Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

—PEEBLES(juair (detached), S by Yarrow (detached), Traquair,and Yarrow, SW by Manor, and W by Manor, Stobo,and Lyne. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 9 miles ;its utmost breadth, from E to W, is 5J miles ; andits area is 16,686iV acres, of which 13,513f are inPeeblesshire and 3172J in Selkirkshire, whilst 89 arewater. The Tweed divides the parish into two parts,of which the northern is the larger. Entering it on itsW side, the river winds 1 J mile east-by-southward alongthe Manor boundary, next 3g miles eastward throughthe heart of the parish, and afterwards for g mileon the boundary with Traquair. Thus if one followsits windings, the Tweed has a total course line of 55miles, though a straight line, dra^vn between the pointsat which it enters ^and leaves the parish, does notmeasure more than 4^ miles. On the N bank it receivesthe tribute of Lyne Water, Eddleston Water, andSoonhope Burn. Meldon Burn runs 2^ miles southby-westwardalong the boundary with part of Eddlestonand the whole of Lyne parish, and falls into LyneWater, which itself runs 3 furlongs south-southeastwardalong all the Stobo boundary. EddlestonWater, flowing at right angles to the Tweed, dividesthe northern part into two sections, of which the easternis the larger. It has a course of 2| miles within theparish, before it Joins the Tweed at Peebles. SoonhopeBurn, rising at an altitude of 1750 feet in the NEcorner of the parish, flows i^ miles south-south-westward,and falls into the Tweed at Kerfield, J mOe belowthe town. On the S bank the Tweed receives Manop.AVater, which flows for the last 5J furlongs on theboundary with Manor, and Glensas Burn, rising at analtitude of 2100 feet in the southern extremity of theparish, and running 6t miles north-north-eastwardfor the last IJ furlong along the Traquair boundary.Besides these, there are numerous small streams, tributariesof the above ; and both great and small afl'ord goodfishing. The vale of Tweed, in the neighbourhood ofPeebles especially, expands to a considerable breadth,and contains scenery of great beauty. It has an altitudenear the river of from 550 to 495 feet.The following are the highest hills : — *DunslairHeights (1975 feet), *Cardon Law (1928), *MakenessKipps (1839), *Whiteside Edge (1763), Meldon Hill(1401), Collie Law (1380), Heathpool Common (1516),and South Hill Head (1239), in the division N of theTweed : Cademuir (1359), Preston Law (1863), *HundleshopeHeights (2249), and *Dun Rig (2433), in the partS of the Tweed, where asterisks mark those summitsthat culminate on the confines of the parish. Thesehills, generally speaking, are lowland in character,though those of the Selkirkshire portion are somewhatrugged and covered with heather.Greywacke is the predominant rock, and has been largelyemployed for building purposes. A quarry of coarselimestone, on the Edinburgh road, 2 miles from thetown, has long since been abandoned. In the bottom ofthe valleys the soil is clay mixed with sand ; on thelower ascents it is loam on gravel ; and on the sidesof the hills it is rich earth. The parish is mainlypastoral, there being good feeding for sheep. Aboutone-sixth of the entire area is in tillage ; and nearlyone-tenth is under wood. The chief proprietors are theEarl of Wemyss and Sir Robert Hay of Haystoune,Bart., 6 others holding each an annual value of £500and upwards. Llansions, noticed separately, are Kingsmeadows,Kerfield, A''enlaw House, and Rosetta. Theparish is traversed by two railway lines, of the NorthBritish and Caledonian, and by excellent roads whichbranch out from the town of Peebles in all directions.The former line approaches the town downthe valley of Eddleston Water, and the latter downtliat of Tweed. Antiquities are described under thetown, and in the articles Gademtjib, and NeidpathCastle.Peebles is the seat of a presbytery in the synod ofLothian and Tweeddale. The living is worth £489,17s. lOd., made up of stipend £424, lis. 2d., communionelements £8, 6s. 8d., manse £35, glebe £22.81PEEBLESSHIRELandward valuation (1855) £7299, 13s., (1884) £13,817,9s. lOd., plus £2581 for the North British railway,and £1779 for the Caledonian railway. Pop. of entireparish (1801) 2088, (1831) 2750, (1861) 2850, (1871)3172, (1881) 4059, of whom 4 were in the Selldrkshireportion.— OroJ. Sur., sh. 24, 1864.The presbytery of Peebles comprises the quoad civiliaparishes of Drummelzier, Eddleston, Innerleithen, Kirkurd.West Linton, Lyne, Manor, Newlands, Peebles,Stobo, Traquair, and Tweedsmuir, with the quoad sacraparish of Walkerhurn. Pop. (1871) 11,164, (1881) 12,749,of whom 3189 were communicants of the Church of Scotlandin 1878. See Biggak.Peeblesshire or Tweeddale, an inland county in theS of Scotland, is bounded on the N and NE by Edinburghshire,E and SE by Selkirkshire, S by Dumfriesshire,and on the SW and W by Lanarkshire. Itderives its former name from its chief town, Peebles ;thelatter from the fact that the source, and nearly half oftlie course, of the river Tweed lies within its borders.The boundary runs on the N and NE in a jagged linefrom the Pentland Hills by Carlops and Leadburn toRingside Edge ; thence S to the Moorfoot Hills, and byWindlestraw Law and Garthope Burn to the Tweed,whose course it crosses at Holylee ; thence westwardsalong the S bank of the Tweed to the Haystoun Burn,though with four bold and irregular loops runningalmost due S into Selkirkshire, and including the basinsof the Bold Burn, Fingland Burn, and Quair Water ;and so S by the line of AVaddinshope Burn, GlenrathHeights, Blackhouse Heights, and Henderland to StMary's Loch, a reach of which forms a small part of theS boundary of the shire. From St Mary's the boundarynext runs along a line of heights by Loch Skene andHart Fell to Tweed's Cross, where it turns N to formthe W limit of the shire by Clyde Law, Black Dod,Culter Fell, Hartree, Skirling, Netherurd, and JledwinWater to tlie Pentland Hills, which form the NWboundary. The outline thus traced presents the appearanceof an irregular triangle, facing W, SE, and NE, withrounded angles, and most broken by indentations onthe SE base line where there are projections intoSelkirkshire. The lengths of the sides are— along theW face, from N to S, 26 miles ; along the SE face, 30miles ; and along the NE, 23 miles. The extremelength of the county, from N to S, is 29 miles ; itsextreme breadth, from E to W, is 21 miles ; and itstotal area is 354 square miles or 226,899 acres (of which970 are water) ; lying between 50° 24' and 55° 50' Nlatitude, and between 2° 45' and 3° 23' AV longitude.It is the twenty-third county of Scotland in point ofsize, and the thirtieth in population.The surface of Peeblesshire attains a higher averagelevel than that of any other of the southern Scottishcounties. The lowest ground is in the narrow vale ofthe Tweed, just where it enters Selkirkshire, and liesbetween 400 and 500 feet above sea-leveL The highestground in the county is on the S border, where thesummits of the Hartfell group rise. The highest peakis, however, Broad Law (2754 feet), in Tweedsmuirparish, 4 miles from the S border. At a general viewthe county seems to be an assemblage of hills, more orless high, and more or less closely grouped ; but theseare intersected in all directions by pleasant and fertilevalleys or deep gorges, each with its stream flowingthrough it. Professor Veitch thus describes the viewfrom the top of Broad Law': On all sides, but particularlyto the east of us, innumerable rounded broad hilltopsrun in a series of parallel flowing ridges, chiefly fromthe south-west to the north-east, and between the ridgeswe note that there is enclosed in each a scooped-out glen,in which we know that a burn or water flows. 'Thesehill-tops follow each other in wavy outline. One rises,falls, passes softly into another. This again rises, falls,and passes into another beyond itself ; and thus the eyereposes on the long soft lines of a sea of hills, whosetops move and yet do not move, for they carry ourvision along their undulating flow, themselves motionless,lying Uke an earth-ocean in the deep, quiet calm165