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Eaglesham. A village and a parish of SE Renfrewshire. The village, standing 500 feet above sea-level, is 4 miles S of Busby, 8 1/2 S of Glasgow, 11 SE of Paisley, and 3 3/4 S by E of Clarkston station on the East Kilbride branch of the Caledonian, with which it communicates by omnibus. Successor to an older village, demolished in 1769, but which during the reign of Charles II. was important enough to acquire by act of parliament a weekly market, it was founded by the twelfth Earl of Eglinton in 1796, and, had its founder's plan been carried out, would have ranked second to scarce a small town in Scotland. Even as it is, it presents a remarkably regular and pleasant aspect, with its double row of neat two-story houses, facing each other at the distance of 100 yards at the upper and 250 at the lower end; whilst midway between them flows a rivulet, whose gently sloping banks are partly greensward, partly adorned with trees. The parish church (1790; 550 sittings) is an octagonal structure with a chaste steeple, furnished with a clock and a fine-toned bell; other places of worship are., U.P. church (350 sittings), a Free church (320 sittings), and St. Bridget's Roman Catholic church (1858; 350 sittings). Eaglesham has besides a post office under Glasgow, a branch of the Clydesdale Bank, several inns, gaswork, and a flower show on the third Thursday of August o.s. Handloom weaving, once the staple industry, is all but extinct; and a cotton-mill, some years ago destroyed by fire, has never been rebuilt. Hence the rapid decrease in the number of the inhabitants. Now, however, the bracing and healthy air is proving a strong attraction to many Glasgow families, and in summer there is a large influx of visitors. A public and a girls' industrial school, with respective accommodation for 166 and 150 children, had (1891) an average attendance of 76 and 64, and grants of £69, 6s. 6d. and £60, 1s. Pop. (1881) 888, (1891) 786.
The parish is bounded NW by Mearns, NE by Cathcart and East Kilbride in Lanarkshire, E and SE by East Kilbride, S by Loudoun in Ayrshire, and SW by Fenwick, likewise in Ayrshire. Its utmost length, from NW to SE, is 61 miles; its utmost breadth, from NE to SW, is 51 miles; and its area is 16,004; acres, of which 337 3/4 are water. The small detached Kirklands portion of East Kilbride parish, consisting of only about one acre, was transferred by the Boundary Commissioners in 1891 to the parish of Eaglesham. White CART Water, gathering its head-streams from the eastern moors, winds 5 1/4 miles north-westward along all the north-eastern border; and EARN Water flows to its north-eastward along the boundary with Mearns; whilst through the interior run Ardoch and Boreland Burns, with others of its tributaries. In the S, however, rise several affluents and sub-affluents of the river Irvine. To the SW lie BINEND Loch (5 x 2 furl.), DUNWAN DAM (7 1/3 x 3), and Loch GOIN or Blackwoodhill Dam (7 x 3); nearer the village are High Dam (1 3/4 x 1 1/4), Mid Dam (1 x 3/4), and Picketlaw Reservoir (2 x 1 1/4). In the furthest N the surface sinks along the Cart to 380 feet above sea-level, thence rising to 832 at Moor-Yett plantation, 1084 at BALAGICH Hill, 1035 at Blackwood Hill, 987 at Melowther Hill, and 1230 near the south-eastern border. The rocks, with slight exception, are alternations of greenstone, claystone, and greywacke--part of the great trap mass that predominates so extensively in the hills of Renfrewshire. The soil, though reposing almost everywhere on trap, varies greatly in quality, some parts being specially rich, and others being represented by barren moors or deep bogs. The pasture is generally excellent. About five twelfths of the entire area are under cultivation, three fourteenths are meadow or natural pasture, 178 3/4 acres are under wood, and all the rest is either moss or moor. The moors, especially about Loch Goin, figure often in the history of the Covenant, two of whose martyrs rest in the parish kirkyard. North Moorhouse farm, near Earn Water, 3 miles to the W of the village, was the birthplace of Robert Pollok (1799-1827), the gifted author of the Course of Time; and in that epic one lights again and again on sketches of the `hills and streams and melancholy deserts' round his home, that home overshadowed by four goodly trees--

`Three ash and one of elm. Tall trees they were,   And old; and had been old a century   Before my day.'

The barony of Eaglesham formed part of the grant made by David I. (1124-53) to Walter, the founder of the house of Stewart, by whom it was transferred to Robert de Montgomerie; and it was long the Montgomeries' chief possession, Sir John, who wedded the heiress of Eglinton, here building the castle of POLNOON towards the close of the 14th century. Eaglesham House, late Polnoon Lodge, to the NE of the village, is the seat of Allan Gilmour, Esq. (b. 1820; suc. 1849). With the exception of 10 acres, he is sole proprietor. Eaglesham is in the presbytery of Glasgow and synod of Glasgow and Ayr; the living is worth £342. Pop. (1881) 1385, (1891) 1207.--Ord. Sur., sh. 22, 1865.
Earn. A rivulet of SE Renfrewshire, rising at the boundary with Ayrshire, and running 6 miles northeastward along the mutual border of Eaglesham and Mearns parishes to the White Cart, at a point 2 miles N of Eaglesham village. Professor Wilson, while a pupil at the manse of Mearns, fished often in its waters; and Pollok, the author of the Course of Time, spent a large portion of his few years on earth among its sequestered banks and braes.--Ord. Sur., sh. 22, 1865.
Eastwood or Pollok. A parish in the E of Renfrewshire. It contains the post-town of POLLOKSHAWS and the village of THORNLIEBANK, with the stations of Pollokshaws, Kennishead, Thornliebank, and Giffnock. A small tongue of the parish of Govan, that lay on the north border of Eastwood parish, and was left outside the new boundary of the city of Glasgow, was transferred by the Boundary Commissioners in 1892 to the parish of Eastwood, while remaining in the county of Renfrew. The parish is bounded N by Govan, Abbey--Paisley, and the county boundary, E by Govan (in Glasgow) and Cathcart, S by Mearns, SW by Neilston, and W by Abbey--Paisley. The White CART winds 4 miles west-north-westward through the interior and along the boundary with Abbey--Paisley; Levern Water runs 2 1/2 miles, partly along that boundary, partly across a narrow western wing; and Auldhouse Burn, another of the White Cart's tributaries, comes in from Mearns, and traverses the interior, itself receiving Brock Burn, which rises close to the south-eastern border. The surface is charmingly diversified with shallow vale and gentle eminence, westward declining to 50 feet above sea-level, whilst rising to 167 near Knowehead, 170 near Haggbowse, 221 near Giffnock station, and 302 at Upper Darnley. The rocks are chiefly of the Carboniferous formation, and include valuable beds of sandstone, limestone, ironstone, and coal, all of which have been worked. The Giffnock sandstone has a fine grain and a whitish hue; the Eastwood pavement stone is a fine foliated limestone; and the Cowglen coal is of good quality, and occurs in numerous seams, none of them more than 2 1/2 feet thick. The soil on the banks of the streams is very fertile alluvium; on the higher grounds, is generally a thin earth on a till bottom; and elsewhere, is of various quality. Rather less than half the entire area is in tillage; as much or more is pasture, and some 350 acres are under wood. Extensive factories are at Pollokshaws, Thornliebank, and Greenbank; and the whole parish teems with industry, as if it were immediately suburban to Glasgow. Robert Wodrow (1679-1734), author of a well-known History of the Church of Scotland; Matthew Crawfurd (d. 1700), author of a voluminous unpublished work of the same title; and Stevenson Macgill, D.D. (1765-1840), professor of divinity in the University of Glasgow, were ministers of Eastwood; whilst Walter Stewart of Pardovan, author of the Pardovan Collections, died in the parish, and was interred in the Pollok burial-aisle. Darnley and Pollok, both separately noticed, are estates with much interest attaching to them; and Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, Bart., is the chief proprietor. In the presbytery of Paisley and synod of Glasgow and Ayr, this parish is ecclesiastically divided into Eastwood proper and Pollokshaws, the former a living worth £549. The various places of worship and the schools are noticed under Pollokshaws and Thornliebank. Pop. (1801) 3375, (1831) 6854, (1861) 11,314, (1871) 13,098, (1881) 13,915, (1891) 16,042.--Ord. Sur., sh. 30, 1866.
Elderslie. A village in Abbey parish, with a station on the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, 2 1/4 miles W by S of Paisley, with a post office under Johnstone. Consisting principally of two rows of houses along the road from Paisley to Johnstone, and inhabited chiefly by weavers and other operatives, it is notable as the reputed birthplace of Sir William Wallace, who hence is often styled the Knight of Elderslie. The estate on which it stands was granted in the latter half of the 13th century to Sir Malcolm Wallace, who is supposed to have been the Scottish hero's father, and with whose descendants it continued till, in 1729, it came to Helen, only child of John Wallace of Elderslie, and wife of Archibald Campbell of Succoth. By her it was sold, in 1769, to the family of Speirs. A plain old house in the village claims to be that in which Sir William Wallace was born; but, though partly of ancient structure, bears unmistakable marks of having been built long after his death; yet, very probably occupies the spot on which the house of Sir Malcolm Wallace stood. A venerable yew tree in its garden, known popularly as `Wallace's Yew,' must likewise have got its name, not from any real connection with the patriot, but simply from the situation in which it stands. A still more famous oak tree--'Wallace's Oak'-standing a little distance to the E, was gravely asserted to have afforded shelter, from the pursuit of an English force, to Wallace and 300 of his followers; and continued in tolerable vigour till 1825, when its trunk girthed 21 feet at the base, 13 1/6 feet at 5 feet from the ground, and 67 feet in altitude, whilst the branches covered 495 square yards. Time and relic-mongers, however, had reduced it to little more than a blackened torso, when by the gale of Feb. 1856 it was levelled with the dust (pp. 205, 206 of Trans. Highl. and Ag. Soc., 1881). At the village are a quoad sacra church (1840; 800 sittings) and the Wallace public school. In 1893 Mr. Bine Renshaw presented a handsome cottage hospital, containing 20 beds, to the village, the site for which was given free by Mr. Speirs. Pop. (1881) 1141, (1891) 1468.--Ord. Sur., sh. 30, 1866.
Elderslie. An estate, with a mansion, in Renfrew parish named after Elderslie in Abbey parish. The mansion, on the left bank of the Clyde, 1/2 mile E of Renfrew town, was built in 1777-82, and enlarged and improved at subsequent periods. Engirt by a fine park, it presents a handsome frontage to the Clyde, and contains a number of interesting relics associated with the name of Sir William Wallace, and brought from Elderslie village. Its owner is Alexander Archibald Speirs, Esq.
Elliotston Tower. See CASTLE-SEMPLE.
Ellrig. The highest part of the ridge of upland on the mutual border of East Kilbride parish, Lanarkshire, and Eaglesham parish, Renfrewshire. It culminates, 4 miles SSE of Eaglesham village, at 1230 and 1215 feet above sea-level, and it cradles both the White Cart and headstreams of Calder Water.
Erskine (13th century Irschen). A parish on the northern border of Renfrewshire, containing the post office, village, and railway station of Bishopton, 5 miles NNW of Paisley. The Glasgow and Greenock section of the Caledonian railway passes through the parish. It is bounded N and NE by the river Clyde, E by Inchinnan, S by Houston, and SW and W by Kilmalcolm. Its utmost length, from E to W, is 7 miles; its breadth, from N to S, varies between 1 3/8 and 3 1/2 miles; and its area is 9092 1/3, acres, of which 1189 are foreshore and 368 water. The Clyde, a stately sea river, sweeping 6 7/8 miles west-north-westward, here widens from 1 furlong to, 1 3/4 mile, and here is crossed by Erskine and West Ferries, the former just above Old Kilpatrick village, with quays so as to serve for horses and carriages as well as for foot passengers, and said to be the oldest ferry on the Clyde; the latter opposite Dumbarton Castle. Much of the Renfrewshire shore is low and flat, and throughout all the eastern interior the surface nowhere exceeds 150 feet above sea-level. The western division is hillier, attaining 317 feet near Netherston, 600 at Barscube, 583 at Gallahill, 626 near Bogside, and 611 near Langside--heights that command magnificent views along the Clyde, up Gare Loch and Loch Long, and away to the Grampians. Dargavel Burn traces most of the southern boundary, and several short burns rise in the interior, and run to the Clyde; whilst springs of excellent water are everywhere plentiful. The rocks of the E are chiefly carboniferous, and those of the W eruptive. Minerals of the zeolitic family abound in the latter; and fine specimens have been found of mesotype and amethystine quartz. Sandstone, for building purposes, has been worked in three quarries; and trap rock, for road metal, in several places. The soil is mainly either a light friable retentive earth, with tilly subsoil, or a sharp dry earth, incumbent upon trap. Nearly a twelfth of the entire area is under wood; about a fifth is pastoral, mossy, or waste; and all the rest is arable. In 1226 the barony of Erskine was held by one Henry de Erskine, of whose descendants the fifth had a grant of Alloa, the twelfth was created Earl of Mar, and by the fourteenth this property was sold in 1638 to Sir John Hamilton of Orbiston. From the Hamiltons it was purchased in 1703 by the noble family of Blantyre, and it now belongs to Charles Stuart, twelfth Baron Blantyre (b. 1818; suc. 1830). The present mansion stands on a risingground above the Clyde, 3/4 mile WNW of Erskine ferry, and 2 miles NNE of Bishopton. Built in 1828 after designs by Sir Robert Smirke, it is a splendid Tudor edifice, and commands a view as varied as it is beautiful. One feature in the finely-wooded park is an obelisk, 80 feet high, erected to the memory of Robert, eleventh Lord Blantyre (1777-1830), who, after serving through the Peninsular campaign, was killed by a stray bullet during the Brussels insurrection. Dargavel has been separately noticed, as also has Bargarran of witchcraft fame. The Rev. Walter Young, D.D., F.R.S., and the Rev. Andrew Stewart, M.D., the former famous as a musician, the latter distinguished for great skill in pulmonary complaints, were ministers of Erskine, the one till 1814, the other till 1839. Erskine is in the presbytery of Greenock and synod of Glasgow and Ayr; the living is worth £318. The parish church, 1 1/2 mile NNE of Bishopton, was built in 1813, and is a handsome Gothic edifice, containing 500 sittings. At LANGBANK there is a quoad sacra church, at Bishopton a Free church; and two public schools, Erskine and Undercraig, with respective accommodation for 205 and 103 children, had (1891) an average attendance of 127 and 36, and grants of £121, 15s. 6d. and £34, 18s. Pop. (1801) 847, (1831) 973, (1861) 1457, (1871) 1565, (1881) 1653, (1891) 1693.--Ord. Sur., sh. 30, 1866.