Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/629

Rh placed at intervals, and a ditch, now dry, extends to the river. Fronting the river are four-gun and six-gun batteries defending the entrance to the harbour, and a twenty-two-gun battery commanding the south side. These ramparts which are perforated by five gateways, are generally in good repair, but since 1822 have been destitute of guns save for volunteer practice. The circuit is about 1 mile 3 furlongs ; that of the older walls was more than 2 miles. The ruins of the latter, built by Edward I., and also surrounded by a ditch, enclose the suburbs of Castlegate, and the Greens, the fishermen s quarter. The Bell Tower, from which alarms were given, and which is least dilapi dated, has been recently secured from further decay. Between the extremity of these old walls and the Tweed are the remains of the old castle, which was allowed to become a ruin after the union of the crowns. There are no traces of the churches, monasteries, or other ancient buildings of the town. The barracks, built in 1719, accommodate nearly 600 men ; but they are now occupied only by militia, and the governor s house has become a private dwelling. Plan of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Arms of Berwick. The chief public buildings are the town-hall, finished in 1700, a stately building, surmounted by a spire 150 feet high, which contains a peal of eight bells ; the new jail, erected in 1849 ; the corn exchange, which is the principal public hall, opened in 1858; a new infirmary ; two assembly rooms ; Masonic and Good Templar halls. The parish church is a plain Gothic building, without steeple, of the time of Cromwell. It was thoroughly and taste fully renovated in 1855. The patronage belongs to the dean and chapter of Durham. A week-day lectureship is in the patronage of the Mercers Company, London. There are also in the borough, including Tweedmouth and Spittal, three other churches connected with the Church of England, three with the Church of Scotland, four United Presbyterian, two English Presbyterian, two Methodist, one Baptist, and one Roman Catholic. The only church building worthy of notice is Wallace Green United Presby terian Church, opened in 1859. New cemeteries were opened at Berwick in 1855, and at Tweedmouth in 1858. The town is well supplied with educational institutions ; and a local museum was established in 1867, where lectures are delivered during the winter. The town and suburbs have four public reading-rooms, and three newspapers are published. Two bridges connect the town with the south side of the Tweed. The older, which is very substantial, was finished in 1634, having taken twenty-four years in building. It has fifteen arches, and is 924 feet long, but only 17 feet wide. The other, situated a quarter of a mile up the river, is a magnificent railway viaduct, 126 feet high, with twenty-eight arches, which extends from the railway station a castellated building on part of the site of the old castle to a considerable distance beyond the river. Thid bridge was opened by Queen Victoria in 1850. The Tweed is navigable as far as the old bridge, c j?d the tide flows seven miles further. The entrance 10 the harbour has been improved and protected by a stone pier, built about sixty years ago, which stretches half a mile S.E. from the north bank of the river s mouth, and has at the extremity a lighthouse with two fixed lights. The depth of water at the bar is 17 feet at ordinary tides, 22 feet at spring tides, but the channel is narrow, a large rocky portion of the harbour on the north side being dry at low water. A long-felt want is now being supplied by the construction of a dock, which was begun at Tweedmouth, September 1873. The number of vessels belonging to the port (1875) is 25 (tonnage, 1459). There entered in 1873, 422 (tonnage, 35,049), and there cleared 424 (tonnage, 35,252). The principal exports are grain, meal, herrings, burnt ore, metal castings, manures ; the imports are bones and bone-ash, manure stuffs, linseed, salt, timber, pig- iron. The sea-fisheries employ 230 boats in white fishing, 294 in herring fishing, and 52 in both. Berwick, which has long been famous for its salmon fisheries, is the head quarters of the Fishing Company, which occupies most of the stations on the neighbouring coast and for some miles up the river. The fish are mostly sent to the London market. There is an annual fair held here in the end of May, and the weekly market on Saturday. There are four banking establishments ; and, on the whole, the trade of the town is increasing. The ancient charter of the borough of Berwick was confirmed by various sovereigns from Edward I. to James I., who added new officers and privileges, but especially gifted to the burgesses all the lands within the liberties which were not private property. These lands, amounting to 3077 acres, or two-thirds of the whole, are partly divided into farms, partly into meadows occupied or let by the resident freemen and freemen s widows. The annual value of a meadow, seniority determining the allocation, ranges at present from 11, 5s. to 2, 9s. 3d. The roll of freemen contains about 1000, of whom 368 are 