Imperial gazeteer of Scotland, or, Dictionary of Scottish topography > Volume 1

ST. ANDREWS.
46
ST. ANDREWS.
making, this is now extinct. A spinning-mill was
tried but did not succeed ; and the buildings of it
were extended to form what is now known as
Fleming-place. An extensive steam saw-mill, the
property of Mr. Gibson Woodburn, is near the har-
bour ; and the life-boat house is adjacent to it. A
flour-mill of modern erection, a reconstruction of the
old Abbey mill, was built by the incorporation of
bakers, and is now worked by private enterprise ; and
a mill for barley and oatmeal is at the harbour. There
are offices of the Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of
Scotland, the Eastern Bank of Scotland, the Clydes-
dale Bank, and a branch of the National Security
Savings' Bank. A market is held every Monday for
grain, and every Wednesday and Saturday lor poul-
try and dairy produce. Fairs are held on the second
Monday of April, the second Tuesday of August,
and the last Monday of November. Communication
is maintained by railway, several times a-day, with
Cupar, Dundee, and Perth, and through these with
places beyond them. The principal inns are the
Cross Keys Hotel, the Star Hotel, and the Royal
Hotel. A new golf club-house was founded, with
masonic honours, in July 1853. Had St. Andrews,
with its antiquarian associations, been written into
popular notice by Burns, Byron, or Scott, it would
probably be drawing far more wealth from the visits
of fashionable tourists than from all its few and
feeble appliances of trade and manufacture. But
by a strange popular caprice — aided perhaps by
the one-eyedness of its position, away from the
straight line of any great thoroughfare — it con-
tinued till quite recently to be totally neglected,
and was now and then heard of at a distance almost
as much for its forlorn appearance as for its curious
ruins. Since the opening of the railway, however,
it has begun to be a little better appreciated ; and
perhaps it may hope ere long to be visited by
strangers in some due proportion to what Lord
Teignmouth calls "its own picturesque situation, the
extent, diversity and grandeur of the remains of its
ancient secular and ecclesiastical establishments, the
importance of the events which they attest, and the
celebrity which it has derived from the records of his-
torians and thedescriptions of topographical writers."
St. Andrews long made a great figure as a sea-
port and a seat of trade. It was in the meridian of
its glory in the 15th and beginning of the 16th cen-
turies. Merchant-vessels were then accustomed to
resort to it, not only from the opposite ports of Hol-
land, Flanders, and of Fiance, but from all the other
trading kingdoms of Europe. At the great annual
fair, called the Senzie market — which was held
within the priory in the month of April — no fewer
than from 200 to 300 vessels were generally in the
port. In 1656, Tucker describes this town as " a
pretty neat thing, which hath formerly been bigger,
and, although sufficiently humbled in the time of
the intestine troubles, continues still proud in the
ruines of her former magnificence, and in being yett
a seat for the muses." At that period only one ves-
sel of 20 tons burden belonged to the port ; and up-
wards of a century later there were only two small
vessels. A revival afterwards occurred ; and in
1838, there were 14 vessels, of aggregately 680
tons. The port also was made a bonding port ; and
it, for some time, yielded about £700 a-year of cus-
toms. A great trade suddenly arose likewise in the
export, to iron-works on the Tyne, of calcined iron-
stone from newly discovered mines at Winthank,
about 3 miles from the city ; but that trade did not
last, and all other trade now is small. The chief is
the import of coal coastwise, and of timber from
Norway or the Baltic. A schooner, the property of
local merchants, had a few years before 1865 to be
given up ; and an attempt to run a steamer to An-
struther and Leith in the summer of 1865 proved an
expensive failure. The harbour, with the exception
of a small stream flowing through it, is dry at low
water ; it has so little depth across the mouth at
any time, that any vessel of more than 100 tons
burden is obliged to discharge part of her cargo be-
fore she can attempt to enter it ; and though per-
fectly safe and sufficiently commodious within, it
often can be approached only with much peril, in
consequence of the narrowness of its entrance, and
of being exposed to a heavy rolling sea in easterly
winds. Some improvements have been made on it;
but far greater ones are needed. Yet the shore
dues, which are available for them, and for upkeep
and repairs, amounted in 1862 to only £190 16s., and
are at the same time available for the general im-
provement of the town.
St. Andrews was created a royal burgh in 1140;
and a city or archbishop's see in 1471. As a royal
burgh, it is now classed with Cupar, Easter and
Wester Anstruther, Crail, Kilrenny and Pitten-
weem, in returning one member. The parliamen-
tary constituency, in 1865, was 296; the municipal
293. The first member elected under the Reform
act, was Andrew Johnston, Esq. of Rennyhill, who
continued to represent the burghs till 1837; and
Edward Ellice, Esq., a well-known reformer, was
returned by a majority of 29 votes in that } T ear, and
again without opposition in 1865. The city is
governed by a provost, dean of guild, four bailies,
and 23 councillors. The debt of the burgh in 1832
was £4,662 ; but nearly all this was paid off a few
years ago by the sale of town's property. Cor-
poration revenue in 1863-4, £927, besides £285 from
Dr. Bell's bequest. Value of real property in 1864-5,
£19,462. The magistrates and council have the
patronage of the second charge in St. Andrews
parish-church; they were also patrons of the town-
schools, but have transferred this right to Bell's
trustees. The burgh boundaries were extended in
1860; and a thorough system of drainage was intro-
duced in 1864—5. Population of the city in 1801,
3,263 ; in 1831, 4,462. Pop. of the parliamentary
burgh in 1861, 5,176. Houses, 794." Pop. of the
municipal burgh in 1861, 5,141. Houses, 786.
The original name of this city was Mucross, i. e.
'the Promontory of boars ; ' from muc, a sow or boar,
and ross, a point, promontory, or peninsula.* But
St. Regulus, or St. Rule, a monk of Patras, a city in
Achaia, where the bones of St. Andrew were kept,
having been warned in a vision to take some of
these precious relics, and carry them with him to a
distant region in the west, obeyed the command, and
about the year 365 landed in this neighbourhood,
and having been successful in converting the Picts,
Hengustus, or Hungus, the king of the country,
changed the name of Mucross into that of Kilry-
mont, i. e. Cella regis in monte, or ' the Chapel of
the King on the Mount;' having given to Regulus
and his companions a piece of ground adjoining the
harbour, on which he also erected a chapel and
tower in honour of the monk, and bearing his name.
The exemplary virtues of Regulus and his compa-
nions — legendary history goes on to say — drew a
great resort of people to his chapel ; and the name
of the city was soon changed from Kilrymont to
Kilrule, ». e. ' the Cell or Church of Regulus,' which
name is still retained in Gaelic. Dr. Jamieson
thinks it highly probable that such a gift was made
* The village of Boarhills, in what was originally called Ihe
Boarchase, a tract of country stretching from Fifeness to the
neighbourhood of St. Andrews, retains the original name of the
district,as translated into the dialect of later inhabitants; and
the arms of the city display a boar tied to a tree.