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

AKTORNISH.
86
ASHTON.
used to be my favourite evening and morning resort,
when engaged with a favourite author, or new sub-
>eet of study." [' Heart of Mid-Lothian.']
The ascent of Arthur's Seat itself may be done
either directly and steeply up the hill right south
of St. Anthony's chapel, or circuitously and gently
by way of Victoria Road to Dunsapie Loch, and
thence westward; and in the former case is short —
and in the latter very easy. To depict the scene
from the summit, we must employ the same living
pencil that has traced the landscape from the chapel
and the crags. " A nobler contrast there can
hardly exist than that of the huge city, dark with
the smoke of ages, and groaning with the various
sounds of active industry or idle revel, and the lofty
and craggy hill, silent and solitary as the grave;
one exhibiting the full tide of existence, pressing
and precipitating itself forward with the force of an
inundation; the other resembling some time-wom
anchorite, whose life passes as silent and unobserved
as the slender rill which escapes unheard, and
scarce seen from the fountain of his patron-saint.
The city resembles the busy temple, where the
modern Comus and Mammon held their court, and
thousands sacrifice ease, independence, and virtue
itself, at their shrine; the misty and lonely moun-
tain seems as a throne to the majestic but terrible
genius of feudal times, where the same divinities
dispensed coronets and domains to those who had
heads to devise and arms to execute bold enter-
prises." [' Introduction to the Chronicles of the
Canongate.']
The summit of Arthur's Seat is small, tabular,
and rocky, and is so strongly magnetic that the
needle, at some points of it, is completely reversed.
The general mass of the hill comprises a diversity of
n-uptive rocks, together with some interposed and
uptilted sedimentary ones ; and it forms a rich study
to geologists, and presents phenomena about which
the ablest of them disagree or are in doubt. A fa-
vourite theory supposes it to have been a submarine
volcano.
ARTORNISH. A castle, and anciently a chief
stronghold and residence of the Lords of the Isles,
on the west coast of Morven, Argyleshire. It stands
between a chain of rocks and the entrance of Loch
Aline, nearly opposite the bay of Aros in Mull.
The ruins are now inconsiderable, but the situation
is wild and romantic in the highest degree. From
this castle, John de Yle, designing himself Earl of
Ross, and Lord of the Isles, in 1461, granted, in the
style of an independent sovereign, a commission to
certain parties to enter into a treaty with Edward
IV. Sir Walter Scott has given the articles of this
treaty in his Appendix to ' The Lord of the Isles,'
[Note A.] — the opening scene of which poem is laid
in " Artornish hall," where
" the noble and the bold
of Island chivalry "
were assembled to do honour to the nuptials of the
hapless "Maid of Lorn;" and
"met from mainland and from isle,
Ross, Arran, Islay, and Argyle,
Each Minstrel's tributary lay
Paid homage to the festal day."
ARY (The). See Aray (The).
ASCOG, an estate, a bay, a lake, a considerable
seat of population, and a post-office station, in the
north-east of the parish of Kingarth, in the
island of Bute. The estate belongs to the Thorn
family, and has a mansion in the style of the 17th
century. The bay is about 1 J mile south of Bogany
Point, and about the same distance south-east of the
'own of Rothesay. The lake lies along the mutual
boundary of the parishes of Kingarth and Rothesay,
and has an area of 75J acres. A new church, for
the accommodation of the numerous and increasing
inhabitants of the neighbourhood, was founded at
Ascog Point on the 3d of October, 1842.
ASCRIB ISLES. Se Snizort.
ASHDALE, a rivulet and a glen in the southern
extremity of the parish of Kilbride, in the island of
Arran. The rivulet has a run of only about 4 miles,
chiefly eastward, from a lofty mountain source, to
Whiting bay; and in the course of its progress it
makes two beautiful cascades, the one about fifty
feet deep, and the other upwards of an hundred.
The glen is grandly picturesque and wildly roman
tic, and shows some interesting basaltic features.
ASHDOW. See Killeark.
ASHENYARD LOCH. See Kilwikktng.
ASHIESTEEL, a residence on the right bank of
the Tweed, and north border of the parish of Yar
row, Selkirkshire. It is about 6 miles east by south
of Innerleithen, and nearly the same distance west
of Galashiels. Sir Walter Scott lived here during
ten years, and here won his earliest laurels, and
has celebrated it in his poetry. A bridge was re-
cently built in its vicinity across the Tweed, of rub-
ble whinstone, and comprising only one arch, and
that of 136 feet span.
ASHKIRK, a parish partly in Selkirkshire, but
chiefly in Roxburghshire. It contains a small vil-
lage of its own name, with a post-office. It is
hounded on the north by Selkirk; on the east by
Minto and Lilliesleaf; on the south by Roberton
and Wilton; and on the west by Yarrow. It is
about 7 miles long, and 3 broad. The surface is all
hilly, but most of the hills are free from heath.
The soil in general is light, and in several parts
spongy. A good deal has been done of late years
in draining and planting. The cultivated land
amounts to about 2,800 acres. About 400 acres
are under wood. The real rental in 1847 was
£4,720. Assessed property in 1865, £5,976 4s. 3d.
The only river in the parish is the Ale, which runs
through it, in a narrow valley, from south-west to
north-east. But there are several small lochs — ■
none of them exceeding a mile in circumference —
which discharge their waters into the Ale, and con-
tain trout, perch, and pike. There are eight land-
owners : the chief of whom are Scott of Synton and
the Earl of Minto. The parish was formerly a
vicarage belonging to the chapter of Glasgow; and
the greater number of the present proprietors still
hold of the college of Glasgow. The bishop of Glas-
gow had a palace here, of which the last relics have
disappeared within the memory of man. The
parish itself was in early times wholly divided
amongst the family of Scott. The road from Selkirk
to Hawick traverses the interior; and the village
of Ashkirk stands on that road and on the banks of
the Ale 5 miles from Selkirk and 6 from Hawick.
Population of the parish in 1831, 597; in 1861, 578.
Houses, 104. Population of the Selkirkshire dis-
trict in 1861, 187. Houses, 37.
This parish is in the presbytery of Selkirk and
synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the Earl
of Minto. Stipend, £205 12s. 9d.; glebe, £27.
Unappropriated teinds, £636 lis. 4d. School-
master's salary, £50, with £10 fees. The parish
church was built in 1791, and has 202 sittings.
There is a Free church, with an attendance of
about 65 ; and the yearly sum raised in connexion
with it in 1865 was £55 lis. 5|d.
ASHTON, a prolongation of the village ol
Gourock, in the parish of Innerkip, Renfrewshire.
It extends southward along the coast, and along
the road toward Innerkip, and confronts Dunoon