Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

STOBBS
The parish, united ecclesiastically since 1640 to Humb
an Berwickshire, is hounded SE by Ednam, and on all
other sides by Berwickshire, viz., S and W by Nen thorn,
N by Hume, and NE by Eccles. Its utmost length,
from ENE to WSW, is 3£ miles; its breadth varies
between 1J and 2 J miles; and its area is 2803 J acres,
of which 5 are water. Eden Water, a capital trout
stream, winds lg 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. The estate of Stitchel, along with the adjoin-
ing property of Gordon, was conferred by David I. on
the founder of the illustrious family of Gordon in 1124.
When they transferred their chief seat to the North, on
obtaining from King Robert Bruce a grant of the for-
feited estates of the Eavl of Athole, Sir Adam de Gor-
don bestowed the barony of Stitchel on his second son
William, the founder of the family of the Gordons of
Kenmure. It remained in their possession until 1628,
when the estate was sold by Sir John Gordon of Lochin-
Tar (afterwards Viscount Kenmure) to Robert Pringle,
head of the Newhall branch of the ancient Pringle
family, whose grandson received a baronetcy in 1683,
■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,
•comprising 4339 acres, was sold by the late Sir John
Pringle, fifth baronet, to the Bairds of Gartsherrie for
their youngest brother David, and on his death un-
married it devolved on his next elder brother George
(d. 1870), and then on his son, George Alexander Baird
(b. 1861; d. 1893). It now belongs to Mr. Deuchar.
Stitchel House 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 Te viotdale ; the living
is worth £284. The parish church contains 320 sittings,
as also does the TJ. P. church, this being an Early Deco-
rated building, erected in 1877 at a cost of £2000.
Stitchel public school, with accommodation for 140
children, has an average attendance of about 70, and
a grant of over £65. Pop. (1801) 506, (1831) 434, (1861)
425, (1871) 388, (1881) 342, (1891) Sli.—Ord. Sur.,
sh. 25, 1865.
Stobbs. See Goeebeidge.
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 since in the possession of his
descendants, being now owned by the Earl of Ancaster.
— Ord. Sur., sh. 48, 1868. See Deummond Castle
-and chap, xxviii. of T. Hunter's Woods and Estates of
Perthshire (1883).
Stobhill, a quoad sacra parish of Edinburghshire,
whose clrarch stands 5 furlongs NNE of the village and
station of Goeebeidge. It is in the presbytery of Dal-
keith and the synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. The
minister's stipend is £212 with manse. In 1893 a mis-
sion station was started at Prestonholm, an outlying
STOBO
district of the parish. The village of Stobhill is in the
civil parish of Borthwick, and has a Free church and a
large public school. Pop. of q.s. parish (1871) 2447,
(1881) 3065, (1891) 3501, of whom 485 were in Borth-
wick, 1108 in Cockpen, 717 in Newbattle, and 1191 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, 12J miles E by N of Syming-
ton Junction and 6£ WSW of Peebles. The present
parish since 1742 has comprehended part of the ancient
parish of Dawick. It is bounded N by Newlands, NE
by Lyne and Peebles, E by Manor, S by Drummelzier,
SW and W by the united parish of Kilbucho, Brough-
ton, and Glenholm, and NW by Kirkurd. Its utmost
length, from E to W, is 5J miles; its utmost breadth,
from N to S, is 4| miles; and its area is 10,372f 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 6| miles —
3J miles east-north-eastward along the Drummelzier
border, 2f miles north-north-eastward across the interior,
and 1J mile east-north-eastward along the Manor border.
Biggae Water flows 1£ mile eastward along the Kil-
bucho boundary, and Lyne Water 4| 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 Brough-
ton Heights at an altitude ; c 1550 feet, and running 4|
miles south-eastward through the interior, and Harrow
Burn, running 2f 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 Broughton Heights,
which culminate on the meeting-point of Stobo, Kil-
bucho, 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 continuous upland, fit only for sheep
pasture. Greywacke, more or less schistose, is the pre-
vailing 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 moor-
ish; and that in the vales presents no little variety, but
is generally a light fertile loam, incumbent on gravel.
Barely one-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 Manoe).
Antiquities are two cairns and two Caledonian standing-
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, syca-
more, and beech) being described among the 'old and
remarkable trees of Scotland ' in Trans. Sighl. and Ag.
Soc. for 1880-81. The barony of Stanhope 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 1801. His grandson,
Sir Graham Graham-Montgomery, third Bart. (b. 1823;
sue. 1839), Conservative M.P. for Peeblesshire 1852-80,
is present proprietor. (See Kineoss). Stobo is in
the presbytery of Peebles and the synod of Lothian
and Tweeddale; the living is worth £204. 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
1525