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finnatory charters ; avid various acts of parliament are 

 scattered over the English statute book, the most important 

 of which is one in the reign of Edward IV. (A.D. 1482, 

 in the twenty-second year of his reign), having the same 

 end in view. The mayor and four bailiffs were the only 

 officers of the corporation named in the charters, but the 

 general words are ample enough to comprehend and le- 

 galise the other corporate officers, of whom there were many. 

 Accordingly, the alderman, dean, and feeryngmen, or 

 affeeringraen, who constituted a court similar to that of a 

 common council, are mentioned in the ' Statuta Gildae ' of 

 Berwick, the first of which were enacted about the middle 

 of the 13th century, and also in the guild books of the reign 

 of Henry VIII. In the guilds or meetings of -the corporate 

 body all measures for the internal regulation of the borough 

 were decided upon, and many of their ordinances, affecting 

 the inhabitants who were not burgesses, down to a much 

 later date than the period which has passed under review, 

 savoured of the spirit of the age, being alike impolitic and 

 unjust. 



From the reign of Edward I. to that of Elizabeth the 

 principal export trade continued to be wool, wool fells, hides, 

 and salmon, and though perhaps Berwick was never after- 

 wards so wealthy as in the days of the third Alexander, yet 

 her merchants were long distinguished for their riches and 

 the extent of their traffic, and long enjoyed a species of 

 monopoly in their exports to Calais and other foreign ports, 

 and to the city of Bruges, &c. The importance of the place, 

 however, may be estimated from the single fact that the 

 burgesses had a lease of the town from Edward I. in the 

 year 1307, for which they paid the annual rent of 500 marcs 

 at the exchequer of Berwick. Of the antient revenues of 

 the corporate body little is known. So early as the reign of 

 Alexander III. they had a prison called the Berfreyt, and at 

 a subsequent date they were owners of a few acres of ground 

 in the Snook, near the sea-coast. In the time of Queen 

 Elizabeth they derived a small yearly income from tolls 

 on merchandise at the quay, and probably from other 

 sources ; and they enjoyed with the garrison and other in- 

 habitants the right of depasturing cattle on part of the crown 

 lands. 



But it is to the liberality of James VI. of Scotland tha 

 they are indebted for nearly the whole of their present 

 wealth. In the second year of his reign over England 

 James granted them by charter, confirmed by act of parlia- 

 ment, the seignory of the town and all the lands within the 

 borough, except certain estates which he had previously 

 given to Sir George Hume, and the burgage tenements 

 within the walls which belonged to private individuals. 

 This territory measures about 3077 acres, being two-thirds 

 of the whole land within the bounds, and at present yields 

 iiu annual revenue, including their other sources of in- 

 come, of about 10.000/. It is by this charter that the town 

 and liberties are now governed. To attempt even an 

 abridgment of it would far exceed our limits: the local 

 officers are substantially the same as in the former charters, 

 with the addition of a recorder, a coroner, and four serjeants- 

 at-mace for executing the process of the courts; all the 

 corporation officers are elected by the burgesses in guild, 

 not by the crown. It empowers the justices of the peace, 

 consisting of the mayor for the time being, with those who 

 have previously served that office, and the recorder, to try 

 all offences committed within the borough and liberties, and 

 to pass and carry into execution sentence of death and other 

 punishments, as fully as can be done by judges of assize in 

 England, who have no jurisdiction here. It also gives ample 

 power to the mayor, recorder, and bailiffs to hold a civil 

 court of record, for the recovery of lands, tenements, debts, 

 trespasses, &c., where the causes of action arise within the 

 jurisdiction. In all the courts, civil and criminal, the pro- 

 ceedings are the same as in the English courts, the laws of 

 Scotland having now no force here. The charter also grants 

 two weekly markets, on Wednesday and Saturday, the 

 former of which is now almost entirely discontinued, and an 

 annual fair from the feast of the Invention of the Holy 

 - (3rd May) to the feast of the nativity of St. John the 

 Baptist (24th June), but in modern times no actual fair is 

 held except on the Friday in Trinity week. Ecclesiastically 

 considered, Berwick is now in the deanery of Bamborough 

 and diocese of Durham, and is held to be within the custom 

 of York as to the distribution of intestates' effects. The 

 church, which is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is in the 

 patronage of the dean and chapter of Durham, who lease the 



tithes to the corporation. The living is a vicarage of the 

 annual value of 289/. according to the Ecclesiastical Report 

 of 1835. There is also a week-day lectureship, founded in 

 1625, by Mr. Fishborne, in the gift of the Mercers' Com- 

 pany in London, but no other church or chapel connected 

 with the church of England. There are ten other places 

 of public worship, viz. a Catholic chapel, two meeting- 

 houses connected with the Kirk of Scotland, two with the 

 Associate Synod of Scotland, two with the Relief, one Bap- 

 tist chapel, and two belonging to the Methodists. 



Berwick still remains a walled town, but the fortifications 

 do not inclose so large a space as they did in antient times. 

 The modern ramparts, which are, generally speaking, in 

 good repair, do not include the suburbs of Castle-gate and 

 the Greens, but the ruins of the old wall which surrounded 

 them, and extended further towards the east also, yet re- 

 main ; and one of its towers, called the Bell Tower, is still 

 almost entire. It seems doubtful whether Berwick was 

 surrounded with a stone wall prior to its conquest by the 

 first Edward. The more correct opinion probably is that it 

 was then merely defended by a ditch and wooden palisades. 

 The present walls were built in the reign of Queen Eliza- 

 beth. Excluding the suburbs, the circumference is a mile 

 and three quarters, but including them, it extends upwards 

 of two miles and a half. The old works consisted probably 

 of a ditch, a rampart, and circular or square towers, or both, 

 at intervals. The existing defences consist of a rampart of 

 earth substantially reveled, faced with stone. Towards the 

 river the line of works is nearly straight, but to the north 

 and east five bastions break the line of 4he curtains. There 

 are no outworks, with the exception of the old castle, now 

 completely in ruins, overlooking the Tweed, and an earthen 

 battery guarding the landing-place below the Magdalen 

 Fields. Around four sides of the irregular pentagon of 

 the walls is a ditch mostly dry, but there is no glacis, nor 

 is there any covert-way at the counterscarp. The first bas- 

 tion to the north is called Megs Mount, and, like three of 

 the others, it has a cavalier of earth, which enables the 

 guns to command the irregularities of the ground up the 

 Tweed, on the Scotch side of the river. It is a demi-bastion, 

 having a double flank on the right, which defends the 

 ' Scotch Gate,' situated between it and Cumberland Bastion, 

 with double flanks. Brass Mount Bastion is the next, under 

 the cavalier of which is a powder-magazine. This, with 

 Windmill Mount, has double flanks. Between Windmill 

 Mount and King's Bastion (a demi-bastion without a cavalier, 

 on which is the flag-staff), is a powder-magazine, with a 

 bomb-proof roof. A four and a six gun battery near the 

 governor's house defend the entrance to the harbour. Fi- 

 nally, the saluting battery of twenty-two guns commands 

 the English side of the Tweed. There are five gates, the 

 English Gate at the end of the bridge (now removed), the 

 Scotch Gate on the north, the Cowport, leading to the Mag- 

 dalen Fields, the Shore Gate, leading to the quay, and the 

 Pier Gate. 



The remains of the castle do not enable us to give any 

 particular description of it. In the reign of Elizabeth it 

 was in complete repair, but in that of Charles L it was in 

 ruins ; an eye-witness at the latter period describes it as ' in 

 manner circular, but dilapidated,' as having had ' mounts, 

 rampiers and flankers, well replenished with great ord- 

 nance, and fair houses therein, the walls and gates made 

 beautiful with pictures of stone (statues), the work curious 

 and delicate.' 



The town is in general well built, and the principal 

 streets wide and airy. The entrance from the south, which 

 was lately narrow and incommodious, is now being improved. 

 The parish church is a commodious and elegant building, 

 calculated to accommodate from 1000 to 1500 people. It 

 was built between the years 1648 and 1652, and, like some 

 others erected in the days of the Puritans, has no spire or 

 tower. The town or guild-hall, which belongs to the bur- 

 gesses, and in which are held their public meetings and 

 the courts of justice, is a handsome structure, with a stately 

 spire 1 50 feet high, in which is a peal of eight bells. It was 

 erected between 1750 and 1760. The latitude and longitude 

 given at the commencement of this article mark the exact 

 position of this spire, according to the Trigonometrical 

 Survey. Above the public rooms is the only prison of the 

 place. Below is the market-place for the sale of butcher's 

 meat, poultry, eggs, butter, &c. There is no house of correc- 

 tion. The barracks, which were built in 1719, form a neat 

 quadrangle, and afford good accommodation for 600 or 700 in- 



