Galashiels, parl. burgh, manufacturing town, and par.-- par., partly in Roxburghshire but chiefly in Selkirkshire, 8440 ac., pop. 9742; town, Galashiels and Melrose pars., Selkirkshire, on Gala Water, 1 mile above its confluence with the Tweed, 33½ miles SE. of Edinburgh by rail -- parl. and mun. burgh, pop. 15,330 (parliamentary limits extended 1885); 5 Banks, 2 newspapers. Market-day, Tuesday. Galashiels was originally, according to tradition, a hunting-seat of the Scottish kings; modern Galashiels dates from the close of the 18th century. It is the chief seat of the woollen mfr. in Scotland, the principal fabric being tweeds. Galashiels was one of the first towns in Scotland to adopt the Free Libraries Act. Along with Hawick and Selkirk it returns 1 member to Parliament.

(John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887))