Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

LIN
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LIN
regality of Kirkheugh, sums which made a total of
£7,500, and was allowed £4,569. Kirkliston and
other lands were a regality with an attached bailiary.
Bathgate was long a barony, and afterwards became
a separate sheriffwick, Torphichen was a regality
first of the knights of St. John, and next of the
Lords Torphichen. Other regalities were Kinneil
under the Duke of Hamilton, Philipston under the
monks of Culross, and afterwards the Earl of Stair,
and Brighouse and Ogleface under the Earl of Lin-
lithgow. Linlithgow was a hereditary royal bailiary
belonging, like the last-named regality, to the Lin •
lithgow family. Baronial jurisdictions were Aber-
corn, Livingston, Carribber, Dalmeny, Bambougle,
and Strathbrock. These various jurisdictions, so-
licited by the ambition, and granted by the impolicy,
of former times, confounded rather than promoted
the justice of Linlithgowshire, and were long pros-
tituted to the interests of individuals rather than
dedicated to general convenience.
LINN, the vulgar Scotch for a pool or deep reach,
in the bed of a_ river. It is evidently derived from
the Gaelic Linne, which is the Welsh Llynn, and
perhaps radically the same with the Greek \ipin.
Ramsay, in his ' Gentle Shepherd,' uses the word to
designate the rocky or precipitous bank which usu-
ally overhangs such a pool; and we suppose the
unfortunate wight, so well-known to all lovers of
our Doric muse, who 'spak' of putting an end to the
tortures of slighted love by ' louping ower a linn,'
attached a similar construction to the term ; other-
wise the resolve to leap over the linn, was doubtless
an infinitely more prudent one than that of leaping
into it.
LINNHE (Loch), an arm of the sea, stretching
between the districts of Appin and Morvern in Ar-
gyleshire, in a north- easterly direction, from the
sound of Mull, as far as Coran ferry, where it takes
a northerly direction, and acquires the name of Loch-
Eel : which see. It gives off, on its eastern side,
first Loch-Etive, then Loch-Creran, and farther
inward, on the same side, Loch-Leven ; see these
articles. The island of Lismore [which see] lies in
the mouth of Loch-Linnhe ; and there are several
smaller islands interspersed through it.
LINTON, a parish occupying the north-west
corner of Peebles-shire; bounded on the north-west,
north, and north-east, by Edinburghshire ; on the
east and south-east by Newlauds; on the south by
Kirkurd; and on the south-west and west by Lan-
arkshire. It approaches the form of a flying kite,
its apex pointing to the south ; and measures, in its
greatest length from Bore Stane on the north to the
confluence of Dean-burn and Tarth-water on the
south, 10i miles; and, in its greatest breadth, in a
line due eastward from the point where it is first
touched on the west by Dryburn, 7| miles. The
North Esk rises in the northern extremity, and runs
4 miles along the north-eastern boundary, receiving
from the parish the beautiful little tribute of Carlops-
burn, and partly washing, partly forming, just when
entering Edinburghshire, the tranquil and classic
scenery of Habbie's Howe : see that article. Med-
win-water flows 3J miles along the western boun-
dary to Garvaldfoot, there very curiously splits itself
into two streams, the larger one, and that which re-
tains the name of the Medwin, debouching into La-
narkshire to fall eventually into the Clyde, and the
smaller one running 4i miles farther along the boun-
dary, to assume the name of the Tarth, and to join
the Lyne in a progress to the Tweed. Lyne- water
rises on the west side of Weather-law, within half-
a-mile of the source of the North Esk, and flows 5|
miles south-eastward through the interior of the par-
ish, and 2 miles southward along its eastern boun-
dary. Numerous tributaries of the Lyne drain the
sides of the parish; but the most considerable of
them is West- water, a streamlet 4i miles long, and
running obliquely through the interior to the Lyne's
right bank. Slipperfield-loch, li mile west of the
mouth of West-water, measures about H mile in
circumference, abounds in pike and perch, and is
frequented in summer by flocks of water-fowl, and
in winter by crowds of curlers. Around it on all
sides stretches an expanse of heathy moor, 2,000 or
2,500 acres in extent, apparently defying georgical
art, yet receiving impressions from the practices of
the improver. Two-thirds of the entire area are
mountainous and hilly, strictly upland and pastoral,
covered, to a considerable extent, with verdure, but
clothed, in the ease of many heights, with heath very
slightly intermixed with grass. In the north-east
corner is a moor similar to that around Slipperfield-
loch, but smaller in extent. Beautiful stripes of
arable land stretch along the Lyne, and the lower
part of the North Esk. The soil on the low
grounds of the Esk is clay superincumbent on lime-
stone, and on other ploughed grounds, is either a
sandy loam upon a gravelly bottom, remarkably well
suited to the turnip and the potato, or a reclaimed
and progressively improving moss. The parish is
famous for its variety of the Cheviot breed of sheep,
and sends off supplies for propagation in distant dis-
tricts, and has usually on its pastures about 10,000.
Agricultural operations are conducted here with an
enterprise surpassing expectation on so disadvanta-
geous an arena. Plantations, though aggregately
scanty, beautify the finest part of the vales of the
North Esk, the Lyne, and the Medwin, and are of
noticeable extent in the extreme southern corner.
Excellent white freestone is worked at Deepsyke-
head and at Spittlehaugh, and is carried from the
former place to every part of Peebles-shire. Coal is
mined at Carlops, at Coalyburn, and at Harlamuir.
Limestone is burnt at Carlops, and at Whitefield and
Bents, to the extent of 21,000 bolls annually; and
occurs in abundance at Spittlehaugh and at Badens-
gill. Lead has been repeatedly but vainly searched
for in the hill called Leadlaw. Fuller's earth occurs
in a small seam below Bridgehouse on the Lyne.
Blue marl lies in a stratum two feet thick above the
lime-rocks of Carlops and Spittlehaugh. Many
pebbles are found of great beauty, and similar in
kind to the Cairngorm stone. A mineral spring,
curiously called Heaven-aqua well, and somewhat
resembling the spa of Tunbridge, bubbles up to the
north of Linton village. The parish is traversed
south-westward, and cut into not very unequal parts
by the turnpike from Edinburgh to Dumfries by way
of Biggar, whence a branch strikes off a little north
of the village of Linton, and runs southward point-
ing the way to Moffat; but it is otherwise very
indifferently provided with roads. The village of
Carlops [which see], and some interesting objects
in its vicinity, are separately noticed. The village
of Linton — or, as it is sometimes called to distinguish
it from a namesake in Haddingtonshire, West Linton
— stands on the left bank of the Lyne, on the road
from the metropolis to Moffat, 16^ miles from Edin-
burgh, and 11 from Biggar. Its population is about
400. The place is irregularly built, and has an an-
tique and curious appearance, a considerable propor-
tion of the houses presenting their gables to the
street. Most of its inhabitants are weavers, or
traders dependent on its market. Though finely
situated for a woollen manufacture, lying in the
vicinity of coal, on a stream of much water-power,
and in the midst of a sheep country, its manufactur-
ing connexion is solely with cotton, and in subordi-
nation to Glasgow. In 1838 it had, jointly with