GALASHIELS

galashiels, a municipal and police burgh of selkirkshire, scotland. pop. (1891) 17,367; (1901) 13,615. it is situated on gala water, within a short distance of its junction with the tweed, 33-1/2 m. s.s.e. of edinburgh by the north british railway. the town stretches for more than 2 m. along both banks of the river, the mills and factories occupying the valley by the stream, the villas and better-class houses the high-lying ground on either side. the principal structures include the municipal buildings, corn exchange, library, public hall, and the market cross. the town is under the control of a provost, bailies and council, and, along with hawick and selkirk, forms the hawick (or border) group of parliamentary burghs. the woollen manufactures, dating from the close of the 16th century, are the most important in scotland, though now mainly confined to the weaving of tweeds. other leading industries are hosiery, tanning (with the largest yards in scotland), dyeing, iron and brass founding, engineering and boot-making. originally a village built for the accommodation of pilgrims to melrose abbey (4 m. e. by s.), it became, early in the 15th century, an occasional residence of the douglases, who were then keepers of ettrick forest, and whose peel-tower was not demolished till 1814. galashiels was created into a burgh of barony in 1599. the catrail or picts' work begins near the town and passes immediately to the west. clovenfords, 3-1/2 m. w., is noted for the tweed vineries, which are heated by 5 m. of water-pipes, and supply the london market throughout the winter. two miles farther w. by s. is ashestiel, where sir walter scott resided from 1804 to 1812, where he wrote his most famous poems and began _waverley_, and which he left for abbotsford. galatia. i. in the strict sense (galatia proper, roman _gallograecia_) this is the name applied by greek-speaking peoples to a large inland district of asia minor since its occupation by gaulish tribes in the 3rd century b.c. bounded on the n. by bithynia and paphlagonia, w. by phrygia, s. by lycaonia and cappadocia, e. by pontus, it included the greater part of the modern vilayet of angora, stretching from pessinus eastwards to tavium and from the paphlagonian hills n. of ancyra southwards to the n. end of the salt lake tatta (but probably including the plains w. of the lake during the greater part of its history),--a rough oblong about 200 m. long and 100 (to 130) broad. galatia is part of the great central plateau of asia minor, here ranging from 2000 to 3000 ft. above sea-level, and falls geographically into two parts separated by the halys (kizil irmak),--a small eastern district lying chiefly in the basin of the delije irmak, the principal affluent of the halys, and a large western region drained almost entirely by the sangarius (sakaria) and its tributaries. on the n. side galatia consists of a series of plains with fairly fertile soil, lying between bare hills. but the greater part is a dreary stretch of barren, undulating uplands, intersected by tiny streams and passing gradually into the vast level waste of treeless (anc. _axylon_) plain that runs s. to lycaonia; these uplands are little cultivated and only afford extensive pasturage for large flocks of sheep and goats. cities are few and far apart, and the climate is one of extremes of heat and cold. the general condition and aspect of the country was much the same in ancient as in modern times. the gaulish invaders appeared in asia minor in 278-277 b.c. they numbered 20,000, of which only one-half were fighting men, the rest being doubtless women and children; and not long after their arrival we find them divided into three tribes, trocmi, tolistobogii and tectosages, each of which claimed a separate sphere of operations. they had split off from the army which invaded greece under brennus in 279