Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

PEIECETONwestward to Aberlady Bay, the other eastward andnorth-eastward to a creek If mile N of TyninghameHouse. West Peffer Burn has 6J or 7 miles of course ;and, except for the f mile immediately below its source,flows the whole way between Dirleton on its right bank,and Athelstaneford and Aberlady on its left. EastPeffer Burn has 6 miles of course, though, measuredalong its nominal tributary but real head-water of CogtalBurn, it has at least 8 ; and it flows, over most ofthe distance, through Prestonkirk and "Whitekirkparishes. Each stream has a fall, from source to mouth,of not more than 25 or 30 feet, and is, consequently,sluggish in its motion, looking like a large drain, andcorresponding in character to the import of its name,' the slowly running river.' The entire strath, traversedby both streams, though now a rich alluvial mould,was anciently a morass, bristling with forest, andtenanted by wild boars and beasts of prey. Large oakshave often been found inhumed in moss on the banks,their tops generally lying towards the S. At thewidening and deepening of the bed of the streams anumber of years ago, for preventing an overflow andstagnation of water during winter, several stag-hornswere dug up very near the surface of the former bed.—Onl. Sur., sh. 33, 1863.Peirceton. See Perceton.Pencaitland (Cymric pcn-cactli-llan, 'head of thenarrow enclosure '), a village and a parish in the W ofHaddingtonshire. The village, lying 271 feet above sealevel,is 3| miles SE of Tranent, 5i SW of Haddington,and If mile SE of Winton station on the Macmerrybranch of the North British, this being 13 miles E byS of Edinburgh. 'The Tyne,' wrote Sir Thomas DickLauder in 1847, 'divides it into two parts, called Easterand Wester Pencaitland. Wester Pencaitland containsan ancient market-cross ; but the most interesting andpicturesque feature of the village is the old church, withits small octagonal belfry, in Easter Pencaitland, embosomedin a grove of tall and stately trees. We havelong been in the habit of considering the manse as agem amongst clergymen's residences of the same kind.Situated on the sunny slope, amid shrubberies and gardenstretching down the river, it seems to be the verynest of human content ' {Scottish Rivers, Edinb. 1874).Everard de Pencaithlan granted the church to KelsoAbbey for the salvation of his lord. King AVilliam theLyon (1165-1214) ; but John de Maxwell in the firsthalf of the 14th century conveyed theadvowson to themonks of Dryburgh, and with them it continued till theReformation. The Pencaitland aisle is of pre-Keformationdate ; but the body of the church was built towardsthe close of the 16th century, the tower in 1631. Asrestored in 1882, at a cost of £275, it contains 480 sittings.At the W end is a quaint epitaph ' to the memorieof umi'e Ka. Forbes, spouse to M. To. Oswald, Annodom. 1639 ; ' and in the churchyard is an Zona cross toJames, sixth Lord Kuthven (1777-1853). David Calderwood(1575-1650), the historian, and Robert Douglas(c. 1600-73), were ministers here. Pencaitland has alsoa Free church and a post ofiice, with money order andsavings' bank departments.An elegant public hall liasbeen lately built in Wester Pencaitland by Mrs Trevelyanof Tyneholm at a cost of over £1200, in memory of herhusband, Arthur Trevelyan, Esq., who died in 1880.Theparish,containingalso Newtown village, is boundedN by Gladsmuir, SE by Salton, S and W by Ormiston,and NW by Tranent. Its utmost length, from ENEto WSW, is 4| miles ; its breadth varies between 4Jfurlongs and 4 miles ; and its area is 5075J acres. TheTrNE meanders 5 miles east-north-eaatward—for 2Jmiles across the middle of the parish, and elsewherealong or close to the Ormiston and Salton boundaries ;Bims, Keith, or Salton Water flows to it If mile northwardalong the boundary with Salton ; and KinchieBurn, a feeder of Birns Water, runs 2% miles east-bynorthwardacross the southern interior and along thesouthern boundary. Beside the Tyne the surface sinksto 200 feet above sea-level ; and thence it rises gentlynorthward to 400 feet at Winton Hill, and southward171PENICUIKto 479 near Fountainhall. Thus while it offers nomarked natural feature, this parish wears a pleasantEnglish aspect, its well-enclosed, well-cultivated farmbeing prettily diversified with meadows and woods. Therocks belong mainly to the Carboniferous Limestoneseries. Coal, though lying on the outer margin of theLothian coalfield, abounds, and is mined for the supplyof the southern and south-eastern district of the countyand of part of Lauderdale. Carboniferous limestone,enclosing numerous fossils of the kinds usual to thisrock, is also found and worked to a small extent. Sandstonehas been worked in several quarries ; and that ofthe Jerusalem quarry has long been celebrated, being oflaminated texture, of an uniform grayish-white hue,and yielding blocks of from 20 to 30 feet in length.The soil is naturally wet and clayey, but has beengreatly improved. About one-thirteenth of the entirearea is covered with wood, partly plantation and partlynatural oak and birch ; nearly 200 acres are laid outin artificial pasture ; and all the rest are regularlytilled. Pencaitland House, now a ruin, in the immediatevicinity of Wester Pencaitland, was the seat of JamesHamilton (1660-1729), who on his elevation to the benchassumed the title of Lord Pencaitland. The estate ofPencaitland belongs now to his descendant, the DowagerLady Kuthven, whose seat, AVinton Castle, is noticedseparately, as also is a third mansion, Fountainhall.Her Ladyship is chief proprietor, 3 others holding eachan annual value of £500 and upwards, 2 of between£100 and £500, and 2 of from £20 to £50. Pencaitlandis in the presbytery of Haddington and thesynod of Lothian and 'Tweeddale ; the living is worth£350. Pencaitland public, Newtown, and New Wintonschools, with respective accommodation for 135,74, and 101 children, had (1883) an average attendanceof 46, 49, and 37, and grants of £35, £42,14s. 6d., and £26, 2s. Valuation (1860) £8628, (1884)£7891, 13s. Pop. (1801) 925, (1831) 1166, (1861)1187, (1871) 1320, (1881) IWI.—Ord. Sur., sh. 33,1863.Penersax. See Middlebie.Penicuik (Cymric pen-y-c6g, ' hill of the cuckoo '), atown and a parish in the S of Edinburghshire. A burghof barony and a police burgh, the town, which stands,600 feet above sea-level, on the left bank of the riverNorth Esk, by road is 12 miles N by W of Peebles and10 S of Edinburgh ; whilst its station at the terminusof a branch line (1S72) of the North British railway is15f miles distant from the latter city. It is also easilyreached from Glencoese and Pomathokn stations.From its wide main street, running NE and SW, twostreets diverge north-north-westward and south-southeastward; the Valleyfield suburb lies close beside theriver ; and Kirkhill, J mile to the NE, though treatedin the Census as a separate village, is likely in time tobecome absorbed into Penicuik. The place wears awell-built airy appearance, superior to that of mosttowns of its size ; contains some good shops andspacious well-to-do dwellings ; and has a post office,with money order, savings' bank, insurance, and telegraphdepartments, a branch of the Clydesdale Bank, 2hotels, a gas company, a drinking fountain (1864),angling, bowling, cricket, and curling clubs, horticulturaland ornithological societies, a reading club(1841), Liberal and Conservative associations, hiringfairs on the third Friday of March and the first Fridayof October, etc. In the churchyard, at the NE endof the main street, stands the Romanesque tower ofthe old parish church, St Kentigern's, whose nave hasbeen converted into three mausoleums. In front is thepresent church, a plain edifice of 1771, with a tetrastyleDoric portico, a clock, and a stone cross. It wasenlarged in 1837, and greatly improved in 1880, beingnow sufficiently commodious. The Free church, builtin 1862-63 at a cost of £2050, is a Gothic structure,with a large four-light window, 600 sittings, and anunfinished spire. Designed by Mr F. T. Pilkington,it is not so unlike his Barclay Church at Edinburgh.Other places of worship are a U.P. church (1867), a