In the ancient taxatio of 1167, the Kirk of Gogar is valued at 12 marks, and in Bagimont's Roll, at L. 5, 6s. 8d. John Coise's stipend was the haill third of the parsonage and vicarage of Gogar, and amounted to L. 22, 4s. 5d. Scots.

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The only distinguished rector of Gogar was Willielmus Manderstoun, who was also Doctor in Medicine, and Rector of the University of St Andrews in 1530. He was the author of two learned works in logic and moral philosophy, and probably held the living of Gogar as a sinecure. Another rector, James Heriot, Bachilarius in Decretis, died in 1440, and was buried in Corstorphine church.

Gogar Kirk, Church-yard, and Glebe.-A small portion of the kirk of Gogar, which still exists, was converted into a family bu rying-ground, by the proprietor of the estate, soon after the Reformation. In 1748, Sir Robert Myreton of Gogar applied to the presbytery for a feu of the glebe and church-yard of Gogar, consisting of four acres of arable land, then let at L. 4 per annum, and he offered to pay to the minister and his successors that rent as a perpetual feu-duty. This arrangement was formally agreed to by the Presbytery, and was acted on down to the year 1825, when Dr Scott, then clergyman of the parish, having been advised that the transaction was illegal, raised an action against Mr Ramsay of Barnton, and was successful in recovering the glebe and church-yard as an inalienable property of the church. It is now let by the clergyman at a rent of L. 4 per acre.

Ecclesiastical Statistics.-The church is seated for 536 persons. Of this number there are appropriated to the heritors, according to their valued rent, 470 sittings: to the minister, 11; the elders, 10; the schoolmaster, 8; pew for baptisms, 5; and to the poor, 32.

Education. In the Report of the Presbyterian Visitation of August 1598, it is said that "they fand na schoolmaster in the parish, qlk they desyrit thame to amend." Whether this recommendation was immediately attended to does not appear; but from an entry at the commencement of the parish register, it is evident that a school existed previous to 1646. In that entry it is stated, that "Mr James Chalmer had agreed to be schoolmaster on receiving one hundred merks, for the payment of which the whole heritors were to be stented according to the proportion of their lands, in addition to what had been doted to former schoolmasters by George Lord Forrester, viz. ane house and yards within See M'Crie's Life of Melville, Vol. I. p. 437. 2

EDINBURGH.

the towne of Corstorphine, lying betwixt the minister's manse on the east, and John Aitken, mason, on the west, together with ane aiker and half of land lying above the smiddie upon the east side of the walk which goes to Cramond, and an aiker of land lying bewest the Cowesbrigge, upon the south syde of the little house that stands in the way-side, commonly called the Lamp Aiker,* within the parochine of St Cuthberts," &c. In December 1655, the Session, by advice of the Presbytery, prohibited a man and his wife from teaching in the village, as an interference with the rights of the parochial schoolmaster. In 1699, however, it appears that there were two schoolmasters in the parish, the one probably teaching at Corstorphine, and the other at Gogar.

In April 1714, the fees per quarter to be charged by the parish schoolmaster were fixed by the kirk-session as follows, viz. Latin and arithmetic, 2s. 6d. ; English and writing, 1s. 8d.; English alone, 1s. 2d. In September 1756, they were altered by the same authority to the following sums :-Latin, 5s. ; writing and arithmetic, 2s. 6d.; English, 2s. The fees now chargeable are, English, 2s. 6d.; writing, 3s.; writing and arithmetic, including mensuration and geography, 3s. 6d.; Latin or French, 5s. The average number attending the parish school is from 50 to 70. The annual salary of the parish schoolmaster is L.34, 4s., and his perquisites are a dwelling-house, garden, and one acre and one rood of land in the village, with the Lamp Acre, near Coltbridge, in St Cuthbert's parish, which has been feued to Mr Murray of Henderland for the following feu-duties per acre, viz. one boll wheat, one boll oats, and one boll barley.

There has been, since the middle of the seventeenth century, a school at the village of Gogar. It is supported by subscriptions, which at present amount to L. 9 per annum. The school fees per quarter are, for English, 2s. 6d., and for English and arithmetic, 3s. The number of scholars averages about 40. Some years ago a school was opened at Stanhopemill, and last year another at Four-mile-end. These are taught by Dissenters, and have no support except the fees paid by the scholars. There is a thriving female school in the village of Corstorphine, and there are Sabbath schools both there and in Gogar.

Library. A parish library was collected in the village of Corstorphine in 1838 by the present clergyman.

Poor and Parochial Funds.-In former times there was a box See last Statistical Account for origin of this name.

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kept by the session-clerk, and from time to time examined by the clergyman and elders, in which was deposited all the contributions of the parish, whether collected at the church door or by the deacons. The money contained in this box was primarily intended for the poor, but it was also applied to such ecclesiastical purposes as the session might approve of. In the beginning of 1646, for instance, about L. 200 Scots was applied in repairing the church, and taking down the old parish church; and afterwards the damage done by Cromwell and his soldiers to the church seats and place of public repentance was remedied from this source. The amount contained in the box in November 1646, was L. 208 Scots.

A large additional parochial fund was afterwards obtained in the following manner: Marion Corstorphine, a foundling, who belonged to, and had been bred up from infancy in the parish, was servant to a gentleman of extensive property in the vicinity of Edinburgh. Her master, in July 1753, had, after having tied her hands and feet, beat her with a horse whip in a most barbarous manner, to the great effusion of her blood, and he then placed her, stripped of clothing, in a dark cellar, where she was detained during the whole night, and no one allowed to come near her.

On escaping from this savage treatment, she applied to Mr George Fordyce, the minister of Corstorphine, for protection and redress. He at once took up the case, and having threatened a criminal prosecution, the matter was speedily compromised by the master, who agreed to pay immediately L. 100 Sterling, which Mr Fordyce apportioned as follows, viz. L. 50 to Marion, L. 25 to the poor of Corstorphine Parish, L. 10 to the poor of another parish where the outrage had been committed, and L. 15 to the Infirmary of Edinburgh; and afterwards to pay Marion L. 10 Sterling, yearly, until her marriage, and upon that occasion an additional sum of L. 100 Sterling.

This foundling, in return for the interest taken in her by the minister of Corstorphine, left her whole means to the poor of the parish, and, accordingly, on 14th December 1768, we find that the poor's funds amounted in value to L. 579, 8s. 4d. Sterling.

The funds belonging to the poor at present are as follows, viz. 1. Sum in bond to road trustees, L. 250; 2. Legacy from the late A. Keith, Esq. L. 100; 3. Do. from the late Captain Charles Hope Watson, L. 100; total, L. 450.

The number of the poor in 1709 was only 5, and the amount paid for their maintenance monthly by the session was L. 4, 9s. 6d.

Scots. The number at present on the list of paupers is 38, while the sum annually raised by assessment, collections, interest of the funds and other sources, amounted in 1888 to L. 299, 15s. Sterling.

The bell of the church has the following inscription on it :— "Sir James Forrester of Corstorphine gifted me to this kirk, anno 1577, and the heritors of Corstorphine renewed me anno 1728.” The weight of the old bell here referred to was 302 lbs., which the heritors sold for L. 136 Scots. The present bell weighs 384 lbs., and the price of it, with the wheel and whole appendages, was L. 436 Scots.

Fairs. In 1662, James Lord Forrester obtained an act of Parliament, authorizing four free fairs in the year to be held in the burgh of Corstorphine, "as a fit place for ease of the leidges, and for selling of horses, nolt, sheip, bestial, and other goods and merchandize." The days fixed were as follows; 1. on the first Tuesday after Easter; 2. on 24th July; 3. on 26th August; and 4. on 20th October.

None of these fairs are now held; but there are two holidays in summer, which have succeeded them,-the one is held on the first Tuesday of June, and is called Corstorphine Fair. The other is the Carters' Play, and is held on the third Friday of June. MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS.

No parish has undergone more frequent and complete changes on its surface than Corstorphine. Notwithstanding its proximity to Edinburgh, which ought to have secured its improvement at an early period, it is only in comparatively recent times that it has been brought generally into cultivation.

From the substratum of the western meadow, which consists of live moss, composed of decayed trees, it is evident that this part of the parish was at one time overgrown with wood. This may have been the case at the time the Romans were in Britain, for the whole of this part of the country is described by Tacitus as abounding in forests; but, at all events, this was the early state of the western meadow, and probably also of other parts of the parish.

When by accident or otherwise these trees were destroyed, the meadow would in the course of nature become a bog or mire, and water would collect and cover its surface during the rainy season of the year. We have abundant evidence that it was at one time in this condition, from the name Goyle Myre, by which it is still known.

The castle of the Forresters, which was situated between the

meadows, was surrounded by a moat and ditch full of water. The unsettled state of the country in the earlier periods of Scottish history would naturally lead them to increase the quantity of water which existed in the meadows as a means of defence, and it is not improbable that they admitted this additional supply from the Gogar-burn, at least, the appearance of the lochs in Bleaw's Map of Lothian would lead to this conclusion.

In the narratives of the marches of Leslie and Cromwell in 1650, the meadows and the fields at Gogar are described as full of bogs and marshes. The lochs had been drained before that period, but it is not known when this drainage took place. Reference is made to it in an application which James Lord Forrester presented to Parliament in July 1661, where he complains that "the whole meadow ground and low-lying lands was undone by the overflowing of the Gogar-burne, and that partly through the neglect of those who formerly were accustomed to cast and keep clear the ditches and stanks through which the water did naturally pass, and partly by the inbreaking of the said water in the lands of Redhewes."

Part of the ground formerly occupied by the lochs became a common, which was not divided until the middle of the last century, and then, and for many years afterwards, the whole meadows produced only natural grass, which was partly pastured by the villagers, and the rest let to tenants, who sold the grass for the dairies of Edinburgh.

In a MS. map of Mid-Lothian, by John Adair, in the Advocates' Library, dated 1684, the meadows are represented as completely covered by water, from which it would appear that irrigation was then used, s it is not likely that they would have been drawn in this manner by a surveyor of so great experience and accuracy, had the flooding been merely accidental, and occasioned by heavy rains.

About fifty or sixty years ago, the meadows were for the first time ploughed, and since that time they have been always under tillage, although the crops have been frequently destroyed by the autumnal floods. This happened in the western meadow, so lately as 1836, when about 20 acres of green crop in the Goyle Myre were covered for some weeks with water and waterfowl, and not a vestige of them remained after the water subsided. This and similar disappointments led the farmers to attempt to effect a more complete drainage of the meadows, by widening, straightening,

Thomson's Acts, Vol. vii.