EASTWOOD, or POLLOCK, a parish, in the Upper
ward of the county of Renfrew, 25 miles (S. W.) from
Glasgow; containing, with the incorporated town of
Pollockshaws, the village of Thornliebank, and part of
the late quoad sacra district of Levern, 79*0 inhabitants.
This parish derives the former of its names from the
relative situation of an extensive wood which was a part
of it, but which has long been converted into arable
land; and the latter name from the circumstance of
the chief lands being designated Pollock. It is about
four miles in length from north to south, and three miles
in breadth, forming an irregular area of 5000 acres, and
bounded on the west by the parish of Paisley, of which a
considerable portion is circumscribed by the lands of
Eastwood. The surface is pleasingly undulated, intersected
with tracts of level ground, and rising towards the
south into a range of hills, the highest of which has an
elevation of 300 feet above the level of the sea. In many
parts the scenery is embellished with flourishing plantations,
and watered by winding streams, which give to
it an interesting and picturesque appearance. The river
White Cart, rising in the moors of Eaglesham, flows for
several miles through the parish in its course to the
Clyde, receiving at Pollockshaws the waters of the
Auldhouse burn, which issues from a lake in the adjoining
parish of Mearns. The Brock burn, which also rises
in Mearns, winds through Eastwood, and falls into
the Levern, which skirts the western extremity of the
parish, and joins the Cart near Cruickston Castle. In
the hilly parts towards the south the soil is thin and
light, but on the banks of the river and rivulets extremely
rich and fertile; about one-half of the lands is
arable and in profitable cultivation, and the remainder,
with the exception of about 250 acres of natural wood
and 100 of plantation, is good pasture land. The rotation
system of husbandry is prevalent; the crops are
oats, barley, and wheat, with potatoes and turnips.
Some attention is paid to the rearing of cattle, which
are generally of the Ayrshire breed; but the management
of live stock forms only a secondary object with the
farmer, and consequently few fine specimens are produced.
Considerable progress has been made in reclaiming
the waste, of which large portions have been brought
into a state of cultivation, and great improvements have
been effected in draining and fencing; the farm-houses
and offices are substantial and commodious, and mostly
roofed with slate. The plantations are of oak, elm, ash,
sycamore, beech, larch, and Scotch, spruce, and silver
firs. The annual value of real property in the parish is
£21,061.
The substrata comprise sandstone and limestone, with
occasional belts of ironstone. There are some valuable
quarries of stone of excellent quality for building and
various other purposes. The stone of one of the quarries
is peculiarly adapted for pavements, hearths, and
staircases, and, as it may be cut to any required size, is
also employed for cisterns. Another of these quarries
produces a very superior kind which is in great demand
for the finer sorts of masonry, and is much admired for
the uses of the sculptor and the statuary. Limestone
is still worked at Arden, and was formerly wrought at
Darnley and Cowglen; but it is of very inferior quality,
unfit for burning into lime, and consequently applied
chiefly to road-making, and for roughcasting the walls
of houses, for which purpose it is well adapted from the
hardness it acquires from exposure to the air. Coal
abounds in the parish, and is wrought at Cowglen.
There are several seams, varying in thickness, but none
exceed three feet. Five of these have been worked with
success: they are of good quality, and yield an ample
supply of fuel; the pits vary from ten to forty fathoms,
in depth, and the annual produce is estimated at nearly
£4000. A considerable number of the inhabitants are
employed in cotton spinning, weaving, bleaching, and
calico-printing, for which large factories have been established
in the town of Pollockshaws, the village of
Thornliebank, and Auldhouse. In the bleachfields of
the last, more than 200 persons are employed; the
particulars of the two first will be found in the notices
of those places under their respective heads. Pollock,
the seat of Sir John Maxwell, Bart., is a handsome
modern mansion pleasantly situated. Great facility of
intercourse is afforded by the Glasgow and Barrhead
railway, which intersects the parish.
Ecclesiastically the parish is in the presbytery of
Paisley, synod of Glasgow and Ayr, and in the gift of
Sir John Maxwell; the minister's stipend is about £140,
with a manse, and a glebe valued at £35 per annum.
The old church was taken down, and a new edifice
erected in I7SI near the western extremity of Pollockshaws;
it is a neat building in good repair, and affords
accommodation to 76O persons. A second church connected
with the Establishment has been erected in Pollockshaws;
and there are places of worship for members
of the Free Church, the United Presbyterian Synod, and
the Synod of Original Seceders: the Roman Catholics,
who are numerous in the parish, attend the chapel at
Glasgow. Eastwood parochial school affords instruction
to about 100 scholars; the master has a salary of £34,
with £36 fees, and a house and garden. There are no
monuments of antiquity: the only memorials of olden
times are some documents in the possession of the
Maxwell family, comprising, among others, a precept
from the lords of council of James V. to meet his queen
when she came first to Scotland, dated 1527; a letter
from the Regent-Queen Mary, 1559; a letter from
Queen Mary before the battle of Langside; two letters
from James VI.; and the original, with the subscriptions,
of the first National Covenant, signed by the king
and council, 1581. Among the ministers of Eastwood
have been Wodrow, author of some writings on the antiquities
of Scotland, of some lives of the most learned men
who have flourished in the country, and of a history of
the Scottish Church; and the Rev. Mr. Crawford, author
of an unpublished history of the Church from the introduction
of Christianity into Scotland till the year 16S0.
Walter Stewart, of Pardovan, author of the Collections,
died here, while on a visit to the Maxwells, and was interred
in the aisle of the church appropriated as a place
of sepulture for the members of that family, and in
which a marble monument was erected to his memory.