Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 3

FREW
and 2 miles E by S of Falkland town. A quaint old
place, ■with narrow winding streets, small courts, and
bullet-paved closes, it strikingly represents the times
when folks travelled only on foot or on horseback, and
when all goods were conveyed by pack-horses ; and it
anciently lay in such relation to the precincts of Falk-
land, that disgi'aced courtiers were sent hither on their
dismissal, whence the proverbial saying, ' Go to
Freuchie.' It has a post office under Ladybank, a
branch bank of the British Linen Co., an hotel, a
power-loom linen factory, an Established church, a
United Presbyterian church, and a public school. The
Established church, built in 1875 at a cost of £1100,
contains 400 sittings, and in 1880 was raised to qzioad
sacra status ; the IJnited Presbyterian church contains
450 sittings. Pop. of village (1841) 713, (1861) 961,
(1871) 1195, (1881) 1059 ; of qiioad sacra parish (1881)
im.—Ord. Sur., sh. 40, 1867.
Frew. See Ford of Frew.
Friardykes, a place in Stenton parish, Haddington-
shire, the site of a cell of Melrose Abbey, used for
rusticating refractory monks.
Friars Brae, an eminence in Linlithgow parish, on
the S side of the town. It was anciently crowned by a
Carmelite friary, founded in 1290, and dedicated to the
Virgin.
Friars Carse, an estate, with a mansion, in Dunscore
parish, Dumfriesshire, on the right bank of the Nith,
2 mUes SSE of Auldgirth station, and 6^ NNW of
Dumfries. It was the seat, in pre-Reformation times,
of a cell of Melrose Abbey ; and in the avenue leading
to the mansion are a number of antique sculptured
stones, believed to have belonged thereto. Passing at
the Reformation to the Kirkpatricks, then the pro-
prietors of EUisland, it went in 1634 to the Maxwells
of Tinwald, afterwards to the Riddels of Gleuriddel,
and later to Dr Crichton, who bequeathed it to
found the Crichton Institution at Dumfries. Built,
about 1774, on a piece of rising ground, round which
the Kith makes a graceful curve, it often was visited
by Robert Burns during his three years' tenancy
of Ellisland. Here he foregathered with 'iine, fat,
fodgel ' Grose, a brother antiquary of Captain Riddel's ;
and here he acted as arbiter in the great Bacchanalian
tourney of the JVhistle. ' As the authentic prose his-
tory,' says Burns, 'of the JFliisilc is curious, I shall
here give it. In the train of Anne of Denmark there
came over a Danish gentleman of gigantic stature and
great prowess, and a matchless champion of Bacchus.
He had a little ebony whistle, which at the commence-
ment of the orgies he laid on the table, and whoever
was the last able to blow it was entitled to carry it off
as a trophy of victory. After many overthrows on the
part of the Scots, the Dane was encountered by Sir
Robert Lawrie of Maxwelton, who, after three days'
and three nights' hard contest, left the Scandinavian
under the table,
* " And blew on the whistle his requiem shrilL"
Sir Walter, son to Sir Robert, afterwards lost the
Whistle to Walter Riddel of Glenriddel ; and on
Friday, 16 Oct. 1790, at Friars Carse, the Whistle was
once more contended for by Sir Robert of Maxwelton,
Robert Riddel of Glenriddel, and Alexander Fergusson
of Craigdarroch, which last gentleman carried off the
hard-won honours of the field.' Allan Cunningham
adds that ' the Bard himself, who drank bottle and
bottle about, seemed quite disposed to take up the con-
queror when the day dawned.' Another of his poems
was written in Friars Carse Hermitage, which, now a
ruin, was then ' a snug little stone building, measuring
lOJ feet by 8, and supplied with a window and fire-
place. Captain Riddel gave him a key, so that he could
go in and out as he pleased.' An autograph copy of the
JVhistle is in the Thomhill Museum ; and the pane of glass
from the Hermitage on which Burns wrote the opening
lines of the ode is in the possession of Arch. Fnllarton,
V.sa.—Ord. Sur., sh. 9, 1863. See chap. i. of William
M'Dowall's Burns in Dumfriesshire (Edinb. 1870).
6?
FEUIN WATER
Friars Croft. See Dttnbae.
Friars Dubb. See Bervie.
Friars Glen, a sequestered glen in Fordoun parish,
Kincardineshire, at the base of Strathfinella Hill,
beyond Drumtochty Castle. A small Carmelite friary
here is still represented by foundations.
FriecMan. See Ikch Feiechlajt.
Friockheim, a modern village in Kirkden parish,
Forfarshire, on the right bank of Lunan Water, with a
station on the Arbroath and Forfar section of the Cale-
donian railway, 6J miles NW by W of Arbroath and
If mile ESE of Guthrie Junction. About the year
1830 operatives connected with textile manufactures
were induced to feu houses at a cheap rate on the estate
of Middleton ; and Friockheim acquired material in-
crease of importance, first by the Arbroath and Forfar
railway (1S39) placing it on a grand thoroughfare be-
tween these towns, next by the Aberdeen railway
(1850) making it a centre of transit of all places N of
the 'lay. It has a post office, with money order,
savings' bank, and telegraph departments, a branch of
the North of Scotland Bank, 4 insm-ance agencies, a
police station, gas-works, a cemetery, an assembly hall,
a library- and reading-room, a horticultural society, and
cattle, sheep, and hiring fairs on 26 May or the Thurs-
day after, on the Monday in July after Arbroath fair,
and on 22 November or the Thursday after. The quoaxl
sacra parish, constituted in 1870, is in the presbytery
of Arbroath and synod of Angus and Mearns ; the
stipend is £120, with a manse. Its church, built in
1836 and enlarged in 1840, is a neat edifice, with a
steeple and 500 sittings. 'There are also a Free church
and an Evangelical Union chapel ; and a public school,
with accommodation for 250 children, had (1881) an
average attendance of 210, and a grant of £183, 15s.
Pop. of village (1841) 805, (1861) 1239, (1871) 1119,
(1881) 1098 ; of?, s. parish (1871) 1432, (1881) 1501, of
whom 360 were in Inverkeilor and 1141 in Eirkden. —
Ord. Sur., sh. 57, 1868.
Frogden, a farm in Linton parish, Roxburghshire.
A spot on it, marked with five or six upright stones ia
circular arrangement, is called the Tryste, and was a
place of muster in the old times for Border forays into
England.
Froon. See FRimJ.
Frostly, a burn in Teviothead parish, Roxburghshire,
rising, as Linhope Burn, close to the Castleton border,
at an altitude of 14S0 feet, and running 5 miles north-
north-westward, along a narrow glen, till, after a descent
of 900 feet, it falls into the Teviot just below Teviot-
head church.— Orrf. Sur., sh. 17, 1864.
Fruchie. See Freuchie.
Fruid Water, an upland bum in Tweedsmuir parish,
SW Peeblesshire, rising close to the Dumfriesshire bor-
der, at an altitude of 2500 feet, on the N side of Hart-
fell (2651). Thence it runs 8 miles north-north-west-
ward, mainly along a beautiful glen, flanked by high
green hills, till, after a total descent of 2626 feet, it
falls into the Tweed 1^ mile SSW of Tweedsmuir church.
Vestiges of an ancient Border peel are on its right bank
at Fruid farm, 3 J miles from its mouth. — Ord. Sur.,
sh. 16, 1864.
Fruin Water, a troutful stream of W Dumbartonshire,
rising on Maol an Fheidh (1934 feet), at an altitude of
1500, in the NW of Row parish, 2 miles NE of the
head of Gare Loch, and thence winding 12 J miles south-
eastward and east-north-eastward, through or along the
borders of Row and Luss parishes, till it falls into Loch
Lomond, nearly opposite the lower end of Inchmurrin
island and 2J miles N by W of Balloch pier. Its upper
glen, named after it Glenfruin, is flanked, on the NE
side, by Ben Chaorach (2338 feet), Ben Tharsxtinn
(2149), and Balcnock (2092), a mountain range that
figures grandly in the sky-line of the views from the
upper waters of the Firth of Clyde, and on the SW side
by the Row hills (1183) ; whilst the last 4 miles of its
course are through a low and luxuriant plain. Dumfin
(200 feet), an eminence here, 3 miles ENE of Helens-
burgh, is crowned by traces of a ' Fingalian ' fort ; and