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HERIOT - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

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The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]
"HERIOT, a parish and post village in the E. district of county Edinburgh, Scotland, 10 miles S. of Dalkeith. It is a station on the Edinburgh and Kelso branch of the North British railway. It is bounded by the county of Peebles, and by the parishes of Temple, Borthwick, Fala, and Stow. It is situated in the valley of the Heriotburn. It is 10 miles long and 6 broad. The surface is hilly and moory, containing part of the Moorfoot range. The principal summits are Blaketip Scars and Dewar Hill. The parish also includes Broomieknowe, Fala Hill Inn, and Robertson. The Heriot rises in the S.W. of the parish, at Ensum Cleugh, among the Moorfoots, and joins with the Gala at Haltree. There is but a small area of fertile arable land.

This parish is in the presbytery of Dalkeith, and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. The minister has a stipend of £158. The church was built in 1804, and there is a Free church, which shares duty with the adjoining parish of Stow. Here is a parish school. The manor of Heriot anciently belonged to the Morvilles, and subsequently to Roger de Quincy, by whose daughter it was granted, with its church and appurtenances, to the monks of Newbattle, who held it until the Reformation, when the Ker family became possessors of the parish.

There are some erect stones said to be of Druidical origin. Traces of camps are seen on the hills. At Dewar farm two stones bear the name of "The Piper's Grave". "Lot's Wife's Pillar" stands near. Wolf Cleugh. Near Heriot House is Mary Gibb's Stone, so called from a woman of that name who was burned upon it on the accusation of witchcraft. Trout and salmon abound."

"BROOMIEKNOWE, a hamlet in the parish of Heriot, in the county of Edinburgh, Scotland, 10 miles to the S. of Dalkeith. It is under the Lammermuir Hills."

"DEWAR, a hamlet in the parish of Heriot, in the county of Edinburgh, Scotland."

"FALA HILL INN, a hamlet in the parish of Heriot, county Edinburgh, Scotland, 6 miles S. of Ford."

"MOORFOOT HILLS, a double range of moorish hills, mostly in the parishes of Borthwick, Heriot, Temple, and Stow, county Edinburgh, Scotland. They rise from 1,320 feet to 1,860 in height, and are of a slaty nature with lydian stone."

"ROBERTSON, a village in the parish of Heriot, county Edinburgh, Scotland, 4 miles N.W. of Stow."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]


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