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

DOLLAR-LAW.
384
DON.
main buildings form an elegant Grecian edifice.
The branches taught are English, English composi-
tion, writing, arithmetic, hook-keeping, geography,
drawing, botany, physics, mathematics, French,
German, Italian, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The
teachers are a principal and nine masters. There
are likewise connected with the institution girls'
and infants' departments.
The Town op Dollar stands on the road from
Stirling to Kinross, on a rising ground in the east-
ern part of the parish of Dollar, 12 miles north-east
of Stirling, and about the same distance north-west
of Dunfermline and south-west of Kinross. The
scenery around it, particularly along the course of
the Devon, and up the acclivities of the nearest
Ochils, is interesting, varied, and replete with char-
acter. The town comprises the two vDlages of Old
Dollar and New Dollar ; and it borrows both some con-
sequence from ancient associations and much pic-
turesqueness from its chief modern buildings. The
old village, with the exception of two tenements,
was burnt in 1645 by Montrose's Highlanders, on
their march to Kilsyth; one of the two excepted
tenements being spared on the ground that it was
supposed to belong to a neighbouring parish,
and the other on the ground that it was supposed
to belong to the Dunfermline abbey. The town
contains an office of the Clydesdale Bank. Fairs
are held on the second Monday of May, the third
Thursday of June, the second Monday of August,
and the third Monday of October. Population of
the town in 1841, 1,131 ; in 1861, 1,540. Houses,
174.
DOLLAR-LAW, a mountain on the mutual boun-
dary of Drnmmelzier and Manor parishes in Peebles-
shire. It rises 2,840 feet above the level of the sea,
and commands an extensive view over the Lothians,
Berwickshire, and Northumberland.
DOLLAS. See Dallas.
DOLPHINSTON, a village in the parish of Pres-
tonpans, Haddingtonshire. It stands on the road
from Edinburgh to Haddington, 2 miles west of
Tranent. Here are several broken walls and gables,
evidently of great antiquity, and probably monastic.
Population, 63.
DOLPHINTON, a parish, containing a post-office
station of its own name, on the eastern border of the
upper ward of Lanarkshire. It is bounded on two
of its four sides by Peebles-shire, and on the other
two by the parishes of Dunsyre and Walston. It
extends three miles in length from east to west, by
2J in breadth, and contains 2,926 statute acres. It
is in a high-lying district, and contains a mountain
named Dolphinton-hill, which is computed to rise
1 ,550 feet above the level of the sea, and which may
be considered to form one of the links of the great
mountain-chain which binds the island from St.
Abb's Head to Ailsa Craig. With the exception of
this hill, and of a conical mount named Keir-hill,
the parish is all arable, although most of it lies at
the elevation of from 700 to 800 feet above the level
of the sea. The soil is generally of a dry friable
earth or sandy loam. The parish has a branch rail-
way from the Peebles at Leadburn. Formerly, a
weekly market and two annual fairs were held at
Dolphinton ; but these have long since fallen into
desuetude. Certain corn, lint, and waulk mills
which once existed in the parish, have likewise
passed away; and ; altogether, by comparing the
present reality with charters still in existence, it
would appear that the parish is now a place of much
less consequence than it was in the olden time.
The principal landowner is Mackenzie of Dolphin-
ton. The real rental is about £2,800. The yearly
value of raw produce was estimated in 1834 at
£5,953. Assessed property in 1860, £2,795 odds.
Population in 1831, 302 ; in 1861, 260. Houses, 47.
This parish is in the presbytery of Biggar, and
synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Patron, Lord
Douglas. Stipend, £158 6s. 7d. ; glebe, £27 10s.
The church is a very old building; sittings, 140.
Schoolmaster's salary, £36, with £12 fees, and some
other emoluments. There is a parochial library.
Dolphinton is understood to have received its name
from the acquirement of the property by Dolfine,
the eldest brother of Cospatrick, 1st earl of Dunbar,
some time in the reign of Alexander I. How long
it remained in the possession of Dolfine's descend-
ants is not known ; but it is certain that, at an early
period, the manor and patronage of the clmrch be-
came a pertinent of the baronial territory of Both-
well. After remaining for a time in the possession
of the house of Douglas, Dolphinton reverted to the
Crown. In 1483, James III. presented it to Sir
James Ramsay, one of the most accomplished of his
favourites. After the assassination of James, Ram-
say was denuded of the property, and James IV.
conferred it, in 1488, on the master of his household,
Patrick Hepburn, Lord Hales. In 1492, Hepburn
exchanged Dolphinton and other lands, with the
Earl of Angus, for certain territories in Liddesdale,
including the important castle of Hermitage; hut
the superiority was still retained by the Hepburns
till 1567, when it was forfeited along with the other
domains of the ambitious and unprincipled Earl of
Bothwell. It afterwards passed into the hands of
Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, but again re-
verted to the Crown upon his attainder in 1593.
Soon after this the ancestors of the present house of
Douglas became proprietors of the manor. During
a long series of vears subsequently, however, and
up till the middle of the 18th century, the most
of the parish was owned by a family of the name of
Brown, who were succeeded by marriage, in 1755,
by Mr. Kenneth M'Kenzie. It is worthy of notice
that Major Learmont, one of the pious and devoted
soldiers of the covenant, possessed the property of
Newholm, in the parish of Dolphinton, and was an
elder in the congregation. After the battle ol
Pentland Hills — in which he commanded the horse,
and only escaped after feats of the most desperate
valour — his property was forfeited; but it was
bought back by his relative, the laird of Wishaw,
for behoof of his family. Notwithstanding that
Learmont was one of those who were " hunted like
partridges upon the hills," it was his lot eventually
to escape his enemies, and he died peacefully in his
88th year in 1693. His remains rest in Dolphinton
churchyard.
DOLPHISTON, a hamlet in the parish of Oxnam,
Roxburghshire. It stands near the right bank of
the Jed, 4J miles south-south-east of Jedburgh.
Here is an ancient tower, said to have been built by
one Dolphus, from whom it took its name. The
walls are from 8 to 10 feet thick, built of hewn
stone, and so closely cemented with lime that it is
found more difficult to obtain stones from it for
building than from a quarry. It has been exten-
sive, and divided into small apartments by stone
partitions. Several vaulted apertures are in the
middle of the walls, large enough for a small bed,
and some of them so long as to be used by the ten-
ants for holding their ladders. On a rising ground,
a little to the south, there is an area of a chain
square, which is said to have been a watch-tower
or lighthouse, and seems to imply that Dolphiston
tower had been used as a fort or place of refuge.
DON (The), a river of Aberdeenshire. It forms
a sort of twin-stream to the Dee, and is next to
that river in Aberdeenshire as regards at once