18 S E L 
may have been the case formerly, there are now scarcely any 
traces here. Besides the two lakes we have mentioned, a 
great many smaller ones are scattered over the east and 
south-east quarters, of which the more considerable are 
Lochs Alemoor, the principal source of the Ale, and Oaker- 
moor, noted for the vast quantity of marl which it con¬ 
tains. 
The soil of the arable land, which does not much 
exceed one-twentieth part of the whole, is light, dry and 
easily cultivated; and produces oats, barley, turnips and 
potatoes; but very little wheat, for which the country is too 
elevated, and its climate in general too moist and rigorous. 
There is no coal, limestone, or sandstone, but a great deal of 
shell-marl in the lakes and mosses, which, when situated 
conveniently for the arable land, serves as a valuable ma¬ 
nure. The rest of the county is almost exclusively occupied 
by sheep, which are now, for the most part, of the Cheviot 
breed, though not often pure, and scarcely, in any instance, 
equal to those of Roxburghshire. The heath or mountain 
race still keep their ground near the sources of the streams in 
the elevated districts on the south-west. There is but a small 
number of cattle, which are kept chiefly for their milk. The 
valued rent of the county is 80,307/. 15s. 6d. Scots, and the 
real rent of the lands and houses in 1812, was 41,162/. 10s. 
sterling. In the same year, the land-rent was divided among 
forty-four estates, of which nine had each a valuation ex¬ 
ceeding 2000/. Scots, twenty were below 2000/. and above 
500/., and fifteen below 500/.; a division which indicates 
that most of the district belonged to a few individuals. 
Two-fifth* of the whole are held under entail. The 
principal proprietors are the Duke of Buccleuch, the Earl 
of Traquair, Lords Elibank and Napier, and gentlemen 
of the names of Pringle, Lockhart, Elliot, Murray and 
Scott. 
Selkirk, the county town, and a royal burgh, and the 
village of Galashiels, contain nearly all that part of the 
population that is not employed in husbandry; and both 
are small places. Selkirk is situated on a rising ground 
below the confluence of the Yarrow and Ettrick, near the 
borders of Roxburghshire, and is a place of considerable 
antiquity. Galashiels, on the Gala, north from Tweed, also 
on the borders of the same county, has been long distin¬ 
guished for its woollen manufacture, the most considerable 
of the kind in the south of Scotland; where all the various 
processes, from the sorting of the fleece to the finishing of 
the fabric, are conducted with much skill and success. For 
some time only coarse cloths were made, such as were for¬ 
merly worn by farm servants, seldom worth more than 3s. 
the yard, and popularly known by the name of Galaskiel 
greys; but, within these few years, some very fine broad 
cloths have been produced, and a hall-has been opened for 
the sale of their cloths, .similar to those long established at 
the woollen manufactories of England A considerable pro¬ 
portion of the wool of the county finds a market at Gala¬ 
shiels. An inkle work, and some tanneries, are the only 
other branches carried on for sale out of the county; so that 
its exports consist chiefly of raw produce, of which its sheep 
and wool are by far the most considerable articles. 
Selkirkshire, which has thirty-eight freeholders, sends one 
member to Parliament, and Selkirk, along with Peebles, 
Lanark, and Linlithgow, elect another for the Scottish 
burghs. Though it is a very thinly peopled district, con¬ 
taining, in 1811, only about twenty-two inhabitants to the 
square mile, yet poor rates have been long and universally 
established. The population, according to the census of 
1801, was 5070; in 1811 it amounted to 5889; and in 
1821 to 6637, of which 3205 were males, and 3432 females. 
The families employed in agriculture were 421, in all 
other occupations 409. The increase of population, from 
1811 to 1821, was 748; 36 miles south of Edinburgh, 
11 north of Hawick, 7 west of Melrose, and 23 east of 
Peebles. 
SELL, pron. Retained in Scotland, and the north of 
England, for self; and sells in the plural for selves. 
S E L 
They turn round like grindle-stones. 
Which they dig out fro’ the dells. 
For their bairns’ bread, wives and sells. B. Jonson. 
SELL, s. [selle , Fr., sella, Lat.] A saddle. Obsolete. 
Turning to that place, in which whilere 
He left his lofty steed with golden sell 
And goodly gorgeous barbes, him found not there. Spenser. 
[Selle, old Fr., ‘‘ siege, tribunal de justice.” Lacombe. 3 
A royal seat; a throne.-—The tyrant:proud, frown’d from 
his lofty sell. Fairfax. —A sill. 
SELL, in Building, is of two kinds, viz., ground-sell, 
which denotes the lowest piece of timber in a timber 
building, and that on which the whole superstructure is 
raised. 
SELL, Window, called also window-soil, is the bottom 
piece in a window-frame. 
SELL-BED, in Mining, a term used in some parts of 
England to express some particularly rich parts of the vein 
of ore. 
To SELL, v. a. [M. Goth, saljan ; Sax. fyllan, jEellan ; 
Icel. sell a,] To give for a price; the word correlative to 
buy ; to vend. 
You would have sold your king to slaughter, 
His princes and his peers to servitude. Shakspeare. 
To SELL, v. n. To have commerce or traffic with one. 
—I will buy with you, sell with you; but I will not eat 
with you. Shakspeare. —To be sold.—Few writings sell, 
which are not filled with great names. Addison. 
SELLA, among the Romans, a chair in which the old 
and infirm were carried by servants through the city, and on 
journeys. Sometimes the physicians prescribed it as an 
exercise. 
SELLA Equina, Turcica, or Sphenoides, in Ana¬ 
tomy, is a name given to the four apophyses of the os 
sphenoides, or cuneiforme, in the brain; in regard of 
their forming a resemblance of a saddle, which the Latins 
call sella. 
They are sometimes also called by the Greek name cli- 
noides. In the sella is contained the pituitary gland. 
SELLA, a river of the north of Spain, in the province 
of Asturias, which falls into the Bay of Biscay, at Rhio de 
Sella. 
SELLA, a town in the east of Spain, in Valencia, to the 
north of Alicant. Population 2000. 
SE'LLANDER, s. A dry scab in a horse’s hough or 
pastern. Ainsworth. 
SELLAY, a small island of the Hebrides, in the district 
of Harris; about 2 miles north from Pabbay. It is about a 
mile in circumference, and yields excellent pasture for 
sheep. 
SELLE, a small river of French Flanders, which falls 
into the Scheldt, not far from Valenciennes. 
• SELLECK, a parish of England, in Herefordshire; 4 
miles north-west of Ross. 
SELLEF, a village of Irak, in Persia; 110 miles east of 
Ispahan. 
SELLER, s. The person that sells; vender.—To things 
of sale a seller's praise belongs. Shakspeare. —The name 
of the agent, of the seller, notary and witnesses, are in both 
instruments. Addison. 
SELLER-HEAD, a promontory of Scotland, on the east 
of the isle of Lewis, near Stornoway. 
SELLES, a small town in the central part of France, de¬ 
partment of the Loir and Cher, on the river Cher. Popula¬ 
tion 3600. It has some manufactures of woollens; 14 miles 
south-west of Romorantin, and 25 south of Blois. 
SELLHAM, a parish of England, in Sussex; 3J miles 
west-south-west of Petworth. 
SELLIERA [dedicated by Cavanilles to a Parisian en¬ 
graver, Natalis Sellier, who executed the plates of Cavanilles’ 
leones, and also of his monodelphia], in Botany, a genus 
of the class pentandria, order monogynia.—Generic Cha¬ 
racter. 
