Scotland > 1882-1915 - Slater's Royal National Commercial Directory of Scotland > 1903, Part 1 - Slater's Royal National Commercial Directory of Scotland ... (Royal National Directory of Scotland.) With ... map, etc

513 MIDDLEBTE.
Bithet Andrew J. P. Broadlee
Thomson M.ss, Sunnyslde
COMMERCIAL.
Bell John, joiner & wheelwright
Byers David, shoe maker
Byers John, ciogger
Calvert Andrew, blacksmith
Craik John, grocer
Creigton David, miller, Kirtlebridge mill
Ferguson Ellen (Mrs.) (trustees of), coal
merchants & lime burners, Railway statn
Feweli James, Kirtlebridge inn
Graham Brothers, tailors
Irving Jas. Irving Arms hotel & posting ho
Kerr James, grocer
McKechnie James, cab proprietor
Moffat George, clerk to Middlebie school
board & factor
Moffat Irving. postmaster & commission, agt
Richardson William & James, coal mer-
chants. Railway station
Young John, fishmonger
Eag-lesfield.
Anderson 'William, tailor
Armstrong George, ciogger
Barton Library {"Joseph Urquhart, sec)
Boyle Allan, schoolmaster
Dalgleish Helen (Mrs.), draper & grocer
Donaldson Jane (Miss), milliner & dress ma
Dunlop Irvine C. S. chemist
Farnell Jane (Mrs.), shopkeeper
Irving Andrew, boot & shoe ma. Sunnybrae
Jamieson Thomas, grocer
Jardine John, joiner & wheelwright, &
registrar of b'.rths, marriages & deaths
for the South district
Murray John, boot & shoe maker
Nelson John & William, drapers & grocers
Nelson John, sub-postmaster
Bae James & Sons, builders & contractors
Bae James, sculptor
Stalker William, horse breaker
TJrquhart Misses E. & J. A. grocers
IJrquhart Joseph, draper & tailor
Wright John, blacksmith, Sunnybrae
Young John Cnrlyle, grocer
"Waterbeck.
PRIVATE RESIDENTS.
Alexander Rev. Archibald, TJ. F. manse
Carlvle Thomas Robert
Carlyle William Lee J.P. Temple Hill ho
â– Gilroy James M.B
Graham James Hope Stewart, Glenvohr
COMMERCIAL.
Armstrong John, boot & shoe maker
Bell John, mason
Bryden Wiliiam, tailor
Campbell James, schoolmaster, & registrar
of births, deaths & marriages for North
district, Hott's bridge
Carlyle Thomas & Robert, grocers, drapers,
wood merchants, bacon curers & seed I
merchants
Coltart Margaret (Mrs.), postmistress, &'
temperance hotel
Crosbie Mary (Mrs.), grocer
Erskine Peter, blacksmith, Hallsvke
Ewart Robert, Canister Hall inn
Gilroy James M.B., CM., L.F.P. & S.J
L.M.Glas. surgeon & physician, & medi-i
cal officer & public vaccinator for Middle-
bie parish
Irving David, joiner, Whitelees
Latimer William, watch maker
Miller James, blacksmith
Steel Andrew J. ciogger
Wells John, insurance agent (Alliance)
MOFFAT is an inland spa, town and
police burgh, and a large parish in the
district of Annanclale, 51 miles south of
Edinburgh, 57 south-east of Glasgow, 14£
north of Lockerbie, 41 north-west of Car-
lisle and 21 north of Dumfries, with a ter-
minal station on a branch of about one mile
and a haif in length, constructed in 1882,
from Beattock station on the Caledonian
railway. A small part of the parish is in
.Lanarkshire. Moffat is an ancient town,
being named in documents of the 13th
century, when it was a manor held by the
Bruce, Lord of Annandale, and ancestor of
King Robert I. The town commands a fine
and extensive prospect of a delightful
valley, stretching towards the eouth, and
interspersed with hedge-rows, meadows and
corn fields, and pleasingly diversified by the
bindings of the river Annan. High Street,
the principal street of the town, is a wide
and spacious thoroughfare, laid down upon
the principle recommended by the late J.
M'Adam, and Is lined with excellent shops.
It is lighted with gas by a local company.
Mlolfat was instituted a burgh on the adop-
DUMFRIES-SHIRE.
tion, in 1 1864, of tne Police Act, and now
possesses a commission invested with
powers for sanitary and road improve-
ments, the holding of monthly courts and
other matters. The Public baths, in High
street, include a hall, used for concerts
and lectures, and during the summer a
band plays here. Near the town is a
large hydropathic establishment ; the build-
ing is of red sand-stone, and was erected
in 1875 6, and contains dining, billiard,
smoking and sitting rooms and swimming
and turkish baths. The Proudfoot Working
Men's Institute, founded by the late
William Proudfoot esq. of Craigieburn, is
an elegant structure in the Scottish style,
with reading and recreation rooms, baths
and an excellent library of 3,000 volumes;
over the entrance is placed a bust of the
founder. Here is a Fremasons' Hall.
An ornamental drinking fountain, con-
sisting of a pedestal of rough sandstone
surmounted by the figure of a ram cast
in bronze, was erected in the centre of the
town in November, 1875, at the cost of the
late William Colvin esq. of Craigieiands.
The Established church was built and pre-
sented to the parishioners in 1796 by Js:mes,
3rd Earl of Hopetoun, inheritor of the
Annandale estates, on the site of one of the
churches of Annandale transferred to the
Bishop of Glasgow, and was constituted one
of the prebends of that see, but the present
structure, the foundation stone of which
was laid in August, 1885, was opened for
public worship in September, 1887 ; it is a
cruciform buillding, Gothic in style, and
consisting: of chancel, nave, transepts and a
tower 107 feet in height. The pulpit, of
carved pitch pine, is set on seven pillars of
polished red sandstone, and some of the
principal windows are filled w'ith stained
glass. At the west end of the church is a
hall, with a vestry on the south and a
session house on the north. The church
and hall, together with an adioining manse,
cost between £12,000 and £13,000. £6,000
of which was subscribed by the congrega-
tion and friends, and the remainder pro-
vided by the heritors of the parish. The
church will seat 1,150 persons. The Free
church (now United Free), erected at an
expense of £6,000, is a building of red
sandstone and blue whinstone, in the
Decorated Gothic style, and has a fine
barrel roof. A hall has since been added.
The Episcopal church is an iron structure
erected in 1872. The United Presbyterian
church (now United Free), erected at a
cost of about £3,000, was opened in Julv,
1862, and a Church hall was added in 1895.
The Roman Catholic church, open for
worship only during the summer season,
is of wood.
Moffat has long been a fashionable
summer resort, for the medicinal virtues
of its mineral waters. The springs are
three in number, one sulphurous and
two chalybeate. The sulphurous spring,
distinguished by the name of " Moffat
Well," is about a mile from the town,
and during the summer is reached by
omnibuses. The " Fons Moffetensis " was
described by Matthew Mackaile in 1659
as a spring possessing great healing vir-
tues; is is said to have been first made
known by Rachel, daughter of Walter White-
ford, bishop of Brechin, who married the
Laird of Corehead (1633), and it was first
analysed, by her descendant Dr. Milligan
Johnstone, in the last century. During tht
period which has elapsed since the dis^
covery of the valuable qualities of this
spring, it has been much frequented from
all parts of Scotland, as well as by Visitors
from England and Ireland; in ail scrofu-
lous and scorbutic cases it is a powerful
remedy, being seldom known to prove
ineffectual when the lungs are not dis-
eased ; it is also eminently successful in the
removal of bilious complaints, as well as
in creating an appetite and promoting
digestion, and is an excellent specific for
gravel and rheumatism, but is so Volatile
that it can only be drunk in perfection at
the fountain. Hartfell spa was first dis-
covered in the year 1748, by a man
named John Williamson. The spring issues
from a rock of alum slate, in the side
of Hartfell mountain, near Moffat, and
is bottled and sold by local chemists.
The other chalybeate is obtained in a very
curious manner — namely, by pouring water
upon a rock in the side of a dell, near the
town, called " Garpel Linn." The surface
of this rock being strongly impregnated
with sulphate of alumina and iron, the
water is much more powerful than that of
[SLATEHS
Hartfell, and is consequently taken; in
smaller quantities. The Linn, or valley, has?
been laid out in walk3 by WiiTiam Yonnger
esq. M.P., J.P. and is freely open to th&
public. Loch Skene, on the mountain
range, north-east of the town, at an eleva-
tion of upwards of 1,500 feet above the
level of the sea, contains the finest trout-
in the south of Scotland. The waters of
this lake are discharged over precipitous-
rocks in ft lofty and magnificent cascade
called the '.' Grey Mare's Tail," com-purted'
to ue about 300 feet above the level at
the vale, and which appears from the
opposite side of the glen to be one un-
broken fall ; the stream is thence known,
as Moffat water, and flowing on through a-
narrow pass, sweeps through the domains
of Dumcrieff, the property of Lord Rollo,
and falls into the Annan. About four miles-
norfh-west is a petrifying chalybeate
spring, and there are others attracting les*
attention. The principal hotels are the-
Annandale Arms, the Buccleuch Arms,
and the Star. The " Annandale Herald
and Moffat News," published here on Fri-
day, contains a visitors' list; the "Moffat
Express " is published on Thirrsday.
During the season omnibuses ply from the
Annandale and Buccleuch Arms hotels to*
St. Mary's loch on the Selkirk road, and:
are met at St. Mary's Cottage (Tlbbie-
Siiiel's) by conveyances from Innerleithen;
and 'Selkirk, where there are railway sta-
tions. Daily excursions are made to-
places of interest in the district during
the summer months. There are branches
here of the Bank of Scotland, the Union
Bank of Scotland Limited and the British-
Linen Co.'s Bank Limited. The weekly-
market is on Friday. There are two half-
yearly hiring markets; the first is helct
on the last Friday in March, the second'
on the last Friday in October. A fair for
lambs is held in July, on the Friday after
Langholm. There is also an annual" sheep-
and cattle market called the tup fair, in
September, on the Friday after the Fal-
kirk tryst, at which time a flower, sheep-
and cattle show— or rather a combination
of shows, is held, to which by its excel-
lence great crowds are attracted. The-
district is noted for the breed of cheviots.
Moffat House is the residence of Alfred"
Horsfall esq. John Loudon M'Adam, well-
known as the inventor of a system of
road-making, and born at Ayr, 21 Sept.
1756, died in this town, 26 Nov. 1836 1 , in*
his Slisft year; a great portion of his early-
life had been spent in th : s neighbourhood,
to which he was much attached, but it was-
as a magistrate of Ayrshire that his atten-
tion was first directed to the question of"
road-making; for his public services in this
respect he received from Government
£10,000. in two separate instalments, and'
was offered the honour of knighthood,
whic he declined on account of age and'
infirmities, and it was, instead, conferred 1
upon his son. Joseph Locke F.R.S. an
eminent engineer (born at Attercliffe, near-
Sheffield, in 1805), and the assistant and:
pup.i of George S^phenson, and from
1847 to 1860 M.P. for Honiton, died here-
18 Sept. 1860. Nicho'aus de Moffet, Bishop
of Glasgow (1268-1270); Robert Johnstone
LL.D. author of " A H'story of Scotland.""
&c. ; Walter Boyd, banker." of Boyd, Ben-
field and Co. ; William Dickson, a writer
on slavery; William Mnrrav, the chrono-
metnst, and Dr. D. Welsh,' moderator of
the first Free Church Assembly, and antlior
of the " Life of Dr. Thomas Brown, a-
Church History," were all born at Moffat-
Dr. William Carruthers F.R.S. late of th&-
Nat. Hist. Dept. British Museum (1871-950,
is also a native (1830). John James Hope-
Johnstone esq. of Raehills, is the principal'
landowner. The area comprises 43,008'
acres ; rateable value, burgh, £15,690 r
landward parr, £12,480: the total popula-
tion of the parish in 1901 was 2,799, which
included 2.153 in the police burgh and 646-=
in the landward part in this countv; in
1891 it was 2,977, with 2.291 in the burgh.
Post, T., M. O., T. M. O.. E. D., P. P;,
S. B. & A. & I. Office, High street,.
, Moffat ; Ernest Hawkins, postmaster.
Deliveries, 7 a.m. &. 1.15, 4.50 <x 8J5~>
p.m. ; dispatches, 9.55 & 11.15 a.m. &
1.40, 3.20, 6, 7.5 & 10 p.m. Telegraph-
office open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m
TOWN COUNCIL.
Town House, High street.
Provost, Alexander M. Kennedy J.P. Well st;
Bailies, Jas. R. MacGibbon &, Wm. Edgar
Town Clerk, William TaiL Charch place