Drumblade

"DRUMBLADE, a parish, in the district of Strathbogie, county of Aberdeen; adjacent to the town of Huntly, and containing 945 inhabitants. The ancient name of this parish, Drumhlail, which is Gaelic, signifies "covered hills or braes". . . The parish is about six miles in its greatest length, and between four and five miles in its greatest breadth, and contains above 7600 acres. Its surface is diversified by small hills, mostly cultivated, and by gently sloping valleys, with an extensive plain on the north, called the Knightland Moss. . . In the parish is the mansion-house of Lessendrum, partly an old and partly a modern building. Most of the inhabitants are engaged in agricultural pursuits, but a few are employed in a distillery, a bleach-field, and two potato-flour manufactories, in a meal-mill, a lint-mill, and two wool-mills: at the distillery 40,000 gallons of superior malt spirits are annually produced, yielding to government about £10,000 year duty. . . The annual value of real property in Drumblade is £5520. Ecclesiastically the parish is within the bounds of the presbytery of Turriff and synod of Aberdeen; patron, the Earl of Kintore. The stipend is £159, of which £51 are paid by the exchequer; and there is a good manse, with a glebe of ten arable acres, valued at £16 per annum. Drumblade church, a plain edifice, was built in 1773, and improved in 1829, and contains 500 sittings. The members of the Free Church have a place of worship. The parochial schoolmaster receives £30 a year, and about £24 fee , with an allowance for a house, and a portion of the Dick bequest: Latin, mathematics, mensuration, and all the ordinary branches are taught. . . More"
[From Samuel Lewis A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1851) - copyright Mel Lockie 2016]