Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

METHVEN
only mansion; and the Earl of Aberdeen is sole-proprie-
tor. In 1875 a small portion was given off to the quoad
sacra parish of Barthol Chapel. Methliek is in the pres-
bytery of Ellon and the synod of Aberdeen; the living is
worth £330. The parish church at Methliek village was
originally dedicated to St Deveniek, and as last rebuilt,
in 1866, is a handsome Gothic edifice, containing 894
sittings. There is also a Free church; and two public
schools — Cairnorrie and Methliek — with respective
accommodation for 104 and 282 children, have an
average attendance of about 95 and 195, and grants
of nearly £90 and £220. Pop. (1801) 1215, (1831)
1439, (1861) 2157, (1881) 2162, (1891) 1905; of q. s.
parish (1891) 2031.— Ord. Sur., shs. 87, 86, 1876.
Methven, a village and a parish of Perthshire. The
village, standing 300 feet above sea-level, has a station
on a small branch of the Almond Valley section (1858)
of the Caledonian, 1^ mile N by W of Methven Junc-
tion, this being 6J miles WNW of Perth. A pleasant,
neatly built place, it consists of houses held partly on
feus, partly on long leases from the lordship of Methven,
and has a post office under Perth, with money order,
savings bank, and telegraph departments, a local sav-
ings bank (1815), a gas company, a subscription library
(1790), curling and bowling clubs, and a jute and linen
factory. In 1433 a collegiate church, for a provost and
five prebendaries, was founded at Methven by Walter
Stewart, Earl of Athole, who four years later was tor-
tured to death at Edinburgh for the murder of his
nephew, James I. An extant aisle, now the burying-
place of the Smythes of Methven, is thought to have
been added in the early part of the succeeding century,
by Margaret, queen-dowager of James I V. , as one of its
stones is sculptured with the royal lion of Scotland, sur-
mounted by a crown. The present parish church is a
plain building of 1783, enlarged in 1825, and containing
about 1000 sittings. In the churchyard is the tomb of
General Sir Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch (1750-
1843), the hero of Barossa, who was born at Balgowan.
There are also Free and tj.P. churches, and a Roman
Catholic chapel. Pop. of village (1881) 751, (1891) 657.
The parish, containing also the villages of Almond-
bank and Sckoggiehill, is bounded N by Monzie,
NE by Moneydie, E by Redgorton, SE by Tibbermore,
S by Tibbermore, Findo Gask, and Madderty, and W by
Fowlis-Wester. Its utmost length, from E by N to W
by S, is 6-J miles; its breadth varies between 1 mile and 3f
miles; and its area is 18,113 acres, of which 72£ are
water. The Tullybeagles detached portion of the parish,
which comprised 2823 acres and was almost wholly sur-
rounded by the parish of Auchtergaven, was transferred
to that parish by the Boundary Commissioners in 1891.
The detached part of Monzie parish, however, situated
at The Cairnies, south of the river Almond, and com-
prising 7953 acres, was given to Methven. The Almond
winds 3| miles eastward along all the northern boundary,
next 1J mile east-south-eastward across a north-eastern
wing (the Lynedoch property), and lastly 2§ miles south-
eastward along the Redgorton border. Its rapid course
between bold, rocky banks, here bare, there wooded,
offers many beautiful views. Pow Water rises in two
head-streams which unite near the SW corner of the
parish, and pass away towards the Earn; whilst another
stream, rising near the sources of the Pow, meanders 4J
miles eastward through the interior past Methven vil-
lage, and then goes 3 miles east-north-eastward along
the southern boundary to tho Almond. Methven Loch
(If x § furl. ) lies to the W of Almondbank village. The
surface of the parish is agreeably diversified with hollows
and wooded slopes, sinking in the extreme E to close
on 100 feet above sea-level, and rising thence west-north-
westward to 431 feet near Drumeairn, 483 near Wester
Carsehill, and 653 near Monabuie. Trap and Old Red
sandstone are the predominant rocks. A greenstone
variety of the trap, well suited for road metal, and a
fine-grained pale grey variety of the sandstone, adapted
for building, have both been quarried. The soil of the
lower grounds, for the most part argillaceous, is else-
where either loam or gravel; that on some of the hish
1158
METHVEN
grounds is moorish. About four-fifths of the entire area
are regularly or occasionally in tillage; nearly one-sixth
is under wood; and the rest is either pastoral or waste.
Of many fine old trees the ' Pepperwell Oak ' in front of
Methven Castle is the finest, its height being 82 feet,
its girth 23 at 1 foot from the ground, and its age 400
years at least. Prior to 1323 the lands of Methven
belonged to the Mowbrays, whose ancestor, Roger Mow-
bray, a Norman, accompanied William the Conqueror
to England. ' A branch of this family, ' says the Old
Statistical Account, 'afterwards established itself in
Scotland, and became very flourishing. To Sir Roger
Mowbray belonged the baronies of Kelly, Eckford, Dal-
meny, and Methven, lying in the shires of Forfar,
Roxburgh, Linlithgow, and Perth; but, for adhering
to the Baliol and English interest, his lands were con-
fiscated by Robert I., who bestowed Eckford, Kelly, and
Methven on his son-in-law, Walter, the eighth heredi-
tary lord-high-steward of Scotland, whose son succeeded
to the crown in 1371, as Robert II., in right of his
mother, Marjory Bruce, daughter of Robert I. The
lordship of Methven was granted by him to Walter
Stewart, Earl of Athole, his second son, by Euphemia
Ross, his second wife; and after his forfeiture (1437),
remained in the Crown a considerable time. It became
part of the dowry lands usually appropriated for the
maintenance of the queen-dowager of Scotland, together
with the lordship and castle of Stirling, and the lands
of Balquhidder, etc., all of which were settled on Mar-
garet, queen-dowager of James IV., who, in the year
1525, having divorced her second husband, Archibald,
Earl of Angus, married Henry Stewart, second son of
Andrew Lord Evandale, afterward Ochiltree, a descend-
ant of Robert, Duke of Albany, son of King Robert II.
Margaret was the eldest daughter of Henry VII. of
England, in whose right James VI. of Scotland, her
great-grandson, succeeded to that crown on the death of
Queen Elizabeth. She procured for her third husband a
peerage from her son, James V., under the title of Lord
Methven, anno 1528; and, on this occasion, the barony
of Methven was dissolved from the Crown, and erected
into a lordship, in favour of Henry Stewart and his
heirs male, on the Queen's resigning her jointure of the
lordship of Stirling. By Lord Methven she had a
daughter, who died in infancy, before herself. The
queen died at the castle of Methven in 1540, and was
buried at Perth, beside the body of James I. Lord
Methven afterwards married Janet Stewart, daughter of
the Earl of Athole, by whom he had a son, Henry, who
married Jean, daughter of Patrick, Lord Ruthven, and
was killed at Broughton by a cannon-ball from the
castle of Edinburgh, in 1572, leaving a son, Henry,
who died without issue, when the lands reverted to
the Crown. This third Lord Methven is mentioned
on the authority of Stewart's Genealogical Account of
the House of Stewart. In 1584 the lordship of Meth-
ven and Balquhidder was conferred on Ludowick, Duke
of Lennox, in whose illustrious family it continued till
it was purchased from the last Duke, in 1664, by Patrick
Smythe of Braco.' His great-grandson, David (1746-
1806), assumed the title of Lord Methven on his eleva-
tion to the bench; and his grandson, David Murray (b.
1850; sue. 1892) is the present holder. His seat, Meth-
ven Castle, on a bold acclivitous rising-ground, 1J mile
E of Methven village, is a stately baronial pile of 1680,
with extensive modern additions. In Methven Wood
Wallace found a larking place; and here, on 19 June
1306, was fought the Battle of Methven, in which a
small band, under Robert Bruce, was surprised and
scattered by Pembroke, the English regent. Balgowan,
Lynedooh, and Dronaoh Haugh — the last with the
grave of ' Bessie Bell and Mary Gray ' — are noticed
separately. This parish is in the presbytery of Perth,
and the synod of Perth and Stirling; the living is worth
£325. Almondbank public, Methven public, and Meth-
ven female industrial schools, with respective accom-
modation for 151, 138, and 119 children, have an
average attendance of about 60, 95, and 45, and
grants of nearly £56, £90, and £40. Valuation (1884)