THREE DIVISIONS OF BERWICKSHIRE. 13 



Owing to local circumstances, expressive of such peculiarities of soil or 

 distinctions of character as first led to their adaptation, each county is divided 

 into certain districts, and these again into parishes, townships, and baronies. 



The three great subdivisions of Berwickshire are the Merse, Lauderdale, 

 and Lammermoor ; each possessing distinct natural features, and diifering 

 from the others in the number and value of its internal resources, the fertility of 

 its soil, the recent introduction of manufactures, and the progress of rural 

 economy in all its branches. In the first of these districts — long celebrated for 

 its plentiful harvests, rich scenery, and industrious population — the face of the 

 country has undergone many additional improvements,* all indicative of that 

 extraordinary impulse by which, in common with the more southern portion of 

 the island, the minds and the labours of men have arrived at such unprecedented 

 refinement, and communicated to every object around them so much fresh evi- 

 dence of united power and perseverance. Nmnerous mansion-houses, and villas 

 of pleasing architecture, encircled with plantations f tastefully arranged, and fields 

 bearing the stamp of diligent cultivation and extraordinary fertility, form a rich 

 and animated landscape, and awaken in the tourist, at his first entrance into 

 Caledonia, a most favourable impression of her Border population. Many of 

 the farm-houses, lately constructed, have been finished in a style wliich does 

 honour to the munificent views of the landlord; and being kept up by the 

 tenant with scrupulous and corresponding taste, present an appearance as if each 

 were the fixed residence of the proprietor. 



The second district, that of Lauderdale, is less extensive and less pro'ductive 

 than the former — which is the natural granary of the county — but more 

 variegated, bold, and attractive in scenery, and affording excellent pasture. 

 Rising in gentle acclivities from the banks of the Leader, whose classic stream 

 divides it into nearly equal portions, it reaches the heights of Lammermoor on 



* The principal improvements which have taken place during the last thirty years, down to the summer 

 of 1834i, may be thus enumerated: — better parish and turnpike roads; superior accommojation in farm 

 buildings ; more attention to the culture and cleaning of the land ; agriculture more systematically pursued ; 

 a more extensive and more skilful method of draining ; a more useful kind of farm-horses ; greater facili- 

 ties afforded for threshing and marketing grain ; a wider breadth of turnips sown, and heavier crops 

 raised; and as a consequence of these, a greater quantity of stock fed, and fitted in a shorter time for 

 market. 



t As one of numerous instances corroborative of the great advantage of planting, it is mentioned that 

 about sixty years ago, upwards of a hundred acres of waste and marshy ground were planted on the estate 

 of Lord Douglas witli Scotch firs, interspersed with larch and spruce trees. Part of this plantation has 

 been cut down, and the produce has been found to yield a greater profit, after deducting the expenses of 

 planting and raising fences, than the lest land of the same extent. Acting on the same enlightened views, 

 this nobleman has for several years past planted to a considerable extent on his Lammermoor property. — 

 Agrimlt. of Berw. Slat. IS34. 



£ 



