Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/374

Rh ROXBURGSHIRE. 362 ROXBURG SHIRE. to Lauderdale, and several minor streams, all joining the Tweed on its left bank. The Teviot, the other great river, belongs wholly to this county, having its source near the south-western border, and after traversing the centre of the county joins the Tweed near Kelso. Its tributaries are the Ale, Borthwick, Jed, Kail, Oxnam, Rule, Slitrig, and numerous rivulets. The Liddel, which does not belong to the basin of the Tweed, rises under Windburgh Hill, near the English border, and flowing in a south-western direction through Liddesdale, joins the Esk above Cannoby. Its tributaries are the Her- mitage and Tinnis on the right bank, and the Black- burn and Kershope on the left, besides some smaller tributaries. Several small English streams, including the Bowmont and Coquet, touch it on the eastern border. The Blackburn Water has a fall of 38 feet, forming a cascade near a natural bridge of 50 feet span. The lakes include Primside, GalashieU, and other small lochs, chiefly in the parishes of Ashkirk, Galashiels, Linton, Morebattle, and Roberton, all of them abounding in pike, perch, and eels. Petrifying springs occur in the parishes of Roxburgh, Castleton, and Minto, and several mineral springs in Liddesdale. The western part of the county is chiefly composed of the grey wacke and slaty rocks of the Transition formation, while the northern and central districts are chiefly red marl or Old Red sandstone, which gives place to trap and fel- spar porphyry in the neighbourhood of the Cheviot hills. In various parts of the county isolated masses of trap, greenstone, basalt, amygdaloid, wacke, and other igneous rocks, appear protruding through and often dislocating the superincumbent sandstone. To- wards the English border a considerable district, compris- ing the greater part of Liddesdale, and parts of Ednam, Kelso, Jedburgh, Bcdrulo, and Sprouston, belongs to the carboniferous formation, being the continuation of the Northumberland coal field. The coal, however, is only minable in Liddesdale, and limestone and clay-iron- stone, which also occur in this formation and at Hob- kirk and Southdean, are but partially worked. Marl is abundant, and red and white building-stone are quarried near Jedburgh, and at other places. Peat is cut in the marshes for fuel. The soil varies considerably, accord- ing to the natureof the underlying rock, being chiefly clay in the uplands and sandy in Liddesdale, but along the rivers and in the hollows it is a rich loam. In the arable districts the soil is partly light and partly heavy, consisting of mixtures of sand and loam, gravel and loam, and sand, gravel and clay in every variety of pro- portion, and on different kinds of subsoil. The pastoral lands eastward of the Jed are in general dry, and ad- mirably adapted for sheep farming, being clothed with a thick crop of sweet grass interspersed with patches of heath. Perhaps the most unprofitable district is that which lies between the southern skirt of Ruberslaw and the confines of Liddesdale, consisting of a stub- born clay upon a subsoil of impenetrable till. About the middle of the last century vast improvements were made in agriculture, and in the twenty years immediately preceding 1795 the value of the whole lands of the county was doubled mainly through the amelioration of soil produced by drainage and improved modes of tillage. Since this period Roxburgh- shire has not been distanced by any other county of Scotland, and can now boast of having one-third of the entire area under the plough. The rent, according to the old valuation, was 26,222, but the new, for 1861, was 341,011, exclusive of railways. The farms are in general large, the arable ranging from 400 to 600 acres, and the pastoral from 1,000 to 3,000, but a great number are from 600 to 1,400 acres, being partly arable and partly pastoral. By the returns made to the Board of Trade in 1855 there appeared to be 1,027 occupiers of farms paying a yearly rent of 10 and upwards, and 134,781 acres cultivated by them. The chief crops are wheat, barley, turnips, potatoes, oats, beans, pease, vetches, and artificial grasses. The breed of cattle most in vogue are crosses of the Teesdale, Ayrshire, and Highland varieties, and the sheep Cheviot and Lei- cester. Orchards have long flourished round Jedburgh, and in other sheltered spots. Numerous seats of the nobility and gentry adorn the country, as Melrose, of the Duke of Buccleuch ; Fleurs Castle, of the Duke of Roxburghe ; Mount Teviot, of the Marquis of Lothian ; Minto Castle, of Earl Minto ; Dryburgh Abbey, of the Earl of Buchan ; Mertoun House, of Lord Polworth ; The Pavilion, of Lord Somerville ; Stichel, of Pringle, Bart. ; Springwood, of Douglas, Bart. ; Makerstoun, of Brisbane, Bart. ; Ancrum, of Scott, Bart. ; Rid- dell House, of fiddle, Bart. ; Newton-Don, of Don, Bart. ; besides many mansions of the landed gentry. Several branches of the North British railway tra- verse the county, the principal line entering vid Dalkeith follows the vales of Galawater and Melrose, branching off at Newton toward Hawick and Kelso respectively, from which latter place it follows the Tweed into England, while a sub-branch goes to Rox- burgh and Jedburgh. The manufactures, which in- clude woollens, tartans, stockings, and linens, have their seats chiefly in Hawick, Jedburgh, Galashiels, Melrose, and Kelso. Both roads and bridges here were defec- tive, and in some parts of the country almost im- passable for wheeled carriages previous to the middle of the last century, but great efforts have been made to remedy this evil. For administrative purposes Rox- burghshire is divided into the four districts of Castleton, with Melrose, Hawick, Jedburgh, and Kelso, comprising 31 parishes, and parts of 4 others. The county town is Jedburgh, the only royal and parliamentary burgh con- tributing to Haddington in returning one member to parliament, and a market town. The other market i towns are Hawick, Kelso, and Melrose, which are all burghs of barony, as is also Yetholm. The county re- turns one member to parliament, and had in 1860 a constituency of 1,566. It is governed by a lord- lieutenant, sheriff, and sheriff substitute, and 18 deputy lieutenants. The population in 1851 was 51,642, and the inhabited houses 7,255, which in 1861 had increased to 54,109 and 7,738 respectively. The sheriff court for the county and the commissary court are held at Jed- burgh on every Monday and Thursday during session. The sheriff small-debt courts are held at Jedburgh every Thursday during session, and at stated times at Kelso, Hawick, and Melrose. Quarter sessions are held at Jedburgh on the first Tuesdays in March, May, and August, and on the last Tuesday in October. Justice of peace courts are held at Jedburgh on the last Tuesday, at Kelso on the first Friday, at Hawick on the first Thursday, and at Melrose on the first Saturday in each month. For ecclesiastical purposes the 35 parishes are thus grouped 16 of them compose the presbytery of Jedburgh, 18 belong to the presbytery of Kelso, 8 to the presbytery of Selkirk, and 1 to the presbytery of Lauder, all within the synod of Merse and Teviotdale, while Castleton, owing to its remoteness, is placed under the synod of Dumfries. Two chapelries have re- cently been added, one within the presbytery of Jed- burgh, and the other in the presbytery of Kelso. The Free church has 16 places of worship, the United Presbyterians 17, the Episcopalians 4, the Independents 9, the Original Secession 2, the Baptists 3, and the Roman Catholics 1. Fine abbey ruins are remaining at Melrose, Kelso, and Jedburgh, also the remains of the early Saxon monastery of Old Melrose, or Red-Abbey, and the church of Old Jedburgh, founded in the 9th century by Bishop Eccrede. There are besides above 40 baronial castles, border towers, and peels, many of which are celebrated in story, as Branxholme, the scene of Sir Walter Scott's " Lay of the Last Minstrel ;" the Hermitage, once occupied by Bothwell, who was here visited by Mary Queen of Scots ; Lintalee, where Douglas vanquished the proud Earl of Brittany ; Peniel heugh camp, surmounted by the Waterloo pillar, and near which is Ancrum Moor, where the English were de- feated in 1544. The principal Roman works are the military way called "Watling Street, a fortified camp near Jedburgh, and the branch road bearing the modern name of the Wheel Causeway. There are also exten-