PRESTONKIRK, a parish, in the county of Haddington,
5 miles (K. N. E.) from Haddington; containing,
with the village of Linton, about 1/00 inhabitants.
This place, originally called Linton from the principal
village, assumed at the time of the Reformation the name
of Prestonhaugh, from the position of its church near a
meadow on the bank of the Tyne; and this name it still
retains in legal documents, in common with its present
appellation of Prestonkirk, which it afterwards obtained.
The parish is about seven miles in length from north to
south, and four miles in breadth from east to west, comprising
an area of 6'270 acres, of which 200 are meadow
and pasture, and the remainder arable, with a little waste
and wood. Its surface is nearly uniform, being broken
only by the hill of Traprain Law, in some parts of nearly
perpendicular, and in all of precipitate, elevation; and
by a very narrow, deep, and richly-fertile vale watered
by a rivulet. The scenery upon the whole is pleasing,
but not adorned with wood, except near the church and
the hamlet of Preston, where are some trees of remarkably
fine growth. The river Tyne, which has its rise
within ten miles of Haddington, intersects the parish
from west to east, dividing it into two nearly equal portions,
and falls into the sea about three miles from Dunbar.
It forms a beautiful cascade at the village of Linton,
which from that circumstance derives its name. The
extent and beauty of this fall have, however, been greatly
diminished by the cutting of the rocks, which were supposed
to obstruct the passage of the salmon up the river;
and it is only after floods or continued rains that the
cascade displays its wonted grandeur. The removal of
the obstructions, moreover, has not added to the quantity
of the salmon, which are still of small size and in
small number; but trout of large size, eels, and flounders,
are obtained in plenty and of excellent quality. A
little above the old bridge over the river, is the Linton
viaduct of the North-British railway, presenting one of
the finest objects of all the works on the line.
In this parish the soil is generally good, in some
parts exceedingly rich; the crops are wheat, oats, barley,
potatoes, turnips, and mangel-wurzel. The system of
agriculture is highly advanced. Considerable progress
has been made in draining and inclosing the lands; there
is little waste or unprofitable land, and all the more
recent improvements in the construction of implements
of husbandry have been adopted. The introduction of
bone-dust, rape, and guano manures has been attended
with success; the farm-buildings are substantial and
commodious, and on most of the farms are threshingmills,
of which the greater part are driven by steam.
There are substrata of limestone, claystone, and clinkstone.
The limestone is of a reddish brown colour, interspersed
with veins of flint, and is covered with a deep
incrustation of calcareous marl, which is substituted for
lime in various agricultural uses. The claystone, which
is by far the most extensive, appears in some places of
the basaltic character, of a dark brown colour inclining
to purple, impregnated with iron, and containing porphyry
and crystals of felspar. The clinkstone has many
varieties, resembling greenstone in some parts, in others
interspersed with veins of yellow jasper susceptible of a
high polish, and in others with veins of heavy spar. The
annual value of real property in Prestonkirk is £16,'256.
Smeaton House, the seat of Sir Thomas B. Hepburn,
Bart., is a handsome modern mansion; Beanston, the
property of the Earl of Wemyss, has been deserted, and
is fast going to decay. The village of Linton is pleasantly
situated on the banks of the Tyne, and is a rising
place, with a newly established corn-market. It enjoys
facility of intercourse with the neighbouring towns by
good roads, which have been much improved: the great
London road passes for four miles, and the North-British
railway for u])wards of two miles, through the parish;
and the railw;iy has a station at Linton. There are
several mills for oatmeal and barley, and one for flour.
Ecclesiastically the parish is in the presbytery of
Dunbar, synod of Lothian and Tweeddale, and in the
patronage of Sir Charles Dalrymple Fergusson, Bart.:
the minister's stipend averages £310, with a manse,
and a glebe valued at £'27. 10. per annum. Prestonkirk
church was built in 1770, and enlarged in 18'24; it is a
neat substantial edifice adajited for a congregation of
800 persons. There are places of worship for the Free
Church and the United Presbyterian Synod. The parochial
school is well conducted, and the master has a
salary of £34. 4., with £.S0 fees, and a house and garden:
a female parochial school is managed by a mistress,
who has a salary of £3, with a house and schoolroom.
There are one or two libraries, and two or three friendly
societies. A church appears to have been founded here
at a very early period by St. Baldred, the tutelar saint;
but it was destroyed, together with the neighbouring
village, in an irruption of the Saxons. At Hailes are
the ruins of Hailes Castle, for some time the residence
of Mary, Queen of Scots, when carried off from Edinburgh
by the Earl of Bothwell, its proprietor; part of
it is appropriated as a granary, and the remainder is
rapidly passing into decay. On the lands of Markle are
the ruins of an ancient religious house, of which, after
the Reformation, the greater portion of the lands was
resumed by the crown, and annexed to the chapel royal
at Stirling: little is known of the history of the establishment,
but from the ruins it seems to have been of
great extent, and the building of very rude character.
There are several large upright stones, supposed to point
out the places of interment of chiefs killed in battle; and
in the immediate neighbourhood of one of these, near
the village of Linton, stone coffins have been frequently
discovered. George Rennie, Esq., of Phantassie, in this
parish, was celebrated for his extensive improvements in
agriculture: his son, the late John Rennie, Esq., eminent
as a civil engineer, was born and educated here.
Andrew Meikle, who, if not the original inventor of the
threshing-machine, at least brought it to its present
state of perfection, lived and died at Prestonkirk; and a
tombstone is erected to his memory in the churchyard.  See Linton.