a county of Scotland, which is also known by the name of Teviotdale, measures about 45 miles in length from north to south, and in breadth about 36 miles in a direction between east and west; containing 472,320 square acres. The centre of the county is computed to lie in 55° 25' N. Lat. and in 2° 37' W. Long. from the meridian of London. The counties of Northumberland and Cumberland form its boundary on the south; it is also bounded by the former county on the east, by Berwickshire on the north, and on the west by the counties of Dumfries, Selkirk, and Edinburgh.

The external appearance of this county is regarded as upon the whole extremely beautiful, exhibiting an alternate succession of hills and dales, through which flow a considerable number of small rivers. The greater part of the hills are covered with a fine lward, producing valuable grasses for the feeding of sheep; and the county is divided into four different districts, the most mountainous part of it being denominated the district of Hawick; the second is that of Jedburgh; the third is the district of Kelso, and the fourth is known by the name of the district of Melrose, being composed of that part of the county which is situated to the northward of the river.

The most remarkable hills in the county of Roxburgh are Minto, 858 feet above the level of the sea; Dunion 1021; Eldon 1330; Ruberlaw 1419; Carterfell 1602, Wisp 1803. These constitute a part of that extensive range generally known by the appellation of Cheviot, which is distant not above a mile from the most easterly point of Roxburgh. Whinlone is their chief constituent, in which veins of Scotch pebbles are usually intermixed. They are often covered with whinstone reduced to the state of powder by the action of the weather. The hills towards their summits are in general of a conical form, a circumstance which some think is favourable to the volcanic system;—that the globe at some remote period has suffered the most dreadful convulsions from the irresistible action of fire.

The county of Roxburgh is intersected by a multitude of streams, the most important of which are the Teviot, Jed, Tweed, Rule, Kale, Oxnam, Gala, Slitrig, Ale, Carter, Borthwick, Ednam, Bowmont, Allan, Leader, Ettrick, Hermitage, Liddel. The term river is rarely applied to any of these streams, except to the three first, viz. the Teviot, the Jed, and the Tweed, none of which are navigable but for small ferry boats. Some rivers in England, such as the Tyne, the Cocket, &c., have their origin in the more elevated parts of the county of Roxburgh.

In an agricultural point of view, Roxburghshire may be divided into land under tillage and under pasture, although a considerable portion of the latter may be reduced to arable land. The soils under tillage may be divided into light and clayey, the former of which is usually denominated green, and the latter white soil, because it is best adapted to the rearing of oats, wheat, and other white grains. What is called till in Roxburghshire, generally consists of a hard clay intermixed with stones, by which it resembles coarse gravel. Most Roxburghshire of the different species of till may be changed into a fertile soil in process of time, by being exposed to the action of the atmosphere, and mixed with lime and manure. Sweet, fair, and healthy, are the terms by which lands under pasture are usually distinguished, and these are conferred from a consideration of the nature of the soil, its grasses, and such other circumstances as indicate them to be favourable or unfavourable for the rearing of sheep. Much of these lands was, at a remote period, under wood and heath, the existence of the former being pointed out by the roots of trees still remaining in the ground. The soil in general is sharp and dry upon the hills; but some of the high moors and the grounds in the vicinity of rivers are wet and marshy.

There are different tracts of land in this county which still continue in a state of nature, a portion of which kind, measuring about four miles long and two broad, runs through part of the parishes of Ancrum and Roxburgh, chiefly of a light gravelly nature, covered with heath, bent, and other coarse grasses. The large district of Liddesdale is wholly under sheep pasture, with the exception of a few strips on the banks of the Liddel and Hermitage. Indeed a cold wet soil, an exposed situation, and unfriendly climate, hold out few incentives to improvements in agriculture. In ancient times this must have been very different from what it is at present. The marks of the plough can still be traced on the summits of lofty mountains, where the production of crops at this day is wholly impracticable. The counties on the borders were not, at a remote period, possessed by individuals in large detached portions, but the people of a whole neighbourhood had their alternate ridges, in which case they became interested in defending the property of each other against invaders and plunderers. The wars of the border, however, were happily terminated by the union of England and Scotland under one sovereign, in consequence of which the holding of property in what was denominated runrigs, no longer possessed its ancient advantages, but was rather a disadvantage, as it created constant quarrels and disputes among farmers, and greatly retarded the improvement of the soil. Each individual, therefore, became anxious to have his lands detached from those of his neighbours, an advantageous change which was very soon and very generally adopted.

A Mr. Dawton, the son of a farmer in Roxburghshire, having resided four years in the west riding of Yorkshire, and a year in Essex, thereby made himself well acquainted with the most approved methods of husbandry practised in England, and returned to his native country in the full assurance of being able to introduce into the agriculture of Scotland the most essential improvements. On his arrival in Roxburghshire in the year 1753, he immediately introduced the turnip husbandry, which he sowed in drills, and was certainly the first Scots farmer who introduced the cultivation of turnip into the open field. His neighbours being wholly ignorant of the agricultural knowledge which this young gentleman had acquired in England, began to predict his ruin as wholly inevitable; but he was not to be intimidated by their prophetic sentiments, and he went on resolutely in bringing his lands into the very best condition, which he fully effected by means of the turnip husbandry, Roxburgh-husbandry, by the sowing of artificial grasses, a practice then unknown in Scotland, and by the free and extensive use of lime. By such a procedure his neighbours saw him becoming rapidly opulent, and having followed his example with the most flattering success, they were constrained to alter their sentiments respecting his conduct as a farmer, and to hail him the father of the agriculture of the south of Scotland.

The rotation of crops now followed in this county has nothing in it of a peculiar nature, the arrangement on a dry soil being generally oats, turnips, barley with grasses, hay or pasture for one year, then barley as before. Where the soil is good and properly prepared, it is not uncommon with farmers to adopt the following rotation, viz. oats, turnips, oats, turnips, wheat or barley with grasses, and hay or pasture for one year. A part of Roxburghshire has been long celebrated for a species of oats which produce early crops, and which are known by the appellation of Blainly oats, because they have been produced at Blainly from time immemorial, which is a district in the parish of Melrose, and northern extremity of the county. These are often five thillings a boll clearer than common oats, and in no situation whatever are they known to degenerate. In some rich soils the produce is 16 or 18 for 1, and the lowest average produce is at least five for one. The general practice of feeding cattle with turnip has diminished the culture of peas and beans in this county, and there are so few potatoes reared that they cannot be regarded as forming a part of the farmer's crop. Extensive crops of hay are not in general cultivated in this county, there being but few cities in which an advantageous market could be found; and the use of it is in a great measure supplanted by that of turnip. Little more flax is reared than what is necessary for domestic purposes.

There is a circumstance worthy of observation, that the rearing of tobacco was, at one period, attempted in this county with remarkable success. It was introduced by a Mr Thomas Man, who had been for some time in America. Soon after the first experiments were made, a single acre of land produced a crop worth £50. Sterling; and the crop of 13 acres was sold on the ground for £200; but in consequence of an act of parliament prohibiting the culture of it, the purchaser could not implement his bargain, and the farmer was obliged to sell it to government at the rate of fourpence a pound, in consequence of which it brought him no more than £104 instead of £200.

Great quantities of cattle are fed in this county, and about 260,000 sheep of the Cheviot breed in general, which are found to thrive remarkably in every part of the county. The horses are either of the English breed, or from Lanarkshire, which latter are deemed preferable for steady work in the plough. Although swine are not kept by the farmers as a part of their flock, yet great numbers of them are reared by tradesmen, cottagers, hinds, and others, the small breed being chiefly preferred, not exceeding eight or nine stones English each. Roxburghshire is also famous for the rearing of poultry, and immense quantities of eggs are sent from it to Berwick, to be shipped for the London market.

Crows are here so numerous, that they frequently darken the air in their flight, and are extremely destructive to every species of grain. A great part of the county is uninclosed, and the fences made use of are the hedge and ditch, although in some places upright stone dykes have the decided preference, where stones can be readily procured.

The orchards of Roxburgh county have been long celebrated for different kinds of fruit, and there are here two extensive nurseries for the rearing of trees. These last are at Halkendean burn in the parish of Min- to, and at Hawick. The whole county, however, like that of Berwick, is extremely defective in mineral productions, and coal has nowhere been found. Limestone is no doubt met with in different places of it, but the want of fuel requisite for its calcination, induces farmers to bring it from Dalkeith or Edinburgh, in their corn carts, which might otherwise return empty.

In the vicinity of Jedburgh there are two springs of chalybeate water, with indications of more in different parts of the parish, which have not yet been subjected to any examination or analysis, although the waters of Tuthope well have been regarded as antiscorbutic, and of use also in rheumatic disorders.

In this county there are many remains of antiquity, such as ancient strong buildings, and vestiges of camps. Different remains of encampments and fortifications are to be met with in the parish of Roberton, which in all probability have been the work of the Romans. Heritage castle is situated upon the bank of the river of the same name, and is nearly 150 feet square, defended by a strong rampart and ditch. The inner part of it is a heap of ruins, but the walls are almost entire. This is probably the very castle mentioned by Smollet, which was built in Liddesdale by Alexander II., and which gave such offence to Henry III. of England, that he made war on Alexander in the year 1240. There are several caves or recesses on the banks of the Ale water, not fewer than fifteen of which, it is said, may be still pointed out, in some of which the vestiges of chimneys or fire-places are very discernible. Although at first used by plunderers as places of safe retreat, they were no doubt afterwards employed by the poorer classes of the community as their ordinary habitations. Perhaps the abbey of Melrose is the most distinguished monument of antiquity to be met with in this county; for an account of which the reader may consult the article Melrose.

Roxburghshire has given birth to some of the most eminent characters who have adorned the republic of letters, among whom we find Dr John Armstrong, a distinguished physician and poet; James Thomson, the far-famed author of the Seasons; the poet Gawin Douglas, at one time rector of Hawick, afterwards bishop of Dunkeld; and the celebrated George Augustus Eliot, afterwards Lord Heathfield.

Notwithstanding the difficulty of procuring fuel in this county, several manufactures have been carried on with a considerable degree of spirit and determined perseverance, the chief of which are carpets, inkle, cloth and stockings, in the manufacture of which nearly 300 packs of wool (each 12 stones) have been annually consumed. About 4000 pairs of stockings have been made in the same time, and 10 tons of linen yarn consumed in the making of inkle.

The population of this county, estimated in 1801, amounted to 33,682; and the following is the population according to the parishes, taken from the Statistical History of Scotland. ROYAL Family. The first and most considerable branch of the king's royal family, regarded by the laws of England, is the queen.

1. The queen of England is either queen regent, queen consort, or queen dowager. The queen regent, regnant, or sovereign, is she who holds the crown in her own right; as the first (and perhaps the second) Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Anne; and such a one has the same powers, prerogatives, rights, dignities, and duties, as if she had been a king. This is expressly declared by statute 1 Mar. I. st. 3, c. 1. But the queen consort is the wife of the reigning king; and she by virtue of her marriage is participant of divers prerogatives above other women.

And, first, she is a public person, exempt and distinct from the king; and not, like other married women, so closely connected as to have lost all legal or separate existence so long as the marriage continues. For the queen is of ability to purchase lands and to convey them, to make leases, to grant copyholds, and do other acts of ownership, without the concurrence of her lord; which no other married woman can do: a privilege as old as the Saxon era. She is also capable of taking a grant from the king, which no other wife is from her husband; and in this particular she agrees with the aquila or plifima regina conjux divi imperatoris of the Roman laws; who, according to Justinian, was equally capable of making a grant to, and receiving one from, the emperor. The queen of England hath separate courts and officers distinct from the king's, not only in matters of ceremony, but even of law; and her attorney and solicitor general are entitled to a place within the bar of his majesty's courts, together with the king's council. She may likewise sue and be sued alone, without joining her husband. She may also have a separate property in goods as well as lands, and has a right to dispose of them by will. In short, she is in all legal proceedings looked upon as a feme sole, and not as a feme covert; as a single, not as a married woman. For which the reason given by Sir Edward Coke is this: because the wisdom of the common law would not have the king (whose continual care and study is for the public, and circa ardua regni) to be troubled and disquieted on account of his wife's domestic affairs; and therefore it vests in the queen a power of transacting her own concerns, without the intervention of the king, as if she were an unmarried woman.

The queen hath also many exemptions, and minute prerogatives. For instance: she pays no toll; nor is she liable to any amercement in any court. But in general, unless where the law has expressly declared her exempt, she is upon the same footing with other subjects; being to all intents and purposes the king's subject, and not his equal: in like manner as in the imperial law, Augustus legibus solutus non est.

The queen hath also some pecuniary advantages, which form her distinct revenue: as, in the first place, she is entitled to an ancient perquisite called queen gold, or aurum regine; which is a royal revenue belonging to every queen-consort during her marriage with the king, and due from every person who hath made a voluntary offering or fine to the king, amounting to 10 merks or upwards, for and in consideration of any privileges, grants, licences, pardons, or other matter of royal favour conferred upon him by the king: and it is due in the proportion to one-tenth part more, over and above the entire offering or fine made to the king, and becomes an actual debt of record to the queen's majesty by the mere recording of the fine. As, if 100 merks of silver be given to the king for liberty to take in mortmain, or to have a fair, market, park, chase, or free-warren; there the queen is intitled to 10 merks in silver, or (what was formerly an equivalent denomination) to one merk in gold, by the name of queen-gold, or aurum regine. But no such payment is due for any aids or subsidies granted to the king in parliament or convocation; or for fines imposed by courts on offenders against their will; nor for voluntary prelents to the king, without any consideration moving from him to the subject; nor for any sale or contract whereby the prelent revenues or possessions of the crown are granted away or diminished.

The original revenue of our ancient queens, before and soon after the conquest, seems to have consisted in certain certain reservations or rents out of the demesne lands of the crown, which were expressly appropriated to her majesty, distinct from the king. It is frequent in doomsday book, after specifying the rent due to the crown, to add likewise the quantity of gold or other renders reserved to the queen. These were frequently appropriated to particular purposes; to buy wood for her majesty's use, to purchase oil for lamps, or to furnish her attire from head to foot, which was frequently very costly, as one single robe in the fifth year of Henry II. stood the city of London in upwards of 80 pounds: A practice somewhat similar to that of the eastern countries, where whole cities and provinces were specifically assigned to purchase particular parts of the queen's apparel. And for a farther addition to her income, this duty of queen-gold is supposed to have been originally granted; those matters of grace and favour, out of which it arose, being frequently obtained from the crown by the powerful intercession of the queen. There are traces of its payment, though obscure ones, in the book of doomsday, and in the great pipe-roll of Henry I. In the reign of Henry II. the manner of collecting it appears to have been well understood; and it forms a distinct head in the ancient dialogue of the exchequer written in the time of that prince, and usually attributed to Gervase of Tilbury.

From that time downwards, it was regularly claimed and enjoyed by all the queen-consorts of England till the death of Henry VIII.; though after the accession of the Tudor family, the collecting of it seems to have been much neglected: and there being no queen consort afterwards till the accession of James I. a period of near 65 years, its very nature and quantity then became a matter of doubt; and being referred by the king to the chief justices and chief baron, their report of it was so very unfavourable, that his consort Queen Anne, though she claimed it, yet never thought proper to exact it. In 1635, 11 Car. I. a time fertile of expedients for raising money upon dormant precedents in our old records (of which illip-money was a fatal instance), the king, at the petition of his queen Henrietta Maria, filled out his writ for levying it; but afterwards purchased it of his consort at the price of 10,000 pounds; finding it, perhaps, too trifling and troublesome to levy. And, when afterwards, at the Reformation, by the abolition of military tenures, and the fines that were consequent upon them, the little that legally remained of this revenue was reduced to almost nothing at all; in vain did Mr Pryne, by a treatise that does honour to his abilities as a painful and judicious antiquarian, endeavour to excite Queen Catherine to revive this antiquated claim.

Another ancient perquisite belonging to the queen consort, mentioned by all our old writers, and therefore only worthy notice, is this: that on the taking a whale on the coasts, which is a royal fish, it shall be divided between the king and queen; the head only being the king's property; and the tail of it the queen's. De harpo: quod rex illum habeat integrum: de balena vero sufficit, si rex habeat caput, et regina caudam. The reason of this whimsical division, as assigned by our ancient records, was, to furnish the queen's wardrobe with whale-bone.

But farther: though the queen is in all respects a subject, yet, in point of the security of her life and person, she is put upon the same footing with the king. It is equally treason (by the statute 25 Edward III.) to imagine or compass the death of our lady the king's companion, as of the king himself; and to violate or defile the queen consort, amounts to the same high crime; as well in the person committing the fact, as in the queen herself if consenting. A law of Henry VIII. made it treason also for any woman who was not a virgin, to marry the king without informing him thereof: but this law was soon after repealed; it trespassing too strongly, as well on natural justice as female modesty. If however the queen be accused of any species of treason, she shall (whether consort or dowager) be tried by the peers of parliament, as Queen Ann Boleyn was in 28 Hen. VIII.

The husband of a queen regnant, as Prince George of Denmark was to Queen Anne, is her subject; and may be guilty of high treason against her: but, in the instance of conjugal fidelity, he is not subjected to the same penal restrictions. For which the reason seems to be, that if a queen consort is unfaithful to the royal bed, this may debauch or bastardize the heirs to the crown; but no such danger can be consequent on the fidelity of the husband to a queen regnant.

2. A queen dowager is the widow of the king, and as such enjoys most of the privileges belonging to her as queen consort. But it is not high treason to conspire her death, or to violate her chastity; for the same reason as was before alleged, because the succession to the crown is not thereby endangered. Yet still, pro dignitate regali, no man can marry a queen dowager without special licence from the king, on pain of forfeiting his lands and goods. This Sir Edward Coke tells us, was enacted in parliament in 6 Henry VI., though the statute be not in print. But the, though an alien born, shall still be entitled to dower after the king's demise, which no other alien is. A queen dowager when married again to a subject, doth not lose her royal dignity, as peeresses-dowager do when they marry commoners. For Katharine, queen dowager of Henry V., though she married a private gentleman, Owen ap Meredith ap Theodore, commonly called Owen Tudor; yet, by the name of Katharine queen of England, maintained an action against the bishop of Carlisle. And so the dowager of Navarre marrying with Edmond the brother of King Edward I. maintained an action of dower by the name of queen of Navarre.

3. The prince of Wales, or heir apparent to the crown, and also his royal consort and the princess royal, or eldest daughter of the king, are likewise peculiarly regarded by the laws. For, by statute 25 Edw. III., to compass or conspire the death of the former, or to violate the chastity of either of the latter, are as much high treason as to conspire the death of the king, or violate the chastity of the queen. And this upon the same reason as was before given; because the prince of Wales is next in succession to the crown, and to violate his wife might taint the blood-royal with bastardy; and the eldest daughter of the king is also alone inheritable to the crown on failure of issue male, and therefore more respected by the laws than any of her younger sisters; infomuch that upon this, united with other (feudal) principles, while our military tenures were in force, the king might levy an aid aid for marrying his eldest daughter, and her only. The heir apparent to the crown is usually made prince of Wales and earl of Chester, by special creation and investiture; but being the king's eldest son, he is by inheritance duke of Cornwall, without any new creation.

4. The rest of the royal family may be considered in two different lights, according to the different senses in which the term royal family is used. The larger sense includes all those who are by any possibility inheritable to the crown. Such, before the revolution, were all the descendants of William the Conqueror; who had branched into an amazing extent by intermarriages with the ancient nobility. Since the revolution and act of settlement, it means the Protestant issue of the princess Sophia; now comparatively few in number, but which in process of time may possibly be as largely diffused. The more confined sense includes only those who are in a certain degree of propinquity to the reigning prince, and to whom therefore the law pays an extraordinary regard and respect; but after that degree is past, they fall into the rank of ordinary subjects, and are seldom considered any farther, unless called to the succession upon failure of the nearer lines. For though collateral consanguinity is regarded indefinitely with respect to inheritance or succession, yet it is and can only be regarded within some certain limits in any other respect, by the natural constitution of things and the dictates of positive law.

The younger sons and daughters of the king, and other branches of the royal family, who are not in the immediate line of succession, were therefore little farther regarded by the ancient law, than to give them a certain degree of precedence before all peers and public officers as well ecclesiastical as temporal. This is done by the statute 31 Henry Vlll, c. 10, which enacts, that no person except the king's children shall presume to fix or have place at the side of the cloth of estate in the parliament chamber; and that certain great officers therein named shall have precedence, above all dukes, except only such as shall happen to be the king's son, brother, uncle, nephew (which Sir Edward Coke explains to signify grandson or nepos), or brother's or sister's son. But under the description of the king's children, his grandsons are held to be included, without having recourse to Sir Edward Coke's interpretation of nephew; and therefore when his late majesty King George II. created his grandson Edward, the second son of Frederick Prince of Wales deceased, duke of York, and referred it to the house of lords to settle his place and precedence, they certified that he ought to have precedence next to the late duke of Cumberland, the then king's youngest son; and that he might have a seat on the left hand of the cloth of estate. But when, on the accession of his present majesty, these royal performances ceased to take place as the children, and ranked only as the brother and uncle of the king, they also left their seats on the side of the cloth of estate; so that when the duke of Gloucester, his majesty's second brother, took his seat in the house of peers, he was placed on the upper end of the earl's bench (on which the dukes usually sit) next to his royal highness the duke of York. And in 1717, upon a question referred to all the judges by King George I., it was resolved, by the opinion of ten against the other two, that the education and care of all the king's grandchildren, while minors, did belong of right to his majesty as king of this realm, even during their father's life. But they all agreed, that the care and approbation of their marriages, when grown up, belonged to the king their grandfather. And the judges have more recently concurred in opinion, that this care and approbation extend also to the presumptive heir of the crown; though to what other branches of the royal family the same did extend, they did not find precisely determined. The most frequent instances of the crown's interposition go no farther than nephews and nieces; but examples are not wanting of its reaching to more distant collaterals. And the statute of Henry VI. before mentioned, which prohibits the marriage of a queen-dowager without the consent of the king, affords this reason for it: "because the disparagement of the queen shall give greater comfort and example to other ladies of estate, who are of the blood-royal, more lightly to disparage themselves." Therefore by the statute 28 Hen. VIII, c. 18, (repealed, among other statutes of treasons, by 1 Edw. VI. c. 12.) it was made high treason for any man to contract marriage with the king's children or reputed children, his sisters or aunts ex parte paterna, or the children of his brethren or sisters; being exactly the same degrees to which precedence is allowed by the statute 31 Hen. VIII. before-mentioned. And now, by statute 1 Geo. III. c. 11, no defendant of the body of King Geo. II. (other than the issue of princesses married into foreign families) is capable of contracting matrimony, without the previous consent of the king signified under the great seal; and any marriage contracted without such a consent is void. Provided, that such of the said defendants as are not above 25, may, after a twelvemonth's notice given to the king's privy-council, contract and solemnize marriage without the consent of the crown; unless both houses of parliament (hall, before the expiration of the said year, expressly declare their disapprobation of such intended marriage. And all persons solemnizing, afflicting, or being present at any such prohibited marriage, shall incur the penalties of the statute of praemunire.