Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

420
MUTHILL.
land, and the tithes of the mills for which they were
to pay the monks annually ten mevks, seems evi-
dence that, even at that early date, the altar of Our
Lady of Loretto, and possibly the altars of the other
chapels of the town, had become the resort of devo-
tees. The regality of Musselburgh and the pro-
perty connected with it passed after the Reformation
to Lord Thirlestane, and descended with some dilapi-
dations, to his posterity the Earls and Dukes of
Lauderdale till 1710. See Invekesk. The town
is still in possession of a charter granted by John,
Earl of Lauderdale, to the bailies, treasurer, council,
and community of the burgh, confirming various an-
cient charters and rights granted to them by the
abbots of Dunfermline, the oldest of which is there
stated to have been given and granted by King David
(I.) in the 34th year of his reign. There is also men-
tion made in the charter by Lord Lauderdale of a
charter and infeftment by Robert, Commendator of
Dunfermline, with consent of the conventicle breth-
ren, in favour of the bailies, councillors, and com-
munity of the burgh for the time being, dated 11th
December, 1502, granting and confirming to them all
and whole the burgh of Musselburgh, and ground
and lands of the same, with liberties, and advan-
tages, as freely and honourably as any other burghs
of barony or of regality within the kingdom of Scot-
land, or which of law, or the practice of the realm,
belong to them ; with power of entering burgesses,
privileges of harbour and trades, of holding three
weekly markets, and a fair during eight days at the
Festival of the Apostle James. The last mentioned
charter also empowers the bailies and community to
elect annually, at Michaelmas, two bailies, a trea-
surer, and officers to a sufficient number for the ad-
ministration of justice, with power to hold courts
and punish malefactors ; and to levy small customs
and harbour dues Lord Lauderdale's charter also
confirms two other charters of different lands,
mills, multures, knaveships, &c, given to be held
in feu, which are described at great length ; and
it contains a clause of novodamus of all liberties
and privileges, harbours, stations, and receptacles
for ships, anchorage and shore-dues, bridge cus-
toms, creating and appointing free burgesses, with
power of sale, &c, another fair for the space of two
days on the 16th and 17th October, electing magis-
trates, holding courts, punishing malefactors, and, if
needful, of putting them to trial and torture. It
further gives the power of granting infeftments, and
also a clause in virtue of which it has been the prac-
tice of the magistrates to grant titles according to
the manner used in burgage tenure, viz., "also of
cognoscing, entering, and seizing the heirs of the
foresaid free tenants, in the foresaid lands, tene-
ments, and others, respectively above specified,
when their certain right is clearly manifest, accord-
ing to the old usage and custom of the said burgh."
This charter was confirmed by Charles II., on 21st
July, 1671: and under this last confirmation the
property of the burgh is now held. In 1632, a
charter under the great seal erected Musselburgh
into a royal burgh ; but, in the same year, in con-
sequence of a compromise between its own magis-
trates and those of Edinburgh, a decreet of reduc-
tion of the charter was obtained by the latter from
the privy council. But it still wanted none of the
rights of a royal burgh except that of representation
in parliament; and this it obtained by the great na-
tional measure of 1832. It now, therefore, differs
from a royal burgh in nothing but the name. —
Though it reaped consequence from the Reform
bill, and contributed in its celebrated schools his
early education to Mr. Thomas Drummond, Lord
Althorpe's secretary, by whom the bill is said to
have been drawn up, it was, with the exception of
Queensferry, the only town in Scotland which, im-
mediately after the great change, returned a majority
of conservative councillors.
MUTHILL, a large parish, a little south of the
centre of the southern half of Perthshire ; bounded
on the north by the main body of Strowan, and by
Crieff and Madderty ; on the east by Trinity-Gask
and Blackford ; on the south by Dunblane ; and on
the west by detached parts of Strowan and Moni-
vaird, and by Comrie. It is so irregular in out-
line as not to be even proximately reriuceable to
any known mathematical figure, but is nevertheless
compact. Its greatest length from the boundary at
Longsholls on the east, to the east base of Benour-
hill on the west, is 10^ miles; greatest breadth from
the point where the river Earn first touches it on the
north, to Nethermill on Allan-water in the south, is
8J miles ; and its area is probably about 76 square
miles. The river Earn, running in the direction of
south-east by east, washes the northern district for
ih miles, measured in a straight line, and about 7
measured along its sinuosities ; over three-fourths of
the distance it is the boundary with Crieff, and over
the other fourth it cuts off on its left bank the lands
of Innerpeffray, which once formed a detached part
ofMonzie: see Monzie. Allan-water, coming down
from the east, runs for 2 miles along the boundary
on the south. The Machony and the Knaik [see
these articles], rise very near each other close on the
western boundary, and traverse the parish length-
wise, the former eastward to the Earn, and the latter
eastward and south-eastward to the Allan. Loch-
Balloch is a tame small lake in the north-west,
whence runs a brook to the Earn. The pond of
Drummond is a splendid artificial sheet of water,
nearly a mile long and about half-a-mile broad, on
the lands of Drummond in the north, curtained round
with wood, overhung on one side by a high rocky
bank, and enlivened on its bosom with numerous
swans and geese. The western half of the par-
ish is bleak, barren, and wildly pastoral, and lies
within the Highlands; and the eastern and north-
eastern half luxuriates in the picturesqueness and
fertility of strath and glen, of pleasant slopes and
diversified surface. The north-east Corner, consist-
ing of a large tract, is one of the most delightful
parts of the luscious Strathearn. Along the margin
of the level and hanging grounds of this district,
sweeps circuitously a hilly ridge, green and culti-
vated, terminating at the west end in the most con-
spicuous object in the parish, the hill of Torlum.
This elevation alone fixes the eye which is turned
toward the district from a distance on the east, and
seen thence, seems to preside over lands partly level,
and partly rising, which have nothing to dispute or
lessen its supremacy : it is an exquisitely outlined cone,
towering high above the circumjacent grounds, and
lifting a forest of pine into communion with the
clouds. Along the south side of the ridge which
ends in this fine hill, lies a narrow vale, the basin of
the Machony ; and screening the vale along the
other side, runs a naked and chilly upland range,
akin in character to the Highland heights of the
west, and abruptly losing itself among their huddled
mass. This range commences on the east in what
is called the Muir of Orchil, bears the name of Cor-
ryaur, runs along the parish in a line not far from its
middle, forms the water-shed between the tributaries
of the Forth and those of the Earn, and naturally
divides the parish into two great districts, which
may be designated Ardoeh on the south, and Mu-
thill proper on the north, and which belong respec-
tively to Strathallan and Strathearn. The Strath-
allan district, except in its western or Highland part,