Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 6

STOBBS
Fairs ' of its Secession church ; and it was the first place
in the county visited by the cholera in 1832.
The parish, united since 1640 to Hume in Berwick-
shire, is bounded SE by Ednam, and on all other sides
by Berwickshire, viz., S and W by Nenthorn, N by
Hume, and NE by Eceles. Its utmost length, from
ENE to WSW, is 3J miles ; its breadth varies between
1| and 2J miles ; and its area is 2803J acres, of which
5 are water. Eden Water, a capital trout stream,
winds 1J mile east-by-northward along the southern
boundary, and forms, near Newton-Don, the beautiful
waterfall, 40 feet high, of Stitchel Linn. Sinking to
close on 200 feet above sea-level, the surface thence
rises north-north-westward, till at Sweethope Hill it
attains a maximum altitude of 731 feet. The rocks are
chiefly eruptive and Devonian ; and the soils are
variously argillaceous, loamy, and gravelly. Some of
the land is naturally wet and cold, but all has been
greatly improved, and most is in a state of high culti-
vation. In 162S the lands of Stitchel were sold by Sir
John Gordon of Lochinvar (afterwards Viscount Ken-
mure) to Robert Pringle, whose grandson received a
baronetcy in 16S3, and whose great-great-grandson, Sir
John Pringle, Bart. (1707-82), an eminent physician
and natural philosopher, was born at Stitchel House.
About 1855 the estate was purchased by the Bairds ;
and its present proprietor, George Alexander Baird,
Esq. of Stitchel and Strichen (b. 1861 ; sue. 1870),
holds 4339 acres in Roxburgh and 11,24S in Aberdeen
shire, valued at £8375 and £9049 per annum. His
seat, Stitchel House, 5 miles NNW of Kelso, is a large
and splendid edifice of 1866, whose tower, 100 feet high,
commands a magnificent view of the country for 30
miles round. The grounds possess much beauty.
Stitchel is in the presbytery of Kelso and the synod of
Merse and Teviotdale ; the living is worth £401. The
parish church contains 320 sittings, as also does the
new U.P. church, this being an Early Decorated build-
ing, erected in 1877 at a cost of £2000. Stitchel public
school, with accommodation for 113 children, had (1884)
an average attendance of 38, and a grant of £35, Is.
Valuation (1864) £4196, 5s. 6d., (1884) £4765, 2s. 5d.
Pop. (1801) 506, (1831) 434, (1861) 425, (1871) 388,
(1881) 342.— Orel. Sur., sh. 25, 1865.
Stobbs. See Gorebridge.
Stobbs Castle. See Stobs Castle.
Stobcross. See Glasgow.
Stobhall, a mansion in Cargill parish, Perthshire, on
a high narrow tongue of land, on the wooded left bank
of the river Tay, 8 miles N by E of Perth. It is an old
edifice, bearing date 1578, but supposed to have been
founded fully 400 years earlier. The chapel — probably
once the banquet-hall — has a curious painted roof, with
representations of all the kings of the earth ; and its
windows are now filled with stained heraldic glass.
The gardens are a miniature of those at Drummond
Castle ; and many of the trees on the estate are of great
size and beauty. By his marriage, in 1360, with the
daughter and co-heiress of Sir William de Montifex,
justiciar of Scotland, the estate went to Sir John Drum-
mond, and has continued in the possession of his
descendants, the mansion being now the residence of
Lady Willoughby de Eresby's factor. — Ord. Sur., sh.
48, 1868. See Drummond Castle and chap, xxviii. of
T. Hunter's Woods and Estates of Perthshire (1883).
Stobhill, a quoad sacra parish of Edinburghshire,
whose church stands 5 furlongs NNE of the village and
station of Gorebridge. Pop. (1871) 2447, (1881) 3065,
of whom 367 were in Borthwick, 1113 in Cockpen, 575
in Newbattle, and 1010 in Temple.
Stobo (anc. Stoboc, ' the hollow of stobs or stumps '),
a parish of central Peeblesshire, containing Stobo station
(with a post and railway telegraph office) on the Peebles
branch of the Caledonian, 12i miles E by N of Syming-
ton Junction and 6J WSW of Peebles. The present
parish since 1742 has comprehended part of the ancient
parish of Da wick. It is bounded N by Newlands, NE
by Lyne and Peebles, E by Manor, S by Drummelzier,
S\V and W by Broughton, and NW by Kirkurd. Its
STOBO
utmost length, from E to W, is 5J miles ; its utmost
breadth, from N to S, is 4J miles ; and its area is
10.372J acres, of which 71 are water. From the influx
of Biggar Water in the SW to the influx of Lyne Water
in the E, the Tweed has here a north-easterly course of
6J miles — 3 J miles cast-north-eastward along the Drum-
melzier border, 2| miles north -north-eastward across
the interior, and 1J mile east-north-eastward along the
Manor border. Biggar Water flows 1J mile eastward
along the Broughton boundary, and Lyne Water 4J
miles south-eastward along the Newlands, Lyne, and
Peebles boundary ; whilst the Tweed's chief affluents
from Stobo itself are Hopehead or Weston Burn, rising
on Broughton Heights at an altitude of 1550 feet, and
running 4g miles south-eastward through the interior,
and Harrow Burn, running 2| miles south-eastward to
its mouth near the parish church. Sinking in the
extreme E, at the confluence of Lyne Water with the
Tweed, to close on 550 feet above sea-level, the surface
thence rises to 1266 feet at Quarry Hill, 1495 at
Torbank Hill, 1760 at Penvalla, and 1872 at Brough-
ton Heights, which culminate on the meeting-point
of Stobo, Broughton, and Kirkurd parishes. The
valley of the Tweed here, whilst possessing much
natural beauty, is rich in artificial embellishment ; and
some of the hills are green, but most are covered with
heath, all those of the western district forming a con-
tinuous upland, fit only for sheep pasture. Greywacke,
more or less schistose, is the prevailing rock ; and coarse
clay slate, of a dark blue colour, and well adapted to
roofing purposes, was quarried so long ago as 1661.
The soil on the hills is mostly moorish ; and that in
the vales presents no little variety, but is generally a
light fertile loam, incumbent on gravel. Barely «ne-
sixth of the entire area is in tillage ; about 500 acres
are under wood ; and nearly all the remainder is hill-
pasture. The ' Black Dwarf,' David Ritchie (1740-
1811), was born at Slate Quarries (see Manor).
Antiquities are two cairns and two Caledonian stand-
ing-stones on Sheriffmuir ; the three hill-forts of
Kerr's Knowe, Hog Hill, and Dreva Craig ; and the
site of a feudal keep, called the Lour, on the S side of
the Tweed. Stobo Castle, near Stobo station and the
Tweed's left bank, is a spacious castellated pile, with
battlements and round flanking towers, erected in
1805-11 from plans by J. & A. Elliot. The grounds are
well laid out and finely wooded, four of the trees (an
oak, ash, sycamore, and beech) being described among
the ' old and remarkable trees of Scotland ' in Trans.
Highl. and Ay. Soc. for 1880-81. The barony of Stan-
hope and Stobo, once the property of the Murrays, was
purchased in 1767 for £40,500 by James Montgomery,
who, having in 1775 been created chief baron of the
exchequer in Scotland, received a baronetcy in 1S01.
His grandson, Sir Graham Graham-Montgomery, third
Bart. (b. 1823; sue. 1S39), Conservative M.P. for
Peeblesshire 1852-80, holds 18,172 acres in Peebles and
2336 in Kinross shire, valued at £6945 and £3130 per
annum (see Kinross). Two other proprietors hold
each an annual value of more than £500. Stobo is in
the presbytery of Peebles and the synod of Lothian and
Tweeddale ; the living is worth £244. The parish
church, 9 furlongs NNE of the station, on a rising-
ground beside the Tweed, is an interesting old edifice,
consisting of chancel, nave, S porch, and square saddle-
roofed tower with a bell-cote. Portions of it are Nor-
man or Romanesque, as old as or older than the 13th
century ; but the general features belong to the Pointed
style of architecture. The jougs still hang on the porch ;
and in the N wall of the chancel is a canopied tomb,
whose every stone has a ' W ' carved on it, and within
which a skeleton, four German coins, and a Scottish
one, apparently of James V. (1537), were found in
1863, when the church was well restored at the cost
of Sir Graham Montgomery. Stobo church is an
example of what is called a 'plebania' or mother church,
having subordinate churches or chapelries within its
territory. These were Dawick, Drummelzier, Kingle-
doors, Tweedsmuir, Broughton, Glenholm, and Lyne.
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