Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

MINNISHANT
is worth £292. The parish church, on a lovely spot
overlooking Minnigaff hamlet, the town of Newton-
Stewart, and the confluence of the Cree and the Water
of Minnoch, is a good Gothic edifice of 1836, with tower,
organ, three fine memorial stained-glass windows, and
a mural tablet to a former minister, and was repaired in
1893. Creebridge and Stronard public schools, with
respective accommodation for'116 and 100 children, have
an average attendance of about 105 and 95, and grants
of over £106 and £96. Pop. (1801) 1609, (1831) 1855,
(1861) 1804, (1871) 1529, (1881) 1587, (1891) 1425, of
whom 406 were in Creebridge, and 1216 in the eccle-
siastical parish. — Ord. Stir., shs. 4, 8, 1857-63.
Minnishant. See Minishant.
Minnoch, Loch. See Kells.
Minnoch, Water of, a troutful rivulet of Ayr and
Kirkcudbright shires, rising, at an altitude of 1980 feet,
ou the western slope of Shalloch of Minnoch (2520 feet),
and running 14| miles south-by- westward through Barr
and Minnigaff parishes, till, after a total descent of 1850
feet, it falls into the Cree at a point 7f miles NNW of
Newton-Stewart. Its course, except near the end, lies
through a moorish upland country. — Ord. Sur., sh. 8,
1863.
Minnock Water. See Minniok Watee.
Minnyhive. See Moniaive.
Minsh. See Minch.
Mintlaw, a village near the western border of Long-
side parish, Aberdeenshire, f mile E by S of Mintlaw
station on the Peterhead branch of the Great North of
Scotland railway, this being 9 miles W by N of Peter-
head, 4 E by N of Maud Junction, and 35J N by E of
Aberdeen. Founded during the first quarter of the 19th
century, it has a post office, with money order, savings
bank, and railway telegraph departments, a branch of
the Town and County Bank, two hotels, and a public
school. Pop. (1831) 222, (1861) 240, (1871) 413, (1881)
435, (1891) 402.— Ord Sur., sh. 87, 1876.
Minto (Cym. maen-tal, ' the high stone '), a village
and a parish of Roxburghshire. The village, with a post
office, lies 1 J mile N by W of Denholm, the birthplace of
the poet Leyden, and If mile E of Hassendean station
on the Waverley route of the North British, this being
44; miles ENE of Hawick. The parish church here,
built in 1831 from designs by William Playfair, is a
handsome Gothic building, with a square tower.
Minto parish is bounded N by Lilliesleaf, NE by
Ancrum, SE by Cavers, and SW by Wilton. Its utmost
length, from E to W, is 4§ miles; its utmost breadth
is 3J miles; and its area is 5620J acres, of which 19^
are water. It embraces a considerable portion of the
suppressed parish of Hassendean. The river Teviot
flows 4J miles north-eastward along or close to the
Cavers boundary, and from Minto is joined by Hassen-
dean and Grindin Burns. Along the riverside extends
a strip of haugh, from 1 to 1$ furlong in breadth, and
less than 300 feet above sea-level. It is flanked by
a steep bank, behind which the ground slowly rises to
the northern boundary. Towards the western extremity
of the parish is Hassendean Glen, near the foot of which
is a fine petrifying spring. It also contains the spacious
mansion-house of Colonel Dickson of Hassendeanburn
and Chatto. Towards the eastern part of the parish
there is another dell — Minto Glen — of great and attrac-
tive beauty. It is intersected throughout its entire
length by well-kept walks, and contains many larch
trees of so great a size that they are only rivalled by
those in the Duke of Atholl's plantations at Dunkeld.
These larches were among the first imported into Scot-
land. At the head of Minto Glen an artificial lake was
formed in 1735, and upon a bank rising from its margin
Minto House is situated. Opposite the mansion-house
stood the old parish church and churchyard, but when
the present church was built the burial-ground was con-
verted into a Sower-garden.
To the W of Minto House rise the Hills of Minto, ' as
modest and shapely and smooth as Clytie's shoulders.'
They are 905 and 836 feet high, and, owing to their
position, are easily seen from almost every point.
1164
MINTO
Minto Crags, which form the chief natural feature of the
parish, lie E of the Minto Hills. They are a large mass
of trap rock, rising from a fairly level piece of ground,
and attaining a height of 729 feet. The top is most
irregular in outline, while the face, overgrown with ivy,
grass, and wild-flowers, is formed of shelving projec-
tions, one above the other. Huge blocks, detached from
the cliffs above, lie sesftcered along the bottom of the
Crags. Clumps of trees grow, both at the top and foot
of the cliff, as well as on the face, wherever they can
obtain root-hold. ' The view from the Crags is highly
diversified and beautiful. The windings of " the silver
Teviot," through a pleasing vale, can be traced for many
a mile, the prospect on one side being terminated by the
fine outline of the Liddesdale Hills, along with those on
the confines of Dumfriesshire, and in the opposite direc-
tion by the smoother and more rounded forms of the
Cheviots. Ruberslaw rises immediately in front, with
Denholmdean on the right, and the narrow bed of the
Rule on the left; while behind, to the N, are distinctly
seen the Eildon Hills, the Black Hill, Cowdenknowes,
Smailholm Tower, Hume Castle, and the Lammermuirs. '
The summit of the Crags is crowned by a ruin, called
Fatlips Castle, which is supposed to have been the
stronghold of Turnbull of Barnhills, a well-known Border
freebooter. A small platform, a little way below the
top, is called BarnhiU's Bed. It was used, in all pro-
bability, as a point of outlook. Sir Walter Scott alludes
to it in the following lines from The Lay of the Last
Minstrel: —
' On Minto Crags the moonbeams glint
Where Barnhill hewed his bed of flint;
Who flung his outlawed limbs to rest
Where falcons hang their giddy nest,
'Mid cliffs from whence his eagle eye
For many a league his prey could spy ;
Cliffs, doubling, on their echoes borne
The terrors of the robber's horn.'
Nearly two-thirds ot the parish are in tillage, the
other one-third being pasture land. In the E part of
Minto are many plantations, the property of the Earl of
Minto. Near the Teviot the soil is light loam; towards
the N it is clay. The Crags are formed of eruptive rocks,
and in Hassendean Glen is coarse red sandstone conglo-
merate. The North British railway traverses the parish
for 3£ miles, and has a station at Hassendean.
The chief landowners are the Earl of Minto, ' o whom
belong two-thirds of the parish ; the Duke of Bu wleuch,
Mrs. E. H. Maxwell Blair, of Teviotbank, and Colonel
Dickson of Hassendeanburn. The principal ress. lences
are Minto House, Teviotbank, and Hassendeanburn.
The first of these is the seat of Lord Minto, to whom
this property gives the title of Baron and Earl in the
peerage of the United Kingdom. Some time before his
elevation to the bench as Lord Minto in 1705, Gilbert
or 'Gibbie' Elliot (1651-1718), a grandson of Gilbert
Elliot of Stobs, purchased the Minto estate. He had
been created a baronet in 1700. The second Sir Gilbert
(1693-1766), lord justice-clerk, was an accomplished
Italian scholar, and formed a large library at Minto
House. The third Sir Gilbert (1722-77) sat as member
of Parliament, first for Selkirkshire and then for Rox-
burghshire. He was a poet of some merit; and his sister,
Jean Elliot (1727-1805), was author of that immortal
lyric, The Flowers of the Forest. The fourth Sir Gilbert
(1751-1814) held several political and diplomatic posts,
and, on account of his services, was raised to the peerage
as Baron Minto in 1797, and as Earl of Minto and Vis-
count Melgund in 1813. Gilbert John Elliot Murray
Kynynmound, present and fourth Earl (b. 1845; sue.
1891), is colonel commanding South of Scotland Volun-
teer Brigade, and was military secretary to the Marquis
of Lansdowne when governor-general of Canada, 1883-86.
His mother, Emma Eleanor Elizabeth Hislop (1824-82),
was author of Memoirs of the Right Hon. Hugh Elliot;
Life and Letters of Sir Gilbert Elliot, first Earl of Minto;
Lord Minto in India; Border Sketches, etc. See Looh-
ghily and Melgund.
Minto House, J mile NE of the village, is a handbon>«