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roots, previoufly prepared with lime-water, arc candied with 

 filgar, and taken with lea. Their flavour is infipid. 



Our friend Dr. Sims, in Curtis's Magazine, while lie fol- 

 lows the ideas of preceding authors reflecting the characters 

 and affinities of this Angular plant, avows a preference for 

 the very different vi -w which we have taken ; and we derive 

 much confidence from his fanction. It is to be regretted, 

 that, with the belt polfible intention, he has been milled by 

 the French botanifts, to change a faulty fpecific name much 

 for the worfe. The word glorio/a, whether deligncdlv or 

 not, ferves but to perpetuate their unjuft ideas of Dr. Rox- 

 burgh, as having, by an unexampled initance of vain-glory, 

 inferihed a genus to himfelf We mod wonder at Dr. Sims's 

 continuing to apply a fpecific name which, by his own con- 

 feffion, appears to belong to a different plant, whole flowers 

 Are " hardly half the fize"." For this, the original fpeciei 

 would, as the lealt evil that prelents itfelf, retain the name 

 of gloriofiformis, which is at leal! correct, and very expref- 

 Jive. We had long ago detected Ri.inphius's lynouym. 

 It agrees bed with our iilridiflora. 



ROXBURGHSHIRE," in Geography, one of the 

 lout hern counties of Scotland, is fituated between N. lat. 

 55 7', and 55 42', and between W. long. r J 39', and. 

 i° 36', from the meridian of London, It is bounded on 

 the fouth by Cumberland and Northumberland, in England ; 

 on the call by the latter county only ; on the north and 

 north-ealt by Berwickshire ; and on the welt and north- 

 weft, by the counties of Dumfries, Selkirk, and Mid- 

 lothian. In point of fliape, it is fo extremely irregular, that 

 it is difficult to define its extent. Its grcatefl length, from 

 the junction of the Mare-burn with the Liddel, to the junc- 

 tion of Carham-burn with the Tweed, is 41 miles ; and its 

 greateft breadth, on a line interfering the above at right 

 angles, is 29 miles. Its medium length is about 30, and 

 its medium breadth a little more than 22 miles, making its 

 contents about 672 fquare miles, or 430,080 fquare acres ; 

 of which, at the time of the laft furvey, in 1796, nearly 

 three-fifths were in fhecp pafturc, and the remainder in arable 

 cultivation, or occupied by wood;, pleafurc-grounds, towns, 

 and villages. Politically (peaking, this county compre- 

 hend^ twenty-nine entire parifhes, and a portion of five others, 

 which, united, contain, according to the parliamentary re- 

 turns of 181 1, 6518 houfes, and 37,230 inhabitants. 



Hijlorieal Events. — To narrate all the military tranfactions 

 which hiltory and tradition allirm to have occurred within 

 this county r , would be to occupy our pages with an almolt 

 endlefs detail of petty conflicts and depredatory excurfions. 

 Roxburghfhire being a border diftrict, and uniting, for above 

 60 miles, with England, was, for fcveral centuries, a per- 

 petual fecne of border warfare ; fo that there is fcarcely a 

 fpot throughout its whole extent, where Lome feat of valour, 

 or deed of definition, has not happened. Every parifh 

 prefents, to the difcerning eye of the antiquary*, Ionic relic 

 of thofe wretched days when the rellraints of law were 

 fct at defiance, and rapine and butchery conftituted the 

 chief delight both of the lord, and of his vall.d pcalantry. 

 Of thofe events which do not bear the character <>t pre- 

 datory warfare, the molt prominent are the fiege of Rox- 

 burgh caftle, by king James II., before-mentioned, and the 

 battle of Jedburgh, in which the Scots were completely de- 

 feated by the- Ellglifll under the carl of Surrey. 'The latter 

 event h ippened in the year 1^23. 



Gem-nil Afpett of the County. — The furface of Roxburgh- 

 shire is finely diversified, and exhibits many fcenea that .ire 

 truly beautiful, but few that arc romantic or fublime. It 

 is commonly confidered as divided into four natural diftrict 8 ; 

 Hawick, Jedburgh, Kelfo, and Melrofe. Of thefe, the 



V.,t. XXX. 



diftrict of Hawick is the mod mountainous ; and there is 

 alfo a chain of hills along the fouthcrn boundary of the 

 county. The other divifions prefent to the eye a iucceflion 

 of hills and vallies. The hills have moltly (loping fides, and 

 are covered with a green fward to their very fummits. Very 

 few of them are bleak, and none of them rugged or tre- 

 mendous. The profpects from their higheft points are ex- 

 tenlive, variegated, and delightful. The numerous vales, 

 whether of narrow, or of wide extent, are all watered by 

 limpid dreams ; many of them naked, and others fringed 

 with wood. Some afford excellent pafture, and others are 

 in high cultivation. They are in general inclofed by very 

 gentle declivities, though feveral are hemmed in by deep 

 banks, over-run with brnfh-wood, or adorned with lofty 

 trees, which form a fcenery rather agreeable than magni- 

 ficent. In a county lo extenfive, and, on the whole, fo 

 much elevated, the proportion of heath and mofs is very in- 

 confiderable, but cannot be calculated with any degree of 

 exactnefs, as they are fcattered every where in portions of 

 unequal fize. In Liddefdale, where improvement has made 

 the lead progrefs, patches of mofs are fecn by the edges, and 

 even in the middle of fertile vales. There arc indications of 

 this having been formerly the cafe in other parts of the county, 

 on which induitry has now wrought a happy change. 



Mineralogy. — Roxburghfhirederives little importance from 

 its mineral products. Coal has been difcovered in feveral 

 places, but is wrought only in one fpot, near the fouthcrn 

 extremity of the diftrict of Liddefdale. Hence the county 

 labours under the ferious difadvantage of a want of fuel, 

 which mult be brought from Northumberland, or Mid- 

 lothian, by land-carriage. Throughout the whole fhire 

 lime-Uone is abundant, but little of it is calcined for fale, 

 except in the neighbourhood of the Liddefdale collieries. 

 Free-done alfo is plentiful. The principal ilratum extends 

 in a north-ealt direction from the fartheft point of Liddef- 

 dale to the neighbourhood of Spronitoun, where it is of a 

 fine, hard, and durable nature. Different kinds of whin- 

 done appear every where on the furface, in the bed> oi 

 brooks, and in inexhauilible quarries. Vad beds of (hell 

 marie lie fcattered throughout the contiguous pariffll 

 Roberton, Afhkirk, Wilton, Minto, Luliefleaf, Bowden, 

 Gakilhiels, and Selkirk. There are likewife large marie 

 pits at Eckford and Ednam ; and fome lcls considerable 

 in various places. Pebbles arc found in vad multitudes in 

 the vicinity of the Cheviot hills. In the panlh of li.i 

 kirk, there is a place called Robert's Linn, where there are 

 large rocks of pebbles, which are manufactured into I, 

 and buttons of various kinds. Molt parts of their . 

 are of a light blue colour ; but tome portions of them are 

 finely varied with ftrcaks of red and yellow ; and fo n 

 are they efteemed, that great numbers of them are con- 

 veyed to Sheffield, Birmingham, and other towns. 



Rivers, £sV. — No county in Great Britain can boad ol 

 more numerous, or more beautiful rivers and brooks. One 

 Bo« B through, and cnliveir.. every little vale. The princij ..■ 



ot them arc, the Teviot, the Jed, Tweed, Rule, Kale, 

 Oxnam, Gala, Slittridge, Ale, (alia, Borthuick, Ednam, 

 Bowmont, Allan, Leader, Ettrick, Hermitage, nnd Liddel. 

 The two lad are difcharged ii to 'he Elk, which runs into 

 the Sobv:i\ trilh ; the Others Kill n, to the Tweed, which 



empties itfelf into the fea. Tin n. majeilii 



courfe along bank; winch, n feveral places, ire deep and 

 bold, jutting out, at Old Melrofe, into a promontory, and 

 forming around Dryburgh abbey a peninfula. It partly 



bounds, and partly intcrlect% the county ; receiving on the 

 north the Gala, winch is the boundary with Srlkirkfnire and 

 Mid-lotliian tor five miles; tin- Leader, which, fori 



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