Teviothead, a parish of SW Roxburghshire, whose church stands near the right bank of the Teviot, 14 miles N by E of Langholm and 9 SW of Hawick, under which there is a post office. Formed in 1850 out of Hawick and Cavers parishes, it is bounded NE by Hawick, E by Kirkton and Cavers, SE by Castleton, S and SW by Ewes, Westerkirk, and Eskdalemuir in Dumfriesshire, and NW and N by Roberton. Its utmost length, from NE to SW, is 10¾ miles; its breadth varies between 3¼ and 7¼ miles; and its area is nearly 491/3 square miles or 31,559½ acres, of which 101 are water. The Teviot, formed at Geddingscleuch, 700 feet above sea-level, by head-streams that rise at an altitude of from 1200 to 1300 feet close to the Dumfriesshire border, winds 9¼ miles north-east-by-eastward, for the last 3¼ furlongs along the Hawick boundary, till it passes off into Hawick at Raesknowe. Allan Water, formed by Priesthaugh and Skelfhill Burns, runs 5 miles north-north-eastward and north-north-westward, for the last 27/8 miles along the Kirkton and Hawick boundary, till it falls into the Teviot at the northern extremity of the parish; and, with its affluent, the Dod Burn, supplies the town of Hawick with water. The surface, sinking to 490 feet above sea-level at the Allan's influx to the Teviot, is everywhere hilly, chief elevations to the NW of the Teviot, as one goes up the vale, being Swansteads Hill (1093 feet), *Calfshaw Head (1320), Blackcleuch (1050), and *Stock Hill (1561); to the SE, Broadhaugh Hill (913), Skelfhill Pen (1745), *Cauldcleuch Head (1996), *Tudhope Hill (1961), and *Wisp Hill (1950), where asterisks mark those summits that culminate on the confines of the parish. The rocks are chiefly Silurian; and the soil of the arable lands is mostly gravelly. The road from Hawick to Langholm runs 8 miles through the parish-for 43/8 miles up the vale of the Teviot as far as the church, and then for 35/8 miles up the narrower glen of Frostley Burn to disused Mosspaul inn at the Ewes boundary. Up this road, on 23 Sept. 1803, drove Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, who writes in her Journal that 'the quantity of arable land gradually diminishes, and the plantations become fewer, till at last the river flows open to the sun, mostly through unfenced and untilled grounds, a soft pastoral district, both the hills and the valley being scattered over with sheep. Here and there was a single farm-house, or cluster of houses, and near them a portion of land covered with ripe corn. Towards the head of the vale of Teviot, where that stream is but a small rivulet, we entered another valley. Hereabouts Mr Walter Scott had directed us to look about for some old stumps of trees, said to be the place where Johnnie Armstrong was hanged; but we could not find them out. [See Caerlanrig.] The valley which we were ascending, though, for aught I know, it is unnamed in song, was to us more interesting than the Teviot itself. Not a spot of tilled ground was there to break in upon its pastoral simplicity; the same soft yellow green spread from the bed of the streamlet to the hill-tops on each side, and sheep were feeding everywhere. It was more close and simple than the upper end of the vale of Teviot, the valley being much narrower, and the hills equally high and not broken into parts, but on each side a long range. The grass, as we had first seen near Crawfordjohn, had been mown in the different places of the open ground, where it might chance to be best; but there was no part of the surface that looked perfectly barren as in those tracts. We saw a single stone house a long- way before us, which we conjectured to be, as it proved, Mosspaul, the inn where we were to bait.' Teviothead Cottage was long the home of the poet, the Rev. Henry Scott Riddell (1798-1870); and a spot overlooking it is crowned with a large cairn to his memory. The principal proprietors are the Duke of Buccleuch, Sir W. Eliott, Bart., of Stobs, and five others. Teviothead is in the presbytery of Jedburgh and the synod of Merse and Teviotdale; the living is worth £300. The church was built by the Iate Duke of Buccleuch in 1856, and contains 320 sittings. Teviothead public and Allanwater schools, with respective accommodation for 93 and 38 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 43 and 19, and grants of £53, 1s. 6d. and £33, 3s. 6d. Valuation (1864) £8805, 10s. 6d., (1885) £10,163, 13s. 4d. Pop. (1861) 438, (1871) 515, (1881) 486.—Ord. Sur., shs. 17, 16, 1864.
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