METHVEN, a parish, in the county of Perth;
containing, with the village of Almond -Bank, and the
hamlets of Balwherne, Bellstown, Bragrum, Gibbiestown,
Glack, Meckphin, Scrogiehill, and Wood-end, 2446 inhabitants,
of whom 935 are in the village of Methven, 6
miles (\V. by N.) from Perth. The name of this parish
is derived from the Gaelic word Mendhan, signifying
" middle", and has reference to the situation of Methven
in the middle of Strathmore, which e.xtends from Stonehaven
on the east to Dumbarton on the west, and is
here bounded on the north by the Grampians, and on
the south by the ridge of the Ochil hills. The historical
notices of the parish reach back to the year 9*0, when
Colenus, reputed the seventy-ninth king of Scotland, is
said to have been killed in this neighbourhood by Rohard,
Thane of Methven, for violating his daughter. The lands,
before 1323, belonged to the Mowbrays, whose ancestor,
Roger Mowbray, a Norman, came over to England with
William the Conqueror. To one of this family, Sir
Roger Mowbray, belonged the baronies of Kelly, Eckford,
Dalmeny, and Methven, lying severally in the shires
of Forfar, Ro.\burgh, Linlithgow, and Perth. These
lands, however, were confiscated by Robert I., for the
adherence of Mowbray to Baliol and the English interest;
and Eckford, Kelly, and Methven were given to the
king's son-in-law, Walter, eighth hereditary lord high
steward of Scotland, whose son, Robert, was afterwards
king (the second of the name) in right of his mother,
Margery Bruce, daughter of Robert I.
The lordi-hip of Methven was granted by Robert II. to
Walter Stuart, Earl of Atholl, his second son, after whose
forfeiture it remained in the crown for a considerable
time. It was part of the dowry lands usually assigned
for the maintenance of the queen dowager of Scotland,
and, together with the lordship and castle of Stirling, and
the lands of Balquhidder, was settled on Margaret, eldest
daughter of Henry VII. of England, and queen dowager
of James IV. In the year 1524 she married Henry
Stewart, for whom she procured a peerage from her son,
James V., in 1528. On this occasion the barony of
Methven was separated from the crown, and erected into
a lordship in favour of Henry Stuart and his heirs male,
the queen resigning her jointure of the lordship of Stirling.
The Stewarts, Lords Methven, however, very
shortly became extinct. It was in the right of Margaret,
as eldest daughter of Henry VII., that James VI. of
Scotland, her great-grandson, succeeded to the English
crown on the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603; she
died at the castle of Methven in 1540, and was buried at
Perth, beside the body of King James I. In 1584, the
lordship of Methven and Balquhidder was conferred on
Lodowick, Duke of Lennox; but it was purchased from
Charles, the last duke, in 1664, by Patrick Smythe of
Braco, great-grandfather of the late Lord Methven: the
duke dying without issue in I672, his honours fell to
Charles II., as nearest male heir, the king's great-grandfather
and the duke's being brothers. While the estate
was in the crown, various lands were granted in feu to
different persons; and the feu-duties are now paid to
Robert Smythe, Esq., successor to the late Lord Methven,
as proprietor of the lordship. Among the other events
connected with the parish is the defeat in this part of
Robert Bruce, soon after his coronation in 1306, by the
English army under the command of Aylmer de Valence,
Earl of Pembroke. The first religious establishment here
was a collegiate church founded in 1433, by Walter
Stewart, Earl of Atholl, who largely endowed it with
lands and tithes; it consisted of a provost and five prebendaries.
An aisle that was connected with it is now
the burial-place of the ancient family of Smythe.
The mean length of the parish is five miles, and its
breadth between three and four; containing 10,700 acres.
It is bounded on the north and east chiefly by the river
Almond; on the south by a small stream called the Pow,
which separates it from the parishes of Madderty, Findogask,
and Tibbermore; and on the west by the parish of
Fowlis Wester. The surface consists of hollows and
rising grounds, and from the good cultivation it receives,
and the several flourishing plantations, presents a pleasing,
and in some parts a picturesque appearance. The
Almond, the only river, crosses a small portion merely of
the parish, but runs for a considerable distance along
the boundary; it receives numerous streams from the
steep and rugged mountains near which it passes, and
after a bold and rapid course joins the Tay two miles and
a half above Perth. About 260 acres of natural wood
ornament the vicinity of this river; it consists chiefly of
oak, and is regularly cut and thinned as a coppice. The
prevailing soil is clay; there are also considerable tracts
of loamy and gravelly earth, with moorish soil resting
upon till. About 8600 acres are cultivated or occasionally
ill tillage: the natural wood and the plantations
cover 1 750 acres; 2.">() acres are moorland, and 100 moss.
All kinds of grain and of green crops are produced; the
land is in general of tolerable quality, and subjected to
the most improved system of husbandry. Bone-dust and
guano are employed as manure for turnips; but lime is
the manure principally in use, and, as it is liberally applied,
great advantages are derived from it. Potatoes,
especially the Perthshire-red sort, are extensively cultivated
for the London market; and mangel-wurzel is
raised in considerable quantities. Improvements have
been for some time gradually advancing. Towards the
north, a tract of 1000 acres, which fifty or sixty years
ago was a common, is now divided and fenced, and in a
high state of cultivation; and the extensive drainage that
has been carried on, and the plantations that have been
formed, within the present century, have much improved
the appearance of the parish, increased its productive
powers, and ameliorated the severity or insalubrity of
the climate. The annual value of real property in Methven
now amounts to £! 0,600.
The rocks belong to the old red sandstone or trap
groups. In the line of the river Almond they are generally
of a bright red colour, spotted with grey, but too
soft and friable for building purposes, containing large
proportions of clay and lime. At the bridge of Lynedoch,
however, they are of a pale grey colour, thick-bedded and
fine-grained, remarkably hard, and well suited for architectural
use. Several trap-dykes, of the greenstone class,
cross the country, and the stone is quarried for roads
and causeways. Among the seats in the parish is Balgowan,
a residence of the late venerable Lord Lynedoch's;
and near the river is Lynedoch House, another mansion
of his lordship's, romantically situated, and celebrated
for the beautiful scenery by which it is surrounded.
The chief seat, however, is Methven Castle, standing upon
an eminence in the midst of a park, where it is said that
Bruce was defeated by the Earl of Pembroke. It is an
ancient baronial building, finished in 1680, and subsequently
improved and enlarged by several proprietors.
In the adjacent grounds is an oak of gigantic stature and
great beauty, called the Pepperwell Oak; the trunk measures
seventeen feet and a half in girth at three feet above
the ground, and the solid contents of the tree amount to
700 cubic feet. The chief villages are Methven and Almond-
Bank, near the latter of which, at Wood-end, is a
weaving establishment fitted up with power-looms, and
employing a considerable number of persons. The population
of the village of Methven are chiefly occupied in
hand-loom weaving, the work being supplied by resident
agents employed by Perth and Glasgow houses. The
north road from Perth to Glasgow, via Crieff, passes
through Methven. There is a sub-post, connected with
the post-office at Perth; and markets are held on the
first Thursday in May, and fourth Thursday in October,
chiefly for the sale of cattle.
For ECCLESIASTICAL purposcs the parish is within the
bounds of the presbytery of Perth and synod of Perth
and Stirling; patron, Robert Smythe, Esq., of Methven
Castle. The stipend of the minister is £274, with a
manse, an elegant edifice built in 1S30, and a glebe of
fifteen acres of good land, valued at £30 per annum,
besides ten acres of moor. Methven church, built in
1782, is a large, substantial, and convenient edifice, containing
1100 sittings: an aisle was built at the expense
of the patron in IS'i.'i, when there was also added a
beautiful spire, nearly 100 feet high, with a public clock.
Here are places of worship for the United Presbyterian
Synod and the Free Church. A parochial school is
maintained, in which Latin and practical mathematics,
with all the ordinary branches of education, are taught;
the master has the maximum salary, with a house, and
fees amounting to about £2.5 or £30 a year. There is a
school at Almond-Bank, supported by Mr. Smythe; also
a school in the village of Methven supported by the
United Presbyterian congregation. A public subscription
library here is in a flourishing condition. As a
curiosity, may be mentioned a noble and venerable ash
known by the name of the Bell-tree, which stands in the
church-yard, and is supposed to be coeval with the first
religious establishment in the parish. It measures twenty
feet in circumference at three feet and a half from the
ground, and a few years ago exhibited much magnificent
foliage, which, however, has latterly manifested symptoms
of the withering hand of time. From the estate of Lynedoch,
General Sir Thomas Graham took his title of
Baron Lynedoch in the peerage of the United Kingdom,
to which dignity he was raised on the 3rd of May, 1814,
in reward of his eminent services in the peninsular war,
and particularly his brilliant victory at Barrosa, March 6,
1811. His lordship died on the 1 8th of December, 1843,
in the ninety-fourth year of his age.