Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, 1654
Name: | Blaeu, Joan, 1596-1673 |
Title: | Andreae Melvini Scotiae Topographia |
Pagination: | [7v-8r] |
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Translation of text:
the Lammermuir Hills and the pathless tracks of Cockburnswood close it where the neighbouring Merse closes and where the midday sun is highest in his orbit; turning a little where late in the day Phebus falls into the waters of the River Tweed, it touches the confines of the city of Lauder. Lauderdale encloses the city of Lauder; Tweeddale transmits the River Tweed through its middle into the eastern water. With Tweeddale towards the upright sun and the falling sun are contiguous over a wide area Liddesdale, Nithsdale, Clydesdale, with rivers of related name Liddel, Nith, Clyde. The Liddel and Nith rush quickly into the Irish Sea; the Forth to the summer rising and the Clyde to the winter setting are looked on generally by the region of Lothian, cultivated and lovely, productive in every crop and in cattle and in people. It is watered by the Tyne, by the Esk, by the Leith, by the Almond, the Esk two-fold, finally joining with its double channel into one. The rivers rise in the Lammermuir and Pentland Hills, and are taken into her salt bosom by the goddess of Forth. For towns it has Dunbar, Haddington, Dalkeith and Edinburgh with its rock, and Leith and Linlithgow. This whole region abounds in a whole rich supply of materials and in human culture.
To the west Clydesdale alone, stretching along both banks of the River Clyde, is split into two prefectures; in the upper region of these is a place raised to the single mound of a modest hill, from which rises the threefold origin of three rivers. The Tweed flows into the Caledonian ocean, the Annan into the Vergivian deep, the Clyde into the Deucaledonian sea, thrusting foamed wave forward with great force (2). Clydesdale has the city of Lanark, as it were an ark rich with the snowy fleeces of lanigerous bleeters; and Hamilton, long envied by many and double - one now holds the Duke and his palace raised to heaven, the other rich in land supplies its commodities to the people. After it is the place, covering the river with multiple vault of stone arches, whose famous name is Glasgow. Glasgow, offspring of the Muses, and famous mother; Glasgow, first seat of our labour in a city of our native land and of our fame, when bringing offerings to you shall I compose many verses worthy of you with Sophoclean buskin? This on the winter setting is touched by noble Kyle, then turning to the midday is Galloway, by whose coast what remains of the kingdom on that side is covered; from it Nithsdale is separated by the Cluden Water; more productive of pasture than of crops, it urges into the Irish Sea the Urr and Dee and Ken and Luce and Cree. It swells with hills but does not rise into high mountains. In the valleys between it makes the water stagnant like a lake: before the days of autumn are made equal to the nights, fat eels are fished in that stream with wicker-baskets at great profit, and they sell them fresh or treat them with a little salt and store them for winter. The final part of the side which sticks out is Novantum, and Retigomus (3) is the whole bay at the mouth of the Luce. Opposite to this is a bay, perhaps Vidogara, this is called in the vernacular Loch Ryan; the part which sticks out and runs forward in a long stretch between these the natives call the Rhinns of Galloway, and Novantum they call the Mull, you would say this is beak, that a line or sharp gaping mouth.
From the back of Galloway and below Vidogara, Carrick declines gently to the salt waters of the Clyde; the Rivers Stinchar and Girvan both intersect it, girded on this side and that by lovely houses. Where it swells widely into moderate hills and between the rivers, there are fertile pastures and fields blessed with crops; rich, it is self-sufficient by land and sea, and not only for itself but offers abundantly to its neighbours. The River Doon separates it from the region Kyle, the Doon rising from a spring and lake of the same name, whose borders enclose an island and on the actual island is a castle.
Then Kyle: Galloway closes it from the mid-day, and Clydesdale touches it at the summer rising of Phebus, the River Irvine and the fields of Cunninghame at his setting; the magnificent River Ayr splits it in the middle; and on the bank of the river is a well-known market and city of the same name as the river with its sandy and liquid shore; not so much productive of crops or herds as of strong men, whom it trains to a great extent on the sandy plain; limited resources indeed strengthen spirits and bodies.
After this Cimbrian Cunninghame runs to the north, and repels the Clyde and forces its banks, reduced to the fashion of a proper river, into narrowness. Next to this on the east is a parish, commonly called the Barony of Renfrew; a double river with double bank splits it in half, the name of both rivers is Cart.
Hence on both banks of the Clyde stretches for a great distance Clydesdale; divided into several parishes, it pours out on the left the River Douglas and thrusts one Avon into the Clyde; another Avon cuts it on the right, which separates the land of Lothian from the land of Stirling: each claims this name as proper to itself, which in fact was once common to all rivers, as Wales, diverse in dialect, calls the Avon (4).
Thence from the mid-day the second Avon we have mentioned divides the lands of Stirling from the land of Lothian, from the sun's rising the estuary of the Forth, until the deep bears the yoke of a bridge near Stirling, where smaller with restricted flow it reduces itself to the manner of a proper river. Here, young Henry, raised on the high castle, you seek on all sides with wide prospect the surface of the plain, from here you espy green groves and lovely swards, and cattle among the trees and wild bullocks in front, whose hair is thick and hanging from leonine jaws, who defeat the snow in whiteness, the wind in speed. From there also the varied bends and varied bends back, the roving wanderings and the waters of the river among green meadows: where like a Meander of the Forth (5), it plays in its curving waves, and nourishes your, O God, soft Ochils with glassy wave and green plain. Here is that land of Stirling, which rises hence into high mountains, thence descends into low valleys, and with rivers irrigates the crops and fruitful fields. On the left mounds of earth, two duns of peace have been raised by the skill and hand of men at the water of Carron; a little below has been built without mortar a small round building, with a firm structure of joined rocks and stone fixed into stone; it stands by its weight at the bottom, and gradually narrows towards the open top, like a trophy or a temple, to which a terminus is attached. On the right of the Carron the land, otherwise almost level, rises to a hill which is raised midway between the small building and the Duns of peace, in which at the actual bend of the angle from the estuary of the Clyde to the confluence of the Forth and Avon, here are extant inscribed stones, or tombs, like famous monuments in the Roman manner of safety won by leaders and centurions (6).
Beyond the land of Stirling is Lennox, split by the River Clyde from the prefecture of Renfrew, as from that of Glasgow by the River Kelvin, but from that of Stirling by mountains, from the parish of Menteith by the River Forth; it ends in the ridges of the Grampian mountain, at whose feet in a hollow valley the large Loch Lomond unfolds, which quickly breaks out at the mid-day into the River Leven, which enters the Clyde with great force at the castle and city of Dumbarton. The end of Lennox rises to the height of the end of the Grampian, with hills cut by a small sea-loch, whose name is Gairloch from its shortness. Beyond this is a more ample loch, in fact and by name Long, called from the inflowing river; at this boundary Lennox and Cowal are joined together. From here Cowal, from here Argyll and Knapdale are now divided into many parts by many narrow lochs (7) which pour in from the estuary of the River Clyde. Here a famous loch is, from the river Fyne which it takes in, named Fyne (8), which stretches more than sixty miles in length. There is also in Knapdale itself Loch Awe, in this is a small island and a fortified castle (9); from it the River Awe flows into the Deucaledonian Sea, the only one to so go out in this region.
Beyond Knapdale to the winter sun falling in his axis, Kintyre 'head of the region' runs out; it faces Ireland, from which it is separated by a modest strait; the isthmus is longer indeed than broad; but a narrow place joins it to Knapdale with a restricted throat, which stretches scarcely a mile over low sand, over which the sailor, carrying his small ship on bent back and shoulders, seeks a shortening of the voyage to Knapdale. Lorne here adjoins Argyll as far as the foot of Lochaber, productive of crops, and where the Grampian mountain drops its ridges into flat plains and is passable and lower, this region is called Breadalbane, for it is the broadest part of Albion, but where it most raises itself on high, it is invoked as Drum Albin, Back of Scotland; and through its many large slopes it sends down rivers on both sides from the high Back: some into the mid-day, some into the north, especially the great Tay itself and the beautiful Earn: for the River Earn bursts out of a smooth loch of the same name, pours towards the winter rising of the sun, and below Perth slips under a bridge into the River Tay.
Strathearn took its name from the river that pours into it: 'strath' in the old language means the area and flat fields on both sides for the whole course of a river. Between this and the Forth Menteith acquired its name from the River Teith, which furrows the region in the middle. The Ochil Mountains follow it, hard to cultivate for the most part (10) ; they and the richer land at their feet are assigned to the parish of Strathearn. What remains of land as far as the Forth, headlong ambition has broken into various prefectures: into North Clackmannan, into those of Culross and Kinross. All the land from these and the Ochil Mountains to the sea fortunately all relies on rich soil, widest where Loch Leven splits it with its waters; from there it confines its shores more narrowly as far as Balcomie castle and Crail fort. As well as other lochs and liquid rivers, it pours out the distinguished Leven, both river and loch. All the coast is girt with frequent small towns, among which is the lodging of the Muses, the noble Shrine of Andrew; the old people called this the shrine of Regulus, Alba of wild boars, and Mucresia in the old language. Further inland is Cupar in the middle of the region; here all the people of Fife (11) gather to receive all justice. Where it touches Strathearn is Abernethy, once the old capital of the Picts. Here the Earn flows into the Tay. The Tay itself, ruler of waters, bursts out from Drum Albin in a loch twice ten plus two miles long; where it bends towards the ridges of Grampian, it touches Atholl, a fertile region in the very valleys below the feet of Albin. Part unfolds into the plain of Blair (12) , naked of trees. Below Atholl on the right bank sits Caledonia, famous for its lovely city and old name. Twelve miles below Caledonia sits Perth, on the same green bank. On the left bank of the river below Atholl (13) to the east is Gowrie, well known for its plains heavy with crops. Then below this stretching between Esk and Tay is Aeneja (to the ancient Scots), Angus (to us), which according to others is called Horestia. What of the fact that one Esk cuts it in the middle and another ends it? Where the Tay and twofold Esk slip past Angus, the Esk on one side washes Montrose on a mountain and Brechin in a valley, and the Tay on the other washes Dundee set on a higher hill. From here, twelve miles outside the Tay directly along the shore occurs Abrinca, then Red Head at blind shoals, visible from a distance. The South Esk divides the region, the North one divides it from the Mearns, flat in part until beyond Fordoun and Dunnottar the encroaching Grampian throws itself down and slowly subsides into the sea. Two miles farther on the Dee suffers a stone bridge with covered arch, then the Don a smaller one; beside the twin rivers a double city is founded, ancient and modern, the new at the Dee, the old at the Don with frequent salmon fishing, the former more famous for frequent trading: formerly the latter was not known for leisurely studies; now both rejoice in Parnassus and the Lyceum's shade. Mar begins from this very narrow front between the two rivers, and gradually widens out as far as Badenoch, extending to sixty miles in length; with a continuous ridge it sends rivers to the sea from both sides. Aber is next to Badenoch, moderately inclined to the Deucaledonian Sea, rich by both land and sea, especially fortunate in crops and fortunate in pasture and fertile in all glad provision of scaly creatures, pleasant with the green shade of woods and glades and springs and rivers and grass on the lovely banks.