1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ettrick

ETTRICK, a river and parish of Selkirkshire, Scotland. The river rises in Capel Fell (2223 ft.), a hill in the extreme S.W. of the shire, and flows in a north-easterly direction for 32 m. to its junction with the Tweed, its principal affluent being the Yarrow. In the parish of Ettrick were born James Hogg, the “Ettrick shepherd” (the site of the cottage being marked by a monument erected in 1898), Tibbie (Elizabeth) Shiel (1782–1878), keeper of the famous inn at the head of St Mary’s Loch, both of whom are buried in the churchyard, and Thomas Boston (1713–1767), one of the founders of the Relief church. About 2 m. below Ettrick church is Thirlestane Castle, the seat of Lord Napier and Ettrick, a descendant of the Napiers of Merchiston, and beside it is the ruin of the stronghold that belonged to John Scott of Thirlestane, to whom, in reward for his loyalty, James V. granted a sheaf of spears as a crest, and the motto, “Ready, aye ready.” Two miles up Rankle Burn, a right-hand tributary, lies the site of Buccleuch, another stronghold of the Scotts, which gave them the titles of earl (1619) and duke (1663). Only the merest fragment remains of Tushielaw tower, occupying high ground opposite the confluence of the Rankle and the Ettrick, the home of Adam Scott, “King of the Border,” who was executed for his misdeeds in 1530. Lower down the dale is Deloraine, recalling one of the leading characters in The Lay of the Last Minstrel. If the name come from the Gaelic dail Orain, “Oran’s field,” the district was probably a scene of the labours of St Oran (d. 548), an Irish saint and friend of Columba. It seems that Sir Walter Scott’s rhythm has caused the accent wrongly to be laid on the last, instead of the penultimate syllable. Carterhaugh, a corruption of Carelhaugh, occupying the land where Ettrick and Yarrow meet, was the scene of the ballad of “Young Tamlane,” and of the historic football match in 1815, under the auspices of the duke of Buccleuch, between the burghers of Selkirk, championed by Walter Scott, sheriff of the Forest (not yet a baronet), and the men of Yarrow vale, championed by the Ettrick shepherd.