Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

PEEBLES
one angle. It has a very fine situation, as it is built
on the slope which rises from Tweeil-Green to High
Street, and in consequence looks directly upon the
river. St Peter's Episcopal church contains 126
sittings. A new chancel was added in 1883, and the
interior much improved by the removal of the old
organdoft, formerly above the entrance to the church.
At the time when the improvements were effected, a
new organ was added to the church. The pulpit is of
beautiful marble, the font of Caen stone ; and the
stained-glass window in the chancel was presented by
Colin Mackenzie, Esq. of Portmore, in memory of his
uncle, Bishop Mackenzie. The Roman Catholic church,
St Joseph's, in Kosetta Road, replaced in 1858 a chapel
of much smaller dimensions. The present one has accom-
modation for 300 persons.
So early as 1464 the bailies appointed Sir William
Blaklok schoolmaster of the burgh ; and in 1555 they
agreed to provide the master with an 'honest chamber,'
and also with the use of the tolbooth to teach his bairns
reading and writing English. ' Latinists ' are men-
tioned in 1559 ; and in 1563 the council ordained the
master to wait on the bairns, and not to go to hunting
or other pleasures in time coming without licence of
the aldermen. Education was made compulsory in
1637 ; and in 1688 the magistrates ordered the master
to teach all children gratis whose parents were unable
to pay the fees. The two burgh schools, which passed
to the local school board in 1873, were a grammar school
and an English school, the latter rebuilt in 1861 at a
cost of £541. A residence erected in 1805 for the head-
master of the grammar school furnishes accommodation
for 30 boarders. The following table shows the position
of the schools in 1882-83 :
Name.
Accommodation.
Average
Attendance.
Grant.
1st English, .
2d English, .
Halyrude,
St Joseph's, .
300
200
74
219
216
27
£173, 93.
£189
The school board consists of a chairman and 6 members.
In addition to the above schools, there are the following :
St Leonards and Beauthorne for the board and educa-
tion of young ladies, and a boys' school called Benning-
ton Park Academy. There is also an adventure school
in School Brae.
There are in Peebles few public buildings, and these,
for the most part, are of plain and unadorned appear-
ance. The most striking are the Hydropathic Establish-
ment and the Chambers Institution. The Town-Hall,
which stands in High Street, was built in 1763 ; and
behind it is the Corn Exchange (1860). The County
Hall is also in High Street. It was erected in 1844,
is in the Tudor style, and has inferior accommodation.
The prison beside it was legalised in 1844, but closed
in 1878. The building in High Street, which forms
the front of the Chambers Institution, has an inter-
esting history connected with it. At one time the
property of the Cross Church, it fell in 1624 into the
hands of the Hays, Lords Yester. It next passed
to the Queensbeny family (1687), and was sold by
the fourth Duke of Queensberry to Dr James Reid in
1781. Dr Chambers obtained possession of it in 1857,
and ' for purposes of social improvement, presented
it as a free gift to his native town.' Dr Chambers
made considerable alterations upon the building —
chiefly inside— and erected on the S side of the quad-
rangle a large hall, which harmonises very well with
the other buildings. In the centre of this quadrangle
has been placed the old cross of Peebles, noticed below.
The institution was opened 11 Aug. 1859. It embraces
' a public lending library with about 17,000 volumes, a
large reference library, a public reading room, and
several rooms for private study, a gallery of art, a
county museum, and a hall. It is maintained partly
by endowment and partly by small fees, payable by
visitors and others.' The buildings were repaired in
PEEBLES
1880 at a cost of £1000. The civic corporation act as-
trustees. The Museum contains some fine copies of
famous Egyptian antiquities, as well as collections of
fossils, birds, casts, etc. 'The reading-room is very
comfortable, and in the hall there has been placed a
portrait of Dr W. Chambers, by Gordon, painted in
1858.
Peebles has a post office, with money order, savings'
bank, insurance, and telegraph departments, agencies
of 21 insurance companies, and branches of the Bank
of Scotland, the Commercial Bank, and the British
Linen Co.'s Bank. Tlie premises of all three are in
High Street. Those of the Bank of Scotland and of
the British Linen Co. are handsome buildings, the
former erected in 1860, the latter in 1883. There
are numerous hotels in the town, as well as a Hydro-
pathic Establishment. The chief hotels are the Tontine,
the Commercial, and the Cross Keys. The first, as the
name implies, was built by subscription, under the
agreement 'that anj' age might be entered, and the
longest liver should have the whole.' It was erected in
1808 at a cost of £4030. The Cross Keys Hotel is
interesting, because it and a former landlady have been
considered the originals of the ' Cleikum Inn ' and ' Meg
Dodds ' in Scott's St lionan's Well. Above the doorway
is written The Original Cleikum Inn, underneath which
is the date 1653, and, indeed the building has an
antiquated appearance. It is approached irom the
Northgate through an arch, which leads into a court-
yard, at the end of which the house — once known as the
' Yett ' {i.e., gate) — is situated. At one time, it was the
town-house of the Williamsons of Cardrona, who appear
to have risen from burgesses of Peebles to county gentle-
men. The Hydropathic Establishment lies a little way
E of the town on the slope of Yen Law (1066 feet). It
was erected in 1878-81, at a cost of £70,000, in the French
Renaissance style. The building is extremely hand-
some, and the deep brown-red colour of the stone with
which it has been built contrasts well with the dark
green of the trees round about it. There are five floors
anil accommodation for 200 visitors. The public rooms
are spacious and elaborately decorated ; the bedrooms
are more comfortably furnished than those of such
establishments generally are ; and the baths are of the
most complete description. The grounds, 26 acres in
extent, have been laid out with greens for lawn tennis,
croquet, bowling ; and there are ponds for curling and
skating. Peebles has numerous clubs and societies.
There are clubs for cricket, football, bowling, and curl-
ing, in addition to a Conservative Club, a Gutterbluid
Club, an Incomers' Club, and a Leek Club. Among
the societies are the Auxiliary to the National Bible
Society, the Boys' and Girls' Religious Society, the Free
Church Temperance and Band of Hope, the Parish
Church Young Men's Union, the Peeblesshire Colportage
Society, a Temperance Association, a Young Men's
Christian Association. Besides these there are a
Hammermen's Incorporation, a Guildry Corporation,
an Independent Order of Good Templars, the Court
Neidpath Ancient Order of Foresters, the Peebles
Kilwinning Lodge of Freemasons, 2 companies of the
2d Midlothian and Peeblesshire Rifle Volunteers, and
a Choral Union. A newspaper called the PeeMesshire
Advertiser and County Newspcvper (1845) is published
every Saturday. A hiring fair — Fasten E'en Fair — is.
held on the first Tuesday of March, Beltane Fair and
Siller Fair on the second Wednesday in May and on
the Tuesday before 12 Dec. respectively.
The only industry, prosecuted with vigour in the
town, is the manufacture of woollen goods. There are
in Peebles one spinning-mill and two tweed-mills. The
largest of these, in which both weaving and spinning
are carried on, employs nearly 400 hands. Coach-
building, tanning, and brewing are also engaged in. In
addition to these, there is a large warehouse, in which
' tweeds ' are sold. About the beginning of the century
the manufacture of cotton goods was introduced, but
unsuccessfully, and this failure cannot but be contrasted
with the success that has attended the woollen trade.
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