BANKS OF THE TWEED AND SOME OF ITS TRIBUTARIES. 525. 
At a little distance from the hills, the flat begins to slope towards the river, 
and near the river on both sides a steep bank, B B’, reaches down to the 
haugh land between A A’ and the river. The base of this lower bank is from 
12 to 14 feet above the river, and was nearly reached during the great flood 
of 1831. \ 
It is very evident to any one who walks along thé-viver at Melrose, or who 
even examines the Ordnance Map, that the river here has not always kept its 
present course. The Ordnance Map shows a channel on the north side of the 
main stream, bearing the name of “ Little Tweed.” A part of the “ Ana,” or 
flat land between the river and the south cliff A, bears the name of Gattonside 
Haugh, implying that at one time the river did not run between that haugh 
and the village, as it now does. 
Mr Curte, who is proprietor of a farm in this haugh land, informs me that 
about fifty years ago, a deserted river channel existed, about 100 yards south of 
the present channel, which his father filled up.* 
That the steep bank at A A’ on the foregoing figure was made by water 
flowing by it, and undermining it, no one can doubt. Some persons have sug- 
gested a lake ; and there is no doubt that a barrier at the place called the Red 
Heugh, where the high ground on each side now shows a gorge narrow and 
high, might have existed, and dammed back the waters. But the base of these 
banks slopes down towards the east with the river, and so excludes the idea 
of a lake. 
The origin of the higher flats between B and C is more problematical. In 
the first place, as the banks bounding these flats are in most places separated 
by a space of three-fourths of a mile, it is not likely that the river could 
have meandered so much, as to produce these banks. In the second place, the 
base bounding these flats next the hills, seems horizontal. Judging by the 300 
feet contour line of the map, the flat, wherever it can be seen, forms a line pretty 
uniformly about 25 feet above that contour. These considerations suggest the 
existence of either a lake or an arm of the sea; but more probably a lake, inas- 
much as the existence of the higher land which exists towards the east, must have 
excluded the sea. A barrier of about 60 feet in height above the present level 
* As notice has been taken of a considerable change in the course of the river at Melrose, by which, 
property once on the north side became transferred to the south, a similar case may be mentioned as 
having occurred between Carham and Cornhill. At this place there is an extensive haugh on the south 
side of the Tweed, now under cultivation. It is bounded on the south by a bank about 50 feet high, 
and exceedingly steep. It is plain that this bank has been formed by the river when it ran about 25 
feet above its present channel. A hollow along a part of that bank at its base, has from time immemorial 
gone by the name of “ Dry Tweed.” There is here a portion of land possessed by Sir Joun Margort- 
BANKS, Bart., as part of his estate of Lees, which estate is situated on the north side of the river, and 
in Scotland. The river is here the boundary between England and Scotland. This bit of land extends 
to12 or 13 acres, Sir Joun’s right having been questioned, he established it by old plans in a court of 
law some years ago. 
VOL. XXVII. PART IV. 6 Z 
