Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

HAWICK
higher education, leaving a large part of his property
for an endowment to the Grammar School. The Rev.
William Crawford, minister of Wilton, who died in
1742, was the author of several religious works of a
high order, eminently practical, and much read through-
out the country. Dr Thomas Somerville, for nearly 60
years minister of Jedburgh, and celebrated for his his-
tory of the reign of Queen Anne, was born in the parish
manse, and was the son of the minister. The Rev. Dr
John Young, minister of the first antiburgher congrega-
tion, a man of powerful ability, was the author of various
works, and, among them, of a work in explanation and
defence of the British Constitution, a book written to
expose and counteract the revolutionary sentiments
which spread in many parts of the country after the
French Revolution. The book came to the notice of Mr
Pitt, who was so struck with its force, and impressed
with its utility for the times, that he sent a complimen-
tary letter to Dr Young, and secured a pension for two
of his daughters. The parish of Wilton enjoyed for 53
years the ministry of Dr Samuel Charters, a man of
warm benevolence and exalted piety, a deep thinker, an
accomplished scholar, a Christian philosopher, whose
excellences shine in his published sermons, and in his less
known Essay on Bashfulncss, which reveals such a de-
licate knowledge of the human heart, and such a power
of portraying its most tender movements, as to give him
a place among the more famous sentimentalists of the
land. Mr Robert Wilson, a native of the town, and de-
voted to its interests, published his history of Hawick
in 1825. The annals of the town and neighbourhood,
after much and learned research, were compiled by Mr
James Wilson, the town clerk, and were published in
1850. This work has been much approved, has been
widely circulated, and has stimulated the production
of similar annals of other towns. Foremost, however,
of all the citizens of Hawick in national reputation,
stands James Wilson, long the editor of the Economist,
and the chief expounder of the principles of political
economy which have been widely dominant throughout
the empire. Having entered Parliament he rose in
influence and authority, and at a very peculiar and
critical juncture in our Eastern affairs, after the Mutiny,
was appointed and sent out to act as the Finance Minister
of India. He brought his great knowledge and energy
to bear on the accumulated difficulties which met him,
and in a short time succeeded in promoting the most
beneficial improvements in the regulation of taxation
and finance. But very soon his career was terminated
by a fatal disease induced by his extraordinary exertions,
and he died to live in the memory of his contemporaries,
and in the role of the great aud beneficent statesmen
whom Britain has been enabled to give to sway the
destinies of the Indian Empire.
Previous to 1850 the parish of Hawick reached from
Teviot stone, the source of the river, to 1 mile below the
town, 16 miles long, by 2 to 3 miles broad. It thus in-
cluded a large part of the vale of the ' sweet and silver
Teviot. ' In the above year the larger part was disjoined,
and, with a considerable part of the parish of Cavers,
was formed into the quoad ovinia parish of Teviothead.
The Duke of Buccleuch was here also the benefactor,
building both church and manse at his own expense,
giving ground for the glebe, and furnishing the
greatest part of the stipend. The parish is 6 miles from
SW to NE, 3 miles broad, and contains 6203J acres, of
which 90| are water. At the hamlet of Newmill, at the
upper end, there is a landward school, with schoolhouse,
with accommodation for 117 children, an average atten-
dance of 72, and a grant of £70, 14s. The scenery of
the parish is soft and beautiful throughout — Teviot,
with its tributaries, the Allan, the Borthwick, and the
Slitrig, flowing through smiling valleys richly cultivated,
rising into slopes and knolls crowned with woods, and
backed by ranges of undulating hills. Branxholm stands
on an elevated terrace above the Teviot, rich in its an-
cient woods, the scene of Sir Walter Scott's Lay of the
Last Minstrel, and of one of Allan Ramsay's finest songs,
dedicated to The Bonnie Lass of Branksome —
HAWTHORNDEN
' As I cam' in by Teviotside,
And by the braes of Branksome,
There first I saw my blooming bride,
Young', smiling:, sweet, and handsome."
Nearer the town, and on a beautiful eminence which
commands one of the finest views on the Border, stands
the ancient tower or peel of Goldielands, one of the
most complete now in the South of Scotland. It has
been already mentioned that the approach to the town,
alongside the parks and woods of Teviot Lodge, is of
remarkable beauty, and, after leaving the town, fair
Teviot has the same tale to tell. The valuation of the
landward parish was £4547 in 1882. In 1881 the popu-
lation of the entire parish was 11,758, of whom 5211
were in Hawick parish, 3464 in St Mary's quoad sacra,
and 3083 in St John's quoad sacra.
1 Sweet Teviot, on thy silver tide,
The glaring bale-fires blaze no more,
No longer steel-clad warriors r}de
Along thy wild and willowed shore.
'AH now is changed, and halcyon years
Succeed the feudal baron's sway ;
And trade, with arts and peace, appears,
To bless fair Scotia's happier day.'
Hawkhead, an estate, with a mansion, in Abbey
parish, Renfrewshire, on the left bank of the White
Cart, 1\ miles SE of Paisley. It belonged in the
middle of the 15th century to the doughty Sir John
Ross, wdiose son and namesake appears in the parlia-
ment roll of 1489-90 as the first Baron Ross of Hawk-
head — a title that expired with the fourteenth Lord in
1754. The estate passed first to his eldest sister, Mrs
Ross Mackye, and next to a younger sister, Elizabeth,
widow of the third Earl of Glasgow. Her son, the
fourth Earl, succeeded her in 1791, and in 1815 was
created Baron Ross of Hawkhead in the peerage of the
United Kingdom. (See Kel3Tjrne Castle. ) Hawkhead
House, originally a large ancient tower, underwent such
enlargement in the time of Charles I. as to take the
form of a quadrangle. It was visited in 1681 by the
Duke of York, afterwards James VII. Repaired and
improved in 17S2, it is now an irregular pile of antique
appearance, with gardens originally formed in the Dutch
style, and a finely-wooded park. — Ord. Sur. , sh. 30, 1866.
Hawthornden, the romantic home of the poet Drum-
mond, in Lasswade parish, Edinburghshire, 1J mile NE
of Roslin, and 5 furlongs NW of Hawthornden Junction
on the Peebles branch of the North British, this being
11^ miles S by E of Edinburgh. Standing upon the
steep right bank of the North Esk's rocky pine-clad
glen, classic Hawthornden is ' a venerable and pictur-
esque looking edifice. The left side, as you face it, con-
sists of a hoary mass of ivy-clad masonry, perhaps 600
years old, while the inhabited part to the right is a
pleasant irregular house, with gables and a turret in the
style of the 17th century.' Over the doorway are carved
in marble the armorial bearings of Dr William Aber-
nethy Drummond (1720-1809), Bishop of Edinburgh ;
and near them is a Latin inscription by the poet, telling
how in 1638 he restored the house for himself and his
successors ; whilst a tablet, placed by the Bishop on tin
gable, runs — ' To the memory of Sir Lawrence Aber-
nethy of Hawthornden , a brave and gallant soldier, who
in 1338 conquered Lord Douglas five times in one day,
yet was taken prisoner before sunset.' Within, the
most interesting objects are a great two-handed sword,
Robert Bruce's 'tis said ; a good portrait of the poet's
father, Sir John Drummond, who was gentleman-usher
to James VI. ; and a poor one of the poet himself. He,
William Drummond, the ' Scottish Petrarch,' was born
here on 13 Dec. 1585 ; here in the winter of 1618-19 he
entertained Ben Jonson, who had walked from London
to Edinburgh ; and, here, broken-hearted by Charles I.'s
execution, he died on 4 Dec. 1649. The present owner
is Sir James Hamlyn Williams-Drummond, fourth Bart,
since 1828 (b. 1S57 ; sue. 1S6S). The grounds are of
great beauty, and contain a large sycamore, called the
'Four Sisters' or 'Ben Jonson's Tree,' whilst a rocky
seat is named the ' Cypress Grove ' after Drummond's
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