Topographical dictionary of Scotland > Volume 2

MURR
MUSS
Latin, and French, with all the usual branches of edu-
cation ; the master has the maximum salary, with a
house and garden, and about £40 a year in fees.
A Sunday school for infants is well supported, and
there is a school library consisting of 200 volumes.
Among the antiquities are several camps ; and on open-
ing a tumulus was found much animal charcoal, the
remains of burnt bodies of slain ; the sarcophagus con-
tained only a bone and some burnt ashes.
MUNLOCHY, a village, in the parish of Knock-
bain, county of Ross and Cromarty, 7 miles (S. W. by
W.) from Fortrose ; containing 85 inhabitants. This
village is situated on the north coast of the Moray
Frith, on a small bay of the same name, and on the
road from Killearnan to Fortrose. It is a fishing-vil-
lage, around which considerable improvements have
latterly been made by the proprietor of the land.
MURROES, a parish, in the county of Forfar;
containing, with the hamlets of Bucklerhead and Kellas,
736 inhabitants, of whom 55 are in the hamlet of
Hole of Murroes, 5 miles (N. E.) from Dundee. This
parish, the name of which is corrupted from the word
Muirhouse, a term expressive of the former uncultivated
nature of the soil, touches the parish of Dundee on the
south, and is three miles in length and rather more than
two in breadth, comprising 4600 acres, of which 4000
are cultivated, 190 acres under wood, and the remainder
waste. The surface is undulated, and rises considerably
towards the north ; the lands in general are well culti-
vated and have a pleasing appearance. The scenery is
enlivened by two rivulets, which, after turning in their
course several threshing and corn-mills, and a flax-mill,
fall into the Dighty not, far from its influx into the Tay.
The soil is mostly a black loam, resting on rock, gravel,
or clay, the only difference in it being that some portions
are much more deep, rich, and fertile than others. All
kinds of grain are raised, as well as the usual green
crops, to the annual average value of £17,000 ; and the
produce of the dairy amounts yearly to about £1500.
The land is cultivated after the most improved usages ;
and the farmers, encouraged by kind and generous
landlords, employ their skill, perseverance, and capital
with the best success. Draining is regularly practised ;
most of the lands are inclosed, some with hedges, but
the principal with stone dykes ; and many of the farm-
houses are of superior character. The cattle are of
several breeds ; but the Angus is most prevalent. Some
of the arable land lets at about 16s., much at from that
to £1. 12. per acre, and the best at £3. The substrata
consist principally of whinstone and freestone, the latter
abundant, and of good quality. The rateable annual
value of the parish is £7389.
The chief mansion is the house of Ballumbie, a sub-
stantial and commodious residence, commanding beau-
tiful views of the Tay and the surrounding country.
There are three hamlets ; and the inhabitants find a
quick sale for their produce at Dundee, whence they
procure coal for fuel, as well as from Broughty-Ferry.
The parish is in the presbytery of Dundee and synod of
Angus and Mearns, and in the patronage of the Crown :
the minister's stipend is £172, with a manse, a glebe
valued at £15 per annum, and an allowance of £1. 13. 4.
in lieu of pasture. The church is a plain antiquated
building, supposed to have been erected before the
Reformation ; it accommodates 400 persons with sittings,
294
Burgh Seal.
and is pleasantly situated in the south-eastern part of
the parish, surrounded with lofty trees. The parochial
school affords instruction in Latin and Greek, in addition
to the usual branches ; the master has a salary of £34,
with a house, a garden, and £1S fees. The antiquities
comprise the remains of the three ancient castles of
Powrie, Wedderburn, and Ballumbie, the last formerly
belonging to a family of the name of Lovel, to the heir
of which, tradition asserts that Catharine Douglas, cele-
brated in history for the resistance she opposed to the
conspirators who assassinated King James I. in the
Blackfriars monastery at Perth, was espoused.
MUSA, ISLE, in the county of Shetland. — See
Mousa.
^TflfPf:*, MUSSELBURGH, a
burgh of regality,in the parish
oflNVERESK,countyof Edin-
J&0 burgh, 6 miles (E.) from
S^ Edinburgh ; containing, with
the suburb Fisherrow, which
is noticed under the head
of Northesk, 6331 inhabit-
ants. This place, which is of
great antiquity, is supposed
to have derived its name, in
ancient documents Muskil-
burgh and iMuschelbitrgh, from
an extensive muscle-bank near the mouth of the river
Esk. Under the appellation of Eskmuthe it became,
after the departure of the Romans, the seat of the
Northumbrian Saxons, and in the 12th century was
bestowed by David I. upon the abbey of Dunfermline.
In 1201, the barons of Scotland assembled at this place
to swear allegiance to the infant son of William the
Lion, afterwards Alexander II., who, in 1239, granted
additional powers to the abbots of Dunfermline, under
which the town had all the privileges of a burgh of
regality. About a century afterwards, Randolph, Earl
of Murray, Regent of Scotland, returning from the fron-
tier of Berwickshire to defend Edinburgh from an
expected invasion by the English, was surprised by
sudden indisposition on the confines of this parish, in
which emergency the magistrates of Musselburgh
removed him on a litter to a house in the east port of
the burgh, and carefully attended him till he died on
the 20th of July, 1332. In grateful acknowledgment of
their kind attention, the earl's nephew and successor in
the regency, the Earl of Mar, proffered the inhabitants any
reward in his power to confer ; and on their declining
any remuneration for the mere performance of their duty,
he in 1340 granted them a charter of additional privi-
leges, with the motto Honestas for the arms of the burgh.
In 1530, James V. made a pilgrimage on foot from
Stirling to the shrine of the Virgin Mary, in the chapel
of Loretto, at this place, which in 1544 was destroyed
by the English army under the Earl of Hertford, together
with the town-house and the greater part of the town.
On the arrival of the Duke of Somerset at Newcastle
with 14,000 men, in 1547, to compel the Scots to sign a
contract of marriage between the infant Princess Mary
and Edward VI. of England, the Scots raised an army of
36,000, and took up a strong post here on the steep and
densely-wooded banks of the Esk, to await his approach.
The duke advanced with a fleet of thirty-five ships of war
and thirty transports, and anchored in the bay of Mus-