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

ARTHUR.
84
ARTHUR.
followers, at the battle of Langside; and, falling
fiercely on the flank of the Queen's army in the
hottest of the fight, threw them into irretrievable
disorder, and thus mainly contributed to decide the
fortune of the day. Walter, the grandson of Dun-
can, made a vigorous stand for the royal party ;
was twice besieged in his own house in the time of
Cromwell; and so provoked the English by his
indomitable zeal that they afterwards burnt down
his castle of Inveruglass. John Macfarlane, who
was chief of the clan in 1697, built in that year the
castle of Inverreoch, at the back of what is now
called Arrochar House ; and over the front door of
this mansion is a stone taken from the lintel of
that castle, with a Scotch thistle and the date 1697.
Walter Macfarlane of Macfarlane, the antiquary,
shed a lustre on the name in another and far higher
way than ever did any chief of the clan ; for he is
much and justly celebrated as the indefatigable
collector of the ancient records of Scotland. A val-
uable portrait of him, presented by his friends, was
hung up in the Glasgow cathedral, but carried off
by some miscreant; and the late Principal Macfar-
lane of Glasgow college, himself a great antiquary,
made earnest but vain attempts to recover the por-
trait. By far the largest proprietor of Arrochar
parish now is Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, Bart.
The conspicuous mountain, popularly called the
Cobbler, situated on the north-west of the head of
Loch Long, and very generally described as con-
nected with Arrochar, is in the parish of Lochgoil-
head and county of Argyle. The village of Arrochar
stands near the bead of Loch Long, on the east side,
2 miles from Tarbet, 17jfrom Helensburgh, 22 from
Dumbarton by way of Luss, and 23f from Inverary,
is a choice summer retreat and watering-place; con-
tains an excellent hotel, and a number of pleasant
villas ; and has daily communication with Glasgow,
during summer, both by steamers direct on Loch
Long, and by access to the Loch Lomond steamers
at Tarbet. Pop. of the parish in 1861, 629. Houses,
117. Assessed property in 1843, £3,096 3s.
This parish is in the presbytery of Dumbarton, and
synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, Sir James
Colquhoun, Bart. Stipend, including the glebe, £260.
Schoolmaster's salary, £50. The parish church was
built in 1 847. Thereis a Free church ; and the yearly
sum raised by it in 1865 was £145 0s. 7d. The ter-
ritory of Arrochar was originally part of the parish
of Luss, and was made a separate parish in 1658.
ARTHUR, a name of frequent occurrence in
Scottish as well as Welsh and English topography,
and generally traced by the voice of Tradition to the
far-famed Arthur of romance. " It is amusing to re-
mark," says Chalmers, in his elaborate ' Caledonia,'
[vol. i. p. 244,] "how many notices the North- Bri-
tish topography furnishes, with regard to Arthur,
whose fame seems to brighten, as inquiry dispels the
doubts of scepticism, and archaiology establishes the
certainties of truth. — In Clydesdale, within the pa-
rish of Crawford, there is Arthur's fountain: in
1239, there was a grant of David de Lindsay to the
monks of Newbotle, of the lands of Brotheralwyn,
in that district, which were bounded, on the west
part, ' a fonte Arthuri risque ad summitate montis.'
Chart. Newbotle, N. 148. — The Welsh poets assign
a palace to Arthur, among the Northern Britons, at
Penryn-ryoneth. In Lhuyd's Cornish vocabulary,
p. 238, Penryn rioneth is called, the seat of the
Prince of Cumbria: and see also Eichard's Welsh
Dictionary. The British Penryn supposes a pro-
montory, -with some circumstance which redupli-
cates its height ; and this intimation points to Al-
cluyd, the well-known metropolis of the Romanized
Britons, in Strathclyde. Now a parliamentary re-
cord of the reign of David II., in 1367, giving a
curious detail of the king's rents and profits in Dun-
bartonshire, states the ' redditum assize Castri Ar-
thuri.' MSS. Eeg. House; Paper-Office. The castle
of Dunbarton, therefore, was the Castram Arthuri,
long before the age of David II. See the site oi
Dunbarton, in Ainslie's Map of Eenfrewshire. Tha
Point of Cardross was the Ehyn-ryoneth ; the castle
of Dunbarton was the Penrhyn-ryoneth. Accord-
ing to the British Triads, Kentigem, the well-known
founder of the church of Glasgow, had his episcopal
seat at Penrhyn-ryoneth. — The romantic castle of
Stirling was equally supposed, during the middle
ages, to have been the festive scene of the round-
table of Arthur. ' Bex Arthurus,' says William of
Worcester, in his Itinerary, page 311, ' custodiebat
le round-table in castro de Styrlyng, aliter, Snowdon-
west-castell.' The name of Snowdon castle is no-
thing more than the Snua-dvm of the Scoto-Irish
people, signifying the fort, or fortified hill on the
river, as we may Team from O'Brien, and Shaw; and
the Sixua-dun has been converted to Snow-dun, by
the Scoto-Saxon people, from a retrospection to tho
Snow-dun of Wales, which is itself a mere transla
tion from the Welsh. — In Neilston parish, in Een
frewshire, there still remain Arthur-lee, Low Ar-
thur-lee, and West Arthur-lee. — Arthur's-oven, on
the Carron, was known by that name, as early, if
not earlier, than the reign of Alexander III. In
1293, William Gurlay granted to the monks of New-
botle ' fimrationem unius stagni ad opus molendini
sui del Stanhus quod juxts* fumum Arthuri infra
baronium de Dunypas est.' Chart. Newbotle, No.
239. — The name of Arthur's-Seat, at Edinburgh, is
said, by a late inquirer, ' to be only a name of yes-
terday.' Yet, that remarkable height had that dis-
tinguished name before the publication of Camden's
Britannia, in 1585, as we may see in p. 478; and
before the publication of Major, in 1521, as appears
in fo. 28; and even before the end of the 15th cen-
tury, as Kennedy, in his flyting with Dunbar, men-
tions ' Arthur Sate or ony hicher hill.' Bamsay's
Evergreen, v. ii. p. 65. — This is not the only hill
which bears the celebrated name of Arthur. Not
far from, the top of Loch-Long, which separates
Argyle and Dunbarton, there is a conical hill that is
called Arthur's Seat. * Guide to Loch Lomond, pi.
iii. — A rock, on the north side of the hill of Dun-
barrow, in Dunnichen parish, Forfarshire, has long
bore, in the tradition of the country, the distinguish-
ed name of Arthur's Seat. Stat. Acco. v. i. p. 419.
— In the parish of Cupar- Angus, in Perthshire, there
is a standing stone, called the Stone of Arthur;
near it is a gentleman's seat, called Arthur-stone ;
and not far from it is a farm, named Arthur's fold.—
But, it is at Meigle, in the same vicinity, that the
celebrity of Arthur, and the evil fame of his queen
Venora, are most distinctly remembered. Pennant's
Tour, v. ii. pp. 177-8; and Stat. Acco. v. i. p. 506:
and above all, see Bellenden's Boece, fo. lxviii, for
the origin of the popular fictions at Meigle, about
Arthur and Venora. — The Scottish chroniclers, Bar-
bour and Wyntown, were perfectly acquainted with
the Arthur of romance. We may easily infer, from
the local facts, that his story must have been equally
known to Thomas of Ercildun, a century sooner.
In 1293, the monks of Newbotle knew bow to make
a mill-dam with the materials which they found on
the banks of the Carron. Sir Michael Bruce of
Stanhus thought it necessary, in 1743, to pull down
Arthur's Oon, one of the most curious remains of
antiquity, for the stones which it furnished, for
building a mill-dam. The enraged antiquaries con-
* Ben-Arthur or the Cobbler is here meant