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

TAR
744
TAY
built about 55 years ago. Sittings 200. The min-
ister officiates on two successive Sabbaths in the
former, and, on the third, in the latter. School-
master's salary £28, with about £14 10s. fees. The
parishes are supposed to have been united about the
beginning of the 17th century.
TARRAS (The), a small but romantic river in
Eskdale, Dumfries-shire. It rises on the south side
of Hartsgarth, a height which stands on the boun-
dary between Dumfries-shire and Liddesdale ; and
runs 9 miles southward and south-south-westward
to the Esk, 2£ miles below the town of Langholm.
Over 4j miles it traverses the interior of Ewis ; and
over the rest of its run it has Langholm on its right
bank, and Ewis and Canonbie on its left. The Tar-
ras is remarkable for the ruggedness of its channel,
and the romantic character of its banks. So im-
petuous is its course, so obstructed by rocks, and so
precipitated by falls, that any person whom it might
sweep away is in incomparably less danger of being
drowned, than of being dashed to pieces. Hence
the old doggerel :
'f Was ne'er ane drowned in Tarras, nor yet in doubt,
For ere the head can win down, the haras are out."
Its banks, over a great part of its course, are now
picturesquely overhung, and now beautifully flanked
and shaded with trees. An old rhyme which cele-
brates the localities in Liddesdale and Eskdale most
noted for game, gives prominent importance to the
Tarras :
*' Bilhope-braes, for bucks and raes,
And Carit-haugh, for swine,
And Tarras for the good bull-trout,
If he be ta'en in time."
" The bucks and roes, as well as the old swine,"
says Sir Walter Scott, in a note to the ' Lay of the
Last Minstrel,' "are now extinct; but the good
bull-trout is still famous." In 1660, the Tarras
yielded the title of Earl to Walter Scott of High-
chester, who married the eldest daughter of Frances,
Earl of Buccleuch. See Harden.
TARTH (The), a small river, a tributary of the
Lyne, in Peebles-shire. During the first 5 miles of
its course, it is identical with the Medwin: which
see. At Garwaldfoot, the Medwin, which had flowed
chiefly on the boundary between Lanarkshire and
Peebles-shire, splits into two streams, the one of
which goes off into Lanarkshire and becomes tribu-
tary to the Clyde, and the other passes on to the
Lyne, and, through it, to the Tweed. The latter,
though it continues for a brief space to be called the
Medwin, and again is sometimes called near its
mouth Newlands-water, is the Tarth, and undis-
putedly bears that name over the greater part of its
course. Its length of run, measured in straight lines
from Garwaldfoot, is only 7 miles; and over that
distance it flows south-eastward, and has on its left
bank Linton and Newlands, and on its right Lanark-
shire, Kirkurd, and Stobo. Its tributaries, though
16 or 17 in number, are all very inconsiderable.
Compared to the Lyne, it is a deep, dull, and muddy
stream ; and, on account probably of possessing these
properties, its trouts, which abound, are compara-
tively large and fat. The fact, or phenomenon, that
salmon have been caught in the Clyde above the
majestic and lofty cataracts of that noble river, is
accounted for on the supposition, that, at the spawn-
ing-season, some of the fish diverge from the Tweed
up the Lyne and the Tarth, till they turn the fork
of the Medwin, and then go down the Clydesdale
section of that curious stream. The point at which
the Medwin splits is, in consequence, popularly called
the Salmon leap.
TARVES, a parish some miles north-east of the
centre of Aberdeenshire. It is bounded on the
north by Methlick and New Deer ; on the east by
Ellon and a detached part of Methlick ; on the south-
east and south by Udny ; on the south-west by
Bourtrie ; on the west by Old Meldrum ; and on
the north-west by Fyvie. Its greatest length,
from north-north-east to south-south-west, is 9
miles; its greatest breadth is between 7 and 8 miles;
and its area is about 30 square miles. The Ythan,
though connected with the interior and the bounda-
ries over only 2f miles, drains, with the help of a
few small feeders, the whole of the parish. The
surface is all champaign, — a plain, diversified with
inconsiderable hills. The soil is in some parts deep
and in others shallow; but generally is fertile. There
are several plantations. Scivas-house is the princi-
pal mansion. The village of Tarves stands nearly
in the centre of the parish, 6 miles west of Ellon,
and 5 north-east of Old Meldrum. Annual fairs are
held here on the Wednesday after the second Tues-
day of March, on the Wednesday after the last Tues-
day of April, on the Wednesday after the third Tues-
day of July, on the second Tuesday of September, and
on the Wednesday after the fourth Tuesday of Octo-
ber, all old style. Craigdam, the site of an United
Secession meeting-house, lies 1J mile south-west of
the village. The parish is amply provided with roads.
Population, in 1801, 1,756; in 1831, 2,232. Houses
433. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,473 — Tarves
is in the presbytery of Elion, and synod of Aberdeen.
Patron, the Earl of Aberdeen. Stipend £191 19s.
lOd. ; glebe £10 10s. Unappropriated teinds £46
3s. lid. The parish-church was built in 1798. Sit-
tings 860. The United Secession congregation was
established in 1748; and their meeting-house was
built about 1806, at a cost of between £400 and
£500. Sittings 600. Stipend £100, with a house
and garden worth £12. Schoolmaster's salary £28,
with £23 fees, and a share of the Dick bequest.
There are 5 non-parochial schools.
TARVET. See Cupar-Fife.
TAY (Loch), a magnificent sheet of water, in
Breadalbane, Perthshire, upwards of 15 miles in
length, and averaging from fifteen to one hundred
fathoms in depth. The united streams of the Dochart
and Lochy pour their waters into the head of the loch,
a little below the village of Killin ; while the noble
Tay issues from its lower end at Kenmore. The tra-
veller can visit Loch-Tay either from the east or from
the west : a good road is carried along both its shores
from the one end to the other. The road along its
northern side is the best, however, for carriages, and
is that most generally followed by travellers. The
scenery by this route, however, is much inferior to
that displayed by the southern road. The north road
has been carried too high up along the slope of the
mountains, and although the lake in almost its whole
expanse is before him, the prospect is unvaried and
monotonous ; the foregrounds are tame or altogether
awanting ; and there is an almost total want of those
delicious close views which are the delight alike of
the artist and the connoisseur. Had this road been
carried nearer to the margin of the lake, and amid
the windings of the beautiful promontories and bays
with which it is bounded, the effect of a ride up the
north shore of Loch-Tay would have been very dif-
ferent indeed. The man of taste would have se-
lected this line; nor would he have found fault with
the additional 2 miles of road which the straightfor-
ward views of Marshall Wade has saved. In taking
the southern road, however, the case is materially
different. This road generally runs near the lake,
and follows, in numerous instances, the sinuosities
of its margin, and the inequalities of the ground.
The declivities of the southern range of mountains
are, besides, much more varied and intricate than