Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

MORAYLAWS
of St Gernadius, St Moran, and St Bride, and other
early clerics, with different localities. There are also
accounts of old churches not connected with any saint's
name at Birnie, Elgin, and Kintrae, near the latter of
which is also Inchagarty or 'the priest's island. ' The
ancient Diocese, of later date, has been already noticed
in the article Elgin. With it the modern Synod of
Moray is nearly co-extensive. The latter body meets
at Elgin and Forres alternately, on the fourth Tuesday
of April. It includes the presbyteries of Strathbogie,
Abernethie, Aberlour, Elgin, Forres, Inverness, and
Nairn, and contains 53 quoad civilia parishes, 11 quoad
sacra parishes, 8 chapels of ease, and 2 mission churches.
There is also a synod of Moray in connection with the
Free Church, including the same presbyteries as in the
Established Church. It contains 58 churches. The
Episcopal Church has a united diocese of Moray, Ross,
and Caithness, with the cathedral and bishop's residence
at Inverness, and churches at Aberchirder, Aberlour,
Arpafeelie, Dingwall, Elgin, Fochabers, Forres, Fort-
rose, Glen Urquhart, Highfield, Huntly, Inverness,
Keith, Milton-Brodie, Nairn, Strathnairn, Tain, Thurso,
and Wick.
See also the works cited under Elgin and Inverness ;
Cordiner's Antiquities and Scenery of the North of Scot-
land (1780 and 1787) ; Sir Thomas Dick Lauder's
Account of the Great Floods in the Province of Moray in
1829 (Edinb. 1830, 3d and 4th ed. ; Elgin, 1873);
Gregory's History of the Western Highlands and Isles
of Scotland (1st ed., Edinb. 1836; 2d, Glasgow, 1881);
Skene's Chronicles of the Picts and Scots (Edinb. 1867),
and his Celtic Scotland (Edinb. 1876-80); A Genealogical
Deduction of the Family of Pose of Eilravock (edited
by Cosmo Innes for Spalding Club, 1848); Spalding's
Memorials of the Trubles in Scotland (Spalding Club,
1850); The Book of the Thanes of Cawdor (Spalding
Club, 1859); Ane Account of the Familie of Innes
(Spalding Club, 1864); and Sir William Fraser's The
Chiefs of Grant (1884).
Moraylaws, a village near Auldearn, in Nairnshire.
Moray's Cairn, a quondam large stone tumulus,
supposed to have been commemorative of a battle, in
Alves parish, Elginshire.
Morayshire. See Elginshire.
Mordington, a hamlet and a coast parish of SE Ber-
wickshire. The hamlet lies 4 miles WNW of the post-
town, Berwick-on-Tweed. The parish, containing also
the fishing hamlet of Ross, since 1650 has comprehended
the ancient parishes of Mordington and Lamberton.
It is bounded NW by Ayton, NE by the German Ocean,
SE by the Liberties of Berwick, SW by Hutton, and W
by Foulden. Its utmost length, from NNE to SSW, is
5 J miles; its breadth varies between 1J furlong (at the
glebe) and 2| miles; and its area is 3069 j acres, of which
114J are foreshore and 16 water. Whitadder Water
winds 2J milessouth -south-eastward along all the Hutton
boundary, though the point where it first touches and
that where it quits the parish are only 1J mile distant.
Its serpentine folds and steep rocky wooded banks are
singularly picturesque. One burn rises and runs 3 fur-
longs in the interior, and then goes 2 miles south-south-
westward to the Whitadder along the Foulden boundary;
and another, running J mile north-eastward to the sea
along the north-western border, in the last part of its
course makes a series of waterfalls down the gully cut by
it in the precipitous cliff. The coast, 2| miles in extent,
and trending in a south-south-easterly direction, rises
steeply from the sea to a height of 200 feet, and is all a
bold breastwork of rugged sandstone, pierced with many
caverns, where smugglers once hid their stores. Here
and there huge masses of detached rock stand out into
the sea; and only in the extreme N is there a small
recess, Ross Bay, with the conjoint fishing village of
Ross and Btjrnmotjth, the latter in Ayton parish. The
North British railway skirts the brink of the cliffs; and
beyond it the surface rises westward to 614 feet at Lam-
berton Moor, 712 at Hab or Habchester near the meet-
ing-point with Foulden and Ayton, and 649 at the
Witches' Knowe — heights that command a magnificent
1196
MOREBATTLE
view of the Eildons, the Lammermuirs, the ocean, and
Bambrough Castle. Sandstone and poorish limestone
are plentiful; coal has been worked; and ironstone
occurs in small veins. The soil for some distance from
the Whitadder is a stiff clay, yielding good crops of
wheat and beans, and thence to the coast is mostly a
light loam, well suited for turnips, and for sheep-graz-
ing; but that of the loftiest parts of the high grounds
is mostly thin and poor, and partly heathy. The barony
of Mordington, which at one time belonged to a family of
its own name, was granted by Robert Bruce to Thomas
Randolph, Earl of Moray; and, passing at the third
Earl's death to his sister, Black Agnes, Countess of
Dunbar, was given as a dowry to her daughter Agnes,
who married Sir James Douglas of Dalkeith. It con-
tinued to be held by his descendants, the Earls of Mor-
ton, till 1581, when it reverted to the Crown; but in
1634 the lands and barony of Over Mordington were
conferred on another James Douglas, the second son of
the tenth Earl of Angus; and in 1641 he was created
Baron Mordington in the Scottish peerage — a title which
became dormant in 1791. Mordington House, on a
rising ground to the NE of Mordington hamlet, was
Cromwell's headquarters when he first passed the Tweed
in July 1650; and now is the seat of Charles Robert
Campbell Renton of Lamberton (b. 1867; sue. 1891).
Edrington Castle and Edrington House have been
noticed separately. A sequestered glen, the scene, it
is said, of the famous song of Tibbie Fowler o' the Glen,
lies in the southern district, not far from Edrington
House. At the boundary of the parish with the Liber-
ties of Berwick stands the hamlet of Lamberton, which
for some time vied with Gretna as a place of runaway
marriages. On Habchester are vestiges of a so-called
Danish camp, consisting of two trenches whose mounds,
18 or 20 feet high, appear to have been faced with
stones brought toilsomely from the bed of the Whit-
adder; and on the abrupt Witches' Knowe a woman is
said to have been burned for sorcery so late as the
beginning of the 18th century. Mordington is in the
presbytery of Chirnside and the synod of Merse and
Teviotdale; the living is worth £200. The parish
church, at Mordington hamlet, was built in 1869, and
contains 173 sittings. A Free church, a little S of the
parish church, contains 172 sittings; and the public
school, with accommodation for 57 children, has an aver-
age attendance of about 50, and a grant of over £54.
Pop. (1801) 330, (1831) 301, (1861) 377, (1871) 402,
(1881) 367, (1891) 324.— On*. Sur., shs. 34, 26, 1864.
More or Rumore, a promontory on the west coast of
Ross and Cromarty, lying between Loch Greinord and
Loch Ewe.
Morebattle, a Border village and parish of E Rox-
burghshire. The village stands, 320 feet above sea-
level, on a gentle eminence, not far from the left bank
of the winding Kale, 4^ miles SW of Yetholm and 7J
SSE of Kelso, under which it has a post office with
money order, savings bank, and telegraph departments.
A coach runs between Morebattle and Kelso once daily.
The parish, comprising the ancient parish of Mow, is
bounded NW by Linton, NE by Yetholm, E and SE
for 10 miles by Northumberland, SW by Hounam, and
W by Eckford. Its utmost length, from NNW to
SSE, is 9 1 miles; its utmost breadth is 7 miles; and its
area is 35 1 square miles or 22,518 acres, of which 1834
are water. Kale Water flows 4 J miles northward
and westward, partly along the Hounam and Linton
boundaries, partly across the western interior; and
Bowmont Water, formed at Cocklawfoot (780 feet)
by head-streams that rise among the Cheviots on the
English Border at altitudes of from 1700 to 2350 feet,
runs 7g miles north-westward and northward till it
passes off near Hayhope into Yetholm parish. Yetholm
or Primside Loch (3 J x 1J furl.) lies just on the Yet-
holm boundary. Along Bowmont Water the surface
declines to 385, along Kale Water to 220, feet above
the sea; and chief elevations, from N to S, are '"Lin-
ton Hill (926 feet), Clifton Hill (905), "Windshaw Hill
(1067), Morebattle Hill (719), the Curr (1849), the