Gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

770
M E T H I L L
blankets, and different kinds of woollen fabrics,
among which are now found the lighter fancy
articles of female wear.
MENTEITH See Monteith.
MERSE, or MARCH, a district in Ber-
wickshire, esteemed one of the richest tracts of
level arable land in. Scotland. It measures
about twenty miles long and ten broad. The
whole is so fertile, so well enclosed, and so
beautiful, that, seen from any of the very slight
eminences into which it here and there swells,
it looks like a vast garden, or rather like what
the French call une ferme ornee. The Merse
forms the northern bank of the Tweed, through-
out the whole space where the river divides the
two kingdoms. The " men of the merse" are
distinguished in history for their bravery. For
other particulars, see Berwickshire.
MERTAICK, an islet on the west coast
of Ross-shire, in Loch Broom.
MERTOUN, a parish in the south-west
corner of Berwickshire, lying]on the north side
of the Tweed, immediately south from Earl-
stoun, bounded by Melrose on the west, and
Smailholm on the east. In length it is nearly
six miles, by from two to three in breadth. The
western part is elevated, finely wooded and
picturesque in appearance ; and here, on a slip
of flat ground on the bank of the river, em-
bosomed among woods and orchards, stands
the venerable ruin of Dryburgh Abbey, de-
scribed under its own head in the present work.
From the rising grounds behind, the land de-
clines towards the east, and exhibits a scene of
fertile fields, enclosures, plantations, the river
winding towards the east, and other objects of
a rich and beautiful picture. The parish church
stands near the Tweed. Within the district
is the estate of Bemerside, for ages the resi-
dence and property of the family of Haig,
which, it is believed, from popular tradition,
will never be extinct, as has been certified by
that unfailing seer, Thomas the Rhymer, in the
couplet - —
Tide, tide, whate'er betide,
There'll ay be Haigs in Bemerside.
" This family," says Sir Robert Douglas, in
his baronage, " is of great antiquity in the
south of Scotland ; and in our ancient writings
the name is written De Haga. Some authors
are of opinion that they are of Pictish extrac-
tion ; others think they are descended from the
ancient Britons ; but as we cannot pretend, by
good authority, to trace them from their origin,
a;3.
we shall insist no further upon traditionary his
tory, and deduce their descent, by indisputable
documents, from Petrus de Haga, who was
undoubtedly proprietor of the lands and barony
of Bemerside, in Berwickshire, and lived in
the reigns of King Malcolm IV. and William
the Lion." From this Petrus de Haga the
present proprietor of Bemerside is nineteenth
in lineal discent. " The grandfather of the
present Mr. Haig," says the author of the
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, " had
twelve daughters before his wife brought him
a male heir. The common people trembled
for the credit of their favourite soothsayer.
The late Mr. Haig was at length born, and
their belief in the prophecy confirmed beyond
the shadow of doubt." The family of De
Haga is mentioned in " The Monastery," by
Captain Clutterbuck, who says that his learn-
ed and all-knowing "friend, the Benedictine,
could tell to a day when they came into the
country. Upon a stone in Bemerside House
are the family arms, with the initials A. H.
L. M., and the date 1581 — Population in
1821,610.
ME THILL, a small decayed sea-port town,
in the parish of Markinch, in Fife, lying on the
shore of the Firth of Forth, at the distance of
one mile west of Lev en, about half that dis-
tance west of Dubbieside, and one mile east of
Buckhaven. This little town, whatever may
have been its original magnitude and charac-
ter, is in the present day one of the most
perfect pictures of decay and neglect, to be
met with almost anywhere in Scotland. A
number of itshouses are in ruins, and its trade
seems entirely gone. In 1662 it was erected
into a free burgh of barony by the bishop of
St. Andrews, but its privileges can now be of
little or no use. Methill has the misfortune
of being off the thoroughfare along the coast of
Fife, but this has not been the cause of its de-
cay. It has the reputation of having a better
harbour than that of any town in the neighbour-
hood ; and to all appearance it seems about as
good as that of Kirkaldy, while it is nearer
deep water. This excellence is however next
to unavailing, as the entrance is well nigh chok-
ed up by a mass of large stones, which were
carried away by a storm in 1803 from the ter-
mination of the east pier. This has been a
fatal blow to poor Methill, and in spite of all
attempts, or jobs, to restore the free entrance
of the channel, the stones still remain. Under