large drain, and corresponding in character to the
import of its name, ' the slowly running river.' The
entire strath, traversed by both streams, though now
a rich alluvial mould and blushing all over with
luxuriance, was anciently a morass, bristling with
forest, and tenanted with wild boars and beasts of
prey. Large oaks have often been found inhumed
in moss on the banks, their tops generally lying to
ward the south. At the widening and deepening of
the bed of the streams not very many years ago, for
preventing an overflow and stagnation of water dur
ing winter, several stag-horns were dug up very near
the surface of the former bed.
PENCAITLAND, a parish in the western division
of Haddingtonshire ; bounded on the north by Glads
muir ; on the east by Salton ; on the south by Or
miston ; and on the west by Ormiston and Tranent.
It is, in a general view, an oblong of 3i miles by 3,
stretching east and west, but it has a prolonged con
traction and four small projections ; and, in area, it
measures 3,800 Scottish acres. The surface slightly
declines toward two streams which drain it, yet re
markably resembles a pendicle of flat and fine central
England, all cultivated, all luxuriant, all charmingly
frilled and flounced with hedge-rows and trees, but
without one marked feature, and simply an expanse
of prettiness. Both of the streams claim to be the
Tyne. The smaller — which is locally allowed a mo
nopoly of the name — runs eastward through tbe in
terior, cutting the parish into nearly equal parts ;
and the larger, or geographically the true Tyne,
comes down from the south, receives at the point of
contact Kinchie-burn, which had flowed 1J mile east
ward along the southern boundary, and runs 2| miles
northward and north-north-eastward, chiefly along
the eastern boundary, but repeatedly deviating, both
into Pencaitland and into Salton. The soil is na
turally wet and clayey, but has been surprisingly
improved. About 300 acres are covered with wood,
partly plantation and partly natural oak and birch ;
about 160 are laid out in artificial pasture; and all
the rest are regularly tilled. Coal, though consti
tuting apparently the outer margin of the Lothian
coal-field, abounds, and is worked for the supply of
the southern and south-eastern district of the county
and of part of Lauderdale. Carboniferous limestone,
enclosing numerous fossils of the kinds usual to this
rock, is very abundant and is largely worked. Free
stone has been worked in several quarries. Though
the climate possesses more than average salubrious-
ness, the colliers are much subject to pulmonary
complaints, one of which is very peculiar, and bears,
among themselves, the name of ' the black spittle*'

PEN

504

PEN

The only noticeable works are a bleachfield, a dis
tillery, and a variety of rural mills. The villages of
Easter and Wester Pencaitland stand a brief way
distant from each other on opposite banks of the
smaller Tyne, very nearly in the centre of the par
ish, 6 miles south-west of Haddington. The Tyne
is spanned between them by a bridge of three arches.
Between Easter Pencaitland and the bridge stands
the parish-church, a, picturesque pile, all old, but of
various date and architectural style. In Wester
Pencaitland are the parish-school, a comfortable inn,
and an old cross unstoried by history or tradition.
On the united Tyne stands the village of Nisbet :
which see. The only other village is Newton, inha
bited by colliers  Winton-house, half-a-mile north
east of Wester Pencaitland, is a large castellated
edifice, partly modern and partly built in 1619, som
bre in appearance, yet situated amid some beautiful
artificial banks, and pleasant woods with several
uncommonly fine trees. The ancient part of it he-
longed to the noble family of Seaton, Earls of Winton,
attainted, in 1716, in the person of George, the 5th
Earl, — who, captured and condemned for taking part
in the rebellion, escaped from the Tower of London,
and died an exile and a bachelor in Rome at the age
of 70. — Pencaitland-house, in the immediate vicinity
of Wester Pencaitland and Fountainhall, 1£ mile
to the south-west, are both fine mansions, the latter
surrounded with extensive and pleasant woods.
Former proprietors of both— James Hamilton, son of
Lord Presmennan, and Sir John Lauder — were dis
tinguished lawyers, and members of the College-of-
Justice, under the titles respectively of Lord Pen
caitland and Lord Fountainhall. Sir John Lauder
was eminent also as a statesman and as a zealous
follower of the Protestant faith, and is well-known
by two legal volumes called ' Fountainhall's Deci
sions.' The chief proprietors are Lady Ruthven,
Dudgeon of East Craig, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder,
Bart., and Fletcher of Salton. The parish is traversed
by the road between Tranent and Lauder, and has
abundant facilities of communication. Population,
in 1801, 925; in 1831, 1,166. Houses 256. As
sessed property, in 1815, £6,362  Pencaitland is in
the presbytery of Haddington, and synod of Lothian
and Tweeddale. Patron, Hamilton of Pencaitland.
Stipend £291 0s. 2d. ; glebe £14. Schoolmaster's
salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with about £30 fees, and £16
other emoluments. There are two non-parochial
schools, the one in Easter Pencaitland, and the other
in Newton  Everard de Pencaithlan, who probably
obtained the manor, whence he took his name, from
William the Lion, granted the church, with its per
tinents, to the monks of Kelso. Both the manor
and the church*passing from their owners during the
war of the succession, the manor was given to Robert
de Lawder, and soon afterwards passed to John de
Maxwell, younger brother of Sir Eustace Maxwell of
Caerlaverock ; and the church, along with its perti
nents and the chapel of Payston, was given to the
monks of Dryburgh. The ancient parish was more
comprehensive than the present ; and, after the Re
formation, the lands of Payston were annexed to
Ormiston, and those of Winton to Tranent.
PENICUICK, a parish in the middle of the south
ern verge of Edinburghshire ; bounded on the north
west and north by Currie and Colinton; on the
north-east by Glencorse ; on the east, including the
north side of a long easterly projection, by Lasswade
and Carrington ; on the south-east by Temple ; on
the south and south-west by Peebles-shire ; and on
the west by Liston Shiels, the detached part, civilly
of Kirkliston, and ecclesiastically of Kirknewton.
The form is very irregular; but, in a general view,
is a parallelogram of 7| miles by 4, stretching north

westward and south-eastward, with a square pro
jection 1J mile deep from the north-east corner,
and a triangular projection of upwards of 2 miles
along each side, from near the south-east corner.
The area is about 20,000 Scottish acres. The North
Esk, coming in a little below its source, traces most
of the south-western and part of the southern boun
dary; then runs north-eastward, with about two-
thirds of the parish on its left; and, before taking
leave, lingers on the boundary with Lasswade. Its
immediate basin or glen is, over most of the way, not
a little picturesque, — in some places highly romantic,
— and, in two, deeply associated with the musings of
genius : see articles Habbie's Howe and Newhall.
Though the stream is small, it sprinkles its path
with beauty, and, by driving a succession of mills,
contributes more to the wealth of the population
than if gold dust were mingled with its sands. Owing
to georgical improvement by draining in its upper
basin, it has lost some of its former water-power,
and now requires to be drawn off in its prodigal mo
ments into a storage of large reservoirs. The South
Esk traces the boundary northward along the whole
eastern side of the triangular projection. Logan-
water, or Glencorse-burn, cleaving down the Pent
land range, and furrowing out a vale of pastoral love
liness and romance, rises in the interior, not far from
the south-west corner, and runs away north-east
ward, lingering for a while, and swelling into Com
pensation Pond, on the boundary with Glencorse :
which see. About ten or twelve burns traverse the
interior, or run along the boundaries, and pay their
tiny tributes to one or other of the three principal
streams. Bevelaw-burn, a tributary of the water of
Leith, and the feeder of » reservoir for regulating
the water-power of that most distinguished of all
Scottish streams for driving mills, forms for 2 miles
the division with Currie. Springs, both numerous
and copious, supply the district with a profusion of
the purest water, and at one time drew the attention
of the Edinburgh Water company for the supply of
the metropolis, and yielded only to the famous
Crawley spring in Glencorse. Some petrifying
springs occur, and also some chalybeates, — the latter
neglected. The north-western half of the parish is
wholly occupied with the picturesque range of the
Pentlands, sending up some summits about 1,600
feet above sea-level, but occasionally giving place to
softness and forms of beauty along the course of the
streams. The south-western division is, to a great
extent, bleak moorland, and contains, near the vil
lage of Penieuick, extensive beds of sand and gravel;
but it has many pendicles, and several stripes of both
scenic and agricultural interest. The soil of the
parish is exceedingly various, consisting of clay, gra
vel, sand, moss, and their numerous combinations.
The expanse of moorland, though yet for the most
part unreclaimed, is gradually confessing the power
of the plough ; and the other districts are warmed
and beautified with wood to the large aggregate ex
tent of considerably more than one-twentieth of the
whole parochial area. The arable lands amount
probably to little short of 7,000 Scottish acres ; and
exhibit large specimens of some of the boldest and
most energetic land-reclamation in Scotland. The
sheep and cattle pastured on the heights and decli
vities of the uplands are almost all of cross-breeds,
the Ayrshire and the Cheviot giving the tone. The
climate is none of the healthiest, but improves with
the invasion and taming of the wastes. The mine
rals of the south-eastern district nearly all belong to
the strata upwards from the transition rocks. Fossils,
especially the conchal and the dandritic, are unusually
numerous and interesting. Specimens of an unknown
fossil-tree exist at Newhall; and an account of an-

PENICUICK.

;o5

other remarkable fossil-tree found in the parish is
given in the supplement to the Encyclopaedia Bri-
tannica. Coal abounds, but, owing to the frequency
of its disturbance by dikes, it has hitherto been little
worked. Limestone is extensively quarried and
burned in aid of georgical improvement; and some
of it, in the upper part of the parish, is so hard as to
take the cut and the polish of marble. Iron-ore occurs
in nodules and in beds and veins of schist. Lead
ore is found in small quantities in Carlops-hill on the
southern boundary; and at the Picket-craig, half-a-
mile west, a vein was for some time worked which
yielded silver. The hills, in one direction, are chiefly
porphyritic, and, in another, abound with freestone,
ironstone, and the species of stone called Petunse
Pentlandica. Penicuick-house, situated on the left bank of the
North Esk 1J mile above the village, and the seat
of Sir George Clerk, Bart., the proprietor of one-
half of the parish, has many features of interest at
once in itself, in its pleasure-grounds, and in its as
sociations. It was built in 1761, and afterwards
environed with the rich and numerous embellish
ments of its grounds, by Sir James Clerk, Bart. It
stands on a flat ih a curve of the river, with a pic
turesque glen behind carrying up the view to the
ruins of Brunstane-castle, and the western extremity
of the Pentlands, — a little plain in front, gemmed with
a beautiful artificial pond and a rich garden, and over
hung by ascents which are mantled all over with wood,
— and swells and eminences on each side, dissevered by
ravines, and moulded into many curvatures of beauty.
Westward, and above the level of the house, is a
second large piece of water well-stocked with vari
ous kinds of fish. The ponds are notable as the
scene of boatings in his boyhood, which kindled the
enthusiasm of John Clerk of Eldin, the brother
of Sir James, for nautical studies, and remotely led
to the production of his work on Naval Tactics.
The house has, in front, a handsome portico sup
ported by eight columns, and a flight of steps on
each side, defended by balustrades; and it is sur
mounted by a row of vases, and roofed with lead.
The offices, 280 feet distant, form a large square,
with a rustic portico, and an elegant spire and clock,
and, behind them, serving as a pigeon-house, is an
exact model of the quondam celebrated Roman
temple on the Carron, called by Buchanan, " Tem--
plum Termini," but popularly denominated Arthur's
Oven. On the opposite side of the river, at the end
of an avenue on the top of the bank, and half-a-mile
from the house, stands an obelisk, raised by Sir
James Clerk, to the memory of his friend and fre
quent inmate, Allan Ramsay. On a conic eminence
directly in front of the house, and 3 furlongs distant,
stands a round tower which is seen at a great dis
tance. On another eminence close on the Esk, and
midway between the house and the village of Peni
euick, stands another tower, formerly called Ter
regles, the original seat of the ancient proprietor of
the parish; and onward from it to the termination of
the grounds at the village is a profusion of luxuriant
and striking scenes. About a furlong above the gar
den, on the margin of the Esk, is Hurly-cove, a sub
terranean passage 147 feet long, 7 high and 6 broad,
with a dark cell in the middle in which are seats for
6 or 8 persons, the whole cut out of the solid rock in
1742. Directly opposite this, is a third artificial
sheet of water, stored with perch and trout. The
interior of the house fully corresponds with such
wealth and variety in the interesting features and
furniturings of its grounds. The rooms are spacious,
and splendidly furnished and embellished. Runci-
man owed both his celebrity as a paihter, and the oc
casion of his death to his acting a part in adormng

them ; being, when young, one of the persons who
painted them, he drew the notice of Sir James Clerk,
then a chief patron of Scottish genius, and was sent
by him to study the ornate departments of his art at
Rome ; and after he had reached the zenith of his
fame, he was employed to decorate with his brush
the large apartment called Ossian's hall, the ceilings
of which are painted with designs from Ossian's
Poems ; and contracted his death-illness from being
obliged to lie constantly on his back while executing
the performance. In the house is an excellent col
lection of books, paintings, Roman antiquities, and
miscellaneous curiosities. The Roman antiquities
are chiefly from Antoninus' wall, and the camp at
Netherby ; and among the miscellanea is a buff coat
which Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee.
wore at the battle of Killiecrankie, and througe
which, beneath the arm-pit, he received the fatal
bullet. Newhall, which competes with Penicuick-
house in interest, is separately described.
Remains of various towers and mansions exist, all
historical knowledge of which is lost. About J of
a mile south of the village of Penieuick, on a penin
sula between the glen of the North Esk and that of
one of its tributaries, are the remains of old Ravens-
nook, once the property of Oliver Sinclair, brother
to the laird of Roslin, and, under James V., com
mander-in-chief of the forces, who was defeated and
made prisoner at the battle of Solway-moss. About
1£ mile above Penicuick-house, and on the same
bank of the Esk, stands Brunstane-castle, an exten
sive ruin, said to have been inhabited by the prede
cessors of the Earl of Dumfries. Three miles north
west of the village, on the left bank of Logan- water,
completely surrounded by the Pentlands, stands
Logan-house, a ruin of remarkably thick walls and
small narrow windows, and once a favourite hunt
ing-seat of the Scottish kings. On the neighbour
ing grounds occurred the celebrated match between
the hounds of the royal Bruce and those of Sir
William Sinclair of Roslin, detailed by Sir Walter
Scott in the Notes to the ' Lay of tbe Last Minstrel.'
Upwards of 2 miles farther west stands Bevelaw-
house, once also a royal hunting-box, but still entire
and uninhabited  On the summit of the pass over
the Pentlands, alluded to in the .article Newhall, and
at an elevation of 1,500 feet above sea-level, are re
mains of a Roman Catholic station ; the cross gone,
but the pedestal remaining, with two deep erosions,
obviously formed by the kneelings of multitudinous
wayfarers across the dreary wild. — In central situa
tions in the parish are vestiges apparently of towns
or large villages, no historical notice of which exists.
The village of Penieuick, a burgh-of-barony,
stands on the left bank of the North Esk, where it
forms the boundary-line with Lasswade, 10 miles
south of Edinburgh, and 9 miles north-east of Lin
ton. It consists chiefly of a single street, extending
north-east and south-west. The parish-church —
which stands at its north-east end— is a chastely
elegant Grecian structure, built in 1771 at the ex
pense of Sir James Clerk, and both highly creditable
to his taste and memory, and not a little ornamental ¦
to the village. It has a portico, supported by four
Doric pillars, and surmounted by a stone-cross, —
the portico inscribed, in Hebrew characters, with the
word ' Bethel.' The shops and dwelling-houses
have in general an air of neatness and comfort, -de
cidedly superior to those of most places of its size ;
and a number of new houses are both spacious and
elegant. The village is lighted with gas, and has a
monthly baronial bailie court, and a number of spe
cial constables, nominated by the bailie, but seldom
required to act. Annual fairs are held on the third
Friday of March and tbe first Friday of October

PEN

506

PEN

The place has a subscription library, a savings' bank,
two friendly societies, and a total abstinence society.
Its population is about 700. The other villages are
Nine-mile -burn, 2J miles south-west of Penieuick,
with a population of about 100, and Kirkhill and
Howgate: which see  The manufactures are
seated principally in and below Penieuick, and are
mainly concentrated on the production of paper.
There is a gunpowder manufactory at Marfield, upon
the North Esk. A large building, erected by gov
ernment during the war as a cavalry barracks, has
been occupied during the last ten years as a foundry.
A few looms in > Penieuick bring their workmen a
similar pittance to what now too generally belongs
to their class. A saw-mill was erected three or four
years ago, and is constantly employed. No fewer
than six paper-mills line the banks of the North
Esk, and annually consume about 12,000 tons of
rags, produce a quantity of paper li yard wide, equal
to about 7,500 miles in length, and yield government
about £29,000, or £30,000 of duty. In 1810 the
older factories were converted by government into
depots for prisoners of war, — that of Valley-field
for 6,000, and that of Eskmills, then a cotton fac
tory, for 1,500; and the cottages of the workmen
were fitted up as barracks for the necessary military
guards. The place became stirring and active, and
was considerably enriched, but suffered damage in
the moral tone of its people. The reversion of the
mills, at the close of the war, from their warlike
occupancy to the manufacture of paper, was felt to
be an event of general joy, and was celebrated by
a general illumination, and some other kindred de
monstrations. On a spot in the grounds of Valley-
field, where upwards of 300 of the prisoners of war
were interred, stands a neat chaste monument, from
a design by Hamilton, with the inscriptions, " Grata
quies patriae, sed et omnis terra sepulchrum," and
" Certain inhabitants of this parish, desiring to re
member that all men are brethren, caused this monu
ment to be erected." — The parish is traversed
through Howgate by the old Dumfries turnpike;
through Penieuick by the new Dumfries and the
Peebles turnpike; and through Nine-mile-burn by
the Biggar turnpike. Population, in 1801, 1,705;
in 1831, 2,255. Houses 379. Assessed property,
in 1815, £7,570.
Penieuick is in the presbytery of Dalkeith, and
synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, Sir
George Clerk, Bart. Stipend, £158 6s. 8d. ; glebe
£16. The church has been thrice enlarged since
1830. Sittings 800. An United Secession meet
ing-house, usually designated of Penieuick, is really
situated at Bridgend, J of a mile north of the vil
lage, and within the quoad sacra parish of Roslin:
which see. An United Secession congregation was
established, and built a chapel in Howgate about the
year 1750. Sittings 390. Stipend £100, with £10
for sacramental expenses, and a house and a glebe,
the latter worth from £8 to £10 a-year. A school-
house belongs to the congregation. A survey by
the parish-minister, made in 1835, exhibited the po
pulation then as 2,286, of whom 1,434 were church
men. Most of the paper-workers, however, are
dissenters. Schoolmaster's salary £34, with about
£40 fees, and at least £12 other emoluments. There
are 8 non-parochial schools, 3 of them conducted by
females, and one an infant-school. — The present
parish comprehends the greater part of the old par
ish of Penieuick, and the whole of the old parish of
Mount Lothian. Part of old Penieuick, jointly with
part of the abolished parish of Pentland, was, in
1616, erected into the parish of Glencross : which
see. On the bisecting line which marked off the
disjoined portion, anciently stood the chapel of St.

Catherine's, erected by Sir William Sinclair, in con
sequence of his hunting-match with Bruce, and cu
riously storied in the Notes to the ' Lay of the Last
Minstrel.' The ancient church of Penieuick was
dedicated to St. Mungo, and long bore his name;
and it was an independent parsonage. The parish
of Mount Lothian consisted of tbe district on the
south-east, lying inward from the South Esk. The
church belonged, before the Reformation, to the
monks of Holyrood, and was served by a vicar. In
1635 the church was transferred to the Episcopate
of Edinburgh; and, in 1638, the parish was sup
pressed. The name Penieuick, so very variously
written in modern times, was, in early times, spelt
Penicok, and is believed to have been derived from
the Gaelic Bein-na-cuack, or the British Pen-y-coc,
both of which mean ' the Cuckoo's hill.'
PENIELHEUGH, a hill in the parish of Crail
ing: which see. The battle fought on Lilliard's
Edge, in the contiguous parish, and usually desig-
nated'of Ancrum, is sometimes called the battle of
Penielheugh. See Ancrum.
PENNAN. See Aberdour, Aberdeenshire.
PENNERSAUGHS, an ancient parish, now com
prehended in the parish of Middlebie, Dumfries
shire. It is on the eastern bank of the river Mein,
at the distance of a mile south-east from Eccles-
fecban. PENNINGHAM, a parish in the north-east ex
tremity of Wigtonshire ; bounded on the north by
Ayrshire and Kirkcudbrightshire; on the east by
Kirkcudbrightshire; on the south by Wigton and
Kirkinner; and on the west by Kirkcowan. Its
greatest length from north-north-west to south-
south-east is 15 miles; its greatest breadth is 6i
miles ; and its area about 52 square miles. It forms
a belt of very irregular and ever-varying breadth
between the rivers Cree and Bladenoch, which re
spectively trace the whole of its eastern and western
boundaries. Its chief features of interest are its
town of Newton-Stewart and the Cree : see
these articles. Most of the surface is tumulated
and moorish, nowhere mountainous, but prevailingly
bleak ; and, in a general view, is a long, dimpled,
broken swell, inclining to the rivers. The moss of
Cree is a flat, in the south-east extremity, of nearly
2,000 acres ; it seems first to have been submarine,
next a forest, and next a moss: it has, to a consider
able extent, been reclaimed, and is undergoing steady
invasion ; and, wherever improved, it produces ex
cellent crops. If the whole parochial area were
divided or arranged into 58 parts, 1 would be found
covered with wood, 3 disposed in meadow, 8 occu
pied by moss, water, and roads, 24 occasionally or
regularly tilled, and 40 pastoral or waste. The ren
tal of the estate of Penningham comprising 16,236
acres, betwixt the rivers Cree and Bladenoch, in 1823,
was £3,300. Among the moorlands, especially along
the Cree, there are many fruitful and agreeable spots,
and a large proportion of the uncultivated grounds
would, with comparative ease, yield to agricultural
improvement. Eleven lakes and lochlets, all tame
and cheerless, but variously stored with fish, lie in
the northern division; the most considerable are
Lochs Maberry and Dornal, both on the boundary
with Ayrshire, and the former in the basin of the
Bladenoch. Springs are pure and numerous; and
one is a chalybeate. The parish has scarcely any
native rock except greywacke, but is sprinkled all
over with boulders, many of them of great size.
Out of Newton-Stewart, the only things approxi
mating to manufacture, are two grain-mills. The
mansions are Carsbie and Corrisel, in the vicinity ot
Newton-Stewart; Merton-hall, 2 miles to the west,
and Penningham-house, 4 miles to the north, on the

PENPONT.

507

Cree. The chief landowners are the Earl of Gallo
way, and Blair of Penningham. The ruin of Castle-
Stewart — the ancient seat of the Stewarts of that
ilk — stands 3 miles north-north-west of Newton-
Stewart. The great mail-road between Dumfries
and Portpatrick crosses the parish directly westward ;
a road follows the whole boundary-course of the
Cree ; and there are various subordinate roads.
Population, in 1801, 2,569; in 1831, 3,461. Houses
523. Assessed property, in 1815, £10,985  Pen
ningham is in the presbytery of Wigton, and synod
of Galloway. Patron, the Earl of Galloway. Sti
pend £231 15s. lid.; glebe £22 17s. 2d. Unap
propriated teinds £449 7s. 7d. All the places of
worship are situated in Newton-Stewart. The old
parish-church was built in 1778, and enlarged about
23 years ago. A new and elegant church, seating
1,200, was recently built. It has a tall and hand
some spire, and, being seated on an eminence, is seen
at a great distance. The Relief meeting-house was
built in 1792. Sittings 400. The Roman Catholic
chapel was built in 1831, at a cost of about £300.
Sittings 177, besides some standing-room. There
is likewise a Reformed Presbyterian place of wor
ship. The minister stated the population, in 1836,
to be 3,556, and the proportion of that number be
longing to the Establishment to be 2,723. Parochial
schoolmaster's salary £34 3s. 4d., with £15 fees.
In 1834 the parish-school was attended by 30 scho
lars, and 10 non-parochial schools by 442. The an
cient church was dedicated to St. Ninian, the patron
saint of Galloway, and had a bell with the inscrip
tion, ' Campana Sancti Niniani Penigham, M."
When James IV. passed through the ancient and
extinct hamlet or kirktown, on his pilgrimage a-foot
to Whithorn, in 1506-7, he gave a donation of nine
shillings ' to an man that bore Sanct Ninian's bell.'
The house of Clary or Clachary, still traceable, and
the fruit-trees in whose garden' still yield some pro
duce, was anciently the chief residence of the bishops
of Galloway, who were proprietors of the manor,
and, for a long time, also of the church of Penning
ham. In the 16th century the church was annexed
to the archdeaconry of Galloway; and during the
period of Protestant episcopacy, the parson was
archdeacon of the diocese, and first member of the
bishop's chapter. The ruins of the old church still
exist, 3 miles south of Newton-Stewart. There
were anciently two chapels subordinate to the
church ; the one at the Cruives of Cree, 4 miles
north of Newton-Stewart, built, in 1508, by John
Kennedy of Blairquhan, endowed with an annual
rent of £8 10s. from the barony of AUoway, and
dedicated to St. Ninian ; and the other 2| miles far
ther north, of earlier erection, and called Kery, or
Keir chapel. Ruins of only the former exist.
PENPONT, a parish in upper Nithsdale, Dum
fries-shire ; bounded on the north by Sanquhar ; on
the north-east by Sanquhar and Durisdeer ; on the
east by Morton ; on the south and south-west by
Keir and Tynron ; and on the west by the Kirkcud
brightshire Dairy. It measures 14 miles in extreme
length from north-west to south-east, 2£ or 2| miles
in mean breadth, and 32± square miles, or 16,418$
Scottish acres in area. The surface, at the north
west extremity, is wildly but romantically upland,
flinging up summits which .compete in all the ele
ments of mountain landscape with any south of the
Grampians ; in the central district, it is still upland,
but of softer feature and lessened elevation ; and, in
the south-west district, it passes through the grada
tions of towering hill, considerable eminence, and
gentle swell, till it finally subsides into a belt of
alluvial plain. Two-thirds or more of the whole
area are arranged lengthwise into four generally

steep ridges, and three deep and narrow glens, each
of the latter watered by a very pure and plentiful
stream. Skarr-water rises close on the boundary,
in the extreme north-west, runs 10 miles in a long
curvature, or nearly the segment of a circle, through
the interior, traces for 5 miles the boundary with
Tynron and Keir, and leaves the parish only 1^ mile
before falling into the Nith. Its hill-screens over a
great part of its course are so steep and high, tufted
with copses below, and dotted over with fleeces in
the ascent, and its basin is so narrow and rocky, so
rapid in gradient, and so embellished with trees and
cultivation, as to be replete with picturesqueness
and romance. Chanlock-burn, a streamlet of 5£
miles course, and entirely indigenous, strikes the
Skarr at an acute angle 1} mile above the point
where the latter begins to run along the boundary.
The ridge which lies between them, comes bold
ly and steeply down in the form of a grand moun
tain-wedge, to their point of confluence ; and there
it is velveted and furred all over with trees, and con
fronts hill-screens on the opposite sides of the glens,
arrayed in the richest green, and forms with them,
as seen a little down the course of the united stream,
one of the finest varieties of romantic landscape. In
the bosom of the Skarr's left mountain flank, 2J
miles above this point, rises almost perpendicularly
from the glen, the naked stupendous crag of Glen-
quhargen, a mountain mass of nearly bare stone,
amidst highlands where all else is green ; or russet,
one of the greatest curiosities in the south of Scot
land : see Glenquhargen. About 1J mile south
east of it appears the summit of Cairnkinna, crown
ing a gradual ascent, possessing an altitude of 2,086
feet above sea-level, and commanding a view of large
parts of Nithsdale and Annandale, considerable por
tions of Ayrshire, Kirkcudbrightshire, and Clydes
dale, and some blue and hazy summits in Cumberland
and Westmoreland. Mar-burn, for 2| miles above
its confluence with the Nith, traces the boundary
with Durisdeer, trotting cheerily through the bril
liant demesne of Drumlanrig-castle, and overlooked
on the Durisdeer side by that magnificent ducal
pile. The Nith, the beauteous Nith, rich here in
the beauty of its dress, forms for 2A miles after re
ceiving the Mar-burn, the boundary-line on the west.
The general prospect down both this stream and the
lower Skarr is extensive and enchanting, and pre
sents a foreground of highly cultivated and tastefully
embellished haughs and hanging plains, diversified
by swells and soft eminences, thriving woods, and
neat villas, with a. singularly varied back-ground,
now boldly and abruptly mountainous, and now re
treating slowly upward from lowland to soaring sum
mit. From a plain, the site of the church and manse,
on the left bank of the Skarr, 30 feet above its level,
three-fourths of a mile above the point where it
leaves the parish, and a mile distant from the nearest
part of the Nith, both rivers are distinctly seen for
about 8 miles, first separate, and then united, their
pools appearing at intervals as smooth sheets of
water, and their delightful haugh-ground converted,
on occasion of a sharp freshet, into a little inland
sea about a mile broad. Not far from this point of
observation, a neat new erection spans the Skarr,
between two steep rocks, on the site of a venerable
hanging bridge, of very remote but unknown anti
quity, of one large semicircular arch, completely
mantled with ivy and woodbine, but removed in
1801. The banks of the stream are here high and
skirted with wood, and the channel rocky and ob
structed with loose blocks ; and immediately above,
the stream comes tumultuously along in a leap, and
in foaming cataracts, receives at right angles on its
Tynron side the waters of the Shinnel from between

PEN

508

PEN

high and wooded banks, and invites the eye, to wan
der up its glen amid a little expanse of forest, and a
variform congeries of abrupt green swells and hills.
Only about one-tenth of the parochial area is culti
vated ; and probably not more than one-eighth is
capable of cultivation. Improvements of every sort
upon the land have been conducted, and are still car
ried forward, with the greatest energy and success.
Plantations, already extensive, are almost annually
on the increase. The magnificent new gardens of
Drumlanrig-castle, which, together with the elegant
cottage for the gardener, from a design by Mr. Burn,
cost upwards of £10,000, and also part of the adja
cent demesne, fling enchantment over the district
lying on the Mar-burn. Orchards and small gardens
are objects of general care. The soil in the many
arable spots among the hills is light, early, easily im
provable, and very fertile. The herbage on the up
lands is excellent, and maintains at least 980 black
cattle, and 1,200 sheep. White and red sandstone
abound in the lower district ; whinstone is quarried
as a building material from among the hills ; lead ore
exists, and is supposed to be abundant ; coal is said
to have been accidentally stumbled upon, but has
not been formally searched for, and is not certainly
known to exist. Dow-loch, which, as well as seve
ral springs, has some mineral qualities, and which
occupies the summit of a hill about a mile below
Drumlanrig, was famed, in the days of superstition,
for the alleged power of healing all sorts of diseases,
and had a guardian demon or saint, to whom devotees
left some part of their dress as an offering. Mar-
burn is notable as the beautiful streamlet beside
which Burns wrote the song commencing
" Their groves o' sweet myrtles let foreign lands reckon."
Glenmannow-burn, an early and wild little tributary
of the Skarr, though a bleak sheep-walk among the
mountains, is associated with curious and stirring
anecdotes of a sheep farmer, known only as Glen-
mannow, who lived in the latter half of last century,
and performed wonderful and almost incredible feats
of physical strength  At the confluence of Mar-burn
with the Nith, are slight vestiges of what is called
Tibber's-castle, an erection which is supposed to
have been of Roman origin, and to have had its name
in honour of Tiberias Caesar. This castle was gar
risoned by the English in the early part of the wars
of the succession, and was taken by surprise by Sir
William Wallace. The barony on which the castle
stands, and a hill in its vicinity, also bear the name
of Tibbers. A Roman causeway is traceable up the
Skarr, and into Tynron ; and there are vestiges of a
Roman eneampment. Other antiquities are two
moats, an obelisk, and four very large cairns. — The
chief landowner is the Duke of Buccleuch. For 4£
miles at the upper end, the parish has no road ; for
5£ more it has only one along the Skarr ; and in the
remaining district, it is tolerably well-provided 
The village of Penpont stands on the Skarr, 2 miles
west of Thornhill, 5 north-east of Minnyhive, and
15 north-north-west of Dumfries-shire. It is a
straggling, rural, pleasant place ; and consists of three
clusters, Penpont Proper, Townhead of Penpont,
and Brierbush. Its population is between 400 and
500. Hiring-markets are held on the 3d Tuesday of
March, of June, and of October. The small village
or hamlet of Burnhead stands 1 or 1| mile to the
east, on the road to Thornhill. Population of the
parish, in 1801, 966; in 1831, 1,232. Houses 211.
Assessed property, in 1815, £5,113  Penpont, an
ciently a vicarage of the abbey of Holywood, is the
seat of a presbytery in the synod of Dumfries. Pa
tron, the Duke of Buccleuch. Stipend £236 6s. 9d. ;
glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds £621 4s. The

parish-church, and also a meeting-house of the Re
formed Presbyterians, are situated in the village of
Penpont ; and at Burnhead is a meeting-house of the
Relief. The parish minister stated the population
in January, 1835, to be 1,261 ; of whom 570 were
churchmen, 347 Relievers, 235 Reformed Presbyte
rians, and 109 Seceders, — the last connected with
congregations in Thornhill and Minnyhive. There
are two parochial and two private schools; the for
mer attended, in 1834, by 104 scholars. Salary of
the first master £29 6s. 6|d., with £16 fees, and £4
other emoluments ; of the second £22, with £9 fees.
 Penpont seems to have had its name from the Bri
tish Pen-y-pont, ' the head of the bridge,' — the site
of the church and village being at the end of the
recently demolished bridge, — an erection which was
seemingly Roman, and which probably succeeded an
earlier and simpler one of the British Selgovae.
PENSTON, a village and a barony in the parish of
Gladsmuir, Haddingtonshire. The village stands on
an eminence half-a-mile south of the nearest point of
the Edinburgh and London mailroad, 3 miles east
of Tranent, and 5 west of Haddington. It occupies
the centre of one of the most extensively-worked
coal districts in the county, and is inhabited chiefly
by colliers. Though situated amidst probably the
richest agricultural landscape in Scotland, it has a
comfortless and almost pestiferous appearance, and
is mean and ruinous in its houses, and filthy and
putrid in its thoroughfare. The place has a school,
or friendly society, a mortcloth society, and a coffin
society. Its inhabitants are an unsettled migratory
race. Population, nearly 400. At the west end of
the village stands the farm-house of Penston, with a
neat set of offices, a steam-engine, and a saw-mill.
— The barony of Penston, lying around the village,
and at the south end of the parish, has belonged to
the family of its present proprietor during about 5£
centuries. William de Baliol, son of Alexander Ba
liol, Lord-high-chamberlain of Scotland, and grand-
nephew of John Baliol of Barnard-castle, the father
of John Baliol, king of Scotland, was proprietor of
Penston and Hoprig toward the close of the 13th-
century, and, in 1296, as lord of these baronies,
swore fealty to Edward I. By marriage, as is said,
with a daughter of Sir William Wallace, the Scot
tish patriot, he acquired the barony of Lamington in
Lanarkshire, and assumed for himself, as well as be
queathed to his descendants down to the present
possessor, the name and designation of Bailie of La
mington, Hoprig, and Penston.
PENTLAND, an ancient but suppressed parish,
in the centre of Edinburghshire. It comprehended
the manors of Pentland and Falford, with the north
ern portion of the Pentland-hills, including the vale
or sequestered glen of Logan or Glencross-water.
The name Pentland was written in charters of the
12th century, and has continued to be written from
that epoch onward, exactly as at present; yet it is
of obscure and doubtful origin. From the circum
stance that the northern division of the great Mid-
Lothian hill-range was in the 13th and the 14th
centuries, called the Moor of Pentland, the author of
' Caledonia' has no doubt that the hills borrowed the
name from the parish, and not the parish from the
hills ; and, from among various possible etymologies,
he prefers as the etymon of the name the Old Eng
lish Pent, signifying enclosed, which, with the word
land, would mean the enclosed land, the enclosure
on the moor. The parish-church stood at the vil
lage of Pentland, and has left some vestiges to greet
the eye of the antiquarian. It seems to have been
granted to the monks of Holyrood at the founding
of their abbey, and was confirmed to them in 1240;
but before the demise of Alexander III., it became

PEN

509

PEN

an independent rectory, and, in the 14th and two
following centuries, it was under the patronage of
the Earls of Orkney and Barons of Roslin. The
parish was suppressed after the Reformation ; and
the northern part annexed to Lasswade, while the
southern, comprehending the barony of Falford, was
united to the new parish of St. Catherine's, after
wards called Glencross. The small decayed village
or hamlet of Pentland stands a little west of the
Peebles and Dumfries road, while New Pentland
stands on that road each about 5£ miles south of
Edinburgh. PENTLAND HILLS, a beautiful range of
heights, partly in Peebles-shire, and chiefly in Mid-
Lothian. The range is geographically an isolated or
slender continuation north-eastward of the broad
congeries of mountains and hills which comes off
from the central nodule of the Southern Highlands,
and occupies most of the area of Peebles-shire;
and it extends about 12 miles from the interior
and western boundary of the parish of Linton to
points in the parishes of Colinton and Lasswade,
about 4 miles south-west of Edinburgh. The hills
do not form strictly a ridge ; but, over most of their
length, they are spurred by the gorgy or developing
basins of streams, and near their middle, they are
diagonally cut across by the lonely pastoral vale of
Logan or Glencross-water. The summits at the
north-east end, or in Colinton and Lasswade, rise, in
several instances, about 1,600 feet above-sea-level ;
and several which form a group about the middle, or
in the parishes of Glencross and Penieuick, have an al
titude of upwards of 1,700 feet ; East-cairn-hill, the
highest, rising 1,802 feet above the level of the sea
at Leith. The hills, though of a bare, heathy, bar
ren appearance, are covered with fine pasture, and
sustain numerous flocks of sheep ; and they exhibit
in the openings among their spurs and through their
diagonal cut, various landscapes of very pleasing
pastoral romance. Their outline also arrests and
delights the eye ; and, as seen respectively in the
north-east and in the south-west, is said, in the one
case, to resemble that of the Andes, and, in the
other, to be a duplicate of that of the Malvern
range in Worcestershire. From some of the copi
ous springs of pure water which they in numerous
places send up, Edinburgh is regularly and unfail
ingly supplied by pipes  The Pentlands have geog-
nostically no affinity to the Tweeddale heights, but,
in most cases, consist entirely of porphyry, — chiefly
of the claystone and the felspar varieties. Caerketan
or Kirkyettan crags, on the boundary between
Colinton and Lasswade, and elevated 1,580 feet
above sea-level, are composed principally of a clayey
felspar, strongly impregnated with black oxide of
iron. This substance, but for its impregnation,
would be highly useful to the potter ; and, from its
resemblance to the Chinese petunse or kaoline, out
of which the best native china is made, it has ob
tained the name of Petunse Pentlandica. Some
specimens of it are white, some of a flesh colour,
and some of a cream colour, with small red spots.
It occurs, in general, in amorphous blocks or masses ;
but it is found also — especially in other parts of the
Pentlands — in veins about f of an inch thick, and
variously bent, and even lies dispersed among the
porphyritic rock in nodules about the size of pease.
Boulders of granite, gneiss, and other primitive rocks,
lie on the very summits of the Pentlands ; and be
long to varieties whose nearest indigenous position is
among the Grampians, at a distance of not less than
60. miles. Jaspers, some of which are of great beauty,
are frequently picked up. Fluor spar — so rare in
Scotland, and till 20 years ago believed not to exist
in the country — has, at least in one instance, been

found ; but it is thought not tobe indigenous. Malac-
tite, or green carbonate of copper, and one or two
other rare minerals, occur.
PENTLAND FRITH, the strait or sound be
twixt the continental Scotland and the Orkney
islands, connecting the Atlantic and the German
oceans. Its length is about 17 miles; and its
breadth is from 6 to 8. But, at the middle, it ex
pands, on the north side, into Scalpa Flow ; and, if
identified with the lower and unsheltered part of
that Orcadian mediterranean, or the part south of
Flota, it attains an extreme breadth of 1 1 miles. On
the coast of Caithness it terminates, on the east, at
Duncansby-head, and, on the west, at Dunnet-head;
and, on the north, or Orkney side, it is terminated,
on the east, by a headland of South Ronaldsay, and,
on the west, by a headland of Hoy. The distance,
or breadth of sea, between the eastern terminations,
is 6 miles ; and that between the western termina
tions, is 7. Nearly in the centre of the east end of
the frith, but 2£ miles east of a straight line between
Duncansby-head and South Ronaldshay, lie the
Pentland Skerries : see that article. Twelve
miles north-west of Duncansby-head, and 1| mile
from the nearest point of the Caithness coast, lies
the island of Stroma : which see. About 3£ miles
north-north-east of this island, 2 miles west of the
nearest point of South Ronaldshay, and looking
right up the centre of Scalpa Flow, lies the island of
Swona : which also see. Two miles west-south
west of Stroma, and not far from the Caithness
coast, are some very dangerous rocks, called the
Merry Men of Mey, which are not always visible,
and cause a dreadful agitation of the sea. See Mey.
At the east end of the frith, outward from Dun
cansby-head, is another very rough and dangerous
piece of sea, occasioned also by rocks alternately
submerged and visible, called the Boars of Dun-
cansby. Near the north side of Stroma is a perilous
whirlpool, which whitens a considerable extent of
circumjacent sea with its foam, and bears the name
of the Swalchie of Stroma. Other constant whirl
pools near Swona island are called the Wells of
Swona ; and tidal or occasional whirlpools and eddies
are so numerous and shifting that they cannot wear
a name. The Pentland frith is the most dangerous
of the Scottish seas ; yet must be traversed by all
vessels passing from the east of Scotland to the At
lantic, or from the west to the German ocean, which
cannot navigate the limited capacities of the Cale
donian canal. Its perils have been delineated with
powerful and emulating appeals to the sense of the
wonderful and the terrific, by artists, poets, and his
torians ; yet, though frankly acknowledged by even
the most experienced mariners, they have been
much exaggerated ; and, by Orkney pilots and boat
men, who have long and carefully studied their hu
mours, they are regarded as by no means formidable.
The phenomena of the frith, amid the aids of light
houses and high nautical skill, are rather subjects of
sublime marine scenery than objects of terror to na
vigation. The tide varies in rate from 3 to 9 miles
an hour, according to the height of its rise, and the
consequent amount of its mass of waters. At full
spring, it rises 8 feet, and on extraordinary occa
sions 14; and at neap it rises from 3J to 6. The
flood comes northward along the west coast of
Scotland, runs eastward through the frith, and then
courses away southward along the eastern coast.
But, in consequence of sudden contractions and ex
pansions of the channel, and of the intervention or
obstruction of headlands, islands, rocks, and shoals,
counter currents are produced in the frith as rapid as
the tide itself; and these, in their collisions with
one another, or with the tide, or with sunken rocks,

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510

PER

produce powerful eddies and stupendous spoutings
which, when lashed and infuriated by gales, are
menacing to even the largest vessels. The stream
along the coasts flows in a direction opposite to that
of the central or main current. At spring-tides,
says a very graphic notice of this phenomenon in the
New Statistical Account of the parish of Dunnet,
" it is high water at Scarfskerry at nine o'clock. Im
mediately as the water begins to fall upon the shore
the current turns to the west ; but the strength of
the current is so great in the middle of the frith,
that it continues to run east till about twelve.
These contiguous currents, running with such a ve
locity from opposite directions, have a strange ap
pearance from the land. With a gentle breeze of
westerly wind about eight o'clock in the morning,
the whole frith seems as smooth as a sheet of
glass, from Dunnet-head to Hoyhead in Orkney.
About nine the sea begins to rage for about 100
yards off the head, while all without continues
smooth as before. This appearance gradually ad
vances toward the frith, and along the shore to the
east, though the effects are not much felt upon the
shore till it reaches Scarfskerry-head, which is about
three miles distant from Dunnet-head, as the land
between these points forms a considerable bay.
By two o'clock, the whole frith seems to rage.
About three in the afternoon, it is low water on
the shore, when all the former phenomena are re
versed — the smooth water beginning to appear next
the land, and advancing gradually till it reaches the
middle of the frith." These contiguous and opposite
currents, even in calm weather, are quite perplexing
to mariners unacquainted with this peculiar sea, and
sweep along to destruction any of their vessels which
incautiously approach the land ; but they are so well-
known to the native sailors and boatmen of the
flanking coasts, that they are taken advantage of to
expedite sailing, and in the event of threatened dan
ger, to steer steadily toward some one harbour or
sheltered creek. The greatest danger may be ap
prehended, not in a gale, but in a calm, especially
during a fog. Persons unacquainted with the tides
have been known to drift along at the rapid rate of
nine miles in the hour, while they supposed them
selves to be stationary ; and, a few years ago, while
the crew of a large ship supposed themselves be
calmed in the frith during a mist, their vessel came
ashore, and was wrecked in Dunnet-bay.
PENTLAND SKERRIES, two islets and some
contiguous rocks, a little seaward of the middle of
the eastern entrance of the Pentland frith. The
smaller islet lies 1 J mile south by west of the larger,
and is uninhabited. The larger islet lies 4J miles
east-north-east of Duncansby-head, and 3J miles
south by east of the Loather rock, on the nearest
part of the Orkney coast ; and is inhabited only by
the keeper of a lighthouse. Owing to their relative
position to the Pentland frith, and to their full ex
posure to its rapid tides and currents, and to the
impetuous surges of the Northern sea, the Pentland
Skerries were long eminently perilous to mariners,
and presented a site of no common importance for a
lighthouse. In 1794 one of these useful erections
was built on the larger Skerry. It stands in north
latitude 58° 41', and in longitude west of Green
wich 2° 55*. It consists of two towers, and has
a higher and a lower light. The north-west or
highest light is elevated 170 feet, and the lower
light 140 feet above high water. The two light-
rooms, relatively to each other, bear S. S. W.
and N. N. E., distant 100 feet. The bearings,
as taken from the highest light-room by compass,
are the western extremity of the Little Pent
land Skerry S. by W., distant 1 J miles; extremity

of the foul ground of that Skerry S. E. distant 1 J
miles; Duncansby-head in Caithness W. S. W., dis
tant 4§ miles ; Noss-head S. W. by W., distant 14
miles; north-west point of the island of Stroma,
N. W. by W., distant 6£ miles ; south-eastern ex
tremity of the Loather rock on the Orkney shore
N. by W., distant 3J miles. The expense of main
taining these lights, in 1840, amounted to £1,222.
PERSIE, a chapel-district in the Grampian part
of the eastern border of Perthshire. It comprehends
the Highland district of Bendochy, the north-wes
tern portion of Alyth, the detached portions of Rat
tray and Caputh, a small portion of Kirkmichael,
and parts of Blairgowrie and Kinloch parishes. I '
belongs in nearly equal proportions to the presbytery
of Meigle, in the synod of Angus and Mearns, and
to that of Dunkeld in the synod of Perth and Stir
ling; but the chapel is situated in Bendochy, which
belongs to the former. Population about 1,000; of
whom about 190 belong to Bendochy and about 300
to Alyth. The chapel was built about 60 years ago,
at the cost of £150; and it has about 340 sittings,
and can be enlarged. Stipend of the preacher £70,
with a manse and garden. A school-room near the
church has been given rent-free for the district ; but
there is no salary for the teacher.
PERTH, till 1807, one compact and undivided
parish, and, since that date, a cluster of four quoad
civilia and two quoad sacra cognominal parishes, in
the district of Perth Proper, or that which is sur
rounded by the districts of Strathmore, Gowrie, and
Strathearn, in Perthshire. The East Kirk or land
ward parish of Perth — all the others lying within
the town — may, in a general view, be regarded as
including whatever does not fall to be described in
the article on the burgh. Its form is extremely - ir
regular; but may be represented as a square of about
li mile deep, its sides facing the cardinal points, its
north-east angle sending off a narrow stripe If mile
northward, and its south-east angle sending off a
similar but broader stripe 1J eastward. The river
Almond bounds the further end of the northerly
stripe, and divides it from Redgorton ; and the river
Tay bounds the east sides of the northerly stripe
and the square, and also the north side of the eas
terly stripe, and divides them from Scone, Kinnoul,
and Kinfauns. In other parts, the parish is bounded
on the east by Rhynd ; on the south by Rhynd,
Dunbarnie, and Forteviot ; and on the west by Aber-
dalgie and Tippermuir. Its area is about 3,410 im
perial acres. Various hills of a ridgy character, but
soft in outline, and of inconsiderable elevation, occur
in the south and the west. The highest is Mon-
crieff Hill : which see. The others vary in height
from about 300 feet to a little upwards of 600. But
though uncommanding in bulk or altitude, they con
tribute by the beauty of their contour and the rich
ness of their dress some fine features to a singularly
ornate landscape, and lift the eye over a large ex
panse of scenery unsurpassed in Scotland by the love
liness of its natural features, the opulence of its ar
tificial decorations, and the number, variety, and
harmony of its parts. The view in the interior of
the parish, aided by the hill-screens of Kinnoul, is
that of an exquisitely ornamented cavity, — a gorgeous
but limited amphitheatre, — a magnificent nest fea
thered all round with the softest and most finely
tinted elements of scenic luxury. But the view
from the hill-tops, particularly from Moncrieff,. where
the eye minutely scans the clustering of all sorts of
picturesque things in Kinnoul, and wanders over the
luscious and far-stretching districts of Strathearn
and Gowrie, is so exultant, so superb, that Pen
nant's laconic panegyric upon it can hardly become
stale, — "It is the glory of Scotland," Both the

PERTH.

511

heights on the boundaries, and numerous swells in
the interior, subside by gentle gradients into a luxu
riant stretch of plain, which extends along the Tay.
Nearly three-fourths of the whole parochial area is
arable ground in a state of the highest cultivation ;
upwards of 700 acres are covered with wood ; and
the caps of some of the hills, as well as the two
beautiful pendicles of level ground called Inches, in
the immediate outskirts of the town, are disposed in
pasture. The soil on the higher grounds is a rich
loam ; and, on the low or level grounds, it is a clayey
alluvium lying upon gravel. The old red sandstone,
dipping toward the north-west, lies beneath most of
the parish; it was at one time quarried as building-
stone, but was found too perishable. A vast bed of
conglomerate occurs in the south-west. Greenstone,
basalt, and other forms of trap, constitute the hills
along the south ; and the trap-rock is in one place
quarried as road-metal. Boulders of granite and
gneiss, which must have been tossed along from the
Grampians, were at one time common, and are still
not infrequent ; but wherever they obstructed culti
vation they have been removed. The Almond, dur
ing its brief connection with the parish, has lost all
its high romance, and is tamely pretty. The Tay,
as it sweeps along the boundary, and makes a bold
debouch from a southerly to an easterly direction, and
splits, just before the curve, into two streams, which
forms the beautiful islet of Moncrieff, and marches
on in the united column of its waters, to stem the
tides from the frith and to flank the Carse of Gowrie,
is a majestic and sumptuous stream, luxuriating in
the picturesqueness and beauty of its lowland path,
after its wild race among the romance and the sub
limity of the Highlands. The salmon-fisheries are
valuable, and rent at between £1,300 and £1,400.
The villages of the parish are Tulloch [which see],
Craigie, with 250 inhabitants, and Pitheaveless and
Cherrybank, with jointly 120. The principal land
owners are the Earl of Kinnoul, Earl Grey, Lord
Elibank, and Sir Thomas Moncrieff, Bart. A notice
of antiquities, manufactures, traffic, and other mat
ters, belongs to our article on the town. Popula
tion, in 1801, 14,878; in 1831, 20,016. Houses
2,049. Assessed property, in 1815, £34,838.
Perth is the seat of a presbytery in the synod of
Perth and Stirling. The parish of East Kirk of
Perth comprehends all the landward part of the an
cient parish, and a portion of the suburbs of the
town ; and was erected into its present form, in
1807, by the court of teinds. The church is a sec
tion of a very ancient edifice, which will be described
as one of the town's public buildings, and the other
sections of which are fitted up as the churches of
the Middle and the West parishes. Sittings 1,286.
Stipend £266 9s. 5d. Patron, the Town-council.
—An United Secession church was established at
Craigend in 1780; and built a chapel in 1780, a
house for the minister in 1792, and a schoolhouse in
1826. Sittings in the chapel 413. Stipend £100,
with £8 8s. for sacramental expenses. — An Original
Burgher congregation was established in the parish'
upwards of 33 years ago. Their chapel was built in
1821, and cost £1,000. Sittings 740  A Roman
Catholic congregation was established in 1830. v The
chapel was built in 1833, and afterwards improved,
at an aggregate cost of about £1,000. Sittings 450.
The minister or priest officiates over all Perthshire.
Stipend £8, and the proceeds of the seat-rents — A
Glassite congregation was established about 1730,
and built a place of worship between 1760 and 1770.
Sittings unascertained. No stipend — The popula
tion of the parish, in 1831, was 7,188; and, in 1838,
it had probably increased not more than 200 — A
small portion of the parish, containing about 80 in. '

habitants, is included quoad sacra in the Perth par
ish of St. Leonard's  The schools are the town
seminaries and an infant-school. The town semina
ries consist of two English schools with each one
teacher, a grammar-school with two teachers, and
an academy for mathematics, arithmetic, writing,
French, and other modern languages, with a rector
and three masters. The infant school was, in 1834,
conducted by one teacher, and attended by 80 boys
and 100 girls. In 1834 subscriptions were com
menced with the view of building four new schools.
The parish of Middle Kirk of Perth was divided
from the original parish in 1807, by authority of the
court of teinds. It is wholly a town-parish; and
measures 250 yards in extreme length, and 1 60 yards
in extreme breadth. Sittings in the church 1,208.
Stipend £259 0s. 7d. Patron, the Town-council.
An assistant and successor has £70 from the minis
ter and £80 from the congregation. A town-mis
sionary acts for the various parishes, but has regular
evening service in the Middle Kirk. Two congre
gational and 9 parochial Sabbath schools are taught
by the members of session, and attended by upwards
of 200 scholars: — The South United Secession con
gregation was established in 1739, and built a chapel
in 1740. Sittings 932. Two Sabbath schools con
nected with the congregation are attended by about
140 children. — The Original Seceder congregation
was established in 1 820, and built their place of wor
ship in 1821, at the cost of about £1,000. Sittings
between 600 and 700. Stipend £100; annuity to a
colleague £40. There are two Sabbath schools. —
The first Relief congregation was established in
1785, and built their chapel next year, at the cost of
about £700. Sittings 915. The charge is colle
giate. Stipend of each minister £90. Two Sab
bath schools have an attendance of 1 20. — The Bap
tist congregation was established about the year
1788. Their chapel was built in 1831 at the ex
pense of about £700. Sittings 300. Stipend, be
tween £70 and £80. A city-missionary is salaried
at £5, to visit one day in the week, and a Sabbath
school is kept. — In 1831, the population of the par
ish was 5,238; but, in 1836, in consequence of several
old houses having fallen, it was reduced to 4,726.
At the latter of these dates the minister classified it
into 2,805 churchmen, 1,674 dissenters, and 247
nondescripts  In 1834, there were 10 schools con
ducted by 10 teachers. Three of the schools were
maintained by subscription for poor children, and by
small fees, and were attended by 332 scholars ; two
were private schools, taught by females, and attended
by about 70 girls; and five were private schools, for
reading, writing, and arithmetic, and were attended
by 230 scholars.
The West Church parish is about half-a-mile
square, lies almost all in the town, and comprises a
great part of the quoad sacra parish of St. Leonard's.
Sittings in the parish-church 957. Stipend £250.
There is one Sabbath school, attended by about 200
children  An Episcopalian chapel in the parish has
between 250 and 300 sittings. Stipend £150 —
The population, quoad civilia, was, in 1831, 4,406;
and, quoad 'sacra, it was, in 1838, 2,327, — of whom
1,500 were churchmen, 685 were dissenters, and 142
were nondescripts  In 1834, there were four schools,
all private, conducted by six teachers, and attended
by 129 scholars.
St. Paul's parish lies wholly in the town, and
measures about a mile in extreme length, and about
J of a mile in extreme breadth. The church was
built ih 1805-6. Sittings 884. Stipend £280. Pa
tron, the Town-council. — The North United Seces
sion congregation was established in 1739. Their
meeting-house was built in 1791 at an expense of

512

PERTH.

£1,111, and has since undergone many improve
ments. Sittings 1,404. Stipend of each of the
ministers while the charge was collegiate £200, with
expenses of attending synod, and at sacramental oc
casions. In 1838, there were in the congregation
twenty fellowship meetings, and more or less con
nected with it about sixteen seminaries for the
young, attended by about 600 pupils. — The Inde
pendent congregation was established in 1 798. Their
place of worship was built in 1824, at the cost of
about £1,500. Sittings 750. Stipend £120  In
1831, the population, quoad civilia, was 3,184; and,
in 1835, it was, quoad sacra, 2,938, — of whom 904
were communicants in the Establishment, and 385
were dissenting communicants.. — In 1834, there were
five schools, all private, conducted by six teachers.
St. Leonard's parish was divided, quoad sacra,
chiefly from the East and the West Church parishes,
in June 1835, by authority of the General Assembly.
It lies almost entirely in the town, and measures
about half-a-mile by about a furlong. In 1838, the
population, according to a census taken by the elders,
was 2,581, — of whom 1,137 were churchmen, 1,319
were dissenters, and 125 were nondescripts. The
church was built in 1834-5, at a cost of £2,450 6s.
5d. Sittings 980. Stipend £100, with £20 for
communion elements. Patrons, the heads of fami
lies. Classes for religious instruction are attended
by about 200 children. — The Holy Catholic Apos-
, tolic congregation was established about the year
1835. They assemble in a house fitted up for their
use and rented at £20. Sittings about 120. Sti
pend not known  The second Relief congregation
was established in 1807. Their place of worship
belongs to their minister, and was purchased about
23 years ago for £450. Sittings £580. Stipend
not known. — A General Baptist congregation meet
in a school-room rented at £1. Sittings 50. No
stipend. A Sabbath school in connection with them
is attended by from 20 to 100 children.
St. Stephen's parish, or the parish of the Gaelic
church of Perth, was erected, quoad sacra, in 1836,
by the General Assembly. Its bounds are a circle
round the parish-church, drawn upon a radius of 4
miles; but they have reference exclusively to the
inhabitants who speak Gaelic. The population under
charge of the minister was, in 1838, 1,046, — all of
whom belonged to the Establishment, and 828 were
above 12 years of age. Sittings in the church 762.
Stipend £80. Patrons, the male communicants.
Perth, a large and beautiful town, a royal
burgh, the capital of Perthshire, the seat of a pres
bytery and a ^ynod, and formerly the metropolis of
Scotland, stands in 56° 23' 40" north latitude, and
3° 6' 20" west longitude of Greenwich ; 15 miles
south-south-west of Dunkeld; 17£ east-north-east
of Crieff; 22 west-south-west of Dundee ; 61 north
east of Glasgow ; and 39 and 43 J north-north-west
of Edinburgh, respectively by Burntisland and by
Queensferry. Its site is an alluvial plain, on the
right bank of the Tay, about 28 miles above the
influx of that river to the sea; and, as to its general
character, has been described in the preceding article.
The town itself has a rich and sumptuous urban as
pect, second in Scotland only to that of Edinburgh ;
it presents, over more than one-half of its outskirts,
arrays of architectural elegance and finish, which
may almost compare with the brilliant displays of
the metropolis ; it is wooed in front by the majestic
Tay, and fanned on both sides by breezes circling
over large and bright-green expanses of public mea
dow; it looks away, through a pure atmosphere, to
the hazy summits of the Grampians, and yet is, on
all sides, and at a brief distance, encinctured with
soft and gentle and undulating hills, thickly gemmed

with embowered villas, or worked into luscious pic
turesqueness, with wood and culture; and from the
summits of two of these heights, Moncrieff — ' the
glory of Scotland,' and Kinnoul, that museum of
beauty and romance — it offers to its citizens and to
tourists a series, a whole circle of views, whose pro
fusion and magnificence of landscape fill even a dull
mind with rich and long-remembered images. Of
several views of the gem-city itself, seen jointly in
its own brilliance and in the lustre of its setting, a
very rich one is obtained from Moncrieff island, im
mediately below in the Tay, and another from the
bridge — especially when the sun is sinking beyond
the distant Grampians, and the background of moun
tains is enshrouded in the purple of a summer's
evening — is truly exquisite, and has but few rivals
in Scotland.
The Inches of Perth, or public grounds devoted
to a free ventilation of the town, and to the prome
nading and out-of-door amusements of the inhabi
tants, are so spacious and beautiful as instantly to
attract the notice of a stranger, and entirely vindi
cate the taste which makes them figure prominently
in every description of ' the fair city.' They derive
their name from having formerly been insulated by
the river ; and they still extend close along its mar
gin. The South Inch, situated — as its epithet im
plies — on the south side of the town, is nearly a
square of about 680 yards each way. A noble
avenue of stately trees adorns it on three sides; and,
previous to 1801, when it began to be edificed on
the north by the fine street-line of Marshall-place,
went completely round it. Another sylvan avenue,
nowhere excelled in Scotland for the beauty and
tasteful arrangement of its trees, bisects the Inch a
little eastward of its middle. Along this avenue
runs the new Edinburgh road, opened about the
year 1770, and presenting to the tourist, as he sur
mounts Moncrieff-hill, and then debouches through
the Inch, » singularly imposing approach to a city.
The elegant terrace of Marshall-place along the
north, and a line of handsome villas, called St. Le
onard Bank, or Glover's Croft, along the west, im
part to the landscape of the Inch the ornamental
aids of architecture. This fine expanse of ground
was, in former times, the arena of the athletic sports
of the citizens, and frequently the theatre of active
military movements. Many feats of archery, in
particular, were performed upon it, — an accomplish
ment for which the town appears to have been cele
brated — Adamson, in the ' Threnodie,' gives high
credit to the citizens of his younger days for their
dexterity as bowmen ; and he appears inclined to
draw a small share of the honour to his own account.
Thus does he laud the benders of the yew : 
And for that art our skill was loudly blown,
What time Perth's credit did stand with the best
And bravest archers this land hath possest.
We spar'd nor gains nor pains for to report
To Perth the worship, by such noble sport ;
Witness the links of Leith, where Cowper, Grahame,
And Stewart won the prize, and brought it home ;
And in these games did offer ten to three,
There to contend ; Quorum pars magna fui.
Mr. Cant, Adamson's continuator, informs us that the
distance between the stones in the Inch, marked for
the flight of an arrow, was 500 fathoms. The North
Inch is more spacious and less umbrageously shaded
than its rival; and has, at various modern dates, re
ceived considerable additions. Ifc forms a broad and
longbandof about 1,400 yards bv 350, extending north
westward from the vicinity of" the bridge. A race
course, curved at the ends, straight along the sides,
and measuring about 950 yards from end to end, and
370 from side to side, is laid out upon it parallel to
the river. Previous to about the year 1790, when

PERTH.

513

the present line of road was formed, considerably to
the west, the Inch was traversed through the middle,
by the road to Dunkeld and Inverness. The Inch
is now used for the open-air exercises of the inhabi
tants, and for reviews of the military ; and, in ancient
times, it seems to have been the favourite arena for
judicial combats. In the reign of Robert Bruce, and
under that monarch's eye, it was the scene of a com
bat between Hugh Harding and William de Saint-
lowe; and in the reign of Robert III., it witnessed
a deadly encounter between chosen parties of the
M'Phersons and the M'Kays, or of the clans Chattan
and Quhele, — one of the most striking events of its
class in the ancient history of Scotland. The Earl
of Dunbar and the Earl of Crawford, having failed
to effect an arrangement of a feud between the
M'Phersons and the M'Kays, proposed that the
quarrel should be settled by open combat. Accord
ingly, on an appointed day, the combatants — thirty
of each clan — appeared on the North Inch, to decide,
in presence of the king and queen and a large body
of nobles, the truth or justice of their respective
claims. Barriers had been erected on the ground,
and the king and his party took their place on a plat
form to view the combat. According to some ac
counts, one of the M'Phersons fell sick ; or accord
ing to Bower, one of them, panic-struck, slipped
through the crowd, plunged into the Tay and swam
across, and although pursued by thousands, effected
his escape. As the combat could not proceed with
the inequality of numbers thus occasioned, the king
was about to break up the assembly, when a diminu
tive and crooked man, Henry Wynd, a burgher of
Perth, and an armourer by trade, sprang within the
barriers, and thus addressed the assembly: — "Here
am I ! Will any one fee me to engage with these
hirelings in this stage play ? For half a merk will I
try the game, provided, if I escape alive, I have my
board of one of you so long as I live." This demand,
or proposal, of Gow Crom — that is, Crooked Smith,
as Henry was familiarly styled — was granted by tbe
king and nobles. A murderous conflict then took
place. The armourer bending his bow, and sending
the first arrow among the opposite party, killed one
of them. After a discharge of arrows, the combat
ants rushed upon one another, and a terrific scene
ensued. The violent thrusts of the daggers, and the
gashes inflicted by swords and battle-axes, hastened
the work of butchery and death. Victory at last
declared for the M'Phersons, but not until twenty-
nine of the M'Kays had fallen ; nineteen of the
M'Phersons were killed, and the ten remaining were
all grievously wounded. Henry Wynd, and the sur
vivor of the clan M'Kay, escaped unhurt. This
passage of history, or of arms, if so it may be called,
is vividly exhibited in the ' Fair Maid of Perth;' and
it is also told well and succinctly in Dr. Browne's
' History of the Highlands and Highland Clans.'
Wyntoun says of the combatants —
" All thai entrit in barrens,
With bow and axe, knyf and swerd,
To deal amang them thair last werd."
The old part of Perth, or what existed previous
to extensions which were commenced toward the
end of last century, forms the central division, and
occupies less than one-half of the area of the present
town. It extends west-south-westward, in a direc
tion at right angles with the course of the river, and
measures about 600 yards by 450. Four straight,
parallel, and completely edificed thoroughfares, called
Mill, High, South, and Canal streets, traverse its
area' lengthwise, or outward from the river ; and
these are connected or crossed, at irregular and very
widely different intervals, by shorter streets, which are
II.

variously old, new, and renovated. All these streets
stood, at one time, upon a level so much lower than
the present, that they were constantly liable to be
inundated by the freshets of the river ; and they have
gradually, and by a long process of improvement,
been raised to their present elevation. Their houses,
too, till about 70 years ago, were generally of mean
and antique construction, numerously faced with
wood, and aggregately so closely piled and so pro
jecting as to render the thoroughfares mere lanes,
malodoriferous, dingy, and dismal. Canal-street, in
particular, was simply an unpaved, confined, dis
agreeable pathway along the edge of an open part of
the aqueduct or fosse which anciently surrounded
the city walls. Watergate, running between High-
street and South-street, near the river, still retains
much of its ancient character ; and several others of
the thoroughfares continue to be more or less che
quered with antique tenements. But, with these
exceptions", the present town, both old and new,
everywhere presents a modern, airy, substantial, and
handsome appearance, — the majority of its thorough
fares vieing with one another in the neatness of
their general architecture, or the imposing character
of their public buildings, or the impressement of their
scenic vistas, to draw the attention and win the eulo-
gium of the stranger. The High-street is broad and
spacious. John-street, running between it and South-
street, parallel to Watergate, is an entirely reno
vated old thoroughfare ; and, in its new form, with
lines of elegant buildings, and fine shops on the site
of the demolished mass of hideous and crazy edifices,
was opened in 1801. George-street, leading from
the end of the bridge to a point in High-street oppo
site Watergate and John-street, was formed about
the year 1770, and contains no house of earlier date.
Princes-street, carrying out the Edinburgh road from
South-street toward the Inch, was in one part built
about the same time as George-street, and, in an
other, not till 30 years later. Charlotte-street, lead
ing from the end of the bridge to the Dunkeld road,
was not commenced till 1783. All the south wing
of the town, consisting of King's-place, Marshall-
place, Nelson, Scott, and James' streets, the southern
half of Princes-street, besides some other thorough
fares — the whole arranged somewhat in the style of
the New town of Edinburgh, and terminating in ter
races — has been built since 1801. A suite of horti
cultural grounds, called the Spey gardens, and the
northern line of the sylvan avenue which begirt the
South Inch, occupied, up to that date, the whole of
the area now covered by these thoroughfares and
their buildings. The north wing of the town,
though constructed much less upon the straight line
and right angle principle than the south wing, pos
sesses an arrangement which gives finer effect to its
handsome and occasionally superb edifices, and which,
in combination with the North Inch and the land
scape beyond, produces several fascinating specimens
of the urban picturesque. The division consists of
Athole-place, the North -crescent, Athole- street,
Rose-terrace, Stormont-street, Melville-street, Ba-
rossa-place, and some other lines of edifices ; and,
with unimportant exceptions, it has all, like the
southern division, been built since the commence
ment of the present century. An extension of the
town on the west, consisting principally of two con
siderable and several minor streets, is all likewise of
modern origin. A splendid street, called Tay-street,
to extend along the margin of the river from the
bridge to the South Inch, a distance of about 750
yards, was projected but two or three years ago, and
is only now in progress.
The Bridge of Perth is a noble structure, simple,
yet elegant, and constructed from a design by the
2 K

514

PERTH.

eminent engineer, Smeaton. It has 9 arches, and
extends over a clear water-way of 590 feet. Its
length is 880 feet ; its breadth between the parapets
is 22 feet, and is divided into 4 feet of pavement, and
18 of carriage-way. Proposals have repeatedly been
made to widen it ; but they have never obtained a
concurrence of view among interested parties, and
necessarily remain unexecuted. The bridge was
founded in January, 1766, and finished in February,
1 772, at the cost of £26,446. The town contributed
£2,000 of this sum ; £4,000 was obtained from the
Crown, and £700 yearly for 14 years, all payable
from the rents of Ihe annexed estates ; and the
Earl of' Kinnoul contributed £500, and so strenu
ously used influence, and made exertion for ob
taining the subscriptions which composed the re
mainder, that he must be viewed as the grand con
structor of the important work. A large timber-
bridge is said, but not on good authority, to have
been thrown across the Tay at Perth by Agricola.
A stone-bridge was, in 1329, erected by the magis
trates opposite the foot of High-street ; it was thrice,
or in three successive parts, thrown down by floods,
respectively in 1573, in 1582, and in 1589; it was
afterwards temporarily repaired with timber ; it was
next, from 1599 till 1617, entirely rebuilt with stone,
and rendered virtually a new bridge, with ten spa
cious arches ; and it was finally, in 1621 , just 4 years
after its completion, irreparably demolished by a
flood. Successive subscriptions for the restoration
of the structure were headed by James VI., Charles
I., Charles II., and other potent personages; but,
owing to the turbulence of the times, and to other
causes, all previous to that of the Earl of Kinnoul
proved abortive. Frpm 1621 till 1771, communica
tion across the river was maintained solely by a ferry.
The bridge destroyed at the former of these dates is
said by Mr. Cant, the annotator upon the 'Muses
Threnodie,' to have been built under the direction of
Mr^Mylne, a celebrated architect, whose father, also
an architect, was patronized by James III. Mr.
Mylne was buried in the Greyfriars' cemetery, and is
commemorated there by a tomb, bearing a long poe
tical inscription. Two sons of his were distinguished
architects, the one in London and the other in Edin
burgh ; and the former constructed the London
Blackfriars' bridge. In the town's charter granted
by James VI., dated 15th March, 1600, the bridge
of Perth is referred to as " a most precious jewel of
our kingdom, and a work profitable and primely ne
cessary to our whole kingdom and dominion, and for
the suppression of rebels, and such as are viciously
affected, most commodious; and also keeping the
one-half of the kingdom, with the other half thereof,
in faith, obedience, duty, and office, towards us their
kings, in our kingdom and dominion." The destruc
tion of this bridge caused a great sensation, and was
extensively regarded as a judicial visitation of divine
providence. " The people," says Calderwood,
" ascribed this wrack to iniquity committed in the
town ; for there was held the last General Assembly,
and another in 1596, when the schism in the kirk
began; and in 1606, here was held that parliament
at which bishops were erected, and the lords rode
first in their Scarlett gowns."
A chief architectural attraction in Perth is a
magnificent suite of county-buildings, erected in
1819, from a design by Mr. Smirke, at a cost of
£32,000, and situated in Tay-street, at the foot of
Canal and' South streets. The principal building
confronts the Tay, is constructed of fine polished
sandstone, and has an elegant portico, whose pedi
ment is supported by twelve massive fluted columns.
A spacious entrance-hall opens from the portico;
and a flight of steps leads thence to the gallery of

the justiciary-hall. This gallery can accommodate
about 1,000 persons; and the hall itself has the
form of a large segment of a circle, and measures in
the upper part 66 feet by 43J. The prisoners' box
communicates by a descending flight of steps and a
passage with the prison. The jury s and some ot
the witnesses' rooms are beneath the gallery ; and the
judges' rooms and others of the witnesses rooms
are behind the judges' bench. The county-hall oc
cupies the south wing of the principal building, mea
sures 68 feet by .40, and is elegantly painted and fit
ted up. It contains full-length portraits of the late
Duke of Athole, and of Lord Lynedoch, by Sir Tho
mas Lawrence, and a portrait of Sir George Murray,
by. Pickersgill. A committee-room to the right of
the entrance to the county-hall, measures 30 feet by
30 ; and a tea or card-room, in the upper story, mea
sures 44£ feet by 30, and has a portrait of the cele
brated Neil Gow, by Sir Henry Raeburn. The
sheriff's court-room and the sheriff clerk's office are
in the north wing ; the office of the collector of cess
is above the north entrance; and, among other
apartments, are arched fire-proof-rooms for tbe con
servation of the city and county records — Behind
these county-buildings, and extending from them to
Speygate, are the new city and county prisons,
surrounded by a high wall. The governor's house
confronts the entrance-gate ; and the felons' and the
debtors' jails occupy respectively the northern and
the southern areas, and contain 29 apartments.
They were built in 1819, and have been greatly im
proved within these late years. A general prison
for Scotland, which will contain about 400 prisoners,
or about a fifth of the average number in Scotland,
is now erecting on the space of ground formerly used
as a depot for French prisoners, on the south side of
the South Inch, about half-a-mile from the city, on
the banks of the Tay. To this prison all criminals
ordered to imprisonment for six months or upwards
may be sentenced or removed. The building is
adapted to the separate system of prison-discipline ;
and is to consist of four wings, each four stories in
height, radiating fromacentre;but only two of these
wings are at present erected. Each wing contains
184 cells, with 4 rooms for warders, and 8 punish
ment-cells placed in the sunk floor. Each cell is 13
feet long, and from 6£ to 8£ feet wide. They are
built in two separate ranges, divided by a corridor
15 feet wide, and 220 feet long, and of the whole
height of the four stories. The building is lighted
with gas, and each cell has one light. The entire
cost of the structure will be about £28,000. The
prison is placed under the management of the board
of directors of prisons in Scotland, who have power
to apportion the several counties and burghs the
sums required for building and maintaining the
prison. Below the county-buildings, at the foot of Mar
shall-place, and overlooking the river, stands the
water-reservoir, constructed in 1830, at a cost of
about £13,600. This valuable establishment, and
all the machinery and appliances connected with it,
were planned by Dr. Anderson, then rector of Perth
academy, and elected, in 1837, to the chair of Natu
ral Philosophy in the university of St. Andrews.
The reservoir, as a mere edifice, is one of the finest
ornaments of the town ; but draws off attention
from its external beauty, by the ingenuity and great
ness of its interior, and its attached mechanism for
affording an abundant supply of pure water. A fil
tering bed, 300 feet in length, is constructed in the
gravel of the upper end of Moncrieff-island, and se
cretes a large and constant volume of soft and limpid
water from the Tay, through a natural bank of gra
vel and sand; a suction-pipe of great power, laid

PERTH.

51-

beneath the bed of the river, draws the water hence
to a tank beneath the great reservoir ; two steam-
engines throw it up 55 feet to the great reservoir ;
and pipes conduct it from that grand receptacle in
minute ramifications through the town. An act of
parliament sanctioning the construction of these
works was obtained in June, 1829 ; and confers
permanent powers, yet provides that all debt shall be
liquidated in not less than 30, or more than 40 years,
after which the assessment authorized shall be only
for the annual expense. The assessment is leviable
from proprietors and occupants, and is limited within
a maximum of 5 per cent, on the actual rent or annual
value. Six public functionaries of the town and
county, and two persons elected from each of six
wards of the city and suburbs, constitute the body
of water-commissioners, — £5 of yearly rent being
the qualification of an elector, £10 that of a person
eligible to be a commissioner  At the head of
Athole-street, in the north-west extremity of
the town, is a spacious suite of barracks, built
in 1793, and originally designed for cavalry, but
now fitted up for infantry  At the foot of the
High-street, beside the old shore, are the city coun
cil-room and the police-office, — the latter formerly
the chapel of the Virgin Mary, and the former erected
in 1696, and originally much ornamented and gaudily
furnished  In the same street stands the Guild-hall;
and in Parliament-close, off that street, stands the
Free-masons'-hall, erected in 1818, on the site of the
old parliament-house  The gas-works of Perth,
situated in Canal-street, vie in excellence with the
very superior water-works of the town ; and were
planned in their design, and superintended in their
execution, by the same scientific gentleman,— Dr.
Anderson. They were constructed in 1824, and cost
£ 1 9,000. The gas is purified according to a method,
alike simple and ingenious, invented by Dr. Ander
son, and is noted for its brilliancy.
At the north end of George-street, near the bridge,
is a tasteful and elegant building, erected by subscrip
tion, in 1824, to commemorate the public services of
Provost Marshall. It is circular in form, but has an
Ionic portico, and is surmounted by a dome ; and it
contains halls for the public library, and for the
museum of the Literary and Antiquarian society of
Perthshire. The museum, besides comprising an
extensive collection of curiosities, is enriched with
several excellent paintings by old masters, presented
by the Marquis of Breadalbane, — the most striking
of which is a painting of Prometheus chained to the
rock.  In the centre of Rose-terrace, confronting
the North Inch, are the public seminaries. They
were built in 1807, from a design by Mr. Burn, and
at a cost of about £6,000 ; and are provided in the
interior with ample accommodation, and embellished
in the exterior with some fine pillars. Jointly with
an adjoining building which is entered from Barossa-
place, these edifices contain apartments for seven
schools, all of which are under the patronage of the
town-council, and salaried from the burgh funds, and
have acquired a high reputation. The grammar-
school, of long standing, and yielding a salary of
£50 to its rector, is for Latin, Greek, ancient geo
graphy, &c. ; the academy, instituted in 1760, and
yielding its master a salary of £100, is for natural
philosophy, chemistry, astronomy, and all the de
partments of scientific and practical mathematics ;
the French school, is for French, Italian, and
Spanish ; the English school, for rudimental branches,
and for composition, history; geography, and astron
omy; the writing and arithmetic, the drawing and
painting, and the singing and church-music schools
for the branches named in their designations; and
they yield, to masters and assistants, various salaries

of from £12 10s. to £25.— The theatre, situated at
the junction of Kinnoul and Athole streets, was
built in 1820, at a cost of £2,625; but, much to
the credit of the citizens of Perth, is very generally
regarded as a moral nuisance. " This place of amuse
ment," says the Rev. Dr. Thomson, in the New
Statistical Account, " has fallen very much into
disrepute. Few inhabitants of any respectability
frequent it. Prices of admission have been lately
lowered, not to the improvement of the morals of
the place, for that has brought to it the lowest and
the most questionable characters of society. A
correspondent of the Perth Constitutional newspa
per, December 21, 1836, identifies the multitude of
its frequenters with the baser sort who squander
their means in tippling-houses."
King James the VI. 's hospital, situated at the ex
tremity of South-street, is a large, handsome, well-
arranged structure of three stories. Two charters,
for founding the institution and endowing it with
property, were given respectively before and after
ihe King attained his majority; but, while making
provision for " poor members of Christ's body re
siding in our burgh of Perth," they do not enjoin
the erection of an almshouse. How the original
hospital was built is not known ; but it was de
molished by Cromwell in 1652, to assist in the sup
ply of materials for his citadel. The present edi
fice was erected by public subscriptions and collec
tions, in 1 750 ; and stands near the site of the quon
dam Carthusian monastery. Till 1814, it was liter
ally an almshouse, or place of retreat and residence
to the poor ; but since that date, it is all, excepting
the hospital master's and the managers' rooms, let
out for rent. The annual receipts of the charity
amount to nearly £600, and are distributed among
received paupers as out-pensioners. — -The city and
county infirmary, situated in County-place, at the
head of South-street, is a graceful and capacious
edifice, erected in 1836-7, from a design by Mr. W.
M. Mackenzie, the city architect. It accommodates
nearly 60 patjents. The sum of about £5,000 be
longed to it at the date of its foundation ; and £600
and £400 were realized for it respectively by be
quest of the first and donation of the second Mar
quis of Breadalbane  The royal Lunatic asylum,
situated on the west side of Kinnoul-hill, is one of
the most perfect establishments of its class in the
kingdom, and an almost unrivalled work of individual
benevolence. Upwards of £40,000 have been ex
pended upon it; and the funds have arisen from the
gift, by the late Mr. James Murray of Tursappie, a
native of the town, of a large proportion of a princely
fortune amassed by him in the East Indies. The
edifice was so far advanced, in 1827, as to be then
opened for the reception of patients ; but it was ex
tensively enlarged in 1834. It exhibits a pleasing
and ornate specimen of the Grecian Doric style ; and
was built from a design by Mr. Burn of Edinburgh.
It surmounts an eminence or swell on the face of the
hill, about six minutes' walk from the end of Tay
bridge ; and commands a magnificent view of Perth,
Strathtay, and the distant Grampians. The institu
tion is incorporated by royal charter. — The dispen
sary of Perth was commenced in 1819, and adopted
the self-supporting system in 1834. Immediately
after the change, a second dispensary, in continuation
of the old system, was commenced.
At once the most ancient, the most imposing, and,
in all respects, the chief public building of Perth, is
the church of St. John's, originally called, ' The
Kirk of the Holy Cross of St. John the Baptist.' It
stands in a large open area, on the west side of St.
John's-street. The original edifice — some say, the
oldest part of the present structure — is believed to

ill

PERTH.

have been erected as early as the beginning of the
5th century, — probably before Ninian of Galloway
had terminated his labours among the Southern Picts,
as a missionary for the introduction of Christianity.
The structure, as it existed in the 12th century, and
the early part of the 13th, is proved by historical
documents as well as by parts of its architecture which
remain, to have been both magnificent and extensive.
During about 100 years succeeding 1226, its being
gifted to the monks of Dunfermline, its having to
compete with the new-fangled and seductive churches
of the monasteries, and its suffering the abrasion of
the tumultuous movements of the successional war,
all occasioned it to fall into disrepair, and nod to
ward ruin. Orders were given for its restoration
by King Robert Bruce ; but they were only partially
executed, and became a dead letter at his death in
1329. At the beginning of the 15th century, the
choir or east end had been re-edified, — the whole
structure was in complete repair, — former altars,
excepting the great one of the patron saint, had
been removed, — and numerous new altars, including
one to St. Ninian, began to be founded. The edi
fice, as it stands, is of very various dates, has under
gone many modifications, and is divided into three
parochial places of Worship, — the east, the west, and
the middle, churches. The length of the entire build
ing is 207 feet. The east church is elegant and im
pressive in the interior ; contains the tombstone of
James I. and his queen, with outline figures of both
of these royal personages ; and has an eastern or altar
Gothic window of stained glass, regarded as the most
beautiful in any presbyterian place of worship in
Scotland. The middle church is situated to a great
extent beneath the tower, and exhibits in its interior
four enormous pillars supporting that vast super
structure. The west church, then extensively ruin
ous, was taken down in 1828, and re-edified accord
ing to a plan by Mr. Gillespie. The square tower is
the principal remaining part of the original or early
edifice ; it is of so imposing a character as instantly to
impart conviction of the object's ancient grandeur ;
and, with a curious and clumsy exception, it exists
in its original form. The exception is a wooden erec
tion of a pyramidal form, covered with lead, and
rising from the summit of the tower, and designated
in an act of the town-council in 1675, " the pricket
of the steeple." The entire height is 155 feet. Five
bells of great and celebrated tone anciently hung in
the tower ; one of them — now the great bell — still
repeats the strong and solemn vibrations which
spread from it over the town before the Reforma
tion ; three other bells are of a comparatively modern
date ; and a let of music;bells chimes, in a variety
of Scottish airs, a half-hourly division of time. In
St. John's church, the reformer Knox preached the
celebrated sermon which was followed by the demo
lition of the monasteries ; and here Edward III. of
England slew, in 1336, his brother, John, Earl of
Cornwall. Edward, while standing before the high
altar, was told by John that the latter had just com
pleted a journey of desolation and rapine through
the west of Scotland, — that, in particular, he had
fired the church and priory of Lesmahago, and vari
ous other churches, while they were the retreat of
persons who had fled from the disasters of the open
country ; and the King indignantly reproaching the
Earl for his truculent and savage conduct, and re
ceiving a disdainful reply, plunged a dagger into the
body of the boasting devastator, and laid him gory
and dead at his feet  St. Paul's church, situated in
St. Paul's-square, at the west end of High-street, is
an elegant edifice, with a' fine spire. — St. Leonard's
church, situated in King-street, at the head of Canal-
street, is also a handsome building, from a design by

Mr. W. M. Mackenzie. St. Stephen's church is
isituated in Canal-street. Several of the .dissenting
places of worship, particularly those of the Indepen
dent and the Second United Secession congregations,
are very pleasing edifices. That of the First United
Secession congregation is venerable as one of the
four original structures belonging to the nascent
" Associate Presbytery."
The extinct public erections of Perth are numer
ous, and aggregately possess great interest. Mili
tary walls, of sufficient strength to resist vigorous
sieges, surrounded the town from a very early date
till far in the last century, they were originally
built, no one can tell when, or by whom, — though
Adamson, in the ' Muses Threnodie,' says, by Agri-
cola; and they often suffered partial demolitions,
restorations, and changes, from the ordinary progress
of events, and the alternations of peace and war.
Not a vestige of them now remains, except a small
fragment at one spot on the north side. A fosse, or
aqueduct, supplied with water from the Almond,
and also boldly ascribed by Adamson to Agricola,
went round the outer side of the Walls ; and though
still existing, it has, since a year or two after the
commencement of the present century, been arched
over on the south and partly on the west, and has
elsewhere been much narrowed — The Castle of
Perth, the original of which also has been ascribed
to Agricola, stood without the walls, in the imme
diate vicinity of the Skinner-gate, and, previous to
the erection of the Blackfriars' monastery, was the
usual Perth residence of the Scottish kings; but it
has completely disappeared  A citadel was, in 1652,
built by Cromwell's army on the north side of the
South Inch, and was designed to overawe the town.
It was a stately and strong work; square, with a
bastion at each corner, and surrounded with strong
earthen ramparts, and a deep moat filled with water.
Opposite to it the army built a pier for the loading
and unloading of vessels. " The entry towards the
town," says Cant, " had an iron gate. The com
manding officer Ordered great trees to be cut down
in the king's hunting-park at Falkland, and brought
to the citadel. The school-house was demolished.
It contained 360 scholars, was three stories high,
with room for the rector, doctors, and music-master.
They demolished the high walls of the Greyfriars,
carried away the stones, with nearly 300 tomb
stones, and 140 dwelling-houses, with the garden
walls ; also the hospital, a stately building. The
stone-pillars and abutments of the bridge, besides
many kilns and fishing-boats, — all were carried away
to build the citadel. One hundred and forty fami
lies were turned out of their houses, and had starved
if they had not been supplied by the town. The
surface of the two Inches, which yielded 2,000 merks
yearly for grass, was carried off to build the ram
parts." The citadel, soon after the Restoration,
was given by Charles II. to the town as some in
demnification for their losses ; it immediately after
fell into disrepair, and was pilfered from as a quarry;
it was, in 1666, sold for 4,702 merks, but under con
ditions which subsequently made the wreck of it
public property ; and it was finally removed piece
meal by grant or permission of the town-council.
During some years previous to the erection of the
barracks, a remnant of it was fitted up for cavalry,
and contained stabling for 200 horses, a riding-house,
a tavern, and other accommodations. So completely
are the trenches filled and the ground levelled, that
not a trace of the huge structure exists. Each of
the four walls which formed the square of the cita
del was 266 feet in length; and that on the north
side ran parallel to the Greyfriars' burying-ground,
from near the river to the site of Marshall-place;

PERTH.

517

to tuat the ground on which the fort stood is now
bisected by the public road to Edinburgh  The Par
liament-house stood on the north side of the High-
street, a brief distance inward from the street ; and
still gives the name of Parliament-close to the avenue
by which it was approached. During the early years
of the present century, it continued to retain distinct
though very tarnished traces of ancient magnificence,
but existed in a state of time-worn decay, and gave
a cheerless shelter to a few poor families; and in
1818, it was razed to the ground. Meetings of the
Scottish parliament were held usually in this build
ing, and occasionally in the Blackfriars' convent, till
the reign of James II. ; and then they and the courts
of justice were formally removed to Edinburgh. —
Earl Gowrie's palace, the scene of a mysterious
event in the national history of Scotland, afterwards
to be noticed, and known in the days of the city's
pride as the Whitehall of Perth, projected its garden
on the south to the city wall, presented fronts on
other sides to the river, to South-street, and to
the Water Vennel, and occupied the ground which
now forms the site of the County buildings. It was
erected in 1520 by the Countess of Huntly. After
the Earl of Gowrie's murder, it passed into the pos
session of the city ; in 1 746, it was presented to the
Duke of Cumberland ; afterwards, it was sold by the
Duke to the government, and, till the commence
ment of the French war, was transmuted into an
artillery barracks; in 1805, it was repurchased by
the city ; and, several years later, it was coolly
doomed to destruction, its site granted for the County
buildings, and its materiel sold for about £600 
Spey Tower, a fortress on the city-wall near the
Gowrie palace, and the latest in existence of that
wall's towers, was taken down about 35 years ago,
and is noted for having contained a strong prison, —
the prison of Protestant martyrs and confessors.
Cardinal Bethune shut up in it the Christian men
whom he procured to be condemned for alleged
heresy ; and he witnessed from it their execution 
Among noted city-residences of noblemen and cour
tiers at Perth, while the city was the seat of the
Scottish court, may be noticed the house of Lord-
chancellor Hay, at the south end of Watergate, in
the immediate vicinity of the Gowrie palace, that of
the Earl of Errol, in the same street, and nearly op
posite ; that of the Earl of Errol on the west side of
Speygate, nearly opposite the Gowrie palace ; that
of the bishop of Dunkeld, in the same vicinity, and
with an entrance from South-street; that of Lord
Crichton of Sanquhar, also in Speygate ; and that of
Lord John Murray, in Couvre-feu-street, a little
north of the Old Glover hall. Excepting the front
part of the last, all these houses have disappeared. —
Among extinct civil edifices, we may, almost as a
matter of course, look for the burgh cross, — that
most obnoxious of all ancient town-erections to mo
dern generations of carters, and split-the-farthing
utilitarians ; and, in the case of Perth, we find that
the hated structure was sold at public auction to a
mason for the long sum of £5, and may therefore
infer, that it possessed some very high architectural
attractions. It was built in 1668 by Mr. Mylne, the
king's master-architect, who contracted with the
magistrates to render it a rival to the most beautiful
in Scotland; and, by special permission of the Lord
Lyon, it was afterwards emblazoned both with the
royal arms and with those of the city. It had a
flight of steps within, was 12 feet high, and termi
nated in a spacious terrace. Its embellishments of
statuary and architecture may be surmised from the
historical notice that, on the anniversary of the Re
storation, in the year after its erection, " the trea
surer was appointed to cover the terrass of the new

crois with a carpet, and to prepare glasses and two
gallons (Scottish) of French wine, to be run out of
the'mouths of lions, bears, griffins, and other heads
with which the cross was ornamented." This fine
structure was situated in the middle of the High-
street, between Kirkgate and Skinnergate. A pre
vious cross, which occupied the same site, and seems
to have been ancient, was demolished by Cromwell
to aid the supply of material for his citadel.
The monasteries and other religious houses of
Perth, were numerous and notable in the days of
popery, and, as is Well-known, stand out on the fore
ground of that picture of demolition which records
the early external movements of the Reformation.
The Blackfriars or Dominican convent, — frequently
spoken of as a palace, on account of its being an oc
casional residence of the Scottish kings, was an ex
tensive, and probably a sumptuous edifice. It stood
on the north side of the town, and had attached to
it the chapel in which some parliaments were held.
In 1231, Alexander II. founded the establishment;
and, in 1244, he bestowed upon it all the area of his
garden, and a valuable supply of water from his mill-
lead  The Carthusian monastery or Charter-bouse
stood afc the west end of the town, and was founded
in 1429 by James I. or his queen, for 13 monks and
their servants. The chapel connected with it con
tained the tombs of James I., of his queen, and of
Margaret, the queen-mother of James V.— The
Whitefriars, or Carmelite convent, stood a little
west of the town, and was designated ' the Prior
and Convent of the Carmelite friars of Tulilum, near
Perth.' — The Greyfriars, or Franciscan convent, was
founded in 1460 by Lord Oliphant, and stood near
the river, at the south-east corner of the town. The
site of both the convent and its chapel became, in
1580, the common burying-ground for the citizens,
and is the present Greyfriars' cemetery  The Nun
nery of St. Leonard, to which were attached a cha
pel and an hospital, was founded in the 13th century,
and stood a little south-west of the town. Lady
Elizabeth Dunbar, tbe daughter of the Earl of March,
and the privately espoused and afterwards rejected
wife of Prince David, Duke of Rothesay, became, in
1411, the superior of the convent, and the governess
of its hospital  The Nunnery of St. Mary Magda
lene, with a chapel attached to it, was of early but
unascertained origin, and stood nearly a mile south
of the town. Both this convent and the former were
suppressed after the erection of the Carthusian mon
astery, and their lands and revenues given to that
establishment. — Our Lady's chapel, or the chapel of
St. Mary, is, with the exception of part of St. John's
church, the only surviving ecclesiastical edifice of
Popery in the city. The original chapel stood close
by the" old bridge at the foot of High-street, and, in
1210, when already an old building, it was destroyed
by a great flood in the river. The succeeding struc
ture was built, for sake of safety, a little farther
from the river ; and, after the Reformation, became
partly transmuted into the old jail. — St. Ann's cha
pel, dedicated to the Mother of the Virgin Mary,
was of early but unknown foundation, had attached
to it an hospital for the poor, and stood on the south
side of St. John's church. Sir Walter Eviot was
chaplain of it during a large part of the first thirty
years of the 16th century — The chapel of Our Lady
of Loretto or Allareit, stood on the north side and
near the head of South-street; but seems to have
had little or none of the absurd and mischievous fame
of the chapels of the fabled "sancta casa" in other
towns.  The Rood chapel, or Chapel of the Holy
Cross, stood at the north side of the South-street
port  St. Paul's chapel was founded in 1434 by
John Spens of Glen-Douglas, had connected with it

518

PERTH.

an hospital for strangers and the poor, and stood at
the north-west corner of the New-row. — Sts. James'
and Thomas' chapel was dedicated, in monstrous con
junction, to the Apostle James, and to Thomas-a-
Becket, the roistering prelate of Canterbury. It
stood on the south side of St. John's church. The
original chapel became ruinous about the commence
ment of the 15th century ; and a new one was then
built by the magistrates, aided by a large donation
from a burgess. — The chapel of St. Catherine was
founded in 1523 by Sir John Tyrie, provost of the
collegiate church of Methven, had connected with it
an hospice for poor travellers, and stood " at the
clay-pots," at the west end of the town  St. Lau
rence chapel was founded by some Scottish king
prior to Robert III., and stood on part of the ground
belonging to Perth-castle. The Blackfriars received
it from Robert III., as the price of masses to be said
for the soul of his mother, Elizabeth More, whose
body had been buried in the Blackfriars' chapel ; and,
after getting it into their possession, they allowed it
to fall into decay'.
Two or three objects of antiquity, not strictly
classifiable with extinct buildings, and possessing
strong interest for antiquaries, remain to be noticed.
The ground, covered by a house built about 55 years
ago, on the south side and near the foot of High-
street, is traditionally asserted to have been the site
of a British temple, erected before the Christian era.
When the ground was excavated for laying the foun
dation of the present house, two apartments were
discovered each 26 feet by 14, with strongly-cemented
walls 3£ feet thick ; and the apartments were span
ned or surmounted by two parallel arches. The
ground, up to the preparations which immediately
preceded the excavation, was for ages occupied by a
tenement called the House of the Green, to which
tradition attached the fame of surmounting the sup
posed temple's site. Geoffrey, who wrote in the
beginning of the 12th century, states as history what
the tradition conveys as a report; and Hollinshed,
who wrote in 1571, boldly traces the founding of
the temple up to a prince of a goodly date before
the incarnation of the Redeemer. — Three Roman
iters, approaching from different quarters, led toward
Perth, and possibly met within its area; and they
are stoutly appealed to by parties who contend that
the town was the Victoria of the Britons, and a for
tified and castellated post of Agricola. One of these
iters leads from Abernethy; another leads from Stir
ling through the famous Roman camp at Ardoch;
and a third leads from Kinross, yet is properly the
joint continuation of two iters coming up respec
tively from Aberdour and North Queensferry. At
the excavating of the ground for founding St. Paul's
church, where the height of the surface is about 23
feet above the ordinary level of the Tay, there was
found, at the depth of 10 feet from the surface, a
work of well-built ashler masonry, extending in a
direction parallel to the river, and provided with
iron ringB and staples which seemed to indicate its
having been a quay. In two different localities, and
at different depths from the surface, willow-trees
have at recent, periods been discovered in their up
right or growing position in the alluvium, surrounded
with such vegetable matter as indicated that they
stood, in situ, or in the very position and on the very
level of their natural state. In numerous localities
there have been found, in the making of excavations
for the founding of houses, scissors, spurs, pieces of
leather, and various other articles which demon
strate, what we stated in our general description of
the town, that the level of the streets has, at periods
subsequent to their thorough edificing, been very
considerably raised. But very ancient coins, vases,

urns, and other similar minor antiquities, which are
rife in many much less pretending localities in Scot
land, and which always afford presumptive, and some
times certain, evidence of Roman or otherwise an
cient allocation, are not among tbe boasts of Perth;
but, on the contrary, the coins found have been both
few in number and aggregately very modern — A
common seal, but of unascertained impression and
legend, is known to have been in the possession of
the burgh so early as the reign of Alexander II., or
first half of the 13th century. A subsequent seal,
which was in use at the commencement of the 15th
century, had, on one side, a representation of the
beheading of John the Baptist, on the other, a re
presentation of his enshrinement, attended by four
priests,  and on both, the legend, " S. communitatis
ville Sancti Johannis Baptiste de Berth." The mo
dern seal shows the impression of an imperial eagle,
its two heads looking in opposite directions, and its
breast surmounted by a red escutcheon charged with
the holy lamb passant, carrying the banner of St.
Andrew; and has the legend, "Pro lege, rege et
grege." The institutions of Perth, remedial, benevolent,
religious, educational, literary, and commercial, have,
to a large amount, been noticed in connection with
the town's public buildings. The Literary and An
tiquarian society, incidentally named in the descrip
tion of Provost Marshall's monument, was estab
lished in 1 784, is presided over by the Earl of Kin
noul, has a charter from the magistrates, and, since
1818, has issued diplomas. Of six public or circu
lating libraries which the town possesses, five are
the property of private associations, and Perth lib
rary, the largest, was instituted in 1 786, and contains
between 5,000 and 6,000 volumes. The public news
room of the town is brilliantly lighted with gas, and
well-supplied with Scottish, English, and Irish news
papers, and with the larger literary periodicals. Four
weekly newspapers are published in the town, — the
Perthshire Courier, commenced in 1809, and issued on
Thursday, — the Perth Constitutional, 1835, Wednes
day, — the Perth Chronicle, 1836, Thursday, — and the
Perthshire Advertiser, Thursday. A periodical called
the Perth Magazine was begun in 1772, but, after the
issue of five volumes, it ceased. Another periodical
was commenced about ten years ago, but proved un
successful. An annual periodical, under the title ot
' the Perth and Perthshire Register,' containing lists
of the nobility, constituency, and institutions of the
town and county, is issued from the press of Mr.
Morrison. This press, under the Messrs. Morrison,
father and son, has long been extensively and nobly
worked, and has been distinguished for the number
and worth of its literary and religious productions,—
and particularly for the Encyclopaedia Perthensis,
the largest work ever printed anywhere in Scotland
except in Edinburgh. The charitable institutions,
and their respective revenues, in 1835, were the
Destitute Sick, £74 6s. 6d. ; the Hospital Female
school, £46 12s. 6d. ; the Aged and Indigent Fe
males', £67 10s. ; the Clothing Indigent Females',
£60 18s. 5d.; the Clothing Indigent Old Men's,
£118 3s. 6d. ; the Infant-school, £73 8s. 6d. ; the
Sabbath school, £10 Is. A savings' bank was in
stituted in 1815, and, several years ago, possessed
deposits to the amount of about £3,200. About 18
friendly societies, some of them of long standing,
existed at the date of the legislative interference on
the subject of such institutions; and they suffered
so ruinous a panic that only three or four, and these
in a languishing condition, survive. Eight of the
incorporated bodies of the city act as beneficiary in
stitutions. Strictly religious societies, though still
at work, have sustained much damage from the re-

PERTH.

519

cent collisions and excitements among the evangelical
denominations. The banks of the city are the Cen
tral Bank of Scotland and the Perth Banking com
pany ; and the branch banks are the British Linen
company, the Bank of Scotland, the Glasgow Union
Banking company, and the Western Bank of Scot
land. The weekly markets are held on Wednesday
and Friday; and annual fairs for wool are held on
an early but not fixed day of July, — for general busi
ness, on the first Friday of September, — for cattle
and cheese, on the third Friday of October, — and for
cattle and horses, on the first Friday of March, April,
and July, and the second Friday of December.
The manufactures of Perth were, at an early
period, extensive, and are still various and important.
Gloves were early and long a staple produce ; they
possessed much fame throughout the kingdom, and
were produced for home use to the amount of be
tween 2,000 and 3,000 pairs a-year ; but they have
almost entirely ceased to be made, and are now an
article of import. The dressing of sheep and lamb
skins was carried on, about the year 1795, to the
extent of about 30,000 skins ; and was at an earlier
period so prominent an occupation as to have given
the name of Skinner-street to one of the city tho
roughfares ; but, though still of noticeable extent,
it suffered serious declension from the ruin of the
glove manufacture. The cotton-goods manufacture
was, with great and spirited enterprise, introduced
about 55 years ago; but it soon received a serious
check, and became comparatively limited in its oper
ations. An umbrella gingham manufacture was es
tablished about the year 1806, is now the staple,
and is increasing ; and it sends its produce to Lon
don, Manchester, and other great British towns.
Pullicates, checks, and similar fabrics, and also imi
tation Indian shawls and scarfs, are woven for the
manufacturers of Glasgow. In 1838, the number of
looms employed upon the umbrella ginghams was
663, — upon pullicates, checks, &c, 523, — and upon
shawls and scarfs, 169; total, 1,355. In 1800, a
14°° J umbrella gingham was paid 24s. per cut of
24 yards ; but, in 1838, it was paid only 8s. 6d. The
average nett weekly wages in 1838 were, for shawls,
8s. Id., — for first and second class umbrella ging
hams, respectively 6s. 4d. and 5s. 4d., — and for first,
second, and third class pullicates, &c, respectively
6s. 8d., 4s. 8d., and 3s. 2d. The number of looms
in the city, in 1819, was about 2,400; and it continues
to be decreasing. The weavers are remarkable for
their good conduct ; they know nothing of embezzle
ment; but they, in few instances, have looms of their
own ; and their cottages generally show signs of great
poverty. A mill for spinning flax and tow yarns was
erected a few years ago, has 1,250 spindles, and em
ploys about 140 persons. There are three extensive
iron foundries, several coach-building establishments,
distilleries, breweries, ropeworks, tanneries, dye-
works, saw-mills, and corn-mills, and various minor
operative establishments. Ship-building is an ex
tensive and increasing employment. Mr. Brown
has built by contract several fine large sea-steamers,
and has launched sailing-vessels of each from 400 to
500 tons. Messrs. Macfarlane, iron-founders, built,
in 1837, the earliest iron steam-vessel constructed
on the east coast. A ship-building company, formed
in 1838, have already built several very fine vessels.
Messrs. Graham carry on to a large extent ship
building for the immediate trade of Perth; and, in
1840, they were owners, for their own commerce,
of shipping to the amount of 2,400 tons.
Perth was anciently a place of extensive com
merce and vast wealth. Alexander Neckham, an
English writer, who was abbot of Exeter in 1215,
and died in 1227, takes notice of the town in

the following distich, quoted in Camden's Britan.
nia: " Transis ample Tai, per rura, per oppida, per Perth,
Regnum sustentant illius orbis opes."
Thus translated by Bishop Gibson :
" Great Tay through Perth, through town, through country
flies,
Perth the whole kingdom with her wealth supplies."
Before 1236, and during many ages, the merchants
of Perth conducted an extensive traffic with the
Netherlands, and visited the Hanse towns in their
own ships. An eulogium pronounced on Alexander
III. by history, is, that he exerted such influence and
maintained such measures as protected the ships of
Perth, and all other Scottish trading vessels, from
being embargoed in foreign ports, or preyed upon by
pirates at sea. The German merchants, or Flem
ings, very early frequented the port of Perth ; and,
in numerous instances, they even settled in the town,
received the privilege of burgess-ship, and introduced
the manufacture of woollen and linen goods, and the
staining and dyeing of cloth. The narrow-minded
natives took alarm at the prosperity of these plodding
artisans, a blundering and prejudiced legislature
clamoured against them ; and two monarchs — David
I. and his grandson, William the Lion, greatly to
the damage of the town's traffic — laid restrictions on
their liberties and movements. The latter monarch,
in particular, pronounced them disqualified to be
burgesses, placed a virtual proscription on a large
part of their industrious proceedings, and, at the
same time, invidiously granted to the burgesses of
Perth, ' that they might have their own merchant-
guild, fullers and weavers excepted.' The modern
prosperity of Perth commenced immediately after
the rebellion of 1745. During the previous rebellion
it had been made a place of arms, to which the rebels
retreated after the ' battle of Sheriffmuir ; during
1745-6 it was the central point of rendezvous for
the forces and friends of Prince Charles Edward ;
and afterwards it continued, for a considerable
period, to be the place of resort for the whole dis
affected party. The march and residence of armies
made it a mart for every kind of commodity ; the
gatherings of gentlemen from all the points of a far-
spreading territory stimulated its citizens to enter
prise; and, while the season of stimulus and pro
fusion lasted, adroit persons acquired fortunes, and
spread among their neighbours the contagion of ani
mated industry.
The harbour of Perth, till within the last few
years, was so inaccessible by vessels of any consider
able burden, and so utterly devoid of advantages to
enable it to compete with that of Dundee, situated
on the margin and near the mouth of the frith, that
its incapacities threatened to bring the commerce of
the town to extinction, or to occasion its entire
transference to the superiorly situated rival. Yet,
even bad the commerce seaward been overthrown,
Perth is so commandingly situated as an emporium
for the centre of Scotland, a centre of supply to a
very extensive and populous circumjacent country,
and sends out in every direction such a profuse
radiation of excellent and much-frequented roads,
that its trade must have continued to be consider
able. But recent improvements have been made on
its harbour, and recent deepenings effected in the
channel of the river, which have quite revived its
sinking hopes as a port, and given a sudden and
increasing impulse to its seaward trade. An act of
parliament was obtained, about 12 years ago, for en
larging the quays, constructing a tide-harbour and
wet-dock, connected by a canal, and generally im
proving the navigation of the river. Though but

520

PERTH.

part of the plan has as yet been executed, the results
are highly important. Only sloops of 60 tons
burden could formerly be seen at Perth, and even
these not often, except when they had undergone
the tedious process of lightening; but now vessels
of 300 tons reach the harbour, and need scarcely
ever be longer on the river than during one tide^ and
can easily and at small expense be brought up by
tug-steamers. The lumpish barges, known as Bridg
end boats, and formerly used as lighters, are now
quite laid aside, or used only for occasional trans
ferences of sand. Except in the exportation of coals
to London, and in some other and inconsiderable
items, shipments from Perth to points beyond the
frith had nearly ceased ; but, since the river and
harbour improvements, vessels sail freely away from
it to the ocean, and even make voyages direct to
North America and the West Indies. The Dundee,
Perth, and London Shipping company, very recently
employed at Perth only one agent, and paid about
£40 of salary ; but now they employ, not only sev
eral persons of this one's description, but two local
clerks or managers. The customs' revenue, some
time after the commencement of the present century,
was so small that it sometimes did not pay local ex
penses ; and, in the years 1834-5-6, though beginning
to feel the effect of the improvements, and to mount
up before them, it was so low as respectively £3,702,
£4,942, and £5,190. But in 1837 it was £6,270;
in 1838, £8,760; in 1839, £11,893; and in 1840,
£25,767. The shipping belonging to the port, in
1828, was not more than 4,000 tons ; in 1837, was
5,467 tons ; in the beginning of 1840, was 7,508
tons ; and, toward the end of the same year, was
10,163 tons. Merchants and other inhabitants of
Perth, in addition to employing the vessels of their
own port, freight numerous vessels belonging to
cither ports, and hold shares in the whale shipping
companies of Dundee, and are the principal party in
the Dundee, Perth, and London shipping company,
whose fine sailing smacks, and three powerful and
splendid steam-ships, never proceed farther up the
Tay than to Dundee. Perth was made a free port
in January 1840. The principal articles of import
are Baltic and American timber, hides, bark, tar,
madder, flax, linseed, cloverseed, cheese, foreign
spirits, coals, salt, lime, and bones ; and the princi
pal articles of exportrare the produce of the manu
factories, potatoes, corns, slates, Scottish timber,
pit-props, rails, and oak-bark. Coals are imported
to the amount of about 55,000 tons a-year ; and
potatoes exported to the amount of from 100,000 to
i50,000 Scottish bolls. Steam - vessels ply daily
between Perth and Dundee, touching at the inter
mediate port of Newburgh in Fife. Mail and stage
coaches maintain daily communication with Edin
burgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness, and
intermediate places.
Perth owes much of its prosperity to the loveli
ness of its situation, the excellence of its schools,
and the connexion of its diverging thoroughfares,
and its means of communication with a very large
proportion of everything in Scotland which is most
interesting to an accomplished or a tasteful tourist.
Its relation to Dundee considerably resembles that
of Edinburgh to Glasgow ; and, like its metropoli
tan prototype, it possesses a polish, an intellectuality,
a cultivated taste, a social refinement, and a calm
and easy gentility which can be appreciated by only
a limited proportion of the rival town's inhabitants,
and are regarded by the greater part with senseless
apathy or vulgar stupid scorn. Wealthy annuitants
who desire a quiet home, or men with a competency
who wish to live in a city retreat rich in the appli
ances which soothe the imagination and healthfully

stimulate the judgment, must necessarily regard
Perth with peculiar favour ; and they already form
a sufficient proportion of its population to render it
strictly in social character what its aggregately taste
ful and handsome architecture has rendered it physi
cally, 'a genteel town.' A very large number of
strangers, too, are attracted to it in brief visits
during summer, and — excepting persons who have
spent all their days in a brick-field, and can see no
object in scenery to match that of a tall chimney-
stalk— they never fail to be delighted, as the Ro
mans were, with the superb landscape in which the
' Fair city ' is embosomed ; and numerous tourists
of taste pour into the town, and make their passing
donations to its maintenance, on their way to explore
the regions of romance and beauty and sublimity
among the magnificent head-waters and tributaries
of the Tay.
Perth is usually deemed to have been erected into
a royal burgh by a charter dated 10th October, 1210,
and attributed to William the Lion, who, in a sub
sequent charter, is styled "the founder and instaur-
ator of our said royal burgh of Perth, after the vasta-
tion and ruin thereof by the inundation of the said
flood and river of Tay." The Commissioners on
Municipal corporations, on inspecting this alleged
earliest charter at their visit, found strong reasons
for doubting its authenticity; but they name, and
briefly describe, a long series of subsequent charters,
which they pronounce authentic. These are a char
ter of rights of guildry and letters of enforcement
by Robert I., the latter dated in the 12th year of his
reign ; a confirming charter, in the 36th year of David
II. ; a charter of feu-farm, in the 4th year of Robert
II. ; a charter, in the 5th year of Robert III., em
powering to choose a sheriff; two charters, in the
8th year of Robert HI., empowering to apprehend
forestallers and confiscate goods ; a charter of con
firmation, in the 10th year of Robert III. ; a charter
of monetic, grants, in the 15th year of Robert III. ;
a charter conferring self-legislative power on the guil
dry, in the 16th year of Robert III.; a charter of
confirmation relative to the lands of Tulliluin and
the common moor, in 1450, by Patrick, Lord Ruth
ven ; a declaration in favour of tbe aldermen and
sheriff of Perth, by the Exchequer-court of James
IV., in 1474; an indenture, of 1494, by Lord Ruth
ven and his son, relative to certain mill-leads and
water- passages ; two royal and parliamentary char
ters of confirmation, in the 3d and 21st years
of James VI. ; a decreet of the commissioners of
burghs, in 1582, giving the commissioners of Perth
precedence to those of Dundee ; and a charter of
confirmation of the whole rights and privileges of
the burgh, granted by James VI., in 1600, the 34th
year of his reign. This last is of great length, and
is deemed the governing charter.
The public property of the town consists of the
lands of Nether Tullilum, Meikle Tullilum, and Un-
thank, Cow-causeway, and Soutarland; the North
and South Inches, Sand Island, and Maggie's Park ;
ten tenements let to tenants ; four parish-churches ;
flour, meal, barley, oil and saw-mills, kilns and gran
aries ; fishings in the Tay ; harbour-customs ; the
flesh, vegetable, and butter-ma kcts, situated west
ward of St. John's church ; the ish-market, on the
north shore, at the foot of High-street ; and two
other items, — one of them valuable suites of sheds.
Including the customs, the produce of which, at the
time, was about £823 a-year, and after deducting
debts, the total value of the property, in 1833, was
estimated at £67,510 lis. lOd. The average corpo
ration revenue, for seven years ending Michaelmas
1832, was £6,560 14s. 2$d. ; and the average ex
penditure, during the same period, was £6,732 8».

PERTH.

521

lfd. The revenue, in 1839-40, was £6,225. The
imposts leviable by power of charter and usage,
are harbour-customs, shore-dues, meal-market-dues,
flesh-market-customs, and weigh-house-dues. The
average annual amount of cess Jevied between 1823
and 1832, both these years included, was £372 12s.
8|d. ; and the average number of persons assessed
was 1,458 — -The town is governed by a lord-provost,
who is sheriff and coroner, four bailies, a dean-of-
guild, a treasurer, and nineteen councillors. Municipal
constituency, in 1839, 605; in 1841, 688. The juris
diction of the magistrates extends over the royalty of
the burgh, — whose boundaries, however.arenot well-
defined; and is exercised by them personally and
directly, the town-clerk acting gratuitously as asses
sor. The dean-of-guild exercises judicial functions
in conjunction with a council of ten, consisting of
four magistrates, and six representatives of the guil
dry and the incorporated trades ; and he holds a
guild-court on the fourth Monday of each month,
and oftener if business require. The four bailies,
in rotation of each three months, hold a burgh-court
every Tuesday. All the usual civil causes for which
the court is competent, are occasionally tried ; but
criminal causes have not, for a number of years, been
entertained, except in a few instances for removing
nuisances, or punishing, in a pecuniary way, breaches
of the public regulations. The civil patronage of the
town-council is limited to the appointment of the
city-chamberlain, salaried at £90; the procurator-
fiscal, at £51 13s. 4d. ; the superintendent of works,
at £80; three town-sergeants, at each £40; and
four other, and minor officers, at aggregately £55
9s. 8d. The ecclesiastical and school patronage in
cludes the appointment of the four quoad civilia par
ish-ministers, the four precentors, and the teachers
of all the seven schools of the public seminaries.
The exclusive privileges in Perth are important
and rigid. The guildry corporation, which is of
great antiquity, consists chiefly of dealers, about 560
in number, nine-tenths of whom are merchants, yet
who, as a body, are said to exercise the four ' sci
ences,' of merchants, mailmen, surgeons, and dyers.
All these have the privileges of ' merchandizing,' or
of keeping open-shop for buying and selling, and
are styled ' merchant-burgesses.' But another por
tion of the guildry are ' trades-burgesses,' ' exercis
ing crafts,' who are entitled to ' merchandize ' by be
coming burgesses and guild brethren, but cannot
exercise any craft without entering with its particu
lar corporation. The administration of public rights,
as of admission of burgesses, is vested in the guildry-
court ; and the administration of pecuniary concerns
has, since 1817, been conducted by a separate com
mittee. The costs of admission consist of a small
sum to the common good of the town, certain sums
for stamps and dues, and a chief sum to the guildry;
and they vary for each class of applicants according
to the party's age in decades from under 30 to 50 and
upwards. For merchants' sons and sons-in-law, they
vary from £4 2s. 2d. to £10 2s. 2d., — for merchants'
apprentices, from £7 8s. lOd. to £14 8s. 10d.,— and
for merchant strangers, from £24 15s. 6d. to £39
15s. 6d. But those for trades' burgesses are uni
form, and,' for sons and sons-in-law, tor apprentices
and for strangers, amount respectively to £1 10s.
lLjd., £2 17s. 7£d., and £6 4s. 3|d. The real pro
perty of the guildry was valued, in 1833, at £28,000,
and consists of burgh subjects, of feu-dues, and of
land 5 or 6 miles from the town. Their average
revenue is between £1,300 and £1,400; and is just
about equal to the expenditure, the largest item of
which is about £800 a-year in weekly allowances to
the poor who have claims upon the fund. The
incorporated trades are seven, and aggregately num

ber about 454 members ; and they have a court,
of trivial moment and no real power, called the con
vener-court. Four of them consist of more than one
' science,' or, in unambitious, sober English, are com
posed of different crafts, — the hammermen, of 10 ;
the wrights of 7 ; the glovers of 2 ; and the tailors
of 2. But the other three, the bakers, the fleshers,
and the shoemakers, consist each of only one craft.
The general statistics of these incorporations, as
they existed in 1833, may be given in brief space.
The hammermen were 76 in number, exacted £30
18s. 6d. of entry money from a stranger, and had an
annual revenue and1 expenditure of respectively £194
18s. and £168 8s. The bakers number 38; fee,
from a stranger, £35; revenue £223 8s. ; expendi
ture £176 13s. 8d. The glovers, 64; fee £100;
revenue £ 1 ,094 4s. 8|d. ; expenditure £996 4s.
The wrights, 160; fee from £32 2s. 8d. to £62 2s.
8d. ; revenue £774 7s. Id.; expenditure £773 8s.
7d. The tailors, 35; fee from £30 to £35; re
venue £238 2s. 6d. ; expenditure £275 8s. 7|d.
The fleshers, 23; fee, for apprentice, £10 10s. 4d. ;
revenue £132 7s. 6d. ; expenditure £159 0s. 7d.
The shoemakers, 58 ; fee, for a stranger, £20 ; re
venue £139 13s. 3d.; expenditure £104 15s. 2d.
The weavers have sometimes been styled a corpora
tion ; but are properly no more than a friendly so
ciety. A very considerable number of persons,
residing within the parliamentary boundaries, but
without the royalty, exercise the same callings as
the freemen of the corporations. The guildry-court
have been in the practice of licensing non-burgesses
to ' merchandize' for an annual fee of £1 10s. 6d.
The police establishments, including the depart
ments of paving and lighting, are administered under
two statutes obtained in 181 land 1819. The police
commissioners are the provost, the 4 bailies, the
dean-of-guild, 7 members of the guildry, and 7 mem
bers of the incorporated trades, one chosen by each
of these bodies according to certain statutory rules.
The police territory extends beyond the royalty,
and is divided into districts and wards. Power is
possessed to regulate markets, to impose a fine not
exceeding £5, and to commit to hard labour 6r to
solitary confinement for a period not exceeding 60
days. The lighting department is managed by con
tract with the gas company. The assessment is
imposed on rents of £7 and upwards, — 20 per cent.
being first deducted from the actual rent; and it
must not exceed 5 per cent., but is levied up to
the maximum. The expenditure for the year end
ing in September, 1833, was £2,027 5s. 6d. ; and
the revenue fell short of this by £24 8s. 3d. There
was, at the same date, a debt of £1,400 — Perth
returns one member to parliament. Constituency, in
1840, 895. The parliamentary boundaries are very
extensive : they comprehend, on the east side of the
river, a district of rather more than 2 miles in
length, and nearly half-a-mile in mean breadth; and,
on the west or Perth side, they extend nearly 1£
mile south, the same distance north-west, and 1£
mile south-west of the county buildings or east end
of South-street  Population of the burgh, in 1801,
14,878; in 1811, 17,248; in 1821, 19,068; in 1831,
20,016; in 1841, 18,281. Houses, in 1841,4,770.
Assessed taxes £2,452 1 9s.
So much of history and of antiquarian notice has
been interwoven with our description of the town,
that our task, on these topics, is already half per
formed. The etymology of the name of Perth has
been too hotly and often contested by philologists to
be a manageable subject for our calm and rapid re
marks. Even the origin of the town, or the question
of its antiquity within so wide a range of difference
as eleven centuries, is a topiG on which we must for-

522

PERTH.

bear to state an opinion. Certain objects discovered
during excavations and borings on the site of the
town, and noticed in our concluding paragraph on
the antiquities of the place, would require so elabor
ate a process of discussion in order to be judiciously
dovetailed into history, that they must pass with us
as mere objects of topographical notice. Documen
tary evidence, or rather the statements of historians
respecting the early condition of Perth or its site,
though sufficiently varied and bulky, are either very
doubtful in character, or comparatively quite modern
in date. Richard de Cirencester, Geoffrey de Mon
mouth, Fordun, Major, Hollinshed, Boethius, Bu
chanan, Adamson, and Cant, all touch the question
of antiquity ; but, in some instances, are laconic, in
some are obscure, and in'most, or perhaps all, are of
no real authority. Richard de Cirencester, who,
though he flourished so late as the I4th century, is
usually quoted as a final authority — says that, of
three towns of the Horestii, the British tribe who
inhabited what forms the south-east division of the
present Perthshire, the largest, called Victoria,
stood on the Tay 20 miles from the exit of that ri ver
into the sea, and that this town was built — or, as his
meaning seems to be, remodelled, and transmuted
into a modern town — by Agricola. Hoffman, in a
work written so late as in the 7th decade of the 1 7th
century, gives computations of distances from Perth
which are alleged to sanction such an interpretation of
Richard's twenty miles above the Tay's embouchure
as should make the distance twenty-eight miles ; and
place his Victoria on the site of Perth ; for Hoff
man states the distance to Dunkeld at 12 miles in
stead of 15, — to Stirling, at 2?, instead of 32, — and
to Edinburgh, at 32, instead of 43. Adamson, writ
ing in 1620, and partly copying from Fordun, partly
imbodying current tradition, relates a traditionary
and well-known exclamation of Agricola's army,
and adds : — " The Italians, many ages after, were
in use to give to the Tay the name of New Tiber,
and Fordun gave the name Tibermore, (now Tib-
bermuir,) to an extensive moor which lies west
from the town of Perth. As the field at Rome was,
by the early Romans, consecrated to Mars, so their
descendants found, in the field adjoining the Tay, an
old temple, which, say the British and Welch his
torians, was built many ages before by one of the
British kings, and dedicated to Mars. The Romans
performed worship here to that heathen deity, in
hopes of their expeditions being favoured in the new
country into which they were come. Agricola
pitched his camp in the middle of that field, on the
spot where Perth stands. He proposed to make it
a winter camp'and afterwards built what he intend
ed to be a colonial town. He fortified it with walls,
and with a strong castle, and supplied the ditches
with water by an aqueduct from the Almond. Also,
with much labour to his soldiers, and probably to
the poor natives, a large wooden bridge was con
structed over the river at Perth." Whatever may
be thought respecting this pretty story as a whole,
that part of it which traces the name of Tibbermuir
or Tibbermore, to a supposed application of the
name Tiber to the Tay, must be a mistake ; for the
word, as traced in the Gaelic, means, according to
the orthography adopted, either ' the well in the
muir,' or 'the great well.' Boethius, and, after
him, Hollinshed, Buchanan, and others, take up en
tirely different ground respecting the origin of the
present Perth ; and state that Old Perth or Bertha
[see article Bertha] was situated at the confluence
of the Almond and the Tay, two miles farther north
than the present town, — that it was swept away by a
flood in 1210,— and that, in the same year, modern
Perth was founded and built, and received from Wil

liam the Lion a charter of erection into a royal
burgh. But the assertion that Bertha and Perth
were different places, is confronted by the following
passage in the earlier authority of the Scoto-chroni-
con of Fordun, — a passage which, if it does not
quite disprove that Perth was a successor to Bertha,
proves at least that, according to Fordun, Bertha
and Perth were names of the same place : " Villam
quoque quae olim dicebatur Bertha, nunc quoque
Perth, in Scotia aqua de Taya cum aqua de Almond
maxima ex parte pertransiit." The charter of Wil
liam the Lion, too, is triumphantly quoted as con
clusive authority ; and certainly the document which
exists under that name purports to confirm privileges
enjoyed by the burgh in the time of David I., who
died in 1153, and otherwise uses language very dis
tinctly assuming the existence in a prior age of a re
gular town on the site of Perth ; but that document,
as we already bad occasion to notice, bears startling
marks of being spurious. Other and earlier alleged
charters have been appealed to, and are flourishingly
mentioned in the following terms by Mr. Scott, in
the Old Statistical Account : — " It is certain that the
town had the name of Perth long before the year
1210. There are many hundreds of charters, from
about the year 1106 to the year 1210, still extant.
Any person who will take the trouble of looking
into these charters, will find, that, whenever there
was occasion to mention the town, its name was
always written Perth, or Pertht, or, by way of con
traction, Pert. * * It is also certain that tenements
and streets in Perth are described in charters prior to
the year 1210, the same as they afterwards were."
But " hundreds of charters," " many hundreds of
charters," " many hundreds of charters from about
the year 1106 to the year 1210," or during only 104
years — conveying the idea of 30 or 1 5, or at least 7
or 8 charters for every year of the period, is language
scarcely fitted to draw a very ready credence. The
New Statistical Account, however, throws the
"hundreds" away, and reduces the "many hun
dreds" to a simple and sober "many;': and, as an
instance, it gives one which, if the reasoning respect
ing the date be correct — and we see no cause to
doubt its being so — decidedly proves the existence of
the modern Perth as a town at least ten years before
the alleged substituting of a new city on a different
spot for the older and destroyed Bertha. But we
have probably said more than enough to satiate the
curiosity of most readers on a dry though interesting
subject of inquiry ; and must leave the question and
the dates of Perth's antiquity to be fought out or
settled, as they best may, by local amateurs and pro
fessed antiquaries.
Previous to the accession of James. II. Perth pos
sessed, in many respects, the character of the capital
of Scotland, or seat of the national government.
The Kings were crowned at Scone, in the vicinity,
[see Scone,] had a stated residence in Perth, and so
often made that residence their home that the town
was esteemed the first in the kingdom,  not only the
Windsor, but also the London, of Scotland. Events
having ¦ proved that neither Perth, Scone, Stirling,
nor Dunfermline could protect royalty against the
treasonable plots of the turbulent nobility of the
period, Edinburgh, in connexion with its castle, came
to be formally declared the Scottish metropolis. See
Edinburgh. Yet, in spite of its apparent loss of
rank, Perth did not cease to contest, and occasionally
to win, the honour of being the capital till 1482, in
the reign of James III. Several of the public writ
ings of even subsequent periods, especially of the
reign of James IV., designate it the city of Perth;
and the charter of confirmation, granted by James
VI. in 1600, speaks of it n the following very lofty

PERTH.

523

terms:—" Our most renowned predecessors have not
only beautified, but abundantly heaped on our said
royal burgh of Perth greatest benefices and egregious
gifts, liberties, privileges, and immunities, that
almost all the donations, liberties, benefits, and pri
vileges conferred on other royal burghs of our king
dom are referred to our said royal burgh of
Perth." Even up to the present hour, Perth,
though greatly outstripped in population and im
portance by six towns of Scotland, and sharply
competed with by several others, continues to rank
next to Edinburgh on the list oi royal burghs. In
connexion with its metropolitan character, Perth was
the peculiar seat of the great national councils till
the accession of James IL, and the occasional seat
of them till that of James IV. ; and the seat also,
till 1465, of the provincial councils of the Scottish
clergy, — or those councils which affected the Scot
tish department of the papal domination. No fewer
than 14 parliaments were held in it between 1201
and 1459 ; and of a total number of 37 ecclesiastical
councils of Scotland, held from the earliest times of
Popish footing in the country till the era of the Re
formation, no fewer than 16 were held, between
1201 and 1465, in Perth ; and this circumstance is
the more remarkable that the remaining 21 were dis
tributed among 9 different towns, — Edinburgh, St.
Andrews, Roxburgh, Linlithgow, Scone, Dundee,
Carlisle, York, and Northampton.
Perth makes a prominent figure in the history of
the wars of the succession, immediately subsequent
to the demise of Alexander III. Edward I. of Eng
land, after the battle of Falkirk in 1298, while re
ducing and destroying all the fortresses of Scotland,
strongly fortified Perth as the capital of the kingdom
he had subjugated, and as the chosen residence of
his deputies. As he carried away with him to Eng
land " the sacred coronation stone" from Scone, and
destroyed over the whole country whatever docu
ments might even remotely impugn his monstrous
claim of sovereignty over Scotland, he niay, without
any breach of charity, be fairly supposed to have
covered himself with the disgrace of destroying or
carrying off a mass of both national and civic records
from Perth, and annihilating nearly all authentic his
tory of the town prior to the date of his stupendously
marauding inroad. Sir Aymer de Vallence, as Ed
ward's deputy, took up his official abode in Perth ;
and, in 1306, he defeated Robert Bruce at Methven.
In 1311, Bruce invested it with a powerful force,
and pressed it, for a considerable time, with a vigor
ous siege; but not having sufficient engines for mak
ing a breach in the walls, or instruments for scaling
them, he was compelled to withdraw. Scotland's
patriot hero-king, however, was not to be baffled ;
and, returning suitably provided with ladders and other
tools, be silently approached at the head of a chosen
band, on a dark night and when the laggards within
were luxuriating in tbe idea of the town's impregna
bility, and partly wading, partly swimming across
the large moat on the exterior, he and his followers
suddenly stood unchallenged on the walls, and, in a
few minutes, were masters of the city. Bruce him
self so literally headed this bold and perilous enter
prise, that but one man among the emulous many
preceded him, in either surmounting the walls or
entering the town. His subsequent measures were
as summary as his success was silent and sudden : he
slew the garrison, razed the walls, and filled up the
moat. In 1332, Edward Baliol, after his success at
the batt.e of Dupplin, took possession of Perth, and
was crowned at Scone. But when, immediately
after his coronation, he went toward the Scottish
border to open a communication with England, the
town was left with only temporary fortifications, and

with little other garrison than the attendants and
vassals of the Earl of Fife ; and, suddenly assailed
by a party of the friends of David Bruce, it quickly
yielded to their joint stratagem and force. The
town, however, went soon back to the possession of
minion royalty; and in 1335, it was skilfully and
strongly fortified by Edward III. at the expense of
six rich abbacies, provided with a gallant garrison,
and placed under the governorship of Sir Thomas
Ochtred. In 1339, Robert, the Lord-high-steward,
who had just been made Regent, and afterwards be
came King, vigorously besieged the town, — vainly,
for three months, lay before it, and performed deeds
of valour, for its reduction, — was reinforced by Dou
glas, Lord Liddesdale, with a large supply of men
and provisions from France, — pressed the siege for
one month longer, — and then, adopting the expedient
of digging mines and draining the moat, he led his
troops on dry ground to the walls, beat down the
besieged who opposed him with engines of war, and
accepted the surrender of the town on the condition
of sparing the lives and respecting the property of
the garrison. In 1437, James I. was murdered in
the Blackfriars' monastery, by Walter, Earl of Athole,
and his kinsmen, Robert Stewart and Robert Graham.
The regicides were seized, tried, and ignominibusly
put to death ; and the Earl and Robert G raham —
the two most deeply implicated — were previously
and publicly tortured in a manner too appalling to be
recorded, — too horrible not to have left a black and
indelible stain upon man's punishment of even the
foulest crimes. In 1443, the town once more under
went siege and capture.
Perth, as to a considerable number of its citizens,
eatly received the reformed doctrines ; and suffered
more severely than most places from the truculent
wrath of the blood-drinking priests of Rome. That
the Perthensians, and our readers, in general, may
prize the respect now paid to the sacred rights of
conscience, and see from how horrible a thraldom
the Reformation was the means of delivering the'
" fair city" and Scotland at large, we must quote in
full, from the historian of the town, the narrative ol
the leading incident of one year, — the year 1544.
" This was a busy year. Cardinal Bethune, in the
last convention, having obtained an act in favour of
the bishops and clergy, to persecute and punish here
tics to death, came in January this year to Perth,
with the Regent Hamilton, Earl of Arran, who was
a weak man. Friar Spence accused Robert Lamb
and his wife Helen Stark, William Anderson, James
Ronald, James Hunter, and James Finlayson. Lamb
and his wife were accused of interrupting Spence in
a sermon, in which he taught that there was no sal
vation without intercession and prayers to the saints.
They confessed the charge, declaring that it was the
duty of every one who knows the truth to bear tes
timony to it, and not suffer people to be abused with
false doctrine, as that was. Anderson, Finlayson,
and Ronald, were indicted for nailing two ram's
horns to St. Francis' head, putting a cow's rump to
his tail, and eating a goose on All-Hallow even.
Hunter, a butcher, simple and unlearned, was charged
with haunting the company of the heretics. Helen
Stark was further charged with refusing to pray to
the Virgin Mary when in childbirth, and saying that
she would only pray to God in the name of Jesus
Christ. They were all imprisoned in the Spey
tower, being found guilty and condemned. Great
intercession was made to the regent for them, who
promised that they should not be hurt. The citi
zens, who were in a tumult, relying on a promise of
Arran, dispersed and went peaceably home. 'The
I cardinal, who had the regent in his power, had taken
| his measures. Determined to make an example ot

524

PERTH.

these heretics, he brough! them forth next day to
the gibbet, January 25th, being St. Paul's day, and
feasted his eyes from the windows of the Spey
tower with their execution. The men were hanged,
and Helen Stark was drowned. Robert Lamb, at
the foot of the ladder, made a pathetic exhortation
to the people, beseeching them to fear God, and for
sake the leaven of popish, abominations. Helen
Stark earnestly desired to die with her husband, but
her request was refused; however, they permitted
her to accompany him to the place of execution. In
the way, she exhorted him to constancy in the cause
of Christ, and, as she parted with him, said, 'Hus
band, be glad, we have lived together many joyful
days, and this day of our death we ought to esteem
the most joyful of them all, for we shall have joy
for ever; therefore I will not bid you good-night,
for we shall shortly meet in the kingdom of heaven.'
As soon as the men were executed, the woman was
taken to a pool of water hard by, where having re
commended her children to the charity of her neigh
bours, her sucking child being taken from her breast,
and given to a nurse, she was drowned, and died
with great courage and comfort." This atrocious
murder of excellent persons, under the pretext of
serving the cause of religion, exerted a powerful in
fluence, along with the kindred martyrdom of George
Wishart and Walter Mylne at St. Andrews, to ren
der the character and superstitions of the popish
priests an object of public execration, to fan tbe
ignited elements of ecclesiastical, doctrinal, and mo
ral reform, and to push up to a crisis the silent but
powerful process of antagonism which was at work
between a large portion of the people and their
cowled and ghostly oppressors.
On the 11th of May, 1559, seven days after his
arrival in Scotland, John Knox appeared in Perth,
made public confession of his faith, and immediately
commenced his ministerial duty. "In a sermon de
livered in the Old church," says Calderwood, "he
declared what commandment God had given for the
destruction of the monuments of idolatrie, and de
nounced the mass as an abomination. The service
being closed, a priest opening a splendid tabernacle
which stood above the altar, was about to celebrate
mass, when a, boy cried out, 'This is intolerable !'
The priest gave him a blow. The boy lifted up a
stone and throwing it at the priest, hit the taber
nacle, and broke down an image ; and immediately
the multitude despatched the tabernacle and the
other monuments in the kirk, before tbe tenth man
in the town understood the matter, for the most part
were gone to duiner. This being noised abroad, the
rascal multitude assembled, and, finding nothing to
do in the kirk, ran to Gray and Blackfriars ; and,
after they had destroyed the monuments of idolatrie,
they began to seek some spoil." This insurrection —
which must be regarded as an unpremeditated and
accidental irruption of popular feeling, and which was
publicly censured and condemned by the preachers and
all the chief leaders of the Reformation — did not pause
till it hurled altars, images, crucifixes, and other simi
lar paraphernalia to ruin, and laid the walls of several
of the ornate and sumptuous monasteries nearly level
with the ground. Mary, the queen-regent, who had
already concentrated her French mercenaries at Stir
ling, was enraged when she heard of the tumult,
and, resolving to inflict fell vengeance on the whole
of the reforming party, she made a sudden levy of
whatever Scottish forces could be gathered to her
standard, and, at the head of them and of her French
forces, marched toward Perth. She had, by wily and
disingenuous promises, induced the Protestant lead
ers to dismiss their armed followers ; and she hoped
to surprise the town before any new or effective force

could be collected to oppose her. But though her
army were 7,000 strong, and led by the experienced
French general, D'Oysel, and powerfully aided by
her unprincipled tampering with truth and honour
able dealing, they found themselves confronted by
such a large and lofty-spirited host, whom the bruit
of the queen's proceedings and zeal for their religion
and liberties had poured suddenly down from all
quarters upon the town, that they dared not attempt
their meditated enterprise, and could only stand em
bodied as a practical argument for a peaceful nego-
ciation. Both armies having been disbanded by
mutual stipulation, Mary peacefully entered the town
on the 29th of May ; yet she no sooner found herself
in quiet possession, and knew the Protestant forces
to be broken up and at a distance, then she flung
her agreement by treaty to the winds, introduced
French troops to the town, dismissed the magistracy,
and restored the popish rites and the .priestly domi
nation. When she departed, the inhabitants again
became tumultuously insurgent, and invoked the
Lords of the congregation to send soldiers to their
aid. Lords Argyle and Ruthven and others marched
in consequence to the town, and prepared regularly
to invest it : they were plied, through the mediation
of Lords Huntly and Erskine, with proposals from
the queen designed to divert them from their pur
pose ; but they could no longer believe her word, or
regard her terms in any other light than that of faith
less artifice ; and they stoutly began and conducted
the siege, and, against the 26th of June, 1559, com
pelled the garrison to capitulate. The queen en
deavouring, after the loss of Perth, to seize on Stir
ling, 300 inhabitants of " the fair city " joined the
standard of Argyle and other leaders, in an enter
prise for her overthrow, and for the complete estab
lishment of religious liberty ; and so galled had they
been by the combined tyranny of priests and French
men, and so determined were they to succeed in their
enterprise or perish in the attempt, that, to indicate
their zeal and resolution, they wore ropes about their
necks to be hung up with them in ignominious death
if they should desert their colours. A picture of
the march of this resolute body is still preserved in
the city; and the circumstance of their substituting
ropes for neckerchiefs or ribands is the subject of
the frequent popular allusion to ' ' St. Johnstone
tippets." In the year 1600, occurred, in Gowrie palace, the
event which, under the name of the Gowrie conspi
racy, has perplexed historians, and been the subject
of not fewer that 11 or 12 controversial treatises.
John Ruthven, 6th Lord Ruthven and 3d Earl of
Gowrie, succeeded to the family honours when 11
years of age, and was carefully trained up in the doc
trines of the Reformation. When only a student at
Edinburgh university, he was elected provost of
Perth, — an office which had been filled by his imme
diate four precedessors in the line of ancestry ; and,
during six years — 1 594-1600 — of his being absent on
the continent prosecuting his studies, he was annually
chosen to the office. In February 1600, when 22
years of age, he returned; and, on the one hand,
was warmly received by those who had reposed such
high confidence in him, but, on the other, was coldly
treated and coldly spoken of by the reigning mon
arch, James VI. In the month of August, he and
his brother were murdered in Gowrie palace, under
a belief or a pretext of their having attempted to
* At an early period, and during several ages, the city was
often railed, from its patron saint, St. John's-town, and ab-
breviatedly St. Johnstone; but it was never so designated in
public writs, and very seldom in historical documents. An
assertion is frequently made that its ancient church, or that ol
St. John the Buptist, was called ' the Kirk of St. Johnstone j
but this is very obviously a mistake.

PERTH.

r,ar.

murder the king. The current story is that James,
menaced by them with assassination, called out of a
window for help, and was rescued by bis attendants
rushing into the room. But, whether the Earl in
tended to assassinate the king, or the king intended
to assassinate the Earl, or whether any attempt at
assassination on either side was meditated, are points'
which have been keenly contested. Several con
temporary writers strongly asserted that the Earl
was guilty, and painted in the deepest colouring the
supposed circumstances of his imputed crime ; while
multitudes, at the same period, regarded their whole
story as monstrously fictitious. Lord Hailes, in
republishing the account inculpating the Earl, and
published " by authority" in 1600, preparatory
to his further observations upon it, regarded it
as not worthy of credit. Dr. Robertson appears
to believe that the Earl wished to secure the
king's person for political purposes. Adamson, in
the ' Muses Threnodie,' asserts that the king was
the guilty party, and that he wished to get rid of
two popular characters, whose family had long been
hostile to his measures; and Adamson has been joined
in opinion numerously by Scotchmen in general, and
almost uniformly by the citizens of Perth. " The
scrutiny," says Dr. Thomson, in the New Statistical
Account, " which has been made into the circum
stances of the case, leaves an impression unfavour
able to his Majesty, which the ingenuity of his most
powerful advocates has not been able to remove.
His Majesty volunteered to give the city a very full
and kindly expressed charter of confirmation of rights
and privileges. This, it has been believed, was in
tended by him to weaken the people's hostility to
him, occasioned by the catastrophe. To the same
cause is ascribed his entering his name on the guil
dry -book as a burgess."
In 1623, three women, after being formally tried,
and condemned in an assize of seven days' continu
ance, were strangled at the stake, and then burnt,
for the imputed crime of witchcraft. The place
where they and former victims of superstitious and
sanguinary ignorance suffered death, is said to have
been a hollow in the North Inch. In 1617, James
VI., while on his royal tour through Scotland, vis
ited Perth, and, agreeably to previous secret instruc
tions, was received with adulatory poems ^ and ad
dresses, and with jejune and ridiculous pageants,
which delighted the small-hearted pedant-king as
much as they provoked the stare and incurred the
contempt of every gentleman and peasant of com
mon sense. For example, the skinners were in
structed to " provide for the sword dance, the baxters
for the Egyptian dance, and the schoolmaster and
the bairns gud dance to his majesty ;" and " anent
the speche that is to be maid to his majestie," said a
preparatory missive from the secret council at Edin
burgh, " zou sail inform him whome you are to trust
with that matter, that first in name of the town he
mak his majestie welcome, and then, in sensible and
good language, he sal sette forth his majesties awin
praise, by innumerable comfortis and blessings,
quhilk this country has haid baith in kirk and poli-
cie under his majesteis moist happie government, —
and lait go far as modestie may permitt." [New
Statistical Account.] In 1632, Charles I. visited
the city, and was received and entertained in the
same style of ineffable folly; but with the exqui
sitely ludicrous addition, that two tailors personated
the city and the Tay, and performed before the king
what courtesy called a poetic comedy. In 1644,
after the battle of Tippermuir, Perth was taken
possession of by the Marquis of Montrose. In 1651 ,
Cromwell, after his victory near Burntisland, marched
directly to Perth, found its gates shut against him,

and purposed to besiege it ; but, in consequence of
a noisy and imposing bustle being kept up by stra
tagem within the walls, he imagined that a power
ful military force were prepared to offer vigorous
resistance, and he offered advantageous terms of
capitulation, and was peacefully admitted. In 1715
and in 1745, as we formerly noticed, Perth was the
head-quarters of the insurgent Jacobites. On the an
niversary of George II. 's birth-day, while the Prince
and his Highland army were still at Holyrood, a mob
rose in Perth, placed guards at all the town's gates,
took possession of the main guard, rung the fire-!
bell, and drew about 200 persons to join their en
terprise ; and they then sent a message to the Jaco
bite governor, requesting him immediately to de
liver up to them arms and ammunition, and to with.
draw from the town. The governor refused ; they
again rang the fire-bell : and hostilities commenced
about two o'clock in the morning, and continued
about three hours. The people fired upon the coun
cil-house from the heads of the lanes, from windows,
and from behind stairs; so that the party within
could not look out without the greatest hazard.
Four of the mob were wounded ; and one of the
governor's party, an Irish captain in the French
service, was killed, and three or four were wounded.
To prevent any similar outbreak, 190 of the Prince's
followers were added to the previous garrison.
Remarkable floods in the Tay inundated the
town, and occasioned dismay and damage in the
years 1210, 1621, 1740, 1773, and 1814. A notice
of the earliest of these is given in our article on
Berthar, and will sufficiently illustrate the disas
trous character of the others. That appalling pesti
lence, the plague, visited and scourged the town in
the years 1512, 1585-7, 1608, and 1645. An old
manuscript volume, quoted by Dr. Thomson in the
New Statistical Account, says, respecting its visita
tion in the last of these years : " Three thousand of
the inhabitants died. of it during that time, besides
many who died afterwards, it not ceasing for several
years, though not raging with such violence. It
almost depopulated Perth; many houses in different
places being shut up, which afterwards, in back
parts, went to ruin ; and what houses stood to the
streets uninfected, were inhabited by few. Several
houses were infected in a great degree to the front,
and even some streets were entirely forsaken, parti
cularly one between the church and the Meal-Ven-
nel. And the inhabitants, being few in number, had
no courage to carry on trade, or manufacture, and
buildings, for many years." — Perth formerly gave
the title of Earl to a branch of the family of Drum
mond; created Baron Drummond in 1488, and Earl
of Perth in 1605. James, the 4th Earl, attached
himself to the cause of James II. after the Revolu
tion, and was created by him Duke of Perth ; but
he was outlawed by the established government, and
dying in 1716, his two sons were attainted. The
earldom is said to be represented by George Drum
mond, commonly called the Duke of Melfort, for
merly a captain in the 93d regiment — the claimant of
the earldom of Melfort, attainted in 1695; and it
is claimed also by Mr. Thomas Drummond, a work
ing collier, or pitman, at Pensher near Newcastle,,
who represents himself to be the grandson of Gen
eral James Drummond, commonly called the Duke
of Perth. The estates were restored in fee simple,
in 1785, to James Drummond ; and the British title
of Lord Perth was revived in his person, but became
dormant at the death of its first possessor. The only
surviving child of this nobleman, the Hon. Clemen
tina Sarah Drummond — who would be Countess of
Perth were it si female peerage — was married, in
1807, to Lord Willoughby d'Eresby.

526

PERTHSHIRE.

PERTHSHIRE, one of the largest, and, in all
respects, most important counties of Scotland. It is
situated in the centre of the kingdom, and connects
the northern Highlands with the southern Lowlands,
and the Highlands of the west with the Lowlands
on the east. A small section of it, consisting of the
parishes of Culross and Tulliallan, and lying on the
north side of the upper part of the frith of Forth, is
dissevered from the main body, by the intervention
of the counties of Clackmannan and Fife. This sec
tion is bounded, partly on the west and partly on the
north, by Clackmannanshire ; partly on the north,
and wholly on the north-east and east, by Fifeshire ;
and wholly on the south and south-west, and partly
on the west, by the frith of Forth, which divides it
from Stirlingshire. It lies at the nearest point, only
1| mile from the main body ; and measures in ex
treme length from east to west 6J miles ; and in ex
treme breadth from north to south 4£ miles. The
rest, or body of the county, is bounded on the north
west by Inverness-shire ; on the north by Inverness-
shire and Aberdeenshire ; on the east by Forfarshire ;
on the south-west by Fifeshire and Kinross-shire ;
on the south by Clackmannanshire and Stirlingshire ;
on the south-west by Stirlingshire and Dumbarton
shire ; and on the west by Argyleshire. Its form is
not very far from being a circle, upon a radius of
about 30 miles, drawn from a centre a little north of
Healnaddow, near the head of Glenalmond ; but the
outline is in many places jagged, and otherwise irre
gular ; and where it touches Fifeshire and Stirling
shire, particularly the former, it makes long-contin
ued, though not very deep recessions. The boun
daries are, to a great extent, natural, and very boldly
defined; yet over considerable distances they are
quite artificial, and not a little capricious. From a
point in the south-west, within about 3 miles of the
head of Loch-Fyne, the longest arm of the frith of
Clyde in Argyleshire, to a point at the base of Mount-
Blair, between Glenshee and Glenisla, a distance of
at least 117 miles, all over the west and the north,
and part of the east, the boundary-line consists, with
inconsiderable exceptions, of vast central summit-
ranges,  the water-sheds of the most alpine and
elongated mountain-chains of Scotland. The excep
tions are at the points where the moor of Rannoch
places Loch-Lydoch and the lochlet Lochanachly on
the boundary with Argyleshire, and that at which a
recession of the mountains conducts Loch-Ericht
within the frontier of Badenoch. From Mount- Blair,
the boundary-fine follows, for 2 miles, the river Shee ;
it then, for 12 miles, alternately runs along secondary
water-sheds, and the courses of nascent streams, till
it falls upon the Isla, at the ruins of Airley-castle ;
it now follows, the Isla down to the confluence with
it of the Dean, — then, for 3J miles, ascends the latter
stream, — and then, for 27 or 28 miles, wends tortu
ously, and with whimsical deviations, and with hardly
a mile of natural boundary, till it falls upon the frith
of Tay at Invergowrie, 3 miles above Dundee. The
boundary-line travels 11 miles up the frith of Tay,
before recommencing on the south shore ; and it thus
occasions a deep incipient recession of the county
from Fifeshire. After leaving the Tay, a little west
of Mugdrum island, the line has a course of at least
36 miles before reaching the south-east extremity of
the main body, at a point upon the South Devon, f
of a mile south of Solsgirth ; but it moves with such
sinuosities, and so capriciously, over most of the way,
follows now the ridges, and now the rills of the
Ochils, that it cannot be succinctly described. From
the south-east extremity, it recedes nearly 5 miles
due north, up the South Devon, across the Devon,
and along a generally artificial path ; it then proceeds
17 miles chiefly westward and partly south-westward,

cogtmS* lage, and some others stretching from
GartmOTe through a hilly country toward Benlomond,
* xcTpt for cutting off these, which belong to Perth-
snfre and lie on th! south side of the river the boun
dary-line now runs undeviatingly up the Forth, and
its southern head-stream, the Duchray till within 3§
miles of Benlomond : and it then for 6 miles, passes
along a ridge of heights; it next, for 6 miles crosses
Loch-Arklet, and the upper part of Loch-Katrine,
and runs up the northern head-water of the Forth
nearly to its source ; and it finally, for 7 miles, walks
along the heights round the head of Loch-Lomond,
crosses GlenfaUoch at a point less than a mile north
of that great lake, and passes up a tributary of the
Falloch, through Lochanlarig, on to Crochrechan, the
point whence we commenced our delineation — The
county lies between 56° 4' and 56° 57' north lati
tude ; and between 3° 4' and 4° 50' longitude, west
of Greenwich. Its extreme length from Invergow
rie on the east, to the top of Benloi on the west, is
77 miles ; and its extreme breadth from the boun
dary of the east forest of Athole, at the source of the
Tilt on the north, to the frith of Forth at Culross on
the south, is 68 miles. Its superficial extent, were
its form quadrangular, would be 5,236 square miles ;
but, allowing for the rounding away of the angles, and
for indentations, it may be estimated, in round num
bers, at 5,000 square miles, or 4,068,640 English
acres. These are the measurements of Dr. James
Robertson, in his Agricultural View of Perthshire ;
but they are probably marred by considerable inaccu
racies, and as regards the area, they profess to be
mere approximations. Other measurements, given
in Oliver and Boyd's Almanack, and copied into
graver works, but evidently falling far within the
truth, state the area at no more than 2,588 square
miles, or 1,656,320 acres ; and compute the distribu
tion of it to be 500,000 cultivated acres, 550,000 un
cultivated, and 606,320 unprofitable.
Perthshire was anciently divided into jurisdictions,
or subordinate territories, which still retain their de
signations, but differ widely from the modern districts,
which subdivide and facilitate administration. Mon
teith, in the south-west, was a stewartry, and, with
the exception of the parish of Balquidder, compre
hended all the territory lying west of the Ochils, and
drained by the Forth and its tributaries. Breadal -
bane was, with all its dependencies, a bailiary, or
separate jurisdiction of its earls, and comprehended
the western division of the county, from the north
west boundary down to the south screen of Glen
dochart. Strathearn was a stewartry, and compre
hended Balquidder, and all the country drained by
the Earn and its tributaries. Methven was a sepa
rate regality, and comprehended a small territory
round the site of the present village. Athole was
also a separate, but, territorially, a very large rega
lity; it was under the immediate jurisdiction of its
dukes, who, at the same time, were hereditary sher
iffs of whatever parts of the county were unrobbed
of independency ; and it comprehended all the north
western division of the present county, from the
northern boundary down to the heights which over .
look Dunkeld and Blairgowrie. The other ancient
divisions, whose names continue to be in use, are
Rannoch, a subdivision of Breadalbane, occupying its
north-western or northern corner ; Strathardle and
Glenshee, subdivisions of Athole, along the courses
| respectively of tlie Ardle and the Shee ; Stormont,

-'*^*^^***#***#

~^=ss

PERTHSHIRE.

527

a beautiful band of country of about 7 miles broad,
extending from the Ericht and the Isla to the vici
nity of Dunkeld ; Gowrie, a district on the eastern j
frontier from Stormont to the frith of Tay ; and |
Perth Proper, a portion of Strathtay and its screens |
from Stormont to the congress of Strathearn and the
Carse of Gowrie. These divisions include the whole
county except the detached district of Culross and
Tulliallan  Since the abolition of hereditary juris
dictions, in 1748, the sheriff-depute exercises rule
over all the county, and appoints two substitutes, the
one of whom resides at Perth, and the other at Dun
blane. By an act of parliament passed in 1795, ex
tending the jurisdiction of justices-of-peace in deter
mining causes for the recovery of small debts, the
county is divided into the 10 districts of Perth, ^Dun
keld, Blairgowrie, Weem, Auchterarder, Culross,
Crieff, Dunblane, Carse of Gowrie. and Cupar-
Angus. The county, in a general view, has a prevailingly
south-eastern declination or exposure. While about
the region of the Moor of Rannoch, it receives one
or two inconsiderable streams from the west, it no
where sends in that direction even a rill in return ;
and except at the Moor and at Loch-Ericht, it is
stupendously walled up along all the far-stretching
west and the far-stretching north, by alpine ramparts,
which form the grandest water-shed in Scotland, and
an almost impervious barrier against any sort of inter
communication. The streams, and the general slope
of the country, coming down from these soaring
mountain enclosures, decline now southward and now
eastward, but averagely toward the south-east. A
band of country along the south, possessing a mean
breadth of about 11 miles, but suffering vast deduc
tions from the indentation of Fife and Kinross, and
the interventions of Clackmannan and Stirling, is
sectioned off from the rest of the county, by a line of
water-shed, at first lofty, but afterwards of gentle
elevation, which extends from Bencharra on the west
to Coalridge hill among the Ochils on the east, and
forms the south screen successively of Glenfalloch,
Glendochart, Glenogle, Glenartney, and Strathearn.
Excepting a nook on the south-west, of about 30
square miles, which is drained by the Falloch toward
Loch-Lomond, the whole country north of this line
is the vast, the varied, the beautifully intricate, and
the exquisitely scenic, basin of the monarch-river of
Britain, — the majestic lay and its noble tributaries.
As the Earn sweeps away to the east on a line par
allel to the southern water-shed, and at but a brief
distance from it, a mere ribbony belt of the basin
declines toward the north, while incomparably the
greater expanse of it follows in its dip the south
easterly declination of the Tay. All the band of
country which is sectioned off from the Tay's basin
belongs to the basin of the Forth ; and nearly the
whole of it takes its declination from the south
easterly course of the Teith and the upper Devon,
and the southerly course of the Allan — But Perth
shire is affected in its climate more by relative posi
tion than by interior declination. Situated in the
zone where the Highlands melt down into the Low
lands, at nearly equal distances from the German
ocean and the Atlantic, it possesses a medium heat
between the temperatures respectively of the north
ern -and the southern counties, and experiences all the
varieties of climate which belong to both the eastern
and the western coasts. Easterly winds bring rain
and unsettled weather on Gowrie, Stormont, Glen
shee, and Strathardle, while the weather is dry and
serene in Breadalbane; westerly winds waft the
clouds of the Atlantic over Monteith, Breadalbane,
and Rannoch, while not a drop of rain falls on the
east ; and the two classes of winds so strive for the

mastery in the interior, and are so disburdened of
their loads by the attractive power of mountain-
ranges on the frontier, as very often to have little
dominion, and small moistening influence about the
region of Methven, Monzie, Dull, and Dunkeld. The
climate of extensive localities is powerfully affected
also by the peculiar configuration of the surfaces, and
the mutual positions of adjacent mountain-ranges, and
intermediate valleys. The westerly winds, for ex
ample, which sail along the Grampians, almost due
east, till they arrive at the bold headland between
Drummond-castle and the house of Braco, instead of
continuing their course in 'the same direction over
the flat country of Strathearn, for the most part
cross south-east to the Ochils at Gleneagles, or
north-east to the hills behind Crieff and Fowlis;
and, in the same way, the westerly winds, guided
by the mountain-ridge which separates Glenlochy
from Glendochart, and terminates at the village of
Killin, rarely continue their course eastward along
the opening made by Loch-Tay and its vale, but
for the most part assume either a northerly course
toward the hills above Finlarig, or a southerly one
toward those above Achmore. Northerly winds
— which, in most parts of the island, blow with
penetrating and chilly keenness — are powerfully mol
lified over a large part of Perthshire by the same
heights which give it a southerly exposure, — the vast
broad alpine range along the northern frontier, the
Ochil hill-screen of the Carse of Gowrie, and the
long ridge which separates from each other the basins
of the Tay 'and the Forth. According to observa
tions continued during five consecutive years, wes
terly winds have been found to prevail during from
165 to 220 days in the year ; fair weather from 189
to 250 days ; rain from 95 to 141 ; and frost from 11
to 66. The mean height of the barometer has been
found, during three consecutive years, to range be
tween 29'59, and 29'71 ; and the mean height of the
thermometer between 41 and 42£. The annual quan
tity of rain during five years of observation, varied
between 31-45 inches and 38-4. The climate, on
the whole, is so mild, that, even in some valleys of
the Grampians, barley has been reaped in good order
nine weeks after being sown. These results were
ascertained partly at Meigle, in the extreme east, and
partly at Coldoch in Menteith, on the south-west.
The mountain-rampart which runs along the north
is a main part, and contains some of the bulkiest
forms, and some of the most towering summits, of
that vast alpine range, the greatest in Scotland, which
extends from Ben-Nevis on the west, to Mount-
Battock on the east, and thence forks off into dimin
ished lines to the German ocean at Stonehaven and
the mouth of the Dee ; and so stern and resistful is
it, that only at three points over its great extent, —
at the heads respectively of the Shee, the Bruar, and
the Garry, — have military roads been drilled through
its high and terrific passes. The rampart which
towers aloft along the west is a chief part of the con
tinuous range which, second in importance only to
the former, extends from the Moor of Rannoch away
southward by the peaks of Arrpquhar to the extre
mity of the peninsula of Cowal. The Moor of Ran
noch intervenes between the commencement of the
one range and the transit of the other, and presents
at the boundary on the north-west a lugubriously
waste table-land or huge upland plain, lying about
1,000 feet above sea-level. From the two continu
ous ramparts along the boundaries, and from the inner
edge of Rannoch Moor, ridges run direct into the in
terior, going off at right angles with the boundaries,
southward from the north, south-eastward from Ran
noch, and eastward from the west ; and, in a general
view, they are spreading, and agglomorated, at their

528

PERTHSHIRE.

commencement, — they, attenuate in breadth, and di
minish in altitude, during their progress, — and they
now thin out, or form concentrations, so as to merge
two or even three ridges into one, — now make mu
tual recessions, so as to enclose ample expanses of
lowland,  and now send off spurs and protuberances,
and oblique elongations, so as to cover a district with
an almost confused assemblage of heights. In a few
instances, also, as in the marked and magnificent one
of Schichallion, mountains tower solitarily up from
the plains formed by the recesses of the ridges. All
these heights, from the boundaries inwards, wear the
general and unmeaning name of Grampians ; and over
the whole of their aggregately slow and sublimely
undulating descent to the interior, they lie within
the Highlands, and form, with their valleys and gorges
and retreats, at once the strongest, the most varied,
and in every respect the most distinctive and fasci
nating section of that vast and very diversified terri
tory. Among their very numerous and grand sum
mits, Ben-Lawers lifts its peak 4,015 feet above sea-
level ; Ben-More, 3,903 ; Schichallion, 3,564 ; Ben-
iglo, 3,724; Benledi, 3,009 ; Ben- Venue, 3,000 ; and
Ben-Ghonzie, in Strathearn, 2,922. The mountains
are, in general, enormous lumpish piles, broad in their
bases, and heavy in their features ; yet, in many in
stances, they are steep in ascent, sharp in outline,
very diversified in form, and both striking and pecu
liar in the erosions, protuberances, or deep fissures
of their surface. Most of them exhibit bare and
utterly weather-worn summits ; and, in the region
below the crowning one where the rock breaks the
surface, and claims in its nakedness a sturdy and
savage' ascendency, they are generally covered with
a moorish soil, so comparatively rich as to be greatly
superior to that of most upland tracts in England,
and three or four times better than that of the east
ern moorlands of Yorkshire. Their lower declivi
ties, and, in some cases, even their middle zones, are
very extensively green with emerald sward, or bosky
and warmly tinted with a profusion of copses and
Slantation. The valleys which wind among their
nes, and their recesses, though bearing a small pro
portion to the aggregate measurements of the High
land area in which they lie, are, for the most part,
both more extensive and more fertile than the valleys
at the foot of the mountains whish advance north
ward from Northumberland into Scptland, along the
eastern border of Dumfries-shire. The contrast
which the luxuriance and the warmth of these recluse
valleys exhibit to the barrenness and the coldness of
the snow- wreathed or cloud-capped elevations which
environ them, flings a charm upward to the chilliest
part of the landscape, renders them extremely re
freshing to the eye of a stranger, and dresses them
into fine keeping with whatever woods may dangle
in loveliness upon the lower declivities  About two-
thirds of the whole county, from Loch-Ericht or the
Moor of Rannoch south-eastward, is comprehended
in the Grampian or Highland region. But as an ap
proach is made to the low country, the mountains
lose much of their sternness, the valleys considerably
expand, summits are less generally bare, and decli
vities more frequently glide off into hanging plains ;
and eventually the Highlands, disclosing themselves
through a long series of vastly magnificent portals,
come exulting out in dresses of opulence and sur
passing beauty, which well befit the scene and the
occasion of their union with the Lowlands  Nearly
at right angles with the opening valleys, and with the
terminating headlands of the ranges which separate
them, runs from south-west to north-east across the
whole of the county, what concurrent geographical
nomenclature describes as Strathmore : see that
article. Yet the notion of a great plain, lying along

the base of the frontier rampart of the Highlands,
applies better, or witrMess violence, to the whole
extent, of what is geographically termed Strathmore,
than to the section of it whicfi lies within Perthshire.
Our description of the low grounds here, or of the
upper frontier of the Lowlands, within the county,
must be more particular. The most southerly of all
the Highland valleys suddenly expands and flattens
down at Gartmore, 18 miles above Stirling, into a
level strath, a broad band of carse ground ; and this
strath,— the luxuriant, wheat-bearing vale of the
Forth,— after quite leaving the overshadowing flank
of any spur of the Grampians, sweeps along all the
remaining part of the southern boundary of the coun
ty, so far as it lies upon the Forth. Strathallan, or
the rich broad vale of the Allan, goes off from this
plain in a north-eastward direction, at points oppo
site the parish of Stirling ; and till it is closed up by
the long low ridge from east to west, which separ
ates the basin of the Forth from that of the Tay, it
might very literally be understood as part of the'
largely defined Strathmore. Strathearn [which
see] opens from among the Grampians on a line par
allel with the vale of the Forth, and in a style of
kindred suddenness and expansion; and, while the
greatest of the openings which spread out in Low
land fulness after debouching from the Highlands,—
while, also, extending due eastward all the way to
the Tay, at a point very near the northern extremity
of the boundary with Fifeshire, — it contributes not
its length, but its breadth, to the continuation of the
alleged great plain along the base of the Highland
frontier. Another low ridge, similar to that which
flanks the south side of Strathearn, at first moun
tainous and rugged, but afterwards gentle and undu
lating, now divides the feeders of the Earn from those
of the Almond, and once more interrupts the strict
continuousness of Strathmore. But beyond this
ridge, or from Methven north-eastward to the boun
dary at Meigle, the undoubted Strathmore, a well
defined plain across the ribs and inlets of the High
lands, stretches along in richly cultivated luxuriance,
and includes the low grounds of Methven, Perth
Proper, Stormont, and Upper Gowrie. The various
plains and valleys which, as strung together thus,
compose a broad band of Lowland frontier, are ex
ceedingly various in the breadth of contribution
which they make to the consecutive ' great strath ;'
and are better and more jtstly understood, if con
sidered seriatim as the vaje of the Tay, encroach
ing far on the Highlands, and coming out directly
to the east ; the vale of the Teith, coming down
south-eastward, and losing itself in the former,
very soon after becoming Lowland ; the vale of the
Allan, sweeping round south-westward and south
ward, invaded by Grampian detachments, and com
pelled by them to have comparatively unexpansive
limits ; the vale of the Earn, making an early con
quest over the Highlands, and extending away east
ward in a long broad march of freedom from moun
tain control ; the vale of the Almond, breaking away
from the choking grasp of the Grampians above
Buchanty, spreading itself out in a sheet of verdure,
around Methven, and extending strictly parallel to
Strathearn; the vale of the Tay, coming down south
eastward and southward, in extreme magnificence of
landscape, long maintaining dubiousness of character
between Highland grandeur and Lowland amenity,
and eventually sweeping along in undulations, or
otherwise incessant changes of valley contour ; the
vale of the Lunan, the brilliant district of Stormont,
with its chain of fine lochlets, its sheets of forest,
and its expanse of tumulated plain, extending south
eastward parallel to the left bank of the Tay, from
the vicinity .of Dunkeld ; and the vale of the Iskv

PERTHSHIRE.

5^9

coming down south-westward irom the boundary,
and blending the undoubted section of the Strathmore
of Perthshire with the far-extending and distinctly
marked Strathmore district of Forfarshire.— Along
the south-east skirt or margin, of this concatenation
of vales, extend the Ochil and the Sidlaw hills,— the
former from the side of the strath of Forth, a little
below Stirling, to the Tay at Abernethy; and the
latter from Kinnoul-hill, 6 or 7 miles farther up the
Tay, and on the opposite bank, to the eastern boun
dary of the county : see Ochils and Sidlaws. The
Ochils have the whole of their water-shed or summit-
range in Perthshire ; they are sectioned off from it
at their south-west end solely by the intrusions of
the counties of Stirling, Clackmannan, and Fife; they
rear aloft in it some of their grandest summits, and
their most metalliferous piles ; and in their far march
north-eastward, they give but their skirts and their
lower declivities to the shores of Fife and Kinross.
The Sidlaws, till they pass the frontier, into the
conterminous county, are wholly within Perthshire ;
they section off the rich district of the Carse of Gow
rie from the broad plain of Strathmore ; and they
claim various detached and straggling hills, among
the most noted of which is the celebrated Dunsinnan.
— The Carse of Gowrie, between the Sidlaws and
the frith of Tay, differs from every other part of the
county, except part of Strathearn, and the band of
carse lands along the Forth, in being nearly a dead
level, singularly opulent in its soil, highly fructifer
ous over every square foot of its surface, and athwart
all its expanse an uninterrupted scene of the most
luxuriant cultivation.
The scenery of Perthshire, as has been partially
hinted, and as can scarcely fail to be inferred from
the general contour of the country, is surprisingly
varied, and almost uniformly rich ; and, in its gross
amount, if estimated by the number of first-rate pic
tures, or distinctive and individualized groupings
which it contains, is probably quite equal to that of
all the rest of gorgeously scenic Scotland. In close
landscapes, especially, or in those which concentrate
a thousand attractions within the winding of a glen,
or the recess of a hill-range, it is peculiarly rich. In
extensiveness of view, too, combined with surpassing
beauty, and with all those properties which produce
the most exquisite thrills of delight, what can surpass
the visions from the hills of Moncrieff and Demyat ?
Scenery occurs of every extent, from the largest
panorama which can be intelligently surveyed, to the
smallest miniature which can be compressed into a
nook, — of every class, from the sublimely wild or
romantic, to the softly champaign and beautiful, —
and of every style, from the sternest or most nakedly
magnificent, to the fullest of amenities and luscious-
ness and ornament. Though all such striking combina
tions of marine and mountain landscape are awanting,
as form the grand attraction of the western High
lands, they are very abundantly, and somewhat in
their own style, compensated by large lacustrine, and
sometimes isleted sheets of water, screened by heights
which, for alpine altitude and boldness of contour, and
romance of dress, may challenge comparison with any
in the west. Excepting only that of Loch-Lomond,
nearly all the really fine lake-scenery of Scotland oc
curs in Perthshire ; and without any exception what
ever, the county's aggregate blending3 of mountain
and wood and water, into pictures of magnificence and
romance, are quite unmatched, as to either extent or
effect, in any other district of Britain. Who that
gazes upon the type of all glorious things which
bursts upon the eye at Killin, or at the debouch
from the Trosachs, will ever again speak in superla
tives of the brilliantly pretty Derwent- water, or the
calmly beautiful Windermere, or the sullenly pleas-
II.

ant Ulles-water, or any select sheet or point what
ever of the Westmoreland lakes ? Then, as to river
scenery, where but in Perthshire shall be found such
tumultuous assemblages of rocky eminences, all of
whimsical and fantastic form, shagged over with trees
and shrubs, and grouped in the very confusion of
boskiness and romance, with wondrous overshadow
ing hill-screens, as occurs at the Trosachs, at the
head of Strathearn, and on the river Rannoeh ? or
such closely approaching and sheer alpine descents,
bringing down sheets of forest from the clouds, and
standing with their bases on the margin of rapids and
cataracts, as in the glens of the Tummel and the
Tilt ? or such uninterrupted series of distinctive
landscape, ever varying, in all styles, now close and
now expanding, playfully and almost whimsically
various, in the disposal of a profusion of wood at first
Highland, afterwards and long debateably Highland
and Lowland, and eventually subsiding into the most
luscious and ornate champaign, as occur along Strath-
tay ? or such tremendous defiles, such protuberances
of hill almost in contact with hill, lifting a passenger
into mid-air, sending down walls of rock tufted with
scanty shrubs, to a dark chasm below, and suspend
ing objects in dreadful giddiness over an impetuous
rush and a deafening roar of a wild stream careering
in darkness below, as occur at the passes of Killie
crankie, Leney, Spittal of Glenshee, Coheilg, and
Aberfoil ? But to go on specifying even classes of
singular and arresting landscape, and especially classes
of all that scenery which finely blends the grand and
the beautiful, would be to write very far beyond our
disposable limits. We shall, however, present the
reader with the remarks of a most intelligent but
anonymous tourist on the Highland scenery of this
county : — " We have visited many parts of Scotland,
but if we were to select a district to which we would
give the name of the Scottish Arcadia, it would be
the Highlands of Perthshire. We beg to remind our
readers that Arcadia was not only a pastoral, but
generally a rugged country, whose charms consisted
in sweet wooded valleys, enclosed among lofty moun
tains and precipices ; and such, precisely, is the coun
try we allude to. From the one extremity of the
journey to the other, the traveller will find an un
broken line of ornamental plantations, with the ex
ception of 5 or 6 miles in the pass of Glen Ogle, which
leads from Earn to Loch-Tay. The form and ap
pearance of a Highland valley is pretty generally
known. The bottom consists of an alluvial plain, a
quarter or half-a-mile broad, with a surface which is
almost a dead-level, and with its margin not melting
insensibly into the slopes of the heights, but sharp
and well-defined. Through this plain, the river flows
sometimes along the side, rarely along the middle,
but often winding across it in many a meander. Above
the first or lowest bottom, at some places may be
seen the remains of a second, a third, and even a
fourth, in the form of terraces, with the same flat
appearance, the one terrace rising sometimes six feet,
and sometimes twenty, forty, or sixty, above the
other. The lowest of these plains has the appear
ance of a meadow, and as the subsoil is entirely gra
vel, it is generally dry, and bears good crops of corn.
The hills above partake of the same character, and
in the very deep valleys these comprise the whole
of the arable land. But when the declivities of the
mountains are moderate, the alluvial soil, that is to say,
the coating of gravel, sometimes extends 100 to 20Q
feet (of perpendicular height) above the river bottom,
and the plough generally follows it to its upper ex
tremity. When standing on one side of a valley, the
eye can trace with ease the boundary of the alluvial
soil on the other, both by the smoothness of its sur
face, and the crops of corn or hay which it bears.
2l

530

PERTHSHIRE.

Where the rock consists of clay-slate, mica-slate, or
limestone, the natural grasses ascend two, three, or
four hundred feet higher on the sides of the moun
tain ; and heath, mixed with coarse and wiry grass,
occupies all above to the summit, except where the
bare rock is exposed. In mountains of granite and
quartz rock, the heath descends a good deal lower.
In the district we have been describing, the wood is
variously distributed along the bottom and sides of
the valley. In the bottom where the ground is valu
able, it is seen in narrow belts, or running in slender
lines like hedgerows, with here and there an orna
mental clump covering a few acres. The braes im
mediately above the bottom, when too steep for the
plough, are sometimes entirely covered by copse-
wood, and at other times by large timber, comprising
most of the trees which succeed in the Lowlands.
The Scotch fir occupies a higher situation, and is
seen disputing the ground with the hardy heath,
sometimes, we believe, at the height of 1,500 feet
above the sea. In the bottom lands at Dunkeld and
Taymouth, gigantic limes, elms, and beeches, are to
be found, which we imagine would not yield the palm
of beauty or grandeur to anything that England pro
duces. Some of the subordinate hills rising 1,000
feet above the valleys, are entirely covered with
pines. It is this abundance of wood, scattered over
the bottoms and sides of the valleys, and often cover
ing the smaller hills, which constitutes the great
charm of the scenery. It takes away that appear
ance of bleakness and desolation which naked moun
tain masses present ; and it adds richness, grace, and
softness, to a landscape whose sole character other
wise would be that of stern grandeur. The lower
and wooded part of the valley, with its glassy lake
or murmuring stream, breathes the very essence of
rural beauty ; and a new charm is thrown over it by
the rampart of rugged mountains which enclose it,
and suggest at once ideas of shelter, seclusion, and
sublimity. The distance from the top of the one
enclosing ridge to that of the other, is seldom less
than 2 miles, or more than 5 or 6 ; but in nearly all
cases the bends and turns of the mountains also shut
in the valley to the eye in the direction of its length,
and thus give each section of it the appearance of
being a sweet little pastoral world within itself. The
passes where the mountains approach very near to
one another, have a beauty and a grandeur quite pe
culiar. Dr. Clarke, we think, compares the pass of
Killiecrankie to the celebrated Vale of Tempe."
The waters of Perthshire, both lakes and streams,
are so fully noticed in their respective alphabetical
places, that here we need only name and classify
them. The, lakes of the first class as to size are,
Tay, Earn, and Rannoch, in Breadalbane ; Ericht,
on the boundary with Inverness-shire ; and Katrine,
in Monteith. The second class lakes are Lydoch,
on the boundary with Argyleshire ; Garry, between
Rannoch and Athole ; Tummel, in Athole ; Venna-
choir, Monteith, and Lubnaig, in Monteith ; and Voil,
in Balquidder. Of numerous lakes of third class
size, the most noticeable are Lyon and Dochart, in
Breadalbane ; Tilt, in Athole ; Ard, Achray, and
Chon, in- Monteith ; Doine, in Balquidder ; Turret,
in Strathearn ; Freuchie, in Glenqueich ; and Ordie,
Lows, Butterstone, Cluny, and Drumellie, in Stor
mont  The Forth, as we have seen, traces much of
the southern boundary, and drains all the territory
lying south of Strathearn. Its only noticeable tribu
taries on the side of Perthshire, are the Goody, the
Teith, the Allan, the Devon, and the South Devon.
— The Tay, as it drains all the country between the
south screen of Strathearn and the northern boun
dary of the country, draws its waters in numerous
and converging streams toward a great central chan

nel. The Earn, its tributary along Strathearn, brings
to it the Lednock, the Ruchil, the Turret, the Pow-
affray, the Machony, the Shaggy, the Ruthven, the
May, and the Farg. The lake whence the main
stream of the Tay issues, and that main stream itself,
receive the Fillan, the Dochart, the Lochy, the Lyon,
the Tummel,' the Bran, the Isla, the Ordie, the
Shochie, and the Almond; and of these the Lyon
brings to it the Glenmore, — the Tummel brings the
Gouir, the Ericht, the Rannoch, the Garry, — and,
through the last, the Edendon, the Endor, the Feach-
ory, the Erachkie, the Bruar, the Tarff, and the Tilt,
— the Bran brings the Freuchie, — and the Isla brings
the Shee, the Ardle, the Erochd, and the Lunan 
Of various mineral waters in the county, the most
celebrated for medicinal properties are the wells of
Pitcaithly  In all the hilly districts, spring water is
not only plenteous, but of the finest quality, descend
ing from fountains in the face of rocks or mountains,
in streams as pure as crystal ; but in the level parts
of Monteith, in the Carse of Gowrie, and in a few
other localities of similar physical complexion, it is
both scarce and of inferior quality. While, in con
sequence of the flatness of the districts, streams are
rare, and springs are stinted, a dry season speedily
carries off by evaporation all such water as exists,
occasioning nauseous and pestiferous exhalations from
putrid ditches ; and a wet season converts the whole
surface into a miry expanse, renders every foot-print
of man or beast a receptacle of water, and, but for
the relief of the surface by drainage, would speedily
occasion an appalling rifeness of agues, rheumatisms,
and other intermittent diseases  Though the county
is strictly inland, it stretches sufficiently far along the
navigable parts of the Tay and the Forth, to enable
the inhabitants of Perth, of the Carse of Gowrie, and
of the Culross and Tulliallan district, to conduct a
considerable sea- ward trade.
The mineralogy of the county, though abundantly
rich in the estimation of the scientific student, pos
sesses comparatively small importance in the eye of
the economist. The series of hill-chains along the
south-east margin of the largely defined Strathmore,
forms a barrier in the interior, or on the Highland
side, of which coal has never been found. Every
effort has been made to effect a discovery beyond this
vast natural dyke, but hitherto without any proba
bility of success. Coal has been wrought for ages at
Culross, and it occurs in abundance in all the small
districts south-east of the Ochils ; and thence it is
sent to the west end of Strathearn, to Strathallan,
and to part of Monteith and Breadalbane, but to no
other part of the county. The Carse of Gowrie, and
the town and vicinity of Perth, are suppned with
coal up the Tay, from the south coast of Fife, and
from England ; Strathmore Proper, and the eastern
part of Strathearn, are supplied by inland carriage
from the ports of Dundee and Perth ; and nearly all
the Highland districts are entirely dependent for fuel
upon peats, and the periodical clearing of copses, en
joying from the two sources quite enough of material
for all culinary and domestic purposes, but receiving
it with such vicissitudes as often occasion great dis
tress, and with such expenditure of labour as very
extensively squanders away in processes upon the
mosses and the thickets what is unsubtractedly re
quired for the working and culture of land  Lime
stone was early discovered, and much used," as a
building cement, in many parts of the county, espe
cially toward the Highland districts, and came in the
place of sea-shells ; but, as a manure, it continued to
be unknown till the last century, and did not come
into general use till the century was far advanced.
According to a law of adaptations which more or less
potently is exhibited in every department and detail

PERTHSHIRE.

531

of the Creator's works, limestone, where the soil is
of an inferior staple, exists in abundance, and, where
the soil is superior, lies remote, and can be procured
only at a great expense. Inexhaustible rocks of it,
uniformly of a grey colour, occur in Rannoch, Glen
lyon, the southern part of Breadalbane, and the west
end of Loch-Earn. A beautiful limestone, of the
density of marble, of a blue ground, and finely varie
gated with streaks of white, occurs at Callander and
at Aberfoil. Marble of superior quality, and much
beauty, at once of a fine green, of a light grey, and
of a pure white colour, is found likewise in Glentilt ;
and thence, as well as from the former places, has
been exported to a great distance, as a material for
fancy ornaments and architectural embellishments.
Limestone quarries have been worked in Port-of-
Menteith, in Glenartney, in Strathardle, and in Glen
shee ; but, in general, they were rendered uncom
pensating by the dearth of fuel. Extensive lime works
are maintained in Stormont from inexhaustible sup
plies of material on the south side of Loch-Cluny.
Lime has also been burnt in Cargill and Longforgan ;
but in these, and other places, it is much limited by
scarcity of fuel. Though limestone is unknown
throughout Strathearn, and the country around Perth,
the farmers purchase it at very high prices at the
harbours, and carry it far into the interior  Iron
stone exists in abundance in the coal-field of the dis
trict south-east of the Ochils  Large beds of fire
clay occur on the estate of Blair-castle, and other
places in the vicinity of Culross. Roofing slates,
some of a purple colour,, some of an azure blue, and
some of a muddy brown complexion along the cut
ters, are extensively quarried in the Highlands.
Breccia, or plum-pudding stone, — consisting of a
great variety of small and different-coloured stones,
firmly cemented by a brown basis, and so compact as
to form a very durable building material, — occurs in
the vicinity of Drummond-castle, in Strathearn,
around Callander in Monteith, and appears to extend
south-west to Dumbartonshire. Sandstone, of very
prime quality for building, has long and extensively
been quarried, both for home use and for exportation,
at Longannat on the Forth, and at Kingoodie in the
Carse of Gowrie. Copper, occurs among the south
ern Ochils. Lead has been extensively mined at
Tyndrum ; and it occurs also at Benledi, near Cal
lander, and at Glenlyon in Breadalbane. Shell marl
abounds in Stormont, and has been plentifully used ;
and in Strathearn, it was of later discovery, is less
abundantly, and has been less highly- appreciated.
Boulders of the sulphate of barytes, each about the
size of an egg, occur in the bed of the Shaggy in
Strathearn  The prevailing rocks in all the High
lands of Perthshire are mica-slate, gneiss, clay-slate,
chlorite-slate, some varieties of hornblende-slate,
with occasional beds of quartz, and some patches of
granite. Mica-slate alone forms the entire mass of
some of the monarch mountains, such as Ben-Lawers
and Ben-Voirlich. A narrow tract of clay-slate may
be traced north-eastward, along the lower edge of
the Grampians, from boundary to boundary of the
county, and, in one uninterrupted sweep, comes up
from Gareloch in Dumbartonshire, and passes on to
Stonehaven in Kincardineshire. A bed of limestone
 ^furnishing some of those local supplies which we
have noticed as quarried — extends from Leney, near
Callander, north-eastward, quite to the extremity of
the county, and passes on to Braemar. Greywacke,
frequently running into sandstone, a coarse red con
glomerate, and hornblende porphyry, composes most
of those isolated hills which, in several localities,
aggregate in crowds at the foot of the Grampians,
and impart to the landscape an aspect of tangledness
pnd picturesque confusion. A red sandstone, gene

rally regarded as the otd red, seems to lie beneath
very nearly the whole of the large defined Strath
more, occupying all the Lowlands between the Gram
pians on the one side, and the Ochils and the Sidlaws
on the other, and extending from the Forth to the
boundary with Meigle. Sandstone, also pronounced
to be the old red, but containing fossils, some curious
specimens have engaged the attention of the most
learned geologists, lies beneath the Carse of Gowrie.
The geognostic features of the Ochils and the Sid
laws are noticed in the articles on these hill-ranges.
Trap-dikes are comparatively unextensive, and where
they do occur, consist principally of greenstone.
The soils of Perthshire are so endlessly varied, and
run so much into one another, that they can with as
much difficulty be perfectly separated as the blend
ing colours of the rainbow ; yet, for all the purposes
of general description of their intrinsic nature, and
of proximate calculation as to how far they severally
prevail, they may be reduced to the six classes of
clay, haugh, loam, till, sand or gravel, and moss or
moor  Along the Forth, from the bridge of Gart
more to the bridge of Allan, a tract of 18 miles, all
the flat land is a deep stiff clay, of various degrees
of fertility, the blue being generally more fertile than
the yellow. In the Carse of Gowrie, all the flat
land — which constitutes immensely the larger portion
of the district — is a deep rich clay ; and while the
summits of the different swells, which run diagonally
down the Carse toward the frith, are covered with a
loam which is supposed to lie on iron ore, the skirts
of the swells have a reddish-coloured soil, which pos
sesses some affinity to clay, and which, owing to its
having formerly been used for constructing the houses
of the lower orders, bears the provincial name of
mortar. From the bridge of Forteviot on the Earn,
to the confluence of that river with the Tay, extends
a tract of pale brown clay, modified by some fresh
water deposits, and by the effects of prolonged til
lage. At Gogar and Menstrie, on the Devon, occurs
a small tract altogether similar to this in Strathearn.
In some places about Cupar Grange, there is a strong
stiff mould, which appears to be a deep till trans
muted by georgical improvement, and which has more
affinity to clay than to any other description of soil.
On the banks of the Isla, particularly about Bendo
chy, clay prevails over several pendicles of land; but,
wherever it has been much overflown by the river,
it has received large deposits of fine sediment, and
has been mixed up with it into a soil of great ferti
lity. About the town of Perth, in Strathtay, below
! Dunkeld, and in various limited localities throughout
I the Lowlands of the county, are pendicles of rich
soil more or less thoroughly argillaceous, — clay either
I in a comparatively native state, or partially trans
muted by manures and by the deposits of streams 
Haugh soil, or the fructiferous crust of flat stream-
washed lands, formed by the fresh water deposition,
of the finest and most attenuated particles of earth,
necessarily varies in quality with its deepness and
with the nature of the materials of which it is com
posed. Much haugh land occurs on the Earn, wher
ever the river occasionally flows beyond its ordinary
channel, — on the Powis, — on the Allan, — on the
Goodie, — on the Devon below Dollar, — in various
parts of Balquidder and Callander, — at Killin, — and
in such portions of Glendochart, Glenfillan, Glenlo
chy, and other districts, as are frequently overflowd
by their streams. On the Isla, where it holds a
westerly course, the haughs are uncommonly rich
and extensive ; on various parts of the long course of
the Tay, especially for some miles before it receives
the Isla, they are considerable ; and at the mouth of
the Ericht, and at the west end of Loch-Tummel,
they are of very noticeable extent  Loam, tr soil of

532

PERTHSHIRE.

any natural variety, which has been worked up by
long tillage and rich manuring into a fertile vegetable
mould, is, in most situations, so greatly interspersed
with other soils, that notices of its occurrence, unless
they would be insufferably minute, must be very
general. A fine bank of loamy soil, of considerable
length, extends from Rednock-house to Blair-Drum
mond. A long tract of loam, interspersed in differ
ent places with till or clay, extends behind the haughs
of Strathearn; and a stripe of fine loam stretches
behind the haughs of the Wester Pow from Methven
to Innerpeffrey. The same class of soil occurs often,
though not in continuous tracts, around Kier, Muthill,
Auchterarder, Dunning, and many other places.
Loamy soil prevails in all the district between Dun
keld and Perth, especially southward from Auch
tergaven ; and it occupies a large area, but is various
in colour and quality throughout Strathmore Proper,
or the vale of the Isla. A rich mould, loose and
tender, which easily yields to the plough, covers
nearly all the south-east face of the Sidlaws  On
the declivities of by far the greater part of the hills,
a strong stiff till abounds. A poor kind of till covers
all the north face of the Ochils, from Dunblane to
Abernethy, a tract of at least 20 miles. A wet, un
kindly till, skirts all the moor between the vales of
the Teith and the Forth, and terminates only a few
miles above the junction of the rivers ; and it also
covers a large extent of land on both sides of Men-
teith-loch. A cold, deep, spouty till soil occupies
the north-west brow of the Sidlaws, and, in general,
has a prevailing place on the northern declivities of
hills. A red kind of till, quite superior in quality to
most which occurs, and capable of high cultivation,
is found around Auchterarder and Dunning, and
covers the face of a bank above the public road from
Methven to Ferntown, and carpets many considerable
patches of sloping land which lie upon rocks, easily
pulverized by the alternate action of frost and thaw,
and of rain and wind. A pale-coloured till, more
barren and more difficult to be drained than the red,
and the most reluctant of all the Perthshire soils to
reward the labours of the husbandman, spreads over
the face of most of the schistose hills which are por
ous with springs, and not very abrupt in descent, and
may be observed on both sides of the Allan, at Kin-
buck, in the glen of Condie, in the upper grounds of
Culross and Tulliallan, in the hollows among the
Sidlaws, in Glenshee, Glenquiech, Glenalmond, and
less or more on the lower declivities of hills in all
the glens of the Highlands. An uncommonly rich
tilly soil, consisting chiefly of calcareous matter, oc
curs in some parts of the Highlands, superincumbent
on limestone rock, whence it derives its excellence.
— Light free-soil, easily pulverized, and consisting
principally of sand or gravel, is the most frequent ih
Perthshire. This soil prevails in all the valleys
north of Alyth, Blairgowrie, and Dunkeld, and west
of Crieff, Callander, and Gartmore, except where, at
the confluence of streams, or in parts subject to in
undation, haughs have been formed, or on the slop
ing face of hills where the soil is spouty, or on the
confines of moors, where the soil is a mixture of peat
earth : and it occurs in considerable tracts at the
head of the Allan, along the Machony, at the foot of
the Ruthven and the May, near Muthill, round the
moor of Orchill, on both sides of the Almond in
Monzie, at Crieff, at Monivaird, from Doune to Cal
lander, betwixt Cupar-Angus and Meigle, betwixt
Scone and Cargill, north and west of Auchtergaven
on one side of the Tay, and in the neighbourhood of
Delvin on the other, on the ridge of high ground
between the Pow and the Earn, and in parts of the
parishes of Rattray, Blairgowrie, Muckart, and Glen-
Land with this soil is, for the most part,

devon.

altogether incapable of being constantly cropped with
grain, but yields excellent green crops, and makes
good returns in grass  -Mosses of various dimensions
of various depths, and of various degrees of firmness,
corresponding to the time they have had for acquir
ing solidity, expand en some parts of almost every
flat, and on not a few slopes of the higher hills. In
the Highlands, they are so frequent that to enume
rate them would be intolerably irksome. In the
Lowlands, they may be viewed as concentrating all
their interest in the famous Flanders Moss in the
vale of the Forth, originally computed at 10,000
acres, but the scene of those novel, remarkable, and
extensive georgical operations which have worked
the localities of Blair-Drummond and Kincardine
into supereminent fame among reclaimers of waste
lands. Moorland, or a thin stratum of moss superin
cumbent on gravel or sand, occurs in the moor of
Orchill, computed to be about 10,000 acres ; the
Sheriff Moor, computed to be about two-thirds of
that extent ; the moor of Dollary, stretching east
ward to the vicinity of Perth ; the moor of Methven ;
the moor of Thorn, south of Dunkeld ; the moor of
Alyth, very extensive ; the moor around Dunsinnan,
both broad and long; and some moor on the high
grounds of Culross, and at Dalganross, Doune, and
Callander. But a large aggregate area of these lands
has been the scene of spirited improvements, and now
continues moorland only in name.
The proprietors of Perthshire are of all the differ
ent ranks of landowners known in Britain, from the
nobleman of vast possessions, to the peasant owner
of a few roods. The commoners are distinguished
above those of most counties by the extent of their
property, the excellence of their education, the polish
of their manners, the enlargedness of their views, and
the warmth and enlightenment of their love of coun
try. Those among them who are not engaged in the
arduous duties of legislation, government, law, or
military affairs, for the most part live upon their
estates, and show a pleasure in embellishing their
residence, ornamenting their grounds, and superin
tending or inciting operations of improvement by
their tenants. Estates, as in most of Scotland, con
sist, as to their tenure, of superiorities or baronial
rights, reserved under the name of feu-duties, or of
the gross possession of landed property, which is
either freehold, or held in feu from a superior. A
great proportion of the county is freehold ; yet many
of the small proprietors hold in feu. The bounda
ries of estates in the Highlands are principally brooks,
the water-shed of mountains, and strong stone- walls
without mortar, provincially called dry stone-dykes ;
and, in the Lowlands, substantial walls of quarried
stone, open ditches of such width as to prevent the
depredations of cattle, and fences of hedge and ditch,
with flanking lines or belts of plantation. The farm
houses, instead of the mean hovels of a former gene
ration, without light, and air, and ventilation, are
now very generally substantial and neat two-story
houses, constructed of stone and lime, roofed with
blue slate, and disposed in methods of commodious-
ness and comfort — Exclusive of diminutive posses
sions called pendicles, which are small portions of
land allotted by farmers to cottagers and servants,
farms which may be regarded as arable, range, as to
extent, between the extremes of 30 and 500 acres,
and farms under a regular system of husbandry, aver.
age from 100 to 300 acres. In the Carse of Gowrie,
the lower parts of Strathearn, the district in Strath-
tay between Perth and Dunkeld, and Strathmore or
the vale of the Isla, especially about Meigle, some of
the farms comprehend 400, and a few even 500 Scot
tish acres, all arable land, and the richest in the
county. Large tracts of grass, or pasture-ground,

PERTHSHIRE.

533

on the skirts of moors and hills, are very frequently
annexed to arable farms ; and may be observed in a
state of appendage to them on the confines of the
Ochils and the Sidlaws, and in all the Highland val
leys which intersect the Grampians. Even in the
most forbidding situations, at the very head of the
stupendously screened glens, some arable grounds,
with the house and the garden of the cultivator in
their centre, are very generally associated with a
great extent of hill pasture. But in these regions,
the farms are more frequently reckoned by miles than
by acres ; and distant wildly upland grazings which,
a brief period ago, were temporarily visited only in
the style of the ancient Scythians, are now disjoined
from the farms to which they formerly belonged, and
let as distinct and continuously occupied possessions.
Leases in the lowlands, as in most other agricul
tural districts of Scotland, are generally for 19 years,
though a few are for 36, years ; and in the highlands
they extend, for the most part, to 9, 19, and 21 years,
and, in some instances, have been granted for one
life, and 19 years after its expiry  In a country in
tersected with so many mountains, a great proportion
of the surface must remain for ever unenclosed ; yet
all the arable and the green grounds in the Lowlands
are, with some trivial exceptions, substantially, and
in many instances beautifully fenced, and a large pro
portion of the green grounds, as well as nearly all the
arable land, in the Highlands, is enclosed. Stone
walls without mortar, or what are called double
dykes, prevail where quarries are convenient, or
where stones are found of sufficient size and quantity
in the fields, or where the exposed situation and the
sterility of the soil render the growth of thorns pre
carious. Hedge and ditch prevail where the land
requires draining, and where the soil is of a good
quality for rearing the quicks. Besides the hedges of
common hawthorn, which are general and thriving,
and give much of the county a frilled and lively ap
pearance, some hedges are made of larch trees planted
diagonally, or in a zigzag manner, along the face of
ditches ; and others called indifferently Surrey-fences
and snap-dykes, consist of thorns defended, not by
stakes and rafters, but by single stone walls of about
2J feet in height, constructed along the- top of the
ditches. At Glendevon, about Blairgowrie, at Pet-
cur, and in a few other places where the ground is
high, and there are suitable stones, the fences are
Galloway dykes. In the Carse of Gowrie, and in
most of the flat land in other parts of the county,
where the cultivation of grain is the principal, almost
the sole object of the farmer, open drains are a suc-
cedaneum for both hedge and wall, and serve the
double purpose of fencing and of draining. Rows of
trees accompany many of the stone-walls and the
hedges, and impart much warmth of tint and embel
lishment of aspect to the general landscape. Where
the ground is of little value, and the object sought is
shelter, these belts of wood are in many cases 40,
and in some 120 feet broad, and consist almost wholly
of common firs ; but where ornament alone or chiefly
is studied, they are often narrower, and have gene
rally an intermixture of various kinds of trees  In
the lower parts of the county, where much of the
ground has a gradual slope, or is nearly in the plane
of the horizon, and also in the bottom of some val
leys of the Highlands, tillage is well understood, and
is executed with masterly skill. In the bleaker and
less skilfully managed districts, land intended for
barley either is virtually fallowed by being cropped
with potatoes, — a species of produce for which the
soil is admirably adapted, — or it is ploughed before
winter, or early in spring, to prepare it for the seed-
furrow in May. In the more fertile districts, where
soil and climate are calculated for raising various

kinds of grain, and where the farmers fully under
stand their business, and have stock to enable them
to make the most of their land, either a clean sum
mer-fallow, or at least a fallow crop, consisting
almost invariably of turnips, is introduced to every
rotation. On strong soils, the fallow is a preparation
for wheat ; and on light land, it is succeeded by
barley with grass seeds. In most of the light and
gravelly districts of Strathearn and Strathallan, the
farmers practise a winter fallow by a process, when
winter commences, of what they call ' ribbing ' their
land, or of alternately turning up and leaving a furrow
in such a way that the soil brought up is laid exactly
along the top of the unstirred line. Closely similar,
or nearly identical rotations of crops, are practised
by intelligent and substantial farmers on soils of the
same nature, and in kindred climates, shelters and
exposures ; but the generic soils, and the grand mo
difying circumstances being very various, not fewer
than about eleven regular systems of regular rotation
more or less extensively prevail, — one of them of
eight years, and including twice wheat, once barley,
once oats, and once pulse, — another of eight years, and
including once wheat, once barley, and once oats, —
two of seven years, and including once barley and once
oats, — one of six years, the richest and the most exten
sive, including once each of wheat, barley, oats, pulse,
and hay, — three of six years, severally including, but
in various ways, once barley and once oats, — two of
five years, one of which includes wheat, barley, oats,
and pulse, and the other only barley and oats, — and
one of four years, which includes once barley and
once oats. Yet some of the farmers, especially in
the bleaker districts, have no regular system or fixed
rotation ; and in a few instances, they display but a
transition state of advance from the barbarous prac
tices of unenlightened times.
Horses have always been used in draught in Perth
shire, where oxen have never been wrought in the
ordinary practice of farmers. Formerly four horses
a-breast was the plough-team of the Highlanders ;
and, in some parts, are still in use, though nearly
superseded by that of two horses with reins, now the
almost general plough-team of the northern provin
ces ; but the old breed of Highland horses are found
too light for this purpose. Of late years, oxen have
been tried both for the plough and cart; but the
slowness of their motion will greatly prevent their
general introduction, especially among practical farm
ers. What may be properly termed the true High
land horse, is somewhat below the middle stature,
viz., about twelve or thirteen hands high, the back
generally hollow, and the sides flat, but mostly wide
behind ; the chest deep, the bosom broad, and the
legs generally good; the prevailing colour grey,
changing early to white, with a long shaggy mane,
and thick bushy tail. These animals travel with
steadiness and endurance, and for roads over rugged
or rotten surfaces, it would perhaps be difficult to
introduce a better breed  The great objection which
modern sheep-farmers have to horses on the hills, has
checked the breeding of this useful species. The
number of horses still kept, however, may be consi
dered as one of its greatest evils, and must remain
such while the present method of supplying fuel
continues. Perthshire is destitute of coal; wood
and peats constitute the principal articles for fuel ;
and, in many places, every villager and every trades
man is under the necessity of keeping a horse, to
bring down his peats ; and even the farmers are ob
liged to keep an extra number for the same purpose.
The native breed of Highland cattle — a breed which
has been common to the country beyond memory or
tradition — are so well known, as not to require de
scription. They are small compared to the Lowland

534

PERTHSHIRE.

and English breeds. For fattening upon turnip, they
rank among the first breeds of the island, but are by
no means profitable for the dairy. Several attempts
have been made to cross this valuable breed with a
larger, in order to improve the species, but without
success. The old Highland sheep were of a race almost as
different from those of the southern counties, as goats
or deer are from that primitive breed whose fur con
sisted of a sort of down, overtopped by long, straight,
rugged hair, somewhat like the coat of the beaver,
and other furred animals, widely different from the
wool of European sheep in general. There is an
other characteristic difference, which marks them
still more strongly, — the tail, which in all the varie
ties of woolled sheep is long, and covered with wool,
resembling that of the rest of the body, is, in this
species, short, slender, tapering, and thinly covered
with strong, silvery hairs, and not exceeding- in size
that of the deer or goat. The face, too, is covered
with sleek hairs, as that of the deer, and the eyes are
prominent. In every part of the central Highlands
vestiges of this breed are still to be seen. They are
most numerous on the southern banks of Strath- Tay,
and between that and Strath-Bran. In the northern
Highlands, on the banks of Loch-Ness, they are still
to be found nearly pure, and perhaps without any
mixture of extraneous blood. They are small, re
markably tame, and apparently of a tender, delicate
form, as if housed during the night, a treatment which
was common to this ancient breed. The flesh of
these animals is deliciously sweet : vast numbers of
hind-quarters are smoked and dried for hams, and
brought down- to Perth, Crieff, and Dunkeld, in
summer, for sale. But the animal under notice has,
in a great measure, been supplanted by the common
black-faced sheep from Tweeddale. For the sake
of the wool, the white-faced breed from the Cheviot
hills have been tried, but not extensively. The
asperity of the surface, and the rigours of the north
ern climate, especially the moisture, seem but ill
suited for their southern constitutions. They soon
begin to get lame in the feet, and, being unable to
travel for pasture, in a short time pine away.
The flesh of swine is not generally eaten by the
native Highlander, although their ancient prej udices
are fast wearing out. Considerable droves are some
times to be seen in summer, travelling to the Low
lands, for the more southerly markets. Goats were
formerly kept in great numbers, but now a few only
for whey in the summer season, as an alternative to
draw company to the ' goats' whey quarters.' These
are now almost entirely deserted, for the more fash
ionable resorts of watering-places, especially for the
justly-famed wells of Pitcaithly, in the neighbour
hood of Perth, and those lately discovered in the
vicinity of Dunblane. Geese and ducks are not
reared by the common Highland farmers : a few
dunghill fowls constitute their whole stock of winged
animals. A vast quantity of eggs are eaten by the
common peasantry, and these are placed in rows upon
the hearth among the peat-ashes to be roasted.
Grates are not in use among them. The native
Highlander has no relish for garden vegetables, ex
cept the onion. A peel-and-eat potato, with a raw
onion, is to him a luxury.
Horticulture has made rapid and great progress in
Perthshire, and renders many a spot luxurious in the
delights of orchard and garden. Upwards of twenty
orchards— most of them extensive — occur in the Carse
of Gowrie,' and send off supplies of all the various
kinds of apples and pears to the neighbouring towns,
and to Montrose and Aberdeen, and the whole north
east of Scotland. The gardens of the same district
are not only of large aggregate extent, but singularly

rich and luscious; and, in addition to their gor.
geous and opulent produce in the open air, they teem
in their peach-houses and their vineries, with peaches,
nectarines, apricots, walnuts, almonds, and figs. On
the hanging plain at the foot of the Ochils, from
Bridge-of- Allan to Dollar, along the whole of the
north side of Strathearn from Comrie to the Tay, in
tracts on the north bank of the Isla in Strathmore,
and in tracts in Monteith and in the district between
Perth and Dunkeld, the ingenuity of man has seconded
the benignity of nature, in extracting from numerous
pendicles of soil the endless rich and varied produce
of fruit and flower. Even in the valleys of the High
lands, though the larger fruits are rare, stone-fruits
abound, and the fruits which grow on shrubs spring
up in a thousand places, in perfection. The cream-
coloured cherry of Advorlich, and the black gean or
dwarf cherry of Castle-Menzies, are highly esteemed
for their beauty and relish ; and the gooseberries and
currants which, even fifty years ago, grew at Lawers
and Kippenross, were remarkable instances, as to
at once their variety, their size, and their flavour, of
what charming results are educed from persevering
and skilful industry  Woods at one time covered
the greater part of Perthshire ; but, during the bar
barous policy of the feudal times, they were banished
into steep declivities of glens, or among rocks and
rough stones, or into whatever other positions were
deemed inaccessible to cultivation. The common
people imagined the growth of timber to be an
obstacle to abundance of food, and did not pause in
their devastations till they totally divested the low
grounds of cover ; and the ancient barons, more eager
for the support of numerous tribes of warriors than
for the improvement of their property, willingly con
sented to the general desolation. About the begin
ning of last century, other views began to be adopted,
— such as saw the growth of timber to be as condu
cive to profit as to embellishment, and as consistent
with the progress of population as with the improve
ment of the taste. From about the year 1730 to
1735, the possessors of various states saved what
remained of ancient woods, and began to make plan
tations on the most convenient or available lands.
During the' last 70 years, plantations have rapidly
increased, both in number and in extent, and, in a
few instances, have suddenly spread away athwart a
territory in a sea of forest. In Stormont, in Athole,
in Breadalbane, in Strathearn, in the Carse of Gowrie,
in Strathallan, in Monteith, in the vicinity of Culross,
almost in every corner of the county, plantations,
consisting of varieties of forest-trees adapted to the
several soils, wave in far-spreading umbrageousness
on the landscape, and do honour to the spirit and
judgment of the planters. While the pinus rubra,
or Scotch fir, is the most common pine of these
woods, ash, elm, plane, beech, oak, laburnum, and
various other kinds, are so intermixed with it, and
with the larch, as to diversify the general aspect, ex
hibit endless tints and shadings of the prevailing
green, and relieve the eye from the dull sameness
which invariably tires or disgusts. The oak prevails
in the valleys of the Grampians, where the climate
is genial, and the soil light and dry; the ash grows
spontaneously by the side of every stream or lake ;
the alder delights in swamps and spouty ground ; and
the birch climbs boldly to the brow of every hill.
Among the various noblemen and gentlemen who
have added largely to this splendid and always pro
minent element of scenic adorning, the late Duke ot
Athole, whose accession occurred in 1774 holds
much the most distinguished place. That nobleman,
ne/ir?""1 Duke' Planted the enormous amount
ii, ™vf£Lf n§ lsh acres of wood, or somewhere about
i7,000,000 of trees. A fraction more than one-hall

PERTHSHIRE.

535

of all his plantations were larches ; about l.OOO.acres
were oak; and the rest were principally Scottish
fir, spruce fir, and birch. Only about 1,000 acres of
wood existed on the Duke's lands when he com
menced his magnificent forest operations.
The aggregate extent of meadows, pastures, moors,
and wastes in the county, is necessarily very great ;
and it possesses, in many views, an interest of its
own, as the scene and the sustenance of a vast
amount of animal Ufe. Meadows are most frequent
at the upper ends of lakes, where the principal lacus
trine feeder has for ages been bringing down soil
and other loose, materials, encroaching annually on
the lake's dimensions, and gradually forming addi
tions to the solid land; and they occur also with
frequency, though seldom to a large extent, at the
confluence of streams, at low and level parts of the
course of brooks, and wherever obstructions of any
kind temporarily fling running waters into the expan
sion of lakes, and render the land which they occa
sionally cover too wet and precarious for tillage.
But these flat expanses of green land, which might
easily be rendered rich pasture, or reclaimed to the
uses of the plough, are, in general, very much ne
glected; they are, over a great part of the year,
allowed to lie constantly under water ; they, in many
instances, produce little or nothing except rushes,
flags, willows, and a grass so coarse as to be unpala
table for cattle, and unfit for hay ; and while, in some
parts of the country, they are drained, cleaned, and
regularly shaven, in others they are altogether and
recklessly abandoned. Pastures on comparatively
elevated situations are everywhere to be met with in
the Highlands ; and they consist partly of land which
has been exhausted by scourging crops till it can
yield no more to the gripe of avarice, and partly of
um-eclaimed green ground, in situations inaccessible
to the plough. But, in addition to these, there lie
in pasture around the houses of wealthy proprietors
many thousand acres of the very best arable ground,
which have not carried an ear of corn for many years,
and may for ages to come remain unrippled by the
plough ; their owners choosing to sit alone in sullen
and solitary magnificence, surrounded with sheep
instead of men  The black cattle which graze on
the pastures are singularly various in their breeds.
The cows proper to the county, and still, perhaps,
more numerous than those of any other variety, are
of a decidedly inferior breed, neither so well haired
and shaped as the cows of the northern parts of Ar
gyle, nor so lactiferous as those of the several coun
ties and districts in the south. The Angus and the
Fife breeds prevail in the Carse of Gowrie, and in
the vicinity of Perth and the Bridge-of-Earn ; the
Argyleshire in Rannoch, Glenlyon, Glenlochy, Strath
fillan, and some other places in the west ; the Lan
arkshire, or those from the lower ward of that county,
much akin to the Galloways, in Monteith ; and the
Ayrshire and the Galloway diffusively in particular
parishes or estates. Breeds of black cattle have
likewise been introduced from Devonshire, from
Lancashire, from Guernsey, from the East Indies,
and from other places ; and they have been so hete-
rogeneously blended with one another, and with pre
viously introduced breeds, that to any ordinary eye
either confusion prevails as to distinctiveness of
character or prevalence of variety. Yet, chiefly
from the stimulating surveillance and encouragement
of the Highland Society, great improvements in the
aggregate excellence of their properties have been
made. — Besides the sheep-walks on the Sidlaw hills,
5 parishes among the Ochils, and 22 of the averagely
vast parishes along the lower declivities, and in the
bosom of the Grampians, are, to quite a characteriz
ing extent, occupied by sheep stock ; and they are

estimated, in round numbers, to maintain 222,000
sheep. Great and skilful attention has been given
to the improving of the breeds. The ancient stock
were the whitefaced, few in number compared to the
present flocks ; and in the Highlands, they were,
every night during winter and spring, housed in cots.
About the year 1770, the blackfaced breed were in
troduced from the south ; and even before the end
of the century, they increased to a surprising amount
in number, and became exhibited in kinds and crosses
too numerous to be unperplexing to almost any eye
but that of a practised sheep-farmer  Goats, once
so numerous and so much in favour, were necessarily
sacrificed to improvements in the prime departments
of sheep husbandry and of planting. Hogs are more
numerously reared in Athole, Strathardle, Glenshee,
and Glenisla, than in all the other districts of the
county combined  Rabbits occur in warrens on four
estates, and in a wild condition in the vicinity of
Callander, and in various other parts of the county.
— Red-deer occur in vast numbers in the forest of
Athole, and limitedly in that of Glenartney ; fallow-
deer occur only at Blair- Athole and at Taymouth ;
and the roe-buck and doe are in many of the upland
parts of the county, — in almost air of them which are
not divested of wood  Common poultry are at every
door, from the hen-house of the lord of the manor
down to the meanest cottage ; and turkeys and geese
are reared in great numbers, and in great perfection,
in almost every district. Dove-cots are rare in the
Highlands, but are frequent about Cupar and Perth,
in the Carse of Gowrie, and in the lower parts of
Strathearn and Monteith  Bees are an object of
great attention and profit in the sheltered parts of
the hilly country. — Game of nearly every description
abounds on the moors and the mountains, and among
the forests.
Perthshire cannot be viewed as distinctively, or as
in any other than a very limited sense,, a manufac
turing and commercial county. Though the linen
manufacture has long been established, it has never
attained either steadiness or eminence, and it exists
rather in humble subordination to that of Forfarshire
than as an independent trade. The cotton manufac
ture sprang up toward the close of last century, and
made promise of achieving wonders ; but it has made
fitful progress, and occasionally all but stood still ;
and now it wears as sickly and feeble an aspect as
can well comport with the fact of its holding several
factories, and some two or three thousands of looms
in employment. The principal mills are at Doune
on the Teith, Stanley on the Tay, and Cromwell-
park on the Almond; and the chief seats of the
weaving population — employed for the most part by
the manufacturers of Glasgow — are Auchterarder,
Crieff, Dunblane, and other places in the south-east
quadrant of the county. Paper-mills were estab
lished chiefly toward the end of last century, in six
or seven places; but they have in some instances
been abandoned, and in others only partially success
ful. Extensive bleachfields have long been main
tained, and are prosperously conducted in Strathmore,
ahd in several villages within 4 or 5 miles of Perth.
Several flax spinning mills, one or two small fulling
mills, seven or eight linseed oil mills, and a limited
manufactory of shawls, blankets, and other woollen
fabrics, exist in various localities, principally in
Strathearn and Strathallan. The manufacture of
leather, though not a large trade, is long established
and comparatively steady  The extensive pastures
on the valleys and mountains of the Grampians send
down for sale, in the spring and fall of every year,
immense droves of black cattle ; and they send also
from their flocks, to the shambles of the southern
counties, and particularly of the districts ajong the

536

PERTHSHIRE.

Forth and the Clyde, numbers of lambs in summer, and
of sheep in autumn, which almost baffle calculation.
Great quantities of grain are exported from the Carse
of Gowrie, the vale of the Isla, Strathearn, Monteith,
Strathallan, and the district of Tulliallan and Cul
ross. Large supplies of the prime freestone of the
Carse are shipped at the small ports of Kingoodie
and Pow of Errol ; and of freestone and coals from
the ports of Culross and Kincardine. Other exports
are principally slates, timber, potatoes, and leather.
The chief imports are coals, lime, salt, bone-dust,
Baltic produce, clover-seed, linseed, cheese, hides,
and bark. Excepting what belongs to the small har
bours on the coast of the Carse of Gowrie, nearly the
whole coastwise and seaward commerce of the county
passes through the ports of Perth and Kincardine.
Every town, and almost every village, have their
weekly market, for the local convenience of the in
habitants, or for the purposes of general traffic,—
Perth on Friday; Cupar, Methven, Dunblane, Crieff,
and Callander, on Thursday; Meigle and Blairgow
rie on Wednesday ; Dunkeld and Auchterarder on
Saturday ; and other places on the days most suit
able to their respective neighbourhoods. Six or
eight annual fairs, chiefly for horses and cattle, are
held at Perth ; nearly as many, for the same objects,
at Cupar ; four for cattle, and two for sheep, at
Alyth ; two for cattle at Blairgowrie, and the same
at Meigle ; three for cattle and swine at Kinrossie ;
one or more for general traffic in almost every village
of Strathearn, Breadalbane, Strathallan, and Mon
teith ; and some for disposing of linen and woollen
yarn, and other commodities, in different parts of
Athole. But the most famous marts of the whole
county are fairs at Doune in autumn and in the be
ginning of winter, for the sale of black cattle, and a
great cattle-market on the 15th of May at Callander.
— The Lowland division of the county is so thor
oughly and even intricately ramified with excellent
roads, that any attempt to delineate them would only
confuse and perplex : and the Highland division is
traversed by military or parliamentary roads, up
Glenshee, Strathardle, Glentilt, Glenbruar, Glen
garry, Rannoch, Glenlyon, Glendochart, Glenartney,
Glenogle, and the north, south, and centre of Mon
teith. Railroads.] — This county, in the course of a few years, will
enjoy its full share in the advantages of the railroad system,
by which it will be placed in close connection with the manu
facturing end commercial districts both of the north and south
of Scotland. Two direct lines of railroad from Edinburgh to
Perth have obtained the sanction of the legislature : see arti
cles Edinburgh and Northern Railway, and Edinburgh
and Perth Railway. A third and more important line for
this county is that of the Scottish Central Kailwat [see
that article], and its prolongation the Scottish Midland
Railway : which also see. By the former line a direct com
munication is effected betwixt Perth and Stirling, and thence
onwards to the Edinburgh and Glasgow railroad, at two differ
ent points in the vicinity of Castlecary and of Polmont At
the former of these points it will be placed in connection with
the Caledonian railway, or within 105J miles railroad dis
tance of Carlisle : See Caledonian Railway. The Scottish
Midland line will prolong the Scottish Central line through
Strathmore, to the Aberdeen line, by a route of 38 miles ;
while the Dundee and Perth line, 44 miles in length, will sup
ply another route to the north, and connect Perth directly
with the towns of Dundee, Forfar, and Arbroath. See arti
cles Dundee and Perth Railway, Arbroath and Forfar
Railway, and Dundee and Arbroath Railway. A projected
railway extends westwards through Perthshire, from Perth to
Crieff, the second town in population and importance in the
county, by the valley of the Pow ; and it is further proposed
to connect this line with the Soottish Central railway, by a
branch to Auchterarder.— From the line of the Scottish Cen
tral railway, it is proposed to form a branch line through
Doune, to Callander, which will render the Trosachs, Loch
Katrine, and what may be called the classical district of
Perthshire, of easieBt access to tourists ; while the projected
railway from the head of Loch-Lomond to Oban wall afford
tho means of rapid transit to Argyleshire, and the most pic
turesque districts of the westorn coast.— Several lines of rail
way from Perth to Inverness have been projected, all of them
starting from different points on the Scottish Midland Junc
tion. Ihe sanction of the legislature has not yet been given
to any of these lines : but they shall be here enumerated : 1st.

The line of the projected Perth and Inverness Railway, 112
miles in length, starts from the Scottish Midland Junction a
few miles south of Cupar Angus, proceeds to Dunkeld, runs
through the valley of the Tummel and Garry to Dalwhinnie,
after touching which point it strikes northwards by a slight
bend, and runs along the valley of the Spey, terminating at
Nairn, where it joins the Inverness and Elgin railway. By this
line the whole railway distance from Perth to Inverness would
be 136 miles.— 2d. The proposed line called the Great North
ern Central, starts from the same point as the Perth and In
verness, and pursues the .same course as far as Dunkeld, at
which -point it turns northwards, by Braemar and Invercauld,
to the valley of the Avon at Tomintoul, touches Ballindalloch,
and proceeds by the vale of Rothes to Elgin. The scheme
includes a branch to Banff 30 miles in length ; to the harbour
of Lossiemouth, 5 miles ; to Burghhead, 5 miles ; and to Find
horn, 2| miles ; and also to Fort-George, 2J miles. By this line,
it is said that the distance from Perth to Elgin will be only
97 miles ; from Perth to Inverness, 131 miles ; and from Perth
to Banff, 127 miles. The whole extent of the proposed line and
branches is 176 miles.— 3d. The Perth and Northern Coun
ties Railway starts from the Scottish Midland Junction at
Cupar Angus, runs north by Blairgowrie, whence it proceeds,
by Braemar, Inchrory, and the valleys of Avon and Teviot, to
Dufftown, where a fork will be formed, — one branch running
to Keith, on the proposed North of Scotland line, the other to
the town of Rothes, where it will form a junction with the pro
posed Morayshire railway leading to Elgin and the harbour
of Stotfield. By this plan, it is proposed to avoid the rocky
and precipitous banks of the Spey, from Craigellochie upwards.
The length of line from Blairgowrie to Dufftown will be about
71 miles ;•— the distance from that point to Elgin, 15 miles.
The distance from Perth to Keith will thus be about 100 miles,
— and to Elgin nearly the same. — 4th. The Direct Northern
Railway from Perth to Elgin also leaves the Scottish Mid
land railway near Cupar Angus, and proceeds to Blairgowrie,
and thence to the Spittal of Gleenshee. From this point it is
carried along Glenbeg, crossing under the Cairn-well by means
of a tunnel one mile in length. It then proceeds by Braemar
to Invercauld and Tomintoul; and thence along the Avon
and the west side of the Spey, by the village of Dallas, to a
point on the Great North of Scotland railway near Elgin.
Thus it appears that the Perth and Northern Counties, and
the Direct Northern, traverse nearly the same route, almost as
far north as Ballindalloch, nearly four-fifths of their whole
extent. The distance from Perth to Burghead, north of Elgin,
will be 102 miles ; — the distance to Inverness, 130 miles.
Perthshire contains only two royal burghs, — Perth,
the county-town, and Culross, a small decayed town
on the frith of Forth. But it possesses upwards of
70 towns and considerable villages, including several
burghs-of-barony. Not a few have greatly increased
during the last 60 years, not only in size, but in the
neatness and the taste of their buildings. Five or
six are of quite recent origin ; several, such as Cal
lander, Comrie, Crieff, Longforgan, Muthil, Meth
ven, and others, were almost entirely new at the
close of last century ; and five were built at one
time, by the trustees of Government for managing
the estates forfeited to the Crown in 1746, and were
set apart for the use of such soldiers as had merited
attention by their services in war. The principal
towns and villages are Doune, Norriestoun, Thorn
hill, Callander, Kilmahog, and Gartmore, in Mon
teith ; Blackford, Ardoch, Dunblane, Bridge- of -
Allan, and Blair-Logie, in Strathallan; Comrie, St.
Fillan, Muthil, Crieff, Monzie, Gilmerton, Fowlis,
Auchterarder, Smithyhaugh, Gask, Dunning, For
gandenny, Bridge-of-Earn, and Abernethy, in Strath
earn; Kincardine, Culross, and Tulliallan, in the
detached district on the Forth ; Muckhart, on the
Devon ; Longforgan, Kingoodie, Inchture, Errol,
and Inchyra, in the Carse of Gowrie; Perth, Bridge-
end, Tulloch, Scone, Pitcairn, Luncarty, Stanley,
Methven, Almondbank, Balbeggie, Auchtergaven,
Cairneyhill, Strelitz, Mickleour, Caputh, and Dun
keld, in Perth Proper and Lower Strathtay* Meigle
Cupar Angus, Alyth, Rattray, and Blairgowrie, in
Strathmore; Clunie and Lethendy, in Stormont;
Aberfeldy, Weem, Logierait, and Kenmore, in Up
per Strathtay ; Pitlochrie, Blair- Athole, and Moulin,
in Athol; and Killin and Tyndrum, in Breadalbane.
The antiquities of even the town of Perth are
numerous and interesting, and will be found noticed
in detail in their proper place ; and those of the
county are so many and far-s.pread and various, as to
offer ample scope for the peerings of science and the
researches of curiosity. We cannot attempt a com-

PERTHSHIRE.

537

plete list ; and, even in naming the most interesting
or prominent, must refer to the articles on their
respective localities, for notices of their condition.
Of ecclesiastical antiquities, the chief are the abbey
of Culross ; the church and the abbey of Scone, the
scene of the middle-age coronations ; the abbey of
Inchaffray ; the cathedral of Dunblane : the monas
tery, originally the Culdee establishment, of Aber
nethy; the abbey and cathedral of Dunkeld; the
priory of Strathfillan ; the cell or priory of the Isle
of Loch-Tay, belonging to the abbey of Scone ; the
nunnery of Elcho in Rhynd; the abbey of Cupar-
Angus ; the collegiate church of Methven ; the col
legiate church of Tullybardine ; and the monastery
of Inchmahome. Of civil antiquities, the chief are
Bertha, the ancient Perth ; the Boot-hill, and the
extinct royal palace of Scone ; the cylindrical tower
of Abernethy ; Huntingto wer-castle, formerly Ruth-
ven-castle, in Tibbermuir ; the Castle of Macbeth,
on Dunsinnan hill ; Castle-Campbell, above the vil
lage of Dollar ; Elcho-castle, in the parish of Rhynd ;
Doune-castle, in the vicinity of the cognominal vil
lage; the fortress of Loch-Tummel ; some curious
objects preserved in the Castle of Kinfauns ; various
large Roman camps, and, among them, the celebrated
one at Ardoch, the largest in Scotland ; three rock-
ing-stones, respectively in the parishes of Dron, Kirk
michael, and Abernethy; vestiges of watch-towers
in many places in Athole, Breadalbane, Glenlyon,
and Monteith ; a, profusion of Druidical circles, and
among them, a remarkable cluster in Kirkmichael ;
some curious monumental reminiscences in Meigle
churchyard, of those puzzles to the grave historian,
Vanora, the British Helena, and King Arthur, the
subject of a maze of fables ; and various interesting,
but very doubtful, memorials of Fingal and his he
roes, in Glenalmond, and other parts of Monzie. The
most celebrated battle-fields in Perthshire, — those
objects which occupy so graphically a medium place
between antiquities and history, — are the fields of
Luncarty, in the vicinity of the cognominal village,
and the field of the notable battle of the Grampians
at Ardoch, or in Stormont, or in Glenshee, or nobody
knows where. The secondary and the minor anti
quities, consisting of baronial halls and towers, moats,
British hill-forts, Roman roads, the battle-fields of
clans, cairns, coins, and the melee memorials of
Damnii', Horestii, Albani, Caledonians, Picts, Scots,
Saxons, Highland clansmen, and baronial serfs, would,
were they enumerated, compose a list as long and
churlish as half of the most crabbed names in the
county's topographical nomenclature strung together
in capricious random.
Perthshire abounds in associations and institutions
both of a light and of a useful character. A large
association exists for the protection of game, copses,
and plantations. Another exists for the purposes of
a county hunt, and of races at Perth. Similar asso
ciations, under the name of clubs, take their desig
nations from Strathearn and from Doune. Associ
ations for promoting improvements in matters con
nected with agriculture and kindred pursuits, are
laudably prominent, and not a little active. The
Perthshire Farming society meets four times a-year
at Perth. The Athole and Weem Agricultural club
meets annually in October, and wields an influence
over nearly the whole Highlands of the county. The
Carse of Gowrie Agricultural society meets in spring
and in autumn. The Dunblane Farming society
meets in July on the subject of the state of farms
and crops ; meets again in November on the subject j
of turnips, stack-yards, and kindred matters ; and
holds a ploughing-match, and distributes prizes, in
spring. The Strathmore Agricultural society holds
large, respectable, and influential meetings at Cupar-

Angus. The Burrel Agricultural Ploughmen society
has reference to the work of tillage. The Strath
more Horticultural society meets in May, July, and
August, at Cupar-Angus. Another Horticultural
society holds its meetings in Perth. The St. Fil-
lan's Highland society holds an annual prize exhibi
tion toward the end of August, in the village of St.
Fillans, for athletic exercises. The Athole Gather
ing, or Highland meetings, were associated in 1824,
to revive and promote a taste for tartan and linen
fabrics, and for the ancient dress and athletic games
and exercises of the Highlanders. The Literary and
Antiquarian society of Perth was instituted in 1784,
and remodelled in 1787, to promote historical and
archaeological investigations, and matters of choro-
graphy, natural history, literature, and the fine arts.
Among religious institutions are the Perthshire Bible
society, the New Perthshire Bible society, the Perth
shire Missionary society, the Perthshire Religious
Tract society, and the Perthshire Gaelic society.
Some of the numerous institutions, also, which take
their designation from the town of Perth, and move
round it as their centre of influence, have an intimate
connexion with much or all of the county.
Perthshire, previous to the Reformation, and dur
ing the periods of the Stewart episcopacy, contained
within its ample limits the seats and most of the
territory of the two bishoprics of Dunkeld and Dun
blane, and also contributed a quota of its parishes to
the archdiocese of St. Andrews. Its ecclesiastical
distribution, subsequently to the final establishment
of Presbyterianism, has been variable, and, to a cer
tain extent, whimsical. Changes have occurred as
to both its parishes and its presbyteries, more numer
ous, perhaps, than in any other county of Scotland,
and, in several instances, of such a nature as to ren
der any attempt at an interesting history of them
quite futile. A little after the commencement of the
present century, it had 76 parishes, 18 of which were
in the Highlands, and 58 in the Lowlands. The
Highland parishes were all then of great extent, each
comprehending, on the average, nearly seven times
as much area av! a medium-sized Lowland parish ;
and even yet, when reduced by the erection of a
large aggregate extent of them into quoad sacra par
ishes, they are, for the most part, of such dimensions
as to be quite unmanageable by efficient pastoral
superintendence and care. In 1839, the ecclesiasti
cal distribution consisted of 77 entire quoad civilia
parishes, 13 entire quoad sacra parishes, 2 quoad
civilia parishes, partly in Perthshire and partly in
Stirlingshire, 1 entire quoad civilia parish annexed to
a parish in Forfarshire ; and 2 chapelries, possessing
all the properties of quoad sacra parishes, except the
name and the church-court influence. Of the quoad
sacra parishes, 3 have churches built, endowed, and
maintained by parliament, and 10 owe their churches
and their support to voluntary societies, or voluntary
subscription. All the quoad sacra parishes, and the
two chapelries, belong to the synod of Perth and
Stirling ; and of the quoad civilia parishes, including
the 3 which are partially connected with other coun
ties, 68 belong to the synod of Perth and Stirling,
11 to that of Angus and Mearns, and 1 to that of
Fife. One quoad sacra parish, Tennandry, and 12
quoad civilia parishes, Auchtergaven, Blair- Athole,
Caputh, Cargill, Clunie, Dunkeld, Little Dunkeld,
Kinclaven, Kirkmichael, Lethendie, Moulin, and
Rattray, constitute the presbytery of Dunkeld. Four
quoad sacra parishes, Foss, Glenlyon, Rannoch, and
Strathfillan, and 6 quoad civilia parishes, Dull, For
tingall, Kenmore, Killin, Logierait, and Weem, con
stitute the presbytery of Weem, — a presbytery of
very recent erection, and not a little remarkable for
the disseverment of its quoad civilia parishes into far

PER

538

PET

scattered fragments, that of Weem alone consisting
of no fewer than 8 sections, dispersed over a great
part of the Highlands of the county, and some of the
others being but a degree less absurdly situated.
Three quoad sacra parishes, St. Leonard s of Perth,
St. Stephen's of Perth and Stanley, and 24 quoad
civilia parishes, Aberdalgie, Abernethy, Arngask,
Collace, Dron, Dunbarney, Errol, Forgandenny, For
teviot, Kilspindie, Kinfauns, Kinnoul, St. Madoes,
St. Martin's, Methven, Monedie, East Kirk of Perth,
Middle Kirk of Perth, West Kirk of Perth, St. Paul's
of Perth, Redgorton, Rhynd, Scone, and Tibbermuir,
constitute the presbytery of Perth. Three quoad
sacra parishes, the New Church of Crieff, Blairin-
gone, and Ardoch, and 15 quoad civilia parishes,
Auchterarder, Blackford, Comrie, Crieff, Dunning,
Fossaway, Fowlis- Wester, Gask, Glendevon, Mad
derty, Monivaird, Monzie, Muckart, Muthil, and
Trinity Gask, constitute ihe presbytery of Auch
terarder. Two quoad sacra parishes, Gartmore and
Norriestoun, 2 quoad civilia parishes, only partly in
Perthshire, Logie, and Kippen, and 9 quoad civilia
parishes, wholly in Perthshire, Aberfoil, Balquidder,
Callander, Dunblane, Kilmadock, Kincardine, Le
cropt, Port-of-Monteith, and Tulliallan, constitute,
along with one parish from Clackmannanshire, the
presbytery of Dunblane. These 5 presbyteries, along
with that of Stirling, which contains 13 quoad civilia
and 2 quoad sacra parishes, constitute the synod of
Perth and Stirling. One parish, that of Culross,
belongs to the presbytery of Dunfermline, in the
synod of Fife. One suppressed parish, that of Fow-
lis-Easter, annexed to Lundie jn Forfarshire, and 4
quoad civilia parishes, Abernyte, Inchture, Kinnaird,
and Longforgan, belong to the presbytery of Dundee ;
and 7 quoad civilia parishes, Alyth, Bendochy, Blair
gowrie, Cupar- Angus, Meigle, and Ruthven, belong
to the presbytery of Meigle, in the synod of Angus
and Mearns. Several of the parishes both of Perth
shire and Forfarshire, in the presbytery of Meigle,
overleap the county boundaries, but not to such an
extent as to be noticeable in a general statement. —
In 1834, there were in the county 73 parochial
schools, conducted by 75 teachers, and attended by
a maximum of 5,213 scholars, and a minimum of
3,138; and 251 other schools, conducted by 259
teachers, and attended by a maximum of 13,649 scho
lars, and a minimum of 7,435.
Perthshire, as hinted near the outset, is divided,
for the purposes of the new small debt act, into ten
districts, each under the jurisdiction of a justice-of-
peace court, and of a body of lieutenants ; and it is
divided also into two districts, subject to a sheriff-
substitute, the seat of the one at Perth, and that of
the other at Dunblane. The courts under the new
small debt act, are held at Crieff every first Saturday
cf January, April, July, and October ; at Callander
every first Monday of March, June, September, and
December ; at Kincardine, in Tulliallan, and Culross,
every first Monday of February, May, August, and
November ; at Dunkeld, every third Monday of
January, April, July, and October; at Aberfeldy,
every third Tuesday of April, July, and October ;
at Blairgowrie, every second Monday of January,
April, July, and October ; and at Cupar- Angus, every
second Tuesday of January, April, July, and Octo
ber. The sheriff-court at Perth is held every Wed
nesday and Friday, and at Dunblane every Wednes
day during session ; and the commissary-court is held
in the former every Friday, and in the latter every
Wednesday, during session. The sheriff small-debt-
court is held every Wednesday and Friday ; the jus-
tice-of-peace small-debt-court is held at Perth on the
first Monday of every month , and the quarter-ses
sions are held on the statutory days, and by adjourn

ment  Perthshire, though so large, so influential,
so populous, and, in all respects, so important a
county, is coolly placed on a level with things called
counties, such as Selkirkshire and Buteshire, which,
several of its single parishes could almost match,
either in number of inhabitants or in extent of terri
tory, and is permitted to send only one member to
parliament. Constituency, in 1840, 4,382 — The
valued rent of the county, in 1674, was £339,892
Scottish ; and the annual value of real property, as
assessed in 1815, was £555,532 — The population,
in 1795, as estimated by Dr. Robertson in 1799, upon
the best data he could laboriously procure, was
143,123, evidently an over-estimate ; and it was
computed to have increased from 1755 to that period,
19,781. Population, according to government cen
sus, in 1801, 126,366; in 1821, 139,050; in 1831,
142,894; in 1841, 138,151. The population, in
1831, were distributed into 2,482 occupiers of land,
employing labourers ; 2,787 occupiers not employing
labourers ; 6,778 agricultural labourers ; 5,204 la
bourers not agricultural ; 4,942 manufacturing oper
atives ; 9,965 persons employed in retail trades and
handicrafts; 1,519 capitalists; 496 male servants;
and 7,054 female servants. In the same year, the
number of families was 31,749; and the number of
inhabited houses 23,809. In 1841 , the number of in
habited houses amounted to 29,172; uninhabited,
1,798. PETERCULTER, a parish on the southern fron
tier of Aberdeenshire; bounded on the north by
Skene and Newhills; on the east by Banchory-
Devinick; fin the south by Kincardineshire and
Drumoak ; and on the west by Echt. It is a slen
der oblong, of 5k miles by 2, extending from east
to west, with a southerly projection of 2 miles by
1 ; and it comprehends about 9,690 acres. The
southern division commences with a small haugh,
and recedes in a very gentle ascent ; and it is all in
a high state of cultivation, and possesses the embel
lishment of no fewer than five mansions, with their
gardens, parks, and woods. The other districts are
a continued series of boldly broken and very rugged
ground, — a wilderness of slopes and hollows, rocky
eminences, and marshy flats, with occasionally a small
conical hill or a conical ridge, zoned around the base
with arable land or with swamps, traversed some
times by a rivulet. Much of the surface is moorish,
heath-clad, and strongly overgrown with furze and
broom. The soil in the south is gravel and sand,
with a mixture of vegetable earth, and in the north
is respectively on the high grounds »nd in the hol
lows, a red earth on clay, and a mixture of black
earth and moss. The extent of cultivated land
compared to that of uncultivated, over the whole
area, is as 13 td 6. About 1,600 acres, not included
in either of these classes, are covered with planta
tion. The woods are very thriving, and greatly adorn
the rich south-exposed district. A cluster of hard
timber-trees around Culter-house exhibits probably
as old and majestic specimens of the beach, the oak,
and the chestnut, as any which are to be found in
the north of Scotland. Two lines respectively, of
Arbor vitae and Athenian poplar, adorn the garden of
Murtle ; and an avenue of very noble old spruce trees
leads up to Countesswells. Soil and climate seem
peculiarly favourable to the rapid and sound growth
of most species of trees ; and the air is remarkable
for its salutiferousness to both animal and plant.
Large boulders of a very hard stone cover much of
the surface of the moors ; and granite is everywhere
abundant, and was for years extensively quarried in
subordination to the demand over Britain for ' Aber
deen granite.' The river Dee — here a large and
bimutiful stream, and subject to great and sudden

PETERHEAD.

539

floods—traces all the southern boundary, with the
exception of placing on its right bank the small farm
of Inch, once an island in the stream. The burn of
Leuchar or Culter cuts the main body of the parish
into two nearly equal parts, and runs across the neck
of the projecting district to the Dee, at the south
east corner of the glebe. On this burn are three
factories: the lowest a small quadrangular thatched
snuff-mill ; the highest a woollen-carding, spinning,
and weaving factory, erected in 1831, and employing
nearly 20 persons ; and that in the middle a large
and neat paper-mill, commenced in 1751, and recently
very much enlarged. This last establishment stands
upon a fine haugh, overhung on two sides by a
curved sweep of almost perpendicular and richly
wooded hill, nearly 400 feet high, and flanked on the
other two by grounds which, though not very high,
are craggy, bold, and strongly featured. At both
ends of the haugh are bridges, spanning the chasm
from rock to rock, and carrying along the old and
new lines of road down the Dee to Aberdeen. In
the gorge of the burn, a strong artificial dike dams
up a reservoir nearly 20 feet deep, and half-a-mile
long; and, during a flood, or after heavy rains, tosses
the superfluent waters over its brow in the profuse
and glistening ringlets of a fine cascade. "The
beauty of the situation and scenery of this establish
ment," says the statist in the New Account, " is
much admired. The extent of artificial works, the
large pile of buildings on the left, the spacious re
servoir on the right, with an occasional cascade over
its dike ; the aqueduct supported in the air, with its
large column of rolling water passing under the spa
cious bridge, with the surrounding rocks and woods,
all at this point of view burst upon the eye of the
traveller, and present to his view a combination of
the beauties of nature and the works of art, in a
variety, and to an extent seldom, if ever, to be met
with in so narrow a compass." Murtle-house, a neat
modern Grecian edifice, commands a fine view of the
vale of the Dee, overlooked in the far distance by
Lochnagar and other Grampian summits. Binghill,
Bieldside, and Countesswells, are all pleasant mo
dern seats. Culter-house, though an antiquated
structure, is large and commodious. A Druidical
temple, and an almost effaced Roman camp, popu
larly called Norman Dikes, are the only antiquities.
Population, in 1801, 871 ; in 1831, 1,223. Houses
245. Assessed property, in 1815, £2,641. — Peter-
culter is in the presbytery and synod of Aberdeen.
Patron, Duff of Fetteresso. Stipend £196 0s. 3d.;
glebe £11. In 1834 the parish-school was attended
by 54 scholars ; and four other schools — one of them
a boarding-school — by 101. Parochial-schoolmas
ter's salary £28, with £14 fees, and £3 14s. 2d.
other emoluments.
PETERHEAD, a parish on the east coast of
Buchan, Aberdeenshire. It is bounded on the north
and north-east by the river Ugie, which divides it
from St. Fergus ; on the east by the German ocean ;
on the south by Cruden ; and on the west by Long-
side. Its greatest length, from north to south, is 5
miles ; its greatest breadth is 4 miles ; and its super
ficial extent is about 9,000 imperial acres. A sweep
of hill, nowhere attaining an elevation of 300 feet
above sea-level, and bearing the various names of
Stirling-hill, the bill of Invernettie, the Blackhill of
Peterhead, and the hill of Cowsrieve, commences at
the coast, and forms a line of water-shed round all
the southern and most of the western boundary. Its
highest part was a frequent point of observation sea
ward during the war ; and serves so well as a land
mark that the fishermen on the coast long trusted
entirely to its guidance, and did not use a compass.
A conical height, called Meethill, possessing an alti

tude of probably 200 feet, and consisting of an argil
laceous diluvium superincumbent on granite, lifts its
isolated form on the lands of Invernettie. All the
rest of the parochial surface is a slightly rolling plain,
whose rising grounds are just sufficiently variegated
and high as to render the landscape cheerful, and
produce numerous combinations of scenery. About
a mtle west of the town is the most remarkable of
the hollows, called the How of Buchan, probably
from being the lowest ground in that district, and
being so circularly concave that, previous to the
erection of some modern houses on its margin, a per
son at its bottom could see nothing but the ascent of
its sides all round, and the overarching of the firma
ment above. The east end of Stirling-hill runs out
in a narrow promontory into the sea, and forms the
well-known Buchanness, the most easterly land in
Scotland. Opposite the hill are two islets, the one
green and the other rocky ; the former once the site
of a salt-pan, and the latter now the site of the
Buchanness lighthouse. The coast, from the boun
dary with Cruden to the entrance of the bay of Sand-
ford on the north side of Buchanness, is a series of
high mural cliffs, all consisting of plutonic rock, and
torn or perforated with numerous fissures, chasms,
and caves. The bay of Sandford, measuring 1^ mile
across the entrance, and J of a mile from entrance
to head, makes a fine semicircular sweep between
Buchanness and Salthouse-head, and is fringed with
a beautiful low beach of sand and pebbles. The bay
of Peterhead, penetrating nearly a mile inland, and
measuring quite a mile at the entrance, is bounded
by Salthouse-head and the promontory of Keith-
Inch, and has shores at first rocky but flat, and after
wards gravelly and low. Keith-Inch, the site of the
town of Peterhead, is a small flat rocky peninsula,
terminating in two tiny headlands, called the North
and the South Heads. The prevailing rocks of the
parish are granite and syenite, veined or alternated
with quartz, compact felspar, gneiss, and primitive
trap. Various very extensive quarries are worked,
and they produce blocks of large size of finely polish-
able structure, and of high attractions for the mar
ket ;  the stones from some of the quarries a gray
or white granite, and from others a syenite resem
bling that of Sienna in Egypt, whenee this species of
rock had its name. The soil of the arable lands is
of great variety, from a sandy loam to a rich deep
black earth, and a strong clay ; and it possesses, for
the most part, the highest fructiferous powers. About
8,260 acres are under cultivation ; upwards of 500 are
moorish and mossy, but are partly of value for the
supply of fuel; about 120 are destitute of soil, and
display the naked rock ; and about 70 are covered
with plantation. The pastures, natural and artificial,
maintain about 1,400 black cattle, and only a little
upwards of 100 sheep. The river Ugie diversifies
the landscape of the northern frontier with its wind
ings and its fertile haughs; and it produces excellent
salmon and great varieties of fine trout, eel, and
flounders. Along the coast the sea-fish are, of prime
quality and very various; and include haddocks, whit
ings, roughback, plaice, tole, halibut, turbot, skate,
lobster, and crab. Four fishing-villages overlook
the coast, — Ronheads, a suburb of Peterhead and
identified with it; Boddom, [which see,] nearly 3
miles to the south ; Buchanhayen, half-a-mile north
of the town, but within the parliamentary boun
daries; and Burnhaven, of modern origin, situated on
the north side of the bay of Sandford, and provided
with a small harbour for the accommodation of boats.
A spinning and carding-mill stands on the estate ol
Boddom ; a brick-work has long been in operation
about a mile south of the town ; and two large grains
are situated respectively at Ravenscrag and Invcr

540

PETERHEAD.

nettie. Two ancient but small forts occur 2 or 3
miles west of the town. A moat, the memorial of
feudal courts and baronial jurisprudence, graces, or
it may be, disgraces the parish. Old Crag, or Ra-
venscrag-castle, a fine old ruin of great thickness of
wall, and not very greatly dilapidated, stands on the
Ugie, and was, for a long period, the seat of a branch
of the Marischal family. Boddom-castle, built 'cen
turies ago by the family of Keith, a branch of the
Marischals, lifts its picturesque ruins from the brow
of a narrow promontory a little south of Buchanness;
two very deep fissures or chasms cutting down the
high craggy rocks into mural precipices on the two
sides, and often bringing up such impetuous onsets
of the sea that the spray sails over the ruin. The
Earls-Marischal resided chiefly at Inverugie-castle,
on the St. Fergus bank of the Ugie, half-a-mile east
of Ravenscrag ; but they possessed the larger por
tion of the parish of Peterhead, arid were the foun
ders and superiors of the town. After their forfeit
ure, in 1715, most of the property was purchased by
a fishing company ; and, their affairs becoming em
barrassed, it was sold, in 1728, to the Merchant
Maiden hospital of Edinburgh. This institution is,
in consequence, the superior of the town, as well as
the proprietor of adjacent estates ; and, in 1783, it
purchased another part of the quondam Marischal
property in the parish from the York Building com
pany. The first purchase by the institution cost
£3,420, and is now worth about £2,370 a-year ; and
the second cost £3,886, and besides income from
feus and town-dues, and freeholds sold for £727, is
worth £475 a-year. The parishioners, owing to
the influence over them of the Earls-Marischal, were
noted Jacobites ; and, when the Pretender landed at
Peterhead, in 1715, they readily joined his standard.
Three great lines of road diverge from the town
northward, southward, and eastward ; and subor
dinate roads are minutely ramified throughout the
kingdom. Population, in 1801, 4,491 ; in 1831,
6,695. Houses 788. Assessed property, in 1815,
£9,019. Peterhead is in the presbytery of Deer, and synod
of Aberdeen. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £235
9s. 5d. ; glebe £50. Unappropriated teinds £432
4s. 9d. The parish-church was built in 1803. Sit
ings 1,863. A section of the town having, in 1836,
been made, by ecclesiastical authority, a separate
parochial erection, the parish of Peterhead, or West
parish, consists, quoad sacra, of but a part of the
town and of all the landward district. Its popula
tion, in 1837, as shown by ecclesiastical census,
was 6,346; of whom 4,931 were churchmen, 1,305
were dissenters, and 1 10 were nondescripts  A Scot
tish Episcopalian congregation was established in the
parish at the Revolution, in 1688. Their chapel
was built in 1813-14, at a cost of about £3,500.
Sittings 763. Stipend £150. — An United Secession
congregation was established in 1800. Their place
of worship was built in the same year, and cost be
tween £600 and £700. Sittings 500. Stipend not
known  An Independent chapel in the town for
merly belonged to a Secession congregation now
extinct; and is of unascertained date of erection.
Sittings 507. Stipend not known  A Wesleyan
Methodist congregation was established in the parish
in 1833; and assembles in a small house fitted up as
a place of worship. Sittings 240. No stipend 
The quoad sacra parish of East church of Peterhead,
erected in 1836, consists solely of a small triangular
section of the town. Its population, in 1837, ac
cording to a survey by the session, was 1,461; of
whom 903 were churchmen, 377 were dissenters,
and 181 were nondescripts. The church was built
in 1767, and was purchased, by certain individuals,

in 1834, to be a church in connection with the
Establishment. £500 was its price; £100 addi
tional were expended in altering and repairing it.
Sittings 702. Stipend £150  The educational
institutions in the landward district and villages
are simply two private schools ; and in the town
are a parish-school, a town-school, a Lancasteriar
school, two ladies' schools for the higher depart
ments of female education, and six private and
ordinary schools. Salary attached to the parish-
school £34 4s. 4Jd., with from £40 to £80 fees,
and about £20 other emoluments; to the town-
school £10, with fees ; to the Lancasterian school
£20, with fees.
Peterhead, a considerable town, a parliamen
tary burgh, and an unimportant sea-port, is situ
ated on the coast of the cognominal parish, 18
miles south-east by south of Fraserburgh, 32
north-north-east of Aberdeen, 40 east-south-east
of Banff, and 145 north-north-east of Edinburgh.
Its site is a peninsula, 4£ furlongs in extreme
breadth, and between 6 and 7 furlongs in length
or projection, on the north side of Peterhead-
bay, and about J of a mile from the mouth of the
Ugie. On the extremity of the peninsula stands a
suburb called Keith- Inch, whose principal thorough
fare extends about 220 yards from south-west to
north-east, and bears the name of Castle-street. The
two harbours, afterwards to be described, now indent
the peninsula at points directly opposite to each other,
and leave between them an isthmus of less than 100
yards broad to connect Inch-Keith with the rest of
the town. Immediately within the harbours, and
along the shore of Peterhead-bay, stands Peterhead
proper. . Its principal thoroughfare, under the name of
Broad-street, extends about 270 yards on a line with
the isthmus between the harbours ; and then, under
the name of Marischal-street, inclines a little to the
west, and is prolonged 300 yards, to a point not more
than 60 yards -from the shore of the bay. At this
point it is joined, at acute angles, by partially edi
ficed thoroughfares, which converge hither along the
sides of the town ; and, abput 130 yards from its
commencement at the harbours, it is crossed at right
angles by Long-gate-street, which is 400 yards in
length, and connects the sides of the town. Peter
head is thus somewhat triangular in outline ; yet it
has, both on its landward side, and especially in its
interior, several short streets which preserve no uni
formity with its main thoroughfares. One street, on
a line with Long-gate-street, and continued from its
north end, connects the town with the suburb of
Ronheads, at 250 yards' distance ; and another, on a
line with Marischal-street, connects it with that of
Kirktown, so near as to be simply a wing of the
main body. The aggregate length of the streets is
upwards of 4£ miles ; and the superficial extent of
ground which they cover is about 20 acres. Most
of the houses are built of a beautiful granite, found
in the vicinity ; and many of them have fronts of
ashlar either dressed with the pick, or axe-dressed,
and closely jointed. The carriage-ways are'kept in
good repair; and the side-paths are either paved
with dressed granite, or fitted out with crib and
pebbles. An ample supply of pure spring-water is
furnished by pipes from a very copious spring up
wards of 2j miles distant ; and gas is furnished tor
night-lighting, from works situated in Long-gate-
street, and belonging to a joint-stock company form
ed in 1833. In general the town may be summarily
regarded as clean, dry, and well-aired ; with spacious
and open streets, and a prevailingly neat and even
handsome appearance — The town-house, situated in
Broad-street, and built in 1788, is a neat edifice 6(J
feet long and 40 wide, surmounted by a handsome

PETERHEAD.

541

spire of granite 125 feet high. The building con
sists of a ground floor, fitted up as shops ; a second
floor, distributed into school-rooms ; and a third floor,
arranged into apartments for public business. The
cross, erected in 1832, on occasion of the town being
created a parliamentary burgh, is a Tuscan pillar of
granite, crowned with the armorial bearings of the
Earls-Marischal. Two public halls or buildings are
occupied respectively as a reading-room and a billiard-
room ; and another public structure contains a suite
of cold and hot baths. The parish-church, situated
at the entrance of the town, or west end of Kirk-
town, is a substantial edifice, pavilion-roofed, lighted
by round arched windows, and ornamented by an
attached spire, 118 feet high. The Episcopalian
chapel, situated in Merchant-street, displays much
taste, and has a front of Gothic architecture, execut
ed in axe-dressed granite.
Peterhead has been called the Scarborough of the
north of Scotland; and it resembles its prototype
not alone in situation, but in being doubly a watering
place, — a resort both for sea-bathing and for the
use of celebrious mineral water. Exertions have
been botb long and extensively made to accommo
date bathers. One bath, constructed in 1 799, mea
sures 40 feet by 20 ; and another, constructed at a
later date, measures 90 feet by 30, is hewn out of
the solid rock, and, by means of a valve, is filled
every tide with pure sea- water. The apparatus .of
the bathing-house, which adjoins, enable an invalid
to take vapour, hot nir, projecting, or shower baths,
as he finds most suitable. The mineral water of
Peterhead is said to have been in repute during
nearly 250 years. Of six separate springs in which
it wells up, one called the Wine-well, and situated
at the lower end of Wine- Well-street, on the south
side of the town, is much the most famous. Twelve
pounds avoirdupois of the water of this spring, as
analyzed by Dr. Laing, were found to contain 3.V
grains of aerated iron, 30| of muriated iron, 7 of
muriated lime, 2 of siliceous earth, 2 of gypsum, 13^
of Glauber's salt, 7£ of common salt, and 83£ cubic
inches of fixed air. The water has been in repute
ehiefly for stomach and bowel complaints, nervous
affections, and general debility ; it has been advan
tageously used by persons of leuco-phlegmatic habits;
and is not without fame as a remedy against scro
fula. The celebrity at once of the spa, the baths,
and the bathing-grounds of Peterhead, is said to be
on the decline.
Two capacious and excellent artificial harbours,
joined to geographical peculiarity and great natural
advantageousness of position, render Peterhead one
of the most valuable ports in Scotland, and one
even of importance to the whole kingdom. The
peninsula which they indent contests with Buchan
ness the distinction of being the most easterly land
in Scotland ; and is very often the first land which
can be reached by vessels arriving from foreign sta
tions, or overtaken by storm and tempest in the
German ocean. The configuration of the peninsula
possessed much natural capacity for the purposes of
a port and a plaoe of marine shelter ; and, now that
it has been deeply indented with the berthage of the
narbours, and aided by their piers and their jetties,
it can be entered in almost any circumstances, .and
affords complete protection from every wind. From
the origin of the town till after the middle of last
century, an old harbour, situated between the pre
sent north one and the suburb of Ronheads, figures
lustily in documents ; but seems to have been rude,
«mall, and comparatively valueless, and is now sur
rendered almost exclusively to the uses of fishing-
boats. Another early harbour on the site of the pre
sent south one, of unknown date of formation, and

constructed on principles the" reverse of those which
render the present so excellent, figures also so early
as the beginning of the 18th century ; but never
seems to have been of much capacity, and is noted in
I record principally for alternations of coming into use
and going into decay. The two modern harbours
were commenced, the south one in 1 773, according to
apian by Mr. Smeaton, and the north one in 1818,
according to a plan by Mr. Telford. They are ac
cessible from opposite directions, and, in conse
quence, are characterized by the single and occa
sionally serious disadvantage of sometimes holding
vessels wind-bound ; but were they united by a cut
or, canal — an improvement which has long been con
templated, and which is deferred only from want of
means to defray the expense, they would always ad
mit the departure as well as the arrival of a vessel
with the wind at any point of the compass. The
south harbour covers 66 imperial acres, and can ac
commodate from 100 to 120 vessels; and, besides
being furnished with quays and other interior ap
pliances for the purposes of a port, it has extensive
and very costly outworks for rendering it a place of
complete safety. Its south pier is concave toward
the sea, so as to occasion waves which strike it to
run along to its centre, and there destroy each other,
and fall back toward the sea ; it also covers the west
pier, which is nearly at right angles with it ; and, in
its turn, it receives aid from a jetty, running parallel
to it, eastward, out from the west pier, and protect
ing the interior of the harbour from such waves as
the devices of tbe south pier fail entirely to repel.
The north harbour covers an area of 10.86 imperial
acres, and is thus more than one-half larger than the
south one ; and being, according to Mr. Telford's
plan, unprotected on the north side, it began, in 1837,
to receive a pier on that side at ihe cost of nearly
£5,000, and is now as singularly well-protected as
its fellow, and has the additional advantage of
offering accommodation to steam-vessels. The quays
of the two harbours comprehend an area of nearly
5 acres ; and extend in aggregate length about 3,352
feet. The total expenditure upon the two harbours
from 1773 till 1840, amounted to the large sum of
about £85,000. A considerable part of this sum
was furnished by the trades of tbe town ; a larger
part was furnished by the commissioners of Highland
roads and bridges, out of the forfeited estates' fund ;
and the greatest or chief part was furnished by the
governors of the Merchant Maiden hospital of Edin
burgh, the superiors of the burgh, who gave up for
the purpose not only all the harbour dues, but all
the town revenue arising from commonty lands,
petty customs, and other sources. An excellent
lighthouse, constructed on the opposite corner of the
bay by the commissioners of northern lights, marks
the entrance to the port; and is of great utility.
The New Statistical Account informs us that the
number of vessels which entered the harbours in the
year ending 1st March, 1837, was 832, of aggregately
48,136 tons; that the number of vessels belonging
to the port, on the 1st of January of the same year,
was 82, of aggregately 11,022 tons ; that the num
ber of wind-bound vessels which entered from 1833
to 1836 averaged 229 in the year; and that the
revenue of the harbours, from 1808 to 1837, rose,
by an almost regular annual increase, from £367 Is.
5£d. to £2,879 8s. 2d. A full custom-house estab
lishment for the port was long earnestly desired, and
quite as stoutly denied ; but, since 1838, has at
length been granted.
Peterhead traded, at an early period of its history,
with the Baltic, the Levant, and America; and,
though more domestic in the general range of its'
traffic, it ranks high as a commercial town and sea-

542

PETERHEAD.

port. The whale-fishery was, for many years, of
prime importance to it, rendering it second in that
department to only one port in Scotland ; and, though
the trade has declined, it still employs 10 ships. The
herring-fishery, quite in a nascent state so late as
1820, has for years been a great, an increasing, and
a very profitable branch of employment and traffic ;
it is judiciously encouraged by both the superiors of
the town and the trustees of the harbour ; and, in
1836, it employed 262 fishing-boats ; and produced
upwards of 40,000 barrels of herrings. The departure
of the vast fleet of boats from the harbour at the
fishing-season, is a peculiarly animating sight, and
suggests crowding recollections of the enterprise and
zealous industry for which the people of the town
and the adjacent villages have long been distin
guished. Other fisheries, particularly of the several
varieties of white-fish, furnish much employment to
the inhabitants, and increasing cargoes to the ship
owners. One bulky article of export is, " Peter
head butter," gathered from most parts of Buchan
to Peterhead as its capital, and favourably known in
various distant markets. A single merchant has
been known to purchase, at a time, 100 tons in the
province for exportation at the port ; and the quan
tity shipped, in 1837, amounted to 167 tons, or a
little more than 3,300 casks. Grain also is brought
for shipment from most parts of Buchan; and, in
1837, was exported to the amount of upwards of
270,000 quarters in, its unground state, and to that
of nearly 14,500 bolls in the state of meal. Eggs
likewise are annually shipped to the amount of about
150,000 dozen. The principal imports are British
and foreign timber, wooden hoops, lime, bone man
ure, soft goods, wool, groceries, flour, salt, and iron.
— Tbe manufactures of the town are very limited.
A distillery, formerly at work, is happily extinct ; a
thread manufactory, once of some importance, has
disappeared ; and a manufacture of woollen cloth,
once extensive, has dwindled to insignificance. A
number of weavers are employed by the manufac
turers of Aberdeen; and, in the town and parish,
are breweries, dye-works, a rope-work, and a brick
work, and a small carding and spinning-mill.
There are in Peterhead branch-offices of the Com
mercial bank of Scotland, the Aberdeen, Town, and
Country bank, the Aberdeen banking company, and
the North banking company. A merchants' society
was instituted in 1712; a trades' society, in 1728; a
gardeners' society, in 1 760 ; a weavers' society, in
1778; a Buchan farmers' society, at a date not
known; and a Keith lodge of masons, in 1754; —
and they all possess property in houses and money,
and, besides ^tending to objects indicated by their
respective tifles, they act as benefit institutions.
A scientific society, instituted in 1835, and called
the Peterhead Association for Science, Literature,
and the Arts, maintains occasional lectures, and
has fitted up a museum. A weekly well-supplied
market is held on Friday ; and annual fairs, both of
tbem for hiring servants, and the latter for the sale
of cattle and horses, are held on the third Tuesday
of May, and the second Tuesday of November, both
old style.
Previous to the latter part of the 16th century, Pe
terhead, or rather Keith-Inch, or what stood on the
site of that modern suburb, was only a trivial fishing-
village. Along with theadjoining lands, which were of
considerable value, it belonged to the abbey of Deer ;
and, in 1560, it passed with them, by grant of Queen
Mary, to Robert Keith, son of the fourth Earl
Marischal, and commendator of Deer-abbey. The
abbey lands having afterwards passed to the Earls
Marischal, Peterhead Proper was, in 1593, founded
and erected into a burgh-of-barony by Earl George ;

and it subsequently followed the fortunes of the
Marischal property, and came to hold feu of the go
vernors of the Merchant Maiden hospital of. Edin
burgh. The feuars, originally but 14 in number,
obtained from the Earl Marischal, along with the
privileges of burgess-ship, considerable property in
moss-lands, fisher-lands, commonage, and pasturage;
and the successors of these feuars having, in 1774,
made a new arrangement with the governors of the
Merchant Maiden hospital, a dispute existed, at the
date of the Report on Municipal Corporations, whe
ther what remained of this property fell to be ad
ministered by the baron-bailie and a committee of
the feuars, or by the magistrates appointed under the
Reform act. The sum of £100, bequeathed to the
town, in 1825, by Mr. Rhind, was, on both sides,
regarded as belonging to the new administration.
The annual revenue from the disputed property, at
the date referred to, was £267 15s. 7£d. ; the
revenue from petty customs belonging to the feuars
was very small, and, in some cases, disputed ; the
expenditure for the year, was £173 19s.; and the
nett amount of debt was £386 2s. 4|d. The preses
of the governors of the hospital, the factor and the
treasurer of the same institution, the bailie or bailies
of the burgh-of-barony, and a certain number of indi
viduals chosen by the majority of the votes of the feu
ars and burgesses, are, by act of parliament, trustees
of the harbour, declared a corporate body, under the
designation of " the trustees of the harbour of Peter
head." Both the harbour act, and a police act for
the burgh, are perpetual acts. The baron-bailie held
his appointment for a long series of years, exercised
jurisdiction over the whole lands of Peterhead, and,
in his court, entertained no civil causes, but only
actions for petty delinquencies. The magistrates,
under the Reform act, are a provost, 3 bailies, a
treasurer, and 7 councillors; and they exercise juris
diction within all the parliamentary burgh, the limits
of which are considerably more extensive than those
of the old burgh. Municipal patronage extends only
to the town officers, and the teachers of the town
school. The burgesses import goods at Is. 3d. per
barrel bulk less of shore- dues than strangers, but
have no other exclusive privileges. There are no
incorporated trades. Ten commissioners of police
are elected by resident occupiers of tenements of £5
or upwards of annual rent ; and they, along with the
same parties connected with the hospital who are on
the trusteeship of the harbour, constitute the board
of police. There is no watching establishment, ex
cept on particular occasions, when the inhabitants
subscribe for it. The only jail is a vault under the
town-house ; and it is never used as a place of pun
ishment. Peterhead was, in 1840, made the seat of
a sheriff-substitute. The burgh unites with Elgin,
Banff, Inverury, CuUen, and Kintore, in sending a
member to parliament. Constituency, in 1840, 241.
Population, in 1821,4,783; in 1831, 5,112. Houses,
in 1831, 708. Assessed taxes £495 6s. 6d.— The
Chevalier St. George landed at Peterhead, in his
miserable expedition of 1715; and, appearing in the
dress of a sailor, did not throw off his incognito till
he had proceeded two days' journey from the town.
The site of the house in which he slept on the night
after his debarkation, is still pointed out in a back
street; and the house itself, not many years ago,
existed as a chief lion of the town. Peterhead, at a
very recent date, was eminently jacobitical and pre-
latical; and, even yet, it contains a considerable pro-
portion of episcopalians, and not a few of those usages
and opinions amongst people of the upper class
which afford to a student of human nature distinct
traces of the character which belonged to the. parti-
sans of tbe later Stuarts. But the influence of trade,

PET

543

PET

which brings men together in a sort of friendly melee
of action, and the effects of extended intercommuni
cation with the south of Scotland, which destroy the
exclusiveness and seclusion of ihe place's former
social position, are so rapidly bringing out their ap
propriate results, that, probably in the course of
another generation, every vestige of peculiarity will
have quite disappeared.
PETTINAIN, a small parish in the Upper ward
of Lanarkshire ; bounded on the north by Carstairs
and Carnwath ; on the south by Covington ; on the
east by Libberton ; and on the west and north-west
by Carmichael and Lanark. At the same time it is
separated from Libberton, Carnwath, Carstairs, and
Lanark, bythe Clyde, on the opposite bank of which
a small portion ofPettinain is situated, a disjunction
from the main body of the parish, which has, no
doubt, been caused by the frequent changes which
have taken place in the course of the river. The
parish is nearly rectangular in shape, and is about 3
miles in length, by 2J in breadth. The only high
ground in Pettinain is a hilly ridge, which com
mences in Covington, and runs in a north-westerly
direction through the parish, terminating in the end
of it, with an elevation of about 500 feet above the
level of the river. With the exception of a very
small portion, the whole parish belongs to Sir
Windham Carmichael Anstruther, Bart., whose fa
mily inherited it from the last Earl of Hyndford.
There are no minerals in the parish, and it is princi
pally supplied with coal from the parishes of Carn
wath and Douglas, which are driven a distance of
from 7 to 9 miles. Lanark is the post-town, and
Carnwath the nearest market-town, — the distance of
the former being 5£ miles, and of the latter 3. Ac
cess to Lanark is obtained by the bridge over the
Clyde at Hyndford, and to Carnwath by a large
boat or commodious float, stationed at the old ford.
It cost £500, and is capable of transporting carts,
carriages, cattle, or other produce, over the stream.
For 40 years the population has been stationary, if
not retrograding. In 1801, it was 430; in 1811, 401 ;
in 1821, 490; in 1831, 461 ; and in 1841, 416, with
103 families, and the same number of inhabited
houses. Assessed property £2,082  The parish is
situated in the presbytery of Lanark, and synod of
Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, Sir W. C. Anstruther,
Bart. Stipend £162, with a glebe of 10 acres —
The church is believed to have been built or remo
delled from an older building, about the end of the
17th century, and the belfry bears date 1696. It
was repaired in 1820, and seated for 240 sitters,
which is sufficient for the parish. The manse was
built in 1820, and is a very commodious house. The
salary of the schoolmaster is £34, in addition to fees.
There is little of historical interest attaching to the
parish. The only mansion-house worthy of note is
that of Westraw, belonging to Sir W. C. Anstru
ther, and which used to be the favourite residence of
the late Earl of Hyndford, by whose death the title
became extinct. — Some time since the ruins of a
house were pointed out at Clowburn, in this parish,
in which it is asserted the first tea used in this
country was drank towards the end of the 17th cen
tury. It was brought from Holland, according to
tradition, by Sir Andrew Kennedy, who was then
proprietor of that part of the parish ; and who, be
ing Lord-conservator of the Scotch privileges at
Campvere, had received it as a present from the
Dutch East India company.
PETTY, a parish on the coast of the narrow or
interior part of the Moray frith, partly in Nairnshire,
but chiefly in Inverness-shire. It forms nearly a
rectangular band of territory, extending along the
coast, from within 4 miles of Inverness, to about a

mile from Fort-George ; and measures about 9 miles
in length, between 2 and 3 miles in breadth, and
about 8,100 imperial acres in area. It is bounded
on the north-west by the Moray frith ; on the north
east by Ardersier; on the south-east by Croy and
Inverness ; and on the south-west by Inverness. This
parish, though all in the Highlands, has physically
an altogether lowland character. The surface rises
with very gentle undulations, and occasionally with
steep and hillocky banks, from the coast, then sub
sides into a belt of quite level land, and finally makes
a regular rise to Culloden-moor along the interior
boundary ; but it aggregately possesses so inconsider
able an altitude above sea-level, as to be no more
than an agreeably diversified plain. The aspect is
rich and pleasant, and finely combines the features
of extensive cultivation, rills of water trotting among
fields or falling over rocks, clumps of forest-trees
at almost every farm-house, and large expanses of
wood over what was once bleak and heathy moor.
The central belt of level ground was formerly all
moss, and supplied the town of Inverness with
rushes ; but it has been extensively reclaimed, and
rendered arable. The sea is shallow near the shore,
and, at low water, retires to a great distance. An
ancient castle, on the estate of the Earl of Moray,
called Castle-Stuart, is a fine specimen of the baro
nial architecture of feudal times ; it abounds in square
and round projections, springing from corbels at the
angles of the building; it seems to have been built
early in the 17th century, and was once designed to
be the modern family-seat, but, for many years, it
has fallen into disrepair, or is kept in order only as
a shooting-box. In a plantation near the school-
house are two small artificial mounds, which were
the scenes of baronial courts and executions, and
have Gaelic names which mean the Court-hill, and
the Gallows-hill. In various places are Druidical
circles. The mansions of the parish are Gallan-
field and Flemington; and the landowners are the
Earl of Moray, Lord Forbes, Lord Cawdor, and
Major Fraser. The only village is Campbelltown :
which see. An annual and long-established cattle-
tryst, which takes its name from this village, is held
at Lammas, on the boundary with Ardersier. Of
several hamlets, one is the site of a private school,
and another had formerly a school belonging to the
Society for propagating Christian knowledge. The
parish is traversed from end to end by the mailroad
between Inverness and Aberdeen. Population, in
1801, 1,585; in 1831, 1,826. Houses 358. As
sessed property, in 1815, £3,852. — Petty is in the
presbytery of Inverness, and synod of Moray. Pa
tron, the Earl of Moray. Stipend £234 3s. 4d. ;
glebe £5. Unappropriated teinds £157 9s. 6d.
Parochial schoolmaster's salary £36, with from £3 to
£5 fees, and about £3 10s. other emoluments. — The
present parish comprehends the ancient parishes of
Petyn and Bracholy, united before the Reformation,
and formerly belonging to the diocese of Moray.
The original church of Petyn possibly dated high,
and, at all events, was dedicated to Columba, the
apostle of the Culdees. Dr. James Fraser, the well-
known benefactor of King's college, Aberdeen, was
a native of Petty; Lord-president Forbes was con
nected with the parish as a proprietor ; aud Sir
James Macintosh was the descendant of a family
whose mortal remains, down to those of his own
father, were interred on the site of the present par
ish-church. PETTYCUR, a harbour in Fifeshire, on the frith
of Forth, about half-a-mile south by west of King
horn. It is said to have obtained the name from
the circumstance of a small body of French (Petit
corps) having landed here, in the time of Mary

PHI

544

PIC

of Guise. It is one of the usual havens from
Leith. PHILIPHAUGH, a plain in Selkirkshire, cele
brated as the scene of the Marquis of Montrose's
defeat in 1645 by General Leslie. Ettrick- water,
immediately after being joined by the Yarrow, makes
a gently curving sweep to the right,. steals insinuat
ingly along the base of a lofty bank on whose sum
mit, at one point, stands the town of Selkirk, and
leaves upon its left bank a beautiful haugh, a level
plain, which extends north-eastward from a copse-clad
hill called the Hareheadwood, to some high ground on
the margin of the stream a little below Selkirk. This
plain is Philiphaugh; it is about H mile in length,
and J of a mile in mean breadth ; and being defend
ed, on the one side, by the river with its bulwark-
fashioned bank, and overhung, on the other, by a
stretch of bold uplands, which intervene between
the Yarrow and the Tweed, it possesses naturally,
and on a grand scale, many of the securities and con
veniences which were desiderated by the Romans in
their camps. Montrose, after he had won six splen
did victories over the Covenanters, was on his march
southward to pour his conquering troops upon Eng
land, when Philiphaugh invited him to repose, and
wooed him to destruction. Observing the advan-
tageousness of the ground, he strengthened it with
some trenches, and posted upon it his infantry,
amounting to 1,200 or 1,500 men; and, seeing how
near and accessibly to it stood the town of Selkirk,
with its burghai accommodations, he there quartered
his cavalry, and courted a night's freedom from a
soldier's care. General Leslie, with his sturdy and
high-spirited Covenanters, arrived at Melrose on the
evening of Montrose's wrapping up himself and his
little host in fancied security; and, favoured next
morning by a, thick mist, he reached Philiphaugh,
and was in position for the onslaught, before being
descried by a single scout. Montrose was apprized
of danger only by the yell which followed the tiger's
leaping upon his prey ; he knew nothing of Leslie's
vicinity till the rattle of musketry announced his
activity in the encampment; and when he reached
the scene of conflict, he beheld his army dispersed
and fleeing in irretrievable panic and confusion. After
making a bold stand, a desperate but unavailing at
tempt to recover his lost fortunes of the hour, he
cut his way through a body of Leslie's troops, fled
up Yarrow and over the wild and lofty mountain-
path of Minchmoor, and stopped not till he arrived
at Traquair, 16 miles from the scene of action. His
defeat at Philiphaugh occurred on the 15th of Sep
tember, 1645, and produced at once conclusive ad
vantages to ihg Covenanters, and ruin to the wild
policy and the hapless cause of Charles I. in Scot
land. Upwards of a mile south-west of the present
farm-stead of Philiphaugh, and overhanging the Yar
row immediately above iis confluence with the Et
trick, there are still traces of an intrenchment thrown
up by Montrose. Two miles farther up the Yarrow,
close to the ruin of Newark-castle, is a field called
Slain-man's-lee, in which tradition says the Cove
nanters, a day or two after the fight, put many of
their prisoners to death. In Selkirk the house is
still standing which was occupied by Montrose on
the night of his ill-judged security.
PHILLANS (St.). See Forgan.
PICTS (The). Many conjectures have been
hazarded as to the derivation of the term Pict ; but
of this there can be no doubt, that the Picts were
Celts, and that they were no other than a part of the
race of the ancient Caledonians under another name.
Of the twenty-one distinct tribes which inhabited
North Britain, at the time of the Roman invasion,
the most powerful was that of the Caledonii, or Ca

ledonians, who inhabited the whole of the interior
country, from the ridge of mountains which separates
Inverness and Perth on the south, to the range of hills
that formed the forest of Balnagowan jn Ross on the
north, comprehending all the middle parts of Inver
ness and of Ross ; but in process of time the whole
population of North Britain were designated by the
generic appellation of Caledonians, though occasion
ally distinguished by some classic writers, proceeding
on fanciful notions, by the various names of Maeatse,
Dicaledones, Vecturiones, and Picti. At the time
of the Roman abdication, the Caledonians* or Picts,
were under the sway of, a chieftain, named Drust,
the son of Erp, who, for his prowess in his various
expeditions against the Roman provincials, has been
honoured by the Irish Annalists, with the name of
' Drust of the hundred battles.' History, however,
has not done him justice, for it has left little con
cerning him on record. In faqt, little is known of
the Pictish history for upwards of one hundred years,
immediately after the Roman abdication. Although
some ancient chronicles afford us lists of the Pictish
kings, or princes, a chronological table of whom,
according to the best authorities, is here subjoined :

table of the pictish kings.
Names and Filiations.
1 Drust, the son of Erp . ...
2 Talorc, the son of Aniel • . . .
3 Nacton Morbet, the son of Erp .
4 Drest Gurthinmoch 
5 Galauau Etelich . . ...
6 Dadre.it 
7 Drest, the son of Girom ....
Drest, the son of Wdrest, with the former .
Drest, the son of Girom, alone
8 Gartnarch, the son of Girom .
9 Gealtraim, the son of Girom
10 Talorg, the son of Muircholaich
11 Drest, the son of Munait ....
12 Galaro, with Aleph 
Galam, with Bridei 
13 Bridei, the son of Mailcon
14 Gartnaich, tlie (-on of Domelch .
15 Nectu, the nephew of Verb ,
16 Cineoch, the sou of Luthriu
17 Garnard, the son of Wid-
18 Bridei, the son of Wid . ...
19 Talorc, their brother ...
SO Tallorcan, the son of Enfret
21 Gartnait, the son of Donuel
2d Drest, his brother 
23 Bridei, the son of Bill ...
24 Taran, the son of Entifidicll
25 Bridei, the son of Dereli . . .
26 Nechton, the son of Dereli
27 Drest, and Elpin 
28 Ungus, the son of Urguis
29 Bridei, the son of Urguis
SO Ciniod, the son of Wredech
31 Elpin, the son of Bridei .....
32 Drest, the son of Talorgan ....
33 Talorgan, the son of Ungus .
34 Canaul, the son of Tarla ....
35 Constantin, the son of Urguis .
36 Ungus (Hungus), the son of Urguis .
37 Drest, the son of Constantin, and Talorgan,
son of Wthoil • 
SS Uen, the son of Ungus 
39 Wrad, the son of Bargoit ....
40 Bred 

Period of
their Deathf, 451455
480510
622523 524
529534 541
542 553554555
556

597
617 636640645 657 661667
674

710
725

761763 775
779
784 786791 821
833 836
839842 843

We have already observed that little is known of
Pictish history for more than a hundred years after
the Roman abdication ; but at the time of the acces
sion of Bridei in 556 to the Pictish throne, some
light is let in upon that dark period of the Pictish,
annals. The reign of that prince was distinguished
by many warlike exploits, but above all by his con
version and that of his people to Christianity, which
indeed formed his greatest glory. His chief contests
were with the Scoto-Irish or Dalriads, whom he de
feated in 557. Passing over a domestic conflict, at
Lindores in 621, under Cineoch the son of Luthrin,
and the trifling battle of Ludo-Feim in 663 among
the Picts themselves, we must notice the important
battle of Dun-Nechtan, fought in the year 685, be-

PIE

545

PIN

tween the Picts under Bridei— the son of Bili, and
the Saxons under the Northumbrian Egfrid. The
Saxon king, it is said, attacked the Picts without
provocation, and against the advice of his court.
Crossing the Forth from Lothian— the Bernicia of
that age — he entered Strathearn and penetrated
through the defiles of the Pictish kingdom, leaving
fire and desolation in his train. His career was
stopped at Dun-Nechtan, ' the hill-fort of Nechtan,'
the Dunnichen of the present times; and by a neighs
bouring lake long known by the name of Nechtan's
mere, did Egfrid and his Saxons fall before Bridei
and his exasperated Picts. The Picts were, how
ever, finally defeated by the Saxons, in 710, under
Beorthfryth, in Mananfield, when Bridei, the Pict
ish king, was killed. The wars between the Picts
and Northumbrians were succeeded by various con
tests for power among the Pictish princes, which
gave rise to a civil war. Ungus, honoured by the
Irish Annalists with the title of Great, and Elpin,
at the head of their respective partisans, tried their
strength at Moncrib, in Strathearn, in the year 727,
when the latter was defeated. The conflict was re
newed at Duncrei, when victory declared a second
time against Elpin, who was obliged to flee from the
hostility of Ungus. Nechtan next tried his strength
with Ungus, in 728, at Moncur, in the Carse of
Gowrie, but he was defeated, and many of his fol
lowers perished. Ungus, who was certainly by far
the most powerful and ablest of the Pictish m'onarchs,
died in 761. A doubtful victory was gained by
Ciniod the Pictish king over Aodh-fin, the Scottish
king, in 767- Up to this period, the pirate kings of
the northern seas — or the Vikingr, as they were
termed — had confined their ravages to the Baltic ;
but, in the year 787, they for the first time appeared
on the east coast of England. Some years after
wards they found their way to the Caledonian shores,
and during the 9th century they ravaged the He
brides. In 839, the Vikingr entered the Pictish
territories. A murderous conflict ensued between
them and the Picts under Uen their king, in which
both he and his only brother Bran, as well as many
of the Pictish chiefs, fell. This event hastened the
downfall of the Pictish monarchy : and as the Picts
were unable to resist the arms of Kenneth, the Scot
tish king, he carried into execution, in the year 843,
a project he had long entertained, of uniting the
Scots and Picts, and placing both crowns on his
head.* PIEROWALL, a small village in the northern
peninsula of the island of Westray in Orkney.
PILNOUR WATER, a rivulet of Kirkcudbright
shire, a tributary of the Cree, chiefly in the interior,
and partly on the southern boundary of the parish of
Minigaff : which see.
PILORTH. See Fraserburgh.
PILTANTON BURN, a considerable rivulet in
Wigtonshire, chiefly in the Rhinns. It rises and
runs 3 J miles south-eastward in Leswalt; divides,
for 2} miles in the same direction, Portpatrick on its
right bank from Inch on its left; runs 4J miles east
ward between Inch on the north, and Stoneykirk
and Old Luce on the south; and, measuring in a
straight line, traverses the interior of Old Luce 2J
miles east-south-eastward, to the head of Luce-bay,
there to form, jointly with Luce-water, a small es
tuary. It thus has, exclusive of windings, an en
tire course of upwards of 12 miles ; but in the lower
part of its course, it is constantly, though never
boldly, sinuous.
* The ridiculous story about the total extermination of the
Picts by the Scots has long since beeq exploded. They were
recognised as a distinct people even in the 10th century, but
before the 12th they lost their characteristic nominal distinction
bv being amalgamated with the Scots, their conquerors.
II.

PINKIE, a barony and a celebrated battle-field
in the parish of Inveresk, and immediately east of
the town of Musselburgh, Edinburghshire. The
barony is now the property of Sir John Hope, the
vice-lieutenant of the county : it originally compre
hended little more than 30 acres lying south and
east of the mansion; but it has recently been much
extended by the purchase and addition of contiguous
lands. Pinkie-house, the mansion of the barony,
situated in the outskirt of Musselburgh, scarcely
half-a-mile from the Esk and the same distance from
the sea, is a large structure of various dates, and ap
parently was designed to be a magnificent Gothic
quadrangle, but never was completed. An elabo
rately sculptured fountain, in the form of the papal
tiara, stands on the green, in front, and seems to
have been intended to occupy the centre of the
court. The northern and oldest part of the edifice
has great thickness of wall, is strongly arched on the
ground floor, consists of a massive quadrangular tower
shooting up in picturesque turrets, and contains a
spacious apartment called ' the King's room,' and a
number of curious smaller apartments which are en
tered at angles of the staircase. The southern and
newer part cannot be of more recent date than the
reign of James VI. ; and, in addition to several beau
tiful apartments not so anciently fitted up, contains
what is called the painted gallery, — whose roof ex
hibits, in compartments, pedantic and medley groups
of tbe images of heraldry, mythology, and capricious
creativeness. The mansion was originally a coun
try-seat of the abbots of Dunfermline, the superiors
of the regality of Musselburgh; and when, after the
Reformation, that regality was given to the Earl of
Lauderdale, Pinkie was detached from it, and be
stowed on the Earl of Dunfermline. James V., ac
cording to a traditional fama, had the use of the
king's-room during a summer from its mitred proprie
tor, for the covert and unhallowed indulgence of
miserable concubinage. The first Earl of Dunferm-
line died in the house in 1 622, and was laid out in
state in the church of Inveresk. The wounded at
the battle of Pinkie were lodged in the painted gal
lery,. and occupied it as an hospital.
The battle of Pinkie, one of the most disastrous
in which ever Scotland bled, was fought in 1547,
during the infancy of Mary of Scotland, and the
minority of Edward VI. of England. Protector
Somerset warmly adopted Henry VIII.'s project of
uniting the two kingdoms by matrimonially allying
their monarchs ; and, finding it still distasteiul to the
Scots, he fabricated pretexts for achieving it by force.
News having arrived that he was at Newcastle,
marching against Scotland at the head of 12,000 foot
and 2,000 horse, the ' fiery cross' circulated through
the country, and promptly summoned 36,000 men to
dispute his access to the capital, and to deal with
him as an invader. The Scottish army took post on
Edmonston-Edge, in the parish of Newton, 2£ miles
south-west of Musselburgh; and were disposed in
three bodies, commanded by the Earls of Angus,
Arran, and Huntly, with some light horse and a
body of Irish archers under the Earl of Argyle.
Their position was strong; on the one hand, the
morass of the Shirehaugh ; on the other hand, tbe
hill of Inveresk, the mounds in the churchyard, and
the bridge, all defended by cannon ; and, in front, the
steep banks of the Esk, then densely covered with
wood. Protector Somerset, on coming up, was sup
ported by a fleet of 30 ships of war, and 30 transports
laden with ammunition and provisions, lying in the
frith opposite the mouth of the Esk ; and he drew
up his army on Falside Brao, 1 i_ mile east of Mussel
burgh, and extended his right over the grounds ol
Walliford and Drummore, toward the sea. Thu
2 M ">

PIN

546

PIT

Scottish position being too strong to admit of his
assailing it, he kept firmly on his post, and awaited
an attack. On the morning of Friday, the 9th of
September, Lord Hume, leading on 1,500 light
horse, appeared on Edgebucklin Brae, at the east
end of Musselburgh links, within a mile of the Eng
lish position, and rushed so impetuously forward,
that Somerset, suspecting him to be supported by
some much greater though yet invisible force, strictly
commanded his troops to preserve their ranks, and
sustain the onset where they stood. Lord Grey,
however, — stung with the taunt which Lord Hume's
movement seemed to imply, and obtaining a reluc
tant but hasty consent to his attempting to chastise
it, — moved down with 1,000 men-at-arms, and, when
within 100 yards of the Scots, charged them at full
speed, and, during a fierce and frightful conflict of 3
hours, cut 1,300 of them down, severely wounded
their gallant but rash leader, and made prisoner of
his son. But, excepting the mere deduction from
the number of the force opposed to him, Somerset
reaped no advantage; for he could neither advanta
geously attack the Scots, nor induce them to leave
their strong position, nor draw from them any diplo
matic concession. After some vain efforts had been
made with him to negociate a treaty, or to prevent
general effusion of blood by the succedaneum of
limited or personal combat, he intimated to the Scot-
. tish leaders that, on the simple condition of their
queen being left unfettered by any matrimonial en
gagement till she should be of age, be would evacuate
his post, and retreat to England. The Scots, rashly
and proudly interpreting his message as a confession
of weakness, and at the same time eager to rush
upon what they supposed to be his doomed army,
left their strong position, and defiled along the old
bridge of Musselburgh to close with them on the
east bank of the river. As they passed the bridge,
and marched up the hill of Inveresk on the west side
of the church, they were galled by cannon-shot from
the English galleys in the bay, and lost on the bridge
the Master of Graham, eldest son of the first Earl of
Montrose, and many of his followers. Descending
eastward down a slope, they began to be sheltered
from the shot, and passing through the How Mire,
which lies at the foot of the slope, and was then a
morass, though now drained and cultivated, they saw
the English army and the battle-field immediately
before them, on a gently-hanging plain which recedes
from the How to the base of Carberry-hill and Fal-
side Brae. The conflict which followed was tremen
dous, but had too many details, and is too well-
known, to admit or to need consecutive narration.
After four hdtirs sternly debated and general conflict,
during which the Scots won achievements, but could
not profit by them for want of well-appointed and
sufficient horse, and the English could make no im
pression with their cavalry upon hedges of pointed
spears which enclosed the antagonist foot battalions,
the van of the Scots was somewhat driven in by a
concentrated, multiform, and prompt attack, and a
body of Highlanders, who had forgotten their duty
amid their covetousness, and were gathering plunder
from the bodies of the slain, mistook the retrograde
movement for flight, flung down their arms, and con
sulted the mountaineer activity of their heels, and,
infecting the Lowlanders with the panic of their ex
ample, drew the whole army after them in an indis
criminate race of defeat. The Scots ran toward the
coast, toward Dalkeith, and toward Edinburgh ; and
in each direction they were hotly pursued by the
hallooing and shouting English, and hewn down in
excess, and sheer butchery of carnage. " With Mode
and slaughter of ye enemie," says Patten, "this
£base was continued v miles in length westward fro

the place of their standinge, which was in ye fallow
feldes of Undreske, untille Edinborowe parke, and
well nigh to the gates of the toune itself, and unto
Lyeth ; and in breadth nie nn mile from the fryth
sandes up unto Daketh south warde: in all whiche
space the dead bodies lay as thik as a man may mette
cattell erasing in a full plenished pasture. The ry vere
ran al red withblode; soo that in the same chase
wear counted, as well by sum of our men that sum-
what diligently did maike it, as by sum of them take
prisoners that very much did lament it, to have been
slayne above xiii thousande. In all thys cumpos of
grounde, what with weapons, armes, handes, legges,
heddes, blode, and dead bodyes, their flight mought
have easily been tracted to every of their in refuges."
Another account — perhaps quite sufficiently exagger
ated — states the loss of the Scots in killed at 10,000,
and that of the English at not 200. After the pur
suers had chased and slaughtered for five hours, they
mustered on Edmonston-Edge, the original position
of the Scots, and raised a shout so loud and reverber
ating, as to be heard at 4 miles' distance on the streets
of the metropolis ; and then they retired north-east
ward, and spent the night at Edge-bucklin Brae, the
scene of the premonition defeat of Lord Hume.
About 18 years ago, when the new. line of road be
tween Edinburgh and London was cut through Edge
bucklin Brae, numerous rows of human skeletons
were found about four feet from the surface, enclosed
in stone slabs, such as for six centuries past have been
worked from quarries in the vicinity, and they are
believed to have been the remains of the slain Eng
lish, interred by their comrades on the day after the
battle. The Scottish cavalry, during the fight, were
engaged chiefly in the How-mire ; and, when the
panic seized their army, they seem to have retreated
down the steep banks of tbe rill called Pinkie-burn,
and were slain in such numbers that, according to
tradition, it was for three days tinctured with their
blood. PITCAIRN, a modern village on tbe left bank of
the river Almond, in the parish of Redgorton, 3J
miles west-north-west of Perth, and 3 miles easi of
Methven, Perthshire. It was commenced toward
the close of last century, on the estate of Mr. Graham
of Baldowan, and is the subject of a poem by Mrs.
Cowley, in which she predicts that it will one day
rival Manchester ; but it has as yet attained a popu
lation of only 260. On the Almond at the village
are two falls, or capacities of water-power, both of
which are made subservient to industry. The upper
one is drawn off by an oblique dam-dike which abuts
on the rocky basement of the old bridge of Almond ;
and it is employed to drive both a large flour-mill,
and a considerable flax spinning-mill. The lower
fall was used to drive a grain-mill at the earliest
dawn cf record ; and, at present, it drives the beetles
of a bleachfield which employs about 50 hands. In
the village is a United Secession meeting-house: see
Redgorton — About a quarter of a mile to the east
ward of the village of Pitcairn, there are two very
large cairns of stones. They stand at a distance of
nearly a quarter of a mile from each other, almost in
a south and north direction. The largest of theni
measures upwards of 300 feet in circumference at the
base, and is between 30 and 40 feet in height ; the
other is not so large. When, or on what account,
these huge heaps of stones were gathered, no person
can now with certainty tell.
PITCAIRN (New), a small village in the parish
of Dunning, hali-a-mile south of the village of Dun
ning, Perthshire.
PITCAITHLY, 'a locality noted for its medicinal
wells, in the parish of Dunbarnie, Perthshire. It is
situated in a sequestered nook of the lower district

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547

• PIT

ot Strathearn, about a mile south-west of the village
of Bridge-of-Earn, and 4$ miles from Perth ; and is
surrounded with fertile fields, a luxuriant landscape,
and all the amenities of a soft rural retreat. The
medicinal waters were discovered at a period of
which neither record nor tradition gives any infor
mation^ they have long and increasingly enjoyed
reputation ; and, in recent times, they have attracted
vast numbers of both real and sentimental valetudi
narians. They are esteemed efficacious, or at worst
alleviative, in cases in scrofulous, herpetic, and scor
butic complaints ; they relieve the stomach of crudi
ties, improve its tone, and renovate its energies ;
they cool and purify the blood, they are gentle in
operation, and — to crown the pyramid of eulogies
which writers have erected in their honour — they
exert a general strengthening influence on the very
stamina of the constitution. They issue from five
springs, called the East, the West, the Spout, the
Dunbarnie, and the South park wells, and are the
same in quality from all, and differ only in the de
grees of strength, and in the proportions of the in
gredients held in solution. The following are the
results of an analysis of the water of these springs,
made by Professor Thomson of Glasgow, in 1839 : —
1. Mr. Grant of Kilgraston's spring.
Specific gravity, ... 100241
Constituent* in the Imp. Gal.
Chloride of Calcium, . 155 28 grains.
Common Salt, . . . 9012 —
Chloride of Magnesium, . . 3-44 —
Sulphate of Lime, , . . 1213 —
260-97
2. Mr. Craigie of Dunbarnie's spring.
Specific gravity, . . . 100467

Chloride of Calcium,
Common Salt,
Chloride of Magnesium,
Sulphate of Lime,

Constituents in the Imp. Oal.
16858 grains.
11784 —
4-16 —
25-92 —
316-50

A large lodging-house stands beside the wells for the
accommodation of visiters. Taste or caprice, how
ever, has adopted the village of Bridge-of-Earn as
the favourite seat of all the loungers, and of the
great majority of persons really in quest of health ;
and it is daily supplied for their use with quantities
of the waters of the spas. A supply is brought
down every morning by six o'clock. The usual
mode is to mix merely as much of the hot with the
cold as takes off the chilliness. The taste of the
water is but very slightly offensive; indeed, it is
quite as palatable as what is drawn from many wells
round Edinburgh, and it has been drunk, in small
quantities, at the dinner-table, by mistake for ordi
nary spring-water. The quantity taken is from 3 to
8 large glassfuls. The society drawn to the place is,
as may be supposed, of a very mixed character; and
though partly sedate, and in every way consonant
with the professed object of its aggregation, is pre-
ponderatingly fashionable, and even fashionably dis
sipated. Games, amusements, fetes, ball-room fol
lies, and various paradings of vanity, are sufficiently
numerous and prominent to excite wonder in the
mind of a simple onlooker, as to what the possible
motive can be for persons so apparently strong and
buoyant, and prodigal of ample stores of health,
quaffing day by day draughts of putrid water.
PITFERRANE. See Dunfermline.
PITLESSIE, a village in Fifeshire, in the parish
of Cults, on the north side of the road to Cupar from
Kinghorn, 4 miles west of Cupar, and 5 east of New
Inn. PITLOCHRY, a small village in the parish of
Moulin, Perthshire. It stands on the left bank of
the river Tummel, on the great military road from

Perth to Inverness, 1 mile south of the village of
Moulin, and 4 miles south-east of the Pass of Killie
crankie. • It has a corn-mill, a saw-mill, and a dye
ing manufactory. Population, about 200.
PITRODIE, a hamlet in the parish of Errol,
Perthshire, — the site of a United Secession meeting
house. While skulking under the protection of his
uncle, Wallace is said to have concealed himself oc
casionally in a cave within the glen of Pitrodie, near
Kilspindy. The glen is wild and lonely, with steep
furzy slopes, and a little rill trickling at the bottom.
In the face of a porphyritic rock overhanging the
rivulet, there is a long slit — probably at one time
masked with brushwood— in which a man might find
concealment and shelter.
PITSCOTTIE, a village in the parish of Ceres,
Fifeshire. There are two mills here for spinning
linen-yarn. PITSLIGO, a parish on the north coast of Aber
deenshire, 2 miles west of Kinnaird-head. It is
bounded on the north by the Moray frith ; on the east
by Fraserburgh; on the south by Tyrie; and on the
west by Aberdour. Its greatest length is 3^ miles ;
its greatest breadth is 2£ miles; and its area is about
7£ square miles, or 4,500 imperial acres. The coast,
4 milts in extent, consists, on the east, of a low flat
beach, now sandy, and now strewn with loose rocks,
— and, on the west, of high bold cliffs, torn with
large and numerous fissures. The surface of the
interior gently rises from both the north and the
south to a line of bisection across nearly the middle
of the parish ; but nowhere attains a hilly elevation,
and may be viewed as strictly champaign. Excepting
about 500 acres, the whole area is enclosed, and sub
ject to the plough ; but the enclosures being of stone,
and wood existing to the amount of less than 20
acres, it presents a bald and cold aspect, and occasion
ally suffers damage to its produce from the northerly
storms. Some conical cairns, about 30 feet in height
and 60 in circumference, are noticed in the Old Sta
tistical Account as traditionally "the burying-places
of hostile invaders from Denmark or^Norway, who
were defeated in the neighbourhood, and seem to
have been pursued with slaughter a great way along
the coast, where several such tumuli are still to be
seen." Pitsligo-castle, formerly the seat of the
Lords Pitsligo — a title in the Forbes family attainted
in 1746 — is the ruin of a strongly constructed edifice,
surrounded with extensive and still cultivated gar
dens. Pittulie-castle, likewise a ruin, appears to
have been built by the SaltounS, but was afterwards
possessed and enlarged by the Comyns. Both ruins
are on the coast. The villages of the parish are
Roseheartt and Pittulie : which see. In 1840,
a new fishing-harbour was constructed at Sandhaven,
in the extreme east. Mr. Andrew Cant, distin
guished as a stout Covenanter and opponent of pre
lacy, was the first minister of the parish, and, with
violence alike to good feeling and fair scholarship, is
described in No. 147 of the Spectator as an illiterate
minister in the north of Scotland, from whose name
arose the opprobrious word "cant." Roads diverge
from Rosehearty; and also run across in two lines
from the town of Fraserburgh. Population, in 1801,
1,256; in 1831, 1,439. Houses 307. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £2,696  Pitsligo is in the presbytery
of Deer, and synod of Aberdeen. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £191 4s. 4d. ; glebe £17 10s.
The church was built in 1634, and repaired and
slightly enlarged in 1 792. Sittings 504. - An United
Secession place of worship is situated in Rosehearty,
and was built in 1 799. Sittings 350. An ecclesias
tical survey in 1837 exhibited the population then
as consisting of 1,253 churchmen and 187 dissenters.
The parish anciently formed part of Aberdour, and

PIT

548

PIT

was separated from it in 1633 by an act of the Scot
tish parliament. Parochial schoolmaster's salary
£32 2s. 6d., with £19 8s. fees. There are 5 non-
parochial schools.
PITSLIGO (New), a quoad sacra parish, and a
large village, in the north-east division of Aberdeen
shire. The parish, as to its nucleus, was, in 1799,
disjoined from Tyrie by the late Sir William Forbes
of Pitsligo, under the sanction of the General As
sembly ; and about 1835, it received certain additions
from Aberdour, New Deer, Strichen, and Tyrie, by
authority of the General Assembly ; hut it has never
undergone political or quoad civilia erection. Some
portions of Aberdour lie contiguously to its church,
but are not included within its limits. Its greatest
length is 6 miles ; its greatest breadth is 5 miles ;
and its superficial extent is nearly 30 square miles.
Population, according to ecclesiastical survey in 1837,
1,696; of whom 1,403 were churchmen, 266 were
dissenters, and 27 were nondescripts. The church
was built in 1798, at the sole expense of the late Sir
W. Forbes, and cost about £600. Sittings 469.
Patron, Sir J. S. Forbes, Bart. Stipend £80; glebe
£6, with a manse. A Scottish Episcopalian congre
gation was established in the parish between 1800
and 1805. The chapel was built in 1835, at the sole
expense of Sir J. S. Forbes, and cost about £400.
Sittings 160. Stipend £60; glebe about £13, with
a manse. The parish is in the presbytery of Deer,
and synod of Aberdeen  The village of New Pits
ligo is situated politically in the parish of Tyrie, 6
miles north of New Deer, 1 1 south-west of Fraser
burgh, and 18 west-north-west of Peterhead. It is
neat, and altogether of such origin and character as
to witness to the genuine patriotism of the late Sir
W. Forbes. Its inhabitants are all weavers, country
tradesmen, small farmers, crofters, and day-labour
ers. Annual fairs are held here on the 3d Tuesday
and Wednesday of February, old style: the 3d Wed
nesday of May, old style ; and the Thursday in Au
gust after Tarland. Population, in 1837, 1,262.
PITTENCRIEFF, a village in Fifeshire, near
Dunfermline, to which town it is joined by a mound
of earth, on which a street has been formed.
PITTENWEEM, a parish in Fifeshire, about 14
mile in length from east to west ; and half-a-mile in
breadth from north to south ; bounded on the east
by Anstruther- Wester; on the north by that parish
and Carnbee ; on the west by the parish of St. Mo-
nan's ; and on the south by the frith of Forth. It
is level in its surface, and its soil in general a black
loam, very fertile, yielding heavy crops of wheat and
barley. The population, in 1755, was 939; in 1801,
1,072 ; in 1831,, 1,317. The valued rent of the par
ish is £2,452 Scots. The annual value of real pro
perty, in 1815, was £1,712 sterling; of which £1,127
was assessed on the burgh, and £585 sterling on the
landward part of the parish. Houses, in 1831, 234.
— This parish is in the synod of Fife, and presbytery
of St. Andrews. Patron, Sir W. C. Anstruther,
Baronet. Stipend £166 Is. 10d.; glebe £12 12s.
The church is obviously of considerable antiquity,
and is supposed to have formed part of the Priory,
but the period of its erection is uncertain. The
teacher of the parochial school has the maximum
salary, with a school-house, dwelling-house, and
garden. The average attendance at the school is
90. Besides the parish-school there is one unen
dowed, at which the attendance of pupils is about
the same; and a female school supported partly by
subscription, at which from 60 and 80 pupils attend.
The burgh of Pittenweem, from which the par
ish derives its name, consists of a street running east
and west, having the parish-church at the east end;
the street which fronts the harbour ; and a street of

modern erection built parallel to these, on the line
of the toll-road, with several connecting lanes run
ning north and south. Even the old part of the
town is well-built, and both in the old and more
modern parts there are several well-filled shops, and
excellent houses,, which, with its superior cleanness
to most of the little coast-towns, gives it an air pf
comfort and respectability, which one would not at
first expect to meet with. Originally it was a burgh-
of-barony holding of the priors of the priory of Pit
tenweem, but by a charter granted by James V.,
dated February 1542, in favour of John, then prior,
it was erected into a free royal burgh, and subse
quently in 1547, the prior and convent granted to
the provost, bailies, council, community, burgesses,
and inhabitants, the burgh as the same was builded,
or to have been builded, and the harbour thereof,
and all moors, mosses, waste ground, common ways,
and other commonties, liberties, customs, anchor
ages, &c. belonging thereto. In 1593, a charter was
also granted by James VI. to the town, of that great
house or lodging of the Monastery of Pittenweem.
These charters were all ratified and confirmed by
act of parliament in June 1633. The town is gov
erned by a chief magistrate, three bailies, a treasurer,
19 councillors, and a town-clerk, who acts as asses
sor to the magistrates. The magistrates have -the
usual jurisdiction of magistrates of royal burghs ; but
very few cases are ever brought before them. There
are no guildry or incorporations within the burgh.
The property of the burgh consists of lands, mills,
slaughter-house and byres, ship-building yard, cellar
and shed, shares in a granary, washing-house and
bleaching-green, seats in parish-church, harbour,
petty customs, shore, boom, and crane-dues, iron
stone on the sea-shore, sea-ware, stances for curing
herrings, feu-duties, and ground-annuals. The in
come is of course variable ; for the year ending Oc
tober 1839, it was £466 4s. 2d. sterling, besides
considerable arrears owing to the town, and money
in bank. The debt owing by the town was about
£1,200 sterling, but the expenditure is considerably
within the income. The harbour is much exposed
to winds from the south-east, but every attention is
paid to its improvement by the magistrates, and
should the herring-fishing continue for a few years,
as valuable as it has been for the last two seasons,
they will be enabled to expend still more upon its
improvement than they have heretofore been able to
do. A few sloops and schooners belong to this town,
but they have of course been included in the harbour
of Anstruther-Easter, of which Pittenweem is one
of the creeks. Fish-curing is carried on to a con
siderable extent in the town, and large quantities of
fish are besides sold fresh throughout the surround
ing country. There are grain mills adjoining the
town, which belong to it in property, but are let to
a tenant. At one time, it is said, there were thirty
brewers here; now, however, there is only one. The
priory of Pittenweem was founded for canons-regu
lar, who were first introduced into Scotland about
1114; it belonged to the priory of St. Andrews.
It had many lands belonging to it, and the churches
of Rhind, Anstruther- Wester, and others. John
Rowle, prior of Pittenweem, was a Lord-of-session,
and first appears in the Sederunt book on 5th No
vember, 1544. In March 1542, he had been one of
the lords for discussing of domes ; and in March 1544,
he was one of the Lords-of-the-articles. In 1550,
he accompanied the Regent Murray to France, and
died in 1553. In 1583, William Stewart, a captain
in the King's guard, descended from Alan Stewart
of Darnley, obtained a charter of the priory and lands
of Pittenweem, and was afterwards styled Commen
dator of Pittenweem. In 1606, the lands and baro-

PIT

549

PLU

nics belonging to tbe Priory were erected into a
temporal lordship, in favour of Frederick Stewart
his son, who had farther charters in 1609 and 1618.
He died, as is supposed, without issue, and the title
never has since been claimed by any heir-general or |
assignee. Previous to his death he disponed the
lordship to Thomas Earl of Kellie, who, with consent
of his son Alexander Lord Fenton, surrendered the
superiority of the same into the hands of the king.
A considerable portion of the buildings of the Priory
are still in existence, and inhabited. The prior's
house is now the property and residence of the Right
Rev. David Low, LL.D., Bishop of the Scottish
Episcopal united diocese of Ross and Argyle. The
wall which surrounded the precinct is still in exist
ence, and with the other buildings and ruins give
some idea of the extent and breadth of this Priory.
Below the Priory, and near the sea-beach, is a large
cave, consisting of two apartments, in the inner one
of which there is a well of excellent water. At the
junction of the two apartments there is a stone-stair,
which went up to a subterraneous passage, leading
to the Abbey, at the end of which there was another
stair, which landed in the fratory or refectory of the
Priory. The two stairs still remain, but the pas
sage, which would be about 50 yards in length, has
for many years been destroyed by the falling of the
superincumbent earth.
PITTULIE, a fishing-village on the coast of the
parish of Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire. It stands 2 miles
east of Rosehearty, and 3 miles west of Fraserburgh.
A good harbour has recently been formed here by
the Government commissioners for the herring-fish
ery. Tbe fish caught at the station are cod, ling,
skate, haddocks, saith, and poddlies. Population of
the village, about 200.
PLADDA, a low rocky islet in the frith of Clyde,
about 5 furlongs south of the south-eastern extrem
ity of Arran, and divided from that island by a strait
to which it gives the name of Pladda sound. Mr.
Galbraith, in 1836, determined its position to be N.
lat. 55° 25' 33"; W. long. 50° T 0". Stratified
rocks, consisting of a white sandstone accompanied
by limestone, appear to form the foundation of the
whole islet. A continuous bed of trap overlies the
whole, and reaches on almost all sides to the sea,
but it wants such distinctive properties as would
rank it with any of the ordinary subspecies of trap,
being intermediate between basalt and greenstone,
and consisting of an indurated clay-stone highly
charged with protoxide of iron. Pladda is conspi
cuous chiefly for its lighthouse, erected in 1790.
It exhibits two fixed lights, one above the other :
the elevation of the one light being 130 feet, and of
the other 77 feet above high water; and the lights
are respectively visible at the distance of 15 and
of 12 miles, from north-east by east, round by
the south, to north-west by west. The bearings
from the lighthouse, as taken by compass, are, the
entrance of Campbelltown-bay W. N. W., A N. dis
tant 18 miles; island of Sanda W., distant 20 miles;
Ailsa Craig, S. W. by S., distant 15 miles; entrance
to Loch-Ryan, S. S. W., distant 25 miles; and the
Heads of Ayr, S. S. E., distant 16 miles. The ex
pense of maintaining the lighthouse, for the. year
1840, was £683. In the sound of Pladda, at the
south end of Arran, the charts have 4 fathoms marked,
whilst there is a bridge of rock, with 2, 3, and 4 feet
only of water, nearly right across, not justifying any
vessel attempting the passage.
PLEAN, a village and quoad sacra parish in St.
Ninian's, Stirlingshire. See Ninian's (St.).
PLEAN-MUIR, a hamlet in the parish of St.
Ninian's, Stirlingshire; 2| miles north of Denny.
Here is an extensive colliery.

PLEASANTS (The), a suburb of the city of
Edinburgh, on the south-east; in the parish of St.
Cuthbert. It formerly belonged to the Earls of Rox
burgh, and was purchased from one of them by the
magistrates of Edinburgh in 1636. Here was a priory
of nuns, dedicated to St. Mary of Placentia; and
the street still bears, corruptly, the name of The
Pleasants. The date and the founder of this reli
gious establishment are unknown.
PLENDERLEITH, an ancient chapelry in the
district of Jedburgh, shire of Roxburgh, and parish
of Oxnam. The chapel is demolished, but the ceme
tery continues still to be used. It is near the source
of the river Oxnam, and at the distance of 9 miles
south-east by south from Jedburgh.
PLOCKTON, a village and a parliamentary par
ish, situated quoadcivilia in the parish of Loch-Alsh,
on the west coast of Ross-shire. The village is a
burgh-of-regality. The parish was erected by the
General Assembly in May 1833, and attached to a
previously built government church; and it is in
the presbytery of Lochcarron, and synod of Ross.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £120, with a manse.
A schoolmaster is supported by the Society for pro
pagating Christian knowledge ; and a female teacher
is supported principally by annual subscriptions.
The two schools were attended, in 1834, by 123
scholars. Population, in 1836, about 530.
PLUNTON CASTLE. See Borgtje.
PLUSCARDINE PRIORY, an ancient edifice,
partly a well-preserved monastic ruin, and partly a
modernized mansion, in the parish of Elgin, Moray
shire. It stands in a secluded and beautiful valley,
5 miles south-west of the town of Elgin. Its imme
diate site is surrounded with garden, lawn, and or
namental woods. Its valley is so pent up between
parallel lines of hills as to have the dimensions only
of a glen; but it possesses a rich soil, a pleasant
stream, a sunny exposure to the south, and a hill-
shelter from the blasts of the north; and it al
together presents those fine aspects of mingled
solitude and luxuriousness which monks so keenly
espied, and greedily appropriated, as the scenes of
their stealthy revelry and gorgeous homes. The
church, rising as the central or principal edi
fice, is cruciform. Its centre sent aloft a square
tower ; its transept extended on the east side ;
its nave never was finished. The structure, as ii
stands, bears, in its general outline, a close resem
blance to Melrose Abbey; but is much smaller in
size, and greatly inferior in profusion and gorgeous-
ness of ornament. Its proportions are harmonious;
its building material — a beautiful and firm sandstone,
found in the vicinity — has well-resisted the ero
sion of the elements, and received a hoary coating
of lichens and mosses; and, though the grandeur
which awes, and the magnificence which thrills, are
both awanting, a simplicity and a symmetry address
themselves in fine blending to the eye, and incite
calm emotions of pleasure. The church retains some
of its beautiful windows, and some traces of the
frescoes which adorned its walls. On one side stands
the chapter-house, an octagonal structure, supported
by a central arch, and resembling, in its style of ar
chitecture, the chapter-house of Elgin. On the south
of the church are the buildings which formed the
domicile of the monks. These consist of two sto
ries ; the lbwer, divided into the kitchen and the re
fectory, — an apartment of about 100 feet long ; and
the upper, containing the dormitory, 114 feet long,
and the prior's chamber, provided with a dais, as a
place of honour, and with a recess or stronghold in
which were preserved the rolls and public documents
of the monastery. The refectory is now fitted up as
a place of worship ; and some other parts of the

POL

550

POL

building are modernized into a residence. These
restorations, or transmutations, were made about the
year 1816; and .they seem to have been suggested
by the felicity of the situation, and the fitness of
existing materials ; but they were attended by the
stripping away of picturesque coatings of ivy, and
they present such a substitution of the neat front
and tasty decorations of a mere snug mansion for the
venerable and imposing aspects of an exquisite ruin,
¦as is likely to please only a very prosaic class of
tourists  Pluscardine Priory was founded in 1230,
by Alexander II., for Cistertian monks, and was
dedicated to St. Andrew, under the designation of
Vallis Sancti Andrese. The establishment, for a
time, was subject to the bishop of Moray; but after
wards, it claimed independence for its prior. A cell
of it, or subordinate establishment, stood at Grange-
hill. The property of the priory comprehended the
valley of Pluscardine, the lands of Grange-hill and
Durris, the baronies of Farnen and Urquhart, the
churches of Pluscardine, Bellie, Urquhart, Durrus
and Duloons, some mills in tbe vicinity of Elgin and
Forres, some fisheries, and perhaps the Palmer Cross
bridge across the Lossie; and, in 1563, as shown by
Shaw, it yielded, an annual revenue of £525 10s.
l|d. Scottish; in money ; 1 chalder and 1| boll of
wheat; 51 chalders and 5 bolls of meal, malt, and
bear; 5 chalders and 15 bolls of oats; 9 chalders and
1 1 bolls of dry multures, and 30 lasts of salmon ; be
sides grassum, cain, customs, poultry, and some other
items. Monks who managed to get so sweepingly
away from their vow of poverty, will hardly obtain
credit with even the most pitiful simpleton for hav
ing very rigidly adhered to the abstemious regimen
and exclusively vegetable diet prescribed in the rule
of their founder, St. Bernard. The quondam pro
perty of the priory now belongs to the Earl of Fife.
POLGAVIE, a small village and sea-port on the
north shore of the frith of Tay, and in the parish of
Inchture, 8 miles west-south-west of Dundee, and
3 miles east of Errol, Perthshire. See Inch
ture. POLL-EWE, a quoad sacra parish on the west
coast of Ross-shire. It was disjoined from the par
ish of Gairloch in 1833 ; and is artificially divided
from it by an imaginary line running from Raehead,
on the west, to Loch-Tully, and thence crossing
Loch-Maree to the east end of Letterewe property,
about 4 miles from the head of that lake. Its great
est length is about 20 miles, and its greatest breadth
about 12. In 1836 a district around the church to
an extreme distance of 3J miles, contained a popula
tion of 640 ; a small district on the eastern banks of
Loch-Maree, contained 80 ; a district on the western
shore of Loch- Ewe, contained 220 ; and a large dis
trict, called Laigh, situated from 6 to 12 miles dis
tant from the church, and totally without a road of
access or the means of crossing two intervening
rivers which are unfordable in winter, possessed
1,547. The whole population are dispersed over
the country in hamlets ; and, with very few excep
tions, are holders of small lots of land and poor fish
ermen. The only roads within the parish are one
of 6 miles in the Laigh district, and one of 2 J miles
from the church to Gairloch parish. Population, in
1836, 2,581,— all belonging to the Establishment.
The church is a Government one, and was built in
1828. Sittings 350. Stipend £120; glebe £5.
Patron, the Crown. In 1834 there were six schools,
two of them wholly Gaelic, and tbe others both Gaelic
and English, aggregately attended by 237 scholars 
The village of Poll-Ewe, the site of the church, is
situated at the head of Loch-Ewe, 5 miles north-north
east of Gairloch, and at one of the western termina
tions of the parliamentary road from Diugwall through

the centre of Ross-shire. It is a chief continental post
of communication across the Minsh with the Outer
Hebrides ; and sends a steam-boat once a-week to
Stornoway, a distance of 42 miles.
POLLOCK, the ancient name of the parish of
Eastwood, in Renfrewshire, revived and frequently
used in our day. In old writings it is spelt Polloc
and Pollok, which modes of orthography have of
late been sometimes employed, but without good
reason, for the common form has long been settled,
and is in accordance with the practice (as in the case
of the name Greenock) of using the letters ck in
combination, to express the sound with which the
word terminates. Besides, if the ancient orthogra
phy is to be reverted to, in the present instance, so
it should in others, in which event the names of
most places throughout the country would more or
less undergo mutation. — The estate of Nether Pol
lock has been described under Eastwood, and that
of Upper Pollock under Mearns, to which parishes
they respectively belong. The word, which is also
a common surname, is vulgarly pronounced Pock.
POLLOCKSHAWS, a burgh-of-barony in the
parish of Eastwood, Renfrewshire, 6 miles south
east of Paisley, and 1\ south-west of Glasgow. It
is situated in a fine valley, interspersed with trees,
upon the banks of the White Cart, at the junction
of Auldhouse-burn, which comes in from the south.
It stands on the estate of Nether Pollock, from
which, and the word sliaw, ' a grove,' the name is
derived. This place appears in Bleau's map, pub
lished in 1654, with a bridge adjacent to it across the
Cart. Crawford, in 1710, merely mentions it as a
village with a stone-bridge of two arches over the
river. This bridge still exists, and was a few years
since widened and repaired, and furnished with a
parapet railing on the south side. In 1742 a print-
field, one of the earliest in Scotland, was established
here by a Glasgow house, that of Ingram and Co.
The bleaching of goods was afterwards commenced
and hand-loom weaving for the Paisley and Glasgow
manufacturers came to be extensively prosecuted.
By 1782, when Semple wrote, the village contained
nearly 220 houses, 31 1 silk and linen weavers' looms ;
the printfield just mentioned, and another at Thorn-
liebank, in the neighbourhood ; 4 bleachfields ; 10
stocking-frames ; and a tannery of chamois leather,
being the first of that kind in Scotland. The tan
nery has been discontinued, and a glue manufactory
is carried on on its site, which is still called ' the
Skin-mill- yard.' Towards the end of the century
the spinning of cotton was introduced here, by Mr.
John Monteith, whose mill was the earliest that
was lighted with gas in this country. In 1842, the
branches principally carried on are, weaving by hand
and power loom, cotton-spinning, bleaching, calico-
printing, and fancy dyeing. The turkey-red dyeing,,
which was prosecuted for some time at one estab
lishment, was given up about the year 1837. In
1836, the treasurer to the Poors' fund gave the
Commissioners of Religious Instruction the follow
ing statement of the average weekly wages of the
different trades in Pollockshaws, as ascertained by
him officially ; but the numbers stated do not com
prehend the whole of each, but only a certain number
taken to obtain an average :  ,

' 366 (Hand-loom) Weavers, at
192 Quarriens, at . ,
51 Twisters, (See, at
30 Bleachers and Dyers, at
29 Wriffhts and Sawyers, at
8 Colliers, at .
31 Dyers, at
29 Carters, at
11 Smiths, at
13 Masons, at
18 Grocers and Spirit dealers, at

10s.12s. ISs.
15s.15s.12s. IA.
15s.15s.1*».
20s.

POL

551

POL

"The wages of the Hand.loom Weavers are those of able.
bodied workers above 16 years of age. There were a few more
classes the average of whose wages was above 12s. per week."
Pollockshaws has a town-house surmounted by a
tower, consists of several streets, and is lighted with
gas, by a joint-stock company which was formed in
1836, with a capital of £2,300. To the ecclesiasti
cal details given when describing the parish (Vol. I,
p. 426), we have to add, that the quoad sacra church
of Auldfield — a neat structure with a spire — was
lately erected in the town, and that, in 1840, the
Secession congregation built a house for their minis
ter at a cost of £670. Circuit small-debt courts
are held here by the sheriff six times a-year, and
courts by the justices once a-month. There is a post-
office subordinate to Glasgow. A branch of the
Western bank of Scotland was established in 1841.
As the bank agreed to receive deposits so low as
ten shillings, a branch of the National Security Sav
ings' bank, which had previously existed, was discon
tinued. The population of the town alone was, in
1811,3,084; in 1821, 3,850; in 1831, 4,269; in 1841,
5,007  This place was erected into a burgh-of-barony
by charter from the Crown dated 5th January, 1813,
which conveyed generally " all powers, liberties, pri
vileges, and jurisdictions pertaining and belonging,
or which ought to pertain and belong, to any free
and independent burgh-of-barony, which may have
been erected in Scotland since the date of the act of
parliament" passed in 1747 for abolishing heritable
jurisdictions. The magistracy consists of a provost,
bailie, treasurer, ana six councillors, any three being
a quorum. Tbe qualification of electors, and of
magistrates, is being a resident inhabitant within the
burgh, possessor of a house, or other property within
it, of the yearly rent of £4 sterling, and being a bur
gess. To enter burgess the requisites are, residence
and possession of property of the yearly rent speci
fied. The magistrates and council have the sole
power of admitting burgesses. The provost and
bailie remain in office two years, one of them going
out alternately each year. The treasurer and coun
cillors are elected annually. All are eligible to be
re-elected. The magistrates and council have power
by the charter "to make such bye-laws and regula
tions as are consistent with the public law of the
realm, and conducive to the establishment and pre
servation, of good order, and the advancement and
prosperity of the said burgh." The burgh property
consists of ground occupied as a washing-green ; cer
tain houses, including the town-house, and an inn.
In 1833 the debts were £745. This debt had been
gradually increasing since the erection of the burgh.
The sum of £120 was incurred in defending an elec
tion of magistrates in 1825, which was challenged,
the expense of which was taken out of the burgh
funds by the magistrates. In 1833 the annual re
venue was about £42 17s., — of which £34 17s.
was from rents, and £8 from freedom fines for enter
ing burgesses. So many persons came forward to
qualify themselves for voting at the contested elec
tion in 1825, that the freedom fines for that year
amounted to no less than £130 14s. 6d. The ordi
nary annual expenditure, in 1833, amounted to £41
2s. There are no local taxes levied, and the charter
confers no power of imposing them. From 1820 to
1833 only 15 civil cases had been tried, and 20 cri
minal : no regular courts had been held since 1821.
Tbe magistrates appoint a town-clerk (who acts as
assessor) and an officer. Occasionally also they ap
point a fiscal. Every manufacturer or trader is
bound to enter burgess, but the obligation is rarely
enforced. The fees of entry are,— for strangers £1
Is. ; sons of burgesses 10s. 6d. The number of bur
gesses is about 260. There are no corporations or

crafts, and no police statute, the preservation of the
peace being attended to by the justices. As a burgh,
Pollockshaws has no voice in parliamentary repre
sentation, persons qualified on property situate within
it voting for the county member. In 1841-42 these
persons, resident and non-resident, amounted to 146.
— About the year 1826, thirteen years after Pollock
shaws had been raised to the rank of a municipality,
the magistrates and council sent a petition to the
House of Peers against the Corn-laws. On its pre
sentation by the Earl of Rosebery, the Earl of Lau
derdale (another Scottish peer) denied or doubted
the existence of any such place or corporation. Soon
afterwards they transmitted to Lord Lauderdale a
petition on another subject, and for proof of the
existence of the town and corporation referred him
to a Gazetteer. No notice was taken of this com
munication, and the petition was not even presented.
' The Shaws folk,' as tbey are popularly termed,
suffered much bantering on account of this affair;
and they, in turn, did not hesitate to express in
dignation against their countryman, the Earl, for
what they could not but consider his inexcusable
ignorance.
POLLOCK AND GOVAN RAILWAY.— This
is a short line of railway connecting the rich mineral
fields to the south of Glasgow with the city. The
one terminus is at Rutherglen, and the other at the
harbour of the Broomielaw, on the Gorbals side of
the river Clyde, being a distance of about 3 miles.
It passes through the parishes of Govan, Gorbals,
Kingston, and Rutherglen, and county of Lanark.
The formation was authorized by two acts of parlia
ment, passed respectively in 1830 and 1831 ; and
although the stock is held by a company, the work
has principally been promoted by the enterprise of
Mr. Dixon, the proprietor of the Govan iron- works
and collieries in the immediate vicinity of Glasgow.
From this cause, it is generally known in the neigh
bourhood by the name of Dixon's railway. The
capital stock of the company amounts to £46,000.
The width of the gauge is 4 feet 6 inches. No pas
sengers are carried'on the line ; and coals, ironstone,
freestone, fire and common brick, and malleable
iron, are the principal articles of traffic. Hitherto
horses have been employed as the moving power ;
but very important improvements are being made by
laying an additional double line of rails to a 4 feet 8£
inch gauge, and forming a connexion with the Green*
ock and Ayr railways, at their joint terminus in
Tradeston, when locomotive engines will be used as
the motive power. Parliamentary plans have been
lodged for extending this railway to the mineral dis
tricts of the Monklands and South Calder, by form
ing a junction with the Monkland and Kirkintilloch
railway, and the Wishaw and Coltness railway, near
Dundyvan iron-works. A bill, by which authority
to this extent was taken, was brought into parlia
ment in session 1840-41, but it was defeated. Par
liamentary notices for a similar extension have, how
ever, been given for session 1841-2. Parliamentary
plans have also been lodged, and notices given, for
session 1841-2, for extending the line to the town of
Hamilton, and the rich mineral districts in that
neighbourhood. When these contemplated exten
sions are finished, they will open up a direct railway
connection to the harbours of Glasgow and Greenock
with the most valuable mineral district in Great
Britain. POLMADIE, a place in that small section of the
parish of Govan which belongs to Renfrewshire.
Here coal is extensively wrought.
POLMONT, a parish in the extreme east of Stir
lingshire; bounded on the north by the frith of
Forth; on the east by the Avon, which divides it

552

POLWARTH.

from Linlithgowshire ; on the south-east by Muir-
avonside ; on the south by Muiravonside and Falkirk ;
and on the west by Falkirk and Bothkenner. Its
greatest length from north-east to south-west, is 6
miles ; its greatest breadth is 2£ miles ; and its area
is about 7J square miles. _ Nearly the whole area is
finely enclosed, and in a state of the highest cultiva
tion, and wears as opulent and joyous an appearance
as that of any of the first class parochial districts in
Scotland. A considerable part is rich carse ground,
and very fertile ; and the rest is naturally of a light
and partly of a moorish soil, but reclaimed, and in
fine order. The carse ground is level, and the dis
trict behind it swollen and undulated. The climate,
even on the carse lands, is remarkably healthy.
Coal, ironstone, and freestone, abound, and are very
extensively worked. Several mineral springs exist,
and are strongly impregnated with iron, from the
great quantities of ore which are embowelled under
the higher grounds. West Quarter or Grange-burn
traces nearly the whole of the western boundary ;
another burn traverses the interior to the Avon;
and a third runs for 2| miles along the south-eastern
boundary. The shore of the frith is low and flat,
and opens at low water on an extensive stretch of
sea-bed, coated over with silt. The parish is tra
versed cross-wise by Graham's-dyke, or Antoninus'
wall, by the mailroad between Edinburgh and Fal
kirk, by the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway, and by
the Union canal. Four or five gentlemen's seats,
and several villas, occur at agreeable intervals, and
fling pleasant features on the landscape. The village
of Polmont stands in the centre of the parish, on the
mailroad from Edinburgh, 3£ miles east of Falkirk ;
and the village of Nether Polmont stands on the road
from Falkirk to Bo'ness, distant from the latter 4
miles. Both Polmont and the Avon give the title
of Baron to the Duke of Hamilton. Population, in
1801, 2,197; in 1831, 3,210. Houses 627. As
sessed property, in 1815, £8,785.— Polmont is in the
presbytery of Linlithgow, and synod of Lothian and
Tweeddale. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £264
Is. lid.; glebe £12 12s. Unappropriated teinds
£598. Is. 5d. The church was built in 1731. Sit-
tings 607. A place of worship at Bennetstown was
erected in 1836, by several gentlemen, at a cost of
about £100, and is occupied as a preaching-station
by dissenting ministers of various evangelical deno
minations. A preaching-station at Reddingmuir has
a room with 130 sittings, and is supplied every Sab
bath by a preacher connected with the Establishment.
According to an ecclesiastical census taken in the
end of 1835, and beginning of 1836, the population
then was 3, 10^; of whom 2,585 were churchmen,
503 were dissenters, and 19 were nondescripts. In
1834, the parish-school was attended by 246 scholars,
and five private schools by 448. Salary of the paro
chial schoolmaster, who employs an assistant, £34
4s., with £70 fees, and about £5 other emoluments.
POLWARTH, a parish nearly in the centre of
Berwickshire, lying on the line where the lower de
clivities of the Lammermoors glide into the great
plain of the Merse. It has a triangular form ; is
pounded on the north by the parish of Langton ; on
the south-east by Fogo ; on the south-west by Green
law ; and on the north-west by Longformacus ;
measures 3£ miles along the north, 2j along the
south-east, 2J along the south-west, and a mile
along the north-west; and comprehends an area of
3,052 imperial acres. About one-third of this sur
face, from the western angle inward, is covered with
heath, and moderately upland ; and it has several
hilly summits, the chief of which is Kyles-hill, a por
phyrinic eminence on the boundary, which is 1,110
feet above the level of the sea. The remaining dis

trict is undulatir.g, with a general decimation to the
eastern angle ; and is all beautifully sectioned, che
quered, and broadly dotted with woods and hedge
row trees. The western district lies above the old
red sandstone, which is often conglomerate and
coarse ; and the eastern and south-eastern districts
lie upon the new red sandstone, which in the latter
is a silicious limestone, the silex predominating, and
in the former partly a blue-rock marl, and partly a
whitish sandstone, which in some parts is soft, in
others it is of so hard a texture as to have been used
for building. The soil on the upland is moorish, and
elsewhere is sandy, but chiefly argillaceous, and gene
rally on a retentive subsoil. About 1,300 acres are
arable; upwards of 1,000 are moor; 260 are rich
cultivated pasture ; 400 are under wood ; and 12 of
13 are moss. The climate is salubrious. The only
streams are some small tributaries of the Blackadder,
which runs parallel with the whole south-east boun
dary, at about half-a-mile's distance. Redbraes-
castle, the seat of the Earls of Marchmont previous
to the building of Marchmont-house by the last earl,
about 90 years ago, stood about 200 yards to the
east of fhe present house. Marchmont-house, the
seat of Sir Hugh Hume Campbell, Bart., their repre
sentative, (being great-grandson of Lady Anne Camp
bell, eldest sister of Hugh, the 3d arid last earl of
Marchmont,) and the proprietor of the whole parish,
stands in the southern angle, and with its beautiful
sylvan scenery and long undulating avenue, contri
butes richly to the landscape on the north-west side
of that splendid amphitheatre, the Merse.
The village of Polwarth stands a little inward from
the northern boundary, and opposite its middle, on
the road from Greenlaw to Durise, about 3J miles
from the former, and 4 from the latter. It occupied
a space of ground called Polwarth-green, over which
it was sprinkled in a capricious and romantic manner,
amongst old ash and sycamore trees. As the old
houses became ruinous, they have been rebuilt partly
in a more convenient and uniform manner, and the
village otherwise much improved, particularly by two
bridges being built over the burn which runs through
it. Near the centre of the green stood two aged
thorn-trees, around which for upwards of three cen
turies marriage parties were on every nuptial occa
sion accustomed to dance. There now remains only
the root of one of these aged thorns, and a scion
springing from it, along with two others of modern
date. A tune was early composed in honour and
aid of the custom, and called ' Polwarth on the
green ;' and thus, at various times, had songs been
made in adaptation to it, — among others, a well-
known one by Allan Ramsay, beginning
" At Polwarth on the green,
If you'll meet me the morn."
Tbe custom, unfortunately for Scotia's bygone sports
and ancient harmless pastimes, has gone into disuse,
— the last hymeneal visit that this aged thorn re
ceived was about 20 years ago. The male inhabit
ants, from encouragement in that department by the
Earls of Marchmont, were almost all musicians, and
in many instances were excellent violin players ; but
at present the cultivation of this science does not
seem to be so much in esteem amongst them. Pol
warth was at one time a rather noted seat of tanning
and shoemaking, and more recently of weaving; but
the former trade is now unknown, in the village, and
the two latter have very much declined. The trade
most in repute is that of masons, of whom there are
a considerable number ; and about one-half of the
inhabitants are employed in agriculture. The only
roads additional to the Greenlaw and Dunse one, are
strictly parochial or private. Population, in 180J.

POMONA.

553

291 ; in 1831, 268. Houses 63. Assessed property,
in 1815, £3,166 — Polwarth is in the presbytery of
Dunse, and synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron,
Sir H. H. Campbell, Bart. Stipend £194 16s. ;
glebe £19. Unappropriated teinds £185 4s. School
master's salary £30 16s., with £17 10s. fees, and
£3 other emoluments.
The church of Polwarth stands J of a mile to the
south-east of the village, and is beautifully situated
amongst the woods, about the same distance north
east of Marchmont-house. According to an inscrip
tion on the walls, it was built before the 900th year
of the Christian era, repaired in 1378, and rebuilt in
1 703. The parish was anciently a rectory, and seems
to have always been under the patronage of the lord
of the manor. The font for holding holy water,
used in Papistical times, is still to be seen at the
church. The cemetery of the Marchmont family is
a vault beneath the church. In this abode of the
dead, Sir Patrick Hume, a distinguished statesman
and patriot, sought refuge during the persecution of
the Stuarts, in 1684 ; and in this sepulchral retreat
he was supplied with food and other necessaries by
his heroic daughter Grizel, then only 12 years of age,
. — afterwards Lady Grizel Baillie, — a lady of lofty
attainments and energetic mind. The food, which
she carried to him under night, she had to secrete at
meal times, none but her mother and herself being
privy to the circumstance that an additional and un
seen guest was daily provided for from their table.
Being very uncomfortable in tbe vault, from the cold
and damp, he removed to Redbraes-castle, where,
beneath the floor in one of the rooms, there had been
dug a place of concealment, to which he could retire
in case of a search being made for him. Finding this
place, however, one morning partly filled with water,
Sir Patrick at once abandoned all hope of remaining
in security at home. He accordingly set out during
the night, accompanied by a trust-worthy servant
named John Allan, who was to conduct him part of
his way to London. Travelling towards the Tweed,
they had unconsciously separated, Sir Patrick having
somehow quitted the proper road without being aware
of it till he reached the banks of the river. This
mistake, however, proved his safety; for, during the
time they were separated, Allan was overtaken by
those very soldiers who were in pursuit of him.
Having thus fortunately escaped, Sir Patrick, in the
assumed capacity of a surgeon, journeyed safe to
London, and thence proceeded to Holland. He
returned to Scotland at the Revolution, and was
afterwards created successively Baron Polwarth and
Earl of Marchmont, which titles became dormant at
the death of the 3d Earl, in 1794. Hugh Scott, Esq.
of Harden, succeeded in 1835, by judgment of the
House of Peers, to the title of Baron Polwarth.
The venerable Baron died in January, 1842, at
the advanced age of 83, and is succeeded in his
titles and estates by bis eldest son, the Hon. Henry
Francis Hepburn Scott. The peerage of March
mont is at present in dependence before the House
of Lords  The frequency with which the trees, in the
immediate vicinity of the church, and in the adjacent
woods, have been struck by lightning, has been often
a subject of remark. A very extraordinary instance
of this occurred about 15 years ago. An aged ash,
that had endured the severities of many a winter,
stood about 100 yards to the north of fhe church,
was struck by the electric fluid, rent from top to
bottom, ignited, and burned down.
POMONA, or Mainland, the chief and much
the largest of the Orkney islands. It occupies a
somewhat central position in the Orcadian archi
pelago ; but, on the whole, is situated southward of'
that centre, and immediately north of Scalpa- Flow.

Its coasts are so very deep, variously, and almost
unintermittedly indented by the sea, that an idea
cannot easily be conveyed of its outline, or a close
estimate made of its extent. The western and main
part of it may, in a general view, be regarded as an
ellipsoid, whose longer axis extends north and south,
and measures 16 miles, and whose shorter axis, ai
right angles with the former, measures 11 miles;
and its eastern part extends nearly due east, or easi
by south, from the southern extremity of the ellip
soid, and measures 1 1 J miles in length, and from 1£
to 7£ in breadth. But such marine intrusions as
render the latter division so various in breadth,
greatly affect the outline and extent also of the west
ern division ; and the entire island, in consequence,
has probably not more than 150 square miles of area.
Safe harbours and places of anchorage occur at brief
intervals round the whole coast ; and are particularly
good at Stromness, Kirkwall, Deer-sound, Holme-
sound, and Cairston. That of Stromness especially
excels, in combined safety and commodiousness,
most harbours in all the north of Scotland. The
western coasts are, in general, bold and precipitous,
and often rise up in mural cliffs, which are covered
by vast multitudes of sea-fowl, and shivered into de
tached pinnacles and masses, or perforated by caverns
and natural arches. Near Skaill, on these coasts, a
magnificent and lofty arch, which conducts through a
little promontory, may be safely entered during a
calm ; but, during the prevalence of a storm, it is
tumultuously and sublimely scoured by spouting and
careering surges which conflict with one another in
their tempestuous chase. When a storm approaches
from the west, a sudden rolling of large and sullen
waves usually announces it several hours before it
arrives; and, when it comes in contact with the
country, it hurls enormous stones against the cliffs,
and makes such a tremendous bellowing in the
caverns as may be distinctly heard at the distance of
18 miles. Several fresh-water lakes, among which
are those of Stennis, Orphir, Birsay, Skaill, and
Aikerness, occur in the interior, and send off
streams which abound in various species of trout, and
have considerable power for the driving of machinery.
But as no spot is further than i}, miles from the sea,
and by far the larger part of the area is not more than
2 miles, rivers, and all their luxuries of salmon,
scenery, and varied vale, are necessarily known.
The western district, though nowhere mountainous
or wildly upland, has a considerable extent of hill
and moor ; and. presents a much larger aggregate of
waste land than might be anticipated from the com
parative softness of its features. Though the hilly
grounds embosom various large and fertile valleys,
possessing the double advantage of a sheltered posi
tion and a loamy soil, cultivation, as in the smaller
Orcadian islands, and in all Shetland, feels fettered
and utterly without appliances except Where en
couraged by a cheap, abundant, and easily obtained
supply of sea-weed as a manure, and is, in conse
quence, confined principally to belts of territory along
the shores. The very largeness of the western dis
trict — its great superiority in breadth over every
other part of the Orkney and Shetland archipelagos
— thus occasions it only to .have a comparatively
great aggregate of waste ground, unmarked by an
enclosure, and extensively allowed to lie in a state of
nature. The wastes, though now, like the rest of the
island, quite bare of wood, and unornamented with
so much as a single tree, bear decided indications
of having once been covered by a forest of dwarf
trees ; and they seem also, from numerous instances
of horns found in their peat-bogs, to have been once
tenanted by herds of the now extinct stag. They
possess not — nor indeed do any of the Orkney'moori

POO

554

POR

or lands — either foxes, or hares, or partridges; but
they greatly abound in plovers, snipes, and red grouse.
In the central and eastern parts of the west district,
or within the parochial limits of Harray and Rendal,
live most of the scanty remains of the ancient udal-
lers, the once independent allodial proprietors of the
soil. When feudal tenures were introduced by the
Scottish Earls of Orkney, and forced upon the re
luctant and limited landholders by their frontless
tyranny, and by the unreflecting injustice of the
Scottish government, a portion of the oppressed who
inhabited the least valuable parts of the country, sul
lenly chose to retain their independence, or to for
feit their rude possessions ; and, with a spirit quite
characteristic of the predominant practices of resist
ance to oppression, they clung to all the distinguish
ing badges of their original condition, and bequeathed
down to, less than a century ago, the Norse lan
guage, and, down to the present day, a sufficient
amount of unuiixedness of name with the prono-
mens and the surnames of the Gael and the Saxon
as proclaims their pure Scandinavian descent. At
tached to the clusters of small arable farms pro-
vincially called towns, >there exist everywhere
throughout Pomona, as in the other Orkney islands,
large commons for the pasturing of sheep, and the
maintenance of large herds of swine. The sheep
of a district were formerly allowed to run wild,
and in totally confused intermixture athwart these
commons ; and, once a-year, when they were col
lected to be shorn, they received on their ears, or
on their nose, such marks as should enable their
respective owners, at the next season of shearing,
each to select his own from the general flock.
These barbarous practices, so incompatible with all
the principles and objects of skilful or even com
mon-sense sheep husbandry, have now, in a great
measure, been superseded, and have given place to
a well-directed economy for improving the breed of
sheep. The swine of the country are of a diminu
tive and very inferior character ; and, existing in
herds, with undomesticated habits, they work fear
ful havoc when accident allows them access to the
cultivated lands  Pomona possesses both of the
only towns of Orkney, — Kirkwall, in its eastern
division, and Stromness at the south-west corner of
its western. The island is divided into 13 parishes,
8 of which are assorted in pairs into united par
ishes, while one of the pairs is again dissevered,
quoad sacra, and made two separate erections.
There are thus 9 quoad civilia parishes, and one
quoad sacra, or parliamentary parish. On the east
are Holme, St. Andrews, and Kirkwall, and the
parliamentary!! parish of Deerness, annexed quoad
civilia to St. Andrews; and on the west are Orphir,
Sandwick, Stromness, Evie and Rendal, Birsay and
Harray, and Firth and Steunis. Population, in 1801,
13,929; in 1831, 15,787. Inhabited houses, in 1831,
3,057. POOL, a small village in the parish of Muckart,
Perthshire. It stands 2| miles west of Crook of
Devon, and on the road from Perth to Clackmannan
and Kincardine. Immediately north-east of it stands
the parish-church.
POOL-EWE. See Poll-Ewe.
PORT-ALLAN, nominally a harbour, but really
a mere creek and unimportant landing-place at the
mouth of a rill which divides the parishes of Sorbie
and 'Whithorn, Wigtonshire.
PORT-ALLEN, or Pow-of-Errol, a small har-
bour.in the frith of Tay, li mile south of the village
of Errol, Perthshire. It claims only one vessel, and
is in a dilapidated state ; but has been the scene of
considerable rural commerce. A new pier is in pro
gress J of a mile further down the frith.

PORT-ASKAIG, a small harbour on the north
east coast of Islay. It is situated on the Sound of
Islay, opposite Feoline in Jura, and 10 miles north-
north-east of Bowmore. Here are a good pier, a
safe haven, and a pleasant and commodious inn.
The adjacent land almost everywhere rises imme
diately and rapidly from the sea ; and is, to a great
extent, and up to the summit of its ascent, clothed
in plantation.
PORT-BANNATYNE, a beautiful village 2J
miles north-north-west of Rothsay, in the island of
Bute. It consists chiefly of an edificed terrace in
the form of the segment of 'a circle round the head
of Kames-bav ; and looks out upon all the brilliance
and beauty of the east end of the Kyles. The village
has some good houses, presents a clean and tidy aspect,
and is a choice summer-retreat of strangers for sea
bathing. Its stated inhabitants are maintained chiefly
by herring-fishing, and possess about 25 boats. With
in less than a mile west and west-north-west of the
village stand the ancient fortified mansion of Kames-
castle, still inhabited, and tbe quoad sacra parish-
church of North Bute, erected by the Marquis of
Bute, in 1836, at the cost of £ 1 ,000. Population
300. PORT-CHARLOTTE, a village on the west
coast of Lochindaal, opposite Laggan-point, and 16
miles south-west of Port-Askaig, Islay. It has an
inn, a distillery, and an Independent chapel, — the
last built, in 1830, at a cost of between £400 and
£500. The village is in the parish of Kilchoman,
and has long been a preaching-station of the parish
minister. Population about 4U0.
PORT-DO WNIE, the basin at the west end of
the Union canal, in the parish of Falkirk, Stirling
shire. Across the locks, in its vicinity, below
Port-Downie mill, is a magnificent viaduct of the
Edinburgh and Glasgow railway.
PORT-DUNDAS, a village in Lanarkshire, and
suburb of Glasgow, about 1 mile from the city, where
the Great canal terminates ; so named in honour of
Lord Dundas, to whose exertions the canal, in a great
measure, owes its completion. Here are a spacious
basin, and large warehouses and granaries.
PORT-EASY, an improving fishing-village 2
miles from Buckie, in the parish of Rathven, Banff
shire. It became a fishing-station, and received a
nucleus of 5 houses in 1727. Population, in 1793,
178; in lir-37, 420.
PORT-EDGAR, a small harbour on the frith of
Forth, in the parish of Dalmeny, Linlithgowshire.
It is situated $ of a mile west of Queensferry, and
2 miles east of Hopetoun-house, and is noted as the
place at which George IV. embarked, in 1822, for
England. PORT-ELLEN, or Port-Ellinor, a new vil
lage on the south-east coast of Islay, 1 1 miles south
east of Bowmore, and directly opposite the island of
Gigha. It is substantially built, and has a neat inn,
and a. very large distillery. The village was com
menced in 1824, and, in that year, had only one
erection ; but now it numbers between 150 and 200
houses. A bay, at the head of which it stands,
affords safe anchorage ; and a commodious quay, on
a rocky promontory near the middle of the bay, was
constructed in 1826, and improved in 1832, by
Campbell of Islay. The harbour has the important
benefit also of a lighthouse ; and is visited by the
steamers which maintain a communication between
Islay and Glasgow. The inhabitants are employed
chiefly in fishing and agriculture. The village, re
ceived its name in compliment to Lady Ellinor Camp
bell of Islay.
PORT-GLASGOW, a parish in Renfrewshire,
bounded on the north by the frith of Clyde ; on the

PORT-GLASGOW.

555

east and south by Kilmalcolm ; and on the west hy
Greenock. It is of small extent, being only about
a mile square, or containing an area of 844 English
acres. The land is partly flat and partly hilly. The
level tract along the coast, except that on which the
town stands, is occupied as garden-ground, which
furnishes an abundant supply of excellent vegetables
and fruit. Behind there is a steep range of hills,
about 400 feet in height, which, being covered with
wood and verdure, present a fine appearance when
seen from the river. This hilly portion is in tillage
and pasture. The landward part of the parish be
longs to Lady Shaw Stewart, daughter of the late
Robert Farquhar, Esq., the transference of the
barony of Newark to whom, has been mentioned at
page 120 of this volume. — Newark-castle, a ruinous
square building, with round turrets and battlements,
stands on a point of land projecting into the river,
and commands a splendid view of the surrounding
scenery. On the west side, over the main door, are
the arms of the Maxwells, the former proprietors,
With this inscription underneath : " The Blissinge
of God be Heirin.'Anno 1597." On one of the win
dows is the date 1599, and over others are the letters
" P. M." (Patrick Maxwell). Other parts appear
to be older than the period indicated by these dates.
This fabric ceased to be the habitation of its owners
in the beginning of the 18th century, but some of
the apartments are still occupied by tradesmen.* —
The population of the parish, in 1801, was 3,865;
in 1831, 5,192. The number of houses, in 1821,
was 1,382; in 1831, the number was returned as
401 ; hut that enumeration was made upon an erro
neous principle, the number given being that of
separate buildings, many of them comprehending
several distinct houses. Assessed property, in 1815,
£14,707  The parish is in the presbytery of Pais
ley, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patrons, the
town-council of Glasgow. The church was built
in 1823, at an expense of £3,000, upwards of
£1,200 of which was subscribed by the inhabi
tants. Sittings 1,200. Stipend, as fixed in 1823,
£280, including an allowance of £30 yearly for a
house and garden. Within the quoad civilia bounds
of Port-Glasgow is included the quoad sacra par.
ish of Newark, which was constituted in February
1838, by authority of the General Assembly. What
now forms the church of Newark was built as a
chapel-of-ease in 1774. It cost about £1,350, which
was raised by subscription. Sittings 1,600. Stipend
£100, with an allowance of £16 13s. 4d. for com
munion elements. A United Secession congregation
was established in 1790, and in the following year a
church was built, the cost of which is unknown, but
it could not now be erected under £1,200. Sittings
752. Stipend £130  By census taken by the min-
ister and elders in the beginning of 1838, there were
in the quoad sacra parish of Port-Glasgow 1,939
persons belonging to the Established church, 698
belonging to other denominations, and 18 not known
to belong to any; total, 2,655. In the parish of
Newark there were, at the same time, belonging to
the Establishment, 2,187; to other denominations,
1,189; total, 3,376.— There are eight schools, with
one teacher in each. One of these is parochial.
Salary £20 per annum, with from £40 to £50 school-
fees. Another is a charitable institution, called
Beaton's school, from its founder David Beaton, who,
» " It was the opinion of the learned Mr. David Buchanan,"
¦ays Sir Robert Sibbald, " that there was a Roman camp on the
Clyde, where New-Glasgow [or New-Port-Glasgow, the ori
ginal name] stands, and where appear the vestiges of a tower."
The author of Caledonia justly remarks that no such camp has
appeared to more accurate eyes, and that the tower, idly mis
taken for a Roman post, was probably either the castle of New
ark, or that of Easter Greenock.

in 1814, bequeathed £1,400 for building and endow
ing a seminary for the education of poor orphan
children. Port-Glasgow, a parliamentary burgh and sea
port in the above parish, is situated on the south side
of the frith of Clyde, 2 miles east of Greenock, and
20 miles north-west of Glasgow, by the shortest
turnpike road. It occupies a level tract on the
shore, and is so much overshaded by the heights be
hind, that the 'rays of the sun do not reach it for
nearly six weeks in winter. As the name indicates,
this place was originally intended as the sea-port of
Glasgow, of which it was long regarded as a mere
dependency. Soon after the Restoration, the magis
trates of that city, experiencing great inconvenience
from the shallowness of the Clyde, (the deepening
of which was not, till long afterwards, thought of,):
they resolved to erect a harbour nearer the mouth of
the river. They first pitched upon Dumbarton, but
after much discussion, the civic rulers of that place
rejected the proposal, fearing, with the short-sighted
policy of the times, that the concourse of mariners
would " raise the price of provisions to the inhabit
ants." The Glasgow magistrates next turned theii
attention to Troon, but there also they were, for a
similar reason, repulsed. At length, in 1 668, as their
records show, and not in 1662, as is represented in
several works of authority, they succeeded in pur
chasing from Sir Patrick (often erroneously called
Robert) Maxwell of Newark, about 22 English acres
of ground, on the bay of Newark, with the right of
forming a harbour there. Immediately afterwards,
they obtained from the Crown a charter of confirma
tion, erecting the ground and the harbour, which was
authorized to be formed into a free port, with power
to build a prison, to appoint bailies and other officers,
to exercise jurisdiction, civil and criminal, competent
to a baron, and to levy customs, tolls, and anchorage
dues. A harbour was accordingly constructed, and
streets were laid off. The name of New- Port-Glas
gow was given to the place ; but now that the port
is no longer a novelty, the prefix ' New' has become
obsolete. In 1695, ihe town, and a small adjacent
district, were, bythe competent authority, disjoined
from the parish of Kilmalcolm, and erected into a
distinct parish, under the name of New-Port-Glas
gow. Two years afterwards, the Rev. Robert
Millar, author of the ' History of the Propagation
of Christianity,' and other works, was ordained
minister of the new parish, but he did not continue
long, having, in 1709, been appointed one' of the
ministers of Paisley. A church was not built till
1718, public worship having, in the interval, been
conducted in a house which was appropriated for the
purpose, f In 1710, Port-Glasgow was constituted
ihe principal custom-house port of the Clyde, and
for a time it took the lead of Qreenock., The nar
row limits originally proposed became too confined
for the town, which extended itself over the adjacent
village of Newark, then belonging as a burgh-of-
barony to Hamilton of Wishaw. The town thus
comprehended two burghs-of-barony, subject to two
different superiors. In order to remedy this incon
venience, and at the same time to improve the place,
there was passed, in 1775, an act of parliament,
which gave it a municipality consisting of 13 coun
cillors, therein called trustees, including 2 bailies,
and which, at the same time, made provision for
supplying the town with fresh water, for paving,
f The original bell of this church was some years ago sold to
the proprietors of a Clyde Bteara-boat, where we have seen it
in daily use, bearing the no lunger applicable inscription of
"Soli Deo Gloria." The community would do well in repur
chasing and preserving so interesting a memorial of the early
days of " the Port."

POIl

556

POR

cleaning, and watching the streets, for erecting pub
lie markets, and for repairing the quays. These
powers were enlarged by a statute passed in 1803,
which also provided for the erection of a new court
house, a jail, and other public buildings. By the
Burgh reform act of 1833, the number of the council
was reduced to 9, consisting of a provost, 2 bailies,
and 6 ordinary members. The jurisdiction is exer
cised by the magistrates directly ; and in civil cases
it is unlimited, in point of extent, as the burgh, be
ing one of barony, dependent upon a royal burgh, the
jurisdiction was not affected by the stat. 20° Geo.
II. There are no burgesses nor incorporations, nor
any persons entitled to exclusive privileges, it far
ther appears from the Commissioners' report, that in
1833 the property of the burgh, heritable and move
able, amounted to £31,841 ls.8d., and that the debt]
due by it were £26,925 10s. Id. ; while the expen
diture was £2,520 0s. 4d., and the revenue only
£1,889 8s. 5£d. Since that time the revenue has
gradually increased, having, in 1841, amounted to
£2,917 19s. lid. The town was, by the Reform
act of 1832, elevated to the rank of a parliamentary
burgh, and united with Kilmarnock, Rutherglen,
Dumbarton, and Renfrew, in electing a member of
the legislature. Constituency of Port-Glasgow, in
1841-2, 200. According to the census of 1841, the
population within the parliamentary boundaries was
6,938; inhabited houses 1,384; uninhabited 51 ;
building 3. Although these boundaries comprehend
only about the half of the parish, they contain nearly
the whole of the population, the district not included
being tbe hilly part on the north, which is very
thinly inhabited.
The town presents an aspect of great neatness and
regularity. The streets are straight, and for the
most part cross each other at right angles ; while the
houses, pretty nearly equal in size, and generally
white- washed, give to the whole a light and uniform
appearance. The town-house is of plain workman
ship, ornamented in front with a portico, resting on
four massy fluted pillars, and surmounted with a
handsome spire, rising from the centre. The only
other modern building worthy of notice is the church,
built in 1823 ; it is square in form, and plain in out
ward appearance, but is deservedly admired for the
simple elegance of its internal construction. In the
vicinity of the town there are some elegant villas
with pleasure-grounds  Attached to the port are
two capacious harbours, substantially built, and com
pletely sheltered from the storm. They are fur
nished with ample quay and shed room, together
with a graving-dock, the oldest in Scotland, (having
been built ir"il762,) but lately improved at a great
expense. East of these, the bay of Newark, which
is naturally adapted to the purpose, has been con
verted into a spacious wet-dock, where vessels of the
largest class may lie securely afloat in every state of
the tide. It was commenced in 1834, extends over
a space of 12 acres, and has cost about £40,000.
Much delay and expense arose from a portion of the
outer wall having given way during the progress of
the work. Formerly the trade of this place was
almost entirely carried on in ships belonging to mer
chants resident in Glasgow. Of late years, however,
the people of Port-Glasgow have themselves become
ship-owners, and at present about one-fourth part of
the tonnage belonging to the place is owned by per
sons resident here. For several years back the ton
nage belonging to the port, engaged in foreign trade,
has ranged from 21 to 32,000 tons. The customs'
revenue has very materially decreased, in conse
quence of a large proportion of the goods formerly
wareh jused here being now carried direct to Glas
gow. More than half the trade of the port is with

the British North American possessions; about a
fourth is with the West Indies ; and the remainder
with the United States, the Mediterranean, and the
East Indies. This is the principal place on the
Clyde for the importation of North American timber,
the quantity varying from 16,000 to 30,000 tons an
nually. Port-Glasgow had once an extensive coast
ing trade, but in consequence of the improvements
on the river, nearly the whole of it has been trans
ferred to Glasgow." Ship-building is carried on here
to a considerable extent, and ropes and sail-cloth are
manufactured. There are two sugar-refining houses.
The town supports four branch lianks, and a provi
dent bank. There is a public library, instituted in
1798. The numerous steam-boats navigating the
Clyde touch here; and the railway from Glasgow
and Paisley to Greenock passes close on the west of
the town.
PORT-GORDON, a fishing- village, politically in
the parish of Rathven, but ecclesiastically in that of
Enzie, Banffshire. It stands 2£ miles south-west of
Buckie, and 3£ miles east-south-east of the mouth of
the Spey. A small brook divides it into two parts,
— Port-Gordon Proper, on the east, and Port-Tan-
nachie on the west. Salmon, besides other fish, are
caught in large quantities ; corn is extensively ship
ped ; coals and lime are imported ; and a small coast
ing trade is carried on. Population, in 1836, 460.
PORT-GO WER, a neat fishing- village in the
parish of Loth, on the east coast of Sutherlandshire.
It stands on the mail-road from Inverness to Wick,
2$ miles south-west of Helmsdale. It is the site of
the parish-schoolhouse, and possesses a comfortable
and agreeably situated inn. Most of the villagers are
active fishermen ;, and others cultivate pendicles of
some fertile land which lies in the vicinity.
PORT-HOPETOUN,-the basin at the east end
of the Union canal, and a modern suburb on the
south-west side of Edinburgh : which see.
PORTINCROSS. See Kilbride (West.).
PORT-KNOCKIE, a fishing- village politically in
the parish of Rathven, but ecclesiastically in that of
CuUen, Banffshire. It stands Ij mile west-north
west of Cullen, 1^ mile east of Findochtie, and 4J
north-east of Buckie. It was commenced in 1677.
Population, in 1793, 243; in 1837, 750.
PORT-LETHEN, a fishing-village in the parish
of Banchory-Davenick, Kincardineshire. It stands
1| mile south-south-west of Findon, and 8 miles
north-north-east of Stonehaven. Population, in
1836, 220.
PORT-LOGAN, a village and harbour at tho
head of Portnessock bay, on the west coast of the
parish of Kirkmaiden, Wigtonshire. The village is
14 miles south of Stranraer, and regularly communi
cates with it by carrier. The quay affords safe har
bourage, but is so awkwardly constructed as to
neutralize the natural capacity of the place for offer
ing refuge to vessels at all stages of the tide;
PORTMAHOLMACK, a village and small sea
port within Tarbet-ness, in the parish of Tarbet,
Ross-shire. It stands on the north side of the long
narrow peninsula which forms the south screen of
the outer part of the Dornoch frith; and is south
west by west of Tarbet-ness, 11 miles east-north
east of Tain, and 15 miles north-east by north of
Cromarty. At the beginning of the present century,
it was chiefly a site of storehouses for receiving pay
ment of rents in oatmeal and bear, and had only five,
buildings, and no road of communication with the
interior; but now it has a population of about 400,
an extensive herring-fishery conducted by nearly 100
boats, a harbour whence considerable exportations
are made of farm produce, and a public road which
sends off ramifications to almost every sub-district

POR

557

POR

and important nook of Easter Ross. The shore here
is flat, and the pier extends 350 feet in a direct line,
ending with a return-pier 70 feet in length. The
expense of this pier was £3,168, one-half of which
was paid by Government.
PORT-MARY BAY, a creek in the parish of
Rerwick, Kirkcudbrightshire, 5 miles east of the
entrance of Kirkcudbright-bay, 6 miles south-east of
the town of Kirkcudbright, and 1£ mile south of
Dundrennan abbey. It has its name from the cir
cumstance of having been the miserable Queen
Mary's place of embarkation on her fatal flight to
England. The vale leading to it from the abbey,
her place of temporary refuge after the fight of Lang-
side, is sequestered and beautiful. The margin 'of
the creek is overhung by rugged and precipitous
cliffs, which impart to the scene an aspect of wild
ness and solemnity. Tradition still points to the
rock from which Mary took an eternal leave of her
lost kingdom. See Dundrennan.
PORTMOAK, a parish in Kinross-shire, lying
between Loch-Leven and the boundary with Fife
shire. It is bounded on the north-west by Orwell ;
on the north-east by Strathmiglo and Falkland ; on
the east by Leslie ; on the south by Auchterderran
and Ballingry; and on the west by Cleish, Kinross,
and Loch-Leven. A farm belonging to it, and mea
suring about 140 acres, lies detached in the Fifeshire
parish of Kinglassie. The main body consists of
two distinct and almost dissevered parts. The larger
section lies all on the east side of Loch-Leven, is
bounded along the south by the river Leven, and
measures, in extreme length, from north-north-west
to south-south-east, 5 miles, and in extreme breadth,
in the opposite direction, 3J miles. The smaller
section lies principally along the south side of Loch-
Leven, is connected with the former section by a
neck of only 3 furlongs at the mouth of the river
Leven, and measures, in extreme length, from west-
north-west to east-south-east, 5 miles, and in mean
breadth about 6 or 7 furlongs. The superficial ex
tent of the whole parish is about 6,404 Scottish
acres. West Lomond-hill occupies a large part of
the area in the north-east; it rises in beautiful un
dulations on the north-north-east, and breaks precipi
tously down at the opposite end; it extends in a ridge
whose summit-line is from 1 £ mile to 2£ miles dis
tant from the east side of Loch-Leven ; and it attains
an extreme altitude of about 1,030 feet above sea-
level, and, over a large part of its fine braes, is sub
ject to the plough. Benartie-hill, very similar in
configuration to the former height, and not much in
ferior to it in elevation, draws its summit-line along
the southern boundary, parallel to the south side of
Loch-Leven, and at a distance of from 4J to 10 fur
longs. The part of the parish not occupied by these
heights and their skirts, consists of narrow hanging
plains at their base. The whole surface is a rich
landscape of braes, crags, fine meadows, fertile fields,
and thriving plantations, reflecting their beautiful
features from the mirror of Loch-Leven. Nearly all
the good screen-scenery of that fine lake, in fact, lies
within Portmoak. See Leven (Loch). Between
two-thirds and three-fourths of the whole area are
arable ; about 300 acres are under plantation, and
probably the same number are in meadow; and what
remains is nearly all hill-pasture. The soil of most
of the arable grounds is light, early, and exceedingly
fertile. The pasture-lands usually maintain about
1,300 black cattle, and 1,400 Leicester and Cheviot
sheep. Limestone occurs in great abundance, and is
quarried and burnt to the amount of about 4,000 tons
of carbonate in the year. Sandstone, both so soft
as to be unfit for use, and so hard as to be a good
building material, abounds, but is not quarried. Co

pious springs of pure water are numerous on the
Loch-Leven side of West Lomond ; and in one place,
near the village of Scotland- Well, three, which are
situated within 400 yards of one another, emit as
much water as, with a suitable fall, would drive a
mill. These are said to have been called by Oliver
Cromwell Fontes Scotiae; and may have given name
to the neighbouring village. Yet another, and per
haps a likelier origin, has been assigned for the vil
lage's name. See Scotland- Well. Excepting
three hamlets, the only other village is Kinness-
wood : which see. Both villages are about 5 or 6
furlongs from the east, side of Loch-Leven ; they
are mutually distant about a mile ; they have each
an annual but little more than a nominal fair ;
and they contain respectively 500 and 315 inhabi
tants. Portmoak itself lies on the margin of Loch-
Leven due west from Scotland Well, and consists
only of a farm-stead, and a half-deserted burying-
ground, with a thin cordon of trees. Directly oppo
site, and at 5 furlongs' distance in Loch-Leven, lies
an islet of about 70 acres in extent, called St. Serf's
island, and belonging to the parish. On this islet
anciently stood a priory, dedicated to St. Serf or St.
Servanus ; and at Portmoak was the site of its church,
and the landing-place of its monks. The first, or an
early superior of the priory, or of a Culdee establish
ment which preceded it, is said to have borne the name
of Moak or St. Moak ; and, from him, tbe landing-place,
and afterwards the kirktown and the parish, are sup
posed to have been called Port-Moak. The parish,
however, appears to have originally borne the same
name as the islet. Some ruins of the priory still
exist. The establishment is said to have been founded
by a Pictish king, and given to the Culdees; and it
afterwards became a dependency of the Augustinian
Abbey of St. Andrews. Its revenues in 1561 were
£111 13s. 4d. in money; 1 chalder and 12 bolls of
bear ; and 4 chalders and 8 bolls of oats. Among
distinguished natives of Portmoak may be named
Andrew Winton, prior of Loch-Leven in the reign
of James I., and the native of * The Loch-Leven
Chronicle, or a History of the World from its crea
tion to the captivity of James I.,' in Scottish verse,
a copy of which is preserved in the Advocates
library at Edinburgh, and published about the begin
ning of the present century ; John Douglas, the first
protestant archbishop of St. Andrews ; and Michael
Bruce, the amiable author of several of the finest
sacred lyrics in the General Assembly's collection of
Scripture Paraphrases, and the subject of a recent
and interesting biographical volume by the Rev. Mr.
M'Kelvie of Balgedie. The parish also figures largely
in the preliminary history of the Scottish Secession,
as the scene, for many years, of the ministry of the
Rev. Ebenezer Erskine. The principal landowners
are the Marquis of Northampton and Thomas Bruce,
Esq. Two turnpike roads, respectively eastward and
northward, pass through the two principal sections ot
the parish. Population, in 1801, 1,151 ; in 1831, 1,554.
Houses 300. Assessed property, in 1815, £5,074.
— Portmoak is in the presbytery of Kirkcaldy, and
synod of Fife. Patron, Graham of Kinross. Stipend
£254 2s. 5d. ; glebe £10. Unappropriated teinds
£12 4s. 3d. The ancient parish-church stood at
Portmoak, but the modern one is situated in the
vicinity of Scotland Well. A United Secession meet-
ing-house stands at the hamlet of Balgedie, half-a-
mile north of Kinnesswood. In 1834, the parish-
school was attended by 54 scholars ; and two private
schools by 84. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34
4s., with fees.
PORT-OF-MONTEITH. See Monteith.
PORTNAHAVEN, a fishing-village, and a quoad
sacra parish, at the south-west extremity of Islay.

POR

558

POR

The village is picturesquely situated in a sheltered
and rocky nook of a tempestuous bay at the point of
the peninsula of the Rinns, 24 miles south-west of
Port- Askaig. It consists of about 60 slated houses ;
and is protected by an island across the entrance of
the bay from the fierce winds and surges which beat
in from the west. On this island — around which
mariners are menaced with dangers inferior only to
those of the passage round the north of the conti
nent  a lighthouse was erected in 1825. It stands
in N. lat. 55° 24 ; W. long. 6° 29' ; and is elevated
150 feet above high water. The village is a well-
. known cod-fishing station ; and stands on the pro
perty of Mr. Campbell of Sunderland — The quoad
sacra parish was detached by the church courts from
the parish of Kilchoman ; and is attached to a par
liamentary church. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£120, with a manse and garden. The church, and
also a school-house, are situated in the village.
PORT-NESSOCK, a bay 1J mile broad at the
entrance, and 1 mile inland, on the west coast of
Kirkmaiden, Wigtonshire. It is 9 miles distant from
the Mull of Galloway : see Port-Logan.
PORT-NOCKIE. See Port-Knockie.
PORTOBELLO, a quoad sacra parish on the
coast of the frith of Forth, Edinburghshire. It com
prehends only the town of Portobello, and its imme
diate environs ; and is somewhat more than a mile
in length, and nearly half-a-mile in extreme breadth.
It belongs, quoad civilia, to the parish of Dudding
ston, and was divided from it, in 1834, by authority
of the General Assembly. Its population, according
to a survey made by the minister and session, in
1835, was then 2,924; and consisted of 1,606 church
men, 431 Relievers, 316 Episcopalians, 228 United
Seceders, 90 Wesleyan Methodists, 80 Roman Ca
tholics, 73 Independents, 66 nondescripts, ,14. Bap
tists, 13 Glassites, Quakers, and members of other
small bodies, and 7 Original. Seceders  There are in
the parish seven places of worship. The parish-
church was built in 1810, as a chapel-of-ease, at the
cost of £2,650; and it was enlarged in 1815. Sit
tings 1,022. Stipend £180.— The Relief chapel,
belonging to a congregation formed in 1834, was
built, in 1825, at the cost of nearly £2,000, and pur
chased, in 1834, by the Rev. David Crawford, the
minister, for £900. Sittings 800. Stipend not
known. — The United Secession chapel is of recent
erection, and belongs to a congregation formed in
1835. Stipend £85. — The Independent chapel was
built in 1835, at the cost of £420 ; and belongs to a
congregation which was formed at its erection. Sit
tings 300. Stipend £80.— The Episcopalian Or St.
Mark's chapel is private poverty, and is rented at
£40 a-year by a congregation which was established
in 1825. Sittings 504. Stipend £80  The Roman
Catholic chapel was built in 1826; and it was pur-.
chased, in 1834, by the Roman Catholic bishop of
Edinburgh, for £600. Sittings 200. No stipend.
— The Wesleyan Methodist place of worship is sim
ply a room in the glass-works.
Portobello, a modern town, a parliamentary
burgh, and a fashionable summer-resort, is situ
ated on the shore of the frith of Forth ; 3 miles east
of Edinburgh, 2£ miles from Leith, and the same
distance from Musselburgh. Previous to 1762 the
ground on which it stands, and the rich, fertile, and
highly cultivated lands in its vicinity, were an un
enclosed and unproductive waste, called the Figgate-
whins, covered with tall furze, and thin and stinted
herbage, sweeping down to the naked sea-beach in
an expanse of dreariness, and relieved, in the repul-
siveness of its aspect, by the presence of only one
human dwelling. The lands were then let to one
of the Duddingston tenants for 200 merks Scottish

a-year, or £11 2s. 2Jd. sterling; and in 1762 or
1763, they were sold by Lord Milton to Baron Muir
for about £1,500. Immediately after being sold,
they began to be feued out at £3 per acre ; and so
early as 1804, they had, in some instances, been sub-
feued at a feu- duty, or perpetual rent, for each acre
of £40 a-year. Even the solitary human abode
which sat amid their original waste, and was destined
to give its name to the town, had a comparatively
recent origin, and still stands on the south-west side
of High-street nearly opposite Regent-street, an ob
ject of peculiar interest to the towns-people, and of
curiosity to strangers. The building is an humble
cottage ; it was used as an hostelry for foot-travellers
on a road which led out from the Fishwives' cause
way, across the whins, toward Musselburgh; and,
according to tradition, it was built by a sailor, or
marine, who had served under Admiral Vernon, in
his South American expedition of 1739, and was
called by him Porto-Bello, in memory of his having
acted a part in the capture of the town of that name
in America. In 1765, Mr. William Jamieson, the
feuar under Baron Muir, discovered near the Fig-
gate-burn, a valuable bed of clay ; and he erected on'
the banks of the stream, first a brick and tile work,
and afterwards an earthenware manufactory. These
public works, as well as others which followed them,
necessarily made the place a seat of population, oc
casioned the appearance of a thriving village, and,
by their continuance and prosperity, have powerfully
aided the expansion of that village into a town.
About the beginning of the century, the beauty of
the beach, the fineness of its sands, and its general
eligibility as a bathing-place began to draw the atten
tion of the citizens of Edinburgh ; and they speedily
won for the incipient town a fame which prompted
the erection of numerous villas and dwelling-houses,
and which has steadily and increasingly secured a
general local prosperity.
The present town is but partially compact or con
tinuous ; and, in most of its street-lines, is not com
pletely edificed, while in two or three it has hardly
a house. The whole, including both real and pro
jected, forms a belt along the margin of the beach
7 furlongs in length by from 200 to 350 yards in
breadth, with one large and several smaller projec
tions from the landward side into the interior. The
principal street forms the edge of the belt, and ex
tends from north-west to south-east ; bearing, over
its north-west end, the name of High-street, and
over the remaining part the name of Abercorn- street.
The two parts of the thoroughfare, though each
straight in itself, are a quarter-point or two from
being on a line with each other; and both are spa
cious, and carry along the Edinburgh and London
mailroad. The Figgate-burn intersects the town
near the north-west end; the only parts on the Leith
side of the stream being a kind of street of no great
length along the Fishwives' causeway, and an area
of about 400 square yards disposed in partially edi
ficed thoroughfares. All the principal streets south
east of the burn send off at brief intervals, and gen
erally at right angles, alleys, and streets to the beach.
These are 12 or 13 in number ; those on the north
west are narrow and belong to the early periods of
the town's existence ; and those in the middle dis
trict, and toward the south-east, become increasingly
elegant, and at the same time increasingly unedificed,
or streets in futuro, as the distance recedes from the
burn. The principal — mentioning them in regular
order — bear the names of Tower, Bath, Regent,
Wellington, Melville, Pitt, John, James, and Hamil
ton streets. What — were the town an old one, and
had it known the curious piece of masonry which
Roman Catholic usages made essential to every mar-

PORTOBELLO.

559

keting locality— would be called the cross, is a point
at which that thoroughfare is divided into, its two
parts, and whence Bath-street goes off to the sea,
and a spacious and beautiful street called Brighton-
street runs 400 yards to the south-west. Brighton-
street is crossed near its head by an elegant imitation
of the frequent street-refinements of Edinburgh,  a
crescent bearing the name of Brighton, and pre
senting its front or concavity toward the sea. So
formidable an array of street-lines, disposed over so
great a space, would seem to indicate no small mag
nitude of town, and a very considerable bulkiness of
population. But the principle which for a long pe
riod regulated the form of houses, and the disposal
of plots of ground, having been merely the individual
tastes and convenience of private persons, the town
is, to a great extent, an aggregation of villas, has
many open areas, and almost as often nestles its
houses in umbrageous gardens, as places them in line,
or continuously along the skirts of its streets. The
parts of it, however, which have been built since
about the year 1815, have been reared principally on
speculation by builders;, and they are greatly more
regular, as to both the street- lines and the houses,
and will probably unite with parts yet, and soon to
be erected, to render it one of the neatest, or even
one of the most elegant, second-rate provincial towns
in Great Britain. The extensive brick-work which
figured so prominently in the origination of the town,
has contributed much to disfigure it by tempting the
construction of many of the houses with bricks.
But, over by much the greater part of the area, the
building material is the same beautiful light-coloured
sandstone which gives so pervading a charm to the
architecture of the metropolis ; and, as the brick
edifices decay, it will probably be used for the houses
which succeed them, and be allowed the universal
adoption it deserves.
The public buildings of the town hardly cor
respond, in either numbers or elegance, with its im
portance. The most curious is a ruinous tower
which overlooks the beach, and is situated a little
south-east of the foot of Tower-street. This is a
fantastic pile, designed in wildly capricious taste,
and built by an eccentric gentleman, who was one of
the earliest subfeuars under Mr. Jamieson. Antique
carved stones appear in the cornices and the win
dows, and are alleged to have belonged partly to the
cross of Edinburgh, and partly to the dilapidated
ecclesiastical piles of St. Andrews  An excellent
suite of hot and cold salt-water baths was erected in
1806, at the cost of £4,000; and overlooks the beach
t between the foot of Bath-street and that of Regent-
street. .A commodious and neat suite of markets
occupies a convenient situation in the centre of the
town. The assembly rooms stand at the head of
Bath-street. St. Mark's chapel, standing in an open
space south of Abercorn-street, is the only one of
the ecclesiastical edifices which has any architectural
pretensions. The others are creditable buildings, but
all plain, — built wholly for use, and in no degree for
show  Lodgings of every variety, and accommoda
tions of all sorts usual at such places, exist for the
use of sea-bathers, and all classes of summer residents
and visiters. Many of the private houses — the man
sions and the villas — are the homes of capitalists and
annuitants who have adopted Portobello as their con
stant retreat, and who people it in sufficient numbers
to give its resident or unshifting population a tone
of selectness and elegance. In winter, the town is
far from having the forsaken and wan aspect which
pervades a mere sea-bathing station ; and, in sum
mer, it has an animation and a gaiety superior to
those of any other sea-bathing station in Scotland.
Its nearness to "modern Athens,'' — its encirclement

by a cordon of the Mid-Lothian towns and villages of
the most various population, — its position near the
lower and waving eastern declivities of Arthur's-
seat, — its easy access to a profusion of the choicest
and most various promenades, — and its command of
the superb and silken scenery of the lower frith of
the Forth, with its gentle yet gorgeous Lothian and
Fifeshire screens, — combine, with its interior advan
tages, to render it a place of no common attraction.
— The sands of Portobello, or the expanse of beach
between high and low water mark, consist of the
finest and purest debris, and slope with a slow and
almost insensible gradient, and have an average
breadth of very nearly half-a-mile. Facilities, in
the shape of wheeled machines, exist for carrying
bathers over the inconvenience of the very slow
descent. In 1822, George IV. reviewed on the sands
a very large body of yeomen-cavalry.
Portobello, in spite of its name, is no sea-port,
and neither has, nor probably ever will have, any sea
ward trade. A small harbour was constructed at
the mouth of the Figgate-burn, by Mr. Jamieson,
soon after his discovery of the clay-bed ; but it never
was of any use except for boats, and is now com
pletely ruinous. Some stout talk has occasionally
been heard about applying for an act of parliament
to authorize the erection of a suitable harbour for
vessels ; but the Figgate creek, the only available
spot, is all but impracticable, and could not be
made to admit vessels of even small burden except
at a heavy expense. The manufactories of the
town, however, are of some importance, and consist
of three brick- works, two potteries, one extensive
glass-work, one soap-work, one lead-work, and one
mustard manufactory. The number of persons em
ployed in these works is estimated at between 500
and 600. Tbe town has a branch of the Western
bank of Scotland. Communication is maintained
with Edinburgh by coaches at almost every hour of
the day. The Dalkeith, Edinburgh, and Leith rail
way passes immediately behind the town. In 1839,
a valuable oyster-bed was discovered direct out from
the sands.
Portobello is governed by a provost, 2 bailies, a
treasurer, and 7 councillors ; and it has a town-clerk
and a procurator-fiscal ; but it has neither property,
revenue, patronage nor police. Certain portions of
it, or those which are occupied by the richer classes,
are lighted and watched by subscription ; but the
portions occupied by the operative population are
quite unprotected, and, owing to the vicinity of
Edinburgh and Leith, are infested with numerous
lurking depredators. The only peace-preserving
force is a body of high constables, consisting of a
moderator, a secretary, a treasurer, and 12 ordinary
members. On the enactment of ihe statute, under
the Reform ministry, creating a municipality, and
erecting the town into a parliamentary burgh, some
of the proprietors and inhabitants were adverse even
to the election of a magistracy ; while others, who
constituted the majority, resolved to supply by sub
scription the funds necessary for procuring a court
house, paying an officer, and defraying the other more
immediate expenses incidental to such an establish
ment, — and yet, at the date of the Report of the
Commissioners on Municipal Corporations, they had
subscribed only " a sum upwards of £72." Persons
who are averse to the creation of a police-estao-
lishment, say that it would seriously damage the
prosperity of the town, or that, in consequence of
ihe expense which it would occasion, a very great
number of inhabitants would be driven away who
prefer the place as a residence on account chiefly of
its freedom from taxation. The lighting of tbe town,
so far as practised, is by gas from the Musselburgh

560

PORT-PATRICK.

gas-work. Portobello unites with Leith and Mus
selburgh in sending a member to parliament. Con
stituency, in 1840, 232. The parliamentary boun
daries include the village of Joppa : which see. Po
pulation, in 1821, of the whole district, 1,912; in
1831, 2,781 ; in 1831, 3,270 statedly, and about 5,000
during the summer and autumn; in 1841, 3,585, of
whom 3,201 resided in the town of Portobello.
Number of houses, in 1821, 334; in 1831, 517.
Houses of £10 and upwards of yearly rent, in 1831,
313; in 1834, 324. Rental, in 1834, £8,300. As
sessed taxes, in 1831, £1,550 0s. 2d.
PORT-PATRICK, a parish near the middle of
the Rhinns of Galloway, and on the west coast of
Wigtonshire. It is bounded on the north by Les
walt ; on the east by Inch and Stoneykirk ; on the
south by Stoneykirk ; and on the south-west and
west by tbe Irish channel. Its greatest length,
from east to west, is 4i miles ; its greatest breadth
is 4 miles ; and its area is about 16 square miles.
Its form is quadrangular and compact. Piitanton-
burn traces the boundary for 1 J mile on the east;
and one indigenous burn, and another from Leswalt,
traverse the interior to the sea. The coast is 4|
miles in extent ; and, except for a mile on the north,
where it stretches nearly due north and south, it
trends to the south-east. Over its whole extent, it
is bold, rocky, and dangerous to navigation. Rocks
and cliffs, locally called "heughs," beetle up in but
a slightly interrupted line of natural rampart, and,
in many instances, have an elevation of from 1 00 to
130 feet. Many of them are sheer precipices ; others
have a sufficient gradient to tempt the descent of
youngsters to the water's edge, and are notched with
protuberances which the adventurous occupy as fish
ing-seats ; and a few have small caves and cavernous
rents, in which wild-fowl and the spray of the angry
sea contend for possession. The whole line of ram
part is cloven down or shaven away by only four little
bays ; and, except at these points, forbids the exist
ence of a beach. These bays, as to their extent, are
mere creeks : but they are faced with level or gently-
sloping belts of sand, they are hung round with de
clivitous rocky banks, or with green and swelling
hills, and they, in a certain degree, or in given winds,
afford safe entrance and shelter to vessels. Killan-
tringan bay touches, or partly forms the northern
boundary ; Portkale and Portmurray, the next bay
and a twin one, is 1J mile to the south ; and Port
patrick and Castle bays are respectively If and 1
mile from the southern boundary. Portmurray,
though separated from Portkale by only a slender
promontory, and forming with it an outline like
that of the ourvive Greek omega, a, has a beach en
tirely different, — its composition being of the fine
soft sand of freestone, while that of the others' beach
is the grit and small boulders of primitive rock. A
glen which comes down to the head of Portmurray,
and brings to the sea the silvery waters of a brook,
is pronounced by the writer of the New Statistical
Account, " the most picturesque in Galloway ;" its
stream making "a very pretty wild waterfall," and
its sides being traversed by walks which are " very
tastefully cut, and connect the two bays with the
present mansion-house of Dunskey, situated about a
mile distant on the height. "— Cairnpat [which see]
is the highest ground in the parish ; it is situated 3£
miles east-north-east of the town ; and it commands
a map-like view of the parish and of the Rhinns,
and a very extensive and varied circumjacent pros
pect. On the west, the larger part of the parish
forms a foreground of tumulated and continually
broken surface, sweeping away in a huddled crowd
of low heights to the sea ; the broad and beautiful
belt of the Irish channel occupies the centre, stud-

I ded with sails, or streaked with the smoke and foam
of steam-ships ; and the Irish coast seen over an ex
tent of 70 miles, forms the back-ground, with the
dark Mourne mountains on the one end, the bold
summits and the long sweep of the Antrim hills on
the other, and the town of Donaghadee, and the rich,
gently-undulated grounds of Downshire in the
middle. On the south, the Rhinns recede in a nar
row belt of 18 miles, chiefly peninsular, to the Mull
of Galloway, moorish and hillocky in aspect, but
gorgeously girt round with " the deep blue sea ;" and
in the far but clear distance beyond them, after a
broad interval of glittering ocean, appear the pic
turesque heights of the Isle of Man. On the east,
the smaller part of the parish forms an immediate
foreground, sloping rapidly down to Piltanton-burn ;
the broad, level, and low isthmus between Luce-bay
and Loch-Ryan, forms a remoter foreground, rich,
variegated, and embellished with the groves and the
plantation-belts of the Earl of Stair, the lakes and
wooded grounds of Castle, Kennedy, and the planta
tions of Garthland ; and a wild and mountain-clad,
though comparatively low country, forms a slowly
receding back-ground, and rests its outer rim on the
blue and dimly-seen mountains of Kirkcudbright.
On the north, the eye isVarried beyond the parochial
boundary, over a surface ruggedly broken, and pro
fusely rocky ; it then wanders over the town and
level shores of Stranraer, the whole expanse of
Lochryan, and the sloping or soft-featured grounds
of Leswalt and Kirkcolm ; and thence it is lifted
away up the broad and long gulf of the Clyde, past
the bold hill-crag of Ailsa, to the far-distant moun
tain-ranges of Arran and Argyleshire. — The prevail
ing rocks are greywacke, greywacke slate, and alum
slate ; the first of which is quarried as a building
material. The soil is almost everywhere moorish or
mossy; and, where cultivated, it has become a brown
mould, or a blackish, moss-streaked, or interworked
with a marly clay, taken up by the plough from the
subsoil. Mosses abound, and, even on the hill tops,
are frequently 6 or 7 feet deep. Nearly two-thirds
of the whole area is in a higher or lower sense
arable ; about one-third is waste or pastoral ; and
about300acres are under plantation. Dunskey castle,
the ancient seat of the family of Blair, and now in
ruins, stands on the brink of a giddy precipice at
the head of Castle-bay ; it was anciently secured, on
the land side, by a ditch and drawbridge, the remains
of which are still visible ; and, before the' invention
of artillery, it must have been impregnable. In its
vicinity are a streamlet and a cave which were
esteemed, even in the last generation, to possess
some magic properties of healing; and, at the
change of the moon, were resorted to by infirm
superstitious persons, Who bathed in the streamlet,
and dried themselves in the cave. Population, in
1801, 1,090; in 1831, 2,239. Houses 293. Assessed
property, in 1815, £4,025. Port-Patrick is in the
presbytery of Stranraer, and synod of Galloway.
Patron, Blair of Dunskey. Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ;
glebe £30. An assistant and successor has £50.
The parish-church was built in 1629, and has not
since been enlarged, or materially altered. Sittings
300. A large hall in the old barracks was fitterl up,
in 18361 as a sort of chapel-of-ease, and is gra
tuitously supplied by licentiates resident in the par.
ish. Sittings 120. The population, in 1836, ac
cording to ecclesiastical survey, consisted of 1,605
churchmen, and 376 dissenters,— in all 1,981 per-
sons,_an increase of 200 or 250 taking place by im
migration when the harbour-works are going on.
In 1834, the parish-school was attended by 34
scholars, and 6 private schools by 140. Parochia.
schoolmaster's salary £30, with about £5 fees  At

PORT-PATRICK.

5G1

, . the village and haven now called Port- Patrick, there
was anciently a chapel dedicated to St. Patrick.
The Irish apostle is said, in one of the monstrous
legends which found currency during the dark ages,
to have crossed hither from Ireland at a single
stride, and left a footmark in a rock so distinct as
to be traceable till the rock was, in modern times,
quarried ; and he, at all events, seems to have been
the adopted tutelary, or the favourite of the Ro
man Catholic natives. The barony of Portree com
prehended the village and haven ; it anciently be
longed to the family of Adair of Kinhilt ; and, at
the end of James VI. 's reign, it passed to Hugh
Montgomery, Viscount of Airds, in the county of
Down ; and, for a considerable period, it remained
in his family. Lord Montgomery speedily obtained
the erection of the village into a burgh-of-barony,
and imposed on it the name of Port-Montgomery,
— a name which it for some time wore. Hitherto
all the lands which constitute the present parish
had belonged to the parish of Inch, and were called
the Black Quarter of Inch. But, in 1628, a char
ter, granted by Charles I., detached them — consist
ing of Portree, Kinhilt, and Sorbies — from that par
ish, — erected them into a separate parochial juris
diction, — ordained that a church which was then in
fhe course of erection in the burgh-of-barony should
be the parish-church, — and constituted the church
a rectory under tbe patronage of the lord of the
manor ; and another charter, which was dated two
years later, and which suppressed the abbey of Saul-
seat, granted as endowment for the new parish the
unappropriated revenues of the parish-churches of
Saulseat and Kirkmaiden, which had belonged to
the abbey.
The town of Port-Patrick stands on the coast
of the parish just described, 6J miles south-west of
Stranraer, 34J west of Wigton, 56£ south-south
west of Ayr, 75 west-south-west of Dumfries, 90J
south-south-west of Glasgow, and 181i sou'th-west
of Edinburgh. It stands directly opposite the Irish
port of Donaghadee, on the coast of the county
Down, at the distance from it of only 21 miles ; and,
occupying the spot of British ground which is nearest
. to Ireland, and whence a passage can at any time be
made without obstruction, it has acquired importance
as a great international ferry-station between the
two great insular sections of the United Kingdom.
Its site is peculiar, and, on a small scale, romantic
and wild. A semicircle of high ground, composed
in the interior of soil-clad hills, and toward the sea
of. naked and bold cliffs, sweeps so completely round
it, or sends the cliffy ends so far past it in abutments
upon tbe sea, that not a peep of the outer world can
be obtained, except right forward across the channel
to the coast of Ireland. The declivities of the semi
circle or amphitheatre are, at the sides of the little
enclosed bay, steep and impracticable, and, even be
hind the town, except where a streamlet has cleft
them into a cleugh and ploughed down a path for the
highway, they are sufficiently rapid to give the whole
enclosed space the appearance of a large quarry, or
the half of a huge bowl. Neither by land nor north
ward or southward by the sea, is the town seen till
it is almost entered; and from either position, espe
cially from the latter, it has an aspect of dreariness
and of suffocating seclusion which make a stranger
from either the gay city, or the broad and bounding
landscape, recoil from the idea of its ever becoming
his home. Yet, though the nest in which it sits is
-almost as bare of embellishment as the bald head of
a hill of the hardest primitive rock, it basks in a
south-westerly exposure, and, during high winds from
most points of th.e compass, is enviably snug. Most
of the houses are of very recent date ; and all are
II.

built of the greywacke of the rocks of the amphi
theatre. The newest and principal street is about
350 yards in length ; it commences near the centre
of the basin at the harbour, runs up toward the gorge
or incision in the hill-screen, and carries out the
mailroad on the way to Stranraer ; and it has on its
south-side, the manse, the church, and the burying-
ground. The street next in importance is bisected
by the former nearly in the middle, has a slight cur
vature in its direction, and overlooks the harbour.
Some smaller streets lie behind these. The popula
tion of the town, in 1841, was 996. Houses 130.
The harbour of Port-Patrick, till a comparatively
recent date, was a mere natural inlet beiween the
two rocky ridges which project into the sea. As there
is a prodigious swell from without when the wind
blows upon the shore, while naturally no elbow or
recess existed where there was either smooth water
or shelter, vessels which entered the harbour had to
be run aground, and, with the aid of probably all the
inhabitants both male and female of the village,
dragged up the beach, to be in a similar manner la
boriously re-launched on occasion of their next trip
to sea ; and, in consequence, they all required to be
of flat-bottomed construction, and were compara
tively rude and small. Not till 1662, and then only
once a-week, was a regular post established through
Port- Patrick between Scotland and Ireland ; but
long after that date, the flat-bottomed boats and the
rude natural harbour continued to be in use ; and
even toward the end of last century, two large flats,
which had formerly been Government packets, were
to be seen on the shore, as monuments of modern
barbarity. Eventually, in 1774, a very fine pier, one
of the best in Britain, was built, and, before 1790,
was provided with a reflecting lighthouse, to cor
respond with one which had long previously existed
on the opposite coast at Donaghadee. But greatly
better harbourage being required, a project for new
works on a magnificent scale was brought before
parliament in 1820, and begun to be executed in
ihe spring of next year under the superintendence
of a board of commissioners ; and it has since been
carried on, under the designing and direction of the
celebrated engineers, the elder and the younger
Rennie, till now it is not far from being completed.
The new works have already cost upwards of
£160,000, and are incomplete only in the north
pier. Their form is nearly that of a horse-shoe ;
ihe sides running out into piers, which are fur
nished near- their extremities with jetties, and are
slightly curved toward each other, and, at the jet
ties, contract the entrance to 180 feet. On one
side of the enclosed basin, a large rock looks up
from the surface, and partially protects the interior
from the wind and swell at the entrance ; and, on
the other side, the old pier of 1774 projects in-
Ward on a line nearer the land than the centre of
the basin. The parapets of the new piers are
formed of large blocks of grey limestone from Wales;
and that of the southern one terminates in a semi
circular sweep, within which rises a handsome light
house of the same roaterial, and 46 feet high. But
the stupendous, and by far the costliest parts of
the works, are concealed from the eye by the tide,
and were constructed chiefly with the aid of the div
ing-bell. A lively article in the Dumfries Magazine,
written in 1825, when the works were in a state of
but small forwardness, affords a fine conception pf
the enormous labour of erecting them, and hints
by anticipation the magnitude of their completed
state. " Port-Patrick, as it is," says the writer
" no more resembles Port-Patrick as it was, than
a little rural hamlet resembles a great trading
town. No doubt the original shielings which formed
2 N

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562

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the village stand,, for the most part, where they
were  the Irish coast is still in view, with the wide
Atlantic flowing between (in summer, as tranquil as
a sleeping child ; in winter, vexed and agitated by
every wind that blows, as if threatening to drive
'the Mull' from its base); but, in every other re
spect, the aspect of ' the Port ' is wholly changed.
In place of a few cock-boats or timid coasters, you
see a brace of steamers, each of the power of 40
horses, and so splendidly fitted up as to deserve the
name of floating palaces ; in place of one packet in
the offing unable to gain; another to leave, the olden
harbour — that beating painfully about in the offing,
this afraid to dip her keel in the waves, you see ves
sels that start as regularly as the clock strikes, that
gallantly bear up against wind and tide, complete the
passage in little more than two hours, and serve all
the purposes of those marine bridges which only
Michael Scott, the wizard, could build. In place of
a few fishermen lounging about, and wondering why
the herrings had not arrived, you see 800 able-bodied
men, whose labours are all directed to one great ob
ject, and who, under the guidance of a skilful en
gineer, are triumphing over the most formidable
obstacles of nature. Even the din of the ocean is
stilled by the clang of hammers, the suction of
pumps, the hissing of boilers, and the roar of bel
lows, such as the Cyclops themselves might have
coveted. A hundred jumpers are set home at once,
trains are laid, matches applied, and as blast suc
ceeds blast, large masses of rock are hurled headlong
into the depths below, from positions they had oc
cupied since the era of the flood. There, an artificial
dike or mound shuts out the waves, and, with the
aid of the pump, enables the workmen to bid defiance
to an element which, to a stranger, seems fraught
with destruction and death ; here the punt ap
proaches, and the crane discharges its ponderous
load; and farther on still the diver descends in his
house of iron, and even at the lowest depths, founds
and fashions the base of erections which give ex
tension to the commerce, and safety to the unequal
led navy of Britain." Neap-tides rise in the harbour
from 8 to 1 1 feet, and spring-tides from 1 4 to 17 feet.
Steamers of 80 horse-power could be so built as to
enter and remain afloat in any state of the tide ; but
as yet only steamers of at most 50 horse-power have
been employed.
The traffic and the connexional importance of
Port-Patrick are sadly pigmy affairs compared with
the greatness of the place as a ferry-station, and
with' the sumptuousness of its harbour. It has,
indeed, rapidly passed from the state of a miserable
fishing-hamlet to that of a large village or small
town, and from numbering only about 100 inhabi
tants at a period less than a century ago, has come
to number somewhat upwards of 1,000 ; but, apart
from the s{ir of mere passenger and mail transit, and
the turmoil which has attended the construction of
its great public works, it is wrapped in comparative
insignificance, and even appears half-threatened with
desertion. So far back as 1760 its inhabitants were
very nearly equal to a moiety of the present number;
and, in 1791, it had upwards of a dozen trading ves
sels of from 40 to 60 tons each, — it had some com
panies of ship-wrights who displayed enterprise in
ship-building, and promised to make it a large local
employment, — it annually, as an entrepot for Scot
land, imported from Ireland upwards of 17,000 horses
and cattle, — and it made extensive exchanges be
tween the linen of the Irish factories and the cotton
goods of Glasgow, Paisley, and Manchester ; but
now it has only four sailing-vessels, aggregately but
180 tons, — it has not, for very many years, and pro
bably may never again, be witness to the construc

tion of a vessel, — it has all but ceased lo be an entre
pot of any sort of produce from Ireland, and does
not on the average import more than about two
cattle in the day,— and, in general, it has sunk so
low that, according to the New Statistical Account
of it, dated December 1833, " There is no trade
worth mentioning. Lime from Ireland and coals
from Ayrshire are imported for the use of the parish,
and occasionally the agricultural produce of the dis
trict is exported ; but rarely, as the greater part Js
sold at Stranraer, either for consumpt there, or for
exportation." A large custom-house establishment,
which not many years ago existed at the port, has
dwindled away to a single tide-waiter. Large por
tions of the national community, too, have for years
past freely talked of the possible prudence of de
priving it of its only profitable or boasted character
istic, — its being the most favourable point of inter
communication between Scotland and Ireland ; and
the trial which has been already for some months
experienced of how rapidly intercourse is maintained
between Belfast and the great emporia of western
Scotland, by means of steam-vessel to Ardrossan,
and railway to Paisley, Greenock, and Glasgow, may
not improbably do Port- Patrick irreparable damage.
The only manufacture is weaving on some half-
score of looms, and the embroidering of muslin by a
few women. A fishery of cod. employs ten or eleven
boats, and about 30' fishermen. A herring-fishery
annually employed, for eight years, about 100 men ;
but, since 1821, it has been extinct. A few families
resort to the town in summer for sea-bathing, and
help to relieve its dulness. A large traffic was at
one time carried on in the celebration of marriage
between fugitive pairs from Ireland, — in a similar
way for ' the Emerald isle ' as is done at Gretna-
Green for England, though not quite so discredit
able and with much less indecorum ; but, in 1826,
the practice was happily annihilated by the inter
ference of the church courts. The town's charter,
erecting it into a burgh-of-barony, is practically a
carte blanche, and seems never to have been turn
ed to any account. A sub - constable, connected
with the county police, and having under his charge
three parishes, is the only peace-officer. A miser
able lock-up-house exists for the temporary incarce
ration of a depredator. The town is in no way dis
tinguished for cleanliness ; yet has a fair proportion
of respectable and intelligent inhabitants.
PORTREE, a parish in Inverness-shire, compre
hending the islands of Rasay and Rona, and a large
district on the east .coast of Skye. This district is
bounded on the north by Snizort ; on the east by
the sound of Rasay ; on the south by Strath ; and on
the west by Bracadale. The greatest length of the par
ish, measured from north-north-west to south-south
east along Skye, is nearly la miles, but, measured
from north to south along Rona and Rasay, is 20
miles ; its greatest breadth, including the ferry to
Rasay, is about 12 miles ; and its superficial extent
has been estimated at 41,900 acres. The two at
tached islands will be separately described : see Ra
say and Rona. The main part of the parish is a
very slender oblong, quite serrated in its outline on
the east by frequent indentations of the sea, and pos
sessing a mean breadth of not more than 3 miles.
The principal bays are Loch-Portree, 5£ miles from
the northern extremity ; Loch-Sligichan, 7 miles
farther south ; and Loch-Inord, at the southern ex
tremity ; and each of these is from 2J to 3£ miles in
length. The coast, at the head of the lochs, and in
a few other places, is low, and terminates in a sandy,
silty, or clayey beach ; but, in general, it is bold and
picturesque ; and, occasionally, it becomes soaring,
stupendously mural, and not a little sublime. The

PORTREE.

563

cliffs, towards the mouth of Loch Portree in parti
cular, are singularly imposing, and form the com
mencement of a most magnificent range of coast-
scenery, which stretches along all the north of the
parish, and away to near the extremity of Snizort.
The cliffs on the north side of the loch exhibit one
specimen which closely resembles Salisbury-crags at
Edinburgh ; but they, at the same time, present
much variety of form, and rise emulously aloft, cliff
behind cliff, and crag beyond crag, stupendous in
height and impressive in their grandeur. A very
steep declivity of about A of a mile in length on the
sides of these vast' rocks overhangs precipices which
fall sheer down to the sea, and is powdered over
with blocks and masses which have fallen from
the cliffs above; yet, on account of the excellence
of its pasture, and in spite of an occasional loss
by a fall from its seaward edge, is every summer
used as grazing ground for milk cows. At the head
of Loch-Portree rises the monarch-mountain of the
parish, called Ait-Suidhe-Thuin, or Fingal's sitting-
place; because, according to tradition, that hero was
accustomed, from a green hillock on its summit, to sur
vey and direct the chase. It rises at first with an easy
and gentle ascent, but becomes steep as it approaches
the top ; it attains an altitude of more than 2,000 feet
above sea-level, and commands a view of nearly all
the west coast of Ross-shire, of the greater part of the
Skye and Long- Island groups of the Hebrides, and of
multitudinous and picturesque forkings and dissever-
ments of the Deucaledonian sea ; and, over all its
surface, with the exception of brown and rocky ac
clivities toward its summit, it is either finely pastoral
or covered with crops, and is distributed into a variety
of farms. On the east side of Loch-Portree rises
Bendeanavaig, ' the hill of defence,' nearly equal to
the former mountain in altitude, and capped, like it,
with a green hillock. This height is so remarkable
in form as to be a sure landmark to mariners ; it is
perforated in its seaward base with caverns, which
ihe tides wash, and where wild pigeons and sea-
fowl nestle; and, athwart its rapid declivities, which
overhang the sea, are numerous conical rocks, green
or heathy on their tops, and interspersed with pasto
ral hollows and ravines. A range of hills of various
heights and forms runs from north to south along the
whole interior boundary of the parish ; and another
range, quite parallel to it, and broken only byithe
principal inlets of the sea, runs from end to end along
the coast. These ranges enclose between them a
long glen, or concatenated series of vales, traversed
by streams which run at right angles to the head of
the lochs ; and, with very unimportant exceptions,
they are covered with rich verdure from base to
summit ; and, abounding in luxurious springs and
playful rills and rivulets, each with its tiny dell or
ravine, they combine, with the windings of the long
glen, and the sweeps of the marine lochs, and the
variety and grandeur of the coast, to exhibit a pro
fusion of decidedly picturesque landscape. Wood,
however, is exceedingly scarce ; and does not seem
to thrive either as coppice or as plantation, — some
natural birch and alder on Ait-Suidhe-Thuin having
died away in dwarfishness, and an experiment in
planting firs having completely failed. The climate
is surpassingly changeable, very moist, and not a little
severe. Scarcely one day in four throughout the
year is free from rain, still less from clouds ; the
varieties of frost, thaw, snow, rain, storm, and calm,
are often experienced in a single day; snow some
times lies from three to seven weeks, and may occa
sionally be seen on the highest grounds in the middle
of June ; winds prevail in August and September so
tempestuous as frequently to demolish the expecta
tions of the husbandman; and suddenly amassed

clouds sometime burst asunder on the mountains,
and pour down their contents in impetuous and
thundering torrents which deluge the plains below,
and render the merest ordinary rill impassable. Yet
the inhabitants, though subject to distempers affiliat
ed to such a climate, are, in general, as strong and
healthy, and arrive at as advanced an age as persons
who live in milder air and under a serener sky. Of
several fresh-water lakes, the most considerable are
Loch-Fad and Loch-Leathen, each probably about
two miles in circumference, and both stored with
fish, very highly situated, and quite romantic in their
scenery. A streamlet from Loch-Leathen falls sheer
over an extraordinarily high precipice, and forms a
cascade which, though but a toy in bulk of water,
appears, as seen from the sea below, to be singularly
beautiful and grand. Rivulets, though inconsider
able in either length or volume, possess, in two in
stances, noticeable salmon-fisheries. Geognostic de
tails will be given in tbe article on Skye. A very
hard granite is quarried for mill-stones ; sandstone is
quarried as building material ; limestone abounds ;
and coal exists, but in too thin and limited seams
to be profitably worked. The soil is principally
a wet gravel, and occasionally a spouty moss ; and
everywhere it is naturally infertile. The arable
land bears quite a pitiful proportion to the pas
tures and moorlands. Husbandry, in all its de
partments, both in hill and vale, is in a backward
condition, — much of the hill pastures existing in
commonage, and few improvements having been
made on the arable grounds ; yet, chiefly through
the influence of the Highland society, incipient
skill is already quite apparent in the departments of
sheep husbandry and of grazing. The cascroim, a
crooked kind of spade, respecting which the statist,
before the close of last century, said: "Let it be
hoped that this tiresome' instrument of vast unneces
sary toil and labour will be soon laid aside," is still
the prevailing sueeedaneum for a plough. The farm
ers, with one exception, have no leases ; and, even
if they could obtain them, are too poor and embar
rassed to effect any georgical improvement. The
herring-fishery, on which many of the parishioners
depended for maintenance, has steadily and seriously
declined; and its failure, in 1836 and 1837, occa
sioned painful and extensive destitution. The anti
quities are two circular Dunes, which bear marks of
being very ancient ; and 2 Roman Catholic chapel,
near the village of Portree, pretty entire in its walls,
and surrounded by a deserted burying-ground. The
landowners are Lord Macdonald and Macleod of
Rasay. Population, in 1801, 2,246; in 1831, 3,441.
Houses 598. Assessed property, in 1815, £781 
Portree is in the presbytery of Skye, and synod of
Glenelg. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £157 13s.
4d. ; glebe £11. The parish-church was built about
the year 1820. Sittings about 800. A thatched
house, about 2 miles north of Loch-Sligichan, and
possessing accommodation for about 150, is occupied
once in three weeks, on Lord's days, by the minister
as a preaching-station. Two places of meeting, in
connexion with the Establishment, exist in Rasay ;
the one a barn, used for secular purposes, and the
other a school-house, belonging to ihe Gaelic School
society. A missionary minister, who receives the
usual salary, officiates alternately at these places, and
at the station near Loch-Sligichan. The parish
minister supposed the population of the parish, in
1836, to be between 3,840 and 3,940, and stated the
whole to belong to the Establishment. In the same
year the portion resident on Rasay, Rona, and adja
cent islets,, somewhat exceeded 1,400, showing an
increase of about 200 during the five preceding years.
The parish anciently formed part of the parishes of

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SnizQrt and Kilmuir ; and was made a separate erec
tion in 1726. Its place of worship, previous to its
independence, was the chapel in the vicinity of the
village. The parish is deplorably ill provided with
schools ; there being only a parochial school in the
village, attended, in 1834, by 52, and a branch of it
in Rasay, little more than nominal, and, in 1834,
attended by not one scholar. Parochial school
master's salary £34 4s. 6d., with £5 fees, and £4
other emoluments.
Portree, a village, a sea-port, and the capital
of the Skye group of the Hebridean islands, is dis
tant 25 miles from Broadford, 28 from Dunvegan, 80
from Tobermory, 1 10 from Oban, and 1 13 from In
verness. It stands at the head of Loch-Portree, a
little inward from the shore, on the face of a steep
and wooded acclivity. Its name means in Gaelic
' the King's harbour,' and by some is supposed to
have originated so far back as the 13th century, when
Haco, King of Norway, sailed into the loch with the
remains of his limited and wrecked fleet after the
battle of Largs, but by others is believed to have
arisen only in the reign of James V., when that mo
narch lay some time at anchor in ihe loch, on his
voyage round Scotland. A high octagonal tower
erected, in 1834, on the tongue of a rocky promon
tory which intrudes upon the loch, commands a fine
prospect. The village consists of little more than a
score of houses, the half of them slated ; and it needs
to include some -straggling abodes in its environs, to
muster a feasible amount of village population, which,
after all, falls short of 300. But, owing to the sort
of metropolitan character of the place, it is the site
of a good jail, a branch of the National bank of Scot
land, and an elegant and comfortable inn. These,
and the parish-church, a neat and pleasant structure,
all overlook the sea. The jail has had an amount of
inmates more than might have been anticipated for
Skye ; and it is ill-conditioned and insecure. At
tached to it is a court-room, in which the sheriff-
substitute of the Skye district of Inverness-shire
holds his courts. Annual fairs are held in the vil
lage in May and July for the sale of black cattle, and
in November for general traffic and for the hiring of
servants. The natural harbour of Portree is quite
landlocked, can accommodate several hundred sail,
and has a fast clayey bottom. The quay, at the head
of it, has no great depth at low-water, but overlooks
an aggregately very high tide. The principal ex
ports are black cattle, sheep, wool, kelp, salted her
rings, pickled salmon, and dried cod and ling.
PORTSBURGH (Easter and Wester), two
suburbs, or rather portions of Edinburgh, architec
turally incorporated with the old town, and included
in the parliamentary and police boundaries, but pos
sessing separate burghai jurisdiction : see Edin
burgh, p. 461.
PORT-SEATON, a fishing- village and small har
bour on the frith of Forth, in the parish of Tranent,
about a mile east of Prestonpans. It stands conti
guously with Cockenzie, the latter on the west, and
Port-Seaton on the east ; the two forming one village,
with a population of about 750: see Cockenzie.
The fishing-boats of the joint village are 30 or 31 in
number, all open or undecked, and one-third of them
each about 16 tons burden, and remarkably sea- wor
thy. The fishermen dredge oysters on a bank off
from the village, and frequently fish for cod and other
species on the Marr bank, 30,miles off the coast of
Berwickshire. Port-Seaton has a linseed-oil and
rape-cake manufactory; and, so early as about 1630,
through the patronage or bounty of George, 3d Earl
of Winton, it had twelve salt-pans, some of which,
or successors to them, still exist. The village has
its name from the ancient predominance of the noble

family of Seaton, and the prevalence of their name
in the surrounding topographical nomenclature. See
Seaton. PORT-SKERRY, a small bay in the parish of
Reay, on the north coast of Sutherlandshire; 15 miles
west of Thurso, and 16 east of the entrance of the
Kyle of Tongue. Herring and salmon fisheries have
for several years past been established here.
PORTSOY, a quoad sacra parish on the coast ot
Banffshire. It was disjoined, in 1836, by authority
of the General Assembly, from the parish of For-
dyce ; and is in the presbytery of Fordyce, and synod
of Aberdeen. Its greatest length is 3 miles ; its
greatest breadth is 2£ miles ; and its superficial ex
tent is about 5 square miles. Population, according
to an ecclesiastical survey in 1837, 1,767 ; of whom
1,589 were churchmen, and 178 were dissenters.
All, except 137, were segregated in the burgh of
Portsoy. The church was built in 1815, at a cost
of £878. Sittings 650. Stipend £120, of which
£40 is paid by the Earl of Seafield. — A Scottish
Episcopalian congregation was established in Portsoy
previous to the Revolution. Their chapel was built
in 1797. Sittings 120. Stipend £40.— A Roman
Catholic chapel in the burgh was built in 1829, at a
cost of £332 15s. 8d. Sittings 1 76. Stipend about
£21. The minister or priest officiates on alternate
Sabbaths at Banff.
Portsoy, a small town, a burgh-of-barony, and a
considerable sea-port, politically in the parish of
Fordyce, and ecclesiastically in that of Portsoy,
Banffshire. It is situated on a point of land, on the
west side of the little bay or estuary of the rivulet
Durn ; 6 miles east of Cullen, 7£ west of Banff, 18
east-north-east of Fochabers, 80 east-north-east of
Inverness, and 178 north of Edinburgh. The town
is irregularly built; but acquires importance both
from its antiquity and its recently thriving condition.
Its harbour, though small, is safe, and accommodates
vessels of upwards of 200 tons burden ; and was
greatly improved by the Hon. Colonel Grant, now,
and since the death of his brother in October, 1840,
the Earl of Seafield. Much and successful attention
is given to the herring-fishery ; a considerable .export
and import trade is conducted respectively in grain
and in coals ; and a number of the inhabitants are
employed in fish-curing, flax-dressing, and woollen
manufactures. Descriptions of the place, written
from 50 to 30 years ago, give prominence to manu
factures of thread and fine linen for the markets of
Nottingham and London. But Portsoy is known
both to commerce and to fame chiefly for a very
beautiful marble, and several other rare and curious
minerals, found in its vicinity, and exported from its
harbour. The marble, properly not limestone but
serpentine, occurs in a fine vale, and is commonly
known as Portsoy marble. It is a beautiful mixture
of red, green, and white', and is wrought into tea
cups, vases, and various small ornaments ; but is too
hard and brittle to be wrought into chimney-pieces.
The other principal minerals are some singular spe
cimens of micaceous schist ; a species of asbestos, of
a greenish colour, which has been wrought into in
combustible cloth ; and a remarkable granite, of a
flesh colour, which is not known to occur elsewhere
in the world, except in Arabia. This granite con
tains a large proportion of felspar, and shows a bril
liancy like the Labrador spar ; when viewed in a par
ticular light, it shows a purple and blueish tint ; and
when polished, it exhibits figures resembling in out
line the Arabic alphabetic characters  The town
has a branch-office of the North of Scotland bank.
Portsoy was made a burgh- of- barony by charter froni
Queen Mary ; and received a parliamentary ratifica
tion of its charter in 1581. The Earl of Seafield is

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565

PRE

.' superior, and appoints a baron-bailie and officers. I
The bailie has the ordinary powers, but holds no
regular courts, and usually interposes his authority
rather as an arbiter than as a magistrate. The burgh
has neither property nor revenue. The only duties
imposed are a small amount of custom levied in the
weekly market to pay a person for superintending it ;
and the quota of the burgh towards the sum paid for
the relief of the royal burghs, on account of the par
ticipation in foreign trade enjoyed by burghs of
royalty and barony — Population, in 1837, 1,630.
PORT-WILLIAM, a thriving village and sea
port in the parish of Mochrum, on the east coast of
Luce bay, Wigtonshire. It stands on the coast-road
between Stranraer and Whithorn, 24 miles south
east of Stranraer, 7 miles west-north-west of Whit
horn, and 1 1 miles south-west of Wigton. The vil
lage was erected about the year 1 770, by Sir William
Maxwell of Monreith, in honour of whom it is named.
It consists chiefly of a terrace-line of cottages, well
built, slated, and fronting the sea, and has a neat and
tidy appearance. In 1788, a small barrack-house
was erected for the accommodation of military, and
of custom-house officers occasionally sent for the
suppression of smuggling. The harbour, though
small, is safe, and sufficiently commodious ; on all
sides but the south, it is well-sheltered by the land ;
on the south, it is defended by an artificial rampart
or strong wall ; and it easily admits vessels of 200
tons burden. The vessels belonging to it are 12 in
number, and aggregately about 750 in tonnage.
Large quantities of agricultural produce are shipped
for Liverpool and Lancaster. Population of the
village, in 1792, 210; in 1836, between 400 and 500.
PORT-YARROCK, a small bay in the parish of
Whithorn, 1£ mile north of the village and port of
Isle-of- Whithorn, Wigtonshire.
POTTECH (Loch), an arm of the sea on the
west coast of the isle of Skye.
POW, the name of numerous sluggish or slow-
running streams in Scotland. Put in Cambro-British,
and Pol in Gaelic, signify ' a ditch, a stagnating stream,
a marshy place ;' and, in the Anglocised or softened
form of Pow, they are so generally used to designate
stagnant burns and sleepy rills and rivulets, that
almost every marshy or flat district in the kingdom
has its Pow. A few of the larger Pows may be
noticed. A Pow, called the Pow of Cummertrees,
traverses the western side of the Howe of Annan
dale, from near the northern extremity of Dalton,
through that parish, and the parishes of Ruthwell
and Cummertrees, to the Solway frith, 2| miles west
of the estuary of the Annan. It has 8 miles length
of course, and generally a southerly direction ; and
it is joined on its left bank by an overflow or feeder
from the Annan, which appears, in common with the
lower part of the Pow, to occupy the ancient chan
nel of that river  A Pow in Forfarshire aspires to
be called Pow-water, and imposes names on various
objects on its banks, such as Pow-side, Pow-mill,
and Pow-bridge ; it rises in numerous head- waters in
Monrithmont-moor, principally in the parish of
Guthrie; and drains the parishes of Guthrie, Kin
nell, and Farnell, 7J miles north-eastward to the
South Esk, IA mile above Montrose basin  A Pow
in Perthshire, noted in some doggerel song well
known in the district, rises in some mosses below
Methven, and along an artificial canal or ditch, formed
to drain off its stagnant and marsh-making waters,
pursues a sluggish course of about 11 miles to the
Earn, near Innerpeffray — IA Pow in Kirkcudbright
shire, rises, under the name of Glaister's-burn, in
Kirkgunzeon, circles round the north end of the
Criffel range of hills, traverses one lake, and draws
off the superfluent waters of another, on the limits

of Newabbey, is joined near its mouth by Newabbey
Pow, which is navigable by small vessels, and, 15
miles from its source, falls into the estuary of the
Nith, 7 miles below Dumfries  A Pow in the carse
grounds of Stirlingshire, which, like the Forfarshire
Pow, gives name to various seats and other objects
on its banks, rises near Bannockburn-house in St.
Ninian's, and flows 8 miles eastward to the Forth,
at a point \\ mile east of the village of Airth 
Another Pow in the carse grounds of the Forth.
drains part of the parish of Kippen, and bears the
name of the Pow of Glinns. — A Pow in the low
grounds of Kyle in Ayrshire, rises in 3 or 4 head
waters, and enters the frith of Clyde 3J miles north
of the mouth of the river Ayr  Other rows are too
unimportant to bear separate notice.
POWFOOT, or Queensberry," a delightful
rural watering-place on the Solway frith, in the par
ish of Cummertrees, 3£ miles west of Annan, Dum
fries-shire. See Cummertrees.
PREMNAY, a parish in the district of Garioch,
Aberdeenshire, ii is bounded on the north-west
and north by Insch; on the east by Oyne; on the
south by Tough ; and on the west by Tough and
Tullynessle. It forms a slender oblong of 4 miles
by IA, extending north and south ; but expands to a
breadth of 2} miles a little north of the middle. The
mountain of Bennochie [see that article] extends
along the southern boundary ; and has a large part
of its area of about 4,000 acres within the parish's
limits. It is nearly all unarable, and, except scantily
on the skirts, is untufted with wood. The rest of
the parish comprehends about 3,000 acres ; and, over
about one-third of its extent, is not subject to the
plough. The rivulet Gady, running north-east
ward, cuts the parish into nearly equal parts, and the
rivulet Shervack, running eastward, traces the
northern boundary. Both streams are feeders of the
Urie. The soil, on the side of Bennochie, is poor;
on the banks of the Gady, is very rich ; in severa'.
places, a strong clay ; and, on some hillocks in the
north, is a sandy loam, both early and fertile. A
great obstacle to improvement is the dearth of lime ;
Aberdeen, the nearest port whence it can be ob
tained, being distant 24 miles. — Population, in 1801,
486; in 1831, 625. Houses 126. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £1,580. — Premnay is in the presby
tery of Garioch, and synod of Aberdeen. Patron,
Hay of Rannes and Leith-hall. Stipend £158 19s.
4d. ; glebe £12. Schoolmaster's salary £27, with
from £10 to £11 fees, and £1 lis. 8d. other emolu
ments. PRESS, a stage and inn on the old eastern road
between Edinburgh and England, in the centre of
the parish of Coldingham, 15 miles south-east of
Dunbar, and 12 north-west of Berwick.
PRESSMENNAN-LOCH, a very beautiful though
artificially formed sheet of water, in the parish of
Stenton, in Haddingtonshire. It is about 2 miles
in length, but, from its serpentine windings, appears
much longer; and averages 400 yards in breadth.
PRESTON. See Kirkbean.
PRESTON, a small village in the parish of Crans.
ton, 5 miles east-south-east of Dalkeith, Edinburgh
shire. The splendid mansion of Preston-hall, the
seat of William Burn Callender, Esq., stands on the
right bank of the Tyne, less than half-a-mile to the
west. Oxenford-castle, the superb seat of General
Sir John H. Dalrymple, is immediately opposite, on
the left bank of the Tyne. '
PRESTON, a decayed but once famous village
in the parish of Prestonpans, Haddingtonshire. It
stands half-a-mile south of the village of Preston-
* The former is the popular and old name ; and the latter an
infrequently used and new one.

PRE

566

PRE

pans, li mile north-west of Tranent, and 8 east of
Edinburgh. It has its name from being a priest's
town of the monks of Newbattle ; it either had its
origin, or acquired much of its importance, from their
grounds of Preston-grange which lay around it; and
it figures prominently in traditional tales respecting
their character and their mercantile achievements.
See Newbattle. Both its relation to the enter
prising and festive coal-merchants of the cowl, and
its position on the great road of a former period, and
in the focus of interesting movements, occasioned it
to be frequently visited by the Scottish princes, and
to be often, if tradition may be believed, the scene
of revels which indicated more opulence than good
principle. It was formerly noted also for a fair, held
on the second Thursday of October, and called St.
Jerome's fair. The chapmen, or pedlers, or travel
ling merchants of Lothians, had, at a period when
their craft was one of no small importance to the
country, formed themselves into a regular society ;
and they annually attended this fair to elect their
office-bearers for the following year. ' In a garden
at the side of the road, near the east end of the vil
lage, stands an ancient cross to which they laid
claim; — a stone pillar about 15 feet high, surmount
ing a small octagonal erection about 9 feet in height.
The villagers, affecting to be successors of the chap
men, annually in July held a rustic fete around the
solitary cross, in commemoration of the ancient scenes
of importance in which it conspicuously figured.
The village has now an appearance of abandonment
and desolation which flings a chill over the spirits ;
yet it retains some venerable pieces of architecture
which are fraught with lessons to both the imagi
nation and the heart  At its west end stands North-
field-house, the whole family connected with which,
like the monkish community who so long lorded ii
over Preston- Grange, have not a representative, but
the legend or the whispered tradition  North of the
village stands, in a ruinous condition, a venerable
tower which Sir Walter Scott supposed to have
been originally a fortalice of the Earls of Home,
when they bore almost a princely sway over the
south-east of Scotland, and which, for a long time
after the close of the 14th century, when the circum
jacent barony came by marriage into the possession
of the Hamiltons of Fingalton and Ross, was the
seat of that family, the principal one of their name,
and afterwards called Hamiltons of Preston. The
seat or castle, of which the ruined tower is but a
vestige, was burned in 1544 by the Earl of Hertford,
by Cromwell in 1650, and by accident in 1663, and
was then abandoned  Preston-house was built as a
successor, and still stands near the south-west turn
of the road which leads through the village. The
Hamiltons ceased to be connected with it, and ap
pear to have sold the barony a little before the Revo
lution ; but they are represented by Sir William
Hamilton, Bart., the Professor of Logic in the uni
versity of Edinburgh, and they live illustriously in
history as staunch partisans of the cause of civil and
ecclesiastical liberty. They afforded marked pro
tection to Mr. John Davidson, the eminent confessor
and ' Scottish worthy;' and, in the stirring times of
the ecclesiastico-civil war, Robert Hamilton, the
brother of Sir William of Preston, led the Presby
terians in the actions of Drumclog and Bothwefl-
bridge. — James Schaw, whose family succeeded the
Hamiltons in the property, and who died in 1784,
bequeathed Preston-house io be fitted up as an hos
pital for the maintenance and education of poor boys,
and the lands and barony of Preston, with the pro
ceeds of other property, for the support of the estab
lishment : Schaw's hospital, or the house under its
new and charitable destiny, was opened in 1789; it

at first admitted only 15 boys, but afterwards afforded
space for 24 ; it gives a preference to four names in
the order of Schaw, Macneil, Cunningham, and Stew
art ; and it admits boys at from 4 to 7 years of age,
and may retain them till 14. A new house, in the
old English style, of some exterior neatness and great
interior accommodation, was built in 1831, on the
north-east of the village. Nineteen trustees super
intend the institution; and, when boys leave it, they
bind them as apprentices, or dispose of them accord
ing to their discretion, for the youngsters' benefit  .
In 1753, under authority of an act of parliament
obtained for the purpose, a house with a small gar
den was purchased in Preston, and fitted up as a
workhouse, to be supported by an impost of two
pence Scottish on each Scottish pint of ale brewed
or sold in the parish ; but, after a few years' trial, it
was abandoned, and made to yield its rental as an
augment to the ordinary parochial funds for the poor.
— In the vicinity of Preston was fought the action
of 1745, which usually bears its name. See Pres
tonpans.— Preston gave the title of Viscount to
the Baron Grahams of Esk; a title which became
extinct in 1739, at the death of Charles, the 3d
Viscount. PRESTON, an ancient parish, now united to the
parish of Bunkle, in the shire of Berwick. The
church is demolished; but the churchyard is still in
use. It is nearly 2 miles south-west of the village '
of Bunkle, and 2A, miles north, from Dunse. See
Bunkle. PRESTONFIELD. See Duddingston.
PRESTON-GRANGE, a hamlet in the parish of
Prestonpans and shire of Haddington. It is a burgh-
of-barony, and is commonly called The West Barony.
It has the adj unct of Grange, from the grange which
the monks of Newbattle settled here. See Pres
tonpans. PRESTON-ISLAND. See Torryburn.
PRESTONKIRK," a parish in Haddingtonshire,
a little north-east of the centre of the county. Its
form is irregular ; yet nearly consists of a rectangle
of 4 miles by 3*, with an elongated projection of 21
miles by between 5 and 12 furlongs from the middle
of the north side. The area is 6,270 acres. The
parish is bounded on the north by North Berwick ;
on the east by Whitekirk and Dunbar; on the south
by Stenton, Whittingham, and Morham ; and on the
west by Haddington, Athelstaneford, and Dirleton.
In the southern extremity rises Traprain Law :
which see. From near the north base of this hill a
curved dell, of great depth, picturesque irregularity,
and rich verdure and fructiferousness, carries down
a little rill to the Tyne. All the rest of the surface
is but softly though agreeably varied with undula
tion and gentle swell; and, could the great opulence
of its soil admit the sacrifice of converting wheat-
ground into grove, it would afford as beautiful views
as any part of the glad and exulting Lothians. ' But
Agriculture rules here in all the skill and with the
highest aids of her mastery, and obliges the whole
'surface, except about 200 acres, to reflect the change
ful and mellowing tints of her dress. The river Tyne
runs | of a mile along the western boundary, and
3| miles north-eastward through the interior, divid
ing about a third of it on the south from two-thirds
on the north, and leaving it about 2J miles from the
sea. Its banks, for the most part, are the inner
* This parish bore for centuries exclusively the name of
Linton,— that still borne by its principal village ; during soms
time before the Reformation, it was called indifferentlvXinton
and Haugh; after the Reformation, it was called Preston"
haugh: at a later period, it got its present name of Preston.
kirk ; in legal documents, it is still designated ' Prestonhauirh
otherwise ca ed Prestonkirk j' and, in popular usage, it Is
very frequently called Preston. " '

PRE

567

PRE

edges of easy and pleasant slopes; but, before it
takes leave, they become flattened into the lips of a
level, luxuriant haugh. A tier of broken rocks in
the channel at Linton-bridge, which formerly occa
sioned a fine cataract, has been so far shattered as
to destroy the water-scenery, and yet not enough to
serve the design of damaging them, — the enticing of
salmon farther up the river. The salmon produce of
the Tyne, except at its mouth, where the parish
claims no connexion with it, is inconsiderable. The
eastern Peffer-burn runs along the neck of the
northerly projecting district, and most of the north
ern boundary of the main body of the parish. Its
basin is nearly flat, and was at one time a marshy
waste, but is now a series of valuable and highly
cultivated corn-fields. Clay-marl abounds in the
south, and is extensively used by the farmers instead
of lime. A dark-coloured limestone, veined with
siliceous matter, lies below the marl. The prevail
ing rock is claystone, — partly porphyritic  Hailes-
castle — a fine old ruin — stands on a rock close on
the right bank of the Tyne, a mile from the west
ern boundary. It is noted as having been anciently
the property of the notorious Earl of Bothwell,
the temporary residence of Queen Mary, and the
place to which Bothwell conducted her after seiz
ing her near Linlithgow: it now belongs to Miss
Dalrymple of Hailes, the descendant of the celebrated
Sir David Dalrymple ; but it is quite a ruin, and, so
far as it can be used, has very prosaically been made
a dovecot and a granary. — Beanston-house, 1£ mile
to the north-west, and the property of the Earl
of Wemyss, is at present uninhabited, and going to
decay. — Smeaton - house, a little east of Preston
village, and the seat of Sir Thomas Hepburn, Bart.,
M. P. for the county, is the only modern mansion.
— A stone, 10 feet high, on the road-side, a little
west of Linton, is said to mark the grave of a Saxon
commander. — The great eastern road between Edin
burgh and London goes direct eastward through the
parish, and is carried across the Tyne, at the end of
Linton, by a narrow and antiquated bridge. Lin
ton [which see] contains between a third and a half
of the whole parochial population. The little vil
lage of Preston, 5 furlongs to the east, has only
about 50. Population of the parish, in 1801, 1,741 ;
in 1831, 1,765. Houses 341. Assessed property,
in 1815, £13,183  Prestonkirk is in the presbytery
of Dunbar, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale.
Patron, Sir C. Dalrymple Fergusson, Bart. Sti
pend £310 13s. 2d.; glebe £27 10s. Unappropri
ated teinds £1,091 5s. 5d. The church was built
in 1770. There is a United Secession chapel at
Linton  Baldred, who flourished in the latter part
of the 6th century and the beginning of the 7th,
was long the tutelary of the parish, and is said to
have dignified it by his residence, and founded its
earliest church. Preston, the site of the church,
was one of three villages which contended for his
body after his decease. His statue long lay in the
burying-ground, and was intended to be built into
the church-wall, but was broken in pieces by an
unromantic mason. The predecessor of the present
church was very ancient, and is mentioned in records
of about a millennium old as ' ecclesia sancti Baldridi.'
A spring of the purest water in the vicinity is called
St. Baldred's Well; and a pool or eddy in the Tyne
is known as St. Baldred's Whirl. The Earls of
Dunbar were anciently tbe patrons ; and when Earl
Patrick formed his collegiate establishment in the
church of Dunbar, he made the church of Preston
kirk  or Linton, as it was then called — one of the
prebends. On the farm of Markle stand the ruins
of an ancient monastery, considerable in extent, but

unrefined in architecture, of whose history little is
known. The lands belonging to this establishment
were nearly all alienated from it in 1606, and at
tached to the chapel-royal of Stirling. — In 1834 the
parish-school was attended by 92 scholars ; and four
private schools, two of which were for females, were
attended by 151. Parochial-schoolmaster's salary
£34 4s. 4id., with £30 fees, and £12 other emolu
ments  George Rennie, Esq. of Phantassie, and
Mr. Robert Brown, tenant of Markle, two eminent
agriculturists and modern improvers, lived and died
in the parish. Mr. Brown was the projector and
original conductor of the ' Farmer's Magazine.
John Rennie, Esq., the brother of the former, and
a well-known eminent civil engineer, was a na
tive. Mr. Andrew Meikle, the improver and dis-
putedly the inventor of the thrashing-machine, was
long an inhabitant of this parish, and is commemo
rated by a tombstone in the churchyard. There is
also a handsome tombstone, with an appropriate in
scription, to the memory of Mr. Brown.
PRESTONPANS, a small parish in the north
west extremity of Haddingtonshire ; bounded on the
west by Ravenshaugh-burn, which divides it frtom
Edinburghshire ; on the north by the frith of Forth ;
and, on other sides, by Tranent. It forms a stripe
of 2A miles in length from south-west to north-east,
by a breadth of from 6 to 10 furlongs; and compre
hends an area of about 760 acres. The surface swells
into two or three small knolls in the vicinity of
the village of Preston ; but everywhere else it is
level, or falls off with a very gentle declination to
ward the sea. The beach is a broken and imper
forated pavement of rock, exhibiting marks of inva
sion by the sea, and denudation of earthy strata.
The soil of the parish is loam ; part heavy, on a
clay bottom ; part light, on a sandy or gravelly bot
tom ; and is cultivated in the improved and model
style for which Haddingtonshire is famed. Coal was
wrought here as early perhaps as in any district in
Scotland, and continues still to be plentifully mined.
The shale and sandstone of the coal measures are
singularly abundant in vegetable fossils. The villages
of the parish are Prestonpans, Preston, Dolph-
inston, Morison's Haven, and Meadow Mill:
which see. The principal seats are Preston-Grange,. .
the property of Sir George Grant Suttie, Bart. ; and
Drummore, the property of William Aitchison, Esq.,
Among eminent men who have been connected with
the parish may be mentioned, the Rev. John David
son, one of Scotland's worthies, and long the minis
ter of the parish, some notices of whom occur in
M'Crie's Life of Melville, and in numerous older
historical works ; Alexander Hume, the grammarian,
who was for 10 years the parochial schoolmaster,
and some notices of whom also occur in M'Crie's,
Life of Melville ; the Hon. James Erskine of
Grange, brother to the Earl of Marr, and Lord-jus-
tiee-clerk in the reign of Queen Anne, who, in
1734, resigned his judgeship that he might oppose
Sir Robert Walpole in parliament ; Hew Dalrymple,
who, under the title of Lord Drummore, acted a
distinguished and popular part as a member of the
college-of-justice; and William Grant of Preston-
Grange who, as Lord Advocate, in 1746, performed
with general approbation the difficult task of con
ducting the prosecutions against the defeated Ja
cobites, and who afterwards was a senator of the col
lege-of-justice, and one of the Lords commissioners
of Justiciary. The parish is traversed across the
rising grounds of the south-west wing, through the
hamlet of Dolphinston, by the Edinburgh and Lon
don mailroad ; and along the coast through Preston
pans, by the Edinburgh and North Berwick road by.

568

PRESTONPANS.

Way of Aberlady. Population, in 1801, 1,964; in
1831, 2,322. Houses 341. Assessed property, in
1815, £5,695.
1 The only event of note in the history of the par
ish is the battle of Preston, fought in 1745. While,
on the 16th of September, 1745, the heralds were
proclaiming King James at ihe market-cross of Edin
burgh, Sir John Cope was landing his troops at Dun
bar. The landing was finished on Wednesday, the
17th of September; but the disembarkation of the
artillery and stores was not completed till the 18th ;
but desirous of engaging the Highland army before
the arrival of their expected reinforcements, Cope
left Dunbar on the 19th, in the direction of Edin
burgh, and halted on a field to the west of the town
of Haddington, and 16 miles east from Edinburgh,
on the evening of that day. Resuming his march on
the morning of the 20th, along the high road to Pres
ton, he halted his army, and formed his troops in
order of battle, with his front to the west, on reach
ing the plain betwixt Seaton and Preston. His right
extended towards the sea in the direction of Port-
Seaton and his left towards the village of Preston.
These dispositions had scarcely been taken when the
whole of the Highland army appeared descending
the heights in the direction of Tranent. On ap
proaching Tranent, the Highlanders were received
by the King's troops with a vehement shout of de
fiance, which the Highlanders answered in a similar
strain. About two o'clock in the afternoon the
Highland army halted on an eminence called Birsley-
Brae, about half-a-mile to the west of Tranent, and
formed in order of battle about a mile from the royal
forces. In the expectation that the Highlanders were
advancing by the usual route through Musselburgh,
Cope had taken up the position we have described,
with his front to the west ; but as soon as he ob
served the Highlanders on the heights upon his left,
he changed his front to the south. This change of
position, while it secured Cope better from attack,
was not so well-calculated for safety as the first po
sition was in the event of a defeat. On his right
was the east wall of a park belonging to Erskine of
Grange, which extended a considerable way from
north to-south, and still farther to the right was the
village of Preston. The village of Seaton was on
his left, and the village of Cockenzie and the sea in
his rear. Almost immediately in front was a deep
ditch filled with water, and a strong and thick hedge.
Farther removed from the front, and between the
two armies was a morass, the ends of which had
been drained, and were intersected by numerous cuts.
And on the more firm ground at the ends were seve
ral small enclosures, with hedges, dry stone-walls,
and willow trees. As the Highlanders were in ex
cellent spirits, and eager to close immediately with
the enemy, Charles felt very desirous to comply with
their wishes ; but he soon ascertained that the pas
sage across the morass would be extremely danger
ous, if not altogether impracticable.
While his lieutenant-general was, in consequence
of this information, planning a different mode of at
tack, the Prince himself was moving with a great
part of his army towards Dolphinston on Cope's
right. Halting opposite Preston-tower he seemed
to threaten that flank of the English general, who,
thereupon, returned to his original position with his
front to Preston, and his right towards the sea.
Lord George Murray, considering that the only prac
ticable mode of attacking Cope was by advanc
ing from the east, now led-off part of the army
through the village of Tranent, and sent notice to
the Prince to follow him with the remainder as
quickly as possible. After the Highland army had
halted on the fields to the east of Tranent, a council

of war was held, at which Lord George Murray pro
posed to attack the enemy at break of day. Charles
was highly pleased with the proposal of the lieuten
ant-general, which also received the unanimous ap
probation of the council. A few piquets were placed
around the bivouack, and the Highlanders, having
wrapped themselves up in their plaids, lay down upon
the ground to repose for the night. Charles, taking
a sheaf of pease for a pillow, stretched himselt
Vpon the stubble, surrounded by his principal officers.
When Cope observed Charles returning towards
Tranent, he resumed his former position with his
front to the south, having thus, in the course of a
few hours, been obliged, by the unrestrained evolu
tions of the Highlanders, to shift his ground no less
than four times. He now began to perceive that his
situation was not so favourable as he had imagined,
and that while the insurgents could move about at
discretion, select their ground, and choose their time
and mode of attack, he was cramped in his own
movements and could act only on the defensive. To
secure his army from surprise during the night,
Cope placed advanced piquets of horse and foot along
the side of the morass, extending nearly as far east
as the village of Seaton. He, at the same time, sent
his baggage and military chest down to Cockenzie ;
and as the night — that of Friday the 20th of Sep
tember — was very cold, Cope ordered fires to he
kindled along the front of his line, to keep his men
warm. In point of numbers, the army of Cope was rather
inferior to that of Charles ; but many of the High
landers were badly armed, and some of them were
without arms. The royal forces amounted altoge
ther to about 2,300 men ; but the number in the
field was diminished to 2,100 bythe separation of
the baggage-guard which was sent to Cockenzie.
The order of battle finally formed by Cope along the
north side of the morass was as follows : — He drew
up his foot in one line, in the centre of which were
eight companies of Lascelles's regiment, and two of
Guise's. On the right were five companies of Lee's
regiment, and on the left the regiment of Murray,
with a number of recruits for different regiments at
home and abroad. Two squadrons of Gardiner's
dragoons formed the right wing, and a similar num
ber of Hamilton's composed the left. The remaining
squadron of each regiment was placed in the rear of
its companions as a reserve. On ihe left of the army,
near the waggon-road from Tranent to Cockenzie,
were placed the artillery, consisting of six or seven
pieces of cannon and four cohorns under the orders
of Lieutenant-colonel Whiteford, and guarded by a
company of Lee's regiment, commanded by Captain
Cochrane. Besides the regular troops there were
some volunteers, consisting principally of small
parties of the neighbouring tenantry, headed by their
respective landlords. Some Seceders, actuated by
religious zeal, had also placed themselves under the
royal standard. Pursuant to the orders he had re
ceived, Lord Nairne left the position he had occu
pied during the night at the appointed hour, and re
joined the main body about three o'clock in the
morning. Instead of continuing the order of march
of the preceding night, it had been determined by
the council of war to reverse it. The charge of this
movement was intrusted to Colonel Ker. The
Duke of Perth, who was to command the right
wing, was at the head of the inverted column. He
was attended by Hepburn of Keith, and by Robert
Anderson, son of Anderson of Whitburgh, who, from
his intimate knowledge of the morass, was sent for
ward to lead the way. A little in advance of the
van, was a select party of 60 men doubly armed, un
der the command of Macdonald of Glenalladale, ma-

PRESTONPANS.

569

jor of the regiment of Clanranald, whose appointed
duty it was to seize the enemy's baggage. The army
proceeded in an easterly direction till near the farm
of Ringan-head, when, turning to the left, they
marched in a northerly direction through a small
valley which intersects the farm. During the march
the utmost silence was observed, not even a whis
per being heard ; and lest the trampling of horses
might discover their advance, the few that were in
the army were left behind. The ford or path across
the morass was so narrow that the column — which
marched three men abreast; — had scarcely sufficient
standing room ; and the ground along it was so soft
that many of the men were almost at every step up
to the knees in mud. The path in question — which
was about 200 paces to the west of the stone-bridge
afterwards built across Seaton mill-dam — led to a
small wooden-bridge thrown over the large ditch
which ran through the morass from east to west.
This bridge, and the continuation of the path on
the north of it, were a little to the east of Cope's
left. From ignorance of the existence of this bridge,
— from oversight, or from a supposition that the
marsh was not passable in that quarter, — Cope had
placed no guards in that direction, and the conse
quence Was, that the Highland army, whose march
across could here have been effectually stopped by
a handful of men, passed the bridge and cleared the
marsh without interruption. The Prince's army was
divided into two columns or lines, with an interval
between them. After the first line had got out of
the marsh, Lord George Murray sent the Chevalier
Johnstone to hasten the march of the second, which
was conducted by the Prince in person. At the re
mote end of the marsh there was a deep ditch, three
or four feet broad, over which the men had to leap.
In jumping across this ditch, Charles fell upon his
knees on the other side, and was immediately raised
by the Chevalier Johnstone, who says, that Charles
looked as if he considered the accident a bad omen.
As the column cleared the marsh, it continued its
course towards the sea ; but after the whole army
had passed, it was ascertained that the Duke of
Perth had inadvertently — not being able, from the
darkness, to see tbe whole line — ^advanced too far
with the front, and that a considerable gap had, in
consequence, been left in the centre. The Duke
being informed of this error, halted his men till
joined by the rear. Hitherto the darkness had con
cealed the march of the Highlanders ; but the morn
ing was now about to dawn, and at the time the
order to halt was given, some of Cope's piquets sta
tioned oh his left, for the first time heard the tramp
of the Highlanders. The Highlanders heard dis
tinctly these advanced guards repeatedly call out,
" Who is there?" No answer having been returned,
the piquets gave the alarm, and the cry of " Can
nons, cannons! Get ready 'the cannons, cannoniersl"
resounded on Cope's left wing. Charles instantly
gave directions for attacking Cope before he should
have time to change his position by opposing his
front to that of the Highland army. It was not in
compliance with any rule in military science that the
order of march of the Highland army had been re
versed ; but in accordance with an established punc
tilio among the clans, which, for upwards of seven
centuries had assigned the right wing, regarded as
the post of honour, to the Macdonalds. As arranged
at the council-of-war on the preceding evening, the
army was drawn up in two lines. The first consisted
of the regiments of Clanranald, Keppoch, Glengary,
and Glencoe, under their respective chiefs. These
regiments formed the right wing, which was com
manded by the Duke of Perth. The Duke of Perth's
men and the Macgregors composed the centre; while

the left wing, commanded by Lord George Murray,
was formed of the Camerons under Lochiel, their
chief, and the Stewarts of Appin commanded by
Stewart of Ardshiel. The second line, which was
to serve as a reserve, consisted of the Athole-men,
the Robertsons of Strowan, and the Maclauchlans. '
This body was placed under the command of Lord
Nairne. As soon as Cope received intelligence of
the advance of the Highlanders, he gave orders to
change his front to the east. Some confusion took
place in carrying these orders into execution, from
the advanced guards belonging to the foot not being
able to find out the regiments to which they be
longed, and who, in consequence, stationed them
selves on the right of Lee's five companies, and
thereby prevented the two squadrons of Gardiner's
dragoons, which had been posted on the right of the
line, from forming properly. For want of room, the
squadron under Colonel Gardiner drew up behind
that commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Whitney.
In all other respects the disposition of each regiment
was the same ; but the artillery, which before the
change had been on the left, and close to that wing,
was now on the right somewhat farther from the
line, and in front of Whitney's squadron.
There was now no longer any impediment to pre
vent the armies from coming into collision ; and if
Cope had had the choice, he could not have selected
ground more favourable for the operations of cavalry
than that which lay between the two armies. It
was a level cultivated field of considerable extent
without bush or tree, and had just been cleared of
its crop of grain. But unfortunately for the English
general, the celerity with which the Highlanders
commenced the attack prevented him from availing
himself of this local advantage. The beams of the
rising sun were just beginning to illuminate the
horizon ; but the mist which still hovered over the
corn-fields prevented the two armies from seeing
each other. Every thing being in readiness for ad
vancing, the Highlanders took off their bonnets,
and, placing themselves in an attitude of devotion,
with upraised eyes uttered a short prayer. As the
Highlanders had advanced considerably beyond the
main ditch, Lord George Murray was apprehensive
that Cope might turn the left flank, and to guard
against such a contingency, he desired Lochiel, who
was on the extreme left, to order his men in ad
vancing to incline to the left. Lord George then
ordered the left wing to advance, and sent an aid-
de-camp to the Duke of Perth to request him to put
the right in motion. The Highlanders moved with
such rapidity that their ranks broke ; to recover
which, they halted once or twice before closing with
the enemy. When Cope, at day-break, observed
the first line of the Highland army formed in order
of battle, at the distance of 200 paces from his posi
tion, he mistook it for bushes; but before it had
advanced half-way, the rays of the rising sun burst
ing through the retiring mist showed the armies to
each other. " Day opened in the orient sky
With wintry asnect, dull and drear ;
On every leaf, while glitteringly
The rimy hoar-frost did appear.
The ocean was unseen, though near ;
And hazy shadows seem'd to draw,
lu azure, with their mimic floods,
A line above the Seaton woods,
And round North Rerwick Law."
The army of Cope at this time made a. formi
dable appearance ; and some of Charles's officers
were heard afterwards to declare, that when they
first saw it, and compared the gallant appearance
of the horse and foot, with their well-polished arms
glittering in the sunbeams, with their own line
broken into irregular clusters ; they expected that

570

PRESTONPANS-

the Highland army would be instantly defeated, and
swept from the field.
The Highlanders continued to advance in pro
found silence. As the right wing marched straight
forward without attending to the oblique movement
of the Camerons to the left, a gap took place in the
centre of the line. An attempt was made to fill it
up with the second line, which was about fifty paces
behind the first, but before this could be accom
plished, the left wing, being the first to move, had
advanced beyond the right ot the line, and was now
engaged with the enemy. By inclining to the left,
the Camerons gained half the ground originally be
tween them and the main ditch ; but this movement
brought them up directly opposite to Cope's cannon.
On approaching the cannon the Highlanders fired a
few shots at the artillery guard, which alarmed an
old gunner who had charge of the cannon, and his
assistants, to such a degree that they fled, carrying
the powder-flasks along with them. To cheek the
advance of the Highlanders, Colonel Whiteford fired
off five of tbe field-pieces with his own hand ; but
though their left seemed to recoil, they instantly
resumed the rapid pace they had set out with. The
artillery guard next fired a volley with as little
effect. Observing the squadron of dragoons under
Lieutenant-colonel Whitney advancing to charge
them, the Camerons set up a loud shout, rushed
past the cannon, and, after discharged a few shots
at the dragoons, which killed several men, and
wounded the lieutenant-colonel, flew upon them
sword in hand. When assailed, the squadron was
reeling to and fro from the fire; and the Highlanders
following an order they had received, to strike at
the noses of the horses without minding the riders',
completed the disorder. In a moment the dragoons
wheeled about, rode over the artillery guard, and
fled followed by the guard. The Highlanders con
tinuing to push forward without stopping to take
prisoners, Colonel Gardiner was ordered to advance
with his squadron, and charge the enemy. He ac
cordingly went forward, encouraging his men to
stand firm ; but this squadron, before it had ad
vanced many paces, experienced a similar recep
tion with its companion, and followed the ex
ample which the other had just set. After the
flight of the dragoons, the Highlanders advanced
upon the infantry, who opened a fire from right
to left, which went down the line as far as Mur
ray's regiment. They received this volley with
a loud huzza, and throwing away their muskets,
drew their swords and rushed upon the foot before
they had time to reload their pieces. Confounded
by the flight of the dragoons, and the furious onset
of the Highlanders, the astonished infantry threw
down their arms and took to their heels. Hamilton's
dragoons, who were stationed on Cope's left, dis
played even greater pusillanimity than their com
panions ; for no sooner did they observe the squa
drons on the right give way, than they turned their
backs and fled without firing a single shot or drawing
a sword. Murray's regiment being thus left alone
on the field, fired upon the Macdonalds who were
advancing, and also fled. Thus, within a' very few
minutes after the action had commenced, the whole
army of Cope was put to flight. With the excep
tion of their fire, not the slightest resistance was
made by horse or foot, and not a single bayonet was
stained with blood. Such were the impetuosity and
rapidity with which the first line of the Highlanders
broke through Cope's ranks, that they left numbers
of his men in their rear, who attempted to rally be
hind them; but on seeing the second line coming up,
they endeavoured to make their escape. Though the
second line was not more than 50 paces behind the first,

and was always running as fast as it could to over
take the first line, and near enough never to lose
sight of it, yet such was tbe rapidity with which the
battle was gained, that, according to the Chevalier
Johnstone, who stood by the side of the Prince in
the second line, he could see no other enemy on the
field of battle than those who were lying on the
ground killed and wounded. Unfortunately for the
royal infantry, the walls of the enclosures about the
village of Preston, which, from the position they
took up on the preceding evening, formed their great
security on their right, now that these_ park-walls
were in their rear, operated as a barrier to their
flight. Having disencumbered themselves of their
arms to facilitate their escape, they had deprived
themselves of their only means of defence, and driven
as they were upon the walls of the enclosures, they
would have all perished under the swords of the
Highlanders, had not Charles and his officers stre
nuously exerted themselves to preserve the lives of
their discomfited foes. The impetuosity of the at
tack, however, and the sudden flight of the royal
army, allowed little leisure for tbe exercise of hu
manity ; and before the carnage ceased several hun
dreds had fallen under the claymores of the High
landers, and the ruthless scythes of the Macgregors.
Armed with these deadly weapons, which were sharp
ened and fixed to poles from seven to eight feet long,
to supply the place of other arms, this party mow
ed down the affrighted enemy, cut off the legs of
the horses, and severed, it is said, the bodies of»
their riders in twain. Of the infantry of the royal
army, about 170 only escaped. From a report made
by their own sergeants and corporals, by order of
Lord George Murray, between 1,600 and 1,700
prisoners, foot and cavalry, fell into the hands of
the. Highlanders, including about 70 officers. In this
number were comprehended the baggage-guard sta
tioned at Cockenzie, which amounted to 300 men,
who, on learning the fate of the main body and the
loss of their cannon, surrendered to the Camerons.
The cannon and all the baggage of the royal army
together with the military chest, containing £4,000,
fell into the hands of the victors. The greater part
of the dragoons escaped by tbe two roads at the ex
tremities of the park-wall, one of which passed by
Colonel Gardiner's house in the rear of their right,
and the other on their left, to the north of Preston-
house. In retiring towards these outlets, the dra
goons, at tbe entreaties of their officers, halted once
or twice, and faced about to meet the enemy ; but
as soon as the Highlanders came up and fired at
them, they wheeled about and fled. Cope, who was
by no means deficient in personal courage, assisted
by the Earls of Home and Loudon, collected about
450 of the panic-struck dragoons on the west side of
the village of Preston, and attempted to lead thein
back to the charge ; but no entreaties could induce
these cowards to advance, and the whistling of a few
bullets discharged by some Highlanders near the vil
lage, so alarmed them that they instantly scampered
off in a southerly direction, screening their heads
behind their horses' necks to avoid the bullets of the
Highlanders. The general had no alternative but
to gallop off with his men. He reached Coldstream,
a town about 40 miles from the field of battle, that
night ; and entered Berwick next day.
Among six of Cope's officers who were killed was
Colonel Gardiner, a veteran soldier who had served
under the Duke of Marlborough, and whose charac
ter combined a strong religious feeling with the most
undaunted courage. He had been decidedly opposed
to the defensive system of Cope on the preceding
evening, and had counselled the general not to lose
a moment in attacking the Highlanders; but his ad-

PRESTONPANS.

571

vice was disregarded. Anticipating the fate which
awaited him, he spent the greater part of the night
in devotion, and resolved at all hazards to perforin
his duty. He was wounded at the first onset at the
head of his dragoons ; but disdaining to follow them
in their retreat, he joined a small body of foot, which
attempted to rally near the wall of his own garden,
and while fighting at their head was cut down by the
murderous Lochaber axe of a Macgregor, within a
few yards of his own house. He was carried to the
manse of Tranent in almost a lifeless state, where he
expired within a few hours, and was interred in the
north<rwest corner of the church of Tranent.* Cap
tain Brymer of Lee's regiment, who appears to have
participated in Gardiner's opinion as to attacking the
Highlanders, met a similar fate. Having been at the
battle of Sheriffmuir, he was satisfied of the capa
bility of the Highlanders to contend with regular
troops, and dreaded the result of an encounter if
assailed by the Highlanders. When encamped at
Haddington his brother-officers were in high spirits,
and making light of the enemy ; but Brymer viewed
matters in a very different light. While reading one
night in his tent he was accosted by Mr. Congalton
of Congalton, his brother-in-law, who, observing hira
look pensive and grave, when all the other officers
appeared so cheerful, inquired the reason. Brymer
answered that the Highlanders were not to be de
spised, and that he was afraid his brother-officers
would soon find that they had mistaken the character
of the Highlanders, who would, to a certainty, attack
the royal army, with a boldness which those only who
had witnessed their prowess could have any idea of.
These gloomy forebodings were not the result of an
innate cowardice — for this officer was, as he showed,
a brave man — but from a well-founded conviction
that Cope's men could not stand the onset of such a
body of Highlanders as Charles had assembled.
Brymer was killed, with his face to the enemy, dis
daining to turn his back when that part of the line
where he was stationed was broke in upon by the
Highlanders. The loss on the side of the High
landers was trifling. Four officers, and between 30
and 40 privates, were killed ; and 5 or 6 officers,
and between 70 and 80 privates, wounded. After
the termination of the fight, the field of battle pre
sented an appalling spectacle, rarely exhibited in the
most bloody conflicts. As almost all the slain were
cut down by the broadsword and the scythe, the
ground was strewed with legs, arms, hands, noses,
and mutilated bodies, while, from the deep gashes
inflicted by these dreadful weapons, the field was
literally soaked with gore.
'* Alas! that British might should wield
Destruction o'er a British plain,
That hands, ordain'd to bear the shield,
Should bring the poison'd lance, to drain
The life-blood from a brother's vein,
And e:eep paternal fields in gore ! —
Yet, Preston, such thy fray began ;
Thy marsh-collected waters ran
Empurpled to the shore."
Prestonpans is in the presbytery of Haddington,
and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, Sir
G. G. Suttie, Bart. Stipend £287 18s. ; glebe £25
4s. Unappropriated teinds £104 10s. The parish-
church was built in 1774. Sittings 750. According
to a census taken by the elders, in 1835, the popula
tion was then 2,467 ; of whom 2,276 were church
men, 153 were dissenters, and 38 were nondescripts.
* The church has been rebuilt; and the grave of Colonel
Gardiner is now without the walls of the edifice. An American
tourist — who, with an enthusiasm unknown to Scotsmen, re
cently made a pilgrimage to the grave of Gardiner — exclaims:
" Most true it is, that no monument, not even a stone, marks
the ground where sleeps this extraordinary man, — a roan
tvhom Caledonia may well be proud to have enrolled among
ner best and bravest sons 1"

A district, with about 50 or 60 inhabitants, is in
cluded in the quoad sacra parish of Cockenzie.
There is in the parish a small Wesleyan Methodist
place of worship ; and there are Sabbath schools, at
tended by about 280 children. There are five schools ;
one parochial and four private; one of the latter con
ducted by a female. Parochial schoolmaster's salary
£34 4s. 4£d., with £50 fees. Education is at a low
ebb  The original but very ancient name of the par
ish was Aldhammer ; this early gave way to Priests-
toun, which was gradually abbreviated into Preston :
and that, after the erection of salt-works, and some
changes in the parochial tenure, was, in its turn,
superseded by successively Salt-Preston and Preston
pans. The ancient church was situated at Preston,
and was a vicarage of the monks of Holyrood ; and,
in 1544, it was burned, in common with the town and
castle of Preston, by the Earl of Hertford, and not
afterwards repaired. The inhabitants of the two
baronies, the east and the west, or Preston and
Preston-Grange, into which the parish was distri
buted, seem to have tacitly attached themselves to
Tranent; but were quite unduly provided for, and
could obtain access, in but limited numbers, to the
interior of the church. Mr. John Davidson, the
confessor, at length built, at his own expense, a
church and. a manse in the village of Prestonpans, to
which a glebe, garden, and stipends were attached,
by George Hamilton of ' Preston ; and the same
worthy minister founded there a school for the teach
ing of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and
endowed it with all his property, free, moveable, and
heritable. In consideration of what was thus done,
the General Assembly, in 1595, declared Preston
pans to be a parish quoad sacra, and the parliament
of Perth, in 1606, "erected the said newly built
kirk into a parish-kirk, which was to be called the
parish-kirk of Preston."
Prestonpans, a large village and a burgh-of-
barony, lies along the shore of the frith on the Edin
burgh and North Berwick road, 2j miles east of
Musselburgh, 8 east of Edinburgh, 9| west of Had
dington, and 14 south-west of North Berwick.
Saltpans are supposed to have been erected on its
site, and to have occasioned it to become a seat of
population, so early as the 12th century. The monks
of Newbattle, who pushed out their trading enter
prises in all directions from their property of Preston-
Grange, appear to have adopted and cherished Pres
tonpans as the scene of their salt-making operations ;
and they probably secured it a rude but abounding
prosperity so long as it was under their influence.
Even for generations after the Reformation it con
tinued to thrive, and to be a flourishing seat of
various sorts of the hardier orders of manufacture.
Its present character and appearance are such as
might indicate that Romish monks, sinking away
into degeneracy, had continued, to a large degree, to
direct its destiny. It is considerably more like a
Spanish or an Irish village than a Scottish one, being
chiefly a straggling single street, drawn out to about a
mile in length, — narrow, ill-paved, filthy, and broken
in its roadway, and utterly irregular, generally dull
and somewhat antiquated, and often mean and almost
hut-like in its houses, — the bulky amorphous mass
of a salt-pan or some kindred work squatting among
the other tenements at intervals, and producing a
tout-ensemble peculiarly rude and rueful. A rill
runs across the roadway, and cuts off from the wast
end of the continuous street an ugly suburb called
Cuittle or Cuthill. Not a building, either public or
private, of any intrinsic interest, exists. Even the
parish-church pleases only by its associations, and
has a thing doing service as a steeple, which is too
much in keeping with the prevailing architecture of

PRE

572

PRI

the village. The salt-pans were formerly ten in
number ; but they have been nearly all abandoned.
They at one time produced between 800 and 900
bushels of salt per week ; and, along with those of
Cockenzie, yielded government a revernie of £17,000
or £18,000 per annum. A race of females known
as salt-wives and second in notoriety only to the
fish-wives of Fisher-row and Newhaven, used to
carry the salt in ' creels ' to Edinburgh, and dispose
of it in the city and its suburbs ; but they were rob
bed of their occupation by the reduction of the duty.
One set of salt-pans are still at work, and possess
repute for the excellence of their produce. A manu
factory of sulphuric, nitric, and muriatic acid, and of
- sulphate of soda, or Glauber's salts, once employed
upwards of 50 men, but is now extinct. Extensive
potteries, which were commenced about the middle
of last century, and long employed about 40 men
and upwards of 30 boys, dwindled down a few years
ago to a small manufactory of brown and white
ware, of five kilns, Which, in 1840, was shut up.
Two brick and tile works, which employed about
ten men, and long sent forth a steady produce
over the country, are now represented by one small
manufactory of drain-tiles, and figure in reminis
cence chiefly on account of having coated nearly
the whole village with roofing-tiles, and contri
buted lastingly to its dinginess. A brewery —
which has long been famous for the good quality of
its ales — continues to enjoy its repute. A soap-
manufactory, of recent establishment, seems to be
prosperous. A chief employment and traffic are the
fishing and exportation of oysters. Those which
lie off the village, particularly such as are nearest
the shore, have long been in high esteem among
oyster-eaters, and are well-known under the name
of Pan-door or Pandore oysters, — a name whimsi
cally given them from the oyster-bed lying off the
doors of the salt-pans. So far back as 70 years ago,
and till the end of the century, the fishery employed
10 boats, each of which dredged from 400 to 6,000 in
a day; and it sent the produce not only to Scottish
markets, but to Newcastle, Hull, and London.
Even yet, though the bed has probably been much
over-dredged, large boats which can carry each from
25,000 to 30,000 oysters maintain a constant traffic
with Shields, Newcastle, and Hartlepool. The
fishermen may, in all seasons of the year, be heard
over the waters singing their dredging-song long
before dawn ; and were they temperate and prudent
in the proportion of their industry and resources,
they might be one of the most comparatively opu
lent communities of operatives in Scotland. The
commerce of the town, through its port of Morison's
haven, a little1 west of Cuthill, was great in the days
of its manufacturing prosperity and the extensive
working of the neighbouring collieries ; but it has
grievously declined. The harbour was once a cus
tom-house port, whose range included all creeks and
landing-places between the mouth of the Figgate-
burn at Portobello, and the mouth of the Tyne near
Dunbar; and it had the right of levying customs
and the various sorts of dues to the same extent as
those exigible at Leith. The charter of erection
into a burgh-of-barony was given, in 1617, in favour
of Sir John Hamilton of Preston ; but it had refer
ence, not strictlv to the village of Prestonpans, but
to the whole of the east or Preston barony of the
parish ; and it is visible in probably no other result
than the officership of two baron bailies. Popula
tion, in 1838, conjecturally stated at 2,000.
PRESTWICK, an ancient village and burgh-of-
barony on the coast of Kyle, Ayrshire. It stands
on the road between Ayr and Irvine, 2£ miles north
of Ayr, 1 south of Monkton, 8J south of Irvine,

and 9 south-west of Kilmarnock. Its age, and
especially its constitution as a burgh, are remark
able, and strongly resemble those of the curious
neighbouring burgh of Newton-upon-Ayr. A char
ter, confirming and renewing its privileges, was
granted by James VI. as administrator in law for
his eldest son, then a minor; Henry, Duke of Rothe
say, Earl of Kyle, Carrick, and Cunningham, Lord
of the Isles, and Prince Stewart of Scotland. The
charter is dated 19th June, 1600, and expressly says
that it was known to have been a free burgh-of-ba
rony beyond the memory of man, for the space of
617 years before the date of renewal. The burgh
has power to elect annually a provost, 2 bailies, and
councillors, to grant franchises for several trades,
and to hold a market weekly, and a fair on the 6th
of November. The freemen, or barons as they are
called, are 36 in number. The burgh-lands belong
ing to them as an incorporation extend in a broad
stripe along the Pow-burn to a line lj mile nearer
Ayr, and comprehend about 1,000 acres. The lands
are distributed into lots among the freemen, and do
not remain in perpetuity, but are drawn for in a new
distribution every 19 years. Part of them long
existed as a common, on which each of the freemen
had a right of pasturing a certain number of sheep
and cattle ; but this was, several years ago, divided
and appropriated in the manner of the rest of the
barony. Freemen cannot sell their lots or shares, or
the baronial rights which belong to them, without
the consent of the corporation ; and females succeed
equally with males to the inheritance of the free
holds. A freeman may, for an offence, be sent to
prison, but not locked up ; and, if he come out
without being liberated by the judicial sentence of
the magistrates, he forfeits all his corporation privi
leges and property. Some of these strange pecu
liarities, however, have fallen wholly into disuse.
The town has a market-cross, apparently of great
antiquity ; and it has also a jail and council-house.
Population, in 1793, 260; in 1838, 760. Prestwick,
as an ancient parish, is now united to Monkton :
which see.
PRESTWICK-TOLL, a village i of a mile
south of Prestwick, partly beyond and partly within
the boundary of the Prestwick baronial lands. Po
pulation, in 1838, 330.
PRIESTHILL, a hamlet in the parish of Muir
kirk, Ayrshire, a few miles north-east of the village
of -Muirkirk. It is in the midst of a wild solitude,
environed by hills covered with heath, which give it
the appearance of a spacious amphitheatre. A green
sloping bank faces the south, with a mountain-stream
silently winding along its bottom. Here, to the
east, stood the hospitable mansion of the celebrated
John Brown, which was ever open to the benighted
stranger, and often a happy asylum to the persecuted
saint. Nothing but its vestiges now remain. The
grave of this good man is about forty yards to the
west. It is covered with a large massy stone.
Around its margin there is a prose description, which
encloses an acrostic in the centre. A little farther
onward to the west, tradition points to the hallowed '
spot where this good man calmly uttered his depart
ing prayer, fondly embraced his wife and children,
and with holy resignation breathed bis last on the
1st of May, 1685, shot by the bloody Graham of
Claverhouse — a man whose name cannot be held in
too great detestation by every true-hearted Scot.
PRIEST-ISLAND, an islet off the coast of Cro
marty, constituting part of the parish of Loch-Broom.
It is at the entrance of Loch-Broom.
PRIESTWICK, an ancient parish, now united
to the parish of Monktown in Ayrshire. The church
still remains, and serves as a landmark for vessels

PRI

573

PYK

navigating the frith of Clyde. This is a very ancient
Durgh-of barony, and by its charter — which was re
newed and confirmed by James VI. at Holyrood, on
the 19th of June, 1600 — it is empowered to elect
annually a provost, and two bailies, with council
lors ; to grant franchises for several trades ; and to
hold a weekly market, and a fair on the 6th of No
vember ; but most of these privileges are fallen into
disuse. It was the head burgh-of-barony of the
bailiery of Kyle-Stewart.
PRIMROSE. ' See Carrtngton.
PRINLAWS. See Leslie, Fifeshire.
PROSEN (The), a small river, a tributary of
the South Esk, in Forfarshire. It rises between the
, heights of Mair and South Craig, at the north-west
extremity of the Grampian section of the parish of
Kirriemuir, and traverses that district 11 miles south
eastward; and it then, running in the same direc
tion, divides, for 4J miles, Cortachie on its right
bank from Kingoldrum, and the Strathmore section
of Kirriemuir on its left, and falls into the South
Esk a mile above the mouth of the Carity at Inver
quharity. It is fed by many rills and rivulets, the
chief of which are Glenoig, Lednathy, and Glenlogy
burns. Till it debouches not far above its mouth
into the open country of Strathmore, it is pent deeply
up among the Binchinnan mountains, and, along
with its numerous small tributaries, drains a narrow
mountain-basin to which it gives the name of Glen
prosen, and the rim of which, all round, except
where the Prosen makes its exit, forms a. lofty
water-shed. PULTENEYTO WN, a modern, large, and thriv
ing suburb of the royal burgh of Wick, Caithness-
shire. In every respect except antiquity, chartered
rights, and local associations of idea, it is now en
titled to be regarded as the town, and Wick as the
suburb. The harbour of the parliamentary burgh,
the seat of most of its manufactures, the centre of its
fisheries and its trade, the finest arrangements of its
street architecture, and the homes of much the larger
section of its population, are all in Pulteneytown ;
yet as usage and prescription still popularly assign
the whole to Wick, they will be most appropriately

noticed in the article on the royal burgh. See
Wick. In 1808, the Society in London for extend
ing the British fisheries, purchased, out of the en
tailed estate of Hempriggs, a large space of barren
and heathy ground on the south side of the bay and
river of Wick, and feued it on a regular plan, of sub
ordination to neatness of appearance, and to the pur-
poses of the herring-fishery. A defined number ot
buildings were erected solely in adaptation to the
fishery ; and all buildings whatever were required to
be substantial, and in keeping with prescribed street-
arrangements. Two harbours, which communicate
with each other, were constructed ; and various othei
measures were adopted both to promote the direct ob
ject of the society, and to fling over their grounds the
aspects of village comfort and embellishment. The
result is, that a town of considerable extent, of great
regularity, of some beauty, and of much prosperity,
has sprung up; that all the circumjacent lands are
enclosed and cultivated ; and that an example of well-
directed and energetic public-spirit has been given,
the influence of which is beneficially, and very sen
sibly felt over all the extreme north-east of Scotland.
Population of Pulteneytown, jointly with Louis-
burgh and Bankhead, in 1811, 755; of Pulteneytown
alone, in 1840, 2,959.
PYKFD-STANE, or Hell's Cleugh, a moun
tain in Peebles-shire, situated at a point in which
the three parishes of Kirkurd, Broughton, and Stobo
meet, and possessing an altitude, according to Arm
strong, of 2,100 feet above sea-level. The name
Pyked-Stane belongs strictly to the summit, and is
derived from a small cairn with which it is crowned;
and the name Hell's cleugh seems to belong to the
northern or Kirkurd declivity, which is furrowed by
a torrent, a tiny tributary of the Tarth. The sum
mit of the mountain commands one- of the most
extensive views in Scotland, though one which is
marred and broken by a surgy sea of heights which
compose the fore-ground; and it lifts the eye, in one
direction, to tbe hills around Loch-Lomond, — in an
other, to the Eildon hills, behind Melrose, — and, in
a third, to the blue, dome-like summits of the Che
viots in Northumberland.

COLONEL GARDINER'S HOUSE, NEAK PRESTON,
Sketched by J. C. Brown in 1844.

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574

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Q

QUAIR, a rivulet of between 6 and 7 miles in
length of course, from the south-western extremity
of the parish of Traquair to fhe Tweed at the north
ern boundary of that parish, Peebles-shire. The
source is on the east side of Blackcleugb-head ; and
the embouchure is immediately below Traquair-
bouse, and directly opposite the village of Innerlei
then. The direction for about a mile a short way
above the village of Traquair is east-south-easterly ;
but everywhere else, excepting windings, it is north
eastward or north-north-eastward. The chief tri
butaries are tbe united waters of Newhall and Shil
ling-law burns, a little below the village, and the
stream of Glengaber or Finland burn at Traquair
mill, — each of them nearly equal to itself in length
and volume. Though the Quair is short, it pays a
considerable tribute to the Tweed ; and, as a trout-
ing-stream, and an enlivener of landscape, it has
strong attractions for "tbe wellars" at Innerleithen.
QUARFF, a quoad sacra parish in Shetland. It
comprises the district of Quarff on the mainland,
lying '4^ miles south-west of Lerwick; and the
islands of Burra, Papa, House, and Hal very, lying
off the west coast. Its greatest length is about 8$
miles, over land and sea ; and its greatest breadth is
about 5| miles. It was separated from the united
parish of Bressay, Burra, and Quarff, on the 25th of
May, 1833, by act of the General Assembly; and
comprehends the ancient parochial districts of Quarff
and Burra. Population, in 1835, 790; of whom 240
were in Quarff, 490 in Burra and House, and 60 in
Papa and Halvery ; and in ecclesiastical distribution,
728 were churchmen, and 62 were dissenters. All
are of the poor and working classes, chiefly depen
dent on agriculture and fishing, and, in no instance,
paying more than £5 of rent. There are two par-
ish-churches. Quarff church was built in 1828-9,
off the parliamentary grant to the Highlands and
Islands, at an expense of about £750. Sittings 360.
Burra church belongs to the original parish of Burra,
and was built bythe heritors, and completed in 1804.
Sittings 'J80. The parish is in the presbytery of
Lerwick, and synod of Shetland. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £120, with a manse and glebe  A Wes
leyan Methodist chapel in the parish was built 14
or 16 years ago, at a cost of £150. Sittings 100.
A Baptist and Independent place of worship in
Burra was taken down about 5 years ago, and re
placed by a new one which was estimated to cost
from £50 to £60.
QUARRELTON, a village in the Abbey parish
of Paisley, nearly a mile south of Johnstone, on the
side of the great road to Beith. Here one of the
most extraordinary masses of coal in the kingdom
has long been wrought. It consists of five contigu
ous strata. The thickness of the whole, measured
at right angles to the surface of the strata, is up
wards of 50 feet ; but as in some places the seam
forms a considerable angle with the horizon, the
thickness of the whole in those places, measured
vertically, is about J 5 fathoms. In consequence of
the great depth, it is wrought in floors or stories.
It is difficult to convey a clear idea of the manner in
which this singular mass of coal lies. In a field of
about 15 acres, it is found to dip in several different
directions. At least, conceiving a nearly circular
area of these contents, the coal from the north, the
east, and the south quarters of that circle dips pretty

uniformly towards the centre. This, however, is in
some measure interrupted by several hitches, at one
of which the mass of coal is suddenly thrown up
about 50 feet, at another about 30. These hitches
interrupt not only tbe direction but also the degree
of dip. On one side of the first-mentioned hitch, it
is about one foot in three; on the other, only one in
six. The concomitant strata are chiefly whinstone;
whereas, at the other coal -works in this county, the
accompanying minerals are freestone, ironstone, lime
stone, &c. ; but never whinstone. The Quarrelton
coal is of excellent quality. Some of it is of the
burning kind, but the great part is of the close burn
ing nature, similar to Newcastle coal, and breaks
into small pieces. It abounds with inflammable air,
and is liable to spontaneous ignition. Some time
before the year 1776, it caught tire below, and burnt
for several years ; and part of the roof having given
way, the ground sunk, for nearly an acre, about 2
feet lower. [Semple, Part III. p. 256.] Appear
ances indicative of the sinking of the ground still
exist. In May 1818, one of the mines was over
flowed with water, and five of the workmen per
ished. Two of the others were rescued alive, after
having been immured in the gloomy dungeon for ten
days. The village of Quarrelton is pleasantly situ
ated, and is well-supplied with good water. The
inhabitants are almost entirely colliers. The popu
lation of it and the adjacent village of Thorn, is
about 900.
QUARTER. See Hamilton.
QUEENISH, a small village, built about 40 years
ago, on the estate of Mr. Maclean of Cadbole, in the
island of Mull.
QUEENSBERRY, a mountain in the parish of
Closeburn, Dumfries-shire. It sends down its east
base into the parish of Kirkpatrick-Juxta, and lifts
its summit but a brief distance south of the extreme
angle of the deep indentation which is made into
Dumfries shire by Lanarkshire. Its altitude is 2,140
feet above sea-level. Its fine, majestic, sombre form
constitutes a bold feature in many of the rich scenic
views of the county. It has its name from the
Anglo-Saxon berg, ' a hill,' softened into ' berry ;'
and, situated amid a congeries of noble heights, but
queening it over them like a sovereign among cour
tiers, it is prosaically as well as poetically the ' queen-
hill' of a large and superb district. It gave the titles
successively of Earl, Marquis, and Duke, to the
noble family of Douglas, which became extinct, in
the direct line, in 1810, at the death of William,
the 4th Duke. At that period, the noble family
of Scott, dukes of Buccleuch, succeeded to the duke
dom and the principal part of the estates ; and Sir
Charles Douglas, Bart, of Kelhead, succeeded as
Marquis and Earl of Queensberry, Viscount of Drum
lanrig, and Baron Douglas of Hawick and Tibberis,
in the peerage of Scotland.
QUEENSBERRY. See Powfoot.
QUEENSFERRY, a very small parish on the
coast of the frith of Forth, Linlithgowshire; bounded
on the north by the frith, and on all other sides by
Dalmeny. Even the parliamentary boundaries of
the burgh enclose a mere stripe along the beach,
extending from an old quarry on the east to Ech-
land-burn on the west; an area of only a mile in ex.
treme length, and not more than about 250 yards in
mean breadth. But the parochial territory compre-

QUEENSFERRY.

575

hends not above one-half of this area; it is co-ex
tensive with the royalty ; and excludes parts of both
ends of the town. As a territory it is in no part
landward ; and, in description, it becomes identified
with the burgh. A chapel-of-ease was anciently
built here by Dundas of Dundas, and still figures as
an antiquity of the town. But the little district
was separated from Dalmeny, and erected into a
parish, only in 1636. It is in the presbytery of Lin
lithgow, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Pa
tron, the Town-council. Stipend £17] 8s. 6d. ;
glebe £25, with an allowance for a manse. The
church was lately repaired, partly by ~ voluntary
assessment, and partly by subscription from the
burgh funds. There is here a meeting-house of the
United Secession. In 1834, the parish-school was
attended by 82 scholars ; and three private schools
by 58. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £22 4s. 6d.,
with about £40 fees and £4 other emoluments.
Queensferry, a small town and port, a royal
burgh, and an important ferry-station on the south
coast of the frith of Forth, Linlithgowshire. It
stands 9 miles east by south of Bo'ness, 9 east by
north of Linlithgow, and 9 west-north-west of Edin
burgh. Its site is a belt of low ground at a point
opposite the peninsula of North Queensferry, and
the intermediate island of Inchgarvey, where the
frith is suddenly and briefly, but very greatly, con
tracted in breadth. The ground behind the town
rises abruptly; and immediately at the summit, or
even on the slope of the steep bank, becomes open
agricultural country. It is a place of considerable
antiquity ; it comes into notice as the station at
which Margaret, Queen of Malcolm Canmore, passed
the Forth in her numerous excursions between Edin
burgh and Dunfermline ; and it received, in honour
of that active and well-meaning but priest-led prin
cess, whose Saxon connexions and influence re
motely worked so vast a moral revolution on the
country, both its present name, and some early Latin
designations of similar import. Malcolm IV., the
great-grandson of Margaret, made the monks of
Dunfermline a grant of the right of ferry at the place,
and of a small piece of ground within the limits of the
present royalty, — a grant which probably led almost
immediately to the erection of the town ; and, in
] 164, he granted also to the monks of Scone a free
passage at ' Portum Reginas," for the abbot, the
monks, and their men. In 1294, Pope Gregory con
firmed to the abbey of Dunfermline " dimidium pas-
sagii sanctas Margaritae Reginae." In a charter of
general confirmation of regality j urisdictions by David
II. to the monks of Dunfermline, " Passagium "
figures as a burgh-of-regality along with *' Dunferm-
lyne, Kirkaldy, and Musselbrugh:" The place, as
a burgh-of-regality, was again granted to the monks
by Robert I., regranted by Robert III., and con
firmed in 1450 by James IV. A new charter — mis
takenly quoted by the Commissioners of Inquiry on
Municipal Corporations as the governing one — was
granted, in 1636, by Charles I., confirming the pre
ceding royal grants, but at the same time confirming
a charter by Robert, commendator of Dunfermline,
which granted " Ballivis, consulibus, et inhabitanti-
bus nostri burgi regalitatis, fundum ejusdem et terras
eidem spectantes, una cum lie mure burgi, una cum
privileges, libertatibus, anchoragiis annuis-reditibus,
firmis et devoriis burgalibus." As this is the latesi
extant charter, and the record of the Great seal, for
the period is defective, no evidence exists as to the
precise year when the town was erected into a royal
burgh. Yet proof is decisive that the erection took
place between 1638 and 1642, that it was violently
opposed by the corporation of Linlithgow, and that
it was not effected without degrading concessions to

that body. See Linlithgow. In 1639, a commis
sioner from it appears for the first time to have sat
in parliament, and, in the parliament of the following
year, he recorded a protest that he had produced his
commission for Queensferry as a royal burgh, and
that "he had ridden, sitten, and voyced in this par
liament as the rest of commissioners of burghs;" and
he was confronted by a counter-protest on the part
of the burgh of Linlithgow, that he " had neither
riddin, sittin, nor voyced in parliament for the Queens
ferry." In 1641, the same act of parliament which
erected the place into a separate parish, freed it from
the galling opposition of Linlithgow, and definitively
recognised it as a royal burgh.
Queensferry, in spite of its antiquity and seem
ingly historical importance, has always been of small
extent, and has a mean appearance ; nor has it ever
been enriched by much commerce, or dignified by
great events. Its principal street is very irregularly
curved, and of various and generally contracted
breadth, and wends between 600 and 700 yards
partly along the shore, and partly a little into the
interior. A street of about 200 yards goes off from
it at right angles, and straggles along the road lead
ing to Kirkliston ; and four brief alleys lead, in the
case of three, to the harbour, and, in ihe case of the
other, to the parish schoolhouse. These compose
the whole town; and they form a mean tout en
semble. The old chapel, with a stone roof, stands
at the west end, not very greatly dilapidated ; the
modern church stands behind the main street ; and
the humble town-house is wedged up into a nook
near the centre of the town. The harbour is formed
by two piers of different dates, which are so con
structed as to enclose a pentagonal dock or basin,
with an opening between their extremities toward
the south. The work was constructed at a cost of
£1,551, furnished chiefly by subscription, and was
completed in 1818; but it has the disadvantage that
it cannot be entered during any one of a large range
of westerly winds. About the year 1640, aboutr20
vessels, most of them large brigs, belonged to ihe
place, and were generally employed in the carrying
trade ; and toward the close of last century several
vessels were built here, one of them a Greenland
whaler of upwards of 500 tons. But now not a
vessel is either built or owned; nor is one even
seen, except passing along the frith, or making a
detour for shelter  Nearly the whole importance
of the town is derived from the celebrity and the
greatness of the thoroughfare at its ferry across the
frith, which is 2 miles in length. Yet this belongs
not to the burgh, but to the little village of New
hall, situated from 300 to 600 yards distant from its
east end, and within its parliamentary boundaries.
The pier of Newhall, provided with a lighthouse, is
that with which the ferry- vessels communicate; and
Newhall-inn, or 'theHa's' — which figures so pro
minently in the opening scenes of Sir Walter Scott's
' Antiquary ' — is the central point of transit and
bustle. The ferry is under the direction of trustees,
who, in terms of parliamentary enactment, regulate
fares, hours of sailing, and kindred matters ; and it
is, in all respects, on a very efficient footing. Be
tween the 1st of April and the 1st of October a
large boat leaves both Newhall and North Queens
ferry, hourly, every day except Sabbath, from 6 in
the morning till sunset, and, during the rest of the
year, from 8 till sunset ; a pinnace sails from each
side half-an-hour after the large boat; and a steam
boat is always on the station, and, in a calm or dur
ing baffling or contrary winds, plies instead of the
large boat or the pinnace. Passengers, horses, and
carriages are not, without their consent, conveyed
in the same boat with cuttle, a stallion, or carts j

QUE

576

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yet they have a right to be taken in the alternate
boat which may ply for the latter's conveyance.
The fare of passengers by ihe large boat is 3d. ; and
by the pinnace or the steamer is 6d. The freight of
a boat specially employed, if during the day, is 4s. ;
of a pinnace or yawl, is 2s. 6d. ; and of the steamer
is 7s. 6d. ; and, if during the night, of a boat, is 6s. ;
and of a pinnace or yawl is 4s. Porters are salaried
by the trustees, and not allowed to accept any gra
tuity. The boats, besides being used in all the ordi
nary traffic, regularly carry across the great northern
line of mail from Edinburgh. The time allowed for
conveying the Royal mail across is 30 minutes; and
£300 is annually paid on account of the Post-office
to the Ferry trustees for the conveyance of the four
daily mails across the ferry here.
Queensferry is governed by a provost, a land
bailie, two sea bailies, a dean-of-guild, and 16 coun
cillors. By a singular interpretation of the Reform
act, the inhabitants considered themselves at liberty
to elect councillors resident without the royalty,
but within the parliamentary boundaries, and actu
ally chose several members thus not legally qualified.
Municipal constituency, in 1833, 21, — just the num
ber of the council; in 1840, 39. The Ferrymuir, the
site of the town, and a right of common called the
Loanings, were all at one time burgh property ; but
the first was sold, in 1814, for £1,610, to defray a
debt of £500. The permanent revenue is about
£100, of which one-half arises from customs, anchor
ages, and shore dues; and the permanent expenditure
amounts to about £70, of which £42 is paid in sala
ries to the schoolmaster and the town-clerk. The
magistrates have jurisdiction only within the royalty,
— not in the extremities of the town ; they hold
their courts in person; they try civil causes to any
amount ; and they have, on the average, annually
before them, 8 civil, and probably 12 or 13 petty
criminal cases. The resident burgesses are 34.
There are three incorporated trades, the wrights,
the tailors, and the weavers, numbering respectively
.4, 3, and 1, and all stoutly maintaining their exclu
sive privileges against unfreemen! There is no spe
cial police act ; 6 constables assist the town's officer
to maintain the peace ; a supply of water has been
obtained by voluntary assessment; the lighting of
the streets at night is unknown. Queensferry unites
with Stirling, Culross, Dunfermline, and Inverkeith
ing, in sending a member to parliament. Parlia
mentary constituency, in 1838, 42. Population in
the burgh and parish — exclusive of the ends of the
town of Newhall, and of scattered houses within the
parliamentary boundaries — in 1801, 454; in 1831,
684. Houses 73. Assessed property, in 1815, £784.
The Earl of Roseberry having given the inhabitants
a pendicle of land for a bleaching-green, and mate
rially aided them in obtaining the town's supply of
water, as well as in other matters affecting their
welfare and comfort, a tablet with a suitable inscrip
tion in his honour was, by order of the town-council,
placed over the fount. An annual fair is held on
the 5th of August, or, if that day be a Saturday, a
Sabbath, or a Monday, on the preceding Friday or
the following Tuesday.
QUEENSFERRY (North), a small village in
the shire of Fife, and parish of Dunfermline, but an
nexed, quoad sacra, to that of Inverkeithing. It is
10 miles north-west by west from Edinburgh, oppo
site to the royal burgh of South Queensferry, above
described. " There is a traditional report," says
Mercer in his ' History of Dunfermline,' " that the
Doatmen here formerly resided in a little square of
cottages on the margin of what was once the Ferry-
loch, on the top of the Ferry-hills. The remains of
this ancient village were lately removed, to assist in

building a march-dyke through the loch, which has
been drained. The inhabitants of North Queens
ferry consisted, from time immemorial, of operative
boatmen, without any admixture of strangers. They
hold their feu under the Marquis of Tweeddale, as
successor of the abbots of Dunfermline ; and they
have always held, from generation to generation, the
ferry as a sort of property or inheritance. On the
evening of every Saturday, the earnings of the week
were collected into a mass ; one-fortieth part of the
whole was set apart for the proprietors of the pas
sage; and the remainder was divided into shares,
called deals, according to the number of persons en
titled to a share of it. One full deal was allotted
to every man of mature age who had laboured during
that week as a boatman, whether he acted as master
or mariner, or in a great boat, or in a yawl. Next
the aged boatmen, who had become unfit for labour,
received half-a-deal, or half the sum allotted to an
acting boatman. Boys employed in the boats re
ceived shares proportioned to their age. A small
sum was also set aside for a schoolmaster, and for
the widows of decayed boatmen. Nobody became
a boatman in this ferry unless by succession, and
that right was always understood to be limited to
the first generation. The children of those who
had emigrated, and were born elsewhere, had no
connection with this ferry ; but, on the other hand,
if the son of a boatman found himself unfortunate in
the world, he was always entitled to return, to enter
into one of the boats, and to take a share of the
provision which formed the estate of the community
in which he was born. That community always
consisted of nearly the same number of persons.
About 40 men acted in the boats, and received the
full deal, as sailors of mature age. Tbe whole com
munity, including these and the old men and boys,
and the women of every age, amounted to about 200
individuals. It was kept down to this number by
emigration; because a man of mature age usually
received no more, and sometimes less, for acting as
a boatman here than he could obtain by acting as a
seaman in the public service, or in that of a mer
chant. He was, moreover, excluded from all chance
of rising in the world,— a circumstance which is of
itself sufficient to keep the number stationary. The
community accordingly existed for ages destitute of
riches; but none of its members were ever reduced
to absolute poverty, or became a burden on the
public." QUEENSIDE (.Loch). See Lochwinnoch.
QUEICH (North), a rivulet of Kinross-shire,
which rises among the Ochils in the north-west
corner of the parish of Orwell, and runs south-east
ward to Loch-Leren, a little below Milnathort: See
Orwell. QUEICH (South), a rivulet partly of Perth
shire, but chiefly of Kinross-shire. It rises among
the Ochils, 1£ mile north-west of the source of the
North Queich, and within the limits of Perthshire ;
it begins a little below its origin to trace for nearly
4 miles the boundary-line between the two counties;
and it then runs 4£ miles south-eastward, chiefly
through Kinross parish, to Loch-Leven, at the town
of Kinross.
QUENDAL VOE, a bay in the parish of Dun-
rossness, Shetland. It opens near the southern ex
tremity of the mainland, 2£ miles west-north-west
of Sumburgh-head, and penetrates about 2 miles
north-eastward into the land, with a mean breadth
of about 1 mile. It is partially covered in the offing
by an islet called Cross-island, and is esteemed a
good natural harbpur. At its head- stands a mansion
called Quendal-house.
QUIVOX (St.), a parish in Kyle, Ayrshire;

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577

QUO

bounded on the north by Monkton and Tarbolton ;
on the east by Tarbolton; on the south by the river
Ayr, which divides it from Ayr parish ; and on the
west by Newton-upon-Ayr and Prestwick. Its
greatest length from east to west is 5 miles ; its
greatest breadth is 3 miles; and its area is about
4,000 acres. The surface in the west and centre is
level, and in the east is somewhat swollen and tu-
mulated. Some parts of the bank of the river Ayr
are steep, and covered with natural wood and plan
tation. The soil in the west is sandy, in the centre
is light and gravelly on an irretentive subsoil, and,
in the east border, is a stiff clay. The whole area,
except what is covered by town and detached houses,
and about 250 acres covered with wood, is arable,
and well- enclosed with ditches and hedge-rows.
Husbandry and the dairy flourish, and are conducted
with skill. A five years' rotation, comprehending
two of grain, one of esculent roots, one of artificial
grass, and one of pasture, is common ; and the Ayr
shire breed of cattle is preferred, not only for the
dairy, but for the shambles. The coal-field of Ayr
shire, with its characteristic interior and superin
cumbent strata, underlies the whole area. Three
coal-mines and several quarries of prime building-
sandstone are worked. Craigie, in the vicinity of
Ayr, and the seat of Mr. Campbell, and Auchen-
cruive, in the eastern district, and now the seat of
Mr. Oswald, the representative of Glasgowin the pre
sent and in former parliaments, are both situated on
the picturesque banks of the Ayr, and are spacious
and elegant mansions. The gardens and grounds of
Auchencruive, in particular, are highly embellished
and ornate, and form a powerful attraction to tour
ists and to the citizens of Ayr. Wallacetown and
Content [see Wallacetown] form jointly a large
suburb of Ayr, and lie compactly or continuously
with the burgh of Newton-upon-Ayr. The only
other village is Whitelets : which see. The par
ish is traversed by the roads from Ayr to respectively
Galston and Mauchline; and has a complement of
other roads. Population, in 1801, 2,070; in 1831,
5,289. Houses 692. Assessed property, in 1815,
£7,832  St. Quivox is in the presbytery of Ayr.
and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, Oswald
of Auchencruive. Stipend £276 Is. 9d. ; glebe £8.
Unappropriated teinds £334 18s. 8d. The parish-
church — situated in the centre of the parish — was
built before the Reformation, and altered and some
what enlarged in 1834. Sittings 450. The town-
district of Wallacetown, with then 4, 199 inhabitants,
and 7 places of worship, was, in 1836, erected into
a separate quoad sacra parish. The population of
St. Quivox, quoad civilia, in 1836, was, according to

the statement of the minister, 5,407, leaving to it
quoad sacra, or after the deduction of the Wallace-
town population, only 1,208,— of whom 999 were
churchmen, and 209 dissenters. There are two
Sabbath-schools respectively at the church and at
Whitelets. Parochial-schoolmaster's salary £30,
with 8 bolls of meal, £15 fees, and from £10 to
£15 other emoluments. In 1834 there were 7 non-
parochial schools, conducted by 8 teachers, and at
tended by 551 scholars  The ancient church was
originally, and for centuries, called Sanchar, the an
tique form of the modernized Sanquhar, from the
Gaelic sean caer, 'the old fort.' In 1212 it was a
rectory ; between 1229 and 1238 it belonged to the
short-lived Gilbertine convent, which the second
Walter, the Stewart, established at Dalmulin ; and
from 1238, till the Reformation, it belonged to the
monks of Paisley. Though Sanchar continued to be
the name of the several estates which were portions
of the ancient territory or manor, the church, at the
Reformation, looks out under the designation of St.
Kevoc. This name, which is quite unknown in
hagiology, and looks very like a quiz of the un
housed and splenetic monks, has undergone the suc
cessive transmutations of St. Ke vocke's, St. Keevox,
St. Queevox, and St. Quivox.
QUOICH (Loch), a lake in the centre of the
western half of Inverness-shire. The vale which it
occupies receives from it the name of Glenloehquoich,
but really is the upper part of Glengarry. The lake
is about 6 miles in length, and probably not quite
half-a-mile in mean breadth ; it extends from west
to east, and sends off its superfluent waters east
ward to Loch-Garry, at a distance from it of 9 or
10 miles. Though altogether Highland, and not
remarkable in its scenery, it is yet a fine sheet of
water. The public road from Invergarry, in the
Great Glen to Loch-Hourn and Glenelg, wends
along its north bank.
QUOICH. See Coich.
QUOTHQUAN, or Couth-Boan, i.e. 'The
beautiful hill,' in the Upper ward and shire of La
nark, an ancient parish, united in 1660 to the parish
of Libberton. The church is demolished. Quoth-
quan-law, from whence the parish is supposed to
derive its name, is a beautiful little hill, which is
elevated about 600 feet above' the level of the Clyde,
and is green to its very summit : upon it, the com
mon people still point out a large rough stone, called
Wallace's chair, where, it is said, Sir William Wal
lace held conferences with his followers, before the
battle of Biggar. Here is a school, the salary of
which arises from school-fees, and a mortification of
about £2 10s. per annum.

IL

•2 o

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578

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s\

RAASAY. See Rasay.
RAEBERRY-GASTLE. See Kirkcudbright.
RAFFORD, a parish in tbe west of Morayshire.
It is bounded on the north by Kinloss ; on the east
by Alves and Elgin; on the south by Dallas and
Edinkillie ; and on the west .by the Findhorn and by
Forres. Its length, from north-east to south-west,
is upwards of 8 miles ; and its breadth varies from
3 to 5 miles. Its surface is partly low, flat, and fer
tile ; partly elevated, moorish, and rocky ; and every
where much diversified in tone of. landscape. The
hills attain no commanding or remarkable altitudes,
and are chiefly dressed in heath, furze, and juniper;
yet they produce abundance of fallen fir, excellent
peat, and other fuel, and afford extensive pasturage
for sheep and black cattle. The soil is variously
a light and shifting sand, a black and shallow mould
lying upon rock, a deep and rich clay, and a rough
brown gravel on an almost impenetrable subsoil.
Sandstone and grey slate are quarried. The chief
mansions are Blervie, Altyre, and Burgee. " Our
next step," says Miss Sinclair, " was through a
scene of almost unearthly beauty to Altyre, the
most lovely and loveable place you can conceive,
belonging to Sir William Cumming Gordon, chief of
the clan Cumming, and representative of the old Lords
of Badenoch. i The house is a perfect cluster of ar
bours and green houses, apparently meant for the
muses and graces, for pleasure, gaiety, and romance,
but never intended for the mere vulgar, ordinary
purposes of life. , Within, without, and around, you
see nothing but flowers rushing in at every window,
and besetting all the doors. This is the court of
Flora herself; and you would suppose we had come
for a horticultural show." Burgee-castle is a large
and beautiful fabric, consisting of a square tower of
. six stories, built in 1602, and an adjoining mansion
, founded about a century later. Its, gardens occupy
several acres, and are skirted with double rows of
fine spreading beeches. The parish is bisected by
the road from Forres to Grantown. Population,
in 1801, 1,030; in 1831, 992. .Houses 203. As
sessed property, in 1815, £887. — Rafford is in the
presbytery of Forres, and synod of Moray. Patron,
Brodie of Lethen. Stipend £222, 19s. 3d.; glebe
£6. Unappropriated teinds £68 7s. 9d. The pre
sent parish comprehends the ancient parishes of Raf
ford and Altyre. See Altyre. Parish-schoolmas
ter's salary £27 16s., with £10 fees, and £4 other
emoluments. Two private schools are conducted
by females.
RAILWAY. See articles Arbroath, Ardros
san, Ballochney, Dalkeith, Dundee, Edin
burgh, Garnkirk, Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Monk-
land, Paisley, Perthshire, Pollock, Slaman-
nan, Troon, and Wishaw.
RAIT, a small village in the parish of Kilspin
die: which see.
RANKLE-BURN(The), a rivulet, a tributary of
the Ettrick in Selkirkshire. It rises within J of a mile
of Moodlaw-loch, where the counties of Selkirk,
Roxburgh, and Dumfries meet, and flows 7 miles
northward and porth-nprth-wesiward to the Ettrick
opposite Tushielaw-tower. For 2 miles near its
source it divides Ettrick parish from Roberton ; and
for half-a-mile about the middle of its course, it di
vides Ettrick from Yarrow. It is throughout a
deeply sequestered and wildly pastoral stream. The

glen which it traverses is one of the most still and
savage in the Lowlands, yet is not devoid of inter
esting associations, nor wants the power of appeal
ing strongly to the imagination and the taste : See
articles Buccleuch and Ettrick.
RANNOCH, a quoad sacra parish, and an ex
tensive Highland district, in the north-west extremity
of Perthshire. The whole extent is 28 miles from
east to west, by 16 from north to south; but the
inhabited portion is only a stripe from east to west
of 16 miles by 2. The parish comprehends the
larger and northern part of the enormous quoad
civilia parish of Fortingal, and the large detached
part of Logierait which lies in the centre of Fortin
gal ; and it was erected by authority of the General
Assembly in 1829. The church is situated at the
east end of Loch-Rannoch, and was built in 1829
by the heritors, at an expense of £750. Sittings
560. A chapel- of-ease, or second parochial church,
is situated -at the west end of Loch-Rannoch. Sit
tings nearly 300. The minister officiates on three
successive Sabbaths in the church, and on the 4th
Sabbath in the chapel. Stipend £120 paid by Gov
ernment; glebe about £2 10s., and a manse. The
minister stated to the Commissioners of Religious
Instruction, that formerly there were three stations
at which a resident missionary alternately officiated,
and " that now, there being no obligation on the
minister of Rannoch" to preach at one of the sta
tions, " the inhabitants of that district are in a worse
situation than when they were under the pastoral
superintendence of a missionary 1" Population, in
1836, according to ecclesiastical survey, 1,415; of
whom 1,400 were churchmen, and 15 were dissent
ers. — The district has Lochaber on the north-west,
Badenoch on the north, Blair- Athole on the east,
Breadalbane or the Glenlyon and Fortingal sections
of that district on the south, and Glenorchy and
Appin on the west. All the northern part is filled
with a section of the broad and towering range of
the central Grampians, — that range which runs from
sea to sea between Ben- Nevis and the coast of Kin
cardineshire ; all the western part is filled with the
boggy wilderness of the Moor of Rannoch, which
intervenes between the great central mountain-range
of Scotland and the commencement of the range
which runs down at right angles from it to the
Clyde at the Kyles of Bute; and a stripe along the
border of the southern part consists of the northern
declivities and spurs of the water-shedding range,
which forms the left screen of the long, pent-up,
romantic vale of Glenlyon. Not a pass or point of
egress exists round the fal'-stretcbing sweep of the
stupendously bulwarked north-west and north ; and
even into Glenlyon direct access is practicable only
by one difficult mountain-road, about the middle of
the south. All the upland region is wild and indo
mitable, towering bulkily up in sable nakedness, or
in dresses of heath, or stretching abroad in table
expanses of moor and deep bog, or occasionally cloven
down, in the lower declivities, into narrow and se
questered glens, or small verdant openings, the site
of solitary shielings, and the scene of the summer
pasturings of the migratory flock, and the summer
seclusion of the grazier and the herd. The moor on
the west is the largest and the dreariest tract of its
class in Scotland, and probably one of the most
desolate in the world, an open, monotonous, silent.

RAN

579

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black expanse of desert, a vast region of bog and
morass, with a few dreary pools.'and one long dreary
lake, some ditchy naked lines of dark water-course,
and a far-distant environing mountain-screen, whose
frowns and coarse dark features are in rueful sym
pathy with the humours of the sable sea of moss.
" Pray imagine the moor of Rannoch," says Dr.
M'Culloch ; " for who can describe it? A great level
(I hope the word will pardon this abuse of it) 1,000
feet above the sea, 16 or 20 miles long, and nearly
as much wide, bounded by mountains so distant as
scarcely to form an apprehensible boundary ; open,
silent, solitary ; an ocean of blackness and bogs, a
world before chaos ; not so good as chaos, since its
elements are only rocks and bogs, with a few pools
of water, bogs of the Styx and waters of Cocytus,
with one great, long, sinuous, flat, dreary, black,
Acheron-like lake, Loch-Lydoch, near which arose
3 fir-trees, just enough to remind one of the vacuity
of all the rest. Not a sheep nor a cow; even the
crow shunned it, and wheeled his croaking flight far
off to better regions. If there was a blade of grass
any where, it was concealed by the dark stems of
the black, black muddy sedges, and by the yellow,
melancholy rush of the bogs." But the long inha
bited stripe, though much inferior in scenery to other
and similar Highland glens, largely compensates by
its beauty and picturesqueness for the repulsive
wildness of the moor. At the west end it is en
tered from the moor by the closing in of the hills
upon the course of the river Gamhair ; and from the
mouth of that river to a point 12 miles eastward, it
has gentle, or at least rapid slopes coming down upon
the watery pavement of Loch-Rannoch ; and from
the east end of the Jake onward, it consists of the
vale or glen of the Tummel, overhung and shut up
by the vast solitary mountain-mass of Shichallion.
Most of it is thus the frame- work of Loch-Rannoch,
and, with a large forest of native fir which runs far
up the height along the south, and is broken with
glades and curiously gemmed with mansions and
farm-villages, — with some decrepit yet picturesque
remains of a native birch-forest straggling upon the
declivities along the south, — with the side back
ground of the bold mountain-heights climbing tier
upon tier till they become wreathed in clouds, — and
with the snowy peaks of Glencoe and Glenetive
looking up in ihe far west at the distance of 40
miles, and suggesting what an ocean of wilderness
lies between, the landscape is at once interesting
and impressive. Two hamlets, called Kinloch-Ran-
noch and George-town, stand respectively at the
east and at the west end of the lake, and are the
sites of the two places of worship. Roads go up
both sides of the Tummel and the lake, keeping
close upon the water ; but they unite and become
one at George-town, before setting out on the moor
toward Glencoe. See Fortingal.
RANNOCH (Loch), a lake in that district of
Perthshire called Rannoch, to the east of the moor
of Rannoch, and within a few miles of the northern
boundary of the county. It is distant from Dunkeld
upwards of 40 miles, and about 25 from Blair-
Athole. To this district there is an excellent car
riage-road along the banks of the Tummel, which
here presents a continued succession of falls and
rapids, and thunders down a channel within lofty
banks shaded with woods. Loch-Rannoch occupies
about 10 miles of a narrow valley, nearly 20 miles
in length, and from 2 to 2£ miles in breadth. Its
shores are beautifully indented by descending sweeps
of the adjoining mountains, and by points of land
richly wooded, which run far into the lake. The
mountains on the north side are very high; and their
steep sides, wherever tbe crags will permit it, pre

sent some beautifully wild cultivation, and several
upland farms of a singular character. The ride up
the south side of the loch, however, is by much the
most delightful. The mountains here form another
lofty range, covered far up their sides with an an^
cient forest of natural pines. In many places this
forest is now falling into decay; but it still pre
sents much scenery magnificently picturesque. In
proceeding from the foot of the loch — rather anoma
lously called Kinloch-Rannoch, or ' the head of Loch-
Rannoch' — towards what is really the head of the
lake, the distant mountains of Breadalbane and
Lorn, crowned with the clouds constantly' arising
from the Atlantic ocean, form a splendid termination
in almost every view; while, in descending, the lofty
Shichallion, and other mountains in its neighbour
hood, closes the scene towards the east. At the
foot of the loch is the village of Kinloch-Rannoch,
and at the head the village of George's-town, at both
which places there are inns. About a mile from
George's-town is Barracks, the property of Robert
son of Struan, a place used by Government as bar
racks for a considerable time after the Rebellion.
Here troops were kept for preserving the peace of
this portion of the Highlands; and hence its present
name, which has rather an odd sound, as the resi
dence of a Highland gentleman, it was to Rannoch
barracks that the notorious Serjeant Mhor was con
veyed after his capture, previous to his being taken
to Inverness, where he was condemned and executed.
The uppermost farm in Rannoch, before entering on
the moor, is still pointed out as the place where this
almost the last of the Highland freebooters was
taken. Rannoch-lodge, the hunting-seat of Sir Neil
Menzies, Bart:, of Castle-Menzies, is situated a short
way beyond the head of the lake. — There are two
islands in the lake, on one of which a M'Dougal of
Lorn was confined by Robertson of Struan, the chief
of the Clan Donachie, during the struggle of Robert
Bruce for the throne. The opposition of M'Dougal
to Bruce is well known ; but ihe Clan Donachie had
adopted the cause of the royal fugitive. In some
battle between these clans, M'Dougal was taken
prisoner, and, for greater security, was imprisoned
on one of the islands of this lake. Two of his fol
lowers came from Lorn to Rannoch with a sack of
apples for their chief, and wished to be allowed to
visit the island. The chief of the Clan Donachie
refused this request, but sent the apples to the
island with two of his own followers. These wor
thies having fastened their boat to a rock, carried
the apples to M'Dougal. The chief opened the
sack, took out some handfuls of the apples, and
threw them on the floor for the two children of Do
nachie to pick up. . They began to scramble for
them, and in their eagerness forgot the prisoner.
The opportunity was tempting; the door stood open,
— the distance to the beach was short, — the boat
ready, — and no other at the island by which he could
be pursued. Leaving his two enemies to fight at
their leisure for the apples, M'Dougal sprung out at
the door, and before ihe sons of Donachie recovered
from their astonishment at the suddenness of his
exit, was in the boat, and had pushed it from the
island. He made quickly to the opposite shore.-t-
landed at a point which still bears his name, — and
took to the mountains. Pursuit was vain, and, the
Lord of Lorn was soon in safety among the sons of
his own clan. Tradition has not told us the pun
ishment inflicted by the angry chief of the Clan Do
nachie on his two apple-loving clansmen ; but we
may be certain, that if they fell into his hands, their
heads would be made to answer for their folly  The
other island is much smaller than that on which
M'Dougal was imprisoned, and is said to have been

RAN

580

RAS

erected of wood and stone in ancient times, by one
of the Robertsons of Struan, who, upon it, impris
oned his wife for a number of years. While she
was confined here, the laird went north, and wooed
the daughter of another chief. Suspicions as to his
first wife being still alive having been excited, he
laid his hand on his dirk, and swore that he had no
wife living on Scottish ground. As his wife lived
in the prison he had built in the middle of the lake,
the laird considered she did not live on the land ;
but whether this savage piece of casuistry availed
him or not, Tradition — which is as confused and
contradictory on this as it is on many other points
— has not very distinctly handed down  The Clan
Donachie, who inhabited this district, are alleged to
have sprung from the great sept of the M'Donalds.
Their remote ancestor was one Duncan Croisda, or
'Duncan the Cross-grained,' a son of M'Donald,
Lord of the Isles, in the reign of William the Lyon.
From him they are called Clan Donachie, or Dun-
canson ; but their name of Robertson they derive
from a chief named Robert, who signalized himself
in the reign of James I., and apprehended Robert
Graham, One of the king's murderers. In memory
of this act, they bear, in addition to their original
arms, which are three wolves' heads erased gules, a
naked man manacled. The surname of Skene is
said to have been derived from one of this family,
who, hunting with the king in Stochel forest in
Athole, killed a large fierce wolf with his skene or
dagger. This is alluded to in the arms and motto
of that name. From the Robertsons are also de
rived the surname of Collier ; among whom Collier,
Earl of Portmore, was the most important. The
residence of the chiefs of the clan was at Mount
Alexander, or as it is called in Gaelic, Dun-Alister,
near the eastern extremity of Loch-Rannoch. — This
place derives some interest from its connexion with
the well-known poet, Robertson of Struan, the head
of the Clan Donachie, during the rebellions of 1715
and 1745. This singular character was out in 1715,
and his estates were, in consequence, forfeited.
These were afterwards restored ; but on his joining
the Rebellion of 1 745^ they were again forfeited and
annexed to the Crown. Notwithstanding this, how
ever, he again returned, antt lived upon his property,
as Dr. M'CuUoch says, ' a poet and a sot.'
RANNOCH (The), that part of the northern
great head-water Of the Tay, or of what, in a large
sense, is called the Tummel, which runs between
the foot of Loch-Rannoch and the head of Loch-
Tummel, Perthshire. The stream is 9£ miles in
length ; has some bold, though not large sinuosities ;
runs prevailingly due east; and has, or. its right
bank, Fortingal and Dull, and on its left a detached
part of Logierait, Fortingal, Blair-Athole, and a
wing of Dull. As it contains all the waters of the
Gauir and of minor streams drained into Loch-Ran
noch, it possesses the volume of a second-rate Scot
tish river. Its course is rapid and occasionally im
petuous : and its scenery, though considerably infe
rior to that of the Tummel, possesses much Highland
and bosky picturesqueness and romance. Its banks,
for some distance below Loch-Rannoch, while greatly
more open than those of the southern Teith between
Lochs Katrine and Achray, have confused aggrega
tions of little rocky eminences, overhung with shrub
and tree, which, with bold and lofty mountains over
looking them, present some similarity to the Tro
sachs. At Mount Alexander, 4 miles below Loch-
Rannoch, it forces its way through a narrow and
romantic pass under the north side of Shichallion,
and has on each side climbing forests, which go
boldly and rollingly and with picturesque sweeps up
the broken base of the acclivities. " The whole of

this species," says Dr. M'CuUoch, " is exceedingly
rich in that mixture of wood and rock which is so
characteristic of this skirt of Shichallion ; and the
various wider landscapes which are found about this
place, yield to few in extent of scope, and in splen
dour of romantic and ornahiented mountain character. "
" As you follow down the banks of the river," says
another writer,* "as it flows from the Rannoch to
the Tummel, you see such an assemblage of wUdness
and rude grandeur, as beggars all description, and
fills the mind with the most sublime conceptions."
RANZA (Loch), a bay and hamlet on the north
west coast of Arran, 1£ mile from the northern extre
mity of the island, 5 miles south-south-east of Skip-
ness-point in Kintyre, and 7£ miles south-west of
Inch-Marnoch, off Bute. The bay is about a mile in
length, and 3 furlongs in mean breadth. On the south
side, near its head, a commodious natural harbour of
great security and much depth is formed by the pro
jection of a small low peninsula. During the season of
the herring-fishery, 200 or 300 boats frequent the bay,
and may be seen now lying at anchor, while their
nets are drying on the beach, and now shooting
away in a consentaneous fleet, and opening out in
array to drop their nets on the fishing-ground. On
the small peninsula of the bay stands Loch-Ranza
castle, once a royal hunting-seat, but now a roofless,
though otherwise undilapidated, ruin. The struc
ture consists of tWo castellated square towers, united
by connecting walls, and more ornamented than the
majority of old Highland strongholds. There is a
chapel-of-ease here. See Arran.
RAPLOCH, a village in the parish of Stirling,
Stirlingshire. It is overhung immediately on the
south-west by Stirling-castle, or stretches from the
base of the rock to within a few yards of the Forth ;
it is distant f of a mile from Stirling bridge ; and it
is comprehended within the parliamentary boundaries
of the burgh. Dougald Graham, long town-bellman
of Glasgow, and the author of nearly all the chap-
books which circulated among the lower classes dur
ing the past century, was born about the year 1 724,
at Raploch, and died in the year 1789. According
to an account of him given by the late Mr. Mother
well in 'the Paisley Magazine,' he joined the Pre
tender in 1745; and the most extensive of all
Dougald's works was a metrical ' History of the
Rebellion,' which was a great favourite with Sir
Walter Scott, and which seems to have been an
early production, having on the title-page, —
" Composed by the poet D. Graham ;
In Stirlingshire he lives at hame."
He was also author of two well-known songs of
Considerable merit, — ' Turnimspike.'and 'John Hie-
landman's Remarks on Glasgow.' An old bookseller,
who remembered him personally, told Motherwell,
that " Dougald was an unco glib body at the pen,
and could screed-aff » bit penny-history in less than
nae time. A' his works took weel. I never kent a
history o' Dougald's that stack in the sale yet."
Strange it is to reflect, that the task of providing
food for the popular mind, which the Broughams and
other great ones of the day do not now disdain to
devote themselves to, should have rested, so short a
time ago, solely in the hands of this half-witted and
illiterate mortal, Dougald Graham, bellman of Glas
gow 1
RASAY (The), or Black Water, a river of
the central district of Ross-shire. It rises in various
head-waters on the east side of Dirry More, on the
boundary between Loch-Broom and Contin, and tra
verses the latter vast parish along Strath Vaich and
* Dr. James Howie.

RASAY.

581

Strath Garve, to the Conan, 2 miles above the
church of Urray, and 7 miles above the head of the
Cromarty frith. Its length of course, exclusive of
sinuosities, is about 20 miles ; its prevailing direc
tion is toward the south-east; and its chief tribu
taries are the Dirry and the Rannoch, — both incon
siderable streams.
RASAY, or Raasay, a considerable island of the
Hebrides, belonging to Inverness-shire, and lying
between the island of Skye and the Ross-shire dis
trict of Applecross. It forms a long belt of land
stretching due north and south ; and separated by
the sound of Rasay, from the Skye district of
Trotternish, or sub-districts of Snizort or Portree.
Its distance from Skye varies between a mile and
nearly 5 miles; and its distance from Ross-shire
varies between 6J and 9^ miles. On a line with
it due northward extends Rona, distant at the
nearest point about a mile ; and at its north-west
corner lies Fladda, separated from it only during
flood-half tide, and by a very narrow channel.
Rasay measures about 14 miles in length, about
2 miles in mean breadth, and about 28 square miles
in superficial extent. It may be viewed as consist
ing of two continuous hilly ridges ; the one on the
north composed principally of gneiss, and the one
on the south composed of porphyritic rocks super
incumbent on red and white sandstone. The north
ern division extends to the vicinity of Brochel-
castle, or occupies all the area for about 5£ miles
from the northern extremity ; and it presents those
naked, rounded, evenly-disposed, and cheerless rocky
eminences which characterize so many of the dull
low islands of the outer Hebridean archipelago.
The southern division possesses a mean elevation of
probably 1,000 feet; and as seen from the south
east, it presents the outline of a high table-land,
sending up the single flat-topped eminence of Dun
can-hill to about 1,500 feet above sea-level; but, in
reality, it descends by a general slope toward low
shores on the west, and, for the most part, breaks
sheer down on the east in a long range of mural
cliffs picturesquely intermixed with fine slopes
which are swarded in verdure. In the interior, nar
row though the district be, are many irregular emi
nences, and long narrow ridges parallel to the sides
of the island, so divided by deep valleys, that a
tourist's path in traversing them resembles that of a
vessel alternately descending and surmounting the
long ridgy waves of a deeply-rolling sea. All the
west and the north of the island have a most unin
teresting aspect, and exhibit dreary amassments of
grey rock which are ill diversified by the brown hue
of the heath, and the arid yellow of the scirpus cces-
pitosus. But the east side of the southern district
is powdered over with farm-steads, and chequered
with tracts of cultivated land, and patches of brush
wood ; and it shoots up in towering rocks and for
midable cliffs, which now nestle the human dwell
ings in the hollows at their base, and now perch
them aloft in giddy and burlesque mimicry of the
eyries of the eagle. " On this side," says Dr. M'Cul-
loch, " scenes of considerable grandeur occur, gene
rally marked by great breadth and simplicity of man
ner, and by powerful effect ; at times, however,
verging to an artificial character, in the architectural
regularity of the flat sandstone cliffs, which are fre
quently split into columnar and conical forms, rising
like towers above the deep dark sea that washes
their bases. The houses perched on these summits
=eem more like the retreats of the birds that hover
round them than the habitations of human beings ;
the eye from below scarcely distinguishing them, far
less their inhabitants. The grandeur of these long-

extended walls of rock is often varied by the enor
mous fractures and dislocations which have at differ
ent times taken place ; masses of immense bulk hav-
ing been occasionally separated so as to form a se
cond ridge below them ; while, in other places, huge
piles of ruin cover their slopes with fragmenis ad
vancing far into the sea, and strewing the shore with
rocks." Dr. Johnson, then, had he given more scope
to his intellectual taste, and less to his physical,
would have found something better to say of Rasay
than: — " It has little that can detain the traveller,
except the laird and his family ; but their power
wants no auxiliaries.' Such a seat of hospitality
amidst the winds and waters, fills the imagination
with a delightful contrariety of images." A man who,
in the vicinity of such splendid cliff-scenery as fills
the eye with some of the choicest images of poetry,
could think only or chiefly of tbe roast and the de
canter, of " plenty and elegance, beauty and gaiety,
the song and the dance," could hardly do otherwise
than produce a hideous daub when he attempted a
picture of Scotland  The chief antiquity of the
island is Brochel-castle ; a curiosity whose attrac
tions draw from many a tourist the expenditure of a
day's excursion. It stands in a little bay, on the
east coast, at a point where the cliffs have dimi
nished to a moderate altitude. Its site is a conglo
merate rock of two ledges or stages, whose upper
part is quite isolated from the neighbouring heights,
and whose composition a not very scientific writer
describes as " different kinds of burnt stone, lime, and
shell, that have all the appearance of being jumbled
together, some time or other, by a volcanic erup
tion." On the lower ledge of the rock, and rising
from its very edge, stands a small building of two low
stories, and a narrow interior court ; and on the
summit of the rock, and occupying all its area, stand
another small building, and two triangular and loop-
holed recesses, — the building disposed in two low
stories, of each a single apartment, and in surmount
ing battlements, and a warder's room. The only
access is up an approach which has been cut on the
side next to the sea, and which is so steep that it
can be climbed only on all-fours, or at least with
the aid of the hands ; the entrance is by a narrow
steep-roofed passage between the lower building
and the base of the upper stage of the rock ; and,
altogether, the combination of strong natural posi
tion and artificial fortalice is so complete as to
exhibit the very beau-ideal of adaptation to security
and defence in the ages preceding the invention of
gunpowder. The last occupant of the" castle is said to
have been a person of extraordinary personal strength
and valour, who was one of the predecessors of the
present laird of Rasay, and lived in the times of
James VI., and who, on account of his remarkable
powerful appearance, was called Eoin Garbh, — ' John
the athletic' At the Kirktown of the island stand
the ruins of an ancient Roman Catholic chapel, sur
rounded with a plantation of trees. The mansion of
Macleod of Rasay, the landowner of the island, is
a splendid edifice, in modern style of architec
ture, with a superb front ; and was built by the late
proprietor, with the native sandstone of the south
ern district. Some very scanty remains exist of
some natural woods which, up to a few years ago,
were of noticeable and embellishing extent. Planta
tion covers a considerable space, and consists of
pine, ash, mountain-ash, birch, and oak. Two fresh
water lakes in the island are fringed with coppice,
and command views of a very large expanse of the
picturesque hill-landscape of Skye. The sound of
Rasay, and all the encincturing sea abound in cod,
ling, herrings, haddocks, whitings, flounders, skate,

RAT

582

RAT

cuddies, and lythe. For the population and ecclesi
astical statistics of the island, see Portree ; to
which parish it belongs.
RATHEN, a parish on the coast of Buchan, Aber
deenshire. It is bounded on the north by the main
body of Fraserburgh and by Fraserburgh-bay ; on
the east by the German ocean ; on the south by Lon-
may ; on the south-west by Strichen ; and on the
west by the detached part of Fraserburgh and by
Tyrie. Its greatest length, in a direction south-
westward from the coast, is about 7 miles; its
breadth, for about 1£ mile near the interior end, ex
pands to 4 miles, but elsewhere averages about 1^ ;
and its area is about 6,310 acres. The coast, partly
flat and sandy and partly consisting of low rocks,
commences 2 miles south of Fraserburgh, runs out
into a headland called Cairnbulg-point, and altogether
has an extent of 2J miles. The rivulet of Rathen
or Philorth drains nearly the whole parish ; and, be
fore falling into the sea, runs nearly 3 miles on the
boundary with Fraserburgh. Mormond-hill [which
see] is partly within the south-west limits ; and both
its declivities, and the summits and sides of other
high grounds in its vicinity, are bleak and barren ;
but the lands along the Philorth are low, and, in
general, tolerably productive. The woodlands, the
hill-pastures, and the arable grounds, are, in the pro
portion to each other, of 2, 27, and 94. Limestone is
plentiful; and, on the estate of Auchirus.it is worked,
and is of excellent quality. Cairnbulg-castle, now in
• ruins, has walls of great thickness, and appears to
have been a place of considerable strength. It was
the family seat of the predecessors of Lord Saltoun ;
and till sold, in 1613, by Sir Alexander Fraser to
Fraser of Durris, it bore the name of Philorth, which
was then transferred to another mansion in the family
which still bears it, and is the seat of Lord Saltoun.
Inverallochy-castle, also a ruin, formerly had above
its entrance a stone sculptured with the Comyn's
arms, and inscribed: " I, Jordan Cumming, gat this
house and land for bigging the abbey of Deer." Cor-
les-house is a modern mansion, embosomed in wood.
Two contiguous fishing-villages on the coast, Cairn
bulg and Inverallochy, jointly possessed, in 1837, a
population of about /900. During the herring-fishing
at Fraserburgh they are almost wholly deserted ; and,
at other seasons, ihey partake the prosperity which
has so long distinguished the adjacent fishing-grounds.
The parish is bisected by the road from Fraserburgh
to Aberdeen, and partly cut by that which diverges
toward Peterhead. Population, in 1801,1,588; in
1831, 2,100. Houses 434. Assessed property, in
1815, £4,154  Rathen is in the presbytery of Deer,
and synod of Aberdeen. Patron, Lord Saltoun.
Stipend, £169 14s. 4d. ; glebe £9. The church is
old, and was repairedin 1767. Sittings 684. School
master's salary £25 13s. 3Jd., with £16 4s. 6d. fees,
and a share of Dick's bequest. Two private schools
were, in 1834, attended by 144 scholars.
RATHILLET. See Kilmany.
RATHO, a parish in the north-west division of
Edinburghshire ; bounded on the north by Kirkliston
and Corstorphine ; on the east by Corstorphine and
Currie; on the south by Currie and Kirknewton;
and on the west by Kirknewton and Kirkliston. A
slender oval, stretching east -north -eastward, and
measuring at the axes 4J and 2} miles, constitutes
the body of the parish ; and a projection, 2£ miles in
length and about a mile in mean breadth, goes off
south-south-westward from near its middle. The
area is about 10 square miles, or 5,800 acres. The
surface of the eastern half of the main body is a
slightly variegated level ; and, of the western half,
is a congeries of broad-based hillocks, or low table
land, with gentle swells, rising from 300 to 400 feet

above sea-level. As the position is midway between
the Pentland hills and the frith of Forth, and about
8 or 9 miles west of Edinburgh, magnificent views
are obtained, from the little heights, of the scenery
of the Lothians, the Forth, and the southern slopes
of Fife, with the romantic perspective of the far-
extending Grampians. The surface of the projecting
or southward district rises slowly from a low line of
connexion with the main body to near the southern
extremity; and it there shoots abruptly up in the
bold forms of the Dalmahoy crags, or Dalmahoy and
Kaimes hills, 660 and 680 feet above sea-level.
These two isolated heights form a conspicuous and
picturesque feature of the general Lothian landscape ;
and, like Salisbury crags, the rocks of Edinburgh and
Stirling castle, and various eminences at the north
east end of the Lennox hills, they break down in
cliffs, or stoop precipitously to the west. As the
arable grounds are enclosed with hedge-rows and
waved over by files of trees, and large pendicles of
the area are embellished into garden-ground and de
mesne, and the swells and summits of the low table
land in the west are striped and crowned with belts
and clumps of plantation, the parish possesses, with
in itself, not a few materials and groupings of beauty.
About five-sixths of the whole area is either in till
age or in an arable condition ; and the remaining
sixth is distributed, in not very unequal parts, into
plantation-ground and pasture. The soil is, in gen
eral, a light loam, with a preponderance of sand ; but,
toward the eastern border, it passes, in a great de
gree, into clay. Trappean rocks lie beneath all the
northern district ; in many places they come near
the surface ; and, in four quarries, they are worked.
Sandstone occurs in the south, and is quarried.
Coal is said to have been found, and even mined in
the sandstone district ; yet it has eluded compara
tively recent search. Gogar-burn, the only stream
of the parish, except the merest rills, forms the
boundary pf the main body along all the east and
part of the north. Water for culinary uses is, in
general, obtainable only in artificial wells or by bor
ings. The only antiquities are vestiges of camps,
both probably Danish, the one on Kaimes-hill and
the other on South Platt-hill, the most commanding
of the little summits on the west. The principal
mansions are Dalmahoy-house, the seat of the Earl
of Morton, built in the early part of last century,
and subsequently augmented with several additions ;
Hatton-house, the seat of William Davidson, Esq.,
a baronial mansion, partly of great antiquity; Ratho-
house, built by the late John Bonar, Esq., and now
the property of his heirs; Bonnington-house, the
seat of William Wilkie, Esq., built in 1622 ; Norton-
house, the seat of Alexander Berwick, Esq., very
recently erected ; Milburn-tower, the property of
Mrs. Liston, and built by the late Sir R. Liston ;
Gogar-bank, the seat of Mr. Ramsay ; and Ratho -
hall, the seat of William Hill, Esq. All these, and
two or three other mansions, are elegant residences.
But Ratho-house arrests special attention by the
splendour and Grecian elegance of its architecture, 
Hatton, by its venerableness of aspect, its extensive-
ness of gardens and pleasure-grounds, and its associa
tions as an ancient seat of the Earls of Lauderdale, 
and Dalmahoy-house, by its general pre-eminence,
and by its containing some curious heir-looms of the
noble family who possess it, such as the only known
extant complete copy of the original Scottish parlia
mentary Bible, enhanced by having been the pro
perty of the Regent Morton, an original portrait of
the Regent, an original portrait of Mary, taken
while she was in Loch-Leven, and the original war
rant for the Queen's incarceration, with the signa
tures of the nine noblemen who assumed its responsi-

RATHVEN.

583

hility.— The village of Ratho stands in the centre of
the main body of the parish, 8 miles west by south
of Edinburgh, 4 east-north-east of Mid-Calder, and
2£ south-south-east of Kirkliston. Its site is on the
slope or eastern declivity of the gentle uplands of
the west. It consists of a single two-sided street,
coming down the declivity from west to east, and
bending northward, near the end, to terminate upon
the Union canal. Most of its houses are neat and
recently erected cottages, walled with whinstone,
lintelled with sandstone, and roofed either with tiles
or with slate ; and wearing, in common with the
roadway, a tidy appearance. The village has a small
library, a savings' bank, - three friendly societies, a
masonic lodge, and seven or eight drinking-houses.
Population of the village 550 — Bonnington, a hamlet
or small village, consists of about twenty thatched
cottages, and is situated If mile to the south-west.
Population 100. — Norton figured 50 years ago as a
village, but, in that capacity, is now nearly extinct.
The parish is traversed westward by the Union
canal, the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway, and the
Edinburgh and Glasgow turnpike by way of Mid-
Calder ; and it has ample number and extent of other
means of communication. Population, in 1801, 987 ;
in 1831, 1,313. Houses 222. Assessed property,
in 1815, £11,746.— Ratho is in the presbytery of
Edinburgh, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale.
Patron, the Trustees of Dr. Davidson. Stipend
£264 15s. 2d. ; glebe £16. Unappropriated teinds
£54 Is. 8d. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d.,
with £45 fees, and £6 2s. 6d. other emoluments.
The ancient church of Ratho — the British Rath-au,
' a cleared spot,' ' a bare place,' ' a plain ' — was dedi
cated to the Virgin Mary ; and in the immediate
neighbourhood of the present church there is a foun
tain still called the Lady's well. The parish was a
rectory till 1429, and it then became a prebend of
the collegiate church of Corstorphine. In 1315 the
barony and patronage of Ratho were, along with
much other property, granted by Robert I. to the
Steward of Scotland, as the dowry of the Princess
Marjory; on the accession of Robert II. to the
throne, they became part of the property of the
King's eldest son, as Prince of Scotland ; and, in
1404, they were, with the other estates, erected into
a principaUty for the Prince, with regal jurisdiction.
Among eminent persons connected with the parish
were Dr. William Wilkie, ' the Scottish Homer,' one
of its ministers in the last century ; Sir William
Liston, the British ambassador at seven foreign
courts, the proprietor of Milburn-tower ; arid Sir
William Feties, >i resident and heritor, whose vast
property was bequeathed for the establishment in
Edinburgh, of the great Fettes institution.
RATHVEN, a parish on the coast of Banffshire ;
bounded on the north by the Moray frith ; on the
east by CuUen and Deskford; on the south by
Keith ; and on the west by Belly. Its length from
east to west is 10 miles ; its breadth varies from 3 to
5 miles; and its superficial extent is estimated at
27,000 Scottish acres. The surface is variegated
with hills and eminences, streams of water, and fer
tile plains. The Binhill, in the south-east, is nearly
all mantled with wood, and lifts its summit suffi
ciently high to be a landmark visible at 15 leagues
distance from the coast  Maud and Adie hills, con
tiguous to it, are clothed in russet, and of less eleva
tion, and stretch away westward to the confines of
the parish. Most of the parochial surface declines
to the north-west, and suffers from the frequent and
bitter north-westerly storms. Yet the climate is
attempered by the vicinity of the sea, and the wind
ings along its margin of 12 miles of coast-line ; and, on
¦the whole, is favourable to vegetation, and eminently

promotive of health. The soil is very various ; in
one corner a light and extreme.y rich loam superin
cumbent on clay ; in another corner, a thin yet fer
tile loam on a red soft earth ; in some places, a light
sand ; in other places, a stiff clay ;. and almost every
where, except in the sandy districts, a soil powdered
all over, and profusely intermixed with small water-
worn stones. The distribution of the lands, at the
date of the Old Statistical Account, was intp 16,200
acres of hills, moors, and mosses; 4,700 of arable
grounds; 4,500 of woodlands ; and 1,600 of meadow
and artificial pasture. Limestone, sandstone, and
slate abound, and are quarried. A beautiful whitish
sand, affirmed to be almost equal in fineness to any
in Holland, occurs in great quantity near Litchie-
ston. Three medicinal wells formerly attracted
some notice. A large heap of stones, called the
King's Cairn, and crowning an eminence near Wood-
side, is pointed out by tradition as the grave of King
Indulphus of Scotland, who is said to have been
slain in the vicinity after obtaining a complete vic
tory over the Danes. Abercromby places this vic
tory in the year 961 ; Buchanan, in 967. Not far
distant is a great number of small cairns, alleged to
be the burial-places of the Danes who fell in the en
gagement. Numerous cairns occur also on the farm
of Westerside. Two ruins, called Green and Tro-
nach castles, crown two hills which screen the sides
of the harbour of Portnockie. The villages of the
parish — all upon the coast, and upheld chiefly by
fisheries — are Buckie, Porteasy, Findochtie,
Portnockie, and Port-Gordon. See these ar
ticles. The parish is traversed near the coast by
the road from Fraserburgh to Fochabers. Popu
lation, in 1801, 3,901; in 1831, 6,434. Houses
1,352. Assessed property, in 1815, £7,336  .
Rathven is in the presbytery of Fordyce, and synod
of Aberdeen. Patron, Hay of Rannes and Leith-
hall. Stipend £206 12s. 7d. ; glebe £12. Unap
propriated teinds £1,082 4s. 6d. The parish-church
was built in 1794. Sittings 1,000. A portion of the
parish at its eastern extremity, and containing the
village of Portnockie, has long been united quoaa
sacra to Cullen : which see. Another portion, at
the middle of the coast district, was recently erected
into the quoad sacra parish of Buckie : which also
see. Another portion, at the eastern extremity, and
containing the village of Port-Gordon, forms part of
the quoad sacra parish of Enzie. That parish was
erected out of Rathven and Bellie, in 1836, and
measures between its extreme points nearly 6 miles
by about 4. Its church was built in 1785, and en
larged in 1815 and 1822. Sittings 400. Stipend
£62, derived from a fund set apart by a private in
dividual, and placed under the charge of the com
mittee for managing the royal bounty. Population,
in 1836, 1,814; of whom 1,060 were churchmen,
673 Roman Catholics, and 81 Episcopalians  Rath
ven, after deducting the Cullen and Enzie portions,
but including the whole quoad sacra parish of
Buckie, measures, between its extreme points,- 5
miles by 4, and was estimated, in 1837, to have then
a population of nearly 4,000  A Scottish Episcopa
lian chapel was built, about 54 years ago, at Arra-
doul. Sittings 210. Stipend £150. A Roman
Catholic chapel, with 800 sittings, was built, in 1788„
at Presholm ; and the congregation who use it as
semble also in a hall at Buckie, which has 400 sit
tings, and is rented at £5. — In 1834, the parish-
school was attended by 56 scholars ; and 15 other
schools were attended by 633. Parochial school
master's salary £32 Is. 7d. ; with £10 3s. 6d. fees,.
and £37 5s. 6d. other emoluments. The property
of a lazar-house, founded about the year 1226, by
John Bisset, still yields each of 6 bedesmen half an,

RAT

584

RAY

acre of land, a boll of oatmeal, and 9s. 6d. yearly,
and is under the administration of the proprietor of
Rannes. RATTRAY, the name of various localities in the
maritime parish of Crimond, Buchan, Aberdeen
shire. An extinct town of the name is said to have
been a burgh : see Crimond. A fishing-village of
the name is situated 10 miles north by west of Pe
terhead, and about the same distance south-east of
Fraserburgh. Rattray-house stands embosomed in
wood 1£ mile south of the village. Rattray-head is
a low dangerous promontory, running about 1| mile
out from the prevaifing line of the coast, and situ
ated about 10 miles south-east of Kinnaird-head.
Rattray-bridges are peculiarly dangerous marine
ground about J of a mile east-north-east of the ex
treme point of the promontory.
RATTRAY, a parish in the extreme west of
Strathmore proper, marching with the district of
Stormont, Perthshire. It is bounded on the north
by Alyth; on the north-east by the detached part of
Blairgowrie ; on the east by Bendochie ; and on the
south and west by the river Ericht, which divides it
from the main body of Blairgowrie. Its extreme
length, from north to south, is 5J miles ; and its
mean breadth is about If mile. A detached portion,
called Easter Bleaton, lies 3£ miles to the north-
north-west; measures 1 mile by 1^; and is bounded
on the north by Forfarshire, — on "the east and the
south by Alyth, — ahd on the west by the river
Lochy, which divides it from a detached part of Ca
puth and from Kirkmichael. Easter Bleaton forms
part of the ascending ranges of the frontier Gram
pians. The main body of the parish, for 1^ mile
from the southern boundary, is flat, or very gently
ascending ; and, over tbe rest of the area, consists of
the lowest and slowly graduated heights which, se
veral miles beyond the northern boundary, attain a
Grampian elevation. The fine southern exposure,
combined with the bield afforded by the vast moun
tain-rampart in the comparatively near distance, ren
ders the situation pleasant, and the climate very
healthy. The lands in the south have a dry and
pretty fertile soil, and are all arable ; and those in
ihe north are disposed chiefly in pasture. A common
moor of 300 acres lies in the uplands, and though
improveable, is neglected. The Ericht, over most
of its 6% miles' connexion with the parish, is alter
nately a picturesque and a romantic stream ; it is
overhung by a profusion of copsewood, chiefly small
oaks, which are periodically cut for sale ; and above
Craighall, its banks are sheer precipices of rock, up
wards of 200 feet high, crowned with plantation,
and parapeted with wall, to warn strangers and cattle
of danger. Its floods occasionally invade the low
grounds in the south, and carry off much booty. At
Keith, about J of a mile from the village of Rattray,
where the stream rushes over a rugged rock about 10
feet high, and forms a pool, tishei'Sj who pay a con
siderable rent for the fishery, practise a peculiar
method in catching salmon : they make what they
call a "drimuck," resembling thin wrought mortar,
and throw it into the pool to disturb the clearness of
the water ; and, being provided with long poles to
the end of which bag-nets are affixed, they then
stand upon the point of the rock, rake the pool,
and bring up the fish. The Ericht is esteemed by
sportsmen one of the finest rivers for rod-fishing,
both for trout and for salmon. A curious and ele
gant iron-bridge has recently been thrown across
the stream below Glen-Ericht-house : it consists of
one direct or straight-lined span, resting at the ends
upon stone pillars ; and it has a separate carriage
way and foot-track, and is floored or carpeted with
gravel. On the farm of' Standing-stanes, which has

its name from the circumstance, are the remains of
a Druidical temple. South-east of the village is an
oblong moundish height, called the Castle-hill, sur
mounted by vestiges of the ancient castle of Rattray,
a very large building, and the original residence of
the far-descended family of Rattray. About 2 miles
north-north-west of the village stands Craighall, the
more modern but still ancient seat of the family. It
crowns a peninsulated rock whose sides go sheer
down 200 feet or upwards to the Ericht, and has,
from the drawing-room windows, a balcony whence,
as from an aerial elevation, a close and thrilling view
is obtained of the surrounding romantic scenery.
The house is accessible only in front, or from the
south ; and, on that side, it was anciently defended
by a ditch, and two round towers, with openings for
archery or missiles. The towers still exist ; and the
house has recently been modernized in the interior,
and embellished at the exterior angles with turrets.
The parish is traversed eastward through the village
by the road between Dunkeld and Kirriemuir, and is
within easy distance of the western terminus of the
Dundee and Newtyle railway. Population, in 1801,
880; in 1831, 1,362. Houses 261. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £2,433. — Rattray is in the pres
bytery of Dunkeld, and synod of Perth and Stir
ling. Patron, the Earl of Kinnoul. Stipend £157
9s. 2d. ; glebe £25. The parish-church is modern
and neat. The inhabitants of Easter Bleaton attend
the chapel of Persie in Bendochie. See Persie. A
meeting-house belonging to the United Secession is
situated in the village. In 1831, the parish-school
was attended by 69 scholars ; and three private
schools — two of them conducted by females — were
attended by 116. Parochial schoolmaster's salary
£34 4s. with £15 fees, and about £4 10s. other
emoluments. Rattray, a manufacturing and thriving village
in the above parish, is situated J of a mile east of
Blairgowrie, 4£ miles south-west of Alyth, 4J north
west of Coupar-Angus, and 10£ east-north-east of
Dunkeld. It is, in a strict sense, two villages, Old
and New Rattray, almost contiguous. Old Rattray
is situated on the southern declivity of a hill, and
built in a straggling manner ; and New Rattray oc
cupies both sides of the road toward Blairgowrie,
and extends almost to the Ericht. The former has
much increased during the last half century ; the
latter has entirely sprung into existence within that
period ; and both owe their prosperity, in a great
degree, to the water-power of the Ericht, and
the erection upon it of flax-spinning-mills. The
mills in the vicinity, and within the parish, are 7
in number; they vary in mechanical force from 6 to
20 horse-power ; and they employ about 240 per.
sons. The inhabitants not employed by the mills
are, in general, weavers of coarse linen fabrics for the
manufacturers of Dundee. Population of Old Rat
tray, about 400 ; of New Rattray, about 320
RAVENSCRAG. See Peterhead
RAVENSCRAIG. See Dysart.
RAVENSWORTH. See Carstairs.
RAYNE, a parish in the district of Garioch,
Aberdeenshire. It is bounded on the north by
Auchterless ; on the north-east by Fvvie ; on the
east by Daviot ; on the south-east by Chapel-of-Ga-
rioeh ; on the south and south-west by the Urie,
which divides it from Oyne ; and on the west by
Culsalmond. Its length and breadth are each about
3£ miles ; and its area is about 1 1 square miles. The
hill of Rothmaise, situated on the northern frontier,
and covered with heath and hard weeds, lifts its sum
mit about 850 feet above sea-level. Not far from this
height a large tract of peat-moss stretches quite
across the parish from east to west. The rest of the

REAY.

585

surface is slightly undulated, or occasionally rises
into gentle eminences. The soil of the best arable
grounds is a rich loam on a bottom of clay ; and, of
inferior ground, is a shallower and more gravelly
loam, on a rocky or tilly subsoil. About four-fifths
of the whole parochial area are regularly subject to
the plough ; and upwards of 350 acres are covered
with wood, principally planted larch and Scottish
fir. The chief antiquities of the parish are a sup
posed Roman iter, two Druidical temples, and some
cairns. The mansions are Freefield, Rothmaise, and
Warthill. The decayed village of Rayne stands in
the centre of the parish ; and has an annual fair for
cattle and horses on the 4th Tuesday of November,
old style. The village of Meikle warthill, possessing
about 150 inhabitants, stands on the north ; and has
an annual fair on the Thursday before the 26th of
May. The village or tiny post-town of Old Rayne,
possessing about 100 inhabitants, stands on the Urie,
9 miles north-west of Inverury, 12 south-east of
Huntly, and 24 north-west of Aberdeen. It has
annual fairs on the Wednesday after the first Tues
day of August, old style ; on the Thursday and Fri
day preceding the former; and on the day after
Tarriff in October. The only manufacture is the
knitting of seamen's vests and under-jackets of
worsted for employers in Aberdeen. Old Rayne was
anciently a residence of the bishop of Aberdeen ;
and, not long ago, possessed the remains of his house.
The road from Aberdeen to Huntly, though not en
tering the parish, runs close along the Urie. Popu
lation, in 1801, 1,228 ; in 1831, 1,484. Houses 306.
Assessed property, in 1815, £2,734  Rayne is
in the presbytery of Garioch, and synod of Aber
deen. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £225 2s. ;
glebe £12. Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 3|d.,
with £32 10s. fees, a share of Dick's bequest, and
£5 15s. other emoluments.
REAY, a parish on the north coast of the coun
ties of Caithness and Sutherland, lying quite com
pactly, but cut lengthwise into two nearly equal
parts by the boundary-line between the counties.
It is bounded on the north by the North sea; on the
east by Thurso and Halkirk; on the south by Hal
kirk and Kildonan ; and on the west by Farr. Its
length, from north to south, is about 17 miles; and
its breadth is between 8 and 9. The Sutherland
district is watered from end to end, along the centre,
by the river Halladale [see that article] ; it takes
from that stream the name of Strath- Halladale; and
it presents, over all its length, the appearance of a
narrow valley screened by heights which vary in
bulk from mountain to hill, and are not amassed into
continuous ranges. A water-shedding line divides
the whole of Strath-Halladale from the eastern or
Caithness district. Heights, variously mountainous
and hilly, occupy all the latter district, except along
the coast; but they possess no scenic interest or
distinctive character. Ben-Radh, whose steepest
side is computed to be upwards of a mile from base
to summit, and which is probably the most con
siderable elevation, lifts its summit within 2£ miles
of the sea, and 1£ mile within the frontier-line of
Caithness; and it is perforated by a large cave, to
which cattle run for shelter in a storm, and which
figures in traditionary story as the retreat of a gang
of bandits. A band of territory along the coast,
and a narrow belt along tbe Halladale, are almost
the only low or flat grounds. The coast is, in gen
eral, bold and rocky; and, at Borrowston, it has
several small caves, and a beautiful turf-clad natural
arch, spanning a chasm of nearly 50 feet deep, and
washed by the tide. Its principal bays are Port-
Skerry, at the mouth of the Halladale, and Sandside-
bay, about 1^ mile long and J of a mile broad, situ

ated 2j miles east of the boundary-line between the
counties : See Port-Skerry. A large extent of
sandy links, abounding in sea-shells, stretches round
Sandside-bay, and is carpeted with excellent pasture.
The principal headland is Fresgo-head, near Sand-
side. Sea-ware is thrown by storms in great heaps
into the bays and creeks; and occasionally bushes
of sponge springing from one stem, and often broken
pieces of sponge, are deposited on the beach. The
fish caught on the coast are cod, ling, turbot, had
dock, skate, whiting, mackerel, flounders, horn-back,
sand-ee,ls, and dog-fish. The river Forss has a
course of 12 miles northward in the east, the first
half of the distance in the interior, and the second
half on the boundary; and, in common with the
Halladale, it abounds in trout and salmon. Loch-
Cailm, upwards of 3 miles in circumference, feeds
one of this river's tributaries; and Loch-Shurery,
1^ mile long, is formed by an expansion of the Forss.
Lochs Seirach and Tormaid, each about J of a mile
long, send off a streamlet of 5 miles' length of nor
therly run to the head of Sandside-bay. Loch-Slei-
till, in Strath-Halladale, is noted for its large red
trouts. Of several mineral springs, all seemingly
chalybeate, one at Helshetter claims to be little in
ferior to the celebrated wells of Strathpeffer. The
mountain-rocks of the parish are massive and schis
tose sandstones, limestone, gneiss, granite, syenite,
and hornblende and quartz rocks. Both ihe sand
stone and the limestone are extensively quarried.
Shell-marl is dug up in large quantities at Dunreay
and Brawbin. Iron-ore is found in different places ;
and a vein of lead-ore occurs near Reay, but not in
circumstances and quantity to encourage mining.
The soil of the arable lands in the Caithness district
is generally fertile ; but that of Strath-Halladale is,
to a great extent, shallow, baffen, and fitter for
pasture than for cultivation, yet, by the skilful ap
plication of manure, produces good crops. The ag
gregate amount of land in tillage does not exceed
2,200 acres. Some small birch coppices in Strath-
Halladale, and a few trees around Sandside-house,
are the only woods. The principal mansions are
Bighouse, formerly the seat of an ancient and re
spectable branch of the family of Mackay, but now
the property of the Duke of Sutherland ; Isauld-
house, tbe seat of Captain Macdonald; and Sandside-
house, the seat of Major Innes. Some rude but
extensive fortifications occur on the hills of Shebster
and Benfrectan. Doun-Reay-house, the ancient
seat of the Mackays of Reay, exists in ruin, 2 miles
north-north-east of Sandside-bay. The ancient
owners of this mansion and of the estates around it
derived from them, in 1628, the title of Barons Reay
in the peerage of Scotland; and, in consequence,
gave the name of Lord Reay's country to their ex
tensive possessions in the west : see next article.
The village of Reay, or New Reay, containing about
110 inhabitants, stands at the head of Sandside-bay,
12 miles west-south-west of Thurso, and the same
distance east of Strathy. The parish-church crowns
a green rising ground a little detached from the vil
lage. Old Reay is traceable only by a far-descending
tradition; and it is said to have been a burgh-of-
regality, and to have accidentally proved its quondam
existence by the discovery, about the middle of last
century, of parts of several houses which had been
overwhelmed and inhumed. A market cross at the
present village claims to have belonged to the tra
ditionary burgh. The parish is traversed along the
coast by the road from Thurso to Tongue, which is
daily travelled by a mail-coach ; and down the vale
of the Halladale, by the road from the Dornoch frith
and from Helmsdale to Melvich : which see. Po
pulation in the Sutherland district, in 1801,861;

REA

586

RED

in 1831, 1,013. Houses 171. Assessed property,
in 1815, £1,076.— Population in the Caithness dis
trict, in 1801, 1,545; in 1831, 1,868. Houses 316.
Assessed property, in 1815, £2,275. — Reay is in
the presbytery of Caithness, and synod of Suther
land and Caithness. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£182 lis. 5d. ; glebe £8. Unappropriated teinds
£75 7s. 6d. The parish-church was built in 1739.
Sittings 632. Strath-Halladale, jointly with two
districts in the parishes of Watten and Halkirk, has
a mission on the scheme of the Committee of the
Royal bounty. The mission-cbapel — a thatched
house in bad repair — is situated near Comgill, on the
estate of Bighouse, about 4 miles from the foot of
the Halladale. Sittings 550. Stipend £50 from
the Royal bounty, and £15 from each of the three
districts. A catechist is employed for the whole
parish, and paid by voluntary subscription. In 1834
the parish-school was attended by 88 scholars ; and
a school belonging to the General Assembly by 90.
Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with
£12 fees and £4 4s. other emoluments. Ruins of
ancient chapels exist at Lybster and at Shebster.
REAY'S COUNTRY (Lord), a large district
in the north-west of Sutherlandshire. It extends
from the sea on the west to Torrisdale or Borgie
river on the east ; comprehends the parishes of Dur
ness, Tongue, and Edderachillis ; and has a super
ficial extent of about 800 square miles. It acquired
its name from being the property of the Lords Reay,
the noble family of Mackay; and is called in Gaelic
'the Land of the Mackays,' — Duthaich Mhio Aoi.
REDCASTLE.- See Inverkeilor. ,
REDDING, a populous colliers' village, in the
parish of Polmont, Stirlingshire. It stands in the
centre of a very productive coal-district, between
the line of tbe mail-road and that of the Union canal,
li mile south-west of Polmont, and 2| miles east-
south-east of Falkirk.
REDGORTON, a parish occupying the penin
sula of the Tay and the Almond, and extending
northward and west-north-westward, up the course
of the respective rivers, in the Strathmore district
of Perthshire. It is bounded on the north by Auch-
-tergaven and Kinclaven; on the east by St. Mar
tin's and Scone ; on the south by Tippermuir ; on
the south-west by Methven ; and on the west by
Monedie and Auchtergaven. Its outline is proxi
mately that of two triangles, or rather of the ex
tended wings of a butterfly; and would become
nearly rectangular by compacting with it the whole
of Monedie, and the southern projection of Auch
tergaven. Its length, from the point of the penin
sula northward and west-north-westward, or in
straight lines up the course of the Tay and of the
Almond, is respectively 4J and 4| miles ; its breadth,
in both directions, varies from half-a-mile to 1| mile;
and its area is 10.125 square miles. A detached
portion, not included in this estimated area, lies 2£
miles north-west of the most westerly point. It
forms a stripe of 3£ miles by 6 furlongs, stretching
from the south-east to the north-west ; and is sur
rounded by Auchtergaven and the district of Mon
edie, which formerly belopged to Monzie. This
detached part consists of the barony of Mullion ; it
has an area of probably 1.875 square mile; it is situ
ated on the lowest tier of the Grampians, and runs
up their acclivity ; it is, for the most part, pasture,
moorland, or heathy waste, and contains but few
and small pendicles of arable ground; and it is
drained along the boundary, on the Auchtergaven
side, by the Shochie, and, on the Monzie side, by
Crachie-burn, which, jointly with the Shochie into
which it falls, peninsulates the lower end of the
barony. The main body of the parish is richly

diversified in surface; hilly, but nowhere lofty or
abrupt; low, and but slightly above river-level along
the streams, yet speedily passing into hanging plains,
undulations, or hilly swells; everywhere soft and
pleasing in outline, and, at almost every step, dis
closing some agreeable variation. The lands of
Lord Lynedoch, which comprehend two-thirds of
the whole area, are improved in agricultural capa
city, and embellished with hedge-row and variously
disposed wood, beyond those of most estates in
Scotland ; and they, as well as other lands within
the area, form many delightful limited pictures, and,
at the same time, contribute charming features to a
general landscape of uncommon power and wealth
of beauty. Around some of the high grounds is
hung one of those panoramas for which the county
is so famed ; on the east, the palace, and park, and
pleasant lands of Scone ; on the south-east, the fer
tile and luscious strath of Tay, with its bounding
and majestic stream, now seen among openings of
wood, and now hid by its gay body-guard of forest;
in the same direction, the bridge and city of Perth,
and a semicircular sweep of jointly the Sidlaw and
the Ochil hills, cloven down at Kinnoul and Mon
crieff, and overlooked in the distance by the Fife
shire Lomonds. The running waters, besides the
Tay and the Almond, are the Ordie, the Shochie,
and the Coldrochie. All divide the parish from
Monedie; the Coldrochie, a mere rill, falling into the
Shochie, and the latter meeting the Ordie, and then
debouching with it across a narrow part of the inte
rior to the Tay. The prevailing rocks are grey
wacke, the old red sandstone, and the lowest mem
bers of the secondary formation. The soil is, in
some places, a mixture of clay and of black earth ;
but, in general, it is light and fertile. If the whole
area, including the barony of Mullion, were distri
buted into 100 parts, 75 would be found arable, 12
covered with wood, 7£ in grass, and 5J occupied
with roads or waste. The principal villages are
Stanley, Pitcairn, and Luncarty : which see.
Bridgeton-of- Almond, situated, as its name implies,
upon the Almond, has about 100 inhabitants, and
Craighead about 70. At Cromwell Park on the
Almond, at a place where the river affords three
waterfalls, there are a cotton spinning-mill, a flax
spinning-mill, two power-loom establishments, and
a bleachfield. The works belong to two different
proprietors, an£ aggregately employ about 200 per
sons. Other extensive manufactories exist at the
three principal villages. On the point of the pen
insula of the Tay and the Almond, anciently stood
Old Perth or Bertha [which see], and also, as
the author of Caledonia thinks, the Roman station
Orrea. At Pitcairn on the Almond are vestiges of
a British camp; where probably the native Horestii
took post to watch the motions of the Romans.
The parish is traversed northward by the great
Highland road from Perth to Inverness; and, in
various directions, by four statute-labour roads.
Across the Almond are three bridges; one, of a
single arch, resting on two rocks, and built in 1619,
by an ancestor of Lord Lynedoch, — another, a neat
structure of three arches, built in 1827,— and an
other, of singular elegance, and of one semicircular
arch of 80 feet span, built in 1832—6, at a cost of
£4,000, by Lord Lynedoch. Over the Tay, while
it touches the parish, or even between Perth and
Dunkeld, there is no bridge; nor is there at the
parish any better means of crossing it than one large
oar-impelled boat. Population, in 1801, 2,009; in
1831, 1,866. Houses 267. Assessed property! in
1815, £1,218 — Redgorton is in the presbytery of
Perth, and synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron
the Crown. Stipend £189 5s. 8d. ; glebe £18 6s'

RED

587

REN

6d. The parish-church was built in 1776; and
though substantial, is not floored. Sittings 415.
A portion of the parish is connected quoad sacra
with the church of Stanley. The inhabitants of the
district of Mullion, amounting to about 100, attend
the church of Logie-Almond. An United Secession
place of worship was built in 1 797 a£ Pitcairn ; and
cost, including the session-house and the manse,
£1,000. Sittings 450. Stipend not stated; the
N minister has a house and garden. According to a
census taken by the parish minister, in 1834-5, the
population then was 1,912; of whom 1,617 were
churchmen, 280 were dissenters, and 15 were non
descripts — The present parish comprehends the
three ancient parishes of Luncarty, which was an
independent parsonage, — St. Serffs, or St. Servanus,
which belonged to the diocese of Dunkeld, — and
Redgorton, which belonged to the monks of Scone.
The three were united, it is believed, at the Refor
mation. Popular tradition and belief refer the origin
of the name Redgorton, quasi " Red-gore-town," to
the battle of Luncarty, a notice of which will be
found in our account of that village ; and, though
not in their own rough mode of etymology, they
may possibly be correct, the words ruach garton, in
Gaelic, signifying ' the red little field,' or poetically,
' the field of blood.' In 1834 the parish-school was
attended by 89 scholars. Salary £34 4s. 4£d., with
£25 fees and £18 other emoluments. There are
two non-parochial schools ; but both are situated in
the quoad sacra parish of Stanley.
RED-HEAD, a promontory, or bold abutting
headland, on the south side of Lunan-bay, in the par
ish of Liverkeilor, Forfarshire. It descends almost
sheer down in a precipitous rock to the sea of 270
feet; and it is but a nodular projection of a stretch,
several miles in extent, of bold rocky and high coast.
As the highest ground on that sea-bulwark, the lof
tiest point of terminating uplands which there stoop
bluffly down to the ocean, it is usually noted as the
north-east end of the Sidlaw-hills, forming the last
bead of the string of which Kinnoul-hill at Perth
forms the first. The headland abounds with various
species of sea-fowls ; it makes a fine display of the
porphyritic formation of rock ; it is distinctly seen
at a great distance at sea; and it is remarkable as
the point northward which, before tbe year 1793,
coal was not permitted to be carried without paying
a very heavy duty.
REEKING LINN (The). See The South
Calder. REEKY LINN (The). See Glenisla.
RENFREW,* a parish in the county of the same
name, bounded on the north by the parishes of West
and East Kilpatrick in Dumbartonshire ; on the east
chiefly by Govan in Lanarkshire ; on the south by
the Abbey parish of Paisley ; and on the west by
the rivers Black Cart and Gryfe, which separate
it from Kilbarchan and Inchinnan. Its greatest
length is about 6 miles ; greatest breadth 2| miles ;
contents 3,776 imperial acres. Its figure is very ir
regular, and is farther broken by the intersection of
the rivers Clyde and White Cart, and — for a short
distance — of a canal which runs alongside of the lat
ter. Fully one-third of the parish is on the north
* The derivation of this name from the ancient language of
the country seems liable to little doubt. In the Brilish, Rhyn
means a point of land, and Frew or Fraw, a flow of water.
These wordB are Btrikingly applicable to the site of the town
of Renfrew, ou a point of land between the rivers Clyde and
Cart, which unite their waters about a mile below. The an.
gular piece of ground formed by their junction, is called Ren-
field, affording an instance of the ancient and modern languages
in combination. Vulgarly, the word is pronounced Aren-
throw. and in conformity, in some measure, to this, we find
Principal Baillie in his ' Letters,' written in the 17th century,
spelling it Baranthrow and Saranfrow.

side of the Clyde, with which portion communica-
tion is maintained by row-boats for foot-passengers, .
and by a large vessel, open at both ends, and moved
along a chain by a hand-windlass', for cattle, carts,
and carriages. The canal is crossed by a strong
swing-bridge, and the White and Black Carts by a
handsome stone-bridge at their confluence at Inch
innan. On the south of the Clyde, the surface is
almost perfectly level, there being only one notice
able acclivity, which is dignified with the appella
tion of Knock, — ' a little hill.' North of that river,
the ground rises into low conical eminences, with
flat land between and around them. The soil on
both sides is, for the most part, deep,, fertile, and
alluvial. The parish wears a pleasing and cheerful
aspect, nearly the whole being in a state of culti
vation, while the landscape is beautified by several
mansion-houses with plantations, and enlivened by
the many vessels, impelled by wind and steam, that
hourly float along the brimming waters of the Clyde
In the lands of Seotston and Jordanhill, on the north
side of that river, coal has long been wrought. At
Yoker, on the same side, but lower down, there is
an extensive distillery manufacturing whisky from
malt ; and near it the trustees for the improvement
of the river have their chief establishment of arti
ficers and labourers. The parish is traversed by no
less than six public roads which are of obvious
utility  The population, including the burgh, was,
in 1801, 2,031 ; in 1821, 2,646; and, in 1841, 3,076.
Families, in 1841, 633; giving an average of 4.86 to
each. The annual value of real property for which
the parish was assessed, in 1815, exclusive of the
burgh, was £7,128  The parish is in the presby
tery of Paisley, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr
Pairon, the Crown. The date of erection of the
church is unknown. It was enlarged and repaired in
1726, at an expense of £225 12s. Id. ; and was
refitted with seats in 1820, at an expense of £865.
Sittings 750, exclusive of the family gallery of the
principal heritor. Stipend £277 18s. 3d. ; glebe
£54. Unappropriated teinds £171 7s. lid. There
is no regular place of worship in the parish, ex
cept the Established church, to which the unusual
proportion of 8-9ths of the population professed to
adhere, in 1836  Besides five private schools, there
is a considerable seminary, which originated under the
following circumstances : — In 1838, soon after the
death of Archibald Campbell, Esq., of Blythswood,
Lord-lieutenant and Convener of Renfrewshire, a
meeting of the nobility and gentry, and other friends
of the deceased, was held, at which it was resolved
" to transmit to posterity some lasting mark of the
high and grateful sense which the county at large
entertained of the public services and private worth
of Mr. Campbell." Subseriptions were entered into,
and a committee was appointed for the purpose of
carrying this resolution into effect. The committee
having determined that the monument should be a
building combining some institution of public utility
with the preservation of Mr. Campbell's memory, they
entered into an agreement with the town-council of
Renfrew, by which an institution for the education
of youth was to be erected out of the money sub
scribed, and the council — besides giving a site — were
to endow and support the institution. A handsome
edifice, called " The Blythswood Testimonial," was
accordingly finished in 1842. It stands on the west of
the burgh, near the domains of the estimable gentle
man of whom it forms so appropriate a memorial.
This seminary may be considered as coming in the
place of the parochial or grammar-school, for which
provision was made by a charter of James VI. in
1614, In the parish, as we have already intimated, there

588

RENFREW.

are some handsome mansions. Blythswood-house is
finely situated upon the point of land where the
united streams of the Carts and the Gryfe mingle
their waters with those of the Clyde. The prospect
here was pronounced by Pennant — " the most ele
gant and the softest of any in North Britain." The
house is constructed of the finest white freestone, —
the east front presenting a portico of four columns
in the Ionic order. It was built, in 1821, bythe
above-mentioned Archibald Campbell, Esq., who
died in 1838, and was succeeded by his relative,
Archibald Douglas, Esq. of Mains, who now holds
the name and title of ' Campbell of Blythswood.'
The original name of this property was Renfield,
— and it had an old house upon it so called. When
the present mansion was built, it received the name
of Blythswood, in honour of a small but now very
valuable estate belonging to the family, on which a
great part of the norih-western portion of Glasgow
is built  At the confluence of the Black Cart and
the Gryfe are the house and lands of Walkinshaw,
long the seat of an ancient family of that name, but
nowbelonging to William Maxwell Alexander, Esq.,
and others. The house is modern, and stands among
full-grown wood  Jordanhill, the seat of James
Smith, Esq., F. R. S., occupies an eminence on the
north of the Clyde, about a mile from the river, and
commands an extensive and agreeable prospect. It
was built about the year 1782, but has since been
much improved. The estate of Jordanhill anciently
belonged to the Crawfords, one of whom was that
Captain Thomas Crawford who surprised, and took
by escalade, the castle of Dumbarton, in the year
1571  Near the river, on the same side, is Scotston,
an ancient inheritance of a branch of the Montgo-
meries, which, after being held by several families,
was purchased in the 18th century by Richard and
Alexander Oswald, merchants in Glasgow. It now
belongs to Miss Oswald. The house is modern.
— Elderslie-house, the seat of Mr. Speirs, has been
noticed under the article Elderslie.
This parish is distinguished for its connexion with
the illustrious house of Stewart. The lands of
Renfrew are the first-mentioned of the estates speci
fied in the charter granted by King Malcolm IV. in
1 1 57, in favour of Walter, the founder of that family,
whereby he confirmed a grant which had been made
by King David, who reigned from 1124 to 1153.
The office of high steward of Scotland was also con
ferred on Walter and his successors, who from thence
took the surname of Stewart, often, but incorrectly,
spelt Stuart. At Renfrew they had their earliest
and usual residence ; and from this corner of the land,
therefore, thBre issued a race which successively
ascended the thrones of Scotland and England.
Their mansion stood on a slightly elevated piece of
ground, on the west side of the road leading from
the town to the ferry. It no longer exists, but the
site is still called Castlehill. Within the recollec
tion of many living, there was a deep fosse partially
round the site, strengthened with stone on the inner
side, and having a small rivulet passing through it.
Part of the foundations having been lately dug up,
several rings and a key were found. Adjacent are
lands which still bear the names of ' The Orchard '
and ' The King's Meadow;' also a small street,
called ' The Dog-row,' meaning the place where
the kennel was. This street we have seen mentioned
as a boundary in a deed dated in the early part of
the 15th century  Somerled, Lord of the Isles, who
had risen in rebellion against King Malcolm IV., was
defeated and slain at Renfrew in 1 164. The mount,
with a stone on the top, noticed by Pennant (vol. iii.
p. 151), as traditionally reported to be the memorial
of Somerled's fall, and the place of his interment,

no longer exists  The lands of Knock — so called
from the hill already mentioned — at one time be
longed to the Knoxes of Ranfurly, from whom the
Reformer was descended ; and from this place the
surname of Knox may be derived. Semple says
(p. 30) that in 1782 there was dug up here a part of
an urn, with some human bones, and that about 36
years previously, what was supposed to be a Roman
urn was found at this place. In the New Statisti
cal Account (p. >7) it is said that, in 1778, two
urns, containing human ashes, and believed to be
Roman, were dug up here ; but this is probably
Semple's account in a different form. The spot is
little more than a mile from the site of the Roman
station at Paisley. The lower edge of the hill is,
to this day, called 'the Butts,' — most probably be
cause it was a place for the practice of archery.
But the Knock is chiefly remarkable on account of
an accident which tradition tells befell Lady Marjory
Bruce, daughter of King Robert Bruce, and wife of
Walter the Steward, in the year 1316. It is said
that the Princess, when far advanced in pregnancy,
was thrown from her horse and killed at this place,
but that the life of the child was saved, which child,
long afterwards, ascended the throne as Robert II.
Till the year 1779, there stood here an octagonal
column, about 10 feet in height, inserted in a pedes
tal also eight-sided, and about 6 feet in diameter. It
had neither inscription nor sculpture, but went by
the name of 'Queen Bleary 's Cross,' or ' Stane,'
and, according to unvarying tradition, supported by
Crawford (p. 61), was commemorative of the above
unhappy accident. — Another occurrence, much more
recent and better authenticated, is commemorated
by a large stone which stands on the estate of Ren
field or Blythswood, close to the high road leading
from Renfrew to Inchinnan-bridge. At this spot the
Earl of Argyle was wounded and taken prisoner after
the failure of his ill-conducted enterprise in 1685
It consists of a fragment of rock, weighing probably
a couple of tons, and contains some reddish veins,
which (as the Earl leant upon it after being wounded)
were long believed to be the stains of his blood.
Renfrew, a royal burgh, and the capital of Ren
frewshire, is situated within half-a-mile of the south
bank of the Clyde, nearly 3 miles north of Paisley,
and 6 miles west of Glasgow. It is certainly the
most ancient town in the county, being traceable as
far back as the reign of David I. It was constituted
a royal burgh by Robert III. in 1396. The town is
very small, consisting only of n single street, about
half-a-mile in length, with some lanes. At the cross,
near the west end, stand the town-house and jail,
with a spire and clock. North of this is an excellent
gas-work, erected by the community ih 1841. The
town maintains an almost stationary state, and has
a neat and comfortable look. The inhabitants are
chiefly occupied in the weaving of silks and muslins ;
and there is a bleachfield, and a starch manufactory.
The community have long enjoyed the exclusive pri
vilege of fishing salmon in the Clyde, within certain
extensive limits. In the 16th century, according to
Bishop Lesley, they often had 60 boats so employed
during the whole of the spring and summer (not
' all the year round," as his language has been erro
neously translated). Crawford says that Renfrew
had once a little foreign trade; but that when he
wrote in 1 710, the chief traffic was with Ireland. The
burgh must of old have plumed itself on account of
its occupation on the waters ; for its arms represent
a ship, with the motto, ' Deus gubernat navem.' At
present there are no vessels belonging to Renfrew,
except such as carry coals, manure, &c, on the
river. The salmon-fishery is still prosecuted ; but
the fish have greatly decreased in quantity! A

RENFREWSHIRE.

589

branch of the Clyde at one time ran close to the
town, on the north ; but the river deserted this
channel in the 17 th century, or perhaps more re
cently; and the town now communicates with the
Clyde by a small canal, formed about the year
1785, partly in the old bed of the river. A com
modious quay was built in 1835, at an expense of
£800; and about 100 yards below it, is the terminus
of a railway to Paisley, opened in 1837. No place,
perhaps, in the west of Scotland, is so peculiarly
healthy as Renfrew. Epidemical distempers are
hardly ever known. For this, two reasons have been
assigned. The one is, that the town stands upon a
bed of sand of great depth, so that the rain is soon
absorbed, and damps and fogs are hardly every felt.
The other reason is the peculiar excellence of the
water. The royalty of the burgh is very extensive.
It stretches down the Clyde as far as the river Cart,
in the direction of the Greenock road, as far as In-
chinnan-bridge, about a mile from the cross, and in
the direction of Paisley about a mile-and-a-balf.
The parliamentary boundary is much more limited,
but appears to afford room for any probable extension
of the town. There is a portion of ground within
the pariiamentary boundary, but excluded from the
royalty, though entirely surrounded by it. This
ground, which is now partly built upon, is that
called the Orchard and Castlehill, which has been
noticed in the account of the parish, as having
formed the residence of the Stewarts. The pro
perty of the burgb, in reference to its size and po
pulation, is large and valuable. It consists of farms,
pasture-lands, fishings in the Clyde, the ferry across
that river, houses and gardens, canal and harbour
dues, seats in the church, feu-duties, &c. The Com
missioners on Municipal Corporations, in 1833, re
ported that no valuation of this property had been
made, but that the total annual revenue at that time
was £1,448 12s. 7d. In 1841 it had increased to
£1,683 7s. 9|d. Before the burgh reform act of
1833, the mode of election in Renfrew was one of
pure self-nomination. The last provost under the
old system, Mr. Robert King, was constantly re
elected, and filled the office for 24 years continu
ously. It must be acknowledged, however, that
although tenacious of office, the worthy functionary
bore his faculties meekly ; and notwithstanding the ex
travagant tavern-bills, for which this petty burgh was
long noted, his administration must, upon the whole,
have been prudent and judicious, — for it appears by
the Commissioners' Report, that, during the last 16
years of his sway, the debt due by the corporation
was reduced to the extent of one-half. The council
consists of a provost, 2 bailies, a treasurer, and 15
ordinary members. The provost is ex officio a de
puty-lieutenant of the county. The only incorpo
rated trade is that of the tailors. Renfrew was for
merly associated with Glasgow, Dumbarton, and
Rutherglen, in returning a member to parliament;
— by the Reform act it is united with Kilmarnock,
Dumbarton, Port-Glasgow, and Rutherglen. In 1841,
the parliamentary constituency of Renfrew was 95,
the municipal 88, — and the population, within the
parliamentary boundaries, 2,013. The assessed value
of real property within the burgh, in 1815, was
£2,955. There are three fairs annually, chiefly
for the sale of cattle. The magistrates hold a court
weekly on Saturday, which is also the market-day.
The meetings of quarter-sessions, commissioners of
supply, and freeholders, are held at Renfrew as the
county-town. This was also the seat of the sheriff-
court till 1705, when it was transferred to Paisley.
RENFREWSHIRE, a small but important manu
facturing and commercial county ; bounded on the
east and north-east by Lanarkshire; on the south

by Ayrshire; on the west by the frith of Clyde,
which separates it from Argyleshire; and on the
north by the frith and river of Clyde, which sepa
rate it from Dumbartonshire, except 1,294 acres
belonging to the parish of Renfrew, which lie on
the opposite side of the river. The greatest length
of the county from Drumduff, in the parish of Eagles
ham, in a north-west direction to Cloch-point, in
the parish of Innerkip, is 31| miles; and its greatest
breadth from Maich-bridge, near Kilbirnie-loch, to
Erskine-hause, in a north-east direction, is 13^ miles.
Its area is 241 square miles, or 154,240 acres, of
which about 100,000 are cultivated, 20,000 unculti
vated, and 34,240 unprofitable. In 1755 the popu
lation was only 26,645; in 1801 it had increased to
79,891; in 1821 it was 111,796; in 1831, 133,443;
and, in 1841, 154,755, of whom 72,725 were males,
and 82,030 were females. The rapid increase in the
number of inhabitants is attributable to the extension
of manufactures and commerce. The greater part are
gathered round the towns of Paisley, Greenock, and
Port-Glasgow. The increase in the 10 years pre
ceding 1841, was 15'9 per cent. The inhabited
houses, in 1841, were 24,626. The valued rent, in
1674, was £69,172 Scots ; the annual value of real
property, as assessed in 1815, £265,534. The county
returns one member to parliament. Constituency,
in 1841, 2,336.
In ancient times the greater part, if not the whole,
of the district, which now forms the county of Ren
frew, was denominated, from one of its rivers, Strath-
gryfe, — the valley of ihe Gryfe, — and was included
in the shire of Lanark. It was the chief patrimony
of the Stewards of Scotland, and, after the 12th
century, was called the barony of Renfrew, from the
burgh where the Stewards had their principal resi
dence. In 1404, 33 years after their accession to
the throne, King Robert III. granted to his son and
heir, James, this barony and the other portions of
his ancient patrimonial inheritance; since which
time the eldest son of the reigning monarch has,
besides his other titles, been styled Prince and
Steward of Scotland, and Baron of Renfrew. When
there is no heir-apparent, these titles are merged in
the Crown. Crawford, iij his History of this county,
says (p. 10) that " the barony of Renfrew was dis
solved from the shire of Lanark, and erected into a
distinct sheriffdom " by King Robert when he exe
cuted the grant in favour of his son ; but the charter
to which Crawford refers as proving this statement
does not contain one word of a sheriff or sheriffdom
of Renfrew, or any allusion to its establishment as a
shire. The barony must, however, have been formed
into a sheriffdom about that time, or soon after; for
in a deed dated 12th August, 1414, there appears as
a witness one ' Dominus Finlayus Buntyn,' who is
styled ' Vicecomes de Renfrew,' sheriff of Ren
frew [Caledonia, vol. iii. p. 772] ; and about the
middle of the same century the sheriffdom is recog
nised in several records.
In describing Renfrewshire, it is usual to separate
it into three districts, which differ greatly in soil,
surface, and mode of cultivation ; namely, the hilly,
the gently rising, and the flat. 1. The hUly or more
elevated district is by far the most extensive, and, if
properly cultivated, perhaps the most important of
the three. It forms the south and west parts of the
county, and comprehends the parishes of Mearns,
Eaglesham, Kilmalcolm, Innerkip, Greenock, and
Port-Glasgow, the greatest part of Neilston and
Lochwinnoch, with large portions of other parishes
which are chiefly situated in the lower districts.
The soil which generaUy pervades this district is a
free light earth on a dry bottom of gravel on whin
stone, or what is called rotten-rock. The grounds

REN

590

RER

are often barren, producing only ling or heath, and
many parts are covered with deep moss. 2. The
gently rising or middle district comprehends the par
ishes of Cathcart and Eastwood, with parts of the
parishes of Paisley, Inchinnan, Erskine, Houstoun,
Kilbarchan, and Renfrew. In1 no part of Britain,
perhaps, has nature formed a more beautiful surface
than in this district. Little hills, swelling in endless
variety, interspersed with many-coloured copses,
often watered at the bottom by winding rivulets, in
different and changing forms, meet every turning of
the eye. In a small compass there is a striking di
versity of landscape. The hills do not rise in ridges,
but are altogether separate, and present those alter
nate risings and falls which constitute so material a
part of picturesque beauty. In this district the soil
is a thin earth, sometimes on a gravel and sometimes
on a till bottom. The land is nearly all arable, and
there are many flat holms of small extent, the soil of
which is of a loamy mellow nature and of great fer
tility. 3. The flat division, called, in the language
of the country, ' the laigh-lands,' forms the last and
smallest division. It consists chiefly of that beauti
ful level tract which is situated to the north of the
town of Paisley, and comprehends the parish of
Renfrew and parts of Inchinnan, Erskine, Houstoun,
Kilbarchan, and Paisley. Here the soil is, generally,
a deep rich loam of a dark brown colour, and seems
, to be a deposition of vegetable mould from the higher
and less fertile parts of the county. In this district,
especially along the banks of the Black Cart, moss
prevails. The cultivated part of the county is in
the centre, and on the north and north-east. The
hilly parts on the west and south are chiefly de
voted to pasture  The railways, turnpike roads,
and canals, which traverse the county, have been
noticed under separate articles, and otherwise.
The principal rivers are the White Cart, the Black
Cart, the Gryfe, the Levern, and the Calder, which
have been separately described, as has the chief sheet
of water, Castle-Semple-loch. The Clyde must also
be regarded as connected with Renfrewshire, as it
forms the boundary, to a great extent, and*at once
beautifies the district and affords facilities for com
merce. The south-eastern ,part of the county is included
in the coal-district of the west of Scotland, and in
this part coal has been long and extensively wrought.
Limestone, freestone, and whinstone abound through
out the county. Ironstone is also found in profusion,
and it has been partially wrought. The geology of
the county has been well described by an intelli
gent inhabitant, William Montgomery, Esq. of Cloak,
in a prize essay published in the Quarterly Journal of
Agriculture fof December, 1838 (No. 43), and by
the Rev. William Patrick, in General Observations
on Renfrewshire, contained in the New Statistical
Account. Since the period of the Union with England,
Renfrewshire has become distinguished for the ex
tent of its manufactures and commerce, as may be
seen from our accounts of Paisley, Greenock, Port-
Glasgow, and other places within its bounds.
The number of parochial schools within the county,
in 1834, was 19, and of schools not parochial 169.
Between Lady-day and Michaelmas 1833, the greatest
number of scholars attending the former were 925,
and the latter 9,142 ; but when a due proportion is
added for defective returns, the former number should
be 1,102, and the latter 11,721.
RENTON, a large manufacturing viUage, in the
parish of Cardross, Dumbartonshire. It is pleasantly
situated in the vale of the Leven, on the right bank
of that pure and lovely stream, 21 miles north of
Dumbarton, IA south of Alexandria, 8^ east by south

of Helensburgh, and 1 7 north-west by west of Glas
gow. It was founded, in 1 782, by Mrs. Smollett of
Bonhill, and named in honour of her daughter-in-
law, Miss Renton of Lammerton. Extensive calico
printing and bleaching establishments have alreadjf
urged, its prosperity to the bulk of a small town ;
and, either directly or remotely, employ almost the
whole of its population. The village has a United
Secession meeting-house, regular missionary-station-
work connected with the Establishment, several
schools, a Bible and Missionary society, a respect
ably large subscription-library, and quite an undue
number of public-houses. Population 1,900.
RENTON, a decayed village upon the Eye, in
the parish of Coldingham, Berwickshire, which,
judging from the extent of the foundations of its
houses which, till lately, remained to impede the
progress of the plough, must, at one period, have
been of considerable size  A little to the south-east
of these ruins, upon the northern bank of the Eye, was
situated the tower of Renton, which figured a good
deal in the wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, but
of which only the foundations can now be traced.
RENTON-INN, a stage on the western one of
the Cockburnspath and Coldingham parts of the
great coast-line of road between Edinburgh and
Newcastle. It stands in the parish of Coldingham,
14 miles from Berwick, and 43 from Edinburgh.
RERRICK, or Rerwick, a parish on the coast
of Kirkcudbrightshire; bounded on the north by
Kelton; on the east by Buittle; on the south-east
and south by the Solway frith ; and on the west by
Kirkcudbright and Kelton. It is, in a general view,
triangular ; and measured in straight lines, which
fall more within than beyond the real boundary, it
extends 7 miles along the north-east, 8| along the
south-east, and 8| along the west. Its area is about
32 square miles. The surface is, in part, boldly hilly,
and coarsely tumulated ; and, in part, undulated or
champaign. Bencairn, Forrest, Kendlum, and other
bulky heights, fill the whole north angle, or between
a fourth and a third of the entire area, and are clad
in heath and altogether pastoral or waste. The
grounds elsewhere have two lochlets and a number
of mosses, — three of the latter comprehending re
spectively 30, 40, and 300 acres ; but, with these
exceptions, they are all arable, the plough maintain
ing dominion up to the summit of every swell and
eminence. The soil, in most places, is naturally
wet and spongy ; but, having been well-drained and
cultivated, it has become a good mould, and produces
excellent crops. At the head of Auchencairn-bay is
a flat expanse reaching about half-a-mile inland,
which apparently was, at no very ancient date, a
marsh overflown by the tide, but is now a scene of
agricultural industry, and a seat of population,  dis
posed in fine fields, in the pleasure-grounds of a
gentleman's mansion, and in the site of the village of
Auchencairn. The bay of Auchencairn [which
see] is one of the prettiest little inlets of the 'sea in
Scotland. Along its edges is a little rising ground
or bank, skirted with natural wood ; at its entrance,
exactly in the middle, rises the beautiful green,
smooth island of Heston, If mile in circumference,
towering high above the billows, and offering herb
age to a flock of sheep and a brigade of rabbits ; and,
from its west side, near its north-west corner, Hes-
ton-bay goes off in form of a horn, measuring 1 J mile
in length, and half-a-mile in breadth, and overlooked
by the mansions of Torr and Orchardton. These
bays, with a streamlet, called Orchard-lane, flowing
into the latter, form the whole of the boundary
with Buittle. The coast, from Balcarry-point, at
the entrance of Auchencairn-bay, to a creek, called
Mullock-bay, at the western boundary, is 8$ miles in

RERRICK.

591

extent. In the shore-line it is bluff, bold, and
broken, and has some strong dashes of romance;'
along the sea-board, it exhibits a charming variety of
creeks, green fields, simple woods, and twisted vales ;
and, from numerous swells, or nearly all its higher
surface, it commands a rich and far-extending pros
pect, both inland and especially toward the sea.
The view inland embraces a large part of Galloway
and a portion of Dumfries-shire, and is closed at the
distance of about 50 miles, by Cairnsmoor, the hills
of Carsphairn, and the noble dome of Queensberry.
Seaward tbe frith, which is here 10 leagues broad,
is seen to stretch away on the right till it is lost in
the Irish sea, and on the left about 30 miles, in nar
rowing limits, dotted along the English coast with
no fewer than five towns fringed along the margin
with distinctly seen fields and hedges, and over
hung on the, Scottish side by the majestic Criffel,
and on tbe English side by ihe gallery or receding
ranges of the Cumberland mountains, terminating
in the lofty Skiddaw. The heights have the effect
of flinging a kind of shade upon the frith, or of
aiding the distinctiveness of its objects, and en-
1 hancing the impression of its general beauty. From
several parts of the parish a curve of about 90
miles from the point of St. Beev, round the Isle
of Man to the point of Whitehorn, can be distinctly
seen in one view ; and, as most of the vantage-
grounds which command this great and gorgeous ma
rine prospect are high, and lift the eye away to the
mouth of St. George's channel, and towards the
north of Ireland, the vessels which dot it — and which
are rarely fewer than from 60 to 80 in number — ap
pear, in consequence of a well-known law of optics,
as if they were elevated one above another, accord
ing to their distance, till the farthest seems as if
dropping out of the clouds ; so that, in certain states
of the atmosphere, the beautifully zoned sea looks
like an immense canvass bung down from heaven,
and depicted with ships. Port-Mary [which see],
Mullock-bay, and a creek in Auchencairn-bay, called
Balcarry-bay, have all, by act of Parliament, been
declared free ports ; but they are mere landing-
places, and witness very little traffic. Five or six
streamlets rise among the uplands in the north, and
flow divergently to the sea ; the most noticeable be
ing Kendlum and Abbey burns, which wash respec
tively the two villages of the parish, and are pleas
ing for their utility and their scenery. Excellent
freestone abounds along the coast, and has been ex
tensively quarried for exportation into a consider
able circumjacent district. A rich iron-mine was
worked for some time by an English company, and
was abandoned on account only of the expense and
inconvenience of exporting the produce.* Theprinci-
pal village is Auchencairn, with, in 1836, 325 inhabi-
tants. See Auchencairn. The village of Dundren
nan stands on tbe Abbey-burn, 5J miles east-south-
* Some small but bpautifnl rock-crystals, found in this dis
trict, are curiously described hy the Old Statistical Reporter :
 «« On the march, in the northern corner of the parish," says
he, " there is a small stream, which comes gurglingdown from
the mountains, in which are found a certain kind of little stones,
of a very striking figure and quality, quite transparent, with a
faint colour of purple, and so hard, that they will cut glass like
a diamond. They grow on the rocks that overhang the rivulet
in large clusters, about the size of pin heads, where they con
tinue to vegetate — as may be collected from the different stages
of their progress, evidently there to be seen — till they are near
an inch long and three-eighths diameter; when dropping out
of their sockets, they fall into the water, and mix with the
travel at the bottom of the rill. The end that sat in the
socket, very much resembles that part of a tooth which sticks
in the jaw ; the other end of most of them is tapered : and— -
which is the great and inexplicable phenomenon — are cut into
triangular, quadrangular, and various other figures, as neatly
and distinctly, as if they had come through the hands of the
best lapidary in the kingdom. How frequently these rocks
bring to maturity, and cast off their singular fruit, whether
in 50 100, or 1,000 years, cannot be so much as guessed at."

east of Kirkcudbright; and had, in 1836, apopulation
of 199. Near-it stands Dundrennan Abbey : which
see. In various localities there are vestiges of two
Druidical temples, and twelve British, Roman, and
Saxon, or Danish camps ; and on the summit of
Bencairn, 1 ,200 feet above sea-level, is a cairn which
has given name to the mountain, and appears to have
been amassed by the laborious portage Qf its stones
from the plain. The principal mansions, additional
to those already named, are Dundrennan-house and
Balcarry. The parish, though sufficiently veined
with roads, is not traversed by any great turnpike
lines. Population, in 1801, 1,166; in 1831, 1,635.
Houses 262. Assessed property, in 1815, £11,986.
— Rerrick is in the presbytery of Kirkcudbright, and
synod of Galloway. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£232 19s. 2d.; glebe £30. The parish-church was
built about the end of the 1 7th century, and was al
tered and enlarged in 1743 and 1793, and received
the addition of an aisle in 1828. Sittings 565. A
Baptist meeting-house in Auchencairn was built in
1822, at the cost of £112, and has attached to it
one of the parish school-rooms  The parish was an
ciently called Dundrennan, — a name which means ' the
hill of thorns,' and which was given bythe parish to
the abbey, not borrowed from the abbey by the par
ish. The original church stood on the east of ' the
hill of thorns,' alluded to in its name, or by the side
of the Abbey-burn ; and, from 1142 till the Refor
mation, it belonged to the abbey. The church still
remained in the reign of Charles I. ; and, when it be
came ruinous, the abbey was used in its stead. On
the abbey, in its turn, falling into disrepair, the pre
sent church was built on the lands of Rerrick, and
thence derived for itself and the parish their modern
name. A chapel anciently stood at an extinct vil
lage, to which it gave the appellation of Chapeltown.
There are two parochial and two non-parochial
schools; the former attended, in 1834, by 175 scho
lars, and the latter by 103. United salaries of the
parish schoolmasters £51 6s. 6fd., with £44 fees.
RESCOBIE, a parish a little south-east of the
centre of Forfarshire. It consists of two connected
sections, both of which are elongated, and stretch
from east to west, but which are not strictly con
tinuous, and jointly form a very irregular outline.
Rescobie-loch — a sheet of water which stretches
from west to east, measures IA mile in length by
A of a mile in extreme breadth — forms, along with
very small parts of Lunan-water at its ends, the
line of connection between the two sections. The
western section lies on the north side of the loch,
and extends westward frpm its east end; and the
eastern section lies on its south side, and extends
eastward from its west end. The western section
measures 5J miles in length, and from £ of a mile to
If mile in breadth ; and is bounded on the north by
Oathlaw and Aberlemno ; on the east by Aber-
lemno ; on the south by the loch and by Forfar ;
and on the west by Kirriemuir. The eastern sec
tion measures 4£ miles in length, and from f of a
mile to lj mile in breadth ; and is bounded on the
north by the loch and by Aberlemno and the north
ern section of Guthrie ; on the east by Kirkden ;
on the south by Kirkden and Dunnichen ; and on
the west by Forfar. The superficial extent of the
whole parish is about 12 square miles. The sur
face is much diversified, and nowhere lies lower
than about 200 feet above sea-level. The hills of
Turin and Pitscandlie, on the north side of Reseobie-
loch, are about 600 feet in elevation above the level
of the lake, and rise rapidly from their base. The
face of the former is an impregnable wall of rock,
similar to that of Salisbury-crags at Edinburgh ; and
its summit is crowned by the vestiges of an ancient

RES

592

RES

stronghold, now called Kemp or Camp-castle, and
consisting of various extensive contiguous buildings,
with a circular citadel about 120 feet in diameter.
Concerning this antiquity, remarks the dull but oc
casionally sarcastic Webster, " even tradition does
not tell a lie." The most remarkable feature in the
Turin-hiU quarries is a stratum of conglomerate or
pudding stone, 20 or 30 feet in thickness, overlaying
the old red sandstone which forms the body of the
hill. The latter affords perhaps the best building-
stone in the county, and varies from a laminar to a
conchoidal fracture, or, in the language of the quar-
riers here, from slate to liver rock. An abundant sup
ply of rich shell marl from the lakes of the parish and
its.boundaries incited and secured success in georgical
enterprise. Lemno- water circles 3J miles round the
south, the west, and the north sides of the western
section. Lunan-water, coming in from near its
source, in Forfar, traces for a mile the western boun
dary of the eastern division; and debouching east
ward, expands into Rescobie-locb, and afterwards
traces for 2A miles the.northern boundary-line, and,
during its progress, expands into the Loch of Bal-
gavies, a sheet of water |A mile in circumference.
The vallicular funnel between the ridgy hill of Dun
nichen oh the south, and the connected hills of
Turin and Pitscanbie on the north, frequently oc
casions in the atmosphere a strong and purifying
current, which carries off the humid exhalations
from the lakes, and renders the air of the parish pe
culiarly salubrious. When the Old Statistical Ac
count was written, some parishioners were upwards
of 80 and 90, and one had just died at the advanced
age of 104. The minerals, especially the sandstones
of the two chief hills, appear to be richly workable,
and so situated and amassed as to command the at
tention of taste. The hills, says the old statist,
" contain inexhaustible stores of stone of various
kinds, and of every dimension fit for use ; and quar
ries are now working which are astonishing to look
at, and afford ample subject of contemplation and
amusement to the naturalist and the virtuoso. Gen
tlemen of this cast would sometimes deign to come
and see, if they knew what is to be seen. Besides
the discoveries to be made in the bowels of these
hills, the stupendous rocks that rise upon them, in
proud contempt of human productions, may well be
viewed as natural prodigies, and must strike with
amazement the eye of the stranger." The principal
mansion is Turin-house. The parish is traversed by
the Arbroath and Forfar railway, and the turnpikes
between Arbroath and Forfar, between Montrose
and Forfar, and between Dundee and Aberdeen by
way of Breohin. Population, in 1801, 870; in 1831,
808. Houses 164. Assessed property, in 1815,
£5,277  Rescobie is in the presbytery of Forfar,
and synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron, the Earl
of Strathmore. Stipend £213 19s. 3d.; glebe £13.
Schoolmaster's salary £31, with £10 12s. 6d. fees,
and £6 other emoluments. A chapel anciently stood
a little east of the loch of Balgavies. In its burying-
ground, which still remains, no grave seems to have
been opened a second time, and the tomb-stones are
60 deposited that, while their inscriptions were le
gible, a family history might have been collected
from them through a series of generations.
RESORT (Loch), a long narrow bay, on the
west coast of Lewis and Harris, and forming over
all its length the boundary between them in Long
island. It penetrates about 7 or 8 miles into the
country; but, 3 miles inward from its entrance, is
only about a mile broad ; and thence to its head it
tapers gradually to a point.
RESTALRIG, a village in the parish of South
Leith, Edinburghshire. It stands on low ground in

I the midst of the plain which extends from the beacn
of Leith to the hills of the metropolis; and it is If
\ mile east-north-east of the Calton-hill of Edinburgh,
IA mile south-east of the centre of the town of
Leith, and l1 mile west-north-west of the Figgate-
burn at Portobello. During the period of the papacy,
it was the capital of the parish, and the site of the
parish-church. When or whence it had its name
and its parochial origin, is not known. At the de
mise of William the Lion, the district of Restalrig—
or, as it was anciently called, Restalric^was pos
sessed by a family who wore its name as their own.
At the demise of Alexander III., it acknowledged
John de Restalric as its baron, and had undoubtedly
become a parish and a parsonage. In 1291, Adam
of St. Edmund's was its parson, and had a writ to
the sheriff of Edinburgh to deliver him his lands
and rights; and, in 1296, in the church of Restalric,
he swore fealty to Edward I. During the reign of
Robert I. the barony passed by marriage into the
possession of the Logans; and it continued to be
their property till they became forfeited for their
participation in Gowrie's conspiracy. In 1435, the
patronage of the church was confirmed to Thomas
Logan, by William, bishop of St. Andrews. At
various dates, transactions — some of them of a very
venial kind — were effected by the Logans which re
motely enthralled the port of Leith to the domineer
ing tyranny of Edinburgh : See Leith. A colle
giate establishment was set up at Restalrig by James
III., improved by James IV, and completed by
James V. ; but it seems not to have interfered with
the parsonage, which remained entire till the Refor
mation. In 1560, the first General Assembly or
dained that the church, on account apparently of its
abounding with statues and images which were the
insensate objects of brutalized religious worship, to
be destroyed "as a monument of idolatry," and that
the parishioners should in future adopt as their par
ish-church, St. Mary's chapel in Leith, — that which
continues to the present day to be the South Leith
parochial church. In 1609, the legal rights of the
church and parish of Restalrig, with all their rev
enues and pertinents, were formally alienated from
them by parliament, and conferred upon the chapel,
then legally declared to be the parish-church of
South Leith. Robert Logan of Restalrig, who, in
1600, was concerned in Gowrie's conspiracy, and
who seems, about the year 1607, to have died a
bankrupt, sold, in 1596, his estate of Nether Gogar
to Andrew Logan of Coalfield, — in 1602, his lands
of Fast-castle, to Archibald Douglas, — in 1604, his
barony of Restalrig, to Lord Balmerino,— and in
1605, his lands of Quarrel-holes to some party whom
our authorities do not name. The Lords Balmerino
held the lands of Restalrig till their forfeiture in
1 746 ; and during the whole period of their posses
sion appropriated the vaults of the forsaken and di
lapidated church as the burying-place of themselves
and their immediate relations. Lady Balmerino,
the wife of Arthur, the 6th and the attainted Lord,
resided in the village during the years of her widow
hood, and died there in 1765. The Earls of Moray
succeeded the forfeited family in the possession of
the lands ; and they now claim the spacious vaulted
aisle of the church as their sepulchre. The Epis
copalians, whether those of the Scottish deposed
church, or those in communion with the Church of
England, have always, from the Revolution down
ward, had a pecuUar attachment to Restalrig. They
were for many years prohibited from performing the
ritual of their funeral service in any of the burying-
grounds of the city or immediate suburbs of Edin
burgh, yet were allowed to use their freedom with
that of Restalrig; and they, in consequence, adopted

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it as their cemetery, and, in 1720, interred in it the
body of Alexander Rose, the last legal or more than
titular bishop of Edinburgh. In 1837, the eastern
wall and part of the side- walls of the old church
were still standing ; and, at that date, the building
was renovated, and reconverted into a place of wor
ship. — The village consists of only a few houses,
and has a decayed appearance. All around it are
fruit and vegetable gardens, which send large sup
plies to the market of Edinburgh, and, in summer,
attract numerous parties of the citizens in quest of
strawberries and other fruits. On the west are
meadows irrigated by putrescent water from the
metropolis, and highly productive of crops of herb
age. In the direction of the meadows, about a fur
long from the church, on the side of an ancient road
which probably communicated between the collegiate
church of Restalrig and the abbey of Holyrood, is
St. Margaret's well, a spring of the purest and softest
water, the source apparently of supply to the ancient
ecclesiastics of the village, and now spanned by an
arch, which seems a solitary remnant of some old
and handsome edifice. Opposite the west end of
the church, and forming the lower walls of a plain
modern house, is part of the ancient castle of the
barons of Restalrig.
RESTENET, an interesting but very altered
locality, lj mile north of the town, and on the nor
thern frontier of the parish of Forfar, Forfarshire.
A sheet of water which formed the parochial boun
dary-line, bore the name of Loch-Restenet ; and, in
the latter part of last century, was, at great expense,
drained for sake of obtaining a rich supply of shell-
marl in its bed. The draining of it was thought by
many a hazardously bold enterprise ; but it afforded
speedy indemnification by its conquest of a tract of
rich land, and, in addition, led to a long-continued
and handsome revenue in the produce of marl — On
a picturesque eminence, once a peninsula projecting
from a very narrow isthmus into the lake, stand the
walls and spire of an ancient church, the ruinous memo
rials of an attached priory. The monks of Jedburgh
selected the peninsula in this lake as a suitable retreat
for a detachment of their body, and a desirable place of
safety for their records and more valuable effects.
The priory was thus instituted that it might " protect
their affairs," and was aptly called, in Latin phrase,
" Res tenet." The buildings appear to have been
wholly surrounded with water, and to have been
accessible only by a drawbridge. The church is
said to have been the place of worship for the towns
men and parishioners of Forfar before they were in
a condition to build a church for themselves; and in
all presentations and other legal documents, it still
intrudes its name in company with that of the town
to make " Forfar-Restenet" the legal name of the
parish. The area of the church is now used as the
burying-places of the families of Dempster of Dun
nichen* and Hunter of Burnside.
RESTON, an agricultural village in the parish of
Coldingham, Berwickshire. It stands a little south
of the great east road between Edinburgh and New
castle, 3J miles west of Ayton, and the same dis
tance south-west of Coldingham. Population 230.
RHINNS, Rhyns, or Rinns, of GALLO
WAY, a large, double elongated peninsula, lying
» This family became extinct by the death of tfeorge Demp
ster, Esq. of Dunnichen, many years Member of Parliament for
tile Forfar district of boroughs. His attention to the progress
of the agriculture, manufactures, ahd commerce of Scotland
were unremitting. His individual enterprise is shown in the
draining of the locality just described, and in the planning of
the village of Letham. From an incidental remark of an East
India captain, that he had seen fish brought to Canton enclosed
in snow, lie first suggested the practicability of carrying salmon
fresh to the London market by packing with ice, which is now
universally adopted by the Scots fishers.
II.

west of Loch-Ryan and Luce-bay in Wigtonshire.
It stretches north-north-west and south-south-east;
and contains at its south end the most southerly
land in Scotland. Its name, whether in British or
in Gaelic, 'Rhinns' or 'Rinns,' signifies points or
promontories, and appropriately designates its figure
and appearance. An isthmus of about 6A miles con
nects it with the rest of Galloway ; and is through
out low, and replete with evidence of having been
under marine water. The Rhinns must thus, though
probably at a very remote period, have formed an
island. They stretch away respectively 9 miles
north and 14 miles south of the isthmus ; they vary
in breadth from 2 to nearly 6 miles, — the northern
one being the broader ; and they comprehend an
area of about 116 square miles. The parishes in
cluded in the Rhinns are Kirkmaiden, Stoneykirk,
Portpatrick, Leswalt, Kirkcolm, and a small pari
of Inch. The district was called by Ptolemy and
the ancient geographers Chersonesum Novantum.
RHOE (Little), an islet in the vicinity of Mickle
Rhoe, and separated from the mainland by a sound
about a mile broad. Population, in 1837, 12.
RHOE (Mickle), an island belonging to the par
ochial district of Delting, in Shetland. It lies near
the head of St. Magnus-bay, on the west coast of
the' mainland, and is separated from a peninsular part
of the mainland only by a very narrow sound which
is dry at low-water. Its extent is probably about 2£
by 2 miles. A century ago it was wholly waste or
pastoral ; and even yet it consists, to a large extent,
of heath clad and rugged land, fit only for grazing
and sheep-walk. Population, in 1837, 210.
RHONHOUSE, or Ronhouse, a small village in
the parish of Kelton, Kirkcudbrightshire ; l1 mile
south-west of Castle-Douglas. It owed its origin to
the great fairs or cattle-markets of Kelton-hill, and
since these have been transferred to Castle-Douglas
it has lost its importance.
RHYND, or Rynd, a parish at the eastern ex
tremity of Strathearn, Perthshire ; bounded on the
north and north-east by the Tay, which divides it
from Kinnoul and Kinfauns ; on the east by the in
cipient estuary of the Tay ; on the south by the
Earn, which divides it irom Abernethy ; on the
south-west by Dumbarney ; and on the west by Perth.
A belt of about 3 miles in length, and from 6 to 12
furlongs in breadth, lies along the Tay in the form or
the small segment of a circle, the convexity resting
on the river. From the south end of this belt pro
ject two slender peninsulae, called the East and the
West Rhynd, each about a mile long, the former
eastward between the Tay and the Earn at their
confluence, and the latter south-south-eastward into
a sweeping fold of the Earn. The eastern one of
these peninsula? is, at its isthmus, the site of the
parish-church, and, in consequence, has won the
parish its name — Rhynd, or more properly, Rhinn or
Rinn, signifying, in the Celtic language, ' a point or
promontory.' Of three islets in the Tay which be
long to the parish, two have recently been so in
geniously connected with the mainland that con
siderable pendicles of very valuable land have been
won from the waters, while, as a collateral though
incidental advantage to the town of Perth and the
whole country around it, the navigable channel of the
river has been materially deepened. The paro
chial area, in common with the operations ai the
islets, is still undergoing enlargements; and, at pre
sent, may be stated as amounting to 1,900 acres.
The scenery of the parish comports well with its
being part of the gorgeous environs of Perth. The
dimate is remarkably healthy, and has long been
noted for its salubriousness ; instances of great lon
gevity being numerous, and the citizens of Perth
2p

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having in large numbers flocked to it during the
desolation of their city, in old times, by the plague —
Elcho-castle, the property of the Earl of Wemyss,
stands on the Tay, due north-east of Moncrieff-hill,
and 4 miles below Perth. Though in a ruinous con
dition, it is still entire, and was recently re-roofed.
It is of considerable extent, strong and thick in its
walls, very hard and durable in its materials, and
must anciently have been a place of note. The
battlement which crowns it, and which is accessible
by several well-preserved winding stairs, commands
splendid prospects along the river  The ruins of a
nunnery remain at Orchardnook on the Tay, about
a mile above Elcho-castle. The establishment is
said to have been founded by David Lindsay of Glen-
esk, and to have been a dependency of the monastery
of Dunfermline. The ruins are situated in the midst
of a large orchard ; and, along with vestiges in the
grounds around them, indicate that the original build
ings, were pretty extensive. — The landowners are the
Earl of Wemyss and Mr. M'Gill of Kembach. The
parish has only one-eyed or strictly parochial roads,
yet enjoys ample facilities of communication, chiefly
from its vicinity to Perth. Population, in 1801,
403 ; in 1831, 400. Houses 74. Assessed property,
in 1815, £5,854. — Rhynd is in the presbytery of
Perth, and synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron,
the Earl of Wemyss. Stipend £225 10s. 3d. ; glebe
£17. Unappropriated teinds £451 19s. 6d. School
master's salary £34 4s. 4!d., with £25 fees.
RHYNIE and ESSIE, an united parish in the
district of Strathbogie, Aberdeenshire. It is bounded
on the north by Gartly ; on the east by Kinneth-
mont ; on the south by Kearn and Cabrach ; and on
the west by Cabrach. It is nearly a square 5 miles
deep. The hill of Noth [which see] is a command
ing feature in the parish. Other heights exist ; but
are of inconsiderable altitude. The general par
ochial surface lies about 400 feet above sea-level.
The soil in the vale, or Strathbogie proper, is loamy ;
near the foot of the hills is stony and gravelly, yei
very fertile ; and, on some low grounds, now a clay
and now moss. The Bogie circles round the south
east and east of the parish. The ruins of Lesmore-
castle and of Essie- kirk occur near the west base of
Noth. The hamlet or kirktown of Rhynie stands
on the Bogie, 8 miles south by west of Huntly.
Population of the parish, in 1801, 676; in 1831,
1,018. Houses 197. Assessed property, in 1815,
£1,502  This parish is in the presbytery of Strath
bogie, and synod of Moray. Patrons, the Duke of
Richmond and the Earl of Fife. Stipend £158 7s. ;
glebe not stated. Schoolmaster's salary £24 7s. 8|d.,
and eight balls of meal, with fees. There are two
private schools. Though the two parishes were
united at a remote period, the church of Essie con
tinued in use till the middle of last century.
RICCARTON, a hamlet, a hilly ridge, and a
streamlet, in the parish of Linlithgow,— the first 2
miles south-east of the burgh, and the others in the
hamlet's vicinity.
RICCARTON, a parish near the middle of the
northern verge of Kyle, Ayrshire. If is bounded on
the north by the river Irvine, which divides it from
Kilmarnock in Cunningham ; on the east by Galston ;
on tbe south by Craigie and Symington ; and on the
west by Dundonald. Its length, from east to west,
is 6 miles ; and its mean breadth is 2 miles. Ex
cepting a moss of about 250 acres, the lands are all
arable and well-enclosed ; and, in general, are car
peted with a deep clay soil. Limestone abounds;
and coal is extensively mined for exportation. Ces-
nock- water drains the eastern district, partly along
the boundary and partly in the interior; and, as
well as the Irvine, affords good trouting. The only

antiquity is a moat, the seat of the judicial executive
in feudal times, situated in the immediate vicinity
of the village. The principal landowner is the
Duke of Portland. The mansions are Caprington
and Skerrington on the Irvine, and Bellfield a little
east of the village. The parish is traversed by three
roads which diverge southward from Kilmarnock,
and enjoys all the facilities of communication afford
ed by its suburban relation to that town. The name
of the parish, in its original or uncorrupted state,
was Richardstown, or Ricardston, and seems to have
been derived from a Richard Wallace, whom tradi
tion declares to have been the uncle of the celebrated
Sir William, the patriot, but who probably lived too
early to claim the distinguished honour. In the 13th
and 14th centuries the lands of Ricardston belonged
to a family of the name of Wallace, or, as the word
was anciently written, Waleys,- During the reign
of Alexander II. , and under the second Walter
the Steward, Richard Waleys held considerable
estates in other parts of Kyle-Stewart, and appears
to have been one of the most considerable of the
Steward's vassals ; and he, very probably, was the
ancestor of the Ricardston Wallaces, the first of their
property, and the person from whom it derived its
manorial and parochial designation. Sir Ronald
Crawford, the maternal uncle of Sir WiUiam Wallace,
had, in this parish, a residence to which his illustrious
nephew often resorted, and whence he sallied to
perform many of the exploits which fame assigns
him in the tales of tradition. The residence is said
to have been a tower on the site of the farm-house
of Yardsides, immediately west of the village ; but
it has entirely disappeared, and has left, even in its
vicinity, very doubtful memorials. A very ruinous
and very humble edifice at the west end of a little
row of cottages beside the farm-house is pointed out
as the barn which belonged to the tower ; and, re
spectively in the garden and at the entrance to the
farm-yard are a pear-tree which Wallace is said to
have personally planted, and a very old tree perfo
rated with an iron staple to which he fastened his
horse when he visited the tower  The village of
Riccarton is strictly a suburb of Kilmarnock ; and,
though nominally a mile from it, or really a mile from
the centre of the burgh, is almost uninterruptedly
connected with it by a long street, and is included
within its parliamentary boundaries : see Kilmak ¦
nock. Its site is a rising ground or swell imme
diately overlooking the Irvine. It is a place of an
tiquated appearance ; and, since the date of Kilmar
nock becoming a seat of manufacture, it has been
inhabited chiefly by weavers of woollen fabrics. Its
history, as to employment and prosperity, is very
nearly a duplicate of that of Kilmarnock, or rather
is a subordinate and dependent chapter of the same
narrative. In 1638, the village was made a burgh-
of-barony. The church of Riccarton crowns the
moat at the end of the village ; and as it is a modern
edifice, and has a fine spire, it contributes a con
spicuous and pleasing feature to an extensive field of
circumjacent landscape. Population of the parish, in
1801,1,364; in 1831, 2,499. Houses356. Assessed
property, in 1815, £10,178  Riccarton is in the
presbytery of Ayr, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr.
Patron, Cunninghame of Caprington. Stipend £241
3s. 9d.; glebe £31). Unappropriated teinds £e57
15s. 3d. In 1834, the parochial school was attended
by 109 scholars; and two non-parochial schools by
165. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4d.,
with £50 fees — Riccarton was anciently a chapelry,
subordinate to the parish-church of Dundonald ; and
it followed the fortunes of that church in annexation,
from 1229 till 1238, to the short-lived convent of
Dalmulin, and in subsequent annexation to the mon-

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astery of Paisley. At some period of the Paisley
monks' possession, it was made a parish-church, and
treated by them as a vicarage. After the Reforma
tion, it was incorporated with Craigie ; but, in 1648,
it was disunited from that parish, and honoured with
independence. RIDDELL. See Lilliesleaf.
RIGG-BAY, a small bay in the parish of Sorbie,
Wigtonshire. It measures 4 furlongs across at the
entrance, and 3 thence to the head. Its situation is
in the immediate vicinity of Galloway-house, and a
mile south of Garlieston. Its depth of water is from
20 to 30 feet ; and its shore is flat and sandy.
RINGLY-HALL. See Maxton.
RINK FAIRS (The). These fairs are very
important — are held on the estate of Edgerston, 7
miles from Jedburgh, and 15 from Kelso and Hawick.
The first fair is held on the 12th of July for Cheviots
and wool ; the second sheep fair is held on the day
before Pennymoor October tryst.
ROAG (Loch), a large and intricate inlet of the
sea, on the west coast of the island of Lewis. The
extreme length to which it intrudes upon the land is
about 11 or 12 miles. Over 6£ miles from its en
trance it has a breadth of from 6 to 8 miles ; but it is
sectioned lengthwise, by a series of islands, into two
main channels, called Loch-Roag proper, and Loch-
Bernera. Its further penetrations into the land con
sist of four quite separate and widely detached nar
row bays, two of which bear the names respectively
of Little Loch-Roag, and Loch-Carloway. So many
islands and islets occur in all parts of the inlet, that
33 or 39 are of consequence enough to figure in a
map of half-an-inch to a mile ; while the largest,
called Great Bernera, itself has a length of about 6
miles. The entire loch is hollowed into bays, and
interrupted by passages of such variety and intricacy,
as to demand no ordinary degree of attention and
skill for its navigation. The entrance of Loch-Roag
proper, too, is so obscure, that it might escape the
observation of a boat's crew passing within a h undred
yards' distance. All the land of the islands, and of
the immediate coasts, are either low and tame, or
terminate in such cliffs of gneiss as have little eleva
tion, much ruggedness, and no beauty.
ROAN or Rohn (Loch), a small lake in the north
of the parish of Crossmichael, Kirkcudbrightshire.
It covers about 40 acres; is from 10 to 22 fathoms
deep ; and seldom freezes.
ROBERTON, a parish partly in Roxburghshire,
and partly in Selkirkshire, lying on that district of
their border which marches with Dumfries-shire. It
is bounded on tbe north by Yarrow, by a detached
part of Selkirk, and by Ashkirk ; on the east by
Wilton and Hawick ; on the south-east by Hawick ;
on the south and south-west by Dumfries-shire ; and
on the west by Ettrick. Its length from north to
south is about 13 miles ; and its breadth is on the
average between 4 and 5 miles. A water-shedding
line of heights forms the boundary for 12 miles with
Hawick and Dumfries-shire. The range is hooked,
extending partly from north-west to south-east, and
chiefly from south-west to north-east. Its sides, in
some places, are steep and precipitous ; but, in most,
are accessible, and, in some, are of gentle ascent ;
and its summits are, in general, dome-shaped or flat.
Three of its peaks, Craikmoor, Culm or Coom, and
Criblaw of Craik, are tbe highest in the parish, yet
do not rise more than 1,300 feet above sea-level.
Two other hilly ranges, or rather chains of hills, ex
tend north-eastward through the parish, and occupy
much the larger part of its area. But they are lower,
and of softer outline, than even the heights on the
boundary ; and are cleft by the ravines or cleuchs of
numerous little streams opening into the central val

leys. The district, though situated not far from the
centre of the Southern Highlands, and walled in by
one of the middle stretches of their water-sheds, is
thus not strictly mountainous, and possesses both
lowness of surface and softness of feature compared
with either Ettrick on its one side, or Liddesdale on
its other. Two vales which, to a certain extent.
traverse it lengthwise, are narrow along the bottom,
or are the merest glens ; but they have gently slop
ing screens, and, except where beautified with wood,
are in a state of cultivation. Borthwick- water, ris
ing in several head-streams at the southern extremity
of the parish, drains the longer and larger of the
vales; runs 10 miles north-east ward, and 2 eastward;
and divides the parish into two nearly equal parts.
Ale-water, rising 3| miles from the southern extre
mity, drains the other vale, and runs nearly parallel
to the Borthwick, at a distance from it of from 1 J
mile to 2\ miles. Rankle-burn, rising in the south
west corner, begins, a little below its source, to
trace, for 2£ miles, the boundary with Ettrick. The
Borthwick and the Ale, augmented in their course
by a great number of rivulets, abound with trouts of
the best quality, and, in the spawning season, are
visited' by salmon. Hellmoor, Kingsmoor, Crooked,
Windy, and Alemoor lochs, occur as expansions or
remote sources of the Ale, — each of three of them 2
miles or upwards in circumference ; and two or three
lochlets occur, as sources or expansions of tributaries
of the Borthwick. All abound in fine perch and
pike, and one has an excellent red trout, much resem
bling that of Loch-Leven. Moodlaw-loch, situated
at a considerable altitude, but of small extent, is
remarkable only for belonging equally to the three
counties of Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Dumfries. All
the common kinds of game abound as much on the
land as the finny tribes in the water, and combine
with them to render the district an attractive one
for the sportsman. Though heath stretches out in
patches, and almost every farm has its particular
moss, the lands of the parish may, in general, be
viewed as an assemblage of green hills, pleasantly
and richly pastoral. About 1 1 parts in 12 of the
whole area are sheep-walk, or cattle-pasture, and
maintain about 19,000 sheep, chiefly of the Che
viot breed, and a proportionate number of short-
horned cattle, and of kyloes. Between 500 and
600 acres are under plantation. About 2,000
acres are either regularly or occasionally in tillage.
The chief antiquity is the old mansion-house of
Harden : which see. There are six or seven camps,
some British and some Roman ; but all absurdly
called, in the district, Picts' works. The only good
road leads from Hawick, 3 miles distant from the
nearest boundary, up the vale of the Borthwick,
toward Eskdalemuir; but a branch-road goes west
ward, to pass down Rankle-burn to the vale of the
Ettrick. Population, in 1801, 618; in 1831, 730.
Houses 121. Assessed property, in 1815, £4,214
— Roberton is in the presbytery of Selkirk, and synod
of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the Grown.
Stipend £205 12s. 9d. ; glebe £18. Unappropriated
teinds £633 lis. 8d. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s.
4+d., with £24 fees. — The ancient parish was called
Borthwick ; and its church stood at a place formerly
named Kirk-Borthwick, but now named Borth wick-
brae. In 1682, there were annexed to it part of the
suppressed parish of Hassendean, [which see,] a
smaU detached portion of the distant parish of Sel
kirk, and some specific sections of the adjoining par
ishes of Hawick and Wilton ; and, in 1695, a church
for the united districts, the same edifice which con
tinues to be in use, was built at Roberton, Ia mile
north-east of Kirk-Borthwick, and imposed the name
of its site upon the extended parish. A chapel an-

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ciently stood on the right bank of the Borthwick, in
the Hassendean district, and belonged, like its parent
church, to the monks of Melrose, and was served by
a chaplain from their establishment.
ROBROYSTONE. See Cadder.
ROGART, a parish in Sutherlandshire, bounded
on the north by Farr ; on the north-east and east by
Clyne ; on the south-east by Golspie ; on the south
by Dornoch and Criecfc . ind on the west by Lairg.
Its extreme length from north to south is 17 miles ;
its breadth, for 6A miles from the north, is uniformly
about 3 miles, and thence gradually expands to an
extreme of 9 miles ; and its superficial extent is about
63,000 acres. The river Brora, rising in the ex
treme north, comes 13 miles south- south-eastward
down the interior, and then debouches to the east,
aud passes into Clyne ; and the river Fleet, issuing
from a lake considerably south-west of the centre of
the parish, runs 5i miles south-south-eastward into
Dornoch. The vales of these streams — called from
them Strathbrora and Strathfleet, and extending par
allel to each other in direction — occupy, with their
hill-screens, the greater part of the parochial area.
Both straths vary in breadth from a few yards to §
of a mile, and are occasionally abrupt, but, for the
most part, gentle and sloping in their screens, con
tracting at long intervals into ravines and bold passes,
but more generally expanding into prolonged haughs
and hanging plains. Strathbrora is overlooked by
heights of from 800 to nearly 1,000, and Strathfleet
by heights of from 500 to 700 feet above sea-level ;
and in its upper part, the former is more frequently
contracted, and becomes at times a mere rocky
chasm. Very few contiguous acres in the straths are
not either patched with brushwood growing from old
stocks of trees, or intersected by very rapid and de
structive burns, coursing down the hills to the cen
tral streams. A band of country, 8J miles long, and 3
Droad, which lies between the straths, is an irregular
and dreary grouping of low rocky hills, flat heathy
moors, small lakes, morassy meadows, and cold bleak
ruts of moorland burns. Some wretched vestiges of
very considerable birch woods are to be seen in dif
ferent parts ; and a pitiful pendicle of the stunted
coppice has been enclosed, and turned partly into
plantation. Several lochlets are celebrated for the
size and quality of their trouts ; and two of them
bear the name of the Lake of Blessing. The moors
abound in black game, moorfowl, and the mountain
hare ; and they are occasionally scoured by the red
mountain deer, and always trodden by a few roes.
The chief rock is a large-grained and very micaceous
gneiss, easily worked by the chisel, and well-adapted
to the masoiwy of fences and cottages. Almost every
sub-district exhibits traces of encampments, tumuli,
and Pictish or Scandinavian buildings. The parish
has a cross-road between the south-east ends of its
two straths, and is traversed, up Strathfleet by the
road from Golspie to Tongue. Population, in 1801 ,
2,022; in 1831, 1,805. Houses 386. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £2,040. — Rogart is in the presbytery
of Dornoch, and synod of Sutherland and Caithness.
Patron, the Duchess-Countess of Sutherland. Sti
pend £155 14s. ; glebe £9 10?. In 1834, the parish-
school was attended by 92 scholars, and three other
schools by 228. Parochial schoolmaster's salary
£36 7s. ljd.. with £18 fees, and £6 other emolu
ments. ROLLOX (St.) See Glasgow.
ROMAN ROADS  The Romans have left many
remarkable monuments of their power and greatness,
of which the most prominent are their highways,
which, commencing at the gates of Rome itself, tra
versed the whole extent of their mighty empire.
These highways, by facilitating the communication

between the capital and the most distant provinces,
were of the utmost importance, in many respects, to
the maintenance of the Roman authority in places
remote from the seat of government.— The whole of
Britain was intersected by these roads ; and one ot
them may be traced into the very interior of Vespa-
siana, where it afforded a passage to the Roman
armies, kept up the communication between the sta
tions, and thereby checked' the Caledonian clans..
This road issued from the wall of Antoninus, and
passed through Camelon, [which see,] the Roman
port on the Carron, and pushing straight forward,
according to the Roman custom, across the Carron,
it pursued its course by Torwood-house, Pleanmuir,
Bannockburn, St. Ninian's, and by the west side of
the Castlehill of Stirling, to tbe Forth, on the south
side of which, near Kildean, there are traces of its
reriiaius. It here passed the Forth, and stretched
forward to Alauna, which was situated on the river
Allan, about a mile above its confluence with the
Forth, and which, as it is 12 miles from the opening
in the Roman wall, agrees with the distance in the
Iter. From thence the road went along Strathallan,
and at the end of 10 miles came to the Lindum of
Richard's Itinerary, the well-known station at Ar
doch: which see. The road, after passing on the
east side of Ardoch, ascends the moor of Orchil to
the post at Kemp's-castle, which it passes within a
few yards on the east. The road from Kemp's-hill
descends the moor to the station of Hierna, at Stra-
geth, from which it immediately crosses the river
Earn. After the passage of the Earn, the road turns
to the right, and passes on the north side of Inner
peffray, in an easterly direction, and proceeds nearly
in a straight line across the moor of Gask, and, con
tinuing its course through the plantations of Gask, it
passes the Roman camp on the right. At the dis
tance of 2 miles farther on, where the plantations of
Gask terminate, this great road passes another small
post on the left. From this position the road pro
ceeded forward in a north-east direction to the sta
tion at Orrea, which is situated on the west bank of
the Tay, at the present confluence of the Almond
with that noble river. Having crossed the Tay, by
means of the wooden-bridge, the Roman road pro
ceeded up the east side of the river, and passed
through the centre of the camp at Grassy-walls.
From this position the remains of the road are dis
tinctly-visible for a mile up to Gellyhead, on the
west of which it passed, and went on by Innerbuist,
to Nether-Collin, where it again becomes apparent,
and continues distinct to tbe eye for 2J miles, passing
>on to Drichmuir and Byres. From thence, the road
stretched forward in a north-east direction, passing
between Blab-head and Gilwell to Woodhead ; and
thence pushing on by Newbigging and Gallowhill on
the right, it descends Leyston-moor ; and passing
that village, it proceeds forward to the Roman camp
at Cupar- Angus, about 11A miles from Orrea. From
Cupar the road took a north-east direction towards
Reedie, in the parish of Airly. On the south of this
hamlet the vestiges of the road again appear, and for
more than half-a-mile the ancient road forms the mo
dern way. The Roman road now points towards
Kirriemuir, by which it appears to have passed in its
course to the Roman camp at Battledikes. After
traversing this camp, the road continued its course
in an east-north-east direction for several miles along
the valley on the south side of the river South Esk,
which it probably passed near the site of Black-mill,
below Esk-mount. From this passage it went across
the moor of Brechin, where vestiges of it appear
pointing to Keithock; and at this place there are
the remains of a Roman camp which are now known
by he name of Wardikes. Beyond this camp on the

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north, the Roman road has been seldom or never
seen. In the popular tradition, this road is called the
Lang Causeway, and is supposed to have extended
northward through Perthshire and Forfarshire, and
even through Kincardineshire to Stonehaven. About
2 miles north-east from the Roman station at Fordun,
and between it and the well-known camp at Urie,
there are the traces, as it crosses a small hill, of an
artificial road, popularly called the Picts' road.
As the Romans had other stations in the north be
sides those noticed, they did not always in returning
to the south follow the course of the Iter just de
scribed. They had another Iter, the first station of
which from the Burgh-head was the Varis of Richard,
now Forres, a distance of 8 statute miles. From
Forres the Iter proceeds to the Spey at Cromdale, a
distance of 19 statute miles. Proceeding southward,
along Strathaven by Loch-Bulg, to the junction of
the Dee and Cluny, the Roman troops arrived at the
commodious ford in that vicinity, a distance of 28
statute miles from the Spey. Richard does not men
tion the names of the two next stations, the first of
which is supposed to have been at the height which
separates the waters that flow in opposite directions
to the Dee and the Tay, and which consequently
divides Aberdeenshire from Perthshire; and the
next, it is conjectured, was at the confluence of the
Shee with the Lornty-water, the Iter taking its
course along Glen-beg and Glen-shee. The whole
extent of this route amounts to nearly 40 statute
miles. A variety of circumstances indicate the mid
dle station to have been at Inchtuthel, which still
exhibits a remarkable camp of Roman construction,
on a height that forms the northern bank of the Tay.
From the last-mentioned station to Orrea the dis
tance is 9 itinerary miles, and the real and corre
sponding distance from Inchtuthel along the banks of
the Tay to ancient Bertha is about 10 miles. At
this central station — which has always been a mili
tary position of great importance — the Iter joined the
one already described, and proceeded southward by
the former route to the wall of Antoninus.
It would appear that there are traces of Roman
roads even farther north. Between the rivers Don
and Urie, in Aberdeenshire, on the eastern side of
Bennachee, there exists an ancient road known in
the country by the name of the Maiden Causeway, a
- name by which some of the Roman roads in the north
of England are distinguished. This proceeds from
Bennachee, whereon there was a hill-fort, more than
the distance of a mile into the woods of Pitodrie,
when it disappears : it is paved with stones, and is«
about 14 feet wide. Still farther north, in the track
of the Iter, as it crosses between the two stations of
Varis and Tuessis, from Forres to the ford of Crom
dale on the Spey, there has been long known a road
of very ancient construction, leading along the course
of the Iter for several mUes through the hills, and
pointing to Cromdale, where the Romans must have
forded the Spey. Various traces of very ancient
roads are still to be seen along the track of the Iter,
between the distant station of Tuessis and Tamea,
by Corgarf and through Braemar : the tradition of
the people in Strathdee and Braemar, supports the
idea that there are remains of Roman roads which
traverse the country between the Don and the Dee.
Certain it is, that there are obvious traces of ancient
roads which cross the wild districts between Strath
don and Strathdee, though it is impossible to ascer
tain where or by whom such ancient roads were
constructed, in such directions, throughout such a
country. RONA, a small inhabited island of the northern
ocean, situated " far amid the melancholy main,"
and possessing the repute of being the most north

westerly land in Europe. According to the common
tables, it is situated in north latitude 58° 55', and in
longitude 5° 51' west of Greenwich ; but, according
to an observation taken by Dr. Macculloch from its
surface, it lies about 13 miles farther north, or in
latitude 59° 10'. Its distance north-west of the Butt
of Lewis is thus about 16 leagues. The island has
been the subject of various fanciful descriptions ;
and, to the inhabitants of continental Britain, it pos
sesses associations but a degree less romantic than
those of the island retreat of Robinson Crusoe. In
its true features, it is known to few except mariners
who navigate the North sea, and the islanders of the
Barvas, part of Lewis, with which it is politically
and parochially connected. Such of the western and
northern islanders as are acquainted with it regard it
as the Thule of their own hyperborean regions, and
as placed " far from the sun and summer gale," and
beyond the limits of the habitable world ; and they
to a man who has visited it, award a degree of
distinction scarcely less than if he had explored the
sources of the Nile or the Niger. Dr. Macculloch
made it the object of one of his Hebridean voyages;
and has given us, in his Work on the Western
Islands, a very interesting description of it.
RONA, an island of the Skye Hebridean group.
It lies about a mile north of Raasay ; 6 miles west
of Applecross in Ross-shire ; and from 5 h to 8£ miles
east of Kilmuir and Snizort in Skye. It measures
about 5 miles in length, and less than one in breadth ;
and forms a ridge extending nearly due northward on
a line with Raasay. Its greatest elevation does not
seem to exceed 500 feet. Its surface is prevailingly
tame and cheerless ; and is separated by deep irre
gular valleys into a series of rocky hills. It is ap
propriated chiefly to the rearing of black cattle ; and,
in proportion to its area, is among the most barren of
the western uplands. To an ordinary observer, its
aspect is quite repulsive ; presenting no picturesque
features, and but little verdure to chequer its grey
and sterile surface, and hiding most of even its
patches of brown mountain-pasture amid a profusion
of dull and naked rocks. Nearly all its arable ground
lies round a scattered village which is situated at the
head of a bay, and contains most of the population.
Of four small harbours which occur on ihe west
side, one, called Archasig-hirm, has a double en
trance, and offers a convenient refuge for coasting
vessels; but, except to the natives and the neigh
bouring islanders, it is very little known. The island
belongs ecclesiastically to Portree : which see.
RONA, an island in the Outer Hebrides, ecclesi
astically belonging to the parish of North Uist. It
lies less, than a mile south of the south-west point of
the island of North Uist, and about 2L miles east of
Benbecula. Its length is about 2 miles, and its
breadth about 1J. It rises 600 feet above sea-level,
presents a rocky aspect in its higher grounds, and
exhibits a broken surface down its eastern declivity.
It is much indented by the sea, and possesses a belt
of low productive land around its coast. The island
was at one time regarded as of little or no value ;
but it has been improved by culture, and is now con
sidered one of the best grazing-grounds in the par
ish of North Uist.
RONA'S HILL. See Northmaven.
RONALDSHAY (North), one of the Orkney
islands, and the most northerly of the group, lt
lies 2J miles north of Taftness in Sanday ; and 15
miles east-north-east of the nearest part of Papa
Westray. Its length from north to south is 3J
miles ; its mean breadth is a little upwards of one
mile ; and its superficial extent is about 4 square
miles. The sound which divides it from Sanday is
very danger" js in navigation. The shores of the

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island are flat and rocky ; and they afford a large
quantity of sea-weed for the manufacture of kelp.
The surface of the interior is low and flat; and pos
sesses a sandy soil, mixed in some places with clay,
and generally very fertile. At its north end are
found some coarse slates. Of several ancient tumuli,
one was opened not many years ago, and disclosed a
small building externally circular, but internally
square, and containing a human skeleton in an upright
posture. The island is the property of Mr. Traill of
Woodwick ; and is believed to retain Scandinavian
usages, or at least a primitive condition of social
manners, more than any other part of Orkney. A
beacon-post, built by the Northern Lighthouse
board, and consisting of a tall stone-tower, sur
mounted by a hollow ball of stone-work, 8 feet in
diameter, rises from the point of the southern pro
montory. It stands in north latitude 59° 40', and
in longitude 2° 15' west of London ; and is distant
8 miles north-north-east, one-half east, by compass,
from the revolving light on the start-point of San
day. The population of the island, at the date of
the Old Statistical Account, was 420, giving a much
higher average for the surface than the aggregate of
Britain, or 105 to a square mile. Population, in
1811, 384; in 1821, 420,— 213of whom were males;
in 1831, 522. The island, in quoad civilia ecclesi
astical distribution, belongs to the united parish of
Cross and Burness; but, in 1831, it was disjoined,
quoad sacra, and erected into a parliamentary parish.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £120. A school, sup
ported by the Society for propagating Christian
knowledge, was attended, in 1834, by 52 scholars.
RONALDSHAY (South), one of the Orkney
islands, and, excepting Pentland Skerries, the
most southerly of the group. It lies 6 miles north
by east of Duncansby-head, and occupies the south
east corner of the Orcadian archipelago. It is washed
on the north by the Ferry of Water-sound, about a
mile broad, which divides it from Burray; on the
east by the uninterrupted surges of the German
main, on the south by the eastern entrance of the
Pentland frith, which divides it from Caithness ;
and on the west by the northern expansion of thai
frith, or the entrance of Scalpa Flow, which divides
it from Walls and Flota. Its length from north to
south is 8 miles ; its breadth, except at one point
near the north end, where it suddenly but briefly ex
pands to 5i miles, is prevailingly about 2\ miles ;
and its superficial extent is estimated at 18 square
miles. Its surface is, on the whole, low and level ;
and aggregately presents a much richer and more
generally cultivated appearance than perhaps any
equal extent of Orcadian ground. Three head-lands
present a bold, rocky frontto the ocean, Barsick-head
on the west, and Halero and Stores-heads on the east,
each about 250 feet perpendicular above sea-level.
Widewall-bay, on the west coast, has a good open
ing to the Pentland frith and to Stromness, and of
fers safe anchoring-ground to either small vessels or
ships of 500 or 600 tons burden. St. Margaret's
Hope, on the north coast, is one of the safest and
best harbours for small vessels in the kingdom. The
excellence of these harbours, combined with a great
plenteousness of cod and other fish, in the furious
currents which sweep along the shores of the island,
has long given the inhabitants a pre-eminence of
prosperity over the other Orcadians. A fishery at
St. Margaret's Hope, which drew regular visits from
London lobster smacks, and engaged the capital of
different English companies, was, for many years, the
only regular fishery in Orkney. South Ronaldshay
is still the great station for the herring-fishing in the
southern Orcadian islands ; and the scene also of an
extensive fishery for supplying London, by means of

welled smacks of each about 70 tons burden, with
live lobsters and cod  A standing stone occurs at
Sandwich, another near Stores, and another near the
manse, — the last about 14 feet high, 2 feet broad,
and 8 inches thick, but all unstoried by either docu
ment or tradition. Some remains of Picts' houses
and of watch-towers occur in various places. A for
talice, situated on the peninsula of Hoxa, and called
Hoxa How, is very ancient, and seems to have pos
sessed considerable consequence. In south Ronald
shay, Olave of Norway offered, the pagan Earl of
Orkney and his followers the alternative of nominal
Christianity or death, and thus pinned his creed upon
the Orcadians with the point of his sword. The
island, as long as popery continued, maintained the
pre-eminence which it won by being the scene of
such an exploit ; and was the grand Orcadian roost-
ing-place of all the raven fraternity of the missal
and the cowl. Small as its area is, it still shows the
ruins of no fewer than seven Romish chapels ; and
it claimed for its principal minister, or secular priest,
the offices of deaii of Orkney, and provost of the
cathedral. At the head of St. Margaret's Hope is a
village of the same name, the site of Allan's inn, the
best establishment of its class at any of the southern
Orcadian ferries. From this place a road leads south
ward, over the whole length of the island to Bur-
wick, and is regularly traversed bythe mail between
Kirkwall and Caithness. The ferry from Burray to
St. Margaret's Hope costs only twopence with the
mail; and that from Burwick to Hounain Caithness,
a distance of 12 miles, costs only one shilling.
Though the Pentland frith is reckoned peculiarly
dangerous at the part which is abreast of the island,
only one post-boat on the ferry at the place has been
lost during the last 100 years, and that one was run
down. Population, in 1821, 1,949; in 1831,2,265.
RONALDSHAY (South), and Barray, a par
ish in the south-east of Orkney. It consists of the
two islands whence it has its name, of the inhabited
islands of Swona, Hunda, and Pentland Skerries,
and of the uninhabited island of Glimsholm. So
scattered and irregular are its constituent parts, that
its extent is not accurately known ; but it lies within
limits of about 16 or 17 miles in length, and 9 in
breadth. Three parishes are comprehended in the
present parish, and are all believed to be original.
South Ronaldshay, or St. Mary's parish, includes
Swona, the Pentland Skerries, and the south end of
South Ronaldshay ; the North, or St. Peter's parish,
includes the north end of South Ronaldshay ; and
Barrav parish includes Barray, Hunda, and GUms-
holm." Population, in 1801, 1,881 ; in 1831, 2,711,
— of whom 2,265 were in South Ronaldshay, 357 in
Barray, 89 in Swona and the Pentland Skerries, and
2 families in Hunda. Houses 423. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £225  The united parish is in the
presbytery of Kirkwall, and synod of Orkney. Pa
tron, the Earl of Zetland. Stipend £202 Is. 3d.,
besides £7 8s. lOd. vicarage teinds ; glebe £12 6s.
8d. There are two parish-churches, the one in St.
Mary's, and the other in St. Peter's ; the latter built
in the 13th century; and both repaired in 1802.
Sittings in St. Mary's 413; in St. Peter's 273. A
church, which formerly existed in Barray, has been
in ruins for about 40 years. An United Secession
place of worship was built in the parish, in 1826, at
a cost of £451. Sittings 342. Stipend £85, wHh
£5 for communion expenses, fuel worth £3, and a
house which cost £467 18s. In 1834, there were in
the parish 1 parochial school, attended by 124 scho
lars, and 8 other schools attended by 232. Parochial
schoolmaster's salary £26, with £15 fees, and £2
10s. other emoluments. One of the non-parochial
schools is a well -endowed establishment on the

ROO

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ROS

island of South Ronaldshay, erected and maintained
from a munificent donation by Governor Thomson
of the Hudson's Bay company.
ROOME. S^e Crail.
ROSE-FENWICK. See Fenwick.
ROSEHALL, a mission district in the counties of
Sutherland, Ross, and Cromarty. It is composed of
parts of the parishes of Criech and Kincardine ; and
was assigned its limits jointly by the presbytery of
Dornoch and by the presbytery of Tain, — ihe for
mer in the synod of Sutherland and Caithness, and the
latter in the synod of Ross. The Kincardine portion
measures 23 miles by 3 or 4 ; and is separated from
the rest of the district by the Dornoch frith and the
river Oickel. The greatest length of tbe whole dis
trict is 25 miles ; its greatest breadth is 15 miles;
and its superficial extent is 250 square miles. The
missionary station was established at least 55 or 65
years ago ; and is under the superintendence of a
missionary on the royal bounty. The church was
built, in 1808, bythe late Lord Ashburton, at a cost
of £500 ; and it was repaired about 7 years ago, and
is the property of the present owner of the Rosehall
estate. Sittings 260. Stipend £60. In 1835, the
population of the Criech section was about 640 ; and
of the Kincardine portion about 434. Rosehall-
house is situated amidst beautiful grounds, extensive
woods, and a fine landscape, near the confluence of
Casslie-water with the river Oickel. See Oickel.
ROSEHEARTY, a fishing-village and burgh-of-
barony, in the parish of Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire.
It stands on the coast of the Moray frith, 4 miles
west of Fraserburgh, 16 east by north of Banff, and
19 north-north-wesi of Peterhead. The herring-
fishery, beginning about the middle of July, and end
ing about the last of August, employs at least 40
boats, each worked by 5 persons ; and competes in
prosperity with the best of the flourishing fisheries in
the frith. The harbour of the village, in consequence
of its being situated on an exposed part of the coast,
and having so considerable a depth of water as 9 feet
in neap and 14 in spring tides, may eventually become
important; and, since 1810, when a discovery was
made that the shore-dues belong, not to the supe
rior, but to the feuars, it has been the principal oc
casion of the prosperity of the vUlage. The revenue
from the shore-dues, previous to 1810, never ex
ceeded £3; but it afterwards gradually increased,
and amounted, in 1819, to £52, and, in 1833, to
£96. Some important improvements, either recent
or contemplated, will add much to the harbour's
value. The exports are fish and grain ; and the '
chief imports are coals, salt, and timber. A weekly I
market is held on Saturday. The village has a :
United Secession meeting-house. Rosehearty was j
erected into a burgh-of-barony in 1681 ; and pos
sesses, by charter the right of creating burgesses, of
annually electing bailies, a dean-of-guild, a treasurer,
and all otter magistrates and officers necessary for
its government, and even of deposing these magis
trates "for reasonable causes, as shall seem expe
dient." Yet it is de facto no burgh; has no police,
no magistracy, not one public officer; and suc
cumbs, in its pecuniary affairs, to the voluntary
management of a few individuals who have the con
currence of the feuars. Even a tolbooth belonging
to it has  nobody can tell how or when — become
private property ! Some mosses, 30 acres of links, 2
acres of ground at the harbour, and the harbour it
self, constitute the burgh- property; but are burdened
with a debt of £200. Population, in 1833, between
700 and 800. Houses of upwards of £10 yearly
value, 23.
ROSEMARKIE, a parish on the east coast of
Ross-shire; bounded on the north-east and north

by Rirkmichael and Cromarty ; on the east and
south-east by the Moray frith ; and on the south
and west by Avoch. Its length, from north-east to
south-west, is about 6 miles ; its breadth is 3 miles ;
and its superficial extent is about 15 square miles.
The inner boundary is skirted from end to end by
the long flat hill called the Mullbuy : which see.
The surface from the coast up to this acclivity is, in
general, a slow and gradual ascent ; and, being for
the most part cultivated or covered with wood and
verdure, has a very fine and pleasant appearance.
The coast, all along the north-eastern section, is
bold, rocky, and romantic; and abounds in frightful
precipices, where
" Low.brow'd rocks hang nodding o'er the deep,"
and in ragged cliffs, overgrown with ivy, and haunted
by the wild pigeon and the hawk. Some natural
caves, both curious and deep, perforate the bold
shore; and one of them runs quite through the rock
for about 150 feet. Otters have been shot upon
the rocks; seals are often seen upon them, and crabs
and lobsters are dragged from crevices and holes by
the most primitive contrivances. A narrow pro
montory called Fortrose-point or Chanonry-ness runs
1J mile into the frith; and forms the Ross-shire side
of a ferry which usually takes the name of Ardersier
from its Inverness-shire side. Immediately north of
this promontory lies the fine bay of Rosemarkie,
fringed with a beach of fine smooth sand, and allur
ing sea-bathefs to visit its shores, and vessels to seek
anchorage and shelter from westerly winds in its
centre. In the neighbourhood of Rosemarkie is a
large and beautiful flat, covered with a fine black
mould upon light gravel, and in a high state of cul
tivation ; and in the immediate vicinity of Fortrose
is a belt of ' links,' about a mile in length, smooth
as a carpet, and choice ground for the game of golf.
The royal burgh of Fortrose is in the parish : See
Fortrose  The town of Rosemarkie, though not
large, is of considerable antiquity. In the reign of
Alexander II., it was erected into a royal burgh;
and, in 1444, it and Chanonry were constituted a
joint or united burgh under ihe common name of
Fortross or Fortrose. Rosemarkie stands half-a-
mile north-east of Fortrose or Chanonry; and, in
1793, had 296 inhabitants,— in 1821, 314. Such ot
the colonnades and arches of the ancient cathedral
of Rosemarkie as are yet standing display great taste'
in design and skill in execution. The roofless little
area which they enclose contains the ashes of some
of the ancient Earls and Bishops of Ross, and is still
the burying-ground of several of the chief branches
of the clan Mackenzie. The church and the manse
of Rosemarkie, at a little , distance to the east, are
two beautiful objects, in very beautiful situations.
The whole town, and all the face of the parish, as
they look down, in the warmth and elegance of their
own dress, upon the frith at their feet, and the low
grounds and Highlands of Inverness-shire and Nairn
shire in the back-ground, have a sunny and cheerful
and almost a romantic aspect. Above Rosemarkie
is a circular artificial hill, level on tbe top, called
the Court-hill ; anciently the seat of the feudal
courts of justice; but now burlesqued in its anti.
quarian associations by the erection upon it of some
small cottages. At the west end of the town stands
an ancient shaft of stone, surmounted by the rude
resemblance of a ducal crown, and serving as the
burgh cross; and on Chanonry-ness stands another,
but of inferior appearance, which tradition assigns
as the site of the last incremation in Scotland for
the alleged crime of sorcery. The parish has a
fair provision of good roads ; and though not
touched by any mail or stage coach, enjoys, frcME

GOO

ROSENEATH.

the point of Chanonry-ness, all the advantages
of the steam-navigation between Inverness on the
one side, and London, Leith, and intermediate ports
on the other. Population, in 1801, 1,289; in 1831,
1,799. Houses 331. Assessed property, in 1815,
£2,430. — Rosemarkie is in the presbytery of Chan
onry, and synod of Ross. Patron, the Crown. Sti
pend £249 9s. 6d. ; glebe £9. Unappropriated
teinds £77 13s. 1 Id. From a mortification of £100
in 1811, a fund has arisen out of which a salary of
£70 per annum is paid to a preacher and catechist
in Fortrose. Measures were adopted in 1840 for
erecting Fortrose into a quoad sacra parish. An
Episcopalian chapel, erected a few years ago, in the
Gothic style, and situated on a rising ground over
looking the sea, vies, in beauty of workmanship,
and in simplicity and elegance of design, with the
fine remains of the old cathedral. In 1834, there
were 5 schools, conducted by 6 teachers, and at
tended by 212 scholars. One of the schools is the
Fortrose academy — the oldest seminary of its class
in the north of Scotland — remotely founded, in 1699,
by Thomas Forbes, bailie of Fortrose, and affording
tuition in all ,the branches usually taught in town
academies; another is the grammar or burgh school ;
and a third is a school for females, maintained chiefly
by subscription. The salary for a parochial school
was attached first to the grammar-school, and next
to the academy, and then was withdrawn from both.
At the date of the Education Commission inquiry,
therefore, a parochial school did not exist; but mea
sures were in progress for establishing one with the
least possible delay.
, ROSENEATH, a peninsulated parish in the ex
treme west of Dumbartonshire ; bounded on the
north by Row ; on the east by Gairloch, which di
vides it from Row ; on the south-east and south by
the frith of Clyde, which divides it from Cardross
and Renfrewshire ; and on the west by Loch-Long,
which divides it from Argyleshire. It is a curved
oblong, bending from a southerly to a south-south
easterly direction, and measuring 8 miles in length,
and from 1 A to 2 A in breadth. Its superficial extent
is 6,140 acres. Its connexion with the main land is
by an isthmus of only 14 mile. The surface, in a
beautiful small point which runs south-eastward into
the Clyde, and in some adjacent grounds along Gair
loch, is very slightly, and with a gentle rise, elevated
above sea-level ; and elsewhere — or over nine-tenths
of the whole area — it is a table-land, whose sides slope
easily and in pleasant and varied curvatures down to
the encincturing sea, and whose expansive summit
of between 300, and 400 feet above sea-level, forms
a rolling and striated upland plain, swollen and knob
bed with rising grounds and little hills. The highest
ground is Tamnahara hill, 800 feet in altitude, and
within \\ mile of the northern boundary. The sum
mit of the table-land and the surface of its swells, is
nearly all heath and morass, unhealthy in its climate,
and uninhabited by man. But the slopes, and mimic
ravines, and undulating descents which come down
to the low grounds and the environing waters, are
nearly all verdant, or arable, or planted ; and on the
side whence the point projects — or that which looks
east-south-eastward up the Clyde — they, in common
with the low ground of the point itself, are, to a
large extent, sheeted over with plantation, and ex
hibit, in the curvatures of their surface, and the
many-tinted green, or mellowing of their woods, and
the interspersion of field, and glade, and lawn, with
their prevailing forest, a richness of fringe which
flutters beautifully aside from the skirts of the joy
ous frith — At the edge of one of the expanses of
wood, and at the head of the point, on ground which
lingers at an elevation about one-fifth of that of the

table-land, stands Roseneath-castle, a seat of the
Duke of Argyle, and a conspicuous and arresting
feature in the landscape. The edifice was built in
1803, from a design by J. Bononi of London ; and is
one of the most chaste and splendid specimens ol
modern architecture which Scotland has yet pro
duced. Its style combines the castellated Gothic
and the Greek ; and, though hastily blamed by some
critics, is not more incongruous than the approved
combination of the Greek and the Ecclesiastical
Gothic, and is executed with such harmony in its
parts, and such unity and justness in its lilies and
masses, as to produce on a near view, as well as at a
distance, an unmingledly pleasing and very graceful
effect. One principal front looks to the north, and
is adorned with a magnificent portico, which re
sembles in its style the Roman Ionic, and projects
so far as to admit the transit of a carriage-way. An
other principal front looks to the south, but is less
marked in feature. A circular tower rises from the
centre of the edifice, and is crowned by a balus
trade. But though the summit of the tower com
mands much of the gorgeous scenery of the district,
the site of the castle and the whole home demesne
forfeit all tbe luxuries of a rich mountain and marine
landscape, and shut up the eye among such mere
ranges of prettiness as resemble those of an ordinary
English park  Easter-house, the predecessor of the
castle, and the seat of the ancestors of the present
ducal family, is much more advantageously situated,
about \\ mile to the north-west near the margin of
Gairloch. Its position has a grandly panoramic back
ground ; and its access has an avenue of yews,
flanked by parallel lines of lofty limes, whence a
powerful appeal is made to the taste and admiration
of a stranger. The skirts of the slopes along Gair
loch are so studded with villas and cottages, and
gently embeUished with wood and enclosure, as to
have a warm and agreeable appearance. But the
table-land, the moorish and repulsive elevated ex
panse of swells — which itself is happily unseen from
any of the usual points of observation on the Clyde
— commands a complete circle of some of the most
gorgeous scenery in Scotland. On the north-east,
a regular ascent of from 1,000 to 1,800 feet from
nearly the edge of the opposite side of Gairloch, be
gins with a region of woods and villas as luscious as
if all were orchard and garden, and recedes in a re
gion of enclosed fields and expanses of firs, and
climbs to the summit in a moorish stripe between
heath and grass, and is overlooked in the near dis
tance by a several-peaked mountain-range cutting
against the horizon a sharp and exquisitely curved
sky-line ; on the east, beyond the waters, extends
the long smiling little town of Helensburgh, and be
hind it a slowly-receding, depressed, hill-range of
agricultural beauty, overlooked at 12 miles' distance
by the rugged mountain-screen of the further side of
Lochlomond; on the south-east comes down the
new-born and exulting frith of Clyde, from a mere
point between the soft sylvan grounds of Erskine,
and the picturesquely featured hills of Kilpatrick, in
the clearly-seen distance, to a breadth and power
which enable it to fling its sea-arms in an embrace
round the parish ; 'and projecting into it is the low
warmly-wooded point of Ardmore, while, from its
shores rise the gladly beautiful and charmingly va
riegated hills of Renfrewshire and Cardross, the
former broadly spotted at their base with the towns
of Greenock and Port-Glasgow ; on the south, the
frith, with the pleasant bay and village of Gourock
on its foreground, debouches between ridgy heights
which press down upon it in a struggle between
wildness and embellishment; and, in the west
and the north-west, and the north gigantic mountain-

ROS

601

ROS

masses and towering peaks, singularly rugged in
contour and harshly athletic in feature, appear hud
dled together in a mob a rude assemblage of wild
Highland strength, and — to adopt the hurried phrase
of some man of taste who, not long ago, looked on
them with wonder — exhibit the noblest "specimens
of the statuary of nature." If the area of the parish
be distributed into 100 parts, 49 will be found uncul
tivated moorland, 32 arable grounds or artificial pas
ture, and 19 lands covered with natural or with
planted wood. Conglomerate, or coarse red sand
stone, occurs to a small extent on the south-east, and
appears to be the further edge of the great sandstone
formation of Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, and the Clyde
islands. Clay slate is the prevailing rock. The soil
had long a factitious fame for fatality to rats ; and
though it is now overrun by the vermin quite as
rudely as less sacred soil, even the writer of the Old
Statistical Account had to say : " Here rats cannot
exist. Many of these have, at different times, been
accidentally imported from vessels lying upon the
shore ; but were never known to live twelve months
in the place. From a prevailing opinion, that the
soil of this parish is hostile to that animal, some
years ago, a West India planter actually carried out
to Jamaica several casks of Roseneath earth, with a
view to kill the rats that were destroying his sugar-
canes. It is said this had not the desired effect ; so
we lost a very valuable export. Had the experiment
succeeded, this would have been a new and profit
able trade for the proprietors ; but perhaps, by this
time, the parish of Roseneath might have been no
more." The coast is partly sandy, partly rocky;
and overlooks waters which swarm with fish. Of
two small bays, Calwattie and Campsaile, the latter,
situated in Gairloch, is beautiful in its shores, and
affords in its bosom probably the best-sheltered an
chorage in the western seas and friths of Scotland.
At an early period, it was frequently a station of the
Scottish royal navies; during the last war, it for
some time was the sea-ground of a line-of-battle
ship ; at present it is the adopted retreat of the cut
ters of the royal yacht club; and, at any period, it
might, jointly with the adjacent parts of Gairloch,
give safe shelter and anchorage to all the navy of
Britain. A lochlet near Tamnahara abounds in
perch. The numerous rills of the parish are, in sum
mer, occasionally swollen into foaming torrents and
cataracts, and in winter, congealed into fantastic and
many-tinted colonnades and sbelvings of icicles.
Blind Harry and tradition associate the name of the
patriot Wallace with Roseneath, but in tales too
legendary to admit of discrimination between fiction
and fact. A precipitous rock north of the castle
bears the name of Wallace' leap. Many of the per
secuted Covenanters, in the days of the tyrant
Stuarts, found shelter in the parish under the pro
tection of the friendly Argyle. Respecting even the
noted Balfour of Burley, the amiable parochial
minister who writes the New Statistical Account,
thinks that " there are strong presumptions that he
found an asylum in the same peninsula, and that,
having assumed the name of Salter, his descendants
continued here for several generations." The vil
lage of Roseneath is finely situated opposite the point
and ferry of Row, 3J miles from Helensburgh ;' but
contains not quite 100 inhabitants. Though the par
ish has no turnpike, it possesses good roads round all
its coast, and in three lines across.its interior. Steam
boats communicating either directly with Glasgow, or
with the western terminus of the Glasgow and Green
ock railway, call off the village— which has a small
quay — several times a-day. A row-boat maintains con
stant ferry-communication with Row-point in Row ;
and one can at any time be had from the south-west of

the peninsula to Gourock. Population, in 1801,632;
in 1831,825. Houses 159. Assessed property, in 1815,
£1,851  Roseneath is in the presbytery of Dum
barton, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the
Duke of Argyle. Stipend £190 16s. 5d. ; glebe
.£10. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with
£35 fees, and £4 4s. other emoluments. There is
a non-parochial school. The ancient parish com
prehended, in addition to the peninsula, all the ter
ritory which now constitutes Row, — the latter hav
ing been disjoined and separately erected in 1635.
Its appearance from the Clyde was formerly naked,
and may have occasioned its being called in the Bri
tish language, Rhos-noeth, 'the bare peninsula.' In
the 12th century, the church was a free parsonage,
under the patronage of the Earl of Lennox ; but, in
1225, it was given, withjts pertinents, in perpetual
alms to the monks of Paisley ; and ii continued to
be maintained by them as a curacy till the Reforma
tion. The peninsula, and the adjacent but disjoined
district of the ancient parish, together with a por
tion of land beyond, formed the country of Nevyd,
which was granted at a very early date to the noble
family of Lennox, and continued in their possession
till the latter part of the 15th century. Part of
Nevyd, including most of the peninsula, was, in
1489, bestowed as a royal gift upon Colin, the 1st
Earl of Argyle, and introduced his powerful family
by territorial connexion to an influence upon the
western Lowlands  Matthew Stewart, the mathe
matician, and the father of the celebrated Dugald
Stewart, was for some time minister of Roseneath ;
Dr. Anderson, the founder of the Andersonian uni
versity of Glasgow, was the son of a minister, and
born in the manse.
ROSLIN, a quoad sacra parish and a village, a
little south of the centre of Edinburghshire. The
parish was disjoined, in 1835, from Lasswade by the
presbytery of Dalkeith. Its greatest length is 5|
miles ; its greatest breadth is 3J miles ; and its su
perficial extent is about 10 square miles. The par
ishioners are for the most part agricultural labourers
handicraftsmen, and operatives at coal- works, paper-
mills, a gunpowder manufactory, and a bleachfield ;
and are, to a considerable amount, congregated into
villages. Population, according to ecclesiastical sur
vey, in 1835, 1,611 ; of whom 964 were churchmen,
534 were dissenters, and 1 13 were nondescripts. The
parish-church was built as a chapel-of-ease, in 1827,
at a cost of £978 15s. 5Jd. Sittings 444. Stipend
£150  A United Secession chapel at Bridge-end, in
the vicinity of Penieuick, but within the parish of
Roslin, was built in 1782. Sittings 481. Stipend
not known ; but there are a manse and a small glebe.
— The parish has four Sabbath-schools.
Roslin, or Rosslyn, a village 2A miles south
west of Lasswade ; 3£ north-east of Penieuick ; and
7 south of Edinburgh. It stands on a bank about
IA furlong west of the North Esk, and about a mile
east of the turnpike from Edinburgh to Peebles and
Dumfries. Roslin-castle is replete with historical
reminiscence, and possesses some interesting features
in its site, and vestiges ; Roslin-chapel is one of the
most elegantly designed, the most elaborately and
exquisitely adorned, and ihe least damaged, the most
proximately entire specimens of Gothic ecclesiastical
architecture in Scotland ; the vale of Roslin consti
tutes one of the richest links in the concatenation of
scenic beauty and romance which lies along the
North Esk, and which was briefly noticed in our
article on Lasswade ; — and these three attractions,
singly great and aggregately conquering, draw, dur
ing all the sunny parts of the year, numerous visiters
from the brilliant and tasteful metropolis. About
the year 1440, the village or town was next in im-

C02

ROSLIN.

portance in the east to Edinburgh and Haddington ;
and enjoying the fostering protection of William St.
Clair, who lived in its castle in the style of a prince,
and threw over it an importance second only io that
of the seat of a royal court, it became very populous
by the great concourse to it of all ranks and degrees
of visiters. In 1456 it received, from James II., a
charter erecting it into a burgh-of-barony, with the
rights of a market-cross, a weekly market on Satur
day, and an annual fair on the feast of St. Simon
and St. Jude ; and respectively in 1622 and 1650, it
obtained confirmations of its charter from James VI.
and Charles I. In modern times it has subsided into
the retreat of rural and unpretending quietness, —
the home of cultivators of the soil, and of workmen
in establishments for bleaching linen and manufac
turing gunpowder. An inn- at, the village — in rather
close and inappropriate juxtaposition with the cha
pel — receives visiters, and furnishes them with a ci
cerone to point out ihe admired or the storied fea
tures of castle, chapel, and landscape  The battle of
Roslin, in 1303, which gave to Scottish arms ' Three
triumphs in a day,' has been noticed in our article on
the parish : see Lasswade.
Roslin-castle stands on an almost insulated rock,
overhanging the picturesque glen of the Esk. A
path winds down to it from the village, and speedily
conducts the visiter among deep thickets and preci
pitous rocks, tangling or walling up the margin of
the river. The original and only access to the castle
was along a one-arched bridge, across a deep gulley
— now nearly filled up — which quite insulated the
rocky site. The entrance was defended by 'a gate
of great strength. The site, though in the highest
degree pleasant and romantic, is very ill chosen for a
(fortalice; and while it finely overlooks the playful
meanderings of the sylvan stream below, is itself
commanded by heights which press closely on its
precincts, and look almost right down upon the tops
of its chimneys. The structure must, in early times,
have been large and massive; but it has lost nearly
all its antique appearance and more ancient parts ;
and it now consists principally of a tremendous triple
tier of vaults, some huge fragments of walls and
battlements, and a comparatively modern mansion
reared on the under-vaulted stories of extinct parts
of the ancient edifice. A descent of a great number
of stone -stairs conducts through part of the existing
structure to the bottom, and leads into a large kit
chen, whence a door opens into a once famous gar
den. The comparatively modern part seems to have
been erected in 1563; and in its lower apartments it
is ill-lighted #nd confined, and possesses far more of
the coldness and inconvenience and dungeon-proper
ties of a prison than the cheering and comfortable
characteristics of a modern residence. Such frag
ments of the more ancient castle as remain stand
opposite this erection on the right hand of the en
trance to the rock, and consist of some arches, but
tresses, and pieces of walls. A view of the whole,
as they appeared in 1788, is given by Grose; — hag
gard, and utterly dilapidated, — the mere wreck of a
great pile riding on a little sea of forest, and not
far from contact with commanding rocks, — a rueful
apology for the once grand fabric, whose name of
' Roslin-castle ' is so intimately associated with mel
ody and song — When or by whom the original castle
was built is not known. About the year 1 100,
William de St. Clair, son of Waldernus, compte de St.
Clair, who came from Normandy to England with Wil
liam the Conqueror, obtained from Malcolm Canmore
a great part of the lands of the barony of Roslin ;
and as the building of castles by barons or land
owners was the fashion of the age, he probably
erected some fortalice on his possessions, and pos

sibly was the constructor of the oldest fragments of
the surviving ruins. He was called, in allusion to
his fair deportment, the seemly St. Clair. His de
scendants—indifferently named St. Clair and Sinclair
 received from the liberality of successive monarchs
such accessions to the original demesne as made them
masters of all the baronies of Roslin, Cousland, Pent
land, Cardaine, and. other lands. The early barons
lived at their castle in the splendour and sumptuous-
ness of a rude age, and acquired personal importance
and increase of their possessions by methods which
would be little dreamed of in modern times.* The
St. Clairs stood at the head of the baronage of Mid-
Lothian; and about the middle of the 13th century,
they acquired, in addition to their vast territories
and honours in Lothian, the inheritance of the
wealth and power of the earldom of Orkney. The
8th chief of the family, a Sir William St. Clair,
having married Isabel, one of the daughters and co
heiresses of Malise, Earl of Strathearn, Caithness,
and Orkney, Henry, his son, succeeded to the earl
dom of Orkney, and, in 1379, obtained a recognition
of his title from Haco VI., king of Norway. In
1470, however, William St. Clair, the 3d Earl of
Orkney of his family, resigned his earldom to the
Scottish Crown ; received, in compensation, the castle
of Ravenscraig in Fife, and the lands of Wilstown,
Dubbo, ai d Carberry ; and soon after was created
Earl of Caithness and Baron Berriedale. Three sons
of this nobleman conveyed the concentrated honours
* A story is told of a hunting-match between King Robert
Bruce and Sir -William St. Clair, which throws some interest
ing light upon both the practices of the age, and the proprie
torial history of the family. The king had been repeatedly
baulked hy a fleet white deer which he had started in his hunts
among the Pentlands ; and having asked an assembled body of
his nobles whether any dogs in their possession could seize the
game which had escaped the royal hounds, Sir William St.
Clair promptly offered to pledge his head that two favourite
dogs of bis, called ' Help and Hold,* would kill the deer before
she crossed the IVlarch-btirn. The king instantly accepted the
knight's bold and reckless offer, and pledged himself to give
the forest of Fentland-moor in guerdon of success. A few
slow houuds having been let loose to beat up the deer, and the
king having taken post on the best vantage-ground for com
manding a view of the chase, Sir William stationed himself in
the fittest position fur slipping his dogs, and — in the true style
of a Romanist, who asks a blessing opon a sin, aud supposes
tlie giver of a blessing to be a creature — earnestly prayed to
St. Katheriue to give the life of the deer to his dogs. Away
now came the raised deer, and away in full chase went Sir
William on a fleet-footed steed; and hind and hunter arrived
neck and neck at the critical ' March-burn,' Sir William threw
himself in a desperate fling from his horse into the stream ;
' Hold,' j u.st at the crisis of fate, stopped the deer in the brook ;
aud ' Help' the next instant came up, drove back the chase,
and killed her on the winning side of the stream. The king,
who had witnessed the nicely-poised result, came speedily down
from his vantage-ground, embraced Sir William, and granted '
him in free forestry the lands of Logan-house, Kirktou, and
Carncraig. Sir William, in gratitude for the fancied interfer
ence of St. Katherine in his favour, built the chapel of St. Ka
therine in the Hopes: see Penicuick. The tomb of the wildly
adventurous knight, who was so canine in his nature as to
reckon his life not too high a pledge for the fleetness aud
truculency of a pair of dogs, is still to be seen in Roslm-
chapel ; and it very appropriately represents the sculpture of
his armed person to be attended by a greyhound, as a joint
claimant of the honour and the fame of his exploits. — A de
scendant of this knight, another Sir William St Clair, became
not a little distinguished by the baronial magnificence of his fes
tivities, and the rude princeliuess of his mode of life. Father
Hay, a member of the St. Clair family, speaks of him as a
' prince,' who maintained his state ' at his palace of the castle
of Roslin ;' and he says, "He kept a great court, and was roy
ally served at his own table in vessels of gold and silver ; Lord
Dirletnn being his master-household, Lord Borthwick his
cup-bearer, aiid Lord Fleming his carver; in whose absence
they had deputies to attend,— viz., Stewart, laird of Drumlan
rig; i'weedie, laird of Drumferline j and Sandilands, laird of
Calder. He had his halls and other apartments richly adorned
with embroidered hangings. He nourished in tbe reigns of
James 1. and 11. His princesB, Elizabeth Douglas, was served
by 75 gentlewomen, whereof 53 were daughters of noblemen
all clothed in velvet and silks, with their chains of gold and
other ornaments, and waB attended by 200 riding gentlemen
in all journies; and if it happened to be dark when she
went to Edinburgh, where her lodgings were at the foot of
Black-* ryar'a-wyud, 80 lighted torches were cairied before

ROSLIN.

603

of the house into three divergent channels, and
poured them along in separate streams of family
dignity and descent. William, the eldest, whose
mother was the Lady Margaret Douglas, eldest
daughter of Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas, inherited
the title of Baron Sinclair, which was created in
1489, and was the ancestor of the St. Clairs, Lords
Sinclair, whose seats are Herdmanstone in Hadding
tonshire, and Nesbitt-house in Berwickshire. The
second son, also called William, whose mother was
Marjory, daughter of Alexander Sutherland of Dun-
beatb, continued the line of the Earls of Caithness.
The third son, Oliver, the full brother of the second,
founded the modern respectable family, and con
nected it with the ancient one of St. Clair of Ros
lin. William St. Clair, the last heir in the direct
male-line, died in 1778. A collateral branch, the
family of St. Clair Erskine, were, in 1795, created
Barons Loughborough of Loughborough, and were,
in 1801, raised to the dignity of Earls of Rpsslyn,
in the peerage of the United Kingdom. James
Alexander, the 2d Earl, succeeded to the title
in 1837, and has his Scottish seat at Dysart-house
in Fifeshire. The St. Clairs of Roslin, from the
time of James II., till they resigned the office in last
century, were grand-masters of masonry in Scotland.
See Kilwinning. — In 1455, Sir James Hamilton
was confined in Roslin-castle, under the ward of the
Earl of Orkney, by order of James II. ; but, after
some time, he was released, and taken into favour.
In 1554, the castle, with that of Craigmillar and the
town of Leith, was burnt by the English army sent
by Henry VIII. to castigate Scotland for refusing a
matrimonial affiance between Prince Edward of
England and the Scottish Queen. In 1650 it was
besieged and taken by General Monk; and, in 1681,
it was plundered by a furious mob, chiefly tenants of
the barony.
Roslin chapel is situated in an enclosed ground on
the brow of an eminence between the castle and the
village ; and occupies physical vantage-ground which
would have been as suitable for the site of a fortalice,
as the site of tbe actual castle is unsuitable. The
rising ground which it crowns is named the college-
hill, and is beautifully decorated, in its environs,
with wood and water, — the river Esk running in a
deep rocky bed on its west and south fronts ; and it
is said to have been originally called Roskelyn, a
Gaelic or Erse word which signifies ' a hill in a glen,'
exactly describes its position, and is easily recognis
able in the modern Rosslyn or Roslin. The chapel
was founded in 1446, by William St. Clair, the 7th
of his name, Lord of Roslin, and Earl of Orkney;
and though called a chapel, was really, even from the
outset, a collegiate church. It was dedicated to St.
Matthew the apostle, and founded for a provost, six
prebendaries, and two choristers, or singing boys.
Sir WilUam, the founder, was the 3d Earl of Ork
ney of his name ; he had the foreign title of Duke of
Oldenburg ; he was admiral of the fleet in 1436, and,
in that capacity, conveyed the princess Margaret to
France ; and he was chancellor of Scotland from 1454
to 1458. Tradition says, that he procured the archi
tectural design of the church from artists at Rome,
that he built houses for the workmen to be employed
in constructing it, that he gave to each mason ten
pounds a-year, to each master-mason twenty pounds,
to both an extent of land, proportionate to the re
ward of the ability which they displayed, and to
other artificers a commensurate extent of compensa
tion and encouragement, and that, in consequence,
he attracted all the best architects and sculptors
from various parts of Scotland, and of neighbouring
kingdoms. He endowed it with various lands and
revenues/and saw it rising in profuse magnificence

of architecture ; yet, after vast efforts and great ex
pense, he left it unfinished. A crypt at the east
end, which shall be noticed in the description of the
pile, was founded by the Earl's first lady, the daugh
ter of the Earl of Douglas. Such parts of the whole
fabric as were in an advanced state toward comple
tion, Sir Oliver St. Clair of Roslin, the third son of
the Earl of Orkney, carried on and completed. But
the originally designed edifice was, in many of its
parts, never commenced ; and what was finished, and
now in nearly an entire state, remains to refresh the
eye of taste, is a comparatively small building, and
consists only of the nave. Various barons of Roslin
made additions to the church's endowments. In
1523, Sir William St. Clair granted some lands in the
vicinity for dwelling-houses and gardens, and other
accommodations, to the provost and prebendaries ;
and, in his charter, he speaks of four altars as exist
ing in the church, and as dedicated respectively to
St. Matthew, the Virgin Mary, St. Andrew, and St.
Peter. At the Reformation, the provost and pre
bendaries felt the effects of the movement spirit
which was abroad against their craft; and, in 1572,
after having been virtually denuded of their posses
sions for a series of years, they were obliged to relin
quish, by a formal deed of resignation, the whole of
their revenues and property. At the Revolution, a
mob, partly raised in Edinburgh, but consisting
chiefly of the tenants of the barony, and the same
that attacked the castle, and robbed it of its furni
ture, did some damage to the chapel, and carried
away some of its ornaments. The edifice was in
great danger, during the early part of last century,
of becoming quite ruinous ; but it was repaired at
much expense by General St. Clair, who put wooden
casements with glass into all the windows, new laid
the floor with flag-stones, placed new flag-stones all
over the roof, and built a high wall round the ceme
tery ; and it was again repaired by the 1st Earl of
Rosslyn, who roofed it with blue slate, and partially
renovated its architecture, without impairing any of
its antique or distinctive features  The chapel is
entered by two doors, respectively on the north and
on the south. Its height within, from the floor to
the top of the high arched roof, is 40 feet 8 inches ;
its breadth is 34 feet 8 inches; and'it6 length is 68
feet. A descent from the south-east corner, leads',
by a flight of 20 steps, to a crypt or chapel, which is
supposed to have served also as a sacristy and ves
try. This appendage measures 15 feet in height, 14
in breadth, and 36 in length ; it is partly subterranean,
but, owing to the sudden declivity of the hill, looks
out from the surface at the east end ; and it is lighted
by a single window. The whole chapel is profusely
decorated with sculpture, both within and without ;
nor is it less interesting from the mouldings in the
exterior being worn and rounded bythe weather. A
number of niches for statues appear on the outside;
but whether they were ever tenanted by these chis
elled resemblances of men is not known. The inte
rior is divided into a central, and two side aisles, by
14 clustered pillars, disposed in two rows, and sup
porting Saxo-Gothic arches. The pillars are only 8
feet high ; but they are exquisitely rich in workman
ship, and have capitals adorned with foliage and
curiously wrought figures, and produce a very impos
ing effect. The central aisle is higher than the side
aisles, and has along its middle, and over its arches,
a row of windows; and, owing to the breadth and
exuberance of its adornings, after springing from the
pillars, it looks to be one continued arch. The roof,
the key-stones, the capitals, the architraves, of the
whole interior, are all covered with sculptures repre
senting flowers, foliage, passages of sacred history,
texts of scripture, and grotesque figures, all executed

ROS

604

ROS

with astonishing neatness. Like other celebrated
structures, such as Melrose abbey, with some of its
finest sculpturing, and Rouen cathedral, with its
famous rose window, Roslin chapel has a chef-
d'oeuvre, which wonder-making tradition asserts to
have been the work of an apprentice during the ab
sence of his master, and the occasion of the master's
killing the apprentice through jealousy. Legend
even gossips so lustily as to point out among the
sculptures the heads of the slain, the slayer, and the
former's mother weeping for his fate ; and, quite in
the characteristic style of monkish fiction, it appeals
to a daub with ochre as a memento of the appren
tice's wound, and blunderingly identifies his whole
figure with that of a bearded old man. But, apart
from this stupid romancing, " the Prentice's pillar"
is a mass1 of superb sculpturing, and justly excites
general admiration. " This pillar," says the author
of a pamphlet which minutely describes the chapel,
" has on the base of it several dragons in the strong
est or first kind of basso relievo ; as one, can easily
thrust a finger or two between some parts of the
dragon and the base. The dragons are chained by
the heads, and twisted into one another. This
beautiful pillar has round it, from base to capital,
waving in the spiral way, four wreaths of the mosi
curious sculpture of flower- work and foliage; the
workmanship of each being different, and the centre
of each wreath distant from that of the neighbouring
one a foot and a-half. So exquisitely fine are these
wreathings, that I can resemble them to nothing else
but Brussels lace. The ornaments upon the capital
of this pillar are the story of Abraham offering up
Isaac; a man blowing on a Highland bagpipe, with
another man lying by him ; and on the architrave
joining it to the smaller one on the south wall, with
your face to the east, and to the entry of the sacristy,
you read the following inscription in old Gothic char
acters : ' Forto est vinum, fortior est rex, fortiores
sunt mulieres, super omnia vincet Veritas.'" Brit
ton, in his 'Architectural Antiquities' of Great Bri
tain, says respecting Roslin chapel : — " This build
ing, I believe, may be pronounced unique, and I am
confident it will be found curious, elaborate, and
singularly interesting. The chapels of King's Col
lege, St. George, and Henry the Seventh, are all
conformable to the styles of the respective ages when
they were erected ; and these styles display a gra
dual advancement in lightness and profusion of orna
ment ; but the chapel at Rosslyn combines the soli
dity of the Norman with the minute decoration of
the latest species of the Tudor age. It is impossible
to designate the architecture of this building by any
given or familiar term ; for the variety and eccentri
city of its parts are not to be defined by any words
of common acceptation. I ask some of our obstinate
antiquaries, how they would apply either the term
Roman, Saxon, Norman, Gothic, Saracenic, English,
or Grecian, to this building." There were formerly
in the chapel several monuments; and two which
remain are remarkable, that of the hunting knight,
who won the match against King Robert Bruce, and
that of George, Earl of Caithness, who died in 1582.
The family vault lies beneath the pavement of the
chapel ; and is entered by an aperture at tbe front of
the third and fourth pillars, between them and the
north wall, where a large flag-stone covers the in
gress. This vault contained before the Revolution
the remains of ten barons of Roslin, and is so dry
that the bodies were found entire after 80 years, and
as fresh as immediately after entombment. The
barons were anciently buried in their armour, without
any coffin. The first who was buried in the modern
style was he who died a little before the demise of
Charles II., and, contrary to the advice of the Duke

of York, the subsequent James VII., who was theft
in Scotland, and of several other persons well versed
in antiquities, he was assigned a coffin by his widow,
Archbishop Spottiswood's grand-niece, who thought
it beggarly to be buried without one. The vastness
of the expense which she threw away upon the obse
quies of her husband, occasioned the sumptuary acts
which were passed in the following parliaments.
Tbe burying vault was damaged in 1688, by the
same mob who rioted against the chapel and the
castle. Various persons collaterally connected with
the barons were interred in the vault. A supersti
tious belief prevailed, amid the dark ages, that on
the night before the death of any of the barons, tbe
chapel, by supernatural means, appeared to be in
flames. Sir Walter Scott makes a fine poetical use
of this belief, and at the same time graphically alludes
to the ancient manner of the barons' sepulture, in his
ballad of Rosabelle : —
" O'er Roslin all that dreary night,
A wondrous blaze was seen to gleam ;
'Twas broader than the watch-fire's light,
And redder than the bright moonbeam.
It glared on Roslin's castled rock,
It ruddied all the copsewood glen ;
'Twas seen from Dryden's groves of oak,
And seen from cavern'd Hawthornden.
Seem'd all on fire that chapel proud.
Where Roslin's chiefs uncotnn'd lie ;
Each baron, for a sable shroud,
Sheathed in his iron panoply.
Seem'd all on fire, within, around,
Deep sacristy and altar's pale;
Shone every pillar foliage-bound,
And glimmer'd ail the dead men's mail.
Blazed battlement and pinnet high,
Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair, 
So still they blaze, when fate is nigh
The lordly line of high St. Clair.
There are twenty of Roslin's barons bold
Lie buried within that proud chapelle ,
Each one the holy vault doth hold —
But tbe sea holds lovely Rosabelle !
And each St. Clair was buried there,
With candle, with book, and with knell ;
But the sea-caves rung, and the wild waves sung,
The dirge of lovely Rosabelle !
ROSS-SHIRE, a large county in the north of
Scotland, extending westward from the Moray frith
to the Atlantic ocean, and southward from Suther
landshire to the Beauly frith, Inverness-shire, and
Loch-Alsh, and comprehending Lewis and some of
the minor Hebridean islands. It embosoms the Fer-
intosh district of Nairnshire, has numerous and min
ute interspersions of Cromartyshire, and is ruggedly
dovetailed into sections of the latter county along
the east coast ; and in order, therefore, to avoid such
a multitudinous tracing of petty boundaries, and con
stant stating of trivial exceptions, as would be insuf
ferably irksome and even scarcely intelligible, we
must describe it as including Cromartyshire and'Fer-
intosh, and refer to our articles on these districts for
a view of their separate position and character. The
continental part of Ross-shire, thus understood lies
between 57° 7' 40" and 58° 7' 20" north latitude
and between 3° 45' 30" and 5° 46' 20" longitude
west of Greenwich ; and the Hebridean part, exclu
sive of the small islands of Rona and Barra, extends
to 58° 31' 30" north latitude, and 7° 5' 20" west
longitude. Its boundary with Sutherlandshire, ex
cept for a few miles at the central water-shed, is all
formed by the river Oikell and the Dornoch frith, and
by Lochs Vathie and Fin, and the stream which
carries off the superfluent waters of the latter to the
ocean; and its boundary with Inverness-shire is
formed chiefly by the inner Moray frith, the Beauly
frith, and a very tortuous series of mountain water
sheds along the north edge of the hugely rugged

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ROSS-SHIRE.

605

basin of the Glass, and along the south edge of the
basin of the Shiel. Exclusive of the Hebridean part,
its greatest length, in a straight line, from the mouth
of the Fin, on the north, to a point 2A miles south
of the Bridge of Shiel, on the south, is 69 miles;
and its greatest breadth, in a straight line due west
from Old Shandwick, in the parish of Nigg, to a
small headland near Malveg, in the district of Gair
loch, is 67 miles. But, in consequence of its east
side somewhat gradually contracting till it tapers to
a point at Tarbatness, and of its west side running
far southward and considerably northward in two
cuneiform projections, its real length is from east-
north-east to west-south-west, and extends 83 miles;
its mean breadth, in the opposite direction, is only
about 39 or 40 miles ; and its general form is proxi
mately that of a triangle, whose sides, along Suther
landshire and the German ocean, measure respec
tively 55 and 64 miles. The area of the whole dis
trict is 3,799 square miles, or 2,431,359 English
acres ; of which 562J square miles, or 359,893. acres,
are in the Hebrides; 344f square miles, or 220,586
acres, belong to Cromartyshire ; and 9J square miles,
or 5,973 acres, belong to Nairnshire. The area of
Ross alone is thus 3,445 square miles, or 2,204,800
acres. These computations of area are those of Sir
George S. Mackenzie, in his General Survey of the
Counties of Ross and Cromarty. Oliver and Boyd's
Almanac — referring, probably, to the continental
district alone, and making a low computation of even
it — states the area of the county to be 2,774 square
miles, or 1,775,830 acres, — of which 301,000 are
cultivaied, 545,000 uncultivated, and 929,830 un
profitable. Lewis, Rona, and Barra, the only Hebridean
divisions of any importance, are separately described.
The continental district is popularly divided into
Easter Ross, extending from Tarbatness to the river
Alness ; the Black Isle, lying between the frith of
Cromarty and the frith of Beauly ; Fearndonald, ex
tending from the river Alness to the burn of Cline ;
Wester Ross, comprehending all the low country
from Cline to Contin, on the north side of the rivers
Conan and Orren ; and the Highlands, comprehend
ing all the central, western, and south-western area,
or all north of Strathpeffer and west and south-west
of Contin ; — and the last of these divisions may be
subdivided into Strathoikel, Strathcarron, Coigach,
Loch-broom, Greinord, Gairloch, Applecross, Loch-
alsh, Glenshiel, Strathbran, Strathgarve, Strathdirry,
Glenelchaig, and some other subdivisions. All the
vast Highland division is wild, lofty, and confusedly
mountainous ; it lies on a basis averaging about
1,500 feet above sea-level ; and, though cut through
or tesselated in all directions hy glens, gorges, and
the deep beds of streams, it possesses hardly an ex
panse which can be called a valley. Its mountains
are occasionally isolated, but, for the most part,
grouped, yet not so disposed in ranges that they can
be methodically described ; and, though numerously
all but unexplored, and rarely of accurately or even
proximately ascertained altitude, they are believed
to rise, in many instances, to nearly as great a height
as the monarch summits of Scotland. But, often
broad-based and slow ascent, or so agglomerated and
amassed as to form stretches of-tumulated table-land,
and rising from so lofty an average level of water
course as we have named, those in the interior, or at
more than a brief distance from the coast, aggregately
possess none of the force and grand character of
scenic feature which distinguish a large proportion
of the Scottish alps. Ben-Wyvis, situated on the
south-east frontier of the Highland district, over
looking Wester Ross, and variously stated at 3,426
and 3,722 feet of altitude, is the most imposing of

the mountains, and is usually represented as the
highest, but may possibly owe its fame to the com
parative lowness of its base, the wideness of its range
of vision, and the great scenic power of its configura
tion. The uplands, while prevailingly bleak and
desolate, are aggregately covered with much excel
lent herbage ; and the interior glens, though narrow,
offer some pleasant retreats to population, and occa
sionally show fine dashes of the beautiful, the pic
turesque, and the grand, in landscape. The long
extent of western coast, over a mean breadth of 3 or
4 miles, is almost everywhere magnificent, and, in
several places, sublime, in scenery ; and, in the stu
pendous bulwarks which it presents to the sea, or
ihe soaring elevations which it lifts up to the clouds,
or the numerous cleavings which ii receives from
rivers and marine lochs, it transfixes attention and
looks defiance to the efforts of the pencil  The
eastern districts of the county differ widely in cha
racter from the vast Highland division ; and, over
much of their area, present the striking contrast to it
of soft woodlands and rich champaign expanses of
arable ground. The Highlands come out upon these
districts with such abruptness of wild and rocky glen
and mountain, that the contrast is instantly felt deeply
impressive ; the streamlet of Aultgrand, in particular,
presents, close upon the low country, as sublime a
series of tremendous cliffs and waterfalls as any in
Scotland ; and, from every point of view in the cham
paign division, the enormous mass of Ben-Wyvis
looms stupendously in the eye, and suggests crowd
ing fancies of the tempestuated ocean of alps which
stretches away westward from its base. Much of
the Black Isle district is occupied by the broad, low,
cheerless height of the Millbuy [which see] ; and
most of Wester Ross, as popularly understood, is
geographically included in the Highland division, and
has, in consequence, been anticipated in our descrip
tion. With these exceptions, and so,me minor ones,
all the country on the east is rich, well-wooded, re
markably fruitful in agricultural produce, beautifully
embellished in the artificial arrangements of its sur
face, and splendidly foiled in its landscape, not only
with the long sweep of mountain-rampart round its
edge, but with the far-stretching gulf of the outer
Moray frith, and the deep and curving intersections
of the friths of Dornoch, Cromarty, and Beauly.
The climate of Ross-shire, particularly of the
westem districts, is moist. The west coast is sub
ject to very heavy rains. Snow falls in greatest
quantity in the month of February ; but severe storms
are sometimes experienced at earlier periods. The
average annual temperature of the whole county is
about 46°. The heat in the months of July and
August often equals, and sometimes considerably
exceeds, the greatest heat experienced in England.
Actual spring can hardly be said to commence till
nominal spring has passed away. The winter is
colder and the summer warmer on the eastern coast
than on the western. A much greater difference
than occurs in England or the south of Scotland is
usual between the temperature of day and that of
night. Changes of temperature are so frequent and
sudden in spring and autumn as to be severely felt ;
and are so common in winter as to render its weather
very variable. Winds, from between the north-west
and the south-west, blow during three-fourths of
the year ; winds from the south of west bring the
heaviest rains; winds from the north-west bring
most of the snow-storms, and, from the north-east,
snow-storms of great severity ; and winds from the
south and south-west, in summer, are sometimes ac
companied by thunder. " It has been remarked,"
says Sir George Mackenzie, in 1810, "that the cli
mate has been becoming worse for many years. I

606

ROSS-SHIRE.

can answer for the truth of this since the year 1796;
and I judge from the ripening of certain garden
fruits." The east coast, besides being cloven with the
long marine inlets of Dornoch, Cromarty, and Beauly
friths, is indented with the bays of Tain and Shand
wick, and offers many situations where safe and
excellent harbours might be constructed. The west
coast is cut into numerous fragments by a rapid
series of sea-lochs, and worn into constant jagged-
ness or curvature by creeks and tiny bays. The
lochs, named in an order from north to south, are
Loch-Enard, Loch-Broom, Little Loch -Broom,
Loch-Greinord, Loch-Ewe, Gair-loch, Loch-Torri-
don, including Lochs Ardheslag and Shieldag, Loch-
Carroii, sending off Loch-Keeshorn and Upper Loch-
Carron, and Loch-Alsh, ramified by Loch-Ling and
Loch-Duich. The fresh water lakes, of the first
class, are Lochs Maree and Tannich ; of the second
class, are Lochs Skinaskink, Vattie, Lurgan, Na-
Shallag, Fuir, Monar, Luichart, Glass, and Moir ;
and of minor classes, are too numerous to be here
separately mentioned. They are aggregately fine
trouting waters ; and, in most instances, are fre
quented by a great variety of wild fowl. The chief
streams, flowing eastward, are the Oikell and the
Carron, to the head of tbe Dornoch frith ; and the
Balnagowan, the Alness, the Aultgrand, and the
Conan, to the Cromarty frith ; and the chief flowing
westward, are the Broom, the Ewe, and the Carron,
to the bead of their cognominal lochs, and the Shiel
to the head of Loch-Duich. All these streams have
very productive salmon-fishings; and the Ewe, in
particular, is frequented by prodigious numbers of
salmon, and is perhaps the best angling stream in
Britain. Several medicinal springs occur ; but the
only one known to fame is that of Strathpeffer.
Granite, or granitic gneiss, forms the ridgy height
of the Black Isle, which terminates in the Sutors of
Cromarty. Gneiss constitutes the central mountain
masses of the county, from Ben-Nevis on the east,
and Loch-Carron on ihe west, away to the boundary
with Sutherland. Mica-schist forms the highly pic
turesque three-topped mountain of Scuir-Vuitin, and
thence diverges, as from a centre, to form the
heights of Strath-Conan ; and it constitutes also the
greater part of the rugged but picturesque district
of Gairloch. Primary granular limestone occurs in
the vicinity of Loch-Keeshorn, and in other places
in the west. Quartz-rock, displaying its curious
isolations, its characteristic sterility of covering,
and its puzzling connections with gneiss, granite,
mica-schist, and old red sandstone, occurs along
both sides of Loch-Maree, and in the district thence
to the boundary with Sutherland. A red conglo
merate sandstone, now called primary, and now the
old red, extends along the whole western coast in a
belt of from 1 to 4 miles broad, resting unconform-
ably on the sides of the primitive mountains, often
rising into altitudes of not less than 3,000 feet, and
generally exhibiting long picturesque ridges, here
and there broken into distinct truncated and some
what pyramidal masses. The same formation, but
in an attenuated shape, and looking out from the
bosom of an expanse of secondary deposits, forms
two interrupted ridges in the champaign country of
the east, nearly parallel to the general direction of
the Cromarty frith, and seeming, when beheld from
a distance, to be embossed upon the sides of the lof
tier heights which radiate from Ben-Wyvis ; and it
also projects in two other spurs, the one of which
runs eastward from Coul, and forms a chain of
rounded and tabular heights, with bold and bare
escarpments towards the south and west, while the
other traverses Black Isle from Redcastle to the

vicinity of Avoch. Secondary rocks, chiefly sand
stone, occupy the greater part of Easter Ross, and a
considerable part of the other eastern districts.
Strata of has on the outer side of the granitic ridge
of Black Isle have been upheaved to a very high
angle, and display their ammonites and belemnates
in bold protrusion. A hard granitoid conglomerate
occurs at the junction of these rocks and the grani
tic gneiss in the vicinity of the western Sutor. The
following succession of rocks occurs in an ascending
order between the eastern Sutor and Tarbatness;
granitic gneiss ; coarse sandstone conglomerate; high
ly inclined strata of sandstone, very various in colour
and texture; lias shales and limestone, with their
characteristic fossils; strata of sandstone, red, green
ish-grey, grey and brown, exceedingly variable in
hardness and thickness; micaeeous, laminated beds
of dark grey impure limestone ; and alternating beds
of calciferous sandstone and bituminous and calcare
ous shales, one of them with fossilized fish-scales,
and fragments resembling tbe trionyx of the Caith
ness schist. Superincumbent on the old red sand
stone of the glens of Alness and Aultgrand, appear
grit, argillaceous and calcareous beds, and bituminous
shale ; and extending west ward thence through Fearn-
donald, they largely expand between the first and
second ridges of the old sandstone or conglomerate
heights, pass over the smooth hills above mount
Gerald and Tulloch-eastle, and after having been
associated with micaceous sandstone, they dip into
Strathpeffer, and there assume the character of a
dark-coioured calcareo-bituminous schist, foliated,
and occasionally much contorted, and mixed with
pyriteus shale.
The useful and fancy minerals of the county, and
the general character of the soils, may, in a great
measure, be inferred from the details of its geognos-
tic structure. Actynolite, tremolite, shorl, tourma
line, garnet, and simple hornblende, as well as por
tions of actynolite, chlorite, and hornblende schists,
are not uncommon. Pure bitumen occurs among
the shales of Strathpeffer. Copper has been wrought
in the primary limestone near Keeshorn. Lead-ore
was searched for on the north side of Loch-Maree,
but seems to have been indicated by nothing better
than a large vein of calcareous spar. Ironstone
abounds in the west ; and was at one time worked.
Shell-marl is very abundant, and quite accessible at
Culrain ; and occurs in large quantities in various
other parts of the east. , Limestone, such as might
be used for economical purposes, is either so coarse
and unproductive, or occurs in such inaccessible re
gions of the west, that supplies of lime for the far
mers have to be obtained by importation. — The soil
of the greater part of the low lands of Easter Ross,
Fearndonald, and Wester Ross, is either clay or a
sharp sandy loam ; and, in part of Strathpeffer, and
about Dingwall, the clay is deep and heavy. A
moorish soil covers most of the remaining area of
these districts ; but is generally such as draining and
manuring would render productively arable. The
soil of much of the Black Isle is very poor , but, in
the cultivated parts, is either clay or a good black
sandy mould; and, on Auchterflow, though lying
high, it is so rich as to be best adapted to wheat.
The soil of the uplands in the great Highland divi
sion is, for the most part, peaty ; and of the narrow
intersecting glens, is chiefly sand", varied in its cha
racter by the nature of the prevailing rocks.
Natural forests appear to have anciently covered
almost the entire county; but they are now re
presented by only an inconsiderable aggregate ex
tent of copses. A few patches of natural oak occur*
at intervals, but receive no nurturing or protecting
attention, and are cut down at every dictation of

ROS

607

ROS

either caprice or pecuniary need. Such natural
woods as exist consist principally of fir and birch.
Plantations are very extensive, and have, for about
half-a-century, been constantly receiving great aug
mentations. Lord Seaforth alone planted, in the
early part of last century, about 5,000,000 of various
sorts of trees ; and other proprietors so numerously
and spiritedly imitated, or vied with this noble ex
ample, that individual notices of their exertions
would be too tedious. The chief plantations are at
Brahan, Red-Castle, Tulloch, Novar, and various
places in the east; and venerable trees of different
sorts, — oak, ash, beech, elm, &c, may be seen
around the seat of almost every proprietor.
The arable lands occupy most of the eastern or
champaign districts, and occur in small pendicles in
the giens of the west. So great have been georgical
and agricultural improvements of all sorts during
the last 40 years, that the appearance and dress of
all the eastern territory have been totally changed ;
and that district can now, as a farming-ground, bear
comparison with almost any in Great Britain. The
great majority of the farms display a neatness in the
style of enclosing and dressing the land, which is
superior to the modes of most districts in England,
and scarcely surpassed by those of the best in Scot
land. The crops are always clean, often luxuriant,
and generally so good, that Ross-shire wheat has
repeatedly sold as the best in the London markets.
Twenty thousand quarters are now annually pro
duced; and not less than 10,000 quarters of grain
are exported. — Sheep-farming prevails over all the
Highlands; and long ago produced the necessary
effect of depopulating the country. The, great
sheep-farmers keep considerable numbers of black
cattle on such parts of their farms as are not well-
adapted for sheep ; and they, in consequence, con
trive to earn all ihe lucrative results of giving pre
ference to the fleecy tribe, and at the same time
secure to themselves and ihe county the peculiar
advantages of maintaining the grazing system.
Manufactures of any kind, except those of local
artisanship, and strictly domestic industry, are very
inconsiderable, and exist chiefly at Cromarty, Inver-
gordon, and Port-Mahomack  -The salmon-fishery
is extensive and spirited in the rivers and estuaries;
the herring-fishery is large and remunerating along
the east coast; but the fisheries of the west, espe
cially that of herrings, have in general declined. —
The principal exports are" black cattle, sheep, wool,
grain, and fish. Fairs, markets, and trysts for cattle,
some established by custom, and some by act of
parliament, are sufficiently numerous and dispersed
io afford every facility to internal commercial in
tercourse. Steam-vessels have begun to open up the
bays, and sea-lochs, and friths ; and afford the far
mer the important advantage of a direct and swift
conveyance of his sheep and cattle to the London
market. The roads of the county have been rapidly
multiplied, extended, and improved since the com
mencement of the enlightened scheme of laying open
the Highlands as a measure of national importance :
and they are made and maintained at the joint cost
of the proprietors and of the kingdom. The chief
are a line northward from Inverness through the
Black Isle, and Easter Ross, by way of Cromarty ;
a line northward from Beauly, through Wester Ross,
Fearndonald and the western part of Easter Ross to
the Dornoch frith opposite Criech, by way of Ding
wall and Alness ; connecting lines between these,
forming a sweep by way of Tain; a line westward
up Strath -Oikell, and ramified toward Assynt in
Sutherland, and. Ullapool ; a line north-westward
from Dingwall or Strathpeffer to Ullapool; a line
westward along a chain of straths, somewhat akin

in character to that of tbe Glen-morc-nan-Albin,
from Strathpeffer, to a point in the west whence
lines diverge to Gairloch, Loch-Torridon, and Loch-
carron, and a line connecting Glenshiel, and the
county around Lochs Alsh and Duich, with the great
glen of Inverness-shire.
The principal mansions are Castle-Brahan, the
quondam seat of the Barons Mackenzie of Kintail,
and the Earls of Seaforth ; Tulloch-castle, David
son, Esq. ; Mountgerald, Mackenzie, Esq. ; Fowlis-
castle, Sir Hugh Munro, Bart. ; Balcony, Fraser,
Esq. ; Novar-house, Sir T. Munro, Bart. ; Inver-
gordon -castle, Macleod, Esq. ; Fairburn, General
Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Bart. ; Kilcoy-castle,
Belmaduthy-house and Fore-house, Sir Colin Mac
kenzie, Bart. ; Gairloch-castle, Sir Francis Mac
kenzie, Bart. ; Coul, Sir George Stuart Mackenzie,
Bart. ; Scatwell, Sir James Wemyss Mackenzie,
Bart. ; Balnagowan-castle, Sir Charles Ross, Bart. ;
Geanies-house, Macleod, Esq. ; Red-castle, Grant,
Esq. ; and Shandwick-house, Ross, Esq  In Ross-
shire are the royal burghs of Dingwall, Tain, and
Fortrose ; and the towns, or considerable villages of
Invergordon, Portmahomack, Rosemarkie, Ullapool,
Poolewe, and Stornoway. Smaller villages or ham
lets are numerous; and occur almost wholly on the
coasts of sea, or frith or bay. — Ross and Cromarty
shires are divided into 83 quoad civilia parishes ; of
which 22 are in the east, 7 in the west, and 4 in
Lewis. Those in the east are distributed into the
three presbyteries of Chanonry, Dingwall, and Tain,
which constitute the synod of Ross ; and those in the
west and in Lewis form, respectively, the presby
teries of Lochcarron and Lewis, which belong to the
synod of Glenelg. In 1834, there were, in the two
counties, 33 parochial schools, conducted by 33
teachers, and attended by a maximum of 2,007 scho
lars, and a minimum of 1,120; and 124 non-parochial
schools, conducted by 129 teachers, and attended by
a maximum of 6,579 scholars, and a minimum of
3,494. The two counties jointly send a member to
parliament. Constituency, in 1839, 710. The valued
rent, in 1674, was £75,043 Scottish; and the value
of real property, as assessed in 1815, was £121,557.
Population, in 1801, 53,525; in 1811, 60,853; in
1821, 68,828; in 1831, 74,820; in 1841, 78,980.
Houses, in 1841, 16,377.
ROSS. See Kilfinichen.
ROSSIE. See Inchture.
ROSSKEEN, a parish in ihe eastern division ol
Ross-shire, bounded on the north by Kincardine and
Edderton ; on tbe east by Kilmuir ; on the south by
the frith of Cromarty ; and on the west by Alness.
Its inhabited part extends northward from the frith
about 10 miles, and has a mean breadth of about 6
miles ; but the entire parish, according to the New
Statistical Account, "is supposed to extend in
length from south-east to north-west, from 25 to 30
miles," and has an extreme breadth of about 12 miles.
A disirict of 2 miles in breadth along the frith rises
with a very slow and gentle ascent trom the shore ;
and, in physical complexion, is very strictly low
land. A district immediately behind this, and of
about equal breadth, rises into moderate and arable
uplands ; and occupies a medium place between
plain and hill-pasture. A little interior from the
latter district, lies an extensive upland vale, called
Strathusdale, and disposed for the most part into
sheep-walk. Beyond the higher arable ground and
inhabited glens expands a very large tract of moun
tains, which either are altogether waste, or are
used for sheep-pasture, or for the summer grazing
of a few black cattle. The highest ground is
Cairn-Coinneag, situated on the boundary with Kin
cardine and with Alness, and raising its summit about

ROS

608

ROT

3,000 feet above sea-level. The soil, in the low
district, is partly gravelly and light, partly loam,
and partly a deep and strong clay ; and in the middle
district, or higher arable land, it is wet, light, and
spongy, and fitter for pasturage than for the plough.
An extensive and rich bed of shell-marl, amount
ing to upwards of 70 acres, gave an early, incite
ment to improve the soil ; but its supplies, though
still vast and all but inexhaustible, have been su
perseded by cheap and good lime. Nearly 4,000
acres of the parochial area are under cultivation.
About a century ago, the parish had no plantations
whatever; and no natural woods except about the
place of Ardross ; but, during the latter half of
last century, and since planting has been so exten
sively conducted at Invergordon, at Milncraig, and
on other properties, that now there are about 3,000
acres of woodlands. The old red sandstone is the
prevailing rock of the lowlands of the parish ; and,
occurring of excellent quality as a building material,
it is quarried on the banks of the river Alness.
That stream traces all the lower part of the west
ern boundary ; it abounds in wildness and romance ;
and at Tollie it presents some scenes of great power
and beauty. Balnagowan river rises in the parish,
but soon passes away from it, and eventually falls
into the bay of Nigg in Logie-Easter. A small lake,
called Achnacloich, situated in a small and seques
tered glen, is encompassed with rich landscape.
Other three lakes, Pataviog, Charnac, and Coinneag,
command attention by neither their size nor their
scenery. The frith of Cromarty touches the parish
over a distance of nearly 6 miles ; supplies it with
salmon, cod, flounders, skate, and coal-fish, but no
longer, as formerly, with haddocks and whitings,
and brings up vessels of very large burden to its port
of Invergordon. A spectator commands, from the
ness, or little headland of Invergordon, magnificent
views eastward of the lower frith, the sutors of
Cromarty, and the clearly-defined coast of Nairn and
Elgin ; southward and northward, of rich and fertile
bands of country superbly screened with well-fea
tured hills ; westward, of the upper frith, reposing
between belts of level and richly-wooded ground,
and overlooked in the distance by the huge moun
tain-mass and snowy summit of Ben-Wyvis; and
south-westward, of the stupendous and many-peaked
Ben-Vaichard. The principal landowners are Mac
leod of Cadboll, Macleay of Newmore, H. R. Ross
of Glastullich, and the Duke of Sutherland. Inver-
gordon-castle, the property of the first of these, was,
several years ago, destroyed by fire, and is now in
habited and in repair only in one of its wings.
There are three villages, — . Invergordon, which
is separately noticed, and has a population of 1,000,
— Bridgend, with a population of 280, — and Salt-
burn, with a population of 300. Invergordon has
branch offices of the North banking company and
the Commercial bank of Scotland ; an excellent
inn in Main-street, called the Macleods' Arms ; a
subscription-library, commenced in 1835; a par
ochial library ; a friendly society ; and annual
fairs on the third Tuesday of February, the second
Tuesday, old style, of April and December, the
first Tuesday of August, and the second Tuesday of
October. The manufacturing establishments of the
parish are two hemp factories at Invergordon; and a
new and very capacious mill at Dalmore, having no
fewer than five departments, for respectively wheat-
flour, barley, oats, thrashing, and timber ; and a saw
mill on the river Alness. A fine pier at Invergor
don, erected in 1828, and recently enlarged by the
addition of a wooden jetty, gives facility for the
shipment of a considerable quantity of grain for Lon-
don and Leith, and shares with the harbour of In

verness the luxury and jmportance of regular com
munication by large steamers with Aberdeen, Leith,
and London. A harbour at Dalmore is a place for
the shipment of considerable quantities of fir and
other timber for Shields and Newcastle. Within
the parish are several extensive lines of excellent
road. Population, in 1801,2,074; in 1831,2,916.
Houses 630. Assessed property, in 1815, £10,492.
— Rosskeen is in the presbytery of Tain, and synod
of Ross. Patron, Mackenzie of Cromarty. Stipend
£156 Is. Id.; glebe £10 10s. Unappropriated
teinds £260 19s. lid. In 1834, the parish-school
was attended by 104 scholars; and five other schools,
— two of them supported or aided by the Education
societies of Glasgow and Inverness, — were attended
by 306. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4d.,
with about £12 fees, and about the same sum other
emoluments. ROSYTH-CASTLE. See Invekkeithing.
ROTHES, a parish in the Strathspey district of
Morayshire ; bounded on the north by Speymouth ;
on the east by the Spey, which separates it from
Banffshire ; on the south by Edenkeillie ; and on the
west by Birnie and Urquhart. Heath-clad hills en
viron the district ; and, in a great measure, limit its
practicable grounds to the glen, or narrow valley of
ihe Spey. The Cairngorm mountains look §ublimely
down upon it from the distance ; and Benrinnes, the
most northerly of the Grampian alps, towers aloft
immediately beyond the south-eastern boundary, and
invites a tourist to survey, as upon a map, a large
part of the nine surrounding counties. The valley
of Rothes is beautiful and fertile; but bears marks
of having been wildly sported with by the Spey, and
tracked by former but now quite forsaken channels
of the stream. In the great flood of 1829, the Spey
overspread the valley, overtopped many of its lofty
trees, strewed it over with disaster and catastrophe,
and left such large and lofty monuments of its power
that, three years afterwards, masses of reeds and
roots still lay lodged upon the branches of the trees.
From the village of Rothes, in the valley, to Craigel-
lachie-bridge, 3 miles to the south, the road leads
through apicturesque pass, and has the finely wood
ed seat of Arndilly, on the Banffshire side of the
Spey, on the left. At Craigellachie is an iron bridge,
erected in 1814, with an arch of 150 feet span, and
four Gothic turrets forming the abutments; and over
this bridge frowns a precipitous rock, while below, it
darkly careers the Spey, with that impetuous velo
city which everywhere characterizes the noble river's
motion. The soil of the parish is, in general, dry
and sandy, but degenerates into moor in the north.
The crops raised are principally barley and outs.
On the side of a hill, near the church, is a quantity
of fine white and red agate, hard, heavy, uniformly
smooth, finely shaded in its colours, and capable of
very high polish  The village of Rothes stands near
the Spey, at the junction of the road south-south
eastward from Elgin, and that up Strathspey south
ward from Garmouth ; and is 3 miles north of Aber
lour, 6A north-north-west of Dufftown in Mortlach,
8l south-south-west of Fochabers, and 11 south-
south-east of Elgin. It consists of about 250 straw-
thatched cottages, arranged in four streets, which
diverge at various angles from a common centre.
Annual fairs are held here on the third Tuesday of
April, and the third Wednesday of July and October.
On the summit of a round and precipitously-faced
hill, in the vicinity of'tbe village, stands Rothes-
castle, the ancient seat of the noble family of Leslie,
Earls of Rothes. This castle was one of the most
ancient fortalices in the country ; but now survives
in only a small portion of one of its walls. In
1238 Eva de Mortach, daughter of Muriol de Polloc,

ROTHESAY.

609

and grand- daughter of Petrus de Polloc, was Domina
de Rothes ; and, in that capacity, she, in 1263, be
stowed, by charter, the lands of Inverlochtie on the
cathedral of Moray. The Leslies are believed to
have come from Hungary, with Atheling the wife of
Malcolm Canmore ; and, in 1457, they were created
Earls of Rothes by James II. They seem to have
resided at Rothes so late as 1620 ; but immediately
afterwards they removed to Fifeshire ; and, about
1700, they sold their remaining possessions in Moray
to Grant of Elchies. The chief mansion is Orton.
Population, in 1801, 1,521 ; in 1831, 1,709. Houses
363. Assessed property, in 1815, £5,131  Rothes
is in the presbytery of Aberlour, and synod of Moray.
Patron, the Crown and the Earl of Seafield. Stipend
£159 6s. 6d. ; glebe not known. Schoolmaster's
salary £34 4s. 4d., with £26 5s. fees, and £7 3s.
other emoluments. The late Dr. Simpson of Wor
cester was a native of this parish, and bequeathed a
sum of £500 to it, the interest of which is to be en
joyed by the parish-schoolmaster.
ROTHESAY, a parish in the island and county
of Bute. It occupies all the northern and larger
part of the island ; and is bounded on the south-east
by Kingarth ; and, on all other sides, by the Kyles
of Bute and the frith of Clyde. Its greatest length,
in a direct line, is nearly 10 miles, and, by the road,
is 13 miles ; its greatest breadth is 5 miles ; and its
superficial extent is 45 square miles. Inchmarnock
[which see] belongs to the parish. The coast-line,
including that island, and measuring along sinuosities,
is about 35 miles in extent. The coast is neither
flat nor bold, and consists, for the most part, of gra
velly slopes and shelving rocks. The chief bays on
the west, are Scalpsie, at the boundary with Kin-
garth ; St. Ninian's, opposite Inchmarnock ; and
Etterick, 2£ miles north of St. Ninian's; and, on
the east, are Karnes and Rothesay bays, both distin
guished for their beauty, and the former noted for its
fine safe anchorage. Two delightful valleys extend
across the island between the bays of Scalpsie and
Rothesay, and those of Etterick and Karnes ; and
are supposed to have once been submarine, and to
have cut what is now one island into three. The
rest of the parochial area is nearly all filled with low
and soft-featured hills; many of which command
from their gentle summits charming views of the
confined but rich scenery of the Kyles, and of the
more expanded and brilliant scenery of the frith and
its very diversified coasts. Common-hill, Baron-hill ,
and Kames-hill, three of the most remarkable heights,
have altitudes, above sea-level, of respectively 430,
532, and 875 feet. Of six fresh-water lakes Loch-
Fad is much the largest, and is separately described ;
Lochs Ascog and Quien lie on the boundary with
Kingarth, and cover respectively 70 and 54 acres ;
and Lochs Greenan, Dhu, and Bull, are situated in
the interior, and measure respectively 11£, 7, and 5
acres. A medicinal spring was discovered, in 1831,
at Bogany - point, about a mile east-north-east of
Rothesay ; and has acquired much reputation as a
remedy for cutaneous and glandular diseases, and for
rheumatisms. According to an analysis by Professor
Thomson of Glasgow, an imperial gallon of water
contains 1860.73 grains of muriate of soda, 12.25
grains of sulphate of lime, 129.77 grains of soda, 32.8
grains of chloride of magnesium, 14.39 grains of sitica,
and 17.4 cubic inches of sulphuretted hydrogen gas.
The rocks, south of Rothesay-bay and Loch-Fad,
are all red sandstone and conglomerate ; and, north,
are mica, clay, and chlorite slates, variously inter
sected by veins of trap and quartz. Greenstone is
quarried in the vicinity of Rothesay, and supplies
the burgh with building material ; and clay-slate is
quarried, on a smaU scale, near Kames-bay. A deep
II.

and rich bed of shell-marl occurs at St. Ninian 's-bay.
The soil, in the valley between Kames and Ettrick
bays, is a strong fructiferous alluvial loam ; that of
other low grounds is variously sand, gravel, clay,
and moss ; and that of the hillocks and acclivities is,
in general, light and shallow. Agriculture, chiefly
from enlightened encouragement by the Marquis of
Bute, has made singularly great progress since the
commencement of the present century. The woods
cover upwards of 700 acres, and consist, princi
pally, of pines, oak, beech, ash, and elm. Plants,
elsewhere rare in Scotland, are numerous, and render
the parish a fine field for the study of the Scottish
flora. A salmon-fishery was recently established along
the shores by tbe Marquis of Bute; a regular fishery
of haddocks and other species supplies the Rothesay
market ; and a herring-fishery is carried on to a large
extent in both the kyles and the frith. The roads
of the parish are convenient, in good repair, and free
from tolls. The only noticeable landowner, besides
Lord Bute, is Hamilton of Kames; and the only no
ticeable mansion, not in the immediate vicinity of
Rothesay, is Kames-Castle : which see. Port-
Bannatyne, the only village, is separately described.
Kilmorie-casile, the ancient seat of the Jamiesons of
Kilmorie, and originally quite a congeries of towers
and edifices, is now an utter ruin. Tumuli, stand
ing-stones, and ancient hill-forts, are numerous. A
Druidical circle occurs near Etterick-bay. Popula
tion, in 1801, 5,231 ; in 1831, 6,084. Houses 757.
Assessed property, in 1815, £3,457  Rothesay is
in the presbytery of Dunoon, and synod of Argyle.
Patron, the Marquis of Bute. Stipend £276 Is.
3d.; glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds £17.0 3s.
2d. The parish-church was built in 1796. Sittings
955. Three other places of worship exist in con
nexion with the Establishment, — a Gaelic chapel-of-
ease, and two quoad sacra parish-churches. The
chapel-of-ease is situated in the town of Rothesay,
and was built in 1837, at a cost of £600. Sittings
600. Stipend £70  New Rothesay quoad sacra
parish-church was erected in 1798 as a chapel-of-
ease, and cost £1,300. Sittings830. Stipend £180,
with about £8 8s. for expenses connected with the
Lord's supper, and a manse and garden worth annu
ally about £20. The attached parochial district
measures about 2_- miles in length, 2£ in breadth.
and 10 square miles in area. Its population reside
chiefly in the town, and, in 1835, amounted to 2,074;
of whom 1,813 were churchmen, 253 were dissenters,
and 8 were nondescripts. —North Bute quoad sacra
parish-church stands about a mile from Port-Banna-
tyne and 31 miles from Rothesay, in the valley which
extends between Kames and. Etterick bays. It was
built in 1836, at the expense of the Marquis of Bute;
and it is of handsome architecture, and cost about
£1,000. Sittings about, 700. Stipend £150, with
a manse, and £10 in lieu of glebe. The attached
parochial district comprehends all the northern part
of tbe quoad civilia parish, and contains a population
of between 900 and 1,000. The Marquis of Bute
has adopted measures for obtaining its civil parochial
independence by a deed of the court of teinds ; and
has expended, in various ways, upon the erection
not less than about £8;000._-There are 4 dissenting
places of worship. The Reformed Presbyterian
meeting-house was built in 1829, for a congregation
which was established in the same year ; and, along
with session-house, &c, it cost about £400. Sit
tings 450. Stipend £80. — The United Secession
congregation dates back to the year 1770. Their
meeting-house, in 1836, was valued in that year at
about £300, and was supposed to have been buUt in
1782. Sittings 434. A new place of worship has
since been erected at a cost of between £900 and
2Q

610

ROTHESAY.

£1,000. Stipend £135, with about £4 for expenses
in attending church courts  The Independent con
gregation was established in 1835. As some mem
bers resided in Rothesay and others in Port-Banna-
tyne, the projectors of a place of worship perspica-
ciously reasoned that a site at Ardbeg, mid-way
between them, would draw the people of both
towns; and they, accordingly, adopted that site,
but found it utterly unsuitable. The chapel was
built in 1836, at a cost of from £550 to £600, and has
430 sittings; but, after strenuous exertions to drag
it from its solitude into connexion with the neigh
bouring seats of population, it was virtually aban
doned in favour of a hall in Rothesay. Stipend
about £60  The Episcopalian chapel is the quon
dam meeting-house of the United Secession congre
gation  In 1836, the population of Rothesay parish,
quoad sacra, or of the district which remained after
the disjunction of New Rothesay and North Bute,
was, exclusive of summer-visiters for sea-beathing,
3,422 ; of whom 3, 105 were churchmen, 295 were
dissenters, and 22 were nondescripts. — In 1834, the
parochial school was attended by 11 scholars; and
15 non-parochial schools were conducted by 18
teachers, and attended by 946 scholars. Twelve of
the non-parochial schools are situated in the burgh,
and take a very wide range among the departments
of tuition. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £35, with
between £10 and £15 fees, and between £9 and £11
other emoluments. — The ancient church of Rothesay
was dedicated to the Virgin Mary ; and was origi
nally a chapel, subordinate to Kingarth, and pos
sessed for a short time by the monks of Paisley.
At the close of the 13th century, it appears on re
cord as an independent parsonage ; and afterwards
it became one of the cathedral churches, of the dio
cese of the Isles, and was the only one during the
period of Protestant episcopacy. In 1515, its tem
poralities were given by James VI. to the collegiate
church of Restalrig near Leith ; and, at the Refor
mation, they were transferred to the chapel royal of
Stirling. In 1617, the parson of Rothesay was, by
act of parliament, made subdean of the Isles. In
the early periods of Presbyterianism, the parish was
in the presbytery of Irvine or Cunningham ; and in
1639, it was annexed to the presbytery of Dunoon.
— A large number of small chapels were anciently
dispersed throughout the parish; Kilda vanan and
Kilmichael chapels in the extreme north ; St. Cal-
mag's chapel, still commemorated by a large stone-
cross; chapels at St. Ninian's point, Kilmorie
M'Neil, and Nether Ardroscadale ; St. Bride's cha
pel on Chapel-hill, in the immediate vicinity of the
burgh, and a chapel in the court of Rothesay-
castle. Rothesay, a town of considerable antiquity, a
royal burgh, and the capital of Buteshire, stands at
the head of Rothesay-bay, on the east side of the
island of Bute, 9 miles west-north-west of Largs,
11 miles north-west of Millport, 22 miles north-
north-east of Brodick, 19 miles south-west of Green
ock, and 40 miles west by north of Glasgow. The
bay opens immediately within the east entrance of
the Kyles of Bute ; it commences between Bogany
and Ardbeg points, which are 1£ mile asunder; and,
measured from the middle of a straight line across
its entrance, it extends 9 furlongs into the interior,
and has the form very nearly of a semi-ellipsoid.
The breadth of the Kyles opposite the bay is, at
Ardbeg-point, 9 furlongs ; and at Bogany-point IA
mile. The bay is screened all round with a gentle
and variegated slope, coming down, in one place,
from a finely-featured but inconsiderable hill ; it has
the town and harbour at its head, and very extended
lines of mansions and villas along its sides ; it is

kissed by sward and bush and flower-plot, and shaded
or set-off by numerous trees; and, almost in any
weather and in any mood, but especially when bur
nished by a vernal sun, and skimmed by one or two
gaily crowded steamers, it both presents within it
self and commands from without scenes of stirring
interest and highly picturesque beauty. " The deep,
intensely blue ocean, is here framed in a circle of
noble, solemn- looking mountains, among which you
would admire that curious museum of hills, with
ragged tops, jocularly named Argyle's bo wUng-green.
On the opposite coast stands the ruined old castle
of Toward, which once had the honour of Queen
Mary's company at dinner ; and also, conspicuously
placed, is its lineal descendant, that handsome new
mansion, looking like the kingof all the villas, recently
built by Mr. Kirkman Finlay, a stately well-grown
edifice, surrounded by a young colony of trees, taste
fully sprinkled all over the pleasure-grounds, which
look so low and insignificant, that the place might
be very appropriately called Bushy Park." The
villas which form the edificed line along the east
side of Rothesay-bay are not fewer than forty in
number ; and they are so uniform or akin in struc
ture, and are set down at such brief and regular in
tervals, as to look like a sumptuous one-sided street,
luxuriously airing itself amid tbe mingled balm of
land and wood and sea. The villas, on the west
side, present a much less pleasing aggregate appear
ance; some lie low and crouching on the beach,
some straddle boldly up the slope, and keep an am
bitious outlook upon town and sea, most are com
paratively tasteless and very various from one another
in outward form, and nearly all have steep-slated
roofs, and swollen lumpish proportions. The houses
in the body of the town date, in hardly any instances,
higher than 1791, and have very numerously been
built since 1813. All are constructed of greenstone,
and necessarily want the polish and the lightness ot
aspect imparted by most sandstones ; but they pos
sess a stability, a tidiness, and an aggregate regular
ity which quite compensate for the absence of more
showy properties. The streets, though somewhat
narrow and confined, are clean and proximately
regular ; and, irrespectively of some lanes, they are
13 or 14 in number, and bear the names of High,
King, Prince's, Bishop, Argyle, Montague, Castle,
Castle-hill, Bridge, Bridge-end, Mill, Guildford, and
Tarbet streets.
The principal modern public edifice is the county
buildings and prison. This structure was built in
1832, at the cost of about £4,000; and is in the castel
lated style, and very spacious. Both its size and its
costliness appear to a stranger quite out of proportion
with the uses of so small a county ; and its air of
neatness, comfort, and opulence seems utterly out
of keeping with the notion of a prison. The jailer,
says Miss Sinclair, "led us with much professional
zeal to inspect, the remnant of a dark dungeon, for
merly used for confining prisoners, measuring only 10
feet hy 15, a dismal hole with only an aperture above,
not the semblance of a window, and containing a
crevice in the roof, which served as a door, but was
so narrow that captives must all have been starved
for some time, till they were thin enough to get in,
and afterwards kept on spare diet, if they were ever
intended to come forth again. Here our friend the
jailer expatiated very fully on the superior advan
tages enjoyed under his jurisdiction; and certainly
that necessary evil, the county jail, which we saw,
looks like Cardiff-castle, or any other nobleman's
residence. No wonder that when his guests have
once conquered their natural horror of disgrace,
they frequently return to the jailer's careful guar
dianship, where these poor creatures, who knew not

ROTHESAY

611

formerly where to gain a dinner, are here at once
transported into a comfortable hotel, where they
meet with kind treatment, fires in every room, ex-
ceUent sleeping accommodation, regular hours, plenty
of food, and nothing to pay. Some of the old wo
men consider it a perfect home; and would feel more
alarmed at the threat of being turned out than of
being shut in." This picture is doubtless over-
coloured ; yet it has quite sufficient correctness of
tint to suggest that benign refinement upon prison-
discipline may be overdone, and that if ever it offers
moie amenities and comforts to the criminal than
are, in the same circumstances, provided for the
honest poor, it is substantially offering a premium
on crime. The court-hall is adorned with a splendid
portrait of the Marquis of Bute.— The places of
worship are the only other modern pubUc buildings ;
but while creditable, and in one or two instances
neat, they are all of such common-place character
as does not admit remark  The walls of the choir
of the ancient cathedral of Rothesay still stand close
to the present parish-church. The nave was taken
down in 1692, and used as a quarry for the building
of the present church's predecessor. The windows
of the surviving part of the ruin are in the style which
prevailed in the 13th century, and seem to claim that
date for the whole edifice. A monument, with the
figure of a recumbent knight in the style of armour
which belonged to the period of Robert III., appears
from the coat-of-arms io rest on the ashes of some
member of the royal family ; and another monument,
which bears marks of being a century more recent,
is ruder in execution, and has the figures of a lady and
child. The grand antiquity, and chief architectural object
of Rothesay, is its castle. The tall ruin of this struc
ture stands close upon the town ; and has the histo
rical associations mingledly of a royal palace and a
miUtary fortalice. The building consists of a circu
lar court, about 140 feet in diameter, formed by high
and thick waUs ; four round towers upon the flanks ;
and an erection which is ascribed to King Robert IL,
and which projects, on the north-east side, between
two of the towers. Round the outside is a wide and
deep ditch ; and between this and the wall is a ter
raced walk. The walls are very richly overgrown
with ivy ; and have been noted for their similarity to
some " rifted rocks " among the romantic cascade
scenes of the Highlands, in producing remarkable
trees. " Here," says the lively writer already quoted,
" an ash tree recently contrived to grow on the sum
mit of a stone arch, tiU the trunk attained to a cir
cumference of nine feet, when it fell to the ground ;
and, after so long setting an example of frugality in
living without nourishment, it became a means of
overfeeding others, having been cut into a dining-
table for George the Fourth. Within the castle, we
admired a fine old thorn, six feet in circumference,
and forty -five feet high, which fell prostrate on the
ground last November, but still [in 1840] puts out
a mass of leaves, as if the roots yet had nourishment
from the ground, instead of the empty air in which
they are upraised, preserving its foliage 'green and
fresh without, but worn and bare within.' " About
24 years ago, the Marquis of Bute, at considerable
expense, caused to be cleared away, from within and
around the castle, the accumulated rubbish of ages,
 consisting, to a large amount, of beef and mutton
bones! and, in consequence, the presumed royal
apartments, the reputed additional palace of Robert
II., the towers, the terraces, the chapel, and the
dungeon, are now all easily accessible by even the
feeblest and most fastidious. Yet the building, with
all the accompaniments proper to itself, and whatever
additional aids it may derive from the fanciful embel

lishments of a cicerone, will grievously disappoint
every visiter who expects to see either beauty or
picturesqueness in its ruin, or indications of military
strength in its structure or position. In spite of the
very fine and imposing embellishment of some tall
ash trees, which still rise up among the ruins, the
edifice strikes tbe eye as only a ponderous, lumpish,
dull mass of masonry, quite doleful in the dingy red
colour of its stones, and destitute to sheer nakedness
of every attribute which the fancy associates with
the ideas of either castle or palace. " As a piece of
fortification, even on the ancient principles," says a
contemporary, " it is wretchedly deficient, and argues
very little in favour of the military knowledge that
erected it. Even the gate is neither flanked nor ma-
chicolated ; and it might have been mined or assaulted
at almost any point." Yet it figures in history quite
as conspicuously as many a place of great strength,
and possesses a very fair proportion of antiquarian
interest. The original structure — for the aggregate
building is evidently of various dates — was probably
one of the fortalices erected in 1098, by Magnus
Barefoot, King of Norway, to secure his conquest of
the western islands of Scotland. It may have been
raised, however, in greatly more obscure circum
stances ; and it is said to have belonged, before the
time of Alexander III., to a family of ihe name of
M'Roderick. It first comes into historical notice in
1228 ; when it was attacked by Olave, King of Man,
and Husbac, a Norwegian chieftain, with eighty
ships, and, after a siege, was taken by a sap and
assault, with the loss of 390 men. After the battle
of Largs, it was retaken by the Scots. During the
inglorious reign of John Baliol, it was occupied by
the English; but, in 1311, it submitted to Robert
Bruce. In [334, it was again seized in the unpatri
otic cause of a dependent crown, and was fortified by
Edward Baliol ; but, not long afterwards, it was cap
tured by Bruce, the Steward of Scotland. Robert II.
visited the castle in 1376, and again in 1381 ; Robert
III. died in it from grief on account of his son, after
wards James I., having been captured. Oliver Crom
well's troops burst rudely against it, like the surges
of a desolating flood; and, in 1685, the brother of
the Earl of Argyle seized it, set fire to it, and irre
trievably converted it into an utter ruin. — The castle
of Rothesay gave title to the first dukedom which
existed in the Scottish peerage, and continues the
title to the king's eldest son as a collateral for Scot
land to that of Prince of Wales for England. The
dukedom of Rothesay was created in a solemn coun
cil held at Scone in 1398, and conferred on David,
Earl of Carrick, Prince and Steward of Scotland, and
eldest son of Robert III. ; and when David, in 1402,
fell a victim to the ambition of his uncle, the Duke
of Albany, it was transferred to his brother James,
afterwards James I. of Scotland. An act of parlia
ment, passed in 1409, declared " that the lordship of
Bute, with the castle of Rothesay, the lordship of
Cowal, with the castle of Dunoon, the earldom of
Carrick, the lands of Dundonald, with the castle of
the same, the barony of Renfrew, with the lands and
tenandries of the same, the lordship of Stewarton,
the lordship of Kilmarnock, with the castle of the
same, the lordship of Dairy ; the lands of Nodisdale,
Kilbryde, Narristoun, and Cairtoun ; also the lands
of Frarynzan, Drumcall, Trebrauch, with the forta
lice of the same, ' principibus primogenitis Regum
Scotiae successorum nostrorum, perpetuis futuris
temporibus, uniantur, incorporentur, et annexantur."
Since that period, the dukedom of Rothesay, in com
mon with the principality and stewartry of Scotland,
the earldom of Carrick, the lordship of the Isles, and
the barony of Renfrew, has been vested in the eldest
son and heir-apparent of the sovereign. Li the event

61'2

ROTHESAY.

of the first-born dying without an heir, the right
passes to the king's eldest surviving son ; and when
ihe king has no son or heir-apparent, it reverts to
himself, as the representative of an expected prince.
The town of Rothesay was originally a village in
connection with the castle ; and in its more matured,
as well as in its infant state, it necessarily shared the
castle's fortunes, — at times basking in the favour of
the powerful, and eventually royal family who owned
it, and at other times suffering .capture and plunder
from the Norwegians, the Islesmen, the English, and
the conflicting parties in civil wars. At an early
period, it was made a burgh-of-barony ; and in 1400,
1 it received from Robert III. a charter erecting it into
a royal burgh, and conferring upon it a considerable
quantity of landed property. In 1584, a charter of
confirmation and novodamus, was given by James VI.
The town seems to have grown slowly but steadily
in prosperity ; and it gradually became so great and
commanding a mart for the Lowlanders exchanging
commodities with the Highlanders and Islesmen, as
occasioned the island of Bute to be regarded as a sort
of neutral territory, neither Highland nor Lowland.
About the year 1700, the erection of Campbeltown
into a royal biirgh, and the very advantageous terms
which were offered to settlers, drew away to it from
Rothesay a considerable number of traders, and a
large proportion of trade. Rothesay now fell rapidly
into decay, and seemed even to be menaced with
extinction. Against 1760, its population became
lessened to one-half of its former amount ; and its
houses, in a vast number of instances, and to the
amount, probably, of a moiety of the whole, stood
mouldering in ruin, or lay amassed in heaps of rub
bish. At this date, only one or two half-decked
vessels, of each about 15 tons, and a few open boats,
belonged to the port. In 1765, while laws were in
force which required all produce of the colonies to
be landed in Britain before it could be imported into
Ireland, Rothesay was made a custom-house station
for the accommodation of the Irish colonial trade ;
and a few years later, a herring-fishery, which still
continues to be a staple trade of the place, was suc
cessfully introduced, and cheeringly engaged the
attention of a large number of the inhabitants. The
town now rose from ruin, and began to put on the
appearances of renovation and prosperity which have
since so eminently characterized it. In 1778, a cot
ton manufactory, the earliest establishment of its
class in Scotland, was commenced here by an English
company, and soon afterwards it became ihe property
of the excellent and celebrated David Dale, and
largely contributed to increase and perpetuate the
town's favourable circumstances. Against 1791, all
ruinous houses were re-edified, ,many new ones were
erected, and between 80 and 100 vessels, of from 15
to 100 tons burden, besides a proportionate number
of open boats, belonged to shipowners in the town
and parish.
The cotton-mill of Rothesay is moved by water
collected in reservoirs, and ingeniously economized
and applied according to a plan by Mr. Thom, en
gineer ; and it contains 23,448 spindles; and employs
about 360 persons. A factory for weaving by power-
looms was established about 16, years ago* is well
managed, and employs between 80 and 90 workmen.
Men's wages in the spinning-mill vary from 17s. to
24s. a-week, and, in the power-loom factory, range
between 21s. and 30s. The number of hand-looms,
in 1828, was 250, and, in 1838, was 35. Several
cooperages employ between 30 and 40 persons, and
annually produce about 15,000 herring barrels. Two
small yards for boat-building employ about 20 ship-
carpenters ; and a tanyard of considerable extent em
ploys a few persons — In 1822, an excellent harbour

was erected, at the cost of £6,000 ; and, in 1840, a
slip and a building-dock were added. In 1837, there
belonged to the port 58 vessels, each from 15 to 300
tons, and aggregately 2,950 tons, navigated by 255
men, and variously employed in the coasting, the
foreign, and the fishing trades. The largest imports
are about 30,000 bushels of salt, and 6,000 tons of
coals ; and the largest export, about 19,000 barrels
of sali herrings. Other imports are cotton, hides, bone-
dust, grain, lime, sandstone, barrel-staves, and colonial
produce ; and other exports are cotton-yarn, cotton-
cloth, fresh fish, leather, barley, potatoes, and turnips.
Four steam- vessels in summer, and two in winter, ply
daily between Rothesay and Glasgow ; a steam-boat
plies three times a-day between Rothesay and Green
ock, to communicate with the terminus of the Glas
gow and Greenock railway ; two steam-boats daily
touch at Rothesay in transit between Glasgow and
Loch-Fyne, affording communication with Tarbet,
Lochgilphead, Inverary, and the western coasts and
islands; and a steam- vessel, during two or three
months in summer, maintains communication with
the island of Arran.
Rothesay has long been distinguished as a retreat
of consumptive invalids and of sea-bathers. Com
mon fame and accurate delineation unite in describ
ing it as " the Montpellier of Scotland, where con
sumptive patients, unable to endure any other air,
find it possible to breathe with comfort." " I shall
never forget," says Miss Sinclair, "the fervour with
which a sick young friend of my own once exclaimed,
when suffering severely from the sharp arrow-like
winds of Edinburgh, ' Oh ! what would I not give
for one single gasp of Rothesay air 1' " The range
of the thermometer is less than in probably any other
town in Scotland; snow is rarely known to lie more
than two days on the ground ; perennial plants thrive
singularly well, and are seldom or never injured by
frosts; the Kyles and Loch-Strevin act as natural
funnels to carry off impurities of air ; and a fine
sheltering hill-screen, surrounding the town at an
agreeable distance, mellows the atmosphere, and at
tempers every breeze. — As sea-bathing quarters,
Rothesay was in repute long before steam-navigation
was dreamed of; and it naturally became a select
spot when that remarkable invention began, in 1814,
to bring down the citizens of Glasgow in suinmer-
shoals to the coasts of the frith of Clyde. But, in
proportion to the number of bathers who resort to
it, there is around the bay such an utter absence of
bathing-apparatus, combined with natural want of
facilities for privacy and due decorum, as would quite
amaze any person accustomed to the bathing-places
of England, or of the east coast of Scotland. " In
this little marine city, which is like Venus rising out
of the sea," says the rattling writer already twice or
thrice quoted, " nothing surprised me more than to
find neither baths nor bathing machines. Rothesay
has no right to call itself a sea-bathing quarter.
Never was salt-water so thrown away on any place.
The little crisp, clear, crystal waves, curl up on the
beach most invitingly, sparkling and dancing in the
sun ; but when you ask, ' Where are the machines ?'
echo answers ' Where?' No facility is afforded for
enjoying what the Americans call ' this privUege of
water,' either hot or cold, and the shore all round
the bay seems as public as the Serpentine in London;
therefore, the inhabitants must dip into the ocean as
you dip into a novel, merely giving it ' a supercilious
glance.' One very enterprising talker has talked for
some years of trying, as a speculation, to establish
baths here, on a scale worthy of Constantinople or
Cheltenham ; but bis good intentions have ebbed and
flowed so long, that I fear the sea will cease to be
salt before he finally makes up his mind." Except

ROTHESAY.

613

that Helensburgh and Largs have for years had splen
did suites of baths, the many watering-places on the
Clyde were, we believe, when Miss Sinclair wrote,
in the same predicament as Rothesay ; but the re
proach has since been wiped away, as far as the busy
little capital of Bute is concerned, by the erection of an
excellent suite of baths on private speculation ; and a
reasonable number of bathing-machines have also been
here provided for the accommodation of the public.
Rothesay is the seat, every Tuesday during ses
sion, of the sheriff and commissary courts of Bute
here, and once a-fortnight' or oftener during session,
as well as occasionally during vacation, of the sher
iffs small-debt-court. The town has branch-offices
of the Royal bank of Scotland, the Renfrewshire
bank, and the Greenock bank ; offices of five insur
ance companies; customs, excise, stamp, and post-
offices; a Rothesay subscription-library, instituted
in 1792; a Rothesay youths' library, begun in 1818;
a mechanics' library, instituted in 1833; three con
gregational or school libraries ; two public reading-
rooms; a savings' bank, instituted in 1821, under
the patronage of the Marquis of Bute ; and five
friendly societies, called respectively the Rothesay,
the Rothesay marine, the Rothesay cotton-mill, the
Bute, and the coopers' societies. A weekly market
is held on Wednesday; and ill- attended and unim
portant annual fairs are held on the first Wednesday
of May, the third Wednesday of July, and the last
Wednesday of October. Two annual shows take
place, — the one for cattle, and the other for seeds,
roots, and dairy produce ; and both excite much in
terest, are attended with the awarding of prizes for
the best specimens, and exert a beneficial interest on
all the connexions of the town with the county.
There are no fewer than about 50 inns and public
houses, equal to one for every 20 families !
The burgh-lands are very extensive, and consist
technically of territories on the land, and territories
on the sea. Those ' on the land' measure 4J miles
in extreme length from the point of Ardbeg to the
south end of Loch Fad, and 2 J miles in extreme
breadth, either in a line due west across the bay from
Bogany point, or in 1 west-north-westward from
the mouth of Ascog-burn ; and they are technically
described as " all the lands on the west side of the
lands of Ascog and Kerrycrusoch, the east boundary
to the burn of Barnald, tbe south boundary, — along
the loch or lake called Loch-Fad or Longloich, the
lands of Chapelton, Ballieloan, Meikle-Barrone,
Eskechraggan-Acholter, Cranslagmorie, and Easter
Kames, on the west and north-west, and the sea on
the north." The territories 'on the sea' are de
scribed as " beginning from the island of Pladda on
the south, turning from thence to the west by the
Kyles ahd straits between Arran and Kintyre, Ar
gyle and Bute, and Loch-Kiddan to Clockstane,
comprehending therein aU the Kyles of Bute and
Lochstryn on the north ; and from the foresaid Clock
stane to the foresaid island of Pladda, bomprehending
therein the station of Cumbray, the station of Fair-
leg, the station of Hallijo, the island in Roranie,
Otherwise caUed Hemolathe Dan." But the burgh,
as to all matters connected with the parliamentary
franchise, having been thrown, by the reform statute,
into the county of Bute, the extent of its territory
has to be. considered only in its municipal connec
tions. The council consists of a provost, two bail
ies a dean-of-guild, a treasurer, and 14 councillors.
Constituency, in 1839, 249. After its own comple
tion at Michaelmas, the council annually appoints the
town-clerk, the procurator-fiscal, three town-officers,
the jailer, and the collector of cess and other taxes.
The town-officers, each of whom receives £5, and
the jailer, who receives £15, are the only persons

who receive salaries. There are no corporations of
guildry or craftsmen ; but the magistrates have
power to create burgesses, and have been in the
practice of exacting the fees of burgess-ship as the
condition of leave to carry on trade or manufacture.
A stranger, if a merchant, must pay £3 3s. ; if an
artificer, £2 2s. ; the eldest son of a burgess must,
if a merchant, pay £1 Us. 6d. ; if an artificer, £1
Is. ; and a younger son, or a son-in-law of a burgess,
pays three-fourths of what is exigible from a stranger.
An itinerant merchant, before he opens sale-rooms,
except on fairs and market-days, and for every time
he re-opens sale-rooms, after having temporarily left
the town, must pay £5 5s. for a license ; but if he
resides for a year, and satisfies the council that he
intends to remain as an inhabitant, he receives back
£2 2s. of what he paid, and is regarded as a bur
gess. The number of burgesses, in 1833, was about
80. The property of the burgh consists of lands,
feu-duties, the town-house, jail, and council-cham
bers, five church-pews, and a weighing-machine.
Debts due to the burgh, in 1832, amounted to
£2,594 18s. 5|d. ; and debts due by the burgh, at
the same date, amounted to £105 18s. 2d. The
entire revenue for the year ending 1st October, 1832,
was £353 7s. lid.; and the expenditure, for the
same year, was £211 3s. 3d. Right of harbour,
with shore-dues and other dues, belonged to the
burgh by charter ; but they have been transferred to
trustees appointed by an act of parliament " for im
proving, repairing, and maintaining the harbours of
ihe burgh of Rothesay, in the county of Bute."
These trustees are the magistrates and council, along
with four persons elected in October by the Rothe
say ship-owners. The council have been used, for
time immemorial, to levy customs, great and small,
on all goods brought within burgh, according to a
table which has remained unchanged for time im
memorial. The annual amount levied, as ascertained
by the average of three years, ending in 1833, is
£69 6s. 5d. ; and burgesses pay only one-half of the
ordinary rates. The land-tax or cess amounts to
about £42. An assessment to the amount of £16
10s. 5d. on the whole rental of the burgh is made
for the schoolmaster's salary. No poors' rates are
levied. — The jurisdiction of the magistrates extends
over the whole land-territory of the burgh as fixed
by the charters ; and previous to the emission of a
decree by the court-of-session in 1820, it was also
exercised maritimely over the whole coast of the
shire of Bute and ihe adjacent lochs, as identified
with the burgh's possessions ' on the sea.' Civil
causes tried by the magistrates embrace actions for
debts to any amount ; but since the special statutes
under George IV., the sheriff-court has, in cases of
small debts, been resorted to in preference to the
burgh-court. The criminal causes of late years have
occurred chiefly in mere matters of police ; and dur
ing 14 years, ending in 1833, they averaged not quite
three in the year. - The police of ihe burgh is wholly
under the management of the magistrates and coun
cil. The three town's officers generally constitute
the whole police force ; and when necessary, they
are aided by some constables. At fairs or markets
the officers, and one or more constables, patrol the
streets. When the jail needs to be watched, the
inhabitants, to the number of two or more in turn
each night, perform the duty either personally, or by
paid substitute. The cleaning and the repairing of
the burgh streets and roads are paid for from the
statute-labour, from contributions by the inhabi
tants, and from the burgh-funds. Public weUs,
whence the town is supplied with water, are main
tained by occasional grants from the burgh-funds,
and by annual voluntary contributions of 6d. or Is.

ROT

614

ROU

A gas-work was commenced in 1840 to light the
town at night with gas. — On the north-east side of
the entrance to Rothesay-bay stands a lighthouse,
with a revolving and intermitting light. On the
same side of the bay, inward from the lighthouse, is
a battery, mounted with several pieces of cannon.
The principal attractions in the vicinity of the burgh
are Mount-Stewart, Kames-Castle, and Loch-
Fad, overlooked by Kean's cottage : See these ar
ticles. Population, in 1821, 4,107 ; in 1831, 4,817.
ROTHIEMAY, a parish in Banffshire ; bounded
on the north-west by Grange ; on the north and
north-east by Marnoch ; on the east by Inverkeith-
nie ; on the south by Forgue and Huntly ; and on
the south-west and west by Cairney. Its greatest
length, from east to west, is between 7 and 8 miles ;
its greatest breadth is between 5 and 6 ; and its mean
breadth is probably less than 2a. The burn of
Knock traces the north-western boundary to the
Isla; the Isla runs along the western and south
western boundary to the Deveron ; and the Deveron
moves in mazy folds now on the southern boundary,
now across the interior, and now along the northern
boundary. The last of these streams, the monarch-
river of the county, flows here between richly wood
ed banks ; and abounds with salmon, eel, and com
mon trout. At the point where it leaves the southern
boundary for the interior, and where its margin is
pressed by the village of Rothiemay, occurs a happy
mixture of well-enclosed fields and woods, which,
with woods and corn-fields on the opposite side of
the river, rising by a gradual ascent to a great height,
form a beautiful rural scenery, equalled by few and
perhaps excelled by none, of equal extent, in the
kingdom. The northern district consists of a large,
low, and partially tumulated table-land; part of
which is an extensive moss, which supplies a wide
circumjacent district with fuel, while the remainder
is disposed in fir-plantations, pasture-grounds, and
arable lands. From this platform a gentle declivity,
of upwards of a mile, descends to the Isla and the
Deveron. The plantations and natural woods oc
cupy a considerable proportion of the whole area ;
and consist chiefly of fir, birch, ash, elm, and alder,
besides larch, oak, beech, and other species. The
pasture-lands bear but a small proportion to those
which are in tillage ; yet are such as to render the
rearing of a few sheep and black cattle, for the mar
ket, prudent and remunerating economy. The soil
of ihe arable grounds is, in general, rich and fertile.
A little east of the village is Rothiemay-house, a
seat of the Earl of Fife, and traditionally said to have
afforded a night's lodging to Queen Mary ; and on
the estate of Mayer is an elegant residence  The
village of Rothiemay stands 6 miles north by east of
Huntly, 12 south by west of Portsoy, and 15 south
west of Banff. Annual fairs are held here on the 3d
Tuesday of May, the 1st Thursday of October, the
Thursday before the 23d of November, and the 2d
Tuesday of December, — all old style, except that in
November. A Druidical temple occurs a little north
of the village ; and a supposed Roman iter runs north
westward through the western district. 'The chief
road is that northward from Huntly to Portsoy and
Banff. Population, in 1801, 1,061 ; in 1831, 1,228.
Houses 278. Assessed property, in 1815, £2,651. —
Rothiemay is in the presbytery of Strathbogie, and
synod of Moray. Patron, the Earl of Fife. Stipend
£1 75 3s. 6d. ; glebe £10 10s. Unappropriated teinds
£204 2s. Id. Schoolmaster's salary £30 10s., with
£18 4s. 9d. fees, £25 from the Dick bequest, and
from £4 to £5 other emoluments. There is a non-
parochial school. The parish boasts as a native the
distinguished astronomer Fergusson.
ROTHIEMURCHUS, a parish in Inverness.

shire, united to the parish of Duthil in Morayshire
See Duthil and Rothiemurchus.
ROUCAN, a village in the parish of Torthor
wald ; 4£ miles south-west of Lochmaben ; 3J east-
north-east of Dumfries ; and 1£ north of Collin,
Dumfries-shire. It stands on the face of a descent
overlooking Lochar-Moss, on the road between
Dumfries and Lochmaben, and is, for the most part,
an irregular assemblage of cottages. Population 250.
ROUSAY, one of the Orkney islands. It lies
parallel to the district of Evie, in the extreme north
east of Pomona, and is separated from it by a sound
of from half-a-mile to If mile broad; it has Eglishay
along its east side, at the distance of a mile, and
Weir along part of its south-east side, at the dis
tance of | of a mile ; and it is distant 5J miles
due south from the headland of Skea in Westray.
The island measures about 4 miles from east to west,
and about 3 from north to south ; and, but for being
indented on the north by a broad but short bay,
would be nearly circular, upon a diameter of 4 miles.
On every side, almost from the very shore, the sur
face rises in hilly acclivity, and forms an upland mass
of the general shape of a flattened cone ; and this,
being several miles around the shoulder, has a strong
and imposing aspect. The ascent is in general steep ;
and, at intervals, it admits abrupt ridges and ter
races, as if formed by the action and subsidence of
billows that have now far receded. From a sward
which is beautifully thick, smooth, and green, grey,
foggy, and rugged rocks frequently look out, impart
ing to the whole surface a freckled and warted
aspect. All the interior is fittea only for the rear
ing of sheep and black cattle, and exists in a state of
commonage. A stripe of decidedly fertile land is
carried round most of the island, between the base
of the uplands and the beach ; and is disposed in en
closures or 'touns,' most of which form pleasant
little pictures. Trie shores on the west are rocky
and precipitous ; but those on the other sides are low
or sloping, and clad with soil. In various parts are
safe harbours for shipping ; and the inhabitants in
dustriously prosecute the fisheries. Horses and black
cattle, large numbers of sheep, and a huge multitude
of hogs, are maintained on the commons. Several
small lakes send some rivulets to the sea ; and the
banks of the burn of Trumbland are rich in botani
cal specimens. A tolerable inn on the south side of
the island invites all persons in search of the, pic
turesque and the scientific, to include Rousay in a
tour of the Orkneys. The principal mansions are
Westness, and Westside, on the south-west coast.
The chief antiquity is an ancient Norwegian encamp
ment or Law Ting. Monumental stones, Picts'
houses, and tumuli, are frequent. Population, in 181 1,
795; in 1821,834; in 1831, 921.
ROUSAY and EGLISHAY, an united parish
in Orkney. It comprehends the inhabited islands of
Rousay, Eglishay, Weir, and Enhallow, and two
holms in small pasture islands. So mutually adja
cent are its various parts that the" parish, measured
across land and sea, has an extreme length from east
to west of only 6£ miles, and an extreme breadth of
only 5. Population, in 1801, 1,061 ; in 1831, 1 ,262.
Houses 244. Assessed property, in 1815, £136 
The parish is in the presbytery of North Isles, and
synod of Orkney. Patron, the Earl of Zetland.
Stipend £157 18s. Id. ; glebe £9. One parish-
church is situated in' Eglishay, and another is situated
on the south-east side of Rousay, within | ot a mile
of Weir. A meeting-house of the United Secession
stands in Rousay. In 1834, the parish-school was
attended by 60 scholars, and three other schools by
113. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £26, with
I about £5 fees. Two of the non-parochial schools

ROU

615

ROX

are situated respectively in Eglishay and Weir, and
are open only during winter : the third is a General
Assembly's school; and this and the parochial
school are situated in Rousay.
ROUTER-BURN. See Kilbirnie.
ROUTING-BRIDGE. See Kirkpatrick-Iron-
CRAY. ROW, a parish in the western extremity of Dum
bartonshire ; bounded on the north and north-east by
Luss ; on the east by Luss and Cardross ; on the
south by the frith of Clyde, which divide it from
Renfrewshire ; on the south-west by Gairloch, and
an artificial line of 1* mile, which divides it from
Roseneath ; and on the west by Loch-Long, which
divides it from Argyleshire. It consists of an irre
gular oblong, stretching north-westward and south
eastward, parallel to Gairloch, and measuring 9 miles
in length, and from 21 to 5 in breadth ; and of a
stripe, running up from the north-east corner along
Loch-Long, and measuring 2J miles by 6 furlongs.
Its superficial extent is about 64 square miles. The
surface consists principally of two mountain-ranges,
and an intervening valley. The loftier and greater
range forms, along its water-shed, the boundary with
Luss; it is an elongated or continuous mountain,
beautifully waved or curved into a series of summits ;
it is broad-based, soft-featured, and verdant ; and, in
several of its nodular and gently traced eminences, it
attains an altitude of from 2,000 to 2,500 feet above
sea-level. Glenfruin, which extends between it and
the other range, is remarkable for wild, lonely
beauty, and for doleful historical association : See
Glenfruin. It has little wood, and is a. natural
funnel for tbe passage and the whirling sweep of high
winds ; yet it has much good soil, and is partly under
cultivation. The ridge between it and Gairloch is
properly a single elongated hill, broad in its base,
straight-lined along its summit, but broad and
marshy, gentle in descent at the ends, and, as
to general outline, shaped not unlike an upturned
row-boat. Its altitude, for about 4 miles, is quite
or nearly 1,800 feet. On tbe side of Glenfruin,
it is naked and heathy; but on the side of Gair
loch, it has, up two-thirds of its acclivity, received
from the hand of cultivation that highly ornate
appearance which is noticed in our article on Rose
neath. At its south-east end, for about IA mile
inward from the boundary with Cardross, it softens
down into land which is very gently upland, and
nearly all cultivated and enclosed, and which might
be not a little beautiful were it duly embellished
with wood. The opposite shore and uplands of
Roseneath are strikingly picturesque, and the general
landscape seen from many points of the acclivity
above Gairloch, has many of the same elements, and
in some points nearly the same groupings, as those
of the panorama beheld from Roseneath : See Rose
neath. Finnard-hill, at the west end of the inner
mountain-range, sends offspurs which fill all the parts
of the parish bordering on Loch-Long, and which
go down to the margin of the water in generally
rapid decUvities. The soil of the arable grounds is,
for the most part, light and fertile. Husbandry is
in a highly improved condition, and has reclaimed
and enriched land as extensively, perhaps, as is yet
possible for the art. Considerable attention is given
to the rearing of black cattle, and to the dairy.
Transition limestone and clay-slate abound, and
have been worked, but both are of inferior quality,
and scarcely compensate labour. Some apparently
unmeaning, and certainly useless searches, have been
made for coal. Ardincaple-castle, a beautiful seat
of the Duke of Argyle, Ardenconnel-house, and
many extremely elegant modern mansions built on
perpetual lease from the lands of Sir James Col

quhoun, press upon the shore of the Gairloch, and
fling along the margin of the water, and up the
lower ascent of the hill, a profusion of horticultural
and forest embellishment. A part of Ardincaple-
castle is of very ancient date. Ancient castles at
Shandon and Faslane, are traceable only in the low
grass-grown mounds of their mouldered ruins. The
two prettily situated hamlets of Row and Gairloch-
head, — the former the site of the parish-church,
and the latter of a neat extension church, — are
situated respectively 2| miles up Gairloch, and at its
head. The large village of Helensburgh [which
see] stands at the entrance of the loch. The turn
pike between Glasgow and Arroquhar creeps closely
along the whole coast-line of the parish ; and a road
from Helensburgh to Luss and Balloch runs very
near and parallel to the eastern boundary. Popula
tion, in 1801, 970; in 1831, 2,037. Houses 274.
Assessed property, in 1815, £5,891  Row is in the
presbytery of Dumbarton, and synod of Glasgow and
Ayr. 'Patron, the Duke of Argyle. Stipend £241 Is.;
glebe £20. The amount of unappropriated teinds
is debated. T^e parish-church was built in 1763,
and was last altered in 1835. Sittings 700. A place
of worship, above noticed, in connection with the
Established church was, in 1837, built at Gairloch-
head, and cost £800. Sittings 300  An Original
Burgher chapel — now connected with the Establish
ment, and made a quoad sacra parish-church — was
built at Helensburgh in 1824, and cost £1,000.
Sittings 700. Stipend £100.— An Independent cha
pel in Helensburgh was built in 1801, at a cost of
£350 or £400. Sittings 550. Stipend £70  A
Baptist place of worship in Helensburgh, is the
rented wing of a dwelling-house. Sittings 80. No
stipend — According to ecclesiastical survey in 1835,
the population, exclusive of the very numerous class
of summer-residents and visiters, consisted then of
1,500 churchmen, 300 dissenters, and 100 nonde
scripts, above 12 years of age, amounting, with chil
dren, to about 2,500  In 1834, there were 9 schools,
—eight of them private. Parochial schoolmaster's
salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with £12 fees, and £5 other
emoluments  The parish was erected out of ancient
Roseneath in 1635, and named Row from the point
or little peninsula — in Gaelic rhu — which projects
into the Gairloch near the church.
ROWARDENNAN, a little hostelry at the foot
of Benlomond, on the eastern side of Loch-Lomond.
The steamer, while proceeding to the head of the
loch, regularly calls here, and lands or receives
tourists. ROWDILL (Loch), a marine loch or arm of
the sea, at the south-east corner of Harris, in the
Outer Hebrides. It penetrates little more than a
mile into the land, but forks into two parts, and
is covered across the entrance by an islet called
Vally. Rowdill church is a very ancient and curious
structure, originally the church of a monastery or
priory dedicated to St. Clement, afterwards one of
the parish- churches of Harris, but now a neglected
though not much dilapidated ruin. It is of ancient
and tolerable architecture, and " presents," says Dr^
Macculloch, " some peculiarities in sculpture which,
are well worth the notice of an antiquary, and, from
their analogy to certain allusions in oriental worship,,
objects of much curiosity."
ROXBURGH, a parish in lower Teviotdale,
Roxburghshire. It is bounded on the north-west
and north by the Tweed, which divides it from
Makerston and Kelso; on the north-east and east
by Kelso; on the south-east by Eckford; on the
south by Eckford and Crailing ; on the south-west
by Ancrum ; and on the west by Maxton. It con
sists of an irregular four-sided figure, 4 miles ia

616

ROXBURGH.

length south-eastward, by from 21 to 3J miles in
breadth ; and of a stripe 3 miles long, and nearly 1
mile broad, running up between Crailing and Maxton
to Lilliard's Edge. Its superficial extent is about
14 square miles. The Teviot cuts the large division
northward into two not very unequal parts ; and,
jointly with the Tweed, to which it speedily becomes
united, flings upon the district a profusion of natural
ornament. The general surface declines gently
toward the streams ; yet is waving, low, and pleas
ant. The highest ground is Dunse-law, at the ex
tremity of the projecting stripe, and about 500 feet
in altitude. The western and southern borders are
naturally moorish, but have been improved, enclosed,
and profitably subjected to the plough. The soil
elsewhere is, for the most part, a rich, fructiferous,
wheat-bearing loam. Much of the land between the
rivers is so stony as to have originated « tradition,
but evidently a mistaken one, that it was once all
covered with town. If the parochial area be distri
buted into 400 parts, 295 of them are in tillage, 92
in pasture, and 13 under wood. The chief rocks are
of the trap and sandstone families, little suited, in
the case of either, to the purposes of building. Two
springs near the Tweed have a remarkable petrify
ing power, and are environed with very curious pe
trifactions. Caves of considerable extent, of inter
esting configuration, and once used as places of
concealment, occur on the banks of the Teviot. —
An immense natural dam, called the Trow-Craigs,
and consisting of the newest trap, lies across the
Tweed, but has been worn by the river into four
slits, which, when there is no flood, admit in divi
sions or separated currents, the whole volume of
water. Two of the slits are about 34 feet deep,
and so narrow that a person may bestride them ; and
they and the other gullets have a length of about
450 feet, and a descent of 16 feet; and they form
eddies and rapids, and offer to the current alternate
accelerations and obstructions, which at all seasons
occasion a loud grumbling noise, and, at the break
ing-up of an ice-storm, cause a tremendous roar,
resembling the cry of the tempest-lashed sea, and
heard at a great distance  In almost every corner
of the parish, the eye is presented with objects
which nature and art seem vying how best to adorn.
Hedge-row enclosures, files of trees among the fields
and thickets, clumps and groves upon unarable
knolls and rocky hillocks, and curvatures of slope,
render the general aspect of the surface rich and
beautiful. A tourist travelling eastward along the
highway, a little west of the ancient castle, moves
along the summit of a precipice lined with trees, and
sees, immediately on his left, through the little vistas
of the wood, the majestic Tweed rolling far below
him, "dark, drumbly, and deep ;" and, at a little
distance on ihe right, the Teviot, forced aside by a
rocky wooded bank, and meandering round a large
plain. Advancing a brief space, he loses sight of both
rivers, and is ingulfed among wood in a hollow of
the way ; speedily emerging from the gloom, he
looks upon one of the most brilliant landscapes in
the world, — the ducal castle and demesne of Fleurs,
— the splendid mansion and embellished grounds of
Springwood-Park, — the gay and glad and most beau
tiful rivers of Teviotdale, each spanned by an ele
gant bridge, — and, right before him, Kelso and its
immediate environs in all their glory. From a par
ticular spot in the village of Roxburgh, a spectator
looks, on the one hand, along a valley 8 or 10 miles
in length, apparently all covered with trees, or but
thinly diversified with glade and dwelling ; and, on
the other hand, has an open and very diversified
prospect of double the distance, away to the moun
tainous summits of Carter-fell and the adjacent

heights. From a rising ground near the southern
boundary, the Teviot, after moving awhile in con
cealment behind overshadowing banks, rolls ro
mantically into view, and instantly passes again
into concealment. The summit of Dunse-law,
crowned with an observatory or summer-house, and
anciently a station of authority and strength, com
mands hy far the most extensive and interesting of
the local prospects,— one so vast, so rich, and so
crowded with objects, including all the elements of
rural landscape, three renowned castles, and a peep
at the German ocean, as to defy succinct description.
 The great Roman road, called Watling-street,
from Yorkshire to the frith of Forth, bisects the
south-west corner of the parish, and till recently
was used as a drove-road for cattle into England.
The ground vestiges, or strongly-vaulted lower
walls of a fortalice, variously called Roxburgh, Sun-
laws, and Wallace-tower, the subject of many
legends, and seemingly one of a chain of strengths
between Roxburgh-castle and Upper Teviotdale,
exist between the viUage of Roxburgh and the Te
viot. Vestiges of numerous camps and trenches
appear in various localities. Vestiges of villages,
malt steeps, and other memorials of inhabitation, are
numerous, and indicate the population, irrespectively
of that of the town, to have formerly been very con
siderable. Minor antiquities are multitudinous and
very varied. The chief and higher antiquities wiU
be afterwards noticed  The villages are Roxburgh
and Hightown ; noticed, the former below, and the
latter in its alphabetical place. The turnpikes from
Kelso to respectively Hawick and Melrose, pass up
the right banks of the rivers. Population, in 1801,
949; in 1831, 962. Houses 196. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £9,564  Roxburgh is in the presby
tery of Kelso, and synod of Merse and Teviotdale.
Patron, the Duke of Roxburgh. Stipend £225 2s.
7d. ; glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds £1,346 4s.
4d. There are two parish schools. Salary of the
first master £34 4s. 4id., with from £12 to £15
fees; of the second £17 2s. 2Ad., with £17 9s. fees.
The parts of the ancient parish on which stood the
burgb and the castle, are now united to Kelso :
which see. A chapel, subordinate to the mother
church of Old Roxburgh, anciently stood on the
manor of Fairnington.
Roxburgh, a village, and anciently a town, in the
centre of the cognominal parish, 2 miles south of the
Castle of Roxburgh, and 3A south-south-west of
Kelso. It figures in early history just as distinctly
as Old Roxburgh; but it never rivalled the impor
tance, or imitated the grandeur, or shared the proud
notice of the burgh, and it escaped the burgh's fate.
Its fortunes, while obscure, have been fluctuating;
and, even within the last century, have ebbed and
flowed with the effect of greatly diminishing and
ther. doubling the population. Unequivocal evi
dences exist, or have been dug up all round it, of its
once having possessed the bulkiness of a town. It
stands on a pleasant southerly slope, half-a-mile west
of the Teviot; and is divided by a small rivulet into
the Upper and the Nether Towns. In the midst
of it stands the parish-church, an edifice of 1752.
Population, in 1792, about 200; in 1840, about 400.
— Old Roxburgh, now quite extinct, stood over
against Kelso, on a rising ground at the west end of
a fertile plain, peninsulated by the confluence of the
Tweed and the Teviot. Brief but obscure notices
by various historians indicate that it was a place of
considerable note long previous to the 12th century,
but fail to throw light on its condition, or furnish
any certain facts in its history.* While David 1.,
* No mention is made of Roxburgh till after tbe Norman
conquest. The word, indeed, claims a Norman origin. Iu

ROXBURGH.

617

who mounted the throne in 1124, was yet only Earl
of Northumberland, the town, as well as the castle,
belonged to him as an appanage of his earldom ; and
appears to have been so flourishing that it could not
accommodate the crowds who pressed into it to en
rol themselves its citizens. An overflow of its pop
ulation was the occasion of the erection of the new
town, the original of the present village, and the
Easter Roxburgh of history. Whether the new
town was built by David, or at a period prior to the
date of his influence, is uncertain; but the fact of its
being an offshoot at so early a period, strikingly
evinces how great and attractive a seat of population
the district at the embouchure of the Tevioi was in
even rude and semi-barbarous times. Among other
elements of the old town's importance in the time
of David, it possessed an encincturing fortification
of wall and ditch, and had, under the superintendence
of the abbot of Kelso, schools which figured magnifi
cently in the age's unpolished tales of fame. When
David ascended the throne, it became, as a matter
of course, a king's burgh, and possibly was the one
which the monarch most favoured ; and, in the loose
phraseology of such general history as overlooks the
fact that royal burghs were a commodity of later in
vention, it is said to have been one of the first royal
burghs which David erected. It eventually wore
all the forms of burgh honour ; it was governed by
a provost or alderman and bailies ; it had a burgh or
city seal ; and it was the seat of a mint, — coins of
William the Lion, and of James II., having been
struck ill it, the latter probably during the king's
siege of the castle. So early as the reign of Wil
liam, it enjoyed the privilege of a weekly market;
Kelham's Dictionary we have " Rokeboruth. Roxburgh ;"
from roke, a rock, and boruth — -perhaps originally written bo-
ruch— evidently the same with the Anglo-Saxon borh, burgh,
' a borough.' In charters of David I. the orthography is
Rokesburg. It also appears as Roksburg, Rocesburg, Rochel-
burc, Rokesburch, Rosburg, or Roseburgh — which ii the vul
gar pronunciation — and Rousburge. Some have urged that this
is the proper appellation of the place, being most expressive
of its beautiful situation ; as in the supposed etymon of Mont
rose from Mons rosarum. " Where Twede and Teifv [Teviot]
unite their streams," says Camden, " is Rosburg or Roxburgh,
anciently called Marchidun, because situate on the marches,
where is a castle antiently very Btfong by nature and art."
it has been objected to this derivation of the word, that Cam
den's intimation is not warranted by the fact; as it was not a
town in the marches. But if by this is meant that Roxburgh
was not included in the district commonly called the Merse, it
should be observed, that, when Camden wrote, this name had
been used with greater latitude ; for he reckons Kelso a town
belonging to it, from which Roxburgh is not a mile diBtant.
As jWthumberland extends up the river Tweed, within a few
miles of Roxburgh, it might with great propriety be denomi
nated a fort on the boundary. The anonymous Geographer of
Ravenna, who wrote in the 7th or 8th century, having deno
minated a town in North Britain Marcotaxon, Baxter views
this as a slight error for Marcosaxon . and as undoubtedly de
noting Roxburgh, formerly denominated Marchidun, or ' the
Town of the Boundary.* For here, he adds, "anciently was
the boundary between the Saxons and Pietisli Britons; Marc
in both languages signifying ' a sign,' and also 'a limit.' "
Both Johnstone and Pinkerton, however, give the word in the
form of Marcotaxon. " Marchidun, in the British speech,"
according to Chalmers, " would signify the towering fortress :
and this name would be very descriptive of the position of Rox
burgh, if we suppose, what is not improbable.'that there was
some fortress of the Gadeni upon this lofty knoll, when the
Romans entered their diversified country." It affords a strong
K resumption that there was a Roman station in the neighbour-
ood, that, in the Advocates' Library of Edinburgh, there is
an altar inscribed to the Divi Campestres, or Fairies, which
was found in the romantic vicinity of Roxburgh-castle. Chal
mers refers to the Welsh march, 'towering,' or 'of high or
luxuriant growth,' and to din, ' a border or limit,1 ' a fortified
hill or mount,' But, as this etymon is not supported by the
height of the knoll, the term might be more naturally traced
to the Anglo-Saxon marc, or mearce, ' a march,' and dun, ' a
hill.' This derivation also more nearly corresponds with its
subsequent designation of Mayrchemond, or Marchimond, lat
terly Marchmont. Sir James Dalrymple throws out a singular
fancy in regard to the origin of the word : Marchmont, " a
name," he says, " perhaps given it by the Romans, esteeming
it a fort set upon the march or boundarie of the world." As
if the last syllable had been from the Latin mundus, 'the
world.' Boece has given it a new designation, Marchenium,
Which is more obscure than any of the reBt.

and, at a very early period, it had the privilege also
of an annual fair, — the original of the great fair of
St. James, which continues to be held on its site,
and now belongs to Kelso. In 1368, its magistrates
having sworn fealty to Edward III., it received from
that monarch a charter confirming to its burgesses
all the privileges bestowed on them by the kings of
Scotland ; and, in 1460, in consequence of its having
succumbed to the power of England, and forgotten
alike its patriotism and its loyality, it was erased
from the list of Scottish burghs. The town is said
to have been the fourth in Scotland, in point both
of population and of general importance; both in the
year 1369 and in that of 1460, it was captured and
burned ; and, owing to its building material having
been principally timber, it sooner decayed, and went
more deeply into extinction, than a much smaller
defunct town of stone. Bui its history is in most
particulars identified with that of its castle, and
will better be told in connection with a notice of
the celebrated pile. — Near the town, on the Teviot
side, at the site of a little hamlet which still bears
the name of Friars, anciently stood a convent, now
quite untraceable, for Franciscan monks. In the
vicinity stood also a Maison Dieu, or hospital, for
the reception of pilgrims and of the diseased and the
indigent. Roxburgh gives the title of Duke to the noble
family of Ker of Cessford ; but, as used in the title,
is in general capriciously spelt Roxburghe. The
Kers of Cessford and of Ferniehurst, or the Duke of
Roxburgh and the Marquises of Lothian, sprang from
the same root; and are regarded as in common or
jointly the head of the sept of Ker, Kerr, or Carr, —
a name which abounds in the south of Scotland,- par
ticularly in the counties of Roxburgh and Berwick,
and is derived from the British word Car, a fortalice
or strength. Walter Ker of Cessford, a powerful
border baron, whose Anglo-Norman progenitors had
settled in Teviotdale in the 13th century, received,
in 1499, from James IV., a grant of the site of the
ruined town and castle of Roxburgh. In 1599, his
descendant, Sir Robert Ker, was ennobled by the
title of Baron Roxburgh, and, in 1616, was advanced
to the dignity of Earl of Roxburgh. Jean, the
daughter of the 1st Earl, married tbe Honourable
Sir William Drummond, fourth son of the 2d Earl
of Perth. The new line introduced by this marriage
retained the surname of Ker, and carried down the
peerage as if the line had been direct. In 1707,
John, the 3d Earl, was created Duke of Roxburgh,
Marquis of Bowmont and Cessford, Earl of Kelso
and Viscount of Broxmouth. John, the 3d Duke,
and grandson of the 1st, lived in celibacy, and left
behind him at his death a vast accumulation of
wealth.* William, 7th Lord Bellenden, and a de
scendant of the 2d Earl of Roxburgh, succeeded the
unmarried Duke as heir of entail; but he enjoyed
his new honours during only about a year, and, in
his turn, died without any immediate heir. A
sharp, intricate, and lengthened contest now arose
respecting the inheritance of the titles and the
estates. In 1812, Sir James limes Ker was at
* While travelling on the Continent, he and Christiana, eld.
est daughter of tlie Dukje of Mecklenburg.Strelitz, formed a
mutual attachment, and were on the eve of being married,
when Charlotte, a younger sister of the bride-elect, became
espoused to George III., and etiquette was proudly interpreted
to forbid that the elder sister should assume a station which
would render her subject to the younger. The Duke and the
lady, in consequence, broke off their match, yet testified the
warmth of their mutual affection and esteem by permanently
remaining strangers to wedlock. HiB Grace was a distin
guished book-collector and virtuoso ; and instituted in London
a club, which took from him its designation of Roxburgh, aud
has for its chief object the amassing of a museum of rare books
and articles of vertu.- It still survives, and has numbered
many distinguished literati among its members.

618

ROXBURGH.

length declared the successful competitor, the true
heir and the 5th Duke ; and even he was so re-
motejy akin as to achieve success in the capacity of
heir-male of Margaret, daughter of Harry, Lord
Ker, who figured in the troubles of the reign of
Charles I., and died in 1643. His son, James Henry,
the present and 6th Duke, succeeded to the honours
in 1823; and in 1837, was advanced to the peer
age of the United Kingdom, by the title of Earl
Innes. The chief seats of the family are Fleurs, in
the vicinity of Kelso, and Broxmouth, near Dunbar.
Roxburgh Castle. The situation of Rox
burgh on the border of our ancient kingdom, in
a. district continually exposed to inroads from one
side or another, rendered the occupation of it a
matter of the greatest importance to the contend
ing powers. Its very site seemed to mark it
out as a rock of strife. It was, therefore, a con
tinual eyesore to the party that were not the
immediate occupants. The remains of this castle
appear on a rocky eminence on the margin of Te
viot, near the place of its confluence with Tweed,
rising about 40 feet above the plain. The walls —
part of which are still standing — have been of great
strength. The south wall, as Pennant has observed,
impended over the Teviot, a part of whose waters
were directed by a dam thrown obliquely across the
stream at the west end of the castle, into a deep
fosse, which defended the fortress on ihe west and
north, emptying itself into the river at the east end
thereof. Over this moat, at the gateway from the
town, was thrown a drawbridge, the remains of
which were but lately removed. David, preparing
to invade Northumberland — which he claimed in the
name of his son Prince Henry — Thurstin, the aged
archbishop of York, repaired to Roxburgh, and per
suaded the king of Scots to consent to a truce, until
Stephen should return to England. This visit Lord
Hailes assigns to the year 1136; the Chronicle of
Mailros to the following year. When Stephen after
wards entered into the north of England, in order to
rescue it from the Scottish invaders, A. D. 1138,
David retired at his approach, and occupied a strong
camp in the neighbourhood of Roxburgh. At this
place, in 1 152, the good old king was residing, when
his nobles came to condole with him on the severe
loss he had sustained in the death of his amiable and
excellent son. William the Lion having been taken
prisoner by the English, Henry II. would consent to
liberate him solely on the ignominious condition, that
he should become the liegeman of the King of Eng
land: and, as a pledge of the performance of this
disgraceful titeaty, William agreed to deliver up to
the English the castles of Roxburgh, Berwick, Jed
burgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling; and gave his bro
ther David and many of his chief barons as hostages.
This took place, a.d. 1174. Wyntoun mentions
only three of these castles.

. To be kepyd, wes thare accord

For the dely werans of our Lorde,
The thre castellys of Roxsbwrch,
Of Berwyk, and Edynburch. Cronykil, B, vii. c. 8, v. 149.
Bromton says that Richard I. restored Rokesburgh
and Berwike to the Scottish king. This must refer
to the year 1190, when WiUiam "gave to Richard
10,000 merks of gold and silver, for the dignities
and liberties and honours which he had before the
war ;" that is, for releasing him from his ignomini
ous bond of vassalage ; "and forBerewicand Rockes-
burch, which King Henry violently held for sixteen
years." At Roxburgh, in 1193, William gave his
daughter Margaret to Eustace de Vesci. The same
year, he sent from Roxburgh 2,000 merks of silver
for the redemption of Richard, King of England.

Having proceeded, in 1197, to Moray, with an army,
against the rebels who were led by Torphin, the
son of Harold Earl of Orkney, he marched onward
to the northern extremity of Scotland, seized Ha
rold, and consigned him to imprisonment in the
castle of Roxburgh, until his son Torphin delivered
himself as an hostage for his father. Lord Hailes
conjectures — with great appearance of truth — that
this sum made part of the price he had engaged to
pay for the independency of his crown. In the year
1207, a considerable part of Roxburgh was acci
dentally burnt ; as it was intentionally subjected to
this calamity nine years afterwards, in common with
Werk, Alnwick, Mitford, and Morpeth, from the
vengeance of John of England. It is asserted by
Fordun, that it again met with the same fate, in
common with almost all the burghs of Scotland^
a.d. 1244. In the castle of 'Rokisburc,' on the
day of Pentecost, 1227, did Alexander II. confer the
honour of knighthood on his kinsman, John Earl of
Huntingdon, known by the name of John the Scot,
the son of Earl David, and many other noblemen.
In this place also, in the year 1239, was Alexander
married to Mary, the daughter of Ingelram de Couci ;
and here was his son, and successor, Alexander III.,
born in 1241. To this fortress, according to the
Chronicle of Mailros, in the year 1255, did Alan
Ostiarius, or Durward, with his rebellious associates,
carry this king, while only fourteen years of age,
from the castle of Edinburgh, and retain him under
their power. This was also the place of refuge for
Alexander and his young queen, who, " by the guar
dians of tbe kingdom, had been prohibited from con
summating their marriage, she being kept by them
in strict confinement." This obviously refers to
their liberation, above mentioned, by the agency of
Alan Durward. Here, too, in the same year, Henry
III. of England had an interview with Alexander,
who had married his daughter Margaret in 1251.
Here also, in 1283, was celebrated the marriage of
Alexander, Prince of Scotland, with Margaret, the
daughter of Guy Earl of Flanders. Edward I. claim
ing right as lord- paramount of Scotland, directed a
letter from Norham, June 13th, 1291, to William de
Soules, commanding him to deliver the castle of
Rokeshurgh to William de Grantesoun. On the
4th August, same year, Grandison is ordered to de
liver the said castle to Brian the son of Alan. At
this time the town of Roxburgh must have been a
place of considerable trade. For a safe conduct is,
this year, granted by Edward to his beloved noble,
Richard le Furbur, burgess and merchant of Rokes
burgh in Scotland, for travelling with his goods,
merchandise, and people, throughout his dominions.
During the interregnum, the public writings and re
cords had been transmitted from Edinburgh to Rox
burgh, where the auditors, appointed, for Scottish
affairs, by Edward I., held their assemblies. Iu the
year 1295, the pusillanimous John Baliol consented
that Roxburgh, with Berwick and Jedburgh, should
be delivered to the Bishop of Carlisle, as a pledge
of the adherence of Baliol to the interests of Ed
ward. In 1292, Edward himself resided at Rox
burgh during a considerable part of the month of
December. This fortress was yielded to him, in
1296, by James, the steward of Scotland. In the
following year, an unsuccessful attempt was made
by the Scots to retake it; but on Shrove -Tuesday,
1313, it was surprised by James Lord Douglas,
while the garrison were indulging in riot. Here
Edward Baliol made a solemn surrender of the liber
ties of Scotland to Edward III., a. d. 1332, acknow
ledging him for his liege lord ; at the same time, by
letters-patent, alienating to Edward, as a recompense
for his support, inter aha, the town, castle, and

AJtiEarttin 8? O^LanflniifcEflhibiirgli.

ROXBURGHSHIRE.

619

county of Roxburgh, to be annexed to and incorpo
rated with the crown of England for ever. In this
castle was Mary de Bruce, the sister of King Robert,
kept in an iron cage, from the year 1306 to 1310.
Here Edward III. twice celebrated his birth-day.
It continued in the hands of the English, till stormed
and taken by Alexander Ramsay, in 1342, when the
government of it was given to William Douglas.
It was retaken by the English after the battle of
Hexham or Durham ; and Copland — who had made
King David Bruce prisoner — was nominated gover
nor of it. Here Edward Baliol, A. d. 1355-6, made
an absolute surrender to Edward III., not only of
all his private estates in Scotland, but of the king
dom of Scotland, by delivery of a portion of the soil,
and also of his golden crown. " In 1372, George
Dunbar, Earl of March, accompanied by his brother,
the Earl of Murray, with a large body of their de
pendents, entered Roxburgh at the time of the an
nual fair, and, in revenge of the death of one of their
followers, who was slain the preceding year in an
affray, slew all the English they found in the town,
plundered it of the great quantities of merchandise
and goods which were collected there" for sale,
"and reduced the town to ashes." As, from the
disastrous battle of Durham, in the reign of David
II., the castle of Roxburgh had still continued in the
hands of the English, no further notice is taken of it
till the year 1398, when, during the truce, the Earl
of Douglas's son, with Sir William Stuart and others,
taking advantage of the critical situation of Richard
IL, broke down the bridge at Roxburgh, plundered
the town, and ravaged the adjacent lands. In the
year 1411, Douglas of Drumlanrig, and Gavin Dun
bar, adopted the same course of hostility ; for they
broke down the bridge of Roxburgh, and set fire to
the town. James I. made a vain attempt to recover
this fortress, in 1435, of which Bellenden gives the
following naive account. " The king past with an
army to sege the castell of Marchmond, that is to
say Roxburgh. The Scottis war nowmerit in this
army to II.C.M. men, by [besides] futmen and ca-
ragemen. At last quhen the kyng had lyne at the
sege foresaid xv. dayis and waistit all his munitioun
and powder, he returnit haim, but ony mair felicite
succeeding to his army."
In 1460, James II. — perhaps from the idea of its
being a disgrace to the Scottish crown, that Ber
wick and Roxburgh should continue so long under
the dominion of England — laid siege to the latter,
with a numerous army, well-furnished with artil
lery and warfike machinery. He had taken the
town, and levelled it to the ground ; but, during the
siege of the castle, while he was overseeing the dis
charge of one of his pieces of ordnance, so remark
able for its size that it was called ' the Lion,' it
burst, and the king was almost instantaneously struck
dead. A large holly, enclosed by a wall, marks the
fatal spot. The queen, Mary of Guelder, who im
mediately on the mournful tidings arrived in the
camp, bringing her eldest son with her, then a boy
of about seven years of age, conducted herself with
such heroism on this mournful occasion as to inspire
the troops with redoubled spirit, and the garrison,
finding themselves reduced to extremities, surren
dered the fortress. " That the place," says Red-
path, " which the English had held for more than a
hundred years, might thenceforth cease to be a
centre of rapine and violence, or a cause of future
strife between the nations, the victors reduced it to
a heap of ruins."' In this dismantled state did it
remain till the English army, in 1547, under the
Protector Somerset, encamped on the plain between
the nuns of the castle of Roxburgh and the conflu
ence of Tweed and Teviot. Observing the strength

and convenience of the situation, he resolved to
make the fortress tenable. This he did ; leaving in
it a garrison of 300 soldiers and 200 pioneers, under
Sir Ralph Bulmer. While the English were at
Roxburgh, a great number of the Scottish gentry
in this district came into the camp, and made their
submission to Somerset, swearing fealty to the King
of England.*
ROXBURGHSHIRE, a county in the middle of
the border-district, or southern marches of Scotland.
It is bounded on the north by Berwickshire ; on the
north-east and east by Northumberland ; on the
south-east by Northumberland and Cumberland ; on
tbe south-west by Dumfries-shire ; and on the west
and north-west by Selkirkshire, and the southerly
projection of Mid-Lothian. It is situated between
55° 6' 40", and 55° 42' 52" north latitude ; and be
tween 2° 11" and 3° 7' 50" longitude west from Green
wich. Its greatest length, from the point where it
is left by the Tweed in the north-east, to that at
which it is left by the Liddel in the extreme south
or south-west, is 41 miles ; and its greatest breadth
in a direction at right angles with the line between
the above points, is 29 miles. Its medium length is
about 30.V miles ; and its medium breadth about 22 J.
Its superficial extent, as stated by Dr. Douglas, in his
Agricultural Survey of the County, is 672 square
miles, or 430,080 acres ; and, as estimated by Chal
mers from Arrowsmith's map of Scotland, is 696
square miles, or 445,440 acres. Its form is so irre
gular as not easily to be reducible to any one mathe
matical figure, either single or complex ; but, in gen
eral, it is broad, protuberant, and of very ragged
outline on the north, and narrower, more regular,
and finally attenuated to a point in the south. The
boundary-line for 29 miles on the south-west, or
with Dumfries-shire, is strictly natural, consisting
for a brief space of Mare-burn, which flows into the
Liddel, and, over all the remainder of a water-shed
ding range of mountain-summits ; and over all the
south-east and east, or with England, a distance of
upwards of 60 miles, it is at least proximately geo
graphical, consisting chiefly of mountain or gently
upland water-sheds, and of the course of the Kers-
hope and small part of the Liddel ; but, on all other
sides, it is utterly artificial, runs a tilt against all
geographical landmarks, and repeatedly becomes so
capricious and whimsical as thoroughly to tantalize.
The Tweed — which actually at two points, one of
l1 mile in the east, and the other of 5 miles near the
middle, forms the northern boundary-line — might
have served as a very distinct natural frontier along
the whole of the north ; but it is overleaped by two
sections of the county, which respectively belong
in geographical though not political division, to
Lauderdale and the Merse. A mountain-water-shed,
though one of some sinuosity, and of invasion upon
Selkirkshire, might have been found along the west
* A circumstance has been mentioned, regarding the history
of this castle, which, could we give it credit, would not be
without considerable interest. It has been generally asserted,
that tho unfortunate James IV. wore an irou chain about his
waist, as a voluntary penance for his unnatural rebellion
against his royal father. In a manuscript history of Scotland,
written by the Earl of Nithsdale, and preserved in the Scots
college at Douay, it is said, "that, during the usurpation of
Cromwell, a skeleton, girded with an iron chain, and enclosed
in a bull's skin, was found among the ruins of the old castle of
Roxburgh ; and that the iron chain which King James IV. did
at no time lay by, made people generally believe that it was
the body of that prince which they had discovered ; but that
the nation being then in subjection, there was no way to make
a further trial of the matter ; so the skeleton was interred
without any ceremony in tbe common burial-place." This
story tallies in some degree with one account of the death of
James, mentioned by Buchanan as current after the event;
that he recrosBed the Tweed, and was slain by some of Home's
men, near the town of Kelso. There have, however, been such
various accounts of his death, and of the disposal of his body,
that the fact must be left as a matter of absolute uncertainty.

620

ROXBURGHSHIRE.

simply by following the hither rim of the basin of
the Ettrick ; but both it and other geographical lines
have been so utterly disregarded, that considerable
pieces of the two contiguous shires are mutually dove
tailed, and a small part of Selkirkshire is even quite
insulated. The county — owing, in two instances, to
the defiance of natural boundary, and, in one, to a to
tal difference of direction in the general declination of
the surface — necessarily arranges itself into four very
unequal divisions. The first division projects north-
ward of the Tweed, between the rivers Gala and
Leader ; constitutes only part, though the larger
one, of the parish of Melrose ; and comprehends 28
square miles, or 17,920 acres. The second division
projects northward of the Tweed into the Merse;
includes the parishes of Smailholm, Makerston,
Kelso, Stitchel, and Ednam; and comprehends 27
square miles, or 17,280 acres. The third division
forms the extreme south of the county; has its
whole general declination southward, with the
eventual direction of its streams through the Liddel
and the Sark to the Solway frith ; consists of the
single parish of Castletown ; bears, from its main
draining-stream, the name of Liddesdale ; and com
prehends 120 square miles, or 76,800 acres. The
fourth division amounts io between 14 and 15
twentieths of the whole area ; it constitutes, as to
both bulk and position, the great body of the county ;
it bears the general name of Teviotdale, and some
times occasions that name to be a synonyme with
. Roxburghshire ; but, on the one hand, it cedes to
Selkirkshire some little districts which are drained
by the upper courses of the tributaries of the Teviot ;
and, on the other, it includes a district on the
Tweed, in the west, whence the Tevjot draws no
tribute, and two or three pendicles in the east, which
are drained by the Bowmont and other streams into
Northumberland ; and it comprehends 521 square
miles, or 333,440 acres. The measurements of these
divisions are those of Chalmers, and give a total
which corresponds with his estimate of the aggre
gate superficial extent of the county.
The surface of the two divisions north of the
Tweed, and of the whole northern part of Teviot
dale, jointly constituting what without impropriety
might be called Lower Tweeddale, is, as compared
to the rest of the county, decidedly champaign, —
undulating, and even boldly variegated, but not up
land, or anywhere markedly hilly, — flattened down in
the Merse district into nearly a level, — fashioned,
along the south side of the Tweed, into a sort of
rolling plain, — heaved aloft nowhere into pastoral
and commarrfling heights, except in the classical Eil
don-hills behind Melrose, and in William-law on
Gala-water, — and almost everywhere, but especially
in the immediate vicinity of the Tweed, exquisitely
rich in the adornings of arboriculture and husbandry.
The country south of this united district is, in a
general view, all hilly, and over a great extent
mountainous. Vales and hanging plains follow the
courses of the Teviot and its tributaries; and along
with most of such acclivities as can be climbed by
the plough, are generally in tillage, and often pro
fusely embellished with wood. The country between
these intersecting hollows is a constant series of
hills, all beautiful, nearly all rounded, and, with
hardly an exception, deeply and warmly green ; and
the country beyond, including Liddesdale and the
eastern and south-western and western borders, is
boldly mountainous or sequesteredly pastoral, — in
most places verdant, and softly outlined, though
alpine in its heights, — in a few, bleak, moorish,
harsh, and barren, — and in most, cloven down at
intervals into pretty glens, spotted over with tillage,
and occasionally but sparingly adorned with wood.

A towering range, the commencement in Scotland
of that which stretches from the Northumberland
Cheviots quite across the island to the Western sea,
in the south of Carrick, comes in, with its loftiest
summit-line, at a point 7 miles south-south-east of
where the Tweed leaves the county, and extends, in
its water-shed, along or near the whole of the east
ern and south-eastern border, till it strikes the divi
sion of the English Tyne and the Rule; and it thence
runs westward between Teviotdale and Liddesdale,
and finally passes off north-westward, forming the
upper rim of the basin of the Teviot. This great
range, particularly where it cuts off Liddesdale from
the rest of the county, sends up as menacing sum
mits, and has as alpine roads or passes as occur
in most districts of even the Northern Highlands.
But interior from it and its spurs, the only singular
or arresting eminences are Ruberslaw, Dunian, and
the heights of Minto ; and even they, as they hang
in one grouping over the opposite sides of the Te
viot, only tend to fling an aspect of brilliance over a
district which, without them, might have been tamely
or but hoydenly hilly. In general, the uplands of
the county are both ornamental and useful; and
while they occupy much of the superficies, they con
tribute largely to landscape, and profusely to pastur
age. Very few of the heights are cheerless ; none
are rugged or tremendous ; and many both give and
command prospects at once beautiful, variegated,
and delightful. Crawford, in his lyric of the Cow-,
denknowes, fondly speaks of
" Teviot braes so green and gay;"
and Gilpin, in his Tour, talks of sheep covering the
downy sides of the valleys of the Teviot, and, from
the depth of the verdure and the suddenness of the
slope, often appearing to hang upon immense green
walls. The landscapes of the county are, in very
many instances, beautiful, but in few romantic or
sublime, — almost always agreeable, and occasionally
thrilling, but seldom magnificent, or such as fiU, or
strongly exercise the imagination.
No county in Scotland, much less in the other
sections of the United Kingdom, excels Roxburgh
shire in the number and beauty of its running waters.
Those of Perthshire, indeed, are equal or superior in
number and magnitude, and they bear no comparison
for romance and grandeur ; but they are far inferior in
variety and in all the softer and more graceful and
alluring elements of landscape. The streams of
Roxburghshire are sacred to song ; and far more than
those of any other county, figure in the lyrics and
the various outpourings of the sweetest poetry of
Scotland. The Tweed is the chief of all, both in
bulk and in beauty ; and roUs in majestic sweeps
along the north, in a direction principally eastward,
but tending to the north-east. It comes in from
Selkirkshire, finds itself twice, for a brief way, on
the boundary with Berwickshire, and takes leave at
the point of its beginning to divide Scotland for
England. The Ettrick touches the county but for a
mile or two before falling into the Tweed. The
Gala, the Allan, the Leader, and the Eden, come in
one instance from Edinburghshire, in one from the
extremity of the north-west projecting district, and
in two from Berwickshire, and all join the Tweed
on its left bank. The Teviot, the other great river,
belongs wholly to the county, and runs north-east..
ward, from its south-west extremity, nearly through
its centre, to the Tweed at Kelso. Besides the
rivulets which rush down upon it from their springs
in the mountain-land near its origin, this ample and
very beautiful river receives from the heights on its
left side the Borthwick and the Ale, and from the
many hills and vales of the Cheviot range, the Al-

ROXBURGHSHIRE.

621

Ian, the Slitrig, the Rule, the Jed, the Oxnam, and
the Kail. The Liddel, receiving on its right bank
tlie Hermitage and the Tinnis, and on its left the
Blackburn, the Kershope, and some smaller tributa
ries, runs south-south-westward through Liddesdale.
The Bowmont, the Coquet, and some other but
smaller English streams, have a brief connection
with the eastern border  The lakes of the county
are not very numerous ; they are all small, and fit
only for parochial notice ; and they occur chiefly in
the parishes of Roberton, Morebattle, Linton, Ash-
kirk, and Galashiels. Petrifying springs occur in
the parishes of Roxburgh, Minto, and Castletown ;
chalybeate springs in Jedburgh, Oxnam, Crailing, St.
Boswell's, and Castletown ; and ' consecrated' wells,
as St. Helen's, St. Robert's, and St. Dunstan's, in
the neighbourhood of Melrose.
Trappean and porphyritic rocks, in all their varie
ties, and in nearly all their modes of occurrence, are
found in the county. Felspar porphyry, for the most
part of a reddish brown, is most abundant, and com
poses nearly aU the Cheviots in Yetholm, Morebattle,
Hownam, and the larger DOition of Oxnam. Green
stone, basalt, amygdeloid, trap tuff wacke, and other
trappean varieties, occur in a large part of the
county, at intervals of a mUe and less, in nodules, in
dikes, or otherwise, generally breaking and dislocat
ing sandstone, and sometimes, though not often, lying
undisturbingly beneath it. Red sandstone, of dis
puted age, generally possessing the characters of the
new, but often occupying the position of the old,
occupies the larger part of the central and northern
districts of the county; and occurs elsewhere in
detached or isolated sheets, indicative of its preva
lence at one period over a much larger area. Tran
sition rocks, consisting almost entirely of greywacke
and greywacke slate occupy all the western district,
and make a sweep round the south so as to shut out
but not to enter Liddesdale; and they are separated
from the sandstone district by a line from near the
point where the Leader first strikes the county, past
the base of the Eildon hills, and by Bowden and
Hassendean curvingly to Southdean, Old Jedburgh,
and Oxnam. But the region of these rocks in the
latter or curving and southerly part of it, is greatly
narrowed on the Cheviot side by the invasion of
trap, and much overlaid on the other with the red
sandstone, and in the interior is frequently dislodged
and shivered up into vertical arrangement by tower
ing and abrupt hills of porphyry and trap. The coal
formation and superincumbent strata, consisting of
red, grey, and micaceous sandstones, carboniferous
limestone, clay-ironstone, shales, and thin seams of
coal, come in from the Northumbrian coal-field, and,
with local variations and some interruptions, more
or less distinctly occupy Castletown or Liddesdale,
and parts of Ednam, Sprouston, Kelso, Bedruie,
Jedburgh, and Southdean. The coal is mineable
only in Liddesdale ; and limestone, whether carbon
iferous or of other formations, is but limitedly cal
cined for sale.
In the pastoral regions the soil is dry, wet, or
heathy. The dry prevails all eastward of the Jed ;
and, with very slight interpatchings of heath, and
but few and small and drained marshes, has a thick
sward of rich and sweet grass. A large tract of
stubborn clay, lying on a cold impenetrable till,
stretches from the south-west skirt of Ruberslaw
to the confines of Liddesdale. This and Liddesdale,
or the districts south-west of the Jed, while almost
whoUy pastoral, are the wettest portion of the
county, yet contain no small proportion of dry land,
and many spungy fields which produce coarse grass,
and are susceptible of great improvement by drain
ing.  In the arable district the soil is partly light

and partly heavy. The light consists of rich loam,
or mixtures of sand and loam, gravel and loam, and
sand, gravel and clay, in every variety of proportion,
—each species of very different qualities and degrees
of excellence, and distinguishable also by the nature
of its subsoil ; and it is in general found on low and
level lands in the vales of the streams, but occurs
likewise on several eminences of considerable extent,
especially in the parishes of Linton, Eckford, Crail
ing, Ancrum, Maxton, and Melrose. The heavy
soil consists chiefly of clay of different depths and
densities, or of mixtures in which clay predominates,
lying on tilly or otherwise retentive subsoil ; and it
chiefly occupies the high grounds, and except where
lying on a dry bottom, or strangely interpatched
with light soil, almost never appears in valleys. It
somewhat prevails in the parishes around Kelso, on
both sides of the Tweed, and there, when in con
siderable quantity, is generally friable and fertile ;
and it covers an area of 10 miles by 4, or aboui
10,000 acres, stretching away southward from the
Eildon hills, and including nearly tbe whole of Bow
den, Lilliesleaf, and Minto, and parts of the parishes
on their north flank, and is there over one-half the
extent rich and fructiferous, and over the other half
shallow, cold, churlish, resistant of tillage, uncertain
in agricultural produce, and, in consequence, largely
devoted to plantation.
The Saxons, who began to come in upon the
Romanized Britons in the 5th century, commenced
and carried on, during the long progress of their in
trusion, a sort of incipient husbandry. Yet, so late
as the close of the 11th century, the whole extent of
Roxburghshire, in spite of the little clearings and
improvements which they had effected, was sheltered
by forests, overrun with copses, or disfigured by
wastes. The expanses of woodland were aggregately
and even individually vast ; and they afforded retreat
and covert to ^reat tribes of the wild cat, the boar,
and the wolf. Monks and barons now numerously
claimed an interest in tbe soil, and commenced a con
test, the former to destroy the wild beasts for their
profit, and the latter to defend them for their sport;
and the monks acquiring the ascendency, promul
gated lessons of profitable industry, pointed the way
to georgical improvement, and showed the country
an example of clearing woods, reclaiming wastes,
and introducing cultivation. The many manors
which existed in the county during the age of David
I  each, according to the custom of the period, pro
vided with its church, its mill, its malt-kiln, and its
brew-house, and containing a district of arable ground
for cultivation, and a village for the residence of the
proprietor's retainers — evince how great an epoch
ihe reign of that monarch was in the county's agri
culture. At the mill of Ednam alone, probably 1,000
quarters of malt were annually ground ; and brew-
houses were so numerous that ale must have been
the common beverage of nearly the whole popula
tion. The monks propelled to a comparatively high
state of advancement the agricultural system which
theytoad mainly contributed to introduce ; and they,
at the same time, made Roxburghshire, in its vale of
the Allan north of the Tweed, the earliest dairy-,
ground in Scotland, and, in various districts, gave
practical lessons in horticulture which have not been
forgotten till the present hour, and continue to render
several of the county's localities notable for their
fruit. The various arts and departments of working
the soil were crushed at the demise of Alexander 111.,
and remained in miserable neglect during the long
period of three centuries. Agriculture did not re- ,
vive, and start for the goal of fame, till about the
same period as in the adjacent counties. 'Before
1743 the practices of draining, enclosing, and fallow

622

ROXBURGHSHIRE.

ing, of raising cabbages and potatoes in the fields,
and of growing flax, hemp, rape, and grass-seeds,
were generally introduced. In 1747 the turnip hus
bandry was adopted and exemplified by Dr. John
Rutherford ; and, in 1 753, it was brought to com
parative maturity, and exhibited in connexion with
a regular system of cropping, by Mr. Dawson. In
1755 the use of marl and of lime as manures was in
troduced by Mr. Dawson and Sir Gilbert Elliot ; and,
in 1737, Mr. Rogers, an ingenious native of Cavers,
constructed fanners.for winnowing corn, and thence
drove an increasing trade, profitable to himself and
highly useful to agriculture, in vending the machine.
Mr. Wight, who made two agricultural surveys of the
county, respectively in 1773 and 1780, declared, on
occasion of the latter of them, that " he was amazed
at the advances all had made since his former survey,
as every field had assumed a better aspect from an
improving hand-" During the twenty years which
terminated in 1794, the lands of the county, in con
sequence chiefly or solely of melioration, became
doubled in their value. Since that period Roxburgh
shire has' distanced some counties, and rivalled most,
and probably been outrun by none, in the energetic
race of improvement, as to both tbe management of
soil and the rearing of stock, which has so generally
and highly distinguished Scotland. About one- third of
the entire area is now subject to the plough. Most of
the arable farms range between 400 and 600 acres ;
most of a very numerous class, which are partly
arable and partly pastoral, range between 600 and
1,400; and most of entirely, or almost entirely, pas
toral farms, range between 1,000 and 3,000.
Roxburghshire has long been famous for the num
ber and excellence of its sheep. Those with black
faces and legs, short bodies and coarse wool, which
for ages walked the pastures, were wholly discarded
before the close of last century, or were retained in
thin numbers only for the table, and on account of
the delicacy of their mutton. The white-faced and
long- bodied breed, so decidedly superior in their
wool, obtained everywhere a preference; and they
have been subjected to very numerous and successful
experiments of crossing and general treatment, with
a view to remove some defects, and to improve their
carcases without injuring the quality of their fleeces.
If ever a breed of black cattle existed peculiar to
Roxburghshire, it cannot now be distinguished.
Most of the present stock of the county is altogether
motley, and consists, not so much of the offspring of
Northumberland, Lancashire, Galloway, Ayrshire,
Highland, Guernsey, and Dutch breeds, as of such
an intercrossing of the whole as has effaced nearly
all trace of distinct origin. The milk-cows are, in
general, short-horned, deep-ribbed, and of a red and
white colour ; but are also found polled, and of every
variety of horn, shape, and colour. Horses of many
different kinds, though none of them peculiar to the
county, are in use. A cross between the Clydes
dale and the Northumberland breeds, and crosses
between both and the Irish horse, are much esteemed
for draught. Ponies from the north of Scotland are
very common in most families for children, and make
useful drudges.
The manufactures of Roxburghshire have, with
very trivial exceptions, their seats in Hawick, Jed
burgh, Galashiels, and their dependencies, and are
noticed in the articles on these towns. The com
merce, in the sense in which an inland county has
any, consists principally in the importation of foreign
wool, coal, some common necessaries, and a few
luxuries, and in the exportation of grain, cattle,
sheep, lambs, domestic wool, and the produce of
woollen factories. Most of the exported grain is
delivered at Berwick, and much of it is sent by land

conveyance to Dalkeith, and there sold in bulk and
paid in cash, — affording occasion to load the carts on
their return with the superior coal and lime of Edin
burghshire ; and a considerable proportion is sent
through the Kelso market to the hilly regions both
of the county itself and of the north-west of North
umberland. Weekly markets for the sale of grain
are held on Tuesday at Jedburgh, on Wednesday at
Yetholm, on Thursday at Hawick, on Friday at
Kelso, and at Melrose on Saturday. That of Kelso
is by far the most important and most numerously
frequented. Large fairs, especially for black cattle,
horses, and sheep, are more numerous than in most
other counties. The greatest is that of St. Bos-
well's, on the 18th of July ; and this, jointly with
fairs at Yetholm and at Rink in Upper Jedburgh,
usually fixes the price of wool with staplers from
Yorkshire and other parts of England. St. James',
fair, on the site of the ancient Roxburgh, on the 5th
of August, is the scene of much miscellaneous traffic,
— a minglement of portions of nearly all the trade
and commerce of the county. The other fairs are
held at Jedburgh, Kelso, Hawick, Melrose, and Yet
holm  Previous to 1764 the county was in a miser
able condition as to roads and bridges : it had few
places where wheeled carriages could pass, without
skilful drivers and close attention ; and it had only
two useful bridges, respectively at Kelso and at Mel
rose, over the Tweed ; and only two, respectively at
Hawick and near Ancrum, over the Teviot, — all the
others being awkwardly situated or incommodiously
constructed. But between 1764 and 1797 no less
than 153 miles of excellent road was laid down, two
former bridges were rebuilt, twenty-five new stone-
bridges, including the Drygrange one over Tweed
and the one over Teviot near Kelso, were erected
over the more considerable streams, and an incalcu
lated number of minor bridges and mounds were
thrown across rivulets and hollows. Improvement,
proceeding since that period with unabated energy,
has constructed the splendid new Tweed bridge of
Kelso, and the elegant new Teviot bridge at Hawiek,
and flung several pedestrian suspension-bridges over
both the Teviot and the Tweed, and ramified all the
more populous parts of the country with roads in
ferior to none in the kingdom, and intersected even
the most upland and sequestered districts with
thoroughfares superior to those which were formerly
enjoyed by the most crowded seats of population.
From the epoch of the bishopric of Lindisfarn, a
major part of Roxburghshire, which was included in
the kingdom of Northumbria, formed a considerable
section of that ancient diocese ; from the reign of
David I. till the Reformation, all of it south of the
Tweed belonged to the diocese of Glasgow, and
from 1238 this large section formed the archdeaconry
of Teviotdale, and was ruled by its own archdeacon,
under the superintendence of the bishop. Parishes
arose amidst the obscurities of dimly recorded ages ;
and, after the ferment of the Reformation had sub
sided, stood in number at 33, — twenty-nine of them
belonging wholly to the county, and four being shared
between it and Selkirkshire. Of these Castletown,
owing to the remoteness of its situation, was placed
under the synod of Dumfries, and all the others were
placed under the synod of Merse and Teviotdale, 
fourteen of them composing the presbytery of Jed
burgh, and eighteen being distributed among other
presbyteries in the quotas of nine to Kelso, eight to
Selkirk, and. one to Lauder. The same arrangement
continues, with the addition of one quoad sacra parish
to Kelso and one quoad sacra parish and two chapel
ries to Jedburgh. In 1834 there were forty-four
parochial schools, conducted by fifty teachers, and
attended by a maximum of 3,225 scholars, and a mini-

ROXBURGHSHIRE.

623

mum of 2,491 ; and sixty-eight non-parochial schools,
conducted by eighty teachers, and attended by a
maximum of 2,849 scholars, and a minimum of
1,526. For the purposes of justice and pofice, the county
)s divided into the four districts of Jedburgh, Kelso,
Melrose, and Hawick, in each of which justice-of-
peace courts are held quarterly, or as often as re
quisite. The sheriff-court for the county, and the
commissary-court, are held weekly during sessions.
The only royal burgh is Jedburgh, the county-town,
and the seat of the assize-court for both Roxburgh
shire and adjacent counties. The towns are Kelso,
Hawick, Melrose, and part of Galashiels. The larger
villages are Castletown, Lessudden, Yetholm, Den-
holm, Darnick, Gattonside, Morebattle, Ancrum, and
Roxburgh. The smaller villages and hamlets are
few, and in general obscure. The chief country-seats
are Fleurs-castle, the Duke of Roxburgh ; Mount-
Teviot, the Marquis of Lothian ; Minto house, the
Earl of Minto ; the Pavilion, Lord Somerville ;
Stobs-castle and Wells, Sir William F. Eliott ; An-
crum-house. Sir William Scott ; Springwood-park,
Sir George Henry Scott Douglas; Makerston-house,
Sir T. B. Mackdougal; Abbotsford, Sir Walter
Scott ; Edgerston, Rutherford, Esq. ; Cavers, Dou
glas, Esq. ; Chesters, Ogilvie, Esq. ; Drygrange,
Tod, Esq. ; EUdon-hall, Henderson, Esq. ; and Rid
del-house, Sprott, Esq. The valued rent, in 1674,
was £314,663 Scottish, — probably greater in pro
portion to the extent of the area, than that of any
other county in Scotland. The annual value of real
property, as assessed in 1815, was £254,180. The
parliamentary constituency, in 1838, was 2,045.
Population, in 1801, 33,712; in 1811, 37,230; in
1821, 40,892; in 1831, 43,663. Houses, in 1831,
6,732; families 8,930. In 1841, tiie population
amounted to 46,003 ; inhabited houses 8,662.
At the commencement of the Christian era, the
western and greater part of Roxburghshire was com
prehended within the territory of the Gadeni, and
the eastern, and lesser part within that of the Otta-
dini. At the period of Agricola's invasion, both dis
tricts feU before the Roman power, and afterwards
became incorporated with the Roman province of
Valentia; and, after the Roman abdication, they,
for a short time, shared the flickering independence
of the eastern Romanized Britons, and then speedily
settled down into a section of the kingdom of North
umbria, retaining but partially the influence of their
ancient people, and acknowledging the ascendency
and the sway of the foreign race of Saxons. The
•- Sassenach,' though elsewhere, except iri Ber
wickshire and Lothian, unknown in Scotland for
many generations later, settled here during the
6th century, and perhaps as early as the 5th ; and
they have perpetuated the earliness as well as the
power, of their ascendency in the facts — so differ
ent from what usually occurs in other Scottish
counties  that, in many of the few instances in
which British or Scoto-Irish names of places sur
vive, they are pleonastically combined with Scoto-
Saxon words of radically the same import, and that
the vast majority of terms in the existing topo
graphical nomenclature of the county are Scoto-
Saxon, in the modern forms, or in plain English.
The Scoto-Irish appear to have made some settle
ments within the district ; but are traceable, more
by the flickering light of a few local names which
they may be presumed to have imposed, than by
physical monuments, or still less by the details of
record. As part of the Northumbrian ^ingdom,
and bearing, in common with Lothian, the name of
Saxonia, Roxburghshire was invaded and wasted
by Kenneth, the conqueror of the Picts. The Scoto^

Saxon people remained, though the sovereignty was
ceded to a new master; and, whatever modifica
tions their institutions and customs may have un
dergone by the abrasion of foreign influence, they
prevailed, and remained permanently settled, through
ihe ample extent of the county, under the children
of Malcolm Canmore. At the demise of Edgar, in
1107, Roxburghshire, in common with many lands in
the southern and western districts of Scotland,
passed to Earl David as his appanage ; and, over
almost the whole of its extent, it was, not so much
in legal fiction as in absolute fact, the property of
David as its sovereign lord. Though Teviotdale had
probably become, at that time, a dependency of the
bishopric of Durham, yet in no part of its extensive
territory do the monks appear to have acquired al
most any temporal possession. When David suc
ceeded to the throne, he ruled the county not as a
lordship, but as part of his kingdom, and perma
nently re-annexed it to the dominion of the crown ;
but, giving full scope to that love of pompous retinue
and that engrossing devotion to the Romish priest
craft, which procured him, from sycophantish and
monk- ridden ages, the doubtful praises of being the
most munificent and the most saintly of the Scottish
kings, he almost revolutionized the territory by pro
fuse and numerous grants of its lands as manors of
embryo barons, and granges of monastic communi
ties. The Morvilles, the Soulses, the Corbetts, the
Riddells, the Comyns, the Olifards, the Percys, the
Berkeleys, and the Vesseys — all followers of David
from England — were admitted to the possession of
extensive domains, and established upon them con
siderable families. The monasteries of Melrose,
Kelso, and Jedburgh, all founded by David, appear,
from the chartularies, to have had lavished on them
the amassings of his princely wealth, to have been
crowded with his vassals, and to have constituted
actual colonies of a foreign or new people. Before
the demise of William the Lion, the monks of the
three convents became the ascendant and domineer
ing proprietors of the county, and, so far as regarded
mere physical well-being, the wisest and most bene
ficent occupants of its soil; but, as respected the
elements of social and moral well-being, and all the
influences which bore upon the moulding of future
manners, and the destiny of future generations, the
showy and deceptive yet assured curse of the whole
people. Further historical notices of the county are
almost all identical with those which have been given
of Roxburgh-castle, and need not be repeated.
Sepulchral tumuli of the earliest colonists, and
various classes of monuments connected with their
ancient worship, are too numerous for separate men
tion except in our articles on the parishes. The
whole extent of the county, as it was by nature
strong from its heights and its recesses, appears to
have been, in the earliest times, the bloody scene of
many conflicts. The great peninsula formed by the
Tweed and the Teviot, as is obvious from many re
mains, was once full of military works, constructed,
in some instances, by the earliest Britons, in some
by their descendants, in some by the Romans, and in
some by later occupants. The Eildon-hills and
Cauldshiels-hill, in particular, were strong fortified
central points, first of the Britons and afterwards of
the Romans. The heights of Rowchester, Kippilaw,
and Blackchester also were the sites of strengths
successively of the aboriginal Britons, the Romans,
and the Romanized Britons; and they were con
nected with another. Or with the Eildon and the
Cauldshiels fortifications, by works which have oc
casionally been mistaken for Roman roads, but which
bear a strong resemblance to the Catrail, and which,
like that work, were constructed by. the Romanized

ROX

624

RUB

Britons, and intended by them as barriers against
Saxon invasion. British strengths occur in various lo
calities. The most stupendous work of the Britons
was the Catrall ; and the most interesting Roman
remain is the great road called Watling-street :, see
these articles. A Roman road, bearing the modern
name of the Wheel Causeway, possibly went off from
Watling-street to traverse Upper Teviotdale, and, at
all events, traversed the north-east corner of Liddes
dale, and left Scotland at Deadwater to pass on,
under the modern name of the Maidenway, through
Severus' wall, to the Maiden-castle on Stanmore, in
Westmoreland  The most ancient remains of the
Saxons are the religious or Culdean-house of Old
Melrose, or rather its successor, Red-abbey near
Newstead ; and the church of Old Jedburgh, found
ed in the 9th century, by Bishop Eccrede. But the
early Saxons of this shire have transmitted to pos
terity very scanty monuments of their civil polity,
and still scantier of their miUtary actions. Few of
the castles which exist in ruin and nod to the ground,
and which are regarded by superficial inquirers as the
only objects of antiquarian research, belong to either
a high or an interesting antiquity. They were all
erected on homogeneous plans, with similar mate
rials, and with a view to security rather than to
comfort, — built of " lyme and stane," after the ac
cession of Bruce, during ages of civil anarchy and
wasteful wars ; and, whether larger or less, may,
when compared with British forts and Roman sta
tions, and ancient ways, be considered as modern
antiquities, the wonders of ignorance, rather than
the curiosities of knowledge. The earliest and most
interesting castles are those, respectively quite ex
tinct, and only vestigeable, of Jedburgh and Rox
burgh. The next in antiquity are the extinct one
of Clintwood, which imposed first on the neighbour
ing viUage, and next on all Liddesdale, the name of
Castletown ; and the surviving, conservated, and
partly modernized one of Hermitage. Peel -houses
succeeded ; but, excepting that of Hudhouse, they
all lie in ihe ruins of time. Strongholds of more
modern erection, and more dignified cast, figured in
the Border conflicts, and were the scenes of coarse
hilarity, and rude, and often lawless enterprise ; yet,
unless when poetry has painted them on the slides of
its magic lantern, and flung over them airs and tints
of witchery, they rarely possess any interesting as
sociation. Impervious fastnesses lined the strong
banks of Oxnam-water, and furnished a place of ren
dezvous for the Border-warrior when menaced by
the English foemen ; and, as they aggregately bore
the name of Henwood, they gave rise to the war-
cry, " A Henwoody ! a Henwoody ! " which made
every heart burn with ardour, every hand grasp a
weapon, and every foot hasten to the rendezvous.*
So early as the commencement of the Scoto-Saxon
period, and up to the disastrous date of the Maid of
Norway's death, Roxburgh was a sheriffdom. Ed
ward I., after he had by intrigue and violence ob
tained direct dominion over Scotland, seems to have
considered this frontier county as his own; and,
when he settled the affairs of the kingdom, by his
famous ordinance of 1305, he appointed — as we have
seen — a custodier of the castles of Roxburgh and
* The strengths, more or less entire, which now bear the
name of Peels, are Graden, Harden, Prickinghaugh, White-
haugh, Hillhouse, Riccarton, Mangerton, Puddingburn, and
some others. Those which bear the name of Towers, are
Mosb, Woodden, Ormiston, Gateshaw, Dolphinston, Moss.
buruford, Crag-Loph, Newton, Fulton, Minto, Hassendean,
Nisbet, Roxburgh, Bromhouse, Littledean, Darnick, Calms-
lee, and Smailholm ; and those which bear the name of Castles,
are Roxburgh, Hermitage, Cessford, Eckford, Whitton,
Cocklaw, Crailing, Bonjedworth, Edgarston, Fernihirst, Bed-
rnle, Rew, Comers, Fast, Castleweary, Goldieland, Branx-
holm, and Halydean.

Jedburgh, and governor, by military regime, of the
whole shire. As soon as the genius of Bruce had
achieved the kingdom's independence, Roxburghshire
began to enjoy for a short period its ancient policy of
peaceful times ; but, after the demise of that great
prince, it was claimed in sovereignty by the English
kings, and suffered no little anarchy from their col
lisions with the Scottish crown. In 1334, a sheriff
was set over it by Edward III., and soon after an
antagonist sheriff was appointed by David II. ; and,
during the revolutions of that age, sheriffs continued
to be conflictingly, or alternately, appointed by the
respective monarchs according to the fluctuations and
the replacements of their power. During all the pe
riod of David's captivity, Edward III. nominated she
riffs, and governed as he pleased. As the shire, with
the exception of Roxburgh-castle, was freed from the
yoke of foreign thraldom chiefly by the exertions of
the Douglasses, it afterwards, as to its sheriffship or
administration, generally followed their fortunes. In
1398 the sheriffship of the county and the lands of
Cavers were granted to George, Earl of Angus, who
died in 1402; and having passed tolsobel, Countess
of Mar, they were, without the necessary consent of
the King, transferred by her to tbe Earl of Douglas,
who was then a prisoner in England. Robert III.,
conceiving that they had become escheated by being
disposed of without his consent, and willing to be
stow them as a reward for services, conferred them,
in 1405, on Sir David Fleming of Biggar. But James
Douglas of Balveny, the second son of the Earl
Douglas, soon after assassinated the new sheriff; and
paved the way, amidst the afflictions of the King,
and the subsequent misrule of the Duke of Albany,
for the Douglasses to domineer over the county with
the utmost freedom from control. The sheriffship
of the county was now, with the lands of Cavers,
transferred to Archibald, a bastard son of James, the
second Earl of Douglas ; and it continued in his fa
mily, though probabfy with some interruptions, till
the date of the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions.
Archibald Douglas, brother of Douglas of Cavers,
claimed, in 1747, a compensation of £10,000 for the
sheriffship, and was allowed £1,666 13s. 4d.
ROY (The), a small river in the parish of Kil.
manivaig, Lochaber, Inverness-shire. It rises on
the frontier of Lochaber, at a point where that dis
trict meets Badenoch and Stratherrick, 5 miles east
of the sound end of Loch-Oich; and it runs 16 miles
south-westward to the Spean, near the house of
Keppoch. Over most of its course it runs parallel
with Loch-Lochy, or the line of the Caledonian
canal, at 4 or 5 miles' distance. The vale which it
traverses takes from it the name of Glenroy, and is
well-known to fame for its geognostic phenomena
called 'parallel roads:' See Glenroy. A rising
ground, which bears the name of Mulroy, and is
situated near the mouth of the stream, claims to be
the last recorded feudal battle-field in Scotland.
The laird of Mackintosh, having been refused some
demands which he made on the Macdonnels of Kep
poch as his tenants, marched at the head of his vas
sals to enforce compliance within their own terri
tory ; but he was stubbornly confronted on Mulroy,
and, after a stiff action, was beaten and captured.
RUBERSLAW, a long, rugged, and peaked
hill near the centre of Teviotdale, Roxburghshire.
It is so situated as to belong to all the three parishes
of Hobkirk, Cavers, and Kirkton. Its range, in
elongation, is from south-south-west to north-north
east; and its greatest altitude above sea-level is
1,420 feet. Though rearing its bulk in a rather
boldly tumulated region, it forms, through wide
openings of the general landscape, a conspicuous,
far-seen, and arresting object. It has a bleak and

RUB

625

RUM

stern aspect, and bears more marks of volcanic erup
tion than probably any other hill along the eastern
border; contrasting strongly, in its peaked summit,
its ragged sky-line, the sharp inequalities of its sur
face, and the heathy russet or rocky brown of its
dress, to the green and beautifully curved and dome
like heights of most of the neighbouring Cheviots.
It frequently and in large quantities attracts the
electric fluid, and presides amid thunder-storms of
unusual awfulness or sublimity. Its rocky recesses
and hollow dells were haunts of the persecuted
Covenanters; and, in a place among them where
the celebrated Peden preached to a large assemblage,
not only the spot on which he stood, but the stone
on which he spread the Bible, and which served him
for a pulpit, is still pointed out by tradition.
RUBISLAW, an estate in the immediate neigh
bourhood of Aberdeen, on which the finest granite in
Aberdeenshire is wrought. An exact cube of 1 i inch
each side of the Rubislaw granite required a force
of 24,556 pounds to crush it ; while a similar cube of
Peterhead granite was crushed with 18,936 pounds;
and of Cornish granite, with 14,302 pounds. The
specific gravity of the Rubislaw stone is 2.625. Its
goodness increases the lower it is wrought.
RUCHIL (The), a rivulet in Perthshire, which
rises at the base of Benvoirlich, and traverses Glen-
grachan and Glenartney, the former east-south
eastward, and the latter north-eastward, to the
Earn at the village of Comrie. Its length of course
is about 13 miles. Its tributaries are numerous,
but chiefly mountain-torrents, and individually in
considerable. RUEVAL (Loch), the sound which separates
the islands of North Uist and Benbecula, in the
Outer Hebrides. Though nearly closed at the west
end by the intrusion of an island, it has free com
munication at both ends with the sea, and is impro
perly styled — even in the marine sense — a loch. It
is about 9 miles long from east to west, and has a
mean breadth of about 3 miles; but it is strewn
with such a multitude of islands and islets. — Grimsa,
Flodda, Bent, Broad Isle, Rona, Flota-more, Flota-
beg, and others whose names are scarcely known —
as to be altogether a complicated maze of water.
RULE (The), a rivulet on the southern side of
Teviotdale, Roxburghshire. Nearly at a point
where the parishes of Southdean, Hobkirk, and
Abbotsrule, meet, it is formed by the union of Cat-
lee, Wauchope, and Harrot burns, the first and the
second of which rise within a few hundred yards of
the lofty mountain water-shed which divides Te
viotdale from Liddesdale. The rivulet, under the
name of the Rule, runs due north to the Teviot
about 2 miles below Denholm ; and, in its progress,
divides the parishes of Hobkirk and Cavers on the
west, from those of Abbotsrule and Bedrule on the
east. Its length of course, exclusive of windings,
and measured from the head of Wauchope-burn, is
between 12 and 13 miles. Its channel, for a chief
part of the way, is a deep gullet through sandstone,
worn by the erosion of the stream, and overhung on
the sides hy copse.
" Between red ezlar banks, that frightful scowl
Fringed with gray hazel, roars the mining Rowll. "
l.EVDEN.
The Rule has the repute of being an excellent trout-
ing-stream. RULLION-GREEN. See Glencross.
RUM, an island of the Hebrides, 5 miles north
west of Eig, 16 north of Ardnamurchan-point, and
18A north-west of the nearest part of Moydart. Its
length from north to south is about 8 miles; its
breadth from east to west is about 7 miles ; and its
superficial extent is about 22,000 acres. Its shores
II.

are rough and dangerous, its surface is a trackless
upland wilderness, and its climate is an almost pe
rennial series of storms, fogs, and rain. It consists
of an irregular mass of mountainous heights, without
plains, and scarcely diversified by a single interven
ing valley. The loftiest heights, called Ben-More,
Halival, and Haiskeval, rise on the east, attain an
altitude above sea-level of nearly 2,300 feet, and are
almost perpetually involved in mist ; the heights
next in bulk and elevation occupy the west, and
send up one of their summits — that of Oreval — to
an altitude of 1,798 feet; and the least lofty sum
mits rise on the north, and send away comparatively
gentle declivities toward the shore. As the island
forms the only high land between tbe mountains of
Skye and those of JMull, both of which are noted for
precipitating torrents of rain on the country around
them, it necessarily attracts a vast proportion of
humidity, and saturates its surface into moorishness
and unprofitable waste. Around the peaks of its
mist-clad heights may often be seen the meteorolo
gical phenomenon so common in St. Kilda, — that
appearance in the clouds which is termed parasitical.
Owing to the humidity of the climate, and favour
ableness of rock for the formation of springs, the
island has some perennial springs which are of great
magnitude compared to the extent of the country.
The two largest almost meet from the opposite hills
at the little hamlet of Harris ; and, occasionally rag
ing and tumultuous like the torrents of higher lands,
"they have brought down near the hamlet an enor
mous accumulation of stones, and formed it into a
great terrace. The east side of the island, at a
point a little north of the middle, is indented to the
length of IA mile, and mean breadth of upwards of
1 mile, by an arm of the sea called Loch-Scresort.
From this bay to Giurdil on the north side, the coast
consists of low rocks and moderately elevated cliffs,
with occasionally a small beach in front ; and else
where, it consists of high cliffs, which, in some
places, attain apparently an elevation of 400 feet,
and which, all round the west, are almost incessantly
buffeted by a rolling swell from the Atlantic. Rum,
in every economical point of view, is of less value
proportionately to its extent than almost any other
of the Hebrides; it even refuses to hold, on its
steep and weather-beaten shores, the marine vege
tables which produce kelp, so long the staple com
modity of the western islands ; and it is all in the
hands of one large tenant. The geognosy and the
mineralogy of the island, however, are possessed of
much interest. None of the schistose strata superior
to the old red sandstone, and its shales and limestones
were discovered on this island by Dr. Macculloch ;
but on this sandstone basis four rocks of the trap
family repose, two of which are probably of different
dates from the others. Of these, augite rock is the
lowest, and about the most abundant. It consists of
compact felspar and augite, the former occasionally
predominating over the latter, and producing, when
the felspar is glassy, a beautiful compound, from the
contrast of the two minerals. We may here notice
the heliotrope or bloodstone, as it is called, a com
pound of green earth and chalcedony, for which the
island of Rum is remarkable. Its native repositories
are the partly basaltic and partly amygdaloidal beds
of Scuirmore ; but it is among the fragments on the
beach at its base that the suit of specimens displaying
all the varieties of this mineral are found ; and, on
the same beach, two beautiful kinds of pitchstone, one
black and the other olive-green, also occur in detached
masses. Pale onyx agates, seldom of much beauty,
are also found among the debris at the base of Scuir
more, along with the heliotrope; the disposition of
both seeming to be in nodules, or in fragments of
2 R

RUM

626

RUT

veins, of various sizes, imbedded both in the amygda
loid and basalt. Dean Munro describes Rum as " ane
forrest of heigh mountains, and abundance of little
deire in it, quhilk deire never be slaine downwith,
but the principall saitts maun be on the height of
the hill, because the deire will be callit upward ay
by the iainchell, or without tainchell they will pass
upward per force." A coppice afforded shelter to
the young fawns from the birds of prey, particularly
from the eagle ; and the deer which stocked the
island were, in consequence, numerous. But the
deer were dependent on the wood, and, when that
was destroyed, they disappeared. The island, in
allusion to its once having been a vast forest, is said
to be still called by the inhabitants Rioghacd na For-
raiste Fiadhaich, ' the Kingdom of the wild forest.'
Population, in 1764, 304; in 1811, nearly 350; in
1836, 120, all belonging to the Establishment. The
inhabitants, according to Dr. Johnson, "continued
Papists for some time after the Laird became a Pro
testant. Their adherence to their old religion was
strengthened by the countenance of the Laird's sis
ter, a zealous Romanist, till one Sunday as they
were going to mass under the conduct of their pa
troness, Maclean met them on the way, gave one of
them a blow on the head with a yellow stick — I
suppose a cane, for which the Earse had no name —
and drove them to the kirk, from which they have
never since departed. Since the use of this method
of conversion, the inhabitants of Eigg, and Canna,
who continue Papists, call the Protestantism of
Rum, the religion of the Yellow Stick." Rum is
in the parish of Small Isles : which see.
RUMBLING. BRIDGE. See articles The Bran,
and The Devon.
RUSKIE, See Port-of-Monteith.
RUSTORE, a promontory in the parish of As
synt, on the west coast of Sutherlandshire. It is
the most westerly land in the county, and projects
between the openings of Loch-Assynt and Loch-
Inver. An ancient chapel stood on the promontory,
said to have been built, along with two others, by
Angus Macleod, the great-grandson of the first Mac
leod, Laird of Assynt, in penance prescribed to him
at Rome.
RUTHERFORD. See Maxton.
RUTHERGLEN, a small parish in the Lower
Ward of the county of Lanark, containing a royal
burgh of the same name, from which the landward
part is understood to have received its appellation.
It extends along the south bank of the river Clyde,
immediately above the city of Glasgow; 3 miles in
length by 1} in breadth. It is bounded by the Clyde
on the north; the parish of Govan on the west;
Cathcart on the south-west; Carmunnock *on the
south ; and Cambuslang on the east. The whole
superficies of the parish is arable, and in general
well-enclosed. It occupies a very pleasant position
in the vale of Clyde, forming the lower portion of
the declivity of Cathkin hills, and is beautifully di
versified with a regular succession of small hills and
narrow dales; excepting next the river, where it
forms itself into some very delightful and fertile
plains. Rutherglen has long been celebrated for the
spirited manner in which its agricultural operations
are conducted. This parish was one of the first which
witnessed an improvement in the most important
implement of husbandry, and for many years the
' Rutherglen ploughs ' were celebrated all over the
West country. They were first made in the parish
about a century ago, and, according to Lord Kames,
must have been among the first improved ploughs
made in the northern portion of the kingdom. The
mode of their construction was proposed by Lady
Stewart of Coltness, who, female though she was,

had a masculine head for promoting agricultural
improvement. The name of this parish is also well
known in connection with the superior breed of
West country horses which are reared in it, but still
more from the numbers of the same degree of excel.
lence which are Sold at its fairs. These horses are
appropriately fitted for draught, and their power,
hardihood, and docility, have caused them to be
esteemed over the whole kingdom. They are gen
erally of the Lanark and Carnwath breed, which
was introduced into the country about a century and
half ago. [For further particulars on this head, see
article Lanarkshire.] The parish abounds in
coal, and several mines have long been in full and
prosperous operation, some of them producing a con
siderable quantity of ironstone. In other respects
it is a most industrious locahty, and contains two
printfields, a chemical work, a cotton-mill, an exten
sive Turkey-red dye- work, and a large body of hand-
loom muslin weavers, both in the town and landward
districts, whose shuttles are principally set in mo
tion by the capital of Glasgow manufacturers. The
burgh is the post-town. By the census of 1841 , the po
pulation of the landward portion of the parish is 8r?8.
Assessed property of the parish, as distinct from the
burgh, £4,508. — Rutherglen is situated in the pres
bytery of Glasgow, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr.
Patrons, the magistrates and council, the heritors re
siding in the burgh, the members of tbe kirk-ses
sion, and the proprietors and tenants of the lands of
Shavvfield. Originally the presentation belonged to
the abbots of Paisley ; but subsequent to the Re
formation, it fell into the hands of the Hamiltons of
Eiiestoun, and finally passed into the possession of
Mr. Daniel CampbeU of Shawfield, by whom, in
1724; it was sold to the parties above-named. The
stipend of the parish amounts to £280, but it is
very difficult of collection, from being paid by about
150 heritors, about a third of whom pay less than
5s., and some of them so low as 2d. each. No fewer
than 471 persons voted at a recent election of minis
ter. There is a quoad sacra allocation in the parish
belonging to the West church, which accommodates
800 sitters; and a Relief church, which contains
950 sittings. Jn addition to the burgh or parochial
school, — the emoluments of which are not stated in
Government education returns, — there are 7 or 8
other schools at which the ordinary branches are
taught. There is little of interest in the history of
the parish which does not more properly belong to
the account of the burgh. The old church was
celebrated as being the place in which a peace was
concluded between England and Scotland in Febru
ary, 1297 ; and still more is it remembered in Scot
tish story as the place where the base Sir John
Monteith agreed with the English to betray Wal
lace. In Henry's Life of Wallace this contract is
detailed in the lines beginning 
" A messynger Schir Amar, has gart pass
On to Schir Jhon, and sone a tryst has set
At Ruglan kirk yir twa togydder met,
Yan Wallany said Schir Jhon you know yis thing," &c.
During the progress of the battle of Langside, Queen
Mary occupied a position at a short distance from
Rutherglen ; and Ure in his History thus notices an
incident which then took place:—" About 150 yards
to the south of the main street is a kind of lane,
known by the name of Dins-dykes. A circumstance
which befell the Unfortunate Queen Mary, imme
diately after her forces were routed at the battle of
Langside, has ever since continued to characterize
this place with an indelible mark of opprobrium.
Her majesty during' the battle stood on a rising
ground about a mile from Rutherglen. She no
sooner saw her army defeated than she took her

RUTHERGLEN.

627

precipitate flight to the South. Dins-dykes unfor
tunately lay in her way. Two rustics who were at
that instant cutting grass hard by, seeing her ma
jesty fleeing in haste, rudely attempted to intercept
her, and threatened to cut her in pieces with their
scythes if she presumed to proceed a step further.
Neither beauty, nor even royalty itself, can at all
times secure the unfortunate, when they have to do
with the unfeeling or the revengeful. Relief, how-
- ever, was at hand; and her majesty proceeded in
her flight."
Rutherglen, vulgarly pronounced Ruglen, a royal
burgh in the above parish, and in the Lower ward of
the county of Lanark. It is situated on the south
bank of the Clyde. Hamilton of Wishaw thus quaintly
and truthfully describes its position : — " It lyes in a
pleasant and fertile soill, near to the river of Clyde,
about 2 miles above Glasgow; it hath had very little
trade for some ages past, because Glasgow lyes be
tween it and the sea, and that all merchandising men
of any metall goe to dwell there. It hath ane pleas
ant green upon the river of Clyde, belonging to the
town in commonty." In having outlived its former
importance, Rutherglen is only in the position of
many other of the old quiet rural burghs of Scot
land. It no doubt owed its existence as a munici
pality to its castle, which, in the olden time, when
might was right, attached no small degree of dignity
to the locaUty in which it was situated. So early
as 1 126 at least, it was erected into a free burgb, as
appears from a supplication to the Scottish parlia
ment in 1661, wherein it is stated to have obtained
a charter from King David I. in that year ; and it
cannot now be ascertained whether that charter was
the original foundation of the burgh, or only a re
newal of some former grant. This charter of King
David has been lost, but it is referred to in one of
Robert I., dated 20th April, 1324. The burgh re
ceived various other grants from different kings of
Scotland, including Robert II., James V., James
VI., and Charles I. The charter of James VI. is
the most detailed in its provisions, and confirms and
confers important burghai privileges to the citizens.
It contains a description of the then property of the
burgh, and grants power to elect a provost, bailies,
dean-of-guild, treasurer, and all other magistrates,
with the usual hberties and privileges pertaining to
royal burghs, such as holding markets, fairs, &c. It
is not a little curious that the city of Glasgow was
at one time comprehended within the original limits
of the burgh of Rutherglen ; and it was only by a
petition presented to the throne that Alexander II.,
in the year 1226, abridged its powers, so far as they
referred to Glasgow. At this early date Ruther
glen, besides being a place of considerable strength,
appears to have been, at the date of its erection into
a royal burgh, the only trading and commercial town
in the west part of the country ; and as Glasgow at
the same time only consisted of a few clergymen's
houses clustered around the cathedral, the former
was no doubt regarded as the most important and
enterprising of the two.* The constitution of the
* The following curious note appears in Ure'B History of
Rutherglen : — " Tlie existence of Rutherglen, as a considerable
town, prior to the buildingof the cathedral itself, appears from
the following traditional account universally known in tins
part of the country : — It is told that when the High Church
was beginning to be built, a passage below ground was made
between it and the church of Rutlierglen, and that the Picts
or Peeha, as they are vulgarly— but perhaps more properly-
called, came from Rutherglen through this hidden way every
morning, and returned at night, all the time the church was
building. Although the subterraueous passage is, like Dteda-
lus' wings, undoubtedly fabulous, yet the story is, like his, not
destitute of meaning, lt shows that Rutherglen was the only
place in the neighbourhood wherethe workmen could find, at
th it time, proper victuals, and accommodations for themselves.
Every thing uncommon, as the building of the High Church
was, and the crowds of artists employed in the work, raised.

burgh of Rutherglen was similar to those of the
other royal burghs in Scotland down to the year
1670; but a change was then made hy which the
community obtained greater power in the choice of
the magistrates and council than was enjoyed in any
of the other burghs ; inasmuch as it was declared,
that in the new sett then granted to the,burgh, that
the town-council should consist of 15 persons, 11 of
whom should be chosen out of leets presented bythe
four incorporated trades, and the other four out of a
list presented by " the remanent burgesses, inhabi
tants within the said burgh and territory thereof
bearing scot and lot within the same ; and that in
choosing the magistrates, viz. the provost and the
bailies, 30 persons should be added to the council
by the council itself, to have a vote along with them
in such choice." This comparatively liberal system
existed down till the passing of the Reform bill, and
in the old ' close time,' the superior freedom and
privileges of Rutherglen were frequently regarded
with invidious feelings by the other burghs. Accord
ing to the report of the Government Commission
ers in 1833, the total property of the burgh amounted
to about £10,000 in value, producing more than £400
per annum, the principal item in its resources con
sisting of the town-green, extending to 32 acres of
arable land. Rutherglen consists principally of one
main line of street, with several diverging lines, and
notwithstanding its vicinity to Glasgow, its appear
ance is decidedly rural, the principal part of its in
habitants being weavers, colliers, or workers em
ployed in the print-fields and other public works in
the neighbourhood. Population of the town and
parish, in 1801, 2,437; in 1811, 3,529; in 1821,
4,640 ; in 1831, 5,503. At the last census of 1841,
there were 6,510, with 1,289 inhabited houses. In
the olden time Rutherglen Was privileged to send a
member to the Scottish parliament, whose expenses
were paid at the rate of 3s. Scots per diem during
his attendance there. At the Union in 1707, it hid
an equal share with Glasgow, Renfrew, and Dum
barton, in sending a representative to parliament;
and since the passing of the Reform bill, it has been
associated for the same purpose with Kilmarnock, '
Dumbarton, Port-Glasgow, and Renfrew. The
constituency, in 1841, amounted to 170. Ruther
glen formerly gave the title of Earl to one of the
Hamilton family, and latterly it passed into the
house of Queensberry, and expired with the last
Duke of that name in 1810.
In times that have passed away, Rutherglen, no
doubt, owed a very considerable share of its impor
tance to its castle, which was long considered one of
the ancient fortresses of the kingdom. In the strug
gle between Bruce and Baliol, it fell into the hands
of the English, and was besieged by Bruce in 1309,
on which occasion the English king sent his nephew,
the ' young Earl of Gloucester, to the rescue of the
garrison, but with what success is not very distinctly
stated in history. The castle was kept in good
repair till a short time after the battle of Langside,
when it was burnt by orders of the Regent Moray,
from revenge on the family of Hamilton, in whose
custody it then remained. One of the principal
towers was, however, soon repaired, and being en
larged, became the seat of the Hamiltons, lairds of
Shawfield ; but on the decline of this family, about
140 years since, it fell into decay, and was soon
levelled with the ground. Like almost every other
town in the west of Scotland, Rutherglen is asso-
the astonishment of the ignorant vulgar. Inc'hantments and
miracles were very plenty in that superstitious age ; heuce
the story of the underground passage, and many other won
ders which.then appeared, and which are, to this day, handed
down by tradition Irom lather to son."

RUT

628

RUT

ciated with the Covenanters. On the 29th May,
1679, the birth and restoration of Charles II. was
celebrated there with all the usual marks of rejoic
ing ; but, in >the midst of the gaiety, a body of about
80 men, who had been incensed ai tbe persecutions
of the government, entered the town, and after hav
ing sung psalms and prayed, and having chosen a
leader, burned the acts of parliament against conven
ticles at the cross. This was the first public appear
ance of the " rising" which was afterwards scattered
at Bothwell bridge; but whether any of the mem
bers of this original gathering belonged to the town
of Rutherglen, is now uncertain. It appears, too,
from the ecclesiastical records, that Ruglen obtained
a degree of unenviable notoriety from being fre
quently under the notice of the presbytery of the
bounds. The presbytery of Glasgow, in 1590, in
structed the doctor of the school of Rutherglen to
desist from reading prayers, and they complained
that those who supplied wine for the sacrament of
the Lord's Supper mixed it with water. In 1593,
the presbytery prohibited the playing of pipes on
Sundays, from sun rising to its going down, on pain
of excommunication, and forbade all pastimes on
Sundays, which prohibition was ordered to be read
in all the kirks, but especially in the kirk of Ruglen.
In 1595, the presbytery transmitted letters to the
bailies of Rutherglen, to stay the profane plays in
troduced in Ruglen on the Lord's-day, "as they
fear the eternal God, and will be answerable to his
kirk." They also complained of the practice of
fishing salmon, and of the colliers in Ruglen settling
their accounts on Sunday.* Rutherglen used long
to be famous for the baking of sour cakes, and the
making of salt roasts, previous to St. Luke's fair ;
but the observance has gone into desuetude. Sour
cream of a peculiar gout used also to be made in the
burgh, and extensively sold into Glasgow, but this
branch of industry has now also almost entirely
passed away.
RUTHVEN, a small parish on the western boun
dary of Forfarshire, situated at the head of the deep
indentation which the county suffers from Perth
shire. It is bounded on the north by Perthshire
and Airly ; on the east and south-east by Airly ; and
in other directions by Perthshire. It is nearly of a
square form, 2 miles deep ; and measures, in area,
about 1,700 acres. Its surface is a gentle southerly
slope, near the foot of the Grampians, and on the
north side of Strathmore ; and is partly bounded and
partly bisected southward by the river Isla. Some
rising grounds locally bear the name of hills and
laws, but are'only knolls and swells. The soil is,
in general, a light hazel mould, on a gravelly bottom,
and produces excellent grain. Agriculture is in an
improved state, and triumphs. Woods, consisting of
natural oaks and of planted fir and other trees, are
extensive and embellishing. Marl mires occur to
the extent of 30 acres. But shell-marl of the finest
quality has been found, not only in these, or under
peat-moss, but beneath sand, and, in one place, be-
* At a later period, the civil authorities appear to have been
no leB8 solicitous to elevate the moral status of those under
their care ; and the following proclamation, by the. magistrates
and council, for restraining the propensities of a drunkard,
may be considered somewhat curious at the present day. lt is
quoted as follows in Ure's history :— 16BB. "The Provest,
Baillies, and Counsell, considdring the frequent drinking and
drunkennes of J  P  , Cowper ; and the severall abuses
committed be him frequentlie; and that no admonitione, nor
punishment, can get hira restrained theirfra. Whalrfor, the
saides Provest, Baillies, and Counsell, doe neirby inhibit, and
discharge, all the brewers and sellers of drink within this
.burgh, that they, nor ane of them, preaume to give or sell any
driuk to the said J  P  , except what they Bell to his wyfe
and bairnes for the use of the howse and family. Under the
Saine of fyve punds money toties quoties, as tliey contravene
einn. And ordaiues iutimatioue to be made heirof be towke
of drum."

neath a bed of pure clay, three feet thick. As much
of this powerfully manurial substance as could be
cast up with one spade in a day, amounting often to
200 bolls, did not, for a long time, cost more than
from Is. 6d. to 2s. Mineral springs are numerous,
and, of different kinds. Tradition, supported by
some monuments, but uncorroborated by history,
points to the northern district of the parish as the
scene of a conflict between the forces of Edward I.
and those of Robert Bruce. A square camp occurs
in the south-west. A knoll, named Candle-hill, was
the site, in feudal times, of the gibbet erected by the
barons of Ruthven. The beautiful modern mansion
of Isla-bank" stands near the site of an ancient cas
tle, which was at one time the seat of the Earls ot
Crawford, and, having become an utter ruin, was
removed in the last century. The parish is bisected
north-eastward by the road from Blairgowrie to
Kirriemuir. Population, in 1801, 211; in 1831,
363. Houses 53. Assessed property, in 1815,
£3,549  -Ruthven is in the presbytery of Meigle,
and synod of Angus and Mearns. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £160 2s. 4d. ; glebe £25. Schoolmaster's
salary £30, with about £12 fees, and 15s. other
emoluments. RUTHVEN (The), a rivulet of the Ochils and
of Strathearn, Perthshire. It rises in the parish of
Blackford, near the house of Gleneagles, and flows
7 miles north-north-eastward, through its natal par
ish and that of Auchterarder, to the Earn, 2j miles
below Kinkell.
RUTHWELL, a parish on the coast of Dumfries
shire ; bounded on the north by Mousewald and
Dalton ; on the east by Cummertrees ; on the south
by the Solway frith ; and on the south-west and
west by the estuary and the stream of the Lochar,
which divide it from Caerlaverock. Its greatest
length from east to west is 5| miles ; its greatest
breadth is 3 miles ; and its superficial extent is be
tween 13 and 14 square miles. The surface, though
slightly rising from the frith, and enjoying, in a
sense, a southern exposure, is low, flat, and exceed
ingly tame, and nowhere attains an elevation of 100
feet above sea-level. Green ground or merse, nearly
as level as a bowling-green, and consisting of a
hardened silt or clayey sand, forms all the southern
district, and, in consequence of the recession of the
sea, extends about a mile in breadth over what,
within lessthan.a century ago, was a bare sandy sea
bed. This dull expanse, besides having no scenic
attractions of its own, lifts the spectator so very
slenderly above sea-level, that, during the long ebb
of the far-receding Solway, the region which that
extraordinary tide alternately scours with careering
invasion and totally abandons, stretches away before
him in the horizon in one monotonous sheet of sand,
an absolute wilderness, unrelieved by even a flutter
of its own minerals in an eddying wind. About
1,400 acres on the west are the unreclaimed section
of Lochar-Moss [which see] ; and though of no
other present use than to furnish the parishioners
with fuel, rest, through an interval of bog, upon a
beautiful clayey soil, and, even at the surface, are
not quite irreclaimable. The arable grounds amount
to between 5,000 and 6,000 acres ; and the lands
under wood, to upwards of 500. The soil north of
the coast district is, in general, a gravelly vegetable
mould, tolerably productive. Shell-marl occurs, but
not in a position to be compensatingly removed.
Limestone is the prevailing rock ; but it is poor in
its per centage of carbonate, and has ceased to be
worked. Many of the inhabitants were long used
to collect the superficial sand impregnated with salt
on the beach, to wash out and filter the salt through
a pit, and to boil the water of the wash and eiifiltra-

RUT

629

RYE

tion, so as to produce a coarse culinary salt ; and,
having been seen at work by James VI. on his way
to England in 1617, they received from him, as an
expression of his pedantic admiration of their rough
ingenuity, an immunity from taxation, and, in con
sequence, were regularly exempted from payment of
salt duties to the Union, and induced, very boot-
lessly, to prosecute their rude manufacture. The
village of Ruth well stands in the middle of the east
ern district, 6.V miles west of Annan, and 10J south
east of Dumfries. It was formerly a long, strag
gling, decayed, disagreeable place ; but was rebuilt
about the beginning of the present century by the
Earl of Mansfield, and consists of a double row, or
two-sided street, of fair-looking houses. In 1509,
it was erected into a burgh-of-barony, in favour of
Sir John Murray of Cockpool, and acquired the pri
vilege of holding fairs and markets ; but it has for
gotten all its burghai honours, and is a place of
neither trade nor manufacture. Population, nearly
200. Brow, a mile to the west, of it, and at the
entrance of the estuary of the Lochar, is a miserable
decayed watering-place ; never better than a shabby
huddle of mean houses, and now the mere wreck of
a mouldering hamlet. Yet the place figures in the
former fame of a chalybeate, whose virtues have
come to be at a discount, and in the doleful cele
brity of having been the last haunt of the poet
Burns, in a vain quest after means of restoring his
shattered constitution. The poor cottage in which
the bard temporarily resided is still pointed out; and
also a stone-table, at which the celebrated Earl of
Mansfield, and his father, Lord Stormont, drank on
the eve of the former's departure to commence his
brilliant career at the English bar. Another village,
called Clarencefield, originated about the commence
ment of the century, in an attempt to work the
limestone of the parish. It is situated f of a mile
north-west of Ruthwell, and has about 100 inhabit
ants. Comlongan-castLe, the property of the Earl
of Mansfield, situated nearly in the centre of the
parish, and now quite ruinous in the interior, was a
place of considerable strength before the Union, and
was, for many ages, the residence of the Murrays of
Cockpool, — a family of great eminence in Annandale,
and occasionally warders of the western border.
The building is a quadrangle, measuring 60 feet along
each side, and 90 feet in height; and has walls so
thick, as to bear being imperforated with smaU
apartments. Vestiges of another old castle, like
wise a seat of the Murrays, exist at Cockpool, half-
a-mile from Comlongan  The grand antiquity of
the place is a Runic monument, which appears to
have been 18 feet high, and is highly ornamented in
basso-relievo with religious sculpturings, and bears
various Runic and Latin inscriptions. Drawings of
it are given in Gordon's ' Itinerarium Septentrionale,'
in Pennant's Tour, and, with great clearness, in the
New Statistical Account, — accompanied in the last
of these works with a lengthened dissertation by the
parish minister, the well-known Dr. Henry Duncan.
The south road between Dumfries and Annan passes
through the parish. Population, in 1801,996; in
1831, 1,216. Houses 207. Assessed property, in
1815, £4,665. — Ruthwell, anciently a rectory in the
deanery of Annandale, is in the presbytery of Annan,
and synod of Dumfries. Patron, the Earl of Mans
field. Stipend £262 18s. 10d.; glebe £60. There
are two parochial schools and a dame school. Salary
of the first parochial schoolmaster, who has an as

sistant, £34 4s. 4id., with £30 10s. 4d. fees; of the
second £8 lis. ljd., with £4 fees.
RYAN (Loch), an indentation of the sea in
Wigtonshire. It strikes off the Irish channel, or
entrance of the frith of Clyde, nearly opposite the
Mull of Kintyre, and projects 10 miles partly be
tween Ayrshire and Wigtonshire, but chiefly into
the interior of the latter, contributing with Luce-
bay, and the intervening isthmus, to separate the
district of the Rhinns from that of the Moors of
Galloway. Over 4£ miles from its entrance, it has
a varying breadth of from IJ to upwards of If mile;
and over the rest of its length, a mean breadth of
about 2J- miles. Its direction inland is toward the
south-south-east. A sand bank called the Scar runs
2j miles diagonally or south-eastward from the mid
dle of the west coast. The loch is a safe and com
modious harbour, of easy access, and so capacious
as to have ample anchorage-room for the largest
fleets. Excellent anchoring-ground occurs over
most of its extent, but particularly opposite the vil
lage of Cairn, at Portmore, and in the bays of Wig,
Soleburn, and Dalmennock. A considerable belt of
sandy bottom along the whole head of the loch is
left dry at low water ; and at nearly the broadest
part of this belt stands Stranraer. A public road is
carried round most part of the shore.— A committee
of the House of Commons on the means of improv
ing the post-office communication betwixt Scotland
and Ireland, reported, in 1839, that Belfast-loch is
evidently the point of departure, on the Irish side,
for the Scotch coast ; while " Loch-Ryan is unques
tionably the natural point on the Scotch coast. It
lies nearly opposite to Belfast-loch, is accessible in
all winds, and at all times of tide, and contiguous to
the present mail-roads. Finnart-bay is tbe station
in that loch to be preferred, being on the north side,
near the sea, and at all times can be gained. The
bay is formed by nature, it only requires to be cleared
out at the bottom, and a cross jetty seaward to be
built, all which would be attended with a trifling
expense ; iand, by making a road of only one-fourth
of a mile, would join the present mail-road from
Port-Patrick to Ayr and Glasgow at the bottom of
Glen-app, and would produce a saving in distance
between Belfast and Glasgow of upwards of 29 miles;
besides, the mail-coach would have the benefit of
the railway from Ayr to Glasgow, a distance of 34
miles, and enable the Irish mail to arrive in Glasgow
so as to be despatched to Edinburgh and the north
of Scotland by the Edinburgh evening mail, which
leaves Glasgow at 10 o'clock at night, and thus save
an entire day in the Irish correspondence. Upon the
same principle, by making a road of from 8 to 10
miles, from the top of Glen-app to join the present
turnpike-road from Barrhill to Newton- Stewart,
where it would unite with the mail-road from Port-
Patrick to Dumfries, it would decrease the distance
from Belfast to Dumfries and the north of England,
upwards of 21 miles, — then the Cairn, Stranraer,
arid Port-Patrick, Would be supplied by a horse-
post from Finnart-bay; and, in like manner, from
Port-Patrick, the intermediate towns of Glenluce
&c, up to Newton-Stewart."
RYE (The), a rivulet of the north-west district
of Cunningham, Ayrshire. It rises near the source ¦
of Gogo-water, in the parish of Largs, and flows
south-south-eastward, through a hilly country, to
the Garnock, at the village of Dairy. Its length ot
course, exclusive of sinuosities, is 7J miles.

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s

SAARTAY, an islet in the sound of Harris. It
measures 5 or 6 furlongs in length, and lies 1 mile
from North Uist, and 3| miles south-west of Bernera.
SADDEL and SKIPNESS,* an united parish on
the east coast of the peninsula of Kintyre, Argyle
shire. It forms a narrow belt of territory along the
lower part of Loch-Fyne and the whole of Kilbran-
don-sound, to a point 8 miles north of Campbell town.
Its extreme length is 25 miles ; its extreme breadth
is 4A miles ; its mean breadth is a little less than 3
miles ; • and its superficial extent is about 70 square
miles. Its surface is, in general, upland and pastoral.
The hills are neither steep, barren, nor rocky ; they
rise regularly and with an easy ascent from the shore ;
they have flat summits, or stretch away into small
table-lands ; and they are generally covered with an
intermixture of grass and heath. The glens all run
from north-west to south-east ; they usually open,
at their lower ends, upon beautiful little bays ; and
they enjoy so great a degree of heat, and such happy
visitations of fertilizing showers, as are highly favour
able to their agriculture. Seven large streamlets —
the largest about 8 or 9 miles in length of course
— and twelve smaller ones, cross the line of road
Which runs along the coast, and are, for the most
part, spanned by convenient bridges. A tourist,
traversing the parish lengthwise along the road, is
presented with a great variety of pleasingly inter
mixed land and sea views, and alternately moves
along a delightful bank overlooking the sea and
Buteshire, and suddenly descends into pleasing woods
and valleys  About a mile from the south end of
the parish, or 9 miles north of Campbelltown, stand
the ruins of Saddel-abbey. The edifice was cruci
form. From east to west it measured 136 feet, by
24 over walls ; and from north to south, or along
the transept, it measured about 78 feet by 24. Upon
an extension of 58 feet from the south end of the
transept a square or quadrangular court of buildings
was constructed to serve. for cloisters. Very little
of any part of the edifice now exists. The establish
ment belonged to monks of the Cistertian order,
and was founded by Somerled, Lord of Kintyre and
of the Isles, who died in 1163, and completed by his
son Reginald. It received from its founder the lands
of Glensaddel and Baltebun in Kintyre, and those
of Casken in tSe island of Arran ; il received from
Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochawe, who, in 1445,
was created Lord Campbell, the abbey -lands of Blair-
antibert in Argyleshire; and, in 1507, it was, with all
its possessions, annexed by James IV. to the bishop
ric of Argyle  Three miles north of the abbey is
Torriedale-castle ; and 1£ mile farther north, and
near a church, a mansion, an inn, and a bridge, which
all bear the name of Caradell, are a vitrified fort and
a large Danish fortalice. The vitrified fort is on an
islet in Caradell-bay, has an elliptical form, and en
closes about a rood of ground. The Danish fortalice
is called the Castle of Aird ; it stands on a high rock
overhanging the sea, and, while naturally inaccessible
on all sides but one, is there defended by a deep broad
ditch. It measures 240 feet in length, and 72 feet in
breadth, but survives only in a part of the outer wall,
• The name Saddel, the Old Statist thinks, alludes to the
abbey of the district, arid is an easy contraction of Sagavrtdail,
* the Plaiu of tbe priests ;' and the name Skipness, he thinks, is
Norse, signifies ' Ship-point,' and probably alludes to the place
having been a station of the Norsemen's fleet when Kintyre
was under their dominion.

which is built with mud, and has been upwards of 6
feet thick and 12 feet high. On almost every point
or projection along the coast are to be seen smaU
Danish forts  Near the north end of the parish stand
the castle and the village of Skipness: see that
article. The mansions are Corsaig-house, the House
of Cour, and Caradell-house, — the last a picturesque
residence with a spacious lawn. The seas along the
coast are part of the finest herring fishing-ground in
Scotland, and are well-plied with boats both from
the united parish and from Arran. Three places on
the coast, or the small bays of Caradell, Sunnadale,
and Skipness, are well-adapted for harbours to accom
modate' vessels of from 15 to 30 tons. Population
of Saddel, in 1801, 799 ; in 1831, 926. Houses 174.
Population of Skipness, in 1801, 968; in 1831 1,226.
Houses 219. Assessed property, in 1815, £5,959 
This parish is in the presbytery of Kintyre, and synod
of Argyle. Patron, the Duke of Argyle. Stipend
£146 9s. 4d. ; glebe £10. There are two parish-
churches, situated in the respective parishes and mu
tually 13 miles distant. Caradell church belongs to
Saddel, and was built about the year 1771. Sittings
354. Claonaig church belongs to Skipness, and was
built in 1756. Sittings 288. A small Independent
congregation enjoy, on about fourteen Sabbaths in
the year, the services of one or two ministers of their
connexion ; and, on other Sabbaths, the district of
the united parish, which is vacant for the day, has
the services of an Independent preacher. The po
pulation of the united parish, in 1835, as ascertained
by the elders and stated by the minister, consisted of
2,108 churchmen and 58 dissenters. In 1753 the Qld
parishes of Saddel and Skipness, with a large tract
of country between them, were disjoined from the
parishes of Killean and Kilcalmonel, to which they
had been annexed, and were erected into the present
parish. There are two parochial schools and two
non-parochial ; the former attended, in 1834, by 185
scholars, and the later by 168. Salaries of the par
ochial schoolmasters £51 6s. 8d., with about £8
fees, — both equally divided. The earliest parochial
schoolmaster of the united parish was inducted iu'
1821. ST. ANDREWS. See Andrews (St.)
ST. ANDREW'S and DEERNESS, Orkney.
See Deerness.
ST. ANDREW'S, Dundee. See Dundee.
ST. ANDREW'S, Dunfermline. See Dunferm
line. ST. ANDREW'S, Edinburgh. See Edinburgh.
ST. ANDREW'S, Glasgow. See Glasgow.
ST. ANDREW'S, Greenock. See Greenock.
ST. ANDREW'S, Lhanbryd. See Lhanbryd.
ST. ANN'S, Glasgow. See Glasgow.
ST. BERNARD'S, Edinburgh. See Edinburgh
ST. BOSWELL'S. See Boswell's (St.).
ST. CLEMENT'S, Aberdeen. See Aberdeen.
ST. CLEMENT'S, Dundee. See Dundee.
ST. COLUMBA, Glasgow. See Glasgow.
ST. CUTHBERT'S, Edinburgh. See Edin
burgh, and Cuthbert's (St.).
ST. CYRUS. See Csrus (St.).
ST. DAVID'S, Dundee. See Dundee.
ST. DAVID'S, Glasgow. See Glasgow.
ST. ENOCH'S, Glasgow. See Gla»gow.
ST. FERGUS. See Fergus (St.).
ST. GEORGE'S, Edinburgh, gee Edinburgh.

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ST. GEORGE'S, Glasgow. See Glasgow.
ST. GEORGE'S-IN-THE-FIELDS, Glasgow.
See Glasgow. _
ST. GEORGE'S, Paisley. 'See Paisley.
ST. JAMES'S, Forfar. See Forfar.
ST. JAMES'S, Glasgow. See Glasgow. ,
ST. JOHN'S, Dundee. See Dundee.
ST. JOHN'S, Glasgow. See Glasgow.
ST. JOHN'S, Hamilton. See Hamilton.
ST. JOHN'S, Leith. See Leith.
ST. JOHN'S, Montrose. See Montrose.
ST. LEONARD'S, St. Andrews. See Andrews
(St.). ST. LEONARD'S. Perth. See Perth/
ST. MADOES. See Madoes (St.).
ST. MARK'S, Glasgow. See Glasgow.
ST. MARY'S, Dundee. See Dundee.
ST. MARY'S, Edinburgh. See Edinburgh. •
ST. MARTIN'S and CAMBUSMICHAEL.
See Martin's (St.).
ST. MICHAEL'S. See Cupar-Fife.
ST. MONANCE. See Abercrombie.
ST. MUNGO. See Munco (St.).
ST. NINIAN'S. See Ninian's (St.).
ST. OLAY. See Kirkwall.
ST. PAUL'S, Dundee. See Dundee.
ST. PAUL'S, Glasgow. See Glasgow.
ST. PAUL'S, Perth. See Perth.
ST. PETER'S, Dundee. , See Dundee.
ST. PETER'S, Glasgow. See Glasgow.
ST. QUIVOX. See Quivox (St.).
ST. STEPHEN'S, Edinburgh. See Edinburgh.
ST. STEPHEN'S, Glasgow. See Glasgow.
ST. STEPHEN'S, Perth. See Perth.
ST. THOMAS'S, Glasgow. See Glasgow.
ST. VIGEAN'S. See Vigean's (St.).
SALEN, a quoad sacia parish on the east side of
the island of Mull. It belongs, quoad civilia, to the
parish of Torosay ; and is in the presbytery of Mull
and synod of Argyle. The whole of it is landward.
The parochial place of worship is one of the forty
Government churches. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£120; glebe £3 and a manse. Parochial school
master's salary £5, with bed and board in lieu of
fbes, and no other emoluments whatever. Two
parochial schools of other parishes stand near the
Unfits of Salen.
SALINE, a parish in Fifeshire, on the extreme
boundary of the county, on the west. It is
rather more than 5 miles long from east to west;
and is, at 'the centre, nearly about the same in
breadth from north to south ; but it narrows greatly
at its extremities, and is scarcely more than a mile
in breadth. It is bounded on the south by the par
ish of Carnock ; on the east by DunfermUne ; on the
north by the parish of Cleish, in the county of Kin
ross ; and on the west by the counties of Clackman
nan and Perth. The eastern part of the parish is
mountainous, rising into a lofty ridge called the
Saline-hills ; while the western portion of it is gen
erally level. The greater part of the soil of the par
ish is a mixture of clay and loam, which, in some
places, is of a fertile nature, capable of rearing abun
dant crops of wheat, pease, or beansi The lighter
soils bear fine crops of oats and barley. In the east
ern division, from its lying high, the rearing of cattle
forms an important portion of the agriculturist's care ;
but here also, in many places, the soil is capable of
bearing abundant crops. The village of Saline is
clean, and extremely picturesque in its appearance.
The houses are very neatly built and white- washed,
and have all small kitchen-gardens or plots of flowers
attached. The population of the parish, in 1801,
was 945; in 1831, 1,139. In 1815 the annual value
of real property for which the parish was assessed

was £3,787 sterling; the valued rent of the parish
is £4,161 Scots  This parish is in the presbytery of
Dunfermline, and synod of Fife. Patron, the Crown,
Stipend £156 17s. 2d.; glebe £15. The parish-
church is a handsome building in the pointed style.
It is seen from a distance in all directions, and adds
considerably to the beauty of the village. The paro
chial school-teacher has the maximum salary.
SALISBURY-CRAGS, a remarkable hill of 574
feet above sea-level, whose western face — a semicir
cular sweep partly of naked rocky precipice and partly
of very rapid earthy declivity — overhangs the south
eastern outskirts of Edinburgh [which see], and is
separated from Arthur's Seat by the Hunting-bog,
a piece of marshy ground about 1,200 feet long and
250 broad, whose surface is about 194 feet above sea-
level. A wild but magnificently positioned path,
which is carried round the base of the rocks along the
brow of the bold and smooth descent of earth, com
mands most' superb views of the urban landscape of the
metropolis, and the broad rich framework of country
in which it lies : see Arthur's Seat. The broad
columnar belt of precipice round the summit of the
eminence — a belt which looks, in the distance, like
a zone of dark crystals, or a plain zone set all over
with dark gems, and which procured for the hill its
plural name of Crags — forms a romantic and quite a
unique feature in the gorgeous scenery of Edinburgh;
but it was, seventeen years ago, greatly damaged in
the attractions of its south-west front, and — but for
the general cry which rose for its protection — threat
ened with the ruin of nearly all its romance, by be
ing prosaically treated as a common quarry 1 Green
stone, which has been upheaved through strata sur
faced with sandstone and clay, forms the body of the
hill. In places where the sandstone at the base has
been quarried, beautiful specimens have been found
of radiated hsemalites, intermixed with steatites,
green fibrous ore of iron, and calcareous spar, form
ing altogether an uncommon mass. In many parts
of the hill have been found also veins of calcareous
spar, and fine specimens of talc, zeolite, and amethys
tine quartose crystals. It is curious that several
large blocks of the greenstone of which the Crags
are composed are found on Arthur's Seat, at ele
vations of from 80 to 200 feet above the highest point
of the Crags.
SALTCOATS, a considerable little town and
sea-port, partly in the parish of Ardrossan, and partly
in that of Stevenston, Cunningham, Ayrshire. It is
1 mile east of Ardrossan, 4 south-west of Kilwinning,
7 west of Irvine, 13 north-west of Troon, 13 south-
south-east of Largs, 14 west of Kilmarnock, 28
south-south-east of Greenock, 32 south-west of Glas
gow, and 74 west-north-west of Edinburgh. Its
situation is about the middle of the north or north
west side of the long but comparatively slender seg
mentary indentation of the frith of Clyde, which, in
a large sense, is called the bay of Ayr, — on ground
low and level, and commanding a fair sea-view only
from the very lip of the frith,— in the neighbourhood
of sandy bluffs and flat expanses, — and altogether so
characterized as to be redeemed from the most irk
some tameness only by the prospect, across the
waters, of the splendid forms of Arran. In the in
terior, too, the town has so many one-story houses,
and such fields of red tyles along their roofs, and
such deformity and dinginess in the edifices of its
salt-works, and such a prevalence of the most com
mon village aspect in its streets, as to be hardly re
scued from utter unattractiveness by the presence of
a few good public buildings. Two United Secession
places of worship, and a meeting-house belonging to
the Relief, are plain yet sufficiently creditable struc
tures. A Gaelic chapel,, erected in 1836, and eccle,-

SAL

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siastically declared a sort of parish-church, is a neat
little Gothic edifice, with a Saxon doorway and a
small belfry. It stands at the west end of the
town, looking toward Ardrossan, and is surrounded
by an enclosure whose front is decorated with pillars.
The town's branch-office of the Ayrshire Banking
company is a recent and neat erection. The town-
house, begun in 1825, is a two-story building, with
a handsome spire ; and is arranged, in the ground-
floor, into shops, and disposed, in the upper story,
into a lock-up-house, a committee-room, a library-
room, and a large apartment used both as a public
reading-room and as the seat of the justice-of-peace
monthly courts.
Saltcoats is believed, on the authority of tradition,
corroborated by the monumental evidence of con
siderable heaps of ashes, to have been, at a very early
period, the seat of a manufacture of salt. The pris
tine artisans, it is supposed, were poor persons, who
dug up from, very near the surface, as much coal as
was needed for their operations, and made use only
of little pans and kettles, and formed a kind of squat
ting community, whose homes were 'cots' on tbe
shore ; and who thus originated in their little cluster
of ' salt-cots,' both the nucleus and the name of the
future town. Saltcoats was of so much note so early
as the reign of James V. as to be erected by him into
a burgh-of-barony ; and probably it retains no prac
tical trace of its burghai character and privileges
simply on account of having, soon after the receipt
of them, suffered some severe and almost extermi
nating reverse. About the year 1660 it had so greatly
declined as to have only four houses. But in 1684
Sir Robert Cunningham, the inheritor of the whole
parish of Stevenston, and the nephew of the gentle
man of the name who had purchased the estate in
1656, commenced a series of operations which soon
advanced the decayed village, in common with the
district in its vicinity, to a condition of comparative
prosperity : he constructed, at what till that time
was called the Creek of Saltcoats, a harbour which,
for the circumstances of the period, was a work of
some magnitude, and which still continues service
able ; he built several large salt-pans, and placed the
manufacture of salt on an advantageous footing ; and
he opened various coal-pits on his property, and made
the new harbour a place of large export for coal.
The few houses which constituted the village, when
his works were completed, were all low thatched
cots. The first slated house was built in 1703, and
stUl stands in Quay-street, — an object of some in
terest to the inhabitants. The salt manufacture,
after undergoing various fluctuations, has eventually
sustained material and perhaps permanent inj ury by
the repeal of the salt-duties, and the consequent in
troduction of English rock-salt. Instead of seven
salt-pans, which used to be in operation, there are
now only two. A magnesia-work, in connection
with the salt-pans, was the earliest establishment of
its kind in Scotland; and continues to employ a num
ber of workmen, and to prosper. Ship-building has,
at various periods, been vigorously conducted ; and
during the twenty-six years which ended in 1 790, it
produced sixty-four vessels of aggregately 7,095 tons
burthen, and upwards of £70,000 in value; but it
has been singularly fitful, and three or four years ago
looked as if it were totally relinquished. Rope-
making, too, has been a fluctuating trade ; but now
seems, on a small scale at least, to be prospering.
A brewery of long standing prospers. Six or seven
vessels, each of from 20 to 70 or 80 tons, and aggre
gately employingabout fifty persons, go annually to the
North Highland herring-fishing. The domestic fish
ery is comparatively neglected. Much the largest
section of the inhabitants are cotton- weavers, in the

employment of the Glasgow and the Paisley manu
facturers. The fabrics woven are principally gauzes,
lappets, shawls, and trimmings. The number of
looms, including a very few in Ardrossan, was, in
1828, 662; and, in 1838, 572,— all of the latter, ex-
cept six, plain. Many females are employed in mus
lin hand-sewing. The shipping of the town has
greatly declined ; yet it is, in its statistics, so much
mixed up with that of Ardrossan, that it cannot very
easily be estimated. The principal commerce is with
Ireland, and consists in the exchange of coals for
agricultural and dairy produce — Saltcoats, in ad
dition to the places of worship already mentioned,
has two chapels, the one Independent and the other
Baptist; and it has twelve schools, — one of them
parochial, one a free-school for females, and the re
maining ten private. An annual fair — once a scene
of general barter between the Highlands and the
Lowlands, but now principally for Highland cows
and for pigs and lambs — is held on the last Thurs
day of May. Population, in 1821, 3,413 ; in 1831,
3,800. SALTERNESS. See Southerness.
SALTON, or Saltoun, a parish in the western
division of Haddingtonshire. Its form is ellipsoidal,
the longer axis extending north and south, and the
east side twice indented. It is bounded on the
north-west by Pencaitland ; on the north by Glads
muir; on the east by Haddington and Bolton; on
the south and south-west by Humbie ; and on the
west by Ormiston and Pencaitland. Its extreme
length is 3| miles ; its extreme breadth is nearly 3
miles ; and its superficial extent is about 8 square
miles. The highest ground is the Skimmer-hills, a
broad based and flattened elevation, situated nearly
in the centre of the parish, and rising about 600
feet above sea-level. On the south-east and east
this high ground is, in a certain degree, continued
by low uplands ; but on all other sides the surface
falls gradually off to the boundaries, and becomes
lost in levels of very slender altitude. A wood,
which forms nearly a square l1 mile deep, and is
continuous with a forest of similar size in Humbie
[which see], occupies most of the hanging plain on
tlie south. Enclosures of hawthorn, occasionally
mixed with the sweet-brier and the wild rose, fields
in the highest state of cultivation, and rows and
little expanses of trees, render the western and north
ern districts as rich and attractive as almost any in
the beautiful county to which they belong. Salton-
burn and the Tyne, the latter receiving tbe former on
the south-west, circle round all the parish except
the east, the Tyne twice or thrice deviating from
the boundary. Limestone abounds, and is worked,
and coal might probably be found. The soil is very
various, chiefly a deep, rich clay, but also clayey
loam, friable loam, and light sand. Except the area
under wood, and about 150 acres in permanent pas
ture, the whole parish is arable. The village of
East Salton stands on the northern slope of the
Skimmer-hills, on the Lammer muir- road between
Edinburgh and Dunse, and is 5A miles south-west of
Haddington, and 18 east-south-east of Edinburgh.
Population 275. West Salton is situated about a
mile to the west, and not far from the Tyne. Po
pulation 190 — Salton-hall, a mile north ot the latter
viUage, and the seat of the Fletchers of Salton, was
formerly a fortified residence of considerable strength;
but it has been modernized and highly improved 
Hermandston, IA mUe north-east of the latter, and
the seat of Lord Sinclair, is an ancient but habitable
edifice — The celebrated Burnet, bishop of Salisbury,
was rector of this parish from 1665 till 1669, and
distinguished himself by his pastoral assiduity ; he
was called away from his charge to fill the theolo-

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gical chair of the university of Glasgow ; and when
he rose to dignity and wealth, he bequeathed 20,000
merks for the benefit of Salton, to be applied in
erecting and partially endowing a new school-house,
in enlarging a library for the use of the parochial
incumbent, in clothing and educating 30 poor chil
dren, and in relieving the necessities of the parochial
poor. The children who continue to reap the fruits
of his bequest are popularly called ' bishops,' and
occupy in the church a gallery, which bears the name
of ' the bishop's laft.' Andrew Fletcher, the intre
pid and patriotic, though mistaken and republican
opponent of the national Union, and the liberal
benefactor of his country in the departments of
agriculture and manufacturing industry, was born in
Salton in 1653, and, as to all of him which was mor
tal, lies interred in the family-vault below tbe aisle
of the parish-church. In 1710 he went to Holland,
where he had formerly, for some time, resided, and
took with him James Meikle, a man of considerable
skill in the mechanics of the age, and the father of
Andrew Meikle, inventor of the thrashing-machine,
both of whom were natives of the parish; and aided
by these men, and by models of machinery which he
and the elder Meikle brought with them on their
return, he introduced the manufacture of decorti
cated barley, the cleaning of corn with fanners, and
the art of weaving and bleaching Holland-cloth.
Andrew Fletcher, the nephew of the patriot, but
better known as Lord Milion, was born in the par
ish in 1692; and while he held, in trying times, the
elevated situation of Lord-justice-clerk, he found
leisure, in 1750, to establish in the parish the first
bleachfield belonging to the British Linen company.
Patrick Scougall, who became bishop of Aberdeen in
1664, was incumbent of the parish during the five
years which preceded his being mitred. Henry
ScougaU, his son, and the devout and amiable author
of the well-known treatise, entitled ' The Life of
God in the Soul of Man,' was born in the manse in
1660; he became professor of philosophy at Aber
deen when only 19; he was raised to the chair of
theology in King's-college when only 29 ; and he
terminated his bright and balmy and odoriferous
career at the early age of 38. The barley-mill,
built by Fletcher, was the only one in Britain for
40 years, and long sent out highly estimated sup
plies of ' Salton ' or ' pot ' barley ; but it has been
diverted from its uses, and is not locally honoured
with a successor. The fanners, introduced by the
same benefactor, were peculiar to the parish nearly
as long as the barley-mill ; but have long since lost
all distinctive connection with the district. The
bleachfield, established by Lord Milton, was spiritedly
conducted while he lived, and at one time employed
upwards of 100 persons ; but it has passed away, and
left not a vestige of memorial. A paper-mill and a
starch-work, which, at the date of the Old Statis
tical Account, employed 16 persons, have also dis
appeared. A brick and tile work, employing 6 or 7
workmen, is the only existing manufactory. A
Salton agricultural society, which worked with
vigour, and diffused not a few benefits, is now in
corporated with the ' East Lothian United Agricul
tural society,' which has its seat in Haddington, but
holds an annual meeting, and superintends an exten
sive cattle-show in Salton on the last Thursday of
May. The parish has two religious and two friendly
societies. Population, in 1801, 786; in 1831, 786.
Houses 158. Assessed property, in 1815, £6,314.
—Salton is in the presbytery of Haddington, and
synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, Fletcher
of Salton. Stipend £271 6s. 10d.; glebe £15.
Unappropriated teinds £12 16s. 5d. Parochial
schoolmaster's salary £34 4s, 4d., with about £33

fees. A non-parochial school is conducted by two
teachers, was attended, in 1834, by 90 scholars, and
is endowed with £20 a-year from Bishop Burnet's
fund, and a house and field bestowed by General
Fletcher Campbell  The church was given by Hugh
de Morville, in the reign of David, to the monks of
Dryburgh, and continued, with slight interruptions,
to belong to them till the Reformation ; and after
wards it was, for a brief period, identified with the
fates of the short-lived bishopric of Edinburgh. The
manor of Salton belonged to the Morvilles and their
successors, the Lords of GaUo way, till forfeited dur
ing the wars of the succession, but was divided by
them, and partially aUenated ; and in the reign of
Alexander III. it belonged to William de Abernethy,
and the progenitor of a family who acquired from it, in
1455, the title of Lord Saltoun, and who are now
represented by Alexander George Fraser, Baron
Saltoun of Abernethy, residing at Philorth-castle in
Aberdeenshire, and Ness-cottage in Inverness-shire.
The estate was acquired in 1643 by Sir Andrew
Fletcher. But while it was yet in the possession
of the MorviUes, the part Of it which forms the
lands of Hermandston was given by Richard Mor
ville to Henry de St. Clair, the ancestor of the Lord
Sinclairs of Hermandston. In the 13th century,
John de St. Clair erected a chapel at Hermandston,
but purchased the consent to his act of the cowled
' fruges consumere nati ' of Dryburgh, by giving them
two acres of land, and an indemnity that his chapel
should not injure the mother-church of Salton.
SAMUELSTON, a village on the southern verge
of the south-easterly projection of the parish of
Gladsmuir, Haddingtonshire. It stands on the left
bank of the Tyne, 3A miles south-west of Hadding
ton, and 5a east of Tranent. It is an irregular,
straggling, dislocated assemblage of smaU houses;
dignified, in its way, by the presence of three farm
steads. It has a saw-mill and two corn-mills ; and
formerly possessed a somewhat large trade in meal.
Population about 200.
SANDA, a small island, at the west side of the
entrance of the frith of Clyde ; 6A miles east by
north of the Mull of Kintyre, 4 miles distant from
Southend, and 9 from Campbelton, in the pen
insula of Kintyre. Its figure is irregular. It mea
sures about 1 .V mile in length, half-a-mile in breadth,
and 3 miles in circumference, and contains about 500
acres. The island figures prominently in history as
the common station of the Scandinavian fleets dur
ing the contests for the possession of Kintyre and
the Hebrides. The small, good natural harbour
which formed the place of rendezvous is still fre
quented by the smaller sorts of vessels which navi
gate the Clyde. It is formed by the main island,
and two adjacent islets, and affords a complete shel
ter to shipping in all kinds of weather. Remains
exist of an ancient chapel which was dedicated to
St. Columba, and of a circumjacent cemetery which
appears to have possessed some fame. Two crosses
of rude design, and various grave-stones survive, — .
some of the latter sculptured with the achievements
of the dead whom they commemorate. The ceme
tery  like most other repositories of the dead
throughout the Highlands — is unenclosed, covered
with weeds and rubbish, mutilated in its grave
stones, defaced in all its minuter features, and aban
doned to neglect, and a ruin which seem to indicate
a total want of right feeling respecting both the, re
membrance of the dead and the anticipation of death.
Seamen, however — who, as a class, are pertinacious
conservators of traditional superstitions — regard the
burying-ground with mysterious fear, and believe
that whoever shall step across the trunk of an alder
tree which lies prostrate in the place, will die before

SAN

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SAN

the termination of the year. Sandstone constitutes
the whole mass of the island, and dips to the south
at from 15 to 20 degrees. Hills are, in consequence,
formed by it of about 300 feet in height ; and, on
some of the shores, they terminate in cliffs of mo
derate elevation. One of the cliffs is perforated into
a very large natural arch, and forms a very pictur
esque object. The island is, for the most part, dis
posed in sheep-walk ; but it abounds in hares and
game, and, with the exception of foreign luxuries,
produces almost everything which a family can re
quire. An excellent bouse stands upon it for its
proprietor. The sound of Sanda abounds in cod,
and affords large periodical supplies of haddocks,
whitings, skate, red cod, mullet, mackerel, and other
fish ; but, during two or three months in the year,
' it is extremely boisterous, and prevents the island
from being approached by a small boat. Aven — a
name which Sanda still occasionally bears — is an ab
breviation of the long and sonorous designation an
ciently given it of Avona Porticosa ; Sanda, how
ever, is the original name, and occurs in Adamnan's
Life of St. Columba. Two islets, called the Sheep
Isle, and Glanamar, lie on the north-east side of
Sanda, and are well-calculated for keeping sheep.
Their united superficies is about 22 acres. A dan -
gerous rock, above a mile in circumference, and bear
ing the name of Paterson's rock, lies about a league
south of Sanda; and, being always covered by flood
tide, and visible at low water, it has endangered
many a vessel.
SANDA, or Sanday, a small island in the Hebri
dean parish of Small Isles, Argyleshire. It lies on
the east side of Canna, and may almost be viewed as
constituting a portion of it, the two being united at
low water by a beach of shell sand ; and it extends
eastward about If mile, with a mean breadth of
about half-a-mile, and is distant 2J miles from Rum.
Its surface, at the end next Canna, is low ; but, to
wards Rum, it rises into gentle elevations, and termi
nates in abrupt cliffs, which are skirted with detached
and considerably high masses of rock. Two rocks,
called Dun-na-Feulan, or the 'Gull rocks,' and situa
ted at a short distance from the cliffs, form some strik
ing combinations withsurroundingobjects, and render
the landscape in which they lie decidedly picturesque.
They are of different magnitudes, but of apparently
the same height, and do not seem to exceed 100
feet in altitude ; and the smallest is thin in pro
portion to its height, and of a steeple-like form,
while the other resembles a huge tower. When
the soaring mountains of Rum are swathed in clouds,
and the boisterous intervening sound is lashed into
rage by a gale of wind, the ' Gull-rocks ' are seen
to a great advantage. A curious phenomenon, and
one which specially invited the attention of geolo
gists, is, that the steeple-like rock consists partly of
conglomerate and parily of trap, divided from each
other, not by a horizontal but hy a vertical plane.
The circumstance is the more curious, that the
same substances are horizontally related to each
other throughout Canna and every other part of
Sanda. The island is valuable for both crop and
pasture ; and, at the date of the Old Statistical Ac
count, had four tenants who held of the proprietor,
and paid about £60 of rent. Between it and Canna
is one of the best harbours in the Hebrides. See
article Canna.
SANDA, or Sanday, one of the most consider
able of the northern division of the Orkney islands.
Its respective nearest points are 2\ miles north of
Stronsay, ]l mile east of 'Eday, 6 J miles east of
Westray, and 2J miles south of North Ronaldshay.
Its form is exceedingly irregular ; and may, in a gen
eral view, be regarded as three large peninsula?, and

two small ones radiating from a common centre. Its
length, from north-east to south-west, is 12 miles ;
but its mean breadth does not exceed ]A mile; and
its superficial extent is not more than 19 square
miles. Excepting a hillocky ridge of 200 or 300
feet in altitude on its west side, the island is ex
tremely flat. Its soil is everywhere light and sandy,
and, when well-manured with sea-weed, produces as
good crops as any which are raised in Orkney. The
flat coasts avert the blight which comes from the sea-
spray on islands with bold and rocky shores' ; and
they afford such a large supply of sea-plants as, on the
one hand, gives a profuse and unrestricted amount of
manure for the arable lands, and, on the other hand,
produces about one-fifth of all the Orcadian kelp.
The farmers are aggregately a superior class to
those of most other Orkney districts ; and, as the
result partly of skilful husbandry, but chiefly of the
natural capabilities of the soil, they raise a consider
able quantity of grain for exportation, or additional
to what is needed for local use. The principal har
bours are Kettletoft on the south-east, and Otters-
wick on the north-east side of the island, opposite
to each other, and both pretty safe and commodious.
The latter — whose name is a corruption of Odins-
wick  penetrates the land, or runs down between
two peninsula;, to the extent of 3J miles, with a
mean breadth of between 1$ and 1J mile ; and it is
traditionally believed to occupy the site of a wooded
plain which was overwhelmed by the sea. Encroach
ments appear evidently to have been made by the
billows; and a complete disseverment across the
isthmus between Otterswick and Kettletoft seems
to be threatened by high tides., The lowness of the
east coast, not only combines with extensive shoals
in the vicinity to render the coast very dangerous
to mariners, but, in a gale of easterly wind, and
during a spring-tide, subjects part of the island to
inundation from the sea. Shipwrecks were, at one
time, distressingly frequent along the east ; but of
late years, they have, in a great measure, been
averted by the erection of a lighthouse on Start
Point,— the extremity of the north-eastern penin
sula. Twelve or thirteen fresh- water lakes, the
largest about 2\ miles in circumference, and two
or three others not much inferior in size, occur
in various localities, but particularly in the north,
and in the peninsula of Burness. Between Kettle
toft and Papa-sound in Stronsay, a distance of 7
miles, is the great herring-fishing station of the
northern Orcadian islands. The fishery at this
place recently gave rise to a village, and, in 1833,
prompted the erection of a considerable pier. A
remarkable granite or gneiss boulder, about 14 tons
in weight, lies on slaty sandstone, near the church
of Burness. On the promontory of Elsness, which
overlooks Papa-sound, the ancient Portsmouth of
Orkney, and commands a very extensive view to
ward the Eastern Ocean, are upwards of twenty
vitrified cairns, supposed by Dr. Hibbert to have
been signal stations of the Norsemen for commu
nicating with their fleets in the sound. The other
antiquities of the island are the ruins of one or
two ancient chapels, and of some considerable Picts
houses. Sanda is ecclesiastically divided into Lady
parish on the north, and the united parish of Cross
and Burness on the south. It has also a meeting
house of -the United Secession. See Cross and
Lady. Population, in 1801, including the island
of North Ronaldshay, 2,148; in 1831, 1,849.
SANDEND, a small sea-port in the parish of
Fordyce, in Banffshire.
SANDERA, a small inhabited island in the dis
trict and parish of Barra, in the Outer Hebrides, In
verness-shire. It lies 3J miles south-west of the

SAN

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main land of Barra, 2i miles nortn-east of Pabba,
and | of a mile south o'f Vatersa ; and is separated
from the last by a strait, called the Sound of San
dera. Though indented in outline, it is not far from
being circular, with a diameter of 1J mile. The
island consists of a single hill of gneiss, and attains
an elevation of about 800 feet. Though, to a cer
tain extent, sheltered from the western swell by the
islets Fladda and Linga, at 1 and If miles' distance,
it is so extensively sheeted and overwhelmed with
drifted calcareous sand as to present the appearance,
at some furlongs or miles' distance, of being covered
with snow. Yet, in spite of its smallness and po
verty, it is inhabited by several families. A very
large Danish ' dun' occurs on the east coast.
SANDHAVEN, a recently erected village, in the
parish of Pitsligo, the property of Sir John Stuart
Forbes, Bart. The harbour of Sandhaven, which
is now completed, is of easy access for vessels and
fishing-boats, is safe, commodious, and free of dues
for every thing connected with the fishing.
SANDNESS, a parish in Shetland, constituting,
with Walls, Papa-stour, and Fowla, a ministry or
united parish : see Walls. It lies on the west side
^of the mainland, and the south coast of St. Magnus
bay. The headland of Sandness, whence the dis
trict has its name, flanks the south side of the en
trance of Papa-sound.
SANDSTING, and AITHSTING, an united
parish nearly in the middle of the mainland of Shet
land. It is bounded on the north-west by Walls ;
on the north by a large inlet of St. Magnus'-bay,
called Swarback's Minn, which divides it from the
island of Mickle Roe ; on the north-east by Delting ;
on the east hy Wiesdale in Tingwall ; and on the
south and south-west by the Atlantic ocean. Its
length from north-north-west to south-south-east
is 10 miles; and its breadth in the opposite direction
is 8 miles. The surface is almost everywhere hil
locky, neither attaining any considerable elevation,
nor admitting any noticeable extent of plain. The
rising grounds in the west are generally green, on a
mossy soil, with Uttle pasturage in winter ; those in
the north are dry and rocky, with small long heath,
and fine sweet grass ; and those in the central dis
tricts are covered with a deep moss, and plentifully
produce a short bushy heath, and a coarse species of
grass. The cultivated ground, amounting to 777
merks, lies generally along the shores. The parish
is everywhere intersected by long narrow bays, called
voes or friths ; and the pasture in the ness or penin
sula formed by two voes is generally good. The
coast on the west side is rocky and bold, and is per
forated by many caves, the resorts of wild pigeons ;
and, in all parts, it produces abundance of sea-weed
for manure. There are upwards of 40 fresh-water
lakes, some of considerable size, and many verdant
or muddy at the bottom. Of two inhabited islands
which belong to the parish, Vementry is the chief,
and will be separately noticed ; and Papa-Little con
sists of three marks of land, pays £20 a-year of rent,
and is occupied by one tenant. There are likewise
7 pastoral islets or holms. Fisheries of ling, cod, and
herring, are extensive. Kelp-making has quite or
nearlv ceased. The minister of the parish says, in
the New Statistical Account, published in Septem
ber, 1841, " There is nothing resembling a road in
tbe parish unless a piece which I made some years
ago, through the glebe, and carried on about half-
a-mile towards the kirk. But there is a decided
disinclination to walk on the road, because it wears
the riveUns too fast, and because a road would imply
a restriction to a particular path; whereas the Shet-
landers' delight is to range uncontrolled, and to
' wander as free as the wind on his mountains.' "

Population, in 1801, 1,493; in 1831, 2,194. Houses
367. Assessed property, in 1815, £61  This par
ish is in the presbytery of Lerwick, and synod of
Shetland. Patron, the Earl of Zetland. Stipend
£158 6s. 8(1.; glebe £9. Tbe parish-church, up
held by the heritors, was built in 1780, and repaired
in 1824. Sittings 465. The old parish-church of
Aithsting is still upheld by the people of its district,
and is the scene of ihe parish-minister's labours every
third Sabbath. An Independent congregation was
formed at Sands in 1828, and assembles in a place of
worship, built in 1833, at a cost of about £70.
Sittings 120. Stipend £30, chiefly paid by the
Congregational Union. Another Independent con
gregation has a small chapel, never regularly fitted
up, at Bister in Aithsting, but very generally assem
bles in a private room. There are also two Meth
odist congregations, and one Methodist meeting
house. An ecclesiastical census, taken in March,
1337, exhibited the entire population then to be
2,350; and another ecclesiastical census taken six
teen months earlier, exhibited 158 as communicants
in dissenting congregations. The schools of the
parish are the parochial-school, with a salary of
£26, and about £2 other emoluments, besides fees
a General Assembly's school, with a salary of £18;
two schools supported by the society for propagating
Christian knowledge, at a salary of £ 1 5 each ; and
four private subscription schools, with salaries vary
ing from 15s. to £4, besides bed and board.
SANDWICKand CUNNINGSBURGH, a quoad
sacra parish, in the presbytery of Lerwick, Shetland.
It occupies the part of the southern peninsula of the
mainland, which lies between the quoad sacra parish
of Quarff on the north, and the parish of Dunross-
ness on the south. Its greatest length is about 1 1
miles ; its greatest breadth is about 6 miles ; and its
superficial extent is about 34 square miles. It con
sists of the ancient parishes of Sandwick and Cun-
ningsburgb, which are annexed, quoad civilia, to
Dunrossness, and were made a separate erection by
the General Assembly in 1833. The parish ranks
as a parliamentary one; yet only the manse, and not
the church, was built at the expense of Government.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £120. The church
was built by the heritors in 1807, at a cost of £700.
Sittings 564. A Methodist congregation has existed
in the parish about 18 years, and assembles in a
chapel built 16 years ago, at a cost of about £60.
Sittings 217. An Independent congregation was
established about 24 years ago, and assembles in a
chapel, which was built in 1820, at a cost of about
£30. Sittings 150. In 1834 the parish-school was
attended by 60 scholars, and a school of the society
for propagating Christian knowledge by 85. Paro
chial-schoolmaster's salary £25 18s. 8d., with £8
fees. Population, in 1801, 2,051; in 1836, as ascer
tained by ecclesiastical census, 2,208. Excepting
the principal resident heritor's family, all the par
ishioners are of the poor and working classes, and
employed chiefly in fishing and husbandry, and pay
rent under £5.
SANDWICK, a parish on the west coast of the
mainland of Orkney. It is bounded on the north
by Birsay ; on the east by Harray ; on the south
east by Stehnis; on the south by Storuoway; and
on the west by the Atlantic. Its extreme length
from north-north-west to south-south-east, is 7£
miles ; its extreme breadth is 4A miles ; and its su
perficial extent is about 15 square miles. The gen
eral surface presents to the eye alternations of arable
ground, and deeply verdant pasture, interspersed
with barren breaks. Except at Sandy-bay— which
is only about 3 furlongs wide — the whole coast
is bold and high, rising sheer up from the sea

SAN

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to an altitude of from 100 to 400 or 500 feet. In
the interior are two or three small lochs ; and along
the eastern and the southern boundary stretches the
whole length of the loch of Stennis : see that ar
ticle. Along the craggy cliffs of the Coast are found
causeways or horizontal strata of stones, bearing
various irregular and curious figures, the work of
Nature, and the effect of time. These figured stones
were particularly noticed in the 1st volume of tbe
Transactions of the Antiquarian Society of Edin
burgh, and they served for a period to be the sub
ject of fascinating descriptions ; but, by one of the
caprices which render public taste respecting matters
of curiosity a mere affair of fashion, they have, in a
great measure, ceased to draw notice. In a rent or
chasm of the craggy cliffs in their vicinity, is a figure
bearing a resemblance to a bishop in his episcopal
robes. On the coast, close by the shore, stand the
ruins of a large building, called the castle of Snus-
gar. Other antiquities are tumuli, and one or two
ruinous old chapels. " In a part of the parish of
Sandwick, "*ays the Old Statistical Account, " every
family that has a herd of swine kills a sow on the
17th day of December, and thence it is called Sow-
day. In the same place the people do no work on
the 3d day of March, in commemoration of the day
on which the church of Sandwick was consecrated ;
and as the church, was dedicated to St. Peter, they
also abstain from working for themselves on St.
Peter's day, but they will work to another person
who employs them." The parish is traversed by
two good roads. Population, in 1801, 970; in 1831,
973. Houses 212. Assessed property, in 1815,
£224  Sandwick is in the presbytery of Cairston,
and synod of Orkney. Patron, the Earl of Zetland.
Stipend £158 16s. 3d.; glebe £12. The parish
was disjoined 9 or 10 years ago from Stromness. In
1834 it had no parochial school, but possessed seven
other schools, one of which was maintained by the
society for propagating Christian knowledge.
SANNOX, various objects and localities on the
north-east side of the island of Arran. The streams,
South Sannox and North Sannox, though each not
more than 4 miles in length of run, are the largest
running waters on the east side of the island, and
traverse singularly grand and impressive scenery.
Glen-Sannox, the vale of the South Sannox, wends
close round the north skirt of Goatfell, and is pecu
liarly noted for the sublimity of its landscape : See
Arran. The streamlets are little more than half-
a-mile asunder at their mouth; and both have in
their channels extensive veins of a pure sulphate of
barytes. In 1836 the proprietor received, from two
practical chemists who casually visited the spot, a
hint of the value of the mineral ; in 1839, he com
pleted, at the expense of upwards of £3,000, a
manufactory for pulverizing it, and thoroughly pre
paring it for market ; and in 1840 he constructed,
at A of a-mile's distance, a quay where vessels might
take on board the produce. The quarry is situated
about 100 yards up the glen ; the ore is transferred
thence to the mill by a wooden-railway; and the
cooperage is placed in the vicinity of the quay. The
veins — which seem to be those discovered long ago
by Professor Jameson — cross the impetuous moun
tain-torrent that collects the waters of this wild
glen ; and two of them have been wrought on both
sides of the stream. From them a large quantity of
a very pure, crystalline, translucent sulphate, is ex
tracted. Some masses have a slight brownish tint.
It is the straight lamellar variety, and for purity ex
ceeds the spar employed In the Ayrshire and Welsh
manufactories of baryto sulphate pigments. By sort-
jug, washing, crushing, grinding, moulding, and dry
ing, the spar becomes a pigment. Various colours

are imparted to the sulphate at the Glen-Sannox
manufactory,— such as blue, yellow, and green, of
various shades. Three farms along the coast have
the names respectively of South, Mid, and North
Sannox. A church, dedicated to St. Michael, an
ciently stood at South Sannox, and is commemorated
by its burying-ground, which continues to be in use,
and by a rude image of its patron saint placed in the
wall of the cemetery. In the vicinity is a monu
mental standing-stone.
SANQUHAR, a parish in Upper Nithsdale, Dum
fries-shire, stretching from side to side of the horn
which the county protrudes between Ayrshire and
Lanarkshire. It is bounded on the north by Kirk
connel ; on the north-east and east by Lanarkshire;
on the south-east by Durisdeer; on the south by
Penpont; and on the west by Ayrshire. Its greatest
length is 18 miles ; its greatest breadth is 5 miles ;
and its superficial extent is 61^ square miles. The
general surface is so high and rugged as to be — for
a district south of the Grampians—emphatically
Highland. Part of the soaring ridge, called the
Lowthers, one of the highest regions of the great
southern mountain-range, lifts a water-line along the
boundary with Lanarkshire, and sends off ramifica
tions into the interior. These heights, though a
vast storage of mineral wealth, have a bleak and
barren surface, and fling an aspect of utter wildness
over the district in which they preside. Other lofty
heights, some green, and others heathy, some rising
slowly from their base, and others mounting almost
sheer up with uncommon boldness and majesty,
some conical, some elliptical, and most of gracefully-
curved outline, occupy more than one-half of the
whole parochial area ; and, in the summer months,
they, in most instances, command prospects which
dazzle and overpower the eye. One mountain-line
of water-shed runs 9 miles along the boundary with
Penpont, and another forms the whole of the boun
dary with Ayrshire ; both diverging, but in different
directions, from Blacklarg-hill, a summit of 2,890
feet above sea-level. The loftiest of the Lowthers,
or eastern heights, has an altitude of 3,130 feet.
The vale of the Nith cuts the parish diagonally
from north-east to south-west into two nearly equal
parts ; and is here a mimic strath of considerable
beauty, flanked by hill-screens which are cleft by
little transverse vales, and disgorge through these
openings watery tributes to the Nith. The principal
streams are the Nith, the Crawick, the Wan-
lock, the Minnick, the Euchan, and the Kello.
See these articles. About 15 indigenous streamlets,
most of them small, run directly to the Nith; and,
nearly 40, several of them considerable in size, fall
into it through the medium of the other chief streams.
Some of these tributaries, and — excepting the Wan-
lock, whose waters are poisoned for fish by its im
pregnations with lead — all the larger streams yield
very fine trout, but not in great abundance. The
soil in the vale of the Nith, and in the lower districts
of some of the lateral vales, is either loamy or dry
and gravelly, and in either case not infertile ; but,
elsewhere, ii is,, in general, moss or clay, — is often
spongy, — and, except in little pendicles, is solely
though well adapted to grazing. If the whole par
ochial area be distributed into 225 parts, 1 is undi
vided common, 2 are covered with copses or planta
tion, 32 are regularly or occasionally in tillage, and
188 are pastoral or waste. A coalfield, variously
stated at 6 miles in length, and half-a-mile iri me
dium breadth, and at about 7 in length and 2J in
breadth, lies along the Nith, with the river above its
centre, and is supposed to be a wing of the great
field of Ayrshire. The great mineral treasures of the
parish — treasures which sensibly enrich the county

SANQUHAR.

637

and even the kingdom — occur in the vicinity of the
village of Wanlockhead : which see. The rocks
of the mountains are nearly all of the transition or
silurian class — Eliock-house, on Eliock-burn, in the
vale of the Nith, is notable as the birth-place of the
Admirable Crichton ; and the apartment in which
he was born is watchfully preserved in its original
state. His father was an eminent advocate and a
Lord of Session in the reigns of Mary and James
VI. ; and, soon after the birth of his distinguished
son, he sold Eliock to the Dalzells, afterwards Earls
of Carnwath, and removed to an estate which he
had acquired in the parish of Clunie in Perthshire,
— a circumstance which has frequently occasioned
' Clunie to be mistakenly named as the place of the
Admirable Crichton's nativity  Castle -Gilmour, an
old baronial residence in the moors, about 3 miles to
the east of Sanquhar, is now a modern farm-house.
The locality must in ancient times have been very
dreary and desolate, for even yet its general aspect is
anything but interesting  The great road between
Glasgow and Dumfries passes along the Nith ; and
a road through Wanlockhead to Edinburgh strikes
off from it up the Minnick; but elsewhere the
parish offers hardly 100 yards for the transit of a
wheeled vehicle. Cra wick-Mill [which see] is
a village on the boundary with Kirkconnel. Po
pulation of the parish, in 1801, 2,350; in 1831,
3,268. -Houses 575. Assessed property, in 1815,
£10,658  Sanquhar is in the presbytery of Penpont,
and synod of Dumfries. Patron, the Duke of Buc
cleuch. Stipend £264 19s. 2d. ; glebe £30. Un
appropriated teinds £9 1 2 6s. 7d. The parish-church
was built in 1824. Sittings 960. A chapel, in con
nexion with the Establishment, was built at Wan
lockhead in 1755, by the mining company, for the
accommodation of their people, at a cost of not
more than £70 or £80. Sittings 250. Stipend
from less than £60 to £65. Two United Seces
sion places of worship are situated in the burgh ;
the first built in 1 742, with 450 sittings, at an un
known cost; and the second, built in 1818, with 300
sittings, at a cost of about £400, and enlarged
in 1830 to the extent of 200 additional sittings.
Stipends respectively £125, with £10 for sacra
mental expenses, and a house, a garden, and a
small glebe ; and £100, with £6 for sacramental
expenses, and a house. In 1834, the parish-school
was attended by 44 scholars ; and 5 non-parochial
schools by 217. Parochial schoolmaster's salary
£34 4s. 4£d., with £15 fees, and £5 other emo
luments  Sanquhar was anciently a rectory ; and,
in the 15th century, it was made a prebend of the
cathedral of Glasgow. Comprehended in the present
parish, is a great part of the ancient parish of Kil
bride or Kirkbride, annexed to it in 1732. The
ruins and cemetery of Kilbride still exist' near the
Nith in the south-east of Sanquhar ; and are as
sociated with some stirring stories respecting the
times of the Covenanters.
, Sanquhar, a small town and royal burgh in the
parish just described, 13 miles north-west of Thorn
hill, 27 north-west of Dumfries, 32 east-south-east
of Ayr, 34 south-east of Kilmarnock, 56 south-south
east of Glasgow, and 56 south-west by south of
Edinburgh. It stretches along the turnpike be
tween Dumfries and Glasgow about J of a mile from
the left margin of the Nith ; and consists almost
wholly of one street, about half-a-mile in length,
and stretching from south-east to north-west. The
street deviates or bends from the straight line, is
of varying breadth, and has but a plain, though
neither a mean nor a repulsive, architectural ap
pearance. On a rising- ground, at the north-west
end of the town, stands the parish-church, a very

handsome edifice with a square tower. This suc
ceeded a building which was remarkable for its
size and disproportion, and which, from some sculp
tured stones in its walls, was supposed to be of
great antiquity. At an expansion of the High-
street, near its north-west end, stands the town-
hall, built solely at the expense of the last Duke
of Queensberry, and decorated with a tower and
clock. The Secession meeting-houses are plain
structures, situated the one in High-street, and the
other a furlong north-east of the town-house. The
absence of any other noticeable building is fully com
pensated by the presence of Sanquhar-castle. This
fine ruin is situated on a steep bank, overlooking
the Nith, about IA furlong from the south-east end
of the town. Its appearance on the south is highly
picturesque. It seems to have been a strong quad
rangular structure, with towers at the angles. On
the north side was a deep fosse provided with a
drawbridge ; on tbe west were gardens, whose site
still retains an isleted fish-pond ; on another side,
was a spacious deer-park ; and at a short distance
on the south, is the moat on whose summit the
barons wielded, in juridical form, their feudal powers
of sovereignty. Either the castle, or some fortified
predecessor on its site, seems to have given origin,
as it certainly gave name, to the town ; for ' San
quhar,' originally and for centuries spelt ' San-
cher,' or ' Sanchnr,' is simply the Celtic saen-caer,
' an old fort.' The earliest proprietors of the castle
and circumjacent lands, or Lords of Sanquhar, were
the Roos, Roose, or Ross family, cadets of the Earls
of Ross, Lords of the Isles. Isobel de Ross, the
daughter and heiress of Robert de Ross, the last of
the line, married William, the 2d son of Thomas,
Lord of Crichton, who flourished in the reign of
Robert Bruce. At this epoch, Richard Edgar, a
descendant of Dunegal, the Gaelic chief who pos
sessed Strathnith in the reign of David I., obtained
possession of the castle and half the barony. But
ihe son of Isobel de Ross, and of William who be
came Lord of Crichton, appears to have eventually
expelled the intruder, and regained the inheritance.
The strength is also, amid some confusion of record
and tradition, said to have been for some time in
the possession of the English in the reign of Ed
ward I., and to have been recaptured, and had its
English garrison put to the sword, by Sir WiUiam
Douglas of Douglasdale. The Crichtons, at all
events, became speedily and continuously the lords
of the castle, and of the whole barony. Sir Robert
Crichton, great-grandson of Isobel de Ross, was, in
1464, appointed by James III. hereditary sheriff of
Dumfries-shire. In 1630, Sir William Douglas of
Drumlanrig, who had a mortgage on the barony,
purchased the whole property — lands, lordship, and
castle — to be sent down to his posterity and repre
sentatives, the Dukes of Queensberry and the Dukes
of Buccleuch. The castle now became, for some
period, the chief residence of the proud Drumlanrig
Douglasses. Even after William, the 1st Duke of
Queensberry, built the magnificent palace of Drum
lanrig  now the favourite residence of the present
Duke of Buccleuch — he spent but one night within
its walls, and retired for the remainder of his life to
Sanquhar-castle. See Drumlanrig-Castle. The
old pile was forsaken, however, by the 2d Duke,
and strangely abandoned to the most utter neglect.
Plunderers speedily thronged upon it, first to divest
it of its leaden roof, and next to use it as a quarry
for the erection of -their sties and hovels ; and they
made quick work of leaving it not a vestige of its
ancient magnificence except its gaunt but venerable
fragment of a ruin. A curious monumental relic of
the original proprietor's, was, about half-a-century

SAN

638

SAU

ago, found near the castle, — a stone inscribed :
" Here lies the good Sir John Ross of Ryehill ,-
here lies the good, good Sir John Ross ; here lies
also the good, good, good Sir John Ross."
Sanquhar owes, in a great measure, its modern
prosperity to various benign measures of the last-
Duke of Queensberry. His Grace, at an expense of
£1,500, cut, for at least 21 miles across his estate, the
great line of road which passes through the burgh
between Dumfries and the central west of Scotland ;
he cut, at an expense of £600, the cross road which
runs up the Minnick to Wanlockhead ; he construct
ed, at the cost of £300, a road in the contiguous
parish of Kirkconnel, leading up to a lime-work at
Corsancone ; and, jointly with the trustees for the
encouragement of manufactures, he gave £40 a-year
to be distributed among stocking-makers and other
manufacturing artificers in the town and its vicinity.
Wire-worked stockings and mittens, mostly party-
coloured and very various in pattern, long formed
a staple manufacture, and afforded a large number of
the lower classes a comfortable support. Previous
to 1777, the manufacture was so extensive that, for
a number of years, one person annually sent to a
single house in Glasgow 4,800 pairs of stockings.
But Virginia being the principal market, the trade
sustained a severe blow at the breaking out of the
American war ; and it has since dwindled away al
most to annihilation. The coal-mines which were
opened in the immediate precincts of the town
brought, for a long series of years, a considerable
wealth, and gave much local employment ; and they
are still productive, though, as we have seen, much
less so than at a former period. Including Crawick-
mill, in the near neignbourhood, and within the old
royalty, the town is the seat of a considerable wool
len. and cotton manufacture. The number of looms,
in 1838, was 182, — 3b' of which were factory looms.
A carpet-factory produces the same fabrics, and
yields the same wages, as the factories of Kilmarnock.
Thibets, tartans, and ginghams also are woven ; the
first averaging 6s. 6d. of clear weekly wages, the
second 5s. 3d., and the third 4s. 6d. About 300
females are employed in fhe sewing and embroidering
of muslin with cotton. 'Ihe town has recently been
lighted with gas.
Sanquhar was a burgh-of-barony from a very an
cient but unascertained date, and was re-erected in
1484 ; and, at the instance of Robert Crichton, Lord
of Sanquhar, it was, in 1598, by charter of James
VI., constituted a royal burgh. The town-council
consists of a provost, three bailies, a dean-of-guild, a
treasurer, and eleven councillors. Municipal con
stituency, in 1833, 55. The burgh-property is very
small. In lb32 the revenue from all sources was
£65 17s. 4d., and the total expenditure £4 10s.
There are nominally five incorporated trades ; but
they have the good sense to see that their exclusive
privileges only hurt their neighbours and do no good
to themselves, and they have, all of their own ac
cord, virtually ceased to be incorporated bodies.
The town-council also passed, in May 1833, a reso
lution well-worth the attention of kindred bodies in
more important towns : " That for the future the
magistrates and council shall throw the privileges of
the burgh open, to the extent of not exacting from
any individuals coming into the burgh, and keeping a
shop, or carrying on any sort of trade or business
whatever, any of the fees or charges hitherto in the
use of being levied from persons commencing busi
ness in the burgh, and that such persons shall not be
interfered with, or have any demand for burgh-fees
made upon them." The burgh unites with Dum
fries, Annan, Kirkcudbright, and Lochmaben, in
sending a member to parliament. Constituency, in

1838 61. The town has an office of the British
Line'n Company's bank. Four annual fairs of ancient
origin may still be held, but they have faUen very
nearly into desuetude. An annual sheep-market
and three annual cattle-markets are of recent estab

lishment, and draw a considerable and business-like
attendance. Population, in 1821, about 1,250; in
1831,1,527. ,
SARCLET, a fishing-village, i\ miles south by
west of Wick, Caithness-shire. A small cove, over
hung by a bank which forms the site of the village,
has, at considerable expense, been constructed into
a good harbour for fishing-boats.
SARK (The), a smaU river in the extreme south
east of Dumfries-shire. It rises in two head-streams,
the onefrom the north-west corner of Canobie, and the
other from the north-west extremity of Half- Morton,
and has a sinuous course of 10 or 1 1 miles in a south
erly and a south-south-westerly direction to the head
of the Solway frith. It, for 2a miles, divides Half-
Morton from Canobie; and afterwards, or over a
distance of between 5 and 6 miles, it divides Scot
land and England. Its sources lie among the lower
declivities of the Eskdale hills, but by far the greater
part of its course is across either a low and beautiful
plain or along the skirts of the Sol way-moss of Cum
berland. During a comparatively dry summer the
stream almost ceases to exist.
SARK (The Black), a rivulet in the south-east
of Dumfries-shire, tributary to the Sark. It rises at
Burnfoot-hill, near Sarkshiels, in the parish of Kirk-
patrick-Fleming, and flows south-eastward through
that parish, and through Half-Morton and Gretna,
to the Sark, J of a mile above Springfield.
SARKFOOT, a small village arrt sea-port in the
parish of Gretna, Dumfries-shire, lt stands at the
mouth of the Sark, 4 mile south of Springfield and
8A east of Annan. The harbour admits vessels of
120 tons.
SAUCHIE (New and Old), two large and con.
tiguous villages in the parish and county of Clack.
niannan. They are situated about 1& mile north ot
Alloa, and 6 miles north-west of 'Kincardine. Their
inhabitants are principally colliers and other parties
connected with the Earl of Mar's coal-mines. New
Sauchie had, in 1838, a populatien of upwards o(
880. -A hired room was, in 1837, fitted up with 100
sittings as a dissenting preaching-station. A chapel
in connexidn with the Establishment was built here
in 1841-2 ; and a handsome school-house was erected
at the expense of the late Mr. Erskine of Mar.
SAUCHIEB URN, a battle-field in St. Ninian's:
which see.
SAULSEAT, or Soulseat, an ancient parish
and an abbey in the north of Wigtonshire. The
parish was a vicarage under the monks of the abbey ;
and, about the middle of the 17th century, it was
incorporated with Inch. Its ecclesiastical revenues
are divided between the minister of inch and the
minister of Portpatrick. The abbey stood on a pen
insula of Saulseat-loch, in the vicinity of the present
inanse of Inch. The building was in ruins in 1684,
when Symson wrote his ' Description of Galloway ;'
and it is now commemorated only by a few crushed'
and melancholy remains. An extensive burying-
ground which seems to have surrounded it, and which
is still partially in use, contains some, curious though
no very ancient monumental inscriptions. The abbey
was founded, in the 12th century, by Fergus; Lord
of Galloway, for Premonstrater.sian monks. It had
its name, as Symson thinks, either from being arro
gantly described as ' Sedes Animarum,' or from hav
ing had a person of the name of Saul as its first abbot,
and so being ' Sedes Saulis.' Chalmers says, " It
was the mother of the more celebrated and opulent

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SCA

priory of Whithorn, as well as the abbey of Holy-
wood, both of which were planted by monks of the
same order. It appears to have been the original
establishment of the Premonstratensian monks in
Scotland ; and the abbots of Soulseat were the su
periors of that order in this kingdom." Its abbacy
was one of the few in Scotland, the appointment of
which remained with the King, and could not be dis
posed of or controlled by the Pope. The abbey
never rose to any eminence nor ever figured con
spicuously in history. In 1568 its abbot, along with
some of the most distinguished men of the kingdom,
subscribed a bond obliging themselves to defend
Queen Mary.
SCALLOWAY, a sea-port viUage in the parish
of Tingwall, Shetland. It stands at the head of
Scalloway-bay, on the west coast of the mainland, 3
miles south-south-vvest of Tingwall church, and 6
miles west-south-west of Lerwick. The cottages
are of a better description than most in the northern
islands ; and, arranged round a fine semicircular
sweep of bay, they combine with the sea-scene in
front, and the old castellated mansion of Scalloway
towering above them in the rear, to form quite a
picturesque landscape. The harbour is naturally
good, and is supposed to have, in its relative position
to the castle, given to the locality the name of Scal
loway, or 'the roadstead beside the mansion," —
Scalla signifying a mansion, and vie, transmuted into
way, a roadstead. The village was anciently a burgh,
and the capital of Shetland. Though Mr. Scott of
ScaUoway is now the only gentleman of property re
siding in it, most of the great Shetland landowners,
within sixty or seventy years ago, had residences here.
Exceptingthefamilymentioned, and afewtradesmen,
the whole population, amounting to about 500, consists
of fishermen and their families. A small Independent
chapel was built here in 1838 ; and a church in con
nection with the Establishment, promoted by private
subscription, was in the course of erection in 1841.
In the viUage is a school maintained by the Society
for Propagating Christian Knowledge. For the con
venience of the fisheries the port is provided with a
large quay, warehouses, and a cooperage  Scallo-
way-castle, situated above the village, is covered all
over with the infamy of association which belongs
to the name of Patrick Stewart, the tyrannical Earl
of Orkney. It was built by that despot about the
year 1600, in circumstances which give it a promi
nent place in the history of oppression. A previous
mansion of the Earl, at Sumburgh, having given way
in consequence of the sandiness of its foundation, the
despot compelled the inhabitants, on pain of forfeit
ing their property, to find as many men as were re
quired for speedily building a new castle, and to
supply them gratuitously with provisions ; and he
superintended and matured the execution of his igno
ble plan, by means of a military force. The castle,
though now a mere shell, exhibits plentiful and dis
tinct indices of its original condition. It was built
of Sandstone brought from Orkney, and possessed
no peculiarity of design, but was a servile copy of
the castellated mansion common at the period. The
structure is three stories high, and is surmounted at
each angle by a smaU handsome round turret. The
windows are very large ; but the principal door is
quite disproportionate and even puny. The apart
ments, on the ground-floor, are an excellent kitchen
and vaulted cellars, sending off a broad flight of as
cending steps ; and the apartments above are a spa
cious hall and suits of ordinary sized chambers. On
the lintel-stone of the gateway is part ot a Latin in
scription which, in its unmutilated form, was, " Pa-
tricius Steuardus, Orcadiae et Zetlandiae Comes, I.
V R. S. Cujus fundamen saxumest. Dom. ilia!

manebit, Labillis e contra, si sit arena perit. A.D.
1600." SCALPA, an island of the Skye groupe of the
Hebrides. It is separated from the east coast of
Skye by Scalpa-sound, which, in many places, is not
more than half-a-mile broad ; and it lies off Loch-
Ainort, and is 2 miles south of Raasay, 7 south-west
of Applecross, and 8 west of Loch-Alsh. It is of an
irregularly oval shape of 4\ by 2J miles ; and has the
longer axis from north-west to south-east. Most of
its area is occupied by a grassy mountain of uneven
summit and rounded outline, displaying much bare
rock, yet nowhere marked by asperities or wearing
a barren aspect. The descent, in most places, but
especially along the side which confronts Skye,
comes down in smooth and gentle declivities to the
sea ; but, towards the north-east, it terminates in
bold but not very high cliffs. The sound of Scalpa is a
noted rendezvous of the herring-fleet ; and it abounds
in oysters, some of which, both fish and shell, are
black, while others are of a dingy diluted blue colour.
These oysters are supposed to be only a variety of the
common species, and to derive their unwonted hue
from the dark mud in which they breed. On the
island are vestiges of an ancient chapel dedicated to
St. Francis, and conjectured to have been originally
Culdee. Scalpa belongs ecclesiastically to Strath :
which see.
SCALPA, or Scalpay, a small inhabited island
in the Harris district of the Hebrides. It lies at
the entrance of East Loch-Tarbet, half-a-mile from
the northern, and 2A miles from the southern, head
land. It measures nearly 3 miles in extreme length,
and upwards of l£ mile in extreme breadth ; but is
exceedingly indented, and cut into small peninsula:
by the sea. It is low and heath-clad; and consists
of irregular protuberances of gneiss. A bed of ser
pentine, generally placed at a higb angle, and often
having a vertical position, traverses a promontory
in the extreme east. On this promontory stands a
lighthouse, built in 1788. Near the western ex
tremity are two of the best natural harbours in the
Hebrides. SCALPA -FLOW, a large expanse of water
among the southern Orkney island, forming a sort
of Orcadian mediterranean. Irrespective of lateral
recesses and outlets, it measures about 15 miles in
extreme length from north to south, 8 miles in mean
breadth, and 45 or 47 miles in circumference. In a
general view, it may be regarded as having Pomona
on the north, Burray, and South Ronaldshay on the
east, the Pentland frith on the south, the conjoint
island of Walls and Hoy on the west, and the small
islands of Cava, Rysay, Faray, Calf, Flota, Switha,
and Hunda" in its bosom. In the extreme north
west, it opens by Hoy-sound, 7 miles in length and
2 in mean breadth, to the Atlantic ocean; in the
north-east, it opens by Holm-sound, 3J miles by 2,
to the German ocean ; in the middle of the east side,
it opens by Water-sound, 4 miles by half-a-mile, to
the same ocean ; and, in the south, it has the island
of Swinna near the middle of the line where it be
comes identified with the Pentland frith. This isle-
begirt sea abounds, in its numerous recesses^ with
sate roadsteads and fine harbours. The chief is
Long-hope, in Walls, quite landlocked, capacious
enough for the largest fleet, and possessing good an
chorage and sufficient depth of water for the largest
ship in the British navy ; and others are Holm-sound,
Floxa-sound, St. Margaret's-hope, and Pan-hope.
The tide, at its entering Scalpa-Flow from the
south-west, and through the sound of Hoy, flows
with rapidity akin to its current through the Pent
land frith ; but it gradually slackens, till its motion
becomes scarcely perceptible. At one part of the

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coast of Graemsay, lying in the sound of Hoy, the
current, in eonsequence of being intercepted by a
reef of rocks, runs 9 hours in one direction, and 3 in
the opposite. Scalpa-Flow abounds with shoals of
dog-fish, with haddocks, skate, flounders, and mack
erel, and occasionally with herring.
SCARBA, an island in the Hebridean parish of
Jura and Colonsay, Argyleshire. It lies 3J miles
west-north-west of Craignish point on the mainland
of Argyleshire, and 1£ mile north of the island of
Jura, from which it is separated by the tumbling and
tumultuous sound of Corrie vreck an : see that ar
ticle. The island measures about 3 miles, both in
extreme length and in extreme breadth ; but, north
ward of a line about J of a mile from the southern
extremity, it gradually contracts till it terminates
very nearly in a point. Most of the area is occupied
by a single mountain of an oblong conoidal form,
which towers aloft to the height of about 1,500 feet,
and is conspicuous at a distance as much for its out
line as for its altitude. The shores on the south,
the west, and the north, are generally high, rocky,
and precipitous; and, in some places, they consist of
a perpendicular face or sheer fall of ihe mountain of
several hundred feet. All these shores and the high
grounds, wherever not quite naked, are for the most
part covered with heath. But the east side of the
island is eminently beautiful: it recedes in a semi
circular curvature from the sea, so as to enclose a
fine bay in a magnificent amphitheatre ; it rises up
along the sea-board with an uniform and quite prac
ticable acclivity; it has a subsidiary and compara
tively low ridge of rising ground along the skirt of
the interior mountain ; it is sheeted over with ver
dure and with natural woods, occasionally inter
rupted by projecting rocks; and, in all the magnifi
cent sweep of its recess from the bay, it commands
a view of the variegated and intricate channel of the
Slate islands, with the sound of Oban, and the dis
tant ranges of mountains that extend from Ben-
Cruachan to Ben-Nevis. Quartz rock, dipping to
ward the east in angles of 40 or 50 degrees, forms
the principal body of the mountain ; but it alternates
with and passes into micaceous schist ; and both it
and the varieties which the intermixture with it of
the micaceous schist produces, alternate with clay-
slate. Scarba is inhabited by only a very few
families. SCARP or Scarpa, an island in the Hebridean
parish of Harris. It lies half-a-mile north-west of
the nearest point of the mainland of Harris, and 7
miles north-north-west of Taransa. It extends
north-westr and south-east, and measures about 3
miles by 2. It consists of one rocky mountain of
gneiss, which rises about 1,000 feet above sea-level.
The island is inhabited.
SCARR or Skarr (The), a small river of
Nithsdale. It rises on the east side of Blacke-hill,
within half-a-mile of a point where the counties of
Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, and Ayr meet, and flows
south-eastward to the Nith, f of a mile below Keir
church. Excepting over IA mile before falling info
the Nith, its entire course is in the interior and along
the boundary of Penpont : which see.
SCARSCOCK, that part of the great, central
mountain-range of Scotland which separates the
south-west of Braemar in Aberdeenshire from Athole
in Perthshire. The chief summits rise to an altitude
of 3,500 feet above sea-level.
SCARVAY, a pasture islet of probably 1J mile
in circumference, in the sound of Harris, 3J miles
west of Aird-Rhenish on the mainland of Harris.
SCATAVAGH-BAY, an indentation of the sea
on the east coast of Harris. It is 2A miles long,
and at the entrance, Ia. mile broad; it opens about

a mile south of the entrance of East Loch-Tarbet
and it is partly sheltered seaward by an islet called
Gresavagh. SCATWELL, a beautiful pastoral valley, watered
by the combined streams of the Meig and the Conon,
in tbe parish of Contin, Ross-shire.
SCAVIG (Loch), a remarkable inlet of the sea,
a scene of deeply impressive, of wild and dismal
grandeur, on the west coast of the Isle of Skye. It
is about 4 miles both broad and long, and penetrates
among the Coolin or Cuchullin mountains. Its flanks
are stupendous heights of bare rock, which shoot
abruptly up from the bosom of the sea, and, being
composed of the mineral called hyperstein, have a
singularly dark and metallic aspect. "But," says
Dr. Macculloch, who brought this remarkable piece
of scenery into notice, and is the fittest person to
describe it, "it is impossible to convey any idea of
this spot, which before my visit had never been seen
by a stranger, and was indeed known to few even of
the inhabitants of Skye. Scarcely any but the shep
herds had trod these sequestered retreats, the dwell
ing of clouds and solitude; fit haunts for ihe poetical
demons of the storm. Loch- Sea vig is inaccessible
by land on the north side, and equally so on the
south to all but the active'and practised mountaineer.
The traveller whose object is picturesque beauty,
should enter it from Strathaird. In this direction
the view from the sea is extremely fine, the dark
ridge of the Cuchullin, with all its spiry and serrated
projections, flanked hy the equally dark and lofty
ridge of Blaven, forming a varied and rugged outline
on the sky. On entering the bay, these summits
disappear, as they retire below the high skirts of the
hills which descend into the sea, varied by project
ing points and rocky islets, and surrounding the
spectator with a continuous surface of bare and
brown rock, scarcely presenting a symptom of vege
tation. The falling of a cascade, the deep dark
green of the water, and the wheeling flight of the
sea-birds that frequent this retired spot, are the only
objects which vary the uniformity of colours and of
character it everywhere displays. On landing, simi
lar scenes meet the eye in every direction, no in
truding object occurring to diminish the effect pro
duced by the gloomy grandeur and savage aspect of
the place." — [Description of the Western Islands.]
A long valley at the head of the bay, enclosing the
fresh-water lake Corriskin, displays scenery of kin
dred character, accompanied with interesting asso
ciations. See Corriskin.
SCHICHALLION, a huge isolated mountain on
the boundary between the parishes of Fortingall and
Dull, 4 miles south-east of Kinloch-Rannoch, or the
east end of- Loch-Rannoch, Perthshire. The alti
tude of its summit above sea-level is 3,564 feet.
The mountain stands at the eastern entrance of the
district of Rannoch, a little detached from the long
ridge of 7 miles breadth at the base, and 3,000 feet
or upwards in mean elevation, which divides Ran
noch from the vales of Glenlyon and Fortingal ; and,
seen on entering the country by any approach from
the Lowlands, it has a conspicuous and commanding
appearance. Viewed from the north-west, it seems
a cone ; but viewed from the south or east, it is seen
to be elongated, eastward and westward, to rest on
a long narrow hase, to rise gently at its east end,
and to be steep on the west and on the south side.
Its outline is, on the whole, curvilinear, and has fewer
angles and breaks than that of most of the monarch-
heights of the Highlands. The view from its sum
mit promises, a priori, to be magnificent ; but, when
actually seen, it greatly disappoints. The valley of
the Tummel is sufficiently remote to appear trifling;
Loch-Rannoch seems stript of its attractions, and

SCONE.

641

sinks into comparative tameness ; Glenlyon is shut
out by the interposed mountain-range ; and all else
is a tumultuous sea of wild elevations, among which
the eye traces few striking forms. Schichallion is
known throughout the scientific world as the scene,
in 1777, of curious observations by Dr. Maskelyne,
astronomer-royal; and it afterwards acquired addi
tional celebrity from the visit and notices first of
Dr. Playfair, and next of Dr. Macculloch. The
name, when etymologically written, is Sith-chaillinn ;
and is said to mean a detached hill, the resort of the
fairy-queen. An unexplored cave near its south
west corner is supposed to be continued to an
opening, which exists in the face of a rock a very
long way to the east,; and, on the part of the cre
dulous and romancing Highlanders in the circumja
cent country, it is believed to be disposed in cells,
and to be provided with a door which spontaneously
makes such a sweep upon its hinges round any per
son who advances a few yards within the entrance,
as to shut him for ever in from returning to the
world. The ancient forest of Schichallion exists
only in fallen, few, and melancholy vestiges. See
Glenmore. SCONE, or Scoon, a parish in Strathtay, Perth
shire ; bounded on the north and north-east by St.
Martin's ; on the east by Kilspindy, and the Mur
ray 's-hall, and Balthayock districts of Kinnoul ; on
the south by Kinfauns and the Kinnoul-proper dis
trict of Kinnoul ; and on the west by the Tay,
which divides it from Perth and Redgorton. Its
greatest length from north to south is about 4 miles ;
its greatest breadth is about 3 miles ; and its super
ficial extent is about 6,000 imperial acres. The dis
trict is one of the most lusciously beautiful in Perth
shire ; and forms part of the gorgeously adorned and
somewhat circular basin, all whose sides look down
upon " the fair city" of Perth. The surface main
tains a general rise or slow ascent from the Tay to
the eastern boundary ; yet, it is now spread out in
little levels, now dimpled into depressions, and not
infrequently rolled or swollen into small hills of
gradual and easy ascent. No rocks or precipices oc
cur, except in the Ups of quarries ; and no abrupt
breaks, or steep banks, except by the sides of the
brooks. All the western district has a cultivated
and highly-embellished appearance ; much of the
central and the eastern districts is thickly feathered
over with wood ; and almost every spot, whether on
the rising grounds or on the plains, luxuriates in the .
vegetation of either farm-crop, garden produce, or
the forest. The soil, in some places, especially near
the river, is a strong rich clay ; in others, is gravelly
and light ; and in others, is a good loam. Excellent
freestone, in some places of a reddish colour, in
others, grey or azure, and in all well-adapted for
building, has been very extensively quarried. The
Tay, till it comes abreast of Scone palace, is shallow
and rapid ; but afterwards it is stemmed hy the tide,
and becomes deep and placid, like a floating mirror,
reflecting the beautiful scenery on its banks. Four
brooks, two of which drive several mills, and pro
duce a small sort of trout, traverse the parish west
ward to the Tay. The modern village of Scone
stands about 2£ miles north of Perth, and } of a
mile east of the Tay, opposite the mduth of the
Almond. Its site is a plain which, as compared to
other parts of the parish, except the east, is high,
and which singularly and very healthfully .combines
airiness with shelter. The village, or rather little
town, is regularly arranged in streets and by-lanes,
and consists for the most part of neat and substantial
houses. Population,, in 1792, 466; in 1838, ne-
tween 1,200 and 1,300. Four or five other villages
exist; but they are all smaU. At Stormontfield,
II.

formerly called Colenhaugh, and situated on the
Tay, directly opposite Luncarty, is an extensive
bleachfield  Two Druidical circles occur within 14
yards of each other near the eastern boundary.
The Roman road from the camp at Ardoch to the
foot of the Grampians, traverses the parish from
west to north-east. Vestiges of an oblong encamp
ment of about 1,500 feet in circumference, and of a
fortification, called the Silver-castle, were not long
ago descernible on the margin of the Tay. The par
ish is traversed northward and north-easiward by the
roads from Perth to Blairgowrie, Cupar-Angus, and
Newtyle. Population, in 18pi, 1,670; in 1831,
2,268. Houses 442. Assessed property, in 1815.
£7,338. — Scone is in the presbytery of Perth, and
synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £267 lis. 2d. ; glebe £55. Unappropriated
teinds £91 17s. lid. The church was built in
1803 or 1804, and enlarged in 1834. Sittings 638.
A United Secession congregation was formed in the
parish some years before 1755. Their chapel, situa
ted in the village, was built in 1810, at a cost of
upwards of £1,000. Sittings 560. Stipend £120,
with £8 for communion expenses, and a house and
garden. In 1834, the parish-school was attended
by 132 scholars ; and three non-parochial schools by
129. Parish-schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Ad.,
with from £15 to £20 fees, and about £13 other
emoluments. Ancient Scone, though as a town or viUage
it has ceased to exist, teems with interest as to
at once its antiquities, its historical associations,
and the modern objects which occupy or environ its
site. It stood in a hollow, or recess of the grounds
of the upward swell or gentle acclivity from the
Tay, and looked out upon the river and upon the
vale of Perth. Its distance from 'the fair city' was
little more than a mile ; very advantageously quali
fying it, amid the inconveniences and the cumbrous
movements of a rude age, to hold a similar relation
to Perth, the meeting-place of parliaments and the
residence of courtiers and noble, to that which
Windsor now holds to London. During the middle
ages of the Scottish monarchy, it shared with Dun
fermline and other places the favour of being the
residence of Scotland's kings ; and, from an early
age till a period succeeding the Union of the Scottish
and the English crowns, it was first regularly and
afterwards occasionally, the distinguished scene of
the royal coronations. A celebrated stone, of many
reputed virtues in a dark age, the subject of wildly
romantic tales, an object of high antiquarian interest,
and still an emblem of royal state, and part of the
furnituring of a coronation at Westminster, was, in
834, brought hither from Dunstaffnage by Kenneth
II., and flung a special though imaginary magnifi
cence over the place, till it was seized by Edward I.
and carried away to England. See Dunstaffnage.
All the Scottish princes who mounted the throne
in the interval, or all from Kenneth II. till John
Baliol, were attracted by the stone to receive their
crown at Scone. Charles IL, when on his expedi
tion into Scotland, was, on January 1st, 1651, the
subject of the last Scone coronation ; and he made
the occasion memorable by the facility with which
he seemed to gulp down " the Solemn League and
Covenant of Scotland," and the cool nonchalance
with which he afterwards disgorged it in the face of
a fond and confiding people who had hailed him as
" a covenanted king." Scone must, previously to
the transfer to it of the coronation-stone, have been,
for some reason or reasons, a place of note, — suffi
ciently distinguished by associations of historical in
terest or reputed sanctity or urban importance to
win for itself a preference to all other localities as
2s

SCO

fi-12

the retreat of kings and the place of deposit for the
state's most highly prized relic. It is called by
some writers the ancient capital of the Picts ; but,
whether called so in sheer fable, or in the way of
fiction founded on fact, it most probably acquired
its pristine fame as the seat of a Culdee estab
lishment. An abbey which rose on the ruins of the
Culdee college, and brought the innovations of Ro
manism into the place of the less corrupted system
of the followers of Columba, and substituted monks
under the stolen name of the famous Augustine for
comparatively simple missionaries who were ignorant
of the mysteries of clerical celibacy and of priest
craft, was founded in 1114 by Alexander I., and de
dicated to the Holy Trinity and St. Michaei. This
abbey enclosed the famous stone of coronation, and
witnessed the crowning of the later Scoto-Saxon
kings. It possessed, at the Reformation, a rental of
£1,140 6s. 6d. in money, besides a great amount of
revenue in agricultural and fishery produce ; and, in
1604, it was erected into a temporal lordship in fa
vour of Sir David Murray, a cadet of the family of
Tullibardine. Both the abbey and the ancient pa
lace were spoiled and burned at the Reformation, by
a motley mob from Perth and Dundee, actuated,
some by aversion to Popery, some by private resent
ment, and some by the hope of booty. The abbey
wall is supposed, from traces which have been ob
served of its foundations, to have enclosed an area
of 12 acres. A spot about 100 yards due east from
tbe south-east corner of the present palace, is the
site of the abbey church, now umbrageously covered
with a clump of trees. Between 60 and 70 yards
north of this spot is a mound or hillock, vulgarly
called the Boot-hill, and more learnedly denominated
Omnis Terra, or Every-man's-land. The common
tradition concerning this eminence is, that, at the
coronation of a king, all the barons or landowners
who assisted, brought in their boots as much earth
from their property as enabled every man, while
standing on his own land, to see the king crowned ;
and that, after the ceremony, they emptied the earth
from their boots on one spot, and in an increasingly
accumulating heap, and this made it both Boot-hill
and Omnis Terra. Another tradition ascribes its
formation to Kenneth, and affirms that be pro
mulgated from it ms edicts called the Macalpine
laws. The Highlanders call it Tom-a-rohoid, ' the
hill where justice is administered ;' and Boot-hill
may probably be a corruption of Moot-hill or Moat-
hill, and may signify the hill of meeting, — the seat
of judicial or baronial assemblage. The conventions
of the nobles are said to have been anciently held
on the eminence ; and the barons of the kingdom, it
is alleged, could receive investiture as lawfully, by
delivering earth and stone from it as by delivering
them from their own lands. About the year 1624,
when what remained of the old abbey church fell,
David, the first Viscount of Stormont, buut on the
Boot-hill an elegant parish-church. In the latter
part of last century, the whole of this building, ex
cept the aisle, was thrown down. On the north wall
of the aisle is a very stately marble monument, re
presenting the interior of a chapel or oratory, and
containing three statues, one of them as large as life,
to the memory of David, first Viscount of Stormont ;
and, on the east wall, is an elegant monument of
blue and white marhle, containing in a niche a
marble urn, with the embalmed heart of the de
ceased, to the memory of Lady Stormont, the first
wife of the 1st Earl of Mansfield  On ground
which may or may not have been the site of the
ancient royal palace, or of part of the buildings of
the abbey, stands the modern palace of Scone, or
¦Scone-house, the seat of the Earl of Mansfield, who

represents the old family of Stormont, The edifice
is in that style of architecture which prevailed about
two centuries ago, and, though heavy and cumbrous,
has more of a noble and venerable air than if it were
one of the most finished modern buildings. Its length
is 210 feet, and its breadth 105. The gallery,
situated on the east side, ceiled with timber and
arched, and decorated over the whole of one side
with paintings representing the successive stages of
a stag hunt, and introducing James VI. into every
scene, is 140 feet in length. In a chamber, called
the king's room, off the south end of the gallery, is
a bed of light orange-coloured damask satin, said to
have belonged to James VI. ; and in a chamber called
the queen's room, on the west side of the house, is
a bed of flowered crimson velvet, said to have been
the work of Queen Mary, when a prisoner in the
castle of Lochleven. Round the bouse, except on
the south-west, run a shrubbery and a plantation,
intersected with serpentine walks, and intermixed
with some of the finest and largest old trees in the
country. The view from the house to the west,
embracing the gorgeous slope to the Tay on the
foreground, the Tay itself, the town and vale, and
brilliant environs of Perth in the centre, and the
encircling Grampians at the distance of 15 miles on
the background, is one of the most charming which
can well be imagined. Eastward of the house the
grounds become a perfect labyrinth, a lavish profu
sion of shrubbery, nursery, garden, bower, and other
forms of embellishment. ¦ In the midst of this mass
of gay vegetation stands the market-cross of the an
cient village or town of Scone, — a narrow upright
stone, 13 feet high, ornamented at the top, and ris
ing from an octagonal pedestal which rests on a
quadrangular flight of steps. The cross has not, like
many other ancient market-crosses in Scotland, for
saken its town, but survives on its original sight
after its town has perished.
SCONSER, a hamlet, ferry-station, and seat of
a post-office, on the east coast of Skye. It is situ
ated on the south side of the entrance of Loch-
Sligichan,. 2A miles south-west of the south end
of the island of Raasay, 9 miles south-east of the
village of Portree, and 23 miles from the ferry of'
Kyle-Rhea, to which place the Sconser road extends.
SCOONIE, a parish in Fifeshire, forming the
west side of the bay of Largo, and at the estuary of
the river Leven. The coast is low and sandy, and
the surface of the parish rises gradually in swelling
knolls towards the northern extremity. Its extreme
length, from south to north, is about 4J miles ; its
breadth, at the south, about 2 miles, but gradually
narrowing towards the north, where it is scarcely
half-a-mile in breadth. On the south it is bounded
partly by the water of Leven, and partly by the frith
of Forth ; on the east by the parish of Largo ; by
the parish of Ceres on the north ; and bythe parishes
of Kettle, Kennoway, Markinch, and Wemyss on the
west. At the northern extremity of the parish the
three presbyteries of Cupar, St, Andrews, and Kirk
caldy meet together. The population of the parish,
in 1801, was 1,681 ; in 1831, 2,556. The number of
acres in the parish is about 3,855 ; of which there
are 3,250 under tillage ; 250 in pasture, but in pro
gress of being cultivated ; 250 under wood ; and 105
of uncultivated links. The average value of raw
agricultural produce raised yearly in the parish is
£14,050. The average rent of land varies from I6s.
to £4 per acre. The annual amount of real pro
perty for which the parish was assessed, in 1815, for
the property tax, was £6,779; the valued rent is
£5,452 Scots. The principal manufacture in the
parish is the spinning of flax and tow, and the manu
facturing of linen goods. In 1835 there were tive

SCO

643

SCO

mills for spinning flax and tow, in which 98 males
and 156 females were employed ; and 148 males and
22 females employed in hand-loom weaving. Besides
this there was a foundery for cast-iron, at which 45
males were employed ; one saw-mill and wood-yard,
at which 30 were employed; a bone-mill and a brick
and tile-work, at each of which 12 males were em
ployed ; and an ochre-mill employing 3 males. The
town of Leven, at the mouth of the river from which
it takes its name, has been described in a separate
article. The estate of Durie, which occupies the
southern portion of the parish — the town of Leven
being entirely feued from it — is the property of C.
Maitland Christie, Esq. The mansion-house, with
its pleasure-grounds, is situated to the north of
the town. Anciently this estate belonged to the
family of Durie of that ilk. Sir Alexander Gibson,
son of George Gibson of Goldingstons, had a char
ter of them in 1614. Sir Alexander was admitted,
in July 1621, an ordinary lord-of-session ; and, in
1628, he was created a baronet by Charles I. He
died at his house of Durie in 1661. He made a
collection of the decisions of the court-of-session,
from July 1621 to July 1642, which were afterwards
published by his grandson, and are known by the
name of ' Durie's Practicks.' He was unquestionably
one of the most eminent men of the time in which he
Uved  This parish is in the presbytery of Kirkcaldy,
and synod of Fife. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£257 19s. 5d. ; glebe £50. Unappropriated teinds
£288 7s. Id. The old parish-church, which be
longed to the priory of St. Andrews, was situated
in the churchyard, about | of a mile to the north of
the town of Leven. The present church was erected
near the town about 60 years ago ; and was en
larged and improved in 1822. It contains 1,000 sit
tings. — In the parish-school, besides the ordinary
branches of education, Greek, Latin, French, and
mathematics are taught. The teacher has, besides
his school-fees, the maximum salary, an excellent
dwelling-house, school-house, and an allowance for
deficiency of garde».-ground. There are also two
unendowed schools in the parish, at which the same
branches of education are taught as in thej parish-
school; and a school for young ladies  There is a
chapel in connection with the Relief synod, and an
Independent chapeli
SCOTLAND WELL, a village in the parish of
Portmoak, Kinross-shire. It stands at the south
west base of the West Lomond-hill, § of a mile east
of Loch-Leven, 1 mile south-east of Kinneswood,
and 5 miles south-east of Milnathort. Population
about 500. Many of the inhabitants are crofters of
tbe carse-ground which extends between this village
and Loch-Leven, and have, by their skilful culture,
greatly improved its soil and aspect. The parish-
church of Portmoak stands on the skirts of the hill
overlooking the village. In the vicinity are some
noted springs, whence the viUage is said, by some per
sons, to have received its name in the times of Crom
well : see Portmoak. An hospital, designated
Fons Scotiae, however, was founded here, toward
the middle of the 13th century, hy William Malvoi-
sine, bishop of St. Andrews, and was granted by his
successor, David de Benham, to a community of Red
friars. Some vestiges of the chapel of the monastery,
and of the accompanying cemetery,, amidst the gar
dens of the villagers, are the only remains of the
.establishment. SCOTSCRAIG. See Ferry-port-on-Craig.
SCOTS DYKE (The), an old ditch and em
bankment, about 4 miles in length, forming a part of
the march-line between England and Scotland. It
strikes off abruptly from the Esk, at a point about 4
miles north of Longtown, and runs west to the banks

of the Sark, which flows southwards to the Solway
frith, and which, from the point of contact with the
Scots Dyke, to its efflux in the Solway, forms the
boundary of the two countries. The small district
situated south of the Scots Dyke, and bounded on
the east by the Esk and on the west by the Sark,
used formerly to be known as the Debateable Land,
or, in other words, was claimed by both kingdoms.
Generally speaking, it is but a bleak district ; and
although the chief portion of the ground — which once
was covered with birch, alder, mountain-ash, and
various other trees that do not refuse to grow upon
upland and moorish soils — has long since been dis
forested, and though portions of the land have been
brought into cultivation, some parts of this tract are
still known by the names of sbaws and forests, be
sides which it continues to exhibit several extensive
wastes and morasses.
SCOTTISH CENTRAL RAILWAY.— This railway, whiehiri
the language of the Board of Trade " must be assumed as the
basis of a system of railway communication for the northern por
tion of Scotland," starts from the Edinburgh and Glasgowline
by two forks on the one side near Castlecary, and on the other at
Polmont, joining near Larbert. Passing through the Bannock
burn coalfield, the line crosses the Forth a short distance be
low the new bridge at Stirling ; runs along the flat ground by
Corn town, and crossing the Allan water near Keu'-bleachfield,
enters the valley of the Allan, immediately above the village.
Passing through Kippenross-park by a tunnel 704 yards in
length, it crosses the turnpike road through Dunblane close to
the inn, passes between the cathedral and the river, and fol
lows the course of the Allan to Kinbuck. From Einbuck the
valley opens out, and presents an even surface, as far as Green-
loaning, where we cross the turnpike road to Perth by Crieff.
The line then passes by the farm of Buttergask to the flat
ground at Blackford, and still keeping the course of the Allan,
it reaches the summit near Gleneagles. From this summit
the water flows on one side into the Allan, and from the other
into the Ruthven. We accordingly follow the course of the
Ruthven through Kincardine glen, and as far as Smiddyhaugh,
The line then passes by Stratbie, Masterfield, and Tnverdunn-
ing, and crosses over the road from Dunning to Perth near For- ,
teviot-bridge. Following the low ground below Condie and
Rossie, we cross the Earn near Dumbarney, and running
parallel to the course of the great north road, and passing
through Moncrieff-hill by a tunnel 990 yards in length, the
section terminates on the South Inch in front of Marshall-
place. The total length of tho railway is 45 miles 6 chains. The
bridges over the Forth and the Earn, and the tunnel through
Moncrieff-hill, although the heaviest works ou the line, are not
formidable ; and for 22 miles out of 31, there is little to do
beyond the mere forming of the road. The estimated cost is
£850,000. The company by which this line was , projected
have now united with the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway
company, in one common directory.
SCOTTISH MIDLAND JUNCTION RAILWAY.— This line
may be considered as a continuation line from Perth to For
far, of the Scottish Central line. It is a double line, and 30
miles 65 chains in length, with a branch connecting it with
the Scottish Central railway of 1 mile 66 chains in length, and
another at its northern extremity, connecting it with the
Arbroath and Forfar railway, 1 mile and 21 chains in length.
It passes through the rich valley of Strathmore. Its steepest
gradient is 1 in 125. Branches are contemplated to Blair
gowrie and to Kirriemuir, and a connection with Dundee by
the improvement of the Dundee and Newtyle railway. A com
pany has also been formed for extending this line to Brechin,
and thence to Montrose and Laurencekirk, and thus to place it
in connection with the Aberdeen coast-line.
SCOUGAL, a chapelry in the ancient parish of
Aldbam, incorporated with that of Whitekirk in
Haddingtonshire. The chapel, now in ruins, is
about 4 miles east -north -east of North Berwick.
The family of Scougal produced some eminent
men. SCOURIE, or Scoury, a village and small sea
port in the parish of Edderachylis, on the west
coast of Sutherlandshire. It stands on a small bay
of its own name, at the west end of the road through
Sutherlandshire, by Loch-Shin, from the Dornoch
frith ; and, by sea, is 9£ miles north-east by north of
the headland called Ru-store, and 21 miles south of
Cape Wrath. The township, except where it looks
out upon the bay, is quite surrounded by an amphi
theatre of rugged ledges of rock ; and the land is
comparatively verdant and arable, and possesses the
attractions of contrast to the 'sterile and rocky sur-

SCR

644

SEA

face of the mountain-screens. The viUage is the
site of the parish-school, a reading-club, a savings'
bank, a new and good inn. The bay of Scourie is
only about a mile in length ; and it opens upon the
inhabited island of Handa, a place of curious cliffs
and of horizontal basaltic columns, the retreat of pro
digious numbers of sea-fowl, and altogether one of
the most wonderful objects on the west coast of
Scotland : see Handa  In the 1 6th century a branch
of the Mackays, by iniquitous measures which are
detailed in our article on Edderachtlis [which
see], took possession of the south- western part of
Whai came to be called Lord Reay's country, and
adopting Scourie as the seat and centre of their in
fluence, assumed the designation of the Mackays of
Scourie. One of this race was Lieutenant-general
Hugh Mackay, the celebrated commander-in-chief in
the reign of William and Mary. He fought against
Dundee at Killiecrankie, and displayed much military
skill in his retreat; he had brilliant military suc
cesses in Ireland, particularly at the battle of the
Shannon ; and he commanded the British division of'
the grand army at the siege of Namur. He ran so dis
tinguished a career that he was to have been reward
ed with the title of Earl of Scourie, but suffered utter
damage, as is said, from the intrigues of his rival,
Mackenzie of Cromarty.
SCRABSTER, the upper, or interior part of
Thurso-bay, on the north coast of Caithness-shire.
The anchorage in Scrabster-roadstead is under high
cliffs in a westerly recess of the bay, and is good, and
sufficiently screened from westerly winds. The en
tire bay, whose parts are respectively caUed Dunnet,
Castletown, Murkle, Thurso, and Scrabster, is pro
tected on the east side by Dunnet-head, and on
the west side by Holburn-head, two of the boldest
headlands on the north , sea. Proposals are now in
circulation for the formation of a harbour here, which
would be of great advantage to the Reay country
from Loch-Inver to Tongue. In the centre of a
crescent-formed bank which skirts the head of Scrab-
ster-bay, and about half-a-mUe west of Thurso,
beautifully overlooking the sea, are the ruins, or
rather the reduced vestiges, of Scrabster-castle, an
ciently a residence of the Bishops of Caithness, and
afterwards a fortalice of the crown. Enough of ves
tiges remain to indicate that the place was large and
strong. In the 12th century John, Bishop of Caith
ness, was here tortured by the cutting out of his
tongue and the puUing out of his eyes, and was after
wards cruelly put to death ; and, in the following
century, Adam, another Bishop of Caithness, was,
at Halkirk, dragged by the hair, scourged with rods,
and boiled to death in a large cauldron.
SCRAPE, a mountain on the boundary between
Drummelzier and Manor, Peebles-shire. It is round-
backed, consists of greywacke veined with quartz,
has an altitude, above sea-level, of 2,800 feet, and
commands an extensive and interesting prospect.
Along its top are traces of a road which is supposed
to have been Roman, and which probably connected
the camp at Lyne with the great road from Carlisle;
up Annandale and down Lanarkshire. " The tap o'
Scrape," says a contemporary, " is the object of ob
jurgatory proverb in Tweeddale."
SCRIDEN, a place of sublime magnificence on
the declivity of Goatfell, near Sannox, jn the island
of Arran. A prolonged and stupendous hanging file
of loose masses of rock, confusedly and fantastically
segregated, and looking a tremendous torrent of boul
ders, seems ready to overwhelm everything beneath
in an apparently impending fall. " A large portion
of the mountain," says Dr. Macculloch, " has fallen
from above, Btrewing the long declivity with immense
masses of fragments, which, in their progress, have

covered the shore with ruins. The aspect and the
combinations of these groups of broken rock are
varied at every instant in proceeding along the shore;
while in every point of view they are equally grand
and equally picturesque. As the eye ranges along
the steep descent on which they lie, the retiring
aerial perspective seems almost to obscure the sum
mit, confounding it with the sky ; while the spec
tator can scarcely avoid making a hasty retreat from
a torrent of rock which seems about to overwhelm
him with its ruins, and which, even now, appears in
all the activity of motion. They who have had the
good fortune to witness the avalanche of a mountain
of ice may perhaps imagine the effects of that, of
which no phenomenon of less magnitude can convey
an adequate conception." — [Western Islands.]
SCURE-EIGG. See Eigg.
SEAFIELD, a hamlet and small port in the par
ish of Kinghorn, Fifeshire. There is a sufficient
depth of water at Seafield for vessels of the largest
class, at all states of the tide ; and a harbour and
pier could be here constructed, with good shelter
from easterly winds, at a moderate expense. Tbe
depth of water in this harbour would be 1 1 feet at
the lowest spring ebbs, and 28 feet at high water.
The estimate for the full execution of this plan —
which has been projected — is £30,000 ; but a pier,
on a modified scale, might be executed for £7,000,
in consequence of almost the whole materials re
quired being found on the spot. At low water of
ordinary spring tides, there would be 8 feet water at
the landing-slip ; 800 feet of wharfage in the tide-
harbour, and good shelter from easterly winds. A
level road could connect the harbour with Kirk
caldy in the meantime, and a railroad might easily be
formed between these places. Additional accommo
dation, when wanted, will be found either on the
south or north of Seafield-tower. A natural ravine
on the south could be very cheaply formed into deep
wet and graving docks of great extent, fit for the re
ception of the largest ships of the navy.
SEAFORTH (Loch), a projection of the sea on
the east coast of Lewis, iii the Long Island. It is
6A miles wide at the entrance, and, for 5J miles,
bears north-Westward, and gradually diminishes to
a breadth of J of a mile; it then bears 71. miles
northward, with a breadth varying between 2J
miles and J of a mile, and embosoming in one
place an island of its own name I.V mile long ; and
it finally goes off from the head of 'the northward
part in two arms westward and eastward, 1 mile
and 2$ miles, with a mean breadth of probably 3
furlongs. Over 9 miles from its entrance, it di
vides Lewis from Harris ; and over the rest of its
length it penetrates the Lewis parish of Lochs.
The mountains around its entrance rise to a great
height, and, together with much grandeur of out
line, form groups of highly-picturesque composition.
In all the narrow or central and upper part, the
loch, being environed with lofty ground, and form
ing a stupendous natural canal, is gloomjT and im
pressively sequestered, and seldom has its silence
broken except by the rush of waters, the roar of
winds, or the bleating of the mountain-scaling sheep.
Of numerous bays which are formed by the wendings
of the loch round projecting headlands, Marig is both
the most picturesque and the most useful; it re
cedes behind Seaforth island, and is completely land
locked; and, while forming an excellent natural har
bour, it presents an extraordinary scene of wild mag
nificence. The loch, though frequented by shipping,
is subject, from the clefts of the surrounding moun
tains, to sudden squalls and gusts, which render its
anchorage not altogether safe. At a shoal, 3 or 4
miles above Seaforth island, the current of a spring

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645

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tide runs at the rate of 8 miles an hour, and makes a
noise which, in calm weather-, can he heard at the
distance of several miles. This shoal cannot be
passed by boats except near high water. — Seaforth
gave the title of Earl to a branch of the family of
Mackenzie, created Baron Mackenzie of Kintail in
1609, and Earl of Seaforth in 1623. The earldom
became attainted, in 1716, in the person of WiUiam,
the 5th Earl ; and is believed to be represented by
George F. Mackenzie, Esq. of Allangrange.
SEAMAB. See Muckart.
SEAMMADALE (Loch), a small fresh-water
lake; in the parish of Kilninver, Mid-Lorn, Argyle
shire. It extends about 2 miles from east to west,
and sends off the small river Euchar 5 miles west
ward to Loch - Feochan, a little below Kilninver
church. SEATON, or Seton, an ancient parish in Had
dingtonshire, annexed, after the Reformation, to
Tranent. The church, whose nucleus or original pile
was very old, stood near the mansion-house of the
Setons, and enclosed their family-tomb, and received
from them whatever decorations and endowments
their proud superstition imagined would add to its
sacredness and utility. In the beginning of the reign
of Robert III. Catherine Sinclair of Hermandston,
the widow of Lord William Seton, " biggit an yle
on the south side of the kirk, of fine astlar, pend it,
and theikit it with stane, with an sepulchar there
in, where she lies ; and founded an priest to serve
there perpetually. This lady, in her widowhood,
dwelt where now" — in the days of old Sir Richard
Maitland — "are the priests' chambers in Seton, and
planted and made aU their yard that they have got at
this day, and held an gret house and an honourable."
In 1493, George, Lord Seton, erected the church
into a collegiate establishment for a provost, six pre
bendaries, two singing boys, and a clerk ; and as
signed for their support the tithes of the church,
and various chaplainries which had been established
in it by his ancestors. At various dates, other mem
bers of the family made additions to the edifice,
multiplied its decorations, increased its wealth, and
erected within it some sumptuous monuments. In
1544, the English invaders under the Earl of Hert
ford, whUe destroying Seton castle, spoiled the
church, and " tuk away the bellis and organis and
other tursable tbingis, and pat thame in thair schip-
pis, and brint the tymber-wark within the said kirk. "
The edifice suffered much amidst subsequent com
motions ; and is now one of the most cadaverous,
care-worn, and beggared relics of architectural gran
deur which the kingdom contains. It was, while
undamaged, a handsome, perhaps superb, Gothic
structure, with a spire ; but its doors and windows
are plugged with melancholy planks of coarse un
shaven timber, its floor is fractured and pulverized,
its tombs are outraged and disembowelled, its walls
and monuments are coated over with moisture and
dirt, and its whole condition is the squalid and
repulsive transition-point at which all the life and
the attractions of undilapidated architecture have
ceased, and the still and deathlike but venerable and
impressive beauties of architectural ruin have not
begun  The palace of Seton, or Seton-house, built
in the reign of James VI., and one of a class which
excelled in taste and elegance any mansions which
were built during the next three or four reigns, was
esteemed, at the period, much the most magnificently
constructed and furnitured house in Scotland. It
had gardens and terrace walks which, as well as its
apartments, were the delight of kings. Drawings of
•it taken by Grose, in 1789, immediately before its
demolition, show it to have consisted, like Ken
mure, -and some other mansions contemporaneous

with it in date, of two sides of a quadrangle, united
by a rampart When, in 1603, James VI. was on
his way to take possession of his English crown, he
met the funeral of the 1st Earl of Seton, who had
been one of the closest adherents of Mary, and who,
along with two of his children, figures so conspicu
ously in Sir Walter Scott's tale of ' the Abbot ;'
and he halted his retinue, and, till the funeral passed,
seated himself on a small part of the building which
still remains entire in the vicinity of the present
road. In 1617, the same monarch, when revisiting
his native kingdom, spent at Seton his second night
after crossing the Tweed ; and, at a subsequent pe
riod, Charles I. and his court were entertained here,
when on a progress through Scotland. — The Setons
obtained, in the reign of William the Lion, a char
ter of the lands of Seton, Winton, and Winchburgn.
Alexander de Seton, one of the family line, and the
nephew of Robert Bruce, obtained from his royal
uncle the manor of Tranent, and other extensive
possessions of the noble family of De Quincy, at
tainted by espousal of the cause of Edward. The
Setons became one of the richest and most influ
ential families in Scotland ; they were connected by
intermarriage with all the principal families of the
country ; and, by giving younger sons to the heir
esses of Gordon and Eglinton, they, in fact, though
not in name, transmuted these two great families into
Setons. They became Lords Seton in the 14th
century, and Earls of Winton and Lords Tranent in
1600; and they were attainted, in 1716, in the per
son of Geqrge, the 5th Earl, for his participation in
the rebelUon of the preceding year. The Barons of
Seton trace their descent back to Saber de Setoun,
who lived in the beginning of the 1 2th century, and
the earliest records in Scotland establish thai their
ancestors then flourished as the Baronial family of
Seton, the possessors holding in capite of the Crown
the extensive properties of Seton and Winton in
East Lothian, and of Winchburgh, the principal
castle of which was Niddry in Linlithgowshire, and
all of which except the last they continued to enjoy
until 1715. The family became ennobled in the per
son of William, the 1 st Lord Seaton, who lived pre
vious to 1 366, and it is recorded of this nobleman,
that he " was the first creatit and maid Lord in the
parliament, and he and his posteritie to have ane
voit yairin and be callit Lordis." Accordingly, in
the Records of the Scottish parliament, held at
Scone, 26th March, 1371, at the coronation of Ro
bert II., William de Seton is named among the
" Nobiles Barones" as " Dominus de Seton." It is
related, too, that a chivalrous successor, George,
7th Lord Seaton, the gallant and devoted adherent
of Mary Queen of Scots, declined the dignity of earl
dom, being unwilling to forego what he considered a
great distinction, and that his accomplished Sove
reign commemorated the fact in the following lines ;
" Sunt Comites, Ducesque alii, sunt denioue Reges,
Setoni Dominium, sit satis esBe mini."
From the earliest period the family of Seaton have
stood prominent in the history of Scotland. Their
military ardour, and their dauntless and patriotic bear
ing, appear from their ancient war-cry of " Sett-on,"
and from their earliest motto, still borne by their
descendants, of "Hazard yet forward." It was in
consequence of so many other noble families having
sprung from them that the Barons of Seton were
styled " Magna? Nobilitatis Domini," and of their in
termarriages, upon four different occasions, with the
royal family, that their shield obtained the addition
of the royal or double treasure. A recent authority,
following up tbe learned Anderson in his Diplomata
Scotia, states that the house of Winton, " on ac-

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646

SEL

count of its innumerable high connections and rami
fications, may now be held the noblest in North Bri
tain." The unshaken loyalty with which the family
ever supported the throne of Scotland, is marked by
another of their mottos — " Intaminatis fulget hono-
ribus"  and it was this heroic spjrit and steady
loyalty to the ancient dynasty of their country that
led to the forfeiture of the estates in 1715, and left
the high honours which they bore in abeyance for a
time. The estates which ihe family held were of
princely extent, and the chief seat was recognised in
ihe royal charters as the palace of Seton, in conse
quence of its being often the place of royal enter-
tainment, and which had also for ages been the scene
of great magnificence and splendid hospitality. The
representation is claimed both by the Earl of Eglin
ton and by George Seton, Esq.
SEATOWN. See Errol.
SEIL, an island of the Hebrides, in the parish of
Kilbrandon, Argyleshire. It lies 4 miles south of Ker-
rera, and 6£ miles south-east of Mull ; and is sepa
rated on the east by a very narrow strait from ihe
mainland district of Nether Lorn ; on the south by
sounds of 2 or 3 furlongs broad from Torsa and
Luing ; and on the west by sounds of half-a-mile,
and 1 mile in breadth from Easdale and Sheep Isle.
It measures i\ miles in extreme length from north
to south, and 2£ miles in extreme breadth ; but is
much indented by the sea, and has a very irregular
outline. Its surface is disposed in three parallel
ridges, two intervening valleys, and a belt of plain
along part of the shore. The northern ridge, which
is the highest and most rugged, attains an appa
rent altitude of upwards of 800 feet, and presents to
the sea on the north side of the island a series of
naked precipices. The middle ridge is prolonged
more decidedly than the former, and in a north-east
erly direction ; it does not acquire an elevation of
more than 400 feet ; and, though in many parts
presenting faces of bare rock, it descends at each
end to the sea in flat and verdant shores. The south
ern ridge is low and narrow ; it extends from side to
side of the island in the same direction as the for
mer ; it is distinguished even at a distance by its
grey colour and its numerous protrusions of bare
rock ; and it is succeeded on the south-east by a flat
shore, much indented, but verdant and fertile. Clay
slate, in several varieties, constitutes the larger part
of the island ; but, in consequence of the immediate
vicinity of the superior slate of Easdale, it is not very
extensively worked. The soil, wherever the form
of fhe ground admits of cultivation, is good, well-
swarded, and capable of high culture. Several sum
mits of ihe ridges command pleasant views of the
intricate channels, and numerous islands along the
coast of Lorn, and of the distant mountains of Mull
and Jura. The east side of the island, and the con
fronting land in Lorn, form, with the intervening
strait, a series of very rich class landscapes. The
strait somewhat resembles the famed Kyles of Bute,
but is more isleted, more romantically narrow, and
riper in those flexures of channel and projections of
land which seem to prohibit farther progress. The
shores, on the Seil side, now lofty and now low, are
finely variegated with arable fields, green meadows,
waving trees, and rugged rocks ; and on the Lorn
side they are high, extensively sheeted with hanging
wood, and romantically varied with ornamental cul
ture, wood-embosomed cliffs, and sharply receding
bays and creeks. The straits between these shores
is at least 3 miles in length ; and, over most of
this distance, it rarely exceeds 200 yards in breadth,
and in one place toward the north, contracts for a
considerable way to a breadth of only 50 or 60
yards. The tidal stream, running with considerable

velocity through this passage, generally wears the
appearance of a great inland mountain river ; and
it betrays its marine connexions only at low water
when the rocks look up with a shaggy dress of
sea-weed. The water is sufficiently deep at half
tide to admit the passage of the boats of the coun
try; and across the narrowest part of the strait
strides a bridge of one large arch to maintain com
munication between the island and the main land, —
the only provision of its class in Britain excepting
two bridges upon a small scale in Shetland, and the
superb bridge of Menai between Anglesea and con
tinental Wales. Not only in the strait along the east
side of Seil, says a writer to whom we owe much,
" but throughout the whole complicated strait which
separates Torsa, Luing, Shuna, and Seil from each
other, and from the main land, scenes of the most
entertaining class of picturesque beauty occur. The
islands, in endless variety of form, are washed by
winding seas, and diversified with rocks and wood,
while they are enlivened by human habitations, im
proved cultivation, and by the countless boats and
ships that navigate these straits ; the varied moun
tains of Mull and of the Appin and Morven lands,
rising blue in the distance."
SELKIRK, a parish partly in the north-west
verge of Roxburghshire, and partly in the east of
Selkirkshire. It consists of a main division, and
two detachments. The main part lies principally
in Selkirkshire, and has the burgh of Selkirk nearly
in its centre, yet overleaps the boundary with Rox
burghshire, to the extent of 2A miles by 1. It is
bounded on the north by the Tweed, which divides
it from Stow and Galashiels ; on the east by Gala
shiels and Bowden ; on the south-east by Lilliesleaf
and Ashkirk; and on the south and the west by
Yarrow. One of the detached parts is situated
wholly in Roxburghshire; lies IA mile south of the
nearest part of the main hody ; is partly bounded by
the Ale; measures 2A miles by 1J, but resembles a
heart or blunted triangle in outline; and is sur
rounded by Ashkirk, Lilliesleaf, Minto, and Wilton.
The other detached part is all situated in Selkirk
shire, but stretches along its verge ; it lies 2 mites
south of the nearest part of the main body, and 2A
miles west of the Roxburghshire detached district;
it measures 2J miles by J ; and it is surrounded by
Yarrow, Ashkirk, and Roberton. The greatest
length of the main body, from north-west to south
east, is 7^ miles ; and the greatest breadth of it is 7
miles. The area of the whole parish, as stated by
no fewer than four authorities, is only 10 square
miles ; but seems to us, both from data which these
authorities themselves furnish, and from rapid mea
surement on the map, to be five or six times that
extent. The main division is cut into not very un
equal parts by the Ettrick, and washed on the west
by the Yarrow. The banks of the FAtrick possess
much quiet beauty and soft picturesqueness ; and add
to their own variety of slope and abruptness and
haugh and hill-screen, as much well-arranged wood
as largely compensates for their denudation of their
ancient thickly-feathered forest. The Tweed courses
along the boundary amid a profusion of wood, and
looks as if still enjoying the wild freedom and bask
ing in the warm umbrage of the period, when the
beasts of the chase came down in herds to lave its
pure waters. The Yarrow, for 2 miles above its
connexion with the parish, and onward to the Et.
trick, exhibits nature in a bold and striking aspect;
cutting its turbid course along an ingulphing hollow
of rugged rocks, richly overhung by its native woods,
and exhibiting in a freshet the wild tumultuousness
which it displayed to Thomson when he saw it; 
" Work and boil and foam and thunder through. »•

SELKIRK.

647

On its left bank are the modern mansion and wooded
grounds of Broadmeadows, — the farm of Foulshiels,
where Mungo Park, the African traveller, was born,
— the beautiful and richly sylvan lands of Harehead
and Hareheadwood ; and on its right are Philip-
haugh-house, situated on a hill, overlooking the
wooded Carterhaugh and the confluence of the stream
with the Ettrick, — the modern and elegant ducal
pile of Bowhill, diving amongst a sea of forest, —
and chief of all, Newark Castle, [which see,] the
place where ' the Last Minstrel' sung his ' Lay,' and
the spot where afterwards
" Arose the Minstrel's lowly bower;
A simple hut : but there were seen
The little garden edged with green.
The cheerful hearth and lattice clean.
Tliere sheltered wanderers by the blnze
Oft heard the tale of other days ;
For much he loved to ope his dour,
And give the aid he begged before.
Si> passed the winter's day , but still.
When summer smiled on sweet Bowhill,
And July's eve, with balmy breath,
Waved the blue bells on Newark-heath,
When throstles sung in Hat-ehead.shau'
And corn was green on Carterhaugh,
And flourished broad Blackandro's oak,
The aged harper's soul awoke !
Then would lie sing schievements high,
And circumstance of chivalry,
Till the wrapt traveller would Btay,
Forgetful of the closing day ;
And noble youths, the strain to hear,
Forsook the hunting of the deer;
And Yarrow, as be rolled along,
Bore burden to the Minstrel's song.'
The surface of the parish is all of a hilly character;
but from resting on a high base, and having a tolling
and softly-featured contour, possesses much less of
an upland appearance than many a district of not
half its hilliness. The grounds on the east side of
the Ettrick are all green, and may be called swells
and undulations rather than hills. The heights be
tween the Ettrick and the Tweed are heath-clad
and lofty. Peatlaw and the Three Brethren cairn
are the most elevated, and respectively rise 1,964
and 1,978 feet above sea-level, or 1,604 and 1,618
feet above the level of the Ettrick's bed at Selkirk.
The proportions of the parochial area which are pas
toral, arable, and under wood, are to one another re
spectively as 15, 12, and 5. The white-faced breed
of sheep walk the pastures, to the exclusion almost
entirely both of cattle, and of other varieties of their
own species. The soil of the arable grounds is light
and dry, and yields a comparatively early harvest.
The prevailing rocks are greywacke and greywacke-
slate. In addition to the mansions incidentally men
tioned, Haining and Sunderland-hall are elegant
seats. Oakwood-tower, a ruin in the peninsula
between the Ettrick and Wool-burn, and now the
property of Scott of Harden, is famous as the resi
dence of the wizard Sir Michael Scott, and as the
scene of some traditions and legendary tales in which
be figures. On the Ettrick, immediately below the
influx of the Yarrow, is the battle-field of Philip
haugh : which see. Andrew Pringle, LoVd Ale-
moor, a lord-of-3ession during the last century, and
a distinguished scholar and orator, was a native and
proprietor of the lands of Haining. Roads are car
ried along all the three principal streams, and, in four
lines eastward from that on the right bank of the
Ettrick. Population, in 1801, 2,098; in 1831,
2,833. Houses 435. Assessed property, in 1815,
£20,397.  Selkirk is the seat of a presbytery, in the
synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the Duke
of Roxburgh. Stipend £275 5s. 9d. ; glebe not
stated. Unappropriated teinds £897 6s. 1 Id. The
parish-church was built in 1749, and last repaired in
1829. Sittings nearly 800 — A United Secession
congregation was established in the parish about the

year 1752. Their present place of worship was
built in 1805, at an expense, with subsequent re
pairs and improvements, of £1,247 7s. lOd. Sittings
856. Stipend £160. — A preaching-station, in con-
nexion with the Secession, is maintained in summer at
Hope-house, and, in 1835, had an attendance of about
200. The population, according to an ecclesiastical
survey in 1836, was then 3,064, and was about to ex
perience an increase of probably 300 from an influx
of factory operatives. The 3,064 were distributed
into 1,179 churchmen, 923 dissenters, 41 nonde
scripts, and 921 persons below 12 years of age. — The
parish-school has attached to it a boarding establish
ment, and affords a very wide range of tuition, in
cluding classes, and continental languages and some
departments of physical science. The master em
ploys two assistants, and has, including allowance
for a house, £50 of salary, and about £80 fees. In
1834, the parish-school was attended by 101 scho
lars ; and 7 other schools were conducted by eight
teachers, and attended by 352 scholars. — The earliest
church of the district was simply the chapel of the
King's court, and arose from a royal hunting-seat
having been established in the Forest. It hence, in
the old unrefined English of that age, was called
Sele-chyrche, ' the great or the good church.' When
the abbey — to be mentioned in our notice of the
town — sprang into existence, and occasioned the
erection of a new village under the name of Sel-
kiik-Abbatis, and flung upon tbe old village the
distinctive appellation of Selkirk-Regis, David I.
gave his church, situated in the latter village, to
the abbot, on condition of his acting as chaplain to
the royal castle. In the ancient statement of the
property of the monks of Kelso, the successors or
representatives of the monks of Selkirk, they say
that they had the church of Selkirk-Regis " in rec-
toria," and also the church of Selkirk- Abbatis " in
rectoria," respectively worth £20 and £2 a-year.
How long the two churches remained separate is not
known ; for, as distinct churches, they are forgotten
by tradition, and exhibited only in recondite record;
but they were probably conjoined at some period by
the abbot, that he might pocket the proceeds requi
site to support one of the curates.
Selkirk, a royal burgh and county town, stands
on the mailroad between Edinburgh and Carlisle, 6
miles south of Galashiels, 7 south-west of Melrose,
11 north-north-west of Hawick, 22 east-south-east
of Peebles, and 36 south-south-east of Edinburgh,
Its site is chiefly the summit, and partly the slope,
of a high and irregular bank or terrace which flanks
a beautiful haugh of the right bank of the Ettrick.
During about 7 centuries, and down to the com
mencement of the present century, it sat in almost
utter seclusion from the world, and scarcely main
tained its ancient and not very important bulk against
the abrasions of time. Its situation, away from any
thoroughfare except a mountain one between Edin
burgh and Carlisle, and accessible on one side only
through a wilderness of wild upland moors, and on
the other only by a circuitous and steep ascent up,
the bank which ii surmounts, seemed to have quite
incapacitated it for sharing in the modern improve
ments of Scottish towns. It was all iU-built, irre
gular, and of mean appearance; and looked like a
ten times repaired edifice, originally strong, and
toughly tenacious of existence, yet quite time-worn,
half-ruinous, nodding to decay, and threatened with
desertion. Now, however, it begins to look spruce
and prosperous ; it has a street or two entirely new
and neatly edificed ; it possesses many elegant' pri
vate residences ; it is adorned with several modern
and public pieces of architecture; it experiences the
exhilaration of manufacture and trade; it is kept

643

SELKIRK.

cleanly in its thoroughfares, and lighted at night
with gas ; and though still retaining much of the
wo-begone street-lines of the days of its. dinginess,
it resembles, on the whole, a vernal landscape which,
while it continues to exhibit the peelings and the
scratchings of winter, has donned much of the meek
gay dress of the expanding foliage. The ancient
access from all places on the further side of the
Ettrick advanced up the Philiphaugh, and crossed a
venerable bridge, which still stands and is strong
and serviceable, and, by a circuitous sweep, climbed
laboriously up the bank, so as to enter the burgh
from the south or south-west ; but the modern ac
cess crosses the Ettrick by a new and handsome
bridge not far above the confluence with the Tweed,
and runs thence up a haugh along the right bank of
the stream till within £ of a mile of the burgh, and
then slowly, and with a very slight curvature, and a
beautiful sheet of roadway, ascends the terrace, lined
for a great way with neai new houses, and entering
the body of the town at the point of the greatest
thoroughfare. The chief and central part of the
burgh is the market-place, a very spacious triangular
area, picturesque in appearance, and airily commo
dious for fair and market. This area, on the side
parallel with the river, receives the new Edinburgh
road, and, at the south-west angle, receives the old
access ; and at other points it sends off thorough
fares which, combinedly with the two thoroughfares
to the Ettrick, all having the market-place for their
body, give the plan of the town somewhat of the
general outline of a crab. The longest of the streets
is the Townhead, which goes off wendingly on the
east, and climbs the lower acclivities of the slowly
ascending moors on the way to Hawick. On the
south-west, or shortest side of the market-place,
finely overlooking the large area, stands the town-
hall, a neat modern erection, winged with good
houses whose ground-floors are disposed in large
shops, — surmounted by an elegant spire of 1 10 feet
in height, — and arranged in tbe interior into apart
ments for the burgh and sheriff courts, and for public
meetings, and a library. — In the open area of the
market-place stands a very conspicuous public well,
embeUished with the town-arms, and a monument
erected, by the county, in 1839, to the memory of Sir
Walter Scott. The latter structure is beautiful, and
does much honour to the genius of Mr. Ritchie, of
Musselburgh, the sculptor. The pedestal is erected
upon a broad base, 14 feet square, and measures 20
feet from the ground to the plinth on which Sir
Walter stands.* The statue measures from 7 to 8
feet in height. The whole is sculptured from large
blocks of the finest freestone, and protected by a
handsome iron-railing.. Sir Walter is represented in
his Sheriff's gown — one hand holds a law process,
the other rests on his staff; on one side the base
contains the inscription, which is as follows : —
" Erected in August 1839,
In proud and affectionate, remembrance
on"
SIR WALTER SCOTT, BARONET,
Sheriff of the County
FROM
1800 to 1832."
" By Yarrow's stream Btill let roe Btray,
Though none should guide my feeble way,
Still feel the breeze down Ettrick break,
Although it chill my withered cheek."
The other three sides are ornamented with the burgh
arms. A thistle, forming a magnificent wreath, and
the arms of Sir Walter Scott, complete the fourth
Bide; over these the pedestal rises with much ele
gance, the die of it bearing a winged harp with laurel
wreaths, as if flying round the feet of the Bard, with
the word ' Waverley.' The cornice is well-brought
out and finished in excellent taste. A curious struc

ture, which served as a market-cross, once stood
also in the area; but, by that extraordinary fatality,
that strange perversion of taste which seems to have
for half-a-century swept like a simoom over the in
tellects of the town-councils of Scotland, it was
dealt with as an obstructor of tbe thoroughfare, and
delivered to the Gothic admiration of the quarriers
of old stones. The ancient tolbooth, and the stalls
of the old flesh-market likewise, stood in the fine
open area : and, without any person's having cause
to regret them, have disappeared. The'new prison
stands in the new street leading down to the Ettrick ;
but, while semi-ornamental, does not seem to be
very secure. The two places of worship in the
town are of plain but not repulsive appearance. Of
two good inns, the larger stands on the side of the
market-place which is parallel with the river, is
large and commodious, has a spacious room for balls
and public meetings, and enjoys the patronage of the
gentlemen of the county.
An inkle-factory of long standing, but never of
any great importance, has become defunct. A small
tan-work, about half-a-mile east of the town, is re
markable more for the length of time it has existed,
than for the amount of work it has performed. A
small fulUng-mill and some stocking-looms employ a
very few workmen. But three large woollen facto
ries of quite recent origin, situated on the river, at
the debouch of the new Edinburgh road, amply com
pensate the want or paucity of other manufactures.
One, known by the designation of the Ettrick mills,
belonging to Messrs. J. & H. Brown & Co., and an
other, called the Dunsdale factory, which is occu
pied at present by several parties, were erected or
brought into operation about the end of 1836. The
other, belonging to Messrs. G. Roberts & Co. of Gala
shiels, was erected during the summer of the present
year [1842], and is scarcely yet in full operation. The
waterfall upon which it is built belonged to the cor
poration of the burgh ; and they having agreed among '
themselves to dispose of it for £40, it was put up to
auction in 1838, and was so sharply competed for as
to be knocked down at £210. The fabrics pro
duced, and the wages earned, are generally the same
as at Galashiels. While in the model-room, at the .
last meeting of the British Association at Glasgow,-
splendid carpets, in imitation of the rich produce of
the looms of Turkey, flaunted conspicuously in the
view, an extremely modest, but on that account at
tractive, space was occupied by some varieties of the
fabrics woven at the Ettrick mills. This description
of cloth, known technically by the name of ' Tweeds,'
and, until very lately, exclusively of Scottish manu
facture, comprehends those kinds of soft and elastic
woollen goods, of every variety of checks and mix
tures, which are now so generally in demand for
trousers, coats, hunting jackets, &c. The finer
sorts are undoubtedly beautiful articles, — they have
a soft flannelly feel, and are, without exaggeration,
the lightest and most comfortable dress that can be
worn. The manufacture in question is compara
tively new, and such has been the success of those
who have embarked in it, and the proven durability
and comfort of its productions, that in the course of
little more than ten years, it has become an estab
lished and extensive branch of our National trade,
and competes successfully with the long-estabUshed
fabrics of Yorkshire and the West of England. Its
variegated productions, comprising an immense num
ber of singularly rich and beautiful tartans, and its
' brown and red,' and ' brown and green,' and 'black
and orange heathers,' imitations, and successful
ones, of the complexion of the Scottish mountains
when the heather is in leaf and bloom, have found
their way to every quarter of the world. The trade

SELKIRK.

649

in Tweeds is no doubt carried on, and that to great
advantage, in other parts of Scotland; but a steady,
even an increasing demand, during a long period of
unparalleled depression, may suffer to indicate intel
ligibly enough the superior quality of those manu
factured at the Ettrick mills. There has also been
erected, during last summer, on the margin of the
river in the neighbourhood of the mills, a large and
commodious machine-maker's shop, belonging to
Messrs. OUver & Bathgate, in which, at present,
there are upwards of 30 hands busily employed.
Machinery of almost every description, and of a su
perior quality, is now regularly manufactured by
these enterprising individuals, and in certain depart
ments of the trade, they have been enabled to sus
tain a successful competition with the first and best
established houses of the country. This may be
regarded as one of the happy consequences that have
resulted from the erection of the woollen-mills in
this locality, and affords another proof of what en
terprise combined with talent may accomphsh. The
woollen manufacture has been, with a very trifling
exception, confined for centuries to England. It
was only fairly naturalized in Scotland within the
last 25 years.
The manufacture of thin or single-soled shoes, it
is well-known, was anciently so considerable and
dominant a craft, as to give the name of Sutors to
the whole body of burgesses. A song, familiar to
most persons in the south of Scotland, has for its
first verse :
" Up wi* the Sutors o1 Selkirk,
And down with the Earl of Hume !
And up wi' a' the braw lads
That sew the single-soled shoon !"
These words have been the subject of fifty times
more literary controversy than they are worth; and
— in the face, or with some critical explosion, of the
facts, that there was no Earl of Home till the year
1604, and that the Selkirk burgess who performed
the chief feat at Flodden was a weaver — they have
been generally construed by antiquaries who have
commented on them, to refer to the poltroonery of
Lord Hume on the one hand, and the bravery of the
Selkirk shoemakers on the other, at the stern con
flict of Flodden. The sutors, at all events, are said
to have been so prevailing and ascendant a body at
the date of the conflict, that they monopolized tbe
honours won by the united citizens on its field of
fame ; and they obviously could have acquired their
conspicuousness in story, and their nominal posses
sion of all the aggregate rights of burgesS-ship, only
by a remote and long-continued predominance of
both numbers and craft. To be made a sutor of
Selkirk, both now and for many ages past, is in the
uniform and boasted language of the place, to be
created a burgess. The candidate for admission,
too, is expected, at a festivity of the town-councii
and freemen, to pass through his mouth a small
bunch of such bristles as are used by shoemakers,
and one which has been previously passed through
the mouths of all the freemen at the board ; and
unless he thus, as the phrase is, " lick the birse," he
is construed to decline obedience, or refuse due ac
knowledgment and respect to the dominant craft,
and cannot be allowed to share their burghai privi
leges. Sir Walter Scott; on being made a burgess,
tried to compromise refinement and compliance' by
rinsing the beslabbered ' birse ' in his wine ; but he
was compelled to make amends, both by mouthing
the washed birse, and hy drinking off the liquor it
had polluted. The birse — saturated with the saliva
of whatever Selkirk sutors are pleased to attend
upon the ceremony— is so cherished an emblem of
the ruling party's power, or at least of their craft

and propensities, that it is even appended to the
seal of the ticket of freedom, and has, in courtesy,
been withheld from not another qualifying burgess
except Prince Leopold, now king of Belgium, who
visited the town in 1819. So important a body did
the shoemakers continue even down to the middle
of last century, that, in 1745, when the magistrates
of Edinburgh were commanded by the Highland
army to furnish them with 6,000 pairs of shoes, they
ordered first one-third of the whole, and afterwards a
few hundreds more, from tbe shoemakers of Selkirk,
agreeing to pay for them a stipulated price. " At
the present day," very neatly, though mistakenly,
says a contemporary, " there are more of this than
any other trade in the burgh ; and not long ago one
whole street was filled with them, — whence the
popular rhyme, " Sutors ane, Butors twa,
Sutors in tbe Back Raw !"
which, being cried at the top of one's voice in the
said street, was sufficient to bring sutors, and sutors'
wives, and sutors' bairns, and all that ever lay in
sutors' arms, out like a nest of hornets ; and the
offender would alone have to thank his heels, if he
escaped as comfortable a lapidation as any man could
desire to have his bones blessed withal on a sum
mer's day." In 1832, the five incorporated crafts of
the burgh stood, as to the respective number of their
members as follows : Hammermen, 44 ; shoemakers,
24 ; weavers, 24 ; tailors, 22 ; fleshers, 9 ; — and, ai
the same date.-the shoemakers remained stationary,
while each of the other crafts had been increasing
during the preceding ten years. The sutors, even
then, yielded the palm of numbers to the hammer
men ; they have, since the erection of the Ettrick
mills, become much outnumbered by tbe weavers ;
and they thus continue only by courtesy, and by
the proscription and fond associations of ancient
usage, to represent either burgess-ship or the pro
ductive industry of the burgh.
Selkirk has a branch-office of the British Linen
company's bank; the office of 'the Ettrick Forest
Savings' bank ;' two. subscription libraries ; one pa
rochial library ; a friendly society ; a temperance so
ciety ; a Bible and Missionary society ; and a society
for the improving of the breed of sheep and cattle.
A weekly market is held on Wednesday; and annual
fairs are held on the 5th of April and the 31st of
October, for hiring servants; on the 15th of July,
for hiring shearers ; and on the 31st of July for the
sale of lambs. Communication is maintained with
Edinburgh and Hawick by a stage-coacb, in transit
three times northward and three times southward in
the week ; with Edinburgh and the west of England
by the mail-coach in daily transit ; and with Edin
burgh, Galashiels, and other places, by local carriers.
— The burgh, though entitled to have a provost, for
bore to elect one during about a century and-a-half
preceding the passing of the Reform bill. Their last
provost before that period was an extravagant and
wasteful country gentleman, who had been foisted
on them by the government of James VII. ; and the
town-council, when reporting their sett to the con
vention in 1 709, naively stated that, in consequence
of this person having involved them in heavy debts,
they had resolved to content themselves with bailies.
The number of the council has been always 33; but
the mode of election underwent a change in the
course of last century. The sett was extremely
complicated ; there was no restriction as to re-elec
tion ; each deacon was elected from leets shortened
by the council, and had a colleague freely elected by
the corporation; and, in other respects, the old
council chose the new. Under the Reform act, the

650

SELKIRK.

council numbers 33 as before, and consists of a pro
vost, 2 bailies, a treasurer, and 29 councillors. Con
stituency, in 1833, 110; of whom 68 were burgesses.
The town's property has been estimated at about
£26,000; and its debts amounted at 1st October,
1833, to £16,088. Its revenues, as returned to par
liament, was £284. In 1833, the revenue was
£1,039 15s. 8|(1.; and the expenditure £2,452 12s.
10d.,— £1,187 3s. 8Jd. of the latter being for public
works. The taxes levied are the cess and petty
customs. The burgh-boundaries are extensive, cpm-
prehending 2,399 acres of land lying without the
town ; and they remain unaltered by the municipal
Reform act, the burgh having, as regards the elec
tive franchise, been thrown into the county. The
magistrates are assisted by the town-clerk as asses
sor; they exercise the jurisdiction commpn to royal
burghs ; and they have the patronage of the town-
offices, and of the burgh-school, and an endowed fe
male-school, and some influence over the parish or
grammar-school. Fees paid to the town for en
tering burgess vary from 3s. 4d. to £1 3s. 4d. ;
to the hammermen, £15; to the tailors and the
weavers, from £5 to £15, according to the scarcity
or sufficiency of workmen ; and to the shoemakers
and the fleshers, nothing short of an actual local
apprenticeship of six years, or of marriage to the
eldest daughter of a freeman. The effect of the
exclusive privileges is to give the incorporations
a monopoly ; and the last entry, before 1833, with
the incorporation of hammermen, for which a
fine of £15 was paid, was forced upon a skilful
tradesman in the south of Scotland, to enable him
to carry through a contract within the territory
of the burgh. There is no separate police-establish
ment, and no nightly watch. The only criminal
officers are the burgh-officers, and ordinary and spe
cial constables ; and the public wells are kept in
repair, and the streets lighted, cleaned, and paved
out of the common good.
Selkirk is a town of high antiquity ; but, owing
to its lying out of the ordinary thoroughfare of both
ancient war and modern commerce, it has figured
but inconspicuously in history. The Scoto-Saxon
kings finding sport through Ettrick woodlands, very
early established a hunting-seat on its site, and oc
casioned the formation of a sort of king's town.
The castle which they built seems to have been
princely enough for the reception of the monarchs
and their courts; and as it was erected for the
amusements of peace, rather than for the struggles
of war, it was probably constructed. of slight mate
rials ; but it looms very dimly through the haze of
record, and stood no one can tell on what particular
spot. A church which rose in its vicinity, and which
was called for both by the castle itself and by the
infant town, gave,- as we have seen, its name to the
locality, and remotely also to the river and the for
est. In 1113, a colony of Tyronensian monks was
settled near the castle and village; and remained
there during 15 years of penitentiary trial. Radul-
phus — who conducted them to the spot — was the
original abbot ; and he was succeeded first by Wil
liam, who is recollected by Fordun, — and next, in
1124, by Herbert, who became the first abboi of
Kelso, and rose to be bishop of Glasgow. In 1128,
the monks, on account of inconvenient accommoda
tion, were removed to Kelso; yet they afterwards
continued to hold a very intimate connection
with their original seat. One curious fact is, that
the abbot, while the king's castle remained in
Selkirk, was bound, by the tenure of his land, to
act within the castle as the king's chaplain ; and that
if ever the sovereign shall be pleased to restore the
castle, the Duke of Roxburgh, who wears ' the fair-

lined slippers of the abbot,' is bound both to act ai
chaplain in the castle, and to repair the bridge. The
distinction between the new village of Selkirk-
Abbatis, which rose around the abbey, and the old
village of Selkirk-Regis in the vicinity of the castle,
speedily fell into disuse after the monks' removal.
Some mills which David I. had at Selkirk, show
that, while the chase was the main object of the
royal residence, agriculture had made some progress
in the vicinity of the town ; and they remained royal
property till at least the time of Robert Bruce. One
mill belonged also to the monks, and afforded them
no little profit after they became settled in Kelso.
David I., after his accession in 1124, probably did
not reside much at Selkirk ; as he gave preference
to Roxburgh, on account both of its greater secur
ity and its superior attractions. The castle of Sel
kirk was frequently inhabited by WiUiam the Lion,
and was the place from which he' granted and dated
many of his charters; and it was occasionally the
home of his son and his grandson, Alexander II. and
Alexander III. But before the accession of Robert.
I., this ancient hunting-seat disappears from the eyes.
of the antiquary. Aymer de Valence built a peel-
house at the town, — a fact which seems to intimate
that, in his days, the place had ceased to possess a
royal residence. Selkirk long continued a town in. '
the king's demesne ; but did not become a royal
burgh till a much later period. While the rulers of
other towns were obliged to swear fealty to Edward
I., we do not perceive any corporate body from Selr
kirk upon their knees before their superior lord.
During the long conflicts for the succession of the
Crown, the town was often granted to the successive
partisans of the rival kings. When James IV. was
marching to his gory death on Flodden-field, 100
townsmen joined him under their town-clerk. They
fought stoutly ; they all scorned to flee ; they almost
all fell in the field ; and few of them returned with
their gallant leader to the Forest. William Brydone,
the town-clerk, and his successors in office, were, in
guerdon and commemoration of his bravery, created
knights by a charter of James V., which recites the
valour of himself and of those he led; and 1,000
acres of the Forest, now worth about £1,500 a-year,
and divided into a great number of small proper
ties, was given by the monarch to the townsmen.
An English standard wrested from the foe, and car
ried off the field of battle by a weaver who fought
by the side of Brydone, is siill in the possession of
the corporation of weavers, and is annually borne at
their head in a processional and gala survey of the
1,000 acres of the royal grant. The sword of Bry
done, too, is still preserved in the town by his de
scendant, and regarded as a venerable relic. So
exasperated were the English at the distinguished
resistance of the Selkirk band, in circumstances
where the proudest of the land had lowered their
swords, that they soon afterwards burnt the town ;
yet, in doing so, they only afforded James V. an
opportunity of repeating his approbation of the
burghers in giving them timber from his forests, to
replace what the fire destroyed. Tradition says,
that when the few survivors of the 100 heroes were
returning from Flodden, they found, by the side of
Lady- Wood-Edge, the dead body of the wife of ona
of their fallen comrades, with a child sucking the
breast; and that, in consequence, the town adopted,
and still retains, as its armorial bearings, a female
holding an infant, and seated on a sarcophagus, the
Scottish lion in attendance, and a wood in the back-
ground. The next historical event of note with
which Selkirk had connexion, was the brief but de7
cisive and celebrated action of Philiphaugh: which
see. When the middle division of the Highland

AJPiiEarnD. fc 0? landon. fc E 3jnbra;gh .

SELKIRKSHIRE.

651

aTmy, in 1745, approached the town in their pro
gress toward England, four foragers, sent forward to
make a public levy of provisions, walked into the
booths or among the stalls, then situated in the
market-place, and began, in the unceremonious style
of caterans, to appropriate whatever they found most
tempting and portable. Several butchers instantly
remonstrated, and seemed willing to try the mettle
of their cleavers against the Highland cleavers, when
a muscular and agile young fellow of their number
tore the shaft from a handbarrow, and, with this
rude instrument, and little aided by his comrades,
began to belabour the four kilted intruders, and in a
few minutes drove them from the town. He, of
course, required to lie perdu till the whole brigade
had passed quite away to the south.
*' The burgh of Selkirk," report the Commis
sioners on Municipal Corporations, " is said to be of
ancient foundation, but the oldest charter preserved
is one granted by King James V., dated 4th March,
1535. It proceeds on the narrative that the charters
of ancient foundation of the burgh, and liberties
thereof, granted to the burgesses and community by
his Majesty's progenitors, had perished, whence mer
chandizing amongst the burgesses had ceased, to their
great detriment, and the prejudice of the liberties of
the burgh, and the loss of his Majesty, in regard to
the customs and firms due out of the burgh. The
charter proceeds to grant of new, and to confirm for
ever to the burgesses and community, ' Nostrum
burgum de Selkirk, in liberum burgum ut prius in
perpetuum, cum omnibus et singulis terris, com-
muniis et possessiouibus, quibuscunque ad eundem
spectan. cum poiestate ipsis, ballivos et alios offi-
ciarios necessarios, prout reiroactis fecerunt, tem-
poribus annuatim elegendi.' The privilege is given
of an annual fair, with a court, gallows, and other
liberties, and to hold burgal courts, and full privi
leges of trade, as any other burgh in the kingdom,
all to be held in free burgage, for payment to his
Majesty of the burgal firms, and other duties used
and wont. A precept, under the Great seal, was
granted of the same date, upon which sasine follow
ed, and the instrument, dated 22d March, infefts the
burgh, inter alia, in the south and north commons of
the burgh. This charter was confirmed by James
V., after he had attained majority, along with, 1st.
A licence to the bailies, burgesses, and community,
to till 1,000 acres of their common lands, notwith
standing any acts or statutes to the contrary ; and,
2d. A grant of a fair-day at the feast of Conception.
In 1540 James V. granted another charter, upon the
narrative that the burgh of Selkirk ' prope Angliam,
Liddalisdail, et alias vicinas et minime pacificas pro-
vincias, furibus, raptoribus, proditoribus, et aliis
transgressoribus, plenas jacet, et per ipsos et alios
viros potentes, defectu nobilis et boni viri, ipsum, et
incolas eiusdem defendere sepius, combustus, depre-
datus, destructus, et oppressus extitit,' giving power
to the bailies and community to choose a provost, and
granting to them a power of sheriffship within the
liberty and territory of the burgh, and to hold courts
of sheriffship, with the usual powers, and to repledge
the inhabitants of the burgh and territory from other
judges. This charter farther confirms the feu of the
burgal firms and small customs of the burgh, granted
to the baiUes and community for payment -of £5 of
feu farm. And for security of the burgh liberty is
given to the bailies and community to have walls and
a ditch round the burgh. Upon the precept follow
ing on this charter, sasine was taken, dated 11th
October, 1540, All these charters were ratified by
the Scottish parliament in ,an act in favour of the
burgh, dated 28th June, 1633."
Selkirk gives the title of Earl to a branch of the

ancient and once far-dominant house of Douglas,
which, previous to the strong check which was given,
in 1455, to its bold spirit and careering fortunes, had
extensive possessions in the Forest. The 1st Earl
of Selkirk was Lord William Douglas, the eldest of
the 1 st Marquis of Douglas' sons by his second wife ;
and he was raised to the earldom, in 1646, with the
adjunct of Baron Daer and Shortcleugh. This noble
man married Ann, Duchess of Hamilton, and, in con
sequence, became the 3d Duke of Hamilton from the
date of the dukedom's creation, and the 1st in the
line or family of Douglas. His peerage of Earl of
Selkirk became concealed for a time beneath his ducal
bonnet ; but afterwards descended, first to his 3d son,
Lord Charles Douglas, and next to his younger son.
Lord John Hamilton, Earl of Rutherglen. In 1744
Dunbar Hamilton of Baldoon, the grand-nephew of
the 3d Earl, succeeded to the title; and, in 1799, he
left the honours to his 7th son, Thomas. This, the
5th Earl, was the most distinguished of those who
have yet inherited the title ; and lives in a cheerful
nook of history as the advocate of liberal views re
specting emigration to British America, and the pro
moter of a British settlement on Prince Edward's
Island. Dunbar James Douglas, the present Earl,
and son of the 5th, succeeded in 1820. The chief
seat of the family is at St. Mary's Isle in Kirkcud
brightshire : see Mary's Isle (St.)  'Selkirk
bannocks ' have long been in fame, and continue to
enjoy their reputation. They originally were made
of barley-meal, and had a form and a consistency
suited to the name they bear; but now they are
composed of the finest wheaten flour, and differ from
the ordinary produce of the bakery only by the ex
cellence of their manufacture, and an occasional
intermixture of confections. In their plain form,
and as tea-bread, they are greatly in request in aU
the "country lying within 15 miles of the town, and
are sent in regular supplies to Galashiels, Inner
leithen, and Hawick.
SELKIRKSHIRE, a county in the south of Scot
land, lying so comparatively near the boundary with
England as to be reckoned emphatically a border dis
trict. It is bounded on the north-west by Peebles
shire ; on the north by Peebles-shire and Edinburgh
shire ; on the north east, east, and south-east by
Roxburghshire ; on the south by Roxburghshire and
Dumfries-shire ; and on the west by Dumfries-shire
and Peebles-shire. The boundary is formed by
water-shedding lines of heights for 9 miles detach-
edly, and very sinuously in the north ; for 9 miles
curvingly in the south ; and for 22 miles continuously
with tbe south line, and with little irregularity
round the south-west corner, and along by far the
greater part of the west. But elsewhere the boundary
is exceedingly capricious and fitful as to its material,
and often serrated, jagged, and almost pronged in
outline, so as to be utterly bewildering to strangers,
and almost perplexing to inhabitants interested in
knowing it. The county lies between 55° 22' 20"
and 55° 41' 54" north latitude ; and between 2° 47
40" and 3° 18' 46" longitude west from Greenwich.
Its greatest length, from north-east to south-west,
or from the confluence of the Tweed and the Gala
to Mickle whinfell, overhanging the source of Ettrick-
water, is 27 miles; and its greatest breadth, in a line
at right angles with that between the above points,
or from the place at which it is left by Glensax-burn
on the north-west to Borthwick-brae on the south
east, is rather more than 1 7 miles. Its area, owing
to the awkwardness of its outline and the inequality
of its surface, cannot, without great difficulty, be
ascertained : accurately measured from Ainslie's
map, it is 257 square miles, or 164,480 acres ; cal
culatingly estimated by Dr. Douglas, in his Agricul-

652

SELKIRKSHIRE.

tural Survey of the County, it is 240 square miles,
or 153,600 acres; and conjecturally estimated, or
partially measured by persons practicaUy and inti
mately acquainted with the boundaries, it is sup
posed to come short of even the latter of these mea
surements. A pendicle of the county lies detached
on the east : see Selkirk.
Excepting a very narrow portion on its eastern
side, or the vicinity of its burgh, Selkirkshire is a
continued series of heights, intersected by gullets,
glens, and very narrow vales. Seen from any cen
tral or towering eminence which commands a view
of most of its area, it appears a continuous sea of
hills without one mark of life, one dwelling-place of
man, upon its rudely rolling surface. Though situ
ated in the centre of the Southern Highlands, all of it
lies on a base of from 280 to nearly 800 feet above
sea-level, — averaging probably a little more than
500. The mean altitude of the bed of its streams is
thus only about one-half of the altitude of the vale
of Badenoch on the Spey, or the large dreary plain
of the Moor of Rannoch on the north-west limit of
Perthshire. Its heights are, in numerous instances,
mountainous or toweringly hUly. Blackhouse-hili
rises above sea-level 2,370 feet; Windlestrae-law,
2,295 ; Minchmoor, 2,280 ; Ettrick-pen, 2,200 ;
Lawknees, 1,990 ; Wardlaw-hill, 1,980 ; Hanging-
shaw-law, 1,980 ; Three-Brethren-cairn, 1,978 ;
Black- Andrew-hill, 1,966; Peat-law, 1,964; Old
Ettrick-hill, 1,860; and a great number between
1,000' and 1,800. These, indeed, are the measure
ments of Ainslie ; and they have been reckoned
rather extreme by persons of skill, and, to a certain
extent, falsified by recent and minute observations ;
yet they are sufficiently exact to convey a fair idea
of the general summit-elevation of the district. The
heights, though having, on the whole, a monotonous
character, frequently exhibit considerable variety;
and, in ,the west, where they form the screens of
St. Mary's-loch, the Loch of the Lowes, and the
Upper Yarrow, they rise in dark steep masses, and
usually turban their beads in picturesque clouds.
The clothing of the surface is, generally, a pleasant
green, calmly and finely pastoral, contributing, with
the acclivities which it covers, a mingled sweetness,
solemnity, and sequesteredness of landscape ; but ii
is occasionally a dingy and lugubrious russet ; and,
in a region in the south-east between Borthwick and
Ettrick waters, it stretches away in an expanse of
cold black heath, drearily patched with such prosaic
lakes as serve only to demonstrate the morassy cha
racter of then; environs. The numerous furrowed
excavations which intersect the heights, and serve as
channels to the streams, are rarely more in width
than the merest glens ; and, even along the course of
the larger waters, seldom attain the expansion of val
leys or' even vales. But they abound in pictur-
esqueness and romance ; they are to so large an
aggregate extent wooded with copses or plantation
as to be really ' bushy dells ;' and they acquire both
scope and many interesting features by sending num
erously off among the heights those abrupt fissures
or ravines, and those brief hill-locked vales, which
are called respectively cleughs and hopes. Many of
the houses of the county are situated 600, and some
upwards of 1,000 feet above sea-level.
The waters of the county weU up in myriads of
springs, and are all pure, salubrious, and untainted
to any perceptible degree by mineral solution. St.
Mary's-loch and the Loch of the Lowes, the two
principal lakes, are described in their appropriate
place. Other lakes, though numerous, are all small ;
they belong principally to Roberton and to Yarrow ;
and they are noticed in the articles on the parishes.
Th* Tweed has 10 miles of its beautiful course,

generally in an easterly direction, through the north-.
em district; and often gives the name of Tweedside
to the richly wooded and very ornate though narrow
vale which it here traverses, — just as it popularly
gives the name of Tweeddale to Peebles-shire, which
it and its tributaries drain, and geographicaUy yields
the name of Lower Tweeddale to that part of Rox
burghshire which, whUe traversing, it so gorgeously
embellishes. The Gala joins the Tweed at the point
where the latter departs; and previously forms, for
3 miles, the boundary with Roxburghshire. The
Ettrick, strictly or characteristically the river of the
county, has its entire course of about 28 miles with
in it; and divides it from its south-west extremity
nortb-eastward to the Tweed, 2 miles above the
mouth of the Gala, into two not very unequal parts.
The Yarrow, the chief tributary aud at the same
time the rival of the Ettrick, rises only 3 miles
north-west of the latter's upper course, and flows
parallel to it at about the same mean distance till
within 3A miles of the Tweed, and then debouches
south-eastward to the Ettrick. These four streams
are fully described in their respective places^ and
they have att^-we need hardly remark — been so cele
brated in song as to have borrowed for Selkirkshire,
from the creativeness or at least the enthusiasm of
poets, almost a fictitious splendour. The principal
tributaries of the ,Tw,eed, within the county, are
Gaithope-burn, Cadon- water, and the Gala on the
left, and Glcnkinnen-burn and the Ettrick on the
right; of the Ettrick, are Tushielaw-burn and the
Yarrow on the left, and Tima- water and Rankle-
burn on the right ; and of Yarrow, are Kirkstead and
Douglas burns on the left, and Altrive-burn on fhe
right. Glensax-burn, a tributary of the Tweed in
Peebles parish, drains a projection on the north-west.
The Borthwick forms, for some miles, the boundary
with Roxburghshire on the south-east. The Ale
rises in the county, but soon departs into Roxburgh.
The only cascade in the county is one of 20 feet
high, in the course of a rivulet in Roberton ; yet
romantic linns and rapids occur in the Ettrick and
the Yarrow.
Selkirkshire, though poor in minerals, has some
attractions for both the geologist and the mineral
ogist. Most of the surface appears to have been
one vast bed of schistose transition-rocks, chiefly
greywiicke with a basis of clay-slate; and, in the
numerous intersections and cross-lines where it is
worn down into ravine and glen, it exhibits on the
confronting sides of the cuts stratum answering to
stratum in a manner which beautifully exhibits the
powerfully erosive yet undisturbing action of running
water. Peats, dug from numerous mosses, form
almost the sole fuel of the agricultural population ;
and coal is imported from Lothian for the use of the
towns of Selkirk and Galashiels  The soil of the
sheep-walks, o winggenerally to its lying on greywacke
granite or gravel, is sound and dry ; and even where
it is clayey, or lies on clay or till, it is prevented
from being hurtfully retentive, by the firm consist
ency of its surface, or the great steepness of its bed.
Excepting in the extensive and dreary moor between
Ettrick and Borthwick-water, and in a very few
spots near the sides of streams and on the tops of
mountains, marshy-grounds are unknown. Very
little pure clay soil exists in the county; and where
it occurs in mixture or as a substratum, it is gener
ally found on the sides of hills nearly midway be
tween their summit and their base. The soil of the
arable grounds is light, dry, and easily managed ; and
in the few places where it lies on till it is so drained
by the declivity of the ground, that a little care in
disposing the ridges carries off both the springs and
the surface-water.

SELKIRKSHIRE.

653

_ Agriculture, considering how rugged and seem
ingly how altogether pastoral the district is, has made
singular achievements as to both the extent of area
subjugated to the plough, and the degree of skill
with which it is farmed. About 50 years ago, on a
mistaken and exaggerating assumption which as
signed to the county an area of about 181,000 acres,
the lands were computed to be distributed into
169,650 acres of pasture; 9,300 acres of arable
ground ; 2,200 acres of plantation and coppice ; and
1,250 acres of gardens and pleasure-grounds. At
present, on the proximately correct yet quite high
enough assumption, that the area is about 153,000
acres, we compute, from good data, that about
140,610 acres are pastoral, morassy or waste, 10,310
acres regularly or occasionally in tillage, and 2,720
acres under natural and planted wood. Though the
arable land all Ues from 280 to nearly 800 feet above
sea-level, its culture is as good and productive as
that of almost any land in Great Britain. In Gala
shiels and Selkirk parishes, where the plough is
driven to the summit of many a considerable height,
wheat is grown in large quantity; it even forms a
considerable part of the rotation ; and at 700 feet
above sea-level, it has often been raised, says one
writer, " to what would be called a good crop in the
Lothians ;" and, says another, to the amount of " 60
lbs. per Winchester bushel." Such a result is the
more surprising, that, as we are told by Dr. Douglas,
" very little of the arable soil is sufficiently deep and
strong for producing wheat." " But nearly the whole
of it," adds that writer, "is admirably adapted for
turnips, clover, barley, and oats. Pease, too, suc
ceed very well. The white grains, though not large,
have thin husks, are plump, and of an admirable
quality. Turnips seldom fail; and a very great
weight of clover has been raised upon an acre.
White clover appears in every field that is surren
dered to pasture, without having been sown, and
indeed is found throughout the whole county wher
ever the soil is dry." Three-fifths of the whole
arable ground lies in the parishes of Selkirk and
Galashiels ; and nearly another fifth lies in the par
ish of Yarrow, chiefly in its lower or eastern ex
tremity. In aU the south-western half of the county
tillage is confined to the little haughs and the small
contiguous slopes  Great attention is paid through
out the large pastoral districts to the improving
of the breed of cattle and sheep. Lord Napier has
made strenuous and successful exertions to arouse and
direct the solicitude of sheep-farmers : at the con
clusion of the war, he settled down in the vale of
the Ettrick, and began, con amore, to take and to
give lessons in sheep-husbandry; and, in 1819, he
succeeded in forming a pastoral society, which, since
the date of its establishment, has steadily and suc
cessfully directed the energies of the farmers. The
society meets annually in the month of June, and,
in rotation, at Newark in Selkirk, at Tinnies in
Yarrow, and at Thirlstane fair-grounds in Ettrick ;
and it is supported not only by every respectable
farmer in Selkirkshire, but by many farmers of the
adjacent counties of Peebles, Roxburgh, and Dum
fries. " From the time of King James, down to
the year 1785," says Hogg in his ' Statistics of the
County,' *' the black-faced or forest -breed continued
to be the sole breed of sheep reared in the district;
and happy had it been for the inhabitants had no
other been introduced to this day. However, about
that period, the farmers in the eastern division of the
county began to introduce the Cheviot breed, which,
for the space of 10 years, continued to creep west
ward by slow degrees, till the year 1796, when the
demand for Cheviots began to increase so rapidly,
and still to go on progressively, till it absolutely

grew little better than the tulipo-mania that once
seized the Dutch." A garden-tulip is better than a
marsh-grown bulrush ; and a Cheviot sheep is now
all but universally — except for the knife — esteemed
better than a black-faced ' ewie wi' the crooket
horn.' Hogg, were he still alive, would find few
persons even in the Forest, to sympathize with his la
ment; and not very many to admit it as quite a cor
rect statement. So early as 1798, all the sheep-
walks of Selkirkshire, excepting in a small tract
upward from Hindhope on the Ettrick and Ladhope
on the Yarrow, were wholly stocked with white-
faced sheep, of a kind rather accommodatingly called
Cheviots. The change which substituted these for
the former tenants was effected not by expelling
the black-faced breed, but generally by using Che
viot tups for a succession of years, till all marked
traces of the coarse wool, short bodies, and black
faces and legs, had disappeared. A mongrel breed
was thus produced, which, though called or mis
called Cheviot, and though improved in wool while
retaining the hardiness of the race whence they sprung
in the female line, were greatly inferior to the new
Cheviot, and both in shape and in size, and even in
wool, retained mischievously much of that breed
whose alleged expulsion, but only whose transmuta
tion, Hogg so curiously bemoans. Breeds, better
deserving the name of Cheviot, yet so crossed as to
aspire to honours which even that name cannot
claim, now all but universally walk the sheep-pas
tures. The 'old black-faced' sheep, in the rough
character which belonged to it before the era of
modern improvement, was, some 14 or 15 years ago,
re-introduced to two or three farms; but it has never
re-acquired favour, or been fairly tolerated except
where the less hardy white-faced is too fragile for
the abrasions of the climate. — Black cattle obtain
but inferior attention. The cows are generally of
the Ayrshire breed. Highland kyloes have, for sev
eral years, been introduced to hill- pasturage. The
horses to which preference is given are generally of
the Northumberland breed. Hogs and poultry share
the same very limited attention which is given them
in Roxburghshire. There are several rabbit-war
rens. Forty-three years ago, Dr. Douglas said, in
reference to the whole county, " The farmers are by
no means so well accommodated with either dwell
ing-houses or offices ; both being, in general, paltry
and ill-built. Most of the dweiling-houses are of
one story, low in the roof, badly lighted, and cov
ered with thatch. The walls, however, are of stone
and lime; and of late a few of these low houses
have been slated. The offices are still more pitiful,
meanly and rudely constructed, and awkwardly
placed. Some stables and cow-houses are so low,
as scarcely to admit horses and cattle of an ordinary
size." Though improvements have in some instances
been handsome, and in many perceptible, they have
neither been so numerous nor so reforming as to
prevent Dr. Douglas' dreary picture from being an
accurate representation of the state at the present
hour of farm-houses and farm-offices over a large
part of the county.
Selkirkshire, as is well-known, was anciently all
forest ; and, till a comparatively recent period, had
all its history shaped by its forest condition. See
Ettrick-Forest. In some ages which preceded
the wasteful wars of the succession, the district
appears to have been more productive and populous
than at any subsequent period. Every church had
its village, every seat its hamlet, and every farm its
cottages; and all enjoyed the warmth, and indirectly
benefited from the herbage of the sheltering woods.
" The abbey- property lying around Selkirk," Chal
mers says, " would not make a little farm according

654

SELKIRKSHIRE.

to the agricultural system of the present times ; and
yet, during the ancient regime, maintained in com
fort and content 36 families." But whatever rude
and semi-savage prosperity existed was ruined by
the international wars, and gave place to four cen
turies' duration of feuds and rieving and accumulated
misery. Agricultural resuscitation did not occur
till the close of the first quarter of the 18th century.
The year 1722 witnessed 12,000 ewes milked daily
during the month of June at Tait's-cross; and the
following year has been assigned as the general era,
but not the era for Selkirkshire, of georgieal im
provements. Dr. Mercer, the earliest improver of
ihe county, began skilfully to develop his modes of
enclosing and culture only so late as 1759. — The
only manufactures of the county are those seated at
Galashiels and Selkirk : which, see.
Selkirkshire, as a district wholly upland, suffered
till a late date nearly as great inconveniences from
the want of roads as if it had been a portion of the
northern or western Highlands. The first turnpike
was a line of 12 miles through Selkirk, stretching
from Hawick by way of Crosslee toward Edinburgh;
and it was constructed by act of parliament passed
in 1764. The present turnpikes are 11 miles of the
Edinburgh and Carlisle mailroad through Galashiels
to Selkirk ; 9 miles from Crosslee by Yairbridge to
Selkirk ; 9 miles from Holilee, in the direction of
Peebles, to Galashiels; and 24 miles from the boun
dary with Traquair in Peebles-shire, up the parish
of Ettrick. Other roads traverse the vales of the
Yarrow, the Tweed, the Tima, the Ale, the Cadon,
and Rankle, Tushielaw and Altrive burns. Deeply
sequestered though the district be, it offers a cut
across its surface for the transit of the projected
railway between Edinburgh and Hexham, and will
lift the railway to a maximum of elevation on its
height of Hangingbhaw-law : which see. The
only weekly market is at Selkirk; and the only fairs
are at that town and at Galashiels.
Selkirkshire, as to ecclesiastical or parochial mat
ters, is very strangely distributed. Though 9 dis
tinct parochial names are upon its list, it has only 2
Complete parishes, and only 5 parish-churches. It
comprehends all Yarrow and Etirick ; about eleven-
twelfths of Selkirk ; two-thirds of Galashiels ; one-
third of Roberton ; one-third of Ashkirk; one-fourth
of Stow ; one-fourth of Innerleithen ; and a small
corner of Peebles. It thus shares parochial territory
in one instance with Edinburghshire ; in 2 with
Peebles-shire ; and in 4 with Roxburghshire. The
parish which it shares with Edinburghshire, is in the
presbytery of Lauder, and synod of Merse and Te
viotdale ; thgse which it shares with Peebles-shire
are in the presbytery of Peebles, and synod of Lo
thian and Tweeddale ; and the remaining 6 are in the
presbytery of Selkirk, and synod of Merse and Te
viotdale. The education returns of 1834, assign to
Selkirkshire the whole of Galashiels and Selkirk, as
well as its own two complete parishes, but withhold
from it any share in other parishes ; and, in conse
quence, estimate it at between one-elevenih and one-
tenth less than its real population. But thus esti
mated, its parochial schools were 5, conducted by 8
teachers, and attended by a maximum of 385 scho
lars; and its non-parochial schools were 13, con
ducted by 14 teachers, and attended by a maximum
of 617 scholars. — The county has no other burgh
than Selkirk ; no other town than pari of Gala
shiels ; and no other village than the little hamlets of
. Ettrick, Yarrow-feus, and Yarrowford. The prin
cipal seats are Bowhill, the Duke of Buccleuch ;
Thirlstane-castle, Lord Napier ; Torwodlee ; Gala-
house ; Holilee; Sunderland-hall ; Yair-house ;
Haining; Broad-meadows; and Hangingshaw-house.

The county, its constituency sweUed by that of its
burgh, sends a member to parliament. Constituency,
in 1838, 617. Valued rent, in 1674, £80,307 Scot
tish. Assessed property, in 1815, £43,584. Popu
lation, in 1801, 5,070; in 1811, 5,889; in 1821,
6,637; in 1831, 6,833; in 1841, 7,989. Inhabited
houses, in 1831, 1,094; families 1,391. Inhabited
houses, in 1841, 1,446.
All the territory which now constitutes Selkirk
shire was part of the ancient possessions of the Bri
tish Gadeni ; and, immediately after the Roman ab
dication, it began to be overrun by the Saxons ; and
soon after 1020, it became the seat of some settle
ments of the Scottish people. The Gadeni seem, in
their original occupancy of it, to have lived rather as
huntersthanas shepherds ; and, after they became Ro
manized, they may have made some advances toward
the secondary or supra*primitive condition of society*
The Saxons, though they took firm possession, ap
pear not to have cleared away the fords ; for, after
seven changeful centuries succeeding the Roman ab
dication, Ettrick forest retained all its honours of
both the wood and the chase. Except in the eastern
division of the county, there are no British remains
which would evince the inhabitancy and mark the
usages of the aboriginal people, — no Druid temples,
no stone monuments, no ancient sepulchres, no hill-
forts. In the eastern and now the cultivated divi
sion, there are remains of several British strengths,
formed generally between the circular and the oval ;
and, amidst some of them on the Borthwick-water,
are vestiges of a square or Roman camp. The most
remarkable British antiquity is the Catrael : which
see. Three crosses, called William's, Tait's, and
Ciaik, stood respectively on a height near Broad-
meadows, on Kershope-hill, and on Craik-moor;
but wherefore or by whom erected cannot be known.
Comparatively modern antiquities are principally
ruined castles and. moss-grown towers, some erected
in the 12th century, but most of them in subsequent
ages of foreign hostilities or domestic feuds. The
principal are Oldwark-castle, Newark-castle, and
Deuchar-tower, on the Yarrow ; Dryhope tower,
near St. Mary's-loch ; Blackhouse-tower, on Dou
glas-burn ; Blindlee-iower, on Gala-water; and
Kirkhope, Thirlstane, Gamescleuch, and Tushic
law towers, on the Ettrick.
Ettrick-forest seems to have been under the ju
risdiction of the constable of the King's castle at
Selkirk, in nearly the same way as if it had been
under a sheriff; and it was probably erected into a
regular sheriffdom previous to the sad demise of
Alexander III. Yet the earliest sheriff who appears
on record is Alexander Synton, under the date 1292.
Edward I., in 1304, granted to Aymer de Valence,
the Earl of Gloucester and his heirs, the keeping of
the forest, the castle, and the town of Selkirk ; and,
next year, when settling the government of Scot
land, he recognised the Earl of Pembroke as heredi
tary sheriff of the county. From soon after the ac
cession of Bruce till 1455, the forests of Selkirk and
Traquair were, with the juridical powers of a free
barony, held of the Scottish crown successively by
Sir James and Sir Hugh Douglas, and their heirs the
Earls of Douglas. Yet, during a large part of this
period, the English sovereigns regarded Etirick forest
as a sheriffdom in the possession and under the gov
ernment of their creatures. But, in 1346, WiUiam,
the I st Earl of Douglas, expelled the English from
' Douglasdale,' and took possession of ' Ettrick-fo
rest.' After the attainder of the Earl of Douglas,
the sheriffdom, or the jurisdiction tantamount to it,
remained for some time attached to the Crown ; and
successively, in 1503 and 1509, it was given in the
former year temporarily, and in the latter hereditai-

SEL

655

SHE

rily, to John Murray of Falalill. In 1748, John
Murray of Philiphaugh, the descendant of Murray of
Falahill, received as compensation £4,000 ; and. in
that year, of a million greedy and rabid pretensions,
the Duke of Douglas claimed £2,000 for the regality
of Selkirk, and £34,000 for the whole of his juris
dictions, but was compensated, in toto, with £5,104
5s. Id. The sheriffship, under the new regime, was
held first by Charles Campbell of Monzie, and for
many years, as every body knows, by our great na
tional novelist, Sir Walter Scott. Such civil history
as belongs to the county will be found in the articles
Ettrick-Forest, Selkirk, Philiphaugh, and
Roxburgh-Castle. SELLAY, a pasture island, in the Harris district
of Long Island, about 2J miles in circumference ;
1 \ mile north of Pabba, and 3J miles north-west of
Cape Difficulty. On its south-west side lies an islet
called Little Sellay.
SELLER-HEAD, a promontory on the east coast
of Lewis ; 8 miles south-south-east of the Butt of
Lewis, and 17 miles north-north-east of Stornoway.
SENWICK, originally Sandwick, an ancient
vicarage, now comprehended in the parish of Borgue,
3J miles south-south-west from Kirkcudbright. Ac
cording to tradition, this church, which formerly
contained a very considerable quantity of plate, was
plundered by French pirates, who safely escaped
with their booty ; but a storm arising immediately
after they had put to sea, the ship was dashed upon
a rock, at a little distance from the shore, opposite
to the church, and every person on board perished.
In memory of this event, the rock has ever since been
styled, The Frenchmen's Rock.
SERDGOIN. See Fenwick.
SERESORT (Loch). See Rum.
SERF'S (St.) ISLE, an islet in Loch-Leven,
Kinross-shire. See Portmoak.
SERIDON (Loch), an indentation of the sea on
the west coast of Mull. It runs up between the
Ross-of-Mull and the district of Gribon ; and mea
sures. 9 miles in length, and nearly IJ mile in mean
breadth. SERPENT RIVER, a romantic little stream in
the parish of Kilmalie, Lochaber, Inverness-shire.
It falls into the head of Loch-Leven, and is noted
for being in a measure subterranean below a cascade,
and immediately above its embouchure.
SETON. See Seaton.
SHAGGIE (The), a rivulet in the parish of
Monzie : which see.
SHAINT. See Shiant.
SHALLAIN. See Loch-Garry.
SHANDWICK. See Nigg.
SHAPINSHAY, an island and parish in Orkney.
It lies I1, mile north of Carness-pqint in the united
parish of Kirkwall and St. Ola ; 2J miles east of
Rendall parish ; 3J south of the island of Eday ; and
4| west of the most southerly part of Stronsay. It
extends nearly 5 miles from east to west, and about
41 from north to south ; but is sweepingly indented
on the north side by a large bay called Viantro, and
has several small indentations on its south side. On
the shores, and over a considerable distance inland,
ihe surface is low, tolerably level, and disposed in
rich fields of grass and corn ; but toward the centre,
it gradually rises, and becomes, to a great extent,
barren waste or iil-improved sheep-walk. The soil,
though, in most places, thin and shallow, is naturally
fertile. The southern district, in consequence of
improvements introduced and conducted by the late
Colonel Balfour and his son, enjoys enclosures and
¦modes of cultivation, maintains breeds of cattle, and
presents an orderly and almost ornate appearance,
superior to those of most districts in Orkney. A

village rose under the fostering care of the same im»
provers, and draws out its houses around the fine bay
of Ellwick. This bay opens toward Kirkwall ; and,
sheltered across the entrance by the green islet of
Ellerholm, it forms almost as fine a natural harbour
as any in Orkney. It has from four to six fathoms of
water over a bottom of hard clay covered with sand ;
and on the west side of it is a fine beach, with abun
dance of excellent fresh- water. Only a few years
after the village was built, the proprietor had 4 brigs
and 4 sloops engaged in the general trade of the
country, and the inhabitants had about 80 boats, em
ployed chiefly in fishing. A bed of limestone occurs
near How, and has long been profitably worked.
Lead mines, paying a rent of £500 a-year, were com
menced some time last century, and conducted for a
short period with spirit ; but, for some cause which
we do not find very clearly stated, they were hope
lessly abandoned. Picts' houses, situated for ihe
most part on selectly pleasant spots, are numerous
along the shores, and usually lift their large ruins
and conical heads at such intervals that two or three
are within view of each other. The standing-stone
of Shapinshay, situated near the centre of the island,
and standing erect 12 feet above the surface of the
ground, — and the black stone of Odin, a huge mass
of rock lying prostrate on the sand of the northern
shore, — are both supposed to have been sacred ob
jects in the rites of Scandinavian superstition. A
place called Grucula, on the west coast, nearly op
posite the skerry of Vasa, where the tides are rapid
and the sea is shallow, is traditionally said to have
received its name from the stranding upon it of one
of the ships of Agricola, in the celebrated voyage of
discovery round the northern seas of Britain. A
ward hill in the centre of the island, and on its high
est ground, commands a map-like view of the whole
or part of J5 parishes. The principal landowners are
Captain Balfour and Mr. Laing ; the former of whom
resides on the island. Population, in 1801, 744; in
1831, 809. Houses 157. Assessed property, in 1815,
£142  Shapinshay, as a parish, is in the presby
tery of North Isles, and synod of Orkney. Patron,
the Earl of Zetland. Stipend £158 6s. 8d.; glebe
£28. There is on the island an United Secession
meeting-house. There are two schools, — tbe one
parochial, and the other private. Parochial school
master's salary £25 13s. 3d., with £4 10s. fees.
SHEE (The), a small river in the extreme north
east of Perthshire. It commences at the Spittal of
Glenshee, 5j_ miles south-south-west of the point
where the counties of Perth, Forfar, and Aberdeen
meet; and is there formed bythe confluence of a
small stream called the Beg or ' Little,' with the '
united waters of the streamlets Lochty and Tatnich.
It runs 3 miles south-eastward, and 9 southward to
Rochalzie ; and there unites with the Ardle to form
the Ericht. Its head-waters, and rather more than
a third of its course, are in the parish of Kirk
michael, and it afterwards has that parish, part of
Caputh, and the whole of tiendoehy on its right
bank, and 2 miles of Forfarshire and parts of Rat
tray, Alyth, and Blairgowrie on its left. Over most
of its course it is strictly and even wildly a High
land stream.
SHEEP'S ISLE, a small Hebridean island, about
a mile west of tbe north-west side of Seil, and 4A
miles south of Kerrera. It measures scarcely a mile
in circumference, and has an abrupt rocky boundary
of low cliffs. The islet forms geognostically a con
necting link between Mull on the one hand, and
Seil and Kerrera on the other. Its name of Sheep's
Isle is a fictitious one, given it by cborographists ;
and its real name is Inis-Capel, which the same cbo
rographists have, in the translated form of Mare-

656

SHETLAND.

Island, erroneously applied to the Garvelach islands,
5 miles to the south-west.
SHERIFFMUIR, the name of various localities
in Scotland, imposed on them on account of their
having been the plains or moors on which the wea-
pon-shaws, or feats of arms of the Middle ages, were
performed under inspection of the sheriffs. The
Sheriffmuir most known is one in the parish of Dun
blane, at the north base of the Ochils, the scene of
a sanguinary though indecisive action during the
rebellion of 1715: See Dunblane.
SHETLAND, or Zetland ISLES,
A group of islands, islets, and rocks, constituting the
most northerly land in Scotland, and situated in the
Northern ocean, north-north-east of the Mainland
and of the Orkney Isles. They form the barrier of
the British dominions on the north, and are compre
hended in the shire of Orkney. They lie, in general
terms, and measured to their nearest coast, 15 leagues
north-north-east of Orkney ; 47 leagues north of
Buchanness ; and 44 leagues west of Bergen in Nor
way, the nearest point of Continental Europe. Two
of the islands, called Fair Isle and Foula, or Fowla,
lie respectively about 20 miles south-south-west,
and 17 miles west by south of the most contiguous
parts of the Mainland of Shetland. The other islands
form a compact group, and He between 59° 48' 30",
and 60° 52' north latitude; and between 52' and 1°
57' longitude west from Greenwich. In general ap
pearance they have a more rugged and mountainous
interior, and more bold, precipitous, jagged, and
sharply iniiented coast-lines, than even the naked
and sea-Worn Orkneys. Invasions of the sea, bays,
and inlets of all forms and moderate sizes make the
most whimsical inroads upon the land, and cut the
islands into series of the most curiously shaped pen
insula;. These bays generally bear the name of voes,
sometimes that of friths, and sometimes that of
wicks ; they are upwards of 50 in number ; they, in
some instances, measure several miles in length ; and
they almost all afford safe anchorage for ships of
great burden. The belts of navigable sea which
separate island from island are denominated sounds.
Upwards of 30 islands are inhabited, though in sev
eral instances only by a few individuals ; about 70
are grazing islets, called holms, which afford herbage
for cattle or sheep, but offer no shelter or sustenance
to man ; and a great but unascertained number are
skerries or rocks, mere sea- washed and naked stone,
totally destitute of vegetation for the support of live
stock. Mainland alone possesses about half the area,
and more fhan half the population of the entire
group; but it is so often and deeply peninsulated by
the sea, as to be economically though not geogra
phically a series of islands ; it has an irregularity of
outline as wild and wayward as can well be con
ceived; it stretches away due north in a long, nar
row, tattered belt of land which sends out torn and
shivered expansions about the middle; and while
possessing a mean breadth of from 2 to 7 miles ; if
contracts at the isthmus called Mavis-Grind, to iess
than 100 yards, and even there, is in a great measure
conquered by spring-tides of the sea. Yell, the
island next in size, lies from 2 to 4 miles north-east
of Mainland; it is separated by Yell-so.und, — a band
of sea powdered with holms and skerries; it pos
sesses no very high land; and, while deeply indented
with four or five voes, it is otherwise pretty regular
in outline. Unst, the third in size, contains much
valuable arable land, as well as excellent hill-pasture,
and lies about 2 miles north-north-east of Yell.
Fetlar, akin in character to Unst, but containing
considerable tracts of hilly country, lies . west of

Yell, and south of Unst, between 3 and 4 miles
from each. Whalsey, surrounded with a cordon of
dangerous islets, is situated from 2 to 3 miles east
of Mainland, at a point a little north of its middle.
Bressay, a comparatively lively island, of consider
able fertility, and presenting in summer a pleasant
appearance as seen from Lerwick, lies on tbe east of
Mainland, several miles south of its middle, and so
near and hookedly as almost to render landlocked
the intervening sound, and make it the excellent
harbour well-known to all mariners who frequent the
northern seas as Lerwick harbour or Bressay sound.
Papa-Stour, a delightful little island, with a large
comparative extent of arable land, lies about 2 miles
from the most westerly point of Mainland, — a pro
montory about the middle of the western coast.
The two islands of East and West Barra, fructifer
ous in grain, form two belts of land extending north
and south, and separated from each other by a very
narrow long sound, which is navigable from end to
end only by boats ; they lie off the west coast of
Mainland, a little south of tbe latitude of Lerwick,
and are separated from it by Cliff-sound, from IA
mile to 2 miles broad; and they communicate with 1
each other by a wooden-bridge across the narrow
channel which divides them. Trondra-house, and
some other islets, lie in the vicinity. Foula, or
Fowla, the ultima Thule of the ancients, the most
precipitous hill-ground in the Shetlands, destitute of
any harbour for shipping, and possessing only one
landing-place for boats, is solitarily situated about 17
miles west-south-west of Watness, the nearest point
of Mainland. Fair Isle, rising into three lofty pro
montories, and everywhere inaccessible except at
one point, lies upwards of 20 miles south-south-west
of the southern extremity of Mainland; and though
politically included in Shetland, geographically holds
a medium, or half-way place, between that group and
Orkney. The other islands are too inconsiderable
to require mention of their relative position.
The coasts of Shetland are rocky and unequal, and
the hills, which overhang them, bleak and mossy. By
the action of the sea upon the mass of rocks which
has been shivered down into islets and skerries,
scenery of a jointly novel and sublime description
has beeii formed. Rocks of immense size every
where rise sheer up from the water, and tower aloft
in pinnacles or little table-lands, often at a great
distance from any land; some are perforated by
magnificent arches of great magnitude and regularity,
— some have deep caverns and subterranean recesses;
— others are cleft in two nearly to the bottom, — and
others shoot piercingly up into acuminated tops,
and present an endless variety of form and appear
ance. The coasts and the environing islets of Papa-
Stour are profusely bored with large and romantic
caverns. A lofty and vast insulated rock on its
east is perforated from side to side with a gigantic
marine tunnel ; it lets through irregular rents from
its summit straggling streams of light, which aid
the tortuosities and intricacies of the gloomy boat-
navigation; and just where the light is direct enough
to seem like a revelation to a wrecked and dark
world, a yawning and vaulted recess goes aside
from the tunnel, and reverberates in low and dis
tant murmurs, or with a hoarse and sullen splash,
the ripple of the tide's waves, and the sound of the
visiting boatman's oars. Lyra, Skerry, Fulgae Sker
ry, aud other rocky islets, and huge detached blocks,
on the north-west of the island, rise steeply an<J
toweringly up from the waves ; and, while striped
along their summits with deep verdure, present, in
their perpendicular sides, such series of dark and
vaulted entrances into caverns as resemble the tiers
of sepulchral arches along the side of a large Gothic

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SHETLAND.

657

crypt. _ On the west side of the peninsula of North
maven in Mainland, a succession of high and preci
pitous rocks withstand the whole shock of the At
lantic ; and about 250 feet direct inland from their
brink, are two immense perforations from the sur
face downward, called the Holes of Scraada, sepa
rated from each other by a solid mass of grass-covered
rock, but communicating with the sea by stupendous
cavernous-tunnels leading out at the front of the
cliff, and, in the case of one of them, bringing up
the tide to the extremity of the perforation in a
violence of roar and tumult which almost threatens
to tear down the walls of wondrously invaded rock.
Doreholm, in a spacious bay a little to the south,
springs aloft from the water in a stupendous natural
arch 70 feet high. Most of the west coast of the
islet of Mickle-Roe is bored into a series of sinuous
and many-shaped caves, possessing not a little beauty
and grandeur. At Burrafirth in Unst, a sublime
natural arch opens the way to a tunnel or elongated
cavern, which carries boat-navigation 300 feet into
the bowels of the earth. The islet or holm of
Eagleshay. in the parish of Northmaven, is, to a
great depth, cut sheer down into two parts by a per
pendicular fissure formed in the effluxion of many
ages by the disintegration of a soft vein of green
stone. The Noss — an islet 500 feet long, and 170
broad, situated immediately east of Bressay — rises
sheer up 160 feet from the surface of the sea, has a
flat summit finely carpeted with verdant sward, and
is girt completely round by perpendicular walls of
Tock; yet it maintains communication with the coast
of Bressay by means of strong ropes stretched across
the intervening chasm, and of a cradle or wooden
chair, run along the ropes, and capacious enough to
convey a man holding a sheep upon his knees  The
phenomena and the awful grandeur of coast-scenes
in a storm, strictly resemble those of Orkney, or
probably surpass them in the ratio of the greater
sternness of resistance offered by the bold cliffs to
the careering waves: See Orkney. — While a wild
grandeur, and the romantic beauties of simple na
ture constitute greatly the prevaiUng attractions
of Shetland, spots of cultivated retirement, and
scenes of mingled softness and sublimity, such as
blend the amenities of landscape with its magnifi
cence and its menaces, are not altogether unknown.
The view down Wiesdale voe, on a fine evening in
summer, from the house of Mr. Ross of Sound,
among ihe islets to the southward, is of no mean
description for either beauty or variety ; and, could
part of the lands on each side of the voe, and some
of the islands be clothed with trees, it would be un
surpassed by few scenes in even the most picturesque
countries. About half-a-mile from the beach of the
almost landlocked and richly margined bay of Balta,
a commanding view is obtained of the northern
¦ocean across a foreground of well-cultivated land;
so that the serenity of fields and villages, and of
what seems a nearly unruffled lake, is contemplated
in combination with the tempestuous motion of a
stormy sea. From the cavernous and wondrous
coast at the Holes of Scraada, verdant plains of
several miles in extent, and bearing the name of the
Villens of Ure, stretch away into the interior ; and
from the lofty cliffs which overhang the sea, and
command the ' Holes' — a scene quite gorgeous is
beheld amidst tbe burnishings of a calm and sunny
summer evening, — the western ocean swelling on in
gentle undulations toward the land, — the fishing-
boats almost disappearing on its distant waves,—
the wild screams and bold gyrations of the sea-fowl
among the rocks, — the verdure of the broad expanse
of fields,— and the yawning and awful gulphs of
Scraada immediately under the eye, unite to produce
II.

a compound of emotions singular for both its ele
ments and its strength. Dunrossness also presents
many beautiful examples of interesting contrast in
scenic grouping, and contains some fields which
would not suffer by a comparison with almost any
in Mid-Lothian. Of numerous hills which diversify
the face of the country, and traverse it in all direc
tions, Rona's-hill, or Mons Ronaldi, the highest, is
situated in the parish of Northmaven, and commands
a very varied and extensive prospect, bringing up to
the spectator an excellent conception of the thousand
ramifications and intersections which occur between
sea and lund. Fitful-head, at the southern extrem
ity of the country, is a bold and extensive rock, and
can be seen at a great distance by vessels approach
ing Shetland from the south-west. The cliffs of the
island of Fowla often literally lose themselves in the
clouds ; they usually appear of a dark-blue colour;
and they are sometimes encinctured with a bank of
clouds, and send up their central peak distinctly
above the highest wreaths.
The climate of Shetland, though by no means
generally insalubrious, is very variable and humid.
Spring can hardly ever he said to commence till to
ward the end of April ; ' and little genial warmth is
felt before the middle of June. The summer some
times continues through September, but generally
terminates with August. Autumn, four years in
five, is very uncertain in its weather; and it almost
never extends beyond the middle of October. Win
ter, in a style of character much more hybernal than
is known in the Lowlands of continental Scotland,
holds undisputed dominion during at least five months
in the year. Winds from the north and east are
characterized by a colder, but at the same time more
settled, weather than winds from the south and
west ; and they prevail during the months of Feb
ruary and March. Heavy gales from the west and
north-west occur in September, and often destroy
much of the crop in a single night. Fogs prevail
greatly in May and June. Mild weather is prevalent
throughout October. But when that month ends,
and during the three months which follow, gales
from the most opposite points spring up in the space
of a few hours, and chase one another in rapid suc
cession, bringing down in their careerings saturating
loads of rain and snow. Though keen frost, dry or
snowy, has been known to continue two months
without the occurrence of a thaw, snow is seldom
observed to lie long at a time. While vicissitudes
of temperature are at all seasons rapid, cold is sel
dom or never intense, and has rarely been observed
to descend more than 10° below the freezing point,
or to continue long at that depression. But the
same insular influences which mitigate the frigidity
of winter modify the geniality of summer; and while
the medium temperature of the winter months may
be estimated at 38°, that of the summer months
cannot be estimated higher than 65°  On the short
est day, the sun rises at 17A minutes past 9, and sets
at 42J minutes past 2; so that he is 5 hours and 25
minutes above the horizon. The long winter nights
are, to a certain extent, cheered by the brilliance of
moonlight and tbe fitful and often beautiful corrus-
cations of the aurora borealis ; yet, almost constantly
rioted over by the stormy and conflicting elements,
they would, to any person but a hyperborean, appear
exceedingly gloomy. But what winter wants in
cheerfulness is amply compensated by the continuous
light and the brilliance pf summer. The nights,
early in May, begin to be very short; and, from the
middle of that month till the end of July, they have
a blending of twilight during the brief period of the
sun's absence, and are virtually transmuted into day.
Nothing of its kind can surpass the calm serenity of
2 T

658

SHETLAND.

a fine summer night in Shetland. The atmosphere
is so clear as to allow the eye an uncontrolled and
extensive range; the hills and the headlands look
more majestic than during the blaze of day, and
have a solemnity superadded to their grandeur; the
water in the voes and sounds appears dark, and as
smooth as glass; no living creature, except a soli
tary gull skimming the surface of the sea, interrupts
the tranquillity of the scene; and no sound, except
the distant murmuring of the waves amongthe rocks,
disturbs the reign of utter silence.
Near as the most inland part of the islands is to
the main sea, or some one of its vastly numerous
belts and indentations, not a few pleasant rills trot
down the hill-sides of Shetland, and diffuse verdure
and liveliness in meandering courses athwart the
fields. Many of the streamlets are liable to be so much
swollen by rain as, for a time, to become hardly pass
able ; some of them, especially near the sea, abound
in large fine trouts; and, though they aggregately
descend from a considerable height, they are regular
in movement, and in no instance form a cascade of
more than a few feet high. Fresh-water lakes are
also numerous, and large enough to contribute to
cheerfulness and recreation. Four occur in the par
ish of Lerwick ; one near Tingwall church ; one or
two in Unst ; one near the manse in Fetiar ; and
several in Yell. None exceed 2 miles in length;
some are interspersed with little islets ; and all are
stored with eels, several have abundance of trout,
and those that communicate directly with the sea
have large flounders. A chalybeate spring, generally
believed to possess good medicinal properties, occurs
in the vicinity of Lerwick. — The currents among
'the different islands are extremely rapid, and run in
every direction ; and those of the greatest extent
and power occur at the northern and southern ex
tremities of the country. Even in the calmest day,
the agitation of the sea, in the course of the tide, off
Scaw and Sumburgh-head, resembles that produced
by a storm, and, as contrasted to the smooth surface
at a brief distance, presents a very striking pheno
menon. Wernerian primitive rocks compose most of the
inland and northern districts of Shetland ; and they
form the bulky part of hills, and serve as a basis on
which the floetz rocks recline. Granite is of com
paratively rare occurrence. Gneiss is frequent; and,
as it exists here, does not seem to be metalliferous.
Mica-schist is ihe most common of the primitive
rocks ; and, when sufficiently quartose, it long fur
nished material for an export trade in millstones,
and even yet supplies material for local use. Clay
-slate forms extensive strata in cliff hills, and else
where is observable in small quantities ; but it pre
sents no beds which could be advantageously quarried
into roofing-slate. Hornblende slate and granular
hornblende rock occur chiefly in Unst, Fetlar, and
Hillswick; and, owing to its blackness of colour
and fineness of grain, has frequently been mistaken
for bituminous coal or its accompanying shales.
Drawing slate, holding an intermediate rank between
black chalk and glossy alum slate, occurs along with
the hornblende rocks, and like them has been mis
taken for coal, in Unst and Fetlar. Serpentine
forms hills of considerable height in Unst and Fetlar;
it acquires, when exposed for some time to the nir,
a reddish brown coloured crust, and, on that ac
count, has been mistakenly reported as ironstone ;
it forms an excellent material for the construction
of unmortared walls ; it powerfully resists the action
of fire, and has been successfully used in the build
ing of ovens; and it affords specimens of sufficient
variegation and density and susceptibility of polish
to be converted into trinkets. Primitive Umestone

everywhere abounds ; it usually has a bluish colour*
and iakes a granular fracture ; it admits a good po
lish, and might be used as marble ; and, when burnt,
it yields a very pure and excellent lime. — A perpen
dicular vein of common iron pyrites, nearly 30 feet
broad, traverses the mica-schist in the parish of Dun-
rossness, and occurs in small veins in other localities.
Magnetic ironstone exists in thin beds in the mica-
schist of Hillswickness, and in small veins in the.
serpentine of Unst. Micaceous iron-ore, containing
from 70 to 80 per cent, of iron, traverses the mica-
schist in small veins at Hillswick, and occurs in a
vein several yards thick on tbe north side of Fitful-
head. Garnets of considerable size and beauty are
in various places often found enclosed in the mica-
schist  Flcetz rocks, on the east side of Shetland,
commence at Rova head, and extend southward
along the coast to Quendale, including the islands
Bressay, Mousay, and Fair isle ; but are frequently
uncontinuous, and allow the primitive rocks to hold
entire possession ; and, on the west, they form the
greater part of the parishes of Walls, Sandness,
Papa-Stour, and Fowla, the promontory between
Ronasvoe and Hillswick, and the detached rocks
called Ramna-stacks. The strata are usually much
inclined to the horizon, and, in some instances, are
almost vertical. Sandstone is either laminated, and
affords supplies of flags and slates; or massive, com
pact, and' finely granular, and constitutes a good
building material ; or, more generally, a conglome
rate, whose basis consists of coarse yet small grains
of felspar and quartz with scarcely any visible ce
ment, whose enclosed substances are large rounded
masses of granite, gneiss, mica-schist, and quartz,
and whose adaptations to purposes of utility are in
consequence limited and of slender value. Slate-
clay, though not common, affords slabs which are
used as whetstones, and thin plates which serve as
an inferior kind of writing slate. Bituminous shale
is observed in Bressay and Fowla, and occurs in tbe
latter in company with thin beds of clay ironstone.
Secondary limestones are rendered uninteresting by
the mountain limestone ; and are less pure, and not
so crystalline. Other rocks, but of little practical
importance, are greenstone, porphyry, amygdaloid,
elaystone, and compact felspar  A vein of copper-
ore, nearly 14 feet thick, traverses a reddish-coloured
argillaceous sandstone ai Sandlodge, near Sumburgh-
head, and has repeatedly been worked ; and another
occurs in a mural precipice of sandstone, upwards of
300 feet high, north of Naversgill, in Fair Isle. The
Sandlodge vein, near the surface, has copper-pyrites
much mixed with hemalite.; and about 40 fathoms
down has that ore disseminated in sparry ironstone,
along with iron-pyrites ; it contains small quantities
of native copper and grey copper-ore; it possesses
abundance of fibrous malachite in the cavities of
other ores, or in the form of a surface-coating.; and
it contains a great proportion of iron ores, particu
larly brown hemalite. Small veins of he maiitic iron-
ore are situated in a bed of amygdaloid on the south
side of Papa-Stour. Bog iron-ore occurs in almost
every moss and moor in the country  Beds of sandy
clay, much used as mortar in house building, are
found in several places under the soil, or covered
with peat-moss. Porcelain clay, formed by the de
composition of gneiss, and bearing locally the name
of Fuller's earth, but neither great in quantity nor
very pure in quality, is found at Lamhogga in Fetlar,
and in a glen near Wejsdale. Peat.moss, such as
affords the inhabitants a constant and plentiful sup
ply of fuel, and varying from a few inches to nearly
12 feet in thickness, not only occurs in pretty exten
sive beds in the low grounds and valleys, but also
covers some of the loftier hills. Shell-marl, though

SHETLAND.

659

existing in a bed of considerable extent in the vale
of Tingwall, is by no means common throughout
the country ; but, in consequence of the abundance,
the general diffusion and the purity of limestone,
it has never been desiderated. Sandflood, or blow
ing sand, has converted into a scene of match
less sterility whole tracts of land in the neighbour
hood of the Quendal-bay which were formerly cul
tivated and fertile; and, in other localities, but
happily within confined limits, it has displayed its
desolating power, and sternly admonished proprietors
what they may expect from carelessness in the super
vision of their lands  The soils of Shetland are in
general light and gravelly, and seem well-adapted
for the rearing of green crops. They frequently are
much mixed with moss earth, and acquire from it a
blackness of colour. The decomposition of lime
stone rock, occupying the place of a substratum, has
imparted fertility to the soils of the isle of Barra,
and the vale of.TingwaU and Whitness; and a pul
verization of felspar from trap and primitive rocks
has given considerable fertility to Papa-Stour and
Eshaness. The lands of Shetland are distributed into about
twenty comparatively large, and a considerable num
ber of comparatively small estates. The Earl of
Zetland's personal entailed estate is extensive ; but
loses much of its value from being dispersed through
out the country in detached portions. Lands were
originally allodial, and descended or were transmitted
without any form of written investiture; they after
wards became transmissible only by a simple bill of
sale; and they are now generally held by charter
from the Crown, or from the Earl of Zetland as the
Crown's donee. About 2,000 merks are feued from
the Crown or the Earl of Zetland for the full origi
nal rent, excepting eightpence sterling per merk of
land — The merks into which all enclosed land is
divided ought, it is said, to consist each of 1,600
square fathoms; but they are everywhere of such
unequal dimensions, that hardly any two can be
found of the same size. The total number of merks
stated in the oldest rentals is about 13,500; an addi
tional number of 6,000 or 7,000 was added during
, the effluxion of ages till the year 1808, by enclosing
and cultivating portions of common, but was not in-
.cluded in the enumeration of merks of rental land ;
and probably about the same number has, principally
through the influence of the Shetland Agricultural
Society, directed to the enclosure of commons, been
added during the last 33 years. The aggregate ex
tent of enclosed and improved land, including in the
estimate both arable and meadow ground, may there
fore amount at present to 26,000 or 27,000 merks,
or nearly the ninth part of the entire surface of the
country. The enclosures generally come close upon
the sea-board, and stretch away thence toward the
moors on the hills. Each enclosure contains from 4
to 70 merks ; it frequently belongs to different heri
tors, and is always subdivided among several tenants ;
and it is called a town or a room, and bears, in addi
tion, a distinctive name. The uncultivated ground
outside of the enclosure is called the Scatthold; it
offers an unrestricted extent of common pasturage
to the sheep, cattle, and horses of each tenant of the
town ; and, if it contain peat-moss, it supplies the
tenanis, to whatever amount they severally please,
with peat-fuel. A tenant of a town whose scatthold
has no peat-moss must purchase the privilege of cut
ting peat on some other common, and pay for it
what is called a hogalif, a sum which seldom exceeds
three shillings a-year. The kelp-shores and the
pasture-islands are usually retained in proprietors'
own hands, and seldom or never let to a tenant along
with other land. Farm-houses, in some places, par

ticularly in Unst, are provided and kept in repair
solely by the landowner ; and in other parts they
are maintained jointly by him and the tenant. The
extent of land farmed by a tenant varies from 3 to
12 merks, and occasionally includes more; but may
be regarded as averaging only 5. About 30 years
ago, leases for a great number of years were scarcely
known, and for any period whatever, or in a regular
form, were comparatively rare ; but now, since the
influence of the Agricultural Society has been felt,
and a certain amount of importation of the agricul
tural spirit and practices of the Scottish continent
has been effected, they begin to be not uncommon,
and may without difficulty be procured. Yet in the
great majority of cases even to the present period,
a tenant can see no advantage in having a lease, and
simply makes a verbal agreement to occupy a farm
under specified conditions for one year, or more, and
regards himself, when the time expires, as having no
further claim upon the land, and as perfectly at
fiberty to make a new engagement. But whether
he rents merely from year to year, or in periods of
three or five years, his landlord, unless at the ex
pense of violating what most of the Shetland heritors
regard as a point of honour, and what public opinion
vigilantly protects as an understood and virtual right,
will not raise his rent, or refuse to renew his posses
sion, except for culpable insolvency or serious mis
demeanour. Farms, therefore, which have never
once been in leasehold, continue, in numerous in
stances, to be tenanted by several generations of the
same family. The Shetlander, quite contrary to the
representations which have currently been made of
his condition, as if he were destitute of every advan
tage possessed by farmers on the Scottish continent,
thus enjoys nearly all the benefits of a lease, in com
bination with an unrestrained liberty to remove at
brief intervals. — Rents are now, in greatly the major
ity of instances, paid wholly in money, but continue,
in few but increasing instances, to be paid, as they
almost all were till about 20 or 30 years ago, partly
in labour and in various articles of country produce,
such as butter, fish, and oil; and they vary in amount
according as the tenant has the exclusive disposal of
his labour, or agrees to fish for his landholder, and
to deliver to him, at a fixed low price, all the pro
duce which he can bring to market. The1 merks
are divided into different classes, called sixpenny,
ninepenny, and twelvepenny merks, to designate dif
ferences in the rents corresponding to the size and
produce. But the distinctions, though originally
founded on real differences, are now to a great ex
tent practically inaccurate ; a sixpenny merk being
sometimes as large and productive as a twelvepenny
one. In 1808, a merk of sixpenny land was esti
mated to yield, in value of real rental, 10 shillings
a-year; and a ninepenny and a twelvepenny merk
respectively 15 and 20 shillings. A tenant paying
partly in labour, and obliging himself to dispose of
the surplus produce of his farm and fishings to his
landlord, formerly paid only about one-half of the
estimated rent expected from one who paid wholly
in money; but now be usually pays at the same rate
as one of ihe other class, and, in return, receives the
full market-price for his labour and^ commodities.
The peculiarities in the mutual relation between the
Shetland landlord and tenant have been so generaUy
and grossly misunderstood, and have been so instruc
tively developed by some recent and little-known
occurrences, that some passages respecting them in
Dr. Edmondston's General Observations on Shet
land, just published in the New Statistical Account,
musi be interesting to most readers. After noticing
how mischievous to the moral and social habits of
the Shetlanders is the practice of their serving an-

660

SHETLAND.

nually in the Greenland whale-ships, bow justly and
uniformly the practice has been reprobated by the
more sagacious of the landholders, and how attempts
on their part to impose upon it a salutary restraint
have been stigmatized as arbitrary oppression, Dr.
Edmondston says: " This is only one instance, how
ever, amongst many, in which Shetland proprietors
have been cruelly traduced as the tyrants of their
tenants, unable to appreciate either their rights or
their capabilities, or the interests and duties of their
own position. It was formerly a common practice;
which is still followed in some districts, for the ten
ant to give his landlord a few days' work every
year: this was mutually beneficial, and, in a country
where regular daily labourers, as a class, are hardly
to be found, was necessary. These days' work even
tually formed part of the rent, and thus in reality
were hired labour. Yet this, too, has often been railed
against as unjust exaction, as if a Shetland cottar
were above the sphere of day labour, or as if he
might practise it for the benefit of any one except
his landlord." Dr. E. states, that crude declama
tion against the proprietors rendered the tenants dis
contented with their situation, and forced on a
change in the ancient relation between them and
their landlords, which he asserts to have been the re
mote yet general and efficient cause of a destitution
which prevailed, during fours years preceding 1840,
in the local supply of provisions. The Earl of
Zetland, then Lord Dundas; obtained parliamen
tary leave, a few years ago, io dispose of his feus
and other burdens on the Crown-lands; and these
have since been almost all bought up by the Shetland
heritors. Various peculiar burdens, ihe chief of which
were scat, wattle, sheep-penny, and ox-penny, occa
sioned, till a recent date, not a little vexation, but
are now consolidated into one due, which varies from
4d. to Is. 6d. per merk. Scat is supposed to be a
land-tax formerly payable to the Crown of Norway ;
and, by a decision of the court-of-session in 1829,
was converted into a feu, and rendered exigible, not
only as before from lands in tillage, but also from
lands not in cultivation. Wattle was originally a
contribution, in Popish times, to an emissary of the
Bishop of Orkney and Shetland, a woman of great
pretensions to ascetic sanctity, who promised her
dupes temporal abundance in compensation of their
small gratuity ; and, being detected by the Earls of
Orkney to have become a regular payment to her, it
was introduced to their rentals, and has ever since
been exacted. The ox and sheep-penny is variously
said to have originally been an imposition of Earl
Patrick Stewart, for maintaining his workmen while
building the "'castle of Scalloway, and a voluntary
contribution made to the Earl of Bothwell when he
touched at Shetland on his flight to Norway. The
teinds are represented as a severe burden upon oc
cupiers of land, and are distributed into such kinds,
and exacted in such forms, as to press heavily upon
Industry ; and, while the peculiar burdens were fully
exigible, the two classes of imposts would, but for
the profits of the fisheries, have, at an early period,
occasioned a great part of the lands to be relinquished
as worse than a mere nominal possession, and to fall
into the hands of the superior.
Agriculture, though in some places improved, is,
on the whole, in a miserable and semi-barbarous con
dition. Except in the culture of potatoes, and a few
patches of turnips, summer-fallow, though much
needed, continues to be very little known. Many of
the best arable lands have been annually manured,
and cropped with either bear or oats for half-a-cen-
tury, without either enjoying a single year's repose,
or once producing a different kind of erop. The in
ferior or outfield grounds, less fertile in soil, are al

ternately scourged out of heart, and abandoned to
re-acquire their feeble energies. Over a very large
part of the country a suitable or systematic rotation,
the turnip husbandry, the cleaning of land under
crop, the construction of drains, the amelioration of
soils, and all the rudimental or more common re
finements of modern agriculture, are almost as com
pletely unknown as in the 16th century. Rota
tion of any sort, in places where the idea is con
ceived and acted on, usually consists of bear, pota
toes, oats, ley, and oats, — the ley or fourth year
crop, however, being sometimes detrimentally omit*
ted. Potatoes are much more extensively culti
vated than before, and have come so much into fa
vour as seriously, perhaps menacingly, to curtail the
amount of cereal produce. Oats are usually allowed
to become witheringly ripe before they are cut, and,
in consequence, are often ruinously shaken by the
high autumnal winds. "It maybe affirmed," says
Dr. Edmondston, " that if the principal cereal crop
had been bear, or if the Oats had been sooner cut,
the better half of the corn crop of the last four
years" of scarcity " might have been saved." The
manure generally used is a mixture of sea-weed,
farm-yard dung, peat-ashes, and mould ; and it oper
ates so well thai, in spite of the maltreatment of
the soil, and the unrepressed growth of weeds, the
crops, in average seasons, are good. Field turnips
have, on a small scale, been recently introduced.
The common close cabbage' is grown on poor soil,
manured only with peat-ashes, and in small circular
enclosures of about 40 or 50 feet in circumference.
— The Shetland plough has only one stilt, with a
double-feathered sock ; it is drawn by four oxen
yoked a-breast, the driver walking backward, and
ihe ploughman walking by the side of the imple
ment ; and is so light that it can easily be carried by
one man, and is utterly incapable of making, in any
kind of soil, what would be considered good work.
But this ill-constructed and uneconomical instrument
is now rather an object of antiquarian curiosity than
of actual use. The common Scotch plough is gen
erally in favour with such farmers as have extensive
enough farms to employ it, and probably is kept from
general adoption only by ihe minutely-divided state
of the arable lands. The ancient, light, long-shafted
Shetland spade, with a blade greatly narrower than
the common garden-spade of Scotland, and having a
projecting piece of wood to receive the pressure of
the foot, is employed in turning over greatly the
larger proportion, probably nine-tenths of the whole
arable land ; and is found to be well-adapted to the
character of the soil, the ruggedness of the surface,
and the very limited exient of most of the farms.
Three or four persons generally dig in company;
and, in the course of a day, they perform much more
work than a stranger would think practicable. A
few wains belonging to landed proprietors, and drawn
by oxen, are the only wheel-carriages ; and, owing
to the want of roads, and the ruggedness or swampi
ness of the surface, even they, in many places, can-
not advantageously, or at all be employed. Ponies
with pack-saddles, carry most of the small amount of
produce which requires land transport; and the mul
titudinous intersections of the country in all direc
tions by friths and voes, practically affords natural
inland navigation to within probably J of a mile of
nineteen-twentieths of all the arable ground. Dr.
Edmondston suggests that the employment of small
steam-boats, using peats for fuel, might, for some
time to come, be a fair substitute for all desiderated
facilities of general transport. Such water-mills as
exist, are of a very ancient and simple construction ;
they have no wheel, and possess, as a substitute, a
wooden perpendicular cylinder, about 4 feet long,

SHETLAND.

661

provided with floats, and sending up an iron spindle
through a hole in the under millstone to a firm fix
ture in the upper one ; they are so diminutive as sel
dom to have millstones of more than from 30 to 36
inches in diameter ; and, as to their masonry, they
are mere low sheds of unhewn stones, stretching
across the slender rills of the country. Hand-mills
or querns are still to be found in most of the farm
cottages, apparently differing in their construction
little or nothing from such as, in ancient times, were
generally used over the civilized world, and continue
to be occasionally dug up in continental Scotland as
rare antiquities. The grinder, generally a female,
seizes a handle which is fixed on the surface, and
near the edge of the upper stone, and briskly drives
the stone with a rotatory and horizontal motion, all
the while pouring in with the left hand a supply of
corn through a hole in the centre. The centrifugal
force causes the meal to fly outwards, and to drop
from between the stones on the table, at every point
of the circumference ; and a contrivance, called " a
lightening tree," exists for so raising or depressing the
upper stone as to grind the meal of coarser or of
finer grain at pleasure.
The cattle, sheep, swine, and horses of Shetland,
are of races now almost peculiar to the country; and
possessing not a little hardiness, and other properties
of adaptation to the climate and soil. The cattle,
in point of shape, is probably equal or superior to
any of the native Scottish breeds, except the West
Highland. The cow is small, — the four quarters of
a fattened one seldom weighing more than two cwt. ;
and she yields exceUent mUk, though usually to the
amount of only from 3 to 6 imperial quarts in the
day. Both summer and winter the cows are kept
every night in the house, and littered with heath or
peat-dust. The farmers make a considerable quan
tity of butter, though chiefly of inferior quality ; but
they make little cheese, and, in many instances,
know not how to manufacture it. The ox is nearly
one-third heavier than the cow, and is active, gentle,
docile, and better adapted to the yoke, in the present
state of the country, than the horse. Though both
ox and cow are usually about 15 years old before
being fattened for the knife, their beef is tender and
highly flavoured. The pasture-isles or holms, which,
from being uninhabited, have escaped the paring of
their surface for manure to the arable lands, and, in
general, produce a fine succulent pasture, are almost
the only places where cattle will properly fatten, and
they soon impart substance and plumpness to the
lean and meagre victims of a previous scanty allow
ance. The cattle of Papa-Stour appear to be a dif
ferent breed from the prevailing one of the other
islands ; they are larger and not so well-shaped, and
seem to be descended from the short-horned hreed
of the South of Scotland. — The Shetland sheep are
the oves cauda brevi of naturalists, and resemble in
form, fleetness, and agility, the argaU or wild sheep
of Siberia. They are common to Norway, Sweden,
and European Russia; and, till 70 years ago, were the
chief breed of the Hebrides and the interior Scottish
Highlands. They are small in size; seldom or but
slightly horned; short in face, back, and tail; erect
and pointed in the ear; long in the legs, and fine
boned; variously white, grey, black, dunnish-brown,
piebald, streaked and speckled in colour ; and naturally
wild, hardy, agile, and little liable to disease. The
Shetland horse, or sheltie, is usually from 9 to 10
hands high, and almost never exceeds 11 ; he is of a
dark-mouse grey colour, and, till 3 or 4 years old, is
covered with long woolly hair; he does not acquire
maturity of size and hardiness till 8 or 9 years of age ;
and he is strong, spirited, and enduring, far beyond
the proportion of his bone and bulk. " When well-

fed from an early age," says Miss Sinclair, "the
ponies grow nearly to the height of a donkey; but,
some years ago, Mr. Hay reared a perfectly well-
formed pony, which measured only 26 inches high ;
— not so tall as a moderately sized hobby-horse ! I
have heard sportsmen talk in praise of a horse that
would canter round a cabbage-leaf; but here was
one literally capable of doing so. The very largest
men ride these tiny little creatures at full speed,
looking from a distance as if they had merely hooked
on a pair of additional legs, being scarcely raised a
foot off the ground, and yet racing rapidly along."
The shelties range in herds over the commons and
hills, and are as wild as the sheep with which they
share the herbage ; and, like them, they are never
admitted within the walls of a building, and have
often to' scamper off to the coast and assuage their
hunger with the marine vegetation of the beach.
They never, even during long snows, receive more
than a trifling quantity of food, tp sweeten the rough
meals of sea-weed on which they are obliged to sub
sist ; and when winter ends, they are sometimes so
exhausted by the half-starvation of months, that they
must feed till summer on the young grasses of spring
before receiving sufficient strength to bear a rider
over the moors: yet they often preserve their health
and agility undamaged, and are alleged to pos
sess their peculiar hardiness and all their valuable
properties, by being compelled to cater for them
selves, and oppose their native sagacity to the acer
bities of the weather. The sheltie, when wanted
for the saddle or to carry peats or other burden, must
be ensnared in his wild walk ; or, in cases where his
services are often or promptly required, he is not
trusted to roam the wastes, but kept manacled or
uneasily shackled in the fore-legs ; and he then hob
bles about like a rabbit, suffers a deterioration of his
paces, and, of course, is easily caught. When in
tended to carry peats or manure, he is equipped
with a klibbar or peculiarly formed wooden-saddle,
to which are appended" cassies or straw-baskets ;
and when intended to carry a rider, he is equipped
with a modern saddle and bridle, and with a long
hair-cord tether and a tether-stick, — the tether coiled
and borne in a bundle during the ride, but brought
into requisition for fastening the animal to a grassy
spot at the end of the journey. The ponies are
seldom if ever killed in old age ; but allowed to
traverse their ancient pastures till nature is ex
hausted., — The hogs, like all the other domestic
animals of Shetland, are smaU and peculiar. Their
colour is dunnish- white, brown or black; their bones
are small, and their ears erect and pointed; their
nose is singularly strong; their back is much arched,
and displays a curved hedge of stiff, erect bristles ;
their size is not much larger than that of terriers ;
and their habits are hardy, active, and mischievous,
rendering them a race of miniature wild boars. They
are everywhere reared throughout the islands, and,
though very numerous, might, with little trouble
and much profit, be considerably multiplied ; they
run loose on tbe commons during summer, and, as
soon as the potatoes are reaped, are admitted within
the enclosures to dig up and turn down at pleasure j
and, somewhat aided by the shelties and the sheep,
they work not a little havoc upon the turf and stone
fences, and often inflict serious damage upon the
labours of the husbandman. The carcass of the hog
is said to weigh from 60 to 100 lbs.; and the pork
is generally lean, and of very delicate flavour 
Poultry are far less an object of attention than might
reasonably be expected. Though geese are kept by
but a few individuals, large flocks of them might be
reared by almost every farmer  Rabbits abound in
the south of Mainland, and have seriously augmented

662

SHETLAND.

the evils occasioned by the natural accumulation of
drifted sand.—" Many very curious arctic birds,"
says Miss Sinclair, " stray over to this country; and
I have seen one most beautiful snow-owl, which had
been killed in this neighbourhood, as large as an
eagle; and the colour of a swandown muff. Eider
ducks are very abundant; and eagles so very de
structive, that 5s. a-head used to be given for shoot
ing them. Swans appear in great flocks during
spring. Of course all the breeds here must live on
the ground, having neither hedges nor trees in which
to form a colony; but the plovers and other unambi
tious kinds make themselves quite at home. I am
told the crows build their nests' of fish-bones, as a
substitute for sticks, which shows a great deal of
genius, equal to that of the Greenlanders, who form
their houses of whalebone." The mountain-linnet,
which is rare in the Lowlands of Scotland, abounds
in the Shetland islands, and is a very formidable foe
of the husbandmen, cropping the young turnip and
corn plants as they peep out from the ground, tearing
them up by the root, and extensively defeating the
labours of tillage and sowing.
Shetland, Uke Orkney, has neither forest, grove,
nor coppice ; and, in regard to even shrubbery, is
barer than the naked Orcadian group. Yet not a
few unwarrantable sayings have been penned respect
ing the dismalness of its unwooded aspect, the ex
treme dwarfishness of its few shrubs, and its alleged
incapacity to produce a tree. The lively authoress
whom we have already twice quoted, shakes off one
of the current prejudices, but at the same time gives
rash sanction to another, when she says: "The
woods and forests of the Shetlanders could scarcely
supply so much as a pair of Dutch clogs, and still
less a new flag-staff; but we must suppose the trees
were all cut down, to show the sea-views which are
so very fine. The tallest and grandest tree I saw
during my stay on the island, was a stalk of rhubarb
nearly 7 feet high, which had run to seed, and waved
its head majestically in a garden below the fort," at
Lerwick, "looking quite shady and ornamental."
We learn from Dr. Edmondston that, in one or two
gardens, sycamores and other trees, planted probably
a century ago, are 40 or 50 feet high, with a girth
of upwards of 6 feet a yard from the ground ; that
there are a few natural dwarf bushes of birch, willow,
and mountain-ash ; that evidence exists in the peat
mosses of trees having formerly been abundant ; that
no experiment at planting has yet been fairly made ;
and that there appears no peculiarity in either soil
or climate to warrant any a priori opinion unfavour
able to the qountry's arboricultural capacity. Shet
land and Orkney, in fact, are probably in not a very
, different plight in reference to wood than the whole
sea-board of the Lowlands of Scotland was previous
to the spirited experiment of the Earl of Haddington
in East-Lothian. See Ttnninghame.
The Shetlanders, to be understood in their habits,
their social character, and their political position,
must be viewed as emphatically and engrossingly a
great community of fishermen, who fish for their
food as men, for their rents as farmers, and, for nearly
the while staple of trade, as members, of the social
body. A proportion of them, as has already been
hinted, have long been in the practice, like a pro
portion of the Orcadians, of annually serving in the
Greenland whale-ships ; and these may be regarded
as half-sailors when away, and irregular members of
society when at home. All the others, with the
exception of a fractional part so very small that it
cannot enter into a general view of the commu
nity, are more or less fishermen ; for, whether they
be farmers or whatever else, they, on the whole,
look mainly to the finny tribes for their means of

subsistence. Their regular fisheries are of three
classes; that of the coal-fish, or gadus carbonanus;
that of the Haaf, or deep sea-fishing; and that of
the herring.  The coal-fish are singularly abundant,
and easily caught; and, being at once palatable,
nutritious, and always prolific and accessible, and
furnishing, in their livers, an oleaginous matter
whence oil is obtained for lighting up the Shetland-
er's hut, they constitute both the main staff of life
throughout the islands, and the means of diffusing
cheerfulness through the long winter evenings.
Throughout successive years of scarcity, this fish
has often for days together formed the sole food of
the Shetland peasant; and when want of corn and
potatoes presses most heavily, as in the four years
ending in 1840, it has providentially proved to be
more than usuaUy abundant. But for the wondrous
manner in which He who ' holds the waters in the
hollow of his hand,'
" Throngs the seas with spawn innumerable,"
of this eminently useful fish, just in the manner
most adapted to the circumstances of the islanders,
and in quantity proportioned to the failure of their
resources by land, they must, in spite of Uberal
charitable donations from 'their more happily situ
ated feUows, have, in great numbers, fallen victims
to famine. Whoever reflects on the lavish abun
dance of the fish, their habits, and their wondrous
subordination to the support of human life amid the
hyperborean asperities of such a country as Shetland,
must be practically an infidel not to see the agency
and the paternal care of the infinitely wise and good
Governor of the world  The fry of tbe fish appear
in May in comparatively small quantities, and little
more than an inch long ; they increase in numbers
till about the month of August, when they are very
abundant, and measure from 6 to 8 inches in length,
and, during all this period, they are provincially de
signated sillocks. Against the following March they
grow to the length of about 15 inches, and then ob
tain the name of piltocks ; and afterwards they
thrive with rapidity till they attain the mean size of
cod, and they are then called sethes or saithes. The
smaller fry seem to court the security of dense thick
ets of sea-ware, which shelter them from the keen
eye of the feathered tribes which prey on them ; and
the larger fry frequent all parts of retired bays, and
swarm almost everywhere upon the margin of the
coast, but have their favourite resort among the
constant floods and eddies of the tide, near sunken
rocks and bars which are alternately covered and
abandoned by the waves. " There is probably,"
says Dr. Hibbert, " no sight more impressive to the
stranger who first visits the shores of Zetland, than
to observe, on a serene day, when the waters are
perfectly transparent and undisturbed, the multitudes
of busy shoals, wholly consisting of the fry of the
coal-fish that Nature's full and unsparing hand has
directed to every harbour and inlet. As the even
ing advances, innumerable boats are launched, crowd
ing the surface of the bays, and filled with hardy
natives of all ages. The fisherman is seated in his
light skiff, with an angling rod or line in his hand,
and a supply of boiled limpets near him, intended
for bait. A few of these are carefully stored in his
mouth for immediate use. The baited line is thrown
into tbe water, and a fish is almost instantaneously
brought up. The finny captive is then secured;
and while one hand is devoted to wielding the rod,
another is used for carrying the hook to the mouth,
where a fresh bait is ready for it, in the application
of which the fingers are assisted by the lips. Tho
alluring temptation of an artificial fly often super
sedes the use of the limpet ; and so easily are cap-

SHETLAND.

6G3

tures of the small fry made, that young boys or feeble
old men are left to this business, and which is not
unfrequently carried on from the brink of a rock,
while the more robust natives are engaged in the
deep-sea fishery, or the navigation of the Greenland
seas." The sethe, or full-grown fish, is usually
caught in the deep tide-ways near the coast, at the
South and north extremities of the country, and is
particularly abundant in the whirling sea of Sum-
burgh-Roost; but, though hitherto little searched
for in other fishing-grounds, it is believed to occur,
like the fry, all round the country, and to be profit
ably fishable in every tidal current. " From saithe,"
says Dr. Edmonston, " being caught with little haz
ard near land during summer, requiring small capital,
and always selling readily in the home-market, it
will probably ere long be prosecuted as the most
profitable and generally attainable branch of the
fishing." The Haaf or deep-sea fishing, comprehending cod,
ling, and tusk, is ai present the most extensive de
partment, and has long furnished the staple articles
of Shetland export. The Haaf means any fishing-
ground for ling, cod, or tusk, at some distance from
the coast; the distance varying from 10 to 50 miles.
Ling and cod — as is well known — frequent respec
tively the deep valleys and the high banks of the sea ;
and, though cod has hitherto been comparatively
little fished, it is likely to become henceforth a bulky
produce, — a prodigiously large cod-bank having re
cently been discovered, which extends from the west
of Shetland -all the way south to Orkney. The
tusk or Forsk fish, resembles ling, but is not so
long; it is a rich and highly-flavoured fish; and
it may be regarded, as far as Great Britain is con
cerned, as having its sole habitat in the Shetland
seas  At numerous stations in the country, chiefly
in the north, the deep-sea fishing has been prosecuted
for a very long period ; and, during the three summer
months, it anciently drew numerous vessels from
HoUand, Denmark, and the Hanse towns of Ger
many, either to take a part in its stirring scenes, or
to exchange goods for its produce. The Dutch,
about two centuries ago, seni annually several hun
dreds of doggers, of about 60 tons each, to engage in
this fishery; besides 1,500 or 2,000 busses of 80 tons
each, to fish for herrings. In common also with
Danes and Germans, they sent vessels to barter for
cod and Ung with the Shetlanders ; and, on landing,
they either found booths ready erected for their use,
or were allowed, at an exorbitant charge for ground-
rent, to erect shops of their own. Sixty or seventy
years ago, the Dutch had so far decreased in impor
tance as to have only 200 busses employed; but
Danes, Prussians, Flemings, and French had as many
more, while the English had only two, and the Scotch
only one. Foreigners at length almost ceased to
pay visits ; the cod-branch of. the fishery ceased ;
and the ling-branch of it had a precarious existence.
So impoverished were the Shetlanders, that the
landowners were obliged, as the only method of re
viving the fishery, to provide their tenants with the
means of finding boats and tackling; and they then
established with them that system of mutual depend
ence, as to rent and produce, which we noticed in
speaking of the tenure of farms. — The fishery is
limited to two or three months in summer; and,
being not a little dangerous, it is prosecuted only by
the hardiest and most athletic of the islanders, in
boats or small decked vessels, which sail in fleets.
" After waiting for a fair wind, or the ceasing of a
storm," say the Messrs. Anderson, " the most ad
venturous boatmen give the example to their com
rades, starting off in their yawl, and taking the first
turn round in the course of the sun, when they are

instantly followed by the whole fleet, each boat of
which strives to be first at the fishing-station. Ar
rived at the ground, they prepare to set their tows
or lines, provided with ling hooks. Forty-five or
fifty fathoms of tows constitute a bught, and each
bught is fitted with from 9 to 14 hooks. Twenty
bughts are called a packie, and the whole of the
packies a boat carries is a fleet of tows. The fleets
belonging to the Feideland haaf are so large as sel
dom to be built with less than 1,200 hooks, provided
with 3 buoys, and extending to a distance of from
5,000 to 6,000 fathoms. The depth to which the
ling are fished for varies from 50 to 100 fathoms ;
and after the lines are all set which, in moderate
weather, requires from three to four hours, the fisher
men rest for two hours, and take their scanty suste
nance ; their poverty, however, allowing them no
richer food than a little oatmeal and a few gallons of
water; for the Shetlanders can rarely supply them
selves with spirits. At length one man, by means
of the buoy rope, undertakes to haul up the tows ;
another extricates the fish from the hooks, and throws
them in a place near the stern, named the shot; a
third guts them, and deposits their livers and heads
in the middle of the boat. Along with the ling, a
much smaller, quantity of tusk, skate, and halibut,
are caught, the two last being reserved for the tables
of the fishermen ; and six or seven score of fish are
reckoned a decent haul, fifteen or sixteen a very
good one, and, when above this quantity, the garb
age, heads, and small fish are thrown overboard, the
boat, notwithstanding, being then sunk so far as just
to ' Upper ' with the water. If the weather be mo
derate, a crew is not detained longer than a day and
a half at the haaf; but as gales too often come on,
and as the men are reluctant to cut their lines, the
most dreadful consequences ensue, and many of the
poor fishermen never reach land." The curing and
drying of the fish, when landed, are conducted with
great regularity and skill. Pebbly beaches, smooth,
dry, and swept by constant currents of cool air, are
numerous, and form excellent grounds for the dry
ing. But since the curing has ceased to be, as for
merly, under the sole superintendence of the lairds,
it is said to have suffered- deterioration in manage
ment, and occasioned some fall in the market-value
of the fish.
The herring-fishery,, anciently att nded to by the
Dutch, and afterwards almost totally abandoned, did
not draw attention from the Shetlanders till after
the commencement of the present century, but has
been sedulously and successfully prosecuted during
the last twenty years. The fishing-season extends
from the middle of August till the middle of October.
The herrings are not so abundant as they have, for
many years past, been on the east coast of conti
nental Scotland ; and they have tantalized the fisher
men with the same irregularity of movement, though
not to the same extent, as on the Scottish western
coasts. Owing to the storminess and rapid vicissi
tudes of the climate, tbe whirling and tumultuous
character of the tide-streams, and tbe comparatively
small extent of land which covers the boats when a
wind springs up from the shore, the fishery is much
more hazardous than any south of Orkney. Had
dock and some other kinds of fish, additional to such
as we have mentioned, are caught for home use, but
they engage little attention, and are not separate or
express objects of pursuit. Smaller and larger seals,
called respectively tang-fish and haaf-fish, abound on
the coasts. The ' ca'ing whale ' occasionally appears
off the coasts in assemblages of from 100 to 500; and
gives occasion to much excitement in its capture : see
Yell.
The manufactures of Shetland are, in most mat?

664

SHETLAND.

tera, very primitive, and in others very limited. The
greater portion of the inhabitants combine, in a rough
way, the practice of all the ordinary arts, each indi
vidual acting as his own shoemaker, tailor, carpenter,
and general handicraftsman ; kelp-making was never
practised to the same extent as in the Hebrides; and,
in various districts, is now almost or altogether re
linquished. A straw-plait manufactory at Lerwick,
which promised for several years to acquire some
importance, has become defunct. The making of
herring-nets was recently introduced, and may pro
bably succeed. The knitting of stockings, woollen-
gloves, and kindred fabrics from the wool of the
Shetland sheep, is the most extensive manufacture,
and employs a iarge number of females. The hosiery
has long been in high repute for the softness and
beauty of its texture ; and, though partially jostled
aside by the capricious and despotic movements of
fashion, it still holds a prominent place in the market.
Stockings vary in price from Is. to 10s. a-pair, and,
in occasional extraordinary instances, bring so high a
price as 40s. ; and the gloves usually vary between
ihe same ordinary prices as the stockings, and occa
sionally sell for 15s. The commerce consists in the
exchange of fish, hosiery, and country produce for
nearly all the miscellaneous articles of manufacture
and colonial produce ; and it gives a decided balance
in Shetland's favour, or shows a marked ascendency
of the value of exports over that of imports. Nearly
the whole of it is conducted with Leith. Though
Orkney and the northern continental counties lie
comparatively near, surprisingly little intercourse
with them exists. The weekly visit of the Wick
steamer, connecting Lerwick with every principal
port all the way south to Leith, has effected won
drous changes, but is enjoyed during only the sum
mer half of the year. Dr. Edmondston, in a tone
of just remonstrance, says, " The mail-steamer run
ning all the year through would be a signal boon, as
bringing Shetland completely within the vortex of the
British market ; and no satisfactory reason has yet
been given why this advantage, often solicited, has
been withheld. The isles of Man and of the Chan
nel enjoy many peculiar and important privileges;
distant colonies are pampered, and it might not be
unreasonable to expect some fostering patronage and
commercial indulgence to be extended to the long-
neglected Shetland islands." A few years ago one
of the chief merchants of Lerwick, the owner of
upwards of twenty vessels, became so embarrassed by
the detention of his letters, that he sailed to Edin
burgh to inquire for them in person ; and even when
there he could obtain them only by legally proving
his identity, and surmounting other serious dif
ficulties. *
The Shetlanders display various peculiarities which
either mark their Scandinavian origin or distinguish
them from their Celtic and Saxon fellow-subjects.
They are low in stature, small-featured, unrobust,
symmetrically formed, light, nimble, and generally
fair-haired. They possess much hardihood and power
of physical endurance ; and they are aggregately
versatile and lively, fitful and fond of alternate ex
citement and repose. They intermix the English
language with Norse terms and idioms, and speak it
with a smooth and expressively modulated enuncia
tion, far different from the phlegmatism and mo
notony of the prevailing Scottish dialect, and akin, in
some respects, to the dialects of both the English
and the Irish, but mellower and almost pensive in its
tones. Their carriage, whether among themselves
or to strangers, is mild, and their mode of address re
spectful. The lower orders wear heavy wooden
clogs, which seem liable to fall off at every step ;
and, when equipped for the sea, many of them have

a worsted head-dress of many colours, and shaped
like the common Scottish nightcap, a surtout of
tanned sheep-skin, which covers their arms and de^
scends from below their chin to their knees,— and
capacious neat-skin boots which reach to the knees,
and vie, in their ample dimensions, with the notable
leather galligaskins with which painters have long
been wont to encompass the royal calves of Charles
XII., when they have represented him as planning
the trenches of Fredericshal. This leathern dress
was at one time common in Norway, and is still
worn by the inhabitants of the Faroe islands. The
Shetlanders, however, seem to be becoming tired of
both it and the nightcap, and numerously substitute
the common sea-jacket and trowsers, and a plain hat
of straw. — They are fond of music, dancing, and
parties of pleasure ; but they know little of refine
ment in their amusements, and happily have of late,
years been considerably reclaimed from their habits
of mental dissipation. Their music, with the excep
tion of a few rude native airs, is the Scottish ; and
their only musical instrument is the violin. Each
gentleman in the vicinity of Lerwick has a town
and a country-house, and these so near to each other
as, in several instances, to be in full mutual view.
" All the principal families here," says Miss Sinclair,
"make a regular 'flitting' every season from town
to country, probably leaving their PPC cards for each
other, and, after taking a pathetic leave of the me
tropolitan gaieties, set out, by easy stages, changing
horses as often as may be necessary, and plunging
into the wilderness of rural enjoyment within, half-a-
mile. In London those who have no estates often
close their front windows for the summer, and with
draw out of sight while etiquette forbids their being
visible in town ; and to the Shetland gentry the
change is scarcely greater." All classes are sin
gularly hospitable, and would share their last morsel
with a neighbour, or even a total stranger. The use
of ardent spirits prevails very little in comparison
with other parts of Scotland ; and promises, in some
places, to yield the ground entirely to tee-totalism.
But a passion for tea, to the extent of feeling the
narcotic influence of ihe herb, seems so strong and
general as to threaten the country with serious dis
aster. Many persons suffering the pangs of starva
tion would rather experience the soothing effect of
tea than expend their last penny on bread. Tea-
drinking, says the lively lady we have just quoted,
" amounts here almost to an absolute vice ; and
the Shetlanders must positively establish a toast-
and- water society immediately. About £25,000
worth of Bohea is annually entered at the custom
house in Lerwick, besides which a great quantity is
smuggled by Dutch fishing-boats." The vices of the
islanders which most draw the attention of a stranger
are their adroitery in mercenary flattery, — their expert
and pertinacious intermeddling with domestic and
private concerns which do not belong to them, — their
exorbitant extortions in the shape of boat-charges, 
their occasional seizure of wrecks which have been
cast upon their coasts, — and their general enslavement
to the superstition of charms, witchcrafts, and ap
paritions. Yet the moral condition of the country is
much better than would be generally conjectured,
and appears to have been recently experiencing ex
tensive amelioration.
Shetland appears to have been chiefly Pagan till
the 13th century; it formed part of the diocese of
Orkney in the time of episcopacy ; it was late in re
ceiving the doctrines of the Reformation ; and it
seems not to have fully adopted Presbyterianism till
the close of the 17th century. It now constitutes
twelve ministeries or quoad civilia parochial charges;
which form the presbyteries of Lerwick and Burra-

SHETLAND.

665

voe, and the synod of Shetland. But its parishes,
with one or two exceptions, are all unions of two,
and oftener of three or four original parishes ; and are
aggregately provided with twenty -five parochial
places of worship, additional to such as belong to
quoad sacra parishes, and have been built and en
dowed hy Government. Small dissenting places of
worship, belonging principally to the Independents
and the Methodists, amount in number to about
twenty ; but, with hardly an exception, are remark
ably poor structures, and have an accompaniment of
purely missionary effort, comparatively small in its
extent, and very self-denied in its character. The
country is an important field for Christian enterprise ;
and, while it makes a silent yet deeply earnest ap
peal to the sympathy of the promoters of evangelical
missions, it does not offer the obstacle of language,
which has been so often, though most incongruously,
urged as a plea for neglecting the Western Islands 
Judging from the Education returns of 1 834 — some
of which are incomplete, and have to be filled up by
taking the average of the rest — the parochial and the
non-parochial schools are respectively eleven and
about forty in number, and are attended, the former
by about 580 scholars, and the latter by about 1,400.
— Shetland politically forms part of the county of
Orkney and Shetland : * which see. The only
town is Lerwick ; and the chief villages are Scal-
lowat and Uvea : see these articles. There are
some good mansions. Population, in 1793, 20,186;
in 1821, 26,145; in 1831, 29,392. Houses, in 1831,
4,859. The history of Shetland is so largely and minutely
identified with that of Orkney, that, after the sketch
in our article on the latter, very few particulars re
main to be stated. The Celts who, at an early pe
riod, made lodgments on Orkney, appear never to
have set foot on Shetland; and, at all events, have
not left any monuments in its topographical nomen
clature. Saxon rovers probably infested the coun
try, as they did Orkney, during some time preceding
the year 368, when they were routed by Theodosius.
Vestiges of the Romans having been here occur in
the cases of a small Roman camp in Fetlar, and of
coins which have been found of Galba, Vespasian,
Trajan, and (Elius Caesar. The Scandinavians, from
whom descended the present inhabitants, landed
probably at or before the 6th century; they found
shelter in the numerous voes and tortuous friths for
their piratical vessels ; and from these they took
their name of Vikingr, or Bay-kings, and thence, as
well as from bays in Orkney and the north-east coast
of continental Scotland, they sailed out to sweep the
seas, and devastate the sea-boards of northern Eu
rope. Hialtlandia, or Hiatlandia, or ' the High
Land,' was the name which the country received
from these bold and restless pirates ; and this has, at
various and successive periods, been changed into
Yealtaland, Hetland, Zetland, and Shetland.-^ Ha-
» Doubts have been started whether Orkney and Shetland
originally composed one county, or whether they were both
united to Scotland at the same period. It is certain there is no
mention of Shetland in the marriage-contract between James
III. and the daughter of Magnus of Norway, whereby the
Orkney islands came to be empledged for the dowry of that
princess; and the acquisition of Shetland is by some referred
to a much later period,— that of the reign of James VI. Shet
land retained the udal law, with other ancient practices derived
fromNorwegian origin, longer than Orkney, which, lying nearer
to Scotland, came sooner under the influence of its laws and
customs. Indeed the Shetlanders continued to consider Nor
way as the parent-country, down to a very recent period.
+ The letter z in old Scottish, always represents the sound of
« or ie ¦ and the first printers having followed the orthography
as they* found it in the manuscripts, their adoption of this cha.
racter has been the cause of much mispronunciation on the
south side of the Tweed. Thus Lunxie should be read as if writ
ten Lunuie. The * has become very inconveniently stationary
in many names of persona and places, as Mackenzie, Menzies,
Dalzell, &c. In these names the power of y given to ar rules

rold Harfeger of Norway, in revenge of the Vikingr
having turned their arms against the mother country,
revolutionized most of the affairs of Shetland, in
troduced a portion of both the order and the exac
tions of a regular government, and peopled the coun
try with tribes and families who had a steady at
tachment to the interests of Norway. He is be
lieved to have been the first Norwegian monarch
who exacted a land-tax from his subjects ; and was
the originator of the Shetland peculiarities of mea
suring land by merks, and distributing it into scat-
hold and udal territory. The scat or land-tax was,
in the first instance, imposed only on the unenclosed
or pasture-lands, in order that the exaction might
fall solely upon the produce of the flocks ; and hence
the distinction of scathold and udal, odhal, or free,
applied to respectively the taxed and the free por
tions of each possession. The country, in conse
quence of its lying naturally apart from the other
districts of the Norwegian earldom of Orkney, was
made a separate province, called a foudrie, and placed
under the administration of a grand foude or chief
civil governor appointed by the King of Norway.
Each of several districts into which it was subdivided
was watched over by an inferior foude or magistrate,
aided by 10 or 12 rancilmen, who acted as conserva
tors of the peace, and a la w-rightman, who regulated
weights and measures. The courts of judicature
bore the name of tings, and were held in the open
air, chiefly within circular enclosures of loosely-piled
stones. The ting of the inferior foude and his ran-
cilmen had jurisdiction only in matters of petty tres
passes on land, and affairs of equally diminutive im
portance. The tings of the grand foude were either
executive or legislative, and bore in the respective
cases, the names of the circuit-ting, and the law- ting.
The circuit-ting was held for districts called ting-
sokens, each of which comprehended several of the
territories of the inferior foudes ; and it disposed of
appeals from the inferior courts, and of those serious
offences which these judicatories were incompetent
to try, and which were punished by fine or confisca
tion. The law-ting was held once a-year on an islet,
in a fresh-water lake in the parish of Tingwall, to
which it gave name ; it was presided over by the
grand foude, but constituted by the obligatory at
tendance of all the udallers, or native proprietors ;
and, bythe free and multitudinous voice of its mem
bers, it made new laws, remodelled or repealed old
ones, and adjudicated such causes as involved the
life or death of the accused  The antiquities of
Shetland are numerous, and, in many instances, in
teresting. Remains of the forts of the Vikingr still
abound, and possess nearly as high attractions for
the antiquary as any class of ancient structures in
Europe. Circular watch-towers, belonging to the
same period, are also numerous. Steinbartes, or
stone axes, which were used till a comparatively late
date of the Scandinavians, have been numerously
found. Vestiges of several of the enclosures, within
which the law-courts were held, still exist. Remains
of small churches and chapels are so numerous, and
the way in which they are spoken in Scotland, which is the
correct pronunciation. Sometimes, however, y and as are used
indifferently ; thus Dalzell is often spelt Dalyell. The practice
of writing Zetland instead of Yetland has caused Sh to be sub
stituted fur the z in the common name of the Ultima Thule.
However, the noble Earl who takeB his title from that island,
has thought fit to adopt the old orthography. An etymologist,
who looks for a meaning in ancient names, would probably
have preferred the tj to t lie z. He might conceive that Yetland
is out or outerland, in reference to the mainland of Scotland ;
in the Bame way as a similar compound Jutland, the Cim-
bric Chersonesus, ia the outerland ot Hol.stein ; for the Ger
many corresponds with our y, and in the irregular orthogra
phy of the Anglo-Saxon y and u interchange. Hence we have
for out, outer, outside, &c, ut, utan, yte, ytian, and Yleua-
land is quoted by Medinger and others as the Anglo-Saxon
name of Jutland.

SHE

666

SHI

historical evidence survives of the quondam exist
ence of so many more, that a topographist wonders
how so poor a country could have maintained a cor
responding number of Popish priests and altars, and
bewails the miserable delusion which manifestly
prompted a reliance on chapel-building, and pur
chased masses as a succedaneum for faith in the Re
deemer, a regard to the saving work of God in the
Soul, and a heartfelt delight in the spiritual worship
and enlightened service of the Most High.
SHETTLESTON, a large village in the Barony
parish of Glasgow, and county of Lanark. It is
situated about 2 miles to the east of the city on the
road to Edinburgh, and may be considered a suburb
of the former. The inhabitants are principally of
the humbler orders, consisting of handloom wea
vers, colliers, and agricultural labourers. It has long
had a chapel-of-ease, which, with its surrounding
district, has now been erected into a quoad sacra par
ish. Population, in 1841, 7,209. Houses 1,504.
SHEVOCK (The), a rivulet of Aberdeenshire ;
dividing Insch and Culsamond on the north, from
Kinnethmont, Premnay, and Oyne on the south ;
and falling into the Urie a little above Old Rayne.
SHEWALTON. See Dundonald.
SHIANT ISLES, a small cluster of basaltic and
picturesque islets in the Minsh, 6 miles east of Ru-
Hushinish, on the coast of Lewis, 18 miles south of
the town of Stornoway, and 7 or 8 miles south of the
line of the packet between Stornoway and Poole we.
Irrespective of some detached rocks, they are three
in number, and bear the name of Garv-Eilan, Eilan-
na-Kily, and Eilan-Wirrey. The first and the se
cond measure each about 2 miles in circumference,
and are connected with each other, Garv-Eilan on
the north-north-west, and Eilan-na-Kily on the
south-south-east, by a neck of rolled pebbles which
is covered only at a concurrence of spring tide and
tempestuous wind. Eilan-Wirrey lies about 3 fur
longs south-east of the one island, and 4 north-east
of the other, so as to form with ihem a triangular
group ; and it measures only about a mile in circum
ference. They all present a verdant surface, the
hollows and declivities abounding in rich pasture ;
and they form a single sheep-farm, superintended by
a single family, who reside on Eilan-na-Kily. This
island, the chosen home of the solitary sheep-farm,
and the scene in pleasant weather of a seclusion from
the world altogether delicious, seems anciently to
have been the seat of a monastery or a hermitage.
Its name means '' the Island of the cell.' On its sur
face exist the vestiges of an ancient building now
nearly levelled to the foundation, consisting of
square masonry laid with lime, and on too small
a scale to have been a castle of strength, or the habi
tation of a chief. These ruins are probably the me
morials, or possibly the remains of a chapel, which is
recorded to have stood on the Shiant isles, and to
have been dedicated, like many an ecclesiastical edi
fice in the west, to the founder of Scottish Culdee
ism ; or they may indicate a monastic residence
which, in the later and corrupter period of Culdee
ism, was raised as a cell in subordination to lona.
From this structure all the little group of islands
seems to have derived its designation of ' Shiant,'
or sacred. But the Shiant isles, as they contain na
tural columnar structures similar to those of Staffa
and the Giant's Causeway, are objects of interest
chiefly to the geologists and the lover of the pictur
esque ; and, had they occupied a position less dis
tant and more accessible in reference to the swarms
of pretended virtuosi, whose taste or opportunities
afford no longer space than 24 or 48 hours to a tour,
they could scarcelv have failed, since the era of

steam-navigation, to acquire a fame fully more di*
tinguished than either of their natural rivals.
SHIEL (Loch), a lake in the south-west of In
verness-shire ; about 10 miles long, and 2 broad,
dividing the district of Moydart from Ardgower. It
has a small island, called Island-Finan, on which are
tbe ruins of a church dedicated to St. Pinan. It
discharges itself into the Western sea at Castle-
Tioram, by the river Shiel.
SHIELD AG, a quoad sacra parish and a village
on the west coast of Ross-shire. The parish be
longs, quoad civilia, to the parishes of Locbcarron,
Appleeross, and Gairloch; and was made a chapelry
in 1827, and a separate erection, by act of the Gen
eral Assembly, in 1833. Its greatest length is about
18 miles, and its greatest breadth about 15. Ex
cepting two famines of shepherds, who live in the
interior, the whole population are seated in a rugged
tract of country along the coast. Population, in
1836, 2,231. — The church and manse were built in
1827, by a parliamentary grant, and cost £1,480 15s.
Sittings in the church 300. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £120. The minister officiates once a-month
at Kishorn, — a preaching-station in connexion with
the Establishment at the south end of the parish.
The place of worship there was built by the people
in the neighbourhood, and the proprietor of Apple-
cross. Sittings 220. There are in the parish four
schools, two of which belong to the General As
sembly, one to the society for propagating Christian
knowledge, and one to the Gaelic society. That of
the Gaelic society affords tuition only in Gaelic, and
is attended by 37 scholars ; and the other three are
both Gaelic and English, and are attended by 197 
The village of Shieldag stands on a bay of its own
name, 15 miles north-west of Janetown. Shieldag
bay or loch measures about 2£ miles in length, and
1 mile in mean breadth, and is simply an offshoot
southward of the central compartment of Loch-Tor-
ridon. In its bosom lies a little island, called Eilan-
Shieldag. The village has a good inn, but is very
poor, — its inhabitants being almost all, more or less,
dependent on the precarious herring-fishery. Popu
lation 200.
SHIN (The), a short but picturesque river in
Sutherlandshire. It issues from the south end of
Loch-Shin in the parish of Lairg, and runs 7 miles
southward to the Oikel, in the parish of Creich, 5
miles above Bonnar. The vale which it traverses
derives from it the name of Strathshin ; and though
narrow, is cultivated, wooded, and rich in the fea
tures of close landscape. At the river's exit from
the kike, and on its east bank, are the village of
Lairg, an indifferent inn, and a coble and piers. Two
miles from the river's confluence with the Oikel is
the linn of Shin, — a waterfall not much distinguished
for its scenery, but quite remarkable for its height
as a successful salmon-leap.
SHIN (Loch), a lake in the parish of Lairg,
Sutherlandshire. It extends from north-west to
south-east; has an extreme length of about 17 miles,
and a mean breadth of rather less than 1 mile ; and
bisects lengthwise the greater part of the parish.
It possesses strictly a Highland character, but wants
the magnificence of mountain-flank, and the opu
lence of forest, and the ornamenting with islet and
demesne, which distinguish many of the first-class
lakes of the Highlands. Its south-eastern extrem
ity, indeed, is overhung by a tine sweep of wood,
and washes a slope beautifully studded with the
neat cottages, the humble church and the peaceful
manse of the village of Lairg ^ and its west end is
so sublimely encircled by the stupendous mountain-
masses which are grouped with Ben-More-Assynt,

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as to need only wood and a little culture to produce
the picturesque Mendings of grandeur and beauty ;
but its central and greatly chief extent — to adopt
the unnecessarily strong yet descriptive language of
Dr. Macculloch — " is little better than a huge ditch
without bays, without promontories, without rocks,
without trees, without houses, without cultivation,
as if Nature and man had equally despised and for
gotten it."
SHINNEL (The), a charmingly picturesque rivu
let in Nithsdale, Dumfries-shire. It rises in two
small head-waters, on the west side respectively of
Allan's-cairn and Black-hill on the boundary with
Kircudbrightshire ; it flows 10 miles south-eastward
nearly along the centre of the parish of Tynron ; and
making a sudden bend at the farm-house of Ford, it
proceeds If mile north-north-eastward, and falls into
the Skarr less than a mile above Penpont. Just at
the point of uniting with the Skarr, it rushes with
great impetuosity over a remarkable ridge of bold
rocks ; and between 2 and 3 miles above this point,
or a Uttle below Tynron-manse, it makes a consider
able waterfall, called Aird-linn, and owing to its
being richly fringed and shaded with wood is there
highly picturesque.
SHlR A (The), a small river in the north-east of the
district of Argyle proper, Argyleshire. It rises on the
south side of Benvalagan, at the point where Ar
gyle, Cowal, and Glenorchy meet, and flows 10 miles
south-westward to the west head of Loch-Fyne, l1
mile above Inverary. A little above its embouchure
it forms a small deep lake, called Loch-Dubh. The
glen which it traverses receives from it the name of
Glenshira : see that article.
SHIS KEN, a hamlet in the parish of Kilmory,
and isle of Arran. Here is a chapel-of-ease, and in
the churchyard is a tomb, called the tomb of St.
Maol Jos, or ' The servant of Jesus.' This saint
fixed his residence on the little island of Lamlash,
and officiated by turns at Shisken, where he died ai
an advanced age. It is situate upon the western
coast of the island, at the distance of 6 computed
miles from Kilmory.
SHOCHIE (The), a rivulet of Perthshire. It
drains the parish of Monedie eastward ; forms a
junction with the Ordie, and is conducted mingledly
with that stream along an artificial canal, across a
narrow part of the parish of Redgorton, to the Tay
at the viUage of Luncarty.
SHOTTS, a large parish in the middle ward of
Lanarkshire; bounded by New Monkland on the
north ; Cambusnethan on the south ; Bothwell on
tbe west; and Torphichen, in Linlithgowshire, on
the east. It extends 10 miles in length, by about 8
in breadth, contains 32,000 imperial acres, and
rises in elevation from 250 to 900 feet above the
level of the sea. Originally the district was named
Bertram-Shotts, and formed part of the extensive
barony and parish of Bothwell, from which it was
disjoined soon after tbe Reformation, and the name
of Bertram dropped. The parish has rather a bleak
unproductive appearance, and, until within these last
few years, was rather characterized by sterility than
abundance. It has long been popularly believed
that Shotts contained the highest cultivated land
in Scotland, which is now well ascertained to be
a, mistake. The Hirst-hill, however, is the most
elevated point between the frith of Forth on the
east, and the frith of Clyde on the west; and
both from its summit and from those of the Til
ling and Cant hills, the prospect is one of the most
extensive and beautiful in Scotland. " From the
Cant hills, six complete shires, with part of eight
more, are seen. Here the whole country, from Ar
thur 's-seat to the hills in Arran, and the western

termination of the Grampian range, fills the eye
While the observer' turns round, carrying his eye
from south to north, the whole space from the Pent
land, Tinto, and Loudon hills, on the one hand, to
the Lomond, the Ochil, and the Campsie heights,
on the other, successively comes under his view.
Into this extensive prospect, with the hills already
mentioned, enter the city of Glasgow, and the towns
of Paisley and Hamilton, with villages and gentle
men's seats not to be numbered. This great stretch
of country, a few miles south-east of Shotts ex
cepted, has the appearance of much richness and
cultivation." [Old Statistical Account.] — Shotts is
much more celebrated for its mineral wealth than its
surface production. It forms part of the great Lanark
shire coal-field, which is most extensively and profit
ably worked. Ironstone is also found ; but as the band
is not considered superior, it has not been worked
to any extent. In addition to the opening of the
collieries, the most important event in the industrial
history of Shotts, has been the establishment of its
works; — the first of which, called the Omou iron
work, was established in 1787 by Colonel William
Dalrymple of Cleland, — and the other, called the
Shotts- work, in 1802, by a company of private indi
viduals. They are in full operation; and to the
smelting of iron, in the case of the latter establish
ment, an extensive foundry was added a number of
years ago, which enables it to carry on no insignifi-
'cant rivalry with the great Carron company. The
marine and land engines, and other kinds of machin
ery, which have proceeded from its engineering depart
ment, have imparted to the Shotts works a credit
able degree of celebrity; and the vast amount of
money weekly circulated in the shape of wages has
been the life and spirit of the whole neighbouring
country. There are four villages in the parish; viz.
Shotts works, Omou, Harthill, and Sallysburgh,
and the post-office of the parish is established at
the former. The great public road from Edinburgh
and Glasgow has run through the parish from time
immemorial ; and of late years from 20 to 25 public
coaches have passed through it daily. The opening
of the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway, however, by
diverting the great stream of passenger-traffic into
its own channel, has completely altered this state
of things ; and the turnpikes of Shotts, in compa
rison of what they were, are now dull and deserted.
Population, in 1801, 2,127; in 1811, 2,933; in 1821,
3,297; in 1831, •3,220; in 1841, 3,862. Assessed
property, in 1815, £9,012. — The parish is situated
in ihe presbytery of Hamilton, and synod of Glas
gow and Ayr. Patron, the Duke of Hamilton.
Stipend £300 per annum. The church was built
in 1820, and seated for 1,200 persons. There
is a flourishing congregation connected with the
United Secession in the parish, the church be
longing to whom was erected in 1771. There are
three endowed schools in the parish, in addition
to at least an equal number which are unendowed.
The salary of the parochial master is £34 4s. 4|d.
per annum, with £6 school-fees, and £8 8s. other
emoluments. One of the schools, not parochial,
belongs to the Shotts iron-works ; another is called
the Murdostownschool, and endowed by Sir Thomas
Inglis with £19 annually, — and another, called the
Harthill-school, is endowed by the late James Wil
son of Whitburn, with the interest of £500 sterling.
— There is little of historical interest attaching to
Shotts. Like almost all the parishes in the west
of Scotland, its inhabitants were, in the covenanting
times, strongly imbued with the national horror of
' black prelacy,' and furnished their contingent to
the battle of Bothwell-brig. The banner borne by
the band from Shotts on that occasion is still pre.

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served at the farm of Nethertown, and bears the
well-known motto, — ' For Scotland's covenanted
work of Reformation.' The ashes of one of the
Covenanters repose in the churchyard, and his grave
stone bears the following inscription : — " Here lyes
the bones of William Smith, who lived in Moremel-
len, who, with others, appeared in arms at Pentland-
hills, in defence of Scotland's covenanted work of
Reformation, in anno 1666; agreeable to the word
of God, in opposition to popery, prelacy, and per
jury, and was murdered on his return home near
this place." This parish has given birth to some
eminent men : viz., Mr. John Miller, professor of
law in the University of Glasgow, well-known to
the public,as a learned author; Dr. Matthew Baillie,
the celebrated anatomist and physician, who was son
of Dr. James Baillie, minister of Shotts, and brother
to the celebrated Joanna Baillie ; and Mr. Gavin
Hamilton, the celebrated historical painter. Dr.
Cullen, the talented physician, began his practice in
this parish — Two cattle and horse fairs are held
annually at the Kirk of Shotts on the 3d Tuesdays
of June and November, respectively, O. S. — A rail
way has been projected from Shotts to the Wishaw
and Coltness railway. Its length will be 8 miles,
5 furlongs, 188 yards ; and estimated expense about
£70,000. SHUNA, an Hebridean island in the parish of
Kilbrandon; Argyleshire. It lies IA mile south of
Torsa, and the same distance south-west of the en
trance of Loch-Melfort ; and is separated from the
Slientime-moorand the peninsula of Craignish on the
east, by a sound of between 1 mile and nearly 2 miles
broad ; and from the island of Luing on the east by
a very narrow strait, called the Sound of Shuna.
Its greatest length from north to south is about 3
miles; and its greatest breadth is nearly lj mile.
Its surface is a continuously rolling, tumulated, and
broken ground, whose tiny summits nowhere rise
higher than about 200 feet above sea-level. It pos
sesses much of that intricate mixture of land and
rock which, with the aid of wood and culture,
abounds in mild and soft pictures of rural beauty ;
it derives picturesqueness from its encincturemeni
with intricate bands of sea, overhung by the lofty
and hard featured heights of island and continent ;
and it has everywhere such a profuse and curious
interspersion of natural woods of birch and alder,
with protuberant rocks, and with pendicles of culti
vated and pasture-land, as to look, from end to end,
like a large sea-girt ornamental park. Though to
pographically grouped with the slate islands, it pos
sesses little or none of the clay-slate so prevalent in
Luing and Seil, Easdale, Lunga and Scarba; yet it
presents interesting objects of study to a geologist;
and at each end it has a bed of dark-blue crystalline
limestone, which has long been wrought for econo
mical purposes.
SHURIRY (Loch), a lake about 1| mile long,
in the parish of Reay, Caithness-shire. The river
Forss issues from it, or, more properly, traverses it;
but, above the lake, bears the name of the Torran.
SIBBALDIE. See Applegarth.
SICCAR-POINT. See Cockburnspath.
SIDLAW, Seedlaw, or Sudlaw HILLS, a
long ridge or chain of heights, extending north-east
ward and east-north-eastward from Kinnoul-hill, on
the left bank of the Tay, in the immediate vicinity
of Perth. The chain is detached from the Ochil
range only by the intervention of the Tay and the
Earn ; just as the latter range is detached from the
Lennox-hills only by the intervention of the vale of
the Forth; and jointly with these ranges it forms
the Lowland screen, or the screen on the Lowland
tide, of what, without any great accommodation of

language, may be called a continuous valley aloii<f
the skirt of the Highland frontier, from the vale of
the Leven in Dumbartonshire to the German ocean
at Stonehaven. To the more marked and emphatic,
and to the popularly designated part of this great
valley or ' Strathmore,' belongs the screen of the
Sidlaws. Yet the heights are not strictly either a
range or a chain. They extend with considerable
ridgy regularity from Kinnoul hill, north-eastward
to a point a little distance south-east of the town
of Forfar ; they there fork into two lines, the one
of which goes off in undulations and detachments,
yet with very observable continuity nearly eastward
to the sea at Redhead, while the other proceeds ir
regularly north-eastward, becomes almost lost in the
vicinity of Brechin, and afterwards rallies and strag
gles on along the Lowland side of the How of Kin
cardine to the sea at Stonehaven. Such in extent
are the Sidlaws in the large and properly geographi
cal sense ; though, in the popular application of the
name, they are very generally restricted to their
sweep through Forfarshire from the parish of Lundy
on the south-west to the promontory of Redhead on
the east : see Forfarshire. Many of the hills, of
which the celebrated Dunsinnan [which see] is the
most remarkable example, are isolated in position,
and have conical summits. Some, such as the hills
of Lower, of Dunnichen, of Dumbarrow, and others,
are rounded and detached, and overhang intervening
valleys. In some instances, as in the ridge of the
Tulloes, which runs along the southern frontier of
the parishes of Inverarity, Dunnichen, and Kirkden,
the heights form a long flat regular range of moder
ate elevation. The greatest altitude is about 1,406
feet above sea-level; but this, or an altitude very
little inferior, is attained by many of the summits.
Seen from Fifeshire, they appear a lofty brown
mountain-barrier drawn out like a huge rampart to
cover the interior of Perthshire and Angus. Some
of them are cultivated to the summit, and many
which, 50 years ago, were covered all over with
stunted heath, now seem to groan beneath loads of
green umbrageous timber. The prevailing forma
tion of the Sidlaws is the old red sandstone, — part
of the vast bed which so curiously waves in several
great and successive curvatures across Forfarshire.
On the side facing Strathmore, the strata dip to the
north at an angle of about 45° ; but they diminish
in dip as the hills are crossed, till on the side facing
the Lowlands, especially in the upper part of Car-
mylie, they become nearly or altogether horizontal.
The sandstone is of various colours, red, brown,
gray, white, with a slight tinge of green ; and it is,
in some instances, susceptible of a remarkably smooth
polish. The strata alternate with beds of shale, and
occasionally with some beds of conglomerate which
measure from 50 to 100 feet in thickness. Trap-
rocks, chiefly of greenstone, and to some extent of
porphyry, occur plentifully in intersecting veins,
and occasionally in surmounting nodules and masses.
An impervious boulder-formation covers a large part
of the surface.
SIMPRIN, an ancient but suppressed parish, now
united to Swinton, and consisting of some wavy
swells and their intervening plains in the lower
Merse, Berwickshire. It is chiefly remarkable as
the parochial charge, from 1699 till 1707, of the
well-known Thomas Boston of odoriferous memory,
and afterwards minister of Ettrick. The session-
register during the whole period of his incumbency,
is all in his autograph, and is still preserved. The
church in which he officiated was small, and has long
been an utter ruin. A large barn— in this case quite
as interesting an object as the church — was em
ployed by him as the scene of ordinances at all

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Mcramental and other extraordinary occasions. Hye
de Simprin possessed the manor in the reign of Mal
colm IV., and gave the church to the monks of Kel
so. The whole parish was long the property of the
Cockburns of Langton ; but, in 1758, was sold by
them for the liquidation of debt. The village of
Simprin has disappeared.
SINCLAIRTOWN, a village in Fifeshire, in the
parish of Dysart, immediately adjoining to Pathhead,
containing, in 1811, 947, and, in 1836. 1.240 inhabi
tants, mostly employed in weaving.
SKARR (The). See Scarr.
SKEEN (Loch), a small wild lake in the north
east of the parish of Moffat, and the extreme north
of the district of Annandale, Dumfries-shire. It is
situated within a mile of the point where the coun
ties of Dumfries, Selkirk, and Peebles, meet, within
1£ mile of the source of the Yarrow, anu within
half-a-mile of the sources of the Megget and the
Fruid, early tributaries respectively of the Yarrow
and the Tweed. Its elevation above sea-level is be
lieved to be upwards of 1,000 feet. Its length is
1,100 yards ; its extreme breadth is 400 yards ; and
its depth is not known. Its basin is mossy, bleak,
and wild. On one of two or three rocky islets
which darkly stud its bosom, the eagle — which is now
a rare bird in the Southern Highlands — was used to
bring out its young. The trout of the lake are large,
— some of them 1 1 inches in length ; and are the
most delicate in flavour of any in the circumjacent
country, forming an attraction to the " wellers " at
Moffat. The stream by which the lake discharges
its superfluent waters in tribute to the river Moffat,
forms the magnificent cascade called the Grey
Mare's Tail : which see.
SKELMORLY. See Largs.
SKENE, a parish in Aberdeenshire, 6 miles west
of the city of Aberdeen. It is bounded on the north
by Kintore and Kinellar ; on tbe east by Newhills ;
on the south by Peterculier ; on the south-west by
Echt ; and on the west by Cluny and Kemnay. Its
greatest length, from north-west to south-east, is
6J miles ; its greatest breadth, in the opposite di
rection, is 4J miles ; its mean breadth, over most of
its extent, is somewhat less than 2 miles ; and its
area is 9,393 acres. Loch Skene, a fine oval sheet
of water on the boundary with Echt, is about a mile
long, and upwards of J of a mile broad, and abounds
with pike and eel. Leuchar-burn, a small affluent
of the Dee, traverses the lake, and, over 4J miles
above and below it, runs along the boundary. The
surface of the parish is prevailingly rocky and broken,
and, in the northern district, is hilly and bleak. Up
wards of one-third of the whole area is black moor ;
500- or 600 acres are moss; about 1,600 acres are
pasture-ground ; and tbe rest is disposed in arable
lands and plantations. The soil subject to the plough,
though predominantly gravel, is exceedingly various
in both composition and fertility. Skene-house, a
seat of the Earl of Fife, is accompanied by a consi
derable expanse of woods. A very large cairn, and
traces of a rectangular encampment, exist about a
mile from the church. The parish is traversed west
ward by the roads from Aberdeen to Ballater, and
Logie-Coldstone. Population, in 1801, 1,140; in
1831, 1,677. Houses 374. Assessed property, in
1815, £3,425. — Skene is in the presbytery and synod
of Aberdeen. Patron, the Earl of Fife. Stipend
£158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £20. The parish-church was
built in 1801. Sittings 686. — An Independent chapel
was built in 1802 at Blackhills; and is believed to
have cost but a little more than £100. Sittings 235.
Stipend £40, with a dwelling-house and an acre of
ground  An ecclesiastical census, taken in 1835,
showed the population then to be 1,734 ; only 67 of

whom were dissenters. In 1834, the parish- school
was attended by 58 scholars ; and six other schools,
two of them kept by females, were attended by 177.
Parochial schoolmaster's salary £30, with £18 fees,
£20 8s. from the Dick bequest, and £12 allowance
for a garden,
SKEOTISVAY, an island, about $ of a mile
long, and half-a-mile broad, in the Harris district of
the Hebrides. It lies in East Loch-Tarbet, f of a
mile west of Scalpa.
SKERRIES, a general name throughout Orkney
and Shetland for numerous sea-girt rocks, and for
rocky islets which carry no herbage.
SKERRIES (Out), three inhabited islets and
some detached rocks in the extreme east of Shet
land. They lie 5 miles north-east of Whalsay, 10
miles east of Lunnanness point on the mainland, 10
miles south-east of South Yell, and 13 miles south
by east of Fetlar. Each is somewhat more than a
mile long ; and the three form a triangular group,
at the distance from one another of a few hundred
yards. They are remarkable as the wildly secluded
seat of a stirring population, and the scene of exten
sive fisheries for ling. These islets are parochially
in the district of Nesting : which see.
SKERRIES (Pentland). See Pentland.
SKERROW (Loch), a highly picturesque sheet
of water, of a triangular form, situated about 8 miles
north of Gatehouse, and nearly at the extremity of
the parish of Girthon. Its circumference may be
estimated at fully 2 miles. Upon tbe east side the
shore is lined with a kind of reddish granite sand,
which is much esteemed by mowers for putting upon
their hones when sharping the scythe. Loch-Sker-
row is studded with islands, which give ita romantic
appearance. The two largest are thickly covered
with trees, bushes, and herbage of various kinds,
grown very close together into a thicket. The bot
toms of these islands are formed of masses of huge
stones, wildly jumbled together. One of these woody
islands has evidently been the habitation of the eagle,
for the remains of a huge nest are still to be seen
sticking in the thicket. This highly romantic loch
is the favourite resort of wild ducks and gulls. It
has both trout and pike, but it cannot be said to
abound with either. The trout are of a beautiful
symmetrical shape, small headed, thick bodied, and
prettily tapered towards the tail. Their flesh is as
red as a salmon's, and far superior to the salmon of
Dee. They are exceedingly shy and capricious, at
all times, and very difficult to allure ; two or three
of them are now reckoned not a bad day's work.
SKERRYVORE, a dangerous rock or reef 13
miles south-west of Tiree, and about 27 miles west
of lona. The reef extends about 10 miles in an
eastern and western direction. In July 1840, the
foundation-stone of a lighthouse, to be erected at the
expense of the commissioners of northern lights,
was laid upon this rock by the Duke of Argyle. The
building will be 130 feet in height in addition to
that of the foundation, which is carried above the
highest tide.
SKIACH (Loch), a small lake f of a mile in
length, and well stored with excellent trout, in the
parish of Little Dunkeld, Perthshire. A furlong or
iwo south of it is Little Locb-Skiach, about half the
size of the other. The superfluent waters of both
run to the Bran.
SKIACH (The), a rivulet of Ross-shire. It rises
in several head-streams among the eastern skirts of
Ben-Wyvis, and has a run of about 8 miles north
eastward to the Cromarty frith, near the church of
Kiltearn. During a drought in summer, it almost
entirely disappears ; but, after heavy rains or the
thawing of the winter snows, it is a voluminous and

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headlong torrent, and, but for being restrained by
embankments, would utterly desolate the arable
grounds on its banks.
SKIPNESS, a parish in Kintyre, Argyleshire,
now united to Saddel : which see. Skipness-poini
is the headland at the south side of the entrance of
Loch-Fyne. Skipness-bay, immediately to the south
is a creek, receiving a rivulet of 5 miles length of
run, and confronting Loch-Ranza in Arran. Skipness
village stands at the head of the bay. Skipness-
castle, a little north of the village, and surmounting
the headland, is a structure of great antiquity, of
imposing appearance, and in good preservation. Its
outer .wall is 7 feet thick, 33 high, and 450 long.
Two small projecting quadrangular towers rise from
opposite corners. The principal tower does not pro
ject, and soars aloft from the north-east corner ; and
it is handsomely fitted up, and continues to be in
habited. Around this tower are modern additions
which at once relieve the time-worn and heavy aspect
of the original edifice, and- afford accommodations
more in keeping with the modern notions of domi
ciliary comfort.
SKIPORT (Loch), an intricately ramified chain
of marine sounds and straits across the island of
South Uist, at the mean distance of about 5 miles
from its north end. It is usually described as sim
ply projecting into the island ; but really bisects it
from sea to sea, so as to render it two islands in
reality while only one in name. To add to the con
fusion, the loch or strait assumes, at the west end,
the name of Loch-Gamoslechan. All the land im
mediately connected with it is a museum of low
rocky islands and promontories ; forming the com
mencement of that chequered and diversified mixture
of flat lands and mazy waters which separates South
Uist from Benbecula.
SKIRDURSTAN. See Aberlour, Banffshire.
SKIRLING, a small parish in the extreme west
of Peebles-shire ; bounded on the north-east by
Kirkurd; on the east by Broughton ; on the south
by Kilbucho ; and on fhe west by Lanarkshire. Its
form is an oblong, terminated on the north by a ta
pering triangle. Its length from north to south is
3f miles ; its extreme breadth is If mile ; and its
superficial extent is about 2,640 Scottish acres. The
surface all lies at a considerable height above sea-
level, and is rolling and uneven ; yet it has no moun
tains, and only three hills, all small and verdant.
About four-fifths of the area are in tillage ; about 30
acres are wooded; and what remains is partly moor
land covered with short heath, but chiefly green, and
excellent pasture. The soil, though generally light, is
fertile. Biggar-water runs eastward along the south
ern boundary, and receives some feeders from the
parish. The village of Skirling, with a population
of about 100, stands near the middle of the parish,
2a miles north-east of Biggar, 2a. north-west of
Broughton, and 25 south-south-west of Edinburgh.
In this sequestered hamlet are a friendly society, a
jail, and three annual fairs. Two of the fairs, held
respectively on the first Wednesday after the 11th of
June, and on the 15th of September, are consider
able markets for horses and black cattle. Two other
annual fairs of the place are extinct. Skirling-house,
once a large and strong edifice, accessible at only one
point, which was defended by turrets, and ap
proached by a stone-bridge across an environing
morass, has quite disappeared. Population, in 1801,
308; in 1831, 358. Houses 61. Assessed property,
in 1815, £2,199 — Skirling is in the presbytery of
Biggar, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Pa
tron, Sir T. G.Carmichael, Bart. Stipend £216 4s.
lOd. ; glebe £60. Unappropriated teinds £83 15s.
.2d. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with about

£26 fees. The ancient name of the parish was suc
cessively Skrawlyne, Scraline, and Skarlin.
SKOU (Kyle), a belt of marine water, at the
continuation eastward of Loch- Assynt, between the
parishes of Assynt and Edderachyllis, on the west
coast of Sutherlandshire. It is about 4£ miles in
length, and varies in breadth from about IA mile to
probably 100 yards; and, at its inner end, it is con
tinued in two lines, each about 2 miles long, by
Lochs Coul and Dhu, which occupy two of tbe
wildest and most romantic glens in the county.
Kyle-Skou affords safe anchorage, and is frequented
by prodigious shoals of fish ; and it is, in conse
quence, one of the richest and most industriously
plied fishing-grounds in the north- west of Scotland.'
SKY, or Skye, the largest of the Hebridean
islands, excepting Lewis. It belongs politically to
Inverness-shire, and lies opposite the continental
parts of that county and Ross-shire. It is washed
on the north and north-east by the south end of fhe
Minch, looking away to the North sea; on the east
by the sounds of Rona, Raasay, and Scalpa, separat
ing it from the cognominal islands, — by intervening
or adjacent openings of sea from 6 to 14 miles broad,
separating it from Applecross and Lochcarron, — and
by Loch-Alsh, from J of a mile to 2| miles broad,
separating it from the district of Loch-Alsh ; on the
south-east by Kyle-Rbea and Glenelg-bay, from a
gun-shot to l1 mile broad, separating it from Glen-
elg, — and by the sound of Sleat, from 2| to 6A miles
broad, separating it from Knoydart and Morrer; on
the south and south-west by the Deucaledonian sea,
studded at the distances respectively of J of a mile,
and of 5^, 6J, and 9A miles with the islands of Soa,
Eig, Rum, and Canna; and on the west by the Little
Minch, separating it from Benbecula, North Uist,
and Harris. Its extreme length, ina line due south
east from Vaternish point to ihe headland at the
entrance of Loch-Cambuscross in Sleat, is 46A miles.
Its breadth, for SA miles at the north-west end, em
braces only' tbe narrow promontory of Vaternish ;
over the next 13 miles, it attains a maximum of 25
miles, and averages about 20, but includes broad
inlets of the sea which deeply indent the land ; over
the next 26 miles, it makes various contractions and
expansions, but, on the whole, tapers down from 15
miles to 4J; and, at the south-east extremity, which
forms the district and peninsula of Sleat, it abruptly
shoots out to 21 miles. The area is said to be nearly
350,000 acres.
Sea-lochs and bays are so numerous, that only the
principal can be stated. Loch-Snizort, on the north
west, sends off the subordinate inlets of Lochs Uigi
Snizort-Beg, Greeshernish, and Dubec, and separate's
the peninsula of Trotternish on the east from that
of Vaternish on the west. Loch-Follart or Dunve-
gan, also on the north-west, sends off from its east
side the large ramification of Loch-Bay, and sepa
rates Vaternish from Duirinish. Loch-Pooltiel
cleaves the centre of the north-west end of Duiri
nish. Locli-Bracadale, on the south-west, forks
into the subordinate waters of Lochs Roag, Caroy,
Struan, and Harport, and separates Duirinish from
Minginish. Lochs Brittle and Eynort penetrate the
south-west side of Minginish. Lochs Scavaig, Sla-
pin, andEishart have a common and very broad, but
nameless entrance, immediately north-west of the
peninsula of Sleat; and they jointly effect the great
contraction in the breadth of the island which occurs
in its south-east division. Loch-na-Daal penetrates
the south-east side of Sleat. Loch-na-Beste enters
from the waters of Loch-Alsh, and looks out upon
the cognominal district on the continent. Broad-
ford-bay, and Lochs Ainort, Sligachan, Portree, and
Staffin indent, at wide intervals, the north-east side

SKYE.

671

of the island — The principal headlands are Aird or
Trotternish-point, in the extreme north; Vaternish-
point, in the extreme north-west between Lochs
SnizortandFollart; Airdmore-point, at the entrance
of Loch -Bay; Dun vegan or Galtride head, between
Lochs Follart and Pooltiel; Idrigil-point, on the
north side of the entrance of Loch-Bracadale ; Du-
nan-point, on the south side of the entrance of Loch-
Brittle ; Strathaird, or the Aird of Strath, between
Lochs Scavaig and Slapin; Swishnish-point, between
Lochs Slapin and Eishart; Sleat-point, at the south
west extremity of the island ; Ardivazar-point, in
the sound of Sleat, and forming the landing-place
from Arisaig; and Ru-na-Braddan, on the north-east
coast of Trotternish.
The coasts of the island abound in interesting and
exquisite scenery. Over several miles south-west
of Trotternish-point, a breast-work is presented to
the sea, perpendicular, occasionally columnar, and
exhibiting fine specimens of basaltic formation. In
this range, a little south of the picturesque ruins of
Duntulm-castle, a small promontory presents, on a
scale of comparative grandeur, a resemblance to some
parts of Staffa; three caves of from 15 to 30 feet
in height occupying the front, and colonnades about
60 feet high filling the intervals, and extending away
along the sides. From this point to the head of
Loch-Snizort the shore is low and cultivated; and
where it wends round Loch-Uig, it, displays a beau
teous softness of foreground and a grandeur of im
mediate back-ground, which combine to make a
singularly interesting picture: see Snizort. Round
the peninsula of Vaternish, the coast is a constant
alternation of vertical cliffs and low shores, which,
when first seen, rivets attention, and would be per
manently interesting were it less profuse, but tires
by its repetition, and becomes monotonous from its
uniformity. The shores and islets of Loch-Follarl,
borrowing some effect from the picturesque aspeci
of Dunvegan-castle, and woven into continuity by
the intervening waters, form a richly variegated
sheet of beauty. From Dunvegan-head to Loch-
Bracadale, the coast consists, for the most part, of
cliffs various in altitude and abruptness, but gener
ally lofty, and often falling precipitously, sometimes
sheer down, from their summits to the water-edge:
these cliffs are composed of horizontal and somewhat
equal beds of substances much diversified in colour,
and amounting in some places to upwards of twelve
in number, and they, in consequence, present a singu
larly striped appearance ; but they are far too uniform
in character and rectilineal in outline to offer good
subjects for the pencil. On this part of the coast
and southward, occur some detached pyramidal
masses of rock similar to the ' stacks ' which figure
so curiously on the coasts of Shetland and Wick;
three, called Macleod's Maidens, and attaining an
extreme altitude of about 200 feet, occur near Idri-
gil point; and two, which are perforated, occur re
spectively in Loch-Bracadale and not far from Loch-
Eynort. The shores of Loch-Bracadale are, in
general, low, flat, and cultivated ;. but on the south
they become perfectly vertical' cliffs, bored with
caverns, and plunging their bases into the sea.
Round Talisker-bay, 2 miles south of Loch-Braca
dale, a low beach iooks up a retired and verdant
valley. From this point to Loch-Brittle, the cliffs
suddenly recommencing, rise speedily up to a sub;
lime elevation; they are very varied in outline,
numerous and intricate in their parts, and agreeable
in their tones of colour ; they appear, when seen
in front, to be quite or nearly perpendicular ; they
have fore-grounds of high and conspicuous detached
,rocks, which are often perforated with exceedingly
comp] cated arches ; and they, in consequence, ex

hibit some of the most magnificent compositions of
rock-scenery which are anywhere to he seen in
Scotland. These cliffs appear to have a mean alti
tude of not much below 800 feet ; and the cascades
which fall over them are so dispersed in spray before
reaching the ground or the sea, that they descend iu
showers of drizzling rain. At one part a consider
able portion of the cliff has been brought from the
summit down to the shore, exhibiting a very remarks
able mountain-slide, and forming at its base an alto
gether untraversabie promontory. Round Loch-
Brittle, the coast has but small elevation, and is
disposed in terraces, yet runs frequently out into low
projecting points; and hence to Loch-Scavaig, the
cliffs, though again becoming prevalent, attain hut a
comparatively small elevation. At the north-west
side of the entrance of Loch-Scavaig, the declivities
of the hills begin to come down, at a considerable
angle, upon the sea, without any intervening cliffs ;
and they produce a coa?t remarkable at once for its
difference of character f om that of nearly every other
coast in the kingdom, md for its surpassing degree
of wild and savage grandeur. See Scavaig (Loch).
Along the north-west side of Loch-Slapin, extends
a range of cliffs, rarely loftier than 60 or 70 feet, but
perforated and intersected with such an extraordi
nary number of caves and fissures that they some
times in a given distance occupy nearly as much
space as the parts of the cliffs which remain solid.
The chief of the caves is the celebrated spar one
noticed in the article Strathaird : which see. A
gloomy and sublime solitude of mountain -scenery
reigns around the head of Loch-Slapin; and from
several points in the vicinity, as well as in Loch-
Eishart, the distant views toward the north-west,
including an expanse of sea, bounded on the oppo
site sides by the contrasted forms of the Skye moun
tains and the Rum hills, are grand and striking.
Though the greater part of the coast of Sleat pos
sesses little interest in itself [see Sleat], yet the
prospect of the opposite shore, formed by the wild
and lofty mountains of Lochs Nevis and Hourn, is
deeply impressive; and, in the narrower part of ihe
sound between Skye and the continent, " the land
rises high, and with a rapid acclivity, displaying
broken rocks, interspersed with coppices and brush
wood, and enlivened by innumerable torrents, which,
together with the proximity of the sides, the rapidity
of the tide, and the quick succession of objecis, all
conspire to excite an interest which is preserved till
we arrive at Loch-Alsh. Here, the variety of the
coast-line, the wide but intricate expanse of water,
the scattered rocks, the picturesque and various out
lines of Sky itself and of the mainland, with the
ruins of Kylehaken-castle, its rising town, and the
bustle of the shipping that frequents this sea, com
bine to produce scenery scarcely exceeded on the
western coast." [Macculloch.] — -From Loch-Alsh
to Portree, the shore, though possessing some dis
tinctive features, has little character or beauty. See
Strath and Portree. From Portree to Ru-na-
Braddan, extends a line of cliffs, 700 feet in height ;
offering not a cove nor an intervening patch of low
ground on which a boat can be drawn up. Seen
from a little distance, it seems to be an uninterrupted
wall of successive stages, surmounted by a green
terrace, and occasionally skirted by huge fragments
interspersed with verdure; but, when more closely
examined, it shows now a gentle declivity from the
summit to the sea, now a succession of mural faces
and esplanades coming down like a huge staircase to
the strand, and now a lofty precipice overhanging
the sea, and sending off an unequal and bold ascent
toward the pinnacled, turretted, and cloud-cleaving
peaks of the Storr mountains in the interior. A

672

SKYE.

cascade at Holme, over a part of the mural cliffs
which is 300 feet high, flings a rivulet in a single
spout, right over the precipice to such a distance
from the base of the rocks, that a tourist may sail
beneath it in a boat, and mark in security how it
forms a watery circle in the air, and a foaming and
tumultuous boiling in the sea. From Ru-na-Brad
dan to Trotternish-point, but especially around and
near Loch-Staffin, extends a series of by far the
grandest basaltic formations in the three kingdoms,
very little excelled by Staffa in even minute beauty
of detail, and reducing that celebrated island almost
to insignificance by their contrasted magnitude and
sublimity. See Staffa (Loch). At one part of
this vast columnar range occurs a cascade about
equal to that of Holme in height, and, though infe
rior to it in volume, possessing a high interest in the
simple and unbroken manner in which it leaps over
the face of the vertical and lofty colonnade. " When
the squalls which blow from the high lands in this
stormy region descend so that the sea rises in smoke
beneath them like the vapour from a caldron, but
little of this stream reaches the waves below."
The surface of Skye, with the exception of the
plain of Kilmuir and a small tract near Loch-Braca
dale, almost wholly Consists of three distinct assem
blages of mountains, and intermediate expanses of
high and undulating land. A connected view of its
parts will be best obtained by commencing, the sur
vey of it at its south-east end, or rather at its south
western extremity in the point of Sleat. From this
point a continuous ridge, 1,200 feet Or upwards in
altitude, and irregularly torn on each side into sinu
ous ravines and glens which conduct its waters to
the sea, extends to Loch-na-Daal, and there suddenly
subsides into a low tract of inconsiderable breadth.
A second ridge, unique with the former both in
direction and in geognostic structure, and sending
up five principal summits to an elevation of about
2,000 feet, starts up on the north-east side of the
low tract, and stretches away to Loch-Alsh. These
ridges, which form a connected though interrupted
range, descend rapidly to the sea on the south-east,
and, in bulk, altitude, and character, figure conspi
cuously among the hills of the island. An irregular
tract of comparatively low land extends parallel to
this range from Loch-Eishart to the east side of
Broadford^bay; and forms a kind of junction toward
Kylehaken, with a continuation north-north-eastward
to that place of the belt of low ground which occu
pies the cleft or discontinuous part of the two ridges.
A second irregular hilly ridge extends quite across
the island, from Swishnish-point to the head of
Broadford-bay; and beyond this stretches the nar
row valley of Strath, with a comparatively small
mean elevation. From this valley io a line drawn
between Lochs Brittle and Sligachan, occurs the
most conspicuous part of the island, a confused as
semblage of mountains from 2,000 to 3,000 feet high,
and distinguishable, by striking differences in out
line, feature, and colouring, into two great portions.
The southern and greatly larger portion is a segre
gation of tame, smooth, conoidal hills, all separate
from one another, nearly all streaked with broad
Bheets of red rubbish, coining down from their sum
mit to their base, and many of them arising abruptly,
and without a single feature of relief, from the laby
rinth of intervening low ground. The northern
portion contrasts strongly, and in almost every par
ticular, with this dismal sea of red, rounded, charac
terless hills; it has a leaden and murky darkness of
colour which no light appears capable of harmoniz
ing, and which seems, even amid the blaze of a sum
mer's sun, to cover all the region with night, so
that when clouds wreathe the summits, a deep and

horrible abyss appears opened beneath into which
the eye vainly endeavours to penetrate ; and it con
sists of peculiarly rugged and serrated ranges and
masses of mountain, whose pinnacles and projecting
crags darkly indent the sky along the whole line
of both summit and profile. The Cuchullin hills,
which form the chief part of this dark group, rise
with a rapid and rocky ascent from the shores of
Soa-sound and Loch-Brittle ; and, consisting of six
obscurely divided summits, extend curvingly toward
the north-east, and present an almost continued pre
cipitous face deeply furrowed by torrents. Some
lower but equally rocky heights, of similar composi
tion and character, unite with them to enclose the
wildly romantic lake of Corriskin [which see]; and
Mount Blaven runs off in a more easterly direction,
in the form of a long acute ridge, — lifts its bare
rocky summit above the dark and far-extending mass
of the whole mountain-assemblage, — and constitutes
the highest ground in the island. Between this great
conjoint group of red and black heights, and a line
drawn from Loch-Snizort to Portree, occur the little
valley of Talisker, the green pastures of Lochs
Brittle and Eynort, and the low, open, cultivated
grounds of Bracadale ; but with these exceptions,
the whole country is an undulating upland of from
600 to 1,000 feet or upwards in elevation, nearly all
covered with brown heath, and barren, naked, and
haggard in aspect. The chief heights in this large
division are those of the promontory of Dunvegan,
and the two flat-topped eminences called Macleod's
Tables ; and almost the only object of scenic interest
is the basaltic colonnade of Great Brishmeal above
Talisker. Along Trotternish, from Portree to Trpt-
ternish point, extends a long ridge which abounds in
varied combinations of grand and picturesque beauty.
The Storr, its loftiest height, is itself an assemblage
of pyramidal, tower-like, and grandly elevated sum
mits, and exhibits, in combination with the clouds
which alternately sweep and embrace it, a wondrous
aerial gallery of romantic pictures : See Snizort.
The rest of the ridge presents to the west a gradual
declivity, and often displays on the east long stretches
of precipitous and vertical descent, or successive
tiers of mural face, which occasionally become co
lumnar, and blend, as around Loch-Staffin, with the
wondrous basaltic formations of the coast, to pro
duce surpassing magnificence of landscape. On the
west side of this ridge lie the rich and interesting
ground around Loch-Uig, and the plain of Kilmuir,
— the latter, the largest continuous tract of arable
land in the island, and emphaticaUy known as the
granary of Skye.
The rocks of the heights which range from Sleat-
point to Kyle-Rhea are quartz rock, argillaceous
schist, and red sandstone, accompanied by a body of
gneiss, chlorite schist, and some other substances.
Those of the district immediately north-westward
are white sandstone, steatite, serpentine, and gry-
phite limestone, — the last greatly the most abun
dant, occasionally passing into the second and the
third, acquiring, toward the north-west, a highly
crystalline texture, and finally disappearing beneath
mountains of syenite. Those of the great central
assemblage of heights are, in the red-streaked por
tion, chiefly syenite, and, in the dark portion, chiefly
hypersth'ene rock. Those of nearly all the exten
sive region west and north of the Cuchullins are the
most common varieties and forms of trap, overlying
secondary formations, and composing unconformable
hills and terraces. But on portions of the splendid
cliffy coast from Portree to Holme, and on an ele
vated plateau extending thence to Loch-Staffin, oc
curs a perfect exhibition of the several series and
members of the secondary rocks from the cornerasn

SKYE.

673

down to the lias. — The most noticeable minerals
found on the island are analcime, chabasite, stilbite,
nadelstein, garnet, laumonite, ichthyophalmite, oli
vine, prehnite, chalcedony, steatite, epidote, hyper-
sthene, and actiholite. The limestone of Strath is,
to a considerable extent, unornamental coloured
marble, which owes its green and yellow tints to the
presence of serpentine, and scarcely yields in beauty
to kindred specimens of ancient marbles. Oxidulous
iron occurs in thin veins in the Cuchullin and other
hypersthenic hills. Beds of shell-marl are some
what numerous in the limestone districts. A stra
tum of coal, little more than an inch thick, lying
between common shale and siliceous schist, is en
closed in trap between Loch-Sligachan and Conur-
dan ; other thin and short beds of it are found, in a
high position entangled among trap, at Talisker and
Scorribreck ; irregular nests and large amorphous
masses of it have been found in five or six separate
localities, — the largest, in Loch - Portree, having
yielded to mining 500 or 600 tons ; and beds, rarely
more than a few inches thick, occasionally and dis-
persedly alternate with shale and sandstone, in va
rious parts of Trotternish, but, in most cases, are
either overwhelmed or cut off by trap. Yet the
whole coal of the island, though an object of much
anxiety to proprietors and the inhabitants, seems to
be comparatively insignificant in either topographical
distribution or economical appUcation.
The rivulets of the island are numerous, and freely
drain its surface ; and, though of little note as pe
rennial streams, they very often swell to great bulk
of volume, and are, for the most part, well-stored
with trout and salmon. In two of them, Kilmartin
and Ord, is found the great horse-mussel in which
pearls are formed. The chief fresh-water lakes are
those of Corriskin, Creich, Colmkill, Leathan,
Mhoinneach-Mhor, Duarrish, Waak, Na-Caplich,
and Daalvil ; and most of them, together with many
lochlets, or permanent ponds, abound in trout and
eel. Corriskin is celebrated for its sublime scenery
and classical associations ; Colmkill, situated in the
north-east of Trotternish, is the largest in size, and
has its name from a chapel on an islet which was de
dicated to Columba ; and Na-Canlich i= remarkable
for containing the rare plant, eriocaulon  The c-iimate
of Skye is singularly moist and variable. " When
the reader is told," says Dr. Macculloch, " that I
made seven [unsuccessful] attempts, and in five suc
cessive summers, to ascend the Cuchullin hills, he
will form some notion of the nature of the climate.
Sky is, however, exempt from the durable snows
which, during the winter, cover the adjoining main
land." The air is generally laden with vapours;
and rain falls, on the average, three days in every
four throughout the year. The clouds, attracted by
the hills, sometimes break in useful and refreshing
showers ; at other times, suddenly bursting like a
water-spout, they pour down their contents with
tremendous noise, deluging the plains below, and
often destroying the hopes of the husbandman. But
nearly all tbe farmers, admonished by frequent losses,
have wattled-barns with lateral openings closed only
by twigs and boughs of trees ; and in these they
succeed in drying whole or part of the scanty crops,
even in the most rainy seasons. Stormy winds set
in about the end of August or beginning of Septem
ber, and give their powerful aid to endanger the un
cut crops. Agues, fevers, rheumatism, and dysen
teries, as might be expected, are prevailing distem
pers; 'ye* tDe climate is far from being aggregately
unhealthy, and nurses as large a proportion of the
inhabitants to a good old age as many a cUmate of
sensible balminess and amenity.
Over about nine-tenths" of the island extends a
II.

trap subsoil equal to probably the best in Scotland,
but, for the most part, entirely suffocated by peat or
stones, and so exposed to storm and rain as to have
its intrinsic excellencies all practically neutralized.
Over most of tbe remaining district extends a cal
careous soil, with every variety of elevation, expo
sure, and drainage ; yet, totally unlike nearly all soil
elsewhere of its class, it is exceedingly waste and in
fertile ; and, with small exceptions, in the bottom of
the valleys, it presents a surface boggy, brown, and
barren, scarcely exceeded in poverty of vegetation
by the scanty and stinted soils which lie on quartz,
and not even producing, iu most places, the well-
known plants which are the usual inhabitants of cal
careous land. A large proportion of the area of the
island _ is, for economical purposes, all but utterly
valueless ; most of even the pastures consist of moor
land covered with heath and very coarse grass ; yet
many tracts of green herbage occur, the most con
spicuous of which are in Trotternish and around
Loch-Eynort. By far the larger proportion of the
pastures are occupied in the rearing of a race of
black cattle which are noted for their good qualities.
The arable lands are, in general, confined to the
shores of the sea and some of the sea-lochs, and are
most extensive — though even there but a very small
part of the area — in Snizort, Bracadale, and Sleat.
Though the ancient system of joint-tenure has
wholly disappeared, and a considerable extent of
land has been reclaimed, and some improvements in
husbandry have been introduced ; yet the condition
of agriculture continues, on the whole, to be com
paratively primitive; and, in indication of this, the
caschrome, or ancient crooked spade, is very gen
erally in use, as the only succedaneum for a plough,
and even the quern, or hand-mill, maintains, in some
of the remote districts, its highly antiquated reputa
tion. Excepting in part of Sleat [which see], wood,
though anciently covering a great proportion of the
island, is now very nearly unknown. " The almost
absolute want of trees," says Macculloch, "imme
diately attracts attention ; since the form of the land,
often affording sheltered situations, is favourable to
their growth; while its small value for other pur
poses removes one of the obstacles to planting ; a
branch of rural economy that would also be much
aided by the facility so often here afforded for en
closing large tracts at a small expense."
The chief articles of export are black cattle, fish,
and kelp. But the proceeds of these, together with
the scanty agricultural produce, are not competent
to the support of the population. About nine or ten
years ago, when such large sums were contributed to
the relief of famishing multitudes in Ireland, many of
the Skye-men were in almost as much need of chari
table aid as the Irish, and might be seen flocking in
hundreds to the shore at ebb-tide to gather shell-fish
as the chief article of their food. In 1836 and 1837
the distress was so great that the whole of the small
tenants, or about one-half of the whole population,
were in want, and even those who had money or
other means at their disposal, could not find provision
to purchase. From about 1 821 destitution has, to a
less or greater extent, prevailed during two or three
months of every summer ; and, at an earlier period,
it made a sufficient number of visits to be familiar in
the island. Government has at various periods sent
corn to allay the local famines ; and the islanders
have been known, at a time when they acquired
ability, to reimburse the cost of it, and remit the
money to the Treasury. Lord Macdonald and Mac
leod' of Macleod, the two principal proprietors, have
not only, during popular distress, been kind and
lenient as to rents, but made important contribu
tions ; and, in 1837 alone, the former gave upwards
2 U

674

SKYE.

of £2,000 worth of provisions, and at the same time
drew, from some districts, a rental less than enough
to pay teinds and other public burdens. So greatly
is the island over-peopled, in proportion to its re
sources, that, in spite of very extensive and annually
repeated emigrations which have taken place, no
amount of public works, such as roads and quays,
will operate very visibly for the reduction of distress,
till a large proportion of the population be with
drawn. A great and increasing number of the island
ers earn a livelihood by temporary removal to the
Lowlands of Scotland, either to labour in public-
works or to act as harvest-reapers. So very con
siderable, for a long series of years, has been the
permanent emigration to America, that, even eleven
or twelve years ago, the assertion became a current
on dit, that there were as many Skye-men in Amer
ica as in Skye. Even in Australia a settlement
on Hunter's river was so colonized by Skye-men as
to have obtained the name of Skye district. But,
owing chiefly to friends having pieceded them, and
to the mode of living by husbandry and fishing being
the same as at home, the fields of emigration usually
preferred by recent emigrants are Cape Breton and
Prince Edward's island.
The inhabitants, in consequence of the arable
lands lying along the coasts, and fishing being a joint
occupation with husbandry, have almost all their
dwellings within j of a mile of either the sea or some
one of its inlets. Yet their avocational employment
on the fisheries is nearly all confined to the herring-
season ; and only or chiefly the younger members of
families catch rock-cod, cuddies, lythes, and other
fish which are used in domestic consumpt. They
possess, as to dress, none of the distinctive marks of
the curious tribes who act as fishermen on the east
coast ; and rarely, in so much as the article of a short
jacket, have they a costume adapted to a sea-faring
life. Nor do they hang out any emblem of participa
tion in the blood and usages of the Gael. The kilt
is nowhere to be met with, and seems never to have
been worn ; and the prevailing, almost the universal
fashion, is short coats, trowsers of coarse cloth,
and the common felt-hat. The Skye-men, in com
mon with some other Hebrideans and western High
landers, " when they make their appearance in any
of the towns of the east coast, may almost be de
tected by their hats ; from the picturesque shapeless-
ness and amphibious consistency which their head
gear speedily acquires from steeping in the Atlantic
mists. Such a thing as a straw-bonnet is not to be
found among all the female peasantry of Skye, or of
the highlands and islands in general. The lasses go
bare-heade8, trusting to the attraction of the emble
matic snood ; matrons bedizen themselves with the
varieties of the venerable mutcb, curtch, and toy ;
and the clothing of the female population of Skye is
hence generally coarse and mean in the extreme. No
comfortable cloak of 'guid blue cloth,' which many
of the east coast Highland wives have added to their
wardrobe, is to be seen. The old women throw a
dirty blanket over their, shoulders, the others have
seldom anything to vary their simple gowns of dark
blue or brown stuff. An air of squalid penury, too,
soon settles about them ; and, in middle-age, their
prematurely-pinched, care, and penury-worn features
are far from engaging. Kindly feelings and affections,
however, live under this unpromising exterior. The
people of Skye and the adjacent islands, and west
coast of the adjoining counties, are of short stature,
firmly knit, active, and more mercurial than the cen
tral Highlanders. Such generalizing observations
must, of course, not be strictly interpreted." [Ander
son's Guide to the Highlands.]
The principal towns or villages are Portree, Stein,

Kyle-Haken, Broadford, Isle-Oronsay, Armadale,
and Uig. The old ferry between Skye and the
continent is at the narrowest part of the strait of
Kyle-Rhea, near the parish-church of Glenelg. An
excellent ferry at Kyle-Haken, 5 or 6 miles farther
north, connects Skye with the Inverness-road by
Loch-Alsb, and, in a great measure, supersedes the
old ferry. A third ferry, in the sound of Sleat, 14
miles south-west of the old ferry, connects Arma
dale or Ardivazar-point with Arisaig. One road
commences nearly at Sleat- point, and runs north
eastward by Armadale to Loch-na-Daal, and thence
northward to Broadford ; — another runs north-west
ward from Kyle-Rhea to Astak;— another runs from
Kyle-Haken, along the east coast, by Astak and
Broadford, and, at these places, connects itself with
the two former; it thence makes a serpentine move
ment from side to side of the narrow part of the
island to tbe head of Loch-Sligachan ; and it there
forks into two branches, the one of which extends
northward to Portree, while the other extends
north-westward to Dun vegan and near the extremity
of Vaternish ; — and another, the continuation of the
northerly branch of the former, starts from Portree;
makes a tour of the whole coasts of the peninsula of
Trotternish; and, at a point 2£ miles east of the head
of Loch-Snizort, sends one Une right onward in a
return to Portree, and another off at a sharp angle
to proceed westward to a junction with one' of the
former lines in Vaternish.
Numerous ruins occur on different parts of the
coast, of those circular structures which, whether
fort, watch-tower, beacon, or temple, are usually
called Danish ; such of them as were forts are all
designated duns, — such as Dun-Skudborg, Dun-
Derig, Dun-Skeriness, and Dun-David ; but they
are, in every instance, so far destroyed as to
convey but a very slender notion of their original
condition. Of various monumental, or possibly
Druidical. stones, the most conspicuous are those
near Loch-Uig. A cairn on the summit of Ben-na-
Caillich is seen at a great distance, possesses very
unusual magnitude, and is the subject of some local
legendary traditions. Dunvegan-castle is the only
very remarkable ruin of a modern-antique structure.
Knock-castle survives in only a small part, and
seems to have been merely a castellated mansion.
Duntulm-castle, though small, is somewhaX entire,
and displays, what is rare in Highland structures of
its classj some remains of architectural ornament.
Dunscaich, the traditional residence of ' the King of
the Isle of Mist,' and an object of interest to per
sons versant in Gaelic poetry, is the scanty ruin of a
comparatively modern building, which could not have
been the Dunscaich of song.
Some particulars as to the political administration
of Skye, are stated in the article on Portree. The
island is ecclesiastically divided into the 7 quoad ci
vilia parishes of Bracadale, Duirinish, Kilmuir, Por
tree, Sleat, Snizort, and Strath, and the 2 quoad
sacra parishes of Hallen and Stenschall. These
parishes, together with that of Small Isles, consti
tute the presbytery of Skye, in the synod of Gleu- '
elg. The patronage of Bracadale and Duirinish ber
longs to Macleod of Macleod ; and that of all the
other parishes to the Crown. — Lord Macdonald is
proprietor of about three-fourths of the island, and
excepting Strathaird and another estate, which be
long respectively to Macalister and to Macleod of
Raasay, Macleod of Macleod is the proprietor of
the remainder. The resident gentry are noted for
their hospitality, and surprise a Southron by sur
rounding ,him with all the comforts and elegancies of
life. Population, in 1821, 20,627; in 1831, 22,796.
Houses 3,985.

SLA

675

SLA

SLAINES-CASTLE. See Cruden.
SLAINS, a parish, very nearly in the form of an
isosceles triangle, on the west coast of Aberdeen
shire. It is bounded on the north by Cruden ; on
the south-east by the German ocean; and on the
west by Foveran and Logie-Buchan. Its north side
measures 4J miles, and each of the other sides 64.
A brook which strikes the Ythan at a sudden bend
of the latter, and afterwards the Ythan to the sea,
trace all the western boundary, and cut the parish
into a cuneiform peninsula. The Ythan is here na
vigable for sea-borne vessels; and it abounds in
salmon, flounders, cockles, and mussels, and, at a
comparatively recent period, furnished large pearls.
The loch of Slains, nearly in the centre of the par
ish, covers about 54 acres; has a mean depth of
ubout 25 feet ; abounds with pike, perch, and eel ;
and is encompassed with pleasant green banks, which
require only some sylvan embellishment in order to
the whole scene being softly and charmingly pictur
esque. Several good medicinal springs, chiefly cha
lybeate, have been useful in cases of gravel and bile.
One-third ot the coast is a sandy beach ; and the
rest is high rocky cliff, strangely torn and indented,
and presenting vast and horrible chasms. Of sev
eral caves which perforate the yawning cliffs, one
is nearly 600 feet long, and occasionally 20 feet high,
— and another, caUed the Dropping cave, or the
White cave of Slains, is so richly incrusted with
stalactites, and profusely watered with the calcareous
drippings from a porous rock which forms them, that
though the whole has been prosaically swept away
for transmutation into manure, a new gorgeous coat
ing, similar in appearance to carved white marble,
has been very rapidly formed. The surface of the
parish is in general level, and the soil fertile ; and,
in consequence chiefly of a great local supply of
marl, limestone, and shell-sand, georgical improve
ment walked comparatively early abroad, and acted
with energy, diligence, and skill. The chief planta
tions are around Gordon-lodge, the seat of the Gor
dons of Pitlurg. On a strong peninsulated rock,
whose base is washed by the sea, stands the ruin of
the ancient castle of Slains, formerly the seat of the
Errol family, and demolished, in 1594, by James VI.,
on the rebellion of the Earl of Huntly. In a hol
low, by the side of a brook, stand the ruins of a
very ancient chapel, dedicated to Adamnan, the suc
cessor of Columba, and possessing entire an arched
Gothic window. A corner of the parish is cut by
the road from Aberdeen to Peterhead ; and the rest
of the district is well-provided with facilities of com
munication. Population, in 1H01, 970; in 1831,
1,134. Houses 254. Assessed property, in 1815,
£3,043  Slains is iu the presbytery of Ellon, and
synod of Aberdeen. Patron, Gordon of Cluny.
Stipend £217 9s. 4d. ; glebe £9. Unappropriated
teinds £57 19s. 4d. Schoolmaster's salary £30,
with £14 fees, and £2 10s. other emoluments. The
present parish comprehends the ancient parishes of
Slains and Forvie, and seems, as to its ecclesiastical
property, to have all belonged before the Reforma
tion to one of the colleges.
SLAMANNAN, a parish of a triangular form, in
the extreme south-east of Stirlingshire; bounded on
the north by Falkirk and Muiravonside ; on the
south-east by Linlithgowshire; and on the south
west by Lanarkshire. It measures 6J miles along
the north, 4 miles along each of the other sides, and
about 11 square mues in area. Such is the ancient
parish; but, about the year 1730, there was annexed
to it a part of Falkirk parish, about 4£ miles long
from east to west, and about 1 mile in mean breadth ;
ahd this district has Muiravonside on the east, and
Dumbartonshire on the west. Avon-water runs all

the way between the two districts, and over the
remaining part of the northern boundary of the old,
cutting off the ancient parish from the rest of Stir
lingshire. Eight cutting indigenous brooks join it
in its progress ; one of them tracing much of the
boundary with Linlithgowshire, and, at one place,
expanding itself into a lake. Black-loch, on the
south-western boundary, measures J of a mile, and
sends off its superfluent waters to the great canal
reservoir. Little Black-loch, a lake of much similar
size, is situated in the interior. Ellridge-loch, in
the annexed or northern district, is J of a mile, and
sends off sufficient water-power to drive machinery.
The lan^s for about half-a-mile on each side of the
Avon have an interspersion of haughs and meadows,
and are of a light, friable soil ; those for a mile in
breadth, in the interior of the old district, are a
strong, hard clay; and those in the northern and
southern extremities, are naturally churlish and mo-
rassy ; but, in the aggregate, they are finely culti
vated, and have a pleasant appearance. In the
mossy lands there is still some expanse of unre
claimed bog. Several castles which once stood in
the parish have disappeared. Of two conical artifi
cial mounds, similar in form and supposed design to
those of Dunipace [which see], one was levelled
and made the site of the church. The mansions are
Balquhaston, Bankhead, and Ellridge. The parish,
though profusely provided with facilities of communi
cation, is not traversed by any great line of road.
Population, in 1801, 923; in 1831, 1,093. Houses
196. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,745. — Slaman-
nan is in the preshytery of Linlithgow, and synod
of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £256 lis. lOd. ; glebe £28. Schoolmaster's
salary £34 4s. 2Jd., with £20 fees, and £13 other
emoluments. There is a private school. Part, or
perhaps all, of the parish was obtained in 1470 from
James II., by Lord Livingstone ; and, along with
the advowson of the church, was held by his lord
ship's successors, the Earls of Linlithgow and Cal
lander, till their attainder in 1716. The parish ap
pears to have been anciently called St. Laurence, —
on account, of course, of the dedication of its church
to the saint ; and, in presentations and other legal
instruments, it is still designated ' the parish of Sla-
mannan, otherwise St. Laurence.' An excellent
fountain, a little south-east of the church, still bears
the name of St. Laurence' well.
Slamannan* Railway. This railway derives
its name from the above parish, through which
it passes'. Prior to the formation of the railway,
the only roads existing in this part of the country
were little better than tracks formed by droves
of cattle passing between the South and the an
nual cattle-trysts at Falkirk, which have, of late
years, been improved, though still bad enough.
— The turnpike-road, by Bathgate to Edinburgh,
passes about 3 miles south of the parish-church, and
that by Falkirk about 5 miles to the north. The
act of parliament for constructing the railway was
passed in 1835. The line is in fact a continuation
of the Glasgow and Garnkirk and the Ballochney
railways, though different companies, and extends
* The word Slamannan is said lo signify in Gaelic ' the back
of the world.' If this etymology is correct, the name seems
to be appropriate enough, as a more out-of-the-way lying par
ish is, perhaps, not to be found in the south of Scotland; and
this is the more to be wondered at, seeing that it lies in a di
rect line, and equidibtant between the two principal cities of
Edmbnrgh and Glasgow. Tradition informs us that persons,
who had committed any crime, took refuge in Slamannan — as
Rob Roy did of old in the Highland recesses — for as the saying
went — ' Into Slamannan safe from the world,' — no metropolitan
policeman daring in those dayB to penetrate bo far inland, more,
perhaps, from the fear of starvation than from any opposing
force they might have to encounter, as in the case of the ' Bold
outlaw.'

SLA

676

SLI

from the eastern terminus of the latter railway in
the parish of New Monkland and county of Lanark,
to a point on the side of the Edinburgh and Glas
gow Union canal, in the parish of Muiravonside and
county of Stirling, called Causewayend. Its total
length is 12A miles, and the distance of its eastern
terminus (Causewayend) from Glasgow, is about 26
miles,  and from Edinburgh, in a direct Une, 19
miles,  and by the canal 24 miles. Though the
country through which it passes is unfertile on the
surface, it has been lately proved to be rich in min
erals, — and upon this understanding were the pro
prietors of 'ihe railway induced to expend the
amount necessary for its formation, about £140,000.
The line was opened in the autumn of 1840, and
sjnce then has been in full operation, — the traffic
consisting principally of minerals, a considerable
quantity of coals being sent along it, and thence
per Union canal to Edinburgh ; and more coal and
ironstone fields are being opened up, and connected
with the railway, the supply from which will, it is
expected, increase the traffic to such an extent as
will afford a very profitable return to the company.
The iron-works near Airdrie are also partly supplied
by minerals sent along the western part of the rail
way. A passenger-trade has been carried on since
the line opened between Edinburgh and Glasgow,
and intermediate places, in connection with the con
tiguous railways and stage-coaches and canal boats,
between Causewayend and Edinburgh. Previous to
the opening of the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway,
about 3,000 passengers per month were thus con
veyed between the two cities. The total revenue
of the company, in 1841, was between £8,000 and
£9,000, — it having only been one complete year
opened. The whole of the trade is carried on by
locomotive power, except the incline, which is
wrought by a stationary engine ; and though the
gradients are often as steep as 1 in 100, the passen
ger-trains travel at an average rate of 25 miles an
hour,  and with a gross load of 60 to 70 tons of
goods at'the rate of 10 to 18 miles an hour. The
company are provided with 5 locomotives, 12 car
riages, and about 100 waggons — The cuttings, em
bankments, and bridges, which are extensive and
numerous, are all formed for a double, railway,
though only a single way of rails has been laid, the
fcraffienot having as yet required the second line. The
whole of the works are substantially constructed. The
line at the western end passes over a flow-moss from
30 to 40 feet deep, for a distance of 2 miles. Here
the rails had' to be literally floated on rafts of tim
ber, and continued floating for some time after the
trade commenced, until at length, by continued pour
ing in of hard material, — such as gravel, stones, &c. —
this part of the road is now comparatively firm and
solid. It had, however, for some months after the
trains commenced to run, a very singular, and to
many, an alarming appearance, — the engine and car
riages, as they went along, causing a deflection of
the platforms or rafts, of from 2 to 3 feet, which
gradually rose to their proper level behind the train,
exactly like a sluggish wave, as soon as the whole
had passed over:
SLATEFORD, a village in the extreme east of
the parish of Colinton, Edinburghshire. It stands
on the left bank of the water of Leith, on the road
from Edinburgh to Lanark by way of Carnwath ;
and is 3J miles south-west of Edinburgh, and 3
miles north-east of Currie. It is the site of a United
Secession meeting-house, and of an extensive bleach
field. Connected with the meeting-house, but avail
able for the whole viUage, is a library. The Union
canal is carried across the vale of the water of Leith

at the village by a lofty aqueduct of 8 arches. Po
pulation about 220.
SLEAT, a parish at the south-east end of the
island of Skye, Inverness-shire. It forms an irre
gular belt of 21 miles in length ; and extends from
north-east to south-west. Loch-an-Daal, which in
dents it on the south side to the depth of 2 miles,
and leaves an isthmus of only about l£ mjle to the
head of Loch-Eishart on the opposite side, cuts the
parish into two natural divisions. The north-east
division is 8 J miles in length, and about 1£ mile in
mean breadth ; it is separated hy a lofty billy range
from the parish of Strath, or the rest of Skye ; and
it is washed on the other sides by Loch-Alsh, Kyle-
Rhea, and the inner part of the sound of Sleat.
The south-west division forms a slenderly ellipsoidal
peninsula, whose axes measure respectively 12J and
5| miles ; it is on the long sides of Loch-Eishart
ahd the sound of Sleat; and it terminates in a
headland, which is called Sleat-point, and looks to
ward Eig at the distance of 5A miles. The entire
area, exclusive of lakes and sea-lochs, is 33,335 acres.
The sound of Sleat, which divides the parish from
Morar, knoydart, and Glenelg, on the continent,
diminishes in width from 7A miles at the south-west
entrance, to J of a mile at Kyle-Rhea, where it
passes into Loch-Alsh. The population is almost
wholly located upon the coasts. The extremities of
the parish are all upland ; but constitute tolerable
pasture-ground, and maintain a race of black cattle
equal to any in the neighbourhood. The whole
north-west side is a pleasant, and occasionally pic
turesque range of rough heights and cultivated slopes
and hollows. Theeastside, over about 5 miles by from
1 to IA, is a belt of arable land, carpeted with a deep
and noi unproductive clay. Woods, both natural
and planted, are extensive and luxuriant : three con
siderable copses of oak, ash, elm, birch, mountain-
ash, hazle, and willow, are the oniy remnant of the
ancient forest of Skye ; and the > plantations exist
principally around Armadale-castle, and toward the
manse. The New Statistical Account, assuming the
whole area to be only 23,856 acres, states it to
be distributed into 1,335 acres of arable land, 3,956
of green pasture, 18,265 of hill-pasture, and 500
of wood. The only mansion is Armadale : which
see. Two old castles, Dunskaich and I-Chamuis,
both anciently the residences of the barons of Sleat,
survive in fragmentary ruins which evince them to
have been places of considerable strength. Oran-
s ay-Isle [which see] possesses a well-known har
bour, and gives the parish valuable facilities of
communication. A parliamentary road runs across
the north-east end of the parish from the ferry .of
Kyle-Rhea, and district - roads radiate from Isle
Oronsay. Population, in 1801, 1,903; in 1831,
2,957. Houses 500. Assessed property, in 1815,
£20,223. — Sleat is in the presbytery of Skye, and
synod of Glenelg. Patron, the Crown. Stipend
£158 6s. 7d. ; glebe £6. The church was built
in 1681. Sittings about 500. All the parishioners,
excepting one Baptist and about 30 Roman Catho
lics, profess to be churchmen. A catechist, salaried
at £7, is maintained by the society for propagating
Christian knowledge. The parochial schoolmaster's
salary is £30, with £3 fees. Attendance, in 1834,
85. A schoolmaster, employed hy the society for
propagating Christian knowledge, is paid £15, and
has a house and a piece of land. Average attend
ance 80. A schoolmaster, supported by the Gen
eral Assembly, is paid £4. Average attendance 65.
SLEUGACH. See Loch-Maree.
SLIGACHAN, a marine loch and a savagely
grand glen, in the island of Skye. The loch is

SLI

677

SMA

noticed in the article Portree : which see. The
glen commences in the vicinity of Corriskin and
Scavaig, and strongly resembles ihem in scenic cha
racter: see Corriskin and Scavaig. Its length
north-north westward to the head of Loch-Sligachan
is about 5 miles ; and thence north-north-eastward
to the sea, about 3 miles. Its breadth, nowhere
more than a mile, contracts in some places to a
gorge of a few hundred yards Its flanking heights
are composed principally of black-looking hyperstein
rock, almost totally destitute of vegetation ; they
soar aloft, now at a slight angle, now perpendicu
larly, to sublime altitude; and they terminate in
such edgy ridges and needle-peaked pinnacles, as even
the hardiest mountaineer may contemplate with
wonder. The Messrs. Anderson, in their tasteful
and graphic ' Guide to the Highlands,' pronounce
this glen a rival, in wildness and grandeur, to any
of the most established fame in Scotland, and add :
— " The mountains are a great deal higher, bolder,
and not less savage than those of Glencoe ; and, in
traversing this sequestered strath, we feel a constant
and almost painful consciousness, that no other form
of mortal mould exists within its desert precincts.
A solemn silence generally prevails, but is often and
suddenly interrupted by tbe strife of the elements.
The streams become quickly swollen, rendering the
progress of tbe wayfaring stranger not a little ha
zardous ; while fierce and fitful gusts issue from
the bosom of the Cuchullins. The heaven-kissing
peaks of this strange group never fail to attract a
portion of the vapours, which, rising from the At
lantic, are constantly floating eastward to water the
continent of Europe; and fancy is kept on the
stretch to find resemblances for the quick succes
sion of fantastic appearances which the spirits of the
air are working on the weather-beaten brow of these
hills of song."
SLITRIG, Slitrddge, or Slitterick, (The),
a rivulet of Teviotdale, and a tributary of the Te
viot, Roxburghshire. Both of two rilly head-streams
Which form it respectively 3 and 3f miles below their
sources, have their origin within a few hundred yards
of the summit-line of the lofty mountain-range which
divides Teviotdale from Liddesdale, and forms the
water-shed between the streams of the eastern and
those of the western sea, the one rising on the east
side of Leap-hill, in Hobkirk, and the other on the
south side of Greatmoor-hill, in Upper Cavers. The
united stream, exclusive of sinuosities, has a course
of only 5J miles, which it pursues through the par
ishes of Cavers, Kirktoun, and Hawick, and then
falls into the Teviot at the town of Hawick. Its
descent is very great, — probably not much short of
1,000 feet; and its current is, in consequence, rapid
and impetuous. Over a great part of its course, it
has a rocky path ; occasionally it careers down a
shelving descent; and, atone place, it forms a pic
turesque linn or cataract. Its vale, though gorgy,
and screened by bold green heights, repeatedly ex
pands into Uttle haughs; and is pleasantly tufted
with wood ; ahd, so high up as 4 miles above Ha
wick, or just Within Upper Cavers, is spread out
into the rich and beautiful demesne of Stobs-castle,
the seat of Sir W. F. EUiott, Bart. The stream,
as a whole, is charmingly picturesque ; and it im
parts some fine features to the town-landscape of
Hawick : which see. Dr. Leyden, one of several
poets who have celebrated it in verse, seems to have
been annoyed by the harshness and slubberliness of
its name, and capriciously, gives it the soft designa
tion of ' Slata.' The rivulet, as might he inferred
from its location and gradient, is subject to sudden,
rapid, arid high freshets.
SLOY (Loch). See Arroquhar.

SMALHOLM, Smallholm, or Smailholm, a
parish in the north-west corner of the Merse district
of Roxburghshire ; bounded wholly on the north and
the west, and partly on the south and the east, by
Berwickshire, — chiefly on the south by Makerston,
— and chiefly on the east by Kelso. Its greatest
length, from east to west, is 4£ miles ; its greatest
breadth is 2J miles ; and its superficial extent is
about 3,970 acres. The surface is agreeably undu
lating, and lifts its highest ground about 500 feet
above sea-level. The soil is very various ; but, in
general, has a mixture of clay, and is tolerably fertile.
and highly susceptible of cultivation: Excepting
about 60 acres of plantation, and about 450 acres of
natural pasture, the whole area is in tillage. Lime
stone occurs, but is not worked ; and hard trap rock
is sufficiently plentiful to furnish large supplies of
road metal. The only noticeable stream is the Eden,
which runs 2A miles along the northern boundary.
The village of Smalholm, with a population of about
360, stands nearly in the centre of the parish, on the
posi-road between Edinburgh and Kelso; 6 miles
west-north-west of Kelso, and 7 east-north-east of
Melrose ; but it is properly a cluster of 3 villages
which bear tne names respectively of East-Third,
West-Third, and Overtown. — The farm of Sandy-
knowe, in this parish, was the property of the pater
nal grandfather of Sir Walter Scott, and the scene of
many of the musings of his precocious boyhood.
Sandy-knowe or Smalholm-tower, situated among a
cluster of rocks, on an eminence in the farm, en
gaged much of his attention, and has acquired cele
brity from having afforded such suggestions and
imagery as materially contributed to the formation
of his peculiar style of poetry. It is a large square
building, entirely ruinous, and originally a border-
keep ; and, previous to enchantment being flung
over it by the mighty modern minstrel of Scotland,
it figured in topographical notices simply as " a con
spicuous landmark to direct vessels to Berwick."
The apartments rise above one another in separate
floors or stories, and mutually communicate by a
narrow stair. An outer wall surrounds the building,
and encloses an outer court ; and it is so defended
on three sides by precipice and morass, that the
tower is accessible only by a steep and rocky path
on the west. It anciently belonged to the Pringles
of Whytbank, and is now the property of Lord Pol
warth, the lineal descendant of Scott of Harden.
Sir Walter Scott, in a note prefixed to the ' Eve of
St. John,' says that he wrote that ballad in celebra
tion of Smalholm-tower and its vicinity ; and in the
epistle preliminary to the third Canto of Marmion,
he notices the influence which the place had exerted
on his tastes, and beautifully describes its scenery.
—Population, in 1801, 446; in 1831, 628. Houses
122. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,888 — Smal
holm is in the presbytery of Lauder, and synod of
Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, Bailie of Jervis-
wood. Stipend £205 12s. 9d. ; glebe £17 5s. Un
appropriated teinds £391 4s. 8d. The church was
built in 1632, and has often been repaired. The
monks of Dryburgh had lands in the parish ; and the
monks of Coldingham owned the church, and served
it by a vicar. Parish-schoolmaster's salary £34 4s.
4Ad., with £26 or £27 fees, and £4 14s. other emo
luments. In 1834, the parish-school was attended
by 93 scholars, and a private school by 60.
SMALL ISLES, an Hebridean parish consisting
of the inhabited islands of EIgg, Rum, Canna, and
Muck, which are separately described, and of two
or three uninhabited islets noticed in the articles on
these islands. Eigg is in Inverness-shire ; and the
other islands are in Argyleshire. Population, in
1811, 1,547; in 1831, 1,005. Houses 159 — The par-

SMI

678

SOA

ish is in the presbytery of Skye, and synod of Glenelg.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £158 6s. 7d.; glebe
£25. The minister resides in Eigg. There is no
parish-church. A school-house in Eigg used as such
has no pews, and is distant about 20 miles from
Canna, 8 from Rum, and 6 from Muck. The only
place of worship in ihe last of these islands is a farm
house or the open fields. A mission in Rum and
Canna, supported by £75 a-year from the royal
bounty, was suppressed in 1835. About one-half of
the population are churchmen ; and the other half
are nearly all Roman Catholics. A Roman Catholic
place of worship, consisting of the lower part of an
inhabited dwelling-house, and measuring 40 feet by
20, exists in Eigg. Stipend £20. The parish-
school is in Eigg ; and there is a Gaelic Itinerating
school in Muck. The parish, previous to 1726,
formed part of Sleat ; and after its separate erection,
it bore the name successively of Eigg, Short Isles,
and Small Isles.
SMITHYHAUGH, a village of quite modern
erection, in the parish of Auchterarder, Perthshire.
It is pleasantly situated on Ruthven-water, about 2
miles east of the town of Auchterarder. Its inhabi
tants are chiefly weavers in the employment of the
Glasgow manufacturers. Population 400.
SNIZORT, a parish in the island of Skye;
bounded on the north by Kilmuir ; on the east by
the sound of Raasay ; on the south by Portree ;
and on the south-west by Bracadale ; and on the
west by Duirinish and Loch-Snizort. Its greatest
length, from north to south, is 12 miles; its greatest
breadth is 6 miles ; and its superficial extent is about
60 square miles. Loch-Snizort enters from the
Little Minch, between the points of Vaternish or
Unish and Duinn, and is there 91 miles wide ; it
penetrates 8A miles south-south-eastward, between
Vaternish and Trotternish, with a breadth which
gradually decreases to 4a miles ; it has nearly in its
centre the cluster of little islands, called the Ascrib
Isles ; and it sends off, in the manner of horns from
its head, the two divergent lochs of Greeshernish
and Snizort-Beg. The latter is partly on the boun
dary, and partly in the interior of the parish ; it is
5J miles long, and less than 1 mile in mean breadth;
it forks and circles into numerous sea-lochlets and
bays ; and it is shallow, and has frequent sunk rocks.
Loch-Uigg, which goes off Loch-Snizort 3 miles
above the entrance of Loch- Snizort-Beg, forms a
circular basin, landlocked on all sides but the west,
and upwards of 1£ mile in diameter ; and J of a mile
from its margin, the ground suddenly rises in the
form of an amphitheatre, enclosing upwards of 200
acres of prime arable land, and a hamlet or seat of
population with about 600 inhabitants. The coast,
except at the head of the lochs, is bold and rocky.
The surface of the interior is a broken and rugged
expanse of green and heathy heights, cloven by the
three considerable glens of Haltin, Hinistil, and
Uigg, and by several minor openings. The only
properly mountainous ridge — the rest of the heights
being merely hills — runs from north to south at a
distance of between 1 mile and 2 miles from the east
coast ; this ridge bears the name of the Storr, and is
huge, lofty, shaggy, and pinnacled ; and it sends up
a chief cluster of cliffy and torn summits, which rise
to the height of several hundred feet above the ad
jacent masses, and which shoot up from the bosom
of a fog like a series of air-borne spires, and towers,
and walls, — a far-away city on the clouds. Seven
streamlets are frequented by salmon, and often swell
into ..arge and impetuous rivers. Much of the par
ish is irreclaimable waste; and most of the remain
der is occupied in the rearing of black cattle. The
soil of the arable grounds, though various, is prin

cipally a gravelly loam on a cold clay. The large
farmers have adopted approved and scientific prin
ciples of agriculture ; but the crofters pursue the old
system, use the old implements, and expend vast
labour in doubtful stirring, and sometimes in ac
tually damaging the soil. The herring-fishery, once
great and lucrative, has of late years failed ; but a
salmon, and cod, and ling fishery in Loch-Snizort
sends large supplies to the Clyde and the Mersey —
In an islet formed by the water of Snizort, and now
used as a cemetery, are the ruins of an old cruciform
church, which probably was once the cathedral or
parent-church of the whole island. In various lo
calities are cairns, tumuli, and vestiges of Druidical
temples. On low ground, near a lofty rock, is a
natural obelisk of uncommon height or magnitude;
seeming, when seen from a distance, to be a larpe
steeple ; measuring 360 feet around the base; swell
ing below the middle to a larger girth ; and thence
tapering away to nearly a sharp point at an altitude,
as is thought, of upwards of 300 feet. On the boun
dary with Portree, is a beautiful cascade over a pre
cipice of about 90 feet in height. Beneath it, and
nearly opposite its middle, an arched hollow path
passes across the rock, so broad that five or six per
sons may occupy it a-breast, and so situated that
they are secure from the body of water which rolls
over them, and, but for seeing it dash upon the
rocks below, might suppose it to be a thick curved
pillar of smoke. A good road traverses tbe whole
length of the parish, connecting Uigg with Portree.
Population, in 1801, 2,144; in 1831, 3,487. Houses
558. Assessed property, in 1815, £833 — Snizort
is in the presbytery of Skve, and synod of Glenelg.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £158 2s! lid.; glebe
£15. The parish-church was built about 35 years
ago. Sittings 450. A thatched house at Uigg, with
accommodation for 400, is occupied every fourth
Sabbath as a preaching-station by the parish minis
ter. A Baptist chapel at Uigg, belonging to a con
gregation established about the year 1808, was built
in 1812. Sittings 30. Stipend from £40 to £50,
paid out of the general Baptist fund. All the par
ishioners, except about 20, are represented to be
churchmen. In 1834, the parish-school was attended
by 49 scholars ; and four other schools by 299. Par
ochial schoolmaster's salary £30, with £2 13s. 6d.
fees, and £4 16s. 9d. other emoluments. Two of
the non-parochial schools are wholly for Gaelic
reading ; a third belongs to the General Assembly.
SOA, an island of the Hebrides, south of Min
ginish, and south-west of Loch-Scavaig, in Skye.
It is separated from Minginish by Soa-sound, from
J of a mile to IA mile broad. The island is 3 miles
long from north-east to south-west, and 2A. miles
in extreme breadth ; but it is nearly bisected by
two bays, indenting it on opposite sides. Its sur
face is low and broken, and nowhere rises to an
elevation of more than 400 or 500 feet; and its
coast is bold and rocky, and generally presents to
the surge perpendicular cliffs of 60 or 70 feet in
height. Its geognostic structure is an alternation
of red sandstone and green wacke, traversed by trap.
SOA, an island of the Hebrides, about a mile in
circumference, forming one of the small remote group
of St. Kilda.
SOAY (Mickle and Little), two small islands
in the mouth of West Loch-Tarbet, on the west
coast of Harris. They lie about £ of a mile apart ;
are jointly upwards of ]£ mile long; and are sepa
rated from Harris by the sound of Soa, which is $
of a mile in width.
SOAY, a small pasture-island near the entrance
of Loch-Inver, Assynt, in the west coast of Suther-
landshire.

SOLWAY FRITH.

67«J

SOLWAY FRITH (The), a gulf or very large
bay, projecting from the Irish sea north-eastward
between Scotland and England. Its commencement
or entrance on the English side is obviously at St.
Bee's-head in Cumberland ; but, on the Scottish
side, is far from being distinctly marked, and has
been very variously stated. Burrowhead, at the
southern extremity of the district of Machars in
Wigtonshire, is the furthest and the most commonly
assigned entrance ; yet between that headland and
Balmae-head or even Balcarry-point, respectively
14 and 24A miles in a straight line east-north-east
ward, the whole Scottish coast directly confronts
the entire expanse of the Irish sea. Measured from
Burrowhead, it extends about 58 miles in length and
37 miles at the entrance ; but measured, as we think
it ought to be, from Balcarry-point, it is little more
half the measurement at ihe entrance, and only
about 33J miles in length. From Balcarry-point to
the little estuary of the Pow in the parish of Cum
mertrees, it extends nearly direct north-eastward, —
gradually contracts in its limits, though with occa
sional expansions, — and has a breadth in the maximum
of about 19 miles, in the minimum of about 8, and
in the mean of about 13; and from the estuary of
the Pow to its termination — a distance of 12 miles —
it extends, in an easterly direction, and has a varying
breadth of from 1} mile to 3J miles, and a mean
breadth of about 21, — -the maximum being at the
estuary of the Pow and in the parish of Gretna, and
the minimum in a line between the parish of Annan
and Bowness, and in tbe short space east of Redkirk-
point. The frith 's marine expansions, and its re
ceptions of running water, are few and unimportant
on the English side compared to the Scottish, and,
such as they are, belong to the hydrographical topo
graphy of England. The Sark, the Kirtle, and some
smaller streams enter it on the Dumfries-shire coast,
without forming estuaries. The Annan, the Pow,
and the Lochar enter it on the same coast through
estuaries of but small extent. The Nith, before
entering it, forms a long and gradually expanding
estuary between Dumfries-shire and Galloway. The
chief streams which enter it in Galloway, calculating
to the extreme point of Burrowhead, are the South-
wick, the Urr, the Dee, the Fleet, the Cree, and the
Bladenoch; and its principal marine expansions with
in the same range of sea-board, are the estuary of the
Urr, Auchencairn-bay, Kirkcudbright-bay, Fleet-bay,
and, chief of all, Wigton-bay. The coast along
Dumfries-shire is low and sandy, and ascends by an
exceedingly low gradient from the line of high-water
mark ; but along the greater part of Galloway it is
bold and rocky, and exhibits cliffs, caverns, pinna
cles, isolated rocks, and a variegated rampart in such
frequent and curious combinations as to produce
abundance of picturesque scenery. — The Solway, as
to the depth of its water, the character of its beach,
and especially the phenomena of its tides, differs
widely from every other frith in Scotland, or even
from every other marine indentation in the world.
The cause of its peculiarities is briefly explained in
the section, 'Marine waters,' in our general in
troductory article, and needs not be again noticed.
Over a distance of probably about 20 miles from its
head, the whole of its bed, excepting the narrow
and canal-like channels of the Nith and the confluent
waters which enter near the eastern extremity, is
alternately a surgy brown sea, tinctured with silt,
and oscillating with the rebound of the tide, and a
naked, flat, unrelieved expanse of sand, a wilderness
of desolation, a miniature Sahara, strangely inter
posing its dark and dreary projection between the
blooming slopes of Cumberland and the finely out
lined and warmly tinted lands of Scotland. Much

of its beach, or rather of its bed, even its broader
and more seaward parts, is of the same character ;
so very much, indeed, that were the frith estimated
or admeasured only hy the space it covers at low-
water, it would figure in comparative insignificance,
or exceedingly limited proportions. All its tides
are rapid, and constitute rather a rush or careering
race than a flow or a current of waters. A spring
tide, but especially a tide which runs before a stiff
breeze from the south or the south-west, careers
along at the rate of from 8 to 10 miles an hour; ifc
is heard by the people along the shore upwards of
20 miles before it reaches them, and approaches with
a hoarse and loud roar, and with a brilliance of phe
nomena and demonstration, incomparably more sub
lime than if the wide sandy waste were densely
scoured with the fleetest and the most gorgeously
appointed invading army of horsemen ; before the
first wave can be descried from the shore, a long
cloud or bank of spray is seen, as if whirling on an
axis, and evanescently zoned and gemmed with mimic
rainbows, and the rich tintings of partial refractions,
sweeping onward with the speed of a strong and
steady breeze; then follows a long curved white and
flowing surf; and when the magnificent banner of
spray, and this surfy pioneer have made distinct an
nouncement, finally and suddenly appears the majestic
van of the tide, a speckled and deeply dimpled body
of waters, from 3 to 6 feet high a-breast, rolling
impetuously forward, and bringing closely in its rear
a tumbling and tempestuated mass of marine vales
and hillocks, glittering and gorgeous all over with
the most fitful play of the prismatic colours. As
the tide enters the contracted parts of the frith and
the lower parts of the side estuaries, it acquires such
additional features of romance and novelty as render
it altogether an object per se, and one of the most
interesting that can form a main feature of any land
scape : See Glencaple. Accidents occasionally
occur with ships, and have been very frequent, though
much less so of late years than before, with persons
venturing within high-water mark. The rivers
which traverse the bed of the frith being easily ford-
able, strong inducement is offered by the shortness
of the path to cross the sands to England during the
recess of the tide. But Scotchmen, even when
well-mounted, have, in numerous instances, and oc
casionally to an amount constituting a literal catas
trophe, been overtaken and drowned, while returning
from the Cumberland fairs. Even persons best ac
quainted with the locality are liable to be mistaken
in their calculations of the time when the tide will ap
proach ; and, when they have proceeded partly across,
may hear the appalling sound of the watery invasion
so near and menacing, that a clear atmosphere, a good
steed, much self-collectedness, and a steady remem
brance of the direction of the path, may all be neces
sary for their preservation. Dense fogs frequently
arise, and so bewilder professed and experienced
guides, that they can proceed in safety only with
the aid of the compass; and quicksands are occasion
ally formed, and fitfully shift their localities, ob
scurely but awfully menacing every intruder who
has not watched the impressions made upon the
ground by almost every successive tide  The fish
eries of the Solway are extensive and various. Some
curious particulars respecting their former condition,
as every reader of Sir Walter Scott's novels knows,
are worked into the tissue of the most stirring inci
dents in the tale of Redgauntlet. The mode of fish
ing is principally by stake-nets, which are wholly
submerged by the tide, and which, when the tide is
out, contribute their lank proportions and thoroughly
prosaic appearances to the pervading dreariness of
the landscape. Salmon, herling, sea-trout, flounders,

680

SORBIE

and codlings or small cod, are taken in large quanti
ties ; turbot and soles occur, but are not plentiful ;
herrings, at a former period, were in some seasons
caught and cured in great abundance, but of late
they appear but occasionally, and not in large num
bers; and mussels and cockles are gathered along
the shores by poor persons, and carried weekly to
the markets of Dumfries and Carlisle. The fishings
usually commence early in March, and close before
the end of September  The Solway, in spite of the
singular and rather dangerous character of its tides,
is of vast value to Dumfries-shire and Kirkcud
brightshire for its navigation ; much more so, in pro
portion, than it is to Cumberland. Not only the sea
board, but most of the interior of the counties, is too
far distant from Scottish coal of any sort, and espe
cially from coal of good quality, to obtain it by land-
carriage; and is dependent on Workington, White
haven, and other places near the mouth of the
English side of the Solway, for supplies of fuel. The
amount of tonnage in vessels employed in importing
coals is, in consequence, aggregately great. The
export trade of the two counties, too, or the outlet
for the produce of their arable farms, their grazing-
grounds, their sheep-walks, their dairies, and their
poultry-yards, is almost wholly with Liverpool and
other English towns on the western coast, and exists
in a profitable or even available way only by the
navigation of the Solway. Three steamers, two of
them large and powerful, now regularly ply to Liver
pool, from respectively Dumfries, Annan, and the
ports of Galloway; and, additional to the usual ad
vantages of steam-conveyance, yield the local and
valuable one of clearing the Solway at a single tide.
Ports are numerous; and safe landing-places occur
at rapid intervals along nearly the whole coast. The
chief and presiding port is that of Dumfries : which
see. Ordinary tides rise about 10 or 12 feet, and
spring tides about 20; and they fling enough of
water up to the very head of the frith, to let vessels
of 120 tons move up the channel of the stream to
the foot of the river Sark. The Solway has long been
gradually receding from the land : it once filled the
large area now Occupied by Lochar-moss ; it covered
less than a century ago lands which are now verdant
or arable a mile distant from the present high-water
mark; and it possessed, within ihe recollection of
very many persons, nearly all along its shore, ground
which it has entirely ceased to invade. See Lochar.
moss and Ruthwell.
SORBIE, a parish on the west side of the dis
trict of Machars, Wigtonshire. It is bounded on
the north by Kirkinner ; on the north-east and east
by Wigton-bay; on the south by Whithorn; and on
the west by Glasserton. It consists of an oblong,
stretching east and west, and measuring 5% miles in
extreme length, and 2A in extreme breadth ; and of
a southerly projection 3£ miles in length, and be
tween IA and lj in mean breadth, extending along
the bay. Its area is about 8,900 acres. The surface
is a beautiful alternation on small green hills and
fertile plains. Several of the hills, though rising to
no great altitude above sea-level, command the su-
perb prospect of the Irish sea, the Solway frith, the
Isle of Man, and the coast of Cumberland. The
coast, exclusive of the windings of the bays and
headlands, is about 7 miles in extent; and, from the
north-east extremity, more than half-way southward,
it is, with some exceptions, flat and sandy, and, for
nearly a mile, where it screens the upper part of
Wigton-bay, it overlooks an expanse of sand which*
is left dry at low-water. In the south the coast is
rocky and precipitous, repeatedly rises nearly 200
feet above sea-level, and, in one place, is perforated
by two very large and curious caves. The principal

headlands are Eagerness [which see] and Cruglc-
ton. The principal bays are those of Garlieston,
Rigg, and Port- Allan : which see. But Orchard-
ton-bay, Brandy-port, Innerwell-port, Port-Macgean,
Port-Whapple, and some other small bays beautifully
indent the coast, and offer safe landing-places for
cargoes of lime, sea-shells, or coal. Flounders, soles,
skate, cod, lobsters, oysters, and many other species
of fish abound; but, except at Innerwell [which
see], they appear to draw no attention. The lands
of the parish, to the extent respectively of about 500
and 750 acres, are covered with wood or disposed
in natural pasture; and, over all the rest of the
area, are arable, and well-enclosed and sheltered.
The soil, though not deep, is exceedingly fine. The
native rocks are all of the transition-class ; granite
occurs in boulders; shell-marl existed, but has all
been used; other minerals are not of noticeable im
portance. Pure and perennial springs are many and
copious. A beautiful lake lies on the west border :
See Dowalton (Loch). The viUage of Sorbie
stands nearly in the centre of the parish, 4J miles
north of Whithorn, and 6 south of Wigton. It was
begun, in the latter part of last century, under the
encouragement of the Earl of Galloway ; and it is
in general well-built, and has a population of about
180. A damask manufactory, of about half-a cen
tury 's standing, is situated in the village ; and has
some celebrity for the quality and patterns of its
fabrics. The larger village of Garlieston [which
see] stands 2A miles east of Sorbie, on the coast.
The only modern mansion of note is Galloway
House : which see  Crugleton-castle, on the estate
of Sir Andrew Agnew of Lochnaw, Bart., is an in
teresting though very greatly dilapidated ruin. Its
site is a precipitous promontory about 200 feet high,
on the coast, midway between Rigg-bay and Port-
Allan. Part of an unornamented arch, arid lower
parts of some walls, alone remain to attest its an
cient spaciousness and strength. The fosse is quite
distinct, and encloses about an acre. John Comyn,
Earl of Buchan, possessed and resided in the castle
as heir-parcener of the Lords of Galloway ; and, in
1292, he obtained leave from Edward I. to take lead
from the ruins of the Calf-of-Man to cover eight
towers of the edifice. The castle was involved in
the fortunes of his family; and, though said to have
become the residence of the ancient and wealthy
family of the Vanses of Barnbarrow, was ruinous
before the year 1684. — Eagerness-castle, situated on
the cognominal promontory, has nearly disappeared,
and does not figure in history  Sorbie-place, the
seat in the reign of James IV., and tiU the latter
part of the 17th century, of the family of Hannay,
was anciently a tower of some strength, and is now
a picturesque ruin, surrounded with wood, J of a
mile east of the village of Sorbie. Good roads
intersect the parish in all directions. Population,
in 1801, 1,091; in 1831, 1,412; in 1841, 1,691.
Houses, in 1831, 239. Assessed property, in
1815, £10,760. — Sorbie is in the presbytery of
Wigton, and synod of Galloway. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £244 13s. 7d. ; glebe £15.
The parish-church, situated at the village of Sor-
¦ was built in 1750. There is an Indepen-

bie

dent place of worship at Garlieston. The present
parish comprehends the ancient parishes of Sorbie,
Crugleton, and Kirkmedan. Sorbie — or, as it was
then written, Sourby— formed, in the 12th and 13th
centuries, the two divisions of Great and Little
Sorbie, each of which had its church. The monks
of Dryburgh having acquired both of the churches,
prevailed on the bishop of Candida Casa or Galloway
to unite them; and thenceforth held them as one
vicarage till the Reformation. The church of Cru-

sou

681

sou

gleton was very early given to the inonks of Whit
horn; and, after the Reformation, it followed the
various fortunes of the rest of their property. The
church of Kirkmedan — dedicated to the same saint
as the modern Kirkmaiden and two ancient parishes,
all in the same county — long belonged to the canons
ot St. Mary's Isle, and was afterwards transferred
to the bishop of Galloway. The three ancient par
ishes were united at the middle of the 17th century.
In 1B34, the parish-school was attended by 67 scho
lars; and three non-parochial schools — two of them
in Garlieston — were attended by 160. Parish-school
master's salary £33 3s. 8d., with £9 Is. 2d. fees.
Patrick Hannay, who fived in the 17th century, and
published some poems which once had reputation,
but now are very rare and almost forgotten, was a
native of Sorbie.
SORN, a parish in the north-east of the district
of Kyle, Ayrshire. It is nearly a square, 6£ miles
deep ; and comprehends about 23,000 acres. It is
bounded on the north by Galston ; on the east by
Muirkirk ; on the south by Auchinleck ; and on the
west by Mauchline. The surface, in a general view,
is high in the east, and declines toward tne west ;
but it is much diversified by moorland, hill, rising
ground, hollow, and haugh. Blackside-end-hill, the
highest ground, and situated in the north-east, has
an altitude of 1,540 feet above sea-level, and com
mands a gorgeous view of Ayrshire and Strathclyde,
and parts, it is said, of fourteen other counties.
The river Ayr, running westward, drains the greater
part of the parish, and flows between steep, bold,
copse-clad, and picturesque banks. The Cessnock,
a tributary of the Irvine, has some of its headwaters
in the north-west. Cleugh-burn, which falls into
the Ayr amid the briUiant scenery around Sorn-
castle, traverses a deep and richly wooded glen, and
has some romantic and fascinating cascades. Calc-
tuff occurs in tine specimens on the face of the preci
pices over which this streamlet leaps. Carboniferous
limestone occurs in great plenty, and has been both
long and extensively worked. Coal occurs, though
to what extent is not known ; and hitherto it has
been little mined. Ironstone is plentiful ; and was,
at one time, exported hence to Muirkirk. Sand
stone of very various character and hardness is plenti
ful. The soil, in the haughs, is a gravelly loam ; and
elsewhere is, for the most part, a reddish clay. Up
wards of a third of the parochial area is cultivated
pasture ; upwards of one-fourth is hill-pasture, moss,
or wilderness; somewhat less than one-sixth is re-
claimable, but uncultivated natural pasture ; some
what less than one-sixth also is in tillage ; and one
acre in every thirty-two is underwood. The -vil
lage of Sorn stands on the right bank of the Ayr, 4
miles east of Mauchline. lt has two annual fairs,
the one on the second Tuesday of March, old style,
and the other on the first Monday of November, new
style. Population of the viUage about 300. The
neat and pleasant little manufacturing town of Ca
trine stands If mile to the west : see Catrine. —
Sorn-castle, immediately west of the village of Sorn,
is most delightfully situated on a lofty and well-
wooded rocky terrace overlooking the Ayr. The
building is of very high but unknown antiquity.
About the year 1406 it became, along with the
manor of Sorn and other lands in Kyle, the property
of Andrew Hamilton, 3d son of Sir David Hamilton
of Cadzow, ancestor of the Duke of Hamilton ; and,
in subsequent times, it passed by marriage to the
Earls of Winton, and by purchase to the Earls ot Lou
doun and three other successive families of propri
etors. A Dowager-countess of Loudoun Uved in it
till within a few months of her hundredth year, at
tended by servants who attained nearly as great a

longevity. Under the miserable persecutions of
Charles II. the castle was taken possession of as a
fortalice of the royal forces, and made the seat of a
garrison for overawing the Covenanters.* Dr. Mat
thew Stewart, and his son, the celebrated Dugald
Stewart, were landowners in the parish and frequent
visiters. The house which they occupied still stands ;
and near it, in a beautiful and airy situation, are a
new mansion and tasteful pleasure-grounds, the pro
perty and seat of their descendant. The illustrious
and devout but much misrepresented Scottish worthy,
Alexander Peden, was born and died in the parish.
Exhausted with his prolonged toils and sufferings in
traversing the kingdom as a proscribed minister, and
believing himself to be approaching his dissolution,
he returned to his brother's house in Sorn to die ;
but he was there in the immediate vicinity of the
garrison posted in Sorn-castle, and lived chiefly in an
artificial cave, — uniformly protected, as he had been
in an hundred places before, from the peering searches
of the blood-thirsty soldiery. He was visited on his
death-bed by the celebrated James Renwick; and,
after he had been specially but vainly searched for in
his brother's house, he died there at the age of 60,
in the year 1686. Some villanous but perfectly
harmless indignities were offered by the wretched
persecutors to his mortal remains : see Cumnock
(Old). The parish is traversed eastward by the
road from Ayr to Muirkirk, and southward by that
from Galston to Auchinleck. Population, in 1801,
2,606; in 1831, 4,253. Houses 483. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £7,783  Sorn is in the presbytery
of Ayr, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron,
Somerville of Sorn. Stipend £195 lis.; glebe £15.
The parish-church, situated in the village of Sorn,
was built in 1658, and repaired and somewhat en
larged in 1826. Sittings 611. Catrine — as noticed
in the article on that village — has a place of worship
connected with the Establishment, and a United Se
cession meeting-house ; and two or three years ago
it was erected into a quoad sacra parish. The po
pulation of Sorn, quoad civilia, was exhibited by an
ecclesiastical census of 1836, as then amounting to
4,053, and consisting of 3,287 churchmen, 729 dis
senters, and 37 nondescripts. — The parish was, in
1692, disjoined by the teind-court from the originally
huge parish of Mauchline : which see. Its original
name was Dalgain, the ground for the church, manse,
and glebe having been a gift from the proprietor of
Dalgain; but, owing to the vicinity of the church to
the ancient castle, the most commanding artificial
object in the district, it gradually became changed to
Sorn : see Dalgain. In 1834 there were thirteen
private schools, six of which were attended by 192
scholars ; and one parochial school, attended by 66.
Parish schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with £13
fees, and £10 9s. other emoluments.
SOULIS-CROSS. See Kilmarnock.
* Sir William Hamilton, whose daughter and heiress married
George Lord Seaton,'and carried the property to the Earls ot
Winton, was one of the senators of the college-nf-justice, and
lord-treasurer to James V. On the eve of the daughter's mar
riage, tl,e King set out to honour the bridal with his presence ;
but he had to traverse a long and dreary tract of moor, moss,
and miry clay, where there was neither road nor bridge ; and,
when about half-way Irum Glasgow, he rode his nurse into a
quagmire, and was with difficulty extricated from his perilous
seat on the saddle. Far from a bouse, exposed to the bleak
wind of a cold day, aud environed on all sides by a cheerless
moor, he was compelled to take a cold refreshment in no better
a position than by the side of a very prosaic well ; and he at
length declared, with more wild pettishness than wit, that " it
he were to play a trick un the devil, he would send him to a
bridal at Sorn in the middle of winter." The well at which
he sat is still called the King's well ; and the quagmire into
which his horse went is called the King's stable. An inn in
the vicinity is now the principal stage between Glasgow and
Kilmarnock, and daily oners to every wayfarer luxuries, one.
tmridretli part of which would once have been highly prized by
a King.

sou

682

SPE

SOULSEAT. See Saulseat. I
SOULSEAT. See Inch, Wigtonshire.
SOUTHDEAN, or Chesters, » parish in the
extreme south of Teviotdale, Roxburghshire. It is
bounded on the north by Lower Jedburgh ; on the
east by Oxnam and Upper Jedburgh ; on the south
east and south by Northumberland ; on the south
west by Castletown ; and on the west by Hobkirk
and Bedrule. Its greatest length from north to
south is 9| miles ; its greatest breadth is 6A miles ;
and its superficial extent is about 44 square miles.
In the extreme south it tapers nearly to a point ;
about a mile northwards it suddenly expands and
soon attains its extreme breadth ; and, over 4\ miles
at the north end, it has a mean breadth of only 2|
miles. The southern district is boldly hilly ; runs
up to the summit-range of the Cheviots ; and has the
whole or part of several bulky and lofty heights,
particularly Peel-fell, Carlintooth, Needslaw, and
Carter-fell. Even the northern district is, to a large
extent, upland and pastoral; but has soft and gay
features, and admits considerable intersticing of ara
ble ground. Jed- Water [which see] rises in the
parish, and has a prolonged connection with it; fling
ing much picturesqueness and beauty over its land
scape. Rule -Water [which also see] rises and flows
for some distance in the west. Kerry-bum, a tribu
tary of the English Tyne, drains a corner lying south
of Carlintooth. Agriculture rules over about 3,000
acres, grows wheat, practises the turnip-husbandry,
and performs feats not very common in a pastoral
district. Taste and ecdnomy have covered about
500 acres with plantation. Sheep-farming exists
here in its pride, and has under its care upwards of
15,000 Cheviot sheep of greatly improved breed, and
nearly 2,000 long-woolled sheep. Wool was for
merly sent almost all into England, but is now ex
tensively purchased by the woollen-manufacturers of
Roxburghshire. Excellent red and white sandstone
is worked in several quarries ; limestone is inex
haustible ; coal is believed to exist, but has been
vainly searched for; antimony occurs, but not in
such quantity as to be profitably worked. British
camps, Border peel-houses, and the usual varieties
of strength and fortalice exists in such number as to
show how stirring and blood-stained an arena the
parish must have been of early wars and Border ma
rauding  The father of Thomson the poet became
minister of Southdean two years after the latter's
birth, and was buried in the churchyard. Young
Thomson received most of the impressions which
formed his characteristic style of poetry from the
parish and its neighbourhood. The Rev. Mr. Veitch
and Mr. BrySon, as Dr. M'Cree tells us, found,
among the Southdean hills, a retreat from persecu
tion. Mr. James Davidson, who had terriers called
Pepper and Mustard, and was an enthusiastic lover
of field-sports, and who occupied the farm of Hyndlee
1J mile south of the mountain-pass called ' Note o'
the Gate,' and 6 miles south of a Liddesdale farm
called Thorleshope, a corruption of Charleshope, is
believed, in the district, to have been the original of
Sir Walter Scott's Dandy Dinmont, in the tale of
Guy Mannering  The principal landowners are Lord
Douglas, Elliot of Wolflee, and Henderson of Abbots-
rule. The parish is cut southward by the roads from
Jedburgh respectively to Liddesdale and to the vale
of the Tyne by Kerryburn. Population, in 1801,
697; in 1831, 839. Houses 139. Assessed property,
in 1815, £7,848 — Southdean is in the presbytery
of Jedburgh, and synod of Merse and Teviotdale.
Patrons, the Crown and Lord Douglas. Stipend
£234 9s. 3d. ; glebe £40. Unappropriated teinds
£354 1,7s. 3d. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Ad.,
with £15 9s. Id., and from £6 to £6 10s. other

emoluments. — The present parish comprehends, in
the north-west, a part of the suppressed parish of
Abbotsrule. Southdean seems to have had its name
from containing the southern dean or valley of Jed
forest ; and it has its more popular designation of
Chesters from the church being situated at a hamlet
of that name, and remotely from the vicinity to the
church of a marked camp or ' castra.'
SOUTHEND, a parish at the southern extremity
of the peninsula of Kintyre, Argyleshire. It is
bounded on the north by Campbelltown ; and on all
other sides by tbe sea. Its length, from north-east
to south-west, is about 11 miles; and its breadth,
in the opposite direction, about 5. The surface ex
hibits a beautiful and variegated prospect of hills,
neither high nor rocky, and of valleys traversed by
streamlets, and thickly sprinkled with farm-houses.
The brooks frequently overflow their banks, and
plough up new channels. A great part of the higher
grounds which formerly were heathy and waste, have
been converted into arable lands and green pasture.
Along the coast are the remains of some Danish
forts ; the largest of which is on the Mull of Kintyre :
see Kintyre (Mull of). On a peninsulated pyra
midal hill, one face of which falls sheer down to the
sea, anciently stood Dunaverty-castle, one of the
strongholds of the Lords of the Isles. A fosse across
the neck of the peninsula, and two or three concen
tred walls round the face of the ascent, combined
with the great natural advantages of the site, to ren
der the place a fortalice of uncommon strength : see
Dunaverty-Castle. Not far from this place, and
abour 100 yards from high- water mark, occurs a bank
of fine coral. The island of Sanda, opposite the site
of the castle, belongs to the parish : see Sanda. A
road runs north from near the Mull to Campbelltown.
Population, in 1801, 1,825; in 1831,2,120. Houses
341  Southend is in the presbytery of Kintyre, and
synod of Argyle. Patron, the Duke of Argyle. Sti
pend £158 6s. 7d.; glebe £15. In 1834 tbe parish-
school was attended by 98 scholars ; and three other
schools by 213. Ruins exist of an ancient church
which was dedicated to St. Columba. Another
church, dedicated to St. Bland, seems, along with
its cemetery, to have been swept away by the freshets
of a rivulet which washed its site.
SOUTHERNESS, a village and aheadland in the
parish of Kirkbean, Kirkcudbrightshire. The vil
lage stands close upon the shore, near the cognomi
nal headland, 16 miles south of Dumfries, and 11
south-east of Dalbeattie. It was built some time
after the middle of last century by Oswald of Auch
encruive near Ayr, in the expectation of its becom
ing a mining-village and depot for coal ; but, the
desired mineral having been vainly searched for in
the neighbourhood, the village became transmuted
into a sea-bathing retreat  Southemess-point forms
the western side of the entrance of the estuary of
the Nith, and is situated in North latitude 54° 53',
and West longitude 3° 37'.
SOUTHWICK, a rivulet and a supposed parish
in the southern extremity of Kirkcudbrightshire.
The parish is now united to Colvend : which see.
Southwick-water is formed by three streams, two of
which rise among the Criffel-hills, and the other and
longest in Kirkgunzeon ; and it runs 3A miles south
ward and south-eastward to the sea, at a point 41
miles north-east of the mouth of the estuary of the
Urr. It is navigable for vessels of small burden 2
miles from its mouth.
SOUTRA. See Fala.
SPEAN (The), a river partly of Badenoch, but
chiefly of Lochaber, Inverness shire. It issues from
Loch-Laggan [which see] ; flows 3 miles west-
south-westward through Badenoch; and then runs

SPE

683

SPE

17 miles westward through Lochaber to the Lochy
in the great glen: see Lochy (The). A mile be
low Loch-Laggan, it receives from the south the
large stream emitted by Loch-Ossian ; and 6 miles
above its confluence with the Lochy, it receives from
the north the Roy. Its other affluents, though nu
merous, are individually inconsiderable. Its path,
over the first half of its course, descends a bleak,
barren, mountain-screened moor, with justas many
straggling birches as serve for a foil to the irksome
ness of the landscape. After receiving the Roy, it
traverses a well-cultivated glen, and is overlooked
by Keppoch, Inch, Dalnapie, and several other good
houses. SPEDLIN'S-TOWER, the ancient seat of the
family of Jardine, Bart., situated on the right bank
of the Annan, in the north-east corner of the parish
of Lochmaben, Dumfries-shire. On the opposite or
Applegarth bank of the river stands Jardine-hall, the
elegant modern mansion of the family. Grose and
Sir Walter Scott, and a whole brigade of minor
literati, have given importance to the old tower by
trumpeting it into notice. It is, like many an edifice
of its sort, vastly thick in its walls, strongly vaulted,
and flanked by round turrets; and it is ivy-grown on
two sides, and is surrounded by some fine trees; yet
it derives its main, almost its sole interest, from
being the reputed scene of a monstrous ghost story,
the bebef ot which has made the mob of the adja
cent districts gape and stare for centuries, and has
contributed not a little to their being more enthral
led by superstition, and less advanced in civilization,
than the peasantry of most districts in the Lowlands.
SPEY (The), one of the principal rivers of
Scotland, draining a large portion of the ancient pro
vince of Moray, and belonging to the modern coun
ties of Inverness, Moray, and Banff. It is the sec
ond Scottish stream for the volume of its water and
the territorial extent of its basin ; and it possesses
fame for rapidity and some other properties of High
land rivers ; but it holds only a middle rank for
scenic character, and « remarkably inferior one for
utility. It rises in the braes of Badenoch, close on
the water-shed with Lochaber, only half-a-mile from
Glenroy, and 6 miles from Loch-Laggan. Less than
a mile below its source it expands into a tiny lake,
called Loch-Spey, whence it is popularly said to
have its origin. Its course, for 37 miles, measuring
in a straight line, is wholly in Inverness-shire; and
over that distance it runs 15 miles eastward, and 22
north-eastward, — receives, on its left bank, the
Markie, the Calder, and 6 or 7 other considerable
rivulets ; and on its right the Truim, the 1'romie,
the Feshie, and numerous minor streams ; and tra
verses the parishes of Laggan, Kingassie, and Alvie,
forming in its glen the seat of by far the greater
part of their population. In the second of these
parishes it averages from 80 to 100 feet in breadth,
varies from 2 to 16 feet in depth, and moves at the
mean rate of about 3 miles in the hour ; and in the
third it expands into Loch-Inch, is partly gentle and
partly impetuous, and has a mean breadth of about
150 feet. Over the next 30 miles of its course, still
measuring in a straight line, its direction continues
to be north-easterly ; and over the last 15, or from
Craigellachie-bridge to the Moray frith at Garmouth,
it is towaiu the north. Over 21 miles of these 45,
it chiefly flows between Inverness-shire and Moray
shire, yet runs across wings and intersecting parts
of both counties ; and over the remaining 24, chiefly
divides Morayshire from Banffshire, yet cuts off con
siderable wings of the former, and at one place is
touched by a tiny detached part of Nairnshire. It
receives, on its left bank, the Dulnain, 2A miles above
Grantown ; and, on its right, the Nethy, at Aber-

nethy, — the Avon, at Ballindalloch,— and ihe Fid-
dich, below Craigellachie. Its entire length, mea
sured in straight lines, is about 82 miles ; but mea
sured along the curvatures of its channel, cannot
be less than 120. Dr. Macculloch has written a de
scription of the Spey so very suitable for a Gazet
teer, and so free from his usual parade of topogra
phical criticism, and so well-recommended hy his
minute personal inspection of the scenery, that it
must be peculiarly acceptable to our readers. '.' As
soon as we approach Aviemore,"* says he, "we
become sensible that we have entered on a new
country ; a wide and open space now intervening
between the hills that we have quitted and the dis
tant and blue ridge of Cairngorm. Through this
lies the course of the Spey ; and here, principally,
are concentrated such beauties as that river has io
show. I have traced it from its mountain-well to
the sea; and, whatever the Strathspey-men may
boast, it would be a profanation to compare it, in
point of beauty, with almost any one of the great
branches of the Tay, as it would equally be to name
it as a rival to the Forth, and, I must add, to the
Dee, and to the Isla, and to the Earn. In point of
magnitude I believe it must follow the Tay; and in
beauty it may be allowed to follow the Earn ; pre
ceding alike the Tweed and the Clyde and the Don,
but being still inferior to many of our larger rivers,
in the important particular of not being navigable,
and in being, therefore, nearly useless. The small
lake, or rather pool, whence it originates, is its
unquestionable head; since, unlike the Tay, none of
its subsidiary streams, not even the Truim, can pre
tend to compete with this primary one. It is one
decided Spey from its very spring; receiving numer
ous accessions, but no rival. Its course is almost
everywhere rapid ; nor does it show any still water
till near the very sea. It is also the wildest and
most capricious of our large rivers ; its alternations
of emptiness and flood being more complete and
more sudden than those of any of the streams which
I have named. The causes of this ar^ obvious, in
considering the origin and courses of its tributary
waters; while tbe elevation of its source, amounting
to more than 1,200 feet, accounts for the rapidity of
its flow. Though inferior both to the Tweed and
the Tay in its produce of salmon, it must be allowed
the third rank in this respect; and the single fishery
at its mouth, belonging to the Duke of Gordon, is
rented for more than £6,000 a-year. From the spring
its course displays little beauty till it reaches Clunie
and Spey-bridge. Hence, it increases in interest as
it approaches Kinrara, whence, for a few miles, it is
attended by a series of landscapes, alike various,
singular, and magnificent. If, after this, there are
some efforts at beauty, these are rare, and offer little
that is new or striking ; while near its exit from the
mountainous country, it loses all character, and con
tinues from Fochabers to the sea, a wide and insipid
sheet of water." The valley or strath of the Spey,
except after the debouch from among the mountains,
has been but recently touched by the hand of man,
and might, not very many years ago, have been de
scribed as a long band of natural forest occasionally
laid open by the sinuosities of a large river ; and
even yet, over a stretch of 12 miles, which is visible
from Aviemore, it is so extensively covered with the
pine, the birch, and the alder, and so limitedly sub
jected to cultivation, as forcibly to suggest an image
of Caledonia at the epoch of the Roman invasion, or
of a pristine forest solitude in the western wilds of
America. SPEYMOUTH, a parish at the north-east corner
* very nearly at the middle of the river's course, or about
3 raites after it begins to touch Morayshire.

SPI

684

SPO

of Morayshire ; bounded on the north by the Moray
frith; on the east by the Spey, which divides it from
Bellie ; on the south by Rothes ; and on the west
by Urquhart. Its greatest length, from north to
south, is 61 miles ; its mean breadth is about 1 A
mile; and its area is nearly 10 square miles. The
ground, at the distance of about half-a-mile from the
sea, shoots suddenly up in a small hill; it thence,
for 3a miles by IA, forms a terrace faced by a steep
bank, from 40 to 50 feet high toward the river; anil
it then gradually ascends to the southern boundary,
and there sends aloft a considerably elevated hill.
A belt of haugh between the terrace and the Spey,
expanding in one place to J of a mile in breadth, is
prime land, and produces excellent crops. The soil
of one-half of the rest of the area is a light loam on
blaek.earth or clay; and of the other half is partly
sandy, but chiefly a thin sharp gravel, on a hard
gravelly subsoil. About one-half of the area is
moorish, pastoral, or woodland ; about 50 acres are
moss ; and about 1 1 0 acres along the river and the
frith are pebbles or bare beach. An extensive moor,
called the Common, in the vicinity of Garmouth, '
was nearly all planted about the year 1800, and is
now as ornamental as it formerly was bleak. About'
300 acres previously waved with plantation. The
villages are Garmouth, Kingston, and Boat-of-Bog.
Garmouth, the chief, is separately noticed. Kingston,
situated between Garmouth and the sea, and pecu
liarly entitled from its position to bear the name of
the parish, has, with the exception of three or four
houses, been built since 1810. Population, in 1831,
200. Boat-of-Bog is a mere hamlet nearly opposite
Fochabers on the Spey. The parish is traversed
westward by tbe great north mail-road, and south
ward by a turnpike from Garmouth up Strathspey.
Population, in 1801, 1,236; in 1831, 1,475. Houses
310. Assessed property, in 1815, £409. — Spey-
mouth is in the presbytery of Elgin, and synod of
Moray. Patrons, the Earl of Moray and Cumming
of Altyre. Stipend £135 2s. lOd. ; glebe £20.
Schoolmaster's salary £29 18s. 10d., with £19 3s.
6d. fees, and £3 other emoluments. The present
parish consists of the suppressed parishes of Essil
and Dipple.
SPINNINGDALE, a once prosperous but now-
Completely ruined manufacturing village, on the kyle
of Dornoch, and in the parish of Criech, Sutherland
shire. A cotton manufactory was established here,
in the latter part of last century, by Mr. Dempster
of Dunnichen ; and it employed 100 hands, and
seemed to be rapidly raising the place to importance.
But in 1809 the factory was accidentally destroyed
by fire; and it now stands spectrally among the
ruins around it, — the ghost of cotton-manufacture in
the north, — and the phantasmagorial type of what
cotton-manufacture seems likely to become, under
the pressure of the present evil times, in even highly
favoured districts.
SPITTAL. See Halkirk.
SPOTT, a parish in Haddingtonshire, consisting
of two detached districts. The larger, and greatly
the more valuable district, is bounded on the north
west and north by Dunbar; on the east by Dunbar
and Innerwick ; on the south by Dunbar common ;
and on the west by Stenton. It is, in a general
view, an oblong stretching north and south, and
measuring 3| miles by 1| ; but it both gives and re
ceives marked though not large indentations. The
smaller district lies 2£ miles south of the nearest
point of the other ; consists of a stripe 2| miles in
-length, and § of a mile in mean breadth, tapering to
a point on the south ; and is bounded on the north
by Dunbar common ; on the east by Innerwick ;
on the south by Whiteadder-water, which divides it

from Berwickshire ; and on the west by the largest
detached part of Stenton. This smaller district is
entirely and wildly moorland, lies on the southern
slope of the Lammermoors, and is all disposed in a
single farm. The larger district comprehends about
2,880 acres ; which are disposed in arable grounds,
moorland pasture, and natural and planted wood in
the relative proportions of 28, 10, and 1 . The whole
surface is an alternation of hill and valley ; but, in
the north, it is aggregately lowland or undulated
plain, and in the south it climbs up to the summit-
range of the Lammermoors, about 700 feet above
sea-level. Spott-water comes in from Dunbar com
mon ; has a connection of 4| miles circuitously, but
chiefly north-eastward with Spott; trotts cheerily
along its principal valley, and past its church and
village ; and, after passing into Dunbar, assumes the
name of Broxburn. The other streamlets are un
important. St. John's-well, in the neighbourhood
of the village, supplies the town of Dunbar, through
pipes, with water. Greywacke, occasionally dyked
and fractured by trap, prevails in the Lammermoor
regions; and old red sandstone and conglomerate
prevail in the south  A conglomerate hill, called
Doon, situated half-a-mile east of the viUage, and
rising 550 feet above sea-level, is a picturesque ob
ject, cultivated to the summit on the one side, and
stooping precipitously down, yet covered all over
with wood on the other. On this hill Genejal Les
lie had his camp before the battle of Dunbar or
Doon-hill, fought with Cromwell, on the east side
and immediate vicinity of the hill. From this strong
post, Leslie was induced, contrary to his original
opinion, to come down ; and, though Cromwell was
just about to embark his troops at Dunbar for want
of provisions, the Scottish general was defeated, and
pursued with great slaughter. Many memorials of
ihe fight have been found upon ihe field : see
article Dunbar. The slopes of the Lammermoors
are finely skirted with natural wood; and among
them is a vale traversed by a rivulet which expands
into a chain of beautiful lochlets. The viUage of
Spott stands 2£ miles south of Dunbar, and 4 west-
north-west of Innerwick. It has a friendly so
ciety, and a branch of the East-Lothian itinerating
libraries; and is the site of the parish-church.*
Population, in 1801, 502; in 1831, 612. Houses
127. Assessed property, in 1815, £6,197.— Spott
is in the presbytery of Dunbar, and synod of Lothian
and Tweeddale. Patron, Sprott of Spott. Sti
pend £272 7s. 8d.; glebe £18 18s. Unappropriated
teinds £275 '9s. lid. Parish-schoolmaster's salary
£25 13s. 3Ad., with from £12 to £18 fees, and £6
6s. 8d. other emoluments. A non-parochial school
was attended, in 1834, by 70 scholars  In 1528,
Robert Galbraith, rector of Spott, appeared in par
liament as advocate for Queen Margaret, on the for
feiture of the Earl of Angus; in 1532, he was at the
head of the 10 advocates who were chosen as gen
eral procurators, on the establishment of the court-
of-session; in 1537, he was appointed a senator of
the college-of-justice ; in 1540-1, he appeared in
parliament as one of the king's council; and, iri 1544,
he was assassinated by John Carketle, a burgess Of
Edinburgh. James Hamilton, the next rector, was
the natural brother of the Duke of Chatelherault,
and was speedily advanced to the see of Glasgow.
* Spott-liill or loan in the vicinity wbb the scene of the in.'
cremation of many poor women for the alleged crime of witch
craft. So late as under date of October 1705, the kirk-session
records have the entry : -'« Many witches burnt on the top of
Spntt loan;" and, 7 years previously, or in 1698, they say:
" The session, after a long examination of witnesses, refer the
case of Marion Lillie, for imprecations and supposed witch
craft, to the presbytery, who refer her for trial to the civil
magistrate. Said Marion generally called the Rigwoody
witch."

SPR

685

SPY

A son of Home of Cowdenknowes was rector at the
Reformation. George Home of Spott was tried for
the murder of Darnley; sat as a juryman in the trial
of Archibald Douglas for the same murder ; and was
assassinated by his son-in-law, James Douglas of
Spott, one of the accomplices, in 1591, of the Earl
of Bothwell, in the attempt against the king and
chancellor Maitland.
SPRINGBURN, a village in the parish of St.
Mungo 's, about 1 a mile north-east of Glasgow. It
is chiefly inhabited by weavers. An extension-church
has been erected here, for the use of the adjacent
villages of Balgray, Springburn, and Cowlairs.
SPRINGFIELD, a village in the parish of Gretna,
Dumfries-shire. It stands on the right bank of the
Sark, where that stream forms the boundary with
England, IA mile north of Sarkfoot or the head of
the Solway frith, 9 miles east of Annan, and 14
miles south-south-west of Langholm. Its site is a
rising ground of dry healthy soil, surrounded by rich
fields, beautifully enclosed with quickset hedges and
rows of trees. The viUage was commenced in 1791
by Sir William Maxwell, and had its name from the
farm on which it stands. In 1793, it had upwards
of 40 houses ; and now it has a population of more
than 500. Its plan is perfectly regular ; its streets
are each 50 feei wide ; and its houses are built of
sandstone or brick, and covered with blue slate.
The building leases are for 99 years. The inhabi
tants are almost all cotton-weavers, in the employ
ment of manufacturers in Carlisle. The place figures
in unenviable notoriety, as the scene of the inglorious
marriage-trade of Gretna. See Gretna.
SPRINGFIELD, a village connected with the
paper-mills of the parish of Lasswade, Edinburgh
shire. It stands on the right bank of the North Esk,
IA mile south-south-west of the village of Lasswade,
and 3& miles south-west of Dalkeith.
SPROUSTON, a parish in the extreme north
east of Roxburghshire; bounded on the north-west
and north by the Tweed, which divides it from
Kelso, Ednam, and Berwickshire ; on the east by
Northumberland; on the south-east and south by
Linton ; on the south-west by Eckford and Kelso ;
and on the west by Kelso. The boundary-line with
England, and everywhere, except where formed by
the Tweed, is entirely arbitrary or artificial. The
greatest length of the parish, from north-east to
south-west, is 4£ miles ; the greatest breadth is 3J
miles ; and the superficial extent is about 8,200
acres. The district along the Tweed is flat, and
has a very slight elevation above the ordinary level
of the river; the interior district is partly a ridgy
swell called Hadden-rig, which flanks the low grounds,
and partly a parallel vale, which in a few places is
marshy ; and the south-eastern district is compara
tively high but not hilly ground, and largely subject
to the plough. Redden-burn rises in the parish, and
flows eastward into Northumberland. This and
Hadden-stank in its vicinity, are repeatedly noticed
in Border history, as the scene of meetings between
Scottish and English commissioners for settling the
boundaries. Hadden-rig, about the year 1540, was the
scene of an action in which a party of Scottish troops
defeated about 3,000 English horsemen. The vil
lage of Sprouston is situated 200 yards from the
Tweed, and 2£ miles east-north-east of Kelso. It
has upwards of 100 houses, with the parish-church
on a gentle rising ground in the centre. Its popu
lation is 420. It anciently was of much larger extent
than now; and, during the incursion of the English
under the Duke of Norfolk at the middle of the 16th
century, it was destroyed. The village of Lempit
law [which see] is situated 2J miles to the south
east. Redden, now a little hamlet If mile north

east of Sprouston, figures in Border history as a town.
Hadden, another little hamlet 2 miles east of Sprous
ton, and the site of a side-school, seems also to have
anciently been a place of importance. The celebrated
Dr. Andrew Thomson, afterWards of Perth and of
Edinburgh, was during six years minister of Sprouston;
and is said to have led a volunteer troop of his par
ishioners to Kelso, on occasion of the false alarm by
the fire-beacons of an invasion by the French. The
turnpike roads from Kelso respectively to Cornhill
by way of Sprouston, and to Wooler, and the vale
of Beaumont-water, run eastward through the par
ish. Population, in 1801, 1,105; in 1831, 1,384.
Houses 293. Assessed property, in 1815, £10,710,
— Sprouston is in the presbytery of Kelso, and synod
of . Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the Duke of
Roxburgh. Stipend £243 3s. 8d. ; glebe £25. Un
appropriated teinds £104 6s. 2d. Parish-school-
master's salary £32 2s. 3d. Two non-parochial
schools were attended, in 1834, by 133 scholars —
The present parish comprehends the ancient parishes
of Sprouston on the north-west, and Lempitlaw on
the south-east. The church of Sprouston was given
by David I. to the monks of Keiso. Chapels sub
ordinate to it anciently stood at Hadden, and on the
manor of Sprouston, and were more or less en
thralled to the same monks. The parish of Lempit
law was at an early period annexed to Sprouston.
Its church belonged to the hospital of Soutra, — and
not long ago might have been seen in ruin at the
village of Lempitlaw.
SPYNIE (New), a parish in Morayshire; bounded
on the north by Duffus and Drainie; on the east by
St. Andrews Lhanbride ; on the south by Elgin ;
and on the west by Alves. Its length is 4 miles ;
its mean breadth is 2 miles ; and its area is about 8
square miles. The Lossie, except for cutting off
about 50 acres, traces all the southern boundary.
The loch of Spynie, formerly a beautiful sheet of
fresh water, 3 miles lpng and 1 broad, and originally
a marine bay, stretched along the northern boun
dary; but, at the expense of nearly £11,000, has
been converted into an unsightly morass, — an im
pregnation of sulphur and iron-ore athwart its bed
having ruined the hopes which occasioned it to be
drained. In its lacustrine state, it richly ornamented
the landscape, and attracted numerous flocks of the
wild swan, and drew to the pine woods in its vicin
ity the capercailzie or cock of the wood, now un
known in Scotland ; but at present it shows a mimic
hollow wilderness of desolation, and forms a ghastly
emblem of the havoc upon natural comeliness
which is worked by the love of gold. A naturally
moorish ridge, 3 miles in length, stretches along
the middle of the parish, and shoots up at the west
end into a considerably high hill. All its summit
and upper slopes, excepting one small wood-em
bosomed farm, are covered with plantations of firs
interspersed with other trees ; and the southern
face of its highest elevation, descending in curved
and broken configuration of surface, is picturesquely
wooded with one of the finest oak forests in the
country. The joint woods cover an area of be-i
tween 1,400 and 1,500 acres. The arable lands,
situated around the forest, and comprising upwards
of 3,000 acres, possess almost every variety of soil,
from the heaviest clay to the lightest sand, and are
all enclosed and well-cultivated. The waste or
pasture lands, comprising about 470 acres, lie
chiefly in the small Spynie section of the drained
lake. Bishop-mill, a suburb of Elgin, included
within its new burgh-boundaries, and communicat
ing with it by a handsome iron bridge, is the only
village. Spynie-palace, the ancient residence of
the bishops of Moray, the site of whose cathedral

686

STAFFA.

from 1057 till 1224 was in Spynie, now exists in
massive, but irreparable ruin, near the east end of
the bed of the once beautiful lake. It formed a
quadrangle of about 120 feet, with strong towers at
the corners ; and was surrounded by a lofty wall,
and fortified on two sides by a dry ditch, and entered
from the east by a drawbridge and a noble gateway.
A square tower on the south-west, which now forms
the chief part of the ruins, measures 60 feet in
length, 36 in breadth, and about 60 in height; is 9
feet thick in its walls ; and has windows which, at
the period of the erection, must have been esteemed
unusually large. Vaulted rooms were below the
palace; spacious state -apartments and bed-rooms
with vaulted closets, were above;. and cape-houses
with surrounding battlements terminated the towers.
On the south side of the enclosed .area was a spa
cious tennis-court ; parallelto it in the inside, was a
chapel ; on the north were bed-rooms and cellars ; on
the east were various offices ; and around the court
and precincts were gardens and orchards. About
£900 have, within the last 15 years, been expended
by the barons of the exchequer, in planting and
otherwise improving a large extent of circumjacent
bishop's lands, now the property of the Crown. The
parish is traversed westward by the great north
mail-road, and bythe turnpike from Elgin to Burgh-
head. Population, in 1801, 843; in 1831, 1,121.
Houses 207. Assessed property, in 1815, £1,533.
— New Spynie is in the presbytery of Elgin, and
synod of Moray. Patron, Carnegie of Spynie.
Stipend £185 4s. 2d. ; glebe £10. Schoolmaster's
salary £36 7s. Id., with £14 fees, and a share of
the Dick bequest. A private school in Bishopmill
was attended, in 1834, by 75 scholars ; and 3 schools
for girls, by about 60  Spynie formerly gave the
title of Baron to the noble family of Lindsay. The
peerage was created in 1590, and became dormant at
the death of George, the 3d lord, in 1672.
STACK OF SNALDA. See Papa-Stour.
STAFFA,' a small island of the Hebrides, cele
brated for its basaltic pillars and its caves. It lies 5
miles south-east of the Treshinish islands, 3 south of
Gometra, 4£ west by north of the nearest part of
Gribon-in-Mull, 6J north of nearly the extreme
point of the Ross-of-Mull, and 7A miles north-north
east of lona; and forms part of the parish of Kil
ninian, and county of Argyle. Seen from a distance,
it appears a round, lumpish, uninteresting rock ; and
not till approached within less than ^ of a mile, does
it unfold to a visiter its museum of wonders, ii is ir
regularly oval.extending from north to south, and mea
suring about l£«mile in circumference; and it presents
an uneven table-land resting on cliffs of variable height.
The greatest elevation occurs in the south-west, and
appears to be about 144 feet. The surface, though
in some spots bare, is in general covered with a rich
soil and luxuriant grass ; but seems to produce few
or no rare plants. A herd of black cattle browse
upon its herbage ; but not a house or a hut exists to
shelter any one of a thousand visiters from an occa
sional or sudden storm. The coast, over a consider
able portion of its precipitous face, presents a co
lumnar disposition. Its highest point occurs between
the Great Cave and the Boat, and is 32 feet lower
than the extreme altitude of the island, or 112 feet
above high-water-mark. Toward the west, the coast
decreases in elevation, and, near MacKinnon's cave,
is only 84 feet high ; from this it varies in height to
ward the north, and there subsides into a flat rocky
shore but a few feet above the sea; thence it rises,
and, after continuing for a short space precipitous,
declines into an irregular rocky shore, stretching out
Statfa is a Norse term, meaning ' staffs' or ¦ columns.'

in beaches, and forming the landing-place ; and from
this it once more gradually rises, till, again becoming
perpendicular beyond the crooked cave, it passes on
to the point of greatest altitude. The geognostie
composition of the coast shows a fundamental ledge
of conglomerated trap or tufa, supporting a black,
hard, and compact columnar basalt, surmounted by
an amorphous basaltic mass, interspersed with small
columns. The whole facade of the coast, and the
arches, sides, and floorings of the caves strikingly
resemble architectural structures, and have been de
scribed by architectural terms ; and even the spots
on the summit-surface, which are bare of soil, pre
sent, in severar*instances, such a compact agglutina
tion of the ends of columns, jutting up from the
amorphous basalt, as closely resembles a tesselated
pavement. The caves are so numerous, that they
may be said to perforate, at brief intervals, the
whole face of the island ; but those which occur on
the south and the north sides are remarkable neither
for beauty nor for magnitude ; and five on the north
east are distinguished chiefly for making loud rever
berations when the surge of the tumultuous sea
breaks into them, — reverberations which resemble
the distant discharges of heavy ordnance. Proceed
ing toward the south from the landing-place, the ob
jects of chief interest which challenge tbe visiter's
notice and admiration are, first, the Scallop or Clam
shell cave, — second, the Buachaille, or Herdsman, —
third, the Causeway and the Great Face, or Colon
nade, — fourth, Fingal's, or the Great cave, — fifth,
the Boat cave, — and sixth, the Cormorants or Mac
Kinnon's cave. Aided by these hints as to the order
and relative position of the objects the reader will,
no doubt, pass with pleasure to the following rich
description by Dr. Macculloch : — " At the Scallop
or Clamshell cave, the columns on one side are bent,
so as to form a series of ribs not unlike an inside
view of the timbers of a ship. The opposite wall
is formed by the ends of columns, bearing a gen
eral resemblance to the surface of a honey-comb.
This cave is 30 feet in height, and 16 or 18 in
breadth at the entrance; its length being 130 feet,
and the lateral dimensions gradually, contracting to
its termination. The inside is uninteresting. — The
noted rock Buachaille, the Herdsman, is a conoidal
pile of columns, about 30 feet high, lying on a bed
of curved horizontal ones, visible only at low-water.
— The Causeway here presents an extensive surface,
which terminates in a long-projecting point at the
eastern side of the Great cave. It is formed of the
broken ends of columns, once continuous to the
height of the cliffs. This alone exceeds the noted
Giant's Causeway, as well in dimensions as in the
picturesque diversity of its surface ; but it is almost
neglected, among the more striking and splendid ob
jects by which it is accompanied. The Great Face is
formed of three distinct beds of rock, of unequal
thickness, inclined towards the east in an angle of
about nine degrees. The lowest is a rude trap tufa,
the middle one is divided into columns placed verti
cally to the planes of the bed, and the uppermost is
an irregular mixture of small columns and shapeless
rock. The thickness of the lowest bed at the west
ern side is about 50 feet ; but, in consequence of the
inclination, it disappears under the sea, not far west
ward of the Great cave. The columnar bed is of
unequal depth ; being only 36 feet at the western
side, and 54 where the water first prevents its foun
dation from being further seen. To the eastward,
its thickness is concealed by the causeway. Thus,
at the entrance of the Great cave on this side, the
columns are only 18 feet high, becoming gradually
reduced to two or three, till they disappear. The
inequality of the upper bed produces the irregular

STAFFA.

687

outline of the island. The inclination of the columns
to the horizon, in consequence qf their vertical posi
tion towards the inclined plane of the bed, produces
a very unpleasing effect whenever it is seen, as it is
from the south-west : the inclination of nine degrees,
conveying the impression of a fabric tottering, and
about to fall. Fortunately, the most numerous and
interesting views are found in positions into which
this defect does not intrude ; and many persons have
doubtless visited Staffa without discovering it. Al
though the columns have a general air of straightness
and parallelism, no one is perfectly straight or regu
lar. They never present that geometrical air, which
appears in the published views of their aspect. In
this respect they fall far short of the regularity of
the Giant's Causeway. Very often they have no
joints ; sometimes one or more may be seen in along
column while, in other places, they are not only
divided into numerous parts, but the angles of the
contact are notched. They are sometimes also split
by oblique fissures, which detract much from the re
gularity of their aspect. These joints are very abun
dant in the columns that form the interior sides of
the Great cave, to which, indeed, they are chiefly
limited ; and it is evident, that the action of the sea,
by undermining these jointed columns, has thus pro
duced the excavation ; as a continuation of the same
process may hereafter increase its dimensions. The
average diameter is about two feet ; but they some
times attain to four. Hexagonal and pentagonal
forms are predominant ; but they are intermixed
with figures of three, four, and more sides, extend
ing even as far as to eight or nine, but rarely reach
ing ten. It is with the morning sun only that the
Great Face of Staffa can be seen in perfection. As
the general surface is undulating and uneven, great
masses of light or shadow are thus produced, so as
to relieve that which, in a direct light, appears a flat
insipid mass of straight wall. These breadths are
further varied by secondary shadows and reflections
arising from smaller irregularities; while the partial
clustering of the columns produces a number of sub
sidiary groups, which are not only highly beautiful,
bo'th in themselves and as they combine with and
melt into the larger masses, but which entirely re
move that dryness and formality which is produced
by the incessant repetition of vertical lines and equal
members. — The Cormorant's or M'Kinnon's cave,
though little visited, in consequence of the frauds
and indolence of the boatmen, is easy of access, and
terminates in a gravelly beach, where a boat may be
drawn up. The broad black shadow produced by
the great size of the aperture, gives a very powerful
effect to all those views of the point of tbe island
into which it enters ; and is no less effective at land,
by relieving the minute ornaments of the columns
which cover it. The height of the entrance is 50
feet, and the breadth 48 ; the interior dimensions
being nearly the same to the end, and the length 224
feet. As it is excavated in the lowest stratum, the
walls and the ceiling are without ornament ; yet it
is striking from the regularity and simplicity of its
form. But the superior part of the front consists of
a complicated range of columns, hollowed into a con
cave recess above the opening ; the upper part of
this colonnade overhanging the concavity, and form
ing a sort of geometric ceiling ; while the inferior
part is thrown into a secondary mass of broad but
ornamental shadow, which conduces much" to the
general effect of the whole. — The Boat cave is ac
cessible only by sea. It is a long opening, resem
bling the gallery of a mine, excavated in the lowest _
rude stratum; its height, being about 16 feet, its
breadth 12, and its depth about 150. Upwards the
columns overhang it, so as to produce a shadow,

which adds much to the effect ; while they, retire in
a concave sweep, which is also overhung by the up
per mass of cliff, thus producing a breadth of shade,
finely softening into a full light by a succession of
smaller shadows and reflections, arising from the ir
regular groupings of the columns. The upper part
of this recess, catching a stronger shadow, adds
much to the composition ; while the eye of the pic
ture is found in the intense darkness of the aperture
beneath, which gives the tone to the whole  The
Great cave is deficient in that symmetry of position
with respect to the face of the island, which conduces
so much to the effect of the Boat cave. The out
line of the aperture, perpendicular at the sides, and
terminating in a contrasted arch, is pleasing and ele
gant. The height, from the top of the arch to that
of the cliff above, is 30 feet ; and from the former to
the surface of the water, at mean tide, 66. The
pillars by which it is bounded on the western side,
are 36 feet high ; while, at the eastern, they are
only 18, though their upper ends are nearly in the
same horizontal line. This difference arises from
the height, of the broken columns which here form
the causeway ; a feature which conduces so much to
the picturesque effect of the whole, by affording a
solid mass of dark foreground. Towards the west
the height of the columns gradually increases as
they recede from the cave, but their extreme alti
tude is only 54 feet, even at low water. The breadth
of this cave at the entrance is 42 feet, as nearly as
that can be ascertained, where there is no very
precise point to measure from. This continues to
within a small distance of the inner extremity, when
it is reduced to 22; and the total length is 227 feet.
These measures were all made with great care, how
ever they may differ from those of Sir Joseph Banks.
The finest views here are obtained from the end of
the causeway, at low water. When the tide is full,
it is impossible to comprehend the whole conveni
ently by the eye. From this position also, the front
forms a solid mass of a very symmetrical form; sup
porting, by the breadth of its surface, the vacant
shadow of the cave itself. Here also, that intricate
play of light, shadow, and reflection, which is pro
duced by the broken columns retiring in ranges
gradually diminishing, is distinctly seen ; while the
causeway itself forms a foreground no less impor
tant than it is rendered beautiful by the inequalities
and the groupings of the broken columns. Other
views of the opening of this cave, scarcely less pic
turesque, may be procured from the western smaller
causeway ; nor indeed without bestowing much time
and study on this spot, is it possible to acquire or
convey any notion of the grandeur and variety which
it contains. The sides of the cave within are co
lumnar throughout ; the columns being broken and
grouped in many different ways, so as to catch a va
riety of direct and reflected tints, mixed with secon
dary shadows and deep invisible recesses, which pro
duce a picturesque effect, only to be imitated by
careful study of every part. It requires a seaman's
steadiness of head to make drawings here. As I sat
on one of the columns, the long swell raised the wa
ter at intervals up to rhy feet, and then, subsiding
again, left me suspended high above it ; while the
silence of these movements, and the apparently un
disturbed surface of the sea, caused the whole of the
cave to feel like a ship heaving in a sea-way. The
ceiling is divided by a fissure, and varies in different
places. Towards ihe outer part of the cave, it is
formed of the irregular rock ; in the middle, it is
composed of the broken ends of columns, producing
a geometrical and ornamental effect, and at the end,
a portion of each rock enters into its composition.
Inattention has caused the various tourists to de-

STA

688

STA

scribe it as if it were all columnar, or all rude. As
the sea never ebbs entirely out, the only floor of this
cave is the beautiful green water ; reflecting from its
white bottom those tints which vary and harmonize
the darker tones of the rock, and often throwing on
the columns the flickering lights which its undula
tions catch from the rays of the sun without." Sir
Walter Scott, contemplating the wondrous symme
try and grandeur of the Great cave, penned the fol
lowing beautiful lines : —
" Where, as to shame the templeB deck'd
By skill of earthly architect,
Nature herself, it seem'd. would raise
A Minster to her Maker's prai6e I
Not for a meaner use ascend
Her columns, or her arches bend ;
Nor of a theme less solemn tells
That mighty surge that ebbs and swells,
And still, between each awful pause,
From the high vault an answer draws.
In varied tone prolong'd and high,
That mocks the organ's melody.
" The stupendous columns'' adds the Poet, " which
form the sides of the cave — the depth and strength of
the tide which rolls its deep and heavy swell up to
the extremity of the vault — the variety of tints
formed by white, crimson, and yellow stalactites, or
petrifactions, which occupy the vacancies between
the base of the broken pillars which form the roof,
and intersect them with a rich, curious, and varie
gated chasing, occupying each interstice — the cor
responding variety below water, where the ocean
rolls over a dark-red or violet-coloured rock, from
which, as from a base, the basaltic columns arise —
the tremendous noise of the swelling tide, mingling
with the deep-toned echoes of the vault, — are cir
cumstances elsewhere unparalleled."
Staffa appears to have remained almost entirely un
noticed till a very recent period. It is not so much as
named by Martin in his account of the Western Isles,
published in the beginning of last century. Its ex
istence was first made generally known by Sir Joseph
Banks, who visited it in August, 1772, and whose ac
count was printed in the second volume of ' Pen
nant's Tour in Scotland.' Banks, in the course of a
voyage to Iceland, in company with Dr. Uno von
Troil  afterwards Archbishop of Upsal — was in
duced to put in at a port in Mull, where he was hos
pitably received by Mr. Maclean, the principal pro
prietor of the island. At Mr. Maclean's the travellers
met with an Irish gentleman, who told them that the
day before be bad fallen in with what, in his opinion,
was one of the greatest wonders in the world, —
though none of his Highland acquaintances seemed
ever to have* had their attention attracted to it.
His account so greatly excited the curiosity of
Banks and his friend, that it was resolved forthwith
to make an expedition to the island : they reached it,
and found it to be by far the most stupendous ex
ample of that striking production of nature, basaltic
architecture, of which they had ever heard.
STAFFIN (Loch), a marine bay, sometimes
called Altivaig-hay, on the east coast of the parish
of Kilmuir in Skye. The hills which environ it rise
with surpassing magnificence, in basaltic colonnades,
to the height of 1,000 or 1,500 feet, enclosing a large
sweeping valley. Long columnar ranges crown their
summits, and increase in elevation as the hills recede
in ascending tiers ; and they combine with similar
colonnades below to produce a variety and sublimity
of basaltic formation, which, though surpassed in
simplicity and beauty of detail, is nowhere in Bri
tain equalled in either extent or power. Had not
Staffa made a previous monopoly of fame, this spot
would have been more than a rival, and might have
frowned the celebrious islet into comparative insig.
nificance.

STAIK, or Stake (Hill of), a height on the
borders of Renfrewshire and Ayrshire, in the par
ishes of Lochwinnoch, Largs, and Kilbirnie. It is'
the highest hill in the district, and was one of the
points of observation in the general trigonometrical
survey of the kingdom. On Thomson's map of Ren
frewshire, published in 1826, it is neither laid down
nor named : on that of Ayrshire it is laid down, but
in a wrong situation.
STAIR, a parish a little west of the centre of
Kyle, Ayrshire. It stretches north-eastward and
south-westward along the left bank of the river Ayr,
and is pent up for some distance, on the south and
west, and brought to ». tapering point by the Coyle,
or Coila, a tributary of the Ayr ; and it measures
about 6 miles in length by 2 in mean breadth, but is
completely cut in two by an intersection of the Ochil
tree. The parishes which lie around it are St. Qui
vox and Tarbolton on the north-west, Tarbolton on
the north, Mauchline on the north-east, Ochiltree on
the east and south, and Coylton on the south-west
and west. The whole parish is richly improved,
highly cultivated, and of a pleasing and embellished
appearance. The Ayr, as it courses along the boun
dary, is alternately beautiful and picturesque in land
scape ; and possesses an abundant shading of wood.
The grounds of Barskimming in the east, with their
elegant mansion, their extensive plantations, their
improvements along the river, their bridge spanning
the Ayr in a single arch from perpendicular rocks of
upwards of 40 feet high, and their numerous elements
and groupings of romantic beauty, form a series of
minute prospects of unusual and almost profuse opu
lence. The grounds of Gadgirth-castle, of Stair-
house, and of Drongan, and the mansions which
superintend them are also pleasingly ornamental.
The soil in the small valleys along tbe rivers is, in
general, a stiff clay. The raising of grain and the
productions of the dairy are both prime objects of
attention. Coal abounds and has long been worked j
the well-known Water-of-Ayr stone has been very
largely exported ; plumbago or black-lead, answer
ing all the purposes of that found in Cumberland,
occurs in considerable plenty ; and some veins of
copper and of antimony exist. The viUage, or rather
hamlet, of Stair, the site of the parish-church, occu
pies a romantic situation on the Ayr, 2A miles south
of Tarbolton, and 5 miles south-west of Mauchline.
Two turnpikes traverse the parish, the one south
ward and the other westward. Population, in 1801,
563; in 1831, 737. Houses 98. Assessed property,
in 1815, £5,645. — Stair is in the presbytery of Ayr,
and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the Earl of
Stair. Stipend £214 13s. 5d. ; glebe £25. Un
appropriated teinds £369 17s. 4d. Schoolmaster's
salary £30, with about £20 fees, and £2 10s. other
emoluments. There is a non-parochial school  The
parish anciently formed part of Ochiltree, and, in
1653, was made a separate erection by the influence
and for the accommodation of Dalrymple of Stair,
whose seat was 5 miles distant from Ochiltree church.
Of a stipend of six chalders which was settled on the
minister, one-half was engaged for by Dalrymple, and
the other half was allocated from the old parish of
Barnwell, then suppressed and annexed to Tarbolton
and Craigie. In 1709 some lands of the original
erection were disjoined ; but they were compensated
by some annexations. The district has given succes
sively the titles of Viscount and Earl to the noble
family of Dalrymple ; created Viscount Stair and
Baron Glenluce and Stranraer in 1690, and Earl of
Stair, Viscount Dalrymple, and Baron Newliston in
1703. John William Henry, the 7th Earl, succeeded
his cousin John in 1821.
STANLEY, a quoad sacra parish and a large vii.

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lage on the rightbankof the Tay, ii, miles above the
junction of the Almond, Perthshire. The parish was
disjoined from Auchtergaven and Redgorton in 1834,
by authority of the General Assembly. Its greatest
length is 2 miles, and its greatest breadth 1 mile.
Its population is nearly all collected in the village.
The church was built, in 1828, by Messrs. Denniston,
Buchanan, and Co., at an expense of £4,000, chiefly
for the accommodation of the people employed in
their factory. Sittings 1,150. Stipend £150. A
large school is maintained by the Stanley company,
and provided with a suitable school-house. School
master's salary £20, with fees, and a house and gar
den. There are two Sabbath schools. Population,
according to a census taken by the minister, in
1836, 2,249,— -of whom 1,916 were churchmen, 321
were dissenters, and 12 were nondescripts. The
number belonging, quoad civilia, to Auchtergaven,
was 1,649, and to Redgorton 600  The viUage of
Stanley occupies a pleasant site within a fine bend of
the Tay, and is split in two by a small intersecting
stream ; and it stands 6£ miles north of Perth, and
81 north-east of Methven. Though begun only in
1 784, and in a state of utter stagnation and almost
abandonment from 1814 till 1823, it has now a popu
lation of not far from 3,000. The grounds around it
were, at the date of its origin, waste and heathy ;
but are now in fine cultivation, and contribute to
the formation of » pleasant landscape. The church
of the village surmounts a considerably elevated bank
overlooking the Tay; lifts up, from the north end of
a substantial, commodious, and handsome pile, a
tower of 85 feet in height ; and forms a conspicuous
and ornamental object within view of a great district
of country. A very large proportion of the inhabi
tants are erriployed in two extensive cotton-factories ;
a considerable number are hand-loom weavers ; and
the rest are principaUy shopkeepers and labourers :
see Auchtergaven. The village has a small public
Ubrary, not very greatly in request ; a savings' bank,
not very much appreciated ; a benevolent society ;
and a funeral society. Stanley,-house, an old man
sion repaired and modernized, stands a little north of
the viUage, in the midst of beautiful and brilliant,
scenery, and surrounded with a phalanx of fine stately
trees. Inchbervis, or Inchbervie, also on the Tay,
a Uttle north of the village, is an old circular tower,
asserted by tradition to have been some sort of eccle
siastical out-post of the abbey of Dunfermline.
STAR. See Kennoway.
START-POINT, the termination of a narrow
peninsula which extends 1| mile eastward from the
north-east corner of the island of Sanday in Orkney.
In 1802 a lofty stone-beacon was erected here for
the guidance of mariners, but was found ineffectual;
and in 18Q6 transmuted into a lighthouse, and, in
that form, has served to prevent a repetition of the
numerous shipwrecks which formerly occurred on the
adjacent low coasts. This lighthouse is situated in
North lat. 59° 20', and long. West of London 2° 34' ;
and the Sand-head of Stronsay is 15 miles south
west of it, and the tower of North Ronaldshay light
house 8 miles north -north-east A east. Its light, in
favourable weather, is visible from all points at the
distance of 15 miles.
STAXIGOE, a fishing village, 2 miles north-east
of Wick, Caithness-shire. It has a tolerably good
natural harbour for boats ; and takes an active part
in the stirring and prosperous fisheries of Wick.
The village is of some antiquity, and still has, in a
state of good preservation, two storehouses which
were used by the Earls of Caithness for the reception
of grain, in the times when rents were paid in kind
Population 260.
STEJNHOUSE, a hamlet or small village, in
II.

•

gentle hollow, J of a mile north of Gilmerton, in the
parish of Liberton, Edinburghshire.
STENHOUSEMUIR. See Falkirk.
STENNESS, a parish, a lake, and a celebrated
Druidical monument, in the Mainland of Orkney.
The parish is united to Firth : which see. The
lake is situated in the western district of Majnjand ;
and divides Haray and Stenness on the east, from
Sandwick and Stromness on the west. It consists
of two parts, or is very nearly bisected by a penin
sula on the west side, which is 3| miles long, and
gradually diminishes from 1| mile in breadth to a
sharp point. The southern division of the lake ex
tends from east-south-east to west-north-west ; is 3A
miles long, and from J to 1J mile broad ; and has a
tidal communication with the sea so narrow as to be
spanned by a bridge. The northern division is con
nected with the east end of the former by a strait
which is so narrow and shallow that it may at any
time be forded, and which is crossed by a rude bridge;
or a low mound of stones with openings for the pas
sage of the unimportant tide ; and it extends from
south-south-east to north-north-west, and measures
4A miles in length, and 6 or 7 furlongs in mean
breadth  The Druidical monument is ' the Standing
Stones of Stenness,' long and everywhere known to
antiquarian fame, and second in their class only to
the famous monument of Stonehenge. These stones
once consisted of two distinct clusters, a semicircle,
and a circle, respectively on the south-east and the
north-west sides of the strait which connects the two
divisions of the lake. Of the semicircle only three
stones remain ; one of them prostrate, and measuring
18 feet 4 inches in length, 5 feet 4 inches in breadth,
and 1 foot 9 inches in thickness ; and the other two
perpendicular, and measuring respectively 1 7 feet in
height, 4 feet 2 inches in breadth, and 1 foot 3 inches
in thickness ; and 17 feet in height, 5 feet in breadth,
and 7 inches in thickness. A pillar pierced with a
hole, and a horizontally placed stone, which . are
known to have been situated in the centre of the
semicircle, are believed to have been respectively
the stone to which the victims of the horrid Druidi
cal sacrifices were tied, and the altar on which they
were offered. A mound of earth, stiU partially
traceable, fenced round the semicircle, and was 96
feet in diameter. The circle is about a mile north
west of the semicircle, and stands on the tongue of
the peninsula which so nearly bisects the lake. Its
stones are smaller and more weather-worn, and have
a more antique appearance than those of the other
group; they appear to have been originally about
thirty-seven in number, but now consist of sixteen
erect pieces of from 3 to 14A feet high, and seventeen
fragments, each less than 3 feet ; and they are en com.
passed with a ditch from 31 to 33 feet wide, and so
filled up as now to be nowhere more than 6 feet
deep. The circumference, measured along the outer
edge of the ditch, is 1,071 feet. At one end of the
bridge across the strait of the lake stands a solitary
stone 1 6 feet high, 5 {- feet broad, and 1 6 inches thick.
The stones are all without inscription or sculpture,
consist of the common schist of tbe country, and are
hoarily covered with long lichens. The Messrs
Anderson, after quoting a long detail of one of those
theories respecting these Druidical remains in which
antiquaries have luxuriously indulged, but to which
we have not space to advert, say, in a beautiful
spirit : " We have loitered long in a heathen temple;
but if we compare, for a moment, the horrors of those
human sacrifices which were probably offered here,
with the light and liberty which we enjoy since that
which was offered for us on Calvary, we may the
more readily be induced to offer that ' living sacrifice,
which is both an ' acceptable and a reasonable service.
2x

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STENNESS, an isle and a holm on the coast of
tbe parish of Northmaven, Shetland. They cover a
small bay where there is a good fishing-station ; and
abound with kettywakes, which fill every crevice
and projection.
STENSCHOLL, an Hebridean quoad sacra par
ish in the district of Trotternish, Skye, Inverness-
shire. Its greatest length is about 14 miles; its
greatest breadth is 4 miles; and its area is about
15,000 Scottish acres. It was, in 1833, by authority
of the General Assembly, divided from Kilmuir and
Snizort ; and consists of portions of these parishes in
the proportion to each other of 11 to 4. Its popula
tion, in 1836, was about 1,800, all belonging to the
Establishment  The parish is in the presbytery of
Skye, and synod of Glenelg. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend£120; glebe £ I, with a manse. The church
was built in 1828 at the expense of Government.
Sittings 350. An itinerating school of the Gaelic
Society, and a school supported by the General
Assembly, have an average attendance respectively
of 43 and 72.
STENTON, a parish in Haddingtonshire, consist
ing of four detaehed parts. The largest and greatly
the most important part, called the inland division,
is bounded on the north by Preston and Dunbar ;
on the east by Spott; on the south by Dunbar-com-
mon ; and on the west by Whittingham and Preston.
It is, in a high degree, irregular in outline; . yet, in a
general view, may be regarded as an oblong stretch
ing north and south, and measuring 3| miles by 2.
The second part lies 2| miles south of the nearest
point of the former ; is situated wholly among the
Lammermoors, and is altogether upland and moor
ish ; has the form of a triangle, of 4, 3, and 2 miles
along its sides, the shortest side facing the south,
and the longest on the north-east ; has Whitadder-
water 4 miles for its boundary-line, and on the south
is divided by that stream from Berwickshire. The
other two parts are little moorland peridicles, lying
near each other, — the one surrounded on three sides
by Dunbar-common, and the other wholly by Inner
wick. The main body or inland district of the par
ish is one of the most beautiful sections of the bril
liant county in which it lies. Its surface, on the
whole, rises by a gradual ascent ; partly a luxuriant
hanging plain, and partly a richly wooded skirting
of the Lammermoor acclivities ; but it is finely di
versified both by natural fractures and undulations,
and by artificial culture and embellishment. Belton-
water — a very pretty stream, but, like all the Lam
mermoor streams, much subject to freshets — has 2
miles' connexion north-eastward with the parish ;
and, in its progress, drinks up two tributaries which
enliven other vales. Presmennan lake — in a deep
ravine in the south — was formed by the construction
of a strong dam Or breastwork between the hill-
screens of the ravine near the point where they stoop
gradually to the plain. The hill-screens here are
undulating and richly wooded ; they come down -in
steep and high banks upon the margin of the water;
sweep along in sinuous parallels, so as to render
the configuration of the lake serpentine; and are
cut by walks, and gemmed with attractions, which
render them, jointly with the lake, one of the most
delightful. clusters of close landscape in Scotland.
Boats are kept for excursions on its glassy bosom ;
and, with a singular liberality, these, and the adja
cent walks in the plantations, are allowed to be
used by the numerous summer-parties who are at
tracted to feast on the scenery. Another great or
nament to the parish are the grounds and mansion of
Beil, situated on Belton-water. Three beautiful
tiers of flowei'rterraces rise from the margin of tbe
stream, and are encompassed with a tastefully ar

ranged demesne, and overlooked by the spacious
mansion, partly ancient, but chiefly modern, and one
of the most superb in Scotland. Its proprietrix, and
at the same time the patroness of the parish, and
landowner of nearly its area, is Mrs. Nisbet Fergu
son of Dirleton and Belhaven — The picturesque
village of Sten.ton stands 3| miles south-east of
East Linton, and 5J south-west of Dunbar; and
the small village of Petcox stands IJ mile farther
north-east. Both are on tbe road between Dunbar
and Gifford. Population, in 1801, 620; in 1831,
686. Houses 142. Assessed property, in 1815,
£7,356  Stenton is in the presbytery of Dunbar,
and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Stipend
£295 10s. Id.; glebe £21. Unappropriated teinds
£614 10s. 3d. The church — situated in the village
of Stenton — was erected about 12 years ago, and is
an elegant" structure, in tbe modern Gothic style,
with a fine tower  The parish was originally and
long called Petcox, from the village of that name ;
and seems to have acquired the designation of Stane-
ton or StonetOwn, from the stoniness of the ground
in the district round the church. In ancient times
it was first a chapelry, and next a prebend of Dun
bar, and a rectory. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s.,
with £40 fees, and £8 other emoluments.
STEVENSTON, a parish on the coast of Cun
ningham, Ayrshire. It is bounded on the north by
Ardrossan and Kilwinning ; on the east by Kilwin
ning and Irvine ; on the south-east by Dundonald ;
on the south by the frith of Clyde; and on the west
by Ardrossan. The river Garnock forms, for about
3 miles, the boundary on the east ; and the expan
sion after its confluence with the Irvine, called Ir
vine-harbour, forms the boundary with Dundonald.
The greatest length of the parish from east to west
is 5 miles ; its greatest breadth is 3 miles ; and its
superficial extent is 6| square miles. The 5 miles
line of shore is quite a sandy beach, toward which
the sea shoals so very slowly as, in a high westerly
wind, to fling up a strong and dangerous surf, and
occasion to embayed vessels the imminent peril of
striking the ground at a considerable distance from
the shore. Evidence of various kinds exists, — '
geognostic, topographical, traditionary, and docu
mentary, — that both the Garnock and the Lugton at
one time flowed through the parish, each as an inde
pendent stream, the former to a point immediately
east of Saltcoats, and the latter to one about half
way thence to the mouth of the Irvine. Proofs
of the changes, and of their comparatively modern
date, are quite apparent upon even a cursory exam
ination of the locality, and may be seen fully stated
in both the Old Statistical Account and the New.
The extent of the sandy wastes is about 1 ,200 acres.
Stevenston-burn, >the only stream now connected
with the interior, ploughs up a pretty glen, and makes
a beautiful little cascade on the lands of Grange, and
enters the sea l1 mile east of Saltcoats. Ashgrove-
loch, from which it issues, is situated on the north
ern boundary, and covers between 30 and 40 acres.
A hard trap rock occurs, and is quarried as road-
metal. Sandstone of prime quality, and-celebrated
as ' Stevenston-stone,' abounds, and is ¦ extensively
quarried as a large article of commerce. Excellent
' Osmond-stone,' and a peculiar variety of schist
occur, and are in request as material for furnaces.
Coal-mines and limestone-quarries are very exten
sive, are largely and vigorously worked, and contri
bute primely to the employment of the- population
and the prosperity of the district. Ironstone exists
between the coal strata, but in a comparatively thin
seam. The mansions of the parish are Grange, Sea-
Bank, Ardeer,, Mayville, Hullerhirst, and Hayocks ';
and in their own forms, and with their plantations

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and pleasure-grounds, they altogether redeem the
general landscape of the parish from the menaced
destruction of it by its bald and monotonous sea
board. — On the grounds of Grange stands the ivy-
grown ancient, castle of Kerilaw, formerly one of the
seats of the Earls of Glencairn. At some period in
the 15th century it was sacked by the retainers of
Montgomery of Eglinton ; and nearly half-a-century
afterwards, retaliation was made by burning Eglin-
ton-castle to the ground. The parish is traversed
by two lines of turnpike and by the Ardrossan and
Kilwinning railway. Part of the town of Salt
coats [which see] is in the parish. An ancient
village — now extinct — stood on the lands of Ardeer,
bore the curious name of Piper .Heugh, and was fa
mous for the manufacture of the Jews' harp. — The
village of Stevenston stands about 1 mile north-east
of Saltcoats, and 2 miles south-west of Kilwinning.
It consists principally of one long winding street,
about half-a-mile in length ; and is inhabited chiefly
by persons employed in the neighbouring collieries,
and by cotton-weaving in the employment of tbe
manufactures of Glasgow. Its site commands a fine
view of the magnificent scenery of the frith of Clyde,
and its Ayrshire and Arran screens. The place is
of so high antiquity as to be mentioned in a charter
of the year 1240. The inhabitants are distinguished
for their love of music, and high rustic proficiency in
its alluring art. The village is the site of the par
ish-church, of two schools, and of an excellent grain-
mill, of high antiquity, and has a small subscription-
library, two Sabbath schools, and several friendly
societies. A fair, or rather a series of revelries and
follies, is held here on the 30th October, and bears
the name of St. Monoch's fair. Population of the
village about 2,000. Population of the parish, in
1801, 2,146; in 1831, 3,544. Houses 492. As
sessed property, in 1815, £5,897  Stevenston is in
the presbytery of Irvine, and synod of Glasgow and
Ayr. Patrons, Hamilton of Grange, and Cunning
ham of Auchinharvie. Stipend £250 9s. 3d. ; glebe
£20. Unappropriated teinds £239 7s. 3d. The
parish-church was built in 1832-3. Sittings 1,175.
In the Stevenston part of Saltcoats are three dis
senting places of worship. The Relief chapel — be
longing to a congregation established in 1 780 — was
built in 1832, and cost £484 15s. Sittings 650. Sti
pend £106. The United Secession chapel— belonging
to the earlier congregation of the body, one estab
lished about 1790 — was built in 1792, and cost about
£700. Sittings 556. Stipend £130, with £4 4s.
at each sacrament. The Scottish Baptist place of
worship is a large hall attached to an inn, and rented
at £7 a-year. Sittings from 250 to 300. Stipend,
the monthly collections, and from 10s. to £2 of the
door collections. According to a census taken by
the parish-minister in 1835-6, the population was
then 3,681 ; of whom 2,232 were churchmen, 781
were dissenters, and 668 were persons not known to
make any profession of religion. In 1834 the par
ish-school was attended by 45 scholars; 8 non-paro
chial schools by 328; various evening schools by 79;
and the aggregate Sabbath-schools by 345. Parish-
schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Ad., with about £15
fees, and 16s. 7Jd. other emoluments. The ancient
parish was a vicarage under the monks of Kilwin
ning. The village, and through it the parish, had
their name from a person called Stephen or Steven,
who, in the 12th century, obtained a grant of the
lands from Richard Morville.
STEWARTFIELD, a considerable village in the
parish of Old Deer, in Aberdeenshire, 3 miles from
ihe post-town of Mintlaw. See article Old Deer.
STEWARTON, a village on the west side of
Lochryan, in the parish of Kirkcolm, 5A miles north

of Stranraer, Wigtonshire. The population is partly
agricultural; but in almost every house, muslin-
webs are embroidered by young men for the Glas.
gow manufacturers. The earnings of an embroid
erer range between 8d. and Is. 4d. a-day. Popula
tion 430.
STEWARTON, a parish in Cunningham, Ayr
shire; bounded on the north by Renfrewshire; on
the east by Fenwick; on the south by Kilmaurs and
Dreghorn ; and on the west by Irvine and Dunlop.
Its greatest length from north-east to south-west is
nearly 1 1 miles ; its greatest breadth is 4 miles ; and
its superficial extent is about 10,145 acres. The
surface has a flat appearance, yet gradually declines
from the boundary with Renfrewshire toward the
south-west or the sea, and swollen or tumulated into
numerous small hills. Though its eminences are in
no instance considerable, they almost all command
rich views of the county and of the gorgeous scenery
of the Clyde. The northern division is naturally
moorish, and is still bare and of a churlish soil. The
central and southern divisions are in high cultivation.
The roads from Glasgow to Irvine and from Paisley
to Kilmarnock, pass respectively south-westward and
southward through the parish. Population, in 1801 ,
2,657; in 1831, 4,503. Houses 541. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £15,067  Stewarton is in the pres
bytery of Irvine, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr.
Stipend £280 19s. 2d. ; glebe £9. Unappropriated
teinds £291 lis. 2d. The parish-church was built
in 1696, and altered and greatly enlarged in 1825.
Sittings about 1,400. There are three dissenting
places of worship, all situated in the town. The
United Secession chapel was built in 1775. Sittings
592. Stipend £100, with a house and £9 for sacra
mental expenses. The Original Burgher place of
worship was built in 1828, and cost £436 14s. Sit
tings 505. Stipend £60  The Congregational place
of worship is the Town-house, the private property
of Mr. Cuninghame, the patron of the parish, by
whom the congregation assembUng in it was formed
in 1827. Sittings 396. No stipend. The popula
tion of the parish, as stated by the parochial minis
ter in 1836, was then 4,712, and consisted of 3,708
churchmen, 867 dissenters, and 137 nondescripts.
Parish-schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Ad.,~ with fees,
and £5, as well as the receipts for the office of ses
sion. clerk, other emoluments  The parish was an
ciently a vicarage under the monks of Kilwinning.
On the lands of Lainshaw, at a place, now called
Chapel, and formerly - called Chapelton, anciently,
stood a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
.Stewarton, a small but thriving manufacturing
town in the cognominal parish, Ayrshire. It stands
on the right bank of the Annock, 2 miles south-
south-east of Dunlop, 3 west-north-west of Fenwick,
5 north by west of Kilmarnock, 9 north-east of Ir
vine, and 18 south-west of Glasgow. The stream
which washes it makes, just when abreast of the
town, a beautiful semicircular sweep of such scope
as to measure half-a-mile along the chord ; and it is
spanned by three bridges, respectively at the ends
and in the middle of the sweep. One street extends
along the chord of the semicircle, and is prolonged
uppn the margin of the stream ; and this street ex
tends from north-east to south-west, and carries
along the Glasgow and Irvine turnpike. Another
street opens from the bridge at the middle of the
semicircular sweep, cuts the former street at right
angles, and carries along the road between Kilmar
nock and Paisley. Some minor thoroughfares belong
to the body of the town, and considerable clusters
of buildings form suburbs. Stewarton may vie with
any town of its size in the west of Scotland for re
gularity, beauty, and general attractions. But though

692

STIRLING.

a place of considerable antiquity, it was for centuries |
a mere obscure village ; and, not till about 60 or 70
years ago did it decidedly assume the healthful, grow
ing, and energetic appearance by which it has since
been distinguished. Its prosperity has nearly all been
connected with the woollen manufacture. The
making of tartan and other woollen bonnets has
very long been carried on ; the making of regimental
caps and bonnets, in particular,' has been a staple
manufacture. Upwards of 400 persons, residing
principally in the localities called Townhead, Dar
lington, and Kirkford, construct the fabrics in their
own houses, and are aided by public mills whose
chief departments are simply the carding and the
spinning of the wool. A great impulse was given,
and much increase to trade and population was oc
casioned, about 20 years ago, and have since been
perpetuated by the introduction of carpet manufac
tures and worsted mills. Other employments are
the Ayrshire needle- work; — silk, muslin, linen, and
damask weaving, — clock-work for foreign markets,
— and the making of spindles for cotton and woollen
mills. The town has a branch-office of the Glasgow
Union bank ; a savings' bank ; a ladies' boarding-
school ; 7 private schools, besides the parish-school ;
2 insurance offices ; a gas company ; and a parish
library. Annual fairs are held on the last Friday of
April, old style ; on the last Tuesday of May, old
style; on the last Thursday of June; on the first
Friday after the 12th of November; and on the
Thursday, or 6th day after the last of these dates.
Coaches run daily in transit between Kilmarnock
and Paisley; two caravans go daily, and two car
riers twice a-week, to Kilmarnock ; two carriers
twice a-week to Glasgow ; and one carrier twice a-
week to Paisley  Stewarton has never been erected
into a burgh, and is not the seat of any merchant-
guild or .trades' corporations. The ground on which
it is built holds feu of William Cuninghame, Esq. of
Lainshaw; and that on which the suburbs stand
holds, for the most part, of Sir James Montgomery
Cuninghame of Corsehill, Bart. As superior, Mr.
Cuninghame has right to levy a custom on meal
and other articles, and to exact certain rates on
stands or booths at fairs ; but the right is so gently
wielded, or intrinsically so inconsiderable, as to have
been let for £5 a-year. There are no local taxes or
assessments. The only magistracy are the justices-
of-peace of the county, and Mr. Cuninghame's
baron-bailie. A justice-of-peace court is held on
the first Thursday of every month; and superin
tends not only the town itself, but the three par
ishes of Stewarton, Dunlop, and Fenwick. A lock
up-house, and* a justice-of-peace court-house in the
town, are the private property of Mr. Cuninghame,
and are maintained wholly at his expense. Popula
tion, in 1833, 2,969; of whom 735 resided in the
suburbs, and 2,234 in the town.
STIRLING,* a small parish in the north of Stir-
* The name is written Strewelyn by Barbour; Strevelyn,
Stribelyne, aud Ssryvelyne, by Wyntouii ; Striuelyne, by Bel-
leiiiien.; also Strivehne, Striveling, Strevelt/ne, Strevelyng ; in
English deeds of the reigns of Edward I. II. and III. most
commonly Stryvelyn, sometimes Eslrivelin; as, in the transi
tion of Froissart, it appears in the form of Estruleyn ,- and, by
a strange misnomer, of Esturmel-yne. The name is most pro
bably ot Celtic origin. As, from its situation, this fortress
formed a sort of boundary to the possession of different hostile
nations, it hae been conjectured, with considerable plausibility,
that it had derived its name from being the object of frequent
contention. " Stryveling," it has been snid, " which was the
ancient name of the plain, signifieth ¦ ' the hill' or 'rock of
strife,' to which the Monkish writers seem to allude, when
they give it the Latin name of Mons Dolorum.'' In Irish and
Gaelic, strith undoubtedly signifies 'strife.' But if we view
this as forming the primary part of the word, we must be at a
loss for the termination ; unless we trace it to linn, which, in
the IriBh, denotes ' a streiuht,' or narrow entrance,— as if re
ferring to the position of this rock, between which and the
river there is only a narrow passage. Macpherson, while he

lingshire ; bounded on the north by Logie, and on
all other sides by St. Ninian's. Its greatest length
is about 3 miles, and its greatest breadth about li
mile. The Forth is the boundary-line over most of
the north. St. Ninian's, in several places, makes
deep indentations; and it even comprises part of the
town. The entire landward part of the parish com
prehends not more than 200 acres; and the popu
lation is, in consequence, almost aU collected in
Stirling, and in the villages of Raploch and Abbey.
The king's park or royal domains, and the castle,
with its constabulary, comprising a small portion of
land formerly annexed to the office of constable,
belong to the parish only quoad sacra, and since the
castle ceased to have a resident and officiating chap-
Iain, and they are exempted from all parochial assess
ment. The barony of Cambuskenneth, lying east of
Stirling within a link on the north bank of the Forth,
and understood to have anciently constituted a sepa
rate parish, is now so far comprehended in StirUng,
that while -subject to the poor's rates in Logie, and
to the jurisdiction of the sheriff of Clackmannan, it
pays part of the stipend of the first minister of Stir
ling; and has an allocation of sittings in the church
for the inhabitants of its village of Abbey. The
landward district of what in every sense belongs to
the parish, includes some parks on the south of the
town, but lies principally on the north, stretching
eastward along ihe river from Kildean, about a mile
above Stirling-bridge. The soil is excellent, and
the climate healthy. Population, in 1801, 5,271;
in 1831, 8,556. Houses 785. Assessed property,
in 1815, £10,695.
Stirling is the seat of a presbytery, in the synod
of Perth and Stirling. The charge is treble. Pa
tron, the Town-council. Stipend of the first minis
ter £348 17s. 10d., with a glebe worth £21, and an
allowance of £40 for a manse ; of the second minis-.
ter £250 ; of the third minister £200. That of the
second and the third is derived from the town's
funds; and that of the first from the teinds from
fishings on the Forth, and from twobeaves furnished
by the town. Unappropriated teinds £440 15s. 8d.
The church was buiit in 1494, and is now divided
into two, the East and the West, the former of
which was repaired in 1808, and the latter in 1818.
Sittings in the East church 1,187; in the West
church 1,177. The churches were at the Reforma
tion granted by Queen Mary to the corporation of
the burgh ; and since that period they have, as to
their area or the space for pews and galleries, been
so extensively sold to public bodies and private in
dividuals that, in 1838, only 616 sittings belonged
to the burgh, 43 of which were retained for the use
of the Town-council, 64 set apart for the poor, and
509 set apart for letting. One of the ministers offi
ciates regularly in the East church; another in the
West; and the third alternately in the two; and
they singly or jointly maintain two week-day even
ing lectures, one Sabbath evening lecture, and a
Sabbath evening class  There are in the town 9
dissenting places of worship. The First United
Secession, congregation was established in 1740.
Their present meeting-house was built in 1826, at a
cost of £3,100; and occupies ground which is sup
posed to be worth about £80Q. Sittings 1,417.
admits the general idea as to the origin, gives the Gaelic word
In a more simple form. "That tract id country," he has re
marked, " between the firtha of Forth and Clyde, has been,
through all antiquity, famous for battles and rencounters, be
tween the different nations, who were possessed of North and
South Britain. Stirling, a town situated there, derives its
name from ttyat very circumstanre. It is a corruption of the
Gaelic name Strila, i. e. 'the hill, or 'rock of contention."*
Baxter viewB the ' Roman station of Alauna as Sterling ot
Strivclin ; resolving it into British, Es Trev Alaun, i. e. (ipni.
dura Alauna.

STIRLING.

693

The charge is collegiate. Joint stipend of the two
ministers £400. This congregation, and each of the
three next named, has attached to its place of wor
ship a religious library. — The Second United Seces
sion congregation was estabUshed about the year
1747. Their place of worship was built in 1752.
Sittings 610. Stipend £150, with £14 for commu
nion and synod expenses  The Reformed Presby
terian congregation was established in 1775. Their
place of worship was built in 1783, and cost about
£300. Sittings 250. Stipend £80, with £5 for
sacramental expenses, arid £15 in lieu of a house 
The Independent congregation was established in
1804. The place of worship — the upper story of a
building, the lower story of which is let as a dwell
ing-house and cellar — was purchased, in 1812, for
£210, and, jointly with the dwelling-house, fitted
up at an additional cost of nearly £290. Sittings
400. Stipend £70  The Baptist congregation was
established in 1826, and have the gratuitous use of
the GuildhaU as their place of meeting. Sittings
about 150. Stipend £48, but variable  The Scot
tish and English Episcopalian congregation has ex
isted since the establishment of Presbyterianism.
Their chapel was erected about 43 years ago, and
cost about £600. Sittings 200. Stipend £150.
In 1838, subscriptions were entered for another sum
of £150, as a retired annuity to a minister who had
resigned, the Right Rev. Bishop Gleig  The Ori
ginal Burgher congregation was established in 1 799.
Their place of worship was built in 180 1 , and cost
£1,600. Sittings 800. Stipend £130, with a manse
and gardens, jointly valued at £20. — The Scotch
Baptist congregation was established in 1802 or
1803. Their place of meeting is the Trades' hall,
rented at £2. Sittings about 100. No stipend 
The Roman Catholic congregation was established
about 18 years ago. Their chapel was erected in
1838; and, jointly with a house for the minister,
cost about £1,500. Sittings 350. Stipend, derived
hence and from the chapels of Alloa and Campsie,
under the charge of the same officiate, about £100.
— According to a survey made in January 1836,
under the direction of the parish ministers, the pop
ulation then consisted of 4,523 churchmen, 3,055
dissenters, and 199 nondescripts ; in all, 7,777 per
sons. But the population of the Causeyhead, the
garrison of the castle, and the inmates of the jail,
amounting respectively to 129, 354, and 33, were
not included.
StirUng is singularly rich in the number, variety,
and good qualities of its schools. Three are strictly
burgh schools, a fourth is so far a burgh school as
both to be partially salaried by the town, and to be
under the patronage of the magistrates ; three others
are more or less aided and directly patronized by the
burgh ; three are boarding-schools for females ; one
is an infant-school ; one is a charity-school for girls
too far advanced to be fit attendants at the infant-
school ; and the rest are all schools on private ad
venture. They amounted, in 1834, to 21 in num
ber ; and were then conducted by 33 teachers, and
attended by 940 scholars. At 15, English, writing,
and arithmetic are taught, — with history at one of
the burgh schools, and French, music, and kindred
branches at the boarding-schools; and at three others
only English reading and spelling, with, at one of
them, the addition of sewing and knitting. The
four wholly under the patronage of the magistrates
and council, are the grammar or high school, the
writing and mathematics school, the first English
school, and the second English school,— the last
commonly called Allan's Hospital school, owing to
its being that at which the boys on Allan's chari
table foundation are educated. The grammar-school

affords tuition in Greek, Latin, French, geography,
and ancient history ; has an average attendance ot
40 scholars; and yields its rector, in addition to
fees, £50 of salary, and an assistant £20. The
writing school affords tuition in writing, arithmetic,
book-keeping, geography, navigation, and the various
departments of mathematics; has an average attend
ance of 150; and yields £50 of salary, with fees.
The English schools yield each a salary of £50, be
sides fees ; have an average attendance respectively
of 100 and 135; and afford tuition, the one in Eng
lish, elocution, geography, and drawing; and the
other in English, history, geography, writing, and
arithmetic, and occasionally in book-keeping and
practical mathematics. Three of the school-houses
belong wholly to the burgh, and that' of Allan's
Hospital school, was erected partly at the burgh's
expense, and is considered in the largest sense a
public building. The salaries of all the teachers
are paid in certain proportions, and according to a
fixed scheme, out of the town's funds, and by Covv-
ane's, Spittal's, and Allan's hospitals. There are in
the burgh two important mortifications for the pur
poses of education, the one under the management
jointly of the magistrates and council, and the second
minister of Stirling, and the other under the manage
ment solely of the magistrates and council. The
older of the two originated, in 1724, in a bequest by
John Allan, writer in Stirling, of a sum which he
appointed to accumulate till it should amount to
40,000 merks, and to be then annually applied in
maintaining, educating, and putting out to trades,
boys belonging to members of the trades' incorpora
tions of the burgh ; and it now yields a free annual
income of about £300, and, in 1833, maintained 23
boys. The more recent mortification originated, in
1808, in a trust settlement by Alexander Cunning
ham, merchant-burgess in Stirling, conveying the
residue of his means and estate for maintaining, edu
cating, and putting out to trades, boys belonging to
members of the guildry incorporation, or of the so
ciety of mechanics of Stirling; and, in 1822, it ex
hibited a fund of £5,724 lis. 2d., and, in 1833,
maintained 20 boys. The children on these morti
fications do not live in public or hospital buildings;
but are maintained with their parents or natural
guardians on an allowance of 2s. 6d. weekly for
each ; they are yearly supplied with clothing, — and
they receive their general education at the second
English school, and are occasionally, or according to
circumstances, transferred for the higher branches
of education, to the writing and the grammar schools.
They are limited, as to the period of their education
to 5 years ; and, in the event of any of them dis
tinguishing themselves at the grammar-school, they
may — though only one at a time on each foundation
— be sent to college, and assisted there during 4
years with an annual sum for their maintenance and
education as university students.
The parish of Stirling was anciently in the diocese
of St. Andrews; but being comprehended within
the archdeaconry of Lothian, it followed the for
tunes of that district in the erection of it by Charles
I., in 1633, into the diocese of Edinburgh, and then
entitled its minister to a prebend's stall in the cathe
dral church of St. Giles. Soon after the Reformation
— before the charge was yet made collegiate, an
event which did not take place till 1651 — Mr. Ro
bert Montgomery was deposed by the General As
sembly from the pastoral charge of the parish on
account of a simoniacal compact with the Duke of
Lennox about the archbishopric of Glasgow ; and he
afterwards, in 1587, became minister of Symington
in Ayrshire, and was reduced to great poverty, or,
as Keith says, to " great misery." Mr. Patrick

694

STIRLING.

Symson, another minister of the parish, published
about the year 1600 a folio Church history of the
preceding 15 centuries. Mr. Henry Guthrie, a third
minister of the parish, was afterwards bishop of
Dunkeld, and then lived retiredly at Kilspindie ;
and he wrote, probably while at ihe last of these
places, Memoirs of Scottish affairs from the year
1627 till the death of Charles I. in 1649. Mr.
James Guthrie succeeded him, and was the cele
brated minister of that name whom the persecuting
tyranny of Charles II. brought to the block in 1661.
After his death, Henry, the retired bishop and quon
dam minister, was invited back to his charge in Stir
ling; but, on account of bad health, he declined.
Various other ministers after the charge had been
rendered double and treble, are mentioned ; but, for
the most part, they were undistinguished. In 1731,
Mr. Ebenezer Erskine was, settled as third minister;
and, 7 years afterwards, he jointly, with the other
three fathers of the Secession, seceded from the
Church of Scotland, and formed the community of
what they called " the Associated Brethren," — the
illustrious germ of the large, evangelical, and highly
useful body of the modern United Secession, as well
as of several homogeneous offshoots. From the
date of Mr. Erskine's secession till about 23 years
ago, a period of 80 years, the third charge was never
filled, but made to lie in abeyance. Various eccle
siastical notices might be added, but will find more
appropriate places in our outline of the town's gen
eral history, or im our account of its existing and
extinct public buildings.
Sterling, an ancient town, a royal burgh, the
capital of Stirlingshire, and one of the most attrac
tive seats of population in Scotland, is situated in
56° 12' north latitude, and 3° 50' longitude west
from London ; 6 miles south of Dunblane, 7 west
of Alloa, 7 north of Denny, 1 1 north-west of Fal
kirk, 28 north-east of Glasgow, 33£ south-west of
Perth, and 35 west-north-west of Edinburgh. The
site of the ancient and still the larger part of the
town is the face and sides of a wedge-like hill, which
begins on the south-east to rise from the centre of a
rich and gorgeously dressed plain, and ascends with
an almost regular gradient over a distance of between
5 and 6 furlongs to the north-west, and then breaks
precipitously down in an almost perpendicular crag
of basaltic rock. It thus, not only in the romance
of its peculiar locality, but in the specific element by
which the romance is formed, closely resembles Gol-
conda, Athens, and the old town of Edinburgh. Its
resemblance to the last, in particular, is so intimate
as to have bedh noticed by Dr. Clarke, and by every
tasteful writer on its topography; yet, in conse
quence of wanting the accompaniment of a circum
jacent sea of city, it has the appearance of being a
miniature resemblance, while, by wanting such grand
and nobly attractive physical tutelage as that of
Salisbury-crags and Arthur's-seat, and possessing a
vast command of distant as well as of near scenery
in almost every style of brilliance, it has attractions
of its own which render it in many respects quite
a rival with the metropolis. Edinburgh, indeed, has
a profusion of rich urban landscapes, and of magnifi
cent city foregrounds to its landward scenery, not
one copy or even remote imitation of which can be
found in Stirling; and it offers to the view, from
various points of each of its four great heights, as
well as from several places on its lower grounds,
such a diversity of groupings, as amounts to a series
of entirely distinct landscapes, while Stirling exhibits
a commanding panorama from only one hill, and ex
hibits it with effect in only one grouping, and from
only one spot,_the summit of the hill. Yet the
one panorama is so great, so burnished all over

with glory, so lit up both with the displays of the
Creator's beneficence in his physical works, and with
his smiles upon the rightly directed efforts of man,
that we must not dare more than attempt a mere
etching of its outline. The ground in the imme
diate neighbourhood of the wedge-like and entirely
edificed hill, is, with two or three exceptions which
just relieve it from monotony, quite flat; and it
either exhibits interesting vestiges of antiquity, or
is streaked and studded with gay modern extensions
and suburbs of the town, or, more generally, is dis
posed in rich arable fields. On the south, rising
woodlands, the two basaltic heights of Gillies-hill
and Sauchie-hill famous in connexion with the
battle-scenes of Bannockburn and Sauchie, and the
commencements in general of the Lennox or Camp
sie chain of eminences, speedily close up the view,
or render it interrupted and unwelcomely broken.
Yet the two hills of Gillies and Sauchie, the hill of
Stirling itself, and the Abbey-craig immediately
north of the Forth — all rocky heights rising gradu
ally from the east, and stooping precipitously down
on the west — form a chain of great bold rocks which
awe and yet 'solemnly delight the mind by picturing
to it the vast convulsion which must have flung them
up from the plain; and, along with Craigforth, a
fifth basaltic rock in tbe vicinity, they appear, when
illuminated by the rays of the setting sun, almost
like craggy islets of gold looking up from a calm
sea of luxuriant verdure. On the south, too, imme
diately under the eye, from the castle or summit of
the hill, the rocky and rapid declivities are clothed
with wood, — they exhibit from end to end of the
overhanging town a shelving and umbrageous thicket,
— and, along the very brow of the rock and else
where, they have noble walks, the result of very
many years' labour and of large expense, which pos
sess an amount and a peculiar style of embellishment
not easily to be paralleled. On the east, tbe eye,
after being lifted over the town and the Abbey-
craig and the ruins of Cambuskenneth-abbey, wan
ders amidst vast mazes of beauty, labours to follow
the long and graceful manipulating sweeps of the
Forth amidst the broad and luscious curves, and,
on a clear day, is carried over a region seemingly
as rich and odoriferous as a garden all the way
to the romantic castle-rock and Arthur's-seat of
Edinburgh. On the north-east are the broad, lofty,
and picturesque commencements of the Ochil-hills.
But on the north, the north-west, and the west, who
shall describe what Ues unfolded to the eye, — the
vales respectively of the Allan, the Teath, and the
upper Forth, leading away through expanses of the
most ornate lowland loveliness to such scenery as
that of the Trossachs, and to the combinedly grand
est and most graceful forms of highland landscape ?
All the foreground and the middle view are of sur
passing loveliness; and all the back-ground towers
aloft at a great distance in peaks, which are clad in
snow or wreathed in clouds, and which aggregately
rest like a vast blue rampari against the sky. The
view here is the cultivation and the magnificent arti
ficial productions of art spread out upon a nobly ex
panded or brilliantly undulated surface, and blended
into harmonious keeping, with a view sufficiently
near to be clearly depicted of the majestic natural
scenery of one of the finest sect;ons of the High
lands. " But," says fhe querulous Dr. Macculloch,
completely fired for once into a blaze of enthusiasm,
" it is not Stirling of which I need to speak, the
glory of Scotland ; for who does not know its noble
rock, rising the monarch of the landscape, its ma
jestic and picturesque towers, its amphitheatre of
mountain, and the windings of its marvellous river :
and who that has once seen the sun descending here

STIRLING.

695

in all the blaze of its beauty beyond the purple hills
of the west, can ever forget the plain of Stirling,
the endless charm of this wonderful scene, the '
wealth, the splendour, the variety, the majesty of I
all which here lies between earth and heaven 1" , |
The principal accesses to Stirling are by the !
Burgh-port on the south, toward which all the roads
from the west, round by the south to nearly the east,
converge, and the bridge on the north, which brings
in all the thoroughfares from the north-east round
by the north to the south-west. The road which
conducts from St. Ninian's to the former is, in a
sense, all town, and, as well as St. Ninian's itself, is
all comprehended within the parliamentary bounda
ries. Only 250 yards north of St. Ninian's commence
the continuous villages of Bellfield and Newhouse,
jointly about J of a mile ir length ; and between
them and the commencement of compact town, a
distance of upwards of half-a-mile, the road is lined
on both sides with beautiful villas, and shaded with
lofty trees, while, over more than half of the dis
tance, it has a fine regular line of modern buildings, ;
called Melville-place, and farther on is winged on |
the west by a sort of square called Allan-park. The .
compact town now commences with Port-street,
which runs 220 yards northward on a line with Mel
ville-place, and is very broadly winged on the east
by the suburb called Craigs, bringing in tbe thorough
fare from Airth. The main body of the town, that
which runs up the gradual ascent of the hill, and i
forms the great seat of population, and contains
most of the local objects of antiquarian and public
interest, extends 3 furlongy north-westward from
the north end of Port-street. In its lower part of ,
less than 200 yards it is a spacious and airy single
street, called King-street, the site of various neat
private houses, of two very ornamental public build
ings, and of the Exchange and other markets; in its
central part, or over a distance of about SOO yards,
it is slenderly split into two parallel and less airy
thoroughfares, called Spittal-street and Baker-street,
which communicate with each other by a lane about
mid-distance between their ends ; and in its upper
part it again becomes a single spacious thoroughfare,
which takes the name of John-street, and has among
its structures the parish-churches, and some other
interesting public buildings. These streets, includ
ing the Port, have aU an appearance of modernized
antiquity, or present a curious minglement of the
antique and the modern, now an old-fashioned build
ing mouldering down to decay, now an antiquated
edifice partly remodelled to the taste of a later age,
and now a building altogether and elegantly new,
but everywhere the evidence of recent improvement,
and the frequent recurrence of good shops. Baker
and Spittal streets, in particular, are curiosities :
they are steep as weU as narrow ; they are largely
edificed with tenements belonging to a taste which
has long since perished ; and they long were ribbed
from end to end with the rude abutments of ' out
side stairs,' the removal of which has occasioned a
kind of mongrelism in the general style — if style it
may be called — of the street-architecture. Friars-
wynd, which goes off for 200 yards northward from
near the foot of Baker's-street, — St. Mary's-wynd,
which goes off 350 yards in the same direction from
the head of it, or from the foot of John-street, —
these and some minor streets and alleys are narrow,
irregular, winding, and generally unprepossessing.
Broad-street, a thoroughfare of 160 yards in length,
leading off from St. Mary's-wynd, and running or
climbing nearly parallel with John-street, is spacious
and of imposing appearance, and largely partakes of
modern improvement. The streets, caUed Upper
• and Lower Castle-hill, hang in the north-east faee

of the higher end of the hill; and diveiging from a
point which is immediately overhung by the castle,
they fall at their lower ends respectively on the head
of Broad-street, and on the north end of St. Mary's-
wynd. The principal new or entirely modern streets
are Bridge-street, leading out on a line with St.
Mary's-wynd, over a distance of 750 yards to the
old bridge, — a street opened only in 1840, and giv
ing great promises of elegance, leading from the
lower part of the main body of the town away to
ward the new, bridge ; Cowan-street, on a line with
Friar's-wynd, and falling at an acute angle upon
Bridge-street ; and Queen-street and Irvine-place
running parallel to each other, but in an oblique
direction between Bridge-street and Cowan-street..
These thoroughfares are, in a general view, but par
tially edificed, yet regular and neat, or even elegant;
they have occasionally connection with handsome
modern villas; they are numerously inhabited by
annuitants or gentlemen of fortune, who have sat
down to luxuriate in a position which combines town
advantages with salubrity of climate and exquisite-
ness of landscape ; and while the old and close parts
of the town are in many places ill-paved, and in
all more or less mean, these new and open parts have
flag-pavements for foot-passengers, and are main
tained in freshness and fine order.
A few objects in the immediate vicinity of the
town are so intimately connected with either its
landscape or its history as to require separate notice.
South-west of the castle or summit of the hill lies
the King's-park, about 3 miles in circumference, once
the wooded walk of flocks of deer, and the scene of
many a royal hunt, but now almost wholly divested
of wood, and chiefly disposed in arable grounds and
artificial pastures. A wall of great antiquity surrounds
it, and may be seen running along the base of the
basaltic pillars which colonnade the western and
southern precipices of the hill. The park is now
encroached on by the modern race-course, and tra
versed by the road from Dumbarton, as well as by a
short branch-road from the suburban viUage of Rap-
loch [which see] ; but, so late as about 50 years
ago, it was maintained inviolate, and continued un
touched by any road. At the east end of the park
lay the royal gardens. Though, from long neglect
and the natural wetness of the soil, they have be
come marshy and desolate, they still have a few
stumps of fruit-trees, some vestiges of walks and
parterres, a series of polygonal but quite regular con
centric mounds, and various other indications of their
ancient configuration and arrangements. About three
acres still remain as an orchard. A few months ago
there was growing in it a pear-tree said to have been
planted by James VI. ; it was named the King's pear
or Carnock pear. For a number of years past it was
rapidly decaying, one branch falling-off after another,
and the trunk also mouldering away ; but it was still
respected, and surrounded with props to keep it
from falling. It could not, however, be preserved ;
and a short time ago, the tree that was planted by
that " most high and mighty prince" lay prostrate on
the ground. Rising from ihe centre of the concen
tric mounds, is an octagonal mound in the form of a
table, which bears the name of the King's Knott,
and is traditionally said to have been the scene of
fetes champetres, or of some forgotten species of re
creations practised by the royal court. Barbour, in
his account of the battle of Bannockburn, speaks of
a round table as, at the date of that event, existing
at the foot of the castle ; and says that, when Ed
ward of England was told by Moubray, the gover
nor, not to expect safety by being admitted into the
castle, " he took the way beneath the castle by the
Round table." The mound is of great antiquity, and

696

STIRLING.

probably existed before the gardens were formed ;
and the pastime celebrated on it may, without much
violence, be conjectured to have been that caUed
the Knights of the Round Table, — a pastime of
which several of the Scottish monarchs, particularly
James IV., are said to have been fond  Along the
line in the park from north to south, now traversed
by the public road, were not long ago vestiges of a
canal on which fhe royal family and court aired in
barges  On the south face of the castle-hill, a little
below the esplanade, in front of the castle, is a hol
low, caUed the Valley, now about an acre in area,
but formerly much more extensive, having the ap
pearance of an artificial work, and anciently used for
joistings, tournaments, and other feats of chivalry.
Closely adjoining it on the south is a smaU rocky
pyramidal mount, called the Ladies' Hill, whence
ihe females of the court surveyed the feats. In Lent,
1449, a celebrated tournament was fought in the Val
ley between three Frenchmen and three Scotchmen,
in the presence of James II. as umpire; and about
1503-7, an Italian, who as a pretended alchymist had
won the confidence of James IV., and got himself
promoted to be abbot of Tongueland, attempted,
with the aid of wings of his own making, to fly from
the Valley, or from the neighbouring battlements of
the castle, and ludicrously accounted for his tumbling
down and breaking his thigh-bone, by saying that
" the wings were partly composed of the feathers of
dunghill fowls, and were by sympathy attracted to
the dunghiU, and that had they entirely consisted of
eagles' feathers they would, for the, same reason,
have been attracted toward the heavens 1" — On
a line with the castle on the north-east extends for a
brief way a rugged rising ground, called Gowlan-
li ill ; and at the extremity of it near the bridge, is
the Moat-hill of the feudal times, a smaU mount on
which executions usually took place : —
" Thou, O sad and fatal mound.
That oft hast heard the death-axe sound "
Laps op thi: Lake.
The mount is encircled at the summit with a pa
rapet of earth, and has several other remains of
artificial works. On this eminence, within sight
of their castle of Doune, and much of their exten
sive estates, Duncan, the aged Earl of Lennox, his
son-in-law, Murdoch, Duke of Albany and Ex-re
gent of ihe kingdom, and the latter's two sons,
Walter and Alexander Stuart were beheaded in
1425. The execution of Walter Stuart took place
a day before that of the others, and is, with much
probability, supposed to be the groundwork of the
pathetic ballad of ' Young Waters ' On the same
hill, at an earlier date, Sir Robert Graham and se
veral associates were executed for the assassination
of James I. The hiU now bears the uncouth name
of Hurley-Haaky, and is said to have got it from the
odd circumstance of James V., when a boy, having
been used to slide on the skeleton of a cow's head
from top to bottom of the bank, — the word Haaky
being a sort of generic name, in Scotland, for a cow,
and James being known to have practised on the hill
some sUding-stool amusement under the name of
Hurley or Hurley-Backet.
The pubUc buildings of Stirling are numerous and
interesting. The parish-churches, situated at the
head of John-street, are one edifice and of one date.
The structure was built by James V., in 1494, for
the accommodation of a convent of Franciscans or
Grey Friars; and, previous to 1656, when a dead
waU was run up across its centre to divide it into
two, it was strictly one church. It is a magnificent
Gothic fabric, all of hewn-stone, with an arched roof
supported by two rows of plain massive pillars. The
western half appears to have had at each corner a

projecting square building. One of these is now an
aisle, and one has on an arch — which now spans a
window but formerly overhung the entrance — the
rose of England and the thistle of Scotland ; and it
seems to have been of beautiful architecture, and
figures in tradition as the chapel of Margaret,
daughter of Henry VII., and wife of James IV. The
eastern half of the church received from Cardinal
Beaton the addition of a chancel, one which added
greatly to both the internal and external beauty.
The west church, though apparently less magnificent
than the east, really exhibits more elegant specimens
of architecture; and, besides being fitted up within
in as superb a siyle as comports with simplicity and
purity of ecclesiastical taste, and having the interior
of its walls studded with some fine monuments, it is
surmounted by a square tower of 22 feet each way,
and about 90 feet in height. In 1543, the Earl of
Arran, Regent during Mary's minority, publicly re
nounced in the church of StirUng the* Protestant re
ligion ; and here, on the 29th of July, 1567, James
VI., then an infant of 13 months, was crowned,
John Knox preaching the coronation-sermon. In
1651, General Monk took possession of the tower,
and raised batteries in the churchyard for assailing
the castle ; and,, in consequence, drew on the spot
some showers of bullets, many marks of which still
remain in the tower. In 1 746, the Highlanders oc
cupied the tower after the battle of Falkirk, and
celebrated their victory by the ringing of its bells and
the discharge of fire-arms  A church and convent
of Dominicans or Black Friars, anciently stood on
the outside of the walls on the north-east ; but they
have been entirely erased, and their site converted
partly into garden-ground. The church was the
chief place of worship for the inhabitants of the
town previous to the founding of the Grey Friars'
convent ; and it contained on the south side of the
great altar, " with their figures and arms depicted,"
the mortal remains of the Earl of Lennox and his
kinsmen, who were executed on Hurley-Haaky.
The cemetery was in comparatively modern use, and
seems to have been cut through the middle by the
newer part of Friar's-wynd, where many human
bones have been dug up in comparatively recent
excavations  An ancient chapel, dedicated to St.
Ninian's, stood near the South Port ; and still exhi
bits some prosaic and vulgarized remainsi A very
copious and pure spring in its vicinity, is called St.
Ninian's Well, and, till 1774, furnished the inhabi
tants of Stirling with the greater part of their ne
cessary supply of water. — Co wane's hospital, situated
beside the parish-chufches, was founded, in 1639, by
John Cowane, a merchant of the town, for the sup
port of 12 decayed guild-brethren. The funds, ori
ginally £2,222, were laid out on lands which, so far
back as 1816, yielded a rental of £4,363 ; and they
afford a competent support to a great number of
persons, including widows and daughters of members
of the guildry. The house, though not large, is a
handsome fabric ; but is not occupied by its stipen
diaries, few of whom it could accommodate, and who
are allowed to have their dwellings where they
please  Spittal's hospital, in connexion with which
various houses seem io have been built, though in
no instance occupied by the stipendiaries, was founded,
at what precise date is not known, by Robert Spit-
tal, tailor to James IV., for the relief and support of
decayed tradesmen. The original endowment is not
known ; but, in 1816, the annual proceeds of lands
in rental was £1,089 16s. One house is said to have
been built at the foot of St. Mary's-wynd ; another
at the south end of the opening above the flesh-mar
ket, bears Spittal's name and scissors ; and a third,
in the back row, has the following inscription, with

STIRLING.

697

the scissors en saltier : — " This : Hovs : is : Fovn-
dit : for : svpport : of : the : pvir : be : Ro
bert : Spittal : Taillyovr : to : King : JiEMES
: the : 4 : in : anno : 1530. R. S."
North of the parish-churches, and at the head of
Broad-street, stand the haggard-looking remains of a
palace, begun in 1570 by Regent Earl Mar during
his regency, but never finished. It was originally a
hollow quadrangle ; but survives only in remains of
the front part of the square. In the centre are the
royal arms of Scotland ; and on projecting towers,
one on each side, are the arms respectively of the
Earl and his Countess. The edifice was constructed
out of the ruins of Cambuskenneth abbey, and still
exhibits some rhyming inscriptions in allusion to the
fact, and a variety of carved stones, inserted appa
rently at random ; and, in its turn, it was used as a
quarry for rebuilding a churchyard wall at St.
Ninian's, and protected from utter rasure only in
consequence of its conveniently sheltering the main-
street or market-place from the fury of the west
winds. Sir Robert Sibbald says, that "the Earl
lived splendidly here." The ruin is popularly called
Mar's- wark  On tbe north side of the street,
which leads from the head of Broad-street to the
castle, stands a spacious quadrangular edifice, built
in the aspiring style which prevailed in the time
of James VI. and Charles I. It bears the name of
Argyle's lodgings ; it was built by Sir William
Alexander of Menstrie, who became first Earl of
Stirling ; it afterwards passed into the possession of
the Dukes of Argyle ; and, in 1779, it was purchased
by government, and has since been used as a mili
tary hospital. In February, 1681, the Earl of Ar
gyle entertained here the Duke of York, after
wards James VII., under whose reign he was put
to death. The principal apartment then used, was,
in 1715, the scene of the councils of war held by
tbe Earl's son, the first Duke of Argyle, against
James VII.'s son, whose troops he encountered on
the field of Sheriffmuir.. — Another building, in the
vicinity of Mar's-wark, belonged to the Argyle fa
mily. An old house with a projecting turret, not
far from Argyle's lodgings, is said to have been built
by George Buchanan, and occupied by him while tu
tor to James VI. — The cross of Stirling, accordantly
with the general barbarous policy in old burghs, has
long since been removed : it had its site in Broad-
street, and was a pillar resting on four steps, and
surmounted by a lion holding a shield.
The town-house, situated in Broad-street, is an
old but spacious edifice, surmounted by a lofty tower
in which is a set of music bells. In the council-house
is kept the pint measure popularly caUed the Stir
ling Jug, and appointed by law, four centuries ago,
to be the standard for liquid measure in Scotland.
lt has the form of a hollow cone truncated, is made
of brass, and weighs 141bs. 10 oz. 1 dr. 18grs.
Scottish Troy. Outside, and opposite the handle,
it has two shields in relief; the one of which, near
the mouth, has the lion of ihe Scottish arms, while
the other has a rudely-designed quadruped, in a ho
rizontal position, so ill-defined that it may he called,
either in the language of blazonry, an ape passant
gardant, or in the language of domestic life, a playful
child on all fours. The handle is fixed with two
brass nails ; and the entire appearance indicates the
crude condition of the arts at the time when it was
fabricated. This jug is mentioned in acts of parlia
ment as being here before the reign of James II ; and
an " act anent settling the weights and measures of
Scotland," passed in February 1618, ordains that
" the wheat firlot shall contain twenty-one pints and
a mutchkin of the Stirling jug," and that "the fir
lot for bear, malt, and oats, shall contain thirty-one

pints of the same.'' The original jug — now a mere
antiquarian curiosity, but so iong and till so recent
a period an object of grave importance and utility —
was, for a considerable period lost, and basely sub
stituted by a pewter vessel of no authority ; and,
in 1 752, was found in an obscure garret among rub
bish, after an ingeniously conducted search of two
years, by the Rev. Alexander Bryce of Kirknewton,
a gentleman of erudition who was zealous to apply
his science to matters of common life. — Behind ihe
town-house stand the jail and the county buildings,
jointly a large pile of edifice, the former constructed
upon what, at the time of its erection, was an ap
proved plan of prison-arrangement, and the latter
containing a spacious and elegant hall for the circuit
and the sheriff-courts  In King-street stands the
office of the bank of Scotland, an elegant building. —
At the head of the same street, looking down its
area, and forming the commencement of Baker and
Spittal streets, is the Athenaeum, a handsome edi
fice, with a fine lofty spire. The front has the form
of the segment of a circle, and is well-suited to the
site ; the ground story is fitted up in shops ; and the
upper story contains a public reading-room, and a
very extensive and well-selected public library  In
the vicinity of this building is a large, commodious,
and well-attended corn-market  Drummond's agri
cultural museum, finished in 1840, is a commodious
and interesting edifice, connected with a valuable in
stitution. The museum was originated, in 1831, by
Messrs. Drummond and Sons, nursery and seeds
men, and established, on an extensive scale, at their
own expense ; it is open every lawful day for inspec
tion, and the obtaining of accessions ; and it already
comprises a vast collection of labelled specimens of
seeds, grains, roots, fruits, plants, minerals, soils,
manures, models, machines, implements, drain-tiles,
stacks, Scottish rocks and minerals, clan-tartans, and
many other objects of interest connected with rural
economy. The building is 160 feet in length, and
from 20 to 25 feet in width : the two uppermost
flats forming noble exhibition-rooms.
Among the most interesting structures of Stirling,
existing and extinct, are its walls, its ports, and its
bridges. From tbe remotest ages, the easiest and
most common communication between the divisions
of Scotland south and north of the Forth, has been
by the fords and bridges in its neighbourhood. Fer
ries lower down — particularly those at Newhaven, at
Queensferry, at Kincardine, and at Alloa, which
now carry across such multitudes of passengers,
cattle, and carriages — are all of modern origin ; and
fords and other passable points higher up, either oc
cur in an alpine country, or, at best, require nearly
all persons in transit between the two great divisions
of the island to make a vast detour from the proper
line of their route. Stirling, in consequence, was,
during all the stirring periods of history, the key to
the Highlands, and a place of such commanding in
fluence that the possession of its strengths and of its
means of communication across the river became all
but quite essential to the mastery of Scotland. Be
sides, the natural fortification formed at a small dis
tance on two sides by tbe Forth, and on another by
the precipitousness of the hilly site, the town has, on
every side, been artificially fortified  On the north
west is the castle; on the north and north-east, are
vestiges of a great ditch ; on the east, ran anciently
a wall, passing a little eastward of the present
Athenaeum ; and, on the south, where no protection
is obtained from the river, a strong wall runs along
the brink of a steep rock  The South-port, previous
to an enlargement of the town toward the east,
which took place in the time of James VI., stood 100
yards west of the line of the present Port-street.

698

STIRLING.

The latest built port was erected about the year
1591 ; and it was taken down a little after the middle
of last century to render the entry to the town
more commodious. — A wooden bridge across the
Forth, at Kildean, a point a little west of thelongi-
tude of the castle, and about half-a-mile above tbe
old stone-bridge, existed at a very early period, and
was the scene of the notable exploit of Wallace
with the English army which is noticed in our
article on- St. Ninian's. Its site is still a ford, and
exhibits, at' low water, some vestiges of the ancient
structure. At this spot, Montrose, in 1645, con
ducted his army across the river when on his march
to the battle-field of Kilsyth. The wooden bridge
appears to have been the place at which, in ancient
times persons south of the Forth, who were accused
of having in their possession goods stolen from per
sons north of the river, were appointed to produce
their warrants within six weeks. — The old stone-
bridge is of unknown date; but figures, in 1571, as
tbe scene of the public execution of Hamilton,
archbishop of St. Andrews, by the King's faction
under the Regent Lennox. It has four arches, is
narrow between the parapets, and high in the centre,
and presents altogether a very antique appearance.
As represented in a picture of it over the door of
one of the rooms in the town-house, it formerly had
two small flanking-towers near the west or Stirling
end, two similar towers near the east end, two low
towers in the centre, and two gates connected re
spectively with the towers near the ends. Its east
ern gate continued to stand many years after the
gate of the South-port was taken down ; and, while
the latter stood, formed jointly with it, the only
public point of access to the town. Two silver
keys, each about 7 inches long, and of the ordinary
shape, the one belonging to the gate upon the bridge,
and the other belonging to the South-port, are hung
upon a massive silver ring and preserved in the
town-house ; and they were used to be presented
to the King, or any member of the royal family,
who had occasion to pass or visit Stirling, and were
last in requisition, in 1 746, when presented to His
Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland. The
south arch of the bridge was, in 1745, destroyed by
General Blakeney, the governor of the castle, in
order that recruit-parties from the north might be
intercepted from reinforcing Prince Charles Edward,
who had then passed to the south, and that deser
tion parties from his army might be cut off in their
retreat to the north. Hence, when in February of
next year, the royal army under the Duke of Cum
berland marched in search of the retrograding Ja
cobites, they had to halt at Stirling till the place of
the deficient arch was supplied by wooden logs and
boards ; and, mainly in consequence of this deten
tion, they failed to overtake the foe till they had
gone far north to the vicinity of Culloden  The
old bridge being found increasingly inconvenient, a
commodious new one has been erected about a hun
dred yards farther down the river.
Stirling-castle, by far the most attractive object
connected with the ancient burgh, is approached by
Broad and Upper Castle-hill streets. A stranger,
on emerging from the street-way at the top of the
hill, passes a spacious esplanade or parade-ground,
and finds himself at the entrance of the fortress.
Two walls of defence, each strengthened in front by
a deep fosse, were, with some other but unfinished
works, constructed in the reign of Queen Anne, as
an external fortification. A drawbridge conducts
across the first fosse ; a portcullis formerly com
manded the second ; and two arched gateways per
forate respectively the first and the second walls. Of
four circular towers which anciently adorned the

inner entrance, two remain, but are much reduced in
height. Immediately within this gateway, which is
surmounted by the flag-staff, a battery, called the
over or upper port battery, extends to the north
east, and commands in all its amplitude and gor-
geousness the surpassingly brilliant panorama from
Benlomond, Benvenue, Benledi, and Benvoirlich,
through the Trosachs, the vales of the Forth, the
Teith, and the Allan, and the plains of Lennox and
the Lothians, to the clearly seen heights of the Scot
tish metropolis. The ground immediately overhung
by the battery, and overlooking the nearest sweep of
the Forth, is not precipitous, but breaks gradually
down in the little rocky range of the Gowan hills,
stretching away to their termination in Hurley-
Haaky near the bridge. On the brow of the nearest
eminence are remains of a low rampart, extending in
a line parallel to the battery, — the vestige of works
constructed against the castle, in 1746, by Prince
Charles Edward. Between this rampart and the
castle-walls a road or narrow path comes up the
acclivitous hill from the village of Raploch, and
passes on to a point where formerly Jjiere was a
large gateway through the exterior wall, conducting
to an esplanade on which the magazines are now
situated, and, across it, to a low-browed archway,
called ' ihe Laird of Baliangeich's entry,' and alleged
to have once been the main entrance to the castle.
This wild path, thus anciently terminating at a point
of such prime importance, is called the Ballangeich
road, from two words which signify ' the windy pass ;'
and, having furnished James V. with his well-known
fictitious designation of the Guidman of Ballangeich,
figures as to name, at least, in many curious and oft-
told anecdotes of that monarch's incognito rovings as
a gallant, and an eccentric superintendent of the
public justice of his kingdom.* The interior of the
* The two comic songs, ' The Gaberlmizie Man,' and * We'll
gang nae mair a roving,' are said to have beeu founded on the
success of the Guidman of Baliangeich's amorous adventures,
when travelling in the disguise ot a beggar. The following
auecdotes respecting him are given by Sir Walter Scott : " An
other adventure, which had nearly cost James his life, is said
to have taken place at the village uf Cramond, near Edinburgh,
where he had.rendered his addresses acceptable to a pretty girl
of the lower rank. Four or five persons — whether relations or
lovers of his mistress is uncertain — beset the disguised monarch
as he returned from his rendezvous. Naturally gallant, and an
admirable master of his weapon, the king took post on the high
and narrow bridge over the Almond river, and defended himself
bravely with his sword. A peasant, who was threshing in a neigh
bouring barn, came out upon the noise, and, whether moved by
compassion or by natural gallautry, took the weaker side, and
laid about with his flail so effectually as to disperse the assail-
lantB, well threshed, even according to the letter. He then con
ducted the king into his barn, where his guest requested a bason
and towel to remove the stains of the broil. This being procur
ed with difficulty, James employed himself in learning what was
the summit of his deliverer's "earthly wishes, and found that
they were bounded by the desire of possessing, in property,
the farm of Braehead, upon which he laboured as a bondsman.
The lands chanced tu belong to the Crown ; and James directed
In ni to come to the palace of Holyrood, and inquire for the
Guidman (/. e. farmer) of Ballangeich, a name by which he was
known in his excursions, and which answered to II Bondocani
of Harouri Alraschid. He presented himself accordingly, and
found, with due astonislimeut, that he had saved his monarch's
life, and that he was to be gratified with a crown-charter of the
lands of Braehead, under the service of presenting an ewer,
bation, and towel, for the king to wash his hands, when be shall
happen tu pass the Bridge of Cramond. In 1822, when George
IV. came to Scotland, the descendant of this John Howison of
Braehead, who still possesses the estate which was given to
his ancestor, appeared at a solemn festival, and offered his Ma
jesty water from a silver ewer — Another of JaraeB' frolics is
thus narrated by Mr. Campbell, from the Statistical Account.
' Being once benighted when out a-huuting, aud separated Irom
liis attendants, he happened to enter a cuttage in the midst of
a moor, at the loot of the Ochil hills, near Alloa, where, un
known, he was kindly received.! In order to regale their
unexpected guest, the gude-mau (i. e. landlord, farmer) desired
the gude-wite to fetch the hen that roosted nearest the cock,
which is always the plumpest, for the stranger's supper. The
king, highly pleased with his night's lodging and Hospitable
entertainment, told mine host, at parting, that he should be
glad to return his civility, and requested that the first time ho
came to Stirling he would call at the castle, and inquire lor the
g ude-inan of Bullaugeich. Donaldson, the landlord, did not fail

STIRLING.

699

castle is distributed into two courts ; and, besides
other buildings, has a palace, built by James V„ the
remains of an older palace, the parliament-house,
now used as a barrack, and a splendid chapel, now
used as an armoury. The palace of James V., be
gun by that monarch and finished by Mary, is a cu
rious hollow quadrangular edifice, in a fantastic style
of architecture neither Grecian hor Gothic, exhibit
ing, on three ornamented sides which are open to
the view of the spectator, emblematical figures stand
ing on wreathed balustrade pillars with pediments,
supported by grotesque figures, under something like
Gothic arches, and in the pediments of the windows.
The eastern side looks toward the court-yard or
esplanade of the Ballangeich entry ; and is the most
wildly or curiously elaborated. The pillars on each
of the ornamented sides are five or six in number,
and rise close to the wall within slight recesses.
The images are everywhere much defaced, yet con
tinue sufficiently distinct to evince the mingled opu
lence and perversity of taste which presided over the
construction of the edifice. Those on the eastern
side are, for the most part, mythological ; and seem
intended to represent Diana, Venus, Omphale, Per
seus, and other fabulous personages of the base and
bewildering superstition of Greek and Roman an
tiquity. Those on the northern side, which confronts
the chapel-royal, are a strange assemblage of the real
and ideal; but, as they include statues of James V.
and his daughter, and a figure of Cleopatra with the
asp upon her breast, they possess, though rudely ex
ecuted, a kind of sadly romantic interest. The sta
tue of James represents him as a small-bodied man,
with a bushy beard, wearing a frock-coat and a hat,
overhung by an allegorical personage who holds over
to call on the gude-man of Ballangeich, when his astonishment
at filming that the king had been Ins guest afforded no samli
amusement to the merry monarch and his courtiers; and, to
can y on the pleasantry, lie was thenceforth designated by
James with the title of King of the Moors, which name and
designatiou have descended trom father to son ever since, and
they have coutiuued in possession of the identical spot, the pro
perty of_Mr. Erskine of Mar, till very lately, when this gentle
man, with reluctauce, turned out the descendant and repre
sentative of the King of the Moors, on account of his majesty's
invincible indolence, and great dislike to reform or innovation
ol any kind, although, trom the spirited example of his neigh
bour tenants ou the same estate, he is convinced similar t-xer-
tiou would promote his advantage." — The following anecdote is
extracted from the genealogical work of Buchanan of Auch-
uiar, upou Scottish surnames. " This John Buchanan of Aucli-
mar and Arnpryor was afterwards termed King of Kippen,
upon the following account. King James V., a very sociable
debonair prince, residing at Stirling, in Buchanau of Aro-
pryor's time, carriers were very frequently passing along the
common road, being near Arnpryor's house, with necessaries
for the use of the King's family, and he having some extraor
dinary occasion, ordered one of these carriers to leave Ins load
at his house, and be would pay him for it; which the carrier
refused to do, telling him he was the King's carrier, and his
load for his Majesty's use ; to which Arupryor seemed to have
small regard, compelling the carrier, iu the end, to leave his
load ; telling him, if King James was king of Scotland, he was
king of Kippen, so that it was reasonable he should share with
his neighbour king in some of these loads, so frequently carried
that road. Tlie carrier representing this usage, aud teiliug the
story, as Arnpryor spoke it, to Borne of the King's servants, it
came at length to lus Majesty's ears, who, shortly thereafter,
wilh a few attendants, came to visit his. neighbour king, who
was in the meantime at dinner. Kiug James having sent a ser
vant to demand access, was denied the same by a tall fellow
with a battle-axe, who stood porter at the gate, telling, there
could be no access till dinner was over. This answer not satis
fying tbe king, lie sent to demaud accesB a second time; upon
which he was desired by the porter to desist, otherwise he
would find cause to repent his rudeness. His Majesty finding
this method would not do, desired the porter to tell his master
that the good-man of Ballangeich desired to speak with the king
of Kippen. The porter telling Arnpryor so much, lie, iu all
humble manner, came and received tbe King, and having enter
tained him with much Bumptuuusness and jollity, became so
agreeable to King James, that he allowed hiin to take so much
of any provision he found carrying that road as he had occasiou
for- and, seeing he made the first visit, desired Arupryor in a
few days to return him a second at Stirling, which he perform
ed aud continued in very much favour with the King, always
thereafter being termed King of Kippen while he lived." The
last King of Kippen, we may add, was hanged in 1746, at Car
lisle ?or lighting in the rebel army uf I'rince Charles Edward.

him a crown and a scroll of his kingly title, and at
tended by the royal lion and a cup-bearer; the for
mer crouching at his feet, and the latter a beardless
youth holding forth a cup. The hollow or small in
terior square court of the palace is called the Lion's
den, and is said to have been the place of the royal
menagerie. The apartments of the palace, now sec
tioned off and arranged, on the ground-floor, into a
barrack for private soldiers, and, on the upper-floor,
into lodgings for the officers, were originally very
spacious and ornate. A lofty hall on the north side
of the ground-floor is still called the King's room, or
the presence, and was formerly adorned with multi
tudinous figures, carved in basso relievo in oak, long
venerated and justly admired by the inhabitants of
Stirling, and generally supposed to represent James
V. , Mary of Guise, and various members of the royal
family and the court.' A small part of the ceiling
having, in 1777, fallen down and struck a soldier,
the whole of the figures were immediately torn from
both ceiling and walls, flung together in a rubbish
mass, and barbarously condemned to become com
mon spoil, and common firewood. By a curious ac
cident the jailer of Stirling — who proved himself to
possess some irradiations of a taste, every spark of
which was extinct in the Goths of the fortress — hap
pened, just at the available crisis, to see. one of the
figures carried off by a little girl toward the town ;
and, learning the impending fate of its fellows, he
promptly busied himself in collecting as many of
them as he could obtain, and carrying them away for
conservation in the jail. Others of them went even
tually into the possession of Henry Cockburn, Esq.,
advocate, and various other persons of taste, and
were, of course, carefully preserved. Those which
were removed to the jail remained in that outre re
ception for works of art during upwards of 40 years;
and then were transferred to the adjacent j usticiary-
court room, and absurdly daubed and disfigured with
what a coarse taste intended to be embellishing paint.
In an elegant volume, published about 25 years ago
by Mr. Blackwood of Edinburgh, and entitled ' La
cunar Strevilinense,' masterly etchings, by Mr. W.
H. Lizars, are given of most of the figures which
were preserved, — whether those of the jail or those
of private collectors  The buildings which adjoin
the palace, and occupy the western side of the main
court, are of a comparatively plain, and antique cha
racter, and, with the exception of repairs and reno
vations, are all supposed to date higher than the reign
of James II. They contain, in their north end, the
early or original royal apartments, now or recently
disposed, in part, as the residence of the fort-major.
One of the apartments, known both as the King's
closet and as Douglas' room, and indebted for the lat
ter name to its having been the scene of James II. 's
assassination of the Earl of Douglas, is a small room
very elaborately and antiquely decorated. A large
star with iron radiations appears in the ceiling ; and
two inscriptions, respectively ' J. H. S. Maria salvet
rem pie pia,' and ' Jacobus Scotor. Rex,' are traced
around the cornices  James III., who made the castle
his principal residence, and closely shut himself up
in it with his favourites, erected in it several new
structures, besides repairing and embellishing such
as had fallen into decay ; and, in particular, built a
very spacious parliament-hall, which is stiU entire,
and known under the name of the parliament-house.
This structure occupies the eastern side of the prin
cipal court ; and, though now defaced and rendered
plain by the processes of transmuting it into a bar
rack, it was originally a noble piece of Saxon archi
tecture, and was for ages deemed a magnificent fabric.
The interior hall was 120 feet in length, and had a
splendid caken roof; and it was the scene of many

700

STIRLING.

meetings of parliament. A chapel-royal or collegiate
church was founded by James III. on the northern
side of the principal court ; and had appointed to it
two sets or series of functionaries and officiates, each
consisting of a dean or provost, an archdean, a trea
surer, a sub-dean, a chanter, a sub-chanter, as well as
other officers usual to such establishments. The an
nexation to this institution of the rich temporalities
of the priory of Coldingham, thwarted the interests
of Lords Home and Hailes, and, by giving exacerbat
ing offence, remotely occasioned the ruin of James III.
at Sauchie: see Coldingham and Ninian's (St.).
Yet James IV. subdued all opposition, completed the
establishment, and added to it the temporalities Of
Dundrennan abbey, Inchmahome priory, Dunbar
parsonage, four prebends, about fifteen parish-
churches, and various chapelries and lands. The
deans of the chapel, who were first the provosts of
Kirkheugh in St. Andrews, afterwards the bishops
of Galloway, and eventually the bishops of Dun
blane, possessed in their capacity of deans an episco
pal jurisdiction. James VI., in 1594, demolished
the original chapel, and built on its site a more ele
gant one for the baptism of his eldest son, Prince
Henry. This edifice is of hewn stone; and, though,
like every other building of the place, turned into a
common or comparatively degrading use, has suffered
less damage in its exterior than any other of the
castle's structures. The ceremonial which followed
the completion of the new chapel, and accompanied
the event of the Prince's baptism, was one of orien
tal magnificence and the most extraordinary cost, and
harmonized with James's pedantic and king-craft no
tions of what was due to the heir presumptive of three
great monarchies. The roof of the chapel, previous to
tbe transmutation of the place into an armoury, was
a species of comparatively plain panelling ; and it had
suspended from its centre a clustered wooden model,
still preserved in the building, of the castles of Stir
ling, Edinburgh, Dumbarton, and Blackness, sur
mounted by a crown. — A strong battery, with a tier
of guns pointing to the bridge over the Forth, was
erected during the regency of Mary of Lorraine; and
it bears the name of the French battery, probably
from having been constructed by French engineers.
Stirling-castle,* if not as to any of its existing
buildings, at least as a military strength, is of such
high antiquity that its origin cannot be satisfactorily
traced. Agricola is said to have raised, fortifications
upon the rock ; and his successors not improbably
found thein necessary for overawing the country

* Pinkerton says, that " the royal palace at Stirling was
called Suawdoun;" adding,." near lt was an eminence termed
Arthur's Round Table, The fame of Arthur in bonks of chi
valry gave rise to such names in the Middle ages. One of the
heralds of Scotland is termed Suovvdoun-herald to tins day."
William of Worcester, indeed, who wrote about the middle of
the 15th century, gives the name of Snowdoun-castle to Stir-
ling-eastle; and Chalmers follows in the same tract; observ
ing, that Snawdnun is "an ancient name of Stirling-castle."
He makes this remark in relation to the language of Sir David
Lyndsay : Adew fair Snawdoun, with thy tnwris hie,
Thy chtipell-royall, park, and tabill round :
May, June, and July, wald I dwell in tlie,
War I ane man, to heir the berdit, sound,
Quhilk doilll agane thy royall roche redound.
Complayht of tub Papinoo.
But there is no satisfactory proof that Stirling-castle was ever
thus generally denominated, even as Sibbald asserts, by the
people in its neighbourhood. That it might occasionally and
playfully receive this name from the adherents of the Court, is
not improbable ; and this will sufficiently account fur the adop
tion of it by Lyndsay. Tile name, as Sir Walter Scott has
remarked, " was probably derived from the romantic legend
which connected Stirling with King Arthur, to which the
mention of the Round Table gives countenance." The title of
anawdoun-herald seems to have no connection with Stirling ;
but was borrowed from the principal tower in Kildrummy-
-nstle, which bore the name of Suawdoun, as early as the age
of Barbour. 9

north of the Forth. The Roman military causeway
comes hither from the south, and passes hence to
the north ; and seems fully to indicate that the usual
perspicacity of the Romani was not asleep when they
were in the vicinity of so advantageous and com
manding a spot for a station. The strength must
have been a frontier-fortress from the 5th till toward
the end of the 10th century ; and probably was in
the alternate possession of the neighbouring and bel
ligerent powers. About the middle of the 9th cen
tury, if we may believe a monkish and indifferently
authenticated tale, the Northumbrians having taken
possession of territories and fortresses suddenly won
by conquest and cession from the Scots, rebuilt Stir
ling-castle, planted it with a strong garrison, and
threw dver the Forth a stone-bridge surmounted by
a cross, with an inscription, part of which is still
the legend of the ancient burgh seal :
" Anglos a Scotis Beparat crux ista remotis.
Hie armis Bruti : Scoti stant hie cruce tuti."
But in these remote times, the edifice of the castle,
as to size and form, was probably no more than a
structure similar to those which the English and
the Scottish barons erected on their estates, to serve
the double purposes of residences and of strongholds
of defence ; and as such a rude and limited fabric it
figures in the armorial bearings of the burgh. Before
the close of the 9th century, the Scots, if they really
lost temporary possession of the fortress, regained
it on condition of assisting the Saxons against tbe
Danes. Near the close of the 10th century, Ken
neth III., informed of a Danish invasion, appointed
Stirling-castle the rendezvous of his army, and
marched thence to the victorious field of Luncarty.
In 1175, this fortress was one of the places impiguo-
rated to Henry II. for the ransom-money of William
the Lion ; but it was afterwards freely restored by the
noble Richard Coeur de Lion, and was the seat of one
of William's parliaments, and the scene, in 1212, of
his death. Some laws of Alexander IL, annexed to
the Regiam Majestatem, were enacted in the castle,
particularly the celebrated one which established
trial by jury. Here, too, were held several conven
tions and parliaments during the short reign of John
Baliol ; and here was dated the epistle which, with
the advice of the states, he wrote, in 1295, to the
king of France, proposing a marriage between a
French princess and his son. In 1296, when Ed
ward I. poured his army like a torrent upon Scot
land, and swept before him the strength of its greatest
fortresses, Stirling-castle was deserted by its garri
son, and made no resistance. Next year, after the
battle of Stirling, it was left by the repulsed and
retreating English under the charge of Sir Marma
duke de Twenge ; but it was speedily captured by
Sir WilUam Wallace, who, after the battle of Fal
kirk, dismantled and destroyed it. The castle was
repaired by Edward II. ; and, only a year afterwards,
was taken by the Scots. In 1300, after a stiff siege
of three months, during which it was defended by
Sir William Oliphant, the English obtained it by
capitulation ; and they kept possession till 1303,
when they were compelled by the Scottish leaders
to surrender, and to let the place pass once more
under the governorship of Sir William Oliphant.
So nobly did this hero maintain his trust, and so
stoutly did he hurl defiance from his post to Eng
land, that when Edward careered up Scotland to
Kinloss, and almost seemed to have the kingdom at
his feet, he was obliged to hold a great council ol
English and Scottish barons at St. Andrews, and
get them to perform the exploit of pronouncing out
lawry upon Sir William WaUace, Sir Simon Frazer
and the garrison of Stirling-castle ! Though gun
powder was yet unknown, he despoiled the cathc-

STIRLING.

701

dral of Scotland's ecclesiastical metropolis of its
leaden roof, in order to have the means of pithily
besieging the only fortress of the kingdom which
defied his power. During three months he vainly
employed every expedient to reduce it, and, in the
warmth of his zeal, freely exposed his own person,
and sedulously superintended the operations ; but,
at length, he succeeded to carry the place by storm,
and, having like a craven or a tyrant, thirsting for
blood, previously rejected an offer which they made
of capitulating, he sent the brave garrison to various
jiils in England, and the heroic governor to the
Tower of London. The castle was now held for a
series of years by the English, who had quite en
thralled Scotland, and by the help of a traitor and
of a hireling-executioner deprived it of its indomi
table champion, Wallace; in 1314, it was fought for,
but vainly, in the field of Bannockburn ; in 1333, it
yielded to Edward Baliol; in 1336, after being re
paired by Edward III., it sustained a siege from the
friends of David Bruce, but was relieved by Edward
in person ; next year, it was blockaded by the same
assailants, and again relieved by Edward ; and, in 1339,
it was captured by the friends of Bruce. In 1360,
Sir Robert Erskine was appointed governor of the
castle by King David Bruce, and, besides ample grants
for the maintenance of the garrison, obtained a grant
of aU the feus and revenues in Stirlingshire belong
ing to the Crown, with tbe wardships, escheats, and
other emoluments annexed to them ; and he be
queathed his high and very lucrative office to his
descendants, the Erskines and the Earls of Mar, till
their forfeiture for Jacobitism in 1715. When the
Stewart dynasty succeeded to the throne,' Stirling-
castle became one of their stated residences; and
from successive kings of that house, as we have
seen, it received its present form. James II. was
born here; he was here put under the government
of Sir Thomas Livingstone, immediately after the
murder of James I. ; and here he perpetrated that
deed which fixes an indelible stain upon his memory,
the assassination with bis own hand, and in violation,
as is said, of his safe-conduct, of William, Earl of
Douglas. The chief of the too-powerful family of
Douglas had, at the period, a revenue equal perhaps
to his sovereign's ; and, rising to the office of Lieu
tenant-general of the kingdom, which gave him the
eommand of the army, he exceedingly annoyed James
IL, almost unseated him from the throne, and event
ually, when the lieutenant-generalship passed from
his possession, entered into a league with the Earls
of Crawford aniRoss, obliging the parties to mutual
defence in all cases, and forcing into an engagement
of attendance even against the Crown, the greater
part of his vassals. A select council having been
called by the king to deliberate on the case of Dou
glas, recommended that he should be induced, by the
promise of friendship on condition of future good
obedience, to come to the court. Douglas was pre
vailed on to visit the castle ; and, after supper, was
conducted by the king into a secret chamber, where
only some of the privy-council and the guard were
in attendance, and there informed that his treason
able league with Crawford and Ross was known.
Douglas, now entreated to break the league, per
emptorily refused, and upbraided the sovereign with
having driven him to the measure. " If you," at
last exclaimed the king in a rage, " will not break
this league, I will!" and, drawing his dagger, he
sheathed it in Douglas. Sir Patrick Gray, captain
of the guard, followed up the king's thrust, with a
blow from a battle-axe. The body is said, by tra
dition, to have been thrown over the window of the
chamber into the court-yard behind, and there buried ;
and was, not many years ago, supposed to be iden

tified in the skeleton of an armed man then found
inhumed on the spot. A paper, dragged at a horse's
tail through Stirling soon after the assassination,
was said by Douglas' friends to be a safe-conduct
granted under the great seal to the deceased ; but,
for any evidence that appears from history, it may
have been but a fictitious document. James III.,
whose mildness of temper did not harmonize with
the turbulent spirit of his nobles, shut himself so
closely up in Stirling-castle as his favourite and se
cluded residence, that few of the nobility or barons
were admitted within, its precincts to witness his
retirement. James IV. gave this fortress, along
with that of Edinburgh, to his queen, Margaret of
England, as her jointure-house ; and he frequently
resided here during Lent, that he might attend the
neighbouring church of the Franciscans, and there
fast and perform genuflexions, and do other penance,
for the part he had acted in his father's death. A
poem of Dunbar, entitled " A dirge to the king bed-
and oure lang in Stirling," and alluding to the great
length and multiplicity of the monarch's papisticated
devotions, may be seen in Sibbald's Chronicle of
Scottish poetry. James V. was both bom and
crowned in Stirling-castle; and by the eccentricities
of his conduct while residing in it, he has, more than
all other kings united, permanently made it figure,
if not directly at least by allusion, in ballad, drama,
popular anecdote, and light history. In 1543, Queen
Mary was crowned here when scarcely nine months
old, the Regent Arran carrying the crown and Len
nox the sceptre; and a numerous assembly of tbe
states present on the occasion, appointed the fortress
to be ihe royal minor's residence. The infant-son
of Darnley and Queen Mary, afterwards James VI.,
was conveyed hither soon after his birth in Edin
burgh-castle ; and here, on the 15th December,
1566, he was baptized with great ecclesiastical pomp,
and amid a prodigious display of courtly fanfaronade
and sumptuous pageantry. English and French am
bassadors were for some days afterwards entertained
with regal hospitality ; and Queen Mary continued
for a month to make it the scene of her personal
luxuriation, or the central point of pleasure-excur
sions through the adjacent country. James, after
having for a brief period been sent to Edinburgh,
was fixedly lodged in Stirling-castle, and made to
pass in it the period of his infancy and childhood till
he was 13 years of age. After his coronation in
1567 in the church, a gorgeous procession returned
with him to the castle, Mar carrying his person,
Atholl the crown, Morton the sceptre, and Glencairn
the sword of state. The apartments which he oc
cupied under the care of his preceptor, George Bu
chanan, and which are popularly regarded as the.
place where that celebrated man wrote his History
of Scotland, are still shown, but in a very degraded
condition, in the palace. The king's person was
under the charge of the Countess of Mar and Sir
Alexander Erskine of Gogar; and his education was
conducted, not only by Buchanan, but by David
Erskine, commendator of Dryburgh, Adam Erskine,
commendator of Cambuskenneth, and Peter Young.
The first parliament, after James had taken the
government into his own hands, met in 1578, in the
great hall in the castle; and the place of meeting
•was so distasteful to the opponents of the late Re
gent Morton, who still continued with the king,
that they protected against it, and nearly precipi
tated the country into a civil war. James now
clung to the place as his residence in spite of the
wishes of the numerous party who hated the favour
ites who were around him ; and he began also to
indulge freely in those field sports of which he was
afterwards so fond, and which comported so ill with

702

STIRLING.

the rigid spirit of the period. "Here,'' says a pri
vate letter still preserved in the Cottonian library,
and dated " at Straveling, April 4th, 1580,"—" Here
is greate myslykinge that the king is no bettere ac-
companyed with councellors, an that he frequents
the fields and hunting too moche." In 1651, Gen
eral Monk besieged the castle ; and, by firing from
batteries in the burgh burying-ground, reduced it.
The ornamental parts of ihe palace exhibit many
fractured memorials of the effects of his shot. The
national registers had been lodged in the castle on
the preceding year, and were seized by him, and, in
compliance with an order from Cromwell, sent to
London. They remained ' in the Tower till the
Restoration; and when restored, they were, by an
absurd piece of economy, sent back hy sea, and in
consequence were lost,—85 hogsheads of them hav
ing been on board of one vessel, and an unknown
bulk on board of another, both of which went to
the bottom in a storm. In 1689, Graham of Claver
house, Viscount Dundee, and other partisans of the
dethroned James VII. formed a scheme which proved
quite abortive, for rescuing the castle from the par
tisans of the Revolution. At the union of the king
doms, in the reign of Queen Anne, it was declared
one of four Scottish fortresses which were to be
ever afterwards kept in repair. In 1715, it formed
an excellent support to the Government forces under
the Duke of Argyle, when, small in number but re
solute in courage, ihey lay encamped in the park,
and defended the passage of the Forth against the
Jacobite forces under the Earl of Mar. In the be
ginning of 1746, the Highland army of Prince Charles
Edward raised against the castle a battery of two
16 pounders, two 8 pounders, and three 3 pounders,
between the church and Mar's-wark; but ihey were
dislodged by the artillery of the garrison. On the
27th January, they erected a battery of three pieces,
which we have incidentally noticed, on the nearest
of the Gowlan hills, and, another of similar power
on Lady's hill ; but here they were completely ex
posed and seen, and, while unable to make any im
pression on the fortress, they suffered great damage
and much loss of numbers from its fire. Yet, but
for the Duke of Cumberland's approach, and the
consequent retreat of the Highlanders, the castle
must have surrendered for want of provisions.
The manufactures of Stirling are various. Rope-
making is carried on to some extent. The manufac
tures of malt, leather, soap, and candles, is consider
able. Trades and manufactures of a miscellaneous
kind are sufficiently extensive to supply the usual
articles of consumption both to the town and to an
extensive part of a large and populous neighbour
hood. Coiton goods began at the end of last cen
tury to be largely produced for manufacturers in
Glasgow ; and they still employ a noticeable propor
tion of the old and young of both sexes of the po
pulation. The dyeing of yarns, home-made cloths
and silks, "and other fabrics, is somewhat prominent.
The manufacture of shalloons was considerable so
far back as the end of the 16th century; but it was
conducted chiefly for the supply of the Netherlands;
it early suffered a severe shock from an unwise and
hardly honest debasing of the quality of the fabrics;
and since that period it has experienced alternations
of considerable revival and proximate extinction.
During the decay of the shalloon manufacture, and
not long after the beginning of last century, that of
tartan started up; and though more than once it has
very seriously fluctuated, it now, with the kindred
branches of tartan-shawls, carpets, and yarns, forms
the chief and almost characteristic manufacture both
of the town itself and of the villages in its vicinity.
Till about the year 1760, it flourished; a few years

afterwards it so greatly decayed, that several hun
dreds of the weavers were compelled to betake them
selves to other employments; about 1792, though
the department of carpets flourished, that of tartans
was very nearly extinct; after the publication of the
Waverley novels, which suddenly blew tartuns into
popular favour throughout great part of the tempe
rate climates of Europe, it sprang aloft to a high
pitch of prosperity; and it has ever since continued
to be important and energetic. Dr. Harding's Re
port in 1839 to the House of Commons exhibits all
the woollen manufacture north of the frith of Forth
and the Forth and Clyde canal in a cluster, but
states that " tbe manufacture is principally carried
on at Stirling and its immediate neighbourhood, and
at Aberdeen," and estimates the number of looms
employed on it at 2,500. The carpets are woven in
factories, and hard and soft tartans and tartan-shawls
are woven generally in tbe weavers' own cottages.
Wages have, for many years past, been very steady ;
employment is generally constant ; and the working
hours may be stated at about 70 per week. The
nett weekly income of a carpet- weaver cannot aver
age less than 12s., and may be 15s. or more; that
of a skilful steady weaver of hard tartan, whether
man, woman, or a girl of 16, is about 8s. 6d. ; and
that of a weaver of shawls or soft tartans, man,
woman, boy, or girl, may on the average be 9s.
" The woollen weavers," says Dr. Harding, speak
ing specifically of Stirling, yet stating that he con
ducted his inquiry there under very disadvantageous
circumstances,—" Tbe woollen weavers, with the
exception of those employed on hard tartans, did not
seem at all desirous of giving evidence before me as
to their condition, probably having no complaints to
make. I did not observe that their higher wages had
any effect in improving their moral or intellectual
state. Intemperance was by. no means uncommon
amongst them ; the education of their children was
not well attended to ; embezzlement prevailed to a
certain extent; nor did they seem by any means
more intelligent or contented than other weavers
earning much lower wages." Both the weavers and.
the dyers of the town and its neighbourhood have,
for a long period, been reckoned eminently skilled.
The commerce of Stirling traffics principally in
home and foreign wood, coals, bricks, tiles, Ume,
wool, and grain. The wool is exported to England •.
and grain, besides being in considerable quantities
imported, is the subject of an extensive trade at the
public markets. About 100 vessels are said to be
engaged in the trade up the Forth to StirUng ; and
two steam-boats ply daily, the one up and the other
down between Stirling and Newhaven, calling at
Alloa, Kincardine, Bo'ness, Limekilns, und North
Queensferry. Vessels of 70 tons come on stream-
tides up to the harbour ; but vessels of larger bur
den are in hazard of taking the ground on the fords
and shoals of the river. The numerous windings of
the Forth so greatly embarrass the navigation that
a vessel sailing between Stirling and Alloa requires
varying winds from all the points of the compass :
see Forth. A curious specimen of the river's wind
ings occurs immediately above the harbour ; the di
rect distance thence on a practicable line to the west
end of the new bridge, being only 700 yards, while
that along the hither margin of the stream is 4,200
yards. The harbour is sufficiently unpretending,
and bears the humble name of Stirling-shore. The
projected branch to Stirling of the Edinburgh and
Glasgow railway will remedy great inconveniences,
and probably give a smart impulse to commerce.
Stirling has offices of the bank of Scotland, the
National bank, the Commercial bank, and the Glas
gow Union bank; a horticultural society, established

STIRLING.

ro3

in 1812; a general agricultural association, instituted I
in 1834 ; a fraternity of writers ; a gas-light com
pany ; a school of arts ; a subscription library ; a
subscription reading-room ; a commercial reading-
room ; a Stirling and Bannockburn Caledonian so
ciety, instituted in 1823, for educating destitute
children, and for other and kindred objects ; a dis
pensary, instituted in 1 830 ; a Sabbath-school society ;
and the various additional and important institutions
which we have incidentally noticed in our accounts
of the parish and of the public buildings. In spite
of the rich and numerous charitable institutions of
the town, and probably in connexion with their eco
nomics, more paupers and indigent persons may be
seen in Stirling, proportionately to its population,
than in almost any other town of Scotland ; and not
being allowed to beg in the town itself, they, on the
one hand, cling to it as a well-endowed seat of elee
mosynary funds, and, on the other hand, sally forth
periodically or daily in quest of alms without its
waUs, to the great annoyance of a considerable cir
cumjacent country. Two newspapers are published
in the town, — the Stirling Journal every Friday, and
the Stirling Observer every Thursday. The Glas
gow and Perth mail-coach, and stage-coaches, are
daily in transit ; a mail-coach and a stage-coach daily
run to Edinburgh ; stage coaches run three times a-
day to Glasgow; a coach runs to Callander daily
during summer, and thrice a-week during winter ;
a coach runs daily to Falkirk ; a car runs every Fri
day to Kippen and Bucklyvie; and coaches com
municating with the canal. Passage-boats to Glas
gow run 5 times a-day during summer, and 4 times
a-day during winter. A weekly market is held on
Friday; and annual fairs are held on the 1st Friday
of February, the last Friday of May, the 1st Friday
of August, the 3d Friday of September, the 1st Fri
day of November, and the 2d Friday of December.
Stirling is governed by a provost, two bailies, a
treasurer, a dean-of-guild, and 14 councillors. Mu
nicipal constituency, in 1840, 386. The property of
the burgb, though at one time considerable, has, to
a large extent, been alienated. In 1832-3, the
revenue was £2,295 3s. 6d., of which £1,720 16s.
8d., was for customs, impost, and market and shore
dues ; the expenditure was £2,308 0s. 6|d ; and
the debt, after deducting debt due to the burgh, was
£10,278 19s. 2d. The debt, though partly apolo
gized for by extensive expenditure on important pub
lic works, would probably not have become so large
but for the opportunity afforded the council of mak
ing use of the sum mortified in trust to them by Mr.
Cunningham, the whole of which they borrowed. In
1841, the revenue was returned at £5,350; of which,
however, £1,359 was borrowed money, and £211
voluntary subscriptions for street -improvements.
The expenditure, in 1841, was £5,011. The as
sessments levied under the authority of the magis
trates comprise cess, petty customs, flesh-market
dues, multures, impost on ale, and burgess-entries.
The jurisdiction of the magistrates extends not only
over the town, itself but over a considerable land
ward district, part of which lies on the north side of
the Forth. This territory is all within the burgh,
and included in its charter. Yet there are lands
belonging to the Government, to the town, to Cow-
ane's and Spittal's hospitals, and to Allan's mortifi
cation, which, though close to the walls of the burgh,
and all included within the parliamentary boundaries,
and the seat of part of the town's population, are
neither within the royalty nor under the magistrates'
jurisdiction. The limits of the lands lying within
the burgh are so irregular, and so intersected by these
other lands, that it is scarcely possible to describe
the exact boundaries. The parliamentary limits

exclude the portion of the royalty which lies on
the north, side of the Forth, a portion on the south
side of the river detached by the parish of St.
Ninian's, and a portion lying on the burgh-moor;
but they include, besides the lands already men
tioned, a considerable extent of lands within ihe par
ish of St. Ninian's, and the villages of St. Ninian's,
Bellfield, Newhouses, Torbrex, and Raploch — In
consequence of the town having, about the year
1500, purchased from Cunningham of Polmaise the
heritable sheriffship of the burgh, the provost and
bailies, in summonses before the town-courts, are
styled respectively high sheriff and sheriffs. The
magistrates claimed a privative jurisdiction within
burgh, and, about a century ago, raised an action
against the heritable sheriff of the county to have
it so declared; but he proving that bis deputies
used to entertain cases within burgh, they were found
to have only a cumulative jurisdiction. They act
directly, and have the town-clerk as assessor ; and,
besides daily sitting in turn for the disposal of mat
ters of police, they hold a court twice a-week for
civil and criminal causes. The civil causes average
about 100 in the year; but the criminal causes aver
age little if any more than one, crimes of any mag
nitude being taken up by the procurator-fiscal of the
sheriff's court. The council's patronage extends to
the burgh-officers, the hospitals, the endowed schools,
and the parish-churches. A burgess, in the dog and
cat lingo of the place, is either a burgess qua neigh
bour, and pays £2 of entry-money, or a burgess qua
hammerman or qua some other corporation, and psiys
to the burgh a fee applicable to the character in which
he enters. In 1833, the number of burgesses qua
neighbour was 17, and of resident burgesses of all
the sorts of quas, 444. The corporations consist of
the guildry, 7 crafts, and 4 bodies called tolerated
communities, one of whom has the quizzical name of
omnegatherum. In 1833, their respective numbers,
and the entry-fees payable by strangers respectively
to themselves and for each to the burgh, were as
follow: — Guildry, 402, £50 and £5; hammermen,
31, £31 10s. and £2; weavers, 138, £20 and £2;
tailors, 20, £30 and £2 ; shoemakers, 36, '£32 and
£2; fleshers, 8, £50 and £2; skinners, 11, £15 and
£2; bakers, 18, £50 and £5; maltmen, 54, £6 and
£5; mechanics, 125, £1 6s. 8d. and £2; barbers,
4, £1 6s. and £2; and omnegatherum, 65, 10s. and
£2. A general feeling pervades aU classes in the
town, that the exclusive privileges of these bodies,
by opposing obstacles to the increase of population,
trade, and prosperity, are detrimental both to the
community at large and to the interests of the crafts
themselves  The police of the burgh is under the
direction solely of ihe magistrates. All the house
holders are bound to serve in turn as watchmen, and
are called out in regular rotation to the number of
8 each night ; and individuals, unable or averse to
act personally, easily find able substitutes each for
a shilling a time. Besides the nightly guard thus
provided, there are 4 town Serjeants, and a body of
respectable shopkeepers and tradesmen, 36 in num
ber, called the high-constables. The streets are
cleaned by contractors annually engaged at a public
roup ; and they are lighted partly with gas and partly
with oil. Water is brought in pipes from a distance
of from 2 to 3 miles, but is distributed only at public
wells, there being no private pipes — Stirling unites
with Dunfermline, Culross, Inverkeithing, and South
Queensferry, in sending a member to parliament.
Constituency, in 1840, 471. Population of parlia
mentary burgh: inhabitants 10,580. Families 2,399.
Inhabited houses 1,803. This return, in addition to
the whole of the toWn part of the parish of Stirling,
comprehends also a portion of the parish of St.

704

STIRLING.

Ninian's. The following is the population of the
parish ot Stirling, exclusive of the rural part : — In
habitants 8,592. Inhabited houses 1,387. Families
1,908. The following is the population of that part
which constitutes the royal burgh of Stirling : — In
habitants 7,963. Families 1,761. Inhabited houses
1,289. Stirling's armorial bearings, as exhibited on its
ancient seal, are, on one side, a bridge with archers
at one end and spearmen at the other, and with a
cross in the centre, circumscribed with the legend,
 ' Hie armis 15ruti, Scoti stant hac cruce tuti;' and
on the reverse, a fortalice surrounded with trees,
representing the castle and forest of Stirling, and
inscribed, ' Continet hoc nemus et castrum Strivi-
lense." The wolf— an inhabitant of the ancient
Scottish forests — makes part of the arms, and, on a
separate seal, is represented standing on a rock, with
the motto, ' Oppidum Sterlini.' — The town's most
ancient charter was granted by Alexander I., and
bears date, Kincardine, 18th August, 1119. But it
merely confers some additional privileges on the
burghers and freemen, and is not a writ of erection.
The exact date of its being constituted a royal burgh
is of unknown antiquity. It was — as we have seen
— the seat of an important fortress and a royal resi
dence as far back as our records reach; and, in addi
tion, it constituted one member of the court of four
burghs, whose collected laws and customs are usu
ally ascribed to David I. With the exception of the
other three burghs of that court, — Edinburgh, Rox
burgh, and Berwick, — it is probably the most ancient
royal burgh in Scotland. Numerous charters granted
to it by successive kings, confirming and extending
its privileges, and conferring on it considerable pro
perty, are all ratified in one— the last and governing
charter — given by Charles I. at Holyrood-house on
the 17th November, 1641. The preliminary recital of
this charter shows that Alexander, besides giving the
town the usual privileges of a royal burgh, granted to
the burgesses, by one charter, the privileges of a mer
chant-guild, and, by another, exemption from all tolls
and customs on their goods and chattels in all parts
of the kingdom. Both these charters are said to
have been confirmed by David II. in a parliament
held at Scone in the 31st year of his reign. Robert
II., by a charter of feu-farm, granted them fishings
upon the water of Forth, and the small .customs of
the burgh. James IV. conferred the customs upon
salt and leather, and the office of sheriff within the
burgh and territory ; and Mary granted them all the
lands, tenements, buildings, churches, duties, &c,
belonging t<£ the churches, chapels, and colleges,
founded within the liberties of the burgh, and to the
Dominicans and Franciscans, and all emoluments and
other duties in use to be drawn out of the burgh of
Stirling by other churches. The charter of Charles
recites and Confirms a mortification in favour of Spit-
tals' hospital, by Adam, commendator of Cambus
kenneth, and ratified by John, Earl of Mar, and a
contract between the provost, bailies, and council of
the burgh, and the heir and executor of John Cow-
ane, of the mortification called Cowane's hospital.
The charter then proceeds to erect the burgh of new
into a free royal burgh, with all its former privileges,
and dispones especially various lands, particularly
described, with fishings both of salmon and other
fishes on the water of Forth. It grants two mar
ket-days in the week, and four annual fairs, with
power to levy the tolls and customs used and estab
lished from the persons frequenting the fairs, and
other liberties and privileges belonging to a free fair,
in tbe same way as enjoyed by the burgesses of Ed
inburgh or Perth. It further grants the office of
sheriff within the burgh, and the right of holding

courts, appointing officers, fining, punishing, even
with death, and drawing escheats. It especially con
veys the small customs paid by unfreemen upon al)
goods brought into and carried out of the burgh, by
its ports and bridge, with the dues of weighing and
measuring, all as specified in the charter. But power
is given to double the customs at the four fairs, and
generally to draw all customs that have been in the
use of being levied, both within and without the
burgh, in the same way, and as freely as belonged to
Edinburgh, Perth, or any other royal burgh. It
gives right to harbours on the water of Forth, with
customs, haven silver, shore silver, anchorage dues,
and various other duties particularly mentioned, and
the amount specified. Then follows a grant of the
customs of Stirling-bridge, with a statement of the
customs to be levied, and the amount of each.
Power is given to the provost and magistrates to
put in execution the acts of parliament and of coun
cil concerning the liberties and privUeges of the
burgh, and to convoke the burgesses and inhabitants
for that purpose. Finally, the charter annexes and
incorporates the whole lands, fishings, houses, &c,
previously conveyed into one free royal burgh. A
bye-law of the burgh-incorporation, passed in 1695,
obliged the members of the town-council annually
to take an oath that they would not take under their
management a lease of any part of the public pro
perty, nor purchase any part of it, nor receive from
ihe public funds any sum in name of compensation
for their trouble in attending to the burgh's affairs.
In spite of this apparently self-denying oath, three
leading members of the council, in 1773, entered
into a combination, unknown to the majority, to
avail themselves of .a defect in the constitution of
the burgh for holding themselves and their friends
perpetually in office. An action against so gross an
abuse of power was immediately brought by certain
of the injured individuals before the Court-of-ses-
sion, then consisting of one chamber; and the elec
tion of magistrates and councillors of the burgh made
at Michaelmas of that year was declared, by a cas ing
vote of the court, to be null and void. A vain ap
peal was made to the House of Lords ; and the burgh,
in consequence, stood disfranchised, its magistrates
being, for several years, appointed by the Court-of-
session. But in May, 1781, nearly 8 years after the
disfranchisement, a warrant was issued by his Ma
jesty and council restoring the burgh, and appointing
the election of magistrates to be by poll of the bur
gesses ; and, at the same time, a new sett was granted
to it, which considerably ameliorated its constitution
by rendering it more popular.
We have so freely mixed history with every de
partment of our notice, and especially have appended
it at such length to our account of the castle, that
very few events remain to be noted. The castle
may be supposed to have long, in its rude state,
and amid the continual hazards and unsettledness
of its site of " strife," remained alone ; yet, by af
fording protection to persons who chose to squat
or reside beneath the shelter of its walls, it must
eventually have occasioned the origin and early
growth of the town ; and when it became a royal
residence, it attracted, in the first instance, many
nobles and state-officers to build in the vicinity, that
they might conveniently attend tbe court, and, in
the next instance, not a few merchants and trades
men, that they might enrich themselves by traffic
with the courtiers. Stirling rose into consequence
as a town after the settlement of the Scottish
government under Malcolm Canmore, at the end of
the 1 1th century ; and it ever afterwards, till the
union of the crowns, figured prominently in the
history of the kingdom. In March, 1244, it was

STIRLING.

705

nrij-'n the Sflme "'£"* witn t1le ancient towns of
Haddington, Roxburgh, Lanark, Perth, Forfar,
Montrose, and Aberdeen, all the Scottish towns of
the period being constructed of wood, and peculiarly
liable, at a season of very high wind, to be victim
ized by the flames. During the struggles for inde
pendency in the wars of the succession, the town
and its vicinity were' the scene of some of the most
gallant achievements of Wallace and the other lead
ing patriots, — prime examples of which are nar
rated in our articles on St. Ninian's and Bannock
burn In 1298, the town was burnt, and the cir
cumjacent country laid waste by Wallace in his re
treat from the hattie of Falkirk, that the English,
if they had pursued, mi?ht be deprived of provisions
and forage. In 1385, the town was again burnt by
Richard II. After the murder of the Earl of Douglas,
in 1452, James, the next Earl, marched an army of
vassals and friends into the town, and committed
various excesses in contempt and defiance of the
King; and, finding the court occupying a defensive
and redoubtable position in the castle, he departed,
gathered additional force, returned, and, still unable
to wreak vengeance in the quarter he derived, plun
dered the town, and laid great part of it in ashes.
During the commotions of the Reformation, Stir
ling was tbe scene of many considerable transac
tions, repeatedly the rallying point of Mary of Lo
raine, and of her daughter, Queen Mary, and once
the chief post of the Lords of the Congregation ;
it witnessed the demolition of its own two convents
of Black and Grey friars, and of the neighbouring
abbey of Cambuskenneth, by the sallies of an irre
gular zeal ; and in August, 1559, it became signal
ized as the place where the Lords of the Congre
gation entered into their third bond of mutual de
fence. In May, 1569, four priests of Dunblane who
had been sentenced by the Regent Moray to be
hanged at Stirling for saying mass contrary to act
of parliament, were, as a commutation of their pun
ishment, chained for an hour to the market-cross,
wearing their Romish vestments, and bearing their
books and chalices ; and, after they had been pelted
with stones by the mob, and treated with other
indignities, their vestments and books were, at the
conclusion of the drama, burnt by the common ex
ecutioner. In September, 1571, while Regent Len
nox was holding a parliament in the castle, the
Earl of Huntley, Lord Claud Hamilton, Sir Walter
Scott of Buccleuch, Sir David Spence of Wormis-
ton, and other persons of rank belonging to the |
party of the dethroned Mary, marched stealthily into
the town at the head of 300 horse, and 80 foot, to
surprise what they contemptuously called the Black
Parliament ; and they instantly surrounded the lodg
ings of the chief nobility ; and, meeting with no re
sistance, except from Morton, who did not surrender
till his house had been set on fire about him, they
made the Regent and ten other noblemen prisoners,
and marched offin triumph with them for Edinburgh.
But Buccleuch's borderers having run athwart the
town in quest of plunder, and occasioned an alarm in
the castle, the Earl of Mar marched out with a com
pany of musketeers, speedily subdued the plunderers;
and, being joined by the townsmen, so hotly pursued
the main body, as to make a safe rescue of all their
prisoners, except the Regent, who had received a
mortal wound, [see Lennox,] and to capture 26 and
slay 6 of their number. The Earl of Mar's party
lost 24, among whom the only persons of note were
Alexander Stewart of Garlies, and George Ruthven,
brother of Ruthven of Ruthven. The most consi
derable of the invading party among the captured
were Scott of Buccleuch, Captain George Calder,
and a person of the name of Bell ; and of these,
II.

Calder and Bell were, two days after, executed in
Broad-street. Drumsoy — narrating that the invad
ing party marched without a halt from Edinburgh,
late on ihe evening, to the attack on Stirling at four
next morning, and that the force whom they came to
defy was numerically so very superior to them — re
marks that " the boldness of this enterprise is hardly
to be matched in any European history." During a
part of Lennox's regency, Stirling was the seat of
the court-of-session ; and, in August, 1571, and
June, 1578, it was the seat of the General Assembly.
In October, 1579, Turnbull, a celebrated school
master, and William Scott, both versifiers, were
hanged here for writing a satire on the Regent Mor
ton. In 1584, the Earls of Angus and Mar, the
Master of Glammis, and others, who had been con
cerned in the Raid of Ruthven, took possession of
the town and castie of Stirling ; and, being obliged
speedily to flee, and to lie concealed in England un
der a sentence of forfeiture, they returned next year
with additional force, — found the town and castle,
though the King was on the spot, in no state of de
fence, — and, under the virtual and commanding
menace of their position, which obtained the name
of the Raid of Stirling, readily procured the resto-
ral of their estates, the reinstatement of their per
sons in the royal favour, and tbe concession to them
of such enduring advantages as soon afterwards
permanently invested them with offices of public
irust. On the ferment at Edinburgh, in 1637,
raised by the introduction of the new liturgy, the
privy-council and the court-of-session, were, by the
royal mandate, removed to Stirling, and held here
for several months. In February of next year, a
proclamation, read at the cross, forbidding any per
sons to enter the town without a warrant from the
council, was publicly protested against by a great,
number of nobles, barons, ministers, and burgesses,
who declared that they should not be precluded
from having access to state their grievances to the
King, and was treated with such contempt that, in
defiance of it, 2,000 armed men took possession,
though for only one night, of the town. In 1645,
the plague raged in Stirling from the middle of July
till October, and obliged the parliament, who had
been chased hither by the pestilence from Edinburgh,
to adjourn to Perth, and the town-council to hold
their meetings in the open fields in an enclosure
called the Cow-park, on the south side of the town-
wall. Cleansers, as they were called, having been
appointed to take charge of the infected, two of
their number, called Watson and Murrison, inherited
so largely the effects of those for whom they had in
vain exerted their humanity, that they became pro
prietors of about two-thirds of the town, — Waison
alone purchasing Greenyards, Thirty-acres, the In
closure, and the Coffee-house, besides other pro
perty. In 1648, the Marquis of Argyle, marching
eastward at the head of a small body of Highlanders
to join other troops against the army assembled by
the Committee of Estates, halted at Stirling, and
posted upwards of 100 of his men to guard the bridge,
and the rest at the burgh-port and the burgh-mill ;
and, while he dined with Mar in the castle, and
dreamed not of danger being near, the detachment at
the bridge were all cut to pieces or drowned by one
body of the antagonist army under George Monro,
and the detachment at the other posts were pre
served from a similar fate only by surrendering io a
second body under the Earl of Lanark. After the
defeat of the Scottish army at Dunbar by Cromwell,
in 1650, Stirling became the retreat of the commitees
of church and state, the magistrates of Edinburgh,
and the remains of the army, to concert a plan for
future operations ; and, at the same time, the seat of
2 Y

706

STIRLINGSHIRE.

a parliament which was obliged to adjourn to Perth,
and was the last in Scotland in which the sovereign
personally presided. When Charles II., who had re
cently been crowned at ,Scone, put himself at the
head of the new army which rendezvoused at Aber
deen, he marched to Stirling, encamped at Tor-
wood, and, after having there tantalized Cromwell,
suddenly took post in the park of Stirling castle, and
obliged his foe to remove the seat of war to England,
— to the fatal field of Worcester. Many of the of
ficers of Monk — who, as we have seen, took posses
sion of the town and reduced the castle, soon after
the departure of Charles — are mentioned in the town
register as having been admitted burgesses. In 1681,
the Duke of York, afterwards James VII., visited
Stirling with his family, including the princess who
afterwards became Queen Anne. In 1746, the in
surgent Highlanders, before being admitted to the
town, promised that no man's person should be
harmed, and that every thing demanded should be
paid for ; yet, according to report, tbey had not been
two hours within the walls, till they had pillaged the
houses and shops of such of the inhabitants as were
most noted for opposition to Jacobitism.
Stirling gave, ai one time, the title successively of
Viscount and Earl to the famUy of Alexander. In
1630, William Alexander was created Viscount Stir
ling andBaron Alexander of Tullibody ; and, in 1633,
he was advanced to the dignity of Earl of Stirlingand
Viscount Canada. In 1739, the peerage became dor
mant at the death of Henry, the 5th Earl. The
proceedings of Mr. Alexander Humphreys, or Alex
ander, who claims the peerage, were such as to oc
casion his being tried before the high-court-of-justi-
ciary at Edinburgh in 1839, on a charge of counter
feiting certain documents. The trial excited much
interest, and issued in a verdict which, as regarded
the documents, found them to be forged, but as re
garded the charge against the individual, declared it
not proven.
STIRLINGSHIRE, a county lying on both sides of
the boundary-line between the southern and the cen
tral of the three great physical divisions of Scotland,
and on both sides also of the boundary between the
Lowlands and the Highlands. Two small districts,
consisting of the parish of Alva, and part of the par
ish of Logie, lie in detached positions a little way to
the north, and are dovetailed into the marches of
Perthshire and Clackmannanshire. The rest of the
county is bounded on the north by Perthshire ; on
the north-east by the Forth, which divides it from
Clackmannanshire, and the detached or Culross sec
tion of Perthshire ; on the east and south-east by
Linlithgowshire ; on the south by Lanarkshire and
the detached or Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch sec
tion of Dumbartonshire ; on the south-west by the
main body of Dumbartonshire ; and on the west by
Loch- Lomond, which divides it from Dumbartonshire.
A very large amount of its boundary-line consists
of water. A feeder of Loch- Katrine, and that gor
geous lake itself, are the boundary for 5J miles ;
Loch-Arklet for half-a-mile ; Duchray-water for 6
miles ; Kelty-water for 2 ; the Forth, from the con
fluence with it of the Kelty, for 31 miles, measured
in a straight line, but placing on its right bank
the Perthshire part of Kippen, and on its left the
Stirlingshire districts of Lecropt and Logie ; the
Avon and one of its tributaries for 16; the Kelvin
for 13 ; the Allander for 4 ; the Endrick and one of
its tributaries for 9 ; Loch-Lomond for 17 ; and two
or three minor waters for aggregately 5 or 6. The
county is situated between 55° 56' and 56° 16' north
latitude, and between 3° 35' and 4° 40' longitude
west from Greenwich. Its greatest length from
Linhthgow-bridge on the east to Loch-Lomond near

Inversnaid on the west is 45 miles ; its breadth, for
the most part, ranges between 11 and 17, but over
12 miles on the north-west does not average 5 ; and
and its superficial extent is variously estimated at
489, 645, and 704 square miles, or respectively
312,960, 412,800, and 450,533 statute acres,— the
second being the estimate of Dr. Graham in his
Agricultural View of Stirlingshire, published in
1812, and the last that of Mr. Belsches, in a Report
to the Board of Agriculture in 1796.
A belt along the south-west border, about 17
miles in length, and from less than I to about 3 or 4
miles in breadth, consists of the beautiful and almost
continuous vales of the Allan, the Blane, and the
lower Endrick. Another belt, about 17 miles in
length, and between 4 and 5 in mean breadth, ex
tends north-north-westward from the north-west
end of the former, and forms, over rather more than
the further half, a projection or horn of the county.
This second belt is all Highland ; it sends aloft from
near its centre the sublime summit of Benlomond
[which see]; it screens over four-fifths or more of
the lake's length the eastern side of Loch-Lomond,
coming down upon that peerless expanse of isleted
waters in a profusion of the bold, rich, features of
landscape ; and it constitutes, along its summit-
range, the water-shed between the streams of the
eastern and the western seas. Immediately east of this
grandly upland territory — this region of mountains
which, though they form a series of their own, have
usually been classed with the Grampians, and often
represented as the conSmencement of the long, vast
frontier rampart of the Highlands — a prevailingly
champaign but partly moorish district, extends be
tween the vale of the Endrick on ihe south and the
rivers Kelty and Forth on the north, measuring about
7 miles in length, and from 4 to 7 in breadth. This dis
trict is, in a general yet intelligible and proximately
correct view, regarded as the commencement of Strath
more, or of a great valley extending hence along the
skirt of the whole frontier, mountains of the High
lands to the German ocean at Stonehaven ; and,
though, while connected with Stirlingshire, it has a
very variegated surface, and possesses two general
declinations respectively to the Endrick and the
Forth, it is all comparatively low ground, and may,
well, in its peculiar position, pass for valley. East
of it, and forming its eastern screen, extend, in ex
pansive breadth, and in many forms of picturesque-
ness, and with numerous fairy nooks and delightful
recesses, the Lennox Hills : which see. All east
of these hills, the country, comprising between one-
fourth and one-third of ihe whole county, consists
principally of flat carse-lands, and gently sloping
plains, beautiful and occasionally luscious in aspect,
one of the gayest and most decorated tracts in Bri
tain, exhibiting a constant alternation of fields in the
highest state of tillage, drained and exuberant mea
dows, plantations, pleasure-grounds, gardens, orch
ards — all the forms, in short, of tasteful and tri
umphant culture — in the most luxuriant vegetation.
The waters of StirUngshire, both running and
lacustrine, are aggregately superb in scenic character.
Of the streams already mentioned as tracing portions
of the boundary, several have some part of their course
in the interior. Duchray-water rises on the side of
Benlomond, and has a course of 5J miles before com
mencing to be a boundary stream. The Forth, as
already hinted, is so far an interior stream as, over a
distance of 4 geographical miles, to place a portion
of the county on its north bank. The Avon makes
two separate stretches on the boundary, and between
its origin and the first, and again between the first
and the second, runs respectively 2£ and 6J miles
in the interior. The Allander leaves the boundary for

STIRLINGSHIRE.

707

the interior, and traverses the latter 3£ miles to its
mouth. The Endrick is an interior stream over
about four-fifths of all its sweet and picturesque
course. Of the streams which belong wholly to the
interior the most considerable are the Carron, famed
in ancient Celtic song, and in modern European in
tercourse, — the Bannock, associated with reminis
cences of patriotism and bravery, — the Devon, bound
ing for 2£ miles the detached part of the county, and
famed for the romance of its banks ariu water-course,
— and the Blane, distinguished by its cataract of Bal-
lagan, and still more by the birth, on its right bank,
of the celebrated Buchanan. The last of these streams
is tributary to the Endrick, and the other three to
the Forth. Loch-Lomond helongs, over nearly one-
half of its extent, to Stirlingshire, and contributes
to the county its brilliant island of Inchcailliocb, its
pleasing arable islands of Inchfad and Inchcruin, and
several of its islands of a minor character. Loch-
Katrine touches the county over a distance of only 2
miles, and immediately after receiving the feeding-
stream at its head. i The other lakes are compara
tively small, and are principally Loch-Coulter in
St. Ninian's, and Loch-Elrigg, Black-loch, and
Little Black-loch in Slamannan. Between 9 and 10
miles of the Forth and Clyde canal, and nearly 8 of the
Union canal, are within the county, while about 18
additional of the former are close upon its frontier ;
and they send through it a current of traffic quite as
great as if they were navigable rivers. Various me
dicinal springs send up their waters ; among others,
one at Boquhan, somewhat resembling those of Pit.
caithly. Stirlingshire competes with all the rich districts
of Scotland in the quantity, variety, and utility of
its minerals. The north-western boundary of the
great coal-field which extends from Kintyre to Fife
shire, appears to run along the base of the Lennox
hills ; and the field itself lies beneath all the belt of
country which intervenes from New Kilpatrick to
Denny between these hills and the Kelvin, and also
beneath all the expanse of carse and lowland which
forms the eastern and uniformly luxuriant division of
the county. In most of the latter and much the
larger district the coal is excellent and abundant,
and is mined in large quantities for exportation ; in
Baldernock it resembles the coal of Newcastle, and
occurs from 3 to 4£ feet thick, between strata of
limestone ; in Campsie it has much sulphur, runs
into a mass, and is slow or prolonged in combustion;
and in Kilsyth it is partly akin in character to thai
in the adjoining parishes, and partly a bUnd coal,
which, being weli-adapted to metallurgical opera
tions, is exported to England, Ireland, and Russia.
The fuel of Stirlingshire, about two centuries ago, is
thus curiously noticed in Bleau's Atlas: "In the
eastern parts they use, instead of wood, black stones
full of sulphur, which they dig with great labour in
the bowels of the earth, and call ' du charbon.' Al
most all the rest of the province use pieces of black
earth, and moss formed of trees, which have remained
long buried in the earth." Limestone, in many in
stances, accompanies coal in two strata, the one
above and of the best quality, the other below and
of inferior quality. Various lime-works have long
been celebrated for both the quality and the quantity
of their produce. At Ballagan, in Strathblane, nearly
200 alternate strata of limestone and earth appear in
the face of a hill, excavated by a lofty and precipitous
cataract, which is subject to vast floods. Freestone,
very various in aggregate character and appearance,
abounds both in the region of the coalfield aud in
that north-west of the Lennox hills. What accom
panies coal is, in general, an excellent building-stone;
and in Kilsyth is prevaiUngly of a beautiful white,

fine in the gra.n and in great request, but what oc
curs in the north-western district is of a reddish col
our, easily wrought, and displeasing to the eye. Iron
stone occurs in inexhaustible quantities, and occa
sioned Dr. Roebuck, after he had examined the
greater part of Scotland, to select the east of Stir
lingshire as the most advantageous site for the now
magnificent Carron works. The richest, variety is
found in Kilsyth, and, owing to its occurring in
rounded masses in the form of a flat-topped loaf or
apple-pudding, bears the name of ball-ironstone.
Trap rocks, particularly of the basaltic species, and
useful as road-metal, abound north-westward of the
coals, and rise up in nodulated hills through various
parts of the coal-field. Precipitous columnar cliffs
and extensive ranges of basaltic colonnade, inferior
only to those of the wondrous Staffa, exist in soli
tary protrusions or in the broad mass of the Lennox
hills : see Fintry, Lennox Hills, and Stirling.
A seam of syenite, from 20 to 30 feet in thickness,
traverses part of Kilsyth, and has furnished many
thousand tons of paving-stones for the streets of
Glasgow. The rocks of the Highland district appear
to be prevailingly the metamorphic or hard schistose,
¦and chiefly micaceous schist ; and those of the mon
arch mountain are singularly various : see Benlo
mond. A bed of slate, from 4 to 15 feet thick, oc
curring between coal and the upper stratum of lime
stone, and lying for years in the coal wastes, and de
composed in a dried state by the circulation of the
air, furnishes the Campsie chemical company with
material for alum and copperas. Some precious
stones occur in a powerfully petrifying streamlet in
Kilsyth : which see. Some thin strata of alabaster
and some rich specimens of antimony have been seen
at the cataract of Ballagan. Copper mines were
worked in Kilsyth and Logie, but have been aban
doned. No fewer than fourteen or fifteen mines
containing, but not in large quantity, iron, lead,
copper, cobalt, arsenic, and silver, are possessed by
that insulated district, which, lying more than 3
miles from the main body of Stirlingshire, and separ
ated by wings of two counties, forms the parish of
Alva. The soils of Stirlingshire are very various, but
may, by the adoption of local phraseology, be classi
fied into carse, dryfield, hill, moor, and moss. The
carse soil extends about 28 miles along the Forth
from Buchlyvie to the eastern limits of the county,
in a belt of about 2 miles in mean breadth, or of from
half-a-mile to 4£ miles, making 56 square miles, or
about 35,944 imperial acres. It is composed of the
finest argillaceous earth, originally bluish and of a
soapy or mucilaginous consistency, but, after cultiva
tion, hazleish in colour, and of a loamy friability ;
possessing, in some places, a depth or thickness of
more than 20 feet; improving in quality proportion
ately to its approach to the present boundary of the
parent ocean ; everywhere free from native stones or
even pebbles, and interseamed at intervals with beds
of shells, particularly oysters and others common to
the frith, from a few inches to 4 feet in thickness ;
and lying generally from 12 to 20 or 25 feet above
sea-level at high-water, but descending at parts of
the outskirts to such a conflict with tide- mark that
considerable pendicles of it have recently been won,
and others may again be soon conquered from the,
dominion of the sea. The dryfield comprehends the
lower or arable declivities of the hills, and much the
greater part of all the straths, valleys, or low grounds,
except what is occupied by the carse ; it is exceed
ingly various in quality and character, and contains
some very inferior land ; but, in general, it consists
of loamy and gravelly soils, both of which are highly
fertile, and the latter peculiarly suited to the potato

708

STIRLINGSHIRE.

and turnip husbandry. The hill division is all green
pasture, with chiefly an arenaceous soil, mixed with
till, and sometimes interspersed with peat earth ;
and it comprehends the Lennox hills, — themselves
nearly a fourth part of the county, and the most
valuable pasture tract in Scotland, — the huge sides
and shoulders of Benlomond, two small pendicles
north of this monarch height, and the greater part of
Alva and the Stirlingshire section of Logie. The
moorland division, consisting of ground more or less
inclined to heath, comprehended, sixty years ago,
about one-ifourth of the county; but since that period
has been largely invaded by the plough, and convert
ed into dryfield, and now Balgair-moor in the south
of Kippen, a small pendicle in the south of Killearn
and Drymen, and about four-fifths of the Highland
district, or an area in it not equal to that of the single
parish of Buchanan, in which most of it is situated.
The moss division constituted, twenty-five years ago,
about one-thirtieth part >of the county, but has since
been reduced in extent by processes of reclamation ;
it lies principally in Slamannan, in patches athwart
the carse, and in a small pendicle in Alva ; it is, in
some places, incumbent on a fine clay ; and, over
the greater part of its extent, it affords pasture
for sheep.
Agriculture is in a highly improved and almost
model condition ; but, owing to the great variety of
soil and situation, it is necessarily various in its
modes, and, owing to the peculiarity of its carse-
grounds, is, to a large extent, common in character
only with that of the other limited carse districts of
Scotland. The cultivation of the carse is managed
by ploughing it into high ridges, and applying to it
substances such as lime, marl, ashes, and vegetable
manure, which tend to separate its parts and make
it penetrable by the atmosphere, the sun's rays, and
the roots of plants. Such was the fertility of the
cultivated part of this district, so early as the 14th
century, that the Crown then drew from the 1,248
Scottish acres of the little parish of Bothkennar, 29
chalders of grain, and the abbey of Cambuskenneth 6.
Wet ditches were long peculiar to the carse farmers,
as a mode of fencing; many of them being 10 feet
wide, and of considerable depth. The practice is
supposed to have originated from making large ex
cavations for the purpose of procuring clay for house
building and brick-making. The moisture of the
ditches was found to produce grass with great lux
uriance, and was carefully cut for the purpose of be
ing eaten green. But they were not without their
disadvantages. In wet seasons, when these reser
voirs were liable to be filled with water, consider
able damage was frequently done to the cattle, which,
allured by the richness and succulence of the grass,
often ventured too far, and not unfrequently lost
their lives: besides, a large portion of the farm was
thus annihilated, which might have been employed
to profitable purposes. The practice is now, in a
great measure, abolished, and all manner of fences
may be seen, from the neglected qUick-set hedge to
the high and durable wall of stone and lime. Iu
, the agricultural districts, in general, wheat, barley,
and pulse are largely raised ; the turnip and potato
husbandry is extensively practised; and artificial
grasses have a due place in the system of crop
ping. The arable farms range in extent between
15 and 100 acres ; and the hill farms frequently ex
tend to nearly 4,000. Though some calves are reared
upon almost every farm, Stirlingshire cannot, as to
cattle, be properly denominated a breeding county.
On the richer arable lands the number of cattle kept
is barely sufficient for local consumption of milk, and
not always 'adequate to the supply of the local de
mand for butter and cheese. In the characteristically

grazing or half-upland district, tbe number of calves
reared, though large compared to that of the other
district, amounts annually to only about one-half the
number of milk cows. Cattle are, for the most part,
bought in from the Hebrides and from the mainland
of Argyleshire and Inverness-shire, in the beginning
of summer, and, after being fattened during the in
terval, are, at the end of autumn, sold for the sham
bles. Almost all the Highland district, or the moun
tains of Buchanan and Drymen, and also all the upper
region of the Lennox hills, are disposed in sheep-
walk, and produce a peculiarly fine herbage. The
sheep most general are the black-faced, or that vari
ety of the Cheviot which has obtained the name of
the Linton breed. Very few horses are bred in the
county ; those for the draught being brought chiefly
from Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, and those for the
saddle and the gentleman's carriage being generally
procured at high prices from England. Hogs are
much less numerously kept than in the more south
ern counties. Goats abounded about half-a- century
ago in the Highland district and in Alva, and were
regularly every evening brought in flocks io the pen
for a certain period in tbe summer to be milked ; but
though great favourites with a bygone generation,
they have now almost wholly disappeared, or are to
be met with only as stragglers or solitary individuals.
Poultry of various kinds are bred in considerable
numbers. A great proportion of Stirlingshire, as well as of
all the western parts of Scotland, was anciently
clothed with wood. The mosses of Kippen, Gar-
gunnock, and Airth, in the carse district, and the
still more extensive mosses of the upland and dry-
field districts in Buchanan, Drymen, Fintry, St.
Ninian's, Polmont, Slamannan, and Muiravonside,
all bear evident marks of ligneous origin, or of occu
pying the sites of ancient forest. All the elevated
range of country, too, which extends in a semicir
cular sweep from Stirling to the neighbourhood of
Polmont, must once have been a continued series of
woodlands, now very partially commemorated in the
vastly abridged woods of Torwood and Callander.
Besides the well-known destruction of the Cale
donian forest, a wing of which extended far into the
interior of this county, demolition seems to have been
conducted on economical principles by the stated in
habitants or settlers, both to dislodge the bears,
wolves, and wild boars which abounded, and to
bring the ground into service for pasture or tillage.
About a century ago a new policy began to be
adopted ; and thenceforth plantations were formed
and coppices were protected. For a long series of
years great attention was paid on the extensive
estates of the Duke of Montrose, Lieutenant-gen
eral Fletcher CampbeU, and Sir Charles Edmonstone,
to the rearing of plantations, particularly of oak, ash,
sycamore, beech, larch, and Scottish fir. The plan
tations of the county, as a whole, are neither exten
sive enough nor sufficiently well-arranged to serve in
a due degree the purposes of shelter and ornament ;
yet they have imparted very sensible embellishments
to }he general landscape, and materially aided the
attempering of the climate, and the aggregate value
of the ground. About 2,900 acres are covered with
natural oaks, and afford cuttings eyery 24 years, and
of these upwards of 2,000 belong to the Duke of
Montrose, and, about the beginning of the present
century, were put under a highly improved system
of management. Gardens and orchards, except as
the luxurious appendages of gentlemen's seats, draw
little attention, and have a very limited or but a
mimic existence. Though orchards were anciently
cultivated on an extensive scale in the carses of
i Bothkennar and Airth, which then belonged, for the

STIRLINGSHIRE.

709

most part, to the monks of Cambuskenneth, they
have not, as in the vale of Melrose, the vicinity of
Jedburgh, and other similar scenes of monastic lux
ury, survived to regale the corn-eaters of the 19th
century The climate of the eastern division of Stirlingshire
is milder than that of the western division, partly
because it is inferior in altitude, and partly because
it enjoys a greatly superior shelter from trees and
hedges, but principally because, in summer, the Ger
man ocean is 5 degrees warmer than the Atlantic.
The western division, however, enjoys superior ad
vantages during winter, and then escapes these fogs
which, during the prevalence of north-east winds,
infest the east coast of Scotland, and act inimically
on vegetable and animal life. An almost daily al
ternation of dry and wet weather prevails over the
whole, of the county, and seems admirably adapted
to the necessities of both the pasturage and the
carses. The manufactures of Stirlingshire are various.
Carpets, tartans, and shalloons, are extensively manu
factured at Stirling, Bannockburn, St. Ninian's, and
adjacent villages. Blankets and serges are manufac
tured at Alva. Large cotton-mills occur at Fintry,
Balfron, and Milngavie. Printfields exist at Denny,
Kincaid, Milngavie, Lennoxtown, and Strathblane.
A large chemical work exists at Lennoxtown. Fac
tories for spinning wool, preparing dye-stuffs, mak
ing paper, chipping wood, or conducting other de
partments of manufacture, occur in Denny and other
localities. Distilleries are large and numerous. Nail-
making for carpenters' work is extensively conducted
in the villages, particularly those of St. Ninian's :
but the grand staple manufacture is that of iron-
goods, cast and malleable, at the stupendous works
of Carron. By means of these various manufactures
the county has, proportionately to its size, acquired
great wealth and importance ; and in working them,
it exhibits steadiness, makes progressive increase,
and enjoys flattering prospects  The principal com
merce of the county is conducted either through the
ports of Grangemouth and Stirling, or along the
Forth and Clyde canal, or in connexion with the
great cattle-trysts of Falkirk. Nearly a fuU view
of it may be obtained by reference to our articles on
Grangemouth, Carron, Falkirk, and Stirling — The
principal lines of road are the Edinburgh turnpike
from Linlithgow-bridge, through Falkirk to Stirling;
the Glasgow turnpike trom Castlecarry through Den
ny, to fhe former line at St. Ninian's; the Edinburgh
and Glasgow north road from the former line at Ca-
melon, to the latter Une at Denny- Loanhead; the
Stirling and Edinburgh north road from Stirling
through Airth, to the Edinburgh mail-road a little
east of Laurieston ; the Stirling and Glasgow north
road, from the Glasgow road at Haggs, through Kil
syth, to the Kelvin at Bridgend ; the Glasgow and
Balfron road through Milngavie, Strathblane, and
Killearn ; the Glasgow and Kippen road through
Lennoxtown and Fintry; the Stirling and Dumbar
ton road through Kippen, Gargunnock, Bucklyvie,
and Drymen ; and several lines radiating from Stir
ling-bridge or its vicinity to all the north of Scot
land, but very speedily passing into the adjoining
counties.  In the article Perthshire we have traced
the line of the projected railway betwixt Stirling and
Perth. Stirlingshire comprises 21 entire quoad civilia par
ishes, and parts of other four, 3 of which it shares
with Perthshire, and 1 with Dumbartonshire. Of
these 25 parishes, 8 are in the presbytery of Stirling,
and synod of Perth and Stirling; 3 are in the pres
bytery of Dunblane, and same synod as the former ;
8 are in the presbytery of Dumbarton, and synod of

Glasgow and Ayr ; 2 are in the presbytery of Glas
gow, and sypod of Glasgow and Ayr ; and 4 are iii
the presbytery of Linlithgow, and synod of Lothian
and Tweeddale. In 1840, it had also 8 quoad sacra
parishes, 3 of which were in the presbytery of Stir
ling, 1 in that of Dunblane, 1 in that of Glasgow, and
3 in that of Linlithgow. In 1834, it had 33 paro
chial schools, conducted by 39 teachers, and attended
by a maximum of 2,006 scholars; and 121 non-paro
chial schools, conducted by 138 teachers, and at
tended by a maximum of 6,819 scholars. Its towns
are the royal burgh of Stirling and the parliamentary
burgh of Falkirk. Its small towns and its consider
able or noticeable villages, are St. Ninian's, Ban
nockburn, Airth, Grangemouth, Carron, Laurieston,
Grahamston, Denny, Balfron, Buchlyvie, Gargun
nock, Fintry, Larbert, Kippen, Drymen, Killearn,
Kilsyth. Milngavie, Lennoxtown, Campsie, Polmont,
Strathblane, Milton, Haggs, Denny-Loanhead, and
some 8 or 9 more, nearly all the seats of busy and
industrious population. Among a profusion of man
sions which, along -with their pleasure-grounds, gem
two-thirds of the county, may be named Buchanan-
house, Callander-house, Bannockburn-house, Fintry-
house, Gargunnock- house, Kinnaird-house, Kerse-
house, Craigforth, Airthrie, Alva, Westquarter, and
Dunmore-park. The county returns one member to
parliament. Constituency, in 1839, 2,332. The
valued rent, in 1674, was £108,509 Scottish. The
real property, as assessed in 1815, was £218,761.
Population, in 1801, 50,825; in 1811, 55,000; in
1821, 65,374; in 1831, 72,621. Houses 10,459.
Families 15,-'i5l. The following is an abstract of
the population of Stirlingshire in 184'1 : —
Inhabited
Parishes. Houses. Families. Persona.
Alva  813 461 2,216
Airth  S38 338 1|48T
Balfron,  3.11 333 1,966
Baldernock, . . .186 189 974.
Bothkennar  160 18; 848
Buchanan,  134, 134 729
Campsie,  l,16i) 1,199 6,394
Denny,  986 986 4,421
Dunipace  317 317 1,577
Drymen,  308 308 1,515
Falkirk,  1,396 1,429 7,389«
Fintry  188 193 884
Gargunnock, ... 179 179 773
Kilpatrick (East) ... 309 314 1,508
Kilsyth  1,014 1,014 5,613
Killearn  206 206 1,224/
Kippen (part of) .... 297 295 1,289
Larbert, ..... 981 981 4,4(14
Lecropt (part ot) .... 69 69 350
Logie (purt of) ... . 162 174 986
Muiravonside, .... 395 401 2,238
Polmont,  678 673 3,551
Slamannan,  191 192 978f
Stirling, parliamentary burgh, 1,803 2,399 10,580{
Stirling (that part of, beyond the
boundary of the royal and parlia
mentary burgh), ... 2 2 4
St. Ninian's (exclusive of that por
tion lying within the boundary
of the parliamentary burgh of
Stirling), ... . . 1,381 1,600 7,658
Strathblane, ... 170 174 894
No district of equal extent in Scotland abounds
more than Stirlingshire in antiquarian monuments
and remains. Our limits will allow us to name only
the chief. Those of the Romans are Antoninus'-
wall, the Great Causeway from the west of England
* This return comprehends merely the rural part of the par
ish, and is exclusive of the parliamentary burgh. The popula
tion of the burgh we have not ascertained.
t That part of the quoad sacra parish formerly belonging to
Falkirk, aud annexed to Slamannan iu 1729, is not included in
this return, being contained in the return from Falkirk.
X The population of the royal burgh is 7,963; families 1,761 ;
inhabited houses 1,289. The population of the parish within
the town is 8,592 ; families 1,908 ; inhabited houses 1,387. The
village of the abbey, which lieB in the' county of Clackmannan,
though part of the parish of Stirling, is not included in tuns
return.

STI

710

STO

to the Grampians, the two stations of Castlecarry
and Roughcastle, and various prsesidia along the Une
of the great wall. Circular forts, or the strengths
of the Britons, are, in many instances, effaced, and
in none so individually considerable as to demand
special notice. Of tumuli, those at Dunipace are
the finest specimens ; of the monuments of the Ro
manized Britons, Arthur's-oven is the most remark
able example : see Antoninus '-wall, Castle
carry, Dunipace, and Arthur's-oven. Various
standing-stones occur. Baronial strengths, or the
towers and fortalices of the feudal period, are in
general so demolished and transmuted, that the older
edifices of Stirling-castle must be named, as probably
the best specimen, Stirlingshire having, in Roman
times, been divided between Valentia and Caledonia,
and in the times which followed, suffered distribution
among no fewer than four kingdoms ; — Pictavia on
the north, Northumbria on the east, Cambria or
Strathclyde on the south, and the Scottish dominion
on the west, — it must necessarily, during ages of
turbulence and continual strife, have had many
battle-fields ; and in times which succeeded the con
solidation of all modern continental Scotland into
one monarchy, it 'had the noted fields of Stirling in
1297, Falkirk in 1298, Bannockburn in 1314, Sauchie
in 1488, Kilsyth in 1645, and Falkirk in 1746. The
chief ecclesiastical antiquities are Cambuskenneth-
abbey, Emanuel-nunnery, the Dominican and Fran
ciscan friaries of Stirling, and the collegiate church
or Chapel-royal of Stirling-castle.
STITCHEL and HUME, two parishes in the
district of the Merse, the former in Roxburghshire,
and the latter in Berwickshire. They were united
in 1640. The united parish is bounded on the north
west by Gordon ; on the north-east by Greenlaw ;
on the east by Eccles and Ednam ; on tbe south and
south-west by Nenthorn ; and on the west by Earls
ton. Its length from north to south is between 5
and 6 miles ; its breadth is between 3 and 4 miles ;
and its area is about 5,480 imperial acres. Stitchel,
round five-sixths of its boundary, and on every side
except the east, is touched by Berwickshire. The
parishes are very nearly equal to each other in ex
tent. The Eden separates Stitchel from Nenthorn
for about 1£ mile; and, in its progress, falls over a
nearly perpendicular rock of about 40 feet in height.
The waterfall is in the vicinity of Newton-Don-
house, and, in a flood or in a hard frost, is a most
'beautiful object. In Hardie's Mill-place in the west
of Hume, is a rising ground called Lurgie-craigs,
and faced with a fine basaltic colonnade, whose col
umns, though small, stand erect and mutually dis
tinct, and are regular polygons of about 5 and 6 feet
..high, and 16 or 17 inches thick. The surface of the
united parish has a prevailing declination to the
south, and, for the most part, lies about 600 feet
above the level of the Tweed at Kelso, 4 miles dis
tant; The highest ground; and at the same time
the site of the most remarkable artificial object, is
that on which stands the noted and conspicuous castle
of Hume : see Hume. The soil is in some places
naturally wet and cold; in most it is clayey and
strong; and in all it is highly improved and well-
cultivated, and, even 50 years ago, was almost all
enclosed and in tillage. Stitchel-house, the seat of
Sir John Pringle of Stitchel, Bart., is an elegant and
"commodious mansion. The other landowners are
Sir H P. Campbell Hume, Bart., and Mr. Baillie of
Mellerstain, whose seats are in adjacent parishes.
The village of Stitchel is situated 3J miles north of
Kelso; and that of Hume 2| miles north-north-west
of Stitchel. The parish is well-provided with roads,
but is not touched by any great line of turnpike.
Population, in 1801, 506; in 1831,434. Houses

99. Assessed property, in 1815, £4,163.— This
parish is in the presbytery of Kelso, and synod of
Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the Crown, and Sir
H. P. Campbell Hume, Bart. Stipend £219 1 4s.
7d. ; glebe £27. Unappropriated teinds £517 6s. 7d.
There is in the village of Stitchel a United Secession
place of worship. Salary of the Stitchel school
master £25, with £20 fees, and £2 4s. 5d. other
emoluments ; of the Hume schoolmaster £25, with
£24 fees, and £2 10s. other emoluments.
STOBBS, a village and extensive gunpowder
manufactory, partly in the parish of Borthwick, and
partly in the detached section of that of Temple,
Edinburghshire. There are properly two villages,
both connected with the powder-mills, both 10 mUes
south-south-east of Edinburgh, and mutually adja
cent ; — Stobb's, in the parish of Borthwick, with 70
inhabitants, — and Gorebridge, in the parish of Tem
ple, with about 300. The gunpowder-mills here
were the earliest in Scotland, and were erected in
17-94 by Hitchener and Hunter. They are situated
partly in both parishes, but chiefly in Temple, and
on the banks of a stream which divides the districts,
and, a mile north-westward, becomes tributary to
the South Esk. They have been greatly extended
since their original erection, and occur at intervals
along the stream over a distance of three-fourths of
a mile. The houses appropriated to the more dan
gerous parts of the process of manufacture, are all
situated in detached positions, between either natu
ral abutments of the glen, or artificial mounds
crowned with wood ; so thai in the event of an ex
plosion, mischief is not likely to extend beyond the
single and isolated building in which it takes place.
Great care and vigilance are exercised to prevent
accidents. The company give a gratuitous educa
tion to most of the children of the workmen, and
have bestowed pensions on families bereaved of
husband or father by explosion. The workmen em
ployed are between 50 and 60 in number ; and they
happily are not only free from the recklessness which
so generally and perversely characterizes persons em
ployed in a hazardous occupation, but are amongst
the most regular and exemplary in conduct of the
general community of the parishes. Gunpowder is
exported from the mills to almost every part of the
world ; and, during the continental war, it was sup
plied by contract to Government. The united vil
lage has a savings' bank; Stobbs has a friendly
society,' and Gorebridge has a United Secession
meeting-house, two non-parochial schools, and a
subscription library.
STOBHILL, a viUage in Edinburghshire, partly
in the detached district of Temple, but chiefly in the
parish of Newbattle : which see.
STOBO, a parish a little west of the centre of
Peebles-shire ; bounded on the north by the Tarth,
which divides it from Newlands ; on the north-easi
by the Lyne, which divides it from Newlands, Lyne,
and Peebles; on the east and south-east by the
Tweed, which divides it from Manor and Drummel
zier ; on the south by the Tweed and the Biggar,
which divide it from Drummelzier and Glenholm ;
and on the west and north-west, chiefly by a water-
shedding line of heights, which divides it from
Broughton and Kirkurd. But beyond these limits,
or on the east bank of the Tweed, and interposed
between the original parish and Manor, lies a district
of IJ mile by IJ, which formerly belonged to the
suppressed parish of Dawick, and was annexed to
Stobo in 1742. The extreme length of the entire
parish north-north-eastward, is 6 miles; the mean
breadth is between 3 and 4 miles ; and the area is
nearly 18 square miles. The western frontier has
a basis of no less than 700 feet higher than the east-

STO

711

STO

era, or the level of the Tweed ; and from this basis
it sends up summits, four or five ot which rise up
wards of 1,600 feet above sea-level, but all of which
necessarily appear, from the low or rather table
grounds in their vicinity, to be of inconsiderable alti
tude. The chief is Pyked Stane : which see.
All the western division is wildly upland, and fit
only for sheep-pasture. The interior heights are
on the whole arranged into three chains or ranges,
which extend east-south-eastward, — diminish in alti
tude as they approach the Tweed, — enclose between
them two vales, each drained by its own stream, 
and overlook, respectively on the north and the
south, the vale of the Lyne, and that of the east
ward course or part of the Tweed. Some of the
hills are green ; but most are covered with heath.
The vale of the Tweed is natural, beautiful, and
not a little artificially embellished. Stobo-castle,
one of the seats of Sir James Montgomery of Stan
hope, Bart., is situated here ; and both when in the
possession of Sir Alexander Murray, Bart., and in
that of the late Lord-chief-baron Montgomery, it
was a centre whence radiated vigorous and tasteful
processes of improvement. On tbe estate connected
with it, and chiefly in its own vicinity, are about
600 acres of plantation. Much scenic beauty is bor
rowed also from tbe demesne of New Possa, the
property of Sir John Nasmyth, Bart., on the Drum
melzier side of the Tweed. The arable grounds
amount to about 1,300 acres. Their soil is exceed
ingly various ; yet may be regarded as prevalently a
light fertile loam, superincumbent on gravel The
sheep pastured on the uplands are mostly of the
Cheviot breed ; and tbe black cattle have been
crossed with the Durham and the Ayrshire breeds.
Excellent clay-slate of a dark blue colour has long
been extensively quarried, and has furnished roofing
to the greater part of the New Town of Edinburgh.
Greywacke more or less schistose, is the prevailing
rock; but has been quarried only where it looked
out at the surface. The Sheriffmuir, the scene of
the county-mifitia musters during the distracted
period of international animosities, presents various
rude antiquities, all apparently of the British period,
quite unexpounded by either history or tradition,
and all the more valuable on that account to theo
rizing and visionary antiquaries. The road from
Edinburgh to Dumfries or Carlisle, by way of Moffat,
runs along the Tweed ; and that from Glasgow to
Kelso, by way of Peebles, runs along the Lyne.
Population, in 1801, 338; in 1831, 440. Houses
65. Assessed property, in 1815, £2,557  Stobo
is in the presbytery of Peebles, and synod of Lo
thian and Tweeddale. Patron, Sir James Mont
gomery, Bart. Stipend £158; glebe £42, with 10
bolls of oatmeal per annum in lieu of half the glebe
of Dawick, given up to Sir J. Nasmyth, and 1 boll
in lieu of a piece of ground given up to Sir J. Mont
gomery. The church is a Gothic structure, appa
rently about 500 years old, but recently repaired and
put into good condition. Stobo was, in ancient
times, an independent parsonage ; it had attached to
it four chapels or subordinate churches, or those of
Dawick, Drummelzier, Broughton, and Glenholm,
called the Pendicles of Stobo ; and it was converted
into a prebend of Glasgow, and was the most valu
able of the prebends in Tweeddale. Schoolmaster's
salary £32, with fees.
STOER, a quoad sacra parish on the west coast
of Sutherlandshire. It was divided in 1834, by
authority of the General Assembly, from Assynt.
Its extreme length and breadth are computed to be
respectively 11 and 10 miles. Its population is col
lected in a number of small villages and hamlets ;
and amounted, in 1836, to about 1,500. The Crown

is patron. Stipend £120; glebe £2 5s., with a
manse. Tbe church is a parliamentary one, and was
built in 1828. ' Sittings 300. Three schools are
supported by respectively the Christian knowledge
propagation society, the. Gaelic school society, and a
society in Glasgow. See Assynt.
STONEBYRES, an estate in the parish of Les
mahago, Lanarkshire, giving name to one of the
falls of the Clyde. The fall is broken into three
sections of nearly equal height. At first, the river
precipitates itself over the rock, almost in one sheet,
into a kind of basin. From the edge of this basin it
pours itself over obliquely upon the rocks which
form the second step of the cascade, where it is
broken and whitened. It is then gathered into an
other basin, out of which it rushes over a rocky
declivity for about twenty yards :
Words ! ye are powerless — at this scene of power,
' Feebly and idly from the tongue ye fall :
Heart! bear me witness how I felt that hour —
The dim lone hour, when, night with veiling pall
Deep'ning its wildness, Stonebyres met my sight.
The white foam, flashing through the gulf profound,
Made e'en stem midnight wear the smile of light,
And the huge tumbling mass shook all around.
» I look'd below ; each hand, a rocky steep
Guarded the calm'd and wider-bending stream :
Wild trees, their love revealing e'en in sleep,
Bent o'er the wave, whose murmurs bade them dream.
There Peace might joy to watch the peeping flower-
Above, reigns one sole thought, which speaks in thunder —
power.
The line of railway from England to Glasgow, re
commended by the Parliamentary commissioners,
passes through the estate of Stonebyres.
STONE-CASTLE. See Irvine.
STONEHAVEN— vulgarly Stanehive— a sea
port, a considerable town, a burgh-of-barony, and
ihe capital of Kincardineshire, stands at the north
east end of the great strath of Scotland, 15 miles
south by west of Aberdeen, 61 south-south-east of
Banff, 13£ north-east of Laurencekirk, 23 north-
north-east of Montrose, 34 north-north-east of Ar
broath, 51 north-east of Dundee, and 94 north-
north-east of Edinburgh. Its site is at the influx of
the Carron and the Cowie to the ocean, in a valley
almost narroW enough to be called a glen, and flanked
by two ranges of heights, the northerly one of which
has the reputation of being the eastern abutment of
the far-extending range of Grampians. See Intro
duction, and the articles Grampians and Strath
more. The town consists of two parts, an old and
a new, separated from each other by a well-defined
boundary, situated on the estates of different pro
prietors, and possessing such marked distinctiveness
of character as to be in effect two towns under one
name. The old town stands on the south bank of the
Carron; consists chiefly of two considerable streets;
and has an ill-built, irregular, and unpleasant appear
ance. The new town, greatly more important than
the other in wealth, in prosperity, and even in popu
lation, stands on a cuneiform peninsula between the
Carron and the Cowie ; and consists of regular, well-
edificed, spacious streets, with a square in the centre
A handsome market-house in the square, was built
in 1827, and contains a large hall, a public dispen
sary, and various other accommodations. A bridge
across the Carron connects the towns, and carries
along the Edinburgh and Aberdeen mail-road. The
places of worship are noticed in the account of Dun- -
nottar and Fetteresso, to which parishes the
old and the new towns respectively belong. Here
are branch offices of the Bank of Scotland, and the
Aberdeen town and country bank, a savings' bank,
and Donaldson's free-school. A considerable manu
factory of cotton and linen goods has almost totally
disappeared. A distillery, capable of distilUng 3,000
gallons per week, and a large brewery, are in the.

712

STONE HOUSE.

vicinity. The fishing-village of Cowie, situated less
than 4 of a mile to the north, and containing a popu
lation of about 200, may be regarded as a suburb.
The harbour of Stonehaven is a small natural basin
a little south of the mouth of the Carron ; it is shel
tered on the north side by a convenient quay, and
on the south side by a projecting high rock, and
offers a safe retreat to vessels during storms ; and
it was a few years ago much improved by the erec
tion of strong piers. A body of trustees, only a
minority of whom belong to the town-council, man
age the affairs of the harbour, under an act passed
in 1825; they borrowed £7,884 to effect improve
ments, but became involved in an expensive and
unsuccessful litigation concerning the right of quar
rying from the adjacent ground the materials for the
piers, and, in consequence, found the interest of the
debt running into arrear ; and they exact dues which,
though allowed by the act, are complained of as op
pressive and unequal, and believed to operate, in
many instances, as a prohibition to trade. The re
venue, in 1826, amounted to £604; but, in 1832, it
had decreased to £488. The vessels belonging to
the harbour, in 1840, were 9 ; and they are employed
principally in exporting grain to Leith, and import
ing coals and lime. A herring-fishery, during the
season, is extensive and prosperous. But the town
derives its main support from being the seat of the
sheriff-courts, and the chosen home of a number of
annuitants. Tbe old town has the reputation and
rights of a burgh-of-barony ; but can neither show
its charter, nor ascertain its date. " By act of par
liament 1600, c. 51, the court-place of the sheriffdom
of Mernis, or Kincardine, was changed from the
town of Kincardine to the Stanehyve, as most con
venient to the lieges within the shire ; and an act,
passed 1607, c. 10, in ratifying the preceding statue,
ordains ' the said burgh of Stanehive to be in all
time coming the head burgh of the sheriffdom of
Kincardine.' In the year 1624, William, Earl-ma-
rischal, the superior, entered into a contract with
the feuars of the town, by which it was agreed that
two resident burgesses of the burgh, yearly presented
bythe inhabitants, and chosen by the Earl, should
be bailies, and should have power to choose their
own members, and to hold courts, and decern anent
their own civil and common affairs. After the for
feiture of the last Earl-marischal no magistrates were
appointed, but the affairs of the town were conducted
by managers appointed by the feuars; to one of
whom the sheriff of the county was in the practice
of granting a substitution, to qualify him to act as a
sheriff within,the burgh, until the late Lord Keith
purchased the superiority of the town in 1797, when
bailies were again appointed, and were annually cho-*
sen from leets presented by the feuars, down to 1812.
About that time, a dispute having arisen between
the superior and the feuars, no election took place,
and the town property was managed by Lord Keith's
private agent until his lordship's death. After the
death of Lord Keith his trustees restored the old
constitution, and since 1823 they have annually cho
sen two out of a leet of four resident feuars, pre
sented by the whole resident feuars, to be baiiies.
These receive a commission from the superior, and
nominate for the year a council, consisting of three
councillors, a dean of guild, and a treasurer ; they
also appoint a town-clerk, a procurator-fiscal, and
two officers." The burgh property yields £27 12s.
,6d. a-year of income; a trifling revenue arises from
other sources ; and the expenditure, in 1833, amounted
to £30 Is. The magistrates exercise no practical
jurisdiction beyond two or three petty criminal cases
a-year. Nearly the whole of that class from which
the magistrates ought to be chosen have removed to

the more convenient dwellings of the new town,
and are in consequence unconnected with the burgh.
The only police, besides ill-paid and inefficient burgh-
officers, consists of one constable, paid by private
subscription. Water has long been supplied to the
old town by public street wells; and, in 1833, it
was introduced to the new town by a private com
pany. Lighting was an important, desideratum till
the recent erection of the gas-works. Cleansing is
very defective, owing to a fondness of the inhabi
tants of the old town for dunghills at their doors,
and the want of legal power in the authorities to
remove the horrid nuisances. The new town has
suddenly risen, and is rapidly increasing. A weekly
market is held at Stonehaven On Thursday; and
annual fairs are held for cattle on the 2d Thursday
of October, and the Thursday before the 22d of
November, — for cattle and sheep, on the Thursday
before Candlemas, old style, — for cattle and horses,
on the 3d Thursday of June, old style, on the 2d
Thursday of August, and on the 2d Friday of Octo
ber, — and for hiring, on the day before Martinmas,
and the Thursday before Christmas, both old style.
Population, in 1821, about 2,150; in 1833, about
3,050. Houses at and above £10 yearly rent, in
1833, — in the old town, about21, — in the new town,
about 104.
STONEHOUSE. a parish in the Middle ward of
tbe county of Lanark, bounded by Hamilton on the
north, Lesmahago on the south, Glassford and Strath
aven on the west, and Dalserf on the east. It is
about 6 miles in length by nearly 3 in breadth, and
is supposed to contain nearly 6,000 Scotch acres,
though no actual survey has been made. It is
watered by the river Avon, which affords good
trouting sport. The land presents a gently sloping
surface, and is scarcely surpassed in richness and
fertility by any parish of similar extent in the county,
being almost entirely arable. Draining has of late
years been introduced to great advantage ; the Ha-
zeldean moss, which formerly produced ample crops
of furze and weeds, now gives a rich return of yel
low grain, or thriving green crop ; the country is
sheltered by beautiful belts and clumps of plantation,
and altogether the science of husbandry and rural
industry appear here in some of their sunniest as
pects. The parish contains abundance of freestone
and minerals of the best quality. Coal is also abun
dant, and used formerly to be worked, hut it is now
only raised to a very trifling extent, from the cheap
ness with which the mineral can be purchased at the
neighbouring collieries of Dalserf. Ironstone exists
in detached round masses above the lime. There is
a post-office at the " town of Stonehouse,'' which is
the principal village in the parish, and has been
rapidly extending of late from the liberal encourage
ment given to feuars by Mr. Lockhart of Castlehill,
the proprietor. The main street consists of a long
and partially detached row of houses, nearly a mile
in length, the inhabitants being principally weavers,
and tradesmen employed by the surrounding agri
culturists. There are three fairs held annually in
the village, viz. those of May, July, and Martinmas,
principally for the sale of black cattle and wool.
The new road from Edinburgh to Ayr passes through
the village, and its communication with Glasgow,
from which it is 18 miles distant, is easy and fre
quent. It is 7 miles distant from Hamilton, and nearly
the same from Lanark. Population, in 1801, 1,259;
in 1821, 2,033; in 1831, 2,359; and, in 1841, 2,471.
Houses, in 1831, 412. Assessed property £5,289.
—The parish is situated in the presbytery of Ham
ilton, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, Mr.
Lockhart of Castlehill, who is at the same time pro
prietor of the half of the parish. Stipend £250 per

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annum, with a glebe of 5 acres, which may be valued
at about £25 yearly. The parish-church has a neat
spire, and stands in the centre of the village ; it will
accommodate fully 900 sitters. There is also a
thriving church in the village in connection with the
United Secession. The salary of the parochial
teacher is £28 per annum, with about £18 of school-
fees, and £10 annually of other emoluments. There
are other schools in the parish, not parochial, at
which the ordinary branches are taught  There
is little or nothing of historical or antiquarian inter
est attaching to this parish. The ruins of the old
castles, named Ringsdale-castle and Cat-castle, are
still seen on the banks of the Avon, but tradition is
silent regarding their former uses or importance.
A strong military position, no doubt of Roman ori
gin, existed at the junction of the Avon and Cauder
streams, but it is now much dilapidated.
STONYKIRK — more properly Stephenkirk —
a parish in the Rhinns of Galloway, Wigtonshire.
It is bounded on the north by Portpatrick and Inch ;
on the east by Old Luce and Lace-bay; on the south
by Kirkmaiden ; and on the west by the Irish chan
nel. Its extreme length from north to south is
nearly 10 miles ; its breadth from an extreme of 7
miles near the north end, diminishes to a mean of 3
miles over 3£ miles at the south end ; and its super
ficial extent is about 33J square miles, or 21,420
imperial acres. The west coast, 6J miles in length,
is in general bold and rocky, and in some places is pre
cipitous ; but toward the south it somewhat softens
in feature, and receives the indentations of tbe bays
or creeks of Port-Float, Ardwell-bay, and Port-
Gill, which afford mooring to the small craft of
fishermen. The east coast, 6 miles in extent, is
winding and stony, but comparatively low; it has,
over 3£ miles from the north end, reaches of sandy
beach of half-a-mile in breadth, left dry at low-
water ; and where these reaches commence, it offers,
in the bay of Sandhead, a sufficiently commodious
anchorage and landing-place for coal or lime laden
sloops. The surface of the parish, on the west side,
rises very rapidly from the sea, but, on the east side,
has a slowly ascending gradient: so that the line of
water-shed or summit-height, as well in the broadest
as in the more narrow districts, is in general distant
only about 4 or 5 furlongs from the western shore. The
general aspect is tumulated. Poltanton-burn drains
the parish along the northern boundary; and several
streamlets, three of which are considerable, drain its
interior to Luce-bay. Mills for dressing flax, which
were formerly four or five in number, and a bleach
field, which existed in connection with flax-growing,
have shared the fate of the discarded raw material
on which they depended. A salt manufacture, which
once was considerable at two places, has quite dis
appeared. Kelp-making has also vanished. A cod-
fishery, which might be a source of prosperity, has
for upwards of half-a-century been tamely con
ducted, and now, as 50 years ago, produces nothing
for exportation. Ardwell-house and Balgreggan-
house are the chief mansions. The village of Stony-
kirk is situated 5£ miles south-south-east of Stran
raer, and has about 100 inhabitants. The roads of
the parish are chiefly three, which traverse it length
wise, through the middle and along the coasts.
Among the antiquities are three conical artificial
mounds, the largest of which is situated near Bal-
greggan-house, measures 60 feet in perpendicular
height, and 460 feet in circumference round the base,
has on tbe top a curious excavation, and is defended
by a large encircling fosse. On the lands of Garth-
land in the north is a square tower, 45 feet high,
bearing on its battlements the date 1274, and an
ciently the residence of the Thanes of Galloway.

Port- Float had its name from being the place at which
some vessels of the famous Spanish Flota or Armada
were wrecked, and at Money-point in its vicinity many
dollars were found. Near Port-Float is a cave called
the Goodwife's cave, which has a very remarkable
echo. Population of the parish, in 1801, 1,848; in
1831, 2,966; in 1841. 3,052. Houses 552. As
sessed property, in 1815, £9,424— Stonykirk is in
the presbytery of Stranraer, and synod of Galloway.
Patrons, the Crown and Hawthorn of Garthland.
Stipend £231 15s. lid. ; glebe. £10. Unappropri
ated teinds £153 17s. lid. The parish-church, a
fine Gothic structure, was built in 1827. Sittings
880. In 1836, a preaching-station in connection
with the Establishment was commenced at Ardwell
in the extreme south. Since 1822, Ardwell, Sand-
head, and Thornhouse, have all been occasional sta
tions of the United Secession. In 1836, a preacher
of the Establishment stated to the Commissioners of
Religious instruction, that the population, above 14
years of age, was 1 ,666 ; of whom 1 ,355 were church
men, 194 were dissenters, and 117 did not attend
any place of worship  The present parish compre
hends the ancient parishes of Stephen's kirk — trans
muted successively into Steeniekirk, Stainiekirk,
and Stonykirk; Clachsbant — signifying 'the holy
stone,' and transmuted into Clayshank ; and Tos-
kerton or Kirkmaiden — corrupted into Kirkmadrine.
The three were united at the middle of the 17th
century. The first was anciently a rectory; and-the
second and the third were vicarages of the canons
of Whithorn. Vestiges of Clachshant church may
still be seen on the farm of Clayshank; and Tosker-
ton church, under the name Kirkmadrine, is com
memorated in its burying-ground, which is still in
use, and contains some antiquely inscribed grave
stones. In 1834, the parish-school was attended by
65 scholars; and 5 non-parochial schools by 381.
Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 3Jd., with £14 fees.
STORMONT, a beautiful district of Perthshire,
bounded on the east by the Ericht; on the south by
the Islay and the Tay ; on the west by the Tay ;
and on the north by the frontier mountain-rampari
of the Highlands from the foot of Strathardle to a
little distance south of the foot of Strath-Tumel.
The district measures 14 miles in extreme length
from east to west, and about 7 or 8 in mean breadth;
having the rivers Ericht and Isla for its eastern
boundary; the Isla and Tay on the south and west;
and on the north, the barren and mountainous ridge
stretching from Blairgowrie to a certain supposed
point among the hills, about 4 miles to the north
ward of Dunkeld. By far the most remarkable natu
ral feature of the district is the extraordinary number
of lochs comprehended within its limits — amounting
to not less than eleven, some of them very beautiful
sheets of water.* It comprehends the greater part
of the parishes of Blairgowrie, Kinloch, Cluny, Ca
puth, and Dunkeld, all Lethendy, and about a third
of Bendochy. For an exquisite combination of land,
wood, and water, lowland expanses, and Highland bar
riers, luscious dales, romantic glens, and picturesque
lochlets, this district, though excelled in its turn for
other combinations, or for a higher perfection of some
of the scenic elements, excels every other in even
panoramic Perthshire. The best view of its brilliant
surface, and its numerous pretty lakes, is obtained
* Their names are the Stormont-loch, (the eastmost of the
Beries, lying near the eastern extremity of the district, about
half-way between Blairgowrie and Cupar- Angus,) Black-loch,
White-loch, Finga^k, Ardblair or the Rae-loch, Marlee or
Drumellie, Cluny, the Lowes, Butterstone, Benachally, and
Lncli-Ordie. The two last-mentioned lie among the hills which
bound the district on the north-west. The others are distri
buted along the basin of the tract, and form a connected chain
extending from its eastern almost tu its western extremity,

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from the summit of Benachally, a considerable height
in the north of Cluny; and a charming, though a
less extensive and commanding one, is obtained from
the summit of Crag-Boman, a wooded eminence about
anlile west of Blairgowrie. Stormont gave, in 1621,
the title of Viscount in the peerage of Scotland to
the ancestor of the nobleman who, in 1792, was
raised jointly to an earldom and to the peerage of
the United Kingdom by the title of Earl of Mans
field. STORNOWAY, an Hebridean parish, on the
west eoast of Lewis, Ross-shire. It is bounded on
the north-west by Barvas ; on the north by Ness ;
on the east by the Minch ; on the south by the
Minch and the parish of Lochs ; and on the west by
Uig. Its greatest length from north to south is 1 9
miles ; its greatest breadth is 10 miles ; and its area,
including water, is about 160 square miles. One
district, called Eye, 6J miles long, and from J of a
mile to 2i miles broad, is almost insulated, extends
north-eastward nearly parallel with the main body
of the parish, and is separated from it by Broad-bay,
which has a mean breadth of upwards of 3 miles. A
peninsula commences at the isthmus of less than 200
yards in breadth which connects Eye with the main
iand, measures 3£ miles by from half-a-mile to 2£
miles, and is washed on the north-east by Broad- bay,
and on the south-west by Loch-Stornoway. The
rest of the parish has nearly the form of the plane
of an obelisk, and extends 19 miles north-east.ward,
with an extreme breadth of 5£ miles. The coast is
greatly indented ; and, though occasionally present
ing fine sandy beaches, prevailingly consists of bold
shelving rocks or precipitous cliffs. The Seal cave,
though entering from the sea with a breadth of only
10 feet, and afterwards contracting to 4, is about a
furlong in length, and terminates in a spacious, semi
circular, arched hall, pavemented partly with a fine
beach, and partly with a deep tidal basin. Stalac-
titic formations once exquisitely adorned the roof of
the whole long entrance of the terminal hall, and of
a beautiful side recess ; and, though seriously dam
aged by the depredations of the curious and the idle,
they promise to be speedily replaced by equally
splendid successors. Great shoals of seals formerly
frequented this vast cave, and, for several years,
were multitudinously besieged in it and slaughtered;
but, finding the retreat only a snare for their lives,
they have almost entirely abandoned it. The coast
is perforated with various other but minor caves ;
and is occasionally torn with fissures. Broad-bay,
while very spacious, is rendered unsafe at all times
by a sunk reef, and tantalizing in dim light by the
lowness and narrowness of the isthmus, which pre
vents its being converted into a strait. Loch-Stor
noway, 2 miles by 2£, possesses landlocked recesses
of shelter from every wind, and good and safe an
chorage for a fleet of 200 sail The other principal
bays are Ure, Tolsta, and Bayble. The chief head
lands are Tolsta, Gress, Vateker, Tong, and Holm,
on the main coast of the parish ; and Tuimpan and
Chicken-heads in Eye. Fresh-water lakes are nu
merous, but dreary in aspect, and inconsiderable in
size. Streamlets of noticeable bulk, and, in several
instances, of comparatively great rapidity and volume,
are 9 in number, — 2 of them running to the Minch,
5 to Broad-bay, and 2 to Loch-Stornoway. The
surface of the parish almost everywhere rises slowly
from the sea; and, except in a narrow belt along the
coast, presents the uniform and irksome aspect of a
flat moor. The highest ground is a round hill,
which rises 600 or 700 feet above sea-level, and
forms a landmark to vessels steering across the
Minch to Stornoway harbour. The soil, though to
a small extent sandy, gravelly or a vegetable

mould, is over the greater part of the area a spongy
moss on an almost impenetrable old subsoil. The
arable and the uncultivated lands bear the propor
tion to each other of 1 to 6. Trees are so few
that probably there is not one for every 3 square
miles. In common with all Lewis, Stornoway is the
least agriculturally improved district of the Hebrides,
and nearly a century behind the average of Scotland.
Except in the vicinity of the town, indeed, real im
provement has scarcely commenced. The fishing of
cod, ling, and herrings is the chief employment of
the male population, — farmers, cottiers, or handi
craftsmen. Fishing-boats are to be found, not only
at every hamlet, but at every farm ; they proceed in
considerable numbers to the white fishery on the
north coast of Barra ; and they take altogether so
great a produce that about 120 tons of cured cod and
ling are annually exported ; — chiefly to the Clyde.
Kelp-making, during three months of every year,
employs a large part of the population, men, women,
and children. On an elevated situation near the
town stands Seaforth-lodge, the seat of A. Stewart
Mackenzie, Esq., the only landed proprietor. Ex
cepting some brief lines around the town, and a line
north- westward thence into Barvas, the parish is
quite unprovided with roads ; and it knows not the
luxury of a stone-bridge. Population, in 1801,
2,974; in 1831, 4,091. Houses 1,035. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £498 — Stornoway is in tbe presby
tery of Lewis, and synod of Glenelg. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £158 6s. 7d. ; glebe £10. The
church was built in 1794, and repaired in 1831. Sit
tings 568. A parochial meeting-house at Back, in
the district of Gress, was built about 30 years ago,
and cost, in erection and repairs, about £100. The
minister officiates on three successive Sabbaths at
Stornoway, and on the fourth at Gress. A cate-
chist is supported by tbe Society for Propagating
Christian Knowledge. There are five Sabbath-
schools. The district of Eye forms a separate quoad
sacra parish ; and is provided with a parliamentary
church, and its usual appendages, of manse, garden,
and a stipend of £120. — The present parish compre
hends the ancient parishes or chapelries of Storno
way, Gress, and Eye. Stornoway old church was
dedicated to St. Lennan, and was removed only to
make way for the present erection. The chapels
of Gress and Eye were dedicated respectively to
Aula and Columba, and still survive in ruin. Ves
tiges exist of a second chapel in Eye, dedicated to
Cowstan. All these places of worship had anciently
the privilege of sanctuary. Schoolmaster's salary
£32, with about £20 fees, and £5 other emolu
ments. In 1834, the parish-school was attended by
64 scholars ; 6 other schools by 268 ; and 3 schools
in Eye or Knock by 151.
STORNOWAY, a sea-port, a burgh-of-barony,
and the capital of Long- Island, stands at the head of
Loch-Stornoway, in the cognominal parish, 46 miles
north-west of Poll-Ewe, 65 north by west of Por
tree, and 120 north-west by west of Dingwall. The
town was founded as a fishing establishment ; and,
through the exertions and patronage of the former
and the present proprietors of the parish, it has ra
pidly risen to great comparative bulk and importance.
A stranger on arriving at it by any route, or from
any quarter, is surprised to see so large and flourish
ing a place in so remote and uninviting a corner. Its
broad field of houses, its capacious bay, and spacious
piers, its occasional crowd of shipping, and stir of
trade and gaiety, and the vicinity to it of the aristo
cratic mansion of Seaforth-lodge, render it a strik
ing and very welcome relief to the prevailing dreari
ness, sterility, and inertion of the rude country in
which it is nestled. It boasts within the ourgli*

STO

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boundaries no fewer than 9 or 10 streets, bearing the
names of Church, Cromwell, Francis, Kenneth,
Keith, Point, Bay-head, North Beach, and South
Beach streets ; and it has the suburbs of Guirshadir,
Laxdale, Bayhead, Sandwich, Inailite, Holm, Cross-
street, Stenish, and Culnagrein, which lie either
nearly or quite compact with it, and, though rather
contrasts to it than rivals in neatness, aggregately
double it in population. The church, and an endowed
female seminary, are neat buildings. A structure,
disposed partly in news-room and public library,
and partly in a masonic-lodge and hall for public and
festal meetings, is a handsome edifice. A saw-mill,
a mill for carding wool, a corn-mill, a very large
malt-barn and mill, and an extensive distillery, are
all constructed in a style not much inferior io the
best buildings of their class in Scotland. An old
castle, now in ruins on the beach, was occupied,
during the civil war, by a small garrison in the puy
of Cromwell ; and is traditionally said to have been
the scene of their indiscriminate massacre in one
night by Macleod, the then proprietor of the island.
A lighthouse, erected in 1833, on Arnish-point, at
the south side of the entrance of Loch-Stornoway,
proved to have some serious defect in situation, has
never been lighted, and serves only as a conspicuous
landmark. An unsuccessful attempt was not long
ago made to introduce to the town the manufacture
of straw-plait. The only existing manufactories,
additional to the mills mentioned, are two rope-
works. The grand trade of the place consists in ihe
exchange of the produce of the fisheries, and the
kelp shores, for British manufactured goods and fo
reign produce. The fishing-boats registered in the
district of the port amount to about 1,500. The
vessels belonging to the port range in size from 15
to about 150 tons, and are about 70 in number. A
weekly packet plies between Stornoway and Poll-
Ewe ; and a steam-vessel makes occasional trips in
summer between Stornoway and Glasgow. The
port has a custom-house, with a collector, a comp
troller, and a tide-waiter. On an enclosed moor
near the town is held a cattle-market on the second
Wednesday and Thursday of July. The town has
a branch office of the National bank of Scotland ;
two friendly societies ; four inns, and so many as
about a score of dram-shops  Stornoway was erect
ed into a burgh-of-barony by James VI. ; and, in
1825, its feuars and burgesses obtained by charter
from the superior the right of electing for its govern
ment 2 bailies and 6 councillors. The magistrates
share their jurisdiction cumulatively with the baron-
bailie of Lewis ; but practically they exercise no ju
risdiction whatever in criminal cases, and jurisdic
tion of any sort chiefly in small cases of actions for ;
debt. The annual burgh revenue is £17 3s. ; and
the expenditure £15 17s. 6d. A person, before he
can settle as a trader or manufacturer, must become
a burgess, and pay a fee of £1 13s. 4d. The town
is the residence of the sheriff-substitute for the dis
trict of Lewis ; and the seat of sheriff, commissary,
justice-of-peace, and excise courts. Population, in
1808, 2,305; in 1833, about 3,500. Houses, in 1833,
of the yearly value of £10 and upwards, about 142.
STOTFIELD, a small port in the shire of Elgin
and parish of Drainy ; 7£ miles north of Elgin. In
the Coulard-hill, which here projects into the Mo
ray frith, there are appearances of lead. Mr. Ste
phenson has recommended a lighthouse to be built
on Stotfield-point, with minor auxiliaries at Cro-
marty-cliff and Chanonry-point.
STOURHOLM, an island in Shetland, about 3
miles in circumference, situated about 2 miles south
east of the north-eastern extremity of Mainland, and

about the same distance south-west of the nearest
point of Yell.
STOW, a parish partly in Selkirkshire, but chiefly
occupying the extremity of the long south-eastern
wing or projection of Edinburghshire. It is bounded
on the north-west by Heriot; on the north by Fala;
on the north-east by Soutra and Channelkirk ; on
i the east by Channelkirk, Lauder, and Melrose; on
the south-east by Melrose ; on the south-west by
Galashiels, Selkirk, and Yarrow; and on the west
by Innerleithen. While itself lying in two counties,
it is thus, over a large extent of its boundary, in con
tact with three others. A detached pendicle of it,
considerably less than a mile square, lies a mile north
of the most northerly part of the main body ; and is
bounded on the south and west by Heriot. The sec
tion of the main body which lies within Selkirkshire
measures 64 miles in extreme length, and about 2 in
mean breadth. The length of the whole parish, from
the farm of Nettleflat, or the detached portion, on
tbe north, to Caddonlee on the banks of the Tweed
on the south, is 15 miles, but measured along the
road is 18 miles ; its mean breadth is nearly 4 miles ;
and its superficial extent is within a fraction of 60
square miles. Its Selkirkshire section consists solely
rof the vale and hill streams of Caddon- water. Its
frontier for 2 miles on the south-west is part of the
district of Tweedside, and is washed along the mar
gin by the Tweed. Its Edinburghshire or principal
section consists of the whole of the narrow vale of
the Luggate, the greater part of the deep, winding,
beautiful vale of tbe Gala, and a small part of the
vale of the Arnot, with their crowded hill-screens,
rising rapidly up into eleyated water-sheds, and later
ally furrowed into dells and gorges which bring down
Utile tributaries to the principal streams. Excepting
narrow belts along the margins chiefly of the Gala,
the Tweed, and the lower Luggate and Caddon, ex
ceedingly little of the area is arable; nor are the
tracts extensive which are warmed and beautified
with wood. The parish is naturally but finely pas
toral. Though heath and bent and coarse grass pre
vail on the higher grounds, a short green sward gen
erally carpets the approaches to the streams, and a
rich and delicate grass, interspersed with- a variety of
flowers and herbs, flings wealth and verdure down
the hilly banks of even the tiniest rills. The whole
parish anciently bore tbe name of Wedale, ' the vale
of woe,' and belonged to the bishops of St. Andrews.
A residence of the bishops on the site of the village
originated the name of Stow ; and, under the name
of the Stow of Wedale, was the place whence they
dated many of their charters. An extensive forest
anciently existed in a district partly within Wedale
and partly within Lauderdale, and was common to
the inhabitants of Wedale on the west, the monks
of Melrose on the south, and the Earls of Dunbar
and the Morvilles on the east. Wedale early pos
sessed the privilege of sanctuary in the same manner
as Tyninghame ; and ' the black priest of Wedale '
was one of the three persons who enjoyed the privi
leged law of the clan Macduff. Stow is literally the
Anglo-Saxon name for a choice place, a select sta
tion, and is the well-known designation of several
localities in England. John Harding, when in
structing the English king how to ruin Scotland,
advises him,
" To send an hoste of footmen in.
At Lammesse next, through all Lauderdale,
And Lamermore woods, and mossis over-riu,
Aud eke therewith the Stow of Wedale,"'
The village of Stow stands on the left bank of Gala-
water, 24£ miles south of Edinburgh, and 7 north of
Galashiels. It is ancient, sequestered, and irregular ;

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but, owing to its lying dispersedly over a diversified
surface at the opening of a wooded gorge between
the hills, and about the middle of the interior side of
a long semicircular sweep of the Gala and its vale, it
is not without features of attractiveness and interest.
Its population, in 1836, was about 330. There are
five hamlets. A little south of Stow is the mansion
of Torsonce, Pringle, Esq. ; and immediately north
of the viUage is Torsonce inn, a principal stage on
the Edinburgh and Carlisle road. The post-road,
from Edinburgh to the central Border districts and
to the west of England, passes down the vale of the
Gala and through the viUage of Stow; a branch-road
runs up Arnot- water ; and roads go along the Cad
don and the Tweed. Population, in 1801, 1,876;
in 1831, 1,771. Houses 284. Assessed property, in
1815, £ 10,787  Stow is in the presbytery of Lauder,
and synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £256 9s. Id.; glebe £27 10s.
Unappropriated teinds £82 5s. 7d. The church was
built before the Reformation, and was repaired and
enlarged in 1819. Sittings about 600. A United
Secession congregation was established in the village
prior to 1743. Their present place of worship was
built in 1821, at a cost of £500. Sittings 430.
Stipend £112, with £8 15s. for sacramental ex
penses and house-taxes, and a house valued in toto
at £500, and a garden worth, per annum, £2. In
1834 the parish-school was attended by 83 scholars ;
and three non-parochial schools by 168. School
master's salary not known. The church was, in
ancient times, of great value; and, during the ages
which preceded the Reformation, it was possessed
by the bishops of St. Andrews as a mensal church,
and served by a Vicar.
STRACHAN — formerly Strathaen — a parish
in the western part of Kincardineshire ; bounded on
tbe north-west by Aberdeenshire; on the north and
north-east by Banchory-Ternan ; on the east by
Durris and Glenbervie ; on the south-east by For
doun ; on the south by Fettercairn ; on the south
west by Forfarshire ; and on tbe west by Forfar
shire and Aberdeenshire. Its greatest length, from
north-north-east to south-south-west, is 13 miles;
its breadth, in the northern or aiable district, no
where exceeds 3£ miles, but, in the pastoral district,
distends to a maximum of 9 miles ; and its area is
40,230 English acres. On the most westerly part of
the western boundary soars Mount Battock, to an
altitude of 3,450 feet above sea-level. Two broad
ranges of heights, forming over all the south and
centre of the parish a sea of wild uplands, slightly
diverge at TVlount Battock from the great central
mountain-range of Scotland, and bear away in the
direction respectively of Stonehaven and Girdleness.
Their chief summits, Klochnabane and Kerloak, have
elevations respectively ot 2,370 and 1,890 feet. The
arable land lies all in the north, and is tolerably fer
tile, but comprehends not much more than 3,000
acres. The river Dee traces the northern boundary.
'Ihe Dye, with its little affluents, drains nearly aU
the uplands, and, proceeding northward, receives the
Feugh from the west, a little beyond the frontier of
the cultivated country ; and thence it proceeds north
eastward to seek the Dee in Banchory-Ternan. A
hilly ridge divides the joint vale of it and the Feugh
from that of the Dee. Blackball, a pleasant modern
mansion, stands near the Dee, and is embosomed in
extensive woods. The parish is traversed north
ward by the road from Brechin to Inverness. Popu
lation, in 1801, 730; in 1831, 1,039. Houses 212.
Assessed property, in 1815, £2,029  Strachan is in
the presbytery of Kincardine-O'Neil, and synod of
Aberdeen. Patron, Sir James Carnegie, Bart. Sti
pend £158 6s. 5d. ; glebe £7 10s. Schoolmaster's

salary £29 18s. 9|d., with £15 fees. Two private
schools are kept during winter.
STRACHUR and STRALACHLANE, an
united parish along the western border of Cowal,
Argyleshire. It is bounded on the west, north
west, and north by Loch-Fyne, which separates it
from Glassrie and Inverary; on the north-east and
east by Lochgoilhead and Kilmorick ; and on the
south and south-west by Kilmun, Dunoon, and Kil-
modan. Its greatest length north-eastward, along
Loch-Fyne, is 18 miles; its breadth, over 8 miles
from the north-east end, is 6 miles, and, over the
remaining 10, only 3; and its area is about 39,000
Scottish acres. Loch-Eck touches the parish for 3
miles on tbe east. The rivulet Cur, which has a
course of about 7 miles to the head of that lake,
drains most of the northern district, is subject to
frequent and disastrous freshets, and annually carries
away several acres of excellent soil. The low grounds
and the hills bear the proportion to each other of I
to 22. The low grounds are disposed in narrow belts
along Lochs Fyne and Eck, and some of the larger
streamlets. The hills afford excellent pasture for
sheep and black cattle; and, though naturally heathy,
have become comparatively verdant since tbe general
introduction of sheep stock. The soil of the arable
lands, in a few spots on the banks of the Cur, is a
rich mixture of loam and clay ; but elsewhere it is,
in general, sharp and thin. Coppices of oak, ash,
birch, alder, elm, hazel, and mountain-ash, are cleared
every 20 years, and are so extensive that one clearing
of the whole would be worth £6,000 or £7,000. Of
several curious caves which perforate the hills, one
is remarkable for the length of time during which a
stone thrown into it continues to roll down, with a1
noise as if it were rolling over sheets of copper; and
another has alternations, so far as it has been ex
plored, of corridors and apartments, each of the for
mer wide enough to admit four men a-breast, and
each of the latter capacious enough for fifty men to
stand at arms. Two or three standing-stones aud
natural cones on the hills figure conspicuously in the
landscape, and are associated in local legend with
grotesquely absurd incidents of superstition. Castle-
Lachlane, near the site of an old cognominal building
at the side of Loch-Fyne, is an elegant building; and
Strachur-house, also on Loch-Fyne, but 8 miles far
ther north-east, is a handsome modern mansion. One
road runs along Loch-Fyne ; another comes in on the
south-west from opposite Bute; and another runs
across from Loch-Eck to connect Holly-loch on the
Clyde, with a ferry at Strachur to Inverary. Popu
lation, in 1801, 1,079; in 1831, 1,0S3. Houses 118.
Assessed property, in 1815, £4,176  This parish is
in the presbytery of Dunoon, and synod of Argyle.
Patrons, Callander of Ardkinglass and Maclachlane
of Maclachlane. Stipend £170 4s. 6d.; glebe £',.
There are two parish-churches, 6 miles asunder, and
both built upwards of 55 years ago. Sittings, in
that of Strachur, 400; in that of Stralachlane, 200.
An assistant minister is maintained on a subscription
salary of £60. There are two Sabbath schools, one
parish-school, and five small private daily schools.
Parochial schoolmaster's salary £26 13s. 8d., with
£8 fees, and £2 8s. other emoluments. The par
ishes were united in 1650. Strachur lies on the
north-east, and Stralachlane on the south-west.
STRA1TON, a parish in the extreme east of the
district of Carrick, Ayrshire. It is bounded on the
north-west by Kirkmichael ; on the north by Dal
rymple ; on the north-east by DalmeUington ; on the
east by DalmeUington and Kirkcudbrightshire ; on
the south by Kirkcudbrightshire ; on the south-west
by Barr; and on the west by Dailly and Kirkmi
chael. Its greatest length, from north to south, ia

STR

717

STR

20 miles; its greatest breadth is 8 miles; and its
superficial extent is 82 square miles. The chief
head-stream, the lake, and the river of Doon, sue
cessively trace the boundary over all the east, the
north-east, and the north : See Doon. No fewer
than 22 lakes and lochlets occur in the interior.
The largest are Lochs Dercleueh, Finlas, Braden,
and Lochricear. The first and the second of these
constitute properly one lake, and are jointly 2J miles
in length; and both they and the third are the scenes
of boating excursions for the purposes of angling.
Girvan- water drains most of the interior; it forms
3 miles above, the viUage of Straiton a series of im
mediately consecutive cascades of aggregately more
than 60 feet in depth of wall ; it rushes away from
them into a deep and wooded glen ; and thence to
the village it flows through a richly cultivated val
ley, overhung by heights, some of which are bold
and precipitous, and others feathered at intervals with
natural wood. Tbe Stinchar flows for some dis
tance on the boundary with Barr. Very numerous
rills and streamlets trot and leap and tumble along
to the principal streams ; one of them, a tributary
of the Doon, making near Berbeth a sheer fall of 40
feet. The valleys of the Girvan and the Doon, and
the gentler acclivities of their bill-screens, are under
the plough, and tufted or frilled with wood ; and
they offer to the eye some fine landscapes. The
rest of the parish is all upland and pastoral; and the
greater part of it, from the southern and eastern
boundaries inward, is a wilderness of heights, not
mountainous, but never low and prevailingly bleak,
inhospitable, and rocky. Two hills in the vicinity
of the viUage rise above sea-level respectively 1,300
and 1,150 feet; and, as well other heights, command
brilliant views of Ayrshire, the frith ot Clyde, Arran,
Jura, and the Irish coast. The extent of uncul
tivated land is about 11 times that which owns
the dominion of the plough. This parish, like the
adjoining one of DalmeUington, is redolent with
reminiscences of the Covenanters ; and lifts the ap
pealing cry of solitude and ensanguined "soil against
ihe murderous oppressors who persecuted confessors
to the death. Of four persons who were martyred
about one period, one is commemorated by a tomb
stone in the churchyard. A garrison was stationed
during the persecution, in the old castle of Blair
quhan now erased. Though some cairns and other
kindred objects occur, the chief antiquities are those
noticed in our article on Loch-Doon. Blairquhan-
castle, built in 1824, situated on the Girvan about
a mile below Straiton village, surrounded with ai
highly embellished demesne, and exhibiting, in its
architecture, is a splendid and exact specimen of
the style which prevailed immediately before the
Reformation. Berbeth is a plain mansion, but beau
tifully situated on the Doon, and amid fine pleasure-
grounds. A shooting-box of the Marquis of Ailsa
overlooks the Stinchar, amid precipitous cliffs and
towering hills, and commands a region where the
eagle still builds his eyry, and where game of most
sorts is profusely abundant — The village of Strai
ton stands in the western district, 4 miles south-
south-east of Kirkmichael, 6£ south-east of Maybole,
6\ south-west of DalmeUington, and 14J south-
south-east of Ayr. It occupies a rising ground be
tween two hills on the banks of the Girvan; and,
uniform in its plan, skirted with wood, and over
hung by green declivities, it is one of the most beau
tiful of Highland villages. A few of its inhabitants
 who altogether amounted, in 1836, to upwards of
330  are employed in weaving cotton fabrics and
tartan worsted cloth for the manufacturers of Glas
gow. In 1695, the Earl of Cassilis obtained an act
of parliament for holding a weekly market, and two

annual fairs, at "the kirktoun of Straitoun." The
only other village is Patna : which see. The par
ish is traversed, and the village of Straiton inter
sected, by the road westward from New Cumnock
to Girvan, and the new road southward from Ayr
to Kirkcudbright. Population, in 1801, ),026; in
1831, 1.377. Houses 235. Assessed propertv, in
•1815, £6.221. — Straiton is in the presbytery of Ayr,
and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend£l35 Is.llri.; glebe£16. Unappropriated
teinds £'255 14s. 4d. One part of the church is
very ancient; and even the more modern part is of
uncertain date, but was altered and itnproved 40
years ago. Sittings 444. An ecclesiastical survey,
made in March 1836, exhibited the population as
then consisting of 1,383 churchmen and 34 dissent
ers, — in all, 1,417 persons. Part of the parish, pro
vided with a church of the Establishment and a
United Secession meetinghouse, belongs to the
quoad sacra parish of Patna. There are two paro
chial schools, situated respectively at Straiton and
at Patna; and two non-parochial schools. Salnry
of the Straiton schoolmaster, £31 10s., with £31
fees, and £3 other emoluments; of the Patna school
master, £11, with £25 fees. The church belonged
successively to the monks of Paisley, the monks of
Crossraguel, and the roval chapel of Stirling.
STRAjLOCH. See'NEw Machar.
STRANRAER, a burghai or town parish at the
head of Loch-Ryan in Wigtonshire. It is co-exfen-
sive, not with the town or with the parliamentary
burgh of Stranraer, but with the royal burgh ; it
comprehends about 40 acres ; and it is bounded on
the north by Loch-Ryan ; on the east and south by
Inch ; and on the west by Leswalt. The parish
was erected, in 1617, contemporaneously with the
erection of the royal burgh ; and was formed out of
little portions of S'aulseat or Inch, and Leswalt.
Though most is held in burgage, part belongs to .the
Earl of Stair, and is either subfeued by Vans Agnew
of Sheuclian, or let in leases of 99 and 999 years.
Stranraer is the seat of a presbytery in tbe synod of
Galloway. Patron, the Crown. In 1833, the par
ish-church, which had about 700 sittings, was con
demned by the presbytery as ruinous and irreparable;
and was thenceforth abandoned. An assessment
for a new erection was resisted on the ground of
informality, and led to a litigation before the Court-
of-session. The congregation met for a year in a
dissenting meeting-house, and for two summers in
the open air; and, in 1834, were provided bythe
minister, at his own expense or risk, with a tempo
rary wooden-building, having about 600 sittings. A
new parish-church has since been built ; and an ex
tension church has also been built at Hillhead, within
about 500 yards of the parish-church. Stipend£158
6s. 8d., with £30 for a house, and a glebe of 30
acres in Leswalt, mortified by a former minister, and
estimated, in 1821, at £56 a-year. There are 5 dis
senting places of worship. The meeting-house of
the first United Secession congregation, who were
established prior to 1759, was built about 1774, and
was enlarged by the erection of a gallery in 1800.
Sittings 535. Stipend £120 4s., with a manse and
a garden, the former worth £16 a-year — The meet
ing-house of the second United Secession congrega
tion was built about 45 years ago, and cost between
£500 and £600. Sittings 482. Stipend £126, with
£12 for sacramental expenses  The meeting-house
of the Reformed Presbyterian congregation, who
were established in 1797, was built in 1824; and,
besides the value of its predecessor, which was given
over to the contractor, cost upwards of £590. Sit
tings 752. Stipend £110, with a house and garden
worth £20  The meeting-house of the Relief con-

718

STRANRAER.

gregation, who were established in 1818, was built
in 1821, and cost £800. Sittings 650. Stipend £140.
—The Roman Catholic chapelis one of several, situ
ated in different towns, in which one functionary
officiates in rotation  The parochial school was
attended, in 1834, by 109 scholars; and affords in
struction in Latin, Greek, French, English writing,
arithmetic, and practical mathematics. Schoolmas
ter's salary £20, with £45 fees. There are 6 non-
parochial schools, 3 of them for males, and 3 for
females.. — The celebrated Rev. John Livingstone was
minister of Stranraer during the 10 years which ter
minated in 1648,. Population of the parish, in 1801,
1,722; in 1831, 3,329; in 1841, 4,889. Houses, in
1831, 489. Assessed property, in 1815, £1,413.
Stranraer, a considerable town, a royai burgh,
and the capital of the west of Wigtonshire, is
situated at the head of Loch-Ryan, 61 miles
north-east of Portpatrick, 9| west- north-west of
Glenluce, 50 south of Ayr, and 68| west-south-west
of Dumfries. One street, which runs with a curva
ture for 3 furlongs along the margin of Loch-Ryan ;
another of about equal length, but which commences
farther east, and, though on the whole parallel to
the former, makes several. decided bends from the
straight line ; and a third of 3£ furlongs in length,
which, while somewhat parallel to the others, begins
at a point opposite the east end of the first and nearly
the middle of the second ; — these, with 7 cross streets,
each from 100 to 200 yards in length, which connect
them, and with some clustered rows of houses a little
inland, constitute the body of both the burgh and its
suburbs. The town is divided nearly through the
middle by a streamlet, over which are thrown several
stone-bridges. Though whole streets of new houses
were built toward the end of last century, and though
the edifices were in many instances finished in a style
which would have done credit to some of the richer
and more populous towns of the kingdom, the street
arrangement was inconsiderately allowed to take
whatever form might be given ii by caprice or acci
dent, and the proportion and grouping of the build
ings were not, in any instance, made an object of
consideration. Stranraer, with a continuance of the
same oversight, has, in consequence, come to be a
town of good houses, built of fine material, and in
dividually of, for the most part, pleasing exterior,
yet whose aggregate or general appearance is taste
less and uninviting. Its site, too, has such inequa
lities of surface as are quite unfavourable for scenic
effect, and even disadvantageous for prosaic utility.
An old edifice, originally a castle, and the residence
of Kennedyof Chapel, stands in the centre of the
town, is built of whinstone, with corners and lintels
of sandstone, and is of considerable height and
strength of wall. The town-house, situated in
George-street, and built about 70 years ago, is a neat
structure. In the neighbourhood are several seats,
particularly Castle-Kennedy and Culhorn, rich in
both natural and artificial charms. The salubrious-
ness of the town, and its capacity of uniting the
facilities of a market with many of the advantages
of rustication, have rendered it the adopted home of
a considerable number of respectable annuitants.
The town and the parliamentary boundaries, though
not the royal burgh, include the villages of Trades-
ton in Inch and Clayhole, and Hillhead in Leswalt.
These are separated from the burghai district only
by an imaginary line; and jointly contain about 1,000
inhabitants. The town has recently been lighted
with gas.
Manufactures, owing to the high price of fuel,
will probably never obtain here any considerable
footing. In 183S, 105 plain looms, and 9 factory-
looms were employed on fabrics for the Glasgow

manufacturers, but with such low wages as were
half-starving to the weavers. Some tan- yards and
nail-making establishments exist in the town ; and
several extensive nurseries are maintained in the
vicinity. The fishing conducted in the loch is
chiefly for white fish and oysters. The commerce
of the town is considerably steady and prosperous.
A harbour, consisting of a long, good pier, of mo
dern erection, has proved a great convenience to
shipping; and, when completed by a structure which
is designed to form another side, may be expected
to occasion an extension of trade. At high spring
tides the water rises at the town 10 feet; and, at
ebb, it retires along a gently declining, smooth,
sandy beach, to about one-fourth of a mile's dis
tance. Vessels of 60, or even of 100 tons, can come
up close to the houses; and ships of 300 tons can
come to what is called the Road, about half-a-mile
from the town. The anchorage in the vicinity of
the pier is everywhere good and safe, and can be
endangered only by a strong north or north-west
wind, accompanied with a high tide. In 1764, only
two vessels belonged to the town, each of 30 or 35
tons. In 1792 they had increased to an aggregate
tonnage of about 1,200 tons; and, in 1835, they
were 37 in number, and carried 1,789 tons. But a
vast increase of the trade was made at the accession
of steam- vessels. Two steamers maintain weekly
communication with Glasgow, and one sails weekly
to Belfast and Whitehaven. Among the exports
are cheese, grain, and other farm-produce; cattle,
leather, and a considerable quantity of shoes  The
town has a custom-house establishment ; two prin
cipal inns, — the George and the King's-arms ; branch-
offices of the British Linen company's bank, the
Southern bank of Scotland, an'd the Glasgow Union
bank ; a reading-room ; a library-society, instituted
in 1771; a theological library; a mechanics' insti
tute ; a weekly newspaper, — ' The Galloway Regis
ter and Stranraer Advertiser;' a Stranraer and Rhinns
of Galloway agricultural society, established in 1834;
a bible society, 1819; and a Sabbath-school society,
1821. The mail-coaches between Portpatrick and
Glasgow, and between Portpatrick and Carlisle, daily
pass through the town.
Stranraer, though a town of considerable anti
quity, figured only as a burgh-of-barony so late as
the reign of James, did not receive its charter of
erection into a royal burgh till the year 1617, and
was not enrolled among the royal burghs till the
latter end of the reign of Charles II. Its charter
allotted to it the whole royalty which it at present
possesses, and conferred upon it the extensive right
of harbourage within all the creeks and landing-
places of the noble inlet of the sea at the head of
which it stands. The sett includes a provost, 2
bailies, a dean-of-guild, a treasurer, and 13 council
lors, and requires one-third of them annually to re
tire. The finances of the burgh are in a very em
barrassed state ; its heritable property is of little
productive value ; and it has few resources of rev
enue. On an average of five years, from 1827 to'
1831 inclusive, the annual income was only £149 Is.,
while the expenditure was £197 6s., thus leaving a
deficiency of £48 5s., which was met by a volun
tary assessment under the denomination of stent or
trade money. In 1833, the revenue was £225 8s.,
and it has since remained as high or increasing ; the
expenditure, in the mean time, being less. But the
burgh, without funds to pay the principal or even
the interest, has to struggle with a debt which, in
1833, amounted to nearly £6,000, by far the greater
part of which was incurred in constructing the har
bour, under a want of parliamentary sanction to
exact from vessels a compensating addition of dues.

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There are no incorporated trades; and the entrance-
money for burgess-ship varies, at the discretion of
the magistrates, from 3 to 10 guineas. No local
taxations are authorized by either charter or statute.
In 1840 the town was, for the first time, lighted
with gas ; and previously, it was destitute both of
lighting and of a public supply of water. The jail is
incommodious and insecure. The magistrates have
no patronage except the appointment of the parish-
schoolmaster, and the town-officers. Both a bailie
and a dean-of-guild court are held ; and they jointly
tried, during the 10 years which terminated in 1833,
774 civil cases; and the former tried, during the
same period, only 11 criminal cases. A sheriff cir
cuit small debt court is held 6 times a-year ; and a
justice-of-peace small debt court is held on the first
Monday of every month. A weekly market is held
on Friday ; and annual fairs are .held for horses on
tbe Thursday before the New year's Ayr fair ; on the
Friday before Whitsunday; on the last Friday of
July at Sandmill; on the 3d and last Fridays of
September at Sandmill; for horses on the Thursday
before Michaelmas Ayr fair; and on the last Friday
of November at Sandmill. Stranraer unites with
Wigton, Whithorn, and New Galloway, in sending
a member to parliament. Constituency, in 1839,
220; in 1841, 205.
STRATH — properly Strath-swordle — an He
bridean parish, in Skye, Inverness-shire. It is
bounded on the north by Portree ; on the east by
the sound which washes ihe continental district of
Applecross, and by the entrances to Lochs Carron
and Alsh ; on the south by Sleat ; and on the west by
the ocean and by Bracadale. Its length, from west-
north, west to east-south-east, is 28 miles; its breadth
is 7 miles ; and its area is 54,768 acres. It includes the
islands of Scalpa, Pabba, and Longa : which see.
The northern district comprehends most of the sub
lime scenery of Corriskin, Scavaig, and Sligi-
chan, and also the magnificent spar-cave of Strath
aird : see these articles. All the parish, excepting
about 2,100 acres of arable grounds, and 600 acres of
woodlands, is upland waste or pasture. The flat or
low grounds lie chiefly in the centre. The hills in the
north are conical, peaked, soaring, and naked ; and
those in the other districts are prevailingly heath.
Where limestone abounds, the pasture is rich and
luxuriant ; but where the primitive rocks occur, they
are of a kind to yield little soil, and maintain a scanty
and inferior herbage. The soil of the arable grounds
is partly clay, partly a black loam, and partly re
claimed moss. Sandstone, chiefly of a light blue
colour, is quarried for building ; and limestone is
worked, both as a manure and as a coarse yet orna
mental marble. Deep bays and sea-lochs numerously
indent the coast, and afford safe and commodious an
chorage for vessels of any burden. Of these, the
chief, on the east, are Loch-Ainort, Broadford-bay,
and Loch-na-Beste ; and, on the west, are Lochs
Eyshort, Slappin, and Scavaig. The herring-fishery,
in these bays, formerly employed 60 or 70 vessels of
aggregately about 2,400 tons burden ; but has so se
riously declined as to have become all but a total
failure. The cod and ling fishing is carried on dur
ing the first third of the year, and continues to be
productive. The salmon-fishing is not extensive.
A bank of small but excellent oysters lies between
the coast and Scalpa. Ruins exist, respectively at
Aisk, Kilbride, and Kilmorie, of 3 ancient chapels.
Ruins of 7 circular towers, each in sight of the next,
and all surmounting rocks, stand in the west ; and
from the southernmost commences a series in Sleat ;
and, from these, a series on the opposite shore of
Arisaig. A number of tumuli in the east are tradi
tionally said to mark the scene of a conflict wiih the

Danes. A cave in the north is an object of interest
to the curious for having, during several nights, in
1746, afforded shelter to Prince Charles Edward, A
rocking-stone, consisting of a prodigious block of
granite, and moveable by a single finger, stands on
the glebe. Two pleasant modern hamlets, each with
an inn, stand at Broadford and Kyleakin. Annual
fairs for horses and black cattle are held at Broad
ford on the Thursday after the last Tuesday of Slay
and July. Within the parish are parliamentary and
statute-labour roads, to the extent respectively of
30 and 10 miles. Steam-boats from the, Clyde touch
weekly in summer, and fortnightly in winter. Popu
lation, in 1801, 1,748; in 1831, 2,962. Houses 555.
Assessed property, in 1815, £S09. — Strath is in
the presbytery of Skye, and synod of Glenelg. Pa
tron, the Crown. Stipend £271 2s. 6d. ; glebe
£20. The parish-church is of unascertained date
of erection, and was re-seated about 47 years ago.
Sittings about 300. At a preaching-station in Strath
aird, where a cave serves for a pulpit, and the open
ground without as a church, the minister officiates
every third Sabbath, when weather permits. A
Baptist congregation was established in the parish
about the year 1824; but the minister officiates only
in farm-houses or the open air. Stipend £45, paid
by the Baptist Home Missionary society. A cate-
chist makes three circuits of a month each in the
year, and annually receives £4 from the kirk-ses
sion. In 1834, the parish-school was attended by
138 scholars; and 6 schools, maintained by public
societies or subscription, were attended by 158.
Parochial schoolmaster's salary £30, with from £6
to £10 fees, and £2 other emoluments.
STRATHAEN. See Strachan.
STRATHAIRD, the northern district of the
parish of Strath, in the island of Skye. The name
properly belongs to a sublime alpine promontory
which projects between Lochs Slappin and Scavaig,
and is par excellence the 'aird 'of 'Strath.' But
the Strathaird estate — now the property of Macalis
ter of Loup in Argyleshire — comprehends about
16,000 acres. Of the magnificent natural objects
which enrich it, and which are indicated in the ar
ticle on Strath, not the least attractive is Strath
aird cave. This splendid curiosity occurs on the
north side of Loch-Slappin, at the head of a long,
straight, deep, narrow cut which the sea has made
in the face of a lofty and vertical range of cliffs.
Its entrance looks like an ordinary fissure ; yet con
ducts to scenes which mock the most elaborate
efforts of the arts. " The first entrance to this
celebrated cave," says Sir Walter Scott, in a note
of his Lord of the Isles, "is rude and unpromis
ing ; but the light of the torches with which we
were provided was soon reflected from the roof,
floor, and walls, which seem as if they were sheeted
with marble, partly smooth, partly rough, seeming
to be wrought into statuary. The floor forms a steep
and difficult ascent, and might be fancifully com
pared to a sheet of water which, while it rushed
whitening and foaming down a declivity, had been
suddenly arrested by the spell of an enchanter.
Upon attaining the summit of the ascent, the cave
opens into » splendid gallery, adorned with the most
dazzling crysiallizations, and finally descends with
rapidity to the brink of a pool of the most limpid
water, about four or five yards broad. This pool,
surrounded by the most fanciful mouldings in a sub
stance resembling white marble, and distinguished
by the depth and purity of its waters, might have
been the bathing-grotto of a Naiad." " On the inner
side of this .well," says another writer, " the rock
has assumed a fanciful and gigantic resemblance to
a human figure, which, in its robes of pure white,

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looks like the watchful but motionless guardian
giant of this beauteous sparry grotto." Serious de
predations have been made on the exquisite sta-
lactitic formations by that class of virtuosi who ap
pear to be a sort of large-sized mischievous school
boys, and who would no doubt delight to pocket the
nose of the Venus de Medici ; but they have prompt
ed the proprietor to protect the cave by a gate and
padlock, and are in the course of being repaired by
the silent and wondrous chemistry of Nature.
STRATHAIRDLE, or Strathardle, a long,
bold, Highland glen in Perthshire, watered by the
Airdle : which see. It extends from Tulloch in
Moulin 10} miles south-south-eastward to the con
fluence of the Airdle and the Shee ; and compre
hends a small part of Moulin and Kinloch parishes,
and large parts of Kirkmichael and Blairgowrie.
Its mean breadth, measured between the summit-
lines or water-sheds of its hill-screens, is nearly 5
miles, but, measured between the bases of its de
clivities, is very inconsiderable.
STRATHALLAN, the beautiful and fertile
valley in Perthshire which is watered by the
Allan': which see. It consists chiefly of the main
parts of Blackford and Dunblane parishes, and the
minor part of Logie. The district gives the title of
Viscount to a branch of the noble family of Drum
mond, created Lord Madderty in 1609, and Viscount
Strathallan in 1686. The titles were attainted in
1746, and restored in 1824. The seat of the Vis
counts is Strathallan-castle.
STRATHAVEN, a narrow Highland valley in
the south-west of Banffshire. It commences among
the Cairngorm alpines ; extends northward through
the parishes of Kirkmichael and Inveraven ; aud
is traversed from head to foot by the river Aven.
See these articles.
STRATHAVEN, a considerable town in the
parish of Avondale, Lanarkshire. It was erected into
a burgh-of-barony in 1450, and had an extensive
commonty grantedto the burgesses, all of which has
long ago become private property. It has a weekly
market on Thursdays, and five annual fairs ; but,
having no public funds, has no other magistracy than
a baron-bailie, nominated by the Duke of Hamilton.
Strathaven lies 7J miles south of Hamilton; 16
south-east of Glasgow ; 13£ north of Muirkirk ; and
13£ north-east of Newmills. Population nearly 4,000,
who are chiefly supported by weaving. The eccle
siastical statistics have been given under the head
Avondale. STRATHBEG (Loch), a lake on the boundary
between Lonmay and Crimond, and 1^ mile west of
Rattray Head, near the north-east extremity of
Aberdeenshire. It extends parallel with the coast ;
measures 2£ miles in length, and 550 acres in area;
and is separated from the sea by a ridge of sand
hills, about half-a-mile broad. It formerly had a
tidal communication with the ocean, and was navi
gable by small sea-borne vessels ; but about the year
1720, a strong east wind blew a mass of sand into
the channel, and stopped the communication.
STRATHBLANE, a parish in Stirlingshire;
bounded on the west and north by Killearn; on
the east by Campsie ; on the south by Baldernock and
the Stirlingshire part of New Kilpatrick ; and on the
south-west by the Dumbartonshire part of New Kil
patrick. Its form is oblong, stretchingnorth and south,
and measuring 5 miles by 4. The parish has its name
from the river Blane, and comprehends the upper
and larger half of the beautiful valley which that
stream traverses, and of the' valley's picturesque
hill-screens. Strathblane, in a large sense, or one
which includes the whole basin of the Blane, is a
depression or cut across the breadth of the' Len

nox-hills, separating the Campsie, or rather the
strictly Lennox range, from the range which, run
ning along the two Kilpatricks, bears their name.
A swell or low broad-based ridge across the head
or south end of the strath serves slenderly to con
nect the two great hilly detachments, and at the
same time forms a water-shed between the feeders
of the Blane and those of fhe Allanton, and consti
tutes the boundary between Strathblane and Bal
dernock. The parish consists of the valley and its
screens, — the latter boldly hilly on the east, and
comparatively soft and gentle on the west. The
valley widens, and the heights recede as the river
advances to the north. The loftiest hill in the par
ish is Earl's-seat at the north-east extremity, which
towers above the rest of the range, and has a conical
top. The Blane has here its source ; and running
south-south-westward hence for 3 miles, is precipi
tated over several very high and picturesque falls,
and then bends suddenly round, and flows toward the
north-west : see Blane. Six lakes or lochlets, the
largest of them not more than 4 furlongs in length,
and 2 in breadth, are situated in the gentle uplands
in the extreme south, and, with the aid of wood,
render a naturally bleak and dull moor part of a
cheerful and fine landscape. The lochlets are fre
quented by numerous aquatic fowls, and, as well as
the Blane, furnish ample sport to the angler. A
basaltic colonnade, of about a furlong in extent,
stretches along the precipitous face of part of the
eastern screen of the valley. The columns are
quadrangular, pentagonal, and hexagonal ; they mea
sure 30 feet in height, and from 2 to 3 in diameter ;
and they rise with a little inclination from the per
pendicular, and, in some instances, are apparently
bent into the segment of a curved line. A tourist
entering the parish from the south, supposes, for a
brief distance, that he has exchanged a region of
fertile fields for one of dull moor ; but he speedily
passes among cultivated grounds, smiling lochlets,
and pleasant woods ; and, descending into the val
ley, he is charmed with a general joyousness and
luxuriance,— -he sees the hills gemmed along their
base with neat villas, and occasionally streaked upon
their sides with a careering cascade, — he marks how
hanging expanses of wood grandly terminate in bold
declivities, or abrupt precipices of rock, — he sees
before him the insulated hill of Dumgoiac in the
north-west, lifting up from the plain a huge cone
feathered all over with forest, — and between this
and a shoulder of the eastern hills which projects at
the place like tbe pedestal of an arch, he looks away
as through a vast vista, along the rich and beautiful
plains beyond, till the view is pent up, at 14 miles
distance, by the Lomond mountains. Duntreath-
castle, the property of Sir Archibald Edmonstone,
Bart., is of high but unknown antiquity, and seems
to have been a place of considerable strength. Mug.
dock-castle, now a ruin, and also of unascertained
antiquity, is strengthened on two sides by a lake, the
waters of which were anciently drawn along the
other sides in ditches, and it must have been inac
cessible to any force which could be brought against.
it in the old times of rude warfare : its square tower,
of peculiar construction, is still nearly entire. Three
hundred yards distant from the tower is an echo
which repeats, in exact tone and accent, any word or
phrase of six syllables, and reverberates even a
whisper. Mary, Countess of Angus, daughter of
Robert III., and wife of Sir William Edmonstone,
lies interred in the parish-church. The village of
Strathblane stands on the left bank of the Blane, 3
miles north of Milngavie, 3} west of Campsie, and 4
south-east of Killearn. Some of its inhabitants are
weavers in the employment of the Glasgow manu-

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facturers. Bleaching has long been extensively con
ducted in its vicinity, and is aided by great softness,
purity, and abundance of water from the Blane, and
some rills. There is also a printfield. Population
of the parish, in 1801, 784; in 1831, 1,033. Houses
115. Assessed property, in 1815, £4,899. Strath
blane is in the presbytery of Dumbarton, and synod
of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the Duke of Mon
trose. Stipend £231 16s. 5d.; glebe £12 -10s. In
1834, the parish-school was attended by 35 scholars ;
and there were 3 private schools, conducted by 4
teachers. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with
£15 fees. In 1450, the church, along with those of
Fintry and Bonhili, was given by the Duchess of
Albany to the collegiate church of Dumbarton.
STRATHBqGIEt a district in Aberdeenshire.
Geographically, it consists simply of the small vale
of the river Bogie, extending near the western fron
tier of the county from the centre of Auchindoir to
the town of Huntly [see Auchindoir] ; but, po-
Utically, it constitutes one of the five divisions of
Aberdeenshire, anciently called lordships or than-
ages, consists of the whole original estaie conferred
by King Robert Bruce on the noble family of Gor
don, and comprehends over hill and dale, and on both
sides of the Bogie, an area of 120 square miles. In
1424, when its proprietor was one of the hostages
for the ransom of James I., its rental was estimated
at one-half of that of the estates of the high-con
stable of Scotland. The name of the district, as al
most every Scotsman knows, is intimately associated
with Scottish lyrics and music. The presbytery of
Strathbogie belongs to the synod of Moray, consists
of twelve parishes, chiefly within the limits of Aber
deenshire and Banffshire ; and has acquired no little
notoriety in connexion with the curious proceedings
in the case of Marnoch. See Marnoch.
STRATHBRAN, a picturesque valley in Perth
shire, in the parish of Little Dunkeld. See Bran.
STRATHBRORA. See Rogart.
STRATHBUNGO,* a village in the south-east
angle of that portion of the parish of Govan which
is situated in Renfrewshire. It is about 2 miles south
of Glasgow, and stands on both sides of the turnpike
road. A neat chapel in connection with the estab
lishment was recently erected on the east side of the
road ; — patrons, the subscribers. In title-deeds this
place is usually called Marchtown, obviously from its
being situated on the march or boundary of the par
ish and county ; and under that name it is set down
on Thomson's Map of Renfrewshire. The popula
tion is about 300.
STRATHCLYDE. See Introductory Ar
ticle, and Lanarkshire.
STRATHCONAN, a district of country in Ross-
shire, about 15 miles long and 13 broad, situated at
about 12 miles to the westward of Dingwall on the
Cromarty frith, and consisting of about 70,000 acres
of sheep-pasture, and 1,000 of arable land. It is in
tersected hy the rivers Conan, Meig, and Orrin, and
the Parliamentary-road from the east to the west of
Scotland runs along the north side of it. There are
grouse and ptarmigan shootings here, and good fish
ing. The strath is also noted for its honey.
STRATHDEARN, a district partly in Nairn
shire, but chiefly in Inverness-shire. It consists of
all the Highland section of the basin, or glen and
hill-screens of the river Findhorn; and extends
north-eastward from near the sources of that river,
to about the point where it passes into Morayshire.
See Findhorn (The).
* The first syllable of this name may have reference to a
small strath or hollow close to the village : the remainder may
be a corruption of the name of Mango, the patron-saint of the
neighbouring city.
II.

STRATHDON, a parish on the western frontier
of Aberdeenshire. Its main body is bounded on the
west, north-west, and north by Banffshire ; on the
north-east by Glenbucket ; on the east by Migvy
and Logie-Coldstone ; and on the south by Glen-
muick and Braemar. A detached part, consisting of
Glenkindy, lies from f of a mile to 3 miles to the
north-easi ; and is surrounded by Cabrach, Kildrum
mie, Towie, Migvy, and Glenbucket. The main
body embosoms a part of Tarland, which measures
6\ miles by from 1 j to 3J. The whole parish, mea
sured so as to include the intersecting parts, ex
tends 16 miles from north-east to south-west, and
9 miles in the opposite direction. The south-west
ern district cradles the Don amidst a mass of
mountains, and forms the territory of a mission of
the Establishment : see Corgarf. Two mountain-
glens commence near the western boundary, ex
tend respectively along the north and the south
sides of the embosomed district of Tarland, con
verge at the east end of that district, and thence
form one valley to the eastern boundary. That
on the north brings down the rivulet Nochtie,
[which see] ; and that on the south, and away east
ward, carries along the Don. Glenkindy, or the
detached part of the parish, is a. hilly valley, extend
ing southward ; and brings down the rivulet Kindy
to fall into the Don a little above the kirk of Towie.
The arable land lies all in these glens, and most
of it in that of the Don ; it consists of consider
able haughs of belts of hanging plain, and of the
skirts of pastoral heights ; and it possesses, in gen
eral, a light, sharp, and somewhat fertile soil. Hilly
ranges of considerable height and breadth flank the
glens, and render the general aspect of the parish
upland, wild, and Highland. The hills are prevail
ingly heath-clad ; and in their loftier altitudes, are
covered with a black spongy soil, inclining to moss ;
yet, in many parts, they are good sheep-walk, and,
in most, they abound with game. Natural woods
are of small extent ; but several fine plantations of
fir fling their shadows over the Don. Granite,
limestone, and a coarse slate abound. The Doun
of Invernochtie, situated near the church, is a beau
tiful, oval, artificial mound, "terminating in a plat
form of half-an-acre in area, and once fortified by
a wall round the summit, and a ditch round the"
base ; but it exists only in topography, and is un
known to either history or tradition. The mansions
are Glenkindy and Achernach. The parish is very
limitedly penetrated by roads. Population, in 1801,
1,354; in 1831, 1,683. Houses 344. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £2,672. — Strathdon is in the presby
tery of Alford, and synod of Aberdeen. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £191 8s. 7d. ; glebe £2 12s. 6d.
The church was built in 1757, and re-seated in
1808 or 1809. Sittings 504. In 1834, the parish-
school was attended by 98 scholars ; and six other
schools by 361. Three of the non-parochial schools
are supported by the Society for Propagating Chris
tian Knowledge ; and a fourth is for females. Par
ochial schoolmaster's salary £28, with about £10
fees, and £1 5s. other emoluments.
STRATHEARN, the basin of the river Earn
and its tributaries in Perthshire, and one of the
richest and most exquisitely scenic tracts of coun
try in Scotland. It extends nearly 40 miles almost
due east and west, from the head of Loch-Earn to
the mouth of the river Earn below Perth, and has
a mean breadth, including its flanking heights, of
between 6 and 8 miles. The parishes, either wholly
or partially, comprehended in it; are mentioned in the
article Earn : which see. The district, during the
existence of hereditary jurisdictions, constituted a
stewartry. Strathearn has such a profusion and va-
2 2

STR

722

STR

riety of rich pictures and features of landscape as
to smile derision upon any attempt at succinct de
scription. Its lower division expands into flat
grounds of several miles in breadth, beautifully en
closed and planted, powdered all over with man
sions and villages, adorned with demesne and every
form of culture and artificial embellishment, and
perpetually refreshing a traveller with the disclo
sure, throughout its exultant plain and its sloping
hill-screens, of new and thrilling beauties. In this
division, Abernethy, Duplin-castle, and Auchterar
der draw attention ; and in the upper division, Drum
mond-castle, Ochtertyre-house, Lawers, and above
all, Dunira, offer, in their immediate grounds, and
in the prospects which they command, a complete
banquet of the delights of landscape. The scenery
from Crieff to Loch-Earn, a distance of 10 or 1 1
miles, is in the highest degree romantic and fascinat
ing ; and,, as to its salubrity, has been termed by tra
vellers, the Montpellier of Scotland. Over the up
per half of this distance, and round Loch-Earn it
self, pictures of ruggedness and romance arrayed in
forest are presented of a character hardly, if at all,
inferior to those of the Trosachs. At Dunira, 2£
miles below the lake, the valley becomes narrowed ;
the rugged Grampians seern threatening an invasion;
the immediate flanking heights appear to close and
to send up their summits to the clouds ; yet oaks
and other wood run in brigades up the bold acclivi
ties, and are repelled at intervals only by pinnacles
of naked rock, towering aloft in defiance ; copse-
wood spreads out in tufts upon the sides and sum
mits of insulated hills which straggle in the plain;
verdure and foliase, or the mellowing crops, have
full possession of the intervening fields ; the river
Earn wends in a meandering course among the
wooded and diversified grounds, spanned by a
Chinese bridge ; and the lawns, and walks, and
bowers, the curious retreats, and the numerous em
bellishments of Dunira, themselves a study, preside
over the many-tinted and magnificent scene. — The
Grampians, which close up and screen the higher
part of the strath, with the exception of a patch of
granite between Beniphonie and Loch-Earn, and of a
Stripe of clay-slate which comes within about 2 miles
of Crieff, consist chiefly of micaceous schist, with
occasional beds of quartz and hornblende schist.
The isolated hills, which contribute such pictur-
esqueness to the upper valley, are composed now of
a red sandstone in almost vertical beds, and now of
a very coarse red conglomerate, chiefly consisting of
hornblende porphyry, and sometimes resembling the
common greywacke. The lower division of the
strath, an* all the low grounds among the isolated
hills, from 2 miles below Comrie eastward, lie upon
the old redstone, which for the most part is quite,
or nearly horizontal, but as it approaches the Ochils,
is'thrown up so as to dip, from a few degrees to up
wards of 70 toward the north or the north-east.
Strathearn anciently gave the title of Earl to a
branch of the royal family of Stewart ; and it gave
the title of Duke in the Scottish peerage to his royal
highness the Duke of Kent, and father of Queen
Victoria. STRATHERRICK, a district of Inverness-shire.
It extends along the south-west side of Loch-Ness,
but is, for the most part, separated from that lake
by a narrow range of hills; and it forms an upper
table-land, cut across by the rivers Foyers and Fari-
gag. The strath is broad and open, and expands on
the nprth into a wide elevated plain; it is occa
sionally tumulated with hills, and is variously in
meadow, arable grounds, and moorland ; and it has a
cincture of granitic heights Which shoot aloft in
numerous naked summits.

STRATHFARRAR, the ancient name of all the
basin of Loch-Beauly, and the rivers Beauly ahd
Farrar, from Inverness to the head of Glenstrath-
farrar. The Romans, most probably Latinizing a
name which they found already in use, called Loch-
Beauly and the inner Moray frith iEstuarius-Varrar.
STRATHFILLAN, a glen of about 10 miles in
length from west to east, in the extreme west of the
parish of Killin and of Perthshire. It is, as to scen
ery, of uninteresting character. Its west end is the
source of the remotest waters of the Tay, and, of
course, lies at a vast height above sea-level. In
1836, Strathfillan, comprehending the glen properly
so called and some adjacent territory, was erected,
hy authority of the presbytery of Weem, into a quoad
sacra parish. The district was long before a station
of the Society for propagating Christian knowledge,
who still appoint and chiefly support the minister;
and in ancient times it was the site of a chapel dedi
cated to St. Fillan, and associated with monstrous
popish superstitions. But a bell and a pool shared
more largely than even the chapel in the confidence
of absurd credulity.
STRATHFLEAT. See Rogakt.
STRATHGLASS, a district, comprehending the
basins of the rivers Glass and Beauly, on the north
ern border of Inverness-shire. The lower part of
the strath comprehends the superb scenery around
the town of Beauly, — a nearly circular plain, zoned
with high-terraced banks, screened with densely
wooded ascents, and overhung by brown, rugged
and rocky heights. A little farther up are the ex
quisite combinations of Highland landscape around
the falls of Kilmorack: which see. Above the
gorge, of these falls opens a broad and flat valley,
resembling the forsaken bed of an ancient lake, and
retaining the Beauly in sluggish motion. A little
below the confluence of the Glass and the Farrar
stands Erchless-castle, " belonging," says Miss Sin
clair, " to the descendants of that old chief, who
said there were but three persons in the world en
titled to be called ' The,' — the King, the Pqpe, and
the Chisholm. This place is beauty personified;
and you would fall in love with it at first sight.
The castle is a venerable white-washed old tower,
so entirely surrounded by a wreath of hills, that the
glen seems scooped out on purpose to hold ihe house
and park." The upper strath, or that traversed by
the^Glass, is straight, thoroughly pastoral, and every
where winged with coppices of birch. Behind these
coppices were formerly noble forests of pine, extend
ing in unbroken sheets to the summits of ihe hills ;
and they made the strath famous for its timber and
for impulse which the exportation of it gave to a
scanty commerce ; but, with the exception of a few
solitary trees, they have been wholly swept away by
burnings, and the system of sheep-pasturing.
STRATHGRYFE—the valley of the Gryfe—
the ancient name of the district of Renfrewshire
traversed by that river, and probably also extended
to the greater part, if not the whole, of what now
forms the county of Renfrew. The name repeatedly
occurs in deeds dated in the latter half of the 12th
century, but without affording any means of ascertain
ing the precise limits of the district : see Crawfurd's
Renfrewshire, pp. 9, 10,. 99, and 133. Principal
Dunlop — evidently having in view the deeds referred
to — said, in his Description of the County, written
in the end of the 17th century, — " This Gryfe gave
name to the northerly part of the shire, which was
called Strathgryfe about the year 1180." In our
day, the author of Caledonia says, — " The country
which is drained by the river Gryfe and its tributary
streams, forming the larger and western division of
the shire was called, in the ancient language,

STR

723

STR

Strathgryfe and by popular abbreviation, Stragryfe.
The district of Strathgryfe was bounded on the east
by the river Black Cart, and comprehended the
country lying westward to the Clyde," vol. iii. p.
762. On the other hand, Crawford, who was a con
temporary of Dunlop, makes no such limitation, but
states, in general terms, that " the ancient denomi
nation of this country — meaning Renfrewshire — was
Strathgryfe, so called from one of its principal rivers
(p. 9) ; and Wilson expresses himself to ihe same
effect in his Survey, published in 1812 (p. 1). The
name has long been out of use, and is oniy preserved
in the charters of some of the landed proprietors.
STRATHLACHLAN, anciently Kilvorrie, a
parish now united to Strachur in Argyleshire. It
is 11 miles south by west of Inverary. Macblach-
lan is an elegant building, near the old tower of
Castle-LacMan, and in the centre of a noble estate,
11 miles in length, and at an average a mile-and-a-
half in breadth, stretching in one continued line
along the eastern side of Loch-Fyne. The name of
the parish is partly derived from Lachlan, — a family
of considerable distinction among the Highland clans,
and whose residence has been in Strathlachlan for
time immemorial.
STRATHMARTIN. See Mains.
STRATHMASHIE, a glen about 4| miles long,
in the most mountainous part of Badenoch, Inver
ness-shire. It brings the rivulet Mashie from a
point within 3J miles of the head of Loch-Ericht
down to the Spey ; and it carries up, for 2 or 3 miles
from Strathspey, the excellent new road by way of
Loch-Laggan to Fort- WilUam.
STRATHMIGLO, a parish in Fifeshire, about
7 miles long, and 3} broad, lying on the small water
of Miglo, one of the tributary streams of the Eden ;
bounded by the main body of Abernethy on the
north; Auchtermuchty and Falkland on the east;
Portmoak and Orwell on the south ; and Arngask
on the west. The population of the parish has more
than doubled since 1790, when the first statistical
account was written. In 1801, it was 1,629; in
1831, 1,940. The population at present is rather
above 2,000. In 1837, the population of the old
burgh, and 1,000 yards around, was found on a cen
sus being taken by the burgh-feuars to be rather
above 1,300. With the exception of the upper por
tion of the West Lomond-hill, which altogether may
contain about 1,128 acres,'partly planted and partly
in pasture, the whole of the remaining portion of
the lands of the parish are either arable or under
wood. There are altogether under wood about 270
acres, of which about 30 acres on the lands of
Drumdriel is natural wood, chiefly oak and hazel,
and supposed to have at one time formed part of
Falkland-forest, which, according to tradition, skirted
the north-west of the Lomonds to Kinesswood. The
soU differs considerably on the south and north sides
of the Miglo, but in both cases is abundantly fertile.
The rent of land varies from £1 to £3 per acre;
but there are some fields near the town which let as
high as from £4 to £5 per acre. The valued rent
of the parish is £7,068 3s. 4d. Scots. The real rent
in 1792 was £2,926 sterUng. The annual value of
real property, in 1815, was £8,353 sterling. The
Unen manufacture is the chief employment of the
inhabitants of Strathmiglo, and the other villages in
the parish. The weavers are employed, through
agents, in weaving dowlas and sheeting for the
manufacturers of Dundee, Newburgh, and Cupar;
stripes and ticking for the manufacturers of Kirk
caldy; and, of late, in weaving diaper, damask, and
towelling, for the manufacturers of Dunfermline.
A few are employed also in weaving cotton goods
for the manufacturers of Glasgow, and soft woollen

shawls for Tillicoultry. Altogether, there are about
500 looms employed in the parish in these different
branches of manufacture. There is one spinning-
mill in the parish, driven by a water-wheel of six
horse-power. There is also a lint-mill for the pre.
paration of lint for spinning, likewise driven hy a
water-wheel of six horse-power; and between Edens-
head and Courston there is a wool-mill driven by a
water-wheel of the same power. In the immediate
vicinity of the town, and upon tbe water of Miglo,
there is a bleachfield at which linen-yarn is bleached,
and where there is a water-wheel of the same power.
Besides these there are four corn-mills, one flour-
mill, and a barley-mill, all driven by the water of
Miglo or Eden. The whole amount of power for
which this river and its small tributary streams are
made efficient within the parish, is calculated at 90
horse-power. There are two malting-barns and two
breweries within the town. On the south side of
the river there are quarries of red freestone, which
are >pretty extensively worked.
This parish is interesting as having been the
scene of at least one great battle, at some very re
mote period. The numerous cairns and tumuli,
with which its surface is covered, and the stone-
coffins enclosing skeletons, pits containing quanti
ties of skulls, ancient weapons, and various other
remains, which have from time to time been dis
covered here, all indicate the locality of a battle
ground, and tradition confirms the fact, that a great
battle was fought near a ford on the Eden called
Merlsford, in which the slaughter was so great that
the river ran red for twenty-four hours afterwards.
It has been conjectured that this is the long disputed
site of the great battle of Mons Grampius, described
by Tacitus as having been fought between the Ro
man army under Agricola in his seventh campaign
after his arrival in Britain, (supposed to have been
in the summer of the year 84 or 85,) and the Cale
donians under Galgacus.*
The burgh of Strathmiglo, with its several
suburbs, is pleasantly situated on the level ground
which forms the banks of the Miglo, at the east end
of the parish. The burgh, and the suburbs called
Kirklands, Stedmoreland, and Templelands, occupy
the north bank; and the feus of Wester-Cash, and
the town-feus, the south bank of the stream. Strath
miglo consists of one principal street, of rather an
antique and picturesque appearance, running parallel
to the river, with four or five wynds running at right
angles to it, and a lane called the East and West
Back Dykes, passing at the head of the gardens of
the feus on the north side. The Kirklands are situ
ated on the south side of the principal street, at its
eastern extremity ; the Templelands are also on the
same side of the street, about the middle of the town ;
and the Stedmoreland-feus are situated at the west
ern extremity on both sides of the street. The feus
of Wester-Cash form a street rather more than one-
quarter of a mile in length of well-built tradesmen's
houses, also running parallel with the river; and
the town-feus, called Eden-street — which is only of
recent erection — lie in the same direction to the
south-west of the western extremity of the Cash-
feus. The burgh is distant from Cupar 11 miles;
* The Rev. Mr. Small, who for some time resided at Edens-
head, was the first, we believe, who suggested this idea. In
the winter of 1829-30, Colonel Millar read an essay on the sub.
ject before the society of Antiquaries iu Edinburgh, which has
beeu since published in their Transactions. Colonel Millar
having the advantage of long military experience, acquired iu
active service, being well-acquainted with the whole localities,
and having carefully examined the various Roman and British
antiquities in Fife, has certainly made out a very strong case
in favour of this parish having been the scene ot this battle;
and we believe that noattempt has yet been made to overturn
his reasoning upon the subject.

724

STRATHMIGLO.

from Falkland 3 ; from Perth 12 ; and from Kinross
8 miles. In 1509, Sir William Scott of Balweary,
whose ancestors had long held the lands of Strath-
miglo, obtained a crown-charter from James IV.,
uniting certain lands possessed by him to the barony
of ' Strameglo,' and erecting the whole into one
barony, to be called the barony of Strathmiglo. In
this charter he also received power to erect that
town or village into a burgh-of-barony ; but no ad
vantage was taken of this power for 100 years after
wards. In 1600, however, Sir James Scott, the 4th
in descent from Sir William, granted a charter to 19
different feuars who held of him, erecting them into
a hurgh-of-barony ; and by three subsequent charters
granted immediately afterwards, he included three
other feuars who held of him in the burgh. The
whole of these charters were confirmed by a crown-
charter from James VI. under the great seal, of date
26th June, 1605. By the charters, the feuars ob
tained the usual powers and privileges of burghs-of-
barony, of holding courts, exacting fines and customs
to be applied to their own use, &c. ; and the liberty
of '" having and holding within the said burgh ane
tolbooth, and arte pair of gallows, and ane weekly
market on Fridae, and twa public fairs yearly, to
witt. : at the feast of Sant Cyralus, being the 9th
day of Junij, and the feast of Sant Crispian, the
25th of October." * Immediately after the granting
of the charter, the bailies, who were two in num
ber, were appointed by the superior, a procurator-
fiscal was also appointed, and courts were regularly
held as in other burghs. A jail and town-house had
stood at this time on the north side of the street,
immediately behind the cross, a little west of the
Kirk-wynd; and here the juggs or gallows were
erected, where criminals were punished by being
fixed in them for a certain period. The records of
the baron's court are still preserved, and contain
many curious cases, iUustrative of the habits and
manners of the period. About the year 1730, after
the superiority had passed into the hands of the
Lords Balfour of Burleigh, the burgesses resigned
their old jail into the hands of the superior, and
purchased the present town-house, which is smaller,
but more in the centre of the town. Having ob
tained a right to the stones of the old castle of
Strathmiglo from the superior, they, in. 1734, erected
in front of the town-house a handsome steeple, con
sisting of a square tower, terminating in an open
balustrade, and surmounted by an octagonal spire
70 feet in height.-f The space within the foot of
the steeple, which is secured by two doors, one of
wood and another of iron, is used as a lock-up-house,
when one is found necessary. After the passing of
the act, aboUshing heritable jurisdictions, in 1748,
the superior having the power of nominating the
bailies, the burgh of Strathmiglo fell under the sweep
of that act, and were consequently deprived of their
magistrates, a want which they still continue to feel.
Notwithstanding that the burgesses have again fallen
into the state of simple feuars, they are still fully
* At a much earlier period there had been a yearly fair or
market held at Strathmiglo on Martinmas-day, which in 1437
was, by charter of James II,, ordered to be discontinued, and
was transferred to the county-town of Cupar, where it was
afterwards held. It is probable that there was no public' fair
held at Strathmiglo thereafter, till the charter of Sir James
Scott was granted in 1600, and confirmed by the.Crnwn in 1605.
f The steeple contains a clock, and a bell measuring 30 inches
in diameter at the base, with the inscription, ' Strathmiglo,
1766, Leder and Pack of Loudon,' and the motto, ' Tempos
fugit.' In front of the steeple are stUl seen— .very well-exe
cuted and in good preservation— the arms of the Lady Mar
garet Balfour of Burleigh, the superior at the time; and im.
mediately below them, an old stone-dial which formerly sur
mounted the cross, and ia said, to have been the work of the
last Roman Catholic priest of the pariah. Here tlie juggs or
gallows— being an iron collar fixed into, the wall on one side
of the door by a short iron-chain— remained until very ruceutly.

vested in the property which belonged to the burgh,
consisting of the town-house, town-lands, &c. The
affairs of the burgh are now managed by a committee
of the feuars, elected at an annual general meeting
of their body, and consisting of a preses, six mem
bers, and clerk. The common muir over which the
feuars had the servitude already mentioned, was
divided about 1774, between the feuars and the
superior, who then purchased back all their shares
except two, and disponed back to them, in common,
several small pieces of ground in return. When the
Lomond-hill was divided in 1818, the burgh-feuara
got a small portion in cumulo, effeiring to their pri
vate property. This was afterwards excambed with
the superior for some ground near one of the com
mons, along with which it is divided among them,
according to the extent of their properties, for build
ing. Of the two fairs granted to the town, one has
now fallen into desuetude ; the fair in June being
the only one now held; but no customs are now
exacted at it. Strathmiglo is not a post-town, but
there is a penny post-office, subordinate to the office
at Kinross. No public conveyance passes through
either the town or any part of the parish ; and the
nearest point at which the coach between Edinburgh
and the north of Scotland can be met is»at New Inn,
distant about 6 miles to the south-east. The Kirk
lands, the suburb to the east of the town, and ad
joining the manse and garden, is held in feu of the
Earl of Mansfield, as proprietor of Balvaird. It
appears to have been the site of the residences of
the provost and prebendaries who served in the col
legiate church during Catholic times.J
t The lands of Strathmiglo— properly so called— appear ori
ginally to have belonged to the Crown, as in 1160, Malcolm IV.
granted them, with other lands, to Duncan, 6th Earl of Fife,
on the occasion of the marriage of that nobleman with Ada,
the king's niece. The superiority of the lands remained with
the Earls of Fife till the forfeiture of Murdo, Duke of Albany,
iu 1424 ; but, according to Sibbald, the lands were held under
the Earls of Fife by the Scotts of Balweary, from about 1251.
After the forfeiture, the lands continued to be possessed by
the family of Scott under the Crown ; and they were, with
other lands belonging to them, erected into a barony called
the barony of Strathmiglo. in 1509, Sir William Scott of Bal
weary obtained a charter of the lands and barony of Strath
miglo, Easter and Wester Pitlour, Kilgour, Drumdutf, Pits-
cottie, Ceres, Craighuli, Demperston; etc, all united into the
barony of Strathmiglo, with power to erect that town into a
burgh-of-bamny. Sir William accompanied James IV. on his
unfortunate expedition iu 1513, was taken prisoner at Flod
den, and obliged to sell part of his lands to pay his ransom.
He was repeatedly afterwards chosen one of the lords of the
articles for the barons, and was the only individual under the
degree of a peer who ever obtained that honour. On the first
institution of the College of Justice on 13th May, 1532, Sir
William had the honour to be nominated the first senator on
the temporal side ; but he must have died shortly after Ins ap
pointment, aB his second son, Thomas. Scott of Pitgorno, was
nominated to his place in November, 1532. He was a great
favourite of King James V., by whom he was appointed Jus
tice-clerk in. 1535. He died in 1539. The following circum
stances are related by Knox.: — " How terrible a vision the
said prince saw lying in Linlithgow, that night that Thomas
Scott, Justice-clerk, died in Edinburgh, men of good credit can
yet report ; for, afraid at midnight or after, he called aloud for
torches, aud raised all that lay beside him in the palace, and
told that Thomas Scott was dead, for he had been at him with
a company of devils, and had said unto him these words : — ' O
wo to the day that ever I knew thee or thy service ; for serv
ing of thee against God, ng.iinst his servants, and against Jus.
tice, 1 am adjuged to eudless torment!' How terrible voices
the said Thomas Scott pronounced before his death, men of all
eBtates heard, and borne that yet live can witness his voice ever
was, ' Jnstn Dei justicio condeninatus sum !' " In the person
of Sir James Scott, the 4th in debi-ent from Sir William, the
barony of Strathmiglo was at its greatest extent; but with
him the wealth and dignity of the family came to an end. In
consequence of the numerous fines to which Sir James was
subjected for the various risings and rebellions in which he
had been engaged, he was obliged, from time to time, to BeU
off various portions of his estate, till towards the year 1600,
his whole barony was disposed of, excepting the tower and
fortalice with the lands adjoining, and the village of Strath
miglo. Even these small remaining portions were sold, either
immediately before or after his death. Sir James Scott is
among the few Fife gentlemen who are characterized by John
Knox aB being " enemies to God, and traitors to their coun
try." His opposition to the Reformation, and his connection,.

STR

725

STR

The castle of Strathmiglo stood in the middle of
an arable field, a short way east of the viUage, and
about 100 yards north-east from the farm-steading
of the east mill of Strathmiglo, on what was called
the lands of Cairney, or Wester-Strathmiglo; but it
has now entirely disappeared. The remains of the
large moat, however, which surrounded it on all
sides, though nearly filled up, sufficiently points out
where it stood. It is said to have been erected in
the reign of James V., Who bestowed upon it, ra
ther unaccountably, the nickname of Cairney-flappet,
from its having been very hurriedly erected. At
this time the family seem to have left their ancient
castle of Balweary, and to have taken up their resi
dence here, probably on account of its being so near
the court at Falkland  The lands of Easter and
Wester Cash, which lie south-east of Strathmiglo,
formed, for a considerable time, a portion of that
extensive barony. Previous to coming into their
possession, however, it had had a separate propri
etor, as the old tower where the laird resided stood
upon the site of the present farm-steading of Wester
Cash. Tradition still speaks of the feuds which
occurred between the lairds of Cash and the Barons
of Balweary ; but the greater power, and for a time
the better fortune of the latter family prevailed, and
Cash was at length added to their extensive posses
sions. In the middle of a muir at the north part of
the Lomonds, south of Barrington, and about half-
a-mile west of Kilgour, the well-known Jenny Net
tles — who has given name to a Uvely Scotch air, and
forms the subject of an old song published by Herd,
beginning, ' Saw ye Jenny Nettles coming through
the market,' — was buried.* Easter Pitlour, a hand
some house, with grounds beautifully laid out, and
ornamented with wood, anciently formed part of the
barony of Strathmiglo, but was sold by Sir James
Scott to a younger son of Pitcairn of Pitcairn, in
whose family it for some time remained, till it was
purchased by Skene of Halyairds, the ancestor of the
present proprietor. — On the banks of the Miglo is
Corstoun, the property of John Balfour, Esq., of
with the Popish party, may explain the reason why, notwith
standing his having conferred the honour of a burgh on Strath
miglo, his memory has been so little revered by the inhabi
tants. The traditions of the place represent him as a perse
cutor, and the downfall of the family is looked upon as a pun
ishment from heaven for his treatment of the reformerB. He
is also blamed for his avarice, and his harshness to the poor.
An instance of the latter is still handed down. Sir James was
looking out of a window, it is said, of his castle of Strathmi
glo, while his servants were throwing a great quantity of oat
meal into the moat, it being old and unfit for use. A beggar-
man came to the outer end of the drawbridge, and requested
to be allowed to fill his wallets with the meal ; but the haughty
baron of Balweary refused this humble request, on which the
poor man pronounced a curse Upon him, declaring he should
be reduced to beg before his death. It cannot be said that the
curse, if ever perpetrated, was literally fulfilled ; but certainly
Sir James saw the ruin of his family; and the tradition still is,
that such was his poverty at his death, that a subscription was
raised among the neighbouring proprietors to pay the expense
of his funeral. William had a son, Walter Scott, who, having
been deprived of any portion of the family-estates, through the
misconduct of his grandfather, he embraced a military life, and
rose to the rank of colonel. He never married, but shortly
before his death, which occurred in Flanders during the reign
of Charles II., he sent over from Holland, to Sir John SCott
of Ancrum, Baronet, the seal of the family of Balweary, ac
knowledging him to be his heir-male.
* This unlortuuate heroine was a native of the neighbouring
parish of Falkland, and was famed through all the BurroundiQg
country for her great beauty. When Rob Roy took possession
of Falkland palace, after the battle of Sheriffmuir, one of his
Highlanders paid too successful attention to the rustic beauty ;
and she, on being deserted by_ her faithless lover, iu a fit of de
spair put a period to her existence, by hanging herself on a
tree at the roadside about half-way between Falkland and
Strathmiglo; Her body was of course, in those days, denied
the use of a coffin, or interment in a churchyard. It was con
veyed on two rough sticks to the muir already mentioned, and
there consigned to the earth. Two other females who had
committed suicide, were subsequently interred in the same
place. On a recent occasion, 2 ear-rings and 24 beads were
found in her grave.

Balbirnie. In the 15th century this was the pro
perty of John Ramsay of Corstoun, who was de
scended from the house of CarnoCk, one of the most
ancient families of the name. His son, Sir John
Ramsay, also of Corstoun, was a great favourite
with James III., who knighted him, and bestowed
upon him the lordship of Bothwell in Lanarkshire.
He was the ancestor of the Ramsays of Balmain in
the north, and several other families of that name.
STRATHMORE, a vaUey in the parishes of
Edderachylis and Durness, Sutherlandshire. It
takes down the stream More to the head of Loch-
Hope ; and is sublimely overhung, at its lower end,
by the lofty Ben Hope : which see.
STRATHMORE, a small valley in the southern
district of the parish of Halkirk, Caithness-shire.
In its bosom lies a lake called Loch-More.
STRATHMORE, or 'the Great Valley,' the noble
and far-stretching band of low country which skirts
the frontier mountain-rampart of the Highlands, is
flanked along the hither side by the Lennox, the
Ochil, and the Sidlaw hills, and extends from the
centre of the main bed of Dumbartonshire to the
German ocean at Stonehaven: See General In
troduction. In this large sense it is exceedingly
various in breadth, as well as in the features of
strath-ground ; and comprehends part of Stirling
shire, all Strathallan, most part of Strath
earn, and all the How of Angus in Kincardine
shire : see these articles. But the strath is more
popularly and limitedly regarded as consisting only
of what is flanked by the Sidlaw hills, and as ex
tending from Methven in Perthshire to a point a
little north-east of Brechin in Forfarshire ; and, in
this vieW, it is somewhat uniform in breadth and
feature, and belonging principally to Forfarshire,
has been Succinctly described in our notice of that
county : Which see. This great district is, in the
aggregate, remarkably beautiful and fertile ; it con
tains numerous towns, villages, and elegant man
sions ; it is the seat of a great and industrious popu
lation; and it is now opened up by railroads, and
attracts throngs to survey its wealth of manufac
tures and of landscape. — Strathmore gives the title
of Earl to the noble family of Lyon ; who, before
1450, had the dignity of Baron Glammis, and in
1606 were created Earl of Strathmore and King
horn, Viscount Lyon, Baron Tannadyce, Sidlaw,
and Stradichtie.
STRATHNAIRN, a Highland valley chiefly in
Inverness-shire, and, to a smaU extent, in Nairn
shire. It consists of the basin of all the Highland
part of the river Nairn, [which see,] and extends
north-eastward between Strathdearn ahd the great
glen. It is screened by barren heathy mountains,
possesses little wood, and, with slight exceptions, is
wholly pastoral.
STRATHNAVER, the long and beautiful, but
depopulated glen, partly occupied by Loch-Naver,
and chiefly traversed by the river NaVer, in tbe par
ish of Farr, Sutherlandshire. See Naver (The).
STRATHOIKEL, the long and picturesque glen
of the Oikel, between the counties of Ross and
Sutherland. See Oikel (The).
STRATHPEFFER, a beautiful little vaUey in
the counties of Ross and Cromarty. It extends
from Dingwall, at the head of the Cromarty frith, 4
miles due westward ; and takes up the great road
to the western districts of Ro6s-shire( and to the
ferries to the Northern Hebrides. Its iow grounds,
not long ago an almost continuous reedy marsh, are
now a series of rich and luxuriant corn-fields; its soft
northern screen, diversified in its gentle ascent by
the parks and woods of Tulloch-castle, and over
hung at a brief distance by the huge and alpine Ben

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Wyvis ; and its southern screen, which divides it
from Strathconon, is surmounted by the strong,
beautiful, well-featured, vitrified bill-fort of Knock-
farrel. Various medicinal springs in the strath, par
ticularly two at its west end, have, of late years,
acquired high celebrity for the cure of a great many
diseases. Dr. Thomas Morrison of Elsick in Aber
deenshire, who previously visited almost every other
spa of the kingdom, declared the Strathpeffer wells
to be unrivalled, and usually described the climate
as " the balsamic air of Strathpeffer." A handsome
pump-room, 40 feet by 2U, was, at his suggestion,
erected over the lower one of the two chief wells in
1829 ; and it has since been adorned with a fine por
trait of him by George Watson, Esq.. of Edinburgh.
Lodgings for visiters were for a time scarce ; and
though now numerous and neat, they are still in
competent to the demand, and are let at high prices.
Many new villas combine with the respectable lodg
ing-houses to fling over the place an air of warmth
and opulence. A comfortable inn stands near the
wells; and a new hotel, equal to any in the coun
try, is situated within half-a-mile of the pump-room.
A large hospital, benevolently built for the use
of poor invalids, and capable of accommodating 50
at a time, was opened in 1839. The season for
most beneficially drinking the waters extends from
the beginning of May till the middle or end of Octo
ber. The medicinal properties of the wells are
derived from bituminous rocks and shales impreg
nated with sulphuret of iron. An imperial gallon
of the water of the upper well, as analyzed by Dr.
Thomson of Glasgow, contains 26.167 cubic inches
of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, 67.77 grains of sul
phate of soda, 39.454 of sulphate of lime, 24.728 of
common salt, and 6.242 of sulphate of magnesia; and
an imperial gallon of the water of the lower well
contains 13.659 cubic inches of sulphuretted hydro
gen gas, 52.71 grains of sulphate of soda, 30.686 of
sulphate of lime, 19.233 of common salt, and 4.855
of sulphate of magnesia. A comparison of the con
tents of these waters with those of the spa waters
of Moffat, will show that the grand watering-place
of the south is likely, though long ago divested of
novelty, to keep pace in fame with that of the north.
STRATHSPEY, the long vale of the river Spey_
through the ancient province of Moray. It is cele-~
brated for its forests, the rapidity of its great river,
and the music and miUtary spirit of its people. See
Spey and Moray.
STRATHTAY. See Tay (The).
STRATHTUMMEL, the glen of the Tummel:
which see.
STRATHY, a quoad sacra parish on the north
coast of Sutherlandshire. It consists, quoad civilia,
of the eastern part of Farr, in the presbytery of
Tongue, and synod of Sutherland and Caithness.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £120. The church
is a Government one ; and was built in 1826. The
water of Strathy issues from two small lakes ; and
runs a northerly course of about 14 miles to the sea.
Strathy-bay, which receives the river, is a triangle,
with sides of 2J and 1| miles along its shores, and a
side of 2£ miles toward the sea. Strathy-head runs
out in a narrow promontory along the west side of
the bay. Strathy village stands at the head of the
bay, aO miles east-north-east of Tongue, and 24
west by south of Thurso. It is a populous fishing-
hamlet, is the site of the parish- church, and has a
small neat inn. Beside it are quarries of good lime
stone and sandstone.
STRELITZ, a neat modern village in the parish
of Cargill, Perthshire; 4 miles south-east of Cupar-
Angus, and 124 north-east of Perth. It stands upon
A streamlet, a tributary of the Isla, finely sheltered

by belts and stripes of plantation. It was built in
1763 as a retreat for discharged soldiers at the con
clusion of the German war, by the Commissioners
for managing the annexed estates ; and it consisted,
immediately after its origin, of 80 neat dwelling-
houses, built on a regular plan, and each provided
with a garden and about three acres of land. Its
name was given it in honour of Queen Charlotte.
STRICHEN, a parish in Buchan, Aberdeenshire.
It is bounded on the north by detached parts of
Aberdour -and Fraserburgh ; on the north-east by
Rathen ; on the east by Lonmay ; on the south by
Old Deer; on the south-west by New Deer; and
on the west by Tyrie. Its greatest length, from
east to west, is 6j miles ; its mean breadth, over
two-thirds of its extent, is 2 miles; its greatest
breadth is 3| miles; and its area is about 8,000
acres. The Ugie runs 1^ mile along the northern
boundary, and then 2 miles across the interior, cut
ting the parish into two nearly equal parts. On the
northern border rises Mormond Hill ; which see.
The general surface inclines to the Ugie, yet is pre
vailingly hilly. One of the hills shows a face of
white stone, and figures curiously as seen from a
distance; and on the same hill is a hunting-lodge
with the whimsical inscription, " This hunter's lodge
Rob Gib commands." The face of the country, espe«
ciaUy west of the Ugie, was long ago much improved
by pjantations. Some fine trees around Strichen-
house were large enough, or probably happened at
the moment to be so bathed in an effulgence of sun
shine, as to attract the notice of the blind and bigot-
ted Dr. Johnson. " I had now," says he in his pre
cious Tour, " travelled 200 miles, and had only seen
one tree not younger than myself; but at Strichen
I saw trees of full growth, and worthy of my notice."
The little village of Leeds stands near the eastern
boundary. The village of Strichen stands on the
left bank of the Ugie, in the centre of the parish, 9
miles south-south-west of Fraserburgh, 15 north
west by west of Peterhead, and 33& north by west
of Aberdeen. It is neatly edificed ; and has a town-
house, erected in 1816 at the cost of £2,000. The
linen manufacture has long been the chief support of
its inhabitants. Annual fairs are held here on the
first Tuesday of January; the last Tuesday of Feb
ruary, old style; the Wednesday after the second
Tuesday of May and August, old style ; the Wed
nesday after the Huntly July fair ; and the Wednes
day after the first Tuesday of November, old style.
The extremities of the parish are briefly traversed
by the roads from Aberdeen to Fraserburgh, and
from Peterhead to Banff. Population, in 1801,
1,520; in 1831, 1,802. Houses 407. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £2,350. — Strichen is in the presby
tery of Deer, and synod of Aberdeen. Patron, Lord
Lovat. Stipend £158 7s. 8d. ; glebe £6. School
master's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with £21 fees, and a
share of the Dick bequest. Four private schools
are all taught by females. ,
STRICKATHROW, a parish in the northern
division of Forfarshire; bounded on the north by
Edzel and Kincardineshire; on the east by Logie-
pert; on the south by Dun and Brechin; on the
south-west by Menmuir; and on the west by Leth
not. It forms a belt of 7J miles in extreme length,
and 2 in mean breadth, stretching from north-west
to south-east. West-water, afterwards continued
for a mile by the North Esk into which it falls,
traces the western and northern boundary ; and it is
i joined across the interior by Crook-water  a rivulet
which rises in the upper end of' Fearn, and has a
run of 14 or 15 miles, — and by three other and in-
ferior streams. The parish is low in the middle,
and rises at the ends; and, in the low part, lies

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across Strathmore, and forms a section of that firtte
fertile district. At its north-west end rises the
conspicuous hill of Lundie. The whole landscape
is pleasant; several points command extensive and
beautiful prospects; and the face of the country has
been greatly improved by culture, and, in some
places, much beautified with plantation. The soil
in the south-east is clayey and deep ; in the centre
is a sharp, black earth on gravel ; and on the north
west is either clay or loam, but becomes thin, and
towards the frontier is carpeted with heath. Lime
stone abounds, and has been extensively worked
The churchyard, according to some writers, was the
scene of John Baliol's abject surrender of the Scot
tish crown to Edward I. ; and it contains three
graves which tradition asserts to be those of three
Danish generals. The parish is traversed by the
north road from Dundee to Aberdeen, and by the
roads from Brechin and Montrose to Glenesk. Pop
ulation, in 1801, 693; in 1831, 564. Houses 117.
Assessed property, in 1815, £3,315  Strickathrow
is in the presbytery of Brechin, and synod of Angus
and Mearns. Patrons, the Crown and the Earl of
Kintore. Stipend £170 9s. 5d. ; glebe £16 10s.
In 1834, the parish school was attended by 58 scho
lars ; and two non-parochial schools by 69. School
master's salary £30, with £10 fees. The present
parish comprehends the old parishes of Strickathrow
and Dunlappie, which were united in 1618. The
church of Strickathrow was, in popish and episcopal
times, the church of the chanter of the cathedral of
Brechin. STROMA, an island in the Pentland frith, poli
tically included in the parish of Canisbay, Caithness-
shire. It lies opposite Gill's-bay ; and, at two points,
is If mile distant from the continent. It forms an
oval of 2J miles by 14, the longer axis extending
from north-east to south-west. Its name is said to
be of Scandinavian origin, and to mean 'the Island
in the current;' and expressively describes its posi
tion among the careering and tumultuous tides 'of
the frith. Its coast, all around, but especially on
the west, is a series of precipitous and lofty rocky
cliffs; and, during a storm, it maintains a conflict
with the waves truly sublime, and baffling descrip
tion. Excellent crops of corn can be raised from its
soil; but are Uable to be damaged by the sea-spray.
On the island are ruins of a castle and an ancient
chapel. In some caverns were found, at one time,
and in a state of great preservation, several human
bodies which had lain there 60 or 80 years. Smug
gling formerly prevailed to a great extent on the
island, and was singularly favoured by the geogra
phical position; but, in consequence of active exer
tions of the excise, it has, for three or four years
past, entirely ceased.
STROMAY, an Hebridean island IJ mile long,
and half-a-mile broad, separated by a narrow strait
from the north end of North Uist, and flanking the
east side of Loch -Mhicfail.
STROMNESS, a parish in the south-west corner
of Pomona, Orkney. It is bounded on the north by
Sandwick; on the north-east and east by Loch-
Stenness, which divides it from Haray and Stenness;
on the south-east and south by the sound of Hoy ;
and on the west by the German ocean. Its greatest
length, from north to south, is about 5-J- miles ; its
greatest breadth is about 3§- miles ; and its super
ficial extent is about 14 square miles. A chain of
hills, whose summit-line is everywhere about a mile
from the western coast, extends southward from the
northern boundary, and subsides at the distance of
about IJ mile from the sound of Hoy. A tract of
fertile fields, agreeably disposed in meadow and ar
able grounds, extends all along the south; and evei.i

where commands a picturesque and siblime view of
tbe hills of Hoy, and the mountains of Sutherland,
as far as to Cape Wrath, with the intervening ex
panse of waters, often tumultuously roused into the
grandest aspects of marine landscape. All the west
coast is nearly mural, rising sheer up from the sea
to various altitudes between 100 and 500 feet ; and,
during storms, it opulently shares the impressive and
almost awful grandeur of scenery noticed in our
article on Orkney. The soil of the arable lands is
variously a black earth, a sandy black earth, a stiff
clay, and a mixture of clay and sand. There are
two small mosses. The climate in the fine district
along Hoy-sound, is less damp and more genial than
that of many other parts of Orkney. A mineral
spring in the vicinity of the town has some fame
for possessing antiscorbutic properties. Limestone
abounds; roofing-slates are extensively quarried;
and there are appearances of lead and iron ore.
Stromness is the most interesting geological locality
in Orkney ; and also offers some rare plants to the
inspection of the botanist. Brackness-house, near
a cognominal headland at the entrance of the sound
of Hoy, was built in 1633, as an episcopal residence,
by George Graham, the last bishop of Orkney; and
it bears an inscription of its date, and a sculpturing
of the episcopal arms. Cairstone-house, situated on
the coast in ihe south-east, is the seat of Mr. Pol-
lexfen, the proprietor of the eastern district. West
of the town are the ruins of the old parish-church,
surrounded with the cemetery and the remains of an
old monastery; and, in other places, are ruins of an
cient chapels whose history is lost. Two roads
commence at the town, and traverse the parish, the
one northward, to make a tour of the island, and
the other eastward in the direction of Kirkwall.
Population, in 1801, 2,223; in 1831, 2,944. Houses
515. Assessed property, in 1815, £1,418 — Strom
ness is in the presbytery of Cairston, and synod of
Orkney. Patron, the Earl of Zetland. Stipend
£158 6s. 7d. ; glebe £6. The parish-church Was
built in 1816. Sittings 1,200. An United Seces
sion meeting-house was built in 1806, at a cost of
about £600. Sittings 643. Stipend £120, with a
house and garden, and an allowance for specified
purposes of £14 2s. The .population appeared, by
ecclesiastical census in 1836, to be then 2,987; of
whom 2,080 were churchmen, 864 were dissenters,
and 53, were nondescripts. In 1834, two parish
schools were attended by 400 scholars ; and 8 other
schools — 6 of which belonged to the Establishment,
and 2 to Seceders — were attended by 383. Salary
of each of the parochial schoolmasters £15, with fees.
Stromness — originally Cairston — a burgh-of-
barony, and a considerable town and sea-port, on
the south coast of the cognominal parish, 14 miles
west by south of Kirkwall, 23 north-west of Dun
cansby-head, and 29 north-north-east of Thurso.
The town occupies the sloping skirts of high
ground along the west side of its beautiful bay. It.
is nearly a mile long, and very irregularly built.
Its streets appear to a visiter from any of the pol
ished districts of Scotland mere miserable lanes, and
are in many parts so wretchedly paved that a horse
can scarcely pass along in safety. The principal
street runs in a zigzag direction, from end to end of
the town ; is nowhere wider than 12 feet, and in
some places so narrow as 4 or 5 ; and is ill-paved
with flag-stones of unequal sizes, and usually very
filthy. The houses between it and the bay are, in
numerous instances, built within high-water mark,
and provided with tiny bulwarks, quays, and jetties,
which, though they have a whimsical appearance,
serve the double purpose of protecting the houses
from the tide, and affording the inmates aqcommo.-

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dation for mooring their boats, and for seeking a
supply of sillocks, the young of the coal-fish. An
inn which stands on the side of the harbour may
compete with the best in almost any sea-port of
Britain for agreeableness of situation, and excellence
of arrangement. There are also two other good
inns. At the north end of the town is a very ex
tensive warehouse. The bay or natural harbour
excels in safety and commodiousness the great ma
jority in Britain; it extends upwards of a mile from
south to north, and is entered by a passage i of a mile
wide, but expands in the interior to a width of half-
a-mile ; and it has a firm clay bottom, and sufficient
depth of water for vessels of 1,000 tons burden, and
is sheltered from the violence of every wind. The
pier has 18 feet of water in spring tides. A sub
stantial patent slip admits a vessel of 500 tons bur
den. The American vessels in the rice trade for
merly unloaded here their cargoes for the different
ports of Britain, but were afterwards induced to
prefer the Isle of Wight. Many vessels, owing to
the excellence of the harbour, call at Stromness for
shelter, provisions, or men ; and among them are
annually the Hudson-bay vessels, a considerable
number of whalers, and a Labrador missionary brig.
The average annual number of vessels is about 320 ;
and their average aggregate tonnage about 45,000.
An agent of the Hudson-bay company resides in the
town. A considerable number of vessels belong to
the port; and many boats are employed in the local
fisheries. Boat and ship building is carried on to a
noticeable extent; and the making of straw-plait
employs a large number of females. A weekly mar
ket is held on Wednesday; annual fairs for cattle
are held in May and October ; and a great annual
fair, commencing on the first Tuesday of September,
continues upwards of a week, and is attended by
small merchants from places so distant as Glasgow.
Here are a branch office of the National bank ; and
a public subscription library. The town is governed
by two bailies and nine councillors, elected by the
burgesses. The number of burgesses in 1833 was
81 — Stromness, at the beginning of last century,
consisted of only half-a-dozen slated houses and a
few scattered huts, the former inhabited by two
gentlemen of landed property, and two or three
small traders, and the latter by a few fishermen and
mechanics ; and it had then only two vessels, each
of 30 tons, and both employed in catching cod and
ling at Barra, and making an annual voyage to Leith
or Norway. Its rising importance, from the visits
of the American rice-ships, drew the attention of
the burghers of Kirkwall, and brought upon it a per
secution whose origin and upshot form an interesting
chapter in the history of Scottish burghs. Founding
on an obscure act of William and Mary, 1690, which
declared that the exporting or importing of native
or foreign commodities, with some exceptions which
are named, belongs only to freemen inhabiting royal
burghs, and on a subsequent act in 1693, which de
clared that the benefit of trade allowed to royal
burghs might be communicated to other places on
condition of their paying cess, Kirkwall made exac
tions upon Stromness with inequality of distribution,
and with most vexatious, unrelenting, and illegal
severity. The people of Stromness complied with
the exactions from 1719 till 1743; but, writhing
under their effects, and seeing ruin coming on their
trade, they then resisted, and entered a successful
litigation against theii oppressors before the conven
tion of royal burghs, the Court-of-session, and the
House of Lords. In 1754, they obtained from the
second of these courts a declaration that " there was
no sufficient right in the burgh of Kirkwall to assess
the village of Stromness, but that the said village

should be quit thereof, and free therefrom, in all
time coming;" and, in 1758, after their relentless
persecutors had dragged them to the House of Lords,
they obtained from that court of last resort a deci
sion affirming the declaration of the Court-of-session.
By this decision, all the villages in Scotland became
free and independent of the royal burghs. A royal
charter erecting the town into a burgh-of-barony
was obtained in 1817  The most influential inhabi
tants of Stromness, not being Orcadians, are locally
called ferry-loupers. Gow, or Smith, the hero of Sir
Walter Scott's tale of the Pirate, belonged to. the
to wn ; and, on the east side of the harbour, may still
be seen the garden of his father's house. Whoever
feels interest in his iniquitous fame will find some
curious details respecting him on pp. 212 — 224 of the
first volume of Peterkin's Notes on Orkney. The
" Torquil, the nursling of the northern seas," who is
the hero of Lord Byron's " Island," also had intimate
connection with the town : he was a George Stewart,
the son of Stewart of Masseter; and, though a mid
shipman with Bligh at the date of the notorious
mutiny, is exculpated, in ' the Family Library,' from
having taken any part in that nefarious transaction.
— The view of Stromness from a point two miles
distant on the road to Kirkwall, is regarded as the
most varied and magnificent in Orkney; and the
viewnearthe same place of the long bridge of Waith,
across the strait between the sea and the Loch of
Stenness, is interesting and curious.
STRONFERNAN. See Kenmore.
STRONSAY, an island in Orkney, 2£ miles south
of Spurness in Sanday, 2J east of Veness in Eday,
i% north-east of Foot in Shapinsay, and 6£ north-
north-east of Moul-head in Pomona. It is so deeply
and continuously indented by bays as to consist of
three large connected peninsula;, two of which are
subdivided into smaller peninsulas ; and it is winged
at brief distances by 6 or 7 pasture-islets or holms.
Its greatest length from north-west to south-east is
7£ miles ; its greatest breadth is 6\ miles ; and its
superficial extent, including the [holms, is about 14
square miles. No part of the interior is more than
a mile from the sea. Three chief bays with sandy
beaches, situated respectively in the east, the south,
and the west, are so powdered with low sunk rocks,
as to be, on the one hand, unsafe for shipping, and,
on the other, advantageous for the growth of the
kelp plants. The commodious and safe roadstead of
Ling-sound on the west, is sheltered from westerly
winds by the islet of Meikle Ling, and from all other
winds by the coast or headlands of Stronsay ; and
the roadstead of Papa-sound on the north-east, is
completely landlocked and thoroughly sheltered, but
has entrances the one of which is intricate, and the
other narrow and dangerous. The Stronsay frith is
simply the open sound which washes Stronsay on the
east, and Eday and Shapinshay on the west. A nar
row lake nearly a mile long lies in the centre of the
island ; and three or four lochlets lie near the coast.
The principal headlands are Huipsness in the north ;
Griceness and Odness in the north-east; Burrow
head in the east; Lambness in the south-east; Tor-
ness in the south ; Rothesholm or Ronsum-head in
the south-west; and Linksness in the north-west.
Two of these headlands, Torness and Odness, seem
to bear in their names a memorial of the ancient
Scandinavian devotion to the heathen gods, Thor
and Woden. A hilly ridge extends nearly from end
to end of the island ; and exhibits on its summit
and sides, either sheets of short heath, or patches
of naked earth, which has been shaven of its dress
for the supply of fuel. The soil of this ridge is a
dry, black, friable blackish earth ; and is incumbent
either on clay mixed with small stones, or on a shal-

STR

729

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low gravel. A long belt of pasture-ground on the
east of the ridge is carpeted with poor grass, but
has a deeper soil than the upland, and a subsoil of
tough clay. The soil of the other districts is va
rious, and almost all capable of much improvement.
A vein of lead ore was discovered last century on
the estate of Huip ; but did not prove rich enough
to encourage mining. Three mineral springs, situ
ated on the east coast, vie*ved as one weU, and
called the well of Kildinguic, are traditionally said
to have been in such high repute while Orkney
was subject to Denmark, that Danes of the first
rank used to cross the German ocean in order to
drink their waters. Some tumuli, some Picts' houses,
and a building at Lambness, with thick circular walls,
are the chief antiquities. In the north-east stands
the village of Papa-Sound : which see. Popula
tion, in 1837, 1,207.
STRONSAY and EDAY, an united parish in
the Orkney Islands. It comprehends the islands of
Stronsay, Eday, Papa-Stronsay, and Faray,
[which see,] and nine holms or pasture isles. Its
greatest length is 1 7 miles ; its greatest breadth is
about 8 miles ; and its area, exclusive of intersecting
seas, is about 26 square miles. Population, in 1801,
1,642; in 1831, 1,827. Houses 171. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £664. — This parish is in the pres
bytery of North Isles, and synod of Orkney. Patron,
the Earl of Zetland. Stipend £210; glebe £14 10s.
Unappropriated teinds £20 16s. There are two
parish-churches. That of Stronsay was built in
1821 ; that of Eday, in 1815. Sittings, respectively
500 and 300. A missionary is employed on the royal
bounty, and officiates regularly in Eday. Salary £50,
with a house, and some other emoluments  An
United Secession congregation in Stronsay was
estabUshed in 1799. Their meetinghouse cost
about £400. Sittings 391. Stipend £85, with a
manse and garden worth upwards of £10. — An
United Secession congregation in Eday was virtually
formed in 1828, but had not a meeting-house till
1831. Sittings 308  A Wesleyan Methodist con
gregation in Stronsay was established in 1835. Their
chapel was built in 1837, and cost about £270. Sit
tings 418. Stipend £60, nearly all paid from the
Wesleyan Conference fund  The parish-school is
in Stronsay ; and was attended, in 1 834, by only 24
scholars. Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 3d., with
about £5 fees. A school in Stronsay, supported by
fees and by a salary of £15 from the Society for pro
pagating Christian knowledge, was attended, in
1834, by 41 scholars. Other schools are occasionally
kept in Stronsay. Two schools for Eday and Faray
have an attendance of about 70; and one of them has
attached to it a salary of £25 from the General As
sembly's committee on education  An ecclesiastical
survey, made in 1837, showed the population of the
united parish then to be 2,168; of whom 971 were
churchmen, 1,177 were dissenters, and 20 were non
descripts. — The present parish comprehends no fewer
than five ancient parishes; Eday and Papa-Stronsay,
each consisting chiefly of its cognominal island ; and
St. Peter's, St. Nicholas, and Lady, consisting re
spectively of the northern, the southern, and the
western sections of Stronsay. Additional to the
kirks of these parishes, there were anciently so many
as 10 chapels ; 4 in Stronsay, one of which was
called St. Margaret's kirk; 2 in Papa-Stronsay, de
dicated respectively to St. Nicholas and St. Bride ;
one in Eday ; and one in each of the pasture-isles of
Linga, Meikle Linga, and Auskerry. The ruins of
the majority of these chapels still exist. The old stat
ist, after flinging some interest around St. Nicholas'
chapel in Papa-Stronsay, and stating that the edifice
was almost entire twelve year* before he wrote, says,

with a simplicity which amounts to quaintness and
sarcasm, " But the chapel hath been lately demo
lished by the tenant, in order that he, with the stones
of it, might build a new barn."
STRONTIAN, a quoad sacra parish in the north
of Argyleshire. It belongs quoad civilia to the par
ishes of Ardnamurchan and Morven; and was erected,
in 1833, by authority of the General Assembly. Its
greatest length is 25 miles ; its greatest breadth is
10 miles ; and its area is 40,099 acres. Its inhabi
tants are chiefly small crofters, miners, shepherds,
farm-servants, and a few handicraftsmen, all very
poor ; and they, for the most part, reside in the val
ley of Strontian. Of this district, says Dr. Maccul
loch, " I have little to say ; the country is wild and
uninteresting, though there is grandeur in one scene,
in a deep valley which is terminated by the fine form
of Scuir-Donald." A chief feature is Loch-Sunart :
which see. Population, in 1836, 1,200. The parish
is in the presbytery of Mull, and synod of Argyle.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £120; glebe about
£5. The church was built in 1827. Sittings nearly
500. The village of Strontian stands at the foot of
its cognominal valley, on the north side of Loch-
Sunart, \\ mile from the head of that loch, 21 miles
east-north-east of Tobermory, and 24 south-west of
Fort- William. In the vicinity stands Strontian-
house, the residence of Sir J. M. Riddell, Bart, of
Ardnamurchan, surrounded by dressed and planted
grounds. The neat slated cottages of the village,
substantially built of granite, and sometimes adorned
with parasitic plants, contrast strongly with some turf
huts with which they are intermingled, and indicate
the neighbourhood of a resident proprietor. These
cottages were erected for the use of the miners em
ployed in the celebrated Strontian mines ; and the
huts previously in existence were purged of their
offensiveness, and dressed into comparative beauty.
" A complete moral change," says the Inverness
Courier, in 1828, "has been introduced into the
village. Sir James and his lady insisted mainly on
the article of cleanliness, both in and out of doors ;
and as the hand readily obeys what the heart dic
tates, the girls soon caught the spirit of the lesson,
and were not only neat and tidy themselves, but
carried the same principle into their fathers' homes.
Dunghills were speedily displaced from their ancient
prescriptive station in front of the door ; ' dubs'
were filled up ; light and air were not wholly ex
cluded ; besoms were in constant requisition ; and,
in short, tbe huts of Strontian, from being almost
literally what Johnson called 'murky dens,' have
become neat habitable abodes, almost rivalling the
cottages of Goldsmith's beloved Auburn." About
the date of this agreeable revolution, the manufac
ture of straw-plait was introduced by the proprie
tor, as a means of usefully employing the female,
and improving the condition of the whole popula
tion ; but, though it seemed for a time to prosper,
and employed about 50 females, it proved a failure,
and was several years ago discontinued. — The lead
mines are situated between 2 and B miles up the val
ley, and northward of the village. They have been
of vacillating value, never very profitable, and at
times entirely neglected. Yet, whenever they barely
paid expenses, they have been of much practical con
sequence in yielding work and wages to a people ,
whose means of subsistence are few and scanty ; and
they have, at the same time, occasioned much im
provement of small lots of land which, but for them,
would have remained in pasture. The mineralogy
of the mines is interesting and celebrated : it em
braces a great variety of the most rare calcareous
spars, with splendid specimens of the staurolite; and
it revealed, for the first time to naturalists, the car-

STR

730

SUT

bonate of Strontian, or rather the peculiar elementary
earth itself to which the locality has given name.
Strontites, or carbonate of Strontian, was discovered
here in 1790; and analyzed by Drs. Kirwan and
Hope.- The colour of the mineral is whitish or light
green ; its lustre, common ; its transparency medi
ate between semitransparency and opacity ; its frac
ture, striated, presenting oblong distinct concretions,
somewhat uneven and bent ; its hardness, moderate,
resisting being scraped, but easily admitting of being
scratched, its brittleness very great ; and its specific
gravity from 3.4 to 3.644. It tinges flame with' a
blood-red colour ; and disagrees with barytes in its
order of chemical attraction, holding a medial rank
between that mineral and lime. An hundred parts
of it yield by analysis 60.21 of pure Strontian, 30.20
of carbonic acid gas, and 8.59 of water.
STROWAN, a parish in Perthshire, united to
Blair-Athole. See Blair-Athole.
STROWAN, a parish in Perthshire, united to
Monivaird. See Monivaird.
STUIC-A-CHROIN, a mountain in Perthshire,
in the parish of Callander.
SUDDY. See Knockbain.
SULISKER, a rocky isle of the Hebrides, soli
tarily situated amid a wide waste of waters. Its
position seems never to have been accurately ascer
tained ; but is usually said by topographists to be 4
leagues east of North Rona, and 13 leagues north
west of the Butt of Lewis. It appeared to Dr.
Macculloch, who sailed close to it, but could not
land, to be about half-a-mile in diameter, with a
grassy slope toward the north, and a bluff face of
300 feet or upwards toward the south ; and to be
composed of gneiss traversed by veins of grey and
reddish granite. It is inhabited only by sea-birds,
principally gannets ; and is visited once a-year for
the feathers.
SUMBURGH, a soaring headland and a whirling
sea, at the southern extremity of Shetland". The
headland is noticed in our article on Dunrossness.
The sea is called the Roost, — a Scandinavian term
for a powerful and tumultuous collision of tidal cur
rents. At Sumburgh-head the rapid tides from the
opposite sides of Shetland meet; and even during a
calm, and as seen from the headland, produce a tum
bling current, careering away toward Fair Isle, at first
about 2 or 3 miles broad, and afterwards gradually
narrowing to a point, and softening into kindred
features with the adjacent glassy waters. The sea,
thus always heavy, runs mountain-high during a
storm; and in consequence of the rapidity and power
of its flood, as well as its ebb, has been known, dur
ing a calm, to carry a vessel for five successive days
in constant alternations between Fitful and Sum-
burgh heads, all the while washing its deck with
almost a continuous stream of waves. There is a
lighthouse here in N. lat. 59° 51', and W. long. 1°
1 6', showing one fight, at the height of 300 feet above
high water, and visible at the distance of 24 miles.
SUMMER-ISLANDS, a group of isles and islets
at the entrance of Loch-Broom, on the west coast
of the counties of Ross and Cromarty. They amount
to about 30 ; yet only one, Tanera-More, is inhab
ited, and only 9 or 10 are of sufficient size to be
occupied as pastures. They lie at from one-fourth
of a mile to 7 J miles distance from the coast; and
extend a little upwards of 7 miles from north to
south. Tanera-More is about 2 miles long, and 1
broad; and shows an irregular and rocky surface,
rising to the height of 400 or 500 feet above sea-
level. The other isles are all similarly rocky, but
of much less elevation. The whole group are bare ;
and except where their bluff coasts are worked into
caverns and points by the incessant action of the sea,

they possess not one feature of picturesqueness or'
beauty. " Why they are called the Summer-Islands,"
says Dr. Macculloch, " I know not; as they have a
most wintry aspect, as much from their barrenness
and rocky outlines, as from the ugly red colour and
the forms of their cliffs." Excepting Carnisker,
which is composed of gnei'ss, they all consist of old
red sandstone, whose finer strata irregularly alter
nate with gravelly and conglomerate beds. The'
larger isles afford excellent winter-pasturage.
SUNART, a district in the extreme north of
Argyleshire. Its length is 12 miles, and its breadth
6. It is bounded on the north by Loch-Shiel ; on
the east by Ardgour; on the south by Loch-Sunart;
and on the west by Ardnamurchan. See Ardna
murchan, Sunart (Loch), and Strontian.
SUNART (Loch), a long inlet of the sea, from
the northern entrance of the sound of Mull, east
ward to within 5 miles of near the upper end of
Loch-Linnhe, in the north of Argyleshire. It sepa
rates Ardnamurchan and Sunart on the north from
Mull and Morven on the south. Its west end, is for
7 miles identical with the sound of Mull; and is
described in our article Mull (Sound op). Its
length inward from the line of identity with the
sound is 7 miles; and its breadth, for 5 miles, is
generally upwards of 2 miles, but afterwards varies
between 3 and 11 furlongs. It contains a number
of islets, the chief of which are Oransay, 1| mile
long,. — Carnich, nearly ]£ mile long, — and Riska,
Dungallan, Garve, and More, all of inconsiderable
size. Glen-Tarbert — a rough pastoral valley — ex
tends from its head to Loch-Linnhe, and brings down
to it a parliamentary road from Coranferry, whence
the communication is continued to Fort- William.
About a mile from the head of the lake, and in the
vicinity of Strontian [which see], stands the inn
of Sunart, a good slated house ; and at Salin, 5 or
6 miles farther down, occurs another inn. The
loch, though little visited, displays along its sides
some beautiful scenery. Verdant hills of consider
able height rise up from both margins; and bear upon
their" skirts and iower declivities a iarge aggregate
extent of fine oak-woods, through which, in con
tinuous miles, passes the public road.
SUTHERLANDSHIRE, a Highland county, in
the extreme north-east of the continent of Scotland.
It is bounded on the north by the North sea; on the
east by Caithness-shire ; on the south-east by the
Moray frith ; on the south-south-west by the coun
ties of Ross and Cromarty ; and on the west by the
Atlantic ocean. Its boundaries on three of its five
sides are thus, in the highest sense, natural or geo
graphical; and on the east side they consist of a con
tinuous and often lofty mountain-range, which, from
end to end, form a water-shed. The county lies within
57° 53', aud 58° 33' north latitude, and between 3°
40' and 5° 13' longitude west of London. Its sides,
measured in straight lines, give a circumference of 215
miles; the north side extending 50 miles, the east side
37^, the south-east side 32£, thesouth-south-westside
52J, and the west side 42$. Its area is 2,925 square
miles, or 1,872,000 English acres. This area— which
is that assigned by Captain Henderson's General
View of the Agriculture of Sutherland, published ia
1812 — is distributed by the same authority into
18,125 English acres of arable land,— 43,750 of
meadow and green pasture, with some shrubbery,—
1,170 of plantations,— 1,571,400 of heathy and rocky
moors and mountains,— 176,100 of peat-moss,—
31,360 of sea-lochs,— and 30,030 of fresh-water
lakes. Though the relative proportions of arable
land, green pasture, and planted woodland, have
undergone some change, these measurements may
probably be regarded as indicating, with proximate-

A-ZnUartcm A C? IoilcLo2l& EHJDlurgli.

SUTHERLANDSHIRE.

731

correctness, the real condition of the county. A
modern popular Annual makes the area only 1,754
square miles, or 1,122,560 acres; and manages to
distribute it into about, 150,000 acres cultivated,
600,000 uncultivated, and 372,560 unprofitable.
Excepting a very narrow and interrupted belt of
low ground along the coasts, and some ribbony stripes
of alluvium along the banks of the principal streams,
the whole county is boldly upland, and lies upon a
basis of probably 1,500 feet of mean altitude above
sea-level. The mountains along the east are a
towering and well-defined chain, — and those along
the south-east rise, in every place, within a distance
of not more than 2 miles from the sea; and, in both
cases, they stretch away, in innumerable ranges and
masses, quite to the German ocean. A sort of cen
tral chain commences at Ben-Griam-More and Ben-
Griam-Beg, about 14 miles from the north-eastern
extremity, and extends south-westward to Ben-
Suilven, very nearly at the south-west extremity;
and this chain divides the county into almost equal
parts, — forms over its whole length a water-shed
between the streams which flow to the north and
west, and those which flow to the south-east, — and
lifts up numerous summits of from 2,500 to nearly
3,300 feet in altitude, and of remarkable and singu
lar varied contour. The ranges and masses which
agglomerate with this, or which wander away in
compact or straggling detachments over the rest of
the area, are so irregular and mutually dissimilar as
to defy the uniting of force and succinctness in any
attenlpt to describe them. Some are solitary, sharp-
featured, abrupt and soaring heights with picturesque
and occasionally curious outlines ; more are broad-
based and lumpish masses, spreading their huge bulk
in long, broad lines, over a large area ; some are so
melted and flattened into one another as to form
widely-extended stretches of alpine table-land, drear
ily covered with heath and moss, and unrelieved by
a single feature of picture or variety ; and most,
though at different and sometimes wide intervals,
are cloven through their centre, or separated from
their fellows, by rugged glens and hollows, by bold
passes and openings, or by beautiful and romantic
valleys. The western district, comprising Assynt,
Edderachylis, and part of Durness, is one of the
most remarkable in the kingdom for constant ine
quality and ruggedness of upland surface, and for a
profuse and rapid interlacing of rocky heights ahd
fresh-water lakes. The northern district, compre
hending part of Durness, all Tongue and Farr, and
the Sutherland part of Reay, possesses to some ex
tent a similar character to the former ; but goes off
in the interior into broad, smooth, and moorish up
land expanses, and is relieved along tbe coast by an
open tract of arable land in Durness, by the exqui
sitely scenic semicircular vale of Tongue, by the long
and beautiful valley of Strathnaver, and by the green
and bounteous though tame valley of Strath-Halla
dale. The south-ea?'3rn district, while exhibiting
more or less of the various features which we have
ascribed aggregately to the county, possesses a large
extent of rich pasture-ground, and, in a general view,
is cut into five somewhat parallel elongated sections
of high hills by the long and pleasant valleys Or glens
of Helmsdale, Brora, Shin, and Oikel. The south
east sea-board, over a breadth of from one-fourth of
a mile or less to 2 miles, is an opulent tract of low
ground, luxuriant in produce, beautiful in cultiva
tion, and exultant in embellishment — The chief
mountains of upwards of 2,000 feet in altitude, are
Ben-More-Assynt, 3,431 feet high; Ben-Klibreck,
3,164; Ben-Hope, 3.061; Fionaven, 3,015; Ben-
Hie, 2,858; Ben-Spiunnue, 2,566; Ben-Laoghal,
2,508 ; and Ben-Armin, 2,306.

The principal bays and sea-lochs on the western
coast, enumerating them from the south northward,
are Loch-Inver, Loch-Row, Clashnessie-bay, Loch-
Assynt with its offshoots, Loch-Nedd, Loch-Ard-
vare, Kyle-Scow, Loch-in-Oban, and Edderachylis-
bay, Scourie -bay, Loch - Laxford, Loch-Dougel,
Loch-Inchard, and Sandwood-bay. The principal
on the north coast, reckoning eastward, are the
Kyle of Durness or Grady, Loch -Eri boll, the Kyle
of Tongue, the bay of Torrisdale, Farr-bay, Ar-
madale-bay, the bay of Strathy, and Port-Skerry.
The only noticeable indentations on the southeast
coast are a small creek at Helmsdale, and the large
inlets of Loch-Fleet, and the Dornoch frith. — The
coast along both the west and the north presents
headlands and numerous cliffs of the boldest char
acter, often picturesquely grand, and sometimes
highly impressive and even terrific. Ru-Store and
the Point of Store, in near vicinity to each other,
are the chief headlands on the west ; Cape- Wrath
forms the north-west point of Sutherlandshire, and,
at the same time, of the continent of Scotland ; and
Far-Out-head, Whiten-head, and Strathy-head, are
the chief promontories on fhe north. The south
east coast, except at the boundary with Caithness,
where the stupendous Ord falls precipitously down
from mountain-altitude to the depths of the sea, is
all flat, with a prevailing sandy shore, and, in gen
eral, departs from the straight line only in brief and
gentle curvatures  The sea-girt islands belonging
to the county lie all within the sea-lochs, or along
the western and northern coasts, nowhere at a dis
tance of more than 2 miles ; and, though very nu
merous, and in some instances inhabited, they are
all so small as aggregately to possess a very incon
siderable area. Handa, which is the largest, is also
the most remarkable: see Handa. This island,
though composed chiefly of old red sandstone, pre
sents the appearance, at a little distance, of colum-
nary basaltic cliffs, whose columns are disposed in
horizontal lines parallel with water-level, and pos
sessing all the regularity of artificial formation.
The streams of Sutherlandshire are very numerous ;
but as they are all indigenous, and, excepting those
on the southern boundary, receive no other afflu
ents than such as rise and flow like themselves in
the interior, they possess, in dry weather, but a
small body of water. Only the Oikel and the Fleet,
and these but for short distances, are navigable; but
all the larger ones are valuable for their salmon-
fishings. Those which flow westward to the Atlan
tic have short courses through wildly broken districts,
and along shelving and disrupted beds, and are re
markable chiefly for their turbulence, impetuosity,
and display of cataract and cascade. The principal
are the Kirkaig on the boundary ; the Inver in As
synt; and the Laxford and Inchard in Edderachylis.
The streams which run northward to the North sea
are more various in character ; and in the instances
which we shall name, they perform runs of from 12
to 30 miles, — the Dionard or Grady, and the More
or Hope in Edderachylis and Durness, — the Borgie
or Torrisdale, between Tongue and Farr, — the Na
ver and the Strathy in Farr, — and the Hallodale in
Reay. The streams in the south-east, flowing to
the Moray frith, drain very nearly one-half of the
county; and, in several instances, are comparatively,
large and long, and not a little beautiful. The chief
are the Helmsdale, with its affluent the Ellie; Brora,
with its grand tributary formed of the united streams
of Skinsdale and Strathbeg; the Fleet, opening into
the cognominal sea-loch ; and the Oikel, swelled by
the rival river Shin, and by the large affluent, the
Cassley  The lakes of Sutherlandshire are very
numelous; several are large; many are romantic,

732

SUTHERLANDSHIRE.

picturesque, beautiful, or otherwise scenic ; most are
well-stored with trout,* and a few are curious either
from position or from traditional association. Those
of the first class as to size are Lochs Shin, Hope,
Laoghal, Assynt, More, and Naver ; — those of sec
ond class size, or of length from 2 to 4 miles, are
Lochs Vattie, Faun, Cama, Merkland, Stack, Mad-
die, Ullaball, Na-Cayn, Baden, Furan, and Brora.
A chain of these lakes, consisting of Shin, Merk
land, More, and Stack, together with a smaller lake
called Griam, almost continuous with Shin, extends
north-westward from a point within 10 miles of the
navigation of the Dornoch frith, to a point within 3
miles of the head of Loch- Laxford; and as it leaves
intervals of land, none of which measures more than
2 miles, and at the same time sends off a large con
necting stream with the navigation of the Dornoch
frith, it forms a deep water-line between the eastern
and the western seas quite similar in character to
that which occupies the Glenmore-nan-Albin, and
forms the natural and chief part of the Caledonian
canal. Assynt alone contains about 200 lakes of
noticeable size, besides numerous ponds and tarns;
and most of the other districts of the county abound
more with them than almost any other part of con
tinental Scotland. The most scenic of all the lakes
are Assynt, Brora, Hope, Shin, Maddie, and some
small ones in the district of Assynt. A remarkable
subterranean lake occurs in the great and wondrous
cave of Smoo : see Durness  In every part of this
rocky county are numerous springs of pure, limpid,
salubrious water. The most singular bursts from
the mountain Glasvein, on the north side of Loch-
Assynt, 500 feet above the level of the lake; it
never freezes, and discharges, all the year round, a
nearly uniform volume of water ; and it emits, even
at midsummer, a rapid current 15 inches deep, and 3
feet wide.
Though Sutherlandshire is so wildly mountainous,
and lies three degrees farther north than East Lo
thian, it almost bears comparison, in some properties
of its climate, with that genial and balmy county.
The spring may be a fortnight later in commencing,
and the autumn may terminate a fortnight earlier ;
but the summer is quite as warm, if not warmer, and
the winter is not colder. The south-east coast, not
only along the sea, but up the Dornoch frith and the
lower Oikel, is so well-sheltered by the frontier
Highland hills from northerly and westerly storms,
and so amply protected by the stupendous umbrella
of the whole uplands from the moistures of the North
sea and the Atlantic, that the inhabitants complain,
during the Summer-months, of having too little ra
ther than too much rain, and see their crops grow
ing up with such little atmospheric disturbance as
often to attain an insufficient height of stalk for the
free operation of the sickle. The interior of the
county, and the western and northern coasts, are
exposed to frequent rains and storms from the oceans,
and have a raw coldness proportionate to their hu
midity. The prevailing winds blow from the north
west and west, and bring rain to the districts which
they first sweep, but dry weather to the great seat
* The trout differ from each other so much in the various
districts, as to warrant the suspicion that more than one spe
cies is included under the common name of trout. By many
ichthyologists, the different appearanceB of trout are all re
ferred to S. Fario, with a most extensive range of variation;
but the subject appears yet to require investigation. Many of
the trout in these lochs are of very fine quality. In most of
the larger lochs, particularly iu the district of Assynt, the great
lake trout, S. Ferox, was found. This tish is noticed by several
of the BritiBh writers upon tish, butonly as a variety of tho com
mon trunr. It is distinct, and with good characters. It reaches
a weight of 26 pounds. It inhabits only the larger Scottish
lochs,— Loch-Awe, Shur, Loyal, Assynt, &c. Its food is al
most exclusively fish; the flesh very coarse, of a yellowish
white colour.

of the population, the south-east sea-board. Winds
from the Moray frith, as they blow in the opposite
direction, make a reverse distribution of humidity
and drought.
Granite is a comparatively scarce rock in Suther
landshire ; and occurs rather in dikes and veins than
in independent masses. Its presence occasionally,
as at Cape-Wrath, is part of a singular lapideous
compound, in which a schistose or stratified rock,
akin to gneiss, is intersected in all directions with
granite veins of probably different ages. Syenite,
though more frequent and less subordinate, is not
plentiful. Hornblende rock and hornblende schist
occur in the west; and, besides being there beautiful
substances in themselves, contain such interesting
minerals as tremolite, actynolite, tourmaline, shorl,
and garnet. Gneiss is greatly the prevailing rock
throughout the uplands; and, in general, it forms
the great chains of round-backed and broad-based
mountains, yet shoots out on the north- west coast
into bold and precipitous headlands. Micaceous
schist is extensively developed in Tongue and Dur
ness. Primary granular Umestone abounds in Assynt
and Durness, and exists, in considerable quantities,
generally in the west. The marbles here formed
by this rock display a considerable variety of colour,
streak, and cloud; yet have not obtained much re
putation among marble-cutters. Quartz rock forms
detached mountains in the west; and, as well as the
gneiss and the micaceous schist, is occasionally veined
with granite and porphyry. Primary or old red
sandstone extends in a wildly rugged band along the
west coast to near Cape- Wrath, forming stupendous
mural-faced heights, or hugely- volumed broken moun
tains ; and, after being cut off for a brief space by
gneiss, it immediately reappears on the north coast,
shoots ruggedly up at several points along the broken
line of that coast, and, after becoming united at Port-
Skerry to a coarse conglomerate, passes on the con
fines of Caithness into continuous fields of stratified
sandstone, — the basis of the Caithness geognostic
formations. The primary, or old red sandstone, also
constitutes some of the loftiest mountains in the in
terior,, and imparts to them a sharpness, ruggedness,
and boldness of contour, which contrast picturesquely
with the prevailing gneiss heights in their vicinity.
A series of oolitic and lias deposits commence imme
diately south of the Ord of Caithness, and extends
along the south-east sea-board ; and a great mass of
them have been so upraised by immediately subjacent
granite, whUe neighbouring masses lie upon brecciated
old red sandstone, as to indicate a priority in the
date of their own formation to that of the upheaving
of the granite. These deposits occupy a tract of
about 20 miles in length, and 3 miles in extreme
breadth ; and are cut into three sections, in the val
leys respectively of Navidale, Loth, and Brora, by
the advances upon them of the mountains which
skirt their landward side, and consist partly of red
conglomerate, and chiefly of unstratified porphyritic
granite. More geological interest attaches to this
tract, especially to that part of it which lies in the
south, and has obtained the name of the Brora coal
field, than probably to any other in Scotland ; and a
series of interesting papers descriptive of it, were
written by those eminent geologists, R. J. Murchi-
son, Esq., and the Rev. A. Sedgewick, and published
in the Transactions of the Geological society.
The soils of Sutherlandshire are less various than
those of most territories of its size in Scotland.
Loam, as a primitive earth, or in any other sense
than as a vegetable mould, occurs only on the farms
of Dunrobin, Skelbo, aud Skibo. A deep bluish
clay carpets part of the vale of Loth ; clay of various
complexions and depths occurs in small patches in

SUTHERLANDSHIRE.

733

several low lying farms ; and clay, covered to the
depth of a foot with dry, barren sand, occurs in many
parts of Strathfleet. A purely alluvial or haugh soil
carpets some low grounds upon the margin of streams ;
and, in general, is light and sandy. A reddish gra
vel, a light hazelly vegetable mould, a shallow gritty
sand, an ochre-coloured unproductive clay, a dilu
vium of gneiss mixed with peat, and a moorish or
sandy peat earth, all differing less from one another
than these designations might seem to imply, and
reducible in classification to sandy and light hazel
loamy soils, variously cover the low grounds of the
interior straths and glens. Sand, with or without a
mixture of small pebbles, and worked by culture and
manuring into a dark-coloured vegetable mould, is
the prevailing soil on the thickly-peopled south
eastern sea-board. Moss or peat, from 18 inches to
10 feet deep, all covered with heath, and lying at
too great a height upon the levels and hollows of
the mountains to admit of much or any georgical
improvement, covers no less than 580 square miles,
or 371,200 acres. A very large proportion of the
vast mountain-district may be regarded as an irre
trievable Highland wilderness. A band, 10 miles
broad, and situated next the south-eastern belt of
lowland, is covered with a stunted brown heath,
slightly intermixed with ling or moss, and has, in
general, a subsoil of gneiss or conglomerate; but, on
some of the declivities skirting the straths, it has
such a subsoil of sand, or of a gravelly kind of clay,
as might sufficiently bear plantation. A broad band
along the south, going off at right angles from the
former, and extending far to the west, and also a
large part of central districts of the county, have
a considerable proportion of coarse grass, esculent
heaths, ling, and grass, among the coarse strong heaths,
and afford good pasture for sheep and cattle. The
greater part of the west is so rugged, rocky, and
stern, that, except in the wild ravines and glens,
very little vegetation of any sort can be discovered ;
and, in particular, 300 square miles or upwards, in
the south-west, are a tract of all but utterly naked
mountains, so torn in themselves, and so intersected
by rocky gorges and hollows, that they look as if
they had been shattered by some great convulsion
of nature, and consigned to terrific and perpetual
sterility. The northern mountains, though less
naked, are often bare near the summit, and exhibit
elsewhere a studding of crags among their heath.
The 18, 125 English acres, or 14,500 Scottish acres,
which Captain Henderson estimated as arable in
1812, are- distributed by him into 190 Scottish acres
of clay, 1,120 of sandy soil, 100 of peat-moss, and
13,090 of a mixture of sand, gravel, and black earth,
which may be deemed a light hazel loam.
We have stated, in our article on the Highlands,
[Vol. I. p. 792,] at how late a date agricultural
improvements were commenced in Sutherlandshire,
how energetically they were carried on, and how
speedily they were brought to a noble maturity.
The county's total want of roads, the excessive rug
gedness of its surface, its frequent intersection by
dangerous friths, and by rapid flood-bearing rivers,
its nearly total encompassment by strong natural
boundaries, and its position in the far north, away
from every point of landward access, rendered it
greatly more secluded than any other Highland
county, and at once repelled the approach of stran
gers, and greatly limited the internal intercourse of
its own people. The feudal power which elsewhere
lingered long in the Highlands, and was with diffi
culty subdued, had necessarily superior energy and
wider scope in Sutherlandshire, and continued to be
unbroken long after some other Highland districts
were totally revolutionized. The Earls of Suther

land and Cdthness, though fiercely and often en
gaged in their own particular feuds, seldom and
slightly, during the early periods of Scoto-Saxon
history, took part in the kingdom's concerns, or
seemed to be affected by its excitements and changes.
The abolition of hereditary jurisdictions, the diffu
sion of the English language, the introduction of
manufactures, the encouragement of fisheries, the
dissemination of enlightened views on sheep and
field husbandry, the drafting of population as emi
grants to foreign countries, the opening up of terri
tory by roads, the introduction of carts and improved
implements of culture, and the diffusion of general
knowledge and sound principles of social order,
which had effected complete ameliorations in some
parts of the other Highland territories ; and were
in the course of effecting them in the rest, continued,
for some years after the commencement of the pre
sent century, to be quite or nearly as far from affect
ing Sutherlandshire as in a comparatively remote
age. When the Earls of Sutherland no longer re
quired to levy troops for prosecuting feudal contests,
they raised for the service of Government one of
those corps which have been aptly designated family
regiments ; and being far from the seat of royal or
ministerial influence, and all but totally inaccessible
by its instruments, they continued, from the very
necessity of their position, to be the feudal, or at
least the patriarchal chiefs of their people. A super
abundant population continued, in consequence, to be
maintained and fostered ; the cessation of feuds, and
the reign of peace and social security, greatly quick
ened the ratio at which the native population in
creased ; and the enlargement of farms, and conver
sion of arable grounds into sheep walk, in the Highland
counties on the south, drove hither as refugees not
a small extraneous population, who were averse
to emigrate, and possessed in the aggregate much
less than the mean proportion of industrious and
enterprising habits which characterized their coun
trymen. The county could not fail, from these causes
alone, to be very rapidly and quite destructively over
peopled; and, in addition, it became the retreat of
numerous Highlanders from the south, who were
expatriated for idleness or misdemeanours, and of
numerous tenants in Ross-shire and other adjoining
counties, who dishonourably removed in order to
escape the payment of due or arrear rent. Exactly
those evils which had for centuries half-barbarized
the Highlands, thus became rampant and violent in
Sutherlandshire at the very time when they were
elsewhere becoming tamed or subdued. A hardy
but indolent race swarmed up the straths and over
the mountain sides ; they lacerated and scourged
almost every spot of earth which could be made to
yield a miserable crop of oats for the support of life,
or a'stinted crop of bear for the distillation of whisky ;
they lounged lazily on the heath or around their stilis,
leaving to their wives and daughters most of the
heavy work of both house and field ; and, except in
building a hut, in breaking ground for'the reception
of seed, in cutting turf for fuel, and in doubtfully
pursuing the moorland game, they were unservice
able to their families, and mere incumbrances to
themselves and their country. Misery, in its most
squalid and haggard aspect, could not fail to make
the speedy and thorough acquaintance of such a
people. Even the cultivation of the potato, which
might have seemed to promise valuable aid by the
abundance of the root's produce, and the facility
with which it adapts itself to poor and bleak soils,
, only for a time provoked a greater density of popu
lations and a more reckless indulgence of idleness,
and then, shrinking beneath the early frosts of the
mountains, or driven into sterility by skillessness and

734

SUTHERLANDSHIRE.

excess of culture, frequently failed to fructify, and
entailed on the multitudes who chiefly depended
upon it the appalling disaster of a general famine.
The noble family of Sutherland and Stafford — who
may be said to own the county, and at least possess
by far the larger and more valuable part of its lands —
afforded munificent relief to starving thousands dur
ing various years of famine ; but they felt that, till
a radical and sweeping change should be effected in
the ruinous social system on their lands, they were
only soothing misery with stimulants which would
eventually increase it, and they boldly conceived,
and energetically carried into execution, the plan
which we have noticed in our article on the High
lands. Yet they drove to foreign countries and to
the Lowlands probably no larger a proportion of the
population than most other Highland improvers, and
certainly a much smaller proportion than some ; and
they offered every facility and encouragement to the
crowds who were expelled from the interior straths
and the mountain sides, to settle comfortably on the
coasts, and, at the same time, expended princely
sums on the construction of roads, the building of
neat houses, the georgical improvement of the warm
and low lands upon the sea-shores, and various other
means of ameliorating the condition of both the coun
try and the people. The suddenness of the change,
the disregard of private feeUng with which it was
accomplished, and the all but entire depopulation of
many a fine glen which figured in the fancy of many
an ardent constitution in all the brilliant tints im
parted by love of country, were perhaps the only
circumstances which might have profitably been soft
ened. Though many of the quondam tenants of the
hills who now inhabit the coast, still cherish feelings
of irritation against the noble family who achieved
the revolution, " more impartial judges perceive a
want of due consideration by them of all the circum
stances of the case, and, properly give weight to op
posite statements, corroborated as they now unques
tionably are, by a kind, liberal, and public-spirited
course of conduct." The change, in its great fea
tures and bold character, had as yet affected only
the greater part of Sutherland proper, or that which
excludes Reay's Country : See that article. But
in 1829, the Duke of Sutherland, then Marquis of
Stafford, acquired by purchase the large estates of
Lord Reay; and he promptly reacted in the west and
north-west the same great scene which had figured all
over the Sutherland estates. The system of agri
culture now practised by tenants of the arable farms
in any part of the county, is not excelled by that of
the most favoured parts of Scotland; arid even at
an early stage of the Marquis of Stafford's georgical
innovations, results were so rich and indicative of
skill, that lessons were carried from them for adop
tion in England. The improved aspect of the county,
however, extends as yet to but a small distance from
the coasts. The upland country, and its enclosed
straths and glens, are now disposed in large pastoral
farms, some of which let for from £2,000 and £3,000
of rent each, and are held by emigrants from the
south of Scotland. Cheviot sheep are the staple
produce, as to both fleece and carcass ; and are vari
ously estimated in number at 170,000 and 200,000.
" The new modes of improvement," say the Messrs.
Anderson, in 1834, "have not yet had time to prove
their efficacy ; and it seems not yet sufficiently under
stood, whether the system of extensive grazings and
sheep-farms have benefited either the landlords or
tenants, or whether its present apparent advantages
are likely to be permanent."
The cotton manufacture was at one time intro
duced to Sutherlandshire ; but it failed. See Spin-
ningdale. The importing of dressed flax from the

Baltic, and the spinning of it into yarn, produced for
a series of years about £3,000 a-year ; but the trade
was destroyed by Buonaparte's continental system.
The manufacture of woollen stuffs was conducted to
a sufficient extent for home consumpt, and the par
tial supply of Caithness. Kelp was manufactured in
the Reay country to the value of about £3,000 a-year.
All manufacture, except in a very restricted sense,
maybe regarded as now extinct. The commerce of the
county consists principally in the exchange of sheep,
wool, black cattle, and fish, for woven fabrics and
colonial produce. The salmon-fisheries at the mouths
of most of the rivers are of considerable value, and,
in some instances, are particularly noted. The lob
ster-fisheries of the west have had some repute ; the
cod and ling fisheries of the north are of growing im
portance ; and the herring-fisheries of Helmsdale are
extensive and prosperous. Fairs are held at Dornoch,
Torrisdale, Golspie, Brora, Bonar-Bridge, Duillish
in Kildonan, Pitentrail in Rogart, and Knockglass in
Clyne. — The only town or royal burgh is Dornoch,
the capital of the county. The chief villages are
Bonar-Bridge, Golspie, Brora, Port-Gower, and
Helmsdale, aU on the south-east coast. . The smaller
villages are Inver and Scourie on the west, and
Tongue, Torrisdale, Strathy, and Port-Skerry on
the north. But burgh, villages, and hamlets are all
on a meagre scale  The chief mansions are Dunfo-
bin-castle, Tongue-house, the .seats of the Duke of
Sutherland [see Dunrobin and Tongue] ; Rose
hall in Strathoikel; and Criech, Skibo, and Embo
on the south-east coast. — The chief antiquities are
Cole's-Castle [which see] ; Dun-Dornadil, or
Dornadilla's-tower, in Durness ; vestiges of dunes
or Picts' houses ; and some large cairns and assem
blages of tumuli. Sutherlandshire, though the last
district on the continent of Scotland which was pro
vided with roads, enjoys now the singular privilege
of having excellent highways without so much as
one toll. One road, sending off various transverse
main lines, and numerous small ramifications, extends
along the whole south-east coast, and is approached
by way of both Meikle-ferry and Bonar-bridge ; a se
cond goes from Bonar-bridge, up Strathoikel, and
through Assynt, to the west coast at Inver; a third
branching off from the second, 3 miles above Bonar-
bridge, passes up the Shin, and along the great chain
of lakes, to the west coast at Scourie ; a fourth,
branching off from the third 1 J mil,e above the church
of Lairg, runs northward to the bead of Loch-Naver,
and there forks into three lines which run respec
tively north-westward to Durness-bay, northward to
Tongue, and north-north-eastward to Farr-kirk and
bay ; a fifth runs in the direction of north by east
from Bonar-bridge to Port-Skerry, and is joined, in
the earlier part of its route, by 4 lines from the
south-east coast, and one from the roads in the in
terior ; a sixth goes from Helmsdale, up the strath of
Helmsdale river, is joined by a line from Loth, strikes,
at 15 miles from Helmsdale, the northerly line from
Bonar-bridge, and passes on to a junction with the
Farr road in Strathnaver ; a seventh comes in from
Caithness on the north coast, .and runs along to.
Tongue ; and an eighth strikes off from the Dur
ness road near the head of the Kyle of Durness, and
passes along the west coast to Kyle Scow. The
principal facilities for interior travelling and convey
ance are wheeled vehicles for the mail and passen
gers along the south-east coast, on the Great North
road, south to Wick and Thurso ; along the north
coast, on the road from Thurso to Tongue ; and right
through the country, between Tongue and Golspie.
— Sutherlandshire comprehends the quoad civilia
parishes of Assynt, Clyne, Criech, Dornoch, Gol
spie, Kildonan, Lairg, Loth, and ftogart, and the

SUT

735

SWI

quoad sacra parish of Stoer, which constitute the
presbytery of Dornoch ; the quoad civilia parishes of
Durness, Edderachylis, Farr, and Tongue, and the
quoad sacra parishes of Kinlochbervie and Strathy,
which constitute the presbytery of Tongue; and
part of the quoad civilia parish of Reay, which be
longs to the presbytery of Caithness; — all in the
synod of Sutherland and Caithness. The Duke of
Sutherland is joint patron with the Crown of Criech,
and sole patron of all the other quoad civilia parishes
in the presbytery of Dornoch, and of the parish of
Farr. The Crown is patron of all the other parishes.
In 1834, there were 13 parochial schools, conducted
by 15 teachers, and attended by a maximum of 1,067
scholars, and a minimum of 430 ; and 43 non-par
ochial schools, conducted by 45 teachers, and at
tended by a maximum of 2,038 scholars, and a mini
mum of 701. — Sutherlandshire, till some time after
the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions, formed part
of the sheriffdom of Caithness. The county sends
one member to parliament. Constituency, in 1838,
134. Quarter-sessions are held at Dornoch on the
first Tuesday of March, May, and August, and the
last Tuesday of October; justice-of-peace small-
debt-courts are held on the first Tuesday of every
month at Dornoch, and the first Wednesday of every
month at Brora ; and sheriff's small-debt-courts are
held in April and October at Tongue, Lairg, and
Port-Gower. The valued rent, in 1674, was £26,093
Scottish ; and the real property as assessed, in 1815,
was £33,878. Population, in 1811,23,629; in 1821,
23,840; in 1831, 25,518, in 1841, 24,666. Houses,
in 1841, 4,821.
' The earldom of Sutherland, a title to which that
of Duke of Sutherland in the peerage of the United
Kingdom was recently added, is asserted to be the
most ancient existing peerage in Britain, and at least
has for ages been the premier earldom of Scotland.
Hugh Freskin, the first undoubted figurant in con
nexion with it, or with its subsequent possessors,
came into Scotland from Flanders, in the reign of
David I., and obtained from that'prince the lands of
Strathbrock in Linlithgowshire. Hugh probably
acted an astute and valorous part in subduing the
Moraymen at their insurrection in 1130; and, in
guerdon of his services, he acquired from his royal
master some of the richest lands in the beautiful and
fertile plain of Moray. William Freskin, the for
mer's eldest son and heir, received additional grants
of land ; and Hugh Freskin, William's eldest'son,
acquired the broad estate of Sutherland, which was
forfeited by the Earl of Caithness by his rebellion in
1197. Whether this Hugh obtained, along with the
estate, the title of Comes or Earl, seems a matter of
_ dispute. His son, however, " Willielmus Dominus
de Sutherlandia, filius et baeres quondam Hugonis
Freskyn," unquestionably died Earl of Sutherland
tbout the year 1248; and he is usually reckoned the
1 st Earl, and is said to have obtained the peerage
from Alexander IL, about 1228, for assisting to
crush a powerful northern savage, of the name of
Gillespie. William, the 2d Earl, was with the Scot
tish armies at Bannockburn and Brigland, and wore
his title during the long period of 77 years. Ken
neth, the 3d Earl, fell at the battle of Halidon-hill
in 1333. William, the 4th Earl, married the second
daughter of King Robert Bruce ; and made grants
to powerful and influential persons of numerous lands
which he held in the counties of Inverness and Aber
deen, to win their support of his eldest son John's
claim to the succession to the Crown. John was
selected by his uncle, David Bruce, or David IL, as
heir of the throne ; but he died in England, while a
hostage there for the payment of the King's ran
som. William, the brother of John, and the 5th

Earl, fought at the battle of Otterburn. Of the four
succeeding Earls, nothing of public interest is re
corded. Elizabeth, the sister-german of John, the
9th Earl, Countess of Sutherland in her own right,
and the tenth person who held the earldom, married
Lord Aboyne, and was succeeded by her son, John,
who was poisoned in 1567 at Helmsdale. See Loth.
The next four Earls were each the son of the pre
ceding. John, the 16th Earl, figured conspicuously
both as a statesman and as a soldier, and obtained
leave to add to hi3 armorial bearings the double
' tressure circonfeurdelire,' to indicate his descent
from the royal family of Bruce. Elizabeth, the in
fant daughter and only child of William, the 18th
Earl, who died in 1766, succeeded in that year to
the earldom, yet «¦ sharp contest to her right was
conducted, on the ground that the title could not
legally descend to a female heir, and terminated in
her favour by an adjudication of the House of Lords
in 1771. The Countess, the nineteenth person in
the line of succession, married, in 1785, George
Granville Leveson Gower, Viscount Trentnam, eld
est son of Earl Gower, afterwards Marquis of Staf
ford, by his second wife, Lady Louisa Egerton,
daughter of the 1st Duke of Bridgewater. His
lordship succeeded to his father's titles, became the
second Marquis of Stafford ; and, in 1 833, he was
raised to the dignity of Duke of Sutherland. The
Duchess of Sutherland, Countess in her own right,
held the earldom during tbe long period of 72 years
and 7 months, and died in January, 1839 ; when she
was succeeded by her eldest son, George Granville,
the present Duke. As Marquis of Stafford, the
Duke claims descent, by his father's paternal line,
from the Earls of Bath, and the youngest son of
Rollo, Duke of Normandy, arid, by his father's ma
ternal line, from the princess Mary, the second
daughter of Henry VII.
SUTORS of CROMARTY. See Cromarty-
Frith. SUURSAY, a small Hebridean island in the sound
of Harris. It lies 2A miles south-south-east of Ber
nera, and IJ mile north-north-east of Hanbeg in
North Uist. It is between 2 and 3 miles in circuit.
SWANSTON, a small viUage on the lower de
clivity of the Pentlands, in the parish of Colinton,
5 miles south-south-west of Edinburgh. Popula
tion, in 1834, 110.
SWEETHEART-ABBEY. See Newabbey.
SWIN (Loch), an inlet of the sea, on the coast
of Argyleshire, opposite the island of Jura. It is
104 miles long, andfrom 5 furlongs to 2 miles broad.
It runs up north-north-eastward, in a line slightly
divergent from that of the coast, so as to enclose a
long and very slender peninsula ; and it flings out
several long, narrow arms, in lines nearly parallel
to its own direction, so as to peninsulate various
belts of hill-ground on its coasts. At its entrance
Ues a cluster of islets ; on one of which are well-
preserved remains of an ancient chapel and vaulted
cell, with an elegant and curiously sculptured sar
cophagus. A series of abrupt and lofty hills encom
passes the loch ; and they terminate in rocky and
deeply indented shores, and, over much of their de
clivity, are opulently wooded. The scenery is strik
ing and full of character. On the east shore, about
2 miles from the entrance, stand the fine ruins of
Castle-Swin. SWINNA, or Swona, a small island of Orkney,
belonging to the parish of South Ronaldshay :
which see. It lies on the north side of the Pentland
frith, off the entrance of Scalpa-Flow, If mile west
of Barth-head in South Ronaldshay, and 3 miles
south-east of Cantick-head in Walls. It is about
11 mile in length, and less than half-a-mile in mean

SWI

736

SYM

breadth. Its inhabitants— about 80 in number— are
supported chiefly by the fisheries, and by piloting
vessels through the circumjacent whirling seas. In
its neighbourhood are the whirlpools, called the
Wells of Swinna. See Pentland-Frith.
SWINTON and SIMPRIN, an united parish in
the district of Merse, Berwickshire. It is bounded
on the north by Fogo, Edrom, and Whitsome : on
the east by Ladykirk; on the south by Coldstream;
and on the west by Eccles and Fogo. Its greatest
length from east to west is 3| miles ; its greatest
breadth is 2J miles; and its superficial extent is
about 5,400 acres. The surface is a series of gentle
ridgy elevations from east to west, with intervening
flats. The soil in general is clayey, deep, and fertile ;
but, in a few places, is marshy. Excepting about 70
acres which are waste or permanently disposed in
pasture, and about 50 acres which have been de
voted to plantation, all the area is regularly in til
lage, and exhibits the rich agricultural appearance
for which the Merse in general is distinguished.
The small river Leet flows southward between level
banks, and is much subject to freshets. The new
red sandstone lies beneath most of the parish, and
has been extensively quarried. — The village of Swin
ton stands a little north of the centre of the parish, on
the north road between Kelso and Berwick, and de
rives importance from being at about equal distances
between these towns, and a place of stay and re
freshment to travellers. A number of coal-carters
and others, who have no connection with the land
of the parish, are among its ' inhabitants. It has a
good inn, a friendly society, and two annual fairs.
In 1836, its population was 446. The viUage of
Simprin is extinct  Swinton-house — about a mile
south-west of the cognominal village — is an elegant
modern edifice, the successor of a mansion of great
antiquity. The family of Swinton, the owners of
this seat and of the parochial manor, date up for
about 800 years to the period of the heptarchy, and
at the dawn of record appear as possessors of the
soil. They are said — but on evidence little better
than traditional tattle — to have originally acquired
the inheritance for their bravery in clearing the
country of swine ; and they afterwards made a con
spicuous figure in the reign of Malcolm Canmore,
assisting that monarch to recover the Scottish throne,
and, in the person of Edulf de Swinton, received
from a charter, which was one of the first granted
in Scotland, and which is still preserved in the ar
chives of Durham, confirming to them the property
of the whole parish of Swinton. Sir John Swinton,
one of the barons of the line, and son-in-law of King
Robert II. , figures in Fordun's history as the chief vic
tor at Otterburn; and he met his death at the battle
of Homildon in 1402, after such feats of bravery and
amid such circumstances of interest as furnished Sir
Walter Scott with a ready and plastic subject for his
dramatic sketch of ' Halidon-hill.' Another of the
family, the son of the former, signalized himself by
deeds of bravery in the wars of France, and is said
to have unhorsed the Duke of Clarence, brother of
Henry V., at the battle of Berrenger, A second
Sir John Swinton, jointly with other barons, sub
scribed a bond to assist James VI. against the Earls
of Bothwell and Hume. The family incurred for
feiture, for a short time, by taking part with Crom
well, but were restored to their possessions imme
diately after the Revolution. John Swinton, Esq.,
better known as Lord Swinton, and the predecessor
thrice removed of the present proprietor, was dis
tinguished as a patriotic member of the College of
. Justice, and has the fame of having suggested the
division of the Court-of-session into two chambers.
Sir Walter Scott's grandmother was a daughter of

this very ancient and celebrated house. The estate,
since the era of agricultural improvement, has been
skilfully and patriotically attended to by its succes
sive proprietors, and, owing to the disposal of its
small aggregate of plantation in rows and belts,
it has a finely wooded appearance. The parish
is traversed by the north road between Berwick
and Kelso, the road between Coldstream and Dunse,
and various subordinate roads. Population, in
1801, 875; in 1831, 971. Houses 228. Assessed
property, in 1815, £8,700  This parish is in the
presbytery of Chirnside, and synod of Merse and
Teviotdale. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £230
16s. Id. ; glebe £50. Unappropriated teinds £654
Is. lOd. The church was built in 1593, altered in
1729, and enlarged by the addition of an aisle in
1 782. Sittings 366. A census by the minister in
1834, showed the population then to consist of 783
churchmen, 84 dissenters, and 3 nondescripts, — in
all, 870 persons. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4^d.,
with £i4 10s. fees, and £10 other emoluments.
There is a non-parochial school. — The ancient church
of Swinton was for some time a vicarage under the
monks of Coldingham. In 1296, William de Swin
ton, the vicar, and probably a brother of the lord Of
the manor, swore fealty at Berwick to Edward I.
Simprin is separately noticed. See Simprin.
-SYMINGTON, a parish in the north-west of
Kyle, Ayrshire ; bounded on the north by Dundon
ald ; on the north-east by Riccarton ; on the east by
Craigie; on the south by Monkton; and on the west
by Monkton and Dundonald. Its length from east
to west is about 4 miles ; its breadth is about J J
mile ; and its superficial extent is about 4,000 acres.
The surface is a pleasing diversity of gentle rising
grounds and sloping fields, frilled over with enclo
sures, broadly gemmed with plantation, and finely
decorated with gentlemen's demesnes. The higher
grounds, including the site of the village, command
a prospect of the greater part of Ayrshire and the
frith of Clyde. The soil is in general clay, or a
rich black loam, on a sandstone bottom. Excepting
about 300 acres of plantation, nearly the whole area
is in tillage. Sandstone and whinstone are quarried,
— the former as building material, and the latter as
road-metal. Limestone occurs, but cannot be pro
fitably worked. Coal was at one time mined, but
has been abandoned  The viUage of Symington
is an irregular but delightfully situated aggregation
of houses on a rocky ground or gentle eminence
in the centre of the parish, 7 miles south-east of
Irvine, and the same distance north-north-east of
Ayr. Its population is about 280. The parish is
traversed through the village by the Glasgow and
Portpatrick mailroad. Population, in 1801, 668;
in 1831, 884. Houses 148. Assessed property, in
1815, £6,178  Symington is in the presbytery of
Ayr, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, Lady
M. Montgomery. Stipend £246 lis. 9d.; glebe
£12. Unappropriated teinds £553 5s. Schoolmas
ter's salary £3^ 5s. 10Jd., with £50 fees, and £2
5s. other emoluments. There is a non-parochial
school. The parish-church is old and of unknown
date, but has been repeatedly repaired; — Both this
parish and the Lanarkshire Symington derived their
name, originally written Symonstoun, from Symon
Loccard or Lockhart, who held the lands of both
under Walter the 1st Stewart, and was the progeni
tor of the Lockharts of Lee and other families, of the
same name. The church of the ,Kyie- Symington
was granted to the convent which was founded at
Feil or Faile in Kyle during the year 1252, and con
tinued to be a vicarage till the Reformation.
SYMINGTON, a small parish in the upper ward
of the county of Lanark. It is bounded on the

SYMINGTON.

,'37

north and east by the Clyde ; on the north-west by
the parishes of Carmichael and Covington ; and on
the south-west by the parish of Wiston. The figure
appr oaches to the oblong, and it is about 3 miles in
length by nearly li in breadth. The arable land
lies along the banks of the Clyde, and the pasture
reaches to the top of the well-known hill of Tinto :
which see. The village is situated at the foot of a
rising ground, called the Castle-hill, and is about 30
miles south-west of Edinburgh, and 33 south-east of
Glasgow. Biggar is the nearest market and post town.
There are about 4 miles of turnpike-roads in the
parish, and a stage-coach from Edinburgh to Dumfries
passes through it daily. Symington is, in every sense
of the word, a quiet, rural parish; but should the
Great Western line of railway from England to Ed
inburgh and Glasgow be carried forward, it may
impart a degree of bustle and animation to the dis
trict to which it has hitherto been a stranger, for it
is here that, according to one plan, the diverging
lines from the main trunk are intended to branch-off
to these two cities.* Population, in 1801, 308; in
* If^arlisle is made the starting-point, the line preferred is
that which runs along the course of the Annan and Clyde by
Loekerhy, Beatock-bridge, Symington, Lanark, and Hamilton,
tn Glasgow. Two plans are proposed for a branch-line to Ed.
iuburgh : — One from Symington, near Biggar, along the south
aide of the Peutlaud-hills ; and one from Thankerton, 2, miles
uorth-west of Symington, running by the north side of these

1811, 364; inl82t,472; in 1831, 489; and, in 1841,
470. Assessed property, in 1815, £1,984 — The
parish is situated in the presbytery of Biggar, and
synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, Sir
Norman M'Donald Lockhart of Lee and Carnwath.
Stipend £164; glebe 10 acres, value about £15.
— The age of the church is not known, but it
was extensively repaired in 1761; and an addition
was subsequently built, though it is still in a very
imperfect state. It accommodates about 300 sitters.
The parochial schoolmaster's salary is £34, with
about £15 of school-fees. The hill of Tinto, as
has been stated, forms the prominent feature in the
parish. On the south-east side of it, the remains of
an ancient place of strength, named Fatlips-castle,
are still seen. Several tumuli have been found in
the parish. In one of them, opened some years ago
at the base of Tinto. were found the remains of a
human body entire, with the exception of the head ;
and as the grave was unusually short, it has been
presumed that the body was interred after decapita
tion. Urns have been found in others of the tumuli.
hills to a point in tbe Edinburgh and Glasgow railway, 7 milefc
west from Edinburgh. The branch from Symington is con
sidered preferable to the other. The actual distance by this
line is 31 miles, 30 chains; the equivalent distance 38 miles, 68
chains. By Thankerton, the actual distance is 37 miles, 41
chainB ; equivalent distance 44 miles, 24 chains.

*— -J'Ak ¦ '

RAILWAY VIADUCT OVER THE VALLEY OF THE ALMOND.
From a Sketch by D. M. Mackenzie.

3a

738

TAIN.

rri

TAIN, a parish on the northern border of Ross-
shire ; bounded on the north by the Dornoch frith ;
on the east by Tarbat and Fearn ; on the south by
Logie-Easter ; and on the west by Edderton. Its
greatest length from east to west is between 9 and
10 miles ; its breadth at a peninsula which runs into
the frith at Meikle-ferry, is about 4J miles ; and its
mean breadth elsewhere is about 3 miles. The coast,
from end to end of the parish, ,has nearly the figure
of a crescent, and encloses the bay of Tain. It is,
1 in general, low and flat, nowhere rising to a greater
altitude than 15 feet; it is sandy, curved, and in
dented ; and, suffering constant erosion from the sea,
it may be viewed as a broken sand-bank. Along the
skirt of its eastern half, a tract of sand, in some
places from a mile to 2 miles broad, is alternately dry
and covered with the tide. Shoals and sunk hanks
embarrass the whole frith opposite the parish, and
render navigation quite impracticable to strangers,
and but limitedly practicable by the most skilful lo
cal pilots; The chief bank, called the Gizzen-Briggs,
runs from coast to coast, with the exception of a
narrow and difficult channel through its middle ; and,
whenever northerly or easterly winds blow, or some
times even during a calm in frosty weather, it flings
up a roaring and violent surge. A small bank in the
middle of the frith, 2 miles above the Gizzen-Briggs,
furnishes very large supplies of mussels, and is not
able for having; in 1783, during a great scarcity of
bread, furnished such immense quantities of cockles
as contributed to the support of multitudes of hu
man beings over the adjacent country. So compa
ratively recent has been the conquest of these banks
and the adjacent sea-grounds from the solid territory
both of Tain and of the opposite coast that, in the
words of the New Statistical Account, "although
the frith now measures several miles across, the re
markable fact has been preserved by tradition, that
it was at one time possible to effect a passage over it
at low water upon foot, by means of a plank thrown
aeross the channel where narrowed to a few feet" by
promontories which have been worn into the long
sunken bank of the Gizzen-Briggs. Meikle Ferry
[which see] is at the extreme west. A small front
ing stream, absurdly dignified with the name of the
river Tain, comes in from the west, and makes a
circuit round the burgh to the frith. Springs of ex
cellent water are numerous. The surface of the
parish consists of three well-defined districts ; — a
belt of low flat plain along the coast, about haif-a-
uiile in mean breadth, and partly disposed in public
links or downs ; a broad sheet of land, of middle
character between a terrace and a hanging plain, re
ceding from bank or escarpment of about 50 feet
above the level of the plain, and displaying rich
embellishments of wood and culture ; and a ridge or
series of gentle uplands along the exterior frontier,
sending up their loftiest summit in the hill of Tain
to an altitude of nearly 800 feet above sea-level.
The soil is variously deep and light, fertile and bar
ren ; and the hills are partly heathy, and partly clad
with forests of pine. The geognostic formation of
the lowest grounds indicates an alternation of con
quests and abandonments by the sea ; that of the
central district shows a prevalence of red . clay with
numerous boulders of granitic gneiss ; and that of
the hills is entirely sandstone,— apparently the old
red, though principally of whitish colour. The sand

stone is extensively quarried in the hill of Tain. The
chief mansions are Ankerville and Little Tarrel.
The fishing village of Inver, with a population of
about 150, stands in tbe extreme east, 4 miles from
the burgh. Chief roads diverge from the burgh to
ward Dingwall and Bonar-bridge ; and subordinate
ones toward PortmahoJmack, and in three directions
between south-east and west. Population, in 1801,
2,277, in 1831, 3,078. Houses 627. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £2,293.— Tain is the seat of a pres
bytery in the synod of Ross. Patron, Mackenzie of
Cromarty. Stipend £281 5s. 7d. ; glebe £9. Un
appropriated teinds £280 4s. The church was built
in 1815. Sittings 1,200. A catechistfor the parish
is supported by tbe Society for propagating Christian
knowledge. Schoolmaster's salary £44 10s. with fees.
Additional to the parish-school, there are 6 schools,
conducted by 8 teachers, and attended by about
350 "scholars. One of these schools is an academy,
to be noticed in the article on the burgh ; another is
a boarding-school for females ; another is a society's
school in the landward district ; another is a private
school for females; and two are private EngUsh
schools. Tain, a small but prosperous town, and an an
cient royal burgh, stands about + of a mile from the
Dornoch frith, in the centre of its cognominal par
ish, 11| miles north by east of Invergordon, 25£
north-north-east of Dingwall, 47 north by east of
Inverness, 72^ south-west of Wick, and 1 13 south-
south-west of Thurso. It extends along the margin
of the terrace or central district of the parish ; and
is a fittle upwards of half-a-mile in length, and about
J of a furlong in mean breadth. Its plan and its
architecture are so irregular, and, at the same time,
so tame and unattractive, that any attempt to de
scribe them would be a waste of words. Yet it con
tains many good new houses ; it has a promise of
embellishing extension, both from the disposal of a
considerable space of ground in building-feus, and
from the project of a new street entrance on the
south ; and it is encompassed with rich and cheerful
fields, and overlooks, along the sea-beach, a beautiful
promenade of links. A handsome town-house and
jail, built in 1825, were accidentally so far damaged
by fire as to be rendered useless and unsightly, yet
not to an extent to injure the walls. An ancient
tower, surmounted by five spires or tall pinnacles,
and used as the jail, stands agglomerated with this
pile, and forms the principal feature in the burghai
landscape. The academy of the burgh, built about
30 years ago, is one of the neatest and most tasteful
edifices of its class in the north ; and has attached to
it a spacious ,play-ground, ornamented with wood
and shrubbery, and enclosed with a wall and iron
palisade. This institution is conducted by a rector
and two masters ; it is enriched with a choice and
valuable assortment of chemical and mechanical ap
paratus; and it imparts so much importance to the
burgh as to have attracted a number of families as
residents for the sake of their children's education.
The church is a heavy but substantial building,
without a tower. A previous church, built in 1471,
and dedicated to St. Duthus, needs only a little in
terior repair to be still used as a place of worship,
and was abandoned solely on account of its not af
fording sufficient accommodation. Its form is hand
some, fts windows are Gothic ; one of its doors is

TAI

739

TAN

surmounted by an effigies in bas-relief of St. Duthus;
its walls are of great strength, and its interior is en
riched with a beautifully carved, though partially
defaced, oaken pulpit, presented to the burghers by
" the good regent Moray," for some unrecorded dis
play of zeal in the cause of the Reformation. A
chapel, also dedicated to St. Duthus, and of very an
cient date, stands in ruin on a swell in the sandy
plain, which formed the site of the original town.
This ruin, though now roofless and neglected for four
centuries, is so strongly cemented in its masonry as
to remain in a surprising degree of preservation.
The edifice enjoyed the privilege of sanctuary ; and,
in connexion with the fame of its saint, had distant
and illustrious visiters. In 1427, Mackay of Creich,
who had an inveterate feud with the laird of Fres-
wick, and drove him to take refuge within its walls,
scouted the idea of its sacredness, poured derision
on its rights, and reduced it by fire to nearly the
skeleton which it remains. In 1527, just a century
after its destruction, James V. made a pilgrimage on
foot to it from Falkland ; and travelled with such
expedition that he paused to recruit his strength
only a short time at the priory of Pluscardine. A
rough footpath across the moor in the uplands of
the parish is traditionally pointed out as the route
by which he approached, and still bears the name of
the King's causeway. The only establishments
connected in any sense with manufacture, are an
iron foundry, a brewery, and 4 mills respectively for
grinding, sawing, carding, and dyeing. A small trade
by sea is conducted in the import of coal and lime,
and the export of fir-props for coal-pits ; but, as ii
enjoys no better facility than a dry berth for vessels
on the broad belt of sand between tide-marks, it
very generally gives place to a land -communication
with Cromarty and Invergordon. A domestic trade
of comparative importance arises from Tain being
tbe market-town for a considerable part of both
Easter Ross and Sutherlandshire. The weekly
markets are held on Tuesday and Friday; and
annual fairs are held on the first Tuesday of January,
the third Tuesday of March and October, the Wed
nesday after the second Tuesday of July, the Wed
nesday after the third Tuesday of August, and the
Tuesday before Christmas. The town has branch-
offices of the British Linen company's bank, the
Commercial bank of Scotland, and the North bank
ing company ; a public reading-room ; and three
friendly societies ; and is the seat of three or four
religious and charitable associations for, Easter Ross
or tbe county  The burgh is governed by a provost,
two bailies, a dean-of-guild, a treasurer, and ten
councillors. Municipal constituency, in 1839, 82,
in 1841, 90. The burgh-property consists principally
of lands, partly let on lease, and partly feued. About
£37 13s. are annually derived from customs and
market-dues. In 1833, the total revenue was £314
0s. 8id. ; and the expenditure £495 5s. 0£d. In 1841,
the corporation revenue was £296. The only assess
ments are stent for the land-tax- and the statute-
labour money; the former nominal, or paid out of the
common good, and the latter amounting to £60. The
town-officers are eight, elected by the town-council,
and aggregately salaried on £83 7s. The . town-
council elect also the teachers of the parish-school,
an English school, and the female boarding-school ;
and pay to them respectively £22 4s. 5d., £10, and
£20 of salary. There are no trades' corporations ;
and no burgess derives private advantage from the
public good. Fees for btirgess-ship arbitrarily vary
from £1 10s. to £5 5s. The poUce is managed by
the magistrates, and maintained from the common
funds. Tain unites with Wick, Dingwall, Cromarty,
Dornoch, and Kirkwall, in sending a member to par

liament. Constituency, in 1840, 86. — " As a burgh,
say the commissioners on municipal corporations,
" Tain lays claim to very high antiquity, but no char
ter older than 1587 has been recovered. Its claims to
antiquity rest upon an inquest dated 20th April, 1439,
according to which it was found that the ' immu
nity' was first founded by the deceased most illus-
trious King of Scotch, Malcolm Canmore, of blessed
memory, — and ' that, afterwards, the foresaid immu
nity was confirmed by various Kings and illustrious
Princes, viz., David the Bruce, Robert, his grand
son, and, last, Robert, son of Robert I. ; and that
the said inhabitants in the town of Tain have and
had full and free power and privilege to buy and sell
all goods whatsomever within the four angular crosses
of the said immunity ; and that they have never paid,
neither shall they pay, on any account, any contri
bution to the Kings of Scotland, nor to the Earls of
Ross, except the custom to our Sovereign Lord the
King; and, lastly, that it is lawful to all the' inhabi
tants within the said immunity to work and navi
gate, with all their merchandize and goods whatso
ever, everywhere at their pleasure, without any con
tradiction or further demand, by virtue of the pri-
lege of the after-mentioned immunity, as it shall ap
pear most expedient to them.' " The writer of the
New Statistical Account, reasoning from this docu
ment, and quoting another part of it which states
Tain to have been " under tbe special protection
of the apostolic see," conjectures that -the town
" may have been a chief seat of the bishopric of
Ross, after its foundation by David I., tbe son of
Malcolm, in the 12th century." In 1306, the queen
and daughter of Robert Bruce, when his fortunes
were at the lowest, fled from the fortalice of Kil
drummie in Mar for sanctuary in the old chapel of
the town ; but were remorselessly dragged thence
by the Earl of Ross, and delivered to the English.
In 1481, ten years after the erection of the church
of St. Duthus, the bishop of Ross, at the instance of
James III., rendered it collegiate for a provost, 11
prebendaries, and 3 singing-boys.
TALLA. See Monteith (Loch or).
TALLA- WATER, a rivulet of the parish of
Tweedsmuir, Peebles-shire. It rises in three head-
streams all on the boundary with Dumfries-shire, is
fed not far from the source of one of the head-streams
and the superfluent waters of Gameshope-loch ; and
runs 7 miles northward, and northward to the Tweed
at Tweedsmuir-church. It is a cold wild mountain
stream, yet comparatively sluggish.
TAMINTOUL. See Tomantoul.
TANAR (The), a small river on the south-west
of Aberdeenshire. It rises among tbe Grampians,
within one. or two hundred yards of the boundary
with Glenmark in Forfarshire; and flows 11 miles
north-eastward, through the parishes of Glenmuick
and Aboyne, to the Dee I£ mile south-west of
Aboyne-castle. Its chief affluent is Gairney-burn.
The glen which it traverses takes from it the name
of Glentanar ; and, over much of its extent, is very
richly wooded. An ancient parish, of which the
lower half of the glen formed part, and to which it
gave name, is now united to Aboyne : which see.
TANERA-MORE and TANERA-BEG, two
of the Summer-Islands : which see.
TANNADICE, a parish a little north of the cen
tre of Forfarshire. It is bounded on fhe north by
Lethnot ; on the north-east by Fearn ; on the east
by Careston ; on the south by Aberlemno, Oathlaw,
and Kirriemuir ; and on the west by Cortachy. Its
greatest length, from north to south, is 12 miles; its
mean breadth over the northern half is not more than
4 miles ; its greatest breadth is 8 miles ; and its su
perficial extent is 60 square miles, or 38,400 acres

TAN

740

TAN

The South Esk, ploughing its way between roman
tic and beautiful banks, forms, over a great distance
the western and southern boundary-line, and cuts off
awing of the parish on the south. The Noran
[which see] has most of its fine course either in the
interior or along the eastern boundary. The south
ern district is part of the rich and beautiful territory
of Strathmore, but is more undulated and otherwise
diversified than many other parts of the strata. The
central and northern districts rise in hilly and undu
lating ridges to the lower acclivities of the Gram
pians, and become over 3 or 4 miles a congeries of
heights, whose summits rise 800 or 900 feet above
sea-level. St. Arnold's seat, a conspicuous hill in
the van of the congeries, has on its top a large cairn,
and commands a gorgeous view of all Angus and
Fife and most of the Lothians, away to the Pentland
and the Lammermoor hills. The uplands are to a
large extent heathy and almost wholly pastoral; and
they maintain about 2,400 Linton sheep. The ara
ble grounds have, in general, a good soil, inclined
to clay, and are well-enclosed and sheltered with
wood. Clay-slate occurs near the northern frontier,
but not of such quality as to be productively worked.
A course marble occurs in thin seams in the west.
A red coarse sandstone seems to lie beneath most of
the parish, and is quarried at various places, chiefly
for building enclosures. A broad dike of trap tra
verses all the interior from east to west. A stratum
of iron pyrites, at the depth of 1 J or 2 feet from the
surface, in a small hollow surrounded with moorish
ground, and cilled the Deil's Hows, has repeatedly
exhibited the phenomenon of spontaneous combus
tion, and thrown out from its vicinity pieces of earth
150 or 160 stones in weight. On the north side of
the Esk, near the site of the present bridge of Sheat-
hill, anciently stood Quiech-castle, the residence ,of
the Earls of Buchan. The site, now without a ves
tige of the castle, and occupied by a plain cottage,
is a precipitous rock, looking sheer down through
deep and yawning chasms, upon a rush and turbulence
of water, and almost isolated and rendered nearly
inaccessible, and altogether romantic, by the river.
In the vicinity of Achlouchrie, an eminence which
still bears the name of Castle-hill, and overhangs a
deep gorge of the river, and has round its base a
semicircular fosse 12 feet deep and 30 feet wide,
was the site of another ancient but extinct castle.
There are in the parish two spinning and several
splash-mills, worked in subordination to the manu
factures of Montrose and Dundee. The viUage of
Tannadice stands on the left bank of the South
Esk, near the southern extremity of the parish, 51
miles north of Forfar, and 6£ north-east of Kirrie
muir. It is the site of the parish-church, and has a
library and a savings' bank. Its population, in 1836,
was 140. The parish is traversed by the post-road
between Perth and Aberdeen, by two other consi
derable roads, and by various indifferent subordinate
roads; but, in its north end, it has, over a consider
able spaee, no road whatever. Population, in 1801,
1,373; in 1831, 1,556. Houses 282. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £4,788. Tannadice is in the pres
bytery of Forfar, and synod of Angus and Mearns.
Patron, St. Mary's college, St. Andrews. Stipend
£141 10s. Id. ; glebe £16. Unappropriated teinds
£23 19s. 7d. The church is of unknown age, and
was altered but not enlarged in 1748. Sittings
570. In 1836, all the parishioners, exoept six, be
longed, according to the statement of the minister,
to the Establishment. In 1834, there were 8 schools,
seven of them non-parochial. Salary of the paro
chial schoolmaster £34 4s. 41d. with fees, and from
£14 10s. to £20 10s. other emoluments ; of another
teaeher £8 ; of a third, not quite so much ; and of

a fourth, meal and milk, with a neat cottage and
garden. These three partially endowed schools are
for females, and afford tuition only in English and
needlework. One of the remaining non-parochial
schools is a boarding-school.
TANTALLAN-CASTI.E, a noble and cele
brated ruin on the coast of Haddingtonshire; 3 miles
east of North Berwick, and 8 miles north-west of
Dunbar. It stands on a lofty, precipitous, and pro
jecting rock, whose base is washed on three sides by
the sea ; and on the west side, where alone it is ac
cessible, it was defended by two ditches of extraor
dinary depth, and by very massively constructed
towers. The entrance was over a drawbridge,
through a strong and deep stone-gateway. The cas
tle itself is, in its outer structure, still comparatively
entire, but wholly unroofed and in a state of desola
tion. Its interior is a maze of broken staircases,
fragmented and ruined chambers, and deep and dis
mal subterranean dungeons. So strong was the cas
tle in position, and so skilful in construction, that,
previous to the invention of gunpowder, it poured
derision upon every effort or scheme for its capture;
and situated directly opposite to the Bass, at a dis
tance of 1£ mile across a frequently tumbling sea, its
redoubtableness of character gave rise to the pithy
popular saying, " Ding doon Tantallan ? Mak a brig
to the Bass." Sir Walter Scott, in his Marmion,
thus beautifully describes its former condition : —

' Tantallan vast,

Broad, missive, high, and stretching far,
And held impregnable in war.
On a projecting rock it rose,
And round three sides the ocean flows.
The fourth did battled walls enclose,
And double mound and fosse ;
By narrow drawbridge, outwarks strong,
Through studded gates, an entrance long,
To the main court they cross.
It was a wide and stately square,
Around were lodgings fit and fair.
And towers of various form,
Which on the coast projected far,
And broke its lines quadrangular ;
Here wan square keep, there turret high,
Or pinnacle that sought the sky.
Whence oft the warder could descry,
The gathering ocean-storm." Canto v. stanza 33.
The date of the castle and the circumstances of its
erection are unknown. It comes into notice with
the rising and bold fortunes of the family of Doug
las, who obtained the barony of North Berwick on
the accession of Robert II. i and during centuries
it was the principal stronghold of their proud and
domineering Earls. In 1479, twenty-four years after
the Douglas forfeiture, Archibald, 5th Earl of
Angus — the well-known ' Bell-the-cat' — received a
grant of it from James III. ; and he afterwards so
figured in connexion with it, as to have furnished
subjects for some of the most graphic delineations of
Scotland's national literary limner. The next Earl
of Angus, after he had married the queen-mother of
James V., and lost influence over the person and,
councils of that young monarch, shut himself up in
Tantallan, and defied for a. time the whole hostile
force of the kingdom. The monarch went in per-
son to reduce it, sat down before it in September
1528, and borrowed from the castle of Dunbar, to
aid him in his operations, two great cannons, called
" Thrawn-mouth'd Mow and her Marrow," also
" two great bosards and two moyan, two double
falcons and four quarter-falcons," for the safe re
delivery of which to their owner, the Duke of Al
bany, three lords were impignorated at Dunbar.
Yet, in spite of his great preparations and formida
ble efforts, James was compeUed to raise the siege ;
and he afterwards obtained possession of it only by
Angus fleeing to England, and by a compromise
being made with Simon Panango, the governor,

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After James V.'s death, the Earl obtained leave to
return from his exile; in 1542 he was restored to
his possessions, and began to make Tantallan
stronger than before ; and here, about 1557, he ter
minated his career. In 1639, the doughty and re
solute Covenanters, provoked at its lord, the Mar
quis of Douglas, making a stand in it for kingcraft
and compelled prelacy, at length " dang doon Tan
tallan," and even garrisoned it against the king.
About the beginning of the 18th century, Sir Hew
Dalrymple, president of the Court-of-session, bought
the castle, along with the circumjacent barony, from
the Duke of Douglas, dismantled it, gave it up to
decay, and transmitted it as a ruin to his heirs.
TARANSAY, an Hebridean island, of the Harris
group, and in the parish of Harris, Invemess-shire.
It lies off tbe entrance of West Loch-Tarbert; 11
mile distant from Ru-Grodernish, and also from
Aird-Nisibost, in Harris. Its length from east to
west is 4J miles ; and its extreme breadth is upwards
of 2 miles. It consists of two peninsulated hills,
probably 800 feet in height, and connected by a nar
row sandy isthmus. Though inhabited, it has little
soil ; and its population are supported chiefly by
fisheries and the manufacture of kelp. The hills
consist of gneiss, traversed by veins of granite.
A verdant islet near the coast is frequented by vast
flocks of wild geese.
TARBAT, a parish in the extreme north-east of
the counties of Ross and Cromarty. It is bounded
on the north by the Dornoch frith ; on the east and
south-east by the Moray frith; and on all other
sides by the parish of Fearn. Its greatest length is
7£ miles; its greatest breadth is 4£ miles ; its cir
cumference is 19J miles; and its area is 5,081 acres.
Its form, over 5j miles of its length, is that of a
slender peninsula, extending north-eastward, and
diminishing in breadth from If mile to a point. The
coast is 15 miles in extent ; and is for the most part
bluff and rocky, but not high. A rocky precipice,
about 20 feet in height, faces the south-east at:
Geanies; and extends, thence, with diminished al-i
titude to the entrance of the Dornoch frith. Of
five caves which perforate it, one can be entered!
only on all-fours, but presents in the interior a spa
cious apartment, naturally benched round with stone ; |
and another is entered by a stately natural porch
projecting several feet from the adjacent rock, andj
conducts a visiter along an extensive corridor to
three successive vaulted apartments. Along the
coast are six natural harbours, and a number of small
creeks. The chief harbour is at the village of Port-
maholmack : which see. One of the creeks, ac
cessible only to a boat, and at high-water, is at the
extreme point of the peninsula; and, owing to a
tradition that a fort anciently stood on a moat within
it, bears the name of Castlehaven. From this place
the 1st Earl of Cromarty took one of his titles of
nobility, and transferred it to the old family seat of
Tarbat, now called Castlehaven. The surface of
the interior is a plain, diversified by low rising
grounds. The soil is prevailingly light and sandy ;
yet, over a considerable extent, is a deep black loam.
Plantations cover about 170 acres ; and, though old,
are stunted and meagre. A weaving and spinning
hemp-factory, belonging to a company in Inverness,
.employs about 300 women and 9 or 10 men and boys.
There were formerly six castles, inhabited, till about '
the beginning of the 17th century, by ancient and
respectable families ; and one of them, which still
survives, and belonged first to the Earls of Ross, and
next to the Earls of Cromarty, though it has been
abandoned for two centuries, is one of the largest and
best preserved structures of its class in the north.
The only modern mansion is that of Geanies. For

the state of the roads, see Portmaholwack. Popu
lation, in 1801, 1,343 ; in 1831. 1,809. Houses 378.
Assessed property, in 1815, £2,121  Tarbat is in
the presbytery of Tain, and synod of Ross. Patrons,
the Crown and Mackenzie of Newhall. Stipend
£251 2s. lOd. ; glebe, not stated. Unappropriated
teinds £300 12s. There are two parochial schools.
Salary of the first master, £25, with £5 fees ; of
the second, £5 as session-clerk, and £5 fees  The
parish was all in Ross previous to the erection of
Cromarty into a separate jurisdiction ; but, since
that event, it is about equally divided between the
two counties. There were anciently three subordi
nate chapels. The ruin of one exists ; and near
another, are a copious spring called Mary's well, and
a small grotto, entering 'beneath an ivy-clad rock,
and pointed out as the abode of the priest.
TARBATNESS, the point of tbe peninsula of
the above parish, — the headland which splits the
waters of the Dornoch frith from those of the Moray
frith, sweeping round to form the frith of Cromarty.
On this narrow and far-projecting point has lately
been erected an elegant lighthouse.
TARBET, or Tarbert, a name applied to
numerous places in Scotland, chiefly where there are
such narrow necks of land between opposite inden
tations of sea or lake, as afforded in the primitive
state of Scottish navigation an easy portage for
curraghs and boats.
TARBET (East and West), two deep inden
tations of the sea on the opposite coasts of Harris,
approaching each other to within A of a mile. See
Harris. East Loch-Tarbet is 5J miles long, and
from 4£ to nearly 2 miles broad ; it forks at the head
into two slender bays; and it embosoms several is
lets, and has the considerable island of Scalpa at its
entrance. West Loch-Tarbet is 6 miles long, and
diminishes in breadth from 4J miles to nearly a
point ; it is screened from the fierce west winds by
Taransay ; and it is overhung by lofty mountains,
which stoop precipitously down to its margin. At
its head stands the solitary village of Tarbet, the
seat of a mission on the Royal bounty.
TARBERT (East and West), two sea-lochs
on opposite sides of the great southern peninsula of
Argyleshire, approaching each other to within a mile,
and, together With the narrow isthmus between
them, separating Kintyre from Knapdale. A stra
tagem of Magnus Barefoot, in carrying a galley across
the isthmus, so as to have the appearance of circum
navigating Kintyre, occasioned that district to be
included among the Hebrides: see Kintyre. Three
ancient castles are said to have existed for the pro-
tection of the isthmus, one in the centre, one at the
head of the West loch, and one on the south side of
the East loch. The last still survives in stately
ruin ; and is the subject of fond and eager popular
traditions. The West loch opens 13 miles due east
of Ardmore point in Islay ; extends, in nearly a
straight line, north-eastward ; and measures 11 miles
in length, and about \ of a mile in mean breadth.
Over all its extent it has the calm and smiling as
pect of a fresh- water lake, and is picturesque and
iovely. Three islets stud it in its progress ; soft
and moderately high hills recede in gentle and wav
ing ascents from its margins ; woods and enclosures
and cultivation fling their images upon its waters ;
and a profusion of cottages, farm-houses, villas, and
mansions, with the viUages of Laggavoulin and Kil
calmonell, sit joyously upon its banks. At its head
is a pier or quay for the accommodation of the Islay
•steam-packet. The East loch is of small size, — only
about a mile long, and nowhere more than about 3
furlongs broad ; but it is a curious and singularly safe
and landlocked natural harbour, and is entered by so

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narrow and circling a passage between low ridges of
naked rock, that a steamer, in sailing through it,
appears to a stranger to be irretrievably launched
against the crag. On its south side near the head is
a steam-boat quay ; and both here, and all over the
inner space of the loch, may be seen in the fishing-
season, a very numerous fleet of herring-boats. The
steamers from Glasgow to Lochgilphead and Inver
ary regularly call at this harbour ; and a regular
steamer from Islay to tbe head of the West loch,
communicates with them by portage across the isth
mus. Behind the quay, and around the head of the
East loch, stands the ne'at, picturesque, and crowd
ed village of Tarbert. So nakedly and tumultuously
rocky is the whole encincturing scene, that the in
habitants, though numerous and seemingly well-fed,
obviously derive none of their subsistence from the
arts of husbandry. Tarbert, in fact, is the grand
seat of the celebrated Loch-Fyne herring-fishery ;
and, additional to its own population, it is the re
sort, during the fishing-season, of several hundreds
of stranger fishermen. In the village are two com
fortable inns. The district around the village, and
the connecting isthmus of the lochs, was, about 66
years ago, erected into a mission by the synod of
Argyle. Its extent, within the limits of erection, is
about 9 miles in length, 3 miles in breadth, and 25
square miles in breadth. Its population, in 1834,
was 1,635; of whom 961 belonged to the parish of
Kilcalmonell, and 674 to that of South Knapdale.
The chapel is situated nearly in the centre of the
district, and was built in 1775. Sittings 400.
TARBERT, a boldly sinuous glen, about 9
'miles in length, from a point near the head of Loch-
Leven, to about the middle of the east side of Loch-
Eil, in the south-west corner of Lochaber, Inver
ness-shire. TARBERT, a glen between Lochs Sunart and
Linnhe. See Sunart (Loch).
TARBOLTON, a parish in Kyle, Ayrshire;
bounded on the north hy Craigie; on the east by
Mauchline ; on the south by Stair and Coylton ; on
the south-west by St. Quivox; and on the west by
Monkton and Symington. Its length is between 7
and 8 miles, and its breadth about 6. It lies about
5 miles from the sea-coast, and has an aggregate
. elevation above sea-level higher than the medium
height of the county. Its ancient condition was
rude and wild, bare, heathy, and blotched with
marshes. But though naturally churlish, and abound
ing in inequalities, it has long since received, through
the medium of industrious and skilful cultivation,
robings of verdure and mellowing grain, and thriving
wood, which render it not pnly pleasant but ornate.
The prime department of industry has long been the
management of cattle for the uses of the dairy. The
river Ayr, trotting along between picturesque and
romantic banks, traces the southern boundary. The
rivulet Faile flows through the interior to the Ayr,
driving mills, and beautifying the landscape. The
chief mansions are Coilsfield, Smithstone, Afton-
lodge, Drumley, Carngillan, Enterkin, and Privick.
Within the beautifuUy ornamented grounds of Coils-
field are a traditional battle-scene, and a rude stone
held in veneration as the monument of the seemingly-
fabulous personage, " Auld King Coyle." In the
vicinity of the village is a mount called Hood's-hill,
which seems to have been a Danish encampment and
fortification. The parish is traversed eastward by
the road from Ayr to Edinburgh, and southward by
that from Glasgow to Kirkcudbright by way of Dal
meUington and the Glenkens. Population, in 1801,
1,766; in 1831, 2,274. Houses 367. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £12,890.— Tarbolton is in the pres
bytery of Ayr, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr.

Patron, the Earl of Eglinton. Stipend £244 7s.
9d. ; glebe £4 10s. Unappropriated teinds £753
10s. 7d. The church, and also a United Secession
meeting-house, are situated in the village of Tarbol
ton. In 1834, the parish school was attended by
40 scholars; and three private schools by 163. Par
ish schoolmaster's salary £29 18s. 10|d., with about
£16 fees  Though the ancient church was twice
granted to the monks of Faile, it did not remain
with them, but continued to be a free rectory; and,
in 1429, it was erected into a prebend or canonry of
the cathedral of Glasgow. The present parish com
prehends the larger part of the ancient parish of
BarnweU, and the whole of the ancient parish of
Tarbolton. Barnwell was a vicarage under the
monks of Faile ; and, lying between Tarbolton and
Craigie, was, in 1653, annexed, in separate portions,
to these parishes. The church stood a little north
of the old castle of Barnwell, and, after the suppres
sion of the parish, was allowed to go to ruin ; but it
is still commemorated in the names of a mansion and
one or two farms. At Faile or Feil, in the Tarbol
ton section of Barnwell, and on the rivulet of the
same name, a convent of Red or Trinity Friars, who
pretended to be canons-regular, was founded in 1252.
A ford across the rivulet at the place was called
Faileford, — a name now given to a locality near tbe
rivulet's embouchure ; and a lake in the vicinity was
called Lochfaile. Spottiswoode, misled by this clus
tering of cognate names round one locality, exhibits
in his catalogue of religious houses, three several
establishments, under the designations respectively
of Faile, Faileford, and Lochfaile, the first of which
he makes a cell of Cluniac monks belonging to the
abbey of Paisley, and the second and the third con
vents of Red Friars. The three supposed establish
ments, however, were, in reality, only one. The
chief of this convent bore the designation of " min
ister;" and he was provincial or head of the Trinity
order in Scotland, and, in that capacity, had a seat
in parliament. The convent possessed 5 parish-
cburches, BarnweU, Galston, and Symington in
Kyle, Torthorwald in Annandale, and Invercbaolain
in Cowal. In 1562, Robert Cunningham, the min
ister, gave up as the rental £174 6s. 8d. in money,
15 chalders of meal, 3 chalders of bear, 30 stones of
cheese, 10 young sheep, 3 bullocks, and 24 salmon.
William Wallace, who was minister during the reign
of James VI., died in 1017; and his son William
seems to have considered the monastery, and what
remained of its property, as his inheritance. In
October, 1690, WiUiam, Earl of Dundonald, was
served heir of his father in the benefice of Faile or
Faileford temporaliter et spiritualiter. The ruins
of the convent still exist 1£ mile north-north-west
of the village of Tarbolton. An old satirical poem
says of the friars of Faile, that they " ne'er wanted
ale as lang as their neebors' lasted." — On the 15th
August, 1581, when Esme Lord D'Aubigny was
created Duke of Lennox, one of the titles given him
was Lord Tarbolton.
Tarbolton, a considerable village and a burgh-
of-barony, stands near the centre of the cognominal
parish, on the right bank of the rivulet Faile, at the
intersection of the Ayr and Mauchline, and the Kil
marnock and DalmeUington roads ; 4 miles west of
Mauchline, 7 north-east of Ayr, 8 south of Kilmar
nock, and 12 south-east of Irvine. It extends ovei
a considerable area, and contains a number of' neat
houses. The parish-church, with an elegant spire
and neat in its own structure, is not a Uttle orna
mental. Weaving, in various departments of cotton,
woollen, and silk, is carried on to such extent as to
have employed, in 1828, 122 looms,— a number which
continued in 1838, and which were all plain. The

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village has a subscription library, two mason lodges,
several benefit societies, a horse race in August,
and annual fairs in June and October. In 1671, by
a charter of Charles IL, it was erected into a free
burgh-of-barony, with the privilege of holding a
weekly market. Population, in 1811. about 750;
in 1821, 1,350. Tarbolton, and its immediate vicin
ity, abound with reminiscences of the poet Burns.
On the farm of Lochlea, in the neighbourhood, he
resided from his 17th to his 24th year as an inmate
of his father's family. In 1780, the "viUage became the
scene of a club which he organized. " The Tarbol-
ton-lodge of Free-masons," to which he addressed a
well-known " Farewell," inserted among his works,
still exists, and derives from his notice of them a
notoriety which men of different views will regard
as highly flattering, or as deeply the reverse. His
extraordinary piece entitled ' Death and Doctor
Hornbook,' is said to have been written after attend
ing a meeting of this lodge, and with the view of
burlesqueing a person of the name of Wilson, who
united the vocations of parish schoolmaster and a
vender of medicines. Coilsfield-house, J of a mile
south-east of the village, is the " Montgomery-
castle" of Burns, the waters around which he pathe
tically desiderated might "ne'er be drumlie," and it
was at the time when the bard wrote, the residence
of Colonel Hugh Montgomery, who, in 1797, be
came 12th Earl of Eglinton ; and Mary Campbell,
the dairy-maid or " byres- woman " at Coilsfield, was
the personage whom, primely with the aid of one of
the most thrilling of the rich melodies of Caledonia,
and one borrowed from uses of a previous damsel
of the name of Catherine Ogie, he sang into notice
under the well-known name of " Highland Mary." —
The small village of Faileford stands 1 § mile east-
south-east of Tarbolton, at the confluence of the
Faile and the Ayr; and, commanding an ample sup
ply of the famous Water-of-Ayr stone, is the seat
of a considerable manufactory of razor hones and
strops. TARF (The), a beautiful rivulet of Kirkcud
brightshire. Of two principal head-waters, one
called Anstool-burn rises in the parish of Balmaghie,
and the other called Glengap-burn issues from Loch-
Whinyeon, on the boundary between Girthon and
Twyneholm. These, flowing respectively south-
south-eastward and eastward, form the Tarf, 3 and
4 miles below their respective sources ; and their
united stream, afterwards augmented by seven or
eight small burns, runs southward through the inte
rior, and along the western edge of Tongueland, to
the Dee, 1| mile above Kirkcudbright. The rivulet
has at the utmost a run of only 11 miles ; yet it pos
sesses some comparative importance as a stream ; it
has frequent inundations, and brings down enriching
deposits to low grounds on its banks; it abounds
with trout and salmon ; and it is, in many places,
adorned along its margins with natural wood and
fertile meadows.
TARF (The), a rivulet of Athole forest, in the
parish of Blair-Athole, Perthshire. But for the
prevailing usagewhich designates a stream from any
great loch which it may traverse, or any minor loch
or lochlet which may send to it a feeder, the Tarf
would have been recognised as in reality the Tilt.
It rises on the west side of Benvrackie, and flows 9
miles eastward to a point 2 miles south of Loch-
Tilt ; and there it is joined from the north by the
brief stream which is misnamed the Tilt, and from
the east by a stream of 5 miles run Called Glenmore-
water. The whole course of the Tarf is among the
savage but sublime scenery of the most towering and
impervious part of the great central mountain-range
of Scotland, — that which extends from Bennevis on

the west to Mount-Battock on the east, and thence
forks to the German ocean.
TARFF (The), a rivulet of about 7 miles length
of course, in Inverness-shire. It rises near the great
glen between Iiochs Oich and Ness, and circles round
the south-west end of Stratherrick to the head of
Loch-Ness at Fort- Augustus.
TARLAND and MIGVIE, an united parish,
consisting of four detached districts, in the south
west division of Aberdeenshire. The most impor
tant district, or that which contains the village,
measures 2£ miles by 2; and is bounded on the north
by Cushnie ; on the east and south by Coul ; and on
the west by Logie-Coldstone. The second district
lies a mile west of the former, or 1 j mile north-west
of the village; measures 2 miles by i ; and is bounded
on the north by Towie, and on all other sides by
Logie-Coldstone. The third district lies 5£ miles
north-west of the village ; measures 2<\ miles by 1£ ;
and is surrounded by Glenbucket, Towie, Logie-
Coldstone, and Strathdon. The fourth district lies
9 miles west-ndrth-west of the village ; measures 6^
miles by 31 ; and is bounded on the west by Banff
shire, and on all other sides by Strathdon. Owing
to contractions in form, and irregularities of outline,
the entire area is only about 22 square miles. The
first and fourth districts constitute the parish of Tar
land ; and the second and third, the parish of Migvie.
A rivulet, an affluent of the Dee, traces the south
side of the first and second districts ; and often, in
winter, lays extensive low grounds around the vil
lage under water. The Don touches, for a consider
able way, both«the third and the fourth districts; and
affluents of it, the Deskry, and the Earnan, respec
tively traverse them to a confluence with it, — the
former imposing on the district the name of Deskry-
side. Cushnie-hill is partly within the northern
boundary of the first district; and mountains and
pastoral heights occupy much of tbe area of the other
districts, thin in soil, heathy in dress, and bleak in
aspect. The lands around the village are mostly
low and level ; and aggregately possess a fertile soil.
Plantations are extensive and thriving. The chief
mansions are Skellator, Inverearnan, Candacraig,
and Edinglassie  The village of Tarland stands
nearly in the centre of the subdivision of Mar, called
Cromar, 9 miles north-east of Ballater, and 31 miles
west by north of Aberdeen. It is a burgh-of-barony,
and has a population of about 340. Here are branch-
offices of the Aberdeen Banking company, and the
North Banking company. A weekly market is held
on Wednesday ; and annual fairs are held on the last
Wednesday of February, old style, the Wednesday
before the 26th of May, the Friday after St. Sairs'
in June, the Friday of the week after Old Rayne in
August, and the Tuesday and Wednesday after the
22d of November, old style. A fair is held also at
Migvie on the 2d Tuesday of March, old style. The
Highlanders of Strathspey, Glenaven, and Mar, re
sorted for centuries to the fairs of Tarland as the-
grand mart for the sale of their cattle ; and they so
exacerbated the inhabitants by their cateran propen
sities, as to provoke numerous bloody encounters
with staff and steel. The first district is traversed
by the north road from Aberdeen to Ballater and
Braemar; but the parish in general has limited faci
lities of communication. Population, in 1801, 922;
in 1831, 1,074. Houses 227. Assessed property,
in 1815, £1,943. — This parish is in the presbytery
of Kincardine O'Neil, and synod of Aberdeen. Pa
tron, the Crown. Stipend £177 3s. 9d. ; glebe
£14. Unappropriated teinds £101 13s. 7d. The
church of Tarland is situated in the first district,
and was built in 1762. Sittings 4U0. The church
of Migvie is situated in the second district, and was

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built about 55 years ago. Sittings 200. The min
ister officiates on two successive Sabbaths in the
former, and, on the third, in the latter. School
master's salary £28, with about £14 10s. fees. The
parishes are supposed to have been united about the
beginning of the 17th century.
TARRAS (The), a small but romantic river in
Eskdale, Dumfries-shire. It rises on the south side
of Hartsgarth, a height which stands on the boun
dary between Dumfries-shire and Liddesdale ; and
runs 9 miles southward and south-south-westward
to the Esk, 2£ miles below the town of Langholm.
Over 4J miles it traverses the interior of Ewis; and
over the rest of its run it has Langholm on its right
bank, and Ewis and Canonbie on its left. The Tar
ras is remarkable for the ruggedness of its channel,
and the romantic character of its banks. So im
petuous is its course, so obstructed by rocks, and so
precipitated by falls, that any person whom it might
sweep nway is iu incomparably less danger of being
drowned, than of being dashed to pieces. Hence
the old doggerel :
" Was ne'er ane drowned in Tarras, nor yet in doubt,
For ere the head can win down, the hams are out."
Its banks, over a great part of its course, are now
picturesquely overhung, and now beautifully flanked
and shaded' with trees. An old rhyme which cele
brates the localities in Liddesdale and Eskdale most
noted for game, gives prominent importance to the
Tarras : " Bilhope-braes, for bucks and raes,
And Carit-haugh, for swine.
And Tarras for the good bull-trout,
If he be ta'en in time."
" The bucks and roes, as well as the old swine,"
snys Sir Walter Scott, in a note to the ' Lay of the
Last Minstrel,' "are now extinct; but the good
bull-trout is still famous." In 1660, the Tarras
yielded the title of Earl to Walter Scott of High-
chester, who married the eldest daughter of Frances,
Earl of Buccleuch. See Harden.
TARTH (The), a small river, a tributary of the
Lyne, in Peebles-shire. During the first 5 miles of
its course, it is identical with the Medwin: which
See. At Garwaldfoot, the Medwin, which had flowed
chiefly on the boundary between Lanarkshire and
Peebles-shire, splits into two streams, the one of
which goes off into Lanarkshire and becomes tribu
tary to the Clyde, and the other passes on to the
Lyne, and, through it, to the Tweed. The latter,-
though it continues for a brief space to be called the
Medwin, and again is sometimes called near its
mouth Ne.wlands-water, is the Tarth, and undis-
putedly bears that name over the greater part of its
course. Its length of run, measured in straight lines
from Garwaldfoot, is only 7 miles; and over that
distance it flows south-eastward, and has on its left
bank Linton and Newlands, and on its right Lanark
shire, Kirkurd, and Stobo. Its tributaries, though
16 or 17 in number, are all very inconsiderable.
Compared to the Lyne, it is a deep, dull, and muddy
stream ; and, on account probably of possessing these
properties, its frouts, which abound, are compara
tively large and fat. The fact, or phenomenon, that
salmon have been caught in the Clyde above the
majestic and lofty cataracts of that noble river, is
accounted for on the supposition, that, at the spawn
ing-season, some of the fish diverge from the Tweed
up the Lyne and the Tarth, till they turn the fork
of the Medwin, and then go down the Clydesdale
section of that curious stream. The point at which
the Medwin splits is, in consequence, poiiularly called
the Salmon leap.
TARVES, a parish some miles north-east of the
centre of Aberdeenshire. It is bounded on the

north by Methlick and New Deer ; on the east by
Ellon and a detached part of Methlick; on the south
east and south by Udny; on the south-west by
Bourtrie ; on the west by Old Meldrum ; and on
the north-west by Fyvie. Its greatest length,
from north-north-east to south-south-west, is 9
miles; its greatest breadth is between 7 and 8 miles;
and its area is about 30 square miles. The Ythan,
though connected with the interior and the bounda
ries over only 2| miles, drains, with tbe help of a
few small feeders, tire whole of the parish. The
surface is all champaign, — a plain, diversified with
inconsiderable hills. The soil is in some parts deep
and in others shallow; but generally is fertile. There
are several plantations. Scivas-house is the princi
pal mansion. The village of Tarves stands nearly
in the centre of the parish, 6 miles west of Ellon,
and 5 north-east of Old Meldrum. Annual fairs arti
held here on the Wednesday after the second Tues
day of March, on the Wednesday after the last Tues
day of April, on the Wednesday after the third Tues
day of July, on the second Tuesday of September, and
on the Wednesday after the fourth Tuesday of Octo
ber, all old style. Craigdam, the site of an United
Secession meeting-house, lies 1£ mile south-west of
the village. The parish is amply provided with roads.
Population, in 1801, 1,756; in 1831, 2,232. Houses
433. Assessed property,' in 1815, £3,473  Tarves
is in the presbytery of Ellon, and synod of Aberdeen.
Patron, the Earl of Aberdeen. Stipend £191 19s^
IOd. ; glebe £10 10s. Unappropriated teinds £46
3s. lid. The parish-church was built in 1798. Sit
ting's 860. The United Secession congregation was
established in 1748; and their meeting-house was
built about 1806, at a cost of between £400 and
£500. Sittings 600. Stipend £100, with a house
and garden worth £12. Schoolmaster's salary £28,
with £23 fees, and a share of the Dick bequest.
There are 5 non-parochial schools.
TARVET. See Cupar-Fife.
TAY (Loch), a maguificent sheet of water, in
Breadalbane, Perthshire, upwards of 15 miles in
length, and averaging from fifteen to one hundred
fathoms in depth. Tbe united streams of the Dochart
and Lochy pour their waters into the head of the loch,
a little below the viUage of Killin; while the noble
Tay issues from its lower end at Kenmore. The tra
veller can visit Loch-Tay either from the east or from
the west : a good road is carried along both its shores
from the one end to the other. The road along its
northern side is the best, however, for carriages, and
is that most generally followed by travellers. The
scenery by this route, however, is much inferior to
that displayed by the southern road. The north road
has been carried too high up along the slope of the
mountains, and although the lake in almost its whole
expanse is before him, the prospect is unvaried and
monotonous ; the foregrounds are tame or altogether
awanting ; and there is an almost total want of thqse
delicious close views which are the delight alike of
the artist and the connoisseur. Had this road been
carried nearer to the margin of the lake, and amid
the windings of the beautiful promontories and bays
with which it is bounded, the effect of a ride up the
north shore of Loch-Tay would have been very dif
ferent indeed. The man of taste would have se
lected this line; nor would he have found fault with
the additional 2 miles of road which the straightfor
ward views of Marshall Wade has saved. In taking
the southern road, however, the case is materially
different. This road generally runs near the lake,
and follows, in numerous instances, the sinuosities
°ruitS """""S'?' an(1 tne inequalities of the ground.
The declivities of the southern range of mountains
are, besides, much more varied and intricate than

THE TAY.

741

those on the north; while the general outline of the
northern range, including Ben-Lawers, is more bold
and_ lofty than the south, forming a grand and strik
ing termination to the views from this side. Few
roads, therefore, are more productive of a succession
of picturesque landscapes, or offer greater tempta
tions to the traveller than this. The landscapes here
present an ever-varied foreground ; are rich and full
in the middle distance ; while the extreme distance
is grand and striking. Whether the traveller takes
the northern or the southern road, none should leave
Loch-Tay without a visit to the top of Ben-Law
ers : see that article. This is among the highest
of our Scottish mountains; rising from the northern
margin of the lake to the height of 4,015 feet above
the level of the sea  Near the east end of the lake,
and 200 yards from the north shore, is a small island
of a circular form, and about 400 yards in circumfer
ence. It is partly wooded with ancient plane and
ash trees, and contains the ruins of a priory — as it is
usually called — said to have been erected by Alex
ander L in 1122. From a charter of Alexander,
however, it would appear that there had been a
church here before he erected a religious house.
The endowment was for an order of nuns; and a
fair is still held once a-year in the viUage of Ken
more, called Fiell na m'ban maomb; or the Nun's
market. Spottiswoode says that this priory was a
cell from the monastery of Scone, and that it was
founded by Sybilla, daughter of Henry Beauclerk,
king of England, and wife of Alexander I. of Scot
land, lt would appear, however, to have been
founded by the king himself for the repose of his
soul and that of his consort. Queen Sybilla, it is
said, died suddenly here, and was buried in the
church in June, 1122. The ruins are very incon
siderable, part of the waUs of the dormitory and re
fectory being all that now remain. The Marquis of
Breadalbane is sole proprietor of this lake.*
* The waters of this lake have frequently, without any ap
parent cause, undergone singular and violent agitations, occa
sioned, it may be presumed, trom some subterraneous impulse.
On Sunday, 12th September, 1784, about 9 o'clock morning, the
lake was impetuously agitated ; but the agitations, set-tnt'd to ex
tend only to a small portion of the eastern end of the lake, in the
neighbourhood of the village of Kenmore, and between it and
the island. On the south side ot the village there is a bay 460
yards in length, 200 yards in breadth, and generally from about
a to 3 feet deep, uutil where it may be said to form the lake,
where it suddenly becomes very deep. On the morning men
tioned, the water at the extremity of the bay retired about live
yards within its ordinary boundary, and in lour or five minutes
afterwards it again flowed nut. In this manner it ebbed and
flowed three ur four times iu the space of a quarter of an hour,
when, all at once, the water rushed from the east and weBt iu
opposite currents across the bay, towards the lake, and about
the place wheie the bay suddenly deepens, they ruse in the
form of a great wave, about five feet above the ordinary level,
leaving the bottom ol the bay dry, to the distance of about 90
or 100 yards from its usual boundary. When the oppusiug cur
rents met, they made a clashing. nuise, foainiog upwards; but
the stronger impulse being from the east, the wave rolled west
ward, slowly diminishing as it went fur about five minutes,
wheu it wholly disappeared. As the wave subsided, the water
flowed back, with some force, four or five yards beyond its ac
customed boundary. Again it ebbed about 10 yards, and again
it returned, continuing to ebb aud flow in this manner for about
two hours, when, gradually settling, the water returned to its
ordinary level. During this time, the river, which leaves tin;
lake on the north side of the village, was observed to flow-
backwards; the weeds at the bottom which before pointed iu
the usual directiuu of the stream, were turned the contrary
way ; and the channel of the river was left dry for about 12
feet on each side. Under the bridge, which is about 70 yards
from the Jake, the stream completely tailed in places where
there previously had been a depth ol 18 inches of water. No
thing particular was observed in the state of the atmosphere
at this time. The weather was perfectly calm ; aud it could
barely be perceived that the motion of the clouds was from the
north-east. Nor could lt be ascertained that any sensible mu
tton nt the earth was felt in the neighbourhood, or that the agi
tation of the water occurred anywhere else but near the vil
lage of Kenmure. Ou the five succeeding days an ebbing and
huvviug was observed, about the same time in the morning,
and of nearly the same duration, but by no means to the same
extent as on the first day. A similar agitation was remarked
at intervals, till the lain of October, after which the phcno-

TAY (The), a liver chiefly of Perthshire and
partly of Fife and Forfar, the largest and the most
variously and exquisitely scenic of all the Scottish
streams, and one which pours more water into the
ocean than any other river of Great Britain. Po
pular nomenclature and correct geography differ very
widely in assigning its extent of course, and even in
fixing part of its identity. The Tay of common
topography is the southern one of two great streams
which unite 7J miles above Dunkeld, and includes
no more of even that stream than the portion below
Loch-Tay; while the Tay of correct geography
must either be the northern one of the two great
streams, as both the larger and the longer, or must
at least include the southern stream up to the source
of its remotest head- water. The northern stream has
three successive names, — the Gauir, the Rannoch,
and the Tummel; and, in its progress, expands it
self into three great lakes, — Lydoch, Rannoch,
and Tummel: which see. It rises at a point about
18 or 20 miles north-north-west of the source of the
Fillan, the remotest of the head- waters which find
their way into Loch-Tay ; and, including its pro
gress through its lakes, but excluding its sinuosities,
it performs an entire separate run of about 60 miles.
Its direction over the last 14 miles bends from east
to south, so as to describe a large demisemi-circle ;
and, over all the previous part of its course, it is in
general due east. After leaving Argyleshire, it cuts
Fortingal into two nearly equal parts ; bounds a de
tached part of Logierait ; and then has, on its right
bank, Dull and the main body of Logierait; and on
its left Blair-Athole, Moulin, a part of Dowally, and
a wing of Logierait  The southern one of the two
great streams, part of which is recognised as the
popular Tay, performs, from its highest source, and
measured in straight lines and through lakes, to its
junction with the Tummel, a run of about 57 miles.
Its direction over by far the greater part of its course is
east-north-eastward, and over the remainder is either
easterly or north-easterly. Its origin is on the side
of Benloy, at the boundary of Killin with Argyle
shire, 7 miles in a straight line north-north-west of
the head of Loch-Lomond. In its course to Loch-
Tay, — a distance excluding curvatures of about 21
miles, — it runs almost wholly in Killin, cutting it
lengthwise into two nearly equal parts, expands it
self when about third way into Loch-Dochart, and
bears respectively before and after this expansion,
the names of the Fillan and the Dochart : which
see. From the lower end of Loch-Tay [see pre
ceding article] to its junction with the Tummel, a
distance of about 14 or 15 miles, it traverses tbe
east end of Kenmore, cuts its way among gro
tesquely disposed fragments and isolated districts of
Dull, , Fortingal, Logierait, and Weem, and divides
the main body of Logierait on its left bank, from
Little Dunkeld on its right. From it junction with
the Tummel to its junction with the Earn, where
it begins to expand into an estuary, it achieves, ir
respective of sinuosities, a distance of 32 miles, in
alternate directions of 6 southward and 11 eastward,
and of 11 southward and 5 eastward; and over this
part of its course, it has on its right bank Little
Dunkeld, Kinclaven, Auchtergaven, Redgorton,
Perth, and Rhynd, — and, on its left bank, Logierait,
Dunkeld, Caputh, Cargill, St. Martins, Scone, Kin
noul, Kinfauns, and St. Madoes. As an estuary, it
mena ceased. These occurred on some days in the morning,
and on others in the alteriioon, but none were bo violent as the
first. On the 13th of July, 1794, the waterB of the Tay expe
rienced agitatious of a similar nature, but neither were these
so violent nor of such long continuance. Like other Highland
lakes, Loch-Tay was for a lime supposed incapable of being
frozen; but during the inteuse fold ot 1771 it was frozen 'over,
in one part, from side to Bide during the space of a single uighu

746

THE TAY.

extends 26 miles from the mouth of the Earn to Bud- i hour to a height 10 feet above the bed of the stream.
donness, the point where it becomes quite lost in I Some recent operations, consisting chiefly of joining

the German ocean ; has for 16 miles a breadth of
from three-fourths of a mile to 3 miles, and the
direction of north-east by east ; has, over ihe other
10 miles, a prolonged contraction of from 2 miles to
ess than 1 mile in breadth, and then an expansion,
down to St. Andre w's-bay, of 9 or 10 miles in
breadth, and, in both places, a- prevailing easterly
direction ; and separates Abernethy and the most
northerly parishes of Fifeshire on its right bank,
from St. Madoes, Errol, Inchture, Longforgan, and
the most southerly parishes of Forfarshire on its left.
Its entire length of course, jointly as a river, and as
an estuary, is thus, if measured in straight lines
from the head of the Gauir, 118 miles, — if measured
in the same way from the head of the Fillan, 115
miles, — and, if measured along its channel from
either of the remote sources, between 160 and 200
miles. The tributaries of the Tay, even excluding the
secondary ones, are so numerous, that only tbe prin
cipal must be named. Those of the northern great
head-branch are only two, — the Ericht, which falls
into Loch-Rannoch, and the Garry, which brings
along with it the Edendon, the Erochkie, the Bruar,
and the Tilt, ahd falls into the Tummel a little below
Killiecrankie. Those of the southern great head-
branch are also but two, — the Lochy, which joins
the Dochart at the village of Killin, and the Lyon,
which brings along with it Glenmore-water, and
joins the Tay 24 miles below the village of Ken
more. Those of the united stream are the Bran, on
the right bank, opposite the village of Dunkeld ; the
Isla, swollen by the Dean, the Ericht,' and other
streams, and entering on the left bank, a mile south
of Mickleour ; the Shochie, on the right bank, at
Luncarty ; the Almond, on the same bank, 2£ miles
above Perth ; and the Earn, also on the same bank,
at the commencement of the estuary, or 2J miles
above the viUage of Newburgh. Those of the es
tuary, excepting the Eden which drains a large part
of Fifeshire, and falls into St. Andrew's-bay, — are
all inconsiderable, the largest being the Dighty,
which disembogues itself from Forfarshire, 2 miles
below Broughty-ferry.
At the mouth of the estuary, from the vicinity of
Broughty-ferry on the one shore, and Ferry-Port-
on-Craig on the other, to a point 3i miles south
east of Buddonness, or over an entire distance of
8| miles, there is a sweep of sandbank, called Goa,
on the north side, Abertay on the south side, and
the Cross-sands at the connecting or seaward ex
tremity. The opening or breadth of channel be
neath the two sides of the sandbank varies from 6
furlongs to 2 miles; and the depth of water is about
3 fathoms, but, higher up the frith, increases to 6.
Sandbanks occur elsewhere, especially a large and
shifting one opposite Dundee; but they have all
been rendered innocuous to navigation by the appli
ances of dredging, buoys, lighthouses, and charts.
The estuary in general is shallow, and receives such
an amount of debris from the steady and large
current of the river, as must eventually, and at com
paratively no very distant period, drive shipping from
its waters. Though it cannot compare in spacious
ness and some other properties with the Forth, it is
at present not a little commodious, and all the way
from Buddonness to past the mouth of the Earn,
may be considered as a continuous harbour. Vessels
of 500 tons can go up to Newburgh; and vessels
drawing 9 feet of water can go up, though with dif
ficulty, and in critical states of tide and freshet, to
rerth. The tide from the ocean flows to a point
*bout a mile above Perth, and rises at Perth bar-

islets with the mainland, and throwing up embank
ments, have increased the rise of ithe tide at Perth
9 inches, and accelerated the time of high-water
half-an-hour, and would, if completed, occasion a
still additional rise of nearly three feet, and render
the ordinary navigation to Perth harbour practicable
for vessels of 300 tons. The level of high-water at
Perth, owing tofthe configuration of the frith, the
narrowness of the inlet at Broughty-ferry; and the
scope afforded for rolling back the fresh water cur
rent from Newburgh upward, is usually 18 inches
higher than the level in the broadest part of the
frith, or between Balmerino and Kingoodie.
The extent of surface drained by the Tay and its
tributaries is variously computed at 2,396, and 2,750
square miles, and that of the Spey, the entirely
Scottish river next to it in size, at 1,300 and 1,298|
square miles. The geographic positions and char
acter of the district, whence most of the waters are
drawn, being in the case of the two rivers very
similar, the Tay may be supposed to discharge about
twice as much water as the Spey. Dr. Anderson,
making a nice measurement for a judicial purpose,
determined the quantity of water which, in the
mean state of the river, flows through a section of
it opposite Perth, to be at the rate of 3,640 cubic
feet per second. The river, as represented on a'
map, or imagined after a survey of the vast district
which composes its basin, appears emphatically 'the
many-headed Tay;' and, in consequence of its great
feeders coming down like the main arteries on a half-
moon-shaped leaf, it has less inequality in its stream
than occurs in either the Spey or any other of our
Highland fed rivers. The variety of its origin, too,
affords such a compensation of rain as always, except
in seasons of extreme drought, to yield a sufficient
bulk and altitude of water for the occupying of its
path, and the beautifying of its landscape ; while the
wide variety in the relative distance of its sources;
prevents its floods, however high, from being as
sudden as those of the Spey, the Aberdeenshire,
Dee, and same other upland streams. Yet, owing
to the gradual but great extension of the system
of draining, which is prosecuted on arable grounds
and on reclaimable mosses and moorlands, the river
has become considerably less equable than at a
former period; it swells, during great floods, to a
magnitude which never in former days' belonged to
it; it subsides, during a continued drought, to a cor
responding diminution of volume ; and, in its ordi
nary or mean state, it has very visibly lost some of
its ancient greatness and importance. Though aver-
agely charged at Perth, as we have seen, with 3,640
cubic feet of water per second, it was reduced, in tbe
course of the summer of 1819, to 457 cubic feet, and
at the close of the summer of 1835, to a still smaller
volume.* Much of the country which now forms the sea
board of the estuary, and especially the whole of the
Carse of Gowrie, and the lower part of Strathtay,
exhibit evidence of having, at a comparatively recent
period, lain under the sea, and been gradually raised
above its level by depositions from the Tay. After
the Carse of Gowrie became dry land, too, the Tay
seems, for a long series of years, to have made a
circle round its north side, along the foot of the Sid-
law-hills, entering what was then the frith of Earn
at Invergowrie, and entirely peninsulating the Carse,
or cutting it into a series of islands. [See Carse of
Gowrie.] Great modern changes have taken place
likewise on all the vale or strata of the Tay, south
• See New Statistical Account, No. xv. p. 8.

THE TAY.

747

of the confluence of the Tummel. Dr. Macculloch,
from close and various observations on cuts of cor
responding rocks on the opposite sides of the stream,
and on the harmonizing altitude of series of alluvial
terraces in the screens of the valley, calculates that
the ancient level of the river, from Logierait down
ward, was about 100 feet above the present bed ;
and he adds : " And thus, while it is easy to see
how far the Tay has sunk, it would not be very dif
ficult to compute the quantity of land or earth that
has been removed and carried forward towards the
sea. When we look at this enormous waste, we
need not be surprised at the formation of the Carse
of Gowrie, nor at the deposits which are still aug
menting it; shoaling the sea about Dundee, and lay
ing the foundations of new meadows. For this
operation is still going on, and must "go on as long
as the Tay shall continue to flow; though diminish
ing in rapidity, as the declivity and consequent velo
city of the river itself diminish. If it is curious, to
speculate on the period when Perth, had it then ex
isted, must have been a sea-port, and when the nar
row Tay, far above and below it, was a wide arm of
the ocean, it is not less so to consider what the as
pect of Strathtay itself was, when the present place
of Dunkeld was buried deep beneath the earth. Nor
is it difficult even to see what it must have been.
By laying our eye on any of the terraces, it is easy
to bring the opposed one in the same plane, and thus
to exclude all the valley beneath, reducing it once
more to what it was when the river was flowing
above. These speculations, thus pursued, may in
terest the artist as well as the geologist and the geo
grapher ; since, not only here, but in every deep
valley of the Highlands, he would, in making such
trials, be at a loss to recognise, in the original shal
low and rude glen, the spacious and rich valley
which is now the seat of beauty and cultivation.
Contemplating, in this manner, not only the High
land mountains and valleys, but those of the world
at large, we are lost in the magnitude of tbe changes
which have carried the rains of the Himmala to the
mouths of the Ganges, — which, from the sediments
of the Nile, have formed the iand of Egypt, — and
which have created, out of the lofty ridges of Amer
ica, the plains that now form so large a portion of
its continent." [Highlands and Western Isles.]
The Tay — especially if its chief tributaries be in
cluded — is incomparably the most scenic of the Bri
tish rivers. The parent-stream itself, indeed, has
fewer great falls than most streams which rise in a
Highland district ; yet it possesses several cascades
of considerable height and picturesqueness, and, at
the linn of Campsie in particular, near the conflu
ence with it of the Isla, it is precipitated over a huge
basaltic dike into a pool of great depth ; and its
tributaries exhibit in the aggregate an absolute pro
fusion of the most varied cataracts, and leaps, and
falls, while the Bruar, the Tummei, and the Tilt,
present individual cascades which rank, for their com
bined magnificence and individuality of character,
among the most distinguished objects of their class.
But, in other features of landscape, the Tay is so
uniformly rich, and so exceedingly various, that a
large volume might be written in delineation of its
picturesqueness. Its estuary, and tbe lowest 3 of
4 miles of its stream, are a continued expanse of lus-
ciousness, softly screened with heights or swells of
the most gentle beauty. Its vale from the romantic
hill of Kinnoul. a little below Perth, to the pass of
Birnam, 2 or 2£ miles below Dunkeld, is everywhere
lively, frequently brilliant, and occasionally gorgeous.
Its scenery above this point is so exquisite, so diver
sified, so replete with attractions, that it can be
etched by no one, not even the querulous Dr.

Macculloch, except with dashes of enthusiasm. " The
most complete general notion," says the Doctor, "of
the portion of Strathtay," which stretches from the
vicinity of Dunkeld upward to the mouth of the
Tummel, " will be formed from a situation somewhat
elevated, near the Duke of Athole's farm, which also
affords one of the most splendid landscapes upon this
portion of the river. Indeed, with the exception of
Stirling, there is scarcely a place in Scotland which
presents a view of vale-scenery at once so spacious,
so rich, so grand, and so easily admitting of being
formed into a picture. The broadest part of the
valley, for a space of about six miles, is here detailed
before the eye so minutely, that every part of its
various ornament is seen in the most advantageous
manner; the Tay winding along from its junction
with the Tummel, through its bright meadows in
terspersed with trees, till it rolls along deep among
its wooded banks, a majestic and silent stream be
neath our feet. On each hand rises a long screen of
varied hills, covered with woods in every pictur
esque form ; the whole vista terminating in the re
moter mountains, which, equally rich and various,
are softened by the blue haze of ihe distance, as they
close in above the pass of Killiecrankie. This gen
eral view, varied in many ways by changes of level
and of position, forms the basis of the landscape for
some miles; but so great are the changes in the mid
dle-grounds, and so various the foregrounds, that
although the same leading character is observed, the
separate scenes are always strongly distinguished.
Many distinct pictures can thus be obtained, and
each of tbem perfectly adapted for painting ; so that
Strathtay is here an object to charm every specta
tor, — him who desires to see every thing preserved
in his portfolio, and him who seeks for nothing in
Nature but beauty, come under what form it may.
Nor must I forget to remark, that many minor land
scapes, of narrow or close scenery, occur on the road
side among the infinitude of objects, ravines, bridges,
rivers, mills, houses, farms, woods, and trees of the
most luxuriant growth, which border it through all
this span." " Though the western and upper branch
of Strathtay," from the junction of the Tummel up
ward to Kenmore, " is not, perhaps, equal in splen
dour to the lower and southern one, it still maintains
the same character of richness throughout ; while,
instead of the flat extended meadows which mark
the latter, it displays a considerable undulation of
ground. Thus the vale of the Tay, from Dunkeld
even to Kenmore, a space of 25 miles, is a continued
scene of beauty ; a majestic river winding through a
highly wooded and cultivated country, with a lofty
and somewhat parallel mountain boundary, which is
itself cultivated as far as cultivation is admissible,
and is everywhere covered with continuous woods
or trees as high as wood can well grow. It con
tains, of course, much picturesque scenery; present
ing not only landscapes of a partial nature, compris
ing reaches of the river, or transient views in the
valley produced by the sinuosities of the road, but
displaying the whole to its farthest visible extrem
ity, under aspects which are varied by the casual
variations of level or position, or by the accidental
compositions of the fore or middle grounds, where
Ben-Lawers is seen towering above all in the re
motest distance, these views are peculiarly magnifi
cent; nor is anything ever wanting which the artist
could require to give fulness and interest to the
nearer parts of the landscape, where, after all, the
chief interest must always lie." " I believe it is but
just to say, that Strathtay is, in point of splendour
and richness, the first of the Scottish valleys."
[Highlands and Western Isles.]
TAYENLOAN, a small Highland village in the

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parish of Killean, Kintyre, Argyleshire. It stands
on the west coast; opposite Gigha, and 20, miles
north-north-west of Campbelltown.
TAYMOUTH-CASTLE, the splendid mansion
of the Marquis of Breadalbane, situated on the right
bank of the Tay, about a mile north-east of the
village of Kenmore, or of the lower extremity of
Loch-Tay, Perthshire. It is a magnificent pile of
four stories, with round towers at the angles, and
an airy central pavilion. A quadrangular tower in
the centre rises to a considerable height above the
rest of the edifice ; carries up a spacious and ornate
staircase ; and lets in upon it, from the flanks and
the top, a sort of fairy light through richly-stained
glass. The apartments in the interior, particularly the
Baron 's-hall, the drawing-room, the dining-room, and
the Chinese-rooms, are splendidly fitted up, and con
tain paintings by Titian, Rubens, Salvator Rosa, Ca-
racci, Teniers, Vandyke, and other masters, constitut
ing one of the richest collections in Scotland. The
edifice is constructed of a dark-grey coloured stone,
and was finished only within these few years. At
tached to it, or to the right of the great quadrangle,
stands a wing of its" predecessor, the old castle of
Balloch, built, in 1580, by Sir Colin Campbell, the
6th Knight of Lochawe, and called Balloch from a
Gaelic word which signifies the outlet of a lake or
glen. Taymouth-castle is surrounded by a demesne
and a general landscape of uncommon brillance.
Though Dr. Macculloch was in one of his most
growling moods when he looked on this superb
scene, and, in consequence, lost a fine opportunity
of rendering some pages of his book luxuriously
odoriferous, scarcely another person of taste will
gaze on the profusion of mixed magnificence and
beauty without forgetting that some touches of the
artificial embellishment are too stiff and studied, and
entirely abandoning himself to the surgy swell of
imagery which here sets in upon him with at once
the soft flow and the irresistible power of a burnished
tide. The castle stands in a semicircular lawn,
from all sides of which expanses of wood recede in
great variety of disposition, and site, and so aggre
gately great in extent that they almost seem inter
minable. " The pleasure-grounds are laid out with
great taste, and possess a striking combination of
beauty and-grandeur. The hills which confine them
are luxuriantly wooded and picturesque in their out
lines ; and the plain below is richly adorned with old
gigantic trees. The view from the hill in the front
of the castle is reckoned one of the finest in Scot
land. On the right is Drummond-hill, and behind it
the lofty Ben-Lawers, with Ben-More in the remote
distance. On the left two hills, partially wooded,
rise from the water one above another. In the fore
ground a portion of the lake is seen, aud the village
and church of Kenmore, and, to the north of them,
the bridge across the Tay, immediately behind which
is the little wooded island of Loch-Tay. * * Along
the north bank of the river there is a terrace 16 yards
wide, and 3 miles in length, overshadowed by a row
of stately beech-trees ; and on the opposite side
there is a similar walk extending a mile from Ken
more. These promenades are connected by a light
cast-iron bridge." [Black's Picturesque Tourist.]
— The Deer-park at, Taymouth-castle contains seven
hundred fallow deer, nearly a hundred red deer, some
fine specimens of the black deer, and you can move
in no direction without starting the light-footed roe ;
and in a small paddock to the east of the deer-park
are to be seen some fine specimens of moose-deer,
which are so tame that they will come up and fawn
upon you. There are also some wild Indian buffaloes
from the Rocky mountains of the New world.
TAYNUILT, a small ill-built village iii Argyle

shire, on the south coast of Loch-Etive, about 6
miles from Bunawe.
TEALING, a parish in the southern part of the
Sidlaw district of Forfarshire. Its figure is nearly tri
angular, with its sides facingthe east, the south, and
the north-west, .and its northern angle, to the depth
of | of a mile, cut away. It is bounded on the north
by Inverarity; on the east by Inverarity, Murroes,
and the detached part of Dundee ; on the south by
Murroes, Mains, and Strathmartine ; and on the west
and north-west by a detached part of Caputh, and
by Auchter-bouse, and Glammis- A single farm be
longing to it lies along the west side ef the detached
part of Caputh, and is bounded on the other sides by
Auchter-house. The main body measures in straight
fines along the north 1 J mile, — the east 4 miles, —
the south 4J, — the north-west 4| ; and the entire
parish has an area of about 4,300 imperial acres.
The north-west boundary, except for a mile on the
south, is formed by the water-shed of tbe Sidlaws ;
and fhe southern boundary is nearly all formed by
the rivulet Fithie. The general surface, excepting
the detached farm, is a slope from the summit of the
Sidlaws toward the south-east angle. The low
grounds or plain lies upwards of 500 feet above sea
level ; and Craigowl, the loftiest of the bounding
hills, rises 1,100 feet above the level of the plain.
Though the summits of the heights are heathy,
and their sides profusely send out broom, and
struggle hard to be merely pastoral, only one-
fourteenth of the whole parochial area is waste or
in pasture ; and a little more than the same pro
portion being beautifully disposed in thriving planta
tion, all the remainder feels the dominion of the
plough. The soil, on the ascent of the hills, is
light and , gravelly ; in .the central district is black,
deep, and rich, sometimes inclining to clay; and,
in the south and south-east, is naturally marshy,
and fit only for meadow, but has been very greatly
improved by draining. Grey slate and sandstone
abound; and there are some pavement quarries.
The chief mansion is Tealing-house, the seat of
Mr. Scrimseour, the principal landowner. There
are four or five hamlets, whose united population is
somewhat less than 300. A subterranean building,
a subterranean cave or passage, several stone-coffins,
and some small inhumed Roman antiquities have, at
various periods, been discovered. The Rev. John
Glass, the founder of the sect of Glassites, or Scot
tish Sandemanians, was minister of Tealing up to
the, time of his separation from the Establishment.
The parish is intersected by the Dundee and Newtyle
railwaf, and by the west road between' Dundee and
Aberdeen. Its kirktown is 5f miles north of Dundee.
Population, in 1801, 755; in 1831, 766. Houses 164.
Assessed property, in 1815, £1,793  Tealing is in
the presbytery of Dundee, and synod of Angus- and
Mearns. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £162 8s. ;
glebe £10. In 1834, the parish-school was attended
by 80 scholars; and four private schools by 100.
Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s., with from
£8 to £9 fees, and about £5 other emoluments.
TEITH or Teath (The), a singularly romantic
and beautiful river of the south-west district of
Perthshire. Yet half of its course is run, and far
more than half of its scenic attractions are passed
before it assumes its proper or distinctive name.
What, according to popular nomenclature, forms the
Teith, is the confluence about half a-mile above the
bridge of Callander, of two streams of surpassing
Highland loveliness, but of very anomalous tono-
graphical characters. The streams are partly change
ful in name, partly without any name whatever ;
and, over a very large aggregate space, entirely lost
in some of the most celebrated of the Perthshire

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lakes. Their head sources are not far from a point
at which the counties of Argyle, Perth, and Dum
barton meet, or from another point whence waters
are shed respectively to the Tay, the Forth, and
the lower Clyde. They rise respectively 1 mile
and 2 miles due east of the head of Loch-Lomond ;
but, though so near each other in their origin, and
relatively rising in the line of the prevailing direc
tion of their course, they so far mutually recede as
to be at one time 9 miles asunder  The northern
stream, starting from the north side of the height
called Mealpalan, runs 65 miles east by north to
Loch-Doine ; and, itself as yet a cold mountain-
rivulet, drinks up in its progress some 14 rills of
kindred character. Issuing from Loch-Doine, it
proceeds only about £ of a mile eastward, till it is
iost for 3J miles in Loch-Voil. On egressing from
the latter lake, it takes the name of the Balvag
or ' smooth-running river ;' sweeps past the kirk-
town of Balquidder, runs IJ mile east by south ;
makes here, when just 2J miles south-west of the
head of Loch-Earn, a sudden bend ; and flows 3
miles sinuously southward to Loch-Lubnaig. Hi
therto it belongs wholly to the parish of Balquid
der; but during the 3| miles of its passage along
that lake it glides into Callander. When issuing
from Loch-Lubnaig, it assumes the name of the
Garbh-Uisge, or 'the rugged river,' and begins to
tumble along the wild romantic Pass of Lent
[which see] ; and having flowed 1 mile southward,
and 2 miles eastward, and washed the skirts of
the village of Kilmahog, it unites with its sister
stream to form the Teith. Its entire length of
course, excluding its sinuosities, but including its
lacustrine expansions, is about 23 miles  The
southern stream makes a run of 4 miles from its
origin due south-eastward to the head of Loch-
Katrine; and, though absolutely nameless, or name
less at least among mapmakers and topographists,
it runs amidst a profusion of wood and upland
picturesqueness, and approaches Loch-Katrjne with
a superbness of attire not altogether unworthy of
the majesty of the lake. Identified for 8 miles with
the lake of second rank for scenic brilliance in
Scotland, it emerges from its south-east extremity,
and immediately begins to traverse over all their
length the bosky, bristling, tumultuously wooded
Trosachs ; and debouching from among them, is
instantly lost for \% mile in Loch- Achray ; and
egressing thence, makes a run of only \\ mile east
ward, till it is ingulphed by Loch-Vennacher. On
issuing from the latter lake, overhung by Benledi, it
assumes the name of the Eas-gobhain, ' the Smiths'
cataract ;' and, under this wild designation, it careers
1| mile east-north-eastward to a junction with the
other great head-water of the Teith. ' Its entire
length of run, including its course through lakes,
is about 22 miles. — The Teith, or united stream,
wants the grand and boldly romantic features of its
head-waters ; and subsides as to scenery into simple
yet pften thrilling beauty. Its entire course is
south-eastward ; and, measured in a straight line,
extends only to between 11 and 12 miles. Over
two-thirds of the distance it traverses the lowland
district of Callander, and the major part of Kilma
dock ; and over the remaining and last third it has
Kincardine on its right bank, and Kilmadock and
Lecropt on its left. In Callander, it finely meanders
among meadows, arbours, and wooded banks, form
ing a gentle and warmingly tinted foreground to a
Highland background landscape of uncommon power;
in Kilmadock, it runs with a trotting and merry cur
rent, and sweeps past the town and ancient castle of
Doune ; and, while in contact with Kincardine, it
traverses the finely-ornamented grounds of Blair-

Drummond, and the curiously-embellished demesne
of Ochtertyre. Its tributaries are numerous ; but,
excepting the Keltie, [which see,] they are all in
considerable. The Teith, if either its volume of
water or its length of course had been made the
ground of decision, would have been regarded as the
parent-stream, and the Forth which joins it as the
tributary. The point at which they unite is the
bridge of Drip, 2\ miles north-west of Stirling. The
Teith is a clear stream, and, for the most part, rapid,
and is excelled by none in Scotland for the intrinsic
value of its water-power, or its intrinsic adaptation
to manufacture ; yet, in consequence chiefly of the
want of lime and coal, it has a very small aggregate
of public works on its banks. It abounds in salmon
and trout ; and, at a former period, it possessed at
Callander some small beds of a peculiar sort of mus
sels which yielded valuable pearls.
TEMPLE, a parish, consisting of a main body
and a small detached district in the south of Edin
burghshire. The main body is bounded on the north
west by Pennicuick and Carrington ; on the north
east and east by Borthwick; on the south-east by
Heriot; and on the south and west by Peebles-shire.
Its greatest length from north to south is 8j miles ;
its greatest breadth is 5 miles ; and its superficial ex
tent is" about 23 square miles. The detached district
lies If mile north-east of the nearest part of the main
body ; is nearly a square of about 300 acres ; and is
surrounded by the parishes of Newbattle and Borth
wick. Gore-water, a tributary of the South-Esk,
runs along one side of the detached district ; the
South-Esk traces for 6 miles the western boundary
of the main body; and Glad-house- water rises in
the southern boundary, traverses the whole length
of the main body, almost equally bisects it, and falls
into the South-Esk at the extreme north. The
Moorfoot-hills, ranging from south-west to north
east, occupy the larger part of the area, render it
strictly, and even bleakly, pastoral, and send twO
summits, each upwards of 2,000 feet, and three or
four upwards of 1,600 feet above sea-level. The
arable ,land lies almost all in the detached district,
and in a space of 4 or 5 square miles in the extreme
north ; and, in the former, it is principally a strong
clay, and in the latter, it is mostly dry and sharp,
upon a gravelly bottom, and tolerably fertile. Coal
abounds, and is mined in the detached district ; and
sandstone and limestone are worked in the main
body. Greywacke is the principal rock of the hills.
The village of Gorebridge, and part of that of Stob
hill, are in the parish. See Stobbs and Stobhill.
The village of Temple, containing about 200 inhabi
tants, stands on Gladhouse-water, a little above its
confluence with the South-Esk, 12^ miles south-south
east of Edinburgh. The only mansion is Toxside, W.
Tait, Esq. The gardens, and part of the demesne
of Arniston, the seat of* Robert Dundas, Esq., the
principal landowner, lie within tbe northern limits.
The parish is traversed by the turnpike between
Peebles and Dalkeith. Population, in 1801, 855 ;
in 1831, 1,255. Houses 238. Assessed property,
in 1815, £5,128. Temple is in the presbytery of
Dalkeith, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale.
Patron, Dundas of Arniston. Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ;
glebe £20. The church is a neat structure, built in
1832, and occupying a fine site. The old church,
still standing, is part of a series of monastic build
ings, erected by David I. for Templars or Red friars.
This establishment, originally called Balantradoch,
and described in ancient documents as "domus
templi de Balantradoch," was the chief seat of the
Knights Templars in Scotland, and regarded as the
superior of any establishments which the fraternity
formed in other parts of the kingdom. On the east

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gable, below the belfry, is an inscription which has
puzzled antiquarians, and might be worth a whole
folio of lore to theorizers  The present parish com
prehends the ancient parish of Clerkington, and the
chapelries of Moorfooi and Balantradoch. Clerking
ton, previous to the Reformation, was a vicarage
under the monks of Newbattle. Moorfoot — anciently
and properly Morthwait — comprehended the upper
half of the vale of Gladhouse- water ; and was a
chapelry established by the Newbattle monks, to
whom the lands had been gifted. The chapelry of
Balantradoch, after the suppression of the Knights
Templars, passed into the possession of the Knights
of St. John. The three districts having been united
after the Reformation, assumed their present name
from the circumstance of the chapel of the Templars
being adopted as their common or parochial church.
Iu 1834, the parish-school was attended by 110 scho
lars, and two private schools by 135. Schoolmaster's
salary £34 4s. 4£d., with £36 fees, and £3 6s. 8d.
other emoluments.
TEMPLELISTON. See Kirkliston. .
TENNANDRY, a district containing about 200
inhabitants, in the eastern part of the parish of Blair-
Athole, Perthshire. This district, with certain por
tions of other parishes, was, in 1836, erected into a
quoad sacra parish by the presbytery of Dunkeld.
The church was built in 1836. Sittings 500.
TERREGLES, a parish on the north-east frontier
of Kirkcudbrightshire ; bounded on the north and
north-east by the Cluden, and on the east by the
Nith, which divide it from Dumfries-shire ; on the
south by Troqueer and Lochrutton ; and on the west
and north-west by Kirkpatrick-Irongray. Its length,
from east-north-east to west-south-west, is 4$ miles ;
its greatest breadth, in the opposite direction, is 2J
miles ; and its superficial extent is nearly 8 square
miles. The surface is, in general, low, but has agree
able diversities ; and everywhere, especially along
the Cluden and the Nith, it is softly but sweetly
beautiful. In agricultural capabilities and results, it
is rich and ornate. Its soil, naturally loamy and be
nign, has been highly cultivated, and sends up luxu
riant crops of every sort of grain and vegetable raised
in Scotland. Terregles-place, and some other fine
mansions, gem it with their embellished grounds.
The College-loch, on its southern boundary, is a
beautiful sheet of water a mile in length ; and, in a
time of frost, allures numerous skaters and curlers
from Dumfries to its bosom. All the parish being
situated within from half-a-mile to 5 miies of Dum
fries, the greater part of it receives an impress of
neatness and taste, and an impetus to industry and
Improvement, from that beautiful metropolis of the
south-west of Scotland. Three of the roads more or
less traverse the parish, which diverge from Dumfries
toward distant localities ; and, among them, those tp
Glasgow and to Port-Patrick. The parochial anti
quities are Lincluden College [which see], and
the old castle of Terregles, formerly the seat of the
Earls of Nithsdale. Population, in 1801, 510; in
1831,606. Houses 97. Assessed property, in 1815,
£3,911  Terregles is in the- presbytery and synod
of Dumfries. Patron, the Duke of Buccleuch. Sti
pend £158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £20. Schoolmaster's
salary £35, with £16 fees, and £3 other emolu
ments. The church anciently belonged first to the
Benedictine nunnery, and next to the collegiate
church of Lincluden. In 1365, Sir John Herries ob
tained a grant of the barony from David II. ; in 1510,
Andrew, Lord Herries, got a new charter of his
estates, — one which erected the village of Terregles
into a burgh-of-barony to be called Herries ; and,
soon after, the property passed by marriage to the

Maxwells of Nithsnale, with whom the title, also
continued until their forfeiture in 1715.
TEVIOT (The), a beautiful river of Roxburgh
shire, the largest tributary of the Tweed, and a
stream of so much importance as popularly to im
pose its name on the whole of the great county in
which it flows. It rises in several short head-waters
in the southern extremity of the parishes of Cavers
and Hawick, within half-a-mile of the sources of the
Megget and the Stennis, tributaries of the Dumfries
shire and Cumberland Esk. The direction of its
course for 30 miles, or till it enters the parish of
Eckford, half-a-mile above Eckford village, is,
with the exception of constant but brief distances,
not included in the gross distance, uniformly and
almost due north-east; for 5| miles further, it
is north, or north by east; and, for the last
three-fourths of a mile, it is east, and nearly parallel
to that of the noble river into which it falls. Till
27 miles from its source, or to the point where it
receives the Rule, except over 2£ miles where it
traverses the interior of Hawick, and over a furlong
or two where it cuts off pendicles of Cavers, it forms
the boundary-line of parishes ; those on its right
bank being Upper Cavers, Lower Hawick, Lower
Cavers, Bedrule, and Jedburgh; and those on its left
bank, Upper Hawick, Wilton, Minto, Ancrum, and
Crailing. Over the last 9 miles of its course it forms
altogether a boundary-line for only IJ mile, and
mainly bisects the parishes of Crailing, Eckford,
Roxburgh, and Kelso. Its principal trihutaries on
its left bank are Hislop-burn and Borthwick-water
in Hawick, and Ale-water in Ancrum; and on its
right bank, Frostley-burn in Upper Cavers, Allan-
water between Upper Cavers and Hawick, Slitrig-
water at the town of Hawick, Rule-water between
Lower Cavers anil Bedrule, Jed-water in Jedburgh,
Oxnam-water in' Crailing, and Kail-water in Eck
ford. The only towns upon it are Hawick, 14J
miles from its source, and Kelso, opposite its junc
tion with the Tweed; and the only villages — though
on the average 3 furlongs from it — are Denholm in
Lower Cavers, Hightown in Roxburgh, and respec
tively Ancrum, Crailing, Eckford, and Roxburgh, in
their cognominal parishes. The river's waters abound
with trout and salmon, and are witnesses to many
curious poaching scenes. The scenery of the Teviot
is everywhere pleasant, generally brilliant, and occa
sionally superb. Its immediate banks are, for the
most part, a charming alternation of rich haugh and
wiriegated, often abrupt, rising ground. Its busin is,
for some distance, a comparatively narrow vale,
flanked with bold green heights ; for a greater dis
tance it is a stripe of alluvial plain, screened by ter
raced but undulating and tumulated dale, and over
hung at from 3 to 8 miles' distance by terminating
heights ; and, in the lower course, it is a richly va
riegated champaign country, possessing all the luxu
riance without any of the tameness of a fertile plain,
and .stretching away in exulting beauteousness to
the picturesque Eildons on the one hand, and the
array of dome-like Cheviots on the other. A pro
fusion of wood, and rapid alternations of almost
every kind of surface, produce a constant succession
of distinct and fine pictures. One glowing scene
occurs in the immediate vicinity of Kelso : which see.
Another, in which some curious caves are prominent,
occurs in the parish of Roxburgh : which also see.
And amongst scores of others which might be named
is any one of some half-dozen views of a point, where
haughs odoriferous and beautiful as gardens are on
the immediate banks, and the bosky and beetling
crags of Minto soar perpendicularly up on one side,
foiled by the high adornings of Minto-grounds, and

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the fine forms of Minto-hills ; while on the other side
rise darkly the huge lumbering outline of the Dun
ian, and the broken, rugged, and towering height of
Rubberslaw. We need scarcely hint how much and
tenderly 'the silver Teviot' has been celebrated in
song. TEVIOTDALE, a name sometimes applied to
the whole of Roxburghshire, and sometimes used
more definitely to designate the portion of that
county which is drained by the Teviot and its tribu
taries. See Roxburghshire.
THIEF-ROAD (The), a track of road from the
border, through Peebles-shire into Mid-Lothian, so
designated from its having been the path usually
traversed by the plundering banditti of the feudal
times, known as moss-troopers, or leviers of black
mail. The road has now no very distinct vestiges,
yet can still be traced, especially along Peebles
shire. It enters that county near the Birkhill path
on the sources of the Yarrow and the Megget; runs
north through the middle of Megget parish by Win-
terhope and Cratnmalt ; passes over Dollar-law and
Scrape, on the boundary between Manor and Drum
melzier; crosses the Tweed below Stobo; proceeds
by Lyne, Newlands, and Linton ; and departs through
the Cauldstane-slap to the defiles of the Mid-Lothian
Pentlands. THIRLESTANE, the seat of Lord Napier of
Thirlestane, in the parish of Ettrick, Selkirkshire.
See Ettrick.
THIRLESTANE-CASTLE, the seat of the Earl
of Lauderdale, on the right bank of the Leader, Ber
wickshire. It stands on a fine lawn between the
Leader and the burgh of Lauder. It is a large and
massive edifice, impressively combining the tastes and
marked vestiges of antiquity with stiff and unsuccess
ful appearances of modernization. Its nucleus, or pos
sibly its predecessor, was a strong tower, called Lau
der fort, and built by Edward I. during his invasion
of Scotland, as a mean of maintaining his usurped
power. Chancellor Maitland, the chief founder of
the Lauderdale family, whose residence had formerly
been a small tower called Thirlestane, about 2 miles
to the east, renovated or rebuilt the fort, or possibly
constructed another edifice in its place, and trans
ferred to it the name of Thirlestane. The Duke of
Lauderdale added a new front and wings, removed
the church and burying-ground which stood between
the castle and the burgh, and made great improve
ments on the interior of the edifice and the extent
and arrangement of the grounds; and still further
improvements have very recently been made upon
the building and grounds. The castle has some
stately apartments ; it has massive balustrades and
cornices, and a multitude of marble chimney-pieces;
and in general it is decorated in the best taste of
the age of Charles II. Among a large and inter
esting coUection of family-portraits with which it is
enriched, are five of the Duke, and one of Secretary
Maitland. THORNHILL, a large and beautiful village in
the parish of Morton, Nithsdale, Dumfries-shire. It
stands on the post-road between Glasgow and Dum
fries, 8 miles east-north-east of Minnyhive; 12
south-east by south of Sanquhar; 14 north-north
west of Dumfries; and 61 south-south-west of Ed
inburgh. Its site is the summit of a ridgy or terrace-
formed rising ground, between 200 and 300. feet
high, from 2£ to 5 furlongs east of the Nith, and
commanding one of the richest views in Upper
Nithsdale, — the vale of the Nith luxuriating in
beauty over an extent of 8 or 9 miles, the princely
pile and noble grounds of Drumlanrig-castle at less
than 3 miles' distance on the north, the successive or
terraced ascents of the slowly receding, the green

and tufted hill-screens of the valley, and the majestic
form of the monarch-mountain, Queensberry, looking
up in the distance amidst a fine retinue of soft yet
alpine summits. The village is probably the most
tidy, neat, and generally attractive of its size and
class in Britain. Its streets are very spacious, and
always clean, and have broad stripes of verdure be
tween the house-lines and the roadway. The houses
are, for the most part, uniform, — neat one-story cot
tages ; or they have their uniformity broken only to
admit at intervals trim or elegant two-story struc
tures, to look up like officers in the well-trained
ranks. Belts of garden-ground run along the whole
back of the house-lines, flinging up clouds of per
fume, and rendering all the atmosphere odoriferous
and balmy. The principal street runs along the
highway, nearly parallel to the Nith. Over its
northern half it mounts the face of a slow ascent,
the lateral slope of the high bank, which forms the
village site, and is not winged with any parallel or
cross streets. Over most of the upper half it is
subtended on the side next the Nith by three streets,
which are arranged in the form of three sides of a
square, the principal street itself being the fourth
side, and which occupy a tabular expanse on the
summit of the high bank. Opposite the more south
erly of the two streets which go off at right angles,
a brief street runs up toward the parish-church and
school-house, both new and ornamental edifices. At
the intersection of the principal street, where the
last-mentioned thoroughfare commences, stands an
elegant pillar, designed to serve as a market-cross,
erected hy the last Duke of Queensberry, and sur
mounted by a Pegasus and the Queensberry arms.
The village was originally intended to be a market-
town, and it acquired authority for holding a weekly
market ; but it has never acquired sufficient impor
tance even to lift four annual fairs, held on the 2d
Tuesday (O. S.) of February, May, August, and
November, above the poor character of mere gala-
days for rustic idlers. An extensive manufacture of
hosiery was, for a series of years, conducted in
workshops; but has greatly declined, and seems
menaced with extinction. A tannery, a brewery,
and a few remaining stocking-looms alone prevent
its manufactures from being entirely domestic. A
few of its inhabitants are small annuitants;. a con
siderable number are agricultural labourers ; and a
painfully large number are persons ready to do any
one of half-a-dozen kinds of work, and rarely get a
piece of any of theln to do. The viUage has a
branch-office of the Glasgow Union bank, a sub
scription-library, several clubs for the purchase of
newspapers and periodicals, two stock-societies, a
penny-a-week friendly society, a women's friendly
society, a freemason's-hall erected in 1831, a spacious
bowling-green and quoiting-ground, and two large
and very respectable inns. It has recently been
lighted with gas. Its places of worship and its
schools are noticed in the article Morton. The
village is wholly under the superiority of the Dukes
of Buccleuch, and, since 1827, has been very greatly
and liberally improved by the present Duke. Popu
lation, in 1791, 430; in 1817, 750; in 1831, 1,373.
THORNHILL, a village in the quoad sacra par
ish of Norriestown, and lying compactly with Nor
riestown village, Monteith, Perthshire. See Nor
riestown. THORNLIEBANK, a village in the parish of
Eastwood, Renfrewshire, about 1£ mile south of
Pollockshaws, upon the rivulet called Auldhouse-
burn. It originated in the manufactories and other
works established here about the end of the 18th
century. The whole village, except three small
tenements, belongs to Messrs. J. and W. Crum, and

THO

752

THU

Co., proprietors of extensive works. Calico-print
ing, cotton-spinning, weaving by power and hand-
loom and bleaching, are carried on. The population
amounts to about 1,500. A preaching-station of the
Associate Synod was formed here in February, 1836,
and at the same time a building — originally erected
for a school-house — was completed as a place of wor
ship. It cost the benevolent proprietors — Messrs.
Crum, and Co.^£450, and is held under lease at a
nominal rent. Sittings 407. A regular congrega
tion, with a minister, has since been formed. The
Messrs. Crum likewise support two free schools here
for the children of their work-people.
THORNTON. See Dysart.
THORNTON-LOCH, a small village on the
coast of Innerwick, Haddingtonshire, 2 miles east
of the village of Innerwick, and 6 south-east of tbe
town of Dunbar. It has an itinerating library ;. and
at Skateraw, in its vicinity, is a small harbour.
THRIEVE, an islet and a celeBrated ancient
castle, in the river Dee, at the point where the par
ishes of Balmaghie, Crossmichael, and Kelton meet,
H mile west of Castle-Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire.
The islet has an area of about 16 Scottish acres,
and is noticeable only as the site of the castle. An
ancient castle, the predecessor of the present ruin,
was built and maintained on the site by the ancient
lords or petty kings of Galloway. The present,
structure was built by one of the Douglasses ; and
was the residence and the seat of power of that
despotic family during the ages of their making Gal
loway vocal with the groans of its people. On the
ruin of the Douglasses, and the annexation of Gal
loway to the Crown, the castle went into the pos
session of the king; but it was afterwards transferred,
to the family of MaxweU, who became Earls of
Nithsdale and hereditary keepers of Thneve and
stewards of Kirkcudbright. During the troubles of
Charles I. the Earl of Nithsdale, at his own expense,
held this castle for the king, and armed, paid, and
victualled a garrison of 80 men ; nor did he flinch,
till the king, unable to send him any assistance, in
structed him to obtain the best conditions he could
for himself and his garrison. The Earls, as keepers
of the castle, received from each parish of Kirkcud
brightshire, ' a lardner mart cow,' or a fattened cow
in condition to be killed and salted at Martinmas
for winter provision; and, in 1704, when they sold
the circumjacent estate, they, for the sake of this
perquisite, retained the castle itself. In 1716, at
the attainder of the 5th Earl, the levy of the 'lard
ner mart cow' fell into desuetude; and, in 1747, at
the abolitioB of hereditary jurisdictions, the last
vestiges of the ancient power and importance of the
castle disappeared. A square tower, built of hard
schistose stone, remains of the castle, and is sur
rounded at a small distance by a wall, which has a
strong gate and four round towers.
THURSO (The), a river of Caithness-shire.
It rises among the mountains in the south-west cor
ner of Halkirk, near the boundary with Sutherland
shire; and flows ]2£ miles north-eastward, and 14
northward to the head of its cognominal bay, at the
town of Thurso. Its course first bisects Halkirk ;
next for 1£ mile divides that parish from Thurso;
and finally cuts the latter parish into two not very
unequal parts. Its tributaries are neither numerous
nor large ; and its greatest breadth is about 300 feet.
Its banks are almost everywhere destitute of wood ;
but, in other respects, are, in many places, softly
beautiful. THURSO, a parish on the north coast of Caith-
neSs-shire; bounded on the north by the North sea;
on the east by Olrig and Bower ; on the south by
Halkirk; and on the west by Reay. Its greatest

length from east to west is 7J miles ; its greatest
breadth is 7 miles ; and its area is about 33 square
miles. The surface gently rises from the shore, and
is throughout a slightly inclined plane, interspersed
with small eminences, and presenting a rich prospect
of pleasant villas and well-cultivated fields. Tbe
rivers Thurso and Forss add much to its beauty,
and run northward, the former through the interior,
and the latter along tbe western boundary. The
coast, 71 miles in extent in a straight line, but about
11 along its sinuosities, has a flat and fine hard sandy
beach in the vicinity of the town, but elsewhere is
in general rocky. Murkle-bay [which see] is on
the east; a small bay, formed by the embouchure of
the Forss, is on the west; and the bay of Thurso,
about 4 square miles in area, is in tbe centre. Con
nected with the last are the roads and the House of
Scrabster: which see. The small headland of
Brimsness flanks the estuary of the Forss. The
magnificent promontory of Holbom-head runs out
on the west side of Thurso-bay ; ,and forms a twin
object to Dunnet-head, 7 miles to the north-east, at
the entrance of Dunnet-bay. The rocks west of
Holborn exhibit astonishing scenes of natural gran
deur; and an insulated rock, called the Clett, situ
ated about 240 feet from its extremity, rises to the
height of 400 feet, is covered in summer by vast
flocks of sea-fowl, and often sports sublimely with
the wild seas which rush against it with tempestuous
power. The whole scenery of Thurso-bay is often
a shaking and shifting panorama of very high gran
deur. " The lengthened waves, thundering along
the shores of the spacious crescent-shaped bay, arrest
a stranger's attention, as their curling crests break
upon and splash up the sandy slope at his feet. The
white streak and tbe hollow moan of each biUow, as
it yields up its power, lead away the eye and ear to
the sides of the bay; formed of precipitous rocks,
and terminated by the high bluff promontories of
Holborn and Dunnet, over the top of which, though
upwards of 400 feet in height, the spray dashes dur
ing storms, and on which even the sea-pink and the
short tufted grass hardly obtain a footing. In the
distance, the prodigious western precipices of Hoy,
which form perhaps the most magnificent cliff-scenery
in Britain, with the outlines of the Orkney-hills,
compose a most splendid termination to the sea- ward
view. The traveller should not fail to walk as far as
Holbom-head, where the majestic mural and fissured
cliffs, with the Clett, a huge detached rock, the
boundless expanse and heaving swell of old Ocean,
and the clouds of screaming sea-birds, afford a per
fect epitome of this style of scenery." [Guide to
the Highlands.] The soil of the parish is princi
pally clay and loam lying on rock. The arable and
the untilled lands bear the proportion to each other
of 6 to 5. About 3,000 acres are so poor that they
could not be profitably improved. Wood covers a
less area than 50 acres. Old red sandstone, which
is the principal rock, is extensively quarried both for
building and for exportation as pavement-flag; be
tween 200 and 300 men being employed in dressing
it into flags. A coarse clay-slate abounds ; trap oc
curs principally on the coast; and both are quarried.
There are appearances of lead ore. Thurso-castle,
the seat of Sir George Sinclair of Ulbster, Bart.,
stands a little east of the town, and on the very
brink of the lay. It was built, in 1660, by George
Earl of Caithness; passed, in 1718, into the posses
sion of the present owner's ancestor ; and possesses
mUch interest as the birth-place and home of the
well-known Sir John Sinclair, Bart.,*' the promoter

* Sir John Sinclair was born on the 10th of May, 1754. He
received the rudiments of a classical ediinition at the High
school of Edinburgh; carried on his studies at the UniveiBities

THURSO.

"53

of the Old Statistical Account, and the Agricultural
Reports, and of his talented daughters Lady Col
quhoun, Miss Hannah Sinclair, and Miss Catherine
Sinclair, distinguished as elegant ahd lively writers.
" A recent addition," says the last of these ladies in
her Northern Circuit, " has been made to Thurso-
castle, planned and executed by Burn, the cobbler-
general of worn-out houses, by whom ancient edifices
are mended, cleaned, dyed, and repaired, to look as
good as new, or even better. When A  per
ceived some flaws in the architecture of several old
castles lately, he wished they were all 'Burn'd'
like ours. Certainly the situation here is somewhat
uncommon. In former times showers of spray from
the ocean used to dash up to our drawing-room win
dow, when the waves, curling and grating along the
shore, sometimes struck at the foundation with ani
mated vehemence, and rebounded among the rocks,
till at length a breakwater was raised to defend the
wall. You might have imagined that in such a po
sition as I have described, this house was near enough
to the sea; but my father liked the peculiarity of
being so intimate with the wild winds and waves ;
so he caused a strong pier to be raised between the
old castle and the water, on which Mr. Burn has
contrived securely to perch a terrace-walk and an
appendix to the building. Several very handsome
new apartments are here, from the windows of which
I can at this moment count a procession of twenty
vesselsin full sail, some of which come so close,
they are tacking into the very room." The other
principal mansions are Murke-house, Sir John Gor
don Sinclair, Bart., and Forss-house, James Sinclair,
Esq. Harold's-tower, a mile east of the town, was
built by the late Sir John Sinclair, over the grave
of Harold, Earl of Caithness, and is an elegant monu
ment, exhibiting at a distance a somewhat striking
appearance. Earl Harold was possessor of the half
of Caithness, Orkney, and Shetland; and fell in battle
in 1190, while attempting to recover his property
from the usurpation of a tyrannical namesake. The
Oswalds of Glasgow were originally from Thurso ;
and Richard Oswald, one of the plenipotentiaries
from Great Britain for settling the peace of 1783,
was an unsuccessful candidate for the office of Thurso
parochial schoolmaster. Two great lines of road
run respectively southward and along the coast.
Population, in 1801, 3,628; in 1831, 4,679. Houses
739. Assessed property, in 1815, £8,353.— -Thurso
is in the presbytery of Caithness, and synod of Suth
erland and Caithness. Patron, Sir George Sinclair,
Bart. Stipend £203 7s.; glebe £17 10s. Unap
propriated teinds £193 12s. lOd. The parish-church

of Edinburgh and Gla.gnw; and completed them at Oxford.
In 1780, Sir John was first chosen to represent his native coun
ty; and, with the exception of a short Interval, he continued
in the House of Commons till the year 1811, — a period of above
30 years. Having succeeded in the establishment of a Board
of Agriculture, he presided over this great national institution,
without emolument, for many years. To the exertions of the
Board this country is indebted, in a great degree, for its rapid
progress in the art of husbandry. A spirit of enterprise and of
invention was excited among the farming classes, and a dignity
attached to agriculture which it never had before acquired.
Agricultural associations suddenly sprung up on every side.
reports were published, in 50 volumes octavo, describing accu
rately every county in the United Kingdom, and the substance
of the information thus accumulated whs digested, by Sir John
himself, into his ' Code of Agriculture.' Among the labours
undertaken by Sir John, the most arduous, and perhaps the
most successful, was ' Tbe Statistical Account of Scotland,1 —
the foundation of the present work, and the prototype of the
New Statistical Account, now in course of publication. So
little had the subject been at that time attended to, that the
very term "statistics " was of his iuvention. The work was
first commenced in 1790; it was prosecuted uninterruptedly
for seven years, during whush a correspondence was carried on
with all the clergy of the Church of Scotland, amounting uearly
to 1,000; and it was brought BuccesBfully to completion by the
gradual publication of 21 thick octavo volumes, in which a
separate account is driven ofeyery parish in North Britain.
II.

was built in 1832. Sittings 1,540. A catechist is
employed by the Society for propagating Christian
knowledge. — An Original Associate congregation
was formed before the year 1775; and their meeting
house was built in 1777, at a cost of about £400.
Sittings 950. Stipend £70, with a house and gar
den worth £10. — An Independent congregation was
formed, and a chapel built, in 1799. Sittings 940.
The minister has a house worth £12 a-year. — A
Scottish Baptist congregation was established in
1805; and their place of worship was built in 1831.
Sittings about 60. Stipend £23 from the Baptist
Home Missionary society, and a variable sum from
the congregation with a dwelling-house  The popu
lation, according to a survey by the parish minister
in 1836, was about 4,800; of whom 4,000 were stated
to be churchmen, and 800 dissenters  In 1834, the
parish school was attended by 32 scholars ; and 16
other schools — 13 of which were in the town, and 3
in the country — were attended by 505. Parochial
schoolmaster's salary £35, with £50 fees, and £12
other emoluments.
Thurso, a town and burgh-of-barony, at the
mouth of Thurso-water, in the cognominal parish,
20 miles west by south of Jobn-o'-Groat's-house,
20| north-west of Wick, 29 south-south-west of
Stromness, 44 east-north-east of Tongue, 160 north
by east of Inverness, and 326J north by west of
Edinburgh. It consists of an old and a new town.
The former is irregular, ill-paved, dull, dirty, and
disagreeable. The latter occupies a pleasant and
elevated situation on the south-west ; and, if com
pleted on the regular, elegant, and extensive plan
on which it was originally designed, would be a truly
fine metropolis of the far north. But the plan has
been very partially executed ; it has for many years
been almost practically abandoned ; and it possesses
no prospect of being, at any definite period, resumed.
The new town, therefore, is merely a handsome sub
urb, regularly edificed with neat sandstone houses.
The parish-church is a splendid edifice, from a design
by Burn; and has a tower -140 feet high. "The
new church at Thurso," says Miss Sinclair, " the
chief expense of building which, in a very superior
style of architecture, was incurred by my father, is
quite a little cathedral, being the handsomest edifice
north of Inverness, partly formed of a very hard
stone imported from Morayshire." Its cost was
about £6,000. The former church was an old sub
stantial Gothic building. The only other noticeable
edifices are a masonic-lodge, a public ball-room, and
a large, substantial, elegant stone-bridge across the
river. There was, at one time, a town-house ; but
it fell into decay ; and its site was sold to a private
person. Linen, woollen, leather, and herring net
manufactures employ about 230 persons ; and the
manufacture of straw-plait employs about 60 females.
The fisheries in the bay are very extensive ; and, along
with the dressing of flags in the neighbouring quar
ries, afford the chief employment. Their annual
aggregate value is about £5,000 ; and the salmon-
fishery — greatly celebrated, and the only one not
free — is let at £1,000. The parish books record
that, in 1786, no fewer than 2,560 salmon were
caught with one sweep of the net ! But the Thurso
fishermen experience such excessive vicissitudes of
success and failure as defy all foresight, and occa
sionally wear a dash of romance. " Sometimes,'
says the lady already twice quoted, " they make ten
pounds at a single haul ; and often not tenpence in
a day, I was particularly sorry for one Caithness
fisherman this year, who had caught 60 crans, each
equal to a barrel of herrings, at a single draught, worth
about £30, but wishing to complete the 100 crans,
he tried another successful pull, which sunk his boat
3 b

THU

754

TIB

worth £100, carried away his net. and left the unfor
tunate speculator with nothing but his life remaining."
The harbour, when a bar at its entrance has been
crossed, is abundantly safe. A bill has been brought
into parliament for constructing in the bay of Thurso
a commission-harbour, the trustees to be several of
the principal proprietors and leading individuals in
Thurso and its vicinity, together with all lenders or
holders of stock to the amount of £100. The bay
of Thurso lies exactly at the western entrance of the
Pentland firth, and is in the direct course of the
North Sea trade with our American possessions. It
is a capacious and secure roadstead in all weathers,
and naturally adapted for the construction of a com
plete and convenient harbour. In 1840, the number
of vessels belonging to it was 14; and the number trad
ing to it about 40. Two of the vessels communicate
regularly with Leith. A considerable quantity of grain
is exported. A weekly market is held on Friday ;
and annual fairs for cattle and sheep are held in June,
July, and September. A mail-coach runs daily to
Wick ; and a coach runs three times a-week to
Tongue. The town has branch-offices of the Com
mercial Bank of Scotland, and the Aberdeen Town
and Country bank; two reading-rooms; two circu
lating libraries ; five friendly societies ; and a society
for the relief of the destitute sick. Thurso is a place
of great antiquity, and is traditionally stated to have
been founded in the 12th century. Sir John Sin
clair thinks that it may have been the centre of the
early commerce of Caithness ; and, from the fact, ac
cording to Skene's account of the assize of King
David, that the weight of Caithness was made a
standard over all Scotland, he thinks that that com
merce must have been extensive. In 1633, the town
was erected into a burgh-of-barony, by Charles I.,
in favour of John, Master of Berridale. During
nearly two centuries, it was the chief seat of sheriff
of Caithness' courts, and the residence of the sheriff-
clerk and procurators ; and it was deprived of these
honours, which virtually made it the county town,
only by the superior and magistrates of Wick raising
an action, and proving that they were usurped. The
baiUes of Thurso continue to be named in all the
Supply Acts as commissioners ; and the eldest bailie
is uniformly appointed a justice-of-the-peace, and a
county road trustee. The customary authorities are
two bailies, a dean-of-guild, and 12 councillors, who
were elected usually by the superior, but occasionally
by the old councillors, jointly with the superior or
his baron-bailie. A new election seldom occurred,
except upon the death of one of the bailies ; and,
during 7 or 8 years preceding the date of the Muni
cipal corporation inquiry, there was only one bailie.
The late Sir John Sinclair, however, allowed the
inhabitants to assemble annually and elect six in
dividuals, and out of this list he named the three
magistrates. The jurisdiction extends, by charter,
over only the old town, but, by agreement, compre
hends the new town. The bailie courts, say the
Commissioners, " have not been efficient ; and, at
present, the only regular court held at Thurso is that
of the justice-of-the-peace for small debts, which sits
once a fortnight." There are no corporations, ex
clusive privileges, or exactments for burgess-ship ;
so that trade is absolutely free. No other police
exists than that ordinarily exercised in burghs-of-
barony, for the suppression of petty delinquencies.
There is no burgh property, no revenue, no debt.
Feuars pay their proportion of county taxes ; and
burgh cess and market customs to the superior,
amount jointly, to only £24 or £25 a-year. Popu
lation, in 1833, about 2,700; rental about £2,640;
houses of £10 and upwards 64,— of from £5 to £10,
116.

TIBBERMORE, or Tippermuir, a parish in tbe
south-east divisioa of Perthshire ; bounded on the
north by Methven and Redgorton ; on the east by
Perth ; on the south by Perth, Aberdalgie, and For
teviot; and on the west by Gask. Its length, from
east to west, is 6 miles ; its breadth varies between
1 mile and 3; and its superficial extent is about
4,670 Scottish acres. A sluggish brook called the
Pow, and the river Almond, trace the whole of its
northern boundary, the former for 4 miles and the
latter for 2. The surface, without being hilly, is
considerably diversified. In the western district it
descends in a gentle slope to the north and termi
nates in a narrow tract of level ground; and, in the
eastern district, it, in general, lies somewhat high,
above the level of the Almond, and then goes down
in a steep descent, and forms a delightful plain along
the margin of the stream. The district is in general
fertile ; and is, to a large extent, especially on the
east and the south, beautified with wood. The
arable grounds, comprising nine-tenths of the whole
area, have a various soil, — a sandy loam along the
Almond, an argillaceous earth toward Perth, and a
reclaimed substratum of moss in many parts of the
west. Paper manufacture was early introduced, and
has been extensively conducted. But the district
is noted chiefly for extensive and long-established
bleachfields and printfields, particularly that of
Ruthven or Huntingtower. These establishments
are worked with the aid of an artificial canal nearly
18 feet broad and 3 feet deep, which debouches from
the Almond, intersects an extensive meadow called
Huntingtower-haugh, and passes on to a distance
from its origin of about 4J miles, and which is of so
high antiquity as to be undoubtedly ranked among the
earliest works of utility in our country of which we
still enjoy the advantage, — so early a monarch as
Alexander II. having mentioned it in his charters as
his mill-lead, and having, in 1244, granted a pipe
from it to the monastery of Black friars of Perth. —
Huntingtower-castle, formerly called Ruthven-castle,
is notable as the ancient seat of the Ruthven or
Gowrie family, so remarkable for its singular and
mysterious catastrophe. This castle was the scene
of the enterprise well-known in Scottish history as
the Raid of Ruthven, the enticement of James VI.
hither, and the detention of him here by the Earl of
Gowrie and others, with the view of dissevering him
from the influence of his two early favourites, the
lately created Duke of Lennox and the Earl of
Arran. An extraordinary exploit of a fair lady has
likewise added to the notoriety of the castle, and
has given the name of the Maiden's leap to the space
between its two towers, which, though long ago
united by later buildings, were originally separate.
A daughter of the 1st Earl of Gowrie being courted
by a young gentleman of inferior rank, and having
one evening met him in an apartment of the other
tower than that in which her own rooms were situ
ated, heard the footsteps of the old countess ap
proaching to make a detection, ran to the top of the
leads, took the desperate leap of 9 feet 4 inches over
a chasm of 60 feet, and safely alighting on the bat
tlements of the other tower, crept into her own bed,
where her astonished mother found her, and, of
course, apologized for her unjust suspicions. The
fair daughter eloped the next night and was married.
After the forfeiture of the last Earl of Gowrie, the
.castle and the circumjacent manor were bestowed by
James VI. on the family of Tullibardine ; and they
afterwards passed by marriage to the Athole family,
and have since been the property of its Dukes. So
great was the change effected by the transference of
the property, the introduction of manufactures, and
the entirely new spirit of society, that the same castle

TILLICOULTRY.

755

in which the proud and powerful Earl of Gowrie
once confined his king as a prisoner was yielded up,
before the close of last century, to the quiet occu
pancy of a colony of calico-printers  Tibbermore,
though not so much the field of action as the con
tiguous parish of Aberdalgie, has given name to the
first battle fought between the Marquis of Montrose
and the Covenanters ; a battle in which the latter
confronted about 1,700 Highlanders and Irishmen
with about 6,000 foot and 600 horse, but were com
pletely vanquished, and suffered a loss of 2,000 slain
and 2,000 captured. The parish is traversed by both
the north and the south roads from Perth to Crieff,
and by the road from Perth to Muthil ; and it de
rives prime facilities of communication from lying in
the immediate vicinity of Perth, — the nearest part
being distant only 5 or 6 furlongs. Population, in
1801, 1,306; in 1831, 1,223. Houses257. Assessed
property, in 1815, £7,817  Tibbermore is in the
presbytery of Perth, and synod of Perth and Stirling.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £255 12s. lOd. ; glebe
£20, and two acres of moss. Unappropriated teinds
£66 lis. Id. In 1834, the parish-school was at
tended by 39 scholars; and a private school, situated
in the vicinity of the public works, was attended by
133. Parish schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4^d., with
fees. — Tibbermore was the residence of several
bishops of Dunkeld, particularly of Bishops Geoffrey
and Sinclair, who died respectively in 1249 and 1337.
Bishop Sinclair is noted in history for an exploit
against the English in the reign of Robert Bruce.
The original parish-church was the church dedicated
to St. Servanus, vulgarly called St. Serf's chapel,
and situated on the north side of the Almond, with
in the present boundaries of Redgorton ; and it was
abandoned, as tradition says, in consequence of a
child of the lord of Ruthven having been drowned in
the river on the way home from being baptized. At
Tullilum, in the east end of the parish, anciently
stood a convent of Carmelites ; and beside it Richard
Inverkeithing, Bishop of Dunkeld, built, in 1262, a
chapel and a house. Here the synods of Dunkeld
diocese were held till 1460, when they were removed
oy Thomas Lauder the bishop to his own cathedral.
Alexander Young was the last prior of the Convent ;
and, on his embracing the Protestant religion at the
Reformation, he became minister of Tibbermore.
TILLICOULTRY, a parish in Clackmannan
shire, marching over one-half of its boundary with
Perthshire and the detached parish of Stirlingshire.
It is bounded on the north by Blackford ; on the
north-east by Glendevon ; on the east by Dollar ; on
the south by the main body of Clackmannan and by
Alloa ; and on the west by the detached part of
Clackmannan and by Alva. Its form is an oblong,
stretching north and south. Its length is 6 miles ; its
breadth is from 1 mile, at the north end, to 2J at
the south ; and its superficial extent is upwards of
6,000 Scottish acres. About two-thirds of the area,
from the northern extremity downward, Ues among
the Ochil hills, and includes some of their highest
summits; and the remaining or southern third is
nearly all arable, and lies at from 20 to 320 feet
above the level of the Forth at Alloa. The en
tire landscape, whether we view the hills or the
plain, is pleasant and beautiful. Bencleuch, the
loftiest of the heights, rises 2,300 feet above sea-
level. A rising ground, called the Kirkhill and the
Cuninghar, which extends south-east from Tilli-
coultry-house and the old church, and closes up a
beautiful plain stretching out to it from the Abbey-
craig near Stirling, has a strikingly romantic appear
ance, as approached from either the east or the west,
and is supposed to be ' the mount at the back of the
country,' the Tullich-cut-tir, whence the parish has

its name. The beauty of the plain is greatly en
hanced by the windings of the Devon, which resem
ble, in miniature, those of tbe gorgeous stream to
which it pays tribute. This river — the Devon — ,
when not far from its source, and when running
eastward, forms the northern boundary-line; and
when it has travelled a further distance of 14 miles,
and is running westward it cuts the plain of the
parish into not very unequal parts. It everywhere
abounds in excellent trout and parr, has pikes and
eels in its pools, possesses plenty of salmon in the
spawning-season, has whole brigades of delicious
white and gray sea-trouts in harvest and spring, and
at one time produced small-sized pearls. Trouts of
fine quality and flavour abound in most of the hill-
burns, and are taken in great numbers after rain ;
but, neither of good or bad quality, have they ever
been found in the Gloomingside-burn, though it has
plenty of water and remarkably fine pools, nor, if
put into it alive, will they propagate their species,
or long survive. The arable grounds of the parish
are beautifully cultivated, enclosed, and sheltered
with ornamental woods. The rental of the estate
of Harviestoun in this parish, containing about
3,830 imperial acres, whereof 1,078 were richly
arable land, and 2,450 sound green pasture, was,
in 1842, £2,500. The soil, at the foot of the
hills, is a fine quick loam, but not very deep; on
the haughs of the Devon it is a deep loam mixed
with sand ; and in other parts it is now loamy, and
now argillaceous, on a variety of subsoils. Much of
the ground is stony; and, in many fields where Uttle
soil can be seen, on account of a thick powdering of
quartoze nodules, it is, nevertheless, richly fructifer
ous. The uplands are beautifully verdant, afford
excellent pasture, maintain about 3,500 sheep, and
are inferior to none in the Ochils for producing ex
cellent mutton and fine wool. Red and gray granites
compose the summits of the central and loftiest
heights ; and they exhibit some very fine varieties,
and contain large distinct crystals of black schorl.
Clay-slate is a prevailing rock in the King's-seat-
chain ; and basaltic rocks, in some instances contain
ing curious decomposed masses, occur in the lower
heights. Micaceous schist likewise occurs, and con
tains numerous garnets. Some veins of copper-ore
were at one time worked; but, after the expenditure
upon them of a very great sum of money, were
abandoned as uncompensating. Silver, lead, cobalt,
arsenic, and sulphur, also seem to exist, but in small
quantities. A rich variety of ironstone, and rich
veins of iron-ore of the kidney kind, are in sufficient
quantity to be very valuable, and have been an object
of marked attention by the Devon company. A
stratum of dark-blue clay, suitable for fire-bricks,
occurs ; and on the banks of the Devon are singular
concretions of hardened clay in a great variety of
fantastic shapes. Sandstone, of good quality, occurs
on the skirts of the hills and in the plain, and has
been extensively quarried. Coal, in four workable
seams, and of' various quality, occurs in the same
district as the sandstone, and as the object of ex
tensive mining and traffic. The property of the
parish is divided among 9 or 10 landowners. The
chief mansions are TilUcoultry-house and Harvies
toun. The principal antiquities are a Druidical circle
on the south end of Cuninghar, and the ruins of a
circular building on a basaltic eminence called the
Castle-craig. Coalsnaughton and one or two other
villages are inhabited chiefly by colliers. The vil
lage of Tillicoultry is situated on the right bank of
the Devon, and on the road from Stirling to Kinross,
2 miles east of Alva, 4 west of Dollar, and 5 north
east of Alloa. It has considerable manufactories of
shawls, plaidings, and other woollen, fabrics, and

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756

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seated at the foot of the Ochils, with a plentiful
supply of coals and pure water, has ample facilities
for conducting them. In the village are a branch-
office of the Edinburgh and Leith bank, the parish-
church, a meeting-house of the United Secession,
the parish-school, an excellent private boarding-
school, and various institutions ancillary to the pur
pose of benevolence and social improvement. All
the parochial population, excepting a mere fraction,
is aggregated in the villages. Lord Colville, who
was raised to the peerage by James VI., and who
was distinguished for military genius, and figured
conspicuously in the wars under Henry IV. of France,
spent the latter part of his life, and died in Tilli
coultry. St. Serf or Servanus, who lived in the end
of the 6th century, and is absurdly said by tradi
tion to have travelled about the country with a pet
goat, figures, in the Romish legends respecting him,
as performing in Tillicoultry some of his alleged
miracles. Population, in 1801, 916; in 1831, 1,472.
Houses 257. Assessed property, in 1815, £4,209.
. — Tillicoultry is in the presbytery of Dunblane, and
synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron, the heirs of
R. W. Ramsay. Stipend £240 12s. 7d. ; glebe £44,
with right of pasturage, and of coals at the hill at
3s. per ton. Unappropriated teinds £199 7s. lOd.
Schoolmaster's salary £35, with £10 fees, and £5
other emoluments. In 1 834 the parish school was at
tended by 25 scholars, and 3 private schools by 156.
TILT (The), a beautifully grand and romantic
stream in Blair-Athole, Perthshire. It issues from
Loch-Tilt, close on the boundary with Aberdeen
shire; and after running 2 miles southward, receives
from the east Glenmore-water, and from the west
Tarf-water, each of which greatly excels it both in
volume and in length of run; and thus augmented,
it flows 9 miles south-westward, and 4 southward,
to the Garry, a little below the village of Blair-
Athole. Over its whole run it holds its way through
a valley so narrow as seldom to contain a patch of
plain ; and over portions of the run it traverses sheer
ravines, which have been cut, by its own corroding
action, through tbe solid rocks. The glen is dis
tinguished from every other in the Highlands at
once by its extreme depth, narrowness, and pro
longation, and by the bold contrast of excessive
wildness at the upper end, and high ornamental
beauty at the other. Immediately on entering the
glen from the vale of the Garry, the river is just
seen rushing deep along its dark chasm, overhung
by a profusion of graceful birches, which spring from
crevices in the rocks; the hills on each side are seen
to rise boldly up to a great height, green, or culti
vated, or densely wooded, or covered with wild
groups and single trees of birch and ash and oak ;
and in front are beheld the lofty and finely flowing
lines of the stupendous Ben-y-gloe, drawn distinctly
against the sky, and offering a singular contrast in
their nakedness to the splendid opulence of the glen
and the variety of the lower declivities. " For some
miles along the course of the Tilt the scenery con
tinues equally rich, and still more various ; the road
passing through dense groves, or skirting the mar
gin of this picturesque and wild stream, or opening
into green meadows where the woods are sometimes
seen towering in a continuous sheet to the sky, and,
at others, scattered over the sides of the hills in a
thousand intricate forms. Innumerable torrents and
cascades fall along their declivities, adding, with
the numerous bridges which cross them, much to
the beauty of the scenes ; as do the roads which,
winding about the hills in various directions, display
those traces of human life, the want of which is so
often felt in Highland scenery." But at Forest-
lodge, 7 miles above the village of Blair-Athole, the

glen " becomes a bare valley, bounded on both sides
by steep and lofty hills ; and thus it continues for
many miles," or to the head, " seeming almost to
lengthen as we go. From the upper part of this
portion it presents an extraordinary spectacle, pro
longed almost beyond reach of the eye, an uniform,
deep, straight section of the country, — a ditch to
guard and separate a world." [Macculloch's High
lands and Western Isles.]
TINGWALL, WHITENESS, and WEES-
DALE, an united parish, a little south of the cen
tre of the mainland of Shetland. It is bounded on
the north by the sea, and by Nesting and Delting;
on the east by Lerwick ; on the south by the sea
and Quarff; and on the west by the sea and Sand-
sting. Its greatest length is between 18 and 20
miles, and its greatest breadth is 10 miles; but it is
so much and frequently indented with friths or voes,
that no part of it is more than 2 miles from the sea.
Several small islands belong to it; the chief of which
are Oxnor, Trousa, Hildessie, and Linga, all inhab
ited. The principal voes or harbours are those of
Wadbaster, Laxforth, and Deal, on the east, and
Weesdale, Stromness, Ustaness, and Scalloway, on
the west; and these have an average length of pro
bably 3 miles, and an average breadth of about three-
fourths of a mile. A ridge of hills, extending from
north to south, divides the united parish into two
distinct districts ; and each of these districts is dis
posed in parallel straths, nearly at right angles with
the ridge. The soil is either moss or a dark-coloured
loam ; and the moss generally lies on a ferruginous
subsoil, which is naturally impervious to water, and
for some years resists the plough, but yields to per
severing tillage, and enrichingly mingles with the
soil. Though cultivation by the spade and by the
old one-sided plough is still extensively practised,
agricultural improvements, including a regular sys
tem of rotation in crops, have been introduced.
Much waste land has of late years been reclaimed.
Large crops of coarse grass grow on extensive boggy
meadows, and by a new and judicious mode of
treatment are converted into good hay. Though
fishing, as throughout Shetland, forms a chief em
ployment of tbe inhabitants, it is practised freely
and from choice ; no part of rent being now paid as
formerly in fish and labour. In each strath is abun
dance of primitive limestone ; the hills on the east
side of Tingwall consist of clay and mica schists ;
near Rova-head is a bed of good blue roofing-slate ;
and in several of the meadows are beds of excellent
shell-marl. The lakes of Tingwall, Girlsta, Asta,
Strom, and some others, abound with fish. On an
islet called Lawting in 'the first, the Grand Foud
anciently held his court, and heard appeals from
other courts ; and on an islet in the last is the ruin
of a small fortalice, said to have been inhabited by
a noble, whose father, an Earl of Orkney, ordered
to be put to death. Tumuli, stone-axes, and flint
arrow-heads, are numerous. Scalloway [which
see] is in the parish. Whiteness and Weesdale are
quite destitute of roads ; but portions of Tingwall
are traversed by roads which, considering the local-
ity, are good. Population, in 1801, 1,863; in 1831,
2,797. Houses 44. Assessed property, in 1815,
£730 — This parish is in the presbytery of Lerwick,
and synod of Shetland. Patron, the Earl of Zetland.
Stipend £263 0s. lid., and 20 lespunds, 7 lbs.
of butter, vicarage teinds ; glebe £20. There are
two parish-churches,— that of Tingwall, built in
1 788 ; and that of Whiteness, finished in 1837. Sit-
tings in each about 570. A church in the village of
ScaUoway began to be subscribed for in 1838, and
was in the course of erection in 1841. A mission-
ary, salaried at £50 on the royal bounty, and pro-

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757

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vldcd with a house, grass, and fuel, regularly offici
ates at Whiteness. A small chapel, designed to be
used as a preaching-station for evangelical preachers
of every denomination, but erected chiefly at the
expense of Independents, was built in 1837. An
ecclesiastical census, in 1836, showed the population
then to be 3,096, of whom nearly 2,000 were in
Tingwall. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £26,
with about £8 fees, and £4 other emoluments.
Three schools at Scalloway, Whiteness, and Wees
dale, are supported by the Society for propagating
Christian knowledge; one at Trandsay, by the Gen
eral Assembly; and one at Swinister, by tbe minis
ter and the people. In 1834 the six schools were
aggregately attended by 339 scholars. The united
parish, consisting of Tingwall on the south, White
ness in the centre, and Weesdale on the north, seems
formerly to have been more extensive than at pres»-
ent, Tingwall, at aU events, comprehended the
district of Lerwick, which was made a separate
erection in 1701, and the parishes of Gulberwick
and Sound, which were annexed to Lerwick in 1722.
Tingwall was anciently an archdeaconry; and for
upwards of a century after the Reformation, either
itself or its village of Scalloway, gave name to the
Shetland presbytery. The ancient churches of
Weesdale and Whiteness were dedicated respectively
to the Virgin Mary and St. Ola ; and so powerful
was the hold which popery had on the whole united
parish, that, as we learn from the New Statistical
Account, there are ' remains of a very great many
Roman Catholic chapels.'
TINNIS (The), a rivulet of Liddesdale, Rox
burghshire. It rises between the heights of Tinnis
and Lockknowe on the boundary with Dumfries
shire, and runs south-eastward to the Liddel at Burn-
mouth, a few yards above where the Kershope enters
on the opposite bank. Its length of run is only about
5 miles. TINTO, that is ' the HiU of fire,' a lofty moun
tain, at the head of Clydesdale, in Lanarkshire, be
tween the parishes of Carmichael, Wiston, and Sy
mington, and stretching above 2 miles from east to
south-west. Near the east end of the range there
is a cairn of a circular form, the top of which is
elevated 2,312 feet above the level of the sea, and
1,740 feet above the Clyde. The upper part of this
mountain consists of a flesh-coloured felspar, resting
on conglomerate, containing rounded masses of grey
wacke, iron-clay, flinty-slate, splintery-hornstone,
quartz, felspar, mica, &c. Where the rock becomes
finer grained, it approaches in some places to grey
wacke, and in others to those portions of the old red
sandstone which are conjectured to alternate with
the newer members of the transition series. Over
the conglomerate, masses of claystone, greenstone
passing into clinkstone, and porphyry-slate, succes
sively appear, till we reach the summit, which, along
with the whole of the upper part, is found to consist
of compact felspar, and felspar porphyry. The dis
position of the rocks in this mountain is conformable
to the idea of secondary deposition, by assuming a
finer and more crystalline texture as they ascend;
and the occurrence of claystone and felspar in a po
sition corresponding to what is observed on the
Eildon-hills, the Pentlands, the Ochils, Papa Stour,
Dundee, and in other places, seems to favour the
hypothesis of a particular overlying formation, in
which those substances are prevailing ingredients,
extending over a considerable portion of the lower
country of Scotland. In the bed of the Clyde to
the eastward of Tinto, amygdaloid appears, having
nodules of calcedony coated with green earth ; also
calcspar, and portions of steatite. Towards the
north, the conglomerate forming the base of Tinto

passes into the sandstone, of which the whole inte
rior districts of Lanarkshire are composed.
TINWALD, a parish lying doubtfully between
Nithsdale and Annandale, but belonging mainly to
the latter, in Dumfries-shire. It is bounded on the
west and north-west by Kirkmahoe ; on the north
east by Kirkmichael ; on the east by Lochmaben ;
on the south-east by Torthorwald ; and on the
south-west by Dumfries. Its greatest length from
north to south is 5£ miles ; its greatest breadth is
4i miles ; and its superficial extent is about 15 square
miles. The water of Ae, traversing a flat, broad,
pebbly path, runs 4J miles along the north-eastern
boundary ; and the sluggish Lochar begins, not far
frpm its origin, to creep along the whole of the west.
A lochlet, once of great depth and considerable size,
but now greatly drained, and less than 20 feet deep,
bears the appalling name — so much in keeping with
the ghost-story-telling character of the district; — of
Murder-loch. A soft-featured billy ridge, 2 miles
broad, slowly rises from the vicinity of the Ae, ex
tends southward in such a way as to form the central
district of the parish, and is afterwards continued,
though at a lower altitude, in Torthorwald and
Mousewald. The acclivities of the heights are
gentle ; their table^summit is deeply undulated ;
their extreme altitude above sea-level is 682 feet ;
and their surface is nearly all ploughed or verdant.
A belt of Lochar-moss on the west, about a mile
long and \ of a mile broad, has been reclaimed into
a remarkably fine meadow. The soil of the arable
grounds, including the hills, is to a small extent a
sandy gravel ; to a small extent, stiff moorish clay ;
to a very small extent, reclaimed moss ; and to a
chief extent, a loamy or friable clay, much mixed in
some places with small stones. The rocks of tbe
parish are almost exclusively greywacke. The
woodlands, meadows, wastes, or pastures, and arable
lands are in the proportion to one another of respec
tively 2\, 7, 33, and 148. Amisfield - Castle
[which see] is in this parish. Sir Thomas Charteris,
of Amisfield, was, in 1280, appointed Lord-high-
chancellor of Scotland by Alexander III. ; and seems
to have been the first layman who held the office.
Sir Thomas Charteris, the grandson of the former,
was, in 1334, made Lord-high-chancellor by David
II. ; and he fell at the battle of Durham, on the
field vhere his royal master was taken prisoner. Sir
John Charteris of Amisfield held, in the reign of
James V., the office of warden of the West Marches ;
and he received from bis eccentric but vigorous and
vigilant King a singular incognito visit, which led to
the reduction of the family's consequence. Half-a-
mile north of Amisfield stands the fine mansion of
Glenae, the seat of Major Dalzell, the claimant of a
dormant earldom. In the south corner of the parish
is Tinwald-house, a seat of the Marquis of Queens
berry. The old Roman road from Brunswark may
be traced hy Trailflat and Amisfield. A British fort
crowns the summit of BarshaU-bill  The famous
Paterson who originated the project of the Bank of
England, and planned the disastrous Darien scheme,
was born about the yenr 1660, on the farm of Skip-
mire. Dr. James Mounsey, his grand-nephew, and
first physician for many years to the Empress of
Russia, was born on the same farm. Tbe sister of
Dr. John Rogerson, who succeeded the former as
first physician to the Empress, and subsequently
persons of the name of Mounsey, have held Skip-
mire. The parish is bisected by the Dumfries and
Moffat post-road. Population, in 1801, 980; in
1831, 1,220. Houses 212. Assessed property, in
1815, £7,007. — Tinwald is in the presbytery and
synod of Dumfries. Patrons, the Crown and the
Marquis of Queensberry. Stipend £155 13s. 7d. ;

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glebe £26 16s. The church, a prosaic barn-like
edifice, was built in 1763: — The present parish com
prehends the ancient parishes of Tinwald and Trail-
flat, the former on the west and the latter on the
east, united in 1650. Tinwald was anciently a free
parsonage within the deanery of Nith ; and Trailflat
was a vicarage under the monks of Kelso. Symson,
in 1684, represented the church of Trailflat as an ex
cellent structure, the roof of which was famed for
its curious workmanship ; yet it was then partly
ruinous. A little hamlet, long known in the cir
cumjacent district as the seat of a bleachfield, still
stands at the place, and bears the name of Trailflat.
There are two parochial schools, attended by from
160 to 190 children. Salaries of the masters £51 6s.
7£d., with £30 fees, and £5 14s. 7d. other emolu
ments. TIPPERLIN, a hamlet in the parish of St. Cuth-
berts, J of a mile west of Morningside, and IJ mile
south-west of Edinburgh-castle. It was once a sum
mer-retreat of the citizens of the metropolis ; but has
entirely sunk into obscurity and neglect.
TIREE and COLL, an united parish in the Ar
gyleshire Hebrides. It comprehends the islands of
Tiree, Coll, and Gunna, [which see,] and several
uninhabited islets, the chief of which are the two
Soas and Ellen-more. Population, in 1792, 3,457 ;
in 1831, 5,769. Houses 713. Assessed property, in
1815, £7,068  The parish is in the presbytery of
Mull, and synod of Argyle. Patron, the Duke of
Argyle. Stipend £346 18s. 7d., burdened with a
tack-duty of £22 4s. 5d. to the synod of Argyle for
the Crown teinds, and with payments of grain and of
Scottish money, amounting to about £62 2s. to the
assistant minister of Coll ; glebe £4 1 0s. For the
ecclesiastical statistics of Coll, see that article.
The church of Tiree was built in 1776, and enlarged
in 1786. Sittings between 450 and 500  An Inde
pendent congregation was established in Tiree in
1832. Two chapels, both thatched houses, belong
to this congregation ; the one at Drimbui, and1 the
other at Sliabhdiasg; built respectively in 1833 and
1835, at a cost jointly of about £45. Sittings 400
and 200. Stipend within £50, paid by the Congre
gational Union. A Baptist congregation, and a
United Secession congregation, meet in private
houses. — In 1834, two parish schools were attended
by 207 scholars; and -eleven other schools by 692.
Salary of each of the parochial schoolmasters £22
4s. 5d., with about £6 fees, and £6 other emolu
ments. Of the non-parochial schools two are sup
ported by the Gaelic school society, two by the
General Assembly, and one by the Society for propa
gating Christian knowledge. In Tiree are seven
Sabbath schools ; and here also a catechist is salaried
hy the synod' of Argyle. — The parishes were united
in 1618. In the united parish are remains of no
fewer than 15 old churches or chapels ; at some of
which are still burying-grounds and crosses.
TIREE, an island of the Argyleshire Hebrides, 2
miles south-west by west of Coll, 15 west by south
of Treshinish-point in Mull, and 18 north-west by
west of lona. Its length is 12 miles ; and its mean
breadth about 4. It appears to have been, in the time
of the Culdees, part of the patrimony of the church,
and to have supplied the famous seat of learning in
ils vicinity with considerable quantities of grain ;
and hence it is supposed to have acquired the name
of Tir-I, the country of lona. Another ancient name,
still applied to it in romantic tales, is Riogkacd bar
fo thuin, ' The kingdom whose summits are lower
than the waves;' and this aptly describes as the
lowest and flattest of the Hebrides, and as so curi
ously washed by the sea that, from one side, the
waves may often be seen on the other rising several

feet above the level of the rocks. The shores have
frequent, though not deep indentations, and consist
of sandy bays, separated by ridges of rock ; and they ¦
abound in the faci of the kelp manufacture, and are
frequented by cod, plaice, coal fish, and gurnards.
The bay of Gett, on the east side, measures about
2\ miles round the head, and has so firm a sandy
beach that a horse at full gallop makes an impres
sion not above half an inch deep. Upwards of 20
fresh-water lakes aggregately cover about 600 acres,
and swarm with an almost incredible number of eels.
From one of the larger lakes egresses the only
stream; which, however, is powerful enough to
drive a mill. At the northern extremity of the island
are considerable accumulations of blown sand. In
the south, the rocks look so rarely up from the sur
face as to form only a few scattered elevations ; but
toward the north, they become numerous, and at
length occupy the greater part of the surface, pre
venting the cultivation of the soil, and condemning
it to perpetual pasturage. A few low heights are
formed on the rocky ground, ranging from 30 to 60
feet in altitude, and three separate hills rise near the
southern extremity, to a maximum height of about
400 feet. All the rest of_the island has a mean ele
vation above high- water-mark of scarcely 20 feet ;
and, as it has no tree, and scarcely an enclosure, it is
swept with unrestrained violence by the westerly
winds, and often so scourged and lacerated by
gales that sown seed and loose dry soil are dispersed,
and matured crops of corn and potatoes broken down.
A remarkable plain, called the Reef, near the centre
of the island, and 1,562 acres in area, is as flat as the
sea, and has scarcely a swell or even a stone ; and,
from dread of the effect of the winds should the sur
face be once broken, it is kept in a state of perpetual
pasture, and offers a singular spectacle of richness
and verdure. The soil is in general light, consist
ing of sand, calcareous earth, and moss. The sand
very greatly predominates ; but, in its general dif
fusion, it is of a calcareous nature, consisting, to
gether with quartz, of a large proportion of pulver
ized sea-shells. The island, in consequence, is ag
gregately one of the most fertile tracts of land in the
Hebrides. Its fertility is greatly aided, too, by a
regular and constant moisture, occasioned partly by
its flatness, and partly by its peculiar climate and
exposure. The regularity of the moisture is every
where proved .by the flourishing and unchecked
growth in the corn-fields of the yellow Iris, the
polygonum viviparum, and other aquatic plants.
Such natural pastures as, from their soil and posi
tion, have least humidity, are surprisingly rich, and
produce white clover in such abundance as almost to
exclude the grasses. Marshes are unknown ; and
bogs are so limited that the inhabitants are under
the necessity of importing their fuel from Mull, and,
in some instances, have been driven to the ruinous
resource of paring the soil down occasionally to the
subjacent rock. So wondrously destitute is the
island of wood, that, excepting the salix argentea
or avenaria, it may be said not to possess a ligne
ous fibre. Yet the total want of shelter, while in
many respects injurious to agriculture, combines
with the level nature of the surface to occasion so
equable a distribution of sand-drift by tbe winds,
that, instead of low lands being overwhelmed as in
many places throughout the other Hebrides and the
Shetland islands, the drift brings a perpetual re
newal of calcareous manure, and scarcely anywhere
accumulates to such a degree as to suffocate vege
tation. At the northern extremity, however, as in
the south end of Coll, the protuberating rocks af
ford local shelter, and occasion the sand to accu-
mulate. About one-half of the island is arable ; but

TIR

759

TOB

it requires all its natural fertility and fertilizing
resources to resist tbe gross vices of the method
of cultivation. Cross ploughing is rarely prac
tised ; the seed is sown on the first furrows, and
turned down by a light harrow ; and, as the inter
mediate sod is generally occupied by a line of weeds,
the seed in springing has the appearance of a drilled
crop of alternating weed and grain. Yet wretched
as are both the tillage and the system of cropping, a
large and good produce of barley, oats, and potatoes
is obtained. The chief manure used is drift sea
weed. The rock which forms the island, and car
ries its soil, is gneiss, abounds with veins of granite,
and more curiously embedding masses of primitive
limestone. One of tbe limestone masses, long and
favourably known for the flesh-coloured marble into
which it has been cut for ornamental architecture, is
an irregular rock of about 1 00 feet in diameter, lying
among the gneiss without stratification or continuity.
In consequence of its hardness, even though cheaper,
in spite of that inconvenience, than many foreign
marbles of far inferior beauty, it has lost the patron
age of public caprice, and ceased to be in request.
Its very tint is finely relieved by the dark green
crystals of augite and hornblende which are em
bedded in it. The deposit is quite unstratified.
Another mass, ten times the size of the former, and
equally irregular, resembles the marble of lona, in
whiteness, texture, and fracture, yet is generally im
pure, and seems to have been quarried only for the
vulgar purpose of building dikes. The most notice
able mineral substances contained in the rocks of the
island are sahlite, tilanite, tremolite, coccalite, and
sphene  The hiU of Ceanmharra, situated at the
south-west point of the island, and presenting a
mural face to the sea, is perforated with a great num
ber of caves, some of which are large and thunder-
ingly scoured by the surge, while all are frequented
by innumerable flocks of sea-fowls. Remains of no
fewer than 39 watch-towers or forts, within view of
one another, encircle the coast of Tiree and Coll ;
and there are 9 or JO standing-stones, besides minor
antiquities. The inhabitants relate many Fingalian
and other tales of battles and chieftains ; and even
affect to point out the graves of the heroes of their
legends. On an islet, now converted into a penin
sula, anciently stood a square-turretted castle, ac
cessible only by a drawbridge ; and, on its ruins
was erected, in 1748, a house for the factor of the
Duke of Argyle, — the sole proprietor of the island.
— The rearing of black cattle is a chief employment ;
and the exportation of them a principal means of
support. Poultry and eggs also are largely exported.
Fishing, very contrary to the prevailing practice in
the Hebrides, engages little attention. Tiree, pro
portionately to its extent, is more crowdedly peopled
than any other of the Western Islands; and, owing
chiefly to the rapidity with which its population has
increased, and the ruin of the kelp manufacture on
which a large proportion of them depended mainly
for subsistence, it has shared to a grievous extent in
the distress with which so many of the Hebridean
islands have of late years been visited. Its rental,
during the time of the kelp trade, was £3,000; but
is almost incredibly reduced, no fewer than 400 fa
milies paying no rent whatever, and 430 persons pay
each no more than from 20 to 40 shillings a-year.
One witness before the Emigration Committee said,
that 2,000 of the inhabitants ought to emigrate, if a
comfortable situation could be assured to them ; and
another said, that from 3,000 to 4,000 might be well
removed. The Duke of Argyle lately spent several
weeks in the island, making himself personally ac
quainted with its condition ; and he is understood to
be planning, or to have already planned, permanent

arrangements for a better state of things. Annual
fairs are held on the island on the Wednesday before
the Mull fairs of May and October, and the Monday
before the Mull fair of August. Population, in 1808,
3,200; in 1831, 4,453. Houses 949. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £7,068.
TOBERMORY, a quoad sacra parish, and a mo
dern sea-port town on the north-east coast of the
island of Mull. The parish belongs, quoad civilia,
to Kilninian : which see. Population, in 1838,
1,520. The church is a parliamentary one. Patron,
the Crown. Stipend £120; glebe £1.— The town
of Tobermory, in which is segregated most of the
population, stands at the head of a sheltered bay,
3£ miles south-west of Auliston-point, where Loch-
Sunart forks off from the sound of Mull, 9 miles south
east of Ardnamurchan-point,30 north-west by westof
Oban, 62 north-west by west of Inverarjt, and 171
west-north-west of Edinburgh. It was built in 1788,
at the same time as Ullapool, by the British fishing
company, as the site of a fishing establishment, and
the rendezvous of the herring vessels. Its name
means ' Mary's well,' and was taken from a foun
tain on the spot, which was dedicated to the Virgin,
and had much celebrity in the days of popery. The
chief part of the town is arranged in the form of a
crescent; and has a customhouse, an inn, a post-
office, some large houses used for coopers' stores and
other purposes, and upwards of twenty slated dwell
ing-houses. An upper town surmounts a cliff at the
back of the former, and consists almost wholly of
poor cottages or miserable huts. The church occu
pies a prominent site, and is, in most views of the
town, a conspicuous object. The harbour or bay .is
spacious, and almost completely landlocked ; and is
covered, across the entrance, and at a brief distance,
by Calve island. There are two excellent quays,
the one having two and the other four feet of water
at ebb tide ; the latter was commenced in 1835, at
the expense of Colonel Campbell of Knock. The
town is the seat of a monthly court of the sheriff-
substitute, and the polling-place for Tiree, Coll,
Eig, Muck, Rum, Canna, and the smaller islands of
the Argyleshire Hebrides. As the only town in
Mull, and in a large circumjacent district, both He
bridean and continental, it possesses much provincial
importance, and is the seat of a considerable domes
tic trade. In connexion with its customhouse, it is
the place where legal forms are attended to respect
ing the herring-fishing, and, in consequence, the re
sort of parties from whom the forms are exacted.
As a sea-port, it is the natural outlet of the surplus
produce of northern Mull; and, being situated on
the route of the steam-vessels between the Clyde
and both Skye and Lewis, it enjoys as good ad
vantages as if it possessed a steam-boat communi
cation of its own. It has communication with the
Clyde by steamers, and overland from Oban by In
verary several times a-week, and also regularly with
Inverness and Skye. A small trade is conducted also
in boat-building. But, in spite of all these circum
stances, which might seem to work powerfully in
its favour, it must be pronounced, in the aggregate,
the home of inaction, adversity, and indigence.
The object of its erection proved a total failure;
and the society who built it, though still kept to
gether as a joint-stock company, do not now en
courage the fishery, and rather repel than invite
new settlers. The original establishment compre
hended 2,000 acres of land, which were cut out into
allotments, at low prices, to the tenants of the se
veral new houses ; and it is alleged to have attracted
as settlers, the indolent rather than the industri
ous, and to have incited them to care for the pro
fits of agriculture rather than for those of the fish-

TOF

760

TON

eries. Even the settlers and crofters, who rent '
even the cheap houses and lands of the original
establishment, live in penury and suffering; and other
settlers who have been forced upon the population
by pressure in entirely landward districts, and who
are accommodated in a part of the town which he-
longs to Colonel Campbell of Knock, are in such
miserable circumstances that many of them can pay
no rent, and have only a little potato-ground, —
amounting, in some cases, to no more than one ridge
of land. The number of ordinary poor, or utter
paupers, is usually about 40. — A little south of the
town is a beautiful lake, between two precipitous
and richly-wooded hills.
TOFTINGALL (Loch), a circular lake about
5 miles in circumference, and 8 feet in mean depth,
in the parish of Watten, Caithness-shire. It is en
compassed by dismal moors, and sends off an affluent
to the river Wick.
TOLLIE, or Tulla, a rivulet and a lake, in the
parish of Glenorchy, Argyleshire. The rivulet rises
at the south-west corner of the moor of Rannoch,
close on the boundary with Perthshire, and runs 8
miles south-westward to the lake. The lake mea
sures about 2| miles in length, and half-a-mile in
mean breadth ; it sends off from its east side the
river Orchy ; it is skirted for about 2 miles by
the road from Tyndrum to Fort- WiUiam, through
Glencoe, and has on its shore the public-house
of Inverouran ; and it presents around- its banks se
veral features of picturesque scenery, and some fine
specimens of Scottish fir.
TOMANTOUL, a quoad sacra parish, in the
parish of Kirkmichael, and presbytery of Abernethy,
Banffshire. It comprehends a portion of Glenavon,
where the low ground is narrow and winding, and
the flanking heights, though steep, are partially
skirted with coppices of oak, and then undulate up
wards in patches of cultivated ground, amidst pre
vailing pasturage. Population, in 1834, 1,020.
Patron, the Crown. The church is a parliamentary
one. Stipend £120; glebe £2  The village of
Tomantoul stands on the road from Grantown in
Strathspey, which forks in Glenmuick into a line
down the Dee to Aberdeen, and a line up Braemar
and down Strathardle to Perth ; and is 14 miles
south-east of Grantown, and 23 north-west of Bal
later. It stands on a small table-land overlooking
the Avon ; it consists of a single street and a central
square; its houses, with three or four exceptions,
are of one story, some slated, and some heath-
thatched ; and its population amounts to about 600.
Annual fair| are held here on the last Friday of
May ; the last Friday of July, old style ; the third
Wednesday of August, old style ; the Friday after
the second Tuesday of September; and the second
Friday of November, old style. — The Duke of Rich
mond has erected a large and elegant schoolhouse in
the viUage.
TONGLANDy or Tongueland, a parish in the
centre of the southern division of Kirkcudbrightshire.
Its form is triangular, with a side of 5J miles on the
north, one of 4| on the south-east, and one of 6| on
the south-west ; and it is bounded on the north by
Balmaghie; on the south-east by the Dee, which
separates it from Kelton and Kirkcudbright; and
on the south-west by Twynholm. Tare- water
[which see] drains most of the interior, forms, for
nearly 2 miles, the south-west boundary- line, and
falls into the Dee at the apex of the parish, where
the union of the streams begins in a degree to form
an estuary. Both rivers, especially the Dee, are
here rapid and romantic, and abound both in fishes
and in fine landscapes. A view from Tongueland-
bridge, across the Dee, half-a-mile above the influx

of the Tarf, discloses, when the river is in high flood,
a beautifully grand train of broken cascades, tearing
and roaring over rugged rocks with a tremendous
noise.- A very fine fall about 20 yards below the
bridge, is thus described by an old poet who lived in
the neighbouring retreat of Cranston-castle :
" But as I lukit myne alaue,
I saw a river rin,
Out'wore a steepie rock of stane
Syne lichtitin a liii,
With tumbling, and rumbling
Amang the rockis round,
Devalling and falling,
Into a pit profound."
Bargaton-locb, a triangular lochlet of about half-a.
mile each way, lies on the northern boundary. The
southern district consists of a hilly ridge running
north and south, and of gradual declivities sloping
down to the rivers. The northern division is rocky
and moorish, and consists of a medley of small hills,
rising grounds, valley-land, moss, and meadow. A
tract along both margins of the Tarf is fine natural
meadow ground, laden with hay in moderate seasons,
but liable to floods and damage in a season of rain.
The soil of the arable lands is very various ; but, in
general, especially in the southern and central dis
tricts, is fertile in either grain or grass. On a rocky
moor-hill, called Barrstobrick, is shown the spot
where Mary of Scotland rested to refresh herself in
her flight from the battle of Langside to the Abbey
of Dundrennan. The event has bequeathed to the
farm the name of Queen's-hill. In the moor of
Kirkconnel, at a great distance from any house, is a
monumental stone on the grave of a martyr of the
name of Clemont, who was shot on the spot during
the prelatic persecution. In various localities are
some sepulchral Cairns and vestiges of old encamp
ments. The parish is bisected northward by the
road from Kirkcudbright to the Glenkens and Ayr
shire, and westward by that from Dumfries to Wig
ton. Population, in 18,01, 636; in 1831, 800. Houses
139. Assessed property, in 1815, £8,467 — Tong-
land is in the presbytery.of Kirkcudbright, and synod
of Galloway. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £l58
17s. 7d.; glebe £40. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s.
4£d., with fees. There are three private schools.
The present parish comprehends the ancient parishes
of Tongland and St. Michael's of Balnacross. Tong-
land is the southern district, and had its name- trom
the site of its church being, as at present, on the
tongue of land which is peninsulated by the Dee and
the Tarf. The church was anciently a vicarage of
Tongland Abbey. Bal-na-cross means, in Irish, ' the
Hamlet of the cross ;' and in the corrupted form of
Barncrosh, continues to be the name of an estate
and a mansion in the north-east. The church of St.
Michael of Balnacross belonged originally to the
Culdee community of Icolmkill ; and was given by
WiUiam the Lion to the monks of Holyrood, and'
transferred by Robert Bruce to the monks of Tong
land. On the west side of the Tarf, toward the
north, anciently stood a church, which was dedicated
to St. Conel, and has entailed on the district around
it the hame of Kirkconnel. — Contiguous to the pre
sent parish-church are some vestiges of the ancient
priory of Tongland. The buildings were of con
siderable extent ; but having from time to time been
robbed, by the pilfering and avaricious spirit of the
country people, of some sandstones which were in
terlaid among harder material, they all fell down in
one heap of rubbish. The priory was founded about
the middle of the 12th century, by Fergus, Lord of
GalloWay, and was colonized by monks of the Pre
monstratensian order, brought from Cockerland in
Cumberland. Alexander, the earliest abbot whose
name is preserved, swore fealty to Edward I. in 1296,

TONGUE.

761

and was a subscriber to Bagimont's roll. James
Herries, an abbot who, in 1430, repaired the mon
astery, ahd enclosed the precincts with a high wall,
was a Doctor of the Sorbonne, a writer oh the valid
ity of indulgences, and » man to whom an ignorant
and superstitious age ascribed great learning. An
Italian alchymist was made abbot by James IV., and
rendered himself memorable by a crackbrained at
tempt to fly from the battlements of Stirling-castle :
See Stirling. William Melville, commendator of
the abbey, who died in 1613, was made a Lord-of-
session in 1587, and often figures, not in a very repu
table way, in the history of his times, under the
title of Lord Tongland. After his death the abbey
was annexed to the bishopric of Galloway; so that
its revenues were included in those of that see, and
are not stated in any separate rental.
TONGUE, a parish on the north coast of Suther
landshire ; bounded on the north by the North sea ;
on the east, south-east, and south, by Farr ; on the
south-west by Edderachylis; and on the west by
Durness. Its greatest length, from north-north-east
to south-south-west, is 20 miles ; its greatest breadth
is 10 miles ; its mean breadth over the southern half
is little more than 4 miles ; and its area is probably
about 120 square miles. The coast, measured in a
straight line, extends 10 miles ; and, though hewn
in two by the Kyle of Tongue, and indented by
several small creeks, has only one considerable head
land, that of Wbiten-head : which see. It is,
in general, high and rocky, — occasionally mural,
grand, and picturesque ; and it presents a series of
caves, and of such regular arches and pillars, that
they almost appear to be works of art. The great
cave of Fraisgill, 50 feet high and 20 feet wide at
the entrance, and running half-a-mile into the bowels
of the earth, but gradually narrowing to a more con
tracted orifice, is variegated in its walls with a thou
sand colours so softly and delicately blended as to
mock the most exquisite Titianisms of art. On the
south side of Eilean-na-naoimh, 'the Island of saints,'
an islet off the coast, the sea, after passing for sev
eral yards through a narrow channel, spouts up into
the air, sometimes to the height of 30 feet, through
a circular perforation in a rock ; and a few seconds
afterwards, there is a discharge of water from the
east side of the island, with a noise and appearance
resembling the explosion of a cannon. This pheno
menon, however, occurs only at half-flood, during a
smart north-westerly gale. Eilean-na-roan, ' the
Island of seals,' about 2 miles in circumference, has
high and precipitous coasts, rent into deep narrow
fissures, through which the winds sweep with vio
lence, and presents in one place a magnificent natural
arch of 150 feet in span ; and in the interior, it is
partly hollowed into a circular basin, so protected
irom the winds, and carpeted with so rich a soil, as
to be a curious but profitable retreat for a smaU
population. " About 7 years ago," says the Old
Statist, " part of the ground near the middle of this
island sunk in without any visible cause ; and, to
use Milton's words,
 ' left i* th' midst a horrid vale.' ''
Three islets, just within the entrance of the Kyle of
Tongue, and of sandy soil, are tenanted by numer
ous rabbits, and bear the appropriate name of the
Rabbit islands. The Kyle of Tongue strikes off
from the sea at Eilean-na-roan, and penetrates the
parish 8£ miles south-south-westward, with a mean
breadth of about 1 i mile : it has shifting sand-banks,
and small depth of water ; yet offers safe anchorage
to even the largest vessels at the Rabbit islands ;
and there it expands on the west side into the beau
tiful, well-sheltered, smooth-beached bay of Tal-

mine, one of the chief fishing-stations on the north
coast of Scotland, — and, on the east side, into the
creek of Sculomy, the retreat of a few fishing-boats,
and easily convertible into a good small harbour.
At the eastern boundary opens tbe bay of Torris
dale, or estuary of the Borgie, exposed, tempestu
ous, and with hardly shelter for a single vessel.
Loch-Maddie, in the extreme south, sends its sur
plus waters by a circuit to the head of Strathnaver.
See Naver (The). Kinloch-burn runs 5 miles
along the eastern boundary to Loch-Laoghal, ex
panding by the way into Loch-Coolside. Loch-
Laoghal [which see] is beautiful and picturesque,
with verdant islets, tenanted by flocks of wild fowl ;
and previous to the sheep-farming depopulation sys
tem, it had on its banks a number of the snuggest
humble dwellings in the north. Lochs Craggie and
Slam immediately succeeds Loch-Laoghal on the
eastern boundary, — all abounding in trout, char, sal
mon, and large pike; and, from the last, Borgie-
water runs 6 J miles to Torrisdale-bay, and has a
valuable salmon-fishery. Between the Borgie and
the Kyle of Tongue, the streams Skerray and
Tongue, each about 3 miles long, run the former to
the sea and the latter to the Kyle, imposing on their
Highland vales the lofty names of Strathskerray and
Strathtongue. Parallel to the Kyle, and about 2£
miles of mean distance to the west, the Melness runs
8J miles along Strathmelness to the sea. Fresh
water lakes and lochlets, additional to those noticed,
are nearly 100 in number. Mineral springs are nu
merous; and the most remarkable, situated at Scu
lomy, has a strong sulphurous taste and smell, and
is said to resemble the spa of Moffat. — A lofty semi
circular range of hills rises boldly and suddenly from
the ocean, and sweeps quite round the Kyle of
Tongue, forming the large enclosed valley into a
stupendous amphitheatre. On its west side it com
mences with Ben-Hutig, 1,345 feet above sea-level;
runs along in the rugged, trackless, boggy, mountain
waste of the Moin ; and terminates not far from the
head of the Kyle, yet on the boundary with Durness,
in the sublime Ben-Hope. See Ben-Hope and
Moin. On its east side, it consists of a series of
rounded and comparatively soft and gentle hills,
whose inner declivities and skirts have been exten
sively tracked and embellished with cultivation. Ir.
its transverse part across the head of the Kyle, it
consists of the body and arms of Benlaogbal, one
of the most magnificent and picturesque mountains
in the Highlands. " At the southern extremity of a
low extensive valley," the valley of the Kyle, says
the writer in the New Statistical Account, " it starts
up majestically to the height of 2,508 feet, present
ing towards its base an expanded breast of 2 miles
in breadth, and cleft at its top into four massy, tower
ing, and splintered peaks, standing boldly aloof from
each other. The highest stands proudly forward to
occupy the foreground; the rest recede a little, as if
each were unwilling to protrude itself, from a con
scious inferiority to its predecessor. As a graceful
finish to its outlines, it stretches forth an arm on
either side, as if to embrace condescendingly the
other mountain ranges, which may well acknowledge
it as chief, and which may readily be fancied as do
ing it homage." The summits of this pinnacled and
almost perpendicular mountain-mass present to the
fancy, at one point of view, tbe outline of a lion
couchant, and, at another, a close resemblance to the
outline of the whole royal arms. At its base lies a
lake about a mile in length, and a fine wood of birch ;
and immediately below rises a low hiUy ridge from
the plain, and extends northward to the shore of the
Kyle, at a point % miles from its head, and there
shoots up in a conical, precipitous promontory,

TON

762

TOR

crowned by the picturesque old ruin of Castle- Var-
rich. About a mrle further north, a point or tongue
of land runs nearly IJ mile right into the Kyle, and
almost bisects it. At the commencement of this
slender and beautiful peninsula, overhung by the
craggy mountain-height of the promontory, stands
the fine old baronial mansion of Tongue-house, its
garden walls washed by the waves, and its environs
shaded with noble old trees. This edifice is an an
cient aggregation of successive structures, the work
of many generations, a grotesque collection of ma
sonry formed and run together in defiance of all archi
tectural rule or taste ; and, though now the property
of the Duke of Sutherland, it has all the associations
of having been the principal seat of Lord Reay, the
chief of the clan Mackay, and' he from whom a iarge
section of Sutherlandshire has the name of Lord
Reay's country. So rich is the great amphitheatre
of the parish in the pictures and power of choice
landscape, that even Dr. Macculloch, amidst his
general dissatisfaction with the north, desiderates
nothing more than wood on the Moin in order to its
being one of the richest museums of scenery in tbe
Highlands. Wood, natural and planted, covers
about 700 acres. The lands in tillage comprise only
about 1,000 acres ; but might be profitably extended
to 3,000. The soil of the arable grounds is occa
sionally a light loam, or a rich black loam, but pre
vailingly a compound of moss, gravel, sand, and clay.
Gneiss is the principal rock, and is capped, on some
hills, with conglomerate; sienite forms Ben-Laoghal ;
mica-schist forms part of the range on the western
border; and a fine conglomerate and the old red
sandstone constitute Eilean-na-roan. The mica-
schist is quarried, at two places, into respectively
slates and flags. Garnets occur in the gneiss ; black
manganese ore on Ben-Laogbal ; and bog-iron in
numerous localities. Moss, capable of being cut for
fuel, and imbedding much fir, covers an extensive
area. The village of Tongue or Kirkiboll is plea
santly situated on the slope of a hill, about a mile
south of Tongue-house, 44 miles from Thurso, 71
from Bonar-bridge, and 83 from Dornoch. It con
sists of only a few scattered cottages, the church,
the manse, and a neat and comfortable inn; but it is
tbe seat of a post-office, and a key-point of commu
nication with all the extreme north-west of Scot
land. A mail-coach runs thrice a-week between it
and Thurso; and a mail-gig, with seats for three
passengers, runs twice a-week between it and Gol
spie. Parliamentary and county trust-roads traverse
the parish to an aggregate extent of about 26 miles.
The Tongue road — so named from an inlet of the
sea where it terminates on the north coast of Suther
land — has its southern extremity at Bonar-bridge;
from which place, passing along the north side of the
Dornoch-frith to the river Shin, it ascends to Loch-
Shin, and then proceeds up Strath-Tarrie till it at
tains its summit at a place called the Crask. In its
descent to the northward, after touching upon Loch-
Naver, it penetrates Lord Reay's Country, near Loch-
Layghall or Loyall, and reaches the North sea at
Tongue, thus entirely dividing Sutherland by a line
almost 50 miles in length. Population, in 1801,
1,348; in 1831,2,030. Houses 360. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £1,529  Tongue is the seat of a
presbytery, in the synod of Sutherland and Caith
ness. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ;
glebe £35. The church is supposed to have been
erected before the Reformation, and was enlarged
in 1680. Sittings 495. A catechist is appointed
and paid by the parishioners. A mission in the
Melness district is maintained by the Society for
propagating Christian knowledge. The church,
situated at Tulmine, was built in 1836 at the ex

pense of the Duchess of Sutherland. Sittings 300,
with capacity for an additional 200. Stipend £50,
with a manse. In 1834 the parish school was
attended by 60 scholars; and 5 other schools by
307. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 5s. 6d.,
with about £10 fees, and £6 10s. other emoluments.
The parish was erected, in 1724, out of Durness and
Edderachylis: Traces of an old chapel and ceme
tery exist on the Eilean-na-naoimh.
TORLUM. See Muthil.
TOROGAY, an Hebridean islet of probably 2
miles in circumference, between North Uist and
Bernera. TOROSAY, a district and parish in the island
of Mull. Argyleshire. The district is comprehended
in the parish, gives it its name, and lies along the
east coast of the island, opposite Loch-Linnhe and
Lorn. The parish extends from north to south 12
miles, by the shortest road, but in consequence of
the great sweep which the island here makes to
the east, it extends along the coast; irrespective of
sinuosities, about 22 miles; and it stretches from
east to west quite across the island, measuring in
one place 18| miles, and in another only 3£. The
large sea-lochs — Buy on the south, and Spewe and
Don on the east — are within its limits. The bays
of Duart, Cougnahenach, Macallister, and Penny-
gown, also indent the east coast. The long broad
bay of Loch-na-Keal washes part of the west.
There are 10 or 11 fresh- water lakes; but only. 2 of
considerable size. The general surface of the parish
is heath-clad mountain. The loftiest summit is the
grand and far-seeing Benmore : which see. Ben-
taluidh, or the prospect mountain, called by marin
ers ' The Sugar-loaf,' in allusion to its shape, com
mands on all sides a very extensive view. There
are several woods, chiefly birch, with some oak and
ash. On a lofty promontory overhanging the sound
of Mull, stands Duart-Castle : which see. On a
small eminence near Benmore, and at the head of
Loch-na-Keal, stands the mansion of Mr. Campbell
of Knock, amidst a considerable extent of cultivated,
planted, and embellished ground, which, at a very
recent date, was bleak and barren. For topographi
cal, geological, and other details, see article Mull.
The chief ferry from Mull to Kerrera and Oban, has
its station at Achnacraig, on the south side of the
entrance of Loch-Don ; and there are three other
stated ferries respectively to Morven, to Lismore,
and to Nether-Lorn. One line of good road runs
along the whole east and south coast of the parish ;
and another traverses the interior. Population, in
1801, 1,764; in 1831, 1,889. Houses 321 — Torosay
is in the presbyterv of Mull, and synod of Argyle.
Patron, the Duke 'of Argyle. Stipend £172 1.8s.
4d. ; glebe £11. Schoolmaster's salary £15, with
£5 fees. — Districts of the parish have been erected
into the quoad sacra parishes of Salen and Kinloch-
Spelvie. Salen is separately noticed. Kinloch-
Spelvie has a Government church, with the usual
stipend of £120; and is in the patronage of the
Crown. Schoolmaster's salary £15 8s. 10Jd., with
£8 fees. There is a Society's school.
TORPHICHEN, a parish in the extreme west ot
Linlithgowshire, projecting, for some distance, be
tween Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire. It is an elon
gated band of country, stretching from north-east to
south-west; and it is bounded on the north-west
side by Lanarkshire, Stirlingshire, and Linlithgow ;
on the north-east end by Linlithgow; on the south
east side by Bathgate und Lanarkshire ; and on the
south-west end by Lanarkshire. Its greatest length
is nearly 10 miles ; its greatest breadth is nearly 3
miles; and its superficial extent is 16'3 square miles.
Polness-burn, a tributary of the Avon, and after-.

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wards the Avon itself, jointly trace nearly the whole
of the north-western boundary ; and the former ex
pands at one place into a lochlet, about half-a-mile
in circumference; Barbauchlaw-bumandBallencrieff-
water trace most of the south-east boundary ; and,
at their union, they form the Luggie, and send it
across the narrowest part of the parish to the Avon.
A lake, IJ mile north-east of the village of Tor
phichen, and measuring about a mile in circumfer
ence, contains pike, perch, and eel. The surface of
the parish sends up the highest land in West Lothian ;
and, compared with the general aspect of that fine
champaign county, is markedly tumulated, and, at
the north-east end, boldly hilly. The south-west
district is naturally moorish; and the north-east dis
trict, besides containing other marked heights, sends
up Cairn-Naple 1,498 feet above sea-level. Yet,
making abatements for cold wet moor toward the
west, and some little aggregate extent of hill-pasture
on the east, the parish is generally fertile, and has
an enclosed, well-cultivated, warm, and wealthy ap
pearance. A judicious distribution of planted trees
has materially served both to shelter and to beautify.
Five or six mansions, and their environing lawns and
woods, are also embellishing. Coal occurs, but not,
as it would seem, in much abundance. Ironstone of
good quality occurs in two seams, each 5 inches thick.
Sandstone and whinstone are quarried for the con
struction both of houses and of fences. The village
of Torphichen stands on the north-east end of the
parish, 2f miles north by west of Bathgate, and 4J
south-south-west of Linlithgow. It is situated on
a sheltered plain, away from all post-roads or tho
roughfares, and was once a place of great importance,
as it is of high antiquity; but it now consists of only
a few cottages, and has a straggling and deserted
appearance. The village or hamlet of Blackridge
stands on the Barbauchlaw-burn, and on tbe middle
road between Edinburgh and Glasgow, near the
southern extremity of the parish, 54 miles west by
south of Bathgate. Population of the parish, in
1801, 1,028; in 1831, 1,307. Houses 250. Assessed
property, in 1815, £5,300  Torphichen is in the
presbytery of Linlithgow, and synod of Lothian and
Tweeddale. Patron, Lord Torphichen. Stipend
£163 13s. 7d.; glebe £12. The parish-church was
built about 1756-8, and has not since been altered.
A quoad sacra parish-church was built in 1838 at
Blackridge, at a cost of £480. Sittings 402. The
district, parochially attached to it by the presbytery,
includes all within a radius of 2 miles round the
village ; comprehends parts of the parishes of Shotts,
Bathgate, Slamannan, and New Monkland; and has
a population of about 900. Torphichen, quoad ci
vilia, contained, in 1B38, according to ecclesiastical
census, 880 churchmen, 414 dissenters, and 5 non
descripts, — in all, a population of 1,299. There are
3 schools, 2 of them parochial, and the other private..
Salary of the first parochial schoolmaster £34 4s.
44d., with £14 fees, and £4 or £5 other emoluments;
of the second, £25 lis. 14d., with £11 17s. 8d.
fees  A little north-east of the viUage of Torphi
chen are some remains of the hospital or preceptory
of Torphichen, the principal residence of the knights
of St. John of Jerusalem. Of the church of the pre
ceptory, the chancel and the nave are entirely gone,
and only the choir and the transepts now remain.
The nave is traditionally reported to have been of
great length ; but is now satirically represented by
a plain edifice, of the size, form, and appearance, of
a barn, — the modern parish-church. The Gothic
window of the southern transept makes some wrin
kled pretensions to faded beauty, and the four pillars
which support the central tower display some archi
tectural grace ; but the other parts which remain of

the edifice do not prove it to have been either capa
cious or very ornamental. The belfry or steeple is
ascended by a narrow spiral stair; and has such com
parative meanness of altitude and aspect as to be
not altogether unsuitably now occupied as a dove
cot. Within the choir are the baptismal font, a
curious recess where corpses were laid during the
celebration of the funeral service, and the monument
of Sir Walter Lindsay, the second last preceptor.
Fragments of old massive buildings in the village,
and the stones in the fences over the face of the
adjacent country, indicate how great and magnificent
a seat of population once surrounded the church. A
stone, resembling a common mile-stone, but with a
cross carved upon its top, and situated in the church
yard near the west end of the present church, marked
the centre of a privileged sanctuary-ground attached
to tbe preceptory; and similar stones are said to
have stood at the extremities or corners of that
ground, each a mile distant from the centre. All
the space within the circle drawn round these extreme
stones, was as much a legal sanctuary as the church
at its centre, and afforded protection against the law
to every criminal or debtor who entered and remained
within its precincts. The knights were introduced
to this establishment by David I., and had many
possessions conferred on them by him and his suc
cessors; and afterwards when the Knights-Templars
were unfrocked and put under ban, they inherited the
extensive property of that great rival order. In
1291 and 1296, Alexander de Wells, " prior hospi-
talis sancti Johannis Jerusalomitani in Scotia," swore
fealty to Edward I. ; and in 1298, he was slain in
the battle of Falkirk. From precepts which Edward
issued to the sheriffs to restore the property of the
knights, the preceptory or the order seems, even at
that early period, to have had estates in almost every
shire except Argyle, Bute, and Orkney. Radulph
'de Lindsay was preceptor under Robert I. Sir
Henry Livingston was preceptor under James IL,
and died in 1463. Sir Henry Knolls, the next pre
ceptor, governed the order in Scotland during half-
a-century, and was commonly called Lord St. John.
He was treasurer to James III. from 1468 to 1470;
he joined the party who hunted down that monarch
to his unhappy end; he was appointed in 14H9-90,
to collect the royal revenues in Linlithgowshire; and
after being much employed by James IV., he fell
fighting by his side on the field of Flodden. Sir
George Dundas, his successor in the preceptorship,
was the school-fellow of Hector Boece, and is praised
for his learning. Sir Walter Lindsay, the next pre
ceptor, was a knight of no small fame, and rose to
be Justice-general of Scotland. Sir James Sandi-
lands, the last on the list, joined the Reformers in
1560; and, on his paying down 10,000 crowns, and
engaging to pay an annual rent of 500 merks, he
received the remaining estates of the order as a
temporal barony, and was raised to the peerage under
the title of Lord Torphichen. His descendants,
whose family-seat is Caider-house, in Mid-Lothian,
continue to enjoy the title.
TORRANCE, a village in the parish of Campsie,
Stirlingshire. Population 672.
TORRIDON (Loch), a large inlet of the sea,
between Gairloch and Applecross, on the west coast
of Ross-shire. It consists of three compartments,
connected by narrow straits. The outer loch ex
tends 6% miles south-eastward, with a mean breadth
of about 2.i miles; the middle loch is identical with
Shieldag [which see] ; and the inner loch extends
nearly 5 miles eastward, with a mean breadth of
about I.t mile. The united loch is, as a whole, the
most striking in the magnificent and frequently in
dented coast which it intersects; but though im-

TOR

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pressive for its grandeur, and imposing for its extent,
it is not remarkable for beauty. In 1841), there were
upwards of 3,000 persons employed in the herring-
fisherj in this loch, and upwards of 10,000 barrels
per week were cured while the fishing lasted. Tor-
ridon is of easy access both by land and sea. The
Great Parliamentary ,road from Dingwall to the West
coast passes through the viUage of Jeantown of
Lochcarron (distant from Dingwall about 50 miles),
from which a district-road extends about 15 miles to
the village and loch of Shildaig, which communicates
directly with Loch-Torridon. There is also a dis
trict-road striking off from the main road at Auch-
nasheen (which is distant from Dingwall about 30
miles), leading direct to the Mansion-house. A
steam-packet from and to Glasgow pa?ses weekly
through Lochalsh, a few hours' sail or drive from
Torridon. TORRISDALE. See Tongue.
TORRY, a fishing-village in the parish of Nigg,
Kincardineshire. It stands on the right bank of the
river Dee, opposite the city of Aberdeen, and IJ
mile west of the point of Girdleness. It has a to
lerable harbour, and a pier for small vessels. Its
fishermen carry haddocks and other fish to the mar
ket of Aberdeen ; but they are now fewer than for
merly, and have at present not more than 3 or 4
boats. Population 370.
TORRYBURN, a parish in Fifeshire, formed by
the union of the baronies of Torry and Crombie ;
the former anciently belonged to the family of Ward-
law, the other to the ' Colvilles of Cleish. It is
bounded by Culross and Carnock on the west and
north ; by Dunfermline on the east ; and by the Forth
on the south. It lies in the western extremity of
the county, upon the coast of the frith of Forth,
extending about 5 miles in length, and 1 J in breadth :
the soil in general is good, and well-cultivated.
Valued rent £5,255 Scots. Assessed property
£5,009. In the parish are several seams of coal.
Near the village is the mansion-house of Torry, the
seat of Captain James Erskine. Population, in 1801,
1,403; in 1831, 1,436.— The village of Torryburn
is 9 miles west of North-Ferry, 4 south-west of
Dunfermline, and 2 east of Culross. It is situated
on the coast, and was once the port of Dunfermline.
Making of salt and some cotton-weaving are the
only manufactures carried on in it. There is another
harbour at Crombie  This parish is in the presbytery
of Dunfermline, and synod of Fife. Patron, Stuart
of Carnock. Stipend £179 9s. 4d. ; glebe £10 13s.
4d. — The schoolmaster has the maximum salary.
There is a subscription-school at Crombie.
TORSA, one of the slate islands, off the coast of
Nether-Lorn, Argyleshire. It is separated by .only
narrow straits, from Seil on the north, the continent
on the west, and Luing on the east. The strait
between it and Luing offers a communication across
from ebb till half-tide, by a rocky bar not 100 yards
in breadth; and is rendered so intricate and whirling
by rocks and rocky islets, that the tide sweeps it
with great rapidity, and in a perfect dance of com
plicated movement. The island is an irregular el
lipsoid, the longer axis extending north-east and
south-west; and it measures about 3 miles by 1.
Its surface exhibits one smooth green hill, scarcely
200 feet high, and a ride of still lower elevation on
the west, both descending in gentle slopes to the
sea. The whole of its east side, excepting a few
trap rocks, and a little greywacke, consists of the
same clay-slate as that for which Luing and Seil are
celebrated. TORTHORWALD, a parish in the debateable
district between Lower Nithsdale and Lower An
nandale, Dumfries-shire. It is bounded on the

north-west and north by Tinwald; on the north
east by Lochmaben ; on the east by Lochmaben and
Mousewald; on the south-east by Mousewald; on
the south-west by Caerlaverock and Dumfries ; and
on the west by Dumfries. ' Its extreme length from
north to south is 6£ miles ; its extreme breadth near
the north, or over Torthorwald village, is 3£ miles;
its mean breadth over 4 miles on the south, is only
about a mile, and there it tapers to a point ; and its
superficial extent is 8| square miles, or 5,600 Eng
lish acres. The sluggish Lochar traces the whole
western boundary; and a sluggish tributary to it,
called Wathburn, traces 4£ miles of the eastern
boundary. A belt half-a-mile broad along all the
upper part of the Lochar, and the whole of the pen-
insulated ground for 3 miles between it and Wath-
burn, are sections of Lochar-Moss : which see.
Stripes of these, immediately upon the streams, have
been reclaimed into fine meadow; but all the rest is
a boggy wilderness. The northern and broader dis
trict, east of the belt of moss, is part of the western
face of a ridge, which runs down from the north of,
Tinwald to the south-east of Mousewald, and whose
summit-line is the boundary with Lochmaben. This
brae ascends so gently as to attain an altitude of 600
or 7Q0 feet, only over a base of from 2 to %_, miles ;
and it is finely variegated into hillock, bank, and
waving hollow ; and, as seen from Dumfries or any
point near the Nith, forms a very beautiful part of
the fine eastern hiU-screen of Lower Nithsdale. Its
highest ground, Beacon-hill, on the boundary with
Lochmaben, commands, with the single exception of
Criffel, the most extensive view obtainable of the
brilliant scenery of the southern half of Dumfries
shire, the eastern part of Galloway, the Solway frith,
Cumberland, and the Irish sea. Nearly all the braes
are in tillage ; and the small remainder is verdant.
The amount of the parochial area under cultivation
is about 2,600 acres; 600 of which are regularly
sown with hay. Of the 3,000 remaining acres, about,
3U0 are natural meadow, about the same number are
waste ground or upland pasture, only 4 or 5 are
under wood, and all the rest are unreclaimed por
tions of Lochar-moss. Immediately east of the moss
is a fine sandy bank of various breadths ; along the
central declivities of the braes is a rich and fertile
soil ; and, on its eastern border, the ground becomes
cold and moorish. Marl has been found in great
abundance. Almost the only rock is greywacke.
Vestiges exist of two British camps, each about 90
feet in diameter, and surrounded with, in some places
two, and in others three, concentric trenches. — An
Old castle, surmounting a small bank on the face of
the braes, and in the vicinity of the village-church
and manse of Torthorwald, is a conspicuous object.
Its walls are very thick ; its mortar is as hard as
stone ; its ancient fortifications seem to have been
great; and its form as a ruin, especially as seen
against some particular back-grounds, is decidedly
picturesque. It is traditionally said to have been
built by a shoemaker of the parish, named Skrimple
or Skriry-hard-scraes, by means of a treasure which
he found whilst digging his garden ; and anciently
imbosomed among trees, it seems to have given name
to the parish, the Anglo-Saxon Tor-wald, signifying
' the Tower in the wood.' There are three villages,
— Roucan [which see], Torthorwald, and Collin,
Torthorwald stands half-way up the brae, on the
road between Dumfries and Lockerby, 4 miles east-
north-east of Dumfries, and the same distance south
west of Lochmaben. It is quite an irregular cluster
of cottages, with scarcely 200 inhabitants. Collin
is modern, large, and tidy; but occupies low ground
on the margin of Lochar-moss. It stands on the
Dumfries and Carlisle mailroad, 3J miles east of

TOR

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Dumfries, and' If south by west of Torthorwald.
The village was commenced about 40 years ago ; and
in consequence of the encouragement of building
leases for 99 years of small portions of land, and of
the cheapness of fuel from the proximity of the moss,
it has already a population of upwards of 600. Col
lin itself strictly is but the nucleus ; the more mo
dern part? being called Oxgang, and other names.
A considerable number of the inhabitants of it and
the other villages are weavers, principally in the em
ployment of the Carlisle manufacturers, and not in
any better circumstances than members of their poor
craft in other places. Population of the parish, in
1801, 703; in 1831, 1,320. Houses 252. As
sessed property, in 1815, £2,980  Torthorwald
is in the presbytery and synod of Dumfries. Patron,
the Marquis of Queensberry. Stipend £220 15s.
10d.; glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds £522 17s.
7d. The church was buirt in 1782. In 1834, two
parochial schools were attended by 167 scholars, and
three private schools by 57. Salary of the first
parochial schoolmaster £32 2s., with £16 10s. 8Jd.
fees, and £5 1 2s. other emoluments ; of the second
£20, with £22 8s. 7Jd. fees. The ancient church
was a vicarage of the monks of Faile, in Tarbolton,
Ayrshire — A natural son of the Regent, Earl of
Morton, resided in Torthorwald-castle; and, about
the year 1590, was created Lord Torthorwald by
James VI.
TORWOOD, a forest, now small, but formerly
of great extent, in Stirlingshire ; noted for having
given shelter to Sir WiUiam Wallace after his defeat
in the North, and for having been the scene of Don
ald Cargill's excommunication of Charles II. and his
courtiers. See Dunipace and St. Ninian's.
TOUGH, a parish in Aberdeenshire, about 22
miles west by north of Aberdeen. It is bounded on
the north by Keig ; on the east by Monymusk and
Cluny; on the south-east by Cluny and Kincardine
O'Neil ; on the south by Lumphanan ; on the west
by Leochel ; and on the north-west by Alford. Its
length, from north to south, is about 5 miles ; and
its greatest breadth about 3. Its surface cannot be
described as either flat or hilly. A low ridge shel
ters its interior from the east, the south, and the
south-west; and swells and rising grounds elsewhere
give it a rolling surface, but are mostly arable. The
soil is, in general, Ught ; in many places shallow and
stony ; but in some very deep, and, though mixed
with moss, extremely fertile. Those hills which are
not under culture make excellent sheep-walk ; and
the barren moors and dry soil are mantled with plan
tations of fir. Several tiny affluents of the Don drain
the whole parish : three of them traverse pleasant
dells among the woods ; and one of these three ex
pands, while in the deU, into a beautiful isleted lake,
whose islets lie upon its waters like baskets of shrub
bery. A standing-stone, 12J feet in height and 9J
in circumference, is traditionally pointed out as the
sepulchral monument of one of the sons of Macbeth ;
and a Druidical temple, crowning a hill, bears the
name of the Old Kirk of Tough. There are some
other Druidical remains, and two or three cairns.
The only mansion is that of Tonley. The parish is
traversed north-westward by the road from Aber
deen to Alford. Population, in 1801, 629 ; in 1831,
828. Houses 173. Assessed property, in 1815,
£1,207  Tough is in the presbytery of Alford, and
synod of Aberdeen. Patron, Sir John Forbes, Bart.
Stipend £158 12s. 2d.; glebe £7 10s. School
master's salary £25 13s. 4d., with about £5 fees,
and a share of the Dick bequest. There is a non-
parochial school.
TOWIE, or Towie- Kinbattock, a parish in the
south-west or Highland division of Aberdeenshire.

It is bounded on the north by Cabrach ; on the north-
cast by Kildrummy; on the east by Cushnie ; on the
south by Logie-Coldstone and Migvy; and on the
west by Migvy, Strathdon, and Glenbucket. Its
length, from north to south, is about 8 miles ; and
its greatest breadth about 5 ; but its inhabited part
measures only 3J miles by 2. The Don — here of
small volume — cuts it westward into nearly equal
parts ; describes some beautiful curvatures ; and is
richly stored with trout. The whole surface, ex
cept in the narrow vale of the river, is upland and
pastoral. The hills are undulating, smooth, and
heathy ; and those on the south, called the Soccoch,
rise about 2,000 feet above sea-level, and are singu
larly bleak. The arable lands comprise about 2,400
acres ; and are partly haugh and partly the steep de
clivities of the hills. The soil, near the river, is
very fertile, and produces comparatively early crops.
A little wood occurs in the north-west; but else
where there is hardly a tree. A coarse, hard lime
stone is occasionally worked for manure. There are
some mineral springs, though of unascertained pro
perties ; and not a few fountains of excellent pure
water. The castle of Towie, little more than a
ruinous quadrangular tower of which now remains,
is noted as the scene of a singular catastrophe : its
lady, in the absence of her husband, being summoned
by a party of soldiers to surrender it, fired upon the
leader and wounded him in the knee ; and, in re
venge, the castle was immediately fired, when she
and her family and domestics, amounting to thirty-
seven persons, perished in the flames. The other
civil antiquities are principally tumuli. The parish
is traversed westward by the road from Aberdeen to
Strathdon. Population, in 1801, 528; in 1831, 728.
Houses 123. Assessed property, in 1815, £1,228 
Towie is in the presbytery of Alford, and synod of
Aberdeen. Patron, Leith of Freefield and Gleu-
kendy. Stipend £159 6s. Id.; glebe £10. School
master's salary £28, with £12 fees. There are ves-
tices of five old chapels.
TOWN-YETHOLM, a viUage in the parish of
Yetholm, Roxburghshire, situated on the left bank
of Beaumont- water, directly opposite to Kirk- Yet
holm : which see. Jointly with the latter village it
has about 1 ,000 inhabitants. A neat bridge, erected
in 1834, connects the two villages. The parish
school-house is probably the handsomest building of
its class in Roxburghshire. Town-Yetholm is the
site of two meeting-houses belonging respectively to
tbe United Secession and the Old Light Burghers ;
and it has a public library, two Sabbath-school lib
raries, a clothing society, a friendly society, and an
endowed school. Two annual fairs are held, one of
which, in winter, is only nominal, and the other, in
summer, is for lambs and wool ; and a weekly-mar
ket was formerly held, but it has fallen into disuse.
A chief trade is the miserable one of smuggling
whisky across the border. The peace of the place is
watched over by a baron-bailie.
TRAILFLAT. See Tinwald.
TRALIG, a small lake in Kilnin ver, Nether Lorn,
Argyleshire. It is about IJ mile long; and sends
off the rivulet Oude to the head of Loch-Melfort.
TRANENT, a parish in the extreme north-west
of Haddingtonshire ; bounded on the south, the
south-west, and the west by Edinburghshire ; on
the north-west by Prestonpans ; on the north by the
frith of Forth ; on the east by Gladsmuir and Pen-
caitland ; and on the south-east by Ormiston. Its
greatest length, from north to south, is 4J miles; its
greatest breadth is 3 miles ; and its superficial extent
is 5,415 imperial acres. The surface has the appear
ance of being almost level, but really rises with a
slow gradient and gentle undulations from the frith to

766

TRANENT.

the southern boundary, and attains an extreme ele
vation above sea-level of upwards of 300 feet. Ex
cepting about 50 acres of sandy downs on the coast,
and about 100 acres of plantation, the whole area is
regularly or occasionally in tillage, and has a finely
cultivated aspect. The soil is partly light and sandy,
partly reclaimed morass, but chiefly a rich loam, in
ferior to none in Scotland. The coast, 2£ miles in
extent, has two greenstone-dikes, respectively at
Cockenzie and east of Portseaton ; but elsewhere it
is quite flat, and has a beautiful beach of fine sand.
The coal-formation, with its attendant strata, but
dislocated and intersected by trap.dikes, lies beneath
a large portion of the parish. Coal has been worked
in five seams, aggregately from 23 to 26 feet thick,
and possibly exists in other and lower seams which
have never yet been explored. The seams are mu
tually conformable, and all form a trough, whose
centre is beneath Carlavarock, nearly a mile south-
south-east of the village of Tranent, and whose rim
or lip comes near or quite to the surface at the dis
tance of from 4 to 8 furlongs from the centre. Other
and seemingly detached seams occur beyond this
range, but whether a continuation of the seams of
this thrown down, or a prolongation of seams lower
than the discovered ones of this, or whether entirely
independent, has not been ascertained. Owing to
the edges of the trough cropping out from the sur
face, coal was mined here as early as anywhere in
Scotland-: see Haddingtonshire. Sandstone is
worked in several quarries ; and trap is quarried for
road-metal. The chief existing mines are at Tra
nent, Elphingstone, Birsley, and St. Germains ; and
they send off targe quantities through the little sea
port of Cockenzie. Some of the villages and the
antiquities are noticed in the articles Portseaton,
Cockenzie, Seaton, and Meadow-Mill : which
see. St. Germains, in the north-east, was originally
an establishment of the Knights-Templars, and was
given by James IV. to King's college, Aberdeen;
but is now the property and the site of the family
mansion of David Anderson, Esq., the only resident
landowner.. — Bankton-house, formerly the property
of Colonel Gardiner, stands 5 furlongs north-west of
Tranent ; and is still a pretty fair though not large
mansion. This devout and brave officer received his
death-wound near the west end of Meadow-mill,
within a J of a mile of his own house ; and he was
carried by his servant to the manse, where he soon
after expired. His remains were interred in the par
ish burying-ground, but have not been surmounted or
overlaid by any monument. — Elphingstone-tower, a
massive, square, baronial erection, stands near the
southern boundary ; it is said to have been built
about the close of the 14th century ; and it, is agglo
merated with a mansion, still inhabited, which was
built in 16U0  Falside- castle, situated near the
boundary with Inveresk, was an ancient strong fort
alice, belonging to the Seaton family, and probably
given away to a younger branch, who styled themr
selves Seaton o. Falside. The oldest part of the
structure is of high but unknown antiquity, and con
tains in its stair a curious hiding-place ; and even the
newer parts are comparatively very old, but are less
massive. The castle gave Protector Somerset some
trouble on the morning of the battle of Pinkie ; and
was then burnt, but not very materially damaged.
A fierce action was fought by the Scotch and the
English cavalry between Falside and Tranent, on
the day before the battle of Pinkie ; and issued in
the -discomfiture of the Scotch, and their loss of
1,300 men — The battle of Prestonpans [see that
article] was partly fought within Tranent. Sir John
Cope's military-chest was found by the victors at
the house of Cockenzie, and there divided by the

Pretender among his needy foUowers — Half-a-mile
north of Tranent, and a little south of Meadow-miU,'
stands Stiell's hospital. This establishment origi
nated in a bequest by George Stiell, smith and builder
in Edinburgh, and a native of Tranent, which yields
about £900 a-year, and Which maintains as inmates
a few boys and girls, and educates about 140 children
in a free day-school. The building is a handsome
edifice, erected in 1821, from a design by Mr. Burn,
at a cost of aboiit £3,000. The institution is under
the government of the lord-justice-clerk, the county-
sheriff, the parish-minister, and a select body of
directors. The parish is traversed by the east
mail-road from Edinburgh to London, the road
from Edinburgh to North Berwick, and the pro
jected line of the Great North British railway by
Berwick, Newcastle, and Durham. Population, in
180J, 3,046; in 1831, 3.620. Houses 740. Assessed
property, in 1815, £14,239  Tranent is in the pres
bytery of Haddington, and synod of Lothian and
Tweeddale. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £295
13s. 5d. ; glebe £20. The parish-church was built
in 1801. Sittings 912. Cockenzie, Portseaton, and
the district around them, have been erected into a
quoad sacra parish. The church, situated in Cock
enzie, was built in 1838, at a cost of £589. Sit
tings 452. An United Secession meeting-house,
situated in the village of Tranent, and belonging to
a congregation established in 1777, wasbuUtin lti26,
at a cost of £1,463 16s. 8d. Sittings 637. Stipend
£120, with £15 for sacramental expenses, and a,
manse and garden worth upwards of £10. An eccle
siastical survey, in 1826, exhibited the population
as then consisting of 2,980 churchmen, 432 dissent
ers, and 35 nondescripts, — in all, 3,447 persons —
In 1834 the parish-school was attended by 118 scho
lars, and five other schools by 416. Among the latter
was that of Stiell's hospital, attended by 79 boys and
61 girls. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 2s.
2Jd., with about £40 fees, after paying an assistant —
The old parish of Tranent comprehended all Preston
pans, and considerable parts of Pencaitland and Glads
muir ; but did not comprehend the barony or ancient
parish of Seaton, wnich was annexed to it only after
the Reformation. The church was a vicarage under
the monks of Holyrood.
Tranent, a large village or small town in the
parish just described, is situated on the mail-road
between Edinburgh and London, IJ mile south-east
of Prestonpans, 7 J miles west of Haddington, 3J east
of Musselburgh, 6J north-east of Dalkeith, and 9£
east of Edinburgh. It stands along the brow of a
rising ground on the south side of a narrow vale, at
the bottom of which is a brook ; and had its ancient
name of Travernent, abbreviated into Tranent, from
three British words which signify the habitation or
village at the ravine or vale. It consists principally
of a street which extends about \ of a mile, from east
to west, along the public road ; and of a cross street
which goes off from the former near its middle, and
runs about \ of a mile down the declivity to the
north. But it is built on no regular plan, is all over
dingily tiled, and has a very large aggregate of de
cayed and mean-fooking houses. Its appearance is
straggling, care-worn, tasteless, and poor, — miserably
out of keeping with the rich aspect of the agricul
tural country, and the exulting brilliances of the ex
tended landscape, amidst which it lies. Prestonpans
and it are very suitable neighbours, and sit like two
withered and hag-like cronies flinging splenetic con
tempt on beauties and adornments which they do not
share. But Tranent has recently made some efforts
at renovation, and possibly may, years hence, put on
a dress becoming a town in the Lothians. The in
habitants are principally persons connected as superj

TRA

767

TRA

intendents Qr miners with the neighbouring collieries,
shopkeepers, tradesmen, and day-labourers. Popu
lation 1,780.
TRAPRAIN-LAW, a conspicuous conical hill,
4J miles east of Haddington, and in the extreme
south of the parish of Prestonkirk, Haddingtonshire.
' It has an altitude of about 700 feet above sea-level ;
it contributes a very marked, beautiful, and far-seen
feature to the rich champaign landscape amidst which
it is situated ; and, from its summit, it brings under
the eye of a spectator nearly the whole frith of Forth,
a wide expanse of the German ocean, and part, it is
said, of no fewer than thirteen counties. Its ancient
name was Dun-pender, from two Gaelic words which
signify a steep hill ; and this name is quite descrip
tive of its character. On the south side it rises
almost sheer up from the plain, in one grand perpen
dicular ascent ; and on other sides, though admit
ting sheep, and affording them excellent pasturage,
it is too steep to be agrazing-ground for black cattle.
Its composition is a slaty clinkstone, so seamed as to
be irregularly columnar, and occasionally merging
from a clouded brown to a porphyritic appearance ;
and towards the summit the clinkstone passes into
greenstone, of a bluish grey hue, and slightly granu
lated with hornblende.
TRAQUAIR, « parish in the south-east border
of Peebles shire. It is bounded on the north by
the Tweed, which divides it from Peebles and In
nerleithen ; on the west by Peebles and Selkirk
shire ; and on other sides by Selkirkshire. But it
is so intersected and deeply indented by Yarrow
in Selkirkshire, as to have a large wing on the
west entirely cut off, so as to be at the nearest
point 3 furlongs apart ; another wing on the east,
smaller but still considerable, cut off with the ex
ception of a connecting belt of a furlong or two
broad along the Tweed; and the intermediate dis
trict split asunder by a. cuneiform insertion down
one-half of its length.. — These interferences simply
render the boundaries intricate, and the outline
surpassingly irregular ; and are not aggregately large
enough to disturb the intrinsic conveniences of
parochial arrangement. The greatest length of the
parish, in a straight line east and west, is 7 _ miles,
but by the road is 10; its greatest breadth, in a
straight line, is 5J miles, and by the road nearly
7; and its superficial extent is 17,200 acres, or
nearly 30 square miles. Except at the indentations,
tbe boundary all round with Selkirkshire is high
mountain water-shed, among whose summits are
Gumscleuch and Minchmoor [which see], as well
as several others of an altitude exceeding 2,000
feet above sea-level. The surface of the interior
diminishes from mountain to hill as it recedes from
the water-shed and approaches the Tweed ; yet is,
for the most part, upland, rocky, and bleak. The
heights are of a cumbrous, lumpish form, — generally
green on the south side, but heathy and of dark
complexion on the north. Glendean's banks, im
mediately south of Gumscleuch, exhibit a tremen
dous chasm, upwards of half-a-mile in length, faced
with sheer precipices from 200 to 300 feet in height.
The haughs on the Tweed are not extensive; they
lie from 400 to 500 feet above sea-level ; and they
are carpeted with a fine loam of considerable depth.
The other low grounds, though possessed of but a
stony, a shallow soil, are, in general, fertile. Agri
culture has reclaimed, improved, and beautified with
united energy and skjll, and now wields constant
dominion over about 3,000 acres. Plantations have
'been reared over an aggregate area of 600 aeres.
The ¦ upland pastures maintain fine flocks of Cheviot
sheep. Greywacke is the prevailing rock; a dike
of porphyry occurs, and is cut up for curling-stones; i

clay-slate is found, and has been worked in one
small quarry, but does not prove of durable consist
ence ; some small lead mines which were once
worked have been abandoned. Quair Water
[which see] is the principal interior stream. Kirk-
burn drains the west wing of the parish, and finds its
way into the Tweed. The little village of Traquair
— which, though possessing only -20 or 30 houses,
sends them out in straggling detachments, each
bearing a separate name — stands in the vale of the
Quair, | of a mile south of the Tweed, and If
south of Innerleithen. The " Bush aboon Traquair,"
which once was a considerable thicket of natural
birches, is now represented by » few meagre trees
a little south-west of the village." Several ancient
camps or hill-forts are traceable on the summits of
eminences. A chain of towers or peel-houses is
traditionally asserted to have been drawn at brief
intervals across the parish ; but, if it ever existed,
it is now represented only by the ancient part of
Traquair-house, and by a ruinous tower at Cardrona.
Traquair-house stands on the left bank of the Quair
immediately above its confluence with the Tweed.
The oldest part is a tower of very remote but un.
ascertained antiquity; which was so built as to be
defended on one side by the Tweed, and probably
was, in hostile times, fortified on other sides. The
newer parts were added chiefly in the reign of
Charles I. The interior is fitted up partly in an
cient and partly in modern style. An avenue leads
from the south front to a gateway, decorated with
sculptured forms of the bear, the cognizance of the
family. + James Stuart, a natural son of the Earl of
Buchan, obtained, in 1491, an act of legitimation,
and a grant of the lands -of Traquair. Sir John
Stuart, the 5th in descent from him, was Lord-
high-treasurer of Scotland under Charles I. ; and,
in 1628, he was ennobled as Baron Stuart of Tra-
* In the south of Scotland, the term bush, or buss, is not
confined to one thick shrub ; but is used also to denote a
thicket or clump. This is the signification of the word here.
Burns, we are informed, "visited the Bush in the year 17S7,
when he made a pilgrimage to various places celebrated in
story and in sotig; and found it composed of eight or nine
ragged birches, lt has lately paid a heavy tax to human cu
riosity, and has supplied nobles and princes with specimens,
in the Bhape of snuff-boxes and other toys. The Earl of Tra
quair, in anticipation, perhaps, of this rage for reliques, planted
what he called ' The New Bush ;' but it remains uuconse-
crated in song, and can never inherit the fame, or share in
the honours of the old." The old Bush stands on a declivity
overlooking the Quair, nearly a mile above the mansion-house ;
its successor stands higher on the hill, and nearer to Tweed.
" The Bush aboon Traquair," says the old Statistical Account,
" which in former times might be a considerable thicket of
birch-trees, the indigenes of the soil, is now reduced to five
lonely trees, which solitarily point out the spot where love
and its attendant poetry once probably had their origin."
This tallies, indeed, with the language of the song : —
At Ihe bonny bush aboon Traquair,
'Twas there Ijirtl did love her.
The very same bush, or rather grove, must have been consi
dered as a remarkable object, not less than two centuries ago.
Fur it is laid down in Pout's maps under the designation of
' Troquair Birks.' The trees are delineated, indeed, as ex
tending nearly the whole way down to the mansion-house.
The name, however, may have been appropriated to a parti
cular clump ; beside which, as would appear from the figure
in the map, there had formerly been a dwelling-house.
f Dr. Pennecuik celebrates the beauties of Traquair in the
following terms ; — "Then follows the pleasant Place or rather
Palace of Traquair, situate in a large and fertile plain, betwixt
the river Tweed and water of Quair ; and these two join aud
mingle waters a little below the noble house itself, of which
take the following distichs :-.
On fair Tweed-side, from Berwick to the Bield,
Traquair for beauty fairly wins tlie Held;
So many charms, by tiattne and by art,
On there combine to captivate the heart,
And please the eye, with what is line and rare,
So that few seats can match with eweet Traquair."
This nearly cnrresponds with the account given by Bleau. " Ad
quatuur millia passuum infra Pebliam sita est arx Traqnari-
ensis ad Traquarise Comitem pertinens, cujus Bitus iiemorum
umbris, et prteterlabentis fluvii amcenitate valde amabilis." De.
script. Scotia, p. 34.

TRE

768

TRI

quair, and, in 1633, was created Earl of Traquair,
and Baron Linton, and Caberston. This nobleman
suffered greatly in the cause of fallen royalty, and,
in 1659, died in great poverty ; but, not having suf
fered attainder, he bequeathed at once his titles,
his property, and his Roman Catholic predilections
to his descendants. Traquair-house was the first
place at which the Marquis of Montrose rested,
and that in which he spent the night, after his signal
defeat at Philliphaugh. Cardrona-house, the seat of
Captain Ker, and just in the course of erection to
succeed a former mansion of the same name, is
situated in the west wing of, the parish, between
the Tweed and the old tower of Cardrona. Kailzie,
R. N. Campbell, Esq. ; and Glen, W. Allan, Esq.,
are neat and quite modern mansions. The parish
has 14 or 15 miles of turnpike, but no part of any
great thoroughfare. A substantial timber-bridge was,
a few years ago, thrown over the Tweed opposite
the town of Innerleithen, and has greatly facilitated
communication. Population, in 1801, 613; in 1831,
643. Houses 105. Assessed property, in 1815,
£5,646. — Traquair is in the presbytery of Peebles,
and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, the
Crown. Stipend £216 3s. ; glebe £20. Unappro
priated teinds £382 8s. 4d. The parish-church was
built in 1778, and altered in 1821. Sittings 350.
A Roman Catholic congregation is supposed to have
existed in the parish since the era of the Reforma
tion. Their place of worship is one of the wings
of Traquair-house, and about eleven years ago suc
ceeded one which was situated on an upper floor of
the mansion. Sittings 100. Stipend, a private al
lowance from the Earl of Traquair. An ecclesias
tical survey, of 1835, exhibited the population as then
634, of whom 453 were churchmen, and 181 were
dissenters. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with
about £25 fees, and £13 other emoluments. There is
a private sewing and reading school for girls  The
present parish comprehends all the ancient parish of
Traquair, and that part of Kailzie which lay on the
south bank of the Tweed, and which now forms
the west wing of the united district. Kirkburn has
its name from having been overlooked by the church
of Kailzie. The ancient church of Traquair was
dedicated to St. Bride or Bridget, and hence was
commonly called Kirkbride. The old parish occa
sionally figures in documents as Strathquair ; and it
was of so much more comparative importance than
at present, as to be for a time a distinct sheriffdom.
See Peebles-shire.
TRESHINISH ISLES, a group of Hebridean
islets, 5 miles north-north-west of Staffa, 5J south
east of Coll, and 3 west of the entrance of Loch-
Tua in Mull. They are disposed in a chain of be
tween 4 and 5 miles in length from north-east to
south-west ; and consist, of five principal isles, and
some intervening rocks. Their whole coasts, with
little exception, present perpendicular cliffs of from
40 to upwards of 60 feet in height; and, as seen
from a little distance, they possess a singularly in
teresting appearance,, and give a promise, which they
but slenderly realize, of disclosing objects of worth
to naturalists and the curious. They are mere un
inhabited pasture-grounds, carpeted with rich grass,
and attached to the farm of Treshinish in Coll.
Cairnbug-more and Cairnbug-beg, two of the princi
pal, are separated by a very narrow strait ; and
are supposed to have anciently formed the Unfits,
and the advanced post of the Suderey or Southern
Hebrides, whose capital was in Man. A fortalice
on the former seems to have been constructed by
the Macleans, on the site of a more ancient strength
which history states to have been in the possession of
the Norwegians in 1249; and, as part of it which re

mains is a wall with embrasures skirting the edge
of the cliff, it most probably was mounted with
ordnance. Many books and records rescued from
lona at the time of the suppression of its monas
tery, having been deposited in this fortalice, were
destroyed in the course of a sieire which the place
sustained from a detachment of Cromwell's army.
See Iona. A barrack on Cairnbug-beg is still tol
erably entire. Fladda, a third of the principal isles,
has an uniformly flat and uninteresting aspect;
Linga, a fourth, rises from a low plain, by a succes
sion of terraces, into a hill about 300 feet high ; and
Bach, the fifth, is about equal to Linga in height,
is " distinguished by a hill which, in some positions,
has the appearance of a hemisphere, from which the
whole island acquires the semblance of an ancient
shield with the umbo protuberant in the centre."
The isles are composed throughout of amygdaloid
and basalt, — the latter of perpendicular fracture, but
not columnar.
TRINITY-GASK— vulgarly Tarnlt— a parish
in Strathearn, Perthshire. It is bounded on the
north by Madderty ; on tbe east by Gask ; on the
south by Auchterarder and Blackford ; and on the
west by Muthil and Crieff. It lies on both sides of
the Earn, but chiefly on the north ; the section on
the south comprising IJ square mile; and that on
the north extending east and west 5 miles by 3,
and comprehending i7 square miles. The surface
rises toward the north so as to form a gently- slop
ing bank, commanding a fine view of the magnifi
cent strath and its screens ; but elsewhere it is nearly
flat, and has but a slight elevation above the least of
the river. The soil is very various ; but over about
three-fourths of the parochial era, is beautifully cul
tivated and enclosed, and over the remaining fourth
promises soon to own the dominion of the plough.
The district is richly planted, and has clothing of
trees athwart an aggregate area of about 1,000 acres.
Tbe Earn meanders along the interior and the south
ern boundary of the parish, in sinuosities which seem
to indicate a reluctance to pass away from its lusci-
ousness. A trap dike runs through the parish, and
occasionally rises into elevations. A red, soft, ar
gillaceous rock forms a sort of chasm or ravine for
the Earn in the west, but, becoming mingled with
mica, passes into sandstone in the centre and the
east, — the " old red," which prevails throughout
the strath. The only antiquity worth notice is
part of the Roman causeway which runs from Stor
mont to the celebrated camp at Ardoch. Millearne-
house, an entirely modern structure, the seat of J.
G. Home Drummond, Esq., encompassed with at
tractive gardens and pleasure-grounds, is a fine spe
cimen of the style of architecture which prevailed
in the age of Henry VIII. Colquhalzie-house, J.
S. Hepburn,' Esq., occupies a charming site on the
south bank of the river. The parish is traversed
by the road from Perth to Muthil, and hy that from
Crieff to Auchterarder. There is here only one
bridge across the Earn,— that, of Kinkell. Popu
lation, in 1801, 796; in 1831, 620. Houses 97.
Assessed property, in 1815, £5,231.— Trinity-Gask
is in the presbytery of Auchterarder, and synod of
Perth and Stirling. Patron, the Earl of Kinnoul.
Stipend £149 3s. Id.; glebe £30, and 11 acres of
moor. Unappropriated teinds £63 16s. 3d. School
master's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with £2 18s. fees, and
about £3 10s. other emoluments. There are two
private schools — The present parish comprehends
the ancient parishes of Kinkell and Wester-Gask,
one of which had a second place of worship at a
locality still called Chapel-hiU ; and the union of tbe
three churches into one parish is said to have given
rise to the name Trinity-Gask

TRO

769

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TRONDA, or Trondrat, an island 3i miles
long, and 2 broad, a short way off the west coast of
Quarf, in the mainland of Shetland. It is washed
by Scalloway bay on the north ; and separated by
narrow sounds from Green Isle and Burra on the
west, and from House-island on the south.
TROON, a promontory, a harbour, a thriving
sea-port, and a quoad sacra parish, at the west end
of the parish of Dundonald, Ayrshire. The town,
situated on the promontory, is 6 miles north of
Ayr, 6 south of Irvine, 9 south-west of Kilmarnock,
31 south-west by south of Glasgow, and 75 west-
south-west of Edinburgh. The promontory is a
belt of rock, extending 14. mile into the sea, and so
curved as to form a large segment of a circle, with
the concave side facing the north. Its mean breadth
is only about 2 furlongs. In its natural state it was
covered with rich pasture toward the land, but be
came naked rock toward the extreme narrowing
point. A continuation of the promontory extends
a short distance beneath the sea, so as to be con
cealed even at low water. The embayed marine.
space embraced by the bold curvature is by far the
best natural harbour in Ayrshire; it affords safe
anchorage-ground from every quarter except the
north-west ; and, at half-a-cable's length from the
rock, it has, at half-flood, a depth of 3 fathoms. The
merchants of Glasgow, aware of its advantages,
made a vain effort, about the year 1700, to purchase
the circumjacent property for the erection of a sea
port ; and, in consequence of the repulse they met,
were obliged to select the very inferior site of Port-
Glasgow as the station next in eligibility. After the
effluxion of a century, the Duke of Portland, the
proprietor, commenced a series of vigorous opera
tions to render the place fully available for commerce.
About the year 1817, he constructed a new pier 800
feet long, nearly at right angles with the rock, where
the depth is 1 9 feet at low water, and he ' afterward
constructed a fine wet dock with floodgates, a dry
dock for repairing vessels, a light-house, and large
store-houses. Due encouragements were offered to
make the place a resort of trade and a seat of popu
lation ; and they were rapidly followed by success.
A railway hither from Kilmarnock [which see] was
the first public work of its class in Scotland, and
brings down vast quantities of coals for shipment to
Ireland, Galloway, and other destinations. A new
act of parliament was obtained in 1837 to alter and
amend this railway, and to raise sufficient funds for
the object. A communication is maintained like
wise with the Glasgow and Ayr railway, the main
line of which passes in the vicinity. During the year
which ended on 31st August, 1840, no fewer than
165,850 tons of coals were shipped. In 1837, 1,060
vessels of aggregately 79,291 tons, took part in the
port's trade ; and, in 1840, upwards of 30 vessels be
longed exclusively to the place. , The town is built
along a large part of the promontory, and forms a
conspicuous and fine feature in the broad and bril
liant landscape of Ayrshire and the frith, as seen from
numerous vantage-grounds, 8 or 12 miles to the
south or north. Many of the inhabitants are em
ployed in a large ship-building yard, a rope and sail
manufactory, and some other works ; and not a few
of them draw an entire or partial maintenance from
letting lodgings to families of sea-bathers. The
town has a branch-office of the Ayr bank. The
quoad sacra parish consists of the town, and a small
district in its vicinity. The church was erected, in
1836, at a cost of £1,100. Sittings 900. A chapel
belonging to a United Secession congregation which
was formed in 1822, and for some years dissolved,
and formed anew in 1839, was built, in 1822, at a
cost of £320. Sittings 289. In 1836, the popula-
II

tion of the town was 1,088, and of the town and a
district extending 2 miles from it 1,600.
TROQUEER, a parish on the east border of
Kirkcudbrightshire ; bounded on the north hy Ter
regles ; on the east by the river Nith, which divides
it from Dumfries-shire ; on the south and south-west
by Newabbey; and on the west by Lochrutton.
Its greatest length from College-loch on the north,
to the mouth of Newabbey-Pow on the south, is 8J
miles ; its greatest breadth in a line due west from
the mouth of Crook's-Pow is 4J miles ; but its su
perficial extent, in consequence chiefly of the south
ern half tapering gradually away to a point, is only
about 19 square miles. The north-east corner lies
opposite the burgh of Dumfries, and contains the
large suburban burgh-of-barony of Maxwelltown:
which see. The surface throughout the north and
the east is prevailingly level, yet has some agreeable
though gentle diversities. Corbelly-hill, in particu
larising at the south end of Maxwelltown, and op
posite the lower part of Dumfries, is a lovely emi
nence, beautifully embellished, and commanding a
delightful prospect. The congregation of burghai
buildings spreads away from the hill'sbase, sectioned
off into two bodies by the river, yet united by two
bridges. The steeples, some churches, one or two
civic buildings, Burns' mausoleum, and the gorgeous
assembly of elegant monuments in the cemetery, look
out from among the general mass, and challenge in
dividual attention. A new and elegant edifice, the
Crichton Institution, at once the most elegant and
the most extensive asylum for lunatics in Scotland,
spreads out its wings on an undulating declivity be
low the town. A profusion of mansions, and villas,
and cottages, ornees, are seen powdered over the
face of all the gay burgh's environs on both sides of
the river. A broad valley, luxurious in dress,
stretches away on the north, and becomes narrowed
and shut in by cultivated hills, and overhung at the
extremity by the dark conical form of Queensberry.
The same valley, flattened down over much of its
area into dead level, and cut into a sort of tesselated
work of brown and green, by Lochar-moss, is
screened at 4 miles' distance on the east, by a range
of hills over which the plough yearly passes. The
shining, silver-sheeted Nith directs the eye south
ward among grounds rich as a garden, and points
onward to the sombre, cloud-capped Criffel, the far
expanse of the Solway frith and the blue dim out
lines of Skiddaw, and other Cumberland mountains.
In all this there is nothing sublime, or even strik
ingly picturesque ; yet there are a calm beauty and
a certain rich fulness which completely win the heart'
and live most soothingly in the imagination. Se
veral hills, as Craigbill, Little Malhorn, and Hol-
landbush, rise in the south-west. A large propor
tion of the parochial area has a rich and embel
lished aspect, quite in keeping with its relative po
sition to the beautiful metropoUs of the western
marches. Mansions are so numerous that mention
of them seriatim would be insufferably tedious.
Agriculture made such singular achievements be
tween t752 and 1790 as, in that brief space, to give
a five-fold increase to the rental. Considerably
upwards of 5,000 acres are arable, though not aU
in tiUage ; and at least 550 are under wood. The
south-west or hilly district, amounting to about a
fourth of the whole, is of moorland character, co
vered partly with heath and partly with coarse grass.
The soil of the arable grounds is various, but gen
erally light. " There are," says one of our chief au
thorities, " few rocks;" they lie too deep, we sup
pose, for superficial observation. There is a good bed
of clay and a tile- work at Ryedale. T he parish i s tra
versed westward by the Dumfries and Portpatrick
3 c

TRO

770

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mailroad Population, in 1801, 2,774; in 1831,
4,665. Houses 580. Assessed property, in 1815,
£1,334.— Troqueer is in the presbytery and synod
of Dumfries. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £350
7s. 2d. ; glebe, 10 acres, but not valued. Unappro
priated teinds £91 16s. 5d. The larger section of
the population belongs to the quoad sacra parish of
Maxwelltown : which see. There are three par
ochial and two private schools, and the former have
attached to them only £32 of salary  The ancient
church belonged, till the reign of James V., to the
monastery of Tongland ; in 1588, when the property
of that establishment was alienated, it was granted
for life to William Melville, the commendator of
Tongland ; and in 1 605 it was given to the bishops
of Galloway. The ancient parish of Kirkconal,
which was suppressed in the reign of Charles I., was
divided between Troqueer on the north-east, and
Newabbey on ' the south-west. The parish-church
stood in the Troqueer section, IJ mile north-east
of the village of Newabbey ; and is commemorated
in the names of a mansion, a farm, and an estate.
The devout and excellent Scottish Worthy, the
Rev. John Blackadder, was minister of Troqueer,
and suffered ejection from it, amid affecting incidents,
at the forced introduction of prelacy.
TROSACHS, a surpassingly romantic mountain-
vale, between Lochs Achray and Katrine, in the
parishes of Callander and Aberfoil, Monteith, Perth
shire. The word Trosachs signifies a bristled region,
and is not a little descriptive of the scenery. The
road, from end to end of the Trosachs, is rather more
than a mile in length, and introduces the tourist to
the landscape at the inn of Ardcheanochrochan,
about 10 miles west of the village of Callander. The
opening which affords ingress is flanked on the
left by Benvenue, towering 2,800 feet above sea-
level, and on the right by Benawn. The defile of
Beal-an-Duine, where Fitz-James lost his " gallant
grey," is in the heart of the great gorge; a little west
of it is a narrow inlet ; and, at a few paces farther,
Loch-Katrine bursts upon the view, the Alps of Ar-
roquhar mingling with the clouds in the distance.
The Trosachs, in a general view, are a contracted
vale, whose sides are soaring eminences wildly and
irregularly feathered all over with hazels, oaks,
birches, hawthorns, and mountain-ashes, and whose
central space is "a tumultuous confusion of little
rocky eminences, all o'f the most fantastic and extra
ordinary forms, everywhere shagged with trees and
shrubs," and presenting "an aspect of roughness
and wildness, of tangled and inextricable boskiness,
totally unexampled, it is supposed, in the world."
A particular description, after Sir Walter Scott's ex
quisite one, in the Lady of the Lake, could not be
very safely attempted by even an adept in literary
painting : —
" The western waves of ebbing day
Roll'd o'er the glen their level way ;
Each purple peak, each flinty spire,
Was bathed in floods of living fire.
But not a setting beam could glow
Within the dark ravine below,
Where twined the path, in shadow hid,
Round many a rocky pyramid,
Shooting abruptly from the dell
Its thunder-splinter'd pinnacle;
Round many an insulated maBS,
The native bulwarks of the pass,
Huge as the tower which builders vain *
Presumptuous piled on Shinar's ,)ain.
The rocky summits, split and rent,
Form'd turret, dome, or battlement,
Or seem'd fantastically set
With cupola or minaret,
Wild crests as pagod ever deck'd,
Or mosque of Eastern architect.
Nor were these earth-born castles hare,
Nor lack'd they many a banner fair ;
For, from their shiver'd brows display'd,
Ear o'er the unfathomable glade,

| All twinkling with the dew-drops sheen,
i The briar-rose fell in streamers green,
And creeping shrubs, of thousand dyes,
Waved in the west- wind's summer sighs
" Boon Nature scatter'd, free and wild,
Each plant or flower, the mountain's child.
Here eglantine embalm'd the air,
Hawthorn and hazel mingled there;
The primrose pale, and violet flower.
Found in each cliff a narrow bower ;
Foxglove and nightshade, side by side,
Kmblems of punishment and pride,
Group'd their dark hues with every stain
The weather-beaten crags retain.
With boughs tha't quaked at every breath
Grey birch and aspen wept beneath ;
Aloft, the ash and warrior oak
Cast anchor in the rifted rock ;
Aud, higher yet, the pine-tree hung
His shatter'd trunk, and frequent flung,
Where seem'd the cliff's to meet on high,
His boughs athwart the narrow'd sky.
Highest of all, where white peaks glanced.
Where glist'ning streamers waved and danced.
The wanderer's eye could barely view
The summer heaven's delicious blue ;
So wondroiiB wild, the whole might seem
The scenery of a fairy dream."
TROTTERNISH, the eastern and north-eastern
division of Skye, comprehending all Kilmuir, Sni
zort, and Portree, and small parts of Bracadale and
Strath. It is not only the largest district of the
island, but, irrespective of its extent, the richest,
and contains much good arable ground : See Skye.
Trotternish has some celebrity as the scene of vari
ous perils and adventures of Prince Charles Edward.
The headland, called Trotternish-point, forms the
most northerly land in the island ; and runs out f
of a mile north-westward in a narrow promontory.
TROUP. See Gamrie.
TRUIM, a small river of Badenoch, Inverness-
shire. It rises among the alpine recesses of the cen
tral Grampians, within 3 furlongs of the boundary
with Perthshire, and runs 12J miles north-north
eastward to the Spey, near Invernahavon. The
glen of the river brings up the great road from In
verness to Perth; and has, on the left bank, the
solitary stage-inn of Dalwhinnie. Its lower part
has some grandeur of scenery, and slight amenities
of wood ; but its upper part, which contains Dal
whinnie, and is comprehended in the dismal nominal
forest of Drumouchter, utterly chills the feelings of
any but the most weather-beaten mountaineer. The
mountains are dull in aspect and uninteresting in .
form, and appear, not arranged into chains, but cut
into stupendous detached masses; and the glen be
tween them is everywhere, from Dalwhinnie to its
head, " houseless, treeless, and lifeless, — wanting in
everything but barrenness and deformity,  while
there is not even an object so much worse than an
other as to attract a moment's attention."
TRUMISGARRY, a quoad sacra parish, com
prehended in the quoad civilia parish of North Uist,
in the Outer Hebrides. Its greatest length is about
17 miles; its greatest breadth is about 12 miles; and
its area is about 140 square miles. Population, in
1836,1,722. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £120;
glebe £4. The church, a parliamentary one, was
built in 1829, at a cost of £750. Sittings 326.
There are three itinerating schools of the Gaelic
school society, and a General Assembly's school.
TUDHOPE. See Castletown.
TULLA. See Inchmahome.
TULLIALLAN, a parish in the detached district
u ^,ertl|smi'e ' bounded on the west and the north
by Clackmannan ; on the east by Culross ; and on
the south and south-west by the frith of Forth. Its
greatest length from north to south is 3£ mile? ; its
greatest breadth is 3 miles; and its superficial extent
is about 2, 760 acres. The surface has a gentle slope
trom the northern boundary to the Forth, aud ia

TUL

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TUL

highlyimproved and cultivated. The soil is various,
and consists of clay, rich loam, and sand, lying on till
or rock. Woods are comparatively extensive, and
give the district a warm and ornate appearance. The
Forth, where it touches the parish, is from 5 furlongs
to 2J miles broad; and has a coast 3 J miles in ex
tent. On its margin in Tulliallan are the town of
Kincardine, and the ancient village of Longannat:
which see. Some 30 or 40 pans for the manufacture
of salt have all, long ago, been demolished. From
the west end of the parish to New Pans the shore is
level ; and thence to the extreme east, it abounds in
rocks which are bare or covered with the alternation
of the tide. Coal exists, and is worked. Tulliallan-
castle, one of the seats'of the Baroness Keith, stands
upon a small rising ground about half-a-mile from
the Forth. The castle which it succeeded, and ruins
of which exist, belonged to the Blackadders, knights
baronets, and appears to have been a place of strength.
A considerable lake lies in the centre of the parish ;
and a small one is situated on the eastern boundary.
Most of the local interest, and of the facilities of
communication, belonging to the district, have their
centre in Kincardine. Population, in 1801, 2,800;
in 1831, 3,550. Houses 567. Assessed property,
in 1815, £5,824. — Tulliallan is in the presbytery of
Dunblane, and synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron,
Lady Keith. Stipend £259 3s. 9d. ; glebe £44 10s.
The parish-church was built in 1833, at a cost of
about £3,500. Sittings 1,176. An United Seces
sion meeting-house in Kincardine, belonging to a
congregation established in 1813, was built in 1819,
at a cost of £1,200. Sittings about 800. Stipend
£132, with manse, offices, and garden. An Original
Burgher meeting-house in Kincardine,' belonging to
a congregation estabUshed in 1813, was built in 1816.
Sittings 470. Stipend £85. An ecclesiastical census
of 1836 exhibited a population of 3,536, distributed
into 2,392 churchmen, and 1,144 dissenters. In 1834
the parish school was attended by 147 scholars; and
7 private schools by 311. Parochial schoolmaster's
salary £34 4s., with about £50 fees. In 1659, part
of Culross was, by authority of the Court-of-session,
annexed to Tulliallan.
TULLIBODY, the name of various localities in
the parish of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. The an
cient parish, the barony, and the mansion of Tulli
body, are noticed in the article Alloa : which see.
The village of Tullibody stands | of a mile north of
the confluence of the Devon and the Forth, 2J miles
west-north-west of Alloa, and 6^ south-west of Til
licoultry. The ancient church of Tullibody, situated
in the village, is still in a state of good repair. The
parish minister and his assistant preach here on Sab
bath evenings during summer, and have an average
attendance of from 150 to 200.
TULLIEBOLE, a suppressed parish in Kinross-
shire, annexed to Fossaway : which see.
TULLIMET. See Logierait.
TULLOCH, a village on the north-west border
of the parish, and 2 miles north-west of the town,
of Perth. It is notable as the site of the first Scot
tish bleachfield, and the place where the first pota
toes produced in Scotland were grown. Mr. Christie,
. an Irish gentleman, established the bleachfield about
the beginning of the 18th century, and soon after
introduced the potatoes by seed brought from Ire
land. Mr. Sandeman, the present proprietor of the
s public works, employs about 250 persons in produc
ing pyrolignous acid and in bleaching and printing.
Population 200.
TULLOCH, a parish in Aberdeenshire, united
to Glenmuick : which see.
TULLOCH- ARD, a lofty mountain on the north
side of Loch-Duich, in the south-west corner of

Ross-shire. It is of easy extent, and commands an
extensive view of the western continental coasts
and the northern Hebrides. It figures in legendary
story as an object of ancient superstitious veneration.
In the Middle ages it was the beacon-post of war ;
and a fire raised on its summit summoned, within 24
hours, all the tenants and vassals of Seaforth to the
rendezvous in readiness for combat. It appears as a
burning mountain on the crest of the Seaforth arms.
TULLOCHGORUM, tbe native seat of the clan
Phatrick, on the left bank of the river Spey, oppo
site the influx of the Nethy, 4A miles south-west of
Grantown, Inverness-shire. The name is familiar
to almost every Scotsman in connexion with th
poetry and ancient music of Strathspey.
TULLYNESSLE and FORBES, an united par
ish nearly in the centre of Aberdeenshire ; bounded
on the north by Leslie, Clatt, and Rhynie ; on the
east by Keig; on the south by Alford; and on the
west by Auchindoir. Its length is about 7 miles ;
and its breadth about 4. The river Don traces
nearly the whole of the southern boundary ; but cuts
off a small wing, comprehended in a single farm.
Six indigenous brooks drain tbe parish southward to
the Don ; the largest of which, the Esset, drives 9
or 10 corn and thrashing mills, but it is subject, at
remote intervals, to overwhelming floods. A lofty
hill-range, whose chief summits have an altitude of
about 1,300 feet above sea-level, sweeps round the
western and northern frontier ; and various ridges
strike off from it toward the plain of the Don, so as
to render the general surface of the parish a series
of somewhat parallel glens. The hills are exten
sively stony, but nowhere broken or bare ; and they
have, for the most part, a dry but infertile soil, and
a heathy dress. The arable land, has, in general, a
good loam ; and consists of haugh-grounds in the
vales, and gentle slopes on the declivity of the hills.
Distributing the whole parochial area into 100 parts,
about 33 are in tillage, 11 in artificial pasture, 43 in
hill-pasture, and 13 under wood. Most of the ex
tensive woods have been planted within the last 25
years by the proprietor of Forbes. The rocks are
all primitive ; mica-schist is worked in two quarries
as a pavement-flag; granite is quarried as a building-
stone ; argillaceous schist was attempted to be worked
as a roofing slate, but has been abandoned ; and
mountain-limestone was once burnt for manure, but
is not abundant. Whitehaugh-house, the seat of
Lieut.-colonel Leith, is a splendid mansion, consist
ing of an ancient central edifice, and two quite mo
dern wings. Driminner, tbe ancient seat of the
family of Forbes, appears to have been built about
the middle of the 16th century. The parish is tra
versed southward by the road from Huntly to Kin
cardine O'Neil, and westward by that from Aber.
deen to Strathdon. A substantial and recently built
bridge across tbe Don forms their point of intersec
tion ; and in its immediate vicinity are a commo
dious inn and a post-office. Population of Tully-
nessle, in 1801, 330; of Forbes, in 1801, 206; of
the conjoined parishes, in 1831, 778. Houses 135.
Assessed property, in 1815, £1,765  This parish is
in the presbytery of Alford, and synod of Aberdeen.
Patron, the Earl of Fife. Stipend £230 10s. 2d. ;
glebe £10. Unappropriated teinds £51 6s. 2d. School
master's salary £29 18s. 10d., with £23 2s. fees,
about £2 ,2s. other emoluments, and a share of the
Dick bequest. Forbes was, in 1722, united to
Kearn; and, in 1808, it was united to Tullynessle.
It forms the western division of the present united
parish. TUf/M, a small pasture island on the north-west
coast of Skye, near Trotternish-point, and belonging
to the parish of Kilmuir.

TUM

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TUMMEL (The), the lower part of the lvorth-
ern great head-water of the Tay, Perthshire. It is
very generally described by topographists as issuing
from Loch-Rannoch, and expanding, near the middle
of its course, into Loch-Tummel. But the stream
between the two lakes really bears the name of the
Rannoch [which see]; and only that between Loch-
Tummel and the confluence with the Tay strictly
claims to be the Tummel. Its length of run, thus
limited, is only about 12 miles, or, including sinuosi
ties, 15 or 16. It leaves the lake at its east end ;
and at first flows eastward and finally flows south
wards, so as to describe from beginning to end the
fourth part of a circle, the middle of whose convex
ity is toward the north-east. Over 4J«niles below
the lake it intersects Dull; over nearly 2 miles im
mediately above its confluence with the Tay, it in
tersects Logierait; and, over the intermediate dis
tance, it has on its right bank Dull and Logierait,
and on its left Moulin and the detached part of Dow
ally. Four miles below the lake,- it receives the
very large tribute of the Garry : which see. Re
spectively below and above this confluence the Tum
mel, as to both its current and its banks, possesses
very widely different characters. Below, it is a
stately stream, grave and majestic in motion, gemmed
along its bosom with many pretty islets, and wend
ing among numerous cornfields and enclosed pastures,
screened with mountainous heights less wild in
character, and much softer in dress, than by far the
greater part of those in the Highlands. But above
where it receives the Garry, it is almost constantly
impetuous, tumbles along in rapids, cataracts, and
cascades, tears up and rolls playfully before it con
siderable masses of rock, and runs through a close
und wooded mountain-glen, so narrow that, with
very little exception, the alpine acclivities rise imme
diately from the wafer, leaving no flat land or space
of any kind on its margin. The narrowness and pro
longation of this upper glen, the sudden rise and the
loftiness of its boundaries, the great variety and the
wonderful intricacy of their outline and surface, the
profusion of forest and the intersection and cloud
ing of it with rocks and ravines, — these, and the
exquisite forms and arrangements of the forested and
scattered birches which here form the only wood,
render this upper glen of the Tummel decidedly
richer in the beauties of a grand and romantic style
of landscape than any other space of equal extent in
Scotland. Near the junction of the Garry stands
the house of Fascally, amid a scene which is magni
ficently pretty, — strongly pleasing, but soon ex
hausted. A considerable space below this, and to
ward Pitlochry, makes a remote approach to the
character of the Upper glen,, and exhibits continuous
alternations of picture and romance. But the grand
attraction of the Tummel is its celebrated fall near
tbe foot of the upper glen. Though by no means
so high as the falls of Foyers and of Bruar, it is
nevertheless equally grand, if not more so, on ac
count of the greater volume of its water. It and
that of Foyers are both first in rank of the Scottish
cascades, each in its distinct character; and though
considerably lower than the falls of the Clyde, it
very greatly excels them both in its own attractions,
and in those of its circumjacent scenery. "It is a
peculiar and a rare merit in the cascade of the Tum
mel," says Dr. Macculloch, "that it is beautiful in
itself, and almost without the aid of its accompani
ments. Though the water breaks white almost
throughout, the forms are so graceful, so varied, and
so well marked, that we can look at it long, without
being wearied by monotony, and without attending
to the surrounding landscape. Whether low or full,
whether the river glides transparent over the rocks

to burst in foam below, or whether it descends like
a torrent of snow from the very edge, this fall is
always various and always graceful. The immediate
accompaniments are, however, no less beautiful and
appropriate; and the general landscape is at the
same time rich and romantic ; nothing being left to
desire to render this one of the most brilliant scenes
which our country produces." In the face of a tre
mendous rock north-west of the fall, is a cave to
which there is only one and a very difficult passage.
A party of the Macgregors are said to have been
surprised in this cave during the period of their pro
scription ; and some of them slain on the spot, while
a remnant climbed a tree which grew on the face of
the rock, and were precipitated to the bottom by
their pursuers cutting away the tree from its root.
TUNDERGARTH, a parish in Annandale, Dum
fries-shire. It is a long, narrow band of country,
descending south-westward or diagonally from the
water-shed with Eskdale to within 2J miles of the
Annan. Its length is 9£ miles ; its breadth varies
between 2\ and 1 ; and its superficial extent is about
10,630 imperial acres. It is bounded, along the
north-west side, by St. Mungo, Dryfesdale, and
Hutton and Corrie ; on the north-east end by Wes
ter-kirk; along the south-east side by Langholm,
Middlebie, and Hoddam; and on the south-west end
by St. Mungo, The water of Milk [which see] has
its course along most of the north-west and south
west boundary ; and it receives from the interior no
fewer than about 14 rills, all of which are indigenous,
and have an average individual run of only about 1 J
mile. The general surface is, in consequence, a de
clination to the Milk ; but it is singularly worn and
broken by the action of the streams, and by other
causes, into steep-sided valleys and glens, and, with
the aid of wood, abounds in picturesque scenes.
Though nowhere strictly hilly, and though possessing
only two summits, those of Crieve and Grange-feU,
900 feet above sea-level, it very extensively bids
perpetual defiance to the plough, and luxuriates in
abruptness and variety of pastoral landscape. Ex
cepting about 160 acres, which are under wood, the
area is distributed into pastures and arable lands in
the proportions to each other of 79 and 29. Grey
wacke, mica-schist, clay-slate, and greenstone, are
almost the only rocks. Antimony has been found
in small quantities; and lead has, in various localities
and various dates, been the object of laborious but
vain search. Whitstone-hill, Grange, and Crieve,
are the chief mansions, and belong respectively to
the landowners, — Swan, Johnstone, and Beattie.
The principal antiquity is part of the Roman road
from Brunswark-hill, which overlooks the south
west border, to Upper Nithsdale. The district is
badly provided with roads, but lies in the immediate
vicinity of the Glasgow and London mail-line, and,
at the nearest point, only a mile from Lockerby.
Population, in 1801, 485; in 1831, 530. Houses
90. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,463.— Tunder
garth is in the presbytery of Lochmaben, and synod
of Dumfries. Patron, the Earl of Mansfield. Sti
pend £156 15s. ; glebe £10. Unappropriated teinds
£64 15s. 3d. Schoolmaster's salary £34, with £15
fees, and £4 other emoluments. There is a private
school. The manor of Tundergarth having anciently
belonged to tbe family of Johnstone, who had here
a now extinct castle, the name Johnstone is stiU the
prevailing one in the district.
TUN-LAW, or Earnsheugh, a precipitous sea-
cliff, a little to the north-west of St. Abb's, rising
to the height of about 430 feet above sea-level, and
surmounted by an ancient British fortification.
TURNBERRY-CASTLE, a celebrated ruin on
the coast of the parish of Kirkoswald, 6 miles north

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773

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of the town of Girvan, Ayrshire. When or by whom
it was built, is altogether uncertain. It seems to
have been one of the castles of the old Gaelic Lords
of Galloway; and, when the Gallowegian dominions
became divided into the part which continues to bear
their name, and the part which has been integrated
with Ayrshire, it appears to have been adopted as
the principal seat of the Earls of Carrick. In 1274
Martha, Countess of Carrick, resided here at the
epoch of her marriage with Robert Bruce of Annan.
dale. On the 20th of September, 1286, it was the
scene of the first recorded association or assembly of
Scottish nobles, — one which had for its object to
support the title of the competitor Bruce to the
Crown. In 1306 it was held by an English garrison
under Earl Percy; and some years after, while it
still continued in the possession of the English,
King Robert Bruce stormed it, drove out the garri
son, and obliged them to retire to Ayr. It received
such damage in the storming as to be virtually de
stroyed ; and it does not appear to have ever after
wards been inhabited. A kiln-fire lighted in the
neighbourhood was once mistaken by Bruce for a
preconcerted signal, and brought him prematurely
over from Arran to attempt the deliverance of his
country and the rescue of his Crown. The castle
has suffered so severely from the action of sea and
weather, and the ruthlessness of dilapidators, as to
have little remaining but its lower vaults and cel
lars; but from indications which are furnished by
these, by some vestiges of a drawbridge, and by the
extent of rock which seems to have been included in
the site, it appears to have been a fortress of great
capaciousness and strength. It occupies a small
promontory, so as to be washed on three sides by
the sea ; and, on the land side, it overlooks a rich
plain of upwards of 600 acres. Its site commands a
full prospect of all the lower frith of the Clyde.
Grose has preserved a view of the ruins as they ex
isted when he wrote.
TURRET, a small lake and a rivulet in the par
ish of Monivaird, Strathearn, Perthshire. The lake
is about a mile long, and one-fourth of a mile broad.
The rivulet issues from the end of it, and has a run
of about 5 miles south-eastward to the Earn, half-a-
mile above Crieff. The vale traversed by the stream
is noted for its scenery, and bears the name of Glen-
turret : which see.
TURRIFF, a parish on the north-west border of
Aberdeenshire, divided chiefly by the Deveron, and
partly by a smaU brook from Banffshire. It is
bounded on the north-west by Forglen; on the
north by King Edward; on the east by Montquitter;
on the south-east by Fyvie ; on the south by Auch-
terless; on the south-west by Inverkeithnie; and
on the west by Marnoch and Forglen. Its greatest
length from north to south is 7J miles ; its greatest
breadth is 5] miles ; and its area is 16,896 Scottish
acres. The Deveron makes a large and deep sweep
while tracing the boundary, so as, opposite the cen
tre of the curve, to compress the breadth of the
parish to less than 3 miles; and a considerable tribu
tary of the river runs down to it from the south
west, dividing the parish into not very unequal parts.
Two-thirds of the area is naturally moorish and con
siderably upland, and, till lately, wore a sombre dress
of russet ; but now it very extensively feels the
power of the plough, or luxuriates beneath a cover
ing of plantation. The remaining third is all under
cultivation, or embeUished with wood ; and has in
general a light loamy fertile soil. Haughs and mea
dow-grounds on the banks of the Deveron, especially
below the town, are rich and comparatively large.
" It is highly probable," says the old Statist, at once
sketching the parochial landscape, and embodying

an antiquary's dream, "that Lathmon, the Pictish
prince, whom Ossian celebrates, had his seat in this
parish. Not only do Lathers and Durlathers bear a
strong resemblance to Lathmon and Dunlathmont,
but the landscape drawn by nature exactly corre
sponds with the description of the poet. We may
observe on the bank of the river, ' the green dwell
ing of Lathmon.' We may wander with ' the blue-
eyed Cutha in the vales of Dunlathmon ;' and the
halls of Nuath are only wanting to realize the de
scription of the dying Oithsna. High walls rise
on the bank of Durrana, ' and see their massy towers
in the stream.' A rock ascends behind them ' with
its bending firs.' " The extensive plantations are
distributed over the several estates of Troup, Del-
gaty, Laithers, Muiresk, Gask, and Hatton-Lodge.
The parish is traversed northward by the post-road
from Aberdeen to Banff, and has abundance of other
roads, chiefly radiating from the town. Population,
in 1801, 2,090; in 1831, 2,807. Houses 577. As
sessed property, in 1815, £5,803  Turriff is the
seat of a presbytery in the synod of Aberdeen. Pa
tron, the Earl of Fife. Stipend £232 4s. ; glebe
£15. Unappropriated teinds £427 14s. 3d. In
1834 the parish-school was attended by 118 scho
lars; three private schools by 122; and nine female
schools, each by about 20. Salary of the parochial
schoolmaster — who employs an assistant — £34 4s.,
with from £41 to £42 fees, and £18 Is. 8d. other
emoluments. Turriff, a small town and a burgh-of-barony,
near the centre of the above parish, half-a-mile from
the most easterly curve of the Deveron, 11 miles
south-south-east of Banff, 16 north-east of Huntly,
and 34J north-north-west of Aberdeen. Its chief
structures are the handsome modern parish-church,
a venerable old disused church, an Episcopalian cha
pel, the parish schoolhouse, and a market-cross.
Near the churchyard-gate, and between it and the
cross, is part of the vaults of an ancient tower,
whence the west end of the town has derived the
name of the Castlehill. The Knights- Templars ap
pear to have had an establishment at the town, or
property in its vicinity ; and a spot of ground on
the south still bears the name of Temple-brae. An
hospital or almshouse was built at Turriff, in 1272,
by Alexander, Earl of Buchan, and dedicated to St.
Congan. The EstabUshment had a master and six
chaplains, who wore the dress of secular monks ; it
maintained 13 decayed husbandmen of the district
'of Buchan ; and it possessed, with some limitations,
the right of sanctuary for criminals. King Robert
Bruce appears to have further endowed it for the
maintenance of a chaplain to say masses for his
brother Nigel Bruce, siain by the English after their
capture of the castle of Kildrummie. The parsons or
prebends of the parish seem to have always been the
masters of the hospital ; at all events, they held the
lands with which the Earl of Buchan had endowed
it from the beginning of the 15th century till the
Reformation. In 1511, the whole Kirklands, vil
lage, and glebe, were, by a charter under the great
seal, erected into a free burgh-of-barony, in favour
of Thomas Dickson, prebend of Turriff. Varipus
pieces of land, devoted by the charter to the use of
the feuars, continue unalienated. The town is now
a seat of industry, manufacture, and inland trade. A
carpet-manufacture, begun in 1760, proved a failure.
A linen and thread manufacture, commenced in 1767,
also faUed, but was subsequeutly revived and ex
tended. An extensive bleachfield has existed for
about 75 years. The town has branch-offices of the
North banking company, and the Commercial bank
of Scotland. Annual fairs are held on the Wednes
day after the last Tuesday of January, the last

TUS

774

TWE

Wednesday of March, the second Friday, the Satur
day before the 26th, and the last Saturday of May,
the Wednesday before tbe last Saturday of June,
the Wednesday after the last Tuesday of July, the
Wednesday after the first Tuesday of October,
the Saturday before the 22d of November, and the
Saturday before the 25th of December, — all old
style. Population, in 1801, 750.
TUSHIELAW. See Ettrick.
TWEED (The), a river which, directly or by
tributaries, drains nearly the whole area of ihe cen
tral and eastern Border counties of Scotland, and of
the detached districts of Durham and the north
corner of Northumberland in England. It usually
ranks in importance as the fourth of the Scottish
rivers, the Tay, the Forth, and Clyde being respec
tively pronounced the first, the second, and the third.
But, estimated according to the extent of country
which it drains, it far surpasses every Scottish river
except the Tay ; for, while the Spey, which this
rule places next to it, drains only 1,300 square miles,
and the Clyde, which is next to the Spey, drains only
1,200, the Tweed drains 1,870. The Scottish coun
ties with which it has connection are Peebles, Selkirk,
Roxburgh, Berwick, and the southern division of
Edinburgh ; and, excepting a tiny nook of Peebles
drained by the head-waters of the Mid-Lothian Esks,
the parish of Castletown, and some very small pendi
cles in Roxburghshire, and the north-east division or
about a fourth of Berwickshire, these counties are
entirely within its basin. In two great head-waters,
the one of which bears the name of Tweed from the
outset, while the other is throughout called the Lyne,
it rises respectively in the south-west and the north
west extremities of Peebles-shire ; by the head-
streams of the Ettrick, the Yarrow, and' the Teviot,
it drains Selkirkshire and Roxburghshire from the
furthest west ; by the Gala, the Leader, the Whit
adder, and other streams, it draws off the waters
from ihe southern acclivities of the Moorfoot and the
Lammermoor hills, even from a line but 11 or 12
miles south of Edinburgh ; and from its remotest
source to the sea at Berwick-upon-Tweed, it per
forms, irrespectively of windings, a run of about 100
miles, about one-third of which is in Peebles-shire,
and about another third through or in contact with
Roxburghshire. The popular and the really remotest source of the
Tweed is a paltry fountain called Tweed's-well, a
little above the farm-house of Tweedshaws, and at
the foot of a hill named T weed's-cross, on the south
western boundary of the parish of Tweedsmuir,
Peebles-shir e. The well is half-a-mile from Lanark
shire on the west, the same distance from Dumfries
shire on the south, and 1,500 feet above the level of
the sea. From other sides of the hill where it springs
up proceed rills to the gathering or incipient volumes
of the Clyde and the Annan; yet not such rills as
can with any justice be pronounced more than sec
ondary head-streams of these rivers. Over 22 miles
from its origin the Tweed runs prevailingly north
eastward ; and, over the remaining 14 miles of the
Peebles-shire part of its course, in the direction of
east by south. While performing this run it tra
verses Tweedsmuir 'and a limb of Drummelzier; di
vides Glenholm, Stobo, and a small part of Peebles,
on the left, from Drummelzier; a wing of Stobo and
Manor on the right ; runs across Peebles ; and then
has, on the left, a small part of Peebles and the whole
of Innerleithen ; and, on the right, Traquair and a
very small part of Yarrow. The independent sec
ondary feeders — rills and brooks of 5 miles and less
in length — which enter in Peebles-shire, are not fewer
than between seventy and eighty ; and, though in
dividually trivial, they aggregately pour into it a con

siderable volume of water. The chief of the larger
Peebles-shire tributaries, on the left bank, are the
Biggar, between Glenholm and Stobo; the Lyne,
between Stobo and Peebles ; the Eddlestone, at the
town of Peebles ; and the Leithen, at the village of
Innerleithen,— and, on the right bank, are the Fruid
and the Talla, in Tweedsmuir; the Manor, between
Manor and Peebles ; and the Quair, nearly opposite
the Leithen. During its connexion with Selkirk
shire and Roxburghshire the Tweed continues, as in
the latter part of its course in Peebles-shire, to run
prevailingly eastward, till the last 9 or 10 miles;
and, over these, it runs in the direction of north
east by east. In a small part of this run it divides
Selkirkshire from Roxburghshire ; and in two places
it divides Roxburghshire from Berwickshire. The
parishes, on its left bank, are Innerleithen, Stow, the
original Galashiels, the larger part of Melrose, Mer
ton, Makerston, part of Kelso, Ednam, and Eccles ;
and, on its right bank, are Yarrow, Selkirk, the an
nexed part of Galashiels, the smaller part of Melrose,
St.. Bos'well's, Maxton, Roxburgh, part of Kelso, and
Sprouston. Its minor tributaries here are only be
tween twenty and thirty ; and the chief of its larger
tributaries, from the north, are the Cadon, between
Stow and Galashiels; the Gala, between Galashiels
and Melrose ; the Allan, in Melrose ; the Leader,
between Melrose and Merton ; and the Eden, in
Ednam ; — and, from the south, are the Ettrick, be
tween Selkirk and Galashiels ; and the Teviot, at
the town of Kelso, — the former previously augment
ed by the Yarrow, and the latter by far the largest
of the Tweed's tributaries, and almost a rival of its
upper stream in • importance. After leaving Rox
burghshire the Tweed is but partially a Scottish
river; -it divides Berwickshire from. England till
within 4J miles of tbe sea, and then bids adieu to
Scotland, and runs between England and the Liber
ties of Berwick. Its course for 4 or 5 miles after
leaving Roxburghshire, and again for about 5 miles
before entering the sea,is eastward ; and over the in
termediate distance it is in the direction of north-east
by north. The Berwickshire parishes which it di
vides from England are Eccles, Coldstream, Lady
kirk, and Hutton ; and the chief tributaries which
enter it below Roxburghshire rare, on the left bank,
the Leet, in Coldstream ; and the Whitadder,'' in the
Liberties of Berwick, — and, on the right bank, the
sluggish TiU 3 miles below the mouth of the Leet.
The only towns and considerable villages on or
near the margin of the Tweed are Peebles and In
nerleithen, in their cognominal parishes, and both on
the left bank, in Peebles-shire ; Darnick and Mel
rose, on the right bank, and Gattonside on the left,
in the parish of Melrose; Lessudden, in St. Both-
well's ; Kelso, on the left bank, in its cognominal
parish ; Birgham, in Eccles ; Coldstream, at the
mouth of the Leet ; Comhill, nearly opposite Cold
stream, but half-a-mile into the interior of Northum
berland ; Norham, on the right bank, opposite Lady-'
kirk ; and Berwick, on the left bank, a little above
the embouchure with its suburb of Tweedmouth on
the Durham side of the stream—The mansions upon
the Tweed, even those which command special at
tention by their architectural elegance and the rich
ness of their pleasure-grounds, are too numerous to
admit of succinct enumeration ; yet, without invi-
diousness to the many which might justly be regarded
as temples of taste, Abbotsford, the seat of Sir Walter
Scott, the son of our national novelist, in Melrose ;
and Fleurs-castle, the seat of the Duke of Roxburgh,
in Kelso, may be named as particularly attractive.—
The Tweed was long, and to a very late period, re
markable for poverty in bridges ; and between Peebles
and the sea, a distance of upwards .of 70 miles was

THE TWEED.

775

totally unprovided with them, except with one at
Berwick. Bleau's Atlas Scotiae, printed at Amster
dam in 1 654, says, when noticing the bridge at Pee
bles : " Quinque arcus habet — alium pontem, non
patitur Tueda, donee Bervicum, pertingat." But
now, between Peebles and Berwick, there are eleven
bridges ; a private suspension one at Kingsmeadows,
in the parish of Peebles ; a new public timber one at
Innerleithen ; a public one at Yair, between Selkirk
and Galashiels ; a fine new one on a recent cut of
mail-road near the mouth of the Ettrick ; a spacious
stone one at Darnick ; a public suspension, one for
pedestrians at Melrose and Gattonside ; a public one
at Drygrange, near the mouth of the Leader ; a pri
vate suspension one at Dryburgh, in Merton ; a mag
nificent stone one at Kelso ; an elegant stone one at
Coldstream; and a very splendid carriage-way sus
pension one at Paxton, in the parish of Hutton.
The Tweed and the Clyde, for many miles from
their source, flow so nearly in one direction as never
to diverge to any great distance from each other,;
and, so long as they continue nearly parallel, they
flow upon almost the same level, and keep on a high
table-land of country, as if hesitating whether to
unite their waters or remain separate, and whether
to turn their final course toward the eastern or the
western ocean. In the vicinity of Biggar, where the
Clyde is 7 miles from the Tweed, and 30 from its
own source, and flows along a country by no means
mountainous, the indigenous waters descend from
within half-a-mile of it to the Tweed ; and 10 or 11
miles lower down, running in an opposite direction
. to that long pursued by the two great streams, splits
its waters and sends them away in two separate de
tachments respectively to the Tweed and the Clyde:
see Biggar and Tarth. Tradition says thai, in
former times, before Glasgow had acquired its com
mercial character, a project was conceived of turning
the Clyde into the Tweed, with the view of render
ing the latter navigable to a great distance along the
Merse ; and, in favour of the project, had it ever been
attempted, there existed the remarkable facilities,
that, immediately south of Biggar, a bog extends all
the way between the rivers, that its waters flow to
the Tweed, and its surface is only a few feet above
the level of the Clyde, and that abundance of ma
terials are at hand for erecting a dam-dyke. Another
tradition — a grinningly monkish one — ascribes an at
tempt at a similar project to the reputed wizard,
Michael Scott: see Clyde. _ Of the 1,500 feet of
the Tweed's total aggregate fall from its source to
its embouchure, 1,000 are achieved when it reaches
the town of Peebles. In the very long run between
that town and the sea, therefore, the river might be
expected to become sluggish in current, and, over a
considerable distance, navigable. But it accom
plishes its remaining fall of 500 feet in so many and
so far-apart and so comparatively gentle descents, as
to be altogether a stream of beauty, and a stranger
to matters of commerce. It abounds in deep pools
and in long stretches of scarcely perceptible current ;
yet, in almost every sweep of it which can come
under the eye in the course of its beautiful bends
and sinuosities, it presents one or more soft rapids,
sometimes of considerable length, where the surface
of the water is carried along with just sufficient speed
to feature it all over with dimples, and ripples, and
glassy slides, and whirls. The banks of gravel or
pebbles which form these rapids, and, in one instance,
2 or 3 miles above Kelso, of a perforated broad
wacke-dyke quite across its channel, render it both
naturally unfit, and artificially unimprovable, for
navigation. Yet ferry-boats are stationed upon it in
manv localities, and have very ample depth of water;
and small flat boats used in salmon-fishing, and pro-

vincially called trows, are freely navigated even over
the fords. A few miles from its embouchure, too, it
loses its prevailing character, and becomes capable of
admitting sailing-craft. The tide flows to Norham-
castle, 10 miles above Berwick; and up to New-
water-ford, 6 miles above Berwick, it produces suffi
cient depth to float, at any time, a vessel of 30 tons
burthen. The real navigation of the Tweed, how
ever, is all confined to Berwick ; and, as to either
capaciousness or depth of sea-room and harbourage
afforded for it, might be quite as well accommodated
in many a nameless creek or tiny bay in the raggedly
indented parts of the Scottish coast. As the Tweed,
while thus undisturbed by traffic, is nearly as much
untinctured by the liquid outpourings of manufac
tories, and as it has, in general, a clean, shining,
many-coloured path of gravel and pebbles, it almost
everywhere possesses a remarkably limpid and spark
ling appearance,— such as, combined with the ma
jestic mirthfulness of its current, and with the pre
vailing brilliant beauty of its banks, to suggest
serenely joyous images to a tasteful observer of
-landscape. The Tweed possesses none of the wild romance,
the bold and startling groups of picture, or the im
pressive and at times awful grandeur of such rivers
as the Garry, the Tummel, and the Upper Tay ; but,
in all the properties which gently please, and sooth
ingly fascinate, and lusciously excite, it is surpass
ingly rich, and not a little various. Till it debouches
into the Eden-like vale of Melrose it is aggregately
a pastoral stream ; yet has stretches of haugh and
arable hanging plain, which look like gentle pictures
within the rough bold framework of the surrounding
hills. Its vale, for a considerable distance from the
commencement, is prevailingly cold, naked, and nar
row; but, long before reaching Peebles, and at in
tervals ever after, it is occasionally warmed and em
bellished with wood, and presents charming alterna
tions of gorge, glen, and variously fashioned haughs.
Its screens or flanking heights, except at the open
ings where large tributaries bring down lateral glens,
are so closely pressed behind by towering elevations
and so huddled together in their ridgy extensions, as
to command no extensive views ; yet, by their green,
soft surfaces,- and their finely curved outlines, iu
combination with the woods on their skirts, and the
cultivation in the haughs which they enclose, they
give, in compensation, many agreeable close pictures.
While it traverses the plain of Melrose, it is so over
shadowed by orchards and broadly sheeted from the
margin with tbe most ornately culti vated plain, and
picturesquely screened in the brief distance by the
Eildons and Cowdenknowes and diversified sylvan
heights as to seem like a river luxuriating ih beauty..
From this vale to about the point where it leaves
Roxburgh it has seldom on its banks any considerable
expansion of. haugh, but is, in general, shut in by
hanging plains and soft rising grounds, all green, or
arable, or wooded, allowing very limited views of its
immediate channel, but cutting it into series of.
delightful small scenes and commanding brilliant
stretches of dale landscape from the Eildon hills to
the Cheviots. But at Kelso and a little above, where
the mnjestic and. richly jewelled river rolls past the
termination of the broad gay path of the almost rival
Teviot coming down to pay it princely tribute, a
scene of blushing and brilliant beauty expands around
it, on which, the imagination lives as if it were a re
miniscence of paradise : see Kelso, Makerston,
and Roxburgh. From Roxburghshire, or rather
from Kelso, to the sea, the Tweed is a magnificent
and imposing stream, and uniformly maintains its
characteristic transparency, and winds in constant
bend and tortuosity along its career, and, in a general

TWE

776

TWY

view, moves in a gigantic furrow, a Lowland glen,
exuberantly clothed with wood, and spreading away
in a terrace broad as the Merse, and delicately fea
tured with all the properties of a great and highly
cultivated plain.
The salmon fisheries of the Tweed were formerly
of great value, but, of late years, have suffered a de
preciation to the very great amount of about two-
thirds. The protrusion of the pier of Berwick, the
general use of lime in the fields drained into the river,
and an undue increase in the number of boats em,
ployed in fishing, have all been assigned as causes,
and severally pronounced by competent judges to be
either irrelevant or so feeble as to correspond in no
considerable degree to the effect. The real cause,
or at least the prime and by far the most powerful
one, appears to be the illegal destruction offish, dur
ing the close season, in the higher Tweed and its
tributaries. The practice exists to an extent greater
than could be readily credited, and is carried on with
an amount of system and skill add daring which,
if the object were good, and the result not delete
rious to the health of the parties themselves, and the
conservation of »he fisheries, would be not a little
commendable. The rental of the whole of the fish
eries on the Tweed averaged about £12,000 a-year
for the seven years preceding 1824. The most valu
able fisheries are within 2 miles of the river, and the
rental of those within 7 miles of the mouth was about
£9,000 a-year. The produce of the fisheries on the
Tweed for the twenty-nine years preceding 1824
averaged about 8,000 boxes each year.
TWEEDDALE, the ancient and still the popular
name of Peebles-shire: which see. The district,
under this name, gives the title of Marquis to the
noble family of Hay. In 1646 Baron Hay of Yester
was created Earl of Tweeddale ; and in 1694 the Earl
was made Marquis of Tweeddale, Earl of Gifford,
and Viscount of Walden. The family-seat is Yester-
house, in the parish of Yester, Haddingtonshire.
T WEEDEN, a rivulet of 5 miles in length of run,
which falls into the Liddel, half-a-mile below New
Castletown, Roxburghshire.
TWEEDSMUIR, a parish in the south-west ex
tremity of Peebles-shire ; bounded on the north-west
and north by Drummelzier ; on the east by Megget ;
on the south-east and south by Dumfries-shire ; and
on the west by Lanarkshire. It is not very far from
being a regular circle'of about 8£ miles in diameter.
The surface is a congeries of mountainous hills with
narrow intervening flats and morasses. The hills, in
general, are luxuriant in verdure on the sides, and
often boggy on the tops ; affording, on the former,
rich supplies of pasture and even crops of hay, and,
on the latter, a iarge proportion of the local supply
of fuel. They are broad-based, slow of ascent, soft
in outline, and summited with table-land. Horses
can easily ascend them, and, even without difficulty,
bring down loads of turf. The highest elevations
are Hartfell and Broadlaw, the loftiest south of
the Forth and the Clyde : see these articles. The
district is as eminently pastoral in the richness of its
herbage, and the prime quality of its flocks, as in the
mountainousness of its physical features. About
16,000 sheep are pastured ; rather more than half of
them Cheviots, and the rest black-faced. Only about
280 acres are in tillage ; though, but for the distance
and expense of lime and other appliances, a large
aggregate extent of the lower declivities of the hills
might easily be subjected to the plough. Grey
wacke seems to be all but the only rock, to the
exclusion, so far as is known, of even a foot of any
of the secondary formations. The river Tweed ori
ginates and has its first 10 miles' run in the parish ;
and, in return, gives its name as the prenomen of

that of both the district itself and several of its lo
calities. No fewer than about twenty-five indigenous
and independent streamlets fall into it before it de-
parts, and render it, even in this lofty land of its
infancy, not altogether unimportant in volume. The
chief of these streamlets are the Fruid and the
Tala : which see. Gameshope-loch, about 600
feet in diameter, is probably the loftiest lochlet in
the south of Scotland, and abounds in excellent dark-
coloured trout. A peculiarly fine perennial spring,
called Geddes'- well, sends out a rill near the summit
of Broadlaw. The Edinburgh and Dumfries mail
road passes up the Tweed, and leaves the parish at a
point 132 feet higher than that river's source, or up
wards of 1,600 feet above sea-level. The locality at
which it takes leave is called Tweed's-cross, and is
supposed tp have been first a station for the Druidical
worship of the sun, and next the site of a cross
erected as a road-mark in so wild and hazardous a
mountain-pass  Vestiges of ancient castles exist at
Fruid, Hackshaw, and Oliver; the first, the pro
perty of the Earl of Wemyss, as Earl of March ; the
second, the ancient residence of the family of Por-
teous, the chief of that name ; and the third, the
paternal seat of the Frasers, now of Lovat — The
principal landowners are the Earl of Wemyss and
Sir James Montgomery of Stanhope, Bart. Popula
tion, in 1801, 277; in 1831, 288. Houses 49. As
sessed property, in 1815, £3,840. — Tweedsmuir is
in the presbytery of Peebles, and synod of Lothian
and Tweeddale. Patron, St. Mary's college, St.
Andrews. Stipend £227 9s. 5d. ; glebe £12 10s.
Unappropriated teinds £151 5s. 6d. Schoolmaster's
salary £32, with about £12 fees, and about £2-other
emoluments. There is a private school. The parish
anciently formed part of Drummelzier, and was made
a separate erection in 1 643.
TWYNHOLM, or Twineham, a parish extend
ing in a long stripe from north to south, in the south
ern division of Kirkcudbrightshire. It is bounded
on the north by Balmaghie ; on the east by Tong
land ; on the south-east by tbe river and estuary of
the Dee, which divide it from Kirkcudbright; on
the south by Borgue ; and on the west by Borgue
and Girthon. Its length is 9| miles; its greatest
breadth is 2£; and its mean breadth is about IJ.
Tarf-water is the boundary-line for nearly 2 miles
with Tongland. The Dee is in contact with the
border from the influx of the Tarf to a point a little
below St. Mary's Isle, where it is 1 J mile broad ; and
it offers the parish all such advantages as it gives to
the burgh of Kirkcudbright, situated on its opposite
bank. The rivers and two brooks abound in both
variety and quantity of fish ; and the latter possess
advantageous water-power for driving machinery.
Three lakes, — Whinnion, Trostrie, and Glengap, —
the first much the largest, and measuring about 2£
miles in circumference, have various sorts of trouts.
The surface, as seen at a distance, seems an elevated
plain ; but seen immediately under the eye, is over
the southern and central districts distributed into
knolls and arable hills with an interspersion of small
valleys, and with some haugh-ground on the Tarf
and the Dee, and, over the northern district, be
comes ruggedly hill, a congeries of heathy upland,
entirely and wildly pastoral. Only about two-thirds
of the area, from the southern boundary upward, are
inhabited. The soil of the arable lands is variously
clay, moss, gravel, sand, and mixtures, generaUy lies
upon ro«k and partly upon till, and being, for the
most part, light, dry, and rich, repays the skilful and
industrious farmer with exuberant crops of grass and
corn. More than one-half of the parish in value,
though not in extent, belongs to the Earl of Selkirk,
whose seat is at St. Mary's Isle, on the opposite bank

TYN

777

TYN

of the Dee. Plantations cover the rising grounds
which confront his lordship's residence, and rise in
scattered and beautifying clumps over the whole of
his estate ; and they exist, also, to a small extent,
in other districts. Of an extensive ancient, forest,
which once flung perpetual shade over this part of
Galloway, the only remnant is a patch Tound the
ruin of Cumston-castle, — an old building belonging
to the Earl of Selkirk, and pleasantly situated on
an eminence a little below the confluence of the
Tarf and the Dee. There are in the parish five
moats, and a Gallows-hill. Various mansions adorn
the south and centre, but especially the eastern side,
looking dpwn upon the rivers. " The house of Bar-
whinnock, seen from the highway which passes by
Twynholm-kirk; with the ornamented grounds about
it ; the little clumps of larches, silver-firs, and other
pines scattered near ; and the numerous snug-look
ing small farm-houses interspersed; with the two
oval hills, — the Bar and the Doon, limiting the fore
ground on the east and the west sides, — form alto
gether a very interesting landscape. The church of
Twynholm below the manse, the glebe in a fine
state of cultivation, and a little village named from
the church, and half-hid in an adjacent glen, compose
another cheerful, animated prospect." The erection,
60 years ago, of a large building, which was meant to
be a distillery, and was afterwards converted into a
cotton-factory, occasioned the rise of a second small
village. The mail or miUtary road between Dum
fries and Portpatrick goes diagonally across the par
ish. Population, in 1801, 683; in 1831, 871. Houses
128. Assessed property, in 1815, £7,998  Twyn
holm is in the presbytery of Kirkcudbright, and synod
of Galloway. Patron, the Earl of Selkirk. Stipend
£225 Us. Id.; glebe £40. Unappropriated teinds
£210 10s. 6d. Schoolmaster's salary £34, with £15
fees, and £2 other emoluments. There are 2 non-
parochial schools. The present parish comprehends
the ancient parishes of Twynholm and Kirkchrist :
see Kirkchrist. The church of Twynholm was
anciently a vicarage under the monks of Holyrood.
When Episcopacy was re-established by James VI.,
the parson was constituted a member of the chapter
of Galloway. In the reign of Charles I. the barony
of Twynholm, or Cumston, with the castle, and
manor-lands, and the salmon-fishing on the Dee,
belonged to Lord Kirkcudbright.
TYNDRUM, a viUage at the head of Strathfil
lan, in the parish of Killin, Breadalbane, Perthshire.
It stands on the western military road, about 20
miles west of the village of KiUin, 12 miles east of
Dalmally, and within a mile of the mountain water
shed with Argyleshire, and of the remotest source
of the southern great head-stream of the Tay. Pen
nant supposed, but very mistakenly, that it is the
highest inhabited spot in Scotland. A road branches
off from it to Glencoe, and is noted for wildness and
oppressive dreariness. The village itself is remark
able for the surpassing irksomeness of its position.
" If no one would wiUingly go to Tyndrum a second
time, or remain there an hour ; so, no one will from
choice take the road from this point to the King's-
house and Glencoe." The vicinity is rich in variety
and rareness of minerals. , A lead-mine has been its
main support, but, on account of doubtful produc
tiveness, has been at different times wrought and
abandoned as the price of the metal fluctuated— At
Dalrigh or Dalrie, ' the King's field,' in the neigh
bourhood, King Robert Bruce, after a very severe
and unsuccessful public engagement, displayed his
personal strength and courage in single combat with
the Lord of Lorn. " There is a tradition," says Sir
Walter Scott, " in the family of the Macdougals of
Lorn, that their chieftain engaged in personal battle

with Bruce himself, while the latter was employed
in protecting the retreat of his men . that Macdou-
gal was struck down by the king, whose strength
of body was equal to his vigour of mind, and would
have been slain on the spot, had not two of Lorn's
vassals, a father and son — whom tradition terms
M'Keoch — rescued him, by seizing the mantle of the
monarch, and dragging him from above his adver
sary. Bruce rid himself of these foes by two blows
of his redoubted battle-axe; but was so closely
pressed by the other followers of Lorn, that he was
forced to abandon the mantle and broach which fast
ened it, clasped in the dying grasp of the M'Keochs.
A studded broach, said to have been that which
King Robert lost upon this occasion, was long pre
served in the family of Macdougal, and was lost in a
fire which consumed their temporary residence."
This exploit is celebrated by Sir Walter Scott in the
following song, entitled ' The Broach of Lorn,'
supposed to be sung by the bard of Lorn at his
chieftain's request • —
" Whence the broach of burning gold,
That clasps the chieftain's mantle-fold,
Wrought and chased with rare device,
Studded fair with gems of price,
Ou the varied tartans beaming,
As, through night's pale rainbow gleaming
Fainter now, now seen afar,
Fitful shines the northeru star ?
" (rem I ne'er wrought on Highland mountain.
Did the fairy of the fountain,
Or tbe mermaid of the wave,
Frame thee in some coral cave ?
Did in Iceland's darksome mine
Dwarf's swart hands thy metal twine?
Or, mortal-moulded, comest thou here,
From England's love, or France's lear ?
" No !— thy splendours nothing tell
Foreign art ur faery spell.
Moulded thou for monarch's use.
By the overweening Bruce,
Wheu the royal robe he tied
O'er a heart of wrath and pride ;
Thence in triumph wert thou toru,
Bv the victor baud of Lorn 1
•' When the gem was won and lost,
Widely was the war-cry toss'd 1
Hung aloud Bendourish fell,
Answered Doucharfs souuding dell,
Fled the deer from wild Teyndruni,
When the homicide, o'ercome,
Hardly 'scaped with scathe and scorn,
Lett the pledge with conquering Luru I
" Vain was then the Douglas brand!
Vain the Campbell's vaunted hand '.
Vain Kirkpatrick's bloody dirk.
Making sure of murder's workl
Barendown fled fast away,
Fled the fiery De la Haye,
When this broach, triumphant borne,
Beam'd upon the breast of Lorn!
" Farthest fled its former Lord,
Left his men to brand and cord,
Bloody brand of Highland steel,
English gibbet, axe, aud wheel.
Let him fly from coast to coaBt,
Dogg'd by Comyn'B vengeful ghost,
While his spoils in triumph worn,
Long shall grace victorious Lorn.'"
Lord of the Isles, Canto IL Stanza 11, and Notes.
TYNE (The), a river of Lothian, originating in
Edinburghshire, but belonging almost wholly to
Haddingtonshire, and draining the larger part of its
area. The stream — with the characteristic unsettled
ness of the nomenclature of the Haddingtonshire
waters  gathers many head- waters, and runs a large
part of its course before its name ceases to be capri
cious and disputed. One incipient rivulet called the
Tyne issues from a lochlet in the extreme east of
the parish of Borthwick, and has a run of 7 miles
northward before entering Haddingtonshire. Over
this distance it divides Borthwick on the west from
Crichton on the east, sweeps past the village of Ford,
and cuts Cranston into nearly equal parts ; and after

TYN

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TYN

entering Haddingtonshire, it describes the segment of
a circle from a northerly to an easterly direction, over
a distance of between 4 and 5 miles, through the par
ishes of Ormiston and Pencaitland, to a confluence
half-a-mile east of East Pencaitland, whence all de
bate ceases respecting the application of tbe name.
Another rivulet, which claims to be the young Tyne,
is itself a coUection of four or five head-waters,
which rise in Borthwick, in Fala, in Soutra, and in
the extreme south of Humbie, and, after courses of
from 4 to 6J miles, attain a general confluence three-
fourths of a mile below Humbie church [see Hum
bie] ; and after this confluence, the stream proceeds
3 miles northward, to join, the competing head-
rivulet of the Tyne, — less than it in length of run,
but considerably greater in volume of water. The
Tyne, now of quite a fixed name, flows north-east
ward, nearly across the centre of the lowlands of the
county, to the sea at Tynninghame, 2| miles north
west of Dunbar, performing a run of 16 miles, or, if
measured from its remotest source, 28 miles. Till
it enters Haddington parish, it moves alternately on
and near the boundaries between Pencaitland and
Gladsmuir on the left, and Haddington on the right;
and it afterwards moves principally in the interior of
Haddington, Prestonkirk, and Whitekirk. Its banks
are studded with numerous and beautiful mansions,
with the capital of the county, and with the villages
of Pencaitland, Nisbet, Samuelston, Abbey, East
Linton, Prestonkirk, and Tynninghame. Its current
is placid, in many places dull and sluggish; but near
the village of Linton it has a kind of rapid, or tumbles
over some broken rocks. Its whole course is through
a rich agricultural country, rich in all the embellish
ments of culture, but quite devoid of any bold or
striking features of landscape. Proportionately to
its length of run it is a small stream ; and viewed
intrinsically, it scarcely claims to be more than a
rivulet; but it is subject to inundations of such sud
denness and magnitude, as, if not well resisted by
improvements along the margins, would make fearful
compensation for its usual littleness : see Hadding
ton. The tide affects it over a distance of about 2
miles, and expands at high- water into an extensive
lake, on what are called the Salt-Greens, in front of
Tynninghame-house, the seat of the Earl of Had
dington. The Greens form a very fine feature in
the grounds around that magnificent residence, and
are now a glittering sheet of water, and now an
expanse of verdant sward dotted over, with' sheep,
and, in summer, thickly powdered with sea-pink.
The river is of much value for driving corn-mills.
Its salmon-fisheries belong to the Earl of Haddington.
TYNE (The), a well-known river of England,
which has its sources in Scotland. Three head
waters rise respectively on the south side of Carlin
tooth in Southdean, and on the east side of Laurie-
ston-hills, and in Hob's flow in Castletown ; but
they have connection only from half-a-inile to IJ
mile with Scotland, and do not unite till 5 miles
after they leave it.
TYNNINGHAME, an ancient parish on the
coast of Haddingtonshire, now forming the southern
district of the united parish of Whitekirk and Tyn
ninghame : see Whitekirk. The name is the ham,
the ing, and the Tyne, of the Anglo-Saxon, collo
cated in reversed order, and meaning the hamlet of
the meadow of the Tyne ; and graphically describes
the position of the kirktown, 300 yards from the
northern margin of the Tyne, on a beautiful field
which gently slopes to the river's edge. The ori
ginal church was founded so early as the 6th century
by the celebrated St. Baldred, the Culdee apostle of
East Lothian; and was one of the three which, in a
subsequent age of superstition, contested the honour

of possessing his mortal remains. A creek near
Whitberry-point in the parish, bears the name of
St. Baldred's-cradle ; it is obliquely intersected at
the entrance by an insulated rock which occasions a
turbid and impetuous influx and efflux of the tide ;
and 'the Cradle of St. Baldred' is, in consequence,
poetically said, in popular adage, to be rocked by the
winds and waves. In 941, according to Hoveden
and tbe Melrose Chi onicle, Anlaf the Dane spoiled
the church of St. Baldred, and burned the village of
Tynninghame. A supposititious charter of Duncan
to St. Cuthbert grants him Tynninghame and five
other places in Haddingtonshire, three of which, —
Aldham, Scougal, and Knowes, — are in the present
united parish. The church of Tynninghame en
joyed of old the privilege of sanctuary. Patrick
de Leuchars, who was rector of it in the reign of
David IL, rose to be bishop of Brechin, and chan
cellor of Scotland. Roger de Musselburgh, who
succeeded him as rector, obtained, in 1366, a safe
conduct for himself and 20 horsemen to enter Ber
wick, and pay an instalment of David II. 's ransom;
and in 1372, be witnessed in the same town a nota
rial proceeding with regard to the paying of another
instalment. George Brown, who was rector in the
reign of James III., was raised by the party, who
overthrew that monarch to b'e bishop of Dunkeld,
and joined them in hunting the king to death on the
field of Stirling. The manor of Tynninghame, with
the patronage of the church, anciently belonged to
the bishops of St. Andrew's, and was included in
their regality lying on the south side of the Forth.
In 1552, it appears to have been conferred on the
college of St. Mary's in St. Andrew's, at the found
ing of that institution, by Archbishop Hamilton.
In 1565, a complaint was made by the parishioners
to the General Assembly, that though they paid their
tithes to the new college, they had as yet received
from it the benefit neither of preaching nor of ad
ministration of sacraments. The manor was for a
time held under the archbishop by the Earl of Had
dington; it was, in 1628, obtained by him in char
tered right under the great seal ; and it thence be
came the home-domain, the beautiful seat, gradually
the richly embellished forest and park-ground of the
noble family. The estate is famed in the east of
Scotland for the extent and singular beauty of its
woods and its holly-hedges. Upwards of 800 acres
of it wave with trees, chiefly of the various hard
wood species, and arranged in the most tasteful
forms of forest. Thomas, the 6th Earl of Hadding
ton, instigated by his lady, the sister of the 1st Earl
of Hopetoun, commenced the planting operations on
a great scale about the commencement of the 18th
century ; and must, in reference to their date and their
influence, and to the efforts which he used to pro
voke imitations of his example, be regarded as the
originator of the thousands of fine expanses of mo
dern plantation which now so generally beautify
Scotland. His first exploit was to plant Binning-
wood, a forest of 300 Scottish acres, over the whole
face of what was then a moorish common called
Tynninghanie-moor. The trees are arranged in radii
or avenues, diverging from three centres, and afford
ing extensive and beautiful walks and rides. The
Earl next drew sheltering belts along the enclosures
of fields; and then — boldly putting to the test a
received opinion, that no trees would grow near the
shore — he planted some expanses of sandy ground
upon the beach, which had been cheerless and bar
ren for man, and appreciated only by rabbits. Find
ing that his trees grew and were thriving, even at
the very lip of the beach, and fired by the success '
which had crowned his enterprise, he determined to
" fight no more with the cultivation of bad land, but

TYN

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TYR

to plant it all." Thus arose a forest which, while
the earliest modern one in Scotland, has become ex
celled by no one in the Lowlands for the beauty of
either its trees or its arrangements. The holly-
hedges were planted by the same nobleman as the
forest, and they more than rival it in fame. They
aggregately extend to about 9,000 feet; they have a
breadth of 10 or 11 feet at the base, and a height of
from 15 to upwards of 20 feet; they are arranged in
double rows, flanking very spacious walks or aven
ues; and they are clipped twice a-year, and kept
with great care, and in constant conservation. Nu
merous single hollies, each about 50 feet high, and of
proportionate circumference, are interspersed with the
forest, and enliven its aspect  Tynninghame-house
stands between 2 and 3 furlongs inward from the
north bank of the Tyne. Though a patchwork of
pieces added by each of the successive Earls, it has
had its exterior walls so entirely re-edified and re
modelled by the present Earl, as to possess uniquely
the appearance of a very large mansion in the old
English style. The interior retains, with little al
teration, its original form. Between the mansion
and the river, imbosomed in a clump of wood, are
two fine arches of Anglo-Saxon architecture, the
only remains of the ancient church, and now the
family cemetery of the Earls  -The little village of
Tynninghame stands a small distance west of the
enclosed grounds, 2 miles east-north-east of East
Linton, and 5| west-north-west of Dunbar.
TYNRON, a parish in Nithsdale, Dumfries-shire;
bounded on the north-north-east by Penpont; on
the east by Keir ; on the south and south-west by
Glencairn ; and on the west by Kirkcudbrightshire.
Its form is a slender oblong, extending north-west
and south-east. Its length is 9 J miles ; its breadth
gradually increases over two-thirds south-eastward
from 6 furlongs to 3£ miles, and diminishes over the
lower third to IJ mile ; and its superficial extent is
11,390 acres. The Skarr on the north-east boun
dary, and the Shinnel, along the whole of the in
terior, drain the entire district : See these articles.
The surface consists principally of the glen or strath
of the Shinnel, and two ranges of hills which form
its screens. The hills are for the most part green,
and, being exuberant in rich grass, constitute prime
sheep-pasture. The highest are Lamgarroch and
Coremilligan, each about 1,800 feet above sea-level.
The flocks maintained on the pastures are Cheviot
sheep crossed with Leicester rams, blackfaced sheep,
and chiefly Highland, but partly Ayrshire and Gallo
way black cattle. Very much land which, in other
circumstances, would have remained pastoral and un
enclosed, has, in consequence of the vicinity of lime
at Barjary and Closeburn, been reclaimed and sub
jected to the plough. Though very few acres are
flat, or strictly valley-grdund, about 2,500 are in
tillage. The soil is rather thin and sandy ; and the
crops are neither early nor luxuriant. Upwards of 400 |
acres are under wood, chiefly natural. Greywacke
is the prevailing rock ; clay-slate occurs in one small
bed at Corfardine, and was at one time worked ; and
Leydian stone occurs in a small bed at Shinnelhead.
The most interesting object in the parish is the Dun
or Doon of Tynron. This is a beautiful pyramidal
and steep hill, rising up on the peninsula of the Skarr
and the Shinnel, terminating the north-east hill
range of the parish, and commanding an extensive
and delightful prospect. Its summit, a small piece
of table-land, bears marks of having been the site
of a fortified castle, and, about a century ago, sup
plied from the ruins many building-stones which
must have been procured at 4 or Smiles' distance.

and laboriously carried up the difficult acclivity.
Ditches round the top are still partially traceable ;
and dense large woods anciently feathered its sides,
and stretched away from its hase. Robert Bruce
was conducted to the fortalice on the hill by Kirk
patrick of Closeburn, and probably made it his re
treat for some period after killing Comyn at Dum
fries. A Roman road leads from the Doon along
the face of the range to near the head of the par
ish ; and is, in many places, quite uncovered with
grass. One side of the hill has a projection whose
outline considerably resembles that of the nose on
the human face ; and hence received the name,
subsequently given to the parish, of Tin-droyn
in British, or Dun-ron in Irish, transmuted into
Tynron, and signifying the fortified hill with a nose.
The principal landowner is the Duke of Buccleuch.
The road from Minnyhive to Thornhill crosses the
foot of tbe parish ; and two roads go up respec
tively the Skarr and the Shinnel. The village of
Tynron -kirk, with scarcely 100 inhabitants, stands
on the Minnyhive road, 2£ miles from Minnyhive,
and 3 from Penpont. Population of the parish, in
1801, 563; in 1831, 493. Houses 90. Assessed
property, in 1815, £246. Tynron is in the presby
tery of Penpont, and synod of Dumfries. Patron,
the Duke of Buccleuch. Stipend £234 I8s. 3d. ;
glebe £30. Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 4d.,
with fees, and 10s. other emoluments. There is-'a
private school. The ancient church was a vicarage
of the monks of Holywood.
TYRIE, a parish near the north-east extremity
of Aberdeenshire ; bounded on the north by Aber
dour and Pitsligo ; on the north-east by Fraser
burgh ; on the east by Rathen, the detached dis
tricts of Aberdour and Fraserburgh, and by Strichen;
on the south by New Deer ; and on the west by
Aberdour. It forms a slender but much indented
oblong, extending from north-east to south-west. Its
greatest length is 7 J miles ; its greatest breadth
is about 3£ miles ; and its area is about 15 square
miles. Its surface exhibits hill, dale, and tiny val
ley, variously dressed in heath, moss, grass, corn,
and wood. The soil on the hills is comparatively
shallow, but in the valleys is generally deep ; and,
except where mossy or moorish, is, for the most part,
a fertile reddish-coloured loam. Much land on the
estates of Pitsligo and Strichen has been reclaimed,
enclosed, and embellished. The village of New
Pitsligo [which see] stands in the south. The
kirktown of Tyrie is situated on the northern fron
tier, 5 miles south-west of Fraserburgh. ^The road
from Peterhead to Banff runs across the south end of
the parish ; and that from Fraserburgh to Turriff ¦
runs along its north-west side. Population, in 1801,
1,044; in 1831, 1,613. Houses 492. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £2,437  Tyrie is in the presbytery
of Deer, and synod of Aberdeen. Patron, Lord
Saltoun. Stipend £158 7s. 7d. ; glebe £9 10s.
The church was built in 1800. Sittings 400. The
former church was supposed to have been built about
the year 1004, when the Thane of Buchan routed
the Danish army upon the neighbouring hills ; and
on one of its- pews it bore the date 1596. The south
ern district is included in the quoad sacra parish of
New Pitsligo. The remaining district, or Tyrie
quoad sacra, measures 5J miles by 2, and had, in
i835, a population of 785, of whom 698 were church
men, and 87 were dissenters. Schoolmaster's salary
£25 13s. 4d., with £12 fees, £8 6s. 8d. other emo-
foments, and a share of the Dick bequest. Five
private schools were attended, in 1834, by 202
scholars.

UDD

780

UIG

u

UDDINGSTON, a village in the middle ward,
and shire of Lanark, parish of Bothwell. It is 4
miles north-west of Hamilton, and is pleasantly
situated on the eastern bank of the Clyde.
UDNY, a parish in the district of Formartin,
Aberdeenshire. It is bounded on the north-west by
Bourtie and Tarves ; on the north by Tarves ; on
the north-east by Ellon and Logie-Buchan ; on the
east by Foveran and Belhelvie; on the south by
New Machar ; and on the south-west and west by
Fintray, the detached part of New Machar, and by
Keith-hall. It forms a belt of 6| miles by IJ mile,
extending from north to south ; but expands at the
middle to a maximum breadth of about 6 miles. Its
area is 8,380 acres. Its surface is partly undulated
and partly level ; the inequaUties nowhere amount
ing to more than small eminences or gentle hills.
The streams which drain it are three or four unim
portant affluents of the Ythan; all running east
ward, so as to indicate an easterly inclination of the
whole surface. The soil is, in general, a deep loam;
good, where lying upon rock ; and naturally marshy,
but now drained and improved where lying upon
clay. Distributing the whole area into 380 parts,
250 are in tillage, 19 are waste or pastoral, 9 are
under wood, and 2 are undivided common. The en
tire appearance is a combination of warmth, wealth,
and gentle beauty. Granite and limestone abound,
and are extensively worked. Pittrichie-house, A.
Milne, Esq., is a neat mansion ; Tillygreig, A. Har
vey, Esq., is a small but pleasant house; and Pit-
medden, Sir WiUiam C. Seton, Bart., has a large
and ancient garden, one of the most tastefully ar
ranged and best kept in the north. Dumbrake-
castle, on the Udny estate, consists of three stories ;
the first and second of which are vaulted, and the
third disposed in one spacious hall; and it has
enormously thick walls, and is believed to have
been built about the commencement of the 14th
century. A process of modernizing it was begun
about 40 years ago ; but has never been completed.
The north-eastern and eastern extremities of the
parish are distant 3 and 4 miles respectively from
Ellon and Newburgh ; and the interior is traversed
by one turnpike westward from Newburgh, and
another nofthward from Aberdeen. Population, in
1801, 1,242; in 1831, 1,309. Houses 257. Assessed
property, in 1815, £3,622  Udny is in the presby
tery of Ellon, and synod of Aberdeen. Patron,
Udny of Udny. Stipend £217 7s. 2d. ; glebe £10.
Unappropriated teinds £197 7s. 5d. Schoolmaster's
salary £30, with about £14 fees, and £5 10s. other
emoluments. There are two non-parochial schools.
UGIE (The), a river in the north-east of Aber
deenshire, rising 2| miles from the north coast at the
viUage of Aberdour, and entering the ocean on the
east coast, a mile north-west of the town of Pe
terhead. It issues from a lochlet near Windyheads,
in the parish of Aberdour ; and performs an entire
run of about 21 miles, generally in a south-easterly
direction. Its course, in the higher part, is through
Aberdour, Tyrie, the detached district of Aberdour,
and Strichen ; it next divides Strichen and Lonmay,
on its left bank, from New Deer and Longside on
its right ; and it finally passes through Longside,
and between St. Fergus and Peterhead to the sea.
Its chief tributary is the water of Deer, which joins
it in Longside, has a previous run of 15 or 16 miles,

and almost contests the palm of being the parent
stream. The Ugie is navigable for about IJ mile
from its mouth ; and, as its lower course is slow and
smooth, it might easily, and at a smaU expense, be
rendered navigable for 6 or 8 miles.
UI. See Aird.
UIG, an Hebridean parish, in the south-west of
Lewis, Ross-shire. It consists of Uig-Proper, and
the district of Carloway or Callernish. The former
is bounded on the north bythe ocean and Carloway;
on the east by Stornoway; on the south-east by
Lochs ; on the south by Harris and Loch- Resort ;
and on the west by the ocean. Its greatest length,
from north-east to south-west, is 22J miles ; its
greatest breadth is 1 7± miles ; and its area, exclusive
of water, is probably between 220 and 225 square
miles. Carloway is bounded on the west by Loch-
Roag ; on the north by the ocean ; and on the east
by Barvas ; it is nearly a square of 7 miles each way,
or 49 square miles in area ; and it is indented on the
coast by only two. small bays, and 6 or 7 creeks.
The north-western division of Uig-Proper is cut into
a labyrinth of islands and peninsula; by the numer
ous and intricate ramifications of Loch-Roag:
which see. A large and comparatively little in
dented peninsula between that sea-loch and Loch-
Resort, forms the south-western division, and sends
out two prominent headlands, the most westerly
ground in the island. Between these promontories,
the more northerly of which hears the name of Gal-
lan-head, and which are 3 miles asunder, enters the
bay of Uig, the most important one in the parish.
This bay penetrates the interior to the extent of 3J
miles, and has a mean breadth of about a mile ; and
while quite exposed, over 2 miles of its extent, to the
tremendous westerly gales and surges of the Atlantic,
it afterwards suddenly contracts, and then shoots out
into a series of sheltered creeks. Fresh- water lakes
are very numerous in most parts of the interior, and
reflect from their surface the brown, bleak features
of dismal moors, like the images of deformity from
the face of a mirror. The only noticeable one is
Loch-Langavat, a belt of waters 9J mUes long, and
chiefly on the boundary with the aptly named con
terminous parish of Lochs. The lakes, excepting
this one, rarely attain 6 miles in circumference ; they
abound with small trout ; and, owing to the moorish
ness of the grounds which their feeders drain, their
water has a brownish colour. There are four rivu
lets in which a few salmon are caught. The seas
and bays on the coast abound with cod, ling, dog
fish, coal-fish, and most kinds of shell-fish, and are
frequented by English vessels for supplies of lobsters.
The entire parish, though aggregately loftier ground
than any other in Lewis, exhibits, throughout the
interior, a continuous assemblage of low hills and flat
moors. Its sea-board is, for the most part, low ; has
a sandy soil ; and contains nearly all the cultivated
land. The soil of the interior is first thin, light, and
mixed with a little clay, and, farther back, almost
wholly moss ; yet it is extensively capable of im-
provement, and, with the aid of sea- weed for manure,
produces forced crops. The proportion which arable
grounds and good pasture bear to the moors, is
little, if any, more than as 1 to 20. The united
rental of this parish, and that of the adjoining parish
of Lochs, comprising together 249,918 imperial
acres, was, in 1841, £5,390. The parish compre-

UIG

781

UIS

bends four inhabited islands, the chief of which is
Bernera, eight pasture islands, and various waste
islets, in and near Loch-Roag; and the group of
Flannan or Flannel islands, seven in number, and
situated about 15 miles north-west of Gallan-head.
See Flannan Isles and Bernera. In Callernish
are very complete specimens of a Danish fort and a
Druidical temple. The fort is quite circular and
well-constructed, with a double wall of dry stone,
30 feet high, very broad at the base, and gradually
contracting towards the top, so as to resemble the
frustrum of a cone. The body of the temple con
sists of a circle of 12 stones or obelisks, mutually
about 6 feet asunder, and each about 7 feet high ;
with an obelisk 13 feet high in the centre. Due east,
south, and west of the circle, radiate 3 straight lines
of obelisks, each consisting of 3 stones ; and toward
the north diverge two straight lines of 6 obelisks
each, forming between them the avenue or entrance
to the temple — At Melista are remains of a nunnery,
still designated by a Gaelic name, which means ' the
House of the old black women.' A singular discovery
was made here in the course of 1840. A peasant of
the place, whilst digging in a sand-bank, found
several pieces of bone, most of them represent
ing kings, bishops, and knights, dismounted and on
horseback. The figures are of excellent workman
ship, and, judging from the costume, certainly of
very remote antiquity. That they were originally
carved for the ancient purpose of chess play seems
the most probable conjecture, and had been des
tined to relieve the sadness of cloistered seclusion.
With the other articles was found a buckle of the
same kind of bone or ivory, beautifuUy executed, and
in perfect preservation, as are all the rest. The
number of these chessmen — for such they are — ex
clusive of the 14 tablemen, or draughtmen, and
the fibula found with tbem, amounts to 67 ; of
which number 19 are pawns, the rest superior
pieces. Of these 6 are kings, 5 queens, 13 bishops,
14 knights, and 10 pieces, which we may designate
by the title of warders, which here, take the place
of the rook or castle, forming altogether the ma
terials of six or more sets. For the sake of dis
tinction, part of them were originally stained of a
dark red or beet-root cokmr ; but having been so long
subject to the action of salt water, the colouring
matter in most cases has been discharged. The
pieces vary also in size, according to the sets of which
they formed a part; and, although so many remain,
it is difficult at present to select even two sets which
correspond exactly  The population is segregated
in hamlets and villages ; and in each of several of
them amounts to 200 or 250. There are no carriage
roads. Population, in 1801, 2,086; in 1831, 3,041.
Houses 622. Assessed property, in 1815, £J3 
Uig is in the presbytery of Lewis, and synod of
Glenelg. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ;
glebe £7. The church was built in 1829. Sittings
upwards of 800. There is a catechist. School
master's salary £28, with from £2 to £3 fees, and
£3 other emoluments. Iu 1834, the parish-school
was attended by 51 scholars ; and two schools of the
Christian knowledge-propagation society, two of
the Gaelic school society, one of the Inverness edu
cation society, and a sixth non-parochial school, were
jointly attended by 574. Eight Sabbath schools are
attended by about 320.
UIG, a sea-loch and a village on the west coast
of the parish of Snizort, in Skye: See Snizort.
The village, says a late distinguished writer, " pre
sents one of the most singular spectacles in rural
economy, — that of a city of farms."
UIST (North), a large Hebridean island, nearly
in the centre of the Long Island chain, and politically

belonging to Inverness-shire. It is bounded on the
north-west by the Atlantic ocean ; on the north-east
by the sound of Harris ; on the south-east by the
Little Minch ; and on the south-west by a narrow,
complicated, and shallow strait, which separates it
from Benbecula, but is densely packed with islands
and a host of islets, and, at a place called the north
strand, is fordable between low-water and half-tide.
Its greatest length, from east to west, is 17 miles;
its breadth varies between 3£ and 13J miles, but
over the eastern half does not average more than
about 6 miles; and its area, in consequence of all the
eastern division being cut into indescribable laby
rinths by intersections of sea and lake, cannot be
very proximately ascertained. The peninsula? of all
imaginable forms, and the multitudinously water-
studded segments of land into which the eastern half
of it are cut, smile silent derision upon any attempt
at either enumeration or description. Much of the
surface of this district is a crowded segregation of
islets; and most 'of it is so boldly and intricately
peninsulated, that the whole appears, from almost
every vantage-ground, a continued range of slenderly
separated and curiously outlined islands. A large
proportion of the singular disseverments are effected
by the manifold ramifications of Loch-Maddy [which
see] ; another large proportion are effected by broken,
scattered, and many-armed fresh-water lakes ; and a
considerable proportion are effected by the offshoots
of Loch-Evort, — a marine inlet, whose main branch
runs nearly 7 miles right through the interior west
ward, to within IJ furlong of another slender sea-
loch from the opposite coast. The marine parts of
the intersecting waters form many safe and commo
dious harbours, which offer a welcome retreat to the
weather-beaten ship ; and both classes of waters, the
one with its foci and its sea-fish, and the other with
its trouts below and its flocks of wild geese, ducks,
and swans above, vie with the land in intrinsic
amount of value. The whole of the territory thus
cut into fragments is a dreary, flat, marshy moor, —
" a brown, peaty, and boggy tract," says Dr. Mac
culloch, " so interspersed with lakes and rocks as to
be nearly impassable, and producing a scanty and
wretched herbage for a few animals during the driest
months of summer, while in the winter it is resigned
to wild geese, ducks, and swans, who divide its waste
and watery region with the sea-gulls which the
ocean can no longer protect or feed." Yet the tract
is not all so low as its general character would seem
to indicate ; but presents in a frequently broken belt
of 2J miles mean breadth along the coast, a range of
hills, which gradually rise from the north to the
south, and vary in altitude between 300, and up
wards of 700 feet. — The western division of the
island is, comparatively speaking, continuous land;
and sends up, in lines from south-east to north
west, three distinct groups or ranges of heights.
One of these ranges bounds the sound of Harris;
and, though lifting its chief summits of Ben-Breach
and Ben-More, to nearly 1 ,000 feet of altitude, is of
tame appearance. The second range extends almost
from end to end of the district along very nearly its
middle, and sends up its principal eminence, Ben-
Croghan, to a height of 1 ,500 feet. The third range
is a prolonged and irregular group of much less ele
vation than the others, of a smooth and undulating
surface, and with declivities which fall off in gentle
slopes to the south-west. A belt of uneven low
land between this last group and the sea is exceed
ingly beautiful in summer and autumn, produces luxu
riant crops of oats and barley, and forms both the
chief and the most profitable area of arable ground
in the island. Its soil is naturally a mixture of clay
and peat, and, jointly by culture and bythe mixation

782

UIST.

of drift sand from the coast, it has become a rich and
fertile mould. All its sea-board, with the exception
of a few bo.d rocky headlands, consists chiefly of
various minutely comminuted shells; and these, in
their finely pulverized condition, are wafted over all
the tract by the powerful western winds, and fer
tilize it with all the power of rich lime manure.
Yet beautiful and productive as this district gener
ally is, it often in winter suffers such denudation of
its more tender and valuable grasses, by the action
of rain, frost, and storms, that the cattle which feed
upon it can find no sustenance, and must be sus
tained by the stores of the corn-yards or left to per
ish. — A cave, on the coast near the parish-church,
enters the solid rock by a regular arch ; and sports
so sublimely with the assailing surges during a storm,
as sometimes to fling them aloft from its mouth to a
height of 200 feet. Another cave, 3 miles distant,
is more extensive, and displays some impressively
grand phenomena. Barrows and remains of Danish
forts are numerous. A group of the former exists
in one of the sandy tracts of the north-west shore ;
and may be but a portion of a much larger group,
whose other parts have been overwhelmed or blown
away. The most remarkable of the forts, though
presenting little else than heaps of ruins, are situated
on small islands in lakes; and at least one. of these
is connected by a raised causeway with the shore.
Gneiss forms the great bulk of the island; argilla
ceous schist is the chief constituent of the range of
heights on the eastern shore; and trap occurs, among
the same heights, in numerous veins. The chief
useful mineral, apart from the building material of
the rocks, is a species of bog-iron accompanied by
pyrites, which, with the assistance of tormentil, ga-
lium, lichens, and other native plants, is employed
by the natives for dyeing  The island has nearly 50
miles of statute-labour roads, and about 30 miles
additional of good roads ; it has, of late years, expe
rienced a similar great change to what at an earlier
period took place in the Highlands by the introduc
tion of carts ; it has an inn at the packet-station in
Loch-Maddy, and three other inns on a line of road
which extends to the west coast ; it maintains com
munication twice a-week by packet with Skye, and
thence with the rest of Scotland ; but it continues a
stranger to the benefit so extensively conferred on
the other Hebrides by steam-navigation. Its nearest
mart, or that at. which any suitable interchange of
commodity can be effected, is Greenock or Glasgow,
distant about 200 miles. So great is the amount of
privation endured hy the inhabitants, that two wit
nesses beforethe Committee on Emigration expressed
a conviction that no fewer than 2,500 ought to be
removed. North Uist, along with various inhabited
islands in its vicinity, and a great number of pasture
islands, and of bare rocky islets, valuable only for
the seals which frequent them, constitutes a quoad
civilia parish. The chief islands are Kirkibost, II-
lery, Balishare, Gramesay, Kaillen, Valley, and Oron
say, all connected with the mainland by dry sands
at low water, and thickly inhabited ; Borreray, about
2 miles to the north ; and Heiskar, about 10 miles
to the west, and inhabited by about 50 individuals.
Population, in 1801, 3,010; in 1831, 4,603. Houses
797. Assessed property, in 1815,, £384. Rental,
in 1841, £3,641. Of about 55,240 Scots acres,
10,000 are arable  This parish is in the presbytery
of Uist, and synod of Glenelg. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £40. The parish-
church was built in 1764. Sittings 400. Districts
of the parish have been erected into the quoad sacra
parish of Trumisgarry [which see], and the mis
sion, of Carinish. The population of North Uist

qnoadsacra, or after deducting Trumisgarry, amount
ed in 1836. to 3,502; all of whom, except two, be
longed to the Establishment, and 1,350 to the mis
sion of Carinish. The church Of that mission was
built II or 12 vears ago. Sittings 396. Stipend
£80, of which £60 is paid from the Royal bounty.
In 1834 the parish school was attended by 57
scholars;' and 6 other schools by 287. Parochial
schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4d., with £10 5s. 7d.
UIST (South), an island in the Inverness-shire
section of the Long Island Hebrides,— -the largest in
the chain, south of Harris. It is bounded^ on the
north by a strait which separates it from Benbecula,
and which is shallow, packed with rocks and flat
islets, surpassingly intricate, and nearly dry in one
part at low water; on the east by the Little Minch;
on the south by a sound of from 5 to 8J miles broad,
which has several considerable isles, and is inter
spersed with sunk rocks ; and on the west by the
Atlantic ocean. Its greatest length, from north-
north-west to south-south-east, is 22 miles; its
greatest breadth is 7f miles ; and its area, including
interior and intersecting waters, is about 110 square
miles. Loch-Skiport, penetrating the east coast,
nearly 7 miles from the northern extremity, runs
north-westward across the island, assumes at the
further end the name of Loch-Gamoslechan, and cuts
off, from the main body of South Uist, a low flat
island which is cut into fragments and shreds by
slender, long, and forking bays, and bears the desig
nation of Iachdar. Loch-Eynort, penetrating the
same coast 7J miles farther to the south, runs west-
north-westward to within three furlongs of the west
coast, and sends off, in its progress, a profusion of
raggedly outlined and forking bays. Loch-Boisriale,
penetrating also the east coast, 3J miles from the
south-eastern extremity of the island, extends 4J
miles westward with several ramifications, and a
mean breadth of about a mile ; and at its head it
has communication with Loch- Allan, — a narrow
fresh-water lake of 3 miles in length, which ranges
along the west coast at the mean distance of 3 or 4
furlongs from tbe beach. These and other sea-lochs
which break the continuity of the east coast, dissever
all the eastern division of the.island into peninsulae;
and they wend and debouch with singular irregular
ity, and are powdered all over with rocky islets.
Six or seven of them form practicable natural har
bours ; Loch-Skiport is roomy and safe ; Loch-Ey
nort is good when entered, but presents danger from
a large sunk rock ; and Loch-Boisdale is one of the
best and most capacious in the Hebrides, and offers
a favourite retreat in stormy weather to vessels in
the Baltic trade. Three large fresh-water lakes,
and an almost countless number of small ones, are
diffused along the western side of this island ; and a
few occur also on the numerous peninsulas of the
east. Most are distinguished for either the quantity
or the quality of their fishy produce, and they are
generally shallow and impregnated with peat, and
appear to be the mere repositories of a general drain
age which has few outlets to the sea. With incon
siderable exceptions, perennial streams are unknown;
and the ephemeral torrents of which a few can be
traced flowing down the declivities during a heavy
fall of rain, vanish as they arose, because formed
solely by surface drainage. The universal prevalence
of hard gneiss rock, or of gneiss nearly granitic, pre
sents neither subterranean receptacles .for water, nor
fissures to transmit it, and occasions, throughout the
island, an almost total absence of springs. The .cli
mate, however, for an Hebridean one, is far from
being moist; the prevailing clouds from the west
generally sweeping along with rapidity, and encoun

UIS

783

ULL

' tering no material obstacle till they arrive at the
continent of Scotland.
The western side of South Uist presents an uni
form alluvial plain of peat ; interspersed, as we have
seen, with numerous lakes; and skirted along the
shore with a white fine sand, composed principally
of comminuted sea-shells. The eastern division is
upland ; but, in consequence of its disseverment by
sea-lochs, its heights have not the character of a
range, and may, in a general view, be regarded as
consisting of three separate groups. The group be
tween the south-eastern extremity and Loch-Bois-
dale comprises three or four somewhat distinct and
rounded eminences, scarcely 1,000 feet high, and
not extending so far west as to the head of the Loch.
The group between Lochs Boisdale and Eynort rise
to a higher altitude, and extend farther west than
the former ; and they enclose upon the ramifications
of Eynort, and on other waters, some beautiful se
questered valleys, which, though barren and deserted,
might possibly be worked into an aspect of rich and
ornate picturesqueness. The group north of Loch-
Eynort occupies apparently between a fifth and a
fourth of the island ; it forms a conspicuous ridge,
which is seen far at sea, and declines by a long
slope into Loch-Skiport ; it presents, in most of its
chief declivities, a profusion of rocky protuberances,
rounded and independently scattered ; and it sends
up, as its chief summit, to an altitude of between
2,500 and 3,000 feet, a mountain with some small
precipices ou its brow, which bears the name of
Hecla, and appears to have received it from the
Danes, but resembles its celebrated namesake only
in appellation. The only noticeable cave occurs
close by the sea at the foot of this lofty range ; but
it derives its main interest from having been one of
the hiding-places of Prince Charles Edward in 1746,
and is called the Prince's cave  The low sandy belt
along the west shore presents a most desolate ap
pearance, when stripped of its autumnal crops, and
ieft in wintry nakedness ; but, in spring, it is enli
vened with a rich growth of clover and other wild
flowers, exhibiting them in a gaiety and in a brilliancy
of colour, everywhere unknown except on kindred
soils, of fine calcareous sand ; and it is all arable,
and, with the assistance of the ordinary manures,
produces good crops of oats, barley, and potatoes.
The middle tract, or the belt of low country behind
the sand, is under cultivation where the ground is
firm and naturally drained by the lakes ; and else
where it is a gloomy sheet of black peat, undergoing
a gradual amelioration from the diffusion upon it of
the drift calcareous sand. A belt eastward of this,
and rising into low subsidiary hills, which skirt the
mountains, is deeply covered with peat, but, owing
to drainage by natural cuts, is capable of cultivation,
and offers inducements to general georgical improve
ment. The mountain district affords in the aggre
gate but poor pasturage ; and, though it might pro
bably be more profitably occupied as sheep-walk, it
is principally devoted to the rearing of black cattle.
Agriculture, though improved in some details, is in
general conducted on antiquated and thriftless prin
ciples ; but, of late years, great and successful atten
tion has been given to the improvement of the breed
of black cattle, and, in a few instances, to the intro
duction of the Cheviot sheep  A good statute-labour
road extends along the whole west coast. Only
four decked vessels, and these of small burden, be
long to tbe island and its dependencies. The post
communication is maintained by way of North Uist,
Skye, and Inverness, — the last nearly 200 miles dis
tant ; and market communication is maintained chiefly
with the Clyde. There is only one tolerable inn.
Much the greater part of the population are Roman

Catholics. A witness before the Emigration Com
mittee expressed a belief that the island is over
peopled to the amount of 3,500.
South Uist, along with Benbecula, Eris-
kay, and Rona, [which see,] and some smaller
islands, forms a parochial district. The parish is 40
miles in extreme length, and 8 in extreme breadth.
Population, in 1801,4,597; in 1831, 6,890. Houses
1,298. Assessed property, in 1815, £13,758. The
population was reduced, in 1836, to 6,492; of whom
4,713 were Roman Catholics. — The parish is in the
presbytery of Uist, and synod of Glenelg. Patron,
the Crown. Stipend £2S1, with an allowance of
£50 in lieu of manse and glebe. The parochial place
of worship is a house temporarily fitted up several
years ago. Sittings 200. The mission of Boisdale
has a territory of 12 miles by nearly 8 ; includes the
island of Eriskay ; and had, in 1836, a population of
1 ,989, — of whom 1,535 were Roman Catholics. The
place of worship was built in 1836. Sittings 230.
Stipend £70, of which £60 is paid from the Royal
bounty. The mission of Benbecula comprehends
that island and the South Uist district, or rather
island of Iachdar ; and had, in 1836, a population of
2,605, — of whom l,719.were Roman Catholics. The
place of worship was built about 18 years ago, at a
cost of about £'200. Sittings about 270. Stipend
£80 ; of which £60 is paid from the Royal bounty.
— There are two Roman Catholic charges ; both of
unknown date of establishment. The one in the
south end of the parish comprises two congregations,
who meet respectively in a thatched house and a
slated chapel, — the latter of which was built in 1827,
at a cost of about £300. Sittings, in the two, 706.
Stipend about £60. That in the north end of the
parish has a thatched chapel in Benbecula, built about
46 years ago, at a cost of £80 or £90 ; t thatched
chapel in Kilvanan, built 21 years ago, at a cost of
£70 ; and a neat chapel and minister's house in Iach
dar, built 13 years ago, at a cost of more that £500.
Sittings, in the three, 1 ,100. Stipend £50  In 1834
the parish-school was attended by 24 scholars ; and
eight other schools by 350. Parochial schoolmaster's
salary £26 8s. 6d., with £4 12s. fees, and £8 other
emoluments. One of the non-parochial schools was
supported wholly by fees ; one partly by the Inver
ness society ; one by the Gaelic society ; one by the
Glasgow Gaelic society; two by the General As
sembly ; and two by the Society for propagating
Christian knowledge.
ULBSTER. See Wick.
ULINISH, one of the Hebrides and part of the
parish of Killmuir. Here are the remains of a place
of refuge, built in the time of James VI. by Hugh
Macdonald, who was next heir to the dignity aud
fortune of his chief, and who suffered for engaging in
an execrable plot against the laird's life.
ULLAPOOL, a quoad sacra parish on the west
coast, partly of Ross-shire, but chiefly of Cromarty
shire. It was erected, in 1833, by authority_of the
General Assembly, out of the parish of Loch-Broom ;
and comprehends all of that parish which lies north
of the greater Loch-Broom, and west of pi line drawn
northward from the point of Corrie. Its greatest
length and breadth are respectively 25 and 12 miles.
Population, in 1836, about 2,400. The church is a
parliamentary one, and was huilt in 1829. Sittings
600. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £120; glebe
£2 12s. The minister officiates once a-month, iu
the district of Coigach. The rivulet Ullapool has 9
miles' length of course ; flows Westward ; expands,
in its progress, into Lochs Damph and Auchall ; and
falls into Loch-Broom, 2J miles above Ru-Ardibadiil,
where the loch suddenly contracts. The small bay
of Ullapool opens about £ of a mile above the mouth

ULV

784

UNI

of the rivulet. The village of Ullapool stands be
tween the bay and the rivulet, 30 miles north-east
of Poll-Ewe, 45 north-west by west of Dingwall, and
61 in the same direction from Inverness. Its site
is overhung by a long precipitous face of rock. It has
a small but safe, excellent, and well-kept harbour.
Regular packets sail between it and both Portree
and Stornoway ; but so miserable are the roads which
connect it with the interior, that inland communica
tion is very difficult, and the maintenance of a rural
police nearly if not quite impossible. The viUage
was built, in 1788, by the British Fishery society ;
and large sums were afterwards expended upon both
it and kindred establishments on the isles Martin and
Tanera, at the mouth of Loch-Broom. But the fail
ure, for a long series of years, of the herring- fishery
has reduced it to insignificance when compared with
its pristine condition, and has involved its inhabi
tants in comparative destitution. Its buildings, as a
fishing establishment, are greatly disproportioned to
the present state of its fishery. An abortive attempt
was made to make the village a seat of justice-of-
peace courts. There were only two justices, the one
an agent of the Fishery society, who had only £50
a-year, and the other a merchant in the village ; and
they neither possessed competent legal knowledge,
nor enjoyed sufficient popular respect. A chief reason
why all the circumjacent district wants good roads
is, ihat no landed proprietor resides in the vicinity
who might interest himself in their formation. Po
pulation of the village, in 1836, 730.
ULVA, one of the Argyleshire Hebrides, lying
between Loch-Tua and the entrance of Loch-na-
Keal, on the west coast of Mull. It is separated, on
the west, from Gometra by so narrow a strait that,
except as seen on its very shores, they appear to be
one island ; on the north and north-east, from Mor-
nish in Mull by Loch-Tua, which decreases east
ward from a breadth of IJ mile to a shallow and
very narrow strait; on the south-west, from Tor
osay in Mull by Loch-na-Keal, IJ mile broad ; and,
on the south, from Colonsay by a sound about a
mile broad. Its length, from east to west, is 4J
miles ; and its breadth is nearly 2 miles. The island
is distinguished for grand basaltic colonnades and
picturesque combinations of these with amorphous
masses of trap. Its surface rises from the shore in
successive ranges of terraces to an extreme altitude
of 1,300 or 1,400 feet. Its rocks are a dark bluish
trap, now columnar and now amorphous ; and an
amygdaloid, abounding in analcime and mesotype,
now above the trap, now below it, and now inter
posed between two ranges of its columns. Some low
hut well-formed colonnades occur along the shores.
The upper ranges seldom exceed 20 feet in height,
but are very numerous ; and they preserve little or
no continuity, but exist in detached parts which, in
numerous places, resemble fragments of walls and
ruined towers. The ranges, says Dr. Macculloch,
" are often as regular as those of Staffa, although on
a much less scale ; and pass gradually from that re
gularity of form into the most shapeless masses. In
many places they afford elegant and picturesque com
positions, which, although passed every day by the
crowds who visit Staffa, appear to have been un
noticed. If either their numbers, extent, or pictur
esque appearance be considered, they are more de
serving of admiration than even those of the Giant's
Causeway ; and had they been the only basaltic col
umns on this coast, they might have acquired the
fame which they merit. But' Ulva is eclipsed by the
superior lustre of Staffa; and, while the mass of
mankind is content to follow the individual who first
led the way, its beauties will probably be still con

signed to neglect.*' The island is inhabited, and has
acquired some embellishments from culture.
ULVA, an Hebridean quoad sacra parish, dis
joined, as a parliamentary church-district, from the
Mull parish of Kilninian and Kilmore in 1828, and
made a parochial erecton by the General Assembly
in 1833. It comprehends the islands of Ulva, Go
metra, Colonsay, and Staffa, and a portion of the
mainland of Mull. Population, in 1836, 1,050; ot
whom 260 were in Mull, and the remainder in the
islands. Patron, the Crown. Sittings in the church
320. Stipend £120; glebe £1. A Gaelic itinerat-
ing school is in Gometra, and a school of the Society
for propagating Christian knowledge in Ulva. There
are three Sabbath-schools.
UNICORN ROCK. See Bressay.
UNION CANAL (The), a splendid water-way,
extending from Port- Hopetoun at Edinburgh to Port-
Downie on the Forth and Clyde canal ; and, by means
of the latter navigation, connecting Glasgow with
Edinburgh, from which it is frequently termed the
Edinburgh and Glasgow canal. The success of the
Forth and Clyde canal, which extends from Port-
Dundas, Glasgow, to Grangemouth at the head of
the Firth of Forth, had long directed the attention
of the public to the expediency of forming a canal
which should take the benefit of that already in ex
istence, and thus form a continuous means of com
munication between the eastern and western capitals
of Scotland. The line was accordingly surveyed by
able engineers, and amongst others it was reported
upon and recommended by the well-known Telford,
who reported the proposed routes to be highly ad
vantageous in respect to the mineral districts through
which it passed, its possessing the most perfect drain
age, and the facility which it afforded for being
extended to East Lothian and Berwickshire. Ac
cordingly a prospectus was issued, and the scheme
met with the most favourable reception from the
public at both ends of the proposed canal, especially
from Edinburgh, who expected to receive, by means
of it, one of the first necessaries of life, viz., coal,
from the exhaustless western fields at a much more
moderate rate than they had hitherto been paying to
the Mid-Lothian coal-masters, by whom ihe price
was maintained at a monopoly standard. From these
parties, however, and from others who conceived
their interests affected by the measure, the proposed
canal met with, perhaps, a more determined opposi
tion than had ever assailed a private bill up to that
time, and the bill incorporating the company of share
holders did not finally pass till 1817. It was com
menced in 1818 and finished in 1822, in the January
of which year the committee of management made
the first survey of the whole line in the Flora Mac-
ivor passage-boat, though the canal was not opened
to the public for some time afterwards. The total
cost, up till this time, was little short of £400,000,
an amount vastly beyond the original sum at which
the works had been estimated, and to this cause, in
addition to the misconception as to the amount of
traffic likely to be obtained, may be attributed the
extremely unremunerating character which has all
along attached to this really useful and great national
undertaking. The line, as has been stated, com
mences at the Port-Hopetoun basin, at Edinburgh,
and extends to Port-Downie, near Falkirk, where it
joins the Forth and Clyde canal, by which the com
munication is carried on to Glasgow. From Port-
Hopetoun to Port-Downie, the distance is 31 i miles,
the length being caused by sinuosities in the line,
which were adopted to retain the level and avoid the
additional expense and delay of lockage. It passes
westward through part of the counties of Edinburgh,

UNI

785

UNS

Linlithgow, and Stirling, embracing the beautiful
and populous country in its route, as well as the
towns of Linlithgow and Falkirk. The parishes in
the county of Edinburgh, through which the line is
carried, are St. Cuthbert's, Colinton, Currie, Ratho,
and part of Kirkliston ; in Linlithgowshire, those of
Uphall, part of Kirkliston, Dalmeny, Abercorn, and
Linlithgow ; and in Stirlingshire, those of Muir
avonside, Polmont, and Falkirk. For about 10 miles
from Edinburgh the course of the line is westerly,
but it then makes a long sweep to the north, after
which its direction again changes, and it makes a
varied, though, in general, a north-west course, till
its termination, passing Falkirk on the south. Some
of the works on the Une are not only beautiful but
majestic in their construction. Near Slateford it is
carried over a ravine and the Water of Leith by a
bridge 65 feet in height, and 500 feet in length. It
is swept over the valley of the Avon, a little above
Linlithgow, by an aqueduct of still more stupendous
proportions, which is beautiful and imposing as a
work of art, and is seen to great advantage from
miles distant, as weU as from the line of the Edin
burgh and Glasgow railway, which is carried by a
splendid viaduct over the same valley. Another
bold effort of masonry occurs further on, viz., at
Callendar-house, in the neighbourhood of Falkirk,
within a short distance of the terminus, where the
canal is carried through a hill by a tunnel of 700
yards in length. In addition to these there are many
arduous cuttings, embankments, and works of ma
sonry, which have all contributed to swell the vast
total cost at which the undertaking has been com
pleted. For 30 miles from Port-Hopetoun the canal
is carried on the level, and the remainder and very
short distance till its junction with the Forth and
Clyde is occupied by 11 locks, each 10 feet in depth,
so that the Union, at the head of the locks, is 110
feet above the level of the Forth and Clyde canal
adjoining. It is 40 feet broad at the top of the
water-way, 20 feet at the bottom, and is 5 feet in
depth throughout. The line, for 10 miles west from
Edinburgh, was opened on the 22d March, 1822, and
throughout its entire length early in May thereafter.
Altogether it is one of the most beautiful tracts of
artificial navigation in the kingdom, and the only re
gret is, that it has not conduced, in the same degree,
to the interests of the proprietors that it has bene
fitted and convenienced the public. For this un
fortunate result there have been several reasons, the
principal of which are, that the expenses of the un
dertaking were vastly under-rated on the one hand,
and the proceeds of the traffic over- rated on the other.
From this it would appear that the principal error
lay in the canal being dug at all ; for ihe experience
of twenty years has shown that few public companies,
on the whole, have been less successful in a pecuniary
point of view; and while the public spirit of the
proprietors has been of the most praiseworthy kind,
it is to be regretted that they were so completely
misled by erroneous data. One striking proof of
this is found in the fact, that though the estimated
cost of the construction was set down by the engi
neers at £235,167, the actual expense for necessary
outlay, in addition to the loss of interest on outlaid
money, had advanced, within four years of its open
ing, to £600,000. Another is, that while the esti
mated annual revenue was calculated at £55,000,
the real return, within seven years after the opening
of the canal, did not amount to £17,000 per annum.
The prosperity of the Forth and Clyde canal was
frequently adduced by the promoters of the Union ;
but they seemed to forget that the great staple of
the former was its tonnage for out-sea vessels passing
between the one firth and the other, — a species of
J l.

traffic for Which the latter was entirely unfit, and,
indeed, never intended ; and it was soon found that
the estimated returns from coal, goods, parcels, and
passengers were ridiculously exaggerated. Indiffer
ent as the prospects of this canal have always been,
they are now much more hopeless than ever, from
the opening of the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway,
in opposing which, fruitlessly before parliament, the
Union canal company spent an immense sum of
money. On the opening of the railway the pas
senger-fares on the canal were vastly reduced, but
the former followed their example, by carrying one
class of passengers, between Edinburgh and Glasgow,
at the low price of 2s. 6d. each.
UNST, an island and a parish in the extreme
north of Shetland. The island is separated on the
south-west from Yell by Blumol-sound, a rapid
tideway about a mile broad, and from Fetlar on ihe
south by a sound between 3 and 5 miles broad ; and
it is washed, on all other sides, by the open ocean.
It forms a slender, though indented oblong, extend
ing from north-north-east to south -south -west;
and it measures 11J miles in length, about 3J miles
in mean breadth, and upwards of 36 square miles in
area. The coast, over much the larger part of its
extent, is a constant alternation of headlands, and of
indenting bays and creeks. The headlands, espe
cially in the west and north, are precipitous, rocky,
and high, — the loftiest attaining a height of probably
400 feet. The bays, on the contrary, are, for the
most part, fringed with low, shelving, and sandy
shores. The chief are Burra-frith on the north ;
Norwick, Haroldswick, and Sandwick, on the east ;
Watswick and Wick on the south; and Woodwick
on the west ; — but though most may often protect
a' vessel for a tide or two, none of them are safe
harbours. Burra-frith and Norwick have a pictur
esque aspect; and are environed with much good
land. Balta-sound on the east, and Uyea-sound on
the south, are so covered by isles of their own name,
and screened by projecting headlands of Unst at their
entrances, as to afford good shelter to shipping. The
tides on the coast flow nearly southward, and ebb
northward, but are often flung from their direction,
and whirled into eddies by the projections and re
cesses of the coast ; they run, at spring, with a ve
locity of 6 miles an hour ; and off Lamban-ness, the
north-east extremity of the island, .they form a tum
bling and spouting sea, inferior in its dangers only to
that of Sumburgh-roost, and so impetuous and heav
ing, even in calm weather, as to prove dangerous to
fishermen. The isles Balta and Uyea, the islets Haf-
gruna and Hunie, and the holms Sha, Burra-frith,
Woodwick, Newgord, Hogoland, and Weatherholm,
skirt the coast of Unst, and are comprehended in
its parish. Of numerous caves upon the coasts, one
at Sha displays a roof supported hy natural octa
gonal pillars; several in Burra-frith have the sea for
their pavement, and run backward under the hills ;
one at the hill of Saxaforth, 300 feet long and of
considerable height, is entered by a grand natural
arch ; and one a little east of the last resembles it
in character, but is inferior to it in magnificence 
The surface of Unst, compared with that of the
other Shetland islands, is reckoned level ; yet it has
several extensive and moderately high bills. Valla-
field, extending from the north end of the island to
within IJ mile of its south end, and attaining a
maximum altitude of nearly 700 feet, runs along the
western coast, presenting a powerful rampart against
the tremendous onsets of the Atlantic, yet often
washed over its summit and down to the skirts of
its interior declivities by clouds of foam and spray.
Saxaforth, 938 feet high, and the loftiest ground on
the island, rises boldly up from the sea, in the cen-
(Id

UNS

786

UPH

tre of the north coast, and forms a landmark to ma
riners within a range of 14 leagues. Crossfield, at
right angles with Vallafield, but rising apart from
it, extends nearly across the middle of the island,
and terminates on the east coast in two conical
peaks. Vordhill extends 3fc miles along the east
coast south of Crossfield. Several other heights
occur; but are inconsiderable in magnitude. The
loftier hills are covered, to the depth of some feet,
by such moss as forms good fuei; and the lower
heights, once similarly covered, but now denuded of
their moss, frequently show the bare rock, yet ex
tensively possess a green dry sward which yields
excellent pasturage. A valley, immediately east of
Vallafield, extends the whole length of the island,
and has, from end to end, a chain of fresh water-
lakes, — the largest of which, Loch-cliff, is 3 miles
long, and of pleasant appearance. Much of the soil
of the island is excellent ; and in spite of its mal
treatment by the miserable, antiquated no system of
agriculture, it produces good crops. About 2,000
acres are arable, and, for the most part, suffer the
scourge of continual grain-cropping ; and nearly an
equal number of acres are excellent meadow and
grass-lands, which might easily be brought into till
age. Five-sixths of the whole area are in common
age; and might, to a considerable extent, be im
proved. Gneiss, serpentine, chlorine, schist, and
diallage rock, are the principal rocks of the island ;
andtalcose and micaceous schists, primitive lime
stone, and quartz and hornblende rocks, also occur.
Amianthus, asbestos, hydrate of magnesia, and chro-
mate of iron, are the most noticeable included min
erals. The last occurs in comparatively great quan
tity, and is now an object of much commercial value,
on account of its yielding a fine yellow pigment, and
being used in the dyeing of at once silk, woollen,
linen, and cotton. Limestone is quarried and burnt
as a manure. Fishing here, as throughout Shetland,
forms the prime employment of the inhabitants, and
now comprehends the long and strangely neglected
department of herrings. Articles of Shetland hos
iery form a considerable article of manufacture. A
pleasant village has recently been built at Uyea-
sound, and consists of a range of neat dwelling-
houses, some warehouses, a merchant's shop, and
workshops for three or four departments of artisan-
ship. The mansions are Belmont, a seat of Thomas
Mouat, Esq., in the vicinity of the village ; and
Buness, the seat of T. Edmonston, Esq., near the
head of Balta-sound. At the latter, the French
philosophers, Biot and Kater, in 1817-8, conducted
their experiments for determining, in so high a lati
tude, the variation in the length of the seconds'
pendulum. A chain of the Scandinavian towers,
called burghs and Picts' houses, extends round the
island; stone circles and barrows are numerous; and
on one of the cones of Crossfield were held the great
courts of Shetland, previous to their removal to the
vale of Tingwall : which see, Population of the
parish of Unst, in 1801, 2,259; in 1831, 2,909.
Houses 474.
Unst, as a parish, is in the presbytery of Burravoe,
and synod of Shetland. Patron, the Earl of Zet
land. Stipend £248 6s. 8d.;* glebe £6. The
church — a neat structure, arresting the attention of
a stranger who enters tbe harbour of Balta-sound —
was built in 1827. Sittings 1,224  Two chapels,
belonging respectively to Independent and Method
ist congregations, and each containing 200 sittings,
are supplied by ministers at the expense of the Con
gregational Union of Scotland, and the Methodist
* The stipend possesses the unusual character of nearly all
consisting of vicarage teinds. The details are curious: "660
ling Ash, 1,200 cans oil, 236 cans butter, valued at 246 lis, 8d."

Missionary body. Parochial schoolmaster's salary
£25 13s. 3d. There is a General Assembly's school;
and some young men, nursed in the parish-school,
teach, during winter, in tbe remote districts. Though
Unst has, from time immemorial, formed only one
charge, the island is naturally divided into three dis
tricts, which are known as the North, the Middle,
and the South parishes. Ruins or vestiges exist of
upwards of 20 ancient places of worship. Three of
these were, during part of last century, occupied, in
regular rotation, as parish-churches; six are still
surrounded by cemeteries; and one possesses the
bad fame of still being, to some extent, as jn popish
times, a place of superstitious pilgrimage.
UPHALL, a parish in Linlithgowshire; bounded
on the north-west by Linlithgow; on the north by
the northern part of Ecdesmachan ; on the east by
Kirkliston ; on the south-east and south by Edin
burghshire; and on the west by Livingstone and the
southern part of Ecdesmachan. Its form is that of
a half-moon upon a radius of very nearly 2 miles,
with the straight line or chord facing the south-east,
and sending out from its middle a projection IJ mile
long, and 7 furlongs broad. Its superficial extent is
3,922 statute acres. The rivulet Broxburn passes
eastward through the main body, and gives its name
to a village, with 500 inhabitants, a little north-east
of the centre of the parish : see Broxburn. The
river Almond bounds the south side of the projecting
district. Though most of the surface is naturally
moorish, and gently but not tumulatedly upland, it
is all enclosed, and exhibits the results of skilful
and assiduous cultivation, and possesses extensive
plantations. The soil is, in many parts, a rich clay
upon till, and, on the lower fields, a fine black loam,
j-both very fertile. The chief minerals are, work
able coal, excellent sandstone, many seams of valu
able ironstone, limestone, marl, reddish - coloured
chalk, clay fit for the uses of the brickmaker and
the potter, and some coarse Fuller's-earth. The
mansions are Middleton, Kirkhill, Houston, and
Almondell. The parish is traversed by the middle
road between Edinburgh and Glasgow; and, in bold
serpentine curvatures, by the Union canal. The
village of Uphall, with 160 inhabitants, and the
stage, well-known as Uphall-inn, are situated in the
west side of, the parish, 13 miles from Edinburgh.
Population, in 1801, 786; in 1831, 1,254. Houses
215. Assessed property, in 1815, £5,258  Uphall
is in the presbytery of Linlithgow, and synod of
Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, the Earl of Buchan.
Stipend £233 6s. Id. ; glebe £20. Unappropriated
teinds £403 10s. 6d. The church is of unknown
date, but seems in part to have been built in the
middle of the 17th century. Sittings about 300.
Of 1,091 persons, whom an ecclesiastical census ot
1838 exhibited as then constituting the population,
903 were churchmen, and 188 dissenters. School
master's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with £56 fees, and £4
other emoluments. — The parish was anciently called
Strathbroc, 'the Valley of brocks or badgers;' and
it retains the vestige of this name in the designation
of its chief stream and larger viUage. The parish-
church, which preceded the present one, stood 700
yards north-east of the mansion of Kirkhill; and,
being dedicated to St. Nicholas, had a bell, inscribed,
' Campanum Sancti Nicholai de Strathbroke, 1441,'
and still preserved in the more modern church. The
parish was in early times a rectory, and was after
wards annexed to the provostry of Kirkheugh, and
formed one of its prebends. ,A chapel appears to
have anciently stood at Bangour. In the chancel of
the parish-church lie the mortal remains of the celei
brated barrister, the Hon. Henry Erskine, and those
of his brother, the Lord-chancellor Erskine.

URI

787

URQ

tTRIE, or Ury (The), a river of Aberdeen
shire, chiefly in the district of Garioch. It rises in
the parish of Gartly, in the district of Strathbogie ;
flows 4J miles eastward, through that parish, and
between Inch and Culsalmond, on the south, and
Drumblade and Forgue on the north ; proceeds 4J
miles southward and south-eastward, through Cul
salmond, to an union with the Shervock; runs 2J
miles between Oyne on the south-west, and Rayne
and Chapel of Garioch on the north-east, to an union
with the Gaudy ; and then moves 8 miles sinuously,
but chiefly south-eastward, through Chapel of Ga
rioch, and between that parish and Keith-hall on its
left bank, and the parish of Inverury on its right, to
the Don a little below the royal burgh of Inverury.
Its entire length of course is about 20 miles.
URQUHART, a parish on the coast of Moray
shire. It is nearly an equilateral triangle of 5 miles
on each side; the coast side extending from the
Spey to the Lossie, and the interior sides being
bounded hy respectively Speymouth and St. An
drew's Lhanbryd. The coast is low and sandy; and
has no creek or landing-place. The north-west cor
ner, to the extent of between 2 and 3 square miles,
is nearly a dead level, lying but a few feet higher
than tide-mark ; and the rest of the surface is un
dulated, but nowhere presents higher ground than
swells and gentle eminences. Original expanses of
moorland and some waste hillocks have been covered
with plantation; the arable grounds are well-dressed
and neatly enclosed; and the whole landscape is
trim, pretty, and embellished. The soil, though pre
vailingly light and sandy, is easily capable of enrich
ment, produces luxuriant light crops, and, with the
aid of suitable manures, even yields good crops of
wheat. If the parochial area be distributed into 58
parts, 2 are waste, 25 are under wood, and 31 are
arable. The extensive woods consist chiefly of Scot
tish firs, and were all planted by the late Earl of
Fife. Water, whether in streams or springs, is
scarce. The Loch of Cotts, formerly a conspicuous
feature on the face of the parish, has been completely
drained. The mineral weU of Finfan has some pro-
vinrial fame as a medicinal spa ; but its waters have
not been analyzed. The Abbey well, the fountain
which supplied the monks with water, marks the
site of an obliterated ancient priory. The monastic
structure was built in 1125 by David I., and made a
cell of the Abbey of DunfermUne. Its ample en
dowments, consisting of the lordship of Urquhart,
the lands of Fochabers, some other lands in Moray,
and a part of the fishing of the Spey, were distri
buted among patriots and court-favourites at the
Reformation. The priory itself, however, had pre
viously gone into decay; for, in the 14th century, it
was disunited from Dunfermline, and virtually sup
pressed by union with Pluscardine. The modern
mansions are Innes-house and Leuchars. The par
ish is traversed westward by the great north mail
road; and southward by a divergent road to Gar
mouth. Population, in 1801, 1,023; in 1831, 1,019.
Houses 218. Assessed property, in 1815, £10,191.
 Urquhart is in the presbytery of Elgin, and synod
of Moray. Patron, the Earl of Fife. Stipend £233
3s. 8d. ; glebe £5. Unappropriated teinds £149 15s.
Schoolmaster's salary £36 6s., with £7 Is. fees, and
£9 19s. other emoluments. There are two private
schools. The insurgents of Moray, in 1160, were
met in the moors of Urquhart by the King's army ;
and, after an obstinate resistance, were defeated with
great slaughter. See Moray (Province of).
URQUHART and GLENMORISTON, an
united parish in the north-west division of Inver
ness-shire. It is bounded on the north by Kiltariity,
Kirkhill, and Inverness; on the east by Loch-Ness,

which separates it from Dores and Boleskine; on
the south by Boleskine and Kilmonivaig; and on the
south-west by Ross-shire; and on the west and
north-west by Kilmoraek and Kiltariity. Its great
est length from east to west is 30 miles ; and its
breadth is, in general, from 8 to 12 miles. The
peopled districts are the narrow slopes along Loch-
Ness, and the glens of Urquhart and Moriston, the
only transverse valleys which branch off from the
north-west side of the Ness part of the Glenmore-
nan-Albin. These glens extend nearly parallel to
each other, in a westerly direction, at a mean mutual
distance of about 7 miles; they are respectively about
9 and 12 miles long ; they are separated by lofty heath-
clad heights, terminating, on the east, in the vast
and soaring mass of Mealfourvounie [which see] ;
and, in combination with their screens, they exhibit
beauty, picturesqueness, and grandeur of scenery,
which is nowhere surpassed in the Northern High-
lands, and which presents a rich variety of towering
heights and waving decUvities, bare rocks and wooded
precipices, lofty crags and level and fertile plains.
Glenmoriston is separately described. Glen-Ur-
quhart opens from Loch-Ness, about 15 miles south
west of Inverness; it displays at the entrance a
beautiful semicircular plain, watered by the conflu
ent streams of tbe Ennerie and the Coiltie, richly
cultivated, and all arable and enclosed on the low
grounds, and overhung by woods and loftily situated
corn-fields on the declivities of the hills; it sends
off at a sharp angle, on its south side, the glen of the
Coiltie, 5 miles long, and rapidly passing from belts
of plough ground to birch lands and hill-pasture; -it
then contracts into a winding strath of rich haugh ;
and, after being pent up to a rocky gorge near its
middle, it expands into an exquisite scenic oval open
ing, which constitutes all the upper end of the glen,
has Loch-Meikle, with the houses of Lochlotter,
Lakefield, and Sheuglie in its centre, and is hung all
round with rich and luxuriant woods of birchs. See
Meikle (Loch). Two or three miles beyond the
head of Glen-Urquhart extends the upland plain or
table-land of Corrymony, possessing an elevation of
800 or 900 feet above sea-level, yet adorned with
wood, and, to a considerable extent, passed over by
the plough ; and, west-south-west of it, or stretch
ing away from the head of Glenmoriston, is a great
expanse of high, flat moorland, imbosoming Loch-
Cluany. The rivulet Ennerie, which traverses Glen-
Urquhart, forms, not far from its source, a small but
singularly picturesque cascade, caUed the Fall of
Moral. The Coiltie, though less than 7 miles in
length of course,- has an aggregate fall, from source
to embouchure, probably as great as the Spey ; and,
in consequence, possesses all the way a medium
character between a torrent and a cataract, and such
vast power that it tears up and tosses along very
large masses of rock, and occasionally wheels up
from its bed, and sweeps down house and bridge.
The Divach, a tributary of this stream, performs,
amidst dense hanging coppices of birch, so mighty
and picturesque a leap that it wants only a sufficient
volume of water to be a rival to the celebrated Foy
ers. Two other streams — mere burns, however —
display remarkably fine cataracts. The arable soil
of Urquhart is in general a rich loam, which, though
not deep, is uncommonly fertile ; that of Glenmoris
ton is sandy, and so comparatively unproductive as
to be, in a great measure, abandoned to pasturage-
While porphyritic granite prevails in the uplands
west of the two principal glens, and in the north
east comer of Urquhart; gneiss prevails in Glenmo
riston ; gneiss, serpentine, and granular , limestone,
jointly occupy about 4 square miles on one side of
Glen-Urquhart; and conglomerate and old red sand-

788

URQUHART.

stone, in unconformable and upheaved position, and
superincumbent on gneiss, occupy the district border
ing on Locb-Ness. The limestone contains asbestos
and tremolite; and is burnt for manure. — Castle-Ur-
quhart stands on the south side of Loch-Ness, upon
a rocky promontory which forms the western termi
nation or headland of the bay of Urquhart. The
waters of the lake wash the base of the rock on three
sides; and a moat from 20 to 25 feet deep, and 16
feet broad, on the land side, separates the castle
from the adjoining grounds. A drawbridge — the
site of which is still to be seen — gave access to the
castle across the moat. From the bridge, a noble
gateway opened into the court-yard ; the gateway
was flanked by two projecting towers, and guarded
by a succession of doors, and an enormous portcullis
which, worked by pulleys from above, could be
dropped, so as to exclude intruders. The court
yard is extensive, but its surface towards the west
is rough and broken. On the other side, however,
it is smooth and level, and a broad walk leads from
the gateway to the entrance of the great keep or
principal tower. For nearly the whole of their ex
tent, the walls which encompass the rock on which
the castle stands are double, having platforms, upon
which the soldiers stood while discharging missiles
against the assailants. To the right of the entrance,
there is a small portal, or water-gate, from which a
passage led down to a natural harbour; and a similar
portal opens upon the lake, from the east side of the
principal building. The great tower occupies the
north-east corner of the court, and is nearly of a
square form. Its height, to the base of the battle
ments on the top, is about 50 feet ; the breadth of
each side from 30 to 40 feet; and the walls are 9
feet thick. The interior of the tower is in a very
dilapidated and ruinous condition, but it appears to
have consisted of three stories, exclusive of the
warder's room and battlements at the top. The
great hall occupied the middle story, and below ap
pear to have been a guard-room and dungeons, from
which there was a communication with the upper,
by means of spiral staircases, ascending through the
wall at opposite corners of the tower. Four square
turrets occupy the angles at the top of the tower,
each of which forms a small apartment inside, hav
ing its own fire-place, and other conveniences com
plete. The height of the outer walls varies from
12 to 18 feet, and the thickness from 3 to 6 feet.
They enclose altogether an area of about five acres
of ground. Nothing whatever is known of the ori
gin or erection of this castle, and very little of its
early histor^ ; but that it must have been a place of
great strength and importance in ancient times, is
apparent, from its extensive and magnificent ruins.
Indeed, it has obviously been one of the greatest
strongholds of that chain of fortresses, which were
erected at different distances along the line of the
Caledonian valley. In all probability, it was erected
for the protection of the Highlands, and repressing
the invasions of the turbulent natives of Ross and
Murray, by some of the earlier Scottish monarchs ;
for we find, that in the time of Edward I., it is
styled a king's house, or royal garrison. By popular
tradition, the building of this fortress is attributed to
the Cummings, the most powerful family in the north,
prior to the reign of Robert Bruce. No authority,
however, has been found for this, beyond popular
belief; and too many of the castles in the norih have
had their origin fixed on these chiefs, to cause much
faith to be given to it. In 1303, Urquhart-castle
was taken by storm, by the troops of Edward I.,
and the governor, Alexander Bois, and the garrison
put to the sword. In the register of the great seal
of Robert II., there is a grant of the castle and bar

ony of Urquhart to his son, David Senechalus; fail
ing whom, to Alexander Senechalus: in 1509, a
grant of the castle and barony was made to the
rising family of Grant of Grant, in whose possession
thev still remain  The other antiquities are a small
vitrified fort ; several cairns ; several Druidical cir
cles; vestiges or memorials, chiefly in the form of
burying-grounds, of 6 ancient chapels; and slight
remains near Castle-Urquhart, of a small religious
house which belonged to the knights of St. John of
Jerusalem. The principal mansions are Corrymony
and Invermoriston ; the latter delightfully situated
on Loch-Ness, at the mouth of the river Moriston.
At Invermoriston and Drumnadrochit — the latter
situated in the semicircular opening of Glen-Ur
quhart;  are excellent inns. The largest of several
hamlets, Milntpwn, has about 150 inhabitants. Good
roads go up the two principal glens toward Kyle-
Rhea, the ferry to Skye; and two roads connect the
glens respectively along Loch-Ness, and 8 or 9 miles
to the west. Population, in 1801, 2,633; in 1831,
2,942. Houses 600. Assessed property, in 1815,
£6,334  The parish is in the presbytery of Aber
tarff, and synod of Glenelg. Patron, the Earl of
Seafield. Stipend £249 9s. 6d. ; glebe £6. Un
appropriated teinds £350 10s. 6d. The parish-
church was built in 1837. Sittings 850. A chapel,
at which the parish minister officiates every third
Sabbath, is situated at Mickle. Sittings 250. A
mission on the Royal bounty comprehends Glenmo
riston, and has stations or chapels at both Invermo
riston and Toraghoil. Sittings 150 and 250. Sti
pend £80. The population, in 1837, consisted of
3,067 churchmen, and 105 dissenters, — in all 3,172.
In 1834, three parochial schools were attended by
429 scholars ; and 4 other schools by 467. Salary
of the 3 parochial schoolmasters, jointly £34 4s. 4Jd.,
with fees.
URQUHART and LOGGIE- WESTER, a par
ish chiefly in the south-east of Ross-shire, but com
prehending also the well-known detached district of
Nairnshire, called Ferrintosh : which see. It is
bounded on the north-west by the river Conan and
the Cromarty frith, which separate it from Urray,
Fodderty, Dingwall, and Kiltearn ; on the north and
east by Kirkmichael; on the south-east by Knock
bain ; on the south by Killearnan ; and on the west
by Urray. It is nearly a regular rectangle, extend
ing from north, north-east to south-south-west ; and
measures between 9 and 10 miles by about 3£. The
water-shed of the Mullbuy [which see], forms the
eastern boundary ; and from this, which is higher at
the north end than at the south, the surface gradu
ally falls off to the frith and the Conan, so as to
form an almost regular incUned plane. Two or three
burns run down its face, ploughing up ravines, and
flinging over the landscape some mimic features of
romance. AU the middle and higher parts of the
slope command a magnificent view of Wester Ross,
skirted with the bold forms of the monarch-height
Ben-Wyvis and the adjacent Highland mountains.
Agricultural improvements have been so extensive
and successful, that the produce now, compared to
that of 15 or 20 years ago, is double. The soil,
though not rich enough to bear wheat without dam
age, yields excellent crops of the lighter grains, and
of pulse and esculent roots. About 4,860 acres of
the whole area are in tillage ; 3,960 are in pasture ;
855 are under wood; 1,635 are waste moorland.
The old red sandstone is the prevaiUng, almost the
only rock ; and is worked, in several quarries, as a
building material. The mansions are Ferrintosh,
Findon, and Conanside, belonging respectively to
Mr. Forbes of Culloden, Sir J. M. Mackenzie, Bart.,
of ScatweU, and Sir "F. A. Mackenzie, Bart., oi

URR

789

URR

Gairloch. The village of Conan Bridge l hich
see] has upwards of 300 inhabitants; and at the
hamlet of Culbokie are held four annual fairs. The
great north mail-road runs across the south-west
corner of the parish ; and two roads cross the Mull
buy toward respectively Knockbain and Fortrose.
Population, in 1801, 2,820; in 1831, 2,864. Houses
321. Assessed property, in 1815, £5,528. — This
parish is in the presbytery of Dingwall, and synod
of Ross. Patron, Forbes of, Culloden. Stipend
£220 19s. lid.; glebe £15. Unappropriated teinds
£201 2s. 3d. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 5d.,
with £12 fees, and £5 other emoluments. There
are 3 non-parochial schools. The most eminent
names which have been connected with the parish
are those of President Forbes, and Dr. Fraser of
Kirkhill, the son of a former minister, and the author
of a Key to the Prophecies of Isaiah. Urquhart
forms the north-eastern, and Loggie- Wester the
south-western part of the united parish.
URR, a parish in the south-east part of Kircud-
brightshire. It forms a long and very irregular belt
of country, extending from north to south ; and ter
minating at each end in a slightly rounded point.
The parishes which march with it, on the east side,
are Kirkpatrick-Irongray, Lochrutton, Kirkgunzeon,
and Colvend ; and those which march with it along
the west side, are Buittle, Crossmichael, and Kirk
patrick-Durham. Its length is 13J miles; its mean
breadth over 9 miles af the extremities, chiefly at the
south, is little more than a mile ; its greatest breadth
is about 4 miles; and its superficial extent is nearly
12,000 acres. The surface, compared to that of
most Galloway parishes, is pretty level, few of the
hills being of considerable height. The upper dis
tricts, though moorish, are, for the most part, cap
able of tillage. The arable lands of the whole area,
compared with those which cannot be ploughed, are
as 12 to 1. The soil is in general lighi and produc
tive. The growth of wood, especially oak, ash,
elm, and Scotch fir, is exceedingly rapid ; and was,
at one time, extensively attended to, simply for its
produce in fuel. Shell-marl abounds ; limestone oc
curs, and is very hard ; iron-ore is plentiful, but can
not be worked for want of coal. Urr Water [which
see] divides the parish from Crossmichael and Buittle.
Dalbeattie or Kirkgunzeon-burn, traces the boundary
for some miles on the east, and a little before its con
fluence with the Urr, sweeps past the village of Dal
beattie. These streams and some minor ones have
valuable water-power for the propelling of machin
ery ; and the Urr and its main tributary bring up to
Dalbeattie vessels of 60 tons burden. Auchenreoch
and Milton lochs are situated in the north; the for
mer a long and narrow expansion of a brook on the
western boundary ; and the latter a sheet of water,
about 3 miles in circumference, in the interior. On
the west bank of Urr-water, a little below the par
ish-church, is the celebrated Moat of Urr, an ar
tificial mount or table-land, rising from concentric
and successive terraces, and anciently used as a seat
of judicature by the petty chiefs of the feudal times.
This is probably the largest work of its kind in
Scotland ; and, though anything but Roman in its
own construction, was attended by outworks, some
remains of which existed about 80 years ago, and
seemed to be of Roman origin. Two drawings of
the Moat are given by Grose. ;The villages of the
parish, with their population, in 1836, are Dalbeattie
with 1,393; Haugh, with about 220; and Spring-
holm, with about 300. The population, except in
Dalbeattie, which contains a mixture of all occupa
tions, is chiefly agricultural : see Dalbeattie. The
parish is crossed in the north by the mail road from
Dumfries to Portpatrick, and traversed for some dis

tance south-westward by the turnpike branch to
Kirkcudbright. Population, in 1801, 1,719 ; in 1831,
3,098. Houses 589. Assessed property, in 1815,
£12,516. Urr is in the presbytery and synod of Dumfries.
Patron, the Crown. Stipend £232 19s. 6d. ; glebe
£30.. Unappropriated teinds £303 6s. 7d. The
parish-church was built in 1815. Sittings 815.—
There are four dissenting places of worship. A
Reformed Presbyterian meeting-house was built in
the village of Springholm about 25 years ago, and has
about 600 sittings. The minister has charge also of
a congregation at Castle Douglas, and officiates at
Springholm only on every third Sabbath. Stipend
from both congregations £95. — An United Christian
congregation was formed in Dalbeattie in 1831.
Their place of worship was a house, built in 1811,
and purchased for £200 in 1832. Sittings 510. The
minister officiates on alternate Sabbaths here and at
Castle-Douglas. Stipend about £55  An United
Secession congregation was established at Hardgate
in 1760. Their meeting-house was built, in 1798,
at a cost of about £400. Sittings 480. Stipend
£90, with a house and garden. — A Roman Catholic
congregation was established in the contiguous par
ish of Buittle at a remote but unascertained date,
and removed, in 1814, to Dalbeattie. Their place
of meeting in Buittle was the mansion-house of
Munshes, and in Dalbeattie is a house, called St.
Peter's church, which was opened in 18l4. Sittings
252. The minister officiates at stated intervals in
places of meeting at Kirkcudbright, Gatehouse, and
Dairy, but regards Dalbeattie as his home. Stipend
about £50, with a dwelling-house  An ecclesiasti
cal survey of 1836, exhibited the population as then
3,059, and distributed them into 2,030 churchmen,
1,026 dissenters, and 3 nondescripts. There are three
parochial and three unendowed schools. In 1834,
the former were attended by 364 scholars, and the
latter by 185. Salary of the first parish-schoolmaster
£22 8s. 9d., with £21 7s. 4d. fees; of the second
£18 5s. lid., with £23 8s. 6d. fees; of the third
£10 9s., with £15 12s. 7d. fees. — The ancient
church was dedicated to the royal and Culdee Saint
Constantine ; from the 12th century till the Refor
mation, it was a vicarage under the monks of Holy-
rood ; and, in 1633, it was given by Charles I. to
the bishops of Edinburgh to aid the support of their
nascent and evanescent see. Of several chapels
which anciently stood in the parish, and were subor
dinate to its church, one was situated at a place
which still bears the name of Chapelton.
URR (Loch), a small lake on the boundary be
tween Dumfries-shire and Kirkcudbrightshire, and
at the point where the parishes of Dunscore, Glen
cairn, and Balmaclellan meet. It is about 3 miles
in circumference, and 5 fathoms in extreme depth.
Its water appears extremely black, the ground under
and around it being in general a heathy moss. Pike,
some of which are said to be about 5 feet 10 inches
long, and a few very large trouts, are the only fish
which it produces. The surrounding scenery is a
bleak and dreary expanse of tame, naked, heathy
hill. An islet in the lake, partially covered with
brushwood, is the retreat of vast numbers of water
fowls for bringing forth their young, and has been
known to be a breeding-place for eagles. Loch-Urr
seems to be the Loch-Cure of Camden, from which
he erroneously represents the Nith as issuing, and
which he states to have been the site of a town of
the Selgovse, called by the Romans, Corda. The
islet may possibly have borne on its oosom some
Selgovae huts ; and it certainly was the site, at a
later date, of an important though unstoried castle.
Some ruins which remain show the fortalice to have

URR

790

UYE

had great strength of wall, and a variety of apart
ments. At the extremity of the lake is a. peninsula
cut by a deep trench.
URR (The), a river of Kirkcudbrightshire. _ It
issues from the lake just described, and runs 26 miles'
to the Solway frith at the little island of Heston,
midway between the Nith and the Dee- Its prevail
ing direction is toward the south. With the excep
tion of nearly a mile over which it cuts off a tiny
wing of Urr, it is throughout a boundary-line be-
tween parishes ; having on the east Kirkpatrick-
Durham, Urr, and Colvend; and on the west Bal-
maclellan, Parton, Crossmichael, and Buittle. Its
tributaries are numerous ; but, excepting Dalbeattie,
or Kirkgunzeon-burn, which has a run of 10 or 11
miles, they are all individually inconsiderable. About
44 miles before losing itself in the Solway, it begins
to expand into an estuary ; and at its embouchure,
between Heston island and the headland on the east,
it has a breadth of very nearly 2 miles. It is natu
rally navigable for considerable craft 3 miles above its
incipient expansion, or 7J above its embouchure,
and could easily, and at small expense, be deepened
over this distance, and rendered navigable higher
up. Salmon are caught in considerable quantities
n wet summers ; but, in dry seasons, sea-fish can
get but little higher than the flow of the tide —
The Urr„ for a number of miles after issuing from
the lake, holds its course through a wildr country,
and over an irregular channel. But it eventually
begins to show some stripes of level and fertile
ground upon its banks ; and from the point where
it begins to run along the parochial margin of Urf,
it pursues its way among increasingly level and cul
tivated grounds. In its lower course, it is occa
sionally overshadowed with patches and small thick
ets of wood ; its vales are now and then blotted with
little pendicles of morass, but in general have a rich
sward of natural grass ; and its hill-screens possess
no great elevation, and are all over arable.
URRAY, a parish partly on the north border of
Inverness-shire, but chiefly in the south end of
Wester Ross, Ross-shire. It is bounded on the west
and north by Contin ; on the east by Urquhart and
Killearnan ; and on the south by Kirkhill and Kil
moraek. Its length from north to south'is 7 miles ;
and its breadth, at the north end, is 6 miles, and at
the south end 3. A detached district, consisting of
" a davoch of land," lies in Strathconan, at the dis
tance of 18 miles, embosomed by the western moun
tains, and surrounded by Contin. The main body of
the parish skirts the base of the mountain rampart of
the Highlands ; and lies so low that the great north
mail-road, in traversing it from end to end, nowhere
seems to mount higher than 50 feet above sea-level.
The general 'surface presents a pleasing view of
corn-fields, coppices, patches of moorland, large
plantations, rapid streams, and gentlemen's seats, with
a rich perspective athwart the two beautiful friths
of Cromarty and Beauly. The soil, though various,
is, on the whole, warm, dry, and productive. The
plains abound with small water- worn boulders, inter
mixed with beds of dry sand and gravel, and are, to
a considerable extent, barren, heath-clad moor ; but
the slopes of, the gentle rising grounds possess a com

paratively rich soil, and, in a part of the estate of
Lovat, which once belonged to the priory of Beauly,
they are a deep, rich, carse-ground. The river
Conan partly bounds and partly intersects the north
end of the parish ; the Orrin traverses part of the
interior to the Conan ; and the Beauly flows along
the southern boundary. On one estate are several
small bogs in which beds of shell-marl have been
found. The chief antiquity is Fairburn tower, in
ruins Tbe mansions are Brahan-castle, A. Stewart
Mackenzie, Esq. of Seaforth ; Ord-house, Thomas
Mackenzie, Esq. ; and Highfield-house, George Gil-
landers, Esq. The Ord distillery, quite a recent erec
tion, is the only object connected with manufacture.
Population, in 1801, 2,083; in 1831,2,768. Houses
568. Assessed property, in 1815, £5,778 — Urray is
in the presbytery of Dingwall, and synod of Ross.
Patron, Mackenzie of Cromarty. Stipend £249 9s.
6d. ; glebe £15. Unappropriated teinds £162 5s.
2d. Schoolmaster's salary £25 15s., with £19 16s.
8d. fees. There is anon-parochial school. The de
tached district in the west is comprehended in the
quoad sacra parish of Carnoch. The present parish
comprises the ancient parishes of Urray on the north,
and Kilchrist on the south.
US AN, a fishing-village on the coast of the parish
of Craig, 3 miles south-south-east of Montrose, For
farshire. Its inhabitants are about 200 ; and, in em
ployments and character, they are quite akin to their
neighbours of Ferryden : which see. The estate
of Usan, the property of G. Keith, Esq., comprises
nearly 900 acres. The ancient Scottish Kings pos
sessed, in connexion with their seat at Forfar, a right
to a cadger-road of the breadth of a mill wand
from Usan shore to Forfar cross ; and a piece of
land of about 30 acres in area, along Usan shore,
is traditionally pointed out as the ancient property
and residence of the King's cadger.
USKEVAGH (Loch), an inlet of the sea on the
east side of Benbecula, in the Outer Hebrides, — the
largest of the singularly ramified sea-lochs which
cut that island into an utter labyrinth of land and
water. The loch, with the islets which are pow
dered on its bosom, and along its numerous arms,
occupies a space of JO or 12 miles in circumference,
but is invaded, within these limits, by a riotous mob
of low-lying peninsula;. " The visiter who attempts
to explore it," says Dr. Macculloch, "is unexpect
edly surprised by the occurrence of new channels
and fresh headlands, when he had imagined himself
at the end of his voyage ; and, in the multiplicity of
islands and promontories which open and shut upon
him at all hands, loses the recollection of his place,
and the clue to his return.
UYEA, an isle, a sound, a harbour, and a village,
in the parish of Unst, Shetland : see Unst. Uyeais
the grand rendezvous of shipping for the deep sea-
fishing, and the entrepot for goods to the fishing-
stations in Unst and neighbouring islands.
UYEA, a pasture-island, about 2£ miles in cir
cumference, on the west coast of Northmaven, 4J
miles from the northern extremity of the mainland
of Shetland. It covers a safe harbour on the coast
of the mainland ; and is esteemed valuable for its
pasturage.

VAA

791

YEN

V

VAAKSAY, one of the smaUer Hebrides in the
Sound of Harris, near the north-east extremity of
North Uist.
VAILA, a valuable little island, about 4 miles in
circumference, in the parish of Walls, Shetland. It
covers an excellent harbour, ailed Vaila-sound, on
the west side of Mainland, andabout 3J miles north
west of Skeldaness. On the island stands the resi
dence of John Scott, Esq. of Melby, the principal
proprietor of the parish.
VAIN-CASTLE. See Earn.
VALLAY*a small Hebridean island on tbe north
west coast of North Uist, from which it is separated
by a narrow sound, dry at low water. It measures
about 2J miles from east to west by a mean breadth of
about 3 furlongs. It has a light, sandy, fertile soil.
VATERNISH, the northern division of the parish
of Duirinish, in the north-west of Skye. It forms
a large peninsula between Lochs Snizort and Dun-
vegan ; is indented by several sea-lochs, the chief of
which is Loch-bay on its west side ; and terminates
in Vaternish-point, 6J miles north - north - east of
Dunvegan-head. The district constitutes the gov
ernment parish of Halex : which see. Population
1,700. VATERSA, or Watersa, one of tbe Barra
islands in the southern division of the Outer Hebrides.
It is separated from Saundray and Flodda on the
south, by the sound of Saundray, three-fourths of a
mile broad ; and from Barra, on the north, by the
sound of Vatersa, which in one place is so narrow
as to afford passage to only small boats, and which
is elsewhere studded with Eorsa, Snoasimil, and one
or two other islets. Vatersa measures, at certain
points, 3 miles from east to west, and 2J miles in
the opposite direction ; but is so deeply indented
as not to possess more than half the superficial ex
tent which these figures would seem to indicate.
Two bays, on opposite sides near its middle, almost
cut it into two islands ; and the eastern one of these,
the bay of Vatersa, forms a safe and excellent har
bour. The isthmus between the bays is a sandy
bar, whose materials are, in continual alternation,
thrown up by the billows, and dispersed by the
winds. Though the rest of the island consists of
two hills, yet the whole surface may be viewed as
under constant revolution, from the accumulations
and dispersions of the sand-hiUs of the isthmus and
the western shores. The basis of the land is gneiss.
" I had here," says Dr. Macculloch, " an opportu
nity of imagining how life is passed in a remote island,
without society or neighbours, and where people are
born and die without ever troubling themselves to
inquire whether the world contains any other coun
tries than Vatersa and Barra. . The amusement of
the evening consisted in catching scallops for supper,
milking the cows, and chasing rabbits ; and this, I
presume, is pretty nearly the round of occupation.
The whole group of the southern islands is here
seen from the southern part of the island, forming a
maritime landscape which is sufficiently picturesque."
VEMENTRY, an island about 5J miles in cir
cumference, on the south side of St. Magnus-bay,
on the coast of the parish of Sandsting, Shetland.
It is separated from the mainland by a narrow strait
called Eye-sound ; and lies S\ miles east of Papa-
Stour. It is verdant on the east, and heath-clad on
"the west; and is regarded as rich pasture-ground.

VENACHOIR (Loch), an expansion of the
beautiful river Teith, which may be said to take its
rise from Loch-Katrine, or more properly to origi
nate in the numerous mountain-streams which pour
into the lake in cataracts from its steep and rugged
banks. It is a fine expanse of water, about 5 miles
in length, and IJ mile in breadth. The outline of
its shores is beautiful and waving, and throughout
almost its whole extent it is adorned with a skirting '
of wood. In approaching Loch - Venachoir from
Callander, before arriving at its eastern end, the
traveller passes Coillinteogle-ford, which, as all the
readers of poetry know, was
" Clan- Alpine's outmost guard;"
and here the combat took place between the knight
of Snowdon and the Highland chief. A bridge has
now been erected over the river, near the place
where it formerly was forded. Some years ago,
several stones with rude images engraven on them,
resembling the upper part of the human body, were
found on the farm of Coillinteogle. Proceeding
along the shores of the lake, the traveller arrives
at the wooded bank called Coillebhroine, or ' the
Wood of lamentation.' This name owes its origin,
it is said, to a malignant action of the water-kelpie
or fiend, perpetrated at this place.* About a mile
beyond this, on the north side of the road, is Dun-
craggan, the first stage of 'the Fiery cross.' Here
Malise, the henchman of Roderick Dhu, burst into
the hall, showing the cross, and exclaiming,
" The muster-place is Lanrick-mead ;"
while the mourners sung the coronach over the body
of Duncan, the late Lord ; and from hence his son
was obliged to leave the obsequies of his father, and
taking the cross from the henchman, to carry it
through an additional portion of the Clan-Alpine
district. At Duncraggan, the traveller catches a
very fine view of Loch-Achray. In passing the
western extremity of Loch- Venachoir, the farm of
Lanrick is seen to the south-west. This was the
place of muster of the Clan- Alpine ; and it will be
observed that there is here a level piece of ground,
centrically situated amid a vast surrounding array of
mountains, rocks, and woods; intermingled with
lakes, and intersected by rapid streams.
VENNY, or Finny, a rivulet of the southern di
vision of Forfarshire. It rises in two head-streams
in the north-east of Inverarity, traverses Dunnichen
and Kirkden, and falls into the Lunan, 1 J mile above
Kinnell - church. Its prevailing direction is east-
* Most Scotsmen know the general tradition with regard to
this sopposed inhabitant of the rivers aud lakes of Scotland;
and many will recollect Dr. Jamieson's fine ballad of ' The
Water-Kelpie.' Different traditions are handed down with
regard to the action attributed to the malicious liend of Loch-
Venachoir. Sir Walter Scott, in his notes to the Lady of the
Lake, says, that it caused the destruction of a funeral party
passing along the shores of the lake. The minister of Callan
der — who has so well illustrated this district of Perthshire-
gives another version of the story. " Aa a number of chil
dren," says he, " were one day at play on the border of the
lake, a beautiful horse issued forth from it. Such was its ap
parent gentleness that one of the children, after having long
admired its beauty, ventured to mount it; another, and an
other, followed his example, till the whole of them had
mounted, the creature gradually lengthening his back to ad
mit their numbers as they advanced. He then instantly
plunged into the deep, and devoured them all in his watery
cave except one, who, by a singular fortune, escaped to toll
the tale."

792

ST. VIGEANS.

north-eastward ; and its length of run is 8 miles.
It is a fine trouting stream.
VIGEANS (St.), an important parish, consisting
of a large main body and two small detached por
tions, on the coast of Forfarshire. The main body is
bounded on the north by Carmylie and Inverkeilor ;
on the east by the German ocean ; on the south by
Arbroath and Arbirlot ; and on the west by Carmylie.
Its greatest length, from east to west, is 8 miles ;
and its breadth varies between If and 4£. One of
the detached portions lies half-a-mile south of the
main body ; is separated from it by the burgh roads
of Arbroath ; measures 6 furlongs inward from the
beach, and 4 furlongs in breadth ; and, owing to its
having been the place where the hospital for the sick
of Arbroath abbey stood, bears the name of Hospital-
field. The other detached portion is the estate of
Inverpeffor ; lies 3 miles south of the main body ; is
bounded on the east by the sea, on the south by Pan
bride, and on other sides by Arbirlot; measures IJ
mile by 7 furlongs ; and anciently belonged to the
Fletchers, afterwards of Salton, but was purchased
in' tbe 17th century by the family .of Panmure. The
town and abbey of Arbroath belonged to the parish
till about the year 1560; and no legal division having
ever been made, the boundary on their side cannot
be exactly ascertained. The whole parish is com
puted, to comprehend 9,385 Scottish acres. The
main body is divided south-south-eastward into near
ly equal parts by the rivulet Brothock. Tbe coast,
3J miles in extent, is flat with a sandy beach for about
a mile from Arbroath ; and thence it rises abruptly,
becomes bold and rocky, and has a mean height of
•about 100 feet. The interior rises very slowly to
Dichmountlaw [which see] ; slopes gently thence
to the Brothock, and then rises with scarcely per
ceptible gradient toward inconsiderable heights on
the western boundary. The general surface may be
regarded as proximately level, with a few gentle ele
vations. In 1754 the district had not, with the ex
ception of gardens, 40 acres of enclosed ground ; but
now it everywhere exhibits fine embellishments of
enclosure and plantation ; and, over eight-ninths of
its extent, is arable and improved. The soil is various,
but, on the whole, fertile. Several of the landowners
have neat mansions on their property; among which
are Auchmithy, Seatown, Parkhill, Hospitalfields,
North Tarry, and Letham. The parish includes a
part of the town of Arbroath, which contains about
4,700 inhabitants, and has been erected into a parish
quoad sacra : see Inverbrothock. On the coast is
the fishing- village of Auchmithy, containing 300 in
habitants : se*e Auchmithy. The rocky part of the
coast is deeply perforated by several remarkable
caves. One, which can be entered only at low-
water, was a favourite retreat of seals when these
animals abounded on the coast, and was often visited
from above by persons let down to it with ropes,
shielded on the limbs with straw rollers to protect
them from the abrasion of tbe rocks, and armed with
bludgeons to wage deadly war with the phocae.
Another, called the Maiden-castle cave, measures
about 231 feet in length, and from 12 to 24 in breadth,
is entered about 10 feet above high-water mark, and
was formerly the scene of an annual meeting of the
mason-lodge of Arbroath, for the admission of new
members. Above this cave, on the brow of the rock,
and about 100 feet above sea-level, are vestiges of a
fort, with its fosse and rampart. A third and stu
pendous cavern, about £ of a mile south of the fish
ing-village, leads to what is called the Gaylet-pot of
Auchmithy, — a remarkable natural curiosity, well-
deserving a visit. The cavern opens from the sea in
a grand rude archway, about 70 feet iigh, 40 feet
broad, and 130 feet below the top of the rock, as im

posing and magnificent as it is spacious ; and it ex
tends direct into the interior, over a distance of 300
feet, gradually contracting in spaciousness till it at
tains a minimum breadth and height, each 10 or 12
feet. At the extremity of this vast subterranean
sea-passage is the pot,— a capacious cavity going pre
cipitously down to it from the midst of an arable
field. The pot is proximately circular, has an out
line resembling that of an inverted urn, and measures
150 feet in diameter, and 120 feet in depth from its
immediate lips. The sea enters the cavern, and
brings up to tbe pot the fluctuations of the tide ; and
when it is urged by f i easterly wind and high-water
it bursts in with amazing impetuosity, and roars and
-boils and froths with a noise which only the great
depth and the contractedness of the pot prevent from
being heard at a considerable distance, and then re
cedes with proportionate violence, and makes a bel
lowing exit from the vast cavern to the main. About
half-way between this place and Auchmithy is a semi
circular cavern, about 160 feet along the chord or
straight line toward the sea, with a large rocky pillar
in the middle of the entrance, and almost on a line
with the rocks on each side. So capacious is this
cavernous excavation that a fishing-boat with four
oars can sail round the pillar without being in danger
of striking on the rock. Of two small conical heights
near the Brothock, distant from each other about 180
yards, and very nearly equal height, the one is ro
mantically crowned by the parish-church, and the
other is the habitat of a fine echo, which reverberates
from the east end of the church, and, on a calm even
ing, repeats very distinctly eight syllables, or a line
of common metre lyric. The parish is traversed, in
its main body or its detached parts, by most of the
numerous roads which diverge from Arbroath, and
by the Arbroath and Forfar railway. Population, in
1801, 4,243; in 1831, 7,135. Houses 1,116. As
sessed property, in 1815, £14,841. — St. Vigeans is
in the presbytery of Arbroath, and synod of Angus
and Mearns. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £256
5s. 5d. ; glebe £10. Unappropriated teinds £1,086
7s. Id. The church is supposed to have been built
about 700 years ago, and was enlarged to the extent
of 100 sittings in 1827. Sittings 825. Accommoda
tion exists in a new church at Arbirlot for the in
habitants of Inverpeffor, about 150 in number. A
small chapel, in connection with the Establishment,
was opened, in 1834, in the viUage of Auchmilkie.
The parish quoad sacra, or after deducting the town
and separately provided district of Inverbrothock,
contained, in 1836, according to a survey made by
the minister,, a population of 2,600, — of whom 2,397
were churchmen, 158 were dissenters, and 45 were
nondescripts. In 1834 the country part of the quoad
civilia parish had three private-schools, and the town
part had eight. The parochial school is in the coun
try. Schoolmaster's salary £34, with £30 fees, and
£40 other emoluments. The ancient church be
longed to the abbey of Arbroath, and was usually
served by one of the monks sent out by the abbot.
Two rooms were maintained for the officiating monk
in the steeple, and were traceable, in part of their
floors! so late as 1754. The last monk* who inha
bited them is traditionally said to have been fright
ened from them by the devil appearing to him in the
form of a rat, and to have communicated such a panic
to his brethren of the cowl that none of them could
be induced to succeed him. But the miserable min
isters of superstition, while occasionally duped with
their own devices, flung a far greater amount of wild
deception on the minds of the people whom they
misled, and even entailed it upon generations who
nave lived since cowls were happily tossed out of
Scotland. The following remarkable example is

VOE

793

VIII

given in the Old Statistical Account: "From the
year 1699 to 1736, the sacrament of the Lord's sup
per had never been dispensed in this church. A tra
dition had long prevailed here, that the water-kelpy
(what Mr. Home, in his tragedy of Douglas, calls
' the angry spirit of the water ') carried the stones
for building the church ; that the foundation of it
was supported upon large bars of iron ; and that
under fhe fabric there was a lake of great depth.
As the administration of the sacrament had been so
long delayed, the people had brought themselves to
believe, that the first time that ordinance should be
dispensed, the church would sink, and the whole
people would be carried down and drowned in the
lake. The belief of this had taken such hold of the
people's minds, that, on the day the sacrament was
administered, some hundreds of the parishioners sat
on an eminence about 100 yards from the church,
expecting every moment the dreadful catastrophe.
They were happily disappointed ; and this spirit of
credulity ' soon vanished, like the baseless fabric of
a vision.' In the present times it would prove a
matter of great difficulty to make the people believe
such absurdities. Perhaps the local situation of St.

Vigeans, in the vicinity of the abbey, might have
disposed the people to imbibe such principles as are
not easily rooted out." A chapel dedicated to St.
Ninians anciently stood on the sea-side, near the
place where the coast begins to rise. St. Ninians'
well, in its vicinity, had long a popish and great fame
for curing several diseases ; but has long since been
uniformly estimated at its true value.
VOEL (Loch), a lake in the south-western part
of Perthshire, parish of Balquhidder, about 3 miles
long and 1 broad, the source of the river Balvaig,
the principal branch of the Teith.
VOGRIE, a village in the parish of Borthwick,
Edinburghshire ; 3 miles south-east by south from
Dalkeith. ,
VOTERSAY, an Hebridean isle, not 2 miles in
circumference, 1 mile north-north-east of Stroma,
and 2 miles south of Bernera, in the Sound of Harris.
VRINE (Loch), a narrow lake, about 2£ miles
long, in the north-west of Ross-shire. The rivulet
Vrine carries off its superfluent waters, and runs 6
miles northward to the head of Loch-Broom, — joined
on its right bank, and at about mid-distance, by
Mashak-water.

_ = 7 _ ^ 7^

-^. ..3-.^ -. ^iy.,

INVERNESS.

WAL

794

WAL

w

WALLACETOWN, a modern but populous
suburb of Ayr, situated on the east side of Newton-
upon-Ayr, forming with it one compact town, and
separated from the royal burgh only by Ayr river.
About the year 1760, when there were only eight or
ten straggling houses on the site of the suburb, Sir
Thomas Wallace of Craigie began to feu at the end
of the old bridge. The incipient town took its name
from him, and speedily acquired considerable bulk
and population. Its increase, owing to the vicinity
of coal- works, the general growth of manufactures,
the demand for day-labourers, and, especially, the
facility afforded for the cheap lodging of Irish immi
grants, has been progressive, and still continues. Its
inhabitants, in consequence, are almost all of the
poorer classes, and consist of colliers, artisans, wea
vers for the Glasgow and Paisley manufacturers, car
ters, publicans, small shopkeepers, and a large pro
portion of Irish employed as labourers, and in a hun
dred methods of earning a precarious subsistence.
Tfet, though the town has so medley and poor a po
pulation, though it abounds as much in pauperism as
probably any place which could be named in Scot
land ; and though it wants the appliances of burghai
government which are possessed by both Ayr and
Newton, it does not appear to a stranger to differ
very materially in character from its immediate neigh
bours, but seems to wear an aspect quite in keeping
with that of the adjacent parts, both of the burgh-of-
barony and the royal burgh. In common with New
ton, it is included within the parliamentary boun
daries of Ayr. In ecclesiastical quoad civilia position
it belongs to the parish of St. Quivox; but, in 1836,
it was erected by the authority of the presbytery of
Ayr into a separate parish quoad sacra. The church
was opened in March, 1836, and cost £1,550. Sit
tings 865. Stipend £150  An United Secession
place of worship was built in 1799, and cost £1,010.
Sittings 610. Stipend £120, with £6 for sacramen
tal expenses — An Original Seceder meeting-house
was built in 1799, and cost £740. Sittings 605.
Stipend £130, with £8 for sacramental expenses,
and an allowance of £16 16s. for a. house-rent  A
Roman Catholic chapel, belonging to a congregation
established upwards of thirty-five years ago, was built
in 1836, at flhe cost of £1,900. Sittings 800. The
minister has under his care all the Roman Catholics
of Ayrshire, south and east of Ardrossan, and offi
ciates in five or six different towns. Emoluments
from £100 to £200  A Reformed Presbyterian
meeting-house was built in 1832, and cost about
£500. Sittings 480. Stipend £80  An Indepen
dent place of worship was built in 1805, and cost,
up to 1836, about £1,000. Sittings 550. Stipend
£65 — An Episcopalian place of worship, used by a
congregation which was established in 1832, is the
upper floor of a house originally intended for a gran
ary, and rented at £10 a-year. Sittings 182. Sti
pend about £100. — The population, according to a
census taken, in 1836, by a committee of the inhabi
tants, consisted then of 2,229 churchmen, 1,922 dis
senters, and 48 nondescripts, — in all 4,199 persons.
The school-statistics are given in the article on St.
Quivox; and the social and miscellaneous institu
tions belong properly either to Ayr or to Newton.
WALLS and FLOTA, an united parish at the
south-west extremity of Orkney. Walls consists of
the southern half of the island of Hoy [which see] ;

and is about 8 miles long and 7 broad. Flota con
sists of the islands of Flota, Fara, Cava, and Gransey
[see Flota] ; and, including intervening marine
straits, is about 5J miles long and 4 broad. Except
ing two or three families, one of whom is that of a
resident heritor, the inhabitants are small farmers
and fishermen, and are dispersed over the parish.
Population, in 1801, 993; in 1831, 1,436. The
rental of the estate of Melsetter in this parish, com
prehending a tract of country 9 miles in length, by 5
in average breadth, was £1,200 in 1817  This par
ish is in the presbytery of Cairston, and synod of
Orkney. Patron, the Earl of Zetland. Stipend
£158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £8. The church of Walls was
built in 1822; and that of Flota is of older date.
Sittings 500 and 180. The minister officiates on two
successive Sabbaths in the former, and on every third
Sabbath in the latter. In 1834 two parish-schools
were attended by 96 scholars ; and three other
schools by 112. Salary of each parochial school
master £25, with £1 fees; and £2 other emoluments.
WALLS and SANDNESS, an united parish in
Shetland. It consists of the districts of Walls and
Sandness on the mainland; and of the islands of
Fowla, Papa-Stour, and Vaila: which see. The
mainland districts lie in the most westerly part of the
mainland ; and are washed, on the north, by St.
Magnus-Bay : which see. They are jointly about
7£ miles long, from north to south ; and about 5
miles broad. They are frequently, though not deeply,
indented by bays and creeks ; they present, for the
most part, a rocky coast, which often rises to the
height of 100 feet; they exhibit a surface much di
versified by numerous small eminences ; and they
are separated from each other by a hill of consider
able altitude. Upwards of 1,000 acres are in tillage.
The inhabitants, as elsewhere in Shetland, all unite
the vocations of farming and fishing. The rocks are
gneiss, granitic porphyry, quartz rock, and old red
sandstone. Population, in 1801, 1,817; in 1831,
2,143. Houses 389. Assessed property, in 1815,
£427 — This parish is in the presbytery of Lerwick,
and synod of Shetland. Patron, the Earl of Zetland.
Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £14. The united par
ish comprehends the four original parishes of Walls,
Sandness, Papa-Stour, and Fowla. The churches
of these parishes, in the order in which we have
named them, were built in 1743, 1749, 1806, and at
a date not stated. Sittings 500, 278, 190, and 96,—
in all, 1,064. The minister officiates about a fort
night daily in Fowla ; and during the rest of the year
he officiates every second Sabbath at Walls, and, on
the intervening Sabbath, alternately at Sandness and
Papa. But different arrangements are often occa
sioned by the state of the weather. A reader in each
parish reads a sermon and conducts devotion when
the minister is absent — A Methodist congregation
was established in 1824; and has chapels in Walls,
Sandness, and Papa ; the first of which was built in
1825, at a cost of £107. Sittings 200, 150, and 100.
Stipend about £104, mostly paid from the Confer-
ence fund in England. The minister officiates also
in a chapel in Sandsting parish, and visits Fowla once
a-year — An Independent congregation was estab
lished about 1809 ; and has chapels in Walls, Sand
ness, and Fowla; the first of which was buUt in
1837, at a cost of about £120, and contains 170 sit
tings. Stipend £50, four-fifths of which are paid

WAL

795

WAN

bythe Congregational union  Schoolmaster's salary
£25 13s. 5$u., with £4 19s. 6d. fees, and £2 other
emoluments. There are four non-parochial schools.
WALLYFORD, a small village, inhabited chiefly
by colliers, on the eastern border of the parish of In
veresk, 1 J mile east of Musselburgh, Edinburghshire.
WALSTON, (sometimes written Welstoun in
the old session records,) a small parish in the upper
ward of the county of Lanark; bounded by Dunsyre
on the north, Biggar on the south, Dolphinton on
the east, and Libberton on the west. It is watered
on its northern parts by the South Medwin, a small
but beautiful trouting stream ; and the parish may
contain in all about 3,000 Scotch acres, of which
2,000 or thereby are arable, and the remainder
heathy pasture. It lies very high, and Walton
Black mount is said to stand fully 1,500 feet above
the level of the sea There are two small vil
lages, viz., Walston and Elsridgehill, or Elsrickel,
and the character of the inhabitants of the parish is
entirely rural. Population, in 1801, 383; in 1831,
429; and, in 1841, 493, with 101 inhabited houses.
Assessed property £1,730  The parish is situated
in the presbytery of Biggar, and synod of Lothian
and Tweeddale. Patron, Sir Norman M'Donald
Lockhart, Bart, of Lee and Carnwath. The stipend
amounts to £157 10s. 10d., and the glebe is valued
at £12. Schoolmaster's salary £30, with about £8
of school-fees  There is little or nothing of historical
interest attaching to the parish. The tradition of
the neighbourhood states, that the name is derived
from a copious spring of excellent water in the vicin
ity, which is called Walston-well ; and which, in
former times, was much frequented, and held in
high repute for its medicinal properties, — a character
which, however, is scarcely accorded to the spring
in the present day. On a rising ground on' the south
division of the parish are seen the remains of what
rural tradition calls a Roman camp.
WAMPHRAY, a parish in Upper Annandale,
Dumfries-shire. It is bounded on the north by
Moffat ; on the east by Hutton and Corrie ; on the
south by Applegarth ; and on the west by the river
Annan, which divides it from Johnstone and Kirk
patrick-Juxta. Its greatest length from north to
south is 6J miles; and its greatest breadth is 3J.
It is not far from being rectangular ; and compre
hends an era of about 12,000 acres. All tbe east
ern boundary-line is the watershed of a mountain-
ridge whose summits possess elevations of from up
wards of 2,500 to about 600 feet above sea-level,
and almost regularly diminish in altitude as tbe ridge
recedes from the north. Another ridge, not very
much inferior in mean height, and very similar in
progressive diminution, runs parallel to the former
along the centre of the parish ; but, a little south
of the middle, is cloven quite through by the vale
of Wamphray-water, debouching to the west. The
low grounds are principally a considerable band
along the Annan, and some small belts along the
minor streams ; and, over most of their breadth,
they rise at different gradients to the skirts of the
hills so as to form hanging plains. The heights
are variously conical, elongated, and tabular ; those
in the north are partly green and partly heathy,
and, through a change in the system of sheep-farm
ing, have suffered deterioration as to both the value
and the aspect of their herbage ; and those in the
south either are in tillage, or produce rich and plenti
ful pasturage. The valleys have a warm and secluded
aspect ; they occasionally put on dresses of pictur
esqueness and beauty ; and they, in general, possess
a deep soil, and produce good or even prime crops.
Nearly 260 acres are planted; and the remaining
area is arable and pastoral in the relative proportions

of 1 to 3. On Bellcraig-linn burn, which runs to
the Annan along the boundary with Moffat, a cas
cade, whence it derives its name, has much mimic
sublimity and some fine accompaniments of land
scape, and draws numerous visiters from among " the
wellers" at Moffat. Wamphray-water comes down
from the north, flows 3J miles southward between
the mountain-ridges, and then moves west-south-
westwapd for 2 miles to the Annan. Three cascades
upon this stream, not far distant from one another,
and bearing the absurd names of the Pot, the Wash
ing-tub, and Dub's cauldron, are justly admired for
their mingled picturesqueness and grandeur. A deep
and woody recess on the banks of the stream, gives
a romantic site to the parish-church. Wamphray-
place, an old mansion a little lower down the vale, is
surrounded by some fine large Scottish firs. Girth-
head, Rogerson, Esq. ; Stenries-hill, Carruthers,
Esq. ; and Millhouses, Carruthers, Esq. ; are the
only occupied mansions. The chief landowners are
the Earl of Hopetoun, and Rogerson of Wamphray.
The antiquities are part of a Roman road, several
vestiges of camps, and several small standing-stones.
The parish is traversed by the Glasgow and Carlisle
mail-road, and by a branch from it to Langholm.
Population, in 1801, 423; in 1831, 580. Houses
92. Assessed property, in 1815, £4,667  Wam
phray is in the presbytery of Lochmaben, and synod
of Dumfries. Patron, the Earl of Hopetoun. Stipend
£221 12s. lOd. ; glebe £10. Unappropriated teinds
£159 8s. 9d. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s., with
about £25 fees. The parish was anciently a rec
tory. Its name is the Scoto-Irish, Uamhfri, ' the
den or deep recess in the forest ;' and alludes to the
position of the church in a hollow amidst what an
ciently were extensive woodlands.
WANDEL. See Lamington.
WANLOCK (The), a streamlet of the parish of
Sanquhar, Upper Nithsdale, Dumfries-shire. It rises
at the mines to which it gives name, near the water
shed of the lofty Lowthers which divide Dumfries
shire from Lanarkshire ; and runs 4£ miles north
eastward, nearly parallel with the boundary-line, and
never at a greater distance from it than li mile, to a
point where it and the Spango — the latter meeting
it quite in a straight line — unite to form the Crawick.
The streamlet is noticeable chiefly for the wildly
mountainous character of its path, and for its con
nection with the celebrated mines.
WANLOCK-HEAD, a large mining viUage at
the head of the Wanlock, 1 \ mile south of Leadhills,
and 8£ east-north-east of Sanquhar, Dumfries-shire.
It is situated close on the wild boundary with Lan
arkshire, about 1,380 feet above sea-level, in one of
tbe most bleak scenes in the southern Highlands.
The mines, which alone maintain the village, or
could furnish a motive for so cheerless and ele
vated a region being a seat of population, belong to
the Duke of Buccleuch ; they are continuous with
the mines of Leadhills on the Crawford or Lanark
shire side of the frontier, belonging to the Earl of
Hopetoun ; and jointly with these, they shoot out
to a circumference whose diameter is about 2J miles.
The Wanlock-head mines are said to have been dis
covered by a German in the reign of James V., or
during the minority of James VI. Gold was ori
ginally the object of search, and has even very re
cently been found : see Dumfries-shire. Sir James
Stampfield commenced the lead mines about the
year 1680, and worked them upon a small scale till
the Revolution. Matthew Wilson obtained, in 1691,
a lease for 19 years, and successfully worked the
vein caUed Margaret's, quite through DodhiU from
Whitecleuch to the Wanlock. A mining company
procured, in 1710, a lease for 31 years, commenced

WAR

796

WAT

to smelt the ore with pit-coal, and partially worked
the three veins of Old Glencrieff, Belton, and New
Glencrieff,  the last of which they discovered, and
was "the only compensating one of the three. A
new and large company which took the name of the
Friendly Mining society, formed, in 1721, aco-part-
nership'with the smelting company, and got 15 years
added to the 20 which had yet to run of the latter's
lease. The two companies jointly worked all tbe
then known four veins for 6 years ; and then sepa
rated and pursued their objects in different localities.
But, in 1734, both companies resigned their lease;
leaving the mines in a condition, and under a depre
ciation of fame which occasioned, for a series of
years, their being in a great measure neglected. In
1755, the Earl of Dumfries, Mr. Ronald Craw
ford, and Mr. Mason, became lessees of the whole
means : they had at first a lease for only 19 years ;
they afterwards obtained an act of parliament for
extending the lease to 1812; and, previous to that
year, they were granted a new lease for 30 years
more, to expire in 1842, and concentrating its in
terest in the^Marquis of Bute as Earl of Dumfries.
The new company were enterprising and eminently
successful ; they discovered new and rich ramifica
tions of the Belton vein ; they discovered also an
entirely new vein, called the Cove ; and, when
workable ore could no longer be found, they erected
a series of steam-engines, some on the surface, and
some under ground, to carry off water from their
borings beneath level. So successful were the opera
tions that, in one year, they yielded upwards of
15,000 bars, each weighing 9 stones avoirdupois,
and aggregately selling for about £30,000. The
works continued to be highly profitable till about
1 1 years ago, and then they suffered sudden depre
ciation from the removal of duty on foreign lead ;
and they have since had to contend against the su
perior richness of foreign mines, and the domestic
disadvantage of comparatively higher wages. — The
veins, five in number, lie parallel, are distant from
each other about 120 fathoms, have been worked to
the depth of from 60 to 136 fathoms, and measure
from a few inches to 4 feet in thickness. Along with
the lead ore or lead glance, are small quantities of
manganese, ochre, blende, hrown hemalite, copper
pyrites, green lead ore, white lead ore, and lead-
vitriol. The ores are sometimes irregular, and have
mixtures of calcspar, lamellar heavy spar, and other
substances. Drusy cavities have frequently coarse
incrustations of quartz, carbonate of zinc, and cog
nate minerals. — A chapel with 250 sittings was built,
in 1755, by tne mining company, and cost not more
than £70 or £80. A proposal exists to build a new
chapel, and get it made a quoad sacra parish-church,
on the expiry of the current lease. Stipend from
£60 to £65, with a house and an acre of lund. A
considerable library exists for the use of the miners.
The population, according to the Government census
of 1831, was 675 ; and, according to an ecclesiastical
survey of 1836, was 716, — of whom 678 were
churchmen, 24 were dissenters, and 14 were non
descripts. WARDLAW. See Kirkhill, Inverness-shire.
WATERSAY. See Vatersay.
WATLING-STREET, a celebrated Roman road
or causeway, the central one of that people into
Scotland, and coming up from Yorkshire to Carri
den at the east end of Antoninus' Wall. After
crossing the walls of Hadrian and of Severus, and
passing the stations of Risingham and Roechester,
it arrives through a rugged country, by way of the
Golden Pots on Thirlmoor, at Chewgreen, the Ro
man post nearest to the borders. Approaching Scot-
land in a north-north-westerly direction, it first

touches it at Brownham-law, near the sources of
Coquet-water : and, after having divided the king
doms for 14 mile, enters Scotland at Blackhall-hill,
on the boundary between Oxnam and Hounam in
Roxburghshire. From this point it runs 12 miles
north-westward to the Teviot, near the mouth of
the Jed; forming for a long way the boundary be
tween Oxnam and Hounam ; traversing small wings
of Oxnam, Jedburgh, and Crailing,— passing some
vestiges of a station, just before reaching the Te
viot,— and crossing the Kail at Towford, the Ox
nam, a little below Capehope, and the Jed, a little
below Boonjed-ward. Near the points respectively
of its passage beyond the Oxnam and beyond the
Teviot, it seems to have ramified ; sending off from
the one point a branch northward into Roxburgh,
and from the other point a branch deviatingly
round the north side of Peniel-heugh. The main
line, however, leads through the enclosures of Mount-
Teviot, passes along the south side of Peniel-heugh;
forms for 3J miles the north-east boundary of An
crum ; passes over St. BosweU's-green, and crosses
Bowden-burn above Newton, where its remains are
very distinct ; and thence moves forward to the
eastern base of tbe Eildon-hills, and to the Tweed
above Melrose and near Gattonside, amidst an un
usually large aggregation of Roman and British camps
and fortifications : see Eildon - Hills and Rox
burghshire. After passingthe Tweed, theroad bends
from its hitherto north-westerly to a northerly direc
tion; proceeds up Melrose parish and the detached and
projecting section of Lauder, on a line nearly paral
lel with the Leader, but inward from its vale ; passes
Roman stations at Chesterlee above Clackmae and
at Walls, near new Blainslee ; becomes very distinct
throughout 1 h mile ; and then about half-a-mile east-
north-east of "Chieldhelles chapel, enters Lauderdale,
The road appears to have passed on the west side of
Lauder town, and east of Old Lauder, where there
are remains of a military station; and about IJ mile
onward it again becomes visible, takes for a brief
way the name of the Ox-road, and leads up to a
strong station, called Black Chester. From this
post, it passes on by the west of Oxton, crosses the
western headstream of the Leader, and leads on in a
distinctly marked line to the Roman station at Chan
nel-kirk ; thence it proceeds forward to the far-see
ing Soutra-hill, in the small projecting district of
Haddingtonshire ; and descending thence it turns to
the left, pursues a north-westerly direction and tra
verses the parishes of Mid-Lothian onward to Currie,
which stands in a bend of Gore-water about 6 miles
south-west of Edinburgh, and is ascertained to be the
Curia of Ptolemy. Between Soutra-hill and Currie,
it crossed the South Esk near Dalbousie-castle, and
the North Esk near Mavis-bank, where many Ro
man antiquities have been found ; and thence it pur
sued its course by Loanhead and Straiton, which pro
bably owe their names to its neighbourhood, to Bow-
bridge, at the east end of the Pentland-hills. Beyond
Currie, it proceeded to the naval station on the Forth
at Cramond, the Alaterva of Roman times; and
thence it crossed the Almond into Linlithgowshire,
and passing Barnbougle-hill, went along Ecklin moor
to Carriden — The great western Roman road, or
that which came up Annandale, crossed into Craw
ford, and went down the valley of the Clyde, is also
in some localities called Watling-street. See Dum-
fries-shire and Lanarkshire.
WATTEN, a parish in Caithness-shire; bounded
on the north by Bower ; on the east and south-east
by Wick; on the south by Latheron; and on the
west by Halkirk. It is not far from being a circle
of about 8£ miles in diameter ; and comprehends an
area of about 60 square miles. Its surface is low

WAU

797

WEM

and undulating ; some parts of it lying little more
than 20 feet above sea-level, and none attaining an
altitude which Scottish topography can call a hill.
The soil, in the neighbourhood of the moors and
mosses, is, for the most part, very light ; but else
where is of excellent quality, and consists variously
of argillaceous earth, a rich deep loam, and a stiff
and friable clay. The arable grounds bear the pro
portion to waste and pasture-lands of only 11 to 67;
and they probably could not, with the utmost geor
gical skill yet known, be profitably doubled in ex
tent. A large amount of the untilled lands is deep
flow-moss, unfit for sheep-walk, and unsound for
cattle. Coppices and plantations do not jointly cover
more than i2 or 13 acres. Most of the quondam
extensive commons have been enclosed. Toftin-
oall-Loch [which see] lies in the south; and
Watten-loch in the north. The latter is a large
and fine sheet of water, extending 3 miles from west
to east, with a breadth of from 3 to 10 furlongs ;
and it is stocked with eels and trouts, and frequented
by sea-fowl and wild ducks. The river Wick is
formed by confluent streams emitted by the two
lakes, and then runs nearly 4 miles eastward to the
boundary. The Caithness flagstone is the prevail
ing rock ; apd limestone and trap occur. The chief
antiquities are Scandinavian towers or Picts' houses.
The principal mansion is Strath, the seat of Major-
general Stewart. The south road from Wick to
Thurso cuts the parish into unequal parts. There
is a post-office at the Bridge-of-Watten. Popula
tion, in 1801, 1,246; in 1831, 1,234. Houses 241.
Assessed property, in 1815, £3,676  Watten is in
the presbytery of Caithness, and synod of Sutherland
and Caithness. Patron, Sir James Colquhoun, Bart.
Stipend £192 17s. 10d.; glebe £11. Unappropri
ated teinds, the amount not known. The church is
very old, and both unworthy and incapable of repair.
Sittings 700. The mission district of Hallsory com
prehends the south-west part of Watten, with a
population of between 250 and 300, and parts of
Reay and Halkirk. The mission-chapel is situated
in Watten, and was built about 35 years ago, at a
cost of about £50. Sittings 350. Stipend from
Watten £15. There is a catechist. Schoolmas
ter's salary £34, with £12 fees, and £3 13s. other
erfioluments. Four non-parochial schools have a
joint attendance of about 220.
WAUCHOPE (The), a small river in Dumfries
shire, in the parish of Langholm, which, augmented
by the Laggan-burn, after a course of some miles,
falls into the Esk at Langholm : which see.
WEDALE. See Stow.
WEDDERBURN. See Murroes.
WEEM, a singularly dissevered and fragmentary
parish in Perthshire,* dispersed in separate and far-
distant portions, over nearly a fourth of that great
county from near the head of Glenlochy on the west,
to the vicinity of Strathbran on the east, and from
3 miles south of Loch-Tummel on the north, to the
vicinity of Loch-Earn on the south. It claims, at
22 miles' distance from its parish-church, the very
nearest farm to the church of Killin; and it has
other farms at a still greater distance, some of them
upwards of 30 miles, both in Glenlochy and Glen
lyon. Its districts are eight in number, all mutually
detached, aU strangely intermixed with wings and
detachments of Logierait, Dull, Fortingal, Kenmore,
Killin, Comrie, and Little Dunkeld, and, in several
instances, individually fantastic in outline, and of
almost amorphous shape ; so that any brief attempt
at a topographical description of them either would
be quite abortive, or would produce a miniature pic
ture of nearly one-fourth of Perthshire. Weem
Proper, or the district in which the church is situ

ated, lies in Strath-Tay, along the left bank of the
river, opposite the viUage of Aberfeldy; and, though
of no great extent, partakes the high brilliance and
the rich sylvan embellishment of that fine retreat of
the beauties of landscape. Murthly, another dis
trict, commences half-a-mile to the east of the most
easterly point, but on the right bank of the Tay,
and stretches southward in a very narrow stripe of
5 miles long to the hill Mealderig, 3 miles north of
Loch-Freuchie. Sticks, the third district, small and
wooded, lies to the west of Weem Proper. Achmore
or Comrie, the fourth district, measures 3J miles by
IJ, extends lengthwise and southward from the
north end of Loch-Tay to the boundary with Com
rie, and partakes of the wooded and magnificent pro
perties of the general landscape in the finest part of
Perthshire's greatest lake. Glenquoich, the fifth
district, lies in the glen whose name it bears, 9 or
10 miles south of Weem Proper. Crannich, the sixth
district, stretches northward in an oblong of 3 miles
by H from about the middle of the north bank of
Loch-Tay. Glenlyon and Glenlochy, the remaining
districts, lie in the glens whose names they assume,
are the farthest removed from Weem's church, and
possess a considerable extent of area, but are wildly
upland, and, proportionately to their extent, have
but few inhabitants. The great military road from
Crieff to Inverness passes through Weem Proper,
and is joined by several county roads at Tay-bridge,
about half-a-mile from the church. Castle -Menzies,
the seat of Sir Niel Menzies, Bart , a handsome cas
tellated edifice, stands in the vicinity of the church,
surrounded with fine plantations, gardens, and or
chards. Population, in 1801, 1,337; in 1831, 1,209.
Houses 229. Assessed property, in 1815, £4,199
— When part of the presbytery of Dunkeld was, a
few years ago, detached from the rest, and erected
into a separate presbytery, Weem, on account pro
bably of having detachments in all its parishes, was
made its seat. This presbytery is in the synod of
Perth and Stirling, and has six quoad civilia par
ishes, and four quoad sacra parishes. Patron, of
Weem parish, Sir Niel Menzies, Bart.i Stipend
£149 15s. 8d.; glebe £11. The church was built
in 1834. Sittings 561. Glenlyon district is an
nexed to the quoad sacra parish of Glenlyon, Glen
quoich to the mission of Amulree, Crannich to that
of Lawers, and Glenlochy district is considered un
der the pastoral superintendence of the minister of
Killin. Weem, Murthly, Sticks, and Comrie, are
under the care of their own minister, and, in 1836,
had jointly a population of 541. In 1834, the par
ish-school was attended by 33 scholars ; and 4 pri
vate schools — 3 of them not held during the summer
months — were attended by 201. Parochial school
master's salary £34 4s. 4£d., with £10 fees, and £3
5s. other emoluments.
WEMYSS,* a parish in Fifeshire, on the shore of
the Forth. Its extreme length, from south-west to
north-east, is about 5J miles; while its breadth va
ries from 1 to 2 miles. The beach is bold and rocky ;
beyond this the surface of the parish rises towards the
north, and is in some places considerably elevated.
The beauty of its appearance has, within the last 40
years, been greatly improved by planting, and par
ticularly in the neighbourhood of Wemyss-castle,
which is surrounded with extensive pleasure-grounds.
On the south the parish is bounded by the frith; on
the east by Markinch and Scoonie ; on the north by
Kennoway and Markinch ; and on the west by Dy
sart. Population, in 1801, 3,264; in 1831, 5,001.
Houses 653. Assessed property £6,805. The num-
* The name of this parish is obviously derived from the Cel
tic Uamh, ' a Cave,' an appropriate name enough, when the
number of raves in the rocks on the shore here is considered.

WES

798

WES

ber of families, in 1831, was 1,089; of which there
were engaged in agriculture 84; and in trade, manu
factures, and handicraft, 806. There were at this
time 187 individuals employed in coal-pits, and 152
in fishing. There are seven villages in the parish :
1. West Wemyss, a burgh-of-barony, under the ma
nagement of two bailies, a treasurer, and several
councillors, the population of which, in 1831, was
858;  2. East Wemyss, in which is the parish-
church, population 753; — 3. Buckhaven, a fishing-
town, population, in 1831, 1,363;— 4. Methill, hav
ing a population of 509 ; and which is said to have
been created into a burgh-of-barony, by the Bishop
of St. Andrew's in 1662; — 5. Kirkland, where there
are extensive spinning-mills, population 509; — 6.
West-Coaltown, inhabited by colliers, population
332; — and 7. East- Coaltown, also inhabited by
colliers, population 128. The population of the
country part of the parish, in 1831, was 455. The
sole proprietor of the parish is Captain James Erskine
Wemyss of Wemyss, R. N. and M. P. for the county,
the representative of the oldest family existing in
the county.* The present proprietor is the 25th
proprietor of the estate of Wemyss, in direct de
scent from Hugo, the son of Gillimichael, 4th Earl
of Fife ; and, therefore, the 29th generation from
Macduff, the great Maormor of Fife. A short way
east of the village of West Wemyss is Wemyss-
castle, the residence of the' family. It is a large and
magnificent building; part of ii is of considerable
antiquity. It is situated on the top of the rocks,
about 40 feet above the level of tbe sea, and while
it commands an extensive view of the frith of Forth,
is itself an object of interest to those passing up or
down the river, and an addition to the beauty of the
landscape. In July, 1650, Wemyss-castle was visited
by Charles II. , who spent a day in it; and on the
13th of July, 1657, he again paid a visit, and slept
a night at the castle. Among other reliques of the
olden time preserved in the castle of Wemyss, is a
silver bowl presented to Sir Michael Wemyss of
Wemyss by Eric, King of Norway, in 1290, when he
and .Sir Michael Scott of Balwearie went to bring
home the Princess Margaret on the death of Alex
ander III. — The parish of Wemyss is in the presby
tery of Kirkcaldy, and synod of Fife. Patrons, the
town-council of Edinburgh. Stipend £253' 1 Is. 3d. ;
glebe £25. Unappropriated teinds £1,066 2s. 9d.
Church sittings 853. There is an extension chapel
at Methill [which see], and a United Secession
congregation at Buckhaven: which see. — The
schoolmaster has the maximum salary, with about
£25 school-fees, and about £20 other emoluments.
There are six non-parochial schools.
WESTER CThe), a rivulet rising in the parish
of Bower, and entering the sea at the head of Keiss-
bay, in Caithness-shire. It has an easterly course
of 6 miles in Bower ; and a south-south-easterly
course of 4 miles partly on the boundary, but chiefly
through the interior, of Wick. About 1 j mile above
* Of the origin of this family there are more accounts than
ane ; but all agree as to their being derived from the family of
Macduff, Maormor of Fife, in the reign of Malcolm Canmore.
The family of Wemyss, therefore, is one of the very few Low
land families which, through the male line, can claim kindred
with Celtic blood. The lands now forming the parish of
Wemyss are said to have been part of the estate of Macduff,
Shakspeare's well-known Thane. of Fife, during the reign of
Malcolm Canmore. According to Sibbald, Gilliluichae), the
3d in descent from Macduff, had a second son named Hugo,
who obtained the lauds from his father, witli lands in Loch-
nreshire, and in the parish of Kennoway, with the patronage
of the church of Markinch, He is mentioned in the chartu-
lary of Dunfermline, as Hugo, the son of Gillimichael, during
the reign of Malcolm IV. According to a manuscript account
of the family, iu tlie possession of the Earl of Wemyss, the first
of his family is said to have been Michael Wemyss, second son
of Duncan, 5th Earl of Fife, who died in 1165; but Sibbald's
account seems sanctioned by ancient charters.

its embouchure, it expands into Loch- Wester. The
trouts of this stream are remarkable for their size
and flavour. They have been caught above 20 lbs.
in weight.
WESTERKIRK, a parish in Eskdale, Dumfries
shire ; bounded on the west and north by Eskdale-
muir ; on the north-east by Roxburghshire ; on the
east by Ewes; and on the south by Langholm, Tun
dergarth, and Hutton and Corrie. Its greatest
length from north to south is 10 miles ; its greatest
breadth is 6 J miles; and its superficial extent is
27,307 Scottish acres. The Esk, just after being
formed by the confluence of the Black Esk and the
White Esk, has a beautifully sinuous and a long
course through the southern district. The Meggat
and the Stennis, aided by a few independent brooks,
drain the northern district to the Esk: see Meggat
and Stennis. All the boundary-lines, except at
two gorges, or deep, large, natural cuts, where the
Esk enters and where it departs, are tbe watersheds
of mountainous or hilly ranges. The line along the
north-east is the summit-ridge of the Southern
Highlands, and the line of division between the
waters of the eastern and of the western seas. The
whole surface, except a narrow belt of valley-ground
along the Esk, is upland; and a large part of it is
toweringly mountainous. The heights are in a few;'
instances heathy ; but, in general, they are verdant,
soft in outline, and finely pastoral. About 200 acres
are wooded; about 1,600 are tilled or productive of
meadow-grass ; and all the remainder, amounting to
nearly 16-17ths of the whole, are grazing-ground and
sheep-walk. The soil on the low-grounds along the
Esk is a light and very fertile loam ; on the rising
ground is a deep strong loam, interspersed with stones ;
and, on the tops of many of the hills, degenerates into
moss. A pit of excellent shell-marl exists on the
farm of Megdale, the property of the Duke of Buc
cleuch, " but is little used," says the Old Statistical
Account, " because it cannot be got for money, but
must be asked as a favour -," and says tbe New Ac
count, because " the pit is not of easy access, being
situated on the declivity of a hill." An antimony-
mine in the parish is noticed in the article James
town: which see. The streams and the mountains
possess great attractions for the sportsman. Wester
hall, the family-mansion of the Johnstones of West
erhall, is romantically imbosomed in woods, and over-
h ung hy steep high hills on the left bank of the Esk,
4£ miles north-west of Langholm. Dowglen, the
seat of Sir Pulteney Malcolm, is a mile farther down
the vale. The parish-church stands a mile above
Westerhall. In the churchyard is the family-vault
of the Johnstones, a circular colonnade of fluted Doric
pillars, surmounted by a beautifully carved frieze and
an elegant dome. — Thomas Telford, Esq., the cele
brated engineer, and the weU-known constructor of
Menai-bridge, the Caledonian canal, and many other
great public works, was a native of Westerkirk, and
commenced active life in it as a common mason. Sir
John Alalcolm, known jointly as an officer, a states
man, and an author, was also a native, and has re
cently had a monument erected to his memory on
Langholm-hill. — The antiquities are vestiges of old
towers at Westerhall ahd Glendinning ; vestiges of
hill-top camps, supposed to. have been outposts of
the Roman station of Castle-O'er in Eskdalemuir ;
traces along the vale of the Esk of a supposed chain
of communication between Castle-O'er and Nether-
by ; a triangular and seemingly very ancient fortifi
cation on the farm of Enzieholm ; and remains of a
Druidical circle on the peninsula of the Esk and the
Meggat. The road from Langholm to Ettrick and
Selkirk passes up the vale of the Esk. Population,
,in 1801, 638; in 1831, 642. Houses 117. Assessed

WES

799

WES

property, in 1815, £5,789.— Westerkirk is in the
presbytery of Langholm, and synod of Dumfries.
Patron, the Duke of Buccleuch. Stipend £153 4s.
7d.; glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds £485 8s.
5d. Schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4}d., with £10
fees, and £7 other emoluments  The church and
half of the barony of Westerkirk were given, in 1321,
by Robert I., to the monks of Melrose ; and the
church thence, till the Reformation, was a vicarage.
* A chapel subordinate to the church, and dedicated
to St. Martin, stood at Boykin, and was, in 1391,
endowed with some lands by Adam de Glendonyng
or Glendinning of Hawick. Another chapel subor
dinate to the church stood at Carrick, now in Esk-
dalemuir. In 1703 the district, which now forms
Eskdalemuir, and which hitherto had belonged to
Westerkirk, was erected into a separate parish; and,
in the same year, part of Staplegorton was annexed
to Westerkirk, the other part being annexed to
Langholm. WESTER-LENZIE, the ancient name of Kirk
intilloch. WESTERN ISLANDS. See Hebrides.
WESTMOINE. See Durness, Moine, and
Tongue.
WEST-PANS, a village in the north-east corner,
and on the coast of the parish of Inveresk, Edin
burghshire. It is 1 J mile east-north-east of Mussel
burgh, IJ mile south-west of Prestonpans, and 2J
miles west of Tranent. Its name alludes to the po
sition of salt-pans relative to those of Prestonpans.
Its inhabitants are principally colliers. Population
300. WESTQUARTER. See Glassford.
WESTRAY, an island at the north-west extre
mity of the Orkney group. It lies 9£ miles north-
north-east of Costa-head, the nearest point of Po
mona ; and 4J and 6J miles north of two headlands
in Rousay, from which it is separated by tbe Westray
frith. Within distances of from half-a-mile to 2£
miles from its east and south-east coasts lie Papa-
Westray, Eday, Faray, and Farayholm. Its extreme
length, from north-north-west to south-south-east,
is 9 miies ; and its extreme breadth is 4 miles. But
it consists of a main body of about 3J miles mean
measurement each way ; and two arms or peninsula?
which have a mean breadth of only about « mile.
The only safe harbour is that of Pierowall, on the
east coast, at the commencement of the northern
peninsula, and nearly opposite the south end of
Papa- Westray. The chief headlands are Noup-head
on the north-west, Ackerness on the north, Sponess
on the east, Weatherness on the south-east, Rapness
on the south, and Skea on the south-west. The
coast is, in general, rocky; and, over part of the
west, consists of magnificent precipices, sprinkled and
feathered with vast flocks of sea-fowl. A ridge of
considerably high hills, called Fitty and Gallo, ex
tends along the west of the broader part of the
island; and two heights, respectively in the east
and in the southern peninsula ; but the rest of the
surface is pretty level. The soil of the arable lands,
which probably do not amount to quite one-sixth of
the area, is variably pure sand, a mixture of sand
and clay, a black mossy mould, a rich loamy black
mould, and a mixture of black mould and sand. At
the head of the bay or harbour of Piero well, is a
cognominal village with an inn. On an eminence in
the vicinity stands the castle of Nothland, a stately
Gothic ruin. The edifice was, in one part, never
finished; it is traditionally said to have been built
as a place of retreat for Mary of Scotland and the
Earl of Bothwell, but probably was built much ear
lier ; and, after the queen's dethronement, it passed,
with some adjoining lands, to a gentleman of the

name of Balfour, and was sculptured with the Bal
four arms. In a small cavern, called the Gentleman s
cave, .in the bluff rocky coast of Rapness, several
Orkney Jacobites lay concealed for several months
in 1745; they were eagerly but vainly searched for
throughout Orkney by a party of royal troops ; and,
while in the cave, they depended for their daily food
upon the precarious means of a single person's stealthy
visits to their retreat. Their houses were destroyed
by the baffled military ; but afterwards, when the
excitement occasioned by the rebellion passed away,
these were replaced, at the expense of Government,
by others of better structure. In several places
along the shores are graves or tombs of a very an
cient date ; and in one place is a high monumental
stone. The principal mansion is Brough ; and the
principal proprietors are Mr. Stewart of Brough,
Captain Balfour of Elwiek, and Mr. Traill of Hol
land. Population, in 1811, 1,396; in 1831, 1,795.
WESTRAY and PAP A- WESTRAY, an united
parish in the north-west of Orkney. It comprehends
the parish and island of Papa- Westray, and North
and East or Mary and Lady parishes, which divide
between them the island of Westray. Population,
in 1801, 1,624; in 1831, 2,032. Houses 392. As
sessed property, in 1815, £1,160  This parish is in
the presbytery of North Isles, and synod of Orkney.
Patron, the Earl of Zetland. Stipend £208 6s. 8d. ;
glebe £15. Unappropriated teinds £86 7s. 5d. The
East parish-church was built about 70 or_ 75 years
ago ; and the churches of the other two parishes are
of unknown date of erection. Sittings in the North
church, 431; in the East church, 309; in Papa-
Westray church, 169. The minister officiates in
the churches in regular rotation  An United Seces
sion congregation was established in the parish in
1821 ; and their place of worship was built in 1823.
Sittings 440. Stipend £85, with a house and glebe
jointly worth £10. — A Scottish Baptist congregation
was established at Rackwick in 1805; and their place
of worship was built in 1806 or 1807. Sittings be
tween 400 and 500. Stipend £9 or £10, with an
allowance from the Baptist Home Missionary society.
— In 1S34, there were 10 schools, attended by up
wards of 300 scholars. Parochial schoolmaster's
salary £28, with between £2 and £3 fees  In 1836,
the population of the North parish was 802, of the
East parish 905, of Papa- Westray 335,. — in all,
2,042; of whom 940 were churchmen, 670 were dis
senters, and 432 were nondescripts.
WESTRUTHER, a parish lying debateably be
tween Lauderdale and Lammermoor, Berwickshire.
It is bounded on the north by Cranshaw; on the
east by Longformacus and Greenlaw ; on the south
by Gordon and Legerwood; and on the west by
Legerwood and Lauder. Its length, from north to
south, is 6 miles ; its breadth varies from 3 to 5J
miles; and its superficial extent is about 22J square
miles. The northern district, comprising between
a third and a half of the whole area, comes slowly
down from an elevation of about 1,260 feet above
sea-level, and is a lumpish and rolling mass of bleak,
barren, cheerless upland, but commands brilliant and
far-stretching prospects of Merse and Teviotdale.
The southern district consists of a broad vale, along
the base of the uplands, a narrower vale along the
southesn border, and an intermediate ridgy swell;
and has a well-cultivated, pleasant, and warm ap
pearance. Between 800 and 900 acres are woodedj
and about 11,000 are either regularly or occasion
ally under the plough. The streams which drain
the parish are chiefly three, which run on the boun
daries, — one of them a head-stream of the Black-
adder, and the other two confluent tributaries of the
Leader. The mansion of Spottiswoode, situated on

WES

800

WHI

the west, and the seat of the principal landowner,
Spottiswoode of that ilk, is partly a splendid new
house, quite recently finished, and built in the old
English style, with an encincturing and architectur
ally ornamented terrace, and partly the old family-
residence repaired, altered, and worked into proxi
mate harmony of character with the new edifice.
Bassendean-house in the south, and the seat of Colo
nel Home, is a neatly modernized plain old building,
in the midst of tastefully embellished grounds. Wed-
derlie, once a seat, but now a mere shooting-box,
belonging to Lord Blantyre, stands at the base of the
uplands, and is an ancient structure crumbling into
utter disrepair. — The village of Westruther stands in
the centre of the parish, 7 miles east of Lauder, and
about the same distance west-north-west of Green
law. It is a place of high antiquity, yet has a popu
lation of only about 170, almost all connected with
agriculture. Here are a library and a savings' bank.
Hounslow [which see] stands IJ mile to the south.
A third village, Wedderlie, which figured in the Old
Statistical Account, has disappeared  On Twinlaw,
one of the summits of the uplands, are two huge
piles of stones, conspicuous at a great distance, well-
known over the circumjacent country as tbe Twin-
law-Cairns, and said to be commemorative generally
of a great though unrecorded national fight for Scot
tish independence, and specially of twin-brothers of
the name of Edgar, who led the opposite hosts, and,
ignorant of their mutual relationship, fought out a
stiff contest between their armies by a personal and
single combat. Of various peel-houses or border
fortalices which once bristled athwart the surface,
the only surviving one, even in ruin, is at.Evelau,
IJ mile north-east of Wedderlie  The turnpikes
respectively from Kelso, from Greenlaw, and from
Dunse to Edinburgh, all traverse the parish toward
Lauder, and converge at Whitburn just before cross
ing the western frontier. Population, in 1801, 779;
in 1831, 830. Houses 151. Assessed property, in
1815, £4,683. — Westruther is in the presbytery of
Lauder, and synod of Merse and Teviotdale, Pa
tron, the Crown. Stipend £158 6s. 8d.; glebe £25,
with £2 10s. in commutation of right to turf for
fuel. The church was built in 1649, and last re
paired in 1807. Sittings 277. In 1836, the minis
ter computed the whole population to be churchmen
except 58. Schoolmaster's salary £25 13s. 3d.,
With £10 fees, and £10 other emoluments. Two
non-parochial schools are supported by private sub
scription. The parish of Westruther was formed in
the 17th century by uniting to the parish of Bassen-
dean the lands of Westruther and the ancient terri
tory of Spottiswoode, which had belonged to the
parish of Gordon : See B assende an. A new church
being, soon after the annexation, built at the village
of Westruther, that site, more central than the old
church of Bassendean, gave its obscure name to the
enlarged parish. The word Strother or Struther
frequently appears in the topographical nomenclature
of the south and east of Scotland, but not in that of
England ; and it sufficiently indicates its import by
uniformity of application to swamps and marshes.
An extensive swamp, in the bosom of which stood
the village, was early denominated West-Strother,
in contradistinction to a large marsh at some distance
to the east, now called Dogden-moss. Two ancient
chapels stood at Wedderlie and Spottiswoode : See
Gordon. John Spottiswoode, the superintendent
of Lothian and Merse, in the early period of Pres
byterianism, — the well-known Archbishop Spottis
woode, who crowned Charles I. at Holyrood, and
afterwards became Lord-high-chancellor of Scotland,
¦ — Sir Robert Spottiswoode, the archbishop's son,
and eventually Lord-president of the Court-of-Ses-

sion and Secretary of State, — and John Spottiswoode
the first law professor in Edinburgh University, and
the author of several works on jurisprudence, —
were all members of the Spottiswoode family of
Westruther. George Home of Bassendean, another
native of the parish, suffered much for zealous at
tachment to the cause of religious and civil liberty
during the persecuting reigns of the later Stuarts;
and he fled to Holland, and was one of the little
band of eleven, who, in 1685, concocted at Amster
dam the scheme of the Revolution. John Veitch.
the brother of the celebrated Veitch, whose Ufe was
written by M'Crie, and himself a preacher of great
eminence, was a landowner in Westruther, and its
first Presbyterian minister.
WEST- WATER. See Esk (North), Forfar
shire. WHALSAY, an island in Shetland, belonging to
the parish of Nesting: which see. Its length from
north-east to south-west is about 5 miles ; and its
breadth is from a few furlongs to about 2 miles.
The coast is rocky, and has numerous alternations
of creek and headland. The surface is unequal, but
has a tolerably fertile soil, and exhibits a dressedness
of appearance, and a maturity of cultural embellish
ment, which are rarely equalled in either Shetland,
Orcadian, or Hebridean islands. The mansion of
the proprietor is a modern, large, elegant edifice,
built of imported sandstone. Mariners observe that,
on approaching this island, the compass becomes un
steady, indicating a magnetic influence in the rocks.
WHINNION (Loch), a small but fine lake on
the boundary between Twynholm and Girthon, Kirk
cudbrightshire. Its superfluent waters form Glen-
gap-burn, the chief head-stream of the Tarf. The
lake abounds in delicious yellow trout.
WHITADDER (The), a river whose sources
are in East Lothian, and most of whose course is in
Berwickshire. It rises near the middle of the hilly
parish of Whittingham, close on the water-shed or
summit-range of the broad-based Lammermoors ;
and has a course of nearly 7 miles, chiefly south-
south-eastward, and partly eastward to St. Agnes,
where it receives Bothwell-water on its left bank,
and enters Berwickshire. During this brief connec
tion with Haddingtonshire, it is a cold, moorland
streamlet, and flows partly along Whittingham, and
partly between that parish and Berwickshire on its
right bank, and detached sections of Stenton and
Spott on its left. After entering Berwickshire it
achieves a distance of 12 miles in 5 bold sweeps in
very various and even opposite directions; and it
then runs prevailingly eastward, over a distance of
about 15 miles, to the Tweed at a point 2£ miles
above Berwick. Its principal tributaries are Dye-
water, which enters it on the right side near the
middle of Longformacus, and the Blackadder, which
enters it at the viUage of AUanton in Edrom. Its
entire length of course is about 34 miles. From the
point of its debouching into the Merse, or over about
four-fifths of its run, in Berwickshire, it is a stream
of much gentle beauty, lt traverses a country which
is cultivated like a garden; it is overlooked and
highly adorned at frequent intervals by fine mansions
and demesnes; it runs almost constantly in the curv
ing, the ever- waving, and sinuous line of beauty; it
very generally has a deeply excavated path through
earth or soft rock, so as to form a lowland deU, a
gigantic and sometimes precipitous furrow, tufted
up the sides with wood ; and, though prevailingly
destitute of decided picturesqueness or romance, it
has a fair gross amount of landscape. It descends
from source to embouchure about 1,100 feet; and as
it achieves little of its fall in races and none in leaps,
it is nearly throughout a rapid stream, brisk and

WHI

801

WHI

eheery in its movement. Like most of the streams
which descend from either side of the Lammermoors,
it is subject to sudden freshets ; and it rises in ordi
nary maximum about 9 feet above its usual level,
and, in extraordinary or rare floods, so high as 15
feet. It is an excellent trouting-stream.
WHITEBURN, or Whitburn, a parish occupy
ing the south-west corner of Linlithgowshire. It is
bounded on the north by Lanarkshire and Bathgate;
on the east by Livingstone; on the south by the
south-west projection of Edinburghshire; and on the
west by Lanarkshire. Its greatest length from east
to west is 6 J miles ; its greatest breadth is a little
upwards of 4 miles ; its mean breadth is nearly 3
miles ; and its superficial extent is about 18 square
miles. From the west end, where the parish is
broadest, and nearly along the middle, extends %\
miles in length, and in some places upwards of a
mile in breadth, a high ridge of very deep barren
moss. The surface elsewhere is proximately level,
and has been worked into a fine state of cultivation,
and sheltered by enclosures and a due proportion of
woods. The soil is in general a clayey loam ; and,
in some parts, it has a mixture of moss, and lies on
a strong clay or till bottom. A valuable bed of coal
exists in the moorish or upland district. The low
grounds are chiefly in tillage; and have, in almost
every form, cultivated pastures for the grazing of a
few black cattle. Almond Water drains the parish
along the whole of the north, partly in the interior
and partly on the boundary; and Briech Water, after
wards a tributary of the Almond, traces all the boun-
dary-Une along the south. The chief mansions are
Polkemmet, Culthouse, Berryhill, and Mosshall on
the north; and Burnhead, Croflhead, Craighead,
and Fauldhouse on the south. The principal roads
are that from Edinburgh to Glasgow by way of Mid-
Calder westward, that from Edinburgh to Hamilton
west-south-westward, and that from Linlithgow to
Wilsontown southward. On the last of these roads,
a little south of the centre of the parish, and 1 J mile
south of the village of Whiteburn, stands the small
village of Longridge. It is the site of an Original
Burgher meeting-house, and has in its vicinity a
quarry. On the Edinburgh and Glasgow road, a
mile east of Whiteburn, stands the small village of
East Whiteburn. At the intersection of the Edin
burgh and Glasgow, and the Linlithgow and Wilson-
town roads, stands Whiteburn itself, 21 miles west-
south-west of Edinburgh, and 23 east of Glasgow.
It is regularly built, and is inhabited principally by
cotton-weavers, in the employment of the manufac
turers of Glasgow. In 1828, it had 150 looms for
cotton fabrics; and, in 1838, it had 218, — all plain.
Here are the parish-church, a meeting-house of the
United Secession, a meeting-house of the Original
Seceders, a handsome school-house built hy the
trustees of Mr. Wilson, and two public libraries.
Its population includes probably the larger moiety
of that of the parish. Population of the parish, in
1801, 1,537; in 1831, 2,075. Houses 373. Assessed
property, in 1815, £4,804. — Whiteburn is in the
presbytery of Linlithgow, and synod of Lothian and
Tweeddale. Patron, Sir William Baillie of Pol
kemmet, Bart. Stipend £203 6s. lid.; glebe £3
10s. The stipend is burdened with payment to the
minister of Livingstone of 7 boUs, 2 firlots, 3 pecks,
1 lippy of meal, 2 boUs, 1 firlot of bear, and £8 10s.
4d. The parish is the most modern in Linlithgow
shire, and was disjoined from Livingstone in 1730.
Parish schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4jd., with £18
fees, and about £4 other emoluments. There are
4 non-parochial schools.
WHITE-COOM (The), a very lofty mountain
in Ettrick, sometimes called the Coom of Polmoody,
II.

and considered by some to exceed Hartfell in alti
tude. The friths of Forth, Solway, and Clyde, are
all visible from its summit, and the range of the
Grampians from Benlomond to Benvoirlich.
WHITEHILLS, a fishing-village in the parish
of Boindie, Banffshire. It encircles a creek or small
bay, half-a-mile south-west of Knock-head, 2J miles
west-north-west of Banff, and 4£ miles east of Port
soy. Population about 580.
WHITEKIRK and TYNNINGHAME, an
united parish on the coast of Haddingtonshire. It
is bounded on the north by North-Berwick; on
the east by the German "ocean ; on the south by the
estuary of the Tyne and by Dunbar; and on the
west by Prestonkirk. Its greatest length from north
to south is 5J miles ; its greatest breadth is 4£ miles ;
and its superficial extent is about 6,000 imperial
acres. Whitekirk-hill, on the northern border, and
Lawhead, 2 miles to the south, are the highest
ground ; and, though possessing an altitude of less
than 250 feet above sea-level, they command a thril
ling prospect of the frith of Forth and the coast of
Fife, of the German ocean, and of the brilliant Lo
thians, stretching away in a sheet of beauty, — the
Bass, North-Berwick-Law, Tantallan-castle, Dun-
bar-castle, Traprain-Law, and the Garleton-hills ap
pearing as distinctive and prominent objects in the
picture. A belt of flat rich haugh extends south of
Lawhead from nearly the western boundary to the
sea. The rest of the surface either ascends slowly to
the two little master-heights, or is otherwise so diver
sified as to possess all the lusciousness without any of
the monotony of a luxuriant plain. The whole area,
as seen immediately under the eye from Lawhead, is
a landscape singularly opulent in the beauties of cul
tivation, yet uniform in nothing but extreme luxuri
ousness, and profusely clad in far-flaunting robes of
rich plantation. About 300 acres at the mouth of
the Tyne are sandy marsh ; nearly 2,000 are under
wood and in artificial pasture ; and about 4,000 are
regularly cropped according to the highly productive
system so well understood in East Lothian. The
soil varies in different parts of the parish ; but, in
general, consists of such rich gravelly loams as are
highly favourable to the most approved mode of
agriculture. The Tyne and the eastern Peffer-burn
run north-eastward across the parish to the sea, the
former along the belt of haugh in the southern dis
trict, and the latter midway between Lawhead and
.Whitekirk-hill. Whiteberry-Point, a small promon
tory or headland, projects \ of a mile beyond the
coast-line at the northern entrance of the estuary
of the Tyne. Ravensheugh-craig rises abruptly
from the beach, but without forming a promontory,
$ of a mile to the north-west. These two rocky
lumpish protrusions consist of greenstone, trap-tufa,
and red sandstone ; and form the only exceptions
to an uniform stretch of low and sandy coast be
tween the southern frontier and the mouth of the
Peffer. A rocky and bluff coast commences a little
north of the Peffer, and extends to the northern
boundary, a distance of 2 miles, increasing in rugged
ness and precipitousness as it proceeds, and rising in
some places sheer up 100 feet from the sea. The
cliffs of this coast-line, and the ledges which pro
ject from their bases into the sea, consist chiefly
of red and green slaty clays, red sandstone, clay-
ironstone, and trap-tufa ; and they are noted among
seamen for their menaces to navigation, and the
number of wrecks which they have occasioned  Sea-
cliff-house, surmounting the crags, and situated a
little north of the ruin of Old Scougal, is the seat of
George Sligo, Esq., the proprietor of Aldham, and
commands singularly fine sea-views  Newbyth, or
Whitekirk-house, the seat of Sir David Baird, Bart.,
3 E

WHI

802

WHI

the proprietor of the "Whitekirk district of the
united parish, stands on Peffer-burn, near the west
ern boundary, surrounded by expanses and varied
arrangements of beautiful wood  Tynninghame-
house, the seat of the Earl of Haddington, the pro
prietor of the Tynninghame district, is noticed in
the article Tynninghame : which see  The parish
is traversed across an extreme south wing by the
Edinburgh and London east mail-road, and along
the centre by the turnpike between Dunbar and
North-Berwick. Population, in 1801, 925; in 1831,
1,109. Houses 217. Assessed property, in 1815,
£11,426  This parish is in the presbytery of Dun
bar, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron,
the Crown and the Earl of Haddington. Stipend
£306 lis. 2d.; glebe £30. Unappropriated teinds
£850 10s. 8d. There are two parochial schools.
Salary of the Whitekirk master £34 4s. 4Jd., with
£27 fees, and £6 other emoluments ; of the Tyn
ninghame master £34 4s. 4Jd., with £32 fees, and
£1 7s. 9d. other emoluments. — The present parish
comprehends the ancient parishes of Tynninghame,
Aldham, and Hamer, or Whitekirk. Tynning
hame is separately noticed. Aldham — popularly but
corruptedly Adam — lay on the north, and included
the lands of Aldham and of Scougal. Some deso
lated vestiges of this hamlet are still traceable on the
coast, a short distance east of Tantallan-castle. The
original church was probably founded by St. Bal
dred, and, in consequence, dated back to the 6th
century ; and the last church in use was demolished
in 1770, yet may still be partially traced in the out
houses of a farm-yard adjacent to the vestiges of the
hamlet. At Scougal, about a mile to the south-east,
and overlooking the sea, anciently stood a chapel,
whose ruins are still extant  Whitekirk had its an
cient name of Hamer, or the greater ham, from con
tradistinction to Aid-ham ; and its modern name of
Whitekirk, from the whiteness of its church. The
parish forms the central part of the united district,
and, of course, lay between Aldham and Tynning
hame. The church was dedicated to the Virgin
Mary ; and, from the 12th century till the Reforma
tion, helonged to the monks of Holyrood. It early
became a resort of pilgrims, a place of reputed su-
pereminent sanctity, a means of enthralling devotees
and enriching monks. Under pretext of a pilgrim
age to it, with the alleged purpose of performing a
vow for the safety of her son, the dowager-queen of
James I. outwitted Chancellor Crichton, and car
ried off James II. in a chest to Stirling. In 1356,
when Edward III. invaded East Lothian, some
sailors of hjs fleet entered the church and despoiled
the idol-image of the Virgin Mary of its ornaments.
Though the canons of Holyrood who resided on the
spot, and probably occupied a large house situated
behind the church, and now used as a granary, were
unable to prevent, or practicaUy stigmatize, the out
rage on their idol, they were, in their own style and
that of their dark age, entirely indemnified by For.
dun's coolly relating that tbe Virgin herself raised
such a storm as made the sailors deeply regret their
having offended her by their spoliation  During the
1 7th century the parish of Whitekirk had annexed to
it the little parish of Aldham ; and, in 1761, this
united parish was augmented by the annexation of
Tynninghame. The united parish-church is a hand
some Gothic structure.
WHITELETS, athriving village in the parish of
St. Quivox, 1 J mile north-east of Ayr. It stands at
the point where a hitherto common or joint road
from Ayr, splits into branches toward respectively
Mauchline and Galston. The inhabitants are prin
cipally colliers. A railway for the conveyance of

coal connects the village with the harbour of New
ton-upon-Ayr. WHITENESS, a parish in Orkney united to
Tingwall : which see.
WHITENHEAD, a headland, a little east of the
entrance of Loch-EriboU, on the north coast of
Sutherlandshire. A doubt exists whether it is in
i Tongue or in Durness, or on the boundary between
them. Its vicinity displays some remarkable cave».
See Tongue.
WHITHORN, a parish in the district of Machers,
Wigtonshire. It is bounded on the north by Sorbie;
on the east by Sorbie and the sea ; on the south by
the sea ; and on the west by Glasserton. Its great
est lengih from north to south is 8 miles ; its great
est breadth is 4; its mean breadth is only about 2;
and its superficial extent is about 10,000 imperial
acres. In the extreme south is Burrowhead, the
slowly rounded headland which separates the two
gulfs or bays of Luce and Wigton, and tbe most
southerly ground of the district of Machers. The
coast of the headland and its vicinity is rocky and
precipitous, occasionally perforated with deep caves,
and generally rising to a height of 200 feet. The
coast-line extends from Burrowhead on the west or
south-west only IJ mile, and is there an almost
straight line of cliff, but a degree less bold than at
the extremity ; but, on the east side of the parish, it
extends 5£ mUes, is still, though mitigatedly, rugged
and bold, runs out into the little promontories of
Port-Yarrock-head and Stun-head, and admits the
little bays of Isle of Whithorn, Port-Allan, and
Port-Yarrock : see Isle of Whithorn and Port-
Allan. From Port»Yarrock round Burrowhead the
tide flows close along the shore 3 hours and ebbs 9.
Three streamlets have sufficient water-power to
drive each a corn-mill a little before passing into the
sea. The surface of the parish has the broken,
knoUy, tumulated appearance which characterizes so
much of Wigtonshire, — an expanse of hillocks and
little hollows, scratched and freckled with protrud
ing rock, and extensively scurvied with such briers
and other coarse brushwood as form a miserable
apology for the general absence of wood. Forest
stretches out to some extent round the mansion of
Castlewigg, and a few groups and files of trees
elsewhere look up from the surface ; but they are
far from relieving the parish of an irksome and
comparatively naked aspect. Yet much of the ground
which at a small distance seems barren or moorish,
is carpeted with fertile soil, and produces excellent
herbage or crops of grain. Excepting the summits
and occasionally the sides of a considerable number of
the knolls, and excepting the planted acres and a small
aggregate extent of little bogs, the whole area is in
tillage. Some of the bogs produce turf-fuel, and
others contain beds of shell-marl. Near Burrow
head are found what the Old Statistical Account
calls " very fine variegated marble and strong slate."
Copper has been found in some large pieces, and
in a small disturbed vein; but has never been
searched for to an extent which could justify an
opinion as to the probable results of regularly min
ing it. The prevailing rocks are transition or Silu
rian. Castlewigg, the seat of Hugh Hathorn, Esq.,
situated 2 miles north-west of the burgh, is a vener
able old castle, vividly picturing by association the
state and hospitality of the old Scottish barons, and
looking down to Wigton-bay, and over a low though
tumulated country, extensive enough to give the best
effect to an imposing chain of mountains, which are
adorned by woods running along their base, and
washed by the river Cree. Tonderghie-house, the
seat of Hugh D. Stewart, Esq., situated in the ex-

WHITHORN.

803

treme south-west, is a handsome modern mansion,
commanding a splendid marine view, screened in the
far distance by the coast of England and the Isle of
Man. An ancient fortification, called Carghidoun,
and enclosing about half an acre, crowns a precipice
on the coast of the estate of Tonderghie ; another,
called Castle Feather, and enclosing nearly an acre,
crowns another precipice some distance to the south
east ; a third, less traceable, but seemingly about the
extent of the seeond, occurs on a cliff still farther
south-east; and a fourth, whose vestiges lie dis
persed over three crowns, surmounts the bold brow
of Burrowhead. All these look out to the Isle of
Man, and probably were erected to defend the coun
try from the descents of the Scandinavians during
the sea-roving period of their possessing that island.
Remains of a Roman camp exist about f of a mile west
of the burgh ; and though greatly defaced, are distinct
enough to leave no doubt of its having been Roman,
and a castra statira. The only village, as well as
the only noticeable port, is Isle-of- Whithorn.
Though the burgh is what a colloquial phrase calls
" a one-eyed town," it sends out sufficient radiations
of road to the limited territory of the parish, and to
places at a distance. Population, in 1801, 1,904;
in 1831, 2,415. Houses 418. Population, in 1841,
2,719. Assessed property, in 1815, £11,698  Whit
horn is in the presbytery of Wigton, and synod of
Galloway. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £246 15s.
9d. ; glebe £15. Unappropriated teinds £47 16s.
3d. The parish-church, a neat and commodious
structure, was built in 1822. In the parish, and
situated in the burgh, are three places of worship be
longing respectively to United Seceders, to Re
formed Presbyterians, and to Roman Catholics. In
1834, two parochial schools were attended by 122
scholars; and seven private schools by 210. The
ancient church belonged to the prior and canons of
Whithorn, and was served by a vicar pensioner. In
1606, it was granted to the bishops of Galloway,
with the other property of the priory; in 1641, it
was transferred to the university of Glasgow; in
1661, it was restored to the bishops of GaUoway ;
and, at the abolition of Episcopacy in 1689, it was
vested in the Crown. Besides the ancient chapel
noticed in the article Isle-of- Whithorn, one called
Octoun Chapel, stood on lands of Octoun, now
corrupted into Aughton, and has bequeathed to its
site IJ mile north of the burgh the name of Chapel-
Aughton. Whithorn, a royal burgh situated near the
centre of the parish to which it gives name, stands
1 1 miles south of Wigton, 18 south of Newton-
Stewart, 32 east-south-east of Stranraer, 40 east by
south of Portpatrick, 97 J south of Glasgow, and
115| south-south-west of Edinburgh. It consists of
a principal street, f of a mile in length, and extending
north and south ; a cross or transverse street, near
the middle, of about 400 yards inJength ; a divergent
street, at the south end, of about 200 yards in length ;
and one or two very brief and unimportant alleys.
The principal street makes two considerable bends
from the straight line ; is very narrow for upwards
of 300 yards at the north end ; is split for a bfief
way into two thoroughfares toward ihe south end,
and possesses needless and vacant spaciousness over
several hundred yards toward the middle. The houses
are slated, and, according to the notions which pre
vailed at the dates of their erection, were originally
commodious ; but they entirely want regularity of
plan, and aggregately suggest— what accords with
fact— the idea of an altogether stagnant and probably
decaying ancient town; A beautiful little stream
of water, spanned at the place by a £ood bridge, runs
across the main street, and cuts it into nearly equal

parts. On the west side of the main street, a little
south of the cross street, stand the town-house and jail,
adorned with a spire and turrets, and provided with
a set of hells. In the churchyard, on a rising ground
at the west end of the cross street, are some remains
of the priory of Whithorn, afterwards to be noticed,
sculptured with the arms of Scotland and those of
the bishops of Galloway. These consist of a Saxon
arch, some Gothic arches, and several large vaults.
The Saxon arch is a pure specimen of that ancient
and beautiful style of architecture, continues very
nearly entire, and is greatly admired as probably the
finest object of its class in the kingdom. — Whithorn,
laconically say the Burgh-commissioners, " has no
trade or manufactures, and there is no prospect of
increase." Yet it possesses certain marketing and
trading appurtenances which indicate a state of
things not quite so bad as this language might seenr
to announce. It has branch-offices of the bank of
Scotland and the Southern bank ; an office of the
Aberdeen Fire and Life insurance company ; a savings'
bank; five or six times more inns and public-houses
than even relaxed ideas of temperance can regard as
requisite for health and business ; a cattle-market
every month except February and March ; and two
annual fairs respectively at Midsummer and at Lam
mas. One mail-coach is daily in transit to communi
cate with Stranraer, and another to communicate
with Newton-Stewart. The Galloway steamer oc
casionally touches at the Isle of Whithorn — the port
of the burgh — on her trips between Stranraer and
Liverpool  Whithorn is governed by a provost, 2
bailies, and 15 councillors. Tbe old royalty compre-'
hended only the principal street, and a border of
ground behind it on each side; but the parliamentary
boundaries now include a considerable tract of adja
cent ground,— all within the parish of Whithorn. In
1833, the combined property and revenue of the
burgh produced an annual income of £153 8s. In
1839-40, the revenue amounted to £230 Us. The
whole debt consists of a borrowed public fund which
originated about 1 754 in small contributions for the
benefit of poor councillors and their families, and
which amounts to £403, is called the Contribution
Fund, and bears annual interest at 4 per cent. The
expenditure of the burgh is generally equal to the
free income, and in some years has exceeded it.
There are no burghai taxes ; no assessments for the
poor ; no guildry ; no incorporated trades ; no exac
tions of fee for leave to trade within the boundaries.
The magistrates exerdse very trifling jurisdiction ;
they rarely try civil causes ; and they interfere with
criminal matters only to the extent of breaches of
the peace. Whithorn unites with Wigton, Stran
raer, and New Galloway, in sending a member to
parliament. Constituency, in 1837, both municipal
and parliamentary, 50; in 1841; 54. Population, in
1831; 1,300; in, 1841, 1,513.
Whithorn boasts a very high antiquity; and early
and prolonged importance. As a royal burgh, in
deed, it seems to have had its earliest charter from
King Robert Bruce, and it rests its appeal upon a
confirmatory charter given in 1571 by James IV.;
but as simply a seat of population, and as the scene
of stir and of highly modelling influences among early
and successive races of Scotland's colonists, it figures
among the few places which were prominent many
centuries before most of our present great towns had
even an embryo existence. It was the capital of the
British tribe of Novantes, who possessed all Gallo
way west of the river Dee ; and, on the influx and
ascendency of the Romans, it was adopted by that
people as a station; Ptolemy mentions it under the
name of Leucophibia, supposed to be a corruption
of the Greek Asws' tnxihx, 'the White-house.' Ninian,

804

WHITHORN.

a simple Christian missionary, and not improbably
the earliest who made any marked impression upon
Scotland, but a man whose character was transmuted
by the monkish romancing of a subsequent age into
that of a popish or papisticated saint, and the events
of whose life were all but utterly enveloped in a dense
mist of thaumaturgical fable, — Ninian was born in
the vicinity of Leucophibia, about the year 365 ; and
obtaining a knowledge of the gospel where or how
we know not, though probably among the un-Arian-
ised and non-Catholic sects of the continent of Eu
rope, he spent the vigour of his life in successful
efforts to plant Christianity in the region of his natal
soil. He commenced his labours in the islet, whence
the modern village of the Isle of Whithorn has its
name, and probably founded there what tradition
asserts to have been the first place of Christian wor
ship in North Britain ; and, then removing to Leu
cophibia, he founded there an edifice which seems
to have been speedily occupied by a Christian con
gregation, and which became, in 432, the burial-
place of his own mortal remains. This simple
building, as much perhaps as any one known to re
cord, is usually exhibited to posterity boldly, and
with all multiplicity, through the kaleidoscope of
such historiography as was proper to the cell of
cowled dreamers. Ninian, we are told, was ordained
at Rome the bishop of the Britons, and erected the
edifice, at Leucophibia as the cathedral of Caledonia;
yet having taken lessons in monkery from Martin of
Tours, he assumed his preceptor to be already can
onized, and dedicated the cathedral to him as its
tutelary saint ! This — as every person knows, who
has looked soberly into the ecclesiastical history of
the 4th and 5th centuries — stands self-convicted as
outrageous fiction. While popery reigned, however,
the fable, like many a clumsier one, was not only
believed but venerated, and occasioned the place to
be regarded as the oldest prelatic seat, and one of
the chief retreats of physical sacredness in Scotland.
Bede emphatically notices the humble edifice of
Ninian as the first church which was built of stone,
and says that, on that account, it was called Candida
Casa. But the name Candida Casa means, in the
Roman language, the same thing which the previ
ously-known designation of the town means in the
Greek, and probably was a Roman translation of
Aims' cmioik, applied, not to the new Christian edifice,
but to the Roman station, or station of the Roman
ized Britons, at which it stood. Even Candida Casa
was, in its turn, translated into the Saxon Hwit-cern,
which has been corrupted successively into Whit-
hern and* Whithorn, and which, in that form, has
transmitted to the present day the originally used
designation, the ' White House,' of the aboriginal
Novantes. Keith asserts that Ninian appointed a
person to succeed him in his alleged bishopric, and
refers us for his authority to words or passages in
Bede which have no existence. Ninian, even in his
true character of a plain missionary and Christian
pastor, appears to have had no local successor for
several generations. The weakness of the civil
power, the irruptions of barbarous tribes, and the
infantile condition of the congregation whom the
missionary had formed, prevented, so far can be as
certained, any second Christian labourer from set
tling at Candida Casa till the year 723,  nearly three
centuries after Ninian's death. The Saxons, on
pushing their conquests hither, adopted the place as
a seat of population, and, of course, as the scene of
a Christian minister's labours. Yet ingenuity will
be at a premium to prove either that the house of
worship used was the edifice founded by Ninian, or
that the ' bishops ' who officiated were more than
the slightly prelatised offshoot of the Culdees who

took root in the kingdoms of Northumbria and
Strathclyde. A succession of Saxon bishops, proxi
mately though corruptedly Culdee in character, seem
to have officiated in Candida Casa about three-
fourths of a century ; but seem to have been dis- •
lodged by the anarchy which swept across the
Northumbrian territories after the assassination of
Ethelred in 794. The Scoto-Irish, who now ob
tained ascendency in Galloway, appear to have
known, or at least recognised, nothing respecting a
bishopric of Candida Casa; yet they professed Chris
tianity, and, had tbe place been a see in any sense
even remotely akin to that contended for in the,
usual monkish style of ecclesiastical history, they
could scarcely, have failed to set up their series of
bishops as formally and distinctly as the Saxons.
But about the year 1124, or from that to 1130,
nearly 3J centuries after the disappearance of the
Saxon 'bishops' of Candida Casa, forth came David
I. warm in the blush of championship for the pomp
and prelacy and papacy of Romanism, and set up at
Whithorn an undoubted episcopal see, which, under
the wide name of the bishopric of Galloway, held
coeval sway with that of popery and of Stuart pre
lacy till the final triumph of presbyterianism in 1689.
This bishopric comprehended the whole of Wigton
shire, and by far the greater part of Kirkcudbright
shire, or all of it lying west of the river Urr ; and it
was divided into the three deaneries of the Rhinns,
Farines, and Desnes, lying westward respectively of
Luce-bay, of the Cree, and of the Urr, and corre
sponding proximately, though not quite, to the lim
its of the respective existing presbyteries of Stranraer,
Wigton, and Kirkcudbright. Gilla Aldan or Gilal-
dan, the first bishop, was consecrated by the arch
bishop of York ; and his successors looked to that
arch-prelate as their proper metropolitan till at least
the 14th century. The bishops of Galloway after
wards, like all their Scottish brethren, became suf
fragans of St. Andrews; but on the, erection of
Glasgow, in 1491, into an archbishopric, they, along
with the bishops of Argyle, Dunkeld, and Dunblane,
passed under the surveillance of that arch-see, and,
on account of their being the chief suffragans, they
were appointed vicars-general of it during vacancies.
The canons of Whithorn priory formed the chapter
of the Galloway see, their prior standing next in
rank to the bishop ; but they appear to have been
sometimes thwarted in their elections, and counter
worked in their power, by the secular clergy and the
people of the country. The revenues of the bishop
ric, which had previously been small, were, in the
beginning of the 16th century, greatly augmented by
the annexation to them of the deanery of the cha
pel-royal of Stirling, and, some years later, by that
of the abbey of Tongland. In a rental of the bish
opric, reported, in 1566, to Sir WUliam Murray, the
queen's comptroller, the annual value, including both
the temporality and the spirituality, was stated to
be £1,357 4s. 2d. Though the revenues were in a
great measure dispersed between the Reformation
and James VI. 's revival of episcopacy, and though
they again suffered diminution in 1619 by the dis
severment of the deanery of the chapel-royal, in
order to its being conferred on the see of Dunblane ;
yet they were augmented in 1606 by the annexation
of the priory of Whithorn, and afterwards by that of
the abbey of Glenluce; and, in 1637, by the acces
sion of the patronage and tithes of five parishes in
Dumfries-shire, which had belonged to the monks of
Kelso. At the epoch of the Revolution, the nett
rent amounted to £5,634 15s. Scottish; and ex
ceeded that of any other see in Scotland, except the
archbishoprics of St. Andrews and Glasgow.
During the reign of David I., Fergus, Lord «f

WHI

805

WHI

Galloway, founded, at Whithorn, a priory for canons
of the Premonstratensian order. The church be
longing to it — and neither the original nor a renova
tion of the edifice founded by St. Ninian — seems,
from its size, to have been used as the cathedral-
church of the bishopric, set up by David I. Adjoin
ing the cathedral stood another church, called the
Outer-kirk, or the Cross-kirk; and at some distance
on the hiU stood the chapel. In the cathedral and
in the Outer-kirk were various altars, the offerings
made at which, during ages of intense superstition
and ceremonious formalism, formed the principal
revenue of the priory. Excepting that of Morice,
who swore fealty to Edward I. in 1296, the names of
none of the early priors of Whithorn have survived.
James Beaton or Bethune, who was prior during
some time before tbe year 1504, and uncle of the
infamous Cardinal Beaton, whom he acquired influ
ence to place in his chair of ignominious tyranny at
St. Andrews, acted a conspicuous, and, in some
particulars, an inglorious part in the history of his
country, and rose to the highest offices in both
church and state, — becoming successively, in the
one, bishop of GaUo way, archbishop of Glasgow, and
archbishop of St. Andrews, and, in the other, lord-
treasurer and lord-chanceUor of the kingdom. Though
he had the honour, such as it was, of making elegant
alterations on the cathedral of Glasgow, and of found
ing St. Mary's college in St. Andrews, he must be
ever infamous in Scotland as the murderer of Patrick
Hamilton, and other early Scottish martyrs, and for
setting the bold example of truculent oppression,
which was so fearfully copied by his sanguinary
though iU-fated nephew. Gavin Dunbar, who suc
ceeded Beaton as prior of Whithorn, was tutor to
James V., and rose to be archbishop of Glasgow,
lord-chanceUor of the kingdom, and, during one
period of the King's absence in France, one of the
Lords of the Regency. The last prior, Mancolalyne,
was present at the trial of Sir John Borthwick in
St. Andrew's for alleged heresy. At the epoch of
the Reformation the rental of the priory, as reported
to Government, amounted to £1,016 3s. 4d. Scot
tish, besides upwards of 15 chalders of bear, and 51
chalders of meal. The property, as we have seen,
was given by James VI. to the bishops of Gallo
way ; and it afterwards followed the same fates as
that of the parish-church of Whithorn.
The canons of Whithorn, however individuaUy
shrouded from the knowledge of posterity, coUec-
tively loom largely in fame as adepts in the art of
monkish chicanery. Pilgrimages, at all times and by
all classes of persons, from a short period after the
founding of the priory onward, were made from every
part of Scotland to the shrine of St. Ninian at Whit
horn. In 1425, James I. granted a protection to all
strangers coming into Scotland as pilgrims to the
shrine; and in 1506 the Regent Albany granted a
general safe-conduct to all pilgrims hither from Eng
land, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. Many of the most
distinguished personages of the kingdom, including
kings, queens, and the highest nobles, visited Whit
horn on pilgrimage. In 1473, Margaret, the queen
of James III., made a pilgrimage hither, accompanied
by six ladies of her chamber, who were furnished on
the nonce with new livery gowns. Among other
charges in the treasurer's account, for articles pre
paratory to her journey, are 8 shillings for " panzell
crelis," or panniers, 10 shillings for " a pair of Bul-
gis," and 12 shiUings for " a cover to the queen's
cop." James IV. made pilgrimages to Whithorn,
generally once and frequently twice a-year, through
the whole period of his reign. He appears to have
been accompanied by his minstrels, and a numerous
additional retinue; he made offerings in the churches,

at the altars, and at the reputed saintly relics of
Whithorn ; he gave donations to priests, to minstrels,
and to pilgrims, and, through his almoner, to the
poor ; and, in his journey both hither and back, he,
in addition, made offerings at various churches on
his way. In 1507, after his queen had recovered
from a menacing illness, he and she made a joint pil
grimage, and occupied 31 days from leaving Stirling
till they returned. They were accompanied by a
large retinue, and processed in a style of regal pomp.
In 1513, the Old Earl of Angus, Bell-the-Cat, made a
pilgrimage to Whithorn ; engaging before he set out,
io reform all disorders on his way. In 1532 and
1533, James V. appears from the treasurer's accounts
to have made several pilgrimages. So infatuatedly
popular, in fact, was the practice of travelling to the
reputed bones of St. Ninian's in quest of both phy
sical and spiritual good, that, in spite of all which
the preachers could inculcate or Sir David Lyndsay
could write, it continued for some time after the
Reformation, and was not effectually put down till
an act of parliament, passed, in 1581, rendered it
illegal. The overthrow of the traffic of monkery,
and the extinction of tbe factitious attractions of St.
Ninian's shrine, terminated the social importance of
Whithorn, and permanently consigned it to compa
rative obscurity.
WHITSOME and HILTON, an united parish
in the district of Merse, Berwickshire. It is bounded
on the west and north by Edrom; on tbe north-east
and east by Hutton ; and on the south by Ladykirk
and Swinton. Its greatest length from east to west
is 4J miles ; its greatest breadth is 2-i miles ; and its
superficial extent is 7| square miles. The Leet
rises in the interior near the northern boundary, and
runs to the south. Bands of flat ground stretch
along the course of the stream, and along the east
ern and the northern frontiers ; and they give place,
over the rest of the area, to undulations of surface
whose highest ground exceeds 300 feet above sea-
level. The district has everywhere the beautifully
enclosed and the richly cultivated appearance which
so generally distinguishes the Merse. Nearly 200
acres are planted ; a necessary proportion of ground
is occupied by fences, roads, and houses ; and all the
remaining area, amounting to upwards of 4,500 acres,
is in tillage. The village of Whitsome, an entirely
rural place, inhabited by the cultivators of the soil,
stands in the centre of the parish, 2£ miles south of
AUanton, and 6 [ east-south-east of Dunse. It dates
back to a considerable antiquity ; and, in 1482, was,
along with many other seats of population on the
Border, burned by the Duke of Gloucester, after
wards Richard III. It is the site of the parish-
church, possesses a Bible society and a Temperance
society, and sends carriers once a-week to Dunse,
Berwick, and Edinburgh. Its population, in 1836,
was 212. Vestiges of a Roman camp exist in a field
to which it has given the name of Battle-knowes.
The parish is traversed by the road from Berwick
to Dunse, and by the north road from Berwick to
Kelso. Population, in 1801, 560; in 1831, 664.
Houses 119. Assessed property, in 1815, £7,264.
 This parish is in the presbytery of Chirnside, and
synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, WUson ot
Whitsome-hill. Stipend £233 17s. lid. ; glebe
£60. Unappropriated teinds £102 8s. 6d. The
church was built in 1803. Sittings 239. Of 633
persons, who composed the population in 1836, 475
were churchmen, and the rest were dissenters. In
1834, th'e parish school was attended by 58 scholars ;
and a private school by 47. Schoolmaster's salary
£34 4s. 4Jd., with £26 fees, and £6 other emolu
ments. Whitsome and Hilton were united in 1735:
See Hilton. The ancient Whitsome was a rectory

WHI

806

WIC

in the deanery of the Merse. When the celebrated
Thomas Boston once preached in Whitsdme church,
crowds who could not obtain access to the small
thatched edifice, climbed to its roof, and tore away
part of the straw, that they might hear and see him
from above. .,.„,,. ,_•
WHITTINGHAM, a parish in Haddingtonshire;
bounded on the north by Moreham, Prestonkirk,
and Stenton ; on the east by the main body of Sten
ton, Dunbar common, and the largest detached part
of Stenton ; on the south by Berwickshire ; and on
the west by Garvald and Moreham. Its greatest
length from north to south is 10i miles ; its breadth
at two points near the extremities is respectively 4J
and 5| miles ; its mean breadth over 6 miles of the
central district is considerably less than 1 1} mile; and
its entire superficial extent "is about 20,700 acres.
About five-eighths of the surface is moorish upland,
declining from both sides of the summit-range of the
broad Lammermoors ; and a still greater proportion
is unconquerable by the plough,— making an aggre
gate of about 17 parts in 21 of the whole area pas
toral. The sheep pastured amount to about 5,500 ;
and are a prime object of attention, almost to the ex
clusion of black cattle. All the southern division, com
prehending one-half of tbe area, is farrowed athwart
its upland and heathy bleakness, by the broadly
ramified head-waters of the river Whitadder. The
northern district is cut diagonally, or north-eastward,
by what is here called Whittingham- water, — a stream
which wears successively the names of all the dis
tricts which it traverses, and is the longest in Had
dingtonshire except the Tyne. From the foot of the
Lammermoors to this stream, the ground gradually
but undulatingly descends ; and from the stream, west
ward and northward, it slowly rises to the top of
Blaikie-heugh, — an arable and very fertile ridgy
height on the boundary. The path of the stream is
a sinuous and sylvan dell, highly tinctured ' with
beauty and romance. The circumjacent grounds are
the cultivated district of the parish, and possess that
richness of aspect which so eminently characterizes
the lowlands of East Lothian. On one of the Lam
mermoor hills, called Priest's-law, is an oval camp,
strongly and regularly fortified, having four ditches on
the north side, and three on each of the other sides,
measuring about 2,000 feet in circumference, and still
existing in a proximately entire state. Whittingham-
' castle, the place in which the Earl of Morton and his
associates plotted the murder of Darnley, is still in
good repair, and, though showing marks of great an
tiquity, has been lately renovated and continues to be
inhabited. It stands on elevated ground, overlook
ing Whittingham-water, surrounded by many natu
ral beauties, improved by the embellishments of art.
Ruins of the baronial strengths of Stoneypath and
Penshiel still exist. Ruchlaw, though an ancient
edifice, is the occupied mansion of Capt. B. Sydserff,
one of the heritors. Whittingham-house, the seat
of James Balfour, Esq., another heritor, is an ele
gant mansion in the Grecian style of architecture, and
has three noble approaches, — two of them of great
length, and winding through very fine scenery. The
viUage of Whittingham stands on a rising ground,
on the left bank of Whittingham-water, about 350
feet above sea-level, 6 miles east of Haddington, and
7 miles south-west of Dunbar. The chief roads, re
spectively in the southern and in the northern dis
tricts, are that between Gifford and Dunse, and that
between Gifford and Dunbar. Population, in 1801,
658; in 1831, 715. Houses 135. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £8,623  Whittingham is in the
presbytery of Dunbar, and synod of Lothian and
Tweeddale. Patron, Balfour of Whittingham. Sti
pend £266 12s. Id. ; glebe £18. Unappropriated

teinds £192 18s. 4d. Schoolmaster's salary £34
4s 4Jd., with £27 fees, and £12 other emoluments.
Whittingham parish formed of old two chapelries
which were subordinate to the church of Dunbar.
The chapel of Whittingham served the lower dis
trict, and that of Penshiel the Lammermoor district;
and these chapels formed two of the prebends of
Dunbar church after its being made, in 1342, a col
legiate establishment. Penshiel chapel stood below
Penshiel tower, in a glen which is still called from
it Chapel-haugh. The Earls of 'March held their
baronial courts at Whittingham.
WIA, a small island of the Outer Hebrides. It
lies off the south-east corner of Benbecula ; and is
separated from it by a narrow strait called the sound
of Wia. Its length, from north-east to south-west,
is 2\ miles ; and its breadth is 1 J mile. The island,
compared with the large ones in its vicinity, is little
invaded by water ; and, like nearly all the group, it
consists wholly of gneiss.
WICK, a parish on the east coast of Caithness-
shire; bounded on the north-west by Bower; on the
north by Canisbay; on the east and south-east by
the German ocean ; on the south and south-west by
Latheron ; and on the west by Watten. Its greatest
length, from north-north-east to south-south-west, is
14£ miles ; its breadth, over nearly the whole north
ern half, nowhere exceeds 4J miles; its greatest
breadth is about 7 miles ; and its superficial extent
is 75 square miles. . Keiss-bay, called also Reiss,
Ackergill, and Sinclair-bay, penetrates the northern
half of the coast to the extent of 3J miles; measures
5J miles across the entrance ; and has proximately a
form between that of a half and a three-quarter moon.
Wick-bay, measuring a mile across the entrance and
stretching inland to the extent of li mile, opens 3
miles south of Keiss-bay. Creeks — here called goes
— with rocky and precipitous sides, and in some in
stances accessible only by winding steps in the face
of the rock, thickly indent other parts of the coast,
and offer curious retreats to fishing-boats. The chief
headland is Noss-Head : which see. The shore of
the north side of Keiss-bay is sloping, and of the in
terior is a low beach of siliceous sand. The coast,
almost everywhere else, is a breastwork of cliffs, ser
rated by the ' goes,' and perforated with numerous
shelving-sided and hideous caverns, the retreats of
cormorants and seals. At one of the creeks, called
Falligoe, a fine cascade leaps over the face of the
cliff, and, when played upon by the sun's rays, makes
a conspicuous and very beautiful appearance, as seen
from even a considerable distance at sea. Ai various
points along the coast many stacks or insulated rocky
pyramids of great height rise up from the sea ; and,
among a group of these opposite Hempriggs is a sin
gular rock 200 or 300 yards long and 24 feet wide,
perforated from top to bottom and from side to side,
affording passage to a boat, and exhibiting two huge
natural pillars so regularly formed as almost to ap
pear artificial. These insulated rocks and the cliffs
of the coast are frequented by large flocks and great
varieties of sea-gull, some species of which are shot
for food, picked up by the fishermen in their boats,
and salted as winter store. The surface of the par
ish is almost all flat ; and, as to its scenic character,
is partly tame and partly irksome or even dismal
Across its centre, and even 7 miles into the adjacent
parish of Watten, extends one wide strath, no part
of which rises more than 60 feet above sea-level;
along the northern district, somewhat parallel with
the coast-line, extends another strath nearly as low;
and along the western frontier extends another,
both wide and long, which is nearly all a deep, dreary,
impracticable bog. Extensive tracts of moss occur
also on the northern frontier, and near the centre of

WICK.

807

the southern division. The hills of Camsten, Yar
row, and Bean, in the south-west, are the only
nigh ground; but, though possessing considerable
altitude, they have no scenic character, and fail to
relieve the prevailing tameness of the landscape.
Yet relief from ennui is afforded by magnificent sea-
views, and, in a degree, by the begun embelUshments
ot quick-set enclosure, improved land, and some
small plantations. Agriculture, till about the com
mencement of the present century, was nowhere in
Britain in a more degraded and semi-barbarous con
dition than in Wick; but it now walks abroad with
a rapidity of movement, and an address and skill in
practice, which are making the amende honorable
for its former deep delinquendes. The land-rent has
increased about tenfold during the last 100 years ; and
that of one estate, and probably the average for the
parish, has increased threefold since 1814. The Wick,
after being formed by head-waters from Watten and
Toftingall, lakes in the conterminous parish of Wat
ten, moves sluggishly down the great low central
strath, which we have noticed, to the head of Wick-
bay. It performs an entire run of only 9 or 10 miles,
a Uttle upwards of 5 of which are within the parish ;
yet it has a mean breadth of about 30 feet, and often,
in rainy weather, lays a large part of the strath under
flood. Kilminster-loch, nearly a circle of almost a
mile in diameter, and Windless-loch, a stripe of
rather more than a mile in length, are both situated
in the western bog; and a streamlet issues from the
former, traverses the latter, and falls into the north
side of the Wick. Dhu-loch, 6 or 7 furlongs in
length, is situated in the southern bog, and sends
northward to the Wick a small affluent. Yarrow's-
loch, in the south, 2 miles in circumference, sends a
streamlet north-eastward to Hempriggs-loch ; and
the latter, similar in form and size to Kilminster-
loch, sends one stream by a natural channel to the
Wick, and another, by an artifidal channel, to drive
mills in Pulteney-town. Wester-water and loch are
in the north : see Wester  Hempriggs-house, Lord
Duffus, though an old mansion, is large and com
modious. Keiss-house, Sir George Sinclair, Bart., is
an elegant modern house ; and Ulbster-house, the
patrimonial seat of the same proprietor, now of
Thurso-castle, stands in the south. Thrumster,
Innes, Esq. ; Stirkoke, Home, Esq. ; and Rosebank,
Macleay, . Esq., — are all fine houses. The other
mansions are Bilbster, Sibster, Tannach, and Harlan.
On a narrow promontory, at the south side of the en
trance of Wick-bay, stands the dismal ruin of Old
Wick-castle, once the seat of the Lord's Oliphant,
forming a good land-mark to mariners, and called by
them ' the Auld Man o' Wick.' Traces exist of a ditch,
a drawbridge, and some attached buildings ; and a stair,
apparently for retreat, descends through the rock to
the sea. On the south side of Keiss-bay, a mile west
of Noss-head, stand in close juxtaposition, Castles
Girnigoe and Sinclair, formerly the residence of the
Earls of Caithness. The former, though much the
older of the two, is in a much higher state of pre
servation ; and both were agglomerated with now
nearly extinct buildings, to cover the entire surface
of a peninsulated rock or small promontory. A
chamber in one of the out-buildings, situated on the
extremity of the rock, and said to have been the bed
chamber of the Earls, communicated through a trap
door with the sea, and by a flight of steps with the
court of Castle-Girnigoe. A chasm in the rock,
spanned by a drawbridge, separated the two castles.
About 1 J mile west of these ruins stands the ancient
tower of Ackergill, rectangular, . battlemented, 82
feet high, and, at least, . 13 feet thick in the walls,
once the residence of the Earls Marischal, and now
the seat of the Hon. George Dunbar, the Master

of Duffus. Other antiquities are chiefly Picts' bouses
and two standing stones, — the latter associated with
vague traditional story. The fishing- village of Broad-
haven is situated about a mile east of Wick, and has
about 170 inhabitants. The other villages, either
suburban to the burgh or situated at a distance, are
Pulteney-town, Louisburgh, Staxigoe, and
Sarclet : see these articles. One road runs along
the whole coast ; and two go respectively westward
and north-westward from the burgh toward Thurso
and Castletown. Population, in 1801, 3,986; in
1831, 9,850. Houses 1,578. Assessed property of
the parish, in 1815, £7,324; of the burgh £746.
Wick is in the presbytery of Caithness, and synod
of Sutherland and Caithness. Patron, Lord Duffus.
Stipend £232 Is. 8d. ; glebe £50. Unappropriated
teinds £340 9s. 4d. The parish-church was built in
1830. Sittings 1,981. A district is comprehended
in the quoad sacra parish of Keiss : which see.
Another district, the population of which, in 1836,
was 1,272, unites with a district of Latheron, the
population of which, in 1836, was 1,592, to form the
mission of Bruan. The chapel, situated" within
Wick, but almost on the boundary, is a thatched
house which may have cost about £80. Sitting 563.
Stipend £43 from the people, and £25 from the So
ciety for propogating Christian knowledge ; with a
manse which cost £230  The foundation-stone of a
church-extension erection, designed to contain 950
sittings, was laid in Pulteney-town in March 1841 
An United Secession congregation was established in
1770, and their place of worship, situated in Pul
teney-town, was built in 1815. Sittings 658. Sti
pend £100, with a manse and small glebe  An In-'
dependent congregation was established and their
place .of worship built in 1799. Sittings 716. Sti
pend £100, with a house and garden rented at £1 5.
— A Baptist congregation was formed in 180.8, and
assembles in a large room rented at £10. Sittings
150  A Wesleyan Methodist congregation was estab
lished in 1837, and assembles in the Masons'- hall,
rented at £15. Sittings 300. — An Original Seceder
congregation was established in 1835, and assembles
in a large room rented at £10  A Reformed Pres
byterian congregation was established in 1835, and
their place of worship, situated in Pulteney-town,
was built, in 1839. Sittings 380, with capacity of en
largement. — A Separatist congregation was estab
lished in 1824, and assembles in a room in a dwelling-
house, rent free. — A Roman Catholic chapel was
built in 1836, in Pulteney-town, for the use of such
Roman Catholics as frequent Wick during the fish
ing season ; and, except at that season, it is shut. —
In 1836 the population of Wick, quoad sacra, was,
according to an ecclesiastical survey, 8,971 ; of whom
7,498 were churchmen and 1,473 were dissenters 
In 1834 the parish-school was attended by 121 scho
lars ; and twenty other schools, two of which be
longed to the General Assembly and two to the
Society for propagating Christian knowledge, were
attended by 565. Four non-parochial schools, also
within the Keiss district, were attended by 156.
Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 10d., with
about £90 fees, and about £10 other emoluments 
Popish chapels were anciently sprinkled all over the
parish; and the remains of several still exist. One,
a little below Ackergill tower, has the sanguinary
fame of having been the scene of a massacre, in cold
blood, by the clan Gun, of many persons who were
assembled in it for religious service. The people of
Wick were debasingly attached to popish super
stitions, and made very laggard and reluctant. pro
gress in enlightenment after the Reformation.
" They were accustomed," says the Rev. Charles
Thomson, in the New Statistical Account, " to visit

808

WICK.

the chapels with which the parish abounded, and pay
their devotions to the stone images of their tutelary
saints and saintesses. Dr. Richard Mercheston,
minister of Bower, in 1613, exerted himself to sup
press this atrocious and debasing sin ; and procured
the demolition of the stone images. On his return
homewards he was drowned' by the blind and infuri
ated idolaters. It was given out, however, that it
was the saints who did it, and that a lapideous saint-
ess, whom he had cast down and broken to pieces the
day before, was seen a-top of him in the water. * *
Within the memory of persons yet living it was cus
tomary for persons to visit the chapel of St. Tears
on Innocent's day, and leave in it bread and cheese
as an offering to the souls of the children slain by
Herod ; but which the dog-keeper of a neighbouring
gentleman used to take out and give to the hounds.
Till within a few years, it was customary for all the
inhabitants of Mirelandorn to visit the kirk of Moss
every Christmas before sunrise, placing on a stone
bread and cheese and a silver coin, which, as they
alleged, disappeared in some mysterious way. There
are still several holy lochs, especially one at Dunnet,
to which people go from Wick, and, indeed, from all
parts of Caithness, to be cured of their diseases.
They cast a penny into the water, walk or are car
ried withershins around the loch, and return home.
If they recover, their cure is ascribed to the mystic
virtues of 'the Halie-loch ;' and if they do not, their
want of faith gets all the blame."
Wick, a royal burgh, the capital of Caithness,
and the principal seat of the northern herring-fishery,
is situated at the head of Wick-bay, 18J miles south
of John o' Groat's, 20J south-east by east of Thurso,
54 north-east by north of Golspie, and 119 J or 139J,
according to the route, north-north-east of Inverness.
The town lies low, encompassed by a tame and level
strath ; and, but for being washed by its cognominal
river, and swept by the sharp breezes of the north,
the stench of iis fish and garbage would be utterly
unendurable. Even with all appUances, its atmo
sphere and everything connected is so laden with the
peculiar odours of its fisheries, and fish-curing estab
lishments, that a transient visiter ever afterwards
associates recollections of it with the idea of vast
masses of herrings. " When I entered it," says Miss
Sinclair, " I thought of your brother's voyage in a
herring-smack, when the seats were barrels of her
rings, and the staircase from the cabin formed by
piles of casks. One year, many fields in Caithness
were manured with herrings ; but none of the pro
prietors find the perfume so oppressive as strangers
do, because these fisheries are the chief sources of
their wealth." Yet, at the fishing-season, when the
town swarms with Lowlanders, Highlanders, Orca
dians, Irishmen, and Dutchmen, a view, on a fine
summer's morning, from the seaward cliffs in the vi
cinity, is one of the finest scenes of its class any
where to be seen, and displays on the bosom of
the ocean 800 or 1,000 herring-boats, with larger
vessels gliding among the small craft "like stately
swans surrounded by a flock of lively sea-gulls."
The town consists of three parts, Wick-Proper,
Louisburgh, and Pulteney-town. Wick consists
principally of one crooked street about 220 yards
long, winged with lanes, and situated on the north
side of the river, immediately above the commence
ment of the estuary or bay ; it is irregularly built,
and, in spite of modern improvements, exhibits
much slovenliness and filth; and, though giving
name and burgh importance to its modern adjuncts,
it possesses so little comparative consequence as to
contain not one-fourth of the aggregate town po
pulation, and to claim neither the harbour, the
chief trade, nor the seat of the herring-curing estab

lishments. Louisburgh, situated quite adjacent to
it on the north, nearly vies with it in bulk, and far
excels it in regularity and freedom from unpleasant
ness : see Louisburgh. Pulteney-town, situated on
the south side of the river, but extending eastward
till it lines part of the coast of the bay, is the di
vision of prime importance, and contains several
hundreds more than one-half of the population :
see Pulteney-town. This division is all con
structed on a regular plan of street lines; it has
Argyle-square in its centre; and, while receiving
constant and rapid augmentation, it spreads out its
accessions with the same regularity which charac
terized its nucleus. A bridge of three arches, flung
across a narrow part of the river, a little above the
head of the bay, connects Pulteney-town with the
other two divisions. The town and county haU is built
of Caithness flag, faced with sandstone ; it is surmount
ed by a cupola-shaped belfry ; and it has a spacious
principal apartment, adorned with three or four good
portraits. The Commercial banking-office is built
of sandstone, and adorned in front with Ionic pillars.
The parish-church is built partly of Caithness flag.
and partly of sandstone ; it was erected at a cost of
nearly £5,000 ; and it is an imposing edifice, in plain
modern Gothic, surmounted by a spire. The dis
senting chapels are all unpretending structures. A
large school-house, built by the British fishery com
pany, is a neat building. A temperance hall, capa
cious enough to accommodate 1,000 persons, has just
been erected by the total abstinence society of the
town. The Sinclairs' aisle, a part of a very old par
ochial church, the predecessor of that which preceded
the present, has the form of a small, elegant chapel,
and, though roofless, is undilapidated in the walls.
A suite of gas-works, if not already quite completed,
are far advanced in erection.
The present manufactures of the town are aU of
quite modern origin ; and seem to have sprung up
in connection with the fishing-establishment. Four
rope- works employ about 80 persons ; the dressing of
pavement-flags for exportation employs about 70;
boat-building, in about a dozen yards, employs 70 or
80 ; a recently-erected iron-foundry, employs as yet
very few persons, but has promising prospects ; and
the making of herring-nets, and the spinning of ma
terial for them, employ a large number of females.
In the town are a distillery, a brewery, and some
grain and sawmills — Though Wick appears to have
had, from an early date, a little seaward trade, it pos
sessed no other harbour than the natural one of the
bay, till the erection of Pulteney-town. Two har
bours in the immediate vicinity of each other, at
the head of the bay, and on the Pulteney-town side,
were constructed respectively in 1810, in 1831, at
costs of £14,000 and £40,000, by the British fishery
society, partly at their own expense, and partly with
the aid of Government. But though spacious and
skilfully executed, they are so much exposed to the
sea-sweU in the bay, which, during easterly winds, is
probably the most dangerous sea-ground on the east
coast, that they egregiously failed to answer expecta
tion. A large proportion of the trade of the port
has, in consequence, to he conducted at the Uttle
harbour of Staxigoe. A large steam-vessel plies once
a-fortnight, during eight months of the year, between
Wick and Leith, calling at some intermediate ports,
and extending her trips to Orkney and Shetland.
Two smacks sail regularly between Wick and Leith.
About a score of vessels, averaging nearly 60 tons
burden each, belong to the port ; and vessels visit it
to the aggregate amount of about 30,000 tons burden
in the year. The exports consist partly of wool and
grain, but chiefly of the produce of the fisheries 
So great is the herring-fishery that, during the pe-

WIC

809

WIG

la 1629.

In 1810.

457 .

428

498 .

. 337

955 .

. 765

3,761 .

.. 3,828

4,083 .

.. 2,266

442 .

265

117

.. 127

177 .

.. 246

3,200 .

.. 1,200

11,780 .

.. 7,882

riod of its continuance, nearly 10,000 strangers, al
most equal to double the number of the stated in
habitants, are in the town. Yet, so late as 1768,
an incipient adventure in the fishery, encouraged
by parliamentary bounty, proved all but a total fail
ure. In 1782, the produce amounted to 363 barrels;
and, in 1790, to upwards of 13,000. In 1808, the
establishment of Pulteney-town was commenced by
the British fishery society ; and, since that date, the
anual fishings, during eight or ten weeks succeeding
the middle of July, have been regularly conducted
both at Pulteney-town itself, and at the subordinate
stations of Broadhaven, Staxigoe, Keiss, and Sarclet.
A boat, with outfit of nets, costs about £120; a
boat's crew are four in number, and, when the boat
is their own, earn from £20 to £50 each in a sea
son ; a hired crew receive each, for the season, from
£3 to £7, with a weekly IJ peck of meal; and
poor women earn from £1 to £3 a season, in gut
ting and packing the fish. Though the fishery is
somewhat fluctuating, the foUowing statistics of it
for the years 1829 and 1840, may be regarded as a
fair index of its condition : —

Boats belonging to Wick,
Boats not belonging; to Wick,
Total of boats at the fishery, .
Fishermen, Gutters, curers, and packers,
Coopers,
Carters, ....
Other labourers, ,
Seamen in coasting-vessels, .
Total of persons employed,

The total of barrels cured in 1839 was 84,308; in 1840,
63,495. The total of barrels bung-packed, branded,
in 1839, was 19,451 ; in 1840, 10,333. The total of
barrels exported, in 1839, was 64,114, of which
60,045 were to Ireland ; in 1840, it was 55,711, of
which 51,250 were to Ireland. — Wick has a custom
house ; a chamber of commerce ; branch-offices of
the Commercial bank of Scotland, and the Aberdeen
town and country bank ; a Savings' bank ; two pub
lic news-rooms ; a public library ; a Caithness agri
cultural society ; a masons' lodge ; three inns ; and
a number of insurance agents. The John o' Groat
Journal, a liberal newspaper, is published every Fri
day ; and the Northern Star, a conservative and
fortnightly paper, became extinct in 1839, after a
precarious existence of 2J years. A weekly market
is held on Friday; and annual fairs are held in March,
June, July, and November.
Wick was erected into a royal burgh by a charter
of James VI. in 1589. But though invested with
the privileges of a royal burgb, it exhibited the ano
maly of being subjected to the superiority of a sub
ject somewhat in the manner of a burgh-of-barony.
Yet the superiority — which belonged- originally io
George, Earl of Caithness, and his heirs and succes
sors, and which afterwards passed to the families of
Ulbster and Sutherland — became virtually annulled
at the date of the municipal reform act. The burgh
seems never to have had any landed property ; and
it draws its chief revenues from customs, harbour-
dues, and rent of curing stations. In 1832, the re
ceipts were £424 3s. 1 l£d. ; the expenditure £523
13s., of which £429 19s. 2d. was classed as extra
ordinary; the debt due to the burgh £100; and the
debt due by it £1,450. The corporation-revenue,
in 1840-1, was £375. The only burgh-taxes are
of three kinds, amounting to about £34. The town-
council consists of a provost, 2 bailies, a dean-of-
guild, a treasurer, and 7 councillors. Municipal
constituency, in 1840, 90. The jurisdiction of the
magistrates is limited to the royalty, or to Wick-
Proper ; and even within these narrow limits a pre

ference is given to the justice-of-peace and sheriff-
courts. The British fishery society are the superiors
of Pulteney-town ; and the only impost there, addi
tional to feu-duty, is five shillings a-year for keep
ing the stfeets in repair. There are, in the burgh,
no incorporated crafts ; yet formerly £8 8s. was
exigible, and now £4 4s., as fee for burgess-ship.
The aggregate sum levied in fees, during five years
preceding 1832, was £193 3s. 6d. ; and the number
of burgesses in that year was 66. There is no police
act, nor any special police regulation. The sheriff
has held his ordinary courts in Wick since 1828:
See Thurso. The burgh unites with Dingwall,
Tain, Cromarty, Kirkwall, and Dornoch, in sending
a member to parliament; and is the returning burgb.
Parliamentary constituency, in 1840, 254. The par
liamentary boundaries comprehend Pulteney-town,
Louisburgh, Broadhaven, and a considerable extent
of circumjacent country. Population, in 1810, about
1,000; in 1821, 2,900; in 1836, of Wick, 1,195,—
of Louisburgh, 801, — of Pulteney-town, 2,872, — in
all, 4,868, exclusive of Broadhaven and the rural
parts of the parliamentary burgh.
WIG, a bay affording commodious and safe an
choring-ground, on the west side of Lochryan, nearly
opposite the village of Cairn.
WIGTON, a parish in the eastern border of Wig
tonshire. Its form is ellipsoidal, with the greater
axis extending from east to west. It is bounded on
the north-west, north, and north-east, by Penning
hame ; on the east by Wigton-bay, which divides it
from Kirkcudbrightshire ; and on the south and
south-west by the river Bladenoch, which divides it
from Kirkinner. Its greatest length is 5 miles ; its
greatest breadth is 4 miles ; and its superficial ex
tent is 5,500 acres. A streamlet, called Bishopburn,
runs to the bay over a distance of nearly 4 miles
along the boundary with Penninghame. The bay of
Wigton, or the estuary of the Cree, while washing
the parish, is from 1 J to 2\ miles broad ; yet, at
the recess of the tide, it becomes simply an expanse
of sand, furrowed by the channels of the streams.
A district in the north-east, lying on the bay and
measuring 2J miles by IJ, is an almost uninter
rupted level, and bears decided marks of having, at
a comparatively recent period, been constantly sub
marine. Both its soil and its subsoil are a kind of
indurated silt, intermixed with shells ; and they are
stratified, and jointly very deep. The tract, after
being forsaken by ihe sea, appears to have been
first forest, and next bog; and though now very ex
tensively reclaimed and arable, still has a large ag
gregate of bog, and exhibits many trunks of its
quondam trees, especially of oaks. The district in
ward from it, and constituting the north-west divi
sion, is roughly tumulated, and, along with some im- '
proved lands, and others which are improvable, con
tains probably 1,000 acres of irreclaimable moor and
moss. The southern district, though hillocky and
broken, has much good low ground, sends the plough
over most of its rising grounds, and exhibits no small
amount of the happy results of agricultural improve
ment. The soil, both on the heights and on the
plains, is a dry, light, hazle mould, lying in some places
on till, and in others on gravel ; and being in general
thin, it agrees well with showeriness of weather.
The only village is Bladenoch : which see. The
principal landward antiquity is the standing-stones of
Torhouse. These are all of unpolished granite; and'
form a circle of 19 stones, and a centre of 3. The
stones on the circumference are from 2 to 5 feet long,
from 4 to 9 in girth, and from 5 to nearly 12 asun
der, — forming a circle of 218 feet ; and the stones in
or near the centre, stand on a line from east to west,
the exterior ones 5, and the interior one 3 feet high. ¦

810

WIGTON.

/ Some single stones, and several cairns — the latter
originally large, but now wasted by having been used
as quarries for fences — occur in the vicinity. Some
writers regard these remains as Druidical ; others,
as an ancient court of justice ; and others, among
whom are Sir Robert Sibbald, Timothy Pont, and
Symson, as monuments of the person, the chief of
ficers, and the common soldiers of Galdus, the Scot
tish prince, who conquered the province from the
Romans. Four great lines of road traverse the par
ish, radiating from the burgh in the directions re
spectively of Newton-Stewart, Ferry-town of Cree,
Whithorn, and Stranraer. Population, in 1801,
1,475; in 1831, 2,337. Houses 403. Population,
in 1841, 2,552. Assessed property, in 1815, £6,499.
— Wigton is the seat of a presbytery in the synod of
Galloway. Patron, the Earl of Galloway. Stipend
£272 0s. 9d. ; glebe £24. Unappropriated teinds
£162 13s. 9d. The parish-church was built in 1730,
repaired and enlarged in 1770, and re-roofed in 1830
or 1831. Sittings 660. An United Secession chapel
in the burgh, belonging to a congregation established
in 1748, was built in 1750, and enlarged about 1785.
Sittings 448. Stipend £120, with £10 for sacra
mental expenses. A Relief congregation was estab
lished in the burgh in 1834, and has been gratui
tously accommodated with the town-hall. An ec
clesiastical census, not of the whole population, but
of examinable persons in 1836, exhibited the latter
as 1,302, and distributed them into 918 churchmen,
and 334 dissenters. There are two schools in the
burgh under the direction of the magistrates, the one
for boys and the other for girls. Salary of the school
master £24; of his assistant £10; of the schoolmis
tress £10; of her assistant £6. The fees are mo
derate; and the schoolrooms are much too confined
for either comfort or health. In 1834, there were 8
private schools, attended by 320 scholars  The an
cient church was dedicated to St. Machute, a saint
of British origin who died in 554; it was given by
Edward Bruce, lord of Galloway, and brother of the
royal Robert, to the canons o'f Whithorn ; and it af
terwards became a free parsonage, and in the feeble
reign-of James III. had for its rector a younger son
of Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch  A convent for
Dominican or preaching friars was founded at Wig
ton, in 1267, by the well-known Lady Dervorgille.
This convent stood on the south-east of the town,
and was governed by a prior; but, even in 1684,
when Symson wrote, " the very ruins thereof were
almost ruined," and now they have entirely disap
peared. The friars obtained from Alexander III.
a grant of a large portion of the " firms" annually
due to him from the town of Wigton; and they
gave lodging to James IV., and received frequent
gratuities from him on his many pilgrimages to the
shrine of St. Ninian at Whithorn. " Ronald Mak-
bretun, clarschawner," or harper, received from
James IV., during life, six marks worth of land of
Knockan in Wigton, for his fee as one of the King's
musicians, on the condition of his annually paying the
friars of Wigton six bolls of meal. The friars had
in perpetuity a fishery on the south side of the
Bladenoch upwards from its embouchure ; and, in
compensation or purchase of their "singing daily,
after evensang, Salve regina, with a special orison,
for the King's father and mother, predecessors and
successors," they obtained temporary grants of the
fishery on the north side of the same river from
James III., James IV., and James V. The revenues
of the convent, never considerable, were vested in
the Crown by the general annexation act. The friars,
compared to kindred communities throughout the
country, seem to have been quite obscure.
Wigton, a royal burgh, and the capital of Wig

tonshire, stands in the south-east corner of its cog
nominal parish, 7| miles south of Newton-Stewart,
1 1 north of Whithorn, 20 east of Stranraer, 58 west-
south-west of Dumfries, and 105 south-south-west
of Edinburgh. Its site is a rising ground or table
land of about 200 acres in extent, and about 200 feet
above sea-level, near the beach of Wigton-bay, and
about 3 furlongs north of the mouth of the Blade
noch. As seen from some distance, the town has a
beautiful appearance; and as seen from within, it
presents a cleanliness, a neatness, and a general taste,
rarely, if at all, found in towns of its size. Its prin
cipal locality is a rectangle or parallelogram about
250 yards long, proportionally broad, and extending
from east-north-east to west-south-west. This area,
excepting sufficient space around its exterior for car
riage and pathways, is all enclosed. The central
part of the enclosure presents the smooth, green,
level sward of a public bowling-green. At the lower
end is an intricate and excellent dial. At the upper
end is an artificial circular bank, cut into a series
of terraces, or concentric sward seats, whence the
burghers, rising above one another as on the section
of 'a galleried pyramid, may look down on the sport
of the bowl-players below. Round the whole of
the enclosure, between the inner objects and the
roadways, are umbrageous gravel walks, planted along
the sides with shrubs and evergreens and forest trees,
and almost completely hid by them from the intru
sive gaze of peerers on the streets. So fine and
judicious a burghai ornament as this enclosure, with
its contents, is quite unique of its kind, indicates
much good taste, and ought to provoke imitation ;
and, while it pleases and delights a stranger simply
by its intrinsic properties, howniuch is he surprised,
how greatly is he charmed, when he learriS that it
occupies the quondam site of a huge common dung
hill of the burgh, and thus stands before him the
type of transformation from moral turpitude to the
sweets and the odoriferousness of moral beauty !
Most of the town, additional to the rectangle, con
sists of a street, proceeding 230 yards west-south-
westward, on a line with the south side of the rect
angle ; a street of nearly the same length, going off
from the south side of tbe latter, bending round in
the form of the segment of a circle, and leading Out
the thoroughfare toward Bladenoch and Whithorn ;
two streets, each about 130 yards long, and parallel
to each other, going off at right angles from the ends
of the north side of the rectangle, one of them lead
ing out the highway to Newton-Stewart ; and three
other streets, short, not fully edificed, but combin
ing with the rest of the town arrangement to pro
duce a tout-ensemble of beautiful intersections and
interlacery of plan which could hardly have been
producible out of so small a number of houses, and
which has an agreeableness of effect seldom equalled
in neatly constructed towns of even considerable
size. Many of the houses are new ; and a sufficient
number are neat, entirely to redeem the place from
the careworn and tawdry aspect which so generally^
belongs to old Scottish towns of its class. On the
street at the upper extremity of the rectangle stands
the market-cross, a structure of great architectural
elegance, and adorned with tasteful sculpturings.
At the opposite extremity, looking up the unedificed
and enclosed area, is the town-house, surmounted
by a considerably high tower, and distributed into
court-room, assembly-room, and an apartment for a
subscription library. In a fine retired spot, nearly
100 yards from the east end of the town, stands the
parish-church. In itself it is patched and shabby,
and possesses no interest; but in, its surrounding
cemetery are two monuments which will suggest to
many minds of the best cast very thrilling and in-

WIGTON.

811

structive associations. Both are to the memory of
martyrs. Margaret M'Lauchlan, a woman of ad
vanced years, and Margaret Wilson, a young woman
of 18, were tried at Wigton by the inglorious Grier-
son of Lag, Colonel Graham the brother of the in
famous Claverhouse, Major Windram and Captain
Strachan, commissioners appointed to try nonconfor
mists with power of extreme penalty, and having
been condemned by these brutal tools of truculent
persecution to be staked at low water and drowned
by the flow of the tide, they underwent the martyr
dom with a steadiness which resisted all allurement
to recant, and a grandeur of moral heroism which
might have put the bull-dog bravery of all the troop
ers of the king to the blush. One of the monuments
commemorates these females, and bears suitable in
scriptions, in reference to each, followed, in the case
of that which refers to Margaret Wilson, by the
doggerel rhymes :
" Let earth and stone still witness beare
There lys a virgine martyr here,
Murthered for owning Christ Supreame
Head of his Church, and no more crime,
But not abjuring Presbytry,
And her not owning Prelacy.
Of Heaven nor Hell they stood do awe ;
Within the sea, ty'd to a stake,
She suffered for Christ Jesus' sake.
The actors of this cruel crime
Was Lagg, Strachan, Winram, and Ghrame ;
Neither young years nor old age
Could stop the fury of their rage."
Three men, William Johnston, John Milroy, and
George Walker, aU in humble worldly circumstances,
were interrogated, not tried, by Winram at Wigton ;
and faiUng to please him with their answers about
attending the services of the curate, they were next
day, without even a poor show of justice being done
them, publicly executed. The second interesting
monument in the churchyard is to the memory of
these men ; and it bears an inscription which simply
states that they were, "without sentence of law,"
put to death " for their adherence to Scotland's re
formation, covenants, and national solemn league."
Wigton has no manufactures except the ordinary
artisan products for local use, and very little trade
beyond the transfer of commodities for the supply
of a limited circumjacent country. Though there
are nominally five annual fairs, they possess hardly
any connection with business, and have fallen into
all but complete neglect. A weekly market is held
on Saturday ; but it entirely wants the stir and the
importance of markets in many other agricultural
districts. The sum of the most valuable part of the
export trade is the annual shipment of probably, on
the average, 10,000 or 12,000 bushels of grain, -with
a proportionate quantity of potatoes, and a smaller
quantity of oatmeal. A creek previously used as a
harbour became inaccessible in 1817 or 1818, in con
sequence of a change in the current of the river
Bladenoch; and a new harbour and breastwork were
soon after erected at a considerable expense by the
magistrates. Though the dues levied at the new
harbour are questionable as to their legality, no
authority having been obtained for making the erec
tion, they appear to be very moderate, and to yield
no more than a fair return for the money laid out in
giving accommodation to shipping. Up to 1833, the
harbour-dues averaged about £30 10s. In 1831,
the vessels belonging to the town were 14 in num
ber, and aggregately carried about 880 tons; and the
number of vessels which cleared out from the harbour
was 76, cargoed with upwards of 5,001) tons. In 1840
there were 63 vessels measuring 4,199 tons, belong
ing to this port, and manned by 311 men and boys.
The Countess of Galloway steamer maintains com
munication generally twice, a-week with Garlieston,

Kirkcudbright, and Liverpool. The Stranraer and
Newton-Stewart mail is daily in transit. Wigton
has an office of the British Linen Company's bank ;
a customhouse ; a stamp-office ; 5 insurance offices ;
a masonic lodge; a friendly society; and a Bible
society. Wigton is governed by a provost, two bailies, a
treasurer, and 14 councillors. Municipal constitu
ency, in 1840, 111. The affairs of the burgh appear
to be in a very flourishing condition. There is no
debt ; there have been no alienations of the common
property for nearly two centuries ; the public pro
perty is of considerable value; and the revenue in
ordinary years exceeds the expenditure. In 1832,
the revenue was £393 4s. 4d. ; and the expenditure
£391 5s. lid. There is no local assessment for
burghai purposes. The cess payable for the burgh
is £4 16s. 4d., and is defrayed out of the common
funds. The affairs of the poor are maintained by
voluntary subscription, and managed jointly by the
magistrates, the kirk-session, and the heritors. The
ancient royalty comprehended about 1,200 acres,
almost wholly alienated for trifling feu-duties, nearly
two centuries ago, to the Galloway family. The
boundaries under the Reform act exclude most of
these grounds, and include the farms, of 'Maitland
and Kirklandhill which formerly were not held in
burgage. The jurisdiction exercised by the magis
trates is very trifling ; and, during 10 years ending
in 1833, disposed, of only 5 civil and 33 criminal
cases. Nearly all the civil cases on the burgh are
tried before the sheriff-court. The patronage of the
magistrates extends to the election only of their own
officers, and the teachers of the endowed schools.
There being no guildry and no incorporated trades,
no fees are exacted from any trader who settles in
tbe burgh. The sheriff and commissary court sits
every Tuesday during session. There reside in the
town the principal clerk of the peace for Wigton
shire, 4 justices of peace, and 7 procurators. Wig
ton unites with Stranraer, Whithorn, and New-
Galloway in sending a member to parliament. Par
liamentary constituency, in 1840, i08.
An old castle, which dated back to at latest the
middle of the 13th century, and was built by a body
of successful Saxon invaders, appears to have occa
sioned the origin of the town. It stood on the banks
of the Bladenoch at a place now abandoned by the
river, but where anciently it fell into the bay. Ves
tiges of the fosse, and some confused small masses
of stone and mortar, are the only remains. The
castle was sufficiently important to be demanded and
obtained by Edward I. in 1291, to be held by him
till the competing claims for the crown should be
adjusted. While in his possession, it was succes
sively under the charge of Walter de Currie, Laird
of Dunskey, and others; and it was afterwards de
livered up to John Baliol as king of Scotland, and
became for a time a royal residence. The town was
incorporated and recognised as a royal burgh from a
very, early period. The original grants having been
lost or destroyed, James II., in 1457, of new granted
a charter, confirming the burgh in all Mts ancient
rights and privileges. In 1661, this charter was
ratified by the Scottish parliament. Shortly after
wards, Charles II. granted a new charter, confirming
the former grants, and conferring such rights of tax
ation as the burgh continues to exercise  Wigton
gave the title of Earl to the noble family of Fleming.
The earldom was created, in 1341, jointly with, the
title of Baron Fleming and Cumbernauld , and it be
came dormant, in 1747, at the death of Charles, the
7th Earl. The Hon. Admiral Fleming, governor of
Greenwich hospital, who died in 1840, was said to
be the representative of the Earls.

812

WIGTONSHIRE.

WIGTON-BAY, the estuary or frith of the Cree,
bringing up the sea north-north-westward between
the counties of Wigton and Kirkcudbright. Its ex
tremities or the headlands at which it becomes lost
in the Irish sea, are Burrowhead in the Wigtonshire
parish of Whithorn, and the Slack of the Ross in
the Kirkcudbrightshire parish of Borgue. Its en
trance, measured in a straight line between these
points, is 12 miles wide. Its length, measured from
the middle of this straight line to a point a little
north of Creetown, where the river begins to be
estuary, is 15 miles. Its breadth over the upper
half slowly expands from 6 furlongs to 4 miles; and
over the lower half averages about 7 J miles. Fleet-
bay opens from about the middle of its Kirkcudbright
shire side; and forms of itself a considerable estuary:
See Fleet (The). Of smaller bays which open
'.from it, the chief on the Wigtonshire side are Isle
of Whithorn-bay, Port-Yarrock, Rigg-bay, Garlies-
ton-bay, and the little estuary of the Bladenoch, —
and on the Kirkcudbrightshire side are Bridgehouse,
Boreness, Kirkandrew, and Knockbrex bays. Five
islets look up from itshosom, but lie near the shores;
the Isle of Whithorn, at the mouth of the bay to
which it gives name; two Murray Isles off the coast
of Girthon ; and Knockbrex and Barlocco Isles off
the coast of Borgue. Though a large aggregate
extent of the coast is bold, rocky, and precipitous,
most of the bays afford good and safe anchoring-
ground. Over between 5 and 6 miles from the head
or begun expansion of the estuary, broad belts of
sandy beach are on both sides left dry at the efflux
of the tide.
WIGTONSHIRE, a county forming the western
division of Galloway, and occupying the south-wes
tern extremity, as well as containing the most South
erly land of Scotland. It is bounded on the north
partly by the Irish channel or frith of Clyde, princi
pally by Ayrshire, and to a small extent by Kirk
cudbrightshire ; on the east by Kirkcudbrightshire ;
on the south by the Irish sea ; and on the west by
the Irish channel. The whole of the boundary with
Kirkcudbrightshire is formed by the Cree and its
estuary, Wigton-bay; and the boundary with Ayr
shire is formed for 2 miles by Loch-Dornal and a
brook flowing from it to the Cree, — for nearly 4
miles by Loch-Maberry, and a brook which enters it
from the west, — for 1 mile by the Cross-water of
Luce, — for 3 miles by Craigoch-burn and the Main-
water of Luce, — for IJ mile by an easterly flowing
head-stream of Drumorawhirn-burn, — and for 2j
miles by Lochryan. The boundary in every part,
except between 6 and 7 miles on the north, is thus
formed by water; yet as it consists of no fewer than
six separate or uncontinuous lines of water on the
north, and as most of these lines are rilly and un-
voluminous, it can be regarded as geographical or
naturally distinct only over a small part of the north,
and over the whole of the other sides. The county
lies between 54° 36' 45" and 55° 3' 40" north lati
tude; and between 4° 15' 50" and 5° 7' 10" longi
tude west of Greenwich. It extends from east to
west between 30 and 31 miles ; and from north to
south between 28 and 29. Its form would be proxi
mately square but for the enormous indentation of
Luce-bay on the south, and the smaller though very
considerable indentation of Lochryan on the north.
The superficial extent is variously stated by the
New Statistical Account at 459 square miles,  by
the Rev. Samuel Smith, in his View of the Agricul
ture of Galloway, at 485.5 square miles, or 244.498
Scottish acres, — and by Chalmers, in his Caledonia,
at 484 square miles, or 309,760 statute acres.
Luce-Bay, Lochryan, and Wigton-Bay, each
of which is fully described in its proper alphabeti

cal place, must be understood in their outlines,
extent, and relations, in order to a fair concep
tion being formed of either the configuration of
the county, or the trending of its coasts. The dis
trict or double peninsula west of Luce-bay and
Lochryan, and of the isthmus of 6J miles which lies
between them, is called the Rhinns of Galloway :
See that article. The district which forms the broad
large peninsula between Luce-bay and Wigton-bay
is called the Machers : which also see. The re
maining district, or all the country north of the
Machers and east of Lochryan, bears the loose gen
eral name of the Moors. Ordinary reckoning, or
that of the Rev. Samuel Smith, restricts the Machers
to little more than one-half of the large peninsula,
or to about 64 square miles; and, estimating the
Rhinns at 116, it consequently assigns to the Moors
about 305 square miles, or an area not very much
more than double of the joint area of the other dis
tricts. Though the really moorish part of what
bears the name of the Moors is quite extensive
enough to render the name proximately correct,
when used in contrast to the rest of the county,
yet it is by no means either sufficiently extensive, or
of sufficiently marked character, to make the desig
nation more descriptive of Wigtonshire than it would
be of many other Scottish counties.
The physical aspect of Wigtonshire is not striking
or broadly varied, and offers very few large interest
ing landscapes. While almost uniformly tumulated,
a restless and continuous sea of knolls and hillocks
and hills, it aggregately rises less above sea-level
than probably any other county in Scotland. Hil
locks rise almost everywhere immediately from the
shore to the height of 100 or 200 feet, and occasion
ally to such additional elevation as to become strictly
hills. Similar heights, aggregated in constant con
geries, stretch away for several miles into the inte
rior, nearly at the same elevation, producing a very
unequal surface, everywhere intersected with innu
merable valleys, furrowed out by streams, or de
pressed into hollows, containing either lochlets or
little arable dingles. The face of the heights is
generally broken by abrupt protuberances, and by
steep banks and rocky knolls diversified into every
variety of shape. A plain or valley, bearing marks
of having at a comparatively recent period lain under
the sea, extends from Luce-bay to Loch-Ryan, and
measures 6J miles in length and about 3 in breadth.
A considerable extent of low and level ground, also
at a comparatively late date submarine, lies likewise
along the lower Cree and the upper part of Wigton-
bay. The heights, as the county recedes northward,
become bolder and of a more decidedly hilly charac
ter than near the coast; and, in the vicinity or along
the line of the boundary with Ayrshire, they often
rise to 1,000, and occasionally to not very far from
1,500 or 1,600 feet above sea-level. The loftiest
grounds, in a general view, occupy a mere belt of
country, and form only the skirts of the broad range
of the southern Highlands, as it sweeps across the
south of Ayrshire, to communicate, along Kirkcud
brightshire and other counties, with the eastern
Cheviots. All the Moors and the Machers have
thus a southern exposure, coming down from the
northern boundary to the Irish sea. The Rhinns
district looks in every direction; yet has its prevail
ing line of water-shed much nearer the west than
the east, and sends up its highest ground almost in
the middle, around the finely commanding eminence
of Cairnpat: which see — In keeping with the con
figuration, position, and general dedination of the
shore, the climate is very moist, with prevaiUngly
south-western winds, which are usually laden with
rain. Snow seldom lies long ; and frosts are s»lrl~n

WIGTONSHIRE.

813

severe or of long continuance. Though humidity
of atmosphere abounds, it is rarely injurious to the
fruits of the soil, and becomes mischievous princi
pally when the cultivator has not bestowed due care
upon his lands.
The coast, except at the head of the three very
large indentations of the sea, and in a few of the
*»««*!• minor bays and creeks, is very generally — indeed,
almost continuously— bold and rocky. Though ii
aggregately extends, including curvatures, to some
thing upwards of 120 miles, it contains comparatively
few recesses where a large ship may safely ride at
anchor or attempt to land a cargo, and not very many
which afford fair landing-places for even small craft.
Loch-Ryan, all round, indeed, is one huge, fine har
bour, and two or three of the creeks of Wigton-bay
are decidedly hospitable ; but with these exceptions,
almost the whole coast is a rampart of stern cliffs
bristling defiance to a foe, and interrupted across the
head of Luce- bay with a stretch of low sands which
woos him to ruin. The rocky cliffs, very generally,
rise sheer up from the sea ; and, with singular fre
quency, they are perforated with caves and twisted
into curious forms. The minor bays are, in the
great majority of instances, mere creeks ; and are far
too numerous to bear enumeration. The minor head
lands possess a character in keeping with the creeks ;
and often form, jointly with them, a slightly waving
or serrated coast-line. , The grand headlands are the
Mull of Galloway, the southern extremity of the
Rhinns, and the most southerly land in Scotland;
and Burrow-head, the extreme point of the Machers,
and only2J miles less southerly than the Mull. The
most important harbours are Carty, near the foot of
the Cree ; Wigton, at the mouth of the Bladenoch ;
Garlieston, about the middle of Wigton-bay ; Isle of
Whithorn, a Uttle north-east of Burrowhead; Port-
William, about the middle of the east side of Luce-
bay ; Port-Logan, on the west coast of Kirkmaiden ;
Portpatrick, at the cognominal town ; and Cairn-
ryan on the east side, and Stranraer at the head of
Loch-Ryan. The streams of Wigtonshire are, for the most part,
small and unsuited to topographical notice ; yet, in a
few instances, tihey afford admission, for a brief way,
to light coasting-vessels, and are ornamental to a
country of no great scenic beauty. The principal
are the Cree and the Bladenoch, southward to
Wigton-bay ; the Tarf, a tributary of the Blad
enoch ; and the Luce southward, and Plltanton-
burn south-eastward, to the head of Luce-bay : see
these articles. The lakes are very numerous ; but
are all small, and aggregately cover only 7J square
miles. In several parishes, as in Inch, Mochrum,
Kirkcowan, and Penningham, they occur in clusters,
or rapidly spot the face of the country. The largest
are Dowalton-Loch [which see] and Castle- Ken
nedy-loch, described in the article Inch. Several in
the south possess much beauty, and furnish some
fine close landscapes; but the great majority, espe
cially in the north, are cold and cheerless watery
expanses, surrounded by bleak and moorish banks.
Chalybeate springs occur in Whithorn and Stoney
kirk ; and mineral springs, and a sulphureous one,
occur in Inch. Springs of pure water are, in general,
many and copious.
The most prevalent rocks are primary, transition,
and secondary schists. Greywacke, greywacke slate,
and argillaceous schist, are particularly abundant.
Beds of greywacke occur of aU thicknesses, from a
few inches to many feet, of hard compact grain, and
of a blue or greyish brown colour, for the most part
breaking irregularly, but often splitting into parallel
slices. These beds are interspersed in all different
proportions with strata of a soft, shivering; argilla

ceous stone, which easily yields to the weather, and
locally hears the name of slate-band. Both the
greywacke and the argillaceous strata generally make
a rapid dip, but occur at all angles from an absolutely
vertical position to one nearly horizontal ; they are
frequently contorted in a manner not a little curious ;
and occasionally they are intersected with veins or
dykes of porphyry. Hillocks and hills occur of till
and gravel, evidently formed by water, and singularly
contrasting in the roundness and smoothness of their
surface, to the roughness of the rest of the country.
,When one chiefly or wholly of tilly composition is
opened it presents a curious spectacle ; the general
mass of till being confusedly interspersed with blocks
of stone, some rounded and some angular, of all sizes
up to the most enormous blocks, and of substances
which indicate their having been wrenched and
carried along from mountains at least 10 or 12 miles
distant. Slate quarries have been worked in Kirk
maiden. Sandstone occurs in the north of the
Rhinns. Coals have been an object of earnest but
vain search. Limestone occurs in no great plenty,
and is generally of too poor a quality to be worked
for the uses of the farmer, but assumes, in Whithorn,
the character of what two authorities before us call
" fine variegated marble." Copper ore occurs in
Whithorn  The soil of nearly all the Machers
and a considerable part of the moors is of a hazel
colour, and is of the species sometimes termed dry
loam, though it often inclines to gravel. The bed
of schist on which it Ues is frequently so near the
surface as to be scratched and rutted by the plough ;
and where soft, it probably gives off by attrition
a considerable though slow accession to the soil's
depth. The low ground along the Cree and the
head of Wigton-bay seems all alluvial, or formed of
substances brought down by the river, flung back by
the tide, and mixed with clay, shells, and sand. The
Carse of Baldoon, which constitutes the larger part
of it, and measures about 3,000 acres, has all the
qualities of carse or strong clay soil, and justly pos
sesses the fame of being the richest and best culti
vated land in Wigtonshire, and the Carse of Gowrie
of the south-west of Scotland. Like the luxuriant
carses of the Forth, this opulent tract, after being
left by the sea, became successively forest and moss,
and retains some remains of its morassy condition.
In the valley between Luce-bay and Loch-Ryan, the
soil consists chiefly of a deposition of sea-sand, inter
spersed with considerable but extensively reclaimed
tracts of shallow flow-moss. A belt of sandy soil oc
curs also on the west side of Loch-Ryan., The lands
of the Rhinns, in a general view, possess all the
characters of the best soils of GaUoway, and are, to
a large extent, arable; and they have subsoils now
absorbent and finely conducive to good tillage, and
now retentive and occasioning the soils to be wet
and spongy. The central and northern sections of
the district of the Moors present a pervading aspect
of extreme barrenness. Extensive regions appear
covered entirely with a soil of peat earth, — large and
deep flows, which chill the air with their humid ex
halations, and admit, even amid the genial glow of
summer, very little vegetation. Some of these flows
extend, with little interruption, to a length of 8 or
10 miles; and they are perfectly useless for black
cattle, and readier to swallow than to feed them.
From the barbarian character of the original No-
vantes, and the comparatively superior civilization of
the colonists of the Middle ages, we may easily infer
that the usual progress of agricultural economy, from
rudeness to refinement, took place in Wigtonshire.
Under the mild management of the' BaUols, lords of
GaUoway, husbandry began to prosper. Even in
1300, that year of conflict and of conquest, more

814

WIGTONSHIRE.

wheat was found in Galloway by the English armies
than the mills of the province could manufacture
into flour. B ut succeeding ages of warfare and waste,
of local tyranny and general misgovemment, deprived
the husbandman of all spirit and hope. To so mon
strous a condition were landed interests progressively
reduced that, in the sad reign of Charles I., lands
were offered for no other rent than payment of the
public taxes, and estates were exposed for sale at
two years' purchase. Agriculture deteriorated from
' the beginning of the 14th century onward, till it be
came all but extinct, or crawled along in combined
slothfolness and absurdity of movement. In 1684,
when Symson wrote, the routine of crops, so far as
tillage existed, was a constant succession of oats and
bear, and bear and oats. Marshal Lord Stair, tbe
emiiest improver, retired from public life in 1728,
and, till his death, in 1747, divided his time between
Wigtonshire and West Lothian, in establishing upon
his lands such superior arts of husbandry as he had
observed in England or on the continent. He en
closed his grounds ; drained marshes and swamps ;
cultivated potatoes, turnips, cabbages, and carrots,
in the open fields ; introduced artificial grasses ; prac
tised the horse-hoeing husbandry; and altogether
displayed a skill and an energy of improvement which
surely, though slowly, worked a revolution in the
wretched agricultural practices which prevailed. In
,1760, principles and plans of improvement, founded
in reason and experiment, began to be introduced by
an intelligent agent of the Earl of Selkirk, of the
name of Jeffrey, upon his lordship's estate of Baldoon ;
and they somewhat extensively, though in a silent
way, recommended themselves to the adoption of
intelligent and wealthy landowners. The Earl of
Galloway, one and a chief imitator, took under his
own management farm after farm; made stone-dyke
enclosures ; freely used lime and sea-shell manures ;
introduced a rotation of first oats, next potutoes and
turnips.and next barley with grass-seeds ; and, after
his farms were thus enclosed and systematized, let
them upon a lease of 19 years, at a considerable ad
vance of rent. In the summer of 1777, Wight, who
was sent into Wigtonshire to tell the farmers what
he thought wrong and what he presumed to be right,
found the inhabitants of the county-town and its
vicinity "a drowsy people," who discerned only
"some symptoms of a dawn" in rational agriculture ;
and, on proceeding farther into the county, saw ex
cellent soil execrably managed, — the tenants poor
and torpid, — and the rotation an exhausting process
of first a crop of oats, and next three or four succes
sive crops of bear. But impelled principally by the
influence and example of the Eari of Stair, on his
lands of Inch, and by the vigorous efforts of the
Agricultural society of Dumfries-shire, conducted, as
these were, by the talents and genius of Mr. Craik,
Wigtonshire, had, about the commencement of the
present century, moved onward to a position of very
decided and general improvement. Two agricul
tural societies have long been at work in the county ;
the farmers, as a body, are respectable in both intelli
gence and practical tact ; and /the existing methods
of agriculture, though flinging an aspect over the
country very much inferior to that of several other
Scottish counties, are, when viewed in connexion
with the difficulties of the soil, highly creditable to
the farming community's discernment and skill. The
land of the county ,lies, for the most part, under
entail; and is very little subdivided among pro
prietors. Farms, compared to those in other dis
tricts, are generally of medium size ; and they are
usually let on leases of 19 years. The proportions
of the whole area which are arable and pastoral are
to each other respectively as 7 to 11 ; or the arable

grounds amount to about 35 per cent, of the entire
county. While improvement and the war-stimulus
were jointly in operation, the value of land increased
with almost incredible rapidity ; but it afterwards
reached a maximum, and even experienced a marked
fall. One farm, on the property of the Earl of Stair,
which, previous to 1790, rented for £7 2s. 6d., paid
only 16 years after a rent of £195. The average j
rent of land throughout the! county is at present little
more than 6s. per acre; but, in 1810, it amounted to
8s. 6d.
Wigtonshire is celebrated, in common with the
eastern and larger section of Galloway, for the ex
cellence of its pastures, the good points of its peculiar
breed of black cattle, and the largeness of its pro
duce in oxen and sheep for the markets of England.
But in these particulars, and in all others which be
longed to its pastoral districts, it has a strict com
munity of character with Kirkcudbrightshire, and
may be regarded as fairly described in what we have
said respecting that county : see Kirkcudbright
shire. Though all or most of the area seems an
ciently to have been covered with forest, the aggre
gate remaining extent of natural or copsewood does
not exceed SOO acres. Plantations are, on the whole,
very far from being numerous or extensive enough
to give the county a sheltered or well-cultivated
aspect. Yet John, Earl of Stair, and his son, the
celebrated Marshal, planted annually, for a consider
able period, at least 20,000 trees, chiefly Scottish
firs, with a happy mixture of larix, ash, beech, and
some other forest trees. Though the plantations on
the Earl's large property are . aggregately not exten
sive, those around Castle- Kennedy are peculiarly
beautiful and embellishing, — many of.the trees being
of a most luxuriant growth, and some beech hedges,
70 feet high, excelling, perhaps, all in the kingdom.
The plantations on the estate of the Earl of Gallo
way, too, are interesting : they occur in clumps and
belts on the extensive pleasure-grounds around Gal
loway-house, and are continued for several miles on
the rising grounds along the coast of Wigton-bay,
and amount altogether to upwards of 500 acres.
Wigtonshire is an agricultural and a grazing county,
to the almost total exclusion both of manufactures
and of all such commerce as is unconnected with
the exchange of the produce of the soil for foreign
articles of local consumpt. Excepting some trivial
manufactures in Stranraer, the only products of arti-
sanship are all for local use, and of the limited kinds
with which no great seat of manufacture competes.
The only exports from the county consist of grain,
wool, sheep, and black cattle, which are sent to
England and the west of Scotland ; and the imports
are chiefly lime, coals, and all sorts of groceries, and
manufactured goods from the markets to whieh the
exports are taken, and occasionally timber from
America, and timber and iron from the Baltic. At
tempts have been made to enlarge the commerce by
trading on a large scale to America and the Baltic,
opening a trade with the West Indies, and embark
ing in the herring-fishery; but they have almost
uniformly failed; At the close of the 17th century
Wigtonshire— with the exception of four boats which
were employed in 1692 by the people of Stranraer—
was utterly destitute of shipping. In 1 788, when the
register of shipping was established, the county had
52 vessels, carrying 2,290 tons ; in 1801 it had 74,
carrying 2,926 tons ; and in 1818 it had 99, carrying
4,760 tons. Since the last of these dates steam-
navigation has greatly altered the complexion of the
commerce ; and produced a rapidity in the exchange
of produce for money, which powerfully contrasts
with the lormer slow and uncertain methods, and
appUes a constant stimulus to every department of

WIGTONSHIRE.

815

traffic. Two large steam-vessels regularly ply be
tween the leading ports and Whitehaven and Liver
pool ; others ply between Stranraer, and both Glas
gow and Belfast ; and one maintains constant daily
communication between Portpatrick and Donagha
dee. But steam-navigation elsewhere has damaged
the country to an amount which greatly deducts
from the advantages yielded by the increase of its
own facilities. Wigtonshire was formerly the great
highway between the northern counties of Ireland
on the one side, and nearly all Scotland and the
northern counties of England on the other, and it
enjoyed many advantages from the transit, not only
of numerous travellers, but of large flocks of Irish
cattle in exchange for articles of British manufac
ture ; but now, except for the almost solitary and
cheerless passage of the, mail, it is quite forsaken,
and flung back to the seclusion of an age when little
intercommunication with Ireland existed  The prin-
dpal roads are the old military road, constructed
about 76 years ago between Newton-Stewart and
Portpatrick, and, for a time, the only road, as it was
the earliest one, along which wheeled vehicle's could
be drawn without an extravagant and unmanageable
number of horses ; the newer and greatly more level
mail-road between the same points ; the mail-road
from Glasgow down the east side of Loch-Ryan to
the former road at Stranraer; a road southward from
Newton- Stewart through Wigton to Whithorn ; a
road north-westward, along the coast of Luce-bay,
from Whithorn through Glenluce to Stranraer ; the
east road, down the vale of the river Luce, from
Girvan to Glenluce ; and roads from Stranraer to
near the extremities of the double peninsula of the
Rhinns. — A mail-coach was introduced so late as the
year 1804, and has since regularly run from Newton-
Stewart to Portpatrick, carrying the Dumfries and
West of England mail to Ireland. Another coach,
carrying the Glasgow and Ayrshire rnail to Ireland,
runs along, the side of Loch-Ryan. A third was
started a few years ago to run circuitously between
Newton-Stewart and Stranraer, by way of Wigton,
Whithorn, Glenluce, and Portpatrick. A mere stage
coach, and two public coaches competing with each
other, or running on the same road, are a phenomena
which the country has not yet witnessed.
The principal gentlemen's seats in Wigtonshire
are GaUoway-house, the Earl of GaUoway ; Cul-
horn-house and Castle- Stewart, the Earl of Stair ;
Lochnaw-castle, Sir Andrew Agnew, Bart. ; Mon-
' reith-house, Sir William Maxwell, Bart. ; Park,
Sir .James Dalrymple Hay, Bart. ; Isle of Whithorn-
castle, Sir John Reid of Barra, Bart. ; Lochryan-
house, Lieutenant-General Sir J. A. Agnew Wal
lace, Bart. ; Glasserton and Physgill, Stair H.
Stewart, Esq. ; Tor-house, Macculloch, Esq. ; Barn-
barroch, Colonel Vans Agnew ; Castlewig, Hugh
Hathorn, Esq.; Tonderghie, Hugh D. Stewart,
Esq. ; Broughton, Alexander Murray, Esq. ; Genoch,
R. Cathcart, Esq. ; Balkail, John Adair, Esq. ;
CorswaU-house, Dr. Carrick Moore ; Dunskey,
Colonel T. Hunter Blair; Ardwell, John M'Tag-
gart, Esq. ; Freugh, Patrick Maitland, Esq. ; Garth-
land, Vans Hathorn, Esq. ; Penninghame-house,
James Blair, Esq. ; Craighjaw-house, W. C. Hamil
ton, Esq. ; and Logan-house, Major Macdouall. The
royal burghs are Wigton, Stranraer, and Whithorn ;
and they, jointly with New Galloway in Kirkcud
brightshire, send a member to parliament. The ex
isting burghs-of-barony are Portpatrick, Glenluce,
and Newton- Ste wart. The extinct burghs-of-bar
ony are Invermessan, on the shore of Loch-Ryan ;
Myreton, in the parish of Penninghame ; and Mer
ton, in the parish of Mochrum. The principal vil
lages, additional to the existing burghs-of-barony,

are Garlieston, Isle-of- Whithorn, Port-Logan, and
Stewarton. Wigtonshire sends a member to parlia
ment. Constituency, in 1840, 1,038. The sheriff
and commissary courts are held every Tuesday, and
the small-debt court every alternate Tuesday, dur
ing session in Wigton. Quarter sessions are held at
Wigton on the first Tuesday of March and May
and the last Tuesday of October ; and at Glenluce,
on the first Tuesday of August. Circuit sheriff-
courts for small-debt cases are held at Stranraer
every alternate month ; and at Whithorn and New
ton-Stewart every three months. The valued rent,
in 1674, was £67,646 17s. Scottish; and the annual
value of real property, as assessed in 1815, was
£143,425 sterling. Population, in 1801, 22,918; in
1811, 26,891 ; in 1821, 33,240; in 1831, 36,258. In
1831, the inhabited houses were 6,404; the families
7,514. In 1841, the population was 39,179. Houses
7,440. Ecclesiastical notices of Wigtonshire, in reference
to all its early history and to the bishopric of Gal
loway, are identified with Whithorn, and will be
found in our article on that town. The only great
religious houses of the Roman Catholic period were
Whithorn priory, Soulseat-abbey, Glenluce-abbey,
and Wigton Dominican convent, all noticed either ,
separately, or in the articles on their localities. At
the Reformation, there were 21 parish churches, and
several chapels ; and seven of the former, and all the
latter, were suppressed. On the other hand, 3
new parishes were erected during the 17th century;
so that the whole number of parishes in the county
is now 17. In 1581, the parishes of the eastern dis
trict were formed into the presbytery of Whithorn,
which, jointly with the large presbytery of Kirkcud
bright, was declared the synod of Galloway; and
the parishes of the western district, along with those
of the south of Carrick, were formed into the pres
bytery of Colmonell, which was included in the
synod of Ayr. In 1593, all the parishes of the
county were erected into the presbytery of Wigton ;
and that body and the presbytery of Kirkcudbright
were constituted the synod of Galloway. In 1638,
eight parishes in the east, along with the Kirkcud
brightshire parishes of Kirkmabreck and Minigaff,
were declared to be the presbytery of Wigton ; nine
parishes in the west, along with the Carrick parishes
of Ballantrae and Colmonell, were erected into the
presbytery of Stranraer ; and these two presbyteries,
jointly with that of Kirkcudbright, were made to be
tbe synod of Galloway. This last arrangement has ever
since continued — The chief dissenting congregations
are five of the United Secession, at Stranraer, Wigton,
Whithorn, Stranraer, and Wigton ; four of the Relief,
at Newton-Stewart, Port- WiUiam, Stranraer, and
Wigton; three Reformed Presbyterian; at Stranraer,
Newton-Stewart, and Whithorn; one Independent at
Garlieston ; and one Roman Catholic at Newton-
Stewart. — In 1834, there were eighteen parochial
schools, conducted by 21 teachers, and attended by
a maximum of 1,394 scholars, and a minimum of
917; and 81 non-parochial schools, conducted by 92
teachers, and attended by a maximum of 3,195 scho
lars, and a minimum of 2,027.
In ancient times, and even for ages after the abdi
cation of the Roman government in Britain, the
powerful tribe of the Novantes inhabited the terri
tory which now forms Wigtonshire and the western
half of Kirkcudbrightshire. They had Leucophibia
on the site of the present Whithorn for their chief
town, and possessed also another town, called Reri-
¦gonium, on the Rerigonius Sinus, the modern Loch-
Ryan. Their antiquities, contrary to the rule which
prevails in the territories of other ancient British
tribes, are much more abundant than those of the

816

WIGTONSHIRE.

Romans. Their descriptive language extensively
survives, and forms a large aggregate of significant
monuments, in the names of rivers and hills, and
numerous other departments of topographical no
menclature. Conical tumuli of a green appearance,
and composed entirely of earth, are not infrequent
in occurrence ; and when opened, are discovered to
have been repositories of the dead,— but whether
more or less ancient than cairns cannot easily be as
certained. Grey cairns inhuming rude urns which
are enclosed by flat stones, and contain half-burnt
human bones, have been observed in every, parish.
Standing stones; either of worship or memorial, be
longing to Druidism, or connected with warlike
deeds of the aboriginal tribes, occur at Tor-house
in Wigton, and at Ardwell in Stoneykirk. Caves,
distinguished by peculiar circumstances from the
multitudes which perforate the rocky coast, and
used by the ancient tribes as houses or hiding-holes,
may be seen in the sea-cliffs of the parishes of
Inch, Port-Patrick, Kirkmaiden, and Glasserton.
Of the larger conical mounds, while some, like the
smaller, were sepulchral, others were moats for
seats of the courts of justice, and others, as is
proved by vestiges of intrenchments round their
base, and of encampment on their summit, were
converted into places of defence. A 'noted one of
this last class is the tower of Cragach in Leswalt.
— Fortifications and fortalices of a later age, castles
standing, ruinous, or extinct, are very numerous,
and, in some instances, of obscure or quite unknown
history. Wigton-castle, the nucleus of what is now
the county-town, is entirely extinct. Crugelton
and Eagerness castles stood on cliffs on the coast
of Sorbie, and are traceable only in their founda
tions. Dunskey-castle exhibits interesting remains
on a cliff a little south of Portpatrick. Garthland-
castle, in Stoneykirk, and Lochnaw-castle in Les
walt, are surviving baronial keeps. Crosswell-castle
in Kirkcolm, Galdenoch-to wer in Leswalt, Claynurd-
castle in Kirkmaiden, Carghidown-castle, on a preci
pice of the coast of Glasserton, Castle-Feather,
and three other fortifications on cliffs of the coast of
Whithorn, one of them on Burrowhead, exist only
in slender vestiges. Synnyness-castle, in Old Luce,
is probably of no great antiquity, and was called by
Symson, " a good stone-house" in 1684. Long-
castle, Lochmaberly-castle, and Castle-Dornal stood
on islets respectively in Dowalton-loch between
Sorbie, Glasserton, and Kirkinner ; in Lochmaberly,
between Penninghame, Kirkcowan, and Ayrshire ;
and in Loch»Dornal on the northern boundary of
Penninghame. Mochrum and Merton castles stand
on the margin respectively of Mochrum-loch and
White-loch in the parish of Mochrum, and possess
antiquarian interest as to .both their structure and
their history. Castle-Kennedy stands on a remark
able peninsula of the lake in Inch to which it gives
name; and, though comparatively modern, is, as to
picturesqueness and general interest, much the most
attractive of all its class of antiquities. Though
some of these castles are of ascertained dates, others,
especially the large proportion which surmounted
the cliffs of the coast, and which aggregately have
crumbled far toward extinction, are of very doubtful
origin. The local antiquaries, with great show of
reason, suppose that they were constructed as de
fences against the Scandinavian rovers of the sea,
who had possession of them and the Hebrides, and
scoured the intervening Irish channel and Irish sea ;
others, looking principally at the magnitude of the
works, and, comparing them with such comparatively
small surviving structures in the interior as the
castles of Physgill and Mochrum, conjecture them to
have been built by the Vikingr or Sea-kings them

selves to give them command of the shore interveni
ing between sections of their territory; and one
writer asserts that " there is reason," but with
out saying what the reason is, " to believe that these
vast works were the elaborate labours of Magnus, the
powerful king of Norway, who came with a mighty
force into these seas during the year 1098, and who
compelled the Galloway men to cut wood and carry
it for him."
The civil history of the county is nearly all com
mon to it with that of Kirkcudbrightshire, and will
be found in our article on Galloway : which see.
Attempts to erect western GaUoway into a shrievalty
or shire, subject to the jurisdiction of a sheriff, seem
to have been made as early as the 12th century. But
the Gaelic people of the district who .hated Saxon
forms of administration, and loved their own laws,
doubtless greatly abridged the efficient power of the
sheriff. Wigton was certainly a sheriffdom in the
13th century, at the demise of Alexander III., while
the Baliols were still lords of Galloway. Edward
I., in his ordinance for the government of Scotland,
appointed a sheriff for Wigtonshire, and two justices
for Galloway. During four reigns succeeding the
accession of Bruce, the appointments must have
been in keeping with a state of things in which every
pretension was decided by the sword. In 1341,
David II. formed the county into an earldom, with
a regality jurisdiction, including even the four pleas
of the Crown, and conferred it on his faithful men
tor, Sir Malcolm Fleming, with Wigton as the
shire town or principal manor-place. The regality
jurisdiction, which was mixed up with the earldom,
greatly abridged the jurisdiction of the sheriffdom.
In 1372, Thomas, Earl of Wigton, and grandson of
Sir Malcolm Fleming, sold his estate to Sir Archi
bald Douglas, lord of Galloway. During the reign
of James I., William Douglas of Leswalt was she
riff of Wigton, and constable of the castle of Loch
naw. In 1426, Andrew Agnew acquired the con-
stableship of the castle, and some lands in Leswalt,
and was secured in the possession of them by a char
ter of the superior, Margaret, Duchess of Turenne,
in which she calls him " dilecto scutifero meo."
Andrew Agnew, the son of this scutifer of the
Duchess, was scutifer to James IL, and, in 1451, ob
tained from him the office of sheriff of Wigtonshire.
Quinten AgneW, the son of the latter Andrew, was
sheriff during a great part of the reign of James III.,
and the first half of the reign of James IV. Three
Agnews, all called Patrick, and linked together as
father and son, successively monopolized the office.
Sir Andrew, Sir Patrick, Sir Andrew, and Sir An
drew Agnew, the first a knight, and the other ba
ronets, and all still connected as father and son, con
tinued, amid all political changes and convulsions to
hold the office firmly and solely in their family till
the wild bad reign of James VII. The Agnews thus
kept uninterrupted possession during 230 years, and
discharged their public duty sometimes well and
sometimes ill. Sir Andrew, the present sheriff, be
ing favourably disposed to the persecuted Cove
nanters, and inclined rather to shelter their worthy
ministers than to hunt them down, first, the odious
Graham of Claverhouse, and afterwards his brother
of kindred character, were sent down by the Scot
tish privy council to show the sheriff how a trucu
lent government wished its tools to cut, and were
appointed conjoint-sheriff, during pleasure, with
power to nominate deputies. The hereditary she
riff, in consequence, was virtually, and perhaps even
formally, superseded. In 1682-3, a violent conflict
arose between Graham of Claverhouse and Sir John
Dalrymple of Stair, bailies of the regality of Glen
luce, founded upon a charge of the former that the

WIL

817

WIS

latter had endeavoured to lessen his authority as
sheriff of Wigton ; and issued in a decision by the
privy council, which praised Claverhouse, and de
prived Dalrymple of his bailiery, and fined him
£500 sterling. Sir Andrew Agnew was restored to
his sheriffship by the Revolution; and, in 1724,
was succeeded by Sir James, his son. The latter
was the last of the hereditary sheriffs ; and, at the
abolition of hereditary jurisdictions in 1 747, received
no less a sum in compensation than £4,000. The
first sheriff-depute under the new regime was Alex
ander Boswell of Auchinleck, who afterwards rose
to the bench under the title of Lord Auchinleck.
The office of coroner for the county was granted
by David II. to Patrick M'CuUoch, and, in 1557,
was given hereditarily to Sir John Dunbar of Moch
rum, but it seems to have fallen into disuse before
the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions, as it was
not then made a ground of claim  David II. when
granting a new charter of the earldom of Wigton,
withdrew from it the right of regality, and the four
pleas of the Crown, privileges greater than ought
ever to have been granted. — Jurisdictions of rega
lity existed over the lands respectively of the prior
of Whithorn, the abbot of Glenluce, the abbot of
Soulseat, and the bishop of Galloway ; and their
bailieries were obtained in the order in which we
have stated them, by the Earl of Galloway, Dal
rymple of Stair, Agnew of Lochnaw, and the Earl
of Cassilis. Compensation for Soulseat seems not
to have been claimed ; for Whithorn was claimed
at £3,000, and paid with £166 16s. 2d. ; for Glen
luce, at £2,000, and paid with £450 ; and for Pen
ninghame or the bishop's lands, at £1,000, and re
fused all payment. A baronial jurisdiction over the
lands of Inch belonged to the Earls of Cassilis, and
was transferred, during the reign of Charles II., to
Dalrymple of Stair ; and, like the regality of Pen
ninghame, it was pronounced valueless at the epoch
of compensation. Several other baronial jurisdictions
existed ; but they either became extinct, or were
merged in larger jurisdictions, before the general
abolition. WILLIAM (Fort), a fortress on the east side of
Loch-Eil, overhung by Ben-Nevis, near the south
west end of the great glen, Inverness-shire. It stands
contiguous to the village of Maryburgh : which
see. It was originaUy built by General Monk, dur
ing the time of Cromwell ; took from an ancient
castle in the vicinity the name of the garrison of In
verlochy; and had accommodations for about 2,000
men. But the original structure was chiefly earth-
built, and altogether of a temporary character. The
present fort was built on a smaller scale, with stone
and lime, in the reign of WiUiam III., and took its
name from that monarch. It is an irregular work of
a triangular form, with two bastions mounting 15
twelve-pounders ; and is defended by a ditch, glacis,
and raveUn. It contains a bomb-proof magazine ;
and accommodations for 2 field-officers, 2 captains,
4 subalterns, and 96 privates. It withstood a siege
of 5 weeks in 1745; yet cannot be regarded as a
place of much strength.
WILTON, a parish is Roxburghshire ; bounded
on the north-west by Ashkirk ; and a detached part
of Selkirk ; on the north and north-east by Minto ;
on the east by Cavers ; on the south-east and south
by Hawick ; and on the west by Roberton. It is
nearly a parallelogram, extending north-east and
south-west. Its greatest length is a little upwards
of 5 miles ; its greatest breadth is 4 miles ; and its
superficial extent is 17J square miles. Borthwick-
water traces the boundary on the south. The Te
viot, coming down from the south-west, and re
ceiving the tribute of the Borthwick, traces for 5
IJ.

miles the south-eastern and eastern boundary, but
cuts off a tiny wing of edificed territory at the
town of Hawick. The haughs and hill-screens
which recede from the river are everywhere beau
tiful ; and part of them a little south of the middle,
forms the larger section of the fine close hill-locked
landscape which environs the pleasant little metro
polis of the Scottish woollen trade. Though the
interior is all hilly, the heights are broad-based, and
gentle in the ascent ; and they generally admit the
dominion of the plough, and become pastoral only
toward the north-western boundary. About two-
thirds of the area is in tillage, and most of the other
third, though now continually in pasture, has been
turned up by the plough. The soil is in general fer
tile and well-cultivated. About 100 acres are co
vered with plantation. Limestone and marl abound,
and have been of great advantage in improving the
arable land. Wilton-lodge, formerly the property
of Lord Napier, and now the residence of Miss An
derson, is charmingly situated on the Teviot, about
a mile above Hawick. The small wing of Wilton
which lies on the right bank of the Teviot, forms
part of what is called the Sandbed, and is the site of
Hawick grammar-school, and of a small portion of the
town. Wilton village consists principally of a long
street, which commences near the end of the old
bridge across the Teviot, and files away in the seg
ment of a circle behind the town's " common haugh."
It contains about one-half of the parish's population;
and, as to its factories and nearly all its social in
terests, is completely identified with Hawick, so as
to have been virtually described in our notice of that
town : see Hawick. The village of Wilton-Dean
or Langlands - Dean consists of a considerable
sprinkling of houses on the face of a declivity £ of
a mile south-west of Wilton. The village of Apple-
tree-hall consists of a row of cottages, and some de
tached houses 2J miles north-east of Hawick. The
Duke of Buccleuch is the principal landowner.
The Edinburgh and Carlisle mail-road cuts the parish
southward into unequal parts. Population, in 1801,
1,307; in 1831, 1,870. Houses 263. Assessed pro
perty, in 1815, £5,921  Wilton, anciently a rectory,
is in the presbytery of Jedburgh, and synod of Merse
and Teviotdale. Patron, the Duke of Buccleuch.
Stipend £294 2s. 9d. ; glebe £30. Unappropriated
teinds £412 2s. 6d. The church was built in 1762,
enlarged by the addition of an aisle in 1801, and re
paired and painted in 1829. Sittings 460. The aisle
contributes only a gallery to the church ; and in its
lower story is used as a burying-place. An eccle
siastical survey of 1836 exhibited the population as
then amounting to 1,983, and consisting of 1,272
church men, 673 dissenters, and 48 nondescripts. In
1834, the parish-school was attended by 134 scholars;
and three other schools by 132. Parish-schoolmas
ter's salary, subject to the salarying of an assistant,
£34 4s. 2d., with £43 fees, and £6 other emolu
ments. The present parish comprehends all the ori.
ginal parish of Wilton and part of the abrogated
parish of Hassendean. Mr. Crawford and Dr. Char
ters, both former ministers of Wilton, are known,
the former by a work entitled ' Dying Thoughts,'
and the latter by some published sermons.
WINCHBURGH, a village in the parish of Kirk
liston, Linlithgowshire. It stands by the side of the
Union canal, on the road between Edinburgh and
Falkirk, 1 1 miles west of Edinburgh, 6 east of Lin
lithgow, and 4 south-west of Queensferry. It has a
posting-inn. Population about 170.
WINTON. See Pencaitland.
WISHAW and COLTNESS RAILWAY
(The). — This railway passes through one of the
most extensive and finest coal fields in Scotland,
3*

WIS

818

WIS

and was constructed for the purpose of giving facili
ties to the transmission of these mineral treasures to
the masses of population in and around Glasgow.
The act of Parliament incorporating the company
was obtained on 1st June, 1829, with a capital of
£60,000. Since then several supplementary acts
have been obtained for extending, improving, and
completing the Une, and raising the necessary
amount of capital for these objects, which has now
been augmented to £240,000, divided into 9,600
shares of £25 each. The first or northern division
of the railway was commenced in 1830, and finished
in 1833 ; the second or south or eastern division was
begun in 1838, and completed in 1841. The length
of the division earliest constructed amounts to nearly
3 miles, and the second or last made portion to about
8 miles, — thus affording a direct line of about 11
miles, besides 2J miles of a branch railway in con
nection with the main trunk. The expense of con
struction, up till this period, has amounted to about
£180,000, which embraces several improvements,
such as laying a double rail on the first made por
tion, where only one had been laid before, and of
adopting heavier rails. As those first laid down
were of light construction, they are now being gra
dually replaced by rails of the weight of 56 lbs. to the
yard. The line passes through the parishes of Old
Monkland, Bothwell, Hamilton, Dalziel, and Cam
busnethan, in the county of Lanark. The north
western terminus joins the Monkland and Kirkin
tilloch railway, by means of which it is brought into
communication with the Forth and Clyde canal near
the town of Kirkintilloch ; it has another communi
cation with Glasgow by the Monkland canal and the
Garnkirk and Glasgow railway ; and it may extend
itself to Edinburgh and the frith of Forth, by the
Ballochney and Slamannan railways, aud the Union
canal. The eastern terminus is to be connected by
a junction with the Morningside and Wilsonton rail
way, — a new line which is planned to extend north
ward, and for which an act has been obtained by a
separate company. In the Wishaw and Coltness ihe
cuttings are moderate, and the works generally of a
similar kind to those met with in other mineral rail
ways. There is a tunnel on the line about the fourth
of a mile in length, formed only for a single line of
rails, but it is at present being enlarged to admit a
double line. The most prominent feature in its con
struction is tbe viaduct over the valley of South
Calder, near the village of MotherweU, which ex
tends to upwards of 300 yards in length, and consists
of ten piers of 100 feet span each. Three of these
are 110 feet in height, and the others descend from
80 to 45 feet. "Pne roadway is formed. by horizontal
beams resting on these piers, and strongly bound and
supported. It is the only structure of the kind in
Scotland, and as a work of art has a substantial and
elegant appearance, which is much enhanced by the
picturesque and natural beauty of the valley which it
spans. The traffic on the line consists almost en
tirely of coal, iron-ore, &c, which form the abun
dant mineral produce of the district which the rail
way traverses, and are of superior quality, — in addi
tion to a considerable trade in pig-iron, from the
furnaces in the vicinity. The revenue derived from
the undertaking since its opening has been gradually,
if not rapidly, increasing, as will be seen from the
following returns of the yearly receipts : — £ s. d.
For the year 1834  422 13 4
— 1835  1,711 1 11
— 1836  2,471 5 7
— 1837,  2,330 16 8
— 1838  3,972 9 4
— 1839,  6,5111 1 3
— 1840,  7,883 9 0
— 1*41  12,818 7 7

A passenger trade, in connection with the Garnkirk
and Glasgow railway, has been carried on for several
years, but it is limited in amount, although it is ex
pected to be considerably increased from the facilities
afforded by the recent construction of the south
eastern division of the line. For some years at the
outset the traffic was principally moved by means of
horse power; but lately locomotive engines have
been substituted, which, from the superior power,
speed, and cheapness over animal draft, are likely to
supersede the use of horses entirely, except on the
short branches or off-shoots from the main-trunk.
WISTON, a parish in the upper ward of the
county of Lanark, to which that of Roberton was
united in 1772. The parish lies on the north bank
of the Clyde, and is bounded on the south by Lam-
mington, on the opposite side of the river; Car
michael on the north ; Symington on the east ; and
Douglas on the west. It is irregular in form, and
about 6 miles in length, by from 3 to 4J in breadth.
The most imposing feature connected with the par
ish is the weU-known hill of Tinto, which stands on
its northern boundary, raising its beautiful crest
2,000 feet above the level of the sea, and green to
the very summit. From this elevation may be en
joyed one of the most extensive views in broad Scot
land ; for the eye embraces within its range an im
mense tract of country and sweep of sea, including
Hartfell and Queensberry, in Dumfries-shire ; Goat-
fell, in the Isle of Arran ; the lonely Bass ; and
even the hills in the north of England and north of
Ireland. There is a peculiarly shaped hill, almost in
the centre of the parish, viz., Dungavel, with two
craggy and frowning peaks. From its elevation the
parish is not considered one of great fertility, but
nowhere can a district boast of more intelligent or
enterprising farmers, as a proof of which one of them
obtained a few years ago, from the Highland society,
the silver medal for the reclaiming of waste lands.
Much as has been done in this way, however, there
is ample need for more, as nearly the half of the en
tire superficies of the parish lies in its natural state,
and is used for the pasture of sheep, a great propor
tion of which, it is believed, might be reclaimed by
the exerdse of industry and capital, and brought
under healthy tillage. There are fully 200 acres
under wood. The principal products of the soil are
oats, barley, potatoes, turnips, hay, cattle, and sheep.
The sheep are principally of the West Linton breed ;
and the cattle or cows, which are, to a great extent,
of the dairy kind, are much esteemed. Including the
minerals, it is computed that the parish produces
more than £12,000 per annum. Of the minerals al
luded to, the principal is lime, which is extensively
worked, and the produce of which is estimated to
amount to 18,000 bolls per annum. Coal is believed
to exist, and though attempts have been made to dis
cover a workable and remunerating seam, these have
been never successful, and the principal supplies for
the inhabitants are drawn from the adjoining parishes
ot Douglas and Carmichael. There are three villages
in the parish, viz., Roberton, Wiston, and Newton
of Wiston. The market and post-town is Biggar,
about 7 miles distant, and the turnpike-road from
Stirling to Carlisle runs through the entire length of
the parish. Population, in 1801, 757; in 1831, 940 j
and in 1841, 929, with 2U0 inhabited houses, lt may
be worthy of note, that 87 years ago the population
of the united parishes was greater than it now is,
for, in 1755, according to the return made to Dr.
Webster, the numbers were 1,102. This falling-off,
however, is easily accounted for, for at that time the
parish was parcelled out in pendicles in the rig-and-
fur fashion, but as these small patches were gradually
clustered together to form larger farms, the unne-

WOO

819

WRA

cessary population which resided on them had to
transfer their industry elsewhere. Assessed pro
perty £4,162 — Wiston and Roberton is in the pres
bytery of Lanark, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr.
Patron, alternately the Crown and Lord Douglas.
This division arose from the Crown having been
patron of Wiston, and the Douglas family of Rober
ton, when they were separate and independent of
each other. Stipend £204 9s. The glebe both of
Wiston and Roberton are attached to the living, and
valued at £40. The present parish-church is the
old edifice of Wiston, which is seated for about 370.
A Relief church was established at the village of
Roberton about forty years ago, and is seated for
377. The separate parochial schools of the old par
ishes have been retained, greatly to the benefit of the
population, for by this means education amongst the
young is universal. The salary of the schoolmaster
of Wiston is £25 13s. 3d., and that of Roberton
£30. The additional fees in both cases are very
respectable. WOODHAVEN, a village in the parish of Forgan,
Fifeshire, 9 miles north of Cupar, and 10 north
west of St. Andrews ; on the river Tay, opposite
to Dundee, to which theie is a regular ferry . Popu
lation, in 1841, 92. Houses 18.
WOODHEAD, a mountain stock farm in the
parish of Carsphairn, stewartry of Kirkcudbright,
on which a valuable lead-mine is now wrought.
Several years ago it was discovered that the scat
tered greywacke on the surface of the ground here
was more or less impregnated with lead ; but it was
not tiU the year 1838 that, on the ground being ex
cavated to the depth of some twenty feet, the inte
rior more than confirmed the surface revealment,
and that steps were taken for the commencement of
mining operations. By degrees miners were col
lected, cottages reared, furnaces, smelting-houses,
and other necessary accommodations followed ; and
where not a soUtary shieling appeared before, rows,
or streets of cottages now adorn heights eclipsing
in size the viUage of Lagwyne below, to say nothing
of public works and their gradual extension, which,
in the course of little more than three years, have
drawn together a body of artisans who have raised
the population of the parish from 500 in 1831, to 790
souls in 1841 . Water is the power employed in the
works. From the fountain-head to the extremity
of the works, the troughs measure six miles. Of
the different shafts sunk, the deepest, in 1843, was
52 fathoms; and, as the under springs are now get
ting a little troublesome, accumulation is drawn off
by the beautiful balance-machine first invented' by
Brindley, and ore raised on the same principle as
often as is necessary. From top to bottom the

miners are enclosed between masses of whinstone,
compact as huge, in the centre of which a seam of
metal, to all appearance inexhaustible, dips gener
ally at an angle of nearly 30 degrees. The ore is
conveyed, — whether to the breakmiU or the wash
ing-sieves shaken by overshot wheels, — by branches
of railway. When smelted, it is conveyed in bars to
Ayr, via DalmeUington, from which point the metal
is shipped to Liverpool, and generally sold either
in that port or in London. From its great purity,
it is in brisk demand. The miners, who work hy
the piece, generally relieve one another night and
day, and earn wages varying from 16s. to 18s., and
in some extraordinary cases >• pound sterling ; the
smelters and furnace men, who undergo very severe
labour during five days in the six, for the same num
ber of hours, are much better paid. The ores are
said to contain a considerable mixture of silver ; and
at the present moment, works are in progress for
extracting it.
WOODHOUSE. See Kirkpatrick-Fleming.
WOODHOUSELEE, the seat of P. Fraser Tyt-
ler, Esq., on the southern slope of the Pentland-hills,
surrounded by fine woods, 6£ miles south of Edin
burgh, and also the ancient seat, 4 miles from the
former, of Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh : see Glen
cross. From Old Woodhouselee, Which Regent
Murray boldly bestowed on Sir James Bellenden,
one of his favourites, Lady Bothwellhaugh wa3
turned out in a cold night, in a state of undress, to
the open fields ; and she, in consequence, became,
previous to the next morning, furiously insane.
This occurrence forms the subject of Sir Walter
Scott's first ballad of Cadyow castle : —
" O, change accursed ! past are those days ;
False Murray's ruthless spoilers came,
And for the hearth's domestic blaze,
Ascends destruction's volumed flame.
What sheeted phantom wanders wild,
Where mountain Esk, through woodland flows.
Her arms enfold a shadowy child —
Oh ! is it she, the pallid rose V
Hamilton, the injured husband of the lady, and the
robbed proprietor of the mansion, became, it will be
remembered, the assassin of the Regent. See Lin
lithgow. WOODLANE, a village in the parish of Kin
cardine, Perthshire. Population, in 1841, 102.
Houses 18.
WOODSIDE. See Aberdeen.
WOODSIDE, a village in the parish of Cargill,
Perthshire. ' Population, in 1841, 169. Houses
44. WORMINGTON. SeeLiNTON, Roxburghshire.
WRATH (Cape). See Cape Wrath

820

YARROW.

YARROW (The), a river of Selkirkshire, more
celebrated in song than any other stream in Scotland.
The occurrence upon its banks of an early melan
choly event which made a deep impression on the
popular mind, — the facility with which its name yields
to the adaptation of rhyme, — the pervading wildness
which, with occasional dashes of beauty and romance,
characterizes its landscape, — and the disposition of
later poets to rival and excel predecessors in the dis
cussion of a favourite theme, — seem all to have had an
influence in recommending the stream to so high a
place in poetic favour. An idea of lugubrious sadness
is associated with much of the river's scenery, and
with its early and chief historical reminiscence. What
that reminiscence precisely is cannot be ascertained
beyond the general tradition of a deadly feud, which
terminated in the death of two antagonist lords or
leaders, and in the rude inhumation of the bodies of
their slain followers in a marshy pool called the Dead-
lake. Yet some have identified it with a duel fought
between John Scott of Tushielaw and his brother-in-
law Walter Scott of Thirlestane, — a duel which was
fatal to the latter, but is ascertained to have been
fought on Deuchar-s wire, at a considerable distance ;
and others suppose it to have been a fray at a hunt
ing-match in Ettrick -forest, which issued in the
slaughter of a son of Scott of Harden, residing at
Kirkhope, by his kinsman Scott of Gilmanscleuch.
Be the event what it might, the tradition of the
country, and, above all, a well-known ancient ballad
entitled ' the Dowie Dens of Yarrow,' have imparted
to it a high tragic interest, and have long occasioned
the scene of it to be regarded as classic ground. A
more modern song, by Mr. Hamilton of Bangour,
beginning, " Busk ye, busk ye, my bonnie bonnie bride !
Busk ye, busk ye, my winsome marrow I"
was Suggested by the same event, and has rivalled
the ancient song in influence. The dejected loneli
ness of the Yarrow's vale, so well and so succinctly
depicted in the phrase of ' Dowie Dens,' sadly har
monizes with the wailing tones of the ballads and
the traditions, and powerfully appeals to the lachry
mose sympathies of poets. The sound of the stream
has not one note of the joyousness which would
seem naturally J;o belong to the rate of its current ;
fhe aspect of the green hills which coine down upon
its margin possesses not one indication of the vocal
and the vegetable animation which might be expect
ed from their softness and their seeming fertility ;
and the whole landscape, in spite of objects which,
in other circumstances, might arouse and gladden,
looks to be in a condition of appalling repose, of un
earthly stillness, of strength and beauty in the iner-
tion of death. Hence, of the numerous poems which
describe tbe stream or allude to it, the majority are
deeply pathetic. An old fragment, ' WiUie's drown
ed in Yarrow,' is entirely plaintive. Logan's piece,
' Thy braes were bonnie, Yarrow stream,' is also
plaintive. The ' Douglas Tragedie,' the ' Sang of
the Outlaw Murray,' and the oldest verses of the
' YeUow-hair'd Laddie,' are proved by their allusions
to have borrowed both their seenery and much of
their sadness from the Yarrow. Among numerous
pieces either descriptive of the stream or chiefly de
voted to it, the chief are ' the Braes of Yarrow,' by
Allan Ramsay, and 'Yarrow Vale,' by Mr. M'Donald.
Two songs in praise of the distinguished female

beauty so well-known as ' the Flower of Yarrow,
bear the titles of 'Mary Scott' and 'the Rose in
Yarrow,' and have been not a little popular. But
the most distinguished verses which have been writ
ten upon the stream, or those, at least, which have
written it most into notice, are three pieces by
Wordsworth, entitled respectively ' Yarrow Un-
visited,' ' Yarrow Visited,' and ' Yarrow Revisited.'
The first was composed eleven years before, and the
latter immediately after the poet saw the vale ; and
though they entirely refer to the poetical charm
thrown over the stream by the various ballads in its
praise, they themselves produce an interest fully
equal to the aggregate of all that had been previously
accumulated. " And is this Yarrow?" exclaims the
poet in the ' Yarrow Visited,' —
And is this Yarrow ?— This the stream
Of which my fancy cherished
So faithfully a waking dream P
An image that hath perished !
O that some minstrel's harp were near
To utter tones of gladness,
And chase this silence from the air
That fills my heart with sadness!
Yet why ? A silvery current flows
With uncontrolled meanderingB ;
Nor have these eyes, by greener hills,
Been soothed in ali my wanderings."
" The hiUs whence classic Yarrow flows," are the
summit-range of the Southern Highlands, part of
the towering series which divide Dumfries-shire from
the counties of Selkirk and Peebles, and form a centre
to all the great ranges of the south : see Hartfell.
The stream rises at a place called Yarrow-cleuch,
within half-a-mile of the source of Moffat-water, and
only 1 J mile east of Loch-Skene. After flowing 3$
miles north-north-eastward it expands into the Loch
of the Lowes, about J of a mile in length ; and a
very brief distance lower down becomes lost for 4
miles in St. Mary's-loch: see Lowes, Loch of
(The), and Mary's (St.) Loch. Its course, after
leaving St. Mary's-loch, is 11 miles north-eastward
to Yarrow ford; and thence 3 miles eastward and
east-south-eastward to the Ettrick at the head of
Philiphaugh, or IJ mile above Selkirk. Its length
of run, including its lacustrine expansions, is about
25 miles. Its tributaries are not fewer than, at least,
40 ; but, excepting Megget- water and Douglas-burn,
respectively 6 j and 5i miles long, they do not average
2 miles in length. Floods on a smaU scale are some
times occasioned merely by the action of a south
west wind upon St. Mary's-loch ; and, when they
proceed from rain, they rise more suddenly than be
fore drainage became general, yet attain no great
bulk till the lake overflow. — The vale of the Yarrow
may be viewed as commencing at the head of "lone
St. Mary's silent lake," where

' nor fen nor sedge

Pollute the pure lake's crystal edge.
Abrupt aud sheer the mountains sink.
At once upon tlie level brink ;
And just a trace of silver sand,
Marks where the water meets the land."
On the right bank of the lake, about a mile from its
east end, is the andent burying-ground of St. Mary's.
A church which stood in the middle of it, and con
tinued, in the early part of the 17th century, to be
used as a place of worship, was damaged by the Scotts
in a feud with the Cranstons, and has entirely dis
appeared. The whole scenery around this singularly
sequestered cemetery is very bold and fine ; and a

YARROW.

821

funeral at the place has a peculiarly striking and
solemnly picturesque appearance  About 400 yards
to the east is a small mound, called Binram's cross,
surmounted by a few stones, and supposed to be the
burying-place of a necromantic priest, a sacrilegious
officiate at the ancient altar, —
" That wizard priest whose bones are thrust,
From company of holy dust."
A little north of the eastern extremity of the lake
stands the lower part of the massive walls of Dryhope
tower, the paternal home of ' the Flower of Yar
row.' This lady, the daughter of John Scott of
Dryhope, was married to Walter Scott of Harden,
a man as famous for his freebooting as she was for
her beauty; and, by giving her daughter in marriage
to Gilbert Elliott of Minto, ' Gibbie wi' the gowden
hair,' she became the ancestress of the talented lady
who wrote 'the Flowers of the Forest:' See Har
den and Minto. — About 3 miles below the lake
stands Mount-Benger, the residence, for some time,
of James Hogg, the weU-known 'Ettrick shepherd;'
and a Uttle farther down, about 13 miles from Sel
kirk, are Gordon inn and the little village of Yar
row-feus. A bridge over the stream at the inn
leads the way to Altrive, 'the shepherd's' last re
sidence, and the scene of his death. — Three miles
farther on, upon the left bank of the stream, is the
church of Yarrow, a neat little edifice built in 1840.
— A piece of ground, a Uttle west of the church, is
pointed out by tradition as the scene of slaughter
and sepulchre, whence the vale had its prime melan
choly assodation. Till about thirty years ago, when
it became enclosed, subdivided, and cultivated, it
was a low waste moor ; and, in upwards of twenty
places, it was dotted with large cairns. The only
monuments now remaining are two taU massive un
hewn stones, about 80 yards apart, and supposed to
mark the spots on which the slaughtered leaders in
the conflict respectively fell  About 3J miles below
the church stands the Uttle village of Yarrow-ford.
Near the latter, in a romantic and soUtary situation,
are the ruins of the strong andent castle of Hang-
ingshaw, the scene of the old ballad, ' The Sang of
the Outlaw Murray,' and formerly the property of
that outlaw and his descendants. The house was
accidentally burnt down about the middle of last
century. Tradition, in illustration of the hospitality
practised at Hangingshaw, says that every person
who called at the house was treated to a draught of
stout ale, from a large drinking vessel called 'the
Hangingshaw-ladle.' — A little east of Yarrow-ford
is the handsome modern mansion of Broadmeadows.
A mile farther down is the peculiarly interesting
ruin of Newark-castle : which see. Farther on
are the ducal seat of Bowside, and other objects
which, along with an abundance of wood, and the
occurrence of picturesqueness and beauty in the con
figuration of the banks, render the Yarrow, from
Hangingshaw downwards, a stream of high scenic
attractions, and quite wipe away all or most of the
lugubriousness of its former aspect. See Selkirk.
YARROW, a parish in Selkirkshire, one of the
largest in the Lowlands of Scotland, and compre
hending considerably more than one-third of the
area of its county. It is bounded on the north by
Traquair and Innerleithen in Peebles-shire, and by
the Selkirkshire parts of Innerleithen and Stow; on
the east by both the Selkirkshire and the Roxburgh
shire parts of both Selkirk and Ashkirk ; on the
south by Roberton and Ettrick; and on the west by
Megget, Manor, and Peebles in Peebles-shire. Its
greatest length is 10 miles; its greatest breadth is
18 miles; and its superficial extent is 71,142 impe
rial acres. Its outline, especially on the north, is

singularly irregular, and includes several long and
intricate projections which are nearly insulated by
conterminous parishes. The district comprehends
several miles of the south side of the vale of the
Tweed, about four-fifths of the vale of the Yarrow,
about 8 miles of the central parts of the vale of the
Ettrick, and a south-easterly declination or hanging
table-land of 8 miles in length and 2 in breadth,
whence flow the head-streams of the Roxburghshire
Ale-water, and some feeders of the river Borth
wick. These four lines or belts of vale-ground are
separated from one another by three chains of moun
tain or lofty hill, two of which pass at the south
west end respectively into Ettrick and into Peebles
shire, while ihe third or central one becomes lost at
the extremity of the parish in tbe nucleus of the
summit-range of the southern Highlands. The hill-
chains run nearly parallel to each other, and extend
from west-south-west to east-north-east. Except
ing over some space on the south, they are generally
elongated in their outline and rounded on their sum
mits ; and they rarely exceed 2,000, or come short
of 1,000, feet of altitude above sea-level. The vales
are generally narrow and confined, yet do not want
occasional picturesqueness; and when they have a
protuberating hill or an elbow on the one side, they
usually exhibit a corresponding recess on the other.
Various appearances along the course of the principal
streams indicate that the vales were formerly chains
of lakes, or that the rivers flowed at a higher level
than now, and formed themselves into lacustrine ex
pansions. So decidedly is the district upland, and
so closely do its heights press one another's bases,
that the proportion of pasture compared to that of
arable ground is as 24 to 1. The arable soil,
though various in quality and composition, is gen
erally a light formation from greywacke and clay-
slate rocks, abounding in large stones, and is not
well-adapted to culture. The rearing of sheep is
the chief branch of husbandry, and expends its care
upon upwards of 55,000, most of which are Cheviots
crossed with Leicester rams. About 260 acres of
natural underwood remain as a stinted memorial of
the great royal forest which once covered the whole
area ; and about 350 acres additional have been de
voted to plantation. The principal waters, as well
as most of the interesting objects of the parish, are
noticed in the preceding article : which see. The
Tweed is touched by a projection of the parish be
tween two sections of Traquair [which see], and
by 3J miles of it in the district of Tweedside from
the vicinity of Scrogbank to Glenkinnen-burn. See
Selkirkshire and Tweed. The Ettrick, while
connected with the parish, has a very similar aspect
to the upper Yarrow, but with more agriculture,
more life, and less solitude; and, at Newhouse, it
runs between almost perpendicular rocks, which are
tufted with furze, and overhung with copsewood,
and furnish the elements of a romantic picture. Five
lochlets, two of them called Shaws-lochs, and the
others Akermoor, Hellmoor, and Clearburn lochs,
occur in the southern table-land, measure from a
mile to nearly 2 miles in circumference, and have
furnished very large supplies of shell-marl. Calca
reous springs are numerous, and, in some instances,
form bulky accumulations of calcareous deposit.
Sulphureous springs occur at Craig and at Catslac-
knowe ; and that at the latter place bears the name
of St. Philip's- well, and seems to have been in super
stitious request during the times of popery. Chaly
beate springs occur at Bowerhope. A view of the
geognostic features of the district is given in our
article on Selkirkshire. The condition and his
tory of its ancient woods are noticed in the article
on Ettrick Forest  Elibank tower, an ancient

822

YELL.

peel-house, associated in Border story with deeds ot
barbarous bravery, still overlooks the Tweed, 4 J
miles below Traquair  Blackhouse tower, another
peel-house, but smaU, very ancient, and of peculiar
form, exists in ruin on the farm of Blackhouse in the
wild glen of Douglas-burn. The desolate district
around the tower and along the stream, now a part
of the Traquair estate, was one of the most ancient
possessions of the Black Douglasses, having belonged
io them so early as. in the reign of Malcolm Can-
more ; and, according to tradition, confirmed by al
lusions in the document, and by the existence of seven
monumental stones, which are pointed out on the
overshadowing heights as marking the spot where the
seven brethren fell, it was the scene of " the Douglas
tragedie." — The villages — all small, and aggregately
containing 159 inhabitants in 1836 — are Yarrow-feus
and Yarrow-ford on the Yarrow, and Ettrick-bridge
on the Ettrick  The chief landowners are the Duke
of Buccleuch and the Earl of Traquair. Among
eminent persons born in the parish, or connected
with it, have been Dr. John Rutherford, a pupil of
Boerhaave, professor of the Practice of Physic in
the University of Edinburgh, and long known as
'the Yarrow doctor;' Sir Gideon Murray, better
known as Lord Elibank, a title which belonged to
him as a member of the CoUege-of-justice ; Colonel
WilUam Russel of Ashiesteel, celebrated for his mili
tary exploits in India, and especially for the affair of
Manilla; Russell of Elibank, the learned and well-
known historian of ancient and of modern Europe;
Sir Walter Scott, who resided 10 years at Ashiesteel
subsequently to his becoming sheriff of ' the Forest,'
and who composed much of his poetry on a sylvan
hillock on the grounds still known as ' the Sherra's
knowe;' and, finally, James Hogg, 'the Ettrick
shepherd,' who long resided at Mount Benger, and
eventually lived and died at Altrive. One road
leads up the Yarrow ; another leads up the Ettrick ;
two connect them ; one leads from them to Tweed-
side ; and all are good and kept in excellent order.
Population, in 1801, 1,216; in 1831, 1,221. Houses
216. Assessed property, in 1815, £5,856  Yarrow
is in the presbytery of Selkirk, and synod of Merse
and Teviotdale. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £233
8s. Id. ; glebe £34 9s. 4d. Unappropriated teinds
£1,127 15s. lid. The church was built in 1640,
and altered, but not enlarged, in 1826. Sittings
430. An ecclesiastical survey made in 1836, exhi
bited the population as then consisting of 1,095
churchmen, and 143 dissenters, — in all 1,238 per
sons. In 1834, two parish and two private schools
were attended fespecti vely by 115 and by 60 scho
lars. The former are situated at Yarrow and at
Ettrick-bridge. Salarv of the Yarrow schoolmaster
£31 6s. 6fd., with £12 fees, and £7 other emolu
ments ; of the Ettrick-bridge schoolmaster £20,
with £11 fees. — Tbe present parish comprehends
within its ample limits the ancient parishes of Du-
choire, St. Mary's, and Kirkhope. Duchoire, cor
rupted or modernized into Dewchar, forms the
eastern district of the united parish, and had its
church and the tower or stronghold of its feudal pro
prietor on a rill which comes down to the Yarrow
immediately east of the present parish-church. St.
Mary's forms the western district of the united par
ish, and had its church on the margin of the lake to
which it gave name: see preceding article. The
church, as its designation implies, was dedicated to
the Virgin Mary; it was described colloquially as
'St. Mary's kirk. of the Lowes' or lochs, and in
charters as 'the Church of the Virgin Mary in
Ettrick Forest;' and it seems to have become a
vicarage under the monks of Dryburgh. The parish
of Kirkhope forms the east and south-east or the Et

trick district of the united parish, and had its church
in a close-headed vale or a " hope," called from it
' Kirkhope,' along which a rill runs to the Ettrick
at Ettrick-bridge.
YELL, one of the Shetland islands, the second
of the group in point of size, and the most northerly
in situation, excepting Unst. It is washed, on part
of the west and on the. north, bythe North sea;
separated from Unst, on the north-east, hy Blomel
sound ; washed on the east partly by the Atlantic,
and partly by Colgrave sound, which separates it
from Fetlar; and, washed on the south, on the south
west, and partly on tbe west, by Yell sound, which
is studded with isles and islets, and separates Yell
from the northern part of Mainland. Its length from
north to south is 19 miles; its greatest breadth is
7 J miles; and its superficial extent is about 94 square
miles. The tides on both sides of the island are
very impetuous; and, both on Yell and Blomel
sounds, where they meet with obstructions, and
often run at the rate of 9 or 10 miles, they for
continuous hours defy boat-navigation, and toss the
sea, even during a calm, into foam and tumult. The
chief bays which indent the bay are Cloup-voe on
the north ; Basta-voe, and Refirth or Midyell voe,
on the east; Burra- voe on the south-east; Hamna-
voe on the south ; and Whalefirth-voe on the west.
All these, and some smaller bays or creeks, form
natural harbours, several of which are sound, capa
cious, and sheltered. Refirth and Whalefirth voes
are opposite each other, a little north of the centre
of the island, and make such a mutual approach as
to leave between them only a low boggy isthmus of
a few hundred yards which could be cut into a canal
communication. A landing can be effected at almost
any point on the east coast ; but, even in calm wea
ther, it can nowhere be effected on the west except
in Whalefirth-voe and one small creek. The ends
of the island, though of brief measurement, have
good harbours. The coast, along the east, is gen
erally low and often sandy j but along the west it is
to a considerable extent rocky, bold, and even pre
cipitous. The surface of the island presents a heavy
and cheerless. aspect. Two nearly parallel ridges of
gneiss rocks, of almost uniform outline, and only
from 200 to 400 feet, traverse it nearly from end to
end; sloping gradually toward the shores,, and, in
some places, connected by transverse ridges, run
ning from east to west. Almost the whole soil is
moss ; occasionally, yet seldom, mixed with clay or
sand. Agriculture is in a miserable condition. Only
about 4,000 acres are enclosed ; probably not above
1,000 are at any time under culture; and the spade •
is the only implement of tillage. The island, how
ever, " is an excellent fishing-station; and, from the
days of George Buchanan, has been noted for its
booths, or small warerooms, filled with all sorts of
vendible articles, now chiefly imported from Scot
land, but anciently from Hamburgh and Bremen.
In the troubled sea of Yell sound, and the vicinity
of its little holms or islets, distinguished for their
fine succulent pastures, and as the breeding-places
of the tern, parasitic gull, and eider duck, herring
shoals, and swarms of young sillocks, are always to
be seen; and perhaps the tourist may witness the
pursuit and capture of a drove of ' ca'ing whales,' as
the Delphinos deductor is styled in Shetland, which
occasionally appear off these coasts in a gregarious
assemblage of from 100 to 500 at a time. Their
seizure is always attended with great excitement
and cruelty ; and although the blubber affords a rich
prize to the captors, nothing can better display the
debased state of the husbandry in some of these
north isles, than the fact that the carcasses of the
whales are in general allowed to remain untouched, '

YES

823

YET

tainting the air until they aTe completely devoured
by the gulls and crows." [Guide to the Highlands,
p. 706.] Fishing is here attended with more risk
of life to the fisherman than in most other seas ; sad
disasters occur almost every year; and, in the sum
mer of 1832, so many as 27 men out of 30, who
manned four boats, perished, 23 of them leaving
widows and dependent children. The antiquities
are some Picts' houses, or circular burghs; and nearly
a score of shapeless ruins, or faint vestiges of ancient
chapels. Population, in 1835, 2,693.
Yell is ecclesiastically distributed into three par
ishes, North, Mid, and South. North Yell is united
to Fetlar : which see. Mid Yell and South Yell
form one ministry, or an united parish. This par
ochial district comprehends also the island of Sam-
phray, lying lj mile south-south-west of the south
ern extremity of Yell, and measuring about 360 acres
in area, — and the island of Bigga, lying IJ mile
north-west of the former, and measuring about 540
acres in area ; and, exclusive of these, it has a su
perficial extent of 36,000 acres, and an extreme
iength and breadth of respectively 13 and 6 J miles.
Population, in 1801, of North Yell and Fetlar, 1,389 ;
in 1831, 1,812. Houses 284. Assessed property, in
1815, £264  This parish is in the presbytery of
Burra- voe, and synod of Shetland. Patron, the Earl
of Zetland. Stipend £158 6s. 8d. ; glebe £20. The
church of Mid Yell was built in 1832. Sittings 500.
The church of South Yell, after its predecessor be
ing in ruins for 34 years, was built in 1841. Sit
tings 384. South Yell is a mission on the Royal
bounty. Stipend £50, with a house and glebe worth
£3. There is a Wesleyan Methodist chapel, and a
house for the minister. Sittings 200. Schoolmaster's
salary £26, with £5 fees, and £3 other emoluments.
Population of South and Mid Yell, in 1801, 1,576;
in 1831, 1,812. Assessed property 666. Houses 340.
YESTER— anciently St. Bothan's or St. Ba
than's, and popularly Gifford — a parish in the
south of Haddingtonshire. It is bounded on the north
by Haddington ; on the north-east, the east, and the
south-east by Garvald ; on the south by Berwick
shire and Humbie ; and on the west by Humbie and
Bolton. Its greatest length is 5 miles' from north to
south ; its greatest breadth is about 4J miles ; and
its superficial extent is nearly 14 square miles. The
southern district comes down from Lammerlaw and
other heights along the water-shed of the Lammer
moors, over a descent of 2 miles to the plain ; and is
all upland and heathy, yet affords good pasturage for
sheep. The southern district consists of a strath—
in Cambro- British, ystrad or yestred, the radix of its
expressive name Yester. This strath is watered hy
the Gifford [which see] ; it lies about 400 feet
above sea-level, and is richly cultivated and wooded ;
and it has along its sides such soft low ridgy rising
grounds as relieve it from the monotony of a plain,
without drawing round it the limits of a valley. So
richly is the district wooded that about 950 acres
are under plantation. The trees on the grounds of
Yester-house are large and luxuriant; and, both
there and elsewhere, consist principally of oaks,
beeches, elms, ashes, and limes. The arable grounds,
compared to the hill pastures, are a small fraction
more than as two to one. Though the soil is pre
vailingly a cold clay, and even where loamy and light
lies upon a retentive subsoil, and though it is in con
sequence all naturally churlish, yet it has been
worked into a condition of great fertility, and ex
hibits in its singularly ameUorated properties a re
markable instance of the results of ' well-directed
georgical operations. A quarry of limestone occurs
at Kidlaw, and one of red sandstone at Barra; but
they long ago ceased to be worked. The large and

pleasing village of Gifford [which see] stands in
the middle of the northern division of the strath.
The other villages are Long- Yester and Long-
Newton, both situated at the foot of the Lammer
moors, respectively 2 and 2f miles south-south
east and south-south-west of Gifford, and jointly
containing a population of about 150. — Yester-
house, the seat of the Marquis of Tweeddale,
stands amidst extensive and richly-wooded grounds
about a mile east-south-east of Gifford — Yester-
castle, the ancient residence of the ancestors of the
Marquis, famed for its ' Hobgoblin HaU,' stands
within the adjacent parish of Garvald and Bara :
which see — Dr. Witherspoon, the weU-known pre
sident of New Jersey college, and author of numer
ous theological works, was the son of a minister of
Yester, and was born in its manse. Dr. Charles
Nisbet, president of Carlisle college in America,
was the son of a schoolmaster of the parish, and
was born at Long- Yester. The parish is traversed
by the road between Haddington and Lauder, and
by that between Tranent and Dunse, and is other
wise well-provided with roads. Population, in
1801, 929; in 1831, 1,019. Houses 196. Assessed
property, in 1815, £7,031. — Yester is in the presby
tery of Haddington, and synod of Lothian and
Tweeddale. Patron, the Marquis of Tweeddale.
Stipend £222 5s. 3d. ; glebe £25. Unappropriated
teinds £3 12s. 9d. In 1834, three parochial and
two private schools were attended respectively by
149 and by 70 scholars. The parochial schools are
situated respectively at Gifford, at Long- Yester, and
at Long-Newton. Salary of the Gifford schoolmas
ter £34 4s. 4d., with £40 fees, and £1 7s. lOd.
other emoluments ; of the Long-Yester schoolmas
ter £8 lis. Id., with £18 fees; of the Long- New
ton schoolmaster £8 lis. Id., with £14 fees  The
manor of Yester or Yestred was granted by William
the Lion to Hugh Gifford, the son of Hugh, an Eng
lish gentleman who settled in Lothian under David
I. From that early age to the present, Yestred has
remained with his descendants. Hugh Gifford of
Yester, who lived under David II. and Robert Hv,
had not a son to inherit his large estates ; and Jo
hanna, the eldest of his daughters, marrying Sir
WiUiam Hay of Locherwart, transferred the manor,
with the patronage of the church, to him and their
conjoint posterity. Thus arose the family of Yester
and Locherwart, who obtained the titles of Lord
Yester in 1488, Earl of Tweeddale in 1646, and
Marquis of Tweeddale and Earl of Gifford in 1694.
The church, originally called St. Bothan's, and af
terwards caUed Yester's, was, in 1421, restored to its
old name, and, at the same time, converted by Sir
WiUiam Hay into a coUegiate establishment for a
provost, 6 prebendaries, and ,2 singing-boys. The "
Reformation upset the coUegiate establishment, and
placed the church in a simply parochial position under
the revived name of Yester. A chapel, dedicated to
St. Nicholas, and subordinate to the parish-church,
anciently stood at Duncanlaw.
YETHOLM, a parish on the north-east border of
Roxburghshire; bounded on the north-west by Lin
ton ; on the north-east and east by England ; and on
the south-west and west by Morebattle. It is nearly
an equilateral triangle of 2J miles along the base on
the north-west, and4§ miles along each of the equal
sides, terminating in an apex in the south-east. Its
superficial extent is nearly 6,000 acres. Beaumont-
water bisects the parish from south to north ; it has
a sandy Ded and a rapid current ; it abounds in trout,
and is subject to sudden and high freshets. Yetholm
or Primside-loch, on the western boundary with
Morebattle, measures nearly IJ mile in circumfer
ence, has abundance of pike and perch, and is the

YET

824

YTH

resort of many species, some of them rare ones, of
water-fowl. The vale of the Beaumont, so far as
it lies within the parish, is the seat of 9-10ths of
the population, measures 2j miles in length by from
2 to 3 J furlongs in breadth, and, though hill-locked
on all other sides, goes freely and flatly out on the
north into England. Touching the lips of the stream
are some pretty large haughs; and from the manse
to the north-west there is a piece of flat ground along
with the haughs for about IJ- mile. The surface
from the sides of the vales to the boundaries is a
congeries of hills, all soft in feature, and gay in dress,
and nowhere, even when in the south they become
identified with the Cheviots, exceeding 800 feet of
altitude above sea-level. The heights imbosom
several sequestered, beautiful, and romantic dingles.
The lower hills are arable; and the higher are green
to their summit, and form a prime sheep-walk.
About 100 acres are covered with wood; about 200
are a wild moor, called Yetholm-common, on the
boundary with England, and rather doubtfully be
longing to Scotland ; and the rest of the area is dis
tributed into tillage and pasturage grounds, in the
mutual proportions of 13 to 15. The soil of the
arable land is good, and adapted for wheat-hus
bandry, though chiefly used in raising oats, barley,
and turnips. Felspar-porphyry is the prevailing rock,
and contains agate and common jasper. Kirk- Yet
holm and Town- Yetholm are the only vUlages,
and are separately noticed. The principal land
owners are Wauchope of Niddrie and the Marquis
of Tweeddale. The chief antiquities are apparently
a Roman camp on Yetholm-law, and two British
camps respectively on Camp-hiil and Castlelaw.
The old mansion of Thirlestane, which has now dis
appeared, had an apartment called ! The Warlock's-
room;' and probably acquired its wizard fame from
the chemical or alchymical researches of one of the
proprietors of Thirlestane, Dr. Scott, a physician of
Charles II. Jean Gordon, the prototype of Meg
Merrilees, and her grand-daughter Madge, or Mar
jory, who probably sat to Sir Walter Scott as the
rejfresentative of her person, were among the gipsy
inhabitants of Yetholm. Several of the descendants
of the celebrated gipsy Faa are still Yetholmites:
see Kirk- Yetholm. The parish is traversed by a
road down the Beaumont, and by one leading north
westward from the villages toward Kelso. Popula
tion, in 1801, 1,011 ; in 1831, 1,289. Houses 222.
Assessed property, in 1815, £5,384 — Yetholm is in

the presbytery of Kelso, and synod of Merse and
Teviotdale. Patron, Wauchope of Niddrie. Sti
pend £210 4s. 2d. ; glebe £25. Unappropriated
teinds £171 19s. Id. There are in the villages
two meeting-houses, belonging respectively to the
United Secession and the Original Burghers. In
1834 the parish-school was attended by 1 18 scholars,
and two other schools by 170. Parochial school
master's salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with £29 10s. 6d. fees,
and £6 other emoluments  The advowson, but not
the temporal property of the ancient church, be
longed to the monks of Kelso. In 1304, Edward I.
visited Yetholm on his return from his northern ex
pedition. In 1375, Edward III. issued a writ of pre
sentation to the parish ; and, in the same year, he ne
gotiated an exchange of the church for that of Minto.
YTHAN, or Ithan, (The), a river of Aberdeen
shire. It, rises from two springs, called the wells of
Ythan, in the uplands of Forgue, about a mile west of
the boundary of that parish with Auchterless; and
flows through these parishes, through those of Fyvie,
Methlick, Tarves, Ellon, and Loggie-Buchan, and
between those of Slains on the left bank, and Fo-
veran on the right, to the sea a little below the vU
lage of Newburgh. It runs in a north-easterly di
rection tiU near the point where it first touches
Fyvie, and there it is within about 4 miles of the
Deveron at Turriff, and wheels suddenly on a new
course ; thence, till it touches Slains, it makes nu
merous sweeps, some of which are long, yet runs
prevailingly toward the south-east; and, over 2J
miles, above its embouchure, it runs nearly due
south. It achieves, from its source to the sea, a
distance of about 31 miles ; and receives in its pro
gress, besides many smaller tributaries, eight or nine
affluents of each more than 5 miles length of course.
It has a smooth and slow current; and, owing to
the general construction of drains in the lands which
form its basin, it rises more rapidly in freshets than
formerly, and occasionally flows far over its banks.
Much of the country which it immediately traverses
is low and alluvial; and, previous to recent im
provements for its protection, was, in a great mea
sure, desolated by the river's floods. The stream
has two good salmon-fishings, — the one at its mouth,
and the other at Ellon, 6 miles up ; and it has some
celebrity for having at one time produced valuable
pearls : see Slains. It is navigable for river-craft
to Ellon, and for vessels of 150 tons to the distance
of about a mile from the sea.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX,

* The following Tables exhibit the general results of the Census of 1851 as. regards Counties, Cities,
Burghs, and Parliamentary Districts, — showing the number of houses inhabited, uninhabited, and
building, and the number of persons male, female, and total. The quoad' sacra parishes and most
of the villages are given as in the Census of 1841, many of the former indicating well known per
manent districts, and the latter not being returned in the Census of 1851.

I.-POPULATION OF COUNTIES IN 1851.
[See page 832.]

IL— COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF HOUSES INHABITED, UNINHABITED, AND
BUILDING, IN 1831 AND 1851.

1831.

1851.

Counties.
Aberdeen
ArgyleAyr Banff .
Berwick .
Bute .
Caithness
ClackmannanDumbartonDumfriesEdinburghElgin (Moray)
Fife .
Forfar .
Haddington Inverness
Kincardine
KinrossKirkcudbright (Stewartry
Lanark
LinlithgowNairn .
Orkney and Shetland
Peebles
PerthRenfrewRoss and Cromarty
Roxburgh
Selkirk .
Stirling • -
SutherlandWigtown Scotland

of)

Inhabited

Uninhabited

'

Inhabited

Uninhabited

s

Houses.

Houses.

Building.

Houses.

Houses.

Building.

29,502

707

170

31,743

768

173

17,146

510

200

15,039

484

61

19,001

439

105

23,554

824

129

9,814

266

126

10,662

377

62

6,159

267

13

6,363

251

44

2,134

38

6

2,335

77

30

6,036

94

90

6,952

103

54

2,391

85

9

2,950

96

53

3,785

109

42

4,792

238

67

12,365

341

71

13,300

412

92

19,744

1,109

150

20,946

851

195

6,919

226

98

7,642

223

88

20,712

699

157

24,610

1,062

147

19,597

788

157

22,446

725

138

6,561

388

33

6,444

424

41

17,312

440

137

17,536

390

79

6,272

217

48

6,636

269

40

1,524

43

9

1,662

67

12

6,604

146

48

7,009

225

36

58,745

2,423

234

37,540

1,279

328

3,400

203

21

4,059

116

10

'2,074

92

21

2,002

27

19

10,296

211

71

11,334

321

23

1,789

58

14

1,796

98

11

23,809

898

138

22,528

852

87

11,153

786

42

10,760

300

78

15,039

352

131

15,941

321

121

6,732

226

42

7,255

224

50

1,094

59

3

1,331

25

9

10,459

278

55

11,312

510

89

4,821

88

76

4,943

52

27

6,404

133

51

6,902

164

27

369,393

12,719

2,568 370,308 12,146

2,420

828

APPENDIX.

III.-COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF HOUSES INHABITED, UNINHABITED, AND
BUILDING, IN 1801, 1821, AND 1851.

1801.

1821.

1851.

Counties.

Inhabited Houses,

Uninha- t.,„-ij:„_ Inhabited
bited do. Bnil™S' Houses.

» 
Uninha
bited do.

Building.

Inhabited Houses.

Uninha
bited do.

 — — ¦*
Building.

Aberdeen

25,249

573

27,579

996

186

31,743

768

173

Argyle

13,109

32

16,059

1,273

96

15,039

484

61

AyT .

13,603

272

17,842

406

87

23,554

824

129

Banff ....

7,789

166

8,971

210

120

10,662

377

62

Berwick .

5,965

273

5,803

276

42

6,363

251

44

Bute ....

1,911

17

2,205

30

17

2,335

77

30

Caithness

4,433

140

5,319

39

58

6,952

103

54

Clackmannan

2,100

64

2,145

62

12

2,950

96

53

Dumbarton

3,375

107

3,536

78

18

4,792

238

67

Dumfries

10,785

246

12,248

285

85

13,300

412

92

Edinburgh

17,111

1,081

19,077

1,163

209

20,946

851

195

Elgin (Moray)

5,992

134

6,668

162

113

7,642

223

88

Fife .

17,065

766

18,944

527

105

24,610

1,062

147

Forfar

20,195

827

16,812

576

112

22,446

725

138

Haddington

5,851

406

6,230

379

14

6,444

424

41

Inverness

14,357

159

17,055

413

83

17,536

390

79

Kincardine

5,688

302

5,894

213

50

6,636

269

4.9

Kinross

1,372

37

1,419

34

11

1,662

67

12

Kirkcudbright, Stewartry

of 5,600

161

6,441

190

57

7,009

225

36

Lanark

32,259

1,544

47,016

2,413

323

37,540

1,279

328

Linlithgow

2,796

160

3,302

96

15

4,059

116

10

Nairn ....

1,940

32

2,012

54

15

2,002

27

19

Orkney and Shetland

8,016

105

9,176

94

38

11,334

321

23

Peebles

1,682

64

1,750

51

2

1,796

98

11

Perth . . . .

23,382

952

26,718

960

113

22,528

852

87

Renfrew

7,857

89

10,490

546

55

10,760

300

78

Ross and Cromarty

11,424

127

13,638

345

146

15,941

321

121

Roxburgh

6,156

241

6,587

242

27

7,255

224

50

Selkirk . . . .

986

27

1,081

35

1

1,331

25

9

StirlingSutherland

7,530

292

8,984

338

66

11,312

510

89

4,315

9

4,654

21

60

4,943

52

27

Wigtown

4,660

132

5,819

150

69

6,902

164

27

Barracks .

Scotland
294,553
9,537
.. 341,474 12,657
2,405
370,308
12,146
2,420
IV.— ACCOUNT OF THE HOUSES AND POPULATION OF EACH CITY AND ROYAL
BURGH IN SCOTLAND, AS ALSO THE TOTAL POPULATION COMPRISED WITHIN
THE SEVERAL PARLIAMENTARY BOUNDARIES THEREOF, IN 1851.
No. 1,
-Account of the Houses and Population within the Royalty of each City and Royal
Burgh in Scotland, as nearly as can be ascertained.
Note. — Those Burghs which have a Parliamentary Representation, but are not Royal Burghs, will be
found in the account No. 2, pp. 830, 831, marked with an asterisk (*).
Houses.
Persons.
Cities and Burghs.
Inhabited.
Uninhab
Building.
'
'
ited.
Males.
Females.
Total.
Aberdeen . . . .
3,889
73
18
23,713
30,095
53,808
Annan ....
829
24
11
2,152
2,418
4,570
Anstruther, Easter .
194
2
3
536
625
1,161
Anstruther, Wester
53
3
167
198
365
Aberbrothwick or Arbroath
855
16
4
3,742
4,560
8,302
Auchtermuchty .
561
7
4
1,268
1,405
2,673
Ayr ....
1,040
34
8
4,103
5,012
9,115
Banff 
615
12
2
1,558
1,999
3,557
APPENDIX.

829

Account op the Houses and Population, ke.— Continued.

Houses.

Persons.

Cities and Bcbohs. Inhabited.

Uninhab

ited.

Brechin .

520

6

Burntisland .

242

18

Campbeltown .
Craif . . .

653

6

259

23

CuUen

642

27

Culross

110

12

Cupar (Fife) .

526

15

DingwaU

314

10

Dornoch .

109

2

Dumbarton .

274

3

Dumfries

1,373

81

Dunbar

394

28

Dundee

3,548

56

Dunfermline

883

27

Dysart

198

9

Earlsferry

89

5

Edinburgh

2,789

38

Elgin .

926

12

Falkland .

231

7

Forfar .

1,023

9

Forres

690

30

Fortrose

228

23

Glasgow .

5,091

55

Haddington .

353

5

Inverary .

113

3

Inverbervie or Bervie .

159

1

Inverkeithing .

206

5

Inverness

1,255

77

Inverury . ,

316

7

Irvine ....

533

8

Jedburgh

311

3

Kilrenny

251

7

Kinghorn

158

6

Kintore

91

5

Kirkcaldy

422

7

Kirkcudbright

414

11

Kirkwall .

333

8

Lanark

651

12

Lauder

194

2

Linlithgow .

328

5

Lochmaben

288

7

Montrose

1,336

22

Nairn

646

12

Newburgh

292

5

New GaUoway

88

4

North-Berwick

72

13

Peebles

310

18

Perth .

1,170

23

Pittenweem

264

9

Queensferry .

87

3

Renfrew .

295

5

Rothesay

632

21

Rutherglen

605

28

St. Andrew's

599

24

Sanquhar

282

11

Selkirk

380

1

Stirling .

767

16

Stranraer

523

18

Tain

450

18

Whithorn

291

16

Wick

171

1

Wigtown

339

9

Building;.

Males.

Females

4

2,021

2,494

3

1,133

1,196

2

3,064

3,816

1

535

712

4

1,452

1,713

246
359
2
1,819
2,186
2
848
1,142
5
259
340
4
2,389
2,201
12
4,987
6,120
1
1,339
1,626
22
28,149
38,300
4
4,296
4,281
1
746
804
190
246
16
29,352
37,382
18
2,372
3,011
1
651
679
6
4,207
5,104
10
1,396
1,943
7
497
651
56
70,581
77,735
2
1,385
1,502
1
542
622
427
451
1
703
794
8
4,430
5,539
1
999
1,085
2
2,108
2,682
1
1,390
1,558
2
884
978
547
830
3
236
240
3
2,331
2,762
1,188
1,590
3
1,059
1,389
7
2,564
2,740
1
519
586
2
1,941
2,130
6
690
808
10
6,281
8,047
16
1,532
1,869
5
1,210
1,428
204
243
i
223
275
2
943
1,039
6
6,824
7,857
4
651
799
335
385
1,363
1,359
15
2,895
4,209
2
3,430
3,517
19
2,231
2,499
870
1,014
1
1,611
1,703
16
4,436
4,925
1,778
2,099
2
1,164
1,424
1
703
949
6
740
774
981
1,251
Total.
4,5152,329 6,8801,247
3,165 605
4,005 1,990 599
. 4,590
11,107 2,965
61,449 8,577 1,610 436
66,734 5,383 1,330
9,311
3,339 1,143
148,116 2,887 1,164 878
1,497
9,9692,084
4,790 2,948 1,8621,377 476
5,0932,7782,448
5,304 1,105
4,071 1,498
14,328 3,4012,638 447
498
1,982
14,681 1,450 720
2,722 7,1046,947
4,730 1,884
3,3149,3613,8772,588 1,6521,514
2,232
830

APPENDIX.

No. 2. — Account of the Population within each
Houses and Population Houses.

Parliamentary Boundary.
each Parliamentary Boundary, 1851.
Persons.

Name or Cities, or Royal and
Paeliamentaky Buiighs.

Inhabited. Uninhabited. Building. Males. Females.

Cities returning two Members each.
Edinburgh  7,786

Glasgow

11,965

Cities and Towns returning one
Member each.

Aberdeen 
Dundee .......
Greenock*  1,714
Paisley* 
Perth 

Combined Burghs, and Towns or Dis
tricts returning one Member.

'Ayr, and Newton
upon Ayr
Irvine
CampbelltonInveraryOban*

Ayr
District.

}'-

855
811653 94
156

Dumfries District.

Elgin
District.

Falkirk District.

Haddinoton District.

Total .
AnnanDumfries and Max
welltown
KirkcudbrightLochmaben
Sanquhar Total
' Banff and Macduff
CullenElginInverury
Kintore .
Peterhead* Total .
Airdrie *
Falkirk*Hamilton*
Lanark
LinUthgow Total
Dunbar
HaddingtonJedburghLauder
. North Berwick
Total

3,569 611
1,582 397
222339
3,1511,073 356
1,091 340 91
886
3,8371,239 949967601348
4,104 405'473
402 194
133
1,607

136 69 71,356' 88j946
221 140 154,930 174,167

46 14 63

78
20
83 11 6
11
131

12
15 85
15
91
31 12
23 11 5
82 31 7
52
16
61

Totals.
160,302
329,097

5,839

154

63

31,746

40,227

71,973

5,040

83

36

35,864

43,087

78,931

1,714

47

4
21

17,565

19,124

36,689

2,647

48

3

22,473

25,479

47,952

1,991

35

17

11,282

12,553

23,835

13 22 1
6
24

14 61
29 12 3
20 339
50 1
9
19 6
2
37 1
22 1
1

8,0623,2893,064 492 763
15,670 1,593
5,849 1,152 498
1,122

9,562
4,245 3,816 572 979
19,174 1,833
7,317 1,535 594
1,259

2,673 734
2,8031,082 236
3,219

3,327 963
3,534 1,182 240
4,079

7,333
4,236
4,5242,4352,097

7,1024,516
5,106 2^,573
2,206

1,3701,8771,726 519 392

1,668
2,006 1,889 586 471

17,624 7,5346,8801,064 1,742
34,844 3,426
13,166 2,6871,092
2,381

10,214 12,538 22,752

6,0001,697
6,3372,264 476
7,298

10,747 13,325 24,072

14,435 8,7529,630
5,008 4,213

20,535 21,503 42,038

3,0383,8833,6151,105 863

5,884 6,620 12,504

APPENDIX.

831

Account op the Population within each Parliamentary Boundary— Continued.

Houses and Population within each Parliamentary Boundairy, 1851.

Montrose District.

St. Andrew's
District.

StirlingDistrict.

Wick
District.

Wigtown District.

Name or Cities, ok Royal ahd
Parliamentary Burghs.
i Forres Fortrose .
Inverness .
Nairn Total
Dumbarton Kilmarnock*Renfrew .
Rutherglen .
Port-Glasgow **
Total
' Burntisland
Dysart Kinghorn
Kirkcaldy .
Total .
Leith*PortobeUo* .
Musselburgh *
Total .

Houses.

Persons.

Inhabited. Uninhabited. Building.

Inverness District.

Kilmarnock District.

KffiKCALDY District.

Leith
District.

Aberbrothwick, or >
Arbroath, . f
Brechin .
ForfarInverbervie, or Bervie
Montrose Total
Anstruther, Easter
Anstruther, Wester
CrailCuparKilrenny
PittenweemSt. Andrew's ,
Total
' Culross .
DunfermUne
InverkeithingQueensferryStirling .
Total
' Cromarty *
DingwallDornoch
KirkwaUTainWick .
Total

{New Galloway
Stranraer
Whithorn .
Wigtown Total

718228
1,704 562
3,212 313
1,652 317
563418
3,203 293
1,064 174
894
2,425
2,084 581890
3,554 1,734 758
1,023 171
1,473
5,159 194 53
259761251264675
2,457 110
1,487 240 142
1,270
3,249 327
314 109
457 349
885
2,441 88
793291323
1,495

322399 11
165 3
17 5
27 3
552630 6
11
7395
55 36
186 23 79 1
3373 23
23 18 7
9
27 89 12
46 8
4
38
108 15
10 2
10
14 7
58 4
25 16 9
54

10 7
1416
47 5
14 i l
22 10 3

17
26 64
36 13 46
10
33 3i
724
21 38

4 1
18
23 *2 55
2
2236 3 1

Males. 1,457 497
5,659 1,327

2,845
10,237 1,499
3,1923,120

1,314
3,734 625
4,826
10,495 14,775 1,379
3,304

7,740 2,996 '
4,207 452
6,661

536 167
535
2,579 884651
2,403
7,755 246
6,901 884563
5,911
14,505 883
848
259
1,484 915
3,218 7,607 204
2,608 703926

Females. 2,011 651
7,134 1,650

8,940 11,446

2,600
11,206 1,478
3,322
3,866

20,893 22,472

1,410
4,311 943
5,649

16,144 2,118
3,788

9,246 3,641
5,104 482
8,577

625 198
712
3,107 978799
2,704 9,123 359
6,935 968 632
6,926
15,820 1,105
1,142 340
1,967
1,134
3,504 9,192 243
3,130 949
1,195

Totals. 3,468 1,148
12,793 2,977
20,386 5,445
21,443 2,9776,5146,986
43,365 2,7248,041 1,568
10,475

12,313 22,808

30,919 3,4977,092

19,458 22,050 41,508

16,986 6,6379,311 934
15,238

22,056 27,050 49,106

4,441 5,517

1,161 365
1,247
5,6861,8621,450
5,107
16,878 605
13,836 1,852
1,195
12,837
30,325 1,9881,990 599
3,451
2,049 6,722
16,799 447
5,738 1,652
2,1219,958

832

APPENDIX.

V.— SUMMARY VIEW OF THE POPULATION OF COUNTIES IN 1851, TOGETHER WITH
THE INCREASE OR DECREASE PER CENT DURING THE PRECEDING TEN YEARS,
AND THE ANNUAL RATE OF INCREASE SINCE 1801.

Counties.
AberdeenArgyle .
Ayr .
Banff .
Berwick .
Bute .
Caithness
ClackmannanDumbartonDumfries
EdinburghElgin .
Fife .
Forfar .
HaddingtonInvernessKincardineKinrossKirkcudbright .
LanarkLinUthgowNairn .
Orkney and Shetland
PeeblesPerth RenfrewRoss and Cromarty
RoxburghSelkirk .
Stirling
SutherlandWigtown Total

Increase per

Decrease per Annual rate

Males,

Females.

Total.

cent since
1841.

cent since of increase per
1841. cent since 1801.

100,255

111,777

212,032

10

1-18

43,935

45,363

89,298

9 -19
92,930
96,928
189,858
15
1-63
25,575
28,596
54,171
9
•75
17,433
18,864
36,297
5
¦37
7,518
9,090
16,608
5
•68
18,329
20,380
38,709
6
1-08
11,342
11,609
22,951
20
1-5
22,400
22,703
45,103
1
1-56
37,186
40,937
78,123
7
¦11,
119,384
140,051
259,435
15
1-51
18,191
20,768
38,959
11
¦68
73,175
80,371
153,546
10
•99
88,324
102,940
191,264
12
1-32
17,610
18,776
36,386
I
•39
44,961
51,539
96,500
2 -57
17,008
17,590
34,598
5
•55
4,305
4,619
8,924
2
•57
20,223
22,898
43,121
5
•78
.257,060
273,109
530,169
24
2-58
15,194
14,941
30,135
12
1.05
4,695
5,261
9,956
8
•35
27,495
35,038
62,533
2
•57
5,364
5,374
10,738
2
•41
66,337
72,323
138,660
1
-2
75,690
85,401
161,091
4
1-44
39,012
43,695
82,707
5
•77
25,212
26,430
51,642
12
¦86
4,850
4,959
9,809
23
1-2
42,234
44,003
86,237
5
1.06
11,917
13,876
25,793
4
•22
20,335
23,054
43,389
u
1-28
1,375,479 1,513,263 2,888,742
10
1'17
RESULTS OF THE CENSUS OF 1851:
SHOWING
THE POPULATION OF EVERY COUNTY, CITY, TOWN, PARISH, VILLAGE, HAMLET, AND ISLAND
IN SCOTLAND,
WITH THE NUMBER OF INHABITED HOUSES, AS ON 31st March, 1851.
%* Tlie letters c, t, p. q. s. p. v, h_ and i, indicate respectively the rank of the place to which they are attached, whether City,
Town, Parish, Quoad sacra Parish, Village, Hamlet, or Island,

A.

Names of Places.

Abbey St Bathan's, p.
Abbey District, or Cambuskenneth, v.
Abbey Green and Tiirfholm, o.
Abbey, New, p.
Abbey, New, v.
Abbey, Paisley, p.
Abbey, Paisley, landward part,
Abbey, Paisley, q. s. p.
Abbotshall, t
Abbotshall, p.
Abdie, p.
Aberbrothock, p.
Aberbrothock, 6.
Aberchirder, v.
Abercorn, p.
Abercrombie, or St. Monance, p.
Abercrombie, or St Monance, v,
Aberdalgie, p.
Aberdargie, v.
Aberdeen (Old and New),
Aberdeenshire,Aberdeen District,
Aberdour, p.
Aberdour, p.
Aberdour, Easter, v.
Aberdour, New, u.
Aberdour, Wester, v.
Aberfeldy, v.
Aberfoyle, p.
Aberlady, p.
Aberlady, v.
Aberlemno, p.
Aberlour, p.
Aberluthnott, or Marykirk, p.
Abernethy (united with Kincardine,)
Inverness), p. )
Abernethy (part of), p.
Abernethy (part of), p.
Abernethy, v.
Abernyte, p.
Abertarff and Boleskine, p.
Abington, v.
Aboyne and Glentanner, p.
Accord, Bon, q. s. p.
Acharn, v.
Adamsrow, v.
Afton Bridgend, v.
Aharacle, q. s, p.
Aharacle (part of), q- s. p.
Aird, v.
Airdrie, t.
Airlie, p.
Airntully, v.
Airth, p.
Airth, v.
Aithsting and Sandsting, p.
Alexandria, v.
Alford, p.
Alford District,
Allan, Bridge of, v., (partly m p. of)
Lecroft, and partly in Logie,) j

County. Berw. Chun.Lanark, Kirkc.Renf.

Banff, Linl.
Fife,

Aberd.Fife, Aberd.
Fife,Perth,

Forf.
Banff, Kine.
Elgin, Fife,Perth.

Inver.Lanark,
Aberd. Perth,
Edin.Ayr,
Arg. Inver.
Wigton,Lanark, Forf.
Perth,Stirling,
Ork. & Sh.
Dumb.
Aberd. Stirling',

IKHAB.
Houses

Pop.

24

155

54

227

206

881

199

1.098

42

175

1,903

28.398

241

2,282

269

1,429

360

4,342

4S9

5,030

247

1,486

1,007

10,030

855

8,302

228

819

170

977

167

1,241

165

1,029

80

343

42

200

5,839

71,973

31,743

212,032

8,416

86,262

374

1,857

313

1,945

75

307

376

129

469

229

823

106

514

236

1,099

136

537

218

1,116

283

1,447

473

2,232

405

1,871

35

164

311

1,862

138

827

57

275

380

1,997

28

135

228

1,108

451

5,170

12

42

53

249

242

156

930

173

1,086

7

18

1,239

14,435

183

856

39

159

221

1,319

174

583

. 431

2,693

306

3,781

202

1,143

2,389

12,665

72

561

Names op Places.

County.

Inhab.
Houses

Pop.

Allanton, v., in Edrom p.

Berw.

267

Alloa, t.

Clmn.

618

676

Alloa* p.



1,106

9,493

Almond Bank, v.

Perth,

64

245

Alness, p.

Ross & Cro. 230

1,240

Alness, v.



41

202

Alva, p.

Stirling,

350

3,204

Alva, v.



330

3,058

Alvah, p.

Banft,

236

1,402

Alves, p.

Elgin,

200

919

Alvie, p.

Inver,

191

914

Alyth (part of), p-

Forf.

36

158

Alyth (part of), p.

Perth,

532

2,994

Alyth, v. and Burgh of Barony,



620

1,846

Amisfield, v.

Dumf.

84

140

Anabich, i.

Inver.

12

63

Ancrum, p. and v.

Boxb.

277

1,554

Anderston. q. s. p.

Lanark,

672

3,759

Andrew, St., p.



318

9,673

Andrew's, St, p.

Edin.

291

5,439

Andrew's, St, 6.

Fife,

599

4,730

Andrew's, St., p.



1,061

6,740

Andrew's, St., District,



5,845

32,077

Andrew's, St, Lhanbryde, p.

Elgin,

228

1,263

Angus, Cupar (part of), p.

Forf.

60

343

Angus, Cupar (part of), p.

Perth,

499

2,629

Annan, b. aud p.

Dumf.

1,064

5,848

Anstruther, Easter, b. and p.

Fife,

194

1,161

Anstruther, Wester, 6, and p.



68

443

Anworth, p.

Kirkc

136

900

Appin and Lismore, p.

Arg.

782

4,097

Applecross, p.

Ross & Cro. 551

2,709

Applegarth, p.

Dumf.

150

918

Apple-tree-Hall, v.

Roxb.

14

75

Arbeadie, v.

Kine.

70

301

Arbirlot, p. and v.

Forf,

200

990

Arbroath. See Aberbrothock.

Arbuthnott, p.
Kine.
197
1,002
Archiestown, v.
Elgin,
51
174
Ardchattan. p.
Arg.
283
1,525
Ardclach, p.
Nairn,
259
1,278
Arden in Clarkston, q. s. p.
Lan.
646
Ardersier, p.
Inver.
216
1,241
Ardnamurchan (pt. of, with Sunart),
p. Arg.
603
3,113
Ardnamurchan (part of), p.
Inver.
396
2,333
Ardoch, q. s. p.
Perth,
265
1,584
Ardrossan, p
Ayr,
581
5,581
Argyllshire,
15,039
89,298
Argyll District,
2,862
17,219
Armadale, v.
Linl.
22
121
Arngask (part of), P-
Fife,
52
282
Arngask (part of), p.
Kinr.
44
212
Arngask (part of), p.
Perth,
41
195
Arnpitour, v.

18
96
Arnyfoul, v.
Forf.
12
73
Arran, i.
Bute,
1,193
5,947
Arrochar, p.
Dumb.
99
562
Arthurlee, West, v.
Kenf.
33
441
Ashkirk (part of), p.
Koxb.
65
388
Ashkirk (part of), p.
Selk.
37
195
Assynt, p.
Suthld.
586
2,989
Athelstaneford, p. and v.
Hadd.
198
971
Athole-Blair, p.
Perth,
433
2,084
Auchandryne, v.
Aberd.
174
AUG

BOL

Names of Places.
Auchinairn, v,
Auchinblae, v.
Auchincraw, v.
Auchindoir and Kearn, p.
Auchinearn, New and Old, v.
Auchinleck, p.
Atichinloch, h.
Auchinmully, v.
Auchinraith, v.
Auchintibie, v.
Auchleven, v. m
Auchmillan, v.
Auchmithie,Auchterarder, p. and v.
Auchterderran, p.
Auchtergaven, p.
Auchterhouse, p.
Auchterless, p.
Auchtermuchty, t. und p.
Auchtermid, v.
Auchtertool, p.
Auckingill,
Augustus Fort, v.
Auldearn, p. and v.
Auld field, q. s. p.
Avoch, p. and u
Avondale, p.
Ayr, b. and p.
Ayrshire,Ay ton, p. B.
Bachies, v.
Backdean, h.
Backmuir, h.
Baillies ton, v.
Balbeggie, v,
Balbirnie, v.
Balblair, i.
Balbrogie, v.
Balbunno, v.
Balcurrie,Baldernock, p.
Baldovan, v.
Baldyqubash, part of Fyvie, p.
Baledgarns, v.
Balerno, v.
Balfield, h.
Balfron, p. and v.
Balgonie-of-Milton, q. s. p.
Balgonie (Coaltown of) v.
Balgray, v.
Balhaddie, v. in Ardoch, q. s. p.
Balintore, v.
Balishear, i.
Balkells, v.
Ballantrae, p.
Ballater, v.
Ballendean, v.
Ballenluig, v.
Ballichulish (part of), 31- s. p.
Ballichuiish (part of)/ q. s. p.
Ballingry, p.
Balloch, v.
Ballochney, v. in Clarkston q. s. p.
Balmaclellan, p. and v.
Balmaghie, p. *
Balmalcolm, v.
Balmbrae, v.
Balmerino, p. and v.
Balmore,Balmullo, v.
Balnabruach, v.
Balnasuim, v.
Balquhidder, p.
Balwahanaid, v.
Balwherne, v.
Banchory-Devenick (part of), p.
Banchory-Devenick (part of), p.
Banchory-Ternan, p.
Banchory, v.
Baneton, v.
Banff, b. and p.
Banffshire,Bank, Almond. See Almond Bank.
Bank, Calder, v.
Bank, Cherry, v.
Bank, Comely, u
Bank, Gowan, v.
Bank, Kirkfield, v.
Bankend, v. .
Bankend, v.
Bankfoot, with Gadgirth-holm, v.
Bankfoot, v.

Countv.

ItiHAB. p
Houses. ror-

Kirkc.

100

373

Kine.

162

643

Berw.

203

Aberd.

261

1,369

Lanark,

84

561

Ayr,

565

3,697

Lanark,

138

Stirling,

212

Lanark,

13

77



10

77

Aberd.

27

103

Ayr,

24
Forf.
63
160
Perth,
861
4,160
Fife,
581
3,210
Perth,
486
3,232
Forf.
135
686
Aberd,
318
1,837
Fife,
779
3,704
K andC
115
Fife,
112
517
Caith.
209
Inver.
39
101
Nairn,
285
1,480
Benf.
3,252
R. and C
379
2,029
Lanark,
799
6,451
Ayr,
1,040
9,110
23,554
189,858
Berw.
286
1,959
Suthld.
35
145
Edin.
11
• 45
Forf.
34
166
Lanark,
639
Perth,
68
120
Forf.
9
43
Ross & Cro. 1
7
Perth,
15
80

23
200
Fife,
186
Stirling,
152
801
Forf.
9
44
Aberd.
61
Perth,
27
110
Edin,
75
305
Forf.
13
41
Stirling,
202
1,900
Fife,
288
1,408

95
415
Forf.
17
63
Perth,
33
Ross & Cro. 63
313
Inver.
27
156
Forf.
18
88
Ayr,
279
1,801
Aberd.
69
371
Perth,
21
80

27
114
Arg.
76
516
Inver.
125
719
Fife,
91
568
Inver. .
27
104
Lanark,
-
559
Kirkc.
205
1,145

218
1,217
Fife,
23
113

26
114

214
945
Stirling,
33
158
Fife,
64
274
Ross & Cro. 40
167
Perth,
10
48

158
874

23

12
60
Kine.
454
2,465
Aberd.
1
5
Kine.
443
2,462

23
66
Fife,
38
204
Banff,
778
4,426
10,662
Perth.
54,171
Lanark,
176
1,064
Perth,
40
157
Roxb.
1,116
Forf.
23
72
Lanark,
201
l;02S
Dumf.
51
189
Kirkc.
30
Ayr,
14
77
Perth,
129
760
Names of Places.
Bankhead, h.
Bankton-Fark, v.
Bannatyne Port, v.
Bannockburn, t.
Banton, v.
Barachnie, v.
Barbaraville, v.
Barbaswalls, v.
Barjarg, v.
Barleyside, v.
Barn Yards, v.
Barnhill, v.
Barnhill, v.
Barnweill, and Craigie, p.
Barony, p.
Barr, p.
Barrhead, t.
Barrie, or Barry, p. and v.
Barra, p. and isles,
Barvas, p.
Bathgate, t. and .p.
Baynton. See Baneton.
Beath, p.
Beath (Cowden), v.
Beauly, v.
Bedrule, p. and v.
Beil Grange, v.
Beith (part of), p.
Beith (part of) p.
Belliaven, v. in Dunbar p.
Bell lelvie, p.
Bellie (part of), p.
Bellie (part of), p.
Bell's Quarry, v.
Bellshill, a.
Bellstown, v.
Belltrees (Newton of), v. in Loch->
winnoch, p. )
Bellyclone, v.
Benbecula, i.
Bendochy, p.
Benholme, p.
Bennetstone, v.
Benvie, v.
Bernards, St., q. s. p.
Bernera, i. in Barra p.
Bernera, i. in Lewis,
Bernera, (Big and Little), i. returned)
with Uig, )
Berriedale, q. s. p.
Bertram-Shotts, p.
Bervie, or Inverbervie, p. and 6.
Berwickshire,
Berwick, North, b. and p.
Biffy, 0. returned with Old Deer p.
Biggar, t. and p.
Bilsdean, v.
Birdstone, v.
Birgham, v. in Eccles p.
Birnie, p. m
Birsay, p.
Birse, p.
Bishopmill, v.
Bishopsbridge, h.
Bishopton, v.
Blackburn (part of) , v. in Livingstone p.
Blackburn (part ot) v. in Whitburn p.
Blackford, j).
Blackford, v.
Blackfriars, South, or CoUege, p.
Blackness, v.
Blackridge, v.
Bladnoch, v.
Blair-Athole. See Athole-Blair.
Blairburn. v.
Blairgowrie, p. and v.
Blairingone, q. s. p.
Blairingone, Old, v.
Blairingone, New, v.
Blairlogie, v.
Blairmore, v.
Blantyre, p.
Blantyre, or Kirkton, v.
Blantyre Works, v.
Blebo Craigs, v.
Blue Row, v.
Blythswood, suburb in Barony p.
Boat-bills, v.
Boddan, v.
Boghead, v.
Boharm (part of), p.
Boharm (part of), p.
Bole, h.
Boleskine. See Abertarff.
Bolton, p.
Couhty. Forf. Fife,
Bute, Stirling,
ItflTAB
Houses. 13
32
81
345
Lanark, Ross & Cro. 42 99
15
60 9
37
113
Forf. Dumf.Stirling,
Fife, Forf.
Lanark,
Ayr,Lanark, 3,253
Ayr, Rent
Forf.
Tnver.Ross,
Linl. Fife,
Inver. Roxb.Hadd.
Ayr, Rent
Hadd.
Aberd. Banff.Elgin,
Edin.Lanark, Perth,Rent'.
Inver.
Perth,Kine. Stirling,
Forf. Edin.Inver.
177
348
534363816
535 212 24
8046 9
627 9
334 215
302 31
217 5
17
307
138359117 14
Ross & Cro.
Caith.
Lanark, Kine.
261877557
6,863 280
Hadd.
Aberd.Lanark,Hadd.
Stirling, Berw.
Elgin, Ork. & Sh. 423
Aberd. 301
Elgin, Lanark,Renf. LinL
313 14
23 81
Perth,
Lanark, LinLWigton,Perth,
Lanark,
Fife,Dumb.Lanark,Fife,Aberd.Lanark,
Banff,Elgin, Forf.Hadd.
201 35 24
102 13
313 142
329 2724
20
586 111
5
310 62
266 571442
100 64
115 136 5
Pop 56
136
326
2,627 130235173 3658
92
232 41
165
793
77,499 907
6,069
2,175 1,873
4,189
4,533 1,252 127
560 240 53
6,384 41
380
1,692 990
1,357 120
1,013 25
5869
1,718 773
1,641 642 60
4,763 44
452
1,264
5,9821,459
36,297 1,643
2,049 59
100241
427
1,7491,533 755213315
391 52
2,012 547
11,950 107 94
215 85
4,297 287 79
210124 21
2,848 261
1,464 234 53
15,319 15552610172.'646 17
373
BON

CAR

Names of Placus.

Countv.

INIIAB. „
Houses. rop-

Bon Accord, q. s. p.

Abeni.

451

5,170

Bonar, v.

Suthld.

37

247

Bongate, v.

Roxb.

59

241

Bonhill, p.

Dumb.

628

7,643

Bonhill, v.



166

2,327

Bonjedward, v.

Roxb.

24

107

Bonkle, v.

Lanark,

21

110

Bonnington, v.

Edin.

28

132

Bonnington, v.

Forf.

16

67

Bonnybridge, v.

Solk.

36

184

Bonnyrigg, v.

Edin.

157

660

Boreland, v.

Fife,

51

272

Boresay, i.

Inver.

181

Borgue, p. and v.

Kirkc

185

1,043

Borland Park, in Auchterarder p.

Perth,

32

141

Borrowstown, v.

Linl.

15

60

Borrowstowness, t. and p.

519

5,192

Borthwick, p.

Edin.

321

1,614

Boston, q. s. p.

Berw.

308

1,223

Boswell's St, p.

Roxb.

137

884

Bothkennar, p.

Stirling,

184

1,179

Bothwell, p.

Lanark,

2,253

15,283

Bothwell t>.



120

490

Botriphnie, p.

Banff,

131

713

Bonrtie, p.

Aberd.

78

529

Bowden, p. and v.

Roxb.

182

981

Bower, p.

Caith

341

1,658

Bowling Bay, v.

Dumb.

35

182

Bowmore, or Kilarrow, p.

Arg.

605

3,469

Bowriefauld, 17.

Forf.

23

109

Boyndie, p.

Banff,

339

1,564

Boysack (Chapelton of), h.

Forf.

11

52

Bracadale, p.

Inver.

291

1.597

Braco, v.

Perth,

370

Braehead, v.

Lanark,

312
Braemar and Crathie, p.
Aberd.
385
1,788
Braes. See Calder Bank.
Bragram, v.
Perth,.
13
44
Braidwood, v.
Lanark,
48
124
Brechin, p. and v.
Forf.
1,080
8,210
Brechin, Little,

120
Bressay, i.
Ork. A Sh. 1 a
885
Bridge-of-Altan. See Allan.
Bridge of Dee. See Dee.
Bridge-of-Earn, v.
Perth,
33
119
Bridge-End, Old, returned with Galston.
Bridge, Ettrick. See Ettrick Bridge.
Bridge, Holekettle. See Holekettle.
Bridge, Linlithgow. See Linlithgow.
Bridge-of- Teith, v.
Perth,
163
Bridge-of-Weir (part of), q. s. p.
Renf.
43
712
Bridge, West, v.
Fife,
57
568
Bridgegate, q. s. p.
Lanark,
821
5,396
Bridgend, v.
Ross 4 Cro. 89
413
Bridgend, or Kendrochad, v. in Ken-]
more p. J
Perth,
14
68
Bridgend, v. in* Kinnoul p.

391
1,737
Brid^end-of-Ceres, v.
Fife,
361
Bridgend, v. in Lentrathen p.
Forf.
9
31
Bridgend, South, v.
Perth,
22
US
Bridgend, West, v.
Dumb.
160
799
Bridgeness, v.
Linl.
20
89
Bridgeton, q. s. p.
Lanark,
677
3,583
Bridgetown, v.
Perth,
16
97
Broadsea, v.
Aberd.
67
326
Brocklehurst, Old, h.
Dumf
7
39
Brodick, v.
Bute,
23
163
Broomieknowe, included in Heriot p.
Broomielaw, North, partly within)
Barony p. J
Lanark,
358
Broomielaw, South, in Gorbals p.

304
Brootnlands, v.
Renf.
7
79
Brora, v.
Suthld.
23
123
Broughton. p. and v.
Peebl.
52
284
Broughty-Ferry, partly in the parish']
of Dundee, but chiefly in that of
Forf.
460
2,772
Monifleth, J
Brownfield, q. s. p.
Lanark,
506
2,525
Br.ixbnrn, v.
LinL
131
725
Brunton, v.
Fife.
17
90
Brydekirk, q. s. p.
Dumf.
881
Buccleuch, q. s. p.
Edin.
623
3,168
Buchan District,
Aberd.
6,975
38,943
Buchan (Logie), p.

124
724
Buchanan, p.
Stirling,
120
632
Buchanty, v.
Perth,
16
48
Buchany, v.

25
113
Buckhaven, v.
Fife,
179
1,769
Buckholmside, v.
Roxb.
396
Buckie, t.
Banff,
532
2,789
Bucklerhead, h.
Forf.
9
48
Bucklyvie (part of), q- s. p.
Perth,
2
15
Bucklyvie (part of), q. s. p.
Stirling,
, 58
342
Buittle, p.
Kirkc.
170
1,042
Bullersbuohan, ». in Cruden p.
Aberd..
91
Names of Places.
County.
IHHAB
HmrRKS
Pop.
Bundaloch, and Dornie, v.
Ross & Cro. 113
610
Bunkle and Preston, p.
Berw.
125
715
Burghead, v.
Elgin,
' 184
829
Burnbanks, v.
Kine.
14
60
Bumbridge, v.
Stirling,
13
67
Burness. p.
Ork. & Sh. 96
468
Burnhaven, v. returned with Peter-^
head^>. }
Aberd.
*
Burnhouse, v. returned with Beith p.
Ayr.
Burns, v. in Milton of Balgonie, q. s. p.
Fife,
28
Burntisland, p. and b.

373
3,158
Bnrra and Quarff, p.
Ork. & Sh. 318
1,812
Burray, i. in North Ronaldshay p.

99
559
Burreltown, v.
Perth,
126
485
Busby (part of), v.
Lanark,
24
160
Busby (part of), v.
Renf.
38
742
Bushyhill, v.
Lanark,
53
393
Bute Coumty,
2,335
16,608
Bute Isle,
1,142
10,661
Bute, North, p. with Inchmarnock, i.
Bute,
139
1,025
Buttergask, v.
Perth,
65
Byth, New, q. s. p.
Aberd.
310
1,369
c.
Cabrach (part of), P-
Aberd.
70
350
Cabrach (part of), p.
Banff,
78
400
Cadder, p.
Lanark,
655
6,014
Cairnbeddie, v.
Perth,
9
44
Cairnbulg, v.
Aberd.
66
406
Cairney (part of),^).
Aberd.
293
1,505
Cairney (part of), p.
Banff,
9
60
Cairneyhill, v.
Fife,
107
516
Cairnryan, v.
Wigton,
38
196
Caithness-shies,
6,952
38,709
Calder, or Cawder (part of), p.
Inver.
39
161
Calder, or Cawder (part of) v.
Nairn,
216
1,041
Calder, v.

33
146
Calder Bank and Braes, v. In Old >
Monkland p. /
Lanark,
206
2,872
Calder, Mid, p.
Edin.
258
1,472
Calder, Mid, v.

104
560
Calder, East, p. annexed to Kirknew
ton p
Calder, West, p. and v.

379
2,120
Calf, i. included in Kilninian p.
Callender, p. and v.
Perth,
316
1,716
Calnadulach, v. returned with Muck-
&im p.
Calton, Middle, q. s. p.
Lanark,
1,478
7,185
Calton, Burgh of Barony,

21,211
Cambus, v.
Clmn.
64
287
Cambus, Old, or Cockburnspath,)
united p. j"
Berw.
224
1,196
Cambusbarron, v.
Stirling,
147
676
Cambuskenneth. See Abbey District
Cambuslang, p.
Lanark,
414
3,306
Cambusnethan, p. '

1,119
8,621
Cambusnethan-kirk, v.

91
485
Camelon, v.
Stirling,
233
1,340
Cameron, p.
Fife,
252
1,207
Camlachie, '/. s. p.
Lanark,
762
3,654
Campbelltown, v.
Inver.
199
716
Campbeltown, b.
Arg.
653
6,SS0
Campeltown, p.

1,041
9,381
Campmuir, v.
Forf.
14
45
Campsie, p.
Stirling,
668
6,918
Campsie, Clachan (part of), v.

28
138
Canisbay, p.
Caith.
488
2,437
Canna, i.
Arg.
45
240
Cannisburn, h.
Dumb.
9
33
Canon bie, p.
Dumf.
698
3,163
Canongate, p.
Edin.
378
10,801
Leith Wynd, q. s. p.

326
1.S68
New Street, q. 8. p.
 •
353
1,932
Caolvallock, v.
Perth,
12
50
Caputh, p.

414
2,037
Caputh, Wester,

49
178
Cara and Gigha, p.
Arg.
87
547
Cardross, p.
Dumb.
399
4,254
Cardross, h. ' t

11
51
Careston, p.
Forf.
50
207
Cargill, p.
Perth,
351
1,629
Carlaverock, p.
Dumf.
263
1,418
Carlops, v.
PeebL
38
153
Carluke, p.
Lanark,
919
6,283
Carluke, v.

355
2,845
Carmichael, p.

158
80S
Carmunnock, p. and v.

120
710
Carmyle, v.

41
238
Carmylie, p.
Forf.
257
1,240
Carnbee, p.
Fife,
247
1,129
Carniehill, v.
Perth,
29
133
Carnock, or Strathconan (pt. of), q. s. p. Ross & Cro. 64
294
Carnock, p.
Fife,
609
3,191
CAR

CRA

Names of Places.

County.

INHAB.
Houses

Pop.

Carnock, v.

Fife,

43

184

Carnoustie, q. s. p.

Forf.

322

1,268

Carnwath, p. and v.

Lanark,

693

3,551

Caroline-Place, v

Perth,

21

99

Carrick District,

Ayr,

4,575

31,302

Carriden, p.

Linl.

224

1,724

Carrington (or Primrose), p. and v.

Edin.

125

710

Carron, West, v.

Stirling,

79

400

Carronbridge. See Durrisdeer and

Morton.

Carronshore, v.

838
Carseburn, v.
Forf.
105
Carsethorn, v.
Kirkc.
44
157
Carsphairn, p. and v.

141
855
Carstairs, p. and v.
Lanark,
197
1,066
Cartland, v.

112
Cartsdyke,^. s. p.
Renf.
683
3,651
Castle-Douglas, Burgh of Barony,
Kirkc.
326
1.992
Castleton, p.
Roxb.
352
2,130
Castleton, New, v.

182
1,030
Castletown, r.
Aberd.
124
Castletown, v.
Caith.
110
477
Cathcart (part of), p.
Lanark,
27
182
Cathcart (part of), p.
Renf.
307
2,734
Cathcart, New, v.

32
280
Cathcart, Old, v.

42
174
Catrine, q. s. p.
Ayr,
564
2,659
Catterline, v.
Kine.
15
79
Cauldhame, v.
Perth,
19
70
Causeyside, v.
Clmn. & Stirl.
309
Causeyside, v. a continuation of Toll-)
cross v. J
Lanark,
75
367
Cava, i.
Ork. 4; Sh. 4
24
Cavers, p.
Roxb.
228
1,495
Caverton, v.

9
50 .
Ceres, p. and v.
Fife,
614
2,833
Ceres. See Bridgend.
Cessford, v.
Roxb.
28
160
Chalmers, q. s. p.
Lanark,
728
3,608
Chance Inn, v
Fife,
26
132
Channelkirk, p.
Berw.
134
728
Chapel, v.
Fife.
30
159
Chapel of Garioch, or Logie Durno, p.
Aberd
399
2,102
Chapelhall, v.
Lanark,
1,481
Chapelhill, v.
Perth,
18
77
Chapelton, v.
Kirkc.
6
31
Chapelton, v.
Lanark,
41
367
Chapelton. See Glasford p.
Charleston, v. included in the return
for Pitsligo.
Charleston, v.
Forf.
70
348
Charlestown, Burgh of Barony,
Aberd.
38
187
Charlestown, v.
Fife,
158
772
Charlestown, v.
Ross & Cro. 17
87
Charlestown, v. in the parish of Aberlour, Banff,
84
328
Cherrybank. See Bank, Cherry.
Chesterhill and Sauchenside, v.
Edin.
61
2.84
Chesters, v.
Roxb.
18
82
Chirnside, p.
Berw.
244
1,384
Christ's Kirk and Kinnethmont, p.
Aberd
235
1,108
Chryston, q, s. p. including the vil-"l
lages of Chryston, MoUensburn, >
Lanark,
454
2,670
Moodiesburn, and Muirhead, )
Church, East, p.
Perth,
867
8,511
Church, East, q. s. p. See Easter.
Dumb.
Church, High, q. s. p. in town of)
Airdrie, j
Lanark.
378
1,988
Church, High, q. s. p. 4
Ayr,
746
3,237
Church, High, or St Giles, p.
Edin.
144
3,319
Church, High, p. including Martyrs,)
q. s. p. ,
Renf.
3,210
14,798
Church, Low, p. including part of)
South ,/. s. p. )
Renf.
1.531
7,080
Church, Middle, p. in city of Perth,
Perth,
332
4,933
Church, Middle, p. including North)
q. s. p. in Paisley, j"
Renf.
2,083
10,363
Church, New, q. s. p. in Stewarton p.
Ayr,
151
1,396
Church, New, p. in town of Dumfries,
Dumf.
774
3,894
Church, New North, p. in city of)
Edinburgh, )
Edin.
74
3,279
Church, Old, or St Michael p
Dumf.
• 657
3,691
Church, St. Paul's, p. in city of Perth,
Perth,
253
3,090
Church, Tolbooth, p. in city of Edin-)
burgh, ,
Church, Tron, p. in city of Edinburgh
Edin.
48
2,321
, Edin.
90
3,602
Church, West, p. in city of Perth,)
exclusive of St Leonard's q. s. p. j"
Perth,
445
6,619
Church, West, q. s. p. in Crieff,
Perth,
334
2,177
Clachan, v.
Stirling,
39
191
Clackmannan, p. and v.
Clmn.
871
5,802
Clackmannanshire,
2,950
22,951
Clacknaharry, v.
Inver.
56
260
Clairtown, St v. partly included in)
return for Dysart, and partly in>
Fife,
1,511
that for Pathheod q. s. p. )
Names of Placks.
County.
INHAB
Houses
Pop
Clarebrand, v.
Kirkc.
15
54
Clarencefield, v.
Dumf.
14
86
Clarkston, q. s. p.
Lanark,
778
4,526
Clarkston, v.
Renf.
14
180
Clashnessie, v.
Suthld.
194
Clathy, «.
Perth,
31
120
Clatt, p.
Aberd.
90
543
Clauchan, St John, v.
Kirkc.
149
676
Claybarns, v.
Edin.
44
187
Clayhouse, v.

19
84
Cleish, p.
Kinr.
143
6.59
Clement, St., q. 8. p.
Aberd.
254
4,097
Cleughbrae, h.
Dumf.
14
53
Clifton, v.
Perth,
159
Closeburn, p. and V.
Dumf.
286
1,732
Dlova and Cortachy, p.
Forf.
152
722
Clunie, p.
Perth,
141
723
Cluny, p.
\ Aberd.
219
1,149
Clyne, p.
Suthld.
410
1,933
Coalsnaughton, v
Clmn.
97
691
Coalton, v.
Fife,
25
84
Coaltown. See Balgonie.
Coaltown, East v.

33
165
Coaltown, West, v.

73
372
Coalyland, or Collyland, v.
Clmn.
53
234
Coatbridge, *.
Lanark,
955
8,564
Coatdyke, v. in Gartsherry q. s. p.

459
Coats, East, v.

29
140
Coats, West, v.

29
146
Cockenzie, q. 8. p.
Hadd.
1,061
Cockpen, p.
Edin.
541
3,228
Coldingham, p.
Berw.
608
3,188
Coldstone, Logie, or Logie Coldstone,
Aberd.
179
889
Coldstream, p.
Berw.
608
3,188
Coldstream, New, v.

150
Colinsburgh, v.
Fife,
96
482
Colinton, p. and v.
Edin.
420
2,676
Colipole, or Colipool, v. included in the
return for Kilbrandon.
Coll, and Tyry, or Tyree, p. and i
Arg.
928
4,818
Collace, p. and v.
Perth,
133
581
College, p. See Blackfriars.
College Church, Trinity, p.
Edin.
00
3,156
College of Roseisle, h .
Elgin,
14
53
Collessie, p. and v.
Fife,
308
1,520
Collieston, v.
Aberd.
83
357
Collin, v.
Dumf.
72
283
Collistonmill, h.
Forf.
15
61
Collochbum, «.
Lanark,
25
166
Collonsay and Jura. See Jura.
Collyland. See Coalyland.
Colmonell, p.
Ayr,
462
2,934
Coltfield, h. in parish of Alves,
Elgin,
11
42
Colvend and Southwick, p.
Kirkc.
284
1,398
Combs, St, v.
Aberd.
66
305
Comely Bank. See Bank, Comely.
Comrie, p. and v.
Perth,
416
2,463
Conanbridge, v.
Ross & Cro. 32
342
Condorat, v.
Dumb.
118.
709
Connage, or Fishertown in Pettier.
Inver.
97
Contin, p.
Ross & Ci
0.331
1,562
Copinshay, i.
Ork. & Sh. 1
11
Corncairn. See Ordiquhill.
Corrie, v.
Bute
41
222
Corrie and Hutton, p.
Dumf.
144
836
Corsock, v.
Kirkc.
10
38
Corstorphine, p. and v.
Edin.
256
1,499
Cortachy. See Clova.
Cot Town, v.
Perth,
17
62
Cottack, v.
Dumf.
55
252
Cotton of Lownie, v.
Forf.
24
100
Coull, p.
Aberd.
146
734
Country, District of Cumbray Island
Bute,
17
152
Cove, v.
Kine.
91
421
Covington and Thankerton, p.
Lanark,
114
548
Cowal District,
Arg.
1,526
8,936
Cowpits, v.
Edin.
25
116
Cowsland, v.

46
226
Coylton, p.
Ayr,
251
1,542
Cragganester, v.
Perth,
23
Craggantoul, v.
— : 
20
Craichie, v.
Forf.
17
70
Craig, p.

295
1,934
Craig-of-Maderty. See Madcrty.
Craigdallie, v.
Perth,
14
52
Craigend, v.

10
47
Craigend. See Crosshill.
Craighall, v.
Ayr,
19
100
Craighall, v.
Edin.
98
501
Craighall, New, v.

55
336
Craigie. See Barnwoill.
Craigie, v.
Linl.
18
75
Craigie, e. in Caputh,
Perth,
15
67
Craigie, v. in East Church p.
55
219
Craigielands, h.
Dumf.
12
84
CRA

DRA

Names of Places.
Craigraill, v.
Craignish, p.
Craigs, v.
Craigrothie, v.
Craigs, Blebo. See Blebo Craigs.
Craighton, v.
Craighton Field, v.
Crail, b.
Crail, p. and 6
Crailing, p. and o.
Cramond, p. and v. (part ol"),
Cramond, p. (part of),
Cranshaws, p.
Cranston, p.
Crathie. See Braemar.
Crawford, p. and v.
Crawfordjohn, p.
Crawfordjohn, v.
Crawickbridge, v.
Crawickmill, v.
Crawton, v.
Creebridge. v.
Creech of Criech, p.
Creetown, Burgh of Barony,
Creich, p.
Crichton, p. and v.
Criech. See Creech.
Crieff, p.
Crimond. p.
Crocketford, v. in Kirkpatricfc-Dur-)
ham, p. J
Crocketford, r. in Urr p.
Croftdyke, «. included in Ceres p.
Crofthead, v.
Croich, q. s. p. included in Kincardine
Crolin i. in Applecross p.
Cromarty, t and p.
Cromarty and Ross-shire.
Crombie Point, v.
Cromdale (part of) p.
Cromdale, (part of) p.
Cromwell Park, v.
Crook, A. in Alves p.
Crook of Devon, to. in Fossoway p.
Cross, p. See Burness.
Cross, or Ness, q. s. p.
Cross- Arthurlee, o.
Crossford, v.
Crossford, v.
Crossgates, to. partly in Dalgetty p.\
partly in Dunfermline, )
Crosshill, v.
CrosshilL q. s. p.
Crosshill, to.
Crosshouse, v.
Crosslee, v. in Houston & Killallan p.
Crossmichael, p.
CrossmilL v.
Crossmyloof, v,
Crovie, v.
Croy (part of), P-
Croy (part of), p.
Cruden, or Invercruden, p.
Cuffabouts, v.
Culbokie, v. in Urquhart p.
Culcaboch, o.
Cullen. b. and p.
Culloden, Smithtown of, v.
Culross, b and j?.
Culsalmond, p.
Culter, p. and v.
Cults, p.
Cults MUI, h.
Cumbernauld, p. inclusive of Con-)
dorat, v. )
Cumbray, Great, i. and p.
Cumbray, Little, i.
Cuminestown, v. in Monquhitter^t.
Cummertrees, p. and v.
Cummingston, v.
Cumnock, New, p.
Cumnock, Old, p.
Cunningham District,
Cunningsburgh and Sandwich, q. s. p.
Cupar, b. and p.
Cupar-Angus. See Angus Cupar,
Cupar-Angus. See Angus Cupar,
Cupar District,
Currie, p.
Currie, v.
Cusbnie and Leochel, p.
Cushnie. See CoulL
Cuthbert, St,i>.
Cuthill, v. suburb of Prestonpans,
Cyrus, St , or Ecclescraig, p. and v.

County. Clmn.Arg.Fort
Fife, Forf.
Dumb. Fife,
Roxb. Edin.Linl.
Berw.Edin.Lanark,

Dumf.

Inhab. d 
Houses Pop'
19 78
144 756
65 359
74 308

3810
261
397 135
334 1921
214
354185 42

Kine Kirkc.
Suthld.Kirkc 169
Fife, 86
Edin. 285

19
58
580

Perth,
Aberd.Kirkc

Fife,
Renf

662173

Ross & Cro. 8
Ross & Cro. 495
15,941

Fife,
Elgin,
Inver.
Perth,Elgin,Kiur.

14
109647 16
1817
348

Ross,Renf.
Fife, 103
Lanark, H5

Fife,
Ayr,Lanark, Renf. Ayr,Renf.
Kirkc. Renf.Banff,Inver.
Nairn,Aberd.LinL Ross &
Inver. -
Banff,
Inver.Perth,Aberd.
Lanark, Fife,Dumb.Bute,

140
169
485

250 62
39
232
155
484 5

Cro.

18
270184 104173 9
478 183 2
137

53

Aberd. Dumf.Elgin, Ayr, 493
 590
 9,524
Orlc&Sh. 407
Fife, 1,090
Forf. Perth.Fife,
Edin.

Aberd.

6,331 401 70
189

Edin. 4,802
Hadd. 43
Kine 369

162 69
1,221
1,903 734
2,444 103127
1,2351,670
1,111 137 71
144 77
260
2,714 1,303 386
1,3874,504 893 117
122
129297316 40
2,727
82,707 54
562
3,428 124 7361
1,810 663
443431 646
1,163
2,691 63
255711
1,362 265
587 164
1,058 719
2,479 16
107279
1,853 64
1,487 1,042 472 915 46
3,778 1,275 9
477
1,386 155
2,7593,777
86,272 2,1677,427

34,430 2,190 297
1,068
82,479 172
1,579

Names of Places.

D.

Dailly, p.
Dailly, New, o.
Dairsie, p.
Dairsle Muir, or Osnaburgh, v.
Dalarossie and Moy (part of), p.
Dalarossie and Moy (part of), p.
Dalavick. See Kilchrenan.
Dalbeattie, v.
Dalgarvan, v. included in Kilwinning,
Dalgety, p.
Dalginross, v.
Dalhousie, v.
Dalintober, v. in Campbeltown p.
Dalkeith, t. and p.
Dallas, p. and v.
DalmeUington, p. and 6. of barony.
Dalmeny, p.
Dalmeny, v.
Dalmuir, v.
Dalmuir-shore, v.
Dalrey, or Dairy, p.
Dairy, p.
Dalrymple, p. t
Dalserf, p. and u
Dalsholm, v.
Dalswinton, v.
Dalton, p. and v.
Dalvault, v.
Dalziel, p.
Damhead, or Jametson, t.
Damhead, New (part of), t.
Damhead (part of), v.
Damhead (part ol), v. ,
Daneshalt, or Dunshelt, vf
Dargie, v.
Darlingshaugfa, v.
Darnick, v.
Darvel, v.
David's, St, q. s. p.
David's, St, q. s. p.
David's, St., v.
David's, St, or North West, p.
Davidson's Mains, v.
Daviot, p.
Daviot, and Dunliehity (part of), p.
Daviot, and Dunliehity (part of), p.
Dean, q. s. p.
Dean, v.
Deanburnhaugh, (part of), v.
Deanburnhaugh (part of), v.
Deanston, q. s. p.
Deanston, v.
Dee Bridge. See Bridge-of-Dee.
Deer, or Buchan District,
Deer, New, p.
Deer, Old (part of), p.
Deer, Old (part of), p.
Deerness, p.
Delting, p.
Denholm, v. in Cavers, p.
Denino, or Dunino, p.
Denny, t. and p.
Denovan, v.
Deskford, p.
Devenick Banchory. See Banchory
Devenick.
Devon, Crook of. See Crook.
Devonside, v.
Dewartown, v.
Dighty-Strath, or Mains, p.
Dingwall, b. and j?.
Dinwoodie returned with Applegarth,p.
Dirleton, p. and v.
District Abbey. See Abbey District.
Dollar, t. and p.
Dollas. See Dallas.
Dolphingston, v.
Dolphinton, p.
Dores, p. and v.
Dornie. See Bundaloch.
Dornoch, o. and p.
Dornock, p. and v.
Douglas, t. and p.
Douglas Castle. See Castle Douglas.
Douglaston, v.
Doune, v.
Doura, v. returned with Kilwinning p.
Dovecotland, v.
Dovehill, v.
Dowally, p.
Downies, v.
Drainie, /'.

Ayr,

390

2,413 691

Fife,

160

708



55

205

Inver.

205

1,005

Nairn.

2

13

Kirkc.

298

1,480

Ayr,

107

Fife,

245

1,513

Perth,

59

317

Edin.

22

99

Arg.

397

1,762

Edin,

703

6,521

Elgin,

217

1,226

Ayr,

424

2,910

Linl.

207

1,243



21

118

Dumb.

89

526



27

187

Ayr,

1,040

8,865

Kirkc.

215

1,238

Ayr,

177

1,096

Lanark,

577

3,583

Dumb.

22

111

Dumf.

16

94



135

761

Dumb.

17

71

Lanark,

309

2 262

Dumb.

64

314

Fife,

17

56

Kinr,

5

24

Perth,

14

58

Fife,

155

646

Perth,

9

32

Roxb.

1,116



64

280

Ayr,

304

1,362

Dumb.

599

8,414

Edin.

634

2,913

Fife,

82

155

Lanark,

476

10,545

Edin.

50

470

Aberd.

107

601

Inver.

341

1,674

Nairn,

41

183

Edin.

381

2,262

Roxb.

27

129



6

19

Selk.

17

67

Perth,

127

486



982

Aberd. ¦

6,975

38,943



767

3,973



903

4,146

Banff,

139

597

0rk.4Sh

331

1,712



375

2,124

Roxb.

163

696

Fife,

59

289

Stirling,

635

4,754



16

104

Banff,

189

917

Clmn.

18

170

Edin.

42

193

Fort

235

1,299

Ross&Cro

. 395

2,364

Dumf.

Hadd.
317
1,634
Clmn.
255
1,574
Hadd.
11
63
Lanark,
49
305
Inver.
318
1,650
Suthld.
594
2,981
Dumf.
174
936
Lanark,
399
2,611
Forf.
20
81
Perth,
204
1,559
Ayr,
320
Perth,
134
502
Renf.
131
Perth,
122
558
Kine
21
122
Elgin,
336
1,856
DRA

ESS

Names of Places.
Drainie, v.
Dreghorn, p.
Dron, p.
Dronley, v. in Auchterhouse p.
Drumblade, p.
Drumeldrie Muir, v. in Newburn p.
Drumelzier, p. and v.
Drumglay, u
Drumlemble, v. iu Campbeltown p.
Drnmlithie, v.
Drummetermont, v.
Drummond, v. in Kil team p.
Drumoak (part of), p.
Dm m oak (part oi"), ]>¦
Drumochy, v.
Drumore, v.
Drums, v.
Drumsturdymuir, v.
Drumvaich, v.
Dryfesdale, p.
Drymen, p.
Drymen, ».
Dubbieside, or Inverieven
Markinch p.
Duddingston, p.
Duddingston, Easter, v.
Duddingston, Wester, v.
Duddingston Mill, h. included in return
for the parish.
Dufftown, v.
Duffus, p.
Duffus, New, v.
Dull, p.
Dull, v.
Dumbarton, 6. and p.
DUMBARTONSHIRE,
Dumbuck, v.
Dumfries, b. including part of St.")
Michael p. New Church p. and >•
part of St. Mary q. s. p. )
Dumfries, landward p. including!
part of St Michael p., George
town v., part of Kelton v., Loch- \
arbriggs v. Loch thorn v. and part j
of St Mary q. s. p.

in}

County.

Inhab.
Houses

Pop.

Elgin,

6

16

Avr,

282

1,828

Perth,

84

394

Forf.

21

103

Aberd.

167

949

Fife,

20

82

Peebl.

40

244

Forf.

16

66

Arg.

82

462

Kine.

113

397

Forf.

28

117

Ross & Cro. 15

72

Aberd.

139

759

Kine.

41

189

Fife,

22

156

Wigton,

71

279

Perth,

15

73

Forf.

33

176

Perth,

12

49

Dumf.

425

2,409

Stirling,

261

1,481



86

344

Fife,

85

348

Edin.

755

4,401

 ,

39

163



39

167

Banff,

137

770

Elgin,

615

2,983



54

159

Perth,

670

3,342



44

145

Dumb.

302

4,766

4,792

45,103

Dumb.

20

126

Dumf. 1,373 11,107

Duufeles-shibe.

13,300

78,123

Dun, p.

Forf.

140

737

Dunbar, b.

Hadd.

394

2.965

Dunbar, p.



676

4.415

Dunbarney, p.

Perth,

203

1,066

Dunbeath, v. included in return for)
Latheron, p. j

Caith.

40

Dunblane, v. and p.

Perth,

516

3.213

Dunbog, p.

Fife,

47

220

Duncansby, in Canisby p.

Caith.

302
Duncow, v.
Dumf.
25
121
Duncrivie, v.
Kiur.
25
106
Dundas, Port See Port Dundas.
Dundee, b.
Forf.
3.548
61,449
Dundee, p.

3,723
62,545
Dundonald, p.
Ayr,
796
7,299
Dundrennan, v.
Kirkc.
47
202
Dundyvan, v.
Lanark,
169
1,298
Dundyvan, New, v.

376
2,204
Dunfermline, Burgh of,
Fife,
883
8,577
Dunfermline, p.

2.864
21,687
Dunfermline District,

5,177
35,220
Dunino. See Denino. »
Dunipace, p.
Stirling,
208
1,472
Dunkeld City,
Perth,
112
1.104
Dunkeld, Little, p.
— —
497
2,155
Dunlichty. See Daviot
Dunlop (part of), p.
Ayr,
181
1.041
Dunlop (part of), p.
Renf
10
74
Dunmore, v.
Stirling,
36
153
Dunnet, p.
Caith.
387
1,868
Dunnichen, p.
Forf.
416
1,884
Dunnichen, v.

14
54
Dunning, p.
Perth,
329
2,206
Dunning, v.

166
1,068
Dunnottar, p.
Kine.
318
1,949
Dunoon and Kilmun, p
Arg.
719
4.518
Dunreggan, v.
Dumf.
58
277
Dunrossness, p.
Ork.ASh. 795
4,505
Dunscore, p.
Dumf.
282
1.678
Dunse, p.
Berw.
448
1,939
Dunshelt. See Daneshalt.
Duns y re, p. and v.
Lanark,
50
312
Duntocher, t.
Dumb.
183
2.446
Durham- Kirkpatrick, p.
Kirkc
276
1,508
Durham-Kirkpatrick, v.

141
500
Durinish, p.
Inver.
1,051
5,330
Durisdeer, p.
Dumf.
292
1,795
Durisdeer, v.

27
107
Durness, p.
Suthld.
205
1,162
Names of Places.
Durno. See Logie-Durao.
Durdr, q. s. p. in Appin,
Durris, p.
Duthel (part of), p.
Duthel (part of), p.
Dyce. p
Dyke and Moy (part of).
Dyke, v.
Dyke and Moy (part of), p.
Dysart, b. and p.
Eaglesham, p. and v.
Earlsferry, b.
Earn. See Bridge-of-Earn,
Easdale, i.
Easie and Nevay, p. •
East, p.
East, q. s. p. in Brechin p.
East q- s. p. in Inverness p.
East, q. s.p. in Peterhead p.
East, q. s. p. included in Alloa p.
East, q. s. p. in Airdrie,
East See High, Outer.
East, p.
East p.
East (landward part of), P-
East Calder. See Calder, East
East Church. See Church East,
East Church. See Church East,
Eastbarns, v.
Easter Fernie, v."
Eastern, District of Tyree,
Easthaven, v.
Easthouses, v.
Eastwood, or Pollock, p.
Eccles, p.
Ecclescraig. See Cyrus, St
Ecclesfechan, v.
Ecdesmachan, p,
Ecdesmachan, v.
Echt P-
Eckford, p.
Eckford, v.
Eckfordmoss. v.
' Eday and Pharay, p.
Eday, i. included, in above,
Edderton, p.
Eddlestone, p. and v.
Eddrachillis, p.
Edenkillie, p.
Edin ton, v.
Edinburgh City, exclusive of suburbs,
Edinburgh, including Canongate,)
and St. Cuthbert's parishes, j
Edikb n rgh-shikje,
Edinville, h.
Edmonstone, v.
Ednam, p. and v.
Edrom, p.
Edward, King, p.
Edzell (part of), p.
Edzell fpart of), p.
Egilshay, i.
Eigg, *.
Eildon, v.
Elderslie, v.
Eldrig, v.
Elgin, b. and p.
Elgin1 or Morayshihr,
Elie, p. and b.
Ellen, Port. See Port Ellen.
Ellenabiach, v.
Ellim and Longformacus, p.
Ellon, p.
Ellon District,
Ellsrickle, v.
Elonsay. See Collonsay.
Elphinstone, v.
Engine, New, v.
Engine, Old, v.
Engine. See Sheriffhall and Stobhill.
Enh allow, i,
Enoch, St p.
Ensay, i.
Enzie (part of), q. $. p.
Eriskay, j.
Errol, p.
Errol Mains, v.
Erskine, p.
Esk, North, or North Esk, q. s, p.
Eskdalemuir, p.
Essie and Rhynie, p.
County
Inhab. p
Houses. roP'
Arg.
308
1,692
Kine.
176
962
Elgin,
290
1,408
Inver.
127
521
Aberd.
86
470
Elgin,
285
1,364

41
166
Nairn,
1
5
Fife,
1,192
8,739
Dumf.
98
456
Renf.
254
2,524
Fife,
89
436
Arg.
112
571
Forf.
141
706
Aberd.
411
5,182
Forf.
1,379
Inver.
2,107
Aberd.
188
1,173
Lanark,
445
2,556
Ork.&Sh. 116
588
Renf.
350
7,704

51
539
Dumb.
Perth.
Hadd.
25
125
Fife,
13
44
Arg.
216
1,149
Forf.
38
145
Edin.
91
420
Renf.
622
9,243
Berw.
381
1,892
Dumf.
140
768
Linl.
59
289

19
97
Aberd.
220
1,206
Roxb.
205
1,073

25
98

11
48
Ork. & SI
. 417
2,227
 *
177
947
Ross & Cro. 198
890
PeebL
130
790
Suthld.
257
1,576
Elgin,
280
1,343
Fife,
9
45
Edin.
2,789
66,734

7,786
160,302
20,946
259,435
Elgin,
5
17
Edin.
30
143
Roxb.
123
658
Berw.
271
1,474
Aberd.
534
2,749
Forf.
206
1,006
Kine
14
78
Ork. &, Sh. 27
192
Inver.
75
. 461
Roxb.
14
56
Renf.
73
1,086
Wigton,
37
217.
Elgin,
1,285
7,277
7,642
38,959
Fife,
188
843
Arg.
64
311
Berw.
78
411
Aberd.
610
3,324

2,869
15,376
Lanark,
48
211
Hadd.
56
236
Edin.
9
51

12
49
Ork. & Sh. 3
24
Lanark,
323
8,084
Inver.
3
14
Banff,
83
400
Inver.
76
405
Perth.
551
2,796

12
62
Renf.
152
1,232
Edin.
3,414
Dumf.
116
672
Aberd.
196
1,017
ETT

GLE

Names of Places.
Etterick, or Ettrick, p.
Ettrick Bridge, v.
Evanton, v.
Evie, p.
Ewe, «. returned with Poolewe,
Ewes, p.
Eyemouth, p.

County.

I^hab.
Houses.
Selk. 85
 26
Ross & Cro. 80
Orlc&Sh. 189
Ross & Cro.
Dumf. 69
Berw. 188

Faifley, v. included in Duntocher q.s. p.
Fair, i.
Fairlie, q. s. p.
Fala, p. and tt
Fala Hill Inn, h. returned with
Heriot p.
Faladam (part of), tt in Crichton p.
Faladam (part of), tt in Falai>.
Falkirk, b. and p.
Falkland, 6. and p.
Falkland, Newton of, v.
Fankerton, tt in Denny p.
Fans, v.
Farnell, p.
Farr, p.
Faskine, tt
Fearn, p.
Fearn, p.
Fenton. v.
Fenwick, p. including Upper Fen-)
wick v. and Kirktown v. )
Fenwick, Upper, tt
Fergus, St p.
Furgushill, v. returned with Kilwin-)
ningp. j
Fernie. Easter. See Easter Fernie.
Femigair. tt included in Hamilton p.
Ferry-Port-on-Craig, p. and tt
Ferryden, v.
Fetlar, i
Fetterangus. See Deer.
Fettercairn, p. and tt,
Fetteresso, p.
Field Craighton. See Craighton Field.
Fifeshire,Fife Keith. See Keith.
Fillan's, St, tt
Findhorn, tt
Findochty, v.
Findogask, p.
Findon, tt
Finnieston, to. in Barony p.
Finnyfold, tt in Cruden p.
Fintray, p.
Fintry, p.
Fintry Clachan (part of), tt
Firth, p.
Fladda, i. in Barra p.,
Fladda, i in Portree p.
Ftawcraig, tt
Fleet, Gatehouse of, 0.
Fleming, Kirkpatrick. See Kirkpa
trick Fleming.
Flisk, p.
Flodda, i.
Flotta, i
Fochabers, v.
Fodderty, p.
Fogo, p.
Forbes and Tullynessle, p.
Ford of Pitcur, tt
Fordel Square, tt
Fordoun, p.
Fordoun, Kirktown of, tt
Fordyce, p.
Forfar, 6. and p.
FOKFAKSHTKE,Forgan, p.
Forgandenny, (part of), P-
Forgandenny, (part of), p.
Forgandenny, tt
Forglen, p.
Forgue, p.
Forres, 6. and p.
Fort-Augustus. See Augustus, Fort.
Fort- WUliam, v.
Forteviot, p. and v.
Forth, «. in Carnwath p.
Fortingall, p.
Fortrose, b.
Forvie and Slains, p.
Foss (part of). See Dull.
Foss (part of), q. s. p.
Fossoway and TuUiebole (part of), p.
Fossoway and TuUiebole (part of), p.

Dumb. Ork. & Sh. 41
Ayr, 93
Edin. 90

 11
 11
Stirling, 2,027

607 59 17
28
114406 7483

Fife,
Stirling,
Berw.Forf. Suthld.
Lanark,Forf. Ross Sc Cro. 466
Hadd. 44
Ayr, 265
Banff, 316
Ayr,Lanark,
Fife, 364
Forf. 203
Ork &Sh. 125
Kine 362
 1,022

Perth,Elgin, Banff,Perth,KineLanark, Aberd.
Stirling,

Fife,
Inver.Ork.&Elgin,
RossiBerw. Aberd.
Forf. Fife,Kine. Banff,
Forf. Fife,
Kinr. Perth,
Banff,
Aberd.Elgin,

Pop. 477108462857 24
354
1,488

321280521
434

3727
16,438 3,102 236 68
153650
2,203 408 392
2,122 201
1,741 355
1,597 279 74
2,238
. 921658
1,741 6,720

24,610 153,546

41
193 81 89
42

191 90

Ork. ASh. 160
Inver.  8
Perth, 9
Kirkc. 177

4S 8
Sh. 81
261
Cro. 483 107158 1126
478 10
770
1,346
22,446 242 3
172 23
130
508
834

 187
Perth, 122
Lanark,Perth, 496
Ross A Cro. 228
Aberd. 245
Perth.  1
 190
Kinr. 157

172806
414 405190
2,096 107
1,080 823 53
602 47 44
1,325

213 44
389
1,135
2,842 604930 45
157
2,386 34
3,807
11.009
191,264 1,125 17
811 66
695
2,626
4,069 1,026 638
357
2,4861,148 1,232 11
931690

Names of Places.

County.

Irhab. p
Houses. rop'

Foula, i.

Ork.6;Shr4ir

240

Foulden, p.

Berw.

82

430

Fountainhall. See Stow.

Foveran, p.

Aberd.

309

1,638

Fowlis and Lundie (part of), p.

Forf.

93

450

Fowlis and Lundie (part of), p.

Perth,

53

300

Fowlis, v.



9

46

Fowlis- Wester, p.

 ,

283

1,483

Fraserburgh, p.

Aberd.

642

4,447

Freswick, tt in Canisbyp.

Caith.

414
Friars, Grey. See Grey Friars.
Friarton, v
Perth,
8
62
Friockheim, q. s. p.
Forf.
1,443
Friockheim, v.

805
Fruchie, tt
Fife,
177
713
Fuday, £
Inver.
Fullarton, q. s. p.
Ayr,
712
3,103
Fungarth, tt
Perth,
17
76
Fyvie, p.
Aberd.
733
3,927
G.
Gadgirth holm. See Bankfoot, Ayr.
Gairloch, p.
Ross & Cro. 947
5,162
Gairsay, £ in Hendallp.
Ork. <fc Sh. 7
' 41
Galashiels (part of), p.
Roxb.
33
182
Galashiels (part of), p.
Selk.
322
2,832
Galashiels, b. of barony,

562
5,918
Galdry, tt in Balmerino p.
Fife,
71
355
Gallatown, v.

255
1,436
Galloway, New, b.
Kirkc.
88
447
Gallowlaw, tt
Forf.
22
79"
Galston, p.
Ayr,
505
4,892
Gamrie, p.
Banff,
1,005
5,285
Gardenstown, tt

96
348
Garden Spring. See Spring Garden.
Garelochhead, tt in Row p.
Dumb.
32
217
Gargunnock, p. and tt
Stirling,
145
754
Garioch, Chapel of. See Chapel of
Garioch.
Garioch District,
Aberd.
3,327
18,147
Garliestown, tt
Wigton,
159
656
Garmond, v. in Monquhitter p.
Aberd.
66
226
Garmouth, tt
Elgin,
131
604
Gartly (part of), p.
Aberd.
106
546
Gartly (part of), p.
Banff,
85
444
Gartmore, q. s. p.
Perth.
89
347
Gartsherrie, q. 8. p.
Lanark,
989
5,906
Gartwhinean, Easter, tt
Perth,
27
96
Gartwhinean, Wester, tt

15
49
Garvald, p. and tt
Hadd.
161
869
Garvock, p.
Kine
79
457
Gask, Trinity, p.
Perth,
124
597
Gasstown, tt in St Mary q. -8. p.
Dumf.
162
Gatehouse of Fleet. See Fleet Gate
house.
Gateside, tt returned with Beith p.
Ayr,
270
Gateside, v. in Kirkgunzeon p.
Kirkc.
6
23
Gateside, tt
Renf.
41
673
Gattonside, tt
Roxb.
61
252
Gavinton, tt Langton p.
Berw.
, 68
206
Geilstone Bridge, h.
Dumb.
25
133
Gelston, tt
Kirkc
32
146
George's, St., p.
Edin.
549
9,255
George's, St., or WeBt, p.
Lanark,
916
25,972
George's, St, in the Fields, q. s. p.

951
4,746
Georgetown, v. on landward part of)
St. Michael's j). ,
Dnmf.
32
154
Gibbiestown, tt
Perth,
5
14
Gifford, or Yester, p.
Hadd.
211
1,202
Gifford. tt

118
525
Giffordton, tt
Fife,
17
71
Gigha and Cara, p. See Cara.
Gilcomston, q. s. p.
Aberd.
517
5,194
Giles, St or High Church, p.
Edin.
144
3,319
Gills, included in Canisby p.
Caith.
164
Gilmerton, q. s. p.
Edin.
215
942
Gilmerton, tt
Perth,
63
203
Gilston, New, tt
Fife,
51
229
Girthon, p.
Kirkc
259
1,787
Girvan, p.
Ayr,
1,187
8,588
Glack, v.
Perth,
8
36
Gladney, v.
Fife,
45
195
Gladsmuir, p.
Hadd.
356
1,780
Glammis, p.
Forf.
412
2,152
Glassford,p.Glasgow City, exclusive of the sub-)
urbs of Barony and Gorbals, )
Lanark,
306
1,955

5,091
148,116
Glasgow City, including suburbs,

11,965
329,097
Glasgow, Port. See Port Glasgow.
Glass (part of), p.
Aberd.
118
620
Glass (part of), p.
Banff,
73
352
Glassary. See KilmichaeL
Glasserton, p.
.Wigton,
243
1,487
Glen, u. '
Stirling,
15
96
GLE

INN

Names of Places.
Glenary. See Inverary.
Glenbervie, p.
Glenbuck, v. returned with Muirkirk p.
Glenbucket, p.
Glencairn, p.
Glencaple Quay, v.
Glencross, p.
Glendovan, p.
Glenduckic, v. in Fliskj).
Glenelg, p.
Glengairn. See Glenmuick
Glenholm, p.
Glenisla, p.
Glenluce, or Luce, Old, p. and v.
Glenlyon, q.s^p.
Glenmorriston and Urquhart, p.
Glenmuick, Tulloch, and Glengairn,
Glenorchy, p.
Glenorchy, Lady, q. s. p.
Glenshiel, p.
Glentanner. See Aboyne.
Gogar, v.
Golspie, p.
Golspie, v.
Gonochan, v, in Fintry p.
Gorbals, q. s. p.
Gorbals Proper,
Gordon, p.
Gordon Port, v.
Gordon stown, v. in Auchteriess, p.
Gorebridge, v.
Gourock, q. s. p.
Gourock, v.
Govan (part of), p.
Govan, v.
Govan (part of), p.
Gowan, Bank. See Bank Gowan.
Gower Port. See Port Gower.
Gowkhall, v. Carnock p.
Gowkshill, v.
Grsemsay, £
Grahamstown, v. returned with)
Barrhead q. s. p. j
Graitney, or Gretna, p.
Grange, p.
Grange, v.
Grange, v.
Grange, Beil. See Beil Grange.
Grange of Lindons, v.
Grangemouth, q. s. p.
Grangepans, v.
Grantown. See Cromdale.
Grasshouses of Thornton, v.
Green Abbey. See Abbey Green.
Green Juniper. See Juniper Green.
Greenend, v.
Greengairs, v. in New Monkland p.
Greenhill, h.
Greenlaw, p.
Greenloaning, v. returned with Ar-)
doch q. st p. |
Greenock, p. including town,
Greenock, t.
Greenside, p.
Gretna. See Graitney.
Greyfriars, New, p. *
Greyfriars, Old, p.
Greyfriars, p.
Grimsay, i in Uist />.
Guildie, v.
Guildiemuir, v.
Guildtown, v.
Gulberwick See Lerwick.
Gullan, v. in Dirieton p.
Guthrie, p. H.
Haddington, b. and p.
Haddingtonshire,
Haggs, q. s, p.
Hailes Quarry, v.
Halbeath, v.
Halden, Mill of, v.
Halfmorton, p.
Haliburton, Ley of, v.
Halkirk, p. and v.
Hall, Appletree, See Appletree-Hall.
Halvera. i.
Hamilton, L and p.
Handa, i. in Eddracbillis p.
Hangingshaw, v,
Hardgate, v.
Hardgate, v. in Urr p.
Harray, p.

County.

Inhab
Houses

Pop.

Kine

261

1,239

Ayr,

237

Aberd.

114

542

Dumf.

398

1,980

— -

51

268

Edin.

169

1,060

Perth,

26

128

Fife,

13

53

Jnver.

468

2,470

Peebl.

51

252

Forf.

220

1,050

Wigton,

445

2,841

Perth,

113

570

Inver^,

675

3,280

Aberd.

422

1,984

Arg.

142

731

Edin.

295

1,656

Ross & Cro. 126

573

Edin.

8

32

Suthld.

279

1,529



105

491

Stirling,

12

44

Lanark,

1,921

60,749



10,200

Berw.

179

983

Banff,

457

Aberd.

98
Edin.
58
240
Renf.
222

2,169
Lanark,
1,082
11,950

296
3,131
Renf,
139
3,046
Suthld.
Fife,
34
196
Edin.
41
219
Ork. & Sh. 48
286
Renf.
706
Dumf.
355
1,830
Banff,
379
1,851
Fife,
20
84
Perth,
15
68
Fife,
34
166
Stirling,
348
1.722
Linl.
127
517
Forf.
Lanark,
79
502 184
Dumf.
22
89
Berw.
250
1,878
Perth,
58
Renf.
1,779
37,436

1,714
36,689
Edin.
134
3,566

94
8,642

109
3,276
Aberd.
430
6,654
Inver.
48
268
Forf.
18
83

20
75
Perth,
44
178
Hadd.
66
273
Forf.
86
469
Hadd.
823
5,525
6,444
86,386
Stirling,
356
1,905
Edin.
34
158
Fife,
101
461
Dumb.
27
147
Dumf.
121
687
Forf.
11
48
Caith.
567
2,981
Ork. & Sh.
37
Lanark,
1,316
11,740.
Suthld.
11
65
Renf.
7
143
Dumb.
467
Kirkc.
11
46
Ork. & Sh. 169 •
750
Names of Placbs.
Harris, p. (in Lewis island,)
Harthill, v.
Hascussay, i. in Mid Yell p.
Hassendean, v. in MJntoja.
Haugh, v. returned with Mauchline p.
Haugh, v.
Haugh-Head, or Head Haugh, v.
Haugh Mill, returned with Balgonie p.
Hawick, t. and p.
Hawick District,
Hawkstone, v.
Hazelbank, v.
Head Loan. See Loan Head.
Head Path. See Path-Head.
Heck, ft.
Heisker, i. in Uist p.
Heiton, v. in Roxburgh,
Helensburgh, t.
Helesay, i. iu Barray.
Helmsdale, v. in Loth p.
Helty, v.
Henderson, q. s. p.
Her bertshire, v. in Dunipace p.
Heriot, p.
Hermiston, v. or Long Hermiston.
Harmitray, £ in Harris p.
Herriotfield, v.
Heston, i included in Kerwick p.
High Church. See Church, High,
High, Inner, or St Mungo's p.
High, Outer, or St Paul's,
Hightae, v.
Hillend, v.
.Billhead, v.
Hillswick, v.
Hillyland, v.
Hilton and Whitsome, p.
Hilton, v.
HUtown, v.
Hobkirk, p.
Hoddam,,/).
Holborn, q. s. p.
Hole of Murroes. See Murroes.
Holekettle Bridge,
Hollee, v. with Fairyhall, returned)
with Kirkpatrick Fleming p. j"
Holm and Paplay, p.
Holm of Midgarth, i. in St. Peter's p.
Holton Square,
Holytown, q. s. p.
Holytown, v.
Holywood, p. and v.
Hope, St Margaret's. See St. Mar
garet's Hope.
Hopeman, v.
Horisdale, i. in Gairloch p.
Horndean, v. in Ladykirk p.
Hospitalmill, h.
Hounam, p. and v,
Houndwood, q. s. p.
Houston and Killellan, p.
Houston, v.
Howgate, v. in Pennicuik p.
Howieshill, v.
Howwood, v. in Lochwinnoch p.
Hoy, i.
Hoy, p.
Humbie, p.
Hume, p.
Hun a, in Canisbay p.
Hunda, i. in St Peter's, or North p.
Hunterfield, v.
Hunthill, v.
Huntly, t. and p.
Hurlet, v. returned with Levern g. s. p.
Hurlford, v. returned with Riccarton p.
Hutchesontown, g. s. p.
Hutton, p.
Hutton. See Corrie and Hutton.
IUary, i in Uist.p.
Inch, p.
Inchcolm, i. in Aberdour p.
Inchinnan, p.
Inchkeith, i. in Kinghorn p.
Inchmarnock, i, returned with
Rothesay p.
Inchture and Rossie, p.
Inchture, v.
Inishail, p.
Inner High. See High, Inner.
Innerkip, p. or Invcrkip,
Innerkip, v.
County.
IKHAB. p
Houses. roP'
Inver.
599
8,207
Lanark,
40
176
Ork. & Sh. 2
13
Roxb.
4
21
Ayr,
79
Kirk.
54
240
Stirling,
65
328
Fife,
170
Roxb.
597
7,801

1,822
16,095
Perth,
11
51
Lanark,
48
238
Dumf.
15
67
Inver.
12
70
Roxb.
53
214
Dumb.
362
2,841
Inver.
1
7
Suthld.
73
526
Kinr.
39
164
Ayr,
519
2,377
Stirling,
158
761
Edin.
70
352

36
164
Inver.
Perth,
32
106
Kirkc
3
Lanark,
809
21,002

456
14,702
Dumf.
101
436
Fife,
63
281
Edin.
18
76
Ork. & Sh
34
211
Perth,
43
202
Berw.
120
612
Inver.
10
64
Ross & Cro. 67
310
Roxb.
131
720
Dumf.
291
1.797
Aberd.
527
3,757
Fife,
70
280'
Dumf.
114
Ork. & Sh
162
749

1
7
Clmn.
58
295
Lanark,
1,269
4,020

900
Dumf.
195
1,060
Elgin,
116
580
Ross & Cro. 5
24
Berw.
39
124
Fife,
10
66
Roxb.
46
252
Berw.
282
1,334
Renf
257
2,753

70
623
Edin.
22
81
Lanark,
62
Renf.
29
252
Ork. & Sh
298
1,555

110
615
Hadd.
184
925
Berw.
159
832
Caith.
111
Ork. & Sh
1
5
Edin.
12
90
Lanark,
16
60
Aberd.
726
4.961
Renf.
287
Ayr,
371
Lanark,
643
3,559
Berw.
225
1,102
Inver.
8
48
Wigton,
515
3,122
Fife,
1
5
Renf.
91
649
Fife,
1
9
Bute.
Perth,
166
74S

67
243
Arg.
148
719
Renf
370
3,018

52
431
INN

KIN

Names of Places.

County.

Inhab
Houses

Pop.

Innerleithen (part of), p.

Peebl.

158

1,176

Innerleithen, v.

91

463

Innerleithen (part of), p.

Selk.

11

60

Innerwick, p. and v.

Hadd.

198

1,012

Insch, p.

Aberd.

284

1,519

Insh, q, s. p.

Inver,

141

613

Inver, v. in Little Dunkeld p.

Perth,

28

106

Inver, v. returned with Tain p.

Ross & Cro.

Inver, Loch. See Loch-Inver.

Inverallochy, v.
Aberd.
107
507
Inverarity, p.
Forf.
193
948
Inverary and Glenary, p.
Arg.
321
2,229
Inverary, 6.

113
1,164
Inveraven (part of), p.
Inveraven (part of), p.
Banff,
474
2,552
Elgin,
29
162
Inverbervie. See Bervie.
Kine.
Inverbrothock, q, s. p.
Forf.
1,206
5,195
Inverchoolain, p.
Arg.
84
474
Invercruden. See Cruden.
Inveresk, p.
Edin.
1,187
8.653
Inveresk, v.

29
211
Invergordon, v.
Ross & Cro. 188
998
Invergowrie, Liff and Benvie,
Forf.
1,768
18,949
Invergowrie, r.

22
108
Inverkeillor, p.

370
1,871
Inverkeillor, h.

26
141
Inverkeithing, 6. and p.
Fife,
359
2,499
Inverkeithney, p.
Banff,
148
835
Inverkip. See Innerkip.
Invermorriston, v. in Glenmorriston p
Inver.
18
94
Inverness, b.

1,255
.9,969
Inverness, p.

2,412
16,496
Inverness District (Mainland),
10.201
57,289
Inverness District (Islands),
7,335
39,211
Inverness-shire,
17,536
96,500
Invernochtie, or Strathdon, p.
Aberd.
311
1,531
Inverury, 6. and p.

492
2,649
lona, q. s. p.
Arg.
193
1,084
Irongray, Kirkpatrick. p.
Kirkc.
155
918
Irvine, b. and p.
Ayr,
632
5,719
Islay District
Arg.
2,740
15,901
Isle-of- Whithorn, v.
Wigton
78
495
Issay, i. in Waternish p.
Inver.
90
J.
James, St, q. s. p.
Forf.
2,236
James, St., p.
Lanark,
385
12,747
Jamestown, v. returned with Contin p. Ross & Cro,
115
Jametson, v. See Damhead.
Janetown, v.
Ross & Cro. 85
513
Jedburgh, 6. and p.
Roxb.
775
5,476
Jedburgh, District,

1,625
10,238
Jemima, v
Ross & Cro. 28
139
Jock's Lodge, v.
Edin.
51
449
John, St, q. s. p. returned with Mon
trose b.
^Forf.
2,236
John, St, q. s. p. returned with Had
- Hadd.
1,878
dington p.
\
John, St.,
Lanark,
799
21,119
John, St., Claughan. See Claughan.
John's, St, p.
Edin.
86
3,068
John's, St, q.s.p. in South Leith p.

578
3,428
John Knox, q. s. p.
Aberd.
249
3,377
Johnshaven, v.
Kine.
312
1,172
Johnston, t.
Renf.
311
5,872
Johnstone, p.
Dumf.
214
1,261
Joppa, v.
Ayr,
40
168
Joppa, v. returned with Portobello q. s.p. Edin.
275
Juniper Green, v.

74
325
Jura and Colonsay, p. with the is
^Arg.
342
1,901
lands of Colonsay and Elonsay,
Juxta-fijrkpatrick, p.
Dumf.
179
1,097
K.
Keanlochbervie, q.a.p. inEddrachillisp. Suthld,
176
1,028
Kearn. See Auchindoir.
Keig, p.
Aberd.
146
772
Keir, p.
Dumf.
164
960
Keiss, q. s. p.
Caith.
1,215
Keith (part of), p.
Banff,
1,026
4,690
Keith, Fife, v.
' 
144
578
Keith, t.

446
2,101
Keithall, or Monkegie and Kinkell p.
Aberd.
167
920
Keithtown, v.
Ross & Cro. 17
64
Kellas, h.
Forf.
5
25
Kells, p.
Kirkc.
187
1,091
Kelso, t and p.
Roxb.
628
5.634
Kelso District,

2,297
14,549
Kelton (purl of), ft
Dumf.
21
106
Kelton, p.
Kirkc.
527
3,186
Kelty, v.
Fife,
57
257
Kembach, p.

165
956
Kemnay, p.
Aberd.
134
680
Names of Places.
County.
In uah
House
Pop.
Kendrochad. See Bridgend.
Kenmore, p.
Perth,
449
2,267
Kennet, v. in Clackmannan p.
Clmn.
60
288
Kennoway, p.
Fife,
486
2,257
Kennoway, v.

234
1,101
Kepp, v.
Perth,
11
43
Kerera, I
Arg.
24
164
Kerrycroy, v.
Bute,
18
97
Kettins, p.
Forf.
228
995
Kettle, p. or Kettle Kings,
Fife,
536
2,601
Kettle, v.

128
480
Kilarrow. See Bowmore.
Kilbarchan, p.
Renf.
464
5.474
Kilbarchan, v.

232
2,382
Kilberry, p.
Arg.
122
689
Kilbirnie, p.
Ayr,
186
399
Kilbrandon and Kilchattan, p.
Arg.
512
2,375
Kilbride, p.
312
2,579
Kilbride, p.
Bute,
520
2,533
Kilbride, East, p.
Lanark,
525
3,760
Kilbride, East, v. burgh of barony,

128
1,113
Kilbride, West, p.
Ayr,
261
2,021
Kilbucho, p.
PeebL
57
345
Kilcadzow, v.
Lanark,
40
160
Kilcalmonell, p.
Arg.
375
2,170
Kilchattan. See Kilbrandon.
Kilchattan Bay, v.
Bute,
44
167
Kilchoman, p.
Arg.
713
4,142
Kilchrenan and Dalavich, p.

162
776
Kilconquhar, p.
Fife,
528
2,489
Kilconquhar, v.

77
. 334
Kildalton, p.
Arg.
498
3,310
Kildonan, p,
Suthld.
374
2,228
Kildrummy, p.
Aberd.
119
643
Kilfinan, p.
Arg.
321
1,695
Kilfinichen and Kilvickeon, p.
570
3,054
Killchenzie and Killean, p.

377
2,219
Killearn, p. and v
Stirling,
201
1,176
Killellan and Houston, p.
Renf.
287
2,753
Killiernan, p.
Ross & Cro. 326
1,794
Killigray, i. in Harris p.
Inver.
1
7
Killin, p. and v.
Perth,
308
1,608
Killochyet, ft.
Edin.
9
42
Kilmadock with Doune, p.
Perth,
401
3,659
Kilmahog, v.

25
116
Kilmalcolm, p. and v.
Renf.
225
1,399
Kilmallie (part of), p.
Arg.
437
2,369
Kilmallie (part of), p.
Inver.
449
2,835
Kilmany, p. and v.
Fife,
148
662
Kilmarnock, p. and b.
Ayr,
1,720
21,287
Kilmaronock, p.
Dumb.
167
1,033
Kilmartin, p.
Ayr,
214
1,144
Kilmaurs, p.

473
3,144
Kilmelford and Kilninver (united p.)
Arg.
163
714
Kilmeney, p.

284
1,413
Kilmiehael-Glassary, p.

682
4,711
Kil modan , p.

83
500
Kilmonivaig, p.
Inver.
449
2,583
Kilmoraek, p.

539
3,007
Kilmore, p. in Lorn District,
Arg.
103
552
Kilmore and Kilninian, v. in Mull) 
District, f
674
3,954
Kilraorich, Lochgoilhead, p.
Arg.
150
834
Kilmory, p.
Bute,
673
3,414
Kilmuir, p.
Inver.
595
3,177
Kilmuir, Easter, p.
Ross & Cro. 288
1,437
Kilmun and Dunoon. See Dunoon,
Kilninian. See Kilmore.
Kilninver. See Kilmelford.
Kilpatrick, East or New (part of), p.
Dumb.
406
2,394
Kilpatrick, East or New (part of), p.
Stirling,
149
1,892
Kilpatrick, New, v.
Dumb.
8
35
Kilpatrick, Old, v.

201
819
Kilpatrick, West, p.

537
5,921
Kilrenny, b. and p.
Fife,
315
2,194
Kilspindie, p. and v.
Perth,
146
684
Kilsyth, t and p.
Stirling,
641
5,346
Kiltariity, p.
Inver.
638
2,965
Kiltearn, p.
Ross & Cro. 286
1,538
Kilvicheou. See Kilfinichen.
Kilwinning, p.
Ayr,
851
6,359
Kinbettock, or Towie, p.
Aberd.
128
758
Kinbiick, v.
Perth,
14
131
Kincairnie, v.

20
83
Kincaple, v.
Fife,
40
186
Kincardine. See Abernethy.
Kincardine, p.
P rth,
380
1,993
Kincardine, Tulliallan, p.

513
2,697
Kincardine, p.
Ross & Cro. 384
1,896
Kincardineshire,
6,636
34,597
Kincardine-O'Neil, p.
Aberd.
383
2,098
Kincardine-O'Neil District,

3,136
15,940
Kinclaven, p.
Perth,
189
881
Kinellar, p.
Aberd.
106
590
King-Edward, p.

534
2,749
KIN

10

LEN

Names of Places.

County.

Inhab. p
Hoosfs ror'

Kingarth, j>.

Bute,

154

1,007

Kinfauns, p.

Perth,

144

650

Kinghorn, 6. and p.

Fife,

397

3,030

Kinglassie, p. and v.



237

1,186

Kingoldrum, p.

Forf.

83

429

Kingoldrum (.bar.).



62

Kingoodie, v.

Perth,

57

263

King's Kettle. See Kettle.

Fife,

Kingsbarns, p. and v.



206

893

Kingsmuir, returned with Denino p

. 

143
Kingston, q. s. p.
Lan. Ss Renf.
2,282
Kingston Fort, tt
Elgin,
77
396
Kingussie, p.
Inver.
422
2,201
Kingussie, v.

91
460
Kinkell. See Keithall.
Kinloch, v.
Fife,
15
58
Kinloch and Lethendy, p.
Perth,
108
556
Kinlochychart (part of), q. s. p.
Ross & Cro. 239
1,223
Kinlochspelvie, q. s. p.
Arg.
85
453
Kinloss, p.
Elgin,
284
1,370
Kinnaird, p.
Perth,
87
370
Kinnaird, tt in Moulin p.

17
70
Kinnaird, tt
Stirling,
67
304
Kinneff and Catterline. See Catterllne.
Kinnell, p.
Forf.
162
826
Kinnesswood, v.
Kinr.
116
479
Kinnethmont. See Christ's Kirk.
Kinnettles, p.
Font
92
460
Kinnoul, p.
Perth,
414
3,134
Kinross, t and p.
Kinr.
513
3,227
KlNKOSS-SHIKE,
1,662
8,924
Kinrossie, v.
Perth,
33
157
Kintail, p.
Ross & Cro. 205
1,009
Kintessack, v.
Elgin,
38
122
Kintillo, u in Dunbameyi?.
Perthfc
33
119
Kintore, 6. and^?.
Aberd;
257
1,342
Kintyre District,
Arg.
2,502
17,916
Kippen (part of), p.
Perth,
118
613
Kippen (part of), p.
Stirling,
249
1,279
Kippen, tt

106
397
Kippochill,
Lanark,
235
Kirk, tt in Lundie and Fowlis p.
Forf.
17
75
Kirk-Cambusnethan. See Cambus
nethan Kirk.
Kirk, Christ's. See Christ's Kirk.
Kirk, Lady, p. in Stronsay island,
Ork. & Sh. 67
356
Kirk, Lady, p. in Westray island,

205
993
Kirk-of-Mochrum, v.
Wigton,
35
187
Kirk North, or Pierwall, tt
Ork. & Sh.
95
Kirk- Yetholm, tt and 6. of barony,
Roxb.
81
326
Kirk Andrews, v.
Kirkc
12
47
Kirkbean, p.
162
982
Kirkcaldy, b. and p.
Fife,
504
5,719
Kirkcaldy District,

7,257
51,819
Kirkcolm, p. and v.
Wigton,
321
2,018
Kirkconnel, p. and v.
Dumf.
204
1.24.5
Kirkcowan, p. and tt
Wigton,
240
1,541
Kirkcudbright, 6. and p.
Kirkc
544
3,555
Kirkcudbright, Stewartry of,

7,009
43,121
Kirkden, p.
Forf.
318
1,763
Kirkfleld Bank. See Bank, Kirkfleld.
Kirkgunzeon, p.
Kirkc.
105
734
Kirkgunzeon, «.

10
40
Kirkhill, tt
Edin.
64
316
Kirkhill, p.
Inver.
377
1,730
Kirkhill, v.
Lanark,
26
216
Kirkibbost, i. in Uist p.
Inver.
2
14
Kirkiboll, tt
Suthld.
14
92
Kirkinner, p. and tt
Wigton,
304
1,914
Kirkintilloch, p. inclusive of St. Da
vid's q. s. p.
1 Dumb.
826
8,426
Kirkland, tt, in Glencairn p.
Dumf.
16
71
Kirkland, v. returned with Methil q. s.
p. Fife,
466
Kirkland of Tinwald, v.
Dumf.
28
116
Kirklane, tt
Perth,
61
310
Kirkliston (part of), p.
Edin.
106
558
Kirkliston (part of), p.
Linl.
273
1,471
Kirkliston v.

166
840
Kirkmabreck, p.
Kirkc
311
2,266
Kirkmahoe, p.
Dumf.
286
1,553
Kirkmaiden, p.
Wigton,
463
2,681
Kirkmichael, p.
Ayr.
494
3,262
Kirkmichael, p.
Banff,
306
1,558
Kirkmichael p.
Dumf.
202
1,124
Kirkmichael, p. and tt
Perth,
265
1,280
Kirkrauirhill, tt
Lanark,
58
242
Kirknewton and East Calder. See
Calder East
Kirkoswald, p.
Ayr,
378
2,242
Kirkowen, p. and tt
Kirkpatrick, Fleming, p.
Wigton,
Dumf.
240
338
1,6411,829
Kirkpatrick, Juxta, p.

179
1,097
Kirkton, tt
Ayr,
117
Kirkton, tt in Balmerino p.
Fife,
26
111
Kirkton, v. in Burntisland p.
—
33
251
Names of Places.
County. Forf
Kirkton, v. in Auchterhouse p.
Kirkton, v. in Glenisla p.
Kirkton. See Blantyre.
Kirkton of Kinnettles, ft. Forf.
Kirkton of Weem, v. returned with) perth
Weem p. > '
Kirktown, v. returned with Fenwick p. Ayr,
Kirktown of Fordoun,. See Fordoun.; Kine.
Kirktown of New Deer, returned with) Aberi
Inhab.
Houses. 23 8
11
Deer p. >
Kirkurd, p.
Kirkwall and-St. Ola, p.
Kirkwall, b.
Kirriemuir, p.
Kirriemuir, t., b. of barony,
Kittersan, v.
Knapdale, North, p.
Knapdale, South, p.
Knightswood, v.
Knock, or Uii, q. s. p.
Knockando, p.
Knockbain, p.
Knockintiber, returned with Kilmaurs^). Ayr,
Knockhall, returned with Foveran p. Aberd.
Knockshoggle-holm, v.
Knox, John.- See John Knox.
Kyle District,
Kyleakin, v.
58
Peebles,Ork. & Sh. 552
 333
Forf. 1,251
 498
Wigton, 8
Arg. 298
 313
Dumb. 31
Ross & Cro. 294
Elgin, 363
Ross & Cro. 657
Ayr,
Pop. 134 44
4950
117
326
3,990
2,448 7,617
3,518 31
1,666
2,178 178
1,637
1,7713,005
Ladhope, q. s. p.
Lady, p. in Sanda i.
Lady Glenorchy, q. s. p.
Lady-kirk, p.
Lady-kirk, or North, p. in Westray i
Lady-kirk, p. in Stronsay i.
Lady Loan, q. s. p.
Lady Yester's, p.
Ladybank, v.
Laggan, p.
Lairg, p. and v.
Lambholm, L in Holm and Paplayp.
Lammingtoune and WandelL p.
Lammingtoune, v.
Lanark, b. and p.
Lanark, New, v.
Lanarkshire,Lands, Straloch. See Straloch Lands.
Landward of Dysart, p.
Langholm, p.
LangholnVNew, v.
Langholm, Old, t
Langloan, v.
Langrigg, v.
Langside, v.
Langton, p.
Lanton, v.
Larbert, p.
Larbert, v.
Largo, p.
Largo, v.
Largs, p., I and suburbs,
Larkhall, q. s. p.
Lasswade, p. and v.
Latheron, p.
Lauder, b. and p.
Laurencekirk, p. and v.
Laurieston, v. in Balmaghie p.
Laverock, or Leveret Law, included)
in the return in Coldingham p. |
Lawerston, v.
Leadhills, v. in Crawford p.
Leamington. See Wandell and Lam
mingtoune.
Lecropt (part of), p.
Lecropt (part of), p.
Leeds, New, v, in Strichen p.
Leetown, v.
Legerwood, p.
Leith, &. as comprising the whole of)
North Leith p. except Golden Acre, f
and nearly the whole of South Leith f
p. and part of St. Cuthbert's p. )
Leith, North, p. inclusive of Newhaven,
Leitb, South, p. inclusive of Jock's^
Lodge, St. John's q. s, p., Porto- (
bello, Restalrig, and part of Ladyf
Glenorchy's q. s. p. )
Leith, Water of, v, in Dean q. s, p.
Leith, Lumsden, w.in Auchindoir and)
Kearn p. j"*
Leitholm, v. in Eccles p.
Lempitlaw, v. in Sprouston p.
Lennoxtown, v. in Campsie p.
Ayr,
9,455
72,284
Inver.
40
231
Roxb.
463
2,367
Ork. A Sh. 183
1,004
Edin.
381
2,157
Berw.
111
561
Ork. & Sh. 205
993

67
357
Forf.
2,116
Edin.
70
2,785
Fife,
17
102
Inver.
221
1,223
Suthld.
225
1,162
Ork. & Sh. 2
13
Lanark,
73
369

34
122

930
8,243

337
1,642
37,504
530,169
Fife,
218
1,444
Dumf
554
2.990

208
1,057

228
1,305
Lanark
215
1,111

46
225
Renf.
18
125
Berw.
99
484
Roxb.
49
175
Stirling,
655
4,606
— ~
127
487
Fife,
531
2,800

77
423
Ayr,
532
3,715
Lanark,
2,453
Edin.
1,060
5,821
Caith.
1,568
8,224
Berw.
368
2,154
Kino
416
2,125
Kirkc
SO
275
Berw.
Stirling,
311
1,198
Lanark,
230
* 95°
Perth,
30
171
Stirling,
42
271
Aberd.
Perth,
24
112
Berw.
97
587
Edin.
2,084
30,919
625
8,863
1,723
24,126
1,024
-Aberd.
233
Berw.
365
Roxb.
28
119
Stirling,
229
3,108
LEN

11

MEG

Inhab.
Houses. 205

Names op Places. County.
Lentrathen, p. Forf.
Leochel and Cushnie. See Cushnie.
Leochel and Cushnie. See Coull p.
Leonard's, St, p. Fife, 90
Leonard's, St, q. s. p. Perth,
Lerwick, & and p. Ork. & Sh. 424
Lerwick, t. as distinct from p.  331
Leslie, p. Aberd. 112
Leslie, t. and p. Pi iu, 466
Lesmahagow, p. Lanark, 1,234
Lessudden, v. in St BoswelTs p. Roxb. 101
Leswalt, p. Wigton, 494
Letham, v. in Monimail p. Fife, 84
Letham, v. in Dunnichen p. Forf. 184
Lethendy and Kinloch. See Kinloch.
Lethenty, returned with Chapel of) a»,„.j
Garioch p. j- Aberd.
Lethnott and Navar, p. Forf. 86
Leuchars, p. Fife, 417
Leuchars,  162
Leven, t. including Scoonie-burn tt. 338
Levern, q. s. p.

Renf.
(Inver. A)
(R. A C.J
Ross & Cro.

Lanark,Roxb. Fife,

Ork. A Sh.
Fife,
Linl.

Stirling. 36

Hadd.
Roxb.Peebl.Renf.

Dumb. Ork. A Sh.
Linl.
Edin.

Lewis, i.
Lewis Rona, or Rona Lewis, i. ir
Cross p.
Lewistown, East and West, tt. in Glen- 1 jnver
morriston p. )
Ley of Halliburton, tt in Kettins p. Forf.
Leysmill, ft. included in Froickheim p. 
Lhanbryde. See St. Andrews, Lhan
bryde.
Libberton, p. Edin.
Libberton, p. Lanark,
Liff and Benvie, with part of Inver-1 Forf
gowrie, p. )
Lightburn, «.
Lilliesleaf, p. and tt
Limekilns, tt.
Lindores, v. in Abdie p.
Lindores, Grange of,
Linga, i. in Tingwall^.
Linktown, b. in Abbotshall,
Linlithgow, b. and p
Linlithgow-Bridge (part of), »•
Linlithgow-Bridge (part of), tt.
Linlithgowshire,Linton, tt.
Linton, p. and v.
Linton, West, p.
Linton, v.
Linwood, v.
Lismore and Appin. See Appin.
Little HiU, v.
Littleroe, i. in Delting p.
Livingstone, p.
Livingstone, tt.
Loan Head, tt in Lasswade p.
Loan Lady. See Lady Loan.
Loanhead, v. in Denny p.
Loans, tt. included in Troon q. s. p.
Loch Inver, tt. in Assynt p.
Lochalsh, p.
Lochans, tt.
Locharbriggs, tt. in St Michael p.
Lochbroom, p.
Lochcarron, p.
Lochearnhead. tt.
Lochee, tt. and q. s. p..
Lochfoot, tt.
Lochgelly, v in Auchterderran p.
Lochgilphead, q. 8. p.
Lochlee, p.
Lochmaben, p.
Lochmaben, b.
Lochrutton, p.
Lochs, p.
Lochside, v.
Lochthorn, tt. in St, Michael's p.
Lochwinnoch, p.
Lochwinnoch, v.
Lockerbie, v. in Dryfesdalej).
Lodge, Jock's. See Jock's Lodge.
Logan Port, or Port Logan, tt.
Logie (part of), p.
Logie, p. and v. 
Logie, or South, q. s. p. in Kirriemuir ». Forf.
Logie-Pert, p.
Logie, v.
Logie Easter, p.
Logie Wester aud Urquhart (pt. of), p. — r
Logie Wester and Urquhart (pt of), p. Nairn
Logierait, p. Pcrl'1'
Logierait, tt.
Long Hermiston

703151

25
153 256 24
34 1

87

4,059 177 98
286 131 45

28 1
202 28
176 16

18

Stirling,
Ayr, Suthld.
Ross & Cro. 477
Wigton, 20
Dumf. 44
Ross* Cro. 919337

Perth, Forf.
Kirkc. Fife,
Arg.Forf.
Dumf.— ,- 288
Kirkc. 119
Ross & Cro. 801

10
874 27
154
562 129 618

Kine Dumf.
Renf. Dumf.

17 14
515
313

Wigton, Clmn.Fife,

51
217 100
504 269
 50
Ross & Cro. 217
 452257 578 46

587
3,039 8,3902,904 559
3,8007,746 399
3,021 383745

1,991 692
2,0832,490
22,918

48
173

3,528 800
1,763 18,927

163798949 95
166 8
3,2406,115 447 186
30,135 775630
1,630 550
1,120 136 1
1,289 111810 74
205 75
2,299 103213
4,813 1,612 46
3,693 130770
2,748 619
3,1271,499 726
4,256 6664
4,1532,2711,315 223
1,222 467
2,6911,609 332965
2,1091,044 2,875 168

See Hermiston.

Names of Plages.

County.

Hooses. rop'

Longforgan, (. and p.

Perth,

847

1,787

Longformacus and Ellim. See Ellim

.

Longleys, v.

Perth,

14

56

Longniddry, v. in Gladsmuir p

Hadd.

46

216

Longo, ¦/. in Gairloch p.

Ross & Cro.

Longside, p.

Aberd.

610

2,952

Longstone, v. in Collinton p.

Edin.

86
Lonmay, p.
Aberd.
403
1,964
Lorn District,
Arg.
2,628
14,137
Lossiemouth, v.
Elgin,
201
902
Loth, p.
Suthld.
129
640
Loudoun, p.
Ayr,
573
4,720
Low Church. See Church, Low.
Lower Ward,
Lanark,
2,600
25,810
Lower Ward,
Renf
2,797
48,870
Lownie. See Cotton of Lownie.
Lowthertown, v. in Dornoch p.
Dumf.
33
195
Lowvalleyfielii, v.
Perth,
53
260
Luce, New,
Wigton,
129
652
Luce, Old, or Glenluce, p. and v.

445
2,841
Lucklawhill Feus, v. in Logie p.
Fife,
20
79
Lugton, v. in Dalkeith p.
Edin.
34
230
Luke's, St, q. s. p.
Lanark,
685
3,547
Luke's, St, q. s. p. in city of Edinburgh,
481
2,546
Lumphanan, p.
• Aberd.
207
1,088
Lunan, p.
Forf
59
279
Lunanbank, March of, h.

13
65
Lunanliead, v. included in Forfar p.

191
Lundie and Fowlis (part of),jp.
Perth,
53
300
Lundie and Fowlis (part of), p.
Forf.
93
450
Lundinmill, v, in Largo p.
Fife,
82
499
Lunnasting. See Nesting.
Luss, p. and v.
Dumb.
177
907
Luthermuir, v. in Marykirkp.
Kine.
216
967
Luthrie, v. in Creich #.
Fife,
27
163
Lybster, q. s. p.
Caith.
505
2,699
Lynchat, v. in Alviep.
Inver,
17
* 73
Lyne and Megget, p.
Peebl.
26
158
M.
Macduff, 6.
Banff,
474
2,527
Machar, New, p.
Aberd.
252
1,298
Machar, Old, q. s. p.
 ,
1,103
7,570
Machar, Old, entire #.

3,297
31,767
Maddiston, v.
Stirling,
32
164
Maderty, p.
Perth,
119
593
Maderty of Craig, &. of barony, in
K h
43
181
eluding the village of St David,
Madoe's, St p.
Perth,
67
288
Mainland,
Inver.
10,201
59,289
Mainland,
Ork.
3,266
16,757
Mainland,
R. AC
12,418
62,996
Mains, or Strath-Dighty, p.
Forf.
236
1,299
Mains, Davidson's. See Davidson's
Mains.
Mains of Errol, v.
Perth,
12
62
Makerstoun, p. and v.
Roxb.
62
345
Manor, p.
Peebl.
40
256
Mansfield, v. included in New Cum
nock p.
"} Ayr,
122
March of Lunanbank. See Lunanbank.
Marchfarm, v.
Wigton,
12
61
Mareston, h.
Forf.
7
26
Margaret's, St., Hope, v.
Ork. & Sh. 38
260
Mariners, q. s. p.
Aberd.
113
2,173
Mark's, St., q. s. p,
Lanark,
665
3,315
Markinch, p.
Fife,
1,047
5,843
Marnoch, p.
Banff,
651
2,994
Martin's, St, p.
Perth,
199
983
Martyr's, q. s. p.
Lanark,
901
5,064
Mary's, St, p.
Edin.
481
7,896
Mary's, St, or Tron,
Lanark,
280
11,777
Mary's, St (South Isles), p.
Ork. A Sh. 125
685
Maryburgh, v.
Kinr.
9
39
Maryburgh, v.
Ross A Cro. 99
403
Maryculter, p.
. Kine.
189
1,055
Maryhill, p.
Lanark,
560
6,700
Maryhill, v.

2,552
Marykirk. See Aberluthnott
Marytown, v. in Forgan p.
Fife,
46
232
Marytown, p.
Forf.
76
366
Mary well, v.

36
138
Mastertown, v.
Fife,
35
145
Matthew's, St., q. s. p.
Lanark,
617
3,125
Mauchline, p.
Ayr,
349
2,470
Maxton, p. and v.
Roxb.
91
550
Maxwellheugh, v.

25
90
Maxwellton, v:
Lanark,
72
334
Maxwelltown, b. of barony,
Kirkc.
455
3,820
Maybole,j?.
Ayr,
948
7,615
Meadowmill, v.
Hadd.
120
Mearns, p.
Renf.
337
3,704
Meckveu, v.
Perth,
15
56
Megget. See Lyne.
MEI

12

NEW

Names of Places.

County.

Inhab.
Houses

Pop.

Meigle, p. and tt.

Perth,

144

686

Meikleour, v.



37

110

Meldrum, Old, or Metheline, p.

Aberd.

401

2,002

Mellerstain, tt.

Berw.

45

173

Melrose, t. an dp

Roxb.

915

7,365

Melrose-Castleton District,



1,511

10,760

Melvich, t. included in Reay p.

Suthld.

253

Melville, q. s. p.

Aberd.

135

1,831

Menmulr, p.

Forf.

153

693

Menstry, tt.

Clmn.

117

518

Merrystone, v. included in Gartsher-) j,anark
rie q. s. p. ) '
Merrystone, West, «. included in)
Crosshill q.s.p.

676

493

Mertoun, p.

Berw.

129

692

Metheline. See Meldrum, Old.

Methil, q. s. p.
Fife,
323
1.5X3
Methlick, p.
Aberd.
367
1,997
Methven, p.
Perth,
466
2,454
Mey, East, t. included in Canisby p.
Caith.
262
Mey, West, ditto,

149
Michael, St See Dumfries p.
Mickle-Rove, *'. in Delting p.
Ork. A Sh. 50
290
Middle, p.
Renf.
510
9,904
Middle, p. See St. Andrews p., Lanark.
Middle Church. See Church Middle,
Perth.
Middle Church. See Church Middle,
Renfrew.
Middle Ward,
Lanark, 15,0 ,
119,106
Middlebie, p.
Dumf.
402
2,163
Middleton, tt.
Edin.
32
148
Middleton, North, v.

15
68
Middleton, v.
Kine
13
66
Midlem, tt.
Roxb.
50
185
Midmar, p.
Aberd.
219
1,166
Migvie and Tarland, p.

227
1,197
Mile-end, v. in Barony p.
Lanark,
2,716
Mill Cults. See Cults.
Mill of Halden. See Halden.
Mill Hospital, ft.
Fife,
10
66
Mill-Little. See Little Mill.
Mill Preston, v.
Kirkc
13
76
Mill, West. See West Mill.
Millarston, v. included in Abbey p.
Renf.
364
Millbridge, v.

5
22
Millerhill, Easter, tt.
Edin.
50
220
Millerhill, Wester, tt.
 .
18
70
Millerston, v. included in Barony p.
Lanark,
466
Millfield, ft.
Forf.
12
65
MiUheugh, tt. incl. in Larkhall q. s. %
¦ Lanark,
384
Millport, v.
Bute,
93
817
Mills, New, or Torry, v.
Fife,
97
411
Miiltown, v.
Banff,
25
79
Milnathort,
Kinr.
320
1,605
Milngavie, q. s. p.
Stirling,
294
1,622
Milngavie, tt. included in above,

1,432
Milntown, v.
Ross A Cro. 43
200
Milton, v.
Dumb.
68
136
Milton, v.
Fife,
592
Milton, v.
Forf.
18
83
MUton, v.
Kine.
10
34
Milton, q. s. p.
Lanark,
1,038
5,364
MUton, v. in Campsie p.
Stirling,
98
664
Milton. See Herbcrtghire.
Mingala, i. in Barray.
Inver.
23
114
Minnigaff, p.
Kirkc.
323
2,054
Minnigaff, v.

48
170
Minnyhive, v. of 6. in Glencairn p.
Dumf.
129
667
Minto, p.
Roxb.
78
467
Minto, v.

20
90
Mochrum, p.
Wigton,
465
2,946
Moffat, p. with 6 houses in Lanarkshire, Dumf.
429
2,304
Moffat, u. included in above,

271
1,413
MoUensburn, v. included in Chryston [ T .
q. s. p. f ^anarki
202
Monance, St See Abercrombie.
Moneydie, p.
Monifieth, p.
Monifieth, tt.
Monikie, p.
Monimail, p.
Monimail, tt.
Monivaird and Strowan, p.
Monkeigie. See Keithall.
Monkland, New, p.
Monkland, Old, p.
Monkston, tt.
Monkton and Prestwick, p.
Monktonhall, tt.
Monquhitter, p.
Monreith, tt. in Glasserton p.
Montrose, b.
Montrose, p. exclusive of b.
Moneymusk, p.
Perth,Forf.
Fife,
Perth, Lanark, Fife, Avr,
Edin. Aberd.Wigton, Fori'.
Aberd.
53
731 68
294 227 27
147
2,269 685 24
310 26
431 24'
1,336 272 169
321
4,267 308
1,317 1,102 117790
23,201 4,022 102
1,960 117
2,295 94
14,328 1,494 940
County. Perth,Lanark,Fife,
Berw. Roxb.Inver.
Hadd.Aberd. Edin.
Banff,Dumf.Arg.
Elgin, Lanark,Perth,
Fife,
Dumf.
Names of Places.
Monzie, p.
Moodiesburn, ». included in Chryston)
q. s. p. I
Moonzie, p.
Morayshire. See Elgin.1
Mordington, p.
Morebattle, p. and v.
Morgay, i. in Uist p.
Morham, p.
Mormond, included in Strichen p.
Morningside, q. s. p.
Mortlach, p.
Morton, p.
Morven, p.
Mosstodlach, v.
Motherwell, v. in Dalziel p.
Moulin, p.
Mount Pleasant, sub. of Newburgh.
Mousewald, p.
Moy. See Dyke and Moy.
Moy and Delarossie. See Delarossie.
Muck, i. in Small isles p. Arg.
Muckairn, p. 
Muckart, p. Perth,
Muir, Dairsie. See Dairsie Muir.
Muiravonside, p. StirUng,
Muirdrum, v. Forf.
Muirhead, tt. ¦ 
Muirhead, ft. Fife,
Muirhead, tt. in Chryston q. s. p. Lanark,
Muirhouses, v. Linl.
Muirkirk, p. Ayr,
Muirside, «. Forf
Mull District, Arg.
Mungo, St., p. Dumf.
Mungo's, St. See High, Inner.
Munlochy, tt. ' Ross A Cro. 23
Murroes, p. Forf. 143
Musselburgh, t. including North Esk __^_n gg0
q. s. p.
Muthill, p. Perth, 433
Muthill, «.  152
Myreside, ft. Fife, 21
N.
Inhab. p
Houses. '
231 1,199 220
46 198
79
181 1
64
269 27
121
404
169 149
488 30 16
21 31
574 21
2,781 117
Nairn, b. and p.
Naikn County,
Navar. See Lethnott and Navar.
Neilston, p.
Nenthorn, p.
Ness, or Noss, i.
Ness. See Cross.
Nesting, Lumnasting, and Whelsay p.
Netherlee, v.
Nethermains, v.
Netherton Quarry,
Nevay and Eassie. See Eassie.
New Abbey. See Abbey, New.
New Byth. See Byth, New.
New Church, q. s. p.
New Church, p.
New Galloway. See GaUoway, New.
New Gilston. See Gilston, New.
New Lanark. See Lanark-
New Leeds. See Leeds, New.
New MUls. See MiUs, New. '
New North Church. See Church, New
North.
New Scone, v. in Scone p.
New Street See Canongate.
New Town, v.
New Town, Omoa, v. See Omoa.
New Trows, tt.
Newark, q. s. p. in Port Glasgow p.
Newarthill, v in Holytown q. s. p.
Newbattle, p.
Newbigging, «. in Auclitertool p.
Newbigging, tt.
Newbridge, v.
Newbridge, tt.
Newburgh, tt. in Foverany.
Newburgh, 6. and p.
Newburn, p.
Newcastleton. See Castleton, New.
Newhaven, q. s. p.
Newhills, p.
Newington, q. s. p.
Newlandrig, tt
Newlands, p
Newmills, v. in Keith p.
Newmilns, 6. of barony,
Newport, v. in Forgan p.
Newstead, v.
Newton, v.
Nairn,
791
2,022
Rent Berw.Ork. A Sh.
798 73 3
Ayr,Dumf..
151774
Fife,
426997 9
249 681
1,796
2,804
2,4821,547 93
726
2,022 524
53
788
2,647 112 81
106 49
139
3,423 95
15,189 645
643
7,0922,9721,089 105
4,1169,956
12,233 441 21
2,420 56
1,3963.S94
1,364
Lanark,
19
61
2,449
Lanark,
968
Edin.
456
2,518
Fife,
19
67
Fort
20
88
Edin.
21
153
Kirkc.
7
24
Aberd.
91
393
Fife,
349
2,986

86
375
Edin.
406
2,103
Aberd.
533
3,325
Edin.
636
3,310

32
132
Peebl.
178
950
Banff,
129
449
Ayr,
220
2,211
Fife,
51
260
Roxb.
64
250
Bute,
49
444
NEW

13

PRE

Nambs OP Placks.
Newton, p.
Newton, v.
N/ewtou, v.
Newton, o,
Newton, v.
Newton-upon-Ayr, p.
Newton of Belltrees, v.
Newton of Falkland, v.
Newton-Stewart, &
Newtonmore, v
Newtonshaw, v. in Clackmannan p.
Newtown, v.
Newtown, v. incL in Pencaitland p.
Newtown, v.
Newtown, v. in Bedrule p.
Newtown, v. in Melrose p.
Newtown of Panbride, v.
Newtown of Pitcairns, v. in Dunning p.
Newtyle, j>. and #.
Nicholas, St, p.
Niddry, v,
Nigg, p.
Nigg, p.
Ninian's, St, p.
Nisbet, v.
Nisbet, East and West, v. in Crailing p.
Nitshill, v. included in Levern q. s. p.
Norrieston, q. s. p.
North, p. including part of East and)
part of North q. s. p. j
North. See David's, St
North. See Ladykirk.
North, or St Peter's, p. in South isles,
North (Greenock) q. s. p.
North (Paisley), q. s. p.
North Berwick. See Berwick, North.
North Isles,
Northmavine, p.
Northmuir, v.
Noss. See Ness. O.
Oa, q. s. p.
Oakfield, v.
Oathlaw, p.
Oban, b.
Oban, without the burgh,
Ochillt ree, p.
Ola, St See Kirkwall and Ola.
Old or West See West
Old Cambus. See Cambus, Old.
Old Church, p.
Old Scone. See Scone.
Oldhamstocks (part of), p.
Oldhamstocks (part of), p.
Oldhamstocks, v.
Oldrome, v. returned with Dundonald p.
Olrick, or Olrig, p.
Omoa, New Town, v.
Ordiquhill, p.
Orkney Isles, Mainland,
 North Isles,
 South Isles,
Orkney and Shetland,
Ormiston, p. and v.
Orphir, p.
Orwell, p.
Osnaburgh. See Dairsie Muir.
Outer, High. See High, Outer.
Oxna, i. in Tingwall p.
Oxnam, p.
Oyne, p. P.
Pahay, £ in Strath p.
Fabba, i. in Barra p.
Pabbay, i. in Harris p. *
Padanaram, v, ret. with Logie q. s. p.
Paisley, 6.
Paisley Abbey. See Abbey, Paisley.
Palnachie, v. in Buittle p.
Panbride, p.
Panbride, a.
Papa, i. ret with Burra and Quarff p.
Papa-Stour,£ in Walls and Sandness^.
Papa-Stronsay. See Stronsay.
Papa-Westray. See Westray.
Paplay. See Holm.
Park Cromwell, v. in Redgorton p.
Park, Well, q. s< p.
Parkhead, v. incl. in Camlachie q. s. p.
Partick, q. $. p. in Govan p.
Parton, p.

C— House8,

Edin.

387

1,780

Forf.

28

105

Lanark,

10

48

Nairn,

36

118

Renf.

59

629

Ayr,

645

4,814

Renf.

58

Fife,

69

236

Wigton,

411

2,599

Inver.

54

222

Clmn.

186

798

Fife,

29

152

Hadd.

168

LinL

28

138

Roxb.

6

24



43

164

Forf.

17

75

Perth,

51

319

Forf.

307

1,141

Ork. A Sh. 79

898

Linl.

20

111

Kine.

324

1,841

Ross* Cro. 310

1,457

Stirling,

1,495

9,851

Hadd.

9

43

Roxb.

65

320

Renf.

821

Perth,

76

463

Aberd. 422 6,167

Ork. A Sh. 329
Renf. 621
 608
Ork. A Sh. 1,817
 413
Forf. 65

1,780
3,012 2,8769,3302,534 297

Arg.

186

1,023

Fife,

20

102

Forf.

76

424

Arg.

156

1,742



31

129

Ayr,

289

1,787

Berw.

20

132

Hadd.

124

560



37

138

Ayr,

257
Caith.
352
1,873
Lanark,
43
206
Banff,
135
644
'
3,266
16,757
1,817
9,330
1,002
5,368
11,334
62,533
Hadd.
161
811
Ork. A Sh. 248
1,157
Kinr.
464
2,569
Ork. A Sh. 2
21
Roxb.
117
669
Aberd.
182
919
Inver.
2
14

2
10

6
25
Forf.
165
Renf.
2,647
47,952
Kirkc.
33
200
Forf.
328
1,372

34
132
Ork. A Sh.
21

64
359
Perth,
16
124
Lanark,
2,904
1,150

718
3,628
Kirkc.
110
731
Namks op Places. County.
Pathhead, v.
Pathhead, t
Pathhead, v.
Patiemuir, v.
Patna, v.
Paul's, St, q. s. p.
Paul's, St See High, Outer.
Paul's, St., Church, p.
Paxton, v. in Huttou p.
Peatie, v.
Peebles, b.
Peebles (part of), p.
Peebles (part of), .p.
Peebleshire,
Pencaitland, p.
Pencaitland, Easter, v.
Pencaitland, Wester, v.
Penieuick, p.
Penieuick, v.
Pennan, v. included in Aberdour p.
Penninghame, p.
Penpont, p. and v.
Penston, v, in Gladsmuir p.
Penticox, v. •.
Pentland Skerries, i. See Skerries.
Pert Logie, See Logie Pert
Perth, City,
Perthshire,Peter's, St, q. s. p.
Peter's, St, p. in Ronaldshay i.
Peter's, St, p. in Stronsay i.
Peterculter, p.
Peterhead, 6. and p.
Peterhythe, See Portcasie.
Petty, or Pettie (part of), p.
Petty (part of), p.
Pettinain, p.
Pharay. See Eday and Pharay.
Philpstown,'u. in Abercorn p.
Piperhall, v. ret. with Kingarth p.
Pitcairngreen, v.
Pitcairns of Newtown. See Newtown.
Pitcox, v.
Pitcur, Ford of. See Ford.
Pitlessie, v.
Pitlochry, v.
Pitmiddie, v.
Pitmidie, h.
Pitrodie, v.
Pitsligo, p.
Pitsligo, New, q. s. p.
Pittenweem, 6. and p.
Pittheveliss, v.
Plean, q. s. p.
Plockton, v. and ff. s. p. in Lochalshp.
Point Crombie. See Crombie Point.
Pollock. See Eastwood.
Pollockshaws, t.
Polmont, p.
Polton Street, v,
Polworth, p.
Pomona, or the Mainland,
Pool, v.
Poolewe, q. s. p.
Port-Dundas,Port-Ellen, v.
Port-El phinstone,
Port-Glasgow, t. and p.
Port-Gordon. See Gordon Port
Port-Gower, v. in Loth p.
Port-Kingston. See Kingston Port
Port of Monteith, p.
Port- William, v.
Portcasie and Peterhythe, v.
Portlethen, v.
Portlich, v.
Portmahomack, v.
Portmoak, p.
Portnahaven, q. s. p. in Kilchoman p.
Portnockie District,
Portobello, Duddingstone (part of),
Portobello, South Leitb (part of),
Portpatrick, t. and p. «
Portree, p.
Portseaton, v.
Portskerray in Reay p.
Portsoy, q. s. p. in Fordyce p,
Powfoot, v.
Premnay, p.
Preston. See Bunkle and Preston.
Preston, v.
Preston Mill. See Mill Preston.
Prestonholme, v.
Prestonkirk, p.
Prestonpans, t. and p.
Houses.
Ayr,
325
Fife,
500
8,977
Edin.
182
843
Fife,
27
131
Ayr,
62
231
Edin.
614
2,874
Perth,
253
3,090
Berw.
611
284
Forf.
17
53
Peebl.
310
1,980

426
2,667
Selk.
1
6
1,796
10,738
Hadd.
253
1,175

15
48

46
171
Edin.
403
3,003

166
907
Aberd.
168
Wigton,
660
4,156
Dumf.
241
1,411
Hadd.
53
233
Edin.
9
41
Perth,
1,991
23,835
22,528
138,660
Lanark,
825
4,366
Ork. A Sh. 329
1,780

81
422
Aberd.
244
1,351

1,268
9,429
Inver. 317 1,707
Nairn, 15 77
Lanark, 86 428
Linl.
24
140
Bute,
29
Perth,
279
Hadd.
25
95
Fife,
105
499
Perth,
77
291

26
99
Forf.
4
15
Perth,
16
92
Aberd.
349
1,801

486
1,814
Fife,
268
1,473
Perth,
20
77
Stirling,
159
872
Ross A Cro. 94
502
Renf.
387
6,086
Stirling,
723
3,763
Edin.
19
59
Berw.
65
331
Ork. A Sh. 3,226
16,757
Perth,
49
179
Ross A Cro. 478
2,529
Lanark,
158
Arg.
184
904
Aberd.
112
Renf.
423
7,017
Suthld.
40
236
Perth,
241
1,419
Wigton,
90
634
Banff,
76
411
Kine.
51
265
RossACrc
. 24
90

112
479
Kinr.
338
1,550
Arg.
242
1,271
Banff,
232
1,085
Edin.
568
3,435
— ~
19
109
Wigton,
280
1,963
Inver.
611
3,557
Hadd.
270
Suthld.
371
Banff,
390
1,720
Dumf.
18
72
Aberd.
148
793
Hadd.
13
57
Edin.
32
210
Hadd.
327
1,894

284
2,123
PRE

14

SMA

Names of Places. County.
Prestwick and Monkton. See Monkton.
Pulteney, suburb in Wick (. Caith.
Q.
Quarff. See Burra.
Quarrelton, v. Renf
Quarry Hailes. See Hailes Quarry.
Quarry Netherton, v.
Queensferry, b. and p.
Queensferry, North, v.
Quivox, St, p.
Quothquan, v. incl. in Libberton p.

Rafford, p. and v.
Rait, v.
Bali a, h.
Ralston-Newton,Rannoch, q. s. p.
Raploch, v. returned with Stirling p.
Rasay, i. in Portree p.
Rassay, i. in Glenelg p.
Rathen, p.
Rathillet, v.
Ratho, p.
Ratho, v.
Rathven, p.
Rattray, p. and v.
Rattray, New, v.
Raven struther, v. in Carstairs p.
Rayne, p.
Rayne, Old, h.
Reay (part of), p.
Reay (part of), .p.
Redding, v.
Redgorton, p.
Redpath, v.
Redrow, v.
Kendall, p.
Renfield, q. s. p.
Renfrew, 6.
Renfrew, p.
Renfrewshire, Ren ton, v.
Berwick, or Rerrick, p.
Resaurie, v.
Rescobie, p.
Resolis, p.
Restalrig, v.
Rewcastie, v. in Bedrule p.
Rhind, or Rhynd, p.
Rhonehouse, v.
Rhynie and Essie. See Essie.
Riccarton, p.
Ristol, I ret with Ullapool q. s. p.
Roadside, v.
Roan, i. in Tongue p.
Roberton. See Wiston and Roberton.
Roberton (part of ), p.
Roberton (part of), p.
Rockfield, v.
Rogart, p.
Rona, i. in Portree p.
Ronay, i. in Uist p.
Ronaldshay, NortHf i. and p.
Ronaldshay, South, i.
Rooe, Mickle, v, in Delting p.
Rosebank, v.
Rosehearty, 6. of barony,
Roseisle, h.
Roseisle, Old, h
Rosemarkie, p.
Roseneath, p.
Rosewell, returned with Roslin q. s. p.
Roslin, q. s. p,
Ross, v.
ROSS-SHTRE AND CROMARTY,
Rossie, i. in Craig p.
Rosskeen, p.
Rothes (part of), p.
Rothes (part of), p.
Rothes, v.
Rothesay, 6.
Rothesay, Now, q. s. p.
Rothesay, p.
Rothiemay, p.
Rothiemurchus, q. s, p.
Rottearn, v. ret. with Ardoch q. s. p.
Roucan, v.
Rousay and Eaglishay, p.
Rousay, i
Row, p.
Row, h.

Inhab.
Houses.

Pop.

3,132

271

Dumb.

19

111

LinL

87

720

Fife,

92

461

Ayr,

708

7,147

Lanark,

160

Elgin,

203

1,020

Perth,

41

184

Inver.

10

32

Rent

893

Perth,

289

1,299

Stirling,

317

Inver.

94

540



2

13

Aberd.

488

2,368

Fife,

11

48

Edin.

327

1,718



130

689

Banff,

1,464

7,518

Perth,

362

2,336



94

580

Lanark,

26

104

Aberd.

313

1,550



¦

112

Caith.

314

1,433

Suthld.

203

1,073

Stirling,

137

694

Perth,

277

2,047

Berw.

34

149

Edin.

32

41

Ork. A Sh. 318

1,446

Lanark,

613

2,938

Renf.

295

2,722



423

3,898

10,760
161,091
Dumb.
218
2,398
Kirkc.
275
1,725
Inver.
19
66
Forf.
142
711
Ross A Cro. 309
1,551
Edin.
15
92
Roxb.
6
24
Perth,
73
338
Kirkc.
49
235
Ayr,
562
4,583
Ross A Cro.
19
Kine.
23
110
Suthld.
7
42
Roxb.
59
368
Selk.
54
302
Ross A Cro. 23
118
Suthld.
323
1,535
Inver.
33
165

1
5
Ork. A Sh. 84
526

563
3,086

34
214
Lanark,
44
184
Aberd.
166
844
Elgin,
20
70

9
33
Ross A Cro. 339
1,776
Dumb.
173
1,044
Edin.
133

374
1,807
Perth,
27
154
15,941
82,707
Forf.
42
157
Ross A Cro. 798
3,699
Banff,
5
41
Elgin,
410
1,981

261
946
Bute,
632
7,104

580
2,457

666
7,354
Banff,
293
1,418
Inver.
127
521
Perth,
29
Dumf.
45
205
Ork. A Sh. 235
1,215

192
937
Dumb.
600
4,372

28
226
Names op Places.
Row, Blue. See Blue Row.
Roxburgh, q. s. p.
Roxburgh, p.
Roxburgh, v.
Roxburghshire, Rum, i. in Small Isles p.
Rumford, v.
Rifskie, v.
Rutherford, v.
Rutherglen, 6. and p.
Ruthven, p.
Ruthvenfield, v.
Ruthwell, p.
S.
Saddell, p.
Salen, q. s. p.
Saline, p. and v.
Sallysburgh, v.
Saltburn, v.
Saltcoats, t (part of), Ardrossan p.
Saltcoats, t (part of), Stevenston p.
Salton, p.
Salton, East, v.
Salton, West, v.
Samphrcy, i. in Yell p.
Samuelston, v. in Gladsmuir p.
Sanda, i in Southend p.
Sanda, i
Sandend, v. returned with Fordyce p.
Sandford, v.
Sandhead, v.
Sandness and Walls, p.
Sandra, i. in Barra p.
Sandsting and Aithsting. See Aithsting.
Sandwick, p.
Sandwick and Cunningsburgh, See
Cunningsburgh.
Sanquhar, 6. and p.
Sauchenside. See ChesterhiU.
Saucher, v.
Sauchiebog, u
Scalloway, v.
Scalpa, i. in Strath p.
Scalpay, i in Harris p.
Scarp, i. in Harris p.
Scone, p.
Scone, New, v.
Scone, Old, v.
Scoonie, p.
Scoonie-Burn, h. ret. with Scoonie p.
Scotland-Well, v.
Scowrie, v. in Edrachilh'sj>.
Scrogiehill, v.
Seatown of Delnies, v. returned with) Nairn
Nairn p. i '
Selkirk (part of), p.
Selkirk (part of), p.
Selkirkshire,.Shandwick, v
Shapinshay, i. and p.
Shawhead, p.
Sheriff hall Engine, v.
Shetland Isles,
Shettleston, p.
Shettleston, or West muir, v. included)
in above, j
Shewalton, v.
Shieldag (part of), q. s. p.
Shirgarton, v.
Shona, i in Aharacle p.
Shonaveg, i
Shore Dalmuir. See Dalmuir Shore,
Shotts. See Bertram-Shotts.
Shotts Iron Works,
Shuna, i. in Kilbrandon p.
Silverbanks, v.
Skateraw, h. in Innerwick p,
Skene, p.
Skernes, i. in Nesting p.
Skerries, Pentland, t. in South p.
Skianid, v.
Skiltiemuir, v.
Skipness, p.
Skirling, p. and v.
Skye, Island,
Slamanan, p.
Slateford, v. in Collintonp.
Slatesford, v. in Edzell p.
Sleat, p.
Sledrauir, A. ret. with Logie in South p, Forf.
Slohabert, v.
Smailholm, p. and v.
SmaU Isles (part of), p.
COUUTY.
INHAB.
House*
POP.
Edin.
685
3,683
Roxb.
235
1,141
25
123
f,255
51,642
Arg.
23
162
Stirling,
32
206
Perth,
15
57
Roxb.
14
71
Lanark,
716
7,954
Forf.
63
503
Perth,
68
425
Dumf.
181
1,110
Arg.
143
791

152
775
Fife,
314
1,792
Lanark,
39
196
Ross A Cro. 82
329
Ayr,
352
2,904

185
1,434
Hadd.
157
697

59
261

41
167
Ork. A Sh
6
30
Hadd.
57
215
Arg.
3
23
Ork. A Sh
399
2,004
Banff,
243
Lanark,
29
116
Wigton,
31
140
Ork. ASh.
421
2,442
Inver.
1
10
Ork. ASh.
231
1,107
Dumf. 637 4,071
Perth,
19
68
Lanark,
19
108
Ork. A Sh.
62
405
Inver.
13
79

48
282

25
145
Perth,
418
2,381

334
1,364

15
56
Fife,
509
3,115

30
Kinr.
80
274
Suthld.
19
108
Perth,
29
118
Nairn,
80
Roxb.
11
62
Selk."
536
4.285
1,331
9,809
RossACra
. 36
192
Ork. A Sh
.180
899
Kirkc
17
84
Edin.
11
47
Or. ASh. 5,249
31,078
Lanark,
821
6,564
1,543
Ayr,
219
Ross A Cro. 381
1,899
Perth,
20
80
Inver.
110

26
Lanark,
139
751
Arg.
7
39
Lanark,
28
150
Hadd.
11
72
Aberd.
354
1,862
Ork. A SI
. 14
105

3
13
Suthld.
48
243
Edin.
14
45
Arg.
148
713
Peebl.
60
316
Inver.
21
521
Stirling,
277
1,655
Edin.
58
221
Forf.
69
290
Inver.
507
2,531
>. Forf.
84
Wigton,
12
61
Roxb.
123
617
Arg.
77
465
SMA

15

TRO

Names of Places. County.
Small Isles (part of), p. Inver
Smallholm, h rjimvf
Smithtown of Culloden. See CuUoden.

Inhab. ..
Houses. Iop'
75 461
18 82

Names of Plaobs.
Stromness, t.
Stromness, p.
Stronferuan, v.

<*»""• HoT, *>'•
Ork. A Sh. 379 2.055
 530 2,770
Perth, 37 178

Snizort, ^>.
Soay, i.
Sorbie, or Sorby, p.

Inver.

570

3,101

Stronsay, i

Ork. ASh

227

1,176

Wigton,

24
296

158
1,886

Stronsay Papa, i.
Strontian, (/. s. p.

Arg.

4
190

28
982

Sorn, p. Ayr
Sornhill, ». returned with Riccarton p. 

476

4,174 95

Strowan and Monivaird. See Monivaird.
Stuartfield, v. in Deer p. Aberd,

174

614

South, p.
South, q. s. p in Airdrie,
South. See St. Mary's, South Isles.
South, q. s. p.
South Bridgend. See Bridgend.
South Isles,

Aberd.

313

4,543

Stuartown, v.

Inver.

57

204

Lanark,

288

4,666

Summerlee, v.
Sunart. See Ardnamurchan.

Lanark.

625

Renf.

550

2,537

SuTHEKLANDSHIRE,
Swannay, or Swona, i.

4,943
Ork. A Sh. 6

25,793 44

Ork. ASh. l,0i i

5,368

Swanston, v.

Edin.

31

115

South Parish. See Logie.
South- West, St. Mary's, or Tron, p. inl T „
Glasgow, i Lanarl£'

280

11,777

Swiney, v. in Latheron p.
Swinton, p.
Swinton, v.

Caith.Berw.Lanark,

212

71
994184

Southdean, p.
Southend, p.
Southmuir, v.

Roxb.

144

845

Symington, p.

Ayr,

167

902

Arg. Forf

209

1.406
1.048

Symington, p. and v.

Lanark,

107

536

Southwick and Colvend. See Colvend.

Soutra, j>. united to Fala p.
Hadd.
90
434
T.
Speymouth, p.
Elgin,
374
1,898
Tain, b. and p.
Ross A Cro. 648
3,574
SpittalBeld, v.
Perth,
58
238
Tangleha, v.
Kine.
8
19
Spott, p. and v.
Hadd.
122
595
Tannachy, New, v.
Banff,
136
Spring Garden, q. s, p.
Aberd.
113
1,887
Tannadice, p. and v.
Forf.
275
1,517
Springfield. See Graitney.
Tarbat, p.
Ross A Cro. 397
2,151
Springfield, v.
Fife,
113
480
Tarbert, v. in Kilcalmonell p.
Arg.
109
594
Springholm, v.
Kirkc
67
262
Tarbolton, p.
Ayr,
394
2,824
Sprouston, p.
Roxb.
279
1,424
Tarfside, h.
Forf.
8
32
Sprouston, v.

101
420
Tarrinsay, i in Harris p.
Inver.
11
55
Spynie, New, p.
Elgin,
245
1,344
Tarves, p.
Aberd.
469
2,469
Square Fordel. See Fordel Square.
Tarland and Migvie. See Migvie.
Square Holton. See Holton Square.
Tealing, p.
Forf.
170
844
Squaretown, v.
Edin.
15
77
Tenrpland, v.
Dumf.
23
111
Stair, p.
Ayr,
187
820
• Temple, p.
Edin.
251
1,414
Stane, v. in Cambusnethan p.
Lanark,
110
570
Temple, v. in Largo p.
Fife,
21
109
Stanley, q. 8. p.
Perth,
262
1,945
Tenantry, q. s. p.
Perth,
154
769
Star, v.
Fife,
476
Ternan Banchory. See Banchory.
Staxigoe, v. in Wick p.
Caith.
230
Terregles, p.
Kirkc
95
566
SteinschoU, q. s. p. i
Inver.
417
2.265
Terregles, v.

4
16
Stenhouse-mulr, v. in Larbert p.
Stirling,
267
1,206
Thankerton, v.
Lanark,
32
113
Stenness, p.
Ork. A Sh. 302
1,327
Thomas, St., q. s. p.

736
3,762
Stenton, p.
Hadd.
146
719
Thomas, St., (part of), q. s. p.
Renf.
575
2,885
Stephen's, St., p.
Edin.
404
7,893
Thorn, v. '

46
504
Stephen's, St., q. s. p.
Lanark,
801
3,975
Thornhill, v.
Dumf
253
1,416
Stevenston, p.
Ayr,
508
3,811
Thornliebank, a.
Renf.
279
1,620
Stewart, Newton. See Newton Stewart
Thornton, v.
Edin.
17
70
Stewarton, p.
Ayr,
540
4,572
Thornton, q. s. p.
Fife,
165
844
Stewarton and Wishawtown, v.
Lanark,
415
2,149
Thornton, v.
Forf
11
53
Stirling, b.
Stirling,
767
9,361
Thorntonloch, v.
Hadd.
28
119
StirUng, p.

888
10.180
Three-mile-town, v.
LinL
6
26
Stirlingshire,
11,312
86,237
Thurso, t. and p.
Caith.
837
5,096
Stitchel, p. and v.
Roxb.
159
832
Tibbermore, or Tibbermuir, v.
Perth,
273
1,495
StobbsmiUs (part of), v.
Edin.
22
106
Tigerton, h.
Forf
23
91
Stobhill, v.

27
130
Tillicoultry, p.
Clmn.
454
4,686
Stobhill Engine, v.

14
64
Tingwall, Whiteness, and Weesdale,
p. Ork. A SI
.482
2,874
Stobo, p.
Peebl.,
71
478
Tinwald, p.
Dumf.
201
1,080
Stonefield, v.
Lanark,
33
174
Tinwald, Kirkland of,

28
116
Stonehouse, p.

423
2,781
Tobermory, q. s. p.
Arg.
320
1,390
Stonehouse, v.

311
1,064
Toberonchy, ret. with Kilbrandon.
Stoneyhill, v.
Edin.
6
36
Todhills, v.
Forf.
9
50
Stoneykirk, p.
Wigton,
574
3,321
Tolcross, v. ret. with Shettleston p.
Lanark,
1,767
Stoneykirk, v.

13
56
Tolbooth Church. See Church, Tolbooth.
Store, q. 8. p.
Suthld.
279
1,478
Tomachar, v.
Perth,
7
20
Stornoway, t. and p.
Ross AC.
1,323
8,057
Tomintoul, q. s. p.
Banff,
226
919
Stotfield, v.
Elgin,
32
159
Tongland, p. and v.
Kirkc.
157
924
Stour Papa. See Papa Stour.
Tongue, p.
Suthld.
372
2,018
Stow (part of), ii.
Edin.
270
1,615
Torbrex, v.
Stirling,
26
141
Stow, v.

101
408
Torosay, p.
Arg.
263
1,361
Stow (part of), p.
Selk.
62
358
Torphichen, p.
Linl.
254
1,356
Strachan, p.
Kine.
184
947
Torphichen, v.

106
397
Strachlachlan, p.
Arg.
68
397
Torrance, v. •
Stirling,
105
473
Strachur, p.

101
518
Torrisdale, v.
Suthld.
25
106
Straiton, p.
Ayr,
260
1,540
Torry. See New MiUs.
Straloch Lands,
Aberd.
39
245
Torry, v.
Kine.
75
295
Stranraer, b. and p.
Wigton,
523
3,877
Torryburn, p.
Fife,
261
1,341
Strath, p.
Inver.
582
3,150
Torryburn, v.

107
602
Strath-Dighty. See Dighty.
Torthorwald, p.
Dumf.
255
1,313
Strathaven, t
Lanark,
448
4,274
Torthorwald, v.

36
178
Strathblane, p.
Stirling,
126
1,010
Torwogd, v.
Stirling,
36
151
Strathbogie District,
Aberd.
1,908
10,307
Tough, p.
Aberd.
170
891
Strathbungo, v. in Govan p.
Renf.
49
491
Towie. See Kinbettoch.
Strathconon. See Carnock.
Town-Yetholm. See Yetholm.
Strathdon. See Invernochtie.
Trailflat, v.
Dumf.
11
44
Strathfillan (part of), q. s. p.
Perth,
92
488
Tranent, t. and p.
Hadd.
714
4,158
Strathfillan (part of), q. 8. p.
Arg.
35
247
Traquair, p.
Peebl.
118
646
Strathkinness, v.
Fife,
128
490
Trinity. See South, p. Aberdeen.
Strathmartine, p.
Forf.
123
735
Trinity Gask. See Gask Trinity.
Strathmiglo, p. and v.
Fife,
466
2,509
Tron. See South- West, Lanark.
Strathy, q. s. p.
Suthld.
174
880
Tron Church. See Church Tron.
Strathyre, v.
Perth,
36
135
Trondray, i. in Tingwall p.
Ork. A Sh
23
169
Strichen, p.
Aberd.
511
2,283
Troon, t.
Ayr,
200
2,404
Strickathrow, p.
Forf.
117
505
Troqueer, p.
Kirkc.
648
4,925
Stroma, i in Canisbyj).
Caith.
43
211
Trows, New. See New Trows.
TUL

16

YIE

Names op Places. County.
Tulliallan, p. Perth,
Tullibody, tt Clmn.
Tulloch. See Glenmick.
TulUebole. See Fossoway.
Tulloch, tt Perth,
Tullynessle and Forbes. See Forbes.
Tundergarth, p. Dumf.
Turf holm. See Abbey Green,
Turriff, (. and p. Aberd.
Turriff District, 
Tweedsmuir, p. Peebl.
Tynholm, t. and tt Kirkc.
Tynningham, tt Hadd.
Tynron, p. Dumf.
Tyree. See Coll.
Tyrie, p. Aberd.

U.

ItfHAll. ¦>,,„
Houses. 574 3,043
137 600

42 95 .
707
2,723 45
123 72 91
487

216577
3,584
14,892 220 782 271
482
2,830

Names op Pi.acbs.

County.

Inhab.
Houses.

Uddington, v.

Lanark,

156

703

Uddington, v. in Douglas p.



24

97

Udney, p-

Aberd.

261

' 1,513

Uig, p.

Ross A Cro. 583

3,209

Uii. See Knock.

Uist, No'rth, p. and t.

Inver.

735

3,918

Uist, South, p. and i.



1,146

6,173

Ullapool, q s. p.

Ross A Cro. 511

2,769

TJlston, v.

Roxb.

20

97

Ulva, q. s. p.

Arg.

169

859

Under Ward,

Lanark,

3,505

18,883

Union. See East p., Aberdeen.

Unst, i and p.
Ork. A Sh. 551
2,977
Uphall, p.
Linl.
249
1,331
Uplamuir, v.
Renf.
30
166
Upper Ward,
Lanark,
6,379
40,'267
Upper Ward,
Renf.
7,963
112,221
Upsetlington, v. ret. with Lady Kirk p. Berw.
99
Urquhart, p. and v.
Elgin,
244
1,331
Urquhart See Glenmoriston.
Urquhart. See Logie Wester.
Urr, p.
Kirkc
630
3,363
Urray, p.
Ross A Cro. 577
2,621
Usan, v.
Forf.
25
167
Uya, i.
Ork. A Sh. 1.
16
, v.
Vaila, i, in Walls and Sandness p.
Ork. A Sh. 1
2
Vallay, i. in Uist p.
Inver.
7
46
Vementry, i in Aithsting p.
Ork. A Sh.
Vicarland, v.
Lanark,
15
123
Vigeans, St., p.
Forf.
1,325
9,797
Vinavore, «. in Uig p.
Ross A Cro.
Vinay, i.
Inver.
1
5
w.
Wallacetown, q. s. p.
Ayr,
1,006
4,620
Walls. See Sandness.
Walls, North and South, p.
Ork. A Sh. 3J<>
1,669
Walston, p.
Lanark,
93
497
Walston, «.

20
101
Walton, h.
Fife,
6
28
Wamphray, p.
Dumf.
90
523
Wandell. See Lamington.
Wanlockhead, tt returned with San
quhar p.
"\ Dumf.
773
Washington, tt
Perth,
27
119
Water-of- Leith, tt
Edin.
1,024
Waterbeck, tt
Dumf.
27
129
Waterloo, v. #
Waternish, q. s. p.
Perth,
31
117
Inver.
238
1,260
Watersay, i in Barra p.

8
64
Waterston, v. in Ecclesmachin p.
LinL
9
33
Watten, p.
Caith.
247
1,351
Weem, p.
Perth,
145
740
West See Airdrie.
West See Glasgow City.
West See Rutherglen.
West See Westray.
West Bridge. See Bridge, West.
West Bridgend. See Bridgend
West Church, in Crieff, q. s. p.
West Churoh, Perth City, p.
West Mill, tt
Westbarns, tt
Westerkirk, p.
Wester Ross,
Westhaven, tt
Westhouses, tt
Westown, v. -
Westquarter, v.
Westray, i.
West, p.
Westray-Papa, i.
Westruther, p.
Whelsay. See Nesting.
Whines, tt
Whins of Milton, tt
Whitburn, p.
Whitburn, tt
Whitefaugh, tt in Carrington p.
Whitehall, v.
Whitehill. tt
Whitehills, tt in Boyndie p.
Whitekirk and Tynningham p.
Whitekirk, tt
Whiteletts, tt
Whitemyre, v.
Whiteness. See Tingwall.
Whithorn, b.
Whithorn, p.
Whithorn, Isle of, tt
Whitsome and Hilton
Whittingham, p. and v.
Wick, b.
Wick, p.
Wier, i. in Roussay p.
Wigton, 6.
Wigton, p.
Wigtonshtre,
William Fort
WUliam Port
Wilsontown, tt
Wilton, p.
Winchburgh, tt
Windmillhill, tt
Windy-edge, tt ret with Sanquhar p.
Windygates, tt returned with Milton
of Balgonie q. s. p.
Wishawton and Stewarton.
arton.
Wiston and Roberton, p.
Wiston, tt
Wolf hill, tt in Cargill p.
Woodend, tt
Woodhaven, tt in Forgan p.
Woodlane, tt
Woodside, q. 8. p.
Wynd, Leith. See Canongate. Y.
Yards, Barn. See Barn Yards.
Yarrow, p.
Yarrowford (part of), u
Yell, North and Fetlar, p.
Yell, Mid and South, p.
Yester. See Gifford.
Yester's, Lady. See Lady Yester's,
Yetholm, p.
Yetholm Town, v.
Yieldshields, s>. returned with Car
luke p.
See Hilton.
See Fort- William.
See Port- William.
Perth,
334 445 31 43
108
8,008
Edin.
Hadd.
Dumf.Ross, ForfEdin.Perth,Lanark,Ork. A Sh. 427
 7875
147
30 15 92
Berw.Forf.
Stirling, LinLEdin.
4
115
625 186 10
Ork. A Sh. 57
Edin.Banff, Hadd.Ayr,
Elgin, Wigton,
27
163 232 17
159 24
291
611 78
Hadd.Caith.
135
171
 1,851
Ork. A Sh. 13
Wigton, 339
 442
6,902
Lanark,Roxb. Linl.Lanark,Duinf.
285 3834
See Stew-
Lanark, 164
Perth,Fife, Perth,
Aberd.
Selk.
38 7
18
18
440
Ork. A Sh. 305
Roxb.
'j- Lanark,
231
107
2.177 5,619 124 170
658
40,557 301 133 72
481
2,088 357371 791 19
528
3,792 798 49
295
178626
1,131 84
754
1,652
3,001 495671
1,514
11,851 62
2,232
2,824
43,389
113
2,557 222
225 57
120
839141
122 3192
102
4,839
1,294 30
1,666
1,741
1,352 618
To the Binder.
The present sheet may be bound up betwixt pages 832 and 833 of Vol. II.
Ij^DEX

OF PLACES, PERSONS, &c, NOT INCLUDED IN THE
ALPHABETICAL ARRANGEMENT:

Abbey bitrn, ii. 591
Abbey near Haddington, i. 1
Abbey well, ii. 787
Aberarder, ii. 424
Abercairney, i. 590
Aberchalder, ii. 459
Abercrombies (.The), i. 25
Aberiachan, ii. 428
Abermele. ii. 414
Aboyne (Earl of ), i. 19
Achaius, i. 71
Acharn, ii. 91
Achernach, ii. 721
Achlouchrie, ii. 740
Achmore, ii. 797
Acbnacary, i. 52
Acbnacloicb, ii. 608
Ackergill tower, i. 186 ; ii. 807
Ackerness, ii. 799
Ada (Queen), i. 71
Adie hill, ii. 583
Agnews (The), ii. 816
Aidan, i. 21
Aikerness loch, ii. 553
Aiky, i. 311
Aird linn, ii. 667
Airndilly, i. 150
Aith's voe, i. 408
Ait-Suidhe-Thuin, ii. 563
Alata Castra, i. 170
Alaterva, ii. 796
Alauna, i. 24
Aldarder, ii. 200
Aldernan water, i. 345
Aldivalloch, ii. 402
Alexander, ii. 94
Allan's inn, ii. 598
Allanbank, i. 489
Allander (The), ii. 133
Almagill, i. 306
Alness,.). 28; ii. 608
Alorburn, i. 351
Altgrad, i. 80
Altnach water, ii. 187
Alton's harbour, ii. 448
Altrie (Lord), i. 31 1
Altyre, ii. 578
Ample (The), i. 100
Angus (Earldom of), i. 42
Ankerville, ii. 738
Annandale's Beef Stand, i. 502
Anniston, ii. 20
Anoch, i. 689
II.

Appletreehall, ii. 817
Apprentice's aisle, i. 496
 pillar, ii. 604
Aquhorties college, ii. 44
Arbigland, ii. 163
Arbuthnot (Dr.), i. 9, 51 ; ii. 157
Archasig-hirm, ii. 597
Archerbeck, i. 203
Ardcheanochrochan, ii. 770
Ardchullerie, ii. 313
Ardenconnel, ii. 615
Ardgowan, ii. 9
Ardincaple, ii. 615
Ardkinlass, ii. 287
Ardmore, ii. 107
Ardmucknish, i. 20
Ardneil, ii. 101
Ardross, ii. 608
Ardo, i. 101
Ardtornish castle, ii. 404
Ardwell, ii. 713
Argaty, ii. 119
Argyle's Bowling-green, ii. 306
Argyle (Earldom of), i. 476
Ariniskle-Fank, ii. 156
Ar mi dale, i. 61
Armstrong (Johnnie), i. 203, 616; ii. 220
 — (Dr. John), i. 219
Arnate (The), ii. 405
Arnhall, i. 534
Arnish, ii. 715
Arniston, ii. 749
Arnold's seat, ii. 740
Arnpryor, ii. 699
Ascog, ii. 609
Ascrib, ii. 678
Ashdowfall, ii. 112
Assel (The), i. 617
Astoune, i. 23
Athelstane, i. 71
Auchalkylder, i. 690
Auehans, i. 385
Aucbenbathie, ii. 296
Auchencruive, i. 25 ; ii. 577
Auchendrane, ii. .340
Auchenreoch, ii. 789
Auchinames, ii. 96
Auchincass castle, i. 44; ii. 193
Auchindune castle, ii. 402
Auchinhove, i. 703
Auchinlilly, i. 213
Auchinskicb, i. 303
Auchmedden (Den of), i. 12
Auchmuir bridge, ii. 159
Auchnasheen, ii. 764
Auchtertyre, ii. 446
3 a

834

INDEX.

Auld hill, ii. 102
Auldhouse burn, ii. 550
Auld Wife's lift, i. 9.5
Aven, ii. 634
Avielochan, i. 82
Aylort (Loch), i. 513

B
Bach, ii. 768
Back water, ii. 56, 2S2
Badanvougie, i. 47
Badenoch (Wolf of), i. 94, 495
Badenyon,.i. 672
Bahymonts (The), i. 34
Baikie castle, i. 21
Baillie (General), i. 24
 (Dr. Matthew), ii. 668
 (Lad:/ Grizel), ii.,553
Bairds of Auchmedden, i. 102
Balantradoch, ii. 749
Balbedie hill, ii. 259
Balbithan, ii 160
Balbrogy, i. 287
Balbunnoch, ii. 307
Balcail house, i. 687
Balcaskie, i. 210
Balcastle, ii. 138
Balcomie, i. 258
Balcraig castle, ii. 446
Balcruvie, ii. 223
Baldoon, ii. 179
Baldridge colliery, i. 388
Balfour (Sir James), i. 3, ii. 122
 '¦  ofBurley, i.175, 228; ii. 601
Balfour castle, ii. 154, 328
Balfrishel, i. 151
Balgay, i. 372
Balgedie, ii. 557
Balglass, ii. 112
Balgreggan, ii. 713
Balintore, i. 529
Baliol (Edward), i. 414
Ballagan (Spout of), i. 148
Ballanbieich, i. 559
Ballangeich road, ii. 698
Ballangeich (The Gudeman o"^ ii. 698
Balledgarno, ii. 8
Ballemenoch, i. 207
Ballencrief, i. 14
 water, ii. 763
Ballikinrain, ii. 112
Ballindean, ii. 8.
Balloch castle, ii. 748
 loch, ii. 42j
Ballogie, i. 143
Ballumbie, ii. 414
Balm well, ii. 264
Balmacarra, i. 28
Balmerinoch (Lord), i. 40, 259, 288
Balmuir, ii. 324
Balnacross, ii. 760
Balnagown, ii. 132
Balnaves of Halthill, ii. 166
Balta, ii. 657
Balthayock, ii. 159
Baltebun, ii. 630
Balquhain, i. 223
Balvaird castle, i. 17
Balvaird family, i. 61
Balveny castle, ii. 402
Bambreich castle, i. 559
Bankton house, ii. 766
Bannavie, i. 192

Banovy (The), i. 147
Barbauchlaw burn, ii. 315
Barclay (Robert), i. 10
Barclosh, ii. 179
Bardowie, i. 95
Bards (Highland), i. 778
Bargaton loch, ii. 760
Barholm, ii 183
Barjary, ii. 75
Barlocco Isles, ii. 812
Barmure, ii- 334
Barnhill's bed, ii. 360
Barnwell, ii. 742
Barochan, i. 807
Barr castle, ii. 296
Barrel of Butter, ii. 474
Barrogil castle, i. 202
Barsick head, ii. 598
Barrstobrick, ii. 760
Barry hill, i. 31
Barskimming. ii. 334, 688
Barvie, ii. 387
Barwhinnock, ii. 777
Basaltic pillars, i. 20
Basta voe, ii. 822
Bastie (Anthony de la\ i. 811
Battach mount, i. 143
Battie's den, ii. 488
Battledykes, ii. 455
Battle law, i. 99
Batturrich castle, ii. 128
Bay of Martyrs, ii. 45
Beacon hill, ii. 764
Beanston, ii. 567
Beardy (Earl), i. 49
Beaton (Cardinal), i. 15, 37, 40
 (James), i. 623 ; ii. 805
Beaton's mill, ii. 450
Beaufort, ii. 140
Beaumont (Henry de), i. 12
Beaumont water, ii. 399
Beaute (Chevalier de la), i. 409
Beden-na-Bean, i. 59
Bedland hill, i. 303
Beg water, ii. 655
Beinerard, i. 96
Belladrom, ii. 140
Bellcraig, ii. 363, 795
Bell (Dr. Andrew), i. 4, 39
 (Henry), i. 396, 772.
 (James), i 20 1
 of Antermony, i. 201
Bellshill, i. 157
Bells of Middlebie, ii. 356
Bellymire, i. 223
Belmont castle, ii. 344
 house, ii. 786
Beltrees, ii 97, 296
Bemerside, ii. 353
Benarty hill, ii. 159, 559
Benaven, i. 11
Benbreach, ii. 781
Bencroghan, ii. 781
Bendeanavaig, ii. 563
Benegin, i. 150
Benghulbhuinn, i. 692
Bengriammore, ii. 108
Benhutig, ii. 761
Benlaoghal, ii. 761
Ben Macdhu, i. 11, 105
Benmore, i. 99; ii. 118, 781
Bennetstown, ii. 552
Benradh, ii. 585
Benshianta, i. 124
Bentaluidh, ii. 762

INDEX.

835

Bentarn, i. 59.
Benuarn, i. 11
Benvenue, i. 14; ii. 73
Benybourd, i. 1 1
Berbeth, ii. 717
Bertha, ii. 522
Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, i. 27 ; ii. 354
Bethelfield, i. 2
Bethelnie, ii. 345
Bethune (Mary), i. 264 ; ii. 328
Bevelaw burn, ii. 504
Biblestone (The), i. 142
Bighouse, ii. 585
Billikellet, i. 283
Bilsdean, ii. 460
Binhill, ii. 583
Binning wood, ii. 778
Binns, i. 3
Binny, ii. 272
Birkhill, ii. 235
Birrenswark, i. 172
Bishopmill, ii. 685
Bishops' forest, ii. 192
Bister, ii. 643
Bizzy berry, i. 140
Blachadder (Colonel), i. 116
 (Rev. John), ii. 770
Blackadder-house, i. 488
Black Agnes, i. 364
Black Andrew hill, ii. 652
Blackcairn, ii. 435
Black cave (The), i. 63
Black Dog, i. 5
Black Dwarf, ii. 326
Blackearnside (Battle of), i. 2
Blackhall, ii. 478, 716
Blackhills, ii. 669
Blacklarg hill, i. 304; ii. 636
Black loch, ii. 675
Blackridge, ii. 763
Blackwater, i. 179
Blair (Dr. Hugh), i. 244
 (Rev. Robert), i. 72
Blair castle, i. 147
Blairessan, ii. 113
Blairfeldy, ii. 16
Blairquhan, ii. 185, 717
Blar' na'n Ceann, i. 248
Blaven hills, ii. 672
Bleary (King), ii. 483
Bleary's (Queen) cross, ii. 583
Bleaton (Easter) ii. 584
Blebo, ii. 88
Blessing (Lake of), ii. 596
Blomel sound, ii. 822
Bloody bay, ii. 45
Bloody fold, i. 1.10
Blythswood, ii. 587
Boat-of-Bog, ii. 684
Boddom castle, ii. 540
Boethius (Hector), i. 4, 48, 383
Bog of Mountblairie, i. 30
Bogany, ii. 609
Bogmile, i. 229
Bogrie hill, i. 408
Bo' hall, i. 611
Boll-for-nought, ii. 448
Bonchester, i. 797
Bonjedward, ii. 60
Bonnington linn, i. 23 1
Bonnyrig, i. 238
Bonnyton, ii. 333
Boon hill, ii. 235
Boot hill, ii. 642
Boquhan, i. 606, ii. 162

Borve, i. 526
Boston (Thomas), i. 409, 508; ii. 668, 806
Boswell of Auchinleck, i. 73
Bothwellhaugh, i. 159, 307
Bowerhope, ii. 331
Bowhill, ii. 647
Bowman (Walter), ii. 299
Boyd (Earldom of), i. 65
Boydstone, i. 57
Boykin, ii. 799
Boyne castle, i. 162
Braal castle, i. 735
Brabster castle, i. 202
Brackness, ii. 727
Braehead, i. 210
Braeriach, i. 309
Braid burn, ii, 264
Brandir-pass, i. 86
Brandy (Loch), i. 228
Branks (The), ii. 221
Breadislee (Johnie o'); i. 415
Breck (Donald), i. 58
Bridei, ii. 544
Bride's burn, ii. 96
Bridgend, ii. 608
Bridge-of-Frew, ii. 119
Bridge-of-Tilt, i. 146
Bridge-of-Turk, i. 19
Bridge-of-Urr, ii. 190
Briech water, ii. 801
Brisbane house, ii. 225
Brittle loch, ii. 671
Broad bay, ii. 714
Broadhaven, ii. 807
Broadmeadows; i. 813
Brochel castle, ii. 581
Broomhall, i. 223
Broomholm house, ii. 220
Broomhouse, i. 33
Brothock (The), ii. 792
Brough, ii. 799
Brow, ii. 629
Brown of Coalston, i. 236, 325
 (Gilbert), ii. 432
 (John), ii. 572
 (Robert), ii. 567
Brownie's-legs, i. 612
Broxmouth, i. 171
Bruce (David), i. 12
 (Lady Christian), ii. 109
 (Lady Marjory), ii. 588
 (Michael), i. 227, 596; ii. 557
 (Robert), i. 3, 39, 44, 54, 63, 108,
351, 397, 544; ii. 629, 773, 777
 (Sir Michael), i. 67
 of Clackmannan, i. 226
(Sir George), i. 279

Bruce's cave, i. 64
Brunstane, ii. 505
Brunton, i..263; ii. 328
Bruntwood loch, i. 603
Buchan (Countess of), i. 544
Buchanan (George), i. 34, 38, 148; ii. 113
Buchanhaven, ii. 539
Buchanites, ii. 54
Buckieden, ii. 316
Buckny (The), i. 229
Buckholmside, i. 599
Buddon burn, ii. 366
Bullion well, i. 427
Buhner (Sir Bevis), ii. 233
Buness, ii. 786
Burg, ii. Ill
Burgee castle, ii. 578
Burlygate, ii. 226

836

INDEX.

Burnbank harbour, ii. 448
Burnet (Bishop Gilbert), i. 9; ii. 632
Burnhaven, ii. 539
Burnmouth, i. 93
Burns (Robert), i. 27, 349; ii. 405, 743
Burra Frith, ii. 657, 785
Burt (Captain), i. 279
Bushell (Captain), i. 630
Byron (Lord), i. 95 ,
Byth, ii. 152, 438

Cabbac stone (The), i. 55
Caddon water, ii. 652, 715
Cademuir, ii. 491
Cadzow castle, i. 739
Cailm (Loch), ii. 585
Cairnairc, ii. 25
Cairn-a-vain, ii. 475
Cairnballoch, i. 24
Cairnbug, ii. 768
Cairnbulg, ii. 156? 582 ,
Cairn-Coinneag, ii. 607
C'airncss house, ii. 309
Cairnferg, i. 143
Cairn holy, ii. 183
Cairnie castle, ii. 389
Cairnkinna, ii. 567
Cairnmuir, i. 205; ii. 193
Cairn-Naple, ii. 763
Cairntable, i. 325
Cairntoul, i. 11 i
Cairnyflappet castle, :ii. 725
Cairstone, ii. 727
Cakemuir, i. 260
Calder (Muriella), i. 187
Caldham, i. 287
Calf sound, i. 428
Callernish, ii. 781
Calwattie, ii. 601
Cambus burn, ii. 120
Cambusmore, ii. 119
Cameron (Bishop), i. 624
 (Hugh), i. 167
 (Jean), ii. 100
 (Richard), i. 21, 84, 524
Camisendun, i. 416
Campbell (Archibald), ii. 587
 (Si/Colm), i. 61 ; ii. 104
Camp'erdown-house; ii. 266
Camphill, ii. 222
Campmuir, ii. 222
Campsille, ii. 601
Camustown, ii. 367
Candida casa, ii. 804
Candle hill, ii. 628
Candren well, ii. 477
Canisp, i. 69
Canmore (Malcolm), i. 16, 75, 389; ii. 1
Cant (Andrew), ii. 547
Cant hills, ii. 667
Canty bay, i. 1 1 6
Capelhills, ii. 441
Caradell, ii. 630
Carbeth, ii. 112
Carbett house, ii. 399
Carberry house, ii. 18
Carby hill, i. 218
Carcary island,1]. 13
Cardan's well, ii. 369
Cardonald, ii. 478
Cardoness castle, i. 46
Cardrona, ii. 768

Carghidoun, ii. 803
Cargill (Donald), i. 413
Carinish, ii. 782
Carlenrig, i. 204
Carlonan linn, i. 48
Carloway, ii. 780
Carmel water, ii. 128
Cam Chainichin, ii. 371
Carn-na-cuimhne, i. 163
Carn-nan-gour, i. 146
Carnsalloch, ii. 184
Carpow, i. 13
Carrictonium, i. 212
Carrol rock, i. 170
Carsaig, ii. Ill
Carsethorn, ii. 163
Carslogie, i. 288
Carter fell, i. 223
Carthur, i. 814
Cartleyhole, i. 1
Carty, ii. 813
Carwinning hill, i. 303
Cary, i. 16
Cash, ii. 725
Cassillis (Countess of), i. 215
 (Earl of), i. 20
Castle bay, i. 113
Castlecraig, ii. 193
Castle Drummin, i. 81
Castle Feather, ii. 803
Castlehaven, ii. 741
Castlehill bay, ii. 460
Castle Lachlane, ii. 716
Castle law, i. 16
Castle loch, ii. 189
Castle Lyon, ii. 306
Castlemilk, ii. 414
Castle O'er, i. 506; ii. 798
Castle of Gloom, i. 199
Castle of hills, ii. 295
Castlephairn, i. 672
Castle Riddell, i. 56
Castle Roy, i. 18
Castle Sinclair, ii. 807
Castle Spiritual, ii. 428
Castle Stewart, ii. 507
Castle Stuart, ii. 543
Castlewigg, ii. 802
Castramount, i. 616
Cat castle, ii. 713
Catcune castle, i. 155
Caterline, ii. 156
Catter house, ii. 128
Causea hill, i. 331
Cauvin's hospital, i. 339
Ceanmharra, ii. 759
Chalmers (Dr.), i. 44
Chanlock burn. ii. 507
Chapelfield, i. 1
Chapel hill, i. 57
Chapelhope, ii. 331
Chapelpark, ii. 203
Chapeltown, i. 670; ii. 591
Charles I., i. 41
~— — - (Prince), i 52, 58, 275; ii. 380
Charteris (Colonel), i. 32
Chatelard, i. 550
Chattie water, i. 143
Cheese well, ii. 358
Chesterhill, i. 45
Chesters, ii. 138, 325
Chesters-house, i. 32
Cheyne (Bishop), i. 5
Cheynes (The), i. 531
Christie's Will, ii. 643

INDEX.

837

Chroisg loch, i. 248
Cillchuiman, i. 151
Clachary, ii. 507
Clach-na-Ossian, i. 27
Clachshant, ii. 713
Clanyard castle, ii. 185
Claonaig, ii. 630
Clashbennie, i. 502
Clatchard craig, i. 2
Clathey, i. 612
Clatto, ii. 95
Clatto hill, i. 34
Claven hills, i. 385
Claverhouse, ii. 324
Cleghorn, ii. 207
Cleland house, i. 159
Clerk (John) of Eldin, ii. 505
Clerkington, i. 722
Clermiston, i. 252
Clett (The), ii. 752
Cleugh burn, ii. 681
' Cliff loch, ii. 786
 sound, ii. 656
Clifford (Sir Robert), i. 108
Clinthill, i. 132
Clintwood, ii. 624
Cloch, ii. 9
Clochodrick stone, ii. 96
Cloffin burn, ii. 363
Clola, i. 311
Cloncaird castle, ii. 185
Cloup voe, ii. 822
Cloven crags, i. 1 19
Cloven stone, ii. 407
Cloves of Ma wes, i. 148
Clowburn, ii. 543
Cluanadh, i. 230
Clumpton, i. 347
Coalsnaughton, ii. 755
Cobler (The), i. 66
Cochrage, ii. 256
Cochrane, ii. 478
Cockpool, ii. 629
Cogtal burn, ii. 503
Coil (King), i. 87, 91, 254
Coillebhroine, ii. 791
Coillinteogle ford, ii. 791
Coilsfield, ii. 742
Coir-nan-Uriskin, ii. 73
Colbarn, ii. f3
Coldrain, i. 687
Coldrochie water, ii. 586
Colgrave sound, ii. 822
Colin's isle, ii. 5
College loch, ii. 750
Collin, ii. 764
Colluthie, ii. 389
Colmkill, ii. 673
Colmslie, i. 24.
Colquhalzie house, ii. 768
Columba (St.), ii. 46.
Comgill, ii. 586
Comlongan, ii. 629
Compass hill, i. 203
Compensation-pond, i. 679
Comyn (Assassination of), i. 351
Comyn's castle, ii. 184
Cona water, i. 678
Conachan, ii. 105
Conanside, ii. 788
Cook's cairn, ii. 401
Cope (Sir John), ii. 568
Corbelly, i. 347 ; ii. 769
Corbiehall, i. 215
Coremilligan, ii. 779

Coria Damniorum, i. 216
Corkindale law, ii. 426
Corrah, ii. 179
Corrichie, i. 527 ; ii. 161
Corriviarlich, i. 27
Corrymony, ii. 788
Corsaig, ii. 630
Corse Dardar, i. 144
Coryhabbie hill, ii. 401
Cossans, i. 620
Cotton, i. 5
Coul, i. 248
Coulard hills, ii. 715
Countesswells, ii. 538
Coupar (Lord), i. 288
Cour house, ii. 630
Courston, ii. 723
Courthill, i. 303 ; ii. 599
Courthillock, ii. 198
Cove, ii. 191
Cowdailly castle, i. 210
Cowey's linn, i. 430
Cowlairs, i. 487
Cows haven, i. 12
Cowsrieve, ii. 539
Crabstone (The), i. 6
Cragach, ii. 816
Craggie loch, ii. 761
Crag-Roman, ii. 714
Craigbill, ii. 769
Craigcaffei, ii. 2
Craigcrook, i. 259
Craigdam, ii. 744
Craigdarroch, i. 97, 672
CraigeUachie, i. 416 ; ii. 200, 608
Craigends, ii. 97
Craigfoodie hill, i. 295
Craigforth, ii. 694
Craighall, i. 222 ; ii. 584
Craighead, ii. 586
Craigie, ii. 577
Craig-na-Cailliach, i. 100
Craigo, ii. 301
Craigsparrow, ii. 435
Craigston castle, ii. 152
Craigward, i. 26
Craikmoor, ii. 595
Crannich, ii. 797
Ciatown, i. 403
Craufurdland, ii. 123
Crawford (Captain), i. 344
Crawford-Lindsay, i. 262
Crawford priory, i. 281
Crichton (The Admirable), i. 229 ; ii. 637
 (Earldom of), i. 352
 :(Dr.) of Friar's carse, i. 348
Crichton institution, ii. 769
Crieve, ii. 772
Crighton dean, i. 260
Croft-an-Rigb, i. 303
Crofts, i. 271
Crombie, ii. 764
Cromby burn, ii. 154
Cromlix, i. 370
Cromwell (Oliver), i. 6, 62, 87, 88, 367, 628;
ii. 21
Cromwell Park, ii. 586
Crona, ii. 460
Crook's Pow, ii. 769
Cross water, ii. 313
Crosschain hill, i. 515
Crossfield hill, ii. 786
Croy, ii. 112
Cruick water, i. 529
Cuckold le Roi, ii. 268

838

INDEX.

Cuddies, i. 275
Cuibin, i. 417
Culbirnie, i. 102
Culblean, i. 690
Culbokie, ii. 789
Culdees (The), i. 36; ii. 47, 348
Culfargie, i. 527
Cully, i. 616
Cultequey, ii. 388 >
Culter house, ii. 538
Cumberland (Duke of), i. 78, 275
Cummins (The), i. 5, 44, 94, 531 ; ii. 100
Cummin's camp, i. 160
 tower, i. 147
Cumming (the Red), i. 181
Cummings of Logie, i. 29
Cumston castle, ii. 777
Cuninghar, ii. 755
Cunningham (Allan), i. 84; ii. 184
Cunningham of Robertland, i. 490
Cur hills, ii. 367
Curaig, i. 69
Currach (Highland), i. 18
Cursus Apri, i. 41
Cuthill, ii. 572

D
Daharick, ii. 356
Daile (The), i. 44
Dale (David), i. 149, 221 ; ii. 207
Dalmally, i. 691
Dalmore, ii. 608
Dalmuir, ii. 134, 136
Dalziels (The), i. 307
Daoine Shi', i. 786
Dardanus, i. 144
Dargavel, i. 503
Darnley (Lord),, i. 270, 802
David II. , i. 3
Dead burn, ii. 441
Deadmangill, ii. 407
Dechmont, ii. 283
Dee bridge, i. 5
Deil's Hows, ii. 740
Delvin, i. 229
Den Fenel, i. 294
Denfiend, ii. 367
Denholm dean, ii. 360
Denoon castle, i. 620
Deuchar-swire, ii. 820
Devil's cauldron, i. 149
 cave, ii. 105
- dyke, ii. 177

— mill, i. 315

Devorgilla, ii. 431
Dhu (Loch), ii. 807
Dingy's howe, i. 312
Dinmont (Dandy), ii. 682
Distinct-Horn, i'. 603
Divach (The), i. 238 ; ii. 787
Doach burn, ii. 87
Dogden moss, i. 705 ; ii. 800
Dolphiston, ii. 476
Donald Dubh, i. 770
Don bridge, i. 5
Don (Loch), ii. 412
Donibristle, i. 296
Doon, ii. 684
Dorrington laws, ii. 307
Douglas family, i. 42, 145, 158, 326-329
Douglastown, ii. 158
Doun-Reay house, ii. 585
Dowglen, ii. 798

Dow (John), ii. 335
Dow loch, ii. 15, 508
Dowl (Loch), i. 316.
Dragon hole, ii. 1 58
Draphane castle, ii. 254
Drill (the), i. 44
Drimbui, ii. 758
Driminner, ii. 771
Drimmie (Snabs of), ii. 306
Drimmie house, ii. 8, 307
Drimminor, i. 249 »
Drip bridge, ii. 749
Drochil castle, ii. 441
Dronach haugh, i. 27 ; ii. 354
Dron hill, ii. 306 ,
Dropping cave, ii. 675
Drum (Loch of), i. 102
Drumcultran, ii. 179
Drumellie loch, ii. 256
Drummochy, ii. 223
Drummond of Hawthornden, i.565
Drummore, ii. 169, 567
Drumnadrochit, ii. 788
Drumouchter. forest, ii. 770
Drum stone, ii. 151
Drumsturdy, ii. 366
Dryburn bridge, ii. 13
Dryhope, ii. 331
Dub's cauldron, ii. 795
Dubh (Loch), ii. 667
Duchal, ii. 120
Duchal law, ii. 477
Duffus (King), i. 5<5
Dugaldstone loch, ii. 133
Duich (Loch), ii. 160
Dullater bog, ii. 139
Dumbrake castle, ii. 780
Dumbuck hill, ii. 134
Dumcrieff, ii. 365
Dumgoiac, ii. 720
Dunaidh, ii. 455
Dunbar (Bishop Gavin), i. 5, 623 ; ii. 362
Duncan's height, i. 312
Duncan hill, ii. 581
Duncan (King), i. 188
Duncomb, ii. 135
Duncow, ii. 184
Duticraggan, ii. 791
Duncruib, i. 403
Duncruin, ii. 127
Dundaf linn, i. 232
Dundargue-castle, i. 12
Dundases of Arniston, i. 156
Dundee (Viscount), i. 72, 84, 384; ii. 99,
1 lo, 324
Dunduramh, ii. 287
Dundyvan iron company, i. 236
Dunegal, ii. 452
Duneira, i. 246. ii. 722
Dungavel, ii. 818
Dunie hill, ii. 367
Duniquoich hill, ii. 15
Dunmore. i. 22
Dun-na-Feuian, ii. 634
Dun Macsnichan, i. 129
Dunnemarle castle, i. 280
Dunnikier, ii. 167, 490
Dun-o-deer, ii. 14
Dunpender, ii. 767
Dunrod, ii. 100
Dunskaich castle, ii. 674, 676
Dunskeith, ii. 447
Dunskey castle, ii. 560
Duntreath castle, ii. 720
Duntulm castle, ii; 131, 674

INDEX.

839

Dunure (Castle of), ii. 338
Dura-Den, i. 537 ; ii. 88
Durie, ii. 643
Durie (Lord), i. 204
Durn hill, i. 562
Durran loch, ii. 460
Dwarf (The Black), ii. 326
Dwarfie stone, i. 809
Dyrock water, ii. 185

E

Eagerness castle, ii. 680
Earshall, ii. 257
Earl's seat hill, i. 148
Eas Gobhain, ii. 749
Easter-Clune, i. 144
Easter house, ii. 600
Eathach (Loch), i. 614
Ebba, i. 2.
Eden castle, ii. 152
Edgar's walls, i. 239
Edgebucklin-brae, ii. 546
Edgerston, ii. 60
Edinburgh Abbey district and jurisdiction, i. 460
Abbey-hill, i. 436
Abbey St. Cuthbert's, i. 434
Academy (Edinburgh), i. 448
Admiralty court, i. 457
Advocates (Faculty of), i. 457
 Library, i. 441
Ainslie Place, i. 438
Argyle (Execution of), i. 476
Arthur's Seat, i. 432
Assembly-rooms, i. 444
Athens (compared with), i. 433
Bagimont's roll, i. 453
Bank of Scotland, i. 443
Banking-houses, i. 462
Bellevue crescent, i. 439
Blackfriars (Monastery of), i. 453
Botanic garden, i. 446
Burgal system, &c, i. 458
Burns's monument, i. 446
Calton district and jurisdiction, i. 461
Calton hill, i. 432
Canal basin, i. 464
Canongate, i. 434, 460
Canonmills, i. 439
Castle, i. 434, 442
Cauvin's hospital, i. 451
Chapels, i. 452, 453
Charles I. crowned, i. 475
 II. 's statue, i. 445
Church (Canongate), i. 451, 467
 (Greyfriars), i. 452, 465
 (Newington), i. 452
 (St. Andrew's), i. 453, 466
 (St. Cuthbert's), i. 452
,  (St. George's), i. 452, 466
 (St. Giles'), i. 451
,  (St. Mary's), i. 453, 467
 (St. Paul's), i. 452
 (St. Stephen's), i. 453, 467
 (Trinity College), i. 451, 465
 (Tron), i. 451, 465
 (Lady Yester's), i. 452, 466
Church Statistics, i. 464-468
Civil Edifices, i. 440—451
Claverhouse, i. 477
Cleanse-the-Causey, i. 472
Club (New), i. 446
Coates' crescent, i. 438

Coates (.View from), i. 433
College Library, i. 447
 Museum, i. 447
Commissary court, i. 457
Congregation (Lords of the), i. 473
Convention of royal burghs, i. 458
County-hall, i. 442
Cowgate, i. 435
Cromwell (Oliver), takes Edinburgh, i. 475
Cross (The), i. 455
Darnley (Marriage and death of), i. 473
Deaf and Dumb Institution, i. 449
Dean bridge, i. 438, 445
Description (General), i. 432-434
Dispensaries, i. 448
Donaldson's bequest, i. 450
Earthen-mound, i. 437, 445
Ecclesiastical edifices, i. 451 — 454
Exchange, i. 440
General Assembly, i. 458
George-square, i. 436
George-street, i. 437
George IV. 's Bridge, i. 445
(Statue of), i. 445

-'s Visit to Edinburgh i. 479

Gillespie's hospital, i. 451
Grassmarket, i. 435
Greyfriars (Monastery of), i. 453
Heriot's hospital, i. 449
Hertford (Earl of) burns Edinburgh, i. 472
High-street, i. 434
History, i. 469
Holyrood Abbey and Palace, i. 454
 (Sanctuary of), i. 460
Hopetoun's Monument, i. 446
Hume's Monument, i. 433
Infirmary (Royal), i. 449
Insurance Offices, i. 462
Jails and Bridewell, i. 444
James VI., i. 473
King's bridge, i. 445
Kirk-of-field, i. 453
Knox, John, House of, i. 454
' Laurieston, i. 436
Leith-street, i. 439
Leith-wynd, i. 436
Leopold-place, i. 440
Luckenbooths, i. 456
Lunatic Asylum, i. 448
Magdalene Asylum, i. 448
Maiden hospital, i. 450
Maison Dieu, i. 453
Manufactures, i. 462
Markets, &c, i. 463
Mary (Queen), arrival of, i. 473
Meadows, i. 436
Melville's Monument, i. 437, 446
Minto house, i. 449
Minto-street, i. 435
Montrose beheaded, i. 475
Moray-place, i. 438
 house, i. 440
Mound, i. 445
Municipal Government, i. 458
Murray (Earl of), i. 473
National monument, i. 446
Nelson's monument, i. 446
Netherbow-port, i. 455
Newington, i. 435
Newspapers, i. 462
New Town (Description of), i. 437 — 440
New-year's-day riots, i. 479
Nicolson's (Lady) Pillar, i. 456
Nicolson-street, i; 435
North bridge, i. 444

840

INDEX.

North bridge-street, i. 436
Observatory and Astronomical institution,
i. 444
Old Town (Description of), i. 434—437
Orphan hospital, i. 450
Parishes, i. 464—468
Parliament house, i. 441
 square, i. 441
Periodical Publications, i. 462
Physicians (Royal college of), i. 446
Pitt's statue, i. 445
Playfair's monument, i. 446
Pleasance, i. 435
Police establishment, i. 459
Poor-house, i. 449
Population, i. 468
Porteous mob, i. 478
Portsburgh, i. 461
Post-office, i. 444
Prince's-street, i. 437, 439
Publishing trade, i. 462
Queensberry house, i. 440
Queen-street, i. 437
Randolph's crescent, i. 438
Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, i. 478
Regalia of Scotland, i. 442
Regent bridge, i. 445
Register house, i. 443
Revenue of the city, i. 459
Revolution riots, i. 477
Rizzio (Murder of), i. 473
Royal bank, i. 444
 circus, i. 438
 exchange, i. 440
 institution, i. 446
Salisbury crags, i. 432
School of arts, i. 448
,  , Heriot's, i. 448
 , High, i. 440, 448
 , Riding, i. 448
 , Sessional, i. 448
 statistics, i. 464 — 468
Scott's (Sir Walter) monument, i. 445
Seaforth's regiment (Mutiny of), i. 479
Session (Court of), i. 456
Signet library, i. 441
Societies in Edinburgh, i. 463
 for Religious Purposes, i. 463
South bridge, i. 444
Stamp-office, i. 444
Stewart's monument, i. 446
Stockbridge, i. 438
St. Anthony's chapel, i. 433, 454
St. Catherine of Sienna, i. 454
St. Leonard's, i. 454
St. Mary's chapel, i. 454
St. Mary Magdalene's chapel, i. 453
St. Mary of Placentia, i. 454
St. Ninian's chapel, i. 454
St. Roque's chapel, i. 454
St. Thomas' hospital, i. 454
Surgeons' hall, i. 446
Theatre royal, i. 439, 444
Tolbooth, i. 456, 465
Trinity hospital, i. 450
Union riots, i. 478
University, i. 446
"Walls, i. 454
Water, i. 464
Waterloo-place, i. 440
Watson's hospital, i. 450
Weigh-house, i. 456
Westport, i. 435
Writers to the Signet, i. 457
York (Duke of), i. 476

York-place, i. 439
York statue, i. 445
Edinkens, ii. 13
Edinshall, i. 138, 236
Edmonstone, ii. 442
Edmonston edge, ii. 545
Edrington, ii. 399
Edward I, i. 39, 47
Eglinton (Earl of), i. 57
Eilan-Chastell, i. 490
Eilan-na-Corlle, ii. 57
Eilan-na-Kily, ii. 666
Eilan-Wirrey, ii. 666
Eilan -nan-each, ii. 409
Eilean-na-roan, ii. 761
Elchies, ii. 200
Elcho castle, ii. 594
Eldrig, ii. 99
Eliston, ii. 182
EUerholm, ii. 655
Elliock house, ii. 637
Ellridge locb, ii. 675
Ellwick, ii. 655
Elphinstone (Bishop), i. 4
Elphinstone tower, ii. 766
Elrick, ii. 441
Elshieshields, ii. 289
Elsness, ii. 634
Elsridgehill, ii; 795
Enoch loch, ii. 358
Erisort loch, ii. 295
Erskine (Ebenezer), i. 394, ii. 694
 (Henry), i. 224 ; ii. 786
 (John), i. 210
 (Ralph), i. 394
Erskines of Mar, i. 25
Eskside, ii. 417
Espedair, ii. 447
Esset (The), ii. 771
Essiemore, l. 63
Ethiebeaton, ii. 367
Ethie burn, i. 268
 house, ii. 20
Ethiehaven, ii. 20
Evan bridge, ii. 364
 water, ii. 363
Evelaw, ii. 800
Evers. (Lord), i. 33
Every Man's Land, ii. 642
Eye sound, ii. 791

Faile, ii. 742
Fairburn tower, ii. 790
Fairgarth, i. 246
Fairloans, ii. 476
Falford, i. 680
Fall (Captain), i. 51, 368
Falsehope (Witch of), i. 10.
Falside castle, ii. 766
Fanna, i. 797
Fannyside moor, i. 282
Fans, i. 423
Farg (The), i. 16
Farness, i. 55
Fascally, ii. 772
Faslane, ii. 615
Fasque, i. 534
Fatlips castle, i. 119
Fenton tower, i. 139
Fenzies (Loch), ii. 256
Feochan (Loch), ii. 645
Ferguson (James), i. 150

INDEX.

e4i

Ferryhills, i. 5
Fetheland, ii. 454
Figgate burn, ii. 558
Fillan's well, i. 808
Findlater (Earl of), i. 107
Findon, ii. 788
Finfan, ii. 787
Fingal (Traditions of),- i. 27, 54, 63, 678;
Ii. 103, 187, 388, 563
Fingal's sitting-place, ii. 563
Fingask, i. 308; ii. 137
Finlay's castle, ii. 422
Finlay's mire, ii 380
Finlayston, ii. 120
Finnard hill, ii. 615
Finnart bay, ii. 629
Fintry castle, ii. 324
Flakefield, ii. 100
Flander's moss, ii. 532
Fleming (Adam), ii. 168
 (Admiral), ii. 811
 (Lord), i. 140, ii. 811
Flemington burn, ii. 441
Fletcher (Andrew), ii. 633
 (Angus), of Berenice, i. 691
Fofarry, i. 205
Follart (Loch), ii. 671
Forbes (President), i. 279
Forfar (Earl of), i. 158
Forneth, i. 229
Forrest (TTiomas), i. 319
Foudland, ii. 14
Foulshiels, ii. 647
Fountainhall, ii. 504
Fraisgill, ii. 761
Franck (Richard), i. 150
Frenchman's rock, i. 153
Fresgo head, ii. 585
Freskyns (The), i. 150; ii. 735
Freswick, i. 202
Frogdan, ii. 282
Fruid, ii. 776
Fulgse Skerry, ii. 656
Fullarton of Glen-Cloy, i. 62
G
Gadgirth castle, ii. 688
Gadscroft, i. 1
Gady (The), ii. 565
Gait (LocE), i. 603
Galachlaw, ii. 264
Galbraith (Robert), ii. 684
Galbraiths (The), i. 95
Gallangadd, ii. 127
Gallan-head, ii. 780
Gallow hill, i. 703; ii. 364
Gallow-knowe, i. 587
Gall vail castle, i. 150
Gameshope loch, ii. 776
Gamoslechan loch, ii. 670
Ganiach mount, i. 143
Gannachy bridge, i. 534
Gardenbury, i. 115
Gardiner (Colonel), i. 212; ii. 570, 766
Gardyne, ii. 178
Garleton, i. 71
Garmond, ii. 380
Garpel water, ii. 363
Garrel, i. 611; ii. 137
Garscube, ii. 134
Garthland, ii. 713
Gartinqueen hill, i. 179
Gartnlordam, i. 25

Gartness, i. 338
Gartwhinzian, i. 148
Garv-Eilan, ii. 666
Gateshaw, ii. 400
Gaudie, i. 226
Gaylet pot (The), i. 74; ii. 792
Geanies, ii. 741
Geauly (The), i. 309
Geddes, ii. 422
Geddes' well, ii. 776
Gedloch, i.'142
Gelston, ii. 88
Gentleman's cave, ii. 799
Gentle Shepherd (The), i. 208
Gett bay, ii. 758
Giant's chair, ii. 401
Gib (Rob), ii. 269
Gibson {.Sir Alexander), ii. 643
Gi'en rig, ii. 76
Gifford (Hugh), i. 236, 614
Gight (Lairds of), i. 104
Gigulum, i. 615
Gillespie (Rev. Norman), i. 210
Gillie's hill, i. 109
Gilmour (Barbara), i. 401
 (Sir John), ii. 265
Gilmour, ii. 637
Girnigoe, ii. 454, 807
Girthgate, i. 222, 515
Gizzen Briggs, ii. 738
Gladhouse water, ii. 749
Glanamar, ii. 634
Glasby (Den of), i. 12
Glasnock, i. 285
Glasgow Anderston, i. 643
Appearance (General), i. 643
Banks, i. 662
Barony parish, i. 663
Barracks, i. 662
Beatoun (James), i. 623
Blind Asylum, i. 659
Blythswood grounds, i. 643
Bonding system, i. 633
Bridewell, i. 660
Bridges, i. 647
Bridgeton, i. 642
Broomielaw, i. 639, 644
Burghai system, &c, i. 641
Burying-grounds, i. 650
Calton, i. 642
Cathedral, i. 653
Chamber of commerce, i. 662
Chemical works, i. 636
Clubs, i. 663
Coaches, i. 648
Commerce and manufactures, i. 632
Cotton-spinning, i. 634
Crime (State of), i. 651
Cromwell's visit, i. 628
Ecclesiastical affairs, i. 663
Exchange buildings, i. 663
Finnieston, i. 643
Gas, i. 648
Gorbals, i. 642
Green, i. 649
Highland Host, i. 629
High school, i. 657
History, i. 621
Hospital (Hutcheson 's), i. 659
House of Refuge, i. 661
Hutchesontown, i. 642
Infirmary, i. 658
Iron-trade, i. 636
Jail, i. 660

842

INDEX.

Lauriestown, i. 642
Literature, i. 638
Lunatic Asylum, i. 659
Machinery (Manufactures of), i. 637
Malt mob, i. 630
Manufactures, i. 632
Mechanics' institute, i. 658
Molendinar-burn, i 650
Monuments, i. 650, 662
Mortality bills, i. 663
Museum, i. 656
Name, i. 621
Necropolis, i. 650
Newspapers, i. 639
Normal seminary, i. 658
Police Establishment, i. 661
Population, i. 646
Port-Dundas, i. 643
Post-office, i. 649
Pottery, i. 636
Printing, i. 638
Railways, i. 648
Reading-rooms, i. 663
River Clyde, i. 639
Social condition, i. 643
Steam-boats, i. 640
Suburbs, i. 642
Theatre, i. 662
Town's hospital, i. 658
Trade and manufactures, i. 632
Tradeston, i. 642
Union (The) mob, i. 630
University, i. 654
 (Anderson's), i. 657
Water, i. 647
Watt (James), i. 662
Glass (John), i. 77
Glass loch, i. 28
 water, i. 118; ii. 722
Glassites (The), ii. 748
Glen, ii. 768
Glenae, ii. 757
Glenboultachan, i. 424
Glen Clova, i. 141
Glendean, ii. 767
Glendinning, ii. 798
Gleneagles, i. 144
Glen-Farrer, i. 527
Glengap, ii. 776
Glengarnock, i. 287
Glengelt, i. 222
Gleniffer, ii. 477
Glenkindy, ii. 721
Glenlee, ii. 78
Glenmann»w, ii. 508
Glenny-law, i. 18
Gloomingside-burn, i. 226; ii. 755
Gloucester (Earl of), i. 110
Gloume, (The) i. 199
Gogo water, ii. 225
Godred of Norway, i. 65
Goldberry head, ii. 101
Gockstane burn, ii. 184
Goodwife's cave, ii. 713
Gordon (Jean), ii. 824
 (Sir Adam), i. 167, 249
 ¦ (Sir George), i. 9
Gordon lodge, ii. 675
Gordon's hospital, i. 8
Gore water, ii. 749
Gosford, i. 14
Goules-den, ii. 122
Gourdie, i. 229
Gourdon, i. 131
 hill, i. 125

Gower mount, i. 416
Gowrie conspiracy, i. 551
Gowrie bouse ii. 524
Graden, ii. 282
Graham (Bishop Patrick), i. 41
 (Dougald). ii. 580
 (Isabella), i. 671
.  (Sir John), i. 3, 517
Grange, ii. 152
 fell, ii. 772
 house, i. 145
Grangepans, i. 212
Grant (Brigadier), i. 17, 19
Grant's house, i. 92
Gray house, ii. 266
Gray (Sir Thomas), ii. 263
Gray's hospital, i. 498
Greenbank, i. 187
Greenburn, ii. 441
Greenhill house, i. 806
Green loch, ii. 2
Greenock (The), ii. 410
Greens, ii. 778
Grenand castle, ii. 333
Gress, ii. 714
Grey Hope, ii. 448
Grierson (John), i. 304
 (Sir Robert), i. 409 ; ii. 811
Grucula, ii. 655
Grutness voe, i. 408
Guard bridge, i. 34
Guinevra (Queen), i. 31
Gull rocks, ii. 634
Gun (The Siller), i. 352
Gunn (Coronator), i. 236
Gunsgreen, i. 512
Guthrie, i. 530
Gylen castle, ii. 93

H
Haaf (The), ii. 663
Habchester, ii. 399
Hackshaw, ii. 776
•Hackston of Rathillet, 158, 290 ; ii. 122
Haco, i. 28; ii. 226
Hadden, ii. 685
Haer cairns, ii. 256
Haining, ii. 647
Haiskeval, ii. 625
Halcro head, ii. 598
Haliburton-house, ii. 94
Haliedean, i. 160
Hallgreen, i. 131
Halliday (David), i. 99
Hallsory, ii. 797
Hallyard, i. 587
Halywheel, ii. 348
Hamilton (Gavin), i. 306; ii. 141
 of Bangour, i. 108
 of Bothwellhaugh, i. 159, 307:
ii. 275, 819
— (Patrick), i. 40

Hamna voe, ii. 822
Hannay (Patrick), ii. 681
Hardgate, i. 5
Harelaw tower, i. 204
Harold's tower, ii. 753
Harthill, ii. 667
Hartside, ii. 204
Harviestoun, ii. 755
Hatton-house, ii. 582
 castle, ii. 446, 582
 hill, ii. 446

INDEX.

843

Haugh, ii. 333, 789
Hawk's stane (The), ii. 3)7
Hay of Nauchton, i. 99
Hay (Romance of), i 400; ii. 317
Hazelhead, ii. 441
• Heather Cow Cairn, i. 161
Heather-stacks, i. 565
Heathet, i. 203
Hebrides Agriculture, i. 762
Area, i. 756
Birds, i. 130
Climate, i. 760
Commerce, i. 761
Fisheries, i. 758
Geological character, i. 757
History, i. 767
Kelp, i. 758
Lakes, i. 758
Manufactures, i. 761
Mineralogy, i. 760
Moral condition, i. 766
Number, i. 756
Position and Relations, i. 755
Roads, i. 765
Scenery, i. 757
Hell's hole, ii. 78
 lumb, i. 605
Helmsdale castle, ii. 310
Helshetter, ii. 585
Hempriggs, ii. 573, 807
Henryson (Robert), i. 389
Hepburn (Adam), i. 158
Herbertshire house, ii. 222
Heriot (George), i. 619
Heron (Robert), i. 261 ; ii. 79
Herries (Abbot), ii. 761
Herrit's dyke, i. 138
Hertford (Earl of), ii. 416
Heston island, ii. 590, 790
Hier cairns, ii. 367
Highland Host, i. 92
Highlands Aboriginal Inhabitants, i. 776
Antiquities, i. 775
Bards, i. 778
Boundaries, i. 774
Canals, i. 789
Civilization (Progress of), i. 787
Dress, i. 784
Ecclesiastical Affairs, i. 794
Education, i. 794
Fisheries, i. 82
General Features, i. 775
History, i. 775, 782
Manners and Customs, i. 782
Manufactures, i. 793
Music, i. 781
Poetry, i. 778
Roads, i. 789
Societies, i. 791
Steam-Navigation, i. 60, 789
Superstitions, i. 785
Weddings, i. 786
Hillhousefield, ii. 235
Hillside, i. 13
Hilltown, i. 529
Hirst hill, ii. 667
Holborn head, ii. 742
Hollandbush, ii. 769
Hollows (Tower of), i. 203
Holydean, i. 160
Holy loch, i. 407
Holywell haugh, ii. 203
Home (George\ i. 116

Home (Rev. John), i. 72, 330
Hood's hill, ii. 742
Hope of Rankeilour, ii. 368
Hope house, ii. 647
Hopes, i. 6 1 1
Homdene, ii. 203
Horsburgh castle, ii. 11
Hoselaw loch, ii. 281
Hospitalfield. ii. 792
Hotspur, ii. 307
How mire, ii. 546
Howie (John), i. 530 ; ii. 287
Hoxa (Howe of), ii. 598
Humbie's Wa's.'i. 263
Humble-bumble, ii. 337
Hume (Sir Patrick), ii. 553
Hungus, i. 71
Hunter (Sir W. and J.), ii. 100
Hunterston, ii. 102
Huntingtower, ii. 754
Hurkledale, i. 284
Hurly' cove, ii. 505
Hurry (General), i. 79
Hyndford (John, 3d Earl of), i. 208

I-Chamuis, ii. 676
Inchaffray (Abbot of), i. 109, 110
Inchbervis, ii. 689
Inchrye, i. 2
Ingans (The), i. 227
Inimore, ii. Ill
Inis-Capel, ii. 655
Ink craig, i. 210
Innermessan, ii. 2
Inverallochy, ii. 582
Invermessan, ii. 815
Invermoriston, i. 689
Invernochtie, ii. 721
Inverquharity, ii. 198
Ireland Head, i. 408
Isauld house, ii. 585
Isla bank, ii. 628
Itunam (Statio ad), i. 79

Jackton, ii. 99
Jardine hall, ii. 683
Jock (The Laird's), ii. 325
Johnson (Dr. Samuel), i. 73
Johnstone (Marquis of), i. 44.
Jones (Paul), i. 368 ; ii. 163, 330
Jonson (Ben), i. 755
Jordan (The), i. 145
Jordanhill, ii. 588

K
Kailzie, ii. 768
Kaimes hill, ii. 582
Kain house, ii. 52 '
Kame hill, ii. 101
Kames, Lord Home, i. 426
Kean (.Edmund), i.,514
Keannoath, ii. 455
Keeshorn (Loch), ii. 606
Keil's den, ii. 223
Keir, ii. 234
Keith (Field-Marshal), i. 532
Keith house i. 810

844

INDEX.

Keithnie water, ii. 22
Kelburn house, ii. 225
Kellie castle, i. 209
Kellie law, i. 209
Kelly castle, i. 48
Kellyheads, ii. 441
Keltie's Mends, i. 587
Kemp stane hill, i. 535
Ken- Edgar, ii. 152
Kendlum, ii. 591
Kenmore, ii. 79
 hill, i. 217
Kennedy (Bishop), i. 38, 547
Kennedy of that Ilk, i. 58
Kenneth III. (Assassination of), i. 534
Keppoch, i. 207
Kerilaw, ii. 691
Kerloack, ii. 716
Kerrochtree house, ii. 359
Kerrycroy, ii. 152
Kerse house, i. 703
Kessog (St.), ii. 318
Kettletoft, ii. 634
Kilblane, ii. 184
Kilcadzow, i. 208
Kilcadzow law, i. 208
Kilcheran, ii.' 283
Kilcolumkill, ii. 403
Kildalloig, i. 200
Kildinguic well, ii. 729
Kilkerran, i. 295
Killantringan, ii. 560
Killermont, ii. 134
Killforman, i. 142
Killiesmont, ii. 76
Kilmaron, i. 288
Kilminster loch, ii. 807
Kilmorie, ii. 609
Kilmundy, ii. 308
Kilravock, ii. 423
Kilspindie, i. 15
Kinblytbmont, ii. 20
Kinchet, i. 125
Kingairloch, ii. 283
Kiltuintaik, ii. 403
Kingledoors, i. 333
King's cairn, i. 703; ii. 583
 cove, i. 63; 131
 cross, i. 63. 372
 — dykes, i. 53
 ferry, i. 26
 field, ii. 777
 forest, ii. 79
 holm, i. 347 ; ii. 79
 islairH, ii. 204
 knott, ii. 695
 park, ii. 695
 road, i. 508
 room, ii. 545, 565
 seat, i. 18, 31, 125, 330; ii. 457
 sons, ii. 447
 stable, i. 64
 well, ii. 681
Kingsburgh family, ii. 132
Kingston, ii. 684
Kininvie, ii. 401
Kinira-bay, i. 56
Kinloch-Moidart, i. 56
—  Spelvie, ii. 762
Kinnaird house, ii, 222
Kinnimonth (Bishop), i. 4
Kinnordy lake, ii. 198
Kinrara, i. 31
Kinvaid, ii. 366
Kippenross, i. 369

Kirbister loch, ii. 474
Kirk (John), i. 409
Kirkaig (The), i. 68
Kirkamuir n. 450
Kirkbride, ii. 191
Kirkcaldy of Grange, i. 25, 78, 206; ii. 152
Kirkcormack, ii. 88
Kirkforest, i. 208
Kirkhill, ii. 755
Kirkpatrick (Murder of), i. 181
Kirkwood (James), ii. 269
Kirkyettan crags, ii. 509
Kishorn, i. 46 ; ii. 666
Kisimul castle, i. 113.
Klochnabane, ii. 716
Knock (The), ii. 107, 588
Knock castle, ii. 225, 674
 house, ii. 762
Knockhill, i. 562, 703
Knox (John), i. 40, 186, 257, 722 ; ii. 96
Kor stone, ii. 366
Kyle castle, i. 73
Kyle-skou, i. 68
Kyles hill, ii. 552
Kylesmure, ii. 334

Ladies' Hill, ii. 696
Lady burn, i. 288
 craig, i. 42
 . rock, ii. 283
Laggavoulin, ii. 741
Lahich (Loch), ii. Ill
Lainshaw, ii. 691
Laithers, ii. 773
La Mancha, ii. 441
Lam-loch, ii. 215
Lamgarroch, ii. 779
Lamhogga, ii. 658
Lammerlaw, ii. 132
Lammikin, i. 101
Lamp Acre, i. 253
Langavat loch, ii. 780
Lang well water, i. 131
Lass o' Patie's Mill, ii. 77
Latoun (Sir Ralph), i. 33
Latrick, i. 197
Lauchope house, i. 159
Lavernani (The), ii. 261
Law of Laurieston, i. 259 -
Law castle, ii. 102
Lawers, ii. 370
Lawhead, ii. 801
Laws hill, i. 334
Lawting, ii. 756
Lawton, ii. 20
Learmont (Major), i. 320
Leathen (Loch), ii. 563
Lee house, i. 208
 penny, ii. 207
 water, ii. 288
Leeds, ii. 726
Leighton (Bishop), i. 370
Lendal, i. 617
Lendrum (Battle of), ii. 380
Lennoxlove, i. 722
Lennox tower, i. 293
Leslie (Bishop), ii. 435
(Norman), i. 40

Leslies (The), ii. 252, 609
Lesmore castle, ii. 594
Lethington, i. 722
Lethinty, i. 223

INDEX.

845

Leuchar burn, ii. 539, 669
Leucophibia, ii. 803
Leyden (Dr.), ii. 193
Leys (Loch of), i. 102
Leys mill, ii. 20
Libo (Loch), ii. 426
Liechestown, i. 314
Lindean, i. 597
Lindores, ii. 435
Lindsay (Sir David), i. 291 ; ii. 308
 (Rev. Dugald), i 69 1
—  (Sir Walter), ii. 743
Linen Apron, ii. 401
Linga, ii. 768
Linktoun, i. 2
Linnhouse water, i. 187
Lithgow {William), ii. 207
Littledean, ii. 335
Livingston (Sir Thomas), i. 269
Lochainn, i. 147
Lochaneilan, i. 416
Loch-an-muan, ii. 370
Locharthur, ii. 431
Lochbadanloch, ii. 108
Lochearnhead, i. 100
Lochenbreck, i. 98
Locherworth castle, i. 1 55
Lochinruar, ii. 108
Lochmore, i. 153
 castle, i. 736
Loch-na-Beste, ii. 670
Loch- Orr family, i. 97
Lochpark, ii. 401
Locbpooltiel, ii. 670
Lochtown hill, ii. 306
Lochty (The), i. 300
Lockhart of Lee, ii. 207.
Logan of Restalrig, i. 528
Logan house, ii. 505
Longfaugh, i. 263
Longhope, i. 809 ; ii. 639
Long (Loch), (Kirkcudb.) i. 310
 (Renfrews.) ii. 426
Longridge, ii. 801
Loretto, ii. 417
Loretto (our Lady of), ii. 416
Lorn (The Broach of), ii. 777
Lorstown loch, ii. 448
Lot's Wife, i. 773
Lovat (Lord), i. 20, 84
Lowther hills, i. 353 ; ii. 215
Loy (Loch), i. 79
Lucklaw hill, ii. 299
Lug-down burn, i. 71
Luichart (Loch), i. 248
Lurgie craigs, ii. 710
Lun, i. 249
Luthlac, i. 72
Lylliard (Maiden), i. 33
Lynchat, i. 30
Lyne (The), i. 388
Lynedoch, ii. 354
Lyra' ii. 656

M

Macadam, i. 214; ii. 365
Macarthurs (The), i. 85
Macbeth, i. 72, 141, 410, 418, 543; ii. 315
Macdonald (Flora), ii. 132
Macdonald of Glenaladale, i. 555
Macdonalds of the Isles, i. 61, 68
Macdougalls of Lorn, i. 54, 61, 65, 86; ii. 579
Macduff, i. 421 ; ii. 798

Macfarlane's Clan, i. 66
Macfarquhar's Bed, i. 268
MacGavin (William), i. 74
Macgill (Dr. S.), i. 426
Macgregors ( The), i. 85, 682
Macgregor of Glengyle, i. 201
Machlachlan, ii. 723
Machrykill, i. 295
Macintosh (Sir Mneas), ii. 408
Mackay (Lieut.-Gen.), i. 430; ii. 644
Machenzies, i. 224
Maclaurin (Colin), i. 9
M'Lellan of Bombie, i. 601 ; ii.' 173
Maclellans, i. 98
Macleod of Assynt, i. 70
Macleod's Maidens, ii. 671
Macmillan (Rev. John), i. 98
Macnabb (Captain John), i. 319
Macnabs of Glenorchy, i. 300
Macniels (The), i. 113
Macpherson's Farewell, i. 104
Macpherson (James), i. 30, 779
Macqueen (Lord Braxfield), ii. 207
Macraes, i. 693
Madras college, i. 35, 39
Magdalene (The Princess), i. 37
Magdalene Pans, ii. 19
Maiden-castle Cave, ii. 792
Maiden stone, i. 26, 34, 223
Mail (Black), i. 201
Mainslaws, i. 118
Malcolm's tower, i. 389
Malhorn (Little), ii. 769
Manslaughter law, ii. 656
Mar (Earldom of), i. 25
Mar burn, ii. 507
 lodge, i. 164
March (Earl of), i. 362 .
Marchmont house, i. 705 ; ii. 552
Marchtown, ii. 721
Margaret's law, ii. 225
Marig bay, ii. 644
Marischal college, i, 8
Market knowe, ii. 307
Markie water, ii. 401, 683
Marlee, ii. 256
Martin's stone, ii. 324
Martnabaim, i. 254
Mary (Burns's), i. 711; ii. 743
Mary's Well, ii. 167, 741
Mary's (Queen) Thorn, i. 220, 339
.  (Portraits of), i. 26, 298,
308, 38*7
Masonry (Free), ii. 142
Maud hill, ii. 583
Mauldslie castle, i. 208
Mavisbank, ii. 228
Mavis-grind, ii. 656
Meadowbank, ii. 189
Meadowmill, ii. 766
Meet hillock, i. 332, 539
Meikle (Andrew), ii. 567, 633
Meiklewarthill, ii. 585
Melgund castle, i. 15
Melista, ii. 781
Meller stain, i. 422
Melsetter, ii. 794
Melundy, i. 300
Melville house, ii. 369
Melville of Allardice, i. 125
Melville of Glenbervie, i. 612
 (Andrew), i. 626
Menteith (Earls of), i. 14
Mercer of Meikleour, i. 23
Mercheston (Dr. Richard), ii. 808

846

INDEX.

Merk of Land, ii. 659
Merkinch, ii. 27, 33
Merkland well, ii. 294
Merlin, i. 333 ; ii. 502
Merton, ii. 362
Middleham village, i. 1 60
Middleton burns, i. 154
Mildubh (The), i. 52
Mill (Walter), ii. 316
Milldens, i. 120
Millearne house, ii. 768
Milliken house, ii. 97
Milnhead, ii. 184
Milnholm, i. 219
Milton loch, ii. 789
Milton-Lockhart, i. 20S
Minginish, i. 162
Misery (Mount), ii. 128
Moan loch, ii. 358
Moat (The), i. 672
Moir (Loch), i. 28
Monaltry, i. 163
Moncur, ii. 8
Monk (General), i. 6
Monk's burn, ii. 439
 grave, i. 587
Monkton hall, ii. 1 7
Monmouth (Duke of), i. 158
Monorgan, ii. 306
Monroe, tutor ofFoulis, i. 224
Mons Grampius, ii. 723
Mons hill, i. 301
Montgomery, ii. 226
¦  (Dame Margaret), i. 283
Month (The), i. 6
Montkegie, ii. 155
Montrose (Marquis of),i. 6, 24, 70, 79, 104;
ii. 22 J>
Monynut water, ii. 13
Moodlaw loch, ii. 595
Moray (Ann, Countess of), i. 13
 (Sir Andrew), i. 37
 (The Bonny Earlof). i. 296
More (Bailie), i. 18
 (William), ii. 229
Morison (Judge), i. 743
Morrar na Shean, i. 736
Morrison (Thomas), i. 264
Morton (Earl of), i. 186
 (The Regent), i. 297
 (Thomas), ii. 126
Mossknow. ii. 191
Mount Alexander, ii. 580 *
Mount Benger, ii. 821
Mountblanie^Bog of), i. 30,
Mount Ganiach, i. 143
Muck water, i. 1 12
Muckerath, i. 417
Mugdock castle, ii. 720
Muir of Orchil, ii. 420
Muirdykes, ii. 296
Mulbrax, i. 143
Mullion, ii. 586
Mullock bay, ii. 591
Mungo (St.) i. 281
Munro (Major), i. 53
 of Culcairn, i. 52
Murchison (Donald), i. 693
Murder loch, ii. 757 '
Murdoch (William), i. 74
Murdoch's isle, i. 53
Murkle, ii. 460
Murkle bay, ii. 460
Murray (Gilbert), i. 324
 (Sir Gideon), i. 263

Murray (Sin John), i. 72
 (The Regent, Andiew), i. 12
Murthly, ii. 797
Murtle house, ii. 539
Muschat (Nicol). i. 67
Muttonhole, i. 259
Mylne (Walter), i. 40
Mylnefield, ii. 307
Myreton, ii. 88, 815
Mysteries acted, i. 292

N

Na-Caplich, ii. 673
Nairne (Lord), i. 76, 411
Napier of Merchiston, i. 338, 528; ii. 112
Nathansthirn, ii. 427
Nauchton, i. 99
Navar, i. 28
Nechtan, ii. 545
Needle's eye, i. 605
Neidpath castle, ii. 491
Neldricken loch, ii. 358
Nemphlar (East), ii. 210
Nethan, i. 16
Nettles (Jenny), ii. 725
Newbyth, ii. 801
New Hailes, ii. 18
Newhall, ii. 575
Newlandrigg, i. 154
New Posso, i. 308
Newshot isle, ii. 5
Newton don, ii. 427
 house, i. 148
Nine Maidens' well, i. 73
Ninian (St.\ i. 222, ii. 804
Nithsdale (Robert, Earl of), i. 181
Norham castle, ii. 203
Norrie's law, ii. 224
Northbar, ii. 6
Nothland castle, ii. 799
Norwick, ii. 785
Noup head, ii. 799
Nunlands, i. 588
Nutholmhill, ii. 414

O
Oakwood, ii. 647
Ochtertyre, ii. 370
Octoun, ii. 803
Odness, ii. 728
Ogilvie of Barras, i. 404
 (Lord), i. 21
Olous (Prince), i. 257
Oliver, ii. 776
Omou, ii. 667
Orchardnook, ii. 594
Ord, ii. 790
Oreval, ii. 625
Orkney Islands
Agricultural system, ii. 465
Climate, ii. 464
Description (General), ii. 462
Features, ii. 463
Fisheries, ii. 467
Geology, ii. 464
History, ii. 468
Inhabitants (Character of), ii. 468
Manufactures, ii. 466
Position, ii. 462
Orland's stone, i. 620
Orrea, i. 131; ii. 586

INDEX.

847

Orton, ii. 609
Ossian, i. 27, 671
Ossianic controversy, i. 778
Otterswick, ii. 634
Ox penny, ii. 660
Oxen (Wild), i. 282, 333
Oxenford castle, i. 260; ii. 565
Oxnor, ii. 756

i. 717

Paisley (Josep)
Panmure, ii. 488
Panmure (Lord), i. 167
Panther (David), i. 196 ; ii. 330
(Patrick), i. 196

Park, i. 149
Parkhouse, ii. 462
Paton (Captain John), ii. 287
Paterson's rock, ii. 634
Pavilion (The), i. 24
Payston, ii. 504
Pease Tree (The), ii. 206
Peatlaw, ii. 647
Peddie (Alexander), ii. 316
Peden (Alexander), i. 285; ii. 314, 625, 681
Peden's cave, ii. 333
Penersax, ii. 356
Penielheugh, i. 258
Penkill, i. 295
Pennant (Dr.), i. 123
Penshiel, ii. 806
Penton linns, i. 204 ; ii. 265
Perth (Earl of), ii. 165
Petcox, ii. 690
Peter hill, i. 143
Philorth water, ii. 582
Picts' houses, i. 186, 402 ; ii. 10
Pictsworkditch, i. 220
Pierowell, ii. 799
Piper-heugh, ii. 691
Piper's grave, i. 773
Pitalpie, ii. 266
Pitcur, ii. 94
Pitdennies, i. 210
Pitfichie castle, ii. 387
Pitfour castle, ii. 322
Pitlethie, ii. 25.7
Pitlour, ii. 725
Pitmain (Inn of), i. 671
Pitmilly, ii. 154
Pitscandlie, ii. 591
Pittmedden, ii. 780
Pittrichie, ii. 780
Pittulie castle, ii. 547
Plean, ii. 449
Plenderleith, ii. 476
Polckill water, ii. 359
Poll (The), i. 13
Pollok (Robert), i. 420
Polmaise, ii. 449
Polnoon, i. 420
Portfloat, ii. 713
Portgill, ii. 713
Portincross, ii. 101
Portkale, ii. 560
Portmurray, ii. 560
Pdrt-na-Currach, ii. 45
Portuisgen, ii. Ill
Pot (The), ii. 795
Powsail water, i. 333
Powtrail water, i. 230
Prentice pillar, ii. 604
Prestonholm, i. 238

Priest's burn, i. 2
 law, ii. 806
 point, i. 53
Priestinch, i. 3
Primside loch, ii. 399, 822
Prior acres (The), i. 42
Priorletham, i. 198

Q
Quarrel-know (The), i. 16
Queen's well, i. 565
Quiech castle, ii. 740
Quien loch, ii. 609
Quiraing, ii. 131
Quoyafirth voe, ii. 454

R
Rabbit islands, ii. 761
Rackwick, i. 809
Rae loch, ii. 256
Raik fishery, i. 310
Rait castle, ii. 422
Raith, i. 2
Ralston, ii. 477
Ramna Stacks, ii. 658
Ramsay (Allan), ii. 234
 (Dr. G.), i. 144
 (Sir Alexander), i. 238
 (Sir James), i. 320
 (William), i. 750; ii. 389
Randolph (The Regent), i. 44
Ranfurly, ii. 96
Rapness, ii. 799
Ravelrig, i. 293
Ravensheugh, i. 419; ii. 801
Ravensnook, ii. 505
Ravenswood, 1. 260
Red Abbey Stead, ii. 442
Red castle in Abernethy, i. 18
 , — in Inverkeilor, ii. 20
Red well, i. 162
Redbraes castle, ii. 552
Redden, ii. 685
Reddingmuir, ii. 552
Redhall, ii. 191
Redheugh, i. 237
Reef (The), ii. 758
Refirth voe, ii. 822
Regalia (The), i. 405
Reid (Dr. Thomas), i. 9
Reid Swire, ii. 61
Reits bay, i. 184
Relugas, i. 54
Ren patrick, i. 715
Renwick (Rev. James), i. 672
Repentance (Tower of), i. 284
Resby (John), i. 39, 546
Restalrig, ii. 236
Restlaw ha', i. 222
Rewcastle, i. 118
Rhysgill, i. 670
Riccalton (Robert), i. 798
Ringan's dean, i. 161
Ringsdale castle, ii.. 713
Rispond, i. 415
Robert III., i. 386
Robertson (Principal), i. 156
Rob Roy, i. 100, 338; ii. 73
Rockhole, ii. 414
Romanno, ii. 442
Ronan's (St.) club, ii. 12

848

INDEX.

Ronaval, i. 746
Ronheads, ii. 539
Roost, ii. 730
Roque's (St.) chapel, i. 153
Rosehall, ii. 459
Rosehaugh, i. 82
Ross (Earl of), i. 68
Rossend castle, i. 176
Rossie loch, i. 244
 priory, ii. 8
Rothmaise, ii. 584
Rottmell's inns, ii. 22
Round tower of Abernethy, i. 16
Routdon burn, ii. 226
Rowallan castle, ii. 123
Roy (Baillie), i. 18
Ruchlaw, ii. 806
Runciman, ii. 505
Rusco-tower, i. 46
Rutherford (Dr. John), ii. 61
Ruthven castle, ii. 754

Saddleback, ii. 363
Salen, i. 56
Sallysburgh, ii. 667
Samuel's cave, ii. 121
Sandford bay, ii. 539
Sandside bay, i. 184; ii. 585
Sandy bay, ii. 635
Sandyknowe, ii. 677
Saxaforth, ii. 785
Scar, ii. 629
Scat Tax, ii. 660
Scatthold, ii. 659
ISchaw's Hospital, ii. 566
Scotstarvet tower, i. 222
Scotston, ii. 588
Scott (Mary), i. 337, 744 ; ii. 432, 481
 of Tushielaw, i. 509
 (Sir James), ii. 724
 (Sir Michael), i. 2, 100, 533
 (Sir Walter) of Buccleuch, i. 33
 (Sir Walter), I 1, 14, 28, 36, 63, 84,
86,270; ii. 80, 119, 648
Scougal, ii. 802
Scougall (Rev. Henry), ii. 633
Scraada (Holes of), ii. 657
Scresort loch, ii. 625
Scuir Donald, ii. 729
 Eigg, i. 490
 More, ii. 625
Sculomy, ii. 761
Seabegs, i. 517
Seacliff, ii. 801
Seaforth (Earldom of), ii. 645
Seaforth (Earls of), i. 693
Seaforth lodge, ii. 714
Seal cave, ii. 714
Seals pool, ii. 447
Second sight, i. 162
Seirach loch, ii. 585
Selkirk (Alexander), ii. 224
Semmiedores, ii. 323
Semple family, i. 217; ii- 97, 102
Senzie 'fair (The), i. 35
Serf (St.), i. 281; ii. 756
Seton (Christopher), ii. 109
 (Sir Alexander), i. 49
Sha, ii. 785
Shakspeare, i. 141
Shandon, ii. 615
Shandwick, ii. 447

Sharpe (Archbishop), ii. 93, 323
Shaw park, i. 24
Shaw (Christian), i. Ill
:  (Sir John), i. 707
Shaws Water-company, i. 709
Sheeoch, i. 416
Sheep penny, ii. 660
Shennan creek, i. 245
Sheriffmuir, ii. 71 1
Shetland Isles
Agriculture (State of), ii. 659
Appearance (General), ii. 656
Cattle, ii. 661
Climate, ii. 657
Ecclesiastical affairs, ii. 664
Fisheries, ii. 663
Geology, ii. 658
History, ii. 665
Inhabitants (Character of), ii. 662
Position, ii. 656
Soil, ii. 658
Sheughends, i. 283
Shieldgreen castle, ii. 492
Shurrach hill, ii. 154
Sibbald (Dr. David), i. 51
 (Sir Robert), ii. 368
Silver castle, ii. 641
Simpson (Habbie), ii. 97
Sinclair (Bishop), i. 544
 (Sir John), ii. 752
Sinclairs of Caithness, i. 186; ii. 310
Skaill, ii. 553
Skateraw, ii. 752
Skea, ii. 799
Skimmer hills, ii. 632
Skinner (Rev. John), ii. 308
Shirving (Archibald), i. 71
Skuth castle, i. 314
Slam loch, ii. 761
Sleitill loch, ii. 585
Slesbeg, ii. 302
Sliabh Ghaoil, if. 103
Sliabhdiasg, ii. 758
Slipperfield loch, ii. 280
Small glen, ii. 388
Smeaton, ii. 567
Smith (Adam), ii. 166
Smo cave, i. 415
Smollett (Dr.), i. 152, 207
Snawdoun, ii. 700
Snoasimil, ii. 791
Soccoch hills, ii. 765
Solan goose, i. 116; ii. 106
Somerled, Thane of Argyle, i. 65, 405
Somerville (William de), ii. 281
Soulis cross, i. 219
Soulis (Lord), i. 221 ; ii. 123
Southennan, ii. 102
Spalding club, i. 8
Spango water, ii. 167
Spens (Sir Patrick), i. 13
Spittal house, i. 813
Sponess, ii. 799
Spottiswood (Archbishop), i. 295
 (John), ii. 800
Spottiswoode, ii. 799
Spoutbay, ii. 387
Springhill, ii. 441
Springholm, ii. 789
Sprinkell, ii. 191
Stair (Earl of), ii. 18, 814
Stanely castle, ii. 477
Stanley house, i. 76
Stark (Helen), ii. 524
Starlyburn, i. 13, 175

INDEX.

849

Stewart of Acharn, i. 59
 of Ardshiel, i. 58
 of Garth, i. 688
Sticks, ii. 797
Stiell's Hospital, ii. 766
Stobhall, i. 207
Stobs, ii. 677
Stone Lude, i. 161
Stoneypath, ii. 806
Stonyhill house, ii. 18
Stores head, ii. 598
Stormontfield, ii. 64 1
Stdrr, ii. 672, 678
Strafontane, i. 1
Strath, ii. 797
Strathbroc, ii. 786
Strathkinness, i. 34
Streens, ii. 407
Strone, ii. 17
Struthers' house, i. 222
Stuart (John Roy), i. 18
 (Earl Patrick), i. 42
St. Baldred, i. 115; ii. 567, 778
St. Barchan, ii. 97
St. Barr, i. 114
St. Basil, ii. 347
St. Bathan, i. 1
St. Bede's well, ii. 102
St. Bega, ii. 102
St. Birinie, ii. 98
Sr. Blane, i. 149
St. Bothan, i. 1
St. Bride, i. 84, 217, 326; ii, 610
St. Bridget, i. 16
St. Ciaran, i. 303
St. Clairs (The), ii. 602
St. Columba, ii. 46
St. Duthus, ii. 738
St. Ebba, i. 2
St. Finan, ii. 666
St. Gerardine's cave, i. 331
St. Gordian, ii. 326
St. Helen's, i. 23, 338
St. John's chair, i. 304
 head, i. 202
 well, ii. 3
St. Keevox. ii. 577
St. Kennoch, ii. 65
St. Kentigern, i. 281, 621
St. Kessog, ii. 318
St. Laurence well, ii. 675
St. Macarius, i. 295
St. Machute, ii. 254, 810
St. Magnus, i. 421
, St. Magnus bay, ii. 453
 cathedral, ii. 194
St. MaolJosA. 63; ii. 667
St. Margaret's hope, i. 389; ii. 598
St. Marnoch, ii. 124
St. Medan's cave, ii. 185
Sit. Mungo, i. 281, 542
St. Mungo's chapel, i. 75
,  well, i. 812
St. Munna, ii. 133
St. Ninian, i. 222; ii. 804
St. Palladius, i. 562
St. Patrick, ii. 134
St. Patrick's well, ii. 421
St. Peter's well, ii. 407
St. Ringan, ii. 450
St. Rule, i. 36
St. Salvator, i. 38
St. Serf, i. 281, 542; ii. 756
St. Vey, i. 283
Simderland hall, ii. 647

II.

Sunnadale, ii. 630
Sutherland (William, Earl of ), i. 70
Sutor (North), ii. 447
Swanbister, ii. 474
Sweno's stone, i. 573
Swinton ( Sir John), ii. 736
Switha, ii. 639
Sword well, i. 325
Sybilla (Queen), ii. 91, 745

Tait's cross, ii. 94
Talmine, ii. 761
Tamnahara, ii. 600
Tam o' Shanter, i. 27 ; ii. 190
Tanfield, i. 5
Tarbat-house, ii. 132
Tarlair well, i. 162
Tarrel (Little), ii. 738
Telford (Thomas), ii. 798
Tennant (Dr.), i. 36, 44
Tentsmuirs, ii. 275
Terras moss, i. 203
Thankerton, i. 253
Thimble Row, i. 806
Thomas the Rhymer, i. 422, 532 ; ii. 32
Thomaston. ii. 190
Thomson (Dr. Andrew), ii. 685
 (James), i. 488, 798; ii. 682
Thornton, ii. 13, 328
Three Brethren cairn, ii. 647
Threld, ii. 46
Tibber's castle, ii. 508
Tiel (The), i. 2
Till water, ii. 774
Tillyfour, ii. 476
Tinnis hill, i. 353 ,
 water, i. 218 ,
Tirdon, i. 47
Tirivee, i. ,114
Tom-a-Chorachasich, i. 428
Tomdow, ii. 200
Tom-na-hurich, ii. 24
Tonderghie, ii. 802
Tonley, ii. 765
Tor, i. 325
Toraghoil, ii. 788
Torfin, ii. 470
Torhouse Stones, ii. 809
Torlum, ii. 420
Tormaid loch, ii. 585
Torness, ii. 728
Torrance, ii. 99
Torriedale castle, ii. 630
Torsonce, ii. 716
Toskerton, ii. 713
Toskig loch, i. 47
Toubir-more, i. 615
Towanreef, i. 73
Tower isle, ii. 184
Tower Lindsay, i. 261
Trailflat, ii. 758
Trochrie-castle, i. 400
Tronach castle, ii. 583
Trondra, ii. 656
Trool loch, ii. 359
Trostrie (Loch), ii. 776
Troup (Den of), i. 12
Trow craigs, ii. 616
Tulcheni. 19
Tulla, ii. 379
Tullibardine castle, i. 144
Tullilum, ii. 755
3h

850

INDEX.

Tulmine, ii. 762
Turin hill, ii. 591
Turnbulls (The), i. 118
Tushielaw, i. 509
Tutumvarach, ii. 459
Tweeden, i. 218
,Tweedhill„ii. 813
Tweed's cross, ii. 776
Tweedshaws, ii. 774
Twinlaw, ii. 800
Tyllygreig, ii. 780

U
Uaish, i. 129
Udallers, ii. 665
Ugly rock, i. 80
Upsettlington, ii. 203
Urisks, ii. 73
Urrard house, ii. 1 14
Uxellum Montes, i. 89
Uy, i. 20

V
Vain castle, i. 529
Vallafield, ii. 785
Valley (Loch), ii. 358
Vallcyfield, ii.,506
Vanora, ii. 344
Vasa, ii. 655
Vat (The), i. 690
Veitch (John), ii. 800
Vendace burn, ii. 289
Viantro, ii. 655
Vicar's well, ii. 417
Vikingr (The), ii. 665
Villens of Ure, ii. 657'
Viponts, i. 13
Vordhill, ii. 786

W
Wallace (Sir William), i. 2, 39, 86, 88, 140,
¦ 180,363,491, 622; ii. 594
Wallace's cairn, ii. 311
 camp, i. 601
 castle, i. 22
 cave, i. 215, 232
 chair, ii. 207, 263
 crarlle, ii. 269
 hill, i. 604
 house, ii. 186
 "leap, ii. 601
 oak, i. 491
 quaich, ii. 207
 seat, ii. 207
 statue, i. 335; ii. 209, 346
 stone, i. 517 -
 tower, ii. 616
 tree, ii. 594
Walton hill, i. 281
Wardlaw bank, i. 239
Wardlaw (Bishop), i. 34
 (Lady Elizabeth), i. 388
Warthill, i. 201,809
Was (Loch), ii. 295

Washing-tub, ii. 795
Watch hill, ii. 363
Water-cow (The), i. 23
Wathburn, ii. 407, 764
Watt (James), i. 635, 711
Wattle Tax (The), ii. 660
Wauchopes (The) of Niddry, ii. 265
Waugh (Rev. Dr.), ii. 347
Weatherness, ii. 799
Wedderlie, ii. 800
Weesdale, ii. 757
Weirdlaw hill, i. 508
Wellton, i. 287
Welch (John), ii. 432
West (John), ii. 299
Westbridge, ii. 153
Westerhall, ii. 798
Westhall, ii. 476
Westness, ii. 21
Westraw, ii. 543
Whalefirth voe, ii. 822
Wheel church, i. 218
Whiteberry point, ii. 801
White castle, i. 611
Whitehall, i. 212
Whitehaugh house, ii. 771
White loch, i. 210; ii. 362
 Wooen, i. 336
Wiesdale voe, ii. 657
Wilkie (Dr. WiUiam). i. 302
Willison (Dr. John), i. 383
Wilson (Margaret), ii. 811
Winbrough, i. 797
Windless loch, ii. 807
Windy Gowle, ii. 158
Wishart (George), i. 40; ii. 333, 473
¦  (Bishop), i. 37
Wisp hill, i. 221, 353
Witch pool, ii. 198
Witches' bridle, i. 565
 knowe, i. 216, 612; ii. 399
Wodin's hall, i. 188, 236
Wodrow (Rev. Robert), i. 426
Wolf cleuch, i. 316
Wolf's geo, i. 202
Wolf law, i. 565
Wood (Sir Andrew), i. 548; ii. 223
Wooden, ii. 80
Woodhall, i. 159
Woodhill, ii. 325
Woodwick, ii. 598
Woodyett, i. 313
Wordsworth, i. 27 ; ii. 820
Wormiston (East), i. 258
Wormyhills well, i. 48
Wother spoon (Dr.), i. 120
Wymet, ii. 443
Wynd (Henry), ii. 513

Yair, ii. 775
Yardsides, ii. 594
Yarrow's loch, ii. 807
Yester (Hugh de), i. 611
Yieldshields, i. 208
Yokehaugh, i. 400
Yoker, ii. 587

ETYMOLO&ICAL INDEX.

Aber, i. 15
Abhor, ii. 301
Ail, i. 71
Aird, i. 20
Alb, i. 22
Albany, i. 22
Aln, i. 32
Alp. i. 22
Amhann, i. 43
Ao, ii. 14
Aonda, i. 743 ,
Aon-taobh, i. 743
Aoreidh, i. 48
Ar, i. 61
Arachor, i. 65
Ard, i. 20, 55
Ath, i. 71
Avon, i. 81
Awedur, i. 488
Baigb, i. 746
Banchor, i. 102
Bellaidh, i. 123
Berg, ii. 574
Bhar, i. 563
Bhrec, i. 516
Blar, i. 146
Braechin, i. 167
Cader, i. 219
Caer, ii. 577
Caeth, i. 297
Cailloch, i. 164
Caraon, i. 213
Carraig, ii- 287
Chern, i. 223
Cill, ii. 95
Cist, i. 777
Cluaine, i. 228
Col, i. 244
Comrich, i. 46
Cnoc, ii. 502
Corrie, i. 249
Dair, i. 414
Dal, i. 300
Dene, i. 597
Din, ii. 617
Dor, i. 326
Druim, ii. 108
Drws.i. 414
Du, i. 189
Dubh, ii. 268
Dun, i. 219
Dur, i. 415

/ '*'

Eaglais, i. 426
Elid, i. 681
Ess, ii. 24
Ey, ii. 469
Fearnn, i. 529
Fern, i. 527
Fifa. i. 535
Fionsi, i. 252
Fioun. i. 63
Foil, or Foyle, i. 13
Frew, ii. 587
Fuar, i. 563
Gearr, i. 595
Ghaith. ii. 75
Glyn, ii. 502
Goes, ii. 806
Gorm, ii. 153
Gow, i. 621
Grym, i. 46
Gwala, i. 597
Inn, i. 22
Inis, ii. 468
Ir-isgyn, i. 502
Keith, i. 297
Kemp, ii. 88
Kil, ii. 131
Knock, ii. 587
Laeswe, ii. 227
Laver-an, ii. 261
Le, i. 152
Leamhain, ii. 258
Lessie, i. 244
Lis, ii. 283
Llwhur, ii. 257
Llyn, ii. 268
Llyvn, ii. 258
Lochainn, i. 147
Locbur, ii. 257
Lubba, i. 142
Lude, i. 146
Lus, i. 687
Lyn, i. 597
Maben, ii. 290
Machar, i. 746
Magh, ii. 184, 408
March, ii. 617
May, ii. 336
Meal, ii. 367
Mere, ii, 353

852

ETYMOLOGICAL INDEX.

Moll, ii. 400
Monadh, ii. 367
Mor, ii. 131
Muc, i. 36
Muilan, i, 300
Nell, i. 527
Ness, ii. 24
Nock, i. 325
Oee, ii. 469
Oigh, ii. 131 .
Ollamh, i. 405
Ork, ii. 469
Peithi, i. 535
Phreas, i. 346
Poll, i. 13
Pollag, i. 425
Rath-ail, ii. 583
Reidh, ii. 14
Rhu, ii. 615
Rhyn, ii. 587
Rinn, i. 61
Ross, i. 36
Ruach garton, ii. 587
Saor, i. 55

Sealg, i. 681
Sean, ii. 577
Shaw, ii. 550
Slochk Ichopper, ii.
Stoir, i. 252
Strith, ii. 692
Strother, ii. 800
Struthaln, i. 146
Swire, ii. 61
Thir, i. 65
Ton, i. 300
Tor, i. 325
Tulla, ii. 378
Uamh, ii 797
Uamhfri, ii. 795
Urn, ii. 71
Vaen, i. 777
Valck, i. 521
Var, i. 563
Weorth, ii. 62
Weyde, ii. 227
Wights, i. 142
Yarfa, ii. 474
Ynis, ii. 468

EDINBURGH:
UdLLAKTON AND MACNAB, r-KINTERS, I.EITH WALK.

YALE UNIVbHSITY LIBRARY

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