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 25 miles, and its greatest breadth from north to south 17; 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 cross 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 traverse 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 appear, when viewed from the Garleton hills, 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 islets of the Bass, May, and others on the coast, and the shipping on the Frith of Forth; while 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 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 13 or 14 miles from the sea; while upon the coast it commonly melts 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 same 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; no other river than the Tyne, and that is an inconsiderable one; 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 the Peffer from the north, and 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.

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 100 yards, and is 20 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 30, 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.

The county of Haddington was divided in 1811 into 183 estates; of which 23 were above L. 2000 Scots of valuation, 52 above L. 500, and 133 below L. 500. The valuation of the whole is L. 168,873, 10s. 8d. Scots; of which L. 1305, 4s. 3d. belonged to corporations, and L. 56,257, 8s. 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 Rental houses, L. 6780, 15s. 2d. Sterling. Thus the land-rent of the whole county, the Lammermuir hills included, was almost a guinea an acre. In 1800, among the proprietors were 10 noblemen; the number of freeholders who vote in the election of a member for the county was then 71, and has varied from 78 to 70. 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 is not considered a small farm. All the farms are held on leases, com- monly for 19 or 21 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 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; while, 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 his skill and capital, and the other the reward of his useful services, in a degree of independence and comfort which is far from having been so general of late in other parts of the island. The principal object on the low grounds, in many situations almost the exclusive object, is the growing of corn; the dryness of the climate is thought to be less favourable to grazing and cattle crops; and, with the exception of the Lammermuir district, very little is kept in pasture for more than one or two years. 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 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. On well managed soils, though not of the first quality, the produce may be about 30 bushels of wheat, 48 of oats, 40 of barley, 27 of beans, and from \(1 \frac{1}{2}\) to 2 tons of hay at one cutting the English acre.

The farm-servants are, with very few exceptions, married, live in cottages on the farms, and are paid altogether, or nearly so, in produce, each having a cow kept for him throughout the year. 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, their clovers, except what part of them 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 Meikle, an ingenious mechanic, first brought the thrashing mill into an effective state. Yet, in this pattern county, defects have been pointed out, or admitted to exist by some of its most enlightened farmers. More land, it is alleged, might with advantage be devoted to grazing; the drilling of corn might be found beneficial in many situations; the general use of two horse carts, in preference to single horse carts, is not thought to be sufficiently accounted for by the state of their roads; and a great part of the corn land is open, or very indifferently inclosed. The farm cottages, too, are not only very inferior to those of England, but have not always kept pace with the improvement of the other farm buildings. To these we may add, that a common of about 4000 acres, belonging to the royal burgh of Dunbar, seems to be condemned to perpetual sterility.

As very little of the labour and capital of Haddingtonshire is employed in manufactures and com- merce, it will be sufficient to notice these branches under the towns where they are carried on. Haddington, the county town, and a royal burgh, is situated on the Tyne, some miles from the sea, almost in the centre of the lower district, and sixteen miles east from Edinburgh. Excepting an extensive distillery, which has been recently erected, it has scarcely any manufactures which find their way out of the county. Several trials have been made to establish a woollen manufactory, and a few others without success. But its trade, though nearly confined to a single article, is more considerable; for, in its weekly market held on Friday, a greater quantity of grain is sold in bulk than in any town in Scotland. Sometimes nearly a thousand bolls of wheat alone (500 Winchester quarters) are brought there for sale in one day, and the actual sales in bulk, besides what is sold by sample, may be from 400 to 800 bolls weekly. The sales of barley, oats, peas, and beans, are also considerable; and all that is thus sold is for ready money. A great part of it is bought for the consumpt of Edinburgh. This market has been justly considered as one great cause of the prosperous state of the agriculture of this county, as well as the principal support of the town itself; and yet no provision has been made for the accommodation of either sellers or buyers; the carts loaded with grain standing crowded together on the streets, exposed to all sorts of weather, and hardly accessible to the buyers without some degree of danger. In 1811, the town and parish of Haddington contained a population of 4370, of which about half the families were returned as employed in agriculture.

Dunbar, another royal burgh, and a sea-port, is situated on the east coast of the county at the entrance to the Frith of Forth, twenty-seven miles east from Edinburgh. It is a place of great antiquity, and, with its castle, makes a considerable figure in Scottish history, having been the theatre of many important events before Britain was united under one sovereign; but for the history and antiquities of the county we must refer to Chalmers's Caledonia, Vol. II. Shipbuilding, with the making of sailcloth and cordage, founderies, soap-works, and, in its vicinity, spinning mills and a cotton factory, are carried on to a small extent; and Dunbar has occasionally taken a share in the northern whale fishery; the herring fishery also employs a number of people in its season; but the town is chiefly supported by the export of corn, and the import of the articles required for the internal consumption of the county. In 1811, the town and parish of Dunbar contained a population of nearly 4000, and at present the number is stated at 4500.

The only other royal burgh is North Berwick, a sea-port to the north-west of Dunbar, nine miles from Haddington, and twenty-two from Edinburgh, having a population of about 800, with very little trade. North-Berwick-Law is a noted land-mark to mariners; two miles eastward, on a high rock surrounded on three sides by the sea, are the ruins of Tantallon Castle, formerly one of the strongholds of the House of Douglas, which was demolished by the Covenanters in 1639.

The villages are Tranent, Prestonpans, noted for its salt-works and potteries, and formerly for an oyster fishery, Ormiston, Gladsmuir, Gifford, Saltoun, Aberlady, Cockenzie, Linton Bridge, Dirleton, and a few others.

The Bass, Craigleith, Fidra, Lamb, and Idris, are islands on the coast. The most noted of these is the Bass, a rock 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 it to be at different times a military station, a state prison, and a place of resort for pirates, down to so late a period as the Revolution.

Haddingtonshire has produced men of eminence Eminent in various departments, among whom the names of Men. Cockburn, Fletcher, Dalrymple, and several members of the Maitland or Lauderdale family, are conspicuous. Dunbar, the poet, was born at Saltoun in 1465; Burnet, the historian, was five years rector of the same parish. Blair, author of the Grave, and John Home, of the tragedy of Douglas, were ministers of the parish of Athelstaneford. George Heriot, the founder of the noble charity in Edinburgh which bears his name, was born in the parish of Gladsmuir; and here Robertson composed his History of Scotland. John Knox, the reformer, one of the most extraordinary men that 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 to a family of his name till lately, is still pointed out to strangers.

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 make a 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 \(2\frac{1}{2}\) 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 1784; and another at Saltoun, for the same and other objects, the work of Bishop Burnet, who bequeathed 20,000 merks for it in 1711.

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 81,164, being an increase of about 4\(\frac{1}{2}\) per cent. in a period of 56 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 28,906. We annex an abstract of the census taken in 1800 and 1811. 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. 1800.

<table> <tr> <th rowspan="2">HOUSES.</th> <th colspan="2">PERSONS.</th> <th colspan="4">OCCUPATION.</th> </tr> <tr> <th>Inhabited.<br>By how many Families occupied.</th> <th>Uninhabited.</th> <th>Males.</th> <th>Females.</th> <th><i>Persons</i> chiefly employed in Agriculture.</th> <th><i>Persons</i> chiefly employed in Trade, Manufactures, or Handicraft.</th> <th>All other <i>Persons</i> not comprised in the two preceding classes.</th> <th>Total of Persons.</th> </tr> <tr> <td>5851</td> <td>7219</td> <td>406</td> <td>13,890</td> <td>16,096</td> <td>5346</td> <td>3224</td> <td>20,842</td> <td>29,986</td> </tr> </table>

1811.

<table> <tr> <th rowspan="2">HOUSES.</th> <th colspan="2">PERSONS.</th> <th colspan="4">OCCUPATIONS.</th> </tr> <tr> <th>Inhabited.<br>By how many Families occupied.</th> <th>Uninhabited.</th> <th>Males.</th> <th>Females.</th> <th><i>Families</i> chiefly employed in Agriculture.</th> <th><i>Families</i> chiefly employed in Trade, Manufactures, or Handicraft.</th> <th>All other <i>Families</i> not comprised in the two preceding classes.</th> <th>Total of Persons.</th> </tr> <tr> <td>5882</td> <td>7407</td> <td>500</td> <td>14,232</td> <td>16,932</td> <td>3130</td> <td>2355</td> <td>1922</td> <td>31,164</td> </tr> </table>