Gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

304
GORDON.
of Stafford, the latter of whom, as Countess
of Sutherland in her own right, inherits nearly
the whole of this county from a long and illus-
trious line of ancestors. In prosecution of an
extensive design of improvement, rendered ne-
cessary by the altered circumstances of the
Highland population, this noble pair have ex-
pended immense sums in transferring the na-
tives of their estates from the inner part of the
country to the shore, where they now prosper-
ously pursue the herring fishery, and other oc-
cupations, in a series of villages, of which
Golspie is perhaps the best specimen. Gols-
pie lies at the mouth of a small river of the
same name, at the distance of nine miles from
Dornoch, and consists of one neatly built
street, with a handsome little church, and an
inn, which reminds the traveller, by its neat
appearance, of the delightful honey-suckled
hotels of merry England. During the fishing
season, and also during those fairs into which
a good deal of the business of the place is
concentrated, Golspie presents a very bustling
appearance. The general effect of the altera-
tion, as far as regards the people, is, that they
now enjoy the tastes and cultivate the compa-
ratively refined habits of the Lowlanders, in-
stead of living, as formerly, in the Boeotian
ignorance and sloth and poverty of Highland
crofters. The land near Golspie is now in-
closed and well cultivated, and agriculture is
even seeking its way up into the hills behind
the town. A little to the north of the village
is Dunrobin castle, the ancient seat of the
Earls of Sutherland, and supposed to have
been built by the second baron of that title
about the year 1100. It is surrounded by
some fine old wood, besides extensive modern
plantations. From Golspie all the way to
Brora, five miles, the road is skirted with
neat cottages, surrounded by shrubberies, and
covered with honey-suckle. These abodes
have been recently peopled by mechanics from
the south. —Population in 1821, 1036.
GOMETRA, a small island of Argyle-
shire, lying on the west coast of Mull, from
which it is separated by an arm of the sea
called Loch Tua. It is of basaltic formation,
and devoted to the pasturing of cattle.
GOODIE, a small river in the south-
western part of Perthshire, formed by the
discharge of the water of Lake Menteith.
It falls into the Forth at the fords of
Frew.
GORBALS, a suburb of Glasgow, built
on the south bank of the Clyde. It has an
independent parochial jurisdiction, and is go-
verned by magistrates nominated by the town-
council of Glasgow. — See Glasgow.
GORDON, a parish in the western part of
the Merse, Berwickshire, lying between Leger-
wood and Greenlaw, and extending seven miles
in length, by from two to four in breadth. The
surface is uneven, and lies higher than the
Merse toward the east. Recently it contained
much moorish land, and in general the aspect
was bleak ; in the present day it is undergoing
many improvements and is in many places
finely enclosed and planted. The parish is
somewhat remarkable, as having contained the
earliest possessions acquired in this country by
the great historical family of Gordon, who took
their name from the place. Two farms with-
in the parish are called Huntly and Huntly
Wood ; and it is understood, that when the
family removed to the north of Scotland, where
for three or four centuries they have possessed
more territorial influence than any other, they
carried the names of these localities, as well as
their own name along with them, and conferred
the designation of Huntly upon a place in
their new domains, from which they afterwards
took the titles of lord, earl, and marquis, in
succession. On being raised to a dukedom
in the year 1684, the parish now under review
was resorted to for a new title, though for
centuries they had no seignorial connexion with
it. The river Eden intersects the parish.
The village of Gordon lies on the road from
Edinburgh to Kelso, nine miles distant from
the latter. The people of Gordon were re-
cently a very primitive race, some of them
having lived in the same farms from father to
son for several centuries. It was perhaps on
this account they were stigmatized as "the
Gowks o' Gordon," in a popular rhyme run-
ning thus :
Huntly-wood — the wa's are doun.
Bassandean and Barrastoun,
Heckspeth wi' the yellow hair,
Gordon gowks for evermair.
Population in 1821 , 740.
GORGIE, a village lying about two miles
west from Edinburgh on the road to Glasgow,
by way of Mid- Calder, at which there is an
extensive establishment for preparing and
dressing skins.
GOULDIE, a village in the south part of
Forfarshire, parish of Monikie.