Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/186

Rh PECKLETON. 174 PEEBLES. The Baroness Le Despencor is lady of the manor. A fair is held on Whit Tuesday. PECKLETON, a par. in the hand, of Sparkcnhoe, co. Leicester, 6 miles N.E. of Hinckley, its post town, and 3 S.W. of Desford railway station. This place was called in ancient writings indifferently PeMington, Pechldcn, and Peycelton. It is a small village situated near Leicester Forest, and is wholly agricultural. The par. includes the limit, of Tooley Park, with the ext. par. places of Bassett House and Knoll House, and a portion of the disafforested chase of Leicester, of which last, by an Act of Enclosure in 1771, 109 acres were allotted to this parish tithe free. The living is a rect. * in the dioc. of Peterborough, val. 474. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient structure, with a low embattled and pinnacled tower, surmounted by a crocketed spire, and containing six bells. The E. window contains some fragments of ancient stained glass, and in the chancel are effigies of the Motons, who for- merly held the manor. The parochial charities produce about 5 per annum. Peckleton House is the principal residence. Lady Noel Byron is lady of the manor. PJCDDER'S WAY, the name given to the Roman or British road from Ixworth, in. Suffolk, to Hunstanton on the Wash. PEDLINGE, a hmlt. in the par. of Saltwood, hund. of Hayne, lathe of Shepway, co. Kent, near Hythe. PEDMORE, a par. in the lower div. of the hund. of Halfshire, co. Worcester, 1J mile S.E. of Stourbridge, its railway station and post town. The village, which is of small extent, is situated under the Clent hills, and is chiefly agricultural. Pedmore, in the year 1699, was given to the blue-coat school of Stourbridge by Thomas Foley, Esq., the founder of that institution. Stone is quarried, and some of the inhabitants are employed in nail making. The Oxford, Worcester, Wolver- hampton, and Stourbridge railway passes through the village, as does also the road leading from Stourbridge to Bromsgrove. The land is chiefly arable, and well adapted for barley and turnips. The living is a rect. * in the dioc. of Worcester, val. 407, in the patron, of Old Swinford Hospital. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, is an ancient structure, nearly clothed in ivy. The Feoffees of Old Swinford are lords of the manor. PEDWARDINE, a hmlt. in the par. of Bramptou- Bryann, hund. of Wigmore, co. Hereford, 4J miles N.E. of Presteign. It is joined with Boresford to form a tnshp. Here was once a castle belonging to the family of Hay, barons of Podwardine and earls of Kinnoul. PEDWELL, a hmlt. in the par. of Ashcott, co. Somerset, 7 miles E. of Bridgwater. PEEBLES, a par., post and market town, an ancient royal burgh, and the capital of the co. of Peebles, Scot- land, G miles N.W. of Inneiieithen, and 22 S. of Edin- burgh by road, or 27 by railway. It is a station on the North British and Caledonian railways, both of which have branch lines to this point. The parish, which is of large extent, being 10 miles in length from N. to S., and 6 miles in extreme breadth, lies principally in Peeblesshire, but has a small part in Selkirkshire. It is bounded by the parishes of Eddlestone, Innerleithen, Lyne, Manor, Stobo, Traquair, and Yarrow. It includes part of the vale of the Tweed, which is fertile, comprising upwards of 3,000 acres under tillage, but the greater part of the parish is occupied by hilly ridges and isolated eminences, which, though in general less mountainous than the hills of most other parishes of Peeblesshire, are nevertheless only suitable for pastoral grounds. About 8,000 sheep and many herds of black cattle are pastured on these hills, and about 1,800 acres are under natural wood or plantation. The town of Peebles, which contains a population of 2,682, is situated on the N. bank of the Tweed, which is here joined by the Eddlestone river. It was in early times a seat of the Scottish kings, and had a royal castle and chapel. In 1260 Alexander III. erected here the Cross church and Trinity Friars monas- tery in honour of St. Nicholaus, of which but few traces remain. In 1296 the bailiffs and burgesses swore fealty to Edward I. of England at Berwick, who ten years afterwards, as lord paramount, granted the town, with its mills and pertinents, to Aylmer de Valence and his heirs. In 1334 Edward Baliol conveyed it to Edward III. of England, to be held in perpetuity as part of the purchase money of a dependent crown. In 1357 it was made a royal burgh by David II., and sent two members to parliament. James I. is said to have composed here " Peblis to the Play," on the occasion of witnessing the festival of Beltane, or "the fire of Baal," which was anciently celebrated with great pomp, but is now obsolete. In 1546, the English, under the command of the Earl of Hertford, reduced the town to ashes, but spared its churches and its cross, and in 1604 it was accidentally burnt. In 1585 the Protestant lords passed through it in their march against the Earl of Arran at Stirling. In 1745 a detachment of the troops of Prince Charles Stuart encamped a day at Peebles on their way southwards. In the great French war the citizens were eminently loyal, and mustered no fewer than 820 effective volunteers and yeomanry out of an available population of only 8,800. Previous to the passing of the Eeform Act it contributed to send one member with Selkirk to parliament, but now participates in returning one member for the county of Peebles. It consists of the new and old towns separated by the Eddlestone river, but connected by two bridges, one a stone erection of a single arch, and the other a timber bridge for foot passengers only. The New Town occupies the peninsula formed by the Tweed and Eddlestone, and comprises two main streets, the High-street, running from near the bowling green at the extremity of the peninsula to the place where tho ancient town cross stood, and North- gate-street, running nearly parallel with the Eddlestoue. These streets are connected by several narrow and subordinate thoroughfares, with a promenade and play- ground called Tweed-green, where the burgh school stands, facing the river to the S. The old town is of small extent, consisting almost entirely of a single street of very ancient thatched houses, built on the declivity of a ridge, and running down towards the bank of the Tweed, which is here crossed by two bridges, the one a structure of unknown antiquity, consisting of five arches in the main channel of the river, with three side arches to assist in carrying off a flood, and which was widened in 1835, so as to admit of two carriages passing each other, and the other an iron bridge, constructed in 1818, for foot passengers only. The old walls, which formerly surrounded the new town on all sides, except where it was washed by the Tweed, have been removed, as also have the old castle and the cross, similar to that at Edin- burgh, which last once adorned the High-street ; but there are still several venerable structures remaining, as Dean's House, the town residence of the noble family of March, and the natal residence of the last Duke of Queensbury, with its curious castellated front and " pepper-box " turret, admitting ingress only by an arched passage leading through the back courtyard. This mansion is immortalised as the scene of tho incident which forms the subject of Sir Walter Scott's ballad of " The Maid of Neidpath," and Campbell's " Earl March gazed on his dying child." There are also remains of the famous church of the Holy Cross, at the E. end of the town, being one of the four churches in Scotland called minis- teries, and at the W. end of the town ruins of St. Andrew's church, occupying the site of the pristine parish church of Peebles ; and in the New Town, near the site of the old cross, the holy well of St. Mungo, which still affords a copious supply of water. The principal public buildings are the county hall and gaol, a stone structure in the Elizabethan style of architecture, erected in 1844, the burgh schools, the "Tontine" inn, in the High-street, a savings-bank, three commercial banks, branches of the Linen Company's, the Union and the City of Glasgow banks, a literary and scientific institution, Freemasons' lodge, library and reading rooms, besides 15 insurance agencies, horticultural and agricultural societies, a widow and orphan's friend society, a curling club, and several other institutions. It has a public trust water company and gas works. One monthly newspaper, tha