ROXBURGHSHIRE, a county in Scotland, on its south-eastern extremity, where it joins England, situated between 55. 6. and 55. 43. north latitude, and between 2. 12. and 3. 7. west longitude from Greenwich. It is sometimes called Teviotdale, from its principal river the Teviot, but improperly, as it also includes a tract called Liddesdale on the south-west, which is unconnected with the Teviot. Its boundaries are Berwickshire, from which it is separated in part by the river Tweed on the north, Selkirkshire and Dumfriesshire on the west and south-west, and the English counties of Cumberland and Northumberland on the south-east and east. Between Berwickshire and Selkirkshire a small tract touches the county of Mid-Lothian; on the south, between Dumfriesshire and Cumberland, the county terminates almost in a point; on the west it in some places surrounds small portions of Selkirkshire, and in others projects into that county; and it has the Cheviot Hills on the east, the outline being exceedingly irregular on all sides. Its greatest length is nearly forty-one miles, and its greatest breadth about thirty miles. According to the latest authorities, its area is 715 square miles, or 457,600 English acres, containing thirty-two entire parishes, and part of other four, which properly belong to the counties adjoining. In an agricultural view, it may be considered as divided into arable land and hilly pasture; the pasture land, estimated at about three fifths of the whole, occupying the eastern, southern, and western quarters, and surrounding, in a circular form, the arable, which lies on the north and north-east sides of the county. The arable, pasture, and [7:19:511]meadow lands, are estimated at 300,000 acres. The wood planted may be calculated at 15,000 acres.

Except upon the banks of the streams, which are commonly of no great width, there is very little level or flat land in this district; and, compared with the high grounds in other parts of Scotland, hardly any part of it can be said to be mountainous. The cultivated districts are beautifully diversified with narrow valleys, each traversed by its own rivulet, often fringed with wood, and bounded by gentle acclivities; and the hills in pasture are, with few exceptions, clothed in verdure to their very summits. On the confines of Northumberland, the most elevated quarter, the hills seldom reach the height of 2000 feet, but there are many from that height down to 1000 or 800 feet. The most considerable are the Minto and the Eildon Hills, both in the arable division; and Dunion, Ruberslaw, Wisp, Hownam Law, Millenwood-Fell, Carter-Fell, and Chillhill, in the pastoral districts. Most of them having a conical form, insulated at their base by streamlets, and not rising in a continuous range, present very conspicuous objects, and at a distance seem higher than they are found to be when approached. The beauties of the natural scenery have been heightened and improved by the wealth and industry of its inhabitants; all this division abounding in gentlemen’s seats, comfortable and even elegant farm-houses, the fields enclosed with hedges of thorn, and belts of wood, and many spots covered with young trees. On the skirts of the hills, too, cultivation has of late made considerable progress, as much, perhaps, as could be expected in the natural circumstances of the country; but the interior of the pastoral district is in general naked, without trees or fences, and very thinly inhabited.

The prevailing soil of the arable land, and over most of the hills, is what is called a sandy loam, though of different qualities, excellently adapted to the turnip culture. Tracts of a clayey or more heavy soil, however, occupy a considerable space, especially on the north-west. Clay is also found on the north, near the Tweed, where it is rich and fertile. Moss, marsh, and heath occur in the south-west, and occasionally in other quarters; but altogether they cover but a small proportion of the surface.

No district in Britain is better supplied with streams, though it has only two that deserve the name of rivers, the Tweed and the Teviot. The Tweed, which crosses the northern part of the county, and for part of its course forms the boundary with Berwickshire, enters it from Selkirkshire on the north-west, and leaves it below Redden on the north-east, carrying with it nearly all the waters that pass through or have their source in this district. Its banks, especially near Kelso, where it is crossed by an elegant bridge, built by Rennie between the years 1799 and 1803, are perhaps equal in richness and beauty to those of any river of the same extent in Britain. The Teviot more properly belongs to this county, rising and terminating witfiin its bounds. It has its source in the south-west extremity, near the confines of Dumfriesshire, and flowing north-east almost through the middle of the district, joins the Tweed, in which its name is lost, a little above the town of Kelso. From Hawick downwards it is a considerable stream, and, like the Tweed, flows through a very fertile and well-cultivated country. The principal rivulets that fall into the Teviot from the south are Allen, Slittrick, Rule, Jed, Oxnam, and Kale; and from the north and west Borthwick and Ale. The Liddel and Hermitage, which run on the south-west, and whose united streams retain the name of Liddel, from which this tract is called Liddesdale, soon leave Roxburghshire, and after forming the boundary between Dumfriesshire and Cumberland, fall into the Esk above Longtown. The other streams are the Etterick, which joins the Tweed from the south-west as it enters this county; the Allen and the Leader, which fall into the same river from the north; and the Eden, which, after an easterly course, partly on the boundary with Berwickshire, enters the Tweed on the north-east, a little before it leaves the county. The Beaumont also rises here amongst the Cheviot Hills on the east, but after a short course passes by Kirk-Yetholm, and enters Northumberland. Of the smaller streams, the Ale, Jed, Rule, and Hermitage are distinguished for their natural scenery, to which we may add the Liddel, celebrated by the late Dr Armstrong, a native of Liddesdale. Tweed is the only river frequented by salmon, except at the time of spawning, when they are found in most of the other streams. Trout abounds in the Ale, Rule, Jed, and Kale; and there are a few small lakes which contain perch and pike.

Roxburghshire is by no means rich in minerals. The clay-slate or graywacke formation extends all along the western part, round by the top of Liddesdale, and then up through part of the parishes of Oxnam, Jedburgh, and Crailing. The coal series of rocks occupies nearly the whole district of Liddesdale. Trap-rock and porphyry constitute the formation of the eastern part, but they are also protruded in large masses through the clay-slate, coal, and sandstone formations, in all parts of the country. The old red sandstone extends along the confines of Berwickshire, down between the clay-slate and the trap-rock, to nearly the lower end of the parish of Hobkirk; a belt of it also intervenes between the coal series and the clay-slate. Two dikes of mountain limestone appear in Liddesdale; one a few miles above Castleton, and the other at Fanna Hill, at the top of the dale. At Carter-Fell a larger portion is found. Different kinds of agate, and sundry varieties of jasper, are also to be met with. Coal has been found at the Carter-Fell, in the southern extremity of Liddesdale, in the parishes of Bedrule and Linton, and in one or two other places; but the workings have been so expensive in comparison with the value of the coal, that they have been given up. Limestone, which abounds in various parts, is not wrought to any extent, owing to the want of coal. There are excellent sandstone quarries at Sprouston on the Tweed, and marl in several parishes, particularly at Eckford on the Teviot, Linton Loch, and Ednam near the Tweed. But the use of marl as a manure is confined to a narrow circle around the places where it is found; lime, of which a much smaller quantity answers the purpose, being most in request. The lime, like the coal, is procured from Northumberland and Mid-Lothian, being a distance of from twenty to thirty miles from many parts of the arable district. Coals could be procured nearer, at Tyne Head, and at a much cheaper rate for the west of the shire, if the Duke of Northumberland would allow a road to be made across the border, through his estate.

The valued rent of Roxburghshire is L.314,663. 6s. 4d. Scotch, being, next to Fife and Perth, the highest in Scotland; and the real rent of the lands, in 1811, was L.230,663. 9s. 9d. sterling, and of the houses L.11,508. 6s. 3d. The annual value of real property in 1815 amounted to L.254,180. It is one of the few counties where the rent in sterling falls below the valuation in Scotch money; a circumstance which is certainly not owing to the want of improvements to sustain rent, nor to the present rents being too low, but to the mistaken vanity of its land-owners, whose rent-rolls at the time of the valuation are understood to have been stated too high. Of this valuation, which in 1811 was divided amongst three hundred and forty-nine estates, but one third belongs to lands under entail, and more than two thirds to families of the name of Kerr, Scott, Elliot, and Douglas. The principal proprietors are the Dukes of Roxburghe and Buccleuch, the Marquis of Lothian, the Earl of Minto, and Douglas of Cavers; but there are thirty-three estates in all that have a valued rent of L.2000 each, and fifty-five more are from L.500 to L.2000. Yet moderate and small [7:19:512]properties are very numerous, the remaining two hundred and sixty-one estates being under L.500 Scotch. Several of these, exceeding a valuation of L.400 Scotch, and held of the crown, have been acquired by professional farmers. Among the seats in the county, which are too numerous to be mentioned here, the most splendid is Fleurs, the mansion of the Duke of Roxburghe, beautifully situated at the confluence of the Tweed and Teviot, near Kelso. Abbotsford, the seat of the late Sir Walter Scott, is also situated in this county. It is placed on a bank overhanging the south side of the Tweed, and is about half-way between Melrose and Selkirk. The property attached to it is judiciously laid out with thriving plantations; and in improving his land, Sir Walter gave a stimulus that has had the happiest effects on the agriculture and appearance of this beautiful district.

Roxburghshire is divided, for the most part, into larger farms, if we except a few sheep-farms in the Highlands, than any other county in Scotland; many of them, consisting of land partly arable and partly pasture, being from 1000 to 3000 acres, and several of these, in some instances, being in the occupation of one tenant. Farms altogether arable, containing from 500 to 1000 acres, are not uncommon. The capital and knowledge required for conducting concerns so extensive entitle such men to suitable accommodations in their houses and farm-offices, many of which are accordingly laid out and constructed in a superior style. The average rent of arable land varies from 15s. to L.2.10s. an acre, according to the quality of the soil and the distance from market. The rents of sheep-farms are calculated, not by the number of acres, but by the number of sheep that can be supported thereon. The grazing of an ox or cow, in various parts of the county, is from L.l. 10s. to L.7 a year; that of a sheep from 5s. to L.l, one of the Cheviot breed being charged about one half less than one of the Leicester breed. Farms are generally let on leases at fifteen and nineteen years. On some of the Buccleuch estates it is nine years, but the leases are usually renewed at the end of that period. On other estates the leases vary from five to eleven years.

Most of the farm-servants are married, and live in houses apart, set down together in some convenient quarter of the farm, each having a small garden attached. It is the practice here, as in other parts of the lowlands of Scotland, to pay most of their wages in the produce of the farm, and not in money, every married ploughman, or hind, getting a certain quantity of com, a cow kept, and some land allowed for potatoes, and often also for flax; he is also commonly allowed to keep a pig and a few hens. The value of his income may be calculated to be between L.25 and L.28 a year. Whatever may be the fluctuation of the markets, these labourers are thus always provided with the necessaries of life; and the sale of the butter made from their cow, with its calf, and the eggs of their poultry, and, if the family be not large, a part of their corn, supplies them with the other articles they need; whilst they fatten their pigs, and work up the flax for the use of their families. No class of men of their rank are to be compared with these hinds for propriety of conduct and frugality; and few of the labouring classes any where are so comfortable and contented with their condition.

The wages of a shepherd are much higher than those of a hind. These, however, fluctuate with the value of stock. Shepherds are allowed in many instances thirty sheep, the right of keeping a cow, with one or two pigs, and have besides a certain quantity of potato-ground. With these advantages, they realize considerable property, so that not a few are able in the course of years to take farms.

The system of farming is generally what is called the four and five year shift rotation of cropping. The five-year shift is that which is now most generally adopted, and is as follows: First year, fallow or turnip; second year, wheat, after plain fallow; third and fourth years, grass; fifth year, oats. There may be a variation after turnip in the second year, when barley or oats can be sown instead of the wheat, if the season is bad. Under a six years’ course, the most profitable on rather weak soils, and in a district where there are no large towns to furnish manure, the rotation from pasture is oats, turnips, barley or wheat, clover and rye-grass, partly cut for hay the first year, but chiefly pastured with sheep, and then continued in pasture two years longer. Under this system the crops are almost always good, and the land, instead of being exhausted, is kept in a state of progressive improvement. Though little of the soil be naturally adapted to wheat, yet this grain is now raised to a great extent on all the better descriptions of sandy loam; generally after turnips, which are eaten on the ground by sheep, which, by their treading, give consistency to the soil, as well as leave it greatly enriched by their manure. Only a small part is under beans, and somewhat more under pease; barley has in many instances been superseded by wheat, so that wheat and oats are the principal crops of grain; whilst, whatever be the number of acres in corn, nearly half the quantity is allotted to turnips, and the other half to clover and ryegrass. Potatoes occupy but a very small part of every farm; and flax, where raised at all, is only in small patches for the use of the farm-servants. The turnip crop, however, has for a series of years been attacked with a disease which is popularly known by the name of fingers and toes. It converts the bulb of the turnip, when one has been allowed to form, into a shapeless and morbid mass, which no animal will eat; and becomes putrid, and disappears altogether on the first approach of frost. It often prevails over extensive fields, whilst others adjoining escape; and it seems to make no difference whether the land be fresh from pasture or has been long in tillage. Various conjectures have been formed as to the cause or causes of this evil; and the general opinion is, that it is owing to the constant repetition, within a given time, of a turnip crop. To abate the evil, lime, and a proper attention to the change of rotation, are necessary.

The pastoral district of this county is occupied with an excellent breed of sheep called the Cheviot, from the general name of the hills on which they feed; for an account of which breed we must refer to the article Agriculture. On the arable farms, the short-horned cattle and Leicester sheep, neither of them, however, always in a pure state, form the principal stock; and as so large a proportion of even the arable land is always in grass, the number of both is very great. On farms partly arable and partly hill-pasture, the cross between the Cheviot and the Leicester is found to answer very well. Many of the farmers of late have purchased Highland stots or kyloes at the Falkirk trysts, which have been wintered for a year and then sold to advantage. The greatest improvement recently made is sheep or surface drains, which have not only had the effect of drying the meadow and marshy land, and thereby adding to the fineness and thickness of the grass, but also of curing to a great extent the rot and several other disorders which afflicted the sheep. By means of turnips, most of the disposable stock, whether of cattle or sheep, are carried forward till they are ready for the butcher, when the far greater part is sent to the weekly market of Morpeth in Northumberland, for the consumption of Newcastle and other towns in the north of England.

The progress which agriculture has made in this district has not been much favoured by its situation in regard to markets, coal, and lime. Weckly markets are held at Jedburgh, Hawick, and Kelso, where the corn is sold by sample upon very short credit, what is bought being paid for next market-day. Kelso market is the best attended,
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and the grain bought there is sent to Berwick for exportation to London. A considerable proportion is also sent to Dalkeith, and paid for by ready money. The carts that attend the Dalkeith market, on their return bring back coals or lime, which abound in that quarter. Bone manure, which is now getting into general use, is principally procured from Berwick. If either of the railways projected for connecting Newcastle and Edinburgh be carried into effect, it will be of great advantage to the county.

The towns are Kelso, Jedburgh, Hawick, and Melrose; and of the villages the most considerable are Yetholm and Kirk-Yetholm, near its eastern boundary. For notices of the towns, the reader is referred to them under their alphabetical heads. The two Yetholms are worthy of notice for their fairs, at which a great part of the cattle, sheep, and wool of the county are sold; and Kirk-Yetholm is remarkable for being the principal colony of gipsies in Scotland. At Jedburgh, Kelso, Melrose, and the village of Gatton-side, there are some valuable orchards, particularly at Jedburgh and Melrose, where some very old trees which belonged to their abbeys are still remarkably prolific.

This county, placed on the borders of the two kingdoms, which were constantly at war with each other, presents the ruins of a great many castles and towers, and other remains, of an early age. Amongst these may be mentioned the Castles of Hermitage in Liddesdale; Cessford in Eckford parish; Ferniehirst near Jedburgh; Brankholm on the banks of the Teviot, several miles above Hawick; and Harden, situated in Borthwick Vale, a mile from Hawick, formerly the seat of the Scotts of Harden. The site where the important Castleof Jedburgh stood is now occupied by a prison. The celebrated Catrail, erected by the Britons under the Roman yoke, and also the Roman road, both cross this county. Their remains can be distinctly traced. The county was also distinguished for its religious buildings, for which we refer to the articles Jedburgh, Kelso, and Melrose. The ancient burgh and town of Iloxburghe, which at one time was the fourth town in Scotland in importance and population, was situated on the beautiful peninsula formed by the junction of the Tweed and the Teviot rivers. It was regularly fortified by walls and ditches; and although it cannot be traced to a remoter period than the reign of Alexander I., it is believed to have been a royal burgh before that time, and, as such, governed by an alderman and inferior functionaries. It formed one of the court of four boroughs, which by the wisdom of David I. was instituted as a higher court, for hearing and deciding upon the appeals brought before them by the other royal burghs of the kingdom. Money was also coined here, and coins are yet to be seen in the depositories of antiquaries, of the date of William the Lion and James II. Situated as it was at the foot of one of the strongest castles on the border, it underwent many changes. It was several times burned by the English army, particularly in the years 1369 and 1460. This was the more easily accomplished from the buildings being almost entirely of wood; and its restoration in a short time may be explained from the abundant supply of wood yielded by the forests which then covered the country. Its site has been partly used for centuries, and is still used, for holding the ancient fair of St James. During the summer of 1842, a considerable portion of the ancient foundations was uncovered by the plough. The castle of the same name was built on an eminence at the west end of the town. This eminence rises to the height of nearly forty feet above the level of the Teviot, which here runs at the south base of the castle. The waters of the river were made subservient to fill the deep fosse which surrounded the fortress on the west, north, and east sides, by means of a dam thrown obliquely across the stream. Only a few remains of what appear to be the outward defences are now standing, but by their thickness they attest its prodigious strength. The interior of the building is now so overgrown with tall trees, that it is impossible to give any idea of the formation of its defences within. What remains is most probably the foundations of the fort erected by the Earl of Somerset after his expedition into Scotland in the year 1547. But it is needless to enter into historical (acts connected with this fortress, as these will be given under the history of Scotland.

There are various fairs held in the county. The most important are, St Boswell’s, held on the 18th of July, for cattle, sheep, horses, linen and woollen cloth; and St James’s, held on the 5th of August, for nearly the same articles as at St Boswell’s. There are also fairs held at Melrose, Yetholm, Hawick, Jedburgh, &c.

The following is a tabular view of the population of the county in the years 1811, 1821, and 1831,
[table]

Roxburghshire sends one member to Parliament; and Jedburgh, its only royal burgh, joins with Lauder, Haddington, Dunbar, and North Berwick, in electing another. This is one of the few Scottish counties in which there are regular assessments for the poor. Amongst the eminent men to whom this district has given birth are, Thomson, Armstrong, Lord Karnes, Elliot the brave defender of Gibraltar, Leyden, Park the African traveller, and William Dawson the father of the improved agriculture of Scotland.