Gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

814
NEWTON.STE W A R T.
at the distance of about two miles east from
the village of Galston. It received its charter of
erection, under the superiority of the Earls of
Loudon, from James IV. The bailies are com-
petent to hold courts fully as extensive in juris-
diction as those of royal burghs. The town has a
good market, and can hold five annual fairs.
There is a meeting-house of the United Seces-
sion body. Newmills is inhabited principally by
weavers, of which artisans it lately numbered
seven hundred. Near the village, on the road
up the left bank of the Irvine from Galston,
stands Pate's or Patie's Mill, the scene of one
of Ramsay's popular songs. Patie's Mill con-
sists of a range of three cottages on one side
of the road, and a mill on the other. None
of the present buildings, except the west end
of the row of cottages, is so old as Ramsay's
time ; the meadow, however, where the poet
saw the beauteous lass, flourishes of course in
immortal youth. The story of this song is
well known. Ramsay and the Earl of Loudon
were riding along the high road on the other
side of the water, when they saw in a park —
the second west from Patie's Mill — a pretty
girl tedding hay. The earl suggested the sight
as a fine subject for Allan's muse; and the
poet lagging behind his lordship a little, com-
posed the song of the " Lass of Patie's Mill,"
and produced it that afternoon at dinner
In 1821 the population]of Newmilns was 1543.
NEWMILLS, a village in the parish of
Torryburn, in the western boundary of Fife,
lying on the Firth of Forth, at the distance of
half a mile west from Torryburn, and one and
a half east of Culross. It possesses a trade in
the export of coals.
NEWPORT-GLASGOW. See Port-
Glasgow.
NEWSTEAD, a hamlet in the parish of
Melrose, Roxburghshire, one mile east from
the village of Melrose, on the road to Edin-
burgh by Drygrange bridge.
NE W T O N, a parish in the county of Edin-
burgh, having the parish of Liberton on the
west and north, Invereskon the east, and Dal-
keith on the south, extending two and a half
miles in length, by one and a half in breadth.
The district is generally flat, and completely
enclosed and cultivated. It abounds in coal
mines, which are in constant operation, and it
has a number of coal villages. The chief seat
is Edmonston, tie residence of Wauchope of
Edmonston ; adjoining is a village of the same
name on the road to Dalkeith Population in
1821, 2150.
NEWTON, a village in the parish of
Mearns, Renfrewshire.
NEWTON, a village in Fife, at the dis-
tance of a mile east from Falkland.
NEWTON, a small village in the parish of
Forgandenny, Perthshire.
NEWTON-SHAW, a village in Clack-
mannanshire, on the river Devon, built for the
accommodation of the work people employed
by the Devon Iron Company.
NEWTON-STEWART, a town in
Wigtonshire, situated on the right bank of the
river Cree, in the parish of Penningham, with
a small portion on the opposite side of the
stream in the parish of Minniegaff, stewartry
of Kirkcudbright. It lies on the highway from
Dumfries to Portpatrick, at the distance of
98 miles from Edinburgh, about 80 from
Glasgow, 50 from Dumfries, 8 ' from Wig-
ton, 26 from Stranraer, and is a convenient
stage betwixt Ferrytown of Cree and Glenluce.
It owes its origin to a younger branch of the
Stewarts, Earls of Galloway, who possessed
the estate of Castle- Stewart, and founded the
village upon it, to which he gave the name of
Newton- Stewart. About 1778, the superio-
rity of the village and estate fell into the hands
of William Douglas, Esq. the same who was
the proprietor of the village of Castle- Douglas.
Through his encouragement to manufactures,
&c its population has been greatly increased,
it was also created a burgh of barony, un-
der the name of Newton-Douglas, but it has
since resumed its original name. About fifty
years ago, all the houses consisted of one sto-
rey, and were covered with thatch ; but more
than the half of them are now two storeys in
height, and slated. The town consists princi-
pally of one long street, in the centre of which
is the tolbooth, which is the chief ornament of
the town. The bridge across the Cree, erect-
ed of late years by Mr. Mathieson of Stran-
raer, connecting the main with the lesser por-
tion of the town, is also a highly ornamental
structure. At the upper extremity of the
smaller portion, there is a large moat-hill, where
David Graham, brother to Claverhouse, and
superior of this district, used to administer jus-
tice immediately before the Revolution. Be-
sides the established church, there is a Relief