B E R 



B E R 



very much wrinkled, and which is fixed to a central placenta 

 by their lower end ; their seed, as is well known, is a firm 

 oily almond, of a pure white colour. 



' The Portuguese of Para,' says Humboldt, ' have for a 

 long time driven a great trade with the nuts of this tree, 

 which the natives call tuvia, and the Spaniards almendron ; 

 they send cargoes to French Guiana, whence they are 

 shipped for England and Lisbon. The kernels yield a large 

 quantity of oil, well suited for lamps.' The same traveller 

 describes himself and his companion, Bonpland, as having 

 , found these nuts a great luxury when they were following 

 the course of the Oronoko. For three months they had 

 lived upon bad chocolate, rice boiled in water, always without 

 butter, and generally without salt, when they met with a 

 store of Bertholletia nuts. It was in the course of June, and 

 the Indians had just gathered in their harvest of them. 

 The kernels were found delicious when fresh ; but unfortu- 

 nately they are apt to become rancid, on account of the 

 great quantity of oil which they contain. 



[Fruit and feeds of Bertholletia excelia.] 



BERTRAND, SAINT, a small town in France, for- 

 merly capital of the district of Commiirges in Gascogne. 

 [See COMMI.VOKS, and GAHONNK (HAUTE), DEPARTMENT 

 OF.] 



BERVIE, or INVER BERVIE, a small parish and 

 royal burgh in Kincardineshire, Scotland, 82^ miles from 

 Edinburgh, on the coast road from Dundee to Aberdeen. 

 The north side of the parish is bounded by the Bervie, a 

 small stream, which joins the sea a little below the town, and 

 forms a small harbour for fishing-boats. The parish, which 

 contains 2389 English acres, slopes from west to east, and 

 is only about two miles long and one and a half broad. The 

 boundaries of the burgh are fixed by the act to amend the 

 representation of Scotland (2 and 3 Will. IV. c. 65). Ber- 

 vie is the only royal burgh in this county ; its charter was 

 granted in 1342 by King David II., and renewed in 1595 

 by James VI. The burgh is irregularly built, and is governed 

 by a provost, a dean of guild, a treasurer, and nine coun- 

 cillors, self-elected ; since, by being included in schedule F 

 of the Scotch Royal Burgh Reform Act, Bervie election is 

 conducted as if that act had not passed. 



Before the passing of the Scotch Reform Act, Bervie 

 joined with Aberdeen, Montrose, Brechin, and Arbroath in 

 sending a member to parliament, but now Forfar is added 

 to this set of burghs instead of Aberdeen. The parish 

 church was built in 1781. There is a good bridge over the 

 Bervie. The inhabitants are supplied with water by means 

 of pipes. The annual value of real property, as assessed 

 in April, 1815, was, in the burgh, 143/., and in the parish, 

 23241. (Enumeration Abstract.) 



Fishing and smuggling were the chief occupations of the 

 inhabitants up to 1750, when a sail-cloth manufacture was 

 begun and successfully carried on for a time : the bleaching 

 of cloth, and the manufacture of coloured thread for the 

 London market, followed; and there is now a salmon- 



fishery on the beach. There is a weekly market, and two 

 annual fairs are held in May and September. 



The village of Gourdon, in the south-east corner of the 

 parish, has a harbour, and a few small craft. 



The clergyman's stipend is four chalders of victual*, 

 400 merks in money, and fifty pounds Scots for the 

 communion-table. The manse is in the town, and the 

 glebe contains about four acres and a half. The salary of 

 the parish schoolmaster is 1 00 merks, and his whole income 

 about 18/. or 20/. a year. The poor-rates arise from the 

 interest of some money lent out, and from the weekly col- 

 lections at the parish church door. 



The population of the whole parish in 1831 was 1137; 

 the burgh contained 757 inhabitants ; the village of Gour- 

 don 238, and 142 are country inhabitants. The number of 

 males was 530 ; females, 607 ; males of twenty years of age, 

 386 ; occupiers employing labourers, 21 ; occupiers not em- 

 ploying labourers, 1 1 ; labourers, 72 ; persons employed in 

 manufacture or in making manufacturing machinery, 70 ; 

 retailers and handicraftsmen, 133; capitalists, bankers, pro- 

 fessional and other educated men, 1 6 ; labourers employed 

 in labour not agricultural, 47; male servants none; and 

 female servants, 62. 



(Communications from Dundee and Aberdeen; Sinclair's 

 Account of Scotland, vols. 13, 17, 4, compared with Cham- 

 bers' s Gazetteer ; Carlisle, Top. Diet. Garden's Map of 

 Kincardineshire; Enumeration Abstract of Population 

 Returns; Scotch Reform Bill; Scotch Royal Burgh Re- 

 form Act.) 



BERWICK-UPON-TWEED, a seaport and garrison 

 town on the great north road from London to Edinburgh, 

 situated on the northern bank of the river Tweed, about 

 half a mile from its mouth, and distant 300 miles N. by 

 W. JW. nearly in a straight line from St. Paul's church, 

 London, and 47 miles E. by S. i S. from Edinburgh ; in 

 55 46' 21" N. lat., and 1 59' 41" W. long. The usual de- 

 scription of the place is ' the borough of Berwick-upon- 

 Tweed,' but in some antient deeds it is called ' South Ber- 

 wick,' doubtless to distinguish it from ' North Berwick,' on 

 the Frith of Forth. The town and its liberties, which ex- 

 tend about three miles and a half along the sea-coast, and 

 about the same distance towards the west, form an irregular 

 figure, comprising an area of nearly eight square miles. 

 They form one parish, bounded by the German Ocean on 

 the east, the shire of Berwick in Scotland on the west and 

 north, and a detached portion of the county palatine of Dur- 

 ham, called Islandshire, extending to the mid-stream of the 

 river Tweed, on the south : the other half of the river be- 

 longs to the town. Berwick is not within any county, 

 neither is it a town and county of itself, though it virtually 

 forms a county ; and it is somewhat difficult to determine to 

 which part of Great Britain it belongs. Since the reign of 

 Philip and Mary (if not from an earlier date) it has sent two 

 members to the English House of Commons. Before the 

 Reform Act the representatives were elected by the bur- 

 gesses alone, whether resident or not. By that statute the 

 populous township of Tweedmouth, in the parochial chapelry 

 of the same name in Islandshire, and the village of Spittal, 

 at the mouth of the river, also in the parochial chapelry of 

 Tweedmouth, are added to the parliamentary borough. 



Of the origin of Berwick nothing whatever is known, 

 and for its early history there exist but few materials, and 

 these are principally found in the Scottish Chartularies. It 

 first appears authentically in the early part of the twelfth 

 century, during the reign of King Alexander I., when it 

 was part of his realm of Scotland, and the capital of the 

 district called Lothian. About this time, but more parti- 

 cularly in the reigns of his successors, David I. and Mal- 

 colm IV., it became populous and wealthy, contained a 

 magnificent castle, was the chief sea-port of Scotland, and 

 abounded with churches, hospitals, and monastic buildings, 

 and its importance as a place of trade is fully attested by - 

 its having been created one of the four royal burghs 

 (boroughs) of Scotland. Torfeeus has preserved an interest- 

 ing story of Cnute, a merchant of Berwick, who, early in 

 the reign of King Malcolm IV., had acquired from his 

 riches the name of ' the Opulent.' 



Under the treaty entered into with England for the ran- 

 som of William the Lion, who was taken prisoner near 

 Alnwick in 1 1 74, the castle of Berwick, with other fortresses 

 in Scotland, was surrendered to the English king, but 

 A ohakUr U IE bolli, er about 80 biuheli; victual Jier means corn. 



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