Haddington

Haddington, the county town of Haddingtonshire, lies at the southern base of the Garleton Hills, on the Tyne, 17 miles E. of Edinburgh. Its Abbey Church, the Lucerna Laudonitæ or 'Lamp of Lothian,' is a cruciform Decorated red sandstone pile, with a central tower 90 feet high, and ruinous all but the nave (the parish church), restored 1891-92. Then there are the county buildings (1833), the large corn exchange (1854), the town-hall (1748-1831), the county Innatic asylum (1866), and a school, the Knox Memorial Institute (1880). Haddington's worthies have been Knox, John Brown and Samuel his grandson, Samuel Smiles, and Jane Welsh Carlyle, whilst its chief memories have been perils by flood and fire, and the great siege of the English by the Scotch in 1549. An ancient royal burgh, it united till 1885 with North Berwick, Dunbar, Jedburgh, and Lauder to return one member to parliament. Pop. (1831) 3857; (1881) 4043; (1891) 3770. See works by James Miller (1844) and John Martine (1883).