Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

MOFFAT
vthieh was opened in April 1883, connects Moffat with
Beattock. The company has a capital of £16,000 in
£10 shares. The new line, wliich is worked by the
Caledonian Railway Company, has proved a great boon
to Moffat, as it has made it much easier of access than
it was when the nearest station was at Beattock.
Omnibuses run between the hotels and the mineral well,
and a coach goes thrice a week in the season to the
famous Grey Mare's Tail and St Mary's Loch.
The town is built upon a gentle slope, which rises
slowly northward from 340 to 400 feet alaove sea-level.
The High Street is the chief street, or rather 'place,'
being 300 yards long and 50 broad. It is thus described
in the Beauties of Scotland (1805): 'The street is wide and
spacious, Iiandsomely formed and gravelled, exceedingly
smooth, clean, and dr_y in an hour after the heaviest rains,
and is a most agreeable walk to the inhabitants, and to
the company that comes for goats' whey or the mineral
waters.' Since that time the High Street has been
modernised by the erection of new, and the remodelling
of old, buildings. It contains the principal public
edifices, hotels, etc., and at one time, with the closes
branching from it, composed the town of Moffat. Of
late years, however, owing to the number of people
visiting Moffat annually, the building of villas has been
greatly encouraged, and several new streets have sprung
up. Such are Well Road, Old Well Road, Beechgrove,
Havelock Crescent, Academy Road, Hopetoun Place,
Ballplay Road, etc. A number of villas have also been
erected at the foot of the Gallow Hill.
There are in the town four places of worship belong-
ing to the Established, Free, United Presbyterian, and
Episcopal Churches. The parish church, situated in the
S part of the town, was built in 1790, and contains 1000
sittings. It is surrounded by fine old trees, and has a
handsome spire, surmounted by the 'Flying Spur,' the
crest of the Johnstones of Annaudale. The Free church,
erected in 1843, is a large but unadorned edifice,
not far from the parish church. A small spire, added
later on, greatly improved its appearance. The U. P.
church, in Old Well Road, was erected in 1863, and cost
£3000. It is in the Decorated English or Second
Pointed style, consists of nave and aisles, and has a lofty
tower and spire. From its position it may be seen from
almost every point of view. The Episcopal church,
situated upon the Kiln Knowes, Millburnside, was
built in 1872 at the expense of J. Toulmin Laurence,
Esq. of Liverpool, who resided at that time in Craigie-
burn House. It is an iron church, but, in spite of that,
is not devoid of style. Its main attraction is a beauti-
ful stained-glass E window, erected to the memory of
the Piev. W. B. Mackenzie, who was wont frequently to
conduct service in the chapel.
Moffat is well supplied with schools. The Academy
arose out of the union (1834) of the parish school with
the old grammar school, which was founded by Dr
Robert Johnstone (1557-1639), George Heriot's brother-
in-law. The building, which may lay claim to some
beauty, is situated at the foot of the Gallow Hill.
With accommodation for 286 children, it had (1883)
an average attendance of 173, and a grant of £165,
18s. 6d. The Academy furnishes a good classical edu-
cation. Morison's Endowed school, in Well Road,
is a simple yet pleasing building. William Morison
(1796-1837), a native of Moffat and afterwards a Cal-
cutta merchant, left £2000 to be spent in building and
endowing a school, in which, in return for a nominal
fee, a substantial English education might be had.
It has accommodation for 88 children, an average
attendance of 52, and a grant of £26, 19s. Annan
Water and Moffat Water public schools, with respec-
tive accommodation for 44 and 53 children, had (1883)
an average attendance of 40 and 24, and grants of £44,
9s. and £32, 2s. There are also an industrial school
and a private school.
For its size Moffat possesses a fair proportion of public
buildings. The court-house, at the corner of High Street
and Well Street, dates from 1772 ; but the bell in the
turret has inscribed upon it the date 1660, along with
38
MOFFAT
the Johnstone arms and an earl's coronet. Some time
ago the ground-floor of the court-house was turned into
shops, but the upper rooms are still used by the Town
Commissioners for holding courts and discharging other
business in. Moffat House, beside the baths, was
erected by the second Earl of Hopetoun in 1751. As
the third Earl died in 1817 without heirs male, the
house passed into the possession of Lady Anne John-
stone, his eldest daughter, and great-grandmother of the
present holder of the house and property — Mr Hope
Johnstone. (SeeR/VEHiLLS.) Itwas in Moffat House that
Macpherson was residing (1759) when he entered on that
literary forgery which made so great a stir in the latter
half of the 18th century — the fabrication of the
Ossianic epics. A fine public fountain, in the upper
part of the High Street, was erected by Mr Colvin
of Craigiclands in 1875 at a cost of £500. The
design is somewhat pastoral. Upon a pedestal of rough-
hcAvn Corncockle red sandstone blocks, 16 feet in height,
stands a ram in bronze, designed by the late William
Brodie, R.S. A. Round the base are 4 basins of polished
granite. Other buildings, which improve the appear-
ance of the town, are the chief hotels and the banks.
The baths, on the W side of High Street, beside the
Annandale Arms Hotel, were erected in 1827. The
front part of the building is taken up with assembly,
reading, and billiard rooms, while the rear part contains
the baths, which are of various descriptions — vapour,
mineral, etc. The entrance to the baths is through a
Doric portico. The Beechgrove grounds, laid out in
1870 at a cost of £600, comprise bowling, croquet, and
lawn -tennis grounds, with an excellent pavilion. Per-
haps the most striking building in Moffat is the Hydro-
pathic Establishment, erected in the Renaissance style
by Messrs Pilkington & Bell, of Edinburgh, in 1875-
77, at a cost of "fully £40,000. It is of immense size,
comprising a centre and two wings, the former having
tm'rets at either end. There are 5 floors, including the
basement, and 300 bedrooms. The dining-hall can
accommodate comfortably 300 guests, and the drawing-
room, recreation-room, etc., are all on an equally large
scale. The baths are of a very perfect description,
embracing Turkish, vapour, etc., and the grounds, 25
acres in extent, are beautifully laid out. There are
lawns for tennis and croquet, as well as a bowling-green.
Moffat has a head post office, with money order,
savings' bank, insurance, and telegraph departments ;
branches of the Bank of Scotland, the Union Bank, and
the British Linen Company's Bank, offices or agencies of
14 insurance companies, 3 chief hotels, numerous lodging-
houses of all classes, a subscription library, with over
4000 volumes, and a Saturday newspaper — TTie Moffat
Times (1857). During the season concerts, lectures, etc.,
are given in the Baths Assembly Hall, which is also
used for public meetings and by the band of the Upper
Annandale Rifle Volunteers. The building which
served as the Episcopal chapel before the new chapel
was built in 1872 is now used as an Oddfellows' Hall,
and there is also a Mechanics' Hall in Well Street. A
weekly market is held at Moffat every Friday ; a lamb
fair is held on the Friday of July after Langholm fair ;
a fair for sheep and cattle, held on the Friday of Sep-
tember after Falkirk Tryst, is knovm as the Tup Fair ;
and hiring fairs are held on the third Friday of March
old style, and the Friday after 19 Oct. Shows of
sheep, cattle, flowers, etc., are connected with the Tup
Fair, and draw many to Moffat owing to the high
class of the exhibits. The great annual sale of Cheviot
rams, at the Beattock Bridge Hotel, on the day
before the Moffat tup fair, may also be mentioned.
The shops in Moffat are, as a rule, of a superior
class, the shopkeepers being induced to deal in luxuries
as well as necessaries to meet the wants of visitors.
The wells in the neighbourhood of Moffat are three
in number^Garpol Spa, 3 miles SW ; Hartfell Spa,
5 miles NNE ; and Moffat Well, IJ mile NNE of the
town of Moffat. The first two are separately described.
According to the commonly received story, Moffat Well
was found in 1633 by Miss Rachel Whiteford, only