PARISH OF MUIRAVONSIDE.

PRESBYTERY OF LINLITHGOW, SYNOD OF LOTHIAN AND TWEEDDALE.

THE REV. JAMES McFARLAN, MINISTER.

I-TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY.

Name.-The name is commonly pronounced and generally written in ancient records, Moranside, and is derived, doubtless, from the position of the parish on the river Avon, and its uncultivated aspect in former times. Our silver communion cups, however, probably presented to the parish by the Earl of Callendar, and Lord of Almond, are said, in 1676, to belong to the Church of Almond: this, together with a tradition, that the minister once lived at Almond Castle, which is not far from the church, makes it probable that the chaplain of the castle, having assumed the spiritual superintendence of the district, got it erected into a separate parish, as it is repeatedly mentioned among the patronages of the Earls of Callendar and Linlithgow, as anciently forming part of the parish of Falkirk.

Extent and Boundaries.-The length of the parish is about seven miles: its irregular breadth may average two. The river Avon descending towards the north-east, till it turns to the north and west, not far from Linlithgow bridge, bounds its extreme length on the south-east, and forms the border of its breadth on the north-east, separating it from the parishes of Slamannan, Torphichen, Linlithgow, and Borrowstounness, till it meets with the rivulets which form its less apparent division from Polmont and Slamannan on the north-west and west.

Topographical Appearances.-Part of that dreary table-land which stretches across the island between the Clyde and the Forth is found on its extreme west,-while it occupies five miles of its length in descending eastward through ever-varying ridges towards the rich fields of Lothian and the luxuriant Carses of the Forth. These heights are, for the most part, crested with plantations, and embosom well-dressed fields.

Although none of them exceed the elevation of 400 feet above the sea, or of 150 from their own base, yet the remotest Grampians are seen from many points, - the towers of Stirling, Clackmannan, and Linlithgow, the shores of the Forth and the glens of the Devon. On the whole, its ever-varying surface, its widespread view of frith and plain, of mountain, wood, and tower, render its aspect unusually interesting and cheerful.

Hydrogrophy.-In the clay soil, which occupies two-thirds of this parish, springs are deficient, and the inhabitants are dependent on water of an inferior description, taken from ponds or hollows on the surface. Many springs in the mosses are so strongly impregnated with iron, that they speedily choke their outlets with red ochre. In the gravel soils, perennial springs are plentiful and strong, sometimes impregnated with minerals, rendering them less useful for household purposes,-an inconvenience rather increased than diminished by boiling. As the parish forms an irregular ridge between the river Avon and the Carses of the Forth, its proper streams are necessarily small, such as the Hollock, the Mannel, and the Sandyford burns.

The river Avon forms the most remarkable natural feature of the parish, which it bounds for nine miles, finding the flood-mark of the Forth about two miles below it. This stream is dull, sluggish, and swampy near the source, reserving its rapids and its foam for the sport of that maturer strength in which he visits us. The first symptom of this disposition is shown on its meeting with a mass of white sandstone at Hillend. The course then becomes more gentle, till it enters among rocks mouldering under the greyness of age, presenting an ever-changing outline, crested with heather and overhanging birch,-a scene befitting rather the remotest Highlands than the border of the Lothians. Still lower, where the flank of the Bathgate hills is cut off by the river between the castle of Carrubber and Muiravonside House, the banks, precipitous and wooded, are reared nearly 200 feet above the stream, till they gradually expand with that valley crossed by the towering aqueduct which leads the waters of the Union Canal towards their destination.

Scenes still more precipitous and inaccessible are to be found on the Avon, as it bursts through the high-ground of Kinneil into the alluvial flatness of the Carse.

All the rock exposed on its course is sandstone, sometimes coarse, sometimes fine-grained, at others, in thin seams, much stained with the oxide of iron,-excepting that about Muiravonside House, which seems & large detachment of the same greenstone rock that forms the crest of Cockle Rue, about a mile to the south, and three veins of trap rock, one at Redford, the others on either side of Linlithgow bridge. Away from the banks of the Avon, there are only four detached spots where rock is apparent, and its character will be better understood when we consider the minerals of the parish.

The alluvial deposits to the north-east of the canal are, sand, gravel, peat, and marl. The contortions in the sand strata are endless; and such as are fond of theories might have a new one at every fathom, or oftener, if need be, and leave much unaccounted for, after all. The variety of surface in the gravel district is quite remarkable: it appears in mounds and hillocks of every shape and direction; sometimes inclosing extensive hollows; then a considerable thickness of marl, and over that, moss. In the midst of these deposits, was found a fine specimen of the ancient elk, a horn of which is now deposited in the College Museum of Edinburgh.

To the south-west of the Canal, the whole subsoil is clay, of the stiffest texture. It has lately been trenched along five miles of its length by the Slamannan Railway, in some places, to the depth of forty feet, and exhibits very little variety,-the boulder-stones and dispersed gravel being, with few exceptions, ordinary greenstone. Rock is scarcely ever found ; if at all, it is of freestone.

Soil.-The soil of the eastern district is light and gravelly, encumbered with many stones, but welt inclosed and cultivated; of the west, cold and wet, excepting by the river side. Much of it is still undrained, unsheltered, uninclosed, though generally under the plough.

Quarries.- Quarries of fine-grained blue whinstone, presenting occasionally a vertical columnar fracture, are frequent; and there are two quarries of excellent freestone; that of Manuel rig, extensively wrought, having vertical fissures filled with the finest blue clay, and occasional specimens of petrified equisetum ; and that of Haining having a fracture resembling marble; perhaps the finest grained and most compact specimen of sandstone that can possibly be found, retaining its angles and chissel.marks unchanged by the vicissitudes of centuries.*

* A seam of limestone, nine feet thick, has been lately found by Mr Stirling of Muiravonside, at the foot of the bank below the canal aqueduct, promising abundant supply

Coal is now wrought only at Stanrig and Craigend; but the following strata, excepting only the uppermost coal, have been lately ascertained to prevail over the western half of the parish.

1st, from 5 fathoms to 10 of surface, consisting of stiff clay or rock;

2d, from 4 feet to 5, fine coal;

3d, 33 fathoms of rock strata and thin seams of coal;

4th, from 2 feet 8 inches to 8 feet of fine hard coal;

5th 14 fathoms of rock strata and one small seam of coal intervening;

6th, from 2 feet 0 inches to 3 feet, very fine soft coal;

7th, 23 fathoms of rock strata and various thin seams of coal;

8th, 1 foot 6 inches blaise or bituminous shale, containing three or four bands of ironstone, from 1 to 3 inches thick - and, 4 feet inferior coal, with frequent balls of iron ; 9th, 5½ fathoms white rock;

10th, from 3 feet to 4, inferior coal;

11th, 9 fathoms rock strata and various thin seams of coal, and a good band of ironstone, 10 feet above the next coal;

12th, from l½ foot to 3, Middlerig coal;

13th, 5 fathoms white rock;

14th, 2 feet of fine coal bored, but not yet seen;

15th, 17 fathoms white freestone, with great quantities of water, some of the stone exceedingly hard and difficult to bore. Of these, the lower strata are the widest spread, some of them having been found six miles to the southward. The dip declines gently to-wards east-north-east, in which direction the upper seams fall off, in consequence of the dip of the surface and a great up-dike to the north-east; and no good coal has yet been found in that direction. The uppermost coal is of partial extent, even in the richest mineral district, being found to extend only about 30 yards round the upper pit at Stanrig, when it suddenly fails; it has been found, by boring, in another part of the parish, but not to any great extent. The next seam was the only coal anciently wrought in the lands of Parkhall and Craigend, with pits about 30 feet apart, to which it was conveyed from hand to hand beneath. Some of the under seams of coal have been wrought in the lands of Muiravonside, and these workings have lately been renewed to a considerable extent. But the troubles or whinstone-dikes in this coal-field deserve attention. The northern or universal dike passes out of the parish at Rumford, from the south-east towards Shieldhill on the north-west, cutting off the whole upper seams of coal from the lower country, between Avon and Carron Rivers,-the toils of the borers being spent in vain on a mass of unfathomable sandstone. The second is parallel, nearly a mile to the south, affording good whinstone quarries at Craigend and Craigmad. The third occurs about a mile still further south, being very apparent at the Greencraig of Drumbroider; and still further south, there are appearances of a fourth, whose bearings are not yet known. All these dikes send off lateral spurs, throwing the perplexed strata some times up, sometimes down, to the extent of 15 or 20 fathoms, and throwing out the upper seams of coal-in many places.

The iron wrought by the Carron Company near Maudiston is of the finest, but dispersed over a considerable bulk of ore. Considerable quantities of iron have been wrought in the lands adjoining to Maudiston; and there can be no doubt that a very great breadth of valuable ironstone remains to be wrought in the parish; but unfortunately the coal under the ironstone is so very inferior in quality, that it is quite unsaleable at present.

The only foul air known in the coal-pits is choke-damp or carbonic acid gas. it rises most when the barometer falls. On the night of the 27th November 1838, when the Tiviot and other streams disappeared from their channels, the rush of this air into the coal-pits was greater than the oldest miners ever knew of in this district.*

* I beg to express my obligation to William Johnstone, Esq. of Meadowbank for his obliging communication, regarding the coal strata of the parish

Zoology.- In no quarter are the blackbird and the thrush more numerous, or the chorus of birds of song more full than, in the woods of Almond; neither are the daw, the magpie, and the jay awanting. Foxes, also, are supposed to live in numbers near us.

Botany.- The whin, the broom, the wild-rose, and the honeysuckle were the great possessors of our eastern soil, about half a century ago, when they yielded to the improving skill of the late Mr Forbes of Callendar, in whose ample farm roads they still abound. Such a thicket was the country then, that, when cattle were once turned out, it was no easy matter to trace them in their wanderings; but the example of that landlord, and access to Edinburgh manure by the Canal, have entirely changed the botanical aspect of the parish.

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