History and traditions of the land of the Lindsays in Angus and Mearns

LAND OF THE LINDSAYS.
CHAPTER I.
iStrtell.
" My travels nre at home ;
And oft in spots with ruins o'erspread,
Like Lysons, use the antiquarian spade.
SECTION I.
The name of this parish, in old times, had a different ortho-
graphy from that now in use. At the beginning of the
thirteenth century it was written " Edale," and " Adel" in the
ancient Taxatio, which was rated at a subsequent period.* In
both cases the word may be considered as essentially the same,
signifying "plain or meadow" ground, and quite descriptive of
the most valuable half of the parish, or that part which lies
without the boundary of Glenesk. In Rolfs Life of John, the
twentieth Earl of Crawford, it is written " Edgehill," and so
pronounced at this day, by some old people, and believed by
many to be the true etymon, from the fact that the great bulk
of the arable land lies from the edge of the Mil southward. f In
all documents posterior to the date of the two first, however, the
orthography differs little from the present, and according to
the late venerable Minister, implies " the cleft or dividing of
the waters," — a rendering which is also favoured by the physical
aspect of the parish, in so far as it is bounded on the south and
west by the West Water, and on the east by the North Esk,
both of which rivers unite at the south-east extremity.
* Registrum de Aberbrothpc. — Bannatyne Club, Edin. 1848, pp. 7 48, 240.
t 1'erhans the present spelling arose from z being often used for g in old writings.
B