Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

PENICUIK
Roman Catholic chapel school (1883), and St James's
Episcopal church (1882), the last an Early English
edifice, with nave and apsidal chancel, a marble altar,
and over 200 sittings.
Messrs Alexander Cowan & Sons — we abridge from
Bremmer's Industries of Scotland — are among the oldest,
best-known, and most extensive manufacturers of paper
in Scotland. They have three mills at Penicuik ; but
as these stand within a few hundred yards of each other,
they are worked as one establishment. The central
position is occupied by the Valleyfield Mill, which is by
far the largest of tho three. Its nucleus was built in
1709* by Mr Anderson, printer to Queen Anne, or by his
widow._ In 1779 Mr Charles Cowan bought the mill ;
and, with the exception of the years 1810-14, when it
was fitted up by Government for the reception of 6000
French prisoners of war,t the premises have since con-
tinued in the family. As time wore on, the accommo-
dation in the Valleyfield Mill became unequal to the
requirements of an increased trade, and a neighbouring
corn-mill was acquired in 1803 and converted into a
paper manufactory. This mill is now known as Bank
Mill, because it was at first devoted to making paper for
bank-notes. In 1815 the operations of the firm were
further extended by the purchase of a paper-mill belong-
ing to Mr Nimmo of Edinburgh, and now known as the
Low Mill. A few years after the close of the French
war the Valleyfield Jlill was repurchased from Govern-
ment, fitted out with the most improved appliances,
and started afresh in 1821. The late Mr Alexander
Cowan was among the first in Britain to appreciate the
value of the paper-making machine, and to introduce it
into the trade ; and both he and his successors have
ever shown a readiness to seek out and adopt whatever
appliances or arrangements gave promise of improving
or facilitating the manufacture of paper. Besides their
three mills at Penicuik, Messrs Cowan have a fourth at
MussELBUKGH. At Penicuik they have in operation
five machines of the most perfect construction ; and
these of themselves occupy several large buildings. The
machine most recently set up is one of the largest and
finest in Britain. Including the drying apparatus, it is
250 feet in length, and is capable of turning out 2500
square yards of paper in an hour. Between 2000 and
3000 tons of paper are made annually, all being the
finer kinds of writing and printing papers. The
quantity made daily is probably equal to a web 20
miles long and above 5 feet wide. The water-wheels
and steam-engines employed in the mills are equal to
over 200 horse-power. About 600 persons are engaged
in the various departments, and these are treated with
great consideration and liberality by Messrs Cowan.
There are also two saw-mOls and an iron-foundry ; but,
next to paper-making, the most important industry is
the raising of coal, shale, and ironstone. To its recent
development is chiefly due the marked increase of popu-
lation in the course of the last few years, though the
mines are mainly situated in the adjacent parishes of
Glencorse and Lasswade.
Under the General Police and Improvement (Scotland)
Act of 1862, Penicuik is governed by a senior and two
junior magistrates, with 5 police commissioners, a town-
clerk, and a treasurer. The municipal voters numbered
619 in 1884, when the annual value of real property
amounted to £9765, whilst the revenue, including
* Among several curious old tombstones in the churchyard is
one to ' Annabel Millar, spouse to Thomas Euthertoord, paper-
maker at Pennycuik, who died 1 April 1735.'
t Eskmill Paper Mill (James Brown & Co.), which then was a
cotton factory, was at the same time converted into barracks for
1500 soldiers. Penicuik became active and stirrin<f . and was con-
siderably enriched, but suffered damage in the moral tone of its
people. The reversion of the mills, at the close of the war, from
their warlike occupancy to the manufacture of paper, was felt to
be an event of general joy, and was celebrated by a general
illumination. On a spot in the grounds of Valleyfield, where up-
wards of 300 of the prisoners of war were interred, stands a neat
chaste moimment, from a design from Hamilton, with the inscrip-
tions, ' Grata quies patrise, sed et omnis terra sepulchrum,' and
■ Certain inhabitants of this parish, desiring to remember that all
men are brethren, caused this monument to be erected.'
PENICUIK
assessments, was £297. Pop. of town (1841) 907i
(1861) 1570, (1871) 2157, (1881) 3793, of whom 3051
were in the police burgh, 46 were in Lasswade parisli,
and 2016 were females. Houses (1881) 755 inhabited,
32 vacant, 9 building.
The parish, containing also Howgate village, was
anciently called St Mungo. In 1616 it gave off a portion
of its territory to form with Pentland the parish of Glen-
corse, and since 1635 it has included the quondam
parishes of Mount Lothian and St Catherine. It is
bounded NW by Currie, NE by Colinton, Glencorse,
Lasswade, and Carrington, E by Temple, S by
Eddleston and Newlands in Peeblesshire, SW by Linton
in Peeblesshire, and W by Kirkliston (detached). Its
utmost length, from WNW to ESE, is 9J miles ; its
breadth varies between 5 furlongs and 5J miles ; and its
area is 29§ square miles or 18,966j acres, of which 86J
are water. The beautiful river North EsK flows 5 miles
south -south-eastward and east-bj'-northward along the
Peeblesshire border, and not far below its source ex-
pands into the North Esk reservoir (J x J mile). It
next goes 4J miles north-eastward through the interior,
and lastly. If mile north-north-eastward along the Lass-
wade boundary. During this course it is joined from
Penicuik parish by Monks Buen, Black Burn, and
Cuiken Burn, the two last tracing parts of the Lasswade
and Glencorse boundaries. Another of its afiluents,
Logan or Glencorse Burn, has been fully described in
our article on Glencoesb parish. Fullarton Water
runs north-north-eastward along the Temple boundary
on its way to the South Esk ; and Bavelaw Burn, a
feeder of the Water of Leith, traces part of the Currie
border. Copious springs of excellent water afford
abundant supplies to every district ; and some are
known to have petrifying or chalybeate qualities. At
Cuiken Burn's influx to the North Esk the surface
declines to 496 feet above sea-level ; and the highest
point in the south-eastern division of the parish is
Auchencoth Moss (976 feet) at the Linton boundary.
The north-western is very much hillier, occupied as it
is by the slopes and summits of the Pentland Hills —
Paties Hill (1500), West Kip (1806), Scald Law (1898),
Carnethy Hill (1890), Hare Hill (1470), and Black Hill
(1623), of which Scald Law, or the Sisters, is the
highest point in the range. Including some lesser
summits and a number of intersecting glens and
hollows, the parish of Penicuik presents a grand
western background to a great expanse of rich lowland
landscape, and embosoms a variety of charming scenes,
of which the most famous are noticed under Habbie's
Howe. The rocks of the hills are eruptive, for the most
part porphyry ; whilst those of the south-eastern district
are variously Silurian, Devonian, and carboniferous,
thickly overlaid in places with diluvium. Sandstone, of
various qualities, is plentiful ; limestone has been
largely quarried ; coal abounds, but is so much inter-
sected by trap dykes, that it has not been very much
worked ; iron ores occur in beds, veins, and small
masses ; and a few garnets and pieces of heavy spar
have been found. The soil of the arable lands is ex-
ceedingly various, and comprises clay, sand, gravel,
moss, and numerous combinations of two or more of
these. About two-fifths of the entire area are in tillage ;
one-twentieth is underwood ; and the rest of the land is
either pastoral or waste. Penicuik House, near the
North Esk's left bank, IJ mile WSW of the town, was
built in 1761 by Sir James Clerk from his own designs,
and is a large oblong Grecian edifice, with an octostyle
Ionic portico. The lofty entrance-hall is adorned with
statuary and with Roman antiquities from Cramond
and Middlebie ; and the roof of the great drawing-room
or ' Ossian's HaU ' is painted with twelve life-size figures,
by Runciman, of characters in the poems of Os.sian.
The grounds, 1000 acres in extent, are of great beauty,
the house itself standing on a level holm in a bend of
the river, with a picturesque glen behind carrying up
the view to the ruins of Brunstane Castle and the
western extremity of the Peutlands — a little plain in
front, gemmed with pond and garden, and overhung by
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