Gazetteer of Scotland

EIL
EIGG ; one of the Western isles,
attached to the county of Inverness,
and one of the cluster which com-
poses the parish of Small Isles. It is
between 4 and 5 miles in length, and
from 2 to 3 in breadth, and is com-
puted to be about 8 miles distant from
Arisaig, the nearest part of the main-
land. It is partly flat, and partly hil-
ly and rocky, having a small valley
running through it. The low grounds
are tolerably productive. In -Eigg are
seen several specimens of basaltic pil-
lars over the whole island ; and along
the coast the rocks are chiefly of a
honey-comb lava, exceedingly light
and porous, having a great resem-
blance to pumices and other volcanic
productions. Eigg contains about
403 inhabitants.
EIL (LOCH) ; the inner part of an
inlet from the sea, on the borders of
Argyll and Inverness- shires, which,
nearer the ocean, is known by the
name of Loch Linnhe. Near its head
is the house of Loch Eil, the occa-
sional residence of the chief of the fa-
mily of Cameron. At the part where
the loch turns northward, and changes
its name from Linnhe to Eil, stands
Fort William, and the adjoining vil-
lage of Maryburgh.
EILDON HILLS ; three "conical
hills in the neighbourhood of Melrose,
in the county of Roxburgh. The ele-
vation of two of them is about 2000
■feet above the level of the sea, but the
N. E. hill is chiefly noted for the ves-
tiges of a regularly fortified Roman
oamp, which communicates with
military stations on the other two
hills.
ELGINSHIRE, or the county of
'Moray. Vide Moray.
ELGIN or ELGYN ; a royal bo-
rough, and the county town of Mo-
rayshire, to which it sometimes gives
its name. It is pleasantly situated on
the banks of' the river Lossie, about
6 miles from its influx into the Ger-
man ocean, where there is a village
with a tolerable harbour called Los-
siemouth. Elgin is said to have been
built by Helgy, general of the army
of Sigurd, the Norwegian Earl of Ork-
ney, who conquered Caithness, Su-
therland, Ross, and Moray, about the
year 927. At what time Elgin was
•erected into a royal borough does not
.appear. The oldest charter extant -3
ELG
from Alexander H. in 1234, wis*
grants to the burgesses of Elgyn a.
guild of merchants, with as extensive
privileges as any other borough m
Scotland enjoys. It was the policy of
the sovereigns, in the middle ages, to
give great privileges and immunities
to the towns, for the purpose of ba-
lancing the dangerous power which
the feudal system afforded to the no-
bles; but when at any time the regal
government became feeble, these
towns, unequal to their own protec .
tion, were under the necessity of pla-
cing themselves under the shelter of
some powerful lord in the neighbour-
hood : accordingly we find the town
of Elgin accepting charters of protec-
tion, and discharges of taxes from the
Earls of Moray, who held in a species
of vassalage about theeiid of the 14th
and the beginning of the 1 .5th century.
At last Charles 1. in 1603, establish-
ed and confirmed all the grants of his
royal predecessors; and the sett, or
constitution of the borough was rati-
fied by the convention of royal bo-
roughs in 1706. Andrew, Bishop of
Moray, in 1224, translated the bishop-
ric of Moray from Spy me to the
church of the Holy Trinity near El-
gin ; but that cathedral was destroyed
by Alexander Lord of Badenoch. A*
bout the year 1414 it was completely
rebuilt, in a style of great magnificence,
From the ruins which still remain, it
appears to have been a large and
splendid -edifice, in the Gothic style
of "architecture, in length above 26G
fe'et,aud irpwardsof 34 feet in breadth,
not surpassed in beauty by any build-
ing of that nature in the kingdom.
The revenues were very considerable ;
for, after several estates were feued
off, there remained at the Reforma-
tion what would now produce an an-
nual income of upwards of 40001.
Sterling. The harbour of Lossie-
mouth, which is the property of the
borough, admits vessels of 80 tons at
spring tides ; and a considerable quan-
tity cf corn is shipped for Leith and
Grangemouth. The whole revenue
of the town may amount to about
2001. per annum. Elgin contains "ear-
ly 3000 inhabitants. The parish of
Elgin extends about 10 miles in length
and 6 in breadth. The surface is Hat,
rising gently towards the Black-hills.
In the back parts of the paris (JjJ*