BERWICKSHIRE. 



487 



Berwick- 

 shire. 



the German or BiitiJi ocean, and adjoins the north- 

 east border of England, deriving its name from the 

 town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which was formerly 

 its head borough or county town ; but which has 

 been long annexed to the crown of England, though 

 still enjoying a species of anomalous jurisdiction in 

 some measure separate from both kingdoms of Eng- 

 land and Scotland. Berwickshire is bounded on the 

 east by the German Ocean, and a part of the mouth 

 of the Firth of Forth. It bounds on the north with 

 East Lothian, mostly along the range of hills called 

 Lammermoor, having, however, one parish to the 

 north-east of these hills situated on the extreme south- 

 eastern angle of the vale of Lothian. On the west, 

 it joins partly with Mid-Lothian to the north, but 

 principally with Roxburghshire. The southern boun- 

 dary is formed by the river Tweed, dividing it from 

 Roxburghshire on the west, Northumberland in the 

 middle, and North Durham on the east : but a por- 

 tion of Roxburgh in the neighbourhood of Kelso, 

 and the township of Berwick, are both on the north 

 side of this river. 



Dunse, nearly in the centre of the shire, is its prin- 

 cipal town, and is in W. Long. 2, N. Lat. 55 49'. 

 The most easterly point where this shire joins Ber- 

 wick township, is in W. Long. 1 41', and the west- 

 ern extremity in W. Long. 2 34'. The most south- 

 ern point on Tweed, is in N. Lat. 55 36' 30", and 

 the most northern in N. Lat. 55 58' 30". The ex- 

 treme length is 31, and the extreme breadth 19* 

 statute miles ; and the entire superficies of the county 

 extends to about 285,000 English acres, of which 

 about 100,000 are arable, and 185,000 are composed 

 f moors and hill pasture. 



Anciently Berwickshire seems to have included a 

 considerable portion of the lowlands of Roxburgh- 

 shire, as the old castle of Roxburgh or Rokesburghe, 

 was formerly known by the name of March-mount, in 

 reference to the ordinary term of the Merse or March, 

 by which the lowlands of this county are still known. 

 Lauderdale was formerly a separate regality, or high- 

 er and almost independent jurisdiction, under the name 

 of a bailliary ; and was a detached domain belonging 

 to the powerful family of the lords of Galloway, 

 which ended in the inglorious John Baliol, and his 

 gallant but unfortunate kinsman, John the Red 

 Cumyn, who was slain by Robert the Bruce. Lam- 

 mermoor is the north eastern hill district of this coun- 

 ty ; having Lauderdale on the west, and the Merse 

 on the south and south-west. Besides these large di- 

 visions, the county is divided into three presbyteries, 

 Chimside, Dunse, and Lauder ; and these are subdi- 

 vided into thirty-one parishes. 



The mountainous districts of Lammermoor and 

 Lauderdale are of considerable extent, in which the 

 general range runs inland from the sea at St Ebb's 

 Head nearly west ; but intersected by many narrow 

 vales in various directions, chiefly tending towards the 

 south, in which most of the streamlets flow ; though 

 the rivers of the vale land principally run from west 

 toward the east. From the main range of hills, va- 

 rious spurs jut out towards the south ; and there are 

 several detached or isolated hills in different places of 

 the vale of the Merse : And even that vale is much 

 diversified by numerous swells and knoles, and wind- 



ing deep delis, in which last the streamlets of the 

 lower country flow in search of the larger waters and 

 rivers. The northern sides of the Lammermoor hills 

 are- of considerable steepness, but belong to East- 

 Lothian; while the southern slopes are generally mo- 

 derate, and blend gradually into the lower vale. In 

 many places the tops of the hills form extensive ele- 

 vated table lands, which slope almost insensibly to- 

 wards the south into the lower vales. The higher 

 land is usually miserably bare infertile moor ; while 

 the slopes, called the moor edges, are mostly useful 

 land, and sometimes of excellent quality. Two of 

 the table lands are crossed by the principal great 

 roads leading from Edinburgh to Berwick and Kelso ; 

 one at the Press inn, called Coldingham moor, once 

 a royal forest ; the other at Blackshicls. But the 

 oryctology, or features of the county, have hardly 

 been attended to in any survey of the country, and 

 cannot be satisfactorily described by any person who 

 has not carefully travelled the country for the ex- 

 press purpose. Clint-hill, at the north-west extre- 

 mity of the Lammermoor chain, is said to be 1544 

 feet above the level of the sea. The general range 

 may average about 1000 feet, declining as it approach- 

 es towards the sea and the east ; and the whole ter- 

 minates in three precipitous rocky promontories, at 

 St Ebb's Head on the couth, Earn's Cleugh in the 

 middle, aiid Fast castle on the north. St Ebb's 

 Head is detached from the extremity of the chain, by 

 a deep narrow dry dell, almost level with high water- 

 mark at spring-tides. 



There is only one small lake or loch near Colding- 

 ham, of no moment. The Tweed, though it skirts 

 Berwickshire in a winding course of forty miles, can 

 scarcely be considered as belonging to the county, as 

 no portion of its territory crosses that fine stream, 

 and its rise is at a great distance in the west of Tweed- 

 dale or Peebles-shire. Whitadder and Blackadder 

 are the principal rivers of the county, though the 

 former rises in East Lothian ; and both united run 

 into Tweed near Berwick. Leeder or Leader, en- 

 tirely belonging to and giving name to Lauderdale, 

 runs from north to south, and falls into the Tweed at 

 the southwest corner of the county. Eden, which 

 rises at the west end of the Merse, runs into Tweed 

 in that part of Roxburghshire which lies on the 

 north side of this river, usurping, as it were, a va- 

 luable portion from the Merse, which probably, in 

 ancient times, formed a part of the constabulary of 

 Roxburgh Castle or Marchmount ; a separate juris- 

 diction independent of the adjoining sheriffdoms. The 

 Eye, a small water, or large burn, is the only stream 

 of any consequence in the county which runs direct- 

 ly into the sea. 



This is by no means a mineral district. The ge- 

 neral run of the rocks and lower hills i3 composed of 

 most irregularly stratified schistic stone, or hardened 

 clay, with yolks of whin-stone, and quartz veins, 

 mostly very thin and irregularly branching, but much 

 mixed with a kind of steatitic half lapidified substance, 

 called leek by the quarriers. In the higher muirs, 

 there is a good deal of amorphous and splintery trap, 

 or bastard whin-stone. In several places there are 

 rocks of breccia, or coarse pudding-stone, many of 

 which are iu small fragments ; but a remarkable in- 



Ucnvkk- 

 shire. 



