Eddleston (parish)

EDDLESTONE, a parish, containing a post-office village of its own name, in the north of Peebles-shire.  It is bounded by Edinburghshire, and by the parishes of Innerleithen, Peebles, Lyne, and Newlands.  It is of an oblong form, stretching from north to south; but has a considerable projection on the south-west.  Its extreme measurement from the confluence of Harehope burn and Meldon burn on the south, to Fernyhole on the north, is 10 miles; and from the confluence of two brooks at the base of Courhope hill on the west, to Burnhead on the east, is 5¼ miles.  Eddlestone water intersects it from north to south, and divides it into nearly equal parts.  This stream rises in the extreme north of the parish, pursues a course due south, receives on its way 8 or 10 tributary rills from the adjacent heights; and after leaving the parish flows direct toward the core of Peebles-shire, and there, at the burgh, the capital of the county, falls into the Tweed.  At Cowey's linn, it has a fall of 35 feet.  Its entire course, which is remarkably straight, does not exceed between 11 and 12 miles.  In the eastern division of the parish, about a mile from the boundary, is Loch Eddlestone, nearly of a circular form, 2 miles in circumference, and abounding in pike, eels, and perch.  Issuing from this lake is the South Esk, which pursues a course directly the reverse of that of Eddlestone water, flowing 3 miles due northward through the parish, and leaving it within about a mile of the Eddlestone's primary sources.  The entire surface of the parish may be described as an agglomeration of smooth hills, verdant to their summits, tame in their general appearance, but at intervals surprising the tourist by sudden disclosures of picturesque varieties, and romantic cleughs and dells.  Along the eastern boundary, the summits are towering and alpine, one of them rising to the height of 2,100 feet above the level of the sea.  See DUNDROICH.  The vales or basins of the streams are in general little other than gigantic furrows in the wide field of hills.  If the entire area of the parish be reckoned at 264 parts, 54 of them are in tillage, 13 under wood, and 197 pastoral or waste.  The principal landowners are Mackenzie of Portmore and Lord Elibank.  Real rental in 1834, £6,364.  Estimated yearly value of raw produce in 1834, £13,693.  Assessed property in 1860, £7,568 0s. 0d.  The parish is traversed along the vale of Eddlestone water by the road from Peebles to Edinburgh, and by the Peebles railway, now nearly completed.  The village of Edleston stands on the Peebles and Edinburgh road, 4 miles from Peebles and 17 from Edinburgh.  A fair formerly held here has become extinct.  Population of the parish in 1831, 836; in in 1861, 753.  Houses, 138.

This parish is in the presbytery of Peebles, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale.  Patron, Lord Elibank.  Stipend, £249 5s. 11d.; glebe, £20.  Unappropriated teinds, £98 16s. 8d.  The parish-church was built in 1829.  Sittings, 420.  Schoolmaster's salary, is now £50, with about £52 other emoluments.  Four ministers in direct line of generation, great-grandfather, grandfather, father, and son, have held the incumbency of Eddleston from 1697 to the present day.