ROXBURGH. 
middle nature between these extremes. Of the arable district, 
at least two-thirds may be safely called light, and dry. The 
extent of the whole shire has been computed as follows. 
English Acres. 
Arable and cultivated lands.. 174,500 
Gardens and pleasure grounds.. 2,700 
Natural woods ..... 800 
Planted woods ....... 5,000 
Pastures, mosses, roads, sites of houses, channels 265 000 
lakes and rivers...J 
448,000 
No county in the kingdom can boast of more numerous 
or beautiful rivers and brooks. One of them flows through 
and enlivens every little vale. Tweed and Teviot are alone 
called rivers. The first holds a majestic course along banks 
which in several places are steep and bold, jutting out at Old 
Melrose, into a promontory, and forming around Dryburgh 
a peninsula. It partly bounds and partly intersects the 
county, receiving on the north the Gala, which is the boun¬ 
dary with Selkirkshire and Mid-Lothian for five miles ; the 
Leader, which, for nearly the same space, is the boundary 
with Berwickshire ; the Allan (corrupted into Elwand), a 
pastoral rivulet; and the Eden, which rises in Berwickshire, 
but runs a considerable way along the skirts, and through 
the lower part of this county. Ettrick, also a boundary of 
Selkirkshire for a mile and a half, falls into Tweed on the 
south. Teviot rolls its pure streams over a pebbled bed, in 
many delightful windings, through a succession of rich, 
extensive, and well cultivated valleys, for 34 miles, till it 
loses its name in the Tweed, between Roxburgh castle and 
Kelso, one of the most enchanting spots which can well be 
conceived. The Ale and Borthwich are the northern 
branches of Teviot. Both rise in Selkirkshire, and are in 
some places boundaries of the two countries. The Ale flows 
upwards of 12 miles in this county, through fields of very 
unequal fertility, many of which have wooded banks, till, 
emerging from scenery that is truly romantic, it is emptied 
into Teviot below Ancram. The Borthwick joins Teviot 
above Hawick, after passing through a country that is chiefly 
pastoral, but much improved of late by tillage and manure, 
and young plantations. On the south, Teviot is augmented 
by the Kale, the Oxnam, and the Jed. The first and last 
issue from the border hills. The Kale, after leaving the moun¬ 
tains, waters, and sometimes overflows, a great part of a 
spacious and valuable plain of 1200 acres, adorned on diffe¬ 
rent sides by clumps of full grown trees; while the Jed, 
rushing along a rocky channel, through narrow and thick 
wooded vales, washes the bottom of several high precipices, 
winds around the county town, and terminates another and 
still more extensive plain, known by the name of Crailing- 
haughs, through the middle of which the Oxnam finds its 
way to Teviot.' Nearerto its source, Teviot receives the Rule, 
the Slittrige, and the Allen, all of which rise on the confines 
of Liddisdale. In the number and value of its trees, Rule 
may vie with sylvan Jed, but not in wild and picturesque 
scenery. Slittrige is not wdthout the beauties of green hills, 
natural wood, and hollow vales. Allen, like the stream of 
the same name north of Tweed, flows wholly through sheep 
walks. Bowmont is another pastoral rivulet, which has its 
source in the south-east of this county, and, after a rapid 
course of nine or ten miles, enters England. But of all the 
waters in Roxburgshire, few are more indebted to nature, 
or might be more improved by art, than Hermitage, which 
rises in the southern declivity of the ridge, from whence 
Allen and Slittrige go in an opposite direction, and tumbling 
over a bottom of rough shapeless stones, amidst green hills, 
whose base is generally skirted with copse-wood, loses itself 
in the Liddal, and imparts its natural ornament to that larger 
but more naked stream. The course of the Liddal is more 
placid; it issues from a flat, not improperly called Dead 
Water, and comes through a district more marshy and level. 
After their junction, they are increased by some consider¬ 
able brooks, and with a velocity which has excavated pools 
415 
of an uncommon depth, descend through valleys, capable of 
being rendered, by the hands of skilful cultivators, as pro¬ 
ductive as they are beautiful, for the space of eight or nine 
miles, when they separate Cumberland from Dumfries-shire, 
and, mingling with Esk, are carried into the Solway frith. 
It appears from Dr. Douglas’ agricultural survey, that 
between 1760 and 1770, coal was discovered on the hill 
called Carter Fell, in this county, near the border of North¬ 
umberland ; but though wrought for some time, it was aban¬ 
doned as of little value. Another seam of better quality 
was subsequently found near the southern point of Liddis¬ 
dale, from which little benefit has been derived beyond that 
detached district. Various attempts have been made to dis¬ 
cover coal in different places of the county; but not one of 
them was conducted upon a scale adequate to the importance 
of the object. Lately a new seam of coal was disco¬ 
vered on the Carter; in consequence of which a cart-load, 
the first-fruits of the mine, was burned in triumph in the 
market-place of Jedburgh, whose inhabitants, from their 
vicinity, are chiefly concerned in its success; and some 
indeed of whom have an interest as proprietors. Many 
hands were employed during this summer, (1825,) in making 
roads from the site of the coal to the neighbouring turnpikes; 
and as there is good limestone in the vicinity, it would be an 
object of great agricultural importance to the district, that 
the experiment should prosper. Meanwhile the inhabitants 
of the western parts of the county in general, bring their 
coal from the Lothians and Dumfries-shire; and those in the 
eastern parts of the county, principally from Northumber¬ 
land and North Durham, at distances varying from perhaps 
sixteen to thirty miles and upward. Under such circum¬ 
stances of disadvantage, the high cultivation of the county 
may well be considered astonishing. Through the whole of 
Liddisdale limestone abounds; but, from the state of the 
roads, the difficulty of access, and the elevation of the ground, 
little is calcined for general sale. Great quantities of shell 
marie are found in the parishes adjoining Selkirkshire. 
Marl pits have also been found many years ago at Eckford, 
Ednam, and other places; and a few years ago marl, in 
large quantities, was found near the Berry Moss in Kelso 
parish, during the operations connected with draining that 
morass. More recently still, a large stratum of marl in Lin¬ 
ton Loch, near Morebattle, has been made available for the 
use of the public, and is now on sale. This is of great 
importance to farmers in the neighbourhood; as marl is 
found to be a manure admirably adapted for meliorating 
land, especially light soils; but the quantity required renders 
the carriage too expensive for distant use. 
It has been said that strata of free-stone run in a north-east 
direction, from the southern extremity of Liddisdale to the 
neighbourhood of Sprouston, where it is regularly quarried. 
This quarry has indeed been long highly valued, both for the 
beauty of the materials which its furnishes for building, and 
for the facility with which it is wrought. For the orna¬ 
ments of public buildings, however, Eccles and Swinton 
quarries in Berwickshire are found to be more durable, as 
also for pavements and similar vyorks. Arbroath stone is 
preferred, though its distance and expense make it a luxury. 
There are also free-stone quarries at Denholm and Pinnacle. 
Different sorts of whinstone are found every where on the 
surface, in the beds of rivers, and in inexhaustible quarries. 
To the eastward of the Jed, the hills are covered with a thick 
sward of rich grass, and some are bare and rugged. Some of 
them, as the Eildonhills and Ruberslaw, rise beautifully from 
the plain, and most of them are verdant to their summits. 
Before the union of the two kingdoms under James VI., 
this shire was said to be much more populous; and on 
account of the predatory war carried on between the Scots 
and English, the inhabitants were inured to military disci¬ 
pline ; and it is said that they were so alert, that this and the 
neighbouring shire of Berwick could, in 24 hours, produce 
10,000 men on horseback, well armed and accoutred. Butthis 
union produced an effect very different from what might have 
been expected from it. Instead of promoting the increase, it 
is said to have contributed to the diminution of the people on 
the 
