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

COLDSTREAM.
292
COLINTON.
'.he arrival of the King; desired them to ground
their arms, and consider themselves disbanded ; then
lie commanded them to take them up and consider
themselves no longer the soldiers of the Common-
wealth, but of the Crown. The history of the Cold-
stream Guards has been recorded in a recent publi-
cation by Colonel Mackinnon.
The town is irregularly built, but contains many
excellent houses, and has a cleanly agreeable ap-
pearance. The parish church is a neat edifice.
The dissenting churches are commodious buildings.
There are two good inns, the Newcastle Arms and
the Commercial. There is a small lock-up house.
The town is lighted with gas. There are an excel-
lent public library, several benevolent and friendly
societies, a savings' bank, a branch office of the
Bank of Scotland, and a branch office of the
British Linen Company's Bank. There are also a
town-hall and reading-room, — the gift of the Earl of
Home. The inhabitants are well supplied with
water, through the bounty of Sir John Marjoribanks,
Bart., and have expressed their gratitude by the erec-
tion of an obelisk. A cattle market is held on the last
Monday of every month, and a corn market on every
Thursday. The town suffered serious injury to its
marketing interests by the Kelso and Berwick line
of railway being projected along the south side in-
stead of the north side of the Tweed, yet has access
to it at the Cornhill station, less than two miles dis-
tant. It also suffered a serious recent loss by the
failure of the Coldstream Bible Free Press scheme,
— which arose out of the noble successful efforts
of the Rev. Dr. Adam Thomson of Coldstream to
abolish the Scottish Bible monopoly, and promised
to give permanent advantage and celebrity to
the town, but unhappily proved uncompensating.
Coldstream is a burgh-of-barony. The two supe-
riors, the Earl of Haddington and the Earl of Home,
appoint the bailie, and give him a salary of £21.
Coldstream, like Gretna-Green, had long a bad fame
for irregular marriages; and among others Lord
Brougham was married here in the principal inn.
Population in 1841, 1,913; in 1861, 1,834. Houses,
281.
COLDSTREAM (New), a village in the parish of
Coldstream, Berwickshire. Population, 150.
COLE'S CASTLE, an ancient and remarkable
fortification upon a rock in the Blackwater of
Strathbeg, about 1J mile north from the junction of
that river with the water of Brora, in Sutherland-
shire. It is a circular building, 54 yards in circum-
ference round the base on the outside, or 18 in dia-
meter; 27 yards in circumference, and 9 yards dia-
meter within; the walls are 4| yards, or 13 J feet
thick in the base, built of large stones, well-con-
nected, without any cement. The building has a
batter or inclination inwards of 9 inches in every 3
feet in height. The door on the south-east side is
3J feet high, and 2J feet broad. In the middle of
the wall, on each side of the passage by the door to
the interior, is a small apartment, about 6 feet
square and 5 feet high, as if intended for a guard to
watch the entry. It has been greatly injured by
the wantonness of cow-herds throwing the mate-
rials off the walls into the river. Beyond this
building, and 6 feet from the wall, are the remains
of an outer wall which surrounded the castle, and
an oblong garden of 27 yards long and 18 yards
broad. This wall seems to have been joined by
large flags to the wall of the castle, leaving a pas-
sage of 6 feet broad by 7 feet high between the two
walls, where it is said the inhabitants kept their
cattle in the night time. The building altogether 1
is one of the most entire of what are called Pictish
towers; and must have been the stronghold of a
chieftain or a tribe. In the face of the rock is an
oblong seat, where tradition says, Cole used to rest
himself, fronting the meridian sun, and that there
he was slain with an arrow from the bow of an as-
sassin. When Cole felt the wound, he struck his
hand upon the rock, which made such an impression
that it remains there to this day.
COLFIN, a railway station in Wigtonshire, 3
miles north-east of Portpatrick.
COLGRAVE SOUND. See Yell.
COLINSBURGH, a small post and market town
in the parish of Kilconquhar, Fifeshire. It stands
on the road from Elie to Cupar, and on that
from Largo to Anstruther, 2 J miles north-north-west
of Elie, 4 east of Largo, and 10 south-east by soutli
of Cupar. The Commercial Bank has an agency
here; and justice-of-peace and circuit small debt
courts are held here five times in the year. The
town has a weekly corn-market on Wednesday,
and two annual fairs on the 2d Friday in June
and October. It is a place of considerable thorough-
fare ; and has a good inn and posting establishment.
It is a burgh-of-barony under the Balcarres family,
and received its name from Colin, 3d Earl of Bal-
carres. Balcarres house is in the vicinity ; near it
rises Balcarres craig, a rock of 200 feet altitude.
There is an United Presbyterian meeting-house in
the village. Colinsburgh is a remarkably healthy
place. Not long ago there were 18 individuals in
its small population whose united ages amounted to
1,552 years. Population, 438.
COLIN'S-ISLE. See Inchinnak.
COLINTON, a parish, containing the post-office
villages of Colinton, Slateford, and Juniper-Green,
and also the villages of Hailes-Quarry, Swanston,
and Longstone, in Edinburghshire. It is bounded
by the parishes of Corstorphino, St. Cuthberts, Liber-
ton, Lasswade, Glencross, Penicuick, and Came.
Its greatest length from north to south is about 4
miles ; and its greatest breadth from east to west
about 3| miles. The surface is beautifully varied,
descending from the northern range of the northern
Pentlands toward the plain of Corstorphine, in di-
versified and occasionally bold undulations. Along
its southern limit the Pentlands rise in the different
summits 1,450, 1,550, and 1,700 feet above the level
of the sea ; and toward the north-east are the pictur-
esque heights of the Fir hill and Craig-Lockhart
hill. There is an extensive sandstone quarry at
Redhall, which a few years ago paid £1,100 of
yearly rent. There is also an extensive paving
sandstone quarry at Hailes. Over a distance of 3
miles the parish is intersected by the water of
Leith, ploughing its way through well-wooded and
romantic banks, and turning the wheels of numerous
water-mills. Three rivulets or rills also enrich it
with their waters, — Murray-burn, Braid-burn, and
Burdiehouse-burn. Many excellent springs exist on
the lands of Comiston, Swanston, and Dreghorn,
from which the city of Edinburgh long received its
chief artificial supply of water. In the 17th century
this parish appears to have been a wild and unculti-
vated tract; and so late as 1709, it contained only
318 examinable persons. Now, however, it is in
general in a state of high cultivation, its lands
beautifully enclosed with hedge-rows, and tufted
with plantation ; and even on the acclivity of the
Pentlands, at an elevation of 700 feet above the level
of the sea, some lands have recently been rendered
arable. The real rental is about £13,250. There
are eleven landowners. The principal mansions
are Colinton House, Bonally Castle, Craig-Lockhart
House, Comiston House, and Dreghorn CaBtle. The
Union canal and the Edinburgh fork of the Cale-
donian railway go across the northern district of the