PEASTON.

PEATHILL, ridge of Benchinnan Mountains, descending from summit-line 15 miles south-eastward to a point 7 miles north-west of Brechin, Forfarshire.

PEATIE, hamlet in Kettins parish, Forfarshire.

PEATIE, affluent of Bervie rivulet, Kincardineshire.

PEAT INN, place, 6| miles from Cupar, Fife. It has a post office under Cupar.

PEATLAW, mountain, 2J miles north-west of Selkirk.

PEATLAW, one of the Lammermoor Hills, 9^ miles south of Dunbar, Haddingtonshire.

PEBBLE, hill and medicinal spring in Kirkmabreck parish, Kirkcudbrightshire.

PECHSTANE, cromlech about 2J miles north-north-east of Chirnside, Berwickshire.

PEDDIESTON, place in Cromarty parish, Cromartyshire. It has a public school with about 70 scholars.

PEEBLES, town in Peeblesshire and parish partly also in Selkirkshire. The town stands on left bank of the Tweed, at influx of Eddlestone rivulet, 22 miles by road, but 27 by railway, south of Edinburgh; was probably founded by either ancient or Romanized Caledonians ; appears first on record about beginning of 12th century ; had then a royal castle, and was long thence an occasional residence of Scottish kings and princes ; flourished much in connection with royal hunts around it, famous games called ' Peebles at the Play,' and a great annual fair or festival of Beltane ; suffered great injury from English armies in 1406 and 1545 ; is now a favourite resort of anglers, tourists, and summer residents ; ranks as a royal burgh and the political capital of Peeblesshire; unites with its own county and the rural parts of Selkirkshire in sending a member to Parliament ; has a head post office with all departments, 2 railway stations, 3 banking offices, and 6 hotels ; has also a hydropathic establishment, erected at a cost of 70,000, and opened in 1881 ; publishes a weekly newspaper ; contains county buildings of 1844, a town-hall, a corn-exchange, Established, Free, Episcopalian, and Roman Catholic churches, 2 United Presbyterian churches, remains of 2 ancient churches, Chambers' Institution, 3 public schools with about 533 scholars, and remnant of ancient town wall. The games of ' Peebles at the Play ' are mentioned in King James l.'s poem of Christ's Kirk on the Green. One of the hotels dates from 1653, and figures as 'Meg Dods" in Sir Walter Scott's St. Ronan's Well. The Established church dates from 1784, has a massive steeple, and was designed in 1877 to be improved at a cost of 9000. One of the two ancient churches dates from at least 1170, was probably erected on the site of a Culdee cell, and is now represented mainly by a ruined tower; and the other dates from 1261, acquired a new steeple at the Reformation, and is now represented mainly by that steeple. Chambers' Institution is partly a monastic edifice of ancient date, partly a structure of 1857-59; was in its ancient portion the scene of the romantic incident narrated in Sir Walter Scott's Maid of Neidpath ; includes, in a court-yard, an interesting ancient cross which formerly stood in High Street ; comprises public hall, public reading-room, public library, art gallery, and natural history museum ; and was presented to the town by Dr. William Chambers, and opened in 1859. A five-arched ancient bridge spans the Tweed at the town, and was improved in 1835. The streets are partly old and dingy, but principally modern, well-built, and pleasant ; and the environs consist chiefly of green hills and interesting vales, and abound in woods, parks, walks, and picturesque close scenes. Real property of the' burgh in 1880-81, 10,579. Pop. 3495. The parish measures 10 miles by 6, and comprises 13,425 acres in Peeblesshire and 3172 in Selkirkshire. Real property in 1880-81 of landward part in Peeblesshire, 13,517; of part in Selkirkshire, 107. Pop. of the whole, 4059. The surface includes fine reaches of vale along the Tweed and the Eddlestone, but consists partly of heathy uplands and chiefly of verdant pleasant hills. Principal seats are Hayston, Kings Meadows, Kerfield, Rosetta, Venlaw, Winkstone, and Swintonbank ; and principal antiquities are Neidpath, Horsburgh, and Shieldgreen castles, remains of a Roman camp, vestiges of other camps, and a great group of monumental stones. Seven schools for 865 scholars are in the parish, and enlargements of them for 152 are new.

PEEBLES RAILWAY, railway, 18| miles long, from Peebles northward to junction with the North British at Eskbank. It was authorized in 1853, constructed at a cost of about 4500 per mile, and opened in 1855 ; and it was amalgamated with the North British in 1876, on terms of fixed dividend of 8 per cent, on the ordinary shares, and 5 per cent, on the preference

PEEBLESSHIRE, inland county immediately south of Mid-Lothian. Its length is 30 miles ; its greatest breadth 25 miles ; its circumference about 110 miles ; its area 356 square miles. The lowest ground is a long portion of the Tweed's vale from 400 to 500 feet above sea-level; a considerable aggregate of ground, a little higher, lies along the course of tributary streams ; the rest of the land is chiefly an assemblage of hills, hill-groups, hill-ridges, and mountain-rauges ; and the southern border is a dense portion of Hartfell Mountains, with the loftiest summits of Southern Highlands. Only about one-seventh is arable, and a larger portion of the rest is either bleakly pastoral or altogether waste. Two coal-fields are in the north-west, but greywacke slate predominates everywhere else. The Tweed rises in the extreme south-west, and curves through the centre to the extreme east ; and all the other streams, with three trivial exceptions, are tributaries of the Tweed. The chief lake is St. Mary's Loch, touching the south-east boundary for about a mile ; and the chief mineral spring is the famous St. Ronan's Well at Innerleithen. Sheep husbandry is conspicuous ; tillage husbandry is skilful ; and woollen manufacture figures well at Innerleithen and Walkerburn. The only towns are Peebles and Innerleithen, and the only villages with each more than 500 inhabitants are Walkerburn and Linton. The territory belonged to the Caledonian Gadeni, was included in the Roman Yalentia, passed to the kingdoms of Strathclyde and Northumbria, and was made a county in 13th century ; and it possesses numerous monuments of all successive times from the Roman to the mediaeval. Real property in 1880-81, 153,096. Pop. in 1871, 12,330; in 1881, 13,819.