Imperial gazeteer of Scotland, or, Dictionary of Scottish topography > Volume 2

YERROCII.
871
YETIIOLM.
7 miles. The principal landowners are Ogilvy of
Gossaburgh and Bruce of Burravoe, botli resident ;
and there are twe other considerable landowners,
and twenty-four small ones. Only about 4,500 acres
are enclosed, and about, 33,000 are pastoral or waste.
The estimated value of raw produce in 1841, inclu-
sive of fish, and of the value of labour in sea-going
vessels was £7,575. Assessed property in 18G0,
£1,434. Population in 1831, 1,812 ; in 1861, 1,784.
Houses, 350.
This parish is in the presbytery of Burravoe, and
synod of Shetland. Patron, the Earl of Zetland.
Schoolmaster's salary, £35, with £5 fees, and £3
other emoluments. There are two parish churches.
That of Mid Yell was built in 1832, and contains
500 sittings; that of South Yell was built in 1841,
and contains 384 sittings ; and the latter is served
by a missionary under the committee of the royal
bounty. There is in South Yell a Methodist chapel,
containing 200 sittings.
YELL (North). See Fetlar and North Yell.
YERROCH (The), a rivulet traversing a romantic
ravine, tracing for several miles the boundary be-
tween the parishes of Kelton and Buittle, and falling
into the Sol way-frith, in Kirkcudbrightshire.
YESKER. "See Iasgair.
YESTER, a parish, containing the post-ofHce
village of Gifford, and the hamlets of Long-Yester
and Long-Newton, in Haddingtonshire. It is
bounded on the south by Berwickshire, and on other
sides by the parishes of Humbie, Bolton, Had-
dington, and Garvald. Its length north-north-east-
ward is 6 miles ; its greatest breadth is 5 miles ; and
its area is about 14 square miles. The southern
district comes down from Lammerlaw and other
heights along the water shed of the Lammermoors,
over a descent of 2 miles to the plain ; and is all up-
land and heathy, yet affords good pasturage for
sheep. The southern district consists of a strath —
in Cambro-British, ystrad or yestred, the radix of its
expressive name Yester. This strath is watered by
the rivulet Gifford ; it lies about 400 feet above
sea-level, and is richly cultivated and wooded ; and
it has along its sides such soft low ridgy rising
grounds as relieve it from the monotony of a plain,
without drawing round it the limits of a valley.
The rocks of the upland district belong to the grey-
wacke group, and those of the lowland district to
the coal formation ; but they are of very small eco-
nomical value. Hard red sandstone was formerly
worked, but abandoned ; limestone also was worked,
but at a heavy expense ; and there is no coal. The
soil in some places is a light loam, but in most is
clayey, and in nearly all lies on a clay bottom.
Agricultural improvement has been very great, in all
its departments, with admirable effect upon both the
quality of the soil and the amount of the produce.
About 5,700 imperial acres are in tillage ; about
2,280 are pastoral or waste ; and about 946 are
under plantation. The estimated value of raw pro-
duce in 1835 was £18,814. Assessed property in
1860 was £7,553. Yester-house, the seat of the
Marquis of Tweeddale, stands amidst extensive and
richly-wooded grounds about a mile east-south-east
of Gifford. Yester-castle, the ancient residence of
the ancestors of the Marquis, famed for its ' Hobgob-
lin Hall,' stands within the adjacent parish of Gar-
vald and Bara: which see. The village of Long-
Yester stands at the foot of the Lammermoors, 2
miles south-south-east of Gifford. The parish is
traversed by the road from Haddington to Lauder,
and by that from Tranent to Dunse. Population in
1831, 1,019; in 1861, 1,033. Houses, 193.
This parish is in the presbytery of Haddington, and
synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, the Mar-
quis of Tweeddale. Stipend, £254 10s. ; glebe, £25.
Unappropriated teinds, £1 17s. Id. The parish
church stands in Gifford ; and hence the parish,
though known only under the name of Yester in
legal, historical, or descriptive writings, is almost
always popularly called Gifford. The church was
built in 1708, and repaired in 1830, and contains
560 sittings. There is a Free church of Yester ;
and the amount of its receipts in 1865 was £144 ys.
7d. There are three parochial schools, respectively
at Gifford, at Long-Yester, and at Long-Newton.
Salary of the Gilford schoolmaster now is £60, with
£40 fees, and £1 7s. lOd. other emoluments; of the
Long-Yester schoolmaster, £25 13s. 3d., with £18
fees ; of the Long-Newton schoolmaster, £8 lis. Id.,
with £14 fees. There are two private schools at
Gifford. The manor of Yester or Yestred was
granted by William the Lion to Hugh Gifford, the
son of Hugh, an English gentleman who settled in
Lothian under David I. From that early age to
the present, Yestred has remained with his descend-
ants. Hugh Gifford of Yester, who lived under
David II. and Robert 1L, had not a son to inherit
his large estates; and Johanna, the eldest of his
daughters, marrying Sir William Hay of Locher-
wart, transferred the manor, with the patronage of
the church, to him and their conjoint posterity.
Thus arose the family of Yester and Locherwart,
who obtained the titles of Lord Yester in 1488, Earl
of Tweeddale in 1646, and Marquis of Tweeddale and
Earl of Gifford in 1 694. The church was originally
called St. Bothan's, and afterwards Yester's ; and,
in 1421, it was restored to its old name, and, at the
same time, converted by Sir William Hay into a
collegiate establishment fora provost, 6 prebendaries,
and 2 singing-boys. The Reformation upset the
collegiate establishment, and placed the church in a
simply parochial position under the revived name of
Yester. A chapel, dedicated to St. Nicholas, and
subordinate to the parish-church, anciently stood at
Duncanlaw. Dr. Witherspoon, the well-known
theological writer, and president of New Jersey
college, was the son of a minister of Yester, and
born in its manse. Dr. Charles Nisbet, president
of Carlisle college in America, was the son of a
schoolmaster of Yester, and born at Long-Yester.
YESTER (Long). See Yester.
YESTER'S (Lady). See Edinburgh.
YETBYRE. See Eskdalemuir.
YETHOLM, a parish, containing the post-office
station of Yetholm and the villages of Kirk-Yet-
holm and Town-Yetholm, on the north-east border of
Roxburghshire. It is bounded on the north-east
and east by England, and on the other sides by
the parishes of Morebattle and Linton. Its length
north- westward is 4| miles; and its greatest breadth
is 2§ miles. Bowmont-water bisects it. nearly
through the middle, in a direction to the north-north-
east. Yetholm or Primside-loch, situated on the
western boundary, and measuring nearly 1J mile in
circumference, sends off a little tributary eastward
to the Bowmont. The part of the vale of the Bow-
mont within the parish, is the seat of 9-10ths of
the population, measures 2J miles in length by from
2 to 3J furlongs in breadth, and, though hill-locked
on all other sides, goes flatly out on the north into
England. Touching the lips of the stream are some
pretty large haughs; and from the manse to the
north-west there is a piece of flat ground along with
the haughs for about 14 mile. The surface from
the sides of the vales to the boundaries is a congeries
of hills, all soft in feature, and gay in dress, and
nowhere, even in the south where they become
identified with the Cheviots, exceeding 800 feet of
altitude above sea-level. The heights imbosom