Selkirk

Selkirk, a Scottish royal burgh, the county town of Selkirkshire, on an eminence 400 to 619 feet high, that flanks the right bank of Ettrick Water, 6½ miles S. by W. of Galashiels by a branch-line (1856) and 40 SSE. of Edinburgh. The county buildings (1870), the town-hall (1803), with a spire 110 feet high, and the statues of Scott (1839) and Mungo Park (1859) are the chief features of the place, with the beautiful grounds of the Haining House. The 'souters of Selkirk' were long famous for their 'single-soled shoon;' but to-day the staple manufacture is that of tweeds, which dates from 1835. With Hawick and Galashiels Selkirk returns one member since 1868. Pop. (1831) 1880; (1861) 3695; (1891) 6397. About 1113 Earl David founded at Schelechyrch ('kirk of the shields') a Tironensian abbey, which as David I. he removed about 1126 to Kelso (q.v.). The story of the eighty Selkirk men who marched to Flodden (1513), but of whom one only returned, bringing a captured pennon, dates, according to Mr Craig-Brown, only from 1722. Mr Andrew Lang is a native.