navigation is carried on by barges. The Tweed is one of the best salmon streams in Scotland. From the time of Kenneth the Grim (d. 1005) to that of James VI. (1600) the Tweed uplands were the favourite hunting ground of the Scots monarchs, and, at a later date, the Covenanters found refuge in the recesses of the hills and on the banks of Talla Water, an early right-hand affluent. Close to Stobo Castle is Stobo Kirk, the mother-church of the district, founded by St Kentigern and probably the oldest ecclesiastical building in Tweeddale, a mixture of Saxon, Norman and modern Gothic.
See Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Scottish Rivers (1874); Professor John Veitch, The River Tweed (1884); Rev. W. S. Crockett, The Scott Country (1892).
TWEEDDALE, MARQUESSES OF. John Hay, 2nd Earl
and 1st Marquess of Tweeddale (1626–1697), was the eldest
son of John, 8th Lord Hay of Yester (c. 1599–1654), created
earl of Tweeddale in 1646, who was the grandson of William
Lord Hay of Yester (d. 1576), one of the partisans of Mary
Queen of Scots, and thus a descendant of John Hay of Yester
(Haddingtonshire) who was created a lord of the Scottish
parliament in 1488 and died about 1500. Before succeeding
to the peerage in 1654 the second earl fought for Charles I.
during the Civil War, but he soon transferred his allegiance, and
was in the Scottish ranks at Marston Moor. Changing sides
again, he was with the royalists at Preston; but he was a
member of Cromwell’s parliament in 1656, and was imprisoned
just after the restoration of Charles II. He was soon, however,
in the king’s favour, and in 1663 was appointed president of
the Scottish council, and in 1664 an extraordinary lord of
session. In Scotland he sought to mitigate the harshness
shown by the English government to the Covenanters, and for
this attitude he was dismissed from his offices in 1674; but
he regained an official position in 1680 and held it during the
reign of James II. A supporter of William of Orange, he was
made lord high chancellor of Scotland in 1692, and two years
later was created marquess of Tweeddale and earl of Gifford.
He favoured the scheme for the expedition to Darien, and as
lord high commissioner during William’s absence he formally
assented to the act establishing the trading company in 1695;
for this action he was dismissed from office when the king
returned to England in 1696. He died on the 11th of August
1697.
His son John, 2nd Marquess of Tweeddale (1645–1713), was prominent in Scottish politics during the stormy period which preceded the union with England. After acting for a time with the national party he became the leader of the squadrone volante, a band of men who at first took up an independent attitude on the question, but afterwards supported the union. For a very short time he was lord chancellor of Scotland, and he was one of the first of the Scottish representative peers. He died on the 20th of April 1713. His eldest son, Charles (c. 1670–1715), became 3rd marquess; a younger son, Lord John Hay (d. 1706), commanded the famous regiment of dragoons, afterwards called the Scots Greys, at the battle of Ramillies and elsewhere.
John, 4th Marquess of Tweeddale (c. 1695–1762), eldest son of the 3rd marquess, was chief secretary of state for Scotland from 1742 to 1746 and extraordinary lord of session from 1721 until his death. In six parliaments he was a representative peer for Scotland; he was for a time keeper of the king’s signet, and in 1761 he was made lord-justice-general. He died on the 9th of December 1762. His brother, Lord Charles Hay (d. 1760), was the soldier who displayed great coolness when suddenly brought face to face with some French troops at Fontenoy, requesting the enemy, so Voltaire’s account runs, to fire first.
The family of the 4th marquess became extinct when George, the 5th marquess, died on the 4th of October 1770; and George, a son of the 3rd marquess, succeeded to the title. When he died unmarried on the 16th of November 1787 the marquessate passed to a kinsman, George (1733–1804), a descendant of the 2nd marquess, who became 7th marquess.
George, 8th Marquess of Tweeddale (1787–1876), son of the preceding, succeeded in August 1804. He fought in the Peninsular War, being wounded at the battles of Busaco and Vittoria, and then in America; and he attained the rank of a field marshal in 1875. From 1842 to 1848 he was governor and commander-in-chief of Madras, but his later life was mainly spent at Yester, where he showed a very practical interest in agriculture. He died on the 10th of October 1876. His son, Arthur (1824–1878), who became 9th marquess, was an ornithologist of repute and a soldier who served in India and the Crimea. His ornithological works were published privately in 1881 by his nephew, Captain R. E. W. Ramsay, with a memoir by Dr W. H. Russell. His successor was his brother, William Montagu (b. 1826), who, after sitting in the House of Commons for thirteen years, was made a peer of the United Kingdom as Baron Tweeddale in 1881.
TWEEZERS, a small instrument like a pair of tongs, used
for picking up minute objects, extracting thorns or splinters
from the flesh, &c. Etymologically a “tweezer” is an instrument
contained in a “tweeze” or a small case containing
several instruments, “tweeze” being a plural form of “twee,” an
adaptation of French étui, a sheath-case or box to put things in.
Why one particular instrument out of the case should be called
“tweezers” is not certain; Skeat suggests a possible connexion
of ideas with the obsolete “twich,” “twitch” (Ger. zwicken,
to nip, fasten, Eng. “tweak”), or reference may be made to
the M. Eng. twisel or twissel, a pair of objects (twi-, two).
The derivation of the French étui (O. Fr. estuy) is doubtful. Cognate forms are Span. estuche, Port. estojo, Ital. astuccio, formerly stuccio or stucchio, all with the same meaning of a small case for instruments such as scissors, knife, &c. Skeat supports Diez in his connexion with the modern German dialect Stauche, cuff, that part of the sleeve where such small objects were carried. Others connect the word with Lat. stadium, a place Where one studies, hence a place where objects of study are carried, a somewhat far-fetched sense development.
TWELVE TABLES, the tables of wood on which was engraved or painted the earliest codification of the Roman law. Originally
ten in number, two others were afterwards added, containing
supplemental matter, and the whole code was termed
the Lex XII. Tabularum (Law of the Twelve Tables). (See
Roman Law and Rome.)
TWENTY-FOUR PARGANAS, THE, a district of British India, in the presidency division of Bengal, with an area of 4844 sq. m. It occupies part of the Gangetic delta, east of
the Hugli, surrounding (but not including) the city of Calcutta. It also includes the greater part of the almost uninhabited
Sundarbans (q.v.). The administrative headquarters are at
Alipur, a southern suburb of Calcutta. The country consists
for the most part of a vast alluvial plain, and is everywhere
watered by numerous branches of the Ganges. In 1901
the population was 2,078,359, showing an increase of 10%
in the decade. Rice is the staple crop, followed by jute,
pulses and sugar-cane. The district is traversed by three
railways, two of which terminate at the ports of Diamond
Harbour and Port Canning, but numerous river channels are
still the chief means of communication. Apart from the
suburbs of Calcutta, there is hardly a single real town. But
round Calcutta all the manufactures of a great city are to
be found, principally jute mills and jute presses, cotton mills
and paper mills, and also government factories for rifles and
ammunition.
The Twenty-four Parganas form the tract of which the zamindari or landlord rights were granted to the East India Company after the battle of Plassey, while the revenue arising therefrom was conferred upon Clive, upon whose death it reverted to the company.
TWICKENHAM, an urban district in the Brentford parliamentary division of Middlesex, England, 12 m. W.S.W. of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, on the river Thames. Pop. (1891), 16,027; (1901), 20,991. Its situation is pleasant, and it has grown into an extensive residential district. The body of the church of St Mary was rebuilt in brick after its collapse
