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

354
METHVEN.
£2,471. Population, in 1801, 1,215; in 1831, 1,439.
The surface is hilly, and the soil indifferently fertile.
The hills are partly covered with heath, but the
arable land is in excellent cultivation. The district
is watered from north-west to south-east by the
Ythan, on the banks of which there are thriving and
highly ornamental plantations. Limestone is found
in the parish. — It is in the presbytery of Ellon, and
synod of Aberdeen. Patron, the Earl of Aberdeen.
Stipend £159 13s. 7d. ; glebe 5 acres. Unappropri-
ated college teinds £266 4s. 6d. Schoolmaster's
salary £28: fees, &c, £31 10s., besides a share of
the Dick bequest. There are two private schools
in the parish.
METHVEN, a parish in the Strathmore district
of Perthshire ; bounded on the north by Monedie ;
on the north-east and east by Redgorton ; on the
south by Tippermuir and Gask ; and on the west by
Fowlis- Wester. Its outline is nearly that of a quad-
rant, — the point or apex turned toward the south-
east. Its extreme length along the chord of the arc,
or between the points where the river Almond ap-
proaches and departs, is 6 miles; its extreme breadth
from the middle of the arc to the apex, or in a
straight line south-west from Lynedoch-house, is 4£
miles ; and its area is about 1 7 square miles, or 10, 700
acres. The surface is agreeably diversified with hol-
lows and rising grounds, but is nowhere hilly, and in
general slopes to the south, and terminates in a nar-
row plain. In few districts has georgical operation
wrought higher achievements in reclaiming waste
and stubborn ground, and covering it with the beau-
ties of husbandry and the forest. Though so late as
fifty years ago a large proportion was moorish com-
mon, all the area, with very trivial exceptions, has
now a warm, sheltered, rich, and highly cultivated
appearance. The soil in the north is thin, sharp
loam; and, in the other districts, is principally clay,
but gives place to tracts of loam and gravel. The
wood of Methven is a natural forest, upwards of 200
acres in extent, chiefly oak, birch, and hazel, and has
long been periodically cut as coppice. Plantations
spread away to the aggregate extent of not less than
1,500 acres, and are so disposed in rows and belts
among the arable grounds, and in clumps, crowning
the rising grounds, as to give a cheerful aspect to the
landscape. The New Statistical Account mentions
three remarkable trees; — the Pepper- well oak at
Methven-castle, 17£ feet in girth a yard from the
ground, 284 feet in the circumference of its branches,
and 700 cubic feet in its solid contents, — the Bell-
tree, an ash in the churchyard, supposed to be co-
eval with the earliest religious establishment in the
parish, and measuring 20 feet in girth 3i feet from
the ground, — and a black Italian poplar at Tipper-
mallo, planted in 1776, and measuring, in 1836, 11|
feet in girth a yard from the ground, and 300 cubic
feet in solid contents. Almond-water describes the
segment of a circle over a distance of 6i miles, cut-
ting off from the main body of the parish part of the
lands of Lynedoch, but elsewhere running along the
boundary. It flows in a large and rapid current be-
tween bold and rocky banks, which are alternately
bare and wooded; and in passing the estate of Lyne-
doch, and the woods of Methven-castle, it furnishes
some very picturesque and romantic views. A stream
called the Pow, or Powaffray, rises in two head-
waters in the west, one of which runs 2| miles along
the boundary, and the other conv»rgently to it in the
interior; and the two uniting at the apex of the par-
ish, the joint stream goes away to become tributary
to the Earn. Another stream, likewise called the
Pow, rises near the sources of the former, and runs
in a zigzag course, 4£ miles through the interior,
past the village of Methven, and 3 miles along the
southern boundary to the Almond. Light-grey sand-
stone and greenstone abound, and are quarried — the
former for building, and the latter for causewaying
and Macadamizing Methven-castle, the seat of
Robert Smythe, Esq. of Methven, and a fine baro-
nial edifice of the 17th century, stands on a bold
acclivitous rising ground, J of a mile east of Meth-
ven village. Its park is celebrated as the scene of
Robert Bruce's defeat in 1306 by the English troops,
under the Earl of Pembroke.— Lynedoch-house —
properly Lednoch — the property and occasional resi-
dence of Lord Lynedoch, occupies a very beautiful
site on the left bank of the Almond, 1J mile north-
east of Methven village. About half-a-mile north-
west of Lynedoch-house, in a secluded spot, called
Dronach-haugh, at the foot of a beautiful bank or
brae of the same name on the Almond, is the grave
of 'Bessie Bell and Mary Gray,' celebrated in pa-
thetic song. Bessie Bell, according to the common
tradition, was daughter of the laird of Kinvaid, and
Mary Gray of the laird of Lynedoch. Mutually at-
tached in strong and tender friendship, they lived
together at Lynedoch, when the plague broke out in
1645; and to avoid it, they retired to a romantic
spot, called Burn-braes, on the estate of Lynedoch,
and there, in a bower or temporary dwelling, lived
in complete seclusion. A young gentleman of Perth,
an admirer of both, visited them in their solitude,
for the purpose, it is said, of supplying them with
food ; but unhappily he communicated to them the
very pestilence from which they had fled. Falling
victims to the disease, they were, according to the
usage of the period, refused sepulture in the ordi-
nary burying-grounds, and slept together, as they
had latterly lived, amid a scene of solitude and ro-
mance. Major Berry, a former proprietor of Lyne-
doch, enclosed with tasteful care the spot in which
they were buried, and consecrated it to the memory
of their famed and pathetic friendship.— The parish
is traversed westward by the turnpike between Perth
and Glasgow by way of Crieff. Two good roads run
northward ; and various subordinate ones connect
the main lines. Population, in 1801, 2,073; in 1831,
2,714. Houses 460. Assessed property, in 1815,
£13,614. The increase in the population has taken
place chiefly upon the estate of Mr. Smythe of Meth-
ven, who has feued out a great many building leases.
The village of Methven stands a little south of the
centre of the parish, on the road between Perth and
Glasgow ; 6 miles from Perth, 1 1 from Crieff, and
58 from Glasgow. It is very neatly edificed, and is
the site of the parish-church, and of a United Seces-
sion meeting-house. The inhabitants are chiefly
employed in handloom cotton-weaving, and have most
of their work, through resident agents, from manu-
facturers in Glasgow. Annual fairs are held in May
and October. The village has a savings' bank, a
spacious masonic lodge, a friendly society, and an
agricultural association. Its population is about
1,000 The village of Almond-bank stands on the
river Almond, 2i miles east of Methven. At Wood-
end, in its vicinity, is a quondam paper-mill, now
fitted up as a power-loom weaving-factory. In this
establishment, and in other neighbouring public
works which stand beyond the limits of the parish,
the inhabitants of Almond-bank, about 300 in num-
ber, are chiefly employed A manufacture of " broad
and narrow brown linens, broad and narrow barns,
and a few white broad linens," which, in 1 787, pro-
duced 44,996 yards, and in 1792 rose to 140,448, is
now extinct. Manufactures of paper conducted at
two mills, and of household cloth, formerly some-
what extensive, have also disappeared.
Methven is in the presbytery of Perth, and synod
of Perth and Stirling. Patron, Smythe of Methveu.