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Stobo (parish)

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Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, edited by John Marius Wilson and published by A. Fullarton and Co - 1868

STOBO, a parish, containing a post-office station of its own name, in Peebles-shire.  It is bounded by Newlands, Lyne, Peebles, Manor, Drummelzier, and Glenholm.  Its length north-north-eastward is 6 miles; and its mean breadth is between 3 and 4 miles.  Biggar water runs a short distance on the south-western boundary.  The Tweed, immediately after receiving Biggar water, runs about 6½ miles partly on the southern boundary, partly in the interior, and partly on the south-eastern boundary.  Lyne water runs along the northern and north-eastern boundary to a junction with the Tweed.  The western border of the parish has a basis of no less than 700 feet higher than the eastern, or the level of the Tweed; and from this basis it sends up summits, four or five of which rise upwards of 1,600 feet above sea-level, but all of which necessarily appear, from the low or rather table grounds in their vicinity, to be of inconsiderable altitude.  The chief is PYKED STANE: which see.  All the western division is wildly upland, and fit only for sheep-pasture.  The interior heights are on the whole arranged into three chains or ranges, which extend east-south-eastward,—diminish in altitude as they approach the Tweed,—enclose between them two vales, each drained by its own stream,—and overlook, respectively on the north and the south, the vale of the Lyne and that of the Tweed.  Some of the hills are green; but most are covered with heath.  The vale of the Tweed is naturally beautiful, and not a little artificially embellished.  Greywacke, more or less of a slaty structure, is the prevailing rock; and clayslate of a dark-blue colour, and well adapted to roofing purposes, occurs in some quantity, and has been extensively quarried.  The total extent of arable land is about 1,300 acres, and of woodland about 600 acres.  The soil presents much variety, yet is prevalently a light fertile loam, incumbent on gravel.  The landowners are Sir G. G. Montgomery, Bart., Sir John M. Nasmyth, Bart., the Earl of Wemyss, and Gray of Brown's Lands.  The principal residences are Stobo castle and New Posso.  Various rude antiquities, all apparently of the British period, quite unexpounded by either history or tradition, occur on the Sheriffmuir.  The parish is traversed by the road from Edinburgh to Moffat, and by that from Glasgow to Kelso.  Population in 1831, 440; in 1861, 478.  Houses, 79.  Assessed property in 1860, £3,916.  Real rental in 1857, £3,803 7s. 4d.

This parish is in the presbytery of Peebles, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale.  Patron, Sir G. G. Montgomery, Bart.  Stipend, £158; glebe, £42, with some other emoluments.  Schoolmaster's salary, £45, with about £11 fees.  The parish church is a Norman structure, apparently about 650 years old, but in good repair, and contains upwards of 200 sittings.  Stobo was, in ancient times, an independent parsonage; it had attached to it the churches of Dawick, Drummelzier, Broughton, and Glenholm, called the Pendicles of Stobo; and it was converted into a prebend of Glasgow, and was the most valuable of the prebends in Tweeddale.  The part of the present parish situated on the right side of the Tweed formed part of the ancient parish of Dawick; and this was annexed to Stobo in 1742.