Traquair

TRAQUAIR, a parish, containing a post-office village of its own name, on the south-east border of Peebles-shire.  It is bounded on the north by the Tweed, which divides it from Peebles and Innerleithen; on the west by Peebles and Selkirkshire; and on the sides by Selkirkshire.  But it is so intersected by Selkirkshire as to have a large wing on the west entirely cut off, to the distance of 3 furlongs,—another wing on the east, smaller but still considerable, cut off with the exception of a connecting belt of a furlong or two broad along the Tweed,—and the intermediate district split asunder by a cuneiform insertion down one-half of its length.  These interferences render the boundaries intricate, but do not disturb the conveniences of parochial arrangement.  The greatest length of the parish, in a straight line east and west, is 7½ miles, but by the road is 10; its greatest breadth, in a straight line, is 5½ miles, and by the road nearly 7; and its superficial extent is nearly 30 square miles.  Except at the indentations, the boundary all round with Selkirkshire is high mountain water-shed, among whose summits are GUMSCLEUCH and MINCH-MOOR [which see], as well as several others of an altitude exceeding 2,000 feet above sea-level.  The surface of the interior diminishes from mountain to hill as it recedes from the water-shed and approaches the Tweed; yet is, for the most part, upland, rocky, and bleak.  The heights are of a cumbrous, lumpish form,—generally green on the south side, but heathy and of dark complexion on the north.  Glendean's banks, immediately south of Gumscleuch, exhibit a tremendous chasm, upwards of half-a-mile in length, faced with sheer precipices from 200 to 300 feet in height.  The haughs on the Tweed are not extensive; they lie from 400 to 500 feet above sea-level; and they have a soil of fine loam of considerable depth.  The other low grounds, though pos