HADDINGTONSHIRE, or, as it is frequently called, East Lothian, a county in Scotland, situated between 55° 47' and 56° 5' north latitude, and between 2° 25' and 3° 2' west longitude from Greenwich. Its boundaries are the Frith of Forth and German Ocean on the north and east, Berwickshire on the south, and Edinburghshire or Mid Lothian on the west. From west to east its extreme length is about twenty-five miles, and its greatest breadth from north to south seventeen; but from the irregularity of its boundaries, the area is computed to be only 272 square miles, or 174,080 English acres, of which about four fifths may be in tillage, or fit for cultivation, and the remaining fifth, consisting of hills or moorish ground, in its natural state, covered with heath and the coarser grasses. Of this last description is the greater part of the Lammermuir Hills, which bound the county in a direction from south-west to north-east, where they terminate in the bold promontory of St Abb’s Head.

From this range of hills on the south, Haddingtonshire appears, when viewed from some commanding eminence at a distance, to slope gradually to the Frith of Forth and the German Ocean; but, upon a nearer survey, the acclivity from the sea is found to consist of nearly parallel ridges, running from west to east, most of which commence near the western extremity of the county, and run throughout the greater part of its length. At the termination of these ridges on the east, there is a most fertile and extensive plain, which has the Lammermuir Hills on the south, and North Berwick Law on the north. Some of the hills in the low country, though of no great elevation, are very conspicuous objects, owing to their rising suddenly from a flat surface, and being exposed to view on all sides, surrounded by low grounds. North Berwick Law on the coast, 940 feet high, Traprane Law, 700, and the Garleton Hills, almost in the centre, not only themselves hold a prominent place in the landscape, but afford -from their heights a view of some of the richest and most beautiful scenery in Britain. The Lammermuir range on the south, which, when viewed from the Garleton Hills, appear to rise in the form of a vast amphitheatre, as if to protect and shelter the lower part of the county, present in their dark and rugged surface a striking contrast with the highly cultivated plains below. Over these plains, from the same station, the eye takes in the ports of Dunbar, North Berwick, Prestonpans, and Cockenzie, with the Bass Rock, the Isle of May, and others on the coast, and the shipping in the Frith of Forth; whilst nearer and all around lies an extensive tract of the most fertile land in the island, covered, if seen in a fine evening early in autumn, with rich crops of every hue, and studded with habitations of great variety, from the princely mansion, indistinctly traced through the variegated foliage of its woods, to the cottage of the peasant, sending up its slender column of smoke in the rays of the setting sun.

Almost every variety of soil known in Britain is to be found here; but it appears from the Agricultural Survey that clay and loam, nearly in equal proportions, though [7:11:103]each of various qualities, extend over about two thirds of the county; yet a great deal of both descriptions is not naturally very fertile, much of the clay, in particular, being shallow, and incumbent on a wet bottom. Tracts of moorish soil are also found interspersed among the lower grounds. The climate, though as various as the soil, is, in an agricultural point of view, perhaps the best in Scotland, especially for the growth of corn. In the eastern parts, very little rain falls during the summer months, a circumstance to which is ascribed the superior quality of the grain. Here also harvest commences ten days earlier than upon the coast lands on the north, though on these last it is still earlier by three weeks or a month than upon the hills. In the Lammermuir district, snow in some seasons covers the ground entirely for three months, and lies on the north sides of the hills till after midsummer, though they are only thirteen or fourteen miles from the gea, whilst upon the coast it commonly dissolves as it falls. From December to May, the winds are chiefly from the east and north; in summer, when the weather is dry, from the east; and in autumn, from west to south and south-east, the last often accompanied with rain and fogs. The north-west brings storms in winter; and from the game quarter, and also from the south-west, come the high gales which are sometimes so injurious in autumn.

Haddingtonshire, though it has a number of streams, sufficient, perhaps, for the common purposes of its population, possesses no lakes of any magnitude. There is, however, a beautiful sheet of water at Pressmenon, in the midst of the most beautiful scenery; and also Danskine Loch, which is of much less magnitude and importance, unless for the great number of wild ducks which frequent its waters. The Tyne is the largest river, but it is inconsiderable, and enjoys no internal navigation nor fresh-water fishery. The Tyne, which springs from the Moor of Middleton in Edinburghshire, enters this county on the west, near Ormiston, and flowing nearly due east, passes Haddington, the county town, and falls into the sea beyond Tyningham, the seat of the Earl of Haddington, after receiving Coalstone and a few other rills from the south. Yet it has sometimes swelled to a great height, and occasioned much damage. In 1775 the whole suburb of Haddington called Nungate, and more than half the town, were laid under water. A small stream called the Peffer crosses part of the county from east to west, in a very level swampy district. In one part of its course so flat is the county, that one part of the stream takes a westerly course, and empties itself into Aberlady Bay, whilst another part takes an easterly direction, and discharges itself into the sea about two miles north from the Tyne. A number of brooks and rivulets take their rise amongst the Lammermuir Hills, and run in a south-east direction. The most conspicuous of these are the Dye, the Fasney, the Whitadder, Bothwell Water, and Moneynut Water.

This county is not less fortunate in its mineral productions than in its soil and climate. Coal, which has been wrought here since the beginning of the thirteenth century, is found in great abundance in the western parts of it, from the borders of Lammermuir to the sea; particularly in the parishes of Tranent, Ormiston, Gladsmuir, and Pencaitland. Hardly any part of the district is distant six miles from limestone; several extensive parishes rest;on a bed of this rock. Marl is also found in different parts, though, since the use of lime became so general, it is not raised to a great extent. ^Sandstone or freestone, which prevails very generally throughout the county, is wrought, of an excellent quality, near Barra, and in Pencaitland and Tranent. On the west side of the harbour of Dunbar there is a remarkable promontory, resembling the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, composed of a red stone, apparently a very hard sandstone. It runs out to the north about a hundred yards, and is twenty yards wide, having the sea on each side on the flow of the tide. The diameter of its columns is from one to two feet, and their length at low water thirty, inclining a little to the south. Ironstone has been found in the parishes of Humbie, Keith, Oldhamstocks, and Tranent; and mineral springs at several places, some of which were once much resorted to, but are in little repute at present.

Near the place where the Fasney joins the Whitad-der are to be found masses ofgranite and other primitive rocks, which have afforded much scope for geological speculation. At the termination of the granitic formation a seam of copper has been discovered. Both in the high and low districts of the county, the remains of numerous old encampments may be traced, and also ancient castles and other places of defence or retreat. Amongst the Lammermuir Hills circles are frequently to be seen formed of stones placed on end. It is a curious fact that the number of these stones is either six or nine. Within their enclosure vessels have occasionally heen found, which are supposed to be urns containing the ashes of the dead.

The county of Haddington was in 1811 divided into 183 estates, of which twenty-three were above L.2000 Scots of valuation, fifty-two above L.500, and 133 below L.500. The valuation of the whole is L.168,873. IOs. 8d. Scots, of which L.1305. 4s. 3d. belonged to corporations, and L.56,257.3s. to estates held under entail. And in the same year the real rent of the lands, as returned under the property-tax act, was L. 180,654. 5s. 9d. sterling, and of the houses, L.6780. 15s. 2d. sterling. Thus the land-rent of the whole county, the Lammermuir Hills included, was almost a guinea an acre. Since 1811 the rent of land has in many instances been much reduced, and in general it has been converted from money into grain, the quantity of which varies according to the soil, situation, and other circumstances. At present the highest rent in the county is about fifteen bushels three pecks of wheat per acre, calculated at the second fiars, and the lowest is about four bushels, estimated at the same rate. The nobility who have seats in the county are the Duke of Roxburgh, the Marquis of Tweeddale, the Earls of Haddington, Wemyss, Hopetoun, Lauderdale, and Dalhousie; the Lords Sinclair, Blantyre, and Elibank. Several other proprietors have elegant mansions, which tend greatly to ornament the districts in which they are situate.

The farms are not generally what in some other parts of Britain would be called large. Their average size may be from 300 to 500 English acres over the whole of the arable land, but smaller on the best soils, and larger, perhaps, on the inferior. On land of a medium quality, 300 acres are not considered as a small farm. All the farms are held on leases, commonly for nineteen or twenty-one years, which do not often contain any covenants that are not equitable and liberal; except that here, as throughout the rest of Scotland, the tenant is seldom allowed to sublet his farm or assign his lease, or even bequeath it by testament, the heir-at-law succeeding to the farm as a matter of course, though not to the stock or crop upon it. This arrangement has often been complained of by both parties, though in few cases has it been set aside by mutual agreement. The landlord, on the one hand, would wish to oblige the tenant to leave to his heir-at-law a stock sufficient for the cultivation of the farm; and the tenant, on the other, desires that he should be left at liberty to dispose of his lease, and the capital he may have invested in the improvement of his farm, without any other condition than that the possessor shall become bound to the landlord for the performance of all the obligations he had himself come under.

Agriculture is the chief employment of the people of [7:11:104]this district, which has long been celebrated for yielding a greater produce and higher rents than perhaps any other tract of corn land of the same extent in any part of Britain; whilst, at the same time, the farmer and the labourer, each in his own condition, have long maintained a high character for knowledge and industry; the one enjoying the fair profits of bis skill and capital, and the other the reward of his useful services, in a degree of independence and comfort which is perhaps far from having been so general in other parts of the island. The principal object on the low grounds, in many situations almost the exclusive object, is the growing of com; the dryness of the climate being thought to be less favourable to grazing and cattle crops. Latterly, however, grazing has been more generally practised, from the land being exhausted by frequent cropping. The farmers have found this a more profitable speculation, whilst at the same time it enriches the soil. The general rule by which the course of cropping is regulated, is not to take two crops of corn successively, but to interpose peas or beans, with cultivated herbage, commonly rye-grass and clover, on the clays; and turnips, with the same sort of herbage, on dry loams and sandy soils. On strong clays, a clean fallow once in four, six, or eight years, is considered as indispensable. In a six years’ course on clays, a third of the land is under wheat, which is almost universally taken after the fallow, and also after the beans; the order being fallow, wheat, herbage, oats, beans, and wheat. On inferior clays a fallow is made every fourth year, and only a fourth of the land is usually under wheat. On the best dry loams wheat, in a few instances, may be taken every second year, in the order of turnips, wheat sown in winter and spring, herbage, and wheat. But this severe course, if it be in any case profitable for a number of years, can only be adopted in situations where more manure can be applied than is made from the produce of the farm itself. As there are no towns of any size in the county, and few or no considerable manufactories, an extra supply of manure could only be procured from the lime-works, if it were not that much of the coast land is plentifully supplied with sea-weed. This article, as well as lime, is therefore used to a great and most beneficial extent, and affords a degree of facility in the cultivating of corn, without deteriorating the soil, which does not exist in many other districts. Bone dust is used to a great extent in raising turnips, and is considered as the cheapest manure, particularly in inland districts, on account of the cheapness of the carriage. Tile draining has now been substituted for that effected by stones, and it has been found to answer remarkably well. Spade husbandry, or trenching, has lately been partially introduced. On well-managed soils, though not of the first quality, the produce may be about thirty bushels of wheat, forty-eight of oats, forty of barley, twenty-seven of beans, and from one and a half to two tons of hay at one cutting the English acre.

The farm-servants are, with very few exceptions, married; they live in cottages on the farms, and for a long time were paid altogether, or nearly so, in produce, each having a cow kept for him throughout the year. An attempt, however, has been made to pay the servants with money alone; but this is not likely to succeed, the plan being much opposed by the servants themselves. The occasional labourers reside in the villages which are scattered over the county; a much better situation for men who depend upon several employers, than if they were set down on particular farms. By this arrangement, which is common to several other parts of Scotland, the labouring classes in agriculture possess all the advantages ascribed to cottage farms, without being exposed to those evils which both theory and experience assure us that a general system of cottage farms is calculated to produce.

The breeding of live stock is almost confined to the Lammermuir district, which is stocked chiefly with sheep of the Linton or black-faced breed. On the low grounds, it is thought to be more profitable to buy the animals at a proper age than to rear them; horses from the west of Scotland, cattle from the north, and sheep from the hills of Tweeddale and Roxburghshire. Generally speaking, cattle are kept only in such numbers as to convert the straw into manure, getting a few turnips along with it, and are commonly sold in spring for the pastures of the south; and, in summer, the clovers, excepting that part of them which is wanted for hay, are fed off, as well as their turnips in winter, with sheep. The dairy is nowhere an object of consideration beyond the supply of their own domestic wants.

Haddingtonshire has taken the lead in several important rural improvements. Lords Belhaven and Haddington, early in the last century, wrote useful treatises on husbandry and forests. In 1750 the first turnpike act for Scotland was obtained for repairing the post-road through it. Wight, one of its farmers, who, like Arthur Young, made tours for collecting agricultural information, contributed much, by his publications, to improve the practices of this and other parts of Scotland; and Meigle, an ingenious mechanic, first brought the thrashing-mill into an effective state. Where water-power cannot be obtained, the steam-engine has been introduced, and almost totally superseded the use of horses or windmills. Some defects may be pointed out in the management of agricultural ŕnatters; but as improvements are always being introduced, it is likely that the former will soon disappear. The drill system, which is had recourse to in sowing wheat, barley, and oats, is considered as a great improvement, since by this means the soil is more effectually cleared of its annual growth of weeds. In the neighbourhood of Dunbar there is a common consisting of about 4000 acres, which seems condemned to perpetual sterility. It was formerly claimed by the burgesses of Dunbar, but the right being disputed by the neighbouring proprietors, a division took place, by which arrangement a very small part of it fell to the share of the royal burgh.

The principal towns in Haddingtonshire are, the county town of Haddington, Dunbar, and North Berwick. In these places the principal manufactures are carried on. See the articles Haddington and Dunbar.

The villages are, Tranent, where there is a market for the sale of corn in bulk; Prestonpans, noted for its salt-works and potteries, and formerly for an oyster fishery; Ormiston 1 Gladsmuir, Gifford, Saltoun, Aberlady, Cockenzie, Linton Bridge, Dirleton, and a few others.

The Bass, Craigleith, Fidra, Lamb, and Idris, are islets on the coast. The most noted of these is the Bass, a rocĥ about a mile from the shore, a mile in circuit, and inaccessible on all sides, except the south-west. It has a spring of fresh water near the summit, affords pasture for a few sheep, and is frequented by great numbers of solan-geese and other sea birds. The situation of this small island occasioned its being at different times a military station, s state prison, and a place of resort for pirates, down to so late a period as the Revolution.

Haddingtonshire has produced men of eminence in various departments, amongst whom the names of Cockburn. Fletcher, Dalrymple, and several members of the Maitland or Lauderdale family, are conspicuous. Dunbar, the poet, was born at Saltoun in the year 1465; Burnet, the historian, was five years rector of the same parish. Blair author of the Grave, and John Home, author of the tragedy of Douglas, were both ministers of the parish o1 Athelstaneford. George Heriot, the founder of the nobk hospital in Edinburgh which bears his name, was born in the parish of Gladsmuir; and here Robertson composée [7:11:105]his History of Scotland. John Knox, the reformer, one of the most extraordinary men whom any age or nation has produced, was born in the suburbs of Haddington, in 1505. The house, the place of his birth, which, with a few acres of land adjoining, belonged, till lately, to a family of his name, is still pointed out to strangers. A very conspicuous monument to the memory of the late Earl of Hopetoun has been erected on Garleton Hills, solely at the expense of the tenants on the Hopetoun estate.

There are twenty-four parishes in this county, of which twenty-three belong to the presbyteries of Haddington and Dunbar, and one to the presbytery of Dalkeith. These presbyteries constitute part of the synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. The poor are for the most part relieved by voluntary contributions; and where assessments have been found necessary, they have seldom exceeded two and a half per cent, on the real rent, and this is paid in equal moieties by the landlord and tenant. There is a charitable establishment for the education of boys at Preston, which was founded by James Schaw, the proprietor of that estate, who died in the year 1784; and another at Saltoun, for the same and other objects, the work of Bishop Burnet, who in 1711 bequeathed 20,000 merks for its support.

The county of Haddington sends one member to parliament, and the three burghs of Haddington, Dunbar, and North Berwick, join with Jedburgh and Lauder in electing another. In 1755, the population, according to the returns made to Dr Webster, was 29,709; and, in 1811, it was 31,164, being an increase of about four and a half per cent, in a period of fifty-six years. The numbers given by the writers of Sir John Sinclair’s Statistical Account of Scotland denote a decrease, between 1755 and the years 1790- 1797, of 743, the population at the latter periods being only 28,966. We annex an abstract of the census taken in 1811, 1821, and 1831. (See Somerville’s Survey of East Lothian ; Beauties of Scotland, vol. i.; General Report of Scotland ; Playfair’s Description of Scotland, vol. i.; and Chalmers’s Caledonia, vol. ii.)
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