Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

HAR
748
HAS
gentle acclivity of its sides, it may be ascended on
horseback ; and by a broad flat summit, carpeted
with verdure, spread out like a field among the
clouds, and commanding a vast, a magnificent, and a
varied landscape, it invites the approach of the
tourist to the survey of the far-spreading prospect
which it commands. To the north, over a wide
and billowy sea of mountains, the spectator sees, in
certain states of the atmosphere, the snowy cap, or
the cloud- wreathed brow of Benlomond ; to the east,
he looks athwart the green hills of Tweeddale and
the forest, generally shaded beneath a gorgeous aerial
sea of clouds, till his eye rests on the far-away
Cheviots ; to the west, he looks along the rugged and
wild scenery of the Lowthers, till he descries the
towering summit of Blacklarg; and to the south,
he surveys the magnificent uplands of Dumfries-
shire, and finds no limit to his view till it is pent
up by the Cumberland mountains, presided over by
the lofty Skiddaw. But Hartfell, though strictly
the single summit we have described, is often un-
derstood to mean the whole group of Alpine ele-
vations at the centre of the great mountain-range
which runs from Northumberland to Lochryan, —
Whitecomb, Broadlaw, Ettrick-Pen, Queensberry,
Saddleback, and Lochraig, all worthy, in their grena-
dier proportions, and picturesqueness of dress, to be
attendants on the monarch-mountain, and form-
ing, as a group, the points of radiation for most of
the spurs or ranges of the southern Highlands.
Hartfell, again, is frequently noticed in connexion
chiefly with its celebrated spa. This is one of two
chalybeate springs in the parish of Moffat, which
more than any kindred fountains in Scotland pos-
sess, and hitherto have maintained the character of
presenting, in their waters, a slow but safe and cer-
tain remedy for diseases which a chalybeate has power
to remove. The Hartfell spa issues from a rock
of alum slate in a tremendous ravine on the side
of Hartfell-mountain, nearly 4 miles distant from the
village of Moffat. Mr. Jamieson observed, in the
ravine, frequent efflorescences of yellowish grey-
coloured natural alum ; and Dr. Garnet found in it
crystals of natural iron-vitriol. In the alum-slate,
from among which the spa has its efflux, Mr. Jamie-
son observed also massive and disseminated iron-
pyrites. A wine gallon of the water, as analyzed
by Dr. Garnet, contains 84 grains of iron-vitriol, or
sulphate of iron, 12 grains of sulphate of alumina,
15 grains of oxide of iron, and 5 cubic inches of
azotic acid gas. The sulphuric acid maintained in
combination, seems to be supersaturated with the
oxide of iron, and deposits it either gradually by
exposure to the air, or immediately by ebullition.
Owing to the atmospheric water, during heavy rains,
passing through channels in the alum-rock more
richly impregnated with the minerals of the spring
than those which it traverses during a long-con-
tinued drought, the water of the spa, after a copious
and protracted fall of rain, is always increased in
quality and strength. The principal mineralizers
being the sulphates of iron and alumina, the water,
if well corked, will keep unimpaired for months, and
perhaps for years, and does not need to be drunk
by invalids in the wild scene of its origin, but may
always be procured in a fresh state in the village of
Moffat. Dr. Johnston, speaking of its properties,
apart from its acknowledged power as a tonic, and
4.000 feet hig-ll ; and till lately was universally admitted to be
the loftiest elevation in the Southern Highlands. But, accord-
ing to a recent calculation, Hartfell, with a niceness of figuring
which assumes the appearance of accuracy, is determined to
liave a height of only 2,635 feet ; while Broadlaw, incomparably
less celebrated, and Lifting its head on the boundary between
Lyne and Tweedsmuir parishes, amid the heights in the interior
>t Peebles-shire, is, with tin assigned elevation uf 2/741 feet,
proclaimed the monarch of the southern alps.
consequent usefulness in all cases of debility, says,
" I have known many instances of its particular good
effects in coughs proceeding from phlegm, spitting of
blood, and sweatings ; in stomach-complaints, at-
tended with headaches, giddiness, heartburn, vomit-
ing, indigestion, flatulency, and habitual costiveness;
in gouty complaints affecting the stomach and bowels;
and in diseases peculiar to the fair sex. It has like-
wise been used with great advantages in tetterous
complaints, and old obstinate ulcers." The spa was
discovered about a century ago, by John Williamson.
In 1769, Sir George Maxwell erected over his grave,
in the churchyard of Moffat, a monument to trans-
mit to future times his name, and the date of his
discovery.
HASCUSAY, one of the smaller Shetland isles,
between Yell and Fetlar.
HASSENDEAN, or Hazeldean, a suppressed
parish on the left bank of the Teviot, opposite Cavers.
Roxburghshire.* The surface is so gently and thril-
lingly beautiful, as to have made the bosoms of tune-
ful poets throb, and drawn from them some of their
sweetest numbers. V/ hut par excellence constitutes
Hassendean, and gave name to the ancient church
and the whole parish, is a winding dell, not much
different in its curvatures from the letter S, narrow
and varied in its bottom, gurgling and mirthful in the
streamlet which threads it, rapid and high in its
sides which are alternately smooth, undulating, and
broken, — richly and variedly sylvan in hollow, accli-
vity, and summit, — and coiled so snugly amid a little
expanse of forest, overlooked by neighbouring pic-
turesque heights, that a stranger stands upon its
brow, and is transfixed with the sudden revelation
of its beauties, before he has a suspicion of its exist-
ence. Near its mouth some neat cottages peep out
from among its thick foliage, on the margin of its
stream ; on the summit of its right bank are the
umbrageous grounds which were famed, for upwards
of a century, as the nursery-gardens of Mr. Dick-
son, the parent-nurseries of those which beautify the
vicinity of Hawick, Dumfries, and Perth, and either
directly or remotely the feeders of nearly one-half
of the existing plantations of Scotland. The dell,
at its mouth, comes exultingly out on one of the
finest landscapes of the Teviot. The river, on re-
ceiving its rill, is just half-way on a semicircular
sweep of about ^ of a mile in length; on the side
next the dell, it has a steep and wooded bank ; and
on the side which the dell confronts, a richly luxu-
riant haugh occupies the foreground, the rolling and
many-shaped rising grounds of Cavers, profusely
adorned with trees, occupy the centre, and the naked
frowning form of Rubber's law cuts a rugged sky-line
in the perspective -The monks of Melrose, to whom
the ancient church belonged, formed a cell at Has-
sendean, which was to be a dependency on their
monastery. From the date of this establishment, the
old tower of Hassendean was called the Monk's
Tower ; and a farm in the vicinity continues to be
called Monk's Croft. After the Reformation, the
church, with its pertinents, was granted to Walter,
Earl of Buccleuch. Various attempts to suppress
the parish seem to have been rendered abortive by
the resistance of the parishioners. But in 1690,
amid scenes of violence which rarely attended acts of
suppression, and which evinced surpassing indigna-
tion on the part of the people, the church was un-
roofed, and otherwise so dilapidated as to be ren-
dered useless. The workman who first set foot on
* In ancient charters, the name was spelt Halstaneadene,
Halstenden, Halstansdene, and Hastendene. The modern
name Hassendean is simply a softened form of the old one, and
has been transmuted into Hazeldean in song merely by the
caprice of poets. Yet Sir Walter Scott givea his dictum that
Hazeldean is the ancient name.