Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

ST MART'S TOWER
face looking across St Mary's Loch, and up towards the
Grey Mare's Tail; while by moonlight all your own
fairies will weave a dance round its pedestal.' This
prediction has been almost exactly verified by the
erection in 1860 of a monument on a grassy esplanade
at the head of the loch. It consists of a square pedestal
and a statue, 9 J and 8 J feet high, of Denholm freestone,
by Andrew Currie, F.S.A., himself a native of 'the
Forest.' The Shepherd, with plaid around him, is
seated on an oak-root; at his feet lies Hector, his
favourite dog; his right hand rests on a staff, and his
left holds a scroll inscribed with the last line of the
Queen's Wake —
'He taught the wandering winds to sing.'
Opposite, on the wooded patch of holm between the
lochs, 19 miles WSW of Selkirk, is St Margaret's
Cottage or 'Tibbie Sheils,' long kept by Mrs Richard-
son (1781-1878), and the scene of one of the Nodes.
The inn has been added to considerably of late. Here
' Christopher North ' used to reside with his family in
the autumn, and Tibbie and her cosy ' cottage ' occupy
no small part of the Nodes. The ' Ettrick Shepherd '
also made the ' wren's nest, ' as he called the inn, a
frequent resting-place, not only on account of Tibbie
having been long a servant in his father's house, but
also to meet several of his literary friends, on which
occasions the mirth often made the rafters ring. For
many years Tibbie's fireside had been the haunt of poets
and other writers, and some lyrics have been sung in her
praise. She and her husband, who predeceased her
fifty-six years, both lie buried in Ettrick churchyard.
The Rodono Hotel has been noticed separately, as
also are Binram's Cross, Blackhoitse, Chapelhope,
Coppercleuch, Douglas Burn, Dryhope, Hender-
land, and Mot/nt Benger. On the NW shore of the
loch, 7 furlongs from its head, is the site of St Mary's
kirk, with its ancient graveyard. This, too, the poet's
pen has rendered a classic spot. In this lonely place
the bones of many an outlaw mingle with the dust;
and here the shepherd of the present century still finds
his last resting-place.
'For though in feudal strife a foe
Hath laid our Lady's chapel low,
Yet still beneath the hallowed soil
The peasant rests him from his toil :
And, dying, bids his bones be laid
"Where erst his simple fathers prayed.'
This ancient chapel is the subject of many traditions,
and of numerous ballads and poems of ancient and
modern date.
! St Mary's Loch lies shimmering still,
But St Mary's kirk-bell's lang dune ringing!
There's naething now but the grave-stane hill
To tell o' a' their loud psalm-singing I 1
Among the ballads, that of The Douglas Tragedy has
been rendered widely familiar by the Border Minstrelsy.
Another ancient and very popular tradition furnished
the ground-work of Hogg's ballad of Mess John; and
the chapel is the scene of the principal incident in his
ballad of Mary Scott. Here the daughter of stern
Tushilaw is supposed by the poet to have been brought
to be buried; here she awoke from that sleep which
seemed to all the sleep that knows no waking; and
here she was married to her lover,. Pringle, Lord of Tor-
woodlee.— Ord. Sur., sh. 16, 1864.
St Mary's Tower, the Scottish seat of the Duke of
Rutland, in Little Dunkeld parish, Perthshire, near the
right bank of the Tay, a little way E of Birnam. It is
a large and stately Scottish Baronial edifice, of modern
erection, with very beautiful grounds. — Ord. Sur., sh.
48, 1868.
St Monance. See Abercrombie.
St Mungo, a parish of Annandale, Dumfriesshire,
whose church stands near the right bank of the Water
of Milk, 3 miles S by E of the post-town, Lockerbie.
It is bounded NE by Tundergarth, E by Hoddam, S by
Cummertrees, SW by Dalton, and W, NW, and N by
ST NINIANS
Dryfesdale. Its utmost length, from N by E to S by
W, is 5J miles ; its breadth varies between \ mile ana
3$ miles; and its area is 4932 \ acres, of which 35| are
water. The river Annan winds 3f miles south-east-
ward along all the Dalton and Cummertrees boundary;
and the Water of Milk 6 miles south-by-westward —
mainly through the interior, but for the first If mile
along the boundary with Tundergarth, and for the last
5§ furlongs along or near to that with Hoddam — until
it falls into the Annan at the SE corner of the parish.
Springs of the purest water, welling up from the rocks,
and maintaining, in some cases, an equable temperature
all the year round, are both many and copious. The
general surface is slightly uneven, sinking little below
130, and little exceeding 300, feet above sea-level; but
in a wing of the parish to the E of the Caledonian
railway it attains near Cowdens a maximum altitude of
603 feet. Seen from distant heights which command
a maplike view of it, the parish looks almost flat;
but, though not strictly hilly, it has such swells and
eminences as, with aid of Brunswark Hill in the neigh-
bouring parish of Hoddam, and the wooded rising
grounds of Kirkwood in Dalton, present on nearer in-
spection a gracefully varied and pleasing landscape.
Silurian and Devonian rocks predominate; limestone
has been quarried on the north-eastern border; sand-
stone and shale, belonging to the Carboniferous for-
mation, are at the head of the glebe ; porphyritic
amygdaloid forms the main mass of Nutholm Hill;
and galena, jasper, and chalcedony are found in various
parts. The soil on about 280 acres of holm-land
adjacent to the Annan and the Milk is a rich, deep
alluvium, and elsewhere varies considerably. Nearly
nine-tenths of the entire area are in tillage, and some
300 acres are under wood. A sepulchral tumulus was
removed about 1830 from Sorrysikemuir; an ancient
Caledonian camp was formerly near the site of that
tumulus ; and on Cowdens farm is the spot where Ralph
Erskine's tent was pitched at the introduction of
Secession principles to Annandale. Mansions, noticed
separately, are Castlemilk and Mttrratfield; and
Sir Robert Jardine, Bart., is chief proprietor. St
Mungo is in the presbytery of Lochmaben and the synod
of Dumfries; the living is worth £308. The original
parish church, which was dedicated to St Mungo or
Kentigern, stood on the left bank of the river Annan,
\\ mile SW of the present one, and was a cruciform
First Pointed edifice, partly rebuilt in 1754 and 1805.
This church was confirmed by Robert de Bruce in 1174
to the episcopate of Glasgow, and became a mensal
church of that see till the Reformation. The bishops
of Glasgow are conjectured — chiefly from some remains
visible at the end of the 18th century of an ancient
village, and of an extensive garden with a fish-pond —
to have had a residence here. In 1116 the parish bore
the name of Abermilk ('confluence of the Milk') — a
name exchanged for Castlemilk by 1170, and afterwards
for St Mungo. For a short period succeeding 1609 the
parish was annexed to Tundergarth. The present
church, on a picturesque site 200 yards to the SE of its
predecessor of 1842, is a handsome edifice erected in
1875-77 at a cost of £5000, the whole defrayed by Mr
Jardine of Castlemilk. Scottish Gothic in style, from
designs by the late David Bryce, R.S.A., it is built of
light grey freestone, and has 350 sittings, stained-glass
windows, and a massive NE tower, 19 feet square and
70 high. The public school, with accommodation for
150 children, has an average attendance of about 120,
and a grant of nearly £125. Pop. (1801) 644, (1831)
791, (1861) 686, (1871) 658, (1881) 653, (1891) 603.—
Ord. Sur., sh. 10, 1S64.
St Ninians or St Ringans, a large parish containing
a post-town of the same name in the NE of the county
of Stirling. It is bounded N by Perthshire, by the
parishes of Logie and Stirling, and by Clackmannanshire,
E by the parish of Airth, S by the parishes of Larbert,
Dunipace, Denny, and Kilsyth, W by the parish of
Fintray, and WNW by the parish of Gargunnock. In
order to adjust the boundaries of the two parishes of
1441