ROUCAN, a village in the parish of Torthor-
wald ; 4j miles south-west of Lochmaben ; 3^ east-
north-east of Dumfries; and 1^ north of Collin,
Dumfries-shire. It stands on the face of a descent
overlooking I^ochar-Moss, on the road between
Dumfries and Lochmaben, and is, for the most part,
an irregular assemblage of cottages. Population 250.
ROilSAY, one of the Orkney islands. It lies
parallel to the district of Evie, in the extreme north-
east of Pomona, and is separated from it by a sound
of from half a-mile to if mile broad; ithas Eglishay
along its east side, at the distance of a mile, and
Weir along part of its south-east side, at the dis-
tance of f of a mile ; and it is distant 5^ miles
due south from the headland of Skea in Westray.
The island measures about 4 miles from east to west,
and about 3 from north to south ; and, but for being
indented on tlie north by a broad but short bay,
would be nearly circular, upon adiameter of 4 miles.
On every side, almost from the very shore, the sur-
face rises in hilly acclivity, and forms an upland mass
of the general shape of a flattened cone ; and this,
being several miles around the shoulder, has a strong
and imposing aspect. The ascent is in general steep ;
and, at intervals, it admits abrupt ridges and ter-
races, as if formed by the action and subsidence of
billows that have now far receded. From a sward
which is beautifully thick, smooth, and green, grey,
foggy, and rugged rocks frequently look out, impart-
ing to the whole surface a freckled and vvarted
aspect. All the interior is fitted only for the rear-
ing of sheep and black cattle, and exists in a state of
commonage. A stripe of decidedly fertile land is
carried round most of the island, between the base
of the uplands and the beach ; and is disposed in en-
closures or 'tonus,' most of which form pleasant
little pictures. The shores on the west are rocky
and precipitous ; but those on the other sides are low
or sloping, and clad with soil. In various parts are
safe harbours for shipping ; and the inhabitants in-
dustriously prosecute the fisheries. Horses and black
cattle, large numbers of sheep, and a huge multitude
of hogs, are maintained on the commons. Several
small lakes send some rivulets to the sea; and the
banks of the burn of Trumbland are rich in botani-
cal specimens. A tolerable inn on the south side of
the island invites all persons in search of the pic-
turesque and the scientific, to include Rousay in a
tour of the Orkneys. The principal mansions are
Westness, and Westside, on the south-west coast.
The chief antiquity is an ancient Norwegian encamp-
ment or Law Ting. Monumental stones, Picts'
houses, and tumuli, are frequent. Population, in 1811,
795; in 1821, 834; in 1831,921.
ROUSAY AND EGLISHAY, an united parish
in Orkney. It comprehends the inhabited islands of
Rousay, Eglishay, Weir, and Enhallow, and two
holms in small pasture islands. So mutually adja-
cent are its various parts that the parish, measured
across land and sea, has an extreme length from east
to west of only 6^ miles, and an extreme breadth of
only 5. Population, in 1801, 1,061 ; in 1831, 1,262.
Houses 244. Assessed property, in 1815, £136. —
The parish is in the presbytery of North Isles, and
synod of Orkney. Patron, the Earl of Zetland.
Stipend £157 I8s. Id. ; glebe £9. One parish-
church is situated in Eglishay, and another is situated
on the south-east side of Rousay, within | of a mile
of Weir. A meeting-house of the LTnited Secession
stands in Rousay. In 1834, the parish-school was
attended by 60 scholars, and three other schools by
113. Parochial schoolmaster's salary £26, with
about £5 fees. Two of the non-parochial schools
ROU
615
ROX
are situated respectively in Eglishay and Weir, and
are open only during winter: the third is a General
Assembly's school ; and this and the parochial
Echool are situated in Rousay.
ROTTTER-BTTRN. See Kilbiunie.
ROUTING-BRIDGE. See Kirkpatrick-Iron-
GRAY.
ROW, a parish in the western extremity of Dum-
bartonshire; bounded on the north and north-east by
Luss ; on the east by Luss and Cardross ; on the
south by the frith of Clyde, which divide it from
Renfrewshire; on the south-west by Gairloch, and
an artificial line of 1| mile, which divides it from
Roseneath ; and on the west by Loch-Long, which
divides it from Argyleshire. It consists of an irre-
gular oblong, stretching north-westward and south-
eastward, parallel to Gairloch, and measuring 9 miles
in length, and from 2:^ to 5 in breadth ; and of a
stripe, running up from the north-east corner along
liOch-Long, and measuring 2^ miles by 6 furlongs.
Its superficial extent is about 64 square miles. The
surface consists principally of two mountain-ranges,
and an intervening valley. The loftier and greater
range forms, along its water-shed, the boundary with
Luss; it is an elongated or continuous mountain,
beautifully waved or curved into a series of summits ;
it is broad-based, soft-featured, and verdant ; and, in
several of its nodular and gently traced eminences, it
altains an altitude of from 2,000 to 2,500 feet above
sea-level. Glenfiuin, which extends between it and
the other range, is remarkable for wild, lonely
beauty, and for doleful historical association : See
Glenfruin. It has little wood, and is a natural
funnel for the passage and the whirling sweep of high
winds ; yet it has much good soil, and is partly under
cultivation. The ridge between it and Gairloch is
properly a single elongated hill, broad in its base,
straight-lined along its summit, but broad and
marshy, gentle in descent at the ends, and, as
to general outline, shaped not unlike an upturned
row-boat. Its altitude, for about 4 miles, is quite
or nearly 1,800 feet. On the side of Glenfruin,
it is naked and heathy; but on the side of Gair-
loch, it has, up two-thirds of its acclivity, received
fiom the hand of cultivation that highly ornate
appearance which is noticed in our article on Rose-
neath. At its south-east end, for about 1^ mile
inward from the boundary with Cardross, it softens
down into land which is very gently upland, and
nearly all cultivated and enclosed, and which might
be not a little beautiful were it duly embellished
with wood. The opposite shore and uplands of
Roseneath are strikingly picturesque, and the general
landscape seen from many points of the acclivity
above Gairloch, has many of the same elements, and
in some points nearly the same groupings, as those
of the panorama beheld from Roseneath : See Rose-
neath. Finnard-hiil, at the west end of the iimer
mountain-range, sends offspurs which fill all the parts
of the parish bordering on Loch- Long, and which
go down to the margin of the water in generally
rapid declivities. The soil of the arable grounds is,
for the most part, light and fertile. Husbandry is
in a highly improved condition, and has reclaimed
and enriched land as extensively, perhaps, as is yet
possible for the art. Considerable attention is given
to the rearing of black cattle, and to the dairy.
Transition limestone and clay-slate abound, and
have been worked, but both are of inferior quality,
and scarcely compensate labour. Some apparently
utuneaning, and certaiidy useless searches, have been
made for coal. Ardincaple-castle, a beautiful seat
of the Duke of Argyle, Ardenconnel-house, and
many extremely elegant modern mansions built on
perpetual lease from the lands of Sir James Col-
quhoun, press upon the shore of the Gairloch, and
fling along the marg-in of the water, and up the
lower ascent of the hill, a profusion of horticultural
and forest embellishment. A part of Ardincaple-
castle is of very ancient date. Ancient castles at
Shandon and Faslane, are traceable only in the low
grass-grown mounds of their mouldered ruins. The
two prettily situated hamlets of Row and Gairloch-
head, — the former the site of the parish-church,
and the latter of a neat extension church, arc
situated respectively 2| miles up Gairloch, and at its
head. The large village of Helensburgh [which
see] stands at the entrance of the loch. The turn-
pike between Glasgow and Arroquhar creeps closely
along the whole coast-line of the parish ; and a road
from Helensburgh to Luss and Balloch runs very
near and parallel to the eastern boundary. Popula-
tion, in 1801,970; in 18-31, 2,037. Houses 274.
Assessed property, in 1815, £5,891 Row is in the
presbytery of Dumbarton, and synod of Glasgow and
Ayr. Patron, the Duke of Argyle. Stipend =£241 Is.;
glebe £20. The amount of unappropriated teinds
is debated. The parish-church was built in 17G3,
and was last altereii in 1835. Sittings 700. A place
of worship, above noticed, in connection with the
Established church was, in lf^37, built at Gairloch-
head, and cost £800. Sittings 300.— An Original
Bingher chapel — now connected with the Establish-
ment, and made a quoad yacra parish-church — was
built at Helensburgh in 1S24, and cost £1,000.
Sittings 700. Stipend £100. — An Independent cha-
pel in Helensburgh was built in 1801, at a cost of
£350 or £400. Sittings 550. Stipend £70 A
Baptist place of worship in Helensburgh, is the
rented wing of a dwelling-house. Sittings 80. No
stipend According to ecclesiastical survey in 1835,
the population, exclusive of the very numerous class
of summer-residents and visiters, consisted then of
1,500 churchmen, 300 dissenters, and 100 nonde-
scripts, above 12 years of age, amounting, with chil-
dren, to about 2,500. — In 1834, there were 9 schools,
■— eight of them private. Parochial schoolmaster's
salary £34 4s. 4Jd., with £12 fees, and £5 other
emoluments The parish was erected out of ancient
Roseneath in 1635, and named Row from the point
or little peninsula — in Gaelic rhu — which projects
into the Gairloch near the church.
ROV»'ARDENNAN, a little hostelry at the foot
of Benlomond, on the eastern side of Loch-Lomond.
The steamer, while proceeding to the head of the
loch, regularly calls here, and lands or receives
tourists.
ROWDILL (Loch), a marine loch or arm of
the sea, at the south-east corner of Harris, in the
Outer Hebrides. It penetrates little more than a
mile into the land, but forks into two parts, and
is covered across the entrance by an islet called
Vally. Rowdill church is a very ancient and curious
structure, originally the church of a monastery or
priory dedicated to St. Clement, afterwards one of
the parish-churches of Harris, but now a neglected
though not much dilapidated ruin. It is of ancient
and tolerable architecture, and "presents," says Dr.
MaccuUoch, " some peculiarities in sculpture which
are well worth the notice of an antiquary, and, from
their analogy to certain allusions in oriental worship,
objects of much curiosity."
ROXBURGH, a parish in lower Teviotdale,
Roxburghshire. It is bounded on the north-west
and north by the Tweed, which divides it from
Makerston and Kelso; on the north-east and east
by Kelso; on the south-east by Eckford ; on the
south by Eckford and Crailing; on the south-west
by Ancrum ; and on the west by Maxton. It con-
sists of an irregular four-sided figure, 4 miles in
616
ROXBURGH.
length south-eastward, by from 2} to 3| miles in
breadth ; and of a stripe 3 miles long, and nearly 1
mile broad, running up between Crailing and Maxton
to Lilliard's Edge. Its superficial extent is about
14 square miles. The Teviot cuts the large division
northward into two not very unequal parts ; and,
jointly with the Tweed, to which it speedily becomes
united, flings upon the district a profusion of natural
ornament. The general surface declines gently
toward the streams ; yet is waving, low, and pleas-,
ant. The highest ground is Dunse-law, at the ex-
tremity of the projecting stripe, and about 300 feet
in altitude. The western and southern borders are
naturally moorish, but have been improved, enclosed,
and profitably subjected to the plough. The soil
elsewhere is, for the most part, a rich, fructiferous,
wheat-bearing loam. Much of the land between the
rivers is so stony as to have originated a tradition,
but evidently a mistaken one, that it was once all
covered with town. If the parochial area be distri-
buted into 400 parts, 295 of them are in tillage, 92
in pasture, and 13 under wood. The chief rocks are
of the trap and sandstone families, little suitei', in
the case of either, to the purposes of building. Two
springs near the Tweed have a remarkable petrify-
ing power, and are environed with very curious pe-
trifactions. Caves of considerable extent, of inter-
esting configuration, and once used as places of
concealment, occur on the banks of the Teviot
An immense natural dam, called the Trow-Craigs,
and consisting of the newest trap, lies across the
Tweed, but has been worn by the river into four
slits, which, when there is no flood, admit in divi-
sions or separated currents, the whole volume of
water. Two of the slits are about 34 feet deep,
and so narrow that a person may bestride them; and
they and the other gullets have a length of about
450 feet, and a descent of 16 feet; and they form
eddies and rapids, and offer to the current alternate
accelerations and obstructions, which at all seasons
occasion a loud grumbling noise, and, at the break-
ing-up of an ice-storm, cause a tremendous roar,
resembling the cry of the tempest-lashed sea, and
heard at a great distance In almost every corner
of the parish, the eye is presented with objects
which nature and art seem vying how best to adorn.
Hedge- row enclosures, files of trees among the fields
and thickets, clumps and groves upon unarable
knolls and rocky hillocks, and curvatures of slope,
render the general aspect of the surface rich atui
beautiful. A tourist travelling eastward along the
highway, a little west of the ancient castle, moves
along the summit of a precipice lined with trees, and
sees, immediately on his left, through the little vistas
of the wood, the majestic Tweed rolling far below
him, " dark, drumbly, and deep ;" and, at a little
distance on the right, the Teviot, forced aside by a
rocky wooded bank, and meandering round a large
plain. Advancing a brief space, he loses sight of both
rivers, and is ingulfed among wood in a hollow of
the way ; speedily emerging from the gloom, he
looks upon one of the most brilliant landscapes in
the world, — the ducal castle and demesne of Fleurs,
— the splendid mansion and embellished grounds of
Spring wood- Park, — the gay and glad and most beau-
tiful rivers of Teviotdale, each spanned by an ele-
gant bridge, — and, right before him, Kelso and its
immediate environs in all their glory. From a par-
ticular spot in the village of Roxburgh, a spectator
looks, on the one hand, along a valley 8 or 10 miles
in length, apparently all covered with trees, or but
thinly diversified with glade and dwelling ; and, on
the other hand, has an open and very diversified
prospect of double the distance, away to the moun-
tainous summits of Carter-fell aiul the adjacent
heights. From a rising ground near the southern
boundary, the Teviot, after moving awhile in con-
cealment behind overshadowing banks, rolls ro-
mantically into view, and instantly passes again
into concealment. The summit of Dunse-law,
crowned with an observatory or summer-house, and
anciently a station of authority and strength, com-
mands by far the most extensive and interesting of
the local prospects, — one so vast, so rich, and so
crowded with objects, including all the elements of
rural landscape, three renowned castles, and a peep
at the German ocean, as to defy succinct description.
— The great Roman road, called AYatling-street,
from Yorkshire to the frith of Forth, bisects the
south-west corner of the parish, and till recently
was used as a drove-road for cattle into England.
The ground vestiges, or strongly-vaulted lower
walls of a fortalice, variously called Roxburgh, Sun-
laws, and Wallace-tower, the subject of many
legends, and seemingly one of a chain of strengths
between Roxburgh-castle and Upper Teviotdale,
exist between the village of Roxburgh and the Te-
viot. Vestiges of numerous camps and trenches
appear in various localities. Vestiges of villages,
malt steeps, and other memorials of inhabitation, are
numerous, and indicate the population, irrespectively
of that of the town, to have formerly been very con-
siderable. Minor antiquities are multitudinous and
very varied. The chief and higher antiquities will
be afterwards noticed The villages are Roxburgh
and Hightown ; noticed, the former below, and the
latter in its alphabetical place. The turnpikes from
Kelso to respectively Hawick and Melrose, pass up
the right banks of the rivers. Population, in 1801,
949; in 1831, 9G2. Houses 196. Assessed pro-
perty, in 1815, £9,564. — Roxburgh is in the presby-
tery of Kelso, and synod of Merse and Teviotdale.
Patron, the Duke of Roxburgh. Stipend £225 2s.
7d. ; glebe £20. Unappropriated teinds £1,346 4s.
4d. There are two parish schools. Salary of the
first master £34 4s. 4^d., with from £12 to £15
fees; of the second £17 2s. 2id., with £17 9s. fees.
The parts of the ancient parish on which stood the
burgh and the castle, are now united to Kelso :
which see. A chapel, subordinate to the mother
church of Old Roxburgh, anciently stood on the
manor of Fairnington.
Roxburgh, a village, and anciently a town, in the
centre of the cognominal parish, 2 miles south of the
Castle of Roxburgh, and 3} south-south-west of
Kelso. It figures in early history just as distinctly
as Old Roxburgh ; but it never rivalled the impor-
tance, or imitated the grandeur, or shared the proud
notice of the burgh, and it escaped the burgh's fate.
Its fortunes, while obscure, have been fluctuating;
and, even within the last century, have ebbed and
flowed with the effect of greatly diminishing and
then doubling the population. Unequivocal evi-
dences exist, or have been dug up all round it, of its
once having possessed the bulkiness of a town. It
stands on a pleasant southerly slope, half-a-mile west
of the Teviot; and is divided by a small rivulet into
the Upper and the Nether Towns. In the midst
of it stands the parish-church, an edifice of 1752.
Population, in 1792, about 200; in 1840, about 400.
— Old Roxburgh, now quite extinct, stood over
against Kelso, on a rising ground at the west end of
a fertile plain, peninsulated by the confluence of the
Tweed and the Teviot. Brief but obscure notices
by various historians indicate that it was a place of
considerable note long previous to the 12th century,
but fail to throw light on its condition, or furnish
any certain facts in its history.* While David I.,
* No mention is made of Roxburjjli till after the Norman
conquest. Tlie word, iudeed, claims a Norman origin. In
ROXBURGH.
617
wlio mounted the throne in 1 124, was yet only Earl
of Northumberland, the town, as well as the castle,
belonged to him as an appanage of his earldom ; and
appears to have been so tiourishing that it could not
accommodate the crowds who pressed into it to en-
rol themselves its citizens. An overflow of its pop-
ulation was the occasion of the erection of the new
town, the original of the present village, and the
Easter Roxburgh of history. Whether the new
town was built by David, or at a period prior to the
date of his influence, is uncertain; but the fact of its
being an offshoot at so early a period, strikingly
evinces how great and attractive a seat of population
the district at the embouchure of the Teviot was in
even rude and semi- barbarous times. Among other
elements of the old town's importance in the time
of David, it possessed an enciiictunng fortification
of wall and ditch, and had, under the superintendence
of the abbot of Kelso, schools which figured magnifi-
cently in the age's unpolished tales of fame. When
David ascended the throne, it became, as a matter
of course, a king's buigh, and possibly was the one
which the monarch most favoured; aiul, in the loose
phraseology of such general history as overlooks the
fact that royal burghs were a commodity of later in-
vention, it is said to have been one of the first royal
burghs which David erected. It eventually wore
all the forms of burgh honour ; it was governed by
a provost or alderman and bailies ; it had a burgh or
city seal ; and it was the seat of a mint, — coins of
William the Lion, and of James II., having been
struck in it, the latter probably during the king's
siege of the castle. So early as the reign of Wil-
liam, it enjoyed the privilege of a weekly market;
Kelham's Dictionary we have " Rokeboriith. Roxburgh ;"
from roke, a rdck, and boridh — perhaps orisiinally written bo-
ruch — evidently tlie same with the Anpid-Saxdii borli. bttr^h,
'a boroiig^h.' In charters of David I. the orthiigriiphy is
Hokesbiir^. It also appears as Rnksbur^. Rocfshurg, Rnchel-
huic, Rokesburcli, Rosbur^, or Rnseburff/i — which i-i the vul-
f;ar pronunciation — and Rousburge. Some have ursjed that this
is the proper appellation of the place, being most expressive
of its beautiful situation ; as in the supposed etymon of Mont-
rose from Mons rosurum. " Where Tvvede and Teifv [Teviot]
uuite their streams," says Camden, " is Rosburgor Roxbnrgli,
anciently called Marchidnn, because situate on the marches,
â– where is a castle antiently very strong by nature and art."
It has been objected to this derivation of the word, that Cam-
den's intimation is not warrant'd by the fact; as it was not a
town in the marches. But if by this is meant that Roxburgh
was not included in the district commonly called the Merse, it
Bhould be observed, that, when Camden wrote, this name had
been used with greater latitude ; for he reckons Kelso a town
belonging to it, from which Roxburgh is not a mile distant.
As Northumberland extends up the river T«eed, within a few
miles of Roxburgh, it iniglit with great propriety be denomi-
nated a fort on the boundary. The anonymous Geographer of
Ravenna, who wrote in the 7th or 8th century, having deno-
minated a town in North Britain Mnrcotaxon, Baxter views
this as a slight error for Mnrcosaxon ; and as undoubtedly de.
noting Roxburgh, formerly denominated Marchiduit, or 'the
Town of the Boundary.' For here, lie adds, "iinciently was
the boundary between the Saxons and Pictisli Britons ; Marc
in both languages signifying 'a sign,' and also 'a limit.'"
Both Johnstone and Pinkerton, however, give the word in the
form of Marcotaxon. " Marchidnn, in the British jpeech,"
according to Chalmers, " would signify the towering fortress :
and this name would be very descriptive of the position of Rox-
burgh, if we suppose, what is not improbable, that there was
8
Romans entered their diversifi^'d country." It affords a strong
presumption that there was a Roman station in the neighbour,
hood, that, in the Advocates' Library of Edinburgh, there is
an altar inscribed to the Divi Campextres, or Fairies, which
was found in the romantic vicinity of Roxburgh-castle. Chal.
mers refers to the Welsh march., 'towering,' nr 'of high or
luxuriant growth," and to din, ' a border or limit,' 'a fortified
hill, or mount.' But, as this etymon is not supported by the
heiijht of the knoll, the term might be more naturally traced
to the Anglo-Saxon marc, or mearce, ' a march,' and dun, 'a
bill.' This derivation also more nearly corresponds with its
subsequnnt designation of Marchemnni, or Marcliimond, lat-
terly Marchmont. Sir James Dalrymple throws out a singular
fancy in regard to the origin of the word ; Marchmotii, " a
name," he says, " perhaps given it by tbe Romans, esteeming
it a fort set upon the marcli or boundarie of the world." As
if the la-t syllable had been from the Latin mundus, 'the
world.' Boece has given it a new designation, Marchenium,
which is more obscure than any of the rest.
and, at a very early period, it had the privilege also
of an annual fair, — -the original of the great fair of
St. James, which cotitinues to be held on its site,
and now belongs to Kel-:o. In 1368, its magistrates
having sworn fealty to Edward III., it received from
that monarch a charter confirming to its burgesses
all the privileges bestowed on them by the kings of
Scotland ; and, in 1460, in consequence of its having
succumbed to the power of England, and forgotten
alike its patriotism and its loyality, it was erased
from the list of Scottish burghs. The town is said