ROXBURGHSHIRE, a county in Scotland, on its south-eastern extremity, where it meets with 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 Dumfries-shire 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 Dumfries-shire and Cumberland, the county terminates almost in a point; on the west it surrounds small portions of Selkirkshire in some places, and in others projects into that county; and it has the Cheviot hills on the east; the outline being exceedingly irregular on all sides. According to the latest authorities, its area is 715 square miles, or 457,600 English acres; containing 30 entire parishes, and part of other four, which properly belong to the counties adjoining. For the purposes of justice and police, it is divided into the four districts of Kelso and Jedburgh on the east, and Melrose and Hawick on the west. In an agricultural view, it may be considered as divided into arable land and hilly pasture; the pasture land, estimated at about ths 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.
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 800 or 1000 feet. The most considerable are 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, over all the lower grounds, been heightened and improved by the wealth and industry of its inhabitants; all this division abounding in gentlemen's seats, comfortable, and sometimes elegant farm-houses; the fields inclosed with hedges of thorn, and belts of wood, and many spots covered with young trees. On the skirts of the hills, too, cultivation has made considerable progress of late, 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 Rivers, though it has only two that deserve the name of rivers, the Tweed and the Teviot. The Tweed, which crosses the north 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 about 20 years ago, 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 within its bounds. It has its source in the south-west extremity, near the confines of Dumfries-shire, 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 Dumfries-shire 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; another 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 among the Cheviot hills on the east, but after a short course, passes by Kirkyetholm, 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 abound in the Ale, Rule, Jed, and Kale, and there are a few small lakes which contain perch and pike.
Roxburghshire is not rich in minerals. Coal has been found on the Carter Hill, near the borders of Northumberland, and in the southern extremity of Liddesdale. It is worked at the latter place, but this is too remote to render it of much value to the inhabitants of this county, who are chiefly supplied with coal from Northumberland. 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, 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; and the lime is almost all like the coal brought from Northumberland, from 20 to 30 miles distant from many parts of the arable district.
The valued rent of Roxburghshire is L. 314,663, 6s. 4d. Scots, 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. It is one of the few counties where the rent in Sterling falls below the valuation in Scots 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 among 349 estates, about one-third belongs to lands held 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 Roxburgh and Buccleuch,
and the Marquises of Lothian and Tweeddale; but there are 33 estates in all that have a valued rent of upwards of L. 2000 Scots each; and 55 more are from L. 500 to L. 2000. Yet moderate and small properties are very numerous; the remaining 261 estates being under L. 500 Scots. Several of these exceeding a valuation of L. 400 Scots, and held of the Crown, have been acquired by professional farmers, who have thus become freeholders, and enjoy a share of political influence. 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 Roxburgh, beautifully seated at the confluence of the Tweed and Teviot, near Kelso.
Roxburghshire is divided, for the most part, into Farms. 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, are 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. 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 corn, 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. 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; while 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 anywhere are so comfortable and contented with their condition. The practice of paying wages in kind is not, it must be admitted, free from objections; a little pilfering is sometimes detected on the one hand, and a hard master, on the other, may be willing to pay in produce of an inferior quality; but after all, the long experience that has been had of this system over five or six of the principal agricultural counties of Scotland, and the north of England, warrants us in asserting that it works well for both parties, and might have some effect in keeping down poor rates if it prevailed more generally among our southern neighbours.
On the best soils, the rotation of crops is very simple, corn being taken every second year with a green crop intervening; but, in general, the land does not admit of such constant tillage, and two-fifths, or a half, is commonly in pasture from seeds. Un-
der 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 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, somewhat more under peas; barley has in many instances been superseded by wheat; so that wheat and oats are the principal crops of grain; while, whatever be the number of acres in corn, nearly half the quantity is allotted to turnips, and the other half to clover and rye-grass. 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 been lately attacked with a disease which has already begun to make some alteration in the system, leading to the more extensive culture of potatoes, and also of cabbages. This disease, which has been long known in England, but which was a stranger in this and other parts of Scotland 10 or 12 years ago, popularly known by the name of fingers and toes, 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, while others adjoining escape; and it seems to make no difference whether the land be fresh from pasture or has been long in tillage.
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 in this Supplement. 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. 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 favoured by its situation in respect to markets. It has no large towns, and comparatively a small population. Most of the corn, as well as live stock, must, therefore, be carried out of the county; and Berwick-upon-Tweed, the nearest seaport, is upwards of 30 miles from much of its corn lands.
The towns are Kelso, Jedburgh, Hawick, and Mel-
rose; and of the villages the most considerable are Yetholm and Kirkyetholm, near its eastern boundary. Kelso, pleasantly situated on the north bank of the Tweed, is a well built, cleanly, and cheerful place, containing near 5000 inhabitants, the capital of this and the adjoining county of Berwick. Some branches of the leather and woollen manufacture, and that of thread, have been long carried on here, with a considerable brewery. Jedburgh, the county town, situated on the rivulet Jed, in the interior, though a place of note formerly, has been long stationary, if not declining. Hawick, which stands on the Teviot, at the point where it is joined by the Slit-trick, is a more thriving place, and has manufactures of carpeting, stockings, and other sorts of woollen goods. Melrose, near the south bank of the Tweed, about 10 miles west from Kelso, is no otherwise distinguished than for its abbey. (See MELROSE in the Encyclopædia.) 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 Kirkyetholm for being the residence of gypsies, and their principal colony in Scotland. Roxburgh, which gives its name to the county, and whose castle was of such importance in the wars between England and Scotland, has long since ceased to exist, and has left no trace of its former consequence. At Jedburgh, Kelso, Melrose, and the village of Gattonside, 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, the scene of frequent warfare and depredation, presents the ruins of a great many castles and towers, and other remains of an early age. It was also distinguished for its religious buildings, of which there are still magnificent remains at Kelso and Jedburgh, as well as at Melrose.
Roxburghshire, which has about 140 freeholders, sends one member to Parliament; and Jedburgh, its only royal burgh, joins with Lauder, Haddington, Dunbar, and North Berwick, in electing another for the Scottish burghs. This is one of the few Scottish counties in which there are regular assessments for the poor; and, not many years ago, it presented the still greater anomaly of a Scottish clergyman drawing tithes in kind. Among the eminent men to whom this district has given birth are Thomson, Armstrong, Lord Kames, Elliot, the brave defender of Gibraltar, Leyden, Park, the African traveller, and William Dawson, the father of the improved agriculture of Scotland.
The population, according to the census of 1801, was 33,682; in 1811 it amounted to 37,230; and in 1821 to 40,892, of which 19,408 were males, and 21,484 were females. The families employed in agriculture were 3613; in trade and manufactures 2822; in all other occupations 2204. The increase of population from 1811 to 1821 was 7210.
See the general works quoted under the former Scottish counties, and Douglas' General View of the Agriculture of Roxburghshire. (A.)