Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/187

PEEBLESSIIIRE. 175 PEEBLESSHIHE. Peebles Advertiser, is published in tho town, which has recently become a summer retreat for wealthy families from Edinburgh and Dundee. A considerable number of the inhabitants were formerly engaged in the cloth and cotton manufactures, but these have recently de- clined. There is some business still done in the fabri- cation of plaiding, flannel, and coarse woollen, also in waulking and dyeing, for which there are extensive mills on the Eddlestone water, and in stocking weaving and leather dressing. The corn mills on the Tweed, alluded to in Dr. Pennecuick's verses, were recently destroyed by fire, and a woollen factory now occupies the Bite. Peebles is governed, under a charter of James VI., by a provost, two bailies, town clerk, and twelve coun- cillors. The corporation revenue in 1860 was 552, and the municipal constituency 97. The par. is the seat of a presb. in the synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. The minister's stipend is 327 l'2s.9d., besides a glebe valued at 24. The parish church stands in the town facing the High-street. It is a substantial structure with a massive steeple, erected in 1784. There are a Free church, two United Presbyterian churches, an Episco- palian chapel, and a Roman Catholic chapel. The principal schools are the burgh school, a grammar school, Free Church school, two girls' schools, and two private academies. The Earl of Wemyss takes from this place the title of viscount. Market day is Tuesday, chiefly for corn and meal. Fairs are held on the second Tuesdays in January and October, the first Tuesday in March, second Wednesday in May, Tuesday after 18th July, Tuesday before 24th August, and on the Tuesdays before 12th September and 12th December. PEEBLESSHIRE, or TWEEDDALE, an inland Co. in the south-eastern div. of Scotland. It is bounded on the N. and N.E. by Edinburghshire, on the E. by Berwickshire, on the S.E. by Selkirkshire, on the S.W. by Dumfriesshire, and on the W. by Lanarkshire. Tho outline of the country in irregularly triangular; the sides fronting the N.E., the S.E., and the W. are marked partly by watercourses and partly by ranges of round- topped hills. Its circuit is about 11U miles, and its ex- treme length from Annanhcad Hill, in the N.E., to the southern boundary of Eddlestone parish is 30 miles, with an extreme breadth from E. to W. of 22 miles, but its average breadth does not exceed 13 miles. Its area is about 354 square miles, or 226,488 acres, of which only one-seventh part has been brought into cultivation, the remainder being moorland and moss. In very early times it was a seat of the Gadmi, and was then covered with extensive woods, subsequently known as the forests of Leithen, Traquair, and part of the Great Ettrick forest. On its subjugation by the Romans it was in- cluded in the province of Valentia, and has still traces of three Roman camps, one on tho E. bank of the Lync, near Lyne-church, one at Upper- Whitefield in Linton, and one in Manor. The Walling Street which traverses Clydesdale appears to have been carried within half a mile of the western extremity of Tweeddale, at a point where there is a natural passage from the Clyde to the Tweed, but not to have entered tho county. After the departure of the Romans it formed part of the Strath- clyde kingdom, but was encroached upon in the 9th century by the Scoto-Irish on the W. and by the Saxons on the E., who drove many of the original inhabitants to seek shelter in Wales. It subsequently became part of the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, and was annexed in 974 to the kingdom o'f Scotland. The Scoto-Saxons, who were tho last race to assume the mastery in Tweed- dale, appear from their dialect to have immigrated, not from the W., like tho inhabitants of the adjoining county of Dumfriesshire, but from the E. of England, like the people of Roxburgh and Selkirk. Previous to the felling of the natural woods, this county appears to have been much warmer, and to have supported a population al- most equal to that which belongs to it at present. Even so early as the reign of David I. we find it parcelled out between the parks of nobles, the granges of monks, and tho manors of barons, and at that time must have been embellished with their mansions, churches, mills, kilns, and brewhouses ; but after it became shire ground, towards the close of the 13th century, it was, like the surrounding country, stripped of its thick natural forests, which previously had effectually sheltered the cultivated lands from the erosion of the hoar-frost and the blast oi the withering winds, which now swept unopposed across its barren heaths and moss. Although the soil of by far tho greater part of the county never was, and never will bo, turned up by the plough, yet it is capable of vast improvement as a pastoral county, chiefly by the judicious extension of plantations and the adaptation of soils, which processes have been steadily going on since tho latter part of the last century. The lowest ground in the county is in the narrow valo of tho Tweed, but this lies near 500 feet above sea-level, and is nowhere more than 3 miles broad, while in most parts of its course tho mountains rise abruptly from the river's banks, so that tho extent of arable land is necessarily but small. The remainder of the county is one series of mountain ridges, almost impenetrable on the N. aiid S., but in general of symmetrical outline, and covered with verdure to tho summits, affording excellent sheep pasture. On the high grounds peat moss is found in almost every hollow and patch of level, varying in thickness from 4 to 20 feet, and in its natural state is always swampy, but when improved by subsoil plough- ing it becomes workable, and even sometimes fertile. Some of the principal summits in the S. and S.W. aro tho Hart Fells, rising 2,790 feet above the sea, and forming the nucleus of tho great mountain ranges which constitute the southern Highlands, and in which tho Tweed and Annan take their rise. Dollar Law, another lofty summit, rises 2,790 feet, and Broad Law 2,740 feet : even along the northern and western boundaries many of the summits attain an elevation of 2,000 feet. Tho prevailing rocks aro clay slate and grey wacko slato or whinstone, with Old Red sandstone in tho N., and car- boniferous limestone and coal in the N.E. A great variety of clays overlie tho carboniferous formation, in- cluding fire clay, fuller's earth, red and yellow ochres, alum slate, &c. In the same district also occur red and white freestone, which is quarried for building and for paving flags, compact limestone sufficiently hard to take the polish of white ornamental marble, ironstone, galena or lead-ore, native loadstone, silver in combination with lead, and traces of gold, which last was formerly found in considerable quantities in the parish of Meggct. A fine blue slate is quarried at Stobo, and lime and coal are worked near Linton, but none of the other minerals to any considerable extent. The chief mineral springs are those of Heaven-aqua, in the parish of Linton, and the celebrated spa of Inuerleithen, which lust, in its medicinal properties, nearly resembles the waters of Harrogate. Multitudes of small streams occasion- ally swollen into mountain torrents, run between the hills to tho Lyne, Eddlestoue, Leithen, Manor, Quair, and other branches of tho Tweed, which nuijestio river rises in Tweeds-muir about 1,500 feet above the level of the sea, and traverses the wholo length of the county, in the segment of a circle, from the ex- treme S.W. corner, through tho centre, and so to tho eastern angle, over a distance of above 41 miles. Tho land everywhere rises from this great line of drainage in a series of shelving, but quite irregularly disposed, ridges towards the boundaries, being cleft at intervals by narrow gorges, or glens, through which the minor streams wind their way to the main channel. Tho small valleys or hollows amongst tho mountains, scooped out by the action of the rivers, are occasionally fertile and well cultivated. Most of tho arable farms are con- sequently small, comprising from 40 to 100 acres, and none exceeding 200 acres. Tho sheep farms, on the contrary, which comprehend the whole of the upland districts, aro of large extent, averaging from 800 to 4,000 acres. Tho farms are generally let on leases run- ning from 14 to 19 years, and occasionally for 50 years ; as on the late Duke of Queensberry's property, which has been vastly improved by giving the tenant a per- manent interest in the reclamation of the soil. In 1 8M