PENSTON, a village, in the parish of Gladsmuir,
county of Haddington, 3 miles (!•;. by S.) from Haddington;
containing 233 inhabitants. This village,
which is chiefly inhabited by persons employed in collieries,
is irregularly built, and the houses of a very inferior
description: it appears to have been indebted for
its extension, if not for its origin, to the valuable seams
of coal found in the immediate vicinity. The inhabitants
are supplied with water from three open wells. A
friendly society is established, which has been productive
of much benefit; and there is a branch of the Haddington
Itinerating Library in the village. The coal
is of excellent quality; the scams are generally from
thirty to thirty-five inches in thickness, and have been
worked almost from time immemorial. The rental of
the mines in the seventeenth century averaged about
£400. Several of the older mines have been exhausted.
and new ones opened to the north of the village: their
operation was formerly much retarded by a copious
influx of water, but they have been perfectly drained by
the erection of steam-engines. More than a hundred
persons are regularly employed, and the quantity of coal
produced annually averages 15,000 tons. A saw-mill
has been erected, which is applied to the preparation of
wood for the use of the mines, and for various other
purposes. The site of a church built at Thrieplaw is
now occupied by a few huts, raised when some of the
coal-pits in this part of the parish were opened, and in
the erection of which the walls of that edifice, having
been suffered to fall into decay, were incorporated. The
spot where these cottages stand is called the Old Kirk;
and the old manse, in which Principal Robertson wrote
part of his History of Scotland, is still remaining.