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

MER
353
MET
here the celebrated inventor of the logarithms was
born.
MERKI.AND. See Kirkpatrick-Fleming.
MERSE, or March (The), an extensive cham-
paign, and very fertile district, occupying the eastern
part of the Scottish border. In modern political
distribution of territory, it is the largest and most
southerly of the three districts of Berwickshire, and,
according to Timothy Pont's survey of that county
in the reign of Charles I., contains 202^ square miles,
or 129,600 statute acres; in loose popular phrase-
ology, jt is the whole of Berwickshire, and strictly
identical with the county; and in topographical no-
menclature, based on strict reference to uniqueness
of geographical feature, it is the whole low country
lying immediately north of the Tweed; semieircu-
lurly screened by the Lammermoor-hills and the
heights of Teviotdale, and including all the political
Merse of Berwickshire, and all the district of Rox-
burghshire which lies on the left bank of the Tweed.
Ancient political usage not only sanctioned the last
of these senses, but carried the Merse into the low-
lands of Teviotdale, and viewed Roxburgh-castle,
situated on the right bank of the Tweed, as the
capital of the whole district. The name is combined
with that of Teviotdale as the designation of a
synod, the second in the General Assembly's list.
For other particulars, see article Berwickshire.
MERTON,* a parish in the extreme south-west
of Berwickshire, forming the most southerly land,
and a projection beyond the prevailing boundary-
line of the county. It is bounded on the north by
Earlston ; and on all other sides by Roxburgh-
shire. It sends out a rectangle 1J by 1 mile on the
north, and two peninsulas, respectively about 1 mile
and } of a mile long on the south, and consists, in
addition to these, of an oblong stretching east and
west 4| miles by 2. Its superficial extent is about
5,550 acres. The Tweed, wearing its richest dress
of sumptuous beauty, flows along the whole western
and southern boundary, and in its progress makes
three large and unusually fine reduplications, one of
which sweeps round Dryburgh abbey, another the
church of Merton, and the third, on the opposite
bank, the beautiful peninsula of Old Melrose. The
ground rises, in a great variety of gradient and out-
line, eastward and northward, from the river, — is
agreeably diversified with fine hedge-rows and thriv-
ing plantations,. — and exhibits, in its diversity of
haugh and bold bank, cliffy, steep, and gentle ascent,
rolling surface, and level table-land, a scene of great
pieturesqueness within narrow limits. The view
which meets the eye in passing from the village of
Newton on the opposite bank, to visit Dryburgh
abbey and the modern monumental erections in its
vicinity, is, for its smallness of scope, one of the most
delightfully impressive in Scotland : see Dryburgh.
But from the summit of Bemersyde-hill in the west,
where the ground in general is high, the parish,
while picturesque in itself, commands a prospect of
the vale of Melrose, and of a long eastward stripe of
the basin of the Tweed, a near view of the Eildon
hills, and a distant one of the blue Cheviots, unit-
edly a landscape of exquisite loveliness and many
a romantic feature. " Wood, water, hills, ruins,
and fertile fields," are words which do not even give
a fair list of its elements, and afford no hint what-
ever of the warm colours, the fine groupings, and
the bold contrasts and blending beauties of the scene.
The soil, toward the Tweed, particularly in the
haughs, is sharp with a gravelly bottom ; and else-
where it is, with few exceptions, a stiff clay super-
* The name is simply the Saxon Mere-tun, ' the Habitation of
the marsh,' and refers to a spot long ago drained, and improved
into a glebe in the viciuity of the uiause.
II.
incumbent on till. About 500 acres are planted.
Reddish coloured sandstone, very durable, and ad-
mitting a fine polish, abounds along the Tweed, and
formerly was quarried Merton-house, the seat of
Lord Pohvarth, situated on the Tweed near the
church, is a fine mansion Dryburgh-house, the
seat of Sir David Erskine, in the immediate vicinity
of the abbey, is a plain old house ainid a balmy scene
of woods and orchards Bemersyde-house, the seat
of James Haig, Esq., is an ancient but pleasant man-
sion | of a mile south-east of Old Melrose. The
family of Haig, says Sir Robert Douglas, "is of
great antiquity in the south of Scotland; and in our
ancient writings, the name is written De Haga.
Some authors are of opinion that they are of Pictisb.
extraction; others think they are descended from
the ancient Britons; but as we cannot pretend, by
good authority, to trace them to their origin, we shall
insist no farther upon traditional history, and deduce
their descent by indisputable documents from Petrus
de Haga, who was undoubtedly proprietor of the
lands and barony of Bemersyde in Berwickshire, and
lived in the reign of King Malcolm IV. and William
the Lion." Captain Clutterbuek is made to say, in
' the Monastery,' that his friend the sage Benedic-
tine could tell to a day when the De Hagas settled
in the country. A remote tradition, towering up in
admiration of the antiquity of the family, affirms
that it will never become extinct; and having been,
thrown into a doggerel rhyme, it has, like some other
things of the sort, been fathered upon Thomas of
Erceldoun, and called a prophecy. Should ' Haigs
in Bemerside' fail in the direct male-line, either col-
lateral descendants or female heirs may probably
keep such a possession of the property as will be
quite sufficient to save the credit of Thomas with
his credulous admirers There are in the parish
three hamlets. Easy communication is everywhere
open in the interior, and across the northern and
eastern boundary ; but on the two sides washed by
the Tweed, no egress exists for wheeled vehicles, — .
the nearest carriage-bridge being that of Drygrange,
a mile above Old Melrose. Population, in 1801,
535; in 1831, 064. Houses 128. Assessed pro-
perty, in 1815, £5,974. — Merton is in the presby-
tery of Lauder, and synod of Merse and Teviotdale.
Patron, Scott of Harden. Stipend £251 19s. 8d. ;
glebe £14. Unappropriated teinds £66 3s. 4d.
Schoolmaster's salary £30, with fees, and £4 4s.
other emoluments. The ancient church was given
by David I. to the canons of Dryburgh, and remained
a vicarage under them till the Reformation.
METHILL, a small sea-port town, and now a
quoad sacra parish, in the parish of Wemyss in Fife ;
on the shore of the frith of Forth, 1 mile west of
Leven, about half that distance west of Dubbieside,
and 1 mile east of Buckhaven. In 1662 it was
erected into a free burgh-of-barony by the Bishop of
St. Andrews. It has the reputation of having a
better harbour than that of any town in the neigh-
bourhood ; but .he entrance was long well-nigh
choked up by a mass of stones which were swept
away by a storm, in 1803, from the termination of
the east pier. This is now being remedied, and ex-
tensive repairs and improvements on the harbour are
contemplated. In 1811 the population was 388 ; in
1831, 509 An extension church has been erected
in this village; cost £1,050; sittings 800; and a dis-
trict attached to it with a population of about 1,700.
METHLICK, a parish in Aberdeenshire; bounded
on the north by New Deer ; on the east by New
Deer and Tarves ; on the south by Tarves ; and on
the west by Fyvie. It extends 6 miles in length
from north to south, by 5 in breadth from east to
west. Houses 324. Assessed property, in 1815,
Z