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

COLDSTREAM.
291
COLDSTREAM.
breadth is 3? miles. The rivulet Lcet flows on
part of the western boundary, and through a wide
part of the interior to the Tweed at the town ; and
two indigenous burns, Graden and Shiells, flow to
the Tweed in the north-east. The general appear-
ance of the country is flat. The soil for the most
part is rich and fertile ; near the Tweed it is light ;
but it inclines to clay as it falls back from the river.
A broad tract, from east to west, was naturally bar-
ren moor, but is now nearly all reclaimed. Cold-
stream is situated at nearly equal distance from the
Cheviot and Lammcrmoor hills ; and when the
weather is showery, especially if the wind he wes-
terly, the clouds usually take the direction of one
or other of these ranges of hills, pour down their
contents upon them, and leave this district un-
touched. Much more rain falls at Dunse and
Wooler than at Coldstream. The elevation of Cold-
stream bridge is CI feet above Berwick pier. The
river Tweed here produces trouts, red fish, grilse,
salmon, and all other kinds of fish common to the
rivers in the south of Scotland. The gross rent of
the parish, in the end of last century, was about
£6,000 sterling; the rent of the fishings, £93. The
gross rent in 1834 was about £12,000; the rent of
the fishings about £100; the estimated value of
growing timber, the greater part of which is on the
Hirsel estate, £1S,000; and the estimated total
yearly value of raw produce, £28,182. The as-
sessed property in lS60was £17,780. Excellent sand-
stone is worked in several quarries. The principal
mansions are Lennel-House, the seat of the Earl of
Haddington, where Patrick Brydone, Esq., author
of the well-known Tour in Sicily, spent the latter
years of his long life ; the Hirsel, the seat of the
Earl of Home; Lees, the seat of Sir John Marjori-
banks, Bart.; Milne-Graden; and Castlelaw. But
there are altogether ten principal landowners. The
road from Kelso to Berwick passes along the south-
ern border of the parish, to a point about a furlong
east of the town, and there crosses the Tweed by a
very handsome bridge of five arches. The view
from almost every part of it, but especially from the
bridge, is exceedingly brilliant. Population of the
parish in 1831, 2,897; in 1851, 3,245. Houses, 465.
This parish is in the presbytery of Chirnside, and
synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the Earl
of Haddington. Stipend, £233 7s. 2d.; glebe, £40.
Schoolmaster's salary, £34 4s. 4d., with £75 fees,
and £30 10s. other emoluments. The parish church
was built in 1795, and contains 1,100 sittings.
There are in the town a Free church and two
United Presbyterian churches. The yearly contribu-
tions of the Free church there in 1865 amounted
to £280 17s. The attendance at the East U. P.
church in 1851 was 500; at the West U. P. church,
550. There are several non-parochial schools, — one
of them with the rank and reputation of an academy.
Previous to the Keformation there was in the town
a rich priory of Cistertian nuns, founded by Cospa-
trick, Earl of Dunbar; but of this building not a
fragment now remains. In clearing, in 1834, a
piece of ground said to have been formerly part of
the burying-ground of the priory, a trench was dis-
covered full of human bones, probably the remains
of persons of note who fell in the battle of Flodden,
whose corpses were brought in carts to Coldstream
by order of the lady prioress for burial in conse-
crated ground. The ancient name of the parish
was Lennel or Leinhall; and the ruins of Lennel
church stand on the north bank of the Tweed, li
mile distant from Coldstream. Eastward from this
church, there was formerly a village called Lennel,
which was so entirely destroyed in the Border wars,
that the site of it is not now known. According to
Chalmers, the parish of Leinhall appears in charters
as early as the year 1117. When Cospatrick, Earl
of Dunbar, founded the Cistertian nunnery at Cold-
Stream, he gave it the church of Layn-el, with half
a carucate of land at Layn-cl, and another half
carucate at P.irgham. And Denier, his Countess,
granted to the same nunnery the church of Hirsel,
and a carucate of land, which the Earl confirmed.
In this manner were the churches of Leinhall and
Hirsel invested in the same religious house; but the
church of Hirsel came afterwards to he considered
only as a chapel, subordinate to the church of Lein-
hall. The church of Hirsel stood on the lands of
Hirsel, which form the south-western part of the
parish. The church of Leinhall continued in the
possession of the prioress of Coldstream till the Re-
formation; and it preserved its ancient name for a
century and a half after that epoch. In 1716 a new
parish-church was built at the village of Coldstream,
and the designation of the parish was afterwards
taken from the kirk-town.
The Town of Coldstream stands en the Kelso
and Berwick road, in a pleasant situation, adjacent
to the high steep bank of the Tweed, 9J miles
north-east by east of Kelso, lOf south-south-west of
Dunse, and 14j south-west of Berwick. The river
Leet skirts it on the south-west. The town for-
merly derived consequence from a ford over the
Tweed, the first of any importance which occurs in
following the stream upward from Berwick. By
this passage, Edward I. entered Scotland in 1296;
and many other, both Scottish and English armies,
before the union of the crowns, made their way by
it to ravage the country of their respective enemies.
It was last used by a Scottish army, as an entrance
into England, in 1640. The town is noted in his-
tory also for a truce concluded in 1491 between
Scotland and England, and for having been the
head- quarters of General Monk before he marched
into England to restore Charles II., — and the place
where he raised the remarkable regiment which is
still called the Coldstream Guards. " The town of
Coldstream," says an old writer, " hath given title
to a small company of men, whom God made the in-
struments of great things; and, though poor, yet
honest as ever corrupt nature produced into the
world by the no-dishonourable name of Coldstream-
ers." They were formed by Monk from the two
regiments of Fenwicke and Hesilrige. They were
chiefly Borderers, — tried and hardy men, who cared
little for the cause of either King or Commons, but
loved their leader, and followed him with blind and
obstinate obedience through all his changes of opi-
nion and fortune. It was, however, the fashion of
the soldiers of the Commonwealth to be austere and
addicted to praying and preaching ; and in this the
men of the Coldstream corps, it appears, were not
backward, for we have the undeniable testimony of
Bishop Burnet in their favour. " I remember
well," said he, " these regiments coming to Aber-
deen; there was an order and discipline and a face
of gravity and piety amongst them, that amazed all
people." At the head of these soldiers Monk went
up one side of Scotland and down another; storming
castle after castle, town after town, discomfiting
and dispersing all enemies of the Commonwealth,
from Berwick to Dundee, and from Dundee to Dum-
fries. The Coldstream guards remained, on the
whole, ten years in Scotland; and during that
period they were recruited chiefly by Scottish re-
publicans. When confusion ensued on the death of
Cromwell, Monk marched at their head, dispersed
the army of Lambert, entered London, dissolved the
Commonwealth, and restored King Charles. Mac-
pherson relates, that Monk reviewed his men on