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

BEEVIE BROW.
156
BERWICK (North;.
recently exhausted. Schoolmaster's salary now is
£50, with about £20 fees. The parochial church was
built in 1833, and contains 900 sittings. There is a
Free church ; and the yearly sum raised in connexion
with it in 18S5 was £54 12s. Ijd. There is also a
Baptist chapel. Bervie parish was originally a part
of the parish of Kinneff, and was separated from it
about the time of the Reformation. There was, in
Romish times, a friary here, which is still commemo-
rated in the name of a locality called Friar's Dubbs.
The Town op Bervie or Inverbervie stands at
the mouth of Bervie Water, and at the end of a
railway from Montrose, 7 miles east of Laurence-
kirk, 10 south- south-west of Stonehaven, and 13
north-north-east of Montrose. It has no natural
advantages of site, and presents a cold, straggling
appearance 4 it is also a small place, with only a
village population, and does not look as if it could
ever acquire much consequence; yet it contains
some good houses, and is neither so poor nor so
spiritless as some of the other small royal burghs of
Scotland. It consists principally of three small
irregular streets, related to one another somewhat
in the manner of three sides of a square. The
town-house is a modern two-story building, with a
handsome belfry. The parish church is an elegant
Gothic edifice, with a square tower of upwards of 100
feet in height. The bridge across the river is a fine
structure, with one beautiful, large-span arch, at the
height of about 80 feet above the bed of the stream.
The castle of Hallgreen is a large, strong pile of
the 14th century, in fine repair and of picturesque
appearance, surmounting an eminence near the sea,
at the southernmost point of the burgh boundaries.
A spinning-mill of three stories stands at the upper
side of the bridge, and was the first mill built in
Scotland for the spinning of linen yarn and thread.
The principal trade of the town consists in the
manufacture of duck and dowlas, and in the supply
of the surrounding country with miscellaneous
wares. The market-day is Wednesday; and for
six months in the year is a good grain market. A
good cattle-market is held on the Thursday before
the 19th of May in each year. There is also an-
other of less importance held on the Thursday be-
fore the 19th of September. Cattle-markets and
hiring-markets likewise were attempted to be esta-
blished, a number of years ago, in November, Decem-
ber, and February ; but thej r did not succeed, and have
been relinquished. The town has a public reading-
room, and offices of the North of Scotland Bank and
the Aberdeen Town and County Bank. Its harbour,
however, is at the village of Gourdon, about a mile
to the south, where there are several grauaries and
warehouses belonging to Montrose merchants.
Bervie owes its distinction, as a royal burgh, to
the circumstances of David II. being shipwrecked
on the coast in 1362, and having been kindly treated
by its inhabitants on reaching the shore. But its
charter was renewed by James VI. in 1595. It
unites with Montrose, Brechin, Arbroath, and For-
far in returning a member to parliament. Its par-
liamentary constituency in 1865 was 36. Its ma-
gistracy consists of a provost, three bailies, a dean
of guild, a treasurer, and 9 councillors. Corpora-
tion revenue in 1864, about £167. Population of
the municipal burgh in 1841 , 864 ; of the parliamen-
tary and municipal in 1861, 952. Houses, 181. There
was until after 1851 a small part of the parliamentary
burgh beyond the limits of the municipal burgh
BERVIE BROW, or Craig David, a bold pro-
montory on the north side of Bervie water, in the
parish of Kinneff, ICincardipeshire. It is a conspi-
cuous landmark for mariners, and is seen at sea at
the distance of 15 leagues.
BERWICK (North), a parish, containing a royal
burgh and post-town of the same name, on the
north coast of Haddingtonshire. It is bounded on
the north by the frith of Forth, and on other sides
by the parishes of Dirleton, Prestonkirk and White-
kirk. Its length from east to west is 3 miles ; and
its breadth is upwards of 2J miles. Toward the
east, the coast is rocky and bold ; but toward the
west, on both sides of the town, it presents consider-
able stretches of level sand and flat grassy downs,
of the kind called links. Several rocky islets lie
near the shore ; and the large insular rocks of Craig-
leith and the Bass lie at a little distance. Two
small pretty bays occur respectively east and west
of the town, and a larger and very beautiful one,
called Canty Bay, is situated at the boundary with
Whitekirk opposite the Bass. A range of low but
in some parts very picturesque hills stretches across
the southern part of the parish, from Fenton tower,
eastwards to Whitekirk hill ; but the most remark-
able hill is North Berwick law, a very beautiful
conical shaped hill which, rising to the height of
about 800 feet above sea-level from a flat country,
is visible from all sides at a great distance, and
forms a well-known landmark to mariners. A few
small rivulets intersect the parish. The soil is in a
high state of cultivation. The chief landowners are
Sir Hew Dalrymple, Bart, of Leucine House, for-
merly North Berwick House; Sir George Grant
Suttie, Bart., of Balgone ; Lady Mary C. Nisbet
Hamilton ; Lady Susan Ramsay Bourke ; and John
Thomson, Esq. of Easteraig. There are quarries of
limestone and excellent building-stone; and there is
a foundry for steam-engines and for tile-making ma-
chines. Estimated value of land produce, in 1839,
£24,454. Assessed property in 1865, of the landward
parts, £11,992 2s.; of the burgh, £4,424 19s. The
most in teres ting antiquities are the ruins of Tantallan
Castle, and some architectural remains on the Bass
Rock. SeeTANTALLANCASTLEandBASs(THE). About
a quarter of a mile west of the town of North Ber-
wick, stand the ruins of an abbey, or Cistertian
nunnery, founded in 1 154 by Duncan, Earl of Fife.
At the Reformation this nunnery contained 11 nuns,
and was well endowed. It presents few traces of
its former magnificence. Views of it are given by
Grose. Adjoining the harbour, on a small sandy
knoll, are the slight remains of what is called the
Auld Kirk, and which has evidently at one period
been surrounded by the parish burying-ground, now
nearly washed away by the sea. Population of the
parish in 1831, 1,824; in 1861, 2,071. Houses, 344.
This parish is in the presbytery of Haddington,
and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, Sir
Hew Dalrymple, Bart. Stipend, £306 3s. 5d. ;
glebe, £38, with 12 Solan geese from the Bass.
Unappropriated teinds, £434 15s. 6d. Schoolmas-
ter's salary, £52 10s., with £10 for a female teacher.
There are a burgh school in the town, a sub-par-
ochial school in the vicinity of Tantallan, and a
private school. The parochial church was built iu
1670. and repaired in 1819, and contains 550 sittings.
The Free church contains about 400 sittings; yearly
sum raised in 1865, £197. The United Presbyterian
church was built in 1832, and contains 390 sittings.
The Episcopalian church is recent, and contains
about 200 sittings. — The old parish church is famous
in the annals of witchcraft as the reputed favourite
rendezvous of the witches and wizards of the Lo-
thians.
The Town op North Berwick stands on the
coast 9 miles north-north-east of Haddington, 11
north-west of Dunbar, and 22 north-east by east of
Edinburgh. It took the name of North Berwick in
contradistinction to Berwick-upon-Tweed, which